Summertime Slowdown

 Now, just because I call it a slowdown, doesn't mean it was a slow week.  There were no big trips or adventures, but life on a farm never really comes to a standstill.

Summertime is for sleeping in late, and then riding horses all day, right?  Well, that's a perfect day for Alayna, and she did a lot of both.  Penny the horse was a bit of a project, but Alayna continued to work with her every day.  Penny was definitely a feisty girl, and also a little unpredictable at times.  

Sometimes, Alayna would stay so long down the road working with Penny that we'd have to drive down and escort her home.  If only horses had headlights!

And while we're on the topic of Penny, she also had her first visit from the farrier this week.  She stood like a champ while he trimmed her hooves and made sure all was well with her feet.  He did remark that maybe she had had a past injury and did we know anything about that?  We did not.  The goats were also quite interested in the farrier services and spent their time jumping in and out of his trailer, and getting right up in his business while he was working!

Aside from horsing around, there were still other things to do here on the farm.  Our spring-hatched chicks were getting bigger and would soon be ready to explore more of the yard.

There was also the business of collecting not only eggs, but apples from our nearest tree as well!  We don't always have a great apple crop, but this year seems to be a winner!

And since we're talking about all things farm, let's not forget a tractor!  Alayna uses this little one to transport bales of hay and straw to the goats and horse as needed.

This week we also celebrated my mom's birthday with our family a little bit late.  Of course I had to make her favorite chocolate cake for the celebration!

After dinner, we took a nice walk around the tall corn that is growing on our property.  Lucie especially liked the giant mud puddle and couldn't resist barreling through it several times.

We even had a chance to visit a neighboring farm, and of course Alayna found a horse there to love on, too!

On July 20th, severe storms were predicted to come through our area.  Although our farm missed the worst of it, our city suffered severed damage from tennis ball sized hail.  Roofs, windows, siding, and cars were damaged beyond repair.  Driving through town in the aftermath of the storm was like driving through a battle zone.  It will be some time before everyone fully recovers from that storm.

The weekend came, and with it, golf!  Jason, Nash, my dad and I hit the links for a fun afternoon.  The highlight of the afternoon was when Jason somehow managed to lose his ball IN a tree!

Flint Junior Golf also continued, and Nash and I were loving our Monday mornings together.

We stopped at a candy store on the way home, and Nash scooped up an iconic Mr. Beast chocolate bar.  He doesn't even like chocolate, but sometimes you just need some bragging rights, you know?

So, in a week where not much happened, things still happened.  And although none of these things were big, we held on to all the little things.