There was a wild horse and burro adoption event in Decorah. The Bureau of Land Management rounds up thousands of horses every year from public lands and tries to adopt out some of them around the country. They made a stop in Decorah and we just had to go see the wild mustangs. And actually, I think the burros were our favorite. They were adorable!

This was our 4th year going to the Villa Louis Carriage Classic in Prairie du Chien, WI. We always have so much fun watching the horse drawn carriages. We have a friend who competes and we love to cheer her on. (This is not our friend – unfortunately, my photos of her did not turn out well!)  We had beautiful weather and spent both Sat. and Sun. at the event.

We also like to pet some of the horses, too. This draft horse came all the way from Nebraska to participate in the Picnic Class.

Sylvia and I went to Iowa City last week to help with an event for veterans. We gave rides to veterans from all over the country. One of my riders was a 92 year old veteran of WWII!

And of course Sylvia loved hanging out with horses all day.

At the end of the day, we got to go on a little trail ride ourselves. Sylvia rode this gentle giant, Rambo.

Most mornings start with a morning walk down our road to the next set of mailboxes. Sometimes babies come with us.

Exploring the northern part of the county…We went to South Pine Creek in search for a rubbing post for the Driftless Safari. We had never been here before and it was a beautiful place!

Lunch by the side of the trail. We were losing our shade, and it was a warm day!

Exploring the southern part of the county…We took a field trip down to Spillville to visit the Bily Clock museum. It was fantastic! This old school house was on the museum grounds and we had fun imagining life at school 100 years ago.

Chore time! At least she has the right footwear.  🙂

I love the Coop’s new cow mural! Valerie Miller does a fabulous job.

Hanging out with baby chicks.  The girls love our chicks, especially the laying hens who are smaller (and cuter) than the broilers.  We have 13 layers and 60 broilers in all.  That’s a lot of poultry!  The girls are really good at doing morning and evening chores.  And they like to take some of the birds out for adventures in the yard.  🙂

Finding lots of wildlife.  This is a leopard frog by our pond.  We also have toads and tree frogs around.  And lots of butterflies, caterpillars, grasshoppers, birds (baby swallows in the barn!), deer and rabbits (the last 2 being my least favorite animals to find in the yard).

Freezing peaches.  We bought 2 cases of delicious peaches.  We ate a bunch and still had enough to freeze a couple dozen bags.  They will taste so good in January!  The girls were really helpful cutting and bagging – I was basically just supervising the process.  I love this age!  🙂

First day of school.  Our school year routine started on August 25th.  It was really nice to get back into a daily learning rhythm.  The day started with goat and chicken chores in farm clothes.

There was a quick change of clothes so that they could be ready for a fun day of homeschool. There was yet another costume change later in the day, when school work was done and they had “recess” all afternoon.