Corbin had a wonderful birthday on Dec. 5th. We went 2nd hand shopping and Dad met us at Costco for lunch. We were able to quite a few things at the stores. Then when we were done shopping, we came home and Corbin received his gift. It was money to get a pistal. Corbin is very excitedly shopping around to get the best pistal to fit his needs!!

Dad celebrated his birthday four days later. He had to work, since it was a Tuesday, but when he arrived home we played Monopoly. Corbin won!


My Grandpa and Grandma came up on Wednesday to celebrate Corbin's 16 birthday, Dad's birthday, and an early Christmas. They live in Utah, so we see them about 3-4 times a year. We have had a great time shopping, playing cribbage, talking, and working together.

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving day with food, shelter, and everything else that we have to be thankful for.

Some of the things that I have to be thankful for are:

The Lord, who always gently guides me into paths of better character and is always there to talk to and share my heart with.

The Pilgrims, who started this country in Faith, Love, and a Christian heritage.

The freedom of being able to pray, read the Bible, sing hymns, and share the Gospel with others.

Family and Friends, who encourage me, love me, play with me, and sharpen me!

Corbin got his pins out! They came out easily and with hardly any pain. Corbin has been trying to strengthen and loosen that arm now. It is amazing how much the arm loses it's strength and mobility in five weeks!! To hold the arm straight out in front of him, was like for one of us, holding a ten pound weight in your hand!! He can now lift his arm above his head.

Thanks for all your prayers!!

Velvet is a Nubian doe that gave birth on my property this January to two girls and one boy. I sold her along with one of her daughters to a wonderful family. They cared for them this summer and really enjoyed them, but recently, felt God leading them to move. So they called me up and I bought them back. Dad and I decided though that 13 does were too much for us to comfortably manage, so we are selling them.

We found a buyer that should be picking them up on the 20th. I will be sad to see them go, but glad that they found a good home.

Hello Everyone,

I don't know if you all knew that we were planning on adopting, but we have been working on adopting since February. At first everything was falling into place, but recently, all the doors have been shut. We are not wanting to start all over again, so unless God brings some children to us, we are not planning on trying to adopt.

This has been somewhat hard on us, but we understand that God knows what is best, and we don't want what God doesn't want for us, so we aren't going to try to open doors that have been shut.

Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support.

My brother loves hunting. This year, Corbin read several books and studied, studied, and studied. He bought new better hunting gear and researched where he should hunt this year. Unfortunatly, his hunting season only lasted from Friday to Monday! On Monday, he was hunting at a friend's house. Danny (one of Corbin's friends) was accompanying him. Next to a pond stood a tree and tied to the tree was a rope swing. Corbin looked at the swing and thought that it looked fun, but unsafe, as it looked like the handle had been shot by a gun. On further observation, however, he decieded to give it a try. It bore his weight, so deciding that actually swinging would be a lot more fun than being still, he stepped off and taking a running start, grabbed the handle of the rope swing and swung out. The next thing he knew was that he was lying on the ground, and having fallen about six feet through the air and digging a two inch dent in the dirt from his shoulder, was not feeling too good. Corbin jumped up, but hastily learning that he hurt, layed back down. He then had Danny try to lay his hurt arm across his stomach, so he could then try to get up, but that hurt too much. He had Danny try to hold his arm tight against his side, but that didn't work either. Danny called up at the house and learned that Dad had just pulled in. Dad drove down to the pond which is where the rope swing was. Once he got there, he pulled Corbin into a sitting postition, then up all the way. Danny drove the car back up to the house, while Corbin hanging on to Dad, made his painful, slow way up to the house. After sitting at the Wylie's for a while, Dad drove Corbin to a InstaCare center. The doctors there thought that it was dislocated and sent him to Sacred Heart. Once at Sacred Heart, Dad searched for where the emergency room was. After finally finding it, they sat down and waited for admission to see a doctor. Mom arrived at the doctor's office about 5 hours after the accident. Corbin was shaking from pain. Mom ordered some pain meds for him and Corbin soon began to feel a little better. After several x-rays, the doctors determined that it was broken and that he would need a surgery to put the bones in place. (The humerous bone had snapped up by the clavicle bone.) Dad, Mom, and Corbin got to bed at about 2:00, only to have to get up and be back at the doctor's by 7:00. Corbin had his surgery at 11:00 a.m. and has since been resting here at home with four pins sticking out of his arm- to keep the bone in place. We were hoping that we could get a lot of school done, but have put that ambition away for a couple weeks and are watching lots of movies and listening to tapes.

Katie, Kayla's dog, was extremely sick. One Friday, we took a hike and while usually Katie likes to play and run around, this time she only wanted to cuddle up with me. She had a very sick stomach. We took her to the vet, so they could run a Parvo test. She didn't have Parvo and we thought she was getting a little better, so we took care of her for the weekend. Monday morning, her health deteriated rapidly. Mom and I thought that she was dying, so Mom took her to the vet. They kept her at the vet's office for two days. Katie didn't throw-up once! We brought her home again and after a few days of taking it easy and relaxing; she was her normal self. We were so glad!

God allowed a wonderful family to be PonyBoy's new home. They understand horses and spend lots of time with them. This family raises horses, but the horses are all too hot-headed for their 6-year-old niece, so PonyBoy is going to be worked and next year, be their niece's new pony! They were soo excited to find a horse that likes barrel racing.

Here is Deb and Stilton. Deb is on the left, Stilton is on the right.

Hello, Everyone!

I wanted to introduce my two new does and buck. Some of our friends were selling most of their Toggenburg does. This is the same family that I had bought Grommette, Gravity, and Cherokee from. After some consideration and planning, we decided to get:


Stilton! Stilton is Grommette's first daughter!! I was sooo excited when I heard that I could buy Stilton. I have now owned all of Grommette's daughters! Stilton is producing about 3/4 gallon a day right now.

Deb! Deb is Cherokee's grand-daughter!! I was again so excited to be able to purchase a doe directly related to Cherokee. She is producing 1/2 gallon a day. This is Deb's first freshening, so she is doing good.

Style! What a name for a buck! :-) Style has curly hair on top of his head. As soon as I am get a good picture of him; I will post the picture on this blog. We are not sure yet as to if we will keep him, or just use him for breeding.

One Friday in August, Mom, Kayla, Josiah, and I went to the fair. Josiah is a little boy that has stayed with us once a week throughout the summer. When we arrived there, we first watched a magic show. I so wished that he would teach us how to do a trick! One of the tricks, he read the directions aloud while doing the trick. Even then, we couldn't figure out how he did it. He took a banana, folded it in half, YUCK! and placed it into a handkerchief. He then squeezed the bag with the banana inside it, shook out the handkerchief and out fell a yellow handkerchief instead of a mushed banana!! I was very impressed to say the least! We saw some other tricks that he did, like, making candles come out of handkerchiefs and a bowling ball come out of a book. It was a great show. We then made our way to where another attraction was taking place. This one was having dogs jump off a dock into a pool of water. The length that they jumped was measured and the one that jumped the farthest won. The winner jumped 22 feet! We then checked out the buildings that contained the items that we had placed in the fair. I won first place on a blanket and shawl that I crocheted. Corbin won first place on a card that he drew. Kayla won first place on several things that she entered including two dresses that she sewed and a hat and booties that she crocheted. Calvin won third place on a picture of a dinasaur with it's shadow that he drew. Then we bought a bag of Kettle Corn and savoured each delicious bite! We met up with our friends, the Byrums, and watched a goats being judged. There were about six contestents showing off their goats. It was fun watching the different personalities of the goats. There was one that was wellbehaved and the worst one was jumping around, all the others were inbetween. We also went through a reptile barn and saw huge snakes, large toads, and a teeny owl. There was even a goose that ate grass out of our hand! It was know dinnertime, so we all piled into the Byrum's fifteen seater van and went to Qdoba. We had some excellent burritos there. We headed back to watch the Rodeo!!! The grandstands were packed full with excited, expectant people. We tried to find a spot to sit and eventually found ourselves with standing room only, but Rachal Byrum and I sought out a seat in the grandstands and were rewarded!!! There we watched as cowboys were let out of chutes on bucking horses. All stayed on their steeds for the six seconds. Then two cowboys on their well trained horses, would ride over and help the cowboy off the bucking bronc.The highlight of the show were the Bull Wrestlers. I am sure glad that I was not one of those cowboys. I would not have liked to grab a bull by his horns, jump off my horse, and pull the bull over on his back. There was a clown who acted like he couldn't ride his motercycle, so when someone told him to choke it, he grabbed it around the handlebars and choked it!! He manged to start it and rode it almost falling over the handlebars, then revving it up he rode it up on a jump that was attached to a semi-trailer and flew over the semi-trailer!! We stayed the whole time and left the fair at 9:00 after ten hours of fun!!

The Hike
This is the first time we rode our horses in the woods. Our whole family went. It was a lot of fun. Kayla, Jordan, and I were the only ones that rode our horses and everyone else probably had fun. I played like I was an Indian and cantered without holding onto the saddle horn! It was a sunny day. I was cantering a lot. It was very pretty. It sure would be fun to live out there, but I am thankful that God let us have a trailer to take our horses out there. Daddy gave me a stick and I played like it was my gun. I went ahead of the others a long way. It was fun to be alone. Kayla wanted to ride my horse a little bit and Jordan wanted to ride Kayla's horse a little bit. So I walked. I found a stick and played like it was my pistol. I was a little sick, so when I ran, I coughed a bit, so Daddy carried me. We met some other hikers on the way. Then we went back to our trailer and we met another man, his daughter, and his dog. The man worked with Dad a while ago. While they were talking, Kayla and I got on our horses bareback and rode around. Written by Calvin, age 8.


A hike and Trail ride
On September 1, 2008, Calvin and I went on our first trail ride. Our family had decieded to take a hike. We were borrowing a friend's trailer, so our family could take two horses if we wanted to, we decided that would be a good idea and lots of fun. So, we loaded up Ginger and Bullet and put their saddles and equipment in the back of our van. Then got into the van and drove to a park where horses were allowed. We saddled them up and started down the trail. Calvin rode Ginger and I rode Bullet. We went down the rather short trail and then we decieded to do it again, so we did it one more time. Corbin rememberd that we could cross the road and there would be three more trails. One of the trails was short, the other one was a little longer, and the third was even longer. We decided to take the short one. Calvin looked like a little Indian running Ginger down the trail without holding on. Daddy seeing how Calvin was having great fun and making war whoops, found Calvin a stick that looked like a gun. Then after getting a picture, he saw that the gun was too big and ackward for him to carry. Dad found him a smaller stick that looked like a pistal. Off he went, galloping down the trail. Soon, we were back at the starting line. Jordan wanted to have a turn on Bullet so we headed back to our van and exchanged the small saddle for a bigger one. Jordan got on and we headed back across the road and went down the middle-sized trail. I walked for half of the trail then Calvin got off Ginger and I rode her the rest of the way. Ginger was a lot of fun to ride. It was getting time to go home and eat dinner, so we loaded up the horses and headed home. We all had a wonderful time that day. The End. Written by Kayla, age 10


Horses and Hikes
One afternoon, our family decided to take advantege of our friend's horse trailer and the semi-warm day and go for a hike/ride. After loading the two horses, Bullet and Ginger, into the trailer, we were on our way. After arriving at the park, we backed the horses out of the trailer, saddled them up and were off! Kayla and Calvin rode first. Kayla for the most part walking beside us, Calvin fearlessly charging far down the trail in front. Then just as suddenly, he would come holloring and whooping towards us. After making a loop around one side of the road twice, we went over the road and walked it's short loop. Then Kayla graciously allowed me the privledge of taking a turn. We swapped saddles and I swung aboard. So often I have always been training a horse and so rarely, just enjoying the ride, so this was a special treat. Bullet wanted to trot, but I easily kept him at a walk. I wanted to enjoy the ride to the fullest. Birds were flitting around, the wind was gently blowing, but with a cold streak to it. As I gazed at all the different shades of colors, especially green, I was amazed at how they all fitted together into a beautiful picturesque setting. I imagined I was riding alone and back in the 1700's with Robinhood hiding with his band amongst the bushes, or maybe that I was taking a load of goods down the hill when robbers would dash out and surround me. I had a lovely time. There seemed to be a certain element of magic in the air. Then once, I allowed Bullet to trot, but before long his muscles bunched together and we were flying, flying down the trail at a grand lope. Then too soon it was time to leave and we crossed the road back to where our small trailer sat. 'Fore long however, we were hailed and turning to look saw Dad's old co-worker and friend coming towards us along with his daughter, Rachel, and dog, Jewel. We spent a while chatting and getting to know each other once again. Kayla and Calvin mounted their steeds bareback and rode circles around us. We all had a glorious time. Written by Jordan (me) age 17.

We have done so much these past few weeks that I will just have to summerize some of the smaller events and hopefully go into more detail on the bigger ones.

We have been doing some canning. We have canned Pears, Peaches, and Tomatoes, and also dried Pears, Jerky, Tomatoes and made dehydrated crackers.

We sold our horse Blue. The people that bought him have ridden him and just loved him! I am so glad. Blue was and is such a great all around horse.

One of my bucklings died, due to worms. (At least that is what I think caused it) When I noticed that he wasn't doing very well, I thought that it was because he was dehydrated. I began syringing liquid down him every hour. He seemed to do a little better, but by 2:00 a.m., I could tell that the end was near. He died soon after. It was soo sad.

We went to the Fair & had lots of fun. I will add a writing that I did on it later.

PonyBoy is still for sale. We have had a couple of interested people, but always they were too far away or found another horse.

These are some of the events that happened. If I remember of more, I will add them later. :)

Acouple mornings ago, I got my milk things together and started out the door. When I got to the milk barn Dutch door, the top was open and I saw to my amazment and horror, nine goats feasting on grain, stomping on stancions and cabient and dragging paper towels everywhere!!!!!! I hollored to Mom, who was letting out the horses and she hastened to my assistence. We were able to get them out quickly, but I was concerned about them bloating. I kept a very close eye on them and no one got sick!! Praise God! At one point during the day, it began to rain, which caused the goats to scurry back into their pens. I was disappointed, because I wanted them to be able to graze and walk around. I began to earnestly pray that God would stop the rain and he did!!

The vet came again on Wednesday. She pulled the stitches out. Granite's eye had almost healed completely! There was a little ulcer, which she said would probably become a small hard white dot, but that he would be able to see around the white dot!!! Praise God that his eye has healed and that he should be able to see out of that eye!