Raise your hand if you're tired of hot and sticky, bug infested days? The deer flies are brutal. Relentless little creatures that are driving me crazy. If it's not the bugs, it's the snow. I don't want to sound whiny.

The newly mowed field is great! I can see the lay of the land a little better and it's going to make a fantastic pasture when we can get it plowed and seeded. There's a VT ag program that may be able to help us with funding to get our fields reclaimed. Wouldn't that be great!?

Starting to get the word out now about our August 14th open house. We are taking part in the Lamoille Valley Chamber Route 15 Summer Festival. Opening our doors to visitors from 10-4. Planning on a BBQ, demos, kids activities, meeting our herd and showing people the facility and our plans for the future. We joined the Chamber of Commerce in the spring, this is the 2nd year for the Route 15 festival. Last year we had about a hundred people stop by, so lets hope for more this year now that we are settling into our new location.

Truck working out well, hauled my first load of hay in it today. Feels good to close the door on the situation where the guy owed me a hundred bales since last October. Can't believe he came through really. I was going to just give up a few months ago but was too angry about it and persevered. Glad I did. Giving up doesn't come easy for me. In certain situations maybe it would do me good, but not when it comes to my horses.

This is Summer's last week with me. Her owner is planning on coming daily to work with her. We want to make the transition to going home a positive one and they can continue to progress at their own rate. I feel like I've just been able to get through Summer's wall. We've made more progress over the last week than the first two combined. If I could keep her one more month, I think she'd be a completely different horse to work with by the end. She's a good horse now but still has some ways to go until her opposition reflex doesn't exist anymore. Fortunately, Summer lives a short drive away (from Vermont standards) so I can go over and help if needed.