A day in September

I love doing a day in the life posts! Scout has an amazing life and I want her to be able to look back at these fond memories. I also hope we inspire other families to add some cool adventure into their lives!

 After morning chores we meet friends for a geocaching hike.

 This is the geo cache app we use. Worth every penny, there are caches everywhere, all over the world! We use it everywhere we go. It will bring you to many interesting spots, right under your nose or remote.

Our favorite local spot.

 

We brought ALL our hiking buddies today!

 

 

After we returned home the kids immediately started collecting wood from the forest to build a fort of their own.

 

 When they got hungry, into the garden they went. They gobbled up raspberries, cherry tomatoes, grapes, apples and peaches...picked with their own little hands.

 

Other stuff happened, roller coaster building, drawing, play-scape fun, obstacle course training for the dogs...

Then they wanted to do some riding. 

 What an amazing life...amazing unschool days.

Music/art/science

One of our favorite days of the week is our music, art, science day! Especially with the fantastic weather all summer, it has been music in the sandbox and art/science in the barn and playground in the woods!

Scout's fantastic music teacher and The Band!

 

Drummer Girl

The kids made soft play dough...2 parts corn starch and 1 part cruelty free hair conditioner. 

 

 They colored the dough with berries and flowers they gathered from the garden.

 

It was a lot of fun making a huge mess!!

 The day ended with faerie making, talking sticks and friends.

 Life is Good!

Her first official rescue

We had been training for 9 weeks....running, paddling and mountain biking. We are Team Mighty Girl! The race coordinators were letting Scout race with me in an adults back country triathlon. They kept in contact with me, made some special preparations for us in the mountain bike portion and even made a special trophy for the youngest (by 25 years I would guess!) racer.

 

First one's there at registration!

 

Pre-race meditation on the mountain.

 

Warming up.

 

Final instruction.

 

The beautiful starting line, Flagstaff Lake.

 

Team Mighty Girl 

 

And we're off!

 

We paddle in a straight line, 1 mile to a point of land. There we are supposed to turn left and follow the shore line another 3 miles to the beach. There we will meet Team Mighty Girls support crew ( Daddy) and hop on our bikes for a 10 mile ride, followed by a 4 mile trail run.

Little did we know, nor did the race organizers realize, that this picture perfect lake would turn into the ocean as soon as we rounded the point! Just before we made the turn a bald eagle flew over us. I told Scout it was good luck...little did I know how much we would need it!

For the next 2 hours I would fight 20-30 mph head winds and 3 foot swells, trying to get us to shore and keep us from capsizing. Scout was amazing and brave. The one person with us, a race staff member sweeping the rear, capsized about 30 minutes into the ordeal. I couldn't turn around to help her. It would surely cause Scouts small boat to capsize when I turned and I was her only hope, if she didn't self rescue, in reporting her situation.

After 2 hours we made it to the rocky coast, still 2 miles from the beach where Daddy would be waiting. The capsized girl had caught up to us. She was hypothermic and frightened.

Scout and I took care of her. We fed her, retrieved her boat, kept her spirits up, kept her moving and got her back to the beach. It would be another 2 hours of walking the rocky coast, dragging a train of 3 kayaks and fighting the wind. 

No one ever did make it out to find us. Team Mighty Girl saved themselves. We didn't finish the race but we were all winners and I'm proud of my team for how they handled the situation. We have great memories of how a bad situation turned out okay through good training, preparation and a positive attitude.

  

 Life is Great!!

Daisy's surgery

Surgery was a success!

Today Daisy had her blind, sick eye removed. It was causing her a lot of pain and although she will still be blind, she should be pain free.

Yesterday we had 8 children in here, our art studio, creating master pieces. Today it was transformed into an operating room. There were 2 veterinarians, 1 vet technician, myself and a curious 5 year old...and 1 pony!

Caution, photos of the actual surgery are included (for those of you who want to see it, I know you're out there), very graphic! 

Learning about spider webs during our art/science day.

Nature creature, 

owls, 

fasionistas, 

and faeries.

 

And then the art studio was transformed...

Surgery took about 2 hours, my job was to hold her head up...yes, my arms still ache!
 

She was given a sedative and Novocain,  but would remain standing for the procedure.

First her eye lids were sutured together...

...then an incision made and her eye removed...
 

 ...it's gone.

Control bleeding.
 

and suture back up.
 

Our beautiful Daisy.
 

Now lets have a look at that eye. The back.

The front. This used to be the blue eye you have seen in the photos.

Scout watches the eye dissection...while enjoying the first apple from our orchard!

The lens from her eye, should not look like a ball, maybe this was the cause of her problems.

She did great post op...she walked out of the OR and began eating grass. The rest of the day she continued eating, drinking and pooping! All good stuff after surgery. She had a few visitors, bearing fresh picked garden carrots!

Her stitches will come out in 2 weeks, she needs her barn built before winter and I think I will make her a stylish eye patch! 

If you would like to donate to Dasiy to help pay for her surgery and barn please consider coming to her Painting Party or Fall festival fundraiser or you can paypal a donation to murphnmichelle@yahoo.com