Farewell Stanley...Off to Florida Other Points South of Here

Here are few last pictures of Flat Stanley from earlier in the summer, that we never put up.

For those of you who have not been following Stanley's adventures, this summer we hosted Flat Stanley for a few months, and this week he finally got packed up and mailed off to visit a 2nd grade class in Florida before heading home to the Carolinas.

Stanley had a lot of fun with us this summer. He visited the "waterpark" in our backyard and roasted marshmallows over the fire, went to our church picnic and rode on a boat, went to Busch Gardens, visited the Living Museum for Firefly's birthday, helped Bubba shoe some horses and went riding, attended the birth of a baby pony, survived an earthquake AND a hurricane, and went with us to the library and the bookmobile to check out books (about himself, of course).

Here's a photo of Stanley helping Hubby finish up the stall for Merry just in time...

 Ladybug is proud of the new accommodations for her precious pony.

They aren't fancy, but one thing farm living has taught us is that "done" is better than "perfect" because perfect never gets done!

We also made a small tack and feed room. Again, not fancy, but functional.

This is Merry, a few days before the BIG event.

You can see pictures of the baby pony's birth HERE

or check out an update a month later HERE.

Stanley also helped Bubba trim all our horses' feet.

Jake looks a bit rough in this picture because the HUGE horseflies got very bad late this summer, and he seems to be allergic to their bites, so he gets very itchy and rubs his hair off on the fence. We wound up buying him a fly sheet, which helped immensely. He looks a bit ridiculous in his full get up, though. (You can see him dressed up below).

Once the horses were trimmed, Stanley and the other kids begged for "pony rides," so we gave them rides around the front yard and down the side road to the woods. Stanley enjoyed his ride at a sedate walk, but when Jake wanted to pick the pace up a bit, Stanley insisted on getting off because he felt as if he was feeling a bit light-headed.

Here's Jake all dressed up in his full "fly armor."

Kinda funny, isn't it?

It does the trick, though, and surprisingly, he does not seem to mind. 

Bubba brought his new puppy, Tucker, along for the ride, and we had a nice time playing with him. He's part black lab and part retriever of some sort. Bubba got him from a rescue shelter. Some folks who moved out of a foreclosed on property left behind the mamma dog, four puppies, and two half-starved horses. Such a shame and so irresponsible. 

But, the puppies have all found good homes now, and the mamma dog, too. All's well that ends well. Bubba sure is happy to have a canine companion again.

Well, it has been a fun and busy summer.

Farewell Summer! Farewell Flat Stanley!

Thanks for visiting Blessing Farm...

Anyhow, that's pretty much it for our (almost) Wordless Wednesday.

Blessings,

Heather