Ashleigh WhaleyJuly Adventures and Activities.
July Activities:
Homeschooling.
Lockdown Again!
July began with another lockdown. It is always so sad, when sports are cancelled and goals have to be adjusted accordingly. We had some polo tournaments and the annual pony club show lined up for an action packed month, -so were very disappointed.
Instead, we remained on the farm, moving forward with schooling, whilst taking the time to improve our horsemanship and DIY skills.
On the positive side, these ongoing disruptions of the children’s yearly goals, has helped them learn how to adjust and adapt.
Changing a negative into a positive, always helps develop emotional maturity.
Week off School.
Once the children had completed ten weeks of schooling, it was time for them to take a week off. With their newly acquired motorbikes, this week turned out to be a motorbike extravaganza!
New found motorbike freedom has given the children so much pleasure. They head off every morning, at 6 am, to feed and check the horses. Then, in the evenings, they go out with their Dad to check up on the wheat irrigation.
-In between this motorbike fun, I did manage to get them to tidy up a few things around the house!
Dad’s Birthday.
It was Douglas’ Birthday this month, so the children decided to make their Dad a useful present. (I have written more about the little tables the children designed and made, below…)
I so enjoy admiring their clever creations, after the many hours of concentrated team work needed to plan and complete these tasks.
New Farm Store Business.
We opened a farm store this month. The goal is to provide affordable, basic commodities to the local community. Paula Joy and Murray John will also learn the ins and outs of operating a store, from purchasing and pricing, to stock taking.
Together, the children, helped me stock the store, whilst also doing some security building repairs. The store is a lovely little business, which will teach the children the basics of running their own businesses one day.
Drilling holes 
Sorting tools 
Adding more security.
Homeschooling Friends.
‘Fuzz’ and ‘Boo’ continue to bring so much joy to our home. Often, very early in the morning, I find a guinea pig in the house -getting his special cuddle.
Boo. 
Fuzz.
Homeschooling Art.
Birthday Gifts.
Paula Joy and Murray John just love making things!
Their DIY knowledge is growing each month, as they learn more about the tools they have acquired and how to make things with them. Thanks to YouTube tutorials, their DIY knowledge is taking off!
Measuring the wood. 
Sanding & staining the top. 
Screwing on the top.
This month they both decided to make something useful for their Dad’s birthday.
Off they went to the farm junk heap, to see what they could find. They soon found an old watering can and lorry air filter…
They then set about making table tops, for each of these items, using some old cabin wood found in a shed. They cut, sanded, screwed and bolted the wooden pieces together.
Finally, using coffee, they stained the wooden table tops and the end result was awesome!
Douglas loved his gifts and they now sit proudly on our veranda. The children have received orders from friends to make more creations, so they are super excited.
Horse Stable Name Plates.
The children ended the month making new name plates for each of our 18 horse stables.
Stable Sign: Parade. 
Stable sign: Puncho.
Horses.
Training Young Ponies.
July turned out to be another training month.
Paula Joy spent time breaking in our three year old homebred filly, ‘Revi’, whilst also working on her other young pony, ‘Puncho’.
Thanks to the ‘Downunder Horsemanship Fundamentals’ she now has both ponies broken in, doing circle work and basic jumping. This is a wonderful project for her to continue with, as and when she has spare time.
Farm Polo Practice.
The weekends turned into some fun ‘two-a-side’ farm polo practices. We use these weekends to bring on the young horses and to improve the children’s stick work.
Horsemanship Skills.
This month we took time to improve the children’s general horsemanship skills and knowledge. They were able to watch the horse dentist and farrier at work, which they found most interesting.
We also encouraged them to improve their grooming skills, with body brushing and mane and tail clipping.
These are very important horsemanship skills, which are often not given enough importance. Our goal is to always produce healthy, well turned out horses.
Homeschooling Sport.
Lockdown has meant no regular sporting activities. Hopefully, we can catch up on theses sports later in the year.
July Adventures:
Farm Life.
Dalston Farm.
Maize Harvest.
The maize harvest was a huge success with two fields yielding 10 tonnes per hectare, giving us an average maize yield of 9 tonnes per hectare.
Douglas, in his wisdom, planted most of the maize late in the season, just before the summer rains arrived. Thanks to a lovely rainy season, our crops were fantastic.
Tobacco sales are allowed to continue throughout lockdown, as are our banana sales. We had an attempted armed robbery on the farm this month. You can read all about it in my post; ‘The Day God Worked His Miracles, to Prevent a Family Tragedy.’
Irrigating the wheat. 
Winter Wheat.
Big Motorbike Ride.
One Sunday we took a long morning motorbike ride, to view a neighbour’s farm dam.
It was enormous fun, with hard riding and some beautiful scenery.
Zimbabwe Economy.
With another strict lockdown and some chaos erupting in South Africa, I am sure shortages are looming. Inflation continues, whilst our Zimbabwe bond dollar to the USD rate is continually dropping.
It is sad to see our country suffer, so we continually try our best to help those around us.
Environmental Awareness.
The bird life on the farm is always amazing.
Water birds are back in numbers, now that the dams are full. As the wheat comes into ear, the quelea birds arrive by the thousands! They have to be constantly chased out of the lands, as they can totally destroy seed crops.
Travel.
August begins with our annual family camping trip to the Zambezi River.
Watch out for our next travel post!
God bless and may you continue to walk in faith…
“Turn to God. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3 : 19-20.
Please leave your comment below….
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