Idlehurst

The résumés are still coming in, and FINALLY… a qualified applicant!!!!!

Although Honey was deeply insulted by the suggestion that she needed to submit a résumé for continued employment at Idlehurst.

Apparently, *“I’m Mrs. Kim’s horse”* was not considered sufficient work history.

So, under protest, she submitted her credentials.

And unlike our previous applicants, Honey actually has experience. She has skills. She has seniority. She has references.

Granted, one of those references is me and she conveniently describes her very brief stint doing pony rides as not aligned with long-term career objectives.

But listen. We never said this was an unbiased hiring process.

Honey has applied for Executive Director of Equestrian Operations, requested an unreasonable compensation package, limited working hours, preferred parking and exemption from undesirable assignments.

**Her application has been approved.**

There will be no interviews.

There will be no consideration of other candidates.

Management has a favorite, and management isn't pretending otherwise.

Check out our blog. Take a moment to fill in the blanks and comment below: Maybe being crunchy isn't about ________. Maybe it's about ________.

What Does Crunchy Mean? Why We Are Choosing a Simpler Childhood. Somewhere along the way, growing your own food, sending your kids outside to play, limiting screen time, learning old skills, and wanting to know where your food comes from got a name.

Farm Fridays are BACK for Fall!

Our fall Farm Friday series is packed with **hands-on, STEM-based learning** that gets kids exploring science, agriculture, and the natural world right here on the farm.

To keep each class small, interactive, and truly hands-on, **each Farm Friday is limited to just 20 kids.*

9/11 | Marvelous Mushrooms
9/18 | Tallow: Waste to Wonder
9/25 | Seeds & Survival
10/9 | Apples & Orchard Science
10/16 | Wool: From Sheep to Sweater
10/30 | Pumpkin Science
11/13 | Why Leaves Change Color
11/20 | Winter Wildlife

$25 per child, per Friday
ESTF Approved
Only 20 spots per class

Come learn where science gets a little dirt under its fingernails.

Register here: https://www.cognitoforms.com/Idlehurst2/FallOnTheFarmFarmFridaySTEMSeries

The résumés keep coming in here at Idlehurst, but unfortunately, the applicant pool is not getting any stronger. 😂

Today’s candidate: Trevor.

Trevor has applied for the position of Classroom Assistant, citing extensive experience in office supply acquisition, communications and upper-level operations.

What his résumé conveniently leaves out is that “office supply acquisition” means sneaking up behind children, stealing their pencils and taking off running so they have to chase him.

He also refuses to stay on the ground, screams “MAHHHHH!” for me approximately 847 times a day, and despite living among goats, appears to have absolutely no idea that he is one.

His references were… none existent.

His interview was worse.

But you have to admire a candidate who lists Pencil Theft: Valedictorian under education.

Please review Trevor’s résumé and let us know:

Are we hiring him, or should we continue accepting applications?

We’ve been looking around the farm lately and realized we have a LOT of residents who contribute very little financially.

They eat here. They sleep here. They require medical care. Some have even caused significant property damage.

So naturally, we decided it was time for everyone to update their résumés.

Introducing a new Idlehurst series: IF THE IDLEHURST ANIMALS HAD RÉSUMÉS

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be reviewing each animal’s professional experience, special skills, references and overall employability.

Some are highly qualified.

Some have greatly exaggerated their experience.

And some are absolutely getting fired.

First applicant up: Ridge.

He has applied for Farm Manager.

He is four months old. Would you hire him? Let us know in the comments!

There’s something about a quiet farm in the middle of the night that gives you a lot of time to think.

After one of Snickers’ late-night treatments this week, I found myself wide awake, thinking about the school year ahead.

We’re preparing a brand-new campus, organizing classrooms, making plans and dreaming about everything this year will hold.

Soon those spaces will be filled with familiar voices we’ve missed all summer and brand-new ones we can't wait to get to know.

And somewhere between checking on Snickers and trying unsuccessfully to fall back asleep, I found myself thinking about *why* we started the Learning Collective in the first place.

We wanted childhood to have room here.

Room to wonder.
Room to move.
Room to make mistakes.
Room to master something before moving on.
Room to spend an afternoon outside because the lesson became bigger than the lesson plan.

We wanted children to be known, not just counted.

We wanted learning to feel meaningful, teachers to have the freedom to teach the child in front of them, and kids to have the time and space to actually enjoy being kids.

Because childhood already goes by incredibly fast. We don’t need to rush it along.

A lot has changed since we first dreamed about the Learning Collective. We’ve grown, learned, adjusted, and now we’re stepping onto a whole new campus.

But at the very core of what we believe is the same little phrase we’ve said from the beginning:

**Let them be little a little longer.**

Education hits different when you realize it doesn't have to look the same for everyone. Just 19 more nights until we see the old faces we cannot wait to laugh with, greet the new ones we cannot wait to know, and start another year of learning, growing, getting a little dirty and protecting a little more of childhood along the way.

🐄 Meanwhile, in the Cow Department…

The horses have been getting entirely too much airtime lately, so the cows have filed a formal complaint.

And if anyone filed it, it was Sundae.

Sundae can almost always be found sitting by the fence, calmly chewing her cud and watching EVERYTHING happening around the farm. And we are 100% convinced she is gossiping about all of us.

Who can park a trailer.
Who absolutely cannot park a trailer.
Who left that gate open.
Who is late.
What the horses are carrying on about now.

And she DEFINITELY laughed last night when I got stung in the butt by a European hornet in Snickers’ pasture. 😑

I cannot look at her sitting there without imagining her wearing a fancy little tea hat, sipping sweet tea and whispering, “Well… I hate to say I told you so.”

But here’s your little farm lesson for the day: when you see a cow lying around chewing like Sundae, she isn’t just sitting there judging your life choices. 😂 She’s chewing her cud!

Cows are ruminants, which means they’ll eat their food, partially digest it, bring it back up, chew it again and swallow it for further digestion. This process helps them break down tough plant material like grass and hay and get more nutrients from it.

So yes, Sundae is doing important digestive work.

She just happens to conduct all of the farm’s neighborhood-watch operations at the same time.

Sundae: dairy cow, professional cud chewer, fence-line supervisor and keeper of ALL the farm tea.

And frankly, she has seen some things.

Snickers Update: Day 10 of the Eye Saga

It has officially been a LONG ten days of alarms every three hours, eye medications, very little sleep, and one mare who is completely over seeing us....I don't blame her.

We also found what we believe may have started this entire fiasco: a hornet’s nest in Snickers’ pasture. Of all the things…anyone know a good exterminator?

Today, Dr. Berr came back out and gave Snickers a corneal injection directly into her eye to help fight the infection. She also took a culture so we can hopefully get a better idea of exactly what we’re dealing with. Additionally her SPL line was also tightened and restitched to keep everything working like it should.

And we got some VERY exciting news…

We get to move from medications every THREE hours to every FOUR hours!

To a normal person, that probably doesn’t sound terribly exciting. To someone who hasn’t slept more than 2.5 hours at a time in ten days, it feels downright luxurious.

Snickers would like everyone to know that she has had enough of our frequent visits, would prefer that we stop touching her face, and has officially unsubscribed from this entire experience. But all things considered, she has been such a good girl through a pretty miserable ten days. Ridge on the other hand is enjoying the attention and extra snacks each visit.

We are incredibly grateful for Dr. Berr and her veterinary team, and for every single person who has checked on us, offered to help, or actually shown up to give us a hand (I'm looking at you Kimberly, Joe, Chris, and McKinzie 😉 ) Keeping up with this treatment schedule has taken a village, and we’re very thankful for ours.

We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re still fighting for that eye.

On alarm, four meds, and now FOUR glorious hours at a time.

A few days ago, we promised we’d explain what an SPL line is… and then life had other plans.

Truthfully, we’ve been a little quiet because since 1:00 p.m. Saturday, Snickers has needed medication every three hours, day and night, to give her the best chance of saving her eye.

So… what is an SPL line?

An SPL (subpalpebral lavage) system is a tiny tube that is carefully placed through the horse’s eyelid. The tubing runs through a small incision in the eyelid, stitched into the forehead and hides beneath the forelock, travels down the mane, and ends where we can easily administer medication. Instead of wrestling a painful eye open every few hours, we simply inject the medication through the line, allowing the medication to reach the eye while causing far less stress and discomfort. We are so grateful for Country Creatures Veterinary Care

The medication itself is actually quick and simple to give… if your patient cooperates.

Unfortunately, Snickers has become quite convinced that every time she sees us coming, we’re up to something. 😅 So now, every three hours, our first mission is simply loving her. Thankfully, she’s been an incredibly good girl through it all, even if she gives us that look that says, “I know exactly what you’re here for.”

And then there’s Ridge. He has absolutely no idea what’s happening, but he’s doing his very best to “help” by chewing on Mom’s halter, untangling lead ropes, and generally supervising the entire operation. We’re pretty sure he believes moral support comes in the form of chaos. If enthusiasm counted as medical experience, he’d be Employee of the Month.

For the past five days, life has revolved around those alarms. Ryan takes the day and I take the evening alarms. Neither of us has slept more than five hours but it's okay.

We also want to give a huge thank you toChris Davis, our therapeutic riding instructor, who has been here in the evenings helping Ryan with treatments. It truly takes a village, and we’re so grateful for people who show up without hesitation when our animals need them most.

This is the part of owning horses that most people don’t see. The late nights. The missed sleep. The worry. The constant care. But when you make a commitment to them, you show up every single time.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed, checked in, and sent encouraging messages. We feel every one of them.

Please continue praying for Snickers. Eye injuries in horses are never something to take lightly, but we’re hopeful that with an incredible veterinary team, faithful friends, and a lot of diligence, she’ll be back to her feisty self soon.

There are some injuries you can watch.

An eye injury isn’t one of them.

Snickers managed to earn herself a corneal ulcer, and with horses, eye problems are always treated as an emergency. Hours matter. Eyes can’t simply be replaced, and what starts as a tiny scratch can become something much more serious if left untreated.

We’re incredibly grateful for our amazing veterinarian Country Creatures Veterinary Care who came out with her little one in tow to place a subpalpebral lavage system in her eye (we'll share a picture later with the new education we just learned!). It isn’t the prettiest accessory, but it allows us to get medication exactly where it needs to go… every three hours, around the clock.

So now our schedule is simple: meds every three hours 🥴, check the eye, repeat, and pray.

And then there’s Ridge… who has absolutely no understanding that Mom needs a little peace and quiet. If he doesn’t decide to give her a break, he may discover the milk bar has closed for renovations a little earlier than he planned. 😏

If there’s one thing we’d love every horse owner to remember, it’s this: never wait on an eye. Call your veterinarian. Every hour counts.

Here’s to healing, AMAZING vets, strong mares, and a very patient mama.