Puppy Farm

Today we visited a puppy farm.
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We woke up to pouring rain this morning. At 11:30 we made the wet, 1 hour 15 minute drive from Aurora, through Springfield, and east to Diggins and Seymour. The storm followed us the whole way.

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We found ourselves in beautifully green, rolling Amish country (above photo). We even passed an Amish family taking an evening ride in their horse-drawn buggy when we drove back to Aurora at 9:15 pm.

Our destination was the home of my former brother-in-law, Mark's brother John, and John's wife Rachael. Here they are with Surprise, one of their four horses.

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They have a huge, gorgeous piece of property in "the middle of nowhere," as John describes it.

John has been a chef and a trucker, but now he and Rachael have a new enterprise, breeding puppies for profit. They say it's more lucrative than they'd imagined. It fills their whole day but they love working with their animals.

When we get back home, I'll put their websites on my blog. If you want a healthy, well-loved and well-socialized puppy, check them out!

My children thought they'd died and gone to heaven, surrounded by kennels of playful puppies everywhere.

Among their favorites were the adorable chihuahua pups in the new puppy shed. The puppies were very friendly and obviously used to lots of loving attention from humans.After visiting every puppy on the property, we went across the street to became acqainted with their horses. Jacob helped John saddle up Surprise so he and Dylan could ride her.

Dylan went first and had a fun ride until the horse stumbled in the mud. You can see his experience in the video at the very end of this post.

Jacob went next. He was careful to stay away from the mud pile, so his ride was uneventful.

Sarah and I decided not to ride, but Sarah happily led Surprise back to the corral.

As much as they loved the puppies and horses, I do believe my boys' favorite part of the visit was using John's rider mower. He allowed Jacob to mow 2 of his fields for him.

Dylan was likewise thrilled to be allowed to mow yet another big, green field behind the house.

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Boys and their toys!

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When we returned to the house, John the former chef prepared us a mouth-watering feast of meaty barbecued ribs, homemade macaroni and cheese, sweet corn on the cob, and chubby dinner rolls. It was all delicious!

After dinner we drove up the road to the home of Rachael's parents to see her mother's kennels. Rachael's mom has been breeding dogs for 12 years. We'd never seen so many dogs in one place before!

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We visited a while, then returned to John and Rachael's place for a slice of spice cake before heading back to Darryl and Tamera's house.

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But we couldn't leave until Uncle John had a wrestling match with his nephews! Above, he was holding Dylan down and kissing him while Dylan squealed and tried to squirm away.

Then he took Jacob down, wrestling him to the ground and giving payback for the boys stealing his cap.

When we said good-bye, I forgot to pat down the kids before they got into the car. Hopefully no tiny, adorable puppies will mysteriously show up, begging to join our family!

We had a great time visiting today. Thanks for everything, Uncle John and Aunt Rachael!