Everybody, without exception, does chores on the farm.  One of the Retrievers’ chores is to take the kids for a walk every day.  They’re pretty good natured about it, unlike our dishwashers and garbage-taker-outers.

The one thing that we’ve discovered over the years though, is that it’s pretty hard to get a cat to follow the chore list.  Luckily Chesterton volunteers for his duties, taking up the rear to head off any stray kids.

When the river destination is reached the kids are let loose while the workers get a break.  Mal takes a refreshing February swim to cool off…

And even old Louie wades in looking for an odd or an end…

As the exitement builds, Chesterton gets up high on his perch to keep a better eye on everything and to avoid any annoying pranks by the supervisors…

And when it’s finally time everyone is safely guided back home for dinner.

We have a plan for strictly training our kids so that they won’t need such close supervision, but we have not yet saved enough money to hire a pack of Border Collies to manage the job.  For now we all make do, and they do pretty good.