Record Breaking

 Last night was tough. Every three hours from 6:00 pm until 6:00 am I would wake up, walk down the basement steps, turn on the water for the barn then walk back up, set the timer for 10 minutes and then fill the wood burners with wood. After the timer went off it was back down the stairs to turn the water off to the barn then back upstairs and into bed. It worked though when I went out at first light all of the horses had water and none of them were thirsty. Valiant's waterer only had an inch of water in it so that was refilled by carrying a bucket of water from the barn to his paddock. The hydrant by his paddock is now frozen. I went out two more times to fill his waterer. The best part about this bad situation is the heater is working in his automatic waterer so as long as I fill the reservoir he has warm water to drink. The other waterers will fill up in about 3 minutes when I turn the water on. It was -9 when we woke up and stayed there until about 11:00 am then slowly crept up. Almost every time we were outside today it was below zero. Right now it is -1 so it IS warming up. AND there are blizzard warnings out. Not for us though.  All of the family that drove down to Gulf Shores Alabama to escape this winter weather were in for a BIG surprise. They are living through a blizzard. There is currently 7 inches of snow on the ground and it is predicted to keep snowing until after 10:00 pm. This is a 130 year old record breaking snow. Below is one of Rachel's balconies.

Pictures and videos have been coming in from them all. 

Rachel sent the picture below of making snow ice cream.

Diane sent the video below:

Mike sent the video below. This is at Beth's condo.

All the bridges are now closed. They couldn't get off of that Island if they wanted to. There are no snow shovels available but people have those little shovels the kids dig in the sand with. 

They may be able to dig their way out of this blizzard but with that little shovel it's going to take a while OR just wait for it to warm up. 

Here we have kept both wood burners going all day. Even with them going strong we can't get the house up past 74 degrees. We took supper over to mom's tonight and while eating Karin asked, "does it feel cold in here?" Sure enough their furnace wasn't working. It was set on 74 but down to 64. They have the propane heater going in the living room so didn't notice that the rest of the house was getting cold. Mark tried to get it going but ended up calling Philip. He can't get there until after 9:00 pm tonight. I'm sure Philip is exhausted from no heat calls. Hope this one is simple. On the way home from mom's we stopped at Valiant's paddock to check his water and it was only down an inch. I'll bring water up from the house about 10:00 pm then not again until morning. The frigid air sure makes for hard work but I'm thankful I have a down filled warm coat and water available. 

Broken and Flooded

 We thought all was well last night with the water but were we ever wrong. When we awoke this morning it was 2 below zero. Both woodburners were started then Mark went to check on the horses and found Valiant's waterer was empty. We thought it must be a frozen waterline so I went out and opened the pit to find it full of water.

The heater inside Valiant's automatic waterer was still on so I cleaned out the reservoir and filled that with water, then went into the house and turned the water off to the paddocks and barn. Mark needed to get a pump out there to pump out all the water which took a while.

By this time it was 2 degrees outside and with the breeze the real feel felt much colder. We had to keep coming in to the house to warm up while waiting for the pit to empty. 

Once that was empty I went down into the basement to turn the water back on so Mark could watch to find out where the water was coming from.

As soon as that water started running Mark told me to shut it back off. He found the leak and took the picture below.

It is coming up from the base of the yard hydrant. That pipe sticking straight out of the ground. Valiant's waterer was filled up again and I watched him drink at least half of that before he walked away so was able to top it back off. Below Valiant is watching our progress.

Then back in the house to warm up. Dan called and told me he was dropping off some coffee cups at the barn.  David and Ben arrived with their children to play in the barn. Sarah sent a text that she and Nolan were inviting anyone that wanted to come for a chili supper at the barn. I headed over there after making sure all the horses had water and found the cups Dan dropped off. There are bags of them and they are excellent disposable insulated coffee cups. 

I called him to let him know I was going to take a bunch to the Berean office as they are the perfect size. Dan started laughing and told me that Berean had actually donated them to him when he had the school. Thankfully they were not at the school when that burned down.

Nolan's award winning chili is amazing, full of vegetables, meat and has a wonderful flavor with just a tiny sting to it. 

After eating the kids went back out into the gym and were having an epic basketball game. There may be some traveling or fouls not called but then there were no refs.

After supper the rest stayed but I needed to head back. I'm turning the water on every couple hours for about 10 minutes so each of the waterers can fill up again. I checked Valiant's on the way back from the barn and his was still almost full. I have a hair dryer going in the pit tonight, then the pit is covered well with the top then a tarp tucked all the way around and on top of that. Hopefully by morning Valiant's waterer will be filling along with the others.  Mark called Tim Meister and he is going to come fix the leak and may need to replace the yard hydrant. I finished the plans for the new bedrooms and baths then sent them to Phil and Anna. They went right over to the barn and got the measurements and will load them into the computer so it will be drawn up for a CAD drawing.

I drew it up as 40 feet long but with the walls I really only had 39 feet. The plans still work but bedroom 1 will be 9 by 15 instead of 9 x 16 and bedroom two will be 9 x 17 instead of 9 x 18. I'm good with that. One other change and this one is a gain there, are a few extra inches from the stairwell to the wall so bedroom 3 will be a few inches wider. 

Now to get our crew hired and the lumber ordered.  We have had both wood burners going all day and the house is plenty warm and comfortable. Maybe each time I get up during the night to turn on the water I'll refill the burners. We don't want them going out tonight as it is predicted to be 9 BELOW zero with wind speeds at 11 mph. I am so thankful for all the seasoned wood ready to be burned, two wood burners and two working hips that allow me to run up and down stairs with no pain. 

Blessed Again

We awoke to above zero temperatures, it was 6 degrees but dropped to 5 by time we left for church. I'm shorting Mark on a eggs again but with all the other goodies he didn't even miss that second egg.

We really had a wonderful day in church. Tim Roecker had the morning message, click HERE to listen to that. He read in 2 Kings chapter 4 and read a couple of Elisha's miracles. He spoke more on that after the first singing and prayer. The second reading was from Galatians 5. Caleb Plattner had a shortened afternoon message about baptism then we had the baptisms of Lucy, Teresa and Steve. Click HERE to watch that. After church we arrived home to a problem. Our guests had arrived at the foaling apartment and had no water. The horses all had water in their automatic waterers so we didn't think the lines were frozen but that is exactly what the problem was. They couldn't have been frozen long as the horse waterers were still all full of warm water. I invited our foaling apartment guests to come to the barn and stay for dinner while we worked on the frozen lines. I brought out a hair dryer, Mark got a cord and we got heat into that pit. I left then to get the food over to the barn but my car was dead, I'm sure the cold killed it. Mark's car was used to get the food over.  Within 20 minutes we had running water. Mark left a thin stream of water going in the apartment bathroom. Meanwhile back at the big barn we were having dinner and we ALMOST ran out of food. We had maybe around 35 for dinner. After we ate we had birthday party for Zeke who turned 3 today. 

Then came the fun. The volleyball players showed up with their families and soon the barn was rocking and rolling with excited children. Mark struggles with chaos so left for home but not too long after he left I had to go get him. The toilet in the boys bathroom was not flushing. This time we were prepared. After the last time he ordered this handy dandy snake and it worked.

That smile makes it seem like he was happy to do the job. That wasn't really the case as I heard a lot of grumbling about working on Sunday in the car on the way over but that job took less than 5 minutes so he changed his attitude after that. Below are a few pictures taken after dinner.

There was pickleball games, volley ball games, bouncy house fun, wrestling matches and lots and lots of visiting happening. I brought Nancy over so she could enjoy some of the fun then Rhoda and Lee took her home. I left at 8:00 pm with the party still going on strong. So I could work on the extra bedroom plans and found a way to get everything in needed.

 Even with the problems the cold brings on a farm we really were blessed to be able to spend the morning with our church family and the rest of the day with lots of company. 

Cleaning Day

Last night Jamie gave me this wonderful jar of peaches and told me to share it around with the family.

Mark and I were the first to enjoy them. I added them to our breakfast this morning on a spoonful of cottage cheese. Mark only got one egg to go with his sausage, toast, grapefruit, peaches and cottage cheese. With eggs so expensive this winter we are finding new ways to break our night fast.

He went to Aldi later this morning and bought another dozen eggs along with more fruit and spinach.

As the extreme cold is on the way due to arrive tonight this morning Mark and I worked together bringing wood in from the wood shed, loading up the house. By the time we quit we had a big pile of wood by both of the wood burners. 

Above is the living room pile and below are the rec-room 2 piles.

We WILL survive!

I left at 9:30 am for mom's house taking with me those delicious peaches from Jamie. Mom and I had a quiet Saturday together. We worked on the puzzle until lunch time.  Karin arrived around 1:40 pm. I drove home got my cleaning supplies and Mark and we went to work at the barn. Mark used his floor scrubber on the living area while I worked on the 3 bathrooms. 

When that floor was finished he went into the gym to start scrubbing that floor.

While he was scrubbing that floor I mopped up any standing water in the living area. It looked so good once finished. I had someone ask if we had basketball hoops in the gym and realized I had no posted pictures of those so took two.

We have one on each side and if the volleyball net would be taken down there could be a full court basketball game going.

The other picture that was needed is the tables and chairs we offer. We have 171 lifetime folding chairs, 10 wood 8 foot tables, 12 lifetime 8 foot tables, 2 wood 6 foot tables, 3 folding 6 foot tables and 6 8ft round tables that are all available to be used when the building is rented for a lot of guests. 

The living area also has the big walnut dining room table Anna made with it's 12 chairs. After cleaning we came home, rested a bit before making a light supper of potato and sausage soup with cheddar cheese and crackers. We needed to leave by 6:15 pm for church for the 3 testimonies tonight. It was such a blessing to attend and hear the hearts of Lucy, Teresa and Steve. I was sitting with Elisabet when it was Teresa's turn. She was asked, "and where is Jesus now? and Teresa replied, "in my heart."  Elisabet asked, "What did she say?" I told her and Elisabet said, "oh I thought she said, "In My CAR."  I had to chuckle. We got home around 9:00 pm and got that fire going again. We had a lot of coals so it was easy to start. We will need to keep both of those wood burners burning if the weather report turns out to be true.

Sunny and 54

 We had a wonderful warmup today with the thermometer going all the way up to 54 degrees with bright sunshine. Mom and Karin spent some time out on the deck enjoying the warmth. Mark and I worked over in the big barn today hauling supplies over and doing lots of measuring. We were all ready when Tim Meister arrived. The only problem with the drawing Diane made was the one bathroom is going to be very hard to install as it is over the downstairs bedroom. I spent some time changing the plans only to realize when I finished that I left out a window in the second bedroom and no way to get to an outside wall. So back to the drawing board. This evening I met with Ralph and Jamie to start planning their 30th wedding anniversary. This will be held in October and they have booked both the apartment and the barn. We talked about the food to be served and the decorations. Mike and Diane left around 12:30 AM for Gulf Shores. Mike sent back videos of his trip out to Middle Grove yesterday to put in bales. Those horses heard his truck as he turned down Middle grove road and started running down to the fence to greet him. Mika stopped at the spring that runs winter and summer for a drink before heading to where the tractor is to put in the bales. After the bales were put in. Mike usually heads over to the cabin to check everything there. Well the horses heard him all the way across the field and of course wanted to be with him. I could just see them thinking, "why doesn't he just stay in ONE PLACE and pet us?" Below is that video.

He put 6 more bales in. We are in great shape with hay. We have about 40 round bales left out at Middle Grove and another 60 left here. I also have plenty of square bales here. 

The bales of hay and straw are used for foaling season. We use them when the mares come in for foaling. We use 2 kinds of bedding for the stalls during that time. I still used pelleted bedding but on top of that I put a bale of straw. When the mare's water breaks it creates a flood, the pelleted bedding will absorb a lot of that and the straw keeps the wet off the new foal. I am very thankful for the beautiful warm sunny day and just really thankful that I get to live HERE.

Frigid Air On the Way

 It was 26 degrees this morning and that really did feel like a heat wave. The moon was out this morning lighting up the ground even though it is not full and the sun not yet out. I'm amazed at how this phone can zoom in and capture it. 

On the walk over to mom's house I saw a lot of the work Mark and Mackenson did yesterday. They sanded most of the drive going to mom's house and then heavily sanded around mom's. 

The wheel chair van has almost no traction on the snow and ice but the sand really works. The sun was just peeking through the trees.

After the walk and after breakfast we went out to start moving bales. The first job though was to get the hood of the tractor up and get the battery charger on it. We let it sit with that while we took the hog panels off of the existing bales.

Those were put outside for the next bale going in. As soon as the hog panel was removed the 2 horses in the middle paddock started pawing the hay digging down for the best parts. This is why we use hog panels. They waste SO much hay if it is loose. None of the shelters needed hay but 3 were getting a little low and we have what weather.com calls the bitter blast coming. Air straight from the North Pole will be blasting here in a few days dropping our temps to below zero. That cold is on the way! We want the horses all to have plenty of the best hay which helps them generate heat and keeps them warm. 

Valiant got his bale first.

He is given grain on the other side of the shelter to keep him busy while we move the bale in. He knows the procedure and gets excited when he sees the tractor coming and runs to where we will put the grain bucket. The other two had to be called to the grain buckets but when they finally figured out what I was doing they were glad for the grain. That kept them busy so they didn't try to run out of the paddock while we were moving bales.

The middle paddock gets 2 bales as it has 2 shelters up at the fenceline. 

While we were out working the temperature just kept rising and by the time we got back in the house it was already up to 38 degrees. We will be bringing back some mares in February for foaling and it helps to have hay in two different places so we don't have any squabbles. We are about 2 months away from the first mares due dates. We love foals and in the past would breed early so had some born in the winter.  Below are some of our past foals.

Now we are getting older and don't want to work that hard. It is much easier for us if they can foal when it is warmer. Tatiana is our first mare due March 14th, 2025. We will need to bring her here by the middle of February. Below is a picture of Tatiana with her Valiant foal from a couple years ago.

Both Rosalie and Rosaleigh are due in April with Lily's daughter Rosalie due April 10th and the other Rosaleigh due April 23rd. They will need to be brought in early March.

 I never heard what the high was today but it was warm enough outside that we only used one wood burner today.

After working outside for a while we were more than ready for lunch. I made pulled pork tortillas. Below is Mark's.

 Since we had a late lunch we were not interested in eating until after 6:30 pm. That was a dish I saw on the internet and tried. Start with a tortilla, spread on cream cheese then chicken. On top of the chicken put a few spoonful's of alfredo sauce, add spinach then cover with mozzarella cheese then a melted garlic butter. Add another tortilla more cream cheese, mozzarella, more alfredo sauce then put bacon on top and them more melted garlic butter. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.  I didn't have any bacon but used some of the left over pork for the topping.

It turned out very good but if I do it again I will add a lot more spinach and less cream cheese.

Mark turned on a movie tonight while I was working in the other room making dinner. The movie was called Unstoppable and is a true story about a wrestler with one leg that became a champion. It was a good movie, he found it on Amazon Prime and was worth watching but you may need a Kleenex box near by. 

 

Just One Degree

 It was only 1 above zero this morning but we still walked. Thankfully there was no wind and the walk really wasn't bad. Diane asked me to bring the plans over to mom's today so she could work on them and mom could give her advice too. I had everything done here and made it over by 12:30 pm. Diane went right to work. Below she is tracing the outline onto a new sheet of graph paper.

I noticed the cardinals in the burning bush so took a couple pictures. The other bird in the picture below is a house finch.

We worked on them until 1:30 pm. Mom wanted to make sure all the doors and bathrooms were wheel chair accessible but we explained these were all upstairs and no one was going to get their wheel chair up those 20 steps. Diane talked me into adding another bathroom and having a king bed in each of the 3 bedrooms.

I liked her plan much better than mine. When I got home I made us a late lunch of taco salad. Below is Mark's as he likes peppers in his.

After lunch we worked together bringing in loads of wood for the 2 woodburners.

Mike went to Middle Grove to put out more round bales and check over the horses. He sent back the picture below. 

Sangria and Jury are not in this picture but were close by. It is nice to see some well rounded bellies on those mares. We are praying for a healthy crop of foals in 2025.

We had both wood burners burning all day but only got the house up to 73 degrees. Mark and Mackenson spread sand on the drives today. They were all getting so icy. We left for church at 6:00 pm. Craig Stickling had the message and he had another miracle to report. He spoke first on Revelation 21 then 2 kings where Elijah is taken up in a whirl wind in a chariot of fire driven by horses of fire. Then on Roman's 12. If you would like to watch this message click HERE. After church we went with the group to Culvers for a late supper. Another good day, cold but I am thankful for 2 wood burning stoves and a woodshed full of wood.