Where's the Warmup

 BRR it was cold this morning on our walk. We all wore winter coats. Jon's funeral is Saturday so when we got to Rachel's house we stopped to discus changing mom's work day to next Saturday as a lot of us are going to the funeral. Mom and I left for the Berean office and by the time we arrived everyone was already hard at work. Kathy opened a letter today that was wrapped in toilet paper. She wasn't sure if she should take it out of the envelope or not. She got brave and carefully slipped it out of the toilet paper, saying, "At least it doesn't look used."

It was another request letter. We are not sure why it was wrapped in toilet paper.

I was busy this morning and didn't think to take any other pictures but we had a good crew helping this morning. Marvin told us after all these years of marriage, he finally got Gail in a joke on this April 1st JOKE day. Gail got up first and was in her chair when Marvin came out of the bathroom exclaiming, "Gail, the toilet is smoking!" Of course she had to check it out. Yep, that toilet WAS smoking. Marvin showed us the picture and we all laughed and laughed. It was so good that I thought I would tray it on Mark. He caught on right away it must be an April 1st joke but at least he came to see how that toilet could be smoking. Mine doesn't look as good as Marvin's but close.

After that he decided I needed to help him work. He and Mackenson were going to be splitting the last of those huge oak logs so Mark drove the tractor over while I took the golf cart. A gander came out from the bank trying to lure us away from the goose nest in the retention pond.

Mark parked the tractor then rode back with me.

It was around 1:00 pm and just was still so cold. The wind was biting through our winter coats. I went to work getting the indoor arena ready for the mares tonight. We are expecting a cold rain to start and more rain with storms tomorrow. Both Blueberry and Rosalie's udders had gotten bigger since yesterday so we are not going to take a chance on either of them delivering outside. Once the bunk bed lumber was roped off the water tank was given a good scrubbing and filled it half way with fresh water.

The mares were down toward the bottom of the cabin field. Rosalie started coming up to meet me sporting her new fashion look of burrs in her forelock. 

They were turned out in the mare pasture and went running over to scream at Evan.

They were taken to the indoor and let loose. I decided to watch them just to make sure they wouldn't get into anything.

They went right to the square bales and started eating off of them. Those need to be saved for the stalls so I wrapped a tarp around them and the put some old straw bales on top. We shall see tomorrow if that worked. Below they are looking out the door at the stallions.

They soon were pretty relaxed resting by the door.

Rosalie came walking towards me and I could see that baby bump on both of her sides.

Mike came to get the waterer in Raven's old paddock turned back on. Hopefully it will warm up soon and that paddock can be used.  Below is Rosalie's udder tonight.

The mares needed to be moved out when Mark brought the tractor back but later when it started getting dark both were put back in the indoor and both settled right down. We had used the golf cart to transfer some of the split wood from today. Mark and Mackenson finished splitting all of the big oak logs. Below I have finished stacking the wood from the golf cart and just had to take a few pictures of those impressive piles of logs.

The wood shed is almost full for next winter but if we don't get a warm up soon I just may be burning some this spring.

Last Day of March

 No coffee wars this morning. I was up before Mark and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee. Mark has a habit of waking around 2 or 3 am and starting the coffee pot so when I get up at 5:00 am it is already cold. I kindly explained last night if that happens this morning he would be buying his own coffee maker. Sometimes a person just has to draw a line. It was kind of somber this morning. As soon as it was light I took the golf cart over to the cabin field to check Rosalie. Her udder is about the same. She and Blueberry were busy eating some grain Mike had given them. I took some burrs out of her tail as she was eating then headed back home.  Mark is finding it hard to believe that his only sibling died. We still don't know when the funeral and burial will be, Kim told us she should know on Tuesday. We had lots to talk about on the walk. Joan had gone to the wedding of her niece in Latty then spent time with Bill and Bethany in Bluffton over the weekend. We stopped in to visit with mom. She had her 3 roses from Zion, Eden and Bethany right by her chair. 

They are still beautiful. She enjoyed taking about her birthday party. It really was nice so many of her family came. We spent so long talking that Mark sent a text asking if I had started cleaning the barn instead of coming back to make breakfast. After breakfast we both went over to clean. We were taking the golf cart over when mark noticed a goose way up in the broken tree. Check the picture below, his mate is on the ground but look to the top right of the picture to find the gander.

Of course I needed to zoom in for a closer picture.

The first job was to put back the light fixture that had been knocked down during the party.

We carried the ladder down to replace the defective smoke detector in the bedroom.

That picture behind the ladder has special meaning in this barn.

The LORD truly has done amazing things and providing for this building is a huge one that gives me such joy. I'm thankful Anna found it and placed it here. She also has one in the master bathroom that is also special.

My very favorite is the one Kathy Obergfel made for the barn. We had this plaque hanging in the hallway at Pleasant home. I remember trying to read that big word when I was only 6 years old and asking mom what it meant.

That plaque is hanging in my house so I was thrilled when Kathy made the one below for the barn.

That really is my hearts desire.

By the time the repairs and sweeping of barn were done it was lunch time. I found a chicken rice and broccoli dish in the freezer, microwaved that, added some stir fry vegetables to it and served that for our lunch. After lunch we took the golf cart down to pick up the mail.

There was a package for mom so we took that up to her house. Anna was there with Harvey and Dexter out on the deck enjoying the sunshine.

I left then for Aldi as I needed to pick up ingredients to make a dessert for Berean. I parked right next to Ruth's car but didn't recognize it then almost ran into her in the baking aisle. She told me that Aldi had white bread for sale for 33 cents a loaf and some high end goat cheese all marked down from $4.00 to 99 cents. I skipped the bread but bought one of the goat cheeses then gave some of that to Mark when I got home.  A cherry dessert was made for Berean and is now in the fridge ready. The mattresses we want for the triple bunk beds went on sale for $70.00. They are 5 inch memory foam and will fit the frames. We had one I bought earlier so brought one of the frames to the house to make sure it would fit and when we saw it did we ordered 8 more. Joan picked up Nancy and took her to the fund raiser at the Pizza Ranch. As today is her birthday she got her one of those blow up helium balloons and put it on her wrist. All evening she was so excited and the whole group sang Happy Birthday to her. She sang right along.  For supper tonight we had 2 chicken breasts cooked in a teriyaki sauce and topped with pineapple chunks. Today is the last day of March. I'm SO ready for warmer weather. 

Life and Death

 Today was mom's 93rd birthday and Spark's 73rd birthday. Each year they have a contest on who can wish the other happy birthday first and this year mom WON.  Ever since those cell phones came out mom could not win as no matter how early she called Spark knew it was her and before he would say hello he would exclaim, "happy birthday mom, I won!"  Well today mom decide if she used Karin's phone Spark would not have any idea it was her and that worked!  Karin put mom's crown on and sent the picture to all of us by text with mom all ready for church. We were sure she used a picture from 3 years ago but nope it really was from this morning. Mom just doesn't seem to age.

Mom said we are NOT to post that picture on Facebook and she was not going to be wearing that crown to church. We told her it would be good therapy, she could practice casting the crown in church. She refused plus we didn't want anyone to get hurt. Mom had quite a throwing arm in her youth. Ruth took mom to church this morning as Joan's family were in Bluffton. She passed us on the way to church so we followed her into the parking lot. Sarah and Nolan's family arrived right then and each of the girls had a beautiful red rose to give to great grandma for her birthday. I didn't think to take pictures but those girls all had their hair braided just like mom used to braid all of ours. Then Rhoda walked in with Zeke and Iris.  Nancy saw Rhoda, grabbed her and walked her right up to the front of church. She was so happy to see Rhoda.  All of the grandkids went to Sunday school. Kathy had Zeke and River and Nancy. Amanda had Iris, Eden and Zion. Elisabet went to her regular class.  David had the morning message and one I highly recommend. So much to listen but one thing he spoke is There are only 2 options. Click HERE to watch. At lunch mom got many many birthday greetings. We finally made it back into church for the second service. Tim Roecker had that message and that is another message you WILL want to listen to. Click HERE to listen to that. After church Mark and I drove to Sam's to pick up two buckets of ice cream for the birthday party today but they had none. How could they possibly be out of ice cream? I was able to buy boxes ice cream sandwiches and fudgesicles.  Rachel ordered I think 18 pizza's from Casey's,  Diane and Ruth made big salads, Dan and Susan brought 2 large cakes from Costco. Over 100 came to wish Nancy, Spark and mom happy birthday.

Below are a few pictures of the evening.

Abram and Addy gave the biggest announcement of the evening. 

They are expecting a baby Sept 30th. This is Dan and Susan's first grandbaby and a first for Addy and Abram. We are all thrilled for them.

The kids played and played. Nancy had so much fun opening cards and presents.  By 7:00 pm people started leaving. Rhoda and Lee took Nancy home. Nate and Justin helped get mom in the wheel chair van and I took her home. Spark and Rhonda brought all of her presents over and made a beautiful arrangement of the flowers Kari and Brett brought. Tarah gave mom a big aloe plant. There were many cards and gifts. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures of the evening click HERE.

As we were cleaning up Mark realized he had a message from Kim, his brother Jon's wife. He called her back and Kim shared that Jon has passed away. Jon was Mark's only brother. Kim will call later with the arrangements. We were celebrating a new life coming, mom's 93rd birthday and then ended the day with the death of a brother. Life really is like a vapor and none of us are promised tomorrow. Jon would have been 70 this year in October. If you have not given your heart to Jesus don't wait. He is calling YOU. 

Safely Home

 We left at 2:20 am for home. Diane started driving while I rode shotgun and Mike slept in the back bench. We switched off drivers all the way home and sharing the driving 3 ways made the trip easy. We pulled in at 4:23 pm.  Mark and I took the golf cart straight over to the cabin field so I could check on the mares.

I was glad to see both doing well and neither ready to deliver. We got my back pack out of the back of the truck and took that home to unpack.

Rizzy was glad to see me and glad to go on a golf cart ride. When the unpacking was done we drove that golf cart over to the logs Mark had been working on. He had one more section he wanted to finish today.

These are oak and VERY heavy. They will need to be seasoned for a year as there is still a lot of moisture in them.

Success.

The sections of this tree were so big that Mark and Mackenson were not able to get them under the log splitter. They split all of the logs below by hand.

Now that they are all quartered, they can split the quarters. Below is what they got done. Mark and Mackenson were splitting by hand then would roll the sections over to Berlica who was running the log splitter. Once they were split they were loaded into the trailer.

It is almost 8:00 pm and I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. I'm so thankful to be home, so thankful for a safe trip and thankful that neither mare delivered early. Mike drove out to Middle Grove to check on the herd and sent back pictures of the grass growing there. The bales he moved in were hardly touched. The horses are so glad for the good green grass. Rhoda and Lee sent a few picture of their amazing trip.

Anna sent the picture of the big alligator at Alligator Ally in Gulf Shores.

Sarah, who stayed home to keep everything running well (and she did!") sent the picture below.