Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Long Evening

Grocery shopping was a very necessary job this afternoon, we were completely out of French Vanilla CREAM for our coffee. Are we spoiled or not? Dinner was chicken salad sandwiches made with 12 grain bread, 2 chicken breasts, lettuce, sea salted slivered almonds, celery, onions and mayo. For dessert a Key Lime pie, Mark's favorite.
Mark and I left the house a little after 9:00pm for the farm. The filly was lying down but got up when we walked into the stall. Samantha was anxious for her dinner and once fed, the IVs were brought out and started. Tonight it took FOR EVER to get through the 5 liter bag. We finally left the farm at 11:00pm and in the almost 2 hours we were there she did NOT have diarrhea. YEAH!! She nursed twice while hooked up to the IVs and nibbled on hay. I think we are out of the woods.
We heard we ended up with 34 bales of hay. With the 55 we got on the first cutting and the 150 we ordered we should have enough hay for the year.

Filly Worse

Steven got to the farm around 1:00pm and found the filly starting to again be dehydrated, she is still having gushing watery diarrhea. The earliest Dr. Pallen could see her was 3:30pm so he moved in 10 of the round bales off the field before hooking up the trailer to take her back into the vet clinic to have her IV put back in.
We are waiting to hear her prognosis. Sure hope the kaopectate starts working soon, this is really getting expensive.

Sam's Filly

Mom came with me at the 4:00pm treatment to help give the filly another 5 liters of IV. It takes 40 minutes to run it all into her. She was also given her antibiotic and another dose of what we call horse kaopectate. They were left in the stall for convenience during the 10:00pm treatment. Steven Marchal drove out to the farm to go riding, checked on her and called to report the filly had pulled out her IV line, and Samantha had knocked down her buckets. The filly seemed to be feeling better in his opinion but still having explosive diarrhea. This meant there was no sense in driving out at 10:00pm, there is no way to give her more IVs with the line pulled so instead of worrying, I went to bed. The nights sleep was restless, hoping all will be well by the time I arrive in the morning. If she is not, there is no way I can haul her to the vet until after work, so will need to ask them to drive out to our place to replace the IV line. Both Samantha and her filly LEAVE for their new home on Labor day, she must be well enough to travel.
We need groceries today so hopefully once work is over and the filly fine I can get to the store. At least the house is still clean from the weekend.
The final check came yesterday for Rohan, Velvet's colt. His owner included a check for Steven for $250.00 for in hand training and another $100.00 for us to buy a new halter and lead rope for the boy. I think we will need to find one with rhinestones to be able to spend that much. Pretty nice of her to send extra and no, she doesn't expect a gem covered halter. He will be picked up the first week of October. I'll have to video tape Steven working with him to show her how well the training is going once Samantha and her filly leave the farm.
Sally and her filly have been completely paid for now also, just waiting on the transport company to give us a date before the health papers are ordered for them.
The GOOD news today is that it did NOT rain on the hay yesterday and last night and sunshine is predicted today. There should be no reason to stop the hay from being put up today.
Arrived at the farm early, and the filly is not dehydrated going without her next 5 liters of IV last night. In fact there is no milk in Samantha's udder, it was flat as a pancake so she must be nursing well. Her temp was taken and she is not running a fever, just tummy upset. She still is having watery diarrhea so was given another dose of horse brand kaopectate, her 4 antibiotic pills, and a shot of 3ml of the happy juice (something to help her feel better, like banimine but not).
She was nursing as I cleaned the stall so we made the decision not to have the IV put back in. We can tell she is not feeling well but at least she is nursing well.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Monday Monday AGAIN

Typical Monday, get to the farm and see Raven's automatic waterer is leaking, then
during the breakfast feeding, Samantha's filly was just not right. Saturday we noticed diarrhea but with everything going on I guess I just hoped she would get better on her own. Samantha had been given a Panacur Power Pak that ended August 21st so when the baby starts showing diarrhea a week later, I didn't immediately put the two together.
After the walk, I went back to check the filly out well and realized she is dehydrated and still having such awful diarrhea it is coming out like pale sickly water. The vet clinic was called and appointment made for 9:45am then it was home to get the truck, back to the farm to hook up the trailer, see Rachel Sauder and have her help hose off the baby's rear end and load the 2 into the trailer. Rachel Sauder and her husband were there working on the leak by the time I made it back with the truck.
So the filly's blood work is drawn and besides being dehydrated, her electrolytes are off and she needs IV's, probiotics to help with the diarrhea, and antibiotics to help the gut. She finally started nursing well after 5 liters of IV were put into her. At 4:00pm I am heading back to administer another 5 liters and at 10:00pm she gets the 3rd set of 5 liters along with another dose of antibiotics. All of this because we were worried that Samantha was losing too much weight. If I would have known that the wormer will go through the milk we would have waited and just had Samantha's new owner do the power pack once the filly is weaned.
The hay was cut Friday afternoon and we had 2 beautiful drying days of sunshine but today (Monday again) they show up to rake it and it is overcast with a 40% chance of rain so they don't want to rake and bale it, they think they should wait until tomorrow which is suppose to be sunny. So do we take a chance on the rain or put it up with the small chance some may not be dry enough? ARGHHHHHH.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Our Sunday

This morning started early, VERY early. Mark and I spent the night with the 2 dogs at the cabin. Right after we fell asleep Mark's phone rang, then again and then a third time. None if it was too serious but enough each time to take us out of the drowsy stage to wide awake. Finally we settled back down and the dogs heard someone outside and went crazy barking. They were not easy to settle down, they take their protection job very seriously. Around 2:00am Emma started whining, of course my first thought is she needs to go outside. Emma went right out to the yard but Darcy ran to the car and wouldn't leave it, telling me "it's time to go HOME." Once back in the cabin, Emma heard and probably smelled something and hurled herself right on top of us. By 2:30am both Mark and I decided enough, and to the dogs satisfaction headed home.
Craig Stickling spoke at the morning service and WOW was the reaction. The Spirit MOVED in him and in Peoria this morning. We heard of the potter's wheel and how we need to be softened clay, molded for God. I made the remark that the best way to finish out the day would be if Dave Obergfel spoke for the afternoon and when Dave stood up it was like "YES!" We ALL felt like Dave stepped down too soon. What a day! Once home it was crash time, too short of a night and too much activity yesterday.
An email came from Princess' owner that included a short video of the first time Princess was mounted. This is what she wrote:
Hi Judy,
I set the video as "private". It won't show up on youtube as public. (I'm still nervous I guess.) I have sent it to you. You can post it if you like but this first video may not be dramatic to some. It is an absolute highlight for us because it shows her being mounted for the very first time! She has let me sit on her many times while she was laying down... but climbing up there while she is standing is a whole different experience for her. I am over 5'8" tall so you can tell how tall she is (plus I have another 2 inches with cowboy heels on.) We were in the arena to start. Can see how calm and trusting she is (and our relationship with her! :) And the look on her face as she is taking it all in and processing the experience. No worries! At the end you can hear me tell Ty that maybe we should take her out in the corral to see what else she can do...after just four minutes of saddle time! That will be in part 2!
Here it is!
Alesia :)

We love hearing and now seeing how easy Raven babies are to get under saddle. One of our customers made the statement if people knew how easy Raven foals were to get under saddle there would be NO other breeds.
We also got good news from Don Kummer, his purebred Friesian mare Zephur has been ultra sounded IN FOAL! Raven strikes again. We expected no less but nice of them to call with the news.
Diane called to tell us they were on their way over to show us what Horsemeister bought. My first thought was hope they come in a car and not a truck. At least no new machinery can fit in the car. We now have 2 new (used) saddles, one a 16 inch show saddle, very well made and the other a lightweight 17 inch Big Horn. They also got 2 saddle stands a hackamore, a new bridle and some misc stuff all for $575.00.
Even though it is hard to spend the money, we really do need saddles. We are limited on how many horses we can take out at one time because we didn't have enough tack.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Parade

It was rush rush rush this morning then wait wait wait. Steven called early to let us know he was sick so Lily and her filly were out but the rest still needed to be cleaned up so it was out to the farm by 7:15am. Karin started on Ribbon while I worked on Ylse, Sanna and Jenis, they were pretty clean, just some dust and easy to make shine. The horses were tacked and loaded up and off to Hanna City we went. We waited over an hour before it was our turn to start. I was going to walk but decided I may as well ride Spark's fire truck. The video was taken from up on top so is not the best but will still be uploaded and posted once done. Even the dogs got to go in this parade. Mike and Diane's dog Ebby got to ride ON the fire truck but our two dogs, Darcy and Emma had to walk. Ruth and Steven Davidovics were kind enough to offer to take Emma & Darcy.  Below is a great picture of the Dill family from Tremont. Jamie only brought her 3 boys. They are patiently waiting for the start of the parade ready to start throwing candy to the crowd. Below is Rhoda on Jenis and Rebekah on Sanna waiting for the start of the parade. Rebekah is the run-a-way bride. Karin has her team just waiting for the start. Of course it is hard to keep them all in line for the long wait at this age. Rachel Sauder and Joan Reinhard walked on either side of the vaulters throwing candy to the crowd. Crystal Baker carried the music, walking along keeping the music flowing. The vaulters were the best of the parade. And for sure I needed another picture of the Friesians just waiting for their turn. We all had such a great time, Sparks fire engine was a hit but the best in the entire parade was NOT the Friesians it was the vaulters. They kept their routine going and people were amazed. Many many pictures and video were taken of this team. Even though it was done at a walk, everywhere we heard LOOK, LOOK at THAT! It was neat for Karin to get to hear some of the crowd comments, this is the first time she was close enough to hear them. Once the parade was finished it was off to the farm to prepare for the Jubilee trail ride. They took 6 horses and 6 riders. I was kind of proud, they took Sangria. She didn't get to go in the parade, not enough riders because they were all vaulting. Jenis, Mika, Bunni, Sophie and Duke finished out the horses. Riders were Karin, Mike, Rhoda, Anni & Rebekah Davidovics and Bethany Reinhard. I headed home to work on the house for the company tonight. Mark and I along with both dogs will be spending the night at the cabin. No dogs allowed at the house with AC company coming. AC's just don't let dogs in the house or so my children believe. And below is the video. Please don't expect much, this was taken from the top of Spark's fire truck and no editing done.

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Move

Once the parade plans were done it was time to start on the house. Sarah is a slave driver, we moved all the wood on the front porch restacking it on the South end.
All the tables and chairs on the porch were moved into the truck along with a couple of tables for tomorrow's fun. Then it was time to drive to Sam's for light bulbs, brownies, orange juice, grapes and popcorn. From there it was down to the Skyline home to pick up the machines. Bernice Otto was sitting outside enjoying the sunshine which led to a nice visit. Hated to head back to work. The machines needed to be moved out of the car and into the truck so we could haul a hand truck to David and Stephanie's former house. They moved today and had a great crew to help. By the time I arrived it was just about finished, they just waiting on the hand truck for the washer and dryer. We were amazed at the packing job, filled 2 trucks inside and out, the Meister brother trailer, and David and Stephanie's car.




Mine wasn't needed so home I went to finish the porch, then clean up and head to Rick Garcia's visitation.
There is still the dining room table to clear off, but that is Mark's job, then possible after the fun in Hanna City tomorrow, the upstairs should be worked on.

Parade Plans

The plans are going well. Rhoda will be on Jenis, Rebekah on Sanna, Monica on Ylse and Steven on Lily.
Spark is bringing his fire truck with mom, Diane and others throwing candy from that. We have a couple of volunteers to throw candy for the Friesians and vaulters but now that the fire truck will be in the parade, those volunteers may all want to ride instead of walk. That we will play by ear.
We will not be bringing the cotton candy machine or popcorn machine. The city has already contracted that out. The lady in charge wanted to put me down for the next year but we are usually up at the Northern IL Horse Fest this weekend and we can't make plans a year in advance.
We will pray our babies will be well behaved and no one gets hurt, Should be FUN!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bibles Ordered PARADE Invite

Was a little late to work and didn't finish before the guys started calling for lunch which meant it was back down to the warehouse for the afternoon. Bibles need to be UPS'd out but there were only a few boxes left of the unwrapped. An email went out to the Bible Distribution center in Bluffton, IN to order a couple more pallets.
TEMCO had our stamps which allowed me to get around a hundred individual Bible's mailed out.
My phone was left at home and as soon as I got in the door it was beeping with many messages. Since we will not be heading up to the Northern IL Horse Fest this weekend we have Saturday free to do the parade for Heritage days in Hanna City. When I called to let them know this year we would be home and willing to do it, they were very happy. Rhoda has agreed to ride Jenis, I believe I have Rebekah for Sanna, and Steven for Lily, I still need a couple of riders for Wynne and Ylse. Anyone interested let me know pretty quickly. Karin is bringing Ribbon and the vaulting team. The parade starts at the bank in Hanna City goes up 116 to Main street, turns right and heads to the grade school were the entertainment will be.
The cotton candy machine should be picked up and hauled out to Hanna City, this is a good opportunity to show my true colors, I always did want to be a CARNY.
Once home from work, my favorite part of Thursday came, Addyson came over! I really should have taken some pictures of her feeding the dogs, then telling them to "go away".
Mark and I headed to Aldi's at 5:30pm and had to leave the car in the parking lot with all the windows wide open. The pig was hauled in the back of the car on Sunday. When they moved to pig to the tables grease must have run out into cracks of the car causing the car to smell like there is a rotting carcass hidden inside. Mark was not at all worried about leaving the car unlocked with the windows wide open in the middle of Aldi's parking lot on the south side of Peoria. No one would willingly get in with the awful odor emitting through the windows. Good thing there is no rain in sight, the windows will need to be left open for a while.
The farmer is going to cut the hay on Saturday, sure hope we have good sunny weather Sunday and Monday.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Amy's Daughter & Grandson

Amy Koch called to tell us that she was on the way to the hospital, her daughter Sarah and her grandson Michael have been diagnosed with meningitis. She will update me when she knows more.
This morning, right after the walk it was home to clean for me. The carpet cleaners were coming and the house needed to be ready. They showed up around 1:30 and were done in a little more than a half hour but so worth while. My living room carpet is much brighter, the stairs don't stink and all the spots are out of the study carpet. Diane recommended Steamers, I called them and they put me down between 1:00 and 1:30, showed up and did a fabulous job for only $75.00.
Mike must have asked Steven to start getting horses in shape for his Colorado trip. Steven emailed that he rode Bunni and ponied Mika on the trails for an hour. On the second loop of our walk, he was there working Evan. Pretty impressive how he is training these boys. Evan was so comfortable lying down with Steven on him, he was nibbling grass while down. We talked about moving horses to Middle Grove, then decided to leave the horses where they are until after Labor day. We have campers coming and need lots of horses. Two round bales were moved in. We have a LOT of horses at the farm right now and are going through the hay quickly. Before Steven left for the day he pulled Izadora out for her grain and fed lunch to Samantha, and Raven. Samantha is looking so much better since her teeth were floated and her power pak worming. She and her filly are going to be picked up on Labor Day.
Sally & Glory and Velvet & Rohan were moved to Middle Grove to bring in all the riding horses. They will stay at Middle Grove until after Labor Day, then we will do the big switch so Rohan can be put in training with Steven and Sally & Glory for transport to their new home.
Below is the video Just a Horse. They mean so much to us and some won't understand when we go on and on, they say, "it's just a horse."

Work Out

Tuesday after work, Sarah was cleaning for the singing and I found some old Zion's Harps in the GARBAGE! She caught me pulling them out complaining out loud, "there she goes dumpster diving again." Even though these are very old, missing pages and not in good shape it just goes against the grain to throw them away.
Dinner was tuna salad, just being lazy and not wanting to cook. After dinner I was rereading White, the last book of the Circle series by Ted Dekker when Mike and Diane stopped in for a visit. Diane decided she didn't like the way the living room looked so we spent some time arranging the furniture until she was satisfied. Rhoda came in as they were getting ready to leave so we had to hear her explanation of Rick Garcia's death. Sue, Rick's wife called Rhoda to tell her that Rick had a massive heart attack and died. Rick worked for Meister Electric for years, I used to watch their 2 children for Sue. We think he was only 49 years old, shocking, just shocking.
Once the Honeggers left, Rhoda pulls out a work out video and asks me to join in. This video just about killed me off and this morning my legs are sore.
While reading Rachel's blog I see she finally updated and posted some new pictures. The first one is Steven's dog Kylee. This dog has more energy than my 2 dogs put together. The second picture is the BEST! Rachel was doing some house cleaning and opened one of Logan's (her 3rd son)drawers. This is what she found.
I don't remember any of my 3 boys having a collection like THAT!
My nephew, Nate Herman is hosting a benefit for the Hooked on Fishing park. He posted this:This Friday August 27th we are having another outdoor lunch with Chef Todd. He will be cooking shark, pig, deer and beef down at the hooked on fishing park in East Peoria. Everyone is invited and a $10 donation is gladly accepted. All proceeds benefit kids fishing programs at the park for next summer. The lunch starts at 11 am and ends at 1 pm. If interested in attending, go to Nate's blog and get all the information. This is such a well worth charity.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Update from Alesia

Below is an email that came in, just too good not to share. Can't wait to see pictures or a video of this Raven x Ribbon filly under saddle!


Judy, Judy, Judy!
I just have to tell you! I rode Princess,(26months old), for the 1st time this Sunday! She stood quietly and never moved a foot while I mounted from each side and sat on her. I gave her a good scratching and told her what a good girl she was! Then she noticed Ty with the video camera and she just started walking in his direction. She carried me around like she had been ridden before! She never gave a thought or a care that I was up there AT ALL! I gathered up the reins and guided her around the arena and up onto a wooden box where she posed. She was so confident that I decided to take her straight out to the corral and... (gee, you are going to think I'm fibbing!) we proceeded to ride over a piece of plywood, through water, stepped carefully over an 18 inch pipe, and under a tarp and then out by the road with 55mph traffic flying by! Ty had climbed on top of the horsetrailer to video and she watched him, and heard the trailer noise, but wasn't worried about that either! All of that on her very first ride of about 15 minutes!!!
You HAVE to give me pointers on how to download and post one of these video clips so I can share! We are smiling AGAIN!
Alesia :)

Now after 2 cups of very strong coffee, I'm starting to feel human again. Yesterday was the rest and re-cooperation day and nothing, absolutely no work got done here at the house. The dirty dishes are all sitting in the sink and on the adjacent counters. There is STUFF from the weekend EVERYWHERE and all I wanted to do was SLEEP! The day was spent downloading video from the show, editing video, uploading onto youtube and answering emails. The work at Berean is stacking up, the house is a mess, and there are no clean coffee cups. Funny, I look back at all the work done over the weekend to make the farm look nice and realize there were so many cars, trucks and horse trailers no one could see the place anyway. Rachel Sauder took the 2 pictures below of Sangria, Larry and Paris. These horses were out until the day was PITCH BLACK giving rides on Sunday.

Paris was another of the favorites for the weekend. She really got a work out thrilling many, many riders both young and old. What a great Arabian!
Steven drove out to the farm late yesterday afternoon and reported that the back gate of the first paddock was broken and Larry was in with the herd but he was fine AND somehow Sangria, Knight and Paris were in with the Friesians. They all get along but it is a mystery how they ended up in the middle paddock. More than likely someone went riding, used those 3 horses, and then thought that was where they belonged. Poor Steven instead of a quick trip to the farm to deliver the horse trailer he ended up taking down and carrying out the broken gate and moving horses around.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Vaulting Bloopers

This wasn't going to be posted but enough people have emailed wanting to see the bloopers, so here they are
This may be helpful to Karin to see exactly what went wrong. Pretty amazing that no one got hurt. And the show went on....

Northern IL Horse Fest

Crystal Baker, one of our vaulting mom's visited the Northern IL Horse Fest website and saw the headlines it is being rescheduled for October. Both Karin and I are distressed about this. The horse fest has a LOT of our money for all the stalls we reserved along with all the camping spots. We were taking 7 horses up! I called July 28th to ask about another camping spot, to see if we could just pay for it when we got there and was told no, it had to be mailed in right away. They told us then the packets were being mailed out that week.
IF this is not held the first weekend in October we MUST cancel. How disappointing! If anyone has heard anything else please let us know.

Clean Up

By 8:45am the playground was picked up, the table and chairs washed and put away, the bleachers taken down and loaded for return. We had great help and many hands made light work. We had seating for approximately 200 people and all of this needed to be put away. We enjoyed rehashing the hog roast and horse show and lots of good ideas for next year.
We really want to thank everyone that came. The food brought to this was phenomenal, too much to list. We would like to thank everyone that trailered in and performed for the crowd. We want to give Karin Meister special thanks tacking up a million horses and giving trail rides to thousands or so it seemed. Another big thank you to Karin for her vaulting team and all the work that went into performing for the show.
What a wonderful blessed day was had by all.
Rachel Sauder of www.momentscapturedbyrachel.com posted pictures of the girls retreat of which I provided the breakfast. Some of her pictures were snatched off facebook and posted on the Saturday post. One must scroll down to the correct post to see them but they are well worth seeing.

Horse Show Videos



Above is the first 2 installments of the horse show video and below is the vaulting part of the horse show.

We are just so proud of all our performers from the smallest pony rider, MOSES to our oldest rider Anna. THANK YOU so much for entertaining the crowd of over 350 guests.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Hog Roast Horse Show Pictures

Impressions of the day were: Karin was sure she tacked up a MILLION horses. Never again will we hold the show the same weekend as the girls retreat, the helpers all were too tired, hot and sweaty. The vaulters had 3 falls, never had that happen at a performance before. Just too tired and not able to concentrate.
We had PLENTY of delicious food, even pork left to share. Not enough seating but who would have expected over 350 people!
Even with all this, what a success. I'll let the pictures speak for them selves. Dan video taped the show but it is too late to work on that.
















The horses were all behaved even crowding in the arena. Glad today is over! Next week is the last show of the season for the vaulting team and the Friesians held in St. Charles, IL. We will think of today as a practice!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Finishing touches

It was back to the farm in the afternoon to finish the clean-up. Unfortunately the skid steer tracks are making a funny noise. Mark thought we shouldn't use it until it is fixed and there were 5 huge telephone poles right in front I wanted moved. The truck was used and it is a good thing the 4 wheel drive is fixed. We pulled the poles behind Raven's pen, driving through the muddy field. The skid steer was power washed and parked, Mark finished the weed whacking. Steven showed up to help with the finishing touches and got there just in time to help move telephone poles and hay racks. Karin and Hanna were over watering the arena while Mark, Fedi, and Ryan put together the bleachers. Once we were finally on our way home, we were both hungry and tired. A trip to Walmart was planned for some needed supplies so we stopped at a small Mexican restaurant near by that store. It was really good, although I felt a tad expensive. The bill came to $19.75 for the 2 of us. When we finally got home, there was a package for Mark. He got what was inside and the dogs got to play with the box.



They love tearing up boxes. Which leaves the the clean up for us.

We are as ready as possible for the big day tomorrow. Still need to stop and pick up 4 gallons of vanilla ice cream before church for the ice cream social the young group is hosting tomorrow. That much ice cream won't fit in our small freezer making a trip to the store on Sunday a necessary.

Ylse's Out Girls RETREAT


Breakfast was started around 7:00am for 25 people. Rachel Sauder took the picture above and I promised to have breakfast ready for them at 9:00am. At 8:00am everything was loaded into the car and driven out to mom's for the final preparation of heating the biscuits and cinnamon rolls. Some of the girls were slow rolling out of their sleeping bags, still everything was nice and hot.
Once breakfast was over, Karin and Rhoda drove over to the farm to start tacking up horses for the trail rides schedule at 10:30am, they are using 7 horses and will need to take multiple trips out, good thing it is cool today.

Samantha was given the last of her Panacure power pack and Ylse was started on one. The power pak is a double dose of Panacure for 5 days and is suppose to get rid of the encysted parasites. Ylse was led over to Raven and she is no longer in season. I didn't get her covered yesterday just didn't take the time thinking this morning would be fine. Raven's semen is easily viable for 48-70 hours but I don't like to take any chance.
We had almost an inch of rain last night which flooded Raven's paddock after all the work done yesterday to smooth it out, kind of discouraging. I so want the place to look nice tomorrow for the horse show.
The farmer showed up to start moving hay bales which meant the skid steer could not be power washed until he was done with it. This gave me time to drive home to put away the left overs and clean up the kitchen. While working Ray Sargent came over and wanted to show us some land he wants to trade. He wants a 200 amp service to his rental house, he wants a new furnace and air conditioner, he wants us to build the driveway making it 8 inches deep of concrete, taking out the trees and moving all the dirt to his upper property. Ray and dad traded some land years back, Ray took his share, dad did not and Ray was telling us that we waited too long and that property is no longer ours but out of the goodness of his heart he will let us have the 16 foot strip instead of the land dad traded for as long as we do all the rest. Some how it seems like a bad idea.
Mark and I will be heading back to the farm to finish clean up soon.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Emma's Eye


Above is the before picture and below is after Dr. Lissa Calhoun fixed her eye. It is still a little cloudy but amazingly better. Thank you Dr. Calhoun! Emma is not a good patient like Darcy. Emma won't bite but won't hold still for anyone, not even Rhoda. She had to be sedated for this work.

Old one Eye is now back to 2 eyes. It was a piece of grass stuffed into her lower eyelid. Rhoda brought her home but had to first make a stop at PAWS to drop off a BIG dead dog that is being tested for rabies. The dead dog was in her back seat and Emma was stuffed into the front seat with Rhoda. Good thing she took her old car to work today, there is no way they could have fit in the mini.
Star's coggins came back negative and Steven has brought him to Bridlewood for fattening up.
Sarah and I went to UFS and bought 2 rocker recliners, brought home the one floor model and have the other on order. Once that was in the living room we hauled the blue couch out to the front yard where it sat for less than an hour when someone snatched it up.
Sarah drove to Walmart and bought 2 end tables and 4 lamps. She put one of the end tables together leaving the other for Mark, I put the 4 lamps together, still need light bulbs to place in them but I think they look pretty nice.
Sams was visited to purchase the food needed for the girls retreat breakfast tomorrow at the lake. Also picked up 5 dozen fresh brown eggs from the shop. Rachel thought there will be around 20-25 for breakfast. We will have farm fresh scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, sausage gravy, sausage patties, biscuits with butter and jam, cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing, sweet ripe cantaloupe, red seedless grapes, and fresh squeezed orange juice.
Speaking of Emma, Cathie discovered who stole the tack box covers. She was missing 4 of them, they were in the barn on a table on Tuesday evening, but Wednesday afternoon they were all gone. They found them outside in the yard and in the field, it HAD to be no, no bad dog, EMMA, Now along with chewing everything she is a THIEF!

No Leak


This morning there is NO bad surprises waiting for me only GOOD surprises.
Raven's automatic waterer is back on line and his paddock looks GREAT! Samantha's filly is feeling good this morning, running and playing, Ylse's filly stayed in all night, all the gates are still hung, and more mowing has been done. Saturday Mark and I won't have much work to do at all. wishful thinking.
Star was the first horse fed. Two of his buckets were on the floor, I think he got bored. He would prefer to be back to Bridlewood, kept calling as Steven as driving him away. I had to take a picture of 10 horses all around the same bale but by the time I got my camera out they had moved. All the horses that are loose in the back congregate up in the far paddock. There is only one hay bale in this paddock and the horses could easily go to the back and eat off the 2 others that are placed under the trees for shade instead all 10 stick together and eat on the same bale.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Rescue by Steven


Steven picked up Star, drove him straight to Hoerr Vet clinic where Dr. Pallen floated his teeth and drew blood for his coggins. He is VERY thin, rated just slightly higher than a 2. To put this in perspective, a 1 is pretty much dead. The pictures don't truely show how extremely thin Star is, to see him in the flesh (or in his condition no flesh) is to be pretty horrified. Star was a great horse taking 3 of the Bridlewood kids to a C3. He is now at the Hanna City farm until we can get some round bales delivered here at Bridlewood.

Each morning when I arrive at the farm, there is always some kind of surprise waiting for me. This is what was waiting a couple of days ago only all 3 boys were just standing inside the shelter staring at me as if to say, we didn't do it, it just fell on it's own. (Sound familiar Dan?)By the time I got the camera out Valiant went over to the feeder.
This morning it was Ylse's filly standing again outside the fence and one of the other gates half off. Rachel helped put both back on. Yesterday I started digging up the leak, got discouraged and quit and this morning both Mike and David Sauder are working on it. Fixing this leak means I don't have to keep filling Raven's water tank, his automatic waterer will be back on line. Samantha's filly seemed a little depressed so her temp was taken and she is running a fever. She does not have a runny nose and her lungs sound good so she was given banamine and put back out.
When I got home from the farm, this is what Emma was dragging around chewing. It is our bumper to the Toyota, for some reason this one eyed dog loves to chew on cars.
Speaking of Emma, she is going back to Dunlap vet clinic tomorrow for her eye. It is not improving even though she is getting the drops 4-5 times a day. She will need to be sedated to check it out thoroughly. No food or water for her after midnight. She will think I'm trying to starve her. Emma is a little over 10 months old and weighs 118 pounds.

a Gift from the Haefli's

Both of us over slept not waking up until after 6:00am. The weather is perfect for sleeping in, nice and cool. It was really hard to roll out of bed. When I finally did get downstairs and the morning jobs done I remembered Spark and Ken both gave me envelopes after church. One was a thank you note from Dick and Gladys Haefli that held a VERY nice surprise, a check for one hundred dollars to help with the hog roast, plus $40.00 in cash. The other envelope was a thank you note that needs to be shared with the family. We found out there was a need, an email went out just to family and the gifts of money my very wonderful generous family sent in makes my chest hurt in a good way.
Ron Kipfer was the speaker yesterday and he spoke on creation. Church was crowded for a Wednesday night and Ron did an excellent job keeping our attention. Amazing all the little and big things that we don't even think about. He asked us to raise our hand if we had ever prayed for someone to convert, then raise our hand if we ever thanked God for Jupiter. Of course no one thinks to thank God for Jupiter but Ron told us we should, if it wasn't for Jupiter and Saturn's gravity pull, Earth would be hit by asteroids. Ron is from Bluffton North but lived in Peoria and was in OUR young group while working at Caterpillar for some years.
Today Steven is picking up Star, he was pretty upset once he found out Star's teeth haven't been done for a year and a half and since going back he has not had his feet done even once. He is hauling him straight to Dr. Hoerr's will draw blood for a coggins and overnight it, meanwhile poor Star will need to stay in the barn away from all the other horses until the results get back. The vet clinic told him he would have the results on Friday so only one day of quarantine. We will post some pictures of him once Steven has him here. Hopefully it is not as bad as it sounds, Star was a great horse.
Lots to do today so off I go.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wednesday Blessings

Emma's eye was treated before leaving this morning for the farm. She desperately wanted to go but it just isn't wise, besides I heard she left a HUGE present for Mike and Diane in their yard, so big Mike needed a snow shovel to move it.
Ylse's filly was standing outside the fence and Ylse was waiting very patiently for me to fix the problem. Ylse was brought out, after the filly nursed she was checked and she is still in season so put in the small paddock until after the feedings. Samantha was given the next 2 panacure dewormers then fed. Her filly came up for some scratching and petting, she is just so friendly. They will be leaving Labor Day. Once Raven was done eating Ylse was covered. Ruth reported she found bleachers for rent for the hog roast and will pick them up on Friday afternoon.
After the walk it was down to TSC to pick up 6 more dewormers for Samantha's last three days of treatment. From there it was down to Rabers to put a deposit of $150.00 on the pig for the hog roast and make sure the pig would be done by the pickup time of 3:30pm.
Aldi was the next stop where $70.00 was spent and this was just for our house, we were out of about everything (really just bread) but it seems like there is no food in the house if we are out of bread.
Steven called 15 minutes ago to report one paddock is cleaned and he is starting on the next. YEAH!!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Emma's Eye


This morning after the walk, I called Emma to get in the car and saw a gash by her right eye. It didn't look to serious and I thought perhaps Heidi played a little too hard. Emma was just dropped off at the house, then off to work I went. When I got home from work around 3:00pm there is Emma both eyes swollen, weeping and awful looking. Rhoda was called and Emma taken in to Dunlap Vet clinic. Dr. Lissa Calhoun checked her over, told us she does have an eyeball in there and it doesn't look lacerated. Emma is now on drops to reduce swelling which will hopefully allow Dr. Calhoun to get a better exam in a couple of days. The picture was taken at Dunlap Vet clinic.
Cathie called that Star's owner would like to find a home for him. She told Cathie that he is very thin and they can no longer keep him. Steven is picking Star up on Thursday morning and bringing him to Bridlewood for some intensive feeding. Star is 23 years old and was a perfect lesson horse for Bridlewood for many years. Cathie doesn't have the heart to let him be a throw away horse.