Wedding Preparations

Marika's colt had a good night. As his body temperature is too low we have a blanket and a heater in the stall to keep him warm. Last night at 10:00 pm he was helped up and nursed very well. I rested on the couch listening for sounds of him trying to get up and ended up falling asleep until 11:30 pm. At that point I awoke and saw him up and nursing. He was able to get up on his own for the first time. I was thrilled and went to bed but still decided to check on him every couple hours. At 1:30 I awoke to find him struggling to get up so ran up to the barn, helped him up and he nursed very well. At 3:30 am he was up on his own nursing so I really thought we were out of the woods but at 5:30 am he was struggling again. So the morning was spent with Israel and Elisabet running up to the barn every couple of hours to help him up. Each time he walks right over and nurses so that gives me hope he will improve if we can just keep him eating.
At noon he was helped up then I left to help prepare the food for Anni and Matt's wedding tomorrow. When I walked in to the fellowship hall there were already lots of people there to help. Both Rhoda and Sarah were there with their girls. This was their second day of volunteering as yesterday they helped with all the decorations.

 Above is Eden and below is Iris.

 Israel and Elisabet were thrilled to see Zion. They played together until Stephanie picked them up.

 We had a very good group of helpers, with the most important helper, Karen Hoffstetter who knows everything there is to know about serving lots of people. Below Megan was busy decorating Anni's wedding cake.

 Irma, Karen and Rhoda are hard at work preparing the veggies and fruit.

 Sarah and Zion were working with the oranges.Zion would make sure her mom had plenty to cut. She would take them from the sink and hand them to her mom for cutting. We start them young on chores.

Once the vegetables were washed and prepared, Rebekah, Ruth, Rhoda, Laura, and Karen worked on making up the veggie trays.

Once the vegetables were done we started on the fruit trays.

Below Laura is cutting up the pineapple.

The fresh fruit trays were not just tasty but also beautiful.

Below Karen is getting ready to cover them.

While I was busy at the fellowship hall Mike stopped in to help the colt get up and nurse.  Karin also came after work and got  him up. When I arrived he didn't want to get up and only nursed a bit before wanting to lay back down. I think he is getting weaker instead of stronger.  There is not much else I can do, at least he still has the sucking instinct and will nurse when helped up but he is spending more time sleeping now.  I tried to do the Madigan Squeeze on him in hopes that would help but did not see any improvement.