ThankYou Lunch

 As today was the thank you lunch for Wayne and Lukie I went over to the barn at 6:30 to start work. Mark also came to take down the chairs needed. In the hour I had before our walk I got the food going and the tables set. When Ruth and Diane showed up for the walk I told Ruth I probably needed some of her fairy lights for the centerpieces.  Diane said, "NO no no! Fairy lights are for Christmas you need flowers for spring and she just happened to have lots of beautiful Iris' blooming. When we got to Joan's house she came out with a bucket to show us.

Yesterday she was out mowing and saw a big mama painted turtle laying eggs in the volleyball court. As those eggs would not survive there Joan dug them up and will send them to Bethany in Bluffton to hatch out. We have an abundance of painted turtles here at the lake. We stopped in at the barn to grab some vases then straight over to Diane's to cut some flowers. Mark suggested adding a fern to each vase and that was the perfect touch.

After going back to the barn to put the vases on the tables we finished our walk. When we arrived to our place Lily's colt was taking a nap in the hay while Cookie watched over him.

The guests for the luncheon started arriving just before 11:00 am. This was a special thank you to Wayne and Lukie for lending Berean their office all these years. Spark was the MC and did a good job of thanking them. We also bought them Hibiscus a tree to take home. The lunch was well attended. We had 28 places set and 26 were used. We also had plenty of help. Amy drove in from Tremont to help, Ruth, Faith and Joan came to help. Then when each carload arrived the women went right to work getting everything ready to serve. They also brought amazing delicious dishes of food. When it was time to eat Spark and Rhonda helped with the serving. We didn't just have a lunch, we had a FEAST!

Below everyone was laughing as Dave was posing for a picture.

After the meal Lukie wanted to see the horses. We were going to take 2 golf carts but when I went out the one Mark had been driving had a flat and mine was no where to be seen. Mark and I left to go find the second golf cart. I found it on the North side of the stall barn so brought that over for the tour. Rhonda took the picture below.

When we got back to the barn the men were all talking in a circle while the women were at the other end visiting.

The second group that wanted a tour was Bonnie, Jeanette and Sharon. By this time it was sprinkling out but they still wanted to go. We stopped at Joan's and she showed them the turtle eggs.

Everyone was gone by 2:30 pm. Mark wanted help with the golf cart so I walked up to the barn. He was checking the flat tire and found 4 holes. He thinks he went to close to the fenceline and ran over thorns from the locust trees. We decided to take the tire off the old golf cart and put it on the blue one.

The old golf car was already up on the stands as Mark is working on the steering problem with it so it was easy to get the tire off.

It is a good tire hardly used at all and was stored in the barn so no dry rot from the sun.

After getting that on Mark wanted my help with the steering. He crawled under the golf cart and had me move the steering wheel from the left to the right and back.

He found the problem now just has to figure out how to fix it. He had all 3 golf carts at his garage today.

I left with the blue one to start teasing mares. Today it has been 18 days since Lily and Rosalie were covered and both said no. That doesn't mean they are pregnant, just means they are not yet coming in. Rosaleigh was teased and she is now out of season. Since all 3 of the mares in that paddock are out they could go out in the field. They were so excited to be turned out they didn't know whether to graze of run and buck.

They finally settled down to eat.

Mike had a couple guest come to ride so took Dancer, Mika and Sally over to the cabin to tack up.

They had a good ride and did lots of galloping. Dancer is going to end up the perfect trail horse. We had a wonderful day. 

Aunt Jinnie Leaves

Today after our walk Aunt Jinnie left us. She should be home in New Jersey by the time I'm writing this and we will surely miss her. She will be joining mom in Gulf Shores but not until October. As we walked out to the car to leave for the airport Joan was up on the ladder getting ready to climb into the attic for a check on the raccoons that had taken up residence there. 

Joan is pleased to announce they have moved and are no longer in the attack. A group text was sent out to see who would be willing to close up and repair any holes those raccoons used to get up and inside. Not sure which guy can get there first but we will see who takes the job. After Aunt Jinnie was dropped off I drove to Sam's club to get a few items for the meal tomorrow. Mark was waiting for me when I got home. He needed help getting the aluminum trailer hooked up to the truck but first the camper needed to be dropped off at Joan's as it is going out tomorrow. Mark drove the Huskavarna mower over from mom's then drove it up on the trailer for the trip to Brimfield, IL. That needs some repairs. We were a little surprised at how many broken mowers were all over the yard when we arrived.

Below he is unloading it off of his tilt trailer.

When we got back home the aluminum trailer was backed in next to the horse trailers and the tractor was taken out to move in a couple bales. I got the first one in but needed help with the second. The middle paddock also needed a bale and someone has to keep the horses from running out when the tractor is putting the bale in. Once both bales were in Sheena and Blueberry were moved back over next to Valiant so I could watch for them to come in. 

Neither were at all interested in Valiant but it has only been 10 days since Blueberry's last cover. Sheena we think is about 10 days pregnant so we also want to keep an eye on her.

Lily was glad for the new bale in the Middle paddock. She claimed it quickly.

It has been 18 days since her last cover. Anna stopped in with some books that had been delivered at Meisters. These will be taken over to the new barn. On the way back to the house I stopped to snap a couple pictures of the Mark's flowers. They are really beautiful now.

The goose family still have all 6 of their goslings and they are all doing well.

We needed to leave early for church tonight as Mark wanted to turn the boiler off for the season. That got done well before church started. Tim Roecker had the message tonight opening to Esther. To hear that click HERE. The Tremont young group were visiting and after church joined us at Culvers.

We had a beautiful warm sunny day and I'm thankful for what got done today.

On the Road Again

 Mark and I went out around 6:00 am to hook up the Wildwood camper. Once that was done I cooked breakfast then got ready for the long day of driving.  Fedi arrived just before 7:30 am, the camper he was hauling was the Salem with the slideout. Both of these campers had a recall and the only place we could find to take care of the recall was 90 miles away. The good news was that most of that was interstate driving. It took a solid hour and a half to get there but we arrived right at the scheduled time of 9:00 am. This had been scheduled weeks ago and at that time I told them we could make a 9:00 am start time and we did. The bad news was they told us we should not wait, it would be later in the afternoon before they could have the repair finished. Now this isn't a hard repair just put a couple straps on the fresh water tank so I was really confused but agreed. We decided as Fedi's truck gets much better gas mileage than mine we would leave my truck down with the campers then take Fedi's truck home. Fedi comes prepared for anything. In the picture below can you see what I'm referring to?  

If you can't tell what I'm referring to below is a better picture.

HE was quite quick on the draw too. He showed me how quickly he could draw the gun but also could cock it at the same time in that special holder. He has all the permits for concealed carry. We made it home by 10:45 am. Fedi dropped me off at our house. Ruth took mom and Aunt Jinnie to the Berean office and sent back the picture below:

Rachel sent an adorable picture of her new red headed grandson born yesterday.

Great Aunt Ida's genes strike again. This darling little baby boy was born yesterday but I didn't want to announce his birth until his parents announced.  Emily and Caleb welcome to the world Joseph Paul Sauder born May 13th, 2024 at 9:43 am  He is  19.5 inches long and weighs 7 pounds 5 ounces. Below are his newborn pictures. 

Caleb and Emily are happy Brian has a baby brother. 

When I got home there was a notice that the books I bought on ebay had been delivered to Meisters so drove down there to pick them up on my way to the DMV in Peoria. That wasn't crowded and I was able to get the renewal sticker for the Eclipse horse trailer pretty quickly. When I got home I noticed the orange slice with grape jelly had a Baltimore Oriole slurping up the wet jelly. 

It was raining most of the drive there and back and raining here too. Mark took me over to Fedi's at 3:00 pm and we started our second journey down to pick up the 2 campers. We arrived there just as they finished up the second camper. It didn't take us long to hook up and head home. Funny how tired I feel from driving 6 hours back and forth to Maroa, IL and to Peoria for the license sticker. I'm ready for a nap but if I just stay up a few more minutes I could go to bed for the night.

 

The Uplands

 Today did not go as planned but we still got almost everything done. We started with the walk. When we reached Joan's house Joan was busy throwing away her old trampoline as Rodney gave her his.

Ruth asked if she could have the old one for her chickens. Joan explained there was a rip on the side so was not good for bouncing but Ruth replied, "my chickens won't be using it for bouncing." Of course we ALL laughed. She loaded up the top, the net and the frame.

Later she sent the picture below of the repurposed trampoline.

It is now an movable grazing pen so they can be free range. The chickens can't be let loose right now as they have just planted their garden but this works perfectly.

A bit later we reached Rachel's and had to really admire the repurposing David did with the pilings he brought home from Gulf Shores. 

They put them above their retaining wall with the rope, then the stairs and finally the dock. That really looks great. Spark came by looking for some tools to borrow from Mike to work on the Kubota shed. He was asking Diane when she leaned into his car and asked why the car smelled good. 

As you can see Diane started laughing when she realized the smell was coming from the dumpster and not Spark's car. Yes that set us laughing again. 

After the walk and after breakfast I went to finish the barn as we had a family coming at 10:30 am to check it out for their family event for next year.  Once that was all cleaned up Mark wanted to hook up the aluminum trailer, back it into the barn and load the floor scrubber and the floor sweeper on that for our trip this afternoon to the Uplands in Norris, IL. That did not go as planned. It was backed into position and only then did Mark see we had a flat. No problem he took the golf cart over to the other barn, got his air compressor but it just wouldn't fill. 

The stem was split and the air was leaking out faster than we could fill it. The trailer assist was used to get the tire off so we could run that to Zanes for repair.

About that time the family arrived to see the barn. They loved the barn but wanted to look at the other 3 airbnb's also. When we got to Diane's Waterview Walkout the door was open and there was a bird flying around the kitchen. The younger lady just reached out and grabbed it.

She let it go outside. After the family left we came inside to have some lunch. We kept noticing the song of a Baltimore Oriole and finally saw it sitting on the power line.

Zanes just didn't get to the tire. I called Beth to let her know we were going to be late, she and Greg were at Sam's so were going to come here to help lift that 300 pound machine onto the truck so we could still get the job done today. The good news from that was Beth told us the floor had been swept and we would not need the sweeper, just the scrubber. We went over to the barn to unhook the trailer when Mike arrived with the Kubota. He told us that he had a trailer that would work. We took the truck over hooked it up and brought it back to the barn. It works the same as Mark's it tilts down for loading.

It took Mark, Mike and me to get it on the trailer as Mike's is much taller.

It was pulled up to the front so Mike and Mark could strap it down.

We pulled in at the Uplands just a little later than the 2:00 pm target. 

Beth and Greg were there to show us where to park. Justin was there to help unload. Justin helped get the scrubber into the event barn and brought in some buckets of hot water. Once the machine was put back together Mark went to work.

Willow and Bradley arrived to drop off Willow's cart for her wedding reception.

They are getting married on Saturday, the very first event for the Uplands.

Beth gave me a tour of the event building and the lodge while Mark was working.

To see those pictures click HERE. After Beth and Greg left I got the mop to clean up the parts Mark's machine couldn't hit. A big storm moved in with sheets of rain, lightning and thunder. Just then a semi truck arrived with the last load of sand for the beach. Below is a video of that getting dumped and Mark working.

By the time we finished the rain had slowed to a sprinkle. Justin came over to help load the machine back. The ride back was uneventful. The trailer backed and the machine unloaded then the trailer returned to Mike and Diane's. Dinner was after we got home and dried off. I needed to make something quick so just pulled out some egg rolls and fish fillets then added a salad. 

The rain started back up this evening and we got just over a half an inch in a short period of time. The rain gauge was dumped as I thought the rain was over but now it started back up again. Tomorrow Fedi and I are leaving early to take two campers to Maroa, IL to get the recall fixed so will have an early night tonight.