Working Day

 Today I decided cleaning and laundry had to be done here before going over to finish cleaning the new barn so after moving the mares, cleaning those stalls and getting them ready for tonight and after breakfast I started work. There were 4 loads of laundry that needed to be done. The upstairs needed to be swept again and both of the bathrooms in this house really needed to be cleaned. If I do the barn first I just don't have the energy to work here. Why is it so much easier to clean the new barn than our old house? I finished by 10:00 am with the work here and drove over to start sweeping floors. I heard mom's Kubota so looked out to see Joan hard at work spreading gravel. 

 

I'm not sure if that rope was in the bucket but Joan jumped off to load it before finishing the spreading. When I finished I went to check bales. I knew the mares would need a new bale today but thought Evan might too. He was turned out into the field so I could check. Of course he had to roll then jump up to run. 

He did not need a bale yet, probably has enough to last 2-3 days. I moved the hog panel on the mares bale so they could finish their hay before moving a new one in.

Tatiana was wanting out so I thought I'd better check her udder and went into the paddock to do that.

I just stuck the phone under and snapped. Those white clumps on the teats are what we call waxing. They are turning white so she may be getting close. If she was dripping milk I would know it would be today but she is not. Mark was busy working on the bunk beds.

The video below shows the start of the frames of him. 

He needed a little bit of help holding the boards. When he finished we moved a bale in. Jewel and Tatiana were taken to their stalls while he brought the bale out. I know I've bragged about the hay in the past but it is such nice hay. Still very green and fine stemmed.

The mares were brought back out and of course had to taste it then both of them dove right in eating.

I took the golf cart over to throw away the net wrap and had to admire the new gravel.

A pile was left by mom's garage that will need to be spread.

Amy stopped in to pick up some beef liver. She is donating it to one of her daughter's friends. We had a nice visit then after she left we left we went to dinner at the Bartonville diner. We split the senior walleye meal.

It comes with two large walleye fillets, two sides, the vegetable of the day, bread and butter and for dessert pudding but we usually skip the bread and the pudding. The restaurant was packed. We arrived by 4:50 pm and it took us longer to park than to actually get our food. We were seated quickly and our waiter took our order. We thought we may have a wait to actually get our meal but within 5 minutes our waiter came back with it. The waiter explained, this is the most popular meal on Fridays so the cooks start preparing them early and keep chugging them out during the busy time of all of us early bird eaters. 

It was hot, just out of the fryer and delicious. The meal, tax and tip come to $16.00.

We stopped to refill one of our 5 gallon water jugs before going home.

We were home by 5:30 pm, crazy as we left for Bartonville just after 4:30 pm and it is almost a 20 minute drive from here with Mark driving. Both mares were brought into the stalls. I have them both on the monitors. Jewel is a little hard to see as she is a bay and kind of muddy. She is on the monitor to the left. Tatiana is in the one on the right. Both mares are standing quietly.

Rachel sent the sunset picture from tonight's sunset at Gulf Shores.

Spark and Rhonda made it home tonight. Rhonda said she is now going to have to take down Christmas decorations. That tells us how long they have been gone. Today was a lot of work but I am so thankful we have such an easy way to DO the work. I have washers, dryers, dish washers, mops, a vacuum and plenty of rags.  

Eagle Sighting

 Still no baby but I only got up once to check as I was pretty sure she would not deliver. I feel the same way tonight as the colostrum is still yellow. No sign of white. Some mares deliver before the milk turns white, some don't even bag up so that is why she is staying in the stall each night. Both Tatiana and Jewel have the routine each morning and each evening. I walk into the barn, say hello grab a scoop of grain, Jewel gets half and Tatiana gets the other half of the scoop. While Tatiana is busy eating Jewel is taken out to the paddock. Tatiana just eats a few bites more then waits for me to come take her out too. In the evening I just put the lead rope on Jewel then let them both out of the paddock. I usually check Tatiana's udder before heading into the stall barn.  Jewel is led while Tatiana follows right into the barn. Today after breakfast I went to the gym to put things away and sweep up any Asian beetles that round their way in. Sarah was the first to arrive just as I was finishing up. She, Zion and River brought a puppy for great grandma to play with so we went over to mom's first. Mom has always been a dog lover.

Below is a short video of her holding the puppy.

Sarah stayed to visit while I took the girls over to the gym as by this time Kari had arrived with her 3 boys and Rebekah with her 3 boys and 2 girls. A bit later Tara and I think her 3 boys also came. I went back to the house to work and found that Taunya had dropped off Hope, her puppy for a little training. Hope remembered everything from last week and is doing very well with her recall. Dr. Hoerr was supposed to come at 12:30 but Emma from the vet clinic called to report he had to go to Bloomington for a fractured leg. I'm not sure if that was for a horse or a cow. He rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon. I happened to be getting ready to take the golf cart up to the barn when I saw the kids on their way over and knew exactly where they were heading so I had to head them off at the pass. They wanted to play in the indoor arena climbing on the hay bales but Mark had all that lumber from the triple bunk beds he is building in special piles along with a lot of hardware. There was no way I could let them play in there. They were happy to pet Evan first.

Next I took them over on the golf cart to see Tatiana and Jewel.

After that I took them to the playground.

On the way back I saw a bald eagle flying over our house. By the time I got my phone out and turned it on it was hard to find it with the phone but somehow I did.

It is probably the one we see every few days. 

After supper I brought the mares back in the stalls. They are both content grazing on the hay.

Mark went up this evening to sand more boards. It is nice that the indoor has such good lighting. Even though we don't use it for riding it is a good place to work on projects.

Waxing

 We had a storm come through this morning with lightning and thunder. I was really glad we had dry stalls. I went up after the rain stopped to move the mares out. Tatiana is for sure waxing but when I pulled a little colostrum it is clear not white so we may have a few days. The thick bed of straw is a little more difficult to clean in Tatiana's stall but because she always manures at the back of her stall, it didn't take me too long. I added a more straw then brought in more hay for tonight, cleaned out and dumped her water buckets and refilled those. 

Jewel's stall on the other hand took 3 times as long to clean. She does not like to be stalled so paces, she also leaves piles all over then chops it up as she paces.

At least it is pellets instead of straw. By the time both stalls were ready for the mares it was time to make breakfast except when I was walking down to the house I noticed Jewel and Valiant standing by the waterer and the waterer had no water in it. The plug had been pulled and the plug is on the mares side of this waterer. As both mares were in the stalls last night it had to be a racoon so that meant I needed to find a metal plate to put on top of the plug.

By the time all of that was fixed it was past time or breakfast.  Around 9:00 I went to mom's house. That squirrel and I go round and round. He is so bold that when I walk outside to get him out of the bird feeder he just calmly walks into the yard and watches to see if I will go back inside so he can steal more sunflower seeds.

Mom and I started watching a series on Amazon Prime called Sue Thomas FBI EYE set back when the FBI were the good guys. It is a decent series and God honoring. Mark had gone shopping and stopped first at Home depot where he bought wood finishing products for the bunk beds. He also got more sanding done. At 4:45 pm the mares needed to be brought back inside the stalls for the night as we needed to leave for church early tonight. I checked Tatiana's udder and she is for sure waxing.

That is clumps of colostrum on the end of both teats. I just led Jewel and Tatiana followed freely. They knew there was grain waiting for them in their stalls so both went right in. On the way back to the house I noticed the wooly caterpillar on our patio.

This warm weather is bringing out all kinds of insects. There were even flies trying to get in the house today but mostly those Asian beetles.  We needed to go to Costco to pick up Mark's hearing aids before church tonight. That didn't take very long and we made it to church by 6:30 pm. Gregg Rumbold had the message tonight on Roman's 5. If you would like to watch that message click HERE. After church we went to Culvers for a late supper with the group. It was a nice evening. 

I've had Tatiana on the foaling camera and she is relaxed and content to be inside. No sign of labor so I will sleep good tonight. 

So Very Thankful

 No foal yet. She seemed restless most of the night but more than likely it was because she was in a stall. I went out early to take them out to the paddock. I didn't sleep well as I had the phone by the bed and the stall monitor on. No walk today, Ruth is now down in Mississippi enjoying the beautiful warm weather by the Gulf. She said the state park is very nice and sent the picture below while writing, "in my happy place." 

Instead of walking once the mares were turned out I cleaned both of the stalls used then brought in another bale of straw for Tatiana's stall and another bale of hay and divided that half into Tatiana's feeder and half into Jewel's stall, filled all 4 water buckets then went in to make Mark's breakfast. I picked up mom by 8:15 am and we were on our way to the Berean office. We were a little short of volunteers today having only 6 of us to get the job done. 

Below Marvin is bringing in and installing the rest of the advanced study shelving.

Kathy was our only reader today.

Skip manned the computer today entering all of the studies and the Bible requests. I worked on the postage machine.

Sharon and Shirley opened and processed all of the studies while mom stamped the return address on envelopes, sealed envelopes and helped Marvin with the post cards.

There were 19 Bible requests today, Below Skip and Shirley are getting those ready to be mailed out.

The Bibles and the studies going out today were loaded into the wheel chair van to take to the Hanna City post office. The studies to be graded were taken to Phil and Anna's house. Phil will take them to Amanda at Meisters to give to her mom for the Roanoke church to grade. As soon as I got home the motorhome was taken outside and plugged in. The slideout was extended and then the inside given a good cleaning. Joan had someone coming today to look at it for renting in April. When that was done it was time to do a little house cleaning. With this warm weather those Asian beetles are invading our house. The upstairs must have had more than a hundred of them. They are also congregating around the big doors in the gym. Mark picked up Mackenson this afternoon to help with the sanding of all the boards for the bunk beds. 

There are SO many boards needing to be sanded then stained. I went out after supper to bring Tatiana and Jewel back into the stalls for the night. They are much more relaxed tonight. Both of the mares had rolled when outside so Tatiana was groomed again. Both mares went right to their grain buckets where each had about a cupful of grain waiting. Once that was finished they both settled down to graze on hay.

I've been watching on the monitor but both mares are quiet tonight. It is good for them to be in a routine and I'm so thrilled I can easily clean stalls again. Hip replacements really are miracles. I went from hobbling around and scared of even leading a horse in case they pulled and my hip would get jarred to now being able to run up stairs, carry 50 pound bags of grain, haul hay bales and filled water buckets. I am SO very thankful! 

Foal Watch

 This morning before the walk I was checking Tatiana and was sure I saw drops on each teat. She isn't due for another 18 days but has gone early in the past. Just Ruth and I walked, Joan had a field trip with Co-Op and would be leaving this morning.  Ruth and I stopped in to visit with mom and Karin after the walk. Ruth and Fedi are leaving today for Mississippi. They are going to be camping down at the Gulf of America at a state park. As they will be tent camping Ruth checked it out, they can stay for $11.00 a day and all the reviews said it had good bathrooms and nice showers. Right after breakfast I went over to start cleaning the barn and worked until 11:30 am. Some really good tasting pasta salad had been left in the fridge and we both at some of that for lunch. After lunch the truck and trailer the lumber was loaded on was taken over to the barn and unloaded. I didn't have Mackenson's help this time as he was on the field trip. 

I didn't want to back all the way in as those tires were pretty muddy from the snow melt. It was 60 degrees by the time I started unloading.

It didn't really take me that long. It was stack up against the wall.

Mark was busy cutting the 92 slats he needs for the 3 sets of triple bunk beds he is building for the barn.

I worked on cleaning out the old straw bedding in the foaling stall, putting down another bag of pellets then another thick bale of straw. I also brought in another bale of hay and put half in the feeder in the foaling stall and the other half in the stall across the aisle for Jewel.

I went inside to make a dessert for Bereans tomorrow. As we have half a pan of left over chocolate lasagna I will take that but someone of the Berean volunteers can't have chocolate so I tried making a blueberry lasagna. It was ok but not as good as the chocolate and I should have used a lot more blueberries both in the cream cheese layer and on top.  

At 4:15 pm we quit work and went in for supper. That small bit of pasta salad didn't stick and both of us were hungry. Of course I served leftovers.

We tried that vanilla blueberry dessert just to make sure it was ok to take tomorrow.

This evening before the sun went down Mark came out to help move the horses into the stalls. Tatiana needs to be stalled tonight just in case but she wouldn't be happy in the barn by herself so Mark led Jewel while I took Tatiana.

After getting them situated, he left to keep working on the slats. Joan was in the barn working on the motorhome. She has someone coming to see it tomorrow. They want to take it on their family vacation in April. 

After talking with Joan I went back into the stalls to give Tatiana a good groom. As Tatiana is an Evan daughter she has the mega tail for sure. It reminded me of Irish's tail, so thick and long it drags on the ground.

She really is looking huge and ready to deliver but it is still 18 days from her due date.

Both she and Jewel were given some grain before I left.

Oliver and Star were not happy that these 2 were taken out of the paddock. Oliver kept calling for them.

I took the golf cart over to mom's for a quick visit before heading home. Her poor snowman is barely still standing.

I have Tatiana on the foaling camera, it is obvious she is uncomfortable, she is wrinkling up her nose every so often. 

I'm checking the foaling camera on my phone and took this snapshot right before going to bed. She has settled down and is standing quietly so most likely no foal tonight but at least I know she is in a dry well bedded stall and it is warm outside.