Middle Grove

 Rain was predicted to start around 9:30 am so right after the walk I took the truck and trailer to Middle grove. Mike was concerned that Aiken, one of the Thoroughbred mares, was getting ready to deliver. When I arrived the mares were all spread out grazing. Below are a few pictures. 

Below is Lily

Sally and Sangria are pictured below.

Jury and Mika are pictured below.

That is Curlin on the left and Aiken on the right.

Above is Bulu and below is Holly

Below left is Holly and right is Aiken.

Below is Holly

Below is Curlin

Aiken is due May 17th but is not yet bagged up. 

Below is Jewel grooming Madiera

Below are Basilea, Valerie, Thalia and Tessa

Below is a short video.

It was raining as we were loading and rained all the way home. Star was put in with Missy and Cookie.

Star Temple was loaded into the trailer and taken home. She will be bred to Valiant when she comes in season. Dr. Hoerr came this afternoon to ultrasound Whiskey. She is not pregnant and had just ovulated. That meant she must have already ovulated when she arrived here 18 days ago and then had a shorter cycle. Dr. Hoerr called her owner who agreed to short cycle her. I will give her a shot on Monday. The part came for the batting machine so Mark and I went to the barn to work on that. We were able to install the new circuit board and were pleased that it worked when we put it back together.

I think the tire needs more air as it was a little louder than it should be. The rain had stopped when we finished in the barn. I needed to move the nursing mares into the pond pasture and to do that Dancer, Sheena and Titus needed to be moved into Raven's old paddock first to open up a paddock and shelter. Once that was done the mares were moved. Below you can see Valiant looking at his daughter, Blueberry's filly.

We just had a few minutes to get ready for church before we needed to leave. Tonight was the prayer meeting as tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. We had a special evening of prayer. Click HERE if you would like to watch that. After church we went with the group to Culvers. I ordered a single but was given this!

It was really good but now I am full.  Diane sent a beautiful sunrise video from Gulf Shores.

AKC Bernese Mountain Dog Puppies

 My niece Rebekah has a GORGOUS and I mean REALLY gorgeous litter of AKC registered Bernese Mountain Dog puppies and some of them are available. These puppies were born March 18th, 2025 and will be ready for their new homes May 13th, 2025. They named this litter the Old Testament Litter. The male puppies are posted below. Meet Malachai

Meet Joshua

Meet Jonah

Meet Jeremiah

Meet Ezekiel

The females of this litter are posted below, Meet Ruth

Meet Genesis

and meet Esther

The mother of these adorable puppies is named Nala and her picture is posted below.

The papa (sire) of these puppies is name Conley and his piture is posted below:

Bernese Mountain Dogs are wonderful family pets. They love being a part of a family and are well behaved. These puppies should end up between 80 to 100 pounds so are a large dog but so gentle. These puppies are family raised and well handled. IF you would like to learn more about this litter and how to become the owner of one of the puppies you will need to visit Rebekah's website by clicking HERE.

I can personally highly recommend this family. Rebekah and her husband Brian have 5 children and all of them help take care of and play with the puppies. These puppies are well socialized and will be looking for their own special family. 

No Place Like Home

 Mark was up before 5:00 am and started the coffee pot. When I got up at 5:00 the coffee was hot and ready. Ruth, Joan and I walked. Joan told us that the goose family hatched on Sunday. She went to check the nest and saw that 2 of the eggs had hatched and a 3rd was in the process of hatching and she had pictures to prove it. 

That goose mom was not happy that Joan got so close. Later after all 6 had hatched she saw them crossing the drive.

Soon they were in the lake.

Right about then a bald eagle came flying over and landed in a tree.

She was pleased this morning to see all of the goslings were fine. A second family also hatched out at the same time and this one had 7 goslings.

Below is the 2nd family.

We finished our walk at mom's house and from there left for the Berean office with mom and Aunt Jinnie. We were really busy today at the Berean office and I didn't take any pictures but took the video below as Marvin was reading a letter from a prisoner and then one of the answers a prisoner wrote out one one of the advanced studies.

We were all busy but got it all done in time for that strawberry short cake. We stopped at the Hanna City post office to drop off a full tub of mail and Bibles before driving to mom's. As soon as I got home from there Mark and I left for grandparents day in Goodfield, IL. 

They started with a song.

After the song each child found their grandparents, showed us their crafts, took us to their classroom and had us answer questions then took us down to the cafeteria for a snack.

When that was over we drove home. Diane called once we got home and I could tell she was sitting on the beach. I could hear gulls in the back ground. The sun had come out so I sat on the patio talking to her for about a half an hour. She is getting a lot done in her condo getting it ready for the summer rentals. Joan sent Mackenson and Berlica over to mow today. It is supposed to rain for the next 3 days so it was either mow today or wait until Saturday. We thought it was better to get it done before the rain. At 6:00 pm Joan and I left for Hannah and Corey's wedding shower at the fellowship hall. That was very well attended and was a blessing for them and for us. Today was a lot of driving in different directions but ended up at home. There's no place like home and I'm thankful to be living here.

Fly Traps

 Mabel did very well last night. She whined a little when first put in her crate but then settled down and slept quietly until I took her for a walk outside at 5:00 am. She was not allowed any water or food as today was her surgery. There was no walk this morning, Joan had an early morning meeting and I needed to take Mabel (Sarah's miniature Poodle) to Malabar Vet to get spayed. The mares and foals were let out into the pasture. The mares were glad to go out to graze while the fillies both took off running.

That gave me time to get all the graining done and take the golf cart over to the cabin field to check udders. All was well there, still  no bagging up yet. We arrived at the vet a couple minutes early so I could walk her in the yard. 

She was left there, Sarah was going to pick her up at 2:00 pm. I went straight to the barn to start cleaning from Sunday's dinner. Today I was meeting the mom of a bride that booked in May so I wanted to make sure everything was clean and looked good. As soon as I finished there I got the fly traps out and hung them at each paddock. 

I hope this helps keep the flies down this year. The iris' are blooming.

Mark wanted my help with taking the log splitter off the tractor and moving the wood wagon over to Joan's to get emptied. Mike had arrived with Dancer, Sheena and Titus. He needed them here while he worked on the cabin field fence. David showed up to visit.

Below Mark is taking diesel fuel to the tractor.

The cat is napping on top of one of the round bales.

I took a close up of her.

Mark drove the tractor over while I took the golf cart so I could hitch the wagon to the tractor.

He drove over to Joan's pretty slowly as it is really weighted down with all those split logs.

Joan's Japanese Maple is just gorgeous.

When I got back to the house the kitchen was cleaned enough that I could get a cake baked for the Berean office tomorrow. This will be more like strawberry short cake as it has 1 layer of cake, 2 layers of whipped cream and 2 layers of strawberries.

There were strawberries left which Mark was glad to take care of. At 5:00 pm I took the golf cart over to meet the bride's mother. She took videos of all areas, pictures of what is available to use such as the drink dispensers and crock pots. She wanted punch bowls but I don't have any of those. Even though we don't have those she was happy with the place and I was happy with how much got done here today.