Company Arrives

 I was up by 4:30 am and needed to get the coffee started early. The wind was slamming into the house so hard the walls were groaning and with each gust we could feel the cold seeping through the cracks into the house. The fire was started pretty early and kept going all day. There was much to do today. Mark went out to check damage and found a 12 inch diameter tree down between the barn and mom's house. He made arrangements for Mackenson's help to cut it up. They put all the smaller branches in the burn pile, the larger branches were cut into usable logs while the big logs were put over with the logs still needing to be split. The turkey was stuffed and put in the oven by 8:00 am even before breakfast was cooked. We had a man show up at the house, it was the people that were putting the doors on Mike and Diane's new barn. Mark showed them where to go then later took the picture below of their new doors.

At 10:00 am I met Rhonda over at the barn and we got the tables set for the meal tomorrow. 

We have place setting for 100 but the count is 104 so some of the kids may need to sit on the couch.

Rhonda also washed all the pears and apples for the fruit bowl tomorrow.

When I got back to the house the dishes needed to be done, the garbage hauled over and the floor scrubbed. Once the house was cleaned and the turkey out of the oven the 4 pumpkin, 1 blueberry and 1 cherry pies were baked. Kim sent a message that she would be here with Tim, Allie and Strot around 5:15 pm. Mark ordered dinner from Gils. When our company arrived we went over to the barn to show them where they would be staying then back here. Mark drove to Gils and picked up our supper. After supper Ben and Taunya came so Strot could meet his cousins Jack, Jace and Abe.

Those boy cousins had so much fun tonight playing together. They had fun collapsing the bouncy house.

I think they used about every piece of equipment. We are so thrilled that Tim and Allie flew up from Texas to join us this year for Thanksgiving. 

Oliver's Dam

 The lady we bought Oliver from was willing to share some pictures of him with his dam. I had asked if she would share them and was thrilled when she sent them.  When we picked up Oliver his dam was not on the property so I didn't get to see what she looked like. She is really pretty and has a lot of hair.

He sure was a cute colt. Alicia, the owner of Nynke also raised Friesian crosses. Check out her website by click HERE. 

Today was a mild morning with fog. When I took the golf cart up to check the weanlings River was quick to show me the worm she found. 

Eden didn't think we should use it for fishing as it was alive.

Zion had just finished taking care of the horses.

I met Ruth and Joan's at mom's and we again went into mom's bedroom for a visit. At one point during our visiting mom mentioned, "you are all busy talking but my feet need attention" Joan knelt down and pretended to wash mom's feet with her hair and all of us, including mom burst out laughing. We really do have so much fun. We even found time to walk today but just one round. After breakfast I drove to Dollar General to pick up some balloons. I had decided to use those in the Thanksgiving decorations as we have a lot of kids coming this year. From there I drove to Sam's to pick up lettuce for a big salad and the fruit for the fruit bowl on Thursday. I bought some but decided to get the bananas and oranges at Aldi. Sam's bananas just were too green and the oranges too big. I drove straight to the barn to start on the centerpieces. I got 2 made with the balloons then decided that was just too much work and instead added them without blowing them up. They will be easy to remove and give to the kids. Below is a picture of the 2 with them partially blown up and one in the front not blown up at all.

Both turkeys were taken from the barn fridge and brought to the house. They were still partially frozen but I was able to get the giblets out and start those boiling for the stuffing. The smaller turkey was prepared for cooking and popped in the oven while I started chopping vegetables for the stuffing. I realized pretty quickly that I needed a second large pan so went back to the barn to grab the one Eunice gave me. The stuffing took a while but once done ended up with two huge bans full.

Mark has been busy winterizing the house by adding new weather stripping to the doors.

The weather is going to change from this mild 55 degree weather to much colder and the change in coming tonight. At one point they were predicting 9 inches of snow on Saturday. We will probably just get a dusting but who knows. Thankful we have a stocked wood pile and two wood burners for these old bones. Sarah sent a text asking if I would let Millie out. The crazy thing is she sent it at 3:00 pm but I didn't see it until after 4:00 pm. I went straight up and let her out then watched at the door. She ran around back so I opened the back door to check on her and she was there waiting. I stepped out the front door to go home and Missy saw that door opened, ran to the gate and nickered.

She knows that Zion comes out of that door and if it opens is sure to get a treat. The weanlings were all in the shelter eating hay.

As I drove down to the house Valiant, who had been looking at the weanlings turned to see if I was bringing any grain.

It was a gloomy cloudy day.

The turkey was finished cooking by 4:00 pm.

A bit was sliced off and added to some stuffing for our supper tonight then the rest sliced and deboned then put in the fridge. I was able to save a quart of the drippings.  The second turkey will be cooked tomorrow and those drippings will be added to tonight's for the gravy. We will need a LOT of gravy this year. The rain started up this evening.

Grandchildren Help

 I went up to the horses early sure that Disco, Dancer's colt would be out and he was. Before putting him back I closed the back gate to the pond pasture. When I walked back to the front gate Disco was waiting and glad to be back with his buddies. We never did find out how he was escaping but now that the pond pasture is no longer available he stayed in all day.  I took the golf cart over to mom's at 7:30 am, Joan, Ruth and Diane (by speaker phone) joined us in mom's room while we hashed over Sunday. It really was an amazing wonderful day. I needed to be home by 8:00 am as Sarah was dropping off Eden and Zion. I had big plans for them today but first they enjoyed an orange. 

We worked here first then went to the barn to fill nut cups for Thanksgiving. The girls put on plastic gloves for this job.

We had 4 different goodies to put in the cups so had to first mix them all up in a bowl.

Below they are filling the nut cups.

We filled 90 of them then stacked them on a tray and covered them with plastic wrap.

After that job we went to work bringing in the tables and chairs.

We were really busy moving tables and soon the girls needed a rest.

Not really they just posed for the picture. We were bug hunting in the gym finding lady bugs to sweep up. While we were doing this Mark had Israel helping him. Those two took the tires off of my car and Mark's car and put on the snow tires. Mark told me Israel was able to install ALL of the tires himself. He was very impressed with his work ethic and his ability to do the work. They checked all of the tires air pressure and now we are good to go.

While Mark came in Israel loaded up the golf cart and drove the supplies over to the barn. It is nice having someone that can run errands around this neighborhood. He found a sack in the gym that was left at the Co-op cast party and ran that over to mom's for Joan to get it to the correct owner. Below he is waiting for Mark to bring the car down to take him home.

I spent the afternoon cleaning and doing laundry. The upstairs is now ready for company I even washed all of the bedding, scrubbed the bathroom, scrubbed all of the upstairs floors and cleaned off the stairs. It really is important to have company every once in a while, otherwise the upstairs gets neglected. 

Wonderful Wonderful!

The roasts were in the crock pot with all the seasonings cooking by 6:30 am.  Mark went out early but came back within less than a minute to let me know that colt was out again. Dancer's colt must have a secret escape route as he was out yesterday morning and again today. None of the gates were open and I drove the golf cart around to see if there were any downed fences. What a mystery. He doesn't run from me, just waits until I hook him up and put him back in.

On the way up to the apartment the mist coming off the fields were hovering just a few feet above the ground. 

I took the picture below as I was checking fences.

I took one more picture of that useless crop of fox tail waving in the front.

Disco was content to be back in the paddock and went right into the shelter joining the other 4 horses to eat off the hay bale.

Looking back toward the breeding shed you can see the mist going over the building with the sun lighting it up.

We left for church a couple minutes late, picked up Rhonda first then Braelyn. Today was a special day for the Peoria church. We had a lot of different families here for the baptisms this afternoon. Mike Kaisner had the morning message on Luke 15 and Colossians 1. Click HERE to watch that message. Gregg Rumbold had the afternoon baptism message reading from Romans 5. Once the ministers walked off the pulpit and Ted, Tim and Berlica with their parents were standing up front, all of the young children were welcome to sit in the front of the church to watch those 3 getting baptized. Click HERE to watch that message. It really was a special Sunday. After we all had a chance to meet them we were invited into the lunch room for a treat. The pictures below were taken after eating our ice cream and caramel corn.

We didn't get home from church until after 2:30 pm. As soon as I had changed the carrots were set to boil and the mini potatoes were cooked in the microwave. As those were cooking the roasts were shredded and put in one crock pot while leaving the drippings in the other crock pot for the carrots and potatoes . Those were cooked until they were almost soft then put in crockpot with the beef drippings to finish cooking. The rolls were put in the oven to bake and once everything was done all of the food was taken over to the barn. Rebekah and Bethany brought all of their kids over and Sarah used Missy to give rides to 12 kids while I was cooking and not a single picture was taken. They all had a wonderful time on this 59 degree mild November 23rd, 2025. Bethany's family ate at mom's house where Joan also made a big pot roast with all the fixens. Rebekah and Anni went to Ruth's house where Ruth had a supper prepared. We had Rhoda's, Sarah's, Philip's family plus Amy and Ken. After supper everyone ended up at the barn. Below are few pictures of the evening.

What a wonderful wonderful Sunday.

Sarah just sent a text that Disco was out again. She put him away for me. Tomorrow I will shut the back gate to the pond pasture. He must be finding a way out that way.

Fire

Zion came running down to the house this morning to let me know one of the weanlings were out. It was Dancer's colt Disco and we have no idea how he got out. All of the gates were shut. By the time I had arrived he had stepped into the feed scoop and was walking around with that stuck on his right front hoof.  He didn't seem bothered by it and did not spook at all. Instead he stood still while I lifted the leg and pulled it off. What a good colt. I couldn't take any pictures, though my phone was updating itself AGAIN!  By the time the phone finished I had 5 texts come through and one was Spark. He kept trying to call but the phone would shut off after 1 ring. I tried calling him and the same thing happened. I finally used Mark's phone to call. Texts would go through just no phone calls. What a terrible update. Joan's family all arrived last night so Joan wanted to feed them breakfast at her house and needed me at 8:00 am at mom's. William, her grandson came in from fishing and exclaimed, "Grandma, this is pan fish heaven!" Joan said those boys were out fishing early this morning. I was telling Joan and mom about my phone when Joan suggested turning it off then back on and that worked. I could listen to all of my messages and call people. Mom and I watched Joshua and William from the sliding glass door canoeing and fishing all morning. Ruth arrived after lunch and as soon as she arrived I drove the car up to the barn and used the skid steer to clean out the the far shelter of the middle paddock then moved a bale in for the 4 weanlings and Missy.

I had locked them out of the paddock while working and when I called them back Missy came running first sure she was going to get some grain. She figured out when the girls call if she gets there first she doesn't have to share as much. My next job was to go to Aldi to pick up the food for Sunday's supper. I decided on pot roast, mini potatoes and carrots cooked in the crock pot using Taunya's recipe. I also picked up 3 boxes of brownie mix and as soon as I got home preheated the oven and got 2 pans of brownies baking. Each pan held 1 and a half brownie mix. Once they were done baking some milk chocolate chips were scattered on top. As soon as they were out of the oven cooling I drove over to the barn to get it ready for company tomorrow. I only had a half an hour to get that done as I was due back at mom's by 5:30 pm to get ready to drive to church for the testimonies tonight. We were loaded and on the way in Joan's van by 5:45 pm. When we drove by Sarah and Nolan's new house they had a huge fire going. Sarah sent the picture below.

Ben and his 3 boys were helping today. Mark stopped by and also helped by sweeping up. They have almost finished all of the flooring.  Sarah said they just have one piece of flooring left and that is the stair piece. This was a huge job and I'm really surprised how quickly that got done. Their move in date just got a little closer.  When we reached Cameron Lane we saw another huge fire back behind some houses. We made it to church by 6:15 pm and found that the heat wasn't working. Mark had programmed it to come on but for some reason the program wasn't working. He was able to get the heat going and soon the sanctuary was comfortable. Berlica was the first to give her testimony. She is quite articulate and didn't seem at all nervous. Mom was struggling hearing her but we could hear and understand her. Tim was next and Ted was last. Each testimony was different but good. We rejoice with all 3. On the way home from church we were passed by a fire engine then stopped by a second fire engine on Cameron lane. That fire we saw on the way to church must have gotten out of hand. There were two more fire trucks in the drive and a heavy smell of smoke but it looked like the fire was out.  I'm glad the fire at Sarah and Nolan's house was fine. 

Stallions

 Another drizzly dreary day for the first day of shotgun season. We heard shots right after it turned light enough to see. Not sure if anyone out here got one. Rachel warned us yesterday to not walk on the dam. We had no walk today as Joan had Co-op and needed me at mom's by 8:00 am. Now that mom's lift chair is fixed she is so much more comfortable. She was already in the chair with the blanket that Shirley gave her when I arrived. She really likes that blanket.  We had a quiet morning with a lot of laughs as we  watched Andy Griffith. Ruth came just before 1:00 pm and brought a pumpkin dessert, she made. She followed Imogene's recipe and it was good. All 3 of us enjoyed that tasty treat. On the way home Evan was out grazing, amazing with this wet mild (well 40s and 50s) weather the grass is still growing. He laid down to roll. 

That reminded me of how we got into Friesians. We bought our first Friesian stallion Raven in 2002. Rachel took the picture below.

In 2009 our star performance mare Jenis gave birth to a colt by Raven which we decided we MUST keep. Below is Raven's son Valiant.

We knew we wanted to keep some of Raven's daughters plus we wanted Valiant to have a companion so we started a search and found Evan who is just a few days older than Valiant. 

These two were best friends for 3 years. They went everywhere together. They performed together 3 years in a row at the IL Horse Fair

It was only after we started using them for stud that they became worst enemies. It got so bad that for a while we needed two breeding stands because if they could see each other they would glare at each other and ignore the mare. We were thrilled with how Evan turned out, he is compact has the mega hair gene and is so very gentle, he loves people and is a favorite with guests that stay in the foaling apartment.

Valiant is also gentle with people and loves attention. Valiant is taller and more the sport type so we have had really great choices on which stallion to use on which mare and of course Valiant's daughters can be used with Evan while Evan's daughters can be used with Valiant. The problem we now have is we kept Dancer who is related to both Valiant and Evan as she is a Raven grand daughter and an Evan daughter and now we have Dahlia, Rosalie's filly who is also related to both. SO we bought Oliver. Oliver is FHANA registered, registered name Xander, his sire is a 16.3 FHANA approved stallion Tsjalle 454 and his dam is a 15.3 hand FHANA registered mare Nynke

He is pictured below at 2 years of age.

We will see how he does when he turns 3.  If he is fertile, grows tall and throws nice foals we may keep him. Check out the video below of Oliver's sire Tsjalle 454

For SALE

 I'm thankful for the electric blanket. It has lasted through 3 winters but this winter only a part of it actually heats up. Of course that is on my side of the bed. That blanket is put on high, usually around an hour before bedtime so the sheets and pillow are hot when I crawl in. Once I warm up it is turned down to 3. We walked this morning. No more slacking. We needed to get together to figure out the schedule as Joan has Co-op tomorrow then her family arrives on Saturday for Berlica's testimony. Ruth and I will split Friday and Saturday with me taking mornings and Ruth taking afternoons then both of us taking mom to church leaving at 6:00 pm on Saturday for the testimonies. Berlica is first. Dan got bad news on the wheelchair van. The part ordered is not the right part. They will try again so we will need to keep using Joan's new van. Thankful she has 2. Right after the walk I left for Kroger to pick up turkey bags and extra creamy whip cream for the pies. Kroger had those on sale. I also picked up some parchment paper for baking Christmas goodies. From there I drove to Aldi to pick up more stuffing boxes, celery, apples, sausage, bacon, and orange juice. Next stop was Meisters to drop off some Bible studies for Amanda's mom to grade and from there Sam's Club. I wanted to find Thanksgiving disposable plates but all of theirs were gone and Christmas plates were out. I still needed to buy nice napkins, 8 pounds of butter, mixed nuts and peanut m&ms for the nut cups, a box of 1000 12 ounce Styrofoam cups for the barn and two large bags of ice. The russet potatoes were on sale 10 pounds for $4.00. Ruth and Dan are making the mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Ruth had not yet bought them so I picked up 20 pounds then stopped at her house to drop them off. Anni was outside with her 2 boys and also Laura and Miguel's 2 children playing on the playground. 

Dexter was so funny, he was telling me all about the big sign his 'pa pa' was making then told me, "pa pa" is Fedi.

Once the groceries were put away Amazon was checked and a 100 Thanksgiving 12 x 10 plates were ordered.

100 dessert plates were ordered plus since it was all black Friday sales early and all of these were on sale I also ordered 100 Christmas 12 x 10 plates.

I know 100 isn't enough for Christmas but perhaps I can find some smaller cheaper plates for the children.  Sarah and Nolan have posted their house for sale on Zillow. It is move in ready!

This has been a wonderful home for them but we are thrilled they have moved near us. It really is gorgeous! large 4 bedrooms, 3 updated bathrooms, metal roof, instant water heater, huge fenced in back yard, attached garage. Check it out by clicking HERE. After lunch Sarah had the girls come down here to the house so she could go work on her new house.

They had fun first coloring then making a Christmas chain. Below River is busy coloring the strips of paper while Zion tapes them together.

Joan wanted to clean the shop today so I went to mom's with River while Mark stayed at the house so the other two could keep working on their chain. Mom has some beautiful roses on her table.

Mark and I switched for a bit so I could go home and make supper. They had finished the chain and it reached the floor.

It as a lot of work as they needed to decorate each strip of paper with the markers. They were pretty pleased with all their work.

The weanlings are all doing great. They are tolerating this cold damp weather like they were born for it. They are not even that muddy but the pictures below were actually taken the day they came in for weaning. Sheena's shadow (not for sale) is wearing the blue halter while Disco, wearing the purple halter IS for sale. He is 87.5% FRIESIAN and 12.5% Thoroughbred.

He is friendly, wants to please, will be tall and best of all have lots of HAIR! He is for sale $8000.00 and is ready to leave for his new home as soon as his coggins is back. The colt below is Bulu's colt. He will be 5 months old in a week and will be brought in for weaning. He is 50% Friesian 50% Thoroughbred and is for sale $4500.00. He also will be tall as his sire is Valiant and his dam Bulu is well over 16 hands. He moves and looks like a very expensive European warmblood without that European warmblood price. 

He is not yet named and his registration papers haven't been sent in yet so if you want him you can name him. 

The last foal pictured is Rosalie's filly by Evan. She should end up close to 17 hands as her dam sticks at 17 hands. Her sire is Evan, our stallion with the mega hair. She is doing well with her leading training. She stands tied and will load. She is 87.5% Friesian 12.5% Warmblood and is for sale $7500.00 

She is the one I said I was going to keep and really don't mind if we do now as she can be bred to Oliver when she turns 3 years of age but she really needs to be more than just a brood mare. She won't be hard to train and she could do double duty as a brood mare AND a wonderful family riding horse. Her registered name is Dahlia.