Frigid Air On the Way

 It was 26 degrees this morning and that really did feel like a heat wave. The moon was out this morning lighting up the ground even though it is not full and the sun not yet out. I'm amazed at how this phone can zoom in and capture it. 

On the walk over to mom's house I saw a lot of the work Mark and Mackenson did yesterday. They sanded most of the drive going to mom's house and then heavily sanded around mom's. 

The wheel chair van has almost no traction on the snow and ice but the sand really works. The sun was just peeking through the trees.

After the walk and after breakfast we went out to start moving bales. The first job though was to get the hood of the tractor up and get the battery charger on it. We let it sit with that while we took the hog panels off of the existing bales.

Those were put outside for the next bale going in. As soon as the hog panel was removed the 2 horses in the middle paddock started pawing the hay digging down for the best parts. This is why we use hog panels. They waste SO much hay if it is loose. None of the shelters needed hay but 3 were getting a little low and we have what weather.com calls the bitter blast coming. Air straight from the North Pole will be blasting here in a few days dropping our temps to below zero. That cold is on the way! We want the horses all to have plenty of the best hay which helps them generate heat and keeps them warm. 

Valiant got his bale first.

He is given grain on the other side of the shelter to keep him busy while we move the bale in. He knows the procedure and gets excited when he sees the tractor coming and runs to where we will put the grain bucket. The other two had to be called to the grain buckets but when they finally figured out what I was doing they were glad for the grain. That kept them busy so they didn't try to run out of the paddock while we were moving bales.

The middle paddock gets 2 bales as it has 2 shelters up at the fenceline. 

While we were out working the temperature just kept rising and by the time we got back in the house it was already up to 38 degrees. I never heard what the high was today but it was warm enough outside that we only used one wood burner today.

We will be bringing back some mares in February for foaling and it helps to have hay in two different places so we don't have any squabbles. We are about 2 months away from the first mares due dates. We love foals and in the past would breed early so had some born in the winter.  Below are some of our past foals.

Now we are getting older and don't want to work that hard. It is much easier for us if they can foal when it is warmer. Tatiana is our first mare due March 14th, 2025. We will need to bring her here by the middle of February. Below is a picture of Tatiana with her Valiant foal from a couple years ago.

Both Rosalie and Rosaleigh are due in April with Lily's daughter Rosalie due April 10th and the other Rosaleigh due April 23rd. They will need to be brought in early March.

After working outside for a while we were more than ready for lunch. I made pulled pork tortillas. Below is Mark's.

 Since we had a late lunch we were not interested in eating until after 6:30 pm. That was a dish I saw on the internet and tried. Start with a tortilla, spread on cream cheese then chicken. On top of the chicken put a few spoonful's of alfredo sauce, add spinach then cover with mozzarella cheese then a melted garlic butter. Add another tortilla more cream cheese, mozzarella, more alfredo sauce then put bacon on top and them more melted garlic butter. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.  I didn't have any bacon but used some of the left over pork for the topping.

It turned out very good but if I do it again I will add a lot more spinach and less cream cheese.

Mark turned on a movie tonight while I was working in the other room making dinner. The movie was called Unstoppable and is a true story about a wrestler with one leg that became a champion. It was a good movie, he found it on Amazon Prime and was worth watching but you may need a Kleenex box near by. 

 

Just One Degree

 It was only 1 above zero this morning but we still walked. Thankfully there was no wind and the walk really wasn't bad. Diane asked me to bring the plans over to mom's today so she could work on them and mom could give her advice too. I had everything done here and made it over by 12:30 pm. Diane went right to work. Below she is tracing the outline onto a new sheet of graph paper.

I noticed the cardinals in the burning bush so took a couple pictures. The other bird in the picture below is a house finch.

We worked on them until 1:30 pm. Mom wanted to make sure all the doors and bathrooms were wheel chair accessible but we explained these were all upstairs and no one was going to get their wheel chair up those 20 steps. Diane talked me into adding another bathroom and having a king bed in each of the 3 bedrooms.

I liked her plan much better than mine. When I got home I made us a late lunch of taco salad. Below is Mark's as he likes peppers in his.

After lunch we worked together bringing in loads of wood for the 2 woodburners.

Mike went to Middle Grove to put out more round bales and check over the horses. He sent back the picture below. 

Sangria and Jury are not in this picture but were close by. It is nice to see some well rounded bellies on those mares. We are praying for a healthy crop of foals in 2025.

We had both wood burners burning all day but only got the house up to 73 degrees. Mark and Mackenson spread sand on the drives today. They were all getting so icy. We left for church at 6:00 pm. Craig Stickling had the message and he had another miracle to report. He spoke first on Revelation 21 then 2 kings where Elijah is taken up in a whirl wind in a chariot of fire driven by horses of fire. Then on Roman's 12. If you would like to watch this message click HERE. After church we went with the group to Culvers for a late supper. Another good day, cold but I am thankful for 2 wood burning stoves and a woodshed full of wood.

Winter Projects

 Sometime in the middle of the night I awoke to a terrible burned smell and heard lots of clanking noises. I was trying to figure out what Mark was doing and at first thought he must be doing dishes but when I got up there were no dishes done. I asked Mark, "what IS that smell and what were you doing last night?" Well the story is that he had a pan of water boiling on the stove to put humidity into the house and fell asleep. The pan boiled dry and started smoking. This pot was one of his mother's good heavy duty Revere ware pots with a thick copper bottom. It can still be used but the bottom no longer looks like copper even after scrubbing the black off.  I left for the walk with Diane and Joan. The weather wasn't as bad as yesterday but the 17 degrees outside was the high of the day with temperatures due to fall all the way down to 3 degrees. We shall see about that. We stopped at mom's house for a quick visit. Diane stayed but I needed to leave for the Berean office. Mom wanted some rye bread so I stopped at Sam's club and picked up 2 loaves of that (it comes in a 2 pack), 2 chickens (one for mom's house and one for Joan's house) and some cinnamon muffins for the volunteers at the Berean office. We didn't have a lot of mail at the Berean office but all of us, Shirley and Ray, Kathy, Vonnie, Skip and I kept busy. Joan N stopped in to get lessons for grading. I didn't think to take any pictures at that office today. The Bibles and studies were dropped off at the Hanna City post office then the chicken and rye bread were dropped off at mom's before dropping the last chicken off at Joan's house. Berlica came outside to grab the chicken in her bare feet and by this time it was only 13 degrees. I brought in a large load of wood when I got home from the woodshed then a couple more from the porch. We have both wood burners going again today. I love this free heat. Mike went to Middle Grove and brought back a wonderful report. The horses are all doing great. This made me remember the fun we had in past winters riding in the snow. 

Above is Jessica on Jenis and below is Karin and Caleb on Ribbon.

Nancy called while I was cooking supper and was telling me that she was watching the Wizard of Oz in her living room. Our very last Friesian performance at the Illinois Horse Fair was the Wizard of Oz and that was the year my grandchildren got to be in the play.

Sarah rode Oksana as the Wicked Witch of the West. That is Amy's grand daughter on Auntie Em's 'house', notice the Wicked Witch of the East's legs sticking out at the bottom?

Good times good times. We sure do miss those wonderful mares. This evening I refined the plans for the 3 new bedrooms.

Drawing up and making plans is a good winter project. 

 

BRRRR

 It was 9 degrees outside but that wouldn't have been too bad if there was no wind. Unfortunately the winds were blowing and gusting that the real feel of this morning was -18...that is 18 BELOW zero. Even though we had dressed for it any exposed skin felt like it was frost bit by the time we stopped in at mom's. That walk felt like torture but worth it as after that brutal walk Diane and Joan came up with a solution I had been praying about. More on that later.  I brought in an armload of wood on my way into the house after the walk and got both wood burners going. 

Above is the living room stove and below is the rec room stove. 

It took most of the morning to get the house warm but by lunch I had it up to 76 degrees.

Mark went shopping at Kroger to buy those huge 4 gallon jugs of water for the barn and also bought a dozen eggs and some oranges. He thought it might be just a little too warm in the house but I was comfortable. This afternoon while doing laundry I worked on the plans of Diane and Joan's suggestion this morning. This is just a rough draft and I'm not sure when this project will be started. I need to have the money up front before starting so will need an estimate. Hopefully 2025 will be a good year for horses and this project can be started in the fall.

I like having something to save for. 

Both boys were not at all unhappy with the cold and snow. Below is Evan.

Below is Valiant.

It was too cold to stay out long. We had leftovers for lunch and supper and still have some for tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer.

A Servant Heart

 Joan had some trouble getting the wheel chair out of the drive for church today, she ended up at Rachel's house then gunned it to get a run up that small hill. The drives were pretty icy. Tim Funk had a shortened message on serving then came our annual church business meeting. That is always so humbling. We have such an amazing servant church family and all because each WANTS to serve. Truly makes me so thankful to be a part of this church where so many have a servant heart. After Tim Funk finished the announcements Tim Roecker stood up to make one more announcement. He started with, "I would like to announce Diane and I are expecting.. then quite a pause.. a son-in-law! Our daughter Hannah is engaged to Corey West from Morton, IL"  Of course we laughed at the expecting part but are thrilled for Hannah and Corey.  David had a very shortened afternoon message. click HERE to watch that. After church David and Stephanie hosted the junior Bible class at the barn for a couple hours so Rhoda and Lee brought Iris and Zeke to go sledding here at the house before supper. Nolan brought Zion and Eden and all of them had a lot of fun sledding. 

They quit at 4:30 and helped get all the food over to the barn. The supper turned out great. We had a taco bar with 3 different kinds of meat plus all the other add-ons. Everyone liked it, even the kids. No pictures of the meal, we were all too busy enjoying the food. After the meal Rebekah and Brian brought their 5 kids over, Some of Rachel's boys came, then Diane and Mike brought their 4 kids over. It just happened to be Mike's birthday so Diane had Jenny and  Billy along with Andrew and Rachel for his party then came over once their party was done.  Joan also stopped in. 

Have I ever mentioned how much we appreciate having this barn? If not I'll say it again, it really is a blessing to come together on Sundays. The grandchildren love playing with their first and second cousins and the adults enjoy catching up on each others news of the week. I am SO thankful and my heart is full. Rhoda and Lee took Nancy home tonight. As I was unloading the dishes from the car I had to stop to take a picture of the full moon lighting up the night sky. The picture below was taken with my phone.

What an amazing God we serve!

Saturday

We had more snow during the night so Mark went over to mom's to shovel and got back just in time for Breakfast. Breakfast this morning was avocado, strawberries and blueberries covered in cream, 2 eggs, toast and 3 sausage links. Eggs at Aldi were almost $5.00 a dozen. 

Never ever have I paid that much for eggs and I didn't buy any yesterday. I think we may need to get chickens soon. I saw an incubator for sale on Facebook marketplace and was so tempted to buy it but it was too far away and they weren't willing to ship. That is a good thing in Mark's eyes because if I hatched out chicks I would need a chicken coop and if I had a chicken coop with chickens I would be buying chicken feed and when Mark was raising chickens the more hens he had the more money he lost. Instead we might just need to stop eating eggs for breakfast. I need to bake a cake tonight for the meal tomorrow and that too takes eggs. I could use mashed up bananas in place of an egg but don't have any bananas right now. There is also a way to use applesauce and backing powder but today I will just use the eggs I have on hand. Who Knew!

It was my turn to be with mom this morning. Karin called about 9:15 to let me know she was going to leave a little early. When I got there I went right to work on that difficult puzzle. 

Israel sent a group message that his team was going to be playing a game at Peoria Christian at 10:30 am. Rhoda sent back the pictures below:

When Karin came home Mark and I went to work winterizing the motorhome. The motorhome has been parked in the gym since we got back but tomorrow we have people coming to the barn so we really needed to get it done and take it over to the other barn. We finished by 5:00 pm with everything, parked it in with the other campers and came back to the house. I just took out a quart of chili from the freezer and heated that up for our supper. Mark got the old dishwasher put in the dumpster using the skid steer for that and finally got all his tools out of the kitchen. Now I have no excuse for not cooking. We are expecting snow again tonight.