Thankful for the Rain

Mike was using the John Deere tractor this morning while we were walking. The engine on that is too loud for visiting. We were glad when he scooped up a load of pea gravel then left.

The filly had some diarrhea this morning and that meant I needed to really keep an eye on her today making sure that would correct. She is nursing well, has plenty of energy and is urinating a lot so I know she is getting plenty of nutrition. When cleaning her stall this morning she was very curious about me and the wheel barrow. 

She finally left me and went to see what her mama was eating.

Sarah and her girls came to help with the moving process. We got a lot of stuff moved from this house to mom's house and from this house to the barn and from this house to the back garage behind the stall barn.  The dumpster is full so we have 6 big black bags of garbage stored in our garage. No food in them so those can just wait until the dumpster gets emptied. Elisabet came to help and we worked for 2 full hours. The girls are trying to make money for vbs so more than willing to work. It got much to hot in the afternoon so they went swimming to cool off.

Israel got there just before David was ready to leave for home so he was disappointed he didn't get to stay and swim. I left to go watch the filly then tease Basilea. She is now out of season but I saw something on Valiant that looks an awful lot like the cancer that poor Mika had. I took a picture of it and sent it to the vet clinic. Emma is going to show it to Dr. Hoerr tomorrow, he was not available today. The shower after supper was really needed. It was very hot and humid this afternoon. We left just before 6:00 pm to pick up Zion, Eden and River for VBS.

They are enjoying it and excited to go. The kids are downstairs while we were in church. Gabe Stickling had the message tonight on Paul and Silas going to Athens. That follows the VBS story. Click HERE to watch that. He told us if we get a chance we really should go downstairs as they have changed the Sunday school room into an Athen's market. We went down to pick up Sarah's girls and took the pictures below.

A big storm was moving in as we were ready to go out to the car. Mark brought the car close so we didn't have a long way to run. After we got home I had Mark drive up to the indoor arena so I could get a wheel barrow load of hay. That was taken into the stall I prepared earlier and Tessa and her filly were moved over. The filly seems to be doing great. She cantered up to her mom then back to the hay when moved into the new stall. It is now almost 10:00 pm and I am SO ready for bed. It is pouring down rain with lots of lightning and thunder. I'm very thankful for a dry stall barn and also for the rain. The fields are getting a wonderful drink and we should end up with a good second cutting.

Berean Day

 I needed to get up to the stall to check if Tessa had dropped the placenta and was pleased to see it was out and complete. I make sure Tessa had plenty of water and refilled her hay. While up there her stall was also cleaned. Just Diane and I walked at 7:30. Joan and Ruth joined at 8:05 am but at that time I needed to leave for the Berean office. Turns out I should have left before 8:00 am. The interstate 474 came to a dead stop at the 74 exit then crawled along going between 4 mph to around 10 mph all the way until the 150 exit. I didn't arrive at the Berean office until 9:03 am and was the last volunteer to arrive. Skip put me to work at the computer while he made copies. All of us kept busy today. Marvin is on a trip so we were a little short handed. 

I only stopped to take 2 pictures as I got a late start on entering names. We were done before 11:00 am and enjoyed a treat of key lime pie plus a small Chantilly cake with fruit on top. The Bibles and Bible studies going out today were taken to the Hanna City post office. Anna, Taegan and Kensley were here cleaning the foaling apartment. At 12:30 pm Ruth came to move her camper but we had a little problem getting the electronic jack to work. Thankfully Ruth discovered we could manually move it but we needed a tool. She drove home to find one while I took the golf cart over to find Spark to see if he had one. Ruth realized she had the exact tool HERE IN her camper. That went quickly then. I dropped it off at her place and came back to work on moving things over to mom's house. The curtain pole arrived so I worked on the closets upstairs. The hall closet was changed to these.

When the curtain is opened there is just two cots and one humidifier in the entire closet.

The new batteries were put in the lights in the East bedroom closet and this was the pole I was waiting on. That pole needed to be longer than 6 feet.  This closet is completely empty. 

I actually thinks it looks better open, makes the room much larger.

The West bedroom closet still has Christmas wrapping paper, Rhoda's candy machine and a few other supplies inside but there is still plenty of room for guests to hang clothes and store suitcases.

The goal for this house is for us to turn it into an airbnb. We really can't rent it out for a long term renter. There are too many utilities that come from this house that serve the apartment and the new barn. It is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths so maybe a family coming through would appreciate it. 

This evening I asked Mark to bring a saw to help get hay off the round bale. This bale is twisted so I can't just run the pitch fork down and pull off hay.

The saw didn't work well so Mark picked the bale up with the tractor and we were able to pull lots of hay off that way. He left then for mom's house. He ordered a dehumidifier for that house from Meisters. Nolan delivered it today and even carried it to the basement. This evening Mark installed it and got it running. I moved Tessa and her filly over to the other stall so her's could be stripped. 

They settled right in the new stall and the filly promptly decided to lay down and take a nap. She is just one day old but doing well.

I just have one more machine to change then a couple beds to make and I can quit for the day but am waiting for the dryer to finish first. 

Motorhome Back

 I didn't go out right away to check the mares as I was busy packing up Mark's mom's good china. Mark doesn't want to give it away so it is now packed and will go back into his back garage. When I left for the walk I left a few minutes early so I could go up and check on the horses and was shocked to see Tessa had a foal by her side. The foal was very new, had not yet nursed but was standing. I was going to move Tessa and the filly into the stall barn and got the stall all ready for her when Mike arrived. Tessa was extremely nervous AND protective of this foal. We decided it was better to just leave them be until I had extra time. I stayed in the paddock to watch. I could tell pretty quickly that this was a filly. She was rooting around at the wrong end for a while. 

After about 20 minutes the filly latched on and nursed well.

Each time I would go close Tessa would move away and I didn't want her stressing the filly by making her run so left them along and went with Ruth on the walk. After the walk Mark and I picked up Mackenson and took him to his appointment down town. That ended up being a very long appointment finishing close to 1:00 pm. We were all hungry and Mackenson wanted Asian food so we went to Golden Buffet in East Peoria. That was fast and delicious. 

From there we drove up 29 to pick up the motorhome. That was stored inside all winter and had a small repair done. It is very dusty, needs a good washing and I should have left it outside this afternoon but instead drove it right into the barn. Once I changed back into work clothes went back up to the paddocks to move Tessa and her filly. This time she was much more relaxed. The filly isn't following very well so it took a while to get them inside but I let Tessa graze each time the filly fell behind so Tessa at least was happy. Once they were safe in the stall, the 2 buckets of water were filled and hay brought in. The filly nursed then promptly laid down for a nap. By that time it was pouring down rain so I was really glad they were inside. I have them on the foaling monitor. Tessa still hasn't dropped her placenta. I really think she is just too worried about protecting her filly as this is her first. Now that she is inside she should relax and drop it. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out the upstairs bedrooms. The closets and dressers are empty now and the floors swept. We have a big pile of give away another pile of throwaway in the living room. As it is still raining I'm leaving that until later. 

We have decided to sell the motorhome and use that for a down payment on mom's house. It is a 2017 with 34,000 miles on it. The generator works well a full body slide and sleeps 6. Sarah and Nolan are going to use it in July but when they are done I'll post it on Facebook market place. 

That full body slide makes it very roomy and comfortable. We took it to Naples Florida and I stayed very comfortable in the motorhome.

I'll need to get inside pictures before posting for sale as the two front seats are starting to peel. I guess this is a normal thing for this brand. Maybe we should invest in new seat covers. We shall see.

I went up to the barn this evening to clean Tessa's stall and check her water buckets. Still no placenta. If it hasn't dropped by tomorrow morning I'll be taking them to the vet. 

Tessa's Filly

 We had a surprise waiting for us this morning. I went out to check the mares and Tessa had delivered a filly. The filly was already standing but had not yet nursed. She did a lot of rooting around in the wrong area before figuring out where the milk bar was. 

Tessa is being a very good mother standing while the filly walks underneath her. She stood excellent when the filly latched on. I took some pictures of that but the filly was on the other side and I didn't want Tessa to move so didn't walk around for a better picture. 

She got a good drink then stuck her tongue out.

She laid down for a nap but within a few minutes was up and nursing again.  Tessa was given some grain. Right now she is being very protective so we are not trying to move them into a stall. Once she settles down, if it starts to rain we will get them inside. Tessa has not yet dropped the placenta so we are watching them both closely. Tessa was bred to Valiant and wasn't due until June 28th so this filly is 20 days early. She is petite but most likely won't stay that way. I checked Tessa's udder last night and there was no waxing so this birth really was a surprise.

Another Wonderful

 Early this morning I went out to move Thalia out of the breeding shed paddock into the middle paddock with Madiera and Cookie. Then Basilea was teased and covered by Valiant. Only after the horse chores were finished did I go in to make breakfast, shower and get ready for church. This morning was Tim Roecker last message for Peoria. He has asked to be retired from the pulpit ministry. Click HERE if you would like to watch to that message. It was on Exodus 19 and Hebrews 12. We had a celebration lunch with cake for dessert. Craig Stickling and Mike Kaisner had the Spring memorandum for the afternoon service. Click HERE to watch that.  We took Berlica and Mackenson home from church as Joan is still in West Virginia. When we got home Rhoda and Sarah were here working with Izzy. 

Izzy wore a saddle today, she started out worried but by the time the session was over she was relaxed. The girls had actually arrived earlier and worked with Thalia first. Sarah sent the pictures below.

As Rhoda was putting Izzy away it started raining HARD. We all ran in the indoor arena where the rain was pounding down on the metal roof. Soon the kids found their way outside to play in the rain. 

They needed to dry off before we left for Good Tequilas for our Sunday dinner. We had to do that as I lent out the barn to a family from Forrest.

We were missing Phil and Anna's family as they were out of town. The dinner was good. After dinner we all went to mom's (great grandma's) house. The kids had so much fun playing together at the lake. They used the new diving board and played until dark.

We cleaned up the beach then everyone left for home. Another wonderful Sunday.

Lots of Laundry

 I was up at 5:00 am and finished yesterday's post. Click HERE if you want to see that without spending the energy to scroll down. Mark and I started moving boxes from our house to the back garage which is located behind the stall barn. The next job was to take the fine china over to mom's house. One brick was sticking up a little on the walk to her front door. Mark tripped and dropped to his knees. The only thing out of the entire tub to break was the platter to our wedding china. Thankfully we have lots of other platters and once those are full of meat no one would ever notice they don't match. As that has been stored in that back garage since 2011 every piece needed to be washed before putting away.

The other side of this closet has mom's everyday dishes, which is Corelle. I like my pattern better and may move some of mine over.

I worked off and on doing dishes each time I got a break. Diane, Spark, Ruth and Rhonda arrived and helped move the bed back where that belonged.  We found more things to take downstairs for others if they want. Diane and I worked for a while in the basement but at 11:00 am I had to leave. My airbnb guests in the foaling apartment left and I had someone wanting to move in at 12:30 pm. That hour and a half was just enough time but I really did have to move fast to finish in time. I spent some extra time cleaning out closets. The new guests seem delightful. They have a horse loving daughter who is in her glory.  The airbnb guests in the big barn left right at 3:00 pm. Mark went over to help with that. He used his big walk behind sweeper to sweep the gym floor while I worked on taking the sheets off the beds and collecting towels. I had a load on the golf cart when I saw Sarah, Nolan and the girls. Zion was busy graining the horses for me. Sarah had a good training day with Izzy. She is now accepting the tarp, wearing the tarp and standing quietly. Treats do wonders! 

Sarah even had Zion jumping over Izzy and Izzy just ignored her focusing all of her attention on Sarah. They went over to the lake to cool off. It really is hot today. I spent most of the afternoon inside running loads of laundry but would go over to the barn to clean between loads.  I had 3 loads of our laundry, 2 loads from the foaling apartment and 4 loads of towels and sheets from the barn today and almost ran out of laundry detergent. All 6 bathrooms were finished as were the windows and floors. The airbnb guests left the kitchen area looking very nice. I only had a few spills to clean up there. I made hamburgers for our supper then after supper took the sheets over to make beds. Mackenson was still in the parking lot looking for red rocks. 

That seems to be the next thing he is collecting. I asked him what he is doing with them and he said he is breaking them.  I told him it was 6:00 pm so he went home for supper. I'm thankful we have air conditioning. We were able to keep the gym at 67 degrees which helped cool the kitchen area of the barn to 70 degrees as that unit isn't working. Hopefully Phil and get that fixed soon.