Another New Puppy

 Since most of the dinner preparations were done last night I had an easy morning. I went over to the barn to see what needed to be done and only had to haul out 3 bags of garbage. The rest of the barn was clean and ready for tonight. The family that rented it sent a nice text this morning: Our party last night was fabulous! Everyone loved the venue, the horses and the kids all had a blast playing in the gym.  It was Perfect. The horses didn't play in the gym only the kids. We left for church around 9:00 am and were about half way there when Diane called. They needed to be picked up at the Peoria airport. They had lost the key to their car. We made it to the airport and still got into church before the service started. Rick Kaisner had the morning message. I highly recommend listening to this message. He started with Psalm 80 then Acts 4. Click HERE to watch. Bob and Jill served lunch today. The afternoon message was the last statement of faith message from Craig Stickling. Click HERE if you would like to watch that. After church we took Mike and Diane home then drove to our new house. We have made the first payment on it and hopefully next will will make another. Joan was hosting the Bible class and wanted to give them a hayrack ride. Before taking the road grader off to put the wagon on the tractor he decided to quick grade the driveways.

Rhoda and Sarah were here working with the horses. Sarah got a flower crown for Penny and of course the girls needed to try it on her. 

Above is Zion and below is Eden.

When Rhoda arrived with Iris and Zeke they got to try barrel racing with Penny and they all loved that. Rhoda and Sarah worked with  Harli again. Rhoda actually was able to trot her a few steps. She is doing very well with her training.

Harli's colt is so funny, when Rhoda was leaning over Harli's side before mounting he reached up to give her a kiss.

When they brought Harli back inside of course the girls wanted to try the flower crown on Merlin.

It might be just a tad too big for him.

He sure puts up with a lot from those girls but he really does love the attention.

As Mike and Diane are home they also worked with Star's filly.

At 4:30 pm we all met in the barn for a haystack supper. Amy and Ken came, Rhoda snapped the picture below as we were visiting at the sink.

After supper we all made our way to the playground and were visiting when Joan came by with the wagon. This was actually the second group that went out.

We sat and visited until almost dark. Nolan had left early this morning to pick up a King Charles Cavalier puppy he purchased in Kansas and just got back tonight after about 11 hours of driving. I tried to take a picture of him but he was so wiggly and it was getting too dark. I finally just took the video below.

He is going to Rhoda's house for puppy training and Iris was SO excited. Since I didn't post the bear video yesterday I decided to post that today. Spark and Rhonda were at Lake Gerard in New Jersey with Mark and Becky at the cottage when they saw the black bear with her cub. 

We spent many summers there when I was a child at grandpa and grandma Zeug's cottage and never saw a bear. Amazing how the wild life is making a comeback in the East. 

Today really was a great day.

How Blest WE ALL ARE

 Today was the Co-op picnic. Joan, Mackenson and Berlica were over early getting all the picnic tables washed off. I needed to hook the electric up on the motorhome as we had someone arriving at 10:00 am. On the way over I saw Berlica and one of her friends just heading out to the trails on Jury and Penny.

The motorhome was hooked up and the slideout put out, then I went into the foaling apartment to make sure that was ready for guests, It was perfect so just turned the lights on and the aircondtioner down then started cleaning stalls. At 9:15 am the lady called to let me know they were just 10 minutes away. I wasn't able to finish stalls before they arrived. They took the motorhome for a test drive then said thanks and drove away. I put it back by the barn then went back to cleaning the stalls. Mark was working on cleaning up one of the grills when I finished the stalls we moved it over to the farm house.  He showed me how it worked and it should be easy enough to explain it to the guests coming tomorrow. By the time we got back to the house the place was packed. There were kids on the playground, kids in boats, in kayaks, in the water and lots of adults watching.

A very nice text came in from the lady that bought Basilea. She wrote: Judy-Baslea is the best girl! She is so kind and gentle with the kids.  She is settling in very nicely and has made lots of friends at the barn.  She sent the video and picture below and gave me permission to share them.

That is a wonderful update! At 2:30 pm we had someone coming to look at the hoist lift Mark was selling on facebook market place.

He commented that it looked brand new and was glad to buy it. We used the skid steer to load it on to his trailer. Below he is strapping it down.

Before going back I had to stop to admire the hay again. 

We think this is the best hay we have ever put up. I had to pull some and smell that wonderful scent of sun dried hay. Just admiring that hay in the barn makes me feel we are so rich. The horses will love it. These bales will have to be wrapped before putting them into a paddock so they don't waste any. When we got back to the house I took the video below of Rilla's puppies, now a week old.

At 3:30 pm we left for Bartonville diner for an early supper then drove to Sam's club to pick up the food we need for Sunday Supper. We decided to serve haystacks. When we got home the puppies were gone. Sarah and Nolan made it home from Gulf Shores and stopped here to take Rilla and her puppies.  I started browning the 10 pounds of hamburger then got that simmering with taco spices.

While that was simmering the peppers were cleaned and cut up.

All sorts of videos and pictures started coming in from my siblings who are all having a wonderful time and as Ruth says, "They are all in their happy place." The first was just Diane's toes at the bottom of the video and the Gulf on the rest. She was sitting on the beach watching the waves breaking on the shore. I'm not sharing that, it is boring. Dan's video was much more interesting. He took that of Levi in slow motion.

Dan's family, plus Ruth, Fedi and their dog are all camping at Mark Twain Lake in Missouri.

Rhonda sent the picture below. They are out on the Maine Coast with Marvin and Gale.

Joan is too busy to have a happy place right now but she is very thankful for where we live and loves to share it with others. 

I guess my happy place is right here on the farm. I always did want to be a farmer. How blest we all are!

36 BALES

Last night at 9:30 Mark and I went out on the deck to watch the moon. We sat there for 3 minutes then both of us decided it wasn't worth staying up for and went to bed. Thankfully Jim Carlson took the picture below. He sure didn't use his phone for that shot. It is AMAZING! Thanks for sharing Jim.

I went over to the barn before breakfast and figured out by myself how to get a jump drive to play on the big screen tv there. Now that I know I feel a little foolish, it is actually easier than what we were making it out to be. That smart tv is much smarter than us old folks. The people renting the barn this weekend are having an end of life celebration for their mother and they wanted to play the slide show that the funeral home gave them. The people renting the farm house would like a grill. We have 3 grills but all of them need new parts so Mark ordered 3 sets of parts. They are supposed to be here by tomorrow and the renter isn't coming until Sunday so hopefully we can get one grill going. I took 3 propane tanks to FS in Peoria to get them filled. That cost $53.63 but if we get all 3 grills going we have the propane to make them fire up. I had all the cleaning supplies on the golf cart but saw a car at the barn. It was Rhoda, she had taken Iris and Zeke on the trails. Rhoda and Zeke rode Jury while Iris rode Penny. Below Iris is taking Penny back to her paddock. 

Rhoda wanted to work with Star's filly. Today she followed her mom right into the stall. Once haltered Rhoda gave her a good grooming then we took her out to the round pen. Below is the video. I was so pleased that she remembered all the work we did before we took her out to Middle Grove a couple months ago.

We also took a few still pictures for the website.

After she was put away Rhoda pulled Harli out.

Today was the day Rhoda wanted to actually sit on this untrained mare. She has been doing so well with the ground work that today was the next step.  Merlin, Harli's colt by Evan was tasting the leather on the saddle and thought that tasted pretty good. He is the typical colt, everything goes into his mouth. He got a kiss today.

The farmer was raking the hay as we were working with Harli. It didn't bother her and kept Zeke entertained.

Harli did so much better than I expected and we were VERY pleased. There was no drama at all.

After the horses were put away Rhoda helped move a bale in for Valiant. 

After Rhoda left I went back down to the farm house to finish the floor scrubbing. 

The farmer finished the raking, took the rake back and brought the round baler over. That was finished after 5:00 pm. We got 36 big round bales and 2 smaller bales. We had some supper then went out at 6:00 pm to start moving them inside. Mark used the tractor and I used the skid steer. We finished stacking the last bale after dark and by 8:30 pm we were more than ready to quit.

They hay is quality, green, fine stemmed and smells great. Nothing like the smell of freshly baled hay in the barn. We have 27 bales left from first cutting and 36 second cutting giving us 63 bales here and 84 bales at Middle Grove to make it through the winter for this herd of ours. 

I was covered in bits of hay and dust and could hardly wait to get into the shower. Mark was willing to wait until I finished. You don't get covered in hay while driving the tractor. 

Cleaning Day

Today was cleaning day at the barn, getting it ready for the guests coming in tomorrow. Mark had used his floor scrubber on the living area and the gym but that doesn't get close to the walls or in the corners. All of the bathrooms were restocked and cleaned. Mark decided to post his adjustable Jim Boon hoist for sale so I posted it on Facebook market place.

He bought it to put up Joan's solar system and that was the only time he used it so it really is like brand new. It has been stored inside the barn. Once it was posted I had to keep going back to the house to talk to Mark so I could answer the many questions people kept asking. The guests this weekend are coming for an end of life celebration and want to use the big television to play a slide show. I know we did that with mom and Dan had a video playing for Sophia's wedding so I'm sure it can be done.  Joan came over to try and we thought we figured it out. I went to Diane's to pick up the jump drive the mortuary gave us of mom's slide show but couldn't get that to play so now I'm back to square one. Lots of the mowing got done today including the stallion pasture. I'm not sure if the mare pasture was mowed. We needed to leave by 4:00 pm. Israel and Crew's baseball team was playing at Limestone Walters.

It was a beautiful evening for a ball game. In one Inning we saw Israel tag someone out at 3rd base, Crew catch a fly ball that was close to being a home run and then Israel scoop up a ball near 3rd base, throw it like a bullet all the way to 1st base to get out the batter. Their team didn't win but there were some awesome plays. When we got home we noticed the ghost was back on the lake. That ghost had taken the red canoe from Joan's beach and floating in the middle of the lake.

A booking came in for 5 days at the farm house. The repairs are done, now I just need to clean up the mess from the repairs. I'm thankful it is booking. We made the first big payment on Mom's house and next week hope to make the second. I'm hopeful to have it paid for in a year. 

2nd Cutting

 Mark was up at 4:00 am and started the coffee.  I could smell it in my dreams, thought it must be time to get up but when I walked into the kitchen for coffee and saw the time I turned right around and went back to bed for another hour. This morning we had arranged to finish the repair on the farm house toilet and then fix the bi-fold closet doors. Mark went over with the tools but I first went to move bales. The middle paddock was out of hay. As I didn't have any help, the 3 mares in there were moved to the breeding shed paddock. That has a lot of grass, a round bale but didn't have a water tank. Once Jewel, Sally and Missy were moved over I took the tractor over to Mike's to get the 2 bales he brought home. Those were both taken to the middle paddock and put under the pavilion. The water tank was moved from the round pen and brought down to the breeding shed paddock and the water turned on to fill that tank. While it was filling I decided to bring Star and her filly into a stall, put a halter on the filly and give her some tying practice. That did not go as planned. The filly would not follow her mother into the barn. 

She would stand at the door but not step inside. Star was put in a stall and I left the filly to finish the water. That is Sally, Jewel and Missy were inside the barn eating on the hay.

By the time I got back Star was frantically calling while the filly was prancing back and forth but not going in.

The Farmer showed up to cut the hay fields while I was out working with the horses.

Star was taken to the round pen and of course the filly followed then. I took the video below.

I also took a few pictures for the website.

After the video was taken, I wouldn't let the filly nurse instead walked Star right into the stall barn and this time the filly walked right in behind her. She wasn't terrible for haltering and remembered being tied. She stood like a pro for that.

By the time I finished with the horses Mark had the toilet together and was working on the closet door. He needed help with that.

That wasn't easy as we needed to keep taking the door off to adjust the height.

I drove back up to the horses and only then happened to look over at Valiant and Penny's paddock. Penny had pulled the plug on the automatic waterer probably yesterday. The plug was found put back in and Penny moved to the middle paddock.

When that was finished I went back to the house. Mark needed a hair cut before church. I took the golf cart over to check the fields. 

NO rain is predicted so we should get this up dry. It won't be as much as as the first cutting but every bale will be really nutritious and the horses will love it.

We left for church at 6:00 am. Craig Stickling had the message. This was a sad message and lots of us had tears in our eyes before the service was over. Click HERE to watch that. WE went to Culvers with the group for a late supper. Braelyn was here studying her Chemistry when we got home.

Valerie's training

 Valerie was taken for training to Western Hearts. Anna K is doing a wonderful job with her. Below she is training Valerie with her baby in the sling and her toddler playing in the corner of the arena. A true horsewoman always finds a way! IF you click on the picture it will play the video.

Rilla was more than ready to go outside at 5:00 am. While she was out I took the video below of her plump puppies.

These are Cavapoo puppies and owned by Sarah and Nolan of Gardner Lane Puppies. If interested in learning more about them click HERE. 

I left for the Berean office at 7:55 am, stopped at Casey's to pick up a dozen donuts before heading to the Berean office. We didn't have a lot of mail this morning, almost more Bible requests than studies. Once the studies were opened Shirl, Vonnie and Shirley went in the other room to fold studies.

Kathy was answering letters

and Skip had gone to Walmart, picked up alcohol and swabs and was cleaning the rollers on the printer. 

We were finished early and that was a good thing. I drove the outgoing mail to the Hanna City, post office then checked in at home. Rilla had somehow pushed her crate up against the laundry room door and could not get in to nurse her puppies. I'm not sure when it happened, the puppies didn't seem real hungry and after nursing a few minutes Rilla left them to go outside. The puppies formed a pile to stay warm.

The two I make sure have the back nipples are the white and tan puppy and the one with the head on the white and tan puppy. Both of these puppies were smaller than the other 3 when born so I make sure they are the first to nurse. They have plump bellies so I know they are getting enough. I needed to drop off a check at Meisters and on the way home picked up another dog bed so the one they are on could be washed. When I washed it though I didn't realize there was a hole on one side and a lot of stuffing came out. That was gathered up and stuffed back inside. Tomorrow once it is dry I'll sew it shut so that doesn't happen again. We had corn on the cob for our supper tonight along with some fish, salad and half of a peach each. This was our first corn of the fall, it was good but not as good as if we had picked it this morning. This evening we drove the 4 miles to Sarah and Nolan's house to move Bentley and Fiona over into a different run and check on the feeders and waterers. Bentley is the stud dog and he is so handsome. He couldn't wait to greet me.

Fiona, the miniature poodle also in the picture is the next due for puppies. I think she is due early September. Sarah and Nolan have a wonderful set up for their dogs. They also have a lovely home.

It has 3 bedrooms on the main floor an open floor plan, a huge 3 stall garage and a full basement of which half is finished. The house is all brick and very well built. They have 6 acres and a pond too. I'm so thrilled that they live just 4 miles away from us. Someday Zion wants to have her pony at their house.

So someday they will need to build a barn. Right now though it is much easier to just drive the 4 miles and enjoy the horses here. 

Good To Go

 Ruth, Joan and I walked, Diane is now in Gulf Shores. After the walk the laundry was started first at the farm house but when I went to start the barn laundry I had to remove the stick bug from the door so it wouldn't end up inside the barn. As soon as I tried to pick it up it scurried up to the top of the door then on to the wall.

Once both washing machines were running I went home to make breakfast. After breakfast I drove to Sam's club and bought $200 worth of food and supplies. We were just about out of everything. Mark went to work on repairing the farmhouse downstairs toilet. It had developed a leak from the tank. Yesterday I had emptied the tank of water and then washed it out with bleach but then left for Morton so didn't finish. Today Mark needed my help to get the screws out. He had ordered new hardware and that is supposed to be delivered tomorrow so we can put the toilet back together then and that should fix the leak. I kept both machines running today and worked at both places until 2:00 pm then cleaned up and left for East Peoria Tire with the motorhome. The appointment was at 3:00 pm and I arrived about 15 minutes early. 

This wasn't just for an oil change, I also wanted them to look at front end to make sure everything on the underside was good and the last job was to look at the date codes on the back tires and change them if they were old. When the motorhome came off the first time I was told the underside was all in good shape and the tires all look good but they had not checked out the codes. Unfortunately they had to take it back up on the rack to check the codes. It turned out the 2 front tires were 2023 and 2 of the back tires were 2025 but the back inside tires were 2016 making them the original tires. I bought 2 new tires, they moved the 2023 tires from the front and put them where the 2016 tires were then the new tires were put on the front. That motorhome is now good to go. J Everything is in good shape and everything is working. Just as they were finishing up Dan arrived to pick up a tire. Levi had a flat so Dan dropped the tire off this morning and had just come to pick it up as the motorhome was finished. 

Funny how often I run into siblings.

I didn't get home until 5:40 pm and went straight to work making supper. Tonight we had salad, chicken strips and an egg roll then some ice cream for dessert. 

The puppies are doing well, Rilla is leaving them more often and asking to go outside then back in and back out and back in and back out. She discovered the cat food in the garage so we had to move that up on a shelf so she can't get into it. The mama cat has no problem getting up to the shelf, not sure if the kittens will try. 

The lady buying Harli's colt has scheduled to pick him up on Nov 5th. I will wean him at the same time as Tessa's filly.  Rosaleigh's colt is ready to wean now but I'm waiting one more week so he can be weaned with Star's filly.

Dew Claw Removal

Mark went with me this morning to unhook the stock trailer from the truck then help feed Oliver and Dancer. I clipped a lead rope on Oliver and had Mark hold him so he wouldn't try to follow me out of the round pen while moving in hay for their feeder. Mike and Diane will take them back to Middle Grove after church. We also needed to move a new round bale in for the 3 nursing mares and their foals. The owner of Tessa's filly asked if I would make a video of her for him yesterday but I didn't have time so when I was calling the mares in from the field after moving the bale I took the video below and sent it to him.

 Breakfast was cooked once that was done. After breakfast Mark took his shower while I cleaned up the kitchen. We picked up Berlica and Mackenson at 9:00 am then left for church. Diane drove to Morton to pick Nancy up as Kathy and Randy are out of town and Molly and Gave were serving lunch. Caleb Plattner had the morning message on Genesis 39. To watch that click HERE. Ruth took Nancy for the afternoon service. Gabe Stickling had that message on our Statement of Faith. Click HERE to watch that. Ruth took Nancy home after church as Mike and Diane needed to leave for Gulf Shores this afternoon. Ruth's well still wasn't hooked up so that household still had no water. Steven, Ruth's son asked if he could do laundry at our house and I told him to do it at the barn as that has a brand new washer.  Mark and I went to the farm house right after church, I had blocked it off as we had a couple things we needed to repair. Braelyn was up cleaning the foaling apartment, I went up to collect the garbage from there when Steven walked out. He walked into the foaling apartment with his laundry thinking that was the barn. Braelyn was a little shocked but told me it was ok, she would just take the sheets and towels to her house. I was shocked because I didn't start the sheets and towels from the barn guests as I thought Steven was going to be using those. We were both backed up, All because I didn't explain to Steven he should go to the BIG barn, not the little barn. Ok, maybe we do have too many barns. Mark and I left at 3:50 pm to pick up Nancy from Ruth's house and drive to the La Fiesta Mexican restaurant in Morton where we ate dinner with David, Israel, Elisabet, Ben, Taunya, Jack, Jace, Abe, Ron (Taunya's dad) and Brian (Taunya's brother). I found out Nancy doesn't really like Mexican food. She enjoyed the chips and dip but did not enjoy the fajita. I ordered her chicken strips and fries off the child's menu so she at least got something she liked. Her favorite meal is sketti (spaghetti) but this restaurant didn't serve that. We took Nancy home after supper then made it back to our house by 6:00 pm. Berlica was here waiting for me. We put Rilla and her puppies in a box and drove them to Brian and Rebekah's house where they promptly removed the dew claws from all of the pups. It took about 5 minutes. They are the professionals. Berlica and I had a good time visiting all the way home. We were surprised how quickly the puppies settled down once done. They were quietly nursing all the way home. The view of the sun setting while we were driving home kept us intertained.

Once home I posted the video so Sarah and Nolan could see that the pups are done and fine.