Blew It

 We were both up early enjoying freshly brewed coffee. Mark left for his walk but I read a while before heading to the barn to collect the laundry. No walk as Ruth is in Romania and Diane & Mike along with Spark & Rhonda and Dan & Susan all left for Missouri. Both of the solar coaster boats went too. Mike and Diane took the big one while Dan and Susan took the smaller one. They will be staying with Spark and Rhonda and going out on Bull Shoals lake. Spark had a pontoon boat at his place there on that lake. Joan was stripping the sheets off of each of the camper beds as I was stripping sheets of all the beds in the barn. We talked over the weekend then started discussing the 4th of July plans for out here. Rachel and David are going to be doing the fireworks again on Friday the 3rd. Mark and Mackenson worked on getting the 4 campers ready to be hauled back to Joan's house. I called the vet clinic to get Valiant's appointment to have the cancer looked at. On Friday they had no electricity and couldn't tell me when I could bring him as for this appointment they wanted to make sure Dr. Hoerr had 2 full hours to give him. His appointment is now next Wednesday June 24th, at 8:30 am. After the laundry was started I took the truck over to help. We used the barn septic tank to empty all of the camper tanks. Then hauled them one at a time over to Joan's Berlica was out riding with 2 of her friends. 

We finished up the campers then hooked the stock trailer up to truck so I could haul Cookie out to Middle Grove and bring back Jury. Sarah arrived just as I was leaving. Her girls gave Cookie some carrots before she left then went to play with Tessa's filly. Sarah sent back the 3 pictures below.

She was enjoying the girls. I arrived at Middle Grove and drove back to the big field. There were no horses in sight. Cookie must have smelled them as she started heading North.

About then we heard thundering hooves but it was just Oliver coming down to meet Cookie then take her back to the herd.

Below is Oliver making sure Cookie joins the rest. He really is impressive. 

I had to walk and it was a long way and all up hill. They were all waiting for me when I arrived.

At first I couldn't find Lily. I saw some turkey vultures and my heart dropped. She is 24 years old this year. Well it turned out she was right in the middle I didn't recognize her, she is in such good shape.

Below it is easy to tell it is Lily from the side view.

She is licking a salt block in the picture below. She does have a tail she is just swishing it to her right side on the picture below. That is Jury behind her.

After taking a few pictures Jury and I started the long walk back to the trailer. Unfortunately Oliver didn't want to see Jury leave so followed us down bringing the whole herd with him. I had to use the lead rope to shoo him away a couple times. He really is well behaved and would have stood quietly if I would have tied him up to something but where we were there wasn't anything other than trees and I didn't want to have to walk all the way back to untie him.

Above Oliver is looking over at Sheena, behind Oliver is Missy and behind Missy is Cookie. 

Below Oliver is coming over to greet me while the others are behind him.

The black mare in front is Valerie, Lily's last daughter I kept and behind her is Jury.

Valerie came up to see if I had a treat but I didn't bring anything out with me today.

Harli, the gypsy mare is looking very wide. She is due in August and I think is the last mare due this year. Jury loaded fine. Harli had followed her to the trailer. I went over to pet her was scratching her back when I saw a big horse fly land on her hip and without thinking slapped her and killed the fly. She jumped and ran then looked back at me as if to say, "WHY?" Harli came to us as almost impossible to catch. We have been working with her carefully gaining her trust. Each time we go to Middle Grove I make sure to scratch her back which she loves and give her attention then walk away. Today I blew it by slapping that fly! I stopped for gas on the way home just to have a full tank for our Saturday trip. Jury was put in the middle paddock with Basilea and Thalia once we were back. Laundry waited for me. I was able to finish the last load of towels and sheets and got all of the beds made at the barn. The towels are now over but not put away. I'll have plenty to do of that kind of work tomorrow. Now I'm going to rest!

A Beautiful Evening

We had rain during the night, a nice soft rain that soaked in well. Our morning was easy, just cook breakfast and get ourselves ready for church. We picked up Rhonda as Spark went to the jail. We had a visitor, Jeff Fischer, from Fort Scott Kansas for the morning service. He spoke on Isaiah 40 and first Timothy 4. Click  HERE if you would like to listen to that message. The afternoon message was given by Mike Kaisner spoke on 2 Chronicles 20. Click HERE if you would like to watch that message. Nancy came home with us after church as Joan had an errand after church before she was going home.  Karin came over to have tea time with Nancy, Mark and I. We enjoyed talking with her as I was cooking. Nancy may be coming down with a cough. She coughed a few times in church and after.  Karin took Nancy over to Joan's house but before supper Joan brought Nancy to the barn. Nancy got to feed the fawns while at Joan's Joan took a picture and printed it off for her to take home.

Karin took the video below of Nancy feeding one while Braelyn fed the other.

Joan had received a call about a swarm of bees in Morton and wanted to drive over to collect them.  Nancy enjoyed supper with the Sceggels and was also joined by Berlica and Mackenson. 

After dinner Phil and Anna needed to leave for pictures of one of the teams, the rest of us went over to mom's and enjoyed the beach and lake.

The kids took the paddle boat over to the diving board and took turns jumping.

It was a beautiful evening. 

Hay for the Winter

 It was nice this morning not to have to run up to the stalls to take care of Tessa and her filly. They did fine out all night. Tessa was hungry for her grain. The filly is nursing a lot and Tessa needs the calories. 

The filly didn't really eat much grain but did take a bite then came around to look all majestic.

I took those last 2 pictures for the website. Denver was checked on, he was gelded yesterday so I expected to see swelling but he didn't have any and is not at all sore.

He turns a year old this month and Mike hadn't weaned him yet but Dr. Hoerr told him to wait a couple weeks as being gelded is stressful. Rosaleigh and Star Temple's paddock needed a new bale. That was done after checking on the horses. The website was worked on today between chores. Updating all the mares, who they were bred to and when they are due. Of the 10 we have covered so far 6 are now confirmed and I'm almost sure 3 more are also pregnant. They haven't come back in season but we have not been able to get them in to the clinic for their ultrasounds.  We still need to cover Tessa, Izzy and Star Temple here and bring Holly, Aiken and Dancer back to find out if Oliver was able to successfully cover them. Two of the campers needed to have fresh water added so that was done this morning.

The mares in the breeding shed paddock had kicked a board down and cracked it. I found a board over at Mike's and he installed the new one.

Berlica was busy today, she had horse loving company over and she tacked up the mares and took out multiple trips.

I had to leave before the girls rode so no pictures of that. Today I inspected 3 different fields and bales from each. I found exactly what I was looking for and purchased 84 big round bales.  They were baled up dry but have been outside so got rain on top which bleached out the outside of the bale.

The inside was still nice and green and smelled good. The bales are grass/alfalfa mix.

It isn't too stemmy, the horses should do well with them. These bales are the bales we need for the herd in the winter at Middle Grove. I gave them a deposit of $1000.00 with the balance due once all 84 are delivered. I'm very pleased with the purchase, it is great not to have to worry about a hay supply in the winter.  On the drive back we saw turkeys, a lot of turkeys. I only got the one picture as I was driving.

When I got back Mark had the new dehumidifier delivered but needed help getting it on the golf cart and taking it to mom's house. The first one had an error code and was broken so the company delivered a new one.

Tessa and her filly were turned out in the outdoor arena to graze. The filly was so excited she tried to buck for the very first time. That didn't go very well. She hid under her mama's tail then decided she needed to nurse to comfort herself. Check it out on the video below.

She ran around all day but didn't try to buck again! The weather was cloudy and cool, some of the kids were swimming but others were enjoying the canoes and kayaks while fishing.

I stopped to take a picture of the day lilies that have exploded by our driveway.

The other bush has also exploded with blooms.

After supper I drove back over to the playground and started a fire for the company. 

There were kids catching fireflys, kids playing on the trampolines with mom's visiting with each other while watching them. All seem to be having a great time.

Our 49th

 It was a blessing to be able to brew a good hot cup of coffee this morning. Mark went out to check the storm damage when I went up to move Tessa and her filly outside for the first time since we brought them into a stall. That took a while the filly needed to check everything out before following her mom. I started working at 6:00 am getting the electrical cords over to each of the campers then getting the portable electrical box Spark made for us over and trying to hook them up. We needed one extension cord to make it happen. We were supposed to load 4 horses for our vet appointment at 8:10 am but the Vet clinic sent a text not to come there was no power in Morton.  that meant I could go on the walk. At 8:05 Diane and I met at the dumpster for the walk.  The drive going to mom's and Rachel's house was completely blocked by the top of a huge tree.

When we reached Joan's house there was one excited little girl so anxious to go on the walk she bounced.

Mike got the yanmar going and went to work hauling them out of the way.

Mark and Mackenson got the chains saws going and started cutting the wood up to useable lengths. Then they switched to leveling the campers. After the walk we were turning on the air conditioners in each one when one wouldn't turn on. Joan said this problem was past her pay grade so we called Spark for that problem. He was laying down on the job so Joan told him no pay for laying around.

It turned out the problem wasn't in that area. It was the actual connection on the outside of the camper. Spark fixed it but told Mark we needed to buy 3 new breakers for the box. I left then to put Tessa and her filly into the outdoor arena so they could graze and took a phone call from a past customer who is now a current customer. He is buying Rosaleigh's colt.

He will send the down payment tomorrow through Paypal. I'll mark him sold once the deposit comes. The vet clinic called to tell us to come, they got the generator running.  I helped Mike load Madiera and Izzy in the front of the stock trailer then Bulu and her colt Denver in the back of the stock.  I stayed back as I had not finished the work before our guests would be arriving today. Later Mike called to report Denver was now a gelding and Bulu was 50 days pregnant by OLIVER. That is exciting as Oliver did this all by himself and Bulu is a very tall mare. Madiera was next. she is also pregnant. Izzy had ovulated about 4 days ago so can't be short cycled until 5 or 6 more days. When moving Tessa I noticed twice her dropping what looked like pus, then noticed the filly had a swelling on her front leg. Mike left Bulu and Denver at the clinic as Denver needed to wake up a bit, dropped off Madiera and Izzy. Berlica brought over a couple friends to ride and after the first ride picked up Israel for the second. He was very relaxed on that 17 hand Rosalie! 

We loaded Tessa and her filly and drove her to the clinic.  The swelling on the filly's leg was a small abscess. Dr. Hoerr drained it and cleaned it up but she needed no other treatment. Tessa was next, she wasn't happy when he brought out the scope and Dr. Hoerr gave her a little something to relax. About that time the filly wanted to nurse.

Mike was able to open the side of the stocks and she figured out how to get a drink.

Dr. Hoerr checked Tessa out well. He emptied some fluid that I thought looked like pus but since it didn't stink it turned out to be ok.

She also needed no other treatment but for me it was better to KNOW she was ok then to just see something and ignore it hoping it is ok. When we got back they were taken to the stall so they both could rest. I'll head up in a bit to take them out for the night. No storms tonight and the weather should be pleasant. As today is our 49th anniversary we celebrated that at Texas Roadhouse.

We both ordered the 8 ounce sirloin, a salad and a sweet potato. It also comes with those delicious buns with sweet cinnamony butter. 

The last time we ate at a Texas Roadhouse was up in Elgin with Kim and our nephew Tim. I sent a text to Kim reminding her. I'm pretty sure she is on her Alaska trip right now. Hope she is really enjoying that. We were both tired after that long day of work. I'm heading up to the barn now to move horses then am going to relax!