Busy Day

 We all met at the dumpster for our walk this morning. We had a good group walking just missing Tony, Becky and Mark. Becky and Mark are staying with Skip and Pat as Skip has first dibs on them since Mark is HIS brother and only OUR cousin. We stopped at Joan's field to get a picture. As of yesterday she officially owns it.

When we reached the horse barns, Berlica was there getting ready to ride Harli.

We certainly spent a lot of time visiting on this walk. As Harli was out, Merlin jumped into the middle paddock with Penny and then in front of us Lucy jumped over and joined him. I left them there to finish our walk. We got to our house and Becky's car was there so went back to the barn to join Aunt Jinnie and Becky before going over to Rachel's house. We stopped at the diving board for a group picture (not one I took) and Tony walked out onto the board.

When we got back to the barn some of us had breakfast but aunt Jinnie and Becky had eaten early so they left for quilting at the church. The rest of the group left to hike Rocky Glen but I stayed back. I needed to put those foals back where they belong. The gate was opened in the middle paddock and both foals came right out when I called them.

Grain was used to bribe them into going back into the correct paddock with their very anxious mothers.

Sarah arrived to work with the horses. She worked with Tessa first then Penny and finished with the paint mare. The paint mare has a new name but I can't remember it now. When  Zion was riding Penny Eden and River helped grandma by sweeping up the barn aisle.

The bench came for the foaling apartment. It really is a storage container and supposedly holds 600 pounds. I just thought we needed some place for people to put luggage.

The picture below is of a bug I had never seen before. It was sitting on the gate and that is one ugly bug.

We moved Stardust and the paint mare into the mare and foal paddock now that Tessa, Harli and their foals are in the paddock next to Valiant.

Mark and Nolan needed to be picked up at noon at the Peoria airport at noon so once Sarah left I left. Their plane was on time and we made it back to the barn for lunch at 12:15 pm, just as they were getting ready to say the prayer. After lunch we went for a hike on the trails. My phone rang as we were at the bottom of the hill and it was Walter's Ag Service who were coming to deliver 21 bales of hay. They said they would be here in a half an hour. I needed to get up the hill, over to the barn, move the bales on the right side of the barn over to the left to get ready for the bales coming.

Berlica came to work with Harli as I was working on the bales.

Below is the video of one of the loads.

I was able to get two of the loads stacked in the barn but the 3rd load came while we were having dinner at the barn with the group. Ruth and Rachel joined us, Rachel brought a delicous peanut butter with chocolate pie for our dessert tonight. We have all been bringing food. Tonight though we had pizza and wings from Caseys plus Diane made a salad. After I ate I ran back to the barn to put the last load of hay into the barn. When I got back Spark had a nice fire going and we all sat around the campfire visiting and of course had to sing a few songs.

We heard the coyotes howling, Dr. Who, the owl hooting and the stars were beautiful. We say a falling star and lots of satellites. We took turns telling out stories of how we came to repent and to follow Jesus. It was a wonderful evening.

They are HERE

 We enjoyed our walk. The changing of the leaves continue to impress us. Below  are the trees around the retention pond

 The 8 pounds of hamburger were browned, drained then the spaghetti sauce added and only when that was warm did I start layering the sauce,  noodles and 3 cheeses into two crockpots. That was cooking by 10:00 am. Then it was time to clean the barn for the cousins but as I started working I could hear a smoke alarm chirping. I tracked that down. It was upstairs in bedroom . Thankfully we had an extra 9 volt battery. I just needed to get the 8 foot ladder out of the bunk room closet and haul it to bedroom 1, climb the ladder, take out the old battery and install the new.         

 

As long as the ladder was out I thought I could rehang the light on the bunk room but after struggling with that for about a half hour my arms were just too tired so that was left for someone else to repair.

 I went home to finish cleaning at our house when Berlica arrived to tell me the 2 foals were out running in the field. She helped me move Harli and Tessa over to the paddock next to Valiant and their foals followed. They will need to stay in there until I can figure out how they escaped. It was sunny and warm and the foliage is beautiful so I asked Berlica if she would hop on Penny for some fall pictures.  Below are those and they turned out well 

While taking the golf cart home I looked down at the floor to move some leadropes and halters and there was the missing golf cart key. Mark had already ordered a couple more so now we have extras just in case that happens again.

. Some of our out of state family arrived right after so once they were all checked in we went for a walk. Visited with Mike and Diane then over to the barn for supper. Joan, Spark, Rhonda, Mike, Diane and I joined Aunt Jinnie, Tony, Barb, Janet and we spent the evening visiting.

Mark and Nolan seem to be having a great time in Texas. They sent back pictures and videos that will be added later.

Puppies

 I couldn't believe last night. I went to bed closed my eyes and the next thing I know it is 6:30 am. The bed was very restful with only one person in it. Mark and Nolan seem to be having a very busy schedule. Today after the seminar they took them on a tour around Austin, Texas. This evening Mark sent the picture below of the Venezuelan food they had for supper tonight. 

Their meal was called steak and chicken arepa. 

Diane, Joan and I walked but I only got in one round again as today is Berean day. I parked near the scale and I had so many boxes to carry inside. We try not to block the scale during harvest so I went out to move the car and the car had me locked out again. I was trying everything I could think of to get the car to move. Marvin came over to help. I figured out the problem. I had turned off the blue tooth when I was on the way to Berean and that removes my phone from the car. The car was moved with about 5 minutes to spare. We were back working when we heard the semi come rumbling onto the scale. We had a busy morning.

Marvin read us an interesting letter from an inmate in Menard.

Below Shirley is working on the studies.

Our Berean Director came today and met with Marvin about our problems with all of the Indiana prisons. Hopefully Dave can visit some of them and explain how our Illinois prisons work with us.

Skip sends out boxes of studies to chaplains all over as some states will only allow a chaplain give out studies. Shirl is stuffing the new lessons to be mailed out today.

After leaving the office I drove to Stephanie's house to drop off a hat for Israel then to Sam's club where I ran into Diane. Well almost ran into her, I saw her coming and put my cart directly in front of hers. We compared carts and rearranged a few things filling both carts. They are for the meals for the next 5 days with our cousins. From Sam's I drove to Bartonville post office. The Hanna City post office closes at lunch at 12:30 pm and I knew I wouldn't make it. What I didn't know was the exits to get on the interstate were closed. The car gps didn't know they were closed and kept trying to get me to drive in circles. It was a long trip to Bartonville. When I finally got on Kickapoo Creek road a big rig was painting lines in the road and we crawled along with about 5 cars in front of me and over 10 behind me before they finally found a place to pull over and let the line up of cars pass them. From the post office I stopped at Aldi to pick up a few more items and finally home. Most of the food was put in the barn but the 4 chickens were taken to the house. Those were let cool before I started de-boning them. At 5:00 pm I drove to Sarah and Nolan's house to let the puppies out. They are at such a cute age. They were put in there yard pen and given water and food. I let them play for a half an hour. While they were playing I took the video below of their extensive yard. They have such a beautiful place.

The puppies were let out into the yard and we played some more. They really are adorable.

I left there about 5:45 pm got home and started on the chicken salad. Diane called while I was de-boning. Long day but productive.

Planes CyperTaxies

 Mark was up at 3:00 am. We didn't really have to get up until 4:30 am but he wanted to get a few last minute things done. We left the house at 4:40 am and picked up Nolan at 4:45 am and I dropped both Mark and Nolan off at the Peoria airport. Their plane was leaving at 5:40am. It was still very dark when I got back. I went straight to the farm house to collect all of the laundry then started one load there, one load at the foaling apartment and 1 load at the barn. At 6:30 am I went outside and saw the sky was beginning to brighten so took the picture below.

That light shining in the middle is the light on Mike's new barn. About then Nolan sent the text below saying they were a half hour away from landing in Chicago.

I didn't know they have wifi on planes now. At 7:00 am I sent a message to the family that lives around here asking if anyone was taking sunrise pictures. Rhonda came through. She has the best spot on the lake for sunrise pictures this time of year.

I worked on the farm house while doing laundry but quit at walking time. Diane, Ruth, Joan and I called cousin Becky and let Becky and Aunt Jinnie join our walk via phone. We finalized the plans for the coming Bossert Meister reunion. The picture below is right after we passed Rhonda's house on the way to Joan's.

A chair had fallen down by the willow tree so I took the golf cart down to get that but had to stop at the top and take some foliage pictures.

Below is looking from the campfire over to Spark and Rhonda's dock.

I finished the work about the time Sarah arrived with the girls. I only knew they were here because Sarah sent the video below of Merlin playing with the ball.

At 4:45 pm I drove to Farmington Central to watch Kensley and Taegan play basketball. Tonight their team played Princeville. The 7th grade team was a blow-out. Below was the score at halftime.

Kensley only got to play in the first half. The 8th grade game was a defensive battle all the way. The score after the first quarter was Princeville 2 and Farmington 0. Farmington took the lead but lost it at the end. Below Kensley passed to Taegan near the end of the game to tie it at 22. But  in the last couple minutes Princeville went ahead and won the game.

The girls all played hard. I'm not going to stay up late tonight. Just too tired. Mark sent a few texts few. They used one of the cyber taxies in Houston and it came with no driver. They just sit in the car and tell it where to go. They went to a great restaurant for lunch and then lots of seminars. 

Beautiful

 I got the brisket ready and in the oven by 6:30 am then cleaned up the mess before making breakfast. Ruth sent the first picture of the day of the beautiful sunrise. 

We can't see the sunrise from this house, too many trees and set back some. Rhonda has a much better view AND gets the reflection in the lake. She sent the second picture of the day.

What a beautiful start to this beautiful day. The guests in the foaling apartment sent message that they were leaving, thanked us then said we have a beautiful ranch.  I never wanted to be a rancher, just a farmer but I didn't correct her. we picked up Rhonda for church and made it there by 9:30 am. Kathy and Randy brought Nancy. She was very glad to see Joan back. The Gulf Shores people made it by 9:00 pm last night. Matt Feucht had the morning message. He was visiting from Roanoke and after the message gave an update on Skylines.  If you would like to listen to his message click HERE. Craig Stickling had the afternoon message. We are still doing a Bible study on the minor prophets and today Craig covered Micah 3,4,5,6 and 7. Click HERE to watch that. After church and the meal was ready I was taking the food over to the barn when I saw Berlica riding Jury and Zion riding Penny heading down to the trails. 

They told me Rhoda and Sarah were over at the round pen giving pony rides and working with Gypsy the paint pony. Israel came with me and was telling me about the basket he made. He let it fly way before half court and it was nothing but net. He found it on the barn video and showed us. I'm not sure how to copy it but will work on that tomorrow. David was out fishing and caught a whopper of a bass and this one was not skinny.

The bass must be getting enough food now. Earlier they all seemed too skinny. Mike and Diane showed up to hook up the stock trailer. They took Jury, Jewel, Bulu and Denver out to Middle Grove. Mike sent the video below:

Sarah, Eden and River tried Penny with the bouncy ball. Penny might know how to play soccer.

More than likely it was an accident but that pony isn't afraid of anything so the girls want to teach her how to kick the ball. Today they introduced the ball to Gypsy. Gypsy was ok when Rhoda bounced the ball on the left side of her but a little scared when she bounced it on the right side.

I didn't stay much longer it was almost 4:30 and that is when the family comes to dinner. We had a nice dinner tonight with lots of good food, visiting and laughter.

After dinner Spark was giving hay rack rides. He gave Nancy one with the first group going out and she loved it. This was the second group.

I'm not sure who made the fire tonight but it was a nice hot one and when the sun went down the fire felt great. The volley ball lights were turned on and the court was filled with boys tonight.

Tarah's boys, Kari's boys, Rebekah's boys, and Rhoda's boy. There were a few girls playing too. At one point I counted 18 cousins and 2nd cousins out on that court.

We had to keep expanding the circle.

When everyone finally pulled themselves away and headed home Mark and I went to rescue his golf cart. It was over by the field with no key. We both looked all over finally used the key from my golf cart to move his into the garage. Mark got on-line and ordered a couple of keys but we will be down to one golf cart until the new ones come in. I stopped to take a picture of the full moon before going inside.

What a beautiful day and beautiful evening. What a blessing to have such nice weather this late in the year. We are thankful.

Noisy Singing

 We had another beautiful warm day. It's cool first thing in the morning but by afternoon it warmed up to 76 degrees. I had guests moving into the foaling apartment so went over early to make sure it was ready and turn the lights on. Mike arrived with his 4 wheeler to work with Denver a bit. Denver is such a nice looking gelding. He is 16 months old and almost as tall as his 16.2 hand mother. He will be gorgeous as a 2 year old. Mike does not want to sell him. Below he is teaching him to pick up his hat.

He took him for a short leading session into the field using his 4 wheeler.

Mike decided to take his dam Bulu out and let Denver run free. 

Before putting them in the paddock next to Valiant I needed to move a bale in. They were not happy in the middle paddock as they were staying away from the other 3 horses. After Mike left I worked on the apartment then went to the barn to make sure no bugs got inside. I found 1 spider and 2 small crickets and NO stink bugs. I am still getting stink bugs in our house but much less than last year. Mark sprayed around all of the buildings this year twice and it really is doing the job. Mark put up drip guards above the South side people door. I think this might be the last door. We are happy with how the other 2 doors are keeping the rain away from the entrance. We don't get dumped on when trying to leave. Anna arrived this afternoon to get the party decorations up. This evening Taegan and Kensley are having a combined birthday party and invited their basketball teams.

Taegan is 14 on the 30th and Kensley turned 12 a few days ago. They wanted to have a pumpkin painting party.

Mark wanted a hair cut this afternoon and that is done out on the deck. I took a lot of today.

That is exactly what he wanted.

We left then and went to the Bartonville dinner for an early supper then grocery shopping at Aldi's. We bought $99 worth of food and only brought back 4 bags. I didn't even buy any meat. I really am thankful to live in such a beautiful place. The birds are a little noisy but even they are singing joyfully each morning.