The Grand Tour

First thing this morning I took the golf cart up to check the mares and saw 3 of them were out in the big field. The other two in that paddock were still in. That meant I had to walk the pond pasture perimeter to find the break but left the horses out until after our walk. We walked but didn't think Becky was up so left without her. We only did one round when we realized they were up but instead of walking we visited inside with Becky and Aunt Jinnie. After our visit I left to make breakfast for Mark then drove up to the apartment to get it ready for the guests coming in today.  After checking that over and turning the lights on. I opened the gate to the mare pasture and Rosalie, Dahlia and Valerie came running in. As this is the first time Rosaleigh and Star had other mares in the same pasture with their foals I stayed out to watch to make sure all would be well. 

I also took a few pictures to update the website.

Above is Dahlia and her dam Rosalie. Dahlia is just a year old, Rosalie sticks at 17 hands so this yearling is going to be huge.  Below is Valerie, Rosalie's sister at age 4.

Above and Below are Rosaleigh and her colt by Valiant.

I noticed a wire down between the 2 pastures. Took a picture then showed Mark. He got that repaired this afternoon.

Mark took the old bale spear out of the barn. That really was on it's last legs. The crack was so big that I am surprised it didn't break while moving bales yesterday.

I found the break in the pond pasture. A tree had fallen over the fence bending it down. The mares were just walking over the fence. They were locked out of the pond pasture until that can be fixed.

I was putting the mares back in the paddock when the gate came off the hinge and fell. It was propped up and down I went to the house to get Mark's help. The hinge needed to be drilled out and a new one put on.

I'm glad we have a new one. I started teasing mares and both Basilea and Thalia are still in. Basilea was covered by Valiant just before noon.

Diane and Beth had our lunch all prepared at the barn.

Right after lunch we left for the Giant Goose Ranch. Beth gave us a tour of the cabins first. Dave and Kathy had their door open so I knocked and asked if we could come in. They were more than willing to show us around. 

Next we went to see the goats, the donkey, turkeys, ducks and chickens. The goats were a big hit.

We ended up at the Hub and each made our own soft serve ice cream adding all kinds of goodies.

From there we drove to the Uplands where they were just setting up for a big wedding.

My phone died just then but I was able to charge it a little in Diane's car on the way to Middle Grove. There we went on a tour of the place then a pontoon boat ride. I was able to get just a few pictures of that before the phone died again.

To see the rest of the pictures click HERE. We got home just in time to leave for Chad and Julie's house where they were serving dinner. We were a little late and missed the prayer but in plenty of time to feast.

Mark and I left there a little after 7:00 pm. I still needed to get Thalia covered and did. It is now after 9:00 pm. What a long busy day but it was so good to be with family. 

The Funeral

 I went out early to take the golf cart over to the barn to check on the fridge. That was turned on, all the food in the cooler put back in the fridge before taking the golf cart over to check on the horses. The first 3 paddocks all of the horses seemed fine but in the next paddock Dahlia was by herself and no sign of Cookie. I had worn my good tennis shoes, the ones I would never wear when walking into a paddock but when I couldn't find Cookie I didn't think of the tennis shoes, I thought I might be finding a dead pony and went right in to search. No sign of Cookie until I looked in the middle paddock. There she was with those mares. 

She somehow got out of her paddock and ended up 2 paddocks over with the mares there. She was happy and alive, so she was left with them. When I reached the last paddock I noticed Sheena had lost her halter, went into that paddock to pick up the halter and noticed the electric fence was down. That can be dangerous so took the time to restring that entire fence line. I walked into the house, looked down and realized my good shoes now were no longer clean. They were left to dry and will be cleaned later. We needed to leave this morning by 8:15 am and arrived at church by 8:45 am. The visitation there started at 9:00 am so we got in line pretty quickly. The funeral was very touching. David had that and did amazing at sharing mom's life. He had us all tearing up and then chuckling at some of the stories. The gospel really was preached this morning, just as mom asked. If you would like to watch that click HERE. After the service we made our way outside. As mom has 20 grandsons and all of them were willing to do this final job for mom but some were helping their wives with babies and toddlers and we ended up with 12.  We had two sets of pall bearers. The first 6 pall bearers carried the casket from the church into the hearse. 

The second set of pall bearers took the casket from the hearse to the grave.

Anni and Matt came with mom's 96th great grandchild. He is only 3 days old and his first outing is a funeral. 

We siblings sang 2 songs at the grave, Heirlooms and Sunset. Both of these songs Nancy knows and she was belting them out. We had to chuckle but the Bible says, Make a joyful noise and Nancy was certainly joyful! We went back to the church for the typical delicious fried chicken funeral meal. When we got home the new quick attach bale spear had been delivered.

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Mark put that together then got the skid steer down to take it up to the barn. We are really pleased with this purchase, it is rated for 3000 pounds and came with the 2 small and 1 large spear.  I teased Madiera and got her covered by Evan then worked on brushing out Evan's tail. He has such a thick tail and it grows so fast it won't take long for it to be reaching the ground again. Mike came over to work some horses and brought Izzy out first as she needed to be teased. 

She is not in season, I think I will need to have her sonagrammed to see if she is even cycling as it has been over 20 days since she was brought home. Mike used the 4 wheeler to lead her around the outdoor arena.

She is such a pretty mare and has very good movement for a Gypsy. We really need to get her under saddle now that she is 3 years old. She really is sweet and loves attention.

Next we brought Dahlia out. 

Now that she has learned manners from the crabby old mares, she was allowed to be with Rosalie, her mom in the middle paddock and she is happy there. All who wanted to met at the barn for supper tonight. We had lots of leftovers, Beth's ham, bbq ribs, fried chicken, green beans, the 7 layer salad from Gertie, lots of other salads and lots of desserts. Even after about 30 of us eating there are still left overs. Diane is serving everyone lunch tomorrow. Mark, Diane and I took all the pictures out of Sarah's van and hung them all back up on the walls in mom's house. Mike, Spark and Brett are working on a project on the new fishing dock. That will be posted about later once it is done. It's hard to believe it's over. Joan is busy with wedding plans for Faith, we have lots of guests coming in for the wedding from all over. 

Visitation Day

 This morning Becky joined us for the walk. Peter and Evelyn arrived last night after everyone had gone to bed. The walk was slower than usual, there was just so much visiting that needed to be done. As soon as we quit Mike arrived to help get Basilea and Thalia covered. We got Basilea covered by Valiant first. Mike used the 4 wheeler to work with Thalia a bit after getting her covered by Evan.

Sometimes she balks at moving forward but today she did very well.

We loaded up Blueberry and Missy and drove them to Middle Grove. The horses were not where they were expected to be so we had to drive quite a while to find them. They were on top of the hill lounging under the trees. Oliver came running to us first.

Below Madiera and Curlin were both hanging around Oliver. Mike is behind with him. Both of these mares are in season. We had already loaded the two mares due in June, Tessa and Sheena and only really had room to bring one more mare home so loaded up Madiera. As both stallions were used today we will get her covered tomorrow and will probably choose Evan for her this year.

I asked Mike to move the face of the mare below so we could figure out who she was. I think this is Aiken. 

Below Mike is hugging Jewel while Harli and Jury look on.

Harli was glad when I came over to give her attention. She stood very well. Jury also enjoyed some hugs and scratches. Both of these mares will come back to Hanna City as soon as we have a paddock open.

Above left to right is Harli, Jury and Jewel below is Curlin, who just happened to be in season.

Above is Lily below is Holly.

As soon as we got home the mares were just put in Evan's pasture until I could move some bales. I needed to be at sibling meeting and just made it. We had 10 of us today to go over things. We spent a lot of time laughing instead.

We had lunch at the barn around 12:30 pm. I think everyone made it plus our New Jersey and Utah guests. I had to leave a little early as Ruth thought I had a horse out. I didn't but that gave me a chance to move the 2 mares out of the paddock next to Valiant's paddock so a new bale could be put in there and the second bale was put in the short shelter. Those 2 mares were put back into the paddock next to Valiant's. Dahlia and Cookie were moved into the short shelter paddock. Sheena and Tessa were put in the last paddock as they are the next 2 due.

By the time I got back to the barn everyone was gone. The fridge in the barn was not working right. It was down to 19 degrees and was freezing the food. All of the food was taken out of the fridge and freezer, that was turned off.

The freezer food was put in the big freezer while the fridge food was put in a cooler with plenty of ice and frozen packs. Hopefully tomorrow I can turn on the fridge and it will run correctly. We need that fridge for the wedding company. I came home in time to clean up and get ready for the visitation. As all 11 of us were together we had get a picture of all of us.

The visitation was well attended. It was amazing to hear the stories of mom from so many different people of all ages.  Mom's Bibles study group served the family a delicious supper and I know they fed well over 100 of us. A BIG thanks for that big job. We really did appreciate that.  After it was over the pictures were loaded into Sarah's van and taken to our house. It is too late tonight to unload so that will be done tomorrow probably after the funeral. I am MORE than ready for bed. 

Another Day Done

 On our walk this morning we saw 2 of the goose families plus the 3rd gander and goose with the 6 eggs in the nest that still haven't hatched. 

I only did one round so I could leave by 8:15 am for the Berean office. It was good to be there but a little sad missing mom at her usual spot stamping envelopes. Sharon did her job today and pretty much promised to keep up. Below she is getting up to get the boxes and stampers while Shirley, Shirl and Vonnie open mail. 

Marvin and Kathy were working at the other desks. Skip was busy for a while in the other room but came in and had the prayer. Below he is waiting for Vonnie and Shirl who were already working on filling boxes.

We had 12 Bible requests today.

Below Sharon is getting ready to taste some of Vonnie's delicious cinnamon pecan sticky buns. If you look through the window you will see Kathy and Marvin hard at work.

We enjoyed those delicious treats. They really were melt in your mouth tender, soft and oh so sweet. I stopped at the Hanna City post office and told Kathy, the post mistress, that I would not be driving the wheel chair van anymore as mom passed away on Friday. She told me to let all of you girls that she is praying for us. She lost her dad a couple months ago. When I got back Berlica was mowing. The mower stopped and she brought in this baby bunny.

She took it over to show her mom but then I'm pretty sure let the bunny go where she found it. The flowers by our drive are a bright spot on a cool sprinkling day.

Aunt Jinnie and Becky's plane was supposed to arrive at 4:50 pm at the Peoria airport but Becky sent a text around 4:00 pm they were still on the runway and had been for a half an hour. I picked up Spark and we left for the airport at 4:45 pm and arrived just as they had landed. Pick up went quite well and we were back at the barn just in time for supper. Ruth set the tables and bought ice, Beth brought the dinner tonight and she went all out. 

After dinner David arrived to talk over the funeral plans and what would mom want preached. When that was over I took Aunt Jinnie and Becky over to mom's. They are staying in Aunt Jinnie's room. Peter and Evelyn should arrive around 9:30 pm and they will be staying in mom's basement. Diane came over and we went down the basement to turn on the lights for them. Diane showed me her towel arrangements. 

Ok I was impressed and will have to learn how she did that. Diane pulled out the suitcase of all of dad's letters to mom when he was in the army and started reading them aloud.

John and Beth came over, they hadn't had any supper yet so we gave them some leftovers. I left then for home. Dan sent a picture of the sunset on his way home then Beth sent the picture below of the sun breaking through the clouds as it was setting.

Another day done.