Ordering Food for Church Lunch

 I didn't sleep well last night, probably because I knew there would be no coffee in the morning. I'm giving up caffeine. Also the phone rang around 1:00 am but no one answered when I said hello. We still are not walking, Diane and Mike won't be home until Thursday evening and Ruth is flying home today but turning around and driving back down helping their son move to Mobile. I went to the farm house early and stripped the beds and gathered up all of the towels and took that to the barn for washing. As long as I was doing laundry I started some at my house and the foaling apartment too. I had 3 machines running and was able to get almost all of that done before Anna arrived to clean the apartment. She figured out how to get the cords off the wall and also repaired a broken outlet along with the cleaning.

We needed new lamps for the end tables and she found exactly what was needed and sent it to me. They are now ordered. The towels from church were washed and I asked Mark to hang them outside when the washer stopped.  I left for GFS to order and pay for the ham, turkey and two kinds of cheese for Sunday lunch. They will have it sliced and ready for me to pick up Friday morning 9:00 am. From there I drove to Schnucks and ordered and paid for 4 dozen fried croissants. The last store was Sam's club where I bought $221.00 worth of the foods and supplies needed. Tomorrow I'll need to order some donuts from Casey's. Everything was taken to the foaling apartment so I could use the fridge and freezer. I bought 6 chickens, those were put in the fridge once they cooled and on Thursday will be deboned and made into chicken salad. Mark will pick up 4 more at Costco when he goes on Wednesday.

Mark didn't remember about the church towels and rags until I was on the way home but got them all outside on the drying rack in the sunshine for at least an hour. They were brought inside at 4:30 pm to finish drying inside.

By the time everything was put away I was pretty tired but still needed to go to the barn to fold one more load of towels and take those to the farm house. That rented for tomorrow. The beds are all made with clean sheets but I still have some cleaning to do there tomorrow morning before leaving for Berean. This evening after supper Mark came with me to the foaling apartment to install the simple hook and eye lock for the pocket doors.

That was an easy fix.

The new television and wall mount for the apartment arrived today. Hopefully Nolan can help get that up. 

SoThankful

I had two crock pots full and cooking by 6:00 am filled with Taunya's recipe for chuck roasts, potatoes and carrots. It is such an easy recipe and my family really enjoys it. One roast is put on the bottom then sprinkled with 1 package of brown gravy mix, one package of onion soup mix and one package of ranch mix. The potatoes and carrots are added next then the second roast must be cut up to get it to fit in the crock pot. Then half of all the packages (the second crock pot got the other half) then put in a cup and a half of beef broth and put on low. 

We had an easy morning and left for church a little after 9:00 am. Gregg Rumbold had the morning message on Psalm 133 and 1st John 2. Click HERE to watch. Caleb Plattner had the afternoon message on the minor prophet study Amos 5 and 6. Click HERE to watch. After church I went right into the kitchen to get the towels and didn't realize Nancy had followed Mark out to the parking lot. By the time I got there he was helping her get her seat belt on. I quickly sent Joan a text that we would take her home. Joan sent back that they had just realized they couldn't find her and had just started to panic. We made out that she would just come home with us and stay for dinner then Rhoda and Lee would take her home. The supper really turned out delicious.

By the time everyone had eaten their fill we had just one small left over container to take home. After supper the kids were having fun in the gym and Nancy got to join too.

Berlica came over so Rhoda and Sarah took all the kids and went to work with the mares. Rhoda is teaching Berlica how to train. It will be wonderful to have another trainer in the family. 

We all stayed later than usual visiting. It really was another wonderful Sunday and I am so thankful! Such a precious time to first be with my beloved church family and then my even more beloved children and grand children. We are truly blest!

Exhausted

 Today was not a day of rest and by the end of the day I am more than ready to crash. I made breakfast early then Mark left to pick up Israel and I left for Sam's club to pick up food for Sunday dinner.  He got home before I did but not by that much. I made it to Sam's by 8:15, was done shopping and drove to Aldi in Bartonville by 9:00 am and made it home by 9:18 am. Mark hired Mackenson and Israel to work the log splitter. After putting the groceries away I went straight to the foaling apartment to start moving out furniture. Today Rhoda was bring a king size bed for the master bedroom and Sarah was going to take the sectional couch to her house. Sarah arrived early and right about then Mark brought Mackenson and Israel over to help. That couch is REALLY heavy.

When Rhoda arrived with the truck, she was frazzled. The mattress was kind of blowing around even though it was tied down with dog leashes and to top it all off Zeke opened the truck door on the interstate. She was very glad she made it here safely. Nolan arrived right then so we had plenty of help unloading and installing. The queen bed was moved into the second bedroom, the king bed was set up in the master. Once everything was done and cleaned up Sarah got some pictures so I could update the airbnb ad.

Above and below are the second bedroom, the one that use to have the couch in it.

Above and below are pictures of the master bedroom which now has the king bed. The headboard has usb ports on either side for phones.

Below is the kitchen/living area with the futon as a couch. I have ordered a 55 inch Roku TV for the wall and that will be delivered on Sept 29th. 

The sectional couch was loaded into the 2 horse trailer. Mark, Mackenson, Israel, Rhoda and Nolan drove the 4 miles to Sarah and Nolan's house and unloaded that into their basement. Rhoda said it matched perfectly. By 1:30 pm we were finished and hungry. We drove to the Warehouse in Hanna City for a late lunch. Mark and I split a tenderloin which was the special of the day.

When I told the waitress we were going to split it she gave us two buns. Rhoda ordered a salad, Machenson ordered a chicken sandwich and fries and Israel ordered a bacon cheese burger with fries. We ATE every bite. No one needed a box for leftovers, there weren't any. From the Warehouse I took Israel home and when I got back parked the truck and trailer. Right about then the new guests for the apartment arrived. They walked in, came right back out and asked if I would mind them using the futon for a bed. I just had to laugh! I went home to get clean sheets just as Berlica drove up with a golf cart and I asked her to go with me to make up the futon into a bed. There are just 3 young men, workers maybe in their 30s, staying but they each wanted their own bed. From there I went to the barn to start on the laundry there and clean bathrooms. There were 4 loads of sheets and just 2 loads of towels. The last load of towels was put in the dryer and started but by this time it was 6:30 pm so tomorrow I will fold those towels. Joan is hosting a casting party at the barn tonight. 

Those in Gulf Shores are having wonderful weather. Ruth sent the picture below of Riley and Blair on the beach this evening.

Check out the picture below Rachel shared with the family of the full moon over the water.

Good Eating Fish

 I started before breakfast on the barn as the guests left at 6:30 am. I was able to get a couple loads of sheets done and the king bed made before stopping to cook. After breakfast I needed to get right back at it. The freezing compartment in the fridge needed cleaning big time but first I had to melt all the ice off, there must have been spills then water spilled on top. Mark came over to help and did some of the sweeping. I worked until 2:30 before I felt the barn was ready for company. Sarah and Rhoda were here working the horses while I was working at the barn. Sarah sent some video. Below Tessa is learning about saddles. 

She is not near as willing as Harli to accept something on her back. Today Rhoda taught Harli to turn on the forehand on both directions under saddle.

Zion decided to work with Merlin. She asked him to pick up his feet today and didn't even have a halter on him. She haltered him herself then all the other grandkids came over to also work with Merlin. He really is a favorite here.

Today I found out all of the paper work I did and mailed out for the FHHI registry will have to be redone. The check mailed out had to have a stop order on it. I sent a message to the lady I mailed everything to and asked her to just throw it all away. The registry is splitting up and in order for me to get last year's papers I need to send everything to the new address. The good news with that is it should no longer take months to get the registration papers back. I'll need to get more hair pulled and get them sent in tomorrow hopefully. I was able to download and get the new addresses and the lady handling them assured me she had last years ready to go out. It rained most of today, not a hard rain but pretty steady. It stopped after supper so Mark and I went out to move in a couple round bales. It is now getting dark earlier and by 7:00 pm the moon was out. The barn lights were turned on.

I was down by the gate ready to open it while Mark was in the barn in the picture above. Below he is bringing the bale.

The mares heard the tractor and came galloping up. By the time he got the bale in they were ready to eat. They have their entire pasture but they really like this hay. We moved a bale in for Valiant next. He wasn't out but by the time he is out more rain will be moving in. The moon was behind some clouds but still very bright by the time we finished.

Ruth sent a picture from Gulf Shores. They are up on the 10th floor in mom's Island Royal condo and even though it wasn't dark the moon was reflecting on the Gulf water.

Such a beautiful view. The group down there have been doing a lot of fishing and catching LOTS of all kinds of good eating fish. 

Day of Rest

 Today really was my day of rest. All of the airbnbs are occupied and all of the horses have plenty of hay. I read in the morning then this afternoon read a book Gail gave me which I will leave in the barn for others. Instead of doing physical labor today worked on rotating potluck and with 5 couples coming we have a date! That is always the hardest part of hosting, finding the date.  The other responsibility I needed to work on is what to serve for church lunch. Mark and I are serving the first Sunday in October. At first we talked about serving hamburgers and hot dogs but that would mean Mark would need to grill and he would need 2 grills. As all of the airbnbs are booked that weekend we would only have one grill so we decided against that. Then I remembered when Ralph and Jamie had their anniversary reception I made and served 2 kinds of wraps. They went over so well I had to keep making more. Those can be made on Saturday and I can do it myself. I would also like to serve chicken salad croissants. The rest of the goodies will be figured out later. Speaking of Ralph and Jamie, Jamie sent some pictures today taken by her sister in law Tina Fitzgarrald. They were amazing so I asked permission to share them here. 

Ralph and Jamie have 3 horses, Myrrhcedes, Dakota and Legacy. They had Dr. C from Hoerr vet clinic out and Jamie sent the message below how much Dr. C liked those mares. 

Not to brag or anything but Myrrhcedes is by Raven out of our Arabian mare Paris and Legacy is by Valiant out of Dakota. 

I have all the paper work for Rosaleigh's colt to leave for his new home and that was supposed to happen today but the shipper didn't call or arrive so maybe that will happen tomorrow. 

Dancer Canters

After breakfast Mark and I went out to start spreading the pile of manure in the stallion pasture. Mark ran the tractor and I used the skid steer to load. When Mark would start spreading I used the wait time to clean out some of Evan's paddock. 

When we quit with that the bucket was removed from the skid steer and the bale spear put on so we could move a new bale in Evan's shelter.  Rhoda and Sarah arrived to work with the horses. Rhoda pulled Harli out first. While she was working with Harli, Zion was working with Merlin, Harli's colt.

Zion picked up the manure fork to clean up the round pen and Merlin thought he should help with that.

After Rhoda worked with Harli, she gave Zion a turn to learn this new way of stopping her. 

Sarah had to leave after they finished with Harli as the girls had tumbling today. Tessa was brought out next.

She is such a pretty mare. The last time Rhoda worked with her, she spooked coming into the barn while walking between the motorhome and the bales. So today she got a lesson on leading back and forth until she was walking quietly without stepping in Rhoda's space.

Rhoda took out Jury next and took her for a nice quiet walk on the trails but when she hit the field Jury thought she should run. Rhoda spent quite a long time insisting she just walk in the field.

While she was doing that I was weeding the fields. They look really good right now and the weeds were easy to identify. 

Rhoda had time to work with Dancer this afternoon. Instead of putting a bridle on her she just snapped reins on the halter. Mike started Dancer with a hackamore so Dancer is not used to having a bit in her mouth. We were very pleased with her behavior and today asked for a canter in the round pen. Her first time with a rider. She ran into the canter but both times picked up the correct lead.

After Rhoda left I worked on downloading the video and placing it on youtube and on Facebook as we have some prospective buyers that wanted to see her trot and canter under saddle. We left for church a little after 6:00 pm. Tonight was the prayer meeting. David led that. It was different from a church service but was so good to be there. If you would like to watch that click HERE. Tonight was on praying for the children and their teachers in Sunday School. 

Safety Net UP

 No walk the rest of this week. Ruth and Fedi joined Diane and Mike, Rachel and David and Beth and Greg at Gulf Shores.  Spark and Rhonda are in Colorado this week. I left for the Berean office at 8:00 am. Skip had already arrived and Bruce walked in right after me. We had plenty of mail this morning for all of us to keep busy. Marvin came in with a box of delicious looking vine ripened tomatoes from his garden to share.

Below Marvin and Kathy are hard at work with the letters. Marvin is always given the job to look up missing information. We are thankful there is internet at this office.

Below they are just finishing up with the studies and the Bibles.

Then came the treat. Shirley baked a chocolate cake for us and we had some left over pumpkin cake.

Today is Shirl's birthday but she couldn't come so we called her and sang happy birthday to her. Vonnie was also missing, she just wasn't feeling well. After the car was loaded I drove to the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles and studies then over to Tractor Supply Company in East Peoria to pick up some de-wormers and mineral blocks. I spent $127 on the 4 blocks and 5 tubes of Quest de-wormers but all were necessary.

One mineral block was put in the shelter of the mares and foals. Merlin came right over to taste it. His mama, Harli just wanted the salt block.

Two of the mineral blocks were put on the cabin porch for Mike to take out to Middle Grove.

A wonderful picture came in from Anna, the girl training Valerie. 

Love love love seeing Valerie undersaddle. She is 4 years old and should have been started a couple years ago but with mom needing so much care both Valerie and Tessa were just left at Middle Grove. Both of these mares were born in 2022. Sarah came to today, she and her girls cleaned our house again. I walked in and said, "wow" they even vacuumed the bedrooms.  When they finished they went to work with Tessa. Below is River petting Tessa.

Zion is going to be a horse trainer when she grows up so Sarah isn't just working with Tessa she is also training Zion how to train. The video below shows just some of the ground work done before a horse is started under saddle.

It really is a labor of love as it takes hours and hours but we don't regret the time spent, we end up with amazing riding horses.  Jozsef came today to put the net up in the barn. Mark bought the safety net a few months ago but it was too hard for him to put up. We were thrilled when Jozsef said he could do it.

Mark and I worked on repairing the fence line between the mare pasture and the stallion pasture. One of the high tensile strands had broken and the entire line needed to be fixed.

We thought we would be rained out. There were dark clouds lots of lightning and thunder but no rain. I was glad to have the job finished. Right now Evan gets the pasture but next week it will be the mares turn. Tonight more of the shrimp was cooked along with some fish. I'm trying to use up the food in the freezer, well I have to, the fridge is almost empty and I didn't want to go shopping. Below is Mark's plate. 

Joan just sent a message she will be glad to help host the New Year's Eve party this year. I was glad she reminded me and quickly blocked the barn off for that night and for the New Years Day just in case anyone needs to spend the night. Joan's parties usually last all night long!

Harli Pregnant

 Instead of walking today Ruth and I drove the golf cart over to Joan's house, picked up Joan and Berlica and drove over to the horses. I needed help loading Harli, her colt, Rosaleigh's colt and Dancer for their 8:30 am vet appointment. I was VERY glad for their help and glad we had practiced yesterday. Harli and the 2 foals were loaded into the front. Dancer was in the pond pasture across the dam grazing with Jewel, Penny and Jury. Berlica and I took the golf cart over to pick Dancer up. Joan and Ruth were still at the trailer waiting to help. Dancer walked right into the trailer and I was on the way by 7:50 am.  I arrived right at 8:30 am and Dr. Hoerr was ready for us. He wanted to do Dancer first. 

We wanted to make sure she was not pregnant before we sell her and she needed a new coggins test. I also had him check to see if her wolf teeth were removed. I was pretty sure we had done that when she was 2 years old but wanted to make sure. The wolf teeth were removed earlier and she was open. We took her outside for the pictures required for the coggins test. She was loaded right back up into the back of the trailer and then came the test. Could I get Harli out of the side door of the trailer and leave both colts inside. Well that happened with no drama at all. Harli was put in the stocks for the ultrasound first. Not only did she settle we could also see a heart beat. 

She was bred to Evan and is due July 29th, 2027. Next Dr. Hoerr needed to check her cheek where she had an abscess. That had healed up well but when there is an abscess in that area it can be a tooth problem. Dr. Hoerr could feel a bony bump but no sign of infection. His guess was the first time we saw the abscess she had gotten a splinter or foreign object in that area and the second abscess was when that foreign object made it's way out. However we will keep a watch on it just in case it would happen again. Dr. Hoerr was also asked about her itchy skin. He said she is hyper sensitive to the no-see-ums those tiny little gnats that bite. He said that will disappear as the weather cools.  The next job was to get the colts out through the side door for their blood draws and pictures. Merlin was happy to jump out as his mama was right there. He stood perfectly for the blood draw and reasonably well for the pictures. I had to shove Rosaleigh's colt out. He thought it was too high to step down. He also stood very well for the blood draw. Dr. Hoerr took one look at him and said, "that's a nice colt!"  I was sure to tell his owner that. I asked Harli to get in the side door and was pleased when she jumped in. The two colts needed a little encouragement but both made the big jump inside. When we got back to the farm Dance was unloaded first then Harli out the back. I had taken the halter off of her colt and thought he would follow Harli off the trailer but instead he stayed with Rosaleigh's colt.

Those two boys decided they would rather stay in the trailer than jump down and it wasn't near as big of a step from the side door at the vet clinic. I finally got some grain and Merlin jumped down. He was put away while I was waiting for Rosaleigh's colt to make up his mind and jump down. After about 15 minutes I finally called Mark and asked him to come help but before he arrived the colt calmly stepped off of the trailer. I was glad Mark came though as once the truck and trailer were put away I had a ride back to the house.  This afternoon Mark and Mackenson cleaned up the manure spreader getting rid of any net wrap stuck on the back then cleaned the gutters here at the house.

My guests at the farm house asked if I had a large umbrella he could borrow. We had rain today and more rain is predicted tomorrow so I took one over and put it in the garage for him. The mares in the pond pasture saw me on the golf cart and came to the fence to see if I had anything for them.

Since I had no airbnb's to clean or flip I made Mark a fancy feast tonight for supper. He had shrimp cocktail with  home made cocktail sauce and lemons as a start, then pulled pork with bbq sauce, an egg roll with sweet and sour sauce and a salad with blue cheese crumbles.  He was very pleased with that dinner. We will have some ice cream for our dessert tonight but later. I worked on the website updating the mares in foal page. We are expecting 15 foals for 2027.