Super Fun Saturday

 Jack, Jace and Abe were picked up at the shop at 7:30 am and we went straight to Casey's to pick out donuts. Jack wanted a chocolate long john, Jace wanted a sprinkle donut and Abe just wanted something with chocolate icing. Well that first Caseys didn't have any long johns OR any donuts with sprinkles so we left that one and drove to the one in Hanna City and hit the jackpot or so it seemed. There was only 1 chocolate long john and 1 vanilla so both of those were purchased along with 2 donuts with sprinkles, one chocolate and one vanilla and Abe Judah got his iced chocolate. The boys had to wait the 4 miles home to before biting into them.

It didn't quite turn out as expected. Jack bit into his and there was pudding in the middle. He thought it looked like pus and couldn't eat it. The white one also had pudding in. We tried to just take the pudding out but the thought of that pudding dripping down just took his appetite away. Abe only likes licking the chocolate icing off his donut

but Jace ate both of his. Poor Jack. I was laughing so hard at his reaction and kept telling them all pudding really does taste good. They finished up with a big cup of milk.

From there we went out to the barn. Mike was there putting a new hinge on the barn gate. The boys played on the hay while the gate was hung.

Karin, Isaiah, Magda and Kayla arrived to take Irish and Ripper out to Middle Grove and bring back the 3 walkers.  Abe decided to climb into the skid steer so Jack and Jace climbed on too.

Below they are pretending Abe is driving too fast.

I needed to move in some round bales so the boys were told to jump on the tramp to stay out of the way while the first one was brought out.

The weanlings were going to be moved into the short shelter so the boys were taken down to the house and told to hold the door shut so when the horses were moved if they got loose they wouldn't be able to get inside. (I needed to keep them safe from getting stepped on.) Sarah arrived with Zion and Eden so took the boys on a golf cart ride while the other two bales were moved. When they came back from the ride Mika was brought inside so Zion and Abe could help with the grooming. 

Sarah Reinhard arrived to start tacking up. Below she is grooming Oksana.

Meanwhile the kids had gone behind the barn and found ice to lick.

Karin arrived with the horses from Middle Grove.

They got them all tacked up and headed out to the trails.

Anna arrived with her girls and Berlica came over with them.

Mark and Mackenson spent the morning removing the fencing from the gate down to the corner. We are doing that as the barn is going in this field and some of the bigger trees will need to come down. Mark doesn't want any big limbs falling on the new barn. 

After the barn is built we will need to put up a different fence line so the stallions will still have a pasture. Sarah took all the kids to the playground wile I finished moving bales. Mom came out to join us in the sunshine. The kids played in the playground, collected cattails from the lake for the fluff, climbing trees and had just having a lot of fun playing together. It was such a beautiful sunny warm day for Feb 27th. 

Below Sarah is giving golf cart rides.

Below Faith is showing grandma her book for Co-op. 

Sarah took Ben and Taunya's boys home so mom, Anna, Diane and I went out on mom's balcony to enjoy the sunshine. Mom even made her lunch and brought that out on her special tray.

Dan and Abram arrived to work on mom's solar system.

While we were sitting on the balcony I got an inquiry for the apartment for tonight. These people wanted late check out. It is much easier to answer them on the computer so Anna and I took the golf cart home. I answered them yes they could have late check out and immediately the apartment booked. Anna had it all set up for the big group coming in that needed the pacNplay and when I looked at who booked it mentioned they had 2 children plus and infant. I sent a message to them asking if we should leave the pacNplay set up and the answer came that they don't have an infant. Turned out there were two different people both for tonight. Kyle wanted late check out while James had actually booked the apartment. We made taco salad for lunch. After lunch Anna went back up to the apartment to put in the cookies and remove the pacNplay. This afternoon the hamburger was browned for tomorrow's meal which is going to be crock pot lasagna. For supper tonight I made chicken stir fry. This evening apple crumb cake and brownies were made for dessert tomorrow but of course we had to make sure it was edible and each had a small slice of the crumb cake. It was a very productive fun Saturday. IF you would like to see the rest of today's pictures click HERE.  Stephanie sent the picture below:

She wrote:  We are on our way to Zapata Texas. David couldn't fold his suit and put it in carry on so he is just wearing it. It made me think of what your mom said about how your dad used to travel... when he flew on planes, he always wore a suit;).

 

Stuck in the Mud

 I got stuck in the mud and my heart went with a thud when I thought that all my worries were behind  trouble got on the trail spent the next 3 hours in jail I should have read that detour sign.   That is a song dad would sing on all of our vacations each time we had take a detour. Today I really did get stuck in the mud. More about that later. On our walk this morning we stopped at Joan's to check out her new bedroom set then each of us got a loaf of friendship bread special baked by Berlica. Below we are leaving Joan's house with our treasure. Joan couldn't walk because of Faith's co-op.

After the walk I downloaded and uploaded another of David's messages, another one from June 2018.

I listened to it while making the video. From there I drove to Diane's office to drop off a couple checks then to the money center to deposit a couple checks. The money center wouldn't take my checks and after trying two times I just gave up and decided to drive to CEFCU to deposit them. The drive through was pretty busy but I only had 1 car in front of me on my lane. It still took quite a while. When it was finally my turn, the drawer opened, the checks were put in and before the drawer closed the wind grabbed a check and started hurling it into the parking lot. Of course that meant a chase but the check was grabbed and I got back in line only the time spent chasing the check gave about 6 or 7 cars to get in line before me. That took an extra 20 minutes. Kroger was the next stop. That was going to be the only grocery stop today but checking prices I just couldn't do it, bought a few things then drove to Aldi in Pekin. $99.00 was spent at Aldi but even there I made a mistake. I got in line with only 1 cart ahead of me, realized I had forgotten the sugar pea pods went back to get them and all of a sudden there were 7 carts in from of mine and still only 1 line open. I didn't get home until after 2:00 pm, got the groceries put away, took the golf cart up to the barn, plugged the trailer into the truck and took off for Middle Grove. When I arrived at Middle Grove I got out of the truck, opened the gate then walked in to make sure the ground was firm enough to drive on. That was another big mistake, it was firm enough on top but I realized very quickly when driving into the field this wasn't a good idea and decided to drive right back out to the road. I almost made it out. The truck got stuck at the gate and started sliding backwards with the trailer starting to jackknife. Backing the truck was worse it started sliding sideways down the slope. I was stuck in the mud. I called my brother John and asked him first if he was in Farmington or Missouri and when the answer came back Farmington told him I was stuck in the mud. He sent two of his sons, Tom and Tim to help. 

They tried first with their 4 wheel truck but that didn't work the ground was just too soft on top then frozen underneath . They then drove to the next gate where Mike has the tractor,

brought that back, hooked up and pulled everything backward.

Once it was back far enough the chain was unhooked and the tractor taken to the front of the truck.

The tractor easily pulled the truck and trailer out to the road.

What would we do without family? I was so thankful they lived close and were willing to come. By this time it was getting late. The truck and trailer were left parked on the side of the road before hiking up to find the horses.  Sally was the first horse that came up.

Below Sheena is left and Rosaleigh is grazing on the right.

Big Rosalie and Indy were eating at the hay bale.

Big Rosalie was haltered, that is Indy next to her. I originally planned on bringing Rosalie and Galena home. 

There were more horses over by the round pen. That is Lily on the other side and Lola to the right. 

Galena saw me and came waddling up. She is just huge but her udder is still flat. She is due in a month.

Below is Soul.

Hadassah is below.

Rosaleigh came walking over for attention. She is due July 4th. That is Jewel behind her and the black in the corner is Tatiana.

The rest of them were scattered and I didn't want to take any extra time to get close-up pictures. Galena was haltered and brought over to Rosalie but they did not want to walk together. Galena was sure that Rosalie was going to bite or kick her. It just wasn't going to work, the halter was removed from Rosalie. She doesn't need to come in so soon anyway. Galena was taken to the trailer, loaded, the gates were shut and by that time it was almost 5:00 pm. At least I made it home before dark. Isaiah was here and helped with putting Galena in a paddock. Tomorrow Karin is taking Ripper and Irish out to Middle Grove and bringing in the 3 walkers so the trailer was just left in the drive. Supper was late tonight, I'm muddy, tired and cold so will draw a hot bath then hit the bed early.

The Herd Moved

 Mom came on the walk today, We all wore ice tracks on our shoes but we found most of the ice is now melted off the driveways and by the end of tomorrow pretty much all of the snow will also be melted.  When we reached Diane's house Joan looked down and saw a bunch of washers spilled out on the driveway. Mike must have lost them when bringing in a bag of them. Yesterday Joan needed some washers and this bunch had the exact size needed. She dropped right to the ground, picked them all up, kept the few she needed and took the rest in to Diane's house for Mike. 

Mom was able to do almost the entire first round only skipping Joan's house but doing the hill. She is getting in shape for our trip to Gulf Shores.  Today was house cleaning day for me and I like to listen to AC Central while working. I was able to get just the first page of sermons up so listened to one of Bloomington's services. The next message I listened to David's message from June 2018 given at GPHOP. The title of this message was Hidden With Christ. This message really hit home, we ALL want to be great or have recognition and I too am guilty of exactly what he spoke on.

Mike called to report the back gates at Middle Grove were found opened and the herd was in the summer pasture. They were hanging around up by the round pen. The picture below was taken last summer.

They love hanging around by the round pen under those trees.  We have a bunch of round bales stored in the summer pasture down by the lower gates, really big nice green hay bales that we would rather they not trash until needed.  Mike and Diane will be spending the weekend at Middle Grove and can help move them on Saturday.  I'm picking up Addyson, Jack, Jace and Abe early Saturday morning early so I may as well plan on picking up Galena and Rosalie Saturday and move the herd at the same time. Addyson, Jack and Jace can help with that. Abe will get to stay with grandpa. It is supposed to be a beautiful day with sunshine and 57 degrees, not a bad day to move horses. 

Cindy Update

 

Maria, The lady that bought Cindy in 2012, pictured above with Rebekah, sent updates with pictures today. She writes: She’s an awesome horse  She bred Cindy to a Gypsy Vanner in 2014 and had a filly in 2015. Below is Cindy with her half Gypsy daughter. Cindy is now almost completely white. Her daughter is HUGE!

Cindy was sold in foal to Raven to Maria and delivered a filly that Maria named Bella. Bella was bred in 2017 and had filly herself in 2018. They are pictured below.

I'm always thrilled with updates and can't wait to show Ruth and Rebekah. The ground was still frozen on our walk this morning but only because the ground itself is so cold. The thermometer was above freezing all night and this morning was 36 degrees. It warmed up to 45 but felt much colder because of clouds and wind. One of the huge blessings of the warm up is I no longer need to bring the keys to my car inside. Mark believes the extreme cold is bad on those Prius key batteries. That meant TWO trips out to the car each morning. The first trip was to climb in the car and push the start button and when the car didn't start only then remember the key was in the house.  We are from the Midwest and trained to always leave the keys in the car just in case someone needed to borrow it. Mark was from the East and there evidently cars must be kept locked at all times. That sometimes makes for a few arguments around here.  My cousin from New Jersey, Janet, raises sheep and one of her ewes had triplets during that last big storm and she posted the picture below.

This reminded of me of my first ewe.  Back when we had Daisy the cow, pigs and chickens I decided it would be good to ad lamb to our meat supply. My very first ewe was a named Jane. There was a man in Hanna City that raised sheep. I stopped to visit him and asked if he would ever consider selling a pregnant ewe. He had just one he wanted to sell. This ewe had mastitis in one side of her udder and he didn't want to mess with her.  I bought her, fenced in the side yard at Pleasant Home and about a month later she was ready to deliver. When the time came for her to give birth I brought her into a stall and she had no problem delivering a beautiful ewe lamb. I was pretty thrilled but within a few minutes went back into labor and delivered another ewe lamb. The second lamb was being cleaned up when she went into labor again and delivered a third ewe lamb.  Wow did I ever get a bargain! Four for the price of one.  Not only that her mastitis had been healed and she was able to nurse all 3 with no problems. The only problem was I couldn't bring myself to butcher a ewe lamb, we had only ever butchered wethers (castrated males) Instead when they were weaned I sold 1 and kept 2 and took Jane back to the Hanna City farm to be bred again. The next year she had twins again both ewes. The 3rd year Jane was bred and so were 2 of her daughters. This year she had twins but had problems with mastitis and only one was thriving. I spent a lot of time making sure the smaller one would could nurse and was able to save them both. Sheep are a lot of work. It cost $4.50 each to shear them so I decided to learn to do it myself and the first time I sheared it took me an hour to get just one done and my back was killing me.  The next time I paid the $4.50 each to have someone do it then we sold the wool and I made a whopping $7.00. We had one ewe deliver outside in the cold and the lamb died so then I made a place in the basement of Pleasant Home for the ewes to deliver if they were due in the winter but it wasn't the best solution. No matter how much bedding I brought in and put down and how hard I worked to clean the room the smell would drift upstairs. One very good thing about the sheep were they would clean up weeds so could be moved from paddock to paddock and keep the weeds down but then the wool would get full of burrs which ruined the value of the wool but they still needed to be sheared each year. By this time Jane was having hoof problems and the kids didn't really like eating the lamb so the flock was sold. This evening Mark and I picked up mom and Diane for church. Mike Kaisner had the message and this was a message I've struggled with.  He spoke first in Malachi 3 and then Matthew 11. To understand how much the Old Testament meshes with the New Testament and how my views that God in the old didn't always mesh with Jesus in the new but how those views NEEDED to mesh and my views must change. Mike brought it out clearly. I recommend listening to the service again. There was so much more in the message.