Wedding Day for Faith and Andrew

 Something got into the tomato plant bed. Yesterday one of the plants were completely uprooted and laying on it's side. I replanted it, today what ever is digging didn't uproot any of the plants just dug a hole.

Since I was ready for church and didn't want to get my hands dirty I left it. That poor plant is just not growing very well. We picked up Aunt Jinnie and Becky first and they were already outside waiting for us. Next we picked up Rhonda and got to church just before 9:30 am. It was wonderful to see church full and hear so many happy voices fellowshipping before the service started. Dave Huette was visiting from Tremont and had the morning message on Psalm 1 and John 15. Click HERE to watch that. David and Craig had the marriage message. Click HERE to watch that. I admit to getting emotional a bit. What a week this has been. After the service Mark picked up Aunt Jinnie, Becky and I from the front door and we went straight out to the fellowship hall to get ready for the reception. Aunt Jinnie and Becky were put on making the icecream punch. 

Diane and I got out the fruit cups Beth had prepared for us and set those out. There was another crew working on cooking the chicken strips.

We were all kept busy and by 2:00 pm when the line started there was a quick scramble to get everything on the table and ready. 

The sauces were for the chicken strips which were not pictured.

We were all pretty busy. I was washing trays from 2:00 pm until 3:15 pm. When someone came to take my place Amy and I went through the line and ate our meal before going up to see Andrew and Faith. We were waiting in line when I looked out the window to see 7 of my grandchildren chasing a baby bunny. They caught it.

Rhoda took the pictures below of Faith and Andrew getting ready to taste the cake.

Mark and I took Aunt Jinnie and Becky home but stopped at the parking lot to check out the car.

The kids were passing out bubble wands for the guests to blow bubbles at the new married couple as they left. Below Amy is blowing bubbles at us.

We got home a little after 4:00 pm. Sarah and Nolan along with Brian and Rebekah were here hiking the trails. A big branch had fallen across our second drive while we were at church.

I changed my clothes then went out to tease mares and was disappointed to see Basilea and Thalia were still in season. As we didn't cover them yesterday they had to be covered today. Basilea was covered first by Valiant then Thalia covered by Evan. Once they were fly sprayed and put away I took the golf cart over to mom's where the grandchildren were playing on the beach. They were busy burying Jordan.

Later we all migrated up to the fire pit. It was too hot outside to think of lighting a fire so we just sat around and visited.

Ruth brought a kite for the kids to try out as it was breezy.  Below is a short video of some of their fun with that kite.

They played with that for quite a while before going to the volleyball court to play games.

Around 8:00 pm the party started breaking up. I stopped in at the barn to check the fridge and it is still too cold around 20 degrees inside. That was turned off and hopefully by morning I can turn it back on. What a good day! The wedding and reception were very well attended. The church and fellowship hall were FULL!

Vaccines

 After breakfast I drove to Sam's club thinking I would be buying the ingredients for Sunday supper but when I got there the kids started chiming in on how they would skip the dinner and go straight home after Faith and Andrew's wedding reception. I sent back a message that I too would skip and go home from the reception and crash. I still picked up a water melon and more icecream for tonight. When I got home and the food was taken over to the barn and Mark, Mackenson and I started working on the west fenceline. There were so many trees down on that side.

I really dislike working in the weeds and as soon as we thought we had it horse proof went in to wash up, scrubbing everything the weeds touched. Sure hope I don't end up with poison ivy. The mares were let back out into the pond pasture.

They seemed content to settle down to graze. At noon we went over to mom's house for lunch. Rhonda heated up the casserole Gale sent and the meal was delicious.

Below are 4 generations starting with Aunt Jinnie, then Becky, then Becky's daughter Elisabeth and finally Elisabeth's son Jacob.

After lunch we watched the slide video of the pictures of mom. There were supposed to be 250 pictures but we never saw any of Rhonda's pictures which she sent in. I left then to get my dishes done and laundry started. The next job was to give each of the yearlings their shots. 

We use the 5 way from Tractor Supply and each yearling stood very quietly. No reaction at all to the needle prick. They are such good babies. Disco, Dahlia, Roseberry and Shadow were given them.

The people buying Dancer's colt arrived to visit with him. He is going to go to his new home next Friday and I think we are going to deliver him. I took the golf cart over to the barn and just as I reached the kitchen door the golf cart made a grinding noise and wouldn't move. That was left there and I walked back and told Mark we were going to have to tow it home. I went to put something away came outside and there was Bethany's mother-in-law and her great niece pushing the golf cart from the barn to our house while Mark sat inside and steered. I took them back to the barn then brought out a couple lead ropes tied them to the back of the working golf cart to the front of the broken golf cart and Mark drove the working one pulling the broken one while I steered all the way to the indoor arena. That was dropped off and it was back to the house for us. We needed to drive Sarah and Nolan's van to Walmart in Morton then meet David to take Israel and Elisabet with us while he and Stephanie went to the rehearsal dinner. We got back to the barn at 6:13 pm, just in time for the supper prayer.  Anni, Bethany's mother-in-law and Diane prepared a supper for 25-30 people. 

Daisy and Anni like climbing the poles in the dining area.

We were just ready to start the clean up when Ellie sent a message that there were horses out. Elisabet and I used the golf cart to go get them. We looked for the place they got out but couldn't find it. That meant we needed to move another bale in the middle paddock and the horses were locked in there for tonight. By the time we got back from putting all the horses in and securing all of the gates all of the meal clean up was finished. It was dark by then so Israel showed us the light show Mark's car puts on.

I posted it on Facebook but Facebook won't allow me to post it here and claims someone else made the video. If you would like to see it click HERE but it really isn't that good. 

We had just come into the house when David arrived to pick up the kids. Thankful for the beautiful weather and the energy we needed to get through today. 

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.