Cleaning Day

 I was up at 4:45 am, I'm finally caught up from the time change. That gave me plenty of time for reading this morning before our walk. Joan didn't go again today as mom was not yet up. We stopped in at the barn to see Dan and Susan's decorations for the wedding. The most interesting is the wall. 

The yellow cord is from the vacuum cleaner so ignore that. The carpet he brought from the school. Behind that wall is all the other stuff.

The gym is so big, they have it divided into two separate rooms. One is for the wedding and the other will be for games. The tables are in the game section but right after the wedding the guests will be asked to go into the living area for drinks and snacks while the tables are brought in for the reception. It should be a quick turn-a-round. Dan made a video of Sophia and Carl growing up that will play on the big screen TV. The next stop on our walk was to check out the progress on Mike's barn.

As it was so cold outside, he had a heater running which made the building comfortable for the work he was doing. The building has plenty of lights and the entire area is well lit.

We stopped in after the walk to talk about the wedding and have mom pick out the dress she was going to wear. Diane brought 3 out and we all settled on this one.

Right after the walk I went home to make breakfast then went straight to the barn to finish the cleaning. The bedding for the 6 bunk beds in the bunk room was taken up and those beds were made. The 6 bathrooms were given a good cleaning then the living area was cleaned, swept and mopped. Once that cleaning was done I went into the gym, wiped down all the chairs set up for the wedding as some had dust on them. Then cleaned and organized the area where all the left over tables, chairs, sweepers, floor scrubbers and sports toys are stored. By the time I quit working it was 1:30 pm came home, ate a peanut butter and jam sandwich then sat down to rest. Mark got home and was put to work washing windows both inside and out at the barn. Mackenson helped with some of that. At 6:30 pm my airbnb guest left. Braelyn and Anna came to help get it cleaned. We found some medicine in the fridge. I sent her a message through airbnb that I have that down at the house. Hope she doesn't need it right away. Airbnb no longer will share phone numbers so can't reach her other than through airbnb. We are missing the rug by the door and the front door will not unlock. Hopefully it just needs batteries. It was too late to work on it tonight so Mark will try to get that fixed in the morning tomorrow as we have guests coming in for the wedding and they will be here tomorrow. I'm doing laundry here at the house and at the foaling apartment as we had to wash all of the bedding. The last of the towels are in the dryer now. Tomorrow morning all of this will be taken up to the foaling apartment.

Record Hail

The storms missed us last night. Some of the pictures of destroyed cars and buildings were crazy. The huge pieces of hail smashed cars and trucks to smithereens and even broke through buildings.  Matt Devitt weather man posted pictures of some of the hail that came down near Kankakee. We are SO thankful the storm missed us. 

Some of the hail stones were 6 inches diameter which is a record for our area.

We only got a quarter of an inch of rain but had lots of wind, lightning and thundering during the night. It was not raining at walk time. Mom was up so Joan, Ruth, Diane and I walked. We stopped at Mike's barn to check it out. It was pretty chilly outside at 39 degrees but felt warm in his new barn.

Joan was able to get and appointment for the yellow male cat to be neutered today and took him on her way to play practice so I went to mom's to stay until Diane arrived. That cat had been spraying and must have visited the stall barn. The smell was pretty strong. By the time I got home the temperature had dropped even lower and it was snowing mixed in with the rain.

Dan, Susan and Levi arrived to work on the wedding decorations at the barn. They brought in a 10 foot tall wood backdrop for pictures. It took all Susan, Levi and me to hold it up while Dan put in bolts. That thing is heavy!

The walls are up, the lights are up, the carpet had been laid, the chairs are in position and the arch is up. I was bringing 2 or 3 chairs at a time but Levi was bringing 8 at a time. These young men are so strong!

I came back to the house at 4:00 pm, took a nice hot leisurely shower and got ready for church. We picked up Mackenson and Berlica as Joan stayed with mom tonight. Caleb Plattner had the message on the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. Click HERE if you would like to watch that. After church we went to Culvers for a late supper. Faith took the kids home after supper as when we finished eating we were more than ready to go home and go to bed. Us old folks just can't stay out late anymore.

Strong Storms

 Just Ruth, Diane and I walked this morning. Mom wasn't up yet so Joan stayed. Mom had a dermatologist appointment this morning and Joan was going to bring her to the Berean office as soon as that was finished. It was supposed to be a quick check up but ended up being a bit more. They found a couple spots on her legs that they decided to burn off but the most serious was on her chest. That one they took a biopsy.  They arrived at the Berean office around 10:30 am just as we were getting the Bibles ready for mailing. Below are a few pictures of the morning. 

We enjoyed cheese cake with fresh ripe strawberries for our treat but also we heated up the cinnamon raison biscuits we put in the freezer a couple of weeks ago. Sam's had the strawberries marked down to $3.97 for the 2 pound pack so I bought 6 pounds. Strawberries are a fruit that Mark likes and are good for him to eat. We packed up and left for the Hanna City post office getting there just before noon but when I took the Bibles and studies into the post office realized I had forgotten to bring the Michigan studies home to be graded. Those were still left on the windowsill at the Berean office. After dropping off mom I drove to the barn to pick up 3 rolls of paper towels as I noticed we were almost out at the Berean office then drove back there to get the studies and drop off the paper towel. By this time it was 1:10 pm and I had not had lunch so drove through Arby's to try their 2 for $7.00 fish sandwiches and took those home. Mark was glad as he also had not had lunch yet. After eating those we both drove cars up to the indoor arena. We have storms predicted tonight with a chance of hail. The stock trailer was unhooked from the truck and the truck moved in also. Joan put Kristin's new car in. I sent a message to our airbnb guest about parking her car in there also. Then we started cleaning. I swept up the stall barn then went to work in Mark's garage while he moved heavy equipment out of the way of the storm shelter. That was also cleaned out just to make sure there were no spiders hiding in there. The airbnb guest was sent message about how to get to the storm shelter. She is at work tonight until 7:30 pm so it will be dark by the time she arrives. We left the lights on in the stall barn and in the back garage. 

Dan was here working on the gym. He got more curtains hung and some of the lights. I didn't go over today as I spent my energy cleaning the stall barn and garage. Tomorrow I will finish taking the bedding up for the bunk beds and finish the 3 bathrooms. Diane will be with mom and I'm on call so won't go off the property until Joan gets home. 

Busy Day

 We had a beautiful warm sunny day. This morning was still cool and we 5 (Rachel, Ruth, Joan, Diane and I) walked for the first time this spring. We were able to figure out who needed to be where. Right after the walk I went home, made breakfast then went straight to the barn to start organizing the gym. Dan was on his way to come remove the batteries on the lift and made it there even before I finished. All of the sports toys are going to be behind a curtain for the wedding. Mark helped roll up the bouncy house and get that on the carts. That is also with those sports toys. It is behind the yellow net.

Mark used the sweeper to sweep the living area and then the gym while I was working on the toys.

Dan was back pretty quickly with the 4 new batteries and got them installed quickly. He found them at Costco and they were much more reasonable than expected.

The lift worked perfectly once they were installed.

An extension cord was run on top of the volleyball net then the big tarps were thrown over the net. That is going to be the start of the area for the actual wedding. He put a hook up above the big garage door and another on the other wall.

A rope with loops was stretched between for the curtain to hide the toys.

I needed to leave around 2:00 pm as Mike wanted to work with the 4 weanlings. Disco and Roseberry were taken out first.

He used the 4 wheeler to lead them around the yard. Disco did perfect, Roseberry had to be reminded to stay behind the 4 wheeler. Then those 2 were loaded into the front of the trailer. Disco walked in without hesitation but Roseberry took a few minutes to figure it out. They were unloaded and loaded twice then given some grain in the trailer before taking them back. Shadow and Dahlia were worked with next. Dahlia remembered being led, I'm not sure Shadow had been led with the 4 wheeler last year but she figured it out pretty quickly. Dahlia walked right into the trailer but Shadow had to be encouraged. Below is a video of both sets, first is Disco and Roseberry and once those two were put away the next two are Shadow and Dahlia. The weanlings are muddy but it is just surface mud after that inch of rain. They don't have any terrible caked on mud and this will all come off with some grooming which didn't happen today.

Rhoda witnessed a horrific accident today. It happened right in front of her in Morton at the intersection of Lakeland and Main. The black car flipped 4 times.

The driver of that car was able to crawl out of a window. She had to help the lady out of the red car. She was hysterical and bleeding and the car was smoking so Rhoda told her she had to get out. Rhoda said she tried calling 911 four times but she couldn't figure it out because she was in so much of a panic. She had Zeke with her but he was in a car seat in the back so probably didn't see the accident. One never knows how the day will go. I'm very thankful no one was seriously hurt.

Big Sunday

 I was up by 5:45 am and after downing one good cup of coffee I started doing the work I should have done on Saturday but was just too tired. The bathroom was cleaned, the kitchen was given a stove job (the stove along with everything else in the kitchen really needed cleaning) and the floors were swept and mopped. It really is good to have company even if that company is family and coming on Sunday. At 8:30 am breakfast was cooked then it was time to get ready for church. Today Joan brought mom to church but then her whole family needed to leave around 10:30 am as Aubry was getting baptized at Summit Church. Joan said there were 50 baptisms there today. Craig Stickling had our morning service on Jonathan, David, King Saul and then Saul who became Paul. Click HERE to watch that. David had the afternoon service on Peter's answer. Click HERE to watch that, I promise you WILL learn something new by watching this message. After church Israel rode with Mark who followed us to mom's house. Joan wasn't yet back so Mark stayed with mom while I drove the Tesla over to the foaling apartment to turn the lights on and make sure there were no Asian beetles or stink bugs on the floor. I was glad the guest wasn't there yet, I found 2 stink bugs dead on the floor and about 8 of the Asian beetles. She is staying for 4 nights so hopefully no more get in while she is here. When I got back to mom's house Joan was just pulling in. Sarah and Nolan had arrived along with David and Stephanie. Israel was glad to show all the girls the car light show. David was here to work on taxes and I went to work on the vegetables. I cut up 8 peppers and 4 onions. As I was cutting the onions Jake Gerst arrived. I explained I wasn't weeping because I was so glad to see him, it was the onions.  Mark did the grilling tonight and I have to say the meal was excellent. Ruth dropped off a big salad from Rebekah. Rebekah and Brian served lunch today in Roanoke and the salad was left from lunch. That went perfect with the chicken and vegetables Mark grilled. Joan dropped off a brand new vegetable tray with two kinds of dip which also went well. We also had plenty of other foods. We had a big group for dinner, every family came plus a couple of other families but we had plenty of food and even had some left over. After dinner we celebrated Braelyn and Eden's birthdays. 

Below are a few pictures taken after dinner.

The gym was well used today as was the game room. 

Joan brought over bags of toys and clothes from Sherry. The kids thought it was Christmas and all who wanted got to choose things to take home. Rhoda and Lee took Nancy home and I left shortly after that. Tomorrow I will worry about cleaning up the barn. The barn was WELL used tonight, it seemed like a hundred kids but prebaby more like 60 people came. I'm tired this evening. 

Time Change

 I went out early this morning to check the rain gauge as I heard it raining during the night. We got a full inch of rain through all of those storms yesterday and during the night.

Mark picked up Mackenson and those two went to the all church cleaning. 

Faith had her first wedding shower this morning in Tremont, IL so Joan needed to leave by 9:00 am. I went over early to hear all about the potluck last night. Mom really enjoyed having company. This morning Israel had his Derby race day. His derby car came in 2nd. 

David sent a video of the actual race but I can't seem to share it here.  Joan came home this afternoon with a big bouquet of flowers from Randy and Kathy. They sent them home with Joan for mom with a nice thankyou card from when they stayed down in mom's condo this winter.

Below Joan is reading the card to her.

When I got home from mom's the sheets I had ordered a couple days ago from Target had arrived. They were washed, dried, folded and taken up to the apartment.

It has been years since I bought new sheets for the foaling apartment and some of those were really wearing out. We have a guest moving in tomorrow for 4 nights but when she moves out some wedding guests are moving right in so we will need the extra sheets to flip the apartment. My next job was to head over to the barn to sweep up any stray lady bugs (Asian beetles) that found their way inside. We have Kensley's end of year basketball celebration at the barn tonight. They ended their 5th grade season 26 wins and 1 loss. It really was an amazing season and her team was such a fun team to watch. As I was sweeping Gertie and Dennis arrived with a couple guests from Taylor, Mo. We had a nice visit. After they left I finished the barn then went home to think about cleaning here at our house but just couldn't make myself do any more work. I just don't have the energy since that long sickness. The 12 chicken breasts were cut up, drizzled with olive oil and covered with parmesan cheese for tomorrow's dinner.

Mark will grill that tomorrow along with the peppers and onions as we are going to have a nice warm Sunday.

Israel bought a bat at one of the second hand stores in Chili, posted it on Facebook market place and sold it for $70.00. He is trying to earn enough money to buy some kind of switch for one of his games and this will really help. Smart kid to know to buy the bat in the first place. It must have been really special. 

As tomorrow is the time change and it is already almost 9:00 pm making it really 10:00 pm we must go to bed now. Hopefully I'll get up early enough to clean up the kitchen it is just too late now and I have no more energy.

Our Inspiration

 Joan needed to leave this morning around 8:15 am for Co-op but when I arrived just after 8:00 am she was still reading to Mackenson and Berlica. Mom was still in bed still sleeping. Mom's house looked amazing. Mom told me later this morning that Joan stayed up until 2:00 am to finish all of the cleaning. Today she is hosting potluck at mom's house and wanted to make sure it was perfect. No wonder mom slept in, if she was still awake waiting for Joan to finish cleaning! The rain started this morning and soon was just pouring down with lightning and thunder. The sky cleared up around noon and the sun almost came out. By 1:00 pm the sun was out so Rachel took mom out on the deck to enjoy the sunshine.

Israel came to help grandpa this afternoon. They trimmed saplings off the dams, Israel cleaned up the lake by pulling trash from the winter out of the lake and throwing it up on the dam for Mark to load unto the golf cart.

I was shocked at how much they were able to get out of the lake.

It filled the golf cart. Most of it was thrown in the dumpster but anything of value, like the life jackets and buckets were taken to the cabinets under mom's deck.

The next job was to move 3 bales in. Evan, Valiant and the middle paddock all needed a bale. Israel kept the weanlings busy at one end while Mark moved the bale into the other shelter.

After the skid steer was put away, Israel drove the golf cart over to Joan's house to plug it in. Mark followed him with his new car and then had the car drive Israel home. Kind of fun having the car do the work. It wasn't long after they left that the next storm arrived. This one dropped the temperature dramatically and the cold icy WET wind was freezing. 

I was so glad all of the outside work that needed to be done was able to be done in the few hours between storms. Kathy sent a VERY nice text about Nancy. She really is our special favorite sister and we aren't the only one that are inspired by her.

The Bradly Epworth church is using the barn again this evening. Today Sarah asked to borrow a cane. They were going to be acting out the book of Esther for the kids Bible study and they needed props to make it more fun for the kids. 

Grace

Today there was no reason to drive or go anywhere. It was a good day to stay home and get the laundry done. Not just the laundry but a pan of chicken soup was made for our lunch then chicken salad for our supper. The rotisserie chicken bought yesterday was put to good use. Both Evan and Valiant will need a new round bale tomorrow. Joan sent the message that mom was fine today. Not sure what was going on yesterday but glad she is ok today. Ruth sent a picture of Grace, her new mare she bought yesterday. She took her straight to Dr. Hoerr's to have her teeth floated and Dr. Hoerr explained that Grace is in her 20s. Ruth feels Grace is perfect for her grandchildren. Below Dexter is pretty pleased to be riding her.

I think Grace will enjoy living the rest of her life there. 

Day Late

 We got home from the fellowship hall after our bedtime and I went straight to bed so this is actually Wednesday's post. I needed to go to Sam's club early to pick up more supplies for the barn and foaling apartment. We were out of paper towels, toilet paper and tall kitchen bags. On the way over to the barn there were balloons stuck in Evan's pasture. 

Don't know where they came from but we are celebrating 2 birthdays on Sunday so they were taken into the barn with the paper towels and toilet paper.

Of course I bought more than just those items at Sam's. I decided on chicken breasts for Sunday dinner so pick up 6 pounds then also picked up 2 rotisserie chickens, one for our house and one for Joan's house. Joan needed to leave by noon today for play practice and was glad for the chicken. The kids were able to cut off chicken, add it to the mashed potatoes Joan had already had cooked and take it along for their lunch. Dan was at mom's when I arrived so we went over a few more of the wedding plans. Mom wasn't feeling well today and was not comfortable in the recliner. When Aunt Jinnie called mom was telling her it was bedtime (it was 2:00 pm). Joan made it home at 5:15 pm giving the kids 15 minutes to get ready for church. I made it home with just 5 minutes to get ready and we were on our way to pick up Berlica and Mackenson. Tonight's family night was held at the fellowship hall and the Spanish church put on the meal for all of us gringos. It really was delicious.

Joan sent a message about then that mom was not feeling well and more than likely running a fever. She was in bed by 6:00 pm. No wonder she wanted to go to bed early. Maddie gave a talk tonight on her mission experience. It was not recorded and not on line. We were thankful to hear her experiences and the fellowship hall was packed. 

Rain

 I drove to Casey's at 7:00 am to pick up a dozen donuts for the Berean volunteers today as I didn't have time to bake anything yesterday. At 8:00 am mom was ready to go. The wheel chair van was dead, turned out the parking lights had been left on. Joan pulled mom's charger out and within minutes we were ready to leave for the Berean office. We had a lot of mail and were pretty short of volunteers. Thankfully Vonnie was able to handle processing all of the Bible studies while Kathy read all of the request letters. Marvin was back and had a backlog of work from his vacation. We had one request coming in that no one could read the name, somehow someway Marvin found where he was incarcerated and found the correct spelling and this prisoner was sent a Bible today. We had 21 Bible requests and over 100 studies and letters come in so were really busy. Mom was kept busy with stamping the return address on envelopes. As soon as she had a pile ready, Skip would apply the postage and Vonnie would apply the labels. No pictures, I never thought to take any as I was busy on the computer. Shirl left a gift for us at the Berean office. More candles.

I had used the last of the candles from Diane so these were a very welcomed gift. We made it to the Hanna City post office around noon. I had someone coming to pick up a sold weanling today at 12:30 pm so really needed to be home. As soon as mom was back in her house I went straight home to change. Dreamer was pulled out and given a quick groom. 

The other 4 weanlings were quite jealous when Dreamer was the only foal taken out.

Just because I wanted to make sure she would load I put her in the stock trailer, then took her out the side door and then 3 more times just asked her to jump in the trailer through the side door. I was thrilled she would jump right in then wait for me to ask her to come back out. I was pretty sure we would have no problem loading into the customer's trailer.

The people coming to pick her up brought a HUGE 7 horse slant load trailer with a ramp. Dreamer took one look at the ramp and refused to step on it. After working for over an hour I recommended just delivering her. Brought the stock trailer over and she jumped right in. I had hoped to have enough time to run to the dmv in Pekin to get new stickers for the campers, motorhomes and truck but it was already 2:45 pm by the time I got back from delivering Dreamer. I was needed at mom's by 4:30 pm so decided to go anyway. When I arrived a thunderstorm arrived at the same time with a big clap of thunder as I ran for the door. The Pekin dmv wasn't very crowded and by 3:25 I was on the way back home. It started hailing by the time I reached route 24.

I was quite chilled by the time I made it home. Mark was given all of the new registration stickers and I left for mom's house. Joan wanted to go to Vickie Martin's visitation. Vickie and her husband were always so kind to her children when they were in Eureka and Joan felt it was important to go. We are currently having a thunderstorm. Yesterday Mark got 50 pounds of red clover seed spread and today we have rain. Perfect timing! I am thankful for the rain. 

WE just got news our VRBO rental for the week of March 28th, to April 4th was cancelled. No excuse given just cancelled. Crazy that VRBO can do that this close to our trip. 

Long Day

 Dan and Susan came today, Sophia's wedding is coming right up and they had much to check out. I plugged in the lift for Dan as he wanted to use that for decorations but he ended up putting water in the batteries and thought we may need to replace the batteries. He was able to use the lift. I was at mom's today while Joan went first to the dentist then when she got back she got the retention dam weeds burned off and this evening was the co-op meeting. A long day.

Sunday Supper

 Mark spent most of the night out in the car last night. I noticed he had forgotten to take the blanket I had ready for him and he forgot his pillow. He came in around 4:00 am and crawled into bed. The car kept him warm enough but bed was much more comfortable. This morning he brought everything back inside and as he now says, "I know it can be done if needed."  We plan on taking this car to Gulf Shores the end of March so nice to know we can make a bed in the back and at least one of us sleep while the other pretends to drive. We won't be in a hurry for sure as we will need to find plenty of charging stations along the way. I had wrapped 3 of the roasts well in aluminum foil last night and by 5:45 am all 3 of those were in the oven at 2:25 F Joan made it back from Florida so Mark didn't need to take any extra people to church. I stayed home as I'm still coughing but each day even that get's better. I was able to watch on-line and this morning we had a visitor, Ty Taufer from Goodfield had the morning message. Click HERE to watch that. Tim Roecker had the afternoon message on Esther 6 and 7 click HERE to listen to that. After the last message the meat was unwrapped, covered with sweet baby ray's bbq sauce and put under the broiler for 5 minutes. Those were then sliced and put in the crockpot on warm. The meat juices had been drained into a pan and the carrots were cooked in that. The potatoes were added once those were done cooking. The bread was banquettes from Aldi that were sliced and sautéed in butter then put in a crock pot.  I baked an apple cake for the dessert which would be served with ice cream. There were plenty of cuties and bananas for the fruit. We had a pretty large group for Sunday dinner. Mark left right after supper to go to hymn sing at the Fellowship Hall. I didn't think to take pictures before dinner but had to take the picture below of Caroline, Rhonda's great grand daughters.

The volley ball players arrived after supper and while they played the kids played in the bouncy house.

I was one of the first to leave. My energy level still isn't quite up to par but for sure am getting stronger.