Long Busy

 We left for church to attend Shari Fehr's funeral at 9:00 am giving us plenty of time to be able to go through the visitation line before the funeral started. The music from the choir was beautiful, the funeral so touching and personal. Shari was such a good friend for years. If you would like to watch the funeral click HERE. When we got home I changed then hooked up the truck to the stock trailer and drove to Middle Grove. My mission was to pick up Rosalie and Valerie to get them bred and Missy as Mike called last night to say she was limping on her left front. I was able to pull into the pasture and drove the truck and trailer into the big field. The horses were all spread out grazing but soon started making their way to the truck and trailer. Oliver came running up to greet me. I checked him out and was pleased to see that both testicles have descended. 

Holly is hanging around him. We were going to breed her to Valiant this spring so now that we know Oliver might be fertile we will need to get her checked first.

Tessa came up, she was bred to Valiant and is due June 28th. I really can't tell if she is still pregnant or not as this is a first foal for her.

Below is Harli, the 10 year old Gypsy we bred to Evan last fall. She is so round that I really can't tell if she is pregnant, she isn't due until Aug 6th.

I don't know who the horse is below, I just took the picture as the lake in the background is so blue. I think it is one of the Thoroughbred mares but I don't think she is pregnant.

Below is a better picture of Haril.

Mike sent the picture below this evening. He and Diane are out at Middle Grove spending the night and he took this as the sun was getting low. Harli is pictured with her now 3 year old daughter Izzy. We will bring Izzy in soon to be covered by Evan. 

Rosalie walked up so she was put in the trailer first then I went searching for Valerie. She was down by the water but Rosaleigh was near her and once I checked her udder had to bring her home instead of Valerie. Rosaleigh is starting to bag up. She was haltered and led to the trailer and tied next to Rosalie. They are the same name sound the same were born in the same year, just the people we bought Rosaleigh from spelled her name different than our Rosalie. It makes it very confusing for the vet clinic. Missy was checked next. She is tender on her left front but walked willing to the trailer and stepped in.

When I got back to the farm. Cabo and Dahlia were put in the stalls and given their grain. Below I am leading Dahlia into the barn.

Roseberry was moved over with Shadow. Cookie put in the short shelter and only then did I start to unload. Missy was taken to the short shelter. Cookie was so thrilled to see her.

Rosalie was unloaded next and put in the paddock next to Valiant. She was not at all interested in him.

Rosaleigh was let out of the trailer and let loose. I thought she would just graze in the yard but instead she want over to see Evan.

She was put in with Star Temple as they are both due soon. By the time I had finished unloading Dahlia and Cabo had finished their grain and taken out. Cabo was baby talking to Rosaleigh when I led him past her.

I'm glad that job is done. Mark had been busy working on the golf cart, found a broken wire, fixed that and is is now in the garage charging.

It works better than before with the new wire. We left for the fellowship hall for family night at 5:30 pm. Gregg and Heather provided the supper tonight and that was delicious.

Gabe Stickling (one of our new ministers) had the message tonight but this had actually been scheduled last fall. I'm not sure if this will be posted on AC Central. It was very personal and touching. The picture below was of our drive home. 

Today was a long busy day.

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Beautiful Flowers

 At 7:30 am I drove to Casey's to pick up a dozen donuts. When I took them to the check out, the receptionist looked at them and said, "we used to ice the pastries." "Yes", I told her, "I'm taking them home and will ice them before giving them to the Berean volunteers."  She exclaimed, we are not busy we will just ice them for you now and they did!  I was thankful.

Mom was picked up next and soon we were on our way to the Berean office. We were really busy today and a little short handed and I didn't remember to take any pictures as we were all busy. Kathy read a very nice letter to us, someone asking for a Bible but also thanking us for all the time and work we do to help prisoners. The donuts were enjoyed after we finished getting the work done. Today we sent out 21 Bibles and probably around 70 Bible studies. Mom's wheel chair van was down to a little more than an eighth of a tank of gas so we stopped at Caseys and I was shocked at the price. It took a little more than 19 gallons to fill her tank a $4.30 a gallon. 

Joan wasn't back yet when we got home. Mom's house is filled with color, so many flowers and plenty of beautiful colored eggs from Easter.

Mom has so many flowers right now. Her birthday was the 30th of March and Aunt Jinnie sent carnations.

Mom was given Easter lilies and many other beautiful flowers.

Mom sure enjoys flowers!

Joan got back about 12:45 pm, once I got home and changed it was time to work with Cabo and Dahlia again. I can no longer call them weanlings. Dahlia turned a year old April 4th and Cabo will be a year old May 5th. They were both muddy when I brought them inside and given their grain.

Dahlia is pictured above and Cabo below.

 They both knew what to expect and both eagerly walked into their stalls. I spent more time with Dahlia today working with her legs and belly. By the time I quit she was standing quietly, at least tolerating the grooming and sometimes even enjoying it.  With mom's work day coming up on the 18th of this month Joan has been working on a list and she wants the saplings on the dam cut down then Tordon applied to each stump. Mark went today to TSC to pick up a couple of quarts of that. Each quart is $24.99 and with tax it came to $54.72 but one of the quarts he will keep for us as we have an abundance of saplings that need to be cut and killed. It was cold today, 33 degrees when I left for Caseys this morning and only up to 42 this afternoon with a brisk wind. The golf cart is still stuck on our drive. Mark has been working on it but was not able to get it going today. Yesterday I was driving it up to the barn and not quite up to the top when the cart slammed to a stop, the brakes froze up even though I hadn't touched those. The switch to put it into tow mode didn't work and that cart won't move an inch. I'm so thankful I can still walk. 

 

Bossy Dahlia

 Now that all of us walkers are pretty much retired we decided to meet at 8:30 am instead of 7:25. That meant Mark got breakfast at 8:00 and I had plenty of time to just sit and read. Bethany was still here so she walked with Joan, Diane, Ruth and me. Just as we finished Sarah showed up with her 3 girls and 2 puppies.

She was talking to grandma yesterday and grandma really wants someone to start raising Shih tzu puppies. Well Sarah doesn't raise that breed but does have some 5 week old Cavapoo puppies and brought 2 of them over for grandma to hold.

The puppies are so soft and fluffy and were both very well behaved, content to snuggle up with mom.  They are both spoken for, in fact the entire litter sold the day they were born. Nolan posts the due date on the website and will open up a waiting list before that due date. There were 4 pups in this litter and more than that on the waiting list so just 4 lucky families got a puppy. The rest will just have to wait until the next litter is born. Today was cleaning day for me. The apartment needed to be cleaned. The barn was in good shape except for the game room. The ping pong table, basketball game, and batting machine needed repaired. The ping pong table had the net removed completely, the basketball game had some of the chains from the hoops removed and those were in the batting cage, the net on the left side taken down, and the batting machine was in 2 parts. The ball feeder was bent and it took a lot of muscle to get it bent back enough to install it on the machine. I tried it out and realized the place where the ball comes out was also out of whack. That was much harder to repair and I'll probably need Mark to drill a new hole and install a screw to hold it in place but I got it working enough to use for the birthday party scheduled for this afternoon. The laundry from the apartment was all brought down to the house and worked on while cleaning here. After the sheets were dry they were taken up to the apartment and the beds made. Only then was it time to start horsin around. Disco, now named Cabo by his new owners was haltered and led into the stall barn where I had grain waiting. He walked in perfectly. He didn't even care that Roseberry was left behind. 

Next Dahlia was haltered and led in. She hesitated leaving the others and needed a little encouragement but I was pleased she didn't really throw a fit. She was put in the stall opposite Cabo, shown the grain and at that point could care less that he was even inside. 

When she finished she walked to the other door but still didn't call, just stood waiting to see if I would bring more of that yummy grain then came over to check the bucket again.

She is going to be such an impressive mare. She just turned a year old April 4th and already is quite tall.  She inherited the mega hair from her sire Evan and her height from her 17 hand dam Rosalie. She has a little attitude but gets that honestly as her grand dam Lily is the boss mare and as such so is her dam, who is Lily's daughter.  The other weanlings just know that Dahlia is bossy. This bossy filly is for sale for only $7500.00. She is 7/8ths Friesian and 1/8th warmblood. She is registered with FHHI although we are still waiting for her papers from the registry. Those were paid for and sent in 6 months ago.

I did a little grooming on each foal before taking them back outside one at a time. Both did very well with that too. No scooting ahead and no calling. Then it was time to check on Star Temple, the Thoroughbred Mike calls Governor as she was owned by a past governor of Illinois. She is due April 18th so I called her up and checked her udder.

She is a maiden mare, meaning this will be her first foal so once her udder starts to change she will need to be checked everyday. She needs a good grooming and has burrs in her mane and tail but I didn't really have time today. Cookie is her companion for now. 

The laundry was finished here and supper was actually just heated up. The bbq beef was heated in the microwave but the potatoes were sliced and fried. A salad and cottage cheese was added and that was enough.

Today was busy but I'm thankful I can do the work.

 

Wonderful Easter Sunday

 I was up at 3:15 am and the roasts in the oven at 3:30 am. Of course I went straight back to sleep and slept until 6:30 am. After downing a cup of coffee woke Mark, grabbed my shower and by 7:05 we were in the car heading to the fellowship hall for the Easter breakfast and service. I didn't record any of the service but should have as it was not recorded and was the most unusual Easter service. The Easter story was told in song, from the cross to the death to the tomb and then the empty tomb. From there we drove to church where Mike Kaisner had the Easter message there. Click HERE to watch that. Church was pretty full so after the service there was much visiting to do. We didn't get home until 11:45 am. I went right to work on pulling the roasts out, getting them sliced, bbq sauce applied and under the broiler. The potatoes were set to boil in the juices of the roast. By 12:45 pm all was done and taken over to the barn. Ruth and Fedi butchered a lamb then roasted it. They brought that ready to slice.

Fedi went right to work slicing it. They had also brought garlic sauce to drip onto the meat. Andrew had the prayer so he and Faith got to go first.

All of the food was amazing.

Gertie brought a fabulous blueberry jello salad. 

The dessert table was laden with delicious sweets.

I'm pretty sure that is one of Bethany and Bill's daughter climbing the pole.

The feast today was well appreciated and so enjoyed.

After supper Berlica took all the children over to the horses and gave rides on Cookie. Joan took Nancy fishing and she came back thrilled with her catch.

No one was in a big hurry to leave except those that had to go to another Easter supper. Lots of visiting went on between the cousins. The last of the families are leaving now.

We got an email from the lady that owns Sheena's very first foal by Valiant. This foal was born May 4th, 2015 and is now 11 years old. His owner writes he is living the best life.

He is pictured below right after birth.

It really was a wonderful Easter Sunday!