The LONG Drive

 We had decided to leave Friday morning around 10:00 am for Gulf Shores which gave me time to run over to the barn to do last minute cleaning. Mark did a lot of the packing of the Tesla and we left just a few minutes before 10:00 am. The self driving function is interesting and we were glad to have it.

We set our destination and the car told us where and when we would be stopping to charge. We decided to camp over night at a private campground just past Meridian as it was full hookups for just $25.00 but when I next looked up the car was going a different route. Evidently it found we would not be able to make it to the next stop. Since we were not sure what route the car would take us we gave up the idea of camping at a campground. One of the Tesla Charging stations the car was trying to take us to was into St. Louis then down I 44 then back up I 44 to I 55. We thought that was a waste of time so decided to find a super charger not from Tesla to stay on our route. That was near Collinsville but when we got to the charger station the adapter Tesla sold us would not work on the other brand. 

The traffic going North was stop and go for miles.

We got to a Tesla station but another route was now our way down.

The bad with long distance traveling with a Tesla is every 1.5 or 2 hours we stopped to charge and each charge took 12 to 15 minutes. Plus you must let the car direct the route. The good was it was a no stress job. I could sit back and not worry about anything as long as I was keeping an eye on the road most of the time.

We stopped at a Loves gas station around 10:30 pm but it was so crowded after driving around for about 15 minutes finally chose to keep on going. By 1:00 am I needed to get horizontal we found a Loves near Hattiesburg, MO that had room. Mark put the made to order front shade on while I put on the windows and back and soon we were both laying down ready for some sleep.

Above we are starting on the window shades and below we are both ready to sleep.

That is when we found the next problem. The Tesla has a glass roof and Loves have VERY bright lights. 

We decided if we try this again we will need a tarp or something to put on the roof to block the light. The Tesla has a camping mode and that keeps the sleeper comfortable and once that was on it even changed to computer screen to a camp scene with a tent and camp fire.

I slept until 3:30 then got up to go into the gas station where I bought some food and a big coffee. Mark was ready to get up when I got back so we decided to keep driving. The sky was getting lighter as we got closer to Mobile.

The sun started breaking through as we arrived at Mobile.

The car took us through the tunnel.

I took the video below as we were going through.

I also snapped a picture of the battle ship after we got out of the tunnel.

We had the car take us directly to the Waffle House in Gulf Shores and made it there around 7:30 am. Almost 22 hours since we left Hanna City. After eating a good breakfast we stopped at Walmart, bought a few groceries then drove to the condo where David and Stephanie are staying. They gave us an upstairs bedroom where we crashed for a few hours. Israel and Crew went to Beth's to play basketball while Elisabet went with her mom to the beach and found sand dollars.

Right now I'm feeling desperate for a shower and to crash in a 'real' bed. 

We were finally able to get into the condo we rented around 4:30 pm and got everything carried up and organized. The condo is nice but smells musty. David thought it was because it hasn't been used for while. So very thankful to have made it safely.

Shooting Sand

 We had a busy day planned. Right after breakfast I took the golf cart up to the foaling apartment. The weanlings were all still napping.

Once the foaling apartment was  ready for the guests coming in today The barn was next. The bathrooms were cleaned, the water heater put on high demand and the living area floor mopped. I also went on a hunt for Asian beetles and found some in both places. Mark actually bought a hand held vacuum to use to hunt them down at our house. I'll take that over to the barn in the morning and give it a quick once over before we leave. As soon as I got back we started moving bales. Evan was moved into his pasture before Mark brought the bale. I had the phone out on video thinking he would probably burst out running and bucking but instead he settled right down to graze. That good spring grass was just too tempting.

We moved in 5 bales today.

Evan's paddock got one, Valiant's paddock got one, the middle paddock for the weanlings got 2 and the far paddock got one. As soon as Mike and Diane come back from Gulf Shores they will need to bring back Star Temple as she is due April 18th. and she will need to be put close to the foaling apartment. David Sauder stopped in and told us the sand truck was here. Of course this is the biggest entertainment out here and we for sure didn't want to miss this. Below is the video of the start to the finish.

Mom stayed out until the end watching.

After that excitement I went home to work on our house a bit, getting all of the laundry done so we can pack. I met the new guests for the foaling apartment. They are here for their daughters wedding reception and are staying 3 nights. Storms are predicted again tonight so the barn was again full of vehicles. We currently have 2 trucks, 3 cars and the guests SUV. I'm assuming the storm will miss us but wanted to take precautions. We have had rain off and on and the rumbling of thunder but so far nothing violent. The temperature dropped from 85 to 55 in about 35 minutes. Pretty shocking when I went out to show the guests where the storm shelter was.

I took the picture above just before going into the house. The wind was blowing, lightning flashing off in the distance and that light is the the bright light in the back garage where the storm shelter is so the guests can find their way. It is almost 9:30, the storm is still pretty far away. Below is a video taken right before I head to bed. We really need the rain so hope some of those dark clouds will be heavy enough with moisture that we get some too. 

Chicks

 I was watching the geese on the lake this morning as there was a squabble going on between two ganders. One gander was determined to keep the other away from his goose.

While watching them I decided to fill the bird feeder. There was still some black oil sunflower seeds in the bottom of the feeder so I lined them up on the railing.

The yellow cat came over to watch if any birds would land there but the birds are getting wise. Not a one visited the feeder while the cat sits on the deck.

When Joan and Berlica got back I took the golf cart over to check on the weanlings.

Tomorrow we will put two bales in the middle paddock, another bale in the last paddock and also give Valiant and Evan a bale as we are leaving on Friday and want to make sure they all have plenty of hay. Mike and Diane will be home late Sunday. If there are any horse emergencies we still have Joan and Rachel around for Saturday and Sunday. After a quick lunch then made it back in time for Joan's family to leave for co-op. Mom and I enjoyed the deck this afternoon. We were both getting some sunshine when I noticed how white my legs were compared to mom's.

Rachel and David were busy this afternoon burning the weeds off the dam. It was quite impressive. 

Rachel sent the picture above.

Joan got back at 5:20 giving me enough time to eat some dinner at home before going back to mom's for the evening. Since I'm going to be gone all next week and Joan stayed home from church last Wednesday it was my turn to spend the evening with mom. Joan set up her laptop to get the church service on mom's big screen tv. The only problem with that was somehow it was playing the service back at double time. David Beutel was the song leader and he sounded like a kid with a high voice. Caleb Plattner had the message. I finally left the laptop playing but turned the sound off then put AC Central on my phone with the sound turned all the way up. That worked although not perfectly. If you would like to watch this message click HERE. 

One of Ruth's hens is sitting on 20 eggs. So far 3 of them have hatched. There is nothing more endearing to watch a mother hen with her chicks.

2 Fires

We were back to freezing this morning as the temperature outside was 32 degrees.  I called the Illinois Eye Center at 7:30 am just to make SURE the appointment really was at the Peoria Facility. The lady that answered the phone confirmed that. At 8:15 I left for the appointment and arrived at 8:41 am, just 4 minutes before my appointment. The receptionist checked me in then had to figure out where the doctor was working as he had been moved over. She finally had me go to waiting room number 2 where I sat for an hour and 15 minutes. Marcus the therapy dog was wandering around the building and came in our waiting room where anyone that wanted got a chance to meet him.  As I was near the door he came to me first. Some of the patients did not want to touch him but quite a few did.

The picture below was taken as he went to the other side of the room. 

Once I was called in and checked over by the nurse I was taken to another waiting room until an exam room opened up to see Dr. Kolettis. It had been 10 years since anyone has looked at my eyes. In those 10 years I have a good start on cataracts and now have to go yearly. I also was struggling with being able to open my eyes each morning and that was diagnosed as dry eye and I have to get 2 different kinds of drops for that. One for the daytime and one at bedtime. Oh well I guess it is part of getting old. At least both are just over the counter so I didn't need a prescription. I thought I would be able to drive over to the Berean office once finished as I thought if it starts at 8:45 am I should be less than a half an hour late but the nurse stuck 2 drops in my eyes around 10:00 am, one was a yellow numbing medicine and the next was to dilate my pupils. When I walked out of the Eye Center at 10:30 am I was really struggling to see. I knew I would be useless at the Berean office.  I was given sun glasses which helped some and I drove myself home but it really wasn't safe. Thankfully the roads were not crowded and the way home well known. When Mark walked in he had to laugh at my eyes. 

This was around 11:00 am. It took quite a while for the pupils to go back to normal. It was cold in the house. Mark had decided to remove the wood from the porch but I wanted to start a fire to warm the house up so chopped some kindling while he loaded some of the wood up then swept up the area before moving the wood rack back.

Joan needed to borrow the truck and 2 horse trailer to pick up some furniture in Groveland and take to to Morton, IL to Faith and Andrew's new house. I took the golf cart up to the barn then hooked up the truck to the trailer. I was just getting ready to pull it out so I could clean it when Joan arrived. She cleaned out the trailer. Once she was on the road I took the cleaning supplies over to the barn and worked there for 3 hours getting the gym and game room organized, the floors swept the master bathroom closet organized and hunted down and swept up Asian beetles that found their way in. There were 4 fuzzy caterpillars that survived the winter and some how crawled into the gym. They probably wont survive their next adventure as they were thrown into the garbage and that bag hauled over to the dumpster. I stopped in to see mom before going home to make dinner. I tried a new coleslaw recipe and Mark, who doesn't like any coleslaw liked this, he recommended making it for a Sunday dinner but we won't be here next Sunday as we are leaving on Friday for Gulf Shores. We have an airbnb guest coming into the foaling apartment Thursday for 3 nights and also a group coming into the barn on Saturday. Anna and Braelyn are willing to clean the foaling apartment as they will still be here when the guests leave. 

News here in the Peoria area was right at the junction of 74 and 474 an Aldi truck caught on fire and shut down the interstate.

I'm not sure who took the picture above but the video below was posted by the Peoria Area Scanner & Dashcam

Gulf Shores is also in trouble. There is a fire at the state park. WKRG posted the picture below. A tree fell on a power line and started this fire. 

Helicopters are being used to bring water from the Gulf.

Unexpected

 Months ago I made an eye doctor appointment at Illinois center and was given 2 locations ,either the Peoria one our the Pekin one, I wanted to see the doctor I saw last time. I was ok with either location but wanted an appointment as soon as possible as I am having trouble seeing clearly. They told me the quickest would be at the Pekin office on March 24th which was a Tuesday so I asked for the afternoon. Well the card came a few days ago to remind me of the appointment and when I opened it up to look at it this morning found they have scheduled me in Peoria and at 8:45 am. That was quite unexpected. That meant I could not go to the Berean office tomorrow morning. Skip was sent a text that I would not be there but would drop off a treat for the volunteers then went to work cleaning our house. Today I organized the closets upstairs, cleaned both bedrooms and the bathroom then started on the laundry. When the last load was in the washer I left for Kroger to pick up pecan sticky buns for the Berean office then to Berean to drop off the buns. When I got home I had about a half an hour to work on the barn before I needed to be over at mom's as Joan had the Pleasant Hill dinner. The kitchen floor was swept and the garbage all collected before I had to quit. Hopefully tomorrow after the eye exam I'll have a few hours to finish cleaning at the barn. Mom was sleeping when I arrived, Mackenson was at his house but walking over for dinner and Berlica was downstairs. Supper was ready at 5:35 pm. We had a quiet evening. After dinner Joan drove to Groveland to check out a table, 6 chairs and a china cabinet for Faith and ended up buying it. She will use the truck and trailer to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. 

Engagement Announcement

Last night while we were having potluck Joan was serving lasagna to her family and others.  Joan sent a text with a picture.

As they wouldn't be announced until today we couldn't say anything. I slipped my phone to Mark to show him the picture and the rest of the evening we were anxious to hear their story. After the guests left I walked from the barn over to mom's to meet him. I got to talk just a few minutes to him before needing to go back to the barn and David and Stephanie sent the message they were on their way to pick up Israel and Elisabet. I went to bed just after 10 but my mind wouldn't shut off. It was hard to get up this morning but I was up before 6:00 am and got the 8 pounds of hamburger browned, then added that to the spaghetti sauce, then started putting together 2 crockpots of lasagna for tonight. Those were put on low for 3 hours then timed to turn off at 11:00 am. We left for church just after 8:00 am so we could be there by 8:30 to help with getting the lunch ready. Joan arrived with mom and right about then Randy and Kathy arrived with Nancy. Nancy was thrilled to see Joan and could hardly wait to go into church. Gregg Rumbold had the morning message on the last part of Colossians 4. To watch that message click HERE.  I admit my mind kept wandering to the announcements and wondering more about this man who was going to marry my niece. As soon as the announcement was made I sent a picture to our family chat to let my kids know about Josh and Sarah. Sarah was swamped at lunch and I didn't get much chance to talk to her. I told mom she is going to have another grandson and she replied, "what else is new?" Too True!  The afternoon service was the Sunday School Easter program. Mark was not feeling well, he was light headed and decided to stay out in the foyer. It was Nancy's first time to be in the program. She was so thrilled she clapped for herself.

I left right after the program to check on Mark but asked Hannah if she would take his blood pressure. When I got to Mark he was feeling better. Someone gave him a bottle of water and after drinking that he felt better. Maybe he is just getting dehydrated. He is going to make an effort to drink more. When we got home the lasagna was still hot but not over cooked. The salad was made, the bread sliced and butter added between the slices and wrapped in aluminum foil for heating up just before supper. I had a large apple pie for our dessert that was put in the barn oven at 4:00 pm. Supper was ready right at 4:30 pm and was good. After supper the volley games started. Below is a short video of some of the volley's the team that was behind pulled ahead then won it in overtime. 

Some of the girls went fishing over at great grandma's with David. He sent back these two pictures.

Those fish are hungry.

Berlica came over and told us Josh and Sarah were at Grandma's so we asked her to go back and see if they would come meet the family here at the barn (there were a lot of us) and tell us their story. Below they are just walking in.

It really was wonderful to hear their story and learn all about Josh. By the time they left we were all thankful and happy for the both of them. Yes we all approved of this marriage.

We didn't leave the barn until after 8:00 pm but almost everyone stayed that long to listen to Sarah and Josh. What an amazing story they have.

 

Food & Fellowship

 I was up at 5:30 am and went straight to working getting the roasts in the oven. Mark was fed breakfast a little early as he wanted to drive the mower from his brother over to Phil and Anna's house this morning as they don't have a mower. I needed to follow him driving the car with the flashers on as it only goes 6 mph at the top speed.

Thankfully they live just down the road from us. It really didn't take very long before he was pulling into their drive.

I left then for church. David and  Stephanie along with Benj and Kristin are serving lunch tomorrow so all the parents showed up early to help. Dana and Marvin got all the tables washed and dried.

Gail and Martha Kay went to work cutting the clusters of grapes.

Kristin's girls set the tables. Then they all went to work cutting the meats and cheeses.

After I finished I drove home to get the barn living area swept and mopped and restock the bathrooms for today's potluck. I also got the table set.

At 3:00 pm I needed to get Disco out and give him a good groom. He had lots of visitors today. Berlica brought Joshua over, well really Joshua drove her over on the golf cart under her supervision.

The family that is going to be buying him arrived at 3:30 pm to introduce him to their children.

They were shown how I have been leading him and how he needs to stop when I say woah. I also picked up all 4 hooves without a problem. I left then to get a shower. At 4:15 the meat was removed from the oven so the potatoes could go in at 400 degrees. Those were drizzled with olive oil, some garlic and then parmesan cheese and baked for 40 minutes. The meat was falling apart tender so the bones were removed and most of the fat before spreading it all out on a jellyroll pan and spreading bbq sauce on each piece. Once the potatoes were done the meat was put under the broiler for a few minutes then covered well and taken with the potatoes over to the barn. I was unrolling the bouncy house when the potluck guests started to arrive. Not that they wanted to use the bouncy house. Bill and Bethany are in town and their children love to play in it and planned on coming over later this evening.. As David and Stephanie were at a wedding we had Israel and Elisabet for dinner too. The food was excellent. I had forgotten to take a picture of it before I ate but the meat was tender Kathleen made an amazing salad, Crystal brought 2 kinds of bread, I chose the cinnamon bread but the cheese bread was also delicious. Lois brought the green beans that had a sweet sauce made from some of the bacon grease, vinegar and sugar.

Eunice brought a raspberry dessert that was the perfect ending.

We had such a nice evening together. Israel and Elisabet were glad when Joshua and William came over to play with them. They had been fishing and were pretty pleased to have caught some stripers. Of course they let them go but had so much fun pulling them in. The guests left and a few minutes later David and Stephanie arrived to pick up their children. 

We all really enjoyed the food and the fellowship tonight.

It is after 10:00 pm I have some pans to wash in the morning then the lasagna to put together before church AND we have promised to go early to help so I'd better head to bed NOW.

 

Feels Like Summer

 I stopped in at mom's this morning to ask if they needed anything from Sam's Club. Mom was out of cream for her coffee and since the rotisserie chickens are still only $5.00 that was put on the list. I dropped off the clean dish towels and dish rags at the barn and brought back 8 pounds of hamburger to defrost for the Sunday meal. 

Once at Sam's the cream and 2 chickens were put in the cart.  I bought the rest of the ingredients for the Sunday meal plus carrots, and  a coleslaw mix I want to try next week. I also stopped at Aldi and picked up a jar of sauerkraut so I could make Ruebens for our supper tonight. 

I dropped off one of the chickens and the cream at mom's then deboned the chicken, cut up some of the carrots, celery, an onion and made a big pot of soup. After that was simmering I mixed up a batch of Thousand Island dressing for our Reubens. Half of the soup was taken over to mom's for later, we ate some for our lunch. I ended up with 3 quarts to freeze. Mark had a doctor appointment this morning to find out why he has been getting dizzy and feeling weak. They ran an ekg and found he had some heart damage but no way to tell when that happened. 

We had a high of 78 degrees today and the daffodils popped out.

Mark wanted to fill the generator with gas as the last time we lost electricity the generator ran until it was out of gas. 

This evening Israel came for a couple hours while his parents were attending a rehearsal dinner at the barn. He helped Mark by bringing back the golf cart, then running a couple errands with that. The sunset was lighting up the sky as he was helping. 

When he finished he went into the Tesla and played some driving games. He got in lots of driving this evening.

The meat for potluck tomorrow was prepared tonight and put back in the fridge. That needs to go into the oven early tomorrow morning and cook at 225 for hours.