Father's Day 2026

 I was up at 4:40 am and quickly brewed a couple cups of coffee. I made enough noise doing that and getting ready that Mark woke up. He drank his cup then got ready. We pulled out with the truck and trailer just after 5:30 am and drove straight through to the auction barn. The older man in charge came out to help and we started looking for the pony we bought last night. Of course she was the last horse, we found her in the stall behind the door, it was dark and we didn't even realize there was a stall there. She was happy to walk out with us and walked right into the trailer without even hesitating. 

I sent the picture above to Sarah. We think she is half Standardbred and half pony. We started the almost 4 hour drive home and did well until we hit Illinois and rain. LOTS and lots of rain. At home we got another 2 inches just this afternoon.  We were able to watch both of the messages on AC Central for our drive home. Gabe Stickling had the Father's Day message this morning. Click HERE to watch that. Craig Stickling, Gabe's older brother had the afternoon message. Click HERE to watch that.

It was pouring rain when we got home so the trailer was backed into the indoor arena. The mare was unloaded and taken to the prepared stall.

She checked out the water buckets then went right over and started munching away on the hay. I went over to mom's to start cooking the meal for tonight but soon Sarah, Nolan and the girls arrived. They went into the stall brushed her, petted her and Eden sat on her while the others were working around her. She really does seem quiet. Later Rhoda arrived. They took her to the indoor arena just to try her out a little. 

She is willing, but she probably drives better than she rides. Of course this is a new place for her but she showed no signs of discomfort, bucking or any bad behavior. Rhoda and Sarah sticked her and found she is 14.1 not 13.3 but that is ok too. She will be fun to train and should make a wonderful trail horse.

Supper was at 4:30 at the barn. We had a big group for this Father's Day celebration. Lots of dads came along with plenty of busy mom's and excited kids. 

We also celebrated Iris' birthday.

It's just SO embarrassing when one blows out the candle too soon. She got lots of horses, tack to go with them and a stall.

Those girls were so excited to help Iris play with her gifts. Later they went to Joan's to help feed the fawns. It was raining so hard Joan had them in the house.

There is nothing better than tiny fawn kisses. The rain finally stopped so out they all went to ride the golf cart around and then over to the barn to train.

Rhoda worked with Berlica on Jury then Berlica returned the favor and helped Rhoda with Izzy.

We all stayed visiting just a little too long. I came over to the house to work on the blog but now I'm going over to mom's and will crash. I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Auction

 Sarah, River and I left for Arthur Il just before 7:00 am. After 2 hours of driving we arrived to find just 2 horses at this horse auction. We spent about a half an hour looking around at all the rabbits, chickens, pigeons, ducks, and peacocks for sale before heading home. We got stuck in traffic that slowed the home trip by 20 minutes. That dump trailer full of clay was split, some was dumped at Joan's house.

This will be leveled where the motorhome sits under the lean to. Joan pulled it out so the clay could be dumped. That motorhome has been so dependable over the years. It is a 2005 but doesn't have a lot of miles and everything works inside and out. 

The geese were making themselves comfortable in the grass above the beach.

This evening we were sitting out on the deck and the cat came to visit. 

Sarah sent me a link for an online auction going on and we BOUGHT a pony. She is an 11 year old 13.3 hand pony mare well trained to ride and drive. They also said if you can sit on her you can ride her. She is fine with children. Pictures will be added later. She is a bay with one white sock on her left hind hoof. She is located in Noblesville, Indiana and they require pick up from 9:00 am until noon.  Mark and I will have to watch church on line as we are driving home. We must be home in time to cook the Fathers day meal so am heading to bed right now!

The Hoarder is ME

 Our first night staying over at mom's house and it all seemed a little strange. It is nice watching the sun brighten over the lake. We were up before light so had to wait a while to see that. Last night I brought a  carafe of coffee over so this morning just heated that up in the microwave. Mark has his computer set up downstairs and I carried his coffee down to him. We watched the dumpster get emptied before 6:00 am. Amazing how much one can see from mom's house.  I left at 10:00 am to pick up some money then drive to the Kohl's parking lot to wait for peaches. The truck was supposed to arrive at 11:00 am and I made it there by 10:33 am and had to guess where to park. I saw a few others waiting in their cars on the West side of the lot so thought that would be a good place to park. About 10:50 am I realized everyone was lining up at the East side and by the time I got there I was way back in line. By the way that line goes to the very far end of the left side of the picture below.

By the time the truck arrived the line was just as long behind me as was in front of me. I visited with the lady beside me who happened to live on Cameron lane and also had horses. She was nice enough to save a place in line for me so I could move the car closer to the truck before the line moved much. I bought one box for me and one for Joan's household. She has the Christensens there this week. After dropping off Joan's box I went straight to the foaling apartment where the new guests were waiting to meet the horses. We had a good talk, they are here for the Tallboys and Tailgate concert going on in Bloomington, IL for the next 3 nights. They left for a late breakfast then I went down to the house and started cleaning out the laundry room of our house. I removed everything from the shelves and couldn't believe how much needed to be pitched. When I was working on that room I discovered that I'M the HOARDER. There were 2 huge piles of old towels given to me which I used for when horses gave birth. I washed a load of those then threw the really bad ones away. I also threw away all the old boots, old mouse traps, lots of mosquito spray, old icecream buckets and more. When the shelves were empty they were moved outside and the pile of dead Asian beetles hiding under those shelves really was impressive. The rug was removed and the floor given a good scrub. The next job was to haul all of our clothes over. That took 2 trips on the golf cart, one for my hanging things and one for Mark's. We really don't have a lot of clothes. Mark carried the end table up from the downstairs at mom's and will carry the big box thing down later. He also brought up a chair for the second bedroom closet where my computer will be once we haul that over. 

When I got back from the house the delivery of the windex all purpose cleaner had arrived. I ordered 4 gallons but when I saw what the box looked like I knew I wasn't going to get 4 gallons. The entire bottom of the box was wet.

When the box was opened I could see one gallon upside down.

There were only 3 containers of Windex. 2 of them were fine. The 3rd upside down one had leaked out into the plastic and through a hole in the plastic to the cardboard box. I was able to pull the plastic bag out without losing too much of the liquid still in the bag.

That was dumped into a pitcher then poured back into the gallon container.

I now have 2 and a half gallons vs 4 gallons. I contacted Amazon about the delivery and included the pictures but haven't heard from them yet. Hopefully they will send replacements OR refund the money. I use this when cleaning the barn, it works well for the mirrors, windows, bathrooms and even the floor so go through a lot. Late this afternoon we had a dumptrailer stuck at the bottom of the T so no one could go in or out of our neighborhood. I had the driver removed his van from the dump trailer, I unhooked the stock trailer from my truck and my truck was used to haul the trailer over to the playground.

This load will be used to shore up the dam over by Rachel and David's. It couldn't be dumped tonight as they were waiting for the sand truck which arrived close to 6:00 pm.

We came back to our house to cook supper. Mark is now over at mom's and I'll be joining him soon. I'm leaving early tomorrow with Sarah to go to Arthur Sale barn in hopes of finding a pony for these grand daughters so need to head to bed SOON.

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Moving Over

 We were both up early. I had a lot on the schedule today so spent a good hour reading and praying. We really have so much to pray for and so much to be thankful for. The new sheets for the apartment and this house arrived yesterday so today they were washed. As soon as 2 of the sets were dry and folded those were taken up to the apartment. The people checking in today thought they would be here around 4:00 pm then let me know it was now going to be midnight. I got all the lights turned on for them and set the thermostat to 69 degrees as that is what they requested. Hope their trip goes ok. Breakfast was cooked then over to the barn. I ran back to get more supplies and a big fat bullfrog was sitting on our drive. I think with all of this rain he was lost.

He didn't move even when I walked behind him so left him be as he thought he was invisible. On the way up to feed the mares. Rosaleigh was eating on the round bale and her colt had climbed up on top.

He thinks he is the king of the hill here.

Tomorrow we have guests coming in so today the barn needed to be finished. I got the 6 bathrooms done and the windows when Mark sent a text. He had been grading the driveways but wanted to take a break and go into town. He was willing to drive to Morton, IL to pick up the short cycle shot for Izzy. I called the clinic to let them know he was coming then went back to work. I was able to finish the barn plus mended sheets. We had one set that had a small tear and was an easy mend. When Mark got back with the shot I went out to get Izzy. After giving the shot I stayed out to watch her. I was waiting for the reaction of sweating and some cramping and after a few minutes that happened. 

That poor filly wasn't sure what was happening. Hopefully she will come into season in a few days. My next job was to clean out the stock trailer. 

We plan on using that on Saturday. It wasn't too bad and didn't take very long.

Jewel, Rosalie and Sally's paddock needed a new bale but there wasn't anyone around to help keep the mares in the paddock while I moved a bale in. I got the bale close to the gate.

Hung buckets on the other side and gave each mare a scoop of grain. That kept them busy so I could get the bale in without any running out. I had just finished that and was back at the house when Sarah and Rhoda arrived. They were going to take the girls on a trail ride. Zion was going to ride 17 hand Rosalie and we were all impressed with how she pulled herself up onto the saddle.

Iris rode Jewel and Rhoda led with Jury.

Sarah, Eden, River, Zeke and I followed on the golf cart.

They did great on the trails.

They even crossed the creek.

We followed them but probably shouldn't have with all that rain we couldn't quite make it up the hill through the mud. After trying to push it up we had to back up and then get a run for it then go up a different way.  We told the little kids that this was an adventure! They loved the last part but not the part where we got stuck near thorn bushes.

We made it back to the horses before they reached the barn so all was good. Below is a short video of a little of their ride.

Jury was put away but Jewel and Rosalie were taken to the round pen so Eden could have a ride on Jewel.

River and Zeke also got to ride.

A bit later Zion got a trotting lesson on Rosalie and even cantered her both directions. 

They all went swimming after the ride.

With all the rain the lake rose and some of the boats drifted off. They took the paddle boat to go rescue them.

On the last trip up to the barn this evening that colt was back up on the hay enjoying the view.

They were locked off the pasture. That needs a rest for a week. Now that we had that 2.5 inches of rain yesterday it will bounce back pretty quickly.

Both of the golf carts are now plugged in inside mom's garage and tonight we will be sleeping there. I'm writing the blog now but as soon as I update it I'll be packing our clothes and moving over. My computer will need to stay here at the old house until I can get help moving it so I guess I'll be driving back and forth for a while. 

Lots of Rain

 Mark got up around 3:30 am and started the coffee so when I got up it was already starting to cool. I'm thankful for the microwave. I got a few pictures from the weekend that I want to share. I was thankful Berlica was willing to take the guests out on trail rides.

We were expecting big storms starting at 8:00 am which meant at 7:55 Tessa and her filly were brought into the barn. We got rain, lots of rain, some thunder and not a lot of wind. The terrible predicted storm went around us. We are SURE it was because David S put his truck in the barn. He is 4 for 4. We have had hail predicted 4 times this spring, hail fell all over but not here. As long as his truck is in the indoor arena the hail has missed us. Mark worked at mom's scrubbing carpet and chairs. 

I went to work on cleaning and scrubbing the kitchen cupboards and drawers. 

At 10:15 am a couple of men arrived from 4 hours away to pick up the breeding equipment. That is now sold. They were quarter horse breeders and trainers. They were thrilled to get it and I was thrilled to get it out of the tack room. 

I forgot to give them the cardboard box filled with other supplies so that will go in the dumpster if there is room as the guys from Iowa don't want to drive back for it. Around 2:30 pm the rain stopped. We had 2 inches in the rain gauge by then. Tessa and her filly were taken to the outdoor arena to graze and I went in to clean the stall. I had just finished up when the rain started back up with a downpour. I walked over to the golf cart, hesitated then drove that out to the arena. Do I bring them back in or not?

Tessa was fine and glad to be grazing. The filly was not shivering at all so they were left out. This rain didn't last that long only giving us about a 10th of an inch before it slowed down.

After this second shower quit, Tessa was teased. She is in her foal heat but I can't use the second breeding stand (Valiant's) as she has a foal by her side. The other mare in season right now was Star Temple. She was brought out put in the breeding shed paddock with her filly then taken out of the paddock and tied to the breeding stand. Even before I got the stallion out she threw herself backward and broke her halter. I forgot this mare does not stand tied and will have to wait for Mike and Diane to come back to get her covered.  By this time is was almost time to get ready for church so she and her filly were left in the breeding shed paddock. There is plenty of hay and water there. She wasn't happy, she wanted to be out in the big field with Rosaleigh, but too bad I didn't have a halter on hand and didn't want to go back to the barn to get one. We arrived at the church parking lot just a few minutes before Joan's car. Berlica was driving tonight. She just got her permit. Gregg Rumbold had the message tonight on fellowship. Well that was really only a small part but I don't want to spoil the it for you if you want to watch it yourself. You can be clicking HERE. After church we went to Culvers for a late supper and were joined by David and Stephanie's family plus some others.

We left after 9:00 pm and it was still light outside. The picture below was taken just before turning on to Hanna City Glasford Rd.

We ended up with almost 2.5 inches of rain today!