Zion's Birthday

 We were both up early. As soon as it was light enough to see it was time to head to work. The barn was first as there were just a few things needed to be finished and from there I went to the foaling apartment. There was still one set of king sheets in the dryer that needed to be folded and put in the closet. Then came time to check the farm house. That just needed the lights turned on, and the floor swept. All three of the airbnb's are rented today. I was grabbing the last of the cleaning supplies out of the barn and loading them on the golf cart right about the time Diane and Ruth showed up to walk. Ruth told us about the big move for her son and how all of the details worked out perfectly. Of course she is giving all of the credit to God. Diane shared about meeting a family from Metamora who were renting at their complex. Turned out the man is (I think the sheriff or running for sheriff) at the Woodford County Jail. Spark had just had a volunteer from Goodfield tell him, "I wish I could just volunteer at the local jail instead of driving in to Peoria" Well now we have a contact! Another coincidence that just has to be attributed to our Heavenly Father. Diane showed them her townhome and after checking out hers they are interested in buying one. The walk went by way to fast. I had to quit after one round and drive to GFS in Peoria to pick up the meat and cheese for Sunday. That went very quick and I was on my way home by 9:10 am.  Instead of going straight to our house I drove up to the apartment as there were 4 vehicles up there. It turned out to be Rhoda's car, Sarah's car, Joan's van and a pick up truck. An older man got out of the pickup truck and asked me, "Is this the apartment?" I was confused as the people renting the apartment are coming in for a funeral and asked him, "What are you here for?" He explained they were coming in for golfing. He was at the wrong place. The golfers booked the barn. I had him follow me to the barn and showed him how to get in. It was only around 9:40 am. I was very glad I had finished it early this morning and they were very glad to be able to unload before going to their golf game. After putting the meat and cheese away I took the golf cart over to where Rhoda and Sarah were working with the horses. Rhoda worked with Zion on Dancer today. Mike used a hackamore with Dancer but Rhoda just put a halter with reins on her and Zion did great.

Today is Zion's birthday, she is 9 years old.

Below is a short video. Zion even trotted her a bit.

I was telling Sarah about how naughty Merlin was not wanting to follow his mom back into the paddock. She explained they have to put a halter on him and lead him back every time. She shared Merlin's new trick which I posted below.

He is such a funny foal!

Zion sure loves that funny foal.

This afternoon I made the chicken salad for Sunday then Mark and I loaded all the food for Sunday into the car and drove to church. Tomorrow Rhoda and Lee will come help us make the wraps and help us set up for Sunday. Everything is there now except the donuts. 9 dozen donuts and 4 dozen cherry cheese danish will be picked up at 8:00 am Sunday morning from Casey's and 4 dozen fried croissants will picked up at 8:30 am from Schnucks Sunday morning. Mark worked on the drives today. We got those big rains and some of the roads were washed out. He did a lot of hand digging and is really tired tonight. He is already in bed and I will head there in a couple minutes. 

Lots of Rain

 The shipper for Rosaleigh's colt showed up just before midnight last night. As it was really dark I had the driver back the trailer into the indoor arena. They had a full load of horses and in the very last stall was a cute buckskin colt, I believe I heard them say he was 6 months old but I may be mistaken. Rosaleigh's colt had never been on a ramp before but he was brave when he saw the other colt and walked right in.

The middle divider was put back on and those two colts shared the last stall together. There was plenty of room for them.

I took the video below of them driving away.

Once they turned the corner and started down the hill, the barn lights were turned off, the apartment lights were turned off and I was on my way home to bed. Mark was sound asleep and never heard me climb into bed. Morning came way to early.  We had an inch of rain in the rain gauge this morning. That was dumped and we are getting dumped on with lots of rain today. I went over early to move Tessa and her filly out of the stalls and back into their paddock. That didn't go well, the filly didn't follow her mom, I opened the gate and Merlin ran out to be with the filly and they started running around the yard. I looped the chain over the gate and walked over to the shed to grab some grain, the two moms saw their foals running around pushed against the gate and the chain fell off, the gate opened and all 4 horses went running down to the farm house yard. They were so excited about being out they went running around the tree and up the drive to visit with Evan then saw me with the bucket of grain and all of the followed me into the paddock except Merlin. He decided it was more fun to be outside.  The mares were grained then I went to find a halter for Merlin and lead him in. After all of that I still needed to clean both of those stalls and Tessa's was a mess.  That one needed to be stripped. New bedding will be added later after it dries out. The guests in the farm house left but it isn't rented again until tomorrow so I went back to the house to cook. We ate a leisurely breakfast of my special fluffy pancakes, sausage, eggs and strawberries. After breakfast it was time to go to work. Mark took the hand held battery vacuum around the gym while I worked on the farm house. I have extra bedding and towels so all of the laundry was taken to the barn. That washer is new and has a short cycle that does a good job on the sheets as long as there are no stains. I didn't finish the farm house until noon but then went to work finishing the laundry. There were a lot of loads and it was 3:00 pm before the last towel was folded. That was all taken over to our house. I was too tired to cook supper but we still had leftovers from Sunday. We needed to drive to D & H to pick up the motorhome and did all that driving in the rain. That was put back in the indoor. We have someone coming next week to look at the repairs needed. It really started pouring rain this evening. It will be interesting to see how much we get by morning. 

The Late Night Shipper

 It started raining during the night and was still raining this morning. I drove the motorhome in the rain down to D & H while Mark followed in the Tesla. After dropping that off we drove to Meisters to drop off a check then to Sam's to get the rest of the food for church lunch. There was a lot to unload and I am very glad for an attached garage. We didn't get wet while unloading. At noon the rain stopped for a short time. I quickly ran up to the barns to move a bale in for the mares in the middle paddock, except they were up by the gate and I didn't have help. Instead I took the time to finish the foaling apartment. 

There is now new bedding on all of the beds. The futon needs to be kept a bed again as we have 5 guests moving in on Friday.  Below is the queen room with the pocket doors shut.

The picture below shows the new lights for this room on both sides of the bed. To the left of the picture is the bench and to the right is the closet door.

Below are 2 pictures of the king room.

When I finished the rain was just starting up again but the 4 mares in that paddock were out grazing. The tractor was used to put in a new bale. 

When I got back to the house the 4 chickens picked up today from Sam's club were deboned and the meat chopped and frozen. We now have the meat from 10 chickens ready to be made into chicken salad. 

I have 160 croissants all bought this week frozen. Those will be taken out of the freezer on Saturday and taken to church. Mark thought it would be a good idea to cut them, have a bowl of chicken salad next in line then let people just make their own chicken salad sandwich. That might be a good idea. We are also going to be serving 2 kinds of wraps, either ham and cheddar cheese or turkey and provolone cheese.

Just as the chicken was finished the shipper coming for Rosaleigh's colt sent a message he would be arriving around 11:00 pm. I had Mark come help bring the mares and foals into the stalls. I found out that the paper work I sent in to register Merlin and Rosaleigh's colt had to be mailed to a different address. The FHHI registry is going through a break up and the lady with the database has a different address. I had to call the bank to put a stop order on the check sent with the registrations and then fill out all new applications but that meant I also had to pull hair again. Once Merlin's hair was pulled, he and Harli, his dam were taken back outside but Tessa and her filly will have to spend the night inside because Rosaleigh's colt is in the stall across the aisle and he wouldn't be happy in the barn by himself. His hair also had to be pulled. He didn't care, he was too busy munching away on his grain.

Tessa and her filly also got grain. below they have finished it.

They have plenty of hay and water to keep them busy until tomorrow morning. 

It was raining when we brought the horses inside and raining when I got home. We cleaned up and got ready for church. Tonight was Dave Barnard's testimony and baptism. It was a really special night. It is on AC Central if you would like to watch it click HERE. We got home late but I can't go to bed. I will be moving over to the foaling apartment tonight as the shipper just sent an update it will be closer to midnight before he arrives. Hope I can stay awake that long.

Joyful

 I dreamed this morning of Ribbon, our vaulting horse only she was pulling the wagon I was driving a full load to get out of town. Mostly I remember the reins were too short and in terrible shape. In my dream I kept losing the right rein. I woke up wondering why did we have such bad short reins. By 6:00 am I was working. The farm house had guests coming in today and I wasn't able to finish it yesterday. By 8:00 am I was on the way to the Berean office. We had a good amount of work today.

Kathy was working on a letter then realized she didn't have the address as the envelop had been thrown away. We accused her of dumpster diving.

Skip found out that postage is going up again as he was using the postage machine.

After the prayer Marvin told us about the need for graders for the advanced course. If anyone is interested in helping with that he has an answer key.

The advanced course is a little harder to grade as the student is encouraged to write what the verse or question means in his own words.. Below Irv is taking a break waiting for the apple pie to be served.

We had a good morning and got a lot accomplished. After dropping off the Bibles and studies going out to day at the Hanna City post office, I drove to Casey's to order the donuts for Sunday. At first it was going well but when it was time to pay they decided to wait for that until Friday just in case the shipments don't come in. I know I have 4 dozen cherry cream cheese danishes and 4 dozen white cake donuts with sprinkles but the filled long johns are iffy. They said last shipment they had asked for 3 boxes and only received 1. Hope they come by Friday. I forgot it is the Spoon River Drive this weekend and they were already going to be baking 250 donuts and now I was asking for 16 dozen more for Sunday morning at 8:00 am. When I walked in the door I immediately knew Sarah and the girls had been here. The house looks so good after they clean. After eating some lunch, I drove the golf cart over to the foaling apartment to get the 6 chickens. Nolan had started installing the tv but it sounds like Philip had to finish it as he has the stud finder.

It was a good thing I had cleaned the farm house in the morning, the guests arrived early.

The chickens were taken home. I started de-boning them at 2:30 pm and didn't finish until 4:00 pm but have 3 big bowls of chicken now in the freezer. Mark will pick up 5 more at Costco tomorrow.  The camper repair place called and they can take the motorhome in tomorrow morning. Mark will drive the tesla down while I drive the motorhome. Hopefully the repairs can be done soon and I can post it for sale. This evening all of the bedding for the beds in the foaling apartment and 4 bedside lamps arrived. We had light bulbs for one set but will have to buy some for the second. The apartment rented for Friday night so hopefully all will be done by then. My second day without caffeine and so far I can't tell much difference other than all the joy has been removed with missing that first cup in the morning. I'm just joking on that. How can I not be joyful knowing Jesus loves me. 

Ordering Food for Church Lunch

 I didn't sleep well last night, probably because I knew there would be no coffee in the morning. I'm giving up caffeine. Also the phone rang around 1:00 am but no one answered when I said hello. We still are not walking, Diane and Mike won't be home until Thursday evening and Ruth is flying home today but turning around and driving back down helping their son move to Mobile. I went to the farm house early and stripped the beds and gathered up all of the towels and took that to the barn for washing. As long as I was doing laundry I started some at my house and the foaling apartment too. I had 3 machines running and was able to get almost all of that done before Anna arrived to clean the apartment. She figured out how to get the cords off the wall and also repaired a broken outlet along with the cleaning.

We needed new lamps for the end tables and she found exactly what was needed and sent it to me. They are now ordered. The towels from church were washed and I asked Mark to hang them outside when the washer stopped.  I left for GFS to order and pay for the ham, turkey and two kinds of cheese for Sunday lunch. They will have it sliced and ready for me to pick up Friday morning 9:00 am. From there I drove to Schnucks and ordered and paid for 4 dozen fried croissants. The last store was Sam's club where I bought $221.00 worth of the foods and supplies needed. Tomorrow I'll need to order some donuts from Casey's. Everything was taken to the foaling apartment so I could use the fridge and freezer. I bought 6 chickens, those were put in the fridge once they cooled and on Thursday will be deboned and made into chicken salad. Mark will pick up 4 more at Costco when he goes on Wednesday.

Mark didn't remember about the church towels and rags until I was on the way home but got them all outside on the drying rack in the sunshine for at least an hour. They were brought inside at 4:30 pm to finish drying inside.

By the time everything was put away I was pretty tired but still needed to go to the barn to fold one more load of towels and take those to the farm house. That rented for tomorrow. The beds are all made with clean sheets but I still have some cleaning to do there tomorrow morning before leaving for Berean. This evening after supper Mark came with me to the foaling apartment to install the simple hook and eye lock for the pocket doors.

That was an easy fix.

The new television and wall mount for the apartment arrived today. Hopefully Nolan can help get that up. 

SoThankful

I had two crock pots full and cooking by 6:00 am filled with Taunya's recipe for chuck roasts, potatoes and carrots. It is such an easy recipe and my family really enjoys it. One roast is put on the bottom then sprinkled with 1 package of brown gravy mix, one package of onion soup mix and one package of ranch mix. The potatoes and carrots are added next then the second roast must be cut up to get it to fit in the crock pot. Then half of all the packages (the second crock pot got the other half) then put in a cup and a half of beef broth and put on low. 

We had an easy morning and left for church a little after 9:00 am. Gregg Rumbold had the morning message on Psalm 133 and 1st John 2. Click HERE to watch. Caleb Plattner had the afternoon message on the minor prophet study Amos 5 and 6. Click HERE to watch. After church I went right into the kitchen to get the towels and didn't realize Nancy had followed Mark out to the parking lot. By the time I got there he was helping her get her seat belt on. I quickly sent Joan a text that we would take her home. Joan sent back that they had just realized they couldn't find her and had just started to panic. We made out that she would just come home with us and stay for dinner then Rhoda and Lee would take her home. The supper really turned out delicious.

By the time everyone had eaten their fill we had just one small left over container to take home. After supper the kids were having fun in the gym and Nancy got to join too.

Berlica came over so Rhoda and Sarah took all the kids and went to work with the mares. Rhoda is teaching Berlica how to train. It will be wonderful to have another trainer in the family. 

We all stayed later than usual visiting. It really was another wonderful Sunday and I am so thankful! Such a precious time to first be with my beloved church family and then my even more beloved children and grand children. We are truly blest!

Exhausted

 Today was not a day of rest and by the end of the day I am more than ready to crash. I made breakfast early then Mark left to pick up Israel and I left for Sam's club to pick up food for Sunday dinner.  He got home before I did but not by that much. I made it to Sam's by 8:15, was done shopping and drove to Aldi in Bartonville by 9:00 am and made it home by 9:18 am. Mark hired Mackenson and Israel to work the log splitter. After putting the groceries away I went straight to the foaling apartment to start moving out furniture. Today Rhoda was bring a king size bed for the master bedroom and Sarah was going to take the sectional couch to her house. Sarah arrived early and right about then Mark brought Mackenson and Israel over to help. That couch is REALLY heavy.

When Rhoda arrived with the truck, she was frazzled. The mattress was kind of blowing around even though it was tied down with dog leashes and to top it all off Zeke opened the truck door on the interstate. She was very glad she made it here safely. Nolan arrived right then so we had plenty of help unloading and installing. The queen bed was moved into the second bedroom, the king bed was set up in the master. Once everything was done and cleaned up Sarah got some pictures so I could update the airbnb ad.

Above and below are the second bedroom, the one that use to have the couch in it.

Above and below are pictures of the master bedroom which now has the king bed. The headboard has usb ports on either side for phones.

Below is the kitchen/living area with the futon as a couch. I have ordered a 55 inch Roku TV for the wall and that will be delivered on Sept 29th. 

The sectional couch was loaded into the 2 horse trailer. Mark, Mackenson, Israel, Rhoda and Nolan drove the 4 miles to Sarah and Nolan's house and unloaded that into their basement. Rhoda said it matched perfectly. By 1:30 pm we were finished and hungry. We drove to the Warehouse in Hanna City for a late lunch. Mark and I split a tenderloin which was the special of the day.

When I told the waitress we were going to split it she gave us two buns. Rhoda ordered a salad, Machenson ordered a chicken sandwich and fries and Israel ordered a bacon cheese burger with fries. We ATE every bite. No one needed a box for leftovers, there weren't any. From the Warehouse I took Israel home and when I got back parked the truck and trailer. Right about then the new guests for the apartment arrived. They walked in, came right back out and asked if I would mind them using the futon for a bed. I just had to laugh! I went home to get clean sheets just as Berlica drove up with a golf cart and I asked her to go with me to make up the futon into a bed. There are just 3 young men, workers maybe in their 30s, staying but they each wanted their own bed. From there I went to the barn to start on the laundry there and clean bathrooms. There were 4 loads of sheets and just 2 loads of towels. The last load of towels was put in the dryer and started but by this time it was 6:30 pm so tomorrow I will fold those towels. Joan is hosting a casting party at the barn tonight. 

Those in Gulf Shores are having wonderful weather. Ruth sent the picture below of Riley and Blair on the beach this evening.

Check out the picture below Rachel shared with the family of the full moon over the water.

Good Eating Fish

 I started before breakfast on the barn as the guests left at 6:30 am. I was able to get a couple loads of sheets done and the king bed made before stopping to cook. After breakfast I needed to get right back at it. The freezing compartment in the fridge needed cleaning big time but first I had to melt all the ice off, there must have been spills then water spilled on top. Mark came over to help and did some of the sweeping. I worked until 2:30 before I felt the barn was ready for company. Sarah and Rhoda were here working the horses while I was working at the barn. Sarah sent some video. Below Tessa is learning about saddles. 

She is not near as willing as Harli to accept something on her back. Today Rhoda taught Harli to turn on the forehand on both directions under saddle.

Zion decided to work with Merlin. She asked him to pick up his feet today and didn't even have a halter on him. She haltered him herself then all the other grandkids came over to also work with Merlin. He really is a favorite here.

Today I found out all of the paper work I did and mailed out for the FHHI registry will have to be redone. The check mailed out had to have a stop order on it. I sent a message to the lady I mailed everything to and asked her to just throw it all away. The registry is splitting up and in order for me to get last year's papers I need to send everything to the new address. The good news with that is it should no longer take months to get the registration papers back. I'll need to get more hair pulled and get them sent in tomorrow hopefully. I was able to download and get the new addresses and the lady handling them assured me she had last years ready to go out. It rained most of today, not a hard rain but pretty steady. It stopped after supper so Mark and I went out to move in a couple round bales. It is now getting dark earlier and by 7:00 pm the moon was out. The barn lights were turned on.

I was down by the gate ready to open it while Mark was in the barn in the picture above. Below he is bringing the bale.

The mares heard the tractor and came galloping up. By the time he got the bale in they were ready to eat. They have their entire pasture but they really like this hay. We moved a bale in for Valiant next. He wasn't out but by the time he is out more rain will be moving in. The moon was behind some clouds but still very bright by the time we finished.

Ruth sent a picture from Gulf Shores. They are up on the 10th floor in mom's Island Royal condo and even though it wasn't dark the moon was reflecting on the Gulf water.

Such a beautiful view. The group down there have been doing a lot of fishing and catching LOTS of all kinds of good eating fish. 

Day of Rest

 Today really was my day of rest. All of the airbnbs are occupied and all of the horses have plenty of hay. I read in the morning then this afternoon read a book Gail gave me which I will leave in the barn for others. Instead of doing physical labor today worked on rotating potluck and with 5 couples coming we have a date! That is always the hardest part of hosting, finding the date.  The other responsibility I needed to work on is what to serve for church lunch. Mark and I are serving the first Sunday in October. At first we talked about serving hamburgers and hot dogs but that would mean Mark would need to grill and he would need 2 grills. As all of the airbnbs are booked that weekend we would only have one grill so we decided against that. Then I remembered when Ralph and Jamie had their anniversary reception I made and served 2 kinds of wraps. They went over so well I had to keep making more. Those can be made on Saturday and I can do it myself. I would also like to serve chicken salad croissants. The rest of the goodies will be figured out later. Speaking of Ralph and Jamie, Jamie sent some pictures today taken by her sister in law Tina Fitzgarrald. They were amazing so I asked permission to share them here. 

Ralph and Jamie have 3 horses, Myrrhcedes, Dakota and Legacy. They had Dr. C from Hoerr vet clinic out and Jamie sent the message below how much Dr. C liked those mares. 

Not to brag or anything but Myrrhcedes is by Raven out of our Arabian mare Paris and Legacy is by Valiant out of Dakota. 

I have all the paper work for Rosaleigh's colt to leave for his new home and that was supposed to happen today but the shipper didn't call or arrive so maybe that will happen tomorrow. 

Dancer Canters

After breakfast Mark and I went out to start spreading the pile of manure in the stallion pasture. Mark ran the tractor and I used the skid steer to load. When Mark would start spreading I used the wait time to clean out some of Evan's paddock. 

When we quit with that the bucket was removed from the skid steer and the bale spear put on so we could move a new bale in Evan's shelter.  Rhoda and Sarah arrived to work with the horses. Rhoda pulled Harli out first. While she was working with Harli, Zion was working with Merlin, Harli's colt.

Zion picked up the manure fork to clean up the round pen and Merlin thought he should help with that.

After Rhoda worked with Harli, she gave Zion a turn to learn this new way of stopping her. 

Sarah had to leave after they finished with Harli as the girls had tumbling today. Tessa was brought out next.

She is such a pretty mare. The last time Rhoda worked with her, she spooked coming into the barn while walking between the motorhome and the bales. So today she got a lesson on leading back and forth until she was walking quietly without stepping in Rhoda's space.

Rhoda took out Jury next and took her for a nice quiet walk on the trails but when she hit the field Jury thought she should run. Rhoda spent quite a long time insisting she just walk in the field.

While she was doing that I was weeding the fields. They look really good right now and the weeds were easy to identify. 

Rhoda had time to work with Dancer this afternoon. Instead of putting a bridle on her she just snapped reins on the halter. Mike started Dancer with a hackamore so Dancer is not used to having a bit in her mouth. We were very pleased with her behavior and today asked for a canter in the round pen. Her first time with a rider. She ran into the canter but both times picked up the correct lead.

After Rhoda left I worked on downloading the video and placing it on youtube and on Facebook as we have some prospective buyers that wanted to see her trot and canter under saddle. We left for church a little after 6:00 pm. Tonight was the prayer meeting. David led that. It was different from a church service but was so good to be there. If you would like to watch that click HERE. Tonight was on praying for the children and their teachers in Sunday School.