Time For Winter Coats

 A great night's sleep gives one all kinds of energy. The cat wanted out of the garage. I thought she would use the kitty litter box I set up for her but instead she was standing at the doggy door meowing. As soon as she was out I checked on the kittens. They all had full bellies and are doing well.

I was notified about 6:00 am that our guests from the farm house had checked out and since I had been up since 5:00 I went over at 6:30 to start cleaning. The beds were stripped and made before hauling all of the laundry over to the barn. By this time it was almost 7:30 and Ruth was pulling up for the walk. Phil and Nolan were also here to haul the lift away. Philip also fixed both of the lights but I didn't find that out until this afternoon. With Joan going to Co-op Ruth and I only did one round which gave me time to get the laundry going at the barn. Today not only did I take all of the laundry from the farm house I also brought all of our laundry over. Between loads I would drive the golf cart over to clean. Sarah and Rhoda arrived with all of the kids while I was working. I was just finishing up then. Rhoda worked with Gypsy first. Gypsy is a 13 year old 14.1 hand Paint Arabian cross mare. Rhoda worked with her first in the round pen then stopped at the trampoline as all of the kids were having fun jumping on that. 

She tolerated that well.

Rhoda took her on the trails. On the way back stopped to have her step over all of the trees Mark had cut down. He was coming with the tractor to haul them up out of the water to cut them into logs.

Below Mark is hauling the first up.

When Rhoda got back to the barn she left Gypsy tacked, tied her up and left her. We were all pleased to see she stood quietly while we worked with Lucy.

Sarah had haltered Lucy and worked with her first in the round pen then tied her to the stand so we could hose her leg and treat her wound. 

She will be picked up next weekend to go to her new home. Before putting Gypsy away they asked her to stand on the pedestal.

The grand kids all came into the farm house to warm up and have some lunch.

Sarah came down when it was their turn to ride and took some videos of them. In the video below Rhoda is giving Zion a riding lesson on Stardust.

Iris got to ride Penny.

Below is the video that as I was watching exclaiming, "What IS that?" You will have to watch the video to see why.

After they left I finished the farm house, checked over the foaling apartment and turned on those lights as there are guests coming in this evening then made sure the barn was ready for guests as that too is rented tonight. Supper tonight was chicken strips and salad. It was cold today. The temperature this morning on our walk was 43 degrees but not much wind. By afternoon it was 44 with a cold breeze. Time for winter coats. 

There Are FIVE

 Diane and Beth joined us on the walk by phone again. Diane has an appointment to show Island Royale later today, we shall see if these people are just lookers or buyers. Ruth brought her dog and when we got to Joan's house, her black cat took one look at Ruth's dog and scurried half way up a tree. From where we were she looked like a small black bear. The picture is zoomed in so you can see she is a cat not a bear.

After the walk I fed the mama cat a can of solid white tuna, and that was to get her out of the box so I could clean up the birthing area. She smelled the tuna and jumped right out of the box. 

When she realized I was moving the kittens though she jumped right back in. At least I could see that she has 5 kittens. I was able to pick up 2 of the kittens before she jumped inside.

The top box was taken off, the kittens moved to the front and a clean towel put down.

I asked Mark to help take the vacuum to the barn and haul it upstairs, he was willing but not right then. He just wanted to finish something on his phone.

I worked on the living area of the barn while waiting for him to arrive. When he did he was put right to work up on a ladder to fix the light.

He wasn't able to get that light back in position and is going to buy a box to mount it on. Instead he worked on the game room light. That just needed to be plugged in again.

It takes that 8 foot ladder but isn't too hard and as soon as it is plugged in the light over the batting cage shines.

I quit cleaning at 2:30 pm, went home heated up some chili for our lunch then left for Sam's club. The barn needed more paper towels for the downstairs bathrooms, Mark wanted lemons, I picked up 2 chickens, one for Joan and one for us then drove to Aldi and bought eggs, milk, chicken stock, apples, celery, sweet potato casserole and stuffing mix. Some of that is for our Thanksgiving, thought I get a jump start on that. Our email is not working but Mark said there was a report on the news about that.  Good to know it is not just our computer that isn't working. If anyone was trying to email us we will not be able to access that until Outlook is back up and running. I have a new doctor appointment Tuesday afternoon and had to fill out page after page using my phone. That took hours as I had to keep looking things up and the phone kept going dark. 3 of the questions I tried to skip but each time I tried an error message would come up with the words, must fill out, the first was what are my preferred pronouns, the second was what gender do I prefer to go by and the last was what was my sexual preference. WHY WOULD THEY ASK SUCH STUPID QUESTIONS, none of that is any of their business. The first 2 I could at least put I prefer not to answer but the last didn't give me that option. I checked off box in front of straight.  Like I'm on the straight and narrow. 

It is now past our bedtime and I can hear Mark snoring.  

New Kittens

 I didn't have a good night, I had forgotten to take an Aleve for my shoulder before going to bed. At 11:24 pm finally got out of bed and took one but it didn't take effect until morning. I'm thankful I can brush my hair and dress myself although getting a shirt off takes some thought and effort.  Diane and Beth joined Ruth, Joan and I on the walk by speaker phone. They were walking in Gulf Shores while we walked here and that was almost as good as being together.  We sure do laugh a lot with each other. We stopped at Mike's barn to see the progress. They were getting the floor ready to pour the cement. 

We finished about 8:20 am which gave me plenty of time to cook breakfast, eat, then get ready to leave for Tremont by 8:50 am. We wanted to arrive before 9:30 am so we could go through the visitation line before going into church for the funeral. When we arrived Faith was standing right at the door and offered to let us cut but nope we wouldn't do that and went to the end of the line. Quite a few came in after us. We were able to share our condolences with June's family and get seated in a very full church just before 10:00 am. They weren't able to start the service on time as the line was still going on but that gave us time to listen to the beautiful voices of the choir as they sang songs June loved. The service was very touching as June had touched so many people during her 79 years. We didn't go to the cemetery and didn't' get a chance to talk to Amy but talked to cousin Mike for a bit before heading home. We stopped at Bartonville Hardware to pick up Mark's now fixed chain saw.  Mom's mums were beautiful in the sunshine when we finally pulled in at home. So pretty I took a couple pictures.

We changed quickly before going out for the first job of the day. Today is our last nice day for a while. The weather is going to turn cold tomorrow. The Salem camper needed to be moved into the barn and a Wildwood camper needed to be moved outside for the people coming to look at it. I'll post the FSX for sale next if the Wildwood sells.

Mark helped with the hooking up and unhooking each camper. Once the Wildwood was in place we tested all of the appliances to make sure they all worked. The next job was to removed the bandage from Lucy's leg. Mark stood in front of her, I used the hay bale to hold her against that and gave her grain to keep her busy while the bandage was removed then used the spray on bandage. The wound is healing very well.

Mark wanted to try out the chain saw next so he went home to cut down a tree. I stopped at Mike's barn as the concrete truck was backing in to his barn about then. This was the second truck. I stopped in to check out what they got done while we were at the funeral.

Tomorrow they will do the second half. When I got home the tree was almost ready to fall.

He was busy for a while cutting up that tree. This was a locust tree and the wood is very hard and burns really hot and long, perfect for wood burners once split.

The afternoon flew by and soon it was time to get ready for church again. We left at 6:00 pm and were the first in the parking lot. Dave Beutel had the message and because today is Veterans Day focused on that reading first in Deuteronomy and then in 2nd Timothy. It is not yet up on AC Central but hopefully will be posted here once it is up. We went to Culvers for a late supper and were joined by Pam, Theresa, her daughter Mary, Joan, Mackenson and Berlica. When we got home I started calling for the cat and was shocked to see her in the box I set up yesterday. She HAD her kittens IN THE BOX! I didn't disturb her, just put food and water out for her took the picture below and then locked her in the garage. Hopefully tomorrow I can see if she had 4 or 5 kittens. I think I could make out 4 of them and could see they were nursing. 

Good Day

 As today is Berean day I only did one round of walk. I stopped first at Sam's club to pick up a pecan pie for the volunteers. When I went to pay my Sam's club credit card was not in my wallet so had to use my discover card. I'll have to search when I get home. We were really busy at Berean and I was kept busy at the computer so forgot to take any pictures until we finished and were having a treat. We had a REAL treat today. Shirl's daughter came just as we were enjoying the pie but she didn't come to eat, she came to clean. 

Kathy ended up staying to help with the cleaning. Shirley sent a text that the cleaning was done well and quickly with so much help. These ladies really have that servant heart, even willing to clean bathrooms just so we have a nice place to work. I dropped the mail off at the Hanna City post office then went home and had a small lunch of some left over chicken salad. Sarah and her girls had been here and had cleaned the house. It was wonderful to walk in and see everything sparkling clean. They went from here to the horses and Sarah sent back pictures and videos.

Below she is giving riding lessons to all 3 girls.

I went to work grading the studies from Michigan as those have to be graded with blue or black ink. Those were finished by 3:30 pm and dropped off at the post office on our way to the basketball games.

Mark and I left for Christ Lutheran School to watch the 7th and 8th grade basketball games between Farmington and Christ Lutheran. 

Below Kensley's name was called as a starter.

She is in 6th grade for the record but is a starter on the 7th grade team. Below is the video of that game.

The 7th grade game was very competitive and a defensive battle and not until the 4th quarter did Farmington pull away. Below is the final score.

 The 8th grade game was not competitive. The Christ Lutheran school only had 3 8th grade girls and the rest were 6th and 7th graders. I only videoed while Taegan and Kensley were playing. Taegan had 25 points and Kensley 4 as they didn't play the entire game. Below is Taegan running out. She is last girl of the lineup at the start of the 8th grade game.

I only videoed the first 3 quarters as neither Kensley nor Taegan played in the last part of the 3rd quarter nor in last quarter.

Below is the final score.  No baskets were scored the last few minutes.

After the games, Phil, Anna, Taegan, Kensely, Mark and I went to the Bartonville Diner for dinner. We got there around 7:00 pm and it was slow tonight, the food didn't come for long time, the waitress forgot the soup but still the food was good and we were not in a hurry. It was a good day.

 

Shoulder Pain

 I was up at 5:00 am trying to get AC Central to work. Thankfully the I T guy from Peoria gave me two links I was able to post on last night's blog. It looks like I will have to use the Peoria AC Website for all the links to sermons from now on. I never was able to get AC Central to work. I gave up working on that so I would have time to read before going over to the barn to finish the laundry. One load was taken over to the foaling apartment to dry and while there the horses were grained. Ruth arrived for the walk with a present for me. A nice soft electric throw she found at a garage sale last year. After the walk that was taken inside and plugged in and I was thrilled when it worked. I owe her now. It is on our bed and will be turned on high before we go to bed to warm it up. While the load of towels at the barn was drying I was able to get all 6 bathrooms cleaned and the now washed comforters and blankets from the foaling apartment back on the beds. Those comforters washed up perfectly. They look brand new. Sarah sent a message that she was ready to help with Lucy. When I got there Zion was leading Lucy around in the round pen.

Sarah actually came today to help change Lucy's bandage. Lucy stood well for the washing it down but not very good for the bandaging.

Sarah was holding her and I was wrapping when she swung her hip into me and knocked my shoulder into the stall wall. I felt something snap and then intense pain in my right shoulder. After that we got the twitch and got her bandaged.

Why I didn't think of the twitch sooner bugs me. I know foals can't be trusted. The shoulder isn't terrible, I can still lift my arm enough to brush my own hair.  After finishing mom's flowers were repotted and brought into the house.

The geraniums are still from the plant Carolee Unsicker gave to mom after their Africa trip. Mom kept it alive for years and even though I am not a plant person I have to at least try to keep it alive. Rhonda gave me the plates for them to be put on so the water stays off of the floor.  

After I finished Mark was working on the golf cart. He had me help with adding the water as the back battery is to far back to get it filled with just one person.

One needs to hold the funnel while the other pours the water.  Sarah was giving a fun lesson on Penny for the girls. Today they were asking Penny to kick the ball while they were riding.

The girls have so much fun doing this they don't realize how much they are learning.

We left for Illini Bluffs at 3:30 to watch Kensley and Taegan play basketball. The 7th grade game was a nail biter for the first 3 quarters. They were down by 3 at half time then went down by 6. They made that up and went 2 points ahead at the end of the 3rd quarter. 

The video below shows just the 4th quarter.

The 8th grade game was a defensive battle. It was a low scoring game through the first half but the change came in the second half. Taegan took herself out of the game, ran out of the gym and vomited. She had not been feeling well. Once she was out the home team won easily although Farmington was catching up and didn't lose by much. Kensley got to play and had some great baskets. We got home before 7:00 pm had a late supper and fed the cat. That mama cat is huge and I think getting ready to deliver soon. She has been coming when I call as I am giving her treats. Last night I locked her in the garage then let her out this morning. When we got home tonight she was no where to be found but I got some left over lasagna and called,

when she came I quickly shut the pet door again while she was eating the lasagna. I made her a bed in the garage.

I felt her nipples and I think we have a few days so hopefully I can find a good size cardboard box and cover the bed with that. We really need her to deliver those kittens inside so we can tame them. Her last litter we couldn't find until they were wild. I think the coyotes got those. I'd like to try to save this litter.  I took some Aleve and will head to my nice warm bed in a few minutes.

AN Easy Way

 I saw our guests from the foaling apartment at 7:00 am at the dumpster. They waved goodbye as I was heading over to feed the horses. After taking care of the horses I popped in and removed the plastic shower curtain, replacing that with a fabric waterproof one that is washable. We picked up Rhonda at 9:05 am and didn't make it to church until 9:40 pm. We went the interstate and found out the exit was closed going to 74 so had to drive a few miles out of our way. Caleb Plattner had the morning message on Genesis 42. Click HERE to watch that.  Mike Kaisner had the afternoon message on St John 13, click HERE if to watch that. Thanks to the nameless I T guy from church. We could not get either link last night, but were sent the links from him. We took Nancy home with us as Joan went to Tremont for baptisms. We were going to have to leave early from church but the people that were coming into the farm house this afternoon that had asked if they could come early sent a message that they changed their minds and wouldn't be arriving until after 5:00 pm. That gave me plenty of time to get it done so we did not have to leave early from church. Right after we got home I had to start flipping the farm house. Rhoda came in to help and between the 2 of us we had it done by 3:30 pm. All of the laundry was taken to the barn. Rhoda went out to work the horses and worked Lucy first in the round pen. 

I went home to finish getting the food ready. Supper tonight was crock pot lasagna, salad, fresh baked hot bread and butter. Sarah brought deviled eggs as their chickens are producing very well right now and some banana bread Zion made. We also had hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Everyone had plenty.

They all had a great time tonight.

I kept the laundry going while visiting. I have 2 loads to finish tomorrow and left one running in the washer and one running in the dryer. I'm so thankful for such and easy way to do laundry.

Outside ALL DAY

 There was no hurry to get going this morning. Saturday there is no walk and today I had no one moving in or out. I went over to grain Lucy and Valiant around 9:15 and since we had someone coming to look at the camper at 10:00 turned the propane on and then the furnace. I went back to check to see if it was warm inside about 9:50 am and it wasn't. The propane tank was empty. The family arrived right about then but it wasn't an issue. Their two daughters were fascinated with the horses. 

Rhoda arrived just as they were done looking which was about an hour and a half later. I kept the girls entertained by giving them golf cart rides. They were a nice family and want to think about exactly what would be best for them but told me they would let me know soon. Rhoda started working with Gypsy, the paint mare first. About then Sarah and Nolan arrived. The went to work putting the back gate back on it's hinges and fixing a downed board. 

River and Zion wanted to try Gypsy. Below is the complete video of Rhoda working first with Gypsy then with River and Zion.

The next job, before working any of the other ponies, was to take Lucy out, wash down the scrape on her leg. She was taken to the stall to apply the spray on bandage. 

Sarah took the video below. 

She moved as I was spraying so I got it on both legs but made sure to get the scrape well covered. We took her out to the outdoor to work with her and of course to show her owner that she is not lame. 

I had to use youtube for her video as that is the only way I can send it to her owner.

Sarah had to leave then but Zion stayed. She went on a trail ride with Rhoda. I took a couple pictures then a short video and just as they were walking down the trail head my phone died.

Below Stardust wants to meet Penny but Penny is giving her the evil eye.

I stayed back and charged the phone enough that I could get a video of Zion mounting Stardust. She climbs the rail, whirls her hand around, Stardust moves to the side and Zion climbs on.

Zion had some fun with Stardust today, learning a new way to stop her.

Spark and Rhonda walked over and Mark asked Spark to help him with that old golf cart. Zion put Stardust away then Mark, Rhoda, Zion and I went to Gil's Supper club for supper.

We ordered onion rings to start and they were so good I forgot to take a picture until they were almost gone.

Our meals were delicious! Rhoda ordered the ribeye steak sandwich, Zion ordered the kids chicken finger dinner and Mark and I shared the cob salad.

We all ate every bite! When we got back the new metal manure forks were here. Rhoda and Zion helped put them together.

We shouldn't be so excited about these but we all were. Tonight as I was working on the blog Julie, the lady that bought one of Soul's foals by Evan sent me these two pictures. It is not of her daughter it is one of their close friends that wanted her senior pictures taken with Gideon or Thor as they call him now.

We sure do appreciate updated pictures of our foals. Wow did he turn out gorgeous! We spent almost the entire day outside and are so thankful for the sunshine. Without that sun it would have been too cold. We are a week into November and so thankful we can still be outside.