Valiant's Surgery

 Mark and I left at 6:30 am to take the truck to Casey's. He wanted to fill up the empty diesel tanks and I needed to fill up the truck. As soon as we got back the truck was hooked to the stock trailer and that pulled out and left in the drive. I left for the walk early this morning so the clean towels and sheets could be dropped off at the barn before our walk.

Valiant's doctor appointment was at 8:30 am today so I just walked with Diane to Joan's house then took the golf cart over to the horses, got the stud chain then he followed me right into the trailer. Joan, Heather and Diane stuck around until he was loaded just incase I needed any help.  Valiant loses weight each summer showing off for the mares but this year he just didn't seem to be putting the weight back on. I noticed a spot when he was getting ready to breed last week, took a picture of that and sent it to Emma at the vet clinic. I would never have thought to look if we hadn't lost Mica last year. I was hoping the weight loss was because he needed his teeth floated but that wasn't the case. Valiant wasn't happy with the gag and chewed it enough to cause himself to bleed even before Dr. Hoer started. Below he is just checking everything in his mouth out.

His teeth were floated and then came the more important part, the surgery to remove the tumor and then the sewing back up.

The video  is a little graphic so if you have children you may want to skip this part, if you want to see it click HERE. It is important though for not just breeders but even owners with geldings to know what to look for. This took 3 hours to get everything done and get back home. Once home I went over to the barn to make the beds and restock the bathrooms with bath towels, hand towels and wash rags. Only after the upstairs was finished did I start on the floors. I was not able to finish but only have to scrub the floors and the barn will be ready for company again. Sarah came and worked with Penny again. Today Penny did wonderful. 

The girls were glad to go swimming after that. Pam came with 3 of her grandchildren so the 6 played together nicely in the lake.

The clouds rolled in and a few drops of rain fell then the sun came out hot. This happened twice while they were playing but the weather didn't cause anybody to quit. 

We left for church at 6:00 pm. Calep Plattner had the message tonight on Genesis 37 click HERE if you would like to watch that. David gave greetings from Princeville, he and Dave Beutel were both there for Father's day.  Dave had the morning message and David had the afternoon message. I'll listen to both of those tomorrow. Right now I'm very tired. When we got out of church I stopped to take another picture of the clouds.

I zoomed in for the picture below.

A big group of us went to Culvers for a late supper. That place was busy tonight. We stayed just a little too late. 

Big Bass

 We were up at 5:00 again and seem to be settling in just fine. I spent a couple hours putting things away and organizing them from everything we brought over last. Of course that was after drinking coffee. Just Diane and I walked, Ruth is still in Romania with Berean Prison Ministry and Joan took the cat in to be spayed. Speaking of Ruth, she sent back some beautiful pictures. 

Their trip is going very well. They are visiting lots of prisons and meeting many of the Berean volunteers over there.  Joan got news on her cat. When she took her in the cat was already pregnant with at least 4 kittens, so no spaying her yet. She has had this scheduled at least twice. This cat lives outside and seems to be very fertile. My grandchildren are going to be thrilled to play with kittens again. I just walked one round as I needed to leave for the Berean office. When I arrived we were told that Leila Witzig had passed away. We were all shocked, she is one of our readers here at the Berean office. We don't have any of the details yet. We had a good group this morning with a new volunteer, one of Skip's grandsons was here visiting from Indiana and of course we put him right to work.

We didn't realize that the internet was down until we tried to print out postage.

Without the internet the postage machine won't work. Skip had to drive to the post office to pick up stamps so we could get the studies out today. The Bibles will have to wait. Skip is going to try to come in tomorrow to get them out.

Marvin worked on returns while Kathy read the letters and responded to a lot of them.

I dropped the studies off at the Hanna City post office and pulled in just as Diane was pulling out. When I got back I went straight to our old house to get the laundry going and more packing. Today the silverware drawers were emptied and everything staying was put in the dishwasher. I will need new contact paper for the drawers. Sarah was here and helped me load the tubs into the car. She worked with Penny and was very pleased. David had Israel and Elisabet here swimming so she left him in charge. Zion was fishing and pulled in a whopper of a bass. 

Later Berlica took a group out horse back riding and Zion got to go too on Jewel.

At 3:00 pm I finally quit working and came back to mom's to rest. Mark had been working on my computer, got it hooked up and the monitors installed. This evening Sarah sent back the picture of the bass Nolan caught in their pond.

That one was big but the next one was even bigger.

This evening after supper I worked on putting away and organizing the tubs taken over today. There is just one more to do but it is out in the garage right now and I am quitting. Today was a fun filled day for the grandchildren but labor for me and my back is sore from lifting and scrubbing. 

Too Tired

I slept hard all night. Mark woke me at 5:00 am. I laid in bed for a moment then said,"I can't remember anything I did yesterday. " I really was confused then realized it was Monday not Tuesday and the busy Sunday happenings all came rushing back. I think I was jut too tired. I started emptying boxes and organizing things here in mom's house but had to quit as Mark wanted a hair cut. I went back to work when Diane called at 7:30 asking if I was walking this morning.  I didn't realize we were going to be meeting at that time instead of 8:05. We had a good walk. Heather walked with us as she is here until after Sarah's wedding. We stopped at the stall barn so the new mare Penny could be taken to the outdoor arena for grazing. Right after the walk breakfast was cooked and by 9:00 am Rachel, Joan, Diane,  Rhonda, Karin and I started cleaning out mom's basement. We had a giveaway pile and a throwaway pile. After 2 hours Karin was on her way to Good Will with a van load. While we girls were working Spark and David were trying to figure out the plumbing lines.

Below is the downstairs living room after all of the tables have been cleared and taken down. 

Karin, Joan, Diane and I moved Nancy's lift chair into the basement by using the golf cart to take it down through the yard to the basement door.

Mom's house had a lot of horse pictures. Below is a picture of Sweetie Pie and her filly Twinkle.

This was painted by Randy Kellenberger. Dad had that painting done as a Christmas gift to mom one year.  Now it will go in our old farm house. 

After everyone left I ran over to make sure the apartment was ready for the guests coming in tonight then over to the barn to collect all of the towels and sheets. That was brought back to mom's for washing. The sheets and pillow cases are all washed and now I'm working on the towels. At 4:15 Mark and I left to drop off peaches to Anna's,  Sarah's and David's house then joined David. Israel and Elisabet at the Mexican restaurant in Chillicothe. That was delicious as usual.  We moved a bale in for the middle paddock.  Mike and Crew took 4 horses to Middle Grove which opened up 2 paddocks. Below he has Bulu and her yearling now a gelding in the front of the stock and below is Star Temple and her filly.

Both of the foals had their hair pulled to send in with the registration.

Penny was moved to the breeding shed paddock as that one is isolated from the others.  Berlica and a friend were going out on the trails with Rosalie and Jewel. Mark moved my computer over and hooked it up but not the monitors yet. Hopefully that will be done by the time I get home from Berean tomorrow.  It is hard to go to bed when it is still so light outside but I'm too tired to read.

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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