Beautiful Flowers

 At 7:30 am I drove to Casey's to pick up a dozen donuts. When I took them to the check out, the receptionist looked at them and said, "we used to ice the pastries." "Yes", I told her, "I'm taking them home and will ice them before giving them to the Berean volunteers."  She exclaimed, we are not busy we will just ice them for you now and they did!  I was thankful.

Mom was picked up next and soon we were on our way to the Berean office. We were really busy today and a little short handed and I didn't remember to take any pictures as we were all busy. Kathy read a very nice letter to us, someone asking for a Bible but also thanking us for all the time and work we do to help prisoners. The donuts were enjoyed after we finished getting the work done. Today we sent out 21 Bibles and probably around 70 Bible studies. Mom's wheel chair van was down to a little more than an eighth of a tank of gas so we stopped at Caseys and I was shocked at the price. It took a little more than 19 gallons to fill her tank a $4.30 a gallon. 

Joan wasn't back yet when we got home. Mom's house is filled with color, so many flowers and plenty of beautiful colored eggs from Easter.

Mom has so many flowers right now. Her birthday was the 30th of March and Aunt Jinnie sent carnations.

Mom was given Easter lilies and many other beautiful flowers.

Mom sure enjoys flowers!

Joan got back about 12:45 pm, once I got home and changed it was time to work with Cabo and Dahlia again. I can no longer call them weanlings. Dahlia turned a year old April 4th and Cabo will be a year old May 5th. They were both muddy when I brought them inside and given their grain.

Dahlia is pictured above and Cabo below.

 They both knew what to expect and both eagerly walked into their stalls. I spent more time with Dahlia today working with her legs and belly. By the time I quit she was standing quietly, at least tolerating the grooming and sometimes even enjoying it.  With mom's work day coming up on the 18th of this month Joan has been working on a list and she wants the saplings on the dam cut down then Tordon applied to each stump. Mark went today to TSC to pick up a couple of quarts of that. Each quart is $24.99 and with tax it came to $54.72 but one of the quarts he will keep for us as we have an abundance of saplings that need to be cut and killed. It was cold today, 33 degrees when I left for Caseys this morning and only up to 42 this afternoon with a brisk wind. The golf cart is still stuck on our drive. Mark has been working on it but was not able to get it going today. Yesterday I was driving it up to the barn and not quite up to the top when the cart slammed to a stop, the brakes froze up even though I hadn't touched those. The switch to put it into tow mode didn't work and that cart won't move an inch. I'm so thankful I can still walk. 

 

Bossy Dahlia

 Now that all of us walkers are pretty much retired we decided to meet at 8:30 am instead of 7:25. That meant Mark got breakfast at 8:00 and I had plenty of time to just sit and read. Bethany was still here so she walked with Joan, Diane, Ruth and me. Just as we finished Sarah showed up with her 3 girls and 2 puppies.

She was talking to grandma yesterday and grandma really wants someone to start raising Shih tzu puppies. Well Sarah doesn't raise that breed but does have some 5 week old Cavapoo puppies and brought 2 of them over for grandma to hold.

The puppies are so soft and fluffy and were both very well behaved, content to snuggle up with mom.  They are both spoken for, in fact the entire litter sold the day they were born. Nolan posts the due date on the website and will open up a waiting list before that due date. There were 4 pups in this litter and more than that on the waiting list so just 4 lucky families got a puppy. The rest will just have to wait until the next litter is born. Today was cleaning day for me. The apartment needed to be cleaned. The barn was in good shape except for the game room. The ping pong table, basketball game, and batting machine needed repaired. The ping pong table had the net removed completely, the basketball game had some of the chains from the hoops removed and those were in the batting cage, the net on the left side taken down, and the batting machine was in 2 parts. The ball feeder was bent and it took a lot of muscle to get it bent back enough to install it on the machine. I tried it out and realized the place where the ball comes out was also out of whack. That was much harder to repair and I'll probably need Mark to drill a new hole and install a screw to hold it in place but I got it working enough to use for the birthday party scheduled for this afternoon. The laundry from the apartment was all brought down to the house and worked on while cleaning here. After the sheets were dry they were taken up to the apartment and the beds made. Only then was it time to start horsin around. Disco, now named Cabo by his new owners was haltered and led into the stall barn where I had grain waiting. He walked in perfectly. He didn't even care that Roseberry was left behind. 

Next Dahlia was haltered and led in. She hesitated leaving the others and needed a little encouragement but I was pleased she didn't really throw a fit. She was put in the stall opposite Cabo, shown the grain and at that point could care less that he was even inside. 

When she finished she walked to the other door but still didn't call, just stood waiting to see if I would bring more of that yummy grain then came over to check the bucket again.

She is going to be such an impressive mare. She just turned a year old April 4th and already is quite tall.  She inherited the mega hair from her sire Evan and her height from her 17 hand dam Rosalie. She has a little attitude but gets that honestly as her grand dam Lily is the boss mare and as such so is her dam, who is Lily's daughter.  The other weanlings just know that Dahlia is bossy. This bossy filly is for sale for only $7500.00. She is 7/8ths Friesian and 1/8th warmblood. She is registered with FHHI although we are still waiting for her papers from the registry. Those were paid for and sent in 6 months ago.

I did a little grooming on each foal before taking them back outside one at a time. Both did very well with that too. No scooting ahead and no calling. Then it was time to check on Star Temple, the Thoroughbred Mike calls Governor as she was owned by a past governor of Illinois. She is due April 18th so I called her up and checked her udder.

She is a maiden mare, meaning this will be her first foal so once her udder starts to change she will need to be checked everyday. She needs a good grooming and has burrs in her mane and tail but I didn't really have time today. Cookie is her companion for now. 

The laundry was finished here and supper was actually just heated up. The bbq beef was heated in the microwave but the potatoes were sliced and fried. A salad and cottage cheese was added and that was enough.

Today was busy but I'm thankful I can do the work.

 

Wonderful Easter Sunday

 I was up at 3:15 am and the roasts in the oven at 3:30 am. Of course I went straight back to sleep and slept until 6:30 am. After downing a cup of coffee woke Mark, grabbed my shower and by 7:05 we were in the car heading to the fellowship hall for the Easter breakfast and service. I didn't record any of the service but should have as it was not recorded and was the most unusual Easter service. The Easter story was told in song, from the cross to the death to the tomb and then the empty tomb. From there we drove to church where Mike Kaisner had the Easter message there. Click HERE to watch that. Church was pretty full so after the service there was much visiting to do. We didn't get home until 11:45 am. I went right to work on pulling the roasts out, getting them sliced, bbq sauce applied and under the broiler. The potatoes were set to boil in the juices of the roast. By 12:45 pm all was done and taken over to the barn. Ruth and Fedi butchered a lamb then roasted it. They brought that ready to slice.

Fedi went right to work slicing it. They had also brought garlic sauce to drip onto the meat. Andrew had the prayer so he and Faith got to go first.

All of the food was amazing.

Gertie brought a fabulous blueberry jello salad. 

The dessert table was laden with delicious sweets.

I'm pretty sure that is one of Bethany and Bill's daughter climbing the pole.

The feast today was well appreciated and so enjoyed.

After supper Berlica took all the children over to the horses and gave rides on Cookie. Joan took Nancy fishing and she came back thrilled with her catch.

No one was in a big hurry to leave except those that had to go to another Easter supper. Lots of visiting went on between the cousins. The last of the families are leaving now.

We got an email from the lady that owns Sheena's very first foal by Valiant. This foal was born May 4th, 2015 and is now 11 years old. His owner writes he is living the best life.

He is pictured below right after birth.

It really was a wonderful Easter Sunday! 

Glad To Be Home

 Mark checked the rain gauge this morning, we had 3 inches of water in that from the last 2 days. The drives really will need to be graded but today everything was just too wet and muddy. I went over to mom's around 8:00 am and had a nice visit then over to the apartment to make sure there were no dead Asian beetles or stink bugs on the floor. I was glad I checked there were a few. The heat was turned up and then it was time to get breakfast cooked. About that time the picture below arrived of a Maderia x Evan colt now grown up.

Below he is just a few weeks old.

He turned out gorgeous! Aldi was next on the list to get some food in our fridge for this next week. Diane sent the picture below just as I was finishing up at Aldi.

I drove straight to mom's to find lots of vans parked. 

They were just about finishing up when I arrived.

Joan and the kids had blown out the eggs and used that for their breakfast casserole this morning. Below are the decorated blown out egg shells.

This way nothing is wasted. I slipped my shoes on and started walking back to the car when I realized the shoes I had on were WAY to loose, looked down and was wearing someone else's tennis shoes. They were Jacob's shoes. No wonder they were too big. My excuse was they are blue and so is mine.

I drove home, put the groceries away, then it was over to the barn to restock and check bathrooms. I found 2 caterpillars on the gym floor that had been stepped on so had to get some cleaning supplies to clean up caterpillar guts. Nasty sticky stuff that turns black if not cleaned up. Mike helped put Disco and Roseberry into the stall barn. The family that are buying Disco booked the foaling apartment to spend time with him. He hasn't been stalled since before weaning but once he is at his new barn will need to be in a stall. Disco was put in one stall then Roseberry was put in the stall across the aisle so they could see each other. They were both given a handful of grain, plenty of hay and just a half of a bucket of water. They were checked on when I got back down to the house. They were both standing quietly.

The family buying him arrived abought 10 minutes later so I went up to show them where he was and how to handle him. They did very well with him but I did check on them through the camera. I was really pleased with how well he behaved and how well they did with him. It is an excellent match.

Then it was time to get to work on the desserts for our Easter lunch. I am just making the roasts, potatoes and one of the desserts. I decided since I have no chocolate Easter candy here to make Reeses chocolate peanut butter eggs. They didn't look as beautiful as the picture of the recipe but they tasted ok.

I made 4 dozen of those.

I had left over almond bark and pretzels so made a batch of those too.

The roasts were taken out of the fridge, seasoned and wrapped well. I have 5 of these 

nice size roasts that will be cooked tomorrow.

Below they are in the fridge and hopefully will be put in the oven at 225 degrees around 4:30 am.

We are eating our meal at 1:00 pm and I want them to cook very very slowly.

This evening the kids brought the supper to the barn. Nolan had smoked 20 pounds of fresh pork roast and had lots of pulled pork with a four different sauces to go with that. The pork was so tender and delicious it didn't need any but I did put a little on some just to try and that was also delicious. They had lots of side dishes to go with the pork. I think we all ate a little too much. I still need to clean up the kitchen before going to bed. Today was cold, windy and damp. Such a change from Gulf Shores but I'm glad to be home. 

Home James

 We were up at 4:00 am, packed and on our way home by 5:30 am.  This trip went much better than the trip coming down. We pulled in at our house at 10:01 pm just 16.5 hours after leaving Gulf Shores. Mark named his car Fred so instead of saying "Home James" we really should say "Home Fred." Fred did very well taking us home until we got near our house. For some reason Fred wants to take us all the way back to Hanna City.

Another Perfect

 Mark went out early to walk but instead of walking I sat down by the pool to finish the book I've been reading. 

The title really should have been when religion kills It really did open my eyes and brain to why religion without the truth goes so very wrong. Jesus really did turn the world upside down. Christians are the only ones who are to pray for their enemies and as they are being killed can pray, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." If you want to be great in GOD'S kingdom you really do need to learn to be a servant. This book is written by a self proclaimed atheist yet even he admits to praying to God when in trouble and also admits when he sees amazing beauty in creation his heart wonders. The sun broke through the clouds just as I finished the book.

We made arrangements with David and Stephanie to borrow their children for lunch. Israel had been wanting to go to the Throwed Rolls Restaurant (Lamberts) so we left at 11:00 am to go for lunch so we wouldn't have to wait in a line. We got right in, ordered quickly and about then the rolls started flying.

Elisabet caught her's too. She decided to wrap it up and take it home.

The food came pretty quickly. I had ordered the special which was smoked chicken for $18.00.

Before I even took one bite the pass-a-rounds started coming and they put a a big spoon full of fried potatoes and onions next to the coleslaw and yes we each got a roll and had some molasses dripped on it. The kids each ordered a child's meal, Elisabet the chicken fingers and Israel a cheese burger. Those also came with 2 sides and both ordered fries and peaches. Kids meals are $10.00 each and also come with a drink. Mark just ordered a side salad. Our bill including tax and tip was $59.00 for the 4 of us and we brought home enough for 2 more meals. As we were getting ready to leave the rolls started flying again so each child caught another, wrapped them up in a napkin and carried them out to the car. As soon as we got home we changed into our suits and walked back over to the beach. Israel joined his baseball friends and they went first to the pool while Elisabet played on the beach until Anna and Kattie took her to the pool to play with Kattie's girls. They soon were back on the beach. Israel was skim boarding with a friend.

Elisabet and Bexley were busy catching live shells and carrying water back to watch them open.

Israel's group put down the skim boards, grabbed the boogie boards and were back in the water boogie boarding.

They were catching some great rides all the way in to the beach. It just seemed like another perfect day. We are leaving for home tomorrow morning so I went back to the condo and am getting all of the laundry and packing done tonight. Mark took the car to the Warf and got it all charged up for our trip.

Mike went to Middle Grove and brought back Cookie and Star. He sent back the picture below.