Trail Rides

 We had a good night going to bed early and sleeping in until 5:45 am. Amazing how wonderful that feels. I had plans to work on cleaning this house and actually started on it when our guests at the barn sent the message they were on their way out. I loaded up the laundry detergent, beach, all of our laundry on to the golf cart and drove that to the barn. The guests this time was a boy scout troop that had been doing service projects all week and this was their last stop. They LOVED the barn. They left such a nice thank you note signed by all of them and had everything cleaned up. I started collecting all of the sheets and towels and got the first load started then ran a load up to the foaling apartment so I could use 2 machines. One of the guests from the farm house came driving up to ask if we had found his hitch, a triple one with the 3 different sizes of balls. He lost it off of his truck. I took him around on the golf cart searching for it but it was no where in sight. He thinks it may have been stolen when he was in Peoria. I finally gave him the hitch off of my truck and got my other nicer triple hitch Joan had borrowed when one of the camper rental people forgot theirs. I think we may want to order another one, those are really handy. Mark was moving the extra black painted 16 foot boards from the outdoor arena into the indoor arena.  Rhoda and Iris showed up first today but not much later Sarah arrived with Zion, Eden and River. Rhoda had Jury and Penny tacked up ready to go to the outdoor. 

 Mark was loading the boards on the golf cart. I had him wait just in case that strange sight would scare the horses. 

I was using my golf cart to run back and forth from the apartment to the barn each time the laundry needed changing.

Sarah brought Harli out to work with and discovered a big abscess on her cheek. We were all shocked, it wasn't there yesterday.  We were able to pop it and clean it out then hydrogen peroxide was squirted in it to help clean out the infection and keep it open.

Once that was cleaned out she was feeling better and was taken out to the outdoor where Rhoda and Sarah worked with her. Meanwhile Iris and Zion were taking turns with Penny. When they were done they posed for a picture as they were dressed alike with their pink shirts and their cowboy boots.

Rhoda put a bridle on Harli and both Rhoda and Sarah were teaching her to bend and back up then Rhoda got on Jury and led Harli around. The colt just followed the entire time.

When Rhoda was done Harli and her colt were taken into a stall so the colt could take a nap. 

Next Rhoda wanted to take Basilea on a trail ride. Zion rode Penny and followed. We took a few pictures for the website. Basilea poses naturally, she has such presence! 

Basilea was great on the creek crossings. She marched right in and was happy to walk in the water.

She really is a nice mare, I can't believe we are selling her.

Berlica is at the Reinhard family camp with her family but when she gets home she will have another mare to ride. Berlica is getting all of the horses beginner ready on trails!

Sarah took the video below of the trail ride.

When we got back Harli's colt was still sleeping.

He needed to have the halter taken off, but Zion walked in right then. The colt was tied up so she could handle him.

He is 19 days old today and it is very good for him to be handled and tied. Below is a video showing how quiet and well behaved he is with both being handled and tied.

After Rhoda hosed Basilea down they decided to stick her so we could have an accurate number. 

She is just shy of 16.2 hands tall.

Once everyone left for home I was able to finish the laundry, finish cleaning all 6 bathrooms, straightening the gym and even finished our laundry and all by 4:00 pm. I came home and had a very late lunch. Mark had already helped himself but then wanted supper at 7:30 pm. We had left over chicken and potato salad and he was happy with that. I worked on rendering the videos and getting them posted on the website. Now I'm ready to head to bed.

Dahlia Sold

 My day started out really early. Mark was up before 5:00 am but I didn't crawl out of bed until just after that time. Thank goodness for coffee. We had an easy morning with both of us just sipping piping hot coffee and reading. I quit at 7:15 am to get ready for the walk. We had such a good walk, visiting and laughing at ourselves and each other. Berlica and Zion were already out getting ready to head down to the death trails when Berlica hopped off Jewel to tighten her girth.

Breakfast was cooked downstairs on the electric stove as we still have no propane. That is supposed to be hooked up next week. I packed everything in an Aldi bag to take down, determined not to forget anything as yesterday I forgot to bring the coffee and spatula for cooking, today I only forgot the pepper. After breakfast I went to clean the gym floor where a car had been driven inside and left mud on the concrete. The lights were turned on and the air conditioning turned down. The guests were due to arrive around 1:00 pm.  At 11:00 am Mark helped me load Valerie in the front of the stock and Dahlia in the back. Those horses were going to Western Hearts in Kickapoo. Dahlia is now sold and Valerie was going for training. There were plenty of people around to watch these horses get off the trailer. They settled down pretty quickly enjoying the hay together.

Of course when I was there I had to admire their gelding Raven (by our late stallion Raven and out of a Saddlebred mare). Pearl his sister. Zena, now a 4 year old mare by Valiant out of Madiera. All owners are thrilled with their horses and it took a while visiting before I could get home. I had an appointment with Gaetano for the website at 1:00 pm but let him know Mark was coming with me and we would be arriving at 1:30 pm as we didn't leave until 1:00 pm. We both needed to clean up. Mark and Mackenson had been repairing fences. Below Mackenson is taking down the old rotten board on the outdoor arena. 

They replaced that board with one of the extra painted black boards. Now they just need to buy black paint to finish the last board and the post.  We had a good informative visit with Gaetano. In my opinion it was well worth the trip. We left there after 2:00 pm and drove about a block to the Lin Chineses buffet. Mark wasn't impressed by the food but I was really hungry and thought it tasted good.

The had soft serve ice cream so I took a cone to go. It wasn't near as smooth and good tasting as Bees outside of Farmington. That really does have the best soft serve ice cream I've ever tasted. We got home just in time to make supper, which I didn't do. We're not hungry. That is a phrase mom would use when she didn't want to cook. We really were not hungry. Sarah posted some ads on Basilea and today I took two phone calls about her. The first wanted to know if she really belonged to me and was it a scam ad. I explained Sarah is my daughter and placed the ads and actually gave this lady the phone number of Hoerr Vet clinic so they could confirm that Basilea really was sonagrammed in foal. The second phone call was a man from Tennessee who has a 17 year old 75% Friesian he had been trying to get in foal for 5 years. He called me as Basilea is 18 and she settled on the first cycle we tried her. He had the mare to different vets and none of them could find anything wrong with her so wanted to blame the stallion. I explained, if the stallion has foals on the ground from other mares it probably IS that his mare can't conceive. This evening I worked on updating the website, now that I can add videos and post the pictures where I wanted them. It really was a simple fix. 

Cool Ultrasounds

 I didn't take the time to cook breakfast before the walk, I needed to get the stock trailer ready for the trip to the vet clinic this morning. Once that was ready I met Diane for the walk. Ruth didn't come, she and Fedi had a date taking their garbage to the dump this morning. When we got to Joan's, Faline started to follow us. Joan had forgotten to feed her. She went back to get the bottle followed by Faline and the ducks. Diane and I just visited while waiting, admiring her beautiful flowers. After Faline was fed we assumed she would go back into the woods but instead followed us on the walk. Joan tried to shoo her home but finally just ignored her.

I dropped out, took the golf cart up to the truck and trailer, grabbed leadropes and had both Valerie and Basilea out ready to load by the time Diane and Joan made it to the truck. The mares both walked right in and Diane shut the door until they were tied. The trip to Hoerr Vet clinic went fine but when we got to the clinic Dr. Hoerr was already working a colicky horse. I left room for that horse to be loaded but later found out I would not have needed to leave the extra room.

This horse is 35 years old and ended up staying at the clinic for Dr. Hoerr to try to keep him comfortable until he can get over the pain one way or the other. The owner of the gelding actually helped me bring Basilea into the clinic while I lead Valerie into the stocks. Both of these mares had been confirmed in foal earlier but we are going to place Basilea for sale IN FOAL so I wanted to make sure she was still infoal.  It took Dr. Hoerr like 2 seconds to pronouce Valerie still pregnant and by the time I got over to the ultrasound machine he was on already showing the foals ribcage. 

This foal is due April 3rd, 2027 and is already spoken for so I sent the picture to the owner. Basilea wasn't quite as far along but we could see the spine and the heart beating.

Basilea is due May 18th, 2027. Whoever decides to buy her will end up with a nice mare to ride and love on and a bonus of a purebred Friesian foal, all for ONLY $12,000.  We are selling Basilea as we are keeping her filly Thalia. Basilea was born March 8th, 2008 making her 18 years old. She loves attention from people. She saw River climb up on the fence and scooted over for attention. She really does love people.

When I got back from the vet clinic Sarah and Berlica were giving Zion, Eden and River a vaulting lesson on Jewel.

They are all picking it up quickly. 

I could only stay a short while since the barn needed to be made ready for the guests coming in today. While I was busy working, Sarah took the pictures below of the rest of their fun afternoon. Berlica took them on a trail ride. She rode Jury double with River in front while Zion rode Penny and Eden rode Jewel on the trails.

Joan had some of the old vaulting uniforms stored at her house and had Berlica give them to Sarah. When the girls got home they tried them on and they FIT!

I'm not sure there was a small enough one for River.

I worked on the barn until 5:30 pm then came in to make supper. Right after supper went back to finish and walked out of there at 8:30 pm. There is just one more small job to do tomorrow morning.

Genius

We were living like pioneers this morning. At 6:00 am I was using a bucket to haul water out of the lake so we could flush toilets. I carried one bucket in for the downstairs bathroom but Mark carried the other bucket upstairs for that bathroom. Each bucket allowed us 2 flushes. I left early to take care of the horses in the stalls. On the walk Diane, Ruth and Joan helped move Harli and her colt to the outdoor arena for grazing. No cooking breakfast, we still had no propane and when the man did come to hook up the propane, looked at the pipe and didn't have the correct fittings. He said those will be around $300.00 and had to be ordered. They won't come in until next week some time. I put Harli and her colt in the paddock with Valerie and Basilea. One less stall to clean tomorrow. The guests in the farm house left around 9:30 am. The golf cart was loaded with extra sheets, towels and cleaning supplies. I was pleased at how nice they left the house. It was 3 construction workers so I thought it would be worse but they had collected and bagged all the garbage, loaded the dishwasher and started that and had all of the used towels in the tub. The only thing one of the men did was to bring a comforter from one of the beds upstairs and slept in that. Of course that had to be washed and washed using the bulky load which takes much longer to run. Just then I got a notification from airbnb that the farm house rented again for TODAY! That put me in overdrive. I worked for a solid 3 hours, walked away at 1:00 pm and the new guests arrived at 1:05 pm.  I had the golf cart loaded but saw Sarah and Rhoda's cars up at the stall barns so drove up to see Rhoda riding Basilea and Sarah video taping it. When Rhoda finished Zion rode her. Below is the video from Sarah. 

This was the first time Basilea has been ridden in almost 3 years. She really did well. They took a few pictures too for the website.

I left then to change the washer in the barn where I was continuing to wash all of the sheets and towels from the farm house then went into our house to get something to drink. Sarah sent more pictures and a video of Rhoda working with Harli.

Her colt is really a cutie.

When they were done, Penny was brought out and each one got to ride Penny by themselves. They then came here to find the new kittens. The mama cat had them sequestered under the heavy desk in the garage. We were able to get one kitten out. The kitten is and orange female and was very calm while they all took turns holding her. There is one more kitten but that one wasn't brave enough to come out. Rhoda brought Jury and Penny here so Zion could ride Jury and her friend Lilly could ride Penny on the small loop before putting the horses away. I kept making trips over to the barn to keep the laundry going. At 5:00 pm Mark and I packed our church clothes, a hair brush, razor, tooth brushes and towels and went over to the barn for showers and to get ready for church. We left at 5:30 pm. Dinner tonight was served by Holly & Dean and Jim & Faith. I think Heather helped to. After supper we had a guest minister Brant Rushton, from Gridley,  give his testimony and he had everyone's attention. It really was an amazing testimony how God led him all the way. It is up on AC Central but only as audio. Click HERE if you would like to listen to this message. We are now home and have WATER. Spark and Elijah had just finished hooking everything up and were they ever muddy. We thought Elijah would cancel as it was raining when we left for church. I was moaning to Mark on the way home about not being able to cook eggs for breakfast when he said, "you can, the stove in the basement is electric."  YEAH eggs, bacon, tomatoes and toast tomorrow. We have been living here for a month and a half and I just now found out we have 2 ways to cook. Mom was a genius! 

Busy Day

The house did not blow up last night. We LIVED to see another day. I overslept because at midnight I woke up so thirsty I decided to go downstairs to see if there was any bottled water in the downstairs fridge. Mark thought those were all gone but remembered we had some big 4 gallon jugs of water. I carried down 2 of our biggest mugs but found plenty of water bottles in the fridge so brought up 4 of those. Drank one down quickly, gave Mark one and put the other 2 in the upstairs fridge for later. When I finally did get up it was after 6:30 am. We had some left over coffee but not enough for both of use so went down and filled the 2 quart container, brought that up to make a pot. By the time it was done it was almost time to walk. Diane, Ruth and I went to Joan's, Faline was standing next to Joan for some attention and stuck around to greet all of us.

When we reached the stall barn I slipped in to fill Harli's water bucket. I only did one round so I could get back, clean Harli's stall and fill her feeder with hay then left for Berean. We had a new volunteer, Kristen, Joan's daughter, joined us. Shirley claimed her and put her to work folding the advanced studies. We were thankful for her help. Below are a couple pictures.

Kathy finished the letters so went in to help with wrapping Bibles. In the video she is laughing because right after Shirley told her to include the studies she almost forgot.

We had key lime pie and coffee for our break this morning. A very nice 2 page letter came in. You may need to click on the picture to get it big enough to read.

I stopped at the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles and studies going out today. Diane sent a message letting us know she was short 3 batches of party potatoes for the funeral tomorrow. Immediately Joan sent back a text she would make a batch, then Ruth sent a text she would make one and as soon as I got out of the car I sent a text I would make the 3rd batch, then rushed home to change. Dr. Pallen was coming around 12:30 pm to change Tessa's filly's bandages and I needed to bring Basilea and Valerie in so they could get their blood drawn. Tessa and her filly were brought into the stall and the filly's halter put on. Dr. Pallen sent a message that she was on her way but would be here a few minutes later than 12:30 which gave me enough time to get a halter on Harli's colt and give him a tying lesson today. He was NOT happy about that.

He had his ears pinned and was giving me the evil eye. He settled down and figured out that he liked scratches from humans.

Valerie and Basilea were put in the paddock next to the stall barn so when Dr. Pallen arrived we just walked out there for the pictures and blood draw. Both mares were perfect. They were more curious about what she was doing then  worried and stood very well for the pictures and the blood draw. Then came the removal of the bandage on Tessa's filly. The wound looks much better and is starting to close.

Dr. Pallen put some ointment on and they were left in the stall until this evening. When Dr. Pallen left I worked a little bit longer with Harli's colt before taking his halter off. Then it was time to get to the barn to keep working on the laundry. Diane called about then to remind me there was no way I could make the party potatoes as we won't have propane until tomorrow afternoon and the potatoes had to be done in the morning. Hopefully Joan can make 2 batches. I had the washer and dryer going at the barn but the dryer was taking longer. I remembered I couldn't use the washer but took a load of sheets over and stuck them in mom's dryer then went back to work at the barn. After an hour those sheets were not dry. Only after telling Mark the dryer wasn't working did I remember we have no propane! Oh the things we take for granite. I hauled those sheets back over to the barn. I needed to wash all the sheets, all of the towels and all of the throws as I was pretty sure the people staying here used them for blankets and once the last load of those were going I went back to the barn to let Tessa and her filly out in the field. Rosaleigh's colt was SO glad they were back.

Tessa went right over to Evan and he knocked a board down trying to sniff her. I used a lead rope to temporally put it up but will have to ask for help to get it fixed tomorrow. She wasn't in season but may be coming in as it is 21 days since her last cover. If she doesn't show tomorrow I will take her to Dr. Hoerr on Thursday for an ultrasound, hopefully to confirm pregnancy. I was able to get an appointment for Valerie for her second ultra sound Thursday at 8:30 am. I went back to clean Tessa's stall and Harli's then worked with the colt again, handling him, walking out then right back in and handling him again. I did this about 10 times and each time he got better about standing. I got a message from our guest in the farm house that the air conditioner wasn't working. Mark went right over and found it was the capacitor. Philip had one at Meister's so Mark drove there and then was going to go back and put the new one in. The guests knows exactly how to do it and is willing to help Mark with that. Hopefully he found the part. Since I can't cook I think I'll have some ice cream for supper tonight. It sure was a busy day.

Harli's Colt Home

 We had a good walk today with all of us home. We heard how Joan could hardly stay off of the lake, those fish were calling to her. We heard about their very economical trip there and back as they drove Diane's Prius. When we reached Joan's house her flowers were blooming. 

These had no blooms on them when we left 10 days ago. She also has roses blooming.

When we got to the barn Berlica had Jury tacked up and Zion was tacking up Penny. Our guests were just leaving. They spent 8 nights here all for the Ledgestone Disc Tournament. I left right after the walk to get groceries, stopping first at Sam's club and then at Aldi. I got back around 10:30 am, quickly made some breakfast then went over to the barn to take the 2 horse trailer off of the truck and hook up the stock trailer. Rhoda and Zion arrived just as I had finished that job. I still needed to get enough big halters to fit Valerie and Basilea. Then run back to the house to get carrots and my purse. We arrived at Middle Grove around 10:45 am, drove all the way back but no horses in sight. We had a long hike to find them. Basilea came right to us but Valerie saw the halter and decided she was not going to come. Rhoda put a halter and lead on Missy and hopped on leading Basilea back to the truck and trailer while Zion and I walked behind the herd making sure they all followed Rhoda. I had left the back door of the trailer open to make it easy for loading but by the time I got there the trailer was loaded with all of the yearlings. Rhoda had to jump in to get them out.

It took a while but we ended up bringing Valerie, Harli, and her colt in the front of the stock with Basilea in the back. Hoerr Vet clinic was called to schedule Dr. Pallen to come out to draw blood from Basilea and Valerie. Sarah had taken Rhoda's children, Iris and Zeke with her remaining 2 children Eden and River to the barn for vaulting. Jewel was used for this. Sarah sent back the pictures below.

After the vaulting Iris got to ride Penny in the round pen.

We three at Middle Grove were hot and thirsty after walking so far and loading horses. We stopped at Bee's for ice cream cones. 

When we got back all of the grand kids were anxious to see Harli's colt. Rhoda helped put a halter on him and he got his first tying lesson. Then Zion and Iris came in the stall with him.

We took the halter off of him and left them in the stall. I need to work with both Harli and her colt. This was the first time the colt has been handled by any human. He was born at Middle Grove right before I was leaving on vacation and we felt it was better for him to be out there. He is 2 weeks old today! He is a strong stocky colt and looks just like a Fell Pony. He will have all of the mega hair, his dam Harli has that and so does his sire Evan. When I went into the indoor arena to get hay for Harli Zeke and Zion were getting drinks out of the hose.

They were having a blast.

These grandkids think life at Grandma's is the BEST!

It was 2:30 pm by the time I made it back to the house. I drank 2 glasses of water then sat down to relax when the leg cramps hit, both legs and very painful. Mark brought some mustard as I couldn't walk, although I tried but almost passed out. The mustard didn't help. Big things were happening here. The plumbing company arrived to bore the new water line in for the house. About that time Mark discovered the water leak. The boring must have put pressure on the water and it was bubbling out of the ground for the first time since the leak developed months ago.

I needed to go back to give Harli more hay and top off her water buckets so took a few other pictures of the colt's other side.

That star really does look like a candle flame.

The crew here was busy with the water line.

Our water was turned off earlier but we were enjoying watching the progress. I finally went in to cook supper at 7:30 pm and the stove wouldn't light. We had no propane. Evidently when they bored the water line in it hit the propane line. Then Diane sends a text that even though we paid for insurance on mom's house starting the middle of June (when we moved in) that the house really isn't covered. Diane had cancelled the insurance for the house and because it is taking longer than expected to close the house cannot be insured by us. If that propane line explodes we will all lose out. Mark called the emergency line of the propane company but now at 9:00 pm he hasn't heard from them. Hopefully nothing bad will happen tonight and really hope we won't lose all of the propane left in that 1000 gallon tank. Mark wants to sleep in the barn tonight. It might be a good idea since we won't have water or propane.  The farm house booked again. I really am thankful for that. I saw our guests for the first time today and had a good visit. They said they feel right at home, they live in an old farm house on a farm.