Our 49th

 It was a blessing to be able to brew a good hot cup of coffee this morning. Mark went out to check the storm damage when I went up to move Tessa and her filly outside for the first time since we brought them into a stall. That took a while the filly needed to check everything out before following her mom. I started working at 6:00 am getting the electrical cords over to each of the campers then getting the electrical over and trying to hook them up. We needed one extension cord to make it happen. We were supposed to load 4 horses for our vet appointment at 8:10 am but the Vet clinic sent a text not to come there was no power in Morton.  that meant I could go on the walk. At 8:05 Diane and I met at the dumpster for the walk.  The drive going to mom's and Rachel's house was completely blocked by the top of a huge tree.

When we reached Joan's house there was one excited little girl so anxious to go on the walk she bounced.

Mike got the yanmar going and went to work hauling them out of the way.

Mark and Mackenson got the chains saws going and started cutting the wood up to useable lengths. Then they switched to leveling the campers. After the walk we were turning on the air conditioners in each one when one wouldn't turn on. Joan said this problem was past her pay grade so we called Spark for that problem. He was laying down on the job so Joan told him no pay for laying around.

It turned out the problem wasn't in that area. It was the actual connection on the outside of the camper. Spark fixed it but told Mark we needed to buy 3 new breakers for the box. I left then to put Tessa and her filly into the outdoor arena so they could graze and took a phone call from a past customer who is now a current customer. He is buying Rosaleigh's colt.

He will send the down payment tomorrow through Paypal. I'll mark him sold once the deposit comes. The vet clinic called to tell us to come, they got the generator running.  I helped Mike load Madiera and Izzy in the front of the stock trailer then Bulu and her colt Denver in the back of the stock.  I stayed back as I had not finished the work before our guests coming today. Later Mike called to report Denver was now a gelding and Bulu was 50 days pregnant by OLIVER. That is exciting as Oliver did this all by himself and Bulu is a very tall mare. Madiera was next. she is also pregnant. Izzy had ovualated about 4 days ago so can't be short cycled until 5 or 6 more days. When moving Tessa I noticed twice her dropping what looked like pus, then noticed the filly had a swelling on her front leg. Mike left Bulu and Denver at the clinic as Denver needed to wake up a bit, dropped off Madiera and Izzy. Berlica brought over a couple friends to ride and after the first ride picked up Israel for the second. He was very relaxed on that 17 hand Rosalie! 

We loaded Tessa and her filly and drove her to the clinic.  The swelling on the filly's leg was a small abscess. Dr. Hoerr drained it and cleaned it up but she needed no other treatment. Tessa was next, she wasn't happy when he brought out the scope and Dr. Hoerr gave her a little something to relax. About that time the filly wanted to nurse.

Mike was able to open the side of the stocks and she figured out how to get a drink.

Dr. Hoerr checked Tessa out well. He emptied some fluid that I thought looked like pus but since it didn't stink it turned out to be ok.

She also needed no other treatment but for me it was better to KNOW she was ok then to just see something and ignore it hoping it is ok. When we got back they were taken to the stall so they both could rest. I'll head up in a bit to take them out for the night. No storms tonight and the weather should be pleasant. As today is our 49th anniversary we celebrated that at Texas Roadhouse.

We both ordered the 8 ounce sirloin, a salad and a sweet potato. It also comes with those delicious buns with sweet cinnamony butter. 

The last time we ate at a Texas Roadhouse was up in Elgin with Kim and our nephew Tim. I sent a text to Kim reminding her. I'm pretty sure she is on her Alaska trip right now. Hope she is really enjoying that. We were both tired after that long day of work. I'm heading up to the barn now to move horses then am going to relax!

Safe!

 We lost electricity at 4:00 am  and I know this as I awoke, looked at my watch and thought it read 4:45 am so decided to get up early but when I walked into the kitchen it was only 3:45 am. I went back to bed and had not fallen asleep when everything went quiet, so quiet I knew we lost power. When Mark awoke around 5:00 am I explained we have no power. The rain gauge showed 2.1 inches of rain during the night. Mark actually was shocked when I brought him a hot cup of coffee. We had leftover coffee from yesterday I heated up on our propane powered stove. He waited until daylight to start the generator. I went out to take care of Tessa and her filly. They were moved into a clean stall and given grain. The filly was very curious abut what her mama was eating and stuck her head in the bucket to try it. 

She decided mama's milk was much better. She nursed a bit then came over to check out what I was doing. I gave her the grain scoop while I scooped poop.

When finished I picked up the grain scoop and she followed me over to check me out.

She is acting like a normal 2 day old filly so I think we are out of the woods with her. When I finished and was headed back had to laugh at Rosaleigh's colt playing king of the hill.

I needed to get a small table from the gym. Rhonda had 3 of her grandsons here and Mike had Crew and Jackson so those 5 went in the dark gym to play basketball. 

The electric company sent a message that the electricity would be out until tomorrow at noon. Rhoda and Iris arrived to work horses. Iris got to ride Cookie while Rhoda worked with Izzy.

Berlica came over mowing so Rhoda put her to work with Izzy.

She had Berlica mount from both sides then took a little walk keeping everything very relaxed.

Sarah arrived right after with Zion, Eden and River and about 30 seconds later Elisabet arrived.

Rhoda was working with Thalia, the 3 year old filly we bought as a weanling.

The girls watched for a while but then got bored

and went swimming. Mark and I got all 4 campers moved over to the barn for the big Kieser weekend.

We put 3 on the East side and one on the South side. The girls were up playing on the trampolines.

We were visiting when Mike called to say he and Diane were going to Middle Grove so they could have air conditioning and the 3 mares at the cabin field would need to come over here as their waterer is on a well and they would be turning off their generator. Crew helped Mike and I get them over.

Sarah watched the girls while Rhoda and I took a few more trips of things from my house over to mom's house. We left about 4:15 pm for supper at Gils as the power was still out. Ameren now predicted that it wouldn't be restored until 10:00 pm tomorrow. I let the Kieser's know to see if they would want to cancel or switch to another weekend but they decided to come anyway. We were just ordering our food when Joan sent the first message, "the power is ON!"  Followed quickly by Rhonda, Rachel and Diane.  I let Kathy and Pam know then the food arrived. We started with a large order of onion rings. Gils has the best!

Our meals came pretty quickly.

Above is Rhoda's and below is Mark's and mine. Rhoda took most of her meal home to share with Lee.

Iris ordered the kids chicken tenders which came with fries.

Gils also always serve fritters covered with powdered sugar.

After supper we left for TSC in East Peoria. Our phone went off with a tornado warning and take cover now. We were driving so just kept on driving. We got to TSC, picked up 6 bags of grain and 6 bags of bedding then started home and ended up what seemed like the middle of a tornado. The limbs and leaves were flying around the car, the rain was coming so fast we couldn't see anything. So much rain was falling that the roads filled up with water. We were able to pull into Limestone highschool parking lot to wait out the worst. The foaling apartment booked about then. When we got back I went up to take care of the horse and just then the power went out again. Hopefully it will be on soon. I took lanterns up for the guests in the foaling apartment and showed them where the storm shelter is. When I finished it was obvious the storms were over.

Spark sent a family text asking us to look at the sky, Rhonda sent the first picture.

The pictures and video's kept pouring it. What an unusual sight after such a violent storm.

We got another inch of rain so in 24 hours ended up with just over 3 inches. Thankful we are all safe. We were heading to bed and saw lights outside our front window. The power company is out searching for downed lines from the storm. Ours was still up and fine but we have no power.

Power was restored after we went to bed so don't really know when. 

Thankful for the Rain

Mike was using the John Deere tractor this morning while we were walking. The engine on that is too loud for visiting. We were glad when he scooped up a load of pea gravel then left.

The filly had some diarrhea this morning and that meant I needed to really keep an eye on her today making sure that would correct. She is nursing well, has plenty of energy and is urinating a lot so I know she is getting plenty of nutrition. When cleaning her stall this morning she was very curious about me and the wheel barrow. 

She finally left me and went to see what her mama was eating.

Sarah and her girls came to help with the moving process. We got a lot of stuff moved from this house to mom's house and from this house to the barn and from this house to the back garage behind the stall barn.  The dumpster is full so we have 6 big black bags of garbage stored in our garage. No food in them so those can just wait until the dumpster gets emptied. Elisabet came to help and we worked for 2 full hours. The girls are trying to make money for vbs so more than willing to work. It got much to hot in the afternoon so they went swimming to cool off.

Israel got there just before David was ready to leave for home so he was disappointed he didn't get to stay and swim. I left to go watch the filly then tease Basilea. She is now out of season but I saw something on Valiant that looks an awful lot like the cancer that poor Mika had. I took a picture of it and sent it to the vet clinic. Emma is going to show it to Dr. Hoerr tomorrow, he was not available today. The shower after supper was really needed. It was very hot and humid this afternoon. We left just before 6:00 pm to pick up Zion, Eden and River for VBS.

They are enjoying it and excited to go. The kids are downstairs while we were in church. Gabe Stickling had the message tonight on Paul and Silas going to Athens. That follows the VBS story. Click HERE to watch that. He told us if we get a chance we really should go downstairs as they have changed the Sunday school room into an Athen's market. We went down to pick up Sarah's girls and took the pictures below.

A big storm was moving in as we were ready to go out to the car. Mark brought the car close so we didn't have a long way to run. After we got home I had Mark drive up to the indoor arena so I could get a wheel barrow load of hay. That was taken into the stall I prepared earlier and Tessa and her filly were moved over. The filly seems to be doing great. She cantered up to her mom then back to the hay when moved into the new stall. It is now almost 10:00 pm and I am SO ready for bed. It is pouring down rain with lots of lightning and thunder. I'm very thankful for a dry stall barn and also for the rain. The fields are getting a wonderful drink and we should end up with a good second cutting.

Berean Day

 I needed to get up to the stall to check if Tessa had dropped the placenta and was pleased to see it was out and complete. I make sure Tessa had plenty of water and refilled her hay. While up there her stall was also cleaned. Just Diane and I walked at 7:30. Joan and Ruth joined at 8:05 am but at that time I needed to leave for the Berean office. Turns out I should have left before 8:00 am. The interstate 474 came to a dead stop at the 74 exit then crawled along going between 4 mph to around 10 mph all the way until the 150 exit. I didn't arrive at the Berean office until 9:03 am and was the last volunteer to arrive. Skip put me to work at the computer while he made copies. All of us kept busy today. Marvin is on a trip so we were a little short handed. 

I only stopped to take 2 pictures as I got a late start on entering names. We were done before 11:00 am and enjoyed a treat of key lime pie plus a small Chantilly cake with fruit on top. The Bibles and Bible studies going out today were taken to the Hanna City post office. Anna, Taegan and Kensley were here cleaning the foaling apartment. At 12:30 pm Ruth came to move her camper but we had a little problem getting the electronic jack to work. Thankfully Ruth discovered we could manually move it but we needed a tool. She drove home to find one while I took the golf cart over to find Spark to see if he had one. Ruth realized she had the exact tool HERE IN her camper. That went quickly then. I dropped it off at her place and came back to work on moving things over to mom's house. The curtain pole arrived so I worked on the closets upstairs. The hall closet was changed to these.

When the curtain is opened there is just two cots and one humidifier in the entire closet.

The new batteries were put in the lights in the East bedroom closet and this was the pole I was waiting on. That pole needed to be longer than 6 feet.  This closet is completely empty. 

I actually thinks it looks better open, makes the room much larger.

The West bedroom closet still has Christmas wrapping paper, Rhoda's candy machine and a few other supplies inside but there is still plenty of room for guests to hang clothes and store suitcases.

The goal for this house is for us to turn it into an airbnb. We really can't rent it out for a long term renter. There are too many utilities that come from this house that serve the apartment and the new barn. It is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths so maybe a family coming through would appreciate it. 

This evening I asked Mark to bring a saw to help get hay off the round bale. This bale is twisted so I can't just run the pitch fork down and pull off hay.

The saw didn't work well so Mark picked the bale up with the tractor and we were able to pull lots of hay off that way. He left then for mom's house. He ordered a dehumidifier for that house from Meisters. Nolan delivered it today and even carried it to the basement. This evening Mark installed it and got it running. I moved Tessa and her filly over to the other stall so her's could be stripped. 

They settled right in the new stall and the filly promptly decided to lay down and take a nap. She is just one day old but doing well.

I just have one more machine to change then a couple beds to make and I can quit for the day but am waiting for the dryer to finish first.