Sunday Performance of the Mares

I taped the warm up first then the actual performance. I didn't have a good view of the entire arena but was able to tape most of it. Steven Marchal went along with us this weekend. He was invaluable. He completely took care of all three mares and both foals. He kept the stalls perfect, the water buckets filled and hay in front of them almost 24 hours a day. He also took charge of Jenis at the clinics. Today, talking to Karin and Rhoda we all decided he was the person that kept it all running smoothly. He did most of our PR work, showing the foals to literally hundreds of people. We don't know where he got all that patience from we were exhausted after the first 5 hours. Hope he will consider coming to our next show in March. A BIG THANK YOU TO STEVEN!

Sunday

We woke up this morning not knowing if we should even try. Karin didn't sleep at all during the night trying to figure out what happened. We voted at breakfast and the kids wanted to try again. We brought Ribbon out over where the cowboy mounted shooting was going on. She did fine at the walk and trot ignoring all the noise. Then we started allowing the vaulters to start. Ribbon acted like nothing had happened the night before. After much prayer and talking things over we decided to go ahead with the show and have Karin lunge and Sarah stay up at Ribbon's head just in case. It wasn't needed but better to be prepared.
I didn't write anything about Rhoda and Monica's performance on the mares yesterday. It went fabulous! Jenis looks like a million bucks. One of the Horsefair officials came and asked if they could use Jenis and Valiant for one of the clinicians. Of course we said yes. Jenis does not stand well with Valiant out of her space and sight. In the first clinic Chris Bohenek worked with just Valiant. It was amazing how he could work with a 7 week old colt, without the mother in the ring, and have him leading and standing quietly with all his weight on 3 legs, the 4th just his toe touching the ground. Chris explained how important this is for your farrier. The second clinic he worked with Jenis. He had her standing quietly within 2 minutes. I just hope we can keep her this way. It was amazing to watch.
Sunday morning after our discussions and breakfast we headed over to cowboy church. Got there and there was no speaker yet so Rachel led us in song. We sang 3 songs, then a lady came up to tell us the speaker was going to be late. I nominated Fedi to start. Fedi gave such a good talk that HIS CLINIC was the most attended of the entire horse fest. The vaulting went on about the expected time and thankfully was fine. Then was Rhoda and Monica's turn. I video taped some of their warm up, then tried to video their performance. They did so well and I was such a proud mother. We had already torn down the stalls so as soon as the girls were done we loaded up to start home. But... my 4 wheel drive broke and I was stuck. Fedi was able to get me out and we got home with no other incident. All in all it was a very successful weekend. The video below is our Sunday performance of the vaulters. Those kids have COURAGE to get back up on Ribbon after Saturday nights disaster!

DISASTER Strikes the Vaulters!

Our Saturday night performance was a disaster! We waited over 2 hours in the cold, driving wind and rain. Finally it was time for the vaulters to go on. Ribbon is going along just fine when the music sticks and the wind starts howling. Ribbon freaks out pulling and throwing herself backward. Sarah falls to the ground and is dragged. Ribbon then falls on to her side smashing Caleb's right leg into the sand. Caleb was able to throw Sophia off before Ribbon hit the ground. Karin stopped her and took her out of the arena to be checked out. Rachel was up in the bleachers and somehow ran down the bleachers, vaulted over the 5 foot fence and got to the kids first. Caleb and Sophia are amazingly fine. I was video taping the performance so put this on youtube.

Northern IL Horse Fest

Rachel Sauder is up here and took WONDERFUL pictures of the Friesians performing. Rhoda and Jenis were fantastic. She also took great pictures of Monica and Ylse. The babies were the hit of the show. I KNOW I'm going to be buying lots of pictures. Even the vaulting pictures are some of the best I've seen. RATS I really don't have the money this month with the bills from Lily and David's wedding. I just can't pass them up. I'll have to wait until I get home to buy them but she has them on her website if anyone is interested in seeing them. Go to www.momentscapturedbyrachel.com to see them.
We've had a GREAT time here so far. I'll try to update more later. Below is the Saturday Vaulting performance.

Getting Ready

Today we are leaving for the Northern IL Horse Fest. I did not go to walk this morning, it was raining and I still have so much packing to do. The lap top is now loaded, the decorations are as far as I can take them and we are now packing the trailer. We worked on the Horsemeister introduction last night and Rhoda made the CD with the music. Karin has the vaulting introduction. Please pray for the vaulters and for Rhoda and Monica. This is the first time Jenis and Ylse will be performing with a large audiance. At least I hope it is a large audience, we really need to SELL something.
We have 81 round bales stacked inside the arena. We are hoping I can get another 100 inside and still leave some room for riding. I guess we just wait and see.
We are camping this weekend so may not have any internet. Please don't get discouraged if I don't answer emails until Monday.

Shadow's Video

Rachel Sauder gave me Shadow's video to put up on his page. I think they did a wonderful job putting it together. Watch and ENJOY!
Shadow is for sale, he has wonderful conformation and is very well behaved. I think Rachel is not asking enough for him. She only wants $3500.00. He is BLACK, BEAUTIFUL, WELL BEHAVED, and just plain FABULOUS!

3 in FOAL!

Ylse, Jenis, and Sanna had their sonagrams today and they are ALL in foal! They are ALL DUE July 19th, 2010. IT should be interesting next year to see what happens. Jenis usually delivers 10 days early, Sanna had 2 right on her due date but this years filly was 3 weeks early, and Ylse delivered 8 days early this year.
The bad news is that Sanna may be carrying twins so I will have to have her rechecked next week and if it is twins, one will have to be pinched off. Hopefully it is just a cyst.
Karin last night SHOT THE MOON by herself in Rook. BIG NEWS for her!:o)
Diane and Mike spent all morning cleaning the cabin up for guest that are traveling cross country with their horses and the guest just called they are not going to make it. Oh well, the cabin is booked for Labor Day weekend and now is cleaned and ready.
I moved a round bale in the 2nd paddock, then put the 3 Friesian mares and their foals in there. We really didn't want to put in a bale without it being in the shelter but the shelter had a grass bale in and we needed alfalfa for those nursing mothers. I'll see if I can get a bale ring around it. I put it in the corner so only need 2 sections.
David emailed that we had someone attach spy ware to our email and he is getting junk emails that say they are from our address. BOTHER, he suggested having Philip check out our computer.

Apelle's Transportation

Well now I've seen how the rich transport their horses. We had the biggest semi trailer I've ever seen, come for Apelles tonight. The drivers had dropped off their entire load of horses at Arlington Race track, then got to Baer about 8:15pm. They looked at the street and decided they were too big to drive down Baer. Steven walked Apelles up Baer to Lincoln where they used the entire road. They put down the ramp and walked her up it. We only had about 3 cars come through and they were so amazed of what they were seeing that no one complained about waiting. I thought I'd seen about every type of horse transportation out there but I've never seen anything like this trailer. I think it was even air conditioned for the horses. I wish it had been daylight to get pictures of this truck. Neighbors even came out to watch.
Steven showed up at Bridlewood around 6:15pm to give Apelle's her bath and get her ready for her trip. The drivers originally told me between 7:00pm and 8:00pm, then they called and told me 7:30pm. They called again to tell me the traffic was bad around Arlington and they would be at our place a little after 8:00pm. Apelles had a nice big box stall with straw for bedding. She is traveling in style to her new home. I only wish the drivers were picking up another horse, she is the only one in the trailer for the entire ride. She will sure be glad to get off and see other horses by the time she gets home.

Wednesday

After getting the pictures of the foals up on the website I headed down to Meister Brothers to pick up some grills and drive them out to Princeville grade school. The road construction made a half hour road trip into an hour each way. I barely made it back to the office in time for lunch. Right after lunch Mark and I took Rhoda's mini to the BMW repair place then headed down to Rick Sill's house to pick up a Meister Brother truck. I dropped Mark off and drove down to the office where Krystal helped me with the rehearsal lunch invites. Once they were done, I drove them to the post office. It is good to know that job is done. Then to Wal-Mart for more supplies. Heading home, I call Karin to see if Sarah had taken her the eggs she wanted. Not only did Karin not have the eggs, there was another 14 round bales dropped off in the middle of the arena and she needed them moved for her last vaulting practice before this weekend. The bucket is on the skid steer and I had never changed any of the tools but between Karin and I we figured it out and got the bales moved. Then home for dinner. The transport company called and will be here around 7:30pm for Apelles. I think Steven is coming in to help me give her a bath and get her ready for the trip. We had rotisserie chicken from Wal-Mart for dinner along with cottage cheese, mixed green salad and fresh bread.

The Friesian Foals

This morning after our walk, I took new pictures of the foals. The first is Valiant, he just couldn't leave the girls alone when they were tied up. Isn't his neck fabulous! He is such a show off. The next picture is of Sanna's filly we are still calling Wanda. I would really like a new name for her but so far no one has come up with anything better. The last picture is of Ylse's filly we are naming Raven's Tiara. She is the prettiest Friesian foal we've ever had. She is so feminine and sweet. Valiant and Tiara are leaving Friday with their moms for the Northern IL Horse Fest. Hope to see you all there!

The Snake

Twenty of our new alfalfa round bales were delivered yesterday so today after our walk, we moved a new one in Raven's shelter. The Friesian mares also got one of the alfalfa bales last night. What a difference, they were not really hungry for their grain this morning. I'll see how Raven responds tomorrow. I left the farm and went straight down to TEMCO to pick up the Berean mail, drove it right down to the office, loaded up the car with the letters to go out to for TEMCO and gave them to Martha. While Eva Jean and I were working Mark comes into our office to say that there is a snake in Jenny's office, Dan caught it, Mark took a picture of it, so I brought it into our office to show Eva Jean. For some reason she didn't like it. It was a vicious little snake, bit Dan a couple of places and he was bleeding.
Gail Hodel came down to pick up the copies Eva Jean made for her. Gail is going to take my place the week I'm gone. She went to lunch with us.
As I was finishing up the Bridlewood accounts Diane called to see if I wanted to go garagesaling in Morton. I went but now I'm terribly car sick. I didn't buy enough to justify going. Cox equine transport called to tell me they will be here between 7:00pm and 8:00pm tomorrow night to pick up Apelles. That is church night and I hate to miss but don't know who I can get to take my place. I need to find a halter that fits her before that time. It will be good to get down to only 2 horses in that paddock and I may be hauling Izadora out to the farm before too long.
After dinner Mark and I took a walk, then put out the horses and filled the water tank. I was back to sewing and needed a break.

Decorations

This morning I could hardly get out of bed. This sitting over a project is HARD work. By the time I was up, the barn workers were already here so I'm assuming they put my horses in. I've given up trying to beat them out to the barn. I just can't make myself jump out of bed at 5:00am it is so pitch black now.
I'm loading up the projects I worked on and am taking them out to the farm to try them on the filly. Sure hope they fit!

Another Monday

This morning instead of running out and feeding the horses here and cleaning out their water tank, I decided to go to the farm first. I got there early, fed Raven, moved in a new round bale in the big paddock, then walked with mom, Diane, and Rachel. I stopped at the cabin field so I could check out Sophie and Jewell. Both girls need to have their manes cleaned out from cockle-burrs but both look really good other than the burrs. While I was there I checked Jenis' colt to make sure his hair was growing back where he scratched it off. It looks good but he is again rubbing, time for another bath. Ylse's filly, I think we are naming Tiara, came up for some attention. Both of those foals are going with us this coming weekend to the Northern IL Horse Fest. After the walk, I opened up the big paddock for the riding herd. Now they are all with Ribbon, Samantha, and Lily.
I drove home, jumped out of the car and went straight to the water tank to clean and fill it and it was already done. Amy Koch got to the barn this morning, saw it was empty and she hosed it out and filled it for me. I guess I owe her one. I knew I should have done it early this morning but couldn't make myself get out of bed. Why am I so tired? Hoerr vet clinic was called to set up for the sonagrams. They are coming early on Thursday. Sanna will be 18 days along, Jenis 17 days and Ylse 16 days by Thursday. Hope they are all pregnant. Jenis is still losing weight. She may need to come to my place for more intensive feedings, her colt is getting big and taking a lot of calories. Sanna and Ylse look fine.
I'm heading down to the shop to pay some bills then to a fabric store to buy material to decorate the stalls this weekend.
I bought the material at Jo-Ann Fabrics so after dinner, after letting the horses out onto the pasture covered one foal halter with pink sparkly material and hemmed up another of the same to wrap around her belly. I'm going to take it to the farm tomorrow to see where to put the velcro tabs and to see how long I should make the breast collar. I headed for bed, my back from all that hand sewing was killing me.

State Farm Park

Today after church we drove over to Ben and Taunya's house, played with Addyson, then went to State Farm Park. Phil and Anna met us there around 5:30pm. That is a VERY nice park, a huge water park, numerous tennis courts, a world class mini golf course, baseball diamonds, shuffle board courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, a walking path, Frisbee golf, lots of playground equipment, and just about any thing else we could think of doing. We played shuffle board, Mark and I against Ben and Taunya, they smoked us. While we were playing, Phil and Anna were playing against Rhoda and Sarah. They almost got 2 full games in before we finished our one game. Taunya had her camera and took some pictures I asked her to email me one of Mark playing shuffle board to place on this blog. He doesn't play games very often. Later we went for supper at the club house. That was good and reasonable, we finished up with ice cream. We left for home around 7:30pm. THANK YOU BEN and TAUNYA, we had a good time and it was fun to play with Addyson. She would give me a big smile every time we called her pretty. I think Taunya has her trained. Ben invited us over afterward but Phil is not feeling well and neither is Rhoda so we decided to head for home. As we were driving home, Mike called, he brought Sophie home to start her under saddle. She is over 2 years old now and should be lightly started, then put out for the winter. He also brought Jewell, not because he wanted to start her but because he wanted to play with her. I'll get some new pictures of both this week. I checked my email before heading to bed and there is a nice email from the lady that bought Liberty. I've posted it below.
I purchased 2 new Fox Trotter fillies last week. Liberty is letting them know SHE is the BIG CHESSE in mom's eyes.... ( she knows this is true ) The filly that she is standing next to is one month younger .... look at my little moose! And that beautiful NECK! Judy, I am contantly awestruck by her beauty, brains and sweet temperment. She has the most soulful eyes. That is the first thing you notice when you meet her. THANK YOU>>THANK YOU>> THANK YOU....you have wonderful babies and I know it will not be my last from YOU! Melody NOTICE in the second picture she is making sure they do not get too close to her big brother Bubba....She is very possessive...and smitten...lol

Girls Retreat & Caleb

This morning I was in charge of making breakfast for the girls retreat at the Hanna City Lake. Rachel had 15 girls come and 10 of them spent the night. To only make breakfast for 10 is almost too easy. We planned breakfast at 9:30am as the girls were up late. I stopped at the farm first to feed Raven while Diane and Ruth were cleaning off the picnic tables. We had farm fresh eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, cheese, grapes and cinnamon rolls with fresh squeezed orange juice. There was plenty for mom and Diane to eat after the girls were done. Beth is hosting the boys retreat at her Norris Lake. I think they expected 70 to spend the night and then more men came at 1:00pm. Mom, Carolee Unsicker, Marilyn Baurer, and Gail Hodel helped Beth prepare the noon meal and dinner.
Rachel had a scavenger hunt for the girls after breakfast, while they were playing that game, Mike went to Middle Grove and picked up 5 horses so they could ride in the afternoon. We needed them home for Labor Day weekend anyway. We are having campers stay and a hog roast on Saturday. They took 6 horses, Mika, Bunny, Paris, Autumn, Duke and Jenis. Jenis' colt followed on the trails just fine, even crossing the creeks. They did the death trail backward, it is a little easier backward to get through with all the rain and mud we have had. After the riding, they had canoe relays, and other activities Rachel had planned. She did a great job organizing it. Ruth brought the lunch, she served pizza, cookies and ice cold water.
I drove home around noon and read a book out on the tramp. I was just plain TIRED!
Tonight before heading to bed, I checked my email and there is a picture of one of Raven's sons from years ago. He is out of a very large Standardbred mare named Dream. Somewhere out there Caleb has a full brother or sister. We sold Dream in foal to Raven and the new owners never let me know what she had. Caleb turned out BEAUTIFUL. His new owner said he has a good mind and is very athletic.

Blessings from God

This morning as I am trying to roll out of bed, I decided I need to start counting my blessings. I do that when I'm hurting and this morning my back was so stiff I didn't think I would be able to roll over. This is not from physical work, it is from sitting at a computer typing in names and addresses for the prison Bible study.
Sarah helped me load the flat tire into the truck, we dropped off the truck at Rocket Tire, come back and it is all done AND charged to Meister Brothers. How wonderful is THAT! The laundry is stacking up so I throw a load into the washer turn it on and it WORKS! Another blessing. Get in the car to drive to the farm and the car turns ON. I usually just take this for granted but today I realized what a blessing this is. We use to have a car that would stall for no reason and I never knew if it would turn back on or not. I'm so THANKFUL for a car that WORKS! I drive up to the farm and the horses greet me excitedly, so glad to see me. What a blessing, I can look out and see 8 purebred Friesians, plus Lily and Ciera all at our own farm. Talk about blessings over flowing. What did I EVER do to deserve all of this. God is so GOOD! My dream was to one day own and stand a Friesian stallion. Raven, along with the wonderful mares we have are all truly a gift from God. I was always taught to dream big but this is far, far bigger than I would ever have dream and I know it is ALL a gift! I'm praying about putting out a calendar again this year. We have the most beautiful horses in the world (according to the little kids that come up from the South Side Mission) and I love having the calendar available for gifts. I would need about $2000.00 to do this again so will pray that if it is His will, enough will sell that I can. Not for prides sake but for others to enjoy.

Mouse in my House

Ok, more than just one, isn't this one cute? But... I just don't want mice in my house. We had company on Sunday night and a mouse ran right across the dining room floor behind the piano, IN FRONT of the COMPANY! That did it! so it was down to TSC to buy traps and poison. I hate buying poison but my old traps are not catching the mice. They are just a very young litter so don't weigh enough to snap the traps, they are eating the peanut butter right off without setting the trap off. I bought 4 traps, these are a new kind, so perhaps they will work. Every fall we have the same problem and it hasn't even gotten cold yet.
I still remember the time Karin came to help me clean and asked "why is there cheese in the corners?" That would be Rhoda feeding the mice, a true animal lover. Of course she was only 10 at the time. When I was young, I use to catch them out in the fields and carry them with me either in my pocket or purse. One time I forgot I had one in my purse went up to our local nickle and dime store, called Hornsbys, I opened my purse to see how much money I had and the mouse jumped out and started running down the aisle. I started chasing the mouse when the manager saw it and yelled, "stand back, I'll take care of it!" I didn't have the guts to tell him, the mouse was mine. Poor thing came to an awful death at the hands of a very irate manager and his broom.

Anna

This morning after I put the trailer back in place and unhooked the truck so David could borrow the truck to move Stephanie into their new place, Phil and Anna drove up. Anna is having the laser eye surgery today so I get to take her. I'm pretty pleased to get the chance to sit and read in the waiting room, hope it takes a long time.
HA, she was done by 8:30am so I only got to page 61 in my book. I drove her home, stopped at Hardees to get her some breakfast, then left her in the good hands of the carpet layers. Not really, they were just in her basement laying her new carpet. She will probably sleep most of the day. I grabbed Philip's phone off her kitchen table and took it down to the shop. He wasn't in his office so I just left it on his desk, picked up 6 dozen eggs for the breakfast I'm supplying for the girls retreat Saturday morning and headed home.

The Storm

The storm hit at almost 3:00pm today. We could hear the continual sound of rumbling thunder for a half hour before the rain started. When the storm was close enough for the lightning strikes to become extreme our lights started flickering. The rain came down in such thick sheets it looked like a solid wall of water. From my back hall door looking out toward the west I could barely see the 2 barns. It is now 3:21pm and the rain is lessening and the thunder rumble is as before the storm hit, constant but not extreme.
This morning after our walk, Karin came down to help me with the Prison Bible study program. Yesterday I was only able to get the mail opened, not processed. We got all the labels printed out and most attached to the envelopes until I ran out of envelopes. The rest we loaded into the car and will take to Eva Jean Schaffer's house. Eva Jean is away this week but will be back on Friday to finish what we couldn't get done.
Karin went to lunch with us today. We met up with Spark, Dan and Mark. We got into a discussion on gas mileage of cars and Dan and Spark showed us their new designs on fuel efficient cars. Karin wants to be a partner in this enterprise. Hmmm wonder if it will get off the ground, their designs make a lot of sense. We had so much fun at lunch it was hard to leave to go back to work.
I paid for the hay, collected for a charity the family was wanting to donate to and got to the bank to deposit all collected, then wrote out the checks. My family is awesome! I put the word out of a need and everyone that heard offered money. We collected enough to get the job done. A special thanks to my mom, Mark, Diane, Dan, Spark, Ruth, Rachel, Karin, David, Sarah, and Rhoda. Diane emailed about a need Joan and Tim have. They ran out of money for their door fund in Haiti. The need is so great there, the people are STARVING! The Bible tells us that one of the ways to recognize a true believer is by this statement. "I was hungry and you gave me food." We in America have been so blessed, the only time we are really hungry is when we are fasting (or dieting)! If anyone can spare money for this fund. Please email Diane at dianehone@yahoo.com she knows how to tell people a way to donate that is tax deductible. By the way, the door fund is what we all used to call the Leo fund.

Addyson Faith

After Pacharan's buyers left we picked up Avanti's and headed over to Phil and Anna's new house. The entire Sceggel family was there helping Philip paint. They asked me to watch Addyson and what a joy she was. I loved hearing the kids working downstairs talking and singing as they painted while Addyson was up with me cooing. We left around 9:00pm but Rhoda & Sarah stayed to help Phil and Anna put on the last coat. They didn't get home until after midnight but at least it was done. The carpet gets laid today. I didn't know my boys knew how to install drywall but they did an excellent job installing it, then sanding it, priming, more sanding, priming again and finally painting. I'll need to get some pictures of their house, it's really going to look nice.

Pacharan Is Sold!

These are the new owners. They wanted to give him a bath first thing. Pacharan stood quietly the entire time. I was impressed. I will need to mark him sold and let the lady from Maine know. I hope she won't be too disappointed. Pacharan is staying at Bridlewood until October 1st, then he will be moved to the Hanna City farm until leaving for Mexico where he will learn how to dance.

Rachel's Trip Last Day

Aug. 16, 2009 We got up and had waffles and biscuits & gravy at the hotel and then headed out. We drove all day and got stuck in a couple of traffic jams because of accidents and then stopped by Dave & Rita’s to see their new puppy and give Dave his birthday gift. We made it home about 7:00 that night. The kids were very excited to see our kittens and all the other pets. Much thanks to Aryn (our neighbor girl) who took care of our zoo while were gone. It was a great trip.

Round Bales

The farmer next to the Middle Grove farm called that he got 47 round bales off his second cutting alfalfa field. He had estimated he would get around 23 - 24 so I told him we would take them all. We are still glad for the 47 but probably won't take as many of his 3rd cutting although I would much rather have all 3rd. I guess we may consider all of his 3rd cutting also depending on if they get up dry and how big the bales are.
The horses weren't called in this morning until 6:30am as it is a Monday and Amy Koch does stalls on Monday. Nice to sleep in a bit. Amy and I did the Bridlewood stalls together, then went to breakfast. Mom fed Raven for me this morning, it was raining so no walking. The rain has now cleared off so after breakfast Amy moved my horses and I moved in a round bale, then put the horses back. They act like they are starving but they had been out on the pasture all night and also grained this morning. How they can be starving from 6:30am to 10:00am I don't know but they were sure they were.

Sunday

Mom called early this morning to tell me that she would be glad to feed Raven for me so I don't have to drive out to the farm this morning. While she was walking up to feed, she sees the gate to big side of the breeding shed open. She calls to say there is a mare and foal in the paddock with the gate wide open. She shut the gate and then decided it was Lily and Ciera. They must have been out grazing, got thirsty and decided this was just as good as their own paddock. Mom turned the fan on for them to help keep the flies off. I think we will just leave them in that paddock for a while, it has plenty of hay, shade, an automatic waterer and a fan.
Izadora and Apelles were waiting anxiously for their grain this morning. Pacheron didn't know I was bringing it, so he was thrilled when he found out he was going to get some also. When I walked up with it, Apelles was in the middle of the round bale feeder. She knows how to jump into it and out of it. I MUST move in a a new bale this afternoon after church. While they were eating I emptied the water tank, scrubbed it with bleach and filled it back up. I still have an hour before we need to leave, maybe I will just sit and read the paper.
I've continued this post after church. We drove through driving rain, got to the door and a bright lightning strike hits close, the thunder was a big BOOM! Darcy slept through the whole storm. She woke up when we called and let her out to go to the bathroom. The 2 ladies that were suppose to be here to see Pacheron actually were waiting at the barn. I didn't figure it out until I saw someone walking over to the green barn. They were nice, liked Pacheron but want xrays of his front legs. I gave them Hoerr Vet clinic's phone number to arrange it. Mom and Nancy are coming over for dinner tonight, we are having Nancy's favorite, spaghetti.

I wish I would have moved a round bale this morning, now everything is flooded and as I have no square bales here I'll have to drive the tractor on my yard. bother! I'm going to wait until the Bridlewood horses are fed so Honey will be in the stall and I can lock my guys up in the back paddock. After a satisfying dinner, just ask Nancy, I turned the horses out back but first all the barn doors had to be shut. The moving of the round bale will just have to wait, I think we got two inches of rain today.

Rachel's Trip #5

Aug. 14, 2009 We woke up to rain for the first time this week. I’m so glad that we didn’t have any hikes planned. We got up and ate and then took our laundry over to the club house and sat in the hot tub for awhile and then we played some racket ball and then some volleyball. When we went to fold our laundry we realized that Caleb’s video camera and phone was still in his pocket when we washed his shorts. Came home and put the washed and dried sd card into the laptop and were so relieved to see that the videos of the bear and everything was still on there. The camera and phone are ruined though. We then had some lunch and then Caleb, Jessica and I ran down to safeway to get some more steak to have w/our trout and some cookies for dessert. We also stopped by a second hand store to look around. Came back up to the condo and played some rook, I lost. Then we cooked supper and I read a book while the kids watched a video. Then some of us headed back to the hot tub and David & Caleb went into Winter Park. It rained on and off most of the day but got a little sunny about dinner time so it was good we didn’t have anything planned outside. It was nice to enjoy the club house. You don’t feel like you’re getting much use out of it because you just want to be outside all the time when it’s so pretty out.

Saturday

Emily left this morning for home. We made a dvd for her to take with her of her working Anni, Knight and Jenis. The vaulters are leaving for Weaver Farms for the CIRTS benefit at 3:00pm from the farm. I need to have the truck and trailer out there before 3:00pm to load it up.
6:30pm: I went out to hook the truck up to the trailer around noon and the back passenger side tire was completly FLAT. Mark and I worked about an hour to change it. First we had to figure out how to remove the spare from under the truck, then we had to jack it up 3 times each time adding wood under the jack as the jack just wasn't getting the truck up high enough for Mark to put the spare on. I had to run get the camera by the third time.

Mark was so hot and dirty from lying under the truck. The spare needed air and our air compressor is not here right now so I headed to Casey's to fill both the gas tank and the tire. The shower felt wonderful after all that and I made it to the lake by 3:00pm. One of the automatic waterers was not working and was flooding the middle paddock. Karin got it to stop but what we didn't know was that she stopped all the water going into it, not just the running over. We loaded Ribbon into the trailer and took off for Weaver farm for the CIRTS benefit. We were there in plenty of time and unloaded Ribbon. Karin got a phone call from Alicia that her car had broken down on the interstate and they were going to be 45 minutes late. Alicia has 3 of our vaulters, Mikayla, Mitchell and Mathew, and we only had 6 for this performance. Rebekah, Anni, and Sasha were a little stressed out thinking they were going to be the only vaulters for this performance but the Cooksey's made it just before it was time to go on. The vaulters did WONDERFUL, it was a really good performance and the crowd loved it. Most had never seen anything like vaulting. We got back to the farm by 6:00pm and discovered the waterer was completly dry. Ralph was working on it so I felt pretty comfortable leaving it up to him. Steven had Pacheron loaded for the trip home but before I started driving Pacheron started making noise in the back of the trailer, Ralph discovered he had his hoof caught in the hay bag. I had to take the bag down to get it off him. I am SO glad to be BACK!

Emily and the Horses

Emily and Sarah decided to ride while I was at my walk yesterday. Emily rode Izadora and Sarah rode Samantha, both girls rode bareback. Emily told us that Izadora was just perfect. We love to hear that.
After I got home, we drove down to Meisters and got 22 boxes of Bibles out, then out to the farm to water the arena before the vaulters needed it. Once vaulting was over Karin, Emily and Sasha helped me move the three Friesian mares and their foals over for the vet appointment. All three got their coggins drawn. Dr. Pallen followed me to Bridlewood to draw Samantha's coggins and Apelles health papers. Before I got back to the farm Karin and Emily had ridden the mares into the pond, Ylse's filly was so comfortable in the pond, she laid down.
Once we were done with the horses we decided to just stay at the lake and all eat together. Mom furnished the steak, salad and dessert, Diane furnished the green beans and the campfire foods, Mark brought the strawberries, tomatoes, and the Mongolian left overs. It was a wonderful meal! We called Ruth to bring her boys to make the campfire. We were all so lazy sitting around talking. Really we just wanted Ruth to come over also to visit. Rhonda also came over to enjoy the campfire, then home to bed.

Diane's Alaska Trip

My father-in-law John, my husband Mike, my son Andrew and I made it home late Wednesday night from our very exciting adventure in Alaska. My husband's cousin Brenda married an Eskimo and has been living in Nome for 33 years. She invited us to come visit and stay in their summer cabin, which is two hours truck ride and one hour boat ride north of Nome on the Fish River. Six of us stayed 5 nights in their cabin which is 16 feet by 16 feet with no electricity or running water. They were so hospitable we did not mind the cramped quarters. The closest civilization was an Eskimo village about eight miles down river named White Mountain with approximately 200 residence. We took a 3 ½ hour canoe ride from the cabin to White Mountain and visited their only supply store for some snacks. The prices were about three times what we pay in Illinois. We climbed a mountain; went fishing and caught Salmon and Northern Pike; sunbathed and had a picnic on a beach about an hour and a half up river; and watched them butcher a seal Mike’s cousin Nicole shot as she was boating back from business in White Mountain. It was a once in a lifetime vacation we will never forget.

Friday

We wake up at 5:20am, I look at the time and jump out of bed. Literally throw my clothes on and run out into the blackness, that is just starting to lighten to call in the mares. They are already in and waiting and then I realize Honey is in the back paddock eating her hay. That means the Bridlewood stall cleaners have already been there and left. The gate was chained so I grained the girls, then worked on the down railing, I think it is secure for a while, filled their water tank and was back in the house at 5:30am. Mark met me at the door to tell me we have a bat in our room, he has shut all the doors to the room so when I'm ready to get it out, it should be easy to find.
Today Emily and I will work on getting out a load of Bibles, then get to the lake by 11:30am to help Karin with vaulting. We will plan on staying at the lake for swimming. Emily wants to ride the Friesian mares, so I will see if Rebekah or Karin want to ride with her.
Emily helped me catch the bat, we tried to let it go outside but when I threw it into the air it landed on the driveway. Bats need to take off from someplace high to get lift off. We took the posted pictures of it, then Emily let it bite the stick. Once it was hanging on she flipped it into the air and it was able to take off so all is well and ends well.

Rachel's Trip #4

Aug. 12 & 13, 2009 So we woke up about 6:30 to eat and finish some last minute packing and took off about 7:30. We hit the trail for Crater lake about 8:00. It was another perfect day to be outside. We also heard that there was going to be a meteor shower that night so we were excited to be up at this lake w/no city lights. So we hiked, and hiked, and hiked up hill some more and then we’d stop to catch our breath and hike up hill some more. Dad & David were in the lead at one point and David stopped short and say’s ‘Dad, there’s a bear’ and then David points in a different direction and say’s ‘I see it’. There were two adult black bears and a cub, one of them right on our trail. Unfortunately we scared them so Jess was not able to get a picture but Caleb got a video of the mom & baby so that was really exciting. I’ve never seen a bear while hiking before so that was a first for me. So then back on the trail we went and hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more. At one point it just seemed like we should have reached the lake by then and we started to question whether we somehow got on the wrong trail, but a ½ mile later we found a sign that confirmed that we were still on the right trail. We saw some really cool falls and would use Chad’s purifier to refill our water bottles every couple of streams. Miles later we finally reached the lake and it was truly beautiful, 6 hard hiking hours & 8.1 miles beautiful?....the jury is still out on that, but it really was pretty w/huge peaks surrounding it. We then hiked around the right side of the lake until we found a nice campsite by the lake. Across the lake from us to our right was a tall water fall that we could hear. It kind of sounded like the noise you hear when the wind blows through the pine trees but it was constant. As far as we could see it looks like there was only one other couple camping and they were at the beginning of the lake. Once we set up camp Jessica took her shoes off to find her socks all bloody. She had blisters from the hike. Poor girl, she never even said her feet were hurting!!! She brought along some flip flops so she put those on and they all began fishing right away. The fish were biting well so we had 8 fresh trout for dinner and also some hot dogs. The fish was delicious! We all were so tired but we really wanted to watch the meteor shower so we decided to try to go to sleep at about 9:00 and set Caleb’s alarm on his phone for 12:30. I don’t know if we ever got to sleep in our tent. David & I had Logan and Luke w/us and they were cold and we were cold. Our sleeping bags are not rated for anything under 50 degrees and I think it was probably in the high 40s. It was cold. We got up to watch the meteor shower and David built the fire back up and we laid by it and watched. It was really pretty but I was so tired and it was the warmest I’d been since I went to bed earlier that night so I kept falling asleep. We were worried about our sleeping bags being so close to the fire so we went back into our tents after about an hour and tried to get some sleep. I stress the word tried. I think I did fall asleep right when it was getting light out but then woke up for good about 7:00 and started a fire. Caleb was up fishing already. He too had a cold night. We made some hot chocolate and oatmeal and that hit the spot. Later on when everyone else woke up we had bacon and eggs. All morning we had a doe hanging around our campsite. She was pretty little thing and wasn’t afraid of us at all. After breakfast we all headed farther around the lake and up very high to the waterfall we could see and hear from our campsite. It was a pretty far hike to get up to it and we found more snow up there. The older kids and David hiked way up the falls. I was a nervous wreck making sure Luke didn’t fall. He’s in his clumsy stage so what do we do, we hike way up on a bunch of loose boulders. Yikes! We all made it back down to our campsite and had some lunch while our doe continued to graze around us. Some of the kids went fishing at that point and the rest took a nap in the sun. We woke up about 1:10 and decided to break camp. We had our packs on and ready to head back down by 2:00 and hoped that we could make it back down by 4:30. We kept a very good pace and only had one stop to refill water and it still took us almost 4 hours of fast hiking. We did see a cow moose w/her calf on the way down at about the same place we saw the bears on the way up. It was so nice to climb into our van and head back to the condo. The kids were troopers!!! I watched them help each other and myself out so many times. I was really proud of them. We got home and cooked some pork chops for supper and then headed to the much needed hot tub. Tomorrow is our last full day here and we have no hikes planned at this point. I think we will do some laundry and just take it easy...at least that’s the plan right now.

Knight and Anni

Anni and Knight were picked up this morning by 8:15am. We dropped off Knight at the farm, picked up Autumn and took both Anni and Autumn out to Middle Grove. Emily and Karin saddled up Autumn and Anni to go look for the horses. It took them about 15 minutes to find them and another 15 minutes to bring some of them back to the trailer. Steven Marchal halted Pacheron and tied him to the trailer for loading later, while I took some pictures and videos of Emily and Anni. After working on the video and finally getting it uploaded, I get a notice that the audio has been disabled. I'm waiting to upload different music, hopefully it will be done soon. I also took some pictures of Classy. He let Steven walk right up to him and stood very well for him. Jewell didn't want to stand for the pictures but even she warmed up. I checked over Clara and she is doing fine in her pregnancy. Once Emily was done riding Anni, she put on the skirt she made and had to model it on Anni. She made it full enough to drape over Anni's hips. I think she did a wonderful job on it. Once we were done with the pictures Steven loaded up Pacheron and went to close the trailer door and Pacheron had bent the latch. WE jury rigged it, then tied the door shut and headed back to the farm. I pulled Pacheron out of the trailer and started hosing him off to clean him up while Emily pulled Knight out of the paddock and harnessed him up for his driving video. Knight and Emily had so much fun in the field, he just about dumped her. She had him at a very fast trot and took a turn a little too narrow, but Emily was able to slide over and save the spill. She was laughing so hard she could hardly drive. After Knight's video we drove over to Diane's pond for a cool swim. Jenis' colt, Valiant was watching Emily in the water so we opened the gate and brought him over to the water. He went all the way in and started swimming with Emily. I ran to get the camera but he decided he was done and wanted to go back to him mom so I missed the shot. We put him away, fly sprayed off the three Friesian mares and headed home to work on the videos. We left the house a little after 5:00pm to eat at the Mongolian Barbecue. Rhoda met us there, then she took Sarah and Emily back to the house. Mike called while we were driving that he easily fixed the trailer latch. He said it was no big deal. The neighboring farmer at Middle Grove also called that his hay was cut yesterday and should be baled by Saturday. We will need to arrange transport to Hanna City and pay the bill. After dinner, we finished the videos, Rhoda pick the music for Knights and Emily picked the music for Anni's. Amy Koch let my horses out into the field tonight. I'll need to wake up early to bring them in before the Bridlewood stall help gets there. I think Apelles knocked down a board, she was in Honey's paddock so I'd better get out there with my hammer and nails.

Vaulting Practice

Karin is ready to start up the vaulting practices again now that she is home from Florida. The vaulters are performing on Saturday at Weaver farms for the CIRTS benefit but Karin does not have many vaulters left. Joan is gone with her kids, Rachel is gone with her kids, Dan and Susan are gone with their kids.
I grained the mares and checked their water tank before leaving for the lake. The tank was low so I just put enough in to make sure they have water until I can clean it back up again. When I got to the farm, Ribbon had AGAIN knocked down the round bale feeder. I put it up so well this morning, I thought there is no way she will get it down again. Steven calls and tells me that Autumn is caught in it so he needs to take it down to get her free. Ribbon chased Autumn right through it. Steven is going to let Autumn graze with Lily and Ciera, then put her in with them for the night. Tomorrow Autumn is leaving for Middle Grove. I thought Ribbon would be glad for the company but she is being a bully. She kicked Autumn hard enough to leave a cut. I've arranged to drive to Forrest early tomorrow to pick up Anni and Knight. Emily Ricketts, the girl training them will be coming with us to ride when we take them to Middle Grove. Steven is also going to go to Middle Grove and with their help and Karin's help, I will pull hair from Royal, Piper, and Chloe to send in with their registrations.
I've arranged with Hoerr Vet clinic to come on Friday to draw coggins in Jenis, Ylse, Samantha and Sanna, a health certificate for Apelles (formally known as Joy) and draw blood for a CBC on Lily.
9:00pm: After loading the saddles for tomorrow into the big barn, I headed down to work and then home. David got a car at the auction, it is teal in color. I saw it and just started laughing. Rhoda drives up, looks at the car, and tells David "that is a high school GIRLS car!" David just cares that it will get him from here to there, we'll see what Stephanie says.
At church tonight, just as the ministers sat down my cell phone went off. I thought I had it on vibrate, it rang and vibrated in my hand. I opened and shut it quickly and thought I put it on silence, then stuck it back in my purse. It went off again! I through it over to Mark, who was sitting on the same bench, just on the men's side for him to turn it off. It is a new phone and I don't even know how to turn it off. Talk about embarrassing! On the drive home from church the phone rings again, it is mom this time telling me she just drag raced David and smoked him. She wanted me to call him and tell him that her car is supercharged. I call David and he tells me that grandma pretended she was not going to race, then as soon as the light turned green she was off. I think they both should grow up!:o)

Rachel's Trip #3

Aug. 10, 2009 Today we got up at 7:00 and headed off to hike up to Columbine Lake. You have to drive for awhile to get to the trail head over some pretty rough dirt roads but we made it and started out at about 9:30 in the morning. We just took some deer sticks, string cheese, granola bars, some pbjs, water, and fishing gear so we did not have heavy packs. The trail is about 3 miles one way and not too bad. Some places were a little steep and w/the altitude we had to stop and catch our breath a few times. Not too far away from the trail head I heard a crashing noise and we all stopped and looked through the trees in the direction that it came from and spotted a young bull moose. He was spooked though so he did not stick around for any decent pictures. A little while later Jessica spotted a buck mule deer and then Luke spotted a small herd of elk from across a meadow. We couldn’t believe our luck to see so much large game on one hike. We came to a beautiful huge meadow w/an amazing backdrop of some mountain peaks w/snow on them and I was going to take Caleb’s picture when all of a sudden someone says, ‘Hey, there’s something down there’. Sure enough, two HUGE moose were grazing in the meadow. A big bull and a cow. We stood and watched them for a long time. Every now and then the bull would raise up his massive head and just stare right back at us. David snuck up and took this picture from behind a few rocks and the cow kept looking in his direction. She knew right where he was the whole time.
This is a picture of Luke watching them just to give a perspective of how close they were. After a little while they decided to walk into the woods and then you realize that they are about 4 feet taller then you originally thought once they walk out of the brush. They really were massive. We watched them walk away and then noticed there was another bull moose watching us from the other side of the meadow just under the trees. I don’t know if the younger boys realize how lucky they were to get to see such a thing! It was really neat.
We decided we’d better keep going if we were ever going to make it to the lake so on we went. I was trying to use this trip as a gauge to see if we could do an 8 mile backpacking trip later on in the week so w/all the stopping I knew I wasn’t going to be able to figure anything out. Of course a little while later we found a neat little waterfall and of course the kids had to stop. Then we found a huge square rock that of course they had to climb up.
As we neared the top we found a small
patch of snow. Now let’s see, what do you get w/5 kids and a patch of snow in August? Of course a snowball fight!
It ended up taking us 2.5 hours to do a 3 mile trail....not so good. Once we made it up to the lake we had our lunch and the kids began to fish in earnest. We could see trout swimming around and Caleb had dropped a baited hook in and then found out that his line was tangled so while he was trying to untangle it he got a fish on. Unfortunately because he could not reel it in it got off.
This gave them hope that they could be caught though so we spent several hours up there fishing and came home w/3 decent sized trout. The kids slept in the van on the way back to town. It was the quietest they’ve been since we started this trip. I didn’t even need any earplugs!
Because we were all pretty tired and sunburnt we opted to save the fish for another day and stop at Pizza Hut for supper. Then David J. cleaned the fish and put them in the freezer and we all changed into our suits and sat in the hot tub while we did our laundry next door.
We got back about 9:15 and I refilled the water bottles and put them in the freezer and went to bed. We couldn’t ask for a better day.
Aug. 11, 2009 So today I woke up at 5:00 for some reason but didn’t get up till 6:00 and did a little computer work, and packed a lunch for the day. After breakfast we headed up to Grand Lake and hiked up to Adam’s falls. The boys brought their poles and the only really funny thing that happened was that David J. was fly fishing and hooked a big one, himself, right in the back of his head. After some minor surgery involving his dad and a needle nose plyers he did get it removed. For awhile there I was thinking it didn’t look too bad as a sort of hair decoration but Dad said it must come out. Caleb was thrilled to get it on video. After not having any luck catching FISH we hiked farther down the trail to a creek that a guy told us he had some good luck at. The kids caught about 8 brookies (some kind of small stream trout) and kept 6 of them. The black flies were swarming them the whole time. The only wild life we saw today was some cute little chipmunks that came begging for some chips and would take them right out of your hand and then proceed to stand right there and gobble them up. We thought they were just adorable until they climbed right into our pack and took a whole handful of chips and ran with them. All of a sudden they seemed more like rodents! We came home in the afternoon and then started packing our backpacks for tomorrow’s overnight trip to Crater lake. Then David and I ditched the kids w/leftover pizza & hamburgers and went out to eat at a supposedly haunted restaurant. We also had to stop and pick up a few groceries for the hike tomorrow. I think we need to get some sleep tonight because tomorrow is sure to be a tough one. The weather has been perfect so far. Hope it holds out for the next 2 days. I don’t like to camp in the rain.

Ylse

Ylse is still in season and Steven Marchal drove out and got her covered by Raven. We are hoping this will be her last cover and she settles. She has been in for 6 days. I drove out early, fed Raven and walked with mom but then had to leave as Philip got a piece of metal embedded in his eye and he wanted me to try to get it out. We think it is now out so hopefully no damage was done to his eye.
While Steven was out at the farm he let Lily and Ciera out to graze, hand grazed Raven, covered Ylse, and worked with the fillies. When he was done he could not find Valiant. After searching with no luck he called me. I was at work and couldn't leave, I'm trying to figure out who to ask to drive over when he found him. Steven thinks that Valiant was laying down by a tree, then rolled the wrong way and was stuck for a while because usually he comes running when he sees anyone. He had mud and leaves stuck to him. I really like having the mares and foals together in the cabin field, there is plenty of grass and lots of shade but it is a little too big if we start losing foals.

Most Exciting News

Ruth sold the condo! Wow what a blessing for both her and mom. Ruth bought it from mom, Fedi, Ryan and Ruth worked on it almost all summer, they had only ONE open house and got their asking price minus a few fees. GOOD JOB RUTH!
The other news is that MOM went off the rope swing at Norris! We still need to get it on video before the summer is over so we have proof but there were witnesses!
Now before anyone wonders why that would be so newsworthy, my uncle Peter went off the rope swing and he is almost 83 years old. Mom is kind of competitive and besides that she really did want to but didn't think she was strong enough. Karin walked in on her lifting weights (yes, my 77 year old mother started lifting weights) and mom told her it was because she wants to go off the rope swing.
I am heading out to the farm to walk, and then down to work.

Autumn, Lily & Ciera

We left this morning around 6:30 for Indiana to pick up Autumn. Steven Marchal went along. We pulled in right behind Emily Jewell, owner of Keegan so the timing was perfect. We unloaded Autumn from Emily's trailer and loaded her right back into our trailer and headed down the road for the University of Illinois. We were just getting off the exit when Dr. Pedro called to tell me that yes we would be able to take Lily and Ciera home today. Good thing, we were about 15 minutes from the University. We had to wait an hour for the paper work to be finished but by 11:30am we were on our way. Lily lost 70 pounds the 2 days she was in the hospital. Ciera probably gained that. We made it to the farm about 1:30pm, unloaded the horses, took Raven to the cabin and teased the three mares there. Jenis came right up and was covered but we believe she is just going out as she squealed and pinned her ears. Sanna came up once, showed a little then walked away so we are pretty sure she is also out. Ylse didn't show for the longest time but before we left she did show once so she will need to be checked tomorrow. We grained Raven then headed for home. I'm exhausted, I had company last night and didn't get to bed until close to 11:00pm.

Rachel's Trip

Aug. 9, 2009 So we made it to the condo about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. I felt like my mom, saying "Look at the scenery" to Caleb however, instead of playing Rook he was playing Xbox as we were going over the mountain pass. The van did not like the initial climb out of Denver and got a hot but then was fine the rest of the way. We could smell the brakes coming down the pass though. The condo is nice and was recently remodeled and it shares the same club house as the Pines (where we stayed 10 years ago). The condo has it’s own very nice gas grill so we went and got some groceries at Safeway and they had a great special on strip steaks. They were so good we had to take a picture of one on David Jacob’s phone and send it to Karin. She replied that she is going to save that pic. All of the kids ate a ton! We went over to the clubhouse and sat in the hot tub and watched the sun set over the mountains. We came back to the condo and then they watched a cartoon on video and I went to bed. I’ve had a sore back and shoulder so I again didn’t sleep well and had to take some ibuprofen first thing this morning. The older 4 kids went down to Fraser river to try some trout fishing but had no luck and came back hungry and cold (it was only in the 40s this morning). I had pancakes, sausage, eggs, and oj ready for them. David read from John 8:1 about Jesus’ sermon on the Mount of Olives and we had a good discussion about grace. We sang a few songs and Logan closed with a heart-felt prayer remembering the Elsassers. Then we loaded up and headed in to Winter Park to find the visitor’s center. Right across the street from there is a really cool playground including, much to Caleb & Luke’s delight, a skate park. We had left the skateboard at the condo though so they decided to go back after lunch. We were able to get some good information for some hiking at the center and I think we will be going backpacking up to Critter lake. It’s about 8 miles one way and lots of waterfalls on the way and trout fishing. We then went to the ski village and rode the free lift down to the ski area. We walked around but everything was pretty pricy for a family of 7 so we decided to go back to town where we saw a bunch of white tents set up for local crafts. We walked through those and bought some kettle corn and candied pecans to share and then headed back to the condo for lunch. I decided to take a nap and the rest of the family went back to the skate park.
I was glad that the condo also had a helmet for the younger kids because I was afraid of a head injury. The kids had fun and David said it wasn’t too bad to watch. Logan had one close call but he’s okay. When I woke up I sat out in the sun and read a book for awhile. The sun feels good because it’s only in the 60s today. We then went to club house and played some volleyball and David worked out. I had a couple of business calls to return when we came home and then I grilled some cheese burgers for supper. Currently the kids are outside throwing the football around. We were talking about trying to go to some hot springs that we went to 10 years ago but I can’t seem to find it anymore. If the weather is decent we may take a day hike tomorrow to try to get acclimated to the altitude before we do the overnight hike. Well, I’d better close for now, it’s time to sit in the hot tub to watch the sun set:)

Steven called, Ylse was covered, Raven grained and grazed. All three mares are still in season. The horses here were watered today, Apelles comes over and steps into the tank to splash. I was wondering why the water wasn't clean. The tank had been bleached, scrubbed and filled and this morning the water looked kind of dirty. I should have known. It is already very hot and only going to get hotter. After church today I will spray down all the mares to cool them off. Izadora looks like she is gaining well, Samantha should be taken out to be a companion with Ribbon. Maybe I will do that today.
Steven drove back to the farm and had Sanna covered and grazed Raven for an hour.
10:00pm After church we cooked hamburgers covered with munster cheese and onions on the grill, then drove to Kroger bought ice cream, root beer, tall plastic cups and straws for root beer floats which we served after the service at the South Side Mission. We had a great group of people come. I'm heading to bed, need to be up early to leave for Indiana to pick up Autumn, then UofI to hopefully pick up Lily and Ciera.

Updates

The vet in charge of Lily's care called yesterday to tell me that Lily is doing ok but they are still looking for answers. She had blood in her belly tap along with infection. She had a low red blood cell count. They need to do a coagulation test to find out why she is leaking blood. They also are waiting on the culture to find out how to treat the infection. Her heart rate spiked once probably pain when Ciera was nursing but then dropped to acceptable levels. They were going to hopefully take her off the massive IVs she is now hooked up to. I asked why she needed to be on IVs when I felt she was drinking well and the answer they gave me was there was necrosis somewhere in her body they were trying to flush out. Please pray that the doctors could have wisdom when treating her along with trying to be conservative in their spending.
Yesterday Anna's parents and brothers all came to see her new house. We went out to eat at the Flat Top in the new mall, then everyone came over here for ice cream, newly baked warm chocolate chip cookies and fresh cold milk. The kids (all in their 20s) played rock band while the parents visited. They are all spending the night at Phil and Anna's new house and we will see them in church today.
Steven has offered to drive out to the farm to check who needs to be covered today. Probably if Ylse is still in she will be done. Raven is sure getting lots of work.
Rhoda and Monica drove out to the lake yesterday and rode Jenis and Ylse. They rode them into the lake, Jenis' colt LOVED playing in the water. Ylse's filly did not. I will have to ask Rhoda if they were able to get the filly into the lake. Yesterday was very hot and today will be no better as far as heat.

Tired

Steven drove out to the farm this afternoon, got Jenis covered by Raven and moved all the mares and foals out to the cabin field. Raven was fed and I am heading home to bed. I am so tired after only 3 hours of sleep.

Rachel's Trip

Here's day one and two. Sorry nothing too exciting.

Colorado August 2009

Judy told me to email her every day about what we do on our trip so she can put it on her blog so I guess it’s going to kind of make me keep a diary. I’m sure every one who reads this will be riveted, and check out what we’re doing every day because our lives are super interesting:)!!!! So here’s day one....

Aug. 7, 2009 We were originally planning on leaving about 4:30 in the afternoon but the day before we heard that there was some very hot/stormy weather coming our way so David decided to leave work at noon so we could get a head start. We were able to pull out about 1:20 onto the wet roads. It started raining pretty hard about 1:00 but had let up a little by the time we got on the road. David and the kids really want to stop at a Cabela’s on the way out so I got on the laptop and was able to locate one about 6 hours away from home in Omaha Nebraska. I went ahead and checked the weather there and it looked like 90's and 50% chance for thunderstorms overnight. We were planning on camping but because of the weather I decided to try priceline for a hotel near the Cabela’s. I was able to get one just 1 exit away from the store so it all worked out well. I don’t know what I would have done w/out my laptop and Verizon card. I think that pretty soon it will be a necessary as a cell phone that you can’t leave home w/out. We drove past lots of huge white windmills. It didn’t storm but is extremely hot and humid here so I was glad we got a hotel room. The kids were very wound up though so we really didn’t get a lot of sleep. They did have a free waffle breakfast though so maybe everything balanced out. I wish there was a way to make this sound more exciting but I can’t think of one way to make it very interesting. (Sorry blog readers).

Aug. 8, 2009 We hit the road about 8:30 this morning and are heading West again on 80. David is happy to see that the speed limit is 75 here because he interprets that to be around 83. Nebraska is kind of long and boring so I’m on board w/getting through it. We hope to be in Colorado by 4:30 this afternoon. We have a TV and Caleb brought his X-box so we are nonstop hearing

the sounds of battle in the van. I don’t know that this is helping entertain them or just bringing a different kind of fighting on the trip? Oh well. I have been carrying a set of ear plugs everywhere I go so when it gets to be too much I just pop them in and ignore it. I don’t know why it’s taken me 18 years of child rearing to discover these tiny little miracles....I must be a slow learner:)