The Lagoon

We left for the lagoon shortly after breakfast. We were able to watch heron's fighting over fish, a heron snatching a fish from a little boy's fishing pole, an osprey diving and catching a fish. The only problem with the lagoon is the biting flies. The weather is perfect and the gulf is still very warm.
mom and Aunt Jinnie getting ready to fish at the Lagoon.

Barbara catching our bait.

Diane, Aunt Jinnie and Becky watching the osprey fishing.

An osprey diving for a fish. It caught one but I couldn't get the picture of the bird carrying the fish, it headed over the lagoon the wrong direction.
Had to take this picture of the heron in flight.
coming in for landing!
Another of the many herons on the lagoon waiting for someone to catch a fish.
The fish the heron is eating is a croaker. It was croaking like crazy trying to get away.
This is the heron taking off with the fish before the other heron could get near to grab it.

Tuesday Continued

Last night before dinner the fishing was better. Beth kept the ladies supplied with poles with fresh bait. She also had to untangle line for them, take the fish off the hook had been swallowed and generally kept everyone else having a good time. Only about a hundred yards out a huge fish kept jumping out of the water. The splashes were loud and the fish or fishes must have jumped 20 times. A couple of times it turned toward shore and belly flopped like a whale beaching. A little later we saw something big and dark circling around the area. It didn't breach the water like a dolphin so we think it must have been a shark. No one got any pictures we were just watching shocked at what was happening. There were 3 or 4 cameras on the beach, we just didn't take our eyes off the commotion. We caught plenty for dinner and of course Beth had to clean AND cook them. Thank goodness for a fisher wife, the rest of us would not have eaten dinner without her, there was not much food left in the condo and we ladies are all so tight we weren't about to go BUY some!:o) We actually had enough fish there was left overs. After dinner we decided to give the mom's (those over 77) the works. We massaged them, combed their hair, washed their feet and while they were all so relaxed and eyes closed we stuck bright pink lipstick on their lips and cheeks along with a big flower in their hair. We also got Aunt Jinnie's toenails painted pink before mom caught on what was happening and the laughing broke loose. We took some pictures of our painted floozy's then let them remove the makeup. Too bad there was 2 of them to see each other if just one they wouldn't have known and left it on until looking in a mirror, of course that would only have happened if we could have controlled the laughter. Then it was time for our coffee and ice cream. We sat around the table until bedtime telling stories and laughing so hard our stomachs were sore. What a GREAT DAY

Fishing

This morning we ran out to watch the sunrise, then back in to make breakfast. We had 5 cooks in the kitchen, I only was able to snap 4 of them, one ducked out of sight. This is a very small kitchen and I was impressed with how coordinated everything ran.
After breakfast Becky, Beth and Barb went out to fish for our dinner. We told them we can only eat if they catch something. All three caught fish for dinner. Mom caught a small flounder we threw back, it was just too small to clean.
Becky was so serious about fishing.
What we didn't tell was how all of us are losing things in the condo. Mom lost her beach towel yesterday and Becky lost her sweatshirt this morning. We found the sweatshirt just not the towel. Mom and I read on the beach while the fishing was going on.
The fish stopped biting so Diane, Becky, Barb and I took off for the pier. It is a good hike to the pier and back but we saw an osprey carrying a fish over the gulf, then another osprey fishing. We needed to take naps after the long walk. Beth and Diane headed over to the pool to cool off and the Bossert's all went shopping. We are meeting back at 4:00 to try to catch more fish for dinner. So far it is going to be kind of a light meal.

Internet

It seems we can only get online after 1:00am. Really a bother! I had 64 emails sent to me and most of them are people wanting to sell horses, not buy.
We finished the ENTIRE condo just before 10:00am actually we made mom put down the paint can. Just as we sat down in the living room, the Meyer lady is at the door. The condo was MORE than acceptable and they were glad to sign it up. Mom does not need to upgrade or buy anything, she had everything they required plus.
The Meyer representative left around 10:45am which gave mom and I 15 minutes to get ready to go to the Pensacola airport to pick up Aunt Jinnie, Becky and Barbara. We pulled up at noon to the airport, parked the car, walked into the airport when mom's phone rang, it was Becky and they had just arrived and were waiting outside. We all went back inside to eat lunch in the air conditioning, it was way to hot to eat outside. Barbara's plane arrived on time at 1:30pm and we were back to the condo by 3:00pm. Beth and Diane had been swimming at the pool and told us the water was actually cooler than the gulf and very refreshing. by this time it is 93 degrees and the new comers wanted to swim in the gulf. They also couldn't get over how warm the water was. The waves were choppy, lots of wind last night. They weren't good for boogie boarding but fun to bob up and down in. Took a nice walk, then started our shower rotation to get ready to go to Sea and Suds. We decided to eat there out on their deck and watch the sunset. Below is Becky and Barbara enjoying the meal. We weren't quite done eating when the sun set so had to snap a few shots.

Once back to the condo we watched Aunt Jinnie's video she made of the reunion, then had to watch mom's video of feeding the fish by her mouth. Barbara hadn't seen it yet and had a good laugh. We stayed up and visited until what we thought was pretty late, probably 9:00pm! I took a call from California, a man that wants Sangria's colt. I still need to give the routing number to the man from Nashville. Anyway if the Nashville man does not end up buying him, the California man wants to.
Steven Marchal emailed to tell me that Kesha's mare is now out of season as of Sunday and our Alfalfa hay has been delivered, and the field cut.

The Rest of the Day

I'm typing this at 1:44am, we have just now got internet back so I can update yesterday. Weird that I am up, I must not have worked hard enough. We really didn't work at all. We listened in at the Peoria church, then decided to go out on the beach. The internet repair man was suppose to call about 30 minutes before he got to the condo so we took Diane's phone out onto the beach with us. The weather was bright sunshine and hot around 93 degrees. The water is warm like bath water so we were enjoying being in the water or out sunning. Around 1:30pm Diane looks at her phone and realizes we missed a call, she listens to it and it was the repair man. I took off for the condo to wait but when I get close, I see a mediacom truck waiting with the repair man getting BACK inside the truck. Do you know how hard it is to run in the sand? Run I did and made it. Turns out mediacom is having all kinds of trouble, there must be a cut in the line somewhere which is causing major signal leakage. After he left mom and I decided we had enough sun so read our books inside. "We're not hungry" was the cry so no lunch just would plan on an early dinner. Diane and Beth FINALLY came in off the beach with an incredible story. While they were in the gulf, about 20 feet from them a huge and they said "huge" big black thing came jumping out of the water toward them. They said it looked like a sting ray without the long tail. It was about 3 foot wide and very thick. A plane was going overhead at the same time it jumped and Beth thought something fell out of the plane. They are telling us this and I asked them "did you swim as fast as you could to the shore?" No they stayed in the water.
We had dinner at DeSoto's and it was delicious. Our meals with tax and tip came to about $16.00 each. Back home to the condo, Diane, Beth and mom played a game while I read. We ended up on the balcony looking at the bright moon and stars shining on the water. Diane decided to take a sleeping pill as she hasn't been sleeping well and went to bed around 8:30pm. Not too long after, she started violently vomiting. We don't know if it was the pill or food poisoning but none of the rest of us are sick. Poor Diane, hope she feels better in the morning.

A New Raven Son

Today I received an email from the lady that owns Xena. Xena had a colt, and I'm not home to check the records but I think he was born about 3 weeks early. Chris, the owner told me he is running around driving his mother crazy. She was a little concerned as the colt was silver but she was very happy with how beautiful he was. She will REALLY be happy when she finds out that silver is good, once the foal coat sheds out the color is blue black. I've attached the only picture she emailed me but she has promised to email better ones later.

Sunrise

This was our most beautiful sunrise so far. Sometimes seeing how beautiful God paints the sky for us mortals is very humbling. Mom and Beth went out fishing while Diane was working on the remote for the second bedroom's TV. Lots of little fish were biting but no big ones so they came in for breakfast and we will walk before listening in for church. Our breakfast conversation was a lot of remembrance on our dad and what an example he was to us and our children. On our walk we saw many dolphin today, their were lots of fish jumping out of the water, and the dolphin were having a field day. So mom and Beth went out fishing again and had better luck. They caught 5 nice fish but only kept 2, both of which swallowed the hook so would die anyway. Beth cleaned them, we will eat them a later date if they catch more.

Saturday Cleaning Schedule

This morning during our walk Beth pointed out some small fish troubling the surface of the gulf, there must have been some larger fish forcing them up. A little farther Beth sees a lone dolphin diving for fish not too far out. We were able to watch it hunt for quite a while as by the time we turned around and headed back to the condo it was going the same direction. After our walk we had some of our farm fresh brown scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, coffee cake with blackberry jam, fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. Diane, Beth and mom took off to go garage saleing while I got on the phone with mediacom to try to get the internet back up. The girl helping me finally told me that she is going to have to send the technician out to find out why the signal is sometimes good but most of the time terrible. It was hard to start our scheduled cleaning. The sun was shining and the weather was hot and humid. We started work around 9:30 and didn't stop until almost 1:00pm. Diane made a very tasty sandwich spread out of avocado, vine ripened tomatoes, and vegetable dip, we put shaved turkey and fresh vegetables on a piece of wheat bread and it was a wonderfully satisfying lunch. After lunch Beth blew up the rafts and she and I headed out to the beach. Diane was finishing up cleaning the lamps and mom was trying to paint but each can she opened was all dried out so she used primer and will head back to walmart for more paint. Diane made it out to the beach about 20 minutes before mom and just as mom laid down on her raft the rain started. We hauled everything back to the condo and decided to go back to walmart for the paint, gray tape and a few other missing items. Just as they were all changed and ready to head down to the car the sun came out. The picture was taken standing on the balcony after the storm.
For dinner we had pizza, they bought just cheese pizza and we added all the vegies. mmmmm
can you tell we were enjoying it!

After dinner it was back to working. This is Diane cleaning the light chain.

I caught mom touching up the walls.

Our First Day

What a frustrating day for Diane and mom. The keys were suppose to be here by 11:30am but of course this is Alabama. Diane called Meyer Reality about changing the condo over and they emailed us all the information but our internet stopped working. Philip was called, but after going through the entire trouble shooting, he told us to call Mediacom. After calling them and on hold for what seemed like hours, they told us they couldn't fix it on line and would need to come out on Sunday. Then we found out that mom had dropped the modem. We all worked until 10:30, then Beth and I stayed to keep working while Diane and mom left for Meyer Reality, then to Prudential Cooper to cancel with them then to walmart to buy another modem. The new modem worked but it took calling Mediacom again and bypassing the wireless internet, hooking up to the cable. By this time it was after noon so Diane called her office to track our keys down with UPS. Of course UPS told us they couldn't find the condo and it was rescheduled for Sept. 28th. Why they didn't call us we can't figure out, they had 2 phone numbers, This was NOT acceptable so Diane got on the phone with them to find out if we could meet the truck or drive to where it was going to be stopping. We finally got word that we could drive up to Robertsdale 35 miles away to pick them up at 7:30pm. Diane, mom and Beth decided to leave after our great time on the beach around 5:00pm to drive up to Robertsdale for dinner then to the UPS store. I really didn't want to get back in the car so stayed home to clean the oven and post the pictures below. When they got home from Robertsdale I heard the rest of the story. The GPS didn't work, they pulled off the road to figure out where to go when they saw a UPS truck, they followed the truck to the facility, then when they ask for the package the lady tells them they will have to come back tomorrow. As Diane was arguing with them, a truck driver comes up with the package and says, "is this what you are looking for?" Of course it was the keys. They brought back soft serve ice cream with hot fudge for dessert. We really did have a good time.
Diane scrubbing out the closet.

The cleaning crew. We were able to get a lot done even without the owner closet keys.

Diane, Beth and mom heading out to the waves.

Diane, I thought this was a good close up.

Diane and Judy riding the waves.

Beth and mom riding the waves.

We had a great time, the water was wonderfully warm and the waves were fantastic, some of the rides in would take us up to the very end of the beach.

The First Night

Last night mom started taking stock of the condo and we must say mom is very disappointed. The condo is not as clean as it should be, the vacuum cleaner is gone, and it was a 2 year old nice hoover, mom's CD player/radio is gone, we go to turn on the lights in the living room and 2 of the lamps don't have light bulbs and the 3rd is burnt out. There is hardly enough light to read. The main bathroom's night light is missing, mom bought that one special and it looks like someone helped themselves to it. The kitchen has lost a lot of the useful supplies. There is a broken magazine rack in the living room, a beach chair in one of the kitchen cupboards, filled with sand and a pillow in the kitchen garbage. Beth was getting her bed ready, she shook out the sheets and a chunk of something falls out, have no idea what it is, looks like an old dried up cow patty but we are sure there are no cows here so maybe it is really an old piece of drift wood. We all settled down to sleep and can hear that the upstairs air conditioning unit is not cycling correctly. I'm sure we will get used to the noise, it isn't loud and it will fade into the background. We got on the internet and started looking up rental companies, called each one and the only one that we could actually talk to a real person was Meyer Reality so we made an appointment to check into their rental policies. It is time for a change!
My morning is going GREAT, I brought coffee with me so even though we can't get into the owner's closet, I'm typing this with my first cup of fragrant, strong, coffee. It looks like we are going to have wonderful weather while we are down here, it is hot and humid right now but bright twinkling stars are out with only a few fluffy clouds obscuring the moonlight.

Made It

What an easy trip, we made it to mom's condo by 6:40pm and that included an extra stop to pick up a set of keys to get in. Mom realized around 1:00pm that she forgot to bring the condo keys. We called about everyone we could think of to try to get them overnighted to the condo so we can get into the owners closet. Without those keys we can't even clean the place and that was one of the reasons we are on this trip. We finally were able to reach Rhoda, she drove out to grandma's then to Mike and Diane's office to get them packaged and addressed, then to Bartonville to pop them in the overnight bin. We really can't count on getting them tomorrow even though they are guaranteed to arrive by 11:30am, after all, this is Alabama and Alabama time is not like ANY other time.
Once we unloaded the bags, we walked to Bahama Bob's for dinner. Beth & I shared a Bahama Bob burger and Mom & Diane shared a mahi mahi fish sandwich. Both were delicious and filling. This condo is such a great location.
Steven emailed that Kesha's mare was covered again and that Izadora is getting close to delivery. Hope she waits until we get home. All else seems to be going fine at home. Once back at the condo we worked on getting the internet hooked up, It does look like Royal is sold, another man from Nashville, TN is going to wire me the deposit tomorrow.

Alabama or Bust

We do not have a working alarm clock so I told my mind, must wake up by 4:00am this morning. At 3:55am my eyes pop open, look at the clock and jump out of bed. I'm very discreetly trying to get dressed in the dark when I hear Mark say, it's 4:00am, you need to get up. He had no idea I was already out of bed. Beside not having an alarm we have no radio and no television, but we do get the paper. Mark was working last night on something he ordered to help him get TV from the internet so by the time we get back from Gulf Shores, we should be able to watch the news. It's been kind of nice not knowing the state of the country, we hear by word of mouth that people are MAD!
Packing the cooler was the first on the list. We wanted to take down our farm fresh eggs, so the first carton I pull out of the fridge is one that holds 18 eggs and I promptly drop it and break 10 eggs. Darcy will be lucky this morning, I scooped them up and put them in her pan. Anyone that has tried to get slimy raw eggs off a tile floor realizes how slippery the tile gets and this spot is right in front of the fridge. Thought about leaving the mess for the girls (yeah right). Get the cooler packed and outside and I go to put my bag of books on the stoop and they drop off and spill out into the grass. I'm just all fumble fingers this morning. I realize I forgot to pack my hat but it is upstairs and I don't want to wake up Mark again so I'll just borrow one from down south. Mom has a few in her owners closet. I just looked in the mirror and I have to do something with my hair or they won't let me in the van. I washed it last night, combed it out but went to bed with it wet and now I look like a witch. The hair is sticking straight out. The good thing right now is that I'm on my second cup of coffee, soon I'll not be so clumsy so I'll try to run a brush through it and clip it back. OK Alabama, Ready or NOT, here we come!

Pregnancy?

Paris pictured above was covered on March 26th, 2009 and Bunni pictured below was only covered once on May 22nd 2009. We did not check either mare for pregnancy as both are used heavily for beginner riders. We actually hoped neither mare would be in foal. The day Bunni was bred, Raven had already covered 2 mares. Both mares are putting on weight and looking pregnant. When Mike looked at Bunni today he actually stated, "we have 30 horses and I can't keep enough riding horses because they keep having foals! Next year we are NOT breeding the walkers or Paris." I really didn't think either mare settled but they are both putting on weight. Below is Bunni with her first colt, Onyx who is now in Canada.

The Trip

This morning there is a board down in the front of the paddock by the office. Sanna, Samantha and Ylse are all in that paddock with their foals. Sanna and Samantha eating on the old bale with Ylse reaching over the fence to the new corner bale. Both fillies were lying down together. I don't think any of them will try to climb over so hopefully it can be left until this weekend when I'll ask Mark to put it back up, I just don't have time today. Jenis did not need to be taken out to grain, just put a feeder on the fence in front and fed her. Neither Izadora or Lily would dream of confronting Jenis for the grain. We are leaving at 5:00am tomorrow for Gulf Shores so I'll be out of touch for at least a day. Once in the condo we have internet and I will bring a laptop to check emails.
I'll ask Steven Marchal if he will keep an eye on things while we are gone. He put 3 new bales in yesterday. This morning Mike pulls up on his new motorcycle and asked who moved in the bales. Steven came out this morning, temporarily put up the downed rail, then checked Kesha's mare from Tennessee. She is showing today and Steven had Raven cover her. I've emailed her owner to let her know. Royal may be sold, a man from Seattle Washington called yesterday and told me he is sending the deposit. I'm not marking him sold until it comes, I've been promised deposits before and somehow they just get 'lost in the mail'. I dropped his price to $5000.00 and had 3 people contact me about him. As we are leaving for 10 days, I won't be able to mark him sold until I get back even if the deposit shows up.

More Rain

It was raining when we woke up and still raining when Raven was being grained. Valiant was in a paddock with Tiara while Jenis was in the middle paddock and Valiant was crying. He was moved in with Jenis and immediately started nursing. Jenis was not engorged so I'm sure they weren't separated long. Once down to work the sun came out so hopefully the mud today won't be too bad. Steven Marchal called to tell me by the time he got to the farm, Valiant was again separated from Jenis. We think she is doing this on purpose! Steven locked Jenis, Valiant, Lily, Ciera, and Izadora all in the Friesian paddock so Jenis can't get away from Valiant. He is just too young to wean, not quite 3 months old, "what is Jenis thinking?" I asked him to check the hay situation and he moved in a new round bale in the middle paddock, removed the bale from the shelter the horses were not eating (bad hay) and placed a new bale in it's stead. It's expensive when we get a bale they won't eat. The bales are $50.00 each plus delivery so we wasted at least $55.00. This bale did not come off one of our farms, our hay man brought it in when we were getting low. Now what will we do with this bale? We have almost 4 complete bales over by the manure pile our horses refuse to eat(picky, picky, picky).
While I was at the post office dropping off a load of Bibles, my niece called to tell me they were at a garage sale in Morton, IL and there were western saddles and bridles for sale. I got the address and headed over. The garage sale was quite far and so disappointing. The saddles were nice but $500.00 each. I should have asked Molly and Kristin what the price was before driving so far. The bridles were not worth buying. I picked up one saddle pad for $5.00, one broken but knotted lead rope for a dollar and a halter for $2.00. Sure wasn't worth the drive. Jamie called as I was driving home to tell me Tyler Joos, our farrier was coming October 1st. Great, I won't be home until the 4th so someone else will have to get the horses ready for him. Mika needs to be reset, Sanna, Lily & Ciera trimmed. Mike said he would put it on his calendar and try to be there for at least Mika.
Back down to work to get the first of the month bills taken care of before we leave for Gulf Shores on Thursday.

Vet Appointment

This is Dr. Pallen getting ready to sonagram Samantha. She has already opened Izadora's caslick.

Once she has her cleaned out, she has the sonagram wand inside as far as her arm can reach.

Now that we are assured Samantha is still pregnant, Dr. Hoerr is preparing her for the caslick, which is sewing up the vulva. He does NOT have a cigarette in his mouth (he doesn't smoke!) he is holding the needle cover by mouth as he only has 2 hands.

Dr. Hoerr used a knife blade to scrape the sides to help with healing and is sewing her up below.

Samantha is all done. It will heal fine, then have to be opened back up about a month before she delivers.

Izadora and Samantha

Today Izadora has a vet appointment to open up her caslick and Samantha has a vet appointment to put in a caslick. Hoerr Vet. clinic told me I can bring them at the same time around 12:30pm which will help as far as time.
Raven and Jenis were both waiting for me this morning so they were grained but both are really looking good. It helps that breeding season is just about over and we have had no mares in season right now. When we have a mare come in, Raven just pines away hanging over the gate so hopeful.
A lady emailed about an 11 year old registered breeding stock black paint mare that needs some rehab. We will probably be getting her in pretty quickly. The best thing in the world for a horse that has some issues is to put them with our herd. The herd teaches them that people are good and kind. That is one reason we miss Aries now that he is at his new home. We would always put the weanlings or horses that were afraid of people with Aries and after a couple of months they would end up JUST LIKE HIM. Hanging around us asking for attention. I still remember when Sophie first came in, she wanted nothing to do with any of us, she would run as soon as we would get to the farm. She was nervous when we tied her up and did not like to be groomed. After being in with Aries only about a month, she started being braver, trying to figure out why Aries would stick with us when he could go anywhere, then this spring Sophie was a changed horse. As soon as she sees anyone coming she is at the gate. She loves attention and actually stands nice for tacking up. She still needs help standing quietly for a bath but even that is coming along.

A Wet Sunday

This afternoon the heaven's opened and the earth was well watered. We got out of church to rain, rain and more rain. By the time it quit we had over an inch on the ground. Diane gave me her camera with the pictures she took of the foals but most are not usable. I knew I should have gone out to Middle Grove on Saturday, now the roads are impassable without 4wheel drive and my truck's 4wheel broke. The problem with the pictures Diane took is she didn't know which horse's picture she was taking. I can't tell the foals apart without seeing them by their dams. I could recognize Classy, but he had some burrs in his forlock that should have been removed before the pictures. OH well, I can get new videos of them all when we bring them in for weaning. The picture I posted, I'm pretty sure is Royal Masquerade, Sangria's colt. There is a small chance it is Big Sally's colt but I think I'm 85% sure it he is Sangria's colt. One thing I am sure of is that it is a BOY!
I'm leaving for Gulf Shores early morning on Thursday so if it doesn't dry quickly, I won't get any new pictures until after October 4th. I found pictures of John Honegger, Mike's dad on her camera so posted those below.

John Honegger

These pictures were taken Sept 5th, at the hog roast for David's wedding.
Mike's dad, John getting ready to go on trial ride with Sanna and her filly.

Valiant is in the front, John and Sanna, then comes Wanda

Down the cabin lane they go. I can't believe Mike took his dad on the DEATH Trails.

Work Around the Farm

This morning we are leisurely reading the newspaper when Rachel calls to tell us that Lake Camelot is having their garage sales and there is something we could use at one of them. It is an island for our kitchen here at Bridlewood and only $20.00. The truck was loaded already with 2 sections of a round bale feeder plus we didn't have the $20.00 on us and the people selling it wanted it paid for in a half hour. We tied down the bale feeder, ran to an ATM for the money and drove straight to the garage sale. It really was a good buy and will take the place of our old kitchen table we cleaned out of an apartment. The table was left at the apartment because it is not in good shape but we have been using it for 8 years. Rachel was again right, we paid for the island, told them we would be back, then drove to the farm. Mark helped me move in a round bale, put up 2 round bale feeders, then went to move some tree limbs he cut earlier. While he was moving the limbs, I fed Raven then pulled Jenis out to grain her. She had stepped inside a bale feeder and scraped up her left back leg so while she was eating her grain, I hosed off the leg and doctored it with some iodine salve. She is not lame on it and it looks worse than it probably is. The parts to the automatic waterer came so Mike was working on replacing the broken parts with the new, hopefully it will work without leaking. We drove back to the garage sale and loaded up the piece of furniture and brought it home. We have just finished eating a wonderful breakfast, of course hunger is a great cook and we were at the farm longer than we thought we would be. We had brown farm fresh eggs, collected just a few days ago, sausage, whole wheat toast with blackberry jam and a vine ripened tomato off one of our tomato plants. Since breakfast was eaten at lunch time we will get to skip a meal. We may be going out for dinner with David and Stephanie. David had his 31st birthday yesterday but Steph had to work all day so we are hoping we can celebrate it today.

Is it Really Friday?

Where does the time go? It is so hard to believe it is already Friday. Karin has arranged to take Jamie riding on Monday afternoon around 4:00pm. Hope Sanna will work out for her. This morning Sanna's back leg looks much better but she was walking pretty slow over to the waterer. I've posted the video of Sanna and her filly taken July 26th, 2009. The filly is only 2 days old in the video and Sanna is walking and trotting fine then. Sanna has a skin condition, the inside of her back right leg breaks out when the weather is humid and if she is in wet conditions. It is like scratches on a horse but it is NOT scratches. If Sanna is given prednizone tablets the swelling goes down and the breakout heals. Sanna is pregnant and nursing so she is off the prednizone. It is good for Sanna to be back with the herd, she will keep moving that way and that will also help take down the swelling. We are having a wonderful dry spell and there has been no mud but the dew has been very heavy so perhaps that is the cause. This morning the weather was clear and crisp 50 degrees with fog drifting up off the fields and ponds, the horses were grazing in the background and the birds were singing beautifully. I stood at the gate just drinking in the beautiful scene. The paddocks are in the best condition yet, Steven has been keeping them clean. Raven was fed, then Jenis and Valiant let out for their grain. I made the mistake of putting her bucket of grain inside on the cement aisle way thinking she would clean up anything spilled, wrong, I had to clean up the mess once she was done. Tomorrow she will be fed in the grass.

Earthquake?

Last night, Mark was coughing and restless with the flu. Rhoda is house sitting so I thought if I slept in her bed, I would be able to get a good nights sleep. I did fall right asleep, she has a very comfortable bed but I woke up suddenly around 3:00am because I felt the bed move. My first thought was maybe Rhoda came home, or perhaps Darcy came upstairs and was climbing in bed but neither was correct. There was no one in the room with me at all. I know the moving of the bed woke me up. The only thing I can think of is that we must have had a very minor earthquake right around that time. Perhaps it was just on that corner of the house. We have always thought there was something weird with Rhoda's room. In the morning, I asked Mark and Sarah if they felt anything during the night but they didn't wake up at all. I think I'll stay in my own room from now on.

Bible Day

This morning before the walk, Raven was grained and Jenis & Valiant were let out so they could also be grained. All the rest of the horses seemed to be very quiet and settled, most in the middle paddock around the bale, but Samantha and Sanna up into the shelter with the 2 bales. Wanda was just hanging around waiting for Sanna to move away from Samantha. Darcy got to come with me this morning. Mom's dog, Heidi has been picking on Tara's dog, Abby each morning. We will be walking along with Abby in front and Heidi running then all of a sudden Heidi runs up to Abby, slams into her and tries to dominate poor Abby. Darcy was brought to see if she could teach Heidi proper dog etiquette. Heidi tried a couple of times to dominate Darcy but gave up very quickly when Darcy looked her in the face and growled. Heidi then went running up to Valiant and he took off AFTER her kicking. GOOD BOY Valiant. We do not want Heidi chasing the foals. After the walk, work was waiting so down I went. Today was the day for the individual Bibles to be mailed out. Unfortunately I ran out of stamps and had to drive to TEMCO to pick up another batch. Once done, Philip, Mark and I went to lunch. The 2 mil job Meister Brothers is doing is causing Philip some stress. We discussed over lunch strategies to make it run smoother but the real problem is we only have ONE PHILIP. He needs to be cloned as we need him in 2 places. Both Mark and Philip told me the only thing I can do to help is pray. Well, I'm kind of good at that, in fact I believe I have a direct line to God (just like every Christian) so that is what I will do. This afternoon I worked on the James Bible study that is being held tonight and in James we are to count it all joy when troubles come and we are to pray for wisdom. SUCH GOOD ADVICE!

Raven

Raven's original owner emailed me twice this morning. They said they are interested in breeding him to 2 of their mares. Their email included this: We were the first people to own Raven. After a lot of searching online we found Raven and we were wondering how much you are charging for a breeding/semen. You have done a very good job at taking care of him he looks very good Thank you.
I'm glad for the email but kind of concerned that it took a lot of searching to find where Raven ended up. If Raven Friesian stallion is typed in google ours is the first website to come up. The same with yahoo and almost any other search engine. I guess they weren't looking very hard or maybe using an obscure search engine.
I took the posted picture of Raven a couple of years ago. It is a great conformation shot and shows how perfect he is. If one looks at the length of neck, then compares it to the length of his back, it is clear that his neck is actually longer. Check out Raven's hips and then compare them to his shoulders. For a perfect horse one should draw a circle around the shoulders, barrel and hips. By looking at his picture, all three are equal, like I said, he is PERFECT!

The Farm

This morning all the horses were waiting for me as I pulled up in the truck. What looked normal, until I checked it out, was that all the Friesians were in their own paddock and the rest of the herd was in the middle paddock. I thought Mike must have put them all back. After a closer look, then realized all the gates were opened, so the horses just all felt more comfortable in their own paddocks. After our walk they were mixed up again so perhaps it is just at night they gravitate to their own. The middle paddock waterer is still leaking so Mike turned it off and opened up the far paddock for drinking. He has tried to fix it for the last few days but finally gave up and ordered new parts for it. He'll try to fix it right once the new parts come in. I unloaded the 5 bags of grain. I had room in the big can for 150 pounds of Raven's but was only able to put 50 pounds in the mare's can so one bag should be put in a mouse proof place but I didn't have time this morning to figure out where to put it and just left it on the shelf. Raven was grained and having the alfalfa bale in his shelter makes quite a difference in his hunger level. He is not as impatient with his grain if he is on a calorie rich alfalfa bale vs grass. The only other horse I grained was Jenis. She is nursing that big boy, pregnant, plus she gets ridden a lot so we need to pump grain in her to keep her weight up. Steven will be taking over Izadora's and Ciera's feedings so I didn't have to take the time to pull them out of the paddock. The paddocks really looked good this morning as far as manure. Steven did a great job cleaning them yesterday. Mike even noticed and called about how good they looked.

Tiara's Birth

I got an email today from someone that thought it was just terrible the way we let the kids watch Tiara's birth. I posted the birth on youtube and also posted it below. Surely this is NOT offensive? Watch it and tell me if you think it is. I personally think it is a beautiful miracle!

Tuesday

This morning before our walk, I was graining the horses and Raven seemed to be more hungry than usual. I checked his hay and sure enough, the alfalfa was gone and he was down to the grass bale. Mike moved a new bale in and cleaned out Raven's paddock at the same time. I headed down to work where we were again swamped with Bible Studies. We are praying about getting a helper. Steven Marchal called during work that he used the skid steer to clean out the middle paddock and opened up the back of the Friesian paddock to let them out into the back field. We now have all of the paddocks open so the horses can be one herd if they chose. As soon as it was opened, the Friesians went into the middle paddock and the rest of the herd went into the Friesian paddock. Again they must perceive the grass is greener on the other side.
We left around 11:20am for lunch. Jay, Tara's husband, Philip, Mark, Eva Jean and I had a good meal together at Denny's. Then back to work for Eva Jean and I. We worked until 1:00pm. I drove home, thinking I would head down to TSC for grain when David called. He was back from his honeymoon and wanted help moving furniture. Sarah and I helped move 2 dressers and a desk to his house in Morton, IL. Stephanie was shopping so we didn't get to ask her about the trip, but David said it was nice. Once we dropped off the furniture we stopped at TSC and bought 3 bags of Senior for Raven and 2 bags of 10% sweet feed for the mares. I left them in the truck and will just take the truck tomorrow morning. After dinner we had unexpected company, Coleen Keenan, a girl I went to high school with moved back in the area and brought her husband and son over for a visit. They went out to the barn around 7:00pm to watch Amy Koch's lesson. So I took off for choir. We have a great group of people this year for choir and I'm looking forward to learning new songs.

Sophie Sold

After I got Rachel Sauder's pictures of Sophie up on her page, I got a phone call from Kesha, she is sending me a deposit on Sophie tomorrow. I will consider her sold. After talking to Kesha, I know she really wants her and I think they will make a great fit.

The Grand Tour

We had a nice lunch at Denny's with the ladies. Dan, Philip and Mark joined us. Then down to Meister Brothers to see mom's video. Martha said just seeing the video of mom feeding the fish by mouth made getting out of bed worth it today. Martha is almost 97 years old but sharp as a tack. The tour went wonderful thanks to Dan Meister of the Old School Center. He had a wheel chair out ready for Martha so she wouldn't have to walk the entire place. I found out the Old School Center has 70,000 square feet and we saw probably about half of it. We then headed to Norris, IL where my car was able to drive the ladies half way around the lake. We decided the day was still young so headed to the farm to show off our beautiful Friesians. Martha made the comment that they were so shiny black. Of course Raven had to hang his head over the gate for some loving. Tiara was the only filly that came up, the other 3 foals were busy playing. I didn't get to TSC today so Raven was fed some of the mare's grain. I'll have to try to go tomorrow after work if we get done in time. Rachel Sauder of momentscapturedbyrachel.com sent me 5 pictures of Sophie for my website and I was able to put 4 of them up. I've posted on on this page. The other I couldn't get to download. Check out her page on our website. We are really happy with how her training is coming along. She is a beautiful mare and will make someone a wonderful riding horse. She is very strongly naturally gaited.

Another Monday

Monday's seem to show up pretty regular, like once a week, but this one should be fun. We are meeting Eva Jean, & Martha Schaefer along with Bernice Otto at Meister Brothers at 11:30am where Eva Jean will show her sister-in-law Martha where she works. Martha is either 95 or 96 years old but she wants to see the place. Lunch will be next then a trip out to the Old School Center in Farmington, IL where Dan Meister will give the ladies the grand tour. Once that is done we will head to Norris, IL to see the Herman lake.
This morning as I was driving home from the farm, a young deer, about half grown came running out of the corn and on to the road. I slowed down hoping it would run across and get out of the way but instead it went back to the corn and then back to the road. I think the rest of the herd had crossed and this one just couldn't be brave enough to get across. It ran along side the car for about 10 feet before heading back to the corn. I was glad it didn't try to cross in front of my car. We moved in a couple more round bales, one in the Friesian paddock and one in main paddock. The Friesian paddock has 9 horses in it right now so they are going through a bale every few days. That paddock is kind of small but they all get along so well and it is nice to have the 4 foals together for bonding and playing. When we wean they will all go together to my place. Steven Marchal cleaned their paddock by hand yesterday. I don't know why he didn't use the skid steer but it was sure nice to see it all cleaned up. THANKS STEVEN. I'll need to see if the skid steer needs more fuel. The mares were begging to be let out but until the hay gets cut, I need to keep them off the field. Hopefully we can get it cut soon. I love watching them in the field.

Grandma VS Herman Lake

We left Springfield, IL this morning after a wonderful breakfast at the Crown Plaza. The Plaza offered a breakfast buffet for $12.95 and it was very good. Mark enjoyed an omelet filled with just about everything while I went for the regular eggs. We both enjoyed the fresh fruit, warm pecan rolls, hot oatmeal with pecans, raisins and brown sugar. Their bacon was delicious but the sausage was not quite the taste we liked. We got home at 9:20 which gave us 15 minutes to get ready for church. Church was great, it was so good to be home again in Peoria. After church we drove out to Beth and Greg's lake in Norris, IL where Nate Herman took over mom. I followed them around with the video camera and we haven't laughed so hard for YEARS. Watch the video, it starts out normal but ends hilarious!

The Crown Plaza

This morning we were up early, ate the continental breakfast which was actually pretty nice. There were bagels, yogurt, cereals both hot and cold, many different kinds of juice,danishes, hard boiled eggs, and of course coffee. After breakfast we took off on our bike ride. The town is old, not a tourist trap but many unique buildings to see. Unfortunately the town is NOT flat, but we made due. We had to get off our bikes a couple of times to walk up some pretty good hills but going down was like flying. We made it back to the riverbank lodge about 8:30am, did price line for Springfield, got the Crown Plaza for $45.00 a night packed up and left for the Lincoln Museum. We arrived at the museum around 9:30am and enjoyed it until around 11:30am when we decided to go for a walk outside to warm up and get some lunch. We found a farmers market and right across the street the Cafe Moxo (I'll check the spelling on that later)The food was delicious and unusual. Mark got the french onion soup with a half of tuna sandwich with walnuts and grapes, it also came with a drink so he chose V8. I chose the egg casserole, biscuit with black raspberry jam and coffee. I don't usually like egg casseroles but this one was fantastic, moist and the flavor was magnificent, slightly salty with some other very good spices. After giving Mark one bite I finished the rest and we took off to explore the market. We bought a small individual home made cherry pie to share for dessert and some kettle corn for the hotel later then back to the museum to finish what we couldn't get to earlier. We were ready to leave the museum around 1:30pm, drove to the Plaza, checked in and what a delight. We have a very elegant room on the 4th floor with a king sized bed, big bathroom, a huge entertainment center, 2 closets and pillows that are wonderful. Last nights pillows were the worst, flat and hard, they were worse than hospital pillows. The 14th floor (top) has an indoor pool but a nice outdoor sunning area with lounge chairs. Mark and I spent a couple hours lazing around in the sun reading books. At least I was in the sun, Mark in the shade. The view from the roof is fantastic, 14 floors up, to the right we see lakes and to the left is the city of Springfield. We stayed on the roof until it started getting crowded about 5:00pm. We decided not to eat dinner, our lunch was enough, but will plan on eating the breakfast buffet here at the hotel in the morning. We stayed at a Crown Plaza in Chicago and their breakfast buffet is expensive but wonderful. Depending on what time we get up, we may even make it back in time for church tomorrow. This has been a wonderful gift from my husband and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

9-11

Mark and I are at the Riverbank Lodge for our anniversary. He bought me this on June 12th, our 32nd anniversary but we needed to put it off until now because of the wedding. Our room is small but has a great view, the entire back is woods and the Mackinaw river. earlier we were watching the birds flit from tree to tree along the river. We asked the receptionist if there was a nice sit down restaurant in town and she sent us to Leo's Pizza. It was just like LaGondola in bartonville, but hunger is a good cook and the pizza was satisfying. We got back to the lodge, turned on the television on the History channel and it is all about the twin towers. I'm seeing more tonight then when it actually happened and how awful it was. How long will God allow man's inhumanity to man to continue. This is so hard to believe that it was done ON PURPOSE.

September 11th, 2009

Above is our little herd of Friesian mares and foals. There are actually 9 horses in the pictures.
After walking today, Steven Marchal came out to give Sophie a bath and help get her ready for pictures. I asked Rachel Sauder of momentscapturedbyrachel to come take them. They really looked good but her camera is brand new and we have to wait until she gets a new editing package so I can put them up on the website. Sophie posed nicely. After Rachel left is when we decided to let the mares out into the field while Steven worked on cleaning the mare paddock with the skid steer. Mark and I have a biking weekend planned out of town but we are running into problems with it. It was booked back in June, we had to change it once because of the wedding and now both of us forget where the location is and who we have the booking with. I've spent an hour looking, hopefully we can find the hard copy somewhere.
Had to go to Sams for dog food, then they didn't have the kind I usually buy. Poor Darcy will just have to make do with what I could find.
It would be strange if I didn't mention the date. Eight years ago today we were working on remodeling our house, I drove to the shop to pick up some materials and heard the news of the terrorist hitting the twin towers with airplanes. Talk about being in shock, no work could go one, we all huddled around a small television someone brought in. Then the eerie quietness of no planes in the sky. We live just 3 miles from the Peoria airport and the noise fades to background noise because of the frequency of hearing the flights overhead. Then SILENCE! the world changed for EVERYONE that day. My prayers are still going out for the families of the victims. How our heart aches for their loss.

New Record

Whether good or bad, I now have a new record as far as Bibles out in one day. Almost 1000 are sitting out on the loading dock waiting for the UPS man. UPS was called to tell our carrier we have a larger than usual shipment going out so they will have room on the truck. I had so many chaplains back logged that I knew it would be a big day. Sure wish my health was better today, I'm exhausted. Each box has 12 Bibles inside, then each box needed to be stuffed with 12 lesson number ones, 12 postage paid business reply envelopes and 12 letters explaining how to do the Bible study. The boxes weigh between 32 and 35 pounds each and we are talking 80 boxes. Each one needs to be picked up, put on the table, opened, stuffed, taped, stamped, labeled and then put on the loading dock. Today I thought I would take a short cut and brought the entire pallet up to my work table then filled a box, taped it up, labeled it and put it on a new pallet. What I didn't realize until I was done with all 80 boxes all stacked neatly on the pallet is that the pallet I put them on was broken. I could not get it to move. Each box had to be taken off that pallet and put on my cart which holds about 30, hauled to the loading dock and unloaded then on to the next load. My back is killing me!
On a farm note another booking for Raven came in today for next spring. Next spring is booking up fast. The 4 wheel drive is broken on my truck and Mike crashed his truck last night, now we have no way to move horses to or from Middle Grove without borrowing or just driving to the lane and walking the horse to the field, that seems to be about a mile walk but I could be exaggerating. We currently have 10 out in Middle Grove. Sangria and her colt Royal Masquerade, Big Sally and her colt Piper, Walker Sally and her filly Chloe, Ribbon, Velvet, Classy, and Clara. At the Hanna City farm we have Raven, Jenis, Valiant, Ylse, Tiara, Sanna, Wanda, Samantha, Lily, Ciera, Autumn, Mika, Bunni, Paris, Sophie, Anni, Jewell, Izadora, Duke, and Knight. We are making progress we are down to 30 horses with only Izadora yet to foal. I really wanted to be down to 20 horses by this winter but I just don't think it is going to happen. On a really good note is Anni and Sophie are doing fantastic with their training. Anni we used for beginners all weekend. Rhoda took Sophie on the trails, let her canter up the hills, walked her quietly through the creeks and Sophie only tried to please. Sophie was 2 years old in April so she won't be bred to Raven until next Spring. We did not put her into training until late August, she just wasn't mature enough to start in April.

Jenis + 3

This morning as I drove up to the farm, Jenis was at the gate surrounded by 3 foals while the other 2 mares were in the shelter eating. She looked like the nanny. This looks weird as we have NO mare that is LESS maternal then Jenis. She acts like a stallion, and is not a great mom to any of her foals. She tolerates them but would prefer to be unencumbered with a baby. We can't imagine what Sanna and Ylse were thinking leaving their babies with Jenis. After our walk, we moved in a new alfalfa bale in the Friesian paddock and a grass bale in the big paddock. Seven more grass bales were delivered last night or early this morning. I need to call the farmer to tell him we ONLY want 50 grass bales and the other 50 need to be alfalfa. With so many nursing mothers they need the extra calories alfalfa has versus grass. The grass bales are bigger and cost less but in the long run, the alfalfa is cheaper as we don't have to buy expensive grain. The cabin field needs a new salt block so we will probably purchase 3 more when we go to get Raven's grain and put one in each of the paddocks that are getting low. I really wish we could find a way to keep the salt out of the weather, the 50 pound blocks last much longer if they don't get rained on. I'm heading down to work now, couldn't get Rhoda to help, she already had plans to go visit Taunya and Addyson.

Lost Day

Last night, I took aspirin before going to bed. I also found some nose drops that were years out of date but it seemed to work so I used them and then put the bottle on the headboard. Well the drops worked for about 2 hours and they must have been a diuretic. Every 2 hours I was up to use the bathroom, then I would lay there delaying using the drops until I couldn't stand not being able to breath. At least the fever broke during the night. Yesterday was a lost day. No work got done at all, just laying on the couch and reading. Beth and Greg are selling their house so cleaned out all of their books. Beth gave me 4 boxes of them. I'm feeling well enough this morning to go walking and then I'll try to get down to work. I've got chaplains waiting for the Bibles that came in and need to get about 500 out today.
Today is also our first day of the James Bible study. If I'm not breathing better, I guess I won't go but sure hate to miss the first day. Just don't want to spread this cold virus around.

The Flu

What a miserable night, fever, chills, couldn't breath, kept waking up shaking, and just aching all over. The flu has struck. Probably because I was a little run down over the weekend, then I greeted hundreds of people. I'm on aspirin and have on hand lots of orange juice. Finally felt like I could get to Sears to buy a swimming suit, they are on sale big time, already reduced twice and another 40% off lowest price. I tried on 6, bought 2 for $17.99 each, these were $96.00 suits originally, but by the time I checked out I was feeling so weak I could hardly get in the car. My mom said that I can't go down to Gulf Shores with her the end of this month without a new suit so it just had to be done today.
On a very disappointing note, the lady that needed groceries called back not even 24 hours later and wanted rent money. Berean must be an easy mark. Just for the record, we don't give out money, just food and when they call back so quickly we feel we have been scammed. Oh well, it is God's money anyway and perhaps there truly was a need.
The lady with her 4 month old baby that needed emergency housing and was staying with mom has moved in with her friend for 10 days. By that time the 10 days are up she should be able to get into Esther house. It must be so hard to be kicked out of your home period, much more so when there is a baby involved.
Uncle Ed called, the Bibles came in but only a skid and a half, he wants me to order more right away. They are so expensive and the Bible fund is the only World Relief fund that is running a deficit. I'll do my best to make them stretch. If anyone out there wants to pray that we can find a large print Bible for $3.00 we would appreciate it. We found them once and bought 25,000 of them at one time. Those are all gone and now I'm on the $10.00 Bibles.

Work on Tuesday

Today work was a little different. This morning we walked, talking about the wedding, cruise, picnics over the last 3 days and how much we enjoy each others company. Once the left over paper goods were stored in Diane's garage and Paris put back with the others, Mike let her graze while the rest were being moved, I headed for work. Eva Jean needed more stamps and we had borrowed 2 rolls of 100 from Meister Brothers last week, so when I got down to TEMCO I needed to replace them and still get Eva Jean enough stamps for at least a week. Martha decided it would just be easier to give me a check and have me buy 2 months worth. That came to $1056.00, yikes! Spark called before we were done to see if the afternoon was booked. He said he would tell me about it at lunch. Mark, Dan, Spark, Rhonda, Jay (Tara's husband),Eva Jean and I got to Denny's around noon. Spark took a call from a grandmother that just got custody of her 4 grandchildren and had nothing to feed them. She sent the oldest 2 off to school with no food in them and had the youngest 2 with her. She works 3rd shift at WalMart. Spark gave me a Kroger gift certificate along with $20.00 to buy her some groceries. Feeling under the weather, once home from work, I laid down for just a few minutes but my conscience wouldn't let me rest, those kids could be starving. I called the number but only got hold of an answering machine. I left my home phone number, then called back and left my cell number and finally as I was giving up I got the call. I drove to her house to pick up her daughter to go shopping and her oldest nephew also wanted to come along. I decided to take them to Aldi and give Spark back the Kroger certificate for another family. I let them choose what they needed. I was impressed, they chose oranges and bananas instead of junk food. We also went over meals and bought the ingredients for 5 dinner meals, 5 breakfasts meals and school lunches. I couldn't resist buying a treat of chocolate milk for the little ones. Aldi has whole milk the same price as 1% so we got 2 gallons of whole milk along with the other foods. They should be set for a bit. I headed home but just don't feel any better. I have the chills and feel like I have the flu. Maybe its the swine flu from the pig roast!:o) yeah right I'm heading up to take a hot bath.

Labor Day 2

So after breakfast Mark and I take off for the farm to return picnic tables to Rhonda's and Dianes, then over to the barn to clean stalls while Mark worked on the skid steer taking down trees. He also moved a couple of old round bales I wanted out of the main area. Then home with 2 of our tables that desperately needed washing, pig grease and lard all over them. I headed back to the lake after lunch and saw the ICC young group playing foot ball. It was a very intense game with lots of great plays.
Rhoda had Darcy with her and she was thoroughly enjoying the lake. She never did catch a fish though.


The football players finished their game and wanted to cool off so they all went over to Rachel's to go off the rope swing. As I was walking over to Rachel's her son Luke showed me some tricks on his skate board.

After the rope swing they had canoe races so by the time they were done all were soaked.




We had a fire going thinking they would like to warm up but instead they started some volley ball games.

Ruth and Fedi butchered a lamb today, Ruth cooked it and brought it over to share. It was really good but mom thinks they used too much garlic. Fedi loves coating his meat in garlic.

Spark and Rhonda came over for dinner and brought Tara, Jay, Mya and their new baby girl. Mya has the biggest blue eyes. The camera just doesn't do them justice.



We finished the day with singing around the campfire and cooking big slabs of bacon.

We were really enjoying the fire when Mike called. He was moving horses over from the cabin land to the paddocks and lost 3 of them. Autumn, Anni and Duke took off running down the trails. We were laughing, those horses got so used to going on the trails they just had to finish the weekend with running them one more time without riders. We took flashlights and rounded them up and put them away.
It is hard to realize the weekend is over. What a blessed 3 days!