Blind

Last night after the party I jumped in the drivers seat of the car to drive home, put my glasses on and thought, mmmm somethings wrong I can't see very well. I made it out of mom's driveway without hitting anything but just kept saying, I can't see right, there is something wrong with my left eye. Once on the road, I tried taking off my glasses and honestly without them was just about better than with them but when I put them back on my left eye felt blind. I tried a few times taking the glasses off and putting them back on and each time exclaimed, "There is REALLY something wrong with my left eye!" I was terribly concerned until Mark asked for my glasses, looked at them and told me I was missing the left lens. Thank Goodness!
This morning searching through the car I found the lens so hopefully I can get the glasses repaired.
At the farm, the mud is so discouraging. The mares were let out into the field to get their babies out of the mud. Izadora is still in and was covered by Raven but Sandy is not as interested so she can probably go home. Karin came around 1:00 and helped me put the horses back. Her youth group is scheduled for a trail ride next weekend. Sure hope the weather improves and the mud starts to disappear.

The Sauder's Costume Party

Last night Rachel and Dave hosted their annual costume party. It was a amazing seeing the unique way this family can dress up. Each year Rachel has a contest with prizes for the many different categories. Karin won best women costume as a terrorist, Noel won best girl costume as orphan Anni, Tydon Kellenberger won the 11 year old and under boy as a police man, David Jacob won the guy division as the grim reaper and Ben and Taunya Sceggel won the couples as midgets. The prizes were fantastic, Ben and Taunya's prize was a gift certificate of $25.00 at a resturant. The best part of the evening was during the time the names were called in the young boy division. Each time Tydon's name was called he got more and more excited, when he won he started pumping his arms in the air. It was a good laugh watching. The party was a lot of fun. Thanks Rachel and David.

Canton @ Old School Center

We got over 2 and a half inches of cold drenching rain last night and today it is STILL raining. The lake is very close the the very edge of the dam, if it raises much higher it will be OVER the dam. The overflow is a rushing river. Driving out to the farm I see that the Kickapoo Creek is also close to overflowing. This morning Sandy was covered DURING our walk. With Rachel's help and Sandy being very cooperative it took maybe 3 minutes so Rachel and I were able to join Diane, mom and Joan on the farm loop. I reminded Joan about the Canton 8th graders coming to the Old School Center this morning. Diane and mom also offered to come and help, Spark and Rhonda were already there waiting for us. The three bus loads pulled up just before 9:30am and started unloading. The kids were taken right into the gym for Spark to give his welcome and rule talk, then off they went. We video taped some of the party when we weren't too busy selling food. Below is the video.
Clean up went very easy with such great help and soon we were all driving home in the RAIN again.

Grace

Emily Ricketts sent me this picture of Grace today. Grace is no longer with us, but we are thankful to have her daughter Jewell. Grace was one of our favorite mares, she was a retired race horse and wow could she run. She was originally purchased for $25,000.00 as her racing bloodlines are wonderful while Grace did not do very well on the race track, she shined at jumping! Her foals have all been athletic, tall and each has had a wonderful disposition and GREAT conformation. Grace was also our very first combined training horse. Thanks Emily, it is great to see a picture of her.

Izadora

Above is Izadora and her colt. I need to get some updated pictures, this was taken last week (I think he is 2 days old)in it, these foals grow so fast.
made it to the farm by 7:00am, got everyone grained, then over to mom's to get ready to walk. It is very entertaining watching Heidi before mom comes out of her house. Heidi takes flying leaps onto the deck, off the deck, through the doggy door of the garage, out the doggy door and onto the front porch all the time howling and barking. As soon as mom comes out and tells her "Go" Heidi takes off in a huge circle as fast as she can run. Once this circle is out of the way she is ready for the walk.
Mike showed up right as we got to the farm loop the second time so I dropped out and helped get Izadora covered. She is in big and stood very well even with her foal on the other side of the fence. Izadora has settled down and not acting nervous at all any more. She is very proud of her son but no longer trying to keep everyone away from him. Once she is out of season she can go back into the mare and foal paddock. We moved Sanna into the paddock with Jenis and Ylse. It is good to have the 3 foals together. Before I left for home we removed 6 of the 2x6 boards off the side of one of the shelters so horses can eat from 2 sides instead of just from the front.
6:00pm It has been a gray rainy day, just about the entire day but this morning we saw a tiny and I mean tiny bit of sunshine. Still I got the shopping done for Canton School tomorrow at the Old School Center. We are serving hot fragrant, salty popcorn, sweet pink and blue cotton candy, luscious moist bun length hot dogs and bottled water to any of the students that were well behaved during this semester. They will be here from 9:00am to 11:00am. Joan and her daughters will help.
We left for Bible study at Howard and Nancy Herman's house at 6:15pm and drove through wave after wave of rain. Mark actually dropped me off at the door to try to keep the books dry. I think we need to start ordering lumber for the Ark that will be needed if this keeps up.
We were home by 8:30pm and it is still POURING!

Thursday

We were up early, not that the sun was out, in fact it was raining during the night and more rain is predicted today with perhaps a thunderstorm.
My book came in the mail yesterday. I finished Black, skimmed back over Red and now am about half way done through White. It is really good and I hated to put it down. I'm heading out to the farm to get Izadora covered after our walk, then down to TSC to pick up more grain.

Sandy & Izadora

I over slept this morning, didn't have time to drink a cup of coffee or read the paper if I wanted to be at the walk in time. I actually made it with a few minutes to spare and was able to drop off a box for Joan to take to Haiti when they leave. We had a great walk today even in the mud. Yesterday and last night the rain was falling pretty steady and there has not been any sunshine to help dry up the ever present mud.
Rachel helped me get Sandy covered by Raven and once done Raven had to be taken over to Izadora's paddock to check her out. She is either in or coming in, she didn't kick, squeal or move away. We will plan on getting her covered tomorrow as Sandy won't need to be done for 48 hours.
Sandy was covered yesterday but Raven had not been used since he covered Kesha's mare so the yesterday's cover is considered a clean out. Anyone that is managing a breeding farm would realize to not follow the 48 hour rule if the stallion has not been used in the recent days. The first picture is of Sandy's filly from 2008 Rachel named Bella (sold) and below that is Sandy's 2009 colt named Raven's Shadow. They are like 2 peas in a pod. Both pictures were taken the day of their birth. This is real proof that Raven throws WAY more of himself then the mare! We are so proud of Raven.

The colt is such a little stud. He threatened Heidi this morning on our walk. He was protecting his mom. At least He thought so!

Garage Sale for Haiti

Below is an email from Michelle Kellenberger:

we are planning a big garage sale at the Herman's barn on November 6th and 7th with all the proceeds going to Haiti.
anyone interested in helping can contact Beth Herman at 309-303-4740.
anyone who has items to donate can drop them off at the barn anytime starting on Tuesday the 3rd.
this is only a week and a half away so lets get going!!
we need your help and your old stuff!

Raven our Friesian Stallion

Raven was busy today. Sandy, Rachel Sauder's mare is in season and was covered today, Sangria is coming in season and Izadora should start coming in on her foal heat. Raven will be busy for a while.
Mark sent me out to the farm this morning with a 176 pound propane tank. I left shortly before 7:00am and it was still dark. By the time I got to the farm it was daylight but cloudy and misting. I was able to unload the tank by myself, then thought as long as I'm here, I'll move Lily in with the herd now that her filly is at Bridlewood. I took a short cut so I didn't have to get muddy but instead of it being a short cut I caused more work. Jenis pushed open the gate as I was moving Lily and they all took off for Ralph and Jamie's YARD. With all the rain the ground is very soft and they were causing damage(the stinkers). I don't know why they didn't just go into the field like they usually do. They wouldn't come for grain so I just left them and met up with mom, Joan, Diane and Rachel and during our farm loop the girls helped me get Lily in the main paddock and the others in the field. Of course I got filthy moving them, so much for being ready for work.
We decided to just let them graze and I planned on being back after lunch but Rachel called that Sandy is now showing so she put them all back for me and brought Sandy over. We didn't finish with work until after 2:00pm and back to the farm I drove. Rachel came over to help, Sandy stood well and we will mark her down. I havn't started getting the burrs out of Sangria's, Big Sally's and Walker Sally's manes yet. The foals were waiting for me to bring their grain. It is so nice that Ciera and Classy come right up and wait quietly, the other 2 are not yet sure grain is worth coming up for but by the time I was ready to go back into the house all 4 were eating the grain. I won't start working on cleaning them up until I know they will come when I call. I'm so tired of MUD!!!

Letter from Tim Reinhard

Dear friends and loved ones,

We would like to especially thank each and everyone, of you for demonstrating such love and concern to us during this difficult time. It truly has been a collaborated effort, in God, that made it possible to exit the country with Gabriel’s body the same day of the accident. Our hearts are broken, but it is the love and prayers that are truly carrying us at this time. It was cold and rainy outside, but with the warmth and Love of the body of Christ, we had the visitation and funeral of our precious son Gabriel. Sarah and I have had tremendous healing already within this past week, and we are encouraged at the progress. There are still some concerns with regards to infections, but everyday has been another victory. It is my hope that we would be able to come back down to Haiti in three weeks and start with the process, in every aspect of healing, as a family there as well. We know from experience this does take some time and patience and we will continue to lean on your prayers. A benefit of having lost a child before is the fact that God has proven himself Faithful in this same situation and we can use that as a Ebenezer. A discouraging thought is we know it wasn’t easy and it took a long time to feel really healed. I am thanking God for the wonderful opportunity to be called Dad to Gabriel and to rejoice in life with him for 5 years. At this time we feel a tremendous hole in the family, but know God is God, and he does not have to answer to us. My prayer is that I, or my family, will not ever stand in the way of bringing Glory to his Name or his Kingdom in whatever way he might chose. He never promised the road to be easy, but he does promise Grace, for which we are grateful. Attached are a couple pictures of the before and after to give you a reference of the healing progress. The second picture is a picture of Gabriel right after his passing as I shared some last fleeting moments with him and committing him to God. Please feel free to forward this e mail to your prayer circles. For those of you who are a bit more enthusiastic in searching for pictures or news blogs we have a facebook page called Reinhard connection, and some blogging at horsemeister.com.

Carried by your prayers,

Tim & Joan & Family

A 2 month old Friesian Filly by RAVEN

This morning we, Diane, Joan, mom, Barb Munther, Rachel and I walked in the mud and by the time we were almost finished, in the rain AGAIN! After the walk, Barb Munther went in to take some stitches out of Tim in various places before she left for her home in Ohio. I had to go in town for a funeral while the rest just went to work. By the time I got home Philip was here eating lunch, then Ruth and finally Mark came in all for lunch. After lunch I worked on the video of Sanna's filly. Rhoda and Monica took some video clips of her yesterday and wanted them uploaded on youtube. The problem is that the music we attach to the videos will no longer be accepted on youtube. It seems we must use their music. While I was waiting for the uploading, I made 4 pumpkin pies to share around.
I still need to get out to check on the Friesian foals, I can see them from the door, but I want them to look forward to people coming so will bring them some grain each time out. It is cute how all 4 are half siblings and all 4 are also now best friends. The mares were quiet this morning and so are the foals. The hard thing about weaning abruptly is the mare's udders, the easy thing is that they forget so fast and usually there is only a few hours of calling. We have weaned both ways and the easiest on both foals and mares is the abrupt taking the foals off the property. Even so it is about the only part of horse management I really do not like.
Below is the video of Sanna's Friesian Filly.

Sanna has given us 3 beautiful fillies, and this one is the BEST! She was born silver, is now very black and wow does she like to show off.

Weaning Day

After church Diane, Mike, Barbara Munther, and I drove out to the Middle Grove farm and loaded up 6 horses, 3 went to the Hanna City farm and the other 3 plus Ciera came to Bridlewood for weaning. The mom's are crying, the babies are crying and Classy, who I brought with the babies for company is crying. Big Sally's colt was left at Middle Grove. He attached himself to Ribbon after we loaded up Big Sally and Ribbon took off for the back 40 so we gave up on him. We will load him out the next trip. Classy is very black except for a little brown on his muzzle. I will clean him up, get the burrs out of his mane and tail and get a new video of him, he is GORGEOUS! Royal is very elegant looking, Walker Sally's filly Chloe is the smallest but also the youngest. She was so good, stepped right in the trailer, let me halter her but didn't lead as well as I'd hoped, OH well that will come with some work. Ciera is amazing, she jumped right in the trailer and leads great.
Rachel was out at the farm taking Christmas pictures so we took wings and a halo and put them on Darcy and took a picture for the back of our card. Mom decided she wanted hers on a Friesian but the girls brought her Ylse instead of Jenis. After wards mom told me that horse was not very well behaved. She didn't realize she was on the WRONG horse. Ylse has the least amount of training and would have stood and posed if the girls would have brought even one other horse over. Good thing mom didn't get hurt. Rhoda and Monica took some video of Sanna and her filly, I'll try to get it uploaded tomorrow if all goes ok.
Back in Hanna City we had pizza around the fire, the kids (with a few adults) played football while the rest sat around the fire talking.

Christmas Pictures

Rachel called this morning, the sun is out and she will be taking family Christmas pictures at the lake for anyone that wants to come after church. There is no sitting fee for this. Her pictures are precious, what a wonderful idea!

A Prayer From the Kata's To the Reinhards

I AM SO VERY SORRY about Gabriel!!!
I saw his picture and recognized him right away from the pictures I have of him with princess. It just took my breath away to read about what happened! What a terrible tragedy and loss! He was such a darling boy and I always commented when I would show those pictures about the little guy there in his bare feet and big smile out in the barn with Princess.
Ty and I prayed for your whole family today and my eyes poured like rain with compassion. God has shown me that His love knows no boundaries of time or space as He has given me the indwelling of His Spirit by the evidence of the love I feel as I weep with those who weep. Even though we have never met in person or spoken on the phone, the family of God transcends. I am amazed.
I pray that our Heavenly Father will send His Holy Spirit to comfort the broken hearted loved ones that Gabriel has left behind on this earth. And while we know he is safe in the arms of Jesus, the hole he has left from the loss of his physical, earthly presence is a wound deeper than any flesh could bear. May the tears of your season of mourning bring healing in God's time, as you walk closely with Him through this dark valley. The rain falls on the wicked and the righteous. Thank you Lord that you have promised to work all things together for good of those who love you and who are called according to your purpose. Let Your Glory be seen in the midst of this storm, as you command, even the wind and the waves obey. Let your Truth shine forth it's light in the lives of Gabriel's family, as Christ has given us His Truth, and Hope, and Life eternal. Amen.

Our Deepest Sympathy,

Alesia and Ty Kata

Reinhard Update

Joan and Tim are taking it easy today, they said good by to the rest of Tim's family this morning. These last 5 days have been exhausting. Both Tim and Sarah are healing well, Sarah didn't even take any pain medication this morning. Tim still needs it but is hoping to be off soon. We have a beautiful sunny day after 2 days of rain so Ruth picked up Nancy and brought her out to mom's to carve pumpkins with Joan's girls. They made some funny looking jack-o-lanterns!

Izadora's New Colt

I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of Izadora's new colt born on October 19th, 2009.
He has a beautiful face, wonderful conformation, and is BLACK, what more could anyone ask for?

He loves to run around his mom driving her crazy, just like most boys!

He is a big fellow, and just plain beautiful!

We had a productive day at the farm, the sun was out but the ground is saturated with the over 2 inches of rain again. When we drove up to the farm Karin came through with some riders from Denver, CO and Mansfield, OH. They were going on a short ride as the Denver people were leaving and had a 14 hour trip ahead of them. Mike helped move in 3 round bales while Mark checked out the heating system in the office. We now have it hooked up and will have heat this winter. Hopefully no one will leave a door open. Last winter we had frozen pipes so this was a must do. The skid steer tracks will need to be power washed off again, the mud is awful but thank goodness we have a way to move hay in the mud. We have had so MUCH mud this year. Once done with the morning chores we walked over to mom's to visit and she was still serving breakfast. That really tasted good, we ate some of the left over egg casserole from the Old School Center. Most of the food was taken to the church where it was divided up and sent with out of town guest for their long drive back but the breakfast foods ended up back at moms. After breakfast Mark started up his chain saw to cut up the trees that were down along the fence line while I took Darcy over to Diane's to check on 4 horses Mike had prepared for the next trail ride. Darcy had to jump in the pond for a quick swim and I mean quick, the water is COLD! Once home we heated up some left over chicken and wild rice soup for dinner, then crashed by the heater reading.

Tim's Healing

We have not discussed Tim's physical healing but this is something that should be told. After the accident, Joan called to give us an update on Tim and Sarah's injuries. She told us that Tim had a badly broken left arm. Dr. Carroll saw it, told Joan, yes it was broken then said we'll discuss the arm later as there were many other injuries that needed to be dealt with. The other bad injury was what seemed to be a broken bone pushing up out of Tim's shoulder. Joan told us she saw the bone and thought that Tim had probably also broken his clavicle and dislocated his arm socket. His wrist had quite a bit of separation which was confirmed by x ray. When Joan was looking at Tim's left arm she told us it was in an S shape. Even in the pictures Joan showed us, we could see right in the middle between the wrist and elbow the indentation that would show both the radius and ulna broken. He also had a bad concussion and needed stitches on his head. Tim also received many stitches in different areas of his body with a drain in his leg. Sarah had a huge chunk of skin and muscle missing from her knee with her patella very displaced. At Haiti they did the best they could with Sarah's knee sewing the skin together leaving in a drain.
When they flew into West Palm Beach, Florida Tim was taken to the hospital so they could better assess his injuries. The x rays showed NO broken bones. The indentation in his arm was gone and the bone sticking out of his shoulder was gone. His arm was not dislocated and even the separation of his wrist was gone. Tim still has much to heal, lots of road rash, much soft tissue damage but the fact that none of his bones are broken gives hope that the soft tissue will heal quickly. If Joan will share the pictures, I can try to post them.
We do not know the answers, in fact we really don't even know what the questions are!

Gabriel's Funeral

I have no words to describe Gabriel's funeral. We are very thankful for everyone that came to support Joan and Tim & family. We would also like to thank everyone that worked, brought food, helped and prayed! Thank you so much.

Mom's Lap

There is nothing like Mom's lap, no matter who you are. This is precious.
This is a newborn offspring of Taskin, Gypsy Stallion owned by Villa Vanners of Oregon.
These pictures were immediately after his birth on April 6.
The mare laid down, and then he trotted around and crawled right up into her lap and took a nap.

To Listen to Gabriel's Service

If you cannot come to the funeral and wish to listen in our church has a system in place. Just follow the instructions below. Gabriel's funeral service starts at 10:00am today.


Peoria Apostolic Christian Church DIAL-IN System

1. 800 Access Number: 1-888-330-9551

2. Participant Pass Code: 428914 followed by the # (pound) sign.

3. You will be asked, at the tone, to record your name followed by the # (pound) sign. You do not have to say your name but you must press the # (pound) sign.

4. If the church system is on, you will be connected to the services. If the church sound system is not turned on when you call, you will go into the “Music On Hold” until the church sound system is turned on.

5. Use of this system costs the church a significant amount for each phone call, and any donations to the Sound and Communications Fund to offset this cost would be appreciated. For additional information, contact Bro. Gary Schmidgall at (309) 266-6866.

Peoria Apostolic Christian Church

3420 N. Sheridan Road

Peoria, IL 61614

Gabriel's Good by

Today is the day we say good by to Gabriel. Joan reminded us all again that this is NOT a final good by, we will see him again. On Earth here we have today only, there is no assurance of tomorrow and yesterday is already past. Today, yes we will be sad but not for Gabriel, we will be sad for Joan and Tim, Sarah, Bethany, Hanna, Faith and Kristin as they will miss him so in their day to day life. The visitation was long with many tears but we were so thankful to each and everyone that cared enough to come.

Tim's Leg

Tim's leg this morning was more swollen and red so the doctor wanted to see him before the visitation. The doctor was concerned about a blood clot and wanted Tim to have a sonagram which was scheduled for noon. The sonagram showed no blood clot which is good news, they are monitoring the swelling and redness. Karin and Rachel are at the fellowship hall setting up the pictures while Joan had Tim at the hospital.

2 Pictures of Gabriel Reinhard

This morning as I was filling my car with gas I started thinking about the small things people do that mean the world to us right now. It started this morning from a phone call from mom wanting to know if I came in early morning with an egg casserole hot and ready to eat. Mom has a lot of company right now and she got up to start cooking and there was already breakfast prepared. I started asking around and found out Rachel brought it over. Yesterday Lisa Waibel called to arrange feeding everyone breakfast at the Old School Center, there are going to be around 60 people staying there and we don't have to worry about how they will be taken care of. Bob and Myrna Hoerr bringing over a big pot of chili with all the fixings needed to feed the army at mom's when we found out about Gabriel on Sunday. Amy Koch calling and offering 3 breakfast casseroles to help with all the company. Katie and Max Hoerr bringing over dinner last night, Karin's work (many involved) sending enough food to feed the army that is here. Aunt Bernie sending a huge pot of chicken and noodles, Eva Jean Schaefer making the song copies for the funeral and when I go to pick them up she has 2 trays of food prepared to send along also, Kathy Huthmann seeing Hannah and Bethany sobbing at the family visitation, leaving the line to sit and hug them. As I was thinking of these people I just started weeping again. It is all so overwhelming.

Visitation Day

This morning it is raining but it seems natural that the heavens would rain down tears. Today we are preparing for the visitation. We don't know how long the line will be but we don't think Tim or Sarah with their injuries can stand for hours. Diane has some stools that are adjustable and will bring them to the fellowship hall.
Yesterday at the family visitation Hannah and Bethany were sitting on the front row just sobbing, please don't forget to pray for Gabriel's siblings.
A slight change in sleeping arrangements, Joan and Tim, their children, along with Tim's parents and all of his siblings and their families will be staying the night at the Old School Center. This way the scattered Reinhard family can be together at least for the evening. Lisa Waibel is organizing the breakfast Friday plus snacks for tonight if anyone wants to call to help, her number is 309-274-5121.

Rachel & Andrew Honegger

Diane announced to the family that Rachel and Andrew are expecting and due in April. We are so thrilled for them and big sister Ella will be such a help!

Gabriel Reinhard

This afternoon at 3:00pm we had a family visitation at Endsley funeral home. We watched a short video of pictures Rachel and Joan put together for the main visitation tomorrow. Each of us had a chance to talk to Joan and Tim but more important listen to them talk about Gabriel. We were to be out of there by 4:00pm but it just didn't get done until around 4:30. Afterward everyone was invited back to mom's for dinner. Karin's colleagues donated so much wonderful food. Jesse, Joan's renter made a big Shepherd's pie for the dinner also and just as we were putting the food out on the table, Katie and Max Hoerr brought over some Italian beef and coleslaw. We had enough food to feed an army and once we were done we could feed another army. A special thank you to these very nice helpful people. We will take the left overs to the fellowship hall and the Old School Center tomorrow.
Joan showed us pictures of after the accident at the hospital, in the planes, at both Haiti airports, then the airport in the states and at the 2 West Palm beach hospitals.
On the way home from mom's I found myself singing All Mighty most Holy God, Glory Hallelujah. Joan reminded us today that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away but blessed be the name of the Lord.

Old School Center

Dan called that ALL the suites at the Old School Center in Farmington, IL are taken for Gabriel's funeral. There is still sleeping accommodations available in some of the cabins. Thanks so much Spark and Dan for making the school available for the overflow.

Ylse's Filly Sold

Ylse's filly will be going to Cobalt, Ontario Canada to be with her new owner at weaning. Congratulations Brigitte! Brigitte is naming her Meike.

Gabriel Reinhard Obituary

Gabriel Reinhard

Gabriel Joel Reinhard, 5, of Peoria died Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009 in Les Cayes, Haiti where his parents and family were involved with missionary work.
Gabriel was born March 12, 2004 in Pekin, IL, the son of Timothy and Joan Meister Reinhard.
Surviving are his parents; and five sisters, Kristin (Rodney)Menold of Peoria and Sarah, Bethany, Hannah, and Faith, all at home. Also surviving are his maternal grandmother; Rhoda Meister of Hanna City; his paternal grandparents, Dan (Delores)Reinhard of Remington, IN.; 17 aunts and uncles; and numerous cousins.
He was preceded in death by one brother; Joshua; and his maternal grandfather; Paul Meister:
Gabriel attended the Sheridan Road Apostolic Christian Church in Peoria. Gabriel loved being in Haiti with his family and enjoyed catching crabs on the beach and frogs and loved to go fishing. Gabriel was such a joy to our family. We thank God that he was a gift to us and that we had the chance to love and raise our son and brother:
Visitation will be held from 2 to 4p.m. and 6 to 9p.m. Thursday at the Apostolic Christian Fellowship Hall at 7329 W. Route 150 in Edwards, IL. Services will be held at 10:00a.m. Burial will be in the church cemetery.
Memorials may be made to Apostolic Christian World Relief Haiti, restricted in Gabriel's name.
To send condolences to the family online, go to www.EndsleyFuneralHome.com.

No Answers

There is nothing we can say to Joan regarding the loss of Gabriel except how deeply sorry we are. We just lost a nephew, Joan and Tim have lost their only remaining son. Words humans say just can't provide the comfort so desperately needed. Only God and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit can comfort Joan and Tim right now. What do people do that have no faith? Only the promise and assurance of knowing He is in control will make this bearable. God does know what the Reinhards are going through right now, He saw His only Son crucified on the cross because He loved us and wanted there to be a way for His most precious creation to join Him in Heaven and Only PERFECT BLOOD of Jesus was pure enough to atone for our sins.
1 Corinthians 13 verse 11: When I was a child, I spake as a child,
I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away
childish things. For now we see through a
glass, darkly; but then face to face: now
I know in part; but then shall I know even
as also I am known.

Missionary Flights International

The post below was taken off the Missionary Flights International Website: http://www.missionaryflights.org
This is such a worth while organization to support.

At Missionary Flights International most flights are very routine and that is the way we like it. However, sometimes the flights are not routine. On Sunday morning, October 18, we received an urgent call from a missionary in Haiti. The Timothy Reinhard family had been in a serious motorcycle accident. Would MFI fly to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to pick them up? Tim and two of the children were in serious condition. Our pilots were at church, but we always have our cell phones on vibrate because we are the emergency air link for the mission community and we must be available at all times. Before we took off from Fort Pierce, we received a call that little 5-year-old Gabriel Reinhard had departed this life and went home to be with the Lord. Now there were two seriously injured family members. We landed in Port-au-Prince at 7 p.m. and the family of 7 including little Gabriel were waiting for our arrival. We quickly loaded the family and a missionary doctor for the flight back to West Palm Beach and the stateside hospital. We landed in West Palm Beach at 11:40 p.m. Sunday evening. Customs quickly cleared the family and they were soon on their way to the emergency room. Gabriel was met by the funeral home. The family spent the night in the hospital in West Palm Beach. The next morning they were able to board an airline and fly home to Morton, IL. There will be surgeries later on father and daughter’s knees, but they will recover. Please join MFI in praying for the Reinhard family. Your gifts and your prayers make it possible for MFI to be available to the mission community for any emergencies.

Gabriel Reinhard's Funeral Arrangements

The funeral for Gabriel Reinhard will be Friday, October 23, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. at the Peoria Apostolic Christian Church.

The visitation is planned for Thursday, Oct 22nd, from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. at the Peoria Apostolic Christian Church Fellowship Hall.

There is also a visitation planned before the funeral from 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. at the Peoria Apostolic Christian Church.

Burial is planned for the Peoria Apostolic Christian Church Cemetery immediately following the funeral service.

Housing Accommodations for Gabriels Funeral

Spark and Dan Meister have offered The Old School Center in Farmington, IL for anyone coming in to the funeral that needs accommodations. They have 7 suites available and 12 cabins. The suites can accommodate a family of 7 or 8 people. The cabins can accommodate a few more. There is no charge for this but please contact Dan Meister at 309-208-4957 to make arrangements. The Old School Center is rented out Friday at 7:00pm so check out would be by noon to prepare it for the next group coming in. It is about a 25 minute drive from The Old School Center to the Peoria Apostolic Church.

Reinhard Update

Fede picked up the Reinhard's from the Bloomington airport last night. Dr. Carroll flew all the way home with them, then rode to Peoria in the motorhome. It was good to have a doctor monitoring Tim he is in tremendous pain. They made it to mom's house in Hanna City around 1:30 in the morning today. Ruth said Tim was in so much pain it took them 15 minutes to get him down the 3 steps hearing him groaning while trying to get off the motorhome was so hard on everyone. Sarah's knee looks awful. Both have road rash all over and hurt to be touched. Karin drove Joan, Tim and Sarah down to Methodist hospital this morning, Dr. Knepp checked both of them out and does not think there is infection and recommended not opening them back up but thought they needed to see an orthopedic surgeon and that is were they are right now.
It looks like Gabriel's visitation will be at the Peoria fellowship hall on Thursday with the funeral at the Peoria church on Friday morning. His burial will be at the Peoria cemetery, and I believe the church has an extra grave site next to where Joan and Tim's son Joshua is buried. We haven't had a lot of time to talk to Joan, she has been very busy with Tim and Sarah.

Izadora's New Colt

Work still takes place even though we feel the world should stop until we can realize the enormity of Gabriel's death. Izadora delivered a big black colt this morning in the mud. We were too upset about the accident to even think of Izadora's pending delivery. Steven checked on her about 8:30pm drew a bit of milk from her udder and it was a little more opaque but not enough to call me to test it. Steven put her back out with Lily and Jenis as that paddock has plenty of hay and Izadora thinks they are her best friends. Of course she has to deliver in the mud. Mike called to tell me that the baby was here but it couldn't get up. I drove out as fast as possible, picked him up and tried to carry him but he was just too heavy for me. I got the wheelbarrow, loaded him up and got him to the barn. Drove over to mom's for hot water and rags and tried to clean him off. He is filthy and now so am I. Steven drove to my house to get more rags and the bottle just in case it was necessary. It was! We ended up giving him about 5 ounces of colostrum milked from Izadora by bottle before he figured out how to nurse. He was still having trouble getting up on his own so we moved him into the breeding shed paddock where the ground slopes enough to drain. We cleaned up his umbilical cord as much as possible and soaked it in iodine. Hopefully that will stop infection. After watching him get up twice on his own I left for home to clean up.
Diane, Tim, Joan, Sarah, Bethany, Hanna and Faith are flying in to Bloomington Airport tonight around 11:30pm. Fede will drive his motorhome to pick them up. We are having a prayer meeting at Rachel's house tonight at 6:30pm, Rachel suggested that anyone that can come should to help pray for the Reinhards. We don't know how hard it will be to bury a second son but with God's help will they be able to get through this.

Reinhard Accident in Haiti

This is what we have been told about the accident: Tim was driving the motorcycle to church and Joan was on the 4 Wheeler. Tim had Sarah and Gabriel and offered to take Faith also as Joan had stepped on a nail the day before and her foot was sore. Joan told him that she was able to take Faith. Tim on the motorcycle drove the long way to church. It is the rainy season and the road was too muddy for the short cut. Joan on her 4 Wheeler had Bethany, Hanna, and Faith and was able to cut through the mud with out getting too dirty.
Tim was on the road when another motorcycle pulled out in front of him. Tim swerved out of the way to miss it, Sarah flew off, Tim hit a canal and both Tim and Gabriel were launched over the motorcycle into the canal. One report said Gabriel was dead on impact but we really don't know this for sure. Tim has a bad concussion and cannot remember the accident. We also don't know how Joan found out as she had gone a different way to church.
We are all having a tough time dealing with this and our entire family REALLY needs prayers. Please pray for Joan and Tim that they could know God's goodness and feel His presence. They know without doubt that Gabriel is in heaven but the day to day loss of his earthly presence will be terribly hard to bear. Pray for their marriage, the loss of one child is so awful to comprehend, the loss of 2 of their dear children may truly be unbearable.
Pray for the rest of the family that we could be a comfort to them not a detriment to their faith. Most of all pray that the good that WILL come because of this is shown to Joan and Tim.
Romans 8-28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
Gabriel Reinhard catching frogs last summer.
Rachel Sauder took this picture of him during their leave home to America this summer.

Reinhard's Loss

We found out at 9:45am that Gabriel died, Sarah has a messed up knee and Tim has a badly hurt right arm and a concussion. Joan and Tim need a lot of prayers. Their son Joshua was killed 11 years ago on October 13th to lose their remaining son Gabriel is almost unbearable. World Relief is working on getting them home. Diane has flown down to Palm Beach to help with the transport. Joan is remembering God is in control. God knew this was going to happen, He was not up in heaven wringing His hands wondering what are they going to do now. God is good and we know Gabriel is with is brother Joshua and their grandpa, Paul Meister. Life is like a vapor and we are not to lay up treasures on Earth. Joan and Tim now have 2 of their precious treasures in Heaven!

Pray for the Reinhards

A lady from Haiti called Diane this morning that Joan wanted her family to start praying. Tim, Sarah and Gabriel were in a terrible motorcycle accident and they are in the hospital in Haiti and it doesn't look good.
This is all the information we have so we are asking for prayers for the Reinhard family. They are missionaries in Haiti. Tim is Joan's husband, Sarah is their 16 year old daughter and Gabriel is their 5 year old son.
Please pray for God's will to be done. Pray for healing and spread the word to other Christians. This family needs to have prayer cover.

It's SATURDAY and the SUN is OUT!!!

This morning we stayed in bed until the SUN came out. Yes we really do still have a sun up in the sky, it is that bright yellow thing making our eyes squint. We headed to the farm before breakfast to move in some round bales but when we got there Mike was on the skid steer already moving them. We brought the battery charger out but it wasn't needed, Mike had put his battery charger on it all night so it started right up. We moved in 3 new bales for the mares, then moved out one of the molding ones from the paddock, tried to move the molding one that is in the bale feeder but gave up, and moved all 14 out of the barn and put them up against the west fence line for a wind break this winter.
Mark worked on the pressure washer while I cleaned Izadora's stall. We let Izadora, Jenis, Lily and their foals out on the field, they may as well be grazing as we won't get any other cuttings this year. They had a great time running and bucking and each of the mares needed to have a good roll. They were so thrilled to be out of the mud. They really didn't graze as long as I thought they would, they were more interested in watching us work so we put them back in the paddock. The field should be fenced in so we can let them ALL out, it is such good grass going to waste. Maybe I'll see how much it would be to put up a high tensile fence around the outside of the field. Izadora's milk is still not showing any calcium so she may as well stay out for a few days AND nights. I have her in with Lily and Jenis. They all get along and there is 2 bales of good alfalfa hay in that paddock.
All the way home from the farm we marveled at the beautiful fall colors. The trees are so gorgeous with the sun shining down on the brilliant foliage. I need to get some pictures just in case the sun decides to leave again.


5:30pm: The mail came a little late today and there was another check for Sophie. I'll give it to Diane tomorrow in church, that will help with our hay payment!
Rhoda called, one of the horses she is taking care of at her house sitting job came up lame today. She cleaned out the hoof, checked over the leg and there is no swelling so she thinks it might be up in the shoulder. The owner is coming home tomorrow so I told her to give 2 bute tablets and leave a note for the owner about what she found and treatment done so far.
Karin's dinner went GREAT! She had plenty of flavorful tender steak, wonderful onions and mushrooms for topping, sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, salad, and dessert. Everyone squeezed in her house and had a wonderful time. After dinner they went to the haunted house in Galesburg. Karin watched Addyson while the rest went through the house. Karin is going to it with her youth group tomorrow anyway so didn't mind missing. She waited at the end for them to all come running out screaming. Philip was the first one out, somehow he can figure out puzzles easily, he lost Anna, actually touched a stranger while groping around in the dark so quickly made his way outside to wait. They had fun teasing Anna about not even being married a year and her husband abandoning her.

Work

I'm typing this down at work since I am on hold, YES!! I love being on hold when I can do something besides sit and wait on the phone.
Karin called to tell me ALL of my children AND their spouses are coming to her house tonight for dinner. She has a 480 square foot house and is having 19 people over for a steak dinner. She is going to have to go buy more silverware, she doesn't even have enough knives for 10 people and thought maybe she could have them share knives.
She has seating for 13 if you count her bed. We are just laughing trying to figure out where they will all sit. I guess they will be eating in shifts.
Steven Marchal is handling things at the farm today. He is going to try to move the molding round bales out of the barn if the skid steer will start. The battery is going dead, not easy to change skid steer batteries, the entire top must be taken off. He told me that Izadora now has waxing on both teats but the calcium test which hasn't failed yet gives us no chance of her delivering for a while. I hope he puts her out, the sun is trying very hard to peek out of the clouds.
I bought green beans for potluck tonight, fancy french cut tender green beans. My grandma's receipt is wonderful for them and they should be started around 4:30pm as we are leaving at 5:30pm. Hope I get off work in time!

Peoria's Horse Auction

Last night was the auction down at the Heart of IL Arena. They had 170 head of horses advertised. There were over 250 horses that went through. We have our Bible study on Thursday nights and Mike had a board meeting but once the meeting was done he headed over just to see what people were bringing to sell. He got there around 9:30pm and the sale was already OVER. Mike said a man from Canada bought them all. We all know what that means, the packing factories to render horse meat are still open in Canada AND get this: he only paid $20.00 to $30.00 per horse!
My heart goes out to each one of those poor horses, getting shoved in a trailer, hauled for hours, then ending up where the smell of blood and death permeates the air. When the United States' rendering plants were open, we had regulation on how the horse was treated and brought in. I know the animal activist think they are doing a great good by having them all shut down but this was so much worse for these horses than they would have had.
PLEASE be a responsible horse owner or breeder, don't put these animals in a situation where the only option is a Canada or Mexico rendering plant!

Izadora

This morning Izadora had a drop of something on one of her teats. Steven Marchal will meet with me today to help do a foal predictor test on her at 2:00pm today. We are so excited to see this foal. Izadora is a black, true 16.2 hands, a purebred Trakehner and her gaits are unbelievable! She was taken to the Trakehner inspections and got an 8 for her canter. Her trot was even better. Warmbloods sometimes don't have as good of canter as they should but Izadora is the complete package. Her foal can't be ANYTHING but FANTASTIC! Hope she has a girl, this is one foal that should be kept until shown but if it is a colt we will try to sell even if we have to drop the price. Just can't have another stallion on the place that is not a purebred Friesian.
Darcy got to come today on our walk, Rhoda thinks we are not playing enough with her and that is why she ate the sock. Rhoda is still house sitting and Darcy must be missing her. Darcy is actually now doing the entire walk with us instead of waiting by the car when she thinks she should quit. We finished the walk with the rain again starting. It was just a drizzle but more is predicted.
Ciara was lying in her favorite spot between the hay and the fence and her head and neck was actually on the wrong side of the fence. She didn't look up when her name was called so over the fence and through the mud I go, when she sees me she pulls her head in and stands up. That was a totally unnecessary trip through the mud!
I'll update more after we do the "test".
3:15pm: Well the test is so far off the wrong way that it looks like it will be 2 weeks before she is ready. It was colostrum on her teat but when we went to test it the calcium did not show up at all.
We left her in the day is still drizzling. Since I had time, Raven was taken out and brought over to the mares to see if Kesha's mare would come up. This is the 18th day since we got her covered last and there is no sign of her coming back in season. She is probably pregnant but we will need to keep checking for a while. I'm not sure Kesha wants a sonagram, will have to contact her and ask. Raven was FULL of himself, he hasn't been busy for 18 days and he really didn't want to leave the mares. When he was being taken over to the field for grazing he tried to buck, kick, shy, pull, just about anything to be able to run. He finally settled down and started grazing and got about 45 minutes of good green grass. After he was put back the last cutting round bales were checked and they will ALL need to be moved out of the barn. They are ALL molding. I'm praying about what to do with them. I may line them up 2 high on the west end of the far paddock as a shelter from the wind.

A Dreary Day

We woke this morning to more rain. I actually didn't know it was raining until Darcy asked to be let in and she was all wet. We think Darcy is now fine from eating the sock. At our walk today, mom gave me a can of dog food to give her, she scarfed it up around 8:30 and it is now 4:15pm and she has not thrown up. YEAH!
I will confess it was MY sock she ate. I was so cold coming home and Mark had a fire going in the fireplace. I crashed in front of the fire, took off my wet socks and shoes to dry off and LEFT the socks downstairs.
Mike moved in a new round bale, the last cutting from the farm is not good, we have 3 bales in from that and they are not wanting to eat it. It really was put up too wet. We moved in an alfalfa bale 3 days ago and it was completely gone.
Mark let me order the Dekker book on Amazon. Pretty cool it is the 3 books in 1 for $12.99 plus shipping. I will really look forward to the mail for the next few days.
The money from the Spoon River drive was counted and deposited. For both weekends the vaulters raised $448.00, not too bad for bad weather both weekends.
The rain is suppose to continue for the next 3 days so who knows when we will be able to get the big trailer out of the mud at Middle Grove. At least the weekend is suppose to be sunny, perhaps things will start to dry out, if not we need to wait for a hard freeze to bring home the horses.
We can't post new ads until we get new pictures, it just doesn't pay to post old or bad pictures.
After doing the grocery shopping at Aldi's we needed a good hearty stew for this cold day so Shepherds Pie was on the menu. It is such an easy meal and so tasty. My brother-in-law, Fede Davidovics from Romania taught us how to make it when we were camping. Cut up an onion or 2, we use 2 as we like the flavor, saute the onion until soft, then add cut up meat. I used beef today but pork or lamb works just as well. Cook with the onions until the meat is browned, add a little water and carrots, then peeled cut up potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste, cover with water and simmer for hours. I've just dished out a sample to make sure it is good enough to serve my family for dinner. Yeah RIGHT! So hearty, so warming, and so tasty.

A Normal Tuesday?

This was a very average day and we are thankful for that. Ciera was on the wrong side of the fence this morning but she saw me, called to let me know, came galloping up to the gate and waited for me to open it and put her with her mom. What a smart filly... or it could all be a coincident except she went through 3 different steps to get to her mom. She was watching for me to drive up as soon as she saw me she neighed to let me know there was a problem, she had to leave her mom that was right beside her on the other side of the fence, run around to the middle paddock and run to the gate.
We had a good walk, I got down to work early, Eva Jean and I got done with the Bible studies before 11:30am, we went to lunch with Philip and Mark, then both of us went home. I was able to read a book before choir. It was Red by Ted Dekker. I just finished the book and it is the 2nd book in a trilogy, now I want to get the first book White and desperately want the last book Black to see how the story ends.
Rhoda texted me during choir to say that Darcy threw up and did she get into something. Darcy was acting fine all day so hopefully it was nothing. We got home from choir and made arrangements with Rhoda to take Darcy to her work tomorrow if she is still vomiting but Darcy is eating treats fine and acting fine. Then before bed she threw up a sock so we thought all was well. Now she has thrown up 2 more times. I can't believe how much a Mastiff holds in her stomach. Perhaps she ate a pair of socks and only one came out. We really don't think it has made it to her intestines or she wouldn't want to eat and she actually does still want snacks.

Tired!!!!

OK, This past weekend took more out of me than I thought. This morning it is pitch black, I'm stumbling around in my room trying to find clean clothes (no I didn't do laundry over the weekend) then I finally figured out if I turned on the light, it wouldn't be so hard to navigate.
Downstairs I practically run to the coffee maker and realize OH NO WE ARE OUT OF COFFEE! Out to the car, look down and no gas. Rhoda borrowed the car over the weekend and it is below E so I'd better stop and fill up. At the farm, I grained everyone, checked on the foals and saw Ciera lying on the side of the round bale at the bottom of the pen, I didn't want to go in the mud so just called her name and she lifted her head so I assumed she was fine. I got to mom's just before she and Heidi came out and we started walking when Ruth pulled up and joined us. As we did the farm loop I realized that Ciera hasn't moved, so I crawled over the fence, through the mud and saw she was cast up against the fence. Adrenaline does wonders and I was able to grab her tail and leg and pull her out enough she could get up. I think she weighs 1000 pounds, OK probably only about 600 pounds but it seemed like a thousand. I'm out of breath when Karin calls and wants to talk. I told her to join us and mom graciously offered to cook us breakfast AND make some coffee. DID that EVER taste good. After breakfast, Ruth, Karin and I pulled the sailboat out of the lake, rolled up the sail and carried the boat up below mom's deck for the winter and the sail, poles, and rudder into her garage for storage. Then over to the farm to clean stalls. I spent about an hour cleaning the three stalls and they still kind of smelled when I was done, Izadora has been in TOO long. The weather has just been so cold, wet and awful to expect her to be out in it and the mud is again terrible. This has been a strange year!
Back home I HAD to make a run to walmart for COFFEE, we cannot have another morning like this one! The sun never came out today. I didn't see it at all yesterday, it is COLD AND I WANT TO GO BACK TO GULF SHORES!!!

Spoon River Drive Week 2

Well the announcer on the radio said we would have brilliant sunshine today but we did not see the sun at all. Wonder what weather forecast she was reading, maybe Gulf Shores! It was cloudy, damp and just bone chilling cold for our last day of the Spoon River Drive 2009. We were only open from 1:30pm to 4:30pm and made $90.00 at least it wasn't raining. Last weekend they gave pony rides in the rain and made $216.00. This weekend we had no rain but the cold was awful. I have the feeling we are in for a long cold winter. We made $140.00 yesterday and $90.00 today. The only problem we had the entire weekend was the time Duke discovered there was no fence around the yard and took off trotting down the road. When the ponies weren't busy, Karin would let them graze in the front yard of the school. Paris is wonderful, never trying to run away, Duke is a different story, there is just something about ponies. Where he thought he could go is a mystery, he was miles from home.
We made it back to the farm around 5:15pm, Karin took the saddles and bridles back to the cabin then headed over to Sauders. She is house (kid) sitting for Rachel and David while they are in Greece. I unloaded the horses, Then went to bring in the Friesian mares and foals into the barn but couldn't see them. Steven Marchal had kindly taken them out of the mud and put them in the barn to dry out. THANK YOU STEVEN. We needed to have them in to show them to one of our past customers. Their 15 hand chestnut Saddlebred mare, Charming Robbin, was bred to Raven about 4 years ago and the colt she threw is FANTASTIC, they named him Buddy. He is 16.2 hand at 3 years of age, black and well filled out. They are so thrilled with Buddy that they decided they want to buy a purebred Friesian. They came about a half hour early, and really liked Sanna's filly Wanda. They will call me in about a week with a decision as they are also looking at a Saddlebred mare down in Lexington, KY and really only want to buy one horse.

Xena's Colt Sold

Chris the owner of Xena has marked him sold. WOW how nice to know Raven babies are selling almost at birth. I think he was born September 26th, and was sold by October 10th.

Draft Horse Auction

Last night I pulled away from the house right at 6:00pm and made it to Arthur sale barn at 8:30pm. It was cold but not too bad so I brought everything in from the truck into the trailer to prepare for the night. I fell asleep listening to the semis and diesel trucks pulling up unloading. The phone rang at 11:30pm, it was Mike and they were lost, he had been driving around Arthur for 40 minutes, he finally asked someone and found out he was only a half a mile from the barn. Diane and Mike gave me a propane heater for my trailer but it couldn't be run while sleeping. It took the chill off so back to bed I went. At 5:30am I woke up with my nose freezing. That was the only part sticking out of the sleeping bags. The heater was turned back on and I climbed back inside the sleeping bag until the trailer warmed up enough to get dressed. We are talking frost on the windows and this is only the 10Th of October. Finally around 6:20am I went in for breakfast. This was kind of disappointing, I didn't have dinner last night, thinking of the good Amish breakfast I would have in the morning but... the sausage tasted like hamburger, the scrambled eggs were watered down so much they were almost tasteless and the pancake was burned, oh well I did get 2 cups of hot coffee with the breakfast, kind of made it worth the $5.00. The bake sale needed to be checked out, and the home made donuts looked good so bought 1 bag for $3.00. Then it was time to check out the horses. The funny thing was most of the horses I had marked in the catalogue were either mismarked or there was something wrong with the plumbing. Before leaving for the sale, I marked the numbers down I wanted to check out and they were all fillies, today there were only 2 fillies in all that I marked. Later I found out they were substitutes.
Mike and Diane were up by this time, I talked them out of breakfast so they went straight to the bake sale tent. Diane bought some cinnamon rolls and Willow (Diane's grand daughter) bought some popcorn. We thought the cinnamon rolls also tasted a little funny so I broke out the donutes again.
The tack part was fun but frustrating. The first group of 5 draft halters I was the only bidder and we got them for $3.00 each, the next set they put 7 halters with 7 lead ropes and that went for $4.00 each but the lead ropes are the bull snaps, not really what we wanted. After that, halters started going for $9.00 each so we passed on the rest. We also bought a 5 tine steel manure fork, push broom, hay rake, and 2 manure forks. One grooming block and 2 head lamps pretty much finished our buying spree. The total was $136.00. The Haflingers were the first horses through the ring and we were shocked at how cheap they went. There was a very nice 4 year old mare trained to ride and drive AND in foal and she went for $400.00. A yearling half Belgium, half Haflinger filly went for $35.00. Mike wanted to know why I didn't bid on her but she was ugly. A beautiful 3 year old Haflinger mare, sport type, not at all drafty, professionaly started undersaddle, was the only one I bid on but she went too high. I stopped bidding at $500.00 thinking I was going to save my money for the black Percheron fillies from Canada but they actually went much higher than we dreamed they would. So I drove home an empty trailer. Karin called while I was driving home and THANK GOODNESS told me I didn't need to come to the Spoon River Drive. They were freezing, and didn't have much business. Only about 45 people wanted pony rides.

Royal Masquerade SOLD

He is SOLD!

The wire transfer came through for the deposit on Sangria's 2009 colt we named Royal Masquerade. He is a birthday present for Cesar's wife and will be picked up in December as that is when her birthday is. Congratulations CESAR!
Sangria's colts are HUGE both at birth and once they are done growing. Royal's full sister was 17 hands at 3 years of age, I know they don't finish growing until 5 years old so she will probably end up 17.1 or 17.2 and usually colts are bigger than fillies.
We have decided to breed Sangria back to Raven late this fall, I wasn't going to breed her back this year, we miss her as a riding horse but if she is bred late October has the foal October 2010 the foal will be weaned in March 2011 and we can have her both next summer and 2011 summer for riding. Two of our customers always breed their mares late fall for that very reason.
We woke up to rain again this morning so no walking. I still need to get to the farm, take care of Izadora, Jenis and Raven and pick up my trailer for tonight. I just found out Mike and Diane are going to be going down to Arthur also and they are taking Willow their grand daughter. We are going to be camping in a parking lot with no hookups but it is still easier for me to do that then get up at 4:00am and drive down. I'm really having a problem getting up early for some reason. Last night we went to bed right after getting home from Bible study, the phone rang at 11:00pm and woke us up. I couldn't get back to sleep until after midnight, then slept in until 6:45am.
At least with the rain I was able to sit and have a couple cups of coffee.
Later in the day: Well, I was pleased when I got to the farm, Steven Marchal was there and already had Raven and the mares grained. He fired up the skid steer and moved in 2 new round bales for the mares in the middle paddock and gave Raven a new alfalfa bale. He also helped me load up the stock trailer with hay, manure forks, wheel barrow and our equine liability sign for the Spoon River Drive tomorrow. Mike is going to be hauling the ponies out in that and we didn't want anything forgotten. With 2 full days of rain I wasn't sure if we could get the big horse trailer out and wanted an extra hand around to help push with the skid steer if needed. We hooked up the horse trailer and even without 4wheel drive was able to pull it out, unfortunately that didn't work at home. I missed my driveway and got the truck and trailer stuck in the yard. Ralph and Jamie Stone came and pulled me out and helped back the trailer up just enough that it is on concrete, out of the way but we can still drive around it. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get the truck repaired, We MUST have 4 Wheel drive with the weather we have had this year.

A Mare For Sale

Below is an email from one of our customers.



We call her Luna at the barn because she has a crescent moon and star brand on her left shoulder but her registered name is Okay Dokay Jac.
I have done ground work with her since the day i got her. I have started her under saddle and ground driving her, and she is doing very well. I think that she would be a great reining prospect. She also has great breeding behind her, which you can view at She is out of bigger stock both of her parents are at least 15hands and she should reach about 14.3hands. She is HYPP N/N. I have videos of her on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_C8IVWYOY this was only my 7th time riding her and the first time i tried trotting her undersaddle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVyLg1O1mpg This is us grooming and tacking her up. I'm trying to get a quick sale so am asking $900 for her. In her pictures she has bayed out because i didn't put a fly sheet on her all summer. But now she is getting her dark color back.
Thanks for all your help,
Melissa Herman
malomuch@inbox.com

Addyson

The girls, Anna, Taunya, Addyson, Rhoda, and Sarah, met at Avanti's restaurant for lunch and invited me to come. After lunch they went shopping while Addyson and I headed for home. What a fun day to get to play with her for 3 hours. Taunya bought her a Halloween costume and she had to model it for us, good thing she did, it is already too small so Taunya will have to buy a bigger size.
Addyson is adorable as a little lady bug.

Rhoda and Sarah thoroughly enjoy playing dress up with Addyson. Aren't they ALL ADORABLE? After spending this special time with my only grand daughter I decided this day was not like a Monday after all.

Surely Thursday is Monday

This morning I slept in until 6:45 jumped up dressed and was ready to head out the door before I realized my car wasn't back. Mark lent it to one of his men yesterday. I didn't take time for coffee just took the truck keys to drive to the lake but... I saw Rhoda's Impala sitting in front of the steps and thought to myself, I'll just take her car, she doesn't need it until later in the day. Dumb idea. As I'm driving out of the drive way the light for no fuel starts blinking and the ding keeps going off Low Fuel, Low Fuel. Remember I haven't had my coffee yet so of course I think, "oh she needs gas, I'll just fill it up for her" forgetting her gas gauge doesn't work and she goes off her mileage. Didn't think to look at that. I pull in to the gas station and start to fill the tank when it stops at less than 2 gallons. I just keep working to get the nozzle in better, thinking that must be causing it to keep shutting off when the tank starts to overflow. Only then did I remember to look at her mileage and see she has only gone about 50 miles on this tank. Back in the car, trying to drive out of the gas station, the rain is hitting the window, it is still dark so I open the driver's side window to see if the road is clear and pull out onto the highway. The next step is to shut the window but... this is Rhoda's car, her drivers side window will roll down but not up. So out to the farm I drive in the rain and cold (about 50 degrees outside) getting soaked. I should have driven straight home but Izadora is in a stall waiting to be fed. At the farm, Izadora was fed and watered but did not get turned out, it is just too wet and cold. She is starting to bag up and we don't want a baby born out in this weather. Raven and Jenis were grained, and I headed over to mom's for some coffee but because we didn't walk today, she didn't MAKE coffee. The rain started coming down in earnest so by the time it was time to drive home the drivers side seat was soaked. That was not a fun trip.

The Hay

This morning I made it to the farm with 10 minutes to spare so grained Raven, Izadora and Jenis. Steven Marchal had put the new hay up so I went to see what the bales looked like and can't find them. I'm sure he put them in the barn but all the hay looks like earlier hay so it must have survived the rain. Our farmer told me it was because it was rainy AND cold, no chance of mold. What surprised me is that it stayed green. I thought hay that had been rained on would turn brown. Steven told me he put a couple of bales in the shelters so I checked the bales there and they also look like good hay. I think we lucked out or as mom tells me, "you were blessed!" We took Darcy on our walk to see if she would straighten out Heidi again and we do think it worked. Heidi only tried a couple of times to dominate Darcy but gave up right away when Darcy growled at her.
After our walk, Diane and I went over to mom's to try to repair her lazy Susan can cupboard. We were not successful and it will take more than both of us to figure out. I drove down to the shop to pay Bridlewood apartment bills and told Dan about the problem. I think he is going to send someone over to mom's to get it fixed.
Wednesday Continued: Ruth stopped in for lunch just about the time Spark, Dan and Diane showed up so we held an impromptu meeting which went well. While we were talking, Spark told us he wants to go on the cruise in Feb but needs the information, I was able to download it and Spark got the job accomplished. We now have 10 people on the cruise Feb. 7th,- 14th 2010. Should be a lot of fun. Dan sent Greg, a man that works at the Old School Center, to fix mom's lazy susan and she was thrilled, it was fixed quickly and well.
We are going to be fostering a doberman pincher male about a year old for one of Rhoda's co workers until they find a place that will take dogs. Her husband got transferred to Kentucky and the condo he rented will not accept dogs. We really don't want another dog at this time so hopefully this will be short foster. Hope Darcy will get along with having another dog in the house. This one may not be house broken but he is crate trained so we will set up a crate in our hallway. He also has not been obedience trained so Rhoda will sign him up for classes.

Ludse 305

We just got word that Raven's sire, Ludse 305 has passed away. The posted picture was taken after Ludse was exported back to the Netherlands. He was a magnificent example of a Friesian Stallion. He sired MANY beautiful foals, one of which Adel 357 was performing at Prix St. George Level at age 17. Ludse 305 was only loaned to the United States for breeding but when his foals started competing and WINNING he was exported back to the Netherlands where he continued to stand at stud. We sympathize with his owners and are sure they will miss having such a magnificent wonderful stallion to care for. We are very grateful for his son, RAVEN.
I posted the paragraph below taken from the 2005 stallion show.
The 2005 show was special in that Adel 357 put on an amazing dressage demonstration, and was part of a Carousel show. It was so impressive to watch!!!
Adel 357's sire is Ludse 305. The today's Friesian is bred for dressage talent, and Ludse 305 delivers just that, which is why he was brought back to the Netherlands in 2002 (due to the outstanding success of his offspring in dressage)! Adel 357 is one of the only Friesian stallions competing at the Prix St Georges level.
Remember this was posted in 2005 I'm sure with the success of many more Friesians in dressage there are more competing at this level now.

Is Tuesday Monday?

The storm moved in sometime during the night. The bright lightning flashes woke me up, the thunder crashed and the storm dumped a lot of rain here. I was hoping it was raining out at the farm so I had an excuse why I couldn't go walking but it wasn't raining so of course I had to call to tell the truth, I just didn't want to get up early.
Once down at work, the phone started ringing and Jamie is on the line telling me at least 20horses are out galloping around the field. One of the paddock gates was left unlatched and the horses must have just discovered it and pushed it open. Actually it wasn't 20 horses, there were only 7 out but it seemed like a lot according to Jamie. I told Jamie to just leave them and someone would show up later to call them in. Diane and mom had walked and the horses were all where they belonged not an hour earlier. Mike was already down at the court house and I would not get off until 1:30pm. I called Steven but he was also at work, he said he would get there in about an hour and a half. Jamie called back that Sanna walked into the barn to visit Izadora so they haltered her and walked her and her filly into the paddock and the rest followed. Everyone needed to be called back to tell them not to worry. Steven went to the farm anyway to grain Izadora, Jenis and Raven and he moved in the round bales off the field. We got 16 full ones and one small one off this cutting. He moved 2 in with the horses and they were eating it fine. It got rained on so is not the highest nutrition but still most of our horses are fat!

Monday Again?

What is it with this day of the week? It should be as any other day but most of the time Mondays are the hard day of the week. This morning on our walk, Heidi, mom's German Shepherd started a fight with Honey, Jesse's Golden Retriever. We actually had to pull them apart and even then they kept going at it. Heidi and Honey have played together for at least a year, what changed we do not know but from now on we will need to walk apart. I was trying to give Mark a haircut but the clippers would no longer hold a charge, we may need new ones but I got the job done, just not very well. Went to sweep up the cut hair, when I grabbed the broom it knocked a picture off the wall and broke the frame in 5 places. Not that the picture was anything special, it was just covering up the hole the where the intercom used to be. I have no other pictures that size so now I just have a big hole in the wall. We checked out Dave Hoerr's work on the dam and it is really good. He didn't even wreck the hay field. His bill came to $1200.00 and we are so thankful the job is done. Once the walk was over Izadora was put out and grained along with Jenis and Raven. Lily was checked and her belly without the band has dropped down again. I wish there was a better way, Lily's back is so sore she flinches if it is touched. Izadora's stall was cleaned and it really wasn't too bad for being in for 3 days and nights. She is still not bagged up enough to warrant keeping her inside during good weather. The farmer showed up just as I was leaving so we discussed the hay field. The field was cut last Monday and it has been raining until yesterday. Gary Unsicker is going to rake it today and we will see if it is dry enough to bale this evening as more rain is expected. If it is put up dry enough and the horses eat it we will probably just feed it out right away and keep our good bales for later. I was out visiting with Amy Koch when a lady showed up wanting to know if we would take in their 8 year old quarter horse gelding, he needs work and they don't want to winter him. We are not interested. Amy came in for breakfast once the Bridlewood stalls were done and told me about her Jane Bartel clinic. Jane feels Amy will be showing first level by next spring. I started laundry after breakfast and got 2 loads done before Mark showed up for lunch.

Spoon River Drive

We slept in until 7:00am, couldn't believe how late it was when I forced myself out of bed. Our breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, sausage, and home made biscuits. There is no other bread in the house. Karin gave me a ride from church, leaving at noon to make it out to the Old School Center where the vaulters were giving pony rides yesterday and again today. Paris is one of the favorites and heavily used. We would let the kids pick which pony they wanted to ride unless we had a long line. The picture below is the three ponies we used. In the front is Paris, followed by Duke and bringing up the rear is Bunni. The horses were a big hit again, we had many repeats from the year before, most of the kids even knew the pony's name from the year before. Yesterday was cold and raining and they still made $100.00. Today we were only open from 2:00pm to 5:00pm and made $116.00. Not too bad for the little work involved. The JFL football league was playing in the field while the Spoon River Drive was going on and honestly they were a pain to deal with. They parked completely around the horse trailer on both sides of the school drive so we couldn't pull through or get the truck in line to hook up the trailer. At 4:30 Mike and Diane showed up and I asked Mike if he could help figure out a way to get the horse trailer out so we would be able to leave by 5:00 as the games would not be over until much later. We could not find any of the owners of the cars and I didn't want to call a tow truck. The van in front of the trailer had the keys in it so Mike moved it forward about 10 feet so I could angle the truck in and pull the trailer by it's chains around far enough to hook it up correctly. The owner of the van came out and started yelling at Mike. Mike explained he was just moving it out of the way about 10 feet as the keys were in it. The owner asked him why he didn't ask them to move it and Mike told them he had no idea who's van it was (no one knew we asked) Mike told him he leaves the keys in his truck just in case anyone would need to move it and the van owner yells "WELL I DON'T!" Not only did the JFL people block the drive, the families of the players were in the school using the bathrooms and parked in the school parking lot. Anyway we were able to get the horses home by 6:00pm. Steven had helped at the drive but went to the farm to help unload and check on Izadora. Izaodora is the next horse due but she is not really due until October 20th and was not yet bagged up. He has had Lily's belly band on for the week I was gone, we removed that so I could take it home to wash. It was muddy and smelly but it sure does the job as far as her swelling. Mike and Diane drove out to check the mares at Middle Grove. They called to say the horses look GREAT! Since we have had a frost the flies are gone and the horses are fat and happy. We are making tentative plans for weaning next weekend.