Living in the Barn!

The picture below was snapped early this morning. This is the view right outside my door. Isn't it THE BEST! What actually happened when the door was opened, Sanna's filly was standing right there in front of the door looking at us. Both Emma and I jumped, I ran to get the camera but by the time it was turned on she was back by her mom in the aisle way. Emma ran out but quickly thought she probably should run right back inside.

Mattie the clyde mare was checked first thing this morning, she is OUT, we will make a vet appointment for sonagrams in 15 or 16 days.
Braelyn joined us on the walk today, falling asleep in her stroller. It is amazing how jostling around on gravel driveways with potholes can put a baby to sleep.
The chicken salad for church lunch ordered from a store in Dunlap came in and I received a call asking if I could pick it up today instead of tomorrow. After Braelyn was dropped off in East Peoria then on to Dunlap. Mark had some work he needed done at the church and came along, helping carry in the 70 pounds of chicken salad. Once he was done it was off to Sam's Club to buy fruit, $115.00 of fruit, melons, blueberries, pineapple, pears, and Kiwi. We made another trip to church dropping off the melons, blueberries and pineapple. We still need to buy strawberries but didn't think they would last until Sunday. They will be picked up on Saturday after 3:00pm.
Chuck Altic delivered 21 round bales of hay, Mark moved them in the barn while I went for more diesel fuel. Mike loaded up Eliza, Airiah and Dalia, hauled them to Middle Grove and brought back Ciera and Indy. Sanna's filly was wormed with panacure.
The puppies are doing great but are very noisy.

Sonagram Countdown

Mattie will be checked this morning, if she is not interested, we will start the sonagram countdown. Eliza, Kim's mares Bridgett and Mattie and Kay's mare Alfie.
Yesterday the feed stall was finally gone through. All the stuff, important stuff we thought we must have from the green barn at Bridlewood, was gone through and organized, tack taken into the big barn and placed with the saddles, buckets all need scrubbing to try to get the insulation off, they were taken to the hydrant. The grain and storage containers were taken to the hay stall which will no longer be a hay stall and lots of garbage cleaned out.
The grain will now be stored in the last stall on the end, if and when we get square bales we will stack them in a corner of the arena. The stall needs a bit of lime under a few of the mats and the mats need to be trimmed to fit better, then bedding added and it is ready to go.
Diane called to spread the news that anyone wanting to go to church was to meet at the playground at 6:20pm. Mark and I arrived first, the picture below was snapped as the cars started arriving.

Rebekah was driving, Ruth and Fedi left for Current River and left Rebekah the van. Church was wonderful as usual, one of the neatest things about our drive home (along with the McDonald's ice cream) is discussing what we learned. Tim Roecker had the very thought provoking sermon. Mark snapped the picture below, there was no way to get the driver, Rebekah in the picture.

Working outside is exhausting and the bed felt wonderful. Around 2:00am an alarm starts screaming. I asked Mark, "are you cooking NOW?" It turned off on it's own but he went around the apartment trying to find out what it was and why. He didn't find anything and came back to bed. Just about an hour later it went off again. This time we could hear sirens coming down Glasford road. When the trucks passed our drive and kept heading down the road we thought perhaps the detector is picking up smoke from a fire not too far away. Once up this morning Mark checked everything out and believes it may be our carbon monoxide detector going off, we can't smell any propane leaking, it may be high humidity, the detector is right below our window, but he will check things out with the testers.
We have a heat advisory, the heat and humidity is going to start climbing reaching almost 100 degrees tomorrow.

Topeka Jail

I just heard from the chaplains office at the Topeka jail that all Bible studies must be sent straight to the chaplains office. This is good but what was even better was I was talking to him IN the Apartment and he could hear me with no problem. Mark mounted an antenna last night on the outside of the building, actually two antennas one for television and one for the Wilson cell phone booster and both work.
Mike moved in 2 round bales, one for Kims mares and one for the cabin field yesterday. We decided to take Eliza out to Middle Grove when we take Airiah, we cannot schedule a sonogram for her for a couple of weeks anyway and Airiah will like being with her. Ciera and Indy need to come back, Indy for the farrier and Ciera for training.

Puppies Puppies Puppies

Well I've had people ask about the puppies. They will be AKC registered with FULL registration papers. They are for sale for $800.00 each and can be reserved now but cannot leave Emma until they are 6 weeks old. They will come with their first set of shots. English Mastiffs are very loyal to their family. They make great apartment dogs, they love spending time lying next to their masters, in fact most of their time is spent lying around. They are wonderful watch dogs, learning quickly what is their property and letting everyone know if there is something not right. Just hearing the bark on a Mastiff is to make a person shake if they are up to no good. They LOVE to eat and were known as the butchers dog. They were bred to hunt bear and their jaws are the strongest of any breed of dog. For all of their fierce looks they are most gentle with their masters children. The puppies below are considered pet quality, not that they can't be shown, both the stud dog and Emma have very good conformation. The stud is 6 years old and going strong. A show quality English Mastiff will sell for $2500.00 up to $7500.00. An English Mastiff's life span is around 10 years. Now for some cute puppy pictures just taken tonight.





They are getting fat and noisy.
On another note, Mattie the Clyde mare was covered today and no, Raven didn't need her to be in a hole. Mike was right, he has no problem covering tall fat mares. He has no problem covering short fat mares either, in fact he even likes the skinny ones. Raven hasn't met a mare he didn't like. We always say, Raven has only one job to do and he does it so well.

Bridlewood's Roof

Tim Reinhard wants to start working on the Bridlewood roof tomorrow. That meant after the Berean work, I had to make a trip out to Cood Fasser to buy 16 five gallon buckets of special fiber paint, rollers, frames for the rollers, and paint brushes. What didn't get picked up was the pan to pour the paint into and the long handles to screw into the frames. Surely we have these items somewhere. This morning the stop to pick up the mail from TEMCO lasted a bit longer than usual, a phone call to Meister Brothers was made to ask them to please tell Eva Jean I would be late. We have a situation at a jail in Topeka, KS and are not sure how to deal with it. The director of the jail does not want to give the prisoners their Bible studies, but the chaplain keeps calling and faxing for more Bibles. We think if the jail is not willing to give the studies, they probably need to find another source for Bibles. Once we actually started work, Eva Jean worked on studies while I stamped Bibles, lots of Bibles, then loaded them in the car. Spark and Dan joined us for lunch and shared a bit about boys camp. What a great service the Old School Center does for AC Boy's camp.
The chips and candy were picked up for the lunch on Sunday. They will be stored in my office at Meister's as the apartment is too small.
The puppies are all growing well, no runts in this litter. Emma is a very caring mother, if they start squealing she comes running. She wanted to go on the walk this morning but quit after the first round. We think she was starting to get cabin fever like all new mothers, needing to get out for just a bit.
Mattie needs to be covered today.

Studly Dudley

Last week Karin had Studly taken in to the vet for his 'tutering'. He can no longer be named Studly, Karin is changing his name to Dudley. On Monday Karin left for Florida, not for a vacation, an older lady needed to be driven down and wanted her car left there so Karin is driving her down and flying home. She has such a servant heart, I don't know if I would be willing to give up my time for such a long trip. Ruth is taking care of Dudley and brought him on the walk yesterday. He is wearing his lampshade, meaning restricted vision and was smashing into everyone on the walk. Studly is usually much faster than Heidi but yesterday Heidi had the advantage. Ruth put him back in the car after the first round to give us ladies a safe passage for the second round.
Jenis gave me a bit of a scare, she was standing by herself in the back, not eating, just standing. She didn't come when called and for Jenis that is very unusual. Slopping and slipping through the mud to reach her, she seemed to be fine and was put in the pasture with Sanna. She is not due until August, her foals are so precious we want to keep her happy. Sanna's filly (who still needs a name)was very curious about Jenis. She kept creeping up to her then running away.


Sanna is looking great, one would never know she is 22 years old by looking at her. We are offering Sanna, her 2011 filly and her 2012 expectant foal all for only $12,000.00 but once the filly is weaned this package will no longer be offered. Sanna's 2011 filly has the look everyone wants, the upright arched neck and FEATHER. Most of the time the feather on a Friesian foal won't show up until 4-5 months, hers were coming in thick and curly at one month. Want a Friesian BARGAIN? Check out this package.

Lunch Preparations

Dr. Hoerr called just after 8:30am that he was on his way. We originally planned on having Eliza, Airiah and Kay’s mare sonagramed but Eliza came back in season. Kay’s mare was in with a 50 ml follicle, Dr. Hoerr wanted her covered today and a shot was given to help her ovulate. Airiah is in foal and can now go out to Middle Grove. She will be lost without Eliza. Mattie, Kim’s big Clyde mare was sonagramed, she is in and will need to be covered tomorrow. Mattie hates Raven, Dr. Hoerr left a shot to semi sedate her, helping her to stand for Raven. We need to have her in a hole, she is so tall we are not sure Raven can reach her although Mike thinks he won’t have any trouble, after all he has no trouble covering Ribbon.
A quick stop at work to email people was next on the list for today, then off to church to pick up the towels and dishrags that need washing for church next Sunday. It is our turn to serve. We use to plan on serving 1000 for any given Sunday unless there was a wedding or baptism then more food added but Sunday is July 3rd and we know many people will be out of town. The entire Meister family is invited to camp at Norris, IL at the Herman Lake. While picking up the towels today the job list was checked, there are many places left to fill but we won’t worry about that, God will provide, He always does.
Save a Lot store was called to order the Krispy Kreme donuts. We ordered 35 dozen assorted donuts. Rhoda knows where we can get the good chicken salad and called with the number. Fourteen 5 pound buckets, that is 70 pounds, were ordered of that, sure hope we have leftovers, we love this chicken salad. I’ll call back and confirm they were able to get it, that is supposed to be picked up on Friday. Sam’s Club was called to order 500 croissants which can be picked up on Saturday afternoon. Still need to buy fruit, cookies, brownies and chips. Mark wants to have melon, pineapple, strawberries and grapes and bought 500 bamboo skewers to place on the tables with the fruit.
Back to the shop I mentioned to Mark the Bibles still needed to be hauled down to Skyline Home, he was going anyway for a service call and offered to take them and bring back the wrapped Bibles. That help was such a blessing.

The Pull Out

Last night around 10:00pm just as I was getting into the shower a puppy starts to scream, took off running even before grabbing the towel as Emma is probably sitting on the poor thing. Really it was just under her leg and once repositioned I turned around to head back into the bathroom and glance out the window. Someone is out there! Here I was with NOTHING on, the towel was wrapped around and the window checked again just praying it was only my reflection but no there really was someone out side my door. Sarah walked in and asked, "What in the world are you doing with no clothes on?" She doesn't even wait for an answer but tells me there is a car in the ditch and it is bad but no one is hurt. Mark and Mike went to the rescue. For this they needed both the skid steer and the yanmar. Mark brought the skid steer in first, turned it around to face the front of the car. Mike hooked up a strap from the car to the bucket so Mark could stop the car from dropping down into the ravine as it was being pulled.

Below is Mike bringing down the yanmar.

Below is Mike after he checked out the car scaling the cliff up. This does not show how steep it was as the camera had to be held over the car to get his picture. We do not know why the car didn't roll.
Once the Yanmar was hooked up at the back and the skid steer in the front, Mike started to lift the car and pull it out.

Now the entire time all of this was being done there was lightning lighting up the sky continuously. Huge flashes with the thunder rolling, wind blowing but no rain.
They were able to get the car up and it was driveable.

Mike took off first taking the yanmar back. As the skid steer was being driven back the heavens opened and the rain started falling in sheets. Mark did not have the window on in the skid steer and he had to drive west, right into the rain. He was completely drenched by the time the skid steer was back in the barn. It was getting late but the wind was so fierce it felt like the building was shaking. We were considering getting in the car and driving over to someone's basement. By this time it was close to midnight so we decided to wait it out and fell asleep to the sound of driving rain.

Down Comforter

Before leaving the apartment this morning we cleaned up a bit of the mud that had been dragged in from kids wanting to see the pups AND the dogs. We made it in plenty of time for the morning singing down in the Sunday School Room and for some reason the singing was more beautiful than ever. Lori Stratton asked if I could use another down comforter for Darcy or Emma. She brought it to church just in case. After looking it over, this comforter is WAY to nice to give to the dogs. Is it bad to keep it for the futon? If Darcy and Emma never see it or try it out, they will never miss it. Thanks Lori! Tim Roecker had the morning service opening to the story of the floating axe head and then where Elisha is surrounded by the Assyrians and his servant is so upset that Elisha asks God to open the eyes of his servant to see the so great a crowd of angel warriors, horses and chariots of fire. Those are some of the favorite true stories of Sunday school. Mike Reiker had the afternoon service opening to the book of Daniel. Daniel has always been my favorite book of the Bible. Daniel was visited by both the Arch angel Gabriel and Michel along with another angel and all three told him he was dearly beloved. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be told out loud that God LOVES you, and yet this is what the Bible tells us, we just have to read it. Not only did He love the world, He sent His Son to redeem the world. Wish ALL would take advantage of this, the Word tells us, He would that NONE would perish. We are serving lunch next Sunday, July 3rd, and the book with all the instructions was taken home but we forgot to take home the towels. Tomorrow the Bibles need to be delivered to the Skyline home so I’ll stop at church and pick up the towels then.
Gail Hodel needed a ride home from church as Marvin was doing something with Randy Kieser. When we arrived back at the farm, Ben, Taunya, Addyson, Jack, Sarah and Rhoda were already here. Rhoda was giving Addyson a ride on DaMita. Phil and Anna along with Braelyn showed up a bit later. After dinner it was volleyball time for the kids and visiting time for the adults. There was a big group, over 3 complete teams but they played for hours so all got plenty of play time. Addyson had the best time playing on the trampoline with Tara's girls. They were jabbering away in their own special language. By the time everyone left, Mark and I walked home to find Ben giving Addyson a shower and Taunya ready to give Jack a bath in the sink. Below is Addyson all clean and in her pajamas.
Mike moved in a bale for the boys and Kim's mare Bridgett was covered. It looks like the Clyde mare may be coming in. We will try her tomorrow morning.

Nancy Likes to Fly

Karin showed up with the truck just before 9:00am and helped hook it up to the living quarter trailer. About that time the horses and girls started showing up. Karin hauled Sandy & Sunny up front, Bunni and Sally behind in the stock, while Rebekah drove the other trailer with Paris, Cindy and Larry. Below they were just getting ready to pull out.


Anni, Sarah, Bethany and Hanna filled out the riders. They thought Jessica was also going, Karin thought Jessica was in the truck Rebekah was driving, Rebekah thought Jessica was in Karin’s truck and only when they were at Sandridge and ready to mount did they realize they had too many horses. Cindy was loaded back in the trailer and left. They had a wonderful time. Trail riding is already fun but when Karin introduces games like hide and seek it was a blast.
The insulators showed up to finish the stall area, while Mark and I worked on getting the garage area ready for them. Of course much of the day had to be spent with the puppies. They are so adorable, the picture below should be labeled contentment.

Even Darcy like to watch the pups, below she is hanging her head over the whelping box checking out the squirming mass.

Ruth picked Nancy up this weekend and took her to the place giving airplane rides. Mom brought Nancy over to show her the puppies and Nancy was so excited to tell us about the airplane ride and the picture.


What was supposed to be a beautiful day with lots of sunshine turned into rain, lots of rain this afternoon. The trail riders made it back just as the rain came pouring down. After the trailers were unhooked and the horses put away, Karin, Anni and Rebekah came in to play with the puppies also. The pup Rebekah was holding started sucking on her arm so hard it left a mark.

Rhoda was a big help today with them, helping clean the box out and keeping them from getting squished. After they were taking a nap she went over to tack up DaMita. She has a lady coming tomorrow to try her out. DaMita was just about perfect. Rhoda left her in the small paddock so she doesn’t have to tromp through the mud tomorrow. With the extreme amount of rain that came down today, everything is muddy. She also helped get Eliza covered. Once that was done, Raven was taken over to Kim’s mares. Bridgett is still in and will be covered tomorrow, Mattie the Clyde is not yet showing. We were pretty tired and hungry by the time 6:00pm rolled around but there is not much food in the house so ordered 2 meals from Gils and split them. As a special treat we also ordered one slice of peanut butter pie. Sarah showed up as we were eating dinner but there was enough easily to share with her. She moved furniture today to her apartment in Bloomington.

Sandridge

Last night, the whelping box was taken out of the stall and brought into the apartment. We must have a place for these puppies and the insulators won't be done for probably another 3 days. Around 10:00pm Emma delivered another puppy but it was dead, the pup was removed and she was cleaned up. The night wasn't too bad, the puppies were checked on twice during the night, each time they seemed content, nursing well. Emma has 8 nipples and there are 10 pups meaning 2 must take turns but they seem to be working it out without assistance. This morning around 5:30 Emma comes running into the closet, Mark makes the statement she must be confused, she was taken back to her puppies where she quickly delivered another dead pup.
Karin is taking the cousins to Sandridge State Forrest today for a long trail ride. Mike's red truck is hooked to the stock trailer, mine must be hooked up to the living quarter trailer except it hasn't been returned yet. Philip borrowed the truck and dump trailer for a job. Hopefully Karin can find out where the truck is and get it here before their 9:00am leave time. The weather is suppose to be beautiful today. The Honeggers are heading to Forrest, IL for the Honegger reunion. They will stop at Emily's and visit Jewel. Emily emailed that she can tell Jewel is a Raven daughter, she has been riding her in the field bareback with just a halter and Jewel is so responsive, walking, trotting, turning and stopping when asked. She wrote that she was enjoying having her.
Eliza will need to be covered today if she is still in.

The Puppies are HERE!

Emma was up most of the night, either asking to go out or whining to come in. It was really hard to roll out of bed with less than 4 hours of sleep when one spent the night worrying about the impending delivery. The dogs and Sanna needed to be locked in before leaving this morning at 6:30am as the insulators were coming back. Today was a Braelyn day and she was excellent. This time I stayed at Phil and Anna’s house, Braelyn fell asleep and slept for 3 hours before needing a bottle. Karin was asked to check in on Emma when she reached the farm, she called to say Emma was panting very hard, drank some water then threw it up all over the floor. Rhoda was called to see if she could come watch Braelyn until Anna arrived home, then I headed back to the farm and got there right at noon in plenty of time to watch the first puppy being born, arriving at 12:25pm. Darcy was very curious about this entire process.
Then it was wait and wait and wait. Right at the 2 hour mark, just as we were considering calling the vet, she started labor again and delivered a big fat puppy. Steven Marchal came and offered to give Addyson a horse ride, that sure made HER day and kept her occupied during the long wait. She rode Jenis first and then Cindy. Our next puppy one was only 10 minutes later and the 4th puppy was 8 minutes after that.
Addyson loves sitting and watching with Rhoda and she fell in love with the puppies, giving this one a kiss. We think her parents need to give her one of these. Of course when Darcy accidentally slobbered on her pants, Addyson says very emphatically, “GROSS!” so perhaps not.

The next couple of pictures are a bit graphic, the first shows a normal birth, the second is a picture of a breech birth. On the breech birth, the sack had already ripped and the tail was just wagging away during the delivery.

Emma decided to move into the bedroom closet for the rest of the puppies. She had quite an audience watching as each puppy was born. After the 8th puppy, Diane took all the little kids on a 4 wheeler ride.

While they were waiting for the next puppy to be born Bethany and Aubrey were picking grass for the Friesian mares.

We had one not so good incident, Emma snapped at Steven Davidovics as he was playing with the puppies. This means we must be very careful to always be with her when people come to see the puppies. We were actually shocked Emma would do this as she was so easy going during the whelping, she allowed even Darcy to attend the births. Below is Proud mamma Emma with her 10 puppies. She had 6 boys and 4 girls.

Work couldn't come to a stop just because Emma had her puppies. Kim's mare Bridgett needed to be covered tonight. We are so thankful we had an ultrasound, she did not show at all until Raven actually mounted. The ultrasound showed that she would be ready to breed in 3 or 4 days and it was right!

Insulators

Phil arrived just a bit after 7:00am with Braelyn and just as she was taken out of the truck his phone rang, Anna’s work called to say they didn’t need her. Braelyn went on our walk then Rebekah stayed at the apartment to meet the insulators while I took her home. As long as I was in East Peoria, Walmart was on the list for a few groceries. The meat prices are unbelievable. Perhaps it is time to buy a few cows. As I was pulling out of the parking lot Alice and Linda Durham saw the car and came over for a quick visit. They use to live in Bridlewood Apartments when I was managing them. They were actually shocked to find out we moved.
The insulators showed up right at 9:00am, Rebekah showed them what they were to do, then took off for home. When I arrived a bit later both men were sitting in the truck, foolishly they were asked if they had finished. They replied, “no we started working and this horse with her baby came in.” I think they were afraid of her and sat in the truck until someone came to put Sanna away. I say they were asked foolishly as this is job is taking much longer than expected. For some reason, I thought they just sprayed it on and a couple of hours later they would be done. They left at 3:20 with about a fourth of the stall area done and none in the garage.
Emma was acting a bit weird and since the insulator men were working in the stall area, a whelping area needed to be made in the apartment, just in case. Darcy promptly claimed it and doesn’t want to get up. Her old down comforter is one of the blankets we planned on using. As soon as it was on the floor Darcy knew it was hers. Emma will just have to wait to have these pups.
Steven arrived to do just a bit with Evan, we would like to train him to sit up we just haven't figured out how.
Mike and Diane have company visiting from Alaska, they took them trail riding to Sandridge. When they arrived back, Mike helped get Eliza covered. Tomorrow morning Kim’s mare Bridgett will be heavily teased and if in covered. I’ll need to leave by 6:34am and will skip the walk tomorrow. Anna for sure has to work tomorrow and Phil needs to be at a job site by 6:00am, it just makes sense for me to drive in, instead of Braelyn brought here at 5:00am.

Puppy Belly

Emma is due in 3 days, her puppy belly sticks out on both sides and when she lays down it looks like this:

After our walk this morning mom invited us all in for breakfast, she had quite a crowd, besides mom and I, Ruth, Ryan, Beth, Sarah, Hanna, and Tim filled up the table. The conversations going around the table were noisy and varied.
I had to head in to work, today was past time to collect the change from the apartments. One out of eight of the machines was too full the rest were about 3/4 full making for very heavy bags of quarters. As I was driving to the shop with the quarters in bags and then in a bucket a corner was taken just a bit too fast, one of the bags fell out of the bucket and spilled. I could hear quarters falling and rolling everywhere. Drove straight to Meister Brothers and spent the next 15 minutes picking up quarters and placing them back in the bag. There were quarters behind the seat, quarters on the floor, quarters on the bench seat, in fact there were quarters just about everywhere. Philip agreed to go to the bank to carry in the quarters, the $1345.50 worth of quarters were very heavy. Karin was waiting for me to get back, she needed the truck and stock trailer to pick up a horse located in Canton, IL and then deliver her to Monmouth, IL for Rainbow Riders. Once the trailer was hooked up she took off. Steven was at the farm working first Valiant, then Evan. Evan is now laying down with a cue EVERYTIME! we are very pleased. We want him to get up slow but he hasn't figure that out yet. The picture below was snapped of Sanna and her filly as he was lunging Valiant.
The whelping box was finished about the time Mark got home from work. He needed to finish the barn before the insulators show up tomorrow. The picture below was taken last night as he was power washing the ceiling and walls.
Tonight he finished putting the boards up, while I got a ride to church with Joan.
We had a wonderful evening, Ken Hoerr had the sermon. How thankful we are that our government still allows us to worship freely. Ruth and her 2 boys got a ride home with us, of course we had to stop at McDonalds for icecream, except when we ordered they informed us they had no icecream. That didn't stop Joan, she knew right where another McDonalds was.

Tom Haefli

Rhonda's brother Tom had a heart attack last week. He had a stint put in but needs another. We are asking for prayers for his healing. His heart needs to be stronger before the next stint.

The Vet Visit

Yesterday afternoon the sky in the West turned dark with thick black clouds. Bright flashes of lightning were piercing the darkness and we knew the storm wasn't far off. The mares needed to be brought in to the stalls before the storm hit so we wouldn't have to work on wet mares. Not knowing if the 3 outside mares are used to stalls, Eliza was brought inside first. Bridgett, the smallest of the 3 was led over to the barn door, she took one look at that and started backing up. It took about 10 minutes to get her to walk through the door, she was sure she didn't belong INSIDE. The other 2 came in a bit better. All was well until the storm hit. I think it would have been better if I didn't have a metal roof. The rain was pounding on the roof so hard we couldn't hear each other. Mattie the big Clyde started going crazy, throwing herself from side to side, smashing into the buckets. Molly was put in the big double stall with her and she settled down both standing quietly while we were watching. Dr. Hoerr arrived and right about then the wind started blowing, the rain was pounding on the roof and he is trying to stick his hands where the mares were sure they didn't belong. He is ultrasounding Bridgett when Mattie the Clyde attacks poor Molly. Dr. Hoerr has to stop so Molly can be rescued and that's when we see a cut above her eye. By the time Bridgett was finished, the rain had almost stopped. Dr. Hoerr took her outside to his truck to give her a shot to short cycle her then put her in the paddock while I brought Molly out to his truck for stitches, that left Mattie inside by herself, you would have thought the barn was coming down by the racket she made. She needed sedating before we even took her into the small stall for the ultrasound. The evening was certainly not boring! This morning for some reason it is hard to get out of bed but even harder to focus eyes that don't want to open. It's going to take 3 cups of strong coffee to get going today.

Molly, Mattie, Bridgett and Eliza

Eliza came back into season, we were very disappointed, her ultrasound was scheduled for Monday. After talking it over, we decided to have Dr. Hoerr out to the farm to do a reproductive exam. Kim's mares also needed to have an ultrasound. Molly for a pregnancy check and Bridgett and Mattie to find out where they were in their cycle and why have they not shown a heat. Hoerr vet clinic was called to schedule for tomorrow but they decided it would be better for Dr. Hoerr to come today late afternoon or early evening. This gave me plenty of time to pick up a few things before heading out of Peoria. Sanna and her filly were in the stall when I arrived, it was hot, terribly hot in the barn and Sanna was panting. She was taken out where she quickly realized it was much cooler in the breeze under the trees.
The message came from Dr. Hoerr with the arrival time near 6:00pm. While waiting a couple of bales were moved into the paddocks. The 4 mares were brought into the barn just as it started raining. Dr. Hoerr arrived with a very cute Hackney stallion along with a Hackney mare and foal. He was on his way to Lindenhill farms to drop them off. The wind and rain started pounding on the barn roof, Mattie, the big Clydesdale mare stated going crazy throwing herself around the double stall. Molly her companion was brought in the stall with her and both settled right down quietly eating. While Dr. Hoerr was giving Bridgett her ultrasound, Mattie attacked Molly, cutting open her left eyelid. Poor Molly, I would have never put her in harms way on purpose. Dr. Hoerr sedated her, cleaned the wound and stitched it up, as long as she was sedated, we pulled her back into the barn for her sonagram and yes she is pregnant, exactly like we though. Mattie was the next ultrasound, she had many small follicles and was given a shot to bring her into season, she should be ready to cover in 5-6 days.
Eliza was the last one to be done. We were very pleased to find she has all the right equipment and all the equipment is in very good shape. She had some fluid in her uterus which could be infection. Dr. Hoerr treated that with an infusion of gentamyacin. She is in season and should be covered Friday morning, then Saturday morning given a shot.
Just as we were finishing up, Spark and Rhonda came over for a visit. We were glad to see them, the cable company is going to be dropping off the cable sometime this week and Meister Electric needs to be hired to lay the cable. Spark was given the cable guy's phone number and shown where we would like the cable to enter the office. After they left it was back to work. Mark is getting ready for Home Comfort, the insulators which are coming on Thursday. The stalls needed to be cleaned.

Emma's X-Ray

The rain stopped in time for our walk, Rachel left her house early leading Sandy over for her date with Raven. She was tied until after we were done. When we started over the dam I happened to look down and my shoe lace was untied, before I could bend down to tie it, Ruth dropped down and took care of that for me, now that's true love!
Right around noon during another rain storm Jarad Plattner from Plattner Orthopedic showed up with 3 of the men that worked on Raven's brace. The rain stopped by the time the brace was on and adjusted. We will remove it for the night and put it back on in the morning.
Just settled down with the last of the library books when Don Kummer from Canton called. He needed papers to register his purebred Friesian filly by Raven out of his mare Zyphur. I decided to drive them over to take some pictures of the filly forgetting he has a 5 year old Raven son out of his chestnut Saddlebred mare, Charming Robin. They call him Buddy and he is amazing, almost 17 hands, black and besides his very sweet disposition he has a fantastic body, and wow his neck is fabulous.
By the time we finished oooing and ahing over him I almost forgot to take pictures of the filly.


Started driving back home from Canton, when Rhoda called to ask if I would bring Emma in for x-rays to try to find out how many pups she is carrying. Her vet clinic was slow and there was plenty of time.

They could count 8 clearly, may see number 9 and just maybe one more underneath so the best estimate on puppy count was 8-10.
The car was needing gas by the time we left for the farm.

Bitterness vs Forgiveness

We have over 100 people in our family, for years we have loved each other, prayed for each other and wanted the best for one another. My family means more to me than anything other than our Creator and Lord, yet lately bitterness has crept in which not only makes for division and heartache it also takes me out of the will of my God. Bitterness is only hurting me, the one who allows this feeling to dwell in my heart. It is like eating poison slowly, it doesn't hurt the one I feel bitterness against it only sickens me, the one who holds the bitterness. So I give everything over to God, He knows 100% what the future holds. He tells me in His Word I am to love. I am to love my enemies, I am to love my friends, I am to love my family, I am to love the unlovely. I am commanded to do good to those who don't deserve good.
If I need to choose between bitterness or forgiveness, I choose to lose the bitterness, I choose to forgive, I choose to love, after-all God loved me enough to send Jesus to DIE for me, He forgave me how can I not choose to forgive.

Miracle or Co-incident

Truly enjoying the display while sitting at the window early this morning and watching the lightning as it streaks across the sky, this time going from South to North horizontally instead of from the heavens down to Earth. Our area seems to be stuck in a weather pattern of rain each day, then hot and muggy.
Yesterday morning the dogs were put outside before we left for church. This is the first time we made them stay out, but company was coming, the apartment had been cleaned and I wanted it to stay clean. When we arrived after church and opened the door, a very strong smell of propane gas permeated the apartment and we noticed a window open and Darcy was inside. Mark was checking the appliances while I tried to open all the windows and doors. Just then a text comes from Karin telling us she stopped in and found one of the burners turned on but no flame, turned off the burner and opened a window. We believe Darcy may have bumped the burner before we put the dogs out. I am so very thankful the dogs had been put outside; more than likely they would have asphyxiated and died if they had been locked in. God IS so Good.
miracle or co-incident that for the first time EVER the dogs were made to go outside on a Sunday, that Karin would stop in hours before we made it home, discover the problem and know what to do, so the apartment didn't explode. We BELIEVE we know the answer. THANK YOU AGAIN GOD!

Father's Day Celebration

Tim Funk had the morning service. Children obey your parents for this is right!, Honor your father and mother as this is the first commandment with promise that your days may be long.
How hard is it how to honor our parents, I only wish my dad was still here to honor and obey. If you still have a father on this earth and you choose not to honor or obey is this a sin? Would God even care? Tim brought up by learning to obey one's father will teach how to obey authority. Research shows that 4 out of 10 children in America have no father. Of course there was much more to this service of love.
After lunch Fred Funk had the afternoon service, starting with reading #55 in the Hymn's of Zion. We sang this earlier and Fred started the service by asking us, is it well with your soul?
We headed to Sam's for steak and dog food after church, arriving at the farm with enough time to cook a delicious meal for the dads. Actually Mark ended up doing the grilling as he is the best. Karin and Rhoda helped with Mike and Diane's company taking them on trail rides. Rhoda rode DaMita and Karin rode Dalia, Mika, Bunni, Sally and Paris finished out the group.
A bunch of the family arrived for the weekly volley ball games after 5:30pm. Tony Plattner of Plattner Orthopedic came over to see how Raven's brace needed to be adjusted and took it home for adjustments. Imagine this service, coming not just on Sunday but on Fathers day. Jared Plattner will bring it back with a couple of his workers tomorrow late morning. After the games the kids took off, mom and I cleaned up the playground then headed in for the evening.

Sarah's Home

Last night or should I say early this morning shortly after midnight Emma wanted out. With the big day yesterday my mind and body wasn't allowing sleep to come anyway making letting her out an easy task. The only problem came when sleep started to beckon and Emma wasn't yet asking to come in. A flashlight was on the table making it easy to go look for her. She was found in the big barn checking for mice, when the flashlight hit her eyes, her eyeshine was bright blue instead of yellow, very creepy seeing two bright blue dots glaring across the arena. She was actually more scared of the light and who was carrying it and ran outside even too scared to bark. Her embarrassed look when she realized it was her owner was actually pretty funny. So much for her big bad guard dog attitude! When Sarah arrived from her Jamaica mission trip around 5:00am, Emma was ready to guard the place with a big bark. Bedding had been pulled out of the storage just in case Sarah arrived in the middle of the night but she decided to head to Chillicothe, over to David and Stephanie's where she is house sitting and where there is peace and quiet. She stopped long enough to let us know it was a good trip. We are anxious to hear more later today. She is going to try to make afternoon church, then come here for Father's day.
If the rest of the kids are coming, we will stop at Sam's after church for steak to grill. Hope they all can make it, living this far out makes me miss my family. (especially the grandkids)

Senior High Girls Camp

We were prepared for the senior high but worried with the weather the time at the lake would be called off because of the storms in the area. As of 10:30am the people in charge sent the call the campers were coming. We loaded 4 horses in Emily's trailer and 4 in the stock trailer and took off driving into a cloud bank that made it look like we were driving towards the mountains in Colorado.
We arrived at the Herman Lake in Norris, IL with enough time to eat the lunch Beth had prepared before the trial horseback run.
Rachel on Sunny and Ruth and Sandy were the first to get into the lake. Emily brought Cindy out of the lake at a canter.



The horses all did so well Mark Herrmann on Larry and Rachel Sauder on her Haflinger Sunny had some fun cantering around the field before the girls showed up.

The buses started arriving and the horses got busy, we were able to give 175 people rides each lasting around 10 minutes, going down a trail, into the lake with a bit of speed as they came out of the lake up the hill. We never had a break taking out 8 horses at a time for almost 3 hours. Below are just a couple of pictures of the groups. Horses used were Sunny, Sandy, Larry, Cindy, Paris, Mika, Bunni and Sally.


We were so pleased with how the horses behaved, no one fell off and everyone did very well. This senior high girls camp was well attended, 200 campers and counselors all doing dangerous things like rope swings, blob jumping, bareback horse riding, high dive jumping, canoeing, water sliding and not a single one of the girls got hurt, in fact the only injury was FEDE, Ruth's husband, falling off the high dock and hitting the low dock with his heel. Now how does that happen, 200 girls at girls camp and the only one hurt is a guy.
When we arrived back at the farm Faith Reinhard came over to play with Emma and Darcy, she was so cute with these big dogs we had to snap a picture.
Once the horses were put away from camp Rhoda and Emily took Dalia and DaMita on the death trails here at the farm. Both mares did so well they decided to take them swimming. Below is Emily on DaMita as DaMita launched herself into the lake.
Both mares enjoyed a swim.
Rhoda and Dalia came out first with Emily on DaMita close behind.


All good things must come to an end and it was time to say good-bye to Emily. Emily doesn't get here that often but when she comes we pack plenty of horse back riding into the hours she is here. Emily is taking Jewel for the summer and Mike was having a tough time letting Jewel go.
Jewel was loaded into the trailer and off they went. What a LONG but very successful day!