Ella Home

Ella was returned today from Therapeutic Horsemanship where she has been working as a therapy horse for a few months. She was taken today to Middle Grove where she will get a nice vacation from work for the next few months.
It was just too cold and icy today to walk so the walkers came here for breakfast. After breakfast Anni and Jessica arrived to take down all the Christmas decorations.
Emily arrived back from her week and a half Christmas vacation to report she bought a bull. Emily has 3 cows needing service, she would like to keep this bull, he is a papered shorthorn and good quality but only needs him for a couple months. She would like to offer his services come spring and is willing to loan him out except for the few months she needs him each year. That almost makes me want to get into raising cows again.

Prayer

We walked outside this morning and found the patio an ice rink. The melting formed puddles that froze hard then very unexpectedly a light rain started quickly covering the roads with a layer of ice. We thought the only bad part of our trip to church would be our driveway but that wasn't so. The salt trucks had not been dispatched and the roads were pretty awful. We ended up driving about 20 miles an hour and still slipping and sliding to church.
Church was so worth the drive. Tim Funk spoke in the morning before the service. He announced the couple that had been chosen for minister and asked the church to pray for that couple.
Tim then had the morning service reading first Psalm 91 and then in Luke where Jesus was telling the disciples to be great in His kingdom learn to be the servant of all.
Ken Hoerr had the afternoon service opening first to Genesis 6 where men's thoughts and imaginations were evil continually and only Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and then Revelations 3 reading about the church of Laodicea, the lukewarm church. We are sure going to miss Ken when he steps down.
The drive home wasn't bad until Mark tried to put the car in the garage. The ice was so bad he couldn't get the car up the slight incline into the garage. He ended up just parking it and spreading salt. The temperatures are suppose to drop to below zero tonight so we dressed up warm to move a round bale in for Evan and Emma but found they still have enough hay for at least the rest of today and all of tomorrow. Hope it warms before they run out. It is just too miserable to be outside so Mark spent the afternoon playing down the basement setting up the aquaponic tanks for the fish and vegetables. It's hard for me to get real enthused about this project, I sure hope the fish don't stink up the house too bad, although maybe the plants will help filter the bad gas the dogs give off when they are excited, or sleeping, or eating. What am I saying, I want to SELL puppies not discourage people from buying Emma's puppies that are due Jan 18th. Mastiff gas is odor free. (lie) Below is Emma the expectant mother. How could one not love a face like that?

Truthfully they don't always stink, they are just so stinkin cute and cuddly that it is worth putting up with when it happens. 

Melt Down

The sun came out and the temperatures started to rise melting our thick ice causing rivers of slush and mud. Lots of mud today. The dogs have been tracking it in every time they go outside. Since the weather was warm enough to work outside, that's what we did today. Spark borrowed the tractor and log splitter in the morning

 When he brought it back, the guys decided to check the fluids.

 Mark and I stacked and hauled split logs to the apartment for the girls, then moved the big logs to the splitting pile for later. The tree Mark was working on was so big we could only fit 4 at a time in the bucket.

Mom came over while I was reading the instruction book on the camera (about time I've had it close to a year). I had to try out different settings on her and Emma.

 Emma was so funny below she was resting her chin on her back knee. Mom said it was because she was trying to stay warm in here. Mark sets the thermostat back and the house was down to 62 degrees. It almost felt warmer outside than in.

Mike and Diane bought a new mare. Her registered name is Lisheen. She is a 5 year old Jockey Club registered black 16 hand Thoroughbred mare. Her barn name is Sheena. She has very good bloodlines and really nice movement for a TB. She will be bred to Valiant in 2014. Mike walked her over and introduced her to the boys.

 Above she is meeting Valiant and below Evan

Above Killian is stretching over the gate to greet her. Below Killian and Hadassah are watching her every move. 

Mike had to run out to Middle Grove to put in round bales for the next week so hauled out Killian and Rosalie. Killian will get a well deserved vacation while Rosalie will have a year to grow up.

Next week we will be bringing back Ribbon, Sissy and Star.

Dan's Dog

Brother Dan bought a Dane, not just a Dane as he is quick to tell us, "a GREAT Dane!"
The little guy is settling in well.

 It will be interesting to see how much taller he ends up than Emma or Darcy. Dan pretty much got pick of the litter and full registration for him meaning when this boy is old enough, he can sire AKC registered Great Dane puppies. This boy is so handsome I can just see owners lining up to use his service.

Dan is raising him right, he is taking him pretty much everywhere to socialize him with people and other pets.
We had kind of a strange incident today, someone was logging the big walnut trees growing in the ravine. When I drove the golf cart over to ask, they were certain they were on the correct property. Spark checked it out and found they had actually only cut down one of mom's trees but there are quite a few more marked that mom does not want cut. Spark tried to call the company that sent the workers but it is closed until Jan 2nd. Hopefully they won't be back until we can straighten out the mix-up but we still had better post signs to stop them.
We had a nice break in the weather today with sunshine and 40 degrees which really helped melt some of the thick ice on the drives. Even the truck is now ice free and that was covered by  half inch thick ice.

That Winning Feeling

We had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday first with our church family and later with our physical family. Mom cooked a delicious prime rib for dinner. That was served with Karin's spinach dip, piping hot sweet potatoes, green beans, salad, crescent rolls and pumpkin or pecan pie for dessert.
This morning it was time to get back to reality and head to work where the letters we didn't get done on Tuesday needed to be processed. There was a pile of around 100 but only 73 were Bible requests. Knowing we didn't have that many wrapped Bibles left I was sure I would run out and spend the afternoon wrapping but... I had exactly 73 wrapped Bibles. That is like winning the lottery. At least I think it must feel like that, I've never played. After the trip to the post office I tried to pay mom's business license for her condo in Gulf Shores. She got a notice that it is due for 2014 but the paper gives instructions that the owner must go online to fill out the forms and only then will one knows what is due. Sounds simple enough but the website given comes up with the notice it has been disabled. Hmm wonder if that has something to do with the insurance scam the government is trying to pull on the American people. Poor Ruth was so sure it was going to be a good thing for her family until she read the fine print. Her payment was about $750.00 a month, not too bad but then the yearly deductible was $12,000.00 and that was not a misprint. Every single option she tried was that or worse.
The weather is warming up so maybe tomorrow or Saturday Rhoda would be willing to go to Middle Grove with me to ride Jewel. We have someone very interested in her filly but would like to see a video of her.

Makes me question why I didn't take one before sending her out to Middle Grove. I guess it just slipped my mind. Sissy needs to be checked and brought back soon.

Christmas Blessings to All

Our family would like to wish everyone a Christmas blessing today. The gift God gave us is the most wonderful gift of all. Even though we don't know the date of Jesus' human birthday, we are glad there is an official day to celebrate it so today we wish Jesus a Happy Birthday.

Amazing to think Jesus didn't have to leave the glories of Heaven, He chose to come save us. Can we ever thank Him enough? 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Christmas Eve

Karin had the morning free and came down to work with Diane and I helping us get done by noon. There was plenty to do and never enough time to do it. They brought us down lunch, which was left overs from the Christmas party the day before but by eating while working we were able to pull out of there by 11:45 am. Karin was going with Rhoda and I to pick up the new round pen so I took her first to her car for a few items then to the truck. The truck was only covered by a half inch of ice and of course the doors are frozen shut. We were able to get one door open, tried to start the truck and the battery was dead. The hood was so covered with thick ice we could not get it up without dumping 5 buckets of hot water over it and using a screw driver to chip ice off. Finally we got the battery charging then drove down to the house to get the address and phone number of the place we were heading. I called the number given to explain we were running a bit late but only got the answering machine so left the message we would probably be there by 2:30 pm instead of 2:00 pm. I decided to message them also, turned on the computer to find a message from them asking if we had been there already and picked up the round pen. Someone drove up, loaded up the round pen and left the money in their house. Thank goodness we got that message before heading out.
That gave us the afternoon for other things like work on Mark's aquaponic stuff in the basement. Below Rhoda, Ben and Mark are putting together the stand for the plants.

Once that was up the top tanks were installed. I'll get pictures of that later. Taunya came over with Jace and of course that meant pictures. Jace had just as much fun with the dogs as Israel did when he was over.

We decided to go to Red Robin for dinner after calling and finding out they had no wait tonight. Anna and Braelyn met us there. After dinner it was Jack and Addyson's turn to open presents.

The kids have all left for the apartment, the house is quiet and I am more than ready for bed.

The Meister Family Christmas

Yesterday was our annual Meister Family Christmas. This is always held on the 23rd of December, held at the Old School Center in Farmington, IL and always well attended. Around 100 of the immediate family showed up. The younger kids were so excited to be with their cousins, the older kids were busy playing volley ball in the gyms at the school and the moms upstairs in the very roomy well stocked kitchen preparing a delicious sumptuous meal. Everyone comes with an appetite but we have learned in this family to prepare for many and there is always plenty. After the dinner comes the entertainment. The stage is set with the microphone in place and anyone that wants to gets to perform special numbers. Oh my did we hear it yesterday from traditional carols to Christian rap. Next comes group singing of the Christmas carols, then the reading of the Christmas story and ending with Santa arriving to hand out the gifts. Below are a few pictures of the evening.

This is just a sample the rest of the pictures have been place on Mark's facebook page.
Today will be busy. Diane and I have lots of work at Bereans then Rhoda and I will be taking a trip to purchase a nearly new round pen for training. It is about 2 hours away,  right now it is -2 degrees and the truck probably won't start unless it warms up a bit.

Nice Post

This was posted today on the Horsemeister, Inc Facebook page:

I love your website. I'm almost sure Eliza is my favorite. How is she doing? I have admired the Friesian breed for a very long time, but there is something about all your horses that keep me coming back to take another good look. I lost my gelding Jack this summer. It was very hard. Maybe next year i can start looking to buy a new one. Anyway i just wanted to thank you, keep up the good work.

Amazing how a little thing like words of affirmation touch ones heart. By the way that happens to be my love language according to  Dr. Gary Chapman’sThe 5 Love Languages I read that book years ago hoping to understand Mark. His brain is just not wired the same as a typical Meister.

Yesterday evening Ruth drove Diane, mom and I to Lake Camelot subdivision to see the Christmas lights. There was one house there that was amazing.

 This house has so many lights all synchronized to the radio. Ruth drove up turned her radio on only to find her radio didn't work. Luckily Spark and Rhonda pulled in right behind us and turned their radio on.

 We stayed outside of their car listening to different Christmas songs while the lights put on a real show. These pictures really don't do justice to the display. I highly recommend taking the time to go see this place and best of all it's FREE!

When I arrived home I found Mark putting on another free light show. He was busy cutting pipe to build his fish and vegetable trays down the basement. Mark's new hobby is aquaponics. He is going to be raising fish and vegetables in our basement. 

Mark always says our hobbies conflict. He likes to grow plants and the horses like to eat plants. He decided to move his garden indoors.

We are currently in the deep freeze. It was 6 degrees when we started to walk but had to quit. There is so much hard ice that even with our cleats on we could not walk on the drive. The ice is so frozen that the wire skids cannot dig in and grip. Diane decided to call the walk off for tomorrow also, it is suppose to be below zero tomorrow. 

The waterers were all checked at feeding time and only the farthest west one needed a top layer of ice broken. Today is the office Christmas party and tonight is the Meister family Christmas party. I've been baking and preparing the food for both parties. Rhoda and Karin came over and cleaned the house up while I ran to Aldi for a few last minute items. 

Lasagna!

Joan sent us this picture yesterday and we all know what that means. If you don't then you don't know about our tradition, the tradition of serving lasagna before an engagement announcement. Joan and Tim Reinhard would like to announce the engagement of their daughter Bethany to Bill Frauhige from Bluffton, IN.  Bethany sent us the picture below of Bill as none of us know him.

Bethany writes: I finally have a picture to show.  Here is some information about him too.  His name is Bill Frauhiger and he has a twin brother named Bart.  His parents are Kris and Ann Frauhiger from Bluffton Country.  He is 26 yrs old and he is a diary farmer with his dad and 3 brothers.  He has one sister also.  All of his siblings are married and members of the Bluffton Church.  He plans to come down here to Haiti sometime after the holidays and I will still plan on moving back to Peoria sometime in January and get adjusted back to the States and plan a wedding.
Glad for your prayers.
Love,
Bethany

This was a hard announcement for us selfish people in the Peoria area. We were finally getting Bethany back after six LONG years only to find she will be moving to Bluffton. Regardless of our feelings we are quick to wish them God's blessings. We heard today that he is from a wonderful family which makes us feel a little better. 

Ice then Snow then COLD

 The picture above was taken about 6:00am the snow was coming down on top of the ice already delivered to our area by a massive storm affecting millions of Americans. The picture below taken as daylight approached. Once the snow leaves the area the temperatures are suppose to drop like a stone.

The ice caused problems last night for Rhoda and Sarah. They were heading back to Princeville from our Sceggel Christmas party in Chillicothe when the car slid into a ditch too deep for the girls to get out. A couple of guys stopped to try to help but even then the car was stuck. The guys offered to take the girls to where they were house sitting and my very trusting naive sweet beautiful girls got in their car! It wasn't much longer before both girls started to become concerned. The rescuers weren't acting quite right. Sarah whispered to Rhoda, "I think they may have been drinking." About that time the guys started in with words like, "you are going to give us beer when we arrive, right?"  God was looking out for them because in a few moments the car started violently sliding and slid off the road slamming into a ditch. The girls got out of the car and started running. They were able to call Gray Horse Farm where Rhoda was house sitting reaching Maddie, Gitza's daughter who very carefully drove and picked them up. Those girls aren't going anywhere today, Sarah's car is still in the ditch in Princeville.
Mark is out shoveling and spreading salt. He feels if we can get out of our driveway we will be able to make it to church.

Icy

The rain kept coming today and the temperature was hovering around 30 degrees but there were plenty of salt crews out keeping the roads from freezing. We decided they were still safe enough to drive to Chillicothe for the Sceggel Christmas. Ben and Taunya weren't able to make it. They were coming from farther North and when Ben took a test drive he decided it wasn't safe. We were sorry they couldn't make it, the evening was enjoyable. When we arrived David showed us Israel's new talent.

Israel is only 6 months old and that is impressive!

Rhoda and Sarah were sitting together while waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. As long as the camera was out it was the perfect time to snap shot of my 2 beautiful girls.

Stephanie prepared a delicious meal of Italian beef. For dessert we allowed the kids (missing Ben and Taunya's 3) to dig into the gingerbread house from Amy Koch. 

After dinner was time for the gifts. 

 Braelyn got a dress up outfit from Stephanie. Sarah helped her put it on but didn't know how the dress was suppose to fit. By the time Braelyn put the shoes on and tried to walk we were rolling on the floor laughing.

She wasn't too thrilled but when Sarah and Stephanie got it all fixed up she was very pleased.

Mark and I were the first to leave the roads were fine but when we turned into our driveway instead of stopping the car kept sliding almost over onto the patio.  Trying to walk from the car to the house one really needed ice skates. Unloading the car went easy though. Mark would take the boxes out of the car and give them a push and they would slide all the way to the patio door for me to put them inside. He was able to get the car up to the barn and parked it inside the arena for the night then was able to slip and slide his way back down to the house. 

Are You Second?

I have never seen Duck Dynasty, we don't have cable or dish or anything like that but the internet has been filled with the controversy of what was said by the Patriarch of the family. I decided to see what all the fuss was about and found the video below, it takes 30 minutes to watch but is well worth watching.

After watching that video my first thought was what a neat family. No wonder people are interested in their story.
We are now having freezing rain, our driveway is an ice skating rink. Darcy and Emma needed to go out and even dumb dogs, not that Darcy is dumb Rhoda, were walking carefully instead of running. Mark and I went to Sam's this morning early to beat the storm for groceries for the 3 Christmas parties coming up. We met Ruth and Fede as we were walking out the door. They were standing at the service desk to prove that Ruth was alive. I believe the story goes that Ruth applied for a credit card over the phone for a Sams club credit card and was told she didn't qualify because she was deceased. She tried to argue with them but they just wouldn't believe she was alive. I guess they thought she was speaking from the grave. She and Fede drove in to PROVE that she is not dead but alive. I don't know if it did any good though. They just don't give dead people credit cards very quickly.

Moving Bales

We are under a winter storm warning that is suppose to start tomorrow morning bringing ice and snow to central Illinois. I decided to move bales in this morning in preparation so Mark came out and helped move 2 in the middle paddock and one in with Paris. Valiant was given one earlier this week Piper, Evan & Emma also have relatively new bales. Now even if we are buried by snow or the ice is so thick the skid steer can't run the horses will be fine. We finished up as it started sprinkling but that didn't stop the walk. We did one round but by the second round the going down the driveway hill was getting dangerously icy so quit. The mild temperatures today are causing massive melt off but the drive has been packed down with so many cars it is icy under all that water.
Philip brought Braelyn and Taegan over today. Braelyn was busy making sure Darcy was all snug and warm when Taegan came over to help.

For the record as soon as the picture was snapped Taegan was whisked off of Darcy and not allowed back on. Darcy and Emma are so gentle that we make sure the girls never mistreat them. Amy Koch's gingerbread house was brought out to show the girls. The house will be taken to David and Stephanie's tomorrow for the Sceggel Christmas so I made sure they knew only to look,  not touch. Yeah like that was realistic!

 Taegan just couldn't resist.

It was wiped off and wrapped back up and lollipops brought out as a consolation. Even that brought tears though. Braelyn was given the choice of ONE lollipop or NO lollipop. She wanted them all but finally settled on a red one just like Taegan's.

Mom came over with 2 dozen eggs from the farmer this afternoon. The farmer hasn't had fresh eggs for quite a while and today as mom was praying before eating her store bought eggs for breakfast she says, "Thank you Lord for the breakfast but fresh eggs would have been better." Right after that the phone rings, its the farmer and he has 10 dozen eggs for her if she wants them. Wow does mom ever have a direct line!
Rachel is hosting the young group tonight for a taffy pull. We were a little worried the weather wouldn't be cold enough but just in time, the temperature has now dropped below freezing.