The Early Bird Gets the CASH?

On the walk this morning, even though Ruth was in a hurry and needed to leave for work we couldn't stop mom from slowing the walk because she kept bending down and picking up worms.

She heard the Goose Ranch is paying $1.25 per dozen for nice big fat night crawlers and even though Mackenson was scurrying around with buckets trying to get as many as possible mom was determined to scoop up the good ones for herself. Now either mom is hurting for money OR it could be she was helping Mackenson. After the last storm Faith sold 6 dozen to the Goose Ranch so after the storm last night it was Mackenson's turn to earn some cold hard cash. Sure wish that goose ranch would have been around when I was a child!
After the walk Sangria was brought into the indoor so she could have a good roll in the arena. She was groomed up but rolled before I could get a picture. She is due in exactly 1 week but is not at all bagged up. Check out the baby bump on her.

She is miserably huge and yet in no hurry to produce this foal. She had a good roll which just may help that foal to get in position. Next Prissy and her colt were let out, now the colt has not been outside after a storm until today and had no idea how slippery wet ground can be. He took off at a gallop and took a pretty good tumble.

 But bounced right back up and kept going. I'm glad the ground is soft, no harm done.

Once they were settled it was a good time to go hunt for that missing halter. Today I criss-crossed the fields and still didn't find it. It will probably show up inside the hay combine some day.
We had a special visitor today. Marilyn Hoerr arrived to take a walk down memory lane. We bought this farm from her. She and her husband Bob moved to Arizona to retire. Her husband recently passed away after a long illness and the funeral was back here in Illinois. She saw what we've done with the place and approved. I gave her a golf cart ride around the property to show her the new trails then over to mom's to say hello. From there we stopped in at Spark's then over to Joan's. I ran back to the farm to help Emily move a round bale in while she visited with Joan for a bit. When I got back they were sitting on the front porch enjoying the afternoon.

 From there we went back to Spark and Rhonda's so Marilyn could say hello and good by to Rhonda.

 She is leaving and mentioned this would probably be the last time she will ever come for a visit. Marilyn and her daughter Susan raised beautiful Arabian horses on this farm.  After Marilyn left Emily and I brought Star out, we decided to let Killian practice what we hope will be his real job here on this farm and he did excellent with Star, producing plenty of semen that looked exactly like it should look. Hopefully we can get him tested soon. That means if Star get's pregnant we will have to dna the foal before selling next year as we used Valiant yesterday. Emily was thrilled and so was I to see this stallion maturing exactly as he should be. Today even before I took Star out of the paddock I noticed Indy with a foal on each side of her. When I got up close enough to see which foal was which, there is Star's filly nursing away on Indy. She really is a special mare. After Tim got off work he asked Emily to drive the tractor so he could trim branches away from the driveway. He meant the tall branches. They worked until dark.

Tatiana was stalled tonight and this is the first time she has been away from Violet since they were weaned. Tatiana will be leaving for her new home tomorrow. Violet was not happy and neither was Tatiana. Sangria was put in the field with Violet so she didn't have to be alone. Prissy had to be stalled also, she is now in her foal heat and we can't have her in the paddock next to Killian, he was trying to mount over the fence. Prissy has an appointment on Thursday to get her tearing stitched up from the hard birth. We won't be breeding her back until she is completely healed from that.