#Bookeepingnightmare

Today was the dreaded day to try to get the Horsemeister account in order. It had been at least 3 months since that account had been reconciled and after 3 hours it will stay un-reconciled for longer. The good thing was I found a couple deposit Mike made that I never recorded so we have more money than expected or anticipated. The stallions are so much easier to handle than the books. Speaking of stallions Evan had work tonight and soon Killian will have a job. Emma is still in and was covered while Olivia watched and reacted with interest. It has been 17 days since she arrived and ovulated the day she came. She is coming in season and we will plan on covering her later this week.  Anna was here when I got home and let me take Kensley for a ride over to the playground while Taegan slept. Joan's kids were there so we went exploring on the golf cart looking for cougars and black bears. We didn't see any but went way into the woods. Emily worked Olivia today and reported she did so well she is almost ready for a sales video. Today she didn't even hesitate when Emily rode her over the bridge.

Sunday A+++

What a great day. It started early, driving to Morton, IL to pick up Nancy. Tim Roecker had the morning service reading first in Joshua 5 starting at verse 13 then reading all the way through Joshua 6 where Joshua is visited by the captain of the Lord's hosts and the taking of Jericho. Ken Hoerr had he afternoon service reading from 2 Peter 3. Now that is a scary chapter, read it all the way through and pay attention to the next to the last verse. If that doesn't warn us (speaking to Believers here) nothing will.
We took Nick home to Pekin again so of course stopped at Big R's but this time for beet pulp. It is so handy giving this young man a ride home from church. By the way Nick is looking for a job. He is big, strong and works hard but is still in high school so can't work during school hours.
We got home with time to change out of the church clothes, unload the car, change back into the church clothes and head to Morton where 16 of us ate at the Pizza Ranch. I wanted to get Emma covered before we left but Mark was sure we would be home before dark. He said, "after all it is a buffet!" Except we were all having such a good time visiting that we barely made it home before sunset and the sun did set before Evan got the job done. As soon as Emma was put away I headed to the playground where there was a big group of volley ball players and lots of little kids, 3 of which were my grand daughters. They turned the court lights on and played until the mosquitoes arrived. We had another A+++ Sunday.

Middle Grove

When doing the paper work for the last 5 foals registrations there was one, Jewel's colt, that for some reason we had not pulled the hair. Or we had pulled his hair but lost it. I planned on going out to Middle Grove today to pull hair not quite sure how without help that was going to be accomplished. You see the foals don't like their hair pulled. Mark took the car to pick up Nick giving me time to do a few loads of laundry before he got back to give me the car. I left at 9:00 am for the trip out. Below are a few pictures. John and his boys were harvesting wood for the winter. A big dead tree had fallen and made a big mess. They were busy cleaning it up with the added bonus of fire wood for their work.

 The herd was no where in sight so I started hiking to find them. About 20 minutes later Jenis, Anna and Eliza came out of the woods to greet me.

 The rest of the herd was lounging under the trees and it was obviously nap time for the foals. There were actually 7 sleeping foals but only 4 in the picture below. The other three got up to see who was coming. Far left is Hadassah's filly now named Zelda. In front is Whistler, Sheena's colt, behind Whitney is Valerie and even farther back is Jewel's colt. Off to the right not seen is Ribbon's filly and Prissy's colt then down the hill a bit were Marika's colt, Sangria's colt and Ella's colt. 

Zalena's filly is the oldest foal out there, she was up grazing but soon snuggled down for a nap.

 The biggest surprise is Sangria's colt. He turned from a bright red bay to a very dark bay, almost black. His mane is so thick and long it already lays over his neck, pretty much unheard of in a 3 month old foal. His tail is thick long and curly. He is for sale but this boy is going to be a superstar in the show world. We may just have to keep him. He is registered, DNA'D and microchipped with IALHA, papers are in hand and is also registered with Friesian Heritage Horse so he can be shown in all of the Andalusian shows AND Friesian shows.

Ayanna came up but typical Ayanna she was covered in dry mud. She grew up at Middle Grove and knows exactly how to keep the flies from biting. I had trouble figuring out who Oksana was until her teeth and teats were examined. Rosalie is as big or bigger than most of the Friesians and is only 2 and a half years old but not yet thick in the body which will come with age. (I know that thick and age part well). Ella's colt had some obvious diarrhea on his bottom but was acting and looking well. I'm sure it is just that Ella is in her foal heat.

 We are not breeding Ella back, we want to use her for riding next year. Jewel's colt was in such a deep sleep I walked right up to him and pulled out 30-40 tail hair for the registration. He was shocked awake rudely. He jumped up turned, ran and turned around looking at me as if to say, "why did you do that?"

Below are more sleeping foals.

 Above is Whistler, Sheena's colt by Valiant and below is Valerie, Whitney's filly by Valiant, behind her is Jewel's colt by Evan now named Zachary (Zack for short).

 Below is Prissy's colt I think we named Winston. We haven't got the registration papers back on him yet. 

Below is Marika's colt. 

Actually he is pretty ugly right now. One of the other foals chewed off his mane and forelock. Hopefully that will have grown back before he is brought in for weaning. I stopped at County Market to buy lunch for Mark and Nick picking up fried chicken. They had a special 10 pieces for 10 dollars. After lunch Emma was teased. She is still in and covered by Evan. Since I didn't have any help for that her tail was wrapped. She has such a huge thick long tail usually someone holds it out of the way while I handle Evan but with it wrapped I could do both. Mom stopped by with Molly this afternoon. Molly had just gotten a hair cut and it had to be shown off. She is so cute. We got a lot of clean-up accomplished this morning and afternoon around here. Mark has already hit the sack.

Training Olivia

Israel came to play with grandma today. He was a busy boy all morning.

We played on the playground, we played at great grandma's house, we played on the trampoline, we took long golf cart rides to feed horses and enjoyed the morning. When we got back to the house we had a surprise. Rhoda had arrived for a short visit. She helped tease Emma and when she showed got her covered by Evan. Emma, her colt, Serenity and Indy's filly were all turned out in the big field. Below are some pictures of them enjoying the grass.

 Of course with Indy's filly the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

When we got back to the house Anna was there with Kensley. She is walking quite good for a 10 month old baby.

Spark and Jacob arrived with the Yanmar. That was dropped off so Mark can get some excavating work done and the skid steer was picked up and taken in for some repairs.

We have to get all the equipment in good shape before winter hits. Emily came over just long enough to work Olivia today before she needed to meet with her next house sitting job but at least this next one is not as far away. Below are a few pictures of Olivia's training session.

Emily said, "I love training Jewel's babies, they are so smart and learn quickly." We made a short video of today's workout for her owner Cynthia.

Olivia is for sale. This 3 year old is 75% Friesian, 25% Thoroughbred and 100% beautiful. She loves people and wants to please. She also has very nice gaits. 

Invited TO the Berean Prison Ministry Banquet

Everyone is invited to the Berean Prison Ministry Banquet. This year the banquet will be held at 5 Points, 630 Wilmore Rd., Washington, IL at 6:30 pm on September 11th, 2015 There is plenty of room, plenty of parking, the featured speaker is Tim Goeglein, the meal is delicious and the tickets are FREE but there will be a free will offering taken. If you would like to go to learn more about this important ministry and how it helps change lives,  there are 3 easy ways to reserve your seat or better yet reserve a table for 8. The first way is to call Ellen at (309) 672-0991 OR email Ken Helmuth at kdhelmuth@gmail.com and the third way is a bit harder. Print out the flyer below, tear off the bottom and snail mail it in to Berean Prison Ministry PO Box 761 Peoria, IL 61652

 Diane and I had a great work day today at the Berean office. We have had so many chairs donated the room is getting crowded. Check out the video below:

Mark arrived with a pallet load of Bibles and 10 boxes of paper. Thankfully Joan and Marie brought their children in to help. There aren't any child labor laws here yet are there? These kids are strong, willing and able to unload 600 Bibles, wrap them, label them then load them into the car for mailing. So thankful for willing helpers. Roma provided the pizza for lunch. We were all ready for a lunch break after that back breaking work.

 We had a lot of mail for a Thursday and weren't able to finish before 2:00 pm. I had to leave then but the rest stayed to finish up. Hannah and I loaded Hadassah, Jewel, Whitney, and their foals up to take out to Middle Grove. Those mares were so glad to be back as soon as the halters were removed they took off at a gallop to go find the herd. We got stuck in a lot of traffic on the way back and didn't get home until 4:30 pm. Mom came over for the evening then mom and I went over to Diane's for a bit. Spark came over as I was out taking pictures of the sunset tonight.

He wanted to barn storm ideas on how to get the word out about the banquet. The board sent out flyers and news letters, but we really believe social media is probably the best option. An event was created on the Berean Facebook page. Please if you use Facebook, would you mind sharing it to get the word out? Why we need to do this is the Bible program has exploded. We were spending $20,000 a year on postage and this year $60,000.00. We do not have the funds to keep this up and if this is to continue we must raise the money or shut this program down. Not everyone believes in this ministry, we have heard, "they deserve what they get," but speaking for myself, I'm thankful I don't get what I deserve because of Jesus. I'm going to the banquet and am going to bring with me a basket and a roll of stamps and pray that roll of stamps turns into a basket full.

Ovulation Achieved

Dr. Hoerr was scheduled to come this morning but we didn't know exactly when so the mares were brought to the paddock next to the stall barn for easy access. Today we were checking Jewel and Hadassah for pregnancy, Whitney for ovulation, Serenity to see if she had cycled, Emma needed a new coggins and an ultrasound to see where she was in her cycle and Zenia, Indy's filly needed a coggins test to travel to California to her new home. Dr. Hoerr arrived around 11:00 and drew blood first from the 2 for coggins then started the sonagrams. Hadassah was first we are pleased to announce she is PREGNANT!

 She is due July 18th, 2016. Jewel was next and again we are pleased to announce she also is PREGNANT!

Jewel is due July 20th, 2016 but both of these mares go early each year so we will need to bring them home in June next year. Whitney was next. Whitney was covered yesterday by Valiant but today she screamed at Killian when I brought her over and sure enough she had already ovulated.

Serenity was the mare I was actually holding my breath for just hoping the ultrasound would show something. The first thing Dr. Hoerr announced was that at least she had some uterine tone. Then he started looking for the ovaries and saw that she was ovulating.

We took her right over to Evan and had him cover her. We are not sure it is a viable egg but at least she cycled. Tomorrow after work all 4 of these mares plus the foals will be taken to Middle Grove. Hadassah and Jewel to stay until weaning their foals, Whitney and Serenity will need to come back in 16 or so days for pregnancy checks. Emma was also sonagrammed, she had a few smaller follicles the largest was at 25 mm so she was given a shot, tomorrow we will tease and Friday we will cover her. After Dr. Hoerr left the mares were turned out then Diane and I went to Berean to enter all the letters that came in yesterday. We finished in under 2 hours, stopped at Sam's Club for a few groceries then made it home in time to feed the horses before we needed to get ready for church. Mike Reiker had the service tonight.

Whitney

Mark was up around 4:00 am and hit the coffee brew button. The smell of brewing coffee wakes my brain up and it was telling me the time must be 5:00 am, the coffee's on. It was shocking to see it wasn't 5:00 am but still not worth going back to bed. As soon as it was light enough to see the horses were fed. Whitney is in and showing well. Valiant had no problem covering her. We were a little concerned since this is the first time he has been put to work since he was diagnosed with West Nile.

This mare is so tall we were a little worried that Valiant would have trouble balancing but he got the job done and was quick about it. We had a fun walk today attended by Joan, Rachel, Ruth, Diane, mom and me. I quit early though so I could get down to TEMCO to pick up the Berean mail and still make it to the Berean office before the volunteers showed up. We had a good group of volunteers. They were opening, reading letters and processing studies. Dakota was in the other room labeling Bibles then hauling them out to the car. A short video was taken which will be placed on the Berean Facebook page.
We broke for lunch at noon. Mom provided a delicious meal staring bbq ribs that were so tender they just fell off the bone, broccoli, fresh fruit, rolls with butter and ice cream bars for dessert. Shirley brought in brownies and bars. We sure don't starve in this office. Below we are enjoying the meal.

After lunch we worked until 2:00 pm and were able to finish the studies. Hopefully tomorrow the hundreds of letters will be processed.
Anna was here at the farm doing a webinar for her work so the girls were taken to the playground. It was just such a beautiful day to be outside.
Mark and I went to mom's for left-overs for supper. We spent the evening over there visiting. I talked to Dan last night about using the Farmington school for pony rides for the Spoon River drive now that the outside work there is about done. He talked to Chris the lady in charge of Crafter's Korner today. She is coming in to check out the gym and the remains of the school and will give us some good ideas as far as advertising. Dan told me today things are looking up!

Plans and Important Decisions

Today Lily's colt and Indy's filly were put out in the paddock next to Killian. They are now officially weaned. After the walk Anna dropped of Braelyn and Kensley for the day. The weather was just perfect for playing outside, toad hunting, and toad losing. We spent most of the morning at the playground or in the indoor arena toad hunting. Braelyn was so pleased to find 2 toads both the same size. She put them in a bucket then when we brought Kensley in for her nap she brought the bucket in the house. A bit later I noticed the bucket tipped on it's side and no toads around. One I found pretty quickly and stuck it in my pocket. Braelyn found the other toad which I convinced her to let me take the bucket outside while she searched for the other toad (the one in my pocket) Of course as soon as I got outside both toads were let go but the bucket was placed sideways on the patio next to Emma the dog. When Braelyn gave up searching she went outside to get her bucket and found the last toad had escaped. We decided to wait until after Kensley woke up to search for more. This afternoon with the girls help the weanlings were put back in the stall to await Lily's colt's owner who was coming to pick him up around 5:00 pm then off to the playground again. Diane came over to join us around 3:00 pm when a text came through that the people were here ready to pick up their colt. Diane watched the girls while I rushed over to meet them. They were very very pleased with how this colt turned out.

Before loading the colt they wanted to check out Hadassah's filly. The mares were at the far side of the field, so a bucket of grain was grabbed along with a lead rope and I hiked out to get Hadassah bringing the rest of the mares along. Hadassah and her filly were put in the outdoor arena where she showed off a bit for them.

They want her but need to convince the wife who had been left at home this trip. Before they left they said they would mail the deposit in for her but I won't mark her sold until the deposit comes. Lily's colt was loaded up into their trailer and off they went.
Mom asked all 10 of us to come over tonight to make some plans and important decisions with her. She is 82 years old and for some reason wants us all to agree on those all important end of life decisions such as DNR (do not resuscitate) no feeding tube, no CPR. Spark opened with a prayer then Diane says, "tonight mom, it really is all about YOU!" We were discussing who to put down as power of attorney in the health field when Rachel said, "don't pick Judy, she would just call the vet and skip the hospital all together. In fact she would probably make mom pay the farm call then schedule an ultrasound on a mare as long as the vet was out anyway." We couldn't pick Joan, her phone won't work most of the time, and Ruth gives her phone to her children all the time, John, Dan, Karin and Beth live too far away which left Spark, Diane or Rachel so those three are now in charge. The paper work was filled out and signed and now we wait. Hopefully for another 20 years or so. The only thing discouraging is mom pretty much told us she gets to go first and will not accept any of us jumping to the front of the line.

Awesome

The one word to describe today was AWESOME! We have heard that word is used too often and no longer holds the meaning it should hold but today that word is the only word that must be used. Church was filled with hundreds of voices praising God. Oh for a thousand tongues to tell how much it meant to us old people to see our future church worshiping our Lord. Below is a short video taken of the ISU AC young group singing Awesome God then multiply that group over and over, just imagine the delight on our ears and hearts today.

When All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name that's number 80 in the Hymns of Zion was given one could for sure feel and almost see the praise soaring up to heaven. Then to top off the day Peoria had 2 wedding announcements. Peoria sister Larissa Feucht was announced to Tristan Herrmann from Princeville while Tim Funk's son Isaac was announced to a sister from Atlanta, GA. No one wanted to leave.
Mark offered to give Nick a ride home from church to his dad's house in Pekin, IL which worked out well. We were going to run out of grain tomorrow and I am babysitting tomorrow and wasn't sure how I could get the grain before running out. Well Nick lives near Big R so in we ran still in our church clothes and bought 500 pounds. We had all kinds of people offering to help. Probably thinking we were someone famous or something. Who shops at Big R in their very best clothes?
We had a big group show up for volley ball this evening. The weather was perfect for playing. Below are a few pictures of the evening.

 Above and Below Tate is showing me his tricks on the trampoline.

 Caleb serving the ball.

 Of course a few pictures of the actual games must be posted. 

 Below Spark, Jacob, Andi and their son Charlie are hiking over to watch the games and join in when a new player was needed.

Charlie had fun with a volley ball. We start them young around here.

 Later Spark and mom made a nice hot camp fire. The evening was cool and the fire felt great.

 We stayed around visiting until it just plain got late. Mark is already in bed and I'll be heading there just as soon as the coffee is made for tomorrow. Thank You GOD for giving us such a wonderful blessed day.