Lanae Christ

The picture below was taken early this morning just as the sun was lighting up the trees with gold. I enjoy sitting on our front porch with my coffee each morning while reading and listening to the noisy neighbors (the birds) singing and calling to each other each trying to compete over the sound of the frogs, occasional fox call and the sound of cows bawling for their breakfast way off in the distance.

We had a Spirit filled Sunday. Tim Roecker had the morning service that left the listeners convicted, comforted, and thankful then Tim Funk followed that up with the afternoon service taking over when Tim left off. Both sermons were exactly what I needed and both will be listened to again. So glad we have that AC central website. At lunch I happened to sit next to Lanae Christ. She showed me some of the murals she has done for people and they were so good I would like to share them here. The three below she was painting during the home show down at the civic center as people were milling around watching.

Such talent. If you would like to see more of her work feel free to visit our Facebook page by clicking HERE. Don't forget to LIKE her page. She also does portraits of pets and showed me some amazing horse paintings done with charcoal and pastels. Each was about 3ft by 4ft and the detail was true to life. Check out the detail in the picture below:

Of course every reader of this blog would know what this is a picture of but Lanae told me so many people ask her, "what IS it?"
This afternoon a bunch showed up for the usual Sunday volley ball.

 Willow gave golf cart rides. 

 We heard the sound of Mike's jeep hitting a tree, looked over it was. Mike had a little accident with his jeep a couple weeks ago, actually a tree fell on it during a storm and when Mike pulled the tree off he was thrilled to see no damage. He moved the jeep away so he could clean up the branches but left the jeep in neutral and it rolled into a tree bending the right side of the bumper. 

 He was going to have Fede help him straighten it tonight but instead Fede suggested he ram the other side of the bumper into a tree until that side matched. Now it looks like a custom bend. Perfect!

 Below are a few pictures of the evening. 

 Above Sarah and Rebekah are talking to Ruth and below was a good volley ball action shot.

 Some of the volleys tonight were very entertaining. One volley in particular went on and on with slams, digs, blocks and hits. When the volley was over everyone on the sidelines clapped. 

 They played game after game and when they finally got tired and walked off the court the young ones grabbed the court to play too. 

 We so much enjoy our Sunday evenings. 

Indy Out

We had another cool morning making it easy to tease mares. Indy was showing a little but since she was covered yesterday I decided to wait until tonight, tease her again and see if she would be out and by this evening she was.
Today Mark and I replaced a broken gate while Emily and her sister Laura worked on broken boards and automatic waterers. Behind Emily is Rosaleigh.

Once they finished with that they fixed the wire that was down between Valiant's pasture and the mare pasture.  The gate below was one of the original gates I bought in 2003 when I didn't realize we needed the heavy duty red gates.

Back then I thought a gate was a gate but not when we are dealing with Ribbon the Rhino and other big mares that like to lean. We hauled it out of the paddock then went to the cabin field where Mike had replaced a 12 foot green gate with 2 big red gates. That green gate is not in the best shape with some rust but still should last a few years.  Once the green gate was hung the horses were let back out into the pond pasture. Shelby and Margie Shick's daughter came to ride Missy and Cookie.

 After the ride they hosed down both horses then took them back to the cabin field. 

It was Karin's idea to keep these two mares here all summer. We should have plenty of hay this year so we don't mind feeding them here as long as they are being used.
Rachel posted a couple more pictures of the group down at Current River.

 Above a couple of the campers are trout fishing and below Anni is bringing home the next meal. Looks like they are having a great time. The water there is spring fed and always cold making it perfect to raise trout and perfect to cool off during those hot Missouri summers. 

Rosaleigh Out

Rosaleigh was teased before feeding and very emphatically said, "no". She was marked out then the horses fed. Anna dropped off the girls a little after 8:00 am and when she sent the text that she was on her way we, the walkers, were at our farthest point. I had to book it to make it back in time. The morning was cool, making the outside job list a joy to do.

 Above Braelyn is pulling weeds and taking them to 'her burn pile', below Emily is raking the round pen with her helpers Braelyn and Taegan. 

 Above Taegan is helping Emily rake the outdoor arena and below Braelyn is watering the indoor arena while Emily and Taegan rake. 

 Above the girls are playing on the hay bales, below Emily and Kensley are throwing rocks out of the arena. 

 Above the girls are helping Emily mow the paddocks, below Braelyn is decorating the grass with driveway dust. 

 Above Taegan is petting Jewel's filly and below Eliza's colt is coming over to see the girls in the round pen. Around here we lock up the kids and let the horses run loose. 

 Above they are taking an ice cream cone break and below Kensley is kissing Ebby while sharing her cone. 

 Above the girls are jumping off the top of the golf cart unto the tramp and below Studley is just making sure Zero minds. 

 They were swinging when Anna arrived to pick them up around noon. We had a fun Friday morning.

 Above Kensley is flying in the swing and below is Taegan. 

 Braelyn is big enough to swing all by herself. 

This afternoon I worked on the next set of foal registrations getting out 5 more to Friesian Heritage Horse then worked on the half Andalusian registration before getting frustrated and stopping. That IALHA registry is just so much more expensive and harder to fill out than the FHH and it must be done in 3 steps. First the paper work needs to be sent in then the IALHA will send back a DNA kit which will have to be filled out and sent in then they will send the microchip which needs to be inserted with a HUGE needle. So far I've asked Dr. Hoerr or Dr. Pallen to do them but maybe this year I'll try it myself. The IALHA registry process takes months and is $220.00 for each foal. 

Mom invited Mark, me, Ruth, Fede, Ryan, and Rhonda for dinner tonight and served a delicious steak dinner with all the fixins. Ryan took the picture below for us. Our shirts were all so colorful.

After our meal we played Mexican Train, Rhonda smeared us all!

Current River

WE FINALLY heard from the group camping at Current River

 Above Jessica is holding a prize catch of a rainbow trout and below Karin is fishing for their breakfast. 

Looks like they are surviving on fish. Diane was helping Mike on Joan's mower before the walk. We were all admiring her muscles until she let go and walked away.

The mower was balanced perfectly. That mower has served the area well, dad bought it years ago but now is not working and Joan needs to find out if it is worth fixing.
Since Rosaleigh was covered yesterday this morning was Indy's turn. She is still in and stood well. Sure hoping one of these mares goes out soon, I think Jewel is coming in too and Jenis is due to come in next week. All of these mares are for Evan as Jewel and Indy are Valiant's half sisters and Jenis is Valiant's mother.

Eliza was just taken into the stall for her grain then turned out to graze in the big field while we walked. Joan, Diane and Ruth were more than willing to help get her and her colt back inside the pasture so I could take off for the Berean office. 

The Bibles still haven't come in so David S, Joan and Ruth were all told not to come. To read about our easy morning click HERE. 

As soon as Emily got back from her final we loaded up Zalena and her filly Adara for a trip out to Middle Grove. We had two reasons for going. Adara's abscess is now healed so these 2 could go out and we needed to pull hair from Sheena's colt for the registration papers that are going out tomorrow.

The mud had dried up at Middle Grove so we were able to drive in and up the hill to find the herd. They were no where in sight. We let Zalena out, she called to them and they answered. Zalena and Adara took off to meet them.

 Above the mares are waiting for Zalena and below Emily is petting April, Lola's filly by Valiant. 

 Above Lily had just had a good roll and was getting up while her daughter Joanna was watching. Below the horses discovered the truck and trailer and quickly surrounded it. If the trailer doors would have been left open they would have all tried to push their way inside. They are just so curious about that trailer. 

 I got in the truck and started honking the horn to get them out of the way but that didn't seem to work so Emily had to go shoo them off.

 They took off for the big puddles and decided to cool of. Below is Roxanne enjoying a good roll in the puddle.

When we got home Emily worked on weed whacking and mowing while I did laundry. Eliza and Marika were turned out together for the first time. Marika's colt has never been with another foal since his mom was on a month of stall rest. He wasn't sure about Eliza's colt and came running back to Emily.

Later they were put in with the other mares. Marika is so smart she went across the pond and stood under a shade tree taking Eliza with her. This evening after supper Mark and I went to Lowes for a tool.