Trail Ride Middle Grove

Mark and I had a lovely day here exploring the Rochester area and visiting the Sekape orchard. The colors are brilliant this time of year. Below are a few pictures of the orchard which is right outside the city of Rochester.

We picked a bag of a few of the many varieties of apples to take back to the apartment and shared a huge one for our lunch. It really was delicious. We also brought back 3 ears of sweet corn and 1 big ripe tomato.  As I was getting ready to put the pictures from the orchard on the computer I found a folder from March that may or may not have ever been posted. It was fun looking through the pictures.

 sure brought back a lot of happy memories from the March 2017 IL Horse Fair held in Springfield, IL.

If you would like to see the rest of these pictures click HERE. For supper Mark picked up a pizza. We also ate the ears of corn which were just delicious.  Later Mark walked to the local IHOP.

It was actually closed but the door was propped open so Mark went in. There were 5 people inside having a light supper. They had a good visit then prayed with him.
This evening Karin called to report about the day. Titiana is still in and Kayla helped Karin get her covered by Valiant. She won't be teased again until Monday. Sangria and her filly are doing well. Karin took 7 people out to Middle Grove for a trail ride. She said the day was beautiful and the horses were magnificent. Those were actually her words. Everyone had a great time. Riders and horses were Anni riding Ayanna, Karin riding big Rosalie (Lily's daughter) Melinda riding Jenis, Jessica riding Anna, Shelby riding Zalena, Rebekah riding Missy and Ava (Rebekah's exchange student) riding Cookie. Melinda took a few pictures and posted them for me.

The horses at Middle Grove are all doing well. Karin just put 7 sets of tack in her car and drove to where the horses were then tacked them up and off they went.
Joan is now home from Gulf Shores and Diane and Mike made it down there today. They are joining Beth and Greg and mom who are already there. Spark and Rhonda are heading down tomorrow.

"If I ONLY had a Brain"

The song that keeps running through my mind today is from the Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow singing, "if I only had a brain." They found my brain today but it took them about an hour. The good news was no aneurysm in there but unfortunately they found something else that was not so good. I'll find out more on Monday afternoon for now we just want to rest and relax. Tomorrow we plan on exploring this beautiful area. There are orchards to visit, the leaves are gorgeous up here by the river and the weather is perfect.
Karin called to report that Titiana got covered last night. She got home and had to do this job in the dark but Valiant got the job done.

Rochester

This morning on the walk, Rhonda gave me a robe. I stuffed it in the suitcase making us good to go. Mark had an estimate in Canton, IL and I had a few things needing done at the shop but we were both ready to leave by 11:00 am. The drive took us 6 hours but we stopped once for gas and a meal at Taco Bell. When we arrived at the apartment the keys Brittany gave us did not work and someone else was parked number 5, the spot she assigned to us. We were a little worried we might be at the wrong apartment building. Brittany was organized though, she was afraid the keys wouldn't work and had left another set in a lock box and the person parked in number 5 left. The apartment is very nice. Below are pictures taken after we moved in. The door to the apartment opens into the living room.

 The couch is comfortable and can be moved together to make a bed.

The kitchen is pictured below

There are two bedrooms.The first bedroom has a double bed and the green chair is a recliner.

 The second bedroom is the master, it has a queen bed and also a couch in the room. There is a full bath smack dab between the two bedrooms with doors going into each.  Mark and I took the master bedroom as we are the only ones staying here until Monday.

Ben will be flying in on Monday while Rhoda and Lee are driving up Monday. There will be plenty of room for sleeping. Mark went for a walk this evening walking all 10 blocks to Mayo Clinic then the 10 blocks back while I unpacked and started supper. The only problem is the stove didn't work. I think we are the first ones to stay here. We were able to pull it away from the wall and found that it just hadn't been plugged in yet. The apartment has a back door and when Mark opened it we found the dead bolt wasn't quite lined up. He got his trusty tools out and got that working too. 

Karin is staying at our house and was going to tease and cover Titiana if she is still showing. Haven't heard yet if she is out or still in. I need to be at the hospital early tomorrow morning. Tomorrow a CT scan is on the schedule. We will find out then if I have a brain....or maybe that was if I have a brain aneurysm. They want to check that before I have surgery, as mom had an aneurysm in her brain that burst in 2002.

What To Pack

Our walk today was full of laughter, at ourselves. Ruth, Diane and I were sharing our lists of what not to do. After the walk I drove first to Sam's Club to pick up a bag of dog food for Emma then to Berean arriving about a half hour early. I knew Rhoda was coming today and we had a full day planned. Cindy, Mary and Robin were great to work with.

Cindy and I had all the Bible requests entered and printed out while Mary and Robin were wrapping the Bibles. I left at 9:30 am and passed Bill Schick who was on his way to pick up the Bibles for mailing. As soon as I got home I drove straight up to the round pen. Rhoda was there working with Titiana.

While waiting for her to get ready to ride I grabbed Sangria and her 2 day old filly for a few pictures. The very first thing Sangria does each time she enters the arena is drop and roll. The next few pictures show how confused her filly was.

 Instead of backing up, she walked right between Sangria's legs as she was getting ready to stand. 

 Sangria just sat there trying to figure out how to stand without hurting the filly. 

She finally just stood up and the filly took off running.

These two were put away so I could concentrate on Rhoda and Titiana. Today she wanted to ask her to trot. 

 When Rhoda asked Titiana scooted forward quickly. Notice how Rhoda is completely relaxed. She just sat calmly telling Titiana, good girl. 

The second ask was much better. Rhoda trotted her just a few steps each direction.

 Then praised her, got off, and finished with a bow.

As soon as she was put away I backed the stock trailer into the barn and we started loading mares and foals for the trip to Middle Grove. As I'm going to be gone for a couple weeks we wanted as many horses out there as possible. The first trip out we took Rosaleigh, Roxanne and their two colts in the front of the trailer and Sally with Eli her foster son in the back. I forgot to take the camera out as they were unloaded but Rhoda took these two pictures from the road as we were driving away, Roxanne and Rosaleigh were heading up the hill.

 Sally had to stop to graze. 

The second trip we took Indy, her filly Envy, Zalena and Tori.

 Above Indy is getting ready to get out of the trailer and below Envy is checking out this brand new place. Envy has never been to Middle Grove as she is only 2 months old and Indy hadn't been bred back to Evan yet. 

 Tori started walking but pretty quickly decided to stop and graze.

 She is such a gorgeous mare. We are thrilled she is confirmed in foal by Valiant. She is due Aug 17th, 2018. 

Check out that LONG thick mane and tail on Envy in the picture below. She for sure inherited the mega hair of both her sire Evan and her dam Indy. 

It didn't take long for the horses to start running up the hill to find the rest of the herd. 

We got back in time for a late lunch then of course had to play with the puppies. Below is the female puppy, the only puppy still left for sale out of Ruby's litter of 3.  She had been nursing and had a milk mustache. 

 Amy Koch arrived and had to play with puppies too. They are just so cute. Amy stayed and visited and we really enjoyed the afternoon. Is there anything more special than a friendship that has lasted over 60 years? This evening the sky put on quite a show. The entire sky was purple, pink, and gold. The picture below was taken up by the house.

 By the time I got to the edge of the field just the lower part of the sky was still bright with color.

This evening Mark and I were trying to pack for this trip to Mayo Clinic but I don't know what to pack. It isn't like we are going on vacation. I pulled out the instruction sheet and it says I need to have a robe and slippers. I don't have a robe and my slippers had to be pulled from the back of the closet and put in the washer. I don't think I've worn slippers since the hip surgery. Oh well they are in the dryer now.