Nancy's Birthday

After the excitement of our early morning surprise of the birth of Lola's colt by Valiant,

I came in and cooked breakfast. Mark went right out to work on cleaning up some of the mess from tearing down the siding of the house and I went back out to check on Marika and Galena. Galena was picking on Marika chasing her away from the hay in the indoor. Marika is much to heavy in foal to be subject to that kind of behavior.

 Galena was scolded. 

Both of those mares had to go back into a stall which meant Lola and her colt were taken out to the indoor arena where they will spend the next few days. I left then for Morton, IL to pick up Nancy. Today is her birthday and we had eggs to dye.

 She was the only one dying eggs today, all of my grand children are hundreds of miles away so she got all the colors and all the eggs. 

 After we finished with that she opened her birthday gift of a Horsemeister sweatshirt. I think Nancy is 54 years old this year. 

 Next we went out to clean stalls. Nancy was put to work with the fork. 

 Below she is petting Galena. 

Her very favorite job at the barn was grooming Marika. She just couldn't help but giggle as she brushed her down well. 

 After all the jobs in the barn were finished we came back into the house and Nancy had to find the Easter Basket mom made for her.  She had to hunt hard for it and was thrilled when she found it.

 We put some of the dyed eggs in her basket. 

 We left around noon for her birthday lunch at Avanti's for her very favorite meal spaghetti.

For those that don't know Nancy's story, she was bit by a mosquito when she was 2 and a half years old and contracted encephalitis. This severely damaged her brain. Nancy is a happy person, she loves her family and loves to help.
After she was taken home Emily Cooksey came over to work with Valiant but first I asked her to help test Marika and Galena. I was disappointed in the results, Marika's calcium level didn't even hit 80 and it needs to be 250 or below. We couldn't even get enough colostrum out of Galena to test but hers was even more clear than Marika's. Neither mare will be delivering for the next few days but this doesn't mean they can go back outside. We are expecting SNOW so I'm not taking any chances. Is winter ever going to leave?
Valiant was excellent for Emily today until she brought out the brand new saddle pad. He thought it smelled dangerous.

Each time she brought it near, he would take off sure it was going to do something to him.

He finally decided it must be ok if Emily is holding it and stood quietly for tacking. She had a really good ride on him. No bucking, perfect transitions from walk, to trot and trot to canter.

If you would like to see the rest of his pictures from today click HERE. 

Mark grilled chicken, peppers and onions tonight. We had planned it for tomorrow but the weather is suppose to be too cold outside for grilling. It is dropping down to 24 degrees tonight with a chance of snow tomorrow. 

The bunch of family down in Gulf Shores is having beautiful warm SUNNY weather. Sarah sent back these two pictures of Nolan's catch today right off the beach.

The family down in Texas are also having a great time and also have warm SUNNY weather.

Anna posted these pictures.

 Above is their trip down with Hux the puppy. Anna said he traveled surprisingly well. Below they are enjoying Ben and Taunya's pool and hot tub. 

Anna actually posted quite a few pictures, if you would like to see them click HERE. I'm glad everyone is enjoying the warm sunshine and someday we too will have warm weather. At least I HOPE so!

We HAVE SPOTS

The best laid plans always have a way of not working out. Last night Marika and Galena were kept in the foaling stalls under the camera as both of them have a lot of waxing. Lola was checked and she had none, instead of putting her in a stall she was left out as she was very content eating away at the big round bale in the shelter.  Early this morning I heard something, checked the monitors so thought all is well and didn't go out until 5:45 am. Imagine my surprise to see Lola with a foal. He was born in the shelter but when trying to stand ended up falling into some mud. Then when I was trying to get them out of the paddock we had to walk through some sloppy mud getting those bright white legs muddy. He was less than a hour old at 5:45 so best estimate of his birth time is 4:30 am March 31st, 2018. I ran down to the house to get warm water to clean him up. Oh my, why did we want spots? Do you know how hard it is to clean just born bright white legs covered in mud?  After cleaning him off the best I could his cord was well iodined.  Lola wasn't any better. Yesterday I noticed her laying down sleeping, she had picked a dry spot but then rolled and rubbed it in good. Hopefully today she can be cleaned up. I just snapped these two pictures of her new beautifully marked colt and will get better pictures once he dries and they both can be cleaned up better.

He is a big strong colt and nursing well. The vet clinic is closed today so will have to wait until Monday to pick up a foal shot for him. I'll have to watch him closely to make sure there are no ramifications of his outside birth and then trying to nurse off a dirty mare. I usually clean the udders well before a mare gives birth but that didn't even happen. Thankfully we had no rain until they were safe inside. It is pouring out right now. 

UPDATE they were moved into the indoor arena because Galena isn't getting along with Marika. Both those mares are back in the foaling stalls and the pictures below of Lola's new colt taken at 8:30 am a few hours after birth.

This is a beautiful colt, nice and strong and very very tall.  Lola and Valiant did very well. 

Good Friday

 We had a long walk this morning. Ruth was off work, while Diane, Joan and I were not in a hurry. We walked for over an hour.  Nice to have this morning and even nicer that the sun was shining. Right after the walk Rosalie and her filly were turned out in the field. Claire is quite athletic for just 5 days old, showing off all kinds of movement.

She has just perfect conformation. She with her well set on long neck, short back and long legs. Her owner is going to be thrilled with her.  While they were out playing, the arena was cleaned up and then Marika and Galena's stalls. Next I took the golf cart over to the cabin field to grain Anna and Hadassah. I had to go back for the camera. They were grazing down toward the bottom of the field and the sun was shining.

They were called back up but when they realized this time there was no grain they took off running back down to the bottom.

 Above is Hadassah and her filly by Evan and below is Anna and her colt by Valiant. 

Hadassah's filly showed off some of that really really nice movement.

Check out that arched neck on this filly. She is going to be a stunner when full grown. Even though she is only 75% Friesian, she will look so much like a purebred Friesian that no one will be able to tell the difference. She is also for sale for only $5000.00. She is gorgeous with her coal black velvety soft coat, plus has that oh so important added ability to be bred at age 3 to a Friesian stallion earning all of her price plus back with her very first foal. If anyone out there has been wanting to start their own Friesian business this filly is a great start at quality. 

When I got back from the cabin field I had to take a few pictures of our ice sculptures still standing. These started out as piles of snow from when Mark plowed during that last snow storm and survived days of rain but today the sun was melting them pretty quickly. It only hit 50 degrees out but the sun made everything feel warm. 

Today we got a good start on the siding of the house tearing down all the old stuff all the way down to the old red.

Mark had a late estimate tonight and when he got home was not feeling well, complaining of a scratchy throat. I'm still coughing from the cold I picked up in St. Louis so we decided to stay home from church tonight and listen on-line. Greg Rumbold had the service describing the Crucifixion of our Lord in detail. To think Jesus bore all that abuse, the pain, and death willingly. Hard to imagine leaving the splendor of heaven to come here knowing He would be crucified for my sin, He did it for me. How can I not love Him how can I not thank Him, how can I not serve Him! 

Importance of Words

Last night I wrote on the blog about Marika waxing. On our walk today Joan got a text from her very good friend Kathy who wrote," I found out it is VERY important to type in pregnant mare when googling waxing."  I'm so old school that I was wondering why images of a lady waxing a kitchen floor would be risque until they explained what other meaning waxing has. 
Well today I have two mares waxing. Galena also started today.

It isn't much, just a few drops on each teat but this will be Galena's first foal so no taking chances she will deliver outside. We don't want to risk Galena rejecting the foal so from now on she must be stalled. She is a huge mare and eats a lot, so much that it comes out the overflow on the other end which must be scooped out every few hours to keep that stall pristine for the coming foal. We are anxious to see what Galena throws, just maybe we will get spots.
I spent the morning in down town Peoria at the Federal court house. I sat right next to Cassie, Earl Ringger's daughter and we had a good visit while waiting for the case to come up which was then continued for 90 days. Typical courts. 
On the way home I had to stop at Meisters as they needed a copy of my drivers license and just as I was walking into the shop door my phone went off. It was Mark asking me to come to Meisters so they could get a copy of my drivers license. How is that for a quick response.
Rebecca, Rosalie's filly's new owner was here at the farm playing with her filly which is now officially named Claire. She had haltered her, picked up her hooves and gave her lots of good instructions. It was hard for Rebecca to say goodbye to Claire to travel home to Georgia.
The first group left this afternoon for Gulf Shores taking the big van with 10 people including the Sauders, Karin, Sarah & Nolan, Zion, Jessica and Anni. Mom is spending the night at Dan and Susan's house tonight, they will leave early in the morning for their trip to Gulf Shores. Mike and Diane also leave Friday morning. David, Stephanie, Israel and Elisabet are leaving early Saturday morning for Gulf Shores.  Phil and Anna and the girls are already on their way to Dallas to visit Ben, Tauyna, Addyson, Jake, Jace and Abe. It's going to be pretty dead around here over Easter.

Surprise Birthday Party

Today is Karin's birthday but that wasn't who was surprised. More on that later. On our walk today we could hear Kabur and Ebby barking like they had something treed or they were stuck and it sounded far away. Turned out Ebby was inside a fallen log barking at some critter. Kabur was on the other end trying to flush out what ever was in that old log.

 A nice fat possum was the animal being harassed by Ebby and Kabur.  Joan took the picture below, not sure how she was able to get inside the log to take it, I had left for work.

As soon as I got home from the Berean office today Rosalie and her filly were brought in and stalled and the indoor arena cleaned up. I was just haltering the filly when Rebecca arrived all the way from Georgia to see her. It really was love at first sight. By the end of the visit this filly was enjoying the attention and scratches from her new owner. 

 We took them out to the arena which was a sloppy wet mess to see her move then into the field. While Rosalie was grazing a bit the filly was galloping circles around her. 

 She posed very pretty and held it for a plenty of pictures. These Friesians are born knowing how to pose. 

The paper work was done and the filly was marked sold.  Rebecca is going to name her and really likes the name Claire but I won't send in the paper work to register her until she knows for sure.  Mark found a way to speed up the siding process on the house.  Tom is going to start soon on finishing this year long project.

Now for the birthday party surprise story. Karin arranged for all of mom's kids to meet at Gils Supper Club Wednesday night for her 86th birthday.  Mom's birthday is March 30th but she is leaving tomorrow for Gulf Shores so a couple days ago Karin asked mom if she would take her out to eat at Gils Supper Club for HER birthday Wednesday night  then told mom, "I'll take you to DeSoto's in Gulf Shores on your birthday." Mom agreed to the plan and was telling me about taking Karin out for her birthday when she asked, "what are you doing Wednesday night, would you like to go?"  I answered, "I'd LOVE to go, Mark already has plans."  I picked her up just a couple minutes late so the rest of the family could beat us there. Was mom ever shocked when we walked in and saw everyone. Since Spark's birthday is the same day as mom's we celebrated his also, then of course we had to celebrate Karin's which is actually today and Nancy too as hers is the 31st of March. 

 Joan brought balloons for Nancy to take home. 

 Nancy shocked us, when she opened up one of her gifts and says, "It's a Horsemeister shirt!"  We were surprised she would know that. 

 She is so much fun with gifts. Mom gave her a card with $3.00 in it. Nancy grabbed those bills out quick. She knows about shopping too.

 Diane lit the candles. 

 Nancy blew them out. 

 It is so much fun spending the evening together before a bunch of the family takes off for Gulf Shores. We were very thankful for Dan and Susan picking up Nancy. Mom was really surprised. Gils is a great place for birthday parties.
After supper Karin came over to check out the van for their trip and helped me bring in Marika and Lola. Rosalie and her filly were moved back over to the indoor. Marika is heavily waxing. She does not seem to be in labor but with this amount of wax I can't imagine her holding out more than a few days. Praying for a safe delivery for her, she was the mare Amy Koch and I had to run to U of I in the middle of the night for an emergency C section in 2016. She is standing quietly now but the monitor will be checked a lot tonight. So thankful for that foaling camera system.