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!