Mother's Gift

Today was the annual Mother's Day gift to mom. The work day and we awoke to a thunder storm. Thankfully the rain stopped by the starting time of 9:00 am and we had a good turnout of helpers. Mark actually started early using the skid steer to clean out a couple paddocks.

Shaeya showed up to help and was put to work feeding. 

We headed over to mom's about 8:45 am. The work day is suppose to start at 9:00 am but in our family if you aren't 15 minutes early you are considered late. Below are a few pictures of the morning.

 One of the bigger projects this year was to replace the boards going down to the lake. We thought we only had to replace a few boards but it turned out the landscape timber below was all rotten. Joan ran to the lumber yard and picked up the material needed for this job.

Fedi was working on installing the awning over mom's balcony and kept telling Spark, Dan and Joan that they were doing it wrong. Spark or Dan told him, "Don't worry about it Fedi, we got it covered."  Below is how they took care of the problem if they were doing it wrong.

I'd say that was a smart way of covering it. 

We got so much done so quickly with all this good help that we quit a little early for lunch and that was a good thing. It started sprinkling while we were eating our lunch and by the time lunch was over we were having a steady drizzle.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from the work day click HERE. 

Karin and Shaeya decided to go riding anyway hoping that the drizzle would stop but about 15 minutes into the ride the rain was more than a drizzle, coming down at a good clip and downright cold. Today Karin took Star and her colt while Shaeya took Missy and her filly.

Both mares did well. This was the first time Star had been ridden in over a year. Karin said she was a little nervous checking on her colt a lot but didn't do anything bad. Missy was great as usual.
They had to untack them in the stall barn as Mark and I were wrapping a round bale for the breeding shed shelter in the indoor. As soon as we got that bale moved into the breeding shed they were put into that paddock.  Jewel was let out back with Ayanna and Soul. Jewel is now in her foal heat and was covered today by Evan. This afternoon Ayanna started hanging around Evan's paddock so I'm pretty sure she is also in. I'll have to try her tomorrow after church.
Mark was able to finish cleaning Evan's paddock. He put down fabric by the waterer then gravel there and by the gate and the shelter laid down lime.  He also got the paddock next to Evan's done the same way. This will help with the mud later but means I can't use this paddock for mares with foals by their side. Foals have been known to eat the lime and it will kill them. We have never had it happen but one of our customers lost a purebred Friesian filly this way so I'm extra careful. Once it has been rained on and is hard it is usually ok to use.  This evening Karin, Joan, Sarah, Hannah and I met over at mom's house. Amy arrived with her grand daughter Olivia to see the foals. We stayed at mom's and played games until after 9:00 pm. As soon as I left there I went straight up to the barn to check on Madeira. Her udder is the same but it is cold and rainy and her paddock is out of hay so Madeira and Marika were moved into the stalls for the night. Tomorrow morning I'll move a new bale in that shelter then put them out for the day. It doesn't hurt for Madeira to start getting use to being in a stall as she is due in 3 days.