Introducing Iris Hope Bork

Lee sent this text this morning:  31 hours after our arrival at the hospital we are thrilled to announce the birth of Iris Hope Bork at 6:51 AM.  Baby and mom are doing great. Pictures, weight and length coming soon.

WE learned she weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long.  She latched right on and has been nursing well.  We are so thrilled and thankful that Iris is here and can't wait to introduce her to the rest of the family.  CONGRATULATIONS RHODA AND LEE!
Horse news today was Karin and I took Jenis and Sangria out on the 'death trails' this morning. Believe it or not this was the first time I've ever gone on the entire trail and was kind of shocked at how steep the hills, narrow the trails, how big the ditch was to jump and how deep the second creek crossing was. Some of the hills are so steep and long the horses need to get into a gallop to make them up. Sangria carried me safely, even going down muddy slippery steep hills and the narrow turns without tripping or running my leg into a tree. I'm amazed at how sure footed the horses are, mostly from living at Middle Grove.  Karin let me lead when we got to where I recognized the trail and knew where I was going.  Just as we started cantering into the next field Studley flushed out a turkey which caused Jenis to swerve and Sangria to bolt. I was really thrilled to know even if she bolts within 2 strides she was back under control. What good horses we have.
The next trail ride happened at noon. Joan's company was leaving and the kids wanted to get in one more ride before their long road trip.  Sangria and Jenis were needed for the second trail ride and Karin pulled out Lily, Star, Bunni, Sally, and Cookie to make sure each rider had his or her own horse. Below is the first creek crossing.

 Lily's colt had fun jumping in. 

 They all had a good gallop in the big field. 

 Below they are heading back to the barn. 

Thankful to have so many well behaved horses here for guests.  This afternoon it was too hot to do much other than hose down horses and clean the barn.  As soon as Mark got home we drove to Bloomington to visit our brand new grand daughter Iris Hope.
Sarah and Nolan left before us and told us Interstate 74 was backed up for miles so we took route 9. Slower and through small towns but still made it there in an hour. On the way home from the hospital we took the Interstate as it was not backed up going west. Going east was still backed up for miles with crawling or stopped traffic.
A nice update came in from Jamie Stone the owner of Legacy,  a coming 2 year old Valiant daughter out of their mare Dakota. She sent the picture below:

Wow is the word that comes to mind. What a beautiful filly!