Our First Deep Freeze

We woke up to the coldest morning this season so far, only 17 degrees.  Mark and I split wood pretty much all morning.  Bill and Bethany arrived with their two sons, Joshua and William and they along with all of Joan's kids were put right to work hauling, splitting and stacking the last of the wood pile at our house and most of the logs over at Joan's house.

Mom took a quick trip to Christ Orchard and brought back some wonderful Jonathan apples for the pies she will make for Thanksgiving. She shared them around to everyone out here. Below she has just dropped off apples at our place and given Faith a bunch to take over to Joan's house.

Bill took the truck over to unload at Joan's.

Faith was put to work on the little Kubota stacking the wood Mark had split earlier then driving it over to the pile and dumping it.

Below is a short video of just some of the work done around here today.

Mark took the big Kubota over to work on splitting the diseased oak tree he took down earlier.

Sarah parked the little Kubota in front of Mark's so Mackenson could load it easier.

Sarah, Bill, Mark and Mackenson worked on splitting those logs until late afternoon.

Karin had arrived earlier and already worked Valiant when the picture below was taken. She had just put Valiant back in the field and had gotten out Galena for training.

Bethany, Hannah, Faith and Berlica had to quit at noon as Karin had the very first vaulting practice for the 2019 Illinois Horse Fair scheduled. Bethany had agreed to help the girls with a new vaulting routine just for this show. By the way Bethany is 6 months pregnant with she and Bill's baby GIRL!
Bill and Bethany's son Joshua had fun waiting on Oksana while Bethany worked with the girls on the barrel.

 Once they had tried the routine on the barrel they tried it on Oksana at the stand. 

 Joshua was happy playing with Studley. 

 But soon got bored,

  either that or tired as the next picture shows. 

I left at 1:30 pm for Sam's club. Mom's Christmas pictures were done there and needing to be picked up and of course I had groceries to buy. The pictures were picked up first, then the shopping and it wasn't until the cart was being emptied that I realized my wallet had been left at home. I had to go get a temporary card and thankfully had a checkbook to pay for the groceries. 

Phil and Anna left early this morning for their 10th anniversary trip.  Anna sent the picture below:

Do you think they are adding insult to our injury with our frigid temperatures here and their 89 degree no humidity, bright sunshine, and gorgeous blue sea water there? 

 It never warmed up today but the sun was out and we got a tremendous amount of work done and I am very thankful. We are comfortably sitting in a warm house, our bellies are full and we have food for tomorrow...and the next day and the next day. God IS Good!