Doomed

We had a hot morning with the sun shining bright but no rain in sight thankfully. Ryan, our farmer was going to come rake after church this afternoon then bale except...first he needed to bale a neighbor's field and by the time he got out our field he was running out of time. We weren't expecting any rain, the national weather service reported we weren't expecting rain but by the time Ryan got to the second field, he ran out of net wrap and ran out of time. A big wall cloud holding rain moved in and of course the field got dumped on. This hay was doomed from the start.
We had a good day in church and after church we had dinner at mom's, swimming, fishing and plenty of golf cart rides.  After church we had the usual volley ball games. They were very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch. The camera today was not taken out at all. Today is a day of rest, at least for me.

5 MORE PUPPIES

Sarah sent a message that Arrieta was in labor. By the time Arrieta finished she had 5 beautiful puppies. Three females and two male pups.

Arrieta always has gorgeous fat fluffy puppies and each one of these are going to be just as adorable as her last litter. The video below is of Arrieta's puppies from the litter in 2018 playing with Emma.

Phil and Anna's girls were there as she was having her puppies.  As Arrietta was busy, and Maddie's puppies are only 2 days old they got to hold Rizzy's 4 day old Cavapoo puppies for a picture.

Rizzy's puppies are also adorable and have beautiful markings. Below are a couple pictures of Rizzy's past puppies.

Rizzy and Arrieta's puppies are priced at only $1200.00 each. They will be well socialized, have a start on potty training and will come with a started pack of their food.  Sarah also makes sure they have their first set of shots and will be de-wormed. They will have their dew claws removed and each will be vet checked. If a new puppy is in your future you may want to reserve one of these  puppies. They really are sweet.

This morning I went shopping at Sam's early then worked with Karin. Karin brought Hadassah into the stall for more clicker training. As Hadassah has been hard to catch in the past, Karin is using the halter as a target. Karin would hold the halter out and each time Hadassah would touch it with her nose Karin would press the clicker and give Hadassah a treat.  Hadassah is very smart and she learned that pretty quickly.

Next Hadassah was brought into the round pen.

She really is a beautiful mare. I took a few pictures for the website.

That is going very very well. We feel we have a break through with her and she is now relaxing with us.  Rosaleigh and her filly were worked with next. Rosaleigh's filly was having fun playing during some of the training.

I'm actually surprised this filly isn't sold yet. She is EVERYTHING anyone would want in a Friesian. She will be tall, is nice and stocky, has amazing movement and presence AND will the mega hair.  She is for sale for only $8000.00 and will come with her Friesian Heritage Horse International papers, her dna results and current coggins and will do everything a weanling should do. She is very friendly and already loves people.  She can also be bred to Valiant or another Friesian stallion by age 3 and the resulting foal will MORE than pay for what we are asking for this filly. She really has wonderful potential as a brood mare that we really should keep her except...I'm getting old, how long should I stay in this business?  By the time Karin and I finished with the horses,  we were both dripping wet with sweat but still needed to get the arena sprayed for weeds. We also mixed up some fly spray and sprayed down the shelters, stalls, around the buildings and since we had some left my patio and the playground area. By that time we were drenched with sweat and decided to go jump in mom's lake. We joined a bunch of the family all cooling off there and stayed in the lake for over an hour.

Philip got mom's air conditioner fixed this evening then he and the kids joined us for supper. Diane found lots of neat toys for this house at the Hanna City garage sales and the girls had fun discovering them. It really was hot outside but not hot enough to forget about the extreme cold we went through this winter. The picture below shows Illinois 6 months apart. At least with the heat we can cool down in the lakes, sit in the shade and do our work early morning,  we aren't confined to being inside 24 hours a day in order to survive.

Rained Ruined Hay

Well our best laid plans ended up in the trash can today. The hay was cut on Monday as we were suppose to have 4 days of sunshine. On Tuesday it rained. On Wednesday the tedder was supposed to be brought over to help crush and dry the hay but it wouldn't run. On Thursday Ryan brought a rake over but not until 7:30 pm and wasn't able to get both fields raked before dark so he came this morning to finish the raking. Amy, his wife came over to rake it again as we were getting desperate to get it up. She had just finished raking, went home and Ryan was in the process of bringing the baler over when a stray cloud arrived right over the farm, a big boom of thunder and all of a sudden the heavens opened and almost a half an inch of rain fell in a short period of time.  There will be no hay bailed tonight.
Roxanne is still in but not covered.  Mom had company arrive this morning. Jean lives half of her time in Arkansas and half in Arizona. Mom was thrilled when she came for a visit.  I knew Jean when I was just a child. She and her husband were square dancers and also sang western songs. I can remember her in her beautiful fluffy square dance costume.

 Mom used the golf cart to give Jean a tour of the place.

We ended up at the round pen where Karin was working with Roxanne.

She needed someone to watch while she rode her around a bit as Roxanne hasn't been ridden in a few years.  Roxanne did very well with Karin. She is using the clicker training on her and Roxanne responded very well. I stayed while mom took Jean over to Joan's house for a visit with Hannah. Magda arrived to work with Hadassah.

 She took her for a walk and noticed that Hadassah was showing to a stallion.

 We decided to tease her after Magda was done working with her. 

Hadassah was covered by Evan and will be marked down. I wasn't sure when she would have started and didn't want to miss her so had her covered. Mom left to make us all lunch. Karin brought Valiant out and taught Berlica how to round pen him first.

 She had such a good ride on Valiant, walk, trot and canter.

Valiant was put away and we went to mom's for lunch. Mom served us her home made beef barley soup with a salad, fruit cheese, ham and crackers. Lunch was delicious.  This evening Ralph and Jamie brought Dakota over to breed to Valiant. She is not yet in season but should be coming in soon. We had a nice visit. Mom still has no air conditioning and we hit 91 degrees today. She is spending the evening with Diane in her nice cool house. Hopefully by bedtime it will cool down. 

Whoodle PUPPIES!

Diane couldn't come on our walk today. Last night Mike got the truck stuck at Middle Grove. Diane drove out after church last night, spent the night at the cabin then helped Mike pull the truck out this morning with the yanmar.

Ruth, Joan, mom and I walked but we are a pathetic bunch. Ruth has to use a crutch as she had knee surgery. Mom uses 2 trekking sticks and right now I am having heel problems and was limping along keeping up pretty well. Joan had a broken toe from a trampoline accident but that is healing well.
Maddy, Sarah and Nolan's Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, gave birth this afternoon to 6 Whoodle puppies. She had 5 female and 1 male. The dad of these puppies is Chewy, Anni's Moyen Poodle.  These puppies will for sure be non shedding and will not stay black. They are born dark but fade until they look more like Maddy's color.

Below are a couple pictures of Maddy the mom. 

Below is a picture of the puppies dad, Chewy. He is a purebred Poodle but is a mix between a Standard Poodle and a Miniature Poodle. The correct name is Moyen. 

These puppies should end up around 20-30 pounds when full grown. They are for sale for $1200.00 and are called Whoodles. They are non shedding, easy going, intelligent and playful dogs with a friendly disposition. They are amusing dogs, non-barkers and are not at all aggressive in nature, making them excellent with people, children and other pets.  When I was checking out the price of Whoodles of course I did some research and Google states Whoodle prices are from $2000.00-$5000.00 each. Don't believe me check it out for yourself.  Sarah is only pricing her's at $1200.00 which is a bargain!

Rachel had the South Side Academy kids over today for fishing, swimming and of course checking out the horses.  

I spent the morning cleaning the apartment and getting it ready for the next guest coming in this weekend.  I had lots of bedding and towels to wash as the last group was 7 guys.  The thermometer reached 91 degrees today, Anna brought the girls over to swim but was glad we had our air on when they finished.  This evening the hay is being raked. It will need raking again tomorrow, it is just so thick. Ryan our farmer thinks it will be ready to bale tomorrow evening. Star and Roxanne were covered tonight. They will be checked again on Saturday. Mark has been out mowing all evening.

Bethany, Joan's daughter sent pictures of their Indian came being held in Indiana right now. 

 Above are Bill and Bethany's two little Indian's Joshua and William. Missing is her little squaw Daisy May but I believe she is in the picture below. The next two pictures are the rest of the tribe. I'm pretty sure they are all cousins and all belong to the Frauhiger family

We are glad Bethany is continuing the Indian camp tradition AND holding it in Indiana.

The Birds

Well we got almost .4 inches of rain on the hay last night. It wasn't just rain, we also had hail and wind. It was a little discouraging this morning. After the walk Roxanne and Star were both still in and both were covered, Roxanne by Evan and Star by Valiant.  Roxanne was moved into a paddock with Rosaleigh as both of these mares need to gain weight making it easy to grain them.  Anna dropped the girls off at 7:45 am, we painted and played inside until close to 11:00 am.  David brought Israel and Elisabet over to swim so we headed over to the beach.

Braelyn was busy fishing by holding a jar under the water, when the fish would swim into the jar she would lift it quickly. 

 It worked, she caught 2 little fish.

 Mom has beautiful flowers at her place. I took a few pictures of them.

 She also fills her hummingbird feeder every other day.  She had one flying around drinking this morning.

 Faith raised the bird below. This bird had just hatched when they found him. Faith has been a good mother to him. Today she decided to let him go.

 He had his freedom but didn't really want to leave Faith.

 He flew over to Braelyn and landed on her arm.

 Then visited Israel. 

 The bird flew around visiting each of the kids.

 Taegan was thrilled when he landed on her finger.

 Kensley was also pleased.

 Next we picked up Berlica and the girls went canoeing and swimming.

 All had a great time.

Mark got home late from work today so wasn't able to go to church. Mom, Diane and I went together. Tim Roecker had the message. On the way home the sunset was gorgeous. Mom and Diane both took pictures. Diane sent the picture below.