Catch-Up for Sunday

Yesterday we got home from the all church picnic and I was just too tired to sit down to write.  Our Sunday was wonderful.  On the way to church mom called from Gulf Shores to tell me a little about their trip down. They stopped at Buckey's (a massive gas station kind of like Souvenir City) parking near the place to walk the dogs. The parking lot was huge and they were not parked near the building. Everyone went inside except mom who went out to walk Molly. As she was coming back to the van another van pulled right up beside Joan's. A man got out and opened the back of the van which was loaded with his family and there was a boogie board. Of course that peaked mom's interest. She asked, "are you going to Gulf Shores"? The man looked at her and said, "Why yes, yes we are". Mom told him, "we are too, where are you staying?" The man replied Gulf Side Townhomes #28." That really shocked mom as that is Spark and Rhonda's condo. She blurted out, "That is my oldest son's place!"  Then the man replied, "Spark is your son?" "I live in Missouri and he told me he also has some condo's in Branson."  What a small world.  Mom told him about the others in the family with condo's in that complex and that they would be seeing him at the pool. Then they hugged and his family all laughed.  When the rest got back to the car mom was telling them about what happened except she couldn't remember his name. They quick called Molly (Molly and Gabe, Spark and Rhonda's daughter and her husband are partners with that condo in Gulf Shores and Molly handles the rental) and asked her the name of the people renting theirs as they are sure they will see him by the pool.
Church was amazing. Dave Obergfel had the morning service and Greg Rumbold had the afternoon. Right after church was the ice cream social and then the all church picnic was at 4:30 at the fellowship hall. That had to be held inside as the rain kept coming down.  We had another half inch of rain when yesterday morning and by the time we got home last night another half inch of rain to go with the 4 inches Friday.

Today is the funeral of Mike Hinrichsen, he was only 66 years old and leaves his wife Gerri, 9 children and 12 grandchildren.  Rhoda and Stephanie are going to the funeral and I'm heading down to Sarah's to help with the babysitting.  I also have the vet coming this afternoon for ultrasounds and then more babysitting tonight.
The review came in from the people staying at the apartment. It was another 5 star and this is what they wrote: “Judith’s place is amazing. There is plenty of room. The bed is very comfortable. There were no complaints from our friends that slept on the futon. There was a tornado spotted while we were there and she came to round up the four of us, going far above and beyond. We will definitely stay again when in the area.”  Privately they wrote:
“Thanks so much again for the stay. We all really enjoyed our time at your lovely place.”

Roof Repair

Jozsef, Philip and Matt started work early on mom's roof. Anni, Logan and Anna joined in a bit later and by 3:30 they had the entire old roof off and the first layer (the waterproof layer) on. What made this even more amazing is that the rain held off the entire time they worked.

If you would like to see the rest of the roofing pictures click HERE. Meanwhile Mark got to work cutting up the trees that had fallen during the storm last night.

I headed out to feed horses and our guests were just getting ready to head to their big reenactment, the Middle Kingdom Fall Coronation.  They graciously let me take a few pictures. There costumes are hand made and correct for the period in history. The detail to accuracy was amazing. 

 The other couple had already left so I didn't get to see their costumes.  Karin and Kayla arrived to work the stallions and today they started with Evan.

 Evan saw the pedestal and climbed up on it without being asked. When Kayla asked him to back up he showed her the trick someone had taught him with first one front leg and then the other. 

After Evan was put away I picked up Kensley and Taegan who were sitting on the fallen tree and took them to the barn.

 They were grooming Studly while Karin was working with Valiant.  Valiant had to go check out what they were doing.

Both girls got to ride Valiant AND pose with the pedestal.

When Karin put Valiant away the mares were up watching as he walked by. He is such a handsome stallion. 

If interested in seeing the rest of the pictures of the stallions getting worked click HERE. 

 Anna dropped off Braelyn and the girls played inside for a while before heading back to the playground.

 Taegan made an underground stall for her plastic horse while Kensley drew a person with their legs standing straight up. 

 When the roof job was finished Anna took the girls home and I started cooking the meal for tonight. We had such a nice evening using mom's house for potluck.

I'm thankful for the use of mom's house and very grateful all these people were willing to drive out and spend the evening with us.  We really did have a wonderful time. 

WE WILL Rebuild

Early this morning Mark went out to check out the damage from the storm last night. To his horror he found damage, check out the state of the volleyball court. All the chairs that had been so neatly lined up were in a jumble and smashed to the ground by the high winds and driving rains.

We WILL rebuild. (a joke but not a very good joke) This could have been so much worse.  Last night when the sirens went off and we jumped in the car to drive up to the apartment Emma was so upset about us leaving she came out of her doggy door into the storm and ran up to the apartment where we were trying to get the guests to safety. The rain was slamming into us at that point and Emma refused to leave whining at the car door as if to say, "how could you leave me alone?" We opened the back door of the car and let her inside. Now Emma usually hides under the table or under my desk during a big thunder storm and this was a LOUD thunder storm. We couldn't believe she would venture outside during it and make it up to the barn to ask for help. All joking aside though, this video was taken from Weaver Ridge Golf Club from the 18th fairway: 

The only other damage was that big downed tree and I got the rest of the story on how Matt was able to move it off the drive. Logan showed up with his truck so Matt, Anni and Logan used Logan's truck to pull it off the drive. Below are a few pictures taken this morning. 

 Two trees actually fell, below is the stump of the smaller tree. The larger tree stump was in a big clump of poison ivy. 

It is still raining but not hard. We got almost 4 inches of rain Friday during day and last night. Today more rain is predicted and Sunday is suppose to be another day of unsettled weather with thunderstorms and heavy rain.  Not very good timing to pull the roof off of mom's house and yet that is exactly what she wants to do.  Mom, Diane, Joan and the kids all left for Gulf Shores around 4:00 am today. She decided she wants solar up on her roof so Jozsef has been hired to replace her existing roof with a metal roof and she wanted it done while she is gone these next 11 days. Mom had a dumpster delivered and that is sitting in her driveway waiting for the old roof. Meanwhile we will be using mom's house to host potluck tonight.

Tornado Warnings Floods

We had a very interesting walk this morning, stopping at Joan's house to see the hornet's nest she collected last night from underneath her solar system.  She waited until it was night, then carefully scraped it into a big black garbage bag.

 keeping the bag closed tight around it as she got it off the solar system.  These are called bald-faced hornets and they are dangerous.  They come swarming out to defend their home and each hornet stings over and over. Their nests are beautiful. Joan sprayed wasp spray directly into the bag then left it over night. This morning there were hundreds of dead hornets in the bag. 

Tumnus the deer came wandering over to see what we were all looking at, then decided to join us and the dogs for the walk. He was funny around the horses, just wasn't sure what they were. Emma wasn't exactly sure what kind of animal this was and was a little worried about him in the beginning. 

That is the deer walking next to mom directly behind Joan. 

We stopped at the cabin to check out the work Mike is doing to fix the pump. The horses broke it but with the Yanmar Mike can fix about anything.

Next we went to Rachel's to see Lilly's perfect pudgy Pug puppies.

They are 4 weeks old now and just adorable fat round little Pug puppies. I think there may still be a few for sale and if interested in a purebred Pug Puppy just send Rachel a text or call at 309-360-4340. On the way home I stopped to snap the picture below of the geese making themselves at home on Rachel's raft.

It was not raining on our walk this morning so right after the walk Joan, Faith, Mackenson and Berlica came over to move the split wood to the wood pile. They were doing that while I was cleaning the apartment.  The wood pile got moved before the rain started but the apartment didn't get finished until the rain was pouring down.  As soon as the apartment was finished I drove to Sam's club to pick up the food for potluck tomorrow. The driving rain made driving horrible. The roads were flooded. Rebekah Martin posted the picture below, her apartment in Roanoke had to be evacuated.

Some areas in Peoria got 5 inches in a short period of time. At one point on I 474 the water was covering the tires and almost to the door and I couldn't drive more than 25 miles an hour. It has been raining off and on most of the day. Pam Fritzenmeier posted that her 8 inch rain gauge was overflowing. My guests arrived at the apartment this afternoon. At 8:26 pm the tornado sirens started up, the rain was pounding down, the wind was blowing hard, the lightning flashing, the thunder booming and all media was announcing over and over take cover a tornado is in the Hanna City area.  We quickly jumped in our car and drove up to the apartment to tell our 4 guests that they must come NOW. While we were waiting for them to get into their car I called mom to tell her we were on our way. Just as we got to the end of our drive we could see lights from a car coming up the hill and then realized neither of us were going anywhere. A big tree had fallen across the drive. It was David Jacob and Zero in the car coming up the hill. He backed down the hill and came up our drive, called Luke and had Luke meet him on the other side of the tree and all of this is happening in the driving rain and wind.  We had our 4 apartment guests back their car up and then come down our lane to our house and all of us packed into this little house to wait out the storm. Mom was called back to tell her we were not going to be able to get to her house. Mark was going to get his chain saw as soon as the rain slowed down when Matt popped in to say they (I think it was he and Anni but it might have been Matt, David Jacob and Luke) were able to push the tree off the drive. Our guests headed back to the apartment and we are hoping and praying we have no more tornado warnings tonight. It looks like we will be having big thunderstorms with lots of heavy rain but hopefully no more tornadoes. 

Jousting Practice

This morning after the walk I decided to try to weed the outdoor arena, knowing that jousting practice was going to start. I didn't make a lot of progress but didn't push myself either.  Anna brought Kensley over to help. We fed the horses together and she got to sit on Jenis while I worked nearby so Jenis could graze.

 When Jenis was put back, she, Tori and Oksana all hang together at the bottom of Evan's paddock.

 Around 2:00 pm Kensley and I went out to set up the jousting divider. Joan, Faith and Berlica came over about then and helped with the weeding of the arena.

This is a job that has needed to be done but I kept putting it off. It is amazing how quickly it went with the 5 of us working together. Below Joan is emptying the 2 wheelbarrows while the girls are ready to be taken back on the golf cart.

Joan promised the girls they would come back to do the jousting practice after the mowing was finished. They left and got to work mowing mom's lawn and their lawn. With everyone working together using multiple mowers the job only took around 4 hours. Just as the sun was setting Joan sent a text that they were done and ready to ride. Joan took Oksana into the barn to tack up while Berlica led Jenis.

 Once they were tacked up Joan led the way out to the arena on Oksana while Faith rode Jenis. Oksana has never done jousting.

 Right about then a jet was leaving a brightly colored trail as it streamed across the sky as the sun was setting. The arena lights were turned on.

 They walked the horses around first getting them used to walking along the divider.

 Practicing walk and trotting next to the line.

 As they would meet in the middle they would wave their arms around hitting them.

 Emma was completely board with the entire training process. 

 They were able to walk, trot and canter the horses down the line without too much trouble. The lances were introduced then and by this time it was getting quite dark, even with the lights on the camera couldn't focus fast enough for good pictures.

 Berlica wanted to try too. 

 She forgot she was suppose to hit her mom and ended up hitting Oksana in the face. Oksana was fine with that.

We were very pleased with how well Oksana handled this new job she is learning to do.  Everyone had fun.  The horses were put away, the lights turned out and everyone headed for home with the feeling of satisfaction. What good mares!