Thankful For Heat

 We had a good walk today with all 5 of us attending and used the time to rehash the wedding. After the walk the 2 horse trailer was unhooked from the 2015 truck, the 2003 truck moved away from the 2006 horse trailer and the 2015 truck hooked up to that trailer. The trailer was taken to East Peoria Tire and Vulcanizing where 4 new tires were installed.  I'm so thankful for that business, they really know their tires and each time I take a trailer there I'm pleased. Not just with the new tires also the price. For such a big business, they are very reasonable. I placed an ad on Facebook market place selling the 2006 Exiss horse trailer now that it has 4 brand new tires and within an hour had someone asking for more information. This trailer has been so handy for us but we just don't need so many horse trailers any more so this one is now for sale. 

It was exactly what we needed for the past 6 years as we could haul not just horses but the golf cart and 4 wheelers. That ramp and collapsible tack makes this trailer very versatile. It is not perfect but is safe. It is for sale for $9900.00 and the title is in hand. As soon as I got it home and parked I took the car down to the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail. There is quite a bit so we will be busy tomorrow at the Berean office. Mark came home a little early and he drove the 2014 van to Zanes while I followed him so we can leave that there overnight.

That is also for sale and is priced at $12,500.00. Zanes is going to check it over mechanically to make sure all is well. That also has new tires from last year and has had regular oil changes. We are trying to downsize around here although if both sell I will be looking for another truck or SUV, something strong enough to pull the camping trailers.  It was really chilly today, on the walk in the 20s, as I was driving to East Peoria it was spitting snow and 34 degrees when I left to come home it had dropped to 33 degrees and is suppose to get down to 19 tonight. This will be our first really hard freeze. Not too bad for the last day of November.  We have had the fire going all day in the wood burner. I'm so thankful for our big wood pile and very thankful for the heat it produces when burned. Mark filled the wood boxes on the front porch this weekend making it easy to haul wood inside. 

De Mask Us

 We had a VERY good morning at church. It was wonderful to see everyone before the service. Tim Roecker had the message and no one was in a hurry to leave after the service.  What a blessing it is to be able to worship our Lord Jesus together in person. We are thankful for AC Central and Facebook live but it just isn't the same as actually being in church. After church we played games at mom's. As it was just Mark and I for supper we had lobster bisque and grilled cheese for our meal and that was delicious. Maybe by next week will be back to our normal Sunday dinners but today was really relaxing. Amy called to see if the artist that is working with Bella can come out to get a picture on one of the Friesians. He has been out in the past and had a turn on Jenis but now Jenis is at her new home. We will probably need to use Valiant for these pictures. The artist wants to hire Rachel to take the pictures Amy posted the picture below of her Andalusian mare Bella during a sculpture session:

This is Bella, she is modeling for an artist in our area for a sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt as a rough rider. The over life size sculpture will be put on Grandview Drive in Peoria IL.  It is clay now but will be finished in bronze.    I realized this morning since quarantine is over that a mask is no longer required for those of us that have had Covid and survived. We cannot spread this virus and can't catch it from anyone (at least for 3 more months but probably longer) and should be issued some kind of badge or sign we can wear in place of a mask. There are a LOT of us survivors around, enough that we need our own section in church or perhaps special shopping hours for people that no longer require masks. This would help so much when walking around in public. As soon as someone starts glaring at us we could whip out that sign. We are NOT a risk to the public so why not start flaunting that. 

Hannah's Wedding Day

 What a beautiful day for a wedding. We had sunshine AND 50 degrees today. That is amazing for the 28th, day of November.  This morning the weanlings were moved into the far paddock. That had a bale and that paddock wasn't muddy. Jewel's filly let me walk right up to her and put the short lead rope on.  They were given grain then it was time to head inside and make breakfast for Mark and I. After breakfast and after a shower I picked up mom, Faith, Mackenson and Berlica and drove to the church. We needed to be there by 9:30 to be inside and in the alcove before the wedding guests arrived. It has been a week since Joan was diagnosed with Covid. As mother of the bride it was very important for her to come to the wedding. When there is a will there will always be a way and in this family we are sure to find that way. Check out the picture of Joan with her new son-in-law Jacob and her daughter Hannah on Hannah's wedding day.

Everyone stayed safe even without the suit as both Hannah and Jacob already had Covid.  I used the phone to snap the two pictures below of Hannah walking up the aisle and the wedding party heading into the bench. 

Craig Stickling began the service. Mom will need to listen to this on AC Central. The sound wasn't good in the alcove.  Hannah had us all chuckling when it was her time to answer the main question. She said very loudly and with emphasis, "YES I DO!" After the wedding we went out the furnace room door and straight into the car then were given fresh baked scones and a cup of hot chocolate or hot flavored coffee.  The reception was just a drive through reception where each guests was served those treats.  We had to be at the fellowship hall for family pictures. All of those were taken outside. Jacob's jeep was decorated and then little bags of rice crispies were handed out to throw at Jacob and Hannah as they left on their honeymoon.  Joshua thought that was a waste of good cereal and promptly ate his. Thanks Kathy for sending the picture below. 

It was a beautiful day for their wedding and we wish them God's blessings on their marriage.

Black Friday

 Well I didn't shop but thankfully had daughters that were willing to do that job and now have all of my Christmas shopping done. Ruth, Joan, Mom and I walked this morning. It was cold but no wind so very tolerable. We had to discuss our Covid Thanksgivings and all of us had a gripe or two. Joan was able to watch her family from the return air vent up in the ceiling. Ruth is going to have her family Thanksgiving later once all of her kids can come and we were missing family members at ours.  Mom ate her Thanksgiving dinner at Joan's house where 13 year old Faith did the cooking. She did a very good job. Joan was able to direct her from the ceiling vent. Mackenson did the heavy lifting and even Berlica helped. Hannah, Jacob and Sarah joined them for this meal. Karin came today with Isaiah and his cousin Elias to work with both of the stallions. I didn't get to the barn until they had finished with Evan and were riding Valiant. Karin rode him first just to make sure he was going to listen.

Isaiah rode Valiant next.

Last Karin worked with Elias and today was the first time Elias had ever cantered. Below she is helping him learn the rising trot.

Who would have thought 8 years ago that Valiant would make a wonderful lesson horse.

When they finished they helped de-worm the weanlings with Safeguard. Well 4 of the weanlings. Jewel's filly wouldn't let me near her. Tomorrow they are going to help me bring them all in the stalls. Jewel's filly will follow and I can get her de-wormed and put the halter with the short lead back on. She is just too smart. This afternoon the apartment was given a quick once over to prepare for the guests coming in tomorrow. The van was brought down to the house and the inside given a good cleaning. Mark took it to the car wash in Hannah City to wash the outside. We have placed it for sale and have someone coming to look at it next week.  We decided if it sells we will look for another truck to someday replace the old 2003 Ford truck.  Sarah and Nolan stopped by this evening and Zion brought us a plate of just baked Christmas cookies. Mark and I each had one tonight. They were delicious! They did picked out and cut down their Christmas tree today.

ThanksGiving

 We had a very easy morning as all the food was cooked yesterday. Today after the horses were fed Mark and I got on Facebook live and watched Gregg Rumbold have the Thanksgiving service for church. The best gift today was sent by email from our elder Tim Funk. EVERYONE is invited to church on Sunday. There are NO restrictions and we don't have to sign up to reserve a seat. They are also holding Sunday school and Spanish church. Now if they would just go back to two services on Sundays it would almost be like in days before. Before Covid that is.  Mark  helped load the car with everything for the big thanksgiving meal. Rhoda and Lee were hosting and even though the dinner wasn't until 5:00 pm everyone was invited to come and spend the afternoon at the pool. The kids had a ball.

Dinner was wonderful.

Rhoda organized games after dinner for the kids.

More pictures will be downloaded later. It is now after 9:30 pm and has been a long happy day and I AM thankful.

Ready For Tomorrow

 Today was the big cooking day. We couldn't walk again as it was still raining and it rained most of the day. The stuffing was made first, then the turkey stuffed and baked. While that was baking the sweet potatoes were wrapped in aluminum foil and 15 pounds of russet potatoes peeled and quartered and put on the stove to boil. The potatoes were mashed and put aside. Around 1:30 the turkey was taken out of the oven, the heat put up to 400 and the sweet potatoes put in. While those were cooking the pies were made and put in the oven to start baking. I made 2 pumpkin and 1 pecan. The turkey was sliced and deboned then the gravy started. A sampling of the stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey all dribbled with gravy was taken over to mom's to make sure it all tasted ok. I still don't have all my smell and taste back. Mom tasted it and declared it all good.  Mark stopped at Kroger to pick up salad stuff and a couple avocados. He was given a sample of everything for supper and even a slice of pumpkin pie for dessert. He ate everything on his plate and reported it was delicious. We are ready for tomorrow!

Awful Offal

 We couldn't walk today, it was raining and a cold rain at that as it was only 34 degrees this morning. I had a good morning at the Berean office. There it didn't matter that the rain was coming down. Inside was warm and of course plenty to do. We got 70 Bibles mailed out today and almost 200 studies. I drove mom to Peoria Tire to pick up her car which was getting an oil change. From there I drove to Pekin to buy grain at Stock and Field and also picked up 2 bags of sunflower seeds and 1 case of suet for mom's bird feeders. Aldi is right next door so I stopped there to pick up a few more items for our Thanksgiving dinner. When I got home and as soon as I opened the door I started gagging. Emma had vomited all over the family room floor. I had removed the doggy door when the weather turned cold and was gone too long today. Obviously Emma had gotten into the entrails of the deer carcass, gorged herself, then when it started rotting in her stomach deposited that all over the floor. The floor was cleaned up, scrubbed, sprayed down then fabreezed but that wasn't enough. All the doors were left open to air the house out, more scrubbing and more disinfectant spraying before I quit. Mark walked in a little later and he could STILL smell something bad.  Talk about discouraging. Hunters really really need to do a better job of disposing of the offal. The grain still needed to be unloaded so I went outside in the fresh air to work. 

Mother Of The Bride Suit

 Well Joan couldn't walk today, she wasn't feeling well and had a doctors appointment to be tested for Covid so was isolating until that happened. Mom, Ruth and I walked to the barn and back. Right after the walk I left for the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail then to Sam's club to go grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. Today was the FIRST day I'm out of quarantine! I bought a turkey, fruit, lots of vegetables, and a pecan pie for tomorrow's Berean helpers. From Sam's I went to Berean and worked there until noon. Bill Schick stopped in and needed the office but can't be around anyone yet so I left. There is plenty of work for anyone wanting to help tomorrow. As soon as I got home I started a big pot of creamy chicken and wild rice soup. At 2:00 pm the fire under the pot was turned off and I took the golf cart up to the barn, grabbed Jewel's filly, loaded her and left for Hoerr Vet clinic where she had a 2:45 pm appointment to get her blood drawn for her coggins test.

She stood excellent. Chris came back out and asked "is she a 2020 filly? She is SO tall we thought she might be from last year." Jewel's foals are always impressive.  When I got home Mark was hard at work digging a hole with his mini excavator. 

He was digging it deep enough and big enough to bury the bones from this weekends hunting.

Joan got her tests results back and she WAS positive. With Hannah's wedding this Saturday, she had to have a new mother of the bride outfit. She sent the picture below to all of us to see if we thought it would match the wedding party. 

She won't even have to buy it, Rhonda is sure Spark has an extra one laying around. This wedding planning during a pandemic has been pretty stressful. I really do hope there is a way for Joan to be able to attend her daughter's wedding and if it takes an outfit like this, so be it! They already had to un-invite about 100 guests and cancel the reception the mother of the bride pretty much HAS to be there. 

Maddalen Leaves

 Diane sent the most beautiful picture of the sunrise this morning from her balcony in Gulf Shores.

It was cold and wet here. It had rained during the night.  For church this morning we used Mark's phone and did a go to meeting but also had Facebook live up so we could hear better. We had 3 visiting elders plus Tim our elder speaking. This afternoon the transport for Maddalen called to report they should be here around 4:30 pm. I was glad it would still be light out. They were driving a semi so I took Maddalen to the water tower to meet them.  Mark came with me as I was a little worried about her trying to get up the steep ramp and I thought Mark may need to help with that.  I was wrong. This filly stopped at the ramp waited a few seconds then when I encouraged her to come she walked right up and stood quietly.  Maddalen was given her own box stall. I snapped the picture below for her owner.

There was a Morgan brood mare in to the right side of her and a horse they had picked up in Chicago on the left side of her. She stood quietly and didn't fuss at all while we visited a bit with the transporters. They were very impressed with how well behaved she was for a weanling. Today was another day of hunting. Logan got a really nice buck.

and Clayton got 2 does.

Rachel will have meat this winter.  The venison really helps stretch the food bill in her family. These are young, tender and grain fed and Rachel knows how to cook the meat perfectly. They have been busy butchering today and tomorrow we will bury the carcasses in the manure pile. Today is our 10th day of quarantine. Tomorrow I will head down to the post office to pick up the Berean mail. My first trip into town since the Rona hit. Today I posted our Chevy van for sale. It is $900.00 to insure it for the year and we only used it twice last year. It just doesn't make sense to keep it. I posted it on Facebook market place and have someone wanting to come see it tomorrow. A REALLY nice review came in for Meisters. This one must be posted here:  "Back in June our home's AC went out, and it was the first really hot week of the summer. At first I called up a different guy to look into the issue, and he completely botched diagnosing the issue and charged me for the wrong coolant which he also price gouged. Something seemed off, so I called Meister Heating and AC after hearing how good they were via word of mouth. It was after work hours, so I assumed we were in for at least one more night of sleeping in the heat. The owner, Phil, upon hearing our story, came out that very night to fix the AC because all of his other guys were on jobs. He was quick, professional, and answered all my questions. He went over the costs in detail, which ended up being way cheaper than what the other guy was charging/quoting. In just a few hours he made the repairs and replenished the coolant so my AC was back up and running. I would highly recommend this company to anyone - they went above and beyond my expectations. When your house is as hot as a furnace and the HVAC guy, who doesn't even live close, will leave his family dinner to help you, well, you know you can't get better customer service than that."

Culvers For Dinner

 The weanlings were moved into the middle paddock today. Their bale was almost gone in the other paddock and now that Isla has gone to her new home that paddock had almost a full bale of the good stuff. PLUS it has 3 shelters just in case the weather starts to turn bad.  I had to put a halter on Maddalen and Jewel's filly to move them.  Karin led Maddalen and was very impressed with how well she leads now. I worked with Jewel's filly and she is getting it. She still doesn't LIKE me very well but is tolerating me. Thankfully she loves her grain. Kayla and Magda came today to work with the stallions. I was busy with the weanlings while they worked with Valiant but I heard later he put on a big show of bucking in place.  Evan was a sweet heart. Karin snapped the picture below of Magda sitting on him.

Sarah brought Eden and Zion out to 'help' their daddy catch a deer. Sarah used the golf cart to take Zion down on the trails to where her daddy was waiting. Below she is all ready to go with her orange hunting hat on.

Zion got to go on the 'hunt' with her daddy. Nolan sent the picture below. 

When they got back Zion said very sadly, "we didn't catch a deer."  Sarah took the girls home and Nolan went back to deer hunting instead of deer catching.  Tonight for dinner we drove through the Culvers drive through and ordered 1 fish dinner with an extra piece of fish and an extra side of broccoli. Once we got the bag of food we drove into Home Depot parking lot to eat, opened up the sack to find they had forgotten the cole slaw but since we paid $1.99for the extra broccoli Mark called them and they brought the cole slaw over. My taste buds are still dull and the fish didn't taste as good as it should but still had a nice crunch. The cole slaw I could taste so I was very glad Mark called them for that. Joan had to take mom to prompt care today. She fell a couple weeks ago at Middle Grove when we were camping and cut the back of her leg. Well today it looked infected. Joan sent the picture below to mom's doctor and they suggested she take her to prompt care. 

The problem with living here in the winter is that we didn't SEE the wound to know it wasn't healing well. Mom was keeping it wrapped and it was too cold to be outside without covering up. We are thinking mom needs to head down to Gulf Shores to let some of that sunshine, warmth and salt air help heal it. She was prescribed antibiotics and has started on them. 

Isla Left

 Fedi had his second hip replacement this morning so Ruth wasn't here to walk. Mom and I walked to Joan's then she joined us all the way to the barn and back to mom's house. Mom quit and Joan was given a ride back to her house on the golf cart. I had a good night without too much coughing and was feeling better this morning. Well enough to bring Isla out for a good groom before she left for Oregon. 

Above is before her grooming, her back was full of dirt and her forelock was full of hay.  I used almost an entire bottle of Cowboy magic detangler on her tail and mane. After she was looking good she was turned out into the back pasture to try to keep clean. She ran all the way down to the bottom of the field then galloped back up. 

I snapped a couple pictures of her with the weanlings. They all came running to the back of the paddock to greet her. She was a big part of their life at Middle Grove.

She took off again and this time ran over to greet Evan. 

I went back to the house to get all of her paper work then called her. She came running to the gate I snapped on the lead rope, walked her into the trailer and took her to the water tower to meet Yoder Equine Transport. Marvin Yoder was the driver and he brought the semi which happens to be a 15 horse trailer. There were already 13 horses on board. Below Marvin is getting the ramp ready for her.

Below Isla is in her own section.

She had plenty of company in front of her were 3 horses and to the left of her were 2 horses. It was spitting rain when they pulled out. The trailer was backed into it's space and I went in to make supper. We had skipped lunch and so even though it was only 3:00 pm we were both hungry. Nolan is staying at the apartment last night and the next 2 nights for shotgun season which started this morning. He stopped in to tell us no one shot a deer today which meant Tumnus survived the first day of shotgun season. Joan was hoping he would show up earlier so she could get a collar on him but that didn't happen.