Early Celebration

 We were both up early this morning and by 8:00 am I was more than ready to leave for Middle Grove to pick up the yearlings. The truck wouldn't start, turned out the trailer inside light was left on and since the trailer was plugged in the truck was dead. Mark brought out his handy charger and by 8:15 am I was on the way. Diane met me at the gate with her 4 wheeler. She had been looking for the herd and couldn't find them and even worse couldn't find Mike who was out mowing. She even followed the freshly mowed path but there is too many acres to search.  Mike finally turned off the tractor and realized he had a call and called Diane back and came searching with his 4 wheeler too. We found them up by the back gate of the winter pasture. They usually don't hang out there to today there they were. 

It was a beautiful morning so I spent time getting pictures of all the horses and foals out there. If you would like to see them click HERE. Mike took Mayberry (Sheena's 2020 filly by Valiant) with his 4 wheeler while I took Dana (Jewel's 2020 filly by Evan) and Diane drove her 4 wheeler behind us making sure the yearlings didn't think about turning around and heading back to the herd. I had parked the truck and trailer up by the round pen. Dana loaded up pretty quickly but Mayberry took a few minutes. She really didn't want to step inside. Mike picked up her front hoof, set it up on the trailer, then encouraged her from behind and she jumped in. They both traveled quietly home, were unloaded and put in the paddock next to Valiant. A bit later I led Dana into a stall, gave her a scoop of grain then went back to get Mayberry. Mayberry needs a little instruction on stall manners but soon she ate her grain and settled down. She was taken back to the paddock first but I had to lead her in and out of the stall about 4 times until she learned not to rush out. She was good leading back. Dana has had more handling and was good from the start to the finish.  Mark graded the driveways then went to work on the big limb that fell but had to stop. Watch the video below to see why.

That was fascinating, There was also an ant nest in the limb and they were scurrying about grabbing ant eggs and hauling them off at the same time the bees were trying to repair their nursery.

That tree limb is huge and this hive must be also. Joan would like to save the bees and the honey but we are not sure how yet. Since Mark couldn't work on the limb he decided to mow which meant we needed to take the road scraper off the tractor and put on the bush hog mower. For some reason we always struggle with putting that on but got the job done in about 15 minutes. 

He took it first down to the house to work on the mower before heading out.

He got the field mowed that the new barn is going to go up done and also a few other fields before quitting and coming in for supper. We  had chili cheese dogs and chips then this evening headed over to mom's balcony were the family was all waiting. 

The Sauder family was putting on their big firework display a day early this year. Below is just a short part of their display.

It is now well after 10:00 pm and we are both exhausted.