Nasty Weather

 After the walk Irish and her day old colt were moved into the indoor arena. It was raining again and in the video below you can hear the rain hitting the metal roof of the indoor.  The colt followed his mama very well.

If it EVER warms up Irish will get a bath, especially her tail needs a good washing.

Once the work was done at the barn I left for the Hog Trough. This morning Jamie and I had a breakfast date. It has been a long time since I sat at a restaurant and was waited on. That was nice and the food was good.  When it came time to leave Jamie had a special gift for mom. 11 eggs from one of her special mini chickens and one regular sized egg from one of her other hens.  The picture below is of Alannah, Jamie's tiny hen that laid the little eggs.

The eggs were taken right over to mom's house. She was amazed at how tiny they were.

For reference check out the difference. 

Faith and Berlica were taking turns wearing mom's Mrs. America crown and that was sparkling in the light but when we took pictures we could not capture the sparkle.

Phil and Anna were over working on the barn when the rain changed to snow. I was very glad I had not turned Irish and her colt out. It was my turn to make supper tonight for mom's house. On the menu was chicken teriyaki, wild rice, salad with brownies and ice cream for dessert. 

After dinner mom wanted to relax in the hot tub. While she was enjoying that Karin and I looked outside and saw snow coming down over the lake.

It was just nasty outside today for the last day of March.  

 

90 Years Old

 After the walk of course I had to take a few more pictures of Irish's new colt and get them posted on the website.

Check out those back legs of his. They are already showing thick feather.

He was bored with the camera clicking away.

He is a right handsome fellow.

We had a surprise birthday late lunch for mom today. It isn't everyday someone turns 90 years old and this one was special. A lady named Kres, the lady that bought Zalena a few years ago heard that mom had a stroke and asked if she could paint her picture.  WELL we were all blown away by the picture that arrived. 

Kres made this picture VERY special writing: 

On her sash, besides the Mrs. America title, on the back are the numbers representing her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. There is a “…” after the great grandchildren because there will probably be more!

There are 11 white stars in the leaves for her children.

There is one, red, star button for her husband on her jacket.

There is a heart pin for all her love, and a tear on it for all her sorrows.

Her crown has a cross for her strong faith in Her Lord Jesus.

Rachel took the video below of Spark helping mom open her gift from Kres. 

We had so much fun at this party. Rachel bought a Mrs. America crown and made a sash.

It fit her perfectly.

We even had her do the wave.

The dinner was delicious, we had Casey's pizza and a fantastic salad Beth made.

Below Aunt Jinnie and mom are reading her birthday cards.

John and Beth arrived a little late.

The video below is sometimes out of focus but we were laughing about as hard as mom was laughing while it was being taken.

As much as we enjoyed today I couldn't help but think of Dee Metzger. Her funeral was today at the Peoria church. Dee was one of our very faithful Berean volunteers for years. She was truly a silent servant in many ways.  Not only did she grade studies but she baked cookies, hundreds of them every Christmas for many years. The cookie went to the inmates. She also did a newsletter for the Peoria county jail for many years.  

This evening instead of church Peoria had the testimony and baptism of Jeff G. We had many visitors from Bradford as that is where Jeff attended for years. It was a blessed evening. I still need to run out to the barn to fill water buckets and bring in another square bale. What a wonderful day!

IT's a BOY

 Irish had a big stocky well marked colt early this morning. She delivered without assistance and the colt was up and nursing well by 5:00 am. This colt is so strong and FAT that I had to have the walkers come take a look at him. 

He is so well filled out that he looks like he is at least a week or two old.

They all agreed with me. Usually a newborn is slab sided and narrow but not this colt. He has an off centered star that looks like one of my grand daughters tried to paint on. 

He also has long legs and should end up close to 16 hands.

Better pictures will be taken later. With all the excitement of his birth I was a little late showing up for the walk.  The walkers really were shocked at how big strong and stocky he is. It is nice to have PROOF that he really is only a few hours old and yet this stocky.  Irish is such a good mom.

Not Even FULL

 We were both up WAY to early this morning. Mark had the coffee maker going before 3:00 am and I finally got up at 3:30 am just to make sure I got a cup of coffee. I'm not sure how to solve these coffee wars. Maybe we need to have TWO coffee makers in this house just to keep the peace. As soon as it got light enough outside to see we could see 2 of the horses in the wrong field. We must have a section of fence down between those fields. Dancer was where she belonged but Sally and Rocky were not. Both were laying down sleeping when I came to move them back.  The cat was fed and by then it was time for our walk.  Joan couldn't come as Co-op was starting the achievement testing and they had to leave early for that.  Diane and I quit a little early as I needed to pick up Aunt Jinnie by 8:15 am for our Berean morning. IF you would like to read about our morning there click HERE.  The Bibles were dropped off at the Hanna City post office on our way home then I dropped off Aunt Jinnie before driving up to the barn, parking the car up there and taking the truck and trailer down to the house. Rizzy was let out then brought back in before heading to Congerville with the truck and trailer.  The trailer was left at Corbley's for the wiring repair. On the way home the gas gauge of the truck was down to a quarter of a tank so I kept checking gas stations all along the way and the way back. The cheapest station was on Airport rd at $4.45 a gallon so stopped there to fill up.  I was NOT able to fill up the truck. The pump stopped working as soon as it hit $99.00. 

I was disappointed to find the gas gauge was only about 80% full after spending almost a hundred bucks. Shocking that one can't fill a truck for less than a hundred bucks. As I was driving Diane sent some links of the on-line training needed for those of us who are Nancy's guardians. I was able to get that done and took the certificate of training with me when I drove to Diane's office to sign papers.  I made it home in time to catch Phil and Anna working on the barn.

Mark had their girls out loading the trailer.

He left to bring the tractor back so he could split even more wood. The load above is going to Ruth and Fedi's house. 

By this time it was after 4:00 pm and I still needed to make dinner for mom's house as I was on at 5:00 pm. I was a couple minutes late but the supper turned out nice. We started with a bowl of creamy chicken and wild rice soup before enjoying our Parmesan covered fried chicken pieces served with fried rice, green beans, egg rolls and a salad with all the fixens.  For dessert we had the left over cake from our Berean treat.  Mom was pretty tired this evening and she wanted to start getting ready for bed at 7:00 pm. 

Great Hunters

 Ruth got amazing news this morning. Fedi will be going in to have his new hip put in April 8th. Before that can happen though she has a lot of appointments to take him, once all is checked out it will be a go. She wasn't able to walk this morning and not because of Fedi. Three of her grandchildren spent the night.  Diane and I walked to Joan's house said good by to Bill, Bethany and their children then Joan joined us to finish the walk.  I needed to be at the airport by 9:50 am to pick up Aunt Jinnie who was just getting back from Hawaii. It was only 24 degrees this morning, MUCH colder than where she was although by the time I picked her up it was up to 32 degrees.  As I still needed to head down to the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail and offered to pick up what ever was needed at mom's house. Joan gave me the list but I stopped at Dollar General first to pick out a birthday card for Karin, my youngest sister who happens to be almost exactly 20 years younger than me.  The next stop was Kroger for everything else on the list. Kroger had fried chicken so picked up some thighs but those won't be eaten until tomorrow. As soon as I got home and clothes changed horses were moved so bales could be put in. Today 3 bales were moved, one in the mare paddock, one in Evan's paddock and one in the far paddock. Irish was put in there as that paddock is dry. The mares were let out back and once the bale was moved in they did not want to come back in so I left them out for the night. They will need to be locked up tomorrow as the grass is much to short.  Evan was tied with a bucket of grain so his bale could be moved in. Phil arrived as I was moving bales to work on the barn. I needed to be at mom's at 5:00 pm with dinner so brought over all the left overs and served mom, Aunt Jinnie and Mark haystacks. Mom and Aunt Jinnie liked them and Mark didn't mind eating that 2 days in a row. Mom was really tired today after her big day yesterday and was in bed by 8:00 pm. Karin arrived right about then so I was free to go. I'm going to enjoy my bed in a few minutes. I didn't take any pictures today but yesterday took a couple pictures of the dogs busy hunting for rabbits. Below is Rizzy, David and Steph's dog and Pax, Phil and Anna's dog.

Both are great hunters. Now that we don't have a dog the rabbits are everywhere. Pax and Rizzy were having a blast.

Special Sunday

 I used the new utility cart for feeding this morning. Evan's bale is almost gone as is the mare paddock so I used the cart to haul a square bale of hay and divided it between the two paddocks.  This will hold them off until tomorrow.

Today was a special Sunday for the Meister family. As mom's 90th birthday is Wednesday about a 135 of mom's kids, grandkids and great grandkids came to Peoria church as a surprise for her.  At lunch we all sang happy birthday to her.  It was SUCH a blessing for her and so very special. 

Below is a really special picture of the mom's last 3 greats. These 3 little boys are about 3 weeks apart.

Oh my are these little boy cousins going to have fun together in a few years. Left to right is Walter, Zeke and Brian. It really was heart warming to see so many cousins all in the same place. The picture below is also a very special picture.

Jessica, Anni, and Bethany back together again, at least for today.  A special thanks to those who made the effort.  After church Phil and Ben came over to start work on the inside of the barn. They have a lot of digging for this next job. Below they are checking the plans before heading out to the barn.

Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley came in to help get the supper ready and were put to work making the brownies.

Once the brownies were in the oven they headed outside. While we were waiting for Taunya to arrive with her children Anna and the girls had fun with the volley ball.  After Addyson, Jack, Jace and Abe arrived the kids started a new game with sticks. Both the volley ball and the stick game are on the video below.

Even grandpa got in on this game. He got a HUGE one.

Really he was just consolidating the lumber pile for easier mowing this spring.

Dinner was served a little later as volley ball was cancelled. It is just too cold for outdoor volleyball at just 32 degrees. For supper tonight we had haystacks.  The peppers make this meal colorful.

That is 5 pounds of browned hamburger simmering in taco seasoning.

After the meal the kids painted sun catchers and rings.

Below the last two still working were Braelyn and Kensley. They wanted to finish up some of the rings.

Below are a few of the colorful sun catchers drying.

While they were drying the kids headed out to the barn to play on the hay bales.

Irish was turned out in the big field for a few hours while the kids were playing in the barn.

Of course we had to try out the new (old) cart.

We drove it over to the playground and all the way to Joan's and back. It does the hills fine, it also drives ok on the grass and rocks. It is a 2002 and just like our really old golf carts. It will run fast down the hill but climbs them slow. The big plus is how many kids it holds.

It was just too cold to stay out long. After coming back Irish was put in for the night.

She shows no sign of waxing but with this cold weather we are not taking a chance of her delivering outside.