Hide and Seek

 After our walk today I left for Aldi to pick up a couple things for mom's house and cottage cheese for ours.  The price of that has raised from $1.39 to $2.45 a carton and yet out of the president's own mouth I heard him say inflation is now at 0%. He must be a little touched in the head, maybe sun stroke or something.  Prices are not slowing down and that is scary for those on a fixed income. Today was the dreaded balance the check book day at Diane's office. The good news was she was in a hurry so we flew through that quickly. Today was Valiant's turn in the field. 

He didn't show off quite as much as Evan. He spent more time looking for manure to sniff.

Sheena is now out of season and Indy is still not showing. I need to call Dr. Hoerr's office and make an appointment for ultrasounds soon. We have 5 really good riding horses at the original pasture of Middle Grove right now and if there was time it would be fun to schedule a trail ride. We would need to haul saddles and bridles out but that isn't too hard. There is a group camping out there this weekend so hopefully they can take out some groups. Jewel, is pictured below. 

The other riding horses are Missy, Cookie, Sally and Earl's gelding Taylor.

Mike and Diane spent last weekend there and could not find the 5 horses. The drove all over that pasture and finally gave up but the next morning there they all were. It is pretty rugged country there and many places for the horses to hide.

After reconciling the check book Diane and I drove to mom's and played a couple games with Rachel and Karin. Beth and Greg came with dinner for mom's house at 5:00 pm.  I left to get Mark supper then we left for church. Mike Kaisner had the message. It was good to be there. 

Freedom

 I got enough sleep! My energy level was back to normal this morning and I was up even before the coffee maker ready for the day. The horses were waiting for the grain as the sun was breaking over the trees.  Indy's colt was comfortable in the hay. 

He is such a handsome colt. After feeding I took the car over to mom's as I planned on leaving for the Berean office right after the walk with mom. We were loaded up and ready to head out at 8:15 am and arrived at the Berean office at 8:45 am. Beth came out to meet us. IF you would like to read about our morning at the Berean office click HERE.

We left that office around 11:30 am and drove straight to the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles and studies going out today. Since both mom and I had cheese cake with apple pie topping at Berean we were not hungry for lunch until about 1:30 pm then ate tomato sandwiches with lettuce, mayo and a slice of medium cheddar cheese. I headed home once Karin arrived just after 2:00 pm. Diane asked for the download of one of our videos and not to pat myself on the back or anything but I figured out how to install this app on the computer that will download a video from youtube and was able to send it to her. They want to use some of the video below for their sign in Hanna City.

No horses were teased today but neither were any of the mares hanging around Valiant's paddock. Evan was moved into Ribbon's old paddock with the back gate opened into that field a few days ago. He is really enjoying the freedom of galloping around. The thunder of his hooves sound as he gallops from the bottom of the field all the way up to the gate and of course he throws in some huge bucks. 

Took 3 trips to Middle Grove for drop offs and pick ups then met Rhoda near Morton for some oxytocin. 

Joan has been busy teaching now that school started up and she even had extra students.

She has been doing double duty, teaching and also staying with mom. 

Dragging Monday

 We had a beautiful morning for our walk, the heat and humidity didn't start to grow until later. After the walk I went straight up to the barn to fill the fresh water tank on the 5th wheel. I ran down to the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail, then to Sam's club. I needed a full size set of sheets for the hide-a-bed in the 5th wheel and Sam's had sets for $17.00 so I bought 2.  I needed water proof mattress pads for both the queen bed and the hide a bed but Sam's had none. Joan, Diane, mom and I all needed eggs and Sam's had them for $2.67 a dozen so bought 6 dozen. The farmer is only getting 6 eggs a day so they didn't have any but these at least seem fresh.  The other thing I picked up at Sam's was 25 pounds of ground beef. This was actually ground round so not much fat content and each package was marked down from $3.89 a pound to $3.49 a pound. That was taken right home and put in the deep freeze. I'll need that for the family night meal. From Sam's to the Berean office to drop off the mail and the dessert and finally home to unload. Mark got home before 2:00 pm so I took mom's wheel chair van with Mark following in his car to East Peoria Tire. We will be taking that van down to Gulf Shores in October and wanted to have all 4 tires replaced (the others were 14 years old) and the shocks checked out. We can put mom's recliner in the wheel chair spot but want to make sure she doesn't get bounced around. When we got home Mackenson and Faith were here mowing.

Faith is really experienced with the grass hopper mower.

Storms were beginning to move in as they were mowing. I could hear the rumble of thunder and I still needed to tease mares.  Sheena was still in and covered by Valiant before the rain hit.  Faith hadn't quite finished mowing but mowed in the rain for a bit before taking the mower back over to mom's. This evening I did a bit more shopping but this time online and ordered the water proof mattress pads for the 5th wheel. I'm going to have an early night and as soon as this is posted will make the coffee and head to bed, I've been dragging all day today. 

A Wonderful Sunday

 I slept in again, not waking until 6:00 am. This could be turning into a habit. I think it has something to do with the days getting shorter but who knows, it could be I'm just getting lazy. I still got everything done in plenty of time. We left for church at 9:15 am. Mike and Diane served lunch today and Ruth brought mom a little early so they were already in the kitchen when we arrived.  Tim Roecker had the morning service. It was so very good for me to hear. He read in 1st Kings 17 then pulled a Mike Rieker and read the next two chapters so we got to read all about the miracle of the Ravens, the widow that cared for him, Elijah bringing the widow's son back to life and then the showdown with the prophets of Baal.  God really IS the God of impossible. Lunch went well, there was plenty of food for everyone.  David had the afternoon message on Psalm 110. IF you would like to see and hear this click HERE. Oh what a Savior we have. After church I dropped off Mark before taking mom home. Karin was waiting for her.  The lasagna started this morning in the two crock pots was done so both of those were turned off and some was dished up and taken over to mom's house for she and Karin along with cheese cake for their dessert. We had a storm come through that dumped a half of an inch of rain in a very short period of time but the storms all moved out of the area before the kids got here. Ben and Taunya had to cancel, State Farm lost power and Ben was called in. After supper we all headed over to the playground. The little ones went swimming joining Rebekah's children. 

Nolan brought some friends out for volley ball and the games were fun to watch. Below are a couple action shots.

See that blur up by Nolan's head, that is the volley ball after a spike from Philip. 

The little girls had fun picking the last of the flowers for their hair.

Diane and Mike had a group come too. They were all supposed to go bike riding but when the storms hit they decided to eat dinner at Gil's instead. They came walking over to the playground after dinner. Below is a short video of some of the activities and guests.

Zion came up from swimming and wanted a flower too.

The girls put one in Anna's hair but I'm not sure she realized it was there.

Joan arrived home from Florida so we had to visit and hear about their trip. It sounds like it was really wonderful. She went in to visit with mom. We stayed until dark before heading home. What a wonderful Sunday.

 

Baby Shower

 I thought we would sleep in a bit today as it is Saturday but that didn't happen. After a couple cups of strong coffee I headed out to tease mares. The only mare still in is Sheena and she stood this morning just fine and was covered by Valiant. I was really hoping Indy would be coming in by now. I for sure missed her foal heat and may have now missed her second. She just doesn't show well. I left for Kroger to buy a couple boxes of lasagna noodles for tomorrow's meal then to Sam's to pick up a few things for mom and found a some bargains. I also picked up two rotisserie chickens, one for mom's house and one for our lunch today. Once home and the groceries all delivered or put away I headed up to the barn. The 5th wheel needed more fresh water and the black and gray tanks emptied. The next job was to take ice and water out to the barn where Anna, Ben, and Phil were hard at work.

I headed in to make lunch. After lunch was Matt and Anni's baby shower. Their baby is due in September.  I walked over around 1:30 pm and Rebekah, Rachel and Jessica were busy setting up.

Not sure why but there were two golden leaves pushed into the ground in the middle of the area.

I went in to get mom ready to come out for the shower. Matt had the prayer and then came the delicious food.  Below is a short video.

Rachel took the picture below of the last 3 baby boys born. Rebekah and Brian's boy Walter was born first of these 3 then came Caleb and Emily's baby boy Brian and last came Rhoda and Lee's baby boy Zeke. They are pictured below right to left Walter, Zeke and Brian and I think are only a few weeks apart.

It wouldn't be a very good baby shower without lots of babies.

No one knows yet what Matt and Anni are having but she needed to join them so there may be 4 baby boys in this picture OR 3 baby boys and 1 baby girl.

Mom was feeling a little uncomfortable in the wheel chair and she wanted to head back inside to get out of the heat and back into her recliner. We stopped to check out the visitor in the wren house. 

Not sure how that frog ended up in the wren house. There is no direct way up even if it climbed up the tree it would need to go out on way too many small branches to get to the house.  We made it inside just as Aunt Jinnie was calling.  She called to tell us Uncle Johnnie had a small bump come up on his arm, he had it checked out and it is a very aggressive form of a rare cancer. They will know better how to treat it in a few days.  Aunt Jinnie was telling us about a house cleaner she had. The man came for the interview and was hired but when he showed up for work he came in high heels, all made up fancy and wearing a maid's dress. He did a good job cleaning (not sure how anyone can clean in high heels) but he did. I'm not sure how many weeks later but he was on his way home from cleaning their house and was pulled over by the police. The police looked at his license which said he was a male but he looked too much like a female. They thought he just may have stolen the license and took him to the police station. Aunt Jinnie was called down to the station to vouch for him. One of her other stories was the pet sitter they hired. This lady loved their animals and they felt very comfortable leaving them in her care but one time they came back and there was a note left that the cat was in the freezer. They opened the freezer and sure enough there was the dead cat.  The pet sitter knew Uncle Peter was a surgeon and thought he might want to do an autopsy on the cat. 

I stayed with mom until 8:00 pm. Mom said she wasn't ready for bed yet but I still needed to head home to brown 6 pounds of ground beef for the lasagna tomorrow so Karin offered to help mom to bed. I think Joan gets home from Florida tomorrow and we are all looking forward to her return. Having an extra pair of hands, and hers are amazingly capable, is such a big help here. 

Growing Again

 We were up before the coffee maker turned on at 5:00 so had to turn it on manually and wait about 10 minutes for hot coffee. It is staying dark much longer in the morning and turning dark earlier.  I was over at mom's before 8:00 am and didn't get her to bed tonight until almost 8:30 pm. Mom had a good day. We were out on the deck watching birds during the morning but in the afternoon we had no breeze and it was just too hot and muggy to stay outside. AT one point there were 3 hummingbirds fighting over the 2 different feeders.

Rachel and Jessica stopped in about 2:30 pm so we played a quick game of carbols. Mom did well walking today with Karin's help.

Tonight we had taco salad for supper but I added rice, avocados, and fresh tomatoes to the lettuce, chips, taco meat, salsa, cheese, and sour cream.  For dessert we had mint ice cream. Spark and Rhonda brought Noel and her fiancée Elijah over so mom could meet Elijah and welcome him into the family.  The family is growing again. 

Sheena In

 I dropped off a dozen eggs at mom's before the walk at 7:15 am and all was dark so the eggs were just put on the table. Ruth, Diane and I walked in the rain with our umbrellas. Diane made it home from Gulf Shores so we wanted to catch up on all the news from down there. After the walk we went in and found out that Karin wasn't feeling well. She didn't even want any coffee. I was glad to cook breakfast for Diane and mom while they caught up. We stayed until Rachel arrived. Diane went to work but I came home to do a little work here then go to Aldi. Mom needed more bread at her house and I bought the ingredients to make crock pot lasagna for Sunday dinner. I'm buying a lot less food for a lot more money these days. I thought inflation was supposed to be down to 0 percent but eggs and sausage both went up again and a loaf of bread at Aldi, the same loaf I was buying for $1.39 is now $2.09 and the loaf for mom's house was $4.49. Milk was $3.21 a gallon. Time to buy a cow and start baking again. This crazy government administration just keeps spending and spending. Biden just announced he was going to be forgiving student loans.

Just to be clear he isn't printing money to do this, he is going to tax the rest of us to pay the debt.

How does that work and just how does it make those that paid their debt feel? I'm pretty sure that 0 number isn't correct. 

I relieved Rachel at 1:00 pm. Mark brought dinner tonight. He stopped at a Lebanese restaurant and brought us some gyros and a gyro salad but it wasn't very good. The pita bread was tough, the meat dry. I was thankful not to have to cook. Phil and Anna's girls stopped in so we had them try some of the meat.  After dinner they went out to play in the lake while Phil and Anna worked on the barn.

Mom was tired tonight so at 7:30 pm we started getting ready for bed and just before 8:00 pm she was settled. I ran up to the barn to start teasing horses. Oksana said no, Indy said no but Sheena is in and was covered by Valiant.  It was dark by the time I finished, ran down to get cat food (forgot to feed the cat this morning) then finally in for the night.

I need to move the tables and chairs out of the barn for the trucks coming in tomorrow. 

Then I Can Sleep

 I needed to be at mom's again early so didn't try moving any of the bales inside. They are really nice big fine stemmed green bales. 

I needed to stop at the barn to get the tubs empty so Karin could take them back to the library and took the picture below of the nice tables and chairs we brought home yesterday.

The morning was beautiful so mom and I stayed out on the deck watching birds until lunch time.

We had to laugh at their squabbles. Rachel came at 1:00 pm to relieve me so I drove straight up to the barn to start moving the bales in. The skid steer was still having trouble so I needed to use the tractor. I wasn't able to stack them as neat as I would have liked. Three deer came bounding out of the woods and headed across the fields when they saw the tractor. I didn't have my camera out but when a turkey hen and her 3 chicks came wandering out of the woods I had to to grab my phone and video them as I was driving. 

I finished the bales around 3:00 pm and by this time was pretty tired but laundry needed to be done or I wouldn't have church clothes for tonight so turned on AC Central and listened to that as I was doing laundry.  We left for church at 6:15 pm. Tim Funk had the message. I'm really tired tonight so we didn't stay long to visit. As soon as this is finished, the last load of laundry will be taken out, folded and put away and then I can sleep.

Hay Day

 I was over at mom's by 7:30 am, just in time to finish cooking breakfast while Karin took a quick shower. We left for the Berean office around 8:15 am and made it there by 8:50 am. Everyone was already hard at work. We didn't have very much mail and were able to finish and leave there by 11:00 am. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. We went straight to the Hanna City post office to drop off the mail and the Bibles. I made lunch for mom as soon as we got home and mom at that while on the recliner so she could get her feet up and rest a bit. When Karin arrived I drove to the bank in Hanna City and deposited the last payment for Irish's colt then. As soon as I got back I needed to move bales. The farmer was here raking the hay which meant that was going to be baled later this afternoon.

All the bales from the right side needed to be moved over to the left side of the barn to make room for the new bales going on the right side.

Two bales needed to be moved into the middle paddock and one bale into Ribbons old paddock. My next job was to bring the motorhome over.

The camper repair place was finally ready to start work on it today. It has been almost a year since it was damaged. I just needed Mark to come home so he could follow me to the repair shop and take me home. That happened around 3:00 pm. As soon as we got home the horse trailer was hooked up to the truck and cleaned out and we were on our way to Farmington. Karin and Jackie were giving away chairs and tables along with some other stuff. We left for that around 3:20 pm got almost to Trivoli and came to a complete stop in a long line of traffic. Both Mark and I fell asleep waiting for it to move. I think it was at least 20 minutes at a standstill and when I awoke was shocked to see the car in front had started moving. The line up of cars behind me stretched almost to Hanna City. When we got to the library we just drove right onto the front lawn. Jackie was there waiting to help and the 3 of us got the truck and trailer loaded quickly. The truck needed gas so we stopped at Casey's in Hanna City and paid $3.81 a gallon. 

We just parked the truck and trailer in the new barn and walked home. On the way in I saw a big bumble bee sitting on a marigold Mark planted by the house. By the time I hit the camera button it had just flown off but aren't they beautiful?

We had a salad with the left over chicken on top before heading back to unload the chairs and tables. Mark took my car to count bales. We got 22 bales this second cutting. The bales are wonderful, fine stemmed grasses with some clover and alfalfa mixed in. These bales will be saved for the worst part of winter. We now have 80 bales here 80 at Middle Grove to get us through the winter.  We started moving bales in about 6:30 pm but had some trouble with the skid steer. We only got 8 of the bales moved in and another 6 outside the barn with 8 more to bring in from the field but those will need to wait until I'm free again, tomorrow afternoon. Even after a shower and washing my hair I was still brushing out bits of hay out of my hair. The bed is going to feel wonderful. 

Puppy Available

 We both over slept. I didn't walk up until my phone alarm went off at 6:20 am. We must have needed the sleep. Ruth sent a text at 7:15 am asking if anyone was walking but since I'm the only one here to walk and was not done with the morning chores we decided to skip.  I got everything done by 7:30 am and went straight over to mom's to start cooking breakfast there.  Today we sat out on the deck watching birds. The humming birds were buzzing, the wood peckers knocking, the redwing black birds trilling and the geese honking. We watched a big flock of geese come gliding in and landing in the lake. Below mom is counting the geese on the big rubber raft near Joan's house. 

It was so pleasant we had lunch out there.  Rhonda came over for a bit visiting and when Barbara called visited with her until mom was back in the recliner. Barbara is in California visiting her grandchildren. When Karin got home I left to fill the fresh water tank on the 5th wheel and empty the gray and black water tanks.  Thankful for the portable tank Mark bought, that makes it easy. Anna was at the apartment getting it ready for the next guests and reported that the air conditioner wasn't working right and that we needed more water softening salt. I headed down to Kroger and picked up 4 bags of that plus a coffee cake to serve at Berean tomorrow then drove down to the Peoria post office to pick up the mail. The mail and coffee cake were taken straight to the Berean office as tomorrow I'm bringing mom there and by the time we would get to the office there will already be volunteers waiting. Mark had already made it home by the time I pulled in at 4:15 pm. He took 2 bags of salt right up to the apartment then went to work on the airconditioner. The filter was dirty so that was removed and the outside unit was also dirty so he  hosed that off. By the time he finished it was 71 degrees inside and seemed to be working fine. He is going to bring home a filter home tomorrow. Spark and Rhonda came over at sunset with their machine and took Mark and I out for a sunset ride over the hayfields. By the time we got past the barns though the sun was already behind the trees and the colors weren't as brilliant.

My last airbnb guest left a nice review: 

Wonderful place, great location. Very peaceful. Super kind host. We all loved it and will definitely be returning!   He included a private note: “Once again, thanks so much! The kids are still talking about the horses. Pretty much life-changing for them. Lol!”

My niece Rebekah has an adorable female Bernadoodle available to the right home. Meet Charlie:

Rebekah writes: 

Miss Charlie is looking for a home and her price has been reduced. The best way to describe her is "happy". She is always wagging her tail and looks like she is smiling. She will definitely bring joy to a family looking for a wonderful family pet. IF you would like to know more about this puppy please click on the link below. https://joleyaire.com/store/p/charlie

Rebekah raises family friendly, well socialized, adorable Bernadoodles. Below is a video of Rebekah working with Charlie.

Another Wonderful Sunday

 We were really pleased to see Rick and Michelle's family in the church parking lot this morning. Always such a blessing to listen to Rick and I was pleased when he had the morning message, speaking first on Psalm 45, the royal wedding and then Philippians 2. If you get the opportunity to hear this message jump at it. You don't WANT to be late to the wedding. At noon I happened to notice Ray's tie and had to get a picture of that. We have both Cub fans and Card fans in our household.

This afternoon Craig spoke and that too is one I highly recommend.  We are so very blessed in Peoria.  Ruth took my car home from church at noon. She still isn't feeling well. Mark and I took mom's car with mom home.  Karin met us at the door and took over so I could start dinner.  We had a full house tonight. Lee wasn't there but Ron, Taunya's dad came so we still had 26 for dinner. Sarah's girls were the first to arrive and they helped me pick some cherry tomatoes for the salad tonight.  Kensley came a bit later and helped with that. 

The next job was to separate the onion rings. All 3 girls had to help to see if those onions really do make a person cry.

After supper we all went to the playground.

Sarah sacrificed playing volleyball to watch the ones that wanted to play in the lake.

Rhoda got to play tonight because Zeke took a nice nap in her car. She kept her Prius running the entire time. 

He woke up happy but very messed. It took 3 of us to clean him up. Rhoda didn't bring another set of clothes for him but it was plenty warm outside so that didn't matter.

The video below is of some of the activities at the playground and the lake.

It seems strange to not rush home to make up the milk replacer.