Strong Storms

 Just Ruth, me and the 3 dogs walked. Well actually Ruth and I rode the golf cart while the dogs ran beside us getting their exercise. Diane and Mike left for Gulf Shores and Joan has co-op on Fridays. Lily and her day old filly were put outside and the arena cleaned up. 

I had a couple book the 5th wheel for tomorrow morning and that hadn't been opened since last fall. I was praying there would be no critter damage and was so pleased to find it was exactly as we left it last fall. That was given a good cleaning, all the bedding was washed and then brought back out, fresh towels, shampoo, conditioner, and soap along with 8 bottles of water were taken out to restock. I finished that at noon, grabbed the 30 gallon propane tank from the new barn and took that in to Peoria to refill it. Now that I know how to install the tank it is an easy job. Anna came and got the apartment ready for the guests coming in tonight. I drove the golf cart over to mom's to visit with Ruth. She needed to leave for a few minutes so I stayed and visited with mom. Rizzy is staying with us while David and Stephanie's family are in Gulf Shores, she followed me over and stared at us from the deck licking her chops in hope we would let her in to eat Molly's dog food.

When Ruth got back I left for Sam's club to pick up 2 of the 110 foot hoses which will be used for the fresh water intake on the 5th wheel. Just as I was checking out the first storm hit. I had an umbrella but the rain was coming down so hard sideways that my jean skirt was soon soaked. Right about then the hail started. Ruth took the picture below, I was trying to keep the umbrella over my head as that hail stung when it hit.

Trying to drive home was not easy. Below is what my windshield looked like.

The cars on the interstate were crawling and under each overpass were cars, trucks and even motorhomes trying to get away from the hail. This caused the traffic to come to a complete stop. The flashers were needed as it was so hard to see very far in front.  I made it home safe. Mark was here and helped unload the car. A little later another storm was moving in. There was the almost continues rumble of distant thunder.

The electricity went off, came back on, went off, came back on and now my desktop computer won't work. Thankfully I have a laptop. Hopefully this can be fixed. Mark turned on the generator, Ruth, Phil, mom and Joan have battery back up. 

The airbnb guests coming in tonight were hoping to arrive before dark to see the horses. Lily and her day old filly were brought into a stall and the burrs taken out of Lily's mane and tail. I had just finished when they arrived. They all got to pet the filly then before heading out to see the other horses showed them where the storm shelter was.  As I was introducing them to the other horses the next storm arrived dumping buckets of rain water. That blew over and out came a gorgeous rainbow. Joan took the picture below.

Rachel sent the next picture.

Ruth sent the last picture.

Such beauty after the storm. Mark walked around the neighborhood, just one tree down and that is at Mike and Diane's house. I'll get a picture of that tomorrow. I'm not sure now much rain we received but probably more than 2 inches. The ground is saturated.

New Tool

 What a surprise this morning with Lily delivering before Rosalie.  Joan and Diane helped get them into a stall then cleaned up after them. 

The filly is strong and healthy.  The placenta was delivered whole so all is good. They were bedded down with 2 bags of pellets, given 2 buckets of water and a half a bale of hay then Mark and I left to go look at a golf cart in a small town called Forsyth.  It took us about an hour and 40 minutes hauling the 2 horse trailer. It was exactly as advertised and quite reasonable so we bought it, loaded it and drove home arriving right at 1:00 pm. Our airbnb renters were thrilled to see a new foal in the stall and asked if they could get closer so I brought her over to the door for them to pet her.

They are a city family and I kind of got a kick out of their mom for as soon as they finished petting the filly she said, "quick go wash your hands." After they left I unloaded the golf cart.

Then drove down to the house. Stephanie had dropped off Rizzy for us to watch while they are on vacation, she saw that golf cart, ran over and jumped up ready to go for a ride.

It isn't just grandchildren that enjoy golf cart rides, the grand dogs do too.

This golf cart is my main tool now for running up to the barn, hauling grain, leading horses and now that we have this tool the garage needed to be cleaned out so it could be plugged in and kept out of the weather.  Mark got right busy on that.

It was so nice outside and Lily was begging to go out so the two were let out into the big field.

She quickly learned how to use those legs and kept practicing running around her mom.

She was content to graze so I went back to the house and noticed the daffodils were blooming.

At 5:00 pm Mark and I took the golf cart over to mom's house. Ruth was in charge of mom's birthday this year. She picked up Nancy first then Fedi picked up pizza and we all met over there to celebrate Nancy's 59th birthday which is really tomorrow, mom's 91st birthday and Sparks 71st birthday which is today. Nancy was SO excited. Karin dressed her up in mom's crown.

Rhonda got home from the hospital last night and was feeling well enough she came all dressed up in a brand new dress tags and all.

 

Below are a couple pictures of the party.

We were just missing John and Beth. Below is a short video of the dinner and birthday cakes.

Some of them stayed to play games but I needed to go put Lily and her filly away. They get to spend the night in the indoor as rain is predicted to arrive tonight. I left Rosalie outside but her udder has gone down and there is no waxing at all so she should be safe to leave out. The weather prediction for tomorrow is lots of rain and that means more mud but also growing grass. I'm very thankful for the new tool in the garage. This really will help me with chores. 

Borrowed Ride

 I was the first to the dumpster this morning and hit the jackpot. Someone un-named threw  away a perfectly good water bucket. It had some oil in it and needed to be cleaned but I can easily do that. We are always glad for buckets. 

Ruth and Diane arrived at the same time. Ruth jumped out of her van, ran to the back and opened the back hatch to start unloading Fedi's scooter. Diane quickly walked over to help.

What a wonderful surprise for me. Yesterday I was not able to finish the walk because of hip pain and Ruth thought, "why not give this a try."  I'm very happy to report it worked well. I could easily keep up with them and even had to keep slowing it down.

I'll borrow it until I can get a golf cart working. It came in very handy a bit later during the day.  I just needed to run up to the truck for some paper work. 

Laundry was started then a trip to the bank to get the title of the 4 horse trailer. The people are coming on Saturday to try it out and if they want to buy it the title needs to be here. AT 4:00 pm a text came in that the apartment rented for the night. That meant the guests could arrive at anytime and the heat had been turned down and the floor needed to be swept. I was just finishing up there when the family of 5 arrived. They have 3 daughters and 2 were horse lovers so they were introduced first to the weanlings, then to Rosalie and Lily. Below they are petting Rosalie.

We stopped next at Valiant's paddock and last was Evan's paddock.

All the horses were glad to see them and took grass carefully out of their hands. The girls were given some curry combs to get some of the mud off Rosalie.  Mark and I left for church at 6:10 pm. When we got to 116 we could see a column of thick black smoke coming from the North.

By the time we reached Farmington road it was even blacker and thicker.

Something big was burning.  

Church was good. David had the message on Hannah's song and Mary's song and how similar they are. It was a good message if you would like to watch and listen click HERE.  Elisabet and Israel sat with us as Steph was in Roanoke for testimonies. 

On the way home Carol sent an update on Wayne's quadruple bypass that was to start at noon today. She wrote: Surgery completed and doctor reported it is successful.

Thanks for continued prayers.

Surprise Birthday

The mares were put out early and the arena cleaned up before coming in to make breakfast for Mark.  Ruth, Diane and I walked, Joan needed to leave early as today is achievement testing for her children. After the walk I drove to mom's to help her get ready for our Berean day. We followed Diane to Zanes where she dropped off her car to get the snow tires off. As soon as she was in the van we were on our way to the Berean office and arrived 15 minutes late. Shirley met us with, "we are all done!" except they weren't they were only done opening the studies. We were kept busy today there with 89 Bible requests. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. Skip loaded the Bibles into the back of the wheel chair van and when we pulled in to the post office Mike showed up to help unload the Bibles. He and Diane carried them in. Once home Lily and Rosalie were taken out to the field.

Mike came driving up with the stock trailer. 

It still needs to be painted so Mike backed it into the barn. 

There are two wheels off because he will also need to do the wiring. Those were inside the trailer. We are so glad to have that back.  This is the best trailer ever for hauling mares and foals. When he left I noticed the manure spreader had a draft halter caught in the tines and that had to be removed. 

I had to take it all apart to get it out of there.

It couldn't be salvaged and was thrown away. The mares lose the halters in the fields then when we spread manure the spreader finds them for us. 

At 2:00 pm we had a surprise birthday party for Karin. Rachel brought over one of her gorgeous delicious creations. 

Below Diane is taking it over to show mom and Ruth.

Rachel set it up perfectly sending out a text asking if anyone wanted to play carbols at 2:00 pm so  Karin was expecting to play games when she arrived. She walked in was surprised to see us all waiting. We met her with a crown and flowers.

The party was fun.

I left a little early as the mares needed to be brought. Rosalie lost her halter somewhere in the field and it was another draft halter. I found a bright purple extra large horse halter that fit her and put that on to bring her in.

Mark stopped at Kroger on his way home and bought some fresh asparagus so that was cooked for supper and served with a grilled chicken salad.

After supper we went out to take the log splitter off the tractor and put on the road grader.

Above he is backing the tractor to put the log splitter up against the wall and below he is adjusting the grader once that was connected.

The drives are really too dry but he wanted to drive it a bit to get it adjusted to the right depth. That machine is very noisy.

I had just come inside when I got a message someone wanted to see pictures of the horse trailer. I took the car back up snapped these two pictures and by the time I got back they had already decided to come and were on their way.

They checked it over thoroughly and want to drive it first but believe they would like to buy it.  They are local, about 8 minutes from here so will come on Saturday to take it for a test ride. 

Don't Try at Home

Both Mark and I overslept this morning not waking until 6:30 am. The night was interrupted by what sounded like a mouse in the closet but when I looked at the closet I saw a small flashing red light. There is no electricity in or near the closet so I couldn't imagine what could cause that. When I got out of bed I started emptying the closet determined to find what could be flashing and see if I could see any mouse damage.  The mystery of the light was solved. One of the tiny lights that go inside the balloons had rolled into the closet. 

Nor could I find any sign of mouse damage. Mark thinks there might be a critter in the basement. By the time I left to move the mares I only had enough time to just put them out. They were put in the field next to Evan before the walk but the arena was not cleaned up until later this afternoon.

Breakfast was cooked after the walk then I left for the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail. I stopped at Sam's club to get a dessert for Berean but also bought chicken breasts, 4 different colors of peppers, green, red, yellow and orange, a big bag of sweet onions, Those were for Sunday's dinner. Mark should be able to grill chicken parmesan. I also picked up 3 rotisserie chickens, one for Diane, one for Joan and one for our house and a few other needed groceries. From Sam's I drove to the Berean office to drop off the mail, a cherry pie and some cookies. Joan's chicken was dropped  off at mom's for their lunch. Diane's chicken was put in her fridge for their supper before going to our house to unload the groceries. The rotisserie chicken was still warm and juicy so I sliced some off for my lunch before heading out to clean the indoor. Lily was waiting at the gate to be let out into the big field so the gate was opened and both mares walked out to enjoy the spring grass. Lily came out first then Rosalie walks out and goes in front of Lily. Lily gets to go pretty much where ever she wants. She really is the queen of the herd both here and at Middle Grove. She will be 21 years old May 4th and is expecting her 18th foal. In the picture below Lily is left, Rosalie her daughter is in front of her and to the right.  Rosalie is due April 7th and Lily is due April 12th. It would be pretty neat if both mares deliver on the same day.

Check out that baby bump on Lily in the picture below.

Once the outdoor work was finished I went back down to the house, not to work, today I was just plain tired so listened to youtube songs and found a new song by Sounds Like Reign.. 

Such a beautiful song

Amy arrived to show me the finished product. This is her second baby blanket and this one is perfect.

Check out the crochet border. It is made of glittery pink yarn as this blanket is for a baby girl.

We took the car up to check on the mares and they ended up following us down to Valiant's paddock so were put back into the middle paddock for the rest of the day.  On my way back to the house the cat followed me down.

She is feeling lonely and needed attention. I just heated up soup for supper. At 6:30 pm Ruth, Diane and I went over mom's to play Mexican train with Karin. 

At the end of the game I had the highest score. I'll take that as a win, but the real the object of the game is to have the lowest score. 

Now for a little instructions. Do NOT try this at home.  We have had so much rain that the fields and paddocks are muddy and by the time I came in the mud had soaked through my tennis shoes and socks and my feet were filthy. I was glad to get into the shower but a few minutes into the shower dropped the soap. Now hip patients can't bend down very well to wash the feet so I had the great idea, just step on the soap while it was down there, get the sole of my right foot soapy and scrub my left foot with the right foot but each time I stepped on the soap it would squirt out under my foot and slide fast around the shower floor.  That shower floor was so slick by the time I finally got one foot clean that I was very glad for all the grab bars installed. Mark also installed the shower curtain rod into the wall which of which I ended up swinging from like a chimpanzee.  Those grab bars were a life saver, both feet are clean but I won't try that again. It's time to buy that old fashioned soap-on-a-rope.

Super Sunday

 The mares were put out this morning but I didn't have the time to clean up the arena and planned on doing that right after church. On the way to church I was digging through my purse for a bobby pin and felt something weird, pulled it out and found smashed flips. I put the left over donuts from Berean in the purse to take up to the hospital for Rhonda and those staying with her. I thought I had taken them all out but missed these two. 

At least they were removed before going into church.

Gregg Rumbold had the morning message and the afternoon was our Sunday school Easter program.

I just snapped the one picture.

We really enjoyed that especially the last song of the day.  A flash mob also performed that song and of course now it is stuck in my head.

After church Braelyn helped me blow up balloons and put lights in them for the party. A  starling had flown down the chiminy of the wood burner and was trying to get out. I showed the kids how to put a garbage bag around the door, and when the door was opened the bird flew into the bag. Berlica wanted to take it home. 

She was told this is an adult and would not make a good pet.

After supper we celebrated the birthdays of Braelyn and Eden.

Below Braelyn is lighting the candles.

After the party we all walked over to the gym.

When the adults arrive to play volley ball some of the grand kids decided to head to the old barn. They were being funny had a blast walking funky.

Since the arena had not been cleaned up from last night they all worked together to get that job done.

When that was finished they decided to run to the playground. I walked back to the barn to watch more volley ball.  Elisabet and Abe were thrilled when Riley and Blair showed up. They missed these second cousins of theirs.

The video below just shows some of the fun from today.