Thursday

 It was actually chilly this morning, really felt refreshing.  I stopped in at the barn before the walk and discovered a wonderful surprise.  Can you figure out what it could be?

This is the stall parts for the girls bathroom. The stalls wont be installed until later as this weekend is the Labor Day holiday and most of us are going camping. After the walk I drove first to Aldi to pick up groceries for Friday night at Norris and Sunday dinner then to Sam's club to pick up the rest of the meal. I had time today to listen to AC Central and found Fred Witzig had spoken in Elgin on Christian Nationalism. It is WELL worth the time to listen. Elgin doesn't have video yet but the audio is good. Click HERE to listen.  The 5th wheel booked for Sept 2nd so that was made ready. The water will be turned on that afternoon. It really only needed the soap refilled. This afternoon Mark got more mowing done in the paddocks.

While he was doing that I took the golf cart up to the barn to check on the horses.  Jury was in the far paddock all by herself enjoying the mowed grass.

I called the other two in to make sure all was well. Titus needed his halter adjusted and he stood nicely for that. 

Below they are watching Mark on the mower.

Evan was also watching the mowing.

The vet clinic was called to schedule Jury and Sheena's ultrasounds. I will need to take them in to the clinic Wednesday Sept 6th at 9:30 am, unless either of them come into season.  I asked about bringing Titus in to be gelded but Emma wasn't sure if Dr. Hoerr was healed up enough to do that.  He was kicked by a horse and tore something in his knee.  

It was a beautiful day to be outside. 

A Good Day

 On our walk today Ruth wanted to find Craig and Kendra's grave site so she can show Kendra's sister Carrie when she comes. Ruth works with Carrie.  I used to baby sit Kendra and Carrie. They lived in Mike and Diane's house while Mike was in law school in Indiana. 

The grave is on Spark and Rhonda's land. We also stopped at the cabin to check out the now finished stair case to the loft. 

Diane was with mom today. I started cleaning the garage out. I had lots of supplies from the library Karin and Jackie sold. The bowls and measuring cups were taken to the apartment and washed.

While there I noticed the new decorations Anna found and put up.

Each time I think she is done I find something new. My next job was to give the 5th wheel a spring cleaning in the fall. Well it really did need a deep cleaning. The mowing makes everything look nice.

In the picture below are both 5th wheels we are using for airbnbs. The Jayco behind the indoor arena and the Wildcat by the new barn. 

The picture below is taken looking West. Those weeds around the round pen will be sprayed tomorrow.

The outdoor arena is pictured below.

Joan called to ask to borrow the portable tank as today she was finishing the cleaning of the black tanks on all 4 campers. 

She and Faith worked together on this. The tanks were flushed then filled with fresh water and the treatment pod was dropped in. That was left until today when each of the black tanks were emptied. 

I was impressed with how clean the water was coming out of the black tank.

When that was done I took the portable tank back and went to the house.  Mark was just pulling in. We had a load of gravel dropped today so he went out to start spreading gravel.

Below he is spreading it up against the barn.  It looks like dirt but with each rain the dirt packs in and the white gravel shows.

He quit in time for supper. Tonight we had grilled hamburgers, salad and egg rolls and got done in time to get ready for church. Tonight was held at the fellowship hall where Jason and Geo Grassi told about there missionary time in Mexico.

It was good to be there. If you would like to hear and see their story click HERE.

It was a long day working outside but I'm pretty thrilled and thankful for all that got done. A good day!

More Mowing

 I left for Casey's at 6:30 am to get flips for the Berean workers but Casey's only had 6 of those so I bought those 6 plus 6 other donuts.  Mom wasn't feeling well enough to go to Berean this morning so Joan stayed with her.  We had a light but interesting day. IF interested in ready about our morning there click HERE. After leaving there I didn't have a lot of work to do at home so turned on the computer to find Aunt Jinnie sent a video of Spark and Mike speaking at the WoodCliff Lake church in New Jersey. 

We had a nice cool day. Joan sent over the mowers today and wow was that needed. 

It always looks so nice around here when the mowing gets done. We are so thankful the kids are willing to do the work. Mackenson mows the hills with the push mower while Faith uses the grasshopper. Tomorrow I'll get pictures. Mark even promised to mow more of the paddocks tomorrow.  The hurricane is going to hit Florida tonight or tomorrow Disney just put out this notice:  As Hurricane Idalia marches closes to the coastline of Florida, Walt Disney World has begun preparation for the storm and has assured guests that they will receive a full refund in light of the severe weather. Thankfully it looks like we will receive a refund.

Extra Mowing

Mark wanted an omelet for breakfast so I made a double.  Half was given to him this morning and the other half put in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast.

  The morning was really cool, so cool Diane came out with a jacket. We were talking about our trip to Florida with Ruth on the walk when Ruth reminded us of the hurricane coming that is supposed to hit on Wednesday morning, the day our plane was supposed to take off. Well with a hurricane coming and mom going with us, plus the governor declared a state of emergency and stated that there would be loss of power for Florida. We realized there was no way we were going to make this trip.  We stopped at mom's to explain that to Karin and Mom. Karin explained it to Jackie and now that trip is officially canceled. We will lose some of the money paid in but not all of it. We really just can't take a chance of getting mom there in that heat with no air conditioning. Instead we are planning on taking mom to Norris this weekend for a camping trip and then to the Ark Encounter. On our walk we stopped at the cabin so Joan and Bethany could see the new staircase up to the loft.

It was my turn to be with mom today so we talked about the new plans we could make now that we have 2 weeks free. When Karin came I went straight to the 5th wheel to check the fridge now that the wasp nest and wasps are all gone and was thrilled to find it working.  The cover of the vent was taken down to the house to wash.

Mark was willing to do some mowing today as long as I opened and shut gates.

It was crazy how fast everything grew when the rain started a few weeks ago. I wanted to get the barn cleaned up and a video taken of it now that it is almost finished.

Just for your information, we are waiting on the stalls for the girls bathrooms. 

Dan came over while I was working on the upstairs.  He bought a 15 ft by 12 ft drop cloth that may work as a projector screen and wanted to see how it would fit. 

We had BLT's for supper and after supper Mark mowed the weeds down in the round pen. He will weed whack that tomorrow and I'll give it a try with Evan and Valiant. If it doesn't work as a grass round pen we will put weed killer on it and go back to sand.

I could hear the girls playing volley ball so drove over to the playground to watch as usually 4 of my grand daughters play but tonight there were only 3 grand daughters playing.

I'm thrilled to get some of this extra mowing done. 

Elisabet's Birthday Party

 We had to leave for church just before 9:00 am as from now on Peoria church is starting their singing at 9:30 am. We really did have a wonderful day in church. Tim Roecker had the morning message. It was a good message for me. Click HERE if you would like to hear that. Lunch was amazing. Of course any meal that Karen is cooking is always amazing. She and Ralph along with Norv and friends put this meal on. Although I know who some of the friends were, they were cooking a 3 course meal for us on Saturday and needed Mark to get some cooling in the kitchen as it was really heating up. So all of you who did the cooking it really was appreciated today. Craig Stickling had the afternoon message and that one is also one that must be listened to again. Click HERE if you would like to watch that message. We stopped at Aldi after church to pick up a water melon for dinner tonight and a gallon of milk. I also bought Mark some dark chocolate as a special treat as I am leaving him for 2 weeks on Wednesday. Once the water melon was cut up and in the fridge to cool Mark and I went up to the 5th wheel to check out the fridge except there were wasps going in the outside vent of the fridge. Mark went back to get some wasp spray, sprayed it and then lots of wasps were dropping out of that on to the ground and some flying away. Mark left, I grabbed the bedding to wash then went back to get the food moved over to the barn. Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley were already there so they helped with food prep. Below they are shredding the lettuce. 

The peppers were cut up last night but the girls cut up the onions and yes they cried doing that then mixed them in with the peppers.

Right about then I noticed the shelves above the desk Phil and Anna installed today.

The picture on the desk was hand drawn by Kathy Obergfel.

I went back to take the vent cover off now that the wasps should be dead but was shocked to find so many of them were still alive and was really shocked at the amount of wasps inside. I took a video but was careful not to get too close. There were still wasps flying around.

Rhoda arrived and took Jury out for a trail ride. When she came back she had Iris and Zeke get on her.

Zeke wasn't too happy when his dad took him off so Iris could ride Jury back to the barn.

We were about half way down the drive when Israel came up so he joined Iris on the trip back to the barn.

Rhoda gave Israel a lesson on Jury in the outdoor arena.

Mark got the grilling of the vegetables done around 4:30 pm just in time for Sunday dinner.

It was interested to see when the kids table was done eating they stayed sitting visiting to each other just like the adult table.

I think they were just so glad to be with each other they had a lot to catch up on, either that or they are growing up.  After the meal it was time to celebrate Elisabet's birthday.

After Elisabet opened her gifts the kids went up to the game room but the adults went out to the volley ball court. There was a good group of us older adults enjoying the evening by watching and visiting. The video below is of some of the afternoon and evening.

After everyone left I drove up to the 5th wheel to see if I could knock down the wasp nest but there were more live wasps back on the nest. Evidently they were out hunting when we sprayed it. I emptied the wasp spray can on the nest and again so many dropped. Hopefully by tomorrow morning we can clean it out and see if that is why the fridge stopped working. The sun was setting by the time I finished up.

If interested in the rest of the pictures from today click HERE.

More Rain

 As there is no walk on Saturdays I slept in not getting out of bed until 6:30 am. Mark wanted breakfast since he wanted to get going on unloading the aluminum trailer before the real heat of the day started. After breakfast we drove over to the field, hooked the truck up to the trailer. Mark and Mackenson started on emptying that while I worked on the apartment stove. The scratcher was tried first but soon I switched to a knife finishing in about a half an hour. 

The guests staying there left early so the laundry was started before I went down to help with the unloading. They still had about a half of a trailer left to unload so the 3 of us finished that before 9:00 am. 

We still have a ways to go before the wood shed is filled to capacity but we sure have a good start.

As soon as the trailer was emptied we took the trailer to the field to pick up that last hay bale.

I drove the skid steer while Mark took the truck. The bale was soon loaded.

Mark took it home the road way while I took the skid steer through the fields and beat him to the shelter.  We put this bale in the last paddock shelter. As we were moving that Tri County Rv called to tell us that the trailer could be picked up this morning. As soon as Mark took the aluminum trailer off we left for Tri county. The bill was $10.91 and that was for the black tank treatment he recommended. The fridge repair was exactly 0.  No charge, there was nothing wrong with it other than Joan's electrical service. We need to get that bumped up to a 30 amp outside. The owner of the company took us into the back to show us why we need a 30 amp service and I was impressed with the race car sitting in the garage.

It is a pretty amazing car but actually very old.

The truck and trailer were parked at the new barn as all of Joan's kids and grandkids were at her house giving her a work day and her parking lot was full.

Mark walked back but I had a few things to do in the barn. There were dark rain clouds heading our way during his walk.

By the time I got home the rain started and by the time it stopped we had an inch and a half.

It came so fast that our drive washed out again. Good thing Mark has the road grader still hooked up to the tractor. The fields got a great drink.  Not too long after that the guests in the 5th wheel called to report the fridge wasn't working. I couldn't find the problem but the renters were still happy with where they were and didn't want to move so I took them a cooler with ice. Aunt Jinnie needed to be taken to the airport at 1:15 pm. Diane called to say they would take her instead of me so I took the golf cart over to say goodbye. Diane had her new car there. We all went out to see it. Ruth was showing mom the car, mom said, "it doesn't look that special" We all burst out laughing.

We got on the golf cart and went over to see Mike and Diane's cabin where they are installing a new way to get up to the loft. Diane is holding one of the railings in the picture below.

This evening I started on tomorrow's meal with browning 8 pounds of hamburger then simmering it in taco seasoning sauce.

The peppers were next, those were washed.

Then those were sliced and then put in the fridge for tomorrow.

That will give me a jump on tomorrow's meal.