Another Blessed Sunday

 We had an easy quiet morning. Most of the work for today had been done last night. We heard Mike and Diane made it down to Gulf Shores with the boat by 9:30 pm. We left for church at 9:00 am, got to Rhonda's within a minute and gave her a ride to church. Joan is in Athens, AL for a funeral so Ruth gave mom a ride to church. Randy and Kathy gave Nancy a ride to church. Faith took Mackenson and Berlica but left at noon for Princeville for Baptisms so we gave them a ride home. Sarah took Joan's place teaching her Sunday school class and Nancy was thrilled to be able to go. She loves Sunday school. Gregg Rumbold had the morning message on Daniel 3 and Philippians 4 click HERE to watch that. Caleb Plattner had the afternoon message on Genesis 12 and Hebrews 11. Click HERE to watch that. We stopped at Aldi on the way home from church to pick up cinnamon rolls to serve with the chili I made last night. It's a Kansas thing! Our daughter-in-law taught us how to break off the cinnamon roll and dip in in the chili and guess what...IT IS good! We dropped off Joan's kids then went home. We changed out of our Sunday clothes before loading the food for tonight's dinner on the golf cart then drove over there to start the laundry from the group that stayed there last night. The chili was put on to warm while the beds were stripped and the laundry started. 

The towels were taken to my house to wash and dry. The guests had done a good job cleaning up but Mark did a little sweeping while I baked the cinnamon rolls and stirred the chili. We served that with a sour cream, corn chips, salad, avocado, crackers and fruit.  We also brought out all the left over healthy smoothies Norv brought for potluck on Friday. The kids had fun tasting everything and almost all of them were finished off. After supper the volleyball players arrived and we had a full house. The mothers with babies ended up by the kids corner visiting.

The little girls had been up building a fort upstairs but came down for a treat and then posed for a picture.

Sarah helped with the clean up. I went upstairs to see the fort and took the video below:

The bouncy house was busy tonight. At first I thought it may have a hole in it but then they told me they only wanted one fan on so they could grab the top. There were all ages here tonight but for sure Mark and I were the oldest.

We took the left over food home, froze 6 quarts of chili before heading over to mom's to pick up Nancy. I drove her home to Morton tonight and we had fun with every red light.  Another blessed Sunday.

Another Announcement

 The Meister Family has a big announcement and you will need to scroll all the way down to the end of this blog to read about it. It really is GREAT or should I say GREAT GREAT! A gray cold morning turned into a gray colder day with a brisk breeze. I was over at the barn by 7:00 am to finish getting it ready for the guests coming in today finishing that by 8:00 am. After breakfast Mark wanted my help lifting the roof panels for the porch. He was so concerned about the breeze blowing the panels onto my head he decided I must wear a hard hat.

We got a good system going. Once the metal was up on the roof I would run down to the house to change the laundry machines and would come back up just as we needed to lift another panel.

Anna dropped Braelyn off to clean the apartment while we were working. So glad we have a grand daughter that is willing to work. Below Mark is working on the next to the last panel.

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After screwing down the last panel we both took a break and went into the house to warm up but I turned around to take one final picture.

He still has metal trim that needs to be put up and then we need to come up with some kind of flange to divert the water away from the building and onto the roof of the porch. Mark is hoping Phil can make something at Meisters that will work. Mark was putting away the tools as Braelyn was finishing up with the apartment so I drove her home once she finished. Anna and Phil were at Taegan's basketball game and sent a short video of Taegan being announced as a starter although they announced her as Teegan Skigall. It is pretty cool she is in 6th grade and is a starter on the 7th grade team. She must take after her dad. Mark helped me get the truck hooked up to the stock trailer for my next job which was to haul Valerie and Thalia out to Middle Grove. I was very pleased with both fillies, they walked right in the trailer. All the ground work we do makes for obedient fillies. Below they are in the trailer waiting for me to take off.

Right about then I noticed Berlica and Mackenson coming over to mow again.  This is the middle of November!

They needed warm coats and gloves today.

We have never needed to mow this late but I'm not complaining the pastures look great with all this rain and cool weather. I drove right into the field at Middle Grove.

The gate was shut, both fillies had their halters removed then the back door of the trailer opened.

Thalia came out first.

Then Valerie.

Both girls walked a little way then stopped to try to figure out where the herd was.

Above is Valerie and below is Thalia.

They slowly started toward the 5 acre lake but kept stopping and sniffing the air. The weren't able to catch any scent or see any of the herd. Below is part one of their search.

Park 2 also didn't help them find the herd. Valerie got impatient but was still afraid to have the truck and trailer out of her sight.

 I started walking up the hill, they realized where I was going and took off up the hill too. This time they ran to the old watering hole but no horses in sight. I hiked up the hill to the top, saw them searching and called for them to come follow me. Below is part 3.

The video below shows when they found the herd and took off at a gallop to join them.

And the last video is once the herd was all together. I stayed up on the ridge so had to really zoom in to be able to see them. This video shows how far away I was from the herd.

I took a few more pictures before leaving.

I had a long walk back to the truck but at least most of the walk was downhill. When I reached the gate I heard a truck coming down the road and that turned out to be Tarah's husband Jay. He jumped out of his truck and asked if I was leaving and when I told him yes, he said he would shut the gate for me. I am so thankful for heat in the truck and turned that up to 75 to try to warm up. When I got home the stock trailer was unhooked then we needed to get the Mini Max camper stored in the indoor with the other campers. That didn't go very well. We hooked it up to the skid steer, drove it to the barn then turned the skid steer around and used the attachment of a ball that hooks onto the bucket of the skid steer Mark bought to push it into the barn but the attachment kept coming loose. We finally figured out it was because the sand was mounded up too high for the camper to back up smoothly. After many tries we finally got it into place.

I locked one set of keys in the camper and took the other set down to the house. Mark decided to smooth out the mounds of sand with the skid steer. That sand is old and really dusty.

Below is a video of  him moving sand.

We were BOTH glad to quit working and head inside. 

NOW for the BIG announcement!

Noel and Elijah are expecting a baby May 2025.

This baby will be mom's very first GREAT GREAT grandchild making mom a GREAT GREAT grandma and Rhonda and Spark GREAT grandparents.  Are we really that old?  Noel is due about the same time as Jessica. 

PotLuck

 We had sunshine today and even though it was chilly this morning the sun made everything seem warmer and brighter. Ruth, Diane and I walked, Joan had Co-Op. When we reached Rachel's and turned around on the dam we had to stop to take a picture. The sky was so blue, there was no wind and the reflection on the lake was amazing.

We stopped in at mom's after and stayed to visit for a bit. Today I wanted to clean up any of those Asian  ladybugs that got into the barn and worked with a broom to remove quite a few. Not as many as the last time but with this nice weather I'm sure I'll have to do it again tomorrow. I was throwing away a bag of garbage when I saw Mike taking mom's Kubota to the shed. That meant he and Dan were probably going to take the sailboat out of the lake. I found out this sailboat is a 21 foot Macgregor built in 1969. I did a little research on them and found out quite a bit: MacGregor sailboats are a popular brand of trailerable sailboats and other boats that are suitable for a variety of recreational and commercial boating activities. Roger MacGregor, a former Ford employee, founded MacGregor Yacht Corporation in 1961. The company's first boat was a small catamaran, but the line became known for its small, trailerable sailing yachts. These boats were and still are highly sought after. Well this one was stuck in the lake. The truck is so heavy it sunk into the mud. Mom's Kubota was not strong enough to pull the truck and boat out and up the hill. Mike brought down the Yanmar.

Above Dan is getting it hooked up to the Yanmar. Below is the video of them pulling the truck and the boat out of the lake.

By the time I got back to our place Mark was getting the metal out for the roof of the porch.

He stopped at that job as we wanted to get the motorhome and the Little Guy camper winterized today. We decided to do the motorhome first.

Mark got the waterheater door opened then brought over the air compressor. We use that to blow air into the plumbing to make sure all of the water is out of every pipe and out of the water heater.

The motorhome's fresh water tank had been filled so that needed to be emptied.

I found that drain and opened it. Nice that it wasn't under the motorhome like the 5th wheels are.

Below is the closeup.

We were shocked at how much it held. Below Mark is releasing the water in the hot water tank.

While we were doing that I got the motorhome cleaned up from the last rental and brought the sheets in to wash. The Mini Max was even easier except for one problem. Mark was having trouble getting the plug out of the water heater so we could empty that tank. I decided to help him as my hands are a little smaller. I was squatting down unscrewing the plug when suddenly the plug exploded off hitting me in the chest and shooting a deluge of water under pressure that almost knocked me down drenching me from my head to foot. I left then to go change as it was much to cold out to work in wet clothes. When I got back the rest of the winterizing went smoothly. They will both be stored in the indoor arena probably tomorrow. It was already 1:30 pm and neither of us had lunch. I grilled a couple of chicken with cranberry sandwiches for that then took a shower to get ready for potluck. We had 13 tonight for potluck. Norve surprised us by bringing 10 drinks from a health food store. We were all given spoons and cups so we all could try each of the drinks.

Most of them were delicious, one of the green ones tasted like grass so was probably very healthy. The berry ones were really good.  Dinner was delicious. We had smoked brisket, wild rice, a cheesy vegetable from Imogen and Harold, some warm pumpkin scones from Rose, a nice salad from Diane, Debby brought an amazing trifle for our dessert and Ruth brought candy for the candy bowls. Everyone really enjoyed the dinner and the fellowship. 

Fedi was the first to leave and Mike took  him home as Ruth and mom came together. Mike and Diane were the next to leave as they are leaving for Gulf Shores in a few hours. We had a very nice evening and I'm thankful!

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Pleasant Home

Another damp cold morning. Ruth was too tired to walk this morning but Diane, Joan and I did. I stopped in after the walk to visit with mom and Karin. Karin had fixed mom a delicious breakfast. It looked so good it made me leave early to go cook breakfast for Mark and I.

After breakfast I worked in the barn, then set the table for potluck tomorrow.

I picked up some candy on sale at Kroger for the centerpiece and to share as I think it matched the table cloth pretty well.

On the way back into our house I noticed one flower sticking out of all the white, pink and purple flowers. All of these are growing from the same plant so sure don't know where the bright yellow came from.

A closer look showed that the flower was only part yellow, the other part was white and pink.

While at Kroger I checked out their turkeys. They were $1.39 a pound but ONLY if you spent $25.00 first. I didn't buy any. Since I needed to go to Sam's to pick up Ice, lemons, bread and egg rolls I checked out their members mark turkeys. Those were 99 cents a pound but the largest was only 14.5 pounds. I found 3 at that size and bought those. I will still watch sales and hope to get a 20 pounder before Thanksgiving. I drove straight to the barn to put the ice and turkeys in the freezer. Beth Meister was in town with her friend Rose so they came over for a visit and we ended up at mom's house. 

The house was full of laughter as we shared some of our experiences in the past. When I got home I made a big batch of sugared pecans.

Some will be used tomorrow for the salad and some will be used for the Berean dessert on Tuesday if I can keep Mark out of them. Those were hid in the fridge. Once those were cooling on the front porch I got busy cleaning in this house getting the bathroom and kitchen cleaned while cooking dinner. After dinner Matt sent Mark a text asking if we had a picture of Pleasant Home when it was first built. We did, while searching for the picture I found the picture below of Pleasant home taken in 2011 when we were getting ready to move to the Horsemeister farm.

Above is Pleasant Home when we left and below is a picture of Pleasant Home soon after the house was finished and the great grandpa Henry Baer and his family were all settled in the year 1917. Notice the horse and buggy going down the road in front of the house. You can also see the old Baer greenhouse  to the left of the house. 

Good memories were made while living in that house. I grew up there, left at age 22 when I married Mark then moved back in 1991 when Sarah was a year old. Altogether I lived in that house for 42 years. I loved living there but as I got older and had hip problems the house was just too hard for me to keep up. I was more than happy to move here to the farm.

 

WEBSITE LIVE

 The big news for me is the horsemeister website went live this morning. I found a few mistakes so will fix those but thrilled it is now live. Check it out by typing in horsemeister.com in a search engine or just click HERE. Feel free to suggest edits. Right after the walk today I went to the barn to clean the upstairs. That really needed a good cleaning. There was frosting ground into the flooring, all the cushions were off the couches and chairs and softballs were scattered everywhere. Mark was working on the porch and called when the needed help. We were putting up the rafters today and it really did take the two of us.Below they are up but not bolted in. The boards were a little warped so we needed a way to bring them together a little less than a half an inch.

Mark got his winch out for that.

Diane called about then to tell me the sailboat was in the water. I took the golf cart over to mom's to see this strange boat.

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There will be MUCH more on this boat later but I'll give you a hint, it runs and runs well with no sail. It is probably the only sailboat in the world that can go backwards. Hopefully in a week or two we can reveal the entire project but it REALLY is amazing. When I got back to help Mark he was already putting up more of the rafters for the roof.

We quit before we got the metal up as this afternoon was Eva Jean's visitation and funeral and we were all going. I went over to mom's at 3:40 pm. Anni was over visiting with her dog Chewy and her two little boys Dexter and Harvey. 

Mark, Diane and I left with mom while Joan and Faith met us at Bob Evans. We stopped there for supper first.

The visitation was well attended as was the funeral. Eva Jean was well known and I'm not the only one with many stories of this special lady. 

Below is her obituary.

Eva Jean Schaefer, 91, of Peoria, passed away on Friday November 8, 2024 at Apostolic Christian Skylines. She was born on January 16, 1933 in Cissna Park, IL, the daughter of Fred and Leona Knapp. Eva Jean married Herman Schaefer on August 22, 1965 in Cissna Park, IL and they were blessed with 41 years of marriage. He preceded her in death.

Surviving are two daughters, Angie (Geoff) Ginzel and Janell (Wally) McDonald, both of Peoria; one sister, Aldine Locher; one sister-in-law Vera Knapp; three grandchildren, Samantha (Seth) Kieser, Alexandra (Jason) Boucher, and Joshua (Katie) Ginzel.

Her great grandchildren Addy, Lainey, Lily and Maggie, were the light of her life and continued to make her smile even as Alzheimer’s caused her memories to fade. As the disease progressed babies continued to bring her joy and she is now snuggling her great grandbabies that were waiting for her in heaven.

She walked with the Lord for 72 years, loving her church family at the Apostolic Christian Church where she sang in the choir and taught Sunday School.

Eva Jean lived in Hancock, MN and was engaged in the community until 1991 when she moved to Peoria to be closer to family. Eva Jean hosted many parties and gatherings with tables adorned with china purchased from Bergner’s where she worked for many years. She loved meeting new people, decorating for the holidays and helping new brides with their registries. She spent many hours volunteering with the Berean Prison Ministries Bible Study Program. In her free time Eva Jean loved cross stitching, scrapbooking and coloring - if you knew her you probably have at least one of her bookmarks.

Eva Jean called Apostolic Christian Skylines her home for 8 years and her family is extremely grateful for the loving, compassionate and dignified care they provided, especially the wonderful staff in Salem. Her family is also thankful to the staff at Transitions hospice care for making her final days comfortable and peaceful.