Website News

 While crossing the retention dam heading to Joan's house I had to stop and take a picture of the sun coming up this morning. It was so bright and the sunbeam with it's reflection in the lake almost looked as if it was forming a cross. 

On the way back from Joan's house we noticed a huge flock of blackbirds leaving.

They landed on the other side of the field. We stopped in to see mom after the walk then after breakfast I left for Diane's office. We needed to reconcile 2 months of the Horsemeister checkbook and also get the end of the year report ready for our tax man. I made it home by 11:00 but had to leave pretty quickly for the next appointment in Morton. This one was to meet with Gaetano and work on the website. After 2 solid hours of instructions I left and am now able to do all the editing and adding needed.  I was able to post Legacy on the website on the for sale page. Check it out by clicking HERE. Actually feel free to check over the entire website by clicking HERE. I found and corrected a few mistakes. Of course as soon as I got home I went to work adding pictures. The sun was long gone by the time I got home and it was cold inside and out. We had an early supper of fried potatoes, butter sautéed mushrooms and prime rib as I had skipped lunch.  Mark used the golf cart to bring more wood over from the tree he has been working on. We got that stacked on the porch and are really ready for the cold weather now.

After that I followed him with his car while he took the tractor, took off the log splitter and together we hooked up the green wagon which was full of split logs from yesterday's work.

He drove that back to our wood shed.

It has some room as we used quite a bit during that last cold spell.

The trailer was parked near it for unloading tomorrow as by now it was getting dark.

Mark had taken the golf cart over to the barn and parked it inside to warm it up so we could charge it tonight. I drove Mark's car over to plug it in.

I realized after plugging it in that the volleyball net had been taken down and thought perhaps Anna and the girls got that job done but found out later Philip took it down. When Mark and I do that job it takes a long time. We are not sure the best way and don't want to mess anything up. Then it is so heavy we used the rolling office chairs to put the poles on so they can be rolled to the closet. 

I turned around to take the picture above, turned off the lights and realized right away I was going to have to go into the kitchen area. Do you notice anything wrong in the picture above?

It was only after the lights were out that I noticed the problem.  SCROLL down to see why.

  

The tree lights were turned on.

I drove around to the kitchen door and of course needed to take another picture of the tree with no gifts under it. 

The tree lights were unplugged and I left for home. We got a fire going in the wood burner using the wood from the downed tree. We are pretty thrilled with how well and hot it burns. Below is the wood burner thermostat.

This warmth coming off of that wood burner feels wonderful to these old bones.

The other news is the 10 tables ordered in November from Sam's Club are going to be delivered on Monday December 23rd. They were supposed to have arrived on the 12th by 6:00 pm. Good thing we didn't trust that delivery date and kept all of the old heavy tables.

Quilter Christmas Party

 Right after the walk this morning Ruth and Diane helped mom into the wheel chair van and they left for mom's Bible study Christmas party held at Barb and Dale's home. Joan had to go with Nancy. She is going to have a sleep apnea test as she hasn't been sleeping well. That will be scheduled at her home. I went straight to work cooking for the Quilter Christmas party setting the carrots on to boil, then drizzling the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkling garlic salt, a little seasoned salt and pepper. Those were placed in the 400 degree oven for 40 minutes while the carrots were boiling. When the carrots were tender a cheese sauce was made, poured over the drained carrots, covered with cracker crumbs and those were put in the 350 degree oven for a half an hour. The rib roasts were taken over to the barn to cook. That was taken out of the oven at 11:30 pm and the rolls put in the oven to bake. Ruth and Diane arrived right then with mom so they helped with the rest such as getting ice and water in the cups and cutting the roasts. When everyone arrived we had a nice meal. The entire morning I never once thought to take a picture. After the meal Diane took the two pictured below: 

We stayed visiting until after 2:30 pm. Diane took mom home while I finished the clean-up. The golf cart was loaded up with mom's gifts from the party and taken over. The quilters gave her a wonderful blanket. Mark and Mackenson had worked hard on splitting wood from the fallen tree. When Mackenson went home Mark went to work on batteries. He is having trouble with the old golf cart batteries getting them to charge and has been trying to charge them one at a time. We both had a small supper of leftovers from the party the got ready for church. Tonight Mike Kaisner had the message on Joy. If you would like to watch that message click HERE. We went to Culvers after church. We were following David and Stephanie's car into the parking lot and just as David was pulling into a parking spot a lady pulling her car out turned too sharp and ran right into their car. Instead of honking, Mark and I were both yelling "STOP" inside our car with the windows closed. Stephanie told us they too were yelling but didn't think to honk. It happened so quickly though I don't think she would have reacted quick enough even if we did honk. Mark ordered a salad while I ordered a cod sandwich. Both were really good. We took Mackenson home as he didn't want to wait for the others to finish. Mike sent a couple videos. The first one was a couple days ago. He went to Middle Grove to move in more bales and had Ed D. with him. 

Then today took this video. The warm spell has all the snow gone. 

Each time, he arrives the horses are glad to see him and come running. Actually they come running each time they see ANY humans. These horses love people, and to think we were worried when we first decided to move them out there wondering, "would they get wild, would we be able to catch them, would they be in danger?" The reality is they LOVE living there. 

Queen for the Day

 We had a beautiful day with sunshine and temperatures in the 40s. We stopped in at mom's after the walk and mom was wearing a new house dress she got for Christmas. Diane said it looked too much like a nightgown so Ruth found another outfit for her which was a sweat shirt and long pants. After she had it on though she was telling us she had never seen the shirt before then took a look at it and told us, "I can't wear this?"  It had a crown on the front with the words Queen of the universe. We convinced her it would be warm, matched the pants, nobody would even notice the words and we would be late if she changed again. Well when we got to Berean Vonnie was in the room getting some studies ready for folding and of course I started laughing when I mentioned to her, "don't look at mom's shirt." We really did laugh. This is such a great group of people to work with. Mom may not be queen of the universe but she was queen for today.

We got right to work so not a lot of pictures were taken. Marvin filled the return address stamps with ink and got black ink all over his fingers but the stampers worked great. Kathy finished her letter writing a little early so took the extra time to clean up her work station.

After the prayer we discussed how to thank Wayne and Lukie for the use of this building. 

We all agreed this place is PERFECT for us.  Kathy brought the dessert today and that was amazing. It was like a pumpkin dump cake but made with cherries and blueberries.

By the time I got in to have some some of us had already started eating. It was too good to wait for the rest of us.

We really did enjoy our morning. Mom and I stopped at the Hanna City post office to drop off the studies and Bibles going out today. The tire light was on when we started home so I called Mark and asked if he would come to mom's to check out her tires. He did and they were all fine so not sure why that light is on. He and Mackenson had a big job today. I large dead tree fell that needed to be cut up and hauled over and put on our porch. He got most of it done but will need to split some of the larger pieces. It is nice having the porch ready for fires. I stopped at my house, grabbed 7 flat sheets and took those back to the barn to try hiding all the sports equipment for the wedding on Saturday. I didn't think it looked too bad but will explain to the people coming to decorate that they can feel free to try something else if they want. Maybe they will rent screens to put up in front of them. 

This evening it was chilled enough that we got the living room wood burner going.

Andrew shared the video of their Goldendoodle Reese opening their door to come in and then shutting the door. 

These dogs are SO smart.

I'm pretty tired today and will have an early night.

Christmas Puppies

 Have you EVER wished for one of those adorable Cavapoo teddy bear puppies for Christmas?  These puppies are ready NOW and can bring your family one of the best gifts ever. The puppies are out of a planned litter. Bentley, the sire is a purebred King Charles Cavalier weighing in at 17 pounds. Roxy, the mom is a purebred Poodle weighing in at 23 pounds. They were born on Oct 26th, 2024 and will be ready to leave by December 21st, 2024 JUST in time for CHRISTMAS!  They are located in Cuba, IL and if interested contact Gardner Lane Puppies by clicking HERE. Pictured below is Roxy owned by Tarah Brenner from Cuba IL. 

Below is Bently owned by Nolan and Sarah the owner of Gardner Lane Puppies.

Below are a four of their puppies.

I had a busy day.  The fog rolled in during the night and was so thick we couldn't see Rachel or Joan's house across the lake. 

We stopped in at mom's after the walk. Joan told us about her family's trip to Bishop Hill and the square and line dancing. We decided that sounded like a lot of fun. SO...IF anyone else thinks it sounds like fun on a cold winter day we have blocked the barn off Saturday Feb 1st, 2025 for an old fashioned BARN DANCE. This is a FREE event and refreshments will be served.  Stay tuned for more information but save the date if you want to try line dancing or square dancing. It is great exercise and really is a lot of fun. Invite your friends and families, we have plenty of room.

After breakfast I went to the barn to get it ready for the quilter's Christmas party. 

That is Wednesday and then on Saturday we have a wedding booked so not only did the living area need a deep clean but so did the gym. The bouncy house needed to be rolled up and put away.

Below Mark is moving the house against the wall.

Once that was moved I moved the pickle ball nets and draped those with sheets.

That worked well, tomorrow I'll bring more sheets out, cover the lift and the rest of the sports equipment.

I'll still need to take down the volleyball net but that can be stored easily in the closet. I was done by 1:30 pm at the barn changed into a skirt and left for Sam's club to pick up food for the quilter's Christmas party and then the Sceggel's Christmas party as that will be held on Friday. I'm happy with what I found and I think the kids will really enjoy that dinner on Friday. I stopped at Aldi on the way home to pick up a few ingredients for the desserts then after supper made 3 candy desserts. Chocolate covered peanuts, pecan topped toffee bars and white chocolate covered pretzels.

After everything was finished and the kitchen cleaned up I sat down to enjoy a gingerbread cookie from Melanie. Yesterday she gave me such a special treat. She knows I love gingerbread and hers really are the best.

Her gingerbread is soft, the cookie had raisin eyes and nose and redhots for the buttons. The icing is the perfect amount. This morning I had a half of one with my coffee and tonight I finished that cookie. If I work it right and hide them from Mark I could have a whole weeks worth of gingerbread. 

Stalled Horses

 Sunday! My favorite day of the week. We had one mystery and never did solve that, more on that later. I checked the foaling camera and was pleased to see that both of the colts had laid down to sleep during the night. 

The roasts were put in the crock pot first with the seasoning, carrots, onions and potatoes before going out to the barn to take care of the colts. I move them into the far paddock, then hauled 3 wheel barrow loads of soiled bedding out of the stall. Next 2 bales of hay were brought in, one for the stall for tonight and one for the shelter where the colts were kept. I also hauled in another bale of straw for the stall for tonight. They were so glad to be outside as they had been in almost all day yesterday and all night. It was 40 degrees but still drizzling a bit but they were thrilled to be out. Below is before a roll in the mud for Oliver. 

The video was taken after the roll in the mud. 

I filled 2 water buckets up then left to make breakfast for us and get ready for church. We had a visiting minister for the morning message. Darren Plattner from Champaign was here. He is the father of Caleb and came for the Sunday school Christmas program which was the afternoon message. Click HERE if you would like to listen to Darren's message. We always enjoy the Christmas program and Nancy was thrilled when she too got a gift of candy after the program. As soon as we got home we drove straight up to the apartment to check that out as our guests left around noon. Now for the mystery. There was some fresh horse manure by the new porch. Right away the horses were all checked and they were all where they were supposed to be. We have no idea how that could have ended up there and probably never will. Mark cleaned it up while I was filling water buckets for the colts. The food was taken over to the barn then Mark helped me put both colts back into the stall.

They will spend one more night inside.  Stalled horses are a lot of work.

We had a nice meal tonight and had 25 for dinner.

I'm so thankful for the barn. It makes hosting easy. The bouncy house was in demand after the meal. The volley ball players arrived with more little kids.

After 2 or 3 close games, games that went into overtime they all came in for more visiting.

Below were the 2 youngest today. One is Anni and Matt's son Harvey and the other is Micah, Rebekah and Brian's son. They are very close in age.

They stayed quite late but when Rhoda took Nancy home I left soon after. I'm not sure how late the rest stayed but I noticed at 10:00 pm the lights were out. 

Freezing Rain

This morning before breakfast I walked over to the barn carrying a bag of clean towels. The sky was a deep red on the way over.

The drives were slippery but not terrible. The freezing rain was predicted to start around 9:00 am and I wanted to get the upstairs finished before that started. The golf cart was fully charged so that was taken out of the barn and driven around to the kitchen door. Towels were left at the gym door and the kitchen door for the guests coming in this afternoon. I organized the sports equipment in the barn, used a zip tie to fix a broken basket, threw away the slam dunk game and realized I would need to buy another mesh bag for the dodge balls and another for the pickleball balls. I made breakfast before 9:00 am then sat down to check out Amazon. I found the mesh bags so those were ordered. I went back to the barn to measure a missing basket but Phil and Anna's family were there and Anna knew where the missing basket was. She also helped zip tie one of the other baskets that had been pulled off the ball rack for the bats. Mike called about then to let me know he would come help move the colts in 10 minutes.  By the time I left the barn it had started with the freezing rain. The stall was made ready just in time. Both boys hung their heads over the gate to put their halters on. Mike led Oliver while I led Madiera's colt. By the time we got them inside the freezing rain was coming down hard enough to make everything very slippery. They were given a square bale of hay in the tank, 2 fresh buckets of water and 2 grain buckets each with about a half of a scoop of grain. Of course they needed to check out their new accommodations. 

Their halters were left on while I ran back to the house to get some scissors to cut the hay bale twine. I usually have one on the stall shelf but couldn't find it. Our apartment guests all came out to see the boys. I showed them how they have that entire tub full of hay but think it is a real treat to be handed the hay. Funny boys. When I got back to the house the laundry was started. With all the towels we used at the Meister Christmas we had 4 loads to get done today. Speaking of the Meister Christmas Rachel made a video, I tried to share it here but evidently it is not allowed to share it from Facebook. We got the idea from Joyce Waibel's reunion this summer and all thought it was a wonderful idea. If you would like to see it you would need to go to Rachel's or my Facebook page.

We were missing at least 43 family members but the kid helping out had some trouble getting those who were there in the video and if there had been everyone we are not sure how it would have worked. I've had the colts in the foaling stall with the camera on so I can watch them and today learned how to take a screen shot of a picture on my phone. 

The rain is still coming down so they will need to stay in for the night. The picture below was taken after dark. 

I'm thankful for stall lights and thankful they are both eating and drinking. The good news is that the temperatures are going to be rising not falling.  The bad news is there WILL be mud!

I went up at 8:00 pm to fill water buckets, do a little cleaning of the stall and then turned out the lights. It was pouring rain on the ride up to the barn and back. Before going to bed I checked the camera again. I'm amazed at how well the camera can see in the dark.