TopGolf SURPRISE!

 I was up at 5:00 am and got the kitchen and bathroom cleaned and even got those floor scrubbed before we needed to leave. As Mark had a Trane class in Chesterfield, MO that started at 10:00 am we left our house at 6:30 am. I drove so Mark could do business on the phone on the trip. We made it down a few minutes early so filled up the gas tank on the Prius. That only took 6 gallons. We filled the gas tank last night before leaving at $3.59 a gallon  for the 6 gallons it cost $21.54 not bad for that one way trip. I snapped the picture below of our first view of the arch. 

The class was held at Topgolf and that place was interesting. Below is a picture of the facility taken off of their website. Do you see the net at the top far right of the picture? 

That is a huge yard out the back of the building surrounded with that very tall net and holes all over with even a couple sand pits. I had to stop and take a picture of it.

The meeting room was held upstairs right next to that field. The class started right on time.

They stopped at noon for lunch and had a make your own taco bar right in that room. Below is Mark's plate.

After lunch I went out to watch an older man hitting a golf ball into the field.

The lunch break was short and as soon as people were done eating the class started back up. Most of the class was not that interesting for me but the lady teaching marketing was.

I learned some tips, who knows it might even help me sell some horses. After the class ended the entire class was welcomed to stay and play golf. The Trane company had purchased passes for all of us to play but both Mark and I were not willing to stay for that. We still had a 3 and a half hour trip home. We were only about half way home when Mike sent a text with the picture below. He was checking his trail camera's and saw a newborn foal and wanted to know WHO IS THIS?

It is LILY and her 19th foal born today at Middle Grove. Thankfully the extreme cold is passed. Lily was not due until March 20th. This foal is 3 weeks early but looks healthy from what we can tell by the picture. He or she is sticking close to mom. There is no way I could get to Middle Grove before dark. I'm just praying this foal is nursing well and the herd helps Lily protect her foal from predators tonight. Yesterday I asked Mark if he would help me on Friday to bring Lily home. Now instead of bringing Lily home I'm praying we can bring Lily and her foal home tomorrow morning. No way to tell if this foal is a colt or a filly. I'm going to have an early night tonight 7 hours of driving and even though it wasn't hard labor I'm exhausted. 

The Plunge

 It was 17 degrees this morning and that meant a 61 degree plunge from yesterday. That was shocking but even more shocking was the wind. That was buffeting the house making it creak and groan. We cancelled the walk. I built a nice hot fire in the living room wood burner and sat down to read not finishing until after 8:00 am. After cooking and eating breakfast I went to the barn to finish the cleaning. I have someone coming on Friday so want it looking nice. I got it all done except the floor scrubbing and when I got back to the house asked Mark if he could use his floor scrubber in the living area. He could and he did. When I went back over it really looked nice. He just may have a new job from now on. Ruth took mom to Bible study today which gave Karin the day off. I'm getting lots of messages about her house but unfortunately they are all wanted to either rent it or rent to own. 

One lady almost begged, she is retired and lives in a mobile home and desperately wants out of that into a house.  We left early tonight for church so we could stop at Meisters and drop off the Bible studies for Roanoke to grade.  David had the message tonight. I have no words to describe the message it is one you will want to watch for yourself by clicking HERE. After church we went with the group to Culvers and had a late supper. 

Crazy Weather

 Mark was up at 4:00 am, got the coffee maker going then turned the light on at his desk. Just then he heard a thump at the sliding glass door and a whine. He turned the outside lights on and there was Kabur, Sarah's dog asking to come in. Mark opened the door and Kabur walked over to Mark's desk and sat under it. He was all wet as it had rained some during the night so Mark left him be and read in the living room. I was up about 4:15 am, grabbed a cup of coffee walked into the rec-room and Kabur got up came over to greet me then went back under the desk. Sure don't know what that was about. Mom called at 6:30 am to make sure she was going to Berean with Ruth and I. I explained to her that Ruth was not coming as she was getting her crown this morning. Mom started laughing and was more than willing to give Ruth HER crown. We decided we would ask Ruth to come in to mom's this morning after the walk and 'help' me with the wheelchair. Then mom would give her a crown. It worked perfectly.

When Ruth bent down to greet mom, mom had the crown in her hand. Ruth at first didn't understand until it was on her head.

Joan took a video and sent it to me by text but the video was just too blurry. We all had to laugh at Ruth's reaction.  It was really foggy this morning on the walk. The spider webs were all covered with dew.

We ended up back at mom's and were ready to leave for the Berean office by 8:00 am. It wasn't until we got to that office that I realized I didn't have my purse, mom didn't have her purse and if we would have been stopped neither of us had any identification. Why it is amazing we even knew who we were! If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE.  I drove VERY carefully on the way home, no speeding and no rolling through stop signs. Dan was here when we got to mom's. He was getting ready to leave but I had a big list for him first. The wheel chair ramp he put up 2 and a half years ago as a temporary ramp was coming apart. He took a look at it took his tools out of his van and went right to work. Below he is taking it down.

He put it back up and now it is sturdy and safe.

The next job was over at Joan's house. We needed the generator on the motor home looked at. 

He got it started and even diagnosed the problem.

The choke is not choking when it is first supposed to. It will need to be fixed if we rent it but we can easily start it by choking it manually.  Who knows maybe by the time we are ready to rent it out it will have fixed itself. Right after I got home Rick from Zane's called to report my car was done. On Sunday we took Mark's car there to get repaired and that got done yesterday. We picked his car up yesterday and dropped mine off and today it is done and we are $1900.00 poorer but both cars are working great. Mark's is a 2014 Prius and mine is a 2007 Prius, both have a little more than 160,000 miles on them. Mark had googled the problem and one of the the answer came back that the rotors need to be replaced on these cars at around 160,000 miles. Sure enough that was what was needed. These two cars have been so reliable we have very few repairs. They are well worth fixing.

Since we don't have the 5th wheels anymore I decided to list that camp site on Hipcamp. I spent most of the afternoon figuring out what was needed then had to go take pictures of the camp site.

It isn't the best ad but later I can improve it. If you would like to see this ad click HERE. On the way back to the house I stopped to take a picture of Mike's Thoroughbred mares. I moved them over to the middle paddock as their bale was about out. They both took a big mouthfull.

For our supper tonight I made steak stir fry with a side of steamed broccoli that was sprinkled with some Colby jack cheese. I added those roasted seasoned mini potatoes to Mark's plate as he really likes those. We had a high of 76 degrees today and even this evening it was 68 degrees but now the wind has picked up gusting over 30 mps and changed now coming from the Northwest. The temperature is dropping like a stone. Snow is moving in by midnight and by 7:00 am it is predicted to be only 21 degrees. Crazy to have a 55 degree drop in less than 12 hours. Thankfully the cold spell is supposed to be short lived. It seemed weird to be bringing in piles of wood for the wood burner when it is 68 degrees out. 

New Record High

 We slept good but both overslept not rising until almost 6:00 am. At least we awoke refreshed and quickly made ready for the day. We walked but I needed to quit by 8:30 to be with mom today. Karin was going to Maquon to show her house to a person of the other gender. Mom was worried about her going alone and suggested taking Faith with her. Faith is such a big scary person Karin would be safe with her. That made us all laugh.  Ruth and Fedi were going to go to replace her storm door so the protection was all taken care of.  At 10:00 am mom wanted to call her to make sure she was still safe so I sent the text, "mom wants to call you to make sure you are safe and not with a serial killer. Instead I thought a text might be better just in case you are busy defending yourself." She wrote back, "he was a no show." hmmm he must have found out Karin was protected.  While she was there she got the garage cleaned out.  This really is a nice house with a large yard for sale just 15 minutes from  Galesburg with great neighbors. 

The living room is really nice with a wood floor for easy cleaning. Karin put in-floor heat in the entire house. 

The bedroom has an attached bathroom, shower and large closet.

Karin is selling it for $50,000.00 and is willing to sell it furnished so it could be used as an airbnb immediately. It has a brand new water heater, new roof in 2017, new bathroom in 2019.

When I arrived at mom's we turned on AC Central and watched Rick Kaisner have the first service in Peoria. We had just finished that when Aunt Jinnie called. She is reading the story of Fannie Crosby to mom.  After she finished a chapter and hung up  mom and I went out on the deck to enjoy the sunshine and warmth before lunch.

We were enjoying watching the house finches eating the sunflower seeds.

The clouds came so we went inside to eat lunch. After lunch the sun broke through so back out we went.  A huge flock of grackles came flying over and landed in the front yard. I took the picture through the window as I didn't want to scare them away. The iridescent blue is so bright that flashes with each movement.

They were all over the yard picking up things to eat in the yard when a walnut dropped onto the metal roof. That sounded like a gunshot and they wall took off.

David Jacob arrived with Zero and Sally. Sally went right to mom for attention. 

David came to fish and was hoping to catch one of the stripers he put in the lake a couple years ago.

We hit a new record high of 77 degrees today. The previous record was 71 for this day in February. 

When Karin got back I went straight to the barn to get the dishes done from last night and clean up the tables and chairs. I was working on sorting the sheets so they can be put in the correct basket when my arm hit the door and ripped some skin enough that I had to quit so I didn't get blood on those beautiful white sheets. While I was working in the barn Mark and Mackenson were working on potholes. Mark was using the small Kubota with the excavator on the back digging up the hole then the front bucket to scoop up gravel and dump that in the hole while Mackenson shoveled and packed.  We were both ready to quit and start supper. Tonight we had roasted seasoned mini potatoes, steamed asparagus with butter and salt and some fish fillets. For dessert were left over fried glazed crescents with hot tea.  We sure live good.  

Honor to Serve

 Today was our turn to serve lunch at the Peoria church. We left at 7:45 am to pick up 10 dozen flips from Casey's then drove to church. After unloading those Mark left for Schnucks to pick up the 5 dozen fried glazed crescents. By the time he got back David and Stephanie had arrived at church along with Amy and Ken. Kathy O arrived right after that. The only real labor to get the food ready was to cut the cucumbers. David started on those then even Israel helped. 

No other pictures were taken while at church. We were all just too busy to think about pictures. Peoria had a visiting minister today, Rick Kaisner's family came and Rick had the morning message.  As we were busy in the kitchen we couldn't really hear it but will for SURE watch that tomorrow. If you would like to watch it too click HERE.  After that came the lunch. We were happy that there was plenty of good food and even some to share for later. We ended up taking home a full tray of the sprout sandwiches from Costco and 3 dozen raspberry flips that didn't even get opened. There were also some left on the trays.  Next time instead of ordering 10 dozen we could cut that down to 6 dozen. The fried glazed crescents were cut in half and we had only a bag of those left, not sure how many. Of the 10 dozen chocolate chip cookies there were maybe 15 left and only 6 of the iced sugar cookies. The cinnamon rolls also went over very well. I think we brought home 8 of those. Craig Stickling had the afternoon message but we had not finished putting everything away and cleaning up until that service was almost over. SO for SURE that is another that I get to watch tomorrow. Click HERE to see that. After leaving church we drove straight to the barn to unload the food. A tray was taken over to mom's house for their supper then the rest made ready for supper. I also cooked 4 pizzas and 12 corn dogs. The leftovers, pizza and corn dogs went over great and by the end of the evening most of the food was gone. Although the 3 dozen flips that had not even been opened were frozen and will be used for the Berean volunteers. The weather was so nice that almost everyone played outside until dark. The grand kids took both of the golf carts out for some fun. Even the volley ball players played outside until dark. I was washing and drying sheets from the guests that stayed the night. There were 18 of them so all of the bedding needed to be washed. They left a great review and I hope they come back. Our youth group came down for a concert and they really had a good time at the Airbnb with the numerous activities. We’re sad that it was only for a short stay but maybe in the future we’ll come back for a longer stay. They even said it would be a good youth retreat getaway. And we liked the Bible verses around the house. Judith was very responsive and gave great direction. We appreciated everything. Thanks! 

At dark the volleyball players left the outdoor court and came inside to finish playing. The kids were all tired from playing outside and crashed on the couch to watch the players from a comfortable warm spot as by nightfall the temperature dropped and it was chilly outside.

Zeke was pretty happy to be here.

And we were thrilled he and his family came. It just so happens they go right past Morton on their way home and offered to take Nancy home tonight. We really appreciate when someone from the other side of the river comes AND has room for Nancy. Oh Nancy was so funny today. It was so nice after church she, mom and Karin were on the deck sunbathing. Nancy saw me and said, " Judy take a picture of my legs."  Those legs were so white they could almost blind someone. Mom's are the other legs in the picture.

The sunshine felt so nice. Everyone has left for home and Mark and I are just feeling so blessed. What an honor to serve. 

Champions

 It was only 19 degrees outside, what a change from yesterday.  The good news for us was the ground was frozen but the gravel pile was not.  Right after breakfast Mark started spreading gravel on the North and East side of the barn. Our airbnb guests were coming in this afternoon and we wanted to make sure they could drive all the way around the barn and now they can. 

Evan's paddock needed a new bale so while Mark had the skid steer out I moved the motorhome out of the barn and parked it out of the way with the 2 horse trailers.

The next job was to let Evan into the field and lock him out of the paddock. He was thrilled to get out, had to roll then put in some big bucks. What I didn't realize was when he was showing off I must have turned to phone upside down so some of the video he is bucking upside down.

The grass is growing but not long enough to leave him out. As soon as we put the bale in he was put back in his paddock. He was happy with his new bale so all was well.

The hay is our first cutting and in the picture above and looks faded but it really isn't. Below is a close up of the bale. Even though it is first cutting we put it up early and it is fine stemmed and still green.

I know I brag on our hay too much but last year's hay was just exceptional. 

The middle paddock also got a bale. I don't have any horses in there yet but as long as we were moving hay it just made sense to move in two bales.

After the bales were moved I took the golf cart over to the dumpster to throw the net wrap away and checked out Mark's work this morning. Below is the East side of the barn, the gravel now is wide enough to easily make it around the last of the pile at the corner.

Mark is saving that pile of gravel to work on pot holes on the main drive.

The North side is almost done.

Above is looking East and below is looking West.

Evan was led back to his paddock before I went back up to the barn. I wanted to count bales.

We have 42 left. That should easily get us through until we can cut hay again. Mark and I left at 1:45 pm to drive to Costco to pick up the sprout sandwiches for church lunch tomorrow. That place was packed. Shoppers had carts full of stuff. By looking around you couldn't even tell there is a recession going on.  We had one problem, Costco doesn't take Discover card and that is the only card I use. Mark has a Master Card and they don't take that either. He ended up using his debit card. From there we drove to church, put the 15 trays of sandwiches in the fridge then set up the tables and move out the serving carts. We need to leave here tomorrow by 7:50 am. On our way back Anna sent the picture of Taegan's basketball tournament. The Farmington Farmers won the tournament. Anna wrote: Tournament Champions!! What a fantastic end of the season. So proud of all these hard working ladies!

We stopped at Arby's for supper ordering 2 fish sandwiches for $6.00. Joan took the motorhome over to her place this afternoon. There is a drawer that needs work on and she wanted to get it ready to rent. 

Growing Grass

 No walk today, Ruth wanted to sleep in after that late night. Diane called during walk time to join us but instead just got to visit with me. They are having a really good time in Gulf Shores, it is a good group of people that live in her complex.  She says it is like living in her own retirement facility. Two of the other owners grew up with us and were in Diane's Sunday school class and another 2 are both family, Mike's sister and our brother, then there are maybe 4 other owners that we know from church. Then across the street is Beth and Greg and Rachel and Dave.  After breakfast Mark left for the shop while I went to the barn to finish cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen. It really looks nice and is now ready for the company coming in tomorrow afternoon.  Mark got home with a new set of keys for the motorhome. I took the golf cart up to the barn to make sure they worked and while up there checked out the keys for the Mini Max Little Guy. This is a little different, the purple door key also opens the outdoor compartment. 

We are going to list this on RV Share as a rental. It has a dry weight of just 1900 pounds and can be pulled by smaller vehicles such as a mini van that has a tow package. The down side of this is it ONLY sleeps 2 people and there is no room to squeeze in a 3rd. The upside is a BATHROOM. Small trailers that are light weight don't usually have bathrooms. This also has a decent size fridge and freezer. Another huge upside is the bed coverts to a queen size or two twins. 

Again small trailers usually only have full size beds.  We went that route once with the 2011 trailer and after staying in it one time with Mark, I ended up on the couch. It was much to claustrophobic for 2 of us crammed in with walls on both sides.   The other really nice function is that back window. It is huge and called the stargazer and you really CAN see the stars out of it.

I've applied for the title so we will get it listed soon. 

On the way back from the barn I stopped to check out Mike's 2 Thoroughbred mares. Both were enjoying the hay. No sign of them coming into season. We want to get them bred but not until late March or early April. It would be nice to start tracking their cycles.

On the other side of the drive (and against the sun) was Lea and her daughter Thalia standing at the gate just hoping for attention.

That is Evan in the background.

Valiant was staring over at the mother and daughter.

Lea hasn't had an ultrasound but I'm almost 100% sure she is pregnant. She has no interest in Evan or Valiant at this stage. If she settled she would be due October 25th. A late foal but better than no foal. If she has a colt we will place him for sale, if a filly we will keep her. Can you tell I'm getting anxious for foaling season. It will come soon enough. Next week I plan on bringing Lily home.  Karin invited us to dinner tonight. She and mom tried out a new chicken recipe. Both of them worked on it. We arrived just before 5:30 pm and it wasn't quite done. Mom told us "That was ALL Karin's fault, she wanted her to put it in the oven sooner."  We had to laugh. The meal was good.

The vegetables were really good also. Karin used season salt on them which gave them a different flavor. Karin told us Diane recommended that.

I'm going to have to try that. The chicken was mixed with cream cheese then wrapped in crescent roll dough. We left for home around 7:00 pm. Karin had drawn a portrait of Zion.

Another of my grandchildren and I knew exactly who it was from the first glimpse.
The morning was sunny and warm and mom got out on the balcony. By the time I finished and went to sit outside a brisk wind picked up so instead I turned on the heated throw and sat inside. Tonight we built a fire to warm up the house.  We have falling temperatures and a wintry mix moving in. It is supposed to bottom out at 24 degrees but tomorrow a high of 42 and Sunday sunny and 64. The grass is growing!