Sermon from BRAVE

 Last night Rhonda walked over from her house to the playground where we were watching volleyball and told me about the sermon in her nephew Adam's church out in Denver, Colorado. I usually always stick to sharing sermons from our own AC churches but was glad to listen to this one. I respect Adam, in fact Adam and Philip were the people that helped with Horsemeister's website (the one I am now replacing after 22 years).  When I listened at first I was listening to make sure pastor Jeff was speaking the TRUTH and out of the Bible and truly after listening, even going back to make sure I heard it right, decided this message SHOULD be shared here. Click HERE to watch this message.   I ask you to watch and even if you do so with a critical mind, and can explain why I am wrong for sharing, I ask you to please send me a text or email as to why I should take it off.  My cell number and email are easy to find and I promise I will post your response whether for or against on below this message. 

Wonderful Sunday

 When the night was over and a new morning arrived I was so glad to realize it was Sunday and almost everything was ready for the day. Mark went for a walk while I prepared breakfast. We thought about leaving early to wash Mark's car as it is really dusty again but instead just drove my car to church. What a blessed day we had in church. When mom and I went into church we saw David walking up in his black suit coat knew at that point he was probably going to have the morning message. This was so interesting. He explained parables in a way I had never thought of. I learned so much listening. If you would like to watch this message click HERE. Karen and Ralph Hoffstetter served lunch today. What a treat that was, she had home made chicken salad along with ham and cheese sandwiches, all kinds of vegetables and all kinds of home baked goodies. Karen is probably the best cook in the entire Peoria church, at least for serving huge groups of people. The afternoon message was by Mike Kaisner, one of my favorite stories of when Sennacherib threatened Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18 and 19. Great story, read it yourself or watch Mike's message by clicking HERE. After church we had 28 for dinner, just missing 2 of the family but had 4 others join us. The grandchildren were pleased to be back together. I had plenty of help getting the water cups filled and ready. 

The little girls play so nice together.

Zeke found the  boy toys.

The older boy cousins, Jack, Jace, Israel and Abe were active and play great together. They were out in the gym so no pictures as I was getting supper ready in the kitchen area. We had chicken teriyaki, wild rice, salad, just baked biscuits with jam and butter and home grown delicious sweet water melon from Jill and Bob Gangloff's garden. For dessert we had brownies and ice cream. The evening was quite nice so the group went out to play volley ball, some of the grand children swam or played on the playground. The older kids took turns driving the golf cart giving the younger kids rides around the neighborhood. Below are some pictures of the evening.

At one point we had 5 dads watching babies so their wives could play. Caleb was letting Emily play, Tyler was letting Samantha play, Nolan was letting Sarah play, David Jacob was letting Leah play, and Lee was letting Rhoda play.

These young fathers are so thoughtful and willing.

Braelyn was the hero in the video as she dove twice and saved the point.

The sun sets early now so they needed to turn the lights on for the last game.

I needed to go back into the barn to put away the left over food but had to stop and take a picture of Sally grazing as the sky was turning colors.

What a wonderful Sunday and I am thankful.

Saturday's News

 I woke up to bad news. Mark was waiting in the kitchen with 2 coolers and told me the fridge was not  working. I did not want to deal with that until the first cup of coffee was downed. If I sing my attitude will change and it really did, not that I was happy to do the work but glad that it was only needing to be defrosted and glad we had the coolers ready for the food. I had everything out of it and the hair dryer running in probably 15 minutes or less. That gave me time to have another cup of coffee. That second cup got me motivated to clean the inside of the fridge now that it was all cleaned out. Once that was done breakfast was made and then it was time to go to mom's. When I arrived Karin told me mom wanted her to take her to a place to pick out a coffin. Karin reminded mom that she was going to Gulf Shores in October and vacations take priority over death. Mom agreed, she is not willing to give up her vacation. Of course the entire time Karin is telling me mom Mom is laughing hysterically. We ALL know how important vacations are in this family. Death will just have to wait. Of course when I told her if I write about this everyone will think we are terrible and right away she quips, "you ARE!"  That brought another round of laughter. She really does have a quick mind and a good sense of humor. She is doing a new Bible study by Francis Chan so we read the first chapter of the book and then read the first chapter of the workbook. This first chapter just seemed to go with David's last message in Washington on Wednesday evening so we watched that together.

We both really enjoyed the morning. Meanwhile Mark and Mackenson were hard at work digging the middle paddock automatic waterer out of the ground. Mark is going to install a brand new different kind of waterer. They were not able to get it out today, it was just too hot outside to work hard.

Joan took Berlica and Faith to the pumpkin festival in Morton to be with Nancy for the parade. She sent back this picture. 

 

She showed Nancy and Nancy said, "tell Judy to put it on the blog."  We didn't even know Nancy was aware of the blog so NANCY SUE MEISTER this is for YOU! They had fun watching the floats. The float below has on the horse Ribbon's bridle and Sarah's saddle.

When Karin got home I left to finish putting all the food back in the fridge and freezer. The fridge was down to 33 degrees and working well. From there I went to put the horses out to graze.  Today I turned Leah out with them. That worked well.

It wasn't long before all 4 were grazing together.

Below Mackenson is cleaning up so he could quit for the day. It was just too hot to work longer.

I checked the fly traps while I was out. They are working well, lots of flies in each one.

I shook one to check out how many flies were in it,.

The 4 mares in Ribbon's old paddock were grazing on a bale in the shade instead of grazing in the field in the sun.

Both Evan and Valiant were also lounging in their shelters in the shade.

The horses in the field were all spread out grazing. 

Leah needed a good roll in the soft grass.

It wasn't long before the two colts started playing.

The mares were brought in about 5:00 pm.  Yesterday I bought a rotisserie chicken and today I made chicken salad with the leftovers. Mark had that and later he wanted some steamed broccoli with a butter sauce and lightly salted. A double batch of brownies were made for tomorrow's meal, the kitchen cleaned up and the laundry started. I will be glad to go to bed tonight. Ruth sent back a couple pictures of she and Fedi's boon docking trip to Utah. They stopped at for a quick lunch break.

Later she sent back this: From the first view of the mountains to driving through tunnels and then setting up camp and making a hasty dinner about 7:30 pm Today was a good day.

A Good Start

 Ruth came on the walk then went in and said good by to mom as she and Fedi are on their way to Utah boon docking out of their van. 

Mark went to the gas station to pick up some diesel fuel while I loaded Jury into the stock trailer for her trip to Middle Grove. We decided not to wait for an ultrasound but take her out whether she is pregnant or not. Dan arrived with the new Horsemeister Logo for the website. Check it out, I think it is perfect. What a good start. 

After Dan left Mark and I drove to Middle Grove to drop off Jury and pick up Basilea (barn name Leah) Leah was bred to Evan and is due Oct 15th or there abouts. We know the first day she was covered but then she lived with Evan for a few months. When we arrived Jury was let loose to help us find the herd.

Above she was just let loose and below she is searching with her nose.

She headed right up the hill and so did we. Mika was the first horse we saw.

The herd was scattered grazing with only a few under the trees.

We found Leah pretty quickly, I haltered her then gave her to Mark to lead down while I kept the others from following and also took quite a few pictures.

Above is Tatiana to the left and to the right is Valerie followed by Tessa and Titus. Below is Lily standing in the trees and behind her is Rosaleigh.

That is Tessa on the right and in front of Tessa is Sheena. 

Below is Mark taking Leah to the trailer.

Thalia her 2023 filly came galloping up to go with her.

She stood still and stared when they went down the hill.

She ran back to the herd. I turned around and looked back at the herd now all together under the trees.

By the time I got down the hill Mark had Leah standing quietly by the trailer.

Loading didn't go as well as I'd hoped. She would not step into the trailer. I finally gave Mark her lead rope and stood behind her and gave her a smack when she started backing up. That did the trick, she walked in with Mark, I slammed the back door just in time. She started backing up and hit the door but did not get away from Mark. I then went into the side door, took the lead rope and got her tied while Mark held the side door. When we got home I led her out to the outdoor arena for a few pictures.

She is a big impressive mare and should have a gorgeous foal by Evan. To see the rest of the pictures from Middle Grove click HERE. Once she was put away Mark helped unhook the stock trailer then drove over to Joan's to pick up a camper and haul that down to Tri County RV to have the water heater looked at and hopefully fixed. On the way back stopped at Sam's to pick up food for the Sunday dinner then home to put the food away. I had a lady ask for a video of Madiera's colt so Mark came with me to help. I did two quick videos. I can't put them together as I still have no way to edit videos. 

The colts and Madiera were left out to graze for a couple hours then put back in.

Oliver didn't follow Madiera and her colt instead he went over to check out Leah.

He was put away then I left for Aldi to pick up wild rice plus a list of groceries for Mark but when I got there Aldi had no wild rice. I had to go to Kroger for that. Today I am VERY thankful for Mark. I would not have been able to get Leah loaded without him and would not have been able to get those 2 short videos of Madiera's colt without him. I may need to put him on the payroll. 

New Computer

 I went out to walk but Ruth didn't show up, Diane is in Gulf Shores so Joan was sent a text that I wouldn't walk. Instead I went into the barn to start putting away the dishes I washed yesterday. We ended up with 54 of these containers. 

I also took pictures of the organized drawers. There are plenty of tongs, 3 sets of scissors, some grilling tools, rubber spatulas, and a can opener in this drawer.

The middle drawer has at least 50 sets of table knives, steak knives, forks and spoons. On the left side of the silverware are the pie and cake servers and in the front of the silverware are the meat forks and sharp knives.

The far left drawer holds measuring cups, lots and lots of serving spoons of all sizes and more steak knives. 

We really are ready for the hog roast. All are invited so save the date October 5th and plan on driving out to the Horsemeister farm for this event. Hope we have a big crowd, we have ordered a big pig. Today the camera was taken out to get some updated pictures of Oliver. Horsemeister is getting a brand new, easy to access, website soon. It is going to be a MUCH better professional website now that we have been in business for 22 years. I should have done this years ago but at least it is going to happen this year. Oliver was taken to the round pen. His buddy, Madiera's colt was not happy that he wasn't allowed in the round pen with him and was running around the outside of it showing off big time.

Oliver was very impressive, huge movement and big hair.

He was left in the round pen so I could take a few more pictures of Madiera's colt while he was still showing off.

When I let Oliver out they settled right down to graze together.

They really are best buddies. I left them out to graze for at least 2 hours then brought them back in the paddock leading Oliver first, then Madiera while her colt followed. I went back to the barn to kill flies, stepped in the gym and immediately was surrounded by flies. We are still killing flies from when the doors were left open last weekend. I decided to get one of the fly bait stations and put that in the gym. As I was carrying it in 3 flies landed on it so I'm hopeful it will work and work quickly.

At 3:00 pm Ruth and I stopped in at mom's for tea time with Karin. She had been working on a new portrait of Clayton but stopped to make us some ice tea.

Ruth and Fedi leave tomorrow morning for their big camping trip out West. They were telling mom about visiting national forests when mom told them, "they have new ones since I was there as a child." Joan quickly said, "they even have interstates to get to them now". Of course mom had to laugh at that. She has sure seen a lot of change in her 92 years of life.  When I got back to the house Mark was back from his hip therapy. Phil and Anna arrived then with a new computer. Phil installed it and I am using it now to write but still will need some help setting up the video program (I like Vegas Pro) and also will need to get the filezillow server so I can update the website. I've been trying to install it myself but think I'd better stop before I wreck this computer. Mark was too hungry to wait so we decided to drive to Gils Supper club and ordered a cob salad to share. I forgot to take a picture when it arrived but this salad is so big it is easily enough for 2 people. I've already taken my share in the picture below.

It was good and we left well satisfied.