Difficult Day

 Leah gave birth early this morning to a still born filly. The filly looked perfect but never took a single breath. There was no heart beat at birth. I left the filly with Leah until 7:00 am then walked her out to the pasture where Oliver, Madiera and her colt were waiting. They were glad to see her and she was them. She never called or grieved like a mare grieves when the foal is born alive and then dies.  That wasn't the only death today, more on that later. A storm came through a bit later with cold rain, lots of lighting and crashes of thunder. We lost electricity. Mike and Diane were informed around 6:30 am. They were already up and Diane reminded me to watch Isaac Funk's message he gave Wednesday night in Morton. Since it was raining we had no walk so I watched and listened and was convicted to limit the screen time. I guess I'm ok with the computer being broken. As long as that won't start I can't work on the website as all the pictures are on that computer. No guilt for not getting it done. I went to the barn early to move 2 of the tables out of the living area and put them in the gym. Diane thought the living area was a little crowded and I agreed.  I now have seating for 105 in the living area and 78 in the gym. After the rain quit I left for the Dollar General on Farmington road and was able to purchase 4 more paper towel holders. This gave me enough for one on each table. I had forgotten to buy disposable aprons so I first did an internet search and only GFS had them listed but when I called them they didn't have any. I started calling stores in Peoria to see if anyone else stocked them. No luck. Joan had 2 aprons so I borrowed those but they are obviously for a women. Sorry Fedi! Our butchers for the hog roast is Fedi and his sons although Spark and Mike also offered to help. I ordered them on Amazon and they are supposed to arrive tomorrow but I'm not counting on it but at least will have them for next year's hog roast. This afternoon Mike called that Candy was down and could not get up. She was the rescue mare Mike took in, she was also the mare Mike had taken to Dr. Hoerr's twice to see what he could do to make her more comfortable. I remember asking Dr. Hoerr, "how will we know when it is time to put Raven down?" and Dr. Hoerr replied, "you will know" and we did. Well today Candy was telling us it was time. Mike dug the grave and we buried the filly and Candy in the same grave. Below he is taking the filly over to the grave. 

I needed to go to Sam's to pick up 2 big bags of ice, a box of plastic knives, 3 kinds of lettuce for the salad tomorrow plus a bag of bacon bits, craisens and sliced almonds and a few other items. I was shocked to see all the Member Mark toilet paper and paper towels gone. I was just there on Tuesday and those aisles were packed to the ceiling and today all of those racks were empty.  I drove straight to the barn to put the ice in the freezer and heard a noise coming from the washer and dryer closet. It sounded like thump rustle, thump rustle, thump rustle.  I threw those doors open not knowing what to expect but there was no one and nothing in there making that noise. It turned out Mark was sweeping the steps going up to the game room. The washer and dryer are under those steps. As long as he was there we went up to move the ping pong table away from the wall just in case anyone wants to play round the world. About then the barn booked for a day in November by the Manuel coach of the girls basketball team. She asked to come see the barn so I just stayed and set the tables with napkins, forks, knives and spoons and finished just as she arrived. She was pleased and thrilled to find all the kitchen utensils as they will be providing meals. After she left I went home and then the apartment booked for tonight. This family coming in has 4 adults, 3 children and 2 infants. They were not worried about fitting in so I wont worry either. I told them where the packNplay was. They are just spending the night. This evening I baked 2 pans of pumpkin pecan dump cakes and made one recipe of poppy seed dressing for the salad tomorrow. while waiting for the pumpkin pecan dump cake to bake I turned on AC Central and listened to Jeff Waibel give a message on Habakkuk. This was another amazing message and I recommend watching. Click HERE to see that.  Ruth will stay with mom so I can get all the last minute stuff done for the hog roast.