REAL Winter Hits

 Mark was up before me and got the fire started in the wood burner. Because of that source of heat the house was dry so he started a big pan of water boiling on the stove. The heat was really needed. It was 17 degrees when we got up but soon dropped to 16 degrees. Winter really is here. It isn't supposed to get above freezing until Wednesday.  Diane called and Mike asked us to plug in his automatic waterer. Sure enough it was frozen solid. 

I was due at mom's by 9:30 am so went straight over there. On the way in I noticed this white plant and thought it might be fake but it wasn't. Mom has 2 of these. 

Strange looking plant that must tolerate the cold. The blowup deer Sarah stuck in the window to bother Karin had been moved away from the window and seems to be shedding his antlers.

Mom was just eating breakfast. They slept in this morning. After breakfast she turned on this documentary of this older couple in Europe. I'm not sure what country this is, she couldn't remember but it reminds me of old time Romania.

While she was watching that I worked on Karin's puzzle.

Evidently that documentary had a lot of preparing food and cooking on it. Mom decided after a few hours that she should get up and eat some lunch. It really was funny. One time we were watching a travel vlog to Italy and mom decided she would like to try the salad they were making.  Berlica and Taegan stopped in. They decided to go 4 wheeling today so had dressed appropriately. 

Today Ruth's family is celebrating their family Christmas party at the barn. Tina just sent this text "They are having a blast in the bouncy house!" I KNEW it would be a hit for all the Christmas parties this month.  I had the living area thermometer set on 72 degrees and she asked if there was a way to lower the temperature. We can do it on our phone but I told her how to do it herself so they could be comfortable. When Mark came in I told them they needed it cooler. He checked his phone and they moved it from 72 all the way down to 71.  We both laughed. 

 

Nap Time

 I was up at 5:00 am, drank a cup of coffee then took the golf cart over to the barn and worked there until 7:20 am getting the upstairs game room cleaned, the stairs going up to the game room cleaned and all 3 bathrooms. When I got back to the house breakfast was started. Today we had a leisurely breakfast with lots of visiting and didn't get up from the table until 9:30 am. After Kim left I drove back to the barn to work on the kitchen area and floors. Mark came in to sweep the gym floor. I was finished with everything by 11:30 am. My next stop was at mom's to drop off the dishes Karin had left. Mom was napping. It was such a big day yesterday. I called from mom's to let Tina know the barn was ready for them. Karin had all the Christmas decorations up with lights around the window. I had forgotten to put the Christmas table cloth on the big table so went back to put that on before going home.

Mark had a wonderful fire going in the wood burner. It was needed, there were a few white flakes of snow flying around in the wind on this below freezing day.

That heat felt wonderful! I promptly got a warm blanket sat in the rocker recliner, tipped it all the way back and took a nap. Mark went out to check all the waterers. He had plugged all the heaters in a couple days ago and wanted to make sure all was working. The middle paddock's waterer was 55 degrees while Valiant's was at 60 degrees and Evan's was at 58. It is wonderful to know they all have fresh water to drink. He walked down to get the mail but there wasn't any. This Thanksgiving holiday must be for both Thursday and Friday. Amazon is still running though, they delivered a box of envelopes. We were out here, he ordered a box but didn't realize the size, they were much smaller than he expected. Gaetano sent a message below: I hope and pray your Thanksgiving day was FULL of thankfulness, joy, food and blessing! I can't imagine the laughter, joy, peace, and love your family shares on special days like yesterday.  I wanted to apprise you that I made a few edits and changes to the website in order to make it BETTER as it pertains to navigation and ease of use. What I did will also help SEO protocol. Let's see if you can spot the changes I made. Hopefully they will be to your liking.   Of course I had to check it out and found the changes pretty quickly. Click HERE if you want to see if YOU can spot the changes on the horsemeister website.  

Rachel sent the picture below of her grand daughter Ruby checking out Baby Jesus.

I thought it was beautiful!

The Best

I was up at 5:00 am to get ready for the day. I needed to go outside to get the turkey drippings from the porch so grabbed what I thought was my coat and was shocked when the coat was too tight. My first thought was, "I must have gained a lot of weight since yesterday!" I grabbed the drippings and came in thinking how could my coat not fit? It turned out it was not my coat, it was Kim's coat.  They both are the same color. Below are are getting ready to leave for church.

Today all the work done yesterday was worth every minute spent cooking and cleaning. We had an amazing Thanksgiving day. It was cold this morning yet church was so nice and warm. Caleb had the message and that was different. It was time spent in thanking God, singing His praises and praying. Click HERE to watch that. The picture below was taken as we were coming out of the sanctuary. 

As Joan's kids were ALL in church at the same time they had to pose for a picture.

As soon as we got home from church I took the golf cart over to the barn to do the last minute things then back to make the gravy for the turkey. The meal turned out to be delicious. The pictures below were taken after we had all gone through the line. There was so many delicious entrees. 

The pie table is in the picture above against the wall. That held 3 pumpkin pies, 2 pecan pies, a French Silk pie, apple pie, blueberry pie and peanut butter pie.

We  truly FEASTED!

After the meal came the games. The foot ball game was played out in mom's yard by the volley ball court.

Mark and I brought the barn Christmas tree over and Bethany helped the little ones decorate it.  Nancy got to help too.

Below is a video of some of their work.

Below mom is talking to Harvey, Matt and Anni's youngest. 

Indoor games started when the sun went down.

We actually ate twice the same meal. There were so many delicious foods leftover that by 5:30 pm we were ready for more. Diane sent the video of our family down in Gulf Shores. 

The day was really special. Rhoda and Lee took Nancy home. Everyone started leaving by 7:00 pm and we made sure everyone took leftovers. By 7:30 pm we had a pie and a half left to take home. What a GREAT DAY!

Cooking and Cleaning

 Today was the day for cooking and cleaning. I had both the barn oven and our house oven going all day. While the foods were cooking the tables were set at the barn and the house given a quick cleaning. The stuffing, sweet potatoes and 2 turkeys were finished cooking by 5:00 pm. Kim arrived a little after 4:00 pm. Mark came with me to the barn to help bring the turkey cooking there back here for processing. While the turkeys were sitting we had a light supper of sausage and potato soup, then of course had to taste the turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes. The turkey that I spent so much time on and used a pound of butter was tough. I was really disappointed as I followed the instructions exact. The turkey cooked in a bag was also not very tender. They will be ok to serve tomorrow as I'll heat the up with butter and gravy. Both of these turkeys were purchased at Sams and were their brand of Members Mark. They were probably free range turkeys that were chased around and had to find their own food in the woods as they were kind of scrawny. From now on I'll get my turkeys at Aldi. I'm thankful Joan is cooking a butterball turkey. The stuffing and sweet potatoes turned out fine. After supper the turkeys were deboned and made ready to heat up tomorrow after church. 

Shopping

 It was only 24 degrees on the thermostat this morning so I was almost late for the walk trying to zip up a winter coat and the zipper getting caught in the fabric.  In the winter it takes extra time to get ready to go outside. Ruth had already started walking over to my place before I got on the golf cart to zoom over. When we got to Joan's house the cat was sharing the dog house with Mackenson's dog. That cat knows how to stay warm.

Mark joined us and we discussed selling one of the 2021 campers and replacing it with a newer one. He spent some time looking on-line this morning and sent out a couple emails to camping world. I would prefer to buy from a private seller. We stopped at mom's house and discussed what fruit should go in the fruit bowl for Thanksgiving. I have pears and apples, Joan has some oranges so I was to look for grapes, bananas and kiwi. After breakfast I left for Sam's club to pick up the fruit for Thanksgiving but found a rib roast marked down so bought that for the New Year's eve party and then when searching for the nuts and candy for Thanksgiving dinner found a good buy on some gifts for Christmas so picked up 5 of those. I also bought the meat for our Sunday dinner. Last Sunday's dinner was not very good so this week I want to cook the family a really nice meal. I ended up spending $400.00 but that wasn't even the big cost of the day. When I got home an ad popped up for the Lifetime 8 foot tables I want. They are on sale at Sam's for $10.00 off the usual price of $85.00 each until December 1st so I ordered 10. We bought 2 a few months ago and both Mark and I were impressed with how sturdy yet light weight. Those will be delivered December 12th. As we have those coming I decided to post the heavy wood tables for sale on Facebook market place for $20.00 each thinking there wouldn't be a lot of interest but within minutes of the posting I had someone want to come buy them all. I had to explain I could not let them go until AFTER the Meister Christmas and the buyer was more than willing to wait. Before the ad was removed another person asked about buying 1 of them. I had to tell her they were already spoken for then quickly removed the ad.  Today I baked 3 pumpkin pies and 2 pecan pies.

I already have a French Silk pie and an apple pie in the barn fridge so we will have 7 pies for Thanksgiving. My airbnb guests needed batteries for the Roku TV in the apartment. I had them and on the way back stopped at the barn to put food away. On the way back to the house took the picture of Evan enjoying his round bale, by the looks of that mouthful he is enjoying the hay.

Tomorrow I will need to cook 2 turkeys and really want to try this new recipe called Butter Blanketed Turkey I found on Facebook but I didn't have any cheese cloth. Ruth told me Steven has some he uses for bread making and is going to bring it tomorrow on our walk. The turkeys were put out on the porch today so it could keep defrosting. We had a high of 40 degrees so it is slowly defrosting. Both will stay outside tonight as the temps are only supposed to go down to about 36 or 37 degrees. 

Wasted Time

 I was up just a little after 5:00 am, grabbed a cup of coffee and turned on AC Central to listen to David giving the wedding message for Kristi and Drew.  I was just to the place where they were going to take their vows when Diane called. I thought there may be an emergency with the horses at Middle Grove or perhaps the Solar Coaster boat hit a buoy with so much speed that the hull shattered but nope it wasn't any of those. She was calling to talk about the wedding message.  I just had to laugh, she was watching it the same time I was.  I left a little early for the walk and stopped in to grab the garbage from last night but both of the big garbage cans were empty. Mark beat me to that. Ruth came early so we walked early making good time and reaching Joan's early. Joan told us the Messiah was VERY well done last night. Everybody that went really enjoyed going. Grace church in Morton was filled to capacity. (the church holds 3500) Phil Witzig was the director.  After the walk we stopped in at mom's to visit and stayed longer than usual. There was just so much to talk about and you know how we women have to speak a lot. I don't think any of us speak about the average words a day. Any guesses how many that is?  I had to look it up and was shocked at the number. 16,250 is the average words for a women and for a man it is only 15,669.  After breakfast I needed to move a round bale in for Evan so he was locked out of his paddock and the hog panel we use to wrap the bale was dragged up to the barn.  I needed to use the skid steer as Mark has the fork lift still on the tractor. I had just gotten off the skid steer to wrap the bale when Mark came walking up. He helped with the wrapping then drove the skid steer down to the paddock. I rushed ahead to get the place ready for the bale before he got there. Evan was glad for the new bale and dug right in. 

This bale should last him about 3 weeks. Mark put the skid steer away then went up to work on installing an electrical outlet on the outside of the apartment so he can plug the lights in that he put on the porch. I left to clean the barn and get it ready for our Thanksgiving dinner.

I can't get the entire room in on one photograph so decided to video the room.

I finished at 11:00 am and went right up to the apartment to see if Mark wanted my help winterizing the 2005 motorhome. He was at a stopping point on the electrical as he was missing a key part. That is ordered and should be here in a few days. He won't be able to finish it though until our current guests leave and they are staying for 4 nights. We worked for a few minutes when Mark realized he was going to have to get different tools. This time I stayed home and got ready for the dreaded Cardiologist appointment with Dr. Adler. I left here at 1:45 pm and didn't walk out of that office until after 5:00. I waited in the main waiting room and was watching an interesting show, it was something about Christmas cookie wars.

They called me in just as the judging was going to start. They put me in a little room and I sat and sat and sat. What a complete waste of time. Since it had been more than a year I had to have an ekg done.

That turned out to be fine, the same as in 2023. When Dr. Adler finally came into the room, he looks at the chart, listens to my heart and orders an echocardio gram. I reminded him, that bicuspid valve only SOUNDS like it is leaking and how he said the same thing in 2023 and there was no leak but he wouldn't listen. So now that will be scheduled and I'll be wasting another afternoon. I should have brought a book. I sat in that room for a good 2 hours. There was no one up front the take my money (they had all left for the day) and no one to schedule the next appointment so I had to walk back in the work area. They put everything in the computer then told me they would call with the information after making sure the insurance would pay for the echo. I called New China Kitchen, ordered Singapore noodles and a chicken vegetable dish and picked that up on the way home. That restaurant is the only non fast food restaurant from Methodist to home. We were both hungry and probably ate too fast but hey, its Chinese food in a couple hours we should be hungry again or so they say.  We have enough for another meal put away in the fridge. 

Busy Barn

 Mark and I drove separately to church as after church he was going over to Morton to hear the Messiah performed at Grace church. I picked up Rhonda as Spark went to the jail.  On the way to church we were stopped while these huge trucks went by.

We think they were carrying generators. Rhonda sent a video to her son Jacob as he would know but we didn't hear back by the time we got to church so no idea if they really were generators. I heard later from the nameless I T guy at church one is a big Cummins genset. Those are 2.5 mega watt generators used as back up power for big data centers or hospitals. They are used by power companies for distributed grid power. This is becoming the way they are adding power to our electrical grid. Why and where they were going to drive through our small town of Hanna City. Makes one wonder if they are setting up camps for the next pandemic.

Since Joan and all her family were also going we switched keys before church started. I would take mom and Nancy home in the wheel chair van while Joan would take my car to Morton.  Randy and Kathy brought Nancy to church. She was very happy to be there.  We only had 2 ministers today, all the others were at other churches. Mike Kaisner had the morning message on Nehemiah 9 and then John 3.  This was exactly what I needed to hear. God's mercies are truly new every morning. Click HERE to watch that message.  At lunch Fedi showed us the plaques he had made for the Romania Berean volunteers.

He will be traveling this week to Romania where they are celebrating Berean being in the prisons there now for 20 years. Gregg Rumbold had the afternoon message on Philippians 4. I really needed to hear his message too. Click HERE to watch that message. David was in Princeville and had the message for Drew and Kristi's wedding. Drew was a volley ball player that would come here on Sundays. I'll have to listen to that tomorrow by clicking HERE. As soon as I got home I went to the barn with some of the food then went to get the chicken out of the fridge to grill but it wasn't in the fridge. It had been left on the counter ALL NIGHT. I had to throw that away and figure out what to serve the 21 people coming for dinner. I found left over spaghetti in the freezer that was enough, made a big salad, baked a double batch of biscuits, pulled out the blueberries and the pumpkin dump cake with whip cream or icecream for dessert. It wasn't the best meal but no one complained. The barn was very busy. 

Diane and Mike took a nice boat ride. Diane sent the video below of Mike driving while texting.

Mike let me know Jay was out at Middle Grove and the horses walked back into the winter pasture. Mike sent the picture below.

That is Lily by the salt block. I'm not sure who is taking a drink. 

Solar Coaster Launched

 Last night Mike sent the pictures below that Andrew sent him taken at Middle Grove off his deer cam. 

That horse is in the WRONG pasture. The first picture looks like the mare has a star so must be one of Mike's Thoroughbred mares. The second picture looks like Sally.  That bright spot on her face is her eye. 

As it is hunting season I knew I would not be going out early in the morning so sent a text to the entire family that I would be going to Middle Grove at 1:00 pm and would wear orange and to please let any hunters in the family know I would be out there. We thought maybe there was a fence down. This morning was a cold 34 degrees but it warmed all the way up to 37 before dark.  Ruth stayed with mom so I went to Sam's club early to buy the food for Sunday dinner, picking up chicken breasts, peppers, parmesan cheese, olive oil, a box of 7.5 dozen eggs, creamer for the barn, napkins, peanut butter and strawberry jam for here. As soon as I got home the oven was preheated to 350 and pumpkin dump cake was mixed up and put in the oven to bake for Sunday's dessert. While that was baking I cut up 9 peppers and 8 pounds of chicken. 

Those were loaded into a laundry basket to take to the barn fridge.

Mark needed my help to take one of the glass round tables up to the foaling apartment. That was put under the porch. I left then for Middle Grove. When I drove up the first thing I saw even before I got out of the truck was the gate between the two pastures was wide open. 

I thought I was searching for 2 mares but there were NO horses in the winter pasture so I started searching for the herd. I saw Missy first in the trees. She saw my truck and started toward me.

It was obvious that during their journey into the summer pasture they went through a patch of cockleburrs. Every horse had them in their forelocks or tails and some had them in both. When I reached the top of the hill the rest of the herd was all spread out grazing. All but Mika who was standing by himself in the round pen.

The gate is open, he could walk out at any time but he must like the security of that pen. Below are a few pictures of the rest of the herd.

I needed to drive to the far end of this pasture to make sure the gate was closed by the lake and the gate to the 76 acre pasture. At the top of the hill a herd of deer took off for the woods. I grabbed my phone and got one picture of the last one as it hit the woods.

Both gates were shut.

We have 60 bales of very good hay stored in the summer pasture so I wanted to try to move the herd back over but wasn't doing too well. They surrounded the truck and I had to honk to get them out of the way. Then they only followed for a bit. I had to keep stopping the truck and calling for them. The video below shows some of this and ends when Mike calls from Gulf Shores. 

He told me to just leave the herd but leave the gates open. The salt blocks are in the winter pasture so hopefully they will soon go back. There is so much grass in the summer pasture they aren't interested in eating on the round bales so the hay should be fine.

Mike and Diane had been working on that 1969 Macgregor sail boat they hauled down to Gulf Shores. 

Well today they launched it into the bay to try it out.  This sail boat has no sails.

It is named Solar Coaster. 

I heard from Dan that not only did they take it out on the bay, Mike opened the fridge, pulled out a breakfast sandwich and heated it up in the microwave. Powered only by the sun, this amazing boat can sail half speed all day long in the sunshine without drawing on the battery. Check back here on the blog as later Dan will explain how this boat was retrofitted for solar instead of sails.

Rachel and David will have meat in their freezer this winter. They got a nice fat grain fed doe this hunting season. 

Our guests in the foaling apartment are all hunters and they told me today they too will have meat in the freezer. I'm pretty sure all 3 of the men got at least one today. 

Betsy's Flag

 There were still coals in the wood burner this morning so of course I needed to get that going again. Ir wasn't as cold as the wind wasn't terrible today but still took the chill off the house. As Co-op was cancelled because of the play today Joan walked too. We all stopped in to visit mom after the walk.  Today I worked on our upstairs, giving the bathroom and all the floors a good scrubbing. Kim, my sister-in-law is coming on Wednesday so I wanted her bedroom clean. All of her bedding was taken down and washed before making the bed again. 

It is an old house and hard to get weather tight but today I was a little disgusted. I had the sheets washed and back on the bed but the blanket and comforter weren't finished yet. The room was given a good cleaning and dusting. When I got back upstairs with the rest of the bedding there were 2 more Asian beetles crawling on the freshly washed sheets. Where are they coming from? I spent hours on the upstairs removing all of them 2 days ago, then found more sweeping up probably 20 or 30 more while doing the laundry. I'd better check everyday, maybe I'll get them all out by Wednesday. We left our house this afternoon at 1:15 to go to Calvary church to watch the Peoria Cooperative Academy put on the play Betsy's Flag.  Ruth's daughter Rebekah was the director and Joan the administrator.  Marie Unsicker was in charge of the props.  This play, set against the backdrop of the American Revolution brought history to life through the inspiring story of Betsy Ross, The woman credited with creating the first American flag.   We actually learned a lot about Betsy in this play. Did you know she had 3 husbands by the time she was 28 years old? Not only did she lose her first 2 husbands she also lost a daughter. The actors and actresses did a terrific job. Mark said it was the best play yet from the Co-op. Rebekah started it off with a little history. 

Zion, Eden and River also enjoyed the play.

Berlica was a stage manager telling everyone where and when the props were needed.

Rebekah and Brian's Jordan, Riley and Blair all had parts.

Kari's 3 boys enjoyed it too.

After the play (they got a standing ovation) the entire cast sang the National Anthem.

Rebekah did an amazing job putting the play together and adding parts. It was thoroughly enjoyed by the cast and the audience. 

After the play we went to Avanti's restaurant for supper. Nolan, Eden and River joined us.

Sarah had to take Zion to a birthday party. The girls both got their favorite, sketti (spaghetti) 

The cold was shocking when we walked out of the restaurant so as soon as we got home the wood burner was fired up again.