Too Good to Be True

 Mark checked all the propane tanks this week and came back with wonderful news, the new barn tank was still at 73 %, even better than here at the house where we burn wood for heat.  My, the furnace Philip installed for that gym must be VERY efficient! All was going well except we realized Sunday evening the gym was cooling down. Mark sets it at 55 degrees when we are not using it but I had it set on 65 for the Sunday dinner and it was holding at 58. Monday was even worse. It went to 55 and stayed there. Well this morning Philip arrived to fix the furnace.

Pretty quickly he let me know there is no propane gas in the line. He thought the propane tank meter was wrong and the tank empty.  I had left for Sam's club so I sent a text to Mark, he walked over and banged on the meter and sure enough it dropped from 73% down to 0. That tank is bone dry. It really was too good to be true. We had a LOT of guests at the barn November and December and even during the really cold spell had people using the barn. Mark called the propane company explaining we had a faulty gauge and ran out of propane. They sent someone out to look at the gauge but did not bring any propane. The soonest we can get that is Monday morning. We can live without heat a couple more days. The bad news is the $1000.00 or more cost to fill the tank. That will sure put a hole in my building fund. My trip to Sam's club was interesting. The fog was so thick it was hard to see the stop signs. The picture below was taken near the stop sign at Smithville road. 

The car coming from the West on Smithville almost ran the stop sign and almost ran into me. The rest of the drive went fine. I got all the food needed for the Sunday dinner except some jalapeno peppers and cilantro. That was picked up at Aldi on the way home.  It was raining most of the day here and we are under a mud warning, no flood warning just mud. The ground is still frozen below and the top layer is slushy and thick. It is not a day to be outside much.  Mark went walking, fell today and really hurt his hip. He has been moaning and groaning but finally took an aleve and a nap and when he woke up was walking better. Nothing seems to be broken. I've had a very easy day feeding the fire and enjoying the heat. My guests for the barn arrived this evening. Thankfully we have electric heat in the living area of the barn. I would have gone out to get some exercise and even thought about running then remembered Proverbs 28:1  The wicked run when no man pursues and I certainly don't want to be known as wicked. Plus if anyone in the neighborhood saw me running they would for sure think there was a dire emergency happening.  Another thought bothered me today.  I only know 25 letters of the alphabet.  I just don't know Y.  That just a little too corny even for me.

Feeling Fine

 Thankfully I woke up this morning feeling fine! I woke up with heaven on my mind, I woke up with Joy in my soul and now that this song is stuck in my brain, I KNOW my LORD has control. It really was good to wake up with energy. I walked over to the barn before our walk to check if the golf cart was fully charged. It was so after the walk I drove that home and parked it in the garage. At 9:30 am the home schooling group arrived at the barn to run off some of that pent up energy.  While that was going on I was cooking. I needed to make a large pan of chicken soup from the left over chicken of Sunday's meal. I was missing onions and celery so Mark agreed to pick those up when he was in Pekin this morning. By the time the chicken soup was done it was time for lunch so we both had a bowl. After tasting it though I knew it needed more spices so added some onion powder and garlic salt about a quarter of a teaspoons of black pepper and a couple teaspoons of chicken bouillon. That did the trick.  My freezer is actually pretty full of soup so I put the family text out asking if anyone wanted any. Joan responded quickly. The soup was put in these containers. It filled these 4 and then a smaller one for mom's house.

After the home school group left I took the golf cart over to the barn to clean it for the guests coming in tomorrow. That didn't take as long as expected, someone had already cleaned the game room. We had a light rain but warm weather, at 7:30 pm it is still 42 degrees. Mark was worried about mud but we didn't get much rain. This evening I used the last of the fajitas to make our supper. I first added a light layer of mozzarella cheese, then spinach leaves which were sautéed in olive oil the some browned bulk sausage, the next layer was some green, red and orange peppers and a couple slices of onion chopped and sautéed. That was topped with a little more sausage and cheese and last it was sprinkled with parmesan cheese. The picture below is before I put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Below is once it came out of the oven and sprinkled again with parmesan cheese before giving it to Mark.

We had one extra that was put in the fridge for tomorrow. It was a fast and easy meal and one Mark liked. Diane sent the pictures below from Gulf Shores. Bob and Jill went out with them on a sunset cruise on the solar coaster.

Beth sent some pictures too but don't be worried when looking at them.

These aren't from Gulf Shores. They are on the Island of Eleuthera.

What great memories these kids can share with their grandchildren. 

Lost Day

 Last night while trying to finish the blog I started shivering. I thought it was because it was cold in the house but when I climbed into bed I couldn't stop shivering. I even put the electric blanket on high and left it there as I just couldn't warm up. By morning the shivering had stopped but every muscle is sore from so much shivering. I must of had a fever. I spent the day in bed and by this evening am feeling better. Mark took the soup and vegetables over to Joan's house then she must have taken it to mom's Ruth, who was with mom today, sent a message the soup is done and GOOD.  Mark went over and got a quart and ate some for his supper.. I watched church tonight. Tim Roecker had the message on the 3rd chapter of St. John. Always a good message. There was a problem though toward the end of the message it kept going off line. To listen to that message click HERE. The people coming in to the foaling apartment told me they have a 13 hour trip so I sent Mark over to turn the lights on. Then while watching church the barn booked for 3 days in April. Even though it was a lost day I was still able to get what needed to be done done!

Three Eggs

 As Joan went skiing with her kids and Ruth wanted extra time to get ready for Berean we called off the walk. I left at 7:00 am to drive to Casey's in Hanna City to purchase a dozen donuts for the Berean office then to the new barn to plug in the golf cart. I had time to wash off some tables and sweep the kitchen floor before heading over to mom's house at 7:45 am.  Ruth arrived right after. Mom was waiting for us.  I heard that mom wanted Karin to buy bacon but not just any bacon and then the truth came out. Mom was offering the cat a piece of her left over bacon and the cat rejected it. Mom said, "Karin you need to go buy Oscar Meyer bacon, the cat doesn't like this kind!"  County Market was selling a pound for $12.00 and we won't spend that on people much less a cat.  Of course we laughed and laughed. We 3, Ruth, mom and I left for the Berean office but when we got to the junction of Cameron lane and 116 a police car was blocking the road not letting anyone turn left on 116. 

We were behind quite a few cars that must have wanted to turn left but the policeman talked them into turning right and finding a new way. We heard later that there had been an accident at the Y of 116 and Farmington Rd. We could see lots of semis and other vehicles all at a dead standstill. We still made it to the office in time. Almost everyone else had arrived and were already working.

We weren't sure what we were going to do for Bibles today and then found out 5 boxes had arrived! JUST IN TIME. Vonnie opened one of them so we could inspect it.

Below Kathy and Shirley are checking them out.

It is large print and has a concordance at the back. We all thought it was a VERY nice Bible. Each Bible cost a little more than $10.00 but I know I would be proud to have such a nice Bible if I was in prison. Skip had ordered them quite a while ago but was told they were out of stock. Evidently they found 5 boxes to ship to us. The timing really was perfect but then we serve a perfect LORD! Sharon, Shirley and Vonnie went right to work stuffing and wrapping them.

Joan arrived to pick up studies for grading and brought in a booklet printed this month (like the Daily Bread) but this month was just for prisoners. She brought it in to show Kathy. Mom was stamping the return address on envelopes and was getting a little frustrated as each time she had a good amount in the box I would come around and grab them to add postage. We were using them as fast as she was getting them stamped.

With Ruth helping though they were able to get us enough for this week and a good start on next week. 

Below Joan and Kathy are discussing the booklet. I asked Skip to turn around so I could get a picture of his 'good side'. He wasn't sure what I had asked so was questioning why I dragged him away from his work.

Below is a short video of our morning.

When we left Berean it was close to noon but we made it to the Hanna City post office before they closed for lunch which is 12:30 pm. Unfortunately there was a line up and one of the people in there had probably 20 or 30 boxes he needed to ship. I explained that we had 8 Bibles that didn't have the correct postage on them so put the Bibles on the counter and gave Rachel the postmisstress $20.00 and told her I would be back later for the change. Once mom and Ruth were dropped off I came home made Mark a quick lunch of potato and sausage soup then drove to the post office. I got back $10.00 but also one Bible. The zip code doesn't match the city.  I KNOW it is correct and even looked it up while there but she wouldn't take it. She told us to put the correct postage on it and then it would go through but if she put it on it would have a bar code and go to the wrong address. From there I went to Aldi. I was hoping to pick up some rye bread for mom's house but Aldi doesn't carry that anymore. I spent $99.00 buying food for the house. Anna gave me some stew meat and soup bones so I needed the vegetables to go in the soup.  From Aldi I drove to the Glasford elevator to pick up a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds for mom and finally home to put away groceries and get the soup bones boiling. Those were boiled most of the evening then put outside tonight to cool. Tomorrow the fat will be skimmed and the vegetables added. I still need to peel and cut up potatoes for this soup. I checked on the eagles at Big Bear lake in California and Jackie laid a 3rd egg. Last year she laid 3 eggs and none of them hatched. Mom enjoyed watching Jackie and Shadow take turns on the nest and if Shadow wouldn't bring food often mom would worry. I took the picture below off the Big Bear Cam

The group Fobbv, Friends of Big Bear Valley has 2 eagle cameras that are live streamed so we can see what is happening. I've tried to share it here but it is private. If you want to see it go on youtube and type in Big Bear Eagle Cam. Then you will have the option to  subscribe and watch. 

Fire Starters

My niece Sarah was invited to a dinner and raffle over the weekend for one of the places she works. She ended up WINNING the grand prize of a 75 inch television! That thing is so big there is no way it is going to fit in her apartment.  Still she was glad she won that instead of one of the other prizes which was a free Botox injection.

It was still pretty cold for our walk this morning. Ruth and I were a little shocked when Joan walked out looking like a homeless person. She explained that she didn't have a coat for skiing tomorrow and Sarah was shopping at a mission mart and found this coat. It was supposed to be a large so Joan told her to buy it. We got to mom's house, Karin saw that coat and gave her one of hers. 

Diane was talking to mom on speaker from Gulf Shores so I sent her the picture above. Diane told Joan, "go to my house and in the closet is a ski jacket and matching ski pants." We told her we would go there next. About then Karin had breakfast ready for mom and mom walks to the table each morning.

We left then for Diane's house to find Joan something decent to wear tomorrow. We finally figured out Joan must be very smart. She comes dressed like a hobo and ends up going home in a nice Sunday coat and carrying a ski jacket and ski pants. 

She is going to keep the mission mart coat for working outside around here. Mark had left over blueberry pancake to go with his egg and sausage this morning. After breakfast Mark tightened up the nut on the bouncy house fan and I put it together. Of course we tried it out before taking it back to the barn and hooking it back up to the bouncy house.

After getting the upstairs cleaned I brought down a couple of old candles. We were down to 1 and a half fire starters from the last batch I made.

I put those 2 candles in a pan on low then started rolling napkins. These napkins are from Sam's club and have 1200 in the package for about $12.00 making them 1 cent each.

Below I have a bunch of them rolled up for dipping. I took 2 of my jelly roll pans and put a sheet of wax paper on each of those.

The pan of wax is moved from the stove and put between the napkins and the pans.

The napkins are dipped in the wax then put on the pan and just stacked up.

When the wax was gone the pans were taken outside to cool for a bit. That doesn't take long, the wax hardens pretty fast and the sticks can be put in a zip lock bag until needed. The video below shows the finished product.

I ended up with 130 of them and spent just a little over $1.30 for them. About that time Mark came in and wanted to put the log splitter back on the tractor. As soon as we got that done I had him bring a bale down for Evan. Evan was turned out into the pasture but he knew what we were doing so hung around the gate until we finished then when I opened the gate came galloping in for his treat. He knows there will be grain waiting in his bucket when I move a bale in. These stallions know the routine so well. I left then with the golf cart, threw the net wrap away then parked the golf cart in the gym. Tomorrow I will plug that in and get it charged up again. It has a lithium battery and those can't be put on the charger in below freezing weather. While at the gym the balls were organized and those carts the kids had so much fun on were worked on. I brought over 3 lead ropes and tied them together and made a better pull rope for them. We have some home schooling kids coming on Thursday, I think they will enjoy playing with them. David's message was turned on so I could watch and listen to that again. Dinner tonight was chicken tortillas. I used left over chicken from last night and while heating it up in the pan cut up a lime and squeezed on some lime juice. I used mixed lettuce and spinach on the tortilla, added the lime chicken, the red and green peppers were sautéed then put on top but the red onion was added raw.  A little bit of queso cheese added, sprinkled some shredded cheddar on that then put a little sour cream on top. It is a colorful tasty quick meal.

Unexpected Death

 Our coffee maker went off at 4:00 am instead of 5:00. I know this because Mark got up then and woke me telling me the coffee was done already and he didn't do it. I don't know how but the time is an hour off on that clock. Before we go to bed I'll need to fix that. Since we were up so early I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Those always take a longer than crepes or just serving the fruit plain. We decided to leave 5 minutes early for church and stop at the car wash on the way. We saw a car sitting in front of the automatic bay and got behind that car then wondered why it wasn't going forward thinking maybe there was another car already in that bay. Finally the door opened and that car went in. Mark used his credit card to pay the $7.00 then pushed for the wash only. We waited and waited for the door to open, at least 10 more minutes then Mark decided to run his credit card through again and if we get two charges just dispute the first. The door finally did open then but by the time we were finished with the car wash it was already 20 minutes after 9:00.

We made it to church by 9:40 am. Ruth brought mom, Randy and Kathy brought Nancy and we all went up just in time finish the first song.  David walked up with a suitcoat on and when we saw that we knew he was going to have the message and oh my what a message Starting with Psalm 1 and then Luke 6. Click HERE to watch that. He shared that he was convicted but I think we all were by the time he finished. I heard at lunch that Cindy Endress died very unexpectedly and was just shocked. Cindy would help me enter names at Berean each Wednesday when we were getting 500-600 Bible requests a week. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.  Craig Stickling had the afternoon message. and talked a bit about Cindy's unexpected shocking death so Craig spoke on Matthew 5 and John 11. Click HERE to watch that. Mark took Nancy to mom's house in his car while I drove mom in the wheel chair van home. Ruth went home with Fedi.  I started the dinner after getting home. Mark helped get it to the barn. When Kensely arrived she walked in with a gold medal. Her basketball team won the tournament. The other kids wanted to see the medal and hear all about it.

They all needed to hold it and see it up close.

Iris had to show me what she won by a grapple machine. A nice soft teddy bear.

Everyone had arrived by 4:30 for supper and all the food was ready to go.

Phil had the prayer and then came the hungry family.

There was plenty of food tonight but all of the surprise brownies and ice cream were gone by the time the evening was over.

Rebekah's family arrived after supper.

 There was no volley ball as some football game was going on so the kids got the gym. They made a train out of Mark's little carts.

They kept working on the train and even got Rhoda to pull them around. They really do use their imaginations to play and play.

One of the bouncy house fans got knocked down and the fan blade came off. We brought it to the house so I could take it apart and fix it.

I need a wrench to tighten the bolt so don't want to put it back together until that happens tomorrow. We don't have a wrench in the house. I had my own tools years ago but someone kept borrowing the tools out of the case and now I have to go all the way out to the back of the stall barn where Mark keeps his tools. I guess I could buy myself another full tool case. I put the fan cover on top of the fan so I don't lose the screws.

We are sure praying for Dale and his family tonight. 

Remembering Raven

Breakfast this morning was a little interesting. I had fresh blueberries that needed to be used so made blueberry crepes to go with the eggs, sausage and avocado.

Why we have been eating so many avocados is Aldi had them for 69 cents each, nice big green ones that have been ripening and we bought a small jar of bagel seasoning that Mark likes sprinkled on his slices.  He really enjoyed the blueberry crepe today. Ruth and I met at mom's at 8:45 am to take her to Marge Getz's funeral. We made it there in time to go through the visitation line. The singing was especially beautiful during the service. Craig Stickling had the message. We were home before noon. Ruth left for home and I stayed until Karin got home around 2:30 pm. Mom slept some while I worked on the puzzle. When I got home Mark and Mackenson had just come in for a break. They had been filling the wood shed with split logs and had emptied the filled wagon. After resting they went back out and got the driveways all sanded. The picture below popped up on my feed of our first stallion Raven. 

he was so kind and loving. He really was a gift! I remember going up to Michigan to meet him, he was just 5 years old at the time and his owner told me, "He will never hurt you!" She was right. He was wonderful around children and adults and always wanted to please.  If children came over he would reach down carefully and slowly for a hug.

He passed away Sept 23rd, 2012 after siring over 300 foals. He never hurt anyone all the years he lived on this farm. His last foals were born in 2013 and our Rosalie is one of them. She is AMAZING and is expecting a foal by Evan in April. She really is a solid 17 hands and built like a warhorse.

Thankfully we kept his son Valiant to keep his line going. 

This evening I have a double batch of surprise brownies in the oven and that chocolate odor is wafting up our nostrils tempting us to just take a little taste. It is for the Sunday dinner tomorrow so no tasting allowed. Surprise brownies are made by adding chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough to the pan then covering that with the brownie batter. It looks like just brownies until you cut into it.  Our grandkids really like this dessert. 

Slow Friday

 Well we walked! The ice is still hard and slippery. Ruth and I did fine, Mark ended up slipping and falling to his knees but no harm done. All the waterers were checked and all were working. Joan had co-op so no walk for her. We stopped at mom's after one round and Ruth showed us her vacation pictures transferring the pictures and videos from her phone to the big screen tv. Tomorrow is Margaret Getz funeral and Marg was in mom's sewing club and mom asked to go so we made plans for that. We spent a little longer at mom's than usual so by the time I got home Mark was more than ready for breakfast. The blueberries were added to this morning's breakfast with a little French vanilla cream dribbled on them.

After breakfast the heat was turned on to the foaling apartment and I went up to make sure it was ready for our guests coming in today. Mark ordered a fancy humidifier as when we are burning wood the house gets too dry. Each day we have been boiling pans of water but an electric humidifier will be cheaper to run. WE are not burning propane and we have solar for electricity. It came in last night so Mark got it going today. It is doing a good job putting moisture into our dry air.

Today was laundry day here at the house which meant while the machines were going I had time to read. Kim had recommended a book to Mark and he was able to get it on Amazon for free reading it on his phone on a kindle app. I still like the old fashioned real books. This afternoon I noticed a cat on our front porch. I thought it was the big orange male cat that hangs around sometimes but when I looked again there was a dog with the cat.  Mackenson's dog and Berlica's cat had come over for a visit. These two sleep together and evidently travel together too. 

I gave them some beef I had defrosted then tried to bribe them to come into the house so I could take them home but they would not come in and would not let me touch either of them. As soon as I tried they took off so hopefully they left for home. I think they came over as no one was home at Joan's house. At 4:15 pm Gil's supper club was called to place an order for us, Karin and mom. I picked up the food at 5:00 pm and drove straight over. Mark had walked over as we are still down to one car. We enjoyed a dinner of Gil's fried chicken, sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar, and a big cobb salad which we shared. Karin served us ice cream for dessert. It was a nice evening. The amaryllis that Kim gave us for Christmas is getting ready to bloom for the second time.

We had a very slow day, no work done outside as it is still very cold and not much work that I wanted to do inside. Cleaning could have been done but that just seemed like too much effort. The saying goes, "Don't do today what you can put off until tomorrow."  Grandpa would be very upset if he heard that! I know I know the REAL saying is "don't put off tomorrow what should be done today." We heard that a LOT growing up.

Slipping and Sliding

 I slept ALL night and didn't even wake until 5:30 am. What a relief to know the we have no frozen pipes. Diane sent the picture below of beautiful sunrise on the Gulf. 

It was very cold there this morning at only 22 degrees. We had about the same but Gulf Shores warmed up and here in Hanna City the temperature just kept dropping. Today we were supposed to walk as Ruth was supposed to be home yesterday but that didn't happen. She was not answering so I put my brand new tracks on.

I was pleased with how easily and quickly they went on BUT...Isn't there always a but; When I started walking I found the problem. There was fresh snow covering the ice so I couldn't see the ice and with the extreme cold the ice was so hard these small spikes were not gripping like the other tracks. I found myself slipping and sliding. Maybe today wasn't a fair trial so I'll have to try again tomorrow. Ruth didn't show up so the walk was cancelled anyway. It turned out they missed their flight so didn't get home until later this morning. On the way back to the house Mark was checking waterers and found all of them full but Valiant's running over.  I worked on it and got it stopped but later found out it was stopped all the way. he drank his water and the reservoir didn't fill back up. I had to work on it again and this time got it going again but only coming out at a trickle. It won't stop but at least he will have water and we won't be wasting too much. By then it was past time to make breakfast. We were out of bread so I made pancakes to eat with our eggs and sausage. Kim shared some news on Jon, Mark's brother. He is not doing well and not expected to live much longer. Not long after getting that news Amy sent a text that our friend Donna had passed away. Her daughter told Amy her passing was very peaceful. Donna was a barn lady that gave Sarah a pair of tennis shoes when Sarah was 3 years old. She loved those shoes. They got a hole in them after so much use but Sarah didn't care and insisted on wearing them anyway. One doesn't argue with a 3 year old.  Dan stopped in on his way to visit with mom.  Mark had a therapy appointment this afternoon, I went with him, dropped him off then went shopping at Sam's to get the Sunday meal plus a lot of other items like laundry detergent, bread, fruit, 2 kinds of nuts, spinach leaves and lettuce spending $169.00. I think the kids will like the meal on Sunday. I've never served it to them but Mark and mom like it so I'm sure they will too. I finished shopping and was back to pick Mark up just as he got out so the timing was perfect. I got a picture today of a Jury x Valiant daughter. 

She is now 4 years old and what surprised me was she STAYED black. Each of Jury's foals by Valiant have been born black but usually turn gray. Not this one! Jury isn't due until Aug 16th, this year so we have a long wait to see this foal. At 4:15 pm I needed to be at Phil and Anna's house to pick up Kensley for her basketball practice held in East Peoria. 

We arrived at 4:45 pm and the practice didn't finish until almost 6:30 pm. These girls really got a work-out. Below is just a short video of one of the games.

She was really hungry by the time that was over so we stopped at McDonalds on the way home. Mark had both wood burners going and the house is warm. Right now it is 12 degrees but supposed to be 2 by morning. I am SO thankful for these wood burners.