Big Storms Coming

 I left early for the Berean office so I could stop at Sam's club first. We needed cream for the coffee, small plates for our dessert and napkins. Even with shopping first I was there at 8:47 am. Of course Skip was ready to dock my pay. Sharon showed up even later. Why she arrived just before 9:00 am and Skip told her he would dock her pay too. We all had to laugh. We had Shirley, Ray, Skip, Marvin, Shirl, Sharon and me today for volunteers. Vonnie and Kathy couldn't make it today. We were easily able to finish on time. We had more studies come in today than last week but less Bible requests. I was a little busy so forgot to take even one picture. The studies and Bibles going out today were dropped off at the Hanna City post office. I also asked for 3 more white tubs since I didn't pick any up last week. Rhoda and Sarah were here when I got home. Rhoda had given a lesson to Iris before I arrived. Zeke was just getting ready for his turn on Jury. 

Zion was helping me grain Tessa when Zeke was taking a turn.

Next on Jury was Zion. Rhoda gave her real riding lesson, just like she gave Iris earlier.

Since I wasn't there for a picture of Iris Rhoda said she would send one but hasn't yet.  Today Tessa and her filly joined the other two mares with foals in the pasture. Tessa is just coming into her foal heat. She ran over to Evan (her sire) and stood there while he talked to her, Rosaleigh, Tessa's dam got between them and Tessa left but when Rosaleigh left to watch over her colt. Tessa came back, her filly walked over to her grand dam Rosaleigh and Rosaleigh let her know to back off. That got both the filly and Tessa running.

Rosaleigh's colt just stood there watching everything.

Once I knew everything would be fine I went over to the lake where the grandkids were having fun boating. Sarah was watching all the kids while Rhoda took Jury out on a trail ride. 

They all went over to Joan's to look at the fawns. Below they are getting ready to boat back. David is in the canoe fishing near the dam.

For her first day back Jury is doing ok.

She did the entire 'death trail' but it took a while. Rhoda had to convince her it was safe. They made it back fine. After Jury was put away Rhoda worked with Izzy and taught her a new trick. 

Berlica and Israel went riding too today. They also did the entire 'death trail' and all went well.

This evening we were watching news when Peoria was mentioned. Peoria is right in the middle of the highest category for the big storms coming tomorrow with a high chance of hail and tornados. We decided we had to put the vehicles all inside. Mark drove his black car up to the barn. I backed the truck and stock trailer into the indoor then we took the second golf cart over to mom's garage. On the way back we noticed Mike and Diane's Prius sitting out so moved that into Mike's new barn.

All garage doors were shut and we are kind of prepared. Tomorrow morning I'll bring all 3 mares with foals inside. If there is hail those foals might not be smart enough to stay under the shelters. 

Blew It

 We were both up early enjoying freshly brewed coffee. Mark left for his walk but I read a while before heading to the barn to collect the laundry. No walk as Ruth is in Romania and Diane & Mike along with Spark & Rhonda and Dan & Susan all left for Missouri. Both of the solar coaster boats went too. Mike and Diane took the big one while Dan and Susan took the smaller one. They will be staying with Spark and Rhonda and going out on Bull Shoals lake. Spark had a pontoon boat at his place there on that lake. Joan was stripping the sheets off of each of the camper beds as I was stripping sheets of all the beds in the barn. We talked over the weekend then started discussing the 4th of July plans for out here. Rachel and David are going to be doing the fireworks again on Friday the 3rd. Mark and Mackenson worked on getting the 4 campers ready to be hauled back to Joan's house. I called the vet clinic to get Valiant's appointment to have the cancer looked at. On Friday they had no electricity and couldn't tell me when I could bring him as for this appointment they wanted to make sure Dr. Hoerr had 2 full hours to give him. His appointment is now next Wednesday June 24th, at 8:30 am. After the laundry was started I took the truck over to help. We used the barn septic tank to empty all of the camper tanks. Then hauled them one at a time over to Joan's Berlica was out riding with 2 of her friends. 

We finished up the campers then hooked the stock trailer up to truck so I could haul Cookie out to Middle Grove and bring back Jury. Sarah arrived just as I was leaving. Her girls gave Cookie some carrots before she left then went to play with Tessa's filly. Sarah sent back the 3 pictures below.

She was enjoying the girls. I arrived at Middle Grove and drove back to the big field. There were no horses in sight. Cookie must have smelled them as she started heading North.

About then we heard thundering hooves but it was just Oliver coming down to meet Cookie then take her back to the herd.

Below is Oliver making sure Cookie joins the rest. He really is impressive. 

I had to walk and it was a long way and all up hill. They were all waiting for me when I arrived.

At first I couldn't find Lily. I saw some turkey vultures and my heart dropped. She is 24 years old this year. Well it turned out she was right in the middle I didn't recognize her, she is in such good shape.

Below it is easy to tell it is Lily from the side view.

She is licking a salt block in the picture below. She does have a tail she is just swishing it to her right side on the picture below. That is Jury behind her.

After taking a few pictures Jury and I started the long walk back to the trailer. Unfortunately Oliver didn't want to see Jury leave so followed us down bringing the whole herd with him. I had to use the lead rope to shoo him away a couple times. He really is well behaved and would have stood quietly if I would have tied him up to something but where we were there wasn't anything other than trees and I didn't want to have to walk all the way back to untie him.

Above Oliver is looking over at Sheena, behind Oliver is Missy and behind Missy is Cookie. 

Below Oliver is coming over to greet me while the others are behind him.

The black mare in front is Valerie, Lily's last daughter I kept and behind her is Jury.

Valerie came up to see if I had a treat but I didn't bring anything out with me today.

Harli, the gypsy mare is looking very wide. She is due in August and I think is the last mare due this year. Jury loaded fine. Harli had followed her to the trailer. I went over to pet her was scratching her back when I saw a big horse fly land on her hip and without thinking slapped her and killed the fly. She jumped and ran then looked back at me as if to say, "WHY?" Harli came to us as almost impossible to catch. We have been working with her carefully gaining her trust. Each time we go to Middle Grove I make sure to scratch her back which she loves and give her attention then walk away. Today I blew it by slapping that fly! I stopped for gas on the way home just to have a full tank for our Saturday trip. Jury was put in the middle paddock with Basilea and Thalia once we were back. Laundry waited for me. I was able to finish the last load of towels and sheets and got all of the beds made at the barn. The towels are now over but not put away. I'll have plenty to do of that kind of work tomorrow. Now I'm going to rest!

A Beautiful Evening

We had rain during the night, a nice soft rain that soaked in well. Our morning was easy, just cook breakfast and get ourselves ready for church. We picked up Rhonda as Spark went to the jail. We had a visitor, Jeff Fischer, from Fort Scott Kansas for the morning service. He spoke on Isaiah 40 and first Timothy 4. Click  HERE if you would like to listen to that message. The afternoon message was given by Mike Kaisner spoke on 2 Chronicles 20. Click HERE if you would like to watch that message. Nancy came home with us after church as Joan had an errand after church before she was going home.  Karin came over to have tea time with Nancy, Mark and I. We enjoyed talking with her as I was cooking. Nancy may be coming down with a cough. She coughed a few times in church and after.  Karin took Nancy over to Joan's house but before supper Joan brought Nancy to the barn. Nancy got to feed the fawns while at Joan's Joan took a picture and printed it off for her to take home.

Karin took the video below of Nancy feeding one while Braelyn fed the other.

Joan had received a call about a swarm of bees in Morton and wanted to drive over to collect them.  Nancy enjoyed supper with the Sceggels and was also joined by Berlica and Mackenson. 

After dinner Phil and Anna needed to leave for pictures of one of the teams, the rest of us went over to mom's and enjoyed the beach and lake.

The kids took the paddle boat over to the diving board and took turns jumping.

It was a beautiful evening. 

Hay for the Winter

 It was nice this morning not to have to run up to the stalls to take care of Tessa and her filly. They did fine out all night. Tessa was hungry for her grain. The filly is nursing a lot and Tessa needs the calories. 

The filly didn't really eat much grain but did take a bite then came around to look all majestic.

I took those last 2 pictures for the website. Denver was checked on, he was gelded yesterday so I expected to see swelling but he didn't have any and is not at all sore.

He turns a year old this month and Mike hadn't weaned him yet but Dr. Hoerr told him to wait a couple weeks as being gelded is stressful. Rosaleigh and Star Temple's paddock needed a new bale. That was done after checking on the horses. The website was worked on today between chores. Updating all the mares, who they were bred to and when they are due. Of the 10 we have covered so far 6 are now confirmed and I'm almost sure 3 more are also pregnant. They haven't come back in season but we have not been able to get them in to the clinic for their ultrasounds.  We still need to cover Tessa, Izzy and Star Temple here and bring Holly, Aiken and Dancer back to find out if Oliver was able to successfully cover them. Two of the campers needed to have fresh water added so that was done this morning.

The mares in the breeding shed paddock had kicked a board down and cracked it. I found a board over at Mike's and he installed the new one.

Berlica was busy today, she had horse loving company over and she tacked up the mares and took out multiple trips.

I had to leave before the girls rode so no pictures of that. Today I inspected 3 different fields and bales from each. I found exactly what I was looking for and purchased 84 big round bales.  They were baled up dry but have been outside so got rain on top which bleached out the outside of the bale.

The inside was still nice and green and smelled good. The bales are grass/alfalfa mix.

It isn't too stemmy, the horses should do well with them. These bales are the bales we need for the herd in the winter at Middle Grove. I gave them a deposit of $1000.00 with the balance due once all 84 are delivered. I'm very pleased with the purchase, it is great not to have to worry about a hay supply in the winter.  On the drive back we saw turkeys, a lot of turkeys. I only got the one picture as I was driving.

When I got back Mark had the new dehumidifier delivered but needed help getting it on the golf cart and taking it to mom's house. The first one had an error code and was broken so the company delivered a new one.

Tessa and her filly were turned out in the outdoor arena to graze. The filly was so excited she tried to buck for the very first time. That didn't go very well. She hid under her mama's tail then decided she needed to nurse to comfort herself. Check it out on the video below.

She ran around all day but didn't try to buck again! The weather was cloudy and cool, some of the kids were swimming but others were enjoying the canoes and kayaks while fishing.

I stopped to take a picture of the day lilies that have exploded by our driveway.

The other bush has also exploded with blooms.

After supper I drove back over to the playground and started a fire for the company. 

There were kids catching fireflys, kids playing on the trampolines with mom's visiting with each other while watching them. All seem to be having a great time.