Wonderful End to a Wonderful Day

Our big news was Bryan, our farmer asked if he could cut the hay today. Of course I said, YES! I was able to walk this morning at least for the first round before leaving for the Berean office. We had a good productive morning there. Dave, our director showed up today. Vonnie who is related to Dave had no idea he was the director of Berean Prison Ministry. 

We had a good laugh at that. As Dave was our guest he had the prayer this morning. After the prayer he told us a little about his trip to Romania and a little of his past trips with Fedi to Romania.

Once he left we all went to work.

The studies and Bibles were loaded into the car and dropped off at the Hanna City post office. Sarah sent the picture below while I was at Berean. She and her girls cleaned up every stall in the stall barn.

As soon as I got home and changed it I ran up to check. They did a wonderful job. Of course I needed to check the fields and was very glad to see the tractor out mowing.

Then it was time to get the bales moved. I was working by myself so would just bring the bales out then put them near the paddock they were going into. I had moved the bale over at the cabin field for the riding horses and as I was moving Valiant's Mark drove by. Of course he was asked to help with the rest. 

Above is Bulu and her colt's new bale and below is Valiant's new bale.

Above is the bale we put in the last shelter for Tessa, Izzy and Sheena and below are the riding horses, Rosalie in the lead followed by Jewel, Sally and Dancer.

My next job was to clean out the inside of the truck. Then Mark helped get the generator out of the back and on to the golf cart. That was put back on the front porch. The truck was taken to the gas station to fill up the tank and it only cost. $114.30. The sad thing was it wasn't even empty, it still had a quarter of a tank left before filling it.

The trailer was hooked up to the truck, pulled out enough that it could be cleaned out also. We will be all ready to go on Friday.

I met our new airbnb guest and had a nice visit with her. I explained she might see a stink bug or two and gave her our little battery operated vacuum just in case. She explained she has them at her place too and that is what she uses at home. So far though all was well so hopefully there won't be any. I left then to get cleaned up and ready for the wedding shower for Sarah and Josh. 

The food was delicious and the shower a lot of fun. Amy claimed the baby pretty quickly.

Bonnie gave them the best present. She ordered it on Amazon then went to Pet's Mart where the helpers were glad to help her find the exact box needed.

Before mom died she had Diane order the gift below and signed her name to the card. 

After the gifts were opened Sarah and Josh shared their engagement story.

It really was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.

My First Bad Review

 Our Airbnb guests in the apartment were in no hurry to leave and we have another guest coming. These guests were not at all like I expected. I saw them the first day and tried to say hello but as soon as the husband saw me, he went inside and shut the door. I thought they must be busy. The second time I saw the husband come out we were loading horses. I waved and kind of yelled, "hello, I'm Judy," but he went right back inside. I told Mark they must want privacy. Mark said he saw them but they never made eye contact. So each morning we were very quiet feeding the horses and taking the long way around the back of the barn to feed the cat.  The husband told me when he booked it that his wife was allergic to cats and wanted to make sure there would not be a cat around. I assured him that our cat was a barn cat and they would probably only see her from a distance out hunting. The tomato plants were watered. early. All 3 plants are doing well.

 We had to fix fence today as Mike was bringing 4 of the riding horses home. We were trying very hard not to make noise while working. 

Mark had to use the chain saw to cut down some saplings but by this time it was after 10:00 am. We finished the fence and only one time did I see someone looking out the window but as soon as they saw me looking up at the apartment he or she turned away. I never did meet the wife. Once the fencing was done I went to the cabin field to bring Bulu and her colt over.

The colt started out walking well but all of a sudden he decided he didn't want to go and started dragging the golf cart backward then sideways.  I was at the main drive struggling with him when David S and a friend came by on their golf cart. I told them you would probably want to go a different way as the colt was fighting every step of the way. I finally got him up to the paddock but he sure didn't want to go in. He broke one lead rope but never got away. I was able to tie him to a breeding stand then got a bucket with grain in it. Once he saw that he and Bulu followed me right into the paddock. Only then did I find out from Mike that this colt had not been trained to lead. Braelyn and Anna arrived to clean the apartment right about the time the guests left and that was around 11:30 am. I went inside with them and saw that they had put something on the futon comforter and that left a brown stain that looked like grease, so that was taken down to the house to pretreat then wash. Mark and I left at 2:30 pm to drive to Middle Grove to pick up the camper. Mike and Berlica had just finished riding Sally and Jewel. They said both horses were perfect. They were tied to the stock trailer while Mike and Berlica went to get Rosalie and Dancer. Joan helped get the camper hooked up. We took it straight to the new barn to empty the tanks. 

Once the tanks were empty we drove it over to Joan's house. I was asked to leave a review for our guests. I gave them 5 stars and wrote they were very quiet guests (since we never got to talk to them).

Later tonight they left a terrible 2 star review for staying here. They wrote in their review that the horses were so bored, they craved human companionship. They complained that this was supposed to be a working horse farm and they never saw us do any work. They also said they had 50 bugs flying around hitting them. I found 4 dead stink bugs so I think that might have been a slight exaggeration. They contacted me yesterday that the internet went out but within a minute sent me another message saying never mind it is back on. I told them it happens. They wrote in the review that the internet was spotty.  The internet went out once for a few minutes the entire 3 days they were here so I wouldn't think that would be an issue for a review but for this couple it was.  They also left me a long private message on how awful we were for not introducing them to the horses. Oh well, we completely misunderstood their reason for booking and thought we were giving them the privacy they wanted. Funny how we were SO wrong. All these years of hosting airbnb guests and this is my very first bad review. As I was writing this the foaling apartment booked again. They probably didn't read this latest review. 

Enjoyable Sunday

We picked up Rhonda for church this morning as Spark went to the jail but they only held one service so Spark made it before the first service. Caleb Plattner had the morning service on Genesis 39. Click HERE if you would like to watch that. Tim Roecker had the afternoon message on Romans 12 and 13, Click HERE to listen to that. We left right after church as we needed to quick clean up the barn before the Co-op graduation and party for Tim Ricketts. The Airbnb guests left the barn very nice so it didn't take very long. The ribs were heated up in the oven for about a half an hour before putting them in 2 crock pots and loading those in the truck with the other food for supper at Middle Grove. We had a feast then Spark and Rhonda's group came over from their campsite and enjoyed the leftovers.

There was plenty for everyone.

After dinner Diane took us on a pontoon boat ride.

We caught up with the solar coaster which Dan was driving. They fell in behind us to enjoy our wake.

We passed the only other people on the lake not from our family. They had some of their grandchildren out on their deck fishing.

It was a peaceful quiet ride with beautiful scenery. We saw the cows but not the horses.

When we got back to the dock, Rhonda was waiting with the side by side to take us on a tour of the summer and winter pastures. Today we saw the 10 acre lake, the 5 acre lake and the 60 acre lake along with a herd of horses.

Nancy thought the ride was kind of scary but was happy she got to go and pet the horses.

We made it back to the campsite just in time for some delicious s'mores. Dan was playing the guitar and singing songs with and for Nancy. 

Diane was taking a turn to hold the youngest family member.

There were 8 of us siblings camping this weekend only missing Karin, Beth and John.

Joan, Berlica and Braelyn were out on the solar coaster fishing.

Spark had his family out on the pontoon boat for a sunset cruise.

Diane took Rita and Serena for a jeep ride.

Fedi made sure the camp fire was perfect for the group.

Rhoda had her children and Sarah's girls riding Cookie on Saturday and sent back the picture below.

This afternoon Anna sent the 2 pictures below. Taegan's volleyball team won the championship this afternoon.

 Kensley's softball team also won their championship this afternoon. 

There is a big group camping out at Middle Grove tonight but not us. We get to sleep in our OWN bed and I'm really looking forward to that in a few minutes. It really was an enjoyable Sunday.

Middle Grove

 We got up early and after dressing the first thing I did was to take the golf cart over to the barn to check the fridge. It is still working. Thank goodness as the guests were coming in by noon today. I left my cell number in case they needed anything then went to check the mares. Once back in the house breakfast was cooked then we packed up the truck with 3 folding tables, 2 chairs, a cooler full of food, swim suits and extra clothes and took off for Middle Grove. When we arrived Rhonda and Spark were out on the lake rescuing the pontoon boat. The mooring rope had broken and the pontoon was quite a ways away. Rhonda used the small fishing boat to drop Spark off to get it back to the dock. The solar coaster was just going out with Joan, Diane, Rachel and David.

I parked the truck then Mark helped unload the equipment. Mike had dropped off Rosalie and Dahlia in the 76 acre pasture then this morning couldn't find them. We took the jeep into the winter pasture and somehow they had broken through the fence in the 76 acre pasture and got into the summer pasture. They were on one side of the fence and the rest of the herd was on the other side refusing to leave them. Mike had left halters on so it was easy to hook a lead rope on and lead them to the back gate. They were thrilled to join the herd.

All the rest of the horse pictures are posted on Facebook. Click HERE if you would like to see them. I took the video below. Mike brought fly spray so those that wanted to be sprayed got in line for that. Lily loves to be sprayed and once we did she wouldn't leave us alone.

We removed the halters then went back to camp. Mark had taken a canoe out to go fishing. Diane and I walked over to Spark and Rhonda's camp sites and visited with Rachel who camped over there.

I walked back and took a picture of our camp site from the other side of the lake.

Joan went out to scavenge wood for the fire and came back with a good size dead tree.

She and Mackenson unloaded that.

Fedi had the gas chain saw, he and Joan used that while Ruth gave Mackenson the electric chain saw.

Joan made a fire and soon Mark and I were cooking our lunch over that.

Joan and Fedi took the solar coaster out fishing and came back with 5 nice size bass for their dinner tonight. Below they are cleaning the fish while Spark and Rhonda were cleaning up the dock.

We were sitting around the campfire when Luke arrived and asked where he was camping. We told him, "your parents are over at Spark's camp site. They spent the night there last night." He looked confused but we kept insisting until we FINALLY realized we were not talking to Luke we were talking to LEVI! Those 2 cousins look and sound alike. We were all laughing about it when Dan and Susan arrived with Levi's camping gear. We had to tell them the story of mixing Luke and Levi up.

Mark and I were just packing up to leave. We will go back out tomorrow after church and will skip the campfire tonight but will certainly enjoy it tomorrow. As we were leaving Mike and Diane were giving jeep rides and Spark and Rhonda were giving rides in their side by side. It is such an amazing property, it doesn't look like it belongs in Illinois, more like Montana. Once home I didn't finish the chores until after 7:30 pm and we ended up eating dinner at the fashionable time of 8:00 pm. The dish has fried rice, vegetables including cabbage, carrots, onions, broccoli, celery and water chestnuts mixed with noodles and topped off with a pork egg roll served with sweet and sour sauce.

It was good but eating so late is not good for us old folks.