The Glad Game

 I was ready to leave for Goodfield by 7:10 am and arrived at 7:50. The tables and chairs were unloaded first then all of the supplies. Brian helped me get the popcorn machine over to the table.

I put the first batch of popcorn, oil and salt in the kettle turned everything on then waited. The lights came on, the warmer on the bottom came on, but the kettle did not heat up. I tried a few different options but nothing I tried worked. What a bummer. Nolan carried it back to the car and helped load up everything and I was on my home by 9: 15 but only after stopping at Sarah and Nolan's booth to buy some wash rags from Zion, scrunchies from Elisabet, a cake pop and another scrunchie from Lilly. Next stop was to check out Rebekah and Brian's booth. Jordan was selling rabbits and cages while Rilley and Blair were selling home made chapstick, soap, and burn lotion. Only after driving away did I realized I had walked off without paying Zion for her wash rags. Tomorrow I'll for sure have to pay her for those. I still can't figure out how that happened. I was busy paying for the other girls things and was holding the washrags. She worked very hard on those so I think I'll need to pay double. I was just glad they didn't call me a shoplifter.  I stopped at Sam's club on the way home to pick up some food for tomorrow's meal at the barn and made it home by 10:30 am. After watching the PollyAnna play the co-op put on I knew I needed to play the game and find something I was glad about the popcorn machine breaking and I did. I was glad I made it home in time to help move the airbnb guests out of the barn before the next group arrived. They would not have been out in time. I used Mark's Prius to load everything into that car and bring them over. The foaling apartment had a hole in the door where the new lock will go and that won't be installed until it arrives on Monday so blocked it off for today and tomorrow. I explained to the renters there was no hurry to leave. We had rented the apartment to 3 people last night but this morning when I picked them up there were 5. The two girls were horse lovers so I introduced them to Evan first. He loves attention and especially when they bring fresh picked grass. 

I took these 2 and the taller one's mother. (she was the lady that came to help the actual renter) the yearlings. They liked them but Rosalie was a favorite. Below Rosalie is thoroughly enjoying the attention.

They were taken back to the apartment and I ran over to the barn to get all the laundry and get that started here at the house. I happened to look over at the barn and saw what I thought was Cookie out until I realized, "That's NOT Cookie!" Ruth had ridden her Arabian mare Grace over.

Grace will spend the night here. Ruth also left her saddle and bridle so maybe tomorrow someone can take her on a trail ride. Evan thought she was beautiful.

I needed to be at mom's by 5:00 and when I arrived Faith was busy making spaghetti for supper tonight. It was good! Andrew was having his bachelor party tonight here at the barn. Just after supper, while I was busy cutting up vegetables for tomorrow's meal, Mark arrived to ask me to go back to the foaling apartment explaining there were a whole lot of kids all by the apartment and he was afraid they would not follow the rules and go into a paddock. There really were a lot of them, both boys and girls. I told them the rules but really couldn't understand why they were all here. The airbnb renter had a car problem and I think the entire home schooling group from Springfield came here to wait with her until she could get her car towed which had died in Washington, IL. I had explained to them that there was going to be some shooting in the field. Not only did the shooting go on but I think a few of the guys here for the bachelor party were related to Spark. There were some BOMBS going off. After the first mom and I jumped, after the second I went to the door to see if the barn was still standing. A few more were set off but all was fine. This gives our neighborhood something to talk about. Hmmm just what kind of family is Faith marrying into? I am glad they are all having a good time and I'm glad I could help out a family and really glad that the apartment was left in good shape. Mark ordered a new toggle switch for the camper and a new door lock and handle. Now we just need to get the popcorn machine fixed.

Problems Problems Problems

 Lots of problems today and only one of them was able to be solved. The others, we at 9:00pm, were still working on. Ruth and I walked this morning. Joan had co-op and Diane is flying home from Gulf Shores today. The tiny white flowers on these bushes have a very sweet smell. These bushes are all over our area.

I left right after breakfast for Sam's club to buy a 50 pound bag of popcorn, some popcorn salt and the bags we need to pass out the popcorn. Only to find they don't have it in stock anymore. I was still glad I went as the meat I'm going to serve at family night was on sale and I bought what was needed saving at least $30.00. From there I drove to GFS and they had exactly what was needed. That was our easy problem to solve today.  The next one wasn't terrible but we did not get it fixed today. We were going to move the last two campers over to Joan's house. I backed the truck up to the first one but the electric jack would not work. I thought the battery was probably dead, Mark drove the golf cart over to mom's to borrow her charger and hooked that up but nope it wasn't the battery. The jack itself is not working.

Mark decide to leave it for today and work on that tomorrow.

Because this camper is right in from of the other one we couldn't move either of them. Instead Mark helped me get the popcorn machine out of the foaling apartment and into his Tesla. I also packed a folding table, 2 chairs, the popcorn, oil, salt, bags and all the other supplies needed plus made two signs for free popcorn. Ruth rented a motel room for tonight that she was not able to use but since it was non refundable she needed to drive there, check in and get the key. She gave the key to Sarah's family. I was with mom when the foaling apartment booked. Mark came and stayed with mom while I ran over to clean up any mess we made while taking out the popcorn machine. After Ruth got back the two mares with foals were brought inside, grained and each foal got haltered, tied, and hooves picked up. We left around 6:30 pm, drove in to Bartonville to the new Wendy's to use the gift card for our supper. We both bought cobb salads. Gils has a much bigger cobb salad that we can split and that tastes so much better with actually more food for less money. We still have $10.99 left on the gift card. When we got back the 3rd problem arrived. Our guests were trying to lock the foaling apartment door and it would not lock. We worked on that and even found the instructions from when we bought it but nothing worked. Mark finally went over to the barn, took the lock off the master bedroom there and brought it back only to find the handles had been switched. I finally just took our guests over to the barn. They were VERY happy to move over there. They agreed to move out by 11:00 am as that is when Jack's birthday party starts. By now it is almost 10:00 pm. I'm leaving early for the home school resource in Goodfield tomorrow so Mark will get to fix those last 2 problems by himself. He has been watching youtube videos and thinks he has figured out the door lock. Unfortunately he will need to take the electric jack apart to figure out why that isn't working.