Puppies

 We started with our walk. When we reached Joan's house Faline the fawn came running out of the woods to join us. When we reached the dumpster the garbage was getting emptied. The drive could hardly believe his eyes. He got out of the truck and walked over to talk to us. 

Mike and Diane took the truck and trailer to Middle Grove. As they are leaving for Gulf Shores on Sunday Mike took Shadow, Roseberry and Rosalie out with them. Diane had food she wanted to bring back from the cabin there and Mike wanted to bring back Oliver.  Dancer and Sally were brought over from the cabin field and put in the middle paddock. 

Joan is finishing the clean up and needed the small Kubota but before taking it wanted to check the oil.

Mark came to help as it was hard to get the hood up. He had been out weed whacking and went back to that after checking the oil. Diane and Mike showed up with Oliver so Dancer was taken to the breeding stand. She was tied but slipped out of her halter twice, then Joan, Diane and I just held her and Mike brought Oliver up. She was not ready to stand and Oliver was not ready to breed her so they were put in stalls.  My farmhouse guests were supposed to leave by 10:00 am and the new ones check in at 3:00 pm but they weren't leaving. At 10:45 am I took the loaded golf cart down and asked them to leave. They were just young boys, maybe in their 20s and apologized but couldn't leave, they had just loaded the wash machine with all their dirty clothes and put it on the longest setting. I asked them to at least bring down all of the sheets and towels so I could get started on the laundry. They brought down EVERYTHING, every comforter, blanket, sheets and pillow cased as they said they used Everything. It had been rented for 16 days to 6 guys. I told them they would not be able to dry their clean clothes and just load them up in garbage bags and take them to the laundrymat. When I finally got in to clean, they had the dishwasher loaded and running but had used about every dish in the place and every piece of silverware. I guess they spent most of the morning collecting the dishes which had been left all over the house. There were many spills. I had to take the fridge apart to clean that there were so many spills and found used towels in the strangest places. After a solid 4 hours of cleaning I finally walked away. Thankfully the new renters didn't arrive at 3:00 pm. I was glad I had raised the cleaning fee from $90 to $125.00. I have all the sheets and bedding washed but not folded or put away, that was left in the barn draped across tables and chairs. I have a group coming at noon to the barn tomorrow so that must be done early in the morning. By the time I finished I was filthy and tired and went home to take a hot shower, had just gotten dressed when Mike and Diane sent the message they were on the way to help with Dancer and Oliver. I took Dancer out to the round pen then Mike brought Oliver and we introduced them. Dancer gave him a warning kick and he is very respectful but interested.

 Her tail was wrapped but she still wasn't ready to stand.

He would graze next to her.

We brought in a water tank and a hay feeder and soon they were standing together.

I left then as it was 5:15 and we needed to be at Eureka for Senior night for Addyson by 6:15 pm. Mark had been out harvesting wood with Mackenson most of the afternoon and had fallen asleep. I woke him up, he got his shower but was just too tired to go. I gave him the evening off and went by myself. Ben and Taunya walked Addyson on to the football field as each senior had their parents bring them as they were announced. I tried to get a video but wasn't able to.

Below is just one of the cheers her cheerleading team did tonight.

We were sitting in the stands, the evening sky was turning pink out to the East but to the North were dark clouds and lots of lightning.

At halftime I thought I'd better head home and was just walking to the car when Sarah called. One of their guardian dogs had gone into labor today and was not delivering the puppy. They were in Roanoke so I left Eureka and drove the 18 minutes to Roanoke to find that the dog had not been able to deliver as the puppy was breech and stuck. It was a big puppy but once it was safely delivered and nursing Sarah was sent a text then the dog and her pup were loaded into Mark's car and I started the 50 minute drive home. As I was going through a small town I could tell the dog was laboring again so pulled over to check. She was delivering but this time needed no help so off I went again and stopped at Sarah's house to pick up a heater and dog food. Both puppies were nursing at that time as I pulled into the drive she delivered another puppy. I was able to get the sack off of the puppies face and Rilla (the mama dog) went right to work. Mark helped me get Rilla and the 3 puppies inside our bathroom, the heater was hooked up and she had another puppy. Once all 4 puppies were nursing well I went to bed, around 11:30 pm but woke up to check her at 1:30 am and found she had FIVE puppies all nursing well. more pictures will be taken tomorrow but she now has 3 males and 2 females. Four are red and one is white and tan. Below is the only picture I took

The mama is busy chewing off the cord of the new puppy while the other two are nursing.

Introducing Merlin

Amy sent me a message around midnight last night but I didn't really look at it until this morning. I laughed then must have clicked down or something and this video popped up. I have never seen this lady and know nothing about her but watched it all the way through with tears running down my cheeks. God really does love us. The video can't be shared here but if you want to see it is on my Judith Sceggel facebook page. Then we went on the walk. It was filled with stories about the goodness of our God who even cares about switches. The creator of the universe truly cares for each of us. All my life HE has been faithful and and all my life HE has been so so good. Kind of hard to walk away from the sharing of amazing stories. After breakfast I went over to the barn to start the cleaning. The gym was organized when I remembered we have a light up in the game room that got knocked down and needed replacing. Philip was called, he brought one home from the shop. Mark brought the ladder up and together we got it replaced and working.

We worked until about 2:00 pm then quit. I drove the golf cart over to the barn to get some pictures of the motorhome, check the mileage and the generator hours. Once back to the house I posted an ad of Facebook Marketplace. 

It has 34992 miles on it and is due for an oil change.

I know that because Mark has a sticker right on the dash.

Tomorrow I will call East Peoria Tire for an oil change appointment and hopefully can get that done next week. The generator had 3.8 hours on it when we bought it but we used it for every trip all the way down and back to Florida and 2 trips to Alabama and now has 358.5

It fired right up.

Harli's colt now has a name. His new owner named him Merlin. Meet Merlin.

Another job for tomorrow and that is to get his registration paper work out with his new name. Diane sent a message through to all the walkers that Casey's has thin crust large pizza's for sale on Thursdays for just $10.00. Ruth picked up one. I was busy so Joan picked up 2 of them then shared some pieces with Mark and I. She got a supreme and a meat lovers. Both were delicious. Nice not to have to cook after a day of cleaning. I brought some books back from the barn so this evening will read while relaxing. Another Good Day.

More Rain

 On our walk this morning we could hear a mare squealing and a stallion answering, looked over and Harli was finally showing. She probably did not ovulate that 53mm follicle more than likely we have just short cycled her. Mike came over to help get her covered by Evan. 

Her colt was left in the paddock and that actually went better than moving him into the breeding stand paddock. Today was laundry day for me. Now that we have propane I could do wash here at the house. I had so many towels that needed to be washed and dried from the flood in the basement. The machines weren't working well, so once they were washed they were hung all over the deck to mostly dry in the sun then taken in and finished in the dryer. That took almost all day.  Mark was using the Kubota to fill in the holes from the new water pipes.

We also got a broken board replaced in the last paddock. Mike used the big Excavator to clear the trails of all the downed trees and also knocked down any that were hanging over the drive. He needed the big machine as some of the trees that fell over the trails were massive. 

The overflow syphon wasn't working correctly on the lake. Joan decided to check to see if there was a dead muskrat or turtle stuck in like last year. We all know the horror story of when Kitty Berchtold's father drowned while trying to clear an overflow to their pond. I took the golf cart, tied two lead ropes together, tied one to the golf cart and Joan tied the other to the canoe so she would have something to hold on to before checking out the pipe. In the picture below you can see Joan in the water feeling for the pipe.

She was able to put the canoe paddle in but nothing was stuck inside, at least near the entrance. Tomorrow she will try something different to create a syphon by blocking the exit until the pipe fills up with water.  I needed to leave a little after 5:00 pm to pick up Braelyn from volleyball practice at Farmington High School. Took her home then picked up Mark and we left for church.  Gabe had the message tonight on Job 23 and Mathew 28. If you would like to watch that click HERE. After church we joined the group at Culvers. It was raining when we left church. 

Berean Day

 Sarah sent me a text a little after 5:00 am asking for pictures of Star's filly by Valiant. She decided she wanted to start posting her for sale now that Basilea, Dahlia, Rosaleigh's filly and Tessa's filly are sold. She also had some suggestions for the website so I went right to work on that. At 6:50 am I had to quit as I needed to tease Harli. The shot did not work and Harli did not come into season. I moved her and her colt into the pasture with the other mares and foals then headed home a few minutes before our walk. I could only do one round as today is Berean day. I left around 8:00 planning on stopping at Sam's club first but what I didn't know was the exit off 474 to 150 was closed and the traffic was backed up and crawling for at least 5 miles. I made it to the Berean office before 9:00 am but not by much. There was a plenty of mail and I was thankful there were plenty of volunteers. 

Sometimes you really do need to scratch your head at the letters. Vonnie had a good group folding.

Shirl was busy filling studies, Shirley was busy applying the envelopes on the studies. Bruce and Marvin were working on the postage machine.

It is amazing how much gets done each Tuesday morning.

We have an extra job now for the jails in Jackson Michigan. Marvin was explaining what now needs to be done with each of those. 

I didn't get home until noon. We had planned on going to Middle Grove to pick up Star Temple and her filly but the ground is so saturated I really didn't want to get stuck so decided to put that off until Friday when we go to pick up Oliver. Sarah had been here working with Harli while Zion worked with her colt. That colt needs to taste everything. Today Sarah put a saddle on Harli and her colt was tasting and licking each strap. Zion is teaching him how to lead.

I think she really likes him.

This evening Penny was added to the website. She got her own page (so far I only have 3 pictures on it) but she is also on our horse page with a link to hers.  As she is expecting a foal June 24th, 2027 we need a place to post pictures of the baby and of course more pictures of Perfect Penny.  Mark was out digging after supper but was glad to quit when I asked him if he could help move a bale in for the middle paddock. Logan, Karli, their children and Luke were on a walk and were feeding grass to Rosalie and Jewel when we arrived.

I'm pretty sure Quinten was more interested in the tractor than feeding that big horse.

We had sunshine and no chance of rain today. Amazing! Hope the fields grow quickly we will need to think of mowing in 2 to 3 weeks for our second cutting.

Tessa's Filly Sold

 Ruth is now back from Niagara Falls and told us all about her trip on our walk. When we reached Joan's house she showed us all the work her children, their spouses and her grandchildren did on Saturday. It really was impressive. We had to stop 3 times for traffic on our drives. Mike had saddled both Shadow and Roseberry and took them with the 4 wheeler.

Then David stopped by with is truck and trailer hauling a lawn mower but had trash to dump. And last was Mike driving the tractor over to Joan's to pick up the remains of Spark's hot tub trailer and that was put on top of the other scrap.

They had Fedi's dump trailer and my truck loaded with scrap. Fedi went with Joan to take it to the scrap yard and they made over $700.00. I left for the bank to put the check in for Basilea but on the way home my phone rang. It was a buyer for Tessa's filly.

The man was thrilled and told me he would mail the deposit check today, then told me her name was going to be Lucy. I explained that would be ok but purebred Friesian foal's names are supposed to start with G H or I this year. He is going to think about if he wants to change the name or not. Anna went to help Mike and Diane clean their office. Braelyn was up cleaning the foaling apartment. Sarah was here working with Harli when I needed to leave. The shipper for Basilea gave me an eta of around 1:30 pm so when Joan brought the truck back that was hooked up to the stock trailer and Basilea was loaded and taken to the water tower. The trailer was 41 feet long and with the truck it would make the turn into our drive. 

Basilea was a little confused about the ramp but after thinking about it for a few minutes walked in. They have a long trip and are going to do it in 2 days. Today they hope to make it to the far East side of Ohio where they have 2 nice stalls waiting for them. There is another horse on the trailer so I am glad she wasn't traveling herself. Tomorrow is a 12 hour trip to make it to Maine. Hoerr vet clinic called to report Dr. Hoerr would be leaving shortly for our place. I took the golf cart over to get the mares in the stalls when Emma from the clinic called back to say, "just kidding" He isn't coming he got an emergency call in Tremont and then will come. Sarah was here with Berlica and Zion practicing their vaulting. They showed me what they were working on.

About an hour later, after all of my help left, The clinic called again and told me he is just leaving Tremont now. I was able to get 4 of the mares, 3 with their foals and Penny into the stalls. Mike brought Dancer over. Penny was sonagrammed first and we are thrilled to announce she is pregnant. Evan is the sire of this foal She is due June 24th, 2027. We could even see the heart beat.

Next we walked into Rosaleigh's stall. Her colt was fascinated watching what Dr. Hoerr was doing to his mother. Check out his eyes! I think he was shocked to see that long arm of Dr. Hoerr's disappear into his mother's rear end. 

Rosaleigh is also pregnant and is due April 6th, 2027. This foal was so far along we could see the ribcage on the ultrasound.

Next was Tessa's turn. She was bred to Valiant the same day Penny was bred to Evan and we could also see the heart beat of her foal.

She is due the same day as Penny June 24th, 2027

Next we had Dr. Hoerr ultrasound Harli to see where she is. She had a very big 53 cm follicle but did not have any edema or seem to be in season. I teased her to both Valiant and Evan. Dr. Hoerr gave her a shot and we will try tomorrow morning at 7:00 am. She may or may not ovulate, but at least I will know when to start counting for the next cycle. Last was Dancer. She had a clear but older CL but had some developing follicles so was given a shot to short cycle.

We will bring Oliver home on Friday or Saturday, try to breed her then haul them back to Middle Grove together. It is good to have a plan. The REALLY  big news today was the propane company came and hooked up our propane. Now I can cook upstairs and dry clothes in the dryer. Life is good. 

After supper tonight I went back to let the mares into their paddocks then over to the cabin field to check on the hay. This hay had been put up dry but then the bales were rained on by 5 inches of rain. They just didn't look like when we bought them. Mike put one in the cabin field so I checked on that one. They have a good amount eaten out of the middle. There is some stems but most were green and fine.

They will do ok on this hay for the winter but there will be more waste than usual. After the 5 inches of rain in the spring they now have been rained on by 8 inches more. Hopefully most of the rain rolled off the net wrap. Sarah and her girls were out riding Penny and Jury. I met Rachel and David on the road speaking to Spark and Rhonda. Mike was working, using the excavator to put out the small fire they started to burn some debris. 

Diane came out to visit so by the time I got back in the house over 45 minutes had flown by. It really is wonderful living out here with so many family members as neighbors. We sure do enjoy visiting. Rachel and David leave tomorrow for Ireland. 

Very Good Day

 Another storm moved in last night and dropped another inch of rain. This is getting crazy, our round pen is now under water. When we drove out of our drive I happened to look to the left and saw a tree down across the dam drive going to Rachel's house.

She and David were not going to be on time for church unless they left with a chain saw in their car. We didn't see it until we left at 9:00 am so they didn't get much notice. When we left for church it was a beautiful sunny morning but when we left church to come home we could see storm clouds in the West, right where we live and sure enough it started raining not long after we got home. We really did enjoy church though, David Beutel had the morning message, click HERE if you would like to watch that. Rick Kaisner had the afternoon message on the statement of faith. Click HERE to watch that. We took Nancy home after church and sent Karin a message that Nancy would be at our house for her tea time. I was supposed to drive our guests to the airport leaving at 2:00 pm but their plane got delayed. I drove over to visit with them. Sarah and Nolan's family were there working with Harli and her colt. Braelyn was also there. She came to clean the apartment but since the guests couldn't move out I blocked that off for the night. Braelyn will clean tomorrow morning. Early this morning I had 2 crockpots of potroast, carrots and potatoes cooking on low. Those were taken over to the barn along with the watermelon. Cate and Nicole wanted some horsemeister shirts so I gave them one for each of them and one for Cate's husband. When I picked them up at 3:30 pm to take them to the airport they were wearing their shirts. They will be advertising for us all the way to Maine. They enjoyed their stay and we enjoyed meeting them. I stopped at Aldi before going home to pick up ice cream and cookies for our dessert tonight as I didn't have time to bake. We had a good group for supper and thoroughly enjoyed visiting after supper. Nancy stayed for supper, Spark and Rhonda, Mike and Diane, Ken and Amy along with our children and grandchildren all ate and we still had leftovers. Either I cooked too much or maybe it didn't taste good but Mark thought it was delicious so I think I probably just cooked more than needed.  After supper Rhoda and Sarah took Tessa and her filly out to get some updated pictures of the filly for the website. She is 2 months and a week old now and is fantastic! 

I had a tough time deciding which ones to post on the website.  They did not get good action shots as the round pen was flooded. It started raining again and we couldn't believe how hard it was raining after supper. The ground is so soft now as it is completely saturated with well over 8 inches of rain. Our big news here was Elijah came and cemented the pipe going into the house. That will stop the rain and mud from coming into the mechanical room. A very good day!

Basilea Sold

 Wow did we ever have the storms during the night. It kept raining until around 10:00 am and by the time it stopped we had another 3.5 inches. 

We have had 7 inches of rain since Thursday! The lake is quite high and the beach has shrunk. I HAD to do laundry today as both of my Sunday shirts needed washing. A load was hauled over to the barn and started before 8:00 am. We still have no propane so all laundry is now being done there. While the machines were running the barn was given a quick going over as I thought our guests coming today to look at Basilea were going to need a place to stay. Next I ran up to the apartment and turned the lights on and the aircondition down and by that time it was time to leave for the airport. I expected two older ladies but the 2 girls that walked up to the car looked like college students. I was really surprised to find, Cate, the lady wanting to look at Basilea had 7 children. They both look a lot younger than they were. When I told them that both of the airbnb's had booked and they would have to sleep in the barn, Cate, exclaimed, "but I booked one!" I was expecting a Ben in the foaling apartment and 6 guys in the farm house so asked, "who ARE you?" She explained it was booked in her husbands name. Rhoda and Sarah were here when we got to the farm. They were busy tacking up horses. The trails were much too muddy and slippery after 7 inches of rain so they were only going to use the round pen and outdoor arena. I left for TSC to pick up a Prestige 5 way vaccine for Basilea and when I got back both Cate had already ridden Basilea then she and her friend Nicole had gone to the Warehouse for some lunch. Rhoda and Sarah had already put the horses away and had Harli and her colt out. This colt is just so adorable.

He really does enjoy attention from the kids. Zion not only is teaching him to lead, she is also asking him to bend his neck to each side when asked and he is learning to pick up his feet.

When Cate and Nichole got back from lunch they were shown how to give Basilea her vaccines and how to de-worm a horse then all of the paper work was signed and Basilea is now hers.

The shipper is picking her up Monday morning. 

Joan was having a work day at her house, all of her children, their spouses and grandchildren came today and gave her this as a gift. It was amazing how much they were able to accomplish. After that was over Bill and Bethany's children got to come do vaulting with Berlica.

Sarah had Joshua and Zion practice jumping their ponies. Joshua was riding Missy and Zion riding Penny.

Everyone is really enjoying the horses and even though we had all that rain the outdoor arena and round pen were still usable. It really warms my heart to see so many kids having so much fun here.