Faith's Graduation

 We were up and working early this morning as at 8:00 am I had an appointment with my airbnb guests. They wanted to meet all of the horses and feed them carrots and that's exactly what we did. 

The horses loved the attention and every horse came up for the treat except Cookie. She wanted to but each time she got close another mare would get closer and Cookie backed off. We used the golf cart for the next trip going over to Joan's house to see the baby raccoons, turtle eggs, kittens and of course the bees. 

I took them back to the apartment as I was needed at mom's this morning and had laundry to start.  Mom and Karin didn't have a very good night and when I arrived were just eating breakfast.  After Karin left and mom was settled on the recliner I started hearing something knocking on the deck door. It was a red winged blackbird. He wanted inside but I wouldn't open the door.

Below he is trying to open the door.

The red bellied wood pecker was watching him try to get inside.

Today was Faith's graduation from high school. Joan was going to pick mom up at 12:45 so we picked out a nice outfit for mom and got changed and ready to go. Ruth arrived at 12:30 pm which gave me time to run to the apartment and get that ready for the guests coming in for Willow's wedding this afternoon. They arrived just as I finished. I left then for Faith's graduation.

Below they are moving their tassels.

Below is a picture of Faith  talking with her niece Aubrey.

Rodney, Aubry and Ava were getting ready to leave so got a picture of them before they took off.

I wanted a picture of Faith with mom next.

I wanted one with Faith, her sisters and mom but Berlica was not in sight, I think she had gone to help someone else. Hannah, Sarah and Bethany were still in the area so just got the 4 girls and mom.

I gave Joan my car and took mom home in the wheel chair van. Only after getting in did I notice the van was out of gas. We stopped at the station on Airport road to fill it up. This is the 3rd time I've had to fill it. We have been busy going to plays, concerts, church, Berean and now graduations.

On the way home I got a message that Monica and Sandy were coming out to look at Lily's colt.

Once mom was back home and the van backed into the garage I walked home, changed then brought Lily and her colt into a stall and turned on the fan. It was really hot outside, the stall felt nice and cool. I brought a wheelbarrow full of hay in for them and filled a water bucket then went down to the house. I had just sat down to rest when Mark called to let me know that Monica and Sandy had arrived.

After playing with him in the stall we took them out to the outdoor arena.

Monica gave him his very first leading lesson. He didn't do too badly.

The barn is busy tonight with a graduation party. The people just sent a text that they are having an amazing time. A review came in from the person that rented it last week for their son's graduation party It was another 5 star review: The host was incredibly helpful and accommodating. The property is a perfect space for a gathering, with lots of fun provided for everyone.

Hopefully some pictures come soon of Willow's wedding at the Uplands.

Horizons of Gold

 I took 2 Aleve last night before going to bed thinking this way I could have a good nights sleep and maybe wake up pain free. That didn't happen. The pills made me nauseous and I ended up on the recliner for a couple hours fighting that sick feeling. Morning came very early. Thankfully feeling better. I took the laundry basket over to the barn so after the walk could collect all the food in the fridge. We have someone coming tonight to set up for their graduation party tomorrow in the barn and they need the fridge. It was very foggy on the walk. In the picture below there is a geese family about in the middle of the lake. I know it looks like just a square of gray.

See those two white dots. Those are the parents and in-between are 4 goslings. Ruth is camping at Middle Grove and Joan was gone this morning so most of the time it was just Diane and I. Mark joined in for a short bit. After the walk I noticed the half of orange on the table on the front porch was out of grape jelly. I put another spoonful in and within minutes had the Baltimore Oriole was back drinking up the grape jelly.

Two campers were going out today and as Joan was gone I met each couple taking one. The first sent a text they would be here in 5 minutes. I jumped on the golf cart and made it over before they arrived. Below they are heading out. This family had been tent camping but never a camper. They were friends of Phil and Anna and happy to try out camping in luxury. 

The next couple arrived just a few minutes later. They were first time campers so we spent a while going over everything before hooking it up.

Both couples were also really pleased with the camper they chose to rent.

Lily and her colt were brought into the stall. The colt was perfect for haltering. He just stood quietly until the halter was latched. They were taken out to the round pen to graze on some of that high grass and clover.

Mark was busy weed whacking the outdoor arena while I was putting out the horses.

He moved over to the round pen to get that next.

I left the horses there while I went to change the laundry machines and do a little clean up. After about an hour came back to take the colt's halter off and put them back in the paddocks.

Mark and I left with mom and Karin at 1:00 pm to go to Calvary Baptist to watch the Co-Op musical  Horizons of Gold. This was set in the dust bowl years of Kansas and was based on the book of Ruth. Below are the cast of characters.

Faith played the character of Naomi ( Margaret Thomas) and had the entire front row sobbing when she lost her husband and 2 sons. The first act was such a tear jerker although anyone who knows the story of Ruth should have prepared for that. Ivan was one of Faith's sons then when he got married and died then became a part the comedy trio that worked for Boaz and those 3 boys had us belly laughing. Ivan was perfect for his part. As this is a copyright play no pictures or videos could be taken but below is Faith's shadow during one of her scenes.

Berlica was running the lights for this musical.

Rebekah brought 4 of her 5 children just leaving Walter home with a sitter.

The actors and actresses sang beautifully and the play was so well done. We all really enjoyed the entire performance. They have one more performance tonight at 7:00 pm. 

 

ThankYou Lunch

 As today was the thank you lunch for Wayne and Lukie. I went over to the barn at 6:30 to start work. Mark also came to take down the chairs needed. In the hour I had before our walk I got the food going and the tables set. When Ruth and Diane showed up for the walk I told Ruth I probably needed some of her fairy lights for the centerpieces.  Diane said, "NO no no! Fairy lights are for Christmas you need flowers for spring," and she just happened to have lots of beautiful Iris' blooming. When we got to Joan's house she came out with a bucket to show us.

Yesterday she was out mowing and saw a big mama painted turtle laying eggs in the volleyball court. As those eggs would not survive there Joan dug them up and will send them to Bethany in Bluffton to hatch out. We have an abundance of painted turtles here at the lake. We stopped in at the barn to grab some vases then straight over to Diane's to cut some flowers. Mark suggested adding a fern to each vase and that was the perfect touch.

After going back to the barn to put the vases on the tables we finished our walk. When we arrived to our place Lily's colt was taking a nap in the hay while Cookie watched over him.

The guests for the luncheon started arriving just before 11:00 am. This was a special thank you to Wayne and Lukie for lending Berean their office all these years. Spark was the MC and did a good job of thanking them. We also bought them Hibiscus a tree to take home. The lunch was well attended. We had 28 places set and 26 were used. We also had plenty of help. Amy drove in from Tremont to help, Ruth, Faith and Joan came to help. Then when each carload arrived the women went right to work getting everything ready to serve. They also brought amazing delicious dishes of food. When it was time to eat Spark and Rhonda helped with the serving. We didn't just have a lunch, we had a FEAST!

Below everyone was laughing as Dave was posing for a picture.

Below are the special couple. They really are and have been amazing to the Berean Ministry.

Check out the desserts! These women are fantastic bakers.

After the meal Lukie wanted to see the horses. We were going to take 2 golf carts but when I went out the one Mark had been driving had a flat and mine was no where to be seen. Mark and I left to go find the second golf cart. I found it on the North side of the stall barn so brought that over for the tour. Rhonda took the picture below.

When we got back to the barn the men were all talking in a circle while the women were at the other end visiting.

The second group that wanted a tour was Bonnie, Jeanette and Sharon. By this time it was sprinkling out but they still wanted to go. We stopped at Joan's and she showed them the turtle eggs.

Everyone was gone by 2:30 pm. Mark wanted help with the golf cart so I walked up to the barn. He was checking the flat tire and found 4 holes. He thinks he went to close to the fenceline and ran over thorns from the locust trees. We decided to take the tire off the old golf cart and put it on the blue one.

The old golf car was already up on the stands as Mark is working on the steering problem with it so it was easy to get the tire off.

It is a good tire hardly used at all and was stored in the barn so no dry rot from the sun.

After getting that on Mark wanted my help with the steering. He crawled under the golf cart and had me move the steering wheel from the left to the right and back.

He found the problem now just has to figure out how to fix it. He had all 3 golf carts at his garage today.

I left with the blue one to start teasing mares. Today it has been 18 days since Lily and Rosalie were covered and both said no. That doesn't mean they are pregnant, just means they are not yet coming in. Rosaleigh was teased and she is now out of season. Since all 3 of the mares in that paddock are out they could go out in the field. They were so excited to be turned out they didn't know whether to graze of run and buck.

They finally settled down to eat.

Mike had a couple guest come to ride so took Dancer, Mika and Sally over to the cabin to tack up.

They had a good ride and did lots of galloping. Dancer is going to end up the perfect trail horse. We had a wonderful day.