Shopping At the Best STORES

Well the shopping went amazing this morning. Diane's house had a big horse picture that matched perfectly in the second bedroom and Ruth had a huge mirror that will go perfect in the main bedroom. Who needs stores when there are houses with the perfect accessories.  Joan went garage saleing and found a horse picture for one of the rooms. I'm thankful for their help. Another booking came in for the apartment through airbnb and this one is for August 10th and 11th. They are flying in from California and coming for a robotics competition. On the walk this morning the walkers stopped in to see some of the improvements Diane made last night.  I left after the first round as I needed to drive to TEMCO to pick up the Berean mail.  We had a good amount of mail but plenty of volunteers today. If you would like to read about our day at the Berean office click HERE.
I made it back just a few minutes before Mercedes's got here to pick up her mare Lacy. They came pulling up in that fancy big semi truck.

The paper work was done, Lacy the Appaloosa mare was loaded then I headed in to get some work done inside.  Just a few minutes later a truck pulled up and Don Kummer, a Friesian breeder from Canton, IL stepped out. He wanted to discuss breeding one of his Friesian mares and wanted to see the boys. Don still has Buddy, a Raven son out of a saddlebred mare named Charming Robin.
This evening Mark went to work weed whacking while I moved bales then mares. Lily was teased and is still a no show. Jenis and Sangria are still in but not covered today as they were yesterday. \It was such a pleasant evening that when the work was finished we sat out on the patio until dark. Below are a few pictures taken yesterday of the trail rides.

 Below Mark is mowing the pond pasture. 

On the walk this morning mom was looking at the weeds along the fence line of the paddocks and mentioned Mark needs to weed whack that. This evening that's exactly what got weed whacked. All of the fence lines and all of the paddocks.  He was using the powerful brush cutter weed whacker, the one with the metal blade for that big job. It is over 2 horse power and does the job.  Karin always says, "Mark has the right tools for every job." and that seems to be true.
Spark and Rhonda came over tonight with SAD sad news. Molly and Gabe's dog Teddy was killed this afternoon. He saw another dog, his collar broke and he was hit by a car as he was running across the road to see the other dog.

Teddy was one of Miss Molly's puppies from her last litter, he is the 4th dog from the left , 3rd from the right in the picture above. He was so personable and so very loved. They are going to miss him terribly. Josiah, Eden, Asher and Dafna are devastated.

Lacy Pregnant

We had a fun walk but actually forgot Joan was home and started without her. We were so busy listening to Karin and mom talking about their China trip. Our group looked pretty sheepish when Joan and Heather came walking up. Joan and Heather along with their children and Bethany with her 2 spent the week down in Gulf Shores and after Karin and mom finished they shared about their fun trip on the Gulf of Mexico.  Unfortunately Joan discovered a few days into the trip that the van's license was outdated by a month. Whoops that was my fault, I never noticed it was expired and did not get the renewal form for the van. Fortunately she never got stopped so no tickets.

I had to drive in to Meisters for a meeting at 9:30 and didn't get home until close to 11:00 am. Dr. Hoerr arrived within 5 minutes of me getting there. That was just perfect timing. Lacy, Mercedes" mare was sonagrammed first and it didn't take Dr. Hoerr long to pronounce her pregnant.

I snapped that picture with my phone and sent it via text to Mercedes. They will pick her up tomorrow. Jenis was next, she had her teeth floated. All looked good with her teeth, no real sharp hooks or waves.  Karin took a group out trail riding. I got a few pictures as they were getting ready to tack up but then the rest of the time I was in the stall barn with Dr. Hoerr getting Jenis' teeth done.  

This afternoon Karin took another group out, this was a bigger group and more horses were needed. I got a few pictures but did not take the time to down load them today as I was working outside most of the day. Mark came home early to get the pond pasture mowed.  Mom invited Mark and I over for dinner tonight, Diane joined us for dessert. Afterwards we went to Diane's house to go shopping for  the barn apartment. She had a picture she thought would look perfect, a down comforter for one of the beds and an all white quilt that looks lovely in the bedroom.  We replaced a few light bulbs, hung up the picture and a mirror then went shopping at Dollar General for fly swatters and a table cloth.  Tomorrow I'll get updated pictures. I still need a mirror above the dresser in the bedroom and a nice big horse picture for the living room wall. We will spread the word to all the garage salers in the family to keep their eye open for those items. 

Introducing Genesis

Beth sent a text early this morning that Coke was pacing in the stall and by 10:30 am her water broke and active labor started. I was in church so didn't get the message until lunch.  The hooves presented correctly and so did her head but this was Coke's first foal and she wasn't making any progress on getting the head out. Tom, one of the Goose Ranch campers knew what to do and was put to work assisting Coke. As soon as church was over Sarah and I drove to Canton to the Goose Ranch to check out Coke and her baby girl.

The filly was nursing well. Coke is doing a lot of squealing when the filly latches on but is standing still allowing her to nurse.  She is such a cutie. Her cord was iodined and the girls told what to watch for then I left for home.

 Beth sent the picture below after I left. It looks like Coke is telling the world about her baby. 

Well maybe not the world but Beth reported over 200 campers came through to meet the new baby. Valiant is her sire so this filly will be registered with Friesian Heritage Horse as 50 % Friesian 50
% Appaloosa. She shows some signs of roaning so will probably end up with a blanket. 

Phil, Anna, Braelyn, Taegan, Kensley, Nolan, Sarah and Zion came for dinner tonight.  After dinner we all ended up at the playground where a big group came for volleyball.  

There were at least 3 teams and all had a good time. 

 Jesse Stickling and Cortney arrived to ride Sally and Bunni on the death trails. 

The kids went swimming first then came up to play in the sand by the volleyball court then on the playground equipment.

It was a very pleasant evening with the weather a perfect temperature, not too hot and not too cold.

Maybe Coke Tonight

We had a cool night last night which meant great sleeping weather. Mark went out early to mow. All the horses were locked off the pastures. Below he is heading into Valiant's pasture.

Anna dropped off the girls today so she could go garage saleing for her and ME as Hanna City we having their garage sales today. The girls went right to work coloring.

I've been looking for 4 matching kitchen chairs for the apartment table and hoped to find them at a garage sale but Anna had no luck today. Sarah meanwhile struck gold buying the sand and water table below.  The brown section can be filled with water or sand and the top cover keeps the sand or water clean.

 Above is with the cover on and below is once the cover is removed.

Anna spent all of her money but $1.00 buying Kensley school clothes and an entire set of books for Braelyn. She also got toys with her treasures which the girls were thrilled with. Just can't beat garage sales for treasures. Sarah brought Zion over and 1 puppy that is leaving for her new home today.   Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley had a ball with the puppy.

Karin arrived to get her horse fix and helped get Zalena covered by Evan then Star teased. Star is now out. Still no sign of Jenis, Sangria or Lily coming into season. Those three were also teased.  When we got back from the horse work Anna was back from garage saleing and was playing with the puppy. 

Kensley and Taegan had trike races.

Zion went over to taste the mulch Mark has been putting down. 

 When we told her to stop, she looked over at us as if to say, "I can eat it if I want to."

 Rhoda distracted her by letting her sit on Emma. 

Rhoda came today also. For lunch we decided to go to the Warehouse in Hanna City and were joined by Karin and mom.  We had such a good time hearing all about their China trip.

A nice email came today from Brandee the lady that bought Ribbon's last colt she named Titan. She is training him to bow and he is so good at it she doesn't even need a halter on him.

Of course he HAS to eat while he is down here, he is after all Ribbon's son!

Beth called today to tell me Shaeya saw milk dripping from Coke's udder. They sent me this short video by text.

By looking at this I'm pretty sure Coke will deliver within 24 hours.  Shaeya has her birthing supplies all out at the stall and they are ready to help Coke if needed. Beth sent the 2 pictures below by text. Looks to me like they are going to have a good old fashioned birthing party for Coke. 

Hope all goes well for them, these kids are very excited and everyone at the Giant Goose Ranch has been waiting for this foal. 

Home From China

Karin and mom will be pulling in around 10:00 pm but Karin sent a text as soon as they got in the states. They left Beijing at 5:00 pm on Friday night and arrived at the Detroit airport at 5:00 pm Friday night. Mom is exhausted from all that warp speed.  Karin said she slept 5-6 hours on the plane. Mom said she slept but doesn't know how much. Hopefully they have an uneventful last connection and can crash soon.
Right after the walk the mares were teased. Zalena is still in but I needed to move her out of the breeding shed into the paddock next to Evan's as I needed the breeding shed paddock for Star's colt. Thankfully Star is still in and showing. She was covered today by Valiant.  Rebecca and Javan arrived to visit Claire. Rosalie and Claire were taken to the outdoor arena. It was nice and cool today and both had a ball galloping around.

IF you would like to see the rest of her pictures taken today click HERE.  I had to run to Berean this morning to pick up Bibles studies for someone in Roanoke so went to Sam's first. I bought myself  a gift. Something I've wanted but would never spend the money on. Sam's had restaurant quality frying pans, HUGE ones for $26.00. I just couldn't resist. This will be packed in the camper for our Sceggel vacation in August. It will help so much to have a big pan when cooking for 23 people. I dropped off 5000 envelopes at Berean and got the studies then drove to Meisters to give them to Crystal to give to her mother who will give them to the lady in Roanoke.

This afternoon was spent doing laundry while listening to 2017 Roanoke VBS. I heard 4 of the 5 and highly recommend them. They are posted on AC Central. That is such an amazing resource. 

Mark got home early from work and graded the driveways while supper was cooking.

After supper we took the grader off the tractor and put on the mower. That sounds like such an easy thing to do but it isn't. It takes two of us and a lot of muscle. Mark mowed around the fields first then took it over to Joan's to mow the field by her garden. We had another good day. Tomorrow are the Hanna City garage sales which I hope to hit early then will take Rosalie and Claire back out to Middle Grove to join Ayanna and her colt now named Evan's Sir Lancelot by his owner.  I also got a name for Star's colt today from his owner. They want him registered as Ima Valiant Zephyr .

Tornado Warning for Hanna City

Well mom did not get carried up to the top of the Great Wall of China, she made it all by herself with her trusty walking stick.  Karin on the other hand saw a man  trying to get his friend up in a wheel chair, walked over and lifted the front of the wheel chair getting it all the way up.  Once up they found someone to snap their picture of Karin's phone and Karin was able to text it to me.

This was on mom's bucket list that she can now scratch off as finished. They took a rickshaw ride to the Olympic park and a man walked up to Karin and asked her, "do you remember me?" Karin was confused and honestly could not remember where she had seen him. He replied, "you helped me get the wheel chair up to the top of the wall!" That was pretty embarrassing but to her benefit she was more concerned with getting the wheel chair to the top without dumping the rider.  They were taken back to the hotel around 4:00 pm. Tomorrow they leave for home. They must take a taxi from the hotel to the airport around noon. Their flight leaves Beijing at 5:00 pm and they fly into Detroit at 7:00 pm. That far and only two hours! They will get to Peoria around 10:00 pm Friday night.  

We had a hot morning for our walk and the chores here. The mares were teased and again the only mares showing are Star and Zalena. Star cannot be covered now until Friday as Valiant is needed for an outside mare this afternoon. Today was de-worming day for the mares here. Jenis, Sangria and Lily were all de-wormed with Quest Plus as non of them are pregnant.  Star, Rosalie, Madiera, Zalena and Roxanne were all give Strongid.  Rebecca and her husband arrived with a big blue ball to introduce to Rosalie and Claire. We took it over to Mike and Diane's to use their air compressor to fill it up.  I grabbed the camera on the way back. Rebecca already had Rosalie and Claire in the round pen and Rosalie was already in the process of rolling in the very very wet sand when I got there. We had over an inch of rain last night.

Rosalie was at first scared then curious. 

 Claire was afraid too at first. 

 Since Rosalie was accepting it, she got brave and touched it. 

 All was well until she accidentally bumped it and it went rolling. Claire took off but Rosalie followed it. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures with the big blue ball click HERE. 

I had to go in to Meister's today for work. On the way home the phone started going off with a tornado warning in Hanna City. Of course as soon as I got home instead of taking cover like the phone was saying I had to go out to the field to look for the tornado. The clouds were thick and for sure rotation. 

 Below the smaller cloud coming off the left hand side was rotating sideways. 

 I zoomed in for a better picture. 

I heard voices and saw the apartment guests were back so took the golf cart over to talk to them.  The kids were having a ball feeding grass to the horses. I took the man over to mom's to show him how to get into her basement if the weather got worse.  While we were outside talking the wind kicked up blowing cold air which was bringing in the lightning, thunder and rain.  I headed back to the house and watched the two geese families taking their goslings quickly to the pond. There are 2 pair each with 4 goslings.  

The rain was pouring down but this storm didn't last long only dropping about a 10th of an inch.  The owner of Duchess brought her over around 4:00 pm. Valiant kind of had a tough time with slipping in the mud but got the job done.  Zalena was teased and covered by Evan. Mark had to work late tonight getting home around 6:45 pm.  We are having an easy evening, no working outside tonight.  

The Forbidden City

Karin called this morning with an update on their Wednesday's adventures. It has rained two days before so Beijing's air seemed clean.  Their first stop was Tienanmen Square. Of course the massacre was not spoken off. 

From there they walked across the road to the Forbidden City. Which is called that because no commoners were allowed in.

The eunuchs and concubines were housed in the back of the city along with the Empress.  The emperor was never allowed to spend the night with his empress or any concubines as he was to have his mind on the state of the country. He was allowed to choose a concubine and either 1 or 2 hours to spend with her.  The  emperor was so afraid of someone coming in to assassinate him that if he wanted a concubine, the eunuchs would come to the lady, strip her naked, roll her in a rug and carry her to his palace, then unroll her, light the incense that would burn for the allotted time of either 1 or 2 hours then once the time was up, come back, roll her back up into the carpet and carry her back.  The eunuchs were very rich as the concubines would bribe them to choose her. Which ever wife OR concubine that would have the first son was then chosen as empress.

Another interesting fact was when the emperor knew he was going to die his favorite concubines were chosen to go with him to the afterlife. A eunuch would take her a white scarf and help her hang herself.  From their they visited the Summer Palace with it's massive garden.

This was a summer resort for royal family members. The Mongolians conquered the city and the summer palace was built to house the Mongolian emperor. He would spend 6 months a year in the city. They had a lot of walking and were pretty tired when they got back to the hotel. Karin and mom were running out of money by this time so Karin tried her special debit card, the one that would not charge them for taking money out any where in the world but the pin number was wrong. She tried another credit card but that wouldn't work. She walked down to the bank to try to get some money but didn't have her passport on her so they wouldn't give her any. She got back to the hotel and mom said, "too bad you can't call Diane, she could get you money and solved our problem"  When Diane heard this she thought, "wow I must be some kind of miracle worker, able to change money into yuan.!"  Karin was able to get on line and found out she could change the pin number on the card with no charges, did that and got YUAN, enough to order room service and enough for the next few days. Of course when Diane was talking to mom and Karin and hearing the story of no money for room service she ask "why didn't you just charge it to your room?"  Neither Karin or mom would have thought about that, we were always taught if you don't have the money don't buy it!
My day here on the farm started early.  Star is now showing big but can't be covered as an outside mare was coming in to for Valiant and Valiant is the stallion we want for Star.  Madiera was teased, she is now out. Zalena was teased and she was in and covered by Evan.  No sign of Lily, Sangria or Jenis showing.  Brook and Anna brought Duchess over around 11:00 am. According to their vet, she will be ready to ovulate on Thursday but when she was tied and Valiant brought over, she did not show at all and kicked out at him. Today they twitched her and he got the job done very quickly. She showed as he was mounting.  I thought all was well and I would be able to cover Star tomorrow except they called right back and told me their vet thinks we should cover her again tomorrow night. I sure hope Star will still be in on Friday but after checking her history I don't think she will.  After talking it over with Diane we decided starting next year we are charging $1200.00 for the stud fees for Valiant and Evan. Too many times we end up putting off breeding our own mares to satisfy a customer and it just isn't worth the time and effort at our current price.  Rebecca and her husband came this morning to visit Claire, Rosalie's filly.

Today went very well. Rebecca had Claire eating grain out of a bucket she was holding. Claire was haltered, then taken to the outdoor arena so she could see her movement. She didn't show off much but it was still terribly hot. She let them graze a bit then hosed both of them off. Claire even stood for fly spraying.  This filly is smart!
Mark had a late estimate so just took church clothes with him. After his last one he stopped at McDonalds got a snack and changed then went to church. Diane drove from here tonight taking Ruth and me.