Mark's Birthday

 Today is Mark's 76th birthday so as soon as the coffee was done I took a cup down to him. He was already at work in his office in the basement. It was really foggy this morning so much so that we couldn't see our neighbors across the lake. Below is proof.

All of us were here for the walk and we had a good visit. Below Mike is showing Joan the problem with the excavator. He and Spark needed to remove the track to get to the problem. I believe the problem is now fixed and now that 4000 pound track needs to be put back on.

When we turned up the barn drive we saw Berlica coming down on Penny.

A bit later Sarah arrived with Zion, Eden and River. Berlica and Zion took Sally and Penny on the entire 'death' trail. When they came back River rode double with Berlica on Sally while Eden rode Penny for the small loop.

I was cleaning the game room upstairs when I realized the batting machine was not working correctly. The tire inside the machine was flat and would not hold air. Thankfully the last time this happened bought a second tire and tube and it was ready to go. We were able to fix it within a half an hour.

Once that was fixed Mark went right home and ordered 2 more tubes. It really pays to have it ready if we have to change it out quickly. The next big job of the day was to install the cage over the internet stuff. We took a picture of it before we started working to make sure we could put it back together once inside the cage. This job was much more complicated and ended up taking up a couple of hours be we got it done. 

We orginally planned to go to Texas Roadhouse for Mark's birthday dinner but both of us were tired from working out in the heat. We decided to just eat left over hamburgers with one of those vine ripened tomatoes for our supper. After supper we had just enough time to take showers and head to Jacob's park in Farmington to watch Kensley play in the championship game against Canton. We drove through the rain all the way there.  Farmington's 5th grade softball team has been incredible this year and after tonight they finished the season at 19 won and 0 lost. Kensley was the pitcher tonight and we were all impressed. Most innings were 3 batters up and 3 batters striking out. Kensley had the only home run of the night. She slammed it almost out of the park. The video below shows her pitching and at the end her home run.

Their team won 2 medals tonight, the tournament champions and the season champions. 

The game started in the rain but the rain blew over before the game finished. The clouds on the way home were interesting.

Mark wants a rain check tomorrow for his birthday dinner.  I was able to finish typing the second week of our stay at Pleasant Home in June of 1989 but when I thought I posted it, it disappeared. I guess I'll have to do that week over again. I've searched for it but nothing shows up. Guess I must have deleted it by accident. 

Mom WON Again

 Diane and Mike left early this morning to pick up a lift for his new barn. While I was waiting for Ruth to arrive I was marveling at the bird sounds this morning from the annoying ratatatat of the wood pecker  the mournful sound of the dove and the joyful sounds of the songbirds the woods were full of the sounds of God's amazing creation. 

Ruth arrived with her German Shepherd. This is a very well behaved dog but when we turned to go to Joan's both of the fawns were in the front yard. Joan had to call for Berlica to quick call them away while Ruth held the dog. We didn't want them to run as it would be too tempting for the dog to chase. The cat on the other hand believes these deer belong to him. He rubs against them, snuggles down with them even spending the nights with them. The fawns love him right back and give that cat so much attention, so much so Joan was worried about them getting a hairball.

We passed the excavator on our way to the horse. Mike and Spark worked hard on that yesterday but were not able to fix it with the track on so had to take it off. Hopefully it can be fixed and the track put back on soon.

Berlica took Penny out for a ride early this morning before it became too hot. She had just come back as I was cleaning stalls.

Rhoda and Sarah both arrived today to help organize this house. We had many duplicates as mom had a big supply of just about everything. Mark got all of the buildings here and at the farm sprayed with Home Defense to try to keep spiders and ants from coming in to the houses and barns. The girls know how to work together and they got done in record time then went over to the barn to meet Berlica who wanted to try Jewel for vaulting. They used the beginner surcingle on her and that worked well.

Zion was a little unsure to try the double at a walk but was successful at the stand.

We have many grand daughters and great nieces that are anxious to start vaulting so it will be easy to put together a fun team as long as Jewel works out. She is such a kind mare I think it will.

Once they finished they all came swimming to cool off. Rhonda found the journal I wrote when we stayed at Pleasant Home while mom and dad took Ruth, Joan, Dan and Karin on a trip to Alaska for 6 weeks. I started reading it and just had to laugh. My hand writing was SO bad that I decided to type it up. This afternoon I was able to finish just the first week. If you would like to read how crazy our life was back then click HERE but if that doesn't work, look over to the right and under pages click on the link that says Our 6 Week 'Vacation' at Pleasant Home

  Joan came in with a gift of 4 ripe or almost ripe tomatoes from mom's plants. 

MOM beat me again and she isn't even alive to gloat. Each year we plant tomatoes and each year it is a race to see whose ripen first. She won again.  I want people to feel free to help themselves if they need some. My plants are also doing well. No ripe ones yet but they will be soon with all this hot weather. Later I went over to pull Tessa out to tease but noticed Penny was in season big time. Mike was over and helped get her covered by Evan.

We have no history on her as we bought her from an auction but she stood well so probably has been bred before. Rhonda went shopping today and she and Spark brought over more items for the farm house. Below are her unique finds just for this house from her shopping today.

The pictures were all hung. Mark is working on the internet cage but will need some help to install it. He is hoping to get Phil for a few minutes soon. I need to find one more comfortable chair for the rec room then we are good to post it on airbnb. When I got back to the house Braelyn, Taegan and Berlica were enjoying the refreshing water of the lake.

I was tempted but wanted to finish typing week one of the 1989 diary.

It IS Settled

 I was going to bring the mares in before the walk but time got away from me and I was only able to get just Tessa and her filly into the stall and even then Ruth and Diane were waiting.  Cookie was all the way across the pond.  We had a good walk although Rizzy found Joan's ducks and chased them down to the water. At least she came when I whistled. The ducks were fine. Ever since Rizzy is here we have no geese pooping all over the lawn next to the beach. We also don't see many rabbits. She is quick to chase them off. We have Rizzy this week while David and Stephanie's family are in Washington DC. Diane came over to the farm house right after the walk and set up the new TV there.  It is almost ready to post. Mike and Spark were hard at work on the excavator. That machine is huge and by the time they quit they were drenched in sweat.

 I worked over at the barn finishing the gym and the upstairs. Sarah brought the girls out and they worked for a while to get the old driving cart out. Penny was trained to drive. The cart needs the tires repaired but I think they are just bicycle tires so it shouldn't be too hard.  The girls had fun with it as it was.

Zion went to Penny's paddock to bring her over to the barn.

She had to figure out how to bridle her by herself and DID!

Nice to have such a well behaved pony.

Once Penny was tacked up Zion decided to ask her to step up onto the pedestal.

Five year old River really wanted to learn how to ride Penny and today she learned how to keep Penny on the rail, stop her and ask her to go forward.

Once the barn was finished I was so hot I got my suit on and joined Diane and Rhonda in the lake. We floated for what seemed like hours and I did cool down. The water is refreshing.  Yesterday all the towels that had been left over the weekend were washed and taken downstairs. If you lost your towel feel free to check out these, just maybe one of them is yours.

This afternoon Berlica took two of Tara's girls on a trail ride. One rode Jewel and one rode Rosalie. Berlica rode Sally and Zion rode Penny.

While they were riding Tessa's filly was haltered, tied and her leg given a good scrubbing. Today she stood well and let me hold her leg while cleaning it out. She will heal but I sure don't want it to get infected. I used a betadine scrub to clean it. She stood very well.

She wasn't happy when I took her mom into the other stall but Tessa was fine as she was given grain. After the stall was cleaned Tessa was put back in the stall with fresh water and more hay. We left for church at 6:05 pm. Mike Kaisner had the message tonight. We have a big group leaving Saturday morning at 2:00 am for Jamaica. Psalm 100 is the chapter they will be focusing on while there so Mike started with that. If interested in watching that message click HERE. Right after church we left so I could get Tessa and her filly back outside then came back to OUR house (it is settled, we are buying it) but technically until the closing it is still mom's. We had a late supper of left over hamburgers from the Sunday meal. They were still delicious! Airbnb has decided to change it's policy on hosts and guests. As of September 1st all fees will now be taken directly from the hosts.  It comes down to they will no longer be showing THEIR fee they charge the guests. They want the guests to believe the HOSTS receive all money paid. In the past aibnb would take 3% from the host and charge each guest around 15%. Instead they will just take 15.5% from the host. It is very deceptive and was done just to make it look like airbnb is not the greedy company it is becoming. The excuse they are making to hosts is it is too confusing for guests. They see our nightly price but when they go to book the price is higher. They supposedly are now removing the service fee for the guests but it ISN'T removed, they have just moved that fee to hosts! sneaky sneaky.  Right now there really isn't another rental option for me as a host so if I didn't want to lose that 15.5% had to agree. We really can't have long term rentals here, too many times we need every available housing space for family. Speaking of family it is growing again. Ruth is going to be a grandma AGAIN in January and Rachel AGAIN in February. We rejoice with Rebekah and Brian and Jessica and Clayton. I'm pretty sure Ruth's will be great grandchild 97 and Rachel's 98...hmm just two to go to reach 100 on the greats!

The SMART One

 Diane had to leave early for the funeral today so Ruth and I walked over to Joan's she had her church clothes on but was willing to walk as she didn't have to be there until a little later. On the walk we saw that Tessa's filly must have gotten caught climbing between fences and scraped up her leg. Most of it was just some hair off but one place was a little deeper. Tessa and her filly were put in the stall so I could treat it. It is hard to see in the picture but it is the red area on her right hind leg.

That was cleaned off and then sprayed with a betadine solution. They were left in the stall for the day. I sure don't want flies getting into it.  Cookie was also brought in when the sun came out this morning. She is healing well and was really glad for the company in the stalls today. Below is after her lotion was applied. 

She still looks bad but is healing. Cookie has heaves so it isn't good for her to be in the stall but right now it is worse for her to be out in the sun. Once the horses were finished I went down to the house to help Mark with the stove. It is now put together and works perfectly.

I went back to start on our dishes and to get the kitchen cleaned up as I left it a mess last night but walked in and it was done! Someone came while I was gone and cleaned up the entire kitchen. I knew it couldn't have been Mark so sent a marco to the kids. It was SARAH and her girls. What a wonderful boost. Instead of working on my kitchen I went to the barn and started cleaning that one. The fridge was cleaned out, the dishes all put away and half of the floor scrubbed. The sheets were washed and the beds made and all 6 bathrooms were cleaned. Tomorrow I'll need to finish the kitchen floor then work on the gym. We have airbnb guests coming in on Friday. When I finished I went back over to the barn to treat Tessa's filly again but saw Berlica working with Penny. Since we want Penny to learn to canter we worked on that in the round pen. We were just finishing up when Sarah arrived. Of course Berlica needed to show the girls the new trick Penny learned today.

All 3 of Sarah's girls wanted to go on a trail ride today. Mike joined the group and Berlica rode Rosalie with River so we had 5 riders and 4 horses on this ride. The video below was taken before they got on the 'death' trails. 

The phone died just before they got to them. All of the horses were perfect for their riders. Below are a few pictures of the riders and their horses.

Tessa's filly was given a tying lesson so I could clean out her wound better. I had to take the video below. She was SO MAD! She was shaking her head and giving me the evil eye. Tessa was moved into the other stall so I could clean the stall and watch over the filly while she was tied. 

We ended on a good note. Sarah helped with cleaning out her wound. She was exhausted after that and took a nice long nap in the hay.

This evening I was working on the farm house when Spark and Rhonda arrived with a lot of items that were all needed to classy up this joint. Braelyn was working on cleaning the apartment at the same time. I was washing sheets and drying the comforter at the house. Rhonda was putting the different things she bought around the house and Spark figured out how to install the TV that had been delivered today. I ran up to take the comforter up to the apartment and when I got back Spark and Rhonda had the TV up on the wall.

Of course we had to try it out. It is a smart tv and much smarter than I am.

Carolee's Visitation

 Another cooler morning. I went over before 7:30 am to put Cookie back in the stall and was surprised to see Berlica with Penny. I first thought we had a horse out as I could only see her rump and tail from the doorway. It was a relief to see Berlica. By the time Cookie was put away, fed and watered it was time to meet the walkers at the dumpster. Ruth, Diane, I walked over to pick up Joan. We got to Joan's house she was out back feeding the two fawns. Rizzy is spending the week with us and was very curious about those two animals. 

I picked her up so she wouldn't chase them if they ran but they didn't seem a bit afraid of her. Still we don't want Rizzy to scare them so will keep her away from Joan's house. When we got to the farm house drive there was Berlica and Penny.

They had a good ride. Mark and I spent some time removing the TV from the wall at the farm house and hauling that to Joan's. We also hauled 2 other TV's from mom's over to Joan's. She has someone coming to pick them up. We had 5 big 4 gallon water jugs to haul over to the basement along with a few other things. We really are almost finished with the farm house. We have ordered a huge 55 inch smart tv for that house and that is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Sarah was here with the girls. All of them rode Penny in the outdoor arena then Zion worked with Penny in the round pen teaching her to canter. Driving horses don't really know how to canter very well so it is good Sarah and Zion are working with her.

After breakfast I went over to move in bales. Valiant needed a bale as did the middle paddock. I let the 3 mares in the middle paddock out into the pond pasture so they could graze while the bale was moved in. They enjoyed that.

Mike came over as I was getting ready to move a bale in for Valiant. He offered to clean out the paddock if I moved Valiant so Valiant was taken out, sprayed down with fly spray then moved into the outdoor arena. Mike brought mom's Kubota over to work on his shelter first.

Mark had a doctor appointment up by the Berean office so we made plans for him to drop me off there while he went to his appointment. Skip was at that office and had the mail. I was able to process it completely, fill the new studies going out, the Bible requests for this week and also got 6 of the studies graded before he got back. We stopped at the Hanna City post office to drop off the mail and Bibles. We still have no internet at the Berean office. Hopefully next week. We got home with less than an hour before we would need to leave for Carolee's visitation. Berean is cancelled tomorrow so the volunteers can go to Carolee's funeral. She was a friend to all of them. She was also one of the chaplains at the Peoria County jail. Mike was still working on the paddocks when I got back. He cleaned out Valiant's then mowed that paddock plus a couple others.

Valiant was glad to get back in his own paddock. As soon as he was settled, Cookie was put out. We had a lot of cloud cover and the girls helped me rub a special lotion over all of her bare areas. She is healing quickly. By the time I got back to the house it was time to leave. We got to the funeral home and a lady came out as we were going in saying, "the line is much to long, we are going out to eat first then will come back."  We chose to stay in line and enjoyed visiting with many that were there.  Carolee was one of mom's close friends. They went to Africa on safari together one year. Carolee gave mom a huge geranium plant after the trip and mom has kept that going. We still have red geraniums today out on the deck and if I'm not mistaken they are from offshoots of that first plant. We got home late and had a late dinner. Tomorrow will be cleaning day for both the barn and the apartment. 

Beautiful Ending to a Beautiful Day

 I took the golf cart over at 6:30 am to check on Cookie and feed the cat. While there Cookie's stall was cleaned, her hay feeder filled and 2 clean buckets of water were left before going down to the farm house. Each time I go I bring back a load of things to go through but after this morning there isn't that much left. We picked up  Rhonda for church and since Wednesday night was family night the Bible studies were brought to church. We have quite a few studies that need grading so if anyone is interested they are now at the Peoria church. Rick Kaisner's family were here and it is always a joy to listen to him. He had the morning message and if you are feeling a little old and tired you WILL want to listen to this message. Click HERE for that. Tina and Jozsef served lunch today and had hamburgers and hotdogs. After lunch Tim Funk started the statement of faith study. He just gave the history of how and why we put out this statement. Click HERE if you would like a history lesson. We stopped at Aldi on the way home from church to pick up hamburger and hot dog buns. We had already determined we would be serving hamburgers and brats for our dinner tonight at the barn. We were also going to celebrate Jack, Israel and Jace's birthdays. Supper was very tasty and well attended. The kids were playing in the gym before dinner. 

The video below shows how this 2 on 2 game was going. 

Those boys are talented. Israel had just made a 3 right before this shot by Abe.

After supper came the birthday party.

After supper most of the kids went to play in the lake. Berlica took Zion and Riley over to the barn to start them on vaulting. They used Daryl the barrel for this lesson.

They were glad to come back and jump in the lake to cool off. Joan took Nancy out on the canoe to fish.

She caught a big stick BEFORE she caught any fish. The video shows her catching both but only after getting some of the grandchildren in the lake.

They all started going home around 8:00 pm. Once everyone was gone. Rizzy, Israel dog who is spending the week with us, went over to take care of Cookie. I was surprised to see someone had cleaned her stall and filled her water buckets. Must have been some grand daughters.  Cookie was put outside in a paddock for the night. Her skin is healing quickly. I stopped to check on the two Friesian foals. Tessa's was up playing but Rosaleigh's was taking a nap.

The sun was down by the time I got back to the house but God had painted the clouds pink and that was reflecting in the lake. I couldn't help to admire the beauty.

Independence Day

 We had a storm come through in the middle of the night and when I left the house at 6:00 am to go care for Cookie the air smelled and felt refreshing. I stopped first at the farm house to check the rain gauge. 

That one storm dumped an inch and 3/10ths in a short period of time. We are thankful for the rain, the fields are growing well. Once the stall was cleaned and Cookie fed and given fresh water I went back to the house to fill the microwave box with things that still needed to be brought over. Then once emptied I taped up the top, cut out a hole and made a den for the cat to have a place to have her kittens.

That was placed in the garage under the old desk. The cat came up as I was leaving so Mark gave her a hotdog in the box. David, Israel and Elisabet spent the night last night after the fireworks. They cleaned up the beach and also the downstairs after a good breakfast of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. 

The oven needed to be hooked up today. Mark was having trouble and needed a magnifying glass and smaller fingers. He really needed the correct tool and once he had that it went much better.

While he was working on the oven burner I started hanging the pictures Tarah and Molly found.

The big one was hung in the downstairs bedroom, the single horse on was hung in the upstairs bathroom.

The last picture was hung over the desk in the horse bedroom upstairs.

The next job was to put the bookcase headboard together.

Mark helped on the hard part then left to go home to rest. I finished it and put it in place.

Sarah brought her girls out while earlier while it was still cool and gave Zion and Penny some canter work in the round pen then a small jumping lesson in the outdoor arena. Of course Eden and River wanted to try that too.

Diane called to let me know there were horses out. Those were Jewel and Dancer. Dancer is now in season and found a way to get to the stallions. Jewel, her mother, just followed her out to keep her company. Dancer is related to both of the stallions here so Mike and Diane took her to Middle Grove. Diane sent back the video below. 

Dancer was not in a standing heat, in fact she kept her tail clamped when Mike brought Oliver over. We decide she will need to stay out there and hopefully she will be in a standing heat tomorrow. 

As the fireworks at Three Sister's Park was cancelled tonight because of storms. Some of the kids and grandkids (and sisters) went down to the river to watch the fireworks. Below they are enjoying the evening waiting for the fireworks to start.

Meanwhile enjoy the video below from last night. Rachel sent it in. Notice the kids floating on the lake watching them.