Labor Day

The day started early with a trip to Sams club for fruit, ice cream and bbq pulled chicken then a trip to Morton to pick up Nancy for the day. Once back Mark and I started on the arena, putting up quite a few boards when our company for the day pulled up, Phil,Anna and Braelyn, Tony and Sarah, Ash, Dennis and Gertie.

Mom took Nancy over to fish at Spark's dock, Nancy pulled in a big bass and was so thrilled she needed to come over to show it off to everyone. Mom cleaned and cooked it for their lunch.

Dennis and Gertie needed to leave after lunch but the rest stayed and visited. Ben and Taunya along with Addyson and Jack joined us. Ben went over to play volley ball while Addyson took golf cart rides with her mom and Anna. When Rhoda got here she brought out Cindy for Addyson, this little girl has no fear of the horses, was riding with no hands and didn't want to get off.



She was bribed with another golf cart ride.

Before dinner Mark, Phil and Ben went out to put up a few more boards on the arena. The work is not going very fast but we aren't putting a lot of hours into it, just when ever we have the time we stick a few more up.

While they were working Ribbon and Jenis were let out into the field. The guys reported the babies came running into the arena bothering them, just very curious about what they were doing. I took a few pictures then went in to make dinner.


After dinner mom and I took Nancy home. Once back, Mark was talked into helping move in a couple of round bales and the mares were put away.

Sweet Delicious Honey

Lori Stratton's father Dale Martin is a bee keeper and this year harvested gallons and gallons of sweet delicious honey. Lori brought me a sample, a VERY generous sample and I can attest this honey is WAY better than store bought. The taste brings back many memories of my dad's bee keeping and honey processing days. Looking closer at the label Dale puts on each of his honey jars there is a reference to Proverbs 24:13 which reads. My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honey-comb, which is sweet to thy taste: Then because of the colon the next verse is So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto they soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

If you are interested in purchasing this pure and natural honey I would be glad to get more information, just email or comment to let me know. This honey is produced by the best, hardest working bees in the world, after-all they are AC bees. These bees are taught from little on how to collect the best pollen and turn it into the sweetest honey, they are taught by the Master!

Where are the Keys

Mark got a ride home from church with Mike and Diane as Mom and I were going to head to the Handicap Home in Morton to pick up Nancy for the picnic today. When we get out to the car there are no keys. They are not in the car at all. We tried to call Mark to find out if he left them in church but on Sunday everyone has their phone on vibrate. Luckily Ruth and Fedi were still at church and gave mom and I a ride home. Mark was out stringing the arena when I arrived, he was asked if he felt like taking a ride. He really didn't want to go anywhere until he realized the keys were still in his pocket, then he gladly took me back to Peoria to pick up the car.
The pictures below are random pictures of the very enjoyable picnic. Karin took at least 3 groups out on the 'death trails' with no accidents, no horse or rider falling. We decided we need t-shirts that say, I survived the Death Trails at Meisterville.




Emma and Heidi were play fighting and getting in the way of the football players.





Emma is watching Matt Waibel very closely just in case he would happen to drop some of that delicious bacon.
The fire was huge, almost too big to cook big slabs of bacon but we found a way.
Driving the cart back into the barn there is Sanna and her filly. They are not suppose to be loose in the barn, they were taken back to the pasture where the gate latch has been broken letting out the three mares with foals by their sides. Sanna is easy she just heads right into the barn, it took a while to find Jenis and Ribbon way back in the fields but they were good and followed the cart back into a paddock and were rewarded with grain.

Loose

The horses discovered the gate Mark left open around 4:14am, we knew the time, they were noisy enough about letting all the locked up horses know, visiting each one and then squealing at the boys.
It is time to bring out the down comforter that is if we are going to sleep with the windows open. Dreaming this morning we are in a lake house, the water is rising up against the doors, the dam is going to burst and our kids, Karin, and a bunch of nieces and nephews go out to swim in it. As we were yelling to get the kids back into the house to prepare for evacuation the rain changes to snow. In my dreams I'm commenting there is no way it should be snowing September 3rd. Mark must have stolen all the covers at that point.
The horses were called in easily, Lily leading the pack. Jenis and Ribbon must have a new round bale today. They are in the breeding shed and have cleaned up their bale. If we can't get to it before church we will give them one of Mike's square bales to hold them off.

Nice Looking REAR

Hi Judy,
Ribbon's new filly is so cute! I like the pics of her playing. I still
say she will turn out more refined than her sister. Her frame is very
Freisian-ish and she photos well. I think she is worth the trouble you
all went through to get her here.
Speaking of photos, here is an angle of Princess you haven't seen
(taken a couple of weeks before her 3rd birthday). Wow.
Alesia :)

OK pardon my French but doesn't that Princess have the most GORGEOUS Butt.
Look at the muscle on that 3 year old and that TAIL! It's enough to make any purebred Friesian mare envious! Think of the flies that thing could swat.
Thanks Alesia for sending along a picture with that angle.
Alesia was good enough to send along a picture to show us what the rest of Princess looks like at 3 years of age. They SHOULD be so proud of her, what a beautiful mare and to think she came out of Ribbon! We can sure tell Princess is a RAVEN daughter.

It is 8:22pm and more rain is falling. Mark needs to be thanked for building such cozy DRY up on a hill barns.

No More Dry and Thirsty Land

As the morning was hot and dry Mark started moving manure piles getting 14 loads dumped by 2:00pm.
Diane sent us a text to come swimming, her lake was cool and refreshing, with the weather over 90 again we were glad to take her up on that and spent a good hour floating around visiting with Diane, mom, Rachel, and Jessica.
The food for tomorrows picnic still needed to be purchased so off I drove to Sams Club after that cool refreshing break. The car thermometer was reading 92 degrees on the way into Peoria and I was in Sams less than a half hour. By the time the food was loaded into the car dark clouds were forming in the West, the sound of thunder was rumbling and the temperature had dropped to 66 degrees. What an amazing difference in temperature in such a short time period. The rain started on the drive back to the farm, by the time Smithville road was reached we were crawling along at 25-30 miles an hour dodging flying tree limbs and debris in the 70 mile an hour winds. The cookies needed to be dropped off at mom's but I had to get out of the car and walk, tree limbs were down all over going completely across the drive in many places. There were so many down and they were so big, there was no way to move them by hand. Mark was told he would need to get his chain saw out when the rain stopped. After dinner and after the storm we drove over to start clearing but someone had already beat us to the job. With so many family members living here at the Meister compound it is hard to be a first responder. Even mom didn't know who cleared the drives. That stormed dropped an inch and a half of rain on this dry and thirsty land. The next storm came about an hour later and again the rain came down in sheets pounding on our roof and windows. So thankful the dry brittle fields are getting such a good soaking. The evening was spent relaxing with a library book by Lori Wick.

Gun Toting AC Women

Oh if ONLY pictures were taken of this event. Bridlewood has had a marauder sneaking into the barn at night and wrecking havoc. A few months ago traps were set and a big old raccoon was caught in the trap. Now no one at Bridlewood and no one around the area would come shoot this big old nasty raccoon so Amy Koch had to load the trap and 45 pound animal into the back of her truck, haul it to Tremont and have her Uncle Butch shoot it but that didn't stop the havoc happening. The raccoon brought his friends and neighbors to this exclusive barn. That did it, Amy decided to buy her own gun, applied for a permit and took lessons until finally the time arrived to purchase this necessary item.
The next raccoon caught Amy hauled the cage down into the woods, took out her trusty gun and shot it between the eyes killing it instantly.

We now call her One Shot Amy. This is a warning for all the neighbors at Bridlewood, those gun toting AC women are merciless. We think we even heard Amy is practicing her drawing, there is surely no one quicker to the draw than an AC woman angry at someone messing up the barn.

Now for some business, for the first time in 21 years Bridlewood has a few openings for boarding. This is an exclusive barn, not fancy, but the horses get the best of care. At Bridlewood the boarders are very involved in every aspect of the care and well being of the horses. Cathie Trent, the Bridlewood instructor is in our opinion also the best instructor of the tri state area for teaching people to ride safely and correctly.
There are lesson ponies and horses that sometimes come up for lease.

Pond Muck

After Mark had his dinner of bbq grilled chicken, sweet honeydew melon and salad he went to work on draining the pond. This is such an awful job, the pond is now down so low he must go into the muck to find water.

Taking the canoe out to drag the hose just a bit deeper.

The black gushing muddy water draining over the dam.

Guess whose legs are behind the muck?
While Mark was working on that Rhoda brought Eliza out and decided to teach her to bow, success on the first try.

These Friesian mares are so willing to try even when they don't understand. The weather was still very hot, 98 degrees at 5:00pm so Rhoda took Eliza swimming. This was actually the first time Eliza had been ridden by her self and the first time she was asked to go swimming.
Ribbon and her filly were let out of the stall, the filly was so glad to get out of the stall she went running around the paddock. These pictures were just a few snapped. She is so adorable, of course once the pictures were done we had to play with her a bit.


Mike and Diane drove up and asked us if we wanted to go to Middle Grove to pick up a tractor key then BEES for a snack. BEES is a very popular eating joint just outside of Farmington. Of course we made Mark clean up first. We arrived at Middle Grove as it was getting dark. The horses were all up waiting at the gate and came swarming us as usual. We tried to take a few pictures but none of them turned out, it was just too dark. They all look great, Sangria's filly is very tall and elegant we must bring her in soon. Airiah has attached herself to Sangria, Indy and Ayanna are best friends and Ciera acted like she was the lookout stallion. She was bossing the ponies around and acting like a stud. We sure don't need another stud mare like Jenis. We were more than ready for the special soft serve ice cream. The vanilla was actually a medium, Diane ordered a large chocolate to share with Mike but it was a bit smaller than the medium, although still plenty.



How thankful we are that it is Friday night of a holiday weekend. We may just sleep in tomorrow.

Training in 100 Degrees

It was 99 degrees on my car thermometer driving home from work around 1:00pm. Steven Marchal was at the farm hosing off the horses. The window air was turned on and horses moved into the stall area again. The window units have it cooled to 88 still hot but that is better than 99 in the sunshine.
Rhoda pulled up while we were working and took Darcy swimming to cool her off then brought Ylse out to work on her bow. Even though it is 100 degrees inside she needs to be worked consistently if she is to learn this.

She was dripping wet after 15 minutes as were WE. Rhoda took her over to the lake to cool off.


Ylse is such a beautiful mare. She was imported from the Netherlands and has her passport along with FULL FHANA papers. Her 2010 filly named Independence (Indy) as she was born on the 4th of July, looks like she will be just as hairy and smart as mom. She is at Middle Grove learning the ways of a herd right now so I don't have any updated pictures of her. Indy is for sale today for only $8000.00. She is a yearling by RAVEN and out of Ylse what could be better!
Diane arrived while Rhoda and Ylse were swimming carrying a big gift for our dogs. She found this HUGE bone at a garage sale.


Our dogs were sharing fine until Ebby came over.


Ebby was very quick to claim the bone and the other 2 dogs moved out of range of her ferocious little teeth. These big Mastiff dogs are such wimps.

Free Delivery

Spark bought us lowly prison ministry workers a used copier from a government auction and the thing is huge. We must take a trip to Lima, OH to pick it up and will offer anyone buying any of our horses FREE delivery up to and near Lima, OH. If you live farther out East we will be glad to meet you in Lima. We have some bargains right now so take advantage of this offer, it is ONLY good for 10 days as the copier must be picked up by then.
Some of our specials right now are:
Sangria's filly born May 3rd, tall, gray, great movement was $5000.00 now $4500.00
Sanna & filly, filly born April 20th, tall, hairy, quiet, well handled was $12,000.00 for 3/1 pack For the next 10 days only $11,000.00
Indy (Ylse's 2010 filly)Born the 4th of July 2010 was $9000.00 for 10 days $8000.00
DaMita, rides, has been shown, bred to Raven 8-18-2011 was $3500.00 now $2500.00
Mindy, 2 yr paint pony well trained to drive was $2500.00 for 10 days $1500.00
Bonnie 5 yr bay pony well trained to drive, rides was $2500.00 now $1800.00
Check out all of these horses on our website www.horsemeister.com
If you see something else on there you would like let us know we may be able to work a special just for you!

Family's Suggestions

My very helpful family jumped all over the pill problem. Diane's was to hide it in a bite of sausage, it works for Ebby, mom's was put some jelly on it to help the pill slide down. The worst suggestion was coat it with peanut butter, I was told, "that always works for our dogs."
I will continue to take them, perhaps it will get easier with practice.
A neat email came in today from the owner of Velvet's second colt about her first colt. Margaret, the buyer of Rudy has been in contact with Vicki, the owner of Rohan. The Internet sure makes it easy to connect. We are so pleased Rudy has a new home. When Chris called to tell us she lost her job and must sell Rudy our hearts went out to her. He was posted here on the blog and within a few days he was heading to Hoerr vet clinic for a pre purchase exam. Chris can take comfort that her big little boy has a home where he will be loved and cared for. Thanks so much Margeret for opening up your heart and barn.

Let there be Light

Yesterday the new barn light was installed in the aisle way. This morning it was turned on and WOW the barn was BRIGHT. At first looking at the aisle way and stalls it was good, then the sight of the many imperfections that are hidden in the dark but exposed in the light was actually shocking. It took a lot more time this morning to clean the barn then usual. So what do we take from this. So many different light verses went running through my small imperfect brain, like "Let there be LIGHT, I AM the light of the world, let your light so shine, Don't hide your light under a bushel, A city on a hill, You are my lamp, O LORD, the LORD turns my darkness into light, He will give light to those who live in the dark and in death's shadow. So do we want to live in the dark where our imperfections can be hidden or in the Light where we can shine for the Lord?
This garter snake was not happy to see the light.
he wanted out of the barn as snakes prefer to hunt in the dark.
This morning it was down to Meisters to finish up all the letters that came in and pay the first of the month bills. Spark found us a copier on an auction and won it, now we get to have a road trip to Lima Ohio to pick up the 600 pound 4 foot copy machine that spits out 76 copies a minute.
The rest of the Bibles were processed today only 58 request came in and those were taken to the post office. Then it was time to head to TSC where 300 pounds of grain was bought and loaded into the car. CVS was next where $26.00 worth of drugs were purchased. Now anyone needing the generic brand of aspirin, tylenol, tums, ibuprofen or aleve just see me, CVS had a special buy one the other was half price.

David Jacob helped load water the car today and some of the stuff was taken to Rachel's where I noticed her banana plants are actually growing bananas.


Who would think one could grow bananas in the midwest.
Finally was able to unload the grain, feed Raven and just settled down to finish First Light of the AD chronicles when a knock came.

Gretchen introduced herself and asked if she could spend some time with Raven. When Gretchen left him to come see the foals, Raven called out asking her to come back. He loves attention and didn't want to see her leave.
Mark came home early to work on the pond. We would work on the arena but it is still 98 degrees outside.

Pills

How does one get these HUGE honkin glucosomine pills to go down the gullet? The first time I tried to take 2 at a time and started retching. The next time the capsules were taken apart, the powder mixed in a spoon with some honey. That was worse, trying to get the taste and texture out of my mouth and brain also caused gagging. Last night one pill was forced down at a time washing it down with orange juice but they still felt like they were stuck in the esophagus. So this morning I thought hot coffee would be the answer, that way once they are stuck, and of course it feels they are always stuck sideways, the hot coffee would melt them. Nope that didn't work either. Suggestions are needed please as they really do work.
It is now 6:05am and the pink in the east is just starting to lighten the sky. Gone are the 5:00am days watching the sunrise. It was amazing to watch the stars disappear as the sky starts to lighten before the sunrise colors.
A flashlight should have been taken last night while trying to get the mares out of the barn and into their paddocks. There was no moon and the starlight was not bright enough to see the paths. Today is already HOT, we have been enjoying the cool mornings but not this morning. The predicted high is 97 degrees, the foals must be kept inside for the day.
Braelyn is not coming today, the day is free for shopping, not my favorite activity but at least my favorite store is on the list. Walking into a TSC store the first impression that hits the senses is the wonderful smell of grains and leather. It is always fun browsing at everything that would be fun to try and then of course finding things we must have.