Rain Just in Time

With all the bales in the barn we were actually hoping for rain and when we awoke just a light sprinkle had dampened the ground. Then just before our walk a shower started up but quit right at 7:26 am so Ruth, Diane and I started our walk towards Joan's. We got all the way to her house and the heavens opened, dumping a half inch of rain on those newly mowed, raked and baled hay fields. We sat on Joan's porch waiting for it to stop but finally couldn't wait any longer so Joan just gave us all a ride back in her van.
What a wonderful gift. This afternoon Emily loaded up Sangria and her filly and drove them to Washington, IL so Sangria could be bred to Neo, Chery Thompson's big Andalusian stallion. Rhoda met her and between Chery, Rhoda and Emily they got the job done twice. If she is still in Sunday afternoon they will drive her back for another cover.

Emily met her mom at a grocery store over in East Peoria and evidently put on quite a show. She had the truck and trailer in the parking lot and mothers with little kids all came to see the horses falling in love with Sangria's filly. Emily said it was like a circus.
Mark and I drove to Sarah and Nolan's for dinner tonight but when we were loading the car the rain started back up in earnest. We got soaked trying to load the car and soaked once we arrived.

 Ben, Taunya and their 3 kids along with David and Stephanie and their 2 kids joined us for dinner. The kids had fun playing with Sarah and Nolan's new puppy.

 I'm heading to bed. By the time we got home tonight another inch of rain had fallen. So very thankful the hay is up and the fields are growing.
The campers posted a few pictures of wake boarding on Mark Twain Lake. Sounds like they are having a great time.

A FULL Day of Work

Emily started working early this morning. Rhoda arrived and the two of them worked naughty Rosaleigh. She did not want to go forward and let those girls know exactly what she thought of working today by kicking out and flattening those ears. Thankfully Rhoda and Emily were able to make her mind. She is such a beautiful mare but what an attitude.

Once Rosaleigh was put away they loaded up Jewel and her filly, Marika and her colt and Eliza and her colt for their 2 week vacation at Middle Grove. When they arrived though the gate key was missing. I was on my way home from the post office dropping off the Bibles for Berean so instead of coming home drove out to Middle grove with the key. We were able to drive right in with the mares and foals but when we let them out there were no other horses in sight. Below is Marika and her colt right after we unloaded. They were so happy to get out there and on the bountiful grasslands.

Emily started honking the truck horn and that brought the horses out of the trees.

 Above is Soul, her filly, Whitney and Joanna who is Lily's filly by Valiant. Below is Lola and her filly, Zalena's filly, behind her is Roxanne, to the right of the filly is Zalena and in front is Oksana. 

 Above left to right is Soul's filly, Soul and Whitney, below is Joanna. 

 Above is Galena and Hadassah below is Star and Ella. 

 Above is Lily and Below is Hadassah. 

 Above is Rhoda haltering Oksana who we were bringing home for the next show and below is Soul's filly. 

 Above is Emily petting April (Lola x Valiant) and below April is giving a pony ride to Rhoda's dog Ruby. 

 Above is Ayanna and her muddy colt by Evan. We were going to take Zalena and her filly home but after putting Anna and Oksana in the trailer Ayanna's colt decided he wanted to go and hopped in the trailer too. Emily was told to let Zalena go and bring Ayanna instead. The last mare loaded was Roxanne who needs to come home to be bred to Evan.  As soon as we got back to the farm these 5 were unloaded and Prissy loaded up for her vet appointment to get her blood drawn for a new coggins test. She is sold but needs a current coggins before she can leave the farm. Emily stayed back to move bales. We got 27 and a half round bales off our second cutting yesterday. Emily was working on moving them when the bale spear broke.  The steel bar started bending under the weight of these huge bales then just ripped. 

She decide she may as well start cleaning paddocks. Below she is working on Evan's. 

 The next paddock worked on was Ribbon's paddock. Once she had the pile of old hay piled high it was started on fire. 

Next she used the skid steer to move the two horse trailers forward so the burn pile could be started. With rain suppose to be coming in tonight after midnight it was the perfect time to burn. 

   Mike brought over the John Deere tractor to move the rest of the bales in. We also had Mike move bales into the paddocks as I won't have a bale spear until ours gets fixed or we buy a new one.

We now have 117 paid for round bales inside for the winter. What a good feeling.
Now time for a true story. Ruth was feeling extravagant and purchased a manicure/pedicure kit. She told us this on the walk but mom heard that Ruth purchased a pedicure. She wanted to see her feet and Ruth says, "I just got one foot done." Mom was shocked at that and wanted to know how much she had to pay to have just ONE foot done.

Miss Molly FOUND!!

THANK YOU for all the prayers and concern. Miss Molly came walking home from the deep dark woods this morning. She spent the entire night by herself and survived! 

Mom left her door open all night but this morning there is still no Molly. We are starting to believe someone picked her up.  She is such a darling dog and was obviously scared from the gun shot last night.

I guess we are saying we are PRAYING someone picked her up because for sure Molly would have come home if she was able to. We searched late last night. Mike and Diane took Ebby with them searching hoping that Ebby would find her. Please spread the word about mom's missing Miss Molly.

Missing Molly

Mom, Karin, Anni and Jessica are going camping tomorrow around noon joining Rachel & David's family and Dan & Susan's family. They are going to Mark Twain Lake in Missouri. Dan is bringing the boat and they are all looking forward to wake boarding, skiing, tubing and knee boarding. Mom was a little concerned about getting back in the boat after her turn as the ladder just has one rung. Surely they will be able to pull her in somehow.  Mom, Karin, Anni and Jessica were going to be tenting but as of this afternoon changed plans a bit. Joan, her children and grand children were camping this week in their motor home and called mom to report it is working well. It just needed a new spare and a couple new tires and Joan was able to take the motor home to Rieker's and get those put on today. They will be much more comfortable in the motor home than a tent, especially if it rains.
I had a good morning at the Berean office, to read about our morning there click HERE. From there I went down to Meister's to pay a few bills and make a deposit for Bridlewood Apartments.
Emily is now home from vacation and went right to work weed whacking and fixing fences. She was a little disappointed for when she left for vacation all the fences were looking great, she came home to 3 down and a few broken boards. We were able to talk about a plan for Sangria and decided to try one more time to breed her to Neo, Chery Thompson's big Andalusian stallion.

We know we will get a gray foal and hope for a filly. If it doesn't work this cycle we will give up and just breed Sangria back to Valiant. We love what she produces when bred to him but Rhoda would really like a purebred Andalusian filly to replace Sangria some day. 

Mark drove to church tonight, Greg Rumbold had the service reading the last half of 2 Peter chapter 2. The warnings in this chapter are most relevant today. When we got home from church Molly was missing. She was outside when someone started shooting.

We have been searching for her since we got home from church but no luck. I'm heading back out now.

Busy at Berean

Yesterday was a pretty dull day around here. The Berean work was busy and we stayed late but weren't able to finish. To see the pictures and read about that click HERE. We will be working today (Wednesday) from 9:00 am to around noon and will finish up what we were not able to get done plus enter Bibles. Anyone wanting to come to volunteer please feel free. Your help would be most appreciated.
Once I got home from Berean and things were check out, cleaned up, and horses fed it was time to think about cooking. We have these beautiful tomatoes, red ripe juicy bursting with flavor, from mom and Joan so made BLTs for dinner.

Second Cutting

Israel slept until 7:30 am. That was 11 hours of sleep for that tired boy last night. We had another fun day today. For our walk today Israel got to ride on the golf cart with Willow and she even let him drive. After breakfast the vaulting team arrived first practicing on the barrel.

  Israel and I watched that for a while until the boys arrived with their light sabers and swords. 

 Of course Israel wanted to join in and the big boys let him. These are his second cousins. 

 Left to right is Noah (who belongs to Nate and Brook, Trey who belongs to Amy Beth and Jarred, Israel, Drake also Nate and Brooks, Neico who belongs to Michelle and David and Tate who belongs to Jenny and Billy. 

 After the sword fights Missy and Cookie were taken out on the trails by Tate and Noah.

 Even Israel got to ride Cookie. 

 From there we went over to mom's beach to feed the fish the left over bread. Those fish were hungry. 

 The farmer arrived to cut the hay today. The next predicted rain is Thursday afternoon so we should have plenty of time to get this second cutting up dry. 

Stephanie and Elisabet were released from the hospital this afternoon. After Israel's nap he was taken home so we could hold baby Elisabet. All the kids were heading over to bring dinner then meet and greet this precious new addition to our family. 

A nice update came from the owner of Jewel's 2015 colt. She writes: Hey Judy! Thought you might like this cool picture of Riot (Jewel's colt). WE had a photographer come take pictures yesterday, I'll send you the rest when we get them. 15.1 hands at 1 year of age, and a tall personality to go with it!

Jewel's 2016 filly is going to be JUST as nice. Jewel throws BIG foals with amazing movement and absolutely wonderful disposition. We can't wait to see the rest of the pictures! If that colt is 15.1 at a year can you imagine how tall he is going to end up. By the time he is full grown he will be pushing 17 hands and to think Jewel is only around 16.1 but her sire, Raven.. was 16.2+ and his foals end up taller. I'd say Jewel's colt is taking after his grandsire with his height but his sire Evan with his HUGE movement, check out how high he gets...just like his daddy.

Israel Stays the Night

Right after church we drove to St. Francis to meet our new grand daughter. We met up with Martha Kay and Dana at the hospital. They brought Israel there to see his parents then he got to come home with Mark and I.  Below I am holding Elisabet ( A-Leesa-bet or Aleesa for short, Spanish for Elizabeth) for the very first time.

Rhoda & Lee brought their puppy Ruby over and Sarah & Nolan brought their brand new puppy to meet Israel

 Israel had fun this afternoon, the only younger child and lots of attention. He got to take golf cart rides, jump from the golf cart to the trampoline, play football with the big kids, ride horses, feed horses, play with puppies and play on the playground. There was a whole lot of playing going on tonight.

 While we were waiting for the volley ball games to start up a sparrow flew down from the trees and landed on Joan's hand. 

The volleyball games were fun to watch.

They played late into the evening even needing to turn on the lights. 

 Willow brought Missy over to give Israel a ride. 

Of course lots of pictures were taken of the evening. If you would like to see them click here.

We kept Israel so busy he didn't even seem to miss his mom and dad and by the time we brought him back to the house for bed he didn't even complain that we forgot his stuffed dog. Thankfully we found a bunch of stuffed animals that all needed to sleep with him.