Snow Day

We awoke to -2 degrees and 4-5 inches of snow. As soon as it was light enough to see I had to snap a few pictures before Emma went outside and messed all that beauty up.

 Below the sky is just starting to go pink in the sunrise.

The camera was put away and the pans brought out to cook Mark breakfast before the walk. He was going to need some warm food before he started shoveling. By the time of our walk it was 2 above zero, a real heat spell. I wish though that I had taken the camera on the walk. The sun hitting the snow covered limbs and grasses was gorgeous, sparkling like millions of diamonds. The two pictures below were taken with my phone and just can't capture the true beauty. Diane had to bump into each branch that was so weighed down, the snow would fly off and the branch would flip up. We walked around watching them bounce up and down as she thumped each one.

We did the barn drive first so I could check on all the waterers. Thankfully they were all opened. I quit not even doing one round as today is Berean day and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to drive in to Peoria to TEMCO to pick up the Berean mail. To read about our morning there click HERE.
As soon as I got home from work I headed out to the barn to start moving bales. Valiant needed a new bale as did Jenis and the weanlings.  I had just finished Valiant's bale when Mark arrived to start plowing the drives. He helped move the second bale in before getting into the skid steer to start plowing. Thankful for his help it goes much faster with 2 of us working. The horses were grained then I went in to warm up. We are expecting more snow tonight so more wood was brought inside.

Frozen Again

Our low this morning was -2 and again the last paddock had a frozen waterer. It didn't take long to defrost it, just a few minutes with the hair dryer.  I have 2 nursing mom's along with their fillies,  Jenis, EasterBonnet, EllaSkye and Envy all sharing that waterer so for sure it must be checked each morning.
Right after the walk today I drove to Sam's Club to buy a couple roasts, potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and celery to make a couple crock pots full of beef stew along with dog food an a lot of other groceries. Since I'm leaving on Saturday evening for Gulf Shores, I spent the rest of the morning making meals to freeze for Mark while I'm gone.  At 11:10 am Gertie called in a panic. She was suppose to meet Taegan's bus at 11:20 am and her garage door wouldn't open. I was chopping onion and more than happy to put that down, jump in the car and meet the bus. Taegan was dropped off then the crock pots started.
My other job today was to pick up Sangria and Serenity from Middle Grove. The snow was suppose to start coming down this afternoon. I had planned to do this after Karin got off work this evening to help load except with the coming snow storm I decided I'd better head out and try to get the job done before the storm hit. When loading a foal we like to have at least 2 people but I felt pretty confident that Serenity would load and I was right. The horses were all hanging around the hay bales when I arrived.

 Lily came right up to greet me, that is Star behind her. Serenity was off to her right also coming up for attention, notice Lily's pinned ears, she was telling Serenity to back off, she was here first. 

 Left to right is Marika, Hadassah, Foxy and behind them is Sally. 

 I just snapped a few pictures as it was still terribly cold. Serenity walked up to the trailer, sniffed the floor and walked right in. I'm so very thankful we trailer the foals a lot back and forth between the two farms and back and forth to the vets. The loading training pays off big time. 

 Serenity needed to come home, her hooves need trimming and now that she is 4 months old I need to get her on a de-worming schedule. We have had some problems de-worming younger than 4 months with diarrhea. As Sangria is not bred back she will be de-wormed with Quest plus while Serenity will be started off with a half dose of Ivermectin, then in 2 weeks Safeguard. It was so cute right after I took them off the trailer Serenity saw Darla and started calling to her, Darla realized who it was,called back and as soon as I put them in the paddock these two left both of their mom's to hang out. They have missed each other ever since we brought Oksana and Darla home for play practice.

I made it home, got all the feeding done and was back in the house before the snow started up. The two full crockpots are putting out a delicious savory smell throughout the house, causing Emma and Ebby to stay in the kitchen begging for treats.
The snow has been falling softly but steadily all evening. We are predicted to get 3-5 inches tonight. It is beautiful but will make things hard in the morning.

Super Bowl Sunday

We had a super Sunday in more than one way. Craig Stickling had the morning message and Mike Kaisner had the afternoon. Both were thought provoking and hopefully both can be listened to again once up on AC Central. We walked out of church to a snow storm. The wind was blowing and the snow was coming down hard. Joan's kids were in a hurry to get home before Grandma in order to build the first snowman. Because of the cold though, the snow was not good packing so I'm not sure who is going to win that contest.
The thermometer was reading 16 degrees when I went out to water the arena. What an awful job that is when it is that cold outside but the job got done before the play practice. When I got back into the house Mark had a hot fire going and Sarah and Nolan along with baby Zion had arrived. Sarah had offered to wrap presents for the play. We were piling them up on the table when Nolan sat Zion down in front of them.

 She grabbed a few teddy bears. 

 She is just so cute!

We decided to wrap just a few of the presents and leave the rest unwrapped for handing out. I barely had time to warm  up before it was time to head back out to the arena to help bring in horses. The play practice went great.

 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures click HERE.

As soon as practice was over the group headed over to Rachel's house where she was hosting a super bowl party with fantastic food, fellowship and fun. The Super Bowl was one of the most entertaining ever with a couple of trick plays and lots of offense. Mark and I don't really watch much football but we watched the entire game. Really we started out going to watch it just for the commercials but ended up hooked.  Kind of a waste of an evening but I guess that is ok to do every once in a while.  

The weather is not going to improve much this week, more snow and cold temps are predicted. Rhoda, Sarah, Diane and I decided we need a sunshine and warmth break. Thankfully our husbands all agree and Diane's condo is empty so next Saturday night we will be heading down to Gulf Shores, AL for 6 days. That is Lord willing and the creek don't rise. 

Lots of Horse Time

Shaeya and Sadie got dropped off early this morning, even before Karin and Kayla arrived. Shaeya first came to the house to try on the dress.

 At this point we thought it was done but at the practice found out there was more work needed.

 The dress is too long and each time she would back up she would step on it. The dress was taken off for the indoor work. Evan was pretty low key today. 

 Below Shaeya is taking him back to his paddock. 

The rest of the pictures of Shaeya working with Evan are posted on Facebook. IF you would like to see them click HERE.  Karin had Kayla and Shaeya bring Galena, Indy, Oksana, Zalena, Jenis and Anna into the arena. Karin started out by round penning them all together in the indoor. Then each girl, Sadie, Shaeya and Kayla rode all 6 mares taking turns warming each up for Karin. These three girls each got LOTS of horse time.

 Karin finished the training with a loose rein rear on Jenis. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from this practice click HERE. 

Rhoda came over today bringing a much needed gift. She rented a rug scrubber. She and Mark worked hard cleaning our rugs today. That was finished just about the time we needed to leave for Gil's Supper Club in Hanna City. We were meeting all the Esslingers there for a 40th anniversary celebration for Dennis and Gertie. Below are a few pictures of the evening. The first 3 are at Gils

 We had dessert at Phil and Anna's where Anna served cake and icecream. 

 The Esslinger children gave Dennis and Gertie beautiful family pictures of Dennis' family, Gertie's family and one of them with all the grand children another with their children and grand children. 

 Below is the most unusual picture, this is of their family and it is printed on metal, pretty much indestructible. 

We had a good time and were glad to help celebrate their 40th anniversary. 

Cardiologist Appointment

We had another very cold morning. We all quit after one round as today was Nancy Herman's funeral. Mom and Diane were going early to help and Joan had co-op with her 3 younger children.
It was too cold to really work horses so instead I turned on AC Central to listen while the laundry and housework was done. Dan stopped in with Diesel around lunch time. Check out the size of Diesel in the picture below, he is the dog on the left with Emma on the right. Diesel is a Great Dane while Emma is an English Mastiff. Emma outweighs him but not by that much. As Diesel get's older he is definitely putting on weight.

 Above and below Dan is asking them to sit and watch.

 They were asked to lay down and stay and they did. 

 I had to leave around 1:00 pm for a visit with Dr. Radee my cardiologist. I thought I would go in there and wow them all with my progress but that didn't happen. Instead I was pretty disappointed when told he needs to start me on a new medicine. My blood pressure was a little high but my heart rate was too low. He wants to see me again in 6 months and here I thought I was done with the heart doctors.  Dr. Radee wanted to add something to drop the blood pressure but keep the heart rate up. They ordered it at CVS, the one near Madison Park and told me it would be waiting but when I got there they said they weren't quite done, it would be another 5-10 minutes. They ONLY had to count out 30 pills but after a half hour the Pharmacist  walks up to me and asks, "who are you waiting for?" When I exclaimed, "ME, I'm waiting for MY prescription." She finally went to work counting out those 30 pills. Inefficiency just may cause my heart to start beating faster so maybe it was all in their plan, forget the pills just make me wait.  Mark was already home waiting for me to get ready to pick up Phil and Anna's girls for our trip to Riverplex. The girls had a great time going down the water slides, playing the water playground, and floating in the lazy river. We played for almost 2 hours before going into the locker room for our shower. Below the 3 girls are each drying their own hair.

By this time it was after 7:00 pm and the girls were starving. We stopped at Wendy's, ordered chicken nuggets and fries for them and taco salad for us. For dessert they each got a small frosty which they all pretty much scarfed down.They are going to be more than ready for bed and so are we.

SMILES

The fat from the soup was skimmed early this morning then the broth divided into 2 big pots. Both of those pots put on the stove to boil. I started chopping vegetables right after fixing Mark's breakfast and was still chopping and adding vegetables until it was time to leave for the walk.
We all had to dress warm today on the walk, it was below freezing and the the wind was blowing hard. 
The horses sure don't seem to mind the cold but I noticed today most of them were in the shelters this morning. We feed the best hay we have when we know there is going to be a cold spell. It is the digestion of the hay that produces heat for the horses. We have always tried to have a good quality hay in front of them 24 hours a day as horses need to graze pretty much all day and all night with short naps between. As long as the hay is available along with plenty of fresh water and a salt block we can be reasonably sure they will not just survive but thrive.
After the soup was done I ran a crock pot full over to Joan's, a quart over to Diane's and mom's and put a quart aside for John and Beth & Karin and Jackie. I still had plenty left over to freeze for later and left 1 quart in our fridge for us tonight.
I had to drive in to Meister's to pay the first of the month bills and make a deposit this afternoon. When I got back from that I went shopping on Ebay and was able to purchase 60 rubber snakes. Those along with the gooey frogs and salamanders Karin bought should be enough for the yucky gifts for the play. Rebekah sent the music for the play, now we just have to finish with the ending dialog. Speaking of the play, Karin has the horses well prepared. Today she just couldn't help smiling. First of all Evan did great. He is getting the routine down and following what she needs him to do. AND he is doing it willingly. He is enjoying getting out of his paddock everyday, enjoying the attention and the chance to roll in that nice soft sand arena. I  didn't even know she was here working with him as I was listening to Craig Stickling on AC central while cleaning up the kitchen. When she sent a text to please bring in Zalena and Oksana I was shocked to see it was that late. Let me tell you though I walked into the indoor to SMILES. Karin was working with Jenis and each time she rides her exclaims, "she is just so talented!" She is using the clapper on Jenis below.

 She finished with a rear which I didn't quite catch but I sure caught Karin's smile. 

 Oksana was the next mare worked. Oksana did amazing. She is able to collect even in the canter and hold the canter until Karin asks for the trot. She is bending when asked. 

 When I commented on how well she was doing, Yep, Karin just couldn't help smiling. 

 Zalena was the last mare worked today. By this time it was getting late but even Zalena brought out a smile. 

 Last year each time Karin would use the clapper Zalena would scurry away from the sound, especially if it was over her head. Today she stood for that and was even relaxed. 

We really do believe the horses are all ready for the big Sunday practice.  Once Karin finished with Zalena, she started doing the relaxation procedures on her which produced lots of yawning, exactly what Karin was hoping for. 

 Zalena decided she was finished and walked over to where Karin tacks and untacks. It is so funny to see how the mares will just walk over and wait. Zalena isn't tied, she walked over and stood waiting for Karin to untack her. 

 When I mentioned how unusual that is, Karin had to smile again. What well trained mares!

I didn't quite get everything done in the barn today as Mark and I left before 5:00 for Nancy Herman's visitation. That is now two of my sisters that lost a mother-in-law last week. Joan's mother-in-law was buried in Bluffton, Indiana yesterday.