Elvis Has Left the Building

On the walk this morning we got a glimpse of Elvis leaving the building, well house. Check out the pictures below.

The real reason was that Joan was teaching a class at Co-op on the 50s and gave a presentation of the music which changed America and not for the better. Now just in case anyone wonders why Joan has black leather pants, Diane picked them up at a garage sale for 25 cents. We all just had to laugh. Joan says what shows up at Co-op STAYS at Co-op but she didn't mention anything at all about the blog. I had a quiet day here, listening to AC central while I did some baking and cleaning getting ready for the trip tomorrow to Gulf Shores. I'm so ready to get out of this cold snowy weather and into some warm sunshine, white sands and ocean water.
Karin arrived late to work horses. The snow was already coming down in Galesburg. She only had time to work 4 horses. Ayanna, Rosalie, Indy and Anna. Below she is using the clapper while each mare watches.

 Anna was the first mare ridden. Karin just puts a few minutes on her each time, just enough to remind her to go forward when asked. She is holding the whip, not for Anna's sake but for Ayanna's sake. Ayanna thought she was the boss mare in the arena today and Karin had to use Anna and the whip to chase Ayanna around until she submitted to a higher authority. 

 Rosalie was next. This almost 5 year old mare is so balanced in her canter. Karin believes by next year she will easily be a beginner horse. 

 Indy was in rare form. She is the mare cantering around Ayanna. Every little noise would set her off today. She was following Karin and Rosalie while they cantered around the arena. That is Ayanna in the middle not moving. She was quite upset that she was not allowed to be the boss. 

 Karin has so much fun on Rosalie it is hard for her to quit riding her. 

 The next mare ridden was Indy. This mare has come a long way in her canter from last year. 

 She is easily balanced enough to canter a 10-15 meter circle collected and bending. Ayanna was the last mare worked. This mare just WOW'S us each time. She has such big gaits and for a large horse is light on her hooves. This is NOT a clumpy mare. 

 In the picture below Karin is asking for a sidepass at the trot. 

 She finished with a bow. 

I got a text picture today from the man that bought Whitney. She is due in a month and he is a little worried she doesn't look pregnant. It is hard to tell with a Percheron. Sure hope she didn't lose her foal. 

Tonight Mark, Joan and I went to the fellowship hall to listen to Fred Witzig give a talk on church history.  Thankful he was willing to spend his evening with us. There was a big group there to listen and each and everyone did. Fred has a gift.  We learned how our history gives us our identity and a lot lot more.

Dead Deer

We know why the coyotes have been hanging around, this morning on the walk Kabur came on the walk carrying a backbone with ribs attached from a dead deer. It was well stripped of meat but still had hair attached in places. He found such a prize,  he wasn't happy when Joan took it away.

We had a warm up today with the thermometer getting into the 20s. Faith came over to help get a few updated pictures of EasterBonnet for the website. We took her first into the stall barn and groomed her up a bit. 

Faith led her into the outdoor arena and turned her loose. 

 We expected her to run but she went right over to where Faith was sitting on the railing for attention. This filly loves people and really loves Faith. 

 We had to ask her to move to get updated action shots.

Check out that neck in the picture below. She is going to be a superstar!

 But she came right back to Faith when she was called in. 

If you would like to see the rest of EasterBonnet's pictures from today click HERE.  We put her away and went in for hot chocolate. Karin arrived after work today and it was still nice enough to work Evan in the outdoor arena also. Below she turned him loose but was giving him scratches which he loves. He was content to stand still until she stopped. 

 As soon as Karin stopped he dropped and rolled. 

 After that good roll, Karin asked him to move and move he did. This stallion has such huge gates, he really does get air time. 

 Today when Karin asked him to lay down he was content to stay down while she fussed over him giving him wonderful scratches and praise. 

 Below he is heading back to his paddock. If you would like to see the rest of Evan's pictures from today click HERE. 

 Jenis, EasterBonnet and EllaSky were admiring him as he struts by. 

The rest of the horses had to be worked inside. Karin only had time to work with 4 mares after Evan was done. We brought in Jenis, Oksana, Galena and Zalena. Below Karin is cantering Jenis. She is doing walk canter departs perfectly.  

 Of course she finished with a loose rein rear. Jenis is just so smart. Once she learns something she remembers. 

 The next mare worked was Oksana. 

 Galena was next. 

 My shoes were soaking wet after standing in the outdoor arena and by the time Karin started with Galena I was just too cold to stay out so didn't see her work with Zalena. 

I got the fire going strong and was just about warm enough when Mark got home. We went back up to the barn to move in a round bale for Ayanna and Rosalie's paddock then came back inside to cook supper. Tonight we started with chicken and wild rice soup, then had fresh asparagus and pollock fish. All was delicious.  We are expecting more snow but not near as much as just a little North of us. Chicago may get a foot of snow with this next storm. 

Coyotes In Broad Daylight.

As I was headed to the meeting place for the walk this morning I looked down Mike and Diane's lane and saw something that made me stop and take another look. A big coyote was sitting in front of the cabin and another one was sitting half way between the cabin and Diane's house. Both of them were looking at Diane's house. I started down their lane yelling, "get out of here!" Scared they were going to kill Ebby if she walked out of the house right then. At first they just looked at me until I started running toward them waving my arms. It helped that Emma was right behind me. They both took off into the field then into the woods. They are getting much too bold. They looked in good shape,  not at all skin and bones. Crazy to think they were out in broad daylight so close to the house.
The waterers were all checked during the walk and all were fine.
After the walk today 60 presents were wrapped, all for adults. These will be given out during the play at the Illinois Horse Fair. We are not going to be wrapping the toys for the boys and girls.
Around 1:00 pm we discovered either Darla or Serenity pulled the plug on that paddock's automatic waterer and the water was flooding the paddock. The plug was found and put back in, then Mike sent a text to see if he had any metal plates we can put on top of the plug to stop them from doing that again.  I'll check in the morning to see if that got done, if not mom has a lot of bricks which will do the trick temporarily. I snapped the two pictures below of Jenis, Envy, EasterBonnet and EllaSkye after the waterer was fixed.

 Ella had just had a good roll in the snow and her face was still full of snow. 

Sangria and Serenity were brought inside for de-worming. Sangria was given a full tube of Quest Plus while Serenity was given just a quarter of a tube of Ivermectin, enough for 250 pounds but with foals we always start out with a half dose and she probably weighs around 500 pounds. I didn't even put a halter on to de-worm her, just the lead rope around her neck. She took it like a pro. I found a halter that fit her, stuck that on her and gave her a tying lesson with Sangria in the stall across the hall. She could still see her mom but had to listen to me. She remembered everything from before we took her to Middle Grove. She has such a thick fuzzy coat and is well prepared for this cold winter. 

Karin arrived after work and brought Evan in first.

He did very well again today. She took him back while I brought Ayanna and Rosalie inside. Karin grabbed Indy and Anna.  She was working with Indy first while I was trying to heat up a nail to make more holes in the girth straps for Ayanna. Ayanna is so fat she is growing out of everything. We bought the biggest smart girth made and it is just getting to be too small. They don't make a smart girths in draft size. Once Karin finished with Indy and was tacking up Anna, I grabbed a lead rope to take Indy out, hooked up the lead rope to the mare wearing the blue halter who I assumed was Indy and then realized it was NOT Indy but Ayanna. They both have on blue halters.  The correct mare was taken out and put away. When I was walking back to the barn I heard a big scramble then laughter. Turned out Anna had expelled gas very loudly and scared Ayanna and Rosalie who thought they were being attacked. They panicked and slammed into each other in their hurry to run from the hay bales to the door. Karin keeps Anna's instruction short, and by the time I got back in the barn she was ready to tack up Ayanna and have me take Anna out when all of a sudden the snow started sliding off the roof with a big crash. Ayanna and Rosalie again panicked but this time quieted down much quicker. Karin had such a good ride on Ayanna. The Illinois Horse Fair is holding the youth judging on Saturday March 3rd and they have asked us to have a Friesian class. Karin is going to ride Ayanna in that class against Tyler riding Indy, Anni riding Rosalie and either Jessica riding Jenis or Caleb riding Zalena. 

Rosalie was the last mare worked today. She too did wonderful. 

Mark drove mom, Diane and me to church tonight. Greg Rumbold had the message reading Colossians 1.  

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.