Weaning Day

 Amy arrived in time to go on the second round of the walk. She offered to help make a video of Kyro IF I would cook her breakfast. That was a great trade. We actually took both Kyro and his half brother Moonlight out to the field and made the video for Kyro's owner and Moonlight's owner. Kyro's dam is our Andalusian mare Madiera and his sire is Evan. Moonlight's dam is Rosaleigh and his sire is Evan. Check out the amazing movement on these two colts. Kyro is the dark bay and Moonlight is the black. I also took a few pictures for the website.

               

They were turned out in the field to graze for a few hours.

Amy left to head to Bridlewood about the time Anna came to clean the apartment. I asked if I could have the girls help with my next project which was to take a short video of Jewel's filly. 

Our next BIG job was the main job of the day. Today was weaning day for 4. We started with Jewel and her filly. The girls waited at the barn door and as soon as the filly followed her mom into the stall barn the girls shut the door. They were taken into a stall and a halter was put on the filly then the filly tied. Jewel was given some grain in the stall across the aisle.  The girls did the same job when Hadassah and her filly were brought inside. Again they shut the barn doors while Hadassah and her filly were led into the stall holding Jewel's filly. Hadassah was led right back outside and put in a different stall. We did the same routine for Madiera's colt and Rosaleigh's colt. Both the fillies are now in one of the big foaling stalls and both colts are now in one of the other foaling stalls. Madiera was loaded into the trailer first, then Rosaleigh followed by Hadassah and finally Jewel. The girls climbed into the back seat of the truck and off we left for Middle Grove.  They helped with the unloading by opening and shutting the gate as each mare was taken out of the trailer and put in the field. Below are a few pictures of the mares. They called a few times, then dropped their heads to graze for a bit.

Called a few more times then took off for the herd.

We stopped at Casey's to fill up the truck and the tummies as by this time it was almost 1:00 pm and past our lunch time.  After eating lunch the new weanlings were given fresh water,  grain and more hay. They are still calling for their mom's but are standing quietly.  I have them on the monitor and am pleased to see they have not dumped their water buckets. All is going well for the first day of weaning.  Phil picked up the girls, I made supper, and will now work on updated the website.

Communion

 Today we only had one service for church. Covid is again shutting everything down. Our communion service was set quite a while ago for today during the 11:00 am service. Well they cancelled the 9:00 am service but thankfully did not cancel communion. That was a very special service and we were grateful to be there. Amy came as she was in Gulf Shores with us when Tremont had their communion service. After church Isaiah, Magda and Karin were working with the horses. We were thrilled with Isla, She is now getting so comfortable in the round pen all by herself with no other horses around that she actually laid down and then rolled. Isaiah sent these pictures. 

I took the picture below of Isaiah working with her. 

Below he is leading Isla back. She was in the shadow but I still liked the result. 

Hadassah and her filly were very content resting in the comfortable hay they had wasted from the last bale.

Isaiah brought Valiant out next while Karin put Rosaleigh's colt and Madiera's colt in the stall then took both of those mares to the outdoor to work with them. Karin worked with Rosaleigh while Magda worked with Madiera. This is the first step of weaning them. Keeping them apart for a short time. Below are a few pictures. 

Below Isaiah is asking Valiant to side pass.

Below is Rosaleigh. We are thrilled she kept her weight this year while nursing. Of course we kept her here longer after delivery and dumped a high quality grain into her for months not taking them out until we knew she was nice and fat. 

Madiera has excellent movement. She really pushes from behind. No wonder these Warlander babies of her move amazing.

Kensely, Taegan and Berlica came to feed and pet the foals. When they saw Valiant getting saddled they hung around and all 3 of them got to canter Valiant. I don't have any pictures of that since I had left to get the Sunday supper going. We had a good group come for dinner tonight only missing David and Stephanie's family. After dinner I went over to mom's where Diane, Amy, mom and I played games. We had a fun evening.  The rest of the camping pictures were uploaded. If you would like to see them click HERE. Our airbnb guests left another 5 star review:  “Such a unique and fun place to stay! I booked for my sons and their families. The kids thought it was absolutely amazing :-). The place was unique and charming! An all around great weekend!” “The kids had an amazing time and the grandkids were in heaven!!! Thank you for a wonderful experience!”

Camping At Middle Grove

 Karin tacked up 5 horses and brought them to Middle Grove for a trail ride. She took out the first group then left the horses, truck and trailer and took my car home.  The campers then got to head out. Anyone that wanted to ride got the chance.

Diane loaded up the jeep and 2 of the 4 wheelers and took us to see the herd. 

Of course the horses came running up and surrounded us.

When we got back we headed to the lake for a pontoon boat ride, fishing and canoeing.

Mom caught a huge bass right off the dock. Joan took a picture and will send it to me. That will be added later as there isn't very good cell service at Middle Grove. The last horse trip out the horses were ridden to the winter pasture, untacked and let loose. 

              

Diane brought the jeep to the winter pasture, I drove the truck and trailer, the horse back riders all piled in the jeep and we drove to the herd to pick up Jewel, her filly, Rosaleigh, her colt and Madiera and her colt.  The mares were haltered and we started back. All was going well until Rosaleigh's colt decided to run back to the herd. Mike, Anna and Ava took the 3 mares while the jeep went back to pick up Rosaleigh's colt. He was haltered and led back all by himself. He wasn't happy about leaving the herd but we didn't give him a choice. We loaded those 3 mares and 3 foals up, the jeep took everyone else back to the campground while I took the horses to the Hanna City farm. As soon as I got back I moved a bale in the middle paddock then moved the horses. By this time it was after 5:00 pm and getting dark. Mark stayed at the campground until after supper then came here. It was such a long fun day. Many more pictures were taken and will be added tomorrow but if you would like to see some of the pictures from Middle Grove today click HERE. 

 Mom is doing better each day on our walk. Today she walked all the way to Joan's house and then back almost to the dumpster before needing to stop and get a drink. We are thrilled the shocking of her heart worked and it is now beating correctly. She doesn't get out of breath so easily. Today we talked about our Gulf Shores Christmas trip trying to figure out where everyone that is going will stay. We have a lot of family going again. After the walk the 2003 truck was unhooked from the Exiss 4 horse trailer and hooked up to the Summerdale. That was plugged in and filled with water.  It had been winterized before I bought it but wanted to try out the water system. We planned on using it tonight so filled the tanks.  Next I drove to Aldi in Pekin for groceries. I thought we were packing for an overnight camping trip and bought supper, breakfast, lunch and Saturday night's meal. Then stopped at Dollar General to pick up some pans that can be used to cook over the fire. Coming back from Aldi the camping plans changed. It gets dark so soon that we are all going out in the morning. Some will be spending Saturday night but we won't. Karin is going to bring the 5 riding horses out and trail rides will be done there tomorrow. When Mark got home we drained the water tanks from the Summerdale then tried to use the tractor to put the Wolf Pup in the barn but that just didn't work. The tractor was unhooked and since the truck was hooked up to the Summerdale that was put away for the season into the barn.  I had to move a row of bales with the skid steer to make room so used the skid steer to move those with the last bale taken to to Hadassah's paddock. We hooked the Wolf Pup up to the skid steer and that worked perfect. Both trailers are now stored inside up against the wall and at the back. There is still enough room to put the 2021 trailer in as soon as I pick it up next week.  The stalls were cleaned and the aisles swept. We have a family from England staying at the apartment for the next couple days. 

Vet Visit

 The rioters must have visited our neighborhood last night. The wall had been knocked down and a bike thrown on the ground. 

This wall was nicely stacked yesterday morning before our walk and this morning just look at the destruction.  This will not keep our strong neighbors down, we WILL all come together and rebuild. I haven't commented on the election results, mainly because the votes are still being counted. No matter if the elephant or the donkey comes out on top, our King is Jesus. Praying HIS rule comes soon. Dr. Hoerr was scheduled for this morning but didn't come until after 1:00 pm.  Today was just a blood draw day for new Coggins.  Tori's colt was done first.  

He was taken into the stall and tied for the blood draw and didn't even flinch. I need to get some updated pictures of him as he is now 5 months old. He is also weaned but not because we wanted to wean him. Tori was killed by lightning (at least that is what we believe) when he was just 4 months old. His special companion is Gracie, Irish's filly by Valiant. The next in line was Maddalen, Hadassah's filly. She too stood very well, both for the pictures and the blood draw. Maddalen also got her vaccines as she will be traveling to her new home soon. Dr. Hoerr did not believe me when I told him she was going to turn gray. He checked her over well and said there was no sign of gray anywhere on her but I have the dna results that say she will turn gray. At 5 months of age we should have been able to tell but she just doesn't have any white hair at all. That is mud on her legs in the picture below, she was wading in the lake.

Hadassah was next. She really is a nice mare. She did everything I asked, moved sideways, posed for pictures then stood quietly while Dr. Hoerr drew her blood. She is starting to show her pregnancy. Hadassah is for sale as a 2/1 package. She is due June 7th, 2021, she rides but can be quick so we don't recommend her for a beginner. She is a fun mare though for anyone that knows how to ride. She has amazing stamina and movement. She is a gorgeous dapple gray and don't forget she is carrying another valuable Evan baby.

We will be weaning her filly next week when we bring in Jewel's filly, Madiera's colt and Rosaleigh's colt. The two colts will be weaned with each other as will the two fillies. Isla was the last one for the blood draw. She was taken into the back stall for that. She stood well for Dr. Hoerr but not very well when I left her in the stall to go pay the bill. She was not happy by herself. Isla has grown up at Middle Grove and today I realized she has not been in a stall since she was a couple months old. I'll have to work on teaching her stalls are good and will bring her in each morning for her grain, give her some good hay and leave her a short time then gradually leaving her inside longer and longer. After a few days I'll switch that to having her stay in the stall all night but will make sure she has someone she likes in the stall across the aisle in her sight. When she was taken out today she was put in with Cookie but wanted to be in with Maddalen. 

Cookie was content to just watch everything going on across the drive.

Gleaning

 Anna got called in to work today. The girls and took the golf cart out to start gleaning the corn fields. We had great success, filling the golf cart, emptying it and filling it again. 

The next job was to shuck and shell everything we found. We shelled it into a bucket and ended up filling the buckets 3 times. 

The horses were each given a handful. Below Cookie, Isla and Maddalen are waiting for their handful.

We picked out 3 perfect ears, took them down to the house, cleaned all the hair off, washed our hands well then shelled those 3 ears onto a clean sheet which was taken outside in the breeze. Each girl held a corner and the 4 of us threw the corn into the air over and over catching the kernels each time on the sheet. Once the chaff was gone the corn was ground into corn flour and then we made corn mush with each girl helping to season it and stir it. Once the mush was done, each girl was given a bowl of mush with maple syrup dribbled over it and some milk. Taegan thought it was delicious and had seconds. Kensley only had a spoonful and decided she didn't care for it. Braelyn ate her bowl but didn't want seconds. After Anna picked them up I made a big panful of potato soup for our dinner. This was my first try to make this soup. I got the recipe off the internet and it turned out very good. I froze 6 quarts and left one for lunch tomorrow. We went to mom's house for church tonight. Mike Kaisner was doing an interview with his parents Leon and Eunice and Darlene and Ken Hoerr. It was SO good to listen to both of their stories. 

Isla Sold

 Mom called at 5:15 am to tell me she would be ready to go vote before 6:00 am so we left before 6:00am and when we arrived the parking lot was full. It was still quite dark. The picture below was taken when it was light enough to take. We are way back in line.

We actually waited in line for an hour and a half. When we finally got inside we were both glad as it was really cold out. Below mom is inside waiting. 

There were some problems with 8 of the voting machines but by the time we got in there they were supposed to be fixed only for some reason the machine wouldn't move off of the instruction page no matter how closely I followed the instructions. Mom's machine had the same problem. When we finally got that part fixed my machine worked fine but mom's did not. On her's even though I KNOW she voted on the presidential race when she was all finished that page came up blank. We had to call the judge back. Thankfully that was the only page blank the rest were as she voted so she was able to vote on the presidential race, her ballot was accepted and we were on our way home. We had about 45 minutes to rest before heading to the Berean office. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. We stopped at Phil and Anna's to pick up the girls so Anna could go vote. While we were in the car waiting for the girls I checked my email address to find that Isla had sold.

She will be traveling to Oregon on the 20th. There were 2 other people that said they wanted to buy her, one from Texas and one from Florida. Both were quite disappointed. The girls helped get all the horses fed then we went on a long golf cart trip through harvested fields and through woods. We thought we might see Tumnus the deer but he didn't come out today.  We were coming back on the road when we saw signs of an accident. Below is glass from a windshield

The girls hiked down to check it out a little better.

We could not tell what kind of a car it was. Thankfully there were no dead bodies under it. Mark had a late estimate and I fell asleep on the chair waiting for him. We kind of watched some of the election results but won't stay up long to watch. It sounds like no one will know for a while who won. 

Camper Rentals

 I was first to see the dumpster this morning and just had to stop. There was good rope in it and I have been needing good strong rope to use to tie the hog panels together when wrapping them around a hay bale. The rope was pulled out of the dumpster. I also found the exact brush needed for cleaning off the ashes from the fireplace.  

After the walk I brought it into the kitchen was able to cut it in 5 pieces each about 18 ft lengths and burned both ends of each piece. The 5 lengths were rolled up individually and hung up in the barn. After the walk I drove in to Meisters to pay the first of the month bills then down to the post office to pick up the Berean mail. Sam's club was the next stop to return the mattress pad that came in the wrong size but of course one doesn't just return things at that store. By the time I checked out there was $92.00 worth of groceries along with dryer sheets to put in the campers to discourage mice and rinse aid for the dishwasher here and at the apartment. From there I drove to the Berean office to drop off the mail and the pecan pie I picked up for our treat tomorrow. It took a little while to organize the mail before heading home.  Once home Hadassah was de-wormed with Safeguard and Isla was de-wormed with a tube of Quest Plus. Hadassah and Maddalen were taken into the stall, the halter put on Maddalen then she was dewormed with about 3/4ths of a tube of Quest Plus and then both were given some grain. Hoerr Vet clinic was called to schedule the Coggins tests on these 3. Dr. Hoerr will be coming out on Thursday morning for that job. The 2015 truck was unhooked from the 2 horse trailer and hooked up to  the Kiefer built 4 horse for the trail ride scheduled for tomorrow. When Mark got home we hooked up the Wolf Pup with the tractor and were going to move it for storage but that didn't turn out how we thought and that trailer was left here. 

I will need to move the manure spreader out of the barn along with a few of Mark's big tools before I can move the trailers inside.  Both of these trailers are light weight, around 3400 pounds and can be hauled with a half ton truck or SUV,  both have power awnings, air conditioning, heating, 2 way fridges and stoves, microwaves, both are self contained with a nice tub shower combo. The white trailer (Summerdale) can sleep 2 adults and 4 children comfortably and has an outdoor shower attachment and the 6 cu.ft.  fridge while the brown trailer (Wolf Pup) sleeps 2 adults and 3 children comfortably and just has the compact fridge and no outdoor shower. The Summerdale has all brand new tires while the Wolf Pup's has 1 brand new, 1 about 6 months old and the spare is a couple years old. We hope to be able to rent them out next year through RV Share. They are now both winterized and will be put in the barn as soon as I can get the other stuff moved out of the way. I put down a deposit on a 2021 trailer which is a little bigger and should be picking that up in a week from Indiana. This one is 22 ft long, still light weight at 3500 pounds. It is about 4 feet longer and 90 inches wide. That gives it room for double bunks so this trailer sleeps 8. It is made by Forest River and is the Salem FSX model.

The front of the trailer has a murphy bed that when raised has a very comfortable couch for during the day and a queen bed for at night. 

The double bunks are really a nice option for the bigger family.

and of course the dinette also makes a bed. The layout is pictured below.

This trailer also has the outside kitchen with a min fridge and hot and cold outdoor shower.

So somehow I have to clear enough stuff out of the big barn to store all 3 trailers, 2 tractors, 1 skid steer and 80 bales of hay and STILL have enough room for Karin to train horses all winter. 

False Fire Alarm

 We got to church early but then we had an extra hour to get ready. Mike Rieker had the first service and Dave Obergfel had the second service. Rhonda was in charge of lunch this week but because of Covid concerns in the area we were limited to coffee, tea, water cuties, granola bars and some kind of cracker. Our Wednesday evening family night meal was canceled for the same reason. The governor has closed all indoor eating at restaurants starting Wednesday.  Anna's dad volunteers giving hay rack rides at Wild Life Prairie Park and offered to give us all a free hay rack ride today at 2:00 pm. Phil and Anna's family along with Ben and Taunya's family really enjoyed that. After the hay rack ride they all came here for dinner. Rhoda, Lee and Nolan also joined us. Tonight we had haystacks with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Nolan and Phil left for the Hanna City gym for volley ball after supper while the rest of us stayed here and visited. Rebekah and Brian's family also went to play volley ball but that was interrupted by their son setting off the fire alarm. Rebekah told us later that the firemen were very nice about it but told Jordan he must never do that again. Kayla posted a picture of Bunni.

They have taken very good care of her. Bunni foundered on the rich spring grass at Middle Grove. She needed to be kept in a dry lot and have more care than we were able to give her. Kayla's family was the perfect family for Bunni. Our grandchildren miss her but we had to do what was best for her and found the perfect home.