The Gypsian

 Edith found some old pictures and gave them to Cindy who sent them by text to Rachel. The first is a picture of Mark and Spark at Hoerr's cleaning a fish.

Rhonda noticed that Mark was dressed much more appropriately for camping at the lake than Spark. The other picture is of Nancy and Joan also taken at Hoerr's lake. 

We sure did a lot of camping there on Summer weekends. Amy came over today bringing left overs from Sunday lunch at Tremont where she and Kenny served.  After dropping off the food at mom's she came here and we had a nice visit. I was busy baking for the meal at mom's tonight and the treat for the snack at Berean's tomorrow.  The pictures below are of a RAVEN daughter out of a Gypsy mare. What was interesting about the mare was this was the first Gypsy ever brought to Raven and we were surprised how short she was. 

Obviously the foal by this paring takes after Raven for the size and the Gypsy for the hair. The Gypsian (Friesian x Gypsy) now has it's own book in the Friesian Heritage Horse International.  We are excited to see what Irish produces this year. She had a black and white filly by Valiant (Raven's son) 2 years ago.

And last year had a mostly white but with spots colt by Valiant.

We regretted selling the filly and had thoughts of keeping this years foal if a filly but again how long am I going to be able to do this job. Unless one of the daughters, daughters-in-law or grand daughters wants to take over I will keep selling the foals.  The meal of bbq ribs, herb stuffing with sausage, onions, celery, and other delicious seasonings, deviled eggs, green beans soaked in chicken broth, salad with all the fixins and the pumpkin pecan dessert was taken over right at 5:00 pm.  After dinner Mark left but I stayed with mom until she was safe in bed.  She had a good day today.

Almost All Day

 Our nice warm weather left and this morning winter was back with the thermometer reading just above freezing. We had so much wind and lightning during the night I couple times I woke up thinking someone was knocking. That turned out to be the sled on the patio being blown into the door.  Mark went walking to see if any trees or limbs down. The drives were all clear but there were a bunch of branches down on the perimeter of the fields.  He did not try to clean them up today, that is a job for another time. We had one big close lightning strike with the huge booming thunder so in the morning the horses were checked on just to make sure none of them were hit.  All were well. We left for church a little early. Joan drove mom and her kids in the wheelchair van and beat us there.  Tim Roecker had the morning message and Mike Kaisner had the afternoon.  Pat and Lee along with Judy served lunch and Dennis and Gerty came to help so we got to be with them twice in one week. We stayed and visited for a while as we were not having the kids come over tonight. We only had 2 hours at home before we needed to leave for hymn sing at the fellowship hall.  After a few congregational songs the Sunday school kids sang 3 songs. I'm not sure which classes sang but I think I heard it was the 3rd and 4th grades. 

Once they sat down Dusty sat at the piano and sang 3 songs. Below is part of the first.

We had a good turnout for this hymn sing and after it was over there was much visiting with each other. By the time we got out of the building there were only 3 cars left and ours was one of those.  Maybe we talk to much. We spent almost all day with our church family.  I missed our family getting all together here so hope all come next week. 

Always Dream

 We had a beautiful warm day with thunderstorms moving in this evening.  This morning I drove to Sam's Club and Aldi to pick up a few things for mom's house and groceries for us. Mark was out working with Mackenson but quit and was back by the time I finished the grocery shopping. One of the repairs needed was our address marker had been knocked down by a snow plow so Mark and I put that up this afternoon.

Mike came over to work with Dancer. He has her long lining pretty well.

Spark and Rhonda picked up Nancy this afternoon and took her to a game then out to eat.  They met up with Kari and Brett and Rhonda just had to take a picture. Check out what all 3 were wearing.

She reported all three are sporting their jail stripes!

Lots of people are sharing memories today of being at the Horse Fair and tagging us in their videos and pictures. 

The picture below was from the 2016 IL Horse Fair, the year the Horsemeister Pirates made their first appearance.

That year was pretty hilarious. Those pirates roamed the fairgrounds offering to exchange their pirate gold (plastic gold coins) for just about everything. If you would like to see the pictures from that day click HERE. We really did have a lot of fun and I'm glad we have pictures to remember those fun times. We had never done the same theme twice but we were actually asked if the pirates would return to the fair the next year and we did. Thankfully there are more than just one Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Many of our pirates are now married with children. How time flies. Maybe we will start back up when their children become second generation Horsemeister riders. One can always dream.

Thankful For Family

 My day started early, well 3:47am to be specific but not because I wanted to. I heard Mark getting coffee at that time, opened my eyes and it was light so I thought it must be morning. Nope, not only was he making noise, Mark had the kitchen lights on.  I couldn't go back to sleep.  Not good and I was not happy, although after a couple cups of hot coffee I forgave him.  At 7:00 am the apartment was given a once over, the lights turned on the the heat turned up to 72 degrees for the guest coming in today before heading over to meet Diane for the walk. After the walk it was my turn at mom's and I spent the day there. Mom had a good night and a very good day. We got some walking in, lots of leg exercises. Jessica arrived with a plate full of just baked, still warm delicious chocolate chip cookies.  She also came to work with mom's arm.

Jessica has a wonderful talent of relaxing that arm. After Jessica left mom was able to bring her arm up to her mouth and back.  We will keep working on that.  As tonight was Friday night Mark brought supper in. He picked up a meat lovers pizza with extra bacon from Avanti's and a rice dish and a chicken and pea pod dish from the Vietnamese restaurant and added a shrimp and crab dish from home.  All was delicious. Joan's family joined us for dinner and after dinner we played games. I'm so thankful for family.

The Last Time

 Mark got the front of the car zip tied up this morning. Tuesday part of the underneath of the front end had come apart and was hitting the tire. I didn't drive anywhere on Wednesday but today needed to go to the bank to deposit the end of the month checks. His zip ties held.  The car is a 2007 Prius and I like it so want to keep it drivable.  Once back I spent about 4 hours organizing and cleaning the house. The back hall desperately needed organizing. Some of the foaling towels were taken to the barn and the crafts were put on the top shelf where the towels had been.  The airbnb guest coming in tomorrow wanted some camp chairs so they could sit outside if the weather is nice on Saturday so those were taken out of the horse trailer and put by the back door of the apartment. Today was much cooler than yesterday even though the sun was out. The straight line of blue sky above and dark clouds below was a front that rolled through bringing clouds and cold weather. 

Stephanie posted a picture taken at the 2019 horse fair of kids in the Wizard of OZ. 

Two years ago on this date was our last time showing and everyone had so much fun. We cannot post this on Facebook or Youtube because of copyright protection but it WAS a classic.

Mark brought home 50 pounds of clover seed and spread it on the fields after work.

Dennis and Gerty came over tonight. We had such a nice visit.

Feels Like Spring

 We had another beautiful day, sunshine and almost 60 degrees. There is still a lot of ice on the lake but the edges now are open and the geese were enjoying baths today. They don't care that it is ice water. Diane and I walked, Joan had lots of company with all of her family there for Bev's funeral.  After the walk I spent the day with mom.  She and Aunt Jinnie enjoyed the sunshine on the deck both this morning and this afternoon.

As today is March 2nd, so many memories of past horse fairs are popping up. Below is Evan and Shaeya.

Speaking of Evan, Skye (Sheena x Valiant) is coming back to be bred to him on April 10th.

Mike got home from work and took out Dancer for some training. She is doing very well.

He is going to pick up salt blocks for the horses at Middle Grove so I asked if he would pick some up for here also.

I left mom's at 5:00 pm to head home, make supper, get a shower and leave for church at 6:15 pm. Tonight was family night at church. We had Tim from Roanoke come speak to us about the many Afghan refugees still looking for placement. 

WARM & Sunny

 We WALKED! The ice is gone and now that Diane is back we met at our usual place (the dumpster) at our usual time of 7:15 am. Ruth, Joan, Diane and I hoofed it until 7:45 am getting in a good half hour of visiting and at a fast pace.  I needed to pick up Aunt Jinnie at 8:15 am for our morning at the Berean office but had enough time to stop at Peoria Tire to pick up the now repaired snow tire first. We had a good morning at the Berean office. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. We stopped at the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles when done.  At 1:00 pm I needed to head over to mom's to take Joan's place and found everyone having lunch out on the deck on this beautiful sunny WARM 57 degree day. 

Faith and Berlica were playing down by the lake which is still covered in ice.

Mom was supposed to have a video conference call with her doctor today but Joan could never get the video to work. When Spark arrived she also tried on his phone but it just wouldn't work. It was an obvious problem on the doctor end. No matter mom is doing fine and didn't really need to speak to the doctor anyway.  Joan and the kids left for Bev's visitation. Mom had a good afternoon doing her leg exercises and resting.   Diane relieved me at 5:20 pm. We had a beautiful March 1st 2022.

Middle Grove Monday

 I left the house around 7:30 pm to head to the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail. Sam's club was the next stop to pick up a 38 pound bag of cat food plus a cheese cake and blue berries for the Berean office.  From there I drove straight to the Berean office to drop off the mail and the dessert. Meister's were there working on the duct system. 

They had a ladder in the bathroom to get up into the attack.

I left before the job was finished so we may have some clean up to do tomorrow.  From there I drove to Peoria tire to drop off the flat snow tire. Eddie met me as I pulled in so I told him I would pick it up tomorrow either before Berean if we have time or after.  By this time the weather was warming up nice, already 44 degrees outside so I decided to make the trip out to Middle Grove to check on the mares.  It is a long drive from the North of Peoria to Middle Grove.  The gas alarm went off before I reached Hanna City but gas there was $3.90 a gallon so I figured I could easily get to Farmington where gas is usually cheaper. It was by ONE CENT. Talk about highway robbery.  I didn't bother stopping in Farmington. By the time I made it to Middle Grove it was 46 degrees and sunny. My sweat shirt was all that was needed. The horses were at the far south end of the property. All look well but for sure Rosalie is not pregnant. I didn't recognize her at first and thought she was one of the purebred mares coming up open, she came right up for attention and when I checked her mane it was long and Rosalie usually rubs hers off. Maybe she is maturing enough to stop rubbing her mane off. We will bring her in when we bring in Iris and get her bred to Evan for 2023. I would also like to keep her here this year to get some riding done on her. She is a fun ride, is good on trails and has a nice canter. 

The rest all are obviously all still pregnant.  Irish now is the first mare due and she isn't due until April 6th so will be left out for a few more weeks.

Last year if Iris would have had a filly I would have kept the foal as that filly would be able to be bred to Evan but she had a colt. This year I'm feeling too old to keep a young one. Crazy the difference between 66 years old and 67. Why I would be 70 by the time the filly would be old enough to breed if she has one this year. Soul is the next mare due on April 16th.

The mares were all just drowsing in the sunshine.

The cat was fed when I finally made it home from Middle Grove. She was hungry and very glad for the meal.  The cat food was secured well in a garbage can with a locking lid. Anna got the apartment cleaned up. The family left a very nice review: Great place, host was super great with communication ahead of arrival. Perfect place away from the hustle and bustle of Peoria but still close enough to go do the city things. Apartment was spotless upon arrival. “Staying here was amazing, the kids loved it and asked that everytime I come visit to stay here again. They have also named the apartment as "The Ranch"”

I headed over to mom's about 4:45 pm with the meal.  Joan was still there helping the kids with school. They are trying to work ahead as tomorrow is Bev's visitation and Wednesday is the funeral. 

I was showing mom the pictures this evening and mentioned Sangria has really aged, she will be 22 and doesn't look near as good as she did last year. Mom came back quickly with, "well MOST of us don't look as good as last year!"  She certainly had us laughing. If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from this trip to Middle Grove click HERE.  We had supper a little late. Ruth came over to relieve me at 6:30 pm.  Diane is on her way home and reported at least the weather is now nice. It is, it was 55 and sunny but this is not going to be feeling like Gulf Shores. Check out the ice on the lake in the picture below. This was taken around 5:00 pm. The ice is causing a nice cold breeze to keep it cool on mom's deck.

Galena's Girl

 A text came today from the lady who bought Galena last year. It's a GIRL! 

We are thrilled for both Galena and her owner. Such a beautifully marked filly. Our day started with the coffee wars.  Mark got up at 3:00 am and started the coffee. By the time I got up at 5:30 am the pot was already half empty AND no longer hot. To keep peace in this house we will need to buy another coffee pot so each evening I can make 2 half pots of coffee. That way Mark can start his pot when ever he wants and mine will be ready at 5:15 am, strong and hot.  This truly is first world problem. Can't we all just get along. I was laughing as I typed this.  We left at 9:00 am drove over to mom's and picked up mom and Aunt Jinnie for church.  Mark drove mom's car. We had another wonderful day in church. Gregg Rumbold had the first service. Lunch was served by the Bible class and included brats, hot dogs, hot cheesy noodles, broccoli salad and all kinds of home baked sweets. David had the afternoon service on Psalm 68.

After church Ruth met us at mom's and helped get mom back into the house.  The thermometer was reading 46 degrees with bright sunshine. Mom and Aunt Jinnie spent some time out on the deck on the swing.

After dropping off mom and Aunt Jinnie after church we had just gotten home and walked inside when a car pulled up with a group of people wanting to look at Rockaway.  I led him out to the field and let him go to show off his movement. He had fun galloping around the field bucking and when I opened the back gate ran right back inside where he belonged.  I'm not sure how interested they were but told me they would like to think about it. I said good by and headed in to get supper going.  We had a delicious supper tonight. Mark grilled parmesan coated chicken pieces and when they were almost done brought them inside and put them in the crock pot on low to finish while he took the vegetables out to grill. Those were green, red, yellow and orange peppers, plus 3 large onions all of which had been coated with olive oil and parmesan cheese then grilled.  While mark was grilling I was using the air fryer to fry 25 egg rolls. We also had a big salad and the chicken pot pie.  Anna brought lots of goodies, her mom and dad served lunch today at Morton. There was plenty of food and it all tasted good. There is even enough for dinner at mom's tomorrow. Once the food was put away and the table cleared the crafts were brought out. 

Below are a few pictures.

To see the rest of the pictures click HERE. Every one left by 8:00 pm. I did a load of dishes then sat down to work on posting pictures of tonight. Mark went to bed, after all he has been up since 3:00 am stealing coffee. 

The Tapping

 Mark started the coffee maker at 4:30 am and that meant I had to be up and guarding the coffee maker at 4:45 am or Mark might steal a cup taking all the good strong stuff and leaving me the weak coffee. At 5:30 am he was ready to start bringing in wood for the day. It is still pitch dark out at that time so I was a little surprised and turned on the outdoor lights for him. He made it all the way to the wood shed before coming back and sheepishly explaining, I forgot it was still dark out and need a lantern. We both had a good laugh at that. That's what happens when one wakes to early.  Breakfast was served after the wood was brought in. At 7:00 am I headed up to the barn apartment to turn up the heat and turn on the lights before coming down to get ready to head over to mom's house.  Mom had a restless night, waking up at midnight. Karin thinks it was because she didn't drink enough yesterday, gave her a glass of water which she drank then slept the rest of the night. Today we made a special effort to make sure she drinks more. She also got some walking in and leg exercises.  Aunt Jinnie has been helping with those. Mom had a good lunch then got settled on her chair around 12:45 pm so I left to start working on the supper meal. Sarah took the afternoon and Ruth took the evening but I told them I would bring supper. Tonight we had paprika chicken served over white rice with green beans cooked in chicken stock and a big salad with bacon bits (left over from breakfast) a hard boiled egg, grated cheddar cheese, sunflower seeds served with either poppy seed dressing or blue cheese.  All was delicious. Both mom and aunt Jinnie gave me the recipe. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream.  During dinner a text came in from a man wanting to come see Rockaway tomorrow after church. We left mom's at 6:20 pm just as it was getting dark. Mark led Sally into the indoor arena, Rockaway followed and from the indoor arena we took them into the stall barn and both were given some grain. After putting the halter on Rockaway both were led back to the paddock. I was pleased Rockaway led well but then we were following Sally.  I went back to feed the cat only to find the garbage can the cat food was in was knocked to the ground, the bag was torn apart, the other garbage can (the one with garbage in it) was also knocked over and garbage was strewn all over the stall.  There was no cat food left. I hiked back down to the house and got a can of sardines to feed the poor cat today and she will get another can of that or tuna tomorrow as there is no way to pick up cat food until Monday.

That cat is much to valuable around here to go without food.

I think a raccoon got in the barn and caused the mess. The side door of the barn has been frozen open and I usually keep the stall door shut but didn't think about shutting it as we no longer have any grain in there. Monday after buying another bag will need to figure out how to keep the bad critters out. 

Jozsef went to David and Stephanie's today to tap their maple trees.  This is such a good learning experience for all of the kids.

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. Within a few minutes of setting the tap the bucket already had a couple inches.

This evening the peppers for tomorrow's meal were washed and cut up then put in a gallon sized bag and put back in the fridge.

Tomorrow they will be coated with extra virgin olive oil then covered with parmesan cheese before grilling. The dishes were done and it is now 8:00 pm. I am so ready for bed.

Saying Good-Bys

 I made it over to mom's by 7:45 am and mom was already up and sitting at the table waiting for breakfast. Bill and Bethany's family came by around 9:00 am to say good by. They were heading home today but stopped first here and then were heading to grandma Bev's to say a final good by. Grandma Bev has been on hospice and we got word today she was failing.  I'm really glad Bill and Bethany came in time. She was such a wonderful loving person to the Reinhard family these last 2 years and all of them came to love and respect her.  Aunt Jinnie had mom doing leg exercises today and mom was determined.  These older sisters really know how to inspire the younger ones. Mark got home from work about the same time Karin arrived back so I left to get some things done on the farm.  We needed to get a new bale moved in for Sally and Rockaway's paddock. 

Below Mark is putting it on the feeder. We usually removed the net wrap but not on this bale as we don't have a shelter for the bale and the net wrap keeps a lot of the rain out of the hay making it last longer. Notice Rockaway standing far right waiting patiently for Mark to move the skid steer out of the paddock?

As soon as Mark was gone both Sally and Rockaway came over to start eating.  Sally is 15.3 hands tall and is in front of Rockaway in the picture below. It actually shows how tall this coming yearling is. 

After the skid steer was put away I left for Sam's Club to pick up items needed at mom's house today plus the chicken breasts, peppers and onions for Sunday's dinner. I drove home through a snow squall and made it back to mom's at 4:30 pm. Spark and Rhonda were going to be there at 5:00 pm with supper so I left to go home and make Mark supper. We had taco's tonight and they were delicious. The wood burner was started right after supper. It is really cold again today and since I was gone all day the house was cool.  We have a guest coming in tomorrow for the barn apartment so before heading to mom's in the morning I will need to run up to the apartment, turn the heat on and make sure it is really.  I'll need to head to bed in a few minutes as tomorrow will be a busy day.

Canada Bank Run

 Yesterday Trudeau declared the Emergency act would continue but today he did a quick about face now declaring the emergency is over. Those truckers are crushed. Well perhaps the 'real' reason is what has been happening at 5 major banks in Canada. All 5 went down at the same time and stayed down for hours. It is not surprising, if millions of Canadians no longer believe their money is secure. 

Rebel News reports: “Canada’s largest banks are all offline. Royal Bank, BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC Bank… What could cause all three to crash on the same day?” The answer, of course, is a classic bank run as the people of Canada rush to pull their deposits out of the country’s banks before the government steals all their money. The dynamic duo of Trudeau and Freeland, in less than 30 days, has managed to reveal to the people of Canada that not only is their government a terrorist authoritarian regime, but that all their life savings and business assets can and will be looted by that same government without notice, for almost any reason whatsoever.  So ARE Freedom truckers crushed?  If anything this actually is very revealing on government overreach.  This small fringe minority that truly is millions strong have inspired the world.  Tamara Lich, one of the convoy organizers has been jailed and denied bale on charges of counselling to commit mischief.  They are not saying she committed mischief, just that she counselled others to "Hold the LINE!" Tamara has NO criminal record and yet is so dangerous she will have to stay in jail until her trial.  This really is outrageous and I can't believe this is happening in Canada.  The other awful news is that Russia has invaded Ukraine. We are praying for the people there. How awful that this is happening.  Jesus said, "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. . . . All these are the beginning of sorrows"

We had another cold day. I got lots of cleaning done in the house.  Mackenson and Mark brought in lots of wood then took a pickup load over to Joan's for her wood burners. It started snowing this morning just enough to cover the ground but this evening we are getting a mixture of snow and sleet making everything slippery. For dinner tonight Mark used the air fryer and fried fish, fries and asparagus. He is having fun trying different foods. I didn't care for the fries as he added garlic but the fish and asparagus was delicious.   

AC Central Events

 Brr it was really cold this morning. Mark got the fire going early. I'm sure glad we got those bales moved in yesterday. Today was work at home day, general cleaning and laundry. I had AC Central on while working and today instead of listening to sermons I went on Events, listening first to Fred Witzig on How Did We Get the Bible and when that was done listening to Jeff Waibel on How to Teach/Preach on Controversial topics. Both were really good. Below is a younger picture of Evan playing in the snow that came up on my memories. He is only 2 years old in this picture so we must have had a lot of snow that year.  .

Mark brought home chicken from Kroger for our dinner. It was too cold to want to work outside so he found work to do on his computer. We left for church at 6:15 pm.  Craig Stickling had the message reading first from Proverbs and then the last chapter of Acts. After church we all stuck around visiting. Bethany came today from Bluffton. Bill is out of town for a few days so she drove here with the 4 kids. 

Elisabet and Stephanie were also there so after church Elisabet and I strung some letters and numbers together. 

It is always good to be with our church family.  

Moving 3

 I picked up Aunt Jinnie at 8:00 am this morning to head down to the Peoria post office to pick up Berean mail and still make it to the Berean office before 9:00 am. We made it but not by much. We had a very good morning there. If you would like to read about that click HERE. On the way home from that office we drove straight to the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles being mailed out today. Aunt Jinnie was dropped off at mom's house then I headed home. The wind had changed and was now coming from the north dropping the temperature into the 20s. Mark made it home by 4:00 pm which just barely gave us enough time to get the 3 bales moved in before my next job.  None of the horses were out of hay but I would rather keep lots of hay in front of them for this next cold spell. We did  Dancer and Sheena's paddock first. I had given them some grain on the other side of the shelter so they weren't tempted to run out while the gate was open as the bale was being put in. Their bale was huge. They were happy to start eating right away.

Next was Valiant's bale.

The last bale moved was Evan's bale.

With the warmer weather, rain and snow melt these last few days the drives are quite muddy but by the time we were moving the bales the wind was blowing hard and the thermometer was down to 20 degrees the ground was freezing quickly. The ground wasn't the only thing freezing, even with gloves on my fingers were frozen by the time we finished the job. Once the ground freezes solid which should be tomorrow I'll need to move one more bale in for Rockaway and Sally's paddock. I was due at mom's by 5:00 pm and still needed to cook supper.  Mark used the air fryer to fry up egg rolls. The rotisserie chicken purchased yesterday was deboned and added to a rice and vegetable dish to make a chicken casserole. A big salad was put together next and all of that was served with rolls and butter. For dessert we had blueberries drenched in French vanilla cream. We had a quiet evening at mom's. Karin put on a cute movie for us to watch and by the time that was over mom was ready to go to bed. Mark had the fire going and the house is warm inside but outside it feels like 7 degrees and there are snowflakes being blown around in the wind. Check out the video below if you want a little news from Canada. Just a nice interview with 2 people who are being persecuted.