Picking Up the Pig

 Just Ruth and I walked again. Joan's house was all dark when we arrived so we chose not to wake anyone. After the walk I left immediately for the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail. There was a flock of geese all grazing in the front yard of the post office. 

After getting the mail I drove to the Aldi in Pekin to pick up a few groceries. I met Debbie T, she remembered me from Bridlewood. She was the one that sold a pony to Amy and told me Rhoda was in a Bible study with her. We spent a few minutes catching up. After the groceries were unloaded I left for Eureka meat locker to pick up the hog we had processed there. That was divided up and then delivered to 3 different families. There was only about 140 pounds so it wasn't a huge amount of meat. I stopped in to see Sarah who was taking care of not only her 3 little ones but was also helping someone who had a hip replacement and was caring for their two. She has such a nice set up with a huge play yard for the kids and some very nice big yards for their dogs. Their little Cavalier came right up to greet me.

Maddie has her own yard as her puppies are due next week. Maddie was also very glad to see me.

Maddie is a purebred Wheaten Terrier and she was bred to Winston a purebred Poodle so is expecting Whoodles next week. Whoodles are none shedding and must be regularly groomed. Winston is pictured below.

The waiting list application for the puppies is now open. If interested in learning more about that click HERE. Zion had to show me how she could climb and jump.

Even Eden climbed to the top of a car, check out the video below.

After returning home Indy was teased. She didn't squeal for quite a while but no winking so I'll just have to keep trying. She just doesn't show when in season so is really hard to get bred.

She has such gorgeous foals.

After putting her away I went to mom's house for an hour to play carbols with Rachel, Joan and Karin getting home from that just in time to make dinner. Today was an easy day.

Another Beautiful Sunday

 As almost everything was done yesterday to prepare for today this morning was an easy one. We needed to leave by 8:30 am though as Mark had arranged to meet with Geoff to work on the thermostats at 9:00 am. Joan brought the wheel chair van with mom this morning as she had Aubrey overnight. Joan was teaching this morning so I sat with mom. David had the morning service, the 3rd message on Psalm 110. If you would like to see that click HERE. Craig Stickling had the afternoon service on our Galatian Bible study. Phil and Anna were already here by the time we got home from church. Kensley helped me with teasing Indy. 

When she didn't show she was given the second shot of Lutalyse. Hopefully she will come into season soon. Another booking came in for the barn apartment, now every weekend is booked until November. Berlica and Aubrey came over on the 4 wheeler to check out the B&B Bakery.

They decided to head to the playground for volleyball so Aubrey gave them all a ride over.

Sarah and Nolan arrived as I was working on the onions. Zion and Eden wanted to help too.

Those onions were sautéed and served along with some sautéed mushrooms and with some perfectly grilled porterhouse steaks. River thought that was delicious.

We are raising carnivores here and start them young.

After supper we headed over to the playground. The kids had so much fun on the trampoline, they always come up with new ideas.

Anni and Matt arrived with their brand new son Dexter.

There were a couple other babies at the playground tonight.

Below is a short video of a few of the activities.

Very thankful for another beautiful Sunday.

 

Saturday Workday

 Indy was teased early this morning and for sure said no. Tomorrow I will give her the second shot of Lutalyse. We had an absolutely beautiful fall day for the barn work day.  Phil and Anna had a crew come in to help today. David, Lee and Nolan all arrived to help. David brought Israel and Elisabet while Phil and Anna brought Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley. The kids had so much fun playing while their parents worked. Spark and Rhonda arrived on their fun machine to pick up some pots and pans Beth left for one of their girls. They gave me and all the grandkids here a ride over to mom's house.

The work team was pulling wire.

Mark had been digging but got the Kubota stuck. He went back to get the tractor but while he was gone Phil and Anna got it out. The video shows how they got that job done. Meanwhile the kids were playing first inside the barn then out on the new load of gravel that was dumped last week. They really have fun working together. 

At 11:30 we went in to start lunch. Berlica and Braelyn helped with cutting up the vegetables.

Only some of the crew left to come here for lunch. Phil and Anna kept working while the rest of us enjoyed lunch. After lunch the kids loaded into the car to go up to the barn and play on the hay.

I left them to head back to the new barn for a few more pictures there.

When I got back up to the barn the girls had set up a mud pie bakery stand calling it B & B Bakery. 

Check out the video below to learn more about this bakery.

Their imagination and inventiveness is boundless. They love working together creating things. At 5:00 pm I was to be at mom's. Joan had taken mom to Nancy's activities this afternoon and were just getting back from there. She was very tired so once she was comfortable I left Karin in charge and headed home and was home by 5:30 pm just in time to take the girls home. Mark took Berlica home while I took the other 3 home. Only then did I start working on the dishes and cleaning up the house. I happened to look out the kitchen window and saw the sky was a beautiful red but by the time I got outside with my camera the sun was already setting. I snapped the picture below as I was getting into the car to head up to the field.

The picture below were taken from the field.

I took one more picture as I was heading back to the house.

I'm very thankful for what got done today. 

Fall Arrives

 Just Ruth and I walked this morning. It was my turn to be with mom today so I finished the walk at her house and just stayed there. It wasn't very nice out today so we stayed inside all day. Fall has arrived! Today it felt like fall and by this evening a drizzly, cold November day. The horses here were all in their shelters enjoying their hay. The picture below LOOKS like a November day at Middle Grove but it was actually taken in February 2020. It popped up as a memory. 

Karin came home so cold she filled the hot tub and even mom enjoyed using that. What a change from yesterday's sunshine. I needed to leave for about 10 minutes to fill the fresh water tank of the 5th wheel once Karin was home. We had left overs for supper tonight. I left mom's at 8:00 pm. 

Dexter Ferenc

 Mark left the house around 6:15 am to drive all the way in to Peoria to turn the lights off at church. I decided to go feed the cat but when I got to the door there was a big praying mantis looking down at me on our door frame. It was pretty cool outside so I left her inside thinking I would let her out when it warmed up a bit but when I came back she was gone. 

I headed up to the barn at 6:30 am. The cat was fed then when I walked between the two buildings looking up and East the sky was turning colors and the moon was shining. The lights are on in the stall barn where the cat gets fed.

I needed to go through the stall barn to the other side to get a better picture of the sky plus it had lightened up a bit and the color on the clouds more intense by the time I took the picture.

Mark got home around 7:00 am.  Ruth and I walked a little early so we could get to Joan's house by 7:15 am. Ruth had to tell us all about her morning yesterday and how she ended up driving all over at 3:00 am. After the walk we went in to talk to mom and Karin. Ruth left for work but I stayed and cooked breakfast for them then went home to get some house work done and the baking done. The potatoes were peeled and put to soaking in salt water. The pork roast was allowed to come to room temperature and then sprinkled heavily with salt and pepper. The pumpkin pecan pie was mixed up and put in the oven to bake and while that was baking 8 eggs were hard boiled to be used for deviled eggs at our dinner tonight along with all the other food. The man staying in the 5th wheel will be checking out in 9 days. I'll have 1 day to clean it before the next guest moves in. This one wants to stay all of October. I started using the 5th wheel for airbnb on Aug 6th and it has stayed rented every day but one day since. It was a good investment. That is the 5th wheel behind Indy's colt. 

 Indy and her colt were taken out so Indy could be teased. She is just not showing. They were taken to the outdoor arena for a few pictures. He is a really nice mover.

Matt and Anni brought 1 day old baby Dexter Ferenc Ricketts over to see great grandma.

Mom was thrilled to hold her newest great grandchild. Matt and Anni are pretty thrilled too.

We are losing count of the greats. 

Today was mowing day. Joan had all the mowers going. Berlica was on the zero turn, Faith was on the grass hopper and Mackenson was using the push mower.

The dinner was all ready to take over to mom's by 4:50 pm. Mark came with me to help carry everything and every bite was delicious from the pork roast drizzled with gravy, the mashed potatoes and gravy, the apple sauce, the eggs, the vegetables and especially the pie! After supper Karin went over to help set up the hot tub at Joan's house. When she came back I left and got home at 7:00 pm just in time to go with Mark back in to Peoria to turn the lights back on at church. We got all the way to Sterling hill when the car started making a terrible screeching sound. We pulled off onto a side street and Mark climbed under looking for what must be dragging except there was nothing dragging. We decided to go on to church and check it out in the parking lot. When we arrived the church lights were on. Thank you to whoever did that. By this time the sound coming from the car wasn't near as bad as when it started. Below is a video of it once we got to the parking lot.

Mark checked all the tires then got the lug wrench out to make sure those were tight.

They all were and once we started driving home the sound stopped.