DMV

 Ruth, Diane and I walked, Joan had co-op. The wind was gone and the sun shining. The lake was as still as a mirror. 

Berlica's cat followed us on both rounds.

Ruth was back from her cruise, she and Fedi had a wonderful time. She told us around 5:30 am one morning a front moved in with a 100 mph wind gust and the boat started tipping, things started falling and didn't right itself for what seemed like a long time. She woke up Fedi and told him to get a life jacket on, she was pretty sure the boat was taking on water. Fedi went back to sleep and the boat did right itself. Everyone on the boat were talking about it. She looks tan and rested. Ruth stayed with mom today. Mark and I left to pick up my car from Dan's house. Mark left from there and took his car to Joliff at Pioneer PKWY to get his windshield replaced. I drove first to CEFCU to put cash into checking and to transfer money from the savings into the checking. From there I drove to the Pekin DMV where I spent more than what I put in. It is crazy how expensive the tax and the license plate fee is on motorhomes. I also got the Mini Max camper title transferred in my name and the new stickers for the other 4 campers and the 2015 truck. That little trip to the DMV wiped out my savings and my checking.  On the way home I stopped at Aldi to pick up lunch meats, cheeses, a head of lettuce and chips for the Super bowl party and vegetables and beef stock for the beef soup. As soon as I got home from there the soup was started. An onion, celery, carrots, and the roast were all chopped up and added to the boiling water and beef stock. The left over rice from Wednesday night was added and once it had boiled for an hour I added the 2 teaspoons of corn starch to thicken it a bit. Salt, pepper some steak seasoning and a little garlic salt was added to taste.  That was left to simmer a few hours while I went outside to enjoy the sunshine and warmth of 61 degrees. The soup was turned off to cool just before 4:00 pm. Mark got home while I was out working and enjoyed a bowl of soup declaring it, "delicious!" I'll take some to mom's for lunch tomorrow. The other 7 quarts were frozen. The motorhome was leveled, the slide put out and the floors swept. The pictures were taken and will be used when we go to rent it this spring. 

I was able to get some boards under the passenger side to level it.

It was plugged in and the slide put out. The bed was made up. Below is the bed, the double closet (which is really deep and has mirrors on the doors) and part of the dinette. 

The bedroom has a curtain that can be shut for privacy and I really like that the queen size bed can be accessed from both sides. There are reading lights above the bed on the underside of the cupboards. There is also a light switch on the front wall for the ceiling light.

There is an outlet on the side of the bed. The bathroom is well designed for us old folks. The shower has a grab bar right outside the shower door. There are towel racks on the bathroom entry door. 

There is a nice back splash above the sink, a big medicine cabinet and storage under the sink.

The fridge was turned on, that is propane or electric but since the motorhome was plugged in it would automatically cool on electric. This motorhome also has an electric or propane water heater. The thermostat is on the bedroom wall. The furnace was turned on and that works well. It was too cool outside to try the air conditioner but I'm sure that also works. There is a narrow closet between the fridge and the stove. It is deep and has 2 drawers that roll out nice. There is plenty of room for can goods or other foods as the cupboard is so deep. 

The microwave, 3 burner stove and oven make for easy meal prep while the double sink and counter space make for easy cleanup. I really am amazed at how much storage there is in this 24 foot motorhome.

The television swings out so anyone sitting on the dinette or bed can see it easily. It swings back and locks into place out of the way for who ever will sleep on the top bunk. The kids will love the window on that bunk, plus there are reading lights at both sides. 

There is a privacy curtain that works with velcro that goes around the front window. The dinette easily seats 4 adults.

It is also easy to make it into a bed. Just reach under the table, turn a lever and the table slides down.

The motorhome is very roomy with the slideout out.

Mark and I watched a video on it this evening and that is a good idea for anyone wanting to rent one. The video below is of a 2023 where as ours is a 2017 so there are a few upgrades on the video this one does not have but still it shows the important parts.

For dinner tonight I made one of the wraps I'm going to make for the super bowl party. The sauce for the wrap is made out of poppyseed dressing  mixed with mustard and some mayonnaise. The sauce was spread on first then the meats and cheese with some lettuce on top, the flat fajita bread rolled tight and the two ends sliced off. It made 4 fancy small sandwiches and those too Mark declared delicious. I ate the ends were were good just a little too messy to serve.   

Dan took the picture below yesterday, I removed the electric wires.

He is working on a new song so stay tuned.

New Motorhome

 I left just before 7:00 am, drove to Goodfield and picked up Dan for our trip to the far side of Indianapolis to look at a motorhome. We stopped once for gas about 70 miles from our destination. Gas is no cheaper in Indiana. We arrived just before noon. The motorhome was purchased new in 2017 and used very little. It has been sitting for almost 5 years but started right up. I checked over the inside while Dan checked first on the outside then started the motor and checked the codes. There were some red flags on what I found on the inside but sent pictures to Joan. None of that was a deal breaker but Dan found that the engine light was on and when he ran the codes he showed the owners. The mileage was only 3550. The generator which only has 36 hours on it would not start. Dan looked at that and thought it may be an easy fix of cleaning out the gas line of the old gas and getting a new spark plug. They told us they would not take any less for the price we had agreed on so I told Joan I was walking away from it and going to head home without the motorhome. The owners were told that at this point I would have to do some hard thinking and was going to drive the 275 miles home. Dan and I were no more than 2 minutes down the road when the husband sent Dan a text they would be willing to take less. I pulled over, called Joan and together we decided for the price they were willing to sell it we could afford to get those items fixed so drove back, made the deal and started the drive home. The good news is that the gas tank was full, the bad news is the gas is old but still the motorhome drove well. The wind was gusting so hard that on the interstate it was hard to keep the motorhome in the lane. Dan was driving that and I was following in the car and even the car was getting blown around. We made it to Goodfield to drop off Dan about 4:15 pm.

I left my car at his house and drove the motorhome back to ours. I was almost home when the storm hit with big fat drops of rain but by the time I made it to the barn the rain had stopped. I had just gotten in the house when the rain and hail hit.

I should have driven it right to the indoor arena and parked it inside. The hail didn't last long so hopefully all is well.  Dan got the same storm and sent the pictures below.

Below are a couple pictures of the motorhome's full wall slideout.

I was amazed at how much room there is when it is out. When the slideout is in and while driving the dinette and bathroom can still be used.

The bed can also be used for a couple kids to lay down and sleep while driving.

It is a queen size bed 80 inches long and 60 inches wide so even though the length can't be used two children could easily sleep when traveling, one on the folded part and one on the other. There is also a bunk above the cab which can sleep 2. There is seating for 6. The kitchen is small but has an extra counter space that folds down. 

That really does help with food prep. The original owners put in the upgraded fans in the ceiling. After getting home safe and sitting here thinking about the purchase I am pleased and there is no buyer remorse. 

Grandparent's Day

 No walk for me today, I had to leave the house by 7:25 am to go to grandparent's day at Israel, Elisabet, Zion, Eden and River's school. My little gas light on the dash of the car was flashing that I was out of gas before I started but there wasn't enough time to stop but made it just fine.  We were ushered into the decorated dining room and given a menu to order from.  I ordered the breakfast casserole and cinnamon roll. I happened to know Stephanie made those cinnamon rolls and truly both were delicious. Martha Kay ordered the fruit and a cinnamon roll.

Below is Dana's plate, he had the biscuits and gravy, fruit and a cinnamon roll.

There were chocolate chip scones and cinnamon scones on the menu. Some of the others at our table ordered those and they were good too. The high school kids were the waiters and waitresses and the parents made the food. 

After breakfast we were taken to the sanctuary where the students recited Bible verses and the superintendent told us what we would be doing. We sang the doxology before going to the student's classrooms. Martha Kay and Dana went first to Israel's room while I went to Elisabet's room then we switched half way. The students interviewed all of the grandparents. It was very well attended. I stopped for gas before getting on the interstate to go home. Once home the cooking started. A quart of poppy seed dressing was made first for the salad. Then I started on the rice cooking 80 servings at a third of a cup per serving. The 28 pounds of chicken teriyaki thighs were put in roasters and turned on low. I had to run to the bank to pick up a check for tomorrow and when I was almost home Diane called to ask if I would come to mom's. She and mom had just gotten home from Bible study. Once mom was in her recliner I went to the barn to pick up all the salad stuff and desserts then loaded the car with everything needed for tonight except the hot foods and drove to church. When I got home I napped. Well kind of rested for about a half an hour. Mark went back over to keep splitting wood. We left for church with the rice and chicken in the back of the car, pulled in at the same time as Joan so she and the kids helped with the unloading. Diane arrived and made the salad. 

David and Elisabet also came early to help. 

The dinner went well, there was no chicken left but everyone had firsts and some had seconds. There was an entire crock pot of rice left which will be used in a beef soup on Friday. Diane made 4 batches of salad and if she would have made a 5th some of that would have been eaten but everyone seemed to have sufficient. I brought home an entire apple pie and some cookies. I had  brought 4 pies cut the pies so each had 16 pieces (they were really big pies from Sam's club) and 2 of the big cookie trays. Craig Stickling had the family night message on Josiah. If you would like to watch that click HERE. We were home by 9:00 pm. I had food to put away and lots of dishes to do but they are all done and I'm ready for bed. Pray for Dan and me tomorrow. I'm picking him up early and we are going to Indiana to look at a motorhome. Joan and I are thinking it may be time to replace the 2005 motorhome.

Noisy Neighbors

 I could only do one round of walk. I needed to leave before 8:00 am so I had time to stop at Sam's club before going to the Berean office. Most of the food for the meal tomorrow at church had already been purchased but today I wanted to pick up the lettuce for the salad, the fruit and the desserts. I sure am thankful for Sam. That Sam fellow is a good cook! I still made it to the Berean office before 9:00 am but almost all the other volunteers were already there hard at work. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. Once the work was finished for the morning we sat at the table eating our rewards and enjoying the fellowship. We were laughing so loud at some of the funny stories that when Joan N came to pick up Bibles studies for grading she could hear the laughter from the parking lot. This group of volunteers are wonderful to work with. Instead of going home when finished I started driving to the barn to unload the groceries when I saw the wheel chair van pulling into the garage. I thought Diane was with mom today so went to help. Joan's van was parked at mom's house. My first thought was Joan must have borrowed Diane's car.  It turned out Joan was with mom and took her to the eye doctor while Diane is with mom tomorrow and taking her to Bible study.  The groceries were unloaded at the barn then finally around 12:30 pm I made it home to make breakfast for lunch. I had not taken the time to eat breakfast so made eggs for lunch.  Mark got home from work and the afternoon was so nice out he picked up Mackenson and they split wood for an hour and a half.  I was in the house when I heard the new noisy neighbors arrived. They are transient but took up residence in the woods by our house. 

There really were thousands of them.

Mike got both of his Thoroughbred mares in the outdoor arena now that the mud is drying up. They were SO glad to get out.

Mike took the video below a month ago when he went out to Middle Grove to put bales out for the horses. They heard him arrive and came running down to greet him.

When we first decided to move the horses to Middle Grove years ago we were worried they might become wild. Were we ever wrong. They love living out there but are always glad to see us.

Going on Nine Million

 Three of us walked today, Joan met us and we were so busy talking while walking we lost track of where we had been and where we were going. Diane was with mom today.  Right after the walk the barn was cleaned from the Sunday company. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and I enjoyed working outside.  Diane called after lunch as mom wanted to sit out on the balcony. 

Berlica's cat had followed us over to mom's after the walk and when we got out on the balcony she jumped on mom's lap for attention. Silly cat! All would have been well but she put her claws out to grip mom's dress when she started sliding and broke through the skin on mom's legs. The cat has now been banned from mom's lap. Mark took the tractor over and split more logs. We don't need them now but it was such a nice day it was too nice to work inside.  I surfed AC Central this afternoon listening to some older sermons. So many of my favorite minsters have retired I must be getting old.  The notice popped up of my most popular video on the Horsemeister Youtube site. It almost has 9 million views. Anyone want to help me reach that number, just click on the video below and don't get too grossed out while watching.

I was still recovering from open heart surgery to repair that aortic aneurism and when the foal needed to be pulled I had to call Mark to come help. He did excellent! 

5th Wheel Gone

 Both Mark and I were cold during the night. The cuddledud comforter has been taken to an upstairs bedroom and the down comforter the kids gave us for Christmas is back on the bed. No food prep happened this morning other than cooking breakfast. Tonight's meal was not a crock pot meal so that would need to be cooked after church. Joan is back and brought mom. Kathy brought Nancy and Nancy was so excited to be able to go to Sunday school again. She really missed going while Joan was gone to Gulf Shores and Bluffton. Caleb had the message on how important the Lord's Day really is. click HERE if you would like to watch. Logan stopped by at lunch with his son Quinten to see grandma.

Tim Funk had the afternoon message. Click HERE to watch that. The people that bought the 5th wheel sent a message that they would like to come after 2:00 pm to pick up the camper. We got home just in time. The oven was turned on to preheat then I ran out to pull in the slideouts, grab the umbrella and a couple camping chairs out of the bottom storage and bring in the coffee maker.  They arrived 5 minutes after I got back to the house but that gave me time to get the sirloin tip roast and the potatoes in the oven  . Below they are getting it hitched to their truck. 

Mark was pretty happy to watch it being hauled away. It served a purpose the 2 years we owned it.

Once back at the house the carrots were started and the cheese sauce made for the carrots. The biscuits and all the salad stuff was taken over to the barn. The biscuits were baked there as my oven was full. The meal was done by 4:30 pm. The kids had fun after dinner. When the babies arrived Iris was thrilled. She tried her best to entertain them. 

Zeke was busy with the toys in the corner.

A little later the bouncy house was put up for Elisabet, Iris and Zeke.

They played in that while the volley ball games were happening.

Mike and Diane came over and visited until the volley ball games were over then played pickle ball.

Lee took Nancy home tonight. Rhoda couldn't come as she was working today. Sarah and Nolan are in Gulf Shores. Joan drove with the truck and trailer to Jake's house to  pick up the now repaired 4 wheeler. Berlica has been driving that around all evening. She is VERY glad to have that back.  

5th Wheel Sold

 I dropped off the extra pillows from Karin's house at mom's in case anyone wanted them then took off for Sam's club. We were just about out of cat food and I needed to pick up some small potatoes for Sunday dinner and a chicken for Karin. From there I went to Aldi to pick up some food needed for Wednesday's dinner and finally back to mom's to drop off the chicken. Mark was there taking down the broken gutter and wanted a little help holding the ladder. Once home and after the groceries were put away I got a message about people wanting to come look at the Jayco 5th wheel. They were an hour and a half away so I went right out to start cleaning. I was really pleased to find no sign of mice. I cleaned out almost all of what I wanted to keep and brought all the towels and bedding inside and started washing that. Two couples arrived, the first couple were who wanted to buy it and the second were the rv experts they brought to check it out.  

They also brought along 4 dogs. 

They REALLY checked it out even climbing onto the roof. They were pleased and will come tomorrow with a truck to pick it up. As long as I was doing laundry the mattress cover was removed from the portable mattress Karin gave me and also washed. It came out well. 

This mattress also can be used as a chair and has 2 handles to make carrying easy.

This will be taken to the upstairs game room at the barn.

The comforter from the 5th wheel is called a cuddledud and almost everyone that stayed in the 5th wheel commented on it and asked where it came from. Mark and I never slept in the camper so I decided to try it on our bed tonight and see why it is special.

It feels like velvet on the outside and lamb's fleece on the underside.

I also brought back 2 soft throws from the 5th wheel that will be taken over to the barn. We went to mom's tonight for dinner. That was good, we started with shrimp cocktail with the cocktail dipping sauce. Mark grilled salmon and the rest of the meal was a chicken stir fry, egg rolls and wontons. For dessert we finished up the cherry cake. My last load of laundry has just sent out the notice that it is done so back to work I go. 

Change in the Weather

 After yesterday's warm sunny day today was a little disappointing. It was back into the 30s and cloudy when I drove over to mom's.  Mom was watching the eagle cam again. Shadow had come taken Jackie's place in the nest for a few hours.  He tucked his head under his wings and was napping during the storm. While we were watching Jackie flew back and had to almost force Shadow off the eggs. 

He really didn't want to leave but as soon as he moved off Jackie was on those eggs. 

She got snow up her nose scraping out the nest a bit. While we were watching a big bang came on the window. A bird had flown into the window and was laying on the ground on it's back with the legs pointing up. I should have taken a picture of it as we were sure it had died but after about 10 minutes it flipped back upright and was laying on the sidewalk alive.

As soon as I stepped out of the door it flew away so no harm done.

Karin had filled the bird feeder earlier so we watched for a while.

After lunch mom settled in for a nap. Karin arrived right about then. On my way out of mom's house I stopped to take a picture of some of her work that had been sprayed and was drying in the garage.

A bit later Karin sent the picture below. 

The back story with that was yesterday Joan posted a video of mom on the deck in shorts enjoying the sunshine. Today she was outside but had to stay all wrapped up.  Mark had gone into Peoria today and brought back water softener salt, 6 of those 40 pound bags. Those were sitting in the kitchen when I walked in so I just took them down the basement and stacked them. We both like having soft water. Supper was cooked and ready to eat by 5:00 pm tonight.  This evening Mark wanted a fire to warm up the house. 

We are both enjoying the warmth.

WARM Feb 1st, 2024

 I checked the eagle cam early in the morning, it was probably around 3:00 am California time to find Jackie laid a 3rd egg. A winter storm has arrived and Jackie and the nest have been snowed over. She gets up and shakes off the snow but pretty quickly lays back down on those eggs. 

Yesterday at mom's house we were visiting when a big buck with a nice big rack came running down the drive toward Spark's house. Thalia and Lea were grazing in the field near the drive and took off running up the hill toward the barn not sure what kind of animal that was. Mark reported there were lots of deer tracks this morning. We had some sunshine today AND it warmed up to 56 degrees. Joan sent a video of mom out on the deck in the sunshine. Mark and I moved a bale in for Valiant. 

It is such nice green fine stemmed grasses mixed with some clover and alfalfa. What a blessing to get our hay up dry and early. The horses do so well on it and we are thankful.

It was so nice outside that I stayed out and checked over all the horses. Below are Mike's new Thoroughbred mares. They also are enjoying the hay.

Lea was over by the automatic waterer but when she saw me started over.

She had a good roll in the field now that it is so warm.  Thalia was down grazing. You can see the last of the snow in the picture below.

I took a few other pictures of her and finally tonight got a page up on the website for her.

At 1:00 pm Karin, Mark and I took the truck left for her house in Maquon. Karin has made the decision to sell the house. Both Mark and I were impressed with how nice the house looked.

There is a nice big yard and single car garage. The town of Maquon is about 15 minutes away from Galesburg and is a really nice safe town with friendly people. The house is perfect for a single or a young couple just starting out. It is small, a one bedroom one bath but well laid out. Below is the bedroom, bathroom and a nice big shower.

Below Mark is in the laundry room checking out the water heater. 

She had an electric fireplace in the living room.

It really does look like a real flame. That may just kind of disappear into the barn if she sells the house.

We filled the truck, took some of the items to where Jackie is living. Stopped at the dumpster to throw away the chimney cap Karin had to replace last week then Mackenson and Berlica helped us take everything else down to the basement for Karin to go through later.  Karin invited us for dinner tonight. She served delicious gyros with the sauce, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and deviled eggs.

For dessert Karin served cherry cake and it really did taste like cherries. 

Dinner was great. It was a perfect day for February First. What a gift.