Melting Snow

 It was really icy getting out to the car this morning to go to church. We took my car as Mark's was covered in snow and ice. Kathy and Randy brought Nancy and she was thrilled to go to Sunday School. She fits right in and mentally is exactly the right age for this class. 

Today the lesson was on King Joash and Joan used a bulletin board border to make gold crowns for each student. Nancy was excited to show us at lunch.

Tim Roecker had the morning message to hear that click HERE. Mike Kaisner had the afternoon service click HERE to watch that. I needed to take the towels home as we are serving lunch next week. We were pleasantly that it the temperature had warmed up into the 40s when we walked out of church. After getting home and changing Mark helped move a bale in for Lea and Thalia. Lea is getting braver with the tractor. She was watching Mark bring the bale.

She ran behind Thalia but didn't run out of the paddock this time.

As soon as Mark dropped the bale and moved the tractor out of the way they both went to the bale and took a big bite.

I took the golf cart up to the barn as Mark was putting the tractor away and couldn't believe the snow melting from the barn.

It almost sounded like it was raining.

Tonight was an easy meal and the food was taken over to the barn to prepare. We had a smaller group for supper. All of the ladies took Stephanie out to celebrate her birthday so just the men and grandkids came for dinner. After dinner came the fun. Carli brought Quinten, Rebekah arrived with her 4 and Tyler and Sam arrived with Lucy. Rebekah watched Lucy so Sam could play volley ball tonight.

 Addyson, Braelyn and Taegan got to plan volley ball with the adults.  The younger kids had so much fun in the gym. They played in the bouncy house, played dodge ball then went upstairs and made up a brand new game.

River and Eden came down to play in the bouncy house.

Once the volley ball games were finished the adults started leaving. Rebekah and Brian took Nancy home to Morton. Nolan and his 3 girls stayed until Sarah gave the ok that he could come home. You see after taking Stephanie out to eat they all went to Sarah's house for dessert.

The girls didn't mind staying late. They played with Karin's beautiful throw for a long time.

Thankful for another wonderful Sunday. 

 

New Puppy

Brrr it was only 10 degrees this morning with a brisk North wind. We had been spoiled last week with mild weather. We needed to bring wood in from the porch to get a fire going quickly. Even with the fire we couldn't get the house thermometer over 68 degrees. I was really glad to go to mom's this morning. Her house was nice and warm.  The sun was out and it seemed like it should be warm but sure wasn't. The lake was not frozen and in the sunshine was sparkling diamonds on the deep blue water. 

When Karin was getting ready to leave mom asked if she would stop at Dollar General to see if any of their Valentine's candy was on sale.  Karin did and brought it in as a surprise for mom. 

She should be good for chocolate for a while.

Later this afternoon Mark and I decided to go to Arby's for an early dinner and got their 2 fish sandwiches for $6.00. From there we went to Sam's and picked up 2 Gyro kits for our Sunday dinner tomorrow along with corn dogs for the kids, kiwi fruit, chips to go with the avocados and mint brownies for dessert. We were going to pick up a rotisserie chicken for Karin but they were wiped out of those. It was too close to supper time. The store was crowded with people and the parking lot full.  Rhoda and Lee went to Indiana to pick up a new puppy. Meet Millie: 

Millie is a miniature Poodle from parents that are OFA certified along with all the other good stuff to make excellent parents. Miss Millie will be bred to a Cavalier once she is grown up for those adorable Cavapoo puppies. Both of Rhoda and Lee's other dogs, Ruby and Hazel have been retired from breeding. 

I had a request today from someone that wanted to bring her daughter riding. A few years back she got to go on some trail rides with Joan's family.  All of our riding horses are at Middle Grove and we just don't do trail rides anymore. The picture below was taken a couple years ago at Middle Grove of some of our riding horses. 

Horses left to right is Sally, Cookie, Sangria, Mika and Missy. We still have all of these horses and they have been living the best life at Middle Grove. 

Fire&Snow

 By the time it was light enough to see outside the snow moved in. Right after breakfast Mark went out  and shoveled our patio and then walked over to mom's and shoveled off her driveway. 

As it was cold in the house a fire was started in the wood burner. Thankful for that free heat.

It was a good day to stay inside and do housework. The laundry was done, the kitchen cleaned up, and the food for supper taken out of the freezer. Around 10:00 am I took the golf cart over to Diane's to open her dishwasher. They left yesterday, Diane ran the dishwasher but it needs to be opened to dry the dishes. Mark wanted vegetables for lunch.

I found a message David gave in 2022 in Princeville, IL and listened to that this afternoon on Psalms 40 and Hebrews 10. This was before Princeville had video but if you would like to listen to it click HERE. The fire kept the house nice all day.

Since most of us just stayed home tonight everyone in the neighborhood was invited to mom's for supper. Ruth and Fedi came, Joan, Berlica, and Mackenson came, Mark and I came to join mom and Karin. We had spaghetti topped with meat sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese a big salad and Steven's home baked garlic bread with brownies for dessert.

After supper we sat around the table telling funny stories about ourselves and laughed and laughed. It really is good to be together. 

44 Bales

 It was 48 degrees early this morning when we awoke, by 7:30, our walk time it had dropped down to 46 degrees. We thought it was warm but right after going outside I went back in to get gloves. There was a brisk North wind. Diane was wishing she had her warm winter jacket on. Berlica's cat followed us again on the walk. We stopped at Rachel's house to make sure her cats were getting fed. The feeder is not working quite right. Both of her cats were hungry.

When Berlica's cat came on the deck Rachel's cats were not at all welcoming.

Thankfully they didn't fight. Berlica's cat was wise enough to stay far enough away.

Today the sun was out and it looked warm but just wasn't. I got a fire going inside. Mark had 2 estimates today so went in to Meisters after breakfast. I went out to clean up the campsite we had used for the 5th wheel. We put in an electrical outlet just for that. The picnic table was left but the umbrella put away. I'm not sure if we will leave it there or move it. It is such a nice private campsite. Maybe Ruth would like to camp out here with her camper this summer.

As long as I was out the bales were counted. We have 18 of our second cutting left. 

There are 26 of the first cutting left. All of it is really good. The first cutting was put up early and not at all stemmy.

The motorhome will need to be backed out of the barn to access the first cutting hay.

My next job was to go into the apartment, Dan took the popcorn machine yesterday. Lighthouse school is borrowing that. I had some sweeping to do in there. Below are the 2 horse throws from Karin.

Karin has now listed her house on Facebook market place. To see the ad click HERE. 

For supper tonight we had pot roast, sweet potato and asparagus. On the walk this morning Diane was asked if they were going to leave today for Gulf Shores instead of tomorrow and she told us no. This afternoon I sent her a text asking for a recipe she has and she replied, "we are on our way to Gulf Shore."  We KNEW it! They left to escape the coming snow. That is supposed to start in the morning but only give us 2 inches. We shall see. 

51 Degrees Feb 14th

 What a difference a good night's sleep makes. I was more than ready to get moving this morning and the energy to get some much needed house work done today.  Ruth, Diane, Joan and I walked and were joined by Fedi's dog, Joan's dog and Berlica's cat. We look like such a motley group walking the neighborhood. We took our time as no one was in a hurry. So nice that Ruth is now retired and Diane is working part time. Diane was with mom today.  Ruth stopped in after the walk to visit to say hello and I stopped in a bit later.  What a blessing it is to live close to each other. Today was a good day to split kindling and I was out on the porch splitting when Diane called to ask if I could help take mom outside. It was sunny and cool but supposed to get up to 51 today. We have lots of split logs but not much kindling and that is an easy job for me to do. Mark took my car to work today, he had to drive to Bloomington this morning for a Trane meeting then an estimate this afternoon. Mike went to Middle Grove to put hay out for the horses. 

He and Diane are leaving on Friday for Gulf Shores and he wanted to make sure they had plenty of hay for a week. The farmer will put another 6 bales out next Saturday.  Mike also wanted to make sure the horses had 2 water sources and ran an electric line down to the lake, put in a bubbler and 2 tank heaters. 

This is all just in case we get a cold spell while they are gone for a couple weeks. The weather is not predicted to have another extreme cold spell so it may not be necessary but now there is no worries about water. This afternoon Mike to his 2 Thoroughbred mares over to the cabin field to let them graze for a bit. 

They are really becoming well behaved. He can take both at the same time while he is driving the 4 wheeler and they stay right with him. He left their lead ropes on but both mares did not try to run away when it was time to put them back in the paddock. 

We got another load of gravel delivered today.

We will get the rest of yesterday's load and this load spread then start on the other side. It was another really nice 51 degree day for Feb 14th. This weather has been such a gift.

Mark and I left for church at 6:15 pm and made it there is 25 minutes (I drove) it usually takes at leas a half an hour. Caleb Plattner had the message. To watch that click HERE. After the service we went with the group to Culvers and stayed quite late. We enjoyed the company and the food ordering a 3 piece cod dinner and splitting it between us. 

Interesting Day

 I was up early too early for the coffee machine so just decided to get up and start that early too. That first cup is so good. I only did one round of walk today, I wanted to stop at Casey's to pick up raspberry flips for the Berean workers but when I arrived at Casey's they were all out of those so instead they got long johns. We had an interesting morning at the Berean office. To read about our time there click HERE. When I got home I took the left overs to mom's house. The birds had the feeder half empty and it was just filled this morning.  

While there I saw the first load of gravel arrive. I say first load, we need so much.

Mark was working at the dumpster with the skid steer and took that over to spread the gravel. 

The day was overcast and the temps in the low 40s so this evening I decided to start a fire.

We have so much wood and Jacob (Spark's son)  dropped of another load of wood for splitting. We may as well be comfortable. We have an abundance but will never turn down wood. 

A Tank of Oxygen

 It was hard to roll out of bed this morning. I was almost late for the walk, I sat down on my reading chair to start reading around 5:45 am and was studying in Luke when I noticed it was light outside, then looked at my watch to find it was 7:27 am. We meet now at 7:30 so I had 3 minutes to change, grab a coat and jump on the golf cart. I arrived at 7:30 to find Diane already waiting. Ruth arrived right after, we walked to Joan's and on the way back to the playground Mark joined us then Mike and finally Berlica's cat. We had a lot to discuss and weren't in a hurry to quit. Breakfast wasn't cooked until 8:45 am. After breakfast we took the golf cart over to the barn and put the horse trailer back inside the barn. Hopefully Fedi can come soon so it can be repaired. Today I left the truck hooked up so if they need the gym they can just drive it out. The motorhome was closed up and unplugged then driven to the gas station to fill it with gas. It still had a quarter of a tank so I am still not sure how big the gas tank is on this vehicle. I may have to read the instruction book.

That was parked in the indoor arena. 

So funny that instead of horses inside we now have 5 campers, one motorhome, 2 tractors, a skid steer, a man lift and one truck parked inside along with the hay. Believe it or not there is STILL room but if we park anything else inside it would be hard to get the hay out to the horses. 

I could hear lots of heavy machinery being used when I got back to the house. Mark was busy cleaning up the burn pile while Mike was removing concrete from his second drive. Below is Mike's second drive. He has the concrete broken up and off to the right side of the picture, there is a large pile of clay he will use to fill in before adding gravel.

Mark's burn pile is almost finished. Just one small pile left.

That burn pile was at least 4 years old and really needed to be burned and now cleaned up.

My next job was to clean up the mud in the apartment. When we were selling the 2003 truck we needed to use the apartment and so much mud was dragged inside. From there I went to the barn to clean up from yesterday. I had mud on that floor too but it wasn't the guests that had dragged that in. I think it was Mark. By the time I was done mopping floors I was more than ready for a break. Mom, Diane, and Karin were all sitting out on mom's deck in the sunshine soaking up vitamin D so I joined them. We had a good visit while lounging out on the deck. The sun felt wonderful. Karin mentioned she found one of my coats and it was downstairs, Diane told me Karin was giving away some horse throws that would go well in the apartment. I was glad to go down and was so thankful to find my coat. That had been missing for months. After losing the last one this one had my name on it. I was really pleased with the throws. Karin was also giving away a throw weighted with sequins. The grand daughters are going to love playing with that so that was taken to the barn.

The picture doesn't show how sparkly it is so took a video too.

The throw below with the picture of a Friesian stallion was taken to the apartment along with one more horse throw.

When I got back to the house AC Central was turned on and Fred Witzig had given the afternoon message in Washington. Fred started with a story of a tank of oxygen and  his terror a few years back and then both readings, Nathan confronting David and the woman at the well fit right into that story. Amazing how that works. If you would like to watch that message (you will want to) click HERE. 

SuperBowlSunday

 Another wonderful Sunday. What could be better but to spend time with our church family and then friends and family all evening.  That's what we got to do today. We left for church at 9:05 but there was little traffic and made it to church by 9:25 am. We found a new ride set up at the church. This is going from the stairwell by the babyroom and winds around until it reaches the basement. It will work perfect once there is an electrical outlet so it can be plugged in. Why mom will be able to ride it down to the Sunday school rooms. David had the morning message, another amazing one and one that you won't want to miss. Click HERE to see that. Today at lunch the men served the ladies first in honor of Valentine's day. They had amazing sandwiches and a big sweet tray to pick from.

There was also fruit and chips and lots of other goodies but I didn't get pictures of it all.  

The men did all the clean up too. Gregg Rumbold had the afternoon message. Click HERE to see that.

After church the neighbors along with a bunch of family came over. They played an awesome game of whiffle ball, then came some basketball and pickle ball as the food was arriving. The little girls were playing so nice in the toy corner. 

Tonight everyone brought appetizers and desserts and there was an abundance.

Mark had the prayer then we all enjoyed this different kind of dinner. There were Chinese chicken egg rolls, corn dogs, bbq wings, corn salsa, spinach dip, jalapeno poppers, fried pickles,  deviled eggs, guacamole, pizza squares, ham and chicken wraps, roast beef wraps and other kinds of appetizers I don't even know the name off. We all had plenty. After supper came more games and visiting.

Some of the group even watched the football game.

We would hear cheering sometimes from those from Bern, Kansas. Hmmm I wonder why. It turned out the team from Kansas won the game in overtime. Everyone packed up and left pretty quickly but by this time it was almost 10:00 pm. Mark stayed to sweep up but I'm home now and will be glad to head to bed. It really was such a nice evening to be together. 

People Loving Horses

 It was my turn to be with mom this morning but before going over the kitchen was cleaned up and the laundry started. Mom was talking with Aunt Jinnie on the phone when I arrived. Aunt Jinnie was reading a book about a missionary in Japan. She is currently visiting Barbara and Tony. We had a good visit before she had to hang up. Mom and I watched the Big Bear Eagle camera. Just as we turned it on we saw Shadow come to the nest to take Jackie's place. It was only 22 degrees there with a strong wind and Shadow laid down against the wind and that made the feathers on his left wing stand straight up.

While we were eating lunch some ravens came by and started cawing close to the nest. Shadow let out is danger call and Jackie came back. She kicked him out of the nest to chase away the Raven's then she laid down correctly hunkering down over her precious eggs.  We had beef soup and the same kind of wraps I made yesterday.

Molly was begging for the soup so mom let her clean out her bowl.

Diane stopped by with a gift for me, an electric throw. Now I can work at the computer and stay warm. Mark had been busy splitting wood on these nice days with Mackenson and filling the aluminum trailer. Today we took the trailer over to Joan's house to be unloaded. 

That is a lot of wood for her 2 wood burners.

Joan still has plenty of wood for this year but this is a huge jump for the next winter season.

As soon as the truck was unhitched we took the truck back to the barn. Mike and Diane stopped in at supper time for a short visit. They went to Middle Grove Friday and took the two pictures below.

In the video below Mike was trying to get pictures but Dancer, Titus, Valerie and Tessa would not stop following him.

They really are people loving horses.