Finally Finished

 Today I planned on switching cars with Sarah just before 11:00 am decided to go a little earlier to see what kind of progress they have made on their house. I pulled in at 11:00 and just then a text came in from Sarah asking if I would bring some wash rags. I turned around and drove right back home. What a blessing they only live 4 miles away. Rhoda and Iris arrived there earlier to help Sarah with the construction clean-up. Rhoda was busy scrubbing the living room floor and Sarah was working on the kitchen floor when I arrived the second time. 

Iris came with me to pick up Zion, Eden and River. We were also meeting Stephanie there to pick up Rizzy who will be staying with us this weekend while they are out of town. The pick ups went perfectly and we were soon on our way home. Mark had to make a run to Costco and I asked him to pick up a chicken for the girl's lunch. It was waiting for us when we arrived home and everyone was hungry. After lunch we drove up to the apartment to change clothes then to the barn. Oh did we have fun there. First the bouncy house. Iris, Zion and Eden all learned how to hang from the rafters and bounce.

They also learned how to turn the fans off, climb in and hide before it was completely flat then have fun crawling around until found and the fans turned back on.

They had the most fun hanging from the blown up rafter.

When we got tired of that game the horses were tied to the carts for horse fun.

Next came whiffle ball. I was the pitcher and the girls took turns batting, catching and running the bases. All 4 of them made home runs. No pictures of the whiffle ball game as I was too busy pitching and catching balls. Those girls are good at that game. We quit about the time we got the notice Rhoda was on her way to pick up Iris. By that time Phil brought over Kensley, Taegan and a few of Taegan's friends. Iris wasn't ready to leave but Rhoda was exhausted. Those girls put in a LONG day working. Good news is they FINISHED! When Sarah came she told us they would be moving in tomorrow and would spend the night in their brand new house on Saturday. I sure hope she posts pictures of the before and after. This was a huge project. They moved the front door, built a deck, tore out interior walls, put in extra bathrooms, completely refinished the floors and walls, tore out everything in the kitchen and replaced it with beautiful quartz countertop, all new cupboards and brick splashguards. The girls had supper here while Sarah and Nolan finished up a few things then went out to eat to celebrate. I'm am so happy for them and so thankful for all the help they got from their siblings!

The temperatures are dropping tonight. It was above freezing today but this evening it felt cold in the house so we brought in wood, enough for tomorrow too and started a fire tonight.

Plans

 Another cold morning and as soon as I got up the fire was started in the wood burner. There were some pieces of charcoal left from yesterday's fire so when I cleaned out the wood burner before putting in the kindling the charcoal was piled up in the middle.

It didn't take long before it was burning brightly and putting out the heat.

The rest of the ashes go into the bucket then are spread on the garden or in the manure pile. There was no outside work that needed to be done today and I was glad to just keep the fire going while reading. Winter is our slow time and usually less work unless we have frozen waterers. Thankfully today we didn't. Two  years ago we were struggling with buying home owners insurance. No company would insure us. I finally asked our insurance agent why and she came back with you have PIRATES, and take part in very risky businesses. I was a little surprised. I knew they must have been looking at old pictures.

Below is the performance in 2016

They asked us to come back the second year so we did another pirate performance in 2017

If you would like to see the blog post of the 2017 performance click HERE.

Our pirates were all long gone, most of them are now married with children. I tried to explain those pirates were pretty much all family and were SAFE pirates, they only had plastic swords and no guns. They only performed at the Illinois Horse Fair for 2 years. The last year we performed we did the Wizard of Oz play. It didn't matter, no company wanted to insure us. All the years we were performing, all the years we lived at Pleasant Home and then here at the Horsemeister farm we have NEVER turned in a claim and yet all those companies thought we were high risk. I removed the pirate pictures from the website and the next year we were able to get insurance. We no longer perform anywhere. I sold both of our big 4 horse gooseneck living quarter trailers, sold the 2003 pick up truck and now have just the new (2015 Chevy) pickup and 2 horse trailers, the Eclipse 2 horse and Mike's 4 horse stock trailer. I miss those days but life sure is easier. I will need to bring Rosalie in before I leave for Gulf Shores Feb 9th and have her sonagrammed again just to make sure she is still pregnant. 

We have sold her foal. The people buying this foal will take her to Western Hearts in Kickapoo early March and have her deliver there. She is due March 30th. She will be staying with them until the foal is weaned, although I will bring her back to be rebred during that time. We did this with Madiera one year and it worked out well. I can make plans and hope they go as planned but no guarantees. First comes  the ultrasound.

Swans

The cold was back so when Mark went for a walk before breakfast I brought wood in and started a fire in the living room wood burner. The wind was really strong this morning slamming into the house. Breakfast was cooked after he got back. 

After breakfast the dishes were done and the laundry started then I drove back to the Berean office to pick up all the studies from Michigan that needed to be graded. The gusts of wind were pushing the car around it was hard to keep it in the right lane of interstate 474. There were 20 sets of studies that needed to be graded so those were done while the laundry machines were running. Every once in a while a new log would be thrown on the fire keeping the house above 70 degrees. I saw someone posted the swans were back near Elmwood so thought I would drive to Middle Grove to see if they were back in those fields but realized it was so cold and the wind was so fierce I just decided to look at the pictures and videos taken Jan 12th, 2023.

They are such an impressive beautiful bird.

I didn't even realize these swans migrate through our area until 2023. One year we had a flock land on the lake. Rachel took the pictures below.

We left for church at our usual time. Caleb Plattner had the message on when Jacob took his wives, children and flocks and left Laban. Genesis 30 and 31. If you would like to watch this click HERE.

After church the young group left for Joan's house.  Mark and I had not had supper yet so went to Culvers. That place had very few customers tonight.

Cold Returning

 We had a good morning at the Berean office today. Marvin forgot his phone but Gail called right at 9:30 am (our prayer time) so we didn't even miss Marvin's alarm. He has his phone alarm set at 9:30. We get so busy we need that reminder to stop and pray for the prisoners and for us.

Skip accidently found 2 bulletin boards by knocking them over when he came in for the prayer. They were stored behind the door. Marvin brought them and some day we will get them installed as we end up with so many reminders there isn't any room on the one we have up.

After the prayer Marvin flipped his chair to repair the rollers. 

We had a busy day today, more mail than expected and lots from Michigan. When that happens we really miss Vonnie. She and Verle always took those home and graded them. Michigan is special in that red ink is NOT allowed for grading. We cannot use anything but blue or black ink, therefore those studies can't be put in for others to grade. We used all of the Bibles we had at the office. Skip has 10 cases ordered but they hadn't arrived yet. We had more requests than Bibles today so some we were only able to fill a partial.

Below Kathy is asking Marvin how to answer a difficult question.

We had a crumb cake Sarah gave us along with donuts for our treat today. After we took a break Kathy still had some letters to write and I was working on envelopes doing mom's job since she is still in Gulf Shores when Skip came back to the office with more Bibles. Those 10 boxes came in and we were able to finish today's requests. As soon as those were stuffed, processed and put in the car with the other mail. I needed to leave at 11:45 am so I could pick up the girls from school. River always gets out 15 minutes before the others as she is in preschool.

When Eden and Zion got to the car we left for Menards to pick up 2 buckets of mortar for Sarah and Nolan's new house. Sarah was busy today finishing the brickwork in the kitchen and living room. 

It looks terrible right now but once it is on and dry she cleans it off then puts another layer on. 

She had already finished the kitchen walls.

Anni and David helped her do the mortar on the fireplace.

Zion went with her dad to get the shower doors for the 2 full bathrooms

They finished the new half bath off the hallway.

This house used to be owned by an electrician and there were so many outlets both above the windows and below. They removed all of the ones above but check out how many are left in the master bedroom. 

There were 7 or 8 on each wall. The girls were glad to show me Zion's room.

Then their room.

They each have their own closet.

We had some fun with the big mirror in their room.

They hope to start moving next week. 

Mark came with me to the Hanna City post office to drop off the two boxes of Bibles going out. When we got back he went out to cut up some of the downed limbs while it was still mild out. We hit 50 degrees today but not much sunshine. This is our last mild day for a while, winter is returning tonight!

Lost and Found

 Braelyn lost her clear thin line retainer at the barn yesterday so as soon as it was light enough to see I took the golf cart over to look. I could not find them in the barn so went to the dumpster but on the way stopped to try to get a picture of the sky. Just as I was trying to get a shot through the trees David sent one I'm sure he took on his way to work. The sky was gorgeous!

We only threw away one bag of garbage last night so that one bag was taken out of the dumpster and brought into our house. A new bag was placed next to it and I went through the full bag piece by piece but the retainer was not in the bag. I needed to leave before 8:00 am this morning. I drove to the Peoria airport, arrived at 8:15 am and already there were 5 people waiting in line. I needed to buy a ticket from Gulf Shores to Bellevue, Illinois for Feb 16th and cancel the ticket for Feb 13th as Ruth can't get to Gulf Shores until the 16th. The airport is pretty deserted at 8:15 am.

Today I only had to wait an hour and was able to purchase the ticket for $92.50. To get a refund there is a $25.00 charge and I paid less than $25.00 for the ticket on the 13th so no refund on that but it had to be done. When I got home I went straight to the barn to get that cleaned and organized for the birthday party group coming in tomorrow morning. I was putting away paper plates when I remembered what happened last night. We had run out of the bigger paper plates that were on the table just as Matt and Anni were going through the line. Someone found those cheap paper plates and gave those to them. I saw what was happening, grabbed more of the bigger plates, took those white ones from Matt and Anni and told them, "you are our guests, we give you the GOOD paper plates!

We all had to laugh.  Mark was busy this morning putting up signs. We now have a sign on the coat closet.

Below is a closeup of the sign.

This closet can hold a LOT of coats!

He also put up the last sign upstairs about the emergency ladder being stored under the bed. It was warmer this afternoon but when the sun went down it just plain got cold in the house. The wood burner was started and I am now enjoying reading a book in front of the heat that burning wood is putting out.

The good news is Braelyn found her retainer.

Thankful For Sunday

 Ruth sent the first picture this morning taken off of mom's balcony. Mom is loving being able to see the sunrise over the Gulf when she wakes.

Diane sent the next one taken off of her balcony. Mom's condo is 10 floors up, Diane's is much closer to the water.

We had a gloomy COLD morning all cloudy and 24 degrees outside.

I bought a ham at Aldi last week, they were reduced to 99cents a pound and got a nice big 12 pound spiral cut ham that I decided to serve for tonight's dinner. I also had a full crockpot of lasagna left over from Wednesday night family night that I had frozen. Yesterday that was put in the fridge to defrost then this morning that was put in a crockpot to warm back up. I googled if a ham could be cooked in a crockpot and was glad to find a good recipe for that. Brown sugar was rubbed all over the ham, about a 4th of cup of maple syrup was dribbled on top of that then a half of cup of orange juice was poured into the crockpot then the ham added. The ham really didn't fit but I used aluminum foil on top to take the place of the crockpot lid. Both of those crockpots were plugged into the outlets that I can turn on or off from my phone. I only wanted them on low for about 3 hours so turned them off when we went out to the lunchroom. We left for church a few minutes later than our usual time. This morning was the business meeting so we had a shortened message from Craig then went right into it. The generosity of this church blows me away. I truly am humbled each year. At lunch Sarah shared the pictures of Hannah and Jacob's brand new son.

Meet Rilian Jacob Feucht.

He was born at 8:42 am January 9th, 2026. He weighed 7 pounds and is 21.5 inches long. 

We are so thankful for a safe delivery and a healthy baby boy.

Gregg Rumbold had the afternoon message on Colossians 3. Click HERE to watch that message. As soon as we got home from church 2 pans of brownies were mixed up and put in the oven to bake, the two crockpots were checked. The ham taken out and sliced. The juices were poured into a pan and boiled down until a little thicker then that was poured back over the ham. A big pan of macaroni and cheese was made and put in another crock pot and a double recipe of cheese carrots were made and put in the oven to finish. Stephanie arrived and helped get the salad ready and when Joan arrived she cut all the oranges. The roasted garlic bread was spread with butter, wrapped in aluminum foil and heated in the oven 15 minutes before the prayer. Matt had the prayer today then instantly the hungry hoard surrounded the table.

There was plenty of food and plenty of people willing to eat it.

The tables all got filled pretty quickly.

There were cookies and brownies for dessert. After supper the kids went out to the gym to play while we adults visited.

Rhoda and Lee took Nancy home tonight. She was sure happy today.

We really enjoyed the evening. I am so very thankful for Sunday's when we can get together with family.