Beautiful Sunday Morning

The sun is shining bright, the weather is cool but with a promise of warmth and walking into the stall area both Lily and filly are doing wonderful. What a beautiful morning. If the weather holds, after church and if Steven is here to help, we will walk these precious 2 out to the field and then into the pasture with my camera in hand. Her well baby check up and foal shot is scheduled for Monday April 2nd as Dr. Hoerr is coming out anyway to ultrasound Ciera and Zalena.

Long Legs

The filly is doing great, nursing well and getting stronger by the hour. It is really funny watching her try to lay down for a nap. She is never sure what to do with those long legs. Below she is starting the process.

Ends up planting her nose into the floor.

Finally gets her back legs down.

Then stretches out to catch some zzzzz

Steven slept at the cabin last night as he had an 8:00am lesson to give and left Lily and her filly after 11:00 last night. Lily listens for his truck and nickers when she hears him walk in. He took care of her stall, then moved in a new round bale for the boys before leaving today.
I had a quiet day and was glad for the few visitors that came. Sue Martin came to see the little one and updated me on her Raven filly now almost 3 years old. Amy Koch came over with her horse trailer attached giving Raven hope there was a new mare in it but nope she came for a nice visit, she brought her dog Poppy to play with Emma. Amy had been in a jumping clinic at Gray Horse Farms and stopped by on her way home. It's great to catch up on the news.
Mark picked up $30.00 worth of fat head minnows for the pond, went to let them go and had to chase the mares out of the pond first. Funny Friesians swimming in March, don't they realize that water is still cold. He ordered 250 blue gill and 30 bass from Herman Brothers pond Management and Nate told him to get those minnows in now.
After lunch Mark worked on building a raised garden.
Mike and Diane finished the floor of the cottage at Middle Grove. Diane feels they are just about done with it. I'll have to get out there and get some indoor pictures, the cottage is charming.

The Birthing Video

Above is the birthing video of Lily's filly. If you watch this you will see at the 57 mark one leg and the filly's nose but the other leg which should have been presented before the nose is barely sticking out under the first leg. Mark needed to grab that leg and pull it into position for Lily to be able to finish delivering this filly. This is one reason we try to attend each birth. All is well and the filly is doing fantastic today. She is 8 hours in the pictures below. We will keep them in a stall together for bonding purposes, until the filly learns to follow Lily then if the weather stays nice, tomorrow they will be moved into a pasture. She is not yet named, Friesian names need to start with M, N or O this year.

Lily has a Filly

On our walk this morning there were spiders webs all filled with dew. Rachel pointed them out, I took this picture but later she got out her macro lens and took beautiful close up pictures, they are on her blog if interested.

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day but by 5:00pm the storm clouds started moving in.

Then it started hailing. I was glad Lily had been brought in earlier.

Tonight at 9:15pm Lily delivered a beautiful all black filly. By 10:00pm the filly had her first few sips right out of the container, she was able to latch on and nurse. Lily was anxious this evening, not eating her food and pacing in the stall so we knew she would deliver soon. Steven thought he would be here around 9:30 and Karin also said she would come except Lily went in to labor around 9:00pm. With my hip replacement only 17 days ago I'm still not allowed to bend much less pull when needed and by 9:10pm Lily was in trouble. There was only 1 foot showing and a nose. Mark was called and poor Mark, this goes way above his comfort level but he needed to find the other foot and bring it up. He did the job and once he got both feet up and out Lily was able to deliver her filly the rest of the way by herself. Mark got the sack off the filly's nose but she was choking, some amniotic fluid had gone into her lungs. He was told to quickly pick her up at her chest and let her head hang down to help get the fluid out. All of this only took 5 minutes but those minutes were tense. Once she was breathing well all three, Mark, Lily and filly rested. Steven arrived shortly after and took over all the hard work like tying up the placenta and moving the mess out of the stall. By 11:00pm the filly is standing on her own and moving straight to the milk bar. We are heading to bed YEAH!!! and early night.

Braelyn's Birthday Party

The entire Sceggel clan along with mom celebrated Braelyn's first birthday party. Phil and Anna provided the entire meal and it was delicious. They grilled the fixins for fajitas and Anna has a cheesy noodle casserole that is the best I've ever tasted.
This was Braelyn's first taste of cake and ice cream and that frozen treat didn't stay on her tray very long. By the time she was finished (at least her mom thought she was finished) she was more than ready for a bath.
The party was still going strong when Mark, mom and I had to leave. Mom needed to get home to pack, she, Spark & Rhonda left early this morning to head down to New Orleans to visit our cousin Renee then will be driving over to Gulf Shores.
Lily was put in a stall yesterday afternoon, the rain was pouring down and she is beginning to wax over. Steven felt her foaling was close enough that he spent the night in the stall area. I stayed in the office with the foaling monitor on the bed watching and listening to everything Lily did all night long and nope there is still no baby. Steven pulled out around 5:30am, he will be exhausted today. What a blessing that foaling monitor is, even over the pouring rain I could hear when she moved around. The night vision on it is amazing, we had one small lamp burning and I was able to see her every movement.
Today will be a resting day to prepare for tonight. The video camera is ready to go. Anyone that wants to join us for a birthing party is welcome. Diane's grand daughter Ella made sure to tell me that if I need her to pull she is more than willing to come and help. Except I'm not sure Ella likes touching wet slimy bloody things.

Spring Weather

Today is suppose to be a little more like our usual seasonal spring weather, cooler with rain although it was sure nice at 7:25am. So nice instead of riding the golf cart for the first round I walked. Now the great part was Diane and Rachel didn't realize I was walking until I had to ask them to slow down a bit and the really bad part is I can't keep up with my 80 year old mother. The second round was spent riding so the walkers could go at the required speed to get their exercise.
Lily is definitely progressing, it would be wonderful if she would wait at least 4 more days that would put her only 2 weeks early and get us past the predicted rain. It seems funny with the weather so warm that we don't have more foals on the ground until we remember it still is only March.
The first phone call came early in the morning to let me know how their Raven baby is the darling of the barn but... is it usual for her to drink so much? Another person called to tell me how wonderful her Raven daughter was and how she can't wait for the dressage shows in her area to start, they just had a dressage clinic and the clinician said, "her normal trot is an like an extended trot." This reminded of me how lax we have been on updating the page on our website: Special uses for a Raven baby. I'm so thrilled when people keep in touch with us even years later. Thanks everyone that has written lately, that page was updated as much as I could remember but if I've forgotten any special uses, it doesn't hurt to remind me what you would like listed. Each Raven son or daughter out there old enough to be ridden is special!
Today we are celebrating Braelyn's first birthday with dinner and a party at her parent's house at 6:00pm.

Holding Together

Above are the staples that were holding my leg on. OK perhaps those tiny little things were not really holding the leg on just the wound closed.
The appointment with Dr. Mulvey's office was actually 10:50am and they kept things hopping first taking x-rays, then removing staples and finally having the big boss's assistant as the big boss was busy look things over no bending, no sitting in a comfortable soft squishy arm chair, and no picking heavy things up but just 30 more days, I can live with that. This surgery really was a miracle for me, it is amazing to think 15 days ago my femur was sawed off, the ball removed, the cup router-ed out and all new complete high performance titanium hip joint inserted and today I can walk.
Lily was checked today, her udder a bit fuller today than yesterday so a bit of colostrum was pulled. It is still clear yellow so she still has time. We have no foaling kits and probably we should get a couple for this year as we have a couple of maiden mares foaling this year, Airiah and Jewel.
Mark is staying in town and will meet us at church.

Set Back

Above is mom holding her newest grand daughter or at least she will be once the adoption goes through for Joan and Tim. This picture was taken in February when mom, Beth and Justin went over to Haiti to visit them. Now we hear Joan and Tim may be adopting a little boy also if all goes well.
Today instead of feeling like the first day of spring it feels like we have been in summer for at least a month. Another 80 degree day, records are falling everywhere.
This morning I had a set back on recovery. Driving the golf cart down to check on Lily, then practicing driving with my right leg as I zoomed back up toward the barn, somehow a stray baling twine flew up hooked over the left foot as the golf cart ran over the other end it jerked me sideways hard enough I thought perhaps the right hip dislocated. Not so as I can still walk but my is that hip sore. Driving in to work was a slow process then once there agony. None of this could be shown though, it was my decision to work today and our faithful volunteer Eva Jean was giving up her day to help. We had so much to do after laying around for these 2 weeks. We were able to get all of the studies processed but none of the letters or UPS out Bibles to chaplains and none of the individual Bibles were mailed. It really was all we could do to finish the mound of back logged mail.
Nancy Dreste was in town and stopped by for a visit, then Steven showed up to move in a round bale for the middle paddock. He comes to the door with a huge bloody knot on his forehead. The wind is so strong today it picked up one of the big barn doors where he is working across the street, taking it off the hing and slamming it down onto his head. It's a wonder he wasn't killed, those doors probably weigh 200-300 pounds.
Hope he makes it home ok, he said he wasn't dizzy and never lost consciousness so probably didn't get a concussion.
I'm heading to bed in hopes I'll feel well enough to go to choir tonight. My mind, voice and heart need to sing.

Ciera Out

We had rain this morning a good drenching rain. Instead of walking we met over here for Breakfast. Rachel brought green eggs and not ham but bacon while Diane brought the bread for toast. Mom brought the orange juice. Ruth joined us even thought she had already eaten her breakfast. We enjoyed the breakfast almost as much as the companionship.
Rachel stayed after to help clean up the apartment although I'm feeling pretty much fine. If it wasn't for the no bending law I would not need help but there are still things that must be done by a bendable flexible person. Thank goodness for sisters.
We enjoyed rehashing the Night of Worship while she worked and I watched.
The day turned out beautiful, with bright sunshine and a high of 81 degrees. The horses were kept off the fields because of the rain but tomorrow will be allowed to graze again. Steven came over long enough to tease Ciera. Her ultrasound is now scheduled for Monday April 2nd, around 10:00am. We will also have Zalena checked at that time.
I finished the last unread book in the apartment and worked on trying to burn a dvd for Rachel but the computer kept freezing up. I downloaded all the files on an external hard drive and will give that to her tomorrow. Perhaps her son Caleb will be able to burn a dvd with them.
Diane came over to help unload the dishwasher and clean up the few dinner dishes. She stayed until Mark arrived around 8:00pm. Mark had a late meeting and was glad there was still food left for him.
Tomorrow I'm breaking out of this place, driving to work and hopefully the library. It will be 2 weeks from the surgery and I am so ready to go back to work. Wednesday is the appointment to remove the staples.

Sunday Games

It was so good to be back in church, good from the time we arrived until we left for home. Today was our communion exhortation, Tim gave one that was not like any I've heard before. Hope it was recorded, I'd love to share it with family members that couldn't be there.
After church we stopped at Sams to pick up Mark's new glasses then down to the shop to pick up a bid he needs to email out. The weather was so nice outside that even though I was tired from the long day it was too nice to rest. The golf cart was taken over to Diane's and Willow, Diane's grand daughter went for a ride with me to mom's. We found mom fishing for her dinner, she had already caught a good sized crappie and was pulling in another when we arrived. Grandma was good enough to let Willow fish for a bit but the fish quit biting right about then. It had nothing to do with the fact Darcy kept jumping in the water and chasing any fish away, nope it must have been the way Willow was fishing. The pole was put away and mom went up to clean and cook her dinner. The kids started to arrive to play volley ball. We pulled up on the golf cart and Spark and Rhonda pulled up on their 4 wheeler to watch. Below is the jeering section, oh wait perhaps it is the cheering section.


The games were well matched and each side got into the 20s with some going overtime.

Notice the intensity of these 2 players both watching for the ball. Notice the white on Karin's shoulder, that's duct tape, she is trying to play with a sore shoulder and remember her remedy is duct tape for everything.

It's not just the kids that get into playing, the dogs do too.


And when the big kids finally get off the court it is claimed by the next generation.

It was such a nice evening we sat and visited. Below we thought was a strange picture, we don't usually catch David petting dogs, let along smelly Emma.

The video camera was returned from the night of Worship, the Sauder's want a dvd burned but both Rhoda and I couldn't figure out how to get this job done after working on it for an hour we gave up and will take it in on Tuesday for Phil instruct on how to do this one more time! but at least I can work on a couple videos tonight. Enjoy this, I sure did.

I also uploaded the second song Rachel sang. Listen to the words of this song, How can we Know?

Music Glorious Music

All night long it seemed the apartment was filled with music. Each time during the night when woken the remnants of what had been playing in my brain lingered. All from the beautiful music of last nights Night of Worship. The song, What do I Know of Holy, was the one that woke me early this morning, ringing through this small brain. The words convicting yet comforting.
The first song sung last night was a song for someone that suffered a loss. I didn't know the song but the words were so touching I couldn't stop the sobs and started praying for restoration. How thankful I was that there were people willing to share their talent for our benefit. David Jacob and Caleb sang a song with the refrain Can we Speak about Jesus Now right before Spark got up to speak. Spark told us of how 6 months ago at the Peoria County Jail a man came to the church service with the sole purpose of killing another inmate. That Sunday there were no guards in the room and when the fight started Spark grabbed the one that was to be killed and ended up on the floor with him with his arms around him, telling him, "just stay down." Then a foot comes into his vision trying to slam down on the head of the inmate Spark was trying to protect. Spark grabbed the foot, looked up into eyes so cold, so hard and so filled with hate it shook him. He told us, he knew this one was going to hell. That prisoner was never allowed to come back to the church services but a few days ago a guard asked Spark to visit him, telling him, "he's changed." Well to make a long story short, the other prisoners would come back from the services and talk to him. Spark met with him, the man looked at him this time no hardness, no hate, and with warmth in his eyes asking for forgiveness. Who can change a hard heart? What does it take? Spark repeated the words to David Jacob's song, Can we talk about Jesus Now and reminded us all "don't stop! The second half of the program David led the congregation from song to song. When he started Day's of Elijah the room rocked with enthusiasm, almost raised the roof of that huge old school on that song. The last song of the evening all sang How Great Thou Art and truly How Great He Is!

Night of Worship

The place to be if one wanted to worship the King tonight was Farmington, IL at the Old School Center. It started with a line up of very talented musicians, broke for a short talk by Spark, then finished with everyone singing to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a blessed night, what an awesome night, and hopefully what a holy night. Thank you Rachel for organizing this for the second time.

One person played on the keyboard Be Thou My Vision so amazing, so unbelievably talented, so beautifully we were still talking about it on the way home 3 hours later.
Home news is Sarah is back from her mission trip in Mexico. She was working at the same orphanage David lived for at for 2 years. It is good to have her safely home. The other mission trip going on at the same time was clean up in Texas. Fede, Anni, Rebekah and her fiance Brian were on that trip and that also was a good productive trip. I'm very thankful our church sends our children to help where help is needed.
Ciera was covered today but may be going out. Steven will check her tomorrow.
Rhoda met one of her old Pony Club friends, Amanda, out a Middle Grove and explored the new land with Mike on Mika, Amanda on Sally and Rhoda on Sangria. Her words were,"the new land is amazing, and Sangria is so much fun!"
What a great DAY!

First Graze

Steven opened the back gate, just a few steps out and their heads dropped. They needed a bit of encouragement to move away. Left to right is Airiah's tail, Jenis, Ylse, Eliza and Zalena.

Jenis and Ylse were really enjoying the spring grass and couldn't make themselves move away.


It didn't take too long for them to start checking out the dam.
Left to right is Ylse then Eliza.

Zalena is in the lead over Ylse with Eliza to the left but not by much.

What a special treat for them, nothing like delicious, nutritious spring grass. Too bad they can't stay out long.

Night Of Worship

Mark gave us permission to allow the mares on the pond field for a short time starting today. That field was newly planted last year and we want to make sure it is not over grazed but it will be wonderful for the mares to have some fresh green grass. We won't keep them on the field very long as this will be their first shot at the rich spring grass. We still are amazed the field is actually ready this early. We have never been able to give them this treat this early. The weather has been strangely warm and moist causing the fields to green up way earlier than normal.
Mike and Diane are heading out to Middle Grove so Steven will get to do the honor if he is coming today. I want to be there with my camera if I can find a way to get into the pasture safely.
My favorite cousin Mary Ellen is coming for a visit this morning. She is the cousin that is the nearest to me in age, only a few weeks older.
Tonight is a special night in Farmington, IL at the Old School Center and this is an invitation to anyone that wants to come. Tonight starting at 6:30pm is the second annual Night of Worship. This function is free to anyone that desires to come hear new groups sing praises to the King of Kings. There will be a speaker and community singing also. There will of course be free food. This is open to ALL.

Surprise Birthday Party

I had visitors today, Stephanie showed up first, then Tauyna, Addyson, Jack, Anna and Braelyn. It was so good to see them all healthy and happy. Last week both Jack and Braelyn had Roseola, high fever and then finally the rash. They did some very needed grocery shopping for us. The grandkids played so well inside for quite a while. Braelyn was getting so good with the ball she could stand, drop the ball, toddle over, lean down and pick the ball up without falling.

Addyson was showing me how she plays nicely with her brother.

And Jack was having fun smiling at grandma. Just look at those eyes.

Addyson kept looking out the window trying to see Ella the pony. When she couldn't see Ella she would pick out another to ride but this grandma wasn't giving rides.
Finally finally aunt Rhoda arrived to give Addyson a pony ride on Jenis. Addyson was so excited when she saw Rhoda leading Jenis to her she started jumping up and down.




Addyson has a tough time sharing the horse but let her cousin Braelyn climb up on Jenis for a bit.

I understand about the sharing part, after waiting for weeks for a chance to ride and then to have to get off for someone else to take a turn is about as hard a thing ever to ask a horse crazy grand daughter. She shared letting Anna take Braelyn for a ride without too much fuss but was thrilled when it was her turn again. We needed to be over at the Lake by 6:00pm for Karin's surprise birthday party. Her birthday really isn't until the 28th but a lot of the family will be down in Gulf Shores at that time. Karin was told we were celebrating Nancy's birthday early. Ruth brought some birthday hats.

Addyson and Braelyn had fun on the swings while waiting for the dinner to start.

Diane and Mike provided the fried chicken for the meal and the rest of us donated what we had and the food was good and plenty.
Nancy had a ball opening her gifts, she gets so excited and happy about any present. Karin was actually thrilled with her gifts. She wants to buy a 4 wheeler to leave at Middle Grove and was given a camouflage tarp to cover it with, a gallon size gas can and a huge lock to lock it all up out there.
By 7:00pm my energy level tanked, Mark drove us home on the golf cart and it was straight to bed for me for three hours. The good thing about being up at 11:00pm at night is no one is waiting for the computer. The bad thing is I really need more sleep. Good night all.

Worms Big Ones

We are trying to walk this morning and the first thing mom does is see a big fat night crawler crawling across the drive. Mom, who will be 80 on the 30th of this month exclaims, "Oh look!" uses her walking to stick to help bend down to pick it up. Now we are not dealing with a child or even someone fascinated with worms, nope we are dealing with a true fisherwomen. She was actually going to carry the worm home until someone made the suggestion of putting it in the cup holder on the golf cart. I knew that cup holder would come in handy. Of course now that she has somewhere to put the worms every night crawler in view she insisted on bending down, picking it up and placing it in the cup holder until finally Ruth exclaimed, "mom, I have to be at work soon and don't have time to watch you pick up worms." Diane told her just don't look down but then Rachel thought that would be a bad idea, she could trip over them some where so big. Mom did quit when the cup holder was half full. When her walk round was done she had to go dig in her special manure pile for some good dirt for these pets, at least they are pets until she gets her pole out and then considered fish food. None of us would help her pick up worms, none of us wanted to get our hands dirty but mom never worried about dirty hands when she was thinking of fishing. So now everyone knows where Nate really got his love of fishing, his grandma.
Steven and Mike had Ciera out on the first round of the walk. Evan had a successful cover. Ciera did wonderful, Evan jumped up before he was ready and when Steven made him get off, he was a little confused thinking he was in trouble and not suppose to be there. These young stallion's egos are so fragile. Once he was told it was ok, it didn't take long to get the job done.
Mike took a video on his phone of the herd running at Middle Grove yesterday after dropping off the 4 new ones. It is too big of a file to email so hopefully his son can help render it enough for it to be uploaded. We now have 16 horses at Middle Grove. Mike is going first thing tomorrow morning to check on them and do a count.
Mom came over to help clean up the floors, we had a good rain last night that not only brought out the night crawlers but the ever present mud.

Ciera In

This afternoon was very productive for a crippled old lady. Steven came after work and gave Lily a good groom. It is so funny watching Lily's lip during her grooming, one can easily see she feels like she is in heaven.



It didn't take long for Emma to ask for some of that wonderful scratching.

Mark pulled up right about then with a delicious dinner from Eva Jean. While that was heating up we took the golf cart over to the farm house and checked out the progress. We both were pleased with what was done today. After dinner we each had a square of the dessert Eva Jean sent, some kind of apple caramel cake, absolutely delicious! It will even go better tomorrow morning with coffee.
Steven brought Valiant outside for pictures of Valiant doing the Spanish walk. That's right, left, right:



A few pictures were taken from the indoor where Valiant was doing a very expressive big trot under saddle but of course those are too dark and blurry.


Once the boys were put away it was time to tease Ciera and finally she is in showing well. Evan was brought over for his first job of the year. Now we have a young not practiced stallion trying to cover a young maiden mare. It didn't go too badly but we decided to twitch Ciera to stop her from moving around. That just made things a bit easier for Evan. So I've had a hip replaced on Tuesday March 6th and 9 days later I'm holding a horse by a twitch. Mike has promised to help tomorrow morning as today is considered a clean out. Still it was a success and we will mark her down.
Mark got a new pond rake and is busy trying to skim duckweed off the pond. He is really burning calories tonight.

Website Updates

Mark filled the tire on the golf cart so I could ride along on the walk. After perhaps doing too much for the last 2 days and not sleeping well because of general aches and pains in the leg, I thought instead of walking I'd ride.
It was a beautiful morning that promised to get hot and hot it did. It is too hot to sit outside comfortably so the training pages we wanted to add to the website were worked on. This sounds easy but by the time they were up and running hours had gone by and it was after 1:00pm. At least the time flew by instead of dragging on and on. After yesterday I came to the conclusion I'm not cut out to be a lady of leisure.
If interested in seeing the 4 new pages to the website just click on the horsemeister website to the right and scroll down under Valiant and Evan's picture. There is now a link to 4 of the trainers. Emily's page is also finished although technically we don't want ANY ONE to hire EMILY...she's OURS! Really she lives in Forrest, IL and we don't see her that often. Usually we give her a difficult horse or 2 each summer and get them back in the fall and they are just about perfect.
Mike will be taking Paris, Ella, Indy and Killian to Middle Grove tonight after work. He has the truck and trailer already hooked up, once home from work he can load and go. He and Diane are having lots of company out there and need all of the riding horses, that's all of the riding horses that aren't pregnant Friesians.
And now for a few more of those fabulous IL Horse Fair pictures taken by Rachel Sauder.