Clair Disaster

What a blessing church was Dave speaking in the morning and Willis in the afternoon. I really wanted to take a short nap after church but it wasn't meant to be. First the 2 mares inside needed to be fed, watered and their stalls cleaned, then as long as I was working, Clair was brought over to Raven to see if she was in. Yes she was and covered. She was put back in the pasture behind Raven's exactly where I pulled her from. The next mare to be teased was Lola, she was not in. Prissy however was, she is being held in front of Raven's paddock so he can tease her when I hear the sound of a crash. Valiant and Evan have broken through their paddocks, through the high tensile electric fence, through 3 2x6 boards and Evan is covering Clair. Prissy didn't want to move away from Raven and she is being dragged back into her paddock but by the time I got to Clair Valiant is covering her. Evan was put back inside, Valiant was pulled off but the damage was done and Clair moved into the middle paddock. As Valiant is being put back another crash and Clair has slammed through 2 boards letting Ribbon, Mytross and Ella out and runs over to the boys where she was promptly shocked by the electric fence as she tries to climb in with the boys. The other three mares are running around all excited, go near the breeding shed where Cor is and Cor kicks a board down. The mares were caught Ribbon and Ella put in paddock number 2 (no shelter) while Clair and Mytross were put in paddock number 4. Those boards were fixed, then Ribbon and Ella put back in the middle paddock where there is shelter. Clair is so in season she runs over to the fence to show to Ribbon, Ribbon thinks she is threatening, whirls around and kicks the fence destroying a post and knocking a few railings down. Mark, Mike, Diane, and Karin all come to help and by the time they were done everything was fixed and more. The fist picture is how Clair left the boards in the middle paddock.

The next picture is Karin, Diane, Mike and Mark working on the stallion paddock.

Mike with one of the boys watching as he fixes the high tensile electric fence.

It was extremely hot, Diane brought water out for all of us including Ebby.

Not that Ebby helped at all! Once the posts and boards were all fixed Karin, Diane and I loaded the vaulting barrel into Mike's red truck. Karin is teaching a 4 day camp at Rainbow Riders and needs the barrel. She originally came over to pick that up and we put her to work helping. If Clair ends up pregnant we will have to have a DNA test done on the foal to see which stallion is the sire. All the help headed over to the playground for some volley ball. A few action shots were snapped.

In case you were wondering, Fedi lent Brian and his parents some Hungarian HandyMan lime green shirts.

The players would break for water and a short rest before the next game started.

Sarah arrived home from Jamaica while the games were still in play. Mark and I headed back to give Raven and the boys new bales. I'm TIRED! Some day of rest this was!

We Only Darn Socks (Not)

Not anymore. Anytime mom would hear someone (not in the family we were never allowed to use slang) say the word darn we would hear out of her mouth, "we only darn socks!" And we grew up darning socks. Well I'm pleased to announce we are so rich that 2 days ago I refused to darn the holes in my socks and picked up a 6 pair pack at Sams for only $9.96. Even with garage sales, when the kids were young we had a tough time keeping enough mated pairs of socks on hand. Mark was good at accusing the boys of taking his but really I don't think they would have been caught dead wearing their dad's socks and may have gone to school with no socks or unmatched. How easy life has become when there is enough money in the account to buy socks. Just one more blessing to thank God for! That list is so long it is tempting to just give a general thank-you and I probably can't even count that high but isn't HE worth more than that? Today is our wonderful day of rest where we have the privilege of worshiping our amazing God, fellowshipping with like minded Christians and hearing the truth spoken in love. Some days I can't wait for Sunday. Ben was suppose to pick Sarah and Maria Sauder up in Chicago late last night but before he left the message came from Maria's parents that their flight was cancelled. They were trying to get on the next available which would have put them at O'Hare around 1:00am. We still haven't heard if they made it home from Jamaica. Those 2 girls were not there vacationing, nope they were busy teaching special education children. Sarah had 8 students all with different abilities and talents.

Air Conditioning

After breakfast Mark and I headed to Pekin, IL to pick up the mower, stop at TSC and load 20 bags of bedding. We turned down Cameron Lane and had to wait for the St. Jude runners. While the truck was idling the air conditioning stopped working. The rest of the trip there and home was miserable. That's one thing that MUST be fixed and fixed soon! Next week we have 3 days predicted to be triple digits and the other 4 high 90s. On the way back to aggravate the situation we got stuck waiting for a very long very slow freight train hauling coal. It was going so slow the man in the semi next to us decides to wash his truck and was able to finish all the windows front, back, inside and outside before the tracks were clear.

Once home and the bedding unloaded Mark started on the weed whacking while I started on the mower and mowed until it ran out of gas. I was almost finished and as compulsive as I am the mower was left where it stopped and inside I went to cool down. Rhoda arrived and once we were cleaned up we headed to Bloomington, IL to see the grandchildren. Ben & Taunya were babysitting for Phil & Anna so all three were in one spot. We went to Famous Daves for dinner, dairy queen for dessert and the entertainment was back at Ben & Tauyna's where we watched the kids play on the tramp.

We arrived home around 9:20pm, Rhoda helped get the mares and foals out, the stalls cleaned and finally everything is done enough to head to bed.

Cinderella's Bella

The owner of Cinderella sent a picture of her filly Bella. Isn't she just the cat's meow! What a beautiful filly, such presence for one so young. The truck was not unhooked, Mark wants me to use the truck and trailer to run to Pekin, IL and pick up our mower, not that we want to mow but the weeds don't stop growing even if the grass does. We have 3 mares that must be teased today, all three got shots to bring them into season. Mytross was moved into her own paddock so Clair can be grained. Clair has lost weight, Mytross has gained weight. What an easy keeper that old mare is!

Afternoon Hauling

Some of the afternoon was spent at Diane's pond visiting with the adult children while watching Diane and Rhonda's grand children have fun in the water. Below is Tate and Josiah:

Willow trying her upside down dive.

Willow with great form as she enters the water.

And explaining to us how much that hurt.

While we were watching a small bird flew into the pipe by the diving board. She was busy making a nest inside.

It wasn't just the kids having fun the dogs were having a blast.

Ebby was smiling for us:

The next picture is some grass Diane isn't getting mowed very regular. She claims it is suppose to look like this:

By 4:00 we had 4 horses loaded and ready for the first trip out to Middle Grove. The horses were in the cool shady woods but came running when they saw us pull up.

We unloaded and headed back to the farm for a quick dinner before heading back out. Karin was here working horses. She reported Mytross did wonderful, Evan was better than Valiant but really both boys did very well. Mike and Diane came over to help get iodine on the umbilicus of Jenis' filly then hold Lola and Prissy for their shots. Hope these mares come in soon. Mark and I headed back out to Middle Grove with Lily and Helen. Even though the grass looks brown there is still plenty of green underneath. Those horses have SO much to eat. Below is either Zalena or Ciera, they are just too hard to tell apart.

A couple of pictures of Mindy and Bonnie, they were so glad to see each other again.

Below is Helen running with her mom:

We arrived home for the second time, moved horses around, cleaned stalls and finished up the day with an ice cream cone.

Vaulting Competition Pictures

Michelle Kellenberger posted pictures of the vaulters at the Iowa competition. Michelle, I'm stealing these, no one thought to email any for here. Below the vaulters are practicing on the barrels.

Above is the team photo and below it the team after they received their ribbons.

It is time to make a webpage for Jenis' filly. Even though she is only 1 day old a few photo's were snapped for her own brand new page on the website.

Just a bit later Diane came over on her golf cart with 7 little ones all to see the babies. Once they saw Jenis's filly out they went to see Oliva, Eliza's filly.

That was thirsty work and they needed to take a break and get a drink out of the hose.

Yesterday after getting home from work Mark went out in the 93 degree heat of the day to work on the fence line. He loaded up the firewood into his truck for this coming winter. By the time it was unloaded he needed to shower.

Hard to think we will be cold enough to want a fire! It still needs to be cut and split in manageable pieces for our wood burner.

Eliza Pregnant!

It seems with each vet visit we have good and bad news. Our good news today was Eliza is pregnant by Raven and due June 10th, 2013. Our bad news is Clair, the last time we had her sonagrammed Dr. Hoerr told us yes she was pregnant but probably losing the pregnancy. Today it was confirmed, she did lose that baby and is now open. Poor Clair, more than likely the stress of losing her very sick filly caused her to abort. Clair was given a shot to bring her back in season. Three other shots were prepared and taken home, Jenis' filly got her foal shot and Lola & Prissy will be given a shot to bring them in season. Depending on their last cycle it could be as soon as a few days. The bill today was $129.00 for the 2 ultrasounds and the shots.

Cool

We have a beautiful cool morning. Jenis and her filly had a good night. They were left in the stall but with the barn doors and windows open for sweet fresh air and they can be left open for the rest of today. We are having a one day cool spell according to weather.com with the high only to reach 87 degrees. Clair and Eliza have to be taken to Morton, IL for their scheduled ultrasounds. It would be wonderful if they are both pregnant, both were bred on their foal heat. Their appointment is 10:00am, hope someone is around to help load around 9:15am. This will be Eliza's filly's first trailer trip. We have started to call her Olivia, Livvy for short, but the papers are not yet sent in so if someone doesn't like that name and wants to buy her let us know pretty quickly. Friesian names must start with M, N, or O this year. Jenis' filly has a lot of spunk, we want to get to know her personality before she gets a name. Shots must be picked up from the clinic. A foal shot for Jenis' filly and 2 shots for the paint mares. They are maiden mares and if they have come in they don't know enough to show, if not the shots will bring them in. Once we are back from the vet appointment, the trailer will be fully loaded with horses going back out to Middle Grove. Mike moved 7 of the horses over to the new land a couple of days ago, Diane called last night to report they are doing well. They are walking down to the big lake to drink and haven't left the meadow. There is so much grass on that 200 acres. The first trip will be Indy, Ayanna, Killian and Mindy. The next trip will have Lily and Helen. Clair can go out if pregnant and perhaps Mytross if Rainbow Riders don't want to try her for their program.

Jenis Has a Filly

So all night long I waited in the study taking cat naps on the futon. Each time Jenis would make a noise the monitor would be checked. Finally at 4:09am I thought, she is not going to have this baby tonight and headed for bed. Just before 5:00am Mark wakes me to say he hears something weird in the barn. It took a few seconds to see on the monitor a baby walking around trying to nurse and Jenis trying to get away from her. Jenis was held to try to make her stand still and accept the filly but there was no way she wanted her anywhere near her udder. The instrument of torture, according to Jenni Moser, (the twitch) was brought out to make Jenis stand and that worked, once the filly had latched on the hormones kicked in and Jenis accepted her baby. The baby is tall and big boned and very determined to nurse. Good thing she has her work cut out for her being Jenis' daughter.

They were moved into another stall so the straw bedding could be cleaned up. What an awful job but straw is still the best for delivery. Once they were back in their clean stall Eliza and her filly were moved inside. It is already in the 80s and will soon be up near the triple digit mark again.

Davidovics Accidents

Poor Ruth! On the walk today she shares how Anni got in an accident taking a big chunk out of the back of her car then last night one of the boys driving Ruth's car to Tim's got in an accident smashing her car. Diane made her feel better reminding us of the time Andrew fell asleep at the wheel totaling his car in the very late hours on a Sunday night and before Mike could call the insurance company Monday morning Jenny called him to say she had totaled her car. When he called the insurance company they were told both of my kids totaled their car and they didn't hit each other. After the walk a nice lady named Dawn and her 2 very polite young children came to see Helen. Of course they had to see the rest. They helped fly spray the horses before leaving. It was another unbearable triple digit day. Raven is the only horse really suffering in this non-relenting heat spell. He needs to be hosed off regularly but we hate to make him walk into the barn with his bad knees. Tomorrow the hoses will be hooked together and dragged over to his paddock. Ruth and Fedi invited us to Fairview Chicken Farm for dinner tonight as a thank-you for the work we did on Rebekah's reception. We were teasing Fedi that this is the wedding that just keeps costing!

Spark, Rhonda, Mom, me, Diane, Mike, Ruth, Fedi, Anni, and boys all really enjoyed the meal and conversations. The service was great we even had enough time to talk before heading to church. Ruth brought out the tickets the kids received from the accidents for Mike to look over.

We all headed to church arriving early. On the way home we started talking about how Tim feels the time is short. Mom mentioned she is glad she is 80 and the only thing she wants to take with her when she goes is Heidi. Of course Spark started in on how we are going to have to have a closed casket if that's the case, he can just visualize an 80 pound German Shepard stretched out next to mom. Then mom states, "I hope Heidi goes first." when Spark came back with that could really be bad smelling casket we are roaring with laughter. Once home Eliza and her filly were pulled out of the stall and Jenis tested. She is testing blue between 250 and 350 giving us a better than 50 50 chance of delivery tonight but knowing Jenis it will be tomorrow. She was brought inside and the monitor turned on. Don't know how much sleep I'll be getting tonight.

Break in the Clouds

Today was Bible study day and Eva Jean and I thought we were going to get done early. There was a moderate amount of mail, more than 200 but less than 300 pieces. We were processing the last few when Uncle Ed and Aunt Bernie arrived at the warehouse with more mail, lots more mail! We went from being done early to a phone call from the guys wondering if we were coming, they were dying from hunger! Eva Jean threatened to order a huge steak by the time we were ready to leave. She works for food! The car thermometer was reading 100 degrees on the way back to the farm. It was more than hot, with our high humidity it was unbearable! While at work Karin called with a report on Lola and Mytross. They were taken on the death trails today with Bethany riding Lola, Karin riding Mytross and someone else on Ribbon. They reached the water and Ribbon refused to cross the creek. Mytross took the lead and didn't even hesitate plowing right through. We are thrilled with Karin's report on both mares, she even got a canter out of Mytross. She said Bethany loved Lola! Jenis is progressing, her colostrum was tested and the calcium level rising. It was reading between 150 and 175 today. When I went out to draw the colostrum the clouds were putting on a show. The camera had to be brought outside for a few shots. What is behind the clouds? A silver lining shining down our way!

We have weeds, but beautiful weeds, the queen ann lace right now is beautiful.

Picking Up Helen

Rhoda was waiting at the apartment by the time the walk was done. Braelyn was fed and changed before heading out to Middle Grove to pick up Helen. That worked well she fell asleep in the car-seat and slept the entire trip out, loading the horses and the trip back. The horses were all waiting at the gate. When Rhoda haltered Lily she saw that Helen had had a run in with nasty thorns. Poor blind Helen! These were the thorns we were pulling out of her face and neck:

What was amazing was how still she stood for this process. She followed Lily into the trailer with just a little bit of assistance and traveled well going home. A halter was found for Helen, then they were unloaded and walked over to the cabin field. Sangria was so glad to see Lily, her very best friend!

The horses were drenched in fly spray before we headed back. Mytross was brought into the indoor arena and harnessed to see if she would be good with pulling a cart but she didn't want to stand well so the cart was never hooked up. We will focus on under saddle training with her, Karin would like to see if she would work for Rainbow Riders. We were so glad to get back into the air conditioning by the time the horses were put away. Braelyn was having fun playing with Emma.

She decided to climb on top of Emma, see below how Emma handled this:

She had Braelyn flipped off very quickly and then stayed belly up. Mike and Diane came over after dinner and were telling us about their weekend up at Lake Michigan with their entire family. At one point their 6 year old grandson Tate was riding in the truck with their grand daughter 6 year old Ella. Ella tells Tate, "This is what I do Tate if I'm going to get spanked by my dad, I ride my bike far away and hide. Tate answers, "Ah, don't you have anything better than that, I would be exhausted?" Ella comes back with, "well then you could just hide." Tate says, "but my dad is really good at hide-n-seek."