Update from Melody

Hey Judy, It's been almost 4 years since I purchased beautiful Liberty. She is doing fabulous on all her training. I thought you would like to see how beautiful she has turned out. Not only is she beautiful on the outside but beautiful as well on the inside. She has been so easy and well mannered to train. Always willing to learn and try her best. I cant wait to hit the trails and show her off! Thank you for my slice of horsey heaven....Melody Miller

Thank you Melody! How we love updates and how beautiful Liberty is. By the way for those that don't know, Liberty is a Raven daughter out of walker Sally born on the 4th of July. Holly was covered this morning by Evan. She is not giving us good signs but will stand. Hope she really is in. Today was not an easy day I was behind at work and the hurrieder I went the behinder I got. Philip fixed our computer and loaded it into my car while I was at work. The Bible studies needed to be dropped off at Eva Jean's so she could distribute them to the graders while I headed to Sams, then Aldis for groceries for us and the dogs. We are almost $200.00 poorer after that little trip. Probably because I bought bacon! Finally made it home on this beautiful day after 3:00pm. The mares were let out into the field, that is all except Ciera and Bonnie. They were taken into the barn and bathed then taken over to the cabin field. Hopefully they will stay out of the mud for the next few days. Bonnie's eye is healing well. She scratched her eye a couple of days ago while out in the woods. Steven arrived to work the boys and helped bring in all the mares before riding. Mike emailed these pictures of the new pasture at Middle Grove. Look close, all 22 horses out there are in the picture below.

What a beautiful place for these horses. I am so tempted to let Jenis, Olympia, Eliza, Oksana, Ylse and Zalena spend some time out there with the rest of the herd. They are just so valuable we kind of like keeping an eye on them here. Perhaps if Mike and Diane stay for the weekend they can be hauled out. A couple more pictures.

Ken Hoerr had the service tonight. The sermon was not a fire and brimstone but ended with verses of both destinations. Please please don't miss the flight, the time is truly short!

Holly In

Once we were home from Mark's scheduled tests we started bringing furniture over from the back garage to the farm house. We now have one room just about finished. Our good china and goblets were also brought over and put away. They will still need to be run through the dishwasher before we actually use them but at least they have a place in the kitchen. On one of the work breaks Holly was pulled out and teased. She didn't give clear signs but knowing she broke into a sweat after the shot, I decided to try her anyway, she wasn't moving away just not showing. Evan was the lucky stallion chosen, he is easier to control than Valiant. She thought of kicking but submitted. She will be teased again tomorrow, hopefully then she will give a clear sign. Karin came after work when she went in the paddock to bring out a mare she was immediately surrounded by the 5 mares, 1 pony and 2 foals all asking for attention. The camera was pulled out please excuse the extreme mud we are dealing with right now. We aren't complaining, the grass is growing and the ponds are filling up.

Even though they are muddy, the fillies were having so much fun running around the field and posing a couple of pictures were taken. Just none of these pictures will be placed on the website.

It was too muddy to use Rachel's good camera. Ciera took off running. She is pictured below.

She was really showing off today galloping all over so glad to be out of the mud. Karin worked Ylse, Eliza, Jenis and Zalena before running out of time.

More Rain

We woke up to rain pounding on the roof. The dogs were sopping wet when they came in after their few minutes outside this morning. We aren't complaining about the soppy soupy weather after our dry dusty summer but... isn't there always a but... the paddocks are muddy, the horses are muddy, they really should be locked off the fields. We have company coming on Thursday to see the horses, how in the world will we be able to clean up the place and the horses? No walk for me this morning even if the rain stops, we are leaving for Peoria at 6:30am.

Moving Day Horses not Us

The storm clouds were threatening but held off until after the walk. By the time Braelyn and I were safe inside the morning turned dark with bright flashes of lightning and the booming of thunder. We lost electricity for just a few seconds and then came the big CRACK booming through the wall. We were hit AGAIN by lightning but this time it just fried the modem. Even Braelyn jumped at that noise. She was so good today playing nicely with the Breyer horses and blocks. Below she is stacking blocks.

Anna came to pick Braelyn up just before the equine dentist showed up and while Caleb was working on the internet. Jenis was the first horse done, Her teeth weren't terrible but were starting to develop some hooks that needed to be filed off. Evan was the next horse done while Valiant was last. As soon as the boys were done they were put back and off I went to Walmart to pick up a new modem. The next stop was the shop to run a credit card payment for Meisters. Caleb was called to install the new modem. This afternoon was the day to move the herd from the old pasture to the new pasture. We had so much rain the last few days Diane drove the old red truck and even with it's 4 wheel drive we slid all over the road. Mike came over the land with the 4 wheeler. Once we haltered 4 horse and pulled hair from the 3 foals out there for their registration papers, Mike started by leading three and the rest fell in behind following him.

They followed well even up the next hill.

It all went fine until it was time to get them through the first hundred acres over into the new pasture of 100 acres. At that point most of the herd went the wrong direction. Mike ended up taking the 4 wheeler and rounding up all but Ribbon. She hates Mike and wouldn't even follow the other horses. Diane and I had to go catch her. It was a beautiful evening for the long walk. The 22 horses are all now on the winter pasture and as long as the snow isn't too deep will be fine. They have a 5 acre lake for drinking but if that freezes Mike installed a heated automatic waterer.

Prayers for Aunt Bernie

Aunt Bernie fell over a week ago while at the warehouse. She was trying to make sure Uncle Ed wouldn't fall off the loading dock, tripped over some wood and fell. At the time she thought she was ok but in a lot of pain. She visited the ER and was told nothing was broken but the pain wouldn't go away. Bob, her son the doctor insisted she go back in for a bone scan. Yesterday mom called with the results, Aunt Bernie has numerous compression fractures in her spine. Please pray for Aunt Bernie. With Uncle Ed almost blind from glaucoma and on dialysis 3 times a week for failing kidneys she has been so needed. We are asking for prayers for her, anyone that knows Aunt Bernie knows she is a most sweet, giving, kind, gentle person.

Home James Home

Karin was our chauffeur for the last 3 hours of the trip. While she was driving she was able to use her phone, hook it to her laptop and pull up internet all the while driving mom crazy with her crazy driving. I was very impressed with her multitasking skills. Having internet made the hours fly by. We arrived home to find a beautiful warm sunny afternoon. The mares needed another bale, Karin helped with that then started working horses. Rhoda arrived early for their volley ball game and got Bonnie out for some trick training. While they were training I was pulling weeds in the arena. They must have had rain here, the weeds pull out easily and the paddocks are muddy Holly was teased, then when she didn't show given a hormone shot. This one worked, she broke out in a sweat. Tomorrow she will be teased heavily, she should be ready to breed by Tuesday. The golf cart was taken down to the farm house where I was very pleasantly surprised. The 2 desks are now up and look great, the caulking and tile grout is done in the downstairs bathroom. The pocket door for the upstairs bathroom slides great. Mark has installed all the towel bars and toilet paper holders in both bathrooms. We are SO close to moving.

Branson Day 2

Our breakfast at the hotel is acceptable, not bad but not good either, just kind of blah. Right after breakfast we headed to historic downtown Branson. Adopted Twice was the first show we had decided to see. This is a family of 10 adopted children. Their mom is a college professor and after 11 years of marriage and no children ended up adopting 7 from Guatemala, 2 from Peru and one from Missouri.

The tickets were $28.00 plus tax and their show lasted a couple of hours. They were entertaining and we will highly recommend them to anyone traveling to Branson for some good gospel music. The day was so sunny and warm we wanted to spend some time outside. We found a nice park to sit a bit in the sunshine. Below mom and Karin are sitting at a picnic table in the park.

Of course we need a close up:

Not that we were craving a horse fix or anything but we stopped at the Dixie Stampede and looked at all of their horses. They had one Friesian named Nico who was imported from the Netherlands. He was getting older, had a lot of gray on his face. What was interesting was all the stalls were filled with horses and the only horse craving attention was the one and only Friesian on the property.

Karin took the picture below of mom and I checking out the lines on the carriage below.

Next on our list was a quick lunch at a burger joint. We had decided to eat a light lunch so mom and I split a burger. It was $5.00 for the cheesburger but all the fixens were free. We added a slice of pineapple, grilled mushrooms, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles and ketchup. mmmm delicious.

The Titanic museum was next on our list. This was $25.00, no pictures were allowed inside. Mom felt it was worth the money, I really did not. A history buff would enjoy it.

We drove back to the hotel for a quick rest before heading out to dinner at a chicken and steak place.

We got right in and were served quickly. We left from there for the Sight and Sound Theater.

Below is Wally, Janell, Eva Jean and mom waiting for the play to start.

We ALL highly recommend going to this if you are ever in the Branson area. We are ready to go home, we are tired of sitting around being entertained and are ready to DO something. We decided Branson is fun for a day or 2 but we miss our homes, families, dogs, and horses.

Update From Kathleen

Thought you might like to see how Thriller's Sexy Clara's colt is doing. I was sorry to see that his sire Raven had passed in September. He will be 3 this January & is standing around 15.2 and weighing right around 1100lbs. Zephyr's dam was sold to a family out of Oregon after she and I worked on her training for about a year, and they can't get enough of her sweet disposition. Zephyros has been the best investment I ever could have made, thanks again for such a wonderful companion. Kathleen Neimi

Thanks so much for the update Kathleen, we love to see updates on the foals our farm produces. We had a great day so far, pictures and stories will be uploaded tonight after Joseph

Traveling with Mom

Eva Jean bought our tickets to SIX, a group of 6 brothers that sing and entertain. Mom wanted to pay her back but conveniently couldn't find her check book. This really did happen, mom was so concerned she called Ruth to ask her to drive to her house to look for the check book. It could be she just wanted us to believe her because after the show I looked through her purse and found the check book. hmmmm now we are always going to wonder did she just not want to pay the bill? Mom would be horrified to know this is being posted so we are keeping the computers away from her. We left our room to head down to the lobby to meet the Schafers, mom decided to hold the elevator for Karin.

The elevator is not made to be held that way and after almost getting squished mom jumped back and let it slam leaving Karin to find her own way down. The traffic was bumper to bumper but drivers here are nice and let us worm our way into the stream of cars heading to shows. Once we arrived at the huge theater the smell of popcorn was so overwhelming I had to buy some. It cost $2.00, kind of shocking but at least satisfied my salt craving. Below are the Schafers waiting for the line of people to move into the seating area.

No flashes were used, we were not suppose to take pictures or videos but I had to snap a picture of Karin and Eva Jean enjoying the show.

These brothers were so entertaining and I highly recommend the show. We were laughing and clapping pretty much all evening. toward the end of the show they sang a beautiful rendition of The Lord's Prayer and How Great Thou Art, so beautiful mom wanted to buy their gospel CD. We arrived back at the hotel around 11:00pm and pretty much went straight to bed.

Our Trip

All was going well on the long 7 hour drive down to Branson other than driving Karin nuts. She even wondered if perhaps I was on speed or something but really she was doing all the speeding. The hills are spectacular, a riot of color. We arrived here at 2:15pm, the room is nice and the hotel easy to find. we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Karin and I were visiting with the waitress after she brought tortilla chips and dips when mom interrupts the conversation with, "AHHHH! Hot, hot, I need water QUICK! The waitress took off at a run. Of course that hit Karin's funny bone and when she starts laughing the rest of us join in. By the time we arrived back at the hotel the second car, Eva Jean, Janell and Wally had just arrived. They picked up our tickets to Six. The show starts at 8:00pm, sure hope we can stay awake long enough to hear the entire show.

Another Trip to Branson

Yesterday the farm house upstairs was scrubbed and cleaned from all the construction. On one of the many trips down the stairs a 10 foot 4 inch pcp pipe was dropped. It gouged a hole in 2 stairs. Both places are about an inch by half inch which will need to be sanded and stained. Greg Reed was called about finishing the grout in the downstairs bathroom and caulking around the tub. He will be here on Saturday. He also needs to work on the upstairs bathroom pocket door. It was sliding but now not. Mark called to report the bed was not in stock and had to be ordered. It should be here Nov 6th which sets back the move in date but actually gives us more time to finish. Speaking of phone calls every time the phone rang I had to step outside to communicate. The metal roof is great at keeping the rain out but terrible for reception. The phone would ring which would mean a trip down the stairs and out the door into the rain while talking. One of the phone calls was from the equine dentist. He is to be here on Monday for the boys and one mare. Bad timing as far as money in the check book but a necessary expenditure. There is still some painting to be done in the kitchen and up the stair well. The afternoon was spent doing laundry and cleaning the apartment. After dinner Mark and I headed back to the farm house to start putting together furniture. We now have the bathroom storage cabinet put together and ready to be moved in when the grout is finished. Philip ordered 2 desks which came in yesterday. Mark and I decided to tackle the big corner desk first, worked until after 9:00. We quit without finishing, something that drives a compulsive person nuts. Just saying Mark had no problem with walking away from the mess of desk parts spread all over the 'wrecked' rec room. Actually it was a good thing we quit when we did, the packing for Branson hadn't even been started. Eva Jean, Janell, Wally, Karin, Mom and I are leaving at 7:00am this morning. We purchased tickets to Joseph at the Sight and Sound theater a long time ago for Saturday night. It turned out to be a bad weekend to leave, the choir is traveling to Belvidere on Sunday which I will have to miss.

Wisconsin Did It, can Illinois?

Posted this morning on facebook: Gov Walker was right!!! We here in WI are celebrating the end of our state's fiscal year with a $342 million dollar SURPLUS!!!! I love when a plan comes together! Illinois needs that man, hmmm wonder if he is republican or democrat. The video below shows why America is in such financial trouble and the painful way out of our crisis. Our big news is Mark found a bed in the Menard's ads last night. Today he will be picking it up. Once it is put together and our mattress moved over we will sleep our first night in the farm house. The bedroom at the farm house is so small we had to have a bed with drawers under it, there is no room for a dresser. We are looking forward to this big move but the poor dogs are not. Darcy took forever to get use to living in the apartment last year when we moved out to the farm. She wanted to go home and each day would lay by the car waiting for us to take her back to Peoria. Yesterday I tried to take her down to the house, she came to the end of the circle drive, then went back and laid at the apartment door until someone would let her back inside. Is it fair to make an old dog move?

Zalena Check

Zalena was moved into Raven's old paddock before the walk as after the walk an appointment needed to be made for her 5th month check-up. The predicted rain was suppose to start around 1:00pm. The picture below was taken this morning on the walk heading over to Joan's house.

There was a soft breeze, nice to see the windmill busy producing power. The morning was spent working at the farm house. The new metal roof pretty much limits the phone calls. Sometimes the phone will ring but one must step out to actually listen or talk. Zalena's appointment at Hoerr Vet clinic was at 1:00pm. She is progressing well with her pregnancy. A sample of her blood was drawn to check her progesterone levels and all is well. She also got her 5th month pneumabort K shot. While we were waiting for the test results Dr. Hoerr was explaining how livestock farmers are in big trouble with this economy and how much hay ground has been taken out of production and put into corn or beans. Meat is going to get scarce and expensive. Before I left Morton the predicted storm moved in with lightning, thunder and rain. As soon as Zalena was unloaded it was back to work at the farm house quitting at 4:00pm to shower and prepare for church. Diane & Mike served dinner tonight for the family outreach. Mom, Spark, Rhonda and I got to church at 5:30pm to help get the meal ready. Diane bought 16 extra large pizzas from Sams each cut in squares of 20 pieces a pizza. She also served salad with mom's poppy seed dressing, honey roasted peanuts and for dessert cupcakes and brownie bites. The pizza was a favorite and completely gone by the time church started. Tim Roecker had the service. Marshal and Jan Heinold were in town from Mexico. Marshal gave us an update after the service.

Raven Son Rohan

Vicki, Rohan's owner emailed these pictures taken today of her 2 year old Raven son. Check out the muscle on that boy!

Thanks so much Vicki for the updated pictures, he is magnificent! These pictures need to be placed on the website.

Holly's Wound

We were swamped at work, didn't have time to read the stack of letters that came in. They will need to be done at home. After work TSC was visited, my favorite store! Actually one of the few stores I like to visit. The smells are just wonderful. Wonder dust was needed for Holly's wound, a few days ago it was producing proud flesh. That had to be scraped off each day wonder dust sprinkled on then antibiotic ointment applied. Today take a look at how good it looks.

This was actually a really deep cut, we are thrilled to see it healing so well. After TSC, Walmart was next on the list, today the farm house needed supplies, dishes silverware, 2 pans, measuring cups and a toaster. Once back, the farm house kitchen was given a thorough cleaning, scrubbing out all the cupboards and drawers so the dishes could be put away. Karin arrived to work horses. Below she is riding Ylse, voted Horsemeister's most photogenic mare.

She worked most of the horses, while I was working in the farm house. When she brought out Holly who was voted Horsemeister's most improved mare, I had to grab the camera. Just check out this Western pleasure movement.

We had left overs for dinner but shouldn't have eaten anything. Dean, Holly and Faith served the lunch at choir and that was a complete meal! The meal tonight was way better than the singing. We had only a few soprano's, perhaps most of the singers stayed home to watch the debate.

Hard Labor

I was sentenced to hard labor today by myself. Each time it just seemed too difficult to accomplished the 2 rooms I set out to clean I would call myself a wimp, give myself a stern talking to and go on with the scrubbing and cleaning of the construction mess on the farm house. These 2 rooms were finished after close to 8 hours of scrubbing. The worst part was the 5 hours crawling along, first on all fours then on the belly peeling the plastic wrap protector up from the floor. Finally finished and had to find a way to make these stiff unlimber limbs assist me in arising. When one has a hip replacement, things just don't bend the way they use to, it took crawling into the kitchen to find a chair so I could pull myself upright. It's tough growing old. By 4:00pm it was time to start dinner. Shrimp and chicken stir fry was on the menu which meant standing to chop vegetables. Karin arrived to work the mares but headed to Rachel's for dinner when done. Mom came over and joined us for dinner. After dinner Mark moved a bale in for the mares. They were turned out back all day and came running when they saw the skid steer bringing in the bale.

Monday Morning Sunshine

The mares were let out before the walk today, they have been locked up since Thursday morning and were so thrilled to be out. Below is Zalena, she just couldn't keep all 4 feet on the ground, finally out of the mud and into the field. After 2 days of rain mud abounds!

This was obviously not taken with Rachel's good camera, just grabbed the little one with the scratched lens for the walk today. As we were heading to the dam, Sandy's colt was standing near the lake, the reflection was interesting with the mist coming off the water.

A little farther along the walk the lake is so still it is a mirror for the trees and windmill.

After the walk, the loose mares were checked on, they were quietly grazing on the grass that was sparkling with dew.

So regretting not bringing along Rachel's camera, the views were amazing.

Email from Howard

Church was awesome, the only way to describe it today was the Spirit was alive and vocal. We had a visitor from Bluffton Country and heard about the wolves within and without. Anyone that didn't get to be in Peoria, visit the Peoria AC website and listen after it is published, he had the morning and afternoon service. The Spoon River Drive this weekend was pretty much a wash-out. It rained yesterday then today most of the day along with winds strong enough to knock down tents and signs. The television station 31 came out to the Old School Center to get some video for tonight's news, Paris and Ella were both on the news tonight. We quit early, loaded up Paris and Ella and took them straight to Middle Grove. We had to walk them in, after almost 2 inches of rain the driveway wasn't passable without 4 wheel drive. Once home it was time to check email, the 2 video's below were sent from Howard Herman. It's not good to mix Sunday with politics but both were good enough to post here. Thomas Peterffy came to this country and made a successful businessman and paid for this commercial himself. Wow!!! An individual’s personal commercial about the U.S. today. Please watch. In the video below, this lady is running for the Illinois Senate. She has been a Nun and is an attorney and a doctor. In the first 3 minutes she explains Obamacare, but if you have the time, the next 9 minutes she goes into depth of what all we will lose if this is not repealed. So after watching the videos above what do you think what is happening in America? Is this all in God's plan? Read Revelation and understand where this all fits. We are seeing prophecy fulfilled in our life time. Who thought 40-50 years ago of the technology now available. We are to microchip our animals, some people are microchipping their children, how soon will we be asked to wear a microchip to buy or sell? As in the days of Noah will be the last days. In the days of Noah, men's thoughts were evil continually. Please join me in praying for our country, for our religious freedom to worship as we choose. Pray for a revival for our country that we could go back to our roots, worshiping Jesus Christ the Son of God, who willingly gave himself to the cross, shed His blood, to atone for our sin then best of all rose again. The grave is empty. He IS the only way to heaven and there IS a hell.

Fall Colors

We didn't last too long at the conference. Mark stayed to listen until 10:00am while I visited with another horse owner trainer rider named Priscilla. The dark gloomy weather started to lighten on the long trip home, enough to enjoy the beautiful fall colors. The picture below is before the sun came out.

When the sun broke through the clouds, oh my were the colors brilliant.

These pictures were snapped through the window of our car while going 70 miles an hour on the hilly Missouri interstate. The views were so fantastic the drive didn't seem near as long going home as heading down. A text came over my phone asking "how much for your Friesian filly? We replied which filly? The text came back, "Valiant, how much for her?" That boy is just not going to be for sale, not now and maybe not ever! We arrived home to find the computers all working here in the apartment and at the farm house, the golf cart running and the dogs happy. Thanks so much Philip, Danny and Rhoda! Karin had to handle the Spoon River Drive business without me today in the rain. They didn't open until noon, not sure how she did for the last few hours, when I talked to her business was slow. She was pleased to report a break through for Holly the rescue mare. For the first time since she has been here Holly is starting to bond to Bonnie pony and Ciera. Yesterday Rhoda ponied Holly while riding Bonnie on the death trails with Karin riding Ciera behind her. Holly followed great, didn't even balk at the water crossings. She tried to jump the creeks but at least she didn't refuse to cross. This is actually huge for her. It gives us hope that someday she will be a normal trusting horse again. Mark was anxious to get out of the car and start doing something, he didn't even care what, he just needed to DO. He hauled the garbage over to the dumpster then jumped on the skid steer and moved 7 bales from our second cutting from the right side of the barn over to the left. This way we can use the first cutting hay stacked on the right first before hard winter hits and save the really good hay for when the cold strikes. It's good to be home.

Pond Boss Conference

Our hotel room was really quiet, so quiet we missed the dog's snoring. We awoke to pouring down rain with the sound of grumbling thunder. The breakfast here was really nice but Mark was sure that the conference also served breakfast so we limited ourselves to just a taste and coffee. We went the back way to Cedar Creek Lodge where the Pond Boss conference was held and that was quite an experience. Missouri has very different roads than Illinois, here they wind round and round and up and down no fun in the pouring down rain. Before we could get to the lodge we had to cross 2 pretty deep spring crossings.

Both crossings were even labeled, spring crossing with the amount of run off from the downpour both crossings were almost up to the bottom of our door.

Breakfast at the lodge was really good, we shouldn't have even tasted the hotel offering. This breakfast had thick cut deliciously cooked bacon, eggs, sausage, lots of muffins, croissants, danishes and a huge bowl of fresh fruit that included strawberries, honeydew melon, grapes, cantaloup and pineapple, best of all 4 different kinds of coffee all good and strong. The speakers started at 8:30 and believe it or not Mark and I sat through and listened until lunch break. Mark really felt he learned a lot by coming. Nathan and Justin are here, Herman Brother's pond management got lots of publicity. Their names were brought up time and time again. Lunch was called a walking talking lunch. They put an apron on each person and in the pockets were a sandwich, chips, brownie and an apple. Below is Mark modeling his lunch.

We got to keep the aprons. After lunch were more speakers, we sat through them but I will confess to getting the kindle out and reading 3 books. Have I ever mentioned how much I like that thing? The afternoon session finished before 5:00pm, we were told to be back at the lodge between 6:00pm and 7:30pm when they would shuttle us to a brand new golf course lodge for dinner. We chose not to go to that, the drinking was suppose to start at 6:00pm with dinner starting around 7:45pm. We tried something for dinner we have never tried before. We ate at Shoguns and were pleasantly surprised. The cooking show was entertaining and the stir fried vegetables just as good or better than mine. Below the chef is cooking our food.

The resturant was just blocks away from our hotel. We were glad to get back. We have free internet here and there was a neat email from Sue the owner of a Raven daughter named Piper, a 3 year old purebred Friesian filly. Hi Judy, The picture enclosed is me on piper for the fist time! She has been at the trainer for a month now and coming along. I was told she is lazy and riding her today I see that she kinda is. I will take this as a good sign for me as I don't have to worry about her getting crazy and dumping me. He did say as I ride her and she understands more that she would work out of most of that but she would always be very laid back. Guess time will tell and also riding with another horse showing her the ropes will help. It was a thrill to be up on her and I look forward to the many years together. Thank you for the opportunity to own one of these special horses. Sue

Thanks so much for the update Sue, how wonderful that you are now riding her after waiting 3 years.