PuppyPileUP

For the next paragraph I'm going to be complaining about my health so feel free to skip over this.
For the last 3 nights I've had pain in the lower left side of my back that migrates to the side. A dull ache that isn't conductive to sleep so each of those nights were spent tossing and turning. During the day the pain is there but can be ignored by keeping busy. Well last night, the 4th painful night, that dull ache became sharp. So sharp there was no way to stay in bed. After walking around moaning quietly until 1:10 am I remembered there was left over Vicodin from when my hip was replaced. I took 1 pill at 1:15 and by 2:00 am was feeling loopy enough to head to bed. I SLEPT! Not that the pain was gone, I was just too drunk to care. I'll be calling the doctor today.
But.. first the farrier is coming to trim up the 8 horses going to the fair, the letters need to be entered down at Meisters and Bibles sent out. How does anyone have time to go to the doctor?
The pictures below were taken while the pups were being introduced to their first solid meal yesterday afternoon.

 We would let 3 or 4 eat at a time then go back for a drink of milk

 Once they were all fed and happy they pile up for a nap.

Poor Emily, woke up this morning with no heat in the apartment and it was only 3 degrees outside. Mark is on his way up to fix the furnace.

Busy Cold Wednesday

Our big news today was that Joan and Bethany arrived from Haiti. Bethany is moving back to the states permanently to get married while Joan must go back to Haiti until the adoption goes through for her 2 youngest children. Joan reported she could hardly breath here, it was like breathing in ice.
The puppies were started on solid food today for the first time and loved it. This means lots of laundry for me but they are now 3 weeks old and ready for solids.
Karin's entire vaulting team came today for the first run through for the IL Horse Fair. It was too cold to work outside so the barrel was brought into Emily's apartment and the program was run through on that.
Rhoda arrived home from school to work Evan and there was still enough daylight to get a few pictures of them.

Mikayla Cooksey arrived to work with Zalena. Mikayla will be showing Zalena for us at the fair.

They rode together, this was great practice for Evan.

Diane drove Joan, mom, Mark and I to church tonight. Bethany went with Jessica and Anni. Emily was invited to Goodfield tonight. 

HELP for an Exchange Student

Stacy called to find out if anyone from Bridlewood or the surrounding barns would have room for an exchange student. THIS GIRL WANTS TO COME TO AMERICA so badly. Is there anyone out there with room? Please read the information below then contact Stacy directly, all of her information is listed. 

My name is Stacy Bowman and along with being actively involved with the Horsemen's Council of IL for years as a clinic coordinator, breed demonstrator (husband Frank served as President and Executive Director), I am an international coordinator for a non-profit national high school student foreign exchange program known as ASPECT Foundation (AmericanHostFamily.org). 

I have a very dynamic 15-year-old girl from Germany who happens to be actively involved for the past 5 years in vaulting, and I am desperately trying to find a host family for her here in Illinois that also shares her love of this sport! I am hopeful that you can help me find my German girl a single, or couple to host her for the upcoming 2014-5 school year. 

Here are some facts to know about the hosting experience:

1) She will have her own insurance while here on program!

2) She will have her own spending money (clothes, school registration, entertainment)

3) Host families can be a single adult, empty-nesters, families with small children, same aged, or no children

4) Students arrive the first week of August prior to high school starting and leave after school is out/graduation

5) Host families are asked to provide a bedroom (can share with same-aged or close sibling of same sex), place to study and share meals. If she chooses to purchase a lunch card vs. take a sack lunch, she is responsible for purchasing it. There is a $50/month tax deduction for hosting a foreign exchange student. 

6) As her coordinator, I will take care of all paperwork needed during her stay as well as keep in touch with host family and student on a monthly basis. 

7) The host family application process can be easily done online at our website: www.aspectfoundation.org

They can directly access the Host Family information page at: http://www.aspectfoundation.org/host/index.html. I will be more than happy to help them go through the online form to get started so give me a call and let me know which high school to contact to see if they have room available for her. 

 It is incredibly rewarding to be able to share our heritage with a young bright student from another country! Host families are truly American ambassadors! These kids are vetted. They must have good grades, a good proficiency level in English, and be recommended for an exchange program. These students want to come so badly that they give up one year of school back home to attend a public high school here as credits don't transfer back home. They want to ride a school bus, have a locker, participate in school sports and activities - none of which they can do in their home countries! 

Please say yes to Sina! She has a 13-year-old sister at home, and also enjoys volleyball, soccer, skiing, drawing, reading, music and meeting friends. She plays the transverse flute as well. Did I mention that she is adorable?! Help me find Sina a loving family here in central Illinois!

I appreciate any help you can lend! She is anxiously awaiting to hear that an American host family has chosen her! Please call me with any and all questions!

Sincerely,

Stacy Bowman

ASPECT Foundation - area coordinator

Pleasant Plains, IL 

(217) 741-7764

Here is Sina's letter to her prospective host family!

Dear host family,
first of all I want to thank you for giving me the chance to spend a year in the US with you and for letting me be part of your family. In the following letter I'm trying to give you an impression of my personality and to introduce myself, my family, the things I normally do, the place where I live and things like that... Okay, first of all I'm a girl, I'm fourteen years old and my name is Sina. 
Since my birth I live in Germany. My school is a half mile away from my home. Every day I walk with my sister to school or my Dad takes us by car. Now I am going to the 9th grade.
My favorite subjects at school are sports, maths and sometimes Latin. I'm good in logical thinking. There for strangely enough I don't like physics.. . This year, three friends and I are tutors of a 5th grade. I'm a little bit nervous about the expectations from the pupils. But for all that I think we will manage it.!
My family, which means my parents, my sister and I, live in a little sweet house with a smart garden, together with two cats, a black-white one, her name is Lilly and a white-brown-black striped one, his name is Leon. Two years ago, Lilly had four little baby cats, but we had to give them away. What a pity! My father is a bachelor of business administration and my mother as an industrial engineer. My younger sister visits the same school as I. Sometimes my sister and I quarrel, but the most time we like each other.

My family does very much sport, my Mum jogs, my Dad plays volleyball, my Sister likes to dance in a group and I have been vaulting in a club for five years now. My parents drive me to the stable, because waking takes too much time. Nine other children train together with me on the horseback. We have two coaches, one to move the horse and the other one to correct our exercises. After 1 and a half hour they pick me up. Every week I train two times. Of course I do to many tourneys in different performing categories all over the year. I don't know your know-how of the performing categories but we start in A at the moment. Next year I'm going to coach younger kids from my club. I hope they're after my training better than before. Certainly, I rode a horse, but only at vacation when I visited a farm. I didn't take lessons in it when I'm at home.
Next to vaulting, I do volleyball and I play soccer, both in a gym in our village one time per week. Soccer I only play with friends from my school and just for fun. I also practice athletics in a stadium and just for fun too. In the winter I go skiing in the Alps since I’m six years old. Earlier I had done tourneys with a sporting club in my age group but since two years I stopped it because I am too lazy to get up at 5 am at my weekend. All the same I do a special training in the regionally gym for skiing once a week in the summer to stay fit. I always do it with the TSV club. This year, I want to learn hip hop dancing in the same club in which my sister dances too. But I also like meeting friends, going to the cinema, watching movies, spending time at the Internet or going shopping. This year I have finished playing the transverse flute after six years of practice. In Germany, the United States are always present, like in the news, the American movies or with the music. You always hear about the school spirits there and I want to experience all of it. I would also like to be part of an American family – your family. So I'm really excited about meeting you in the summer and I hope we will have a great and exciting time. 

I would describe me as a person who knows what she wants, a happy and funny one, of course someone who can laugh with friends, family,.. about funny situations.., open-minded, confident and very athletics, but sometimes I can be stubborn and ambitious. Sometimes I am a little bit to lazy to keep my room in order. But don't be afraid . My room usually looks okay and I'm trying to keep it clean.
Oh and at least I want to say that I were two times in England for language vacations each time for three weeks. There I also lived with an English family. There I got some experience how it is to live in another country with a native family and to be away from my own family. I had no problems to stay away, because I got many friends and it was a very exciting time.
There is so much I've already written and so I'm finishing my letter now.

I want to thank you again for giving me the chance to spend one year in the USA. It has always been a big dream for me and although I'm going to miss my family and my friends. I'll be happy for the chance to stay there. Okay, maybe I miss them only a little bit.
Can't wait that you show me the USA!!
 Many greetings, 
Sina

Brrr Another Frigid Wakeup

We had -15 degrees this morning but that wasn't as bad as Karin, she had -25 at her place. Why is it that the Galesburg area is so much colder than Hanna City. Karin said when she opened the door to let her dog out this morning her floors started steaming from the bitter cold hitting the warm floors.
This is the view of our drive. The snow is piled up high on either side and there is a few inches of solid ice under the snow. How long will this take to melt?

Emily didn't have to be at school until 1:00pm today so helped Diane, Eva Jean and I at Meisters. She drove down to the Skyline Home to pick up the 12 boxes of wrapped Bibles then loaded them into the warehouse. We were glad for the extra pair of hands. The snow fell off the roof of the warehouse right in front of the door then froze solid. We are talking 2 solid feet of frozen snow up against our door. It was pretty funny to step down to get into the office. Then the door froze shut and we had to use the warehouse door to get out of the building once finished.
After work we needed to move a round bale in for the mare paddock. Emily decided to work Valiant even though it was still bitter cold so I went down to the house for the camera and took a few pictures of the mares and foals while she was warming him up.

Sissy and Star are now sharing a paddock with their 2 foals. The foals will start playing with each other soon but right now both mares are keeping them close.
Below is Valiant and Emily, this was late afternoon with the thermometer reading 6 degrees.

He was having fun galloping through the deep snow. Emily had to stick him in a stall though, right after I took these pictures we got a call that Jozef Barda was stuck and needed the skid steer to pull his truck out. Rhoda arrived home from school and pulled Evan out to work on her routine but the sun was setting so no pictures. She reported that Evan did very well today. He is just getting better and better. The girls took off for the gym in Hanna City while Mark and I went to choir. Diane drove tonight as it was her turn to serve lunch. We had a good group at choir and the singing sounded beautiful.

Below Zero AGAIN

Today was another frigid one starting the day with -8 but at Karin's house the news reported it at -18. Glad we live where its warmer, HA.  Tonight we are suppose to break records expecting -15 to -18 degrees. We had another waterer freeze up. Emily was able to get it working by placing a hair dryer in the waterer on high before she left for work. I checked on it around 10:00 am and found it melting but the ice was so thick it took an ax to break through to the water. It was so cold I cancelled the appointment today with Dr. Hoerr. He was suppose to come to draw blood on the 10 horses going to the Fair for their coggins test and ultrasound a mare. We have rescheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Mom came over for a visit and to play with the puppies. We are really missing our usual walks which haven't happened for a long time. The ice under the snow makes walking too dangerous for those of us with artificial joints. Rhoda came over this evening to help get updated pictures of the puppies for their owners.

 Above is Amy's puppy and below is Bonnie's puppy

 Above is Brenda's puppy and below is Britt's puppy

 Above is Diana's puppy and below is Kelli's puppy

 Above is Mickey's puppy and below is Otha's puppy

 Below is Regina's puppy

I took a few pictures of each pup so if any of you owners want to see them make sure to send me your email address.  They are playing with each other now and so cute!

Avalanche

Tim Roecker was having the message in morning church when we heard a roar, looked out the windows to see snow coming off the roof. This happened 3 times each time louder than the last. Peoria church has a pretty steep BIG roof and that was a lot of snow to fall. It was like a mini avalanche.  Good thing no one was standing outside.  Today was the valentine lunch, the men served the women today with the tables decorated with flowers and candies.
We had a visitor for the afternoon from Taylor. He spoke of King Saul, King David along with David's sons who tried to take the throne from David with words and violence. Saul was anointed but was not obedient and threw spears at David to try to kill him, David was anointed yet would not lift a hand against Saul.
Do we use our words as spears against God's anointed?
Once home we had to move a couple of bales into the middle paddock. The mare paddock is getting low but can hold off at least until tomorrow.
A nice email came in from Jamie Stone with pictures. Jamie's mare Myrrhcedes is a Raven daughter and Jenni's gelding Palmer is a Raven son and tonight they both ended up in arena at the same time.

 This is at Brock and Brittney's training barn in Princeville, IL. Below is a head shot of beautiful Myrrhcedes.

The deposit came for the last pup so they are all now sold. 

Old Man Winter

We awoke to a fresh layer of snow and warm temperatures of 16 degrees. If it wasn't Sunday I think I would be depressed. Isn't it time to kick Old Man Winter out of Illinois?
Below is Rhoda with Evan and Emily with Killian trying to get some practice time in for the IL Horse Fair.

Killian will turn 3 this year April 25th. We hope to start using him for stud. Ribbon came in season last week and Killian was the stallion we selected and he had a successful cover. At least we think it was we won't really know until her ultrasound.
Ribbon was diagnosed with twins again last year. Dr. Hoerr thought he was able to pinch one off but when she started showing we realized it must not have happened and both babies were lost. Mares are just not designed to carry twins.

Water Tanks

I left for Sams Club right at 7:00 am so I could get the groceries early before work started and made it home by 8:00 am. The first disappointment came as soon as I walked in the door. Emily reported another automatic waterer was frozen. That is 3 paddocks all with shelters now without water. I tentatively made arrangements to run to Canton to pick up a used water tank but Joan's renter needed the truck first to buy more split wood for Gary Unsicker so Mark and I started splitting wood with Emily stacking it in the tractor bucket in the snow and cold. Less than an inch was predicted to fall but most of the logs were covered by the last 10 inches and had to be dug out first with the tractor. By the time we were ready to quit the fingers and toes were pretty frozen. I came in to warm up to find a wonderful email from Cynthia, Olivia's owner. She writes: Hi Judy, if you haven't bought it already I have a 100 gallon water  tank in excellent shape you can have.  I only used it for a short time and then switched to a different system. 
I was thrilled to read that and quick to respond with, "YES, YES, YES!" My Canton appointment was cancelled and the renter called to see if he would be done with the truck by 2:30pm. Meanwhile Mark unloaded the pallets out of his van and offered to use that to pick up the water tank. We had to drive through Washington, IL to get to Cynthia's farm and were shocked at the devastation still very visible from the tornado. We just don't travel that direction much. We had just about arrived when Diane called to report Dan needed help, his van had slid off the dam. We suggested Spark as we weren't home. Rhonda was the next to call to see if Mark could help Dan as Spark wasn't home. Poor Dan had to wait at mom's until Spark made it home as he was a lot closer to Hanna City than we were.
Next Taunya sent through at text wondering where everyone was. They arrived to find both the farm house and the apartment empty.
Mike fixed the stock trailer and he and Emily went to Middle Grove to pick up Lily, Indy, Sally and Phoenix. Sally is getting thin from nursing her big colt and needs to be here to be grained. The other 2 mares are due in 5-6 weeks but... Indy doesn't look like she is carrying. This is her first foal and she is a big mare so I think we will have Dr. Hoerr check her when he comes out on Monday for coggins. I'm praying she is still pregnant. Lily there is no question, she is HUGE!
Emily and I got the short shelter paddock set up with water and a new bale, Sissy and Star were put out there with their 2 foals. That was entertaining and a little stressful to watch but they finally settled down each with their own filly.
Chicken Stir fry was on the menu tonight so the next hour was spent chopping vegetables and chicken. That is the most labor intensive meal but we were all craving vegetables so worth the effort. Phil and Ann joined us with their 2 girls. The grand children were entertained by the puppies.

 Jace got to try out the johnny jump up chair

David and Stephanie joined us in time for dessert and we had to show them what Israel does in that chair. He bounces and bounces.

Freezing Friesian Fun

It was -15 degrees this morning as I drove out of the drive and by the time I made it home this morning it had warmed up to -13 degrees. Mom called to make sure her thermostat was telling the truth. She thought for sure it wasn't working well until I confirmed, "yes ours was reading the same."
At those temperatures we are burning propane and that makes Mark worried. We are down to 28 % at the house and probably that at the apartment. These are both 500 gallon tanks. Both wood burners are fired up and burning as hot as possible.
We still manage to have fun though. Rebekah brought Jordan over and Jessica and Karin came for their puppy fix. This was a good time to pull out the camera for baby pictures. Below is Karin with a puppy, Rebekah holding Jordan and Jessica holding Israel.

Emily spent the morning studying then worked Sheena. Karin had to cancel the Friesian Fair practice, 2 of the riders couldn't make it so they scheduled a trail ride even though it was only 13 degrees with the 10 inches of snow covering the ground. Left to right is Emily asking Killian to bow, Karin on Zalena, Anni on Anna, Rebekah on Jenis and Rhoda asking Evan to bow.

 Above Karin is looking back watching Evan try to buck Rhoda off.

 After a fun gallop they head over to the trails.

Siberia

There are piles of snow everywhere and the temperature didn't seem to move off 3 degrees all day. Are we living in Siberia? Surely it will start to warm up soon, someone promised me we were in global warming.
Rhoda and Emily had to take the truck to Gary Unsickers to buy a load of split wood. I can't believe we have run out after those huge piles but the cold has just dragged on and on.
Karin's work was called off so she got her horse fix working 4 of the mares while the girls were in class. When Emily got back Karin, Emily and I worked on stall decorations but had to quit by 5:20 pm.

 As mom wanted us at her house at 5:30 pm for dinner. Mom invited us all to dinner tonight serving chicken breast, spinach, rice, salad and banana bread with honey. She had to eat and run as she was invited to a wedding shower tonight. We finished her currant puzzle then went back to finish the last 3 runners. We had exactly enough material to make the runners for the 10 stall. Emily used some of the left over material to decorate Darcy.

 The bows are still on Darcy tonight so they must not be bothering her. Doesn't she look beautiful!

Talented Cousin

My cousin has a very talented son. He is an artist sculpting amazing works of art out of deer antlers. He now has a website and sometimes sells his creations. If interested in seeing his art work click on this link: New Life Art Studios
I've added his website to my favorite websites. I've included a couple pictures of his art.

These are completely hand carved and painted by Jim. He also makes canes and walking sticks. If you are looking for a unique handmade gift, check out his website.

Fun at the Farm

After Emily finished plowing the driveways we moved in a round bale for the short shelter and let Sissy and her filly Dancing Ember out for the day. We walked over to mom's and joined Diane and Karin on the walk over to Rachel's to see how the micro house was coming along. The camera should have been taken over but it was quite a walk in the blowing snow. The micro house is almost finished. It is amazing what one can accomplish with girl power! We walked back then Emily and Karin tacked up Killian and Jenis and took off riding before the the temperature started dropping. They both had a great time but both horses ended up falling on the trails. The snow was deep and sometimes covering ice making it treacherous.  They had fun though galloping through the deep drifts and came in exhilarated from the run. The next fun thing on the schedule was to take the 4 wheeler out to give kids snowboard and sled rides.

We stopped in at mom's for hot chocolate and to warm up by her heater before heading home. Karin and Emily started sewing the vaulting skirts but mom's sewing machine quit working after about 20 minutes. Dinner was here, just spinach pizza and bbq wings. After dinner everyone needed to play with the puppies before playing games.

Finally we they put the puppies away so we could play Mexican train.

They had a schedule to keep and the game made them a bit late. They needed to be at Rachel's to have a relaxing sit in the hot tub. Mark was the only one from here that drove in to church. It was just too cold and too snowy for us to take the trip in to Peoria.