Big News for the Sceggel Family

We had a truly awesome day in church but it just kept getting better and better. After church all the kids and grandkids met at Phil and Anna's for dinner. Just before dinner David came in with a gift. Jace is holding this gift which David had made. Now just in case you are trying your hardest to figure out why David would make a cardbord box with burners drawn on the top when the box was opened there was....

a bun inside. A nice round bun.

All of the grandkids were pretty excited to see something edible while all the adults were pretty emotional.

Now just in case you are still trying to figure out why we would be emotional below David and Stephanie would like to give you one more clue.

This prayed for longed for little bun in the oven should be delivered around August 7th. How very very exciting for our family and how very thankful we are that prayers have been answered for them.
The rest of the evening was such a joy.

Joan had games at her house tonight but by the time I got there they were just finishing up. Not sure who won what game.

Computer Expert

Another cold morning but productive. Mark worked on laying out the solar system while I fed the horses. Jenis' paddock was pretty much out of hay but when I went to move the bale feeder it is buried in the ice and couldn't be opened up. Jenis is now moved into the middle paddock while Rosaleigh and Roxanne have been moved in the paddock next to Valiant. We have Ribbon, Indy and Ayanna living in Raven's old paddock, Valiant and Anna living in Evan's old paddock which is now Valiant's paddock. Oksana and Evan living in Valiant's old paddock which is now Evan's paddock. Eliza, Zalena and Jenis in the middle paddock and Rosaleigh and Roxanne next to Valiant. That's 12 horses divided into 5 paddocks and each paddock has either a new or relatively new bale so all should be good for at least 3 days. After feeding I walked over to mom's to visit with Karin about yesterday's Friesian practice. Anna arrived around 9:00 am to drop off the 3 girls while she and Phil went to Sarah and Nolan's new house to work. The girls had a ball building towers then decorating towers.

Yes the house was trashed but not for long. Hannah and Faith came over to clean the mess up and quick as a whistle everything looked great. One amazing item to report. Taegan, Phil and Anna's 3 year old daughter fixed my computer. Forget about asking for computer help from the kids, just ask the grand kids.
We really aren't sure what she did nor is she but she went over to start pushing buttons and the next thing we knew the computer was turned ON and WORKED!

Moving Bales Pulling Wires

A quick trip to Sam's club this morning between laundry loads. Just as I was unloading the car with the last bag of groceries Mark showed up, ah if only I'd been just a bit later.
Before lunch Emily worked on repairing electric fencing and the broken boards, right after lunch Emily and I started moving bales in for the horses moving a new one in for Valiant's paddock, Ribbon's paddock and the paddock next to Valiant. Jenis will need a new bale soon but we want her to clean up her's a bit more before moving a new bale in. After that, Mark, Emily and I started pulling wires in the big barn for the solar system. This is a big job, we are pulling 2 sets #10 wire from the electrical box, over the 16 foot door way around the corner and half way down the long wall. Mark and Emily finished tacking it up while I went back down to the house to change the machines. As soon the wires were done it was time to haul wood, stacking a load in the skid steer and hauling it up to the apartment and another load down to the house. We didn't even get done with our last load before Karin showed up for the scheduled trail ride.The riders for the Friesian demo were invited out to take their assigned horse out on the 'death trails' and if they survived they were IN. As we have new riders this year or riders with different horses she felt it would be good if they would learn which mare, where the mare lives, and what tack to use. Jesse was the first to arrive. He was assigned Zalena.

 

 The rest of the riders were pulling in by the time she was in the barn. It didn't take Jesse long to have Zalena ready to go.

 Above is Anni riding Anna and below is Rebekah riding Ribbon. Rebekah is expecting so won't be riding for the Friesian demo at the IL Horse Fair but is the director for the play and the music. Ribbon's riders couldn't make the trail ride so Rebekah stepped in.

 Above is Emily riding Oksana and below is Tyler riding Indy.

 Below left to right is Rebekah riding Ribbon, Jesse riding Zalena, Karin riding Eliza and Anni riding Anna.

 Mitchel was just a bit late as he had to come from the farthest distance. Emily had Jenis all tacked up so he just jumped on then these 2 caught up with the other 5.

 Amy sent a short video clip of her riding Marika in a lesson given by Cathie Trent at Bridlewood which was placed on here and looked as if it loaded correctly but doesn't show up after publishing. I'll have to do some research to find out why.  Marika will be coming home the first week of Feb to join the herd here for practices.

After the trail ride the group met over at Ruth and Fedi's house to run through the Friesian play without the horses. I was very glad Mark had the wood burner going by the time I got back inside. The warmth was appreciated.

 Phil came over for a bit to look at my computer bringing Braelyn and Taegan with him but as soon as he arrived he had to go out on a no heat service call. We asked him to leave the girls here to play with grandma and grandpa while he ran in to Peoria. They had a good time decorating papers, building houses with the wood for the wood burner and playing with toys.

Mom made a big pot of ham and bean soup tonight and offered us some for dinner. No one wants to turn down mom's cookin, it's the BEST!

Tractor Tire

This morning one of the big tractor tires were completely flat. Too flat to back the tractor up to get the bale spear off so bales could be moved with the skid steer. Mark made a call to East Peoria Tire and they sent someone right out to fix it. Diane and I spent the day at the Berean office where we were swamped with mail but had enough hard working volunteers to finish by 2:00 pm. If you would like to read about our day there click HERE. We got the Bibles dropped off at the Bartonville post office then arrived home around 2:45 pm just as Rhoda was pulling away. She was here to ride and ride she did. She worked Evan and Oksana then took Eliza on the trails ponying Ayanna and Indy. She made the comment those pregnant mares are HUGE! I was sorry to have missed seeing her work them.
Karin arrived right after that and came to the house to get the hose to water the arena. By the time I changed, got a few things done around the house and headed up to the barn she was working her second mare of the afternoon. She had already worked Jenis and was riding Zalena when I arrived.

 Above Karin is working Zalena and below she is working Anna. She is very pleased with Anna, she is learning to carry herself correctly and her trot is open and free. I guess it helps that she is not pregnant.

 A funny story about the horse below. Karin brought out this mare, I looked at the belly and made a comment that Ayanna is huge. As Karin was riding she made the comment that for some reason Ayanna is easy to ride today. She finished with her, went over to the dark corner where the mares were eating off a bale, pulled the next mare out which she assumed was Indy except when she got her up to the horse that was wearing the saddle we both about the same time exclaimed, "that is INDY!" She had been riding Indy thinking it was Ayanna and then brought Ayanna up for the next ride thinking she was Indy.

 They really don't look that much alike it is just they are both so heavy in foal. These mares are the same age and are both Raven daughters, both of them are very tall and of course huge. Anyone could have made this mistake right?

 As Karin works each mare she does a lot of bending then side passes. The mares are learning to move off the leg at the slightest pressure. Karin did confess to being a bit sore today. It isn't easy working 6-8 horses a day.

 Mark has a fire burning in the wood burner and it is just too tempting to lay in front of that glowing heat source while reading an entertaining suspense story.

The Barn Cats

We had a good walk in the snow until we hit the hill heading up to Spark and Rhonda's. Joan made a big X in the road where a sheet of ice was hidden under the snow as a warning. Diane didn't walk, she had to be at church early for the funeral. She is in charge this year of funerals. Rachel didn't walk, she is getting all of her exercise these days by working construction. Her son David bought a house in Hanna City that is quite a fixer-up-er and she is doing a lot of the labor. Ruth, Joan, mom and I just did one round. The morning was spent at the Berean office typing in the Bible requests. When I got home Emily and I were going to move a couple round bales in but the tractor has a flat tire and the bale spear is on the tractor. We moved horses instead of bales which will hold us off for a couple days at the most.
Anna was showing to Valiant today so we decided to get her covered by Valiant.

 She stood very well so we are thinking this may be a true heat. After that job was done Emily took Valiant in the indoor so he could have some fun galloping around out of the snow and ice.

He was just too tempting for Emily, she decided to put on a bridle and ride him bareback around the arena. This is the first time she has ridden since her car accident Christmas day.

 Once Valiant was put away she brought Evan out. He saw the mares in the paddock as he was walking to the indoor and just had to show off with the Spanish Walk.

 He too had a good time galloping around the arena. being off the snow, ice and frozen ground for a while is such a treat for them.

 Oksana was brought in next. The barn cat was enjoying her broad back. We were laughing, the cat made himself comfortable going up and down her back while Oksana stood completely still not moving a muscle.

The grandmother of this cat and one of his sisters were also in the arena but there was no way they were going to climb up on a horse.

 By the way these cats are all spayed or neutered and the best mousers. The grandmother is a lifer here but if interested in one of the other cats they are for sale for $50.00 each. They do a fantastic job with any rodent problem and are good with horses and dogs. They really are great mousers keeping our barns free from any rodent problem. These are outdoor cats and would do well in a barn but are also litter box trained so could learn to be an indoor cat. They are friendly and young, around a year old.

Harry Eisenmann's Visitation

No walk again this morning, it was cold but not too cold to walk, just some of us couldn't get out of bed.
It is a tradition in Joan's house to serve who ever is having a birthday, breakfast in bed. Probably about the hardest part of this tradition is STAYING in bed until breakfast is served. I arrived at Joan's around 7:30 am to find Joan still in bed enjoying her breakfast while Ruth was sitting on the bed visiting with her. Below is the breakfast her children prepared for her. This would NOT be my choice...where's the coffee?

I left for work early, stopped at TEMCO to pick up the Berean mail then drove down to Suburban Gas Co to fill 2 of the propane tanks for the barn heater. Now that the deep freeze is here the only way we can work the horses comfortably is to run the heater.We only had one full mail box of mail today at Berean and were able to finish by noon. Lunch was a relaxed affair knowing the work was done for the day.

The next job on the list was to go to Meisters to pay a few bills then head home except when I arrived at Meisters my phone was not where it belonged. I realized it was left at the Berean office so back there for the second time today. When I finally did arrive home Karin was working mares in the indoor with the heater running. It was 19 degrees outside but felt like 40 in the barn. Below she is working Ribbon.

 

The arena needed to be watered and the first hose even though it had been drained had a frozen area and would not work. The second hose was brought out which worked but last summer had been run over by the lawn mower near the nozzle so of course it is spraying all different directions wetting down not just the arena but me too. Once the job was done both hoses were dragged to the barn and dumped down the basement stairwell. We decided to move the vaulting barrel inside the apartment for practice today. The vaulters started arriving just as we got that job done. When I realized the time I had to push it to be ready to pick Mark up by 5:00 pm so we could drive together to Harry Eisenmann's visitation. For the 3rd time today I traveled the exact same road to get to the funeral home. We arrived shortly after 5:00 pm and were in line until close to 7:00 pm. He was a special man, well loved by many and many came to pay their respects to his wife Loretta and their children Michelle, Patty, and John.

The Big Surprise

Joan's 50th birthday is tomorrow but we wanted to try to surprise her. Ruth's birthday is today so in all of our planning with the sisters we had an ulterior motive. Get Ruth to help plan Joan's party then surprise HER too. It worked perfect, not only did Ruth get in on the planning, she offered to host the last half of the party at HER house and do all the decorating. Ha, she decorated for her own party.  Karin gave her the black balloons and crepe streamers.
Rachel called Joan to see if she could take her and Ruth out to lunch for their birthdays. When she got to Joan's house she mentioned Ruth had already had plans and wouldn't be going with them. Meanwhile we, about 20 of us, all drove to Ming's in Pekin arriving 15 minutes before Rachel and Joan. When they arrived it was obvious, she was surprised!

 After lunch we all drove to Ruth's then brought out 2 cakes and lots of candles. Ruth was also surprised! She did not expect us to hold a party for her 55th even though it was HER actual birthday. We are thankful sometimes that Ruth is blond.

 They both got a lot of fun gag gifts. We all had a good time but not much cake and ice cream got devoured since we were all so full from that great Ming's buffet.

This was such a fun way to spend a frigid day. It was -3 degrees when we woke up and had risen to 7 by afternoon. Tomorrow will be another below zero night but tomorrow afternoon we are expecting the temps to rise into the 20s.
I have one prayer request. David Obgerfel is having cataract surgery tomorrow. He needs his eyes, we need his eyes, David is a letter reader for Berean Prison Ministry. Each week he and his wife Kathy read hundreds of letters and answer those that need something special. Please pray that the surgery would be successful and healing could be pain free and quick.