Foal Instruction

We had a beautiful morning which turned into a beautiful day. The morning was spent inside cleaning and doing laundry but I took a break to take pictures of 3 of the foals. The first one out was Roxanne's colt by Valiant. He is almost a month old and such a fine stocky fellow. He thinks he can fly, just check out the picture below. He really does have great movement.

 and is such a show-off as he struts around with his head held high.

Next out was Indy's filly by Evan we named Envy. She is a month old and wow is she big for her age. She also has amazing movement and mega hair.

 The last one out this morning was Eliza's orphaned colt Eli.  Below he was finishing up almost an entire scoop all on his own.

He is more faded from being at Middle Grove and spending most of his life trying to keep up with Walker Sally. He is now loving living back here and loving eating his grain.. He is very black under that foal coat. It is very easy to get pictures of him with all 4 hooves well off the ground. This boy has springs for legs. 

Once the foals were put away I went back inside to keep the laundry machines going and to work on the pictures for the website. Karin arrived after work and worked hard at her second job (the one where she gets paid in food). Today the 3 foals we brought in from Middle Grove yesterday were going to start their education. Today we were going to give them a refresher at haltering, tying, and picking up their hooves. Ella's colt was taken into the stall first, haltered and tied. Just check out the tail and the mane on this colt. 

He was good about Karin picking up his hooves. This colt was taken out to Middle Grove when he was just a few days old since we were not going to breed Ella back this year. He was handled those few days but since then nothing and we were very happy how well he handled everything. 

 Since I had not seen him move since he was just a few days old, Karin agreed to take him out to the arena for a few movement pictures. His movement is just as amazing as Ella's last 3 foals by Evan.

 At 3 months of age, he is almost as big as his mama Ella. 

The next foal out was Anna's filly by Valiant named Delilah. She is 5 months old and just amazing. Valiant sure stamps his looks on his foals. They are all fancy fancy fancy.

 Karin haltered, tied and picked up her hooves then we took her outside and she sure showed off big. She is just so beautiful and has that flashy big movement. 

The last foal out was Francesca, Soul's filly by Valiant. She was just a little harder to handle in the beginning. It took her a bit longer to let Karin pick up each hoof, and she wasn't too happy to be tied but after about 15 minutes was allowing Karin to walk up to her, take off the halter and put it back on. She has that natural head carriage so desired for dressage. She really knows how to lift those legs and push off with the back. This filly is going to be a dressage superstar. We have someone coming tomorrow to look at her.

Karin worked here about 2 hours which we figured out was worth at least a steak dinner at Scapecci's in Farmington. Mom was called to see if she would like to come too and when Mark got home from work he was glad to go. We picked up mom, then drove out to Farmington. There was no traffic and we arrived 10 minutes early but Karin was also early. I'm not going to tell you how delicious the steak was, how we didn't have to wait at all, nor will I mention how reasonable Scapecci's Thursday special is ($11.99) since we don't want this best kept secret out to the hordes of people from Peoria,  but the 8 ounce sirloin was perfectly done, the sweet potato was baked perfectly, the salad was crisp and delicious. Mom brought her own vine ripened bright red tomato for the salad which made the salad perfect. This evening the pictures were downloaded and placed on both Facebook and the website. NOW I'm ready for bed!

Bringing Home Mares and Their Foals

Last night Ebby started barking at 10:30 pm so I opened the door and told her to 'go home'. With Mike and Diane at Gulf Shores AL, she has been staying either at mom's or our place. This morning she was not sitting on our patio so I was sure she must have gone to mom's house during the night or to her own house. When the walk was ready to start Ebby was no where in sight. Mom said she did not come over during the night or the morning. We called but she didn't show up. We walked right over to Mike and Diane's, opened the door and called but no sign of Ebby. By this time both of us were starting to worry. Mom replied, "what can we do, she is a free spirit." By the time we got back to the dumpster, there was Ebby all happy and glad to see us. No one knows where she spent the night or why she missed the first round but she was sure glad to finish the walk with us.
Today at Berean Cindy, Carol and Robin worked on folding studies, wrapping and labeling Bibles and entering requests on the computer.

Robin stacked the finished Bibles in her car to take to the post office. We stopped at Meisters to drop one box for the UPS truck and Robin picked up the 10,000 envelopes that were waiting to go to the Berean office. Jacob was called to request another pallet load of Bibles for Tuesday.
When I got home the surgeon office was called to find out if I had an appointment yet. There was still nothing in the schedule but the receptionist said that I would receive a call back later today with the date.
Karin agreed to meet me at Middle Grove this afternoon to pick up Anna and her filly, Soul and her filly and Ella and her colt. She had the gates open when I arrived with the truck and trailer.  We stopped to pick up another of the salt blocks she brought out yesterday. Below she is hiking back with the salt block which we put in the truck to haul it up the hill.

 Not to brag or anything but my sisters are not just beautiful they are STRONG! Check out those muscles. Yesterday she hauled one all the way from the road to the top of the hill. 

We found the horses pretty quickly, in fact they all came running when they heard the trailer. Our hardest part of trailering is to keep the horses we don't want to bring OUT of the trailer.  Today we had Ripper get in, while Jenis and Galena tried to get in. It took longer to get horses away from the trailer so the foals would go in. All three foals were good about getting in pretty quickly once we had the other horses away. Rachel met me at the farm to help unload the horses. I got home just in time to make a quick dinner then get back out to meet the farrier who was coming to trim up Whitney before she leaves for her new home this weekend. The farrier finished up about 5:40 pm which gave me enough time to get ready for church. Tim Roecker had the service tonight. We stayed late to visit.
Oh yes, I did get the phone call from Mayo Clinic. They want us up there early morning Friday Sept 29th, for a brain scan, Monday morning Oct 2nd for the angiogram then Tuesday morning Oct 3rd for the surgery.
Like I heard tonight, if I make it through the surgery I win but if I don't make it through I win BIG!

Salt Blocks

Karin worked with the horses at Middle Grove yesterday and today. Yesterday she noticed they needed new salt blocks so today she bought 3 of them, threw them across the fence then led Ayanna down to them. The herd did not follow Ayanna like Karin hoped, instead Ayanna ran back up the hill to be with the herd. So Karin picked one up and carried it all the way to the top of the hill. These things weigh 50 pounds each. Then she stood and watched the dynamics of the horses. EasterLily is boss now that Ribbon is gone. She just stepped right in that roll and the other horses, even Lily backed down but when Lily's colt decided to walk over to the salt even EasterLily walked away. It is the funniest thing, Karin reported that Lily's colt made his way over to the salt and started licking it and not a single mare challenged him.  No one wants to face Lily when she is in the protect the baby mode! Ayanna is another boss there but again she is a Lily daughter.
Karin worked with Marika, Ayanna, Rosalie, and Galena today. She remarked Galena is moving beautifully and so very gorgeous.
I need to bring Anna, Delilah, Soul, Francesca, Ella and her colt (which I can't remember what we named him) home before Friday, there is someone coming to look at these three foals.
The farrier is coming tomorrow late afternoon for Whitney.

The Big Eclipse

Diane and Mike are in Gulf Shores, AL and Joan couldn't come for the walk as she needed to be at the funeral early. We only had 3 of us walking today, Ruth, mom and I.

As soon as we finished, Hoerr vet clinic was called to ask what time Dr. Hoerr was due to come here. Chris told me probably around 10:00-10:45 am. Anna was asked if she would come help with that visit since I'm not suppose to be doing anything. She arrived before 10:00 bringing Kensley and Taegan.  We were having a decent rain, for the first time in about a month, so the girls played inside while we were waiting for Dr. Hoerr. At noon we got on the internet to see if the west coast had any thing published on the eclipse and were able to watch a video. Below are a few pictures of the eclipse taken by Nasa .

 The video was even more impressive watching as the ring around the moon became a diamond ring. 

 1:00 pm the clouds broke up and the sun came out.  We took the golf cart up to the barn to see if by chance Mark had a welding mask so we could watch the eclipse in real life, but if he did have one we couldn't find it. We drove over to mom's house to look in her garage as I remember dad having one when I was a child but again no luck. I looked across the lake and there was Rachel with 2 of her boys watching the sun. They had those special glasses. We kind of invited ourselves over and were very thankful they were willing to share. All of us got a chance to see this rare phenomena. Rachel had her camera out and was taking pictures of it by using the glasses.

She had Luke holding the glasses on the lens as she focused the camera. David and Anna were talking about how dramatically the temperature dropped all at once and how the daylight turned into twilight. 

The pictures below are what Rachel took and posted on Facebook.

Pretty impressive for Illinois.

The girls were getting tired and there was no sign of Dr. Hoerr arriving after the eclipse was over so I told Anna I would find someone else to help with the vet visit. She had waited here for almost 4 hours. Dr. Hoerr finally sent a text around 3:00 pm that he was on the way. Rachel was called but she was in Hanna City. She sent Luke to help with the vet. Below he is holding the iodine scrub for Dr. Hoerr. 

Flynn got a microchip today. His owner is registering him with IFSHA and they require a microchip. Flynn is already registered and DNA'D with FHHI so he will now be double registered. 

Next up was Indy's ultrasound. Below is the embryonic vesicle. She is 15 days along. Isn't it amazing how quickly a mare can be confirmed in foal but with dogs it takes about 45 days. Indy was bred to Evan and is due July 15th, 2018

The last mare to be looked at was Whitney. She is leaving for her new home this coming weekend and needed a health certificate for travel. She passed her exam with flying colors. 

Tonight I worked on a new recipe to serve the Berean workers tomorrow. Mark and I both had some for supper and we liked it, hope they do too. 

The picture of the eclipse below was also taken by Nasa in space, this one is the best I've seen on the internet so far. 

Thankful the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth gave us this gift today.  Just amazing. 

Baby Shower for Zion

We had another wonderful day in church. David Obergfel had the morning service on Gideon reading chapters 6, 7 and 8 in Judges.   Greg Rumbold had the afternoon reading all of Jonah.  Today after church Sarah's sister and sisters-in-law put on a beautiful baby shower for Sarah and Nolan's baby girl Zion who is to make her arrival October 8th. We all had a fun time. Why even Karin who usually doesn't do showers made the statement, "that was really fun, I almost wish we could have a shower every Sunday." The food was great.

The games were fun

the crafts were unusual

And of course lots of gifts.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures taken during the shower click HERE. 

Later the volley ball games were played. We watched for a while but it was hot and humid with hardly a breeze. Most of the people not playing made their way inside mom's house for visiting and games. Early this morning I worked on the mare and foal album. This was for my records, it makes it easy to see which stallion was used on which mare and why. If you would like to see this album just click HERE. 

Later Amy sent a text that her mom passed away. Her mom was diagnosed with cancer a while back and lived in Florida so when she needed help Ken and Amy  pretty much moved down to take care of her.  Pray for them. 

Pulling Hair

We slept in today not getting up until after 6:00 am. Sometimes it just feels good to lie in bed longer. I took a quick trip to Sam's Club early this morning for Sarah and Nolan's baby shower tomorrow after church.
Karin was here spraying the weeds in the outdoor arena when I got back. We used the golf cart to carry the weed sprayer while she handled the wand and refilled it 3 times. She got the entire arena done inside and outside then was just finishing up spraying the outside of the round pen when the sprayer broke. That meant a trip back inside to order another one on Amazon but when I went to pay there was no charge. I had forgotten the kids gave me a gift certificate for Amazon for Mother's day. What a nice surprise.
Sally and Rosaleigh were both brought in for their grain. Below is Rosaleigh's colt by Evan named Ethan, the picture was taken yesterday. We can't believe how big he is at just 2 months old

Below he is just 3 days old:

What a change!

Sally and Eli were given almost 2 scoops of grain, Thankfully Sally is sharing the bucket with Eli. He is pictured below with his mama Eliza at 6 days old. This was taken before he became an orphan

and pictured below at 3 weeks of age. 

We will need to get update pictures of him soon as he is now 3 months old. After their buckets were licked clean, those mares were taken out and Roxanne and her colt brought in. Karin held the colt while I pulled hair from his tail for the registry. He is such an impressive colt, just perfect conformation, thick hair and since he is a Valiant son, tall and majestic. 

He was handled all over, hooves picked up then they were put back and Indy brought in so her filly Envy could get her hair pulled.We are so very blessed to have beautiful Friesian foals, each one unique but gorgeous. Check out the length of Envy's tail. She is going to be a stunner. She inherited the mega hair from both her dam and her sire Evan.

Indy was put in the big stall to eat Roxanne's left over grain while Envy and I stayed in the single stall. She stood still while I groomed her all over before yanking out some tail hair. The registry requires a DNA test on each purebred Friesian but we must send in hair from ALL the foals for that registry just in case there is ever a question.
Mark was out on the tractor mowing the 50 foot strip and the perimeter of the field, then took his chain saw, put the bucket on the tractor and headed for the logs. Mom, Karin and I went to inspect his work getting there just as he needed help moving the logs into the bucket.

This is oak and very heavy. Mark could take between 3 and 6 at a time depending on the size. 

He cut and hauled a few thousand pounds of logs over to the farm house where they will be split later. We had quite a pile by the time he quit. We have a lot of houses here that heat with wood including ours.