The Horsemeister Blog

Around the Farm

2012-02-13T12:35:00.002-06:00

The golf cart was driven around the farm today for the pleasure of reacquainting the horses with their long lost owners. Thanks to Steven, all of the horses look great and all of the paddocks have hay. We were given the news of Karin's training disaster, she took a fall from a mare in training and was off work for a couple of days but thankfully she is back on her feet. Karin would like to assess the feed program of the horses going to the fair. Steven has done a marvelous job in keeping the horses fit, fat and happy but Karin now feels they are too fit and we need to cut back on the extra calories.
The fire is glowing in the wood burner the apartment is a warm 75 degrees and there is snow coming down steady outside. Both the washer and dryer are busy. One of the mares have just come wandering over from the cabin field to flirt with Raven. She looks like Sally one of our Tennessee Walkers. If it is Sally, she was in the cabin field this morning so there may be a board down or a gate left open over there and so far she must be the only horse that discovered it.
The lady in charge of the youth judging at the IL Horse Fair asked if we would allow our Friesians to be judged again and was given the bad news we are only bringing 3 of the 2009 horses and 3 mature mares. She is checking to see if they want the 2 stallions and 2 mares as we don't have 4 the same age.
Rachel and David spent 2 days at the cottage at Middle Grove and reported the creek is still open and the horses there look great. We will need to bring Lily home soon, she is due in March which is right around the corner. Ayanna is almost 2 years old and should also come back for some training. Perhaps Mike can take the trailer out next time he goes to check on the horses and bring those 2 back.
TSC must be visited to purchase bedding as Bow must be weaned this week. We will not be taking her to the fair, there is no room in the trailer. We will keep Ayanna with her in the stall area, then once she is weaned she and Ayanna can go back out to Middle Grove.

Made It Home

2012-02-13T09:20:00.013-06:00

We pulled in at the farm around 12:30am, the dogs were ecstatic to see us and we were pleasantly surprised. Rhoda and Karin reorganized and redecorated the apartment. It was really hard to force myself outside in the cold for the walk but wonderful to catch up on all the news from home. To show how cold it is, these are a flock of geese walking around on the lake.

As long as the camera cord was out the vacation pictures were downloaded. If you hate to look at other people's vacation pictures just skip this post.
Below we have just entered our cabin and look out the window to see these boxes of food placed on the dock for loading.

and a close-up of the most important box of the trip:

The next picture is of our escort out of the port of Miami again just outside our window.

The camera was put away until we reached the beautiful Island of St. Thomas. Below is the first beach we visited on that island.

Mark and Diane snorkeled in the clear blue-green water then the clouds started moving in, we took off with our rental van for the other side of the island to see a few other beaches before heading back to the ship.
Each night there was a special guest waiting for us after dinner. Below are just 6 of the 8 different arrangements.

The camera was accidentally forgotten when we visited Antigua. The next pictures are of our stop at Tortola.
Mike and Diane left Mark and I at a park while they went to arrange the rental of the jeep. Our first visitor was this rooster.

We found this gorgeous isolated beach to enjoy. Mark is checking out the water with his snorkel equipment just to make sure there are no sharks around before the rest of us enter the water, there must be some reason such a beautiful place is empty.

From there we headed over the mountains to the other side of the island. The views were just magnificent!

As we topped the mountain and was coming down the other side there was a good view of the cruise ships in the port of Tortola.

When we arrived back to return the jeep this donkey was patiently waiting.

There wasn't anyone else around to return the jeep to, the guy that rented it to us told us, "if I'm not here just put the keys on the floor. Below Mike is zipping the sides and back up just in case it rains before the owner shows up.

We decided Tortola was our favorite stop on this trip, the people are honest and friendly and better yet the town was clean!
The next day was our day at sea and then in the evening we had to turn around for the poor lady that was bleeding so bad. Below is the picture of the helicopter as it was coming in towards the boat.

It was very dark and the passengers were warned not to use flash for the pilot's sake. Mark and I went down to our cabin to take the picture below. This was after the patient was loaded and just as it was pulling away.

The next day we didn't arrive in Nassau until 3:00pm which didn't give us much time but off we went anyway. We took the water taxi over to the Atlantis hotel.

The water taxi was over being tossed around so violently as people were loading, the man in charge stopped us from getting on and told us it was not safe we would have to wait for the next boat. At that point Mike decided not to go. Mark, Diane and I felt we came this far we didn't care if we did get sick we were still going. We soon got out of the rough water and the rest of the trip was pleasant. Below is a back view of the hotel. That bridge like structure is actually a suite that can be rented out for $25,000.00. The late Michael Jackson use to rent it out when he visited the island.

Below are a couple of the many sculptures in the hotel.

We were suppose to be back on the boat by 6:30pm but ended up a few minutes late, Mike was looking out his cabin window waiting for us. He got our attention by shining his flashlight at us.

We were up at 6:00am after a very short night, packed and were off the boat by 7:40am. We caught the shuttle to Miami airport, rented a car and took off for the Ft Lauderdale church. Doyle from Bluffton, IN happened to be visiting and had both the morning and afternoon message. That man really knows the scripture, it was wonderful to be with our church family. After church we headed over to Dick and Gladys Haefli's condo and played Apples to Apples.

And the winner was Gladys!

We left at 4:00pm for the airport for our long trip home. What a nice break from winter all thanks to the free airline tickets from last year when we were bumped twice.

Nassau

2012-02-12T01:54:00.002-06:00

At breakfast we happened to have someone from the group the patient was from. We found out she was a 60 year old grandmother that had an aneurysm that burst. She was given 4-5 pints of blood while on the shiip before we could rondevue with the helicopter.
Because of this we didn't arrive at Nassau until 3:00pm and the ship wanted us back on board by 6:30pm with a 7:00pm pullout. We didn't have much time but took the water taxi to the hotel Atlantis. Bad move, it was very rough and took forever to get going. At one point as we were loading, the captain stops us, and makes us wait for another boat as the first was over loaded. We were dropped off quite a long walk from the hotel, plus the last ferry out left at 5:30pm not giving us enough time to see the aquarium. We were able to at least see the predator tunnel with all of the really mean fish. Once back on board we were told we would have a free glass of champaign with our dinner. Both Diane and I were really sore from all the walking and heard how alcohol can relax, but just un case I didn't like it I had the waitress just pour a tiny bit, it was awful so both Mark and Mike chose to get a coke. That was a mistake on Mark's part, the caffeine kept him up. We didn't have a restful night and now are busy packing. We hope to leave the ship as soon as possible, pick up our rental car from the Miami airport in time to head to church in Ft Lauderdale.

Emergency

2012-02-10T22:22:00.004-06:00

We had an emergency on board tonight after dinner. The ship was turned around and started toward the nearest island with helicopter service. The helicopter came flying in and hovered above the lest side of the ship. We saw one person dropping down by rope unto the boat, the helicopter took off flew around the ship, came back and hovered for a bit, took off circled again then by the time we got back to our cabin the it was hovering above our cabin preparing to take on the patient. We watched as it flew into the night. We were not told what happened but it must have been very serious. Today was our day at sea, hot bright sunshine and out of reading material and no that wasn't the emergency. The library is open just one hour per day, both Mark and I checked out books for the remainder of the cruise.

Another Cruise

2012-02-10T08:12:00.004-06:00

Yes we are on another cruise! Last year we got bumped twice, once on our flight down and again on our flight home, this resulted in 4 free round trip tickets to where ever AirTran goes. We had to book 2 flights within a year to use these free tickets and after searching cheap vacations the best use for these free tickets turned out to be another all inclusive cruise. Diane found the best value and we are enjoying the fruits of her labor. We are now on our way to Nassau then Sunday we will arrive back in Miami. Our plan is to pick up the rental car Diane was able to reserve for $28.00, drive to Ft Lauderdale and join Dick and Gladys Haefli for church at the Ft Lauderdale church then to the airport for home. Diane has already checked the flights going home are all full so we will try to get bumped again just in case we want another vacation next year but honestly after two cruises, we will probably not want to go on another for years. At least this is a good time to leave Illinois.
We have another beautiful warm sunny day today and so far have been watching schools of flying fish gliding just above the surface of the ocean from our room window. We are on the first floor and our window is just above the water.

Lamb

2012-02-09T20:12:00.002-06:00

We had another excellent dinner tonight starring rack of lamb. After dinner we were entertained by a very talented ventriloquist performing in the Eagle lounge on this wonderful Carnival ship Valor. The entertainment so far on this trip has been first rate. We are really getting spoiled, the hardest effort is to decide where to eat and how should we be entertained. Tomorrow is a day at sea so we have purchased 120 minutes of Internet through the ship. It is way slow but works in our cabin.

Antigua & Tortola

2012-02-09T14:28:00.003-06:00

Yesterday the boat was at Antigua and today Tortola. Yesterday the smells from the town were not good, Mike and Diane found a cheap way to get to the very beautiful beaches. The taxi's wanted $12.00 each but Diane found out Antigua has public transportation by walking a bit farther. She and Mike made it out to the beaches for $1.50 each, and the bus came by every 15 minutes. When it was time to head back a very wealthy couple from Canada stopped and picked them up taking them back to the boat. After dinner Tuesday night we went to the show which was a very talented juggler from Asia. He was also a comedian and had us roaring with laughter. We didn't know how last night's show could top it but it did with a magician act comedian and again not only were were roaring with laughter we were amazed at his skill.
Today we pulled in to the very beautiful British Virgin Isle of Tortola. It is clean and friendly. Mike rented a jeep as we were wanting to go over the mountains along with visiting remote beaches. We found a beautiful beach with no one on it at all and spent the afternoon swimming in the clear cool water then sunning ourselves on the white sands under a hot sun. It is just perfect here. On the way back to the ship we headed over the mountains for some gorgeous views. The roads are narrow and each time someone wants to pass they honk. We pulled over a few times for pictures which will be loaded later.

Cruise Day 2&3

2012-02-07T08:34:00.003-06:00

Our last two days were spent traveling, our cabin is really roomy and the window is such a treat. Sunday was windy and scattered clouds enough that we didn't burn, as it was Super Bowl Sunday both the big theater and the big outdoor screen had super bowl parties going on with buffets in both areas, what was missing was popcorn and of course one must have popcorn for a football game but we survived. Monday was bright sunshine and I got too much sun. Funny but before boarding the ship we shopped for suntan lotion and what do you think was one of the giveaways? A big tube of suntan lotion! We will have to leave it at the Haefli condo, it is too big of a tube to fly home. Today we are docked at beautiful St Thomas. Mike, Diane, and Mark are taking the ferry over to St Johns but I am content to stick around St Thomas, it is not worth feeling sea sick all day by taking a 45 minute ferryride there and back, this trip I am not going to be feeding the fish no matter how good it makes for those who want to fish. The Internet cafe I am sitting at has just gorgeous views of the hills of St Thomas, this is such a beautiful island. Funny how quickly one becomes use to the luxuries of cruise life, laying around in the sunshine, no work and no worries. It really isn't good for us why today we complained that the breakfast waffle wasn't crisp enough. Imagine the only thing to complain about is a food item we didn't slave away making, we didn't work for, it was placed in front of us. What is wrong with that picture? We aren't working out hard enough to sleep well at night so that means we take naps! What a strange way to enjoy life. I miss my kids, I miss my grandkids, I miss my family and I miss my dogs.
1:30pm: well they didn't get the ferry, instead they rented a car, came and picked me up and off we went exploring this very hilly country. We visited Coki beach first. Diane and Mark snorkeled and saw lots of fish while Mike ordered soda and food from a vendor. Rain clouds moved in so we loaded up the rental van and headed to Magens beach, one of the top ten beaches in the world. It is beautiful but the snorkeling is better at Coki beach. Back over the mountains and hills we did more exploring of the island on these very winding narrow roads where everybody is driving on the wrong side of the road.

Big Boat

2012-02-04T14:09:00.001-06:00

We are in our very spacious window view cabin watching tons of food being loaded unto the ship. We were upgraded to this beautiful oceanview cabin. We think it must have been becuase so many people canceled their cruise because of the accident but the boat sure seems full. Prayer is an amazing thing, last Wednesday evening while talking to my Lord i happened to mention how nice it would be to have a window on this coming cruise, the next morning Diane called to exclaim we were to be upgraded. We decided to keep this secret from the guys as a special treat. There is skid after skid of different foods but the one Diane likes best is sitting right below us, a full skid of ice cream cones. Our window is recesses with plenty of room to sit up on the window sill, this is for sure to be a favorite spot during the next 8 days. It is a perfect place to sit each morning watching the sunrise while drinking one's morning coffee. We will need to leave soon for the safety muster then the boat pulls away from Miami at 4:00pm. Mom called to report it has been a miserable cold wet day at the farm, sure glad Rachel scheduled the pictures for yesterday. We have 2 days at sea before reaching our first destination St Thomas then on to Antigua which we reach the 4th morning. The 5th morning we arrive in Tortola. The 6th day is a day at sea, the 7th day we arrive at Nassau at noon and only get to stay on that island until 7:00pm, and from there we head back to Miami. We used our free airline tickets from getting bumped last year, we stayed last night with Spark and Rhonda at the Haefli condo, the car rental was only $22.50 and included a free shuttle to the port of Miami. We were teasing Diane by asking her, "do you think it could get any cheaper?" leave it to Diane to find the best way to use free airline tickets for a nice vacation really cheap.

Breakfast at Rhondas

2012-02-04T07:06:00.005-06:00

Forget Tiffany's Breakfast at Rhonda's is way better. We had peanut butter raisin toast topped with fresh blue berries, cinnamon and sugar along with oranges right off the tree and sold at a grocery store.
We will leave hot sunny Fort Lauderdale and head to Miami soon where we will plan on boarding the Carnival ship Valor. We are too tight to order internet and the lap top was left home, it was just too big and heavy and Mark refused to carry it. This will probably be the last picture uploaded for 9 days but that doesn't mean pictures won't be taken, they will just be stored on the camera until we make it home. Pray for us, pray the captain steers the ship away from any reefs or shoals we sure don't want to end up like the one that sunk over in Italy. Our cabins are way down all the way down on deck 1. If the boat hits something we start swimming.
Mark and Spark took a walk to the beach this morning and Spark reported they didn't step on any horse manure, in fact they didn't even have to watch for it. They did stumble upon some kind of a religious ceremony on the beach. They didn't stick around to watch what was happening, at first Spark thought it was a Muslim ceremony but then they noticed the speaker was a women, nope that couldn't be it, Muslims don't let women preach right? We are heading out soon and will say goodby to Spark and Rhonda, all you Peoria people say hello to them they are heading home on Monday.

Fort Lauderdale

2012-02-03T22:55:00.004-06:00

What an exciting day, Rhoda and I stopped at Sama and ended up buying Emma and Darcy both huge dog beds. At least we thought they were huge until we got them home only to find out Darcy needs both if she wants to stretch out a bit.
Luckily the weather was sunny and warm, the photographer, Rachel Sauder of momentscapturedbyrachel.com was due at 2:30 for the horse fair pictures. Ribbon was covered in mud,so ground in we gave up with the grooming and hosed her off, Jenis was another that we had to hose off. Valiant needed just his legs hosed. Rhoda just gave Ella a lick and a promise. By the time Rachel arrived Steven pulled in to take over cleaning up Valiants tail while Rhoda and Ella rode out to start with hers. The pictures went smoothly, Rachel is so good at her job.
Mike and Diane picked us up at 3:45pm for our trip to the Bloomington airport. They were loading our plane when we arrived, it left a half hour early which let us easily catch the plane to Fort LauderdaleWhat with just minutes to spare. Both flights were uneventful and wow did Diane get us a great deal on a rental car. A mere $22.00 for a nice brand new Impala Malibu. We arrived at the Haefli condo by midnight and right now they have pulled out the snacks. We leave on our cruise tomorrow morning. It's hot down here.

Hotel Rooms

2012-02-02T17:09:00.005-06:00

Hotel rooms reserved at the Ramada for the IL Horse Fair.
Thursday
Room 1 Steven
Room 2 Judy, Amy, Karin, Rhoda, Emily, Monica
Friday
Room 1 Steven
Room 2 Judy, Amy, Karin, Rhoda, Emily, Monica
Room 3 Mom & Diane
Room 4 Ruth
Room 5 Rachel
Room 6 Crystal
Saturday
Room 1 Steven
Room 2 Judy, Amy, Karin, Rhoda, Emily, Monica
Room 3 Rachel
Room 4 Crystal
Room 5 Michelle
Room 6 reserved (this room is open and will be canceled if no one wants it)
If anyone else would like to make their own reservations,
We are staying at the Ramada Ltd. North Sangamon Exit off I-55 Ph: (217) 523-4000 | Rate: $85
Now for the fun stuff, Rhoda came over to work (play) with Ella. Steven had Zalena, Jenis, and Ylse out each getting conditioning training. Mike brought the Kabota over to load grain for the cabin and tack room and the executive decision was made to haul Ciera, Sangria, Mindy and Bonnie back out to Middle Grove. Ciera was sticked as long as we had the measuring stick out for the boys, she sticks right at 16 hands as a 2 and a half year old. Mike brought the trailer up, Ciera was waiting to load, when Mike was getting Mindy out Bonnie escaped, scared Ciera, Rhoda tied Jenis to the gate to come help, Jenis opened the gate and let Zalena escape and both Zalena and Bonnie took off running. At least they didn't go far. All the horses are now in the trailer for the ride to Middle Grove or back in their own paddocks.
We happened to look up and there is the most unusual sight tonight. The moon is almost full and in the middle of a big clear ring. The outside of the ring is cloudy and fuzzy but the moon looks like it is in the middle of a perfectly circular clear crystal lake with the ripples starting around the edges. I tried to take a picture of it but there is no way for this little camera to capture the full image.

Zooming in just makes the moon blurry.

Evenings are exciting and a lot of fun here at the farm.

Coggins

2012-02-02T14:40:00.004-06:00

Today at Sams the bill came to $155.00, Mark knew even before I pulled up at the shop how much I'd spent and asked, "how much food did you buy?" "you remember we are leaving tomorrow?" It was time to confess, not all of what was purchased was food items, the dogs got another 44 pound bag of food but it was personal things for me that dragged the bill up higher than usual. Diane told me after surgery I would need to wear pajama pants so 2 sets of those were thrown in the cart. Darcy has eaten most of the girls socks and a package of those were thrown in the cart, and then I bought something for me to wear on the cruise.
Work at Meisters was quick and easy, only one credit card application to run and one deposit for Bridlewood apartments then it was home to wait for the vet. Our vet appointment was for early afternoon and Dr. Pallen arrived shortly before 2:00pm. We had Ribbon, Jenis, Ylse and Indy in the arena ready for her. As the last one was being done Steven brought the boys in for their turn. I'm happy to report every horse was perfect, they didn't even flinch. Dr. Pallen exclaimed, "it is such a pleasure to come here for coggins, your horses are all so well behaved." That makes us smile.
Indy was measured today, she is over 14.3 hands, almost 15 hands and won't be 2 years old until July 4th, 2012. She will easily top 16 hands when full grown.

Dr. Pallen looked at her, stood back and said, "that's a well put together filly." Another reason to smile. Steven wanted to measure the boys as long as we had the stick out. Evan is close to 15.2 and Valiant is 15.3 and a half. Funny Valiant just looks so much bigger sometimes. Steven showed Dr. Pallen Evan's tricks, she was impressed!

Ylse's teeth were looked at and they are just starting to get sharp, I'll have Rhoda let Dr. Calhoun know the next time the dentist comes to her place we want to bring Ylse.

No Pictures

2012-02-01T21:12:00.003-06:00

Somedays are just too busy to take the camera out, there will be no pictures on today's blog entry. Someone shared a true story today on our walk, Yesterday a girl who will not be named but one that lives in this area and has a 4.0 GPA at Illini Bluffs ran out of gas for the second time in just a few weeks. When one of the mom's in the area took her to the gas station, she replied, "I just don't know what's going on with the car, normally it gets 330 miles before we have to fill up and it ran out today at 329. Somehow that reasoning escaped us and we burst out laughing. Sometime later in the morning Phil called and needed equipment left at the farm house brought in to the shop, a load of pea gravel was delivered and Lowes showed up with 3 pallets of 80 pound bags of concrete all at the same time. Between showing the truck drivers where to go, signing for the loads and collecting scattered pieces of equipment someway I was still able to make it to work in time to get just about everything but the shopping done.
The hundreds of copies that were made last week were just about all gone and a good part of the day was spent working with the copy machine. Hopefully there are now enough copies to make it through the next 2 weeks. Where do they all go? Mark needed a few credit card applications run and by the time everything was done it was almost 4:00pm. Karin was at the farm trying her best to find a way to firm up the jousting spears so they don't droop. We worked a bit on the Horse Fair evening program before her vaulters showed up.
Ruth picked us up for church, Mark and I easily fit in Ruth's van along with mom, Jackie, and Anni. Today was the first in a session of 8(I think) of the TEAM KIDS. When we walked in church there was a very tantalizing smell coming from the kitchen. Anyone that wants to eat dinner together before church, the meal and it must have been delicious, started at 6:00pm but tonight our car load couldn't make it that early. Tim Funk had the service. How thankful we are for our Peoria ministers. They speak the truth and they love us and each other. We were reminded tonight to pray for them, they all have such servant hearts.
The van on the ride home was filled with laughter and joy. What a wonderful end to a very busy day.

Choir Lunch

2012-02-01T06:29:00.006-06:00

Eva Jean and I were swamped with work yesterday, in fact I didn't get home until 3:00pm. Steven showed up to move in a couple of round bales, one in the middle paddock and one for the boys. He then started bringing in the horses. He is working at getting the mares fit for the show.
We left for choir just a bit early, we needed to get the cups delivered for Rhonda. We arrived about the same time as Marvin and Gale who happened to be serving lunch for the night. Gail took all of the 20-50 Bible studies for the Bloomington group. Peoria church will get a break this week.
Choir was fun! I really should have gone last week, it is such a blessing to be singing praises to our Lord together. And then came the lunch!
Gail started the meal with spinach lasagna rolls.

Marilyn Baurer helped with lunch and brought beautiful vegetables.

Below are not bacon wrapped wienies, nope they are bacon wrapped stuffed dates.

The fruit was not just delicious it was very colorful.

Below are pickled beets.

And to finish up delicious home baked brownies from scratch made with a caramel sauce Gail brought back from Brazil.

All of this was just wonderful except Mark and I are serving the next time we have choir. How are we ever going to top that!
Below are a few of our ladies enjoying the meal.

We arrived home around 10:00pm and headed straight to bed.

Where is YOUR Hairbrush

2012-01-31T05:58:00.002-06:00

Beth Moore at her best!

Unexpected Company

2012-01-30T21:31:00.012-06:00

Steven arrived as I was outside cleaning up after the dogs and brought out the the 2 boys for a training session. They are always so interested in the mares big or little. Below they had just seen the 3 pony mares.

Rhoda came out to work Ella in the lighted outdoor arena on January 30th, 2012, the weather is unbelievable!
Steven was still here working Zalena, we got a phone call from Amy that she was on her way so he left Zalena tacked up for her and got Jenis out for him. Below he and Rhoda were seeing if both of their horses would get on the pedestal at the same time.

Rhoda slides off Ella's back laughing all the way down.

Jenis is way to much of an aristocrat for sliding. She steps off quietly.

Amy spent some time schooling Zalena, teaching her to stay on the rail. This will help Anni control her in the big show March 2nd & 3rd.

Rhoda had to show us how Ella has learned to bow with Rhoda on her.

Mike wanted to join in the fun and thought tonight would be a great time to start Mindy undersaddle.
We were laughing as he used the pedestal to get on her. Really he just wanted to land lightly.
Ebby followed Mike out and started whining, she wanted up, Rhoda placed her on Ella and she was content to stay.

Rhoda wanted her pony back but Ebby didn't want to get down so Steven and Amy took turns holding this spoiled little puppy.

Actually it is good for the horses to accept anything we put on their backs including dogs.
Rhoda decided to start Mindy on some tricks, by the time she was done Rhoda felt Mindy has a lot of potential.

It was getting late and Amy really came over to work on Ella's description for the Horse Fair so Zalena was handed off to Steven while we went inside. The dogs were very board with the conversation.

It was so good of Amy to come over, I really enjoyed spending this amazing evening first in the outdoor arena under the sparkling stars then catching up with all the Bridlewood news inside the apartment. What a great day!

Cable Internet

2012-01-30T15:35:00.003-06:00

Today is the first day I am actually using the cable internet, funny how one forgets how fast it is until it is back. It is even faster than the internet at the shop. Two pictures taken of Ebby this morning downloaded in just a few seconds, when we were using the cell service it would take so long sometimes I would forget I was trying to download pictures.
Ebby came running up for the walk this morning looking like a walrus.

She was so excited about what she had in her mouth there was no getting her to stand still for a picture. Finally Diane picked her up but even then she was wiggling so much she dropped one of her special treats (old hotdogs Diane gave her to share with Heidi)

Ylse was let out early this morning and given a bale of hay and a scoop of grain. She still looks like she is dropping weight. The vet was called to arrange an appointment to have her teeth looked at and floated if needed. Dr. Pallen is coming on Thursday afternoon to do this, as long as she is coming we will have new coggins drawn on Jenis, Ylse, Ribbon, Evan, Valiant, and Indy.
Braelyn arrived while I was getting a bucket of water for Ylse. Steven was called to see if he would pick up some Strategy for her on his way in to Hanna City. He actually delivered the bag and gave her a scoop before heading over to Zimmermans for work. She dived right in meaning she still has a good appetite.
Phil came just a bit ago to pick up Braelyn and I'm heading outside in the sunshine. It is warm outside!

Invited to Perform

2012-01-29T19:39:00.006-06:00

As we were leaving the farm we see a car in the ditch. Mom called to see what happened and got the lowdown on how Caleb's car started sliding and couldn't stop until it slid over the embankment and into the creek.

We actually had to get out and make sure there was no one in the car before heading to Morton, IL to pick up Nancy.
After church mom took Nancy to her house for dinner. Mike and Diane came over, Diane came in and visited a bit while Mike helped Steven move round bales in the pony paddock, Middle paddock and Raven's paddock. they took off to check the horses at Middle Grove. Steven was good enough to let Ylse out for her extra food. We are a little concerned about Ylse, she has lost some weight since we are feeding the new round bales. The rest of the mares look really good. Hopefully since we have caught this before too much weight was lost we can have her built back up before the IL Horse fair in Springfield and speaking of the IL Horse Fair, we have been notified they need a high resolution picture of Ella and Rhoda and another one of the Friesian Jousting demo for their printed program. The Fair also wants a short introduction to go with the picture. We were thinking something like this: Presenting the War Horses of the Horsemeister Friesian Farm If anyone out there has a better catchy phrase that includes the words Friesian and Horsemeister we will consider that. These have to be turned in by Friday. We need Rhoda to come up with a short intro for her free style with Ella. This means we have been officially invited to perform in the IL Horse Fair's Horsecapades Friday and Saturday evening.

Ugh

2012-01-29T07:54:00.004-06:00

We are so sore to roll out of bed each muscle must be first stretched slowly before trying to sit up, slide out of bed and stand upright. Well that's a stretch of the imagination, we are not upright but bent over from cramping muscles. Those kids worked us to the ground yesterday. Poor Mark, he feels like he has the flu, he aches in every muscle. We just can't keep up with the thirty and twenty year olds and shouldn't even try. The sad part about all the work yesterday was none of it is for show, it is just shoring up the foundation. The farm house is around 150 years old, when it was built they just built it on a rubble wall. The original builders just dug about a foot and a half deep then dumped rock in it and built on top of that. We all know about building one's house on a firm foundation and not on sinking sand.
I was so thankful Steven left a full wheelbarrow of hay in front of the pony paddock. Just a few steps out to feed was way better than trying to make my way into the barn on the slippery packed snow and ice. The middle paddock inhabitants were way jealous of the ponies getting the good square bale when their 2 round bales are almost gone.
Mom is going with me this morning to pick up Nancy. My turn is actually next week but we will be cruising in the Caribbean then.

Exhausted

2012-01-28T19:48:00.003-06:00

The workers started showing up at 7:00am, they quickly realized one pallet of 80 pound bags of concrete was not going to be near enough and sent Mark into town to buy 2 more loads as full as Lowes could fill a 3/4 ton truck. All together they went through over 10,000 pounds of concrete. The three grandkids spent the day with me while Dave, Stef, Phil, Anna, Ben, Taunya, Rhoda and Sarah worked on the house. They came in muddy and frozen. Emily and her brother Matthew arrived early and went riding with Karin before the scheduled Horsemeister practice. Steven had Karin put the 2 boys out in the arena early so they could get some of their pent up energy out having fun. Karin took the video camera out when she did this and got about 5 minutes of play.

The Horsemeister riders: Karin, Rhoda, Steven, Rebekah, Emily & Anni showed up a little early went over how the practice was to go and then out to face the cold. They had a good practice even though they had to ride in a snow filled arena. They are practicing 2 different routines, one for the afternoon breed and sport demo and one for the evening Horsecapades. We were very pleased with how the boys acted. They are young Friesian stallions in an arena filled with very attractive mares and Steven was easily able to keep them focused on the job in hand.
Mom had them all over for lunch once the Friesians were put away, then they saddled up other horses for an afternoon ride. Karin, Rebekah, Anni, Emily and Matthew rode the horses all the way over to Ruth's house and back put the horses away and went hot tubbing at the Sauders. Around 1:30 the house workers stopped for lunch, Anna picked up pizza which was scarfed down, then they headed back out. Mom came over to help watch the babies while the vegetables and chicken for dinner were chopped. She was good enough to try to help clean up some of the ever present mud that got dragged in each time someone entered the apartment.
By 4:30pm the house workers ran out of concrete and headed in for dinner. The house workers ate, then headed for home, the horse riders showed up 5 minutes after the house workers left and they also enjoyed dinner each before heading to their prospective houses. We are tired but think the kids must be exhausted, Ah youth!

for Mom

2012-01-28T07:06:00.002-06:00

Mom we want to open your horizons and stretch your mind. When we heard there was a t-shirt printed with instructions on good old fashioned hand raisings it just had to be copied and posted here for you to study.

Mom watched the video of Tim Hawkins doing his hand raising routine and burst out laughing. She may as well learn this, one never knows when something like this will come in handy. Heaven waits for those who love and worship the King, the only instruction missing on this shirt is the important casting crowns but perhaps we won't need printed instruction on that, it will probably just come natural.
We have a couple inches of snow on the ground. This may come in handy if the temps climb to 39 degrees like it is suppose to, the snow will have insulated the sand in the outdoor arena leaving it soft enough for the 11:00 am practice.
Phil has a work day scheduled for the farm house today and has asked the workers to come this morning.

Ella's Workout

2012-01-27T20:22:00.009-06:00

It was sunny and just above freezing this morning, a perfect day for Rhoda to work Ella in the outdoor arena.
Below she was asked to get up on the pedestal.

The pedestal is pretty tall for Ella and this was the first time she was asked to get up without having her stand on the bridge first. By the time Rhoda was done with her she was riding her over bareback, having Ella get up then Rhoda sliding off her back.
She also worked on her bridle-less routine, some jumping and bowing.
I soon left to take the golf cart over to mom's where she was working outside on this beautiful warm sunny January day.

Rhoda came cantering Ella over to play with Heidi.

While the camera was out I snapped a few more pictures of the 2 of them. Ella was a bit naughty in the arena trying to swerve around the jump instead of over the jump but Rhoda ended on a good note. She was perfect on the trail ride. We sure like this pony!

Sarah brought Braelyn out, then asked if I would watch her while she and Rhoda helped Philip inside the farm house. Steven came over, moved in a new round bale for Ribbon's paddock, then took the boys out for another training session. He reported today Valiant quietly bowed, laid down, then sat up slowly. Steven is coming out 5-6 days a week to get these boys ready for the fair. Karin came with 2 of the new leg wraps, tried them on Ribbon and we rejected them. They just don't lay flat, look bunched up a bit. By the time her vaulters started showing up for practice the day had done a 180, snow was coming down so fast and thick in 15 minutes the drive was covered. The picture below was taken about 4:30pm shortly after the snow started.
Our nice sunny day turned into a cold cloudy snowy gloomy evening.
Hope tomorrow is nice, all of the Horsemeister performers are to be here at 11:00am for a practice.

Opening the Box

2012-01-26T19:14:00.007-06:00

Remember the picture of the half empty study holder? Well today there are at least 150 studies of each lesson and it only took 5 hours.

I left the farm around 8:30am got to the shop, turned on the copy machine and ran it steady for those 5 hours. These will only hold us off a week or 2. No wonder Eva Jean would get so upset when she would come in and find the slots empty. She used to make them all at her home until the risograph quit running for good and the copy machine we took to her place to replace that broke.
Finally made it back to the farm, walk in the apartment and it is cold. After splitting a few logs the fire was started and the place started to warm up just about the time Mark came home. He brought home a couple of boxes, one was more sparkly material for the horse fair and the other the feeders we ordered. Darcy feels it is her job to open each box and has such a great time getting it done.

Of course by the time the box is opened there is cardboard all over the living room floor.
Mark went out to cut more wood while supper was prepared. Tonight we had chicken stir fry served on a bed of white rice and topped with Chinese noodles (the crunchy kind), one of our favorite meals.
We need a closer picture of those delicious vegetables.

Steven was over to work the boys and Rhoda is coming this evening to work Ella. We were relaxing in front of the wood burner when the dogs start playing. They are such goofy dogs but act like they are royalty in front of people they think they can impress.
Emma is pictured below.

But wait, is that rolls of fat on her? Yes poor Mark's feet are sandwiched between Emma and Darcy.

Darcy is pictured below, as old and lovable as she is she still is the boss of Emma.

Emily's Coming

2012-01-26T05:25:00.009-06:00

Emily and one of her friends are coming down for the day on Saturday. Rhoda and Karin for sure will be here, now if we could just get the rest of the team here we could hold a practice for the show. The weather had been mild enough perhaps it will still be above freezing on Saturday so they can use the outdoor arena. We have been so blessed this year with mild temperatures. Mild enough we still have 4 out at Middle Grove, unheard of in years past. Each morning the golf cart is loaded up with a square bale making it easy to throw 3 flakes to the ponies and the rest of the bale to Raven. Then back for another bale for the 2 boys putting the entire bale in the bale feeder. The last paddock where a square bale is given is Indy and Killian's paddock again throwing the bale into the bale feeder. Steven made feeding them easy, he moved a bunch of bales into the breeding shed for easy access. By afternoon only the ponies are needing more hay. We will do this for the next week but before we leave for vacation Feb 3rd we will load up the paddocks with round bales.
Last night we ended up taking 3 cars to church from the Lake. It wasn't a good night for car pooling, Mark needed to bring things for Ron Christ, I needed to take a big sack of stuff from Rhonda for Gail Hodel and Marve Hodel had 2 things he needed to give me. Jessica had to go somewhere after church. Good thing Ruth & Fede's van was available for the rest. They were willing to stuff in 3 more mom, Rachel and Jackie.
Church was fantastic as usual. How could people willingly miss being fed from the Lord's table? At least now if one can't physically come they can listen on-line but it sure isn't the same as being there with the wonderful fellowship available. God knew we humans need fellowship, that's why He wrote in His Word, Hebrews 10:25 forsake not the assembling of the saints. Craig Stickling spoke and again left the pulpit way to soon. After church we joined the group that meets at Culvers for more fun and fellowship. We were the first to leave, we had the farthest to go to get home.
Today is copy day down at the Berean warehouse. Hope the toner holds out, we didn't remember to order more when the last of the toner was used.

Dan's Repair

2012-01-25T06:33:00.005-06:00

Eva Jean and I had such a nice surprise when we entered the Berean office yesterday. Dan repaired our study holder. We had this stuffed with studies, walked in last week and found it collapsed in on itself. The papers were too heavy for the cardboard shelving. Dan took it home and fixed it better than new. Now there is real wood slats instead of just cardboard. Now we can stuff each slot as full as we want and it won't collapse again. THANKS DAN!

I knew he was the one to ask, Dan can figure out how to fix anything, he must have inherited that talent from dad. The only depressing part is all the empty slats, tomorrow will be a copy day. We try to keep 300-400 copies of each study on hand as there are many jails and prisons in the area that use them.
Mark and I played hooky from choir last night. Mark came home with a scratchy throat, Spark & Rhonda are in Florida and I just didn't want to drive the dark country roads to the fellowship hall all by my self. The other factor was Rhoda came over to work Ella and I wanted to watch. Ella has been at Middle Grove and not worked for a couple of months, we had no idea if she would come back naughty or nice. She was excellent! Rhoda worked on her bridle-less routine, her bow and her lay down. This is one smart pony.
I know action pictures can't be taken clearly inside the arena at night with my camera but took a few anyway.

Today is Braelyn day, the vacuum better be run to try to get the dog hair up before she arrives. Maybe there is something to Rhoda's idea of breeding Emma to a poodle. These dogs shed. That won't happen any time soon, we have a line-up of people wanting to be put on the list for the next time Emma is bred. She passed her OFA hip certification but her left elbow had grade 1 calcification (1 the best 3 the worst). I was concerned about that until more research was done, everything that came up was: grade 1 very rarely moves to grade 2, if only 1 elbow has it more than likely the cause is an injury and not congenital. Meaning we will need to look for a huge championship AKC male.

The Books

2012-01-24T13:48:00.004-06:00

Last evening was spent on getting the Horsemeister books in order for our tax man. That took hours, finally pushed save, went to email it to Diane and it couldn't be found. What a mystery, it must be on this computer somewhere but even the search button couldn't find it, how's that for secret files. Too bad these weren't suppose to be secret. At least the second time didn't take quite as long, most of the paper work had not yet been put away.
Today the correct birth dates were added on the horses born, bought, or sold, I thought it might be fun to compare horses bought or given to us against the horses sold and actually was a bit depressed. We were given 3 ponies and 1 horse but we purchased 7 more giving us a total of 11 new. This would be fine if we had sold 22 but nope we only sold 12. No wonder we are not making any progress on cutting the herd. The final number for the start of 2012 is 27. For my birthday one year Amy Koch gave me a T-shirt that had a picture of a lady handing her head to a doctor, the words in big letter said, "Doctor, I need you to examine this, I just bought another horse." That shirt is going to be worn over and over this year.
This would be a great time for any one to offer on one of our horses. We would accept offers on Izadora, Bow, Cindy, Mindy, or Bonnie. If a new horse or pony is in your future consider one of ours.

Horse Fair Entertainment

2012-01-24T06:16:00.004-06:00

Yesterday 2 emails came in from the lady lining up the evening entertainment for the IL Horse Fair. In the first email she asked if Horsemeister would come up with a thundering jousting Medieval demo, and the second email was:
Could Rhoda put together a routine with Ella? I just finished re-watching the video of them and found another video of the two of them on your youtube channel. Do you think she could do a bridleless freestyle routine?
Rhoda was not real enthusiastic her words were, "we need to clear out the arena, there is too much stuff in it to train." I'm sure both Karin and Steven would agree with her. I wonder how quickly could we put up a coverall arena? Mark just shuddered! I'm just dreaming and someone said, "if you are going to dream, dream big."
Who would have thought when we built the big barn we would fill it up with so much equipment and hay there isn't enough room to train.

Valiant and His Father

2012-01-23T16:54:00.005-06:00

Steven came out after his work at Zimmermans, moved a round bale into the middle paddock and a square bale each into Raven and Indy's paddock. Once all the mares were grained he brought Evan and Valiant into the arena for some trick training. While he was getting ready to put the bridle on Valiant we look over and there is Evan climbing up the hay stack to reach the best bales. At least he thinks they are better than the ones on the bottom, really they are all the same.

Evan is quite the thinker. Steven actually has him bowing on voice command, laying down on voice command, then sitting up when asked. Of course this is at Evan's home place where he is the most comfortable. Take him where there are people around applauding and he will lose his focus quickly. Once both boys were worked Steven let Valiant say hello to his daddy, Raven.
At 2 and a half years of age, Valiant is almost as tall as Raven but Raven works hard to show his son he is the head of the farm.

Mark has a home board meeting tonight, dinner will just be left overs.

Wide Open Spaces

2012-01-23T11:08:00.007-06:00

Today on our walk Ruth brought back Mike's cowboy hat borrowed for some school project and all the pans left at her house for the lasagna dinner. We had a good time discussing wedding plans for Rebekah and Brian. I had to cut it a bit short as Braelyn was due any minute and for some reason we walked (I rode the golf cart) very slow today.

Karin posted some pictures of their trail ride at Middle Grove, above is at the cottage and below is the wide open grass lands of the neighboring farm.

No wonder Mike & Spark are considering this, the land is gorgeous.
Today is very windy, we had rain during the night that melted most of the snow. Below is Emma playing in one of the few remaining piles.

Last night we had an impromptu party at mom's house. Karin had purchased a bunch of T-Bone steaks, Mark grilled them over at mom's, Rhonda came in to arrange things before her trip to Florida and as there was plenty of meat, all in her house last evening were invited. Kari, Noel, Tara, Jay, their 3 little ones Spark & Rhonda along with Mike & Diane and Rhoda, Mark and I all crowded around the table with mom for a delicious perfectly done steak dinner.

Karin, Kari, Tara, Rachel and Rhoda had to leave by 5:30pm for their volley ball game (which they won)while the rest of us watched a video of 2 prisoners in the Canton prison give their testimony. It is really wonderful to see fruit from the prison ministry.

Ruth Served Lasagna!

2012-01-22T14:47:00.015-06:00

Well the dinner at Ruth's on Friday night was not a game night, she served LASAGNA! When we heard what she was serving no one wanted to wait until 6:00pm we started pouring into her house at or before 5:45pm and of course the engaged couple had not yet shown up. When Fede's sister walked in the first words out of her mouth was, "OK, what is going on?" She saw the pans of lasagna on the set tables and finally put 2 and 2 together. Then the only thing to figure out was who was engaged and who were they engaged to?

As most of us were early Ruth and Fede asked us to find a seat at the many tables Ruth had set up, then when the engaged couple texted because of the snow they were going to be late Spark went ahead and had the prayer. By the time they arrived we were almost finished eating.

Rebekah came walking in the door with Brian Schwind from Roanoke.
After greeting each of us they were finally able to sit down and eat some of the famous lasagna while answering many questions.

As we had finished it wasn't long before Diane brought out the dessert, a big congratulation cake.

They were asked to tell their story of how they met, how God brought them together and how they became engaged. We had Brian go first and it was fun to listen to his story of the first time meeting Rebekah, and Rebekah telling us the first time she noticed Brian. The picture below was taken during Rebekah's turn.

Below the cousins are getting the more in depth story we were given.

We had a fun time teasing the 2 of them but by Ruth having the lasagna dinner on a Friday instead of Saturday we had much longer to keep our mouths shut.
It was a relief to finally have it announced today in church. We think Ruth was beaming more than Rebekah. This makes 5 weddings for Peoria this year!

Pictures

2012-01-22T06:46:00.003-06:00

The camera cord has been found and pictures from Ruth's big family dinner will be added after church. The wind has been howling around the buildings during the night and this morning. The noise, even in this very insulated cozy cabin was enough to wake us numerous times. We went to bed last night by 8:30pm but with the restless night it's hard to get moving this morning. At 2:30am I made Emma go outside, she usually wakes me up but this time I made her get up and go out. Would have thrown more logs in the wood burner but that would have meant going out in the stall area to get them, there were none left in the apartment. Instead of going out into the cold, I checked email before heading back to bed. We got an email from the Horse Fair lady in charge of the evening performance asking how our team was doing and do we have a script. It looks like Horsemeister Friesians are going to be performing in the Friday evening Horsecapades, Saturday breed demo, Saturday evening Horsecapades and Sunday breed demo. The rest of the night was spent dreaming about everything going wrong during the preparing and while they were performing. Talk about nightmares, I was glad to wake up. Today is Sunday the best day of the week, a day of rest for most of us but not for the Hermans! Beth and Greg are serving lunch today, mom is going in early with Mike and Diane to help them. They always have a great lunch, so consider this an invite, come to Peoria today for something special.

Sunday School Pancake Supper

2012-01-21T20:01:00.008-06:00

As the temperatures have moderated into the 20s and the sun was shining, Mike, Diane, Karin and Rhoda took off for Middle Grove after the funeral with the trailer loaded with Mika and Bunni. Mike rode Mika, Diane was on Bunni, Karin rode Sally while Rhoda was on Sangria. They spent hours exploring on horseback the 200 acres for sale that adjoins the Middle Grove farm. The owner told them even if they don't end up purchasing the acreage they are still welcome to ride in it. Rhoda reported it is beautiful, lots of large grass pastures, lakes, hills, and wooded areas where there is abundant wildlife. Karin took pictures, hopefully she will email some over to be posted here. They finished up at the gingerbred house now called the cottage and warmed up their frozen feet by the roaring hot fire in the fireplace. The horses left to right are Sally, Mika, Bunni and Sangria, all patiently waiting for the next trip out.

Notice the solar panel on the left hand side attached to the chimney of the cottage. This was installed today to recharge the batteries. The cottage is all fixed up with lights, a microwave, propane heat and cook stove, those along with the fireplace make it very usable in the coldest weather.

They stayed all afternoon, then for dinner stopped at the Farmington Pizza Company. They brought back Mika, Bunni, Sally and Sangria leaving Lily, Ayanna, Cindy and Lilypony out for another week as the next few days we are suppose to get a warm up enough to melt the snow and ice. Lily will easily take care of her dwindling herd.
Steven was out today to work the boys, he has a great idea for the demo with these young stallions. I won't spoil his surprise but it should be an excellent show.
Mom, Nancy, Mark and I took off for the annual Sunday School Pancake Supper. This event was started by my dad years and years ago. It is always well attended with literally thousands of pancakes served. Ruth and Rachel's boys were busy working at the dinner, Ryan passing out pancakes, Logan & Steven taking coats and Fede flipping pancakes. The dinner was rounded out by sausage and applesauce, all really delicious.
We took Nancy to her home in Morton before coming back to the farm.

Friday Company

2012-01-21T05:15:00.002-06:00

Well my company ended up at Ruth's. Last winter was long and cold so the people living out here decided to have game night once a month. Ruth and Fede's house was a school before they bought it and turned it into their house. It is big with an open floor plan and can accommodate lots of squirmy house bound anxious to move about kids so hers was perfect for last night. About 60 - 70 of the family showed up and what a great time we all had partying late into the night. It was really funny, she set the dinner time as 6:00pm but most of us showed up by 5:45pm with some stragglers coming after dinner to join in the fun. People came from Peoria, Hanna City, Bloomington, Norris, Maquan, Chillicothe, and Morton. It's really wonderful and not just for mom's sake but all of our sakes that most of our siblings settled right here in central, IL with only Joan & Tim temporarily working in Haiti. Many pictures were taken but they will have to be uploaded later, the camera cord can't be found, perhaps it was left at the shop in Peoria.
We have a funeral to attend today. Lillian Koehl passed away, we celebrated her 100th birthday October 29th. Her husband was Adolph, and when we were young we thought he was the boss of the church. He preceded her in death in 1979. Lillian never knew a stranger and loved visiting with new and old friends.

Amazing video

2012-01-20T14:35:00.002-06:00

This guy and his horses are amazing.
Instead of walking this morning Diane had us over for breakfast, then they went down and did an exercise video while I headed back. Mike got the chains on the golf cart, now there is no excuse for not joining the walkers. The cart works fantastic even on ice.
The cable is now installed in the farm house but we have no computer over there to try it out. Mark left the laptop cord down at the shop and the battery is dead so no trying out our new cable internet.

Cold

2012-01-20T05:17:00.004-06:00

This is the coldest day this season, the thermometer is suppose to be hovering at 5 degree with wind chills below zero. But... there are only 11 days left of January, February is a short month and we almost always get some nice days in March. The dreaded dark frozen days have been few and far between this winter. We still have horses out at Middle Grove, unheard of in years past. Mike drove out to Middle Grove yesterday to move in another bale and to make sure the creek is still open.
Today the cable will be installed between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. A trip in to Peoria must be made today, we are having a lot of company for dinner tonight and supplies in the fridge and cupboards are running short. When we lived in Peoria we never worried about running out of groceries, Madison Park shopping center was just blocks away. Living here takes just a little bit of planning, it's either that or borrow from the neighbors.
Pleased to announce the coffee was wonderful this morning, hot strong and delicious with none on the floor.

Email from Sue

2012-01-19T21:50:00.012-06:00

Hi Judy.
I read your blog and wanted to say you make me laugh with the oh so subtle hints about the horse show. The vet told me he would xray her at 2 1/2 --this month! but weather and finances will put it off until April, then if she is ready, off to the trainer so I am saving madly because I sooooooo want to ride her this summer. I sure would have liked to go and thank you for the invite. Here are a couple pics from last month. She makes me look short! She is such a sweetheart and I couldn't be happier with her. She definitely is a favorite at the barn. I do have to laugh because I have never seen her run or do the show off trot but my friends all say they have. One day while standing in the pasture talking to them she would run and when I turned around she would stop. The brat did this a few times all when she apparently knew I wasn't looking. I don't think she wants me to know what she is capable of doing or just thinks it's funny to fool me.
Sue

THANKS SUE: Well I guess that means Piper is out for the show but it was sure worth a try. Just look at the picture above of her taken last month. Sue is a tall lady and Piper towers over her and she is not even 2 and a half in the picture. I think she will easily top 16.3 hands when full grown, Sue you are going to need a step ladder to get on her.
Braelyn was dropped off a little after 8:00am, she was a busy girl today. First playing with the truck & trailer along with a couple Breyer horses (that's my girl!)

Then cruising from the fridge, stopping and playing with the knobs on the drawers, then over to the dishwasher.

Making her way to the cupboards under the sink and learning how to open them and get the garbage out until Grandma tied them shut.

Then crawling over to the table and trying to pull things down.

She is just such a busy little girl and so much fun.

Steven showed up late afternoon and moved a bale into the middle paddock and one for Ribbon & Eliza. He also gave Raven a square bale, Indy & Killian hay and grained all the horses. That was a huge gift, today was just so cold, the horses thank him and so do I.
Thanks Steven for all your hard work!

Phil and Anna met at the farm house after work and started removing old insulation from the attic. Once finished they came in for dinner looking like this:

Talk about an awful job. Mark is going to have new insulation blown in and the old had to come out. It was full of debris, making it not at all efficient. Thank You PHIL & ANNA, we really appreciate all you are doing to help us get this old house ready to move in.

Coffee Makers

2012-01-19T07:15:00.004-06:00

Someone needs to design a coffee maker that will not work if the pot is not in place. Today is one of those mornings that if it can go wrong it will. Bleary eyed and obviously not thinking well the gallon jug of water from walmart was poured into the coffee maker only spilling about 6 ounces. Hey it is hard to pour into that little area when ones eyes aren't quite open. Then go to fill the fragrant dry coffee grounds into the filter and realize we are almost out of coffee but there is enough for today, pushing the buttons to start the pot and walk away. Anxiously waiting for those two tiny little beeps that herald the finishing of the pot, finally hear them and off I go stumbling over the dogs to get to this magic brew. A huge puddle is on the floor under the counter. My brain can't process that it is coffee on the floor and not in the pot which was standing on the counter next to the maker. Quickly the pot was placed in the correct spot and one measly cup of coffee was dripped into the pot with plenty of grounds coming out with it. Shuffle the few feet over to the cupboard for a clean coffee mug and there are none, they are all in the dishwasher that had not been run. Grabbing a mug, washing it out and trying to fill it without getting many grounds in it wasn't as difficult as trying to walk on the floor with paper towels stuck to my feet. It is hard to bend down with a bum hip so I've learned to wipe the floor with my feet. The rags used got most of the puddle up but to finish the job paper towels are dropped on the floor and stepped on with both feet. This I learned from Taunya's mom and it works! The problem comes when it gets stuck between ones toes. It just kind of looks funny. Today I must go to Sams for more coffee plus the dogs are now out of food. Not sure what is more important but isn't it great that the coffee ran out the same time as the dog food.
I'm not going on the walk today, we had a fresh layer of snow and it's cold. The golf cart cannot make it up the hills without being pushed by the other walkers and somehow I just don't think that is fair to them. Mike ordered chains for the tires but they came too big and he needs to take a few links out to make them fit. Once they are on I'll have no excuse but today I'm glad for the excuse.
The bright spot today is Braelyn coming over. Today is Joan's birthday, the walkers came in with Joan on the phone so she could be wished blessings for the day. Someone needs to wish that on this place today.
At least when the walkers left they took Emma with them, she loves to go on the walk.

The snow has started back up and the temperature is dropping, today is not going to be a warm and fuzzy type day.

Cable Installation

2012-01-18T11:24:00.004-06:00

The cable guy just left, the installation of cable internet is scheduled for Friday between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. This is amazing, after hearing it can't be done by everyone from family to the Mediacom company, it is finally going to happen. In this life it really is who one knows and in our case we knew Sue Martin one of the supervisors of the company. She bought Sanna's daughter Piper from us and found a way for this to happen.
Our other big news is we are now entered in the breed and sport demo at the IL Horse Fair March 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down at the IL state fairgrounds in Springfield, IL. We have reserved and paid for 10 stalls this year. The cost for extra stalls went up from $90.00 a stall to $95.00 a stall but we won't let a measly $5.00 each stop us. At this point the horses going are: Ribbon & Bow, Ylse, Jenis, Zalena, Valiant, Evan and Monica Fritzenmeier's filly Eisis. We needed one feed stall and one tack stall, for our last stall we can choose to take Ciera, or make it into a dressing room. If we take Ciera we will have 4 horses the same age for the judging, if we don't take her we just will not be able to be in the judging this year. Actually we should try to talk Sue into bring Piper for that but then if she did, Piper would probably take first over the other 3, Piper is just so tall and impressive.

Karin has a lady professionally making sparkly blue or silver capes for the riders and sparkly leg wraps for each of the horses. This year we are all going to match and going in style!
Karin and I spent hours yesterday online trying to find a decent hotel with a hot tub and by 8:30pm Karin gave up and told me to reserve rooms at the Ramada on Sangamon. No hot tub but they have an indoor pool and near the fairgrounds. Today the reservations will be made.

Big News

2012-01-17T17:08:00.005-06:00

Cable internet will be hooked up at the farm house tomorrow. We still need to buy a modem but how exciting is this, no more driving into Peoria to upload horse videos. We will be able to just walk over to the farm house to get reliable, fast speed internet.
The repairs on the farm house are moving along very well. Phil and Anna worked last night on moving the dirt from the crawl space out of the basement. There is still more to finish before we want to move in but we can now see the progress.
It is just plain cold today. Steven showed up for a bit after working next door, grained a few horses and moved Ciera over into the middle paddock with Jenis, Ylse, Airiah, Zalena and Izadora. Ribbon, Bow and Eliza are now in the first paddock making it easier at feeding time. Neither Ribbon, nor Eliza need any grain but when they were in the middle paddock of course they were the horses that would find a way to steal it.
Izadora is the only non Friesian mare in the middle paddock but she is so tall and black it takes a second look to pick her out.
This is Izadora before she delivered her 2010 colt:

and this is right after she delivered her colt by Raven:

Izadora is a true 16.2 hands and a true black. Her foals by Raven can't help but be tall, black and Oh So Elegant, and that's not even mentioning the fantastic movement from that set of parents. We are only asking $3500.00 for her including her unborn Raven baby, why the foal alone is worth twice as much as soon as it hits the ground. OK, I've just about talked myself into keeping her in hopes she will have filly this time around. So if interested in her and don't care if she has a colt or filly better act soon. She has had 2 colts by Raven and both are being kept intact as stallion prospects they truly are that nice.

Braelyn

2012-01-17T08:07:00.005-06:00

Yesterday the day was spent with one of my favorite grand daughters. There are only 2 so far of these very precious little girls and what a blessing to spend time with them. Hint, hint Taunya.

This morning is dark and gray, so dark that the arena lights needed to be turned on to find the golf cart for the morning walk. What a surprise when the lights were on. Steven cleaned up the arena moving 60 bales over to the breeding shed and getting the arena ready for Karin's vaulting practice tomorrow. We thank him but Karin really needs to thank him. To Horsemeister's benefit, Steven has been hired on at the barn across the street. They have 16 horses that they would like to sell, the owner has asked Steven to put training on them and get them ready to sell. Now instead of driving all the way from Metamora, IL he just drives across the street.
Work waits, must leave now if I'm to beat Eva Jean in except Emma just vomited on the rug. She has been obviously eating something with hair while we were on the walk, perhaps another deer carcass, so gross. The rug has been treated with woolite but that needs to sit 5 minutes before it can be blotted up. Today Eva Jean will win!

The Greats

2012-01-16T05:21:00.006-06:00

Mom and her 29 great grandchildren all loaded up last fall into the rowboat and took off fishing. What was she thinking? Doesn't she know how dangerous it is to take 29 little kids out onto the lake?
Actually the rowboat was on the beach, a little bit of amateur photoshop was done to place the boat in the water. Mom hired Rachel to take her Christmas picture and when all 29 kids were in the boat with mom you should have seen the adults up on land trying to get all of their attention. Rachel's picture turned out way better than this one taken with my little camera.
Speaking of Rachel, she took the picture below of one of the Dashchaund puppies for sale in Edwards, IL.

These puppies are adorable and ready to go by Valentines day. The mom of these pups is one of the nicest Dashchaund (wiener) dogs I've ever known of. She is not yappy, likes kids, and acts more like a gentle lab around children than a Dashchaund. There are only 6 available so if one is in your future better call 309-676-5850 and ask for Rita quickly. They are purebred Dashchaunds but do not have papers so instead of the megabucks a papered pup would be these are only priced at $300.00.
And speaking of dogs, Rhoda spent some time on the internet looking for stud service from a male standard poodle. She loves the Mastiff breed but wants something that doesn't shed for her next dog. She got what she thought was a great idea, breed Emma to a poodle and end up with a large hairy non shedding dog. Actually she found some pictures of a Mastipoo or Pooymastiff what ever one would call that mix and they are cute. Of course if she did do that for her one dog who would want the others, Emma isn't about to only have 1 puppy. The only standard Poodle we knew was Donna Grig's dog Kate. Kate was a lady through and through and so elegant, something a Mastiff is not, probably not the best of Rhoda's ideas.

Karin's Arena

2012-01-15T20:08:00.006-06:00

Church was such a blessing today, 2 great sermons, the first by Ken Hoerr and the second by Tim Funk. The lunch between the 2 was amazing. Ron and Carol Christ served and the tables were full of goodies such as chicken salad with dried cherry on croissants, turkey subs, ham and cheese subs, along with lots of home made cakes and cookies. After church Mark and Mike helped Rhoda and I clear the arena, at least as clear as it can be with the hay, hay rack, grain wagon, tractor, skid steer attachments and the skid steer stuffed inside. The work we go through for Karin's vaulting team! Steven Marchal came over in time to help move the hay rack out, then grained the mares. Next on Mike's list was to work on 2 of the automatic waterers that are leaking a bit. He was only able to fix the one in the breeding shed, the other he needs to buy a part for. Braelyn is also coming tomorrow morning. We had warm enough weather to help with the melting but by 4:00pm the wind started up making it seem just plain cold. Rhoda and Sarah are spending the night then leaving around 4:00am for a snow boarding trip to Sundown with a bunch of the cousins. Rhoda will drive Ruth's motor home to Maquon, pick up Karin and let her drive the rest of the way. Hope they have good weather.

Middle Grove

2012-01-15T08:59:00.007-06:00

Mike, Diane and Karin spent the day at the Middle Grove farm yesterday. Mike emailed these pictures of the horses left there. They are all down by the cottage.

That place is truly a horse paradise. The horses do not have to deal with the frozen mud we were dealing with here. They have 80 acres to roam around on. Once they are back to the Hanna City farm they must stay in paddocks, off of the pastures as we don't want to ruin the pastures here.
Mike reported he and Karin went riding and had a blast. Karin rode Sangria and he rode Sally. Mike took the trailer out and brought back Ciera, Bonnie and Ella. Our horses are so funny, if the trailer shows up they come running to see who is here, then if the trailer door is left open they jump in just hoping to go for a ride. Now that is self load! We have 6 horses left out there.
Mark had to fix a downed board this morning. Once the horses were fed and the board repaired it was time to fix breakfast and get ready for church. Such a nice morning, the sun is shining and the wind is not blowing. It was almost a privilege to work outside.

Dream

2012-01-14T15:42:00.023-06:00

Dare to Dream, then Dream Big!
Dreams are important, not the nightly kind but one's dream for the future. What's weird is from the time Rhoda was 9 years old together She and I knew there would be a Friesian in our future what we didn't understand is sometimes our dreams are not big enough. Who would think the dream to own just one of these magnificent horses would turn into a huge dream maker not just for us but many others. We know without a shadow of a doubt Raven was our gift from God,

what we couldn't know was by the gift of Raven this small dream of owning one Friesian stallion turned into hundreds of happy customers and many purebred Friesians.
I still remember the excitement when we found our first mare Jenis.

She was only 2 years old and beautiful, the next year we purchased Sanna & Samantha.

These three were bred with Samantha losing her colt 2 months before her due date, and both Jenis and Sanna giving us the beautiful fillies Abby & TC.

In the fall we were able to acquire Ylse.

The next year Jenis gave us Valiant,

We purchased Evan to be his companion,

Ylse gave us Tiera,

while Sanna gave us Wanda

and Samantha gave us a colt.

All 4 were bred back to Raven, Jenis had a filly that died of heat exhaustion,

Ylse gave birth on the 4th of July to Indy,

Sanna was sent to live with Sue where she lost a filly, and Samantha had a filly.

We were then able to purchase Wynne and bred her to Raven.

Samantha was bred back and sold as a three in one package. We took Sanna back, bred her to Raven and bred Jenis back to Raven. In 2011 Wynne had a filly,

was bred back and sold as a 3/1 package, Jenis had a colt,

and Sanna had a filly, she was bred back to Raven and sold as a 3/1 package.

We were then able to purchase Eliza,

Airiah,

Zalena

and Killian.

In 2011 Jenis, Airiah, Ylse, Eliza were bred to Raven while Zalena was bred to Valiant. So in 2012 we have 4 purebred Friesian foals expected and one 7/8ths expected. So take one Friesian stallion with a bad knee and end up with how many purebred Friesians?

Good Neighbors

2012-01-14T06:08:00.007-06:00

The snow makes everything quiet, no big parties, no volleyball games taking place at the playground and almost no company. Our neighbor from the east, Mr. Schmider, came over on his fantastic four-wheeler bearing a very special gift.

He claimed his chickens are laying more than he needs right now and asked if we could use some fresh eggs. Just look at this!

He has only 6 hens left, butchered most of them before winter hit but the ones he kept are doing very well. Mr. Schmider also cleared a path up to the apartment with his sweet machine. That made it easy to walk outside for me and the dogs.
Once daylight hits this morning we need to start moving in round bales. The middle paddock needs 2, the breeding shed 1 and we may as well put one in the 4th paddock for what ever horses Mike brings home.

Snow

2012-01-13T09:12:00.007-06:00

The picture above was taken right outside our door and the picture below taken of the wheelbarrow, the drift next to that was actually taller than the wheelbarrow.

The wind and snow stopped sometime during the night. We awoke to quietness, the snow has muffled all sounds. Sarah arrived late evening and parked her car near the door, her car tires were completely buried in a drift and her car stuck. After working about 15 minutes it was ready to drive out. The snow is light and fluffy and her car is the only one that has good snow tires on so her's was the one taken over to mom's this morning and the car used to check on all the horses. The other vehicles are still parked in the arena, good thing Karin canceled vaulting for today, it would take some shoveling to get them all out. This snow is not suppose to last long, by Monday we are expecting a warm up and rain.
The horses were checked, the middle paddock will need 2 round bales tomorrow but have enough to get by today. The rest of the paddocks are fine. There was no sign of Raven this morning and he is one horse that gets checked on every day. That boy is smart, he was deep inside his shelter eating.
Now is time to write about a touchy subject, the square bales everybody worked so hard putting into the barn.

We have had people emailing and calling about buying some off of us and none of them like the answer I give them. We spent more than we wanted per bale, we had to pay for the shipping extra and with the labor involved both in arranging the hay and unloading it, we are not real willing to sell it. The hay is 3rd cutting and nice green bales. Below is a picture of an open bale, notice how there is an abundance of green alfalfa leaves.

For some reason horse people think we should sell it for last summer's rates and be willing to load it into their truck (because their horse is starving). We have had people tell us, last year they got some for $4.50 a bale and it was just as nice as this so we should let them have 200 bales for that price. After thinking about this we needed to decide first of all should we let any go and if so what price. Good Alfalfa hay at the Arthur sale barn last week went for $10.00 a bale, grass hay went for $6.50-$7.50 a bale. Doubet's last month was charging $8.00 a bale, don't know if they still have hay. We probably have more than we need but if we let it go what are we going to have to spend if we do need more. So our answer was try to find another source, if you cannot find another hay source, we would be willing to sell some of ours for $9.00 a bale. One person that asked did not like that answer, they called me greedy and thought I was a terrible person for trying to rip off a fellow horse owner. My answer was "I'm terribly sorry but you don't have to buy this hay." After some choice words they hung up.

First

2012-01-12T16:08:00.002-06:00

Today is the first winter day for us living here on the farm. Mark made this apartment well insulated, snug and a warm 78 degrees inside with the wood burner glowing. The only way to realize how awful it is outside is to look out the window or step out the back door into the stall area. The window shows the blowing snow, out the back door one hears the wind, and the snow slamming into the building. The first time more wood was needed and the back door into the stall area was opened I thought a truck or car was pulling up. Wondering who could be visiting in this weather, a trip was immediately taken back into the living quarters and over to the window. Imagine my surprise to find nothing out there but blowing snow. Back out to the stalls for wood and only then realizing then how the howling and sometimes whispering sound of the wind and snow hitting the building sounds like the arrival of vehicles. Darcy and Emma both asked to go outside then hesitated once the door was opened. They needed encouragement to step over the half a foot snow drift in front of the door. Emma was very quick to decide she wanted back in beating Darcy to the door. Darcy saw her going in and came running at the opened door, slipped on the wood floor as she jumped inside falling flat. She is just not use to wet paws on a slippery wet floor. It is after 4:00pm, the snow is still falling, swirling around the horse shelters as each violent wind gust picks up more snow added to what is coming down from the gray sky and uses that combination to build drifts in front of the barns.

Winter has Finally Arrived

2012-01-12T09:46:00.005-06:00

We woke up to snow, a fine lightweight blowing snow that is quickly covering the roads, cars, horses and dogs. Thank goodness Mark put all the vehicles inside last night. Instead of walking mom invited us to breakfast where she served her special sausage recipe, farm fresh eggs, cinnamon toast, blueberry preserves, fried potatoes, coffee and orange juice not from concentrate.

Emma was outside on mom's balcony asking to be let in. Mom felt sorry for her and let her in, it was either she felt sorry for her or didn't want dog slobber all over her door.

Probably didn't want her entire window covered with a Mastiff tongue.
By the time breakfast was over this is what my previously snow free car looked like.

The fire is burning in the wood stove, the dogs are laying as close as possible to that wonderful heat source and I'm about to break open a new book. Could life get any better?

The Dreaded Doctor Visit

2012-01-11T11:29:00.003-06:00

This morning was the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon for my hip problem. My appointment was with Dr. Mulvey a very respected surgeon and even better, one in my insurance network. Registration is always fun, trying to figure out what one is allergic to and what ancestors have had medical problems. My history is short so that was done just about the time I was called for the billing process. Now an office visit co-pay is $45.00 and normally I would be thrilled but now I know better. That doesn't mean I will only have to pay $45.00, that is just the start. The insurance company will get the big bill for this visit, deduct the $45.00 I've paid then add the hundreds that I must pay until the $5000.00 deductible for the year is complete. Here I was of the understanding once the $45.00 was paid my share was done, nope that's just not how it works anymore.
I was taken first to x-ray where I met Johanna from Bradford. So nice to meet a familiar friendly face.

She very expertly positioned my legs the correct way and snapped 2 pictures, then led me back to the waiting room. There I only got about 3 pages read out of the book I'm currently reading titled Unlocked by Karen Kingsbury when I was called by the nurse into an exam room where she asked a lot of embarrassing questions like, "when was your last mammogram?" She didn't like my answer of "I've never had one." but by the time she left she was much more friendly. When Dr. Mulvey arrived he looked at the x-ray and said without even looking at me walk, "I bet you can't put on your own shoes and socks." Well I was pleased to show him I could still use my hands to raise my foot enough to get them on. Thank goodness Sarah lent me her slip on shoes as trying to tie a shoe is a big effort. Long story short is I've been diagnosed with hip dysplasia. The cartilage is gone, the socket has degenerated so badly that a total hip replacement is the only option if I want to walk. Bummer!
That surgery is scheduled for Tuesday March 6th.
Once all the paper work was done, it was past time to head to Meisters for work. Eldon and Jacob were called to arrange picking up the old copy machine out of Eva Jean's basement. That must be done today during lunch hour. They were told to bring something to help get the 450 pound machine up her very narrow stairs. Mark was given the bad news of medical bills and some paper work billing was done. The day is just beautiful for a January day. The sun is shining and the temperatures are in the 40s. How thankful we are for this mild winter weather. It hurts Mark's heating business but the benefits of no heating bills and no snow removal costs far outweigh his profits.
I've one more important job that must be done before Karin's vaulting team shows up. We need to move the grain wagon out of the middle of the arena and into the garage of the farm house.

In Memory of Kylee

2012-01-10T22:35:00.003-06:00

Steven's dog Kylee was buried today at the farm. Kylee loved coming to the farm, she loved running with Steven and she loved herding the horses. She was game for jumping up and sitting on horses and tractors. She had boundless energy and loved jumping in the pond. REST IN PEACE KYLEE!

Dachshund Puppies For sale

2012-01-10T22:30:00.003-06:00

These are purebred Dachshund puppies and are just adorable. They are located in Edward's Illinois. If interested call the owner at 309-676-5850.
I happen to know these puppies have a mom with the best disposition ever. Both parents are purebred Dachshunds. They will be ready to leave on Valentine's day. Who could resist something so cute!

HayDay

2012-01-10T22:10:00.006-06:00

The walk had to cut short, there was an abundance of work waiting at Meisters. Eva Jean and I were not able to finish, hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to try to catch up. That's what happens when a week is skipped. We walked into our office and see the place we store the 50 lessons has collapsed. Dan was called to see if he could come up with a better idea.
After work a quick trip to Aldi was on the docket for lots of fresh vegetables. We were having stir fry for dinner and needed carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and mushrooms. Barely made it home before 12 round bales showed up, 6 for us and 6 for Ruth's horses. Steven showed up as Ruth's were being delivered. He helped move the 6 off to the side for the coming semi trailer with square bales. The semi showed up at 4:00pm but the truck driver needed to get the trailer in position and wait for the help. A mass text was sent out and we had 10 workers show up. How wonderful is THAT!

I was afraid the truck was too tall to fit through the doors and was so thankful Mark had them built 14 foot high. The trailer was 13feet6inches tall and just fit.

It was 56 feet long and stuffed full, as full as possible with 540 very good quality 3rd cutting alfalfa square bales.

I am so thankful for helpers, did I mention how thankful I was? Phil, Anna and Braelyn showed up, Sarah came to help, Steven Marchal, even though he was grieving the loss of his dog, worked hard, Ruth brought Ryan and Steven to help, Rachel showed up with Jessica and Caleb, Mike brought Ebby over, Ebby wasn't much help but Mike was. Mark showed up to move a few bales before being called away and Rhoda came at the very end.

Four worked inside the trailer and 6 worked outside and the bales just kept coming. It just seemed like a massive amount of hay. They stacked it high. Even with the breaks that were taken to catch ones breath they had that trailer empty in an hour.
Some of the helpers stayed for the stir fry dinner. Below is Sarah holding Braelyn after dinner.

Spark and Rhonda picked Mark and I up for choir right after dinner and we didn't get home until now. What a productive long day!

Steven's Kylee

2012-01-09T16:01:00.003-06:00

Steven came to work at the farm today getting the place ready for the 540 square bales coming tomorrow afternoon. He was taking a garbage run to the dumpster with the golf cart when his dog Kylee ran in front of the cart and was hit. He knew as soon as he stopped the cart she was in terrible trouble, he quickly took her to his vet and they found she had broken her backbone and was paralyzed. Kylee was humanely put down this afternoon and will be buried on the farm tomorrow. Our sympathy goes out to Steven. He loved his dog and his dog loved him.

Cruise Pictures

2012-01-09T15:49:00.008-06:00

Most of the pictures were placed in the previous posts. These didn't seem to fit anywhere so here they are:
Our ship docked at the port in Key West.

Jessica and Rebekah enjoying the sunshine on the ship.

Mom standing in front of the window in our cabin all ready for formal night.

Karin checking out the elephant our room steward left.

Ruth and Fede enjoying a special dinner. They are quickly joined by first one daughter and then another. Notice how Ruth quick changes her clothes between pictures, one would think she was a movie star or something.

Actually the above pictures were taken on different nights.
Mom all ready for the show, then when she found out what it was she went back to the cabin to read a good book.

The girls getting ready for the family friendly comedian.

The kids all played who wants to be a millionaire, below is Rhoda as a finalist.

And she WINS!

And we must post pictures of the boat, the Carnival Fascination:

Scroll down for the cruise posts to see the other pictures of our family friendly fun ship vacation.

Working Time

2012-01-09T06:26:00.003-06:00

After our nice short vacation it is time to start working in this new harsh cold world. I have pictures from the cruise on the camera and didn't take the time yesterday to down load them, it was just so much work and I am just so lazy. After spending a week without so much as lifting a finger, one would think we would be all refreshed and anxious to get back into things. Not so! If I had my way this morning, Mark would bring me coffee in bed, then suggest to me that I should probably stay in bed as its cold outside. Yeah right, get into the real world Judy! Yesterday afternoon right after church a nice couple showed up at the farm from 3 hours away. They were horse owners and horse lovers, making a fuss with each of ours and loving how much the horses loved being fussed over. As Indy was being shown and led around one of the jobs I usually do but no one did while I was gone came to light. No one cleaned up the presents the dogs left. Mastiffs leave huge piles and they don't go into the woods, they use the front yard. At least these were not small hard to see little bumps and could be avoided easily if one was just looking down. Unfortunately Mark forgot to look down. His shoes have been left outside. This very important job won't be done until the afternoon. Rhoda's mini cooper has an 8:00am appointment for an oil change in Peoria, I'll need to leave here by 7:20am. Then as long as I'm in Peoria, I'll work on processing last weeks Bible studies.
As the couple were talking about Indy the wife looked over at Emma who was chewing on the last of the deer carcass, rib bones that were attached to the back bone. These bones almost looked like she was chewing on a human skeleton. The wife kind of jumps, then asks, "what is THAT!" She was told, "that's what our dogs do with people that just come to look at our horses and don't buy one of them." For some reason I didn't make the sale, it wasn't that long before they loaded up and took off screeching down the hill.
OK, not really, I promised them it was a deer and not human ribs.

Safely Home!

2012-01-08T08:33:00.002-06:00

Mom and I arrived home at 12:15am but we were use to Eastern time and it felt like 1:15am. We are thankful to be safely home. We had long lay-overs in both Jacksonville and Atlanta but this gave us plenty of time to find our gates and relax, both of us finishing our books just as we landed in Bloomington. Laundry has been started and breakfast cooked. What happened to room service? Each Evening we would fill our out room service sheet asking for coffee for 4 and 3 danishes to nibble on as we sipped the very rich strong coffee. Last night I couldn't even find that important piece of paper, Mark probably hid it. Honestly I wanted to bring home a bunch of those, hang it on our bedroom door and see if that magic worked here at the farm. The cruise was a very relaxing vacation but I was SO glad to get home, home to the husband, home to the dogs, and home to the horses in that order.
We have a couple driving here from Oregon, IL to look at Indy today, they will be here when we get back from church. They saw her at the Northern IL Horse fest when she was just a few weeks old, they will be surprised at how beautiful she is now.

Cruise News

2012-01-07T12:33:00.004-06:00

On Thursday we reached Nassau around noon. We had a wonderful time in Nassau. The aquarium in the Atlantis hotel is not to be missed. It is pricey unless one shows up after 5:30pm then it is FREE! We found this out by the driver of the shuttle taking us from the boat to the beach. The shuttle was $4.00 each but by taking that it saved us $39.00 each. The beach next to the Atlantis hotel was not good for snorkeling, the waves were huge, crashing big rollers down on any one brave enough to get into the water. The ocean is the most gorgeous blue green color.
The girls thought there was a big manta ray swimming toward them, they started running for shore and were just a bit embarrassed to find it was a garbage bag.

Next we hiked to the hotel Atlantis

the pictures below are sights we saw just walking through this magnificent hotel.

When the attendants left guarding the aquarium we were quick to start our free tour.

The seahorse below is a heavily pregnant male, the male carries the babies and works hard to deliver them. We think this one was in the process of giving birth, if you look close toward the bottom of the picture there are bunches of tiny little seahorses.

The aquariam is just fantastic, if you are ever in Nassau don't miss it.
Once we were ready to leave the Atlantis, a stretch limo picked us up fitting all 11 of us and taking us back to the ship.

We made it back much to late for our usual elegant dinners in the ship dining room and for the first time on board I had to visit the buffet.
Friday was our fun day at sea. The weather was bright sunshine and hot unless one was in the shade. Mom got irritated with the crazy rich drunk people screaming in the hot tub. They must be rich if they were buying drinks on board, those things are expensive! Mom decided no more cruises for her unless we would go on a Christian cruise and those are so expensive. This morning we all received our bills and unbelievably we all got money back, mom,Karin, and I each have a refund of 86 cents. Rhoda was issued a check of $1.72 it must be because of her karaoke talent. The fog was so thick this morning the ship couldn't make it into port until 10:30am and we weren't allowed off until after 11:30am.
Below are the girls patiently waiting for our release.

We were very relieved we did not book the early flights. Right now we are waiting for our plane, it is suppose to take off at 3:06pm for Atlanta.

Internet

2012-01-04T08:48:00.004-06:00

We had a great day yesterday as long as we were in the sun and out of the wind. It was cold but who would complain with such a nice place to freeze. We sat in the hot tub until we started shaking with the cold. The hot tub was more like a lukewarm tub, getting from there to ones room was torture. There is no thermostat in the cabins the only way to warm up is a hot shower, luckily there is abundant hot water. The day was spent reading by just about every one in our party. We still managed to get some sun.

Last night was formal night, we thought they did that as it was Rhoda's birthday and they wanted everyone dressed up to celebrate that. Almost everyone at our table ordered lobster, delicious! The waiters sang happy birthday to Rhoda then she was given her gifts. The boat was rocking enough that she was feeling a bit nauseated but not enough to ruin her party.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with many different appetizers.

Today we docked at Key West, we all got off the boat, most of the group headed to a beach while I headed into town to find an Internet cafe. Once online I'm shocked to find the iPad that has been (what I thought) turned off has been collecting international charges of $50.00 a day. Thankfully Mark was notified and he was able to disconnect it. What was weird about this whole situation was I not only did I think it was turned off. I locked it in the safe so no one else could accidentally turn it on. Live and learn, next cruise it will be left home.
The rest of the group headed to a beach on Key West, as you can see they found interesting things.

Cell service is now working and the first message is they want to bring the 525 bales of hay on Tuesday. That won't work at all for us, Tuesday I have to work and everybody else is either back in school or working. Hope we can convince them to wait. We heard it is suppose to warm up, tomorrow is a day at sea, sure hope that is true.
There will be no updates tomorrow we are again at sea.

Were IN

2012-01-02T13:59:00.006-06:00

We are in our cabins resting. Both Karin and mom are snoozing, while I'm catching up on the news from home. As soon as we set sail, there will be no cell service and no Internet. Mark let me know the 42 big round bales were delivered today. It is all now stacked with the other 60 in the barn, we still need to make room for the 525 square bales.
It is cool out on the ship but most of us managed to end up in the hot tub. Rhoda brought along some books and let me read one while we were waiting to get into our cabins. It is called Hunger Games and is a very entertaining read. I finished it and passed it to Ruth who will pass it to Rebekah next. Rhoda brought 3 books, mom brought a couple and Ruth brought a few, between the family I think there should be enough to read on this trip. We have a muster at 3:30 pm then dinner at 6:00pm what a life, what a life!

Hard Freeze Warning, Rough Seas

2012-01-02T04:08:00.006-06:00

What a start to our so looked forward vacation. Mom's bed was an old roll away cot, lumpy with springs sticking out poking her old fragile body, the matress is about 2 inches thick innerspring with no padding on it. Rhoda felt something crawling during the night and pulled a bug off of her back, this morning she has 2 big bug bites that left welts. She wants to leave this revue, "don't stay here, a leaky tent set on the ground would be more comfortable." Karin made the small pot of coffee at 5:00am wondering how we could ever have enough to share without coming to blows until the coffee was tasted, it is the worst coffee we have ever tasted, Karin believes it is 50 years old. We're just going to have to wait, this stuff is undrinkable. Mom turned on the weather channel while we were waiting for the pot to quit brewing and wouldn't you know Jacksonville has a hard freeze warning for today, with wind chills in the teens. That along with a warning for rough seas, waves 6-8feet, how quickly can the boat travel south? Actually we are not moaning the blues, we were laughing just a little too loud when a voice pipes up from the next room, "could you keep it down in there!"

Traveling With Mom

2012-01-01T13:47:00.003-06:00

Trying to get mom checked in is not as easy as it sounds. She tried to smuggle a small bottle of water onto the plane in her carry on bag. She says she forgot it was there. Then when the guard tells her there is liquid, mom starts to get into the bag and is told, "mam, keep your hands out of the bag." Once the offending water bottle was apprehended, mom was allowed to pass. She quickly filled her second bottle from a water fountain. As they called zone 4 for boarding, (we were zone 5)she decides to use the restroom, by the time she made it back they were loading zone 8 the last of the zones. At least we made it onto the plane. Before the plane takes off she pulls out her water bottle,, drops it in front of her so far under the seat in front of her there was no easy way to get it,but she was determined and finally accomplished it with different contortions and tools. The flight went smooth but when we landed she accidentally dropped her pen and it rolled down the plane under seat after seat. A nice lady picks that up and passes it back to our seat, then the man in the seat behind us passes up the pretzels she had dropped. But we are here in Atlanta safely waiting 4hours for our connecting flight. I can hardly wait for the excitement of the next flight. We won't arrive in Jacksonville until 7:40pm.
8:00pm we have arrived at the hotel,it is a dump. Our trip was tiring and we are trying to overlook the dirt. On the second flight, mom wouldn't give up her cup of ice when the stewardess came around with the garbage bag. The sterwardess kept telling mom to throw the cup away and mom kept saying, "I'll just carry it out." finally she was told this was not allowed and she must throw it away. What is it with mom and water?
Mark, I sent you an email about the fire. At home we were having high winds and our chimney blew off as Mark had a hot fire going in the wood burner. He had to use our wall decoration (the fire extinguisher) and put out the fire. So thankful that happened during his watch and not when I was home alone. Poor Darcy, she will have no fire to warm up next to until Mark gets the pipe fixed.

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T06:39:00.014-06:00

Last night Diane held her first new years eve party. It was such a success we told her she can do this again every year.
People attending brought many many treats to eat. Below is mom and Spark cutting the 17 pound prime rib cooked to perfection. This picture is for Karin, she didn't get any!

The garage was used to serve the food, she had tables and chairs set up but most of the kids ate standing, too much fun to visit with each other.

Rebekah organized the games, in the one below the person in the middle of the circle had to state something he or she has never done. Then everyone that had done that must get up and find a new chair, the person left without a chair must take his or her place in the middle. One person stated, I've never assisted in the birth of a horse. Immediately 10-15 people got up to quickly find a chair, one of the visitors from another state, makes the comment, "that can't be true!" He was quickly told, "this IS a horse farm!"

Amy Koch from Tremont brought her mom who came to visit all the way from Florida. Clarky was the one that was so terribly sick in November.

Below left to right Rebekah, Bethany (who flew in from Haiti just for this party)Anni and Jessica.

Down stairs Diane had video games going, these 2 guys are river rafting.

In the picture below they are playing a really fun game. Each person in the room was given a balloon, the balloon must be kept in the air with one's head.

The last 2 with their balloons still in the air were given a jump rope and a jump off was held. Bethany was the winner.

She was able to pick from the prizes below.

Below Anni, Jessica and Bethany were working on a routine.

Just before midnight Diane handed out noise makers to the 30 or so people.

We all tromped out onto her deck and at the stroke of midnight, the noise (especially when there are teenage boys in the group) was shocking. I think they were trying to wake up the neighbors, oh wait, all the neighbors were at the party.
We left shortly after that to hit the sack.
This morning we were awakened by a strange noise. It took a few minutes to recognize this noise, our furnace kicked on! We were too busy yesterday to build a fire and too tired when we arrived home. The wind is howling outside, the windmill is generating electricity and we are ready to face the new year.

Fire

2011-12-31T14:14:00.002-06:00

Mark was clearing out some of the old wood from the farm house and decided it was a great morning to burn.

I thought it was interesting how the flames shot into the sky.
Nineteen bales of hay were delivered today. Twelve by the farmer from Washington, IL and 7 by the Hanna City farmer. What was unusual is they both showed up exactly at the same time. The farmer with the 12 hay hauler unloaded first as the 7 hay hauler doesn't need to be unloaded, it just dumps the hay. Mark was kind enough to stack them in the barn. We are suppose to have 42 more bales delivered next week but Mark wants me to put him off until we get home.
The laundry is done, the bags are packed and I am ready to GO! I stopped at the library yesterday and picked up 8 books to take along, then last night picked one up and finished it so am down to 7. That's scary, hopefully someone else going on this trip will also bring books to share.
We are having such a nice warm sunny day for our last day of 2011. Praying 2012 will be a better year for our country.

Riding Lesson

2011-12-31T08:37:00.002-06:00

After the seriousness of the last few posts, I thought it was time for some levity!

I've found hay, thanks for everyone that has been texting and emailing. We ended up buying a semi trailer load of 4th cutting alfalfa square bales. Those along with the round we have in the barn and the ones still to come we should make it through the winter.
Today is cleaning & packing day, mom and I are leaving tomorrow morning along with my 2 daughters, Karin, all of Ruth's family and all of Rachel's family. The lap top will not be along so probably not much updating or answering of emails for the week of Jan 1st, through the 7th.

Hay Shortage

2011-12-30T09:55:00.015-06:00

This is really the pits, the farmer in Farmington that had 40 bales just let us know there are only 19 available. There are 10 bales at Middle Grove available so after searching for hours we are still short to make it through the winter. Another option is sell, sell, sell. If we cannot find hay we must sell some of our beloved horses, we cannot let them starve. As soon as we get back on Jan 7th, we will start hauling in the Middle Grove horses, take pictures and videos of them and hopefully be able to sell some. There will never be a better time to offer on one of our horses, desperate people do desperate things. Horses at Middle Grove: Cindy, Mindy, Bonnie, Ella, Lilypony, Jewel, Mika, Bunni, Sally, Paris, Ciera, Lily, Sangria, and Ayanna, out of those who can we find in our hearts to part with? Knowing Mike would never part with Mika, Bunni, Sally, Paris, or Jewel knocks those from the running. How could I ever part with Lily, Sangria, Ciera or Ayanna? Of course we could never sell Raven, Evan, Valiant, Jenis, Ylse, Eliza, or Zalena. Karin would never agree to selling Ribbon. That leaves us Killian, Indy, Izadora, Bow, Cindy, Mindy, Bonnie, Lilypony, Airiah, or Ella.
Meet Cindy:

Cindy was born the same year as Lily. She and Lily were best friends and grew up together. Cindy has had 3 foals by Raven and is expecting her 4th foal in April. She is not for a beginner unless they are leadline. Cindy foundered a couple of years ago and needs to be kept off the spring grass. We will post her for sale for $3500.00 and include her very valuable in-utero foal. Cindy's only vice is she does not like to be tied away from the other horses.
Check out Mindy:

Mindy is a very flashy coming 3 year old paint pony mare well trained to drive. Below is her video. She should end up around 13 hands, when we bought her last summer she was about 12.2 and was not done growing. She has filled out quite a bit since the picture was taken.

We have Mindy listed at $1500.00 and she is worth every penny but if you are interested at all make us an offer.
Meet Bonnie:

Bonnie is a 5 year old Welsh x Hackney pony mare 12.3 hands again well trained to drive.
We were told she also rides but Rhoda felt she was personally too big to sit on her.
This pony has very flashy movement and really moves out when asked. Rhoda had a ball driving this pony around. She called her a "driving machine!"

Bonnie is also listed at $1500.00 and probably worth even more than Mindy as she is a very experienced pony but again we will accept offers.
Meet Airiah:

We don't want to sell her, she is just a delightful mare. She is in foal to Raven and due May 2012, that's 2 horses each as close to a purebred Friesian as possible in only a little more than 4 months. We are only considering selling her as Airiah has not been started undersaddle but she is wonderful for the vet and farrier. She leads, loads, stands tied quietly and wants to please. Airiah has fantastic movement and will throw this in her foal. Airiah herself looks 100% Friesian her foal will be registered as 7/8 Friesian. We will place her for sale for $8000.00 and hope something else will sell first.

Meet Izadora:

Izadora is a registered Trakehner mare 16.2 hands tall and black. She is in foal to Raven due Sept 2012. Her past 2 colts by Raven were purchased for more than we are asking for her. Izadora has fantastic movement and both of her colts inherited this. We are asking a mere $3500.00 for her.
OK do I sound like we are desperate? Honestly we would never allow one of our horses to starve, we will borrow and ship hay from a different state if needed but this hay shortage did teach me a lesson. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched or in our case don't count on the hay unless it is in the barn!

Activily Searching for Hay

2011-12-29T20:32:00.002-06:00

Well so far, after hours on the internet, I've located 7 round bales available, 6 of alfalfa grass mix and 1 of straight grass. Too bad that is all the hay this farmer had, he is charging $50.00 for the mixed and $40.00 for the grass. Chuck Altic is going to pick them up for us, so a check needs to be written and left at Mike's office for him to take to the farmer.
Today was shopping day, 4 stores were visited, things taken back to 2 of them and instead of bringing home money, I brought home a jean skirt for Karin and food for Saturday night.
As I was driving up to the farm, the post hole digger was standing straight up about 5 inches buried out at the road. Mark would like to replace the shattered address post and started digging the hole then got interrupted and forgot the digger. It was loaded into the car and taken to the apartment along with the purchased food.
Steven was here giving lessons when I pulled up. He is using Jenis for some beginner rider lessons. What an opportunity, pay for a lesson and get to ride a fantastic Friesian! No wonder camera's are brought along. If anyone out there would like to let their child learn the basics in riding Steven is a very good teacher. He charges $25.00 a half hour and that includes the use of the horse. As the weather was just so nice and sunny a warm 53 degrees, Steven stuck around after the lessons and worked just about every horse on the property. He reported that all of the horses were well behaved.
Right now I have 3 dogs as company. Karin's dog is staying with us while she is up in Chicago teaching a vaulting clinic. This is the same group that hired her last year and paid her so well. They must have thought she was really good, they hired her to come back.

A Man of His Word

2011-12-28T21:45:00.006-06:00

The picture above was taken from just outside our door this morning. What a beautiful sunrise. We had a good walk today, standing outside shivering when finished with the exercise part but not yet done with the talking part.
Today I was suppose to stay home and clean and all was going well, as well as cleaning ever goes when the phone rang. The farmer that we were to buy 140 bales of hay from called to tell me, he is still going to be bringing me the hay but the price will be double of what he quoted us. When he was questioned more, he dropped the price down some but still almost double what he told us he would sell the hay for. When I asked him why he waited so long to tell me, now that hay is hard to find, he said, "I didn't want to give you the bad news." Earlier when I was worried about him selling the hay to someone else he told me, "I'm a man of my word, I promise I'm not going to sell it to someone else, just we are busy right now with harvest." He offered to give us the money back if we don't want the hay at that price but where can we find that much hay. Any one out there know where we can get 140 round bales? So what happened to this man of his word person? A couple years ago Horsemeister purchased some very good hay from a farmer in Farmington, IL so Off I drove to that farm. Before I reached the farm there were 3 men working on a fence line on the side of the road, I stopped and asked them if they knew of hay for sale in the area, explaining in the past hay was purchased from the farm up the road. They immediately exclaimed "you won't be buying hay from them, they shut down and the place is abandoned."
Ruth and Fede invited us to dinner tonight where she was serving (you guessed it) pork! We had pork and bean soup as a starter, then tender pork roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, jello, stew, lots of vegetables and ice cream for dessert.

Ruth had also invited 2 very special couples, one newly engaged and one newly married. After dinner we all took turns telling engagement stories. The food was delicious the fellowship fun and the evening blessed.

Ribbon's Riders

2011-12-27T19:38:00.009-06:00

Mark helped move 2 bales into the middle paddock this morning just as the day lightened enough to see. It is a cloudy gloomy morning. We had rain last night but it is not raining today so the walk went on.
Two of Diane's grand daughters joined us this morning on the walk. They got to ride the cart with me.

Once back I left before straightening up the apartment, only got the bed made, there was much to do at the shop today. The mail was late so the copy machine was turned on to warm up and copies were made until the machine started leaving marks on the studies. Eva Jean and I had not even finished when Gail Hodel and Rhonda arrived, Gail wanting studies for grading to take to Bloomington and Rhonda wanting to steal from the copies we had been making all morning. Those two joined us for lunch along with Phil, Spark, Mark, Eva Jean and me. After lunch there was still about an hour of work before heading home.
As I drove up to the farm there were lots of cars and vans, so many that there was no where for my car. There was laughter coming from the indoor arena but the doors were shut and this is what I saw when I walked in.

Karin was giving rides on Ribbon. Lots of rides and lots of riders, count them, 8 at a time!

Ribbon is an amazing horse. She loves kids and loves to be groomed, the pictures below show her getting a good grooming.

She even stands well when they are under her brushing her belly.
Karin was finally able to put her away by telling the guests that Ribbon's baby wanted to nurse so Ribbon had to go back in the paddock. They all tromped out to watch Bow nursing.

Once everyone left, Karin brought in the vaulting equipment for washing. We threw the pads in the washer while she cleaned the surcingle. Karin is heading up to Chicago for a vaulting clinic on Thursday and won't be home until Saturday night.

Butchering Day

2011-12-26T19:53:00.010-06:00

If the economy tanks and if we need to learn to live off the land, Fede (our crazy Romanian brother-in-law) decided to each us how to butcher our own pigs. This post is NOT FOR A VEGETARIAN to watch. It is a do it yourself guide to filling your freezer with fresh tender pork.

We knew this morning was the day for the Davidovic's pig to be butchered, but still wanted to get a walk in. I barely made it over to the meeting place before mom and Karin showed up. Karin was drinking her first cup of coffee of the morning and wasn't going to come out and walk but mom insisted. Karin sat right down on the golf cart and rode the entire walk with me while mom got her exercise. Mom was asked "if the cart can't make it up the hill will you push?"
at 8:05am the video camera was packed into the car and off I drove the 1 mile over to the Davidvics. They had a barrel of water heating up over a nice hot fire. The pig was about 260 pounds and laying quietly in the stock trailer. When Fede went into the stock trailer to bring her out, the video camera was started and to my dismay not working. It was taken apart later and fixed but not of any use during the butchering. Probably a good idea. Karin came later and video taped some of the process. Below is the weapon of choice for the dastardly deed.

Actually I was impressed with how humane Fede did this. The pig was led out of the trailer, quietly laid down and Fede put the knife directly into the jugular. The pig did not even squeal. She just went to sleep quietly as she bled out. I think his knife was so sharp it sliced through quicker than her brain could tell her it hurt. Once she was in a coma, the same knife was used in the same hole to reach her heart stopping it instantly. By this time many helpers had arrived and carried the pig over to a bathtub prepared near the fire. Once the pig was in the tub buckets of boiling water were poured over the body which allowed the hair to be pulled off easily. The helpers were given spoons to start scraping the hide clean, using boiling water when necessary. Once the hide was cleaned Fede prepared a bed of straw to lay the pig on.

He had the straw completely covering the pig then started it on fire. This burns off any hair missed and makes the skin crisp. Once both sides were nicely browned, they hosed and scrubbed the pig off until it was a golden color, then carried it inside his shop for the dismembering. The pictures below are graphic, perhaps children should not be allowed to view them.

We were very impressed with how Fede knew exactly where and how deep to cut, exactly what to remove to make the rest easier.
The head was put in a bucket with the legs for rendering later. Anni was good enough to pick up the head for the picture.

Rhonda and Noel did not come over to help, just to watch.

As each piece of meat was removed, it was taken into the house for the ladies to either cut it up for what is called "butcher's stew" or placed in a tub for grinding into sausage, or wrapped and placed in the freezer.

Fede's sister Cilla showed us how to cook the "butcher's stew" and served it to us for lunch. I'm still burping up garlic!
Now the Romanians use almost everything of the pig, there is very little waste. Fede told us a pig this size would be stretched to last a year in Romania. They divide the spine up into 12 equal parts and once a month cook a big pot of soup with it. They have soup at almost every dinner meal using a bone or 2. We as Americans have had it very easy, we want meat we go to a store. It is good for our children and grand children to realize exactly what we are eating and HOW it came about. AS Karin would say, "Appreciate this pig, she gave her life so we could eat."

Christmas Day

2011-12-26T05:39:00.015-06:00

We awoke to a beautiful clear crisp cool morning. The presents were wrapped, breakfast was enjoyed then off to church to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. Church was packed and today if one didn't happen to arrive early it was hard to find a good seat.
The choir sang 3 Christmas songs before Church started, then Mike Reiker had the service. It really is wonderful that God gave us His LIVING WORD. One of the AMAZING things came during the announcements. Tim announced ANOTHER engagement! Lawrence and Patty Knoblouch announced the engagement of their daughter Angela to Seth Hodel. That's FOUR wedding announcements in FOUR WEEKS! Once the service was over the Choir got back up and filled the church with the sounds of the Hallelujah Chorus with anyone wishing to joining in. It was hard to actually leave once everything was over.
Looking over the crowd, I realized sparkles were out! Wouldn't you know, the top I was so pleased at finding at a garage sale this summer must be out of style.
Once home the car was loaded with goodies and off we went to Ben & Taunya's for the Sceggel Christmas dinner. Below are pictures of this special gathering.
Addyson's anticipation was easy to see.

Finally was able to hold all three grandchildren at the same time.

Jack knows Sarah better than any of us, she lives in Bloomington and gets to be with him much more than we do.

Addyson is always glad to see her 'Aunt Rhodie'

Addyson's special present was a tricycle.

Jack loved his big toy and truck from Sarah.

And the happy grandchildren enjoying their evening.

The kids got together and gave Mark and very nice gift certificate to Herman Pond Management and me this:
This is not just a baby monitor, it is a foaling monitor!
This will work out in the barn, we will be able to see AND hear, even in the dark while we stay comfortably inside. THANK YOU, DAVID, STEPHANIE, PHIL, ANNA, BEN, TAUNYA, RHODA & SARAH!
We settled down for a delicious prime rib dinner then dessert specially baked by Anna. Below Dave and Stef are enjoying the coffee with that.

How blessed we are! We were born in America where we are free to worship how we choose, we have warm houses, plenty to eat, a wonderful family and GRANDCHILDREN!

Beautiful Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T14:32:00.009-06:00

We are SO blessed today with our 35 degree sunshine on Christmas eve day. In the past, why even last year, we fought snow covering up ice. Rhoda and Karin decided to take all 4 mares on a trail ride. It was great to be able to use the camera without worrying about the flash or holding very still. Below is Karin on Ylse leading Eliza.

Rhoda was having fun galloping around the field on Zalena leading Jenis.

I asked them to bunch up a bit so all 4 mares could be in the same picture.

After the trail ride they took the mares into the arena and asked them each to mount the pedestal.

When Eliza had mounted the pedestal willingly and to their satisfaction, Karin let her loose, she wandered over to see what I was doing.

Karin's dog Studly, was busy playing with Ebby in the arena while the girls were working the horses. They were having so much fun the camera was trained on them for a while. I really liked Studly's expression in the picture below.

Once the horses were put away we come inside to see how our dogs play:

Actually sometimes they do play and somedays they have energy but today is not one of those days.
Rhoda and Karin decided to help out in another way. Besides being some of the best horse trainers out there, they cleaned the stalls today, in fact they cleaned the whole BARN! THANK YOU KARIN and RHODA that was a real gift!

The Meister Christmas Party

2011-12-24T06:19:00.005-06:00

What a long day yesterday was. The day started by our walk, then down to the shop where the copy machine was turned on. While that was warming up a quick trip to the post office to return the driving rein, then back to load 2 boxes of copy paper and 3 boxes of labels from the upstairs office into the warehouse office. By noon I had to quit to run to Sams to order and pay for the pizza. Back to the farm to watch Karin, Rhoda and Steven work the four Friesian mares. We heard Ben, Taunya, Addyson & Jack were coming over before the Meister party and the apartment was a mess. Quickly the 3 trainers came in to help. Steven grabbed the mop to get some of the muddy dog prints off of the floor. Karin grabbed the vacuum cleaner to start removing dog hair and Rhoda started washing off the counters & tables while I did dishes and made the bed. What wonderful help! I had to leave the place at 4:30pm to run back to Sams for the pizza and head out to the Old School Center where the Meister clan was gathering with dinner at 6:00pm. I barely made it in time, the Peoria traffic was awful. The video camera was taken out but first wasn't taping, then ran out of batteries. At least some of the performances along with the Christmas story was able to be downloaded.

What is really neat about this party is the kids would rather be up on stage performing then even getting their presents. Once that camera died, the other was brought out quickly for some shots.
The kids were allowed to go into the dining room while the adults got their presents.
There is such an abundance of girls in this family. Beth had them all working on decorations.

Below is Karin getting one of her many duct tape presents. She got a duct taped hat, coat, purse, and many other duct taped items along with rolls of duct tape.

Above mom is checking out the beautiful blanket John & Beth gave mom. The blanket has pictures of all the family on it. Below is mom opening up the gifts her loving family gave her.

Mom will be 80 years old March 30th and we thought these gifts would be perfect for her. She received 3 leaf rakes, one garden rake, a shovel and weed whacker.

I think mom is ready to go into the landscaping business. We needed something to wear out her unending energy.
After the gifts were all distributed the older kids went downstairs to play volleyball. The adults started the clean-up. Mom, Nancy, Mark and I were some of the first to leave. We were exhausted and as soon as we got home went straight to bed.
And now for a very boring but I think adorable video of Baby Braelyn Bravely crawling between the jaws of 2 giant dogs:

Trainers

2011-12-24T05:23:00.008-06:00

All 3 of the HorseMeister trainers were here yesterday at the same time. Left to right is Karin, Jenis, Zalena, Rhoda, Ylse, Eliza and Steven. I was blessed enough to spend some time watching and listening. It is really amazing to see and hear these three people discussing their reasons for what they are doing with each horse. Eliza was so good and relaxed after being worked 3 days in a row, she stood quietly for the picture below:

Steven's dog Kylee loves to be part of the excitement and was more than willing to jump up onto the mare when asked. Karin reported that Eliza was almost lazy today, quietly doing everything asked. Even Zalena allowed Kylee to jump up on her.

Zalena is learning to bow when asked with no anxiety. Rhoda is quite the trainer, she decided to teach Darcy the Spanish Walk. How do you think she did on her first try?

Times

2011-12-23T06:28:00.005-06:00

Yesterday Darcy woke me at 4:38am, but I thought the clock read 6:38am. After stumbling to the door to let her out, making coffee and sitting down to the computer I see the real time is early but it didn't feel early. Today Darcy wakes me, it feels like 4:30am, I can't see the alarm clock, Mark's pillow is up against it, so after letting both dogs out I'm shocked to find it 6:30am.
Today is the big Meister Christmas at the Old School Center. Sam's Club must be visited early to buy Christmas wrapping paper and order and pay for the lettuce and pizza for a hundred. We are having the easiest dinner yet. Rachel suggested ordering pizza and the rest of us working moms jumped at the idea. The rest of the family were emailed about bringing salad toppings for a big salad bar, appetizers and goodies for dessert.
The big gifts and little gifts sitting the office all need to be wrapped.
The office is no longer decorated for Christmas, hours were spent making sure every little Christmas twinkling light was put up exactly correct, then Karin came in and made fun of the decorating efforts around here. She said, and I quote, "better not let Jacquie see this!" Well with the dogs hitting them and Braelyn pulling them down, it was just easier to take the strand down. Now we are all ready for AFTER CHRISTMAS! That was saddest effort ever for decorations, perhaps next year when we are in the house we will go all out and put up more than just one strand of lights. The neighborhood association out here goes all out with decorating the outsides AND insides of their houses. No one told us when we moved out here about this!

Training

2011-12-22T22:07:00.008-06:00

Braelyn was over today and when Steven showed up to start the trick training with the boys, she was bundled up and taken right into the barn. Braelyn enjoys watching the horses perform. Below Steven is asking Valiant to bow.

Once Valiant is done he is let loose in the arena while Steven works Evan.

Steven brought Evan up to show what he is working on with him. Here he is asking him to bow, he is not using the whip, just holding it and asking with his voice.

Notice how Evan's attention is focused on Steven. He is waiting for the next cue.

Steven asks him to sit up but not stand.

The next is really hard for Evan but he is learning to do it. Steven asks him to go back down. All of this training Steven is just using his voice.

REMARKABLE!
Those 2 stallions were put away just as Karin arrived. She got Eliza out for her undersaddle training. Eliza is very barn sour and Karin wanted another horse in the arena while she was being worked so Steven got Zalena out.

Karin found Eliza was willing to work as long as Zalena was in the arena. She asked Steven to take her out and sure enough Eliza got nervous but today was controllable and not just controllable by the time Karin was done Eliza was actually relaxed.
Zalena is such a nice mare but sometimes she won't stand quietly when a rider just wants to stand. Steven had her standing nicely.

The last 2 horses worked today were Jenis and Ylse. Ylse decided not to be caught today so Steven rode Jenis into the paddock, corralled her, and led her out for Karin.

Once the training was done Karin and Steven came in to see the new black bridles and saddle pads that came in last night. The driving rein also came in and wasn't what we expected or needed so that will be sent back. We decided to head to TSC and see if we can MAKE the driving rein we need tomorrow. We have the clips, just need the nylon.
After dinner it was time to lay by the fire and finish the started book, Dawn's Light by Terri Blackstock. I'm not going to recommend it for people that want happy endings. My eyes are swollen and red now that the book is finished.

FOR SALE Breyer

2011-12-22T04:45:00.010-06:00

The mare below rides and drives and is bred to RAVEN. She is confirmed in foal and due August 7th, 2012. Kesha is the owner of Breyer and now finds she needs to sell her. We had Breyer here at the Horsemeister farm for 30 days and found her to be absolutely delightful. She had the best of manners, came to the gate for attention, led well and tied well. She stood very well her cover by Raven and then later for her ultrasound by Dr. Hoerr. Kesha has her priced at $5500.00 and this includes her very valuable foal by RAVEN. This is what Kesha writes about her:
Breyer's Date of Birth is April 12, 2005 she is current on her shots including a west Nile. Ive got all her Paper work from where she has Received Vaccines an she was also wormed before she was bred. I also have a Neg coggins on her.
Breyer is a Bay Clyde/Hackney Cross.. She is aprox 15hnds she is Located in Weirton, Wv 26062
my number is 740-424-5930 if you would like more info on her.
She Rides with a Snaffle bit or sometimes even a Tom Thumb.
Rides western Girth 34inch an also English 54inch :)
When she drives just to help with understanding this Loving mare, You just need to give a slight tap on her Bum or a kiss, to make a turn to the right just say "Right come gee" to turn left say "Come ha" using words like walk on then a kiss to her saying trot on.

Please contact Kesha for all of Breyer's information: Kesha's email: farmencrazy792@yahoo.com

Lunch for a Bunch

2011-12-21T16:38:00.005-06:00

Rhoda and I had a nice lunch together on her lunch hour. We met at noon and she was back by 1:00pm. The library was the next stop where 7 books were checked out. Two by Terri Blackstock, 2 by Ted Dekker and the others by authors that look interesting. Once back Steven was there and more than willing to start moving round bales. We moved Airiah and Izadora into the first paddock with the deluxe shelter. The bale we moved in there was one of our best. The other paddocks we moved bales in were the middle paddock, the boys paddock and Raven's. Karin showed up to work Eliza so Steven pulled Jenis out at the same time. He worked on right lead canter while Eliza was just worked. She was anxious when Karin first started her but today Karin used a saddle and by the time she was satisfied Eliza was relaxed and doing well.
Eliza is such a beautiful mare but she won't be going to Springfield in March if she doesn't learn to ride quietly.
As long as Steven and Karin were still here I asked them to let Bow out for some updated pictures.

She showed off but it is almost too dark for the camera and it wasn't focusing as well as bright daylight. It is just such a dark dreary day.
We are all going to crowd into Joan & Tim's van for church tonight. That is 8 passenger and we have lots of people going from this area.

Berlica Rose

2011-12-21T09:26:00.003-06:00

Meet Berlica Rose:

Berlica Rose is the little Haitian baby girl Joan and Tim would like to adopt. Please join us in praying this adoption will be allowed to go through. Rose was abandoned by her older mother at a hospital as she was born too little to nurse. Joan and Tim were contacted and are working at adopting her. If this goes through she would be a grandchild not a great grandchild. There goes Joan messing up the generations again.
It was sprinkling on our walk this morning. We stopped at the cabin to help Mike and Diane move in the futon Diane purchased last night.

Then continued our walk until we reached Spark & Rhonda house. At that point we decided to quit and head to Diane's for breakfast. The rain was falling harder and steady and we were getting drenched. This was a very productive breakfast, talking over our Meister family Christmas plans. None of us were in a hurry but finally all good things must come to an end and off we went to our own humble abodes.
Today 5 bales will need to be moved in. Izadora & Airiah's bale is pretty much gone, they are cleaning up the scraps as I type. We will move 2 in the middle paddock, Raven will get one and the boys will get the last. Sure wish the Yanmar was back, both Raven's and Airiah's shelters should be cleaned out first but we will make do with the skid steer.
The apartment needs a good floor scrubbing, with all the rain these last 2 days the dogs are leaving muddy footprints all over. Braelyn is coming tomorrow and this place MUST be cleaned up first. One cannot have a crawling baby over in this kind of condition. At least there is a reason for the mess, everybody always is quick to remind me, What do you expect, you live in a barn.

Anni's Accident Pictures

2011-12-20T21:02:00.005-06:00

Eva Jean is holding up one of the T-shirts she gave me for Christmas in the picture below.

That shirt was worn the rest of the day. When Mark saw it, he exclaimed, "that's the shirt I should have given you!"
I'll wear the other one on the cruise, it just seems to fit, eat, pray, ride.

We had a great day at work today, finishing in good time, then enjoying our lunch at Denny's with Dan, Susan, Spark, & Phil. Mark didn't come, another company invited him to their Christmas lunch. On the way home from work I took a short detour and stopped in at Fede's shop to see the damage to their van from Anni's accident this morning.

Fede has an amazing man cave (work shop) its big, roomy and has just about any tool ever made or needed. Fede puts it all to great use, helping those in need, and repairing just about anything that needs fixing.

His business is called The Hungarian Handyman and handy he is. Fede is a perfectionist, he wasn't home when I stopped in but I've seen some of his artistic work and its gorgeous! Someday I'll make an appointment with this very busy man to get pictures of his more unusual creations. Besides his ability to fix just about anything he is a true artist and likes creating useful works of art. As the rain continued to fall all day, Steven had to work horses in the indoor today. When I pulled up at the farm he had 3 mares inside. He had already worked Ylse and Zalena and was on Jenis.

He was working on the walk to canter transition with her getting it consistently. Once those three were put away both boys also got worked.
Mark had a late no heat estimate after work which meant I didn't need to cook dinner. A nice fire was started in the wood burner and the evening was spent reading Signs of Life by David Jeremiah. I'm enjoying the book.

Breakfast at Mom's

2011-12-20T06:57:00.004-06:00

The phone started ringing at 6:30am however our electricity went out during the night and our clock was reading 3:00am. Mom was letting us know breakfast would be at her house. Thank goodness she called we would have been late. Even before she says hello she starts her message by saying "breakfast at my house." The first words out of my mouth was, "is it raining?" We had no idea, it just seemed so early and so dark. So EVERYONE breakfast will be served at 7:30am today at mom's house.
Today is the Meister Christmas party and all the food and goodies we purchased yesterday need to be loaded into the car.
Jessica called her mom during our breakfast to report Anni was late and they heard a car crash. Sure enough Anni had an accident but they are ALL FINE. Fedi was with them by the time Jessica arrived. Thank goodness for seat belts.

Victorious!

2011-12-19T16:29:00.008-06:00

Jakob's owner loaded him up around 6:00am this morning for their long 8 hour trip to home. We were impressed with how he loaded. He was led up to the trailer, the leadrope looped over his neck and he walked right in a 2 horse straight load, no one leading him and no other horse on the other side. What a great colt!

The winners of the tournament of the Elmwood Volley Ball league are pictured below.
Team Meister is now the GRAND CHAMPION of the league for the first time. The picture below was taken for the Elmwood news, sure hope they send in one a bit more in focus than this one.

Left to right: Tara, Karin, Rachel, Kari, Amy, & Rhoda. That is 2 aunts and 2 sets of sisters along with 4 cousins. Now how does that add up? Rachel and Karin are sisters and aunts to Kari, Rhoda, Tara and Amy. Kari and Tara are sisters. Rhoda, Amy, Tara and Kari are all first cousins.
The ended up playing 3 different teams, the games were best out of 3. The first team played Team Meister won the first 2, the second team they played again they won the first 2. The last team they played they lost the first game, then won the last 2. Congratulations girls well done. Just for the readers benifit, these girls have never played on a highschool or college team and yet they were playing against girls that played both high school and college. They either are lucky or talented, we will go with talented.
Braelyn came over this morning, as the apartment was cool a fire was started, then a chair needs to be put in front of the wood burner so she can't burn herself.

Braelyn enjoys pulling herself up on the sideways chair.
Steven arrived and pulled out Zalena for some work. Zalena was a little nervous on Saturday when the other horses were not in sight. He felt it would be good for her to work in the outdoor arena away from the other horses. She did very well.

He also worked Jenis, Ylse, Evan and Valiant.
Once Anna arrived to pick up Braelyn, I headed in to Meisters to pick up Mark for the Meister Christmas party shopping. We went to Sams and picked up $137.00 worth of goodies for the party tomorrow.

Sunday Sunday

2011-12-18T20:21:00.003-06:00

Oh how I love Sunday, our day of worship, our day of rest, our day of sweet fellowship and our day of FREE LUNCH! Rachel's lunch was probably close to one of the best. Of course when one supplies home made Christmas cookies, buckeyes, along with Krispy Kreme donuts what could be better.
Willis had the morning service. He brought up that Jesus came to not just be our savior but our Ruler. We in America just don't quite get it, you know the part about bowing down to the king. Well if our Ruler is the Lord what ever HE asks, shouldn't we be willing to do? Afternoon service Craig was our speaker opening up to Proverbs 31. Of course all of us women cringe, how can we ever stack up to 'that women'? As Craig was reading, I'm listing the attributes of 'that women' thinking how many of those listed can I check off, not finding many when Craig says, "these should not be considered a list one can check off." Thank GOODNESS!
Peoria had ANOTHER engagement announcement. This time Geoff and Angie Ginzel announced the engagement of their daughter Samantha to Seth Keiser a brother from Princeville. What an exciting time for Peoria, 3 weddings coming up and all 3 will be held in Peoria. We are so happy for Samantha and Seth.
After church mom and I took Nancy out to Ruby Tuesdays. On Eva Jean's recommendation we both ordered the ribs, mom shared her's with Nancy and I took half of mine home for Mark. They really were delicious.
Jakob's owners arrived as we were heading to Morton to pick Nancy up. They are spending the night in the cabin and will leave for their long trip home early tomorrow morning.

Baby Updates

2011-12-18T07:48:00.005-06:00

The first picture sent today was Charlie, AKA Sweet Baby and this is what his proud owner writes: "3 Weeks ago at his vet check he weighed 81 lbs, he's a huge mommas boy and loves snuggling on the couch with me"

I'm surprised there is room for her on the couch.
How SWEET, what a cute little lap puppy! OK Cute he is but NOT little. This boy is going to be HUGE.
The next picture was a bit dark but this filly is impressive. This is Lyra, out of 15.1 hand Xena and by Raven.

Lyra turned 3 years old in October and is already 16.2 hands tall! Remember her dam is only 15.1, isn't it amazing how Raven throws HIS looks and HIS height on these babies. Lyra's owner has placed her for sale for $6000.00, she is 75% Friesian. If interested let me know, I'll give you the contact information.
Rachel and Dave are serving lunch today at church, there really is a thing such as a free lunch, just show up in Peoria today between 11:00 and 12:00 and eat on Rachel. I know for a fact she made some delicious mouth watering foods.

The Demo

2011-12-17T17:10:00.007-06:00

They started showing up early to get their horses ready. Eliza just wasn't co-operating and the executive decision was made to replace her with Ribbon. Diane and mom came walking over to see what was happening at the barn. They were put straight to work, both coming in to help cut the sparkly material for the capes. A picture of Diane's shoes was very necessary to take, she said she wanted to wear comfortable shoes today and didn't notice they didn't match until she was already over here.

The horses and riders headed to the outdoor arena. Steven wrote the script and had the riders practice a couple of times before he brought Evan in for the actual video.

Below is the finished product. Now their routine is not as long as the video, we had them run through it 2 times as there was so many different things to watch and the camera could only catch one at a time.

We were pretty thrilled with the results, to think yesterday Steven came up with the idea and today it was video taped. What an AMAZING amount of team work.

Duct Tape

2011-12-17T07:35:00.004-06:00

Marvelous uses for Duct tape by Karin Meister:
If an arm or leg breaks out in poison ivy, duct tape it to where no air can reach the break out. Same with fingers and toes, According to Karin it will stop the itch.
Get kicked in the shin? Apply duct tape, it will help promote healing and stop the pain.
Fall off a 16 hand horse onto your rear end? Duct tape your (sorry for the bad word mom) butt. I'm not sure why on that one but this morning Karin reports she duct taped her's all up and feels better. The girls have their volleyball tournament tomorrow, it would be worth going just to see Karin walk in all duct taped up.
Probably the only item in Karin's medicine chest besides Aleve is duct tape.
Aren't home remedies fabulous?
Now a warning, the scammers are getting way more sophisticated. No longer is one able to tell a scam ad from a legitimate ad. In fact one scammer made a website on one of the free website sites, stealing most of the ads off of another real Friesian website. It almost looked the same, just a few differences and sure enough once checked out every horse they were selling was a scam. Friesian lovers, don't get scammed, don't send money without you or someone you trust checking out the horse and the horses papers.

Friday's Fun

2011-12-17T03:23:00.007-06:00

We needed to bundle up yesterday morning for our walk. The coldest so far this year.

Emma can hardly wait for the walk each morning, yesterday she found another treasure to bring home.

Anna pulled up with Braelyn as the golf cart was being put away. That is always a treat. Braelyn and the dogs really like each other, specially when Braelyn is eating and wants to share!

Rhoda, Karin and Steven came in to work on our IL Horse Fair demo. They had some great ideas, finished making the jousting sticks, picked out the music and made the cd.

Steven helped move Jakob into a stall for the night, his first night to be away from his mom all night. Jakob is leaving for his new home Monday morning early.
Karin brought Eliza out, thought she would be fine and nope, Eliza had WAY to much energy and started bucking like a bronco. Karin ended up on the ground with her wind knocked out of her. We have some re-thinking to do about Eliza. That is not acceptable behavior. Karin went to get Ribbon out for vaulting and Ribbon took off galloping around in the paddock. Ribbon NEVER gallops so perhaps it was something with the weather.
Michelle brought Shaeya over for vaulting and Braelyn was so glad for the company. Grandparents get to be pretty boring.

Friday was a fun but cold day, today is suppose to be 40 degrees with some sunshine. The demo riders are suppose to be here from 9:00am to 2:00pm for the demo practice and video taping. Let's hope ALL of the horses behave!

Windmill Churning

2011-12-15T19:06:00.004-06:00

We woke up to WIND, lots of wind helping the windmill churn out an abundance of electricity. The windmill usually makes a kind of soft whistling sound with each revolution but the wind is making so much noise rattling tin around we can't hear it this morning. Mark helped move in 2 round bales early this morning before it was even light out. The weanling paddock and middle paddock needed more hay.
After the walk Hoerr vet clinic was called to find out if Jakob's coggins was in yet. It still hadn't come back so Sheila, the receptionist got the coggins faxed over, filled out the health papers and faxed them to Meisters. Jakob leaves Monday morning early and the paper work must be ready to go when his owners get here. A transfer form from the FHH needs to be filled out and ready along with his original papers and DNA form. So much paper work needs to be filled out to sell one weanling colt.
Today was spent in Peoria, doing that dreaded shopping, not just groceries but a few gifts were also agonized over then purchased. Why is it so hard to find gifts for special people?
Now for the lighter side. Confession time, I laughed so hard watching the clip below that I wasted probably an hour watching some of this guys other clips.

We are spending the evening reading, the apartment is warm, the dogs are laying quietly at our feet as close to the wood burner as is physically possible without getting burnt. I finished one of the books, and tried to start another but it turned out to be a science fiction fantasy and I'm just not into that. Started the 3rd and this one will be finished.

Special Phone Number

2011-12-15T04:54:00.006-06:00

We received over 2 inches of rain according to the news but it sure seemed like more. The feed buckets will all need to be dumped. At least it wasn't snow, we would have been buried.

Mom wanted to bring the bacon for our breakfast proving she could make it perfectly when we aren't around to distract her. Ruth showed up with another pound of that wonderful salty treat just in case mom burnt hers. We also had fluffy scrambled eggs with just a touch of cheese added and pancakes served with melted butter and real maple syrup. Aldi is now selling real maple syrup. When we were kids I remember dad tapping the big maple tree by the back door at Pleasant Home and mom cooking the syrup down.
After breakfast Anna brought Braelyn over to play while she helped Philip out on the big machines at Meisters.
Now that Braelyn is mobile, crawling and pulling herself up the dogs need to be locked away from her. Their tails can hurt us when they are wagging and when Braelyn comes those tails really start wagging. We found chairs work well to keep the dogs on one side and Braelyn on the other, just have to put up with the whining.

The picture below was taken just because she is so cute. Braelyn would crawl under the table pull herself up then walk back and forth along the rail pretty proud of herself.

Diane was the hero last night. She drove her van to church picking up mom, Spark, Rhonda, Mark, me and Ruth. She picked us all up at our homes so we could run out dodging the raindrops while scrambling inside an already warmed up car.
Ken Hoerr had the service opening up to God's phone number Jeremiah 33:3. I still remember the first time told about God having a phone number. Sure made it easy to remember. The second opening was Revelations 20. It actually seemed the service was on repentance, forgiveness and restoration. EXACTLY what I'd been praying about. ME, I'm the one that needs to repent of my hardened heart, ask for forgiveness, then can hope for the last part.

Rainy Wednesday Morning

2011-12-14T06:36:00.002-06:00

Last night the rain came pounding down in sheets. It was so comforting to snuggle up in a warm down filled comforter and fall asleep to the tapping of the rain on the windows.
This morning the rain is still coming down but not as hard, we cannot hear it but when the dogs came in from their outdoor morning routine they are soaking wet.
It will be MY turn to host breakfast as there will be no walk.

Can't Count

2011-12-13T14:10:00.005-06:00

I must not be able to count to 15. Saturday Mark counted 14 horses out in the valley grazing. I thought that was about right and when we reached home counted up how many were suppose to be at Middle Grove and came up with 15. Surely Mark must have counted wrong when we were putting them away. As there were no more horses in sight we were sure they were all in. And then the phone rings on the way to work this morning. There is a horse on the wrong side of the fence at Middle Grove. Mike was busy, I had to be at work in 15 minutes so told my sister-in-law, Beth, "I'm sure it will be fine until I can get off work and drive out." Beth suggested calling John, her husband, as he hadn't left for work yet and they live near the Middle Grove farm. John was good enough to drive over and found just one on the wrong side of the fence, he stated, "it was one small pony and it wasn't going anywhere." Bonnie was glad to give up her freedom to get back in with the herd.
Mike was out last night working at Middle Grove and saw a bunch of horses all around the 2 bales he had moved in but it was so pitch black he didn't try to count.
We were swamped at work today. Below is Eva Jean trying to get all the mail opened.

We were able to open it and get it processed but not sorted. She will get to do at her house later today.
We were just a bit late getting to lunch but had a special treat once we arrived. Anna and Braelyn joined us.

After lunch a quick trip to Aldi's where eggs have gone up to $1.59 a dozen (shocking)! Time to get Mark to build a chicken coop. Then finally to the library. Four books were checked out, don't know these authors but the covers looked interesting. We were always told don't judge a book by it's cover but hopefully these books will live up to their entertaining jackets.

Indy at 17 Months

2011-12-12T15:23:00.007-06:00

Mom had her creepy snow kids out this morning. I see why Karin was spooked at 3:00am. Why these kids faces are almost expressionless. What's with that weird fake painted on smile?

A trip down to the warehouse was taken after the walk to return the walker with small wheels and hopefully find one with big wheels...bingo! Dan came in and helped put one together that will work perfect. As long as we were all at Meisters and hungry we decided to head to Denny's for lunch. Of course the first words out of our waitress' mouth was, "what are you doing here, it is not Tuesday?"
This afternoon the weather is nice, above freezing and the sun peeking out every once and a while. Steven Marchal was at the farm watering the arena when I drove up and was willing to bring Indy out for pictures. Below are just a few, the rest were placed on her page on the website.

Once she was put away, he took both boys out for a trick training session.

They lead out of the small gate very well, except today Evan thought just maybe there was a new mare over in the middle paddock. Steven doesn't allow that, and off they go at a trot into the indoor.

He reported when he was done they both did excellent. Each day they respond quicker to what is asked and will end up quite the performers. If anyone nearby is hosting a fund raiser or show, let us know we would love to bring the boys and show them off. It would be really good for them to be exposed to lots of different situations.

Christmas Caroling

2011-12-11T21:12:00.009-06:00

We had a big group for the Peoria AC church Christmas caroling. We have been doing this since I was a girl and I have many fond memories of the past years. This year seemed special. Perhaps it is just because of my age but having 4 generations of families attend this caroling is amazing.

The singers were split into three groups of 30-40 people and each group went to 2 or 3 different homes. Our group went first to Rudy Hoerr's home. Rudy is the 91 year old brother of Jim, John and Carl Hoerr.

Next on our list was the Patricia Home. There we visited and sang with the many residents.
They had a big Santa that sang and danced as we were leaving.

From there some of our group went to the hospital to sing to Barb Schafer, while the rest of us headed back to the church where a wonderful meal had been prepared.
I had to snap this picture of Benji and his daughter Jasper because grandma Gail is just sure her grand daughter is cuter than any of mine. Actually how can we compare they are all adorable.

This year there was an over abundance of delicious food, people went all out bringing many vegetables, salads, side dishes and desserts. The meat was either pulled pork sandwiches or bbq chicken breast sandwich.

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert table until most had been eaten, that was a very popular spot tonight.

What a fantastic day. To top it off, Peoria had an engagement announcement. Tim Funk stands up to give the announcements, says "there is one more, we have an engagement to announce," then before he goes into it he tells us we should pray for Patty and Chris as this is their second wedding in the last couple of months." Of course by the time he announced "Patty and Chris Kummer announced the engagement of their daughter JoAnna to Jess Hoerr the son of Bob and Myrna Hoerr." We had all figured out it had to be JoAnna. We wish them God's blessings.

Christmas Program

2011-12-11T15:22:00.004-06:00

Mark helped move in a bale to Airiah's paddock before we needed to leave for church.
Today was Peoria's Christmas program and the church was full of people, children and voices, happy voices all visiting with each other, excited kids practicing their pieces and laughter filling the lunchroom at noon. It seemed to take forever for the classes to enter the sanctuary. Each year I'm amazed at the talent these kids have.
After church we headed out quickly as we needed to drop Bibles off Katie Hofstetter brought from the AC home down to the warehouse at Meisters and get the power cord from the shop. We also stopped at TSC for mouse poison, I know, bad idea when their are dogs around but we have now seen mice in the stall area, the garage and the arena. The mouse pellets were put under things the dogs can't move.
Steven was here moving in a round bale for the middle paddock as that paddock was down to one bale and Ribbon & Jenis were keeping the other mares away from the hay. He took both boys out for some trick training. I'm amazed at how these boys listen to him, craving that reward of, "good boy".
Rhoda came by after church to work Jenis. The day is nice and they were out in the field having fun. A few pictures were snapped. Rhoda actually liked the first shot but I liked the last shot best so both were posted.

We are heading back to church for our annual Christmas caroling at 4:00pm.

Away in a Manger

2011-12-10T20:20:00.008-06:00

Rachel invited us over for their annual putting up of their manger scene tonight.

This is always a fun party with singing Christmas carols around the manger scene after eating GREAT food and drinking vanilla eggnog, pumpkin eggnog, chi tea, coffee or milk.

Spark, Rhonda and Kari brought Noel and Mia over.

They were enthralled by baby Jesus laying in a manger in the straw.
When it came time to start the singing, Luke throws himself on the sheepskin to listen in comfort.

Spark and Rhonda's grandchildren had to grab the best seat in the house for the singing, on their grandpa's lap.

After the singing Karin started to tell us about her day. Her youth group was hosting breakfast with santa today, she was lining all the kids up and called out, "ok, kids it's time to sit on satan's lap." Dead silence! Finally she realized what she said but too late, Santa happened to be the mayor of Maquon and not just the mayor, he is also the fire chief so if her house burns down we know why.
Logan brought his turtle named Speedy out to show the little girls.

So as to not be outdone, Luke had to run get his painted turtle.

Mia and Noel wanted to pet the turtles.

After so much laughter and so much food it is time to head to bed, morning comes early around here.

Unexpected Trip

2011-12-10T11:57:00.008-06:00

Chuck Altic knocked on our door this morning to report the neighbor of the MiddleGrove farm called him about horses being out as he couldn't reach Mike. A bucket of grain, 3 halters and lead ropes were loaded into the truck, then Mark was asked if he would mind going with me. We didn't know how they got out and if the fence was down I would need help. As we drove up we could see 15 horses in the valley all spread apart grazing, some laying down and all enjoying the sunshine. We left them be while we drove the fence line looking for a downed fence as the main gate was closed and locked. After driving the entire line to the East and not finding a problem we headed west. Sure enough the corner gate was open and the latches missing. Two of the leadropes were used to tie the gate shut on both ends. We then brought the bucket of grain out and started calling. Ha those horses were not hungry and had no interest in walking the half mile or so to the gate. Sangria was the nearest horse and after she was reached willingly came with the last remaining lead rope looped around her neck. At that point Mark took the bucket of grain into the pasture and up the hill calling, it didn't take long for them to all get inside EXCEPT Mindy. What a bad pony. She saw the rest of the horses getting locked up and there was no way she wanted that.

She took off for the far gate that had been left open, found it locked and headed back. The other horses were heading down to the lake for a drink by this time so the gate could be left open and she finally ran in. Ponies are just way to smart. One nice thing, is she has grown since we took her out there. She is way more filled out and looks good. The picture above was taken right after we purchased her as a 2 year old, when we bring her in we will get updated pictures. By Spring we will put some riding and driving time on her. Funny after we sold Duke and found a family to lease Knight we thought we were done with ponies, now there are 5 out there. Ella, Cindy, Bonnie, Mindy and Lilypony. Horses still at MiddleGrove are: Mika, Bunni, Sally, Jewel, Sangria, Lily, Paris, Ayanna and Ciera. We have 20 round bales out there to put in if needed, there is still green grass in the fields and the lake is still open, hope we can get a few more weeks before bringing them in.

Groan

2011-12-10T05:25:00.006-06:00

Too much walking and standing in line yesterday made for a miserable night. It didn't help that the tiny little pain pill was not taken yesterday or Thursday. There is a reason for that, last week I had 3 really good days even walking a loop on Thursday. My brain reasoned that if I'm walking and not feeling much pain, God must be performing a miraculous healing on the injured hip. Early this morning I found myself shuffling as fast as these old legs can shuffle to the cupboard where the pills are kept. We all know prayer works, it's just that sometimes the answer is no or wait.
Philip is coming over this morning to help Mark open another hole in the basement. They have this huge saw that cuts through concrete. Once a hole is opened Mark starts digging. The dirt was almost up to the floor joists and he would like the crawl space to be about 3 and a half feet, opening it enough to put insulation down on the sides and some kind of floor. It is a filthy nasty job but a necessary one. He has Greg Reed coming Monday to start the inside work. Before pictures really need to be taken, right now it is a disaster. One must have a very vivid imagination to picture how nice this 150 year old house will be next year.

The Appreciation Dinner

2011-12-09T21:34:00.003-06:00

We left the farm a few minutes before 5:00pm and reached Weaver Ridge Country Club right at 5:30pm. The whole time Mark's driving I'm worried about being late. He told me it starts at 5:30pm. Well it didn't start at 5:30pm, people were there and starting to find seats but the dinner didn't actually start until close to 6:30pm and our table wasn't dismissed to go through the buffet line until most of the other tables had gone. It was worth the wait. We enjoyed visiting with our table mates, Ron & Jackie Rumbold, Bob & Jill Gangloff, and Bob & Myrna Hoerr.

After dinner Matt Feucht gave out prizes, then we played Jingo (a form of bingo) then finally the home employees were called up one at a time for their Christmas bonuses. That took hours, the home has many employees. We were glad when it was finally over. It is cold out 18 degrees and is suppose to drop to 12 tonight. Mark fired up the wood burner as soon as we walked in the door. So thankful for free heat!

Don't Want To

2011-12-09T10:40:00.003-06:00

I'm heading in to Peoria to fight the traffic and shop! I don't want to do this but have a 50% off coupon for JoAnn fabrics and want to buy the glittery material for the Friesian costumes needed for the IL Horse Fair. As long as I am in town, surely there are other stores that should be visited.
We have snow on the ground this morning. The golf cart has smooth tires and is not very good on snow and ice so Mark spent some time on-line looking for chains for golf cart tires. Guess what? They don't MAKE tire chains for those. Perhaps people don't golf in the winter. The all important walk must be attended each morning so something must be done. Maybe a bunch of the shoe skids we like so well should be purchased, strung together and attached. hmmm, any ideas out there for this problem? Nothing like waiting until the last minute.
Tonight is the Skyline AC Home appreciate dinner at Weaver Ridge country club. No cooking tonight, that is always a nice dinner and great company.
Winter is always a quiet time here at the farm. There are no outside mares in for breeding, no cookouts, no campfires, and very little company. What a HUGE change from this summer. All the books Glady's Haefli sent are now read and will be given to Rhonda to return. Maybe while in Peoria, the library should be visited.