Monday, March 18, 2024

Monday's Work

 Wow it was cold on the walk this morning. We all wore winter coats. The temperature was 26 degrees but with the wind the real feel was 16 degrees. We ate breakfast after the walk then took the motorhome to Bloomington to get the generator looked at. I drove the motorhome and Mark followed in his car. His car was almost out of gas by the time we reached our destination. Good thing it is a Prius or he would never had made it. The motorhome had to be left there, they won't be working on it until Thursday. We went to the very first gas station which actually was just across the street. When we got home I asked Mark to help move a bale in Raven's old paddock as I wanted to move Lily, her colt and Missy over and put them in with Tatiana. Once the bale was in Lily was led over and the other 2 just followed.

The colt was fascinated with Tatiana. He wanted to check her out but was just too scared to get too close.
Mark wanted to take the MiniMax to FS to get it weighed. I was doing research and realized that the 1900 pounds it was supposed to weigh may not be exactly right. Sure enough it weighed in at 2340 pounds. Then I remembered we had a full tank of propane AND the extra memory foam mattresses. I don't think those 3 items weigh 430 pounds so either the factory made a mistake or their scale was off when they built it. I got the 1900 pounds from numerous websites and of course the seller told us that was what it weighed. The camper was taken back to Joan's backed in and left. Below Mark is unhooking it while I'm waiting in the truck. 
By the time that was done it was time to eat lunch. Mike and Diane were willing to take Lea and Thalia out to Middle Grove so they can get some grazing time.  Lea needed some work on loading. She would walk in then throw herself violently back. The first time she slammed into Thalia. I ended up tying up Thalia out of the way. She waited very patiently while Lea was worked with. It helped when the side door was opened, she wasn't quite as claustrophobic. After probably 10 or 11 tries we put Thalia in, tied her up then Mike led Lea in and I slammed the back door just in time. She threw herself back and slammed right into the trailer door. Thank goodness it is a strong trailer. 
When Mike let them go Lea thought she could be the boss but Jewel took that thought right out of her mind. Jewel will not tolerate anyone (other than Lily) being the boss mare. It's fine as long as no one gets seriously hurt. Both Lea and Thalia will enjoy being at Middle Grove. There is abundant grass and plenty of trees for shade. After all of that outside work we were both really cold. Mark made a fire in the wood burner and when I was finally warmed up drove to Sam's club to pick up a few groceries along with a bag of ice. I drove straight to the barn to put the ice in the freezer and brought back some meat from the freezer to put in the house. The barn booked for May 18th and then again for an afternoon in April. 




Sunday, March 17, 2024

Baby Shower

 Today was a special day in church as this afternoon was the Sunday school Easter program. We really enjoyed that. We were amazed at how great Israel's group sang. Those kids really sang out and even on tune. 

Chase stepped in to direct as their director's wife had a baby this morning 3 weeks earlier than expected.
Israel has a VERY nice voice. At the birthday party this evening you can hear him singing happy birthday in a loud warble but when he wants to sing on tune he really can. Scroll WAY down for that video.  As soon as we got home from church the rice was put to cooking and the chicken loaded on the golf cart to take to the barn. I went back to grab the pile of towels for the apartment that were done here at the house yesterday and walked into the back door of the apartment to put them away. When I opened the door there was someone laying on the floor. I yelled WOAH and threw myself backward and she also jumped up quickly. It was Braelyn and she was cleaning and had found a fork stuck under something. We both scared each other. I didn't know anyone was there and she was shocked when I suddenly opened the door. I went from there to the new barn to get the chicken in the crock pot and help Joan with setting up for Hannah and Jacob's baby shower. At 2:30 pm the people renting the barn for their wedding in July arrived to check out the facility. They were shown the main room, the bride's room and the master bath then taken into the hallway to show them the other bathroom's when the groom asked me, "Are you all Apostolics?"  When I answered yes he told me he was originally from Cisna Park. What a small world. They were pleased with the barn AND are considering having their wedding outside in the big field if the weather is nice and then using the barn for a fun reception. The baby shower started at 3:00 pm but I was a little late picking up mom and Joan waited for us to get there before Jacob had the prayer for the meal. I didn't get any pictures of that but it was quite a spread. Below are some of the shower pictures.



IF you would like to see the rest of the pictures of the shower click HERE. Nancy LOVED coming to the shower. After the shower was over she got to wear some of the balloons and was so thrilled with those she even wore them while helping Joan dry dishes. 

By 5:00 pm we were ready to start our Sunday dinner. Diane left a platter full of fruit left over from the baby shower. 
That was served with the old standby of chicken teriyaki, wild rice with teriyaki sauce and salad.  
Then came the birthday party for Braelyn and Eden who both have birthdays in March. Joan left the balloons for the birthday party.
Below is the birthday singing, check out Israel's voice in this video. Even though he is goofing off her really does have talent.
Those cupcakes were VERY good, just ask Zeke.
Kensley and Elisabet sure enjoyed the balloons.

Tyler and Sam arrived with Lucy.  Tyler was wearing the volleyball shirt from their games yesterday and brought along 2 of the trophies. As Anna had her shirt on too I asked them to pose.
Lucy was happy to be here.
Anni and Matt brought Dexter who was quite busy exploring.
Dexter is going to be a big brother in a few months.  So is Rebekah's Walter. Both of these boys will have new baby brothers and we are not sure how they are going to feel about that.
The bigger boys, Jack, Jace, Abe, Israel and Jordan, all played outside with Mark's snow marker poles. The girls played up in the game room with all the balloons and all had a great time. The volley ball games were fun to watch.
Taunya took Nancy home for us. We were all grateful. Thankyou SO much for that gift.  The video below came in on one of Karin's memories. I asked permission from the girls to post it. Berlica grudgingly gave me the permission.  It really is a special treat of some of my very talented nieces. Why they usually ALL sing soprano but for this song they used their lower voices. 
Looks like this video cant be shared here so if you want to see it just go to my Facebook page Judith Sceggel. 
By the way this was done 4 years ago...hmm not much has changed today in church during the Easter program Faith had to sing soprano AND alto in the same song.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Champions Again

 I was up before 5:00 am and had to wait for the coffee maker this morning. As it is Saturday there is no walk so I had lots of quiet time to read. I had time to listen to Jeff Waibel give a message in Leo on Sunday March 10th. This was quite a history lesson and much more. To watch this service click HERE. Mark wanted a big breakfast and needed it by 7:00 am as he needed to leave by 7:30 for church. Today was church cleaning. I also needed to leave at 7:30 am but stopped to check on Lily and her colt. He is doing great. 

I was driving into the drive when I got the message that my airbnb guest moved out I had just one hour to get it cleaned up before needing to be at mom's house. I'm thankful we have extra sets of sheets and towels as there was no time to get the laundry done. Diane needed to leave by noon. Mom and I had lunch then went out on the deck. She wanted to see if the lettuce was coming up. I took a picture of the box to show her. 

I took a close up of what was coming up.
The pictures weren't good enough, mom wanted to be turned around and taken to the edge of the deck to see of herself. I should have thought of that first. We enjoyed the sunshine but not the wind. When the clouds came we needed to go back inside. When Karin arrived I went back to the apartment to finish the few things that still needed to be done.  The flat sheets and the pillow cases from the apartment were put in the dryer. The 2 fitted sheets were put out on the line to dry. That didn't work too well. The wind was just too strong.
They were brought inside and finished drying as soon as the other sheets were dry. 
I had to flip the apartment since Phil and Anna was in the volleyball tournament in Eureka. Their team played last year in this tournament and won last year and then won again this year.
The team is called the Meisters and consist of Nolan, Philip, Anna, Ben, Rhoda and Tyler. These 6 players have played now in this tournament for 3 years and have won it now 3 years in a row. They said this year the competition was much harder and each game was a battle. 
Mark got home from church cleaning and said it was a good group, he was working with David on cleaning coat racks. Israel and Elisabet helped too.
We had an early supper tonight was neither of us had much lunch. Below is Mark's plate.
I chose to have a salad with some strips of chicken on top. The wind was still really strong and seeping into the house. The temperature is dropping so Mark made a nice fire in the wood burner.
We were both enjoying the heat while reading.









Friday, March 15, 2024

Cabin Field

 Our morning started out pretty cool but that just meant the day was extra nice. Diane, Joan and I walked. Ruth sent the picture below with the text, "no walk for me." 

Grandkids are the best!  We were able to talk and make plans for Hannah's baby shower. We stopped at Joan's so Diane could take a look at the Mini Max. She decided it was much to small for her and Mike to use on a long vacation. It is an upper end camper meaning built very well and looks brand new. We shall see if there is a rental market for something this small and light weight. 
Mike and Diane have guests coming in the cowboy cabin and wanted to have Lily, her colt and Cookie brought over for the weekend. Lily was taken over first.
Lily ignored the ball and went straight for the hay. 
Diane was in the cabin getting it ready for guests when I arrived with the horses so we were visiting when my phone went off, a family of 5 and their dog just booked the foaling apartment. That meant I needed to turn the heat on and make sure the floor was swept. The thermostat was offline so the last time the electricity went off it knocked that off. I figured out how to get it back on-line and get the furnace running. I sent a message to the guests that the apartment was ready any time and they had just arrived in the area so were glad to come early. They had a horse loving daughter so we went over to see Lily and her colt.
They mentioned that they would like to hike the trails a bit later so I took the golf cart on the lower one to see if it was passable as we had 2 inches of rain. It was not and I got it stuck.
Mike had his 4 wheeler down by the main road so I asked him if he could pull me out. His 4 wheeler has a wench on and that went quick.

 Cookie was brought over next Lily was glad to see her but didn't want her to get too close to her colt. 

Cookie knows her place and was careful to stay just out of range. She started walking around exploring the cabin field. Things had changed a bit since she was here last. She walked over to the ball first, sniffed that then walked over to the hay before heading down to the grass.
Diane is working on pictures for her next airbnb which she calls the Waterview Walkout. She wanted a picture of the horses and the pond so the guests could see that you can feed the horses over the fence in the yard. Lily and Cookie were glad to snack on some grain while the picture was taken. 
Diane ordered a new sign from Andrew which will be put out by the main road so the airbnb guests know where to turn. Andrew has been working on it. Mike has the lumber to install it. Pictures will be posted once that is up.
Karin cooked dinner tonight and invited us over to mom's at 5:15 pm. She tried out a meat loaf recipe and a potato recipe. We declared both good. She made peas which kept rolling off mom's fork and onto the floor and we had to laugh when mom commented about the peas on the floor and of course
 blamed Karin as she was on that side of the table.







Thursday, March 14, 2024

Inside Spring Cleaning

 We had a big storm during the night, lots of lightning, crashes of thunder and by the time the rain stopped 2 inches of that life giving fluid. We are so thankful. The fields are getting great drinks and the grass is growing quickly. It was still raining during the walk time so that was cancelled. I spent most of the morning and even part of the afternoon doing a big spring cleaning on the upstairs of this house. I had so much to go through as each time I sold a 5th wheel and the other campers I brought the supplies and bedding into the house and put it in the upstairs incase it would be needed. Well we are not buying any more campers or 5th wheels and I don't need any more bedding for the barn or the apartment. The closets also really needed to be gone through. I think I swept up a couple hundred Asian beetles. How and why do those pesky things end up inside? I found 2 airbeds. The one below was blown up and left just to see if there are any leaks.

The other airbed did not have an automatic blower attached so that was brought down stairs for Mark to check out. I really like the cuddledud comforter I brought in from the old 5th wheel. 
It looks much nicer than the blue down comforter I had on this bed. I now have 2 down comforters in tubs and stored in the closet. Those are too nice to give away and we might need them some day. The other bedroom I left how it was just gave it a good cleaning.
Below is a close up of the grand children on one of our vacations to Gulf Shores. We only had 10 at the time and Rhoda had just announced number 11 was on the way. Addyson and Braelyn are holding up Iris' t-shirt although at the time we didn't know the gender or her name.
I think we need another vacation so we can get another updated picture with all 14 of them.
Even the upstairs bathroom was given a good scrubbing.
When we moved into this house we needed to add a bathroom upstairs. We found a way to do it by using the end of the hall and some of the bedroom for the shower.
I'm glad to have that job done.
The daffodil bed is expanding. Mark planted over 50 bulbs a couple years ago of all kinds of tulips and daffodils and only the daffodils survived but they are going well.
We had some sunshine but soon the dark clouds came in.
Lily was let out later this afternoon. Both were glad to get out.
Mark went on an estimate and when he got home this evening brought his air compressor down so we could blow up the second air bed. Both seem to be holding air so far. 
I took a run to the dumpster with so many old sheets. In the olden days those would be used for drop cloths but we are not doing that kind of work anymore. None of the sheets were good enough to give away. The new fluffy pillow shams were taken over to mom's house. Mark wanted a couple of the old comforters to use for moving furniture so those will be taken to his back garage.  Just before dark I took the golf  cart up to the barn to put Lily away. She knows the routine and ran back to the field with her colt. I just had to shut the gate. Tomorrow we are going to move her and her colt over to the cabin field. Diane has guests coming in and they would like to see the new baby.





Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Lily's Colt

 Just Ruth, Diane and I walked, Joan was in Chicago. Diane was with mom until noon then Ruth took over. I went straight to the barn to get that ready for company, putting down the chairs and cleaning the bathrooms. Back at the house the laundry was started. While waiting for the machines Lily and her colt were let out to graze. The colt was funny today. He tasted the grass and found it good. He reared up on his mama's face. I wasn't fast enough to get that on the camera but got the tail end. 

While out there I took a few more pictures for the website.

He really is cute he started zooming up to the gate then back to him mom.
At noon the people coming to see the barn arrived and were given the full tour. They also wanted to see both of Diane's airbnbs and the foaling apartment thinking they may need all 3 plus the new barn. It is a BIG family. I think this family is even bigger than the Meister family. This evening Mark and I left a little early for church and arrived early. Caleb Plattner had the message. Click HERE to watch that. After church we joined the big group at Culvers. Both Mark and I chose a salad tonight. We may be getting tired of fish. It was another warm beautiful day but rain is supposed to move in by midnight. The colt is now old enough to be left out. Their paddock has a shelter so hopefully Lily will use it if it gets colder. 



Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Moving Campers

 Ruth couldn't walk today but was down to take mom to Nancy's IEP meeting. Diane, Joan and I walked then were joined by Mark, Sarah's dog and Ruth's cat. After the walk I left for the Berean office. To read about our morning there click HERE. I made it home by noon. Mark and I ate lunch then went right out to start moving campers over to Joan's house. It was determined that she should keep 3 at her place as we have 3 campers that are all different, the Mini Max, the Salem with no slideout and the Wildwood with the slideout and we would keep the motorhome and the other 2 campers here. We first needed to put the hitch on the skidsteer. 

The Mini Max uses a 2 inch ball so we used the tri hitch that has all three sizes.
That Mini Max only sleeps 2 people but it sleeps them in a queen size bed AND has a full bathroom AND has a dry weight of 1900 pounds. This camper rents for $129.00 a night as it can be pulled with a light weight vehicle as long as it has a towing package.
Mark needed to move the small Kubota out of the way before we started moving the campers.
It took us about an hour to move all 3 over and place them in the right order.
The middle trailer is the Salem FSX This camper sleeps 5 adults comfortable or a family with children it can sleep 7. It has a murphy queen bed, 2 double bunks and the dinette folds down into a bed. It too is fully self contained. That means it has a kitchen and a full bath with stool, shower and sink. This camper has a dry weight of  3219 pounds and rents for $125.00 a night.
The 3rd trailer, the one on the right is the Wildwood FSX 178 BHSK. This camper has everything the Salem has BUT has the added bonus of the dinette that slides out. It really spacious for the size. It has the double bunks, the dinette seats 6 and makes a camper queen bed. The murphy bed is also queen size, the big fridge, the full bathroom and has a dry weight of 3749 pounds. The other campers still in the barn are exactly like the Wildwood FSX 178 BHSK. All 4 of these campers take the 2 5/16ths ball. 
All 3 of the campers with slideouts rent for $135.00 a night. 
Camping season is right around the corner and the campers are already starting to book up. IF you ever wanted to try camping but didn't want to invest in a camper, renting one first is really the way to go. Then if you LIKE camping you will have a better idea of what to buy. You can always send me a text if interested in looking at them. 309-208-3840. The motorhome will also be for rent this year at $209.00 a night. It will be posted on RV share soon. 
The indoor arena is almost empty enough to ride in again.
This afternoon Mark and Mackenson worked on cleaning up the manure spreader. Sometimes we have net wrap from the bales that gets mixed in with the manure. We try to remove the net wrap when we put bales in but sometimes can't get it all and that net wrap gets caught on the manure spreader tines. It is an awful job and I'm glad Mackenson is willing to help with that.  While they were working on that I was cleaning Lily's stall. She is such a big mare she leaves a lot of manure and since she is currently in season the stall was pretty wet. They were only in for a few hours and I had a full wheelbarrow to dump.
My next job was to give the new barn a quick cleaning. That only took about a half an hour.
Mark ordered another load of gravel and that came today. 
Unfortunately the truck dumped it in the barn drive and blocked the only drive to the barn. 
Mark had to leave for an estimate and I have someone coming tomorrow to see the barn so got on the skid steer and used two buckets full on the North side of the barn and the rest piled up opening the drive. It isn't completely off the drive but there is now plenty of room for cars or trucks to get through.
I quit working at 4:45 pm so I could drive to Long John Silvers to pick up what mom wanted for dinner. She must have seen a commercial and sent out a request for a Flaky Fish dinner. The nearest Long John's is in East Peoria and when I got there I tried to order the FLAKY FISH DINNER. They had no idea what I was asking for. I got the text out and read it to them telling them, "this is what she ordered" and showed them the text. They had no such dinner. So I purchased 3 of the 3 piece fish dinners that came with fries and coleslaw. We all liked it and guess what? The fish WAS flaky.
Mark got home from the estimate and got our left overs of which there was plenty. So the 3 dinners easily fed 4 of us with 2 extra fish filets for tomorrow.  We had another beautiful warm 72 degree day  the grass is growing quickly and the flowers are blooming.
Another good day and I am thankful.