And Now There are Two

I got another horse today.

No, I am not kidding, I really, truly adopted another horse.

Hokey now belongs to me.

How did this happen? Well, as with Abby, I really wasn't trying to buy another horse. But since I like Hokey so much, I did ask Tim on Friday that, if he ever wanted or needed to sell Hokey, to please let me know because I might be interested. I was thinking of how much Lisa liked him and that she might be moving here in a year and would love having him to enjoy. Plus, Hokey is so people oriented and is always hanging out with me, so much so that we have become good buds.

Tim smiled and said I was the third or fourth person to ask to buy Hokey, and agreed that he was a special horse. We left it at that and I did not expect anything else to happen, at least not the very next day.

Today, I got this email from Tim:

Lynn,
  I have reconsidered your offer concerning Hokey.  
I am prepared to officially allow you to adopt him.
Terms of the adoption are for a bag of carrots per month and continued assistance 
in helping around the place.  I really do like 
to have you come out and help keep an eye on the horses and their water tank.

I will move them back to another pasture soon – if it will ever grow again.  Maybe this rain will help?.

Meanwhile I filled their round feeder again to supplement.

Thanks

Tim


l could not quite believe what I was reading, but I knew Tim was serious. I thought about it for a while, and then approached Craig to see what he thought. He was surprised, but had no objections.

So, now I have TWO horses, when just two months ago I didn't have one at all!

 My newest adoptee, Hokey. And he looks a lot like Cee, just as Abby looks like Amy and Coco looks like Pokey. (Leslie and I seem to be recreating our original herd - now we just need look-alikes for Nick and Flame!!)

Hokey is a twelve year old registered Quarter Horse who rides and drives.

 My "herd."

"I'd better stay your favorite."

Don't worry, Abby - you will!

Cake Time!

James and Sherree decided they wanted the cakes for their wedding reception from our favorite cake lady, Deanna Loeschen. My dear friend, Pam, put me on to her years ago, and Deanna has probably made 25-30 cakes for our family's celebrations at least. I told them I would be happy to go over to Illinois and get the cakes for them, so this morning I hopped into my car and hit the road.

When you see this sign on I-74, you are almost there! (I felt a little homesick at the sight.)

 I was sorely tempted to keep on driving and visit Urbana, but I simply did not have the time.

After exiting, you head north for a mile or two, watching for the second road on the left. It's mainly a little country lane and a bit hard to see. (I have shot past it before and had to turn around and come back.)

 Deanna's farm home out in the country. They used to live in a big, old farmhouse, but they built this one about twenty years ago. Inside is a HUGE, airy  kitchen for Deanna's cake business. One time I was there to pick up a cake for one of the kid's graduation, and Deanna had twenty-five cakes out, ready to be picked up! Lots and lots of people use her (and when you taste one of her cakes, you understand why!)

 Her home is still very much a working farm. They grow corn and soybeans. Deanna told me today that they were very concerned about this year's drought and how it was affecting their crops.

 Deanna has an electronic chime that cars trigger when they pull into her driveway. (Probably a safety device as well as a way to know that cake customers have arrived. Their home is quite isolated.) You pull up by the garage door and she pops out, carrying your cake.

It was good to see her again. She thought the cakes were for someone in Illinois and expressed amazement that I'd drive 168 miles round trip for them. Deanna, your cakes are THAT good!

 She helped me load two cakes carefully into the back seat. Aren't they pretty?

 A third cake on the front seat. Deanna cautioned me against the heat and humidity, so I drove with the air conditioner on max. The aroma of buttercream permeated my car! MMMmmmmmm!!

 The cakes made it home to our house safely. James' parents will take them to the reception later this afternoon. (Each cake will serve 48-54 people. At $25 each, they're a bargain!)

 Deanna printed a picture of the happy couple onto special paper and put it on the cake. (Vanessa took the photo.)

But there was still one more cake that came home with me:

She baked me my own personal cake with my email logo, "I'd rather be biking" on it!! And Deanna would NOT accept any money for it. What a sweet thing to do! (Good thing I didn't have a fork in the car - I'd have dived right in!)

As full as the car was with cake, you can bet I found room for mine.

Rain!

Craig and I worked on the lawn this morning - mowing, weeding, hosing off the patio, putting our new patio umbrella up, and setting out our 4th of July decorations. We came in drenched in sweat and with beet red faces from the high humidity and heat and in desperate need of showers. I had even sweated through my denim shorts!

Chad Evans, the local meteorologist had said some storms might pop today, and as it began clouding over, I began again monitoring the weather online. It grew darker and darker outside, until around 2:15 I heard the first few splats of rain hit the house.

 The raindrops were huge - so big that I stuck my foot in for perspective.

 At this point, I began praying that it would be more than just a teaser storm - we need rain desperately.

 As more and more of the big drops fell, I began to feel hopeful that we might get enough rain to alleviate at least some of the dryness.

 I hopped in my car and ran an errand to mail some letters. The rain was coming down harder!

 Look at it flow out of our rain gutter! Yes!!

And the radar showed that we would get more than just a brief sprinkle; we were in line for a good soaking. In fact, we had a severe thunderstorm, albeit a brief one, with winds and heavy rain. Tossed my patio furniture around all over the place!

You can see how dry it has been by looking at our neighbors' lawns in the picture. I have been watering ours, but it still has its brown spots, too. With the heat and severe drought, it has been difficult to keep the lawn watered.

I am really grateful to the Lord for the rain that fell. And, I think I will ask Him if we could please have some more. :)

Havin' a Heat Wave!

Since the beginning of the week, we've been getting dire predictions about the heat for today and tomorrow.  Those meteorologists were right - it's HOT out there.

People were advised to stay indoors or to go to places that had air conditioning, and the cities set up several locations where those in need could go and cool off.

By early afternoon, it was already scorching. But temperatures would only go upwards as the day progressed. I decided to monitor the heat wave online.

What is it about that decimal point that makes me feel even hotter?

Almost there -  juuuuuust about into triple digits.

 5:00 PM and the temperatures are still rising.

 This was the highest temperature I recorded by camera; on the news this evening, they said we hit 103.

And the heat wave is all over the middle section of the country. Cole and Emily were suffering, too, down in Murfreesboro.

When I went out to the barn this evening to check the horses and fill the water trough, the silence outside in our neighborhood was eerie. No children were out playing, no one jogging, walking, or biking, no lawn mowers or people cooking out... The only sound was the steady hum of the air conditioning units around the neighborhood.

Tomorrow is forecast to be more of the same. Whew!

An Ordinary Day

There is much to be said for ordinary days - days when nothing particularly special happens, and you go about your daily routine without incident. Indeed, there is a sense of contentment, of fulfillment from the ordinariness of it all.

And today was one of those days.

I rode my bike.

I picked my car up at Tire Barn after having three tires replaced and the car realigned.

I dozed for about twenty minutes.

I took my mother-in-law to the doctor and then helped her sort clothes and put them away.

I spent 45 minutes at the barn with this sweet girl and filling the water trough.

I watched Jenny Connolly swim in the Olympic Trials with my mother and Craig.

 And I saw some fleabane growing in the pasture despite the extreme drought and the hooves of eight horses stomping around it.

It was the fleabane that topped the day off for me, that added that simple touch of contentment and satisfaction to the day. I've loved fleabane since I was a little girl, and it never fails to make me smile.

Just an ordinary day. And I am happy.

Bikin' Mama

Teachin' mama, horsie mama.... don't forget, there's also BIKIN' MAMA!

We're finally home from all our travels and I am able to get into my biking routine - riding every day except Sunday or unless it is windy (I detest riding in wind.) I rode five miles yesterday (my starting point each year is riding five miles at ten miles per hour a day. Then I work up to ten plus miles at fifteen to seventeen miles per hour each day.)

Since the temperature is supposed to get into the 90s today, I got up early and was out on Onyx by 6:30 this morning. It was only 54 degrees and winds were around four miles per hour - perfect riding weather!

I decided to take a few pictures of some familiar and much-loved sights along the ride.

 Entering Cumberland Park. I've seen a great blue heron roosting in those woods ahead!

 The bend in the bike path that takes you around the woods.

 You can go right or left. I usually go right. That's a pond straight ahead - very low due to the drought. Still, I could hear a bullfrog croaking!

 I've turned right and am heading towards to second pond. This one is part of Amberleigh Village. It, too, was very low.

Making a circuit around the second pond. Another heron roost is on this path, but I did not see any evidence that the bird is still using it to perch.

Tomorrow I will bump up to maybe six miles and see how I do. As always, it feels great to be back in the saddle!

Shadow Play

Surprise!! I snuck up behind you, lady. Guess who??

 Hokey gives me a gentle kiss.

 You gonna kiss me back, lady??

 Smack!!

 Trouble butts in for a kiss, too.

(Hokey's shadow overlaps mine as he's stepped aside.)

Buds.

Another Teachin' Mama!!

Here she is!

Two teachin' mamas together.

So proud of this girl.

Sarah has been teaching with a probationary license while she returned to school and worked on her certification. It took two years and a lot of sacrifices, but on June 15, we went to the ceremony at Northern Iowa University to cheer her on.

We got to sit right behind her!

 Each graduate was asked to say a few words.

 The program. Notice this is the first group to go through the program.

 A list of all the recipients on the left.

Although the ceremony was held at Northern Iowa University, Sarah's certificate is actually from the University of Iowa. Several universities participated in the program.

 The first year of the program and Sarah is the very first to receive a certificate!

 Sarah and her cohort.

 I did it!

Three educators together and two very proud parents.

Congratulations, Sarah!!

Groompa Camp Day 5

What a day! Our second day at Spring Mill State Park, and our last full day of Groompa Camp. (Insert big sigh here.) JC and Trinity are extremely well behaved. You can take them anywhere and they are polite, obedient, and have good attitudes. Rarely do they argue. So, with kids like that, being together is a blast!

Craig and I had a CES meeting first thing in the morning after breakfast. The meeting was in the game room, so I gave both kids a stack of quarters and allowed them to play pinball games and such to their hearts' content.

Pirates of the Caribbean was VERY popular (and had neat music to boot!)

JC did well.

After our meetings, we checked out of the inn and decided to go see some of the caves in the park. Two of the walking caves were closed due to the spread of a bat disease.

But, the boat tour was open, and so we decided to do that. As it was explained to us, the current thinking is that the bat disease is spread by contact with soil, so walkers might bring it into the caves on their shoes. But the boat tour is not affected by that concern since you're in a boat and not touching anything. (Although we did have to use hand sanitizer, just in case.)

I thought the cost was reasonable, too. It only cost the four of us $10.

We toured Twin Caves. This is the cave we did not enter.

And this is the cave we did - looks pretty innocuous, doesn't it? But what was inside was amazing.

Trinity (in the white hat) sat ahead of me in the boat. Our guide stood the whole trip, and used his hands on the cave's walls and sides to push the boat along through the passages.

Duck! Here we go inside.

Although it looks light inside, that's only because I used a flash and because the guide had lamps on. Plus, Craig brought a flashlight, too. Here our guide is showing us some crevices in the walls of the cave as we float past.

It was a bit eery to realize that, should the lamps fail, you would be in total darkness. There were chambers and tunnels leading off the route we boated. I could not help but wonder how the place was mapped out originally. Must've been some brave people!

You can get an idea of how dark the cave is now. (Love Trinity's hat and how it hides her!)

Can't remember the name of these formations (lower right quadrant).

Another unusual formation, and probably my favorite picture from the excursion into the cave.

Coming back out and near the entrance.

If you look closely in the crack where the light is brightest, there's a salamander hiding.

We also saw blind cave fish and crayfish who were a ghostly white in color.

And outside once again. We went 500 feet back into the cave. Water depth ranged from 6-7 feet to as deep as 12 feet, and we were 100 feet underground. I had expected I might get a bit squeamish or even feel a bit panicky and closed in, but I didn't. Not even when our guide turned the lights off and we sat in complete darkness for a few minutes. (That was REALLY weird - you could almost feel the darkness.)

It took us three hours to drive back home, and when we got there, it was time for the annual marshmallow fight. Only this time, instead of using mini-marshmallows and shooters, we used giant marshmallows and threw them at each other!

Boompa stands armed and ready in the hallway.

Surprise attack from the kitchen into the living room.

JC has scored the whole bag of marshmallows and so he's loaded now with ammunition!

Not to be outdone, Trinity gathers up spent ammo and hoards it, biding her time before attacking.

I launch one up at JC (look in the corner by the post. See it?)

And mine sticks to the railing! (JC helpfully points it out.)

All too soon, it was time for Mom and Dad to arrive so they could bring JC and Trinity home. JC prepared a surprise for them - water balloons!

"I see their car! They're coming! Hurry and grab the balloons!"

I missed the photo of the balloon launcher in use (Boompa, Trinity, and JC shot one at the car as it approached.) But, I did get pictures of the kids throwing balloons at their folks.

The car was just a bit wet afterward.

 We continued the water fun at the park with Boompa's water balloon launcher. The first one we launched in the back yard hit the neighbors' patio, so I had the launchers move to the park across the street. Here JC gets low while Dad and Boompa hold the ends.

Trinity tries the same technique.