Villhauer's Farm Blessings: Going, Going, Gone!

With the warmer temperatures and plans to take Amiga to the Illinois State Horse fair the first weekend in March, (in 11 days) I have been more committed to working with her every day. The snow, ice and mud have limited us to working on the driveway for the most part. But I have also started back up with weekly riding lessons, which I can do inside Marj's riding arena.

This week has been one to watch the snow melt away. It made it up to 42 degrees last Monday and the temperatures continued to climb above or reach the upper 40's almost everyday. It even got up to 59 degrees on Thursday. Here is a series of photos taken from the kitchen window each day this week.

Man does it feel like spring is here. I have had to keep telling myself.... "It ain't over yet". Due to the law of averages, we are bound to get more cold days and probably more snow. But for now, I am enjoying the heat wave. As you can see....the snow was going, going, and now is gone.

The chickens and turkey have been out of the coop every day. They are excited to have green grass (and even mud) to dig around in and peck through. They have been eating less chicken feed and egg production is up to 2 or 3 a day. I did find an egg out in the paddock where the cow and horse have made a mess of the hay, spreading it all over. I may have to retrain the girls to lay in the coop or barn.

Britney is gone for MTI at Palmer Lake in Colorado, seen below. Joe took her to the airport in St Louis yesterday afternoon, for an early morning flight out this morning. They stayed in a hotel last night. Britney is hoping to be going/gone to Guatemala for 2 years as soon as she has her committed support for monthly funding during her missions work there. (MTI) Mission Training International is a three week training program that Students International requires for all of its missionaries heading to the field.

Britney will be getting trained in how to become interwoven into the Guatemalan culture (which she so highly values and respects). She (and SI) do not want her "North American-ness" to interfere with her ministry or cause damage to the people with whom she will be interacting as she shares God's love and the gospel in ways that respect the culture she is in. She continues to work diligently, seeking people and organizations willing to partner with her on a monthly basis for the next two years.

Daniel has also been preparing to go, along with the rest of his unit, sometime this spring. He will be going back to Ft. McCoy in a little over three weeks, and then going to Ft. Bliss in Texas. After that he will be gone to Afghanistan for a year. For now, he is enjoying life, as seen here with his cousin's dog Zoey. His Aunt Patty took this picture.
After I worked Amiga Monday,

I walked her up and down the drive. Tuesday, after we walked, I rode her up and down the drive. Then on Wednesday I took her to Marj's for a riding lesson. I felt good about being able to unload and load her over there without any help. We are making progress. Thursday I had a little more time, so rode over at Becks and then cleaned up stuff out in the barn.

The farrier came Friday morning and I did some quick house cleaning since Courtney was staying for the night to do chores and dog/house sit while we were gone. We left for Iowa Friday afternoon...and returned home Saturday evening.

Before going, I sorted the Christmas gifts to have Britney wrap. Abbey picked to be in Patty's gift pile of snowmen. Notice some green grass out the window.

I got a picture of the Mississippi as we crossed over it into Iowa. I always like looking at the river. I sometimes think it would be great to be back in the "horse and wagon" days, but not when it comes to traveling long distances or crossing this huge river. How did they do it?

We had a good (but short) visit in Iowa. Lounged around, ate a great dinner and had a gift exchange at the Volks. (Christmas in February works for me. I would love to have Christmas year round....but not winter.)

Sunday afternoon we went into Iowa City and enjoyed a big lunch together.

Joe's three sisters; Teresa, Patty, Mary and nephew Nathan

Britney, Dan, Joe and Tracy

Coming back into town Saturday evening, we drove by our place to go to Brian's to pick up a cattle rope halter we are borrowing. As we drove by our farm, I got a picture of the water way. It has a fair amount of water, and still some frozen snow/ice, but seems to be doing its job.

I didn't get home from Church and school until 3:00. I was glad to see the snow mostly gone. But I was very disappointed about the amount of gravel that has ended up in the yard and rock garden and the clumps of sod that are in the drive or off to the side. I think I will need to wait for the ground to freeze again before raking the gravel back to the drive. There are also some more areas in need of more gravel, that have become big ruts.

I rode over at Becks again Sunday afternoon....ended up messing around outside for several hours, taking the above pictures, even though it was gloomy and windy. At least it wasn't quite so muddy.

This morning, Presidents Day, a day off from school, I was hoping to go for a longer ride on Amiga, but it is a rainy Monday. Sitting here finishing up this Blog post is much more to my liking at the moment. I did go out to get a picture of the water way and the last of the snow. If you look closely, you can see three chickens (dark specks) at the right of the picture.