The Muench Bunch

7/29/17 The horses have been quite the ups and downs. Jayden has been having troubles with Ace, so she gave him a couple weeks off, did some testing at ISU, got new shoes, started a new supplement, and had a chiropractic adjustment. She takes such good care of him. This week on Tuesday she took him to a Dayton barrel race. She took 3 horses, Ace, Joker, and Moose and I went along to help her get horses ready and warm up. Ace still had issues at the gate and didn’t want to go in. He made a great run, and three nice barrels in a big pattern and ran fast. She got 3rd and was happy with him. She did lots of warm ups on Joker and ponied Moose around to get them used to things. I enjoyed riding without competing and visited with several people. There is a comradeship among barrel racers. I have done it for so many years in the past that when I come back to it, there is always familiar faces and people to catch up with. I visited with the Jacobs family about Iowa high school rodeo association

  5/30/17 Through the spring and summer, Jake got to spend some time on his own driving the tractor, mowing, raking, and tethering hay.  The first cutting was gorgeous perfect hay. The round bales out in the pasture under a blue sky with clouds, breathtaking. We are enjoying the view now, but the wind turbines are coming soon. Jake and Jayden both helped with hauling the round bales. They drove the truck with a massive trailer behind carrying round bales. Jake hauled for a couple days and Jayden hauled just a couple loads. It made me a bit nervous. When our hired man Tony hurt his finger on the tractor mower, Jake took over and tethered the hay. Mark gave him some quick instruction and away he went. He was zooming back and forth in the tractor and drove for hours. He loved it and felt pretty big out there. Poor Tony ended up having surgery on his finger. July- Jake is only 13, and hauling round bales seemed like a big job for Jake. The trailer is gigantic and Jake was pretty proud

Friday Jayden and I spent the day at the ISU vet school. We were prepared for a long day with three horses in tow. We took Tiny to have him castrated. The vets let us go back and watch. That was more than i cared to see. Eagle had x-rays and lameness exams and got injections into his navicular joint. They suggested he have an MRI that starts at $2,000. That was not going to be an option. We like Eagle, he is a big gentle guy and great as a lesson horse. We just want him to be ride able and usable again. He has been very lame for a month now. Ace is the challenge. He has some strange behaviors and Jayden is determined to find the cause. He acts up at the gate when she runs, he has been blowing barrels, and he stands spread out like something is painful. The vets ran a lot of tests, lameness exam, stress test, palpated his kidneys and drew blood. They wanted to do an MRI on him too. We said no. He is a mystery. Jayden is willing to do whatever it takes to get him better. He is a wonderfu

Jayden recently had an appointment with Ace. She had been on barrel horse world, asking advice and telling people of her hard times. A lady asked her when and where her appointment was with Ace. She told Jayden that at that time, she would be praying for her. I was so touched at such a kind person that doesn't even know us.  After our visit at the vet, I went to the counter to pay our bill. I knew it would be high and I was expecting the worst. The receptionist informed me that $200 of our bill had been covered by a n anonymous person. I was dumbfounded and could not comprehend who would do that. Jayden looked at me and instantly knew it had to be the lady from barrel horse world. I was so touched I almost cried.   I posted this to facebook, because things like this need to be retold.  RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS- I had to share because I am still in awe. Through an internet post, a complete stranger, in another state, we have never met read about Jayden taking her horse in to the ve

It has been 1 month since Marks surgery. At 2 weeks he was driving and moving without crutches. He still spends most of his time in his recliner. I really think he has been enjoying his break, his time at rest and wanted to sit in his recliner as long as he could. He was feeling pretty good, started going to physical therapy and was getting around. At 3 weeks he was starting to get his ache again in his back. Now he is popping his ibuprofen morning noon and night all over again. It makes me sad to see him back on pills. This is his second hip surgery and both were done in hopes of helping his back pain. He gets it on one side just above his hip bone. He never had pain in his hip or felt like his hip was a problem. The orthopedic surgeon thought and hoped this would help. Time will tell and I keep praying he can have relief and get rid of his pain. The heat is on!! I can be thankful the county fair is not this week. The humidity came back this week along with the heat and today alone t

7/19/17 During the summer, Jake attended some of his youth group 180 activities. To finish off the summer, the group went to Aventureland. Jake went with his small group and spent the day. They had a great time going from amusement park rides to water park slides. I think he had the most fun on the wave maker swimming pool. It sounded pretty wild. Once again I am thankful Jake has this group. Cousin Alivia had her first county fair. Wade and Carina had her signed up for a little bit of everything! Sheep, calf, dog, horse, and indoor projects. It was exhausting just to hear her schedule for showing all the animals multiple times each day for 7 days. I sure hope they don't get burned out on their first year. We drove over to see the horse show. There were some registering issues and Alivia didn't get to show Huey in Showmanship. There was a heavy down pour of rain and the halter classes were moved inside the horse barn. Alivia won her class and the Grand Champion gelding of t

Sunday was an early morning at the fair. I left the boys in the camper to sleep while Jayden and I got horses fed and ready. The Sunday horse show is more fun and less stressful. It is all the games classes. The kids get to wear their 4H horse project T-shirts and the classes arent judged. The first two classes were break the gait and egg and spoon. Joker isnt a slow moving pleasure horse, so he took second in those. The games classes Jayden ran Joker in were; barrels, poles, flags, keyhole, jumping figure eight. Jayden and Sammy were the only 2 girls in the Senior division grades 10,11,12. Jayden is a barrel racer, so the timed events are her strength. Sammy is a show horse rider, with a horse that has a super slow lope. Sammy won the show classes and Jayden won the timed classes. The girls were pretty even for the high point award. Had she know how close she was to earning the high point award, she would have signed up for all the classes and not drawn out of any.  Although it would

Saturday, Jayden got up by 6:45 to feed and the horse show started at 9. I was glad we had the Bloomer trailer with living quarters. I was getting used to sleeping in it. Grandma and Grandpa Wahlert, Alice and Grandpa Muench all came to watch. It was hot and kept getting hotter. It seems to be the standard fair, it can be nice all week, but when the horse show rolls around it must be the hottest, 90's kind of hot. Tiny was up first in halter. He was a little nervous and whinnied the entire time. He was a little excited and tried to jump and kicked his back feet up by the judge. That probably did not earn her any extra points. He won his class and a trophy. Joker went in for halter class and took 3rd. First and second are horses that win the IA state fair, so getting third was a big deal. Joker looked so good, he could be a halter horse. He is a beautiful animal. Tiny did in hand trail for Jayden and he was great! He went through the gate, over the bridge, did his trotting with eas

7/11/17- 7/17/11 County Fair Week Tuesday was county fair judging day. We finished up projects to the last minute. We have done projects for so many years that I just don’t get into it as much. I want the kids to want to do 90% of their project. Mom and grandma shouldn’t be doing quite so much. They have to learn to do these things on their own and want to do them. Jayden had one project, a binder and write up all about her Youth Horse Development project. Last minute I told her she needed a poster to promote it and for the judge to have a visual. Jake had 5 photos, of which 3 got held back for state. He also had a 4H poster that he drew a tractor with a spreader spreading 4 leaf clovers. That got held back too. He had his glove safety project that Grandma helped him with and was held back. He entered a drawing of a truck and trailer in front of a stockyard that he colored and that represented his Dad’s pickup and how he would renovate it. That got held back. He had a good day. In t

Are you a born again Christian? Some will stop and think this over and respond very differently. "No, I am not one of those." " No that is too radical." No, I am not part of that kind of religion." These are the responses from Christians themselves. What does it mean to be born again? As a Christian, this is a huge concept. It is one I did not fully understand. We had a Baptist preacher who liked to say in a loud voice, " I am washed in the blood of Christ, born again, and on the road to heaven.." He would shout it and it sounded like one of those shouting preachers on the street corner everyone thought was a little crazy. Later in Ames, Our pastor Troy gave a sermon on being born again. Cornerstone is a bible teaching church and he pulled out his bible and opened it up and read. That is where truth comes from, it is all God breathed scripture. Our pastor pointed out where exactly the "Born again" thing came from. Well, maybe most don'

Our Sunday was just as packed as could be. I am not sure how it happens , but we manage to fill our days to the max. We had church in the morning. Luke’s guitar instructor sent him home with his very own guitar. A full size nice quality guitar. He even put new strings on it for Luke. He is a very kind Godly man and I am so glad he is working with Luke. After having a light lunch at home, we cleaned out and repacked the Bloomer trailer. Jake and I took it up to the fairgrounds and parked it in a camp spot for the week of the fair. We made a quick stop at Dairy Queen too. At 4:00, Jayden had a horse riding lesson with a 7 year old little girl, Skylar. She is the daughter of one of Mark’s good friends and would like to start lessons. Jayden is now up to 6 kids for lessons. She doesn’t like giving riding lessons all that much, but I help her out and she is making some money. I think it is great! I just don’t want her to get overwhelmed. There isn’t much down time around here and it would

The week of 6/5 We finally got down to a reasonable number of chickens. We had a lady buy 6 and another 8 and Cory took his 20. We only kept 3 hens and a rooster from the barred rock chickens we raised. We were down to 12 all together. I was glad to be done with feeding all those chickens. Later we talked to Cory about his chickens and his flock was shrinking everyday. We took the last 6 chickens and sold them to Uncle Wade. Some are at Grandpa's and the like to roost by his front door. Now we all have chickens. Jacob is funny with his chickens. He has a few favorites that he likes to catch and carry around. The rooster, Ferdinand, has grown and gotten to be so pretty. He has red and blue in his feathers. Jake likes to feed them any scraps he can find. Sometimes he will go out in the tall grass and catch grasshoppers to feed his chickens. He likes to watch them snarf them down. He does an ok job cleaning, feeding, and watering them. It is a learning curve and he is improving a

July 1 st started the Cowboy Christmas. We chose to go to Leon and Bloomfield, skip the two rodeos on the 3 rd and 4 th , then resume again on the 6 th . We met up with The Nelson’s and Erritt’s by Perry before heading on. It was the Dad’s and daughter’s plus Tyson and Jayden, Luke and I. It felt a little awkward being the mom hanging out with the two Dad’s. It was more like having two big brothers watching out for you. They had me drive in between to make sure I stayed in our little convoy of giant super trucks and giant super trailers. They knew I was inexperienced with the new long trailer and a little uneasy. Following on the interstate and through Des Moines on to Leon was less nerve racking when I could just follow. The Ford led the way, Luke had to ride in with Tyson, the Dodge in the middle, Morgan joined us, and the Chevy took the rear. It was pretty cool being in our first rodeo convoy and Jayden loved it. We also had by far the loudest truck and when the Jake brakes kick