We arrived in Georgia, at our son & DIL's house on Friday, early evening. On the way, we stopped off for lunch with our dear blogging friend, Barbara (Sweet Tea & Sandals). We met at Cracker Barrel exchanged hugs and prayers and conversation. It was such a blessing for us to see Barb, give her a hug, and share a meal with her. Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with her and her Beloved, daily. Prayers are working, from the latest update I saw today! Praise God!! Barb, we loved meeting you there and look forward to the next time, with Tom, too!!
Darlene always enjoys my pumpkin bread and my Jiffy Corn casserole. The pumpkin bread recipe is behind the recipes tab here on my blog and you can Google Jiffy Corn Casserole for that recipe. I told her I would provide dinner Friday night. I baked the pumpkin bread and some brownies ahead and had a grocery list to get when we made it to Brunswick. We had rotisserie chicken, corn casserole, a big salad, mashed potatoes, and mac n cheese (all comfort food). We ate well. Darlene works so hard, nearly all day, at the horse sanctuary.
New Paths Horse Sanctuary is their non-profit organization providing lifelong care for rescued horses (and goats!). It is HARD work. She is happy Joey is home from Kuwait (for physical AND emotional help) and that she also has some reliable employees now to help her. She has another hip replacement surgery coming up on December 1st. Her first one, last year went well. She is looking forward to feeling better real soon! Prayers appreciated!
Darlene's mom (91 next month) lives with them, and her brother, Ronnie, has been staying there too, while Joey was gone for the last year. He has made the loft above the garage his home and continues to stay there. He has been a big help to Darlene and to their mom, Cecelia, who hasn't been well for several months now. Ronnie works in Brunswick, so it is a win-win for all of them.
Darlene and Ronnie. Couldn't get him to smile.
This is Brooke...
This is Zoe...
Joey took us over to the 'ranch' after breakfast on Saturday. They now have eight big horses, three mini horses, a mini donkey, and five goats to look after. The veterinary bills, the feed bills, and the farrier bills are staggering but this is something they love doing and now that they are three years old, as a non-profit, they can start writing for grants.
This little mini horse is Bear.
These are three of the five goats. The goats' names are Casper, Rudy, Veronica, Camille, and Coco.
Here are two mini horses (Lacey is white and Fonzie is brown) Dexter is the mini donkey, in the middle, and close-up below...
Lacey
This is Rudy.
This is Casper (all white).
They have good shelter and strong fencing to protect all the animals. Also not cheap.
There is an extensive camera system that Darlene monitors from home so she can see all the animals and all the corners of the property. They are doing everything right.
Joey with Koko. Koko let me hug him. Such a sweetie. He has COPD and the breathing problems that go with it. He has medicine every day. I didn't know horses could have COPD.
This is Kitty, who was one of their first rescues.
Darlene with Kitty.
There are four brown horses and I can't tell them apart so the eight horses are named Kitty, Bebe, Koko, Jet, Bill, Bailey, Partner, and Doc.
Me and Darlene. We just fed the horses their grain & vitamins (blue buckets).
After the grain, they get hay bags hung in the stalls for eating overnight.
Saturday night, we went out for Thai food at a wonderful restaurant in downtown Brunswick called Basil. Delicious!! We all shared two sushi rolls and then had our meals. I had a delicious stirfry, Joe had a pork dish, Darlene had a salmon salad, and Joey had a curry dish. Yum.
Back at their house, they have the two dogs, Brooke and Zoe (pictures above), and they also share in the care of two neighborhood feral cats named (this one stays in the front of the house) Gabby...
And this is Miss Diana Bean, the backyard cat. Both are so sweet, and yes... I wanted to take them home! Joe said absolutely not. Sigh.
Sunday morning we watched our church service online. By the time it was over, Darlene was home from the ranch and we all went out for lunch. One of Dar's part-time employees is Michelle. She is a waitress at a seafood restaurant called
Jinrights. It is a great little local place and the food was amazing!! Michelle told us to get there before noon because the after church folks start coming in. She had a table reserved for us, so we could have been late anyway but she made us feel very special!
That's Michelle between Dar and Joey.
Some of my blogging friends may remember a year ago when I posted about a
freighter capsized in the St. Simon's Island Bay. They are finally beginning to cut it up to remove it so we drove over there after we ate lunch and took some photos... this shows the scaffolding (for lack of a better term) sticking up above the wreck.
Joe and Joey, squinting into the sun for me...
Joe and me... also squinting into the sun.
My lovely daughter-in-love, Darlene, and me.
That's the top of the St. Simon's lighthouse off in the distance.
The two CPAs had to commiserate on some accounting challenges...
So I am going to publish this before dinner Sunday night and hopefully a relaxing evening with our two kiddos. We will leave Monday morning, after breakfast, and head back to Lakeland, Our friend who is minding the cats for us says they miss us but are doing okay. We are blessed to have her less than a mile from our house and she loves our kitties too.
Prayers for travel mercies going home, please. It is a lot of photos but evidence of a wonderful time! Thanks for making it this far!!
Peace & hugs! Jesus loves you!