Archives for April 2010

Spent the entire day (not intended, but that’s how it turned out) running around. Loaded up on hay, having found some very nice orchard grass with some timothy mixed in for $3.25/bale. A lovely little farm with a barn that had that wonderful fresh hay smell when you walk in, even though it’s from last year’s second cut. We also found a feed store on the corner that had crimped oats and Purina. We decided to try their regular horse pellets, rather than the Omolene, which was sticky and gave the horses too much sugar rush. From there we went to Wal-mart in Pearisburg to do our shopping, having decided we were going to stay here until we were needed, and finally stopped in Wendy’s for Hubby’s favorite, fish sandwich, before heading back to camp.

Well, we didn’t get around to having a ride today. The good news was I discovered that if I leaned my cell phone on my window ledge just so… I could actually get a signal just barely good enough to get a broadband internet link for my computer. It runs incredibly slow, but at least I can check my email and get on the internet over time, though anything with heavy graphics takes FOREVER! Got caught up on a lot of work, and there was a really cold breeze from the north that would have made riding rather uncomfortable, so it was just as well. Because we were starting to get low on hay, I got on craigslist and found some for sale in Newport, so I’ve made arrangements to pick some up tomorrow. Horses are now well rested, and I do believe they’re wondering when they get to go for a ride! We ran out of propane in one of the tanks, so Hubby took a ride to the bottom of the hill, where the grocery story/gas station/campground sold it. Other than that, just a “work in the office” kind of a day.

Another day with mostly rest, though today we both feel as though the batteries are coming back. I trimmed my gelding’s back hoooves, and spent a little time filing all the various trail maps I’ve been collecting over the last year. I also packed up all of my tax stuff in a box and had Hubby store it in the van, so I don’t have to look at it for another year. Reading, TV and getting caught up on the blog were the only other efforts for the day. By tomorrow, I should be ready to get back to a regular work/ride schedule (we hope!).

Same again, except today I got enough energy mustered to work on my gelding’s feet. It’s been a while since I’ve given them a trim, and his feet grow amazingly fast, so I worked on this two front feet before my energy gave up the ghost. The rest of the day was a repeat of yesterday. I feel like up recharged up to about 60 %, with a long way to go!

Right on schedule our systems let down. We slept late, read for hours, watched TV, munched, and did precisely what we set out to do. A glorious day, though we still felt dog-tired at the end of the day. We intended to repeat until we’re rejuvenated!

A thankfully uneventful trip, with stops only to get gas and a nearby Wal-mart which was right at the exit we needed to get off anyway. Got enough groceries to stocke up for at least a week. Arrived around 5:00, got the horses settled, the dogs fed, and cocktails poured before dinner. Starting to feel the crash already. The only drawback (?) of this place is that the cell phone signal is too weak for an internet connection, a problem I have no intention of trying to solve until Monday. Hubby was even miraculously able to get a satellite signal! All we want to do now is sleep, read, eat, watch TV and sleep some more!

Much as we’d like to spend the day recovering from our exertions, we have to get ready to leave tomorrow, which entails more laundry, cleanup and packing. Hubby had to run some errands, including dropping off our taxes at the post office, while I tried to get all the business stuff out of the way so we could take the weekend off. We’re so exhausted, we feel like we need a week off! So far, the extent of using our brainpower has been to decide where we wanted to go, and that is to White Cedar Horse Camp near Bland, VA. We went there last fall for a few days and really enjoyed it. It has corrals so the horses will have some room to move around instead of being on a highline, and there were numerous trails we didn’t get around to trying out last time. There were several water spigots throught the campground, and now that we upgraded our hose system so that we carry one of those 150 hose reel boxes on the back of the RV, we can easily reach one. Glad that decision is made, now we can let down!

Left early again today, ran into a lot less traffic, but still got bogged down a bit near the freeway. Day two went find, then we ran home to feed the animals. We had made arrangements to meet a friend down in Woodbridge for dinner, someone we hadn’t seen in years, and who now lived in Washington state. He was here visiting family and friends, and we managed to work it out to have a very pleasant dinner together. Of course, we were having such fun, the evening went longer than our energy could maintain, and we were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home, but were too wired to go to bed right away, and it was after midnight by the time we finally crashed.

Though we got up early, we still got out about 10 minutes later than I wanted, and then ran into horrific traffic that slowed us down even more. We did manage to arrive just after 8:00, but would like to have gotten there earlier. Didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, however, and the first day of the camp went well, which is all that matters!

Had planned to try to get some rest today, but laundry needed doing, housekeeping was calling, I felt it necessary to do some preparation for the workshop tomorrow, since it’s been a long time since I had done one, so we didn’t really get the kind of rest day we were looking forward to. After all the running around yesterday, we could have used one. Normally we’ll drive to the venue and check it out the night before, but we were just too tired, so we pledged to get up early so we could arrive early. In bed by about 8:30!