Van still didn’t start this morning, but we don’t have time to mess with it today. We disconnected the truck from the RV and headed south for a previously arranged appointment with a guy I found on craigslist that has a trail-mapping GPS I’ve been looking for. He ended up being somewhat late, but he finally made it to our meeting place at Starbucks in Boynton Beach, and it didn’t take long to complete the transaction. We made a couple of stops on the way back, including one at the lab in Jupiter for another blood test Hubby’s doctor wanted. Another tiring day of running around.
Archives for 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 – LONG Ride Day, Breakdown
February 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Set the alarm early so that we could “test drive” an early morning followed by a long ride in preparation for the upcoming Ocean to Lake trail ride at the end of the month. Took a quick side trip into Indiantown to pick up breakfast at the Burger King before heading out to Dupuis WMA. Managed to get saddled up and out on the trail shortly after 10:00, still a bit later than we had hoped, but at least it gave us plenty of time to do the mileage we wanted. As always at Dupuis, it was a great ride! Love this place! Ended up being out until almost 4:00, doing at least 17 miles, with lots of jogs and trots and some lovely canters. The horses were brilliant, as usual, and managed to keep up until the last few miles when they finally got noticeably tired. We got them unsaddled, watered and loaded up in the trailer, then headed back into town to fill up the gas tank. Then, just as we were leaving town, the motor on the van suddenly quit. We had just come off a high bridge, and we coasted another half mile before I finally had to pull off and stop. I didn’t want to pull off too far with the trailer, so we were still out on the road a bit, but enough where people could get by. We tried several times to get it going, but it just wouldn’t start again. We ended up having to call a tow truck, and we also called the sheriff’s office so they could post someone behind us to slow traffic down. It took almost an hour for the truck to get there, getting darker and darker all the time, until he finally arrived just at the end of dusk. He was good, though, and had us loaded up pretty quickly, with the van up on the flatbed and the horse trailer in tow behind. We arrived back at the house about 7:30, and we were quickly unloaded and settled in, with no great drama, other than the fact that we were exhausted after the long ride and the late evening. Not the best day to break down, but then again, no day is a great day for a break down! Chalk up another job on out list of “things to do” (as if we didn’t have enough already!)Monday, February 13, 2012 – Work Day
February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
More Spring cleaning inside, as the yard is still too wet to work outside much. Can’t wait to get caught up on all this work!
Sunday, February 12, 2012 – Rest Day
February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Took the day off today, to get some rest from all the work we’ve been doing. Turned the alarm off so we slept late, and though I spent some time on the computer researching GPS units, it was mostly a quiet day, too cold to go riding, with the north wind blowing all day. A relaxing evening recharging our batteries, as our list of chores still seems longer than the number of days we have to do them. Seems like we’ll never get caught up!
Saturday, February 11, 2012 – More Spring Cleaning
February 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Spent the day spring cleaning. Started out cloudy, but the rain finally stopped, the temperature dropped throughout the day, and a cold wind started coming in from the north, so we have our fingers crossed that we soon will be able to cross the yard without our Wellington boots on! Forecast is for quite cold tonight, down into the mid-40’s! Got the quilt out again, thought we were done with it for the season, but no such luck. Brrrr!
Friday, February 10, 2012 – Doctor and Cleaning Day
February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hubby had another helpful visit to our new chiropractor this morning, then we spent the day back at spring cleaning.
Thursday, February 9, 2012 – Ride at Dupuis
February 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Despite setting the alarm, due to some complications we didn’t get going until fairly late in the morning, but we had decided to trailer the horses over to one of our favorite places to ride, Dupuis Wildlife Management Area near Indiantown, FL. The horses nickered when they saw the trailer, obviously they were ready for a change of scene as well! After the half hour drive, we got the horses saddled up and going by about 1:15. What a great ride! We love this place, it has so many trails that all offer something incredible. We started out on the Green trail, going in a direction we’d never been before, and it seems that they trails have been re-marked fairly recently, as we had no trouble reading any of the markings, and never lost our way, even for a minute! Trails here have great footing, hardly any water or flooding despite all the rain we had earlier in the week, we just rode and rode and rode. Lots of jogging and trotting, and several great canters as well. It even seemed like the horses were more comfortable with their new hoof trim, they seemed to stumble a bit less than usual and just overall seemed more comfortable on their feet, which was terrific! Rode for 3 ½ hours, returned home but then had to run out again to try to pick up some x-rays from our previous chiropractor, but their office had closed early and we missed them, an hour wasted. Got back about 7:30, had some ice cream and cocoa and settled down for the evening, content we had gone a long way toward helping build up our stamina for our upcoming horse adventures!Wednesday, February 8, 2012 – Runaround Day
February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Started out the day with spring cleaning, something I’ve been meaning to do since we arrived, albeit slowly over time. Managed to get several kitchen cupboards done before breakfast. After breakfast we had a visit with a farrier that I had made an appointment with last week, a fantastic farrier that specializes in natural hoof care named Frank Tobias. Excellent! Not only did he do probably the best trim job I’ve ever seen on my horses, he explained everything to me in clear detail so that I can keep it up throughout the year. What I’ve been doing habitually is to get a pro to do it once a year, then I try to keep it up myself throughout the rest of the year, and I’m always concerned I’m not doing it quite right, but Frank was very complimentary about how good their feet looked (though obviously in need of a good trim), he said I was doing a pretty good job. He took a lot of time helping me understand, he said he’s always happy to help someone who is interested in hoof care, especially barefoot care (though he is also a farrier as well. If you need a farrier in South Florida, this is the guy! Afterward, we spent the day running around, picking things up for the RV repairs, grocery shopping and generally just having a regular day, followed by a gorgeous sunset!Tuesday, February 7, 2012 – Lazy Day
February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Despite a few hours of being awake early, we fell back to sleep and slept late this morning. We puttered around most of the day until it was time for Hubby’s doctor appointment. It kept raining off and on, though the water in the yard did go down a bit, it was still ankle deep in most places. Got back and had a relaxing evening, overall a lazy day which made for a nice change.
Monday, February 6, 2012 – Rainy, Rainy Day
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It started raining overnight, and continued for many hours of the day. As they’ve been having a drought here for the last couple of years, the locals are happy about it, and I didn’t mind until a huge gusher this afternoon. By then the ground was so saturated it couldn’t drain fast enough (despite the fact that we’re surrounded by lakes and canals) and pretty soon the yard was full of puddles that grew to ponds that completed engulfed us. Walking anywhere required wading through water that came halfway up my calves in some places! Had to navigate through it to feed the horses, not much fun! Then I accidentally walked through a fire ant nest, and had to deal with getting bitten all over my ankles and even up to my elbows as I reached down and picked something up before realizing it was covered with the little buggers. Ouch! I hope the flood drains off by tomorrow, and that the rain quits for a while. Dogs are wading around every time they go out. Crazy! Other than that, I spent the day trying to finish organizing out anticipated vacation next month, while Hubby did some repairs inside the RV around the kitchen. Relaxed as much as we could for the evening, a busy week coming up!