Archives for 2014

Dropped our little canine Silly Billy off at the vet for some dental work, picked up the van at L&L Automotive, then came home for a while, before deciding to run down to Walmart for a couple of tires. When they worked on the van, they put the best tires on front, but unfortunately, that meant the drive wheels wouldn’t have much traction, and considering the kind of places we sometimes drive, we need all the traction we can get! After doing a little research, we realized the oldest tires were from Feber 2006, so it was time to change them out anyway, even though they had a little tread left on them. We traded them for a couple of Goodyear Wranger Authorities (a Walmart exclusive) so they would match what we already had, and would now have good traction all around. Also had the oil changed while we were at it, then we headed back and picked up Billy at the vet at 4:00. I have to say, the van drives like new! It’s pulled to the right for so long because of a bad alignment when we got the last tires, we didn’t think it would ever be right, but these guys as L&L fixed it perfectly! Rolls along so well, I’m sure we’ll get better gas mileage, too. The vet cleaned Billy’s teeth nice and white, but also had to remove some of the smaller ones because they were loose or the root was exposed, and they did a nice trim on his toes as well. Still a bit woozy from the anesthetic, but we got him home and he slept the rest of the night. An expensive but necessary day.

Did some running around, down to Tractor Supply for propane and Home Depot for some piping, learned the van wouldn’t be ready until late in the afternoon so we told them we’d get it tomorrow, and had a very delicious chili dinner at my brother’s house over by Lake Travis.

Took the van in to the shop to check the alignment, and by the time they were done inspecting it, it had a bunch of things that needed doing! New rotors, new brake pads, new water pump, new tie rod, and on and on. Not really happy about it, but after 10 years and almost 150K miles on it, it’s time to get a little work done on it, and there’s no time like the present! Even considered looking at new vans, but decided we’ll be slowing down a bit once we accomplish State #48 this spring, and this one ought to be good for another 100K miles. Engine’s good, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed it’s worth the investment. Ran around getting feed, went to Tractor Supply to get our propane tank filled (one went dry in the middle of the night, leaving us to freeze by morning : -), but they were completely out of it. Solved some other problems and did some work on the computer, so it was a pretty full day! The horses spent the day hanging out in the paddock, and since we don’t have the van to connect the horse trailer to, they’ll have to spend the night out there as well. Fortunately, it’s only supposed to get down into the mid 30s tonight, as opposed to the teens last night (their water had an inch of ice on it again this morning), so hopefully they’ll be comfortable enough with their winter blankets on.

Woke up with a flat airbed this morning, my side had a slow leak the last couple of night, which evidently became a big leak overnight! Had to pump it up a few times through the night, unfortunately. Thick ice on the horses’ water this morning that Hubby had to take a hammer to. They’ve been enjoying being in the corral, which is nice to watch, but of course they’ve had their winter blankets on the whole time. Did some running around today, with more to do tomorrow. Weather forecast says warmer temps coming over the next few days, though with an increase in the chances of rain. Still hoping to get a few more rides in this week!

Strong, cold winds came in overnight, again, waking up to freezing weather after our beautiful 60’s yesterday, darn it! Wind rattled around so much it kept us awake during the night for a while. Even the sun didn’t seem to warm it up much, with bitterly cold winds from the north. I can’t even imagine how bad it must be in the northern plains right now! Regardless of the chilly weather, Hubby and I were determined to put up our new electric corral, a kit we bought from Valley Vet and had had delivered last week. We bought the largest portable corral we could, as most of them only seemed to provide about a 30′ by 30′ space, which would be a bit crowded for our two guys. The most time-consuming thing about it was wrapping the polytape onto the spindle provided! We put up the 12 plastic posts in no time, counting about 5 yards between them as recommended, and wound two strands of the poly tape, with PLENTY leftover for even a bigger corral, or extra strands as needed. Despite the wind blowing at about 25 mph, the posts and strands held easily, and it only took moments to stick in the ground post and hook up the charger, which claims to achieve 6000 V with just two D batteries! Not wanting to draw anything off the batteries, we didn’t actually test it by touching it, because the only thing it needs to do is deter the horses, and the strands themselves will do that, hopefully, even without the charger. The whole process only took about 10-15 minutes or so, and that was trying to figure it all out as we went. Now we could easily do it in a fraction of that time. We retrieved the horses from their anchors and put them inside, Clio first, and Apollo got so excited he kicked and leaped and jumped around like a kid, glad to be off this anchor. They spent the rest of the day grazing around the space, which we figure is easily about 60′ by 60′. No one tried to escape, and they seemed quite happy at the whole idea. Now we can easily move the corral around my brother’s big yard every few days, so that it won’t get too worn down, and the “fertilizer” will be more easily spread around : -). Glad to get it finished and get back in to the warmth indoors! Enjoyed some football and dinner with my brother before retiring back to the RV, bracing for 20 degree weather. Brrrr!

After a very long time coming, we’ve finally managed to put together our long-awaited horsecamping website, www.equicamping.com. Here is where we will now be putting our blog posts, and have added a forum to discuss every horse camping topic you can imagine. In addition, with what we believe will be our most valuable asset, we’ve added a Map Exchange. We have collected hundreds of maps over the years, both print and GPS, and now we’re making them available to you! In addition, we’re going to ask our web visitors that if YOU have a print or online map, or a GPS-made trail map that you’d like to share, let us have it and we’ll be sure to spread the word to the rest of the trailriding community! So join us at Equicamping.com, and meet up online with people of like minds all over the country! Thanks for being a blogspot reader, and we’ll see you at Equicamping.com!

Greetings all!  Thank you for your patience in the appearance of our Equicamping website.  It’s been a long time coming, however, we trust you’ll find it’s worth it! With extra special thanks to Daniel at ez-web-hosting.com for his countless hours of assistance, they are by FAR the best and most affordable web hosting and development people in the business!  Of course, we will continue to make additions and corrections as the site evolves indefinitely as you, our readers and future members, contribute to the Forum and Maps Exchange areas of the website.  Please feel free to share any suggestions, comments and feedback of any kind to us, so that we can continue to make the website more intuitive and more helpful for you and everyone else.  Please spread the word to your friends, family, neighbors, and anyone else you think might be interested in what we are doing here.  Let’s start the conversation!