Archives for 2020

Hiya Sweetheart,
Well, it never rained last night, at least not noticeably, and the partiers didn't bother me again because I had my earplugs in, so I got a good night sleep. Once again, the forecasters were all over the map, from 20 to 60+ percent chance of rain. I decided after breakfast I was going out anyway, though Carol decided not to go, so I saddled up Flash, put the orange vest on Lola, a precaution I've been doing lately so I can see here when she dodges off into the woods, and headed back up Bucksnort. My plan today was to try to knock off as many of the main trails as possible, just so I would have a complete GPS map, so I headed on to Oak trail, but only got about 2/3 of a mile before I hit a marsh. If we were having a drought, I might have tried to go around it, but with all the rain, I didn't want to take any chances, so I turned around and went back to Bucksnort. I followed that clear up to I-40 before turning around, then took Clem, going in the opposite direction from where we took it the other way, just to see how far I could get. At one point, I made a wrong turn and ended up at a house with a sign that said "Trails End" which had a watering trough, but it wasn't on the map. I figured out from my mapping program where I went wrong and headed back south again, and was able to find an easy passage over a couple of small streams to the rest of Clem, so I was able to make a complete circuit. Not quite sure why we turned back on it last time, it looked pretty easy coming from this way, I think maybe we just tried to cross in the wrong place. Anyway, from there I went on a couple of sections of trail I had been on before, and just before I was deciding whether to take the slow route or the fast route back to camp, a great crash of thunder boomed overhead, so we opted for the fast route, back to Bucksnort, where we cantered and largoed most of the way back to camp. I managed to get Flash unsaddled and even washed with the citronella shampoo as the skies darkend and the thunder kept booming, but in the end, it never did rain here, though Carol said it rained at her house, which was right by the freeway, apparently I almost rode to it today. Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, playing a few computer games, and nodding of in a nap every once in a while. I fed the horses early trying to beat another rainstorm that seemed to be building up on radar, but that never came in either! Very strange weather, but I'm glad I've avoided getting rained on the last few days! There's a higher chance tomorrow, but supposedly not until late in the afternoon, but we'll see. I don't believe any of it anymore! I took my shower early and settled down early, too, planning on going to bed early as well. Trying to move my body clock a little, been staying up too late. So I'm posting this early in the hopes that I will, in fact, get to bed earlier! So good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Well, you can tell it's a holiday weekend, there were a few campsites that partied well into the night! Thank goodness I've gotten into the habit of wearing earplugs to bed, which I usually do to drown out the sound of the rain and early morning birds, but last night it was the partiers, I guess. I didn't hear them much, but when I went around to visit the woman who stopped by yesterday, she said they were still going strong and loud at 3:30 in the morning when she got up to look after her horses. One of the highline poles apparently broke during the night, so she was out taking care of that. Anyway, I never heard a thing so I had a great night sleep! I'm really getting peeved at the weather forecasters, though. I had one forecast say there's a 20% chance of rain today, and another say there's an 80% chance of rain! Well, both said it would be after noon, so I decided to get out on the trail early, mostly just to avoid the inevitable crowd that was going to be out there. I managed to get out with Apollo just after 9:00, heading out on a route I had planned, but which, of course, I didn't follow. My GPS had trouble acquiring satellites for a while, and by the time it finally found me, I was already off course. Trouble is, some of the renegade trails don't look much different than the trails on the map, none of them are maintained properly. There are so many trees down, and obviously many have been down for months if not years, and no one clears it out, so the main trails look just as difficult to pass as the renegade trails. Anyway, I've got a better handle on how the park is laid out now, so I wasn't worried, I knew about where I'd end up no matter what happened. I brought Lola along, though I put her on a leash until we got out of the campground, it's so crowded with people and kids and dogs, but we managed okay. The trails were slippery after all the rain yesterday and overnight, but Apollo was his usual sure-footed self, and did just fine. We only ran into two riders on the way back, and I think I've seen one of them before at the Skymont Endurance race, but frankly, I only say that because it's rare to see a black guy riding a gaited horse out on the trails, and I know I've seen that once or twice before, but I can't guarantee it's the same guy, I seldom look at faces anyway, I'm usually looking at the horses. It was a nice ride, and it went from cloudy to full sunshine by the time I got back to camp. It never did rain! Grrrr! That's okay, if it's nice tomorrow, I'll take a long ride with Carol on Flash. Meanwhile, when I got back to the trailer and went into the kitchen to make breakfast, I discovered water on the floor. Yet another flood, dang it! I'm getting tired of finding floods on the floor! Fortunately, it was only small one, and I found about where it's coming from, but not exactly. I'll have to take a couple of panels and some components off to find it, from the looks of it. But it was related to the ice-maker again, so I just turned off the valve for that, and it stopped pretty quick. Sigh... Another job! I was hoping after I got my taxes done I'd have a few days without anything pressing to do, but no, there always has to be something to add to the list as soon as one thing is checked off! Not complaining, though, I'm still living my dream life, and these little challenges are just there to keep my on my toes! Otherwise I might get bored, now that I don't have you around keeping me occupied! I was back so early, though, I had the whole day to myself, waiting for the non-existent rain to come in, so I sat in the screen room and finished the book I was reading, played a few games on my computer, nodded off in my chair despite all the noise around me, and generally just relaxed, just like you're supposed to on a holiday weekend. Lola sat in the other chair watching all the activity, people and cars and horses and dogs going by. She was fine except she felt compelled to bark everytime a dog went by, nothing else bothered her after a few hours, which is a good thing! Anyway, that's been my day. Heading off to shower and bed! Good night, baby. Love you!

Hi Babe!
Took another ride with Carol today, this time following a route I had programmed into my GPS. I only missed a few points here and there, but ended up going everywhere I wanted to go. Flash was in a mood to go fast today, so I ended up trying to stay in front as much as I could to keep him settled. Lola came with us, she really enjoyed being out in the woods again. It was a beautiful day, at least until the evening when more rain came in (even though there wasn't supposed to be any rain today, ha ha,) I ended up doing exactly 10 miles. It was a bit slippery on some of the climbs, Flash lost his footing a time or two, but I managed to say on without any trouble. He has such a beautiful canter, and we had a chance to run a couple of times on the main trail, it was very enjoyable all around. When we got back, I gave both horses a bath with the new citronella shampoo I ordered from Tractor Supply, it does have a nice smell, but not sure how well it will work keeping flies away, we'll just have to wait and see. Since the Tractor Supply in Lexington didn't have anything else I needed, I made a few calls and managed to find two bags of Balancer and a gallon of Bronco fly spray at another Tractor Supply that was only about 30 minutes away, so I took a trip up there to get that and a bag of senior feed, so I should be set for a few weeks for feed and hay. It started to rain just before I was going to feed the horses, so I waited until it stopped, then fed them, then a WHOLE lot more rain came in, just in this area. Beginning to think I should be heading for the desert, all this rain is depressing! Anyway, Lola and I finally settled down for the evening, listening to the rain before heading for shower and bed, which will be shortly. Good night, my love!

Hey Baby,
After another night of waking up early and reading for an hour plus before getting out of bed, I grabbed some quick breakfast and saddled up the horses for my scheduled 9:30 ride with Lynn from Shelbyville, who arrived right on time (well, 10 minutes ahead, which is what I consider on time!). We headed out on a 3-mile ride I had figured out using the map she had kindly brought me yesterday, which stayed on trails that were actually on the map, rather than the cross-country ones I was taken to on Saturday. Even so, they weren't as widely used as I would have expected, and there was one section that was almost as narrow, but was still passable and didn't last long, fortunately. Both horses behaved very well, though when I was saddling them, I got the impression Flash wasn't thrilled about going out again until he realized Apollo was coming with us, that made him much happier. Apollo seems positively elated to be off the highline and back on the trail again! Anyway, it was a good ride, lasting exactly an hour, which is all we had time for since Lynn and her husband had to "check out" by noon, and since an hour is about all an unaccustomed physique can usually take riding a horse, no matter what kind of athletic condition you might be in! So many muscles that don't get used doing anything else. Anyway, it was a very nice ride and we enjoyed it, and she was very grateful for the chance. Once they left, I gave the horses a quick rinse and put them back on their highline with their remaining breakfast hay, returned a call from my friend Donna and chatted with her for awhile, then decided to pretty much just spend the day reading and relaxing and just recharging my personal batteries, as it were. They were calling for rain later in the day (it ended coming in MUCH later than predicted), lost electricity for a short time (thank goodness my batteries were charged up), but it was back on before too long. It rained off and on throughout the evening, and looks like it might continue to do so throughout the night, but that's fine, it's cooled it down a bit. I've actually had to run the AC a few times since I've been here, so I'm hoping for a little cooler temps in coming days. Oh, and I also trimmed Lola's toenails and my bangs, so I got a little accomplished today. But now it's time for shower and bed, so good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hello my love!
Woke up a bit early and finished reading a kindle book, had a quick breakfast before saddling up Flash, rode a little around the campground, spoke a few minutes to the couple I met from Shelbyville yesterday, then got a text from Carol that she had arrived, so I met her by my campsite and we headed out on a side trail that took us past the barn. I soon discovered that many of the trails are once again unmarked and unmapped, lots of renegade trails, which are all very nice if you have a clue as to the general layout of the place, but was pretty confusing to a newby like me, so I just literally went along for the ride. I had put boots on Flash but probably didn't really need them, since most of the trails were cross country and we hardly went on the roads at all. I ended up going just under 12 miles, which was a good ride for Flash considering there were quite a few hills. On the final stretch home on Bucksnort trail, one of the actual mapped trails here, we opened up for a bit and got a nice canter and largos for quite a ways. It was definitely a good workout. I gave him a nice bath when we got back, long overdue considering how much mud he's been rolling in over at Chickasaw earlier this week, but now he's all nice and clean and white again, for the moment. Carol came back to camp later for happy hour and we chatted some more, nice to have some weather good enough to sit comfortably in the screen room. After she left and I fed the horses, I walked back over to the other couple's campsite and invited the wife to ride tomorrow, just a short ride to give Apollo a little stretch. There's rain in the forecast (what else is new? It didn't rain one drop today!), but we'll see what it looks like in the morning. I've mapped out just a 3 mile ride, as they're leaving tomorrow, and besides, an hour is enough for someone who hasn't ridden in a long time! Was after 8:00 by the time I got settled in with dinner and TV, shower's done, and now I'm off to bed early to make up for my short night last night. Good night, baby! Love you!