Hello my love!
A wonderful night sleep, not too surprising since I took ibuprofen before going to bed. Woke up and was reading a bit before the horse alarm went off just before 8:30, so in answer to Apollo’s whinny, I got up to start feeding, chores and breakfast. Then I sat down at my computer with my new map that ranger Scott had emailed me and figured out what I hope will be a great new route for one of the loops for the endurance ride. Then I called Jo to see if we could meet at the Goethe Forest Open House later this afternoon so I could show it to her, and she said she had some hay chores to do, and since she’s still hurting from a fall she took last week, I offered to help. She has a fascinating system with hoists and chains where she can offload one of these huge 300+ lb bales and drop it into place, something her husband designed and built for her. Always interesting to see how other people solve problems! That and a nice glass of lemonade while we looked at my proposed trails took us up to the time for us to leave for the open house. Discovered that Jo and I share the same birthday, would you believe! While I was there, I put in the address for George and Margarita, the folks I met at Lake Panasoffkee a few weeks ago, since I had been invited over to dinner and wanted to see where I would be going after the open house, and shockingly, they lived literally two houses away from Jo! Amazing! Such a small world! I headed out to the Apex trailhead just before Jo, and I got there before her, then I learned a lot of interesting things about the management of the forest, and met all the players involved. I also checked with ranger Scott about some of my newly selected trails to see if there were any issues with any of them, and he seemed to think they would all be good. I’ll ride the new loop tomorrow just to make sure, and to measure it to make sure it’s the right fit. Once that meeting was over, I headed back over to George and Margarita’s, arriving just after our scheduled time, and had a wonderful evening together. George is quite the cook, he rotisseried a huge chicken on his grill and had enough food for an army. I did my best to make a dent in it, but there was just too much!. Then Margarita’s brother arrived, we all chatted some more, very enjoyable stories and company, a very pleasant evening. I got back to camp just before 8:00, got the horses fed and watered (I left them with two full big buckets, both of which they managed to knock over, something they’ve never done before so I figured they were just mad at me for leaving them so long!), then settled down for a quick episode of Expanse. A cup of Sleepytime tea and I’ll be ready for shower and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Archives for December 2021
Friday, Dec. 10, 2021 – Goethe Work Day
Hi Sweetie,
Went to bed good and early and had a great night sleep right up until my alarm went off pre-dawn. Got my chores and breakfast done just before the volunteer work crew started gathering. Organizer Jo managed to persuade the Forest folks to let us use one of their gorgeous John Deere diesel side by sides, and before long we were all heading our separate ways to clear some trails, though which ones we’ll end up using is still a work in progress. I managed to get a map with ALL of the various roads and firebreaks on it, not just the horse trails, so I’m going to do some analysis and see if there are any practical options that are different from last year. We worked our butts off until 1:30 when we finally got back to camp, Jo gave me all the trail markers so I’ve got my work cut out for me! Apparently there’s a lady who was away this weekend but has a side by side we can use next week, so I want to check out some optional trails (if I can find some good routes that make sense) and maybe even get some marked that way. Meanwhile, once we finished up there, I went into town to pick up as many essentials as I could, including some more hay, because I have to drop my truck off at the repair shop on Monday, and they can’t tell me what day I’ll get it back, could be as late as Friday! I’m all stocked up now, though. Got my shopping done at Walmart and picked up horse feed at Tractor Supply and Sparrs, so I’m good to go. Got back to camp just in time to feed the horses, have dinner and settle down for the evening, exhausted! I’ll be taking some ibuprofen at bedtime, just because I know I’d otherwise be waking up in the middle of the night with muscle aches. Heading for the shower and bed here very shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!
Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021 – Recon 15 Mile Trail
Hey Babe,
I had a touch time falling asleep last night, well into the morning before it happened. After chores I had planned to go check out the 15 mile trail, but Kelsey called and said she had some changes to make, so I had to wait for her to do that. Meanwhile, I went back to my water heater problem. I found a local mobile RV whose reviews extolled how helpful he was, so I called him about my problem and he walked me through a couple of things. I had no power to the water heater, so then I backtracked to the circuit board, and discovered that there were three circuits not getting power! The water heater, the AC and the laundry. Sure enough, none were working when I put the generator on. So I knew there was a post problem of some kind, so I went out to the generator and lo and behold, one of the two circuit breakers on the generator had been knocked off! That had never happened before, so it didn’t even occur to me, but thank goodness it was such a simple fix after all! I didn’t look forward to trying to replace the heating element of the circuit board in the water heater, and turns out I didn’t have to! Yay! Once I put everything away it was after noon, so I saddled up Flash, expecting to be going soon, and shortly afterward, Kelsey sent me her new trails. Flash and I headed out to check them out, and the first half of it was really good, a lot of it was what we did last year in reverse, but the second half, honestly, I didn’t like at all. It essentially followed the perimeter fence all along the eastern half of the park, so a lot of it ends up peering into people’s back yards and ranches. Plus I thought the sand was deeper there than in a lot of other places, for much longer, so it didn’t really address that problem at all. Another problem is that parts of it are exactly the same as the earlier loop, so it will be a nightmare trying to mark it so that it won’t be confusing (though it will be!). In the past, we’ve always avoided being on the same trail twice just to avoid the confusion. So now I’m considering revamping the whole thing to streamline it a bit. Met with two of the girls who helped map it to discuss some of the issues, so hopefully there will be no hard feelings when I have to change it. Anyway, it’s now just about past my bedtime, taking my shower (with electric-heated water!) then heading “upstairs” asap! Good night, my darling! Love you!
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021 – One Thing Led To Another Day
Hey Darlin’!
I had a marvelous night sleep, even going to bed a bit early, then ended up sleeping late as well, so woke up feeling energetic and ready to go! After chores and breakfast, I started on my first problem, which was the water heater. Works fine on the propane side, not on the electric side. Did some research, checked a few wires to see if anything was loose (there was one a tiny bit loose, didn’t think that would cause it, but you never know!). Some of the research says you need to change an anode every couple of years, so I checked out that, couldn’t find it, and eventually figured out that mine doesn’t have an anode because it has an aluminum tank. It seems it can only be the heater element or the circuit board, so I’ll have to work on that again later. My next job was to find out why my outside speakers aren’t working. I found a really great and original radio station that I wanted to listen to while I sat outside, they call themselves the Crossroads, and the alternate between country (some of the usual, over-produced Nashville stuff, but also some more western style that adds a different element), and older rock, the good stuff with lots of guitars, country crossovers and good storytelling. I started by checking the speaker switch, found a loose wire and fixed that, but that didn’t fix the problem. So then I tried to get the radio out, but that seems to need a special tool which I can’t find, though I know I’ve had it out before, at least I think I did. So then I had to go at it from underneath, which meant opening up the grill under the fireplace and reaching up almost beyond my reach. But when I opened it up, I discovered two things, one, it was really dirty, so I cleaned that up, and two, that there were two plumbing pipes for the shower coming up that for some inexplicable reason, I had never filled up with Great Stuff. I would have sworn I had blocked off all the ways bugs and critters could get in, but there were gaping holes around these two pipes. Miraculously, I had a can of that foam, and was even able to reconstitute it so that it would work (no easy task!), and filled that up. Then I finally got around to checking all the wires, only found one bad connection and fixed that, but that didn’t solve the problem. Only thing left was the speakers themselves, so I took those down, found that one had power going to it just fine, but no sound, and the other had no power to it, but the wires were impossible to reach, as they were between walls. Then I remembered that that I might be able to reach them from the vent above the refrigerator so I went on the roof and took the cover off, and sure enough, I could see them, but I couldn’t reach them unless I took the whole vent off, and I wasn’t about to do that! Besides, the wires went right back into the wall again, so I couldn’t follow them anyway, so no point. So I guess I’m going to live without outdoor speakers from now on, oh well. So I didn’t accomplish either task I set out to do, but I did get a lot of other stuff done along the way! In the evening, I listened into the first OTL meeting, glad that’s starting to move along, it’s been slow going up until now. Finally settling down for a few minutes, but not for long, will be taking my shower and getting to bed again, hopefully early like last night, and maybe getting another good night sleep for the stuff I have to do tomorrow! Good night, my sweet! Love you!
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021 – Recon Ride for Ten Mile Loop
Hi Sweetie!
A better night sleep, but still didn’t get to it until late. Up by 8:00, though, got some computer work done in the morning. Between working on the Goethe Endurance Ride and the OTL Ride, I’ve been keeping busy! Even though we were never particularly nostalgic, I can’t help but be reminded that this was the last place you and I camped together before we headed down to brother Jeff’s where your spirit moved on. I can’t believe this is the second year I’ve been here on my own, either, time just keeps flying by! By noon I felt like I had done enough inside, so I saddled up Flash and headed out to scope out the ten mile loop that the ladies of Goethe had thought would be a good trail for the endurance ride. It turned out to be quite nice! Not sure it reduced the “deep sand” complaint too much, but it certainly takes us off the roads, which was the other suggestions, and takes us on to a lot of unofficial horse trails, which is great! Looking forward to exploring the next 15 mile loop they suggested! Meanwhile, since apparently no one else is available to work on the remaining 25 mile loop for the 50 mile ride, I asked the same ladies if they would do that, and of course, they said yes! I may have to get some more help marking them, but it looks like we’ve got all hands on deck to get the trails selected. Plenty of time left for that. I didn’t hear back from the truck repair place yet, and now I have another little problem. The hot water heater’s electrical side has stopped working. It still works fine on propane, but I would usually get enough hot water just by running the generator my usual hour a day, but yesterday, it was a no go, and same today. I checked the wiring inside and it all looks good, but I’ll check the outside tomorrow and do some research and see what else I can find. Settled down with a nice grilled burger, worked a bit more on the two rides, watched an hour of TV, already taken my shower, so now I’m off to be, a little earlier than usual, but more the time I’d like to get in the habit of. so good night, babe! Love you!
Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 – Travel Day to Black Prong and Truck Diagnosis
Hey Babe!
I don’t know why it is, but the night’s before I travel, I always have trouble sleeping! Don’t know why. I did a lot of activity, including a ride, yesterday, thought that would be enough, but no, I tossed and turned for awhile. No matter, I slept past 8:00, then got up and finished packing, got the horses loaded up and was out of camp by just after 10:00. Then I arrived at Black Prong just before 11:00, which gives you an idea of how close these two camps are, not even 30 miles! I got just about everything unpacked and the horses highlined before I headed back into town for my appointment at the truck repair place. I’ve been experiencing a judder at certain speeds, and it’s been getting a little worse as time goes by, so I figured I better get it looked at before I end up dead on the side of the road. Oddly, the woman at the repair shop, though she seemed quite knowledgeable, had never heard the word “judder” before! Really, is it that odd a word? I even looked it up for her, and sure enough, it’s defined exactly the way I was using it, so I guess she learned a new vocabulary word today (and maybe you did, too!) Anyway, after lots of careful analysis and test driving, they seem to think the problem is somewhere in the drive train, so they’re going to have to take it apart and then send sections of it to another shop to check for proper balance, as well as everything else in the rest of that system, so I’ll be truckless for a couple of days. Going to have to make sure I’ve got enough supplies to last if I’m camp bound, pretty sure I do! After I left there I went to Tractor Supply to fill up one propane tank, then dropped off a return package at a UPS store. The wireless pet fence, while a great idea, didn’t work so well in action. Worst part of it was that if the collar was dormant for 30 seconds, it would go on standby to save the battery (good idea!), but when it woke up again because it moved, it would reset itself by vibrating and shocking (bad idea!), so if a poor dog just lays down for a few minutes, when it gets up it gets shocked for no reason! Not sure it’s supposed to work like that, but this is the second one I’ve gotten and I couldn’t get either one to be consistent enough to use, so I sent it back. A quick stop at Walmart for a couple of things, plus fuel ($80 to fill up my tank, and it was just under half when I pulled into the station! Holy moley!) Then back to camp, fed the horses, then had two visitors, Kelsey and Valerie, who have some great ideas for changing the route for the benefit endurance ride, on a lot of “unmapped” trails, which would be great! Finally settled down for dinner and TV, spent a little time looking at the OTL website now that I’ve been made an admin on it, lots of work to do there, now I’m heading off to shower and bed. Long day, but pretty productive. Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021 – Busy Prep and Ride Day
Hi Honeybunch!
What a day! I can’t believe I slept until 9:30, even though I got to bed at a decent hour last night. What’s up with that? Started out the day by doing a couple of loads of laundry, and once I got those hung out to dry, saddled up Flash to pick off the last trail that I missed on my last ride. We went pretty quickly, and finished off the nearly 7.5 miles in just over 1:40, so we made good time. I really like the section back by the cypress swamp, and most of the rest of it is a nice ride, too, even the prairie part where we got some nice cantering and fast gaiting in. They’ve put a number of water troughs out here at certain points, which is a nice touch, though Flash never wanted to drink out of them. That didn’t stop Lola from jumping into one, though, she was getting hot on the trail, her tongue was flopping around almost as much as her ears! Not sure that’s what the forest folks had in mind when they put those out here, but they certainly served the purpose to cool Lola down! Got back and started packing up for our departure tomorrow, in between posting some more horse camp reviews on the Facebook page. I let the horses out so they could graze whereever they wanted, but next thing I knew, they were back in the paddock, even with the gate wide open! Silly horses! By dinner, everything that could be put away was, and we settled down for the evening for a few more episodes of my new series, The Expanse. Now I’m just about ready for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021 – Quiet Day
Hi Babe,
Been sleeping really well here, not sure what the secret is, but I’m happy for it! Woke up to a misty morning, didn’t expect to see it that foggy! After chores and breakfast, I ran over to the ranger station to fill up my tank, though I doubt I will need it. I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it! I have enough to do laundry tomorrow, if I decided to. I did a little more housekeeping, specifically mopping the floor, then spent the majority of the afternoon doing some updating on my Facebook page. I knew it had been awhile since I had added any new horse camp reviews, and couldn’t believe it when I went back and discovered it’s been since last August 2020 since I’ve updated my camp supplements book! Crazy! So I got busy doing that, and still only got as far as November 2020 by dinnertime. I wanted to get that done before I got really busy with the Goethe Endurance Ride and the OTL, both of which are going to take up a lot of time once I start to focus on them. Since I still haven’t been given the credentials to get me on the website for the OTL, I’m kind of stuck, and didn’t want to waste the time, so that’s why I started to tackle my camp supplement book. Anyway, I grilled a steak and had a nice dinner, then settled down to a new series I found on Prime, The Expanse, a sci-fi program that is about to publish it’s final season on Prime in about a week, so I figured if I started now I’d be able to finish it off before the month’s out. So I had a pleasant and quiet evening. Both my neighbors packed up and left right at sunset, not sure why they didn’t stay the night since they had reserved it, but who knows? So now I’m ready for shower and bed, won’t be long now! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!
Friday, Dec. 3, 2021 – Productive Day Plus A Ride!
Hi Darlin’!
Another good night sleep, our first night on our own as my neighbor left yesterday afternoon. After chores I spent the morning catching up on a couple of months of bookkeeping, then did some overdue housecleaning before finally saddling up Apollo for his ride this week. I wanted to pick off all the rest of the trails today, but somewhere along the line I missed a marker, and thus a large section of trail, so I guess I’ll have to take another ride here and finish them off. Today’s ride was about 6.5 miles, all on dry land, no wading through water today, and Apollo was a bit edgy, no doubt because of all the hog sign out here, lots of torn up trails, but we never saw any. We did see some deer and a lot of birds, but no hogs! I held onto the saddle horn tight, though, since I was worried he would do one of his sudden shifts if he caught anything out of the corner of his eye, and he did wheel around once, but I had no trouble staying on, with me being extra careful. Lola enjoyed the ride, too, of course! We got back before 4:00, so we got an early start to our evening. We had two new neighbors move into the other two campsites, neither of which are horse campers, only spoke long enough for him to introduce his dog on a leash to Lola. One is in an Airstream and the other is in a little trailer that reminded me of our first 19′ Sunline, remember that one? Tiny! Anyway, I finished off the last season of Burn Notice, a really good series that I very much enjoyed, will have to find something new tomorrow. Meanwhile, my busy and productive day is done! Shower and bed are next! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021 – Hay and Shopping Day
Hi Sweetie!
Had another good night sleep, woke up to another beautiful day, slightly warmer this morning, did some computer work after my chores, then went out to pick up some hay. I wasn’t able to find a haymaker that was very close, so I ended up going to Sparrs Feed Store, where I was also able to pick up some Balance and Senior Feed. The hay was pretty good, small bales but tightly wound and heavy, and not much more than I paid getting it from local haymakers, so it beat driving a long way. They didn’t have the Perform, so I had to go into the Tractor Supply to pick that up. I made a quick stop at Walmart for a few things, Publix for ice cream, and I stood in line for fuel at the Murphy’s for way too long, then was only able to get about $20 because my gift card was almost empty. I forgot to check it when I was in the store, darn it! I have plenty for my next trip, though, since it’s just a short one up to Goethe, so no worries, I’m sure I’ll be making more trips into town next week. Got back, put the groceries away, and then started doing some research on where I want to go the next few weeks. Pistol wanted to camp down at Picayune over Christmas, but there’s not enough trails for two weeks, so I suggested another stop about halfway down the state, had to research the best place. I think I found it at Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Reserve, lots of trails there, then we’ll head down to Picayune through New Years. Not sure where I’m going after that, still looking into it. But at least this month is taken care of. Settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for my usual shower and bed! Love you, babe! Good night!