Archives for September 2022

Hey Babe,
Had all good intentions to go riding today, but decided it against it because of all the hunters this weekend, didn’t want to get in their way, and I can always go during the week. So instead, I kept myself busy around camp. I started by patching Apollo’s feed bag, he’s managed to chew some holes in the bottom, but I’m not sure the patch will last very long, so I’ll probably have to get another one. I actually mopped the floor before I went to feed them so it would dry, just to complement the housekeeping I did yesterday. Of course, that only lasted about 20 minutes, when Lola decided to eat biscuits and leave crumbs all over the place. Then I went out to replace the part on the PTO that I had delivered yesterday. I had read somewhere that I had to make sure it was well-greased (there’s a grease nipple on it), so I had to get my grease gun from the attic, and remembered that my entire storage box was covered in grease that had leaked out at some point, so it was messy getting the toolbox down. Then I discovered that the grease had hardened so much that it wasn’t coming through very well, so I had to fiddle with that for quite awhile until I could get it working right. Then I had hardly started putting grease in when I noticed grease of a different color was starting to ooze out, so evidently, this part was fully greased when I got it, so end of that struggle! It took me awhile to get the part on and get everything lined up and working properly, but I finally managed it. I cleaned out the toolbox and put everything in fresh plastic bags to avoid future leaks, then hauled everything back up to the attic, cleaned the storage box really well, and finally got everything put away. I found an air compressor up there, so I brought that down to see if it worked. I seemed to remember that either the AC or the DC side worked and the other didn’t, but I couldn’t get either side to work today, so I’m trashing it. Don’t need to be carrying stuff around that doesn’t work! Cleaned up the carport a bit, then retrieved my tarp from the picnic table (I used it as a drop cloth while I was painting), tied it onto the back of the tractor, and proceed to drive around camp and pick up all the fallen palm fronds, limbs and other assorted flora that had dropped from the wind, and hauled it over to the fire pit across from me, which I’ve been using to periodically do burns. I rested for a bit, had an early dinner, then did my rounds, and finally started the fire and proceeded to systematically burn the pile. It was dark by the time I was finished, though Lola and I played frisbee during that time so she got a little exercise. I was dripping with sweat by the time I got through (for the second or third time today), so I immediately jumped in the shower. Watched a little TV, now I’m ready to do a Spanish lesson and go to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Was up and about on schedule this morning, and after chores and breakfast, I headed into town, first to stop at the post office to pick up my new phone, then off the Glenn’s, where I mowed the lawn, which only took me about 2 1/2 hours, less than I thought, and cleaned the pool. Then I spent a little time getting my phone switched over, it was very helpful that he had wifi at his house to I could download it all a lot easier. Then I got a call from Tractor Supply that my part had come in, so it all worked out perfectly! Picked up the part and got back to camp right around 5:00. Had a lot of rain around today, and it really cooled the temps down, so I guess maybe Fall is on the way! Settled down for the evening as usual, just a Spanish lesson to do, then a quick shower and off to bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, I don’t know what’s going on with me, but I got a decent night sleep, fed the horses, ate breakfast, dumped my blackwater, sat in my recliner to read for a few minutes, then fell asleep for nearly two hours! Granted it took awhile to get to sleep last night, but I didn’t think I was THAT short of sleep! Crazy! Well, after my nap, I didn’t feel like doing anything outside in the heat, so I worked on the shape files for the map for at least an hour, then did some housework. I didn’t really want to do housework, but it just kept calling my name, so I finally broke down and did some. Got some hunters in camp, archery weekend for deer I guess, didn’t get the impression they were particularly interested in following some of the rules, or sharing the property with equestrians, plus they were wanting to run their generators all night. I explained they had to have a special permit and be parked next to one of the two specially-made generator sound barrier walls, which they weren’t, and they didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of moving, so that might create some problems later. Meanwhile, I settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a great night sleep, thank goodness, and woke up pretty refreshed, which was a good thing because I had a busy day planned. Once I did chores and breakfast, I ran down to the post office in Canal Point. I’ve been asking about getting a mailbox out front, and there seems to be some movement in that direction, but it starts with getting clearance from the post office first. I went from there out to Glenn’s to get his pool working again, his timer got messed up, but I got it going again, watered some trees and measured his spa outlets. Once I finished there I headed into the Kane center for a couple of hours of euchre, and they had a good turnout today. A big day of shopping at Walmart, then headed back to camp, to discover that something was wrong with my power, and the inside of my trailer was like a steambath. I finally figured out the thermostat doesn’t work if the batteries are too dead, and they were dead because I had turned off my inverter because of the problem I was having with my AC before. The hard start was drawing down the power level so much that I was getting a brown-out condition, and I was afraid it would do damage to my inverter. Turns out the other charger system isn’t working quite right, don’t know why, but once I put the inverter back on, everything kicked back on, the batteries started charging up, so it’s all good, thank goodness. Settled down for the evening, and now it’s shower and bed time! Lots of rain around us, SO HUMID, but it hasn’t really rained here yet. Wish it would, just to wring some of the moisture out of the air! Glad to know Fall is on its way! Anyway, good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a decent night sleep, even with the napping I did yesterday afternoon, woke up feeling a lot better. Still got kind of a slow start, but I stacked up some posts with a plan do as much of the red trail on the west side as I could, including the new little section I just found a few weeks ago. I just read something yesterday that described my day perfectly, “Man plans, God laughs.” I managed to get the first post in perfectly fine, then I moved to the next post, only to discover that the post hole digger had fallen off somewhere. I had put a nail in it to hold it temporarily, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough and intended to buy a couple of big cotter pins, but apparently I forgot. By the time I realized the problem, I had backed up over my PTO shaft, which had dropped down. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt the shaft, and I was able to straighten out the plastic cover, but the coupler was irretrievably bent, so no more hole digging until I get a new one. Tough trying to get the digger back on its frame, though, and I lost both pins at one point, so I ended up using a piece of palm front, would you believe! I managed to shove it through the holes on both sides of the main hitch pin and it actually held the rest of the way! I staged the rest of the posts, and drove down the teal trail to confirm the placement of the next batch of posts, and got back to camp by about 12:30. Fortunately, a new coupling is only about $70 from Tractor Supply, so I ordered one, it will take a few days to get here. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the final shape files for the new map, just double-checking everything to make sure they’re right before I send them to James, though I nodded off for a bit this afternoon as well. It’s that tropical pattern, I think, siesta in the afternoon, though I don’t plan on staying up that late at night! Settled down for the evening, now I’m more than ready for my shower and bed. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Though my plan was to get out on the tractor and put some more posts in today, when I woke up this morning, I felt pretty bad. Maybe one too many drinks last night? Anyway, I just couldn’t seem to get the energy to do anything today, and since it is a holiday, I decided to just take the day off. Pretty much just lazed around reading and watching TV for the day. Most of the campers left today, and one woman was booted out by law enforcement for having multiple accounts (you’re only allowed one, with a 30 day annual limit), but otherwise a very quiet day in camp. Feeling a lot better tonight, so a good night sleep tonight should put me in the right frame of mind to get out there tomorrow. Headed for the shower shortly, and bed right after that! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a good night sleep, stayed in bed a little reading, finally got up and fed the horses. Also did a repair on Barn 3, I noticed a board came off, so I pulled all the nails out and screwed in back into place. The manure rake handle was also broken, so I apprised James we needed a new one. Skipped breakfast because I was meeting with my new friend Joan, whom I met in the Charlotte airport on my last trip to Vegas, at the Seminole Inn for their brunch. We met at noon and ended up chatting together until 4:30! She’s quite the talker, and we had a good time. Then I headed over to Glenn’s to start my duties of “property manager”, i.e. cleaning the pool, watering the trees, and mowing when necessary. Turned out his entire pool system had shut off, so we had to go through the process of starting it up again. I cleaned it up, then he wanted me to stay for awhile, which was no hardship, I put on my bathing suit and enjoyed swimming around for awhile. Saw some fruit dangling from their trees, very tempting but not quite ready, though they should be the next time I come through later in the week. Got back to camp before 7:00, decided to quickly mow my little patch of yard since the mowers had been here on Friday and everywhere else looked so tidy, which takes no time at all. Did my rounds, then settled down for the evening, doing computer work mostly, didn’t even have a chance to turn the TV on. Did several loads of laundry as well today, so I’m set for awhile! Trying to figure out which trails to work on tomorrow, not sure yet, but I’m sure I’ll do something! Heading for bed shortly, so good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a decent night sleep, didn’t get up until almost 8:00, but still managed to do chores, have breakfast, and get Flash saddled up and ready to go by 9:45. I think there might have been a fire somewhere, because there was a bit of a haze in the sky, which actually worked out great because it kept it from getting too hot. We did a lovely ten miles, checking out whether I can get my tractor down to install the last two numbered posts on the south end of the yellow and white trail, and it’s looking good, as long as we don’t have a lot more rain in the next few days. I went east on the yellow trail, though, and ran into a lot of water, so I won’t be mowing down there any time soon! There’s also a water crossing that I can’t get around, even on a dry day, so that’s one I’ll have to come at from both sides when the time comes. Ended up coming around on the green spur and loop, it was a bit wet over there still, too, though I could probably make it if I wanted to. Not worried, it will get done when it gets done! I’ve been getting worried about my AC on the trailer, whenever it kicks in, it causes a brown-out condition, shutting off the TV, making all the lights dim, and setting off my carbon monoxide detector, making it chirp. I asked brother Jeff to come out and take a look, and after awhile he got here and changed out the start capacitor (well, he actually put in two smaller ones that equal the one bigger one I had), and we thought that fixed the problem, at least it seemed to. But later on in the evening, I had the same problem again, so it’s obviously something else and he’ll have to look at it again. probably the compressor. Disappointing, I was really hoping it would be something easy and cheap, but that’s just not the way things are going for me right now! Dropped my new phone, and I didn’t have the cover all the way on it, and it landed badly and broke the screen, so I had to order another one. Found an “open box” one on Ebay cheap, so hope that will solve the problem. No one to blame but myself on that one! Finally settled down for a late dinner, started a load of laundry I forgot needed doing, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
At long last, I think I have all of the final post painting done! There may an odd one or two more I might decide to add later, but for now, I’ve reached the stage where the end is nigh! All that’s left is putting them out there, which will take a few days. I’m probably going to have to stage them at intervals again, but I’m going to take a couple of days off before I contemplate exactly how to complete the job. Meanwhile, the plumber came back and finished up most of the work that needed doing, we finally have three working showers and in the new bathhouse, and the water is running, so everything is flowing. Finished up a little after noon, then went into town to run a few errands and pick up a few groceries. I picked up a pump siphon, hoping I could pump the tank on the Buick out, but I still couldn’t get it in deep enough. I finally looked underneath and discovered why, there are multiple bends and narrow metal pipes, so there’s no way I’m every going to siphon it out that way. Looks like we’re back to the fuel injection strategy, or just dropping the tank. Need to discuss that with Jeff. Anyway, finally got back to camp and settled down for a lazy evening. Ready for my shower and bed for sure! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, up at the crack of dawn. James arrived before 9:00 to meet various workmen for plumbing and electrical problems. I stayed in camp today to do as much of the final painting as I could. This is presumable the last batch of posts to be painted, but it’s a lot easier to do the crosspieces here in camp, and the posts as well. I did all the crosspieces that I can think of, and the final white base on the back of the posts, so tomorrow I’ll only need to stencil and paint a few posts, and they’ll be finished! Just getting them out there is all that’s left to do! Plumber got here late and didn’t finish on time, so he’ll be back tomorrow. Settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Can’t believe it’s September already, this summer flew by! Glad of it, though, it should start cooling down in a few weeks, which will be wonderful! Meanwhile, good night, my darlin’! Love you!