Hiya Darlin',
Since no one had any jobs lined up for me today (the trails are in excellent shape this year), I opted to get down my pressure washer out of the attic and tackle this oil problem in my truck and the front of my trailer. I had bought some degreaser yesterday, so I sprayed that, then went at it with my washer, and eventually, I made everything fairly clean. I finally managed to track down two of my three packages, one of which was delivered to a neighbor for some inexplicable reason. The missing one, Lola's heartworm meds from Australia, is still MIA. Apparently it was put in a mailbox that no one ever checks, even though it's the address that pops up if you put the name of the place in any search engine, and the box is empty. Tracking says it was put in there, so it could be anywhere now. Guess it didn't matter that I left a voicemail asking them to keep an eye out for it, and that there's a separate mailing address if I had hunted it down, so it looks like I'm out $120 for meds I'll have to replace. Grrr! At least I have my parts for the furnace, though I likely won't have time to put them in now. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, except for a quick trip to the post office trying to track down that missing package. Oh, well! Anyway, quite a number of folks arrived today, but tomorrow will be the busy day, so I'm heading to bed early, if possible! Good night, babe! Love you!
Archives for November 2025
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 – Speedy Mileage Checking Ride on Flash
Hey Babe,
Woke up to a lovely 72 degrees in my bedroom this morning, despite outside temps in the upper 30's. So glad I have electric! My job for the day was to ride Flash on the Red/White trail and GPS it for mileage, as they apparently made a few changes to make it the correct length for the FEI officials. What a joy that was! Flash, once again, was raring to go, and with all the exercise he's been getting lately, he's more that fit enough to handle it! We were barely out of camp at a good four mph walk when he started picking up speed, and before I knew it, we were barreling along, gaiting and cantering, with each mile faster than the last! I think the last three miles were all over nine mph! Very brisk! And so much fun! Love this little guy! We had a couple of stop/starts, once because I misread a marker, another because I stopped to talk to Becky for a minute because their UTV had stalled out and they were waiting for some kind of special oil to get it going again, and I trimmed a couple of places, but the trails are in fantastic shape, so there was very little to do on that front. Flash had worked up a good sweat, even though it was only in the mid 60's, but by the time I took off his tack and gave him a quick rinse, his heart rate was down to nearly 60, so it's clear he's in really good shape. Once I put him away, I worked on the map for the ride manager, and as soon as that was done, I spent a few minutes getting the worst of the oil off the front of the RV. What a mess! I took out my propane tanks that needed refilling, and about 4:45, headed into town, Hampton, to the Tractor Supply. I filled all three tanks and bought some degreaser, since the back of the truck is still a mess! If I'm not too busy tomorrow, I'll get my pressure washer down and try to get it cleaned up. Then we went to a nice little Mexican restaurant, Becky and John and another volunteer, very nice, but the waitress got our entrees mixed up so I didn't get exactly what I ordered, but it was okay. WAY OFF my diet, but I figured I would be this week anyway, and besides, I burned a lot of calories today! Stopped to fuel up at a gas station on the way back to camp, threw the blankets on the horses and settled down for the evening. A nice, satisfying day. I have the fireplace on again tonight as the outside temps drop, tonight will be the coldest yet, supposedly down to 38 degrees. I need to be farther south! But the forecast is warmer the rest of the week, thank goodness, and nice and dry, no rain at all for the foreseeable future, with temps in the upper 70's and low's in the 50's. Now that's more like it! I'll keep chasing those temps for awhile! Anyway, time to get ready for bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Monday, November 3, 2025 – Travel Day to Broxton Bridge Plantation, SC
Hiya Sweetie,
Was up before my 7:30 alarm, had breakfast, which takes a lot longer than a bowl of cereal, then finished packing up everything. Thankfully, it wasn't as cold this morning, and now that we're back on standard time, the sun was already warming things up. I got everything packed and was on the road by about 9:40, and had a wonderfully uneventful drive to Broxton. Arrived about 12:30, confirmed my site, managed to dump my black water at an open full service site per Rebecca's recommendation, then got myself situated. Put up my portable electric corral for the horses, as this site didn't have the right configuration of trees. When I unhooked, I was surprised and dismayed to discover that one of the gallons of used oil that I had put in the back of the truck had somehow got it's cap loosened, and there was oil EVERYWHERE! All along the back of the truck, all across the panel of the trailer where my batteries and propane tanks are, all along one edge of one of the bales of hay in the back, what a mess! I wiped a little off, but it will take some major effort to get it cleaned up, likely with my pressure washer. Not sure I'll have time to do it here, but I certainly will have to make time at my next stop. Very glad I have water and electric here, as soon as my water heated up, I started a couple of loads of laundry, though I have several more to do. That's what happens when I don't do laundry in over two weeks! Made plans for checking a trail tomorrow, not sure what else they need me to do yet, but I'm available. Though I do have to take a run into town to get at least three of my propane tanks filled up, even though I won't be using it right away. Things are cheaper here in South Carolina, so I'm going to get whatever I can while I'm here. My list of repairs and things to do is getting longer! Anyway, settled down for the evening, got caught up on some computer work, and even managed to watch some TV now that I have a halfway decent signal, and I'm not even using their wifi! Thank goodness for that! Jo was supposed to be coming up, but her new horse Nikki got kicked by someone and she elected not to take a chance on bringing her. I'm still undecided about where to go after this, but I'm thinking McCulley Farms, just because I can get a full service site and get caught up on stuff, but I'm not sure how long to stay there. With no set schedule except December, I'm footloose and fancy free again! Just the way I like it! Won't be long out of bed, so good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Sunday, November 2, 2025 – Visitors and Packing Day
Hey Darlin',
Well, I managed to get my bedroom up to 82 degrees before going to bed last night, but by morning it was 48 inside the camper, which was better than outside by about ten degrees, but a chilly start to the day! Stayed in bed late, even though I gained an hour with the blessed end of daylight savings time (which I hate!), so it was slightly warmer by the time I got up and moved into my day. Spent most of what was left of the morning reading, then Julia came by to drop off a bucket of prizes that belongs to one of the riders in last weekend's event, and who will be at Broxton, where I'm headed tomorrow. Henderson Express! We ended up chatting for more than an hour. About ten minutes after that, one of the forest guys stopped by (the one who does all the grading here), and we chatted for awhile as well. After that, I finally started packing things up. While it warmed up nicely, rain was forecast to come in between 5 and 6, so I wanted to get everything I could put away by then, which wasn't hard, especially since it was going to get darker earlier anyway. As soon as it started sprinkling, I put the horses away and put blankets on them, hoping that my waterproofing job would be helpful in keeping them a bit drier, considering how cold it's going to be tonight as well. Finally settled down to a nice salmon dinner, watched a movie off the PVR since I haven't been able to get a good enough cell signal to do any live streaming since yesterday, though I don't know why. My phone is in the same place it's been since I've been here, some days my signal is good enough, some days not so much. I'm down to my last tank of propane, so I'm glad I'll have electric tomorrow! Looks like I'll be going to bed early, want to get going in the morning, though not at the crack of dawn, I'm waiting until it warms up a little bit at least! The drive is only about three hours, so time is not that critical. I did a thorough cleaning of the generator and tightened up one big bolt that I could reach, I'm hoping that might be where the oil leak is coming from, but I won't know until tomorrow. Fingers crossed! Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print! Love you, Babe! Good night!
Saturday, November 1, 2025 – Oil Changes and Other Extra Jobs
Hi Babe,
Another chilly morning, as predicted, but it's supposed to be even colder the next couple of nights. Not enjoying this cold weather! I should be farther south! Spent the morning doing some research, trying to find out why my generator is leaking oil, but had too many other things to do so I dropped it for awhile. My main focus was changing the oil on the truck, which was overdue, then figured I had enough oil to also change the filter on the generator as well, even though I was ten hours early, and who knows? Maybe the leak would stop. Sorry to say, it didn't. I'll take a closer look tomorrow in daylight to see if there's any trace of where it's coming from. I do know it's not coming from the main housing, which seems to be the most popular place they leak, so more research! Got those two jobs done, then decided it was high time to straighten out my sockets in my tool drawer. I bought a new container for my many assorted screws, nuts and bolts, but held onto the old one figuring I could find something to do with it at some point, and sure enough, this was the perfect job for it! Got them nice and organized now. I ended the day spraying the horses' rain blankets with some waterproofing spray that I had bought for my rainsuit, because I had one and a half cans left, and I noticed that the blankets weren't doing a very good job at keeping them dry. It's supposed to rain tomorrow night, so I wanted to get that done, hopefully it will help. I was tempted to put their heavier blankets on, because it's going down into the 30's tonight (brrr!) and tomorrow night. I may do both blankets tomorrow, since it will be both cold and rainy. Finally settled down for the evening, figured out last night that if I turn off everything, I can run my generator and use my small space heater to warm up my bedroom area before going to bed, which is lovely, but doesn't quite stay warm through the whole night when it gets too cold. It's times like this I wonder why I restrict myself to working at endurance rides, it keeps me too far north too late in the year, though I do think it's unusually cold here right now. Oh, well, I have to take the good with the not so good! Can't wait to have electricity again so I can run my fireplace full-time! Had a nice steak dinner, heading to bed shortly. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!