It started raining overnight, and continued for many hours of the day. As they’ve been having a drought here for the last couple of years, the locals are happy about it, and I didn’t mind until a huge gusher this afternoon. By then the ground was so saturated it couldn’t drain fast enough (despite the fact that we’re surrounded by lakes and canals) and pretty soon the yard was full of puddles that grew to ponds that completed engulfed us. Walking anywhere required wading through water that came halfway up my calves in some places! Had to navigate through it to feed the horses, not much fun! Then I accidentally walked through a fire ant nest, and had to deal with getting bitten all over my ankles and even up to my elbows as I reached down and picked something up before realizing it was covered with the little buggers. Ouch! I hope the flood drains off by tomorrow, and that the rain quits for a while. Dogs are wading around every time they go out. Crazy! Other than that, I spent the day trying to finish organizing out anticipated vacation next month, while Hubby did some repairs inside the RV around the kitchen. Relaxed as much as we could for the evening, a busy week coming up!

Had an excellent night sleep for a change, then oatmeal for breakfast to compensate for all the extra calories we had for dinner last night! Early in the afternoon, my brother and I saddled up for our Sunday ride, a habit we formed last year and are continuing to this year. We decided to cross over the canal to Hungryland, which, despite the fact he’s lived here for over 15 years, he’s never been to before. The horses were excellent, with only a slight hesitation before going down the steep incline, and climbing up again. I showed my brother, who is really in to the flora and fauna of the area, a skeleton of a fish that we had passed several times before, and which I was sure was a piranha, even though they’re not native here (there are lots of stories about folks letting them loose in the Everglades, though it sounds like just another urban myth, like alligators in the sewers of NYC). When I first described it he thought it might be an alligator gar, but they are long a thing, and this thing had a blunt nose and huge teeth. When he saw it, he agreed it wasn’t a gar, and couldn’t think of anything else other than a piranha, though he’ll be more convinced when he looks it up on the internet (which I’m sure he’ll do at some point). Anyway, we headed out the Indiantown Trail out to the pavilion, where he checked out the old stockade area of the former cattle ranch that this was. We had run into a ranger on the way in, and he was telling us about the history of the place, and suggesting some other places to ride on the other end of the WMA. After a bit, we headed further west on the main trail, but then we reached a spot the horses got a bit stubborn about, probably because they could smell pigs, but also, I think it was because we’d done the trail before, and they get bored easily and didn’t want to do it again. Clio finally headed down a trail to the south, and Apollo and I followed out of curiosity. I was a bit concerned we’d run into too much swamp, but we could always turn back if it got too bad. Well after a bit, we did reach a small water hazard, but there were clear tire tracks of a recent vehicle passing this way, so we took the plunge and went through. Fortunately, it wasn’t even knee high, and the bottom seemed quite firm, so we plowed ahead. It seems most of the bottoms here are pretty firm sand with just a bit of sediment on top, but that’s in the well-traveled areas. I’m not taking risks off the trail. Anyway, we continued to follow the tracks, even when it started getting more water on the trail. Clio was being brilliant, without the slightest hesitation, even when the water got higher. We never quite reached chest high, but almost. Eventually I could hear a noise of machinery, sounding like a generator one of my brother’s neighbors had been running for the past few days, so I realized we were probably on the same trail Hubby and I had taken yesterday, the one where we stopped because of the water hazard. Once we reached the end of the water, I confirmed it was the same trail, which was perfect because it headed us home. As we were getting closer to the main road, my eagle-eyed brother spotted what looked like an eagle’s nest at the top of a dead tree, and just as he was pointing it out to me, we saw a very large bird flying towards the next, carrying a snake, probably about 4 foot long. Amazing! I guess he or she had babies to feed! We watched for a little while, then kept moving back to the road, where we had to go around a gate. We were less than 100 feet from the entrance of the park, so we were home in no time after that, once again crossing the canal with no problem. Old hat for these guys now! It was a great ride, and I can’t wait to search out some other areas, though Hubby said he was ready to trailer the horses out to Dupuis or Riverside this week, when we have time. Got lots to do this week! We had a nice dinner, watched a few programs while we recorded the Super Bowl, than zipped through that play by play (as is our habit with football… Sorry, but we really detest commercials), before heading off to bed.

Started the day with new stretching exercises recommended by Hubby’s new doctor (we’re doing them together, because a good stretch always make me feel better too!), then eventually after breakfast and a couple of chores, we headed out with the horses to the Hungryland WMA, this time insisting that Apollo take the first downhill part of the canal crossover with me riding him instead of me leading him as I had done in the past. Took a little time, but eventually he overcame his reluctance and plunged down and up again, no sweat! Hubby and Clio followed quickly afterward, and then, for some reason, neither one wanted to take another stop. We urged and urged, but they were really reticent. Obviously there was something in the wind they didn’t like, (or maybe it was just that they are already bored with this trail) but eventually, we managed to get them moving. We turned off the main road shortly, wanting to explore some new trails, and it was obvious from the length of the grass (belly high) that it was not used very often. We only got about half a mile along a canal before we came across water over the trail. Not being familiar with it, we decided not to go through the water, as it looked swampy for as far as we could see, and turned around. We took a couple of branches and ran into more water, until we finally found one trail that got us back to the main road with only a minor water crossing. We kept on the main road until the pavilion, where the parking lot was full, apparently some kind of bike event. We tried to go out the back end of the parking lot and along a fence, and again ran into a swamp. We turned around and tried going in another direction, but the grass was so high we turned around again. Some hikers told us that one trail let to another canal, which likely had a trail along it (like pretty much all canals around here), but we decided we’d been out long enough and headed back. We had no problem getting back out over the canal. It was a nice ride, though a bit frustrating at times, but a good three hours out was good for everyone! Relaxed for a couple of hours before starting on dinner. I had offered to make dinner for him and his girlfriend, so I began prepping the salmon, slicing tomatoes, cleaning green beans, added some wild rice to the menu, and enjoyed a very nice meal when they got home. We spent the evening with them for a bit, then headed back to the RV for an abbreviated evening of TV.

  After breakfast and Sunday shows, we headed out for our ride to the Hungryland Water Management Area just across the canal from my brother’s house. Having made this crossing the other day, Apollo was slightly less reluctant, but I still had to get down and lead him to the bottom of the ravine before I was able to climb back aboard and go up the other side, though this time he did it more readily, as did Clio. We headed west on the Old Indiantown Trail, avoiding a couple of ATV’s, a couple of pickup trucks, and passing two other women on horseback, who told us the trail we were on was four miles to the first highway, so an eight-mile round trip, which suited us just fine. Rather than go off the beaten track, we wanted to scope out the main trail and check out the terrain for future adventures. We did a lot of walking, some trots and a few long canters, as the road was pretty much straight the whole way, mostly a nice grass footing except the last quarter mile or so. Really nice trail, we often had water on both sides in addition to the canal we were paralleling, and we passed lots of birds along the way. We reached Pratt-Whitney Road in a little more than 1 ½ hours because we were taking a slow pace, then turned around and headed back. I thought there might be a perimeter trail from what I had seen on Google Earth, but it turned out to just be the easement along the side of the road, sorry to say. On our return, we passed an area that looked like it had just been dug up by some wild pigs, neither Hubby or I could remember it being that rough when we came through, and there were a few moments when the horses were snorting and had to be urged to go through a few sections, and we heard some rustling in the bushes, we figured probably pigs then, too. The horses made the canal crossing easily the next time across and we arrived back home about 3 hours after we left. I had promised my brother a short ride today, too, so we switched saddles on Clio, and my brother and I headed out around the neighborhood for about an hour. The horses needed some persuading to go back out the driveway, and they had the pokiest walk ever for most of the ride, until something spooked Apollo and he forgot to be pokey for awhile. Then, of course, they got less pokey when we headed in the direction of home : -). We were out about an hour, which was all my brother needed as he’s a bit out of riding shape and didn’t want to overdue it. After getting back we fed them a good and well-deserved bucket of feed, then settled in for the evening.