Hey Sweetie!
Didn't sleep as well as I had hoped, got up before the alarm, and was out the driveway by 8:45. Thankfully, the trip was uneventful, though I-68 was pretty hilly, and I'm hoping the final downhill slope I have to take tomorrow won't be as bad as I've been fearing. The truck has been doing really well so far holding it's speed, just one more big downhill slope and the rest will be comparatively easy! Arrived at Rocky Top at 2:45, though there were a couple of moments of concern. The first was when I turned up the one and only road to the stable and was met with a sign that said "Road Not Suitable for Large Trucks." That gave me pause. I managed to climb up okay, until I reached the only sharp turn on the narrow road, only to be met by a parked school bus right on the corner, preventing me from turning. I stopped and got out because I wanted to make sure I was in the right place, though the bus driver didn't have a clue, but there was a car behind with two gals in it that were on their way there, so they confirmed my directions. The bus driver pulled up as far as he could, but I still took a small dip into a culvert at the narrowest part of the turn (I was on the inside of the turn, which didn't help), but only scraped a little, no apparent damage. Made it the rest of the way with no problem. They got me set up next to a big round pen, got the horses out, Debbie brought over several loads of water which they drank happily, it being a hot day, but not until after they rolled in the sand, of course! As I was opening the slide, I realized that one thing I forgot to do this morning was to take my horse pictures down. One was still hanging, the other one had dropped, and after some searching, I finally found it jammed on the outside of the slide. Just one small scratch on the frame which I can probably fix with white-out or something. It was over 90 degrees on the drive here, hoping it will cool down a bit more tonight, but not counting on it. Cool shower tonight for sure! Lola took a swim in a little pond next to us, she really enjoyed that! And she was even up to playing a little fetch tonight as well. finally settled down for dinner and a movie, the sequel to the movie I watched last night. Interesting, but nowhere near as good as the first one, with a very unsatisfactory ending. Set it up for another sequel which I'm guessing never happened, since that one was made in 2017. Anyway, time for my cool shower and an early night, hoping to get a better night sleep tonight! Good night, baby! Love you!
Monday, August 26, 2024 – Laundry, Housework, Packing
Hiya Babe!
Had a better night sleep, then got busy doing lots of loads of laundry, packing up some stuff, filling up the tires with air, which was a little bit of a struggle. For some reason, the nozzle wasn't working very well, I had to push it just so, then angle it, to get it to work, but I finally managed it. I was beginning to worry that this big compressor I bought had bit the dust already! Did a few minor repairs as well, as usual. A fairly relaxed day overall. I had a big breakfast and still wasn't too hungry at dinner, so I just had a salad. Watched a couple of Farscapes, then a fascinating movie written by Jerome Bixby (a great sci-fi writer who wrote some of the best Star Trek and Twilight Zone stories) called The Man From Earth, about a guy who claims to be 14,000 years old amongst a group of collegiate scholars. It would make a fantastic play! Really had some great, thought-provoking dialog. Ready for an early night, have a pretty long drive tomorrow! Good night, darlin'! Love you!
Sunday, August 25, 2024 – Floor Finally Finished!
Hi Darlin'!
Didn't sleep well, so woke up feeling tired, but that didn't stop me from my one final chore on the floor today. I measured the floor where I needed to put the strip linking the two linoleum pieces, marked my metal strip, and carefully cut it with my generic Dremel, and for some reason, it was too long! Not by much, not enough to be able to make another cut, but just enough not to lie flat, so I had to spend another half an hour carefully sanding down the cut end until it finally fit correctly. A few nails later, and it was perfect! Job done! I felt pretty lazy today, figured I needed to take the rest of the day off, so I mostly just spent it working on the computer. I've got myself all lathered up about the route I'm taking, apparently there is a very long, steep drop coming out of that stable I finally found that would take me in, I'm sure it will be another white knuckle drive, not looking forward to it, but there doesn't seem to be any other way than to take the turnpike, and that's quite a ways out of the way, not to mention expensive. I read on one trucker site that to cross PA with an 18-wheeler is $180! That's just crazy! Anyway, I hope I don't regret my decision to take this route, it really is the shortest. According to flattestroute.com, it's still all less than 10% grade, apparently it's about 6%, but it's very long. Finally just had to let that anxiety got, read a bit, watched some TV, including a 2024 movie with Shirley Maclaine! I can't believe she's still making movies! She was born a month after you, so she's 90, good for her! Had leftover Indian for dinner, plus the lovely ice cream stick they gave us on the way out last night, ready for my shower and bed, hoping to get a better night sleep tonight. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!
Saturday, August 24, 2024 – Happy Birthday To Me!
Hiya Sweetie!
Hard to believe, but another birthday has come and gone! It was a lovely day, I got to do all the things I love to do! Took a nice drive to pick up some lovely hay for $4 a bale, best price I've had all year! Then went over the river to PA, went to a big hardware store and picked up the replacement piece I needed to finally finish the floor, went to Tractor Supply and refilled my three propane tanks so I'd be ready for the next few weeks when I won't have electricity, as well as a couple of bags of feed, went shopping for a few grocery items at the Giant store, filled up with fuel for the good price of $3.49/gallon, then took a slight detour to check out an Indian restaurant I was hoping to go to for dinner. The little voice in my head said to check it out, and I'm glad I did! Turned out to be an Indian take-out place inside a gas station! Not exactly the atmosphere I was going for! On the way back to the farm, I stopped and got a soft ice cream cone (hey, it's my birthday! If I can't splurge on my birthday, when can I splurge?!) Got back to the farm, got everything put away, including my hay, and just as I was finishing, Amanda arrived. She's the gal that's renting the apartment off the barn here, and is looking after the property when Meg's not here. She had asked if we could go riding today, and of course I said yes. I love it when Flash and Apollo can go out together, so it was a lovely birthday gift to be able to do that. We did a nice four mile loop around the church property, which is what they call it here, but we did it backwards from what was done during the ride, just for a little variety, at least for me and the horses. It was a lovely ride, such a pretty section of woods. Got back to camp after about 90 minutes, put the horses away, and made arrangements with Meg to leave at 6:00. First we stopped at Lowes for a few minutes so I could return the final item that I was erroneously told I needed for my floor (and didn't.) Then we went to the Curry Zone, another Indian restaurant in Flemington, which was only about 20 minutes away, but Meg had never been there, though she did say she liked Indian cuisine, and that turned out to be the perfect place! A very classy decor, and the food was absolutely fantastic! We had a fabulous meal, with wonderful, comfortable conversation, got to know each other a little bit, and were there nearly two hours. Just delightful. When the proprietor learned it was my birthday, she send us off with a couple of ice cream treats, but we were both so full, we packed them with our leftovers to put in the freezer as soon as we got home. It was dark by the time we left, but it was such an enjoyable evening. Got back, changed clothes, fed the horses, and finally fixed a bourbon and settled down for the evening. Took my shower earlier, so no need for that again! Had scores of well-wishers on Facebook send me birthday greetings, so overall, it's been a great day! And the weather was perfect! Couldn't ask for more out of life than days like this. Happy to be alive! Wish you were here with me! Miss you lots! Well, until we meet again, I'll keep telling you I love you, and always will. Good night, babe!
Friday, August 23, 2024 – Ride on Flash, Truck Finished, Helped With Arena
Hey Babe!
Didn't have the best night sleep, but got busy quickly in the morning. After chores, I took Flash for a ride around Horseshoe Bend Park, just to look for any missed markers and ribbons, and I did find a few. A lovely 6.75 mile ride on a gorgeous day. Just after I got back, Amazon arrived with the part I had ordered for the truck, perfect timing! I got Flash put away and got to work on my truck. It didn't take too long to get the part in, but was surprised when my batteries turned up dead, I had to jump it to get it going again. Weird, but that seems to happen whenever I disconnect my brake controller, not sure why. Anyway, it all got done, and my tow/haul is now working just fine! Had one weird moment when I couldn't get my key out of the ignition, almost like it was expecting a lock to be released, fought me for several minutes, then suddenly let go. Hope that's just a passing thing! It was later than I thought by that point, too late to run the errands I was hoping to do, so I took a look at my hostess Meg's truck, which I put batteries in the other day but it still was showing a code error. I did a little diagnosis, but everything seems fine, and the check engine light is off, so I just suggested that she needed to drive it for awhile and see how that goes. Should work fine. Then I asked Meg if there was anything else I could do to help (just trying to earn my keep!), and she set me up dragging a rake behind the Kubota side-by-side around the arena to try to drag up some weeds, and it worked like a charm! Spend awhile doing that, until it was much better, she threw the old weeds to her horses to eat. It was about 7:00 when we finally quit. Dang these long days! Fed the horses and finally settled down for the night. Pretty sure I'll sleep tonight! Good night, my darling! Love you!
Thursday, August 22, 2024 – Worked on Truck, Short Ride on Flash
Hiya Darlin',
Started out the day trying to solve my stopover problem, still trying to find accommodations in Western Maryland to spend the night on my way to Ohio. Who knew there would be such a dearth of places to stop? Made a little headway, but it still wasn't resolved by the end of the day, grrrr! After that, I did some research to find out why the tow/haul on my Sierra has been intermittent, and discovered it's a common problem in the shift lever, just as I suspected. Of course, a new shift lever through an auto parts store was in the neighborhood of $80, and on Amazon, it was more like $30, but they couldn't deliver it through Prime until Tuesday, which is the day I'm supposed to be leaving. I decided to see if I could jury rig, and actually got it working for a minute, but the wires are so tiny and short, it didn't take. I decided to order the part and pay extra for overnight shipping, figuring it would still be cheaper than the brick and mortar parts store, but when I put in Meg's address, the arrival changed to tomorrow anyway! Cool! So I'll be able to fix it tomorrow, assuming the part is the only thing wrong, and I'm pretty sure it is. Can't climb the mountains between here and Ohio without my tow/haul feature! Once that was settled, I decided to take a ride on Flash to check out the parts of the orange trail that John and I unmarked backward, and Flash was ready to go after sitting around since Saturday. We did nearly seven miles in about 90 minutes, and only found a few leftover signs, all down by the creek at the north end of the Horseshoe Bend Park, and no missed ribbons. Got back to the farm, and other than the usual chores, settled down in my usual routine, soon off to shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!
Wednesday, August 21, 2024 – Finished Floor (almost) and Battery Installation
Hey Sweetie,
Got up early, and after chores, started working on the floor again. I really took my time, knowing it would be rushing that would create mistakes, so it was nearly 2:00 by the time I was finished. Well, almost finished, everything except the divider between the two floors. Turns out the one I bought was for a transition between two levels, like a carpet to tile, not for the same level like what I have. This is the third thing I've had to return to Lowes because of the bad advice I got from a Lowes employee in NY. Sigh... So except for that, the floor is done, and it looks great! I also installed the batteries into Meg's truck, and it started just fine. She still has one code error that I'll look into when I have time. Didn't get my ride in today, but it's on the schedule for tomorrow. Weather's been gorgeous! Can't wait to get back on the trail! Had a pleasant evening, ready for shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!
Tuesday, August 20, 2024 – Started on Floor, Went Shopping
Hiya Babe,
Woke up too early this morning, but it helped me get an early start on a busy day! After chores and breakfast, I started working on the bathroom floor, cutting out the old floor and using it for a template for the new floor. Fortunately there's a nice area in the barn with a concrete floor, so I cleaned that all up and it was perfect for the cutting I had to do. I looked at some Youtube videos to glean as much from those as I could, then got busy. One thing I learned was that the adhesive I bought is useless for what I'm doing, but I did need to get some double-sided tape instead. I managed to get the floor laid down in a rough cut, even taking off the toilet to get it right up to the flange underneath (though I had to do that twice to get it right), and when I finally reached a point where I couldn't go any further, I gathered up my propane tanks and Meg's batteries and headed into town. Picked up her batteries first (and even got a four-year battery at three-year prices, since he didn't have two of the three-years!), then went down to the Tractor Supply to get my propane tanks filled. Unfortunately, they didn't refill tanks there (why am I not surprised that in NJ they wouldn't let a mere company employee handle such dangerous substances, when they don't even allow self-serve gasoline here!), so that was a wasted stop. Then I went to Home Depot and bought what I needed to finish my flooring job, plus a big cabinet for Meg that she asked me to pick up. That took a lot longer than I expected, but I got it done. Next stop was Lowes to return the items that I had erroneously bought based on the bad advice I received when I bought them, and finally Walmart to do some much needed grocery shopping. Didn't get back home Until nearly 7:00, so no more work today. I had a salad I had bought at Walmart and a good stiff bourbon, watched a couple of Farscapes, and am looking forward to a good night sleep tonight. Need to figure out where to pick up the shelving unit I picked up for Meg, but other than that, it's my flooring job first tomorrow, then batteries in her truck, then maybe I might even get a ride in, hopefully, since the weather is absolutely perfect! Enough wishful thinking, time to get to bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Monday, August 19, 2024 – Moved Rig, Did Some Laundry, Chased Horses
Hey Darlin'!
Had a pretty good night sleep, though I woke up pretty early and read for awhile. Meg's having problems with her farm truck and though I put her batteries on charge, it made no difference this morning. I finally put my battery jumper on the cables and at least it turned on the lights in the cab and on the dashboard, so it's pretty definitive that the first step is new batteries. Chatted with John and Helen until they left, then moved my trailer over next to Meg's, so now I can reach the 50 amp plug and the sewer trap! I filled up my water tank from the nearby wash rack, it's really not necessary for me to have a water hookup, and it's very close. Once I was settled in I started a couple of loads of laundry, and decided to take the afternoon off, watched a couple of movies and generally just relaxed today. Well, at least I did until I had a pounding on my door, from a neighbor, telling me some of the horses were loose. I jumped into the UTV and headed over to the trouble spot, where neighbor Jack had been trying to round them up, but they got away. I headed out to the back field where Jack said they were, but they weren't there either. Then I spotted them, back in their own paddock! Turns out Meg has some paddocks in the back, and apparently the horses escaped from there, but we just closed the back gate so they are secure until we have time to check out the electric fence back there. Later on, I saw the littlest colt on the driveway, he's mastered the art of climbing through the vinyl strip fencing, but I managed to get him back to his mama as well. Busy day chasing horses! The rest of the day was quiet, though. Going to start on the bathroom floor tomorrow, and hopefully get my shopping done as well. A nice relaxing, come-down day after all the busy-ness of last week. Ready for my shower and clean sheets! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – Took Apollo and Lola to Pick Up Ribbons
Hiya Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, woke up a half hour before the alarm, so got my chores done early. I decided that since today's job was to pick up the last of the markers, and that it was only about four miles worth, that I would take Apollo and Lola. John set out on the UTV to take the signs down, but I did the rest of the ribbons on horseback. It was a lovely ride! The forecast, once again, was completely wrong. They had rain almost all day, starting at 1:00, and the only rain we got was a very short shower several hours later, and another a few more hours after that! Barely enough to get the ground wet! Was very glad we didn't get wet on the ride, though. Apollo may be slow, but he certainly is good at stopping at the ribbons and letting me pull them down and put them away. At one point, he actually galloped up a hill! Lots of energy for an old guy! Good to see! There was one part of the trail that had some Halloween ornaments hanging from the trees, apparently leftover from some previous event, kind of cute to see. We were only out about 90 minutes, which was great for him and Lola both. She enjoyed jumping into whatever creek we came across, so it was a nice family jaunt. Got back and put him away, enjoyed a pizza lunch that John and Helen brought back from town, helped put the ribbons on cardboard and put in bags the way I like them, rather than on baling twine and hangers, both of which I detest. Worked on Meg's truck for a bit, she's having problems getting it started. I had put my charger on and had gotten the green light on both batteries, but there's something else going on we haven't figured out yet. Will work on that later. Because I had borrowed an electrical cord from John, and they're leaving in the morning, I switched out a couple of long heavy duty cords with a long slightly lighter cord, and I'm hoping that the change will help keep the GFI from breaking as much. It's been doing that constantly since I've been here, so it's been a challenge, but I wasn't sure my long cord could handle it, but so far, so good! Finally settled down for the evening, hoping if my electrical problem is resolved I might be able to do laundry tomorrow. Spent some time researching places to go between here and Ohio, still haven't settled on anything yet. Every time I sat in my recliner, I kept dozing off, so I'm pretty sure I'll get a good night sleep! I'm heading to shower and bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!