Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up before the alarm, got my quick and easy chores done, feeling so spoiled here! What a luxury to have electric and water, and to not have to pick up manure in the morning! Feeding the horses takes no time at all, so I was raring to go to the Farmers Market. We headed out about 9:45, it only took about 15 minutes to get there. Patsy had some specific things she wanted to get, I wandered around a bit. The only thing that really caught my attention was a booth that had authentic looking British savory pastries, and I ended up getting a pasty and a beef and veg pie. I was hoping for a pork pie like they make in your home town of Nottingham, but they didn't have any. The guy there said he might make some at Christmas, but that won't do may any good. The pasty was still warm and tempting, but I resisted since I had just eaten breakfast, and both will make a great dinner one day this weekend. Got back just before 11:00, Wendy arrived moments later, and we got saddled up and headed out for what Patsy said would be a 8-10 mile ride. At first we went down a trail that led to a swampy area, and had to stop and let an ATVer and his dog go by, then we reached the swampy area, and the ATV was stuck. Exactly why I prefer my original four-wheel drive, aka Flash! Riders used to go through the swampy area, but then some logs and other windrow made it too treacherous, and they've been going around it, through a rather dangerously muddy and rooted area, and both Patsy and Wendy actually got off their horses and walked them through. We waited a bit to see if the ATVer could free himself, but in the end, I tied up Flash and went back to help until he was free. I rode Flash through the bypass area, because I trust him to find his own way, and we made it safely without any problems. Then we did a bit of road riding, but it didn't last too long, then we got into the woods where there was a lot of trails, though not very used, so there were a lot of branches hanging over the trail and several logs to cross over or go around. Lots of spider webs, too, so I had to find a spidey stick. Of course, Flash had to be in the lead, which worked out fine because it made their horses move a little quicker. As it was, we were going much slower than I normally would, and it took us nearly four and a half hours just to go under ten miles, so quite a slow ride. Of course, we had several stops along the way that slowed us down even more. When we got back to the swamp, Patsy wanted to have me lead so they could follow Flash's path, since we made it through fine under saddle on the way out (and they were tired of getting down and walking them), but as it turned out, it was a moot point. As we got there, there were a bunch of guys who had parked their ATVs at the other end, and they told us they had just cleaned out that whole stretch in the swamp of all the obstacles and that it was clear to come through. Not being afraid of a little water, Flash and I went through that stretch, with only one little trip, though the water did get up to belly high and even a bit more. I'm sure he would have been happy to swim it! I was so grateful I didn't lose my boots in that swamp! I had one come off earlier, but they stayed on after that, thank goodness! It was such a gorgeous day, and as always, it was great to be out riding. We did get back kind of late, and by the time I got Flash put away, it was almost too late to run my errands, but I had to go, so I hopped in my truck and drove down to Queensbury, stopped for fuel, went to Tractor Supply for feed, then Lowes for flooring for the bathroom. After considerable thought, I ended up buying one big piece of linoleum rather than the squares, I figured that would hold up better, though the one piece would have some challenges of its own. Didn't get back until nearly 7:00, but my hosts were kind enough to keep dinner warm (they've been graciously feeding me every night!) so I enjoyed that before settling in for the night. Nice not having to cook and clean, even nicer to have a variety in my dinners! Anyway, busy day planned for tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had my usual night and morning chores, then decided to take Apollo on a short ride, probably the shortest ride I've ever done! I just wanted him and Lola to stretch there legs a bit, and there was one trail near camp that I'd somehow never managed to include in any other ride, Glenwood Trail, so we did a tiny loop down Hiawatha to Glenwood then up to Twin Ponds. We could have gone another mile if we had turned right, but I decided to leave it up to Apollo, and not surprisingly, he turned left, the shortest way home. We were gone less than an hour and did less than two miles, but since I had so much packing to do, I didn't really mind. At least it gave them a little exercise. Once I put him away, I got busy packing. Since I had unpacked more than usual here, i.e. the screen room, the grill, the skirting around the gooseneck, I figured I could pace it out over the day, and I did. When I took one break, I went over to my neighbors (with the generator) and had a nice chat with the two ladies there, sisters name Connie and Kate. Turns out they winter at Goethe State Forest!! Small world, or at least, small horse camping community. I'm sure I'll be seeing them again in a few months. Still haven't been able to get a good enough signal for TV, and I almost didn't have enough to download a new book, which would have been a disaster! All set now, though. Patsy has sent me a route that she says is the easiest to her house from here, so I'm hoping for an uneventful drive tomorrow. Still haven't heard from my RV repair guy, very disappointing. Don't know how I'm going to travel with a spare toilet! Not like I have a lot of extra space to store it! Now that would be a disaster if I have to wait months to get it fixed. Ugh. Anyway, heading for shower and bed, want to make it an early night if I can! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Another day at Otter Creek, another fabulous ride! This place is truly magnificent! As you know, my goal is always to ride every trail on the map whenever I go to a trailhead, and even though this is my third time here, there were still plenty of trails I hadn't done yet. Today's ride was to try to reach as many of those trails as I could, and I ended up doing a very wide loop to cover most of it. I had a GPS trail from back in 2015 which I rode with a woman named Marsha, and it took a renegade trail to the south to reach Otter Creek Trail the quickest way, so I followed that today. I did what I think was called the Mohawk trail, then the Otter Creek Trail, then the Eatonville trail, all gorgeous trails in the southwest section of the park. Then I hit Catspaw (which isn't named on the map) to Erie Canal, fording back over the creek, up to Shortcut Road, onto Pitcher Pond, Florence, Aspen, Fletcher, Cow Trail, and finally Homeward Bound back to Blue Jog and camp. In total, it was about 17.75 miles. I started out without boots, and wished I had put them on because we did some gravel roads at the start, but finally I put them on, and was glad I did! We hit a lot of stony areas after that, though most of it was good foot, except for the many roots. Once we crossed the creek, though, I took them off again. He had started limping, because he had stones in the boots, and when I took them off, he was a happy camper! Most of the trails from then on were sand or dirt, so he sped along them just fine. We left at 10:45 and got back just before 4:00, which was the plan because the weatherman said it was going to start raining at 4:00. Of course, that was wrong, it was about 7:00, just when I started feeding the horses, when it started to rain. It's been like that all week with the weather! Regardless, it was a magnificent ride, I am so loving it here at Otter Creek! And other than a few short sections, I have now ridden all of the mapped (though not on this trip, only the accumulation of three visits here!) and a couple of the unmapped renegade trails, though there are a lot more out there if I was so inclined. I gave Flash a nice bath with shampoo, he's been laying down in his standing stall and was absolutely filthy when I got him out today, I had to give him a good brushing before saddling him, and he deserved a nice bath when we got back. He worked hard, but I think he enjoyed himself as much as I did! Settled down for the evening, finally got a signal good enough for streaming, though it's been a tough slog with that. I have two bars, but I think there are so many other people taking up bandwidth on the weekends that it really slows it down. Anyway, started a new binge on Prime, Bonekickers, a British series about a team of archeologists discoving all kinds of weird stuff. Listening to the lovely rain, having dinner, watching TV, a fitting end to a lovely day of riding! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Got woken up by my new neighbor's generator, which came on at precisely the allowable time, 8:00. Sigh... Read for a bit, finally got up and took care of the morning chores and breakfast, then saddled up Apollo for a nice ride. Since I've been riding him quite a bit and he's been getting fitter, I planned a somewhat longer ride, which I estimated at about 6.5 miles, and turned out to be 7.5, but fortunately, most of the trails were fairly flat, so it wasn't any strain on him. We took Fletcher trail, which took us down do a nice lake where Lola was able to get a drink, though Apollo wasn't interested. Nice trails all around, though the map was a bit off. It looked on the map like there was an earlier turn, but on the trail it was mostly blocked off intentionally, so apparently they changed the trail but didn't change the map. Not the first time I've seen that happen! It was quite a bit warmer today, but it's always cooler in the woods, so it was no problem. Beautiful weather! My neighbors Jane and Neil left this morning, then this afternoon a woman I met on the trail down at Brookfield, Beth arrived with her husband and her Rocky Mountain horse. She recognized me and called over, so later I went over to chat for a little bit before settling down for the evening. My neighbors with the generator brought in a big stack of firewood as well as hay, so I guess there here for awhile. Guess I better get used to getting up at 8:00! Sweating a bit from the day so I'm looking forward to my shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Woke up before the alarm this morning, which I had set because I had an appointment to pick up hay this morning. Thanks to Karen, who I picked up first, we went to a hay barn behind the Tractor Supply run by Mennonites and picked up 20 bales at $4.00 a bale, best price I've seen yet! Looks like nice hay. I only needed 12 bales, but Karen needed the rest, so we picked that up and headed home, with a stop at Millers, which is a nice little farm store and meat market, with their own processing plant next door. Karen made my buy a donut, and the proprietress threw in a little cruller kind of thing, and OMG, they were fantastic! I only took one bite of each and decided to save the rest until later when I would make some coffee, just because they go so well together! Dropped off Karen and her hay, then put my hay away, including some under the gooseneck, so I had to get the skirting out since we have so much rain in the forecast. All that was done by 10:30 (see how much I can get done when I get up early?), then I did a few things on the computer before I finally saddled up Apollo for a 4.6 mile ride with Lola. We stayed mostly on the wide trails, but was sorry so much of it was on Confusion Flats, which is where they've laid down a lay of pea gravel, which I learned they just did about a year ago. At one point, just to get off the gravel, we took one of the renegade trails, and it took us exactly where we wanted to go without adding nearly the mileage if we had diverted the way I was going to. Anyway, it was a lovely ride, Apollo seems to really be getting fitter, he's walking faster, and at one point, when he got frustrated with a little mud bog we were going through, he actually broke into a canter to escape it faster! That's the second time this weeks he's gone into a canter, he's acting younger all the time! Good horse! It was another beautiful day as well, the weather has been just perfect. Once we got back to camp, I spent some time re-sanding their stalls to freshen them up a bit, then made my pot of coffee and enjoyed my donuts. It wasn't long before it was suppertime, and just as I was finishing feeding my horses, my neighbor Jane (and Neil) came over to ask me about my solar panel, and we ended up chatting for a bit. After finishing with the horses, I walked over and sat by the fire for awhile and we had a lovely evening socializing. Came back, did my dishes, now I'm ready for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!