Hey Babe!
Had a good night sleep, though it was pretty cool in the morning, albeit a lot warmer than it was up north yesterday morning! Forty seven vs. thirty seven, I’ll take any day! After chores and breakfast, and took a run into town, I got a priority book order last night and wanted to get that out asap. I also diverted to Home Depot to pick up the fitting I needed to finish off the ice-maker repair, and a quick run into Walmart for two things, didn’t have one and the other was not really what I wanted, but this is one of those little stores with a very limited inventory. No matter. I got back to camp about noon and promptly started saddling up Flash. We took off shortly after that, though I couldn’t exactly find a trailhead, I did end up eventually finding the trail I had my GPS set to follow. This is a pretty typical Florida trail ride, with lots of pines, palms, sand and water. Most of the riding was either on a shell-rock sand road or a grassy stretch next to a sandy road that had apparently just been dug up, like it was at Goethe Forest last December. Couldn’t walk on it, but it had a wide swath of grass beside it, which helped. Then, I got temporarily misplaced. My GPS plan indicated a trail which wasn’t out there, and I was a quarter mile up past where I thought I was supposed to be before I realized it. So I went back, only to find there was no turn-off, so I had to do the same trail again. That took me to an intersection where I came in earlier, but I turned west to try to pick up the missing trail, and eventually found my way back to camp. Then I check on the maps that I had used, and discover it must have been an older map that I used to plan, because the newer map didn’t have that trail on it. Weird! Usually they add trails, not subtract them! In any event, we made it back. Flash was so ready to go today! He insisted on doing between 6-8 mph the entire trip. I don’t know if our little speed trip last Friday got him worked up, or if he thought that’s what I wanted to do (I didn’t ask him, he just went!), but after the first half mile, he cranked it up and kept going almost every mile at either a medium or fast gait, almost no walking. We were back before 4:00, so sixteen miles in just over three hours is a pretty good clip. Gave him a nice rinse off before putting him in the paddock with Apollo. I had gotten a request from Sheila and some other folks about how to find and make chaney root tea, so I spent a little bit writing an article on how to find it, harvest it and make it into tea. Got that uploaded, now I have to spread the word a bit. Then I fed the horses, grilled myself a nice thick steak, watched a little TV (my solar panel charged me up to 12.6 volts, so I haven’t even had to put my generator on today!), and won’t be long out of bed tonight! A perfect weather day, a great ride, couldn’t ask for a better start to my visit at Green Swamp! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hello, my love!
A good night sleep, got my chores and breakfast done, then tried to figure out how the wireless fence thing works. Seems a bit inconsistent, seems like it moves around, but I have to do a lot more experimenting with it yet. Then Sheila told me her friend said that Green Swamp, where I am going next week, was closed because of a hunt, though I was sure I had already checked that (and I do have a reservation!), but I double-checked anyway and got it straightened out. It was wrong on the website this morning, but they changed it back, so it’s all good! I went out shopping, and went to Lowes to pick up a bunch of little flags so I can try to mark the perimeter of the invisible fence, which is the way they generally want you to train your dog, but there’s a lot of clutter in this yard so I may wait until I get to my next stop. Had a little trouble with my new credit card at Lowes, it didn’t want to accept the chip, then at Walmart it wouldn’t work at all, and I had to use a different card for my purchase, then at Publix it wouldn’t accept the chip, but did take the swipe after a couple of tries. So it looks like I’ll have to get another card, something is wrong with this one. Grrr! Of course, they can’t get it here before I leave, so I’m going to have it sent to Cherryl’s house (you remember her, from Staten Island, and we had Thanksgiving with her a few years ago here in Florida), so I can pick it up next week. Once I got back, I saddled up Flash. After so many slow rides lately, I decided we both had a need for speed, so we headed out on a long straight sandy road to the Allardt tract, averaging above 5 mph, including some cantering and fast-gaiting, with Lola having to do a lot of running with us. The Allardt tract is a bit overgrown, so we got lost a few times, and didn’t manage to follow my GPS route very well, even though we were following the trail markers for the most part. Lots of sinkholes, and I thought it was generally very pretty, just nowhere near as groomed as the rest of the trails here. Just needs a little TLC, and it would be great! We did just over 10 miles in just under 2 hours, and Flash worked up a good sweat, so I rinsed him down and put him away, both of us happy! Chatted with Sheila for awhile, then came back to the trailer for dinner, some TV, some credit card updating online, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a good night sleep, did my chores, had breakfast and was just getting ready to saddle up Apollo for our ride over to Mattair, which is another section of trail along the Suwannee River, then it was postponed an hour because a small rain shower was supposed to come through (and did on the other side of the main road, but not here!), so it was about 11:45 when Sheila and I left. Linda couldn’t come with us because she had a vet coming out to look at Sonny, partly because of his leg burns, but mostly because she missed the expiration date on her health certificate by six days when she crossed the ag station, though surprisingly, they let her come in with a warning that she had to get it and send it to them within 7 days. It was a costly mistake, but at least she’s almost in the clear now, I just have to help her get it in the hands of the enforcers. Anyway, we trailered down to the trailhead, which was only about 10 minutes away, met her friend Chris down there, and headed off into the sandhill area down to the Suwannee River trail. Because I had been warned that Chris’ horse was pretty slow, and I already knew Sheila’s mule was slow, I brought Apollo for a change. Most of the trail went along the river, which was quite lovely, picture postcard Florida wilderness! Lots of Spanish moss hanging from trees, lot of beautiful views of the river, which is fairly high after all the rain last week. We did end up going through one brief sun shower, but it dissipated quickly. Everybody behaved well, with me in the back having to jog to catch up occasionally (Apollo can be a real slug these days!), and when we reached the trailhead on our return, we got chairs out and sat around and chatted for awhile. We finally got back home after 4:00, checked in with Linda and got the scoop on her horse, all is well, thank goodness! Just needs a couple more antibiotic shots on Sunday and he’s good to go, ride-able in 10-14 days, the vet said. I headed out to feed the horses, and barely got done with that chore when Kyle the welder showed up, ready to finish the job, which he and David did in short order! Well done, now I have a step at last! Hopefully, I won’t drag this one against any railroad tracks and it won’t get bent up again! Linda let me know that I was welcome to their dinner, so the five of us once again sat down together. I helped her for a bit getting her health certificate downloaded from GlobalVetLink while the others played a fast game of Farkle (David won in nine throws!), then we joined them for a second game (after ice cream and cherry wine), and though Sheila went out first, I had a miraculous run of 3150 points and managed to beat her on the last throw! I could hardly believe it! I won the last game I played, too, so I must be getting a string of beginners luck. Afterward I came back to the trailer to settle down for the evening. BTW, I received my new credit card FedEx today (it’s a miracle, got it overnight!), plus the new wireless pet fence, which I plugged in to charge overnight so I can start training it with Lola tomorrow. Seems like everybody else is busy tomorrow, and I also have to shop at some point, but I’m thinking about taking a long ride on Flash with Lola, she needs the exercise, maybe in the morning, but we’ll see. Anyway, a busy day, progress is made, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep last night, then discovered a text from my credit card folks that a potentially fraudulent charge was made on my account, which I confirmed. They had to close out my account and are sending me a new card pronto. Unfortunately, I learned later on that several charges for things that I had ordered on Amazon hadn’t cleared the account, so now I may have a couple of deliveries arriving late because of it, darn it! They might still make it, but it’s not looking too good. Anyway, after that depressing call I did chores and breakfast, then went out on another chaney root hunt. My sister-in-law asked me to get some for my brother, so I went hunting again. I found a bunch of small ones, then finally dug up a couple of bigger ones, so now I have plenty for both of us. Then I got my lap sealant in the mail, so I climbed up on the roof and finished sealing around the refrigerator vent and putting the cover back on, now all I have to do is wait for the next rain to see if it solved the problem. Finally, with all my projects done, we were finally able to go for a ride, my hostess Sheila’s first on her mule Pete since she got here on Sunday. Linda rode Apollo again, so naturally I was in the lead on Flash the whole time. It was a lovely ride, pretty trails along the river, there’s just not enough of them to keep it interesting for me, so I’m looking forward to next week when I’ll be in Green Swamp, which has many more miles of trails, though tomorrow, we’re trailering over to Mattair for a ride, so that will be a nice change. After we got back, I did one last climb on the roof to put some more clear sealant along the edge of the awning, I noticed it was still dripping in a few spots during the last rain, so hopefully now, I’m completely watertight! Again, won’t know for sure until the next rain! Made myself some dinner after that, then killed some time binge-watching TV until Kyle showed up. He’s a tenant of David and Debbie’s, and he’s doing the welding on my step. He finally made it around 7:00 and managed to get about half of it done before he was stymied with a helmet problem, so he’s coming back tomorrow night to finish, hopefully. He and David worked on it together, and it seems to be working out, but for some reason, the step sticks out a bit more than the old one, even though they have it lined up perfectly with the previous studs. Oh, well, at least it will work, that’s the most important thing. Finally settled down after they left, just finishing my tea, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Another late night and morning, still trying to adjust to the new time, or just can’t seem to get off my “theatre” circadian rhythm for some reason. Did chores and had breakfast, then called Tractor Supply about the order of two bags of Balance we had hoped would be on the truck yesterday, and hit a roadblock. Typical. No one knew anything, and everyone I talked to told me what I had been told wasn’t possible. Grrrr! Frustrated, I got online on the Nutrena dealer locator and discovered the local Co-op had the Balance, so I went down and picked up two bags, plus a bag of Senior. They didn’t have the Perform for Flash, so I had to stop at Tractor Supply and get a bag there, but I had earned a $10 loyalty coupon, so at least that bag cost me about half price. Once I got those put away, I started saddling up the boys. I had invited Linda along, since her horse is out of commission for a bit while his legs heal, and she was happy to ride Apollo. We had a lovely 6 1/2 mile ride, mostly on the trails I’ve already done, but they were nice, and it warmed up to a beautiful day after a very chilly start to the morning. After we got back and put the horses away, she went off and tended to Sonny, I opened the two packages I had received today. One was for a new tailgate handle cover, which worked perfectly, and the other was for lug nut covers, which were way too small and will have to be exchanged or refunded. Then David came by with Kyle, one of his tenants that can do welding, and looked over my steps to figure out the best way to install them. They’re talking about not even using the bolts I bought, but just welding an entire seam along each end, they think that will be stronger. Whatever works, I don’t care! Then we all went into dinner, Sheila put out a big buffet spread for sandwiches, which was delicious, but as always on a buffet, I ate too much. Not going to lose any weight this week! Then we played another game of Farkle, then she brought out vanilla ice cream in stemmed glasses, and we poured Michigan Cherry Wine on it for dessert. Wow! Very nice! Oh, and I did Snowy River for them, just for fun. Then I helped Linda give Sonny another dose of bute, and headed back to the trailer, took Lola for a quick walk, and settled in for the night. Another night in the low 40’s, though Deb said it actually got down to 37 last night! Brrrr! Glad I’m so well insulated! Anyway, done for the day, heading to shower and bed in a bit. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
Despite going to bed at a reasonable hour, I read for hours before I finally got to sleep, was still up before 8:00 this morning. After breakfast and chores and a little bit of housework in the bathroom, I did a little shopping on the internet (I ordered a new tailgate handle cover, I lost mine when the tailgate came down), then washed the truck. Then I saddled up Apollo, who seemed more than willing to go for a ride, and we had a fairly short four-mile ride that took us about 1:15. We did a lot of jogging, so that improved our speed somewhat. I mostly did the trail along the river in reverse, and this time we took Lola with us, so she actually got to go swimming in the famous Suwannee River! After we got back and I put Apollo away, I tried out some new Maguire spray wax, which was a lot easier than paste or liquid wax, and though I doubt it will work as well, it certainly was easy to use! It looked a lot better when I got done, whether or not it will bead, I don’t know, but I’ll find out shortly, there’s rain in the forecast. Debbie came by and chatted for awhile, then I had dinner and fed the horses. I also put their blankets on, it’s supposed to get pretty chilly tonight, and there’s an increasing chance of rain, and I don’t need them catching a chill! Settled down for the evening, and I intend to get to bed fairly early, though hopefully this time I’ll actually get to sleep at a decent hour! Heading to the shower and bed shortly! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Even though I got to bed at a reasonable hour, I slept past 9:30 this morning! OMG! And that was without earplugs! It was so quiet here, so peaceful, perfect temperatures, and I guess I must be more tired or stressed than I thought, but it was a lovely sleep that I evidently needed. So breakfast and chores, then some trail planning (Debbie, my hostess, was kind enough to drop off a map at the trailer yesterday), plus I found a map online from the local WMD (water management district, not weapons of mass destruction), so I was able to plan something out. Once I got that done, I saddled up Flash and off we went! I wanted to find the best trail down to the Music Park so I know how long it will take me to get there when Pistol and her crew come on Friday, plus explore some other trails so I know my way around. There’s not a huge amount of trails here, so it won’t be hard, but today was my first trip, so there were a lot of stops and starts. I managed to get to the Music Park in about 40 minutes just walking (well, at Flash’s pace of walk!) and we strolled around the park getting our bearings and finding the horse camp area. Apparently they had a huge event this past weekend, attended by an unbelievable 35,000 people according to Debbie, and although I’m sure they’ve been doing a lot of work since then, the place is still a huge mess. There are piles of garbage bags at every other campsite waiting to get pick up, a lots of folks running around getting things done. The horse camping area was a parking lot of golf carts, which were apparently for rent during their Hulaween event, I’m sure they’ll be moving those soon, too. Anyway, once I got the lay of the Music Park, I headed out to explore some other trails, and found a lovely one that goes along this famous river for awhile, then cuts a little inland into some decent woods (lots of live oaks and hanging moss around, not surprising since the nearest town is called Live Oak!), until the trail ended at the river again. Found a nice direct route back (it helps that I had it all planned out on my GPS), but there are a couple of other trails that I’ll need to explore, though I have the general idea of the layout of the area now. The ride was two hours long, just over 7.6 miles, and the weather was absolutely perfect! Flash was great, as always, and he had a great roll in the paddock once I put him away. Debbie and Dave stopped by a bit later to look at the welding job, they think they’ve found someone who can do it, but Dave wanted to explain it better and wanted to take a closer look. He also said he has some limestone he can put down where my truck tires sunk in, thinks that will solve the problem. I’m not worried, we’ll figure it out somehow, always do! Finally settled down for the evening with a nice grilled burger and a new series on Prime, with plans to get to bed early again. Just have to do a French lesson, take my shower, and head to bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Well, sensible me was in bed by 11:00, but a lot of the rest of the gang hung around the campfire until after 3:00 this morning, though I put my earplugs in so they didn’t bother me at all. Of course, they overindulged a bit (they deserved it!), so we were a bit late starting this morning, and several folks that had said they were going to come riding with us ended up not being fit enough, but Pistol was determined, so I started saddling up in time to leave around 11:00. One of their friends, a guy named Mike, decided to come along, so I put him on Apollo and saddled up Flash. Pistol and Doc were riding stock horses, so the three of them did fine together, but of course, Flash was in the mood to go, go, go, as usual. In fact, it was him running willy nilly around the pasture this morning that woke me up! He was jumping and leaping over piles of limbs, having himself a good old time! He was mostly okay on the trail today, we got slowed down a lot because there was a lot of water on the trail. Apparently it’s typically swampy out there, and with last week’s big rain, it was especially swampy, so lots of wading today! We only went for less than six miles, but it was a nice ride, so good to be back in the saddle again! I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I’ve been riding! But then, I’ve been really busy. Once we got back from the ride, I started working on the jobs that I still haven’t accomplished. I took the wheel off the trailer, hoping to try to get past the drum to see what shape the brake shoes were in, but only got so far. Then I started working on the tailgate, banging away at it, when Cowboy came out and gave me a hand. He was brilliant! It took a couple of hours, but by the time we got done, I got a fully functional tailgate that opens and closes just fine! It’s got a few bends and dents in it, but hey, I’m all about function, not form! It works! That’s all the matters. Sorry to say it looks like I won’t get my steps welded in, but I’ve already spoken to the hostess at my next stop, and she seems to think she’s got someone there who can help. I loaded the old tire on the truck, and, surprise, surprise, FedEx finally let me know that my tire won’t be coming today, but it will come tomorrow. Cowboy also helped me diagnose my brakes, there’s no way I’m taking them all apart just to look at them, but he told me what to look and listen for when I adjust them that will clue me in on how good or bad the shoes are, so I guess I’m good on that at the moment. So all I have to do tomorrow is get the new tired mounted and put back on the trailer, and a trip to Tractor Supply and Walmart for supplies, and I’ll be out of here, probably on Tuesday if all goes well! I’ve enjoyed my stay, but I’m looking forward to being at a trailhead and doing a lot more riding again! So I’m off to shower and bed, my love! Good night!

Hi Sweetie!
Woke up to another misty morning! Every morning here has had either thick fog or a good mist, must be something about the river (which is the Chattahoochee, by the way) and the geography around here. It didn’t last as long this morning, so after chores and breakfast, I got Flash saddled up and we were out riding by 11:00. There is a huge event here tomorrow, and they had already started putting markers out in the field, but I cut across it early to take the trailhead out that way so I could come back via the river, out of the way when I figured it would be busier. It was a lovely ride, we took our time, got back around 1:00. There aren’t a lot of miles here, but they are pleasant enough. I was worried that eventually the organizer of the big event would come down and ask me to move, but they never did. I’m so far out of the way, I couldn’t imagine it would be a problem, but who knows? Anyway, I expect a lot of activity very early in the morning, so I’m trying to get to bed early tonight. I got the two Amazon packages, but still haven’t got my window, according to FedEx it’s still in Arizona, but they are still saying I’m supposed to get it today, though now it’s showing in red on the tracking information, so I think they’ve figured out that if it was in Arizona this morning (and apparently this afternoon as well), that it’s not going to make it for a GA dellivery today. I’m worried it won’t get here by Sunday now, in which case it will be a disaster, because according to the people I bought it from, FedEx won’t let them change the delivery address a second time, though considering it’s FedEx’s fault, I can’t believe that would be true. We’ll see, anything is possible with FedEx, they never fail to disappoint! Apparently they, like everyone else, is having a staffing problem. Everywhere I look there are hiring signs. I’d have no trouble getting a job if I ever wanted one, that’s for sure! Anyway, it was a quiet afternoon of mostly reading, though now I have another chore, the carbon monoxide detector is on the fritz, and I can’t seem to reset it. I took it apart, too, but nothing I did seems to work, so I’m just going to have to order a new one. I pulled the fuse so it wouldn’t keep chirping, but now my kitchen counter light doesn’t work either, so I can’t delay it. Always something! Well, that’s enough to report today, time for shower and early bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
I was up before the crack of dawn this morning, had breakfast and fed the horses and left them with extra hay, and drove out of camp with Lola before 6:30 as the sun was just coming up. The reason was because Kari had invited me along with a group of her friends to go riding in the wilderness, but the logistics of taking Flash was just too complicated, so Kari offered to let me ride her horse Velvet, while she rode a younger horse named Bliss. I arrived right on schedule, got my saddle on Velvet and drove out to who knows where to meet up with her friends, who all arrived at the same time as we did. These were all world class gaited horses, and I was looking forward to seeing what a true, uncompromising gaited trail ride was like. We headed out in short order, but it quickly became clear that there were so many horses that Lola got confused (I didn’t realize the group would be so big), so we ended up having to leave her in the trailer as we rode off, which was the right choice, I had enough to worry about without adding keeping an eye on her to the mix. I can’t say that I’ve ever gotten introduced to a horse doing 20 mph, but that’s about what happened. We all lit off down a road to get to a trailhead, and everyone was going at racking pace, and I had to keep up. Velvet was full of energy, and was trying to make it a race, so it was a little while before I figured out how to get along with her. It’s a totally different feel than Flash, of course, but I managed to hang on long enough to get the hang of it. Lost my sunglasses though, I hadn’t battened everything down well enough because it was a bit more bouncy than I’m used to. Anyway, once we settled down a bit, it was more comfortable, and I was pretty pleased with the way it went. The trails in this part of the forest are unmarked and not very well maintained, so there were lots of times we had to go around or over trees. With this group, though, at every opportunity they were moving along pretty fast, so I had my hands full keeping up, though my horse was entirely capable, I just needed to learn to handle it! Whipping through trees on a narrow trail can be a bit harrowing! We did over 13 miles, left after 8:00 and were back just after 11:00, so we made good time! It’s a beautiful raw forest, with a lot of challenging sections, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Special thanks to Kari for the invite and the transport! We got back, rinsed down the horses and sent them out to pasture, then I headed into town to trade in another tank of propane. I thought I still had two full ones, but it seems I only had one, and since I need to do laundry tomorrow I didn’t want to take any chances on running. Unfortunately, the Tractor Supply doesn’t fill propane at this location, and the Coop is too dang expensive, so I ended up just swapping out a tank at Walmart again, though this time I made sure I got a brand new, unrefurbished tank. The last one wasn’t new, although it was freshly painted and the dates are good on it, but it wasn’t quite new. Doesn’t matter, really, just a little sentimental about trading in the last original tanks on the trailer. Silly. Anyway, got back to camp, there were lots of dayriders’ trailers, and they were all starting to come back and leave around the time I got here. Had a relaxing afternoon, heading to bed early, tomorrow is a busy day of laundry and packing up. Good night, babe! Love you!