Hi Sweetie,
Well, my plan to rest today didn’t exactly work out. I was so tired last night I evidently forgot to take the feed bags off the horses, so when I got up this morning, they still had full bags of hay! They didn’t complain, though, surprisingly, you know how vocal Apollo can get when he wants to, but I guess they ate enough of that fresh grass in the field to not be too bothered. Anyway, I fed them, then decided to head straight out to do a few errands. I programmed IHOP into my phone, but instead of taking me to the nearest one, where I had several other stops planned, it took me 20 miles in a different direction. I didn’t even realize it until I was heading to my second stop, which went from the five minute drive I was expecting to 35 minutes because I was in the wrong place. Grrrr! It took me much longer to do all the running around I needed to do, so it was well after 3:00 by the time I got back to camp. I let the horses off the highline to graze for a few hours, and I settled down to a movie, trying to get some rest in, but it wasn’t enough. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get some tomorrow, the forecast is rain all day so that would actually be a good thing. I’m going to need another day to even start to recover! So I’m off for my shower and bed, hoping for a good night sleep. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hello my love!
Had a hard time getting to sleep and yet woke up at the crack of dawn this morning. Managed to grab a few more winks before finally getting up and getting busy. Finished packing, had breakfast, hooked up the truck, loaded the horses, and was finally on my way at about 10:30. I didn’t have much of a chance to say good-bye to Jerry and Charlotte, they were out working, but we kind of did that last night anyway. Had a wonderful and uneventful trip to McIntosh, GA, SO HAPPY to be back in Eastern time, where at least it will be nearly 6:00 before it gets dark! I stopped at the park office, though I didn’t try to pull around the gate, it was a bit too sharp of a turn, so I walked over the check in. I had asked several people earlier, including those at the park office, about the availability of water, and was told there were spigots, which I made the error of assuming they were in the campground, as one would expect, but in fact, they are not. I was hoping to get some laundry done, but the nearest spigot is WAY too far away for that. I got out a hose and filled up the trailer at the park office, thank goodness my tank in the truck was full when I left, so at least I was able to fill up the horses’ water from that. A nice staff member named Neal led me down to the camping area, pointing out where the nearest spigot was (at least a quarter mile away), and there were a bunch of workers (inmates, actually) mowing the lawn and blowing leaves out, but I found a lovely campsite, the last one of the four, backed up against the river and across the field from a giant open pasture. There were a few piles of leaves around, one right where I wanted to park, and they offered to move it, but I just told them I’d burn it, and set it on fire after awhile. Neal said there’s another lady that comes here that just lets her horses graze out there, so I decided to do the same. I put Apollo on his anchors (one of which he lost somewhere along the way, but it was too late to look for it today), but Flash I just let roam free, since he never gets too far from Apollo anyway. After being tied up on a highline for the last 10 days, he took the opportunity to gallop across the field and back a couple of times, and wandering amongst the trees, but of course they both came back when I called them for dinner. For some reason, Flash stood right next to the smoke coming from the fire for the longest time! Maybe that’s why the previous owners called him Smoky, do you think? He seemed to enjoy having the smoke waft over him, weird little dude! I put up the highline, but I’ll just use it overnight while the camp area is empty, and let them graze during the day when I’m around. I got settled, glad I’m on almost level ground so that was pretty easy, and Lola got to explore quite a bit, too. First time we haven’t been on a busy road for quite a while, I really like that we’re at a dead end with no traffic. Grabbed some dinner, watched a movie, but am feeling really tired, so I’m heading for the shower early, I’ll probably just read in bed and try to get about 10 hours sleep, now that it won’t get light until nearly 7:00. I’ve been told there’s a family of bald eagles with a nest right across the river from me, and we saw one flying across the field, but I’d like to get a few more glimpses if I can. But not tomorrow, and probably not the next day, they’re calling for rain, and I’m feeling pretty tired, so I think a couple of days off are in order. That said, I’m heading to the shower. Love you, babe, Good night!

Hi Babe,
Another great night sleep, another day of great, hard physical labor. I started the day working with Beth on measuring all the sites, then I made a quick map of the temporary campground so that Charlotte could assign some spaces, then in the afternoon after we went to lunch at the Grill (at the country club) we put up most of the pipe corrals where they were needed. At the end of the day Chad and Ponda (who traded me six bales of hay for a copy of my book this morning), helped me put a few of the last boxes from the house that have been taking up space on the passenger seat of my truck up into the “attic.” It was nearly dark by that time, so everyone cleared out and I fed the horses (they had been nickering for dinner for half an hour!), and Lola, and we all settled down for the evening with another fishing village movie. I’ve already taken my shower, now I’m off to bed shortly. It’s only about a 90 minute drive tomorrow, so I’m not worried about getting up at the crack of dawn or leaving that early, so I didn’t do much packing up tonight, not that there’s much to do. I’ve already stored the new hay in the back, and put the saddles and stuff away, so it won’t take me long to finish that up. Anyway, time for bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hiya Sweetie,
Another busy day. Just as I was finishing up chores, the septic guy for the porta-potties arrived, and I managed to persuade him to clear out my black water tank for a small fee, I was starting to get full and I hadn’t been able to find a conveniently located dump at the next couple of stops, so I was happy to get that done. I had a quick breakfast, then joined the work crew, and spent the day clearing up more of the camping area, building a community fire ring, and going out through the trails they plan on taking the group next weekend. JD and his granddaughter Caroline cooked hot dogs on the grill for lunch, and I managed to score a few leftovers for later. We quite about 4:30, just enough time to feed the horses before it got dark, and it’s warm enough where I don’t have to put blankets on them tonight. We’ll do some more work tomorrow, but then on Monday I plan to move on. They evidently have enough volunteers to help them through the week, so they don’t need me, and I don’t really need to pack up tomorrow, since I’m only going about 60 miles away, so I can just do that Monday morning. Once again I settled down early, just because it’s so dang dark now, but I’ll be in the Eastern time zone by Monday afternoon, so that will help. And it looks like they’re calling the presidential elections for the Democrats, after finagling with recounts and provisional ballots and the like. Hope everybody’s looking forward to paying more taxes! It will be interesting to see just how fast our economy will change in the coming months. Anyway, I’ll keep living on a trailhead, so hopefully none of that will affect me, unless, or course, they’re dream of $5+ gallon of gas comes true, in which case I’ll probably just spend more time at each place and cut back on my traveling. We’ll see. As it will be another busy day tomorrow, I’m off to my shower and bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
A good night sleep, no drama this morning, but still really chilly, almost down to freezing. Wore my long underwear to bed, and left them on under my clothes today, though it warmed up nicely in the afternoon. After breakfast, chores and a couple of conversations with Jerry and JD, I ran out and filled up two propane tanks, then went to lunch with Charlotte at the golf course grill, and by the time I got back to camp it was too late to go riding, so I helped poke at a burn pile for awhile, while Jerry kept clearing trees, and gravel was starting to get delivered. It was getting dark by 4:30 (yuk!), so we finished for the day, feeding the horses before it got too dark. I was getting intermittent cell phone service and my hot spot kept wonking out, but I managed to get half a Gary Cooper movie in, and one episode of SHIELD before calling it quits. I’m watching the returns from the election (I voted early in TN a few weeks ago), and I just saw Ohio and PA swing from possible blue to possible red, so I guess things are really in flux right now. I can’t get any local stations, so I’m just dipping in and out of various websites for updates, probably won’t know for sure for awhile, though I still believe Trump will be reelected in a landslide, but we’ll see! Meanwhile, I’m headed for shower and bed, and I’ll guess I’ll see the results in the morning. Everyone is expecting that if the Dems lose they’re going to do anything they can to delay the finish by using lawsuits and even violence in the streets. A lot of government buildings and business have been closed because they think things could get rough out there. Glad I’m in the middle of nowhere! Anyway, off I go! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
With both horses on a highline, no escapees this morning, thank goodness! My big chore for the morning was to deal with the water issue, after filling the horses’ water buckets I pretty much finished off the tank in the back of the truck. I still have about a third of a tank in the trailer, but I don’t want to run out completely. I did a few chores in the morning, including filling up both tires on the water trailer a bit higher, then Jerry showed up, and at about 11:00 I followed him pulling the trailer to the county highway department to get filled up. When I got back to camp, JD was there, so the three of us had a long chat. Finally I turned to the job of transferring the water, and I had to do some finagling to get the water in, what with water not able to flow uphill by itself, but I finally managed to get it done. I had to pull part way up the hill, lower the trailer jacks down all the way to the bottom, and add some extra hose before it was all said and done, but I managed. After filling up the trailer and the horse buckets as much as I could, I headed back to the highway department to top off again, then to the post office to pick up my package with the battery jumper in it (yay!), then headed to the nearest Tractor Supply that I could find that had at least two out of three of the kinds of feed I needed. I had to go over 30 miles to Pell City, and when I got there, I stocked up a bit on the horse feed. This was one of the few Tractor Supplies around here that refilled propane tanks, so I asked for that service, then waited, and waited, and waited, calling twice to find out what was happening, only to be told, “she’ll be there in a few minutes.” After thirty minutes (I was keeping track), she FINALLY arrived, but not before another customer got tired of waiting and left. Well then she looks at my tanks and decided that she can’t fill one of them because it was outdated, which is not true! I just had it filled, and I know I have another year on it, but I guess in Alabama 9 plus 12 is 20, which is the only way my tank would have been out of date. There was no reasoning with her, and not even a math lecture changed her mind, and I got so mad I grabbed both tanks and sped off. I still had shopping to do, and that half hour was the difference between getting back to camp in daylight or darkness, so I was NOT a happy camper! So I headed to the next Tractor Supply in Talladega, which I had been trying to call all day because they were actually closer to camp, but their phones weren’t working properly and I could never reach them, which is why I didn’t go there in the first place. So I drove another 30 minutes out of my way, glad to see the propane tank, only to learn they were empty! Grrrrr! They also didn’t have the last type of feed (Balancer) that I needed, so it was a complete bust! I left there empty-handed and drove to the Walmart almost right next door, where Lola and I ran through the store quickly getting the few items we needed, but the sun had already gone down by the time we came out. The only saving grace was that I was almost out of diesel in the truck, and they had it for the lowest price I had seen all day, $1.88 a gallon, so I filled up there for less than $60. Then I drove back in the dark, fed the horses in the dark, emptied the groceries in the dark, not happy! Finally I settled down to some ramen noodles for dinner and a movie about Edward Snowden, and now I’m ready to head to shower and bed. Whew! Glad this day is over! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hiya sweetie!
Despite my knocking every fence post with my mallet, I woke up at 4:30 (the new 4:30 with the time change overnight), hearing a little knicker every couple of minutes. By the third knicker I knew I had a problem, so I got up, put my robe and boots on, took my flashlight, and sure enough, two posts were down and Apollo was missing. Thank goodness Flash didn’t escape, too. I headed toward the round pen, and with my bright flashlight I soon saw photo-flash eyes near the edge the of the woods beyond the pen, and walked right up to him, put on his halter and walked him back to my site. This time, I hung him up on a highline that’s a permanent fixtures between some trees, so at least he was safe until morning. I went back to bed, read for a while, then managed to get back to sleep. I woke up a few hours later, fed them both, had my breakfast, then got busy putting up my highline a bit closer to the trailer and put him on there. I decided to let Flash stay inside the fence for awhile, to let him finish the hay, but I moved over a water bucket for Apollo, and all was well. I blew up the tire on the water trailer that they have here, and it looks like it isn’t leaking, but I don’t seem to have a trailer ball small enough to fit that trailer, but I am still going to have to find some place where I can fill up with water tomorrow when I’m out shopping. Not long after that, a couple of the members here, Craig and Susan and Ashley invited me to lunch, so we headed out to the Mexican restaurant and had a nice lunch. When I got back to camp, Wayne was here, and he had brought me a pile of hay bales! All these folks are just so kind and generous! They treat me like I’m celebrity, and I’m truly flattered. JD was here, too, with his granddaughter, and I asked her if she’d like to go riding, and she said yes, so we saddled up both Flash and Apollo, then had another member, Bob, join us on his gigantic Fresian/Walker cross, and we took a nice 90 minute ride, mostly on trails I hadn’t been on before, which was lovely. Saw a few nice deer, and really enjoyed it. One trail we took was the MIA trail, and the ladies that have adopted it have put up all kinds of artwork and decorations along the way, which made it even more fun. It was a beautiful day, and I wanted to take advantage since the weather is taking a turn toward freezing, supposed to get down in the low 30’s tonight! I put the warm winter blankets on the horses, got Flash on the highline and fed them with a combination of new and old hay, chatted with Bob for a bit, then Wayne stopped by after he quite raking the campground (after dark!), cleaning up after all the work we did yesterday. These guys are working so hard to get this place in shape. They are really a great bunch of folks! Once the place cleared out, I settled down for the evening. Season 7 of Agents of SHEILD was just released, so after watching a movie I watched a couple of those episodes. Of course, with the time change, it’s now dark at 5:00 (ugh!), so I’m looking forward to getting back to Eastern time in the near future. Took my shower early so I’m not going to bed with a wet head, but tonight I’m sleeping in long underwear so I won’t be freezing in the morning! It’s still pretty early, but I’m going to bed anyway, once I get the place warmed up with the furnace in a few minutes. It’s definitely going to be a cold one tonight, so I’m going up to get warm before it gets too bad. So good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi my love!
Had a great night sleep, but was awakened by a knock at the door at 7:00 am by one of my neighbors, Kathy, with Apollo (aka Houdini) on a lead. Apparently he had escaped and gone over to visit her horses, so she caught him and brought him over. She was nice enough to put the fence post back in and get him in the fence before I even had a chance to get dressed and get out there, for which I thanked her profusely. I got them fed, had breakfast, and arrived at the gathering point of the work crew that I had volunteered to help today, so it wasn’t long before we were of picking up limbs of the trees that had fallen while the guys manhandled their chainsaws throughout the campground. That kept us busy most of the morning, then eventually pizza arrived, then after lunch we headed out on the main service road and started clearing trees from out there, keeping busy until nearly 5:00 before we headed back to camp. It may have been exhausting, but it was very satisfying, we got a LOT of work done, making a big dent in the trees that came down from the tropical storm. When I got back to camp, though, once again my clever Apollo was missing, though Flash was still inside the fence, and I knew that Apollo had done one of his fence-pulling tricks, when he grabs the top of the fencepost with his teeth and pulls it out. There was one post down, but that was enough for him. Anyway, someone had put him in the round pen they have here, so I collected him and put him back, then I got the rubber mallet out and pounded every post down as much as I could, so I’m hoping that’s the last time he escapes. If not, then I’ll have to put them on a highline just to keep them safe. After I got them fed and settled, I headed over to my neighbors again, and a few other folks that had spent the day working stayed around, and we ended up telling stories and laughing harder than I have in a long time. Lola and I stayed out there till after 8:30 before finally coming back to the trailer, under the brilliant light from a full blue moon. It’s also Halloween, of course, and one lady showed up this morning in a one-piece mule pajama outfit, which was quite funny. Anyway, got back to the trailer, warmed up a piece of leftover pizza, had my nighttime tea, now I’m ready for shower and bed. I have no doubt I’ll sleep well tonight! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Woke up to a chilly morning, stayed in bed longer than I should have just to keep warm, though thankfully I brought my heavy robe to bed last night for when I finally got up. Had a hot breakfast for a change, did my morning chores, did a few computer jobs, followed up on the long-awaited refund from the Grand Canyon Caverns Inn, which still hasn’t sent me my money after almost a month, then people started arriving to do some odd jobs around camp. I met a lot of people today, and made some new friends. Two ladies took me to lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which was a lovely change of pace, I haven’t done Mexican in a long time, and we had a very nice time chatting. When I got back to camp, one of the ladies I had lunch with was going over to the mounting stairs, which I apparently inadvertently clipped when I came into the camp, which broke a board and twisted it around a bit, but she was with a man who was here to fix it, so I helped him put in the replacement board, then we enjoyed a glass of wine together before he headed home. Then I met some more women that had arrived that are just camping and riding for the weekend, and we had a chance to chat as well, ending up drinking wine around the campfire. Then a latecomer arrived, and it turned out she had been at Guntersville when I did my Snowy River last week, and they all ended up asking me to do it, so I obliged. We spent a couple of hours sitting around the campfire chatting, it was very nice. Now I’m back at home, warming the trailer up a bit (it’s supposed to get down into the mid-40’s tonight, and is already well on it’s way!), and settling down for the remainder of the evening. Tea is on and I’ll soon be on my way to shower and bed! So, good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a lot of rain come in overnight, so I had to put my earplugs in after a while, then got up at a good time, had breakfast and did my chores, then headed out to the grocery store for propane, only to discover that the one guy at the store that works the propane doesn’t work on Wednesdays! Would have been nice if the girl I spoke with last night had mentioned that! Anyway, the next nearest Tractor Supply ALSO didn’t have propane, so I ended up going to a hardware store for it. All this took time, so it was awhile before I got back to camp. I had some lunch, then was reading for a bit when I started to feel very tired and started to fall asleep, so I crawled into bed and had a nice long nap. There’s a tropical storm making landfall near New Orleans, and it’s supposed to arrive here overnight with strong winds and rain, so I figured I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight anyway, so a nap would do me good. It’s supposed to be gone by morning, so maybe I’ll ride in the afternoon. Flash’s ankle seems to be just fine now, so I might take him for a change. I started watching an interesting limited series program on Netflix about a girl chess prodigy, and now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, my love!