Hi Honey!
After a great night sleep and yesterday’s day of rest, I was pretty raring to go this morning. Even before my breakfast, I started working on the water leak in the ice-maker, finding it right away, since it was dry when I started. Turned out to be the same fitting at the end, I had so much trouble getting it on the last time, I’m not surprised it sprung a leak. That required a trip to the nearest Ace Hardware in town, where I got both the parts I needed for the leak and an exchange on a carriage bolt that I had bought at Greeters in Altamont for the ramp ends I made to use as levelers when the trailer leans to one side, so now I can finish putting that together as soon as I roll off those planks. I actually learned a good lesson when I used them here, because I wanted to see how much opening the slide offset the balance, turns out not to be as much as I thought. I have a good handle now on how many notches on the bubble level require how many inches of board, which should be a useful measure in future. Anyway, I replaced the fittings on the ice-maker, and now it’s working and not leaking again! Hopefully this will be the last flood for a while. I tried to look at the parking brake on the truck, but nothing I tried seemed to work, so I either have to jack it up and take it all apart to tighten them, or pay someone else to do it, which I’m thinking is a better option, if it’s not too much. Started looking for a mechanic late in the day, but haven’t heard back yet. I also received my replacement hay bags, had to wait by the mailbox after the office had closed, the mailperson didn’t arrive until almost 5:30! I had purchased a couple that were on sale, but they were too small, and one of them was literally coming apart at the seams by the morning after I put it up, and was almost in shreds by this morning. This time I bought the nylon strap weave kind (not the nylon rope, I have some of those, too), I’ve never tried those before but I always liked the way they seemed to work, thought I’d give them a try. They seemed to be much larger than the other ones, and they did seem to hold more hay, but not a huge amount, which is fine, they’re designed to slow the horses’ eating down, to keep them busy longer. I hope that works. Anyway, I got what I wanted to get done before it started raining, which it did most of the afternoon, so I just mostly read the latter part of the day. Settled down as usual, took my shower early, so now I’m just waiting for Lola and I’m off to bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Babe,
After another good night sleep, it was a beautiful morning, so I sat out in the screen room for a while, but I eventually had to come inside because across the road from me was a family in a camper that never stopped yelling at their kids or each other, or whoever else they brought with them. The only time I’ve had any peace was when they either all went to the bathhouse or they all went to the lake with their boat. Whenever they came back there was constant screaming, mostly about nothing. I can’t tell you how happy I was when they finally packed up and pulled out! No horses, just a boat. I decided not to get involved in any projects today, or even to go riding, as it got really hot. It never rained (despite the forecast, again!), but it was close to 90 degrees. By afternoon I was in the trailer with the AC on anyway. So I spent the day mostly reading, a little television, a couple of computer games, watched a movie for a change, a really lazy day. I figure if I recharge today, I’ll be ready to tackle a couple of jobs tomorrow, starting with the leak in the refrigerator, which I have to locate and hopefully, fix. I took Lola for one quick walk around the campground, on a leash, just to see who was left, and there are two campsites still occupied, one with horses and one without, both in tents. Not sure how long they’ll be here, but it certainly is much quieter in camp now! Still going to use my earplugs though, so whinnying and birds won’t wake me in the morning. Time for shower and bed now. Good night, my love!

Hi Babe,
Rain came pouring in this morning, so I stayed in bed reading until it finally cleared through, after 9:00. Once I got the animals fed I went back to working on my taxes, double-checking everything, rearranging some stuff on my computer bookkeeping program, and generally getting the job done. Was happy to see that the British Pension folks finally got everything cleared up, there was a couple of nice deposits in my account. They have a lump sum they call a bereavement benefit, but it’s over 10 times what the US government pays as a burial benefit! It seems I’ will be getting a monthly payment, too, but I’m not sure how long it lasts. I thought I read somewhere it’s for 18 months, but it could be until I reach retirement age, not sure, so I wrote and asked the question, haven’t heard back yet. That’s a relief, though, it takes some of the pressure off from the coronavirus-inspired postponements I’ve had to endure. FINALLY managed to send my taxes off around 4:00 this afternoon, yay! It wasn’t too long after that when another rainstorm came in, lots of wind and thunder, but I managed to the get the horses fed just before it came through. Settled down for a nice quiet evening, though it’s not really very quiet, tons of people came in (it’s Memorial Day weekend, early this year,) so there’s lots of screaming kids, unfortunately. But the park staff closed off a bunch of sites, again because of the coronavirus, so at least there’s a lot of space between me and my nearest neighbor, thank goodness. A woman I met a few weeks ago down at Chickasaw is here, they were going to go to the Land Between the Lakes, but evidently they’re still closed! She recognized the trailer and stopped to chat for a few minutes. Anyway, the evening is coming to an end, but I’m going to take Lola for a quick walk to the dumpster with the garbage, she hasn’t been out hardly all day, then jump in the shower, etc., etc.! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Forecast called for rain so I decided to do my taxes. It didn’t rain, so I missed a day of riding and didn’t get my taxes finished. You know how grumpy both of those things make me. ‘Nuff said. Good night, my love!

Hey Darlin’!
Well, rain came in again, no surprise there! It’s been such a wet spring, makes me thing I should have headed west for the sunshine! I started out the morning after chores going through my bookkeeping to get ready to do the taxes, hoping to maybe even actually get started on them, but it took me longer than I thought to find some odd transactions, so before I knew it, I got a call from the office that a package had arrived for me. I had ordered a couple of nice new rain sheets for the horses, I figured since they were going to be outside in the elements so much they should be better protected, and even though they were very reasonably priced, they really seem like good quality, actually a lot heavier than I expected. I also got a couple of new hay bags, like the canvas ones only with a plastic lining to keep the hay dry, I hope they work better than the string bags. After I picked up the package I headed down to Tractor Supply in Lexington to pick up some citronella shampoo that I had ordered (I kept thinking that SOMEONE must be making a fly-repellant shampoo,) hopefully this will work, though the flies haven’t been as bad over here as they were at Chickasaw. I was disappointed, though, because they didn’t have any balancer, or any Bronco fly spray by the gallon. I picked up a bag of senior feed, but just as I reached the checkout with my one item, a woman with a cart literally overflowing with stuff moved quickly and intentionally in front of me. I decided I didn’t need to sit in line that long for one bag of feed I didn’t really need anyway, though I’m going to have to get some soon. I’ll have to do a search for balancer tomorrow, hopefully someone’s got it, or I can order it in time for me to get it at the next place. Walmart was the next stop, stocking up on essentials there and getting fuel in the truck, and that’s it! Got home, played with Lola for a bit, then I felt a little sprinkle of rain so I started to feed the horses, and put their new rain blankets on as the rain started to get heavier, green for Apollo, red for Flash. For once I got something just the right size for them! Got the new feed bags out, too, so they’re all fully outfitted nicely now. Got nice and wet doing it, then slipped on the mud on the hill and got nice and muddy, too! Well, I need to do some laundry soon anyhow. Well, that’s all the news, settled down to dinner and TV, now it’s off to shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Well, no floods today inside the trailer, but there’s still a leak of some kind in the basement, so I guess one of my first chores after I’ve settled in at Natchez Trace is going to be removing the basement covers and seeing exactly what is going on down there. Be a good chance to fix a bunch of stuff, I guess, maybe even adjusting the slide so that it closes properly, if I can figure out how to do that. Thank goodness for the internet! Meanwhile, I spent the day breaking everything down and putting stuff away. I also moved the horses over to a highline next door so I could try to clean up the area that I fenced in, but it’s so muddy there wasn’t a whole lot I could do except scatter manure around and try to step down some of the worst divots. There’s no special footing under the highlines and with all the rain, it’s just a big area of sloppy mud. I paced myself, so it ended up taking up most of the day, but I even hooked up the truck so I should be able to get out pretty early. Of course I’ll have to divert to the RV dump first, but I should still arrive plenty early enough to get things set up, unless it starts to rain. Naturally, one of the reasons I decided to travel tomorrow was because earlier in the week the forecast was for a sunny day, but that has since changed, first 10%, then 20%, now it’s up to 50% chance of rain, but they are still saying in the afternoon, so hopefully I can be fairly settled in before that happens. The whole weekend is supposed to be wet, but next week is looking a lot better, if you believe the forecast… Anyway, I finally settled down for the evening after taking Lola for her last walk, and I’m heading off to shower and bed! Good night, my love!

Hey Babe,
Well, the rain came in on schedule overnight and continued off and on all day. After feeding the horses, all I did today was try to fix the leak in the ice-maker hose (oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the start of a small flood in the kitchen last night when I discovered the leak in the usual place) but the fix didn’t work because I need a new fitting, the old one didn’t hold up well to me removing it, so that’s on my shopping list for tomorrow. After that I did a little work updating my bookkeeping so I can get around to doing my taxes on the next rainy day when I have time. Lola was confined to her quarters or on a leash after her misbehavior yesterday, so we went for a couple of walks around the baseball field that’s next to the horse camp, which is all the running around she’s going be allowed for awhile. I spent part of the afternoon shopping online, buying a couple of decent rainsheets for the horses. One of the old ones has completely been ripped apart, and the $5.00 one I bought at the tack shop is in even worse shape. I figure since these guys are going to be spending a lot of time out in the elements from now on, they deserve a decent rainsheet, so I ordered a couple that had good reviews online. I also managed to find a set of those foldable loppers like the one I used to clear out trails during the Goethe endurance race. They turned out to be hard to find, as they had discontinued the model I was looking for, but then I think I found a newer model at a decent price and ordered those, too. I finally got the back-pay from Social Security, it’s taken months for them to get everything processed, but it looks like we’re on track with that now, should be getting a monthly deposit. Still haven’t heard from the British system, don’t know if I’ll be getting anything from them or not. I also went ahead and made reservations for several of my upcoming stays at horse camps for the next month or so, hopefully all will go according to plan and I won’t lose any money on canceled reservations. Spent over an hour on the phone with my friend Nancy from high school, talked so long the battery on my phone died! We’re tentatively scheduling a camping trip at Watkins Glen for next 4th of July, figured since I was spending the summer in Michigan this year I can spend next summer in NY. Otherwise a really quiet and slow day and evening. I’m going to take Lola for one quick last walk before my shower and bed, so off I go! Good night, my love!