Hi Babe!
Though I hadn't really planned on it, the weather forecast, which is essentially dismal for the rest of the week, coerced me into thinking that today was a good day to get the manure bin done. I have the materials, but have had a surprisingly lackluster response to my call for volunteers to help, so I figured, what the heck? It's not like it's difficult construction, it's a manure bin, right? So after doing some morning chores, which included making some chaney root tea and bushhogging the horses' pen to break down the manure, I took off the bushhog and put on the awl, with help from Teri from Wisconsin, who was kind enough to ask if I needed help before she went off on a ride, I started building the manure bin. I started out using the diagrams that I received from the folks who helped me build them in past years, but quickly decided it was too big for the space, so I reduced the size proportionately, from 16' to 12', and started working. It took me all afternoon, and I still have to add more screws and possibly fix one post that got a little out of plumb, and one board that still needs to be added (which is odd, because we bought extra of EVERYTHING except the 1x6x12 which I needed), and, between threatening drops of rain, managed to almost finish it off. Won't take long to finish it, but the forecast for the coming week actually includes snow (yes, I'm in Florida), so I'm not sure when it will be done. Tomorrow is all about rain, but that's fine, I have to finish the trail maps for the Taste of Goethe, so it's all good. You know what they said, it's good enough for the government, and I'm just a volunteer, with no construction experience other than watching others, but it's workable, and I guess that's all the matters! I celebrated with a martini (still trying to finish off that bottle of dry vermouth we've had for YEARS!), a nice hot tub, which was much appreciated, my shower, and soon to bed! Good night, my darlin! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had another great night sleep, probably stayed in bed too long, but it's hard to muster the energy to get out of warm bed when it's barely 40 degrees, especially when an unexpected rain rolls in, though it only lasted a few minutes. Yeah, I know, much worse for those north of me, but still, bad enough! Got the horses fed, chores done and breakfast finished before deciding that today I would replace my stove burners today. I had one of the guys from the trailer place look at the problem I was having, i.e. they were flaring up so high it was turning my pots black, and he said they just needed new burners, which are an easy parts replacement. I ordered those online and received them last week, so I decided I would do that today. Of course, one little job leads to another and another... It took awhile to get the rusty screws loose to get the two burners out (I hardly use the third one, and it works fine, so I decided not to replace it), and once I did that, I set out to clean the top of the stove. It was rusty and dirty, so I started cleaning, then putting a layer of Ospho rust remover on it and let that dry. I used a wire brush to clean a lot of it. As I was moving stuff off the counter area, I noticed the seal around the kitchen window was getting bad, so I cleaned that up and resealed it. I hadn't cleaned the knife block in a long time, so I gave that a good coating of Old English. I could still faintly smell the dead mouse from last week, so I did an extra scrubbing down there, then cracked open my Great Stuff and filled the hole that the meeces had evidently chewed through to get into the cupboard. Then I remembered that I thought I had another hole that needed filling under the shower, but when I took the vent off, I saw I had already done that, but vacuumed and cleaned the vent while I was there. Did a bunch more cleaning while I was at it. Finally got back to the stove, took off all the dials and washed those, finished wire-brushing everything down and vacuuming that out, finally put the new burners in, and voila! They both worked perfectly! Job done! Then, since I had the vacuum out anyway, I did the new carpet, to get up all the biscuit bits Lola insists on leaving all over the place, and that I keep stepping on, ouch! Put everything away, opened some mail from yesterday, and generally ended up having a productive and busy day. My usual evening routine, hot tub included, and headed to bed soon! Love you, darlin'! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
For some reason, Lola was extremely restless last night, and I ended up having to let her out after 1:00. I kept listening for her to come back, and got up a couple of times to try to get her in, but she was having none of it. I finally woke up after 5:30 to her scratching at the door and got up to let her in. Needless to say, it wasn't the best night sleep I've ever had. Went about my chores until ranger Rick came by, handed off some bags of recyclables I collected from Helen yesterday, then headed straight up to Williston to get new batteries in the truck. I was thrilled this morning that, after leaving the charger on the truck all night, it started immediately, and all of my dashboard stuff had returned, so I obviously didn't blow the computer as I feared! Got the new batteries installed at Advance Auto, which now carries the Diehard brand. I had tried to order them online to take advantage of a 20% winter discount, but of course, they were exempt from that. Fortunately, the gal at the store was nice enough to give me a 10% discount, and installed them for me as well. Starts right up now! I stopped at the trailer place on the way back to have them check the new brake controller I installed yesterday, was very glad they seem to be working just fine now. Looking forward to actually using them with the trailer! Got back to camp, then had a family that was camping ask if their kids could pet the horses, so I did that with them for a few minutes, just before rain was due in. Then we got socked in with rain for the entire afternoon, so I watched a movie, baked some shortbread cookies (I had run out of Lorna Doones and thought I'd give homemade a try, and they came out pretty good!), and settled down for the evening, including a hot tub. Heading for bed shortly! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hiya Babe,
I've really been enjoying some good night's sleep lately, pretty happy about that! Being Sunday, I slept in a little bit, it was cold again this morning, though it finally warmed up to something decent in the afternoon. I spent the morning doing laundry and some serious housekeeping, then I installed the new brake controller that I got, just before DeDe got here, and we headed out and cut some trees out of the trail on the connector that comes from across the road to orange. We were going to try for another one way up north, but here quad was giving her a bit of trouble, and we spent some time trying to figure out what that was. We finally decided her husband would come get it, and she stayed behind to have a glass of wine or two with me, because, once again, my truck wouldn't start. Even the BeatIt charger wasn't enough to get it going. I got the tractor over there and let it run for awhile, but that didn't do it, and finally, I put the charger on, and eventually, after another glass of wine, I was able to get it started. I drove her home, then stopped at Chelle's to drop off the projection screen that was donated the other day, and at Helen's to pick up some cans that she collects to donate to the forest (they have a little recycling project), but the whole time I was driving, my entire dashboard wasn't working. So, another problem to solve. I'm thinking I need to finally go get these batteries changed over, and hopefully it will fix my computer problem. If not, I have another issue to address! It was nearly dark by the time I got home, so I fed the horses, put the truck on the charger, fed me, settled down for the evening, got a hot tub in, watched a rather boring movie about life in Wyoming in 1910, and now I'm ready to call it a night. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Had a fairly quiet morning with reasonable temps after the rain came in during the night, but the temps kept dropping during the day, so I blanketed Apollo. I had already blanketed Flash last night, since he always seem to get a bit more chilled than Apollo. Did a few brief chores on the computer before heading over to Willards for TOG meeting. We got all caught up and are making good progress toward everything. I presented my map plan, which met mostly with approval, with the only bone of contention being that the hikers are only going to go by one food station, albeit they will go by it twice. The trails just don't really allow for a second food station, at least nothing that's very practical. Got back to camp and did some more computer work, doing things that came up during the meeting, and finally settled down for the evening, putting a second blanket on the horses since it's going to be down to freezing again tonight. I even skipped my hot tub, just wasn't in the mood. Heading to bed and shower shortly. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had a good night sleep, all snuggled up in my lovely new flannel sheets and several layers of quilts and my winter bathrobe. Getting tired of it being so cold! I knew it would be too cold to ride today, so I concentrated on taking care of a bunch of phone calls to sort of various medical appointments, just checkups really, and one billing problem that I spent about an hour and a half just trying to resolve, which it finally was. Typical, they were trying to charge me even though it was covered by insurance, yadayadayada. Finally got that done, then got busy sending out Press Releases and PSA's for the Taste of Goethe event. I found someone to donate a projection screen, which we needed for the inevitable powerpoint presentations, so I had to drive up to Bronson to pick that up. Google maps took me in a back way, it looked more like a horse trail and I was a bit leery taking it, and the woman wasn't answering her phone, so I was getting frustrated. She finally called me back and I found my way, but I went out the way I SHOULD have come in, which was the opposite direction. Thanks, Google! Got back to camp and spent a bit of time rolling up my old carpet runner (the one I found by the side of the road a couple of years ago), cleaned up a bit, and lay down a new carpet runner I had bought through Amazon. It's more of a burgundy with a nice Persian style print to it, but it's not laying down very flat. I'm hoping with time it eventually will, because I sure can't tape it down, not when I have to roll it up every time I move. Of course, it might fit under the slide once it's flat, which would be nice. Nice accent to the color scheme in here, though. Finally settled down for the evening, but I don't think I'll get a hot tub in, it couldn't quite make it up to temperature today. I started it a bit late, and it never got above low 50's today, so I'm not surprised. No worries, a hot shower will do me fine. Anyway, my usual one hour series, then a movie, now I'm off to bed shortly! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
I had really hoped it would warm up enough today to go riding, but by the time it reached 50 degrees, it was already too late to go. Considering it started out at 29 degrees, I'm not surprised! There were crystals forming around the edge of the water bucket! And tomorrow is supposed to be even colder! It's supposed to be close to 70 on Friday, though, so that will be my riding day. Beginning to think I need to go further south! So instead I spent the day working on my computer, preparing a press release and PSA for the Taste of Goethe, updating my contact list for local media, and generally doing more planning for the event. I also talked with the trailer place about the fact that I STILL have a leak coming from my kitchen, though now, instead of it leaking through the little drill holes someone had put in there before, now it's leaking along the big long seam where they cut a hole in the floor. I did manage to find the dead mouse, though, it was under my refrigerator, but was hidden behind the curled edge of the linoleum under there, so at least I was able to clear up that smell. I fiddled with my ice-maker as well, no matter how much I adjust it, there's still too much water coming in, making it jam up, another problem they need to come out and fix. They've promised to close up the gap on the opening in the floor that they left, so hopefully less critters will find their way in. Pretty busy but kinda boring day. Looking forward to getting back on the trail! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hiya Sweetie,
Can't believe it's been five years since you moved on to the undiscovered country. Miss you!! The pic is from your last ride at Oak Mountain Alabama on Nov. 19 2019. You were feeling really good that day! It was a lovely ride. Sigh. Was busy today running around. I had to take the small horse trailer all the way over to the east side of Ocala to get someone from the DMV to certify that the title I've had since 2011 in TN was actually for that trailer, because the VIN number was on a label that had completely faded out. It's a problem I've been dealing with since I first brought it to Florida, but I figured I had better get it finally straightened out. Would you believe that guy found a metal plate right on the hitch that still had enough legible numbers to believe me? I can't believe no one else, including me, never found that before, but this guy knew what he was doing. Anyway, I got the paperwork I needed, and walked over to the tax office next door, but the line was so long I gave up. We made a stop at the Walmart in Ocala for fuel and a few essentials, then I headed to the new hay store that opened in Williston, they have some spectacular, super green coastal they're getting from Live Oak, which the horses are absolutely loving, so I went to get another 21-bale bundle. Unfortunately, while I was at Chelle's, I stored the hay where Apollo could reach it, and he ate more than his fair share, so my nearly month supply dwindled down to about two weeks, the pig. Now that we're back at camp, I can at least control his intake a bit more! Then I went to the tax collector in Williston, which had no line at all, as usual, and got my new license plate. I can't believe how expensive vehicle registration is here. In TN, I didn't even have to register a horse trailer and all, and my other vehicles were about $26 a year, where here it's in the hundreds! That little horse trailer, which I'll only use about 4-5 months out of the year, cost me almost $150! Highway robbery, literally. Anyway, got that done, got back to camp, put away my groceries, stored my hay under the gooseneck, and spent the rest of the afternoon answering a long email from my supervisor. I've been finding a few issues with my trailer repairs as well. I noticed I still have dripping from under my kitchen, there are gaping openings from the cuts they made in the basement covering (which I specifically told them not to do, but they did it anyway), my ice-maker worked for about 12 hours but is now jamming, and there's a terrible smell from something that died under my refrigerator, which I can't find, so I'm thinking it got trapped between the floors or something. Guess I'll be calling the trailer place tomorrow! Finally settled down for the evening, watched an interesting sci-fi film, had my hot tub, which was reminiscent of winter nights in TN on our deck, though there wasn't snow (though it felt cold enough!), be in bed shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Spent most of the day working on the computer, getting caught up on all the stuff that piled up over the last couple of weeks. Still putting some things away, and tried to fix my ice-maker. It worked for the first day or so, then quit working. Well, not quit, but it seems like too much water is going into it and it's jamming because the ice is too big or something. I'm wondering if they messed with the settings on it, so I'm dealing with that. Ordered two new burners for the stove, evidently that flaring they've been doing, which has been making black marks on the bottom of my pans, are because the burners are worn out. Should be an easy fix, though. Had some rain in the afternoon and cold weather is coming in for the week, which is unfortunate because I really need to ride the trails at Apex and figure out where we're going for the Taste of Goethe. Not as many trails to choose from as Tidewater, but we'll figure it out. Finally settled down for the evening, though I took my hot tub late because a breaker kept going off and I had to keep remembering to go out and turn it back on again. Not to mention the ambient temperature has gone down considerable, low 30's forecast overnight, so naturally the blankets are on the horses. Anyway, a relatively quiet and physically undemanding day, which I needed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Woke up way too early, read a bit, worked on my shoulder a bit, finally got going way later, but it felt so good! Puttered around in the morning, then went to a Taste of Goethe meeting at Willards at 12:30, got a few more things on my list of things to do, did a few chores around the campsite, then went out with DeDe to put up a couple more sign posts in the Black Prong area. Used the last two posts that I was given, need a few more before we can go any further, but happy that we got done what we did! Settled down for the evening, treated myself to a martini or two, finally got a hot tub back into the schedule now that it's up to temperature. Watched an interesting movie with Meg Ryan, won't be long out of bed, which I have now put flannel sheets on, because the weather forecast for this week is pretty brutal! Good night, sweetie! Love you!