Took a quick run out to fill up our propane tank, which we’ve been going through like crazy with extremely cold nights every night this week (in the 20’s, quite unusual for Tucson). Got caught in a little rainstorm on the way back from the Shell station, managed to throw a cover over the last bale and a half of alfalfa we have left before it got too wet, then settled down to a cold and rainy day and evening.

Took a quick run out to Walmart for a few essentials (and ran into Delford reading a Western Horseman magazine there!), got some gas for the generator, and paid up for another week of camping. Continuing to feel lazy, so again, we spent the rest of the day just hanging out.

Took a long walk with Billy today, since we’ve been to lazy the last few days to go, and I wanted to check out trails going in the other direction, and that are not on the map, so I headed northwest out of the campground and started following hoofprints. About a mile out, I passed a guy on a mule, and oddly, he looked familiar to me. I thought maybe he was the mule wrangler from the Grand Canyon we met several years ago, but he had much bushier facial hair, so I let it go and kept walking. Love the look of these trails here on the flats, boots won’t be necessary, and though it may not be overly interesting, the trails do seem to weave around in a complex network that would at least create some variety. According to my GPS, the walk ended up being 1.87 miles, a lot farther than I thought I’d been walking, though this one was definitely longer than most others. Just before arriving back at the camp, I ran into the same mule and rider, who had stopped at the entrance to the camp. He looked at me and asked, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I told him that he looked familiar, just that I couldn’t place him. He reminded me that his name was Delford, and we had met in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico earlier this summer. We had a nice chat, and I invited him over to the trailer to say hello to Hubby, and to get his phone number. He’s staying at a ranch on the other side of the flats, sounds pretty good, water and electric for $17/night. If they kick us out of here for overstaying our 14 day limit, we may have to move over there for a few days! Evidently, after leaving here in March, he’s planning on going to Dripping Springs, TX, exactly where we’ll be heading after the first of the year! Crazy, small horse world, twice in two days!

Christmas Eve, so we took the day to relax, watch movies, and just chill out today! Had another couple move in to the camp, and amazingly, they live near Bellingham, WA, right where we kept the horses during our Alaska trip this summer! When I showed her on Google Earth where the barn was, she said that her horse had been trained right in the round pen that we were parked next to!! Crazy, small world! Had a nice chat with her, Linda, and her husband, Dave. They came over and we spent some time on the computer showing her various places we’ve been and answering questions they had. An enjoyable evening, a nice way to spend Christmas Eve in a horse camp!

Watched football, missed our morning shows because evidently a dispute between Dish and Fox has pulled our normal channels off the air. Not sure how Hubby’s going to handle it, he has Fox News on half the day. Fox wants people to switch to Direct, Dish says they’re just trying to keep costs down and Fox is trying to force them to take more channels they don’t want. I’m not about to switch to Direct, since it means new equipment that I’m not prepared to invest in right now. Hopefully, they’ll get it resolved soon (and frankly, I’m happy not to have the news channel on all day long anyway, I’m sure I’ll get more writing done this way!

Pretty tired from yesterday’s long ride, plus the trails are obviously really busy today, with lots of hikers, riders and cyclists, so we sat the day out. I did move the horses out into another corral that was a bit dryer, and raked out their corrals a couple of times to try to get them dried out, which helped somewhat. Clio’s was almost dry by the time I got done, but Apollo’s still had a few pockets of mud. No more rain in the forecast, though, so hopefully it will get better. Good news is that Clio seems to be eating this hay much better, but she’s still pushing her nose into it and sorting through it, so I suspect some of it is getting pushed down her trough into Apollo’s reach, and he’s actually finishing it off. Just keeping an eye on her weight, for sure.

Had some more heavy rain overnight, but fortunately they were warm and cozy under a solid roof, though the rest of their corral is a muddy mess. I’m SO glad we left their rain sheets on, not just to keep them dry, but to keep them clean! Every exposed area was thick with mud, all over their faces and the top of their necks, I can only imaging what the rest of them would have looked like without them! Cleared up a bit more in the afternoon, but still too muddy to do any corral cleaning. Did manage to get some more pages done on the book, though!