Hiya Babe,
Despite my napping yesterday for several hours, I ended up having an excellent night sleep, and woke up really refreshed. It was a beautiful day, except for one thunderstorm that passed through rather quickly, as they all seem to be doing lately. I did a few chores, including mending the border around the exterior rug, but it was mostly a very quiet day of mostly reading. My neighbor for the past ten day, Brandon, was going to stay until Monday but had overstayed his two weeks and was asked to leave, even though he had received permission from the assistant ranger, but someone else complained, so he's leaving tomorrow. He came by and we chatted for a couple of hours, and we finally had clear enough skies to watch the ISS flyover. I've been looking for it for the last few nights, but it's been too cloudy, but after today's storms, we had a perfectly clear sky tonight, and it came through so early, it was even before the stars came out, so easy to spot. Sorry to see him go, but I imagine I'll run into him at some point. Which reminds me, I forgot to mention that yesterday at Tractor Supply, I actually ran into someone who had stayed at the Goethe Trailhead and immediately recognized me when I went in! Small world! It took me a bit to remember where I knew him from, but he mentioned they had a bus that didn't make it back to NY, and I remembered him and his girl stayed a few extra days, too, because they were waiting for paperwork and parts for their bus or something, that was delaying them. Amazingly small world! Anyway, it was a beautiful day, albeit quiet, but I'm sure I'll make up for it at Otter Creek next week, where the riding is much better. I can't remember sitting around doing nothing for so long, except during the time leading up to my knee surgery, and I'll be glad to get busy again. Anyway, good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Had trouble getting to sleep, read until after 2:00 before I was finally able to drift off. Got up and did all my usual chores, then decided to take a drive down to Painted Post to get some supplies. I had two tanks of propane to fill at the Tractor Supply (still the best place to get tanks filled!), plus some horse feed, then Walmart to get a few groceries, managed to escape with paying just under the usual $100 cover charge :-)! After I finished putting everything away and settled in my chair, I dozed off for a couple of hours, much to my surprise! Hope that doesn't mean I won't sleep tonight! After dinner, feeding and walking Lola, I stopped over at a campsite near Brandon's to meet some folks he met, and we had a nice chat. They were Russian, and had a lot of questions about traveling with horses, which, of course, I was more than happy to answer. The least I can do with living this dream is to share it as much as possible! The matriarch's name was Vera, and I gave her the grand tour and she asked to buy a book, which is always nice! Anyway, won't be long out of bed, though I hope I didn't spoil a good night sleep with too much napping today! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Nothing much happened today, again. Took a few walks and did my PT exercises, which I've been doing intermittently, and spent the rest of the day mostly reading. It was very foggy this morning, and it didn't even clear out until nearly 2:00, with a couple of short drizzles (right when I was feeding the horses, naturally!), but otherwise a mundane day. I had to run the generator for a bit since I didn't have any solar power, but I've really used my generator so sparingly since I've been here, I have no complaints! Just killing time until I get to Otter Creek, where at least there are good trails to ride on. Not sure I want to go out again here. Forecast is more rain this week, so that will solve the issue anyway. Not much else to say, relatively boring day! (Which I know you hate to hear, but I don't mind the occasional boring day) Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a good night sleep, then eventually got around to doing a couple of loads of laundry, hanging them on the line for the first time since I left Florida for a change! Did some housekeeping, mostly read, then finished the day with a fun little movie called Heads of State, and again had a perfect picture, HD and no buffering! What a pleasure! I did put Apollo out on a line for awhile just to get him out of the paddock, and otherwise just enjoyed a quiet day. Not much else to report! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hiya Darlin',
Spent most of this lazy day reading and doing some overdue bookkeeping, as well as some research and online shopping for my upcoming Yellowstone trip. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather, right up until the storm hit. I received a warning about thunderstorms, which didn't bother me, but when it hit, it came in fast with straightline winds that gusted well into 40+ mph, and brought huge hailstones, which I was NOT expecting. The horses ran down to the end of the paddock and put their tails to the wind, but thank goodness they didn't crash through the fence, though it looked for a minute like they might! It only lasted a couple of minutes, but several tents were swept away and ruined, and there were hailstones on the ground. I was very happy that I didn't have any dings in my truck, I was afraid it would get damaged! The radar showed a couple more bands coming, so I ended up putting the horses in the trailer just to be safe, but they both petered out to almost nothing, so I brought them out again. The temps got cooler, but it soon cleared up and turned into a beautiful afternoon and evening. Should be good sleeping weather tonight! Of course, lots more people came in, and they all have a campfire going, so it's pretty smoky out there tonight. Glad it will be cool enough to close my windows and keep the smoke out! Other than that, a pretty mundane day! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

My first ripe tomato

Lola's new hiding place

Hiya Darlin',
Had an incredibly lazy day in camp today, for no particular reason. There was rain in the forecast, and I didn't want to ride today, so I mostly just read and researched local hay. I'm down to two bales, but it's been so wet up here this Spring, hardly anyone has been able to get any hay in, so it's either getting last year's hay or taking a chance on some hay that was sprinkled on. I also looked at my schedule and decided the timing isn't right to visit Patsy this year, and that I'll stay here an extra week, then two weeks at Otter Creek, then one week at Brookfield before hopping down to Meg's. I tried to find someplace new closer to the Catskills and couldn't come up with anything other than that Bear Creek, but it's so primitive, and they charge for it, and it was so noisy last time we were there, not to mention there were no other horse people there at all, just partiers, and the riding wasn't that great, so it's not worth it. The rest of the day was just lazy! Guess I have to have one of those occasionally! Just as a side note, my first tomato is ALMOST ripe enough to eat! Can't wait! So in view of that, I'll be taking my shower and going to bed soon! Good night, my love!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up way early this morning, so I was up and moving pretty quick. Got all the chores done, then headed down to the town of Cranberry, filled up one propane tank at Tractor Supply, fuel at Sheetz ($4.19/gal! I’ve been averaging about $3.35 until now!), and finally Walmart for some basics. Got so much done so early, I was back at camp before 11:00! After putting all the groceries away, I then did a bunch of small chores, like cleaning the AC filter, putting windshield washer fluid in the truck, and making my first dose of the latest diet craze, pink salt mixed with warm water a few other things. It’s supposed to make me drop weight fast, but I’ll believe it when I see it! I have been eating a lot less, getting a lot more exercise, and I’m back down to my pre-holiday, pre-surgery weight, but I sure would like to drop a few more while I’m at it. Spent the afternoon reading, still don’t have much of a data stream, so I struggled with that for awhile. No progress on the Verizon end. Had a storm come through around 5:00, but other than that, whatever rain they were predicting never happened! There is now one other horse camper and the weekend campground host, who came and introduced herself just as I was making dinner. I’m sure we’ll have more time to chat tomorrow. The storm brought cooler temps, so I was finally able open some windows, yay! Though I’ll have to close them again before bed, since they’re calling for rain again overnight. Anyway, just an ordinary, rather mundane day, though I did get a few things done! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
Had an excellent night sleep, and even though I woke up once at 6:00, I dozed off again until 8:00, so the best night I've had in awhile. Got up and did my chores, as usual, then after breakfast went over to visit with my neighbors Bill and Amy, and to let Lola and their dog get to know each other, since we both have been letting them off-leash. After a visit with them, I headed over to the pavilion where camp host Nancy was working, and we chatted for awhile. The other campers saddled up and headed out, with Bill on a very large Peruvian Paso, who was very high energy and promptly dumped him before they even got out of camp. That was the end of that! They packed up and left shortly after, just as a big storm front came through. I got back to my trailer just as it was starting to rain. It was a good storm that lasted awhile, but nothing horrible. Spent the afternoon reading until Nancy and a friend of hers that came to visit came over, and I got out the chairs and the wine and we sat and chatted for a long time. She bought a book, and I ended up giving her that bareback saddle I've been carrying around for so long and haven't used (and probably never would!), it was just taking up space, and it seemed like she could use it for a problem she was having. Hope it works out for her! Had my usual "rest of the evening," which turned out to be gorgeous, though more rain is forecast for later. But tomorrow is supposed to be spectacular, so in addition to laundry tomorrow, I'm definitely going to take another ride! I did a little housework today, so I don't have anything else to do tomorrow except a little packing. A very pleasant, sociable day! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Being that it's still a bit too hot to ride, I decided to spend the day getting caught up on some much needed organizing, beginning with the storage compartments under the mangers. I still hadn't found my grounding posts for my electric fence, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. I pulled everything, wiped everything down, threw away a lot of junk and did get everything organized so I can easily reach everything now. I did NOT find the grounding posts, however, that's still a mystery. I managed to just barely keep ahead of the sun as it moved down the trailer, but I mostly stayed in the shade. My plan was to spend the afternoon in the AC watching the next season of Earth Final Conflict, but it turned out that Amazon wasn't streaming the last two seasons, and I'm not about to sit through commercials to watch a show I wasn't that enamored with anyway. I started looking at other options, and for some strange reason, I just couldn't seem to get any video streams! I have probably the best signal I've ever had in a horse camp, a whopping 4-5 bars, and yet I can't seem to stream anything! I tried for way too long before I finally gave up and returned to reading. I had a visitor, a volunteer who lives nearby to check up on me, and she expressed her worry that if it rained as much as the forecast was predicting, I'd have a hard time getting out of the spot I was in and suggested I try to move to a different spot. I called the office and there really wasn't anything better, and frankly, I didn't really want to move anyway, and Luke in the office assured me that if I had a problem getting out, they would have someone come out and give me a hand. And of course, one never knows how much the weather forecast might be off anyway! I spent some time trying to clear out the blockage in my water tank overflow, and finally managed to clear it using my vacuum and a tube, so now that's fixed. Did some more odds and ends, attempted to once again watch TV and still had no success. Last night I tried out my new "AC" fan, and I must say, it did a great job! After turning off the AC, it kept it nice and cool for the night. I don't think it would do that if the bedroom area weren't already cool, though, I don't think it could handle cooling it down, but it served the purpose. Only thing I didn't like, though, is that when you put on the misting selection, which is the one that really cools, it lights up! Not fully, which is another option, but enough to act as a night light, which I really didn't want or need, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to lessen the effects of that. Anyway, I'll use it again tonight, though it's cooling down tomorrow so I may not need it for the rest of the week. Ready for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!