Hiya Sweetie,
Another late morning, staying in bed to avoid the inevitable freezing! Thankfully, my small space heater is doing a bang up job, and my furnace hasn't had to come on at all! I waited until after the outside temperature reached above freezing (it took until almost 11:00!) before trying to turn the water back on, and even then I had to put some hot water on the my spigot to get it going, even though the rest of the campground was flowing freely. My pipe is out in the wind chill and not insulated, so it took longer. I was finally able to get it going, but when I fed the horses this morning, I had to take a block of wood to break the ice in their water buckets. I don't come down to Florida for this! I should be farther south! Finally managed to fill my tank, so I started on some laundry, did several loads throughout the day. Did some computer work, read for a bit, then had to meet two of the TOG folks down at Apex to go over where the stations will be. Stopped at Jo's to pick up a package, then got home by about 4:30. Turned the water off again at dusk, settled down for the evening, heading to bed shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Took awhile to get out of bed this morning, got my chores done, did some work on the computer, did some housework, tried to get my new bathroom carpet to fit but it was too big, so that's going back. Ordered something smaller, without a horse theme. Got my new travel size My Pillow for my trip. Spent most of the day reading, except I tried to fix one of the ramp stops that had gotten broken somewhere along the line, probably when I was struggling to get in this site the other day. Must have scraped a tree or something. Weird because it was on the opposite side of the trailer as the ladder, which I also scraped off somehow. That was not a good day! More work to do to get that fixed. It got windy and the temps dropped, supposed to be going down to 19 degrees with a wind chill factor even lower! I turned the well pump off as a precaution. Brought out my little space heater in order to save on propane, my furnace had gone off a couple of times this morning, even though it wasn't that cold yet. I think the space heater will be enough tonight, though, along with the fireplace, as it's very efficient. Settled down for my usual evening, my latest binge is a Canadian series called Regenesis, about an agency that tracks down viruses and other gene-related things. Guess I'm getting into these science-type programs for the moment! Heading to bed before too long! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep and another chilly morning, again having to turn the furnace on even though the electric fireplace was on all night. It just wouldn't keep up! I spent most of the morning working on the TOG website and FB pages, then finished up the plumbing repair on the water spigot, so that's back to good as new. Got word that one of Val's young horses escaped into the forest, so I posted some info on a couple of sites to spread the word. I moved some hay into the trailer, than ran back to the hay place to pick up my purse, which I had inadvertently forgotten yesterday. Then off to Michelle's to drop off five bales of hay in advance of me moving over there, leaving enough under the gooseneck to last me the duration of my stay here. Picked up Helen and took her over to Willards where we had dinner together. I ate too much, as I always do when I eat out, so no weight loss tomorrow morning! Got word that Val's horse had been found, which was good to hear! Settled down for the evening, watched a few more episodes of the mini-series, and soon off to bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another chilly morning, down to 27 degrees! Think I need to winter in Costa Rica to escape the cold! And it's only going to get worse over the weekend, they're calling for lows in the teens! Brrr! So glad I have a full 50 amp hookup, though even running my fireplace all night (and after raising it's thermostat to 75 degrees), I still have to put on the gas furnace in the morning to take the chill out. Did some work on the computer before heading out to do errands. Picked up my mail in Dunnellon, did a little shopping and got fuel at the Walmart, then ran up to Williston, stopping at Triple J to look at their coastal hay, then to the Chocolate Station and Sparrs to ask for donations for the Taste of Goethe. Went to Farmers Direct, who also donated, though I passed on their coastal. Their latest load wasn't as nice as it has been, and the hay at Triple J was better (and cheaper!) so I stopped by there and picked up a 21 bale bundle, most of which I stored under the gooseneck, since I don't have my tractor to put it away in the front stall. The rest will go over to Chelle's, where I will be moving after I leave here. I was glad to put up the skirting around the hay, that should help keep the cold out from under the bed, if only for a little bit. Of course, I always like the smell of fresh hay that drifts upward, it's almost like sleeping in a lovely barn! After putting everything away, I decided it was warm enough to do the plumbing repair I needed to do on the spigot I ran over, so I got that about half done, with the rest waiting until everything dries before I put the post back in and bury everything. I'm not likely to keep it hooked up anyway, not with the freezing temps they're forecasting! It's safer to just fill up the fresh water tank in my trailer! At least with a working spigot I can keep the horses' water full. Finished my bing of Departure and started an old mini-series based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, pretty dry but it'll do. A productive day, though I'm looking forward to once again crawl into my lovely flannel sheets! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Had a pretty good night sleep, laid in for awhile waiting for the sun to warm up things a bit. Despite having the electric fireplace on all night, when it got into the 20's, it couldn't quite keep up, so in the morning, I ran the furnace for a bit, just to warm it up a bit. Spent most of the day on the computer, working on Taste of Goethe stuff. Chelle is having to help her Mom look after her ill dad, so she delegated some of her usual work to me, so I had to try to get up to speed on that today, which I managed to do to some degree. Still a bit of a learning curve ahead, though! Meanwhile, I revisited the signage to update that from last year. Jo has agreed to make signs again this year, as well as let us borrow her trail markers. We seem to be on track, though I'm not involved with the food portion of it. Anyway, I was hoping to attend the meeting, scheduled for Meg's house, via Zoom so I wouldn't have to go out in the cold, but Dina asked for a ride, so I braved the chilly temps and made do. My Alaska parka is getting a lot of use this week! Meeting was about what you'd expect, progressed a few things a little bit, got assigned more stuff to do, so it will be a busier couple of weeks. Got back around 9:30, tea/shower/bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Slept late, but still felt tired most of the day, not surprising after all the energy spent over the weekend. Got involved with a bunch of stuff happening at the campground. One camper and his wife, regulars here at BP, came over to chat, while in the meantime, a very large family of apparently homeless people were being moved out by the FWC, the law enforcement end of the Forest Service. Apparently, they have been camping here over three weeks, well past the 14 day limit, and haven't been paying. According to the camping couple, they were in their spot when they arrived last Wednesday and they had to wait quite awhile for them to move out to another site. It took hours for them to move out, with two FWC cars waiting for them to move. They drove off with their slide-out still open, apparently it didn't work. While I have some sympathy for their situation, there must be services that can help, especially since there were two young kids and a teenager in the group. Apparently they've been making a mess in the bathroom every day according to the ranger, and before FWC arrived there was a screaming match at the bathroom door. Not to rehash old news, but I can't help but think these kinds of problems would have been avoided if they had a camp host here. Anyway, Art came by and took Lola for a walk, then he went into town and tried to get the elbow joint I needed to make the spigot repair, but the Ace person gave him the wrong size, so later in the day, we went back to exchange it, as well as to pick up Art's truck from the repair shop, before heading back to Canada in his car. It was supper time by the time this was all over, so I didn't quite get the restful day I was looking for, but I did relax in the evening, so hopefully after another good night sleep, I'll be thoroughly rested and ready to tackle a busy week! As predicted, far from having to put on the AC tonight, I've had the fireplace on for the last few hours (and will keep it on all night), and put the winter blankets on the horses, since the forecast says it going down below freezing tonight. Glad I have electric! Looking forward to getting into my flannel sheets, though! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Not the best night sleep, but I was in no hurry to leave this morning, so I took my time doing everything. Ended up taking so much time I left later than I had originally planned! Always the way. Still, I was leaving camp at 11:00 and arrived at the Cracker Horse property where the ride is being held at 12:30, which was good timing. There were a few trailers here before me, but not many. The gentleman coordinating the parking managed to find me an electric spot (yay!), so that was a good sign. Unfortunately, despite all the grass around, it was soft sand underneath, so despite being told that all the ground here was solid, I ended up getting stuck trying to back my trailer into site 19, where I had been assigned. There was just enough of a little dip to slow me down, and that got me stuck. I was far enough out of the way, though, so I just unhooked to make it easier. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to get me out of the hole at that point, so my new neighbor Maris was kind enough to bring her truck over and pull me out of the rut. I'll have to hook back up at a 90 degree angle to get out again, hopefully. I noticed a big tractor in the pavilion, though, which I imagine will be put into service on Sunday when folks (and me!) are leaving! Hopefully it won't come to that, but at least they're prepared. My vet friend Art had
perfect timing, and remarkably was pulling into the road that leads to this place right behind me, though he let me settle in before making his way over to me. After I finished getting set up, with a highline on posts that were provided (though I have plenty of room to set up a fence if I like, just not sure it's worth the trouble for just three days,) starting a load of laundry, and confirming there wasn't much for us to do yet, the two of us decided to go to a lovely Indian restaurant for which I had seen a billboard on the way in, and it was a delightful dinner, with lots of leftovers! Our task after that was to stop at Publix and pick up some pre-ordered fried chicken (200 pieces, most of which was leftover after dinner, but will undoubtedly be munched on throughout the weekend, though I understand there's another event that it may be going to), and got back just in time for dinner at 6:00. We stayed through the ride meeting, and then I got my assignment for tomorrow, taking down the markers on the lime/yellow trail, and part of the blue. That will take Flash and I all day, as the distance is over 13 miles each way! He's certainly fit enough, and the weather will be great, albeit a bit on the warm side (the way I like it!) We'll head out around 9:00 and hopefully be back before dinnertime. I've done most of these trails before here on the Greenway, though we came in from the west side heading east, instead of east to west like we'll be doing tomorrow. Love this kind of volunteer trail work! So back to the trailer by 7:30, managed to get in an hour of TV (my new binge is a very compelling series called Departure, which follows the equivalent of NTSB investigations of transportation crashes), and manages to leave every episode with a cliff-hanger. Good stories, good cast, really enjoying it. Anyway, tea, shower and bed for me! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Cooler than it was supposed to be, but what else is new? Took my time getting out of bed and doing chores, then got online to wire the funds for my vacation. Took a quick trip into Lakeland to pick up a few items at Walmart, fill up two propane tanks at Tractor Supply (I've been going through a lot with all this cold weather!), and a final stop for fuel just to top off my tank. Then got a notice that my wire couldn't be sent from one account (after I had transferred it from another!), managed to transfer it back, tried to wire it again, only this time the problem was on the receiving end! Didn't think it would be this complicated, but I'll be trying again tomorrow. Settled in for the evening, finished the first season of All Creatures and started another series called Departure, about a plane getting lost over the Atlantic. Probably not the best show to watch prior to flying to Africa! Anyway, it was a quiet evening, only two other campers here now, so I've been letting Lola wander a bit, which is making her a much happier camper. Ready for tea, shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Woke up to another chilly morning with no real plans today, being a holiday. About the only thing I did today was chat with my neighbors Jim and Sherry from Michigan before that packed up and left, read, and watched a few more episodes of my TV binge. Too cold to do much else today! It's getting nicer later this week, though, so I'm looking forward to that. Rest of the evening, the usual repeat! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a hard time getting to sleep last night, so when I finally did, I ended up sleeping late, which was no problem, the horses didn't even whinny for their breakfast this morning! Finally did get up and do my chores, but I skipped breakfast because I was meeting our old friends from Richer Farms over in Dade City. I met them at a little restaurant, had a lovely breakfast and then spent the afternoon over at their farm, with nonstop conversation, as always, and the time just flew by! Great to see them again! On my way out, I almost got plowed into by a car with Virginia plates that pulled right out in front of me. I was barely able to swerve out of the way, and my back four tires undoubtedly left some rubber on the road, I slammed on my brakes so hard. I pressed my horn the entire time, and carried on, but I noticed he pulled over half a block away. I just went past him, but I hope I scared the hell out of him, as he certainly do the same to me! That's the second time a car from Virginia has almost got me in an accident. Coming through Lakeland on Thursday, another one pulled out right in front of me when I had the trailer behind me, and if she had accelerated, it would probably have been alright, but instead she crawled out of the driveway and slowed down! Again, I had to hit my brakes hard, and I knew the horses were getting tossed around in back, but there was nothing I could do. If I had had the trailer today, there's no way I could have stopped in time, it would have been a real mess! Anyway, after that, I stopped at the small Walmart for a couple of things I needed, and managed to get back to camp by about 5:30. It was over 70 this morning, then a cold front blew through and the temps dropped about 20 degrees, with lows close to freezing predicted by morning, so I put blankets on the horses and called it a night. Finally finished off all twelve seasons of Bones tonight, and started on another, All Creatures Great and Small, though only the first season is free. A busy day with a quiet evening, just the way I like it! Tea, shower and bed forthwith! Good night, sweetie! Love you!