Hey Babe,
Managed to keep busy all day, and got a lot done as well. After feeding the horses, I worked on my union contract, they’re still giving me a lot of trouble about the same old things they always give me trouble about, then took Flash for a ride, only about 6.5 miles but I wanted to check out the water on a few particular trails, and was glad to see it’s mostly gone, safe for tractor travel, so whether I want to put up the few posts I have left, or to mow, I can safely get around a lot more trails. After we got back, I spent about an hour finishing my set up, putting out the skirting, putting up the screen room, and generally getting ready for what looks like the coldest night of the year. It was absolutely gorgeous out on the trail today, but there’s a cold front coming in that’s dropping temps into the mid-30’s tonight, so before dinner, I put the horses’ heavy winter blankets on. I also closed up all the doors and half doors in the barn to keep it warmer, there’s a cool north breeze I wanted to cut off. No one else here yet, but at least my guys will be warm! Expecting a big crowd next weekend, but pretty slow here right now, at least on the equestrian side. Finally settled down to dinner and a Christmas rom-com, as it my wont this time of year. Got the fireplace going, and will likely leave it all night, even got out my flannel sheets with the expectation of a very chilly night! Headed for shower and bed nice and early, which is becoming my habit these days. Looking forward to cuddling up in my little bedroom cupboard, and hopefully, Lola will sleep better tonight! She’s been a real pain the last few nights, scratching on the door and the bedroom divider, her toe nails clicking on the floor. She’s been quiet all day, then when I go to bed she suddenly gets all restless. Hoping she’ll be quieter tonight after our ride today. Anyway, good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
A good night sleep, then after feeding Flash I fixed a fence board that had bome loose in one of the paddocks, picked a few ragweed that were about to bloom, had breakfast, then headed over to brother Glenn’s to check in on his place, with a stop at the hardware along the way. Delighted to find that the chlorine in his pool finally did the job and all of the stains were gone. Other than a plugged up filter and a dead rat that I had to scoop out of the pool, everything else looked great. Fixed the lawn mover as best I could with the parts I got at the hardware store, but didn’t have time to do the mowing yet, I’ll get it done next week. Stopped and got some fuel, then headed down to Jeff’s to pick up Apollo and bring him back to camp for a happy reunion with Flash. Did a little grocery shopping for Christmas at Public, can’t have the holidays go by without some special fixings, like eggnog. Parked the small trailer back in its place, moved some salt for the wells, then settled down for the rest of the evening. Ordered a couple of Trojan batteries for the RV, expensive but they should last, providing I take good care of them. Just starting to rain here. Supposed to be nice during the day here tomorrow, then a huge cold front is coming in, dropping temps into the 30”s, just in time for Christmas! Brrrrr! At least the horses will have the barn to hide in, and I may put some blankets on them as well. Anyway, heading to shower and bed momentarily. Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Slept well again, read for a while in the morning before getting up, then moved Flash over to the barn. I get the impression he expected Apollo to be there, but I haven’t gone to get him yet, maybe tomorrow. Had to just about force myself to do nothing again today, though heaven knows there’s plenty to be done. I was determined to get two full days of rest, though, before getting back to my usual busy schedule. Finished reading the rest of the book A Land Remembered, ended up being a lot more sad than I had hoped, but it’s about the end of an era, so I guess that was inevitable. Only thing I ended up having to do was fool around with my batteries again. I had just filled them up not long ago, and checked them a few days ago, but I put them on charge most of the day, hoping to finally get it to stick, but when I turned the charger off, the power just plummeted to nothing. I went out to check them and discovered they were completely dry again. Filled them with more distilled water, cleaned the terminals just in case that’s a contributing factor, then put the small battery charger on, hoping that a slower charge might be better, but I’m expecting that I’ll have to get a couple of new batteries, an expense I don’t really need, but I don’t see any way around it, I have to have batteries to run the DC side of my RV. Finally got my shower done, heading to bed now. Expecting to have a busy day tomorrow! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had great and much needed night of sleep, woke up after seven but stayed in bed until nine, reading and dozing. Finally got up to feed Flash, had breakfast, hooked up to the new installed water hookups for the Equestrian Camp Host site and proceed to do a bunch of laundry. Finally started reading the book A Land Remembered, all about the history of the cattle industry in Florida, written as a generational novel. It’s the Bible around here for the cow hunters, and I’ve been meaning to read it for years. My friend Luan brought it to me on the first day of the cattle drive, but this is the first chance I’ve had to read it. Read about half of it today. Feeling better, but still deeply tired, so another day off tomorrow, except to go get Apollo and maybe check up on brother Glenn’s pool. A fairly relaxing day, again, much needed! Won’t be long out of bed again tonight! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
Got to bed nice and early last night, then got up at dawn, to a frigid 35 degrees! Put on my long underwear and proceed to quickly pack up. Made some coffee but just grabbed juice and a protein bar for breakfast. Was on the road before 8:30. I had decided to take the turnpike, even though I hate paying the tolls, but I would have spent the same amount of fuel and taken an hour longer to go around it. Unfortunately, there was an accident nearly Orlando which caused a 90 minute slow down, so I got off early anyway, which probably ended up being a mistake because SR27 had too many lights on it, so I headed back to the turnpike on the other side of the crash, and ended up in a construction zone. Whatever, I ended up arriving at Dupuis just before 2:00, did only the barest of set ups, put Flash in the nearest paddock with hay and water, and promptly climbed up into bed. I could feel myself winding down during the drive, and knew that after three weeks of non-stop activity, a crash was soon to be upon me. I read and napped for several hours, finally got up and made some dinner, watched a little TV, but will soon be heading for bed again. So glad to have electric again, my storage batteries are completely not holding a charge anymore. I have so much stuff to do once I recover, but I am taking a couple of days off!! Exhausted! Won’t be long out of bed tonight! Good night, sugar! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, went out on the side-by-side with DeDe and retrieved a lot of the markers, with my helpers Kelsey and Alexis doing more than half, we picked up buckets, met Jo and Helen for lunch at Willard’s, got back to camp and finished packing and handing over all of the ribbons, markers and other ride paraphernalia back to Jo, then did most of the packing on the trailer, including hooking up the truck so that I can get out of here early tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for temps in the 30’s in the morning, brrrrr! So glad I got out my Alaska parka and washed it, I’ve been using it every day! Settled down at dusk, but my batteries are holding such a low charge, I doubt the furnace will make it through the night, so it’s going to be a tough morning! Switched Flashes light blanket out for his heavy one, too. Watched a little TV, but going to bed early tonight to read, just to stay warm. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Yesterday was so busy I didn’t even take the time to write my blog, but suffice to say it was a very busy day! Did all that was needed to be done for the trails, had lunch and dinner over at the ride camp at Helen’s, and went to bed nice and early yesterday. Woke up early to the alarm today, and was busy all day with the ride. Started out early and ended up late as the timer of the last of the 50 milers that didn’t get in until nearly 6:30, well after dark and after I had to put my Alaska parka on, which I wore this morning as well. Waiting for the last few stragglers, I had Lola at my feet, me sitting in a chair bundled up, with a Goethe Benefit blanket spread over both me and Lola, it was quite the picture, I’m sure. A long and tiring day, heading to the shower and bed. Once last busy day taking down markers and picking up troughs tomorrow, and then I’m done! With the weather forecast as it is (COLD AND RAINY!) I’m planning on heading south on Monday, earlier than I expected, but appropriate if the forecast remains the same. A busy and productive day, but exhausted! Still not fully recovered. SO need a couple of days off! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Woke up before my early alarm (I really don’t like getting up when it’s still dark!)1`, and was ready to go when Jo picked me up at 8:00. We ran some errands, picked up water troughs and distributed them, then went to lunch at Willards. Great patty melt, but the service is unbelievably slow there. Then met DeDe with her side-by-side and went out and re-marked the corrections on the Red Dot trail, only took about 90 minutes. Glad to be back in camp nice and early, get a few hours to relax anyway. Nothing going on tomorrow until dinner tomorrow night, though I’ve been invited to come over for lunch as well, so I’ll have a much needed relaxed day tomorrow, too. Evidently we have a real system down now, everything has gone smoothly, even the changes in the trail were a minimal issue. Practice makes perfect, I guess! Settled down for the evening, put a blanket on Flash tonight since it’s supposed to go down into the 40’s (brrrr!) watched a little television, ready to take my shower and hit the hay! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Heya Sweetie,
Woke up a time or two during the night, but finally got out of bed after 8:00, though I read a little before getting up. Did my chores and a little extra work around the trailer. Weather forecast is for a very cold weekend, so I went up into the attic and pulled out my Alaska parka and washed it, along with some other laundry, managed to put some wire loom around the drains on the refrigerator, don’t know how well the duct tape will hold, but it’s a temporary solution anyway. Washed out the horse trough here at the trailhead, revisited the Red Dot Trail with Kelsey and decided to make some changes, so that’s something else that needs to be done tomorrow. Supposed to rain, so I’ve called DeDe to bring over her side-by-side, since I’m not going to ride Flash in a cold rain. Finally went into town to fill up three propane tanks, do some shopping, and fill up the truck with fuel so I can get home without stopping, maybe. Finally ended the day meeting Margarita and George for dinner at Willard’s, had a lovely steak, so that’s two days I’ve pigged out at a restaurant. Not stepping on the scale tomorrow! Got back around 7:00, planning on an early shower and bed. Sorry to say, Lola got into the bedroom while I was gone, so there’s probably some sand in the bed now, grrrr! Didn’t block it off well enough before I left, so it’s my fault, I know. Still tired, and keeping this busy isn’t helping much. I expect when I get back to Dupuis, I’ll crash for a couple of days! At least, I hope I get the chance to do that! Anyway, that was my day. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up a couple of times during the night, and was thinking about getting up around 7:00, then decided to lay in for a bit, dozed off, and the next time I looked at the clock, it said 11:45! Holy mackerel! Well, it turned out my clock had jumped forward an hour, don’t know why, but still, 10:45 was ridiculous, but I obviously needed it. More than 12 hours of sleep, that’s crazy! I heard other campers leave, and someone come in for day riding, and when they left for the trail, Flash started whinnying away. I thought it was just because they were leaving him behind, but I think by then he was just hungry! Finally got up and fed him, then put up the highline and eventually moved him over, took down his paddock, did a load of laundry, got out the awning and porch rug, disconnected, then found a problem with my refrigerator, it didn’t seem to want to switch over to propane, so I had to fool with that awhile. In between, I played fetch with Lola, she was desperate for some exercise. Spoke to the day riders for a bit when they came back as well. Jo came by to hand off the trail markers so that I could start putting them out tomorrow. Had her help me put some stuff in the attic, then finally was able to relax a bit after she left. Dinner, shower will soon be next, and an early bedtime tonight, I’m still crashing! Good night, babe! Love you!