Hey Darlin’,
A good night sleep, woke up at the right time, was out again a bit after 9:30, and managed to get pretty much all of the green loop done with guide posts. Before I left, though, I noticed my logging chain was missing, dang it! Yesterday was one of the few days I didn’t lose something, or so I thought, but my chain was gone, so after finishing up the green trail, I retraced my trails from yesterday, but no luck. We had a lot of rain here yesterday afternoon, and where it was an inch or two deep before the rain, it was 6-8 inches after the rain, so it’s quite possible it was underwater and I wouldn’t have seen it. I’ll let the hunters know this weekend so if anyone finds it, I might get it back. It’s SLIGHTLY possible I lost it on Tuesday, but it would have had to have been late in the day before but I highly doubt it. I took out the power drill from the loader yesterday because I didn’t need to take it, and I’m sure I would have noticed it was missing yesterday if that was the case, so I’m banking on it being on either the Yellow/Red section of trail, or the Yellow trail between the picnic area and the water crossing just before the family camp. I’ll have to wait for the water levels to go down, though. Anyway, I hope I haven’t lost it for good, I use it all the time! I wore a back brace today, my lower back is hurting a bit, and it helped a lot. Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, we’ve had a lot of rain lately, pretty sure most of the areas I want to get to are too wet now. I do have some more painting to do, though, so maybe I’ll do that! Got back to camp around 1:30, did some more post planning (I swear, it feels like it’s endless!), answered some correspondence, settled down for the evening to a nice thick steak on the grill, my usual routine, though I took my shower early, now I’m ready to go straight to bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Falling into the rhythm of this now! Waking up at 7:30, putting in a good day’s work, recovering in the evening, etc. Took two trips out today, and got eight yellow and red posts out, and another eight yellow posts out. These are just guide posts, with no arrows or crosspieces or anything, just posts to keep people on track. I’d rather have posts than tree markings, so I’m trying to place them in the most critical areas. I’ve put out over 40 posts already this week! Actually took two trips today, since I can’t carry more than eight posts at a time, and that’s pushing it. It only actually took me about half an hour to put in eight posts, but it takes an hour of travel time to pull it off. Was a little wet out there, but not too bad, and I feel like I’m making significant progress. Had to take some ibuprofen this afternoon, though, my lower back is aching from hauling all these posts around! Managed to get back by around 12:30, and I had a lot of correspondence to get caught up on, so that’s how I spent my afternoon. Had a great storm come through, cooled it down enough for me to open my door and get some fresh air in here! What a nice change that is! More rain forecast for the week, but if it starts to bring fall weather, I’m all for it! Settled down for the evening for my usual TV watching activity, soon ready for shower and bed! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep and another productive day. Was out on the tractor by 9:30, worked on the Teal and the Red trails today, got a lot of the arrow posts and plain trail posts out. Moved some of the existing posts from the left side to the right side so that it will be correct with the new system. Made a lot of notes about what other spots need a post, and it seems there are still a lot that need to be created and placed! Every time it seems like I’m turning a corner on completion, I find another bunch of places that need posts. Oh, well, what else have I got to do? I’m going to try to put out as many of the posts that I’ve already made, keep making a comprehensive list of where else I need posts, and hopefully, I’ll just have one more batch to paint and install and I’ll finally be done, maybe! The mornings have been slightly cooler, so it starts out pretty pleasant, and by the time the heat really builds up, it starts to get cloudy, so it’s really not too bad out there. After I got back, I did some online ordering. I needed a bunch of little stuff and a couple of big items, including a big tire for the back of the tractor. It’s starting to crack in places, and I certainly don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere when it finally goes. It actually looks like the original tire from when it was built back in the 70’s, or maybe they put new tires on when they imported it from Japan, but even that means it’s over 20 years old. I replaced the other one about five years ago, so I’m perfectly okay with replacing the other one now. I also ordered an air compressor, my last one pretty much died, even though I didn’t use it very much. They’re so sensitive, they heat up so easily, then crap out. I ordered a heavy duty one, since the tires on the trailer require a psi of 123, but I’m not holding my breath that it will work much better. Just have to be careful about letting it cool down, even though I was sure I did that with my last one. Finally settled down for the evening, watched a good movie that Karl had recommended, The Gray Man, action-packed to say the least. Ready for shower and bed now! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, then laid in for an extra hour reading. Finally got up and fed the horses, had a pancake breakfast and started a bunch of laundry. Spent most of the day reading and doing laundry, finally getting back to an intriguing British detective limited series called Paranoid, finishing that off just before bedtime. I think I discovered my brown-out problem, but I need to get something it town tomorrow to make sure. It started raining around noon and kept at it almost the entire day, so it was a nice rainy Sunday, just like the ones we always loved to spend together! Heading to shower and bed here shortly, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had all good intentions to go riding today, but decided it against it because of all the hunters this weekend, didn’t want to get in their way, and I can always go during the week. So instead, I kept myself busy around camp. I started by patching Apollo’s feed bag, he’s managed to chew some holes in the bottom, but I’m not sure the patch will last very long, so I’ll probably have to get another one. I actually mopped the floor before I went to feed them so it would dry, just to complement the housekeeping I did yesterday. Of course, that only lasted about 20 minutes, when Lola decided to eat biscuits and leave crumbs all over the place. Then I went out to replace the part on the PTO that I had delivered yesterday. I had read somewhere that I had to make sure it was well-greased (there’s a grease nipple on it), so I had to get my grease gun from the attic, and remembered that my entire storage box was covered in grease that had leaked out at some point, so it was messy getting the toolbox down. Then I discovered that the grease had hardened so much that it wasn’t coming through very well, so I had to fiddle with that for quite awhile until I could get it working right. Then I had hardly started putting grease in when I noticed grease of a different color was starting to ooze out, so evidently, this part was fully greased when I got it, so end of that struggle! It took me awhile to get the part on and get everything lined up and working properly, but I finally managed it. I cleaned out the toolbox and put everything in fresh plastic bags to avoid future leaks, then hauled everything back up to the attic, cleaned the storage box really well, and finally got everything put away. I found an air compressor up there, so I brought that down to see if it worked. I seemed to remember that either the AC or the DC side worked and the other didn’t, but I couldn’t get either side to work today, so I’m trashing it. Don’t need to be carrying stuff around that doesn’t work! Cleaned up the carport a bit, then retrieved my tarp from the picnic table (I used it as a drop cloth while I was painting), tied it onto the back of the tractor, and proceed to drive around camp and pick up all the fallen palm fronds, limbs and other assorted flora that had dropped from the wind, and hauled it over to the fire pit across from me, which I’ve been using to periodically do burns. I rested for a bit, had an early dinner, then did my rounds, and finally started the fire and proceeded to systematically burn the pile. It was dark by the time I was finished, though Lola and I played frisbee during that time so she got a little exercise. I was dripping with sweat by the time I got through (for the second or third time today), so I immediately jumped in the shower. Watched a little TV, now I’m ready to do a Spanish lesson and go to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Was up and about on schedule this morning, and after chores and breakfast, I headed into town, first to stop at the post office to pick up my new phone, then off the Glenn’s, where I mowed the lawn, which only took me about 2 1/2 hours, less than I thought, and cleaned the pool. Then I spent a little time getting my phone switched over, it was very helpful that he had wifi at his house to I could download it all a lot easier. Then I got a call from Tractor Supply that my part had come in, so it all worked out perfectly! Picked up the part and got back to camp right around 5:00. Had a lot of rain around today, and it really cooled the temps down, so I guess maybe Fall is on the way! Settled down for the evening as usual, just a Spanish lesson to do, then a quick shower and off to bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, I don’t know what’s going on with me, but I got a decent night sleep, fed the horses, ate breakfast, dumped my blackwater, sat in my recliner to read for a few minutes, then fell asleep for nearly two hours! Granted it took awhile to get to sleep last night, but I didn’t think I was THAT short of sleep! Crazy! Well, after my nap, I didn’t feel like doing anything outside in the heat, so I worked on the shape files for the map for at least an hour, then did some housework. I didn’t really want to do housework, but it just kept calling my name, so I finally broke down and did some. Got some hunters in camp, archery weekend for deer I guess, didn’t get the impression they were particularly interested in following some of the rules, or sharing the property with equestrians, plus they were wanting to run their generators all night. I explained they had to have a special permit and be parked next to one of the two specially-made generator sound barrier walls, which they weren’t, and they didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of moving, so that might create some problems later. Meanwhile, I settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a great night sleep, thank goodness, and woke up pretty refreshed, which was a good thing because I had a busy day planned. Once I did chores and breakfast, I ran down to the post office in Canal Point. I’ve been asking about getting a mailbox out front, and there seems to be some movement in that direction, but it starts with getting clearance from the post office first. I went from there out to Glenn’s to get his pool working again, his timer got messed up, but I got it going again, watered some trees and measured his spa outlets. Once I finished there I headed into the Kane center for a couple of hours of euchre, and they had a good turnout today. A big day of shopping at Walmart, then headed back to camp, to discover that something was wrong with my power, and the inside of my trailer was like a steambath. I finally figured out the thermostat doesn’t work if the batteries are too dead, and they were dead because I had turned off my inverter because of the problem I was having with my AC before. The hard start was drawing down the power level so much that I was getting a brown-out condition, and I was afraid it would do damage to my inverter. Turns out the other charger system isn’t working quite right, don’t know why, but once I put the inverter back on, everything kicked back on, the batteries started charging up, so it’s all good, thank goodness. Settled down for the evening, and now it’s shower and bed time! Lots of rain around us, SO HUMID, but it hasn’t really rained here yet. Wish it would, just to wring some of the moisture out of the air! Glad to know Fall is on its way! Anyway, good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a decent night sleep, even with the napping I did yesterday afternoon, woke up feeling a lot better. Still got kind of a slow start, but I stacked up some posts with a plan do as much of the red trail on the west side as I could, including the new little section I just found a few weeks ago. I just read something yesterday that described my day perfectly, “Man plans, God laughs.” I managed to get the first post in perfectly fine, then I moved to the next post, only to discover that the post hole digger had fallen off somewhere. I had put a nail in it to hold it temporarily, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough and intended to buy a couple of big cotter pins, but apparently I forgot. By the time I realized the problem, I had backed up over my PTO shaft, which had dropped down. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt the shaft, and I was able to straighten out the plastic cover, but the coupler was irretrievably bent, so no more hole digging until I get a new one. Tough trying to get the digger back on its frame, though, and I lost both pins at one point, so I ended up using a piece of palm front, would you believe! I managed to shove it through the holes on both sides of the main hitch pin and it actually held the rest of the way! I staged the rest of the posts, and drove down the teal trail to confirm the placement of the next batch of posts, and got back to camp by about 12:30. Fortunately, a new coupling is only about $70 from Tractor Supply, so I ordered one, it will take a few days to get here. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the final shape files for the new map, just double-checking everything to make sure they’re right before I send them to James, though I nodded off for a bit this afternoon as well. It’s that tropical pattern, I think, siesta in the afternoon, though I don’t plan on staying up that late at night! Settled down for the evening, now I’m more than ready for my shower and bed. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Though my plan was to get out on the tractor and put some more posts in today, when I woke up this morning, I felt pretty bad. Maybe one too many drinks last night? Anyway, I just couldn’t seem to get the energy to do anything today, and since it is a holiday, I decided to just take the day off. Pretty much just lazed around reading and watching TV for the day. Most of the campers left today, and one woman was booted out by law enforcement for having multiple accounts (you’re only allowed one, with a 30 day annual limit), but otherwise a very quiet day in camp. Feeling a lot better tonight, so a good night sleep tonight should put me in the right frame of mind to get out there tomorrow. Headed for the shower shortly, and bed right after that! Good night, babe! Love you!