Hey Darlin’,
A good night sleep, read for a bit, then got roused out of bed by an early-arriving camper. Surprisingly, I had quite a few campers show up here today, I keep thinking things are going to slow down, but they don’t seem to be! Pulled a few weeds, had a business conference call, moved the horses to a different paddock, otherwise, didn’t do much of anything today. I’ve arranged with brother Jeff to pick up my tractor tomorrow, I’m tired of waiting around for this contracted mower to get out here. It should have been done several weeks ago when the weather was cooler, now it’s getting up into the 90’s every day, and not getting below mid-70’s at night, so it’s going to be a much hotter job now. At least I’ll be able to get a few more things done around here! I’ll just have to get up earlier in the morning, change my schedule a bit. Settled down to a decent movie, a thriller filmed in Croatia, lots of twists and turns, and beautiful scenery. In keeping with changing my schedule, I’m going to bed early! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Woke up early, read for awhile, then got up and started putting around. Went down and picked up my package at the “office” which is Gate 5, but I had to go in at Gate 6 and go around because the intercom wasn’t working well enough to get the gate opened. Met Marie in the office. Then got back to camp and did a few jobs, took some nails out of a long board that has been laying on the ground for a long time (and I’ve stepped on the nail once, so it had to go!) and stored it and some other leftover lumber in the storage room in Barn 1. Put salt in the water softeners, had to clean out a dirty stall in Barn 2, leftover someone a few weeks ago, though I don’t know who. They even left an empty bottle behind in the stall. Really? There are two dumpsters 30 feet away and you can’t put your empty Perrier bottle in the garbage, you throw it into a stall? What is WRONG with people? After that I started work on a campground site map, something I can use for reference since I have quite memorized where all the sites are yet. Might be useful later, too, if they ever decide to have people reserve their sites instead of first come, first served like it is now. I thought I was going to finally have the place to myself today, but two more campers came in, and unfortunately, one was that father/daughter pair that I had trouble with a couple of weeks ago. Hoping I don’t have any more trouble with them. They came in with a permit under the father’s name this time, so I think they’re in violation of the “30 days per family” rule, but I’m having the reservation guy check on it. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like they set up 20 solar lights like they did last time. I have one other quiet camper in a van on the other side, so hopefully it will stay fairly quiet this week. There was a small wildfire nearby, but they managed to get that under control before it turned into anything, guess the rain we had the other night helped. Settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a decent night sleep and managed to sleep a little late this morning, for which I was very grateful. Didn’t have much on the books today, and everyone was gone by the end of the day, making it the first time since I’ve been here that the campground was empty except for me! I decided to do laundry, and ended up doing 5 or 6 loads before I was done. Did some reading, binge-watched some TV, then after dinner, started a movie that you would have loved! It was called Operation Mincement, and it had all the A-list British actors in it, led by Colin Firth, and was a story of deception and spycraft during WWII. The narrator and one of the characters was Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond stories, so the dialogue was occasionally peppered with the inside stories of how he came to use “M” and “Q” in his later stories. It was fascinating and gripping, and a very nice diversion! It was only interrupted once by a camper that came it late (I really thought I would have the place to myself tonight!), and of course, he had a problem with his permit that had to be dealt with, but eventually I got back to the movie, and my laundry. Now all that’s left is my shower and to make the bed before getting in it for the night. So good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Lola was so restless last night, scratching at the floor and making a fuss, I finally put her on her chain and left the door open so she could come in and out. I did that a couple of times earlier this week when there was almost no one here, so I guess she got in the habit and liked it, so I had to do it again, she was so noisy. That happened in the middle of the night, so I lost some sleep over that. When I did get up and did my rounds, I got an earful of complaints about one of the groups of hunters who apparently stayed loud well into the wee hours of quiet time, then started up again at 4:00 in the morning. I had stuck my head out the door at 11:00 last night and didn’t hear anything, but then they were far away so I probably wouldn’t. Unfortunately, that means that tonight I’m going to have to stay up late and go over there to give them a warning. The local law enforcement guy went and had a talk with a one of them, the only one left in camp, but I don’t know if that will do any good. This is the only thing I don’t like about this job, having to deal with people who have no consideration for others. I don’t care what their cultural differences are, when you’re in a camp, quiet hours mean QUIET! Whatever. Once I got my other chores done, I took a ride into town to pick up hay, the Ace hardware that sells it had called me to tell me it was in, so I went to get some. It’s beautiful, soft green coastal, but I’ve never had to pay so much for it before, $12.50 a bale! For Coastal! I may be saving on gas, but I’m sure not saving on hay! But with diesel at $5.79/gal earlier this week, I can’t blame the farmers, they have to pay it, too. I bought 15 bales though, since it seems I’m not leaving as early as I thought, and there seems to be a shortage. I don’t want to run out. I suspect I’ll be able to put the horses on grass more often though, I doubt we’ll get that many campers once this hunt is over. I’ve been having trouble charging my phone, so I bought a 5-pack of new cords from Amazon, which, despite explicit instructions on where to deliver it, ended up at the “office,” which turned out to be gate 5, which is closed on Saturdays. I drove over there anyway, and could actually see my package on the floor inside the door, but it was locked, so I’ll have to wait until Monday. Meanwhile, my phone just won’t seem to charge, though I finally got the cord I had put with my solar panel out, and that’s working. It seems like they work for about a week, then the end stretches and doesn’t stay tight, so it doesn’t charge right. Hoping these new cords will work better, but at least I’ll have spares when they quite working. Looked into a wireless charger, might consider that if these don’t last long enough, but apparently they take longer to charge. Of course, that’s better than not charging at all! Anyway, I’m having to stay up past 11:00, probably be midnight or later by the time I get to bed, since I won’t be able to take my shower till after my final rounds, and who know how late that will be if these guys give me any trouble. Just hope I don’t have to call law enforcement. I’ll be glad when most everyone leaves tomorrow, I need some sleep! So I’ll say goodnight, even though I’ll be up awhile longer. Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had another day of mostly just puttering around again. I finished mowing the little patch of weedy gravel that is my “front yard” now that James brought me some gas. I put my name on the gas can, though, because it’s quite full and I can’t see me using it all up before I leave, so I guess I could just leave it here and retrieve in the fall when I come back, assuming I don’t stay the summer. Green headed horseflies are starting to get bad, though with the cooler weather we’ve had the last couple of days, not so much. I’m sure once the heat returns, though, they’ll be out here in droves. Love bugs are out in full force though! Glad they’re relatively harmless, except to the windshield of oncoming vehicles! I put the horses in a different paddock today, then when a couple of horse campers came in, I moved them further back to another paddock, let them do some mowing and cut down on my hay use. I call W&W and he told me they were supposed to be getting hay sometime tomorrow, sounded like the haymaker was baling tomorrow and would bring 100 bales by. I asked him to save me ten, since I doubt I’ll have time to pick it up tomorrow. I have a busy day planned, so I’m getting to bed super early so I’m fully rested. I was dozing off this afternoon while I was reading in my chair, must be all this physical labor, between all the digging yesterday and that little bit of mowing today. Got a call from Chester, the mower, and he tried to call me yesterday, for some reason I missed the calls, and, of course, I didn’t recognize the number since I lost my contacts. I have it now, though! He thinks he might have an angle for getting me a UTV, fingers crossed, but we’ll wait and see. It will probably only be for the one day of mowing, but you never know! Stranger things have happened! Spent some time getting ready for tomorrow, loading up the small horse trailer. I’m going up to a place in Stuart called the Savannas, which I never knew was even there, and apparently it’s quite a lovely horse trail. One of the ladies from last weekend invited me, she claims we can do a 4.5 hour ride there, plus lunch! I need a change of venue, plus I’ll be able to do my big shopping, and finally, I’ve arranged to meet brother Glenn and his wife in the afternoon for drinks afterward, since they’re leaving for Texas the next day, so it will be a busy day! It’s already in the 100’s in Texas, can’t believe they’re heading into that! Makes the mid-80’s here seem positively balmy! Anyway, I’m doing everything a couple of hours early tonight, I’m determined to get to be in plenty of time to get my essential eight hours tonight! So soon to be heading to the shower, and then to bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
A great night sleep, the nights have been deliciously cool, perfect sleeping weather with the windows open! I was still in bed reading when James came by, we chatted, then he took my little gas tank and got it filled up so I would be able to finish mowing the lawn. He also measured out the part of the driveway that needs some shellrock so no one will get stuck in it again, not sure how long it’s going to take to get that approved and done. Everything moves at a glacial pace here, typical bureaucracy. He had asked me about finding the valves that turn off the water at several points around the camp, particularly the paddocks, so I spent the day with my little trowel, digging up valves which were often buried in a foot of sand. I think I managed to find them all, though it took me several hours. Then I sat down at my computer to make a map of which valves control which spigots. I thought I had it finished, then later realized I had screwed it up because I duplicated something, so I need to do it again in the morning. Meanwhile, because I couldn’t get hay yesterday, I let the horses out right after I gave them their feed this morning so that they could graze (and save half a bale of hay!), and they wandered all over the place. By mid-day they were standing in the middle of Barn 2, and Flash even hung out in a stall for awhile! Later I saw them in one of the paddocks munching away. They didn’t go too far, and by dinner time, they came as soon as I called them over, got them fed and back in their paddock. Spent some time inputting new contacts, a lot of folks texted or messaged me with their information. It certainly will be a much shorter contact list than I had before! At least I’m paring it down to folks I really know, though I had a lot of useful notes on some of them. I’ll survive! Anyway, I’ve now confirmed that the contacts in my Google account are the same as my contacts on the phone that I’ve been putting it in. If only I knew that was how it worked before, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble! Well, what’s done is done, nothing more to be said. Settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for shower (which I really need after playing in the sand all day!) and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Kind of a roller coaster day today! Oddly cool this morning, which was a nice bit of relief from the weather, and after my usual chores and breakfast, I got on the phone to once again try to resolve my phone issues. Unfortunately, the one closest to the problem, Google, has absolutely NO way to actually contact a live person! It’s all through forums. They don’t even have a chat room that works! Ridiculous. Wasted two hours on the phone with Samsung. So now I’m stuck. I finally decided the best thing to do was to announce it on Facebook and have people send me their numbers, but this will never get back the hundreds of contacts I’ve made over the years, some with some VIP’s as you well know. Oh, well, most of that chapter of my life is over anyway, so I guess I can be positive and just say it’s a fresh start. I’ve been getting a lot of response from my post, so hopefully I won’t miss anyone that’s relevant in my life at the moment. After several hours working on that problem, I decided I needed to do some yard work. The septic tank area behind me has grown a lot of grass, and I’ve put the horses on it the last couple of days, but they’ve been leaving behind all of the weeds, daisies and other flowers, and since some are about to go to seed, I figured I better do something before it gets exponentially worse. There’s a mower in the shed, and it had gas, so I got that out and miraculously it started on the first pull! I can’t remember the last time I used a push mower, though. I mean, I remember I was about nine or ten when I learned how to run the John Deere riding mower at the cottage, and before that, the mower was a non-motorized push rotary type! And this one isn’t even self-propelled, so I really got my exercise today! Unfortunately, I ran out of gas just as I was starting the little bit of yard in front of my trailer, so I’ve had to ask James about getting gas for it. I was impressively reminded that one of the things I love about moving to a new trailhead every couple of weeks is that I don’t have to do yard work! Well, that changed today! I managed to get that done, then I confirmed that the Goodyear in town had a new tire for the small horse trailer, and decided to go get that done. I was expecting a package today, but once it was clear it wasn’t coming today, I headed into town. I went by the hardware store first because I wanted to pick up some hay, but they were out of coastal! Not even sure when they’re going to get it again, maybe later in the week. I’m down to 2 1/2 bales, but I figure if I just leave the horses on the grass during the day, I should be able to stretch that out. So that was disappointing. Then I got to the Goodyear, and they were so fast changing my tire out, but then it was pointed out to me that another one of the tires was looking bad (not surprising, it had been manufactured in 2010, so I guess it’s fair to say I got my use out of it), but that was an added expense I hadn’t figured on. Well, I needed it, the trailer was really shaking bad, and it was much better on the way home. The other two tires looked pretty good, so hopefully they will last awhile, even though the trailer won’t get too much use, except as a hay storage box once I get it back to Jeff’s. But I’ve decided to do as much exploring locally as I can, just for a change of pace and to keep me in shape, so I’ll get some use out of it, at least. I just need new trails to go on! Finally settled down for the evening, and before you know it, it’s time for shower and bed. Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hey Babe,
Another rather ordinary day, I’m afraid. Did a little housework, gave Lola a bath and sprayed down her bed area, as it seems she’s got fleas, so I may have to bomb the trailer one of these fine days. I spent three hours on the computer working on the intersections and post markings, then finally sent it off to James for his review. I also struggled to try to download my contacts from my supposed backup, as they haven’t appeared on my phone yet, and I’m starting to panic that I’ve lost them all, which would be an incredibly inconvenient and frustrating loss! Verizon couldn’t help me, they told me to talk to Google. Google couldn’t help me, they told me to talk to Samusung. Samsung’s website is so pathetic, I couldn’t even get a chat box started! Not looking too good, but I’ll keep at it. Let the horses graze out on the septic tank area, lots of tall grass and weeds, it really needs mowing but I figured I’d see how much they could clear it before I would try to start the little lawnmower out here. Evidently the mowers can’t get in to do it, though that may be because of the way I parked the little horse trailer. I’m thinking of taking Flash over to Allapattah tomorrow, so I can leave the trailer in a different spot, but I’m not sure they can get in with their big mowers no matter where I park, as there’s a short fence with limited openings around it. Read and watched some TV, and sort of planned a route tomorrow, but other than that, a pretty mundane day. Now day is done, and it’s shower and bedtime now! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
A good night sleep, my usual morning routine, then I settled down to do a few odd jobs that needed doing. I finished the job I started the other day, by using that canned expansion foam that hardens around the drain under the shower, hopefully that will finally be the last place for bugs to get in that I’ve managed to plug up. I put all of that back together again. I fixed a paddle fan, I had notice one seemed to be running not quite smoothly, and discovered that one of the screws that connects it to the blade was gone, so I jury-rigged it with a drywall screw anchor since I didn’t have an actual screw the right size and it worked just fine. I picked up a few palm fronds, did my rounds a couple of time since a few new campers came in, and then, I decided I had to tackle my phone problem once and for all. I’ve been getting all kinds of errors, and it’s so packed with stuff that my memory is so limited that nothing is working properly. I was convinced I had to reboot it all the way back to a factory reset, but wanted to make sure everything was saved beforehand, so I called Verizon and the guy walked me through what was supposed to happen. Unfortunately, I was under the mistaken impression that since everything was supposedly backed up, everything would come back once it was rebooted. Boy, was I misled on THAT one! It didn’t seem to keep ANY of my settings, so I ended up spending a good part of the day trying to get my phone back to where it was, though hopefully with all of the problems solved. My texts weren’t working right, I was getting notifications but then I couldn’t get the rest of it to open, Whenever I turned the phone on I was getting several errors, and lately, it’s weirdly been giving me the wrong date and time! I’ve looked at it a bunch of times and it’s telling me that it’s August of 2002! Crazy! Anyway, so far it seems to be working better, but I’m still adding my lost apps, so I don’t know how much room I’ll have in the end, though I really don’t have THAT many apps, not compared to a lot of people I know! Fingers crossed I get it all back in the end. Meanwhile, other than that, I had a relatively relaxing day and evening, though I watched a very violent “chick flick,” not my favorite. I don’t really get why Hollywood thinks that true feminine equality means that women behave just as poorly and stupidly and violently as men, cursing and screwing and bloodletting as crudely as you can imagine. What can I say, I liked it better when movies showed the better side of us, not the worst possible side of us. But I digress! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another good night sleep, chores, rounds, breakfast, getting to be quite the routine! My phone died early and often today, so I finally shut it off and put it wholly on charge for a bit, which finally got it working again. Dang cord I bought at Verizon a few weeks ago is hardly working already! Glad I picked up a couple of cheap ones on clearance at Publix, they’re working better! Anyway, finally was able to use the phone, confirmed that both the light bulb I needed for the stove and my Balance feed was in, so mid-afternoon I headed into town, just as James was saying he wanted to come by. I suggested someplace cool, and the timing was perfect, I was able to pick up what I needed at Ace and Tractor Supply before meeting him at JR’s Saloon, a nice little pool hall tucked away next to a gas station. We had a few beers and a lot of laughs. I also stopped at NAPA because my truck hasn’t been starting very well, I suspect the fuel filter needs changing, though it still has 4,000 or 5,000 miles before it’s supposed to need changing. I also put a little oil in it, it was a little low (still on the stick!), and that seemed to help. They quoted me the ridiculous price of $99! For a simple fuel filter! Crazy! Then one of the guys told him to look it up under another account and said it was $58 something, over $60 with tax. I was sure I didn’t pay anywhere near that much last time I bought it, so I passed, figuring I could order it again online. Sure enough, when I looked it up this evening, I confirmed my last purchase was less than $39, so guess where I’m going to buy it? Anyway, I managed to start the truck each time, but at the Tractor Supply when it first happened, it gave me fits. Whatever, it was better when it cooled down. So James and I had a few beers at the saloon, then I stopped at the IGA for a few groceries, and got back to camp just after 6:00, did my rounds again, fed the horses, had dinner, and settled down for the night. Once again, time for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!