Hi Sweetie,
Could not get to sleep last night, too hot and muggy, I guess, took hours, but still woke up before 7:30, so not enough to feel that rested. Tried to start on my taxes, spent a couple of hours straightening out all my books from last year, but didn’t have the energy to keep going. Did some other computer work, had Steve show me the ropes on how to turn all the various water sources off and where to put in chlorine and salt, and discovered it seemed to be much lower than it should be considering how few people are camping, so we did a little investigation and found that three out of the four showers in the newer shower house were leaking through their showerheads, you just couldn’t turn them off enough to stop a steady dribble, and one of the toilets in the old bathroom was constantly running, so that explains the thousand gallons of water that’s gone through there is a few days, and why the supplies were low. We decided to shut off the water and lock up the shower house for now, and Steve fixed the toilet with a new valve, but then broke the handle, so it’s usable with ingenuity. I settled down for the evening, started bingeing another old series on Netflix, Friday Night Lights, I remember hearing it was pretty good, so I watched a few episodes. I’ve got every fan in the house running trying to cool it down, but the outside temps aren’t coming down very much so naturally the inside temps are just as bad. Supposed to be a cool front coming in tomorrow, can’t wait! So I’m hoping that by the time I shower and get into bed that I’ll sleep better tonight, but I’m not counting on it. I’ve confirmed with James that once Steve moves on Monday that I can take over his spot, which will give me 50 amp electric so I can run my AC, looking forward to that happening! So this should be the last night of discomfort, fingers crossed! I’m headed off now, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
A frustrating and depressing day today. Ever since the OTL, I’ve been trying to get reimbursed for some of the fuel expense, to my mind, a perfectly natural request. Most non-profit organizations I work for practically force money on me for fuel and meals with the volunteers, etc., but this one? NETA? They never offered anything. Finally I sent them in invoice covering about half of my fuel costs, and for a “dinner meeting” that no one but Anita and I showed up for. The way I see it, if they call a meeting in a restaurant, it’s not unfair for me to believe that the organization was going to pay for it. Not to mention I drove nearly 50 miles round trip to get there. They don’t see it that way. So all I’ve been getting back from them are excuses and excuses and more excuses. I’ve wasted so much time with this it’s ridiculous. Today I actually went back through all of my diary and estimated how many hours I spent working on the OTL (conservatively), no less than 240. I also estimated how many miles I drove while working on the OTL (conservatively), no less than 631.5. It took me over four hours just to figure all that out. With all the work I did, I can’t believe they’re giving me a hard time over a couple of tanks of fuel. If they went to the store and bought cases of water for the riders, they got reimbursed. They had to buy parts to make one of the shuttles serviceable, they got reimbursed. Why is all the fuel I used to get to all the trailheads, not to mention the three days of running around as the ER vehicle, why is that not considered in the same way? I was so disgusted with this organization by the end of the day, I could hardly stomach it. That’s it, I’m done, I’m never working with this group again. After all my hard work, they’re trying to make me feel like I’m a bad person because I believe they should reimburse me for some fuel. Anyway, I fortunately had the distraction of going to a Florida Horsemen’s club meeting along with James, where I saw a stellar example of how a meeting SHOULD be run, unlike anything I’ve ever seen NETA run. Jamie ran a tight ship, starting quickly and ending after just an hour, perfectly run with Roberts Rules of Orders, the reading of the previous minutes, the treasurer’s report, the President’s report, all ticked through quickly and efficiently. It was an astonishingly stark contrast to the last OTL meeting, where it was never called to order, there was no treasurer’s report, no order, not votes, no agenda, period. It was pitiful and when I questioned it, all I got was shrugged shoulders. I don’t know how they keep their Non-profit status, seriously. Anyway, the club’s meeting was efficient, so we were out of there shortly after 8:00. James asked me to deliver some salt and chlorine out here for the water system to save him a trip in the morning, which I was glad to do. Got back about 9:00, had a little ice cream, now I’m ready for shower and bed. It’s really hot tonight, it’s still 80 degrees in the trailer, even after 11:00. Not sure how well I’ll be sleeping, but I’m off to try. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep and woke up at the respectable hour of 7:30, so I’m finally getting on schedule. Spent most of the day working on the almost final edition of the trail map for Dupuis, managed to get a copy off to James by the end of the day. Once again, it was supposed to rain by noon, so I didn’t do any laundry because I had plans to help Jeff move some roofing from brother Glenn’s new house, which closed today. It’s only a few miles north of Indiantown so I offered to help. Well, naturally, it didn’t rain until very late in the afternoon, and not for very long, so I could have done it this morning, not that I really need to. The closing didn’t happen until later in the afternoon, so I didn’t head over there until 3:30, and of course, what rain we did have came in while I was gone. Fortunately, the only window on the side where the rain was coming in was up in my bedroom, and it wasn’t very much, so no worries. Didn’t take long to get the roofing material in the back of Jeff’s truck, then headed back to camp, stopping once at the auto parts store in town to pick up some oil for the generator and a new windshield wiper for the passenger side, it started to fall apart when I turned my wipers on during a short sprinkle on the drive in. Relaxed for the evening, finishing off the 14th season of Heartland, then watched a silly movie, now it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetheart!
Another hot night, never got below about 75 degrees in my bedroom despite having a fan on all night. Did sleep pretty well, though. Been getting up around the same time these days, about 7:30 or so. Did my morning chores and had breakfast, then headed out to finish putting staples in all the new boards in the paddocks that got skipped on the work day, plus a whole bunch more staples on old boards that had lost them. Fixed the screen room, most of my clamps had loosen up with all the wind we’ve been having the last few days, so I tightened those all back up. Mended one of the horses’ fly masks, it had gotten ripped and needed fixing. Put my solar panel away, since I don’t need it now that I have a little electricity. Spent a good part of the afternoon working on the trail map, doing some final modifications, though I still have at least one more trail I need to confirm, which I might do tomorrow on Apollo, since it’s not that long and he needs the exercise, plus it’s supposed to be cooler. I spent all day waiting for this huge front to come in, and the radar looked ominous around 4:30, so I went ahead and fed the horses early. I felt two drops of rain just as I was finishing up, congratulating myself for timing it perfectly, only to have the entire front disappear before it arrived! Not a drop of rain, though it looked like a wall of water coming this way! It put itself back together to the east of us, and they got plenty of rain, but it just split around us, darn it! Finally settled down for the evening, grilled myself a nice little piece of chicken, and started watching the latest season of Heartland. Got a lot done, a nice productive day, ready for shower and bed! I’m FINALLY hearing a bit of rain outside, hope it last awhile, we need it desperately !Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a wonderful night sleep last night, most likely due to the fact I was able to keep my small fan on in the bedroom last night, just enough to cool it down to make it reasonably comfortable, despite being one of the hottest days so far this year. Grateful for the little bit of electricity I’ve been able to purloin (well, with permission)! Woke up at a reasonable hour, got my chores and breakfast done, then ran into Indiantown to pick up a couple of packages at the post office and a few things at the IGA, then straight back to camp. One of the packages was a new oil filter for my generator, I’ve been using it so much it needs another oil change already, but then I forgot to pick up oil, so it’s going to have to wait until my next trip, which probably won’t be until the new Tractor Supply opens in about a week. Very excited about that! Keeping the driving down to a minimum, what with diesel at $5.19 a gallon in town! Fingers crossed it comes down a bit more before I have to head north. Decided to take the rest of the day off, it seems I’ve been going non-stop for awhile, so I finished up High Castle (a rather disappointing and inexplicable ending), then a movie, then discovered another season of Heartland on Netflix, so I started that. A nice rest, but the forecasted rain never came in, and it’s been so hot I don’t think I could have handled doing anything else today. I’m hoping I don’t have to move my trailer to his spot after Steve leaves, but I may have to if the heat keeps getting this bad. Can’t run my AC off this 20 amp circuit. Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it! Meanwhile, shower and bed await! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Ended up going to bed later than I thought I would, then couldn’t get to sleep for HOURS, then woke up at 8:30 feeling tired, but I had too much planned today, so I got up and got busy. After horse chores, I climbed up into the attic and dropped down my portable sewer tank, then used it to dump my blackwater, since it’s been over a month since I arrived. Glad to know it takes that long to get filled up! So I’m good for awhile now. After putting the tank back up top and dropping down my oil pan (it’s time to change the oil in the generator again already!), I had breakfast, finally. Then I gathered my tools and headed out to the paddocks to finish the ones that we didn’t get around to on Work Day, and found they needed some help, but not too bad. Then I noticed that wherever there was a new board, no one had put staples on the back to hold the fence up, so I started doing some of that, as well as replacing other staples that were just missing. Camp host Steve came back from the laundromat (SO glad I don’t have to do that!), then came out to help me with one board I knew needed replacing in one of the paddock where there was a horse last weekend to it got skipped. That one needed A LOT of work! Replaced the board, then found another broken board on the other side and went ahead and replaced that one, which finished off all the boards we bought on Saturday. I stapled the wire fence on those as well as some others that were missing. Tried to fix a brace on a gate but it was too rotten, left that for another day for more experienced carpenters. That took a good part of the afternoon, and I was bushed and dehydrated by the time we finished. Sat in my recliner to read and fell asleep for two hours! Made dinner, did my evening chores and finally settled down for the evening. Tonight I am DEFINITELY getting to bed earlier, I have to get back on a schedule that gets me up earlier and to bed earlier! So I’m signing off early, so I won’t be long out of my shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a WONDERFUL night sleep last night, and still slept in a bit this morning, so I felt much more refreshed today. After my usual chores, I headed up to Okeechobee to do some shopping. Since diesel is so ridiculously expensive, I decided to buy as many supplies as I could to cut down on trips, and that ended up costing me a bundle today! First, I picked up 22 bales of hay at the feed store, where the price of a bale when up a dollar apiece, so now one bale of coast was $11.25. The only good part of that was that most of it was that rare, really nice green soft coastal, the best I’ve seen, but still, ridiculously expensive for a single bale of hay. Then I went down to Tractor Supply to get two propane tanks filled. When I passed the Walmart on the way down, I noticed that diesel was $4.95 a gallon, though I passed one station that had it for $4.84. After Tractor Supply, I headed back to Walmart, where suddenly the price of diesel had gone up to $5.09! So I passed it up and went to the cheaper station up the road, shaking my head at the idea that I was happy to ONLY pay $4.84 a gallon! I had over a quarter of a tank still left, and it still cost me $125 to fill up. I’ve NEVER paid more than $100 for a tank, and very rarely even CLOSE to that! Grrrr! Glad I’m not planning on driving anywhere any time soon! This could be the most expensive fuel summer I’ve ever had! Finally got to Walmart, where I filled my cart up with a month’s worth of groceries and some extra stuff I needed, and the dang bill was $434! The only time I’ve ever paid THAT much was if I was buying a TV or some other big ticket item, but this was not the case today. Crazy. I just hope I don’t have anything else I need to buy for awhile! I feel like I’ve got enough supplies for the apocalypse right now. Got back around 4:00, took awhile to put everything away, then Steve the camphost invited me over for a pork and sauerkraut and potato dinner, which I enjoyed very much (always nice to have someone else do the cooking!), then settled down for the evening. Busy day, and extra glad I don’t have any rent to pay here. Going to bed early again tonight, hopefully, trying to get back on a better schedule, since I sleep so much better when I get to bed earlier. So good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Whew, what a day! Got up early, printed up some paperwork for the work day today, then got my morning chores and breakfast out of the way before moving over the pavilion to see who showed up for my hastily put together work day. In the end, we had a pretty good turnout, mostly from the Florida Horsemen’s Club, and everybody worked their butts off! We got so much done. Two of the guys managed to build two complete new manure bins at Barns One and Three, just gorgeous. The rest of us worked on all the paddocks, making repairs, replacing boards and posts, cutting back trees, and generally making almost every paddock more safe and sound for horses. No more nails sticking out and broken boards! There was just a few we didn’t get to, but they were the ones that were more recently built anyway, so there shouldn’t be much left to do, though I’ll check them tomorrow, if I can recover in time. Exhausting day! James came by, ostensibly just for awhile, but he ended up getting drawn in and helping us finish our last few projects. He seemed very pleased with the turnout, when he arrived the sound of hammering was everywhere, we were all busy as bees running around. Just what I think he was hoping to see, and I was glad it all worked out! A lot of labor, with a little direction, goes a long way! Anyway, once it wound down, a few of us sat around and chatted, making another date for the next work day, then finally I got back to the trailer and settled down, watched a little TV, but I’m more than ready for my shower and bed tonight! A productive day, well spent! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
Woke up with the alarm before dawn, since I was supposed to be leaving with James by 8:00, but he ended up having an electrical problem at his house that he had to deal with, so he was delayed by nearly an hour. No worries, I did some other stuff while I was waiting. We hit the road and 9:00 and headed to Hickory Hammock. We went there once over ten years ago, they were doing a trail challenge event while we were there. I couldn’t remember much about it until I reread by diary from way back then, which disagreed a little with my memory, which is why I write it down at the time, lest I forget! Anyway, James wanted me to consider some options to get that back up and running as a thriving horse camp, evidently it doesn’t get much of the equestrian crowd any more, though it did somewhat when we were here before. He also had to meet with a welder/fabricator to get a bid on some work that needs doing on gates and fenced, and also to interview a potential host couple, which took up most of the morning and mid-day. We stopped in Okeechobee on the way back, long enough to pick up some horse feed and a printer. My old $25 HP All-in-one finally gave up the ghost a few days ago, so I grabbed another basic one, a Canon for $44, which was the cheapest one there. Considering how little printing I actually do, I didn’t need to spend much else on anything fancier. I’m hoping the ink won’t be as expensive as the HP, but we’ll see. I ordered some from Amazon as back up, you never know how much ink is left in an old model of printer like this one. I managed to get it working without too much fuss, thank goodness. After that, I walked down to Barn 3 with a new gate latch to put on Stall 7, and there was a woman there who had just jury-rigged a latch, but together we took it back apart and put a real latch on there. I was glad when James told me not to nickel and dime stuff, but to get what we need and not worry about it. I also brought a couple of manure rakes from Hickory Hammock that were in storage, so we now have one for each barn, and one of those little canvas folding carts so I can move all these tools and screws and whatnot around tomorrow. So a productive day! Settled down for the evening, made a list of all the jobs that need doing tomorrow, but I didn’t sleep well last night so now I’m nodding off early. Heading to shower and bed, since I have another early morning tomorrow. Love you, Sweetie! Good night!