Saturday, October 3, 2026 – Hay Day, and More Life After Lola Adjustments

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up at a reasonable hour, but then read for a bit until it started raining. I finally got up and put on my rain jacket to feed and clean up the horses. Because of the rain, and the fact that the nearest faucet to me has a broken diverter, I put up my portable rain barrel to collect the rain, which will stretch my water out a bit. Didn't take long to get it half full, as well as one of the muck buckets full as well. After breakfast I did some housekeeping, mostly washing up and collecting the dog stuff I won't need. I have a lot of unopened stuff I may try to return, or donate when the time comes. Once again, I had to adjust much of my day for Life After Lola. I don't need to put my garbage can up anymore, or my cargo net to keep her off the dining room bench seats. I don't have her to clean the plates before I wash them. So many little things I start to do out of habit and realize I don't have to do that anymore. I don't have to take the keys out of the truck for fear she might hit the lock button, which happened a few times. This adjustment is not going to be easy! I made a few inquiries into hay yesterday, since I'm still trying to save the eight bales I have in the front stall for as long as I can, and found someone that would let me pick up the bales I needed and leave money behind, since he wouldn't be there, so once the rain tapered off and the radar looked promising, I headed up to Etowah, about 18 minutes away, and managed to load myself up with 12 bales of hay. Quite a workout! But I got it done. Carefully covered it with a tarp in case we got caught in the rain again, got back to camp and unloaded, and put up my gooseneck skirting to keep it dry. This should be enough to get me through to Biltmore with a bale or two to spare. I settled down for the evening, though I had to go fill up my truck tank since I was low on water in the camper, which took a long time. Pressure is not too good here. Anyway, it was a step toward normalcy, but it's pretty hard when everything I do seems to be missing a step, the one that satisfies the needs of Lola, which I no longer have to do. Feeling a bit empty, but on the positive side, my grocery bill was a lot smaller yesterday, and I have less to worry about the next time I travel. Horses are easy, throw them in a pasture and they're good for the duration, dogs, not so much. Trying to make the best of a bad situation. Anyway, relaxed for the evening after having a pretty full day, trying to spread the housekeeping over a few days rather than all at once. Weird day, again! Good night, baby! Love you!