Saturday, March 16, 2024 – Today’s The Day!

Hey Darlin!
Well, today was the day! All that hard work the last few weeks paid off, as it turned out to be a resounding success! We didn't quite make it to 150 attendees, but considering there were at least six other major events, not to mention St. Patty's Day weekend, we thought it was a good turnout. I was up before dawn, got my chores done early, and was on the road by 7:30. The sun wasn't even up yet! I HATE Daylight Savings Time!!! I met Chelle at the shop to get more ice, and was surprised that there were already several guys there. Finally arrived at Tidewater just before 8:30, and the rest of the day raced by! I set up a nice couple of tables with all kinds of forest giveaway stuff, an accordian board with some great educational stuff on it, and I even got out a giant mural-like display that had never even been out of the box before. I thought it made for a pretty impressive display. Lots of food, lots of folks, lots of fun! We even had a guy providing live entertainment between presentations. Logan's nature hike got delayed a bit because a tree had come down on the blue trail and he ran out to clear it, as the buggies couldn't get around it, and Mark's fire suppression talk was well attended. It was a great day! I was so busy I hardly had any time to eat! Which was probably a good thing, as there was so much food. One of the local TV stations even made it out there, so evidently my Press Release worked. I got so busy talking to the forestry guys that everything was packed up by 3:00 except my stuff, but several folks pitched in to help me get everything loaded up, and Mark and Jo both helped me put stuff away at HQ, so I made it back to camp by 5:00, exhausted, but content. Connie agreed to pick up the markers I put up, since tomorrow I'll be busy packing up everything to get ready to move to Suwannee on Monday. I'm definitely going to be testing my stamina this week! That's okay, though, because if you don't use it, you lose it, right? And I've spent too many days not doing anything constructive lately anyway. Was worried about Lola when I got back, though, I discovered one of the toes on her rear left leg was swollen to the size of a golf ball, so I put some ice on it and gave her an aspirin, which seemed to help. Not sure what's causing it, but it almost looks like one of her toenails was close to being ripped out, there is an abrasion right under it, but I don't know. Still upset that the vet I took her to didn't seem to have a clue about what was wrong. I just hope it's better tomorrow, not sure where I could take her on a Sunday anyway. Fingers crossed it's better. Had cereal for dinner, since I had so little to eat and I wasn't in the mood for a heavy dinner, watched a short rom-com, and will soon be on my way to shower and bed. Love you, babe! Good night!

Friday, March 15, 2024 – Busy, Exhausting Ides of March

Hiya Babe,
What a busy day! It started off really rough. When I got back last night, I was in the mood for something sweet, and made the mistake of having a couple of Dr. Pepper Cream Sodas, which I suddenly realized (after having drank them both) that they were loaded with caffeine. The unfortunate result was that I didn't get to sleep until after 3:00 and a double dose of melatonin. So when I got up at 9:00, I still felt tired, but I had so much to do that I spent the day running on mostly adrenaline. After chores and breakfast, I collected most of the stuff around the trailer that were on my list from the meeting last night, then went down to the HQ to get what I needed out of the volunteer closet. There was a lot more and heavy stuff than I remembered, so it took me awhile, and a lot of muscle, to get it all in the back of the truck. Fortunately, Rick went down to Tidewater with me and help me unload it. We just managed to get it all in the closet behind the bathrooms, now all I have to do is wrestle it out of there tomorrow. Got back home and dozed a little in my chair before heading out to pick up some stuff from Val's, and Chelle's and Meg's before meeting Jo at HQ to fill up a truckload of coolers and water stations. It was nearly 6:00 by the time that was done. Bev and her crew arrived while I was gone, chatted with her for just a minute before coming back for dinner, a quick Northern Exposure, a shower and EARLY bed, since I've already made plans to meet Chelle at 7:45 in the morning at HQ, so it's going to be a very long and tiring but exciting day tomorrow! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Thursday, March 14, 2024 – Busy Day, Nice Ride at Shangrila with Friends from Down South

Hi Sweetie!
Had a lovely, busy day today! A good night sleep, followed by my usual morning routine, then I hitched up the little trailer and loaded up Flash and headed over to Shangrila, which was surprisingly a lot closer than I thought, only about 50 minutes. Allyson arrived before me, but then Bettina and Amber go slowed down with an accident on the turnpike, so it was after 1:30 by the time we got on the trail. I managed to download a map onto Avenza, but that didn't prevent me from getting lost several times, so it was an adventure! A nice ride, though, glad to be in the shade with temps in the mid 80's already. Got back to the trailhead and went our separate ways, (though they're coming over for the Taste of Goethe on Saturday), I ran into Dunnellon, stopping first to top off fuel (got a ten cent discount at Murphy, so it was only $3.79, which is a bargain these days!), a quick run into Walmart for a few things, then to Tractor Supply to pick up an order I made yesterday, which they couldn't find, and then when they finally did find it, it was only two bags of Senior, and the other three bags I ordered they didn't have. When they finally found the Senior, it wasn't where it was supposed to be, and it had stuff piled on it, so instead of the five minutes I was expecting it to take, it was more like 15 and I didn't get what I needed. Not a happy camper after that! Another quick stop at Publix for nectar, then finally got back to camp. Running late, so I raced through feeding the horses, nuked a shepherd's pie I bought just because I wanted something different and fast, and scarped that down too fast. I just managed to make it to the 7:00 meeting on time, and that went for nearly two hours, and now I have a long list of things I need to collect tomorrow, so any chance of riding with the gals again is gone. It's going to be a very busy couple of weeks, if not longer! With Taste of Goethe Saturday, followed by the cleanup, packing on Sunday to get ready to leave on Monday, then all week marking trails for the Suwannee ride next weekend, then back here for two weeks before heading up to South Carolina for the Ride in the Pines... Whew!! I'm getting tired just thinking about it! But I'm glad, though, I feel like I've been too stagnant for awhile, looking forward to moving on to the next projects. Collected a few things I'll need for Saturday this evening, with a long list to gather tomorrow, so I won't be long out of bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 – Ribbons Up On the Hiking Trail

Hi Darlin',
Had an even better night sleep, guess I'm finally getting back in the DST groove. The big event today was going down to Tidewater and putting up the ribbons for the Taste of Goethe hiking trail. Well, two trails, actually, one that was 1.5 miles long, the other was another section that made it 3.8 miles long. Ran into Rick at Tidewater, he was just coming in to check on things, we had a short chat about inconsequential things, I didn't feel like getting into a long discussion about the trail until I had confirmed a few things. Then I got busy on the trail marking. It was really nice because quite a few of the trails are ones I've never been on, so it was very enjoyable. Once I finished marking and clearing those, I headed down to the alt-Purple trail to try to figure out where Rick had mowed. I took the one I had put ribbons on, just to once and for all confirm it was a workable trail, plus to look for my reading glasses, which I lost when I was out here the other day. Yes to the first question, No to the second. Then a found the opening where Rick had mowed on the far end and followed it, until it simply petered out and ended without ever finishing. It was an awful trail, he had mowed down so many of those squash palms that the trail will never stick, and was only made worse by it suddenly stopping, I carefully took Flash cross-country, and discovered it was only about 30 yards from the trail, but when I looked at my map trail, it was WAY off in terms of cutting a huge chunk of the regular trail out. I guess he must have realized that and that was why he didn't take it all the way to the trail. Just to double check, I went south again to where he did cut a trail straight through, and confirmed that it was just a short loop that did nothing to cut the trail by the road. Sigh... Guess I'll need to have a talk with him about it at some point, not sure we'll have time to fix it before I leave for the season. Anyway, got back to camp, got Flash settled in, then spent some time working on trails for both the Taste of Goethe and the upcoming Suwannee ride, which actually continued on until this evening. Busy day! Productive, too, and beautiful weather for a ride, so it was all good! Good night, baby! Love you!

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 – A Few More Odds and Ends

Hey Babe,
Finally had a decent night sleep last night, thank goodness! Started the day by running over to EV Hay and picking up five bales, which is all I needed to get me through to my trip on Monday. Did some work on the trail planning for the upcoming Taste of Goethe, including a short trip down to Connie's to discuss the options, a little bit more on my tax prep, and started to do a couple of things in preparation for my week away next week, including dumping my black water, and starting up my generator. Thought I was having a problem with it, it kept starting but then cutting out immediately, but then I remembered how it does that when the propane pressure is low (and oil pressure, but that was fine), so I opened another propane tank and that solved the problem, thank goodness. Once I shut the generator off, I turned the propane tank off again, no need to run that until I need to. I still have two full tanks, so I'll refill the other two once they're completely empty. When I have electricity, it seems like a tank of propane lasts forever! I also checked the fluids in the truck, everything was good except the power steering fluid, which needed topping off. I'm hoping that's just from normal use after the last repair, and not another leak somewhere. It wasn't empty, just low, so hopefully it's all good, I'll just have to keep an eye on it. Did some more trail work on the Suwannee trails as well, and chatted with some new campers for a bit. Finally settled down for the evening, with a Northern Exposure and a fun adult rom-com, something about A Grand Romantic Gesture. Good work in that one. Now it's time for my usual, tea, Spanish (Day 654!), shower and bed! Love you, Sweetie! Good night!

Monday, March 11, 2024 – Odds and Ends and Tax Prep

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a terrible night sleep, still trying to get used to DST, yuck! Didn't get to sleep until after 2:00, was up around 9:00, Did my chores, then even before breakfast I decided to get a couple of small jobs done. I put a new handle on the gray water tank valve, it broke off a couple of weeks ago. I had one handy that I had bought for the black water tank, but could never get it to fit, but it worked fine on the gray water tank. Then I finally tackled cleaning the battery terminals, and boy, did they need it! I used a wire brush and sandpaper, and one cable end needed tightening, and all of the electrical tape needed replacing, and I put a little vaseline on everything to hopefully keep it from doing that again! A good job done, though, albeit long overdue. Finally came in for breakfast, or should I say brunch since it was close to 11:00, then decided the task for the day would be to get my bookkeeping ready to do my taxes. I downloaded this year's TurboTax, which took a couple of hours with my slow connection and all the updates, but while it was doing that, I went through all my accounts and got them straightened out so the actual doing of taxes will be fairly straight-forward. I was going to do them tomorrow, but I realized I don't have enough hay, so I'll have to pick some up tomorrow, and if I'm going out, I might as well get all my shopping done while I'm out. Not that I have to get that much, but I need enough to get me through next week since I'll be swamped with work starting on Thursday or Friday. That took me until about 5:30, so I fed the horses and then had dinner and a Northern Exposure, followed by an old black and white movie with Anne Baxter and Raymond Burr from 1953, The Blue Gardenia. I love watching old films that have great story lines, without all the overt violence, language and soft porn that most modern movies seem to have. Amazon Prime keeps presenting me with rom-coms and kids movies, which are about the only modern movies that fit that description, but I'm not into kid movies, and rom-coms all have pretty much the same plot, so they get boring. Oh, well, maybe I'll watch more old black and whites! Anyway, tea's made, ready for shower and bed. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Sunday, March 10, 2024 – Laundry, Repairs and Ride on Apollo

Hey Darlin',
I truly hate Daylight Savings Time. I wish it had never been invented, and I can't understand why we still have it. It serves no purpose. Well, despite "losing" an hour of sleep, which I made up by sleeping an hour later anyway, I woke up energized and decided to get some odd jobs done. Laundry, of course, my usual Sunday chore, and I also reseal the base of the toilet again. I used that supposed impermeable stuff one of my brothers recommended, so naturally, it didn't last, so I peeled it off and redid it with some silicon, using my new generic Dremel to clean it properly. Did some planning on the Taste of Goethe Trails for next weekend, considered changing out the panel on my inverter but had a few questions about some things, so I spoke to Jo's electrically-minded husband Jeff about it. Figure I'll clean the terminals before I put in the new control panel, and I'll have to reconfigure it a bit differently, but I didn't want to get into all of that today. Finally saddle up Apollo for a 5 1/2 mile ride, and today, decided to let Lola come along. I've been trying hard to keep her from overexerting herself, but I'm getting worried that she's going to be worse off without any exercise. She seemed to be a bit better today, not perfect, but she kept up fine and didn't seem to limp very much, though she's still not quite walking in a completely normally, but that might just be the arthritis in her hocks. It's better for her to run in a straight line that jumping and leaping when she's fetching, so hopefully she'll be okay in the morning. I'm almost out of pills, but Jo is going to try to arrange an acupuncture appointment for her next week, which would be great! Apollo did really well, we jogged a lot, and he didn't have any pig scares, so it was uneventful, but fun. It was a gorgeous day! Nice to just get out there and ride! I gave Apollo a good rinse and combed out some of his winter coat before hanging him back on the highline. Then a couple drove in for a day ride, Mary and Ed, and we had a nice chat. They'd never been here before, so I suggested a good trail. Turned out, she didn't get back until after dark, went out on a bunch of other trails, but finally made it back okay. She might be coming back with friends tomorrow, and I offered to ride with them. It's either that or start to do my taxes... Hmmm, ride or taxes? No-brainer there! Finally settled in for the evening, later than usual (did I mention I HATE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!), be in bed soon, but later than usual at the rate I'm going. Good night, babe! Love you!

Saturday, March 9, 2024 – Weird Day

Hi Babe,
I was so wound up last night that I couldn't sleep. I read for hours, then was worried about my phone going dead, looked up what might be the cause of the problem and learned that sometimes dirt just gets into the port, so I tried cleaning it, but I'm sure the port has been pushed back inside and that's why my cords aren't working properly. It was after 2:00 before I finally slept, so I spent the day feeling tired. After morning chores and breakfast, I read some more, even crawling back up into bed and nodding off occasionally. Finally mustered enough energy to drive over the Jo's to pick up the ribbons for marking the trails at the upcoming Taste of Goethe. We visited for awhile, and Lola had a little play date, though we tried hard to not let her run around too much so that she wouldn't reinjure her leg. Before I left, she offered to let me borrow her extra wireless charger, so that I would worry less about my phone going dead. That may be the answer, if no one steps up to replace my phone, though I have to remove it from it's case to make it work, which is kind of a pain. Finally got back, fed the horses and settled down for the evening, with a Northern Exposure and an interesting movie with Robert Redford (who also wrote it), Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise about the War on Terror. I've been having wine in the evening the last few nights and haven't been sleeping well, so it's back to Sleepytime tea tonight. It's been warm enough to need to use the air conditionng the last few nights, to cool it down before going to bed. Rain coming in tonight, though, that's supposed to make it better by tomorrow. Winter is gone, daylight savings begins tonight (boo, hiss, hate daylight savings time!!), and things are getting positively toasty here these days. Hoping for a better night sleep tonight! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Friday, March 8, 2024 – Disappointing Day

Hiya Sweetie,
Didn't sleep that great, did my chores and breakfast, then loaded up Flash and drove down to Tidewater to put up the permanent markers on the new trails. I was a little afraid that they wouldn't be quite what I expected, and unfortunately, it was even worse than I feared. The trail that got mowed was a lot different than the trail I marked. Several areas that were used were areas that I intentionally avoided because I knew they would be a problem after they were mowed. One section where I specifically said I didn't want to knock a whole bunch of baby pines down were razed by the tractor, forcing me to do a lot of cleanup that I hadn't counted on. A bunch of areas had scrub palms that I wanted to avoid because you can never get rid of the stumps, they'll grow back, and they usually have a big hole in them, and a lot of trees I had planned to use for markers where no longer in the right place, and so on, and so on. There were a lot of markers that were obviously missed, and my instructions to "stay right of the markers" was all but ignored. I knew I should have insisted on being there, but Rick was pretty adamant that I not be there, and I didn't want to argue, but now I regret not insisting, because now, to do it right, it will take another four steps to correct, even if I can convince them to. Now I'll have to put up temp markers again, get it mowed properly, then put up permanent markers, and then take down the permanent markers that would now be on the wrong trail. Sigh... We had also decided to do another, short section of the trail to move that off the road, and I can't even begin to explain what the hell he did there. I had to look at my GPS when I got home to figure it out on Google Earth! He was supposed to just cut a new trail about 20-30 yards in from the road, paralleling it, but all he did was cut a small loop away from the trail, then backtracked and looped back into the trail closer to camp, nowhere near the road. Sigh... I took the time to mark the correct path with ribbons, though whether he'll ever fix it, I don't know. It was a very frustrating day, a lot of work that's unfinished, leaving a lot more work to do, and I'm running out of time, so it may be next season before it gets done. And then I discovered that the new phone cords I got in the mail yesterday screwed up my charging port, and now I can't seem to get my phone to charge properly. Same thing that happened with my phone a couple of years ago. I paid $8 for new cords, and I'm probably going to have to spend $175 to get a new phone. Sign... Well, enough griping, it doesn't get me anywhere. Jo had a bad day, too, her second horse Peaches failed to get vetted in, so she couldn't even ride her scheduled 25 today. A dark day in the neighborhood! Settled down to a glass of wind and a shrimp burrito, but still feeling pretty low. Looking forward to a nice shower, I got really dirty today, then bed. Grrrr. Good night, darlin'. Love you.

Thursday, March 7, 2024 – Change of Plans

Hiya Darlin',
Well, my whole day had been planned around going down to help with the mowing of the new alternate purple trail, but Rick called to say it wasn't necessary and would do it without me, so my morning suddenly cleared up. I ended up just killing time until I went over to the FITS ride to crew for Jo, so I went over about 1:45, hung around until she came in, which was later than she figured, but I mostly just visited and read for the afternoon. She finally made it after 4:00, I helped until she went back on the trail, then I came home and fed the horses, had dinner, and went back around 8:00. She was doing the 65-mile today, and she was just coming in as I pulled up, she caught up to some 75-milers that knew the trail, so that energized her and Luna, and made it much easier since she didn't have to be on the lookout for markers, so she made good time. Luna passed her vet check, and I helped Jo get packed up. Got back to camp about 9:00 (I'm only two minutes away), then settled down to my Spanish lesson, blog, a glass of wine, and the last part of a Northern Exposure I didn't get to finish before I left. Won't be long out of bed, for sure! Good night, babe! Love you!