Hey Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep for a change, was up by 7:30 (still need to be earlier than that, but I’m working on it!), and after chores and breakfast, I dug right into painting the posts, this time with intersections in mind, which is a whole different approach in many ways. I started by numbering the ends of each post so I could narrow down what needed to be painted in a certain way, then I did what will be the white background for all the numbers. I can’t do the cross pieces until I get more material from James, but I can certainly get the rest of it done, which will make this a much easier job, one and done, when we take them out to install them. Made a couple of errors I need to fix, but nothing complicated, and I need to bring eight more poles out of the barn over here to add to them. Lola’s in the doghouse again, I wasn’t out of the trailer for five minutes, and when I came back in to get something, she had already managed to sneak her way into my bedroom! Grrrrr! I put her on her cable outside for the duration, which I’m evidently going to have to do every time I go out anymore. I had just sprayed her with flea spray this morning, don’t need THAT aggravation at bedtime! By 1:00 the posts were all in full sun, so I quit for the day, but got an awful lot done. Thinking I’ll take the day off tomorrow, and maybe if it’s cloudy, go for a ride. Sure could use one! Had some serious storms come in, just managed to get the horses fed before they rolled by, lots of nice rain for a few hours. Settled in for the evening, and after having taken my shower this afternoon, I’m heading to bed early tonight. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Couldn’t decide what to do this morning, whether I should start painting some of the post tops white now that I know I’ll be putting intersection numbers on them, but then I had to revisit my Google Earth files because my stupid computer rebooted with updates and erased all the changes I made yesterday, so I had to go back and do all that again. Then Chester called and said he was coming out and could I show him the places on the trails that have changed, and I thought he meant on a map, but he arrived with his UTV and wanted to actually go out there, so we headed out together and spent a couple of hours out there. Not sure what it accomplished, but I was able to confirm a couple of places where I want to put markers anyway, so it worked out just fine. Got back around 3:00, chilled for the afternoon, had dinner, then mowed the little patch of yard around the trailer. The mowers had come in today, and I had put the horses in a stall so they could mow all the paddocks, and tamp down the ragweed population temporarily (they were getting a bit ahead of me!), but I let them out again once they were done. So everything is nicely mowed everywhere now, the camp, the trails, my little yard, looking good! Had quite a few campers arrive today, so rounds were busy, then I settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hello My Love!
Well, the day started out not very well. I had a terrible night sleep because I was so livid with the fact that our local FWC guy, who is ostensibly the overriding law enforcement guy here, showed up unannounced, uninvited and unwanted, and started harassing my campers, including giving out two tickets to a father/son pair that had been the model of cooperation, quiet, cleanliness and all the things I really appreciate in campers. They were helpful and friendly with their neighbors and as far as I was concerned, ideal campers. But along comes this LE guy, well, I don’t want to get into the details, but his behavior was strictly harassment, and it totally spoiled the nice, friendly, quiet atmosphere we’ve enjoyed out here all week. His issuing two tickets two folks in that manner was just uncalled for, and left a very negative feeling amongst everyone else here. Just when I was getting back into a positive place after that father/daughter couple made everything so tense, now we’re back at it again because of this. Anyway, I only slept a few hours and not surprisingly, woke up cranky. Took awhile to get going this morning, then James called and said he was coming out to chat, which was good because I had some things I wanted to discuss about the permanent post markers, but of course, we had to talk about the LE guy as well, as well as the issues with the well pump. Suffice to say he also thought the LE guy was over-aggressive, and to my mind, so arbitrary, considering the number of times I’ve asked him to write tickets for much more egregious infractions which he refused to do, and often refused to even show up. Grrrrr! Anyway, it was a good meeting, and it now looks like I’ll have ALL the materials I need to finish the trail marking system within two weeks! Yay! No half measure, which I was worried I would have to do, but it looks like we can do it once and forget about it, yay! I ended up trying to read in the afternoon, but kept falling asleep, watched a little TV, then had dinner.early. After dinner I hopped on the tractor and mowed a few more paddocks, the ones with the worst ragweed infestation, plus pulled out a bunch by hand, so I’m hoping I have a handle on it now. Fed the horses, did my rounds, where I got another earful about the harassment by the FWC guy, finally got back home at 8:00. Took a long, cool shower, watched an hour of TV, now I’m off to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Morning got off to fast start, got the horses fed, pulled a bunch of ragweeds, had breakfast and promptly got out and painted the posts, though only one color at the moment. After that I spent some time figuring out how may multi-color posts I think I’m going to need, though I won’t be sure until I get back out on the trail. Had a quiet afternoon, then when I was feeding the horses, I looked at some of the paddocks near the barn and saw that the ragweed was taking over there, and it was too much to pull by hand, so I got the tractor out and mowed for the next hour or so, just to slow the growth down for a bit. Then I went to water the horses and there was no water, so I had to start investigating that, and found the old DEP well pump didn’t seem to be working right, hardly any pressure, and only the first few spigots worked. I ended up being told to turn off the well entirely. All this cut into my evening, it was 9:00 by the time I got back to the trailer and settled down. Glad I had an early dinner! Anyway, day is done, off to shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
The day got off to an early start when old James and a helper arrived just after 7:30 with the 80 poles I asked for from Andrew. I hadn’t even finished getting dressed yet when they arrived! With the three of us we made short work of unloading them off the truck and setting them up along the fence, where later in the morning, after chores, I rinsed them all off with a hose to get the sand and dirt off of them. That didn’t take long, but I wanted them to dry before painting them, and by noon it was pretty hot and humid, so the plan was to start that job tomorrow anyway. Pretty much just relaxed the rest of the afternoon, finished reading a book and binge-watched a little TV, settled down for the evening for more of the same, and now it’s just shower and bed left! Pacing myself, that’s the key to getting all this work done in the heat down here. Besides, I’ve got all summer to get this job done, no sense rushing it. I’ve now set up another volunteer work day for July, though I’m hoping to get some of the posts out before then anyway, can’t just sit around and wait for three weeks, right? Anyway, off to bed early, need to add another hour in the morning, so need to get up earlier as well. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
Started the day out with having a welder I hired fix the spare tire holder. He was pretty close and completely portable, and it took him less than an hour to get the job done, plus he charged me a very reasonable fee, so kudos to him! He didn’t have the proper nuts for it, but gave me a small section of the same kind of bolt so I could match it up, which I did when I headed out in the afternoon. Glad that job is done! Made a quick stop at CVS for some face cream I use that Walmart doesn’t carry anymore, then got to the meeting in plenty of time. VERY glad to see a large horse community contingent there! James had asked us to participate, there’s been a dearth of horse folks attending these meetings, and since they deal with recreation, it’s important they get feedback from us. It started at 5:00 and was done about 7:15, then we chatted for a bit, setting up our next work day in July. Stopped at Walmart to shop on my way back, another quick stop at Tractor Supply just before they closed, then back to camp! I was disheartened to find that Lola had once again managed to bypass all my stair-blockers and had managed to get into my bedroom, I was NOT HAPPY with her for that! We had the same problem a few days ago and I thought I disciplined her well enough for her to get the point, but obviously the draw of sleeping in my bed trumps all the punishment she gets for doing it. Just going to have to find some way to lock up bedroom, much as I hate to do that. Oh, well. Checked on the horses, they were way out back but came when I called, now it’s much later than usual, but my towels are in the dryer so I’m going to have to get to bed a little later. Glad it was a busy day! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Well, Phase One of trail marking is now COMPLETE! All trails, with the exception of one small connector trail that’s never been on any map and I’ll get to when I put posts out, are DONE! I’ve trimmed and lopped most everything out of the way, and recovered many sections of trails that were lost years ago. I can only hope that when Chester mows he’s able to follow everything the way I marked it! Didn’t get out until nearly 10:00, and was back by noon. Spent the rest of the day doing laundry, reading, binge-watching TV and otherwise relaxing. So glad to have that job done! Phase Two will be to paint posts, but I need to get the posts over here. The new land manager Andrew offered to help me with that, I’ll need to contact him tomorrow about when he thinks he can make that happen, or if I should just start bringing them over myself if it’s not in the foreseeable future. So a quiet afternoon off to reward myself for all the hard work I’ve done this week! Ready for my shower and bed, so good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Not a great night sleep, and up a little later than usual, but after chores, breakfast and planning, I was out on the trail before 10:00. After looking closely at another section of the yellow trail yesterday, I’m convinced that there another bit that’s been mowed wrong for a long time, so I went out today with the intention of completely recovering it, in accordance with an old GPS file I have from 2013. Sure enough, despite it’s long neglect I found I could actually follow it, so I mowed it a few yards at a time to make sure I got it right. There was only one section I couldn’t recover because a very large tree had fallen over the trail and I had to go around it, but other than that, I’m pretty sure I got it all right again. That meant having to paint over a few of the markings I just made with some camouflage spray paint which I had brought along. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish it completely because the dang roller fell off the bucket loader and I ran over it before I realized it. That’s the second time that’s happened now! I only had about a quarter of a mile left to do, so I’m going to have to finish it tomorrow, darn it! Just as I was finishing it looked like it might rain, but it skipped around us again. The afternoon was reading and binge-watching Supernatural (I’m hooked! Season 10 and this show just keeps getting better!). Lola is in the doghouse, though, when I got back from my trail marking, she was up in my bedroom, though how she got around the spice cupboard and the fan on the stairs is beyond me. So now, after yelling at her and sending her to her room, we’re not talking. I may just keep her tied up outside in future when I go out, not sure what else to do. She really messed up my bed, throwing my pillows and sheets and blankets everywhere when she “fluffed it” to her liking. Grrrr! Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Still didn’t get to be until later than I wanted last night, but also got up earlier than usual this morning, which means, hopefully, my head clock is adjusting. Got the horses fed and had breakfast, and was headed out to start my paint job when I noticed that the paint the guy mixed for me was INTERIOR, not EXTERIOR! How dumb is that! I told the guy what I wanted it for, but he used the wrong base, so now I can’t do it. I spoke to a manager at Home Depot and she was willing to fix it, but there’s no way I’m driving 40+ miles round trip for one lousy quart of paint. Fortunately, James is going tomorrow, so I’ve arranged to have him pick it up for me. I hate delaying that last tiny leg of that job yet again! Well, since I was all cranked up to do work today, I went ahead and started on some little jobs that needed doing, and you know how it goes, one thing led to another, to another, to another. I had bought a hose repair kit and some hooks to hang the hoses in the big barn on, so I fixed that hose and put up the hooks, looks much tidier now. Then I flushed out the black water tank in my trailer, that was full, and I rinsed it three times for good measure. Then I noticed the water filter was in pretty bad shape, so I decided to change that out, had trouble getting one of the drawers open, had to take that out and reorganize it, which also included scraping a bunch of hard glue off the bottom. Nice to get that organized. Changed out the water filter, though it’s one of the charcoal ones, so it will likely clog up pretty quick, I need to get some of the paper ones. I put a bleach tablet inside it, figured my tank probably needs a little refreshing anyway. Then I did some housekeeping. By noon I had done all the little jobs, so I spent the afternoon reading, then binge-watching Supernatual (I admit, I’ve become an addict! It has successfully sucked me in!) Now it’s time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!