Hiya Darlin',
Finally had a good night sleep! I've been waking up in the middle of the night and having a hard time getting back to sleep, but managed to sleep through the night until about 7:30, yay! Did my chores, skipping breakfast, and drove into town for my annual blood test. I arrived early and the system wouldn't let me check in, so I went over to Tractor Supply to fill up three tanks of propane, only to find out they were out! Checked my mail, ran into Walmart for eggs and bread, then back to the lab, which was very quick. From there I drove up to Dunnellon Feed Store, which also sells propane by the gallon, though for a bit more than Tractor Supply, but it was worth it not to run out or to have to come back. Got home, but everything away, and it wasn't long before it was time to pick up Helen and head over to Willard's, where our ride team had a debrief and celebratory lunch. Got back to camp around 3:00 and settled down for the rest of the day. Made plans with Art to join a group going over to WEC tomorrow night to experience their Christmas decorations, apparently it's quite a sight. Relaxed the rest of the evening, feeling more rested, but could still use a day off! Maybe Sunday. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Well, not exactly the day of rest that I planned, but not too exhausting. I did go up and help Chelle do the inventory, took a bit longer than I hoped because we also got all the station boxes sorted and restocked, and it had just started raining by the time I got back to camp. Meanwhile a friend stopped by and we ended up chatting for quite awhile, so I didn't quite start my restful routine until almost 4:00. Not as much time resting today as I hoped, but you know what they say, I'll rest when I'm dead! Finally did settle down for a quiet evening, and had the satisfaction of still getting something worthwhile done today. Tomorrow's also going to be busy, but maybe over the weekend I'll finally get a day of nothing! Wouldn't that be nice! Be nodding off here soon, so off to bed with me! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another busy and exhausting day! After breakfast, I finished packing and closing up the trailer, then loaded the horses in for their breakfast before taking the tractor and bush hogging all around the paddock to clean it up. Then I drove it over to Helen's to fix some tire ruts where one of the riders got their semi stuck in the sand and made quite the mess. Not perfect, but a lot better. Then I finished the trip going over to Chelle's, who brought me back to camp, and from there I finally headed down to Tidewater. Turns out the site I had been assigned was way too small, with no place for the horses, so after scouting around a bit, the manager and I settled on a nice open area across from the day parking, which gave me lots of room for a fenced paddock and more sun for my solar panel than just about anyplace else. Finally unloaded the horses after I got their paddock ready for them, which is in a location right where I can see them, then had to fill up my water tank since I no longer had a nearby spigot. Changed the water filter in the process, LONG overdue! It was nearly 3:00 by the time I got everything set up and I could finally stop moving for a bit. Played a little with Lola, read awhile, put up my solar panel, then finally settled down for my evening routine. Happy that I have a pretty decent cell signal where I am! Feeling very tired, though, I really need a day off, but I'm not sure I'm going to get one any time soon. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I was thinking about resting then, but I need to do an inventory with Chelle for the Taste of Goethe, so we'll probably do that tomorrow instead. I will find a day to do nothing, though, and soon! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up before my alarm, got up before the crack of dawn, then headed out to my first appointment at the dentist and my second appointment for my wellness check up, followed up with doing some shopping at Walmart. Stopped at Jo's on the way back to return all the markers (making a little bit more room in the back seat of my truck!), and was back at home by 1:30. Got everything put away, then started packing up, since I finally got it settled where and when I would be heading down to Tidewater, which will be tomorrow. Spent the rest of the day and evening in my usual routine, very happy that I've finally managed to get back to decent live streaming! That's what happens at the beginning of my month of cell service! Service isn't too great down at Tidewater, but I'm hoping there will be enough. We'll see! Heading to bed shortly. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
As always, drinking wine made me wake up in the middle of the night, so I didn't get as much sleep as I was hoping, but I was up and ready to go by the time DeDe showed up (early) to get started on taking down the markers from the 25 miles of orange trail. We work well together, and we whipped through it all pretty quick, finishing up not long after noon. There were a couple of the signs on stakes that our vandal had taken down and ripped into little pieces, and some the ribbons were missing (though some were evidently picked up by Yvette before Jo told her not to after checking with me), but fortunately it didn't seem to affect the riders, thank goodness. Once we got back, DeDe took me out along yesterday's trail to see if we could find the picker-upper grabber that I lost yesterday. We traced the trail all the way back to the point where I knew I had it last, then turned around and came back again. Just when we were about convinced we weren't going to be able to find it, I saw it! Yay! Mission accomplished! I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out all the ribbons and putting everything away, finally settling down for the evening, even managing to get in a few episodes of Bones, projecting from my laptop, though, which seems to work better when the signal is low. My monthly Verizon allotment recycles tonight, so hopefully things will improve tomorrow. Heading to bed early, another early morning tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Off to a busy start, up before dawn, quickly did my chores, put horse crossing signs on the road, helped cross all the horses, which left at 7:30 and 8:00, then headed down to the vet hold area, putting up a couple of more signs, dropped off hay and helped managed the horses as they came in. Waited until they all left, picked up the water buckets and excess hay, headed down to the next crossing and did the same before heading back to Helen's. Grabbed some lunch there, then had a busy afternoon solving a multitude of other problems, including having to pick up one horse whose rider took the long orange instead of the short orange and couldn't make it back. Ended the day at the finish line taking numbers, times and placements, which finally concluded at around 6:30. Fed the horses and settled down for the night. Unfortunately, Verizon has throttled down my speed to such a degree that I can stream a thing, so I'm out of luck watching TV until my month cycles over on Monday, darn it! I pay for unlimited, I should get unlimited, right? Seriously considering Starlink, just not sure it will work in areas where I'm in a lot of trees, which is very often the case. Sigh. But it is a problem I sure would like to solve, just wish it wasn't such an expensive solution. But hey, that's what money is for, right? To spend and make our lives better? Gotta stop being such a cheapskate! Anyway, I'm having tea, won't be out of bed long, it's been a very long and tiring day, though I think it went very well, and that's the best anyone can do. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Busy, tiring, productive day! Started out heading out with Stacy on her UTV to mark the Red/White Trail, which we managed to get just about done just after noon. She had to head off to do some personal construction stuff (they're in the process of building a house, been going on a year now!), so I finished the rest off myself. Took a short break in the afternoon, then headed over to Helen's where the ride is being hosted, and spent the afternoon doing whatever jobs came up. Since we no longer have a food truck, we arranged for the local Italian restaurant to make us some big trays, and Jo's husband Jeff picked them up and brought them in. Jo ordered WAY too much food, we had so many trays left over! It was delicious, though, with salad, eggplant parmesan, lasagna, garlic rolls (yum!) and cookies for dessert. I ate way too much, too! Then we had the ride meeting, then we cleaned up after dinner, finally got back to camp after 7:30. Taking a Sleepytime tea break, then it's shower and bed, nice and early, since I'll be up before dawn with a busy day scheduled for tomorrow. Despite sleeping well, I'm feeling a bit tired from all this activity, I'm glad the Forest Service is letting me stay a couple of extra days to recover! I'm going to need it! And Lola's been getting really needy, with me being gone all the time, so I really need to spend some time with her at some point. Anyway, that's all the news! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a good night sleep, no doubt all the fresh air and activity yesterday! Today was still busy, but nowhere near as much as yesterday. I met Jo over at Helen's around 9:30, unloaded all the stuff from her truck, came back to the trailhead, transferred all the trail marking stuff to her truck, headed over to Val's to pick up all the water buckets over there, then proceeded to drop them off at the four sites selected for water stops. Headed down to the forest HQ for tables and a couple of other things we thought they had, but all they had were the tables, so we grabbed those. Jo dropped me at Willard's while she dropped off the tables and picked up Helen, and Art and Stacy joined us all for lunch. Got back a little after 3:00, got myself organized for tomorrow, then tried to watch a little TV, but all of a sudden (as of last night), I'm not able to do any livestreaming. I suspect it's because they've throttled me down, which I paid extra for them not to do, but I guess I've even overextended my higher limit. Not fair, I pay for UNLIMITED, I should get UNLIMITED!! Not fast up to a point, then slowed down so much it's unusable! Grrr! Don't have time to argue about it, guess I'm just reading and playing computer games for entertainment tonight. Won't be long out of bed, though, as I have another busy day tomorrow, marking another 12.5 miles of trail with Stacy. Be busy the rest of the weekend, too! So I'll say good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Up with the alarm, breakfast and chores, and out to pick up Art before 9:20. We arrived at Apex just as Logan was cutting a board to close off the back of the Gator UTV, and off we went! Chilly, misty morning, and despite the forecast for a sunny day, the sun didn't make an appearance until about 3:00! By then it warmed things up for about five minutes before sinking below tree level and temps started dropping again. It was a very long day, but it did move quickly. We did the entire 25 miles of both orange short and long, and was very grateful to the forest service for allowing us to do it in a borrowed UTV. I could never have managed it on horseback in Flash's condition. Art and I quickly meshed into a solid work unit, and we wasted no time at all, yet we arrived back at HQ at 4:56, in the nick of time. After we transferred everything back to the truck, I took Art to dinner at Willards, where Shepherd's pie was the special of the day, so we both splurged on that. Way too many carbs, but I did burn a lot of calories today, so hopefully it won't hurt my diet too much. Got back just before 7:00, fed the horses, but had a lot of trouble getting anything on the TV. Don't know what the problem is, the signal seems fine, but the hotspot just isn't making it happen today. Oh, well, just have to go bed early and read. Feeling pretty tired, which happens in all the fresh air and cold weather. Took me ages for my fingers to warm up! Anyway, the main part of the job is done, so I'm relieved at that. A little bit worried, though, because Tom G. said he was out riding, came across some of our markers, but then couldn't figure out where the trail went. He's worried they've been vandalized, but I'm hoping that it was just that he went on the trail before we finished our ciruit. He's going to check it tomorrow for me, after I sent him a copy of the map. Fingers crossed, don't know what I'll do if they've all been moved! Don't know when I'll have time to go back out there! Anyway, I'm feelling very tired and worn out, very glad I left the fireplace on when I left this morning, I'm finally starting to feel a bit warmer. Headed to shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!