Archives for 2011

Spent the day catching up on paperwork, bookkeeping and phone calling. Have to pay attention to business every once in a while, seeing as we’re not exactly retired! (and probably never will be, this is too much fun!)

Relaxed today, again trying to recuperate from all our recent exertions. Made it a movie day! Vegged out in front of the TV, that was about it!

After several false starts and not too much help from craigslist this time, I managed to find a place nearby that sold nice grass hay mix for $5.50/bale. These were nice heavy bales, though, some of the heaviest we’ve seen in a while. We’re glad to be done with the last batch, that ended up getting really dusty from getting wet the first day out. New stuff is nice and green, just cut within the last few weeks, though of course, fall grass won’t be as nutritious, so we’ve been supplementing them with senior feed and oats anyway for the last month or so. Nice seller, helped us load up, we got 30 bales in the horse trailer to keep it dry until we finish up the old stuff and get ready to move on. Having such a good time at Brendan T. Byrne, we’ve decided to stay awhile.

Made the full 8.1 mile loop today, and it was wonderful. One or two places were along gravel road stretches (not our favorite), and along tarmac road, but most of it was lovely footing through beautiful pine barrens (though I’m not sure why they call them barrens, they seem pretty full of stuff to me!) Got in some lovely trots and canters, and really enjoyed ourselves. Starting to feel like things are getting back to normal! Another quiet evening, restful after our lovely ride.

Took a quick ride into town to do some shopping. Found a great dairy bar and diner with FABULOUS homemade frozen custard and ice cream. Tried their pumpkin flavor (‘tis the season!) and it was delicious! Taking everything at a nice slow pace while we recover from our busy September and prepare for our somewhat busy November.

Slept late again, which is actually an agenda item (1. Make multiple deposits in our sleep bank). Also got some much needed paperwork and phone calling done. Relaxed in the evening.

Slept late, laid around all day, first layer of exhaustion nibbled into, many more layers to come.

Called over to another nearby state forest, the Brendan T. Byrne, and although they don’t technically have a horse camp, they agreed to let us stay there, since the campground would be mostly empty by the end of the day. There was some kind of motorcycle “enduro” race for the day, so they asked us not to come over until they had left, which would be about 4:00. A very gracious welcome when we arrived. We filled up our water at the ranger station, because we were sort of let do believe that the water in the campground was a handpump, which didn’t turn out to be true, it was actually a spigot, but the kind with a handle you had to lift up. Threads and everything! That will make life easier! We found what Hubby deigned the only spot possibly capable of receiving a satellite signal, which also happened to be right across the road from a spigot, and we got set up. A nice quiet spot with an 8.1 mile horse trail and miles of dirt roads where horses are allowed, so we’re looking forward to a nice quiet stay where we can finally get a chance to recharge our human batteries! So exhausted after everything we’ve been through lately, seems like it’s been non-stop for ages!

Weather was fine and travel was good, right up until we arrived in the vicinity of the “horse camp” in Wharton State Forest. The “road” that turned off the tarmac was more like a sandy trail, lots of low branches and deep sand that had me greatly worried about being able to get in and out. Hubby tried to scope it out with the horse trailer, and ended up getting stuck twice, so that obviously wasn’t going to work! We persuaded the ranger to let us stay in the day parking area across the street for the night, which had easy access and would have been the perfect campsite except there was no water, and they were adamant we could only stay the one night because it was an emergency. Very disappointing, we were really looking forward to this place! Not sure where we can go now. Yet another challenge!