Leaving our critters in the care of my brother, Hubby and I drove up to Melbourne Beach to spend some time with our good friends from Virginia at their second home on the beach here in Florida. After a two hour drive, we arrived at lunchtime and started talking, hardly stopping all day and all night. Joined by another couple (relatives from next door) for dinner, the lively conversation continued nonstop. Didn’t get to bed until almost 11:30! What a great day!
Archives for January 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012 – Ride in Hungryland WMA
January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
After breakfast and Sunday shows, we headed out for our ride to the Hungryland Water Management Area just across the canal from my brother’s house. Having made this crossing the other day, Apollo was slightly less reluctant, but I still had to get down and lead him to the bottom of the ravine before I was able to climb back aboard and go up the other side, though this time he did it more readily, as did Clio. We headed west on the Old Indiantown Trail, avoiding a couple of ATV’s, a couple of pickup trucks, and passing two other women on horseback, who told us the trail we were on was four miles to the first highway, so an eight-mile round trip, which suited us just fine. Rather than go off the beaten track, we wanted to scope out the main trail and check out the terrain for future adventures. We did a lot of walking, some trots and a few long canters, as the road was pretty much straight the whole way, mostly a nice grass footing except the last quarter mile or so. Really nice trail, we often had water on both sides in addition to the canal we were paralleling, and we passed lots of birds along the way. We reached Pratt-Whitney Road in a little more than 1 ½ hours because we were taking a slow pace, then turned around and headed back. I thought there might be a perimeter trail from what I had seen on Google Earth, but it turned out to just be the easement along the side of the road, sorry to say. On our return, we passed an area that looked like it had just been dug up by some wild pigs, neither Hubby or I could remember it being that rough when we came through, and there were a few moments when the horses were snorting and had to be urged to go through a few sections, and we heard some rustling in the bushes, we figured probably pigs then, too. The horses made the canal crossing easily the next time across and we arrived back home about 3 hours after we left. I had promised my brother a short ride today, too, so we switched saddles on Clio, and my brother and I headed out around the neighborhood for about an hour. The horses needed some persuading to go back out the driveway, and they had the pokiest walk ever for most of the ride, until something spooked Apollo and he forgot to be pokey for awhile. Then, of course, they got less pokey when we headed in the direction of home : -). We were out about an hour, which was all my brother needed as he’s a bit out of riding shape and didn’t want to overdue it. After getting back we fed them a good and well-deserved bucket of feed, then settled in for the evening.Saturday, January 28, 2012 – Runaround Day Again
January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hubby had another chiropractor appointment, then we stopped at a few places to look at flooring before hitting the grocery store and arriving home. We have a soft spot in our RV floor that needs repairing, and Hubby started to tear the floor up to see what needed to be done, so now we have a hole in the floor that will be there until probably the end of the week. We bought a piece of 2’ X 2’ that’s sitting on top of it now, so we won’t fall into the hole, temporarily until we get it finished. Got back about 4:00, and settled in for the rest of the day.
Friday, January 27, 2012 – Canal Day
January 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Took our second ride today, starting out along the canal behind my brother’s house, to a spot we had picked out on our previous ride that had relatively low banks on both sides of the canal where we could easily cross. After several minutes of persuasion, Apollo slowly managed to cross the shallow canal, stopping at several intervals (down the bank, stop, cross the water, stop, climb the other bank, hurray!) until finally we reached the other side. Of course, once the “colt” was across, Mama had no trouble following along. We traveled east along the canal until we reached a gate, which, alas, was locked, a development we had not counted on. So we headed back along the canal to the point where we crossed, and this time, Apollo had no trouble going back the way we came. We headed east again on the south side of the canal, until we reached the spot where the gate was. The canal at this point had much steeper and deeper walls, and frankly, looked kind of dangerous, but it was obvious other equestrians had come this way, so we decided to make a go of it. I had to dismount and climb down the bank before I could get Apollo convinced it was safe, and after a minute or two (and some serious rein pulling), he followed me down. At the bottom, I climbed back up, then managed to get him across the water (which was only a few inches deep and only a few yards across, if that much), before climbing up the steep wall on the other side. Thank goodness horses come with four-wheel drive! I had to hang on to the saddle horn, but we made it with no problem. Hubby and Clio followed afterward with very little hesitation, good Mama that she is. From there we headed up Old Indiantown Rd., which was the original road built in the early 1900’s, just a nice hard packed sand as far as the eye could see. We went up maybe a half to three-quarters of a mile, cantering most of the way, just to get an idea of what the trail were like here in what is known as the Hungryland Wilderness Management Area. Apparently it’s just recently been added to a Greenway that allows riders to go from almost the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Okeechobee, almost 70 miles, a route that will come in handy after the Apocalypse : – ), whatever that might be. We saw numerous side trails that looked very inviting, but today we just wanted a short ride to keep the horses in shape, we had too much to do back at the RV to spend the whole day out. Got back just after 2:00 after about two hours on the trail, then got to work on some essential chores. Settled down for the evening to our usual routine.Thursday, January 26, 2012 – Runaround Day
January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Another day of running around, first to the chiropractor, then to a Western store looking for good riding pants or jeans for riding, but couldn’t find anything, then drove all the way up to Stuart to another Western store, couldn’t find jeans, but did get another pair of Ariat Terrain boots (which I love, this is my second pair, I wore the first pair out!), and Hubby found a great hat. Went to the Wal-mart to see what they had there, couldn’t find anything, but Hubby did talk to someone who recommended Bealls, so we went there and found the perfect jeans for both Hubby and I (Lee Riders Stretch) which have a higher waist than most others we found (I don’t like the mid or low rise, I like when the waist is at the waist!). I also find a nice pair Levis that were incredibly comfortable. Hubby found something he liked, but I persuaded him to try on one of my pair, and he fell in love with those! They have much better stretch and are much more comfortable than the men’s! Why not? I wore men’s jeans for years, because they used to fit better, but styles have changed, so we’ll go wherever the comfort is! Anyway, got home late, got everyone us fed, settled in for the evening.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 – First Ride in Jupiter
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Decided that the only way we’re really going to keep us and the horses fit is to get up early and ride in the morning, then get our work done the rest of the day, at least on days when we aren’t running around, so today we got up with the alarm, had breakfast (both us and the horses) before saddling up and heading out into the neighborhood. Most of the roads around here are dirt and sand, and usually they are very hard-packed and washboardy, but apparently they’ve got some new maintenance regime because this time driving in last Friday, there was no washboard feeling at all. We headed out to the nearest canal and started weaving around the canals and roads for about a little over two hours. At first the horses, particularly mine, was spooking at everything, obviously too much oats and not enough exercise in the last three days (how little time it takes for them to accumulate excess energy when they’re fit!), but eventually they settled down, and we ended up getting a lot of nice canters in. We figure that on shorter rides we have to work them harder in order to build their stamina, so that’s what we did. Great straightaways along the canals make it easy to go fast! Saw a lot of wildlife, too, birds and a turtle and a glimpse of a racoon. You can see some of them if you look carefully at the pix. After we got back, we had our lunch, then we started on the list of chores again. I washed and conditioned the rubber roof on the RV while Hubby did some work on the stabilizers underneath (dodging over-spray from me, of course). Had a relaxing evening, now off to bed!Tuesday, January 24, 2012 – Out and About
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hubby had a chiropractic appointment in the morning, and we went shopping and to the post office afterwards. Got a few things done on the computer when we got back, just a regular day!
Monday, January 23, 2012 – Odds and Ends
January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Managed to sleep a few hours, then awake a bit, then another good sleep after dawn. After breakfast we started to attack the list we had made of all the things that need doing while we are here in one spot, though we didn’t get as much done as we had hoped. We were also trying to get a short ride around the neighborhood in, but Hubby’s back was bothering him too much, so we decided to wait until he had another chiropractic treatment (which is scheduled for tomorrow) and hope that will help. Watched a beautiful sunset in our new “backyard”, then relaxed in the evening just watching TV.Sunday, January 22, 2012 – Complete Day Off
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Had a good night sleep for a change, yeah! Not sure which change made it happen, but it happened and I am grateful. Slept late, watched movies and football all day, had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend, hoping for another good night sleep tonight.
Saturday, January 21, 2012 – Runaround Day
January 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Woke up early to the alarm so that Hubby could make an early chiropractic appointment. Afterward did some shopping and running around before coming back for an early evening. Neighbor was having a party so we go to listen to loud music and crowd noises all evening, plus fireworks and gunfire all day, not quite sure what that was all about, but c’est la vie, we’re in the country, sort of. A relatively relaxing day, nevertheless, had a good dinner with a bit of a change in diet today, hoping to start a downward trend, I’ve been stuck at the same weight for a while now, ready to do whatever’s necessary to loss that next ten pounds, plus I haven’t been sleeping well and I’m hoping a change will help that. We’ll see!