Archives for June 2015

Spent most of the day trying to learn the best computer to replace my current one, and it seems Lenovo still is the only one with the features I like, i.e. A matte screen that doesn’t reflect strong light (inside or out), and a keyboard that has concave keys rather than flat keys (for a touch typist, the curved keys are a must!) After spending a lot of time trying to get through the Lenovo site, I still ended up with virtually the same machine I have now, just a later model. Guess I got it right the last time! Only problem to solve now is where to have it shipped, since it will take about 2 weeks to get, and getting things delivered to a horse camp is not usually very easy, by UPS. But I’m looking into alternative. Rained in the morning but cleared up later in the day, but too late to get a ride in.

After two days of pretty much solid, cold rain, it finally started to clear up today, and as much as we’d like to take a ride, we had some running around to do, most particularly to try to find hay for this increasingly finicky mare of ours. I’m beginning to think a trip to the vet might be the only option. She has no trouble eating horse feed or grass, but she just turns her nose up at hay, no matter what kind it is. Today didn’t help. We drove over 30 miles round trip to pick up a couple of bales of hay at a farm south in Cayuta, but she ended up turning her nose up at that, too. Even the nearly pure alfalfa is being stomped on by her. In addition, when I went to turn on my computer this morning, it refused to boot up! Perfect! I found a computer repair shop in town and dropped it off there before heading out to the farm, then we went to Walmart to shop, and Tops for gas, plus I ran Lola into a vet next door that happened to conveniently have a scale in the lobby, and she weighed in at 59 pounds, the same as a few weeks ago. Guess I need to pump up her feed again! Got some puppy food at Walmart, maybe that will help. Got a call from the computer repair guy, it seems the ram slot went bad, but they moved it to a second slot and all is well (thank goodness!), with a warning that it’s an indication the motherboard might be on it’s way out. Well, it’s been since Spring 2011 since I bought my last computer, so I guess I’m due. Time to research what’s available again! Didn’t get back to camp until after 5, did the unsuccessful hay test, did some training with Lola before having a late dinner and watching a movie before bed!

Getting up early again, we headed first to the office to pay for the night, but after expressing our disappointment, they waived the fee in lieu of me writing a commentary on how they could improve the horse camp, which I did. From there, we headed toward Watkins Glen, stopping once for fuel and again for liquor, before making our way out to Sugar Hill. One of the reasons we headed here early is because we were concerned that with July 4th falling on a Saturday, that some folks might arrive this weekend and stay for the week, and we wanted to be sure to get our “usual” spot, which was a well graveled spot with a water spigot at one end, and an angle which would allow Hubby to get his satellite signal. In addition, there was zero cell signal at Alleghany, and we knew we had one here, and were thrilled to discover the signal had even improved since the last time we were here, so all is good, all around!! It didn’t take long to get the horses on anchors, water in the tank (which was confirmed!), and completely settled into this free campground. There were some new horse stalls built as well, so we decided that rather than high line, we would put them in the covered stalls at night and let them graze on their anchors during the day. We met up with maintenance man Ron, the same one who was here the last time we were here, and a new assistant ranger named Creighton, who issued a camping permit through July 6. We soon settled down for the day, while numerous campers came into the camp, making us even more glad we came early, though time will tell if they’re just here for the weekend or for the entire week. Having got all that we wanted here, we’re happy campers today!

After a delightful day yesterday, today we slept late and spent the day simply getting ready to leave tomorrow. Hubby and I took a short walk down to the other campground, which he hadn’t seen yet, and frolicked with the dogs a bit, but otherwise had a fairly easy day.

Being near Cleveland, the home of an old high school buddy of mine, we arranged to meet at the horse camp today, though we crossed paths in the nearby town of Ravenna and hooked up so I could show her the way. I had been doing some shopping, getting fuel and horse feed, and we arrived at camp by 12:30, after I made a side trip to the camp office to pay for two more days here. Today was the first decent weather we’ve had in more than a week, and we were happy to see the sunshine. We visited for awhile, then saddled up and hit the road, this time staying on the road because of her inexperience as a rider. Had a good time nevertheless, chatting the whole way. The dogs accompanied us, and other than getting a warning that dogs should be on a leash from a passing ranger (despite the fact there wasn’t anyone around and there was no one to complain), we got back to camp, fixed some late lunch and chatted some more, catching up on times old and new, making arrangements to meet up again, before she finally dodged out just a new storm began dropping rain on us. We are getting sick of all this rain! What a wet spring and summer they seem to be having up here. Well, not just up here, we had plenty along the Gulf Coast and in Texas as well! Hoping it gets drier as the summer progress, though I have to say, I can’t remember seeing so much green, which is a welcome respite afte nearly two years out west, where everything is brown, brown, brown (except the blue bonnets at Muleshoe Bend, of course!) Looking forward to getting to NY state in a few days!

Woke up several times during the night with the sound of rain on the roof, and it was quite steady from about 7 to 9, so it seems that unless it clears up this afternoon, our ride day is off, darn it! After checking the forecast again, there’s a huge blob of rain heading this way, so I got out one of our portable barrels and put it by the awning to collect water, and after feeding the horses their rations, put them back on their anchors so they can keep munching on the grass and clover here. Not much else likely to happen today, with all the rain. Several people walked by, and apparently did a few landscaping chores, obviously part of the group down below, though we only saw a couple of horse trailers come in yesterday, so they aren’t exactly taking up the whole camp. Whatever, we’re happy up here now that we’re almost level, and it did look awful soggy down there, probably worse now with all the additional rain since yesterday. Took a walk to try to find the short trail next to the campground I’ve seen on the map, with the dogs along, though I lost Lola within 10 minutes, and was relieved when I discovered she had gone straight back to camp. Struggled with some really slippery mud, and apparently I had misremembered how long the loop was (I thought it was ¾ of a mile, turned out to be twice that), so it was more than 1 ½ hours before I got back, wet and muddy for my troubles. Little Billy stayed with me the whole way, though, what a trooper! I never would have found the north trailhead on horseback, as it was invisible where it comes out on the utility easement, so I’m glad I made the reconnoiter. Cleaned up, then settled down to an evening of dinner and watching TV.