Archives for April 2017

After doing our usual morning chores and having our usual Sunday blueberry pancakes, we settled down for a rainy afternoon of movies and relaxation.

Had a great night sleep last night (though Hubby’s wasn’t as great for some reason, unusual for him), then a leisurely breakfast, until finally, after Hubby’s soccer game that he likes to watch on Saturdays, we headed out to the benefit event. Many of our camp neighbors had left already, which was unusual on a Saturday, but this seems to be a big day riding area, as a lot of trailers came in during the morning as well. Anyway, we found the benefit with no problem. We spent the first half hour or so just looking at the hundreds of items they had to auction off, including a lot of saddles and horse stuff. If I was looking for a saddle, this would have been the place! Brand new English saddles were going for $40, a number of cordura type western saddles for nearly the same. At the end of the auction, they even sold off a highly ornamented Circle Y saddle for $350! I was tempted to bid on it, just because it was a Circle Y saddle (they usually go for upwards of 2K), but I just didn’t want to buy more stuff we’d have to get rid of again later, we’re trying to pare down to the minimum as it is. We did buy a few things we needed, at rock bottom prices, so we didn’t mind the $10 pp cover charge we paid when we first got there. Besides, it was a benefit, after all! They were also serving lunch, but we only took a bottle of water, a couple pieces of cake, and when we were leaving (MUCH later than we had anticipated) a plateful of delicious smoked pork for the road. It was nearly 6:30 when we got back to camp, I was starting to get worried because we had been away so long, but everything was perfectly fine when we got back. Made dinner fast, while Hubby helped our neighbor borrow our compressor to pump up the air bag suspension in her RV, which apparently had leaked out, even though they had just been installed last week. Finally settled down for a nice quiet rest of the evening.

Well, the rain started coming in during the middle of the night, but no where near as bad as we thought. The radar showed a really heavy squall line before we went to bed, so we decided to put the horses in the trailer overnight, just to be on the safe side from lightning, but as it turned out, it wasn’t that bad, mostly just rain, not much wind, but just enough lightning to make us glad we put the horses in the trailer. Had a terrible night sleep, though, lots on my mind, so a lot of tossing and turning until I got up and went into the living room so I wouldn’t disturb Hubby too much. Finally started to feel sleepy, so I crawled into Lola’s big dog bed, covered myself up in her blanket, and drifted off. Woke up around 6:30 and went back into the bedroom, to find Lola had managed to slink up on to my side of the bed, so I had to quietly get her off before I could get in bed for another hour of sleep. Not a great night sleep, obviously, but enough to make it through the day. I had received a book order yesterday, so my first order of business was to package up a book, and after breakfast I took it to the nearest post office, which was about 11 miles away. Usually I just drop them off on the way to our next stop, but since the plan is to stay here for more than a week, I didn’t want anyone to have to wait that long. When I got back, I spent some time chatting with the neighbors (Larry and Marla and Debbie and Greg), and eventually Larry wanted to see the book, and he ended up buying one, too. Had a nice chat, though, and learned more about the trails (like it was rocky enough to require boots) and generally felt like I had made new friends today. Closed out the day sitting with Hubby in our lounge chairs until it was time for chores and dinner. By now I was really dragging from lack of sleep. I’m looking forward to a better night sleep tonight, and a good ride tomorrow!

Well, it rained all night! Every bucket and pool I put around is overflowing, so a water shortage is not an issue. It also got much cooler, too cool and wet, in fact, to make a ride very enjoyable, so we decided to take yet another day off resting and watching movies. Calling for clearing skies and back in the 70’s tomorrow, so that’s the new plan!

We had heard from Ryan that this was the last weekend of turkey season, and had fully expected more campers to join us last night, which they didn’t, and to hear gunfire this morning, which we also didn’t. I only heard a vehicle or two pass by all day, and some ATVer’s in the late afternoon, but otherwise it’s been nice a quiet again today. If it was quiet today, we originally had hoped to take a short ride this afternoon, but for some reason, we were both still achey and feeling tired, so we decided to relax for another day. As I was feeding the horses their dinner, it started to sprinkle a bit (there was about a 70% chance of rain in the forecast for overnight), so I put out every bucket we had, as well as Lola’s little pool, strategically placed to catch every drop of rain that ran off the awning and gutters. It’s not that we have a shortage of water, but we always try to conserve whenever we can, and it took a long time to fill up the 100 gallon tank in the truck, so any time we can save on the next fill-up is appreciated. Since this place has no water supply, it’s just a prudent thing to do anyway. By dark, the rain had started coming down pretty good, and the 70% chance turned into 100% and lasted for hours. It was still raining when we headed off the bed! Another relaxing day, hoping it clears up enough for a short exploratory ride tomorrow!

Yesterday was such a tough day, we were both exhausted when we got up this morning, so we spent the day resting and relaxing. I did manage to put the brand new spare tire back in the horse trailer, and get out Lola’s GoDogGo ball fetch machine, but other than reading while Lola played, and watching movies, it was a very easy and much needed restful day. Our only neighbor Ryan left in the morning, so now we have the place entirely to ourselves! Love the peace and quiet!