Archives for December 2018

Monday, Dec. 10, 2018 – Camel Riding!

Per their promise to take us riding, Jeff and I ran down to his neighbor's in his Toro so that we could go for a ride on the camel, as this was the last day the trainer would be here. Turns out they have quite the sanctuary back there, with two camels, some zebras and donkeys, a variety of other exotics, as well as some ordinary chickens and swans. Anyway, there was a woman with three little kids there getting a ride, so we had to wait a bit for them to finish, the brother Jeff took his ride, followed by me. I'd never done a camel before, so it was interesting, though not something I'd want to do regularly! Glad we did it, though, I'm usually up for new experiences, no doubt! Glad we did it, sorry Hubby didn't feel up to coming along, but we had a good time. Nice day!

Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018 – Ride Day on Flash

Well, after a week of clearing out the area by the barn, we finally managed to get our monster trailer back there, a challenging process to pass through a narrow area that still had some objects a bit too close by, but we made it! We discovered the electric was on a 15 amp breaker, so we had to do some serious utility management until Jeff could put in a bigger breaker arrangement for us in his spare time (which meant it could take a while! 🙂 Today, though, I was determined to get a ride in with Flash, who hasn't been under saddle since we did the Withlacoochee Trail more than two weeks ago. I got him saddled up, and he was quite willing, probably bored already with doing nothing more than just graze in the yard! We headed out into the neighborhood until we reached the canal crossover, then headed down to the west entrance to Cypress Creek WMA on Mack Dairy Rd. We followed the main trail for the most part, then did a short detour on a trail that was marked "foot traffic only" which usually means no wheeled vehicles, and that was a nice diversion, but when I came back to the main road, it kind of looked like maybe it was meant only for hikers. Not sure, but decided to stay on the main trail anyway, which, like Withlacoochee, is essentially one long straight line, with just a couple of squiggles along the way. We went all the way down to the main parking area across from Jupiter Farms Rd., a little over four miles, a total of 8.46 miles by the time we got back. It took us about an hour to get to the parking lot, then I let him do whatever pace he wanted on the way back, and that turned out to be either a really fast gait or a canter, and we reached Mack Dairy in about 15 minutes! Then he stumbled for a moment, so he slowed down the rest of the way, though he kept wanting to pick up the pace again. This horse does love to run! It was a great first workout here, and I can't wait to get some more in. Only problem is that most of the trails are long and straight and flat, so not very interesting, but Flash is doing his best to keep my on my toes! We didn't have to dialyze today, so Hubby and I just relaxed for the rest of the day, glad to have a day off!

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 – Just Another Day in the ‘Hood

Never a dull moment in brother Jeff's neighborhood! As we were running out to do some errands, we came across a neighbor walking his camel, with a camel trainer they have come out for a week to give the girl some lessons. They invited us over for a ride later in the week, and as they are good friends of Jeff's, I have a feeling that just might happen! An otherwise uneventful day, thanks goodness!

Monday, Dec. 3, 2018 – Travel Day to Brother Jeff’s

Got up bright and early for our departure today, getting everything all packed up and ready to go before winding our way through the fences to pick up the horses and head on out of town! It was a VERY hot day, with temps increasing to over 90 degrees. I had checked the air in our tires on the trailer and found all but one in the 90 psi range, though technically with the weight of our trailer, we really needed to be at the max of 123 or so. These are 16-ply, load range H tires, all in very good condition, but one was down to about 85 pounds. I had tried to fill it up with air with our little compressor, but it quit before it got to that tire, so that one was still down when we left, unfortunately. Naturally, that tire exploded just north of Okeechobee, about an hour from brother Jeff’s house, along the narrow, two-lane section of 441. Fortunately, there was some construction that was holding traffic down to one lane, so there were long time periods of no traffic coming our way, which simplified the job. Unfortunately, the 4-prong tire wrench I had didn’t have the right size wrench, and while I was looking for the torque wrench and a socket that would fit, a nice man from the ranch across the road stopped to help. He had the right wheel wrench size, and he had the tires changed in just a few minutes. Of course, I offered to pay him, but he refused, only saying he hoped if his wife was in trouble, someone would help her. PASS IT FORWARD! Love country folks, honored to call myself one! Anyway, once everything was put away and thanks were exchanged, we headed back down the road, hoping the rest of the tires hold up till we got to Jeff’s, and fortunately they did. We arrived later than we hoped, of course, so we parked in front of the house until we could finish work on the area he had cleared for us back by the barn over the next few days. He made us some dinner, which I really appreciated because we were so tired, and went to bed, looking forward to a cold front that was supposed to be arrived the next day, it was just too dang hot here for this time of year!

Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 – Housekeeping, Dialyze and Dinner with Hosts

Slept LATE!!! Yay!! Best night sleep in the trailer since we left home! Can’t understand why I hadn’t figured this out sooner, I guess I’ve just had too much going on to stop and think it through. Anyway, I slept past 9:30, which felt wonderful, then got up and grained the horses (Rich had already given them their hay for the day) and spent the day cleaning the trailer, reorganizing a few things, putting up some more hooks for hanging stuff, storing the suitcases back in the “attic,” changing out Lola’s dog bed (this one is just too big, so it’s going in the back seat of the truck.) I’ll get her another one with sides that’s the right size, so as not to take up the entire laundry room in the trailer. Dialyzed Hubby, then had a lovely dinner up at the big house with our hosts, chatted until well after nine before heading back to the trailer. Hubby was a bit more tired tonight, his blood pressure was quite low for much of his session, so we were in bed right afterward. Hoping for another good night sleep tonight! Could use a few more like last night!