Archives for September 2022

Hey Sweetie,
Had a pretty good night sleep, though when I got up I was still suffering from muscle spasms in my lower back, so I decided the best thing to do was to try and rest today in the hopes of reducing the problem. I alternated between icing it and heating it most of the day. Worked for a few hours on the trail map and How To Read the New Markers flyer, then finally settled in for the evening. I actually found the gravity lounge chair I use outside was the best relief, and sat out there for a bit until it got too hot, then moved inside to my recliner, which doesn’t seem as comfortable, though that may just be because I’m sitting up more to work on my computer. In any event, I’m truly hoping to feel better tomorrow. I didn’t even go in town to pick up my tractor tire, though they called this afternoon. James stopped by for a bit and we got caught up, other than that it was pretty much a nothing day. A quick shower and bed coming up! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Whew, what a day! Woke up, still in a lot of pain, took some ibuprofen and got busy with chores. Right after breakfast I headed out, stopping at the post office to pick up a bunch of packages that have accumulated since last week, then dropped off my tire at the Goodyear, then headed to Glenn’s to do the mowing. Was pleasantly surprised that the position I was sitting in on the mower didn’t hurt, and who knows, maybe the vibration was like a massage, but I ended up feeling better at the end several hours later than I did at the beginning. Once the lawn was done and I got back to the house, I discovered Glenn’s friend Terry there, he was working on installing the pool pump that I dropped off yesterday, but couldn’t complete the job because of some electrical hookup challenges. The old pump (which was new) needed to be returned, and he asked me if I could drop it off, so we packed it up and got it in my truck. I stopped back at the Goodyear expecting to pick up my new tractor tire, turns out it was still sitting exactly where I left it, they hadn’t even started it yet! They “got busy,” and somehow that translated into everyone else getting prioritized over me, so I was not a happy camper there. Headed back to camp, managed to print Glenn’s return label, took a quick shower, scoffed down a can of pea soup, then ran into town to drop of his package before the 4:00 deadline, called Goodyear again and they STILL hadn’t finished the job, and by then I was out of time anyway. Drove down to the HQ for the SFWMD for their recreation forum, sat through that from 5:00-8:00, chatted with James and another guy, Jeff, who’s working on the Cypress Creek restoration, and with whom I made a couple of simple requests based on his presentation, one about widening the gate along the East-West canal on the northern side of the property, and also about their proposed bridge over the Hobe Grove Ditch (one of my favorite spots on the OTL trail), and making sure horses still had access to it as a watering stop, since it’s the only naturally occurring water for miles along that trail, and he seemed quite amenable to both ideas. Finally headed home, got back around 9:00, very late for me. Settled down to a Jeff Foxworthy stand-up routine, which made me laugh out loud many times (a nice change from so many of the doom and gloom programs that seem to pervade TV these days), now I just have to do dishes, Spanish and off to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Was hoping my back wouldn’t hurt as much this morning, but the pain kicked in and I had to take three ibuprofen, and even that didn’t help much. Guess I’m going to have to find a chiropractor. Anyway, did my chores, had breakfast, then headed out to start my errands. A quick stop at Walmart for a couple of things, then a stop at Glenn’s condo to pick up his new spa pump (I’ll be glad when that’s installed, it might just help with my back a bit!), then decided to check out Walton Rocks Beach, which is a off-leash dog beach about five miles from the condo. Didn’t know if I had the energy, but decided it would be good for Lola, and she did have a blast! I just sat and watched her as she romped around with some of the other dogs. There was one dog there in a shark swimsuit, it was hilarious! It actually had a dorsal fin, and if he had gotten into the water, it would have probably been terrifying if they didn’t notice the dog attached! Never saw him get in that deep, though, probably a good thing! Didn’t stay too long, but had a good time. Next stop was Glenn’s house in Indiantown, dropped off the pump and straightened out his pool pump. Evidently they lost electricity a few days ago and the pump reset to some setting that doesn’t keep the pump running, but I fixed it. Dena had bought a fruit picker and I used it to get down one of the big papayas that was ready to drop, though I put the basket under one of them, shook the tree, and the one next to it dropped! Oh, well, it seemed to stay intact, so now I’ll just ripen it up as is. It was way too late to start mowing, and frankly, my back couldn’t take it today anyway, so hopefully tomorrow. Grass doesn’t look all that bad anyway. Got back to camp, only to learn from the cleaning guy that there was yet again problems with one of the showers, so I went and turned that off and locked it up. I also noticed the well pump tank was overflowing again… It never ends with this stupid plumbing out here! Then I checked my batteries again, because yesterday when I went to check the water level, it was way down again, so I had refilled them, today they were literally boiling. I topped off a few that needed it, and turned off the charger for a bit to let them cool down. It was really hot in there, so I opened the flap of the skirting to let some cooler air in, hopefully that will work. I’m going to run the batteries down again before I put the charger on, just to try to get them behaving normally again. Don’t like to see them boiling, not when they sit next to my propane tanks, right under my bedroom! That would be bad! Finally settled down for the evening, putting an ice pack on my back, which worked about the same as the ibuprofen (some relief, but not much), finished watching a limited series program, so now it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie’,
Felt a little better this morning at first, then sat down for a few minutes after breakfast and got achey all over again for some reason. Took some ibuprofen and waited half an hour, then started moving, which helped a little, but not all that much. I am trying to get down to the last few posts, filling in some of the blanks of this still left to be done, and it’s pretty confusing. It didn’t help matters when I discovered by computer and rebooted overnight after some update and I ended up losing all of my most recent trail work on Google Earth, which means I have to do it all over again, darn it! Fortunately I had updated my Post List and was able to recover a lot of the information, but still had to redo it on GE. Once I got that sorted, I cut the remaining crosspieces and painted them, hopefully these will be the last. I corrected some things on a couple of posts, and figured out how many more posts I needed to get. Then I took the left rear wheel off the tractor, it’s been showing some serious signs of cracking on the sides, so I had ordered a new one earlier in the week, and it arrived Friday at the Goodyear dealer in town, so I want to drop the wheel off to be changed on Monday. I managed to use the front end loader on the tractor to help me get it up in the bed of the truck, so I didn’t need to get any help. Just as I finished doing that, two lady riders arrived back in camp and announced they had found my chain! I had let everyone in camp know I had lost one and asked them to keep an eye out for it, and lo and behold, it was found! Yay!!! Surprisingly, it wasn’t on the trails I did on Wednesday, but rather on Tuesday on the Red trail, not far off from where it crosses the main grade, so I ran out there in my truck and walked in to retrieve it. So happy to get it back!. I have a bunch of old posts to pull out, and I was worrying about how to do that, didn’t really want to buy a new chain, glad I don’t have to. Then I ran over to the maintenance shed to pick up some more posts so I have all that I’m going to need, I hope! I needed seven but I picked up twelve just in case, hoping that will be the last bunch. Rinsed those off, did a little picking up around the carport, then came in, showered and settled down for the night. I had to take another ibuprofen, though, I still have some lower back pain. I was going to take the day off tomorrow, but brother Glenn asked me to do some errands for him, so weather permitting, I may just mow the lawn as well, but we’ll see. Been having a lot of rain the last few days. Anyway, done for the evening, heading to bed shortly. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
I had all good intentions to do some post painting today, but got waylaid, first by my printer running out of ink and not having a spare (could’ve sworn I had one, never found it), and then, after breakfast and chores, I sat in my recliner for a few minutes and ended up falling asleep again! Woke up nearly two hours later. Granted, I did wake up and read for a few hours during the night, but I didn’t think I was that tired, though I guess with all the activity this week, I shouldn’t be too surprised. I was really achey this morning, too, had a hard time moving, my lower back hurt quite a bit, and my right shoulder and oddly, my left elbow. Anyway, I ended up have a pretty lazy recovery day, mostly reading. Settled in for the evening, and a big rainstorm is raging at the moment. Looks like the fall transition is really coming in hard! Going to make the waters really deep out there for awhile, I’m sorry to say, so it may some weeks before I find my logging chain, if I ever do. Anyway, a relaxing day, ready for bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
A good night sleep, woke up at the right time, was out again a bit after 9:30, and managed to get pretty much all of the green loop done with guide posts. Before I left, though, I noticed my logging chain was missing, dang it! Yesterday was one of the few days I didn’t lose something, or so I thought, but my chain was gone, so after finishing up the green trail, I retraced my trails from yesterday, but no luck. We had a lot of rain here yesterday afternoon, and where it was an inch or two deep before the rain, it was 6-8 inches after the rain, so it’s quite possible it was underwater and I wouldn’t have seen it. I’ll let the hunters know this weekend so if anyone finds it, I might get it back. It’s SLIGHTLY possible I lost it on Tuesday, but it would have had to have been late in the day before but I highly doubt it. I took out the power drill from the loader yesterday because I didn’t need to take it, and I’m sure I would have noticed it was missing yesterday if that was the case, so I’m banking on it being on either the Yellow/Red section of trail, or the Yellow trail between the picnic area and the water crossing just before the family camp. I’ll have to wait for the water levels to go down, though. Anyway, I hope I haven’t lost it for good, I use it all the time! I wore a back brace today, my lower back is hurting a bit, and it helped a lot. Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, we’ve had a lot of rain lately, pretty sure most of the areas I want to get to are too wet now. I do have some more painting to do, though, so maybe I’ll do that! Got back to camp around 1:30, did some more post planning (I swear, it feels like it’s endless!), answered some correspondence, settled down for the evening to a nice thick steak on the grill, my usual routine, though I took my shower early, now I’m ready to go straight to bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Falling into the rhythm of this now! Waking up at 7:30, putting in a good day’s work, recovering in the evening, etc. Took two trips out today, and got eight yellow and red posts out, and another eight yellow posts out. These are just guide posts, with no arrows or crosspieces or anything, just posts to keep people on track. I’d rather have posts than tree markings, so I’m trying to place them in the most critical areas. I’ve put out over 40 posts already this week! Actually took two trips today, since I can’t carry more than eight posts at a time, and that’s pushing it. It only actually took me about half an hour to put in eight posts, but it takes an hour of travel time to pull it off. Was a little wet out there, but not too bad, and I feel like I’m making significant progress. Had to take some ibuprofen this afternoon, though, my lower back is aching from hauling all these posts around! Managed to get back by around 12:30, and I had a lot of correspondence to get caught up on, so that’s how I spent my afternoon. Had a great storm come through, cooled it down enough for me to open my door and get some fresh air in here! What a nice change that is! More rain forecast for the week, but if it starts to bring fall weather, I’m all for it! Settled down for the evening for my usual TV watching activity, soon ready for shower and bed! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep and another productive day. Was out on the tractor by 9:30, worked on the Teal and the Red trails today, got a lot of the arrow posts and plain trail posts out. Moved some of the existing posts from the left side to the right side so that it will be correct with the new system. Made a lot of notes about what other spots need a post, and it seems there are still a lot that need to be created and placed! Every time it seems like I’m turning a corner on completion, I find another bunch of places that need posts. Oh, well, what else have I got to do? I’m going to try to put out as many of the posts that I’ve already made, keep making a comprehensive list of where else I need posts, and hopefully, I’ll just have one more batch to paint and install and I’ll finally be done, maybe! The mornings have been slightly cooler, so it starts out pretty pleasant, and by the time the heat really builds up, it starts to get cloudy, so it’s really not too bad out there. After I got back, I did some online ordering. I needed a bunch of little stuff and a couple of big items, including a big tire for the back of the tractor. It’s starting to crack in places, and I certainly don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere when it finally goes. It actually looks like the original tire from when it was built back in the 70’s, or maybe they put new tires on when they imported it from Japan, but even that means it’s over 20 years old. I replaced the other one about five years ago, so I’m perfectly okay with replacing the other one now. I also ordered an air compressor, my last one pretty much died, even though I didn’t use it very much. They’re so sensitive, they heat up so easily, then crap out. I ordered a heavy duty one, since the tires on the trailer require a psi of 123, but I’m not holding my breath that it will work much better. Just have to be careful about letting it cool down, even though I was sure I did that with my last one. Finally settled down for the evening, watched a good movie that Karl had recommended, The Gray Man, action-packed to say the least. Ready for shower and bed now! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, then laid in for an extra hour reading. Finally got up and fed the horses, had a pancake breakfast and started a bunch of laundry. Spent most of the day reading and doing laundry, finally getting back to an intriguing British detective limited series called Paranoid, finishing that off just before bedtime. I think I discovered my brown-out problem, but I need to get something it town tomorrow to make sure. It started raining around noon and kept at it almost the entire day, so it was a nice rainy Sunday, just like the ones we always loved to spend together! Heading to shower and bed here shortly, so good night, babe! Love you!