Archives for 2022

Hey Sweetie,
I’m certainly enjoying these cooler nights, Hurricane Ian did a great and instantaneous job of ushering out summer and welcoming fall temps! Had a good night sleep, got my chores done, read a little bit, then finally around noon, got out the tractor and spent about three hours working on post-storm cleanup. An equestrian camper from the west coast up near Goethe State Forest, Cindy, had brought her horse over here to Jupiter to be safe from the storm, and she helped me by burning all the piles I kept bringing her, so we got a lot more done. I burned another pile as well, so it’s starting to look a lot nicer. I’ve been encouraging campers to burn whatever’s around them, so hopefully, the rest of the cleanup will mostly take care of itself, except the paddocks, which are still a mess. Otherwise, it was a quiet day. Binged on some Outlander, and now I’m more than ready for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had a decent night’s sleep, though it took a long while to nod off, still up at around 7:30. Did my chores and had a quick breakfast, finish just in time before Karen and her friend Laura showed up for a ride. They were on stock horses, and didn’t want to take too long of a ride, so I decided to join them on Apollo. Poor old guy hasn’t been ridden in a long time, and he certainly needs the exercise! We rode for just under two hours, first taking the teal trail, included the very wet area between Intersections 7 & 9, drier out to the powerline and back to the grade on the red trail, then decided to take the red trail back to camp, which was wetter than I expected, though only a few inches in most places. The two water crossings were pretty high, but that only means above the knees, almost to the horses’ bellies, but no big deal. Was a very nice ride. I had intended to pick up some palm fronds this afternoon, but decided I wasn’t in the mood, so I finished reading a book instead. Took a shot at trying to fix the dead drill/driver that went kaput on me last week, no luck there. Changed the water filter in my hose, it’s been very slow and full of algae, so I put in a new one along with a bleach tablet just to try to keep my tank a little clearer. Settled down for the evening, watched a couple of Outlanders, now it’s shower and bed time! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Got up a little late, got my chores and breakfast done, then headed up to Sam’s Club in Stuart to pick up some pool salt for Glenn’s. They screwed up the order and didn’t give me 10 bags, only 8, so I had to go back and get the other two. Nearly made me late for my euchre game at the Kane Center, well, actually I didn’t make it into one of the foursomes, so had to play cutthroat for a bit before we rotated out into the teams. Lots of folks there, though, they’ve been getting better turnouts lately. Finished up at 3:00, headed to Walmart, picked up fuel ($65 for half a tank!), did my shopping and headed home. After 6:00 by the time I got back, grilled a nice T-bone (thanks, Luis!) and settled down for the evening. Been bingeing on Outlander. I know we watched the first couple of seasons together, but I don’t think we watched the last few, so I went back to start over (I couldn’t remember too much), and am remembering as it goes along. Had a couple of campers come in today, so I guess it’s back to normal! Really enjoyed being on my own, but as the season progress, I’m sure that won’t happen any more, darn it. 🙂 Ready for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Such a busy day today! James came by just as I was feeding the horses, and we chatted for a bit. First time he’s been here since the hurricane, just checking it out to see what needs to be done. After he left I had breakfast, fixed a plumbing problem I was having with my kitchen sink, then headed over to the chiropractor, but it turned out I had the time wrong, so I left and went up to Glenn’s to mow his yard. Had a little trouble, got stuck in the mud, had to use the truck to pull out the mower. Ended up only getting about half of it done before I had to go back down to the chiropractor. Not sure anything he did really helped, since most of my pain was already gone, but hopefully it will help prevent a reoccurrence. Headed back to Glenn’s to finish the mowing, stopping for gas for the mower along the way, also did some weed-whacking, then had to try to fix his pool, it’s not getting the flow that it’s supposed to, but I couldn’t get the big filter open so we had to leave it off. By then it was after 6:00, and I was glad to get home! Made a quick dinner and settled down for the evening. A very busy day! More than ready for my shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Amazingly, I was able to find a dentist who could see me this afternoon, so I spent most of the day up until 2:00 doing more housework. Had a clog in the kitchen sink, had to work on that a bit as well. The dentist was a young woman, did a great job of just sanding down the edges of my tooth so it wouldn’t rub my tongue raw, but said we really need to put a crown on it, so I’m going to have to investigate my dental insurance options when I have a chance. Discovered that Equity had completely changed their health insurance requirements, and that I’ve actually been without it since April! They’re only allowing 6-month policies since Covid, and since I thought I had qualified for a year, I hadn’t paid attention. So now I need a 16 week contract just to earn 6 months of insurance! Going to have to look at some other options on that, too, see what’s a better deal. Good thing I didn’t have to have any medical emergencies since April or I’d have been in a lot of trouble. Anyway, my coverage just started, so I’m good until the end of March, but I don’t know what to do after that. Can’t get another 16 week contract in before then, I don’t think! Might have to try, though. Anyway, a busy day, cleaning is mostly done thank goodness. Settled down for a quiet evening, soon off to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Love these cooler night time temps, had another good night sleep, without the AC coming on. Got bit by the housework bug today, since I haven’t done much deep cleaning since I started this trail project, I figured I was way overdue, so after breakfast, I got busy. I couldn’t believe how much dust had collected on the ceiling above the fans, and the whole place was, frankly, filthy, so I spent nearly all day cleaning and still only got about 2/3 of it done. I’ll finish off the rest tomorrow. Worked until after 4:00 on the cleaning, then settled down for the evening. I had a few day riders I let come in from Jupiter, they helped pick up a few palm fronds for me. I’m glad my back is feeling so much better, though I still intend to see the chiropractor on Tuesday, just to see if there is an ongoing issue. Then this evening, while I was eating some mint chocolate ice cream, I suddenly bit down on something hard. I thought it might be something in the ice cream, turned out to be a little chip had come off of my back left molar! What’s up with that? So now I have to find a dentist and get that fixed. Always something! Sure glad I have a job in a couple of weeks, what with all these extraneous expenditures. Soon be ready for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
Had another good night sleep, got my chores done, had breakfast, then got busy cleaning up all the flotsam that came down from the palm trees during the hurricane. Tied the tarp to the back of the tractor, filled it up and dragged it over to the nearest firepit, dropped it off and went back form more. Once I had a good pile at four different firepits, I started a good bonfire at each, and managed to burn just about all of it. Took me from 10:00-3:00 to get it all done, and boy, was I tired by the end of it! My back flared up just a little, but nothing too bad, surprisingly. I put the heating pad on it after my shower just to keep it loose, we’ll see how it feels in the morning. I’ve been trying to stay away from the ibuprofen, that just dulls the pain and then I try to do too much and end up paying for it when the pills wear off, so I haven’t taken any in a few days. Settled down to reading and TV for the rest of the day, already did my Spanish lesson, and plan on getting to bed good and early tonight! Think will all the physical activity today, I should sleep well again, I hope! I’ve got some riders coming in tomorrow, they said they’d help with some of the cleanup as well, so hopefully I can make a bigger dent tomorrow. I’d say I might have done about 25-30% of the campground, not including the paddocks, which are a real mess, and that’s my first priority, the campground. I can tackle the paddocks later. So that was my day, busy and productive, just the way I like them! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey Babe!
An excellent night sleep, cool enough where I even had to put my summer blanket on top of my sheet! Gorgeous! Did my chores a little computer work, then collected some crosspieces that I feel are necessary and that I can reach today, and saddled up Flash. What a beautiful day! Cool (relatively speaking) and sunny, absolutely gorgeous! We headed out on the green loop at 10:30 and put a couple of crosspieces in there, and while the water was high in some spots, there was quite a bit of dry trail as well. Flash was brilliant! The very first marker was in water so deep they would have gone way over the top of my rain boots, so I actually managed to keep Flash so still I was able to screw it in while on horseback! What a great horse! He never used to stand very well, but he was great today. Then we cantered down the road to the teal trail west of the grade and put a couple more along the teal and red trails, and then came back along the teal trail north of the grade to finish off. Sorry to say, something went squirrely on the power screwdriver on the very last screw, managed to get it in okay but then it quit. Not sure why, but I’m going to have to do a little investigating and get it fixed. Glad to get a few more of the missing markers done, though! Another step forward! Got back to camp just before 1:30. Glenn got in touch this morning and asked if I’d pick up some pool chemicals and give his pool a shock today, he thought it looked kind of green, so after I got back from our lovely ten mile ride, I took a run into town, picked up his order at Ace, and headed up to his house, where I gave his pool a good working over. It actually looked better than it did yesterday, so I’m not sure what he was worried about, but after I left, he told me it was looking ten times better after the treatment (he has cameras), so he’s happy. Got back to camp and settled in, putting out my awning and one of my gravity chairs (I actually took one over to Glenn’s today, so I have something comfortable to sit in when I’m there, as he has no furniture to speak of yet), and oddly, once I got settled in, I dozed off for a bit, and my back felt better than it has in weeks! Don’t know if it was the ride or the chair, but it was definitely an improvement. Grilled myself a nice steak and settled down for the evening. Ready for shower and bed, right after my Spanish lesson. Good night sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, which I’m sure I wouldn’t have done in the trailer, I would have been too nervous about the winds changing around. Good thing, too, as Ian came inland a lot closer than they had predicted. Left Jeff’s before 9:00, went up to Glenn’s and found his pool was a real mess. Pulled out all the big palm fronds, found the pump had gone off, apparently fairly early in the storm, which was probably good because if the filter got clogged up, it may have burned the pump out. Unfortunately, though, it had already started to turn green. I did just a little cleaning, then the scoop net disintegrated on me and I couldn’t do any more. So I ran into town and bought a new one at Ace, then stopped at the post office, then went to camp to check on things there. Was delighted (though not surprised) that the horses were just fine, and so was my trailer! One a few big limbs came down on one paddock fence, all the rest is just palm fronds and small branches that I’ll have to collect and burn. Still windy for most of the day, but definitely cooler, yay! Fall is here! Had a quick breakfast, then headed back to Glenn’s and spend about four hours cleaning his pool out well enough so his filters won’t get too clogged. I’ll need to check it in a few days, though. He wanted me to put in more chlorine (he has a saltwater chlorine system, but it’s obviously gotten behind the curve), but he was almost out, so he’s going to arrange to have more salt and chlorine either delivered or paid for so I can pick it up at Ace on Saturday, and do another cleaning. Got back to camp starving, so I fixed dinner and settled down for the evening. And what a cool evening it’s turning out to be! Supposed to be going down into the mid-60’s tonight, already in the low 70’s, wind’s gone, so I’ve opened all the windows, first time in months! I expect an excellent night sleep tonight, low humidity, and the weather for the next week is supposed to be just gorgeous. I’m sure hoping to get some riding in! It’ll be a struggle to decide if I should be cleaning up camp or “checking trails” :-), probably end up doing both. Depends on how my back feels, it’s been doing a little better after resting most of the day yesterday. Anyway, I’m off to my shower, then bed, so good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
There were a few bands of rain through the night, but nothing really serious. Lola woke me up a few minutes before each one, so I checked to see if there were any tornado warnings in the area, but thankfully, the answer was always no, so I was able to sleep relatively peacefully in between. The morning brought a little rain, but progressively more wind, and at around 1:00, I checked the appropriate sources and learned the hurricane was, in fact, turning east a lot earlier than expected, and a hurricane warning had been issued for Lake Okeechobee. Well, that was it for me! No way I was going to stay here in my trailer with that kind of forecast, so I quickly packed up, closed up my trailer, and headed over to Jeff’s, where the winds hadn’t quite reached yet, though he had obviously had some rain. Spent a quiet afternoon reading, and the winds started picking up later in the day, the worst since the start of the storm, so I can only imagine how much worse it would be back in camp. Good decision! Even if there was no damage, I’d be sweating it all night with 50+ mph winds, which were being called for. Jeff served me a wonderful meal of steak, we watched a little Longmire (I’d seen the series before, but he hadn’t, I knew he would like it though), and now I’m in bed. Good night, baby! Love you!