Archives for December 2024

Hiya Darlin',
Slept pretty well, considering I wasn't in my own bed. Woke up to a chilly morning, in the 30's, had to bundle up before going outside. It took me over an hour to take care of the critters, what with having to take their blankets off and everything else. I'm still getting used to the routine. After breakfast, I went back over to camp to pick up the list of things I needed and had forgotten yesterday, plus put some things away in advance of moving the trailer over to the trailer repair place. Got back in time to see the Steeplechase neighborhood Christmas parade, where residents get together and follow a route around a few blocks. Unfortunately, some of them made a different turn, so even though I was on the parade route, I think I only saw a small portion of the parade. It was pretty short, in any event. I sat in the truck at the end of the driveway, feeling pretty Christmas-y considering it was only 50 degrees! Decided to watch a movie, decided on Diehard, having heard someone mention somewhere (in another movie, I think), that Diehard was the best Christmas movie ever. It's been decades since I've seen it, and couldn't remember it at all, so it was a good choice. Getting back into my routine of feeding the animals, taking a hot tub, showering, then dinner, except I only had time to watch a one hour TV show rather than a movie. Won't be long out of bed, I have a busy day planned for tomorrow, even though I'd much rather have a whole day off. One of these days! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Spent the day moving most of my stuff over to where I'm farm sitting, took multiple trips. Started with the horses, fed them as they were tied to the trailer while I fed all the rest of them, then got my guys settled in and fed as well. Additional trips added more stuff, and of course, draining, moving and setting up the hot tub at it's new location. I was glad to see the heater worked so well it was almost to full temperature by the time I finished with dinner, so I was able to enjoy it, though a little cooler by a couple of degrees. Temps are forecast in the 30's overnight, so I'm leaving the hot tub heater on, and I blanketed the horses at dinner. Pretty well settled in now, it should be a nice stay. I heard my axles are due on Monday, so I'll be moving the trailer over there, then keeping my fingers crossed they get it finished in time. My list of things that need to be done has been getting longer and longer, but this is the best chance I have to get them all done. Settled down to a new Christmas movie with Dwayne Johnson (I remember you really enjoyed working with him at a convention one year!) and JK Simmons as Santa. It was pretty fun. Heading off the bed shortly, hoping the mattress is comfy. Brought my own pillow, just in case. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
GStarted the morning off with small overdue jobs. Closed up the ice maker hatch, which I have to do with zipties, and changed the fuel filter on the Airdog on the truck. The neighbor John arrived, and we putterer around on the fence for more than an hour. He is just as mystified as I am as to why it's not workng properly. Finally rushed off for Lola's vet appointment. Disappointed to learn that the $70 monthly treatment I was paying in TN was nearly $120 here. I may have to think the monthly injections if that's the case. No word on what else can be done about her swollen hock, they're supposed to send me estimates of diagnosis tests, which still doesn't include any additional treatments. Sigh... Came back home, hooked up the little horse trailer, and proceeded to follow errant directions to the county landfill in an attempt to get it weighed. I went around in circles on suspect sandy roads for way too long, and when I called DMV, they were very little help. Finally found it, got the trailer weighed, surprisingly it was 3300 lbs.! I did have a few extra items in the tack room, but still, it was a lot more than I expected. Then I went to the DMV only to have them tell me they couldn't do anything for me because the VIN is too faded to read, which I already knew. They said law enforcement would have to check it, but been there, done that, doesn't work. Then they gave me a phone number for their regional office to call, and it went on a circular message I could never escape, and never led me to the place where I was supposed to go to making an appointment. Grrr! Another dead end. I left there and went to the place where Chelle had gotten her outstanding coastal, and I bought a 21 bale bundle which was loaded into the horse trailer. Then drove to Winn Dixie for a few things I needed, including distilled water to check my trailer batteries, then to Chelle's to drop off the hay, then finally back to camp. After feeding the horses, I managed to get in dinner, a hot tube and a shower. I tried to watch a movie but it was getting too stop/start-y to work, so I gave up on it in favor of another episode of my latest binge, Dr. Blake Mysteries. Finally started falling asleep watching, and gave it up. Heading to bed right now! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Got a decent night sleep, then went right back at it today. Didn't get everything done, but made a good dent. A trip to the DMV to change over my residency, the insurance company to transfer same, a short stop at Winn-Dixie, then a stop at the trailer repair place to check on my axles and to add a couple more things to the list of repairs. Got back to camp and tracked down where I can get more linoleum for the slide-out floor when that gets finished, then finally ran over to Chelle's for horse-feeding instructions. Finally settled into a salad with tuna and a Christmas movie, first one of the season. I'm skipping my hot tub, because frankly, it's been a hot day and I don't need to get overheated before I go to bed, so nothing left now but a shower and bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Though I woke up once during the night, I managed to get a good night sleep and finally woke up a bit more refreshed, though still deep down tired. After chores, a load of laundry and a deep clean on the camp restrooms, I settled down at my computer to work on social media for the Taste of Goethe, which took awhile to do. I finally settled down late in the day, happy to discover that the unsatisfactory end to Farscape had an additional two part mini-series to close off the series, so I was able to get some more rest with that. My new South African friends, Marc and Nicci, were finally able to bring my tractor back to me, and were kind enough to take two trips in order to bring both the bush hog and the awl back to me, though I'll have to change the awl back myself, which is no big deal. I didn't want them spending any more time on it. He also put in another ground stake for my fence, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. He feels the knots may be the problem, so tomorrow I will finally cut those out and start fresh. If that doesn't work, there's another neighbor who has offered to help (he helped with the retrieval of my runaways the other day), I may get him out here. It might all be moot, though, as I talked, with Ranger Rick about building a permanent corral, using some of the old posts that were pulled last year, (a suggestion made by my friend from Jacksonville to my neighbor when they were both down at Tillis Hill), and Rick mentioned there was also a pile of used planks we might be able to use, so that may come to fruition even faster than I hoped! With those materials and the awl on my tractor, I should be able to create a corral in no time! Anyway, I still didn't get my hot tub in until nearly 9:30, then shower, now bed! I am feeling more rested, so I have high hopes for a constructive day tomorrow. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Another early morning despite my attempts to sleep late, and another busy day. I'm feeling tired from all this activity, but there were so many little jobs bugging me, I forced myself to do some. I worked on the ice-maker for awhile, defrosting the freezer because I thought maybe the waterline was frozen. I managed to isolate where I was getting water and where I wasn't, though I wish I knew how to use a multi-meter better so I could verify it's the switch, which is what I think it is. I've replaced that before, so I can't believe it's gone again, but it's possible. I put a bigger rubber washer in the breakfast bar lights, they keep coming down when I move, and I've added another issue to my trailer repair list, I'm sure there's a plumbing problem which will require the removal of the basement floor, which will be a royal pain. I did a load of laundry and made up my bed early, and I'm glad I did since now I'm feeling even more exhausted. Went to the Taste of Goethe meeting at Apex, and we got a lot of decisions made, then walked around to set a dog walk area for the pet adoption folks, and put up another set of Jo's signs at the trailhead. It was nearly 5:00 when I got back to camp, and I had a new camper to check in, so it was sunset by the time I was feeding the horses. I had to write my notes from the meeting while they were still fresh, finally made dinner after 6:00. I managed to finish off the Farscapes on the last day of my free trial, though it looks like the channel may have charged my card anyway, so I probably have a fight on my hands over that. Too tired to deal with it now. Finally got into the hot tub after 9:30, and was set to take a shower when I got out, but forgot I had shut off the water heater when I was running the heater in the freezer, so now I'm waiting for hot water. Sigh... I don't see a reprieve anytime soon, I have so much to do in the coming weeks! And not enough of it includes riding! Well, this should build up my stamina, right? Anyway, at least we've been having perfect weather and life is still good! I can live with having too much to do for awhile. Beats sitting around! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Woke up before the already early alarm, which gave me an opportunity to do a little planning for the morning, though once the day began, a lot of that changed. Left camp just after 7:30, stopped at the HQ for some ice to keep my deviled eggs cool, and arrived at Tidewater just before 8:00 as planned. My first thought was to check the bathrooms just to make sure they had enough supplies, since I knew there was the Levy County Horse Club coming in for their Christmas Party Pot Luck luncheon, only to discover not only was it under-stocked, it was HORRIBLE!! Both toilets were blocked up and full, there was no toilet paper, no paper towels in one (it was obvious that was what plugged the toilets along with the human waste), and the floors were filthy. What a mess! Obviously my first task was to straighten that out, plunging toilets, etc. Folks starting showing up on schedule, everyone was there except the forest service with their two UTV's. They finally arrived about 15 minutes later. I did a quick strategy meeting and sent two of the teams out on the trails, then had to wait for the second FS guy to run back up to HQ to get more toilet paper and bathroom supplies. Once he got back, we were about ready to go, when we realized that the trimming equipment, loppers, etc. were locked in the first FS guy's truck, so we had to wait for him to get back to open his truck and get what we needed. We finally got on the trail at 10:00, way behind schedule. We had only worked on the first area of concern when we got a call that the folks in the pavilion didn't have power, so I had to drive back and check on the circuit board, though it turned out to only be the GFI circuit which nobody checked. I finally got back to my team, and we raced through the rest of the trail. Fortunately, one of the other teams did a bit more than required, which saved us some time, and we managed to get back to camp at 12:15, a bit after the other teams, but in time for their pot luck lunch. Jo and Logan put up some great new trail signs at the entrance, the yield signs and instructions for non-horse people about what to do when they run into horses. Nice photo op! I stayed afterward and talked with a bunch of people, including the gals running the trail riding concession out of the Black Prong Equestrian Center, which I found to be very helpful, then got back to camp and had another long chat with a couple of campers from Canada, followed by a visit with my new friends from South Africa who stopped by to take some of my deviled eggs with them, and finally settled into my evening, with hot tub, shower, Farscapes and bourbon cocktails! Ready for bed soon, I'm exhausted from all these activities and early mornings! Good for me though, keeps up my stamina. Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Another busy day today! Up with an early alarm, on the road by 8:15, down at Yvette's by 8:30, and spent the day doing more tractor work, whatever needed done, but most importantly, getting the fence posts around the walker in. I left around 3:30, came home and started boiling eggs for the deviled eggs I promised for the pot luck tomorrow after the Trail Work Half Day. It wasn't long before I left to drive down to Forest HQ for their Christmas party, a huge pot luck where I ate much more than I needed. I'm pretty used to gaining 7 or 8 pounds during the holidays, and it doesn't look like this year will be any different! Just need to get on track to lose it again. Got back home just before 8:30, finished my deviled eggs, watched a quick Farscape, didn't even take the time to take a hot tub tonight! It's just getting too late, so I'll be off to my shower and bed here very soon. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up two minutes before my alarm, got right out of bed, and was very glad I didn't have to deal with finding lost horses this morning! Managed to get everything done, happy that my tractor started in this freezing weather (literally, 32 degrees this morning), filled it with fuel and was on my way out when I got stopped by a camper, chatted with them for a few minutes before I finally headed down the road. Arrived at Yvette's second house and was met by the couple that were going to put in a horse walker for her. An interesting couple, originally from South Africa, and we got along immediately. It took a bit of figuring to take off the bush hog and get on the post hole digger, I haven't used it in awhile and it was a bit stiff on the PTO shaft, but we managed to engineer a solution. I then drove it down to Yvette's first house, and we got busy. There were many chores that my tractor made easier, including digging post holes, pulling out old posts, and holding up the arms of the walker while it was put together. We worked all morning until he set some cement for the middle motor, then we went to Willards for lunch. Came back and worked until the end of dusk, before coming back to camp, feeding the horses, blanketing them again, sweeping the bathrooms, and finally mixing a drink and taking my hot tub. I am really loving that last item! Took my shower, watched a few more Farscapes (I have to finish them before my free trial runs out!), ready for bed! Good night, babe! Love you!