Archives for February 2025

Hey Darlin'!
What a day! Up before dawn, out the door before the sun came up, and never stopped running the whole day! Hard to describe all the activity today, it was pretty much non-stop all day. After doing the preliminary setup at the trailhead, I rush out to start checking the signs, and was astonished that the place where the signs had been sabotaged was even WORSE this morning. Someone had completely removed the HORSE sign, took out the Bikers signs, folded it so my arrow couldn't be seen, drew in an arrow pointing in the opposite direction, and placed it once again in a spot that would have directed the bikers up the horse trail. Unbelievable! I had to make a new Horse sign, and fortunately had a broken stake I was able to make work, and fixed the biker sign so it was back to normal, and fortunately, that stayed through the day and no riders got lost at all. We had some trouble with hikers because I didn't put one sign out on the hiking trail that sent them in the right direction, mainly because I thought my supervisor was going to lead the hikers, but he never went out for some reason. We had a little chaos in the pavilion because we didn't have anyone to introduce the presentations, and thus organize the hiking group (though I thought that would be taken care of by the forest people), and we were a bit shorthanded with me out running around in the woods fixing signs and delivering food, then later helping hikers get back on track. But we had well over 200 people attend, though it will be awhile before we have the final numbers, and the raffle evidently did well, too. All of the horse folks seemed happy except one woman who claimed the entire orange short trail was knee-deep mud (it wasn't), but I was told this woman always complains about everything, so I pretty much ignored it after that. I don't mind constructive advise, but I know there were only a few wet spots on that trail, and if her horse doesn't like mud, tough. It's a forest with wetlands, what do you expect? Anyway, we had dozens of horse trailers, and had to use a neighbors field for overflow, the turnout was great, most folks enjoyed it, so I would say it was a resounding success. We cleaned up the trailhead afterwards, and you would never know we were even there! We were finished by just after 5:00, I dropped off Art who helped me with the final cleanup, then got back to camp. We had a full campground, so I walked by and met everyone, then came back and all but crashed. I'm the only one who has anything left to do, I need to go out tomorrow and get all the signs and markers down in the UTV. Art offered to come with me, so I'm hoping we can get it done fairly quickly, though it will still take a couple of hours at least. I'm ready for bed here shortly! Exhausted, but satisfied, and glad that the asshole trying to screw us up didn't succeed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
A very long and tiring day, which would normally leave me feeling very satisfied, but for the actions of some yahoo asshole running around in the forest. It started out just fine, arriving at the Apex trailhead before 9:00. I got the WAG Dog Walk marked off, helped Chelle get her trailer in place, put some signs up around the trailhead, then picked up the John Deere UTV that I've been lucky enough to be assigned for the weekend, and, with the help of Russlyn, headed out on the trails to put signs and markers up. It took a bit longer than I had expected, and we ended up running out of signs and stakes before it was fully marked, so around 2:00, when we finished our first round, Russlyn went home and I ran back to the trailer, thinking I left my staple hammer there (I hadn't, it was hidden in a box in my truck!), but I grabbed a sandwich and headed right back to Apex to finish putting up a few more signs, and at one intersection that we had already just marked, one of the signs had been deliberately moved from one side to another, to make it look like it's telling the bikers to go left instead of right, putting them on a horse trail. So now, in addition to the 101 things I already have to do in the morning, I have to add taking another run around the trails at critical intersections to make sure no more sabotage has occurred! Grrrrr!! What is WRONG with people?? Why do some people thinks it's fun to destroy the hard and exhausting work of others? I just don't get it. Anyway, the good news is we have 190 folks signed up, and we will no doubt get some walkups, so we should easily break 200 tomorrow. I don't know if that's a record, but it will sure be a nice turnout, and the weather forecast is perfect! Silver lining! I got back at late dusk, fed the horses, finished off the last of my turkey soup with dumplings, had my hot tub and shower, and only have tea and my Spanish lesson left before I'll be in bed, likely before 9:30. Now I have to be there around 7:00 instead of 8:00, so it's going to be another really long day tomorrow! I'm done! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Got up with the alarm, and right after chores and breakfast, headed out to Apex to meet the porta-potty guy to get those in, then spent a little time in the volunteer closet making sure everything we needed was there. We were missing some tables, which was the one thing we seem to be short of, but then discovered our tables along with a bunch of others, so that problem is now solved. Went to Jo's to pick up the signs she had made, which gave Lola a chance to have a play date with her three dogs. Her husband Jeff got out his table saw so that I could cut a point on the paint sticks that Jo got at Ace Hardware, which made that job go SO much easier, I would have been at it half the day trying to do that by hand! Collected everything from her, got back to camp and proceeded to put the signs together, putting them in page protector sleeves and stapling them to the sticks while getting them in some kind of order. I also gathered most of the stuff I'm going to need to take with me tomorrow. I finally sat down for a few minutes to a cup of tea and a read, and promptly nodded off! Guess I've been working hard lately! We're as ready as we can be at this point, I think, and pretty far ahead of last year, so hopefully it will be a resounding success. Went on with my usual evening, and now just about ready for bed. Love you, darlin'! Good night!

Hiya Babe,
Woke up a bit early but did a lot of work on my shoulder, and I swear I felt something shift in the center of my back this morning. Hopefully that will continue to progress toward a full recovery (after 15 years). Read a bit, did my usual chores, finished up the final maps for the event this weekend, did a ridealong with Ranger Rick down to Apex to set up our fix for the projection screen, then a quick ride down to Tidewater to show me the new campsites they're building down there. Seems they're simply moving the old ones to the new sites, rather than expanding, don't know what that's about. Got back to camp and had a couple of conversations with some of the carriage folks before getting back to my computer to do some more work. Got all the Press Releases out to the TV stations, gathered some volunteers for Friday's session to set up as much as we can, and finally settled down for the evening. I think we're in pretty good shape, the latest attendance numbers are about the same as our final numbers last year, and we still have four days to go! Hope it's a record! Had my hot tub (which I am SO GLAD I bought!) and my shower, now tea, cookies and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Not surprisingly, it took a long time to get to sleep last night, which always happens when I have a lazy day, especially with no hot tub, but I was in no hurry to get up this morning. Was feeding the horses when Rick came by, we chatted, then I spent the morning doing some computer work before heading out to the new hay store, Farmers Direct in Williston, to pick up another 21 bale bundle. The last one lasted nearly a month, and the horses are liking it, so I got some more. Then I went into the Tractor Supply to fill up my three empty propane tanks, but they had run out earlier in the day, so I'll have to wait on that. No worries, I only just started the last tank, and it took me nearly three months to go through the last one, and that was less than a full tank when I got here. I use a lot less propane when I'm on electric! One last stop at Winn-Dixie for a few groceries and we were headed home! Weather was getting downright warm today, I even had to put on my AC for a bit this evening to blow out the day's hot air. Two days ago I was using my fireplace! Had another salad for dinner (I'm determined to lose the weight I gained over the holidays, again!), and then spent the evening working on my application for social security. I'm finally about to reach the Full Retirement Age where the financial advisors say it's more of a diminishing return if I wait any longer. Not sure it will make a lot of difference to my monthly income, considering once I get my own SS, they'll drop the widow's benefit I've been getting, so I'm figuring it won't be that big of a bump. I did get a nice raise when my new Medicare Advantage program kicked in. That's some relatively new and lesser known program where they insurance company reimburses the government for a good portion of the payment they usually deduct from my SS, so that helped. I did manage to sort out my Yellowstone outfitter today, too, which was a relief. The new one is a bit more expensive, but their reviews are all stellar, especially compared to the last one. That is going to be such a blast! Anyway, I've had my hot tub, my shower, my tea and my home-made oatmeal cookies, so it's time for bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
Had a great night sleep, still laid in bed reading longer than I should have before getting up. Reading a pretty good rags to riches to Triple Crown fiction which I’ve been enjoying. I wasn’t in the mood to do much of anything today, though it was a beautiful, warm day out. Instead, I spent the day reading, only broken up by my sudden urge to bake cookies. I didn’t have enough butter for shortbread, but found a recipe for oatmeal cookies using Jiffy mix, so I made those, and they came out great! I probably don’t need the calories, so I tried to balance it off with a shrimp salad for dinner. Feeling much more rested today, no aches like I’ve been feeling the last couple of days. Looking forward to having a full day of activity tomorrow! No hot tub, I forgot to turn it on this morning, so shower, tea, cookie and bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
A better night sleep, laid in reading for awhile, then finally got up for chores and breakfast. Did a lot of little jobs that had been sitting around, mostly putting stuff away, some housekeeping (found another dead mouse) and small repairs before taking the rest of the afternoon off to read and watch a little TV. Pretty mundane day, actually, but I needed the rest. Felt a bit tired after all the running around the last few days, so it was nice to have a chance to recharge. Finished the evening off in my usual routine. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!