Hey Darlin',
Off to a busy start, up before dawn, quickly did my chores, put horse crossing signs on the road, helped cross all the horses, which left at 7:30 and 8:00, then headed down to the vet hold area, putting up a couple of more signs, dropped off hay and helped managed the horses as they came in. Waited until they all left, picked up the water buckets and excess hay, headed down to the next crossing and did the same before heading back to Helen's. Grabbed some lunch there, then had a busy afternoon solving a multitude of other problems, including having to pick up one horse whose rider took the long orange instead of the short orange and couldn't make it back. Ended the day at the finish line taking numbers, times and placements, which finally concluded at around 6:30. Fed the horses and settled down for the night. Unfortunately, Verizon has throttled down my speed to such a degree that I can stream a thing, so I'm out of luck watching TV until my month cycles over on Monday, darn it! I pay for unlimited, I should get unlimited, right? Seriously considering Starlink, just not sure it will work in areas where I'm in a lot of trees, which is very often the case. Sigh. But it is a problem I sure would like to solve, just wish it wasn't such an expensive solution. But hey, that's what money is for, right? To spend and make our lives better? Gotta stop being such a cheapskate! Anyway, I'm having tea, won't be out of bed long, it's been a very long and tiring day, though I think it went very well, and that's the best anyone can do. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Busy, tiring, productive day! Started out heading out with Stacy on her UTV to mark the Red/White Trail, which we managed to get just about done just after noon. She had to head off to do some personal construction stuff (they're in the process of building a house, been going on a year now!), so I finished the rest off myself. Took a short break in the afternoon, then headed over to Helen's where the ride is being hosted, and spent the afternoon doing whatever jobs came up. Since we no longer have a food truck, we arranged for the local Italian restaurant to make us some big trays, and Jo's husband Jeff picked them up and brought them in. Jo ordered WAY too much food, we had so many trays left over! It was delicious, though, with salad, eggplant parmesan, lasagna, garlic rolls (yum!) and cookies for dessert. I ate way too much, too! Then we had the ride meeting, then we cleaned up after dinner, finally got back to camp after 7:30. Taking a Sleepytime tea break, then it's shower and bed, nice and early, since I'll be up before dawn with a busy day scheduled for tomorrow. Despite sleeping well, I'm feeling a bit tired from all this activity, I'm glad the Forest Service is letting me stay a couple of extra days to recover! I'm going to need it! And Lola's been getting really needy, with me being gone all the time, so I really need to spend some time with her at some point. Anyway, that's all the news! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a good night sleep, no doubt all the fresh air and activity yesterday! Today was still busy, but nowhere near as much as yesterday. I met Jo over at Helen's around 9:30, unloaded all the stuff from her truck, came back to the trailhead, transferred all the trail marking stuff to her truck, headed over to Val's to pick up all the water buckets over there, then proceeded to drop them off at the four sites selected for water stops. Headed down to the forest HQ for tables and a couple of other things we thought they had, but all they had were the tables, so we grabbed those. Jo dropped me at Willard's while she dropped off the tables and picked up Helen, and Art and Stacy joined us all for lunch. Got back a little after 3:00, got myself organized for tomorrow, then tried to watch a little TV, but all of a sudden (as of last night), I'm not able to do any livestreaming. I suspect it's because they've throttled me down, which I paid extra for them not to do, but I guess I've even overextended my higher limit. Not fair, I pay for UNLIMITED, I should get UNLIMITED!! Not fast up to a point, then slowed down so much it's unusable! Grrr! Don't have time to argue about it, guess I'm just reading and playing computer games for entertainment tonight. Won't be long out of bed, though, as I have another busy day tomorrow, marking another 12.5 miles of trail with Stacy. Be busy the rest of the weekend, too! So I'll say good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Up with the alarm, breakfast and chores, and out to pick up Art before 9:20. We arrived at Apex just as Logan was cutting a board to close off the back of the Gator UTV, and off we went! Chilly, misty morning, and despite the forecast for a sunny day, the sun didn't make an appearance until about 3:00! By then it warmed things up for about five minutes before sinking below tree level and temps started dropping again. It was a very long day, but it did move quickly. We did the entire 25 miles of both orange short and long, and was very grateful to the forest service for allowing us to do it in a borrowed UTV. I could never have managed it on horseback in Flash's condition. Art and I quickly meshed into a solid work unit, and we wasted no time at all, yet we arrived back at HQ at 4:56, in the nick of time. After we transferred everything back to the truck, I took Art to dinner at Willards, where Shepherd's pie was the special of the day, so we both splurged on that. Way too many carbs, but I did burn a lot of calories today, so hopefully it won't hurt my diet too much. Got back just before 7:00, fed the horses, but had a lot of trouble getting anything on the TV. Don't know what the problem is, the signal seems fine, but the hotspot just isn't making it happen today. Oh, well, just have to go bed early and read. Feeling pretty tired, which happens in all the fresh air and cold weather. Took me ages for my fingers to warm up! Anyway, the main part of the job is done, so I'm relieved at that. A little bit worried, though, because Tom G. said he was out riding, came across some of our markers, but then couldn't figure out where the trail went. He's worried they've been vandalized, but I'm hoping that it was just that he went on the trail before we finished our ciruit. He's going to check it tomorrow for me, after I sent him a copy of the map. Fingers crossed, don't know what I'll do if they've all been moved! Don't know when I'll have time to go back out there! Anyway, I'm feelling very tired and worn out, very glad I left the fireplace on when I left this morning, I'm finally starting to feel a bit warmer. Headed to shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Woke up to the sound of stampeding, and was delighted that Flash was exercising himself around the paddock this morning. Guess he's feeling better! Don't want to push him yet, though. While it was a sunnier morning, it was a bit cooler, so I didn't end up riding Apollo today either. Mostly because I got busy with other things. I found some hay at a new place called Triple J on US 41, and their Coastal was almost as nice as the stuff I got at Farmers Direct for a short time last season, and it was only $10/bale (though I saw an ad on FB that said it was $8), but it's a really nice quality hay, so no complaints! I ended up buying a full 21 bales, because I've been feeding my horses more than I used to just to keep them busy. I also ran into the Ace in Williston to get some staples for my staple gun, and I made a quick stop at Winn-Dixie, only to discover it was almost empty, as they were closing that store. I found out later they just moved to a different location, not sure why. Relaxed in the afternoon, then headed over for our first Taste of Goethe meeting, an event in the forest where we put up food stations and hikers, bikers and horse people all gather to sample food from many of the local eating establishments along the trails. A productive two hours. Settling down to my evening Sleepytime time, won't be long out of bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had a quiet day in camp today, ran out once to pick up a check for Jo, and she stopped by later to drop some stuff off, but other than that, not much going on. Had a Zoom meeting with the L20 folks in the evening, which was short and sweet. They are having to move the dates from February to April due to scheduling conflicts with the various parks, but have been promised a February date for the following year. I considered taking Apollo for a ride, but it never really warmed up, and was damp all day, so I gave up on that. Otherwise, a pretty mundane day! Love you, darlin'! Good night!

Hey Darlin',
Had a fitfull night sleep, probably because of the junk food for lunch, so ended up sleeping late in the morning. Flash's leg looked a little bit better and didn't feel as tight, but he's still not 100 percent, I think that will take a few days. Only had a slice of toast for breakfast because Jo and I planned on going to lunch at Pavarotti's to test the food she was going to order for the ride this weekend. It was fantastic! She had the eggplant parm and I had lasagna, both were excellent, but the best thing were the garlic knots. Best I've EVER eaten! Afterward we went to Walmart for a couple of things, then back to home again. She loaned me a little hand massager to try on Flash, I managed to massage his leg gently for about a minute before it started to rain. A big front came through with much needed rain, pouring down for a couple of hours. The rest of the week is supposed to be nice, at least that's what they're predicting so far, but who knows? Did a couple of loads of laundry and settled down for the rest of the day, though I spent nearly an hour sewing a new bottom onto Apollo's feedbag. That's obviously the weak spot on these things, he chewed through the last one as well. This one was a lot stronger, and the holes didn't go all the way through, but the fabric on the bottom was chewed up and all his food was falling into, so it had to be replaced. Relaxed the rest of the evening, listening to the rain beating down on the roof, which will likely be dripping off the trees for some time tonight. Soon to bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Got to bed early, and was in good shape when my alarm went off bright and early. Got my early chores done, and folks started arriving just after 8:00 for the work day. We ended up with eleven people, including me, plus Rick and Kari from the forest service. We got everybody loaded into the UTV's and out on the trail before 9:00, where they went out to the two main problem areas. I followed in my tractor, mowing where it was needed. Because it's been so dry, we were able to get to areas we couldn't usually do, but I still got stuck in a couple of places where it's so thoroughly saturated that even with all the dry weather it was still a mudhole, but thankfully I was able to work my way out, using the crawl gear and the bucket to lift the tractor enough to put some sticks underneath for traction. For a minute there, though, I was thinking I was going to have to call for help, but I wouldn't give up, and finally made it! With so much help, the teams finished and were back in camp before 11:30, so I sent them out again to do the section on the east side of 337, which was mostly trees overhanging as opposed to serious growth encroaching from the sides like the other two section. We fired up the grills and had lunch ready when they all got back about 12:20, way too much food, so Lola will be getting lots of leftovers this week! Jo stayed after everyone left and we got caught up on everything, and she left me ribbons and arrows for marking the trails. Once she headed out, I settled down for what remained of the day. A fabulous and very productive day! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
To give Flash a rest, and to cover more ground to the farthest trails, I enlisted my friend DeDe and her new UTV to recon those trails today. We had a great morning! Even the normally wettest parts of the trails are dry right now, quite the drought they're having here. Lola came along, so she got some exercise, and we only had to stop in a couple of places for some trimming. No need to send a team out here on Saturday during the work day! We were finished up by just after noon. Then I got a call from the trailer place about my little two-horse Logan, it seems there's a lot more wrong with it than the roof, so I drove up there to see what needed to be done. The estimate for repairs is almost as much as what I paid for it a dozen years ago, but still cheaper than getting a new trailer. I couldn't sell it in that condition, so I gave the go ahead to get it fixed. Seems that trailer place is making a fortune from me, between last year and this! Oh, well! Well, those two things pretty much killed the day. Just about dinnertime, my vet friend Art stopped by, and we chatted until it was time to feed the horses. I did a little work on the maps for the work day, but otherwise, just settled down for the evening. Another lovely day in paradise! Perfect weather, glad to be back in the 'hood! Good night, sweetie! Love you!