Hi Sweetie,
Woke up around 6:30, discovered it was a mera 23 degrees outside!! A good five degrees below the forecast! Brrrrr! Got up around 7:00, same temps, but had stuff to do, so I dressed appropriately and got on with it. Started the morning going out to Black Prong Road to spray paint the road to hopefully avoid confusion for the riders, only to learn later that someone had deliberately sabotaged the trail markers, by not just taking them down, but moving a turn arrow and confidence markers to intentionally make the riders make a wrong turn. How mature. Every rider was lost for a few minutes, but they finally got it straightened out and on their way. We truly have some idiots around here, I'm guessing some hunters that object to the one day the riders use the trail that somehow they feel interferes with their month of hunting. Whatever. Anyway, after marking the trail I came back to camp, fed the horses, Lola and me, then I set about marking the vet and crew areas. It was nearly 9:00 before it was warm enough to turn the water back on, with one host spitting out icicles in the shape of the hose. The rest of the crews and vets showed up shortly after, and most of the morning and early afternoon was spent performing the duties of an endurance vetting and hold. Jo arrived, and I crewed a bit for her, then after she left, and most everybody else was gone, I helped clear up, then headed down to Tidewater with the water troughs and other essentials. Spent most of the afternoon down there, not much to do, then finally headed back to camp around 5:00. Tried to relax during the evening with a couple of episodes of my latest bing, Everwood, before taking my hot tub and shower and heading to a nice warm bed. Thank goodness, we've seen the worst of the weather, though it's still down to 38 degrees tonight, so the winter blankets went on the horses, but it's a far cry from 23 degrees!! Heading to be shortly, so good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Got at text early from Rick telling me that everything was frozen, so sleep in. We're filling water troughs today, so water was the key! But after telling me that (and me doing it!), he showed up about 15 past the original time we were going to meet! I was barely up at that point! Anyway, I rushed around, fed the horses and Lola, buttered a couple of pieces of bread and off we went. Seems they decided to do a burn right in the middle of one of the vetting areas, so we panicked and started trying to figure out how to mitigate the problem. Turns out they were only doing 85 acres, and because it's been so wet this week, they never could really get it started (duh...). Panic over, we filled all the tanks, which took until nearly 3:00. Then I went about cordoning off the area that we need to use in Black Prong for vetting until it was time for me to drive down to Tidewater for dinner and the ride meeting, and to pick up some stuff for Jo, so she will have it when she gets here on her way to doing the 50 mile ride. Got back at the tail end of dusk, just managed to get the horses fed and the water turned off before dark. Managed to watch a little TV, take my hot tub, shower and now heading into bed. Another early start and busy day tomorrow! Love you, Darlin'! Good night!

Hiya Darlin!
Had another good night sleep, got all my chores and breakfast done in time to go off with Tom, who is one of the managers of the upcoming Hokey Pokey ride this weekend (go ahead, sing along!), putting out all the troughs that will be needed along the trail. Did a quick restock and a sweep of the Tidewater restrooms before he brought me back to camp. I decided to finish what I could on the manure bin, and managed to get everything done except the one missing board and cutting the post tops at a diagonal. I'm just not sure how to do that, and I don't think I can manage the rotary saw at that height. Anyway, finished that off, then decided to try something. Yesterday, I had an epiphany about the horses' paddock. Knowing that the real problem is Apollo picking up posts with his teeth in order to escape, I suddenly remembered that I had some screw-in insulators that I had used back at the house. So I rerouted the wire fence through insulators that I connected to trees. He can't move a tree, right? I still had to use a couple of posts on the long stretches, but I figure, even if he pulls the post, the next connection is a tree, so it won't fall down, and he can't step over it. Works good in theory, anyway. I'll still keep him on the highline at night, and when I'm not in camp, but at least now he will be able to stretch his legs a bit more. It was after 5:00 by the time I finished all that, so I finally settled into a couple of cups of turkey soup with rice and a shortbread cookie, then realized that I was almost out of cookies, so I decided to whip up a batch. A bit late in the evening, but what the heck! I had bought a new mixing bowl at Walmart the other day, and it worked great! Braved the cold to take a hot tub, a nice hot shower, now ready for bed! I shut off the well pump after feeding the horses earlier because they're calling for temps below freezing tonight (and tomorrow night, too), was glad I discovered I had 2/3 of a tank of water in my tank, so I didn't have to do anything with that. Nice to have a busy, productive day! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Well, at least it didn't rain! But it was quite cold, and getting out of bed this morning was a challenge, but it's supposed to be even colder the next couple of morning! Brrrr! I even saw a spit of snow for a second, but that was it. They had six inches in the panhandle! All the news outlets were comparing it to the time it snowed as far south as North Miami 48 years ago. The amazing thing is, I was there when that happened! Well, not North Miami, but in Boynton Beach in Palm Beach County. I remember driving to my college classes in the snow, cursing that we moved from NYS to get away from this stuff, and here it was, following us! Needless to say, I'll be glad when this cold spell is over, though I must stay, I feel better when I look at the weather in upstate NY and back at the house in TN, where they're stuck in near zero at night. At least the lows here will only be in the high 20's. Bad enough! So I spent the day inside, other than doing my necessary horse feeding chores, did a little bookkeeping work and other stuff on the computer, read a little, watched some TV, the usual. Added some egg noodles to my delicious turkey soup for dinner, braved the cold long enough to take a hot tub, have already showered, now it's just Sleepytime tea and bed, early! So glad my electric fireplace is just about keeping the place warm! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a much better night sleep, didn't crawl out of bed until after 9:00 because of the cold temps again, then spent most of the day making turkey soup and working on the computer. There's actually a lot of snow occuring in north Florida, that's how bad this weather is right now. Tough to even want to go outside! So thankful I have electric and have had my fireplace running all day and night. Never got out of the 40's and supposed to be down to 30 overnight, and the rain is supposed to turn to sleet, but at least it's not snowing! It's not getting above freezing for a week back in New York, and not much better up on the mountain in TN we used to call home, which is just enough to make me feel grateful for being in the 40's. Anyway, a pretty lazy day, read, watched TV, decided to not even take a hot tub since I'm warm and cozy inside, don't need to fight the cold rain just to get in a hot tub! Heading to bed soon, after a couple of cups of my homemade turkey soup and some homemade shortbread cookies. Packing the pounds on, I'm sure! I'll just have to make up for it when it finally gets warmer next week. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a lousy night sleep, finally had to take some aspirin to fade off, and was up with the alarm at 6:25 so I would be ready to leave by 7:30. Cold morning again! Dressed in multiple layers, including long underwear and a turtle neck before heading out. First stop this morning was the dentist for a checkup, which revealed a couple of cavities. I also need a crown, but that will have to wait until next year. Fortunately, she had time this morning to do it, so I didn't have to come back, but my 8:00 appointment wasn't over until nearly 11:40, which gave me just enough time to drive to the doctor's for my noon appointment. All good there, just need to get my labs done and a couple of maintenance tests, and got a referral for a dermatologist for a little skin tag that's been bothering me. Was done before 12:30, which, surprisingly, gave me time to get my shopping done, including horse feed at Tractor Supply and my regular shopping at Walmart. Next up was an eye appointment in Ocala, which is the closest eye place on my plan, all good there for now, just a little normal aging stuff. Found a Shell station where I was able to get diesel for just $3.38, whereas just about everyone else was back up into the$3.60's and more. One last stop at Yvette's to pick up my tall kettle with the sieve so that I can make some turkey stock for soup. This will be a great week for soup, since most days the temps will barely get out of the 40's, plus rain, so I don't expect to get much done outside this week! Put all my groceries and horse feed away, stacked up the leftover board scraps from Saturday's project, though I purloined one long board and a couple of smaller ones for resting my jack stands on, and finally settled down for the evening. I had forgotten to put on the hot tub this morning, so not even close to temperature, so I'm skipping that tonight. Heading to bed early, though, I'm tired from this long day! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up way too early as a really bad storm rolled through. Lots of thunder and lightning. It was so bad I even let Lola come up on the bed when she asked, she was literally trembling. Didn't take her long before she was head level with me, but since today was laundry day anyway, I didn't mind. Hope she doesn't get the idea that's going to happen often, though! The storm lasted for a good hour, so I mostly read. Spent a good part of the day working on the trail maps for the Taste of Goethe before settling down for the afternoon. Did a couple of loads of laundry, emptied my blackwater tank, cleaned the bathrooms, watched a couple of episodes of my latest TV binge, made some more shortbread cookies, and am heading to hot tub, shower and bed early, as I have to get up an hour before dawn tomorrow. I made all of my annual doctor appointments tomorrow, plus I need to do some shopping, so a busy day that I need to get plenty of sleep for! Though it was nearly 70 today, it's going down to freezing overnight (naturally, since I have to get up before the sun!) so I put the heavy blankets on the horses. Just another day in the life! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Though I hadn't really planned on it, the weather forecast, which is essentially dismal for the rest of the week, coerced me into thinking that today was a good day to get the manure bin done. I have the materials, but have had a surprisingly lackluster response to my call for volunteers to help, so I figured, what the heck? It's not like it's difficult construction, it's a manure bin, right? So after doing some morning chores, which included making some chaney root tea and bushhogging the horses' pen to break down the manure, I took off the bushhog and put on the awl, with help from Teri from Wisconsin, who was kind enough to ask if I needed help before she went off on a ride, I started building the manure bin. I started out using the diagrams that I received from the folks who helped me build them in past years, but quickly decided it was too big for the space, so I reduced the size proportionately, from 16' to 12', and started working. It took me all afternoon, and I still have to add more screws and possibly fix one post that got a little out of plumb, and one board that still needs to be added (which is odd, because we bought extra of EVERYTHING except the 1x6x12 which I needed), and, between threatening drops of rain, managed to almost finish it off. Won't take long to finish it, but the forecast for the coming week actually includes snow (yes, I'm in Florida), so I'm not sure when it will be done. Tomorrow is all about rain, but that's fine, I have to finish the trail maps for the Taste of Goethe, so it's all good. You know what they said, it's good enough for the government, and I'm just a volunteer, with no construction experience other than watching others, but it's workable, and I guess that's all the matters! I celebrated with a martini (still trying to finish off that bottle of dry vermouth we've had for YEARS!), a nice hot tub, which was much appreciated, my shower, and soon to bed! Good night, my darlin! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had another great night sleep, probably stayed in bed too long, but it's hard to muster the energy to get out of warm bed when it's barely 40 degrees, especially when an unexpected rain rolls in, though it only lasted a few minutes. Yeah, I know, much worse for those north of me, but still, bad enough! Got the horses fed, chores done and breakfast finished before deciding that today I would replace my stove burners today. I had one of the guys from the trailer place look at the problem I was having, i.e. they were flaring up so high it was turning my pots black, and he said they just needed new burners, which are an easy parts replacement. I ordered those online and received them last week, so I decided I would do that today. Of course, one little job leads to another and another... It took awhile to get the rusty screws loose to get the two burners out (I hardly use the third one, and it works fine, so I decided not to replace it), and once I did that, I set out to clean the top of the stove. It was rusty and dirty, so I started cleaning, then putting a layer of Ospho rust remover on it and let that dry. I used a wire brush to clean a lot of it. As I was moving stuff off the counter area, I noticed the seal around the kitchen window was getting bad, so I cleaned that up and resealed it. I hadn't cleaned the knife block in a long time, so I gave that a good coating of Old English. I could still faintly smell the dead mouse from last week, so I did an extra scrubbing down there, then cracked open my Great Stuff and filled the hole that the meeces had evidently chewed through to get into the cupboard. Then I remembered that I thought I had another hole that needed filling under the shower, but when I took the vent off, I saw I had already done that, but vacuumed and cleaned the vent while I was there. Did a bunch more cleaning while I was at it. Finally got back to the stove, took off all the dials and washed those, finished wire-brushing everything down and vacuuming that out, finally put the new burners in, and voila! They both worked perfectly! Job done! Then, since I had the vacuum out anyway, I did the new carpet, to get up all the biscuit bits Lola insists on leaving all over the place, and that I keep stepping on, ouch! Put everything away, opened some mail from yesterday, and generally ended up having a productive and busy day. My usual evening routine, hot tub included, and headed to bed soon! Love you, darlin'! Good night!