Hi Sweetie,
Despite being only a half mile from a busy road, it hasn’t done anything to bother my sleep, I got another great night in last night. Read a bit before finally getting up. My horses are mostly used to my late schedule, but Pistol’s Tommy was nickering from daybreak, though not enough to keep me awake! Finally got up and fed my guys, then got involved with sending an email for OTL, then made the shocking discovery that somehow my database, which I’ve worked hard to update and put together, somehow mismatched all the names from their email addresses! Not sure how that happened, and will take some doing to straighten out, but decided that today wasn’t the day to figure it all out. Once I gave up, I saddled up Flash, while Doc, who arrived this morning, saddled up Apollo and Pistol readied Tommy, and we soon were out on our Christmas Day ride, a nice five mile trip around both ends of the park, at least as far as we could reach. Once we got back, it wasn’t long before we fed the critters, then I made a nice dinner for us all with ham and yams and salad, finishing off the beautiful starry evening with a bonfire and a few shots of honey bourbon (I’m moderating!) before calling it a night. An episode or two of The Expanse, now I’m ready for my shower and bed. Another great day on the road! Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
Had another great night sleep, woke up and read a bit until Pistol turned her generator on and I figured it was time to get up. Did chores and had breakfast, then got involved with trying to straighten out a way for payments for the OTL to get directly into their account, and finally got that resolved later in the day. Meanwhile, after messing with that for a couple of hours, Pistol and I saddled up and took about a five mile slow ride on Apollo and Tommy. Some beautiful trails in here, I just wish there were more of them, or that there was a way to get to the south end of the park! Tried to send out an email blast but had some problems and only managed to get a few out, will have to work on that tomorrow. Finished the day with a nice dinner and sitting around the campfire for a bit before heading back to the trailer for an episode of Expanse, and an early night, which I’m getting used to. Not supposed to be as cold tonight, looking forward to more normal temps over the weekend. Hard to believe it’s Christmas Eve, not that that ever meant that much to us since we never really paid much attention to holidays, but I do miss having you here with me, no matter what day it is! Anyway, heading for a shower and bed shortly, need to find a new book to read. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, another morning of chores and a little computer work, then Pistol arrived just after 11:00 this morning. Once she got settled in, we saddled up and took a little about a 5.6 mile ride around. I was looking for a way to get down to the south end of the park, since half the 16 miles of trails they claim are down there, but discovered you can’t get there unless you cross a deep creek with a steep hill on the other side. Not sure I’m up for that kind of risky stuff any more! No bridge and barely any markings to let you know you’re actually on the trail. Their map is very misleading because it shows the trails as dotted lines, and doesn’t mark where you hit a river or a creek, so it looks like it goes right through, but it doesn’t. So I guess we’ll be staying on the eight miles of trail on this side, unless we trailer to another trailhead, and frankly, I don’t think it’s work it. Disappointing, too, because some of the trails here are absolutely gorgeous! Old Florida at it’s best! Some of the trees in here are the largest I’ve ever seen this side of the redwoods in California, I’d guess they’re at least 400-500 years old, seriously big! We even saw a beautiful owl today, too. Another problem with the map is that while trails have intersection numbers, they’re not on the map. Who makes these maps these days? Ridiculous! Anyway, we got back and took a quick run to the Publix for ice for her cooler and salad makings for our next few dinners, which I started to fix as soon as we got back. Steaks on the grill, baked potato and a fresh salad hit the spot, and a little pumpkin pie with eggnog ice cream, with a little sip of Jim Beam Honey Bourbon (just one!!), before saying good night and heading our separate ways. Watch a couple of episodes of The Expanse again, ready for my shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, I certainly got my rest last night! Was in bed around 9:30 last night, and didn’t get out of bed until 9:30 this morning! Read some, but mostly it was sleeping, so I woke up refreshed and raring to go this morning! Got all my chores done, did some computer work, like re-writing the OTL Mail-in registration form, while I waited it for it warm up, because frankly, it was too cold to ride this morning, but the sun finally broke through the gray clouds and that did the trick! Saddled up Flash and headed out on a GPS-planned route, that started out absolutely lovely. Then we ran into a Cypress swamp and couldn’t figure out where to go, so we backtracked a bit and took another route. Some trails were gorgeous, and then I’d run into difficulties, like too much water, a barb-wire fence, downed trees and not matching up with my GPS. We didn’t get anywhere near as far south as I wanted because I couldn’t find an opening in a barb-wire fence, so I went back up north and did some more exploring up there. A lot of wide open spaces that really got Flash’s juices going, he was galloping for all he was worth across some fields. Managed to find the other side of the cypress swamp, though, and saw which way we should have gone, just missed it, but it was over a lot of dark water, and couldn’t see the trail on the other side. Got over it though, that’s the important thing. We ended up doing about 8.75 miles, less than we wanted, but it’s a start. We’ll try again tomorrow when it’s warmer, to see what we can find. Once I sponged Flash down and put him away, I did a few chores, like repaired the hose that runs out of the water tank, it had such a bad kink it wouldn’t flow, so I cut that section out and put a connector on it. Put the propane tanks away, filled the horses’ water tanks, just puttered for a bit. Finally reached dinner time, so I fed the horses and myself, put their light blankets on since it’s going down into the low 40’s tonight, and settled down for the evening to a couple of episodes of The Expanse. Got a message from your niece that your sister has been transferred to a home, she’s been having trouble getting out of bed, so they’re working on helping her do that. She had knee surgery awhile back and is having trouble with her recovery. I’ve called her a few times these last few weeks, I’ll do so again over the holidays. Anyway, I’m ready to hit the showers and to get to bed early again, I do like these long, leisurely nights in my warm comfy bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Got a good night sleep, almost got caught up, actually woke up before the alarm! I immediately started a load of laundry, long overdue, the finished my chores and breakfast, doing a second load as well. My little voice in my head told me to put the sheets and whites in the dryer while I was running the generator, which I never do, but I don’t have a lot of clothesline space, so I decided to do that, figuring I could finish it off later this evening when I usually run my generator anyway. Good thing I listened, too, as you’ll soon see! After breakfast I saddled up Apollo to finish off one last bit of trail marking that couldn’t be reached by motorized vehicle. One of the things I love about horses, they’re the original four wheel drive! It was just a short section, just about two miles up and back, but Apollo was happy to get off the highline. He’s been bobbing his head for a couple of days now, obviously bored with standing around, so he was ready to go. We were only out for about 45 minutes though, it’s all I had time for, but he seemed happy for the attention. Since Jo wasn’t coming until almost an hour after we got back, I indulged him with a nice bath, then did a few more chores that I’ve been ignoring the last few days, like putting away feed and putting washer fluid in my truck. Then Jo arrived and we headed out to do a bunch of running around, to pick up signs, put signs out, pick up water barrels, put those out, it was a long day! And to really complicate things, this day that had no rain in the forecast has multiple downpours! Some were really heavy, so you can image what happened to the wash I left on the line! Fortunately, not my sheets, they were still in the dryer, so once I put the generator back on, I finished those off, so I have clean sheets tonight, a few days later than normal, but the best I could do under the circumstances. Anyway, I finally settled down for the evening, heated up some roasted chicken, watch a couple of episodes of Expanse, now I’m headed to an much needed shower and another good night sleep! Good night, babe! Love you!