Hiya Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep, first time I didn’t keep waking up cold. Wool cap, socks, two blankets above and below, and my sleeping bag, that was all it took! Managed to get packed up and still had plenty of time, so I’m setting my alarm for just a bit later tomorrow. We had heard the ride was only about eight miles, so we figured we would be back in camp mid-afternoon at the latest, but it turned out to be much longer and slower. At one point the herd all but stampeded across a huge field, and it took over an hour just to round them up, settle them down, and get moving again. I heard later that, sorry to say, one of the dogs had been trampled and they had to bury it, which added to the time. Flash was much better today, so it was definitely the feed making him crazy. We were so late getting into camp the sun set before we got setup (so much for having a few hours to let stuff dry out!) and dark before we finished. Managed to wash my hair, the forest service guys were filling horse troughs and they let some of us do a quick shampoo under their hose. That did wonders for my attitude. Got my phone and charge on the generator so now I’m all charged up again. Didn’t stay for the historical program after dinner, but we could hear it on the PA system. Too darned tired! Heading to bed right now, and it’s not even 9:00! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie!
What an amazing and tough day. Amazing, because we helped move the cows today, and tough, because Flash, despite his brilliant behavior yesterday, was an absolute monster today. The droving today was about 12 miles, and there were many times when we were right up front and really moving the cows, blocking their way when they were headed in the wrong direction, it was a blast! But I was constantly stuck with doing some schooling on Flash, meaning he would, for no apparent reason, suddenly bunch up, canter in place, and generally completely become unglued, I had to run him out for what seemed like miles, and he would be better for a while, then again, for no apparent reason, do it all over again. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was, He didn’t seem bothered by the cows, in fact, he seemed to enjoy the job, and the fact he could be up front a lot, and when we were tasked to stay behind to block an outlet, we got to go fast to catch up afterward. I finally figured out that the only other that that had changed since yesterday was the feed. We’re obliged to use the feed they provide for us, and that’s the only thing I could think of, so when we got to camp, I checked the ingredients, and sure enough, alfalfa was one of the top ingredients, so no more of that for him! I loaded up on hay instead. We arrived in cap just after 3:30, so we had some time to dry stuff out before putting it all up, which was a blessing. Managed to snag a spot equidistant between the water trough, the port-potties, and the luggage trailer, because toward the end of the ride, I let Flash finally move out a little (in a controlled fashion) so got into camp a the very front of the pack an planted myself. Lynda followed me in and we got ourselves set up nicely. Dinner and the evening flew by, and we were bed by 9:00 once again. A great day, albeit exhausting! I just hope taking him off this feed will do the trick tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Sleep was fitful, not surprisingly, slept a few hours, woke up for a bit, repeat a couple of times. Since I was in bed by about 9:00, I was pretty wide awake at 4:30, so I decided to get up and start packing everything inside the tent. I knew it would take longer than I figured, and it did, so I was glad I started early! Reached the breakfast line by 6:30, and happy to see they had already started serving, so that helped. I was hoping the sun would come out long enough to dry my tent before packing, but that didn’t happen. Managed to get everything done and was sitting on Flash at the appointed hour of 7:45. Of course, we didn’t pull out until 8:00, which I figured, and off we went! We were the first group after the cowhunters today, but they were a lot more lax about staying with your group than last time, so folks were going back and forth. Ran into a lot of folks I have previously met and rode with particularly from the Cracker Ride, so it was a bit like old home week sometimes. Flash was very well-behaved for the most party, though a few horses got too close to his rear suddenly, and he kicked a little, as just about any horse would. He and Lynda’s horse Tonto have bonded, almost too much, so we took turns riding with other folks to make sure they didn’t start to misbehave. Rode with Augie from Miami and his Paso, he and Flash get along fine, and he actually slowed him down! This was the longest day, nearly 18 miles, though I forgot to start my FPS on time, so I’ll have to retrofit once I get it on my computer. Lots of pastures and open fields today. Not facilities of any kind, and this time, we picked up a lunch bag in the morning, last time lunch was catered on the spot. This was better. Finally arrived at the private rodeo grounds around 4:30, had just enough time to get set up before dark. Not as close to water or bathrooms, but it’ll do! Looking forward to dinner, a washcloth bath, and a good night sleep. We’ll start all over again tomorrow! Good night, darlin! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Another busy day here in camp! Got a few things organized in the morning, then saddled up Flash and went for a great conditioning ride. He was full of energy, and wanted to canter almost as soon as we got out of camp! We stayed on the road all the way down to the Fishing Pier, which is almost seven miles, and did a lot of it at pretty high speed, which didn’t seem to bother him in the least. Just as we got there, James called, so it was the perfect time to debrief about the weekend, while Lola and Flash rested for a bit. Then we headed back on the teal trail along the power line on the west side of the property, and went pretty quick along there as well. We covered almost thirteen miles, so it was a good workout for him. Rinsed him off and put him in the electric corral that I set up yesterday just to get him used to it again, gave him some hay, and fed him grain when dinner time rolled around, since he worked so hard today. Apollo whinnied for us a couple of times, but then seemed to settled down just fine. Did a lot more packing, including the newly waterproofed tent, a lot of clothes, and started fulfilling a long list of things I keep waking up in the night remembering, and adding to a list on my phone. Also checking it against the cattle drive website to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. Not sure how we carried all this stuff last time, we must have had a big duffel bag or something, but I evidently don’t have it anymore, and I’m trying to stuff too much into too small a space. I may have to see what else I can find, though at the moment, I’m still trying to squeeze everything in! Finally settled down after 6:00, did some laundry of the clothes I want to take, planning on getting my shower and to bed early, tomorrow’s going to be another busy day!Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Not a very good night sleep, woke up around 3:30 and never really did get back to sleep. Promised a couple of riders that I’d take them out today, so despite cloudy, gloomy skies and an hour long wait for a wayward husband, we were finally able to start out at about 11:00. It wasn’t too long before the gloom turned into rain, though not a real downpour, just a steady drizzle. That’s why we carry rain gear! Did ten miles, mostly on the yellow trail. The one camper, Luan, is going on the Great Florida Cattle Drive, and she’s been very anxious about it, but seems to be getting a little more confident in herself and her horse, so I think she’ll be all right. But you know me, I’m more of a fair weather rider, and if I’d had my druthers, I’d probably not have ridden today! Still, it was a good workout for Flash as well. I’m just hoping we don’t have a repeat of the weather like we did in 2016! Anyway, After we got back to camp, I had to drive over to Glenn’s to check on the pool, which I’m happy to say is looking better, but I’m still having problems at the lower speeds, so we’re not quite there yet. Got wet on the ride, changed into dry clothes, got wet again working on the pool, had to change clothes again. Did a couple of loads of laundry and finally settled down for the night. Ready for a shower and bed, though with all the drenching I got today, I’m not sure how much of a shower I need! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe,
A nice cool night last night, slept like a baby again! Laid in a bit reading as well, finally got moving after 8:00, got the horses fed, then got waylaid with some computer work I hadn’t planned on doing, then just as I was going to fetch Flash, James arrived and we spent a few minutes together. Finally got Flash saddled and on the trail, though it was nearly noon! We did about 11 miles, and found that at least 65 to 75 percent of the trails still had water on them, and even the drier sections were soft and muddy. I’m recommending that we DON’T try to mow next week even though I was hoping to do it for the Thanksgiving crowd. I did put a bunch of temporary clothespin markers out to help keep people on track in those sections where mowing is the only way to see where the trails are, so hopefully no one will get seriously lost. They’ll also help the mowers stay on the trail when the time comes. Got back to camp before 4:00, Flash was in a frisky mood with the cooler weather, and we cantered and largoed a lot today, whenever we were on the road, which was a lot. Lola enjoyed herself as well, and will no doubt sleep tonight, which will be great, as she’s been very restless and has woken me up several times the last few nights. Chatted with some campers for a bit, non-equestrians, but they had dogs and I suggested they might want to use a paddock for a play date. They were here when that rider got lost last spring, so that set us off on a chat about the new trail markers. Finally got back to the trailer, proceeded to settle down for the evening. Planning on getting to bed extra early, have an early morning tomorrow, so good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
So glad the nights are getting a little cooler, I’m sleeping like a baby these days! Been waking up with the sun, too, so I’m getting in full days. Today, the new power point for me was done, yay! When I was heading out to feed the horses I stopped and chatted for a few minutes with the electrician, and we were able to determine that he could put the post in so that I would only need a 25 foot extension cord. Dang things are so expensive now, $125+, but at least it’s coming Prime and I’ll have it tomorrow! Of course, that’s for 50 amp, and that’s a heavy cord. Doesn’t seem to be any way around it, though this may be the only place I’ll ever use it. Glad it didn’t have to be any longer! After breakfast, I saddled up Flash and we headed out for a conditioning ride, as well as to see the state of the trails, and not surprisingly, it’s pretty darn wet out there! The last stretch on the red/pink was the worst, and Flash knew he was heading for home and wanted to go faster, so I was pretty well soaked from the knees down by the time we got back. Only did about 7.5 miles, but we were pretty speedy, lots of cantering and largo-ing, so we weren’t out that long. Missed James though, he came by to check out the electrical work, and apparently the head honcho Dan stopped by to visit as well, but I missed them both! A nice ride, though. Had so spend some time picking burrs out of my lambs wool saddle cover, I’ll need to wash it, too, before the cattle drive. I washed my saddle bags yesterday, too. I’m starting to get some things ready so it won’t all just jump out at me at once. After all that, I headed over to Glenn’s again, once again his pool is having problems, it just doesn’t want to work right! I had to clean the big filter again, which is a pain in the neck because I can barely get the lid off and on, but after I did, and I cleaned everything else up, I was thrilled that I finally got all three green lights on his chlorinator pump! Whoo hoo! First time I’ve ever seen all three on, which means I, for once, got the chemicals right. But I’ve checked with test strips and it’s STILL reading low chlorine, but everything else was good for a change. The Buick is still chugging along, but it seems to be getting better. I’m a little worried about one thing though, and I’m afraid it might be the transmission, but I’m not going to panic until after I’ve expended this whole tank of gas. If it’s not cleared up by then, I’m going to have to do something. Anyway, got back to camp, put the horses away (I had put them in a couple of paddocks with fresh grass) and settled down for the evening. Ready for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Another good night sleep, and up again at sunrise, these new standard daylight hours are working just fine for me now. Did chores, and started the Buick and let it run the whole time, just to see if it would stay running (and it did!) had breakfast, finished reading a book, then brought out Apollo. It’s been way too long since I’ve ridden him, and even though I should be conditioning Flash, I just couldn’t ignore Apollo any more! I gave him a good grooming, which took a while, his mane was a real mess with lots of tangles, and did his tail as well. He looked gorgeous by the time I got done, though he’s got sections of his face where he has no hair, and his forelock is really thin and short these days. Male pattern baldness, maybe? Trimmed his feet, and started to get worried about one rear foot that seemed to be getting misshapen, his frog drying out and his foot getting more oval than round, and that had me paying closer attention, but once I had him saddled and on the trail, he didn’t seem to be limping or have any other indication that he had a problem, other than the fact that he’s so slow these days. We jogged for quick a bit, too, and that didn’t seem to bother him, and at the end of the ride, his frog actually looked better, so maybe it’s not as bad as I thought. Since it’s general gun season for the hunters, I stayed on the green trail, doing the loop to the road, then taking the road up to the loop back again, in order to shorten the ride and avoid the really wet spots. I could tell it was going to be wet when even the drier spots were wet, not surprising after the storm that came through earlier this week. Once we got back and I rinsed him off, gave his sheath a good cleaning (and amazingly, he had no objection!), then I put him in one of the paddocks in front of the barn, since the mowers haven’t been here for over three weeks and the grass looks really succulent, and put Flash in a paddock next to him, and they munched out for the rest of the day. Then I set fire to the three piles of hurricane clean up that I had before coming back to the trailer. I did some sewing repair on my saddle bags, which I needed to get ready for the cattle drive, and left them soaking in soapy water overnight so I can get them nice and clean. So a busy day, got a lot done, and still managed to enjoy a ride! Finally went out to put the horses away, ran the Buick again for a bit, and eventually settled down for the evening. Another busy, productive day! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
A long, tiring, but nice day today. After breakfast and chores, I saddled up Flash, and was just about ready when I got a call from Petra that she and John were here and wanted to ride with me. I saw their permit, but thought it was tomorrow, but it didn’t matter, as I was just about to leave anyway, so I waited for them. John is in the doghouse with me, he wrote an article in the local paper and made is sound like the horse club he belonged to was responsible for putting in the whole trail marking system out here, which really hurt, since his club has done practically ZERO and had no right to even claim ANY credit, much less credit for the whole thing. It really upset me when I first heard about it, and I’m not over it yet. It’s not that I want that much credit, it just bothers me that someone ELSE tries to steal the credit. Anyway, water under the bridge for now. So the three of us headed out about 10:30, they on long-legged gaiters and me on my Paso Fino Flash. It started raining just as we left, and when I looked back, I saw a beautiful rainbow again. Seems we’re getting a lot of sun showers and rainbows lately! They all did fine together until John decided he wanted to take the road instead of the trail, then they took off at high speed, and Flash, competitor that he is, took off after them. He went into a full-on mad gallop trying to keep up, and I was hanging on for dear life, praying he didn’t stumble or shy sideways. We went quite a ways before we finally slowed down again, much to my relief! Getting too old to fall off these days, especially on a gravel road! We stayed together for the first few miles, then I veered off because I wanted to finally put the crosspiece on the farthest post on the west side, Interesection 49, glad to get that job done! I met up with them again a bit later, but they turned back toward camp when I still had a lot of trails I wanted to reconnoiter. There are still two water crossings that are high, though I could probably make one of them, and the stretch along the powerline on the green trail is still a bit iffy, but there are several areas now that I think I can reach, so maybe on Monday I’ll take some out there. General gun hunting season started today, and I heard a few shots but never saw anyone. Got back to camp, walked around paddocks with Petra looking at rosary pea, then finally finished up for the day, as it was well after 3:00 when I got back to camp, and an hour later by the time I got Flash washed up and put away. Chilled out for a bit, had Mary, Chrissie’s friend, stop by and chat for awhile, then relaxed the rest of the night. I’m going to enjoy having an extra hour of sleep tonight, as the clocks are “falling back”, but the shorter days will mean getting up earlier, which I don’t think will be a problem, since I still have work calling my name. Can’t wait to get this job done so I can start enjoying myself instead of working all the time! Can’t complain, though, I asked for it! Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hello Darlin’!
Had a great night sleep, and it wasn’t long after chores and breakfast that I had Flash saddled up and ready to go on a ride. I’ve been trying to tidy up all the shape files for the trails so that James will have pristine copies, and I found a few wonky discrepancies on the white horse trail, so I decided to ride it and use both my GPS devices to try to get it right. I’ve been kind of avoiding the white trail lately because I assumed it was wet, and after all the rain yesterday, I took along a couple of garbage bags to put on my lower legs, but it turned out I didn’t need them at all! I was pleasantly surprised that other than one entrance right off the road, most ot the trail was quite passable, so much so that I’m going to put it on my schedule to get the tractor in there and put some much needed posts in. I thought I was going to need to wait until the dry season, but evidently not! It actually felt a bit cooler this morning, and the humidity was down, relatively speaking, to about 87%, an improvement over the usual 99%, and I could actually tell the difference. With a slight breeze, even with no clouds, it was a beautiful morning. We were off by 9:30, went about 11.5 miles, and was back in camp by a bit after 1:00. Flash got a good rinse off, and Lola, who thoroughly enjoyed splashing around in every puddle we came across, napped the rest of the day. I took a run into town to get horse feed, some distilled water for my RV batteries, and ran up to Glenn’s to check on the pool after all that rain. It had a palm frond in it, but otherwise was just fine. So, I’ve discovered that the brown-out problem I’ve been having is partly because I had turned off my inverter, which meant that every time the power pulled down the TV shut off, but the real problem was that I, ashamedly, had neglected to check my RV batteries in a long time. When I’m on the road I have a regular maintenance schedule, but sitting in one place has kind of screwed that up, and when I checked the batteries, they were WAY down, like DRY. I used up a one and a third gallons of distilled water, all that I had, and I still only was able to just cover the plates in one battery and was still below that on the second. As soon as I got back, I filled them up to specs, and now I’m running my inverter, so now my TV and other electronics don’t spike anymore. I tested the system yesterday using just the generator and everything worked find, but obviously the dry batteries affected the overall system. Anyway, that’s back on my to-do list monthly! Finally settled down for the evening, watched a good movie about a Chickasaw rancher, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!