Hiya Sweetie!
Hard to believe, but another birthday has come and gone! It was a lovely day, I got to do all the things I love to do! Took a nice drive to pick up some lovely hay for $4 a bale, best price I've had all year! Then went over the river to PA, went to a big hardware store and picked up the replacement piece I needed to finally finish the floor, went to Tractor Supply and refilled my three propane tanks so I'd be ready for the next few weeks when I won't have electricity, as well as a couple of bags of feed, went shopping for a few grocery items at the Giant store, filled up with fuel for the good price of $3.49/gallon, then took a slight detour to check out an Indian restaurant I was hoping to go to for dinner. The little voice in my head said to check it out, and I'm glad I did! Turned out to be an Indian take-out place inside a gas station! Not exactly the atmosphere I was going for! On the way back to the farm, I stopped and got a soft ice cream cone (hey, it's my birthday! If I can't splurge on my birthday, when can I splurge?!) Got back to the farm, got everything put away, including my hay, and just as I was finishing, Amanda arrived. She's the gal that's renting the apartment off the barn here, and is looking after the property when Meg's not here. She had asked if we could go riding today, and of course I said yes. I love it when Flash and Apollo can go out together, so it was a lovely birthday gift to be able to do that. We did a nice four mile loop around the church property, which is what they call it here, but we did it backwards from what was done during the ride, just for a little variety, at least for me and the horses. It was a lovely ride, such a pretty section of woods. Got back to camp after about 90 minutes, put the horses away, and made arrangements with Meg to leave at 6:00. First we stopped at Lowes for a few minutes so I could return the final item that I was erroneously told I needed for my floor (and didn't.) Then we went to the Curry Zone, another Indian restaurant in Flemington, which was only about 20 minutes away, but Meg had never been there, though she did say she liked Indian cuisine, and that turned out to be the perfect place! A very classy decor, and the food was absolutely fantastic! We had a fabulous meal, with wonderful, comfortable conversation, got to know each other a little bit, and were there nearly two hours. Just delightful. When the proprietor learned it was my birthday, she send us off with a couple of ice cream treats, but we were both so full, we packed them with our leftovers to put in the freezer as soon as we got home. It was dark by the time we left, but it was such an enjoyable evening. Got back, changed clothes, fed the horses, and finally fixed a bourbon and settled down for the evening. Took my shower earlier, so no need for that again! Had scores of well-wishers on Facebook send me birthday greetings, so overall, it's been a great day! And the weather was perfect! Couldn't ask for more out of life than days like this. Happy to be alive! Wish you were here with me! Miss you lots! Well, until we meet again, I'll keep telling you I love you, and always will. Good night, babe!

Hey Babe!
Didn't have the best night sleep, but got busy quickly in the morning. After chores, I took Flash for a ride around Horseshoe Bend Park, just to look for any missed markers and ribbons, and I did find a few. A lovely 6.75 mile ride on a gorgeous day. Just after I got back, Amazon arrived with the part I had ordered for the truck, perfect timing! I got Flash put away and got to work on my truck. It didn't take too long to get the part in, but was surprised when my batteries turned up dead, I had to jump it to get it going again. Weird, but that seems to happen whenever I disconnect my brake controller, not sure why. Anyway, it all got done, and my tow/haul is now working just fine! Had one weird moment when I couldn't get my key out of the ignition, almost like it was expecting a lock to be released, fought me for several minutes, then suddenly let go. Hope that's just a passing thing! It was later than I thought by that point, too late to run the errands I was hoping to do, so I took a look at my hostess Meg's truck, which I put batteries in the other day but it still was showing a code error. I did a little diagnosis, but everything seems fine, and the check engine light is off, so I just suggested that she needed to drive it for awhile and see how that goes. Should work fine. Then I asked Meg if there was anything else I could do to help (just trying to earn my keep!), and she set me up dragging a rake behind the Kubota side-by-side around the arena to try to drag up some weeds, and it worked like a charm! Spend awhile doing that, until it was much better, she threw the old weeds to her horses to eat. It was about 7:00 when we finally quit. Dang these long days! Fed the horses and finally settled down for the night. Pretty sure I'll sleep tonight! Good night, my darling! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Started out the day trying to solve my stopover problem, still trying to find accommodations in Western Maryland to spend the night on my way to Ohio. Who knew there would be such a dearth of places to stop? Made a little headway, but it still wasn't resolved by the end of the day, grrrr! After that, I did some research to find out why the tow/haul on my Sierra has been intermittent, and discovered it's a common problem in the shift lever, just as I suspected. Of course, a new shift lever through an auto parts store was in the neighborhood of $80, and on Amazon, it was more like $30, but they couldn't deliver it through Prime until Tuesday, which is the day I'm supposed to be leaving. I decided to see if I could jury rig, and actually got it working for a minute, but the wires are so tiny and short, it didn't take. I decided to order the part and pay extra for overnight shipping, figuring it would still be cheaper than the brick and mortar parts store, but when I put in Meg's address, the arrival changed to tomorrow anyway! Cool! So I'll be able to fix it tomorrow, assuming the part is the only thing wrong, and I'm pretty sure it is. Can't climb the mountains between here and Ohio without my tow/haul feature! Once that was settled, I decided to take a ride on Flash to check out the parts of the orange trail that John and I unmarked backward, and Flash was ready to go after sitting around since Saturday. We did nearly seven miles in about 90 minutes, and only found a few leftover signs, all down by the creek at the north end of the Horseshoe Bend Park, and no missed ribbons. Got back to the farm, and other than the usual chores, settled down in my usual routine, soon off to shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, woke up a half hour before the alarm, so got my chores done early. I decided that since today's job was to pick up the last of the markers, and that it was only about four miles worth, that I would take Apollo and Lola. John set out on the UTV to take the signs down, but I did the rest of the ribbons on horseback. It was a lovely ride! The forecast, once again, was completely wrong. They had rain almost all day, starting at 1:00, and the only rain we got was a very short shower several hours later, and another a few more hours after that! Barely enough to get the ground wet! Was very glad we didn't get wet on the ride, though. Apollo may be slow, but he certainly is good at stopping at the ribbons and letting me pull them down and put them away. At one point, he actually galloped up a hill! Lots of energy for an old guy! Good to see! There was one part of the trail that had some Halloween ornaments hanging from the trees, apparently leftover from some previous event, kind of cute to see. We were only out about 90 minutes, which was great for him and Lola both. She enjoyed jumping into whatever creek we came across, so it was a nice family jaunt. Got back and put him away, enjoyed a pizza lunch that John and Helen brought back from town, helped put the ribbons on cardboard and put in bags the way I like them, rather than on baling twine and hangers, both of which I detest. Worked on Meg's truck for a bit, she's having problems getting it started. I had put my charger on and had gotten the green light on both batteries, but there's something else going on we haven't figured out yet. Will work on that later. Because I had borrowed an electrical cord from John, and they're leaving in the morning, I switched out a couple of long heavy duty cords with a long slightly lighter cord, and I'm hoping that the change will help keep the GFI from breaking as much. It's been doing that constantly since I've been here, so it's been a challenge, but I wasn't sure my long cord could handle it, but so far, so good! Finally settled down for the evening, hoping if my electrical problem is resolved I might be able to do laundry tomorrow. Spent some time researching places to go between here and Ohio, still haven't settled on anything yet. Every time I sat in my recliner, I kept dozing off, so I'm pretty sure I'll get a good night sleep! I'm heading to shower and bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Ride Day at last. Seemed like a short week, but we managed to get everything done! I didn't have any specific jobs today, but got a lot done nevertheless! After chores (just feeding the horses here!) and breakfast, I finished cutting Meg's metal signs, put her truck's battery on charge, sewed up the bag I use for collecting ribbons, and fixed a stall grate that's had some screws loose. Then I drove over to the start at the park and helped there for awhile. Once the 50's were all done with their first loop, I saddled up Flash and headed up the road to clear the ribbons from the true blue section. Unfortunately, after I left Lola behind without tying her up (I didn't think she'd follow me!), I was a good ways up the road when I heard her behind me. Meg and another gal that's been helping with water met me later and brought her home. I'd love to take her, but we had a long ride and she just wouldn't have been able to keep up. I finished doing the north section, the first part around fields and the second into a beautiful preserve, then went back to the start. Once we knew that most of the pink trail riders were done, I set out to pull the ribbons out there. Got back to camp again, and was set to help with the orange trail, but there were still too many riders out, so we had to wait. I finally decided to bring Flash home after having ridden nineteen miles, a good workout for him! Then I drove back, and shortly thereafter I went out with John to do the orange trail in reverse, expecting to meet up with Richard and Jack along the way, but they quit a bit early. We finally hit a spot they had cleared, but then we spoke to Richard, and they did all but what is referred to as the Church section, but by now it was so late we had to quit, as we wouldn't have time to finish before dark, and we were all exhaused. Tried to get as much done today as possible, as the forecast if very rainy for tomorrow, though it's hard to believe in the weatherfolks anymore, they seem to get it wrong so much of the time these days. Anyway, drove back to the farm and settled in for the evening, giving Flash an extra bunch of feed considering how much work he did today. What a good boy! As far as I know, the ride went well, but I was so busy I could hardly pay attention! Settled down to a nice dinner and an hour of Farscape, ready for shower and bed again! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe,
As promised, today was a busy day! Started out going over to Horseshoe Bend Park with Richard, and spent about an hour working on the Trail Crew to clean up a few areas that needed some TLC. Got back around 10:00, tacked up Flash and was soon out on the trail, marking with ribbons, and doing the occasional trimming. Covered most of the 18 mile blue trail, though I only did about 13.5 miles. John and Meg covered the north loops, so no need for me to go over that. It was a lovely day, the weather was great, the trails were good, and Flash was raring to go! He was ready to gallop when we hit some open fields, even after already going ten miles. Hard work, but very productive. Got back around 4:00, worked on the computer cleaning up the GPS data files, had some dinner, finished watching a movie I started the other day, and am ready for shower and bed and another fulfilling day tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up before the alarm, got my quick and easy chores done, feeling so spoiled here! What a luxury to have electric and water, and to not have to pick up manure in the morning! Feeding the horses takes no time at all, so I was raring to go to the Farmers Market. We headed out about 9:45, it only took about 15 minutes to get there. Patsy had some specific things she wanted to get, I wandered around a bit. The only thing that really caught my attention was a booth that had authentic looking British savory pastries, and I ended up getting a pasty and a beef and veg pie. I was hoping for a pork pie like they make in your home town of Nottingham, but they didn't have any. The guy there said he might make some at Christmas, but that won't do may any good. The pasty was still warm and tempting, but I resisted since I had just eaten breakfast, and both will make a great dinner one day this weekend. Got back just before 11:00, Wendy arrived moments later, and we got saddled up and headed out for what Patsy said would be a 8-10 mile ride. At first we went down a trail that led to a swampy area, and had to stop and let an ATVer and his dog go by, then we reached the swampy area, and the ATV was stuck. Exactly why I prefer my original four-wheel drive, aka Flash! Riders used to go through the swampy area, but then some logs and other windrow made it too treacherous, and they've been going around it, through a rather dangerously muddy and rooted area, and both Patsy and Wendy actually got off their horses and walked them through. We waited a bit to see if the ATVer could free himself, but in the end, I tied up Flash and went back to help until he was free. I rode Flash through the bypass area, because I trust him to find his own way, and we made it safely without any problems. Then we did a bit of road riding, but it didn't last too long, then we got into the woods where there was a lot of trails, though not very used, so there were a lot of branches hanging over the trail and several logs to cross over or go around. Lots of spider webs, too, so I had to find a spidey stick. Of course, Flash had to be in the lead, which worked out fine because it made their horses move a little quicker. As it was, we were going much slower than I normally would, and it took us nearly four and a half hours just to go under ten miles, so quite a slow ride. Of course, we had several stops along the way that slowed us down even more. When we got back to the swamp, Patsy wanted to have me lead so they could follow Flash's path, since we made it through fine under saddle on the way out (and they were tired of getting down and walking them), but as it turned out, it was a moot point. As we got there, there were a bunch of guys who had parked their ATVs at the other end, and they told us they had just cleaned out that whole stretch in the swamp of all the obstacles and that it was clear to come through. Not being afraid of a little water, Flash and I went through that stretch, with only one little trip, though the water did get up to belly high and even a bit more. I'm sure he would have been happy to swim it! I was so grateful I didn't lose my boots in that swamp! I had one come off earlier, but they stayed on after that, thank goodness! It was such a gorgeous day, and as always, it was great to be out riding. We did get back kind of late, and by the time I got Flash put away, it was almost too late to run my errands, but I had to go, so I hopped in my truck and drove down to Queensbury, stopped for fuel, went to Tractor Supply for feed, then Lowes for flooring for the bathroom. After considerable thought, I ended up buying one big piece of linoleum rather than the squares, I figured that would hold up better, though the one piece would have some challenges of its own. Didn't get back until nearly 7:00, but my hosts were kind enough to keep dinner warm (they've been graciously feeding me every night!) so I enjoyed that before settling in for the night. Nice not having to cook and clean, even nicer to have a variety in my dinners! Anyway, busy day planned for tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had my usual night and morning chores, then decided to take Apollo on a short ride, probably the shortest ride I've ever done! I just wanted him and Lola to stretch there legs a bit, and there was one trail near camp that I'd somehow never managed to include in any other ride, Glenwood Trail, so we did a tiny loop down Hiawatha to Glenwood then up to Twin Ponds. We could have gone another mile if we had turned right, but I decided to leave it up to Apollo, and not surprisingly, he turned left, the shortest way home. We were gone less than an hour and did less than two miles, but since I had so much packing to do, I didn't really mind. At least it gave them a little exercise. Once I put him away, I got busy packing. Since I had unpacked more than usual here, i.e. the screen room, the grill, the skirting around the gooseneck, I figured I could pace it out over the day, and I did. When I took one break, I went over to my neighbors (with the generator) and had a nice chat with the two ladies there, sisters name Connie and Kate. Turns out they winter at Goethe State Forest!! Small world, or at least, small horse camping community. I'm sure I'll be seeing them again in a few months. Still haven't been able to get a good enough signal for TV, and I almost didn't have enough to download a new book, which would have been a disaster! All set now, though. Patsy has sent me a route that she says is the easiest to her house from here, so I'm hoping for an uneventful drive tomorrow. Still haven't heard from my RV repair guy, very disappointing. Don't know how I'm going to travel with a spare toilet! Not like I have a lot of extra space to store it! Now that would be a disaster if I have to wait months to get it fixed. Ugh. Anyway, heading for shower and bed, want to make it an early night if I can! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Another day at Otter Creek, another fabulous ride! This place is truly magnificent! As you know, my goal is always to ride every trail on the map whenever I go to a trailhead, and even though this is my third time here, there were still plenty of trails I hadn't done yet. Today's ride was to try to reach as many of those trails as I could, and I ended up doing a very wide loop to cover most of it. I had a GPS trail from back in 2015 which I rode with a woman named Marsha, and it took a renegade trail to the south to reach Otter Creek Trail the quickest way, so I followed that today. I did what I think was called the Mohawk trail, then the Otter Creek Trail, then the Eatonville trail, all gorgeous trails in the southwest section of the park. Then I hit Catspaw (which isn't named on the map) to Erie Canal, fording back over the creek, up to Shortcut Road, onto Pitcher Pond, Florence, Aspen, Fletcher, Cow Trail, and finally Homeward Bound back to Blue Jog and camp. In total, it was about 17.75 miles. I started out without boots, and wished I had put them on because we did some gravel roads at the start, but finally I put them on, and was glad I did! We hit a lot of stony areas after that, though most of it was good foot, except for the many roots. Once we crossed the creek, though, I took them off again. He had started limping, because he had stones in the boots, and when I took them off, he was a happy camper! Most of the trails from then on were sand or dirt, so he sped along them just fine. We left at 10:45 and got back just before 4:00, which was the plan because the weatherman said it was going to start raining at 4:00. Of course, that was wrong, it was about 7:00, just when I started feeding the horses, when it started to rain. It's been like that all week with the weather! Regardless, it was a magnificent ride, I am so loving it here at Otter Creek! And other than a few short sections, I have now ridden all of the mapped (though not on this trip, only the accumulation of three visits here!) and a couple of the unmapped renegade trails, though there are a lot more out there if I was so inclined. I gave Flash a nice bath with shampoo, he's been laying down in his standing stall and was absolutely filthy when I got him out today, I had to give him a good brushing before saddling him, and he deserved a nice bath when we got back. He worked hard, but I think he enjoyed himself as much as I did! Settled down for the evening, finally got a signal good enough for streaming, though it's been a tough slog with that. I have two bars, but I think there are so many other people taking up bandwidth on the weekends that it really slows it down. Anyway, started a new binge on Prime, Bonekickers, a British series about a team of archeologists discoving all kinds of weird stuff. Listening to the lovely rain, having dinner, watching TV, a fitting end to a lovely day of riding! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Got woken up by my new neighbor's generator, which came on at precisely the allowable time, 8:00. Sigh... Read for a bit, finally got up and took care of the morning chores and breakfast, then saddled up Apollo for a nice ride. Since I've been riding him quite a bit and he's been getting fitter, I planned a somewhat longer ride, which I estimated at about 6.5 miles, and turned out to be 7.5, but fortunately, most of the trails were fairly flat, so it wasn't any strain on him. We took Fletcher trail, which took us down do a nice lake where Lola was able to get a drink, though Apollo wasn't interested. Nice trails all around, though the map was a bit off. It looked on the map like there was an earlier turn, but on the trail it was mostly blocked off intentionally, so apparently they changed the trail but didn't change the map. Not the first time I've seen that happen! It was quite a bit warmer today, but it's always cooler in the woods, so it was no problem. Beautiful weather! My neighbors Jane and Neil left this morning, then this afternoon a woman I met on the trail down at Brookfield, Beth arrived with her husband and her Rocky Mountain horse. She recognized me and called over, so later I went over to chat for a little bit before settling down for the evening. My neighbors with the generator brought in a big stack of firewood as well as hay, so I guess there here for awhile. Guess I better get used to getting up at 8:00! Sweating a bit from the day so I'm looking forward to my shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!