Hi Darlin’!
Another long and very busy day! Pre-dawn alarm followed by chores and breakfast, DeDe arrived right at 8:00 with Margarita moments behind. We packed up everything into her side by side (she calls it her Mule, though it’s not really), and headed off for trail clearing and marking. What a team! We all worked great together, everyone doing whatever needed doing, and it was a very productive and fun day. We managed to get all the way up to about a mile from camp where there is a deep water crossing where a creek comes in, then we doubled back and went to lunch at Willards, though it was past 2:00 by the time we headed that way. A great little eatery, but the service can be extremely slow when it’s busy, which it was today. Nevertheless, we left around 4:00, Margarita headed home since we were almost done anyway, and DeDe and I went back to finish the last mile starting at the other side of the creek crossing, got it done before 5:00. She headed out and I promptly started organizing for tomorrow. Everything was all mixed up and we had trouble finding some things when we needed them, and I figured I would have to make more orange markers for tomorrow since we’ll last time we used two different colors where this time we’re only using one. Then Alex came by, she and Kelsey are marking the third loop tomorrow, so I gave them the stuff they needed to make markers for that loop, so that was a good job delegated! Now I’ll have plenty for tomorrow for my loop! It took me until after 9:00 to get everything organized, but now we should be able to find whatever we need immediately, and not take along anything we don’t need, which we did this morning. So by end of tomorrow, everything should be marked, leaving Thursday to do what needs to be done, like water buckets and any last minute stuff. On Friday, DeDe and I plan to run all the trails again in her Mule just to confirm it’s all okay, then job done! Well, at least until we have to take everything down again after the ride! Long, tiring but productive and fun day, but now I won’t be long out of bed, heading for the shower momentarily! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hello my love!
A wonderful night sleep, not too surprising since I took ibuprofen before going to bed. Woke up and was reading a bit before the horse alarm went off just before 8:30, so in answer to Apollo’s whinny, I got up to start feeding, chores and breakfast. Then I sat down at my computer with my new map that ranger Scott had emailed me and figured out what I hope will be a great new route for one of the loops for the endurance ride. Then I called Jo to see if we could meet at the Goethe Forest Open House later this afternoon so I could show it to her, and she said she had some hay chores to do, and since she’s still hurting from a fall she took last week, I offered to help. She has a fascinating system with hoists and chains where she can offload one of these huge 300+ lb bales and drop it into place, something her husband designed and built for her. Always interesting to see how other people solve problems! That and a nice glass of lemonade while we looked at my proposed trails took us up to the time for us to leave for the open house. Discovered that Jo and I share the same birthday, would you believe! While I was there, I put in the address for George and Margarita, the folks I met at Lake Panasoffkee a few weeks ago, since I had been invited over to dinner and wanted to see where I would be going after the open house, and shockingly, they lived literally two houses away from Jo! Amazing! Such a small world! I headed out to the Apex trailhead just before Jo, and I got there before her, then I learned a lot of interesting things about the management of the forest, and met all the players involved. I also checked with ranger Scott about some of my newly selected trails to see if there were any issues with any of them, and he seemed to think they would all be good. I’ll ride the new loop tomorrow just to make sure, and to measure it to make sure it’s the right fit. Once that meeting was over, I headed back over to George and Margarita’s, arriving just after our scheduled time, and had a wonderful evening together. George is quite the cook, he rotisseried a huge chicken on his grill and had enough food for an army. I did my best to make a dent in it, but there was just too much!. Then Margarita’s brother arrived, we all chatted some more, very enjoyable stories and company, a very pleasant evening. I got back to camp just before 8:00, got the horses fed and watered (I left them with two full big buckets, both of which they managed to knock over, something they’ve never done before so I figured they were just mad at me for leaving them so long!), then settled down for a quick episode of Expanse. A cup of Sleepytime tea and I’ll be ready for shower and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Went to bed good and early and had a great night sleep right up until my alarm went off pre-dawn. Got my chores and breakfast done just before the volunteer work crew started gathering. Organizer Jo managed to persuade the Forest folks to let us use one of their gorgeous John Deere diesel side by sides, and before long we were all heading our separate ways to clear some trails, though which ones we’ll end up using is still a work in progress. I managed to get a map with ALL of the various roads and firebreaks on it, not just the horse trails, so I’m going to do some analysis and see if there are any practical options that are different from last year. We worked our butts off until 1:30 when we finally got back to camp, Jo gave me all the trail markers so I’ve got my work cut out for me! Apparently there’s a lady who was away this weekend but has a side by side we can use next week, so I want to check out some optional trails (if I can find some good routes that make sense) and maybe even get some marked that way. Meanwhile, once we finished up there, I went into town to pick up as many essentials as I could, including some more hay, because I have to drop my truck off at the repair shop on Monday, and they can’t tell me what day I’ll get it back, could be as late as Friday! I’m all stocked up now, though. Got my shopping done at Walmart and picked up horse feed at Tractor Supply and Sparrs, so I’m good to go. Got back to camp just in time to feed the horses, have dinner and settle down for the evening, exhausted! I’ll be taking some ibuprofen at bedtime, just because I know I’d otherwise be waking up in the middle of the night with muscle aches. Heading for the shower and bed here very shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
I had a marvelous night sleep, even going to bed a bit early, then ended up sleeping late as well, so woke up feeling energetic and ready to go! After chores and breakfast, I started on my first problem, which was the water heater. Works fine on the propane side, not on the electric side. Did some research, checked a few wires to see if anything was loose (there was one a tiny bit loose, didn’t think that would cause it, but you never know!). Some of the research says you need to change an anode every couple of years, so I checked out that, couldn’t find it, and eventually figured out that mine doesn’t have an anode because it has an aluminum tank. It seems it can only be the heater element or the circuit board, so I’ll have to work on that again later. My next job was to find out why my outside speakers aren’t working. I found a really great and original radio station that I wanted to listen to while I sat outside, they call themselves the Crossroads, and the alternate between country (some of the usual, over-produced Nashville stuff, but also some more western style that adds a different element), and older rock, the good stuff with lots of guitars, country crossovers and good storytelling. I started by checking the speaker switch, found a loose wire and fixed that, but that didn’t fix the problem. So then I tried to get the radio out, but that seems to need a special tool which I can’t find, though I know I’ve had it out before, at least I think I did. So then I had to go at it from underneath, which meant opening up the grill under the fireplace and reaching up almost beyond my reach. But when I opened it up, I discovered two things, one, it was really dirty, so I cleaned that up, and two, that there were two plumbing pipes for the shower coming up that for some inexplicable reason, I had never filled up with Great Stuff. I would have sworn I had blocked off all the ways bugs and critters could get in, but there were gaping holes around these two pipes. Miraculously, I had a can of that foam, and was even able to reconstitute it so that it would work (no easy task!), and filled that up. Then I finally got around to checking all the wires, only found one bad connection and fixed that, but that didn’t solve the problem. Only thing left was the speakers themselves, so I took those down, found that one had power going to it just fine, but no sound, and the other had no power to it, but the wires were impossible to reach, as they were between walls. Then I remembered that that I might be able to reach them from the vent above the refrigerator so I went on the roof and took the cover off, and sure enough, I could see them, but I couldn’t reach them unless I took the whole vent off, and I wasn’t about to do that! Besides, the wires went right back into the wall again, so I couldn’t follow them anyway, so no point. So I guess I’m going to live without outdoor speakers from now on, oh well. So I didn’t accomplish either task I set out to do, but I did get a lot of other stuff done along the way! In the evening, I listened into the first OTL meeting, glad that’s starting to move along, it’s been slow going up until now. Finally settling down for a few minutes, but not for long, will be taking my shower and getting to bed again, hopefully early like last night, and maybe getting another good night sleep for the stuff I have to do tomorrow! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
A better night sleep, but still didn’t get to it until late. Up by 8:00, though, got some computer work done in the morning. Between working on the Goethe Endurance Ride and the OTL Ride, I’ve been keeping busy! Even though we were never particularly nostalgic, I can’t help but be reminded that this was the last place you and I camped together before we headed down to brother Jeff’s where your spirit moved on. I can’t believe this is the second year I’ve been here on my own, either, time just keeps flying by! By noon I felt like I had done enough inside, so I saddled up Flash and headed out to scope out the ten mile loop that the ladies of Goethe had thought would be a good trail for the endurance ride. It turned out to be quite nice! Not sure it reduced the “deep sand” complaint too much, but it certainly takes us off the roads, which was the other suggestions, and takes us on to a lot of unofficial horse trails, which is great! Looking forward to exploring the next 15 mile loop they suggested! Meanwhile, since apparently no one else is available to work on the remaining 25 mile loop for the 50 mile ride, I asked the same ladies if they would do that, and of course, they said yes! I may have to get some more help marking them, but it looks like we’ve got all hands on deck to get the trails selected. Plenty of time left for that. I didn’t hear back from the truck repair place yet, and now I have another little problem. The hot water heater’s electrical side has stopped working. It still works fine on propane, but I would usually get enough hot water just by running the generator my usual hour a day, but yesterday, it was a no go, and same today. I checked the wiring inside and it all looks good, but I’ll check the outside tomorrow and do some research and see what else I can find. Settled down with a nice grilled burger, worked a bit more on the two rides, watched an hour of TV, already taken my shower, so now I’m off to be, a little earlier than usual, but more the time I’d like to get in the habit of. so good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe!
I don’t know why it is, but the night’s before I travel, I always have trouble sleeping! Don’t know why. I did a lot of activity, including a ride, yesterday, thought that would be enough, but no, I tossed and turned for awhile. No matter, I slept past 8:00, then got up and finished packing, got the horses loaded up and was out of camp by just after 10:00. Then I arrived at Black Prong just before 11:00, which gives you an idea of how close these two camps are, not even 30 miles! I got just about everything unpacked and the horses highlined before I headed back into town for my appointment at the truck repair place. I’ve been experiencing a judder at certain speeds, and it’s been getting a little worse as time goes by, so I figured I better get it looked at before I end up dead on the side of the road. Oddly, the woman at the repair shop, though she seemed quite knowledgeable, had never heard the word “judder” before! Really, is it that odd a word? I even looked it up for her, and sure enough, it’s defined exactly the way I was using it, so I guess she learned a new vocabulary word today (and maybe you did, too!) Anyway, after lots of careful analysis and test driving, they seem to think the problem is somewhere in the drive train, so they’re going to have to take it apart and then send sections of it to another shop to check for proper balance, as well as everything else in the rest of that system, so I’ll be truckless for a couple of days. Going to have to make sure I’ve got enough supplies to last if I’m camp bound, pretty sure I do! After I left there I went to Tractor Supply to fill up one propane tank, then dropped off a return package at a UPS store. The wireless pet fence, while a great idea, didn’t work so well in action. Worst part of it was that if the collar was dormant for 30 seconds, it would go on standby to save the battery (good idea!), but when it woke up again because it moved, it would reset itself by vibrating and shocking (bad idea!), so if a poor dog just lays down for a few minutes, when it gets up it gets shocked for no reason! Not sure it’s supposed to work like that, but this is the second one I’ve gotten and I couldn’t get either one to be consistent enough to use, so I sent it back. A quick stop at Walmart for a couple of things, plus fuel ($80 to fill up my tank, and it was just under half when I pulled into the station! Holy moley!) Then back to camp, fed the horses, then had two visitors, Kelsey and Valerie, who have some great ideas for changing the route for the benefit endurance ride, on a lot of “unmapped” trails, which would be great! Finally settled down for dinner and TV, spent a little time looking at the OTL website now that I’ve been made an admin on it, lots of work to do there, now I’m heading off to shower and bed. Long day, but pretty productive. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Been sleeping really well here, not sure what the secret is, but I’m happy for it! Woke up to a misty morning, didn’t expect to see it that foggy! After chores and breakfast, I ran over to the ranger station to fill up my tank, though I doubt I will need it. I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it! I have enough to do laundry tomorrow, if I decided to. I did a little more housekeeping, specifically mopping the floor, then spent the majority of the afternoon doing some updating on my Facebook page. I knew it had been awhile since I had added any new horse camp reviews, and couldn’t believe it when I went back and discovered it’s been since last August 2020 since I’ve updated my camp supplements book! Crazy! So I got busy doing that, and still only got as far as November 2020 by dinnertime. I wanted to get that done before I got really busy with the Goethe Endurance Ride and the OTL, both of which are going to take up a lot of time once I start to focus on them. Since I still haven’t been given the credentials to get me on the website for the OTL, I’m kind of stuck, and didn’t want to waste the time, so that’s why I started to tackle my camp supplement book. Anyway, I grilled a steak and had a nice dinner, then settled down to a new series I found on Prime, The Expanse, a sci-fi program that is about to publish it’s final season on Prime in about a week, so I figured if I started now I’d be able to finish it off before the month’s out. So I had a pleasant and quiet evening. Both my neighbors packed up and left right at sunset, not sure why they didn’t stay the night since they had reserved it, but who knows? So now I’m ready for shower and bed, won’t be long now! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Had another good night sleep, woke up to another beautiful day, slightly warmer this morning, did some computer work after my chores, then went out to pick up some hay. I wasn’t able to find a haymaker that was very close, so I ended up going to Sparrs Feed Store, where I was also able to pick up some Balance and Senior Feed. The hay was pretty good, small bales but tightly wound and heavy, and not much more than I paid getting it from local haymakers, so it beat driving a long way. They didn’t have the Perform, so I had to go into the Tractor Supply to pick that up. I made a quick stop at Walmart for a few things, Publix for ice cream, and I stood in line for fuel at the Murphy’s for way too long, then was only able to get about $20 because my gift card was almost empty. I forgot to check it when I was in the store, darn it! I have plenty for my next trip, though, since it’s just a short one up to Goethe, so no worries, I’m sure I’ll be making more trips into town next week. Got back, put the groceries away, and then started doing some research on where I want to go the next few weeks. Pistol wanted to camp down at Picayune over Christmas, but there’s not enough trails for two weeks, so I suggested another stop about halfway down the state, had to research the best place. I think I found it at Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Reserve, lots of trails there, then we’ll head down to Picayune through New Years. Not sure where I’m going after that, still looking into it. But at least this month is taken care of. Settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for my usual shower and bed! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a better night sleep last night, though I needed all four bed covers and a wool cap last night, since it got down to at least 37 degrees last night! I have the thermostat on the furnace set, and I’m sure it went off several times last night, so getting propane today became a priority. I called Tractor Supply last evening but they hadn’t gotten their refill yet. I spent most of the day on the computer working on the OTL mailing list and some other related tasks, so I was running the generator to charge up my computer and phone, and I ran out of propane in my third tank, no way was I going to let it run down on only one. I called and it had finally come in, so I jumped in the truck and ran into get all three tanks filled. Propane prices are skyrocketing, up to $4.17 a gallon! I don’t remember EVER paying that much for propane! Energy prices are getting ridiculous! Anyway, I got back just as the sun set, got the horses fed and settled down for the evening. Time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!