Hi Sweetie,
Ended up going to bed later than I thought I would, then couldn’t get to sleep for HOURS, then woke up at 8:30 feeling tired, but I had too much planned today, so I got up and got busy. After horse chores, I climbed up into the attic and dropped down my portable sewer tank, then used it to dump my blackwater, since it’s been over a month since I arrived. Glad to know it takes that long to get filled up! So I’m good for awhile now. After putting the tank back up top and dropping down my oil pan (it’s time to change the oil in the generator again already!), I had breakfast, finally. Then I gathered my tools and headed out to the paddocks to finish the ones that we didn’t get around to on Work Day, and found they needed some help, but not too bad. Then I noticed that wherever there was a new board, no one had put staples on the back to hold the fence up, so I started doing some of that, as well as replacing other staples that were just missing. Camp host Steve came back from the laundromat (SO glad I don’t have to do that!), then came out to help me with one board I knew needed replacing in one of the paddock where there was a horse last weekend to it got skipped. That one needed A LOT of work! Replaced the board, then found another broken board on the other side and went ahead and replaced that one, which finished off all the boards we bought on Saturday. I stapled the wire fence on those as well as some others that were missing. Tried to fix a brace on a gate but it was too rotten, left that for another day for more experienced carpenters. That took a good part of the afternoon, and I was bushed and dehydrated by the time we finished. Sat in my recliner to read and fell asleep for two hours! Made dinner, did my evening chores and finally settled down for the evening. Tonight I am DEFINITELY getting to bed earlier, I have to get back on a schedule that gets me up earlier and to bed earlier! So I’m signing off early, so I won’t be long out of my shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a WONDERFUL night sleep last night, and still slept in a bit this morning, so I felt much more refreshed today. After my usual chores, I headed up to Okeechobee to do some shopping. Since diesel is so ridiculously expensive, I decided to buy as many supplies as I could to cut down on trips, and that ended up costing me a bundle today! First, I picked up 22 bales of hay at the feed store, where the price of a bale when up a dollar apiece, so now one bale of coast was $11.25. The only good part of that was that most of it was that rare, really nice green soft coastal, the best I’ve seen, but still, ridiculously expensive for a single bale of hay. Then I went down to Tractor Supply to get two propane tanks filled. When I passed the Walmart on the way down, I noticed that diesel was $4.95 a gallon, though I passed one station that had it for $4.84. After Tractor Supply, I headed back to Walmart, where suddenly the price of diesel had gone up to $5.09! So I passed it up and went to the cheaper station up the road, shaking my head at the idea that I was happy to ONLY pay $4.84 a gallon! I had over a quarter of a tank still left, and it still cost me $125 to fill up. I’ve NEVER paid more than $100 for a tank, and very rarely even CLOSE to that! Grrrr! Glad I’m not planning on driving anywhere any time soon! This could be the most expensive fuel summer I’ve ever had! Finally got to Walmart, where I filled my cart up with a month’s worth of groceries and some extra stuff I needed, and the dang bill was $434! The only time I’ve ever paid THAT much was if I was buying a TV or some other big ticket item, but this was not the case today. Crazy. I just hope I don’t have anything else I need to buy for awhile! I feel like I’ve got enough supplies for the apocalypse right now. Got back around 4:00, took awhile to put everything away, then Steve the camphost invited me over for a pork and sauerkraut and potato dinner, which I enjoyed very much (always nice to have someone else do the cooking!), then settled down for the evening. Busy day, and extra glad I don’t have any rent to pay here. Going to bed early again tonight, hopefully, trying to get back on a better schedule, since I sleep so much better when I get to bed earlier. So good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Whew, what a day! Got up early, printed up some paperwork for the work day today, then got my morning chores and breakfast out of the way before moving over the pavilion to see who showed up for my hastily put together work day. In the end, we had a pretty good turnout, mostly from the Florida Horsemen’s Club, and everybody worked their butts off! We got so much done. Two of the guys managed to build two complete new manure bins at Barns One and Three, just gorgeous. The rest of us worked on all the paddocks, making repairs, replacing boards and posts, cutting back trees, and generally making almost every paddock more safe and sound for horses. No more nails sticking out and broken boards! There was just a few we didn’t get to, but they were the ones that were more recently built anyway, so there shouldn’t be much left to do, though I’ll check them tomorrow, if I can recover in time. Exhausting day! James came by, ostensibly just for awhile, but he ended up getting drawn in and helping us finish our last few projects. He seemed very pleased with the turnout, when he arrived the sound of hammering was everywhere, we were all busy as bees running around. Just what I think he was hoping to see, and I was glad it all worked out! A lot of labor, with a little direction, goes a long way! Anyway, once it wound down, a few of us sat around and chatted, making another date for the next work day, then finally I got back to the trailer and settled down, watched a little TV, but I’m more than ready for my shower and bed tonight! A productive day, well spent! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
Woke up with the alarm before dawn, since I was supposed to be leaving with James by 8:00, but he ended up having an electrical problem at his house that he had to deal with, so he was delayed by nearly an hour. No worries, I did some other stuff while I was waiting. We hit the road and 9:00 and headed to Hickory Hammock. We went there once over ten years ago, they were doing a trail challenge event while we were there. I couldn’t remember much about it until I reread by diary from way back then, which disagreed a little with my memory, which is why I write it down at the time, lest I forget! Anyway, James wanted me to consider some options to get that back up and running as a thriving horse camp, evidently it doesn’t get much of the equestrian crowd any more, though it did somewhat when we were here before. He also had to meet with a welder/fabricator to get a bid on some work that needs doing on gates and fenced, and also to interview a potential host couple, which took up most of the morning and mid-day. We stopped in Okeechobee on the way back, long enough to pick up some horse feed and a printer. My old $25 HP All-in-one finally gave up the ghost a few days ago, so I grabbed another basic one, a Canon for $44, which was the cheapest one there. Considering how little printing I actually do, I didn’t need to spend much else on anything fancier. I’m hoping the ink won’t be as expensive as the HP, but we’ll see. I ordered some from Amazon as back up, you never know how much ink is left in an old model of printer like this one. I managed to get it working without too much fuss, thank goodness. After that, I walked down to Barn 3 with a new gate latch to put on Stall 7, and there was a woman there who had just jury-rigged a latch, but together we took it back apart and put a real latch on there. I was glad when James told me not to nickel and dime stuff, but to get what we need and not worry about it. I also brought a couple of manure rakes from Hickory Hammock that were in storage, so we now have one for each barn, and one of those little canvas folding carts so I can move all these tools and screws and whatnot around tomorrow. So a productive day! Settled down for the evening, made a list of all the jobs that need doing tomorrow, but I didn’t sleep well last night so now I’m nodding off early. Heading to shower and bed, since I have another early morning tomorrow. Love you, Sweetie! Good night!

Hiya Sweetie,
Got up a bit early today because James was going to come by this morning, though he ended up coming later than I expected, but that’s fine. Got my chores and breakfast done, then did some computer work for a bit. After he arrived we had a long chat about the work day that’s scheduled this weekend, and what my future plans are. He wants to go ahead and get me approved through their HR department as a camp host, even though he knows I won’t be here during the summer. I told him I’d only stay longer if they could get me electricity, I’m not going through that many bottles of propane to run my AC when I could just head north and not need to use any. It may mean suffering through some heat, but it might be okay through April. He said he’d work on that. After he left, I walked through every single paddock looking for what repairs need to be made, counting what broken boards we need to replace, and other hardware items. He brought me a couple of gate latches, I’ll have at least one stall door that needs a replacement, I’ll try to do that tomorrow. It’s a lot of walking around to every single paddock! Got it done, though. I’m trying to arrange lumber pickup for those boards, though James ended up coming back with the lumber delivery for the manure bins. I have a bunch of volunteers lined up, so hopefully we can get a lot of work done on Saturday. Finally settled down for the evening, it’s back to being pretty hot at night, looking forward to a cool front that’s due to come through tomorrow, bringing rain, though I’m hoping to take Apollo for a short ride tomorrow, he keeps giving me that look with his mournful eyes, wanting to get out of his paddock. But for tonight, shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a great night sleep, first time it was cool enough to really be comfortable in a long time! Read for a little bit before getting up as well, so a bit of a late start this morning. After chores and breakfast I started my first load of laundry and then started doing some housekeeping. Since I have to be running the generator to run the washer, I’ve decided to take that opportunity to run the vacuum as well, and do some housekeeping on a more regular basis. You know me, not much of a housekeeper, but I’m trying! Once I got started, though, I couldn’t be stopped. I did all the dusting and vacuuming, including a deep clean behind the recliners and under the kitchen table, swept and mopped the floor, even spot cleaned all the little bits of carpeting on the stairs and the slide-out. I even took a fan apart and cleaned that up as well, since I’ll doubtless be using it again in the coming weeks. So a very busy day in the end! Did three loads of laundry, too. Finally settled down late in the afternoon, then Steve came by and told me they had a bad water leak somewhere, so we split up and checked all the water spigots throughout the barns, paddocks and campground, until he finally found it was a toilet that was continuously running that accounted for the use of 8300 gallons of water over the last three days! Can you imagine? So he shut off the toilet and stopped that for the moment, until it can be repaired. Used my new grill again tonight, to cook a burger, and I’m really liking it, especially because it has an electric starter, an improvement over my last one. I’m determined to keep this one cleaner, too, and keep it in nice shape. Finally settled down for the evening, binge-watching another few episodes of my latest series, won’t be long before I’m off to my shower and climbing into my clean sheets! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Other than being St. Patty’s Day, not much happened today. After chores I did some much needed housework, then some computer work including preparing and sending my Equity contract for the summer season, then cleaned a couple of stalls that needed a touch up from last weekend. Kind of relaxed a bit during the afternoon, then settled down in the evening to watch more of my binge TV. All in all, a rather mundane day! Don’t get too many of those, so I’ll take it! Getting hotter every day, so I’ve been getting to bed later, having to wait until it cools down to be comfortable. So I’m off to my shower and bed here shortly. Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, though when I was taking my shower last night, I ran out of water and power to run the water pump at just about the same time, so I barely had time to rinse off before I was done! So first thing this morning, while the beautiful mist enveloped the campground, I filled up the water tank and took another quick shower just to get off any soap residue I might have missed. Had a brief meeting with James and the new Land Manager named Blaine, hopefully this new crew will be able to work together and we’ll be able to get some things done more smoothly here. Planned a nice recon ride that turned out to be very enlightening, found some nice firebreaks, some other trails I need to learn whether or not we can use them, found one that should have been a trail but hasn’t been mowed it a very long time, and another that looked like a trail from Google Earth but was nearly impassable, including having to go around a fence. Very interesting! Flash and I did a very quick pace because it was due to rain, but it missed us almost all day until just at feeding time, naturally, so I got a little wet. I helped Laura with her RV batteries, she didn’t think they were charging properly and when I asked her when the last time she checked it, she admitted she never had, so we worked on getting access to them (they’re in a very tough position), until we could top them off. They didn’t really look bad at all, only two cells out of the six really needed anything, but we got it all back together again. Don’t know if it will help, but it was worth a try. I figured while I had all the equipment out I’d check mine, too, and I’m glad I did because I had several cells that were low, though not critically. Lola found a new cooling off spot, laying on the hay under the gooseneck! She can’t usually get in there, but I opened it to do the batteries and she climbed up as if it were made for her. I put the screen room back up because the flies were starting to be bothersome, and since I’m evidently going to be here a few more weeks at least. Stuffed myself with my Uncle Mick’s leftovers for dinner, watched a few more episodes on Prime, now I’m headed to shower and bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
What a lovely day! It started out early, of course, if you can call 7:00 early, and I went around and checked newcomers in, and did everything I could to get organized before the ride was to begin. We were trying to get out as early as possible because the forecast has such dire predictions of high winds and a storm coming through and as it turned out, only the very last riders got a little wet on the last 100 yard stretch, but everyone else managed to make it in before the rain arrived. I volunteered Mike to help me with the water stop/dealer #3 position, so we headed out there around 9:45, arriving in plenty of time before the first riders. Used a trough that Anita had brought, and got my instructions on how to mark the cards, and headed out to our stop. Lola came with us, and of course, kept us entertained with her ball fetching until the first horses came through, then it was pretty busy most of the rest of the time until the last horses came through. Everything seemed to go smoothly, though one guy, Charlie, wasn’t feeling up to finishing the ride, so he rode back with us in the truck while his horse got ponied by another one of the gals in his group, affectionately known as Charlie’s Angels. We headed back to camp, had a great lunch, passed out awards, and miraculously, Petra won a hay tote I’ve been pining for since I saw one in the OTL raffle, and she knew I really wanted one, and she had won one at the OTL, so she promptly handed it over to me, presumably for services rendered (I marked the trails, a job she evidently hates!), and it was even in my most sought after color, forest green! So it was a great outcome for me! Good things come to those who wait, I guess! Anyway, James was there, and made a presentation, and really got the club on board to help with some of the changes out here, so I think we’re really making progress. After all the hoopla, I sat around with some of the folks behind me for a good part of the afternoon, then after feeding and blanketing the horses (it’s supposed to get down to 44 degrees tonight!) went back to their campfire. Mike joined us, and eventually I did my Snowy River to a very appreciative crowd. We kept chatting until about 9:30 when we finally ran out of wood for the fire, and it was getting quite cool (very refreshing after weeks of unseasonably hot weather!), so we all said good night and went back to our respective trailers. Made myself a cup of Sleepytime tea, and I’ll soon be taking my shower (I smell like smoke, the one downside of sitting by a campfire) and heading to bed, though at the moment I have the generator on and my electric fireplace burning just for fun. What the heck, you only live once! Good night, babe! Love you!