Hi Darlin'!
Got up with my alarm this morning, got my chores and breakfast done, then drove up to see what help was needed to finish packing up the ride stuff. Most of it was done, though Patsy said the little hill out of here was so slick after the rain last night that someone slid off the road last night, so suggested I take "the long way" out, which isn't really that long, just not as direct, but it's flat, so there's less chance of getting stuck. They all left to put stuff in their storage shed, so I went back to camp and started breaking down everything. Had pretty much everything put away before 11:00 or so, with just a few odds and ends I finished in the afternoon. I let the horses graze this afternoon, since they've been cooped up in the corral all day yesterday. It was a gray day, though fortunately not raining as predicted, and a bit cool, so I spent a few hours doing research for my absentee ballot, which was in my package yesterday, and managed to get that all done. I had no trouble getting on the internet on my computer, but when I went to watch TV in the afternoon, for some reason, I just couldn't pick up a good enough cell signal to do live streaming today. Usually, if I'm patient, I can find a spot that will work, but I spent hours trying, and only managed to watch about ten minutes of TV. I finally gave up and read for the evening. I did manage to get my Spanish lesson in, and to load up my diary for the day, but that was about it. Couldn't do laundry, but the rest of the week looks like better weather, so it will get done soon. A fairly short drive tomorrow, so no alarm in the morning! That'll be a nice change! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up before the alarm, no doubt because I got to bed a bit earlier last night, and after chores and breakfast, was up at vet check by 8:45. Had a busy day scribing in the pulse box, running around doing odd jobs, jumping a dead battery, checking riders in at the finish line, and generally being a go-fer. There was a big controversy over who finished first in the 50, but all the GPS evidence finally gave us our answer, so that edged out the conflict. There were actually a lot of people that seemed to miss markers, though I know they're there. I think a lot of these folks are so busy chatting, they just don't pay attention! Just after the awards ceremony, where I was tasked to hand out the prizes while Julia read off the winners, we started to pack up, and would you believe, it started to rain! A good two-plus hours ahead of the forecast (big surprise, the weatherman was wrong), so we got soaked getting things put away. Once that was done, I drove back to the trailer, put on my rainsuit jacket and went out to feed the horses in the heaviest rainfall. Just about the time I was done, it started to let up, naturally! It was after 9:00 when I finally finished, so no TV tonight, just a hot shower and an early bedtime. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Loving the quiet nights here, had another good night sleep. After chores and breakfast, I headed out to the nearby little town of Patrick, thinking that the package Jo sent me on Saturday would surely have arrived by now, but it still hadn't gotten here. Even the postmaster was surprised it was taking so long. After that I drove down to Hartsfield, the nearest town with both a Tractor Supply and a Walmart. I filled up three propane tanks, obviously I've been using a lot of energy running the furnace on these cold nights, though it's been warming up the last few days, so not so much now. Was happy to pay only $2.99/gallon! Picked up some horse feed, plus a couple of bales of hay just so I wouldn't have to crack open the stuff in my stud stall yet, and they wanted almost $13 for bales that were significantly smaller and lighter than the ones I bought from the haymaker last week. I would have bought more if it had been cheaper or heavier, but this will help. Then I spent some time running around trying to find a brake controller harness. My brake controller has been on the fritz again, and it's been killing my truck battery, showing a power loss when I hit my brakes. I've had the problem before and been able to fix it, but I think this time it's given up the ghost. I finally managed to find the right harness, and they were kind enough to let me try it out before charging me for it, but as it turned out, it didn't solve the problem. I'm thinking the brake controller itself has a short or something in it, and the guy at the auto parts store concurred. I had found another brake controller in a box during my deep cleaning the other day, so I may try wiring that in, just to see if it fixes it, though I don't particularly like that model, or I may just get a new one if I can find one I like. I think as long as it's not plugged in when I'm not using it, my truck will be fine, and I think the lights still work when it's plugged in, but I'll have to check on that. Anyway, once I came to that conclusion, I ran down to Walmart for a few things, then back to camp. I sat in my lawn chair in the screen room and actually dozed off! Don't know why I felt so tired, I wasn't that busy today! Tried to repair the broken leg on my solar panel again (the first time didn't take, not sure the second time will either, but it's worth a try!), then settled down for the evening. Patsy came by after she put most of her signs out and we chatted for a few minutes, then I watched a silly rom-com, now I'm ready for shower and bed. USPS Tracking says my package should arrive tomorrow (the postmaster said he would call me when it came in), so I'll go in and pick it up in the morning, as well as stop by and fill up my truck tank at the Forest HQ. Anyway, that's tomorrow, right now I need to finish off today! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
A good night sleep, morning chores, then a couple of loads of laundry hung out to dry on a perfect, cloudless, warmer, slightly breezy day. Drove down to HQ to refill my tank, and did a little housekeeping when the generator was on doing laundry. Otherwise, a fairly mundane day! Just my usual evening of dinner and a movie, and soon off to bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a better night sleep, managed to make it until morning without waking up, yay! Unfortunately, when I got into bed last night, I realized that Lola, who has been relentless in finding ways into my bedroom when I leave her behind when I'm riding, not only managed to get past all my defenses, but when she roughed up the bed to her liking, she managed to make a nice long tear in my flannel sheets, right at chest level, darn it. So this morning, I was online trying to find a replacement, but trying to get queen short sheets delivered within the next week has proven to be impossible, so I'm just going to have to live with it until I get to Florida. This is the second pair of sheets she's done this to, but at least I was able to patch the last one and put it at the foot of the bed. This one is too big, I think, though I haven't tried. Besides, I feel like I'm overdue for a couple of nice new sets of properly fitting sheets. The last ones I bought were regular queen and they don't really fit that well, so I think I'll get one of each, flannel and regular. Anyway, after spending time doing that, I finally started to tackle the last cupboard in the bathroom above the laundry on my deep cleaning sweep. Glad to have that done! Now I guess I'll start at the front and work my way back again! I haven't done the storage areas in the bedroom for a while, so I'll be starting there, I think. Other than that, a pretty quiet day in camp, until this evening, when I started hearing loud engines, sounds like someone doing drag racing nearby or something. Peaceful here until that happened! Well, to each his own, I'm sure they won't be going all night. Watched a fun romance with Colin Firth, and calling it a night! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart,
Woke up to quite a chilly morning, but I had the thermostat set so the furnace came on just a couple of times, and that helped take the chill off before I crawled out of bed. Spent the day doing some more deep cleaning, a perfect chore when it's this cold outside! Didn't warm up until late afternoon when the north wind finally calmed down, but even then, I left the blanket on the horses all day. Not much else going on today! Ride day tomorrow! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
A bit cooler this morning, but still nice and sunny so it warms up nicely. After breakfast and chores, I finished my shopping list and headed out to the truck with Lola in tow. As soon as I started it up, I noticed my fuel gauge, which was at full last night, was down almost a quarter of a tank! I got out and looked under, and sure enough, I had a big leak dripping down under my truck bed. When I got down to see it's origin, I discovered there were a couple of filters down there, apparently from the AirDog system I had put in a few years ago. One of them was a water separator which had a little knobby head on it, and that was bent, so obviously I damaged it somewhere on these rough roads coming in yesterday. Since it's diesel and not gas, I figured it was safe enough to drive, though I was losing fuel the whole way. On my way into town, I called several shops, and naturally, everyone was too busy to see me today. Then I started calling parts stores, thinking maybe I would have to order it, which meant I'd be losing fuel until I got it. I finally spoke to a guy named Dave at O'Reilly's in Cheraw, and he knew what I was talking about but needed the part number. Since I was just about in town, I headed over to him, and he was ready for me, got the part number and started searching. Turns out he didn't have it, but then I called Advanced Auto, and she had one at a store in Chesterfield, just ten miles up the road, so I drove up there and picked it up. I still hadn't found a mechanic in Cheraw, but I found on in Chesterfield a half mile up from the Advanced, called Hunters, so I drove up there, walked in, told them all I needed was a quick filter change so I wouldn't keep losing fuel, and handed them my filter. Thank goodness they had room for me! I was pleasantly surprised they had a lift big enough for my dually (rarer than you'd think, though this is rural South Carolina), and a older mechanic named Jeremiah had it replaced in no time! Really nice folks there, and would you believe, they only charged me $15!! Couldn't believe I was getting change back from my $20 bill! What a find! Well, that improved my day considerably, so I headed back to Cheraw, topped of my fuel tank again (took my over $40 to replace the fuel I lost and/or used after I filled up yesterday), did my big grocery shopping and headed back to camp, with a stop at Forest HQ to fill up my water tank. After putting all my groceries away and refilling the horses' water, I was finally ready to settle down for the evening. Another busy day! I put the blankets on the horses because the temps are supposed to get down into the high 30's tonight, with a slight chance of rain! They don't have enough winter coat to combat that yet! Anyway, time to finish my evening. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, another chilly morning, but it warmed up to over 80 today, another cloudless day. I had planned on working on a cupboard today, but just couldn't get myself in gear for some reason. When I was refilling the trailer tank and the horse buckets from the truck's water tank, I was having problems because of a real kink in the hose, so I decided to fix it. Unfortunately, it turned out the adapter I had was too small, so it ended up leaking really bad, so I spent some time online finding and ordering another one, and having it delivered to Patsy's house so she can bring it to me when she comes to ride on Wednesday. It was taking forever to do anything on the internet, the signal was really iffy today and it was all going really slowly, so I spent way too much time on that and doing a few other things, so the afternoon slipped away from me before I could start my cleaning. Never mind, it will still be there when I get back in the mood! Eventually decided just to watch a movie with some popcorn, then just had a salad for dinner. Every once in a while, a day of nothing does a body good! I definitely had that today. Time for tea, Spanish, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Slept intermittently during the night, and I got the impression the problem was mostly that my airbed was too soft. Not surprising with all the altitude I've lost recently, plus the fact that the nights suddenly got pretty chilly, down in the 40's, to the air molecules are contracting. I made sure to put some air in it when I turned the generator on in the afternoon. Once I got more chores done and let the horses out, I got busy with the lower bathroom cupboard, and it took me nearly four hours to get that completely done. Amazing how much work it takes to clean everything and put it back, though I did have the added situation of putting in adhesive shelf line, which is a lot trickier than the rough rubber stuff, but it does look nice. Managed to toss a few things, too, so now it seems like I have a little bit more room. At this rate, I should have all my interior deep cleaning done by the time I get to Florida! I want to do the exterior, too, but I'll probably wait until I have electric and water so I can use my pressure washer. I had promised myself a few years ago that I was going to try to keep my trailer in "sellable" condition, not that I want to sell it, just that that's when it always get cleanest. I haven't kept that promise, but I'm going to try from now on. I just need to make the time, and I've had more of that lately. Took Lola for a walk down to the lake and played some fetch with her, and when we got back she went nuts playing with your Kong Wubba toy. She's definitely feeling a lot better these days! I just have to work her up to building her muscles again, she has atrophied over the past months of not doing anything. The horses enjoyed themselves grazing around today, then ended up standing right outside my door. I had noticed at Linda's that Apollo was covered in bot eggs, so I got out my bot knife and had a go at them. Flash doesn't seem to attract them for some reason. A beautiful day once it warmed up, another cool night tonight, and hopefully I'll sleep better now that I have a firmer bed. Really enjoying the peace and quiet out here! Seems like it's been awhile since I've been at a place on my own. Loving it! Anyway, settled down for the evening, as usual, closing up the place to keep the warmth in! Good night, baby! Love you!