Took a long walk with Billy today, since we’ve been to lazy the last few days to go, and I wanted to check out trails going in the other direction, and that are not on the map, so I headed northwest out of the campground and started following hoofprints. About a mile out, I passed a guy on a mule, and oddly, he looked familiar to me. I thought maybe he was the mule wrangler from the Grand Canyon we met several years ago, but he had much bushier facial hair, so I let it go and kept walking. Love the look of these trails here on the flats, boots won’t be necessary, and though it may not be overly interesting, the trails do seem to weave around in a complex network that would at least create some variety. According to my GPS, the walk ended up being 1.87 miles, a lot farther than I thought I’d been walking, though this one was definitely longer than most others. Just before arriving back at the camp, I ran into the same mule and rider, who had stopped at the entrance to the camp. He looked at me and asked, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I told him that he looked familiar, just that I couldn’t place him. He reminded me that his name was Delford, and we had met in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico earlier this summer. We had a nice chat, and I invited him over to the trailer to say hello to Hubby, and to get his phone number. He’s staying at a ranch on the other side of the flats, sounds pretty good, water and electric for $17/night. If they kick us out of here for overstaying our 14 day limit, we may have to move over there for a few days! Evidently, after leaving here in March, he’s planning on going to Dripping Springs, TX, exactly where we’ll be heading after the first of the year! Crazy, small horse world, twice in two days!

Christmas Eve, so we took the day to relax, watch movies, and just chill out today! Had another couple move in to the camp, and amazingly, they live near Bellingham, WA, right where we kept the horses during our Alaska trip this summer! When I showed her on Google Earth where the barn was, she said that her horse had been trained right in the round pen that we were parked next to!! Crazy, small world! Had a nice chat with her, Linda, and her husband, Dave. They came over and we spent some time on the computer showing her various places we’ve been and answering questions they had. An enjoyable evening, a nice way to spend Christmas Eve in a horse camp!

Watched football, missed our morning shows because evidently a dispute between Dish and Fox has pulled our normal channels off the air. Not sure how Hubby’s going to handle it, he has Fox News on half the day. Fox wants people to switch to Direct, Dish says they’re just trying to keep costs down and Fox is trying to force them to take more channels they don’t want. I’m not about to switch to Direct, since it means new equipment that I’m not prepared to invest in right now. Hopefully, they’ll get it resolved soon (and frankly, I’m happy not to have the news channel on all day long anyway, I’m sure I’ll get more writing done this way!

Pretty tired from yesterday’s long ride, plus the trails are obviously really busy today, with lots of hikers, riders and cyclists, so we sat the day out. I did move the horses out into another corral that was a bit dryer, and raked out their corrals a couple of times to try to get them dried out, which helped somewhat. Clio’s was almost dry by the time I got done, but Apollo’s still had a few pockets of mud. No more rain in the forecast, though, so hopefully it will get better. Good news is that Clio seems to be eating this hay much better, but she’s still pushing her nose into it and sorting through it, so I suspect some of it is getting pushed down her trough into Apollo’s reach, and he’s actually finishing it off. Just keeping an eye on her weight, for sure.

Had some more heavy rain overnight, but fortunately they were warm and cozy under a solid roof, though the rest of their corral is a muddy mess. I’m SO glad we left their rain sheets on, not just to keep them dry, but to keep them clean! Every exposed area was thick with mud, all over their faces and the top of their necks, I can only imaging what the rest of them would have looked like without them! Cleared up a bit more in the afternoon, but still too muddy to do any corral cleaning. Did manage to get some more pages done on the book, though!

Woke up a few times during the night to the sound of rain, but managed again to get right back to sleep. When we went out to feed the horses, we discovered our neighbors we gone already, so evidently it was just an overnight stop for them. Took a walk with Billy to check out one of the trails, which seem to be mostly sand, so it’s possible we won’t need boots when we go riding in the next few days. Forecast is for rain today and tomorrow, so we’re thinking Friday for our first ride, though the temps are only in the high 50’s. That could change, though, and because it will be sunny, we know it will feel warmer.

Had the best night sleep in a long time last night! Lately, I’ve been waking up at 4:30 am and not being able to get back to sleep, but this morning, I quickly went back to sleep every time I woke up. Really quiet here, yeah! After doing some research, we decided to run down to the other campground we’re considering to check it out today, as there is a hay farm very nearby, and we could kill two birds with one stone. After breakfast we headed out in the truck, first to the Gilbert Ray County Park, where we met Billy, who showed us the area that they had decided they could allow horse camping (they don’t usually, but are making an exception for us), which turned out be much nicer than we thought, and since it is so close to the trails at the west unit of the Saguaro National Park, we may decide to move over next week. Afterward, we headed down to the hay farm just down the road, and looked at their alfalfa. It seemed a bit greener than what we had had before, but it still seemed a little more stalky than what we like. Only way to find out if Clio will eat it is to try it! We bought 6 bales for $13 each, less than what I had planned, but they wouldn’t accept personal checks or credit cards, so I had to use cash. In any event, at least it solved our problem temporarily. I spoke to several growers in Las Cruces, with plans to get a full load on our way to Austin next month, since New Mexico is famous for their alfalfa. Arrived back at camp to discovery someone had come in during the day and parked on the other side of the yard, with two palominos in two of the uncovered corrals. Back to routine chores, and settled down for the evening.

Yesterday, because there was heavy rain in the forecast, we moved the horses to a couple of corrals with full covers rather than partial ones. The result was we learned that Clio hadn’t been eating hardly any alfalfa. Apparently, she’s been just picking off a few leaves and leaving the rest of it for Apollo to eat. This is just what happened last spring when we got a few bad batches of hay, and she lost so much weight we have only just recently gotten her back to normal. Since we didn’t want to have to go through that again, I was compelled to ask Kelly to let me return most of the hay that I had bought from her, so I would have room in the truck to get something she WILL eat. Hated to do it, but didn’t really have a choice. Dallas and another helper came by with a flatbed and loaded out the hay, leaving me with two partial bales just to get through until I can pick up some more later in the week. Afterwards, we did some packing up in preparation for our departure tomorrow. Hubby had done a good job spacing out his repair and maintenance jobs during the week, so there wasn’t too much to do. Finished up some laundry and put some stuff away, otherwise an uneventful evening.

Woke up abruptly to the blasting of multiple gunshots from semi-automatic weapons on the range that’s about 100 yards behind us. We figured it was the guests that were up at the Big House that arrived last night, didn’t realize they were the hunting types. After an hour or two, though, they finally quit, and by then we were finished with breakfast and settled down for the rest of the day.