Hiya Babe,
Getting back into the swing of things with my sleep cycle, thank goodness, so I had another good night sleep. After not hearing from the trailer place by 9:30 (they promised to call at 9:00 after their no show yesterday), I called and learned someone was on their way. Of course, he went to the wrong place, but called me and I set him straight. When he got here, he did manage to solve most of my problems, but one is remaining, the giant openings they left around the replacement compartment door, because he wasn't told about it, so didn't bring the materials necessary to fix it. But I no longer have a leaking kitchen drain and my outside speakers now work. While he was working, I got out the tractor and move the picnic table that was at the end of the pavilion driveway. I have an old friend coming down to visit, and I've arranged to borrow another friend's LQ horse trailer for her to stay in here at the trailhead with me, but the table was in the way. I never liked where it was anyway, and this finally gave me the catalyst to get it done. I'm much happier with its placement now! I needed the tractor because this picnic table is incredibly heavy, enough to tip my tractor off its wheels if I didn't grab it right! Seriously, it must weigh about 800 lbs.! It would take six big guys to move it, I'm sure. Anyway, that's done now. Not long after the trailer guy left it started to rain, so I spent the afternoon doing some computer work, then decided that a rainy day deserved a movie and popcorn, so settled in nicely for the rest of the day and evening. Won't be long out of bed, I'm enjoying getting back to an earlier cycle. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Got to bed a bit late, but had a good night sleep. While I spent the morning waiting for the trailer repair guy to show up, as was promised to me yesterday, I did some odd jobs. I took all the TOG signs and pulled them apart, then restapled them in a way that will allow us to reuse the stake and sheet protector by just slipping in new signs. Ended up with 36 signs like that. It wasn't as easy as it sounds, though, because first I had to fix my hammer stapler, which jammed up on me last time I used it, and it took some doing to figure out how to unjam it (Youtube is my friend!), and even with instructions, it proved to be a bit more difficult until I mastered the technique. It continued to jam for quite awhile after every couple of staples, but it finally seemed to settle down and I was able to get the last bunch done with less trouble. Rick showed up just as I was finishing, so I enlisted him to help me replace the firehose on the pumphouse so that we could refill tanks more easily for FITS in a couple of weeks. Not that I needed his help, but he looked like he needed something to do, so he moved his truck over and I stood on it. That was about it. After awhile, I headed back over to Val's to meet with Chelle so we could drive around the property on a UTV and figure out exactly what signs we needed and how many. Got back to camp after 5:00, fixed my dinner, did my evening chores as usual, yada yada yada, and I'll be ready for bed shortly! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
After a couple hours of housekeeping, I spent most of the day working on my Yellowstone Adventure plans, booking a hotel room for both before and after the pack trip. I've decided to stay on for a few days after the pack trip so that I can toodle around all the spots that are the tourist attractions that I won't see on the pack trip, just to cover all my bases. I remember we went there once and drove around, stopped at Old Faithful but I can't remember if we stayed and actually watched the geyser go off. I've been doing a lot of reading and research on the area, and there's a lot more to see, so I want to try to do as much as I can. I remember how we hated how commercial it was, and that was 30+ years ago! I can only imagine that it's even worse now, but what the heck, I don't imagine I'll ever go back again, and it's a bucket list item, so I might as well do it up right! Not much left on my bucket list these days! We already did just about everything we ever wanted to do! Anyway, in the afternoon I went to a meeting over at Val's to do more FITS planning, didn't get back until nearly 6:00, so it was all about feeding horses, having dinner and doing my usual routine. Back to bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had a decent night sleep, got up to do chores and breakfast, then went back up to bed to read and doze for awhile. Finally came downstairs again, and spent the entire day in forced rest mode, reading and watching a movie. I woke up with so many aches and pains, all due to being over-tired, that I knew I just had to have a day when I did nothing, and so I did! By the time I got done with my hot tub and shower, pretty much all of the aches were gone, so mission accomplished! I have a couple of busy days ahead, so I'm glad I took the day off, but it was hard, because I really need to do some housekeeping, but it's just going to have to wait until Sunday, when it's supposed to rain and I can stay inside guilt-free. Heading to bed shortly, after tea and shortbread! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Finally got a decent night sleep and woke up a bit more refreshed, but after another long day, I'm back to feeling exhausted again. The day started early, with a 9:00 dentist appointment to get fitted for a crown on a broken molar, followed by a trip to Tractor Supply for propane and horse feed, only to be disappointed that the Dunnellon store didn't have the Balancer I needed, despite the fact that a couple of weeks ago I was assured they would be getting another shipment in, which meant I had to drive to Williston to get some. I got fuel and went shopping at Walmart for my usual bi-monthly shopping trip, the headed north the Williston to get the rest of the horse feed I needed. From there, I drove up to Watermelon Pond to flag the spot where I want the safety sign post to go in, which will save me a trip with Rick, as I'm hoping he'll finish putting the last few posts in. Next was Bailey Mine Trailhead, where I did the same thing. Finally got back to camp late in the afternoon, feeling like I needed a nap, but then got involved with a camper to help them understand the value of Avenza trail app. Not long afterward I headed down to Willards for a Taste of Goethe debrief, learned that we set an attendance record of 240 people, with 50 of them registering the same day. All things considered, I think it went pretty well, with just a few glitches to be expected with unprecedented numbers like that, and the notes from each of the board members mostly focused on the same issues, so we're all on the same page. Didn't get back until about 9:00, took my hot tub and shower, now I'm having tea and am ready for bed soon! Another early start tomorrow! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Despite being dog-tired last night, I woke up just after 2:00 and couldn't get back to sleep until after 4:00, three aspirins and two melatonins later. Woke up tired at 8:45, got up and did chores, and after breakfast, decided there were a couple of jobs I could do without too much exertion. I put together the safety sign posts that we needed, then decided to drive the tractor and put the two closest ones out, since the awl is still on the tractor and it requires no real energy on my part to install them. They were both on the north side of the Black Prong area, Then I drove the tractor down to where a tree had been reported down, which was down on the southern side of the Black Prong area, so it was a pretty good hau.. Fortunately it was a fairly small pine, so, having taken my little chainsaw with me, I didn't have any trouble getting it and a couple of other limbs out of the way. I got back to camp after 4:00 feeling exhausted again. I really need a day off, but don't see one in sight! Settled down for the evening, was very grateful for my hot tub when the time came, now it's just finishing up my tea and heading to bed, early, because I have another alarm-early morning tomorrow. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Woke up in the middle of the night and had a hard time getting back to sleep, which, considering how tired I was going to bed, rather surprised me. I got up about dawn and took care of my chores, started a load of laundry, helped a horse camper look at possible next campgrounds, then headed out and picked up Art, another volunteer, and we went down to Apex to grab the UTV and clear out the signs. It took us just under three hours to do, but at least now it's done! Got back to camp and crashed a bit in the afternoon, watched a movie, backed some shortbread cookies, and am heading to hot tub and shower shortly. I've been adjusting my recipe a bit and today's were a bit better, so I'm headed in the right direction. Anyway, I'm still feeling very tired and my bones are a bit achy, but hopefully with a good night sleep tonight, I'll be ready to tackle the week, which is starting to look pretty busy. Love you, darlin'! Good night!

Hey Darlin'!
What a day! Up before dawn, out the door before the sun came up, and never stopped running the whole day! Hard to describe all the activity today, it was pretty much non-stop all day. After doing the preliminary setup at the trailhead, I rush out to start checking the signs, and was astonished that the place where the signs had been sabotaged was even WORSE this morning. Someone had completely removed the HORSE sign, took out the Bikers signs, folded it so my arrow couldn't be seen, drew in an arrow pointing in the opposite direction, and placed it once again in a spot that would have directed the bikers up the horse trail. Unbelievable! I had to make a new Horse sign, and fortunately had a broken stake I was able to make work, and fixed the biker sign so it was back to normal, and fortunately, that stayed through the day and no riders got lost at all. We had some trouble with hikers because I didn't put one sign out on the hiking trail that sent them in the right direction, mainly because I thought my supervisor was going to lead the hikers, but he never went out for some reason. We had a little chaos in the pavilion because we didn't have anyone to introduce the presentations, and thus organize the hiking group (though I thought that would be taken care of by the forest people), and we were a bit shorthanded with me out running around in the woods fixing signs and delivering food, then later helping hikers get back on track. But we had well over 200 people attend, though it will be awhile before we have the final numbers, and the raffle evidently did well, too. All of the horse folks seemed happy except one woman who claimed the entire orange short trail was knee-deep mud (it wasn't), but I was told this woman always complains about everything, so I pretty much ignored it after that. I don't mind constructive advise, but I know there were only a few wet spots on that trail, and if her horse doesn't like mud, tough. It's a forest with wetlands, what do you expect? Anyway, we had dozens of horse trailers, and had to use a neighbors field for overflow, the turnout was great, most folks enjoyed it, so I would say it was a resounding success. We cleaned up the trailhead afterwards, and you would never know we were even there! We were finished by just after 5:00, I dropped off Art who helped me with the final cleanup, then got back to camp. We had a full campground, so I walked by and met everyone, then came back and all but crashed. I'm the only one who has anything left to do, I need to go out tomorrow and get all the signs and markers down in the UTV. Art offered to come with me, so I'm hoping we can get it done fairly quickly, though it will still take a couple of hours at least. I'm ready for bed here shortly! Exhausted, but satisfied, and glad that the asshole trying to screw us up didn't succeed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
A very long and tiring day, which would normally leave me feeling very satisfied, but for the actions of some yahoo asshole running around in the forest. It started out just fine, arriving at the Apex trailhead before 9:00. I got the WAG Dog Walk marked off, helped Chelle get her trailer in place, put some signs up around the trailhead, then picked up the John Deere UTV that I've been lucky enough to be assigned for the weekend, and, with the help of Russlyn, headed out on the trails to put signs and markers up. It took a bit longer than I had expected, and we ended up running out of signs and stakes before it was fully marked, so around 2:00, when we finished our first round, Russlyn went home and I ran back to the trailer, thinking I left my staple hammer there (I hadn't, it was hidden in a box in my truck!), but I grabbed a sandwich and headed right back to Apex to finish putting up a few more signs, and at one intersection that we had already just marked, one of the signs had been deliberately moved from one side to another, to make it look like it's telling the bikers to go left instead of right, putting them on a horse trail. So now, in addition to the 101 things I already have to do in the morning, I have to add taking another run around the trails at critical intersections to make sure no more sabotage has occurred! Grrrrr!! What is WRONG with people?? Why do some people thinks it's fun to destroy the hard and exhausting work of others? I just don't get it. Anyway, the good news is we have 190 folks signed up, and we will no doubt get some walkups, so we should easily break 200 tomorrow. I don't know if that's a record, but it will sure be a nice turnout, and the weather forecast is perfect! Silver lining! I got back at late dusk, fed the horses, finished off the last of my turkey soup with dumplings, had my hot tub and shower, and only have tea and my Spanish lesson left before I'll be in bed, likely before 9:30. Now I have to be there around 7:00 instead of 8:00, so it's going to be another really long day tomorrow! I'm done! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!