Hiya Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, though I woke up around 7:00, got up real quick to turn the fireplace on, and went back to bed to let it warm up. I read a little, then I heard Flash nickering a couple of times, something he only does when Apollo is on walkabout, and sure enough, when I looked out my bedroom window, he was right outside munching on some hay he had pulled out from under the gooseneck. I put on my robe and parka and went out to find him standing at the back of the trailer, got him hooked back up and threw them each a flake of hay to buy me some more time in bed. Ended up dozing off a bit, then finally got out of bed and dressed just about the time Ranger Rick got here to take trash, which I helped him to do. Finished my chores, and spent the day quietly. I pulled some muscle somewhere and my back was hurting, so I figure a day off is in order. I've been reading a couple of books on the women codebreakers from WWII, and one of them taught Morse code to the troops in Australia, and she had a fascinating way of helping folks learn it, by using mnemonics. I've always wanted to learn it, so I decided to give that method a try. I found a Youtube video explaining how it works, "Morse Code in less than ten minutes," and amazingly, I really was able to get a good start on it. Then I found a website that has audio practices, and I did that for a bit, too, and it was very interesting! I'm going to try to keep that up, it just seems like something we should all be able to do. Anyway, between that, reading, and watching a fun movie, it's been a nice quiet day, exactly what I needed. Just have to finish off with dishes, shower, Spanish and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had a terrible night, just couldn't seem to get to sleep for hours, so when my alarm went off, I was barely rested with just a few hours sleep, but I had too much to do to think about it. Got the horses fed and chores done, had a quick breakfast, then got busy setting up the area for the event today. Filled up both water tank, with thanks to the camper that helped me wrestle the fire hose, then started organizing the crews that were arriving, followed by the vets and the volunteers. Jo was signed up for the 75 mile ride today, but arrived a good half hour earlier than expected, as she tagged along with some other 100-miles riders. Everything ran smoothly at the vet stop, so much so that I finally decided I could free myself up to go check on water. At the first stop, there were two 100 gallons tanks, one was down to about a quarter, the other was still full. I brought the first one up to about halfway, figuring that would be enough for the returning riders, then check all but one of the other stops, only to discover they had barely been touched! While it was a hot day, there was still lots of water on the trail, so I guess most of the horses were happy with that. After I finished my rounds, I went back to Tidewater and hung around for the afternoon. Jo showed up early again, she was really pushing to keep up with the other horses, and unfortunately, the result was that she got pulled. Her horse Luna just wasn't metabolically stable enough to justify her continuing, sorry to say. Jo knew she should have slowed down, but failed to listen to the little voice in her head. Anyway, she did manage to get 50 miles in, so she was pretty whipped. I helped her break down, then headed back to Black Prong, which looked pristine. They did a great job cleaning up, you'd never know all those horses were here today! Settled in for the evening to an episode of Eureka and a rom-com movie, sure hoping I get a good night sleep tonight! I better, I have a lot to do tomorrow, as I offered to help with ribbon removal, and the ride managers finally seemed more enthusiastic about how I can help, so I'll be busy. It's supposed to rain a lot tonight, and we already had one ten minute downpour, but it should be clearing up tomorrow. Met a lot of folks who now know me through the Friends of Goethe Forest Facebook group, including one of the group's founders, who all seemed to be grateful the updates and information I've been posting. Nice to be appreciated! Anyway, quite ready for my shower and bed, already did my Spanish lesson earlier today, so I'm ready! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Slept well, got up a little earlier than usual (which I hope continues) and had a list of some things I had to do, which mostly went out the window when Rick asked me to be his navigator to fill up the water tubs that had been spread around the forest in anticipation of the ride. I did manage to get a couple of things done first, like clean the bathrooms and finish cleaning and filling the galvanized tank here, but then we headed out, first to headquarters, then on down to the various tanks. Turns out the tanker trailer was only 500 gallons, so we had to fill it several times, and it took all day to finish it, but I got to see parts of the forest where I'd never been, including stopping long enough to take a walk down to the Big Cypress Tree, a 900+ year old tree that has a boardwalk to it. It was a beautiful part of the forest, very old Florida, just lovely. We finished up just in time for me to jump in my truck, run down to Jo's to pick up a couple of things for her, then down to Tidewater to meet her. She bought me dinner from Bob, a spectacular chicken alfredo, with a salad, beverage and dessert, so I was fully satisfied after not eating all day. Jo gave me a few things to bring back to Black Prong to crew for her in the morning, and then I had Scotty help me move Tom G's water tank out of his truck and headed home. Quickly cordoned off a big area for crewing, talked to some of the campers, fed the horses, and finally got settled for the night around 7:00. Whew! Busy day! Probably will be even busier tomorrow, but I kinda like it like that, always something to do! You know me, I like to keep busy! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a good night sleep, woke up to beautiful weather, did my usual chores and breakfast, then sat out in the screen room and started doing some bookkeeping. Ever since I lost my credit card back in September, I haven't been able to download my account to my bookkeeping program, and it's been a nightmare trying to fix it. I did a workaround, but it needed some help, and neither my savings account (for some unfathomable reason), nor my credit card account was balancing properly, so I had to go way back and research things, make a few adjustments, until finally I was able to get everything balanced. Whew! Then I got caught up on all the transactions since September with receipts, until finally, I was done getting caught up. During the afternoon, I heard from one of the organizers of the big Hokey Pokey ride this weekend, Tom, and he stopped by to drop off some 100 gallon water tanks and to arrange for my help to refill the water tanks along the trail. Evidently the forest service is too short-handed (or they're just passing it off to me, since I'm here anyway), so do that. Only problem is I can't drive their water truck, so I'll have to take mine with my 110 gallon tank, and Tom has another tank about the same size I can use, so hopefully it won't take too many trips. Should be an interesting day on Saturday! Meanwhile, we put the tanks out here, and I spent the next two-plus hours filling them up, as well as scrubbing the usual galvanized tank here at the trailhead just for giggles, so we're set here, except for cordoning off the crew and vet check area, which I'll have to do first thing Saturday morning, or late Friday night, more likely. Finally settled down for dinner and a little TV, a glass of wine, a shower and soon to bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Got up to an alarm this morning in anticipation of going out with Ranger Rick and repairing a section of Geomat, a plastic webbing they put down in creekbeds to reduce erosion, that had been torn up and was all clumped up and, to my mind, hazardous for horses and needed to de-clumped somehow. We hadn't set a time, but I wanted to be ready. It turned out to be a bit later than I thought, but that was fine. I met him down at Tidewater trailhead, after stopping by Jo's and picking up a pair of her husband's waders, and we ventured out. I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to get there, though I had dropped a pin on it so I knew where it was, but none of the road maps indicated how we could get there, but it turned out to be right on Ten Mile Road, which was also part of the yellow trail, and was suitable for his truck with no problem! Once we got there, it only took about 15-20 minutes to cut out the worst of it, and it was much improved! Took a detour to look at the old Red Lodge, something that should have been preserved as a landmark but instead has been let go to the point of it being way too dilapidated to repair at this point. They should rebuild a new one, but I doubt that will happen. Anyway, it was a job well done, and glad of it! Got back to Tidewater, then drove into town to do a little shopping, then back to camp by 4:30. Settled down for the evening, looking forward to a good night sleep! Love you, sweetheart! Good night!

Hiya Babe,
Can't believe I didn't wake up until 10:00 this morning! Even though I was in bed fairly early last night, and I only woke up once during the night for a short time, I must still be recovering from my hangover, or more likely, this cold weather is making me go into hibernation mode. Anyway, I finally got moving (though if I didn't have to get up to feed the horses, I probably would have stayed in bed even longer!), and got busy with my day. Did a couple of loads of laundry, did some housekeeping, then eventually went over to Jo's where her husband Jeff had made a lovely bean soup, chatted for a while about map-making, then got home just before 8:00. Settled down to a quick episode of Eureka and a cup of Sleepytime tea before calling it a night. Have a ride on the yellow trail down in Tidewater planned for tomorrow, it's finally starting to warm up, with 80's forecast by mid-week! That's more like it! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Heya Sweetie,
Woke up a bit hung over from all the white Russians I drank with Jo last night, finally got up and fed the horses, dogs and me, then crawled back into bed for awhile to read. Didn't really do too much else today, except a bit of work on my Quicken program, though I still have a ways to go. Watched an interesting movie call The Circle with Tom Hanks, sort of a modern day version of 1984, and not a real stretch from what today's technology can do. Supposed to be going down into the high 20's overnight, so I'm certainly getting the opportunity to experience some winter-like conditions! Normally I'd be further south at this time of year, so it's an interesting change, but I'm not bothered. It's actually kind of nice to have at least a little seasonal change. In a few days it will be back up in the 80's, so it doesn't last long here! I put the outdoor faucets to the bathhouse and the pavilion with a little drip just to prevent any freezing. I think the other spigots will be okay, pretty sure whatever subfreezing temps we have won't last long enough to do any real damage, fingers crossed! Anyway, heading to shower and bed shortly. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Cold this morning! Just above the freezing point when I first woke up, then the temp dropped to 32 during the next hour! Even with the fireplace on all night, it was a bit chilly getting out of bed this morning. Finally managed to make it outside, where I'm sure my hungry horses were glad to have their blankets on. Did my chores and breakfast, then Ranger Rick came by to confirm the layout of my site. He expects he can get the first crew out here on Tuesday to take the necessary trees down, and doesn't seem to think the rest will take much time. They're really going like gangbusters on the project, surprisingly spry for a bureaucracy! After that I typed up the inventory list from the volunteer closet I did yesterday, and then spent some time trying to figure out how to fix my Quicken program. Spent nearly an hour chatting with someone named Douglas who said he could help me better if he called me, and said he would do so in a couple of minutes. He ended the chat and I never heard from him again, surprise, surprise. I kept working through the possibilities, and I think I may have figured out a way to fix it, but it will take a bunch of time. I tried it once and it made things worse, so I'll have to do it again, hopefully with less mistakes, and eventually, maybe, get it right, but it is definitely going to be time consuming. Can't understand why it's such a problem, I've never had this much trouble doing the exact same thing that I've done several times before. Sigh... Anyway, settled down for the evening to a movie about geriatric romance (something I'm still too young for!), and will be finishing up the evening here shortly. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up several times during to night, mostly to noisy rain showers until I put in my earplugs, then slept solidly until after 9:00! Met Rick and Jerry shortly thereafter, the latter being the one who's going to be clearing the area for my new host site. We did some walking around and discussing until we found a good spot, not really far from where I am, just a bit further away from the pavilion, but still uphill from the septic field. They'll have to move the gate I'm behind, but that didn't seem to faze them at all. If I keep the horses where they are, they'll actually be visible from my screen room, which will be a nice addition. Took advantage of the rainy weather to go down to headquarters and do a cleanup and inventory on the "volunteer" closet, found an amazing amount of stuff in there, tools, educational and giveaway items, trail marking and maintenance equipment, and a bunch of boxes of old permits, some of which I'm pretty sure are too old to be hanging on to, though I asked the manager, Logan, how far back we had to keep, and he's checking on it. Should be able to throw out a couple of boxes, though. Surprised myself by getting the whole thing done by a little after 3:00, I thought I'd have to come back tomorrow, but I don't! I will be putting the list on my computer for distribution in the morning. Got back to camp, then used ribbons we found to mark off the site we selected so it will be ready when they come with the equipment to do the job. They seem very eager to get it done, so I want don't want to do anything to delay it! They seemed quite happy to let me just pick the spot! Got the horses fed, then blanketed them, Flash with a heavy blanket, Apollo with a lighter blanket. It's still really warm and humid, so I felt kind of bad covering them, but it's clearing overnight and the temps will be dropping around midnight, and the low in the morning is supposed to be below freezing, so I just had to do it! Settled down for the evening to a cute little country romance movie, heading to bed early, hopefully, I'd really like to get back on a normal sleep schedule, which seems to be eluding me at the moment. Anyway, love you, babe! Good night!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up to cold temps again, and very grateful I had my fireplace on all night last night so at least the bungalow was warm getting up this morning! I had hoped to ride today, but it remained cloudy and didn't really warm up until it was too late to ride. The forecast for this week is screwy, it's either cold and sunny or warm and rainy! I'm looking forward to a day when it's warm AND sunny! Ended up working some more on the trail planning, doing several loads of laundry, and trying to figure out how to update my Quicken program, which has refused to merge my new credit card account with my old one, though I know there must be a way. I FINALLY figured out how to download the last two years of transactions into a new account, but I need to merge the transactions from the previous account to the new one. All this just because I had to replace the credit card! Grrr! It's taken me hours over weeks and months to get this far. The last conversation I had with Quicken support was that it was my problem and I'll just have to enter the transactions manually! Yeah, thanks. Oh, well, it's been nice and cozy in front of the fireplace, just doing my usual routine. Watched a great movie with an all-star cast about Napa wines beating out the French in a blind taste test, lots of fun! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!