Hiya Darlin’!
So yesterday, another explicable thing happened. Remember a few days ago, when the tractor lug was in my pocket and I couldn’t find it for hours, then suddenly it just reappeared? Well, the same thing happened yesterday with my credit card. A few weeks ago, I had used it at a gas station, and thought I had put it in the pocket of my jeans, but when I went to look for it, I couldn’t find it there, or anywhere else. I searched the truck, the trailer, everywhere I could think of, and didn’t find it. I already had a spare so I activated that, figuring eventually the other one would turn up, though I don’t know how. Then yesterday, while I was grooming Apollo, it suddenly appeared on the ground right in front of me. I have no clue. I wasn’t wearing the same jeans, of anything other of the same clothing, and unless it was tangled in Apollo’s mane, which is impossible, I have no clue how it appeared on the ground beneath me. I must be going crazy! Those dang gremlins! Well, that was yesterday. Today was a busy day. After chores and breakfast I headed into town, stopped at the IGA for four gallons of bleach, then headed to brother Glenn’s. First, I had to deal with his pool, a breaker on his pump had snapped, and I had to go through the process of cleaning and starting it up again, but it’s a real mess. I’m convinced his salt water chlorinator isn’t working right, but I’m no expert. I put in two gallons of bleach and some muriatic acid and got it started, then I tried to sharpen the blades on his mower with a hand sharpener, which helped a little, but not as much as I was hoping, mowed the lawn, stopping several times to check on the pool and had to clean out the filters on a couple of occasions. It hasn’t been getting the full flow for the last week, but I managed to get it again by cleaning his big filter and all the little filters, again. Everything was in slow motion today. Sharpened the mower blades again afterward, hoping next time it will cut better. Finally set the pool to run continuously for the next few days, hoping that will finally make some headway on clarifying the pool. Good news is, I drove the Buick all the way here and back! Still bucking quite a bit, hoping it’s just the premium fuel and fuel injection cleaner working it’s way through the system, and nothing anything else more serious, like the transmission or something. Anyway, I made it, and it seems to be improving, albeit marginally, and I’m hoping it will eventually clear itself out. Didn’t get back to camp until nearly 5:00, so not much rest today! Finally settled down for the evening, managed to finish one load of laundry. Had a few rain showers, so things have cooled down nicely. Looking forward to my shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
What a busy day! Was up at the crack of dawn raring to go, since I’ve done almost nothing for the past two days, so right after chores and breakfast I headed over to the tractor, which I’m now parking in the alcove of Barn One, took off the auger, since I’ve put all the posts out I can until it gets REALLY dry out there, then started picking up all the palm fronds that came down with this last storm, which wasn’t even a tiny fraction of what came down with the LAST storm, thank goodness! Still, it took me most of the day to do all the paddocks and the equestrian half of the camping area (my side, as it were), and other than a quick break for a yogurt, I was at it from about 8:15 to about 3:00. Thought the mowers might be coming today so I wanted to make sure it was done, but they never showed. Going on three weeks now, don’t know what’s up with that! I was going to try to take the Buick over to Glenn’s, I needed to check his pool, and even though it started fine, it was running so rough I decided not to chance it, so I ended up taking the truck over. He’s really got a problem with his pool, it’s just not working the way it’s supposed to. It’s turned out to be a lot more work than I bargained for, I’m only supposed to have to put in a bag or two of salt occasionally and it’s supposed to make it’s own chlorine, but I can’t get the chlorine level up no matter what I do, even added four gallons of chlorine in the last ten days and it’s still not showing up on the test strip. Pump isn’t working right, his navigator that cleans the bottom and sides isn’t getting enough flow to work, and the guy who installed it won’t work with Glenn anymore, so it’s a mess, pool keeps turning green, and I’m having to brush the sides every time I go over. Of course, there was a lot of leaves in it after the storm, so I had to clean those out, too. A lot more work than I was told it would be! I need a raise! Anyway, it was 5:00 when I got back, and just for fun, I tried to start the Buick again, and this time it sounded a lot better. At least I was able to put it in gear without it stalling, and managed to put it back in the barn. I think I just need to keep running it every day until the new gas flushes out the system well enough to run smoothly all the time. I sure don’t want to be on the road when it sputters and dies like it has been doing! Exhausted from all the activity, settled down for the evening, and I’m planning on getting to bed really early again. No plans for tomorrow, though I’m considering taking Apollo for a ride, he hasn’t been out in a long time, getting out of shape, though I should take Flash to keep conditioning him for the upcoming cattle drive. Decisions, decisions! Wish I had someone who could ride Apollo and come with me at the same time, that would work so much better! Maybe someone will show up and help me decide. Anyway, just need to do a Spanish lesson, take a shower, then I’m off to bed! Saw a rainbow in town today, then a beautiful sunset as the clouds in the east turned to fire as the sun went down in the west. A fulfilling day! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Well, like in so many other instances, the hype didn’t live up to the reality. I was in bed around 9:00, read for awhile, put my earplugs in and slept almost straight through to the morning. Even when the wind shifted from the south, the gust were insignificant. I couldn’t tell if I was getting hit by a gust of wind or Lola was just scratching her ear, it was that much of a nothing. Wonderful to have such a good, long night sleep, though, felt very refreshed in the morning. It was still a bit blustery and rainy throughout the day until late afternoon, when rainbows came out and it was all over but a few sprinkles. Even got my solar panel out before the afternoon was done, and absorbed some rays. Spent most of the day catching up on bookkeeping, hadn’t realized just how long it had been since I had done it last. Ordered a couple of things from Amazon, too, like another new air compressor (which I’ll probably not even try on my trailer tires, just too unrealistic), and a solar charger/battery pack for my phone so I’ll be able to keep my phone charged during the cattle drive and whatever other trips I might take. Did a walk around and found no damage, just some palm fronds down, and nowhere near as much as the last storm, shouldn’t take too long to clean up. Management reopened the properties at 5:00 today, though I didn’t find out about it until later, as James was a little late sharing that information, not that it mattered. Settled down for the evening, ready for my shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Not a bad night sleep, pretty quiet, but woke up a few times during the night, and early in the morning. Did my chores and than ran around on the tractor closing the paddock gates so they wouldn’t swing around in the wind. And actually, it wasn’t that windy, not as much as I expected. We did have some occasional bouts of rain, but not really very much, considering. The storm has just barely topped hurricane status, and is supposed to hit near Ft. Pierce, so just a tad north of us, so I don’t really expect much except more rain and maybe a little wind. I’m so protected by this big bush next to me, and the fact that I’m a little downhill from the prevailing wind, I seriously haven’t felt any wind at all! I even have my auwning out a little bit to keep my steps dry, but I may bring that it before I go to bed, just to be on the safe side. But really, my Frog Weather on my phone is indicating the worst of the wind has passed, though the brunt of the storm hasn’t really hit shore yet. In any event, I don’t feel the least bit threatened here, so I’m heading to bed nice and early to read. It was a very restful day, all I did was read, then did a marathon of the Oceans movies (Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen), watched a Hart to Hart, ate too much, just a nice lazy day, but I am feeling tired still from all the physical stuff the last two days, so I’ll probably have a lazy day tomorrow as the storm clears out. Heading off to shower and get to bed, so good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Got up bright and early this morning, was heading out of camp at about 830, but had to turn back when I noticed m tractor was overheating again. Spent a few minutes flushing out the radiator until it got nice and low, then headed out again, just before 9:00. I managed to put 20+ posts out today. I’ve been waiting for months for it to be dry enough to get them out, and it’s only just happened, but there’s another storm brewing, really late in the year for this, so I just couldn’t afford to delay it any longer. Once this storm hits, it will be another couple of weeks or more before I can get back there, so I piled posts higher than ever on my tractor and got busy! Managed to almost finish the red trail, got a lot of the white trail done, and just about got lost on the red/white section of trail, the grass is so high it’s unrecognizable, but I finally managed after a bit. Took two trips, all day, got back to camp after 4:00, pretty exhausted! Grilled a steak, started to watch a movie but fell asleep so the last half hour will have to wait. Heading for shower and bed, so tired! There’s talk we may have to leave camp again because of this storm, so tomorrow will be voting, checking on Glenn’s house, and putting stuff away for when the storm hits, which is still a wide cone that may or may not come anywhere near us. Typical Florida, just not so typical this late in the year! Anyway, good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Woke up with the dawn again, regardless of the clocks turning back, but stayed in bed and fell back asleep again anyway. Did my chores, a couple of loads of laundry, the tiniest bit of housework, finished a book, and really had to twist my own arm to not find other things to do, like wash my vehicles. I really needed the rest, though, my body is aching all over! There’s another tropical storm possibly heading our way, so tomorrow will be my only chance to get some more posts out before we get flooded again, so I’m going to try to get a bunch in tomorrow, so I figured I needed to my rest today. Nice day of reading and binge TV. Ready for shower and bed now, though! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
A good night sleep, got my chores and breakfast done, then made arrangements to move my bush hog over to the barn and out of the carport so it’s out of the way. Did some research as to how (and whether) to sharpen my bush hog blades, as well as some maintenance that should be done regularly (which I’ve never done, so I guess that’s on my list of things to do now!). It wasn’t much, but by the time I was finished, I was feeling tired for some reason. Did some reading but kept falling asleep in my chair until I finally decided to go back up into bad, where I kept nodding off for several hours. Finally got up again, but didn’t do much else for the rest of the day. Guess I finally tuckered out after all the physical labor I did this week! Already ready to finish my Spanish lesson, take my shower and go to bed, and it’s barely 8:30! May take a ride tomorrow, though it is the first general gun hunting season out here, which always make me a bit nervous, but I really need to condition Flash for the cattle drive, so I may go anyway. Need to wash my vehicles, too, but just didn’t have the energy today. As early as it is, I’m heading to shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a good night sleep, got up and going pretty early, and after chores and breakfast I got the Buick started. It wanted to stall out on me at idle a few time, but I kept it running. The computer will just have to re-balance everything for awhile. It sounded pretty iffy, and I was worried about the tires, afraid that one was too low to drive on, and now that I don’t have a compressor, I thought it might be a problem, but it was still in the mid-20’s psi, so I headed out, slowly. Pretty rough sounding, but it got me to the post office, where one of the gals there started wheeling out my tires even before I came inside! Considering she hadn’t ever seen me in that vehicle, that was pretty amazing! Love those gals! Got them loaded in the trunk and headed over to Western Auto, where the mechanic there said he was working on another job so it would be a while. Stepped into the famous Cracker Cafe and drank coffee and read for an hour, then when I came back, he was on the very last tire/ Such speedy service! Left there and went to brother Glenn’s to service his pool, delighted that most of the front end vibration problem seems to have been solved with the new tires, though it was still running pretty rough. Then on the way back stopped at the Shell station, filled up with their highest octane fuel (93) plus a bottle of Lucas high mileage fuel injection cleaner, and headed back toward camp. It was slowly improving as the gas started getting through the system. I bypassed the camp and drove all the way to the lake before turning around. I did some sprints along the way, and it was definitely improving as we went along, so I’m hoping that once it’s had some mileage through the system, the roughness will finally working its way out of it, and she’ll run like the Panther she is! Spent the afternoon working on the latest draft of the map James is working on, and updated the equestrian reservation database so I can get a better picture of who and when to expect the horse campers in the upcoming weeks. Not as busy as I thought so far, but I’m sure that will change. Settled down for the evening, my latest binge are old Hart to Hart episodes, I always liked that series. I remember watching that when I was young, hoping I’d have a relationship like theirs. Little did I know at the time that I would, with you! Not the wealthy part, of course, but the rest of the banter was just like us! So I’m enjoying that, even though it’s very retro. Heading off for shower and bed shortly, so glad our Black Panther is back on the road! Hope she stays reliable, gas is $2.00 a gallon cheaper than diesel right now, so I should be making my money back before long! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Well, even though I went to bed early, I ended up having to get up at 12:30 because someone was still running a generator, so I had to go out and knock on their door. I could tell the guy knew he wasn’t supposed to be doing it, but was hoping to get away with it. NOT MY JOB ANYMORE! Or at least, it’s not supposed to be, Grrr! Still managed to get up fairly early, and after chores and breakfast, I managed to get some more spraying done, at least until I ran out of mix. James sought me out to have a talk with me (not unexpected), then I moved a picnic table out of the barn so that I could have one at my site as well as make room for my tractor in the barn. Had just enough time to shower and get to my occasional euchre game in Stuart, then shopping at Walmart, then back to camp, where I ran into a woman who had been here a while back, with a friend, and they invited me back to their campfire later on. I had my dinner, then headed back there, and we had a lovely evening chatting. Now it’s bedtime, just like that! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Another busy, busy day, alone again, naturally! Started out early working on clearing the rest of the paddocks. The stretch in front of my trailer was the worst, and a few by the barn, but the ones along the road had very little in them, as there are few palm trees there. Piled them all up in two places, the firepit in front of me, and the one in front of Barn One that I used before. Then I fixed a gate on one of the paddocks out by the road, long overdue but I finally managed it. I had been waiting to get some help, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of asking anyone, so I figured out a way to do it on my own. Then I resumed some weed pulling and spraying, it seems my first coat did a pretty good job in some of the paddocks, mostly only new plants had grown. Burned the pile by the barn, then worked on spraying until about 4:00 when I ran out of time, because I wanted to burn the other pile near me. It started raining off and on during the afternoon, and old James came by with fuel for me as well. Took a while for my second pile to start burning well because it had gotten wet in the rain, but took that time to play with Lola while I finally sat down for a bit. Showered, had dinner and settled down for the evening. Still trying to figure out what to do tomorrow, though I want to finish the spraying. Thinking about going in for euchre and shopping and checking on Glenn’s pool (he got released from the hospital today, will be hanging out in his motorhome until he gets cleared to go home), but recreation James is also supposed to be coming over, not sure when. Heading to bed early, all this physical labor is catching up to me. Good night, babe! Love you!