Hey Darlin’,
Had a good night sleep, not surprising after spending five hours in the saddle yesterday! Tried to get out earlier today, but kept getting bogged down because my Garmin kept truncating my routes again, don’t know what’s up with that! Tried to erase a bunch of stuff, but it just keeps popping back in on me, don’t know why, but I had enough to get the job done eventually. So it was 10:30 by the time Flash and I hit the trail. Turns out he was very patient with me, at least until the very end when we were heading back to camp, and we managed to get nearly 14 miles done in the same time it took Apollo and I to do a little over 10 1/2 yesterday. Not surprising, but was glad we managed to get it done. So the white trail is finished and the yellow trail still has about a half mile because I ran out of paint, but it’s not too far out of camp so I can get it finished as soon as I get some more paint. I also need to do the red trail, I noticed that has a lot of fading paint as well. Part of the problem is that most of the trees being painted are pines, and the bark tends to peel off, and the paint goes with it. This spray paint doesn’t stand out very well, but it’s the best I can do until I can get a UTV so I can take canned paint with brushes and rollers. I’m definitely finding all the places that have to have posts, though, so that’s a plus. So another long day, then had dinner and settled down for the evening, already did my gate check, now it’s just time for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 – Finally Started Trail Marking!
Hiya Babe,
Had a pretty good night sleep, though I ended up waking early, then went back to sleep and slept too late. One the campers stopped by before he left and was outside my window so we chatted for a few minutes before he left and I got up. Did my chores and a walkaround, found one pair of tenters that came in late and were only here for the night, no biggie. Finally started getting Apollo ready for our trail marking ride today, but his hooves had grown so much since they were trimmed in February that I had to take the time to trim him. He had on section that had bent back to bad I had to clip it off sideways, but he was a trooper about it. I think he was happy to be going for a ride at first, but I’m not sure he was as happy by the time we got to mile ten! It was longer than I thought, and with all the stop starting, and pushing him into bushes and brambles to get close enough to a tree to paint it, but he was incredibly patient! What a great horse! We only averaged about 1.7 miles an hour, so we were out over five hours, and considering we didn’t get on the trail until 11:30, it was about 5:00 by the time he was put back into his paddock. A beautiful day, though, cooler temps and a pretty stiff breeze kept it comfortable. I managed to get almost the entire yellow trail done, except for some reason by GPS truncated the map I put on it, and the most confusing part of the trail wasn’t on there, so I’m going to have to go back and finish the last half a mile, if I have enough paint! Just about ran out of yellow, may have to get some more to finish it. Tomorrow my plan is to do the white trail, but I’ll have to take Flash since it’s a longer ride, and he’s not likely to be as patient, but we’ll see! Several campers left today, so it’s a bit quieter here, though I think James put law enforcement on alert with the problems I’ve been having with this one camper who has no consideration for his neighbors. Hope it doesn’t come to that, but who knows? Anyway, time for my last check on the gate, then my shower, make the bed since I did a little laundry tonight, and off to sleepland! Love you, sweetie! Good night!
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 – Shopping for Trail Stuff, Meeting with Palm City Folks!
Hey Sweetie,
A pretty good night sleep, then chores, then James got here just before 10 and we headed into town to buy up a bunch of spray paint for the trails. Then he took me over to their maintenance area where he showed me all the stuff they have lying around, all the posts and gates and fencing, and bunches of signs that are just hanging out in the shed. It’s a drop off area for whatever junk they don’t want anymore, but there’s some stuff that’s salvageable as well. Lots of big equipment, a lot they don’t use anymore, so just rotting away at the moment. He has plans to clean a lot of that up this summer, get rid of what they’re not using. We grabbed some signs and arrows that I can use on the trail. Now that I have paint I can get busy marking trails, which I feel like I’ve been waiting weeks to do! Can’t wait! Also got some stencils so I can paint the wheelbarrows and manure rakes with SFWMD just to hopefully prevent them from getting taken, though so far, we haven’t had a problem with that. Then we had a meeting with a couple from the Palm City equestrian group, sort of a power couple that James learned has a lot of influence and connections that can hopefully help us in a number of ways, and it was a great meeting. I think we’ll be able to get a lot done with their help as well. It was a beautiful day today, after that front moved through yesterday, and even better tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to getting back on the trail again. Not sure if I’m going to take Flash or Apollo tomorrow, I’ll see how they are in the morning. Anyway, I still have my last rounds to do, and my shower to take before bed, so I’ll say good night now. Love you, darlin’!
Monday, April 18, 2022 – Finally A Little Rain!
Hi Hon,
Well, I had to reset the GFI fault on the well pump several times today, there must be some load on the line somewhere that’s causing it to trip. I was surprised at the number of campers that came in today, I thought after Easter it would drop off, but it was pretty busy today. I took some time in the morning to measure all the boards that need replacing in Barn 2, as well as checking out the water spigots, James was talking about replacing the framework around them, so I figured out what we needed for that, too, though there’s one that’s in pretty good shape that doesn’t have a spigot inside it anymore, so I’m thinking we could dismantle it and use the boards to fix up the other ones that need it. James ended up having another meeting after his first one, and it took all afternoon, so we didn’t get a chance to go shopping, which is too bad because I was really looking forward to getting out on the trails tomorrow to start marking them. A front came through this afternoon, which brought some heavy thunderstorms and quite a bit of rain, yay! Didn’t last long, but dumped a lot in a short time, which we needed desperately, it hasn’t rained in months! Since I’m on concrete, I didn’t have my screen room pegged into the ground like I usually do, so that was whipping around in the winde, and I had a pretty good leak in my bedroom window that I’m going to have to check out. You remember I resealed it last year, I’m disappointed that it’s leaking, but it might be an easy fix. I hope so! So other than welcoming campers and flipping the switch for the well pump, it ended up being a pretty boring day. We’re schedule to go shopping in the morning, hopefully this time it will come to pass, and maybe I can even get some of the trail done tomorrow, though I doubt it, but that’s okay, since it’s supposed to be cooler for a couple of days. I hope I can get everything done that I want to get done by the end of the week, then we have the workday, then I have to start planning my departure, which will probably be within two weeks of that. I’m not going to rush north, though, because everytime I look at the forecast for upstate NY, they’re still calling for snow! But northern Florida, GA and SC are starting to look pretty good. No rush, I’ve got a sweet setup now, with 50 amp electric, big paddock and easy water access, so I’m not in that much of a hurry, but I am looking forward to some new trails. Besides, I’ll be back in the fall, and that will come in the blink of an eye! Not sure if I’ll find any new places to go in NYS, but I supposed I can bounce around between Sugar Hill, Brookfield and Otter Creek during the hottest part of the summer, then ease my way south after that. Maybe I’ll find someplace new, we’ll see. Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, baby! Love you!
Sunday, April 17, 2022 – Quiet Easter
Hi Babe,
Got to bed kind of late, so got up a little late, but I had every intention of going riding this morning, but as soon as I was getting hay for the horses, one of the campers came by to tell me that the water in the shower house wasn’t working, so I ended up going over there and looking it over. At first, I couldn’t find anything wrong, it seemed like an electrical problem rather than a water problem, so I closed it all up and put signs on it to use the other bathhouse. Then I took another look at it, and eventually found that the GFI on one of the electrical outlets out in the pump area had clicked off, so I reset it and that seemed to solve the problem.By the time I did that and had breakfast, it was getting too hot to ride, so once again, I ditched it, and spent the afternoon reading, on the computer and binge-watching TV. Figured I’ll get busy again tomorrow. Supposed to go shopping with James for trail-marking supplies, so I should be out on the trails by Tuesday morning doing that. There’s a cool front coming in tomorrow afternoon, so Tuesday it should be really nice, perfect for riding and marking. If I can get yellow and white mostly done Tuesday, the rest shouldn’t take too long, they’re mostly in better shape. But I’m going to have to take better note of where we want to put posts and arrows where they are really needed, until we can get the better intersection markers approved. Anyway, getting past my bedtime, so good night, sweetie! Love you!
Saturday, April 16, 2022 – Shopping Day
Hi Sweetie,
Got up pretty early this morning, I had a busy morning shopping. I discovered the Ace Hardware in Indiantown sold hay, so in an effort to save myself a trip to Okeechobee, I went in and checked it out. It wasn’t too bad, though the bales were pretty small, so I bought ten for now. Then I went to the Tractor Supply because I had completely run out of Flash’s food last night, they didn’t even get any breakfast except hay this morning, and also to pick up the Balance that I had ordered, only to discover that the manager had trouble finding it so he hadn’t ordered it. I waited for him to get back from running an errand and helped him walk through finding the right stuff, and he says he’s going to order it on Monday so hopefully I’ll get it before I run out of the one bag I have left. After that I went to the IGA to do some grocery shopping. Even though things are a bit more expensive there, it saves me all those miles, so I figure at over $5.00 a gallon for diesel, I’m spending less in the long run. By the time I got back it was getting too hot to do much else, so I ended up hibernating in my air conditioning and binge-watching Friday Night Lights, did a few rounds through the day, had to straighten out one young guy who had hooked up his hose to a shared spigot and was washing his RV. I explained that there were no hookups, and that considering we haven’t had rain in three months and are in a drought, it wasn’t a good idea to waste water on vehicle washing, very diplomatically, of course. Had a couple of conversations with some of the horse folks, but other than that, it was a pretty quiet, even boring day. You see, I’m getting ready to move on, because you know how I hate boring! Anyway, just got back from my 10:00 gate walk, time for shower and bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Friday, April 15, 2022 – Quiet Day in Camp
Hi Darlin’,
Didn’t do very much today, except have a meeting with James discussing various things about the trails and the camp and my hosting and so on. The rest of the day was mostly checking folks in, since it’s Easter weekend and there’s a hog hunt going on, though there were still a lot of empty spaces despite the fact that all the permits were out. Once again, lots of people make reservations and then don’t show up or cancel them. Nevertheless, there were quite a few folks here, so I had to keep making rounds. Did my bookkeeping and put some things away, that was pretty much my big activity for the day. I’m starting to hanker for a road trip, starting to get in a bit of a rut here, even though I’m doing a lot of good. I promised James I’d stay through at least when the mowers come in early May, and I’m also waiting to find out when my Vegas job gets rescheduled, was hoping it would be before mid-May so I can leave my critters with my brother while I’m gone, but it’s going to be getting really hot down here by then, so we’ll see. So it’s been a mundane day, and you know easily I get bored when I have too many of those, which is why I’m starting to plan my trip north. Meanwhile, shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!
Thursday, April 14, 2022 – Short Confirmation Ride, Quiet Afternoon
Hiya Babe!
A great night sleep, a beautiful morning, so after chores and breakfast I saddled Flash to go for a quick ride before the heat and forecasted rain came in. I’ve been doing some more double-checking on those three areas of the trails that have been mis-mowed, and made a very detailed map so that I could once and for all make sure my temp markers were in the right place, so I downloaded that onto my GPS and we headed out. It was fairly short, less than 7 miles, but I did need to change a few markers bases on my findings, and even found ANOTHER spot that had been mis-mowed since 2020, but in a place where it really didn’t make any difference, and has since been permanently marked, so it’s not really worth changing it back. Glad I did it though, I have more confidence that I can lead the mowers to the ride place when we finally do that. I’ve offered to mow it myself with my own tractor and bush hog, but we’re still waiting for the answer to that, though the powers-that-be seem to more inclined to just have me go out with the contracted mower guys and show them the way. Whatever, as long as it gets done, I don’t care how we do it. I spent a little time putting some things away, but otherwise had a lazy afternoon, other than my usual rounds. The sisters camping across from me sound some rosary pea plants right between a couple of trees next to the paddocks, so I cordoned them off with some survey tape so I can show them to the volunteers on work day so they know what we’re trying to clear out. Apparently, the seeds are extremely poisonous to horses, so obviously we want to clear them out of here, along with some poison ivy that was found during the last work day. At 9:00, I got a call from Anita, the OTL folks had a meeting tonight about several things, not the least of which was getting me a reimbursement for my fuel, and although it was apparently a huge battle, our side finally won and they are going to be paying me after all, yay. They also got a new treasurer, can’t wait to hear what she finds out about how the books have been run during the previous guy’s tenure. He was apparently adamant again paying me, but he lost in the end. A bit of good news, at least. Took my final walk to check that the gate was locked, now it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 – Super Lazy Day
Hey Sweetie!
While I had great plans to get a bunch of little stuff done and go for a ride, in the end, I just didn’t feel like doing anything, so I just lazed around all day. Other than greeting some campers, I pretty much just binge-watched TV and ate today. Not much else to report! A nice change, though! Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 – Taxes Done!
Hey Babe!
Well, the day you always dreaded has come and gone! You know how focused I have to be on taxes, and I’m sorry that sometimes made me grumpy, but I got it done today! Been hanging over my head, but glad it’s over. I even managed to do a couple of loads of laundry as well, nice to have electric so I can use my dryer and not have to run my generator, so a productive day. Getting myself a routine here at camp, so I can check on everyone a couple of times a day, then before I go to bed, check the front gate. Haven’t gotten to that yet, but I will. Settled down for some more Friday Night Lights, my current binge, feeling a lot more relaxed than I have in awhile. I might even take a ride tomorrow, one without an agenda! Won’t that be nice! Meanwhile, just enjoying a beautiful evening, won’t be long out of bed. Good night, my love!