Hi Sweetie,
Lots of physical labor today, I finished moving the pile of concrete blocks, got rid of the junk that was left, ripped out the bad trees by the roots and put them on the burn pile. Just on my last load, though, for some reason the tractor decided not to start (it has been fine for the last two days), so I have no idea what’s going on with it, but that’s a problem for another day. I got everything done except a final leveling and bush hog of the area, but hopefully I can do that later this week. Then I washed the truck, it was filthy from the several trips out to Corbett last week. By that time it was just getting dark, so we did feeding, and settled down for the night. Off to the shower, and then to bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Baby,
Had another good night sleep last night, feel like I’m finally getting caught up on my zzzzz’s! I had set the day aside to do a brake job on the truck. I told Jeff I wanted to start early, and I managed to get him on the job by a little after 10:00, which was early by his standards, as you know! Believe it or not, everything went smoothly, except for one minor hitch with the rotors, when they didn’t get to the parts store last night, but the manager went above and beyond and sent his driver out to go get the missing rotor, so it was waiting for us when we got to the Autozone around 12:30. The rotors and brake pads were under warranty, so I didn’t have to pay for anything except stuff like brake cleaner and Permatex, and we decided to replace the seals even though the ones on there looked pretty good, we figured better safe than sorry. We stopped at that little Mexican place Jeff was raving about, the one we didn’t get a chance to go to like we had wanted, and I bought him lunch, which really was nice. They obviously make their own tortillas, and they were wonderful! Fast, too, we were in and out in about half an hour, and back on the job in no time. We managed to get the whole job done by about 5:00, including putting all the tools away. I test drove it down to the end of the road so that I could put out the sign I made this morning while I was waiting for Jeff, about the Open Range trailer being for sale. The brakes actually felt better now than when our mechanic in TN did them! It’s a good job done, now I don’t have to worry about those for awhile. I hooked up the little horse trailer just as it was getting dark, because I’m off with Anita out to Dupuis tomorrow to do another reconnaissance of the OTL trail. I’m really looking forward to this one, and I’m doing all I can to help. I discovered that the president of the group has a little in-home studio, so I think I’m going to write a PSA and do the voiceover and send it out to the local radio stations to get more publicity. I’m hoping I’ll have time to contact the TV stations as well, Tim’s been trying to get me to do that, but I just haven’t had time yet, but I’m going to try next week. Did my usual chores and settled down for the evening, still trying to finish off Suits and Cheers, but now it’s bedtime. Good night, my love!

Hello Darlin’,
Finally had a great night sleep last night, first in a long time. Spent part of the day doing some work on the OTL project, starting with an appointment to meet the woman who is generously offering her fields on Jupiter Farms Road as the Saturday night stopover, rather than Jupiter Farms park, which evidently is insisting on charging an outrageous amount of money to rent overnight, plus security, plus money for the pavilion, all adding up to a crazy figure, so naturally the team looked for an alternative and found it. It’s a great location, and Tim wanted me to go along to take advantage of my camping expertise to give it my seal of approval, which I wholeheartedly did. The end of her road does, in fact, lead directly to the Riverbend Trail, so we don’t even have to worry about crossing Jupiter Farms Rd., which is a great advantage. After that meeting I ran down to Autozone to start the process of getting the parts I need to repair the back brakes on the truck. They’re starting to squeal, but the parts are still under warranty, and Jeff has agreed to help me change them out tomorrow. Shopped for a couple of essentials at Walmart before heading home, than ran into Jeff and his friend just as I stopped for the mail, and since they were heading out to Angelo’s for lunch and decided to join them. Finally got back home, did my usual chores and settled down for the evening. Good night, Sweetie!

Hiya, Sweetie,
Well, I didn’t sleep very well last night, unfortunately. I decided to leave Lola inside because it was going to be so cold tonight, and she had been so quiet sleeping in your chair all evening that I thought she would be okay, but as usual, as soon as I went to bed, she started to get restless. Scratching at the screen door to go out, scratching at the bedroom door to get in, walking back and forth with her toenails clicking back and forth. I wasn’t about to get up again, so I let her go, and she settled down a couple of times where I got some sleep, but a few hours later she’s be wandering again. Last time I’m going to let that happen! In the truck, every night, she just obviously likes that big bed of hers on the back seat! Anyway, I set my alarm because I made an appointment up at the local brake place that would honor the Munro warranty we had, because the brakes are starting to squeal, and the one thing I DON’T want to do is have a brake problem. Turned out the front brakes are fine, but the back brakes that were done by our TN mechanic are starting to go. The rotors and pads are starting to wear. Fortunately, the parts have a 3 year warranty, and they’ve only been in for about 14 months, so according to my mechanic, all we have to do is go to an Autozone and pick up new parts. Unfortunately the labor part is only 12 months, so I missed that (not that I’d get anyone locally to do that for me anyway), but brother Jeff is an old hand at truck brakes, and he said he’d help me. No hurry, as long as they’re done before I leave, but I will pick up the parts so there at hand when we’re ready. Anyway, that didn’t take as long as I thought, so my next chores was to find a replacement connector for the shore power cable. I went to four places and the only one that had one wanted $85 for it! I figured I could probably get a whole new cord for that! He offered to lower it to $75, but even that was too dear, so I got on my phone and found the exact same part on Amazon for $43! I found a different manufacturer but the same part for $37, so I ordered that one. There was actually another one for just $16, but I figured that had to be a really inferior product, so I went for the middle of the road. Amazon Prime again, and they say it will be here by tomorrow! I don’t know how they’re doing it, but I’m getting really impressed with the Prime delivery system! With that settled, I ran down to Walmart and did a little quick shopping, but now I was running late so I grabbed a sandwich instead of having soup at the Kane center like I usually do on Euchre day, and arrived right at 1:00 to discover two full tables. I thought maybe some other folks would show up, but no one did, so it was round robin for me for awhile. Didn’t do quite as well as last time (guess you had somewhere else to be today :-), but then I had a different partner every game, and never the same partner I had last time, so maybe that was the key. Anyway, I enjoyed that for two hours, then dodged the raindrops down to Ranch feed where I picked up some horse feed and 10 bales of hay, which should last me until I can get some cheaper stuff up near St. Augustine next weekend when Jeff and I go to the Great Florida Cattle Drive Reunion. Though the forecast was that the rain would be over by 3:00 (yeah, right), it was sprinkling just before I loaded up the hay, but stopped just long enough for me to get home. I had just loaded into Jeff’s boarder’s trailer and covered it up, and got the four bags of feed into the back of my trailer when the sky burst open. Perfect timing, but exactly the opposite of what was forecast. Finished off the chores and settled down for the evening. Something I wanted to tell you, though. You remember the character of Rachel on the series Suits that we were watching? The girlfriend of the main character Mike Ross? Well, I finally realized that she’s the same girl that married Prince Harry! Don’t know why I hadn’t figured that out before, guess it’s because I’m not really into the celeb scene, but there you go! Strange world, isn’t it? Anyway, that’s enough about my day, glad we’re still having this conversation we started back in 1986, even if I’m the one doing all the talking. You always were a good listener! Love you, darling! Good night!

Hey Darlin’,
I did something to twist my back again yesterday, and making the bed and getting into it took a very long time. I kept having spasms in my back, and it was extremely painful, and it reminded me of how many times you struggled to get into bed because of the pain you were in for the last few months. I took some ibuprofen before my shower, and thankfully it kicked in, so I had a good night sleep and I had no pain in the morning, so whatever it was, it passed for now. Woke up early to the sound of the brothers leaving, as Karl’s flight was out of Ft. Lauderdale at 9:00, so they had to leave before 6:00 to get there in time with rush hour traffic. I took care of the animals, then got busy on the computer doing a bunch of stuff. I managed to finish the proposal for that convention later this summer and sent it out, and also spoke to that woman from Michigan about some brainstorming they’ve done on our behalf. She’s willing to provide a venue and a guaranteed fee for her members, get bodies in the seats for a set price, then charge “non-members” a premium, all so she can get her folks trained, possibly in July. I get the impression she wants to do this for all of her clients, so maybe this is a good start to a long-term relationship that could benefit us both. I sure could use some good news like that. It would be nice if I could time it so I could take one of those Michigan Lake-to-Lake rides, too, you know I’ve been wanting to do that. Had some bad news today, too, our renters have decided the house is too much for them, and are probably going to move out this spring, so now I’m destined to go back up and finish clearing the house out sooner than I wanted. I contacted that guy from the valley who was interested in property up here on the mountain, and he’s making arrangements to go see it. I hope he makes an offer, because I sure can’t see me spending any more time there, especially without you, and I have my sights on so many things that having a house will just get in the way of my travels. Another stupid thing, there was a notice from the post office that the mailbox needs to be moved because it’s current placement (where it’s been for decades) requires the driver to back up a couple of feet to turn around (it’s a dead end road, what else could happen?), but evidently backing up is now a major safety issue with them, and they’re not allowed to do it. Their answer is to force me to move my box across the street, which is ridiculous, but I’m trying to get an exception, since I’m not there and can’t do it (nor do I want to!) Grrr! So I’m starting to feel like I’m getting caught up on the cleaning and maintenance of the trailer, but of course, then something else always happens. The electrical cord from the garage must have gotten stepped on by a horse or something, because the end got completely pulled out of the cord on the RV side, no easy feat with a cord that’s all fused together, so now I have to get that replaced tomorrow. I was really sorry about that, too, because now I don’t have electricity, and it’s going to be down in the 40’s tonight and I’ll have to run the furnace, as my electric fireplace won’t work. Got a lot done today, but have even more to do tomorrow, so I’ll say goodnight, my love!

Hi Sweetie,
During the night I kept waking up thinking of things I had to do, so I was making a list on a memo on my phone. By the time morning rolled around I had a bunch to do. Turns out I couldn’t do some of them because it’s a holiday, but it was mostly stuff around the house. Jeff’s dog Rosie came to visit while I was still in bed, for a minute I thought I was listening to a rat or something scratching, until I heard the dog door slap open, and when I stuck my head out of the bedroom she was standing over Lola’s bowl, about to eat her leftover dinner. I told her No and she casually walked back outside again! Once I got up and had breakfast, I got busy. The horses somehow managed to step on a section of my heavy-duty sewer pipe and tore completely through it, but I had an extra connector so I got that fixed. I did some laundry, worked on the computer, found the receipts for a couple of items I want to return, and generally just did ordinary, mundane things. Karl and Jeff went out in the afternoon, leaving me on my own for a few hours. Amazon Prime delivered a new controller for the lift chair this afternoon, amazing since I only ordered it yesterday! I put it on the chair and now it works perfectly! Got that listed back on Marketplace, so hopefully I can get that out of here soon. Jeff’s boarder showed up to clip her horse, even though tonight they’re calling for the coldest temperatures of the season! Seems she did the same thing last year. So now Jeff has to blanket him when it gets colder like this. Not horrible, but upper 40’s overnight apparently. Anyway, eventually the boys got home, hung around inside for awhile, then Karl came out to pay his respects to you. I had him try on your leather jacket, but it didn’t fit. I don’t want to give it to Goodwill, it was too expensive for that, but I figure I’ll eventually meet some appropriate person to give it to, being such a nice jacket. I heard from the ladies in Michigan about that job we’ve been discussing, and it looks like it should come through this summer. That will give me a good goal to shoot for, northern Michigan at some point this summer. I twisted my back again, so I’ve been in agony most of the afternoon, alternating between heat and ice, not sure if it’s helping, but ibuprofen is on the schedule when I go to bed, which is going to be shortly. I’ll be leaving the fireplace on tonight! Fresh sheets, a quick shower, and I’m off to bed early because I just feel really tired today, probably residual from yesterday’s four hour ride in Corbett. Well, that’s all the news, have a nice night, love you!

Hi Sweetie,
I worked so hard today, but I feel like I’m finally starting to get caught up with so many long-standing jobs, though some were ones I hadn’t expected to have to do. I began by starting to fix my recliner, the one with the broken base, and once I took it apart, I figured maybe I could glue the break on the bottom, then shift it 90 degrees so that the weak part is against the grain, but when I got out my wood glue, it was obviously too old and starting to dry out, so I decided to go to the hardware store and get some new glue. I also had a key for the mailbox made, since Jeff only has the one, and since this is going to become my new “permanent” address, I thought it would be a good idea to get one. I also needed some hay, so I ran down to the feed store and picked up a few bales just to get us through. When I got back, I finished gluing the chair base and clamped it, fingers crossed that it holds. Meanwhile, I picked up the DC converter that I had ordered, since the Open Range didn’t have one, and expected Karl to finish that job this morning, especially when he insisted it was an easy job and wouldn’t take long. Unfortunately, I soon realized that what he meant was that it was an easy job for ME to finish, and after wasting two hours waiting for him to come out and do it, I finally gave up and took over the job myself. It took awhile, particularly since I wasn’t the one to take it apart, but I finally managed to get everything working okay, but it killed most of my afternoon. I had been hoping to go riding, which I really need because my stress level has been really going up and up lately and I’m starting to get cranky about everything, but it didn’t happen. I’m hoping my day out in Corbett tomorrow will help. Anyway, I finished off the Open Range, put the chair back together, did some more cleaning in the cupboards in the bathroom and the refrigerator, switched over the sheepskin off your saddle onto the saddle I use for Apollo, cleaned out the pool a bit because we had a lot of wind yesterday and there was a lot of stuff in it, and finally settled down for the evening after dark, though not until after moving some basic supplies from the big trailer to the little horse trailer so that I would have what I needed with me in the morning. Busy, tiring day, heading to the shower and bed! Love you! Good night!