Hiya Sweetie!
Up before the crack of dawn this morning, headed down to Tidewater Trailhead where we had scheduled a trail cleanup day. We had more than a dozen volunteers show up, and the Forest Service lent us two UTV's for the day. We had a great time! Everyone worked hard, and we got a lot done. My group did the entire Blue trail, another groups did a good portion of the purple and yellow trails, and we were all back in time for the lunch the Forest Service provided. It wasn't in too bad shape, but it definitely looks a lot better! Stayed around and chatted for a bit, then headed back to camp, with a quick stop at Apex to say hello to my cohort DeDe, who was hosting an ETS event there. Got home a bit after 2:00, and faded fast after that. It's been a very hectic and physically demanding week, and I think I'm finally crashing. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'm planning on taking a nice quiet day off to recover, and next week is going to also be very demanding, so I need to recharge my batteries! With that said, I'm going to bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Woke up before the alarm went off, got up after a bit, did my chores, unhooked the trailer and put it in a nice tidy little parking spot near me, then headed off to town to get my doctor-requested lab work done, then stopped at Tractor Supply for some hay, which was pretty good, though small bales for the price, but I'm in Florida, I can't expect anything else when the price of diesel is still so high. I also noticed a big stack of Nutrena Balance, so I picked up a bag for Apollo, even though his feed bin is currently full, just because it isn't easy to find. After getting back to camp, I worked on trails on the computer for a bit, then remembered I needed to wash the small horse trailer, so I went out and did that. It was actually too cool to ride today, and almost too cool to be washing a trailer, but it really needed it, it was covered in algae, typical when it sits outside like it has been. Finally settled down for the evening, to a very weird movie that seems like the writers and director must have thought up when they were totally stoned, not my cup of tea, though I had to admire the acting skill of the principals. I was shocked to see Jamie Lee Curtis, I barely recognized her, sorry to say, she hasn't aged too well. Funny, when I went in to do my labs today, the woman asked for both my birth date and confirmation that Cigna was my secondary insurance and not my first, and I joked with her and said, "This is where you're supposed to say I don't look old enough for Medicare," and she quickly responded, "Well, that's why I asked, you DON'T look that old." Maybe she was blowing smoke, but she did ask twice, so maybe I am still looking pretty good for my age. Anyway, took my shower early so my hair will dry before bed, it's going to be a cold one tonight, getting down into the 30's. I even put the heavy blankets on the horses, and I'm going to leave the fireplace on all night so I don't wake up to a cold home in the morning. Hoping to ride tomorrow, supposed to warm up after a chilly morning, but we'll see. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
After the long reconnaissance ride yesterday, I felt I'd seen all I needed to see in this trail system to finally make some headway on the trail plan. The difficulty here is that you have to choose between crossing a paved road multiple times, riding through swamp, riding about a mile on a limestone rock road, riding in deep sand or repeating trails. None are great options, but the choice must be made. I spent several hours trying to accommodate all of that, but in the end, I called Jo, the ride manager, to try to pin down which complaints she was willing to deal with, since there really isn't any route that will make everyone happy all of the time. In the end we adjusted the route a few different ways, finally opting for using the limestone road but cutting it down to the bare minimum of about a mile. It starts at a water stop, so we figured if someone wants to put boots on, it's a good place to do it anyway. Only one mile out of 50, it's the best we could do. Glad to have that finalized, though, it's been bugging me! Still have a bit of recon to do in the south loop, so I have another day of riding this week, though not likely tomorrow. I have errands in the morning and it's going to be a chilly day, so Thursday, most likely. Finally settled down for the evening, enjoyed a funny movie with Woody Harrelson coaching a team of "intellectually challenged" teens to the Special Olympics championship, and now it's time for shower and bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
What a day! Set my alarm for 6:15, had breakfast and got the horses and Lola fed, and managed to leave around 7:20. Without stops the trip was just over 3 1/2 hours, so I arrived at exactly 11:00. First thing I did was try to start the Buick, but the battery was dead flat, so I put the truck jumpers on and let it charge for awhile. One of the tires (brand new) was flat for some reason, so I got the compressor going and got that one up, plus topped off the other three. Let my sister-in-law know I was there, and she was thoughtful enough to have saved a couple of T-bone steak bones for Lola! They were in a bag not quite big enough for them, so they were sticking out a bit, and would you believe, I put them right on the console in the truck and she never touched them, even though she was alone with them for a long time! What a good girl! Then I went and checked on the little horse trailer, I took out a tractor tire that was in the back, not sure exactly why that was in there, but if it's useable it should stay with the tractor there anyway, and if it's not useable, I sure don't need to be carrying it around! Of course, the trailer is all moldy again, not surprisingly, so washing that will be on the agenda sometime this week. I checked the tires on that and found one that was about 40 lbs. too low, but the others were acceptable without a load. By then, I figured the Buick was charged enough, and sure enough, I was able to start it, albeit reluctantly. It ran, but it stalls out when you take your foot off the gas, just like before, so it will have to warm up for 10-15 minutes before it will run in gear. I did roll it a bit to get it off the same flat spot in the tires, it moved in neutral easily enough. Finally, I hooked up the trailer and headed down the road, but something didn't feel right. I pulled over, and realized I had forgotten the block for putting the jack on, so I ran back (I was only a mile away), and when I got there I jacked up the trailer off the hitch and realized it was only a 2" hitch, too small. So then I went through a whole series of exercises trying to swap out the 2" hitch with my other 2 3/8" hitch, just about killing myself in the process. I got literally no help from my brother, other than him lending me a pipe wrench and suggesting I go to Tractor Supply and buy a new receiver. Well I didn't have time for that, so I finally pulled out another receiver that I had, and that ball came off immediately. Then the light bulb went off in my head. The original configuration of the truck to trailer was a 4" drop with a 2 3/8" ball, but I had changed it to a 2" ball when I used his trailer to move my tractor to his place. That didn't work, though, because his trailer was too low to reach the hitch, so I went to Tractor Supply and bought a 6" drop, which evidently only came with the ball already on it, which explains why I couldn't get the damn thing off, because it had been put together in the factory. So finally I remembered the series of events, got out my 4" drop, and that 2" ball came right off with the first twist, and I was finally able to get a working hitch, which was exactly what the original configuration had been. Whew! I worked up such a sweat, and wasted so much time, it was 1:20 by the time I finally pulled out of there. That would make it a VERY close call to arriving back at camp before dark, which was my goal, though originally I thought I'd be there long before 4:00 if I had been able to stay on schedule. I took one quick stop to top off my fuel tank, just because I didn't want any more stress about it getting low, and another quick stop at a Publix to get a couple of cartons of grapefruit juice, the one commodity I was low on, but that only took about seven minutes. As it turned out, I arrived back just before sunset, so I had plenty of dusk light to get the horses fed. I was exhausted by then! Had just enough energy to finish off my homemade chicken soup (which was lovely but I'm glad it's done, I'm ready for a change), and settled down for the evening. I finally gave Lola the first of her bones, which she thoroughly enjoyed! Unfortunately I chose an excruciatingly boring movie that I fell asleep to, but now I'm more that ready for my shower and bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Another good night sleep, lazy morning, then met Jo for lunch at Willards just to go over what we've doing in preparation for the ride. Got back in time for my chair delivery. I had pulled the old chair out to the porch so it had a nice open space, and the two guys had no trouble getting it in. I put the cover in the wash and subsequently hung it out to dry, covered the old chair with a sheet to protect it. It was weird, though, when I sat in the chair it didn't feel anything like when I sat in it at the store, not nearly as comfortable as I remember it. In fact, it didn't seem even as comfortable as the chair I'm replacing! Maybe it just needs to be broken in or something, I don't know. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if this is normal for a new chair, but after so much research and checking every chair in the store last week, I was sure I'd found the right one, but this just doesn't feel the same. Anyway, I relaxed in my usual evening way, ready for shower and bed. Good night, darlin', love you!