Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - Prep Day

Spent the day preparing my outline for an Audio Conference I’m facilitating tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - Doctor Day

Time to get in all Hubby’s checkups. Bloodwork in the morning before breakfast back at the hotel (free at Hampton), late morning carotid artery scan that showed little difference between now and three years ago when we had it last done (a very good sign!), lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant in Nashville (okay, so we splurged this once, back to oatmeal, protein shakes and soup tomorrow as we continue on our merry diet way), then another doctor’s appointment where they checked his defibrillator implant and actually decided to speed his heart up a bit from 60 to 70 beats per minute, to strengthen it’s regularity, then a side trip to the TN Agriculture Dept. to pick up our horses’ new passports which our buddy Thomas had all ready and waiting for us, then the long drive home, with another quick stop at the convenience store for milk. A movie then bed, exhausted after the early morning and long day.

Monday, May 16, 2011 - Busy Work Day

An early start today, with the alarm going off at 6:30. Put enough hay in the horses’ paddock and left enough food for the dogs to fend for themselves until tomorrow, as a trip to Nashville is in store for today. Left the house by 8:30, made one stop to pick up a pair of sunglasses at a convenience store. I had left mine at home, and knew I would need them later (though it was a cloudy day the glare was still annoying), so a quick stop fixed that problem. Headed to Nashville and met with a client for the afternoon doing some personal coaching. It’s a new company for us, but one that could open many doors internationally, both with their own partners and with many of the major Fortune companies they do business with. Went very well, everybody happy by the time we left. Headed out to the Hampton Inn on West End for the night, a newly-renovated hotel at a very reasonable price and excellent location for all our errands tomorrow. Settled down the second half of the lunch our client had provided, and we were both sound asleep by 8:30!

Sunday, May 15, 2011 - Day Off

Spent the day watching the mandatory Sunday talk shows, followed by movies, relaxing for most of the day, except for the packing we had to do for our trip to Nashville tomorrow and Tuesday.

Saturday, May 14, 2011 - Shopping Day

Ran into town again to pick up the lab results on the Coggins Tests and our Health Certificate so we can complete the paperwork on our horse passports. Bought a bunch of plastic drawers in Walmart, as we had decided to turn the back of the van into a second closet. Previously, it had been filled with the set for Hubby’s theatrical performances, but having finally decided to retire permanently (?) from theatre, or at least let our horse camping take precedence, we didn’t want to keep carrying the heavy set pieces around, so we emptied the van and stored them in the garage. Since we have firmly established that we want to stay on the road full-time now, we decided to take more clothes and other sundries with us, and with proper organization, the back of the van will make a perfect storage space. Did some basic shopping, then returned home and settled in for the evening.

Thursday, May 12, 2011 - More Yardwork

Finished mowing the pasture with the riding mower, as well as running around the horse paddock just to get rid of the overgrown stuff. Been catching up on laundry in preparation for stocking the new drawers in the back of the van, lots more to do before we can get started there! Can’t wait to get back on the road again, all this work is exhausting!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - Shopping and Vet Day

Took a drive into town to do some grocery shopping, and to take the horses to the vet to have their Coggins Tests done so we can get another Equine Passport for the next six months. The horses were so thrilled to see the van hooked up to the trailer, my horse whinnied as if there was a mare in heat nearby! They’ve become a couple of traveling fools! They seemed quite happy at every stop, their heads were out the windows the whole way to see where we were going. Also had a chiropractic appointment to try to solve my shoulder problem, which still bothers me, and made some headway with that. Several stops later, we headed back up the mountain to cooler temps. Summer comes here in a hurry, last week we were in the thirties at night and fifties during the day, and now it’s near 90 already, wishing we were heading north sooner to get out of the heat! Some rain coming in later this week, though, so hopefully it will cool things down, though I’m sure the folks along the Mississippi River won’t welcome it, they’ve been having near record-breaking flooding this week. Hoping we can keep pacing ourselves this week so we don’t exhaust ourselves quite as much as we did last week. Busy, busy, busy, but at least things are getting done!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - And again

Monotonous, we did more yard cleanup, had another fire, Hubby repaired some shingles on the garage roof that had apparently come off recently, probably with the big storms they had the week before we got home. I bush-hogged the 3 acres of pasture that have overgrown, just to make it look a bit better. Work, work, work!

Monday, May 9, 2011 - More of the Same

Not much to add except we’re still plugging along. Spent a lot of the day outside cleaning sticks in the yard and piling them onto an old stump in the front of the yard, then having a bonfire to clean up the residue. Hubby still concentrating on numerous yard jobs, including making the paddock escape proof. The horses escaped over the weekend and wandered all the way down the road to a neighbor’s yard, Hubby didn’t see them but I found them after walking half a mile to where they were. I used the lead rope as a makeshift rein and rode my horse back home, with his Mama trailing untethered behind (she never lets him out of her sight). Met Hubby coming down the road in the van, he was relieved to find the horses were safe. Unfortunately, a stray dog that had been hanging around that neighbor’s house decided he had better pickings with us and followed us home, now I can’t get rid of him. My dogs usually run off other dogs, but I got the impression they thought I’d brought this dog home with me and were instead polite to him. Trying to find someplace we can turn him into to find a home, but shelters are "iffy" around here, and animal controls seems to be quick with the needle, so I’m not sure what to do. We’ll figure out something. Anyway, my pyromania had a field day with the fire today, so I’m a happy (though still sore) camper.

Sunday, May 8, 2011 - Crash!

Slept late, then did virtually nothing but crash in front of the TV for the day, bones and muscles aching from all the activity of the week. Sleeping well in our fresh water bed, and the house is definitely losing it’s infested quality, actually getting back to (boring) normal.

Saturday, May 7, 2011 - Kitchen Day

Happy to say that only a few of the cupboards showed signs of infestation, so I spent the day emptying those out, washing pots and pans and relining the shelves with clean liners. The laundry I’ve been doing all week is still stacked up in the laundry room, so sorting through that’s still a job to be done. Making progress, though!

Friday, May 6, 2011 - Furniture Day

Managed to get all the furniture moved in the bedroom today, though not without finding yet another dead mouse body. Vacuumed, sprayed, disinfected, powdered the carpet, you name it, I did it to get the germs and smell out. My prediction panned out, though, the bedroom looked MUCH better, and much bigger with the new layout. I had planned on doing this rearranging when we got new flooring in, but since that’s not going to happen anytime soon, I just had to do something. Even Hubby, who I think wasn’t thrilled about the extra work when we started, is happy with the result. Refilled the waterbed with warm water, and we were able to spend the night in the house for the first time since we got home. Now, on to the kitchen!

Thursday, May 5, 2011 - More Cleaning

More hard work cleaning up. Found numerous more dead mouse bodies, and made several calls regarding getting a pest control service to take care of the place after we leave next time. I do not want to have to go through this every time we come home! Managed to get a lot done today, though again, it’s exhausting work. Also managed to get another work contract set up, which entails a day in Nashville, which I’ve conveniently timed so that we can spend the night up there and go to Hubby’s doctor’s appointments the following day before heading back home. It also means a trip to Houston next month, and possibly NYC as well, depending on what the client wants to do. Hoping to finish up the bedroom tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - Shopping Day

With the kitchen in the house also showing some signs of mouse infestations (though nothing like the bedroom), we had breakfast in the RV before heading into town to do shopping, getting groceries and running errands. House still smells, but getting better! Still sleeping and eating breakfast in the RV though!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - Cleanup Day

Spent the day cleaning up the house and yard, barely scratching the surface but making progress. I had decided to rearrange the master bedroom, a Herculean task because of the king sized waterbed that hadn’t moved in twenty years, but I was determined that it would look better if I changed it around. I emptied all the drawers under the bed and in the dresser and started the task of laundering everything. A lot of the drawers had signs of mouse infestation, so nothing was going to be left unwashed. I drained the bed and vacuumed everything in sight, while Hubby spent most of the day in the yard doing cleanup out there. Exhausted, we spent the evening watching TV in the house before retiring to the RV to sleep.

Monday, May 2, 2011 - Travel Day, Longer than Planned

Well, as usual, things happened to change our plan. We ended up getting out early enough that we reached our intended stop way too early in the day, so we decided to just drive the extra two and a half hours home, thus avoiding the rain that is schedule to come tomorrow. We still managed to arrive by around 5:00, which was several hours before sunset, plus we gained an hour changing into Central Time, so we got here in plenty of time. We even had time to stop at the post office to pick up our last six weeks of mail, though she had officially closed, she opened up again to give me the huge pile, of mostly junk mail. The dogs were thrilled to be home (I think by now they thought we’d never come back here), but I got the impression the horses weren’t as happy, probably afraid things would go back to the way they were before, one boring day in the pasture after another, but they needn’t worry, we’re only going to stay here for the minimum amount of time. Though there were several hawthorne bushes growing up in the middle of the driveway, we managed to push through those, and after moving a couple of downed tree limbs, managed to clear out the area where the RV is usually parked. The house, not surprisingly, smelled of mouse turds and dead bodies, and we found several dead mice scattered around. We opened everything up to get some fresh air in, but it was still pretty chilly here. We ended up spending the night in the RV, ready to begin the arduous chores of getting things straightened out before we leave again. It promises to be a busy and exhausting time for the next several weeks!

Sunday, May 1, 2011 - May Day Ride

Didn’t sleep quite as well last night, but still didn’t suffer any shortage of rest, staying in bed until after 10:00. After brunch, we saddled up again to check out some more trails, trying to finish up all the ones we’ve missed so far, albeit they are fairly short ones. Once again enjoyed the trails and the footing and the cantering. Hubby tried shortening one stirrup a bit yesterday (I had commented that he looked like he was leaning to one side the other day) and that seemed to help, but then he felt lopsided on the other side, so today he shortened the other stirrup, and for the first time he said he felt comfortable and secure at the canter. That’s the trouble with a lot of western wannabees, they think that cowboys all had long straight legs, but if they look more closely they would discover that’s not true (except when they’re galloping at top speed and preparing for a sudden stop, in which case, straight legs help). Anyway, it was a lovely short ride, about 90 minutes, after which the horses took their usual afternoon nap while we settled down for the evening. Big drive day tomorrow, with some possible rain in the forecast, so we’re planning on getting up and out of here early.