Potato Creek Camping Part I - Everything worked out OK

I got out of work early last Friday so we could go camping with the horses. Our reservations were made on September 3, so we were glad the weather was cooperating. Upon arrival at the gate to Potato Creek State Park they asked the question they always ask, one to which we believed we knew the right answer: "Are you bringing in firewood?" Of course we told them "yes," because we were. Next question (also one they always ask), "From which county?"

Indiana is at war with the Emerald Ash Borer. In an effort to keep it from spreading and destroying our beautiful woods, there are residents of certain counties that are prohibited from bringing in firewood. LaPorte county does not have an Emerald Ash Borer problem (or so we thought). So our answer was "LaPorte."

Then we heard something we never heard before "LaPorte county has been quarantined. You will have to unload your firewood here." Shocker!!! Turns out that LaPorte county went on the list of Emerald Ash Borer counties on September 4 -- one day after we made our camping reservations. After much whining on our part, the DNR person told us that they would have some "safe" firewood brought to our campsite. So that turned out OK after all. Whew!! A late September weekend in a tent in Northern Indiana is no place to be without firewood. We proceeded to our campsite.

Once there, after everything was unloaded, I noticed the low tire -- back tire on tbe right side of the trailer. We figured we would deal with it the next day. Drive into town, go to a gas station and fill it up. No big deal. We set up camp.

First we took a quick ride around the area, just to get acclimated. It is always so neat to see all the horse, the different rigs and camping styles of everyone in the park -- just really enjoyable.

We came back and started in on dinner after a couple of libations. We had bought a new camp stove, but it was still in the box, so we were cooking over the campfire. At one point, things got frantic -- the fire was a bit high, the steaks needed to be turned, the smoke was blowing in, our faces. In an attempt to help, I moved the foil-covered cooking grate, but made a wrong move -- the food flipped around. Two steaks at the edge of the fire, one ended up wrapped in the foil and on the ground. But after retrieving the two from the fire and washing them off, we put them all back on the grate and everything was OK. We had a great dinner and settled in for the night.

Next morning we were ready to make a wonderful breakfast on our new Coleman stove. First thing I saw when I got out of the tent was that we still had a low tire on the trailer, but now the one in front of it was completely flat! Then we discovered we forgot the coffee pot!!!

We needed to eat first, so the tire we have to wait. We had the coffee and filters but no pot!! We had to make what my mother used to call "jailhouse coffee." I have also heard others refer to it as "cowboy coffee" which in this case is more appropriate. By putting water and grounds into a pot and cooking to a boil, we had coffee after all. So it worked out OK.

John started changing the tire on the trailer, and with the new Coleman stove set up, I started to make breakfast. It was windy, which made it difficult to light the stove. It was sunny, making it difficult to see the height of the flame. When I turned the control down, the flame would go out. This happened several times, and I was going thru matches like crazy because of the wind. I decided to just make the best of it and cook on the sky high flame. It was a challenge, and though slightly burned, breakfast was edible. So it worked out OK. John got the tire changed in spite of not having the proper jack.....

Our friends Tom and Dolly came out with their horses, and the four of us had a great trail ride.
The trails are really pretty, and thanks to Dolly we did not get lost. Tom had a cool phone witha GPS gizmo that actually mapped out our course. Our horses behaved, and even walked with the quarter horses. We were all so calm and slow, that I actually fell asleep on the ride! I woke to Tom yelling at me to be careful, as I was about to strangle myself on a low hanging grapvine.

Back at camp we had a great lunch and a lot of fun just talking and laughing. It was a great trail ride. John and I took another ride later that afternoon and also ran into some people we know from riding at the Dunes and our saddle club.

It was a little colder than it was forecasted to be, but we really did have nice trail rides and a lot of fun with our friends. So it worked out to be a great Saturday!

Part II -- Sunday's adventures......

Challenging Horse Camping Weekend

With our reservations made at Potato Creek State Park earlier this month, and a favorable weather forecast for the weekend (sunny and temperatures in the 60 degree range), we set off to go camping with The Girls. Here is a summary of what we had to deal with:

Friday

• Our Firewood was confiscated upon our arrival at the park
• When we arrived at our campsite and got out of the truck, I noticed one of our horse trailer tires was really low on air
• The pork steaks we cooked for dinner ended up in the camp fire

Saturday

• Woke up to find we had a flat tire on the horse trailer -- not the tire that was low, but a different tire
• We forgot the coffee pot
• It was really windy, and temperatures in the 50's
• We bought a Coleman stove for this trip -- could not figure out how to adjust the flame, so it was an absolute inferno that burned everything we tried to cook!
• I fell asleep on the trail ride
• Batteries went out on both flashlights
• Divna got loose in the middle of the night

Sunday

• Divna got loose in the very early morning
• There were some mules on the trail, and Divna freaked out
• Repaired the low tire McGuyver/McGruber style

Details and photos to follow........

Revisiting Old Trails

On Saturday, John and I tackled our semi-annual task of clearing the abandoned railroad line. We usually go down this trail each spring and fall to remove any fallen trees, and cut back encroaching growth. We haven't ridden the railroad line much this summer, so we knew it was in need of grooming.

In one spot on the trail there has always been a washout area. The trail had been re-routed around the washout -- last year, the washout got even bigger, so we had to cut another trail around it. We were not prepared for what we saw this time. The washout area is now HUGE! It seems to be following the trail, and expanding. At this particular spot, the trail has a pretty steep dropoff on both sides. Due to the size of the washout, the new path around it had to go down the dropoff. We had to pick a path that we could handle with our chainsaw (not a real big one) because we had to cut down trees. So now the trail goes down at a steep angle and then up again. I was curious to see how "The Girls" would handle it. We planned to ride it on Sunday. It was not an easy job doing all that clearing and re-routing the trail around the washout. It was dark as we walked back to the truck.

On Sunday we headed out to try out our newly cleared trail. When we got near our neighbors house (Terri), the horses started heading up her driveway. They decided to do this on their own -- it was really strange. So we thought, "what the heck. let's go visit her horses before we go to the railroad line." Imagine our surprise when we got to her barn, and there she was, saddling up! She said two other of our friends (Tom and Dolly) were trailering their horses to her house to go riding. So, we decidded to join them, and are SO glad we did. We had the best ride.

Here is the group -- I am usually not in front like this!!

We did not go down the railroad line. Instead, we went to a nearby farm which is owned by some really great people. They have a beautiful place, and their property has crops, and a pond/small lake, and trails. They do not have horses, but they let us ride their trails. In fact, they even clear trails for us to ride. They are really nice people. John and I had not ridden their farm in a long time -- maybe two years or so.

It was such a pretty ride, and an interesting one. Thankfully I had my camera. There is a spot on the trail where it climbs a pretty high hill overlooking a ravine with a creek flowing through it. It was such a beautiful sight (unfortunately I did not get a picture -- I was concentrating on what I was doing at the time!!).

We also rode around our other neighbors beautiful horse property. I got some pictures of some of their horses.

It was such a neat ride -- good friends, good weather, and beautiful early fall scenery. Our horses actually walked with our friends' quarter horses, so we were able to talk and enjoy each other's company. Even Divna behaved and didn't kick any of the other horses! All this fantastic behavior was even more amazing considering Terri's horse, Reba, was in estrus!

A ride like that is just good therapy, and helps make one aware of their many blessings.

New Look

Decided it was time for a new look. Played around with a few of the templates, and chose this one. Not sure if I am going to stick with it. None of the templates had horse themes ...I wish I was better at this sort of thing. If I were, I would design my own. Oh well, we can't all be creative!!!

Tack Cleaning With Goat Audience

Just about all month it has been just too hot to ride, so what do you do??? We decided it was time to do some tack cleaning.

So with Serbian folk music blasting, a couple of beers and some rakija, we started on our project. Our tack really needed cleaning -- but to me it is a badge of honor to have tack that is dusty and has remnants of mud. It proves you actually ride your horses!

I believe our animals speak Serbian -- they know when they hear the Serbian music that there is a good chance they will get some treats. Sure enough, we were not in the barn very long before each goat showed up...

Misho arrived first, checking us out from Divna's stall.... hoping for a Vanilla Wafer.....

Then, Marco's face appears in Zora's stall, also hoping for a Vanilla Wafer.... Of course we gave them some.

Eventually the horses figured out what was going on, that treats were being handed out, so they decided they should be in on it, too....

Next thing you know, all of us are in the barn. It was a really neat way to spend a hot, humid summer evening...

I even put some "bling" on John's saddle. His old turquiose ring from the 60's has now become a "saddle ornament."

And a beautiful sunset to finish off the day.....................

Another Artist

Just a quick post to let everyone see some really cool artwork given to us by friends. This is a sort of layered photo print -- I am sure that is not the official name, but it is what I call it. Our good friends David and Roxane gave this to us. (John did a blog post about David on his blog, http://www.theotisrules.blogspot.com/ titled "Revenge")

The artist is David's nephew (or is it cousin??), and he loves photographing horses. This picture is really unique -- it looks like he layered some interesting landscape photos with one of a horse.

I tried to take a picture of it, and got a bit of reflection from the room lighting. May have been better if I had photographed it during the daytime (natural light), but this is when I had time to do it. I think you can still see it clearly enough.

If not, he has a website (a really cool one, actually) where you can view his work. Here is the link:

Hutch Media Design

www.hutchmd.com

Check it out -- I think you will like it!

Trails of Sand and Mud with Deerflies

Since our weekends are going to be taken up with festivals and camping with our "non-horse" friends, we thought we had better get a ride in. It was last Saturday, and the temperature was a bit cooler, with the hot weather expected to return soon, so we put off all the Saturday chores and headed out to the Indiana Dunes.


I have referred to the Dunes as the State Park and the National Lakeshore in my blog....it is a bit confusing. We do have an Indiana Dunes State Park and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. I am pretty sure the riding trails are part of the National Lakeshore. You would think I would know by now....not that it is terribly important, but I should be accurate.


Anyway, we did make it out there for a ride. Talked with some nice people who were saddling up at the same time as us, and hit the trails. We have had a lot of rain lately, so there was a bit of mud. But I am proud to report that Zora only hesitated for a minute or so at the bridge which has the giant mudpit at the end of it. In the past we have been on that bridge for 10 minutes trying to get her to cross. This time, she was much more brave. Good for her!


The deerflies were just horrible. I spent most of my time looking at the back of Divna's head and ears and leaning over to squish deerflies. I even left some of the dead ones in her mane hoping that other deerflies would see them and not want to risk the same fate.


It didn't work. The Indiana Dunes deerflies must be of the same mentality as the WWII Kamikazi pilots, or our modern day Suicide Bombers. In spite of seeing carcases of their comrades, they would land on Divna and try to bite anyway. I killed as many of them as I could.

Since I didn't take my camera, and I hate to post without pictures. Here are a couple that I took back in June.


Here is my Divna drinking water....to me she is so beautiful!















Here is John and I -- I was holding the camera and trying to get us both in the picture. John's face looks enormous here....






This was taken after a ride, so you have excuse our grubby appearance.

Talk to everyone soon, in the meantime, Keep Riding!!

P.S. John has a new post at http://www.theotisrules.blogspot.com/ . Check it out - his writing is pretty entertaining!