The Hermits' Rest

My New Weed-eater

Spring at last! Ostara greetings to all! Maybe no more freezes to kill our grass.

Since it was a pretty day, I took a walk at lunch and even read for a few minutes on the porch, next to my lovely petunias that smell so good (white petunias are impressive!).

After work and poultry and equine feeding, I enjoyed some time with Apache, just walking around. My son had come over to get some eggs, so we were chatting, when we noticed what Apache was munching on.

Was it grass? No! It was prickly sow-thistle. These plants are like ugly dandelions with big thorns on the leaves.

Yep, Apache was methodically mowing down all these non-native plants. I was impressed. After my son left, I watched Apache’s grazing pattern. Somehow he was able to avoid all the other wildflowers (other than field madder, which he also liked) and just focus on his favorite greenery. I wonder how they know? Scent? Feel? This is when I wish I could ask my former horse trainer. She’d know.

After we ran out of armored dandelions, Apache kindly switched to weed-eating around the garbage dumpster. He even provided fertilization services (not pictured). It turns out, my new lawn maintenance tool is pretty good! Too bad it costs so much to keep it up and running!

Excellent long grass around the dumpster to trim!

I helped him burn off the calories from all that snacking by getting some good exercise in before returning him to his herd. Our pleasant walk ended the week on a good note!

Enjoy your weekend!

Blam blam blam

I had exactly ONE important meeting today where I had to pay attention. That is when some folks off somewhere adjacent to the people across the road decided it was time to break out the rifles and start with the pew, pew, pew. Only it was much louder.

I should have run outside and blinded them with my nails. This stuff is incredibly reflective outdoors.

Of course, while I had my camera on, Penney had to try to insert herself into my arms, Carlton started shaking under my desk, and Alfred stuck his giant head under my free arm. My headphones disconnected, things fell off the desk, and I kept trying to act professional. At least I wasn’t leading the meeting.

Why couldn’t those woods be all peaceful, like yesterday, when it was just me and the orange cat?

Let’s hope they don’t start up again tomorrow when I’m leading a meeting with bosses in it. Apparently, yesterday the blamming was during my lunch with friends.

I’d have been trying to hide like this raccoon was during today’s noise.

The good news is that there was no massacre. Once the meeting ended and I walked past the bridge, I could hear them yelling, “pull,” before shots rang out, so I figured out they were skeet shooting. That’s a new one.

There are the shooters. They also mowed an entire field of bluebonnets.

The shots sounded really close from our house, and my neighbor said it sounded like it was in her back yard. Her dogs were also terrified. The shooters were very close to her property line. Well, I hope they got lots of skeet.

I also enjoyed banter about skeet and what they could be hunting in response to my Facebook post about the noise. That made a weird day a bit better.

Getting to enjoy the bridge turtles on their new sunning log also cheered me up.

In the end, I enjoyed writing for most of the day, and had a nice rest on the porch with all the flowers after work.

Then all but one horse got some vigorous currying, because it’s shedding time. Mabel, as usual, also has mud clods that I’m gradually scraping off. She can really collect mud. I’m in charge of the horses for a while, since my helper has had a setback, but I’m on it! I just want no nearby shooting during horse time.

Bored of Self

I’m only writing to keep a blogging streak going. I was so boring yesterday that only 36 people visited the site. It’s a good reason I just like to hear myself talk, or read my writing, or something. And I’m only going to get more and more boring if I keep working so many hours.

I’ll still try to take a few nice photos when I can get outside.

To put a positive spin on things, if I’m being boring, it means I’m not letting outside events upset me, I’m enjoying my family/pets, and my dull hobbies are satisfying me.

So if you got this far, feel free to suggest something interesting to write about, or I’ll do the wise thing and not blog until I have something blog worthy.

This could be a painting, too. So many greens.

PS: don’t watch Lost in Space (new version) if you’re one of those people who expect their science fiction to be at least somewhat plausible.

Confidence is elusive

Who is the most confident person you know?

This was yesterday’s blog prompt, but I waited to address it until today, because I really had to think hard about the answer. I dutifully ran my mind through a long list of people I know, trying to figure out who could be the most confident.

Just a pretty fern. I hope it stays healthy.

Every single time I thought about anyone who portrays an air of confidence, I’d stop myself and say, no, not that person. I know all their struggles and feelings of inadequacy. Or I know they have imposter syndrome, or they put on a confident shell to hide under.

And in every case, I realized how much I admire them. How impressive it is that they go out and do what needs to be done with an easy, confident manner. That takes strength and most important, self awareness. Anyone who knows themselves well can see their strengths and weaknesses and choose how to behave in ways that bring out their best.

I also admire those who don’t act confident but try anyway. I value their insights and contributions, too. There are lots of us out there!

This stink bug introduces the bad side of confidence.

It seems to me that the only people I know who act confident when they really shouldn’t be are those who really don’t know themselves well, either because they’re incapable of it or don’t care to try. They always want to tell you how interesting they are and are extra fond of the sound of their own voices.

I can do without those over-confident types, whether they hold high political offices or stalk you on Facebook.

This fine wolf spider stalked me on my chair. I let it be.

What’s my conclusion? I guess it’s that acting confident in what you do, even when you have nagging doubts, is the kind of confidence we need more of.

Idiot Wind

My mom would have been in a tizzy by today’s end. She really hated wind. She said it made her hair hurt. I’m not fond of it either. Fine old lady hair and wind are an aesthetically unappealing combination.

Artistic rendering of annoyed me in wind

The wind wasn’t as horrible as yesterday, but since it was uncharacteristically cold for mid March, going outside was a brutal experience. Even the birds were hiding—only 26 species today were heard over the wind by Merlin. Needless to say, my exercise goals were not met!

The best thing about today was that it made for crazy colors in the temperature blanket. Yesterday was red (90s) and Kelly green (low 50s). Today the green was the high temperature. Tonight it might freeze! This is not usual.

Yesterday and today. Sweat followed by chills.

Being indoors all day left me a little grumpy. It didn’t help that I spent 2.5 hours trying to get my monitor situation for work under control. Two IT guys and much brainstorming later, I’m all set, though I changed to a different monitor. It turned out that it didn’t need new drivers (but has them anyway). Instead, the setup I had where each monitor was attached by an HDMI cable, which had worked since last June, suddenly was no good. I guess a recent update changed it. So I had to find a Display Port connector and use it. Lucky for me I have many extra display cables gathered over by the extra work monitors. The right one was there.

I have to give IT guy #2, who was in Oregon, credit for troubleshooting with me. I sent him many photos and screenshots for diagnostic purposes. He liked that I understood all his questions.

He promised not to laugh at my docking station. But it showed the problem. That empty slot should be attached to a monitor.

I’ll spare you the story of how I muddled up my web-based training file. But at least I had two giant monitors to screw up on!

Blowing Away

The weather was pretty weird today. Low in the 50s, high in the 90s, and so much wind! If I ever complained about the wind before, I was being wimpy. This wind is not a gale but is pretty close. All our poor new porch plants are getting buffeted.

Of course we got all these new plants, only to realize that it is getting cold again tomorrow, maybe a freeze. I guess it all gets to come back in tomorrow. Sigh.

While the wind has been annoying, it’s otherwise been a beautiful weekend full of getting things done at home. Yesterday the chicken house got all cleaned out. That was about time! Kathleen had a fancy mask so she didn’t get sick like I did the time I did it by myself.

The turkeys were not happy with all that stuff going on. Darryl Junior was all puffed up and glowing in turkey colors.

Today I’d hoped to spend lots of time with the horses. They were so lovely out in the field this morning that I wanted to make them prettier.

It wasn’t so windy but still too windy to do the flower photography I’d hoped to do.

Kathleen and I did the best we could, but she wasn’t feeling well and I got overheated. So, Mabel got nothing and Apache just got a little currying. Spice really needed grooming and was so grateful for the attention that she kept nuzzling me. I even gave her a little workout that she seemed to enjoy. She’s a very good horse and so well trained. I’ve enjoyed having her with us.

I also managed to get Drew all shiny and pretty. He still has stains from rolling in poop, but he’s already starting to get shiny. He’s much whiter now, and even his mane is lighter. Now that we are working with him more, he’s behaving very well. I’m glad he’s still here.

Kathleen got Dusty looking most excellent, too. She’s giving him some new supplements that even have his hair shiny. And we think he’s putting weight back on. What a lucky old man he is.

You can see the wind blowing everyone’s tails in the photos.

Okay, back to the wind. We went to eat with friends tonight and noticed the sky was so weird. There was so much dust in the air that you couldn’t see the clouds or sun. It was eerie.

Photo out the car window doesn’t do it justice.

The wind gave me time to get some reading done as well as some nice family time. I hope there isn’t too much damage. Stuff is really blowing around and we saw pieces of metal lying around and downed tree limbs on our drive to and from the restaurant.

It was a good weekend, even if I didn’t do all I’d hoped to.

Book Report: The Great Shadow

I’ve been picking some fascinating books lately. The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, and Buy, by Susan Wise Bauer, is most assuredly fascinating. I wish it was about twice as long, because I feel like she rushed through the past 30 years.

The book traces how humans view illness throughout recorded history. It turns out that those Ancient Greek philosophers had some notions that even today we can’t get rid of, like being in a place with bad air can make you sick (many people still think you can catch a cold by going out in bad weather).

The idea that every illness is particular to the sick person and must be cured by the doctor figuring out a specific cure for them lasted for centuries. It was a big deal when someone figured out that outside agents cause disease and that large numbers of people can have the same illness with the same cure.

I enjoyed learning how people found cures for illnesses before they knew about germs, bacteria, or viruses. Spoiler: it involved guesswork.

What surprised me was how many epidemics there have been that killed huge numbers of people. The plague was really bad, y’all (and there are three kinds!). These incurable diseases kept the population under control all by themselves! And international trade made diseases spread wider and faster. I’m relieved at least some of us lived.

Once we discovered bacteria and antibiotics it got interesting, because so many products were developed to keep our homes and businesses clean. Did you know Listerine was invented by a guy named Lister? You’ll learn the origins of many everyday objects like toilet paper, Kleenex, and sanitary napkins (Kotex).

Yep, if you can stomach the graphic descriptions of symptoms, you’ll be enthralled by The Great Shadow. My copy has already been passed along to my favorite medical editor, Anita, who’s recovering nicely.

We got more plants for the porch today, so I’ll really enjoy reading my next book out there!

A Different Kind of Day

I didn’t work but a couple of hours today. Instead I drove Anita to Georgetown so she could have a medical procedure. It was good to spend some time together, even if she wasn’t 100% at her best.

While she was at the snazziest medical facility I’ve ever seen, I went out in the beautifully landscaped area to see what native plants I could find. I discovered that whoever did the landscaping used primarily native plants, which pleased me.

And I heard many birds, including some Sandhill Cranes, which pleased me greatly. I didn’t even mind that the procedure was delayed, because that gave me time to walk to the really beautiful grocery store next to the surgery center. It must have replaced the old one that was there when I had a child in college there.

Fancy roundabout leading to what I assume is a nice new neighborhood.

I got a tasty Mexican torta, plums, a dessert, some snacks for later, and my favorite bread. Of course I got Anita some flowers.

Then I came to the empty waiting room and took a nap. Yes, in the chairs above. What a treat!

Getting Anita home was challenging thanks to the after-effects of the procedure and anesthesia, but we made it back to Cameron, fed the ancient dog, and got food into Anita. Success.

Late afternoon trees greeted me at home.

Tomorrow is ranch chore day, since what I’d hoped to accomplish this afternoon didn’t happen. And I’ll have a book report, too.

Thanks again to all who read and comment!

Speaking in Public Equals Fun

Something that always has interested me about myself is that I just love being on stage. I always wondered why that was. Did I inherit my dad’s drive to be the center of attention? Do I just love to perform (regardless of talent), or what? Do I just love the sound of my own voice? It’s true that I am chatty. You may be aware of that.

At least Kathleen enjoyed our coffee talk this morning enough to make one of those AI portraits of it. Those things are pretty good!

This evening I gave a short presentation on beavers for our Texas Master Naturalist chapter. I shared what I’ve learned from my reading, especially Beaverland, and observations from my friend’s ponds. I had so much fun standing up there and sharing what I found interesting and making jokes. It’s so freeing to give a presentation about something other than enterprise project and resource management software.

Who wouldn’t love learning about these guys?

Once I got home, I reflected on why I get so energized by giving a talk, singing, reading, or anything in front of an audience. I like to share what makes me happy! Music makes me happy, so I like to share it (or did when I could still sing adequately — I was never great). And things I’ve learned excite me, so I enjoy sharing. It’s too much fun to get anxious about.

The last time I sang in public. I needed practice.

My friend Michelle presented the results of the bat monitoring project our chapter did last year before my talk. It was a different kind of talk, so our audience got some variety. There were at least five species heard among our nine sites. I admire that Michelle analyzed so many sound files to find bat sounds. Admittedly, I’m glad I didn’t volunteer to do it once I un-retired, because it took a lot of time, but I’d have loved doing the analysis. It’s so fun finding the patterns.

My only complaint for today is that I had a hard time viewing sound waves today at work, because my external monitors kept flaking out. Trying to edit the sound track to videos is not easy on a small laptop screen. I just did other stuff. No performance there!

Frustrating work setup, but at least one monitor came back.

Wow. Already bedtime. I have an exciting day of hanging out with Anita, my friend from high school, tomorrow. Exciting may not be the best word choice. We will see!

Enjoying Potential Dangers

Not much went on today, since it’s my busy work day and we had a reasonable amount of rain. Wish it were a bit more.

The colors are so vivid after the browns of winter.

There’s been a bit of danger this week. Harvey got bitten by a snake and swelled up. Then when he was all numb and swollen he managed to bite through his lip. As if having a bad liver, going deaf, and dealing with stroke after effects wasn’t enough! He is healing though.

And today when we were walking my horses (we alternate between Kathleen’s and mine, apparently), I was trying to convince Apache that cantering in mud isn’t smart, when Drew erupted and started jumping and acting afraid. Apparently it was his first snake encounter, because he was really scared. Kathleen did a great job holding on and settling him back down, but that was enough danger for us. You’d think Drew would have seen snakes in the pasture or pens before. I certainly have.

It was a beautiful day to make a hasty retreat (Kathleen IS in the photo, but the bulky gelding is blocking her).

Still, it is always good to see that we can help the horses out, and as a bonus Kathleen didn’t get bitten. Maybe the tide has turned and she’s not a magnet for venomous creatures anymore!

It was raining all around us, and thundering. More danger!

Need proof that we had enough rain to make mud? Look no further than Muddy Mabel. She was gleaming and clean yesterday.

I hope she rolls in some dewy grass tomorrow and cleans some of her mane.

Other excitement of the non dangerous type? Today was Lee’s birthday. We are the same age again, whew. I hate those 6 days when we’re a year apart. He got mini Bundt cakes and a banana pudding cake, which we all enjoyed. I still like lemon the best.

Well, off to see what happens tomorrow.