The Hermits' Rest

There’s Always Time for a Story or Two

I broke my blogging streak yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain power to do it. My brain was too feeble to put together even my usual simple sentences. I’m still dealing with this virus today, but I have more energy, so I’m gonna say I’m on the mend. (Yes, I know there’s a new COVID strain, and yes, I will get the booster because I’m at risk due to my advanced age.)

This is my picture from yesterday when I felt sickly.

It’s story time, nature observation time, life update time, or whatever. First, I’m cheered every time I go outside these days, because some of my favorite sounds are back, Barn Swallows and White-eyed Vireos. I’ll be tired of them eventually, but right now, those songs convince me it’s spring.

White eyes! Photo by Brad Imhoff. These guys hide in trees, so I rarely see them.

I’m looking forward to seeing hummingbirds soon, because our red yucca are starting to bloom. These are good signs when all the grass is brown and crunchy.

This stuff is nice and green, but the Bermuda grass beside it should be green, too.

Second is another tale of rural living. Yesterday I didn’t feed the horses their supplements, and neither did Kathleen due to recovering from her recent issue. Today I felt up to it, and marched into the tack room (which smells good because it’s the WOMEN’S room and we can turn on the Scentsy diffuser. I digress.

It came time to give Dusty his two scoops of bran powder, and when I reached into the bin, the bran moved. I guess the lid on this bin needs to be very securely attached. Yep. A mouse. One of the little ones. I tried to scoop it out and that’s when the whole dang bin began to move. More than one mouse. They started to try to fling themselves out, as they do. I did not want them in the tack room!

I did NOT take pictures today, so here’s the henhouse mouse.

So I bravely dragged the bin outside, grateful that the bran stuff isn’t very heavy. I did my best to encourage exiting by angling the bin downward, but of course the rodents tried to climb up or bury themselves in the bran. My goal was for zero mice to crawl up my arms. I succeeded! In the end, SIX mice scampered away. I hope something eats them.

Maybe they went over to chicken world where there is corn.

How did six of them get in the bin? There’s not any mouse poop around since Kathleen cleaned the room. Maybe they were in there when the bran was put in? Mystery. Even AI can’t solve that one. I do assure you, though, that I put the lid back on very tightly.

Lids must stay secure or critters will get in. Stock photo.

Later, Kathleen helpfully offered up the theory that if they’d kept eating the bran they’d have gotten all swollen and died. Eww. Now that’s in my head.

Boom! Note mouse has 3 tails. Quality AI.

So, to change the subject, I want to share how happy I am with a work development. Today I was meeting with a colleague on my new project and we got to talking about our previous lives. And talking. And laughing. And blathering away in geeky grad student language about our original fields of study, linguistics and folklore. At some point we were practically giddy about how much we have in common. And some of it is pretty niche far left cultural stuff that you usually don’t get to talk to random coworkers about.

I didn’t mention crafts to her, but hey, five rows of my blanket!

Then she told me the other woman running the project I’ve been brought in on is secretly a cultural anthropologist. I’d never have guessed.

I’m quite thrilled to have gotten to know someone just as weird as me who speaks the same quasi-intellectual language I used to speak. Sometimes I do miss aspects of my earlier years, and learning is one of them. My new friend and I both admitted we could stay in grad school the rest of our lives. I’d just keep getting Master’s degrees to go with all my interests!

I guess today was not all bad. It was quite interesting and satisfying. Hope yours was, too.

Weird Illness Symptom

I have a virus or bad allergies since yesterday. Not horrible, but my throat hurts and I’m tired. I do seem to have one off symptom, though. I remember things in the wrong color. What?

Lee brought home a loaner vehicle while my car was getting serviced. It was very nice and looked very much like my car. More than once I referred to it as the black car. It was quite white. Just as white as my car (but sadly lacking the snazzy red interior).

My car, which looks like half the cars on the road today.

I also mentioned the pink book I was reading. I went to bed and saw the deer book and the next book on my nightstand. Both are green.

Yes, I’m reading a popular self-help book about a topic I’ve already been working on. This kind of book serves as a good reminder.

I do think the color thing has a non-viral source!

That’s all I have for you, friends. I took NyQuil, so the zzzzzz is calling.

Book Report: The Age of Deer

It seems that I’m fascinated by the animals that surround me. I wonder I snapped this book, The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors, by Erika Howsare (2024), the minute I saw it in the bookstore.

I’ve always enjoyed sharing space with deer, from childhood. There were deer in Florida when I was young, only fewer than there are today. Illinois had them roaming to cornfield borders, too. They’re everywhere in North America. And in Texas, whoa, the suburbs I lived in were full of them, too full in some places.

I learned a lot more about deer when I took my Master Naturalist classes and did more reading on North American and world history. I realized deer have been around humans pretty much throughout our histories. Deer have nourished us (and other animals) all this time, yet still survived. And they’ve inspired humans with their beauty and courage, as well.

Howsare began the book not really knowing why she wrote it and ended up feeling a complicated kinship with the white-tails. Truth be told, complex is one of the best words to describe the human/deer relationship. We both love them and kill them. We create habitat for them just so they can look better when they lose their lives to us. They can kill us, too, by making a poor choice of when to cross the road. Complicated.

Like the beavers, deer were extirpated in many parts of North America when their skins became popular for clothing in Europe. When it was just Native Americans using their hides, horns, and sinews, there were enough to go around. But those dang Europeans never realized when they were taking too much until it was too late.

I also learned a lot about the US hunting culture, much more than I knew before, even though I’m surrounded by hunters and benefit from meat they share. I didn’t realize that the trophy antler hunters of farmed deer are looked down on by the wild deer hunters who hunt for sport and food , nor that the culture of crowd hunting is another separate group who hunt to eat.

By the time you finish this book (if you can…it’s not for the squeamish in some parts), you’ll have a much greater understanding of issues surrounding dear, the resilience of the species, and how interdependent we are. If you didn’t already admire deer, you will. You’ll also gain respect for many people who care about them.

(All photos by me)

Good Night, More Tomorrow

There’s a lot on my mind this evening, so I’ll be brief. Today I enjoyed talking to my friends online, finding interesting flowers, noting the return of the Black-chinned Hummingbirds, just letting go and reveling in the flying horsehair while grooming Apache and Dusty, and some relaxing crochet. I have washed off the dirt and hair.

I did not enjoy finding out Star Fleet Academy was canceled, worrying about sick people, conversations that made me paranoid, nor finding out how expensive my car’s maintenance is.

But, hope springs eternal, and the wheel of the year keeps turning.

Good night.

Truly Enjoyable Day

Every so often you get to enjoy a whole day where there’s peace, beauty, fun, humor, and a little accomplishment thrown in. Today was such a day. Why was it so good?

Walking! I didn’t walk all that far today, but I enjoyed it. On my first walk I noticed all the grass and such is already crunchy and brown thanks to scant rain and that freeze a week ago. But there were white evening primroses, which are even more delicate than their normal pink friends.

These are just pale versions of pink evening primroses, not a different species.

Later in the afternoon I went out again with Kathleen, since walking is helping her recuperation. I showed her how big the puffball mushroom in the front field has gotten, and we found a thick patch of verbena next to the rye crop across the road. Apache would sure love that field.

Calves! There are many cow-calf pairs in the field behind us right now. The babies are getting more adventurous and frisky, which is always entertaining. I love the brave and curious ones who try to get the dogs to play. This one with the white spot had a lot of fun with Penney and let me talk to her a while.

Crafts! We watched some television this afternoon and evening, which gave me time to work on my patchwork blanket. I got through all but one square on the fourth row. It looks pretty cute. I have some ideas for it once I join all the squares.

Funny things! I have two funny things to share. First happened yesterday. I went to the birding hut to re-start Merlin after it had been running a while. I wanted to write down the new species in my notebook but I couldn’t open it. That was odd. I finally peeled the pages apart, and I really perturbed a bold jumping spider who had managed to build a web nest in the book in just over an hour! I encouraged her to relocate.

Second story was from today. When we went to feed the poultry, I once again found no eggs in the boxes. You could see someone had been sitting in them. But none were chosen for egg laying.

You may remember that last week Kathleen cleaned the henhouse. New pine shavings were put in the boxes and on the floor.

Before we went to the horses, I got a notion and had Kathleen wait while I checked something. Sure enough, there were four eggs in the old nest boxes we still have up for when we get new hens. I guess Cindy and Cathy don’t like the pine shavings. I’ll have to get them some straw. No photo because (gasp!) I left my phone in the house!

We prefer the little nest boxes, with no nesting material.

Well, okay, Cochins. Lay wherever you want to.

Out of My Comfort Zone

I have been thinking a lot about how I complain about the government here in Texas, but don’t do anything about it other than contribute small amounts of money to candidates I appreciate. So today I went way outside my comfort zone and volunteered to help out at the local level. I met some new and unusual people and also enjoyed time with friends. Whew, that took a lot of psychic energy. I’m proud of myself.

Lee says I’m getting more active while he stays more ensconced in his hermitage. Could be a worse hideout.

I’m glad that I had a chance to go hang out in nature afterwards, as Terri and I went back over to Carolyn’s ranch to get ready for the Master Naturalist field trip. All the signs Terri made look great!

I mostly scouted around for plants that weren’t damaged by last week’s freeze or were blooming. I’m afraid wildflower season is delayed. But I found a few things to point out. I hope some of the dogwood blossoms are still around. They were quite lovely.

Nature and friends helped my introvert self equalize a bit, but I still needed a nap and some horse hugs when I got home. Now, please enjoy a few more woodland plants

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.