daily life – The Hermits' Rest

Scum, Reporting for Duty

I’ve recently learned that the current US President believes I am scum. And since he’s not a fan of lying (i.e. he seems to believe everything he says at least when it’s logorrhea-ing out of his mouth), it must be true. I think I’ll just own it.

There, I’m very blue and appear manic, though I don’t look like me.

I’m just gonna embrace my woke-i-tude even more than my usual hippie horse mom vibe. I bought shirts that shove my attitude right in people’s faces, both coming and going. I’m just gonna wear stuff like this every day. I do have sweatshirts, too.

The two-sided shirts are from dear person.co and took a long time to get here. The bottom one is from the Bitter Southerner. My other shirt from there says “radicalized by common decency.” Yeah. I’m that scary woke scum person who cares about everyone.

I’m glad I have attire to remind me to not forget my beliefs and morals. Just search for those companies or find your own radically caring slogan.

In less scummy news, I went back to work today and I was genuinely glad to see how my coworkers were doing and relieved at some good news from my perspective.

I had a late meeting so I did animal chores mid afternoon. That made the fowl happy. Darryl eats a lot, so I’ve increased their food quantity.

Apache made me laugh today. He rarely expresses strong opinions, but today he informed me in no uncertain terms that he would NOT go over our little hill on the right track. You see, Lee had started to add some dirt to it just before the front-end loader died, so there was fresh dirt on one end that hadn’t been smoothed down.

Apache was fine on left track, but when I changed directions, he pawed his feet. I asked him to keep going, so he walked to the top, turned to face me, then executed a perfect backup down the hill, stopping in the correct position to stretch his legs. It’s like he was saying he didn’t want to make a circle going down the new dirt side, but he’d happily skip to the backing up we usually do afterwards.

Here he’s demonstrating the stretch (okay, actually acting like he has to pee).

I said okay, we can do other stuff, so we trotted and cantered over poles and the cavaletti jump. Then some perfectly executed side passes on the ground were executed. I mean, I just asked once and he did it!

I went back to the hill with Apache and he enthusiastically trotted going left. But nope, not to the right. I convinced him to go once, then he decided he needed to be more firm about his wishes and gave a buck and a snort. I got the message and we finished with a little walk before I went back to work.

I think he may have believed he’d slip on the loose dirt. Or something. He’s a horse, after all.

Things That Didn’t Upset Me Today

Ok! Let’s see what didn’t upset me today.

I looked up from my phone this morning in the birding station and realized I was surrounded by meadowlarks. Here are just a few.

I cut my nails way short (for me) but they still look festive with snowflakes on them.

I had a good, calm lesson on Apache. Neither Tarrin nor I were feeling well, but we made progress, and, as always, it was a joy to spend time with my horse buddy. When we got home, he shook himself as I was unlocking the gate, and a big cloud of dust flew out from him. He only looked sparkly clean.

Apache and I both wish we looked this good. At least I look kind of like me and he looks kind of like him.

I made some progress on my crocheting. The blanket is getting a cluster border. It’s probably going to be at least three town. It will be good thing to have it slightly larger. Certainly it will be cheerful.

I made a delicious frittata for dinner using Connie’s eggs, leftover broccoli, cheese, garlic and a little milk. Both Lee and I loved it.

And that’s what got me through the day.

New Year Accomplishments

I had another post about birds planned, but I’ll get to it tomorrow. I stayed up late watching The Residence, the show about the birder detective, which I saw on one of my solo trips, but am enjoying sharing with Lee. What happy elders we are so far this year.

I cooked all day, but it was fine. Every year I enjoy making our traditional family meal and watching the kids eat it. Having young adults who like collard greens and black-eyed peas brings me joy.

I also appreciate that my son made these sconces for me and hung them up. I’ll get a closer photo.

My accomplishment I wanted to mention is that I got the 2025 temperature blanket assembled into one piece on New Year’s Day, 2026. I’m so proud of myself. And it even looks good! Best of all, it’s functional. I can use it as a lap blanket.

Nice look with me holding it up with my mouth, huh.

It looks like a calendar and you can tell it’s hotter in the summer. I’ve added another row of blue on the outside to even it up, then comes an exciting rainbow border while I wait for my new border color, which I’ve already told you is tan. The blue outlines will be red—hoping there’s one not exactly like the reds that are for high temperatures.

I also painted more rocks today. These are the ones I finished yesterday.

All in all, a fun day, of which I will share more tomorrow.

Invasion of the Longspurs

There have been two new avian visitors to the Hermits’ Rest in the last few days. I exaggerated when I called it an invasion, but these two aren’t usually seen this far east. I don’t recall ever seeing one, and my bird book confirms I had no previous longspur sightings, here or elsewhere. Perhaps that extra-windy cold front blew this week some this way.

Most recent new lifers. I rarely get them at home anymore.

The first one is the Thick-billed. I was very confused because it wasn’t in my guidebook, which is only a few years old.

It turns out the McCown’s Longspur has been renamed in the process of removing human names from species names. If I’d looked at the Latin name I’d have figured it out sooner. As it is, I needed Merlin to find it, because non-breeding males and females look like all the sparrows from a distance.

The second one showed up today, which makes me feel more confident that some are a little out of their usual range. The Chestnut-sided Longspur would be just as hard to spot in winter, though it is striking in breeding plumage.

Both birds winter in prairies and fields with short grass, which we have plenty of here. I’ll be very interested to see if any more are detected in the next few weeks. I’m not sure where the spurs are. None of the pictures show the feet well enough, if that’s where they are.

Their ranges are similar. Images borrowed from Merlin Bird ID.

In addition to interesting birds, today was also very pleasant, with clear skies and pleasantly cool temperatures.

I was able to go for a walk, play with the fowl and horses, and enjoy the patio rather than cowering to avoid wind. Of course it warmed up—I finally have blankets for three of the horses. Dusty’s is covered in jelly beans. I wonder if they will need them again?

I even managed to complete December in my temperature blanket on the last day of the month! I’d managed to make the last row of black ahead of time. Ahh, I’ll never have to make solid black squares again!

Last week was way warmer than usual for December.

Now all I have left is to join all the blocks and to the border, which is going to be rainbow colors! Why not? That should give me something to do while my peas and collards are cooking tomorrow.

Congratulations to all of you who made it to another year. I have more thoughts on that for tomorrow!

Good Things Balanced by a Passing

I fell asleep last night before I could blog anything. That’s fine, because yesterday I mostly recuperated from the camping trip. The highlight of that day was discovering that the trim on my birding station was completed! I was so relieved to see all the naked wood painted red AND the pile of leftover wood gone! I think they are going to paint the hardie plank too, but it looks fine as it is.

That’s a cute little hut, and I use it every day!

I also got a gift from Connie. I guess Darryl got her into reproductive mode. It’s weird to me that all the lady birds decided to resume laying around the solstice. They are supposed to start around the equinox. Perhaps the extra warm weather has fooled them. (ETA: I said this yesterday, too. I guess it excited me.)

This morning, before I took my walk, I helped Lee replenish the horses’ hay. The horses didn’t make it any easier. Drew was running around trying to bite everyone until Dusty finally kicked him with both rear hooves. Way to go, old man! And Spice politely stayed out of the way right until she really needed to move, so Lee ended up bonking her with the hay ring. She lived.

We’re all keyed up after Drew was biting everyone

So that’s life around here. I did want to note the passing of a woman who had a huge influence on my development as a human, a feminist, and a fiber artist: Barbara G. Walker. During my most confused period of life, my twenties, I discovered her collections of knitting stitches and poured myself into designing garments as an escape. She was an incredibly meticulous researcher (she also wrote about crystals and other topics).

Then one day I went to the bookstore in the University of Illinois campus to get another volume of her knitting. While there, I wandered over to the spirituality section, because I’d been wondering what a feminist religion would look like. I found The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, the result of her research into goddesses and other female-centered concepts. However, I didn’t realize she was the author until I got back to the student break room in the linguistics department and looked at the covers. I ran to find Georgia, my advisor and fellow knitting feminist to show her. I was so happy.

I read that entire book (probably when I should have been reading about pragmatics) every night before falling asleep, slowly but surely healing some of the wounds I felt from patriarchal religion. Walker sent me on my way to discovering Starhawk and other authors and helping me learn I wasn’t alone.

I’ll always be grateful to Barbara G. Walker. I still treasure her books, especially The Skeptical Feminist, which is out of print. Read more about it in this blog from a few years ago.

I’ve been reading tributes to her. I wasn’t the only one who had an epiphany when they realized she wrote both feminism and knitting. She lives on in our memories.

A Lovely Solstice

It was a fine day, full of pleasant sightings, fun happenings, food, and friendship. I finally got to take some bird photos, and I feel like I’m getting to know the camera better. I even managed to use manual focus to get these cottontail photos. I’m very proud of myself.

Looks like this bunny has had some adventures.

The sparrows were so cute today. And all of them were fun to search out. I told Tarrin’s husband that I think I get what is so fun about hunting. It’s so fun trying to spot them and then get them to stop hiding behind brush. These guys tried really hard to hide.

After getting my fill of birding, we took Apache for a lesson. We got to see two roadrunners on the road to the lesson! Apache got to show off his Christmas gift, which is a new leather látigo and off-billet. They are very brown, but lots easier to use than the cute green webbing one. My little arthritic hands are already grateful.

My saddle may not be pretty, but it is light and comfortable.

While today was the winter solstice in our hemisphere, all the animals seemed to think it’s the lusty month of May. No photos for this, but Tarrin’s bull was trying to get it on, and when I got home I saw that Darryl has seen to it that Connie will have fertilized eggs. That’s impressive, considering that Broad-breasted Turkeys have trouble with mating. And Clint gave the gens done fun. Hmm. Solstice fertility rituals I was not aware of.

My wattle turned all red and blue. Too bad Suna didn’t have her camera.

Our friends Martha and Mike came for dinner, which was good. She made lentil soup and I made very good beef stew. We topped it off with Mike’s family-recipe fudge. We enjoyed all our candles and welcomed the growing light.

Not a bad day, at all! Hoping yours was also good.

Solstice Weekend Day of Peace

The days are very short, and the windy, cloudy morning made it feel even darker today. I got to celebrate this day by having no agenda whatsoever. I took advantage of it with a mix of resting and enjoyable activities.

I took a lot of photos, including Apache and Spice blending into one mythical creature.

It was challenging listening to birds because the wind made it feel cold, though it was the warmest day of a warm December. It was also a challenge to photograph birds, because they were all elsewhere this morning (yesterday, when I was busy, they were standing in front of me, taunting.

I enjoyed this pretty doe, who made up for the hidden birds.

And of course I had to take more photos of Darryl, Connie, and friends. Everyone is getting along just fine. I did a lot of reading about turkeys today. I found out they do recognize humans, so we weren’t imagining that Connie recognized Heather yesterday. I also discovered their “beards” are modified feathers, not hairs, and only 10% of hen turkeys have them. Connie is special.

After a nice nap and some football (it put me to sleep), I went on a walk with the camera, looking for birds to photograph. I ended up taking a few horse and donkey pictures instead. Mabel was being especially regal.

I did have a bit of bird fun, as I tracked a little Kestrel as he hunted around our field. Of course, I mostly got photos of his butt. My luck.

It’s so rare to have an agenda-free day. It allowed me to reflect on this extended dark season, and to allow myself a little hope that the light starting to trickle in during this Yule season will be more than just the wheel of the year turning. I’m setting that intention!

It’s a long road towards civil and ethical society.

But hey, it was a peaceful day, and I did get to see at least a few birds!

The resident Great Blue Heron never disappoints.

Oh yes, Apache and I had a better ride today, but I don’t think he likes riding when it’s getting dark with no lighting.

Hey, Animals! Distract Me with Cuteness!

I needed some distraction today, and while I got plenty thanks to 5 hours straight working with engineers on project management tasks, I prefer the distraction provided by my animal friends today.

Do you mean me? Yes, my beauty is distracting!

As a matter of fact, Connie Gobbler did provide cute distraction today. In the morning, I opened the gate to the new chicken/turkey run. About an hour later, while I was checking my bird count, I heard domestic turkey sounds. Sure enough, brave Connie had gone to check the grass out. Once she got over how it felt, she seemed happy.

The heron understood her reluctance to it was too cold to leave shelter.

A bit later, both Lee and I saw Clint the rooster standing in the entrance, stretching to peck but not willing to get on the grass. Eventually, he remembered he was a brave manly rooster and joined Connie in exploring.

I didn’t see Cindy or Cathy outside their pen until mid afternoon when I was feeding horses. They didn’t go very far out, but they seemed happy to have fresh plants and bugs to peck at.

They are barely outside, but that’s pretty brave for them.

I had to turn my attention to horses, since I had a rare weekday lesson this evening. I’m sure glad it was sunny and calm outside. That made the cold weather bearable.

We were just glad the water trough ice got broken up. Thanks, Suna.

I rushed to get Apache ready to go and ended up early, so I took some pictures for my boss. She likes horses.

Apache and I enjoyed our lesson, and got to be in Tarrin’s sunset photos. He is working on being straight and not veering off. I’m proud of him.

After the lesson I practiced putting a blanket on him for the ride home. Tarrin showed me how to use the fancy blanket I got with the trailer. I think I can do it myself now. He does look very spiffy in it.

We will see what it looks like in the morning. I’m sure he will roll in poop with it on.

Writing about the animals has helped! My wrath at the cruel things the US President said today about a murdered celebrity couple is now just a simmer. These are hard times.

My Weird Way to Cut Down on Social Media

It’s only kind of weird, but it works for me the problem is that my phone thinks I look hours and hours at it, when, in fact, I’m not even near the phone. It’s hard to doomscroll if your phone is nowhere nearby and the computer you’re using is only connected to LinkedIn (and honestly, ten minutes is plenty to determine who’s been laid off lately).

I still enjoy social media, but do a quick Facebook check in the morning, play with my Finch self-care app for 20 minutes, see if I got any personal email, then walk away.

Also doing my nails creates at least an hour of phone-free time.

That’s because I leave the phone outside listening to birds once I have to stop birding with my own eyes and ears. The phone may think I’m staring at Merlin Bird ID, but no, I just check in periodically. Any texts or other messages just have to wait.

Today’s bird was this Ruby-crowned Kinglet, as photographed on the phone. blurry.

I can work undisturbed by my online social life except in breaks. That’s helped me from going down rabbit holes and letting myself get upset.

In the evenings, I read other people’s blogs and news sources that don’t try to get me all upset. This all works for me. I can still stay informed and keep up with friends without it consuming my day. This gives me time for horses, birds, domestic fowl, and wildflowers, not to mention friends and family!

She’s talking about us. We are domestic fowl.

So, my social media trick is to get your phone all busy doing something for you and ignore it for a good chunk of your day. It makes checking for messages and updates a fun interlude, not the whole day.

Morning fog on the window screen. It got very foggy this evening, too.

Today I enjoyed many things while the phone was ignored. I took some autumn photos, for one thing.

Pretty day! The yellow is a willow trees.

I watched a new run for the chickens and Connie get worked on. Connie was not impressed and tried to scare away the noisy dudes by gobbling and displaying her magnificent feathers. I didn’t even know hen turkeys could do that!

I also ended up with time to work with horses a bit longer than usual, so I picked out all the burs in Drew’s mane and tail. He was a true gentleman during the process. I think he’s feeling better.

In the evening Lee and I got a new coffeemaker, which is exactly like our previous one, only not worn out. We look forward to coffee tomorrow. I also got a slightly better toaster that should be less likely to burn my thick bread. These are our holiday gifts to each other.

We treated ourselves to dinner in a “real” restaurant and made our server very happy by forgiving him for not realizing we were his table. I had a magnificent beer and some salmon, which means I had a great Saturday with little phone time…until now, when I’m writing this.

Let’s Enjoy Late Autumn

My thoughts on deep subjects will have to wait until tomorrow. Work was quite interesting today but tired my brain out. I was also still a bit tired from being around people at the Master Naturalist holiday meeting. It was very pleasant, but I got peopled out.

Today was beautiful if you like fog. I certainly do. I run around taking pictures of spiderwebs and trees.

The weather forecast said it would be sunny and warmer, and it did get quite pleasant in the afternoon, but I could look directly at the sun.

It was very nice for doing animal chores and watching the birds. The light made autumn leaves especially bright to my eyes.

I even ate my evening meal out in the birding area. I was rewarded by visits from all the sparrows and two pairs of owls, Great Horned and Barred, trying to out-hoot each other. That shut the hawks and crows up! Sunset, a chill in the air, and an owl chorus make for an unforgettable late autumn respite!