daily life – The Hermits' Rest

Analyzing my bird sightings

Yesterday I worked on adding up how many bird species I observed here at the Hermits’ Rest last month. I was happy to have seen 126 different species as the migration season drew to a close. I was wondering if there was a seasonal pattern, because I intuited that the spring and autumn migration seasons would bring in more species.

Speaking of birds, I’m not sure if this sparrow nest addendum was on purpose.

I don’t remember exactly what I did, but somehow Excel asked me if I wanted an analysis of the data. Well, yes, I did, because data analysis using spreadsheets is not one of my skill sets. I had all kinds of questions that I’d like answered, like what were the most common species, which species have been here every month, etc.

Suddenly, BOOM. a new tab opened on the spreadsheet. It had all the answers. Something had analyzed my spreadsheet. Oh no, I found a use for AI! Damn! I couldn’t not look at the results. I really wanted to know.

Right on top, there was a summary of my ranch bird data:

The sheet is a month-by-species presence matrix: an X means a bird was recorded in that month. Coverage spans Dec-23 through May-26, with 2,804 total monthly presence marks. May-25 is the richest month (129 species); Jul-24 is the quietest (60 species). 18 species appear in every month, suggesting reliable year-round residents. 30 species appear in only one month, highlighting possible migrants, one-off observations, or rare sightings.

That’s all the stuff I wanted to know! To top it all off, there were tables and charts! Look at this.

I was wrong about the seasons. Winter, with all those sparrows, has the second most sightings, after what I expected…that spring gets the most.

This one is probably my favorite. I wonder, though, how we got so many species last June, when the previous June, July, and August were so low (and this June is starting off pretty slow). What I really think is that I need another couple of years of data to see these patterns better. Here’s another graph:

These are the 18 birds we see every month, with two that occur almost every month. I am not at all surprised at the species I see here. I wasn’t sure that Eastern Bluebirds were here every month. I don’t see them every day, but I guess they are here. Okay, one final fascinating thing.

These are supposedly the birds we’ve only seen once. That’s pretty interesting, but look! There are weird spellings on the birds, which I assure you are spelled correctly on the original spreadsheet. I probably shouldn’t have asked for a red border. I wonder what a Swalver is? And I think those last two are both Virginia Rails. But it appears only once on my list. I went too far.

What are my conclusions? In summary, AI is helpful upon occasion, but AI always does weird stuff to the data. Here’s the actual data of birds that were only seen once.

American Golden-plover
American Tree Sparrow
Barn Owl
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black Capped Chickadee
Black Tern
Black-and-white Warbler
Black-necked Stilt
Boat-tailed Grackle
Canada Warbler
Caspian Tern
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Chuck-Will’s Widow
Common Raven
Crested Lark
Greater White-fronted Goose
Hooded Warbler
Indian Peafowl
Lark Bunting
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Pyrrhuloxia
Rough-winged Swallow
Semi-palmated Plover
Semi-palmated Sandpiper
Spotless Starling
Thick-billed Longspur
Tricolored Heron
Virginia Rail
Western Wood Pewee
Yellow-green Vireo

Dang, I’m ambivalent. But now I know stuff about my bird data. I am pleased about that.

I was not quite so pleased when I sleepily ventured onto the screened porch to guzzle some coffee before my 8 am standup (once again it went 30 minutes over). I went to set my coffee down and spotted a snakeskin on the arm of my chair. You know I’ve lived here a while, because all I did was ask Lee if he put it there. Nope. I set the skin on my big turtle shell where it looks quite decorative.

I guess the rat snake left the way it came in when it realized there were no birds or rodents to snack on. Ah, it’s always something!

I think I’m slowing down

One thing about teaching one’s “golden years” is that it seems to take more energy to do normal things. I find myself able to do the things I have to, but optional tasks go by the wayside.

Nails are not optional. I found this one rather wimpy. I was trying for Pride. It’s like tepid support. I’ll do better next week.

Allowing myself to simply rest more has taken mental effort. I always think I have to be doing something. Just being present can be enough, though. It’s about time I lived my values instead of just paying lip service to them!

Like Carlton, I can just bask in nature and enjoy being alive.

Next week will be busy, then there’s lots of travel coming up, so perhaps it was a good idea to conserve my strength today.

I’ll sneak in some fun, too. The ponds and puddles are lots of fun for dogs!

Tomorrow I have some interesting information to share, so get ready to learn some birding facts about the Hermits’ Rest.

Reasonable amount of flooding

I can at last declare I’m satisfied with the amount of rain so far this year. The crawfish pond completely filled for the first time since the winter drought. I’m sure the crawfish are annoyed that their castles are underwater, but the pond won’t dry up again so soon!

This is as full as it gets. Overflow is draining into the front pond.

We got over two inches today, which is enough to replenish all the water receptacles. But it’s not so much that it flooded our driveway. That’s only happened twice.

The rain did cause our road to flood just past our driveway. I watched three vehicles speed through the water and was glad they didn’t have accidents. My neighbor in his big truck drove at a reasonable speed, but you can see it splashed. Just a few inches of water, though.

All that herbicide the farmer sprayed this week is washing into the pond. I hope it doesn’t kill everything in the pond again.

The road flowed onto the driveway, but diverted into the arroyo. Whew. Just a little damage.

Since the water was over the main culvert under the driveway, the backup culvert kicked in. I’d say that was good planning on our part.

Main culvert flowing where the water moccasin was yesterday – the secondary flow is upper right.

The pond got pretty high, and it made very strange sounds. Eventually I figured out the sucking sounds were little whirlpools sucking water and debris down.

I enjoyed checking out the flooding, as I always do. I find the power of water so fascinating! I would think that today’s rain would have put a good amount in our rainwater collection tanks! Gotta get those gutters in first.

That’s looking at Walker’s Creek from my birding hut. Usually that view is just grass.

There may be more rain tonight. I’m looking forward to checking the gauge!

Those trees in the center are the front pond’s edge usually. It drains quickly.

One consequence of the rain and storms is that the dogs went out and got wet. Then it thundered and because Lee had gone out, they all came in to huddle by me. The wet dog smell was overwhelming!

Not Fond of 8 am Standups

It’s a good thing I only have until the end of the month on this second project I took on. I’m drowning in minutiae and endless additional requirements. I could not have actually stood up for the entire hour and ten minutes it took to get through a 30-minute standup meeting today. regrouping will occur, and I’m actually grateful the team is so invested and involved in the project.

You know you’re in desperate need of a break when the highlight of the morning is seeing the back half of a water moccasin. Do not worry; it was not close to me.

I spent most of the day technical writing. I’m doing a series of very simple web-based training and have to write a script for a fake voice to recite over everyone’s favorites, PowerPoint slides. I do try to liven them up. But I’m glad I don’t have to take them. Writing the script is the most tedious part.

The day ended well, since my son and his partner came over for a late birthday dinner. Kathleen was really kind to cook a beautiful roast, salad, and dessert brownies. We all felt spoiled! Kathleen also baked bread all day and items for a bake sale, so the house sure smelled good all day.

I ate a piece of this. It has so many raisins and is so perfectly seasoned. I hope I don’t eat too much tomorrow.

My son put together some little tables for me (he loves assembling) and I put them in the birding station. Kathleen also passed on some very cute pillows that I can put out there so we both can sit comfortably.

And yes. There’s a cover on the couch. Carlton has scratched through the seat cushion, so I covered the lovely upholstery with this overly boho drapey thing. now the room is way too Suna

Off to sleep, since my fingers can’t hit the right letters on the keyboard. But I’m just so happy to have pleasant family gatherings! And I hope tomorrow’s standup meeting is canceled.

The great outdoors? It’s great!

Today I took every possible chance I had to go outside and take a break. I was rewarded with some fun and educational sights. First thing this morning, I went out to check the rain gauge. To my delight, I spotted a pair of Great Egrets under the willow tree in the pond.

I enjoyed them for a few minutes. Then I got my binoculars out of the birding hut to see them better. I quickly realized there was also our Great Blue Heron on the shore, sitting on his favorite grass tussock.

I looked back over at the willow tree and found a third and fourth Great Egret! I wonder if they’re related?

Just as I thought I was finished I heard a familiar squawk. Yes! A third egret! One of our nesting pair of Green Egrets came over to check out the action.

That was enough for me, but when I came back to the porch, Lee spotted our loudest summer resident, a Superb Dog-day Cicada (Neotibicen superbus). These buddies sure make my bird listening difficult.

When I went out to check the mail, I stopped to look at our little mud pond by the driveway. I spotted a very busy crawfish moving mud around to build its home. I was fascinated.

Red Swamp Crayfish (***Procambarus clarkii)***

I’ve always loved these guys, which we called crawdads in Florida. They’re mud bugs in many parts of Louisiana. They eat mud and filter nutrients out of it. Fascinating crustaceans!

After work, feeding animals, and eating a yummy dinner (ironically, featuring crawfish—Kathleen did not know I’d been looking at them), we went for a walk. Kathleen made it to the dumpster with a bag of trash, but I got all fascinated by the crawfish again.

We realized there are dozens of crawfish in the little muddy pond, big ones and small ones, all busily doing whatever they do.

There was a small puddle being guarded by a larger one, who busily herded small intruders. Those claws stuck out above the water menacingly! We just stood there and laughed delightedly. We needed that.

Then we witnessed crawfish mating, which came as a surprise. It starts with the female fighting the male, then they settle down to laying eggs and fertilizing. The female will carry the eggs until they hatch out as tiny versions of the adults.

Kathleen wondered why we didn’t see any shed exoskeletons in the water. I also was curious, so I looked it up. Turns out they eat them! they recycle the nutrients and skeletal material. Uh, they also eat their poop. I think I’ll do a longer article on crawfish for the Master Naturalist blog. I’ll be sure to share the link.

That was plenty of nature fun for one day. We are definitely easy to entertain, but that’s part of our charm, our husbands would say!

I sure don’t like uncertainty

There’s so much uncertainty out in the greater society where I have absolutely no control over what happens. Because of this, I like to have a wee bit of assurance about what’s happening in my little sphere of influence.

Otherwise I’d be hiding on the porch with this beauty.

Do I realize that’s asking for a lot? Oh, yes I do! Many of my friends and neighbors don’t have the luxury of making choices, having a plan with a chance of working out, or having a say in their relationships. I’ve been there myself, which has much to do with why I treasure this phase of my life.

All I have to worry about is what color to do my nails.

Still, the past couple of days tested my ability to not freak out when unexpected events threaten my future planning. You see, I have been enjoying myself a bit these last few months. I have allowed myself to buy too many pens and stickers, many t-shirts, and eyeglasses. I did this knowing I’m putting a third of my income into a 401K, building up liquid savings, and maintaining no credit card debt. I was confident that I have another six months of income before I have to go into retirement poverty.

Yesterday my boss told me she’d gotten a call saying I wouldn’t be working with her after the end of this month. We both thought arrangements had been made with another group so I could keep going. It turned out calls were not returned, blah blah.

BUT. I only got panicky for a few minutes. After that I figured that something would work out if everyone talked to each other. Sure enough, especially as it was identified that our project would probably fail if I was not there through the end of the year, leadership did leader-like things and suddenly the contract was back to ending in December. My uncertainty is diminished. I have a plan again, at least until the next unexpected turn of events!

I’ll go off and breathe again now. I’ve done a lot of that this evening. At one point, Kathleen and I were standing on the porch reveling in the stiff wind blowing rain clouds everywhere but over our house. We both needed the freshness.

I’m so fortunate and grateful for my life, home, family, community, and work!

Figuring out how you feel is the first step

I didn’t know how to write about this yesterday, because I was having a hard time sorting out my conflicting emotions along with conflicts between rational thought and emotional attachment. Truth be told, I’m not much better about it, but I ought to finish the tale of little Benny, the dog who came in from the storms.

You may recall that after we returned him to his official home, he showed up three more times. Remember, he is a small chiweenie dog and lives 2.8 miles away. The last time he arrived was last Friday. We decided to let him hang out until his people asked for him back.

So, we fed him and endured his love affair with Carlton along with marking various spots with copious pee. He was a typical intact male dog. He was also very happy, friendly, and easygoing. We started to get used to him.

Here he is, fitting in. Wanting to be top dog.

Finally, on Memorial Day, his teen guardian asked if we’d seen him. I said he’d been here quite a while. No word until 5 pm, when she said her parents would come get him. I didn’t know how I felt about giving a dog back to someone who hadn’t even asked about him for three days. I still don’t know.

But, we sent the nephew out to meet them, since he knew them from when he was renovating Anita’s house and that family lived next door. His mission was to act tough and find out if they had a credible explanation. About an hour after they showed up, he came back in the house without Benny. Apparently most of the family was out of town and the teen left home to supervise “thought his parents had taken Benny with him.” (Quotes indicate I’m dubious.)

The parent said he would be fine letting us keep Benny, but the teen girl would be sad (and I predict would be at our house “visiting” all the time. Plus, he vowed that he’d fix their broken fence and take Benny in to get neutered so he won’t make puppies with their two unspayed Frenchies. The nephew believed them enough to send Benny home. I accept that, since I asked him to handle it (and I’m grateful).

I was surprised to find myself sort of sad. I know we do not need more dogs and would have to neuter him. But I liked him. Now that a couple of days have passed, I still wait for him to come through the dog door immediately after Carlton. And Carlton? I think he also missed his buddy but is glad the constant humping and licking have stopped.

I’m just hoping that giving him back was the right thing to do. I agree it’s their dog. But I want him safe. I guess the lesson I learned from this is that sometimes you just have to accept discomfort and a lack of closure. There simply may be no way to know what the best decision is.

Nice sunset, even if it doesn’t show the prettiest view of the ranch.

Other tidbits: dudes came by to figure out how much the new gutters will cost so we can get hooked up to the water storage tanks. I’m a bit disappointed that the only shade of red is more like the left shipping container above. Our current gutters are like the right shipping container. That’s okay. Most important is that they do the job.

Attractive hummingbird conveniently shows a current gutter and a water tank.

I still have more deep thoughts but will save them for tomorrow.

I don’t want it all

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?

I’m no longer even thinking about having it all. I just want enough. I want my family safe, a supportive community, a comfortable home, and enough to eat. I guess having it all would be all the above plus access to healthy food, natural beauty, and animal companions. Yarn, too. And books.

Alfred is glad to be our animal companion.

I have these things. I’m very privileged. I want these things for everyone in the world. It’s attainable but not with the distribution of wealth around the world. What a frustrating situation. I’m glad there are people smarter than me trying to find ways to change our oligarchy. What I can do is help others when I can. My job makes that easier than it once was. I’m grateful.

Truly, it’s only really having it all if “all” is available to everyone, no exceptions. Even people we don’t like.

Humor break. Many of these mushrooms are coming up right now. From a distance it looks like a field of tampons.

I’m not up to writing much about today. The highlight was killing plants, so that tells you something. But before I eliminated the growth in the pool patio, I did my best to rescue as many portulaca plants from the racks between stones as possible. I think some will make it.

Pleased with simple progress for all of us

While today wasn’t exciting, it was satisfying. The family got things done that they’d been wanting to do for a while.

As a result, our surroundings are more pleasant and will be even more so soon!

Yesterday my giant tree stump was sculpted into a multi-level bird feeding platform. It was fun watching the little chainsaw making all the cuts.

With the yard all weed-eated and mowed, things looked pretty spiffy. Thanks, men. It’s spiffier now, because Lee and I went to Lowe’s and got a few plants, a suet feeder and some bird seed. I moved my solar birdbath to where I can see it, and set up the suet feeder this afternoon. It looks very nice. Perhaps birds will even find and use it. I hope to get photos.

I haven’t fed birds before, since we have plenty of natural bird food here and I don’t want to attract unwanted diners. So I’ll only put out a little food each day to try and get pictures.

It’s nice that Lee has taken up gardening since we built the porch. The houseplants are cheerful. What’s not cheerful are all the plants growing on the pool deck and flower beds. There are some, like nut grass and fall asters that I can’t pull up. Plus the Bermuda grass from when our yard was a pasture won’t go away by pulling. So, reluctantly, I will have to make use of herbicide. All precautions will be followed. Once the poolside bed only has the plants we want, we have some native plants to add in. That’s my plan, anyway.

This will look much better tomorrow. It has to perk up. My favorite portulaca and Lee’s favorite, wandering dude (yes, that’s what it’s called now).

Work is also starting up again on the pool house project behind our house. I love discussing all the creative plans for building it out to look good and do creative re-use of materials.

Carlton and Benny were inspecting the work—you can see Carlton coming out.

I’m looking forward to my plans for tomorrow, which I hope will include more horse time than today. Kathleen’s keeping up with her Dusty work. I do a lot of petting and grooming. But I did see Vicki and her horse, Malone, today. It’s fun having a visitor on horseback!

Animal transitions

Benny the dog showed up when it was raining again last night. This was the fourth time he’s shown up, so he appears to know the route. The dogs barked a lot last night thanks to that, so no one got a lot of sleep.

I was quite surprised to turn around and see Benny and Carlton in my bathroom doorway this morning. I guess he has the dog door figured out.

So, we’ve been waiting to hear from his owners, but I guess they haven’t missed him yet. It’s no use driving him over there, because he’d just follow us back. Sigh. In the meantime, he follows Carlton around in a lovesick manner. I’m sure Carlton is getting tired of it. I promised him either Benny would go home or he will be neutered next week. That should help.

No one here dislikes Benny. But we aren’t looking for a dog, especially one with owners. So, we’ll see what happens. At least he’s safe and getting tummy rubs.

Tonight Anita and I went out to dinner for the first time in a good while. We ate Vietnamese food, which is a real treat for us these days. She has finally had to let Pickle go, after a couple of pretty hard years with dementia and other issues. You know that was hard. It’s one of the hardest decisions people make. People at the veterinary office were so kind to her, though. That warmed my heart.

I’ll miss Pickle in her younger years when we cuddled in bed and went on long walks with Vlassic and Anita. I’m glad she’s no longer confused and unable to go out. Send Anita some good thoughts.