I didn’t blog yesterday because it was just a normal day doing normal things. Today was similar. It’s been cooler, like normal December weather, but I have appropriate clothing.
And the ridiculously early sunsets are pretty.
I did have a brief walk this morning because I wanted to see what was going on next door. Our former ranch property is now unmistakably not ours. That’s a darned nice entry!
If you need fancy cows, go here.
So, other than that I’ve worked, painted some rocks, crocheted the rest of November on my temperature blanket, picked up my new glasses that are now the correct prescription, and wow! I shortened my nails!
BeforeAfterBeforeAfterThese frames are titanium, and very light. They are the least weird ones.
No rock photos. Some are gifts. All are rather amateurish. Instead, you can have a cute photo of Carlton being a circle dog. Lee’s lap is never empty when it’s chilly and rainy outside!
They’re coordinated.
I’ll try to come up with something philosophical or some deep thoughts tomorrow. Heck, I can’t cut my nails and get new glasses every day to make for fascinating blogging, right? Maybe we should view it as good that I feel well enough and the world hasn’t upset me enough to make for more interesting blogging.
It was extra chilly this morning, so I couldn’t sit out and watch birds as long as I wanted to. The wind was really strong and I was not having a good time so I left my phone outside to listen to birds while I came inside and painted a rock yellow. That’s my idea of a good time.
This guy was so chilly it didn’t hop away. Ponderous spur-throat grasshopper.
When I went back outside to check on my phone, I heard a very loud noise that sounded like an extra loud Red-tailed Hawk. When I got to the phone, I looked down at my Merlin record to find out that I had actually missed seeing a Bald Eagle flying over our house. It was heard again later in the morning, so I guess there really was a non-Mexican eagle around, which is rather rare for here.
AI interpretation of a Bald Eagle flying over our house. We seem to have many corgi mix dogs.
Later in the morning, I took all my new glasses back to the glasses place and said I can’t see out of them. So they are having all three pairs remade, so maybe I can see the eagle next time it flies by. It was very disappointing that no matter how hard I tried, I really couldn’t see very well out of the new prescription. I couldn’t read street signs and in the evenings everything was very, very blurry. My guess is that an error was made somewhere in the process.
Looking at glasses I didn’t get to take home.
The two biggest excitements of the rest of the day we’re having lunch with Pamela and only Pamela (because there were no other friends to hang out with today) and then going to the bakery and getting day old sticky buns. I do love the sticky buns. I believe I’ve mentioned how much I like Shirley Mae’s bakery before.
Back at home I finished painting the rock. It’s going to be a Thanksgiving rock for my one piece of table decor. I can’t make my life any more interesting than it is. Sigh. One more day of no work down.
The AI thingy did a much better rendition of my rock.
Excitement starts tomorrow because it’s Thanksgiving and I get to cook oyster dressing. And that’s enough of a blog for today.
I’m just muddling through, but it’s a successful muddle, I guess. Most things I intended to accomplish today got accomplished, so I’m calling it good.
I even learned how to erase ugly power lines and make phone photos unnaturally bright.
Anyway, I muddled through making my hair more blue and did a particularly crappy job of it. I wish I could get to the back of my head more easily. I should pay my hair lady to do it next time.
Sorta blue. This shows me taking a regular photo and making it portrait mode.
Could my day get more exciting? Sure. I bought food for the very small Thanksgiving meal I will cook Thursday and was friendly to everyone I encountered. Why not? I do hope I don’t have to drive to Temple any more this week, though. People drive weird. Everywhere.
This is supposedly rose gold. Well, the camera a fun new toy, even if it isn’t the fanciest phone one.
I would have taken lots of bird photos today, but the memory card was hiding (not really—Lee had it). So I enjoyed the binoculars a lot. This evening I must have spent five minutes watching a female Cardinal chowing down on juicy, black greenbrier berries. Like I’ve said before, our woods provides plenty of bird food.
I’d take some if you have it to me. Sad phone photo.
That’s about all the excitement other than bird stuff. Horse’s are fine but still muddy, and the fowl are enjoying their daily food as usual. Lee, the dogs, and I are also content.
Penney is very content. She loves Lee’s porch chair.
Just a quick hello from my fancy new phone to say I’m about to crash. I had many errands to do today, since I am not allowed to work this week. All but grocery shopping occurred but everything took longer than expected thanks to a nice rainy day.
I could fit in my birding station to watch the rain until it got windy.
First I indulged myself and went to Michael’s, the craft store. I try to go as seldom as possible but I needed a few things, like spray sealant for my silly painted rocks, more paint, and embroidery scissors, because I lost my RV pair. I had a good time looking at odd Christmas ornaments and such.
After the rain were cool clouds.
Next got my phone, which is an iPhone 17 Air. It’s very light. I still liked my other phone but it had some issues, so here I am with this golden one. This camera is a little better, too—not as good as the Pro, but I’m pleased. The new phone also came in very fast. I’d ordered it Friday evening and it arrived today. I let the young man at the store put the front cover on. I always screw that up.
Then I headed off for my mammogram. I’m a good person who occasionally does hard things. The new machines don’t hurt as much but I forgot that I have an allergic reaction to either their disinfectant or the machine, so I got an unpleasant boob rash. The technician gave me antihistamines. I was fine.
I quickly went home to set the new phone up, but it refused to comply when asked to download from the cloud. Since I got partially started, I had to spend HOURS unable to text, get calls, or check Facebook. Argh.
Sunset calmed me down, even though I was on my horse.
Nonetheless all is well. I made it to Apache’s lesson though he was filthy with mud and still damp from the rain. I just took out his burs and loaded him up. It’s good we went, since I was dying to see Tarrin’s new arena cover. It’s great, and didn’t scare Apache at all!
Riding in the arena.
Ooh, the other thing I did today was iron on my bird patches I got at the Master Naturalist conference. My Scissortail on my jeans is perfect. You can see the heron on a denim shirt in the horse photo.
It’s gorgeous.
Whew. Not working is tiring.
(I’m glad Tarrin took pictures for me today, or I’d have very little to share!)
Two meanings to this: one is I’m still stumped as to why my mental health tanked so hard—I couldn’t even be trying myself to go to my riding lesson today. I was too woozy to feel safe riding even good old Apache.
That meant I got to be home for sunset and the welcome rain that followed.
The second way I’m stumped is good, though. I now have a very large stump in my birding area!
Deceased elm tree.
This tree was a hazard on a main road and had to be removed. Lucky for me, the tree’s pieces were destined for our burn pile, and I had mentioned how cool it would be to use a large slice as a bird feeding platform.
This was the first piece I saw. Nowhere near as big as the one I got.
I was working on the porch this morning so I could also watch birds, when I heard the unmistakeable sound of our ancient backhoe approaching. It was beating the stump!
The regular tractor couldn’t carry this!
I have to give them credit, they got me the best stump ever. It’s huge! And when it gets trimmed it will have two heights of at least somewhat level surface that the dogs can’t get to. And since it’s inside our fence, curious cows won’t be able to mess with any feeding or watering stuff I put up there.
The plan is to anchor the birdbath on there, too, so it won’t fall over.
I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet. I usually don’t feed birds, since we have plenty for them to eat here, even in winter, but it might be fun to get some photos.
Trying to show me compared to the stump.
It’s fun to think about, anyway. I am looking forward to tomorrow, when I can sit in my birding station on dry pillows (because I put them in the storage bin!) and look at the stump. You know, when I read that sentence it occurs to me that it sounds dull as heck. Oh well.
A dull photo of doves roosting before the storm.
I will prove I’m more boring than you’d imagine by telling you the evening’s excitement was when Lee realized the rain on our dumpster made the lights in the house reflect off it. We thought it was mysterious lights in the empty field across the road.
It looked less like a dumpster and more like spooky lights in person.
I also heard a turkey in the woods. Now that was exciting. Connie didn’t gobble back at it, though.
Sure, today was both a packed work day and a day of dealing with those anxiety symptoms I abhor, but the horses didn’t do anything to deserve neglect.
We turn our backs on you!
It turns out that when the farrier left yesterday, he turned all the horses out of the pens, then like a good rancher, he shut the gate he let them out of, because he’d found it shut. I didn’t figure that out until late afternoon today, which was really not good on my part.
I turn my back on you, too.
You see, I fed and watered them in the morning, so I just visually checked on them yesterday afternoon, when they were all happily eating the hay in their round bale.
Same thing happened this morning; they were way out in the pasture and looked fine. I never checked the pens other than to note what species of dove was on the upper poles (European Collared Doves).
I intended to feed both them and the chickens early in the afternoon, but as soon as I walked out the door, I had to go back in and help someone. The second time I walked out, I was distracted by a huge tree stump that was headed for the burn pile, but did get the chickens fed before another call.
Huge (already dead and a danger in town)
By the time I finally got out to turn the water off and feed horses, I was confused to see them standing around outside the pens. Then I realized what happened. Poor horses! Luckily it didn’t rain or storm today and they have a water trough outside the pens. So, they were fine.
Dusty plodded right over to his spot and indicated he was ready for his senior feed.
Tuesday is always hard because I start work early and end late, so there was no exercise time, but I did check all their feet and was happy to see Apache’s eye looked good. He’d gotten a piece of hay in it and I’d been treating it.
No drainage or goo coming out. Yay.
Being horses, they weren’t upset with me, just happy for food and bur removal. They always cheer me up.
Dusty has to be sure he gets all his “gravy.” He’s a wet chewer.
I think I got more non-spam calls today than I usually get in a month, but I enjoyed helping folks at work, and was happy to get calls from my doctor’s office about getting something to help with these blasted chest pains.
Looking at these guys helps, but I need meds. Do notice Spice’s tail. She’s an active swisher.
Let’s hope tomorrow is nice and calm, with happy pills and maybe some rain!
I’ll be sitting right here in the morning, unless it’s raining hard!
Okay, it’s not a city; it’s a small town. And I no longer go into town very often. I’m avoiding humanity. Plus many of my favorite places are no longer there, sigh (probably because I stopped going anywhere optional).
But there are still a few places I like in Cameron, Texas, so I must choose one. It isn’t very hard, basically because I truly love pecan sticky buns. The only place you can get them is at the local bakery!
See, I even have a dusty sticker in my office.
Shirley Mae’s has a cute playroom my son built, many upgrades done by Chris, and it’s where Anita and I used to get coffee and snacks together before she stopped taking any time off work. Lots of good memories there, and the owners are also great.
Where the sticky buns live (photo from their Facebook page)
I really could have used a baked item this morning, since I drove all the way to the courthouse for jury duty, only to have it canceled right as I arrived. I’d called the jury duty line before I left, and it did say I had to show up. So, 99 people and I drove from around the county just to be good citizens.
Nice building, though.
It’s typical for all the cases to settle before trial here. It costs a lot to do jury trials, so they try to plea bargain everything. I get it. And apparently this kind of thing happens often in other places, too. So, I just wish the bakery was open on Mondays for sad potential jurors.
On another note
I’d say all is well that ends well, but I have to admit I feel mentally unbalanced. Last night I started having severe anxiety symptoms, the chest pains that you hope aren’t really a heart attack. (Watch said my pulse was fine.) Then last night, I had a horrible nightmare that had me screaming for my mom and woke Lee up.
I wonder what’s bothering me? Not this wheel bug!
Today I have continued to feel anxious and pained in my chest. Of course I have no more Xanax, because I haven’t felt really bad since this time last year. What’s weird is I haven’t felt no frightening new/old President to concern me. Things are fine as far as I can tell.
I hope I figure this out!
And don’t worry; I’ve dealt with anxiety my whole life, just less in the past few years. I can handle it with all that breathing and meditation and stuff.
Of the services that deliver packages to our house, one used to be my favorite, FedEx. They always brought my stuff up the driveway and once the driver helped us when a member of the family fell and got overheated. The USPS woman is just fine, while UPS had a woman who wouldn’t bring anything to the house, so I had to go tote them (like horse feed—heavy).
Enjoy my latest mandala. It’s bright.
Suddenly, starting a few months ago, FedEx decided that our driveway didn’t exist and started dumping packages at the next driveway that leads to the cow operation barn and my son’s cabin. It’s usually in long grass. I’ve been annoyed.
Oh look. I have moody brown nails, matching how I felt about my deliveries.
I thought I’d fixed it by getting online help from their Facebook page. I was wrong. I was probably talking to a bot. My packages continued to go to the wrong place. I despaired of ever getting the problem fixed since calling and website checking did not help.
Nope, none of this happened. I could not track the case. Grr.
But yay! On Thursday I had gotten the mail then was out working on the round pen when I saw it! The dang truck was dropping something off next door. I dropped the stuff in my hands and sprinted (translation: jogged briskly) to the road to catch the driver before the truck passed. My quads still hurt.
But I did it! I got the guy to stop. He started to “diffuse” me immediately. I wonder if he realized that pissed me off more. I was just trying to say my driveway is not where he dropped off packages. I felt justified in telling him how hard it was to tell FedEx their GPS software was wrong.
Indeed, it was. Whoever took over for the previous drivers (nice woman and man) had moved the pin on their Maps software to the wrong driveway, because like Apple Maps, it doesn’t acknowledge our driveway for some reason. Apple Maps is annoying that way, thinking there’s a driveway from the other driveway. That’s been gone for years.
The red line is our driveway, where the mailbox is. The yellow path is not a road.
The upshot of it all is that the guy moved the pin and added a note. I’m patiently awaiting the next delivery. But I think I finally triumphed. I hope.
I have as much hope as this out-of-season pink evening primrose.
Oh, you’d suspect I found metaphorical heaven here on the ranch in the beautiful sunset light.
Front pond at sunset with no clouds.
That is a nice thought! It was a beautiful day, and my sunset walk was pretty darned heavenly.
Same view. Other side of pond.
However, the Heaven I found was not for me. It was for Lucky here.
Hi, I’m Lucky.
You see, I went to feed the chickens and noticed the feed bag was rather well chewed. So, I picked up the bag. I was not surprised to see that there were little creatures in my sealed food bin. At least four tiny mice running around on a layer of chicken feed. That could be Heaven for tiny rodents!
I had trouble getting mouse photos. I was kind of grossed out.
That’s when I saw that the mice weren’t alone. Lucky was in there with them. Now, being in a safe warm box full of tasty morsels is any rat snake’s idea of heaven! Lucky is young, but climbed well enough to get in!
At least four mice here.
Well. Yuck. So, I took out all the food the mice hadn’t gotten to yet. One big bag I took out and emptied onto the ground. That’s where Lucky was hiding. That’s when I picked her up and took her over by the hay bales and let her go (former caregiver for a rat snake, so I have the skills).
Thanks, Suna.
I was able to go back to my violated storage container and create an exit for the mice. If they are still there tomorrow I’ll eject them when I clean and disinfect my storage box. I sure hope it hasn’t developed a hole in it. I’m pretty sure all these creatures got in when I had the lid up.
I’m outa here. Thanks for the hay and food!
Anyway, this was all kinda icky. Heck, I was a suburban band mom not all that long ago. I’m not always the tough rancher gal I’d like to be. That’s why I went on that sunset walk. I needed to breathe fresh air.
Ah, a beautiful clasping coneflower that thinks it’s spring.
I did discover multiple spring flowers starting to grow. I assume the next freeze will slow them down, but right now it’s spring-like.
Go back to sleep, little paintbrush!
Ah, before I forget, I got my “furniture” set up in the birding station. Two low stools are a table and footrest. They were a pain to put together because the legs are slanted, so I had to smoosh them together to get the bottoms to fit into the tops. I just about didn’t have the arm strength. But I prevailed.
See what I mean?
I also got another weatherproof storage box that was easier to put together because it was cheap plastic. I will not store mouse food in it, just my binoculars and cushion in case of rain. It also can serve as visitor seating. So far, the only visitor has been Harvey.
I need to figure out what to do with the leftover wood. I’m not sure if there’s a plan to use it.
Notice that the inside walls are also finished. This is one classy outdoor folly. My friend Tandy says it looks like the stand where Lucy in Charlie Brown comics used to dispense her mental health advice.
I need a sign that says, “The birder is in” perhaps.
Sorta like Lucy. And I AM crabby.
Thinking of all of you, especially those dealing with health challenges.
I’m glad that last time the aurora borealis came to Texas I got to see it and get good photos. It was here last night, but I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I missed it.
I went out tonight more than once and was quite charmed by the glow to the north, but I think it’s the village of Ben Arnold.
The stars are pretty, though.
It was a beautiful evening, though, and much warmer than earlier this week. I love that it’s dark enough out here to see the Milky Way in photos.
Phone photo.
Thank goodness we have these chances to remind ourselves what an amazing setting we’re privileged to live in.
Yes, even crow poison is amazing, blossoming all winter.
Yeah, the weather here can go from 35° to over 80°F in one day, which is also impressive. our plants and animals must adapt!
Connie has neck feathers again after her awkward molting period Clint also looks much less scruffy. Doves are always chill. It’s starting to look autumnal. Time for the leaves to dump!
I wasn’t going to mention this, but it’s another impressive nature thing, to me. The past few days, hawks have been all over our property. Nearly every time I come outside, I disturb a Red-shouldered Hawk or a Northern Harrier. There’s no secret as to why: the rodent population is really high. I see all kinds of mice and rats everywhere I go lately. They hang around the chicken coop just waiting for the birds to go to bed so they can eat their food. Grr.
Ha! No mouse or rat photos, so here’s something I colored.
So, please, hawks, eat up. And thanks, dogs, for doing your part on rat patrol. I’m disappointed at how few the horses get, though. They should get busy going after mice instead of finding cockleburs.
One more mandala. Thanks to Lee for scanning them.
The Hermits' Rest 