You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
If I got great news, I’d tell the people in my household, then call Anita and Mike, because they are the people I tell stuff to. Then I’d tell my local friends email chain, my old LLL friend Facebook group, my horse friends, and my other Facebook friend group who I’ve been friends with before there was anything other than email. I guess I’d then go out with the horses and think about things. I might do the horse part first.
What news do I have for you blog readers today? There isn’t too much, since we got lots and lots of rain. All good. Not like mudslide rain, just standing water that’s not conducive to outdoor activities.
February showers bring happy wildflowers.
But everybody at our house did go look at paint colors for the renovation project house. Mmm, two shades of white. But, it had to be whites that complement pink and tan, the colors of the retro tile we are keeping.
Great paint names.
I got paint samples to take over to the house to see how they go with the brick (peach) and roof (gray/green/brown). I want a grayish green for the trim and a dark apricot for the doors. We will see if any of them look okay or if we have to be more conservative.
We also went all the way to Temple to look at tile and floors for the house. No final decision was made, but it was fun looking. We also had a good lunch (especially the squash casserole thing) and ran into our next-door neighbors/relatives. It’s rare that all five of us are in the same place. We are a happy, yet hermit-like family.
Floor candidate. Goes with creamy colors. Main bath idea Kitchen with tools pretendí to be an island My offspring did this drywall.
I’m glad Apache is better about his medication now, or I’d have gotten extra wet trying to get it to him. The other horses will get their rations whenever it isn’t raining tomorrow. It was slippery out there!
No bird news from here. I saw sparrows and a hawk. Oh, and doves in Temple.
I saw this tiny arachnid on the new drywall.
Newshounds, I’m sure you wished for more, but I doubt you want to read the Jackson Browne lyrics I got all misty over and posted on Facebook. You can go listen to the version I watched tonight. Perfect for a reflective old imperfect human, even if he did write These Days at 16.
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
Probably many of us have waxed and waned in interests throughout life. My hobbies have remained pretty darned consistent, though. I did stop sewing (mostly quilts) for some reason, around the time when my other upheavals were heaving (divorce and nonprofit organization going up in flames). I still like reading, knitting, horses, nature, and hiking. Oh, and fingernail polish. That’s a weird one.
The amount of doing of any one thing goes up and down, of course. It’s part of the carousel of time. Oh wait, that’s some old song.
Speaking of carousels, my horses have made me feel like I’m on one lately. Up and down. But hey, today the horsies are on the up side (by the way I read that PETA wants to ban representing horses on carousels because that encourages people to think of them as conveyances — oy).
I vote for snapping turtles on carousels. (I ran into this one while bird watching in the woods.)
In addition to receiving their charming custom halters in the mail today, Apache and Drew both are doing better.
Tarrin came here again today for training and we ended up having a lot of fun. First she worked with the Problem Child, Droodles. He was much less reactive today, and after a bit of work on politeness, was able to get in some good ground work, including cantering (some even good cantering).
I laughed at how disdainful they appeared. He seemed to look forward to his massage. Looking goodAh, look at that rounded back. He stopped nice and straight. So did Tarrin.
I had no trouble working with him, either, though he had a little canter meltdown that I took care of just fine. I’m improving.
Apache seemed glad to get back in the saddle today. Like he did yesterday, he did groundwork with glee. Tarrin said his canters were impressive, and that he did flying lead changes, like a fancy horse. He had so much energy that it was catching.
We did have to calm down when I got to ride him (yay!). Luckily all that rushing around tired him out a bit. We had some nice success working on a relaxed walk and some smooth trot transitions. That was so much fun to work on.
We’re both a bit old to be doing this but we don’t care.
It appears he didn’t lose what we’d been working on before the abscess. That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always been able to pick right up where he left off. I’m so proud of him.
After we finished, Tarrin, her cousin, Lee, and I all went in the tack room and went through some of the stuff that came with the trailer. Some things there were so many of that I donated them to the prize collection for Working Horse Central shows. I should have thought of that sooner.
Tarrin was great at spotting what was trash (mechanical hackamores, stud chains) and treasures (this custom bit I’m trying to clean up).
It’s signed!
She also encouraged me to take parts of some of the fancy bridles off and see if they would work on Apache’s bitless bridle. Now he has a fancy brow band. I can’t wait to try it on.
It will look better on.
By the time they left, the prizes took up lots of space in Tarrin’s truck, plus I was able to give her cousin a horse blanket and other things. I got some really nice brushes I didn’t realize were in there. Pretty exciting stuff!
Daily Bird
I was saddened to see that my big bird recording got trashed this morning, but I was able to remember most of what it heard. Besides, my walk in the woods was fun, since I got to see plants, fish, and the snapping turtle.
I’ll give you this photo and not one of the hairy fungus growing on cow poop. You’re welcome.
I’ll let those cheerful red-winged blackbirds be bird of the day, since I talked about their pals the cowbirds yesterday.
My dad hated these guys. The males would always go after him at our South Florida house when he was mowing the grass between our property and a Corps of Engineers canal. He also said they never shut up. That’s sort of true, though the house sparrows have them beat.
I didn’t realize the females arrived before the males until this year. They just make a clicking sound as they fly overhead in large flocks. The males show up around Imbolc and perch in trees or on wires loudly singing their distinctive songs. They make me think of wildflower season. Of course, there aren’t many of those yet. Just the tiny ones.
This speedwell blossom is about 1/4” wide.
I hope you’re able to find an up part on your life carousel. But it’s true that getting to a high point is more fun when you start low. I think.
Dang. These blogs would be a LOT better if I wasn’t always writing when I’m sleepy.
Weird question. I’d say my current fave is a salted caramel milk chocolate square thing you can get from Costco. One is plenty.
I needed a Milky Way bar this afternoon to give me energy to do chores after work. I wish it had helped me realize my Master Naturalist meeting was tonight. I wrote it down on the wrong Thursday in my calendar. Buh.
I usually don’t do that.
Before spacing out, I had a long but fun day, especially when a nice woman taught me how to build a chat bot in MS Teams. I’m not sure if it’s what I actually need, but I had fun messing with the technology.
Then I headed out to horse world without a care in the world.
Drew walked right up to me and indicated he was not interested in working with me, so I put him in his pen and had fun with Apache. He was very interested in getting some fun and exercise in. He acted thrilled to be groomed (I was thrilled to groom him, because he’s shedding! On time! The medicine may be working!
When I took him out to do some slow walk and trot loops (adding more straight walking in), he decided to jump the cavaletti. After a try or two he was trotting over all the logs with vigor. When I sent him the other way after a bit of a rest, he got the zoomies and literally flew over everything at a canter, three times. When I stopped him, he had that look on his face he gets when he knows he did a good thing.
So we left all the other horses to wait for supper while we had a nice walk over to some old grass that won’t kill him, as a reward. I’m glad I had that Milky Way bar, because he had me zipping with him. It was fun.
I also cooked dinner. More nutritious.
Daily Bird
Today I heard yet another sound I’d been missing since summer, the sound of a mockingbird going through its repertoire of songs. All winter they’ve just been chirping, like the cardinals and blackbirds also did. I reveled in my mini concert this morning!
I sing for you, Suna.
Other birds are singing more rather than just giving short calls. The tufted titmice are now bellowing their shrill song, and to my surprise, the brown-headed cowbird has a very pleasant tinkling chiming song that I heard a lot today. See, they aren’t all bad.
I was going to say something silly about this question, then I thought about how many friendships and connections I’ve made since I got online back in the olden days of the 1980s. So, thanks, Al Gore, for inventing the internet. (I was at the University of Illinois at the right time, so I do sorta know how it all really went down.) Yes, the internet was important to me, the good and bad aspects!
Still, the parts of my life that are in person are much of what’s made my life good. I’m feeling a little better about my living, breathing horse buddies today. Apache and Drew must be exhausted from all their adventures the last few days. And to top it off, I wormed them! (Well, Tarrin wormed Droodles, because I was worried he’d chomp on me.)
Don’t get near my head!
So, today was supposed to be a one-horse lesson with Lee driving, since Sara is unavailable. Instead I loaded both my dysfunctional steeds in the trailer to see what could be done with them.
Drew started the day not letting me groom him, so that saved some time. When Tarrin looked at him, his neck was better, but his poll (top of head) was a mess. She spent a long time working on it, then his legs. His whole spine must hurt, which is why I couldn’t brush his tail. Tarrin’s convinced he hurt himself and pulled a lot of muscles, plus may have been kicked on his side. I think that’s likely, from observation.
Once she did all that, he did all kinds of yawning and releasing, like his did after his trim yesterday. And when she was leading him to the lesson area, he kept rubbing his nose along the ground.
He did okay doing some ground work, so maybe he’s feeling better. My job is to exercise him first, then try to groom him. I have ways to stop him from biting, too, so we’re hoping he will heal.
Apache is a happier story. The fancy boots seem to have done the trick, and he was able to do ground work just fine. We may get to ride in Friday. I’m so relieved. It’s hard with both horses being broken.
I’m too sexy for my shoes.
Apache is also taking his medication well now, and was easy to worm. And the best news? He’s starting to shed! Maybe he’ll be more comfortable soon!
That’s enough blah blah about horses. I really should start writing in my horse journal again so I don’t fill the blog with all horses all the time. Here’s a bird. It was trying to escape.
No daily prompt today. You don’t want to hear my ideal boring day. So let’s talk about today, which, though long, was quite fine, thanks to tiny surprises everywhere.
An actual tiny bluet (Houstonia pusilla)
Indeed, I was delighted to find some of my tiny wildflower friends starting to bloom, but my day was brightened by a series of less colorful tiny creatures, the sparrows. This morning, dozens of Vesper sparrows and Savannah sparrows covered the fields and fences.
It looks like they are in a maze.
Whatever they’re finding has them distracted enough that I can recognize them (those two are similar).
This guy is very graphic with my poor camera resolution.
After enjoying the morning birds, which included my first roadrunner heard in Merlin, I tried to work until the dogs went off. Men were driving a backhoe on our property. Huh? Turns out there was a water line leak they had to fix. The horses were not amused, but it was fun to watch them be curious then agitated in turn.
What the heck?Must run!Thank goodness he’s leaving. Goodbye scary beast
I think the horses were curious because in their minds, tractors bring hay. They like hay.
Another tiny flower, dwarf verbena (Glandularia pumila)
We were only without water for an hour or so, which was barely an inconvenience. I was able to get my stuff done in time to go back out and bother the horses some more, because it was farrier time. Terry brought a helper today, so they both got to marvel at Apache’s fancy shoes and the Artimud stuff we put in to protect his hooves. It’s quite interesting clay with honey and other things.
I put his shoes back on when he was done!
Drew was his new self, but they got him trimmed. Everyone else was fine, even Fiona, who also finally got groomed and de-burred. She was, by the way, hilarious when I was trying to take off Apache’s shoes. She kept gluing herself to me to where I’d lose my balance. At one point I realized my face was an inch from a donkey butt. She’s really friendly, but this tiny surprise wasn’t so delightful.
Such a cutie.
Dusty also finally had a much needed bur-ectomy. I finally had time to do it while the others were getting trimmed. His nearly nonexistent forelock was all bur, as was his tail. He looks good now!
So nice to see his tail looking good.
I fed them after the trimming, and that’s when the next tiny sparrow flock appeared. I could hardly count these busy guys.
Looks like a pike of metal, but look closer.
The horses had a lot to say about their busy day. Mabel is proud to still have her mane burs and bits of mud. I tried.
You can’t tame me, though I appreciate the hoof work. My bad hoof needed it.
Meanwhile, Apache and Drew each didn’t finish their food and instead tried to get to the other’s pen by testing the gate. Apache tried hard.
Lemme in.
Drew thought that was funny.
Har har har
I think Drew was processing something. Maybe his hoof trim helped his issue.
He had a lot to say.
To calm myself after all the day’s activities, I went back to the woods to see who was there. The wind had calmed down, so I hoped to hear some good songs. Instead, as I stood quietly, I heard sounds like someone or something was approaching. Was it a deer? A bunny? A raccoon?
It was us.
Yep. It was sparrows, this time the white-throated clan. Dozens of them were under the young cedar elms, scratching around for some delicious item. It was amazing how much noise those tiny fellows made!
Watch them go!
I had fun turning my Live Photos into tiny videos of tiny sparrows. But it does help you actually see the birds!
So many!
Yes, I was quite entranced by the little black-and-white heads bobbing up and down. They completely ignored me until I finally had to move my aching back. What a nice ending to my outdoor hours today.
How many? I’m not sure. Five?
I did finally go inside and finish cooking. Yes, I’m not 100% birds and horses and yarn.
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
I’ll answer this question about the passage of time. The older I’ve gotten, the more I see life as a gift to be savored and enjoyed, not rushed through. I enjoy each day now, rather than waiting impatiently for some future when things will get better or I’ll achieve some goal.
These are the good old days, as Carly Simon said 50 years or so ago.
Horse butts tell you the wind is coming from the west.
Today was windy and cool, but I stood outside and savored the trees and birds anyway. My freshly washed hair did suffer.
I could not have done this on purpose.
By making even the drudgery of the day pleasant, I pleased myself very much. I had a fun discussion about horse personalities with a Tractor Supply worker while we reassured the woman around my age who was being trained on the cash register that she’ll figure it out. Why rush to get out? I met two nice people, and the horse owner told me it was great meeting me.
I then had a perfectly fine time in the local grocery store, too. It’s amazing what treating people nicely can do for your day.
This is the perspective I’ve gained as I’ve entered my “crone” phase of life. I’ve still got lots more wisdom to gain, but I like where I am now.
The long perspective.
Horse report: Apache seems happy with his boots. Drew was fine until I tried to brush his tail and mane. Out came the teeth. Puzzling. Tomorrow is farrier day. We will see what that brings.
Hey y’all. I’m a boomer. How do you know? Well, the first personal computer I owned was the original IBM PC. It had two genuinely floppy disk drives. One held WordPerfect and the other held my dissertation or assignments for students. My PC was extra cool because it had an amber monitor. Ooh. You didn’t need colors, because there were no pictures. I paid a LOT of money for it. But wow, was it better than typing or using a mainframe line editor.
The sky was nice in the morning.
There. I blogged even though I struggled a lot today. I have been getting lots of bad news, and today it was about work. I’ll live.
The evening sky brought sun dogs.
Plus both horses were pretty bad. They don’t feel well. I think Apache’s feet hurt. No clue what’s up with Drew but now he tries to kick me. It’s so weird. We will figure it out.
Ready to chomp. My feets hurt.
I also feel bad. Maybe there’s something in the air.
So here’s a little flower. They are all over the yard. Never seen them before!
What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?
First, I couldn’t answer yesterday’s prompt and I was so tired I fell asleep early, so I missed a day. I guess I miss out on the Bloguary prize, of which there isn’t one.
Winner winner, you can’t have my chicken for dinner. Buttercup is probably pretty tough at age four.
Second, I’m not going to write down my actual thing I’m most afraid to do, but here’s one that’s less life-threatening: I’m afraid to canter on Apache. (For you non-horse folks, cantering is the gate faster than trotting and slower than galloping.)
How I imagine I’d look. On the ground, in the distance.
I actually have good reasons. First, Apache has historically been a rough canterer even without anyone on him. He was so unbalanced he needed to literally kick himself into gear. Sara had a hard time with him when she tried, too. And I’ve never cantered on anything (Sara says I cantered on Pardner many years ago, when he thought he was herding cattle but I thought it was just trotting, which I sucked at back then.)
But, we’ve been working so hard with Apache to get straighter, and now he’s able to nicely transition on the ground. And I’m a better rider because I have been working hard, too.
We will keep trying.
So, what it will it take to get me to canter on Apache? Or Drew? That’s easy. Tarrin is working on my confidence by teaching me skills, and I’m practicing those skills. My confidence level is way higher. I even had fun on Drew on Monday.
Speaking of horse issues, Sara came by with her scary farrier knives and finished digging out Apache’s abscess. Today I did a bit of walking with him and a tiny bit of trotting. He told me when he was done, then we just walked around. He’s also taking his meds like a man using the syringe method.
That thing is sharp.
Poor Apache has horrible long hair from his condition, and it was warm today. He’d probably prefer it to be cooler again. I hope he starts shedding soon.
Drew is shedding, though. But. We’ve had a rough couple of days with his sudden sensitivity on his flanks. Yesterday I lunged him, and he kept snaking in at me. I persisted until he yanked the rope out of my hands, bucked, and ran out of the round pen. He then stopped and waited for me. I got the message. After that, he was friendly and not at all nippy.
Sorry I was grumpy.
Today he started out nippy, but did better being lunged. He seems uncomfortable still, but let me pet his tummy area on both sides. I’ve given him some ulcer stuff and got his feeding routine back to normal, in case eating with the other horses when it was so muddy bothered him.
All I can do is try to help, I guess. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have the horses, the chickens, and the land to enjoy.
Turtles are back!
Honestly, I’ve been feeling good and trying to savor the fine weather and beauty I see everywhere. It’s the best I can do. Who needs to let fear scare you into not enjoying you life and challenges?
I would not win the lottery unless someone gave me a winning ticket as a gift, in which case I’d probably share with the gift giver. I don’t play games of chance (life is a gamble, so I can’t say I don’t gamble).
But today I feel like I won the life lottery. I enjoyed my day, even with the long drive made longer by having to drive around a bad accident on the Interstate. Then I had to ask for help getting my gas cap cover to open. I must have broken it. But a very nice man helped me (I actually walked into the truck stop and picked a man who was being friendly to the clerk to ask for help). After we got the thing open, he saw the knitting bag in the back of my car. He said I looked crafty and me this flattened coin, saying I could bang on it and make myself a silver ring. There are good folks out there!
It’s a former dime, I think.
I listened to NPR the whole way, and though it wasn’t overt fascinating, I learned a few things about brains and such. Since it was sunny, the drive was just more cheerful. Seeing white pelicans flying for the second week in a row helped!
When I got home I checked on the horses. Lee says Drew was mean to him at the gate, like he was with my son the time he got hurt. I think we will have to work on that.
They do seem to appreciate the hay Lee gave them.
My gosh, in only two days the horses got more than double the amount of burs they had before. When I first saw Apache, he not only had all these burs, but hay was attached to it. This is bad enough!
I got many of these off while he was eating. But I have more, plus all of Drew to do before I can work with them.
After the horses and chickens were fed, I was watching football when my neighbor texted me asking if I’d ever seen one of these.
This is a very rare fungus. Oddly, the Devil’s Cigar or Texas Star is found only in central Texas and Japan. I got very excited when Vicki sent the photo, because I knew exactly what it was. There had been an article about finding it in Inks Lake state park recently.
Photo by Vicki King
This is the first or second observation in Milam County on iNaturalist. I’m so glad to have photos with the GPS attached so I could share them and get Vicki’s sighting verified. I wish we could hear it hissing! Since very few people have seen the Texas Star, I really do feel like I won the lottery.
Map of iNaturalist observations. That’s our area, north of Cameron with the pin in it.
I’m going to go see it myself in the morning. I hope it’s not faded. What a find! I should be less tired tomorrow and maybe I can write something better in the Master Naturalist blog.
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?
This answer will be pretty boring if I give the same answers I’ve given to three or four other blog prompts. Yes, indeed, I enjoy knitting and looking at birds and horses. Most of you know that if you’ve visited this blog before.
Look, a bird. It’s a loggerhead shrike.
But, is there another leisure activity I enjoy? In warm weather I hang out by the pool. That counts. And I read about horses, architecture, and home decorating. The latter helps me deal with what a jumbled mess my own house is right now.
What I’ll read when I’m finished writing this
I think my favorite leisure activity is socializing these days. After staying away from people for so long, I am enjoying seeing friends again. I want to do more of it, but I forgot a couple things this week. Lunches, coffees, meetings, etc., are so nice for breaking up the work day!
Today my friend came over and I did her nails for a party. They look good!
Keeping in touch with friends online is another favorite. Yes, I admit I visit Facebook and valiantly scroll and scroll until I find posts from friends. It’s so great to stay in touch, get advice, and learn that way. Most importantly, I can provide support to others by being available online to listen. I do a lot of that lately.
Yeah, not too exciting, is it? But damn, this is what I’ve looked forward to my whole life: a time to enjoy the little things and the people I care about. I hope it lasts a while.
Now for stories. I went out to feed the horses and saw Drew standing by the fence, staring intently. What? I went on up to get the feed dishes, and something caught my eye behind me. It looked like this:
Hello!
The horses weren’t at all happy to see Fiona wandering around eating fresh clover. I just wondered how she got there.
How come SHE doesn’t have to stand in the mud?
When I took their food to them I saw that the lower wire on the temporary electric fence had come loose. The big horses were still held in the pasture, but Fiona could walk right under the live wire. Clever donkey.
Easy exit for a short animal.
The wire is fixed now.
Speaking of wires, little Carlton got the staples out where he had a lump removed. Lee found out the biopsy results, too. The lump was a completely encapsulated stick, probably a cactus thorn. It had gotten infected, so he has antibiotics, but should be fine.
However, Goldie managed to nearly rip out a toenail today. It must have hurt a little!
And I do have daily birds today. The rain finally let up, which pleased the birds a lot. We even had two birds returning from their winter hangouts! I heard and saw a purple Martin, and I heard a whistling duck. Cameron residents better get ready for lots of trees full of chattering ducks. Love those guys.
The Hermits' Rest 