family – The Hermits' Rest

Sedate Samhain

There was very little spookiness for this year’s observance of the pagan new year (for some of us) or Halloween (for others). Tomorrow I’ll walk through the metaphorical door into the darkness/introspection/changes and we’ll see what happens next.

It’s vaguely autumnal now, with honey locust leaves turning.

Lee and I drove out to Temple to get me some bird feeders/seed at Wild Birds Unlimited, but it’s gone. So I managed to find substitutes at Lowe’s and Tractor Supply. Now that winter’s coming I want to supplement my stump feeder with a couple of hanging ones. All the winter sparrows and friends might enjoy variety. The House Sparrows won’t care.

We visited the antiques store area in downtown Temple, and I found two purple tea light holders from PartyLite, where I used to get a LOT of candles a few decades ago.

I got two for four dollars, and one is $14 on Etsy, so I did well.

We also went to a very fun kinda goth antique-ish shop that I’m pretty sure is where my kids hang out. Lots of macabre and odd items. We enjoyed it, other than the incense, which messed Lee up.

The day wasn’t entirely un-creepy, though. Everywhere we went today there were way too many Grackles way too close to me. I’d try to look at a cabbage plant, and out would pop a Grackle. Lee nearly stepped on one, too. Sure, Grackles are common near retail outlets, but these were extra! Then, when I complimented a sales person in one of the stores for her feather earrings, she explained that she was dressed to evoke the spirit of a Grackle. Black feather necklace, feather print wrap and even iridescent eyeshadow. Time to go back to the ranch, where more sedate Grackles live in reasonable numbers.

We’re just shiny, hungry, highly adaptable birds. Settle down, Suna, or I’ll peck you like a discarded French fry!

Then I scared myself. For context, we’ve just finished this season of the Scariest House in America show with the marvelous and sartorially splendid Retta.

In the show, people talked about hearing noises and invisible people talking in their haunted homes. This appeared to stick with me, because as I was walking back from horse feeding, I kept hearing sounds like a gate opening. Then I heard a woman’s voice, but couldn’t identify it. Eek! I even called out, “Hello!” As if that would help.

The horses often make the chains on the gates jingle.

Only when I scurried into the house did I realize my phone (in my back pocket) was playing an ad. My phone is usually on silent, but I’d turned it up to change Siri’s voice and forgotten to turn it down. I butt tuned something! Gee whiz. I set myself up for that!

I hope you had/have a good holiday weekend. El día de los muertes is tomorrow. I’m gonna ask my dad to watch out for me. it can’t hurt.

Concrete and more concrete (and proof of my Boomer status)

What was your first ever videogame?

Well, I was born in 1958. The dawn of the transistor age. So, yep, my first video game was Pong. When you only have 2 television stations to watch, Pong is an entertainment option.

That was probably the last video game I ever played enough to get good at, though I was OK at Pac-Man. I’ve saved a lot of time by not playing video games, so that I could knit, read, or listen to birds. Everyone gets to choose how to spend their downtime, and we all need it, right?

And now for concrete. I was a little bummed that I had to be in Waco when the long-awaited day of pouring the cement pad for the water storage tank finally arrived. But my family didn’t let me down, and my son and spouse kept me updated. They even sent a video.

The pad is rather complex, because it has to be below grade to fit under the spouts coming off the roof. But our nephew is quite the engineering genius, so we have it in a depression with a raised lip that will capture any overflow and send it out toward the creek. It will work!

In addition to the pad, we now have a concrete pad that will be a horse maintenance station for washing, grooming, etc. The water spigot that’s awkwardly placed near a former fence will move over, and we will finally get a utility sink, if all goes to plan. We will see.

They had to get a bit of extra cement, so an addition was made to the front porch. It will eventually tie in to the second concrete project, walkways to the front porch and pool area. Fancy, I know.

Today the work of removing the forms for all the pads began. According to my son, that’s even harder than building them. Besides that, some of the supports were screwed in, and a few are now encased in concrete. Of course they can remove them, but ugh.

Why no, I don’t know how the inner forms get removed, or if.

I like how the edges are getting beveled on the parts that stick up. The horse area is also beveled for safety.

There’s a lot of cleanup and dirt redistribution left to do, but the end is in sight! The pipes and other equipment needed to get water flowing into the tanks is next, plus pumps, filters, and purification equipment. This is a big project with so few workers. Thank goodness I have a talented family and they have a helper who is learning.

Lesson 1: don’t make sparks on dry grasses.

Water, weather, welcome changes

Folks, I’m still thinking about the book I recently finished, so I’ll share some ranch updates that I’ve been observing and enjoying.

Someday this hill will be helping shape our drainage.

One thing that’s going on is that the project of setting up our huge water tanks to collect rainwater off the house and garage roofs is moving along, even though the least little bit of rain tries to fill the hole where the impressively deep concrete pad to hold the house’s tank is going to be.

Just a little rain started to make a new pond.

For example, it rained .04” yesterday, but because all the rain on the roof falls out of the same pipe, which of course is located on top of the hole, since eventually that’s where the tank will be. Even this morning’s heavy dew had a nice flow going. That bodes well for future dry spells, but not for setting up the forms to pour the concrete.

At least the amphibian population is happy.

This week my son and his helper have been getting things in line to create the forms for the big pad and a bunch of paths/sidewalks leading from our entry gate to the house, the pool, and the pool house. We will be SO fancy! Imagine not tracking in mud and stickers! Imagine not tripping on holes the dogs and visiting critters have dug! It’s so encouraging!

The guys have taken wood scraps we already have and cut or ripped them down to make stakes and holders for the plywood that will make the forms. As you can see, it involved a lot of sawing!

They’ve done a lot of other small jobs around the ranch, like trimming the willow trees beside the driveway, making the henhouse door larger so Darryl, the tom turkey can get in, and fixing two very vexing leaky pipes. Most important, the horses now have water again after the leaks got fixed. I’m so glad that our turn came!

Limbs no longer try to scratch vehicles.

Tomorrow should see lots more progress, and a very happy change in the weather! It’s going to cool off and be very pleasant, at last. I’m looking forward to more time in the birding hut before and after work, and a pleasant experience doing this year’s pollinator bio blitz, which starts tomorrow.

Maybe these mofos will get all sluggish or something.

I do hope the beautiful swallowtail and queen butterflies are still here for my intense iNaturalist activity over the next couple of weeks! And since the Master Naturalist annual meeting is next week in Waco, I’m in a nature-mania mode! Or more of these.

My new funnel weaver buddy, ***Barronopsis texana***

And that’s the news from the Hermits’ Rest.

The year has gone fast, and hot

I have a book to write about, but I’m still thinking about it, so let’s talk about my annual craft project, the temperature blanket. I finally finished September, which had a lot of boring tan squares in it to fit the size of the other units. If you remember, the squares are set up like a monthly calendar.

Since September started on a Tuesday and ended on a Wednesday, there are ten tans to build out the six rows needed for other months, like August.

August is the middle unit here, and you can see it requires all six rows, though most months don’t. You can also see that is was extra hot this summer. Last year there was only one day over 100° (the bright pink). August only had two days with a high of less than 95! No wonder Lee wants a house in the mountains!

I was all happy to share this photo of the first 3/4 of the year until I looked at it. Dang. I attached the last row upside down. I guess I was too engaged in watching football to double check. You know what I’ll be doing tomorrow night! Looks like making progress on October will be delayed!

Here’s a distraction. Kathleen found this lady beetle larva in some plant litter that remained after I removed some annoying spurge.

It was a good day for looking at bugs and dead stuff around the swimming pool, I guess! More prep work got done for setting up the rainwater collection, so we were outside talking about it for quite a while.

She also found this velvet ant (really a flightless wasp).

I was a little slow all day today, I think. As I was listening to her spouse tell me stories, Kathleen snuck up behind me and started messing with my hair. I kept feeling around but didn’t find any bugs or anything. We just kept talking. Then Alfred surprised me when he snuck up and drooled on my foot, so I blamed the hair weirdness on him (how, I don’t know). I didn’t figure out it was actually Kathleen poking at me for way too long. At least we all got a good laugh out of it. Believe me, we needed it.

You asked, I’ll tell you about my mornings

Tell us about your morning routine.

Does anyone really care about this? If so, why? I’m happy to let all of you go about your mornings in peace and confidentiality. But, the Blog Prompter asked…

Leave now or be intrigued at the tedium.

I awaken most mornings at the civil hour of 7:15 am, which is possible because I work on the Pacific Coast but live in Texas, and have no commute.

Upon popping out of bed in an annoyingly non-grumpy manner, I pet some number of dogs, pee, then head to the closet and put on appropriate clothing for the day, usually jeans and some bird t-shirt.

In the bathroom I brush and floss my teeth (hoping to avoid future bridgework). I got a Waterpick today, so that will be added to the endless morning duties. Next, I take morning medications and supplements. It’s not that much.

Excitement builds as I wash my face with rose-scented micellar water, smooth on my serum, and apply my lotion with sunscreen over that. The only makeup I do is to pencil in credible eyebrows. Gray, to match my hair.

I brush my hair and figure some way of getting it out of my eyes, then comes the fun part. I decide what jewelry goes with the day’s outfit. Usually no one sees it but the family, but it’s fun for me.

Latest acquisition, pendant by Art Tafoya (Diné) — it has a snake! I won’t wear this too often since it’s pretty big.

Finally I go downstairs and start a cup of coffee, which is Folger’s, because it’s mild. While the coffee makes, I take the birding phone outside to catch the morning birds. I then take the coffee out on the screened porch and relax with Lee for a while. We catch up on news, Facebook, apps, etc. This is a great way to start the day!

The only photo I took today is this lovely rabid wolf spider.

On workdays, I head to my office, and on other days I’ll go for a walk or sit in my bird hut and watch birds, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders, rabbits, and cattle. It’s new calf season, which is great.

Wow, that was a lot of detail. I did all those things today! Later in the afternoon Kathleen and I went to Temple (closest town with shopping centers) to look for a very specific outfit she needs to wear next week. We also had fun at Western store finding a couple of nice outfits that will fit her current size. I love Western stores.

We had dinner at Olive Garden, which was quite pleasant and laughed and talked about all the overwhelming “stuff” going on in our world right now. I think that helped our moods.

Take me with you

If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them?

My friend and former housemate, Jeffrey Tveraas, wrote a song about encountering aliens that has always stayed with me. In the song, the narrator asks to go along with them: Take Me with You. (The song is quite catchy.) At this point in my life, I might take my chances and head on out into alien territory.

I figure, being eaten or enslaved by aliens would be preferable to watching my human rights erode. And they might be fun, who knows?

But, here I am at the Hermits’ Rest, wandering around looking for autumnal blossoms and hanging around with my dwindling collection of livestock buddies. I did find flowers!

And I enjoyed all the animals, too. Thanks to the hard work of the ranch family this year, the cocklebur problem in the horses’ manes and tails is manageable. The mowing got most of them. I was also happy to see the turkeys seem happy as they can be after the fox incident. My herbal treatment seems to have perked up their digestion, and all their lost feathers are growing back. Life goes on.

That’s all I can share for today. Keep our family in your thoughts and hug your loved ones!

Oh, and let me know if you meet any friendly aliens!

My philosophy in one phrase

What’s a personal mantra or philosophy you live by?

There’s no doubt that I’ve said this many times before, but the guiding belief that has stuck with me since I first heard it is the Golden Rule, which is found in so many spiritual traditions.

Treat others how you would like to be treated.

Sure, someone could argue against this, but I’m sticking with it. It’s served me well through many adventures.

Ah, Queen butterflies. The blue mist flowers also serve well.

Things were pretty good today, and work went fine.

I did notice that my toes were still a bit sore from all that hill climbing last week. I took off the nail polish from when I was in Florida and discovered why. I probably should have brought my hiking boots to New Mexico, even though space was limited in the car.

That’s bruising, in addition to other stuff.

Hiker’s toe, it’s called. It’s caused by repeatedly banging your toes into your shoes going downhill. All that ugliness will grow out. And I’m going to treat for fungus, too. But yuck, this is what I get for painting my toenails—I didn’t catch it soon enough.

I knew you were wondering about the other foot. Cutting the nail too short did not fix the problem.

As Kathleen was telling me today, things could be worse. So I’ll treat those feet and remember to bring my good boots next time I go hill walking. At least I CAN climb hills!

Speaking of dogs…

Catching up on the home front

Not too many pictures today, since all we did was drive from Ruidoso to Cameron. Lee did a great job driving, and we lucked out and hardly hit any rain.

I think we all had a good time on this trip. We got along quite well! I guess it helps that we’re old friends for the most part.

When we dropped Anita off at her house, we were surprised to be greeted by a very large fallen limb. It barely missed her car, which is a relief. I guess there was a pretty good storm in Cameron yesterday! No pics, because it was dark. We did get about an inch of rain, which is okay.

The dogs were very happy to see us, as were their fleas. Our pest control situation is messed up and needs to be fixed. Kathleen is on it!

Benito Burrito is too jumpy to photograph.

TW: bad ranch news. Catherine, go do something else.

While we were gone, Alfred got sick, wouldn’t eat, and barfed up green stuff. It turns out he was eating my dang goldfish. It’s really difficult to have nice things on a ranch with ranch animals. He seems better now, though Kathleen had to do a LOT of cleanup. Unpleasant cleanup. She said it smelled like a tropical island when she was done!

The next bit is worse. Somehow a fox family moved into our unused chicken roost, dug under, and ate/killed at three chickens. Kathleen valiantly tried to save them, and she had a big mess on her hands afterwards. There is one less fox.

I’m sad about it, but honestly, these guys lasted longer than most chickens I’ve tried to raise. The guys did a good job vermin-proofing the chicken area. And Kathleen reports that the turkeys seem pretty happy alone in their kingdom.

That’s enough bad news. The rain was good news, though it filled up the hole where the concrete is supposed to go for the rainwater collection tanks. I do wish that could have happened when it was dry for two months, but it didn’t work out.

Now I’m wearing face and foot pampering things from Rebecca the nail person. She always sends this stuff, so I should use it, especially on my sunburned face from yesterday. That will prepare me for work!

Getting my exercise

What are five simple exercises to do at home?

Today’s prompt reminded me of what I like about autumn: I can walk around as much as I want to without sweating. That’s what I did today in between meetings, and though I’m not home now, walking around is a home exercise for me. It breaks up the time of concentration, and gets steps in, even if I’m just marching around the house and getting Harvey all confused. At the ranch, just getting the mail gets steps in. I guess I count exercise on your own property as “home” exercise.

Walking around gives you bonus nature sightings.

Going up and down the stairs is another home exercise. Today I climbed nine flights, though some of those may have been hills I climbed.

What about weight-bearing exercise, you ask? Lee thinks lifting my Le Crueset (sp) cast iron pots counts. For me, my weight lifting is feed bags for the horses and chickens. The 50-pounders are hard. Lifting saddles onto horses really used to keep my arms in shape. I’ll have to figure out another exercise now, but I do groom them, which can be aerobic exercise.

I enjoy swimming at home, since I’m lucky to have a pool. I haven’t done enough this year, but last year I had good swimming muscles. I hope I’m more mentally perky so I can motivate myself to swim.

My final home exercise is yarn winding. Don’t laugh. It can get the heart rate going pretty darned well. That’s why I often wind my yarn skeins by hand. It adds up. Try it.

There’s always yarn to wind at my house.

I admit that walking gets me most of my exercise. It’s my favorite.

Of course nature interrupts me. Common Checkered Skimmer.

Today was a nice contrast to yesterday, though the wind was pretty fierce. It felt quite autumnal, which prompted Mike and me to probably walk too briskly at times. We had to catch our breath in the mountain air!

Lee and I went on a shorter walk later, and the hills were a bit much for him, too. I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, so I can get more walking in.

We had a nice dinner tonight, our last one with Martha’s sister and brother-in-law. We all were silly together and had good conversation. I’m off for the rest of our trip to Ruidoso, which means more fun is in store.

Out of the business business

If you could start a new business right now, what would it be?

Folks, the only way I’d ever participate in starting a new business would be if I were magically surrounded by competent people who are equally as invested as I am with the fantastic business concept who will contribute their special skills in exchange for sharing the profits. That’s not going to happen.

My happy, hypothetical team analyzing my great business idea. Photo from Pexels.

I’d want to come up with ideas, motivate and lead teams, network, and share my passion for the concept. Others would do taxes, finances, budgets, do advertising, and all those other aspects of business I suck at.

Truth is, I really don’t want to start a new business in such uncertain times. I would rather learn and share my learning with others without getting all capitalistic about it. So sorry, Suna’s Bird of the Week Embroidery Collection will not launch.

Sorry, Polly, the masses will not be buying your kits. Photo from Pexels, which actually had a free image of what I wanted!

You got this fascinating insight into my current business mood because there are no adventures, walks, or beautiful sights to report on today.

Thus, I worked like a good worker, and trained a lot of people in software. Then I read a lot and talked to the folks in our Ruidoso cabin. That confinement wasn’t all bad. There was lots of laughter and storytelling. Martha’s sister, Terri, and her husband Dave fit right in with our quirky gang!

After trying to do some sightseeing with her family, Martha came back and made spaghetti while Terri contributed a good salad. We had a cozy evening in, followed by sitting around reading about flooding from the huge system parked over Arizona and New Mexico.

Mike in his work setup, which he had to rebuild after dinner

I hope it moves on over and gives the ranch some rain. At least there’s a good chance.