Mammal Sightings – Page 4 – The Hermits' Rest

Eww, That Smell

In the immortal words of Lynyrd Skynyrd:

Ooh that smell
Can’t you smell that smell
Ooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you
Collins/Van Zandt

This song has been in my head all week. You can mostly thank good old screwed-up Harvey for that.

The story: we came home last Monday and kept smelling something. It was about as unpleasant as smells get, quite close to skunk spray. We quickly determined it was coming from the dogs that had so enthusiastically greeted us upon our arrival.

No, it was Harvey and to a lesser extent, Penney, who each had suspiciously damp spots on them. The spots reeked. We blamed ourselves for letting them out while we unloaded the car, since it was clear that the horses had gotten out while we were out of town, judging from the extra-fresh deposits dotting the property.

We tried to remove the wretched spots, but Harvey wasn’t having anything of it. There was attempted hose squirting, damp towel wiping, and in total desperation, Febreeze spraying (yes, I’m aware that’s probably not good for him, but he already has a terminal illness, so I went for it).

New development: on Wednesday, I was sitting by the pool and heard Penney crunching something. What was it? A very putrid and extra-decayed armadillo carcass, identifiable only by the tail. I got a towel and picked the sickening mess up, tossing it over the fence. Eww.

No armadillo can escape Goldie, even minus one leg.

I then saw Penney heading to a spot in the yard. Oh no, it’s where the carcass had been, a slimy, disgusting mess of decaying animal. I almost barfed, and I did not stop to take a picture of it. Thank me now.

I thought fast and put my fake cactus over it to prevent future rolling activities. When Lee came home, I showed him, and he brought over a giant bucket full of concrete. First he put a net down to ensure the whole goo pile was covered, then the heavy bucket no dog could move. The cactus was an attempt at making it decorative. But, as long as no dog can get to it, I do not care.

Meanwhile, no amount of air freshener, essential oil, Scentsy products, or other things that bother Lee’s sensitive nose were able to remove the scent. Time has helped a little, thankfully, but you can still tell when Harvey walks by. The smell of death surrounds him!

Do you think we were done with the putrid ‘dillo? Au contraire. Thursday I was sitting on the patio enjoying the pleasant weather when I heard the tell-tale crunching. Dang it, Penney had found another piece of yuck. I discovered it was a lower jaw, judging from the little teeth. Great. Over the fence it went.

Done yet? Oh no, it’s the ick that keeps on icking. Lee mowed the lawn one last time for the year and apparently spread little bony bits that had been hiding. Penney found them. She’s persistent.

I think we are done now. You may wonder why the resident scavengers didn’t take care of that carcass for us. That’s easy. Alfred and Goldie would have none of those interlopers in their realm. Thanks, guys.

Let’s hope the smell wears off soon. Please.

Boating in Bluffton

At the moment I’m reeling in righteous indignation at someone I used to know who insinuated that members of my family are abominations in the eyes of her deity. If you think that, try to keep it to yourself so you don’t reveal your hypocrisy. But, I reminded her that Jesus loved everyone and moved on. Karma can take care of her (and me; I have lessons to learn, too!).

My day was good, however. I didn’t have to work, so Lee and I were able to head to our favorite neighboring town of Bluffton. It’s a town on bluffs, you see, on the shores of a river that’s not actually a river (I think it’s an inlet).

Numerous cool older houses are in the old part of town.

We ate lunch in the new part of town, in one of those perfect little business areas with apartments on top of the businesses. It was full of pastel colors and trendy board and batten. The place we ate had an immense beer menu and fun burgers. I had the peach/blackberry cider shown below, which was just perfect, sweet and tart. My burger had fried pineapple on it, which was delicious!

Next, Lee drove straight to my favorite art galleries, which was really nice of him. I met the lady who made a necklace Lee got me last year, and I got two crystal and silver earrings from her.

Not a great picture of the main shopping street.

We had to then hurry to catch our boat to go look at the river. We were joined by four women who all met in the early 80s when they were riding the commuter train up north. They have a large group who are still friends. How cool.

It was a beautiful day, and we saw a good number of dolphins out feeding and just hanging out.

I enjoyed all the birds, of course, and the huge piles of oyster shells and sand bars. The spartina grass was golden and very pretty. Lee got most of the good bird pictures.

There were, of course, many fancy houses to observe, but I like the mostly empty islands best.

We’re now all ready to head back home. We will take our time, so maybe we will stop somewhere along the way! I’ll try to be as accepting as possible as long as no one insults my family.

Announcing My Dislike of Food Prep

What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can?

Announcement: I don’t like to cook anymore. That’s my least favorite routine item. I enjoyed it when I was making meals for my kids and ex, who ate most foods and really seemed to appreciate my effort. Since the kids grew up I’ve lost my motivation to cook family meals, though folks often say they’re glad for the food.

Nope. Not making this. Photo from Pexels.

Some of my issue is that none of us need or want the same foods, due to health issues, allergies, and preferences. Since I’m not very creative, I can’t come up with meals. Nor do I have much time with animals to care for. Heck, I don’t even want to make meals for myself. I just want to eat stuff like fruit, yogurt, rice, and cheese.

My ideal meal. Just slap it on a board. Photo from Pexels.

I’m not sure how this all happened. It’s not my family’s fault. I’m just not motivated. Other things interest me more than food. (Unless I’m feeling extremely anxious like right now.)

What does interest me is nature, animals, reading, and knitting. Speaking of nature, I’m going to get better images from now on, with the macro lens Lee got me. It’s cool. I took pictures of small things.

I didn’t get to go try it out until late afternoon. I had a lot of work to do and I wasn’t feeling mentally well. I had nightmares all night about being afraid of people around me. Where did that come from? Lee has had CNN on again. Their coverage gets me scared sometimes. Sure, I’m easily frightened, but it’s worse when there’s justification.

Anyhow, the lens is great fun now that I’ve figured it out. I love how it focuses. Hilton Head is a good place to see small flora and fauna.

When spring comes around, I’ll be all over the flowers and insects back at the ranch. I hope, at least, to be able to! The beauty will still be there. It’s timeless.

Sending love, and understanding to each of you who has a secret part of their daily routine they’re not fond of. I can’t be alone in being bored by cooking!

Today My World Was Rocked

Oh I needed today. Words have failed me when I’ve tried to describe what I experienced, but I’ll try to summarize.

This morning I attended a field session at the location of the former Aquarena Springs tourist attraction, which has been lovingly returned to a more natural state by Texas State University and is now the meadows Center for Water and the Environment. Before it was an attraction, it was a site of a gristmill. Before that, it was a sacred site for native people who believed they were born from the springs.

I’d met the descendants of this tribe at a conference years ago. They talked about the Sacred Springs and how it had magical qualities. That’s why I wanted to attend the session on Field Environmental Philosophy As An Approach Towards Mindfulness and Reconnection With Freshwater Ecosystems. That’s a mouthful.

Oh my goodness. The session, which was led by three philosophy professors, was exactly what I needed to put together the seemingly disparate pieces of my spiritual practice, personal philosophy, and scientific interests. It’s biocultural conservation. The techniques the presentation demonstrated show how you can integrate mindfulness and connection with nature and scientific analysis. Bingo. That’s my goal.

I got a bit overwhelmed just standing at the sacred site. It felt like one of “my” places. I was deeply comforted and quite moved. One of the professors noticed. I said I felt connection, like ley lines. He said that’s because many sensitive people say the same thing! Eureka. I found my Texas home spot at last. (I know of two others, one in Florida and one in Wales.)

I no longer wonder if I shouldn’t be identifying birds while doing my breathing exercises. I feel validated in my drive to perceive the world around me in all the modalities. It’s just a great feeling.

Anyway, we did an observation exercise then came back and talked about it. I think the philosophers were ticked that so many of us were blown away by what they were sharing with us. There were so many great pieces of feedback and questions. I have many reading resources to look up now. I’m stoked.

I enjoyed hearing the birds and looking at the beautiful plants on this site, too. The university is doing great work to preserve this area.

The rest of my day was full of fine conversations with new and old friends and even some rest. I met interesting people in the vendor area and learned from them. Fascinating stuff about night sky preservation, fireflies, raptors, and native seeds. Bonus was meeting a woman who’s just published a book on karst and caves in this area, another interest of mine!

The Texas Master Naturalist annual meeting kickoff was back at the springs. I enjoyed the glass-bottom boat tide very much. I’m glad they kept the boats from the tourist days. Here are some fish and turtle photos.

After the boat I went into the aquarium area in the building on site. They had examples of all the fish we saw in the river, plus the Texas River Cooter turtles. The garfish were so cool. Plus there was an eel. I love aquariums.

I came on back before the nothing began and joined my friend Mike for a drink. I wish we could see him more often. I caught him up with the rest of our chapter members and he caught me up with his naturalist and ethics work.

I still have time to blog for you! Enjoy this dump of more photos of my day at the aquatic center.

Sometimes It’s the Little Things

What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this prompt was that I’d love to canter on one of my horses, to see what it feels like and finally go sorta fast. That’s just a little thing, but I’ve not moved forward in my skills enough to do it on Drew and Apache hasn’t moved forward in his skills enough. The one time I tried I ended up on the ground. I’m trying not to let myself get discouraged and enjoy the journey. But I’m human.

And I’m just a horse who won’t take my meds.

Little things can be good, though. For example, at the end of the work day I’d gotten to a good stopping point, and was looking out over my laptop as I sat at my porch “desk.” Something moved suddenly.

It was this absolutely adorable jumping spider, Phidippus arizonensis. I watched as it explored my laptop then jumped onto my mouse and checked out all my stuff. It waved its first legs around as it explored, and moved its mouthparts like it was tasting the air.

Okay, I think it’s a male. It has bulbous pedipalps. Those are the things that stick out in front.

I can see why people have jumping spiders as pets, because this fellow was very entertaining and not at all concerned by my presence. I prefer them in the wild, but I do enjoy the bold jumping spider who lives in the mailbox.

One of many around here. Too bad you can’t see the cool green eyes.

I’d never seen an arizonensis before, so I looked it up. It’s definitely confined to this part of the world.

I had the best time watching this spider. That’s living for the moment. Mindfulness for the win.

I did not enjoy observing this one. A black horsefly.

Another little thing that made my day was just watching the dogs play. With all the medical issues in our canine community it’s easy to forget the happy, healthy ones. Carlton and Penney love it when I’m outside so they can run and play with an audience!

Time to get some rest and talk to my high school friends in Florida who are going through the hurricane. I do keep up!

Carlton is ahead of me in the sleep department. He’s already dreaming.

Good Day at Hermits’ Rest

How about that? Things do sometimes work out. And that helped today end up being good. With this face staring at me while I worked, it couldn’t be all bad.

I want to put my head on your arm and press real hard, ok?

I was sitting in the bird watching chair early this morning when I noticed a very large cow was mooing at me softly. She had a weird look on her face, if that’s a thing cows can do.

When she turned sideways I realized she was about to give birth. A hoof was sticking out. I watched for a while then went inside for a meeting. When I set up my computer on the porch, I saw she still had one hoof and something pink sticking out. Hmm.

Many episodes of folksy veterinarian shows on Animal Planet have taught me well. There should be two feet, and labor should be quicker. So we texted her owners. I was worried that they would be tired of us telling them every time we see a laboring cow, but this time we were right to ask them to check.

We are ignoring her. We aren’t much help.

Once her owner got there they saw what I saw, and a difficult ballet of trying to move the cow began. That poor guy, who’s near my age, was sure hustling until he got the great idea to convince all the cattle to go where they are usually fed. Once there, he was able to get the laboring cow into a pen, and with his son, the other owner helping, they straightened the calf’s leg out. Then the birth was easy, and the cute spotted calf was alive!

I felt good knowing we’d helped a little. That made the work day fly by, too. I documented like crazy! I might even get my project done in time. Maybe. Having something to concentrate on has helped my mental state, too. All good! no negativity!

After working and doing horse work, Lee and I were able to relax by the pool and take advantage of the better weather. There was a pleasant breeze that was perfect for enjoying a beverage and petting dogs.

Looking forward to staying peaceful in our little ranch world.

Waiting and Watching

Another long day of waiting. You know I’m trying to distract myself when I bury myself in AI training, which I did.

Suna, post training. Just kidding. AI is the BEST! Just ask corporate training!

I did get some nice pictures with Goldie today to remember her four/-legged era. We had a very nice morning sitting outside and enjoying the birds and breeze.

Lee took pictures of her on “her” couch, which used to be mine and used to be clean. And the blanket used to be nice. Yes, I was in hippie mode today.

Again, loving this dog and sending healing to her.

Lee took her to the vet this afternoon. She was so good. I keep saying that, but it’s true. She was sweet to everyone at the veterinarian office and tried to comfort them as they recited everything that could go wrong. Poor Lee. Wish I could have gone with him.

The watching part of today was a nice balance to sadness over terminal illness. I was looking at a Green Heron through my binoculars this morning and realized the cow above the bird had an amniotic sac hanging out of her.

You can sorta see it. The white thing is her bag of milk, ready to feed. The white cow was keeping Caracaras away.

I called to Lee, and he was able to watch “the miracle of birth” with me. It made us both feel better to see new life. I was a little nervous because Mama kept swinging the calf around when it was mostly out, and it was close to the drop-off to the pond.

Once the calf was on the ground, much licking ensued. Mama did a great job! It took the calf a few tries to stand up, but it eventually got up to slurp down that delicious colostrum. Mom licked it a lot more. The owners came by to check, because Lee told him it was born sorta close to the edge.

This all took like 20 minutes. That’s a successful birth with no issues … but the calf did end up down the slope but not in the water, thanks to the dry weather. Luckily the other owner showed up to pick it up. It was so cute just wagging its little tail.

That slice of ranch life helped us a lot and put things in perspective. The Circle of Life is the other trite saying that comes to mind, but it’s true. We all have our time to come and go. It’s just hard to be a witness at the end when it’s someone you love.

Think of Goldie tomorrow, if you can. We just want her pain lessened.

A Day of Bird Fun

I pretty much spent my whole day engaged in bird activities. There was a horse hour or two and a trip to buy dog food, but the rest of the day was for the birds. I do enjoy them, probably because I don’t understand them too well.

I got no bird photos, so enjoy a wildflower, marsh fleabane.

This morning I headed out early (for me on a Saturday) and went to the Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary we are working on. Ann and Phyllis joined me as I did my monthly bird count.

We had lots of eyes, ears, and binoculars, which made finding 25 birds not all that hard. Most of the hummingbird feeders were covered in bees, which annoyed the plentiful Ruby-throated hummingbirds.

There are many new songbird feeders, too.

We practiced our Forest Walking, but didn’t immerse ourselves in it, because we were busy identifying birds and plants. The wooded area was lots of fun, but I got into something itchy.

When we were getting ready to leave, Cindy and Gene Rek brought a big box over to me. It contained two black Cochin hens. These are the big fluffy kind with pretty feathered feet. What a lovely gift!

I hope they end up liking the new housing situation. Cindy and Cathy (the hens, not people) got a bit stressed out by their day and got pretty pale and hot. They have lots of water and food now, and Lee made them new stairs to climb to get into the coop. I hope they figure it out.

Getting them settled was hard because one got out when I was unboxing them. She went under the RV and would not leave even when Lee squirted her with water. I’m thinking that actually felt good. I got her out with my official chicken net that is really a fishing net.

Feeling better, but suspicious of the water dish. They have a bigger water trough but I worried they couldn’t find it.

As if that wasn’t enough bird action, I then spent the evening blogging about the morning and making a list of all birds that have been seen in Milam County on iNaturalist and eBird. Ann wants to have a checklist people can use. I’ll be working on that for a while, but it feels good to contribute!

This friend walked by while I was doing my morning sit. It just grunted a greeting and kept going.

Birding activity was a good way to take my mind off dogs and such.

Home Looks Good

Amazing! Flying on a holiday I had two flights that left on time and arrived early. Even the shuttle to the airport was prompt and arrived early. The lines at security were quick and efficient. plus I enjoyed looking at cute prairie dogs on the way into Denver. They were leaping and bouncing around their little villages.

I have nothing to complain about except someone took my window seat and left me next to an unhappy baby from Denver to Dallas. That’s ok. Actually the mother’s extremely loud shushing noises were as annoying as the baby. The woman in front of the baby-mother pair noticeably startled more than once and kept looking back to see what was going on.

I just closed my eyes and dreamed of Texas skies.

In any case, Lee came and got me so I’m reunited with all the animals. I look forward to returning to my routine. I just hope my stamina comes back, because airporting exhausted me.

Here’s a little health note. The app on my phone just informed me that my resting heartbeat was up ten beats per minute for the last 13 days. Guess what that coincides with? Covid. hmm.

Small Packing Triumph

I had a relaxing day of laundry, packing, and watching the Paralympic Games. I really enjoyed wheelchair rugby and was thrilled when a Gold Medalist in swimming said she went off to breastfeed her baby before the medal ceremony. How admirable!

I’m happy to say I managed to get all my stuff in my luggage. It’s mostly knitting I think. Silly me. I did get a few more clothes but that’s about it. I just have so many more medications now…prescription and over the counter. I hope they fit in the carryon bag. The other good news is that I have seats way in the front so I know I’ll be able to get it in the overhead bin.

I am not fond of modern air travel.

I did get a final walk around the area in. I didn’t want to go into town because of crowds. I don’t want to get sick again though I guess I have some immunity. One thing is for sure, I’m not all better. It’s still hard going uphill or fast. I did enjoy the birds, squirrels, and flowers, though. The alpine wildflowers were just gorgeous, even though fading now.

A couple of squirrels got all in my face for intruding on their meteorological autumn nut gathering. Such varied types of chattering! I’ll miss the Fremont’s squirrels the most, though the incredibly tiny chipmunks are a strong second.

I have a tie for favorite bird. Both the Mountain Chickadees and the Pygmy Nuthatches were extra friendly and entertaining. They really are masters of the spruce trees.

Wish me luck tomorrow. More germ-filled crowded spaces. Wake me up at 4am!