Ranch Life – Page 11 – The Hermits' Rest

Searching for Treasure and Scowling at Sheep

What did you do today? As you can guess from the title of this blog entry I did at least two things. Both were fun.

I also looked at some flowers. This is *Sida ciliaris or bracted fanpetals.*

First thing this morning, neighbor Vicki and I went to College Station to a fun Horseman’s Market Fay hosted by the Brazos Valley Driving and Riding Club. This is like a giant garage sale of horse stuff. I had no idea there were so many moldy saddles and bridles, not to mention very used halters, bits, and blankets. But I also saw some beautiful used tack and true treasures.

Each of us saw people we knew (yes, I know a couple horse people, too) and even found a woman who lives in Ben Arnold and knows where we live due to Vicki’s sheep and matching pony.

We did find treasures of our own. I got a baseball cap that says Cowboy Hat, a horse thermometer, a come-along string (green), a funny shirt, and a bunch of hoof picks with silver accents that I will donate to Tarrin for show prizes.

They list for $12 and I got them for $3.

The most fun thing I got was a really pretty leather breast collar with silver accents and black-and-white leather detail. I just loved how it was elegant but not gaudy. It will go with Apache’s saddle.

If you don’t know what this is, it is decorative and also keeps the saddle from slipping when climbing steep hills. If I’m able to replace one hook on it, I’ll show it to you on Apache.

I couldn’t find a good photo so I had to AI one.

After we had each found our horse equipment treasures, Vicki took me to see border collies doing herding trials. This was in a nice arena with air conditioning and lots of large bags of wool. I think she said they also grade wool there.

I met some of Vicki’s herding dog friends and had a great time watching the dogs staring at the sheep.

The reason we glared at the sheep is that they were pretty weird. They spent most of their lives so far eating grass under solar farms. It’s a good gig. Lots of shade.

The problem is that they didn’t know much about anything except eating grass. They didn’t realize they were supposed to be intimidated by dogs, so once they were let out, they just stared back at the gate they came out of, not paying attention to the dogs. Occasionally one would stomp its hooves.

Many of the dog/human pairs just gave up, but a few of them got those sheep going in the right circles, separated one from the group, and got them all into a pen. That was really impressive.

This dog watched intently from the stands.

I hope I get to go to more of these in the future. I’m very impressed by the hard work both the dogs and humans have to do to move the sheep!

Nothing exciting like that at home! Just moving slowly

I relaxed most of the rest of the day, which featured suffocating heat. You can get overheated so easily!

Reacquainting with Music of My Past

In the last few months, Lee and I have been watching documentaries on musicians from our formative years. We have similar musical tastes, so it’s easy to choose. We’ve seen some “biopix” as well, like Freddy Mercury and Elton John. Of course we saw the Bob Dylan movie, which I e mentioned that I enjoyed. I prefer actual documentaries, though, with historical footage, music by the performers them, and insights from other musicians/friends/scholars.

The 2025 HBO two-part documentary on Billy Joel was meaningful to me in that it confirmed why I always liked him and his music. I like musicians who are willing to grow and change and who are true to themselves. I remember saying, “See, see, he really WAS funny, talented, and energetic!” when they played footage of when I saw him in my undergrad years. I remember we were pretty flabbergasted by his talent before he was super famous.

His honesty about himself as well as his admission of his mistakes made me unsurprised at how kindly his ex-wives and former associates talked about him.

He’s not someone you can put in a particular musical “box,” and is a real person, which the documentary makes clear. Listening to his music as an older person also let me see more nuances. I’m glad to have re-experienced it from a new perspective, both musically and emotionally.

Today we watched the 2020 HBO documentary on The Bee Gees. I was surprised at what I did not know about the Gibbs family and how hard the brothers worked on their songwriting and musicianship. I admit to having liked their early music but not paying all that much attention to it, because it seemed too “pop” to rock-n-roll Suna.

I also confess to actually liking the Saturday Night Fever music. It was good. I was simply tired of the thumpa-thumpa disco beats emanating from our gay roommate’s headphones 24/7 (it seemed, though Bobby really liked all music).

What impressed me most about the Gibbs brothers was that they were driven to write music even more than to perform it. There were songs I didn’t realize they’d written for others! Honestly, you can just watch this film for the soundtrack.

In the end, though, Barry Gibbs said he’d trade all the hits to have his brothers back. Yes, their close family (parents, wives, etc.) were also a hint about their character.

Both Joel and the Gibbs brothers come through as flawed, talented, and smart people. They are famous due to hard work. I like that.

Now I need to go find some more good music documentaries about artists who started when I was young. Some would be sooo long, if they hit all the highs and lows (the Who?). I will go look for more. I encourage you to find documentaries on musicians you enjoy. I guess you will end up depressed or impressed, considering the subject. But at least you’ll get to hear the music from a new perspective, which I do not get when I read biographies and just play music in my head as I remember it.

Anyway, tarot card of the day was 6 of wands. Ooh, fire. It means, in the Gaian deck, that I’m contributing to communal efforts with energy.

Welp, I sure hope to do this next week when I fly to Oregon to meet with coworkers in person. I have an early flight, so I’ll type to you later!

Human Bodies, So Frail

I’d avoided it all summer, but today I finally got overheated. I should have know there’d be an issue when I couldn’t even take sitting in my birding chair more than a half hour this morning. Ugh. At least I managed to see the pretty white rain lilies that appeared today.

Brazos rain lily *Zephyranthes chlorosolen*

Vicki and I had a horse lesson today, and of course we worked to stay hydrated as we groomed Drew and Apache. I got through my lesson and felt a bit tired but okay. I think what got to me was that Apache acted like he had to pee and so I just sat on him with the August sun bearing down on me and got too hot.

An earlier pee time when he made us wait.

By the time I was trying to unsaddle him I felt bad. I HATE getting all messed up by heat and having to make people stop and take care of me. I ate into Vicki’s lesson time, too. Human bodies can really let you down sometimes.

Trying to look perky after I cooled off.

Sorry to whine about my body not doing my bidding. It could be a LOT WORSE and I know that. But I really do try to not overheat, though that’s a challenge in August. That’s one reason Apache and I are trying to stay in shape but not overdo it. It’s a fine line.

The moon cheered me up again, as it will.

Still, I’m feeling my grief over losing our friend Gail settling down to a more reasonable level, but I remain saddened that someone I admire has gone into hospice. I know I’m at the stage in life when friends start to pass on, but it’s worth honoring them all and sharing stories.

While I try to regulate my thermostat, I’m glad I have flowers to enjoy.

I’ll continue with memories as I get through another travel period starting tomorrow.

The tarot card of the day is the 3 of Cups/Water.

I’m happy to see more fun otters from the Gaian Tarot. The card tells us to have fun with friends. I did that today, with both friends and family. I’m so relieved that I’ve been drawing happy cards except on sad days!

It’s August and It Stormed

That might not be news everywhere, but it rarely rains here in August. It was a bit less than an inch, but pretty spectacular. I was out looking at birds when I realized the wind was picking up. I had a hard time making it to the porch!

I’ve heard the winds were more than gale velocity, so it’s no wonder cushions flew and my birding station became a bare concrete platform.

Lee, the panting dogs and I watched the storm from the new porch, since the wind was blowing away from us. Sometimes the rain was close to horizontal.

We ended up outside longer than planned because, unsurprisingly, the power went out for an hour or so. It was too dark in the house, so I came out and read while bonding with nervous dogs.

I managed to get all my work done despite another power outage, since they came between meetings. So, all was well and the grass will be green.

Oh yes, I remembered to photograph my new planter, which it turns out is English. I’m just a fan of pansies, even if they’re out of fashion, so I’m glad to have it. It rained during the time I was going to plant baby plants in it, but maybe I can soon.

Sorry it’s not too exciting right now. Wait, I’m not sorry. It’s GREAT to not be all stressed about anything! Even the tarot card of the day is cheerful.

This guy is gazing at a bird, accompanied by his otter pal. Yay, another otter. The meaning is to use the wisdom you’ve gained from introspection to be of service to others. I get the hint. Now off to bed.

I hate to get in bed after the house cleaner makes the bedroom look so good! Lee’s recliner is so sweet with its pillows. But he can’t sleep in it like that! The bed is for me and dogs. If you think that’s all weird, I can assure you that LOTS of people of a certain age sleep in recliners.

Investigating Near and Sorta Far

Today was hot, but otherwise a fine Sunday. I started the day by listening to birds, as usual. I felt like getting some exercise, so I took the long walk to the cemetery. It looked very spiffy, and the birds were happy with how nice things looked, both there and at the old school/church property.

I found out later that whoever the Walker’s Creek people are will be holding a picnic there next week! Maybe it’s people with plots in the cemetery—they do that at other cemeteries in the area. what a nice tradition.

While I was there I noticed many Black Vultures gathering in two of the grand dead oaks adjacent to the old “town center.”

I also heard lots of dogs barking and a familiar voice telling them to stop. Were they barking at me or the birds? I went around the corner to Vicki’s house to find out. The answer is that her dogs really don’t like those birds, or they DO and are enjoying themselves. Since I was already there, I paid a visit (so un-hermit-like) and checked out an Australian saddle she’d bought to try to use with Drew.

And, since I was there, I got to go inside and see extremely cute Sheltie puppies. They are very fluffy and bounce around most charmingly. They are destined for great things, given their lineage.

They are very wiggly and hard to photograph.

I had so much fun being a new stimulus for them. Much tummy rubbing and fur ruffling occurred. I also got to see the brand-new puppy whose mother is a national reserve champion herding dog. There was a lot of dog beauty and skill in that house!

The little black girl was too fast to photograph

I dragged my self back home for a shower and some rest. I don’t know why I showered, since I was soaked with sweat after working with Apache and dealing with the water trough Spice had managed to overturn. She, Drew, and Mabel seemed mighty pleased to have done that. At least Apache was good. He’s really getting used to the paths in the front field. He likes the Johnson grass and goldenrod and I like the shady areas.

No horse photos today, so here’s a tired Spicebush Swallowtail.

But, I’m out of sequence. Before horse time, Lee and I took one of our random drives, since he hadn’t been exploring all weekend like I had. We saw lots of crops, which we have in this area because we are east of Interstate 35. The soil is completely different on the west side, because the road follows a fault. Fertile farmland to the east, and alkaline karst formations to the west. Anyway, we saw feed corn being harvested, cotton in bloom, and to my surprise, a rice field. It was irrigated by the Brazos River.

We ended up in Calvert, Texas, which is fairly close to Cameron. Lee saw that some of the antique stores there were open, so we stopped by one, which is in the tallest building in the town. The building was erected by the first Black millionaire in this area as headquarters of a benevolent organization. This is probably inaccurate and no doubt a local person can set me straight.

Picture of a woman teaching a little girl to knit.

The shop had lots and lots in it. Luckily there wasn’t much of what I want, but I wished I had a space for this embroidered screen. It’s very cool. I’d love to restore it.

The screen is tall but I just took pictures of the embroidery.

I did end up getting a planter with pansies on it. I’ll show you once I get it set up. I didn’t get these. They had two similar pairs.

The Queen of England and her spouse as bedroom slippers. Classy.

Enough blather about my day. But I investigated many things, ranging from cute to weird!

Traipsing Around

I’m missing RV travel, I can tell. Anytime I get an offer to go do something, I try to figure out a way to tack on a nature trip. I did that today!

Nature. She is good. Maximillian Sunflower.

I stayed in College Station last night after the dinner with my friends, which provided me with the chance to visit some parks there. After a hotel breakfast with many food labels in Spanish (see, Texas IS bilingual), I walked around behind all the hotels and restaurants to find a nice, older neighborhood that was chock full of Blue Jays. They love urban spaces! I found some wild areas, so my iNaturalist needs were sated.

I checked out and went to the next place, which I could probably have walked to. It was a small nature preserve in the middle of the nice neighborhood.

I noted it had a Texas Master Naturalist sign. The park has seen better days, maintenance-wise, but the paths are still there, and there are good places to sit and look at wildlife. And if you like ragweed, it’s a great time to visit.

Still, I found some interesting plants and saw lots of birds, including this Greater Roadrunner with its catch.

I decided next to go check out Lick Creek Park, where lots of the outings at the Texas Master Naturalist meeting in October will be hosted. I’m glad I went, since I couldn’t register for the Annual Meeting until today, one day after registration opened, so all the field trips were full.

Anyway, it was already hot by the time I got to the huge park, so I just did a short loop trail. There was much to see and photograph, plus quite a few summer birds. A Summer Tanager taunted me for at least ten minutes hopping from tree to tree, but hiding. I certainly knew it was there!

I made my way home full of nature and happiness, only to spend the rest of the day enjoying nature at home. Beautiful clouds came in bearing very welcome rain, which was pleasant to observe from the shelter of the porch. Lee and I read, looked at birds, and relaxed for quite a while!

This all constituted a fine day in which I had no complaints. Well, I didn’t get to ride horses. Maybe tomorrow!

Lee got these pictures of the Mockingbird babies in our small tree. They look great!

Too Tired? Then Don’t Blog

Yesterday I wrote a long post about my day yesterday. But did I manage to share it? Nope. At least the email subscribers got to see it. I shared this evening. Better late than never.

In related lateness, I finally found a moth, after moth week ended. *Helicoverpa zea*, a huge pest to agriculture.

I also was tardy with my own health. Thanks to the internet outage last week I wasn’t able to go to my nurse practitioner to get my thyroid medication prescription refilled. Today it was very obvious that my body wants its pig hormones (I use natural hormones for all my faulty bodily functions). TMI. Anyway, I have a sore “throat,” which is really sore glands. Let’s hope I can get to the pharmacy tomorrow, which may be hard given my schedule.

I’ll try to be as persistent as this scary robber fly

That’s enough whining. I will end this short blog with three different species of Ruellia that I’ve seen in the past three days. It’s been a good year for these “Mexican Petunias” around here this year, but I only have one kind here at the Hermits’ Rest. These are so pretty, but they get around—the flowers shoot seeds for quite some distance. I’ve witnessed it at my old house, where I actually planted some. I feel sorta bad for the people who bought the house.

Metz’s Ruellia, *Ruellia metziae –* I’ve only seen this one other time

Tarot card of the day

Today was a welcome return of the 9 of Pentacles. It’s funny, because I told the nurse practitioner how content and grounded I am right now. I’m so much better at observing the negativity without absorbing it these days.

More Spontaneous Spontaneity

This morning, Lee and I awoke in Brownwood, Texas, which was not in yesterday’s non-plan. After a reasonable hotel breakfast we went less than .1 mile to the Tractor Supply in the same parking lot as us. Odd, huh.

Proof I made it home: Indian Jute from the ranch.

I got all the horse food I needed and the cashier informed me there was a bunch of chicken stuff on sale, so I got some herbal yummies to go with the grit Connie has been hinting for. How efficient!

I had been wanting to go back to the state park nearby, so Lee looked up Lake Brownwood State Park. He was directed a half mile down the road the hotel and TSC. That was not where I remembered the park to be, either unit. I kept saying we weren’t going to the right place.

The weird shape is our hotel. The nature trail starts where the road ends. Also on the map is my favorite restaurant, which we didn’t get to go to, Katana.

It wasn’t where I thought we were going, that’s true. But we were in Riverside Park, which may be the nicest city park I’ve ever been to. I ended up thanking Lee.

Even though I still had the wrong shoes on, I was able to happily walk the sidewalks that went along a pretty bayou (Pecan Bayou) and an adjacent woods. The park has a nice disc golf course, a beautiful playground and a cool meeting pavilion. It looks quite new, but is full of old trees, mostly pecan.

I enjoyed walking the paths, other than when disc golf players yelled at me. The other interesting sight was a family who brought a confused but patient palomino horse to the park and posed their children with it. Everyone had cowboy attire, the fancy kind.

Horse photos. I assume they scooped any poop.

I found many plants, including a new one for me. There were 24 bird species in total that Merlin heard, including a loud Mississippi Kite and many Lesser Goldfinches. Here are a few plants and an insect in the park (not bad for such a well mowed area).

As I finished the walk by the bayou I saw a nature trail sign. It said it was only .7 miles, so I let Lee know I was going down it.

What a gorgeous trail it was, winding along the water. While enjoying the birds, I realized my two favorite vines were everywhere, Pitcher’s leather flower and pearl milkweed. I was excited.

There was so much more to see. And the trail itself made you feel totally alone in nature. Just perfect.

I saw too many fascinating plants to share, but here are some highlights. This is probably mostly for me so I can go back and enjoy them, though I did put them all up in iNaturalist!

We headed home after this, and just enjoyed the countryside. I also enjoyed a mango-pineapple Icee. What a spontaneous indulgence.

We had a brief but intense storm with lightning while I was feeding horses, which produced thunder loud enough to scare both humans and equines. It did lead to a beautiful sunset, so I’ll share those!

Oh yes. Card of the day was 5 of Wands, which deals with conflict. I chuckled because I drew it after thinking for a few minutes about an interpersonal conflict I need to resolve. Thanks, cards.

Dang You, Musky Satellites

You can certainly get accustomed to your technology. When it fails, your day can go downhill fast. That was my experience when my deal with the Devil, otherwise known as a subscription to the Musky StarLink Satellite Connectivity Godsend. When it’s good, it’s our link to the world. When it’s bad, wow, you feel disconnected!

StarLink went down in the middle of my work day. It did not help that my backup plan, connecting to my phone hotspot, was unavailable. AT&T was displaying SOS. Yup. The phone was out of commission, too. I was hosed.

Just waiting for the vultures to start circling my dead connectivity.

It’s hard to tell your coworkers why you’re not at meetings when your only option is to send them a letter, ya know? But, it’s not common and the system is mostly reliable. Still, Lee and I both have had fleeting thoughts about what would happen if someone attacked the satellites we rely on. Back to the olden days? Eek.

I do still write things by hand, like my bullet journal.

Anyway, StarLink came back. And I went out and rode my horse in the intense heat and sweated all that paranoia off!

Tarot card of the day

Man, this new practice of drawing a card a day after many years without it is very different. The thing that’s taking some getting used to is how darned encouraging the cards are so far. Today? 9 of Pentacles.

This card is about having all you need (in material things) and feeling content. That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling with regard to my physical situation these days. I can’t imagine having a more pleasant and supportive setup in my life, designed to keep me mentally healthy and stable no matter what else is going on.

The 9 of Pentacles reminds me of how kind my family has been to provide this safe haven at the Hermits’ Rest. I have my animals, my pool, the porch, my books, and all that yarn. Material things aren’t necessary, but for some of us they provide comfort, security, and stability when everything around us is unstable.

Hmm. Lots to think about today.

Maybe I’m Not Cut Out for This

Yesterday I worked ten hours and had eight meetings, nearly all of which were challenging and some of which were stressful. Yow. I was truly wiped out at the end of the day, but managed stay online another half hour for my tarot group. My ears hurt from wearing headphones all day!

I wished I was on the porch with all the new pillows and cushions.

It has taken me all day today to recover from yesterday. Luckily today I had some nice writing to do, and lunch to enjoy, which helped. And a friend dropped by after work, which was a good surprise.

Drew and I felt similarly yesterday afternoon.

Never fear, I’m still loving my consulting job and the people I’m working with, but it’s a real job so of course there are challenges! I’m just disappointed that I didn’t recover as quickly as I’d like to have. It makes me feel my age. Ugh. I’ll have to figure out a way to ration my energy better. I want to contribute!

This is my bucolic photo of behind the house for Robert.

I spent as much time today as I could meditating and planning how to care for my energy and brain so I can be productive.

See how perky I looked with my official iNaturalist shirt and cicada earrings?

Naturally, hanging out with birds helped me clear my mind. There were so many today, which was great fun. Red-eyed Vireos were everywhere making their weird sounds, as were Great Crested Flycatchers, and not fake Mockingbird ones, either. Just identifying what was flying while I was floating in the pool around sunset was enough to bring me back to my center.

This bird sighting made me chuckle. The Great Egret looks fascinated by the cow’s rear.

I’m sure glad I live here in the peace and quiet (mostly; tonight they’re harvesting Milo or something across the road, which entails big machines, shiny lights, and hubbub.) That’s just once or twice a year, though.

Carlton would like me to go to sleep! Okay!

Tarot cards of the day

Yesterday my card was the Teacher or Hierophant. I like this image of a wise person learning in different ways. It’s better than the mean institutional guy in Robin Wood. Plus it has a Great Blue Heron!

The card was a great choice, since the spread my tarot friends and I did last night was about messengers and the lessons they had for us. I was encouraged to keep going in my new endeavors. Also I had to laugh when I drew the 3 of Cups as one of the messages, because it had happy, playful otters on it!

Today’s card was The Sun, which I forgot to photograph. It’s very summery and happy in the Gaian deck. To me it felt like celebrating that I am handling what comes my way with positivity, even through some painful times of change.