Ranch Life – Page 19 – The Hermits' Rest

Habitually Consistent

What are your daily habits?

Whew, at first I thought they were asking about my bad habits. I can say that I have fewer now than I did in the past, and I don’t think I’m developing any significant new ones.

Daily habits, though. Hmm. What does this mean? Parts of my routine? Things I habitually do throughout the day? I do know that I habitually look at my watch to see how far I am toward my exercise goals, how hot or cold it is, and the date. I no longer track dates well, though as I work more I assume I’ll get better.

I closed all my rings today. My watch will soon praise me.

I also look at my phone a lot. I’ve cut down on it lately, having found the world is fine without my attention. Still, I get many texts. Some are cute photos of animals or birds, so I don’t mind.

Sara in Wisconsin sent me these glorious golden oyster mushrooms today. Worth checking my phone for.

I’m also habitually looking for my bird notebook. In my mind it must always be nearby, in case I see something, like the Cattle Egrets I saw on the way to dinner tonight. I must write these sightings down! That’s my own rule; no one is forcing me.

I had my notebook when I saw this Downy Woodpecker pecking away at some giant cane *(Arundo donax*). I wonder what it was looking for in there?

That, and twirling my hair around my fingers, a childhood habit that comes back whenever I grow my hair long, about sums up my daily habits that occur at any time of day.

As for things that I habitually do every day, I’ve developed quite a routine lately.

Wake up
Dress
Teeth, medication, facial stuff
Make coffee
Sit in my birding chair and watch/listen to birds. Write down birds I see and Merlin hears.
At the same time, do my Finch self care app (my birb is Ada), read Facebook, check personal email.
Go for a walk to the bridge and back, also listening to birds.
Feed chickens and Connie Gobbler.
Go inside and work. Or spontane if not working.
Check mail after lunch. That’s my break.
After work, feed horses, groom a horse, or work with Apache.
Gather eggs.
Swim in summer. Another walk in other seasons.
Watch whatever television show we are watching. The Gilded Age right now, since we finished Star Trek: Discovery. Crochet or knit.
Write blog or Substack if I didn’t earlier.
Read current book or magazine.
Sleep, glorious sleep.

Oh my gosh. I just wrote down a day in the tedious life of Suna. I do eat somewhere in there. Apparently that habit isn’t worth noting. Please believe me that interesting things do happen! But I realize that this is the first time in my life I’ve had such a routine that I can stick to or deviate from.

And of course I have my weekly nail strip application habit.

I think the Covid isolation led me to become more set in my ways, as my elders used to call it. Now that I’m borderline elderly, I guess I have a right to do so.

Maybe you’ll start to think about your own habits, productive or otherwise. Do they rival mine in dullness?

Coincidentally, Coincidences Are Everywhere

I’m worn out after six hours of meetings, wrangling with new computer peripherals, then a fun meeting later. I’m not used to so much sitting and headphone wearing. I’ve gotta get back in the groove of work!

Carlton says he’s had a hard day of barking anytime a vehicle approached.

I’ll just share a story of serendipity and coincidence from this morning. I’m capable of that. So, bright and early, my son and I drove in his darned nice 2001 work truck to our nearest real city, Temple. It has big box stores, so it’s a city.

We headed to Lowe’s to look for some tile to make a border around our screened porch floor, since the leftover travertine from the inside of the house didn’t quite cover it. The quest failed. The big box store had ZERO floor tile that wasn’t porcelain. What the heck? We wanted something natural.

We left there and made the convoluted u-turn required to get back to the pitiful Temple Mall, where there’s a fairly new Floor and Decor store. We figured with “floor” in the name, they’d have more variety. And they did! I’d forgotten how much I love looking at wall tile, but I steeled myself to only look at flooring.

We did, indeed, locate natural stone in a large size that my son could cut to the required size. As I was dwelling on the color of the stone, I turned my eyes to the left. Wow, what I saw looked familiar. It was the exact travertine in the exact shapes we already were using.

What a coincidence! They had it.

But it was more than a coincidence. I realized that the stone was in the same spot in the store displayed exactly the same way it was in 2014, when our contractor and I picked the flooring. The store in Austin had the same layout!

Then we got the stuff to lay the tile and headed to checkout. The clerk asked if we had a phone number on file. I didn’t think so, but gave her Lee’s number. She said, yes, it was there all right, under Ruben Construction? I said sure, as we both laughed as we realized the last thing I’d bought there was that same tile!

What a coincidence. That certainly made the morning fun.

I got home an hour before my Pacific Time work started, too. Not bad but it made for a long (but good) day.

And now I sleep! I’ll be more pithy tomorrow, perhaps.

Best Last First Day on a Job Possible

Today I started what I hope will be my last full-time job ever (I did say that about my previous job that ended so oddly). Today was so encouraging that I keep wanting to tell someone, but I’ve already told my whole family, so it’s your turn, reader-folk. My new job started off splendidly.

Even the civilized 11am start time made me happy. No more 7am meetings for me! Pacific Time is nice. I’ll occasionally have a rather late meeting, but I’ll probably work 9:30-5:30, which is very nice. I’ll be able to have morning time to do things that require concentration. Great.

I met two coworkers today, and I enjoyed their positive attitudes, their eagerness to get my input, and their openness. The company seems to have a very open and honest culture. I’ll even know what products they’re making! I think we can get good things done and end up with productive and organized teams and projects. I’m stoked. (I love this initial part of any job where it’s all possibilities and few roadblocks.)

The company culture is refreshing and positive. They will even let me participate in their Employee Resource Groups. I’ll enjoy making contributions in this new place for the next few months! Let’s see what tomorrow brings when I start going to meetings. And when my laptop arrives so I can use my new email address and access the SharePoint site. Whee!

Oh how I’ve missed a work laptop. photo from Pexels.

Other good news? Look at these precious babies! They’re growing! Soon we can shut the porch door!

And my son made good progress laying out the floor on the screened porch using what was leftover from building our house. I’m glad we kept it safe all this time! We don’t have quite enough for the whole floor, so tomorrow we’re going to pick out a border tile. I hope we can find something that goes well with this natural stone that’s also on sale.

We’ll see. Being so optimistic feels good but weird!

I hope something positive happened to you today. We all need it.

What? I Can’t Hear You!

I’m taking a break from Facebook, since the fallout on a post I thought was not too controversial turned out to incite strong partisan feelings among my friends. I respect their rights to debate, and find areas of agreement with each, but I’m so damned hypersensitive that I had to take a break. I also snoozed a few very nice people for a while. So, I’m no longer listening to the fallout until I’m up to it again. I do want to hear all views, but I also want to remain mentally stable.

But I can still blog and write on my Substack, which is where I rant. I’ve been trying to listen to birdsong my porch or birding slab, but I’m thwarted. There is an incessant throbbing sound echoing through the trees. It fills most of the spectrogram on Merlin Bird ID.

The faint rhythmic lines are a Cardinal.

It’s cicadas. I can hardly hear myself think for them. Once they start up around 9 am, they’re in all the trees every minute unless it rains. My best birding the past couple of days has been right after a storm, when birds have a feeding frenzy thanks to flying insects, and I guess the cicadas need to dry off.

Only the loudest and closest birds pierce through the wall of cicada sound. I do get a lot of House Sparrow chirps. That’s because their nest is above me (to the right; I’m not putting chairs under their extra-decorative nests.

Mrs Sparrow, who alternates with Mr Sparrow in insect deliveries.

These mofos are everywhere. When not feeding, they’re sitting around pooping on our outdoor furniture, grills (which are covered), etc. They’re not native, so we could dispose of them, but nope. I just make sure they stay out of the new screened porch.

Speaking of our lovely new porch, the Barn Swallow eggs haven’t even hatched yet, so who knows when we will be able to shut the door. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t quite so dang law abiding and could remove the nests.

I do have a bit better luck with birds on my walks, where there are some areas a bit farther from the cicadas. Plus, there are always good old eyeballs for spotting birds! Yesterday I found a Mississippi Kite and today a Green Heron.

Blurry, but I could tell what it was from colors and call.

So, between traipsing through mud to tend to horses and listening to birds, my last free week before my consulting gig starts is full. I also keep crocheting, and now April and May are connected on my temperature blanket, and June is caught up. The nice KnitPicks lady said that if I do not get yarn by ten working days to call them rather than patiently waiting a month like I did. I am now warned.

I’ll leave you with bugs and flowers. Please send healing thoughts to everyone who’s affected by world events, and listen hard, even when it’s difficult to hear.

Rainy Rainy Floody Floody

Gee whiz. Last night 8.5” of rain fell at the Hermits’ Rest. That’s the second most since we’ve been keeping records (2011). It was wet this morning.

It’s rare for water to flow over our driveway, which is the dam that created the front pond. It did last night, though, and much of our road base washed away.

This is worse than it looks. The ruts are deep.

The pond got the highest I’ve ever seen it, but with the water flowing quickly through our big culvert, it quickly lowered once rain stopped.

At left you can see how high the water got. The little trees in the water show the normal “full” line.

I walked down the road to see how Walker’s Creek looked. I’m used to it being out of its banks, but it was way over the road and there was a large dead tree in the middle of the bridge. That’s some strong water.

Looking at the fence on the right you can see how much higher the water was!

I talked to the guys who put the sign out. They said they’d move the tree when the water receded, but we think the neighbor down the road did it.

I thought about all the birds and turtles and hoped they were okay. I knew the frogs were happy, because I could hear at least four kinds.

The creek is usually at the far tree line.

I’m always fascinated by how the water drains from the property next to ours down an arroyo, to be joined by runoff from the cultivated field across the road, which becomes our mighty stream that joins the creek eventually.

Our back pond also has runoff feeding into it. When it’s full, the water goes to the pond behind our woods, then helps flood the floodplain field. No wonder it looks like we live on a lake when it rains a lot. All this drainage will start after receiving two inches of rain. Eight inches creates huge masses of water heading along until it reaches the Little River, which is also joined by Big Elm and Little Elm Creek. I’m guessing all their water has made the Brazos River pretty impressive right now.

Here you can see Walker’s Creek, which goes by my house. Above it is Pond Creek, which is a different watershed. Our creek is joined by Terry Branch just before going into Big Elm Creek. The creek that joins Big Elm is Little Elm. Big Elm joins the Brazos quite a ways east of this map.

It was interesting that the talk at tonight’s Master Naturalist meeting was watersheds. How water flows is mysterious but it works! Soon the creeks will all be back to normal, and at some point, Walker’s Creek will go through another dry period. I hope not too soon.

Outflow from the pond. The new concrete did its job.

Ooh, in other excitement, I finally finished May on the temperature blanket. I sure was glad to receive new black yarn!

May. Mostly warm with just a few days over 95° (the wine color).

Random Goodness – It’s Great!

I didn’t write anything yesterday, because I couldn’t think of a great theme or deep content, but this morning I realized that having a day that was just good and full of pleasant interactions was worth writing about.

I also did my nails tie dye. Oh happy day.

I guess there was one vaguely exciting thing that happened. We got a new gate opening mechanism on our front gate, because Lee was unhappy with how the previous one kept coming out of adjustment. The new one is really cool, though, and is made from a horseshoe and some chain. Once the welding machine gets some oxygen, it will even have something that helps it auto-close.

This is a lot easier to use, and quieter.

The excitement came when a welding spark ignited the long grass by the gate (mowing has been delayed by rains and husbandly illness). I saw it and went to get the conveniently long hose over to it, but in a fit of incompetence, it took me three tries to get there. First I had to go back and find a hard surface to turn the spray attachment on (it’s old and stuff), then there was a hose kink, and finally, I realized the hose actually wasn’t on. But, I did get there faster than the other hose, so I got to put it out. Now we have a nicely edged spot which will come back all green and pretty.

I enjoyed the new porch a lot, and was impressed at the good job that’s been done preparing my birding station for concrete. It’s going to be so cute, and we even have a little auto-waterer to turn into a bird bath out there!

It’s got plastic and rebar, ready for concrete.

The rest of yesterday was very pleasant. I got some work done on my temperature blanket, which has been delayed due to the package getting lost in the mail. The replacement arrived, and I’m up to the middle of May. Also pleasant was a nice visit from our friends Mike and Martha. We went swimming and then Martha made some spaghetti for dinner. Our weekly dinners have fallen by the wayside, and we need to pick it back up and try to drag Anita over (I haven’t heard from her except on Facebook since April! She’s a hard worker).

I can’t resist a purple flower, even if it is extra prolific Ruellia.

It rained over an inch last night, which made us happy. The front pond/tank is almost back to full capacity, and if we’re lucky, it will rain more this week. Now, the rain put the next “exciting” event in jeopardy, the pouring of the concrete. Nonetheless, it cleared up enough this morning for the big truck to show up and start pouring. Cleverly, it pulled into the RV parking space and could dispense concrete out that way.

I guess the highlight of the rest of the day will be watching cement dry. That’s okay with me. I’m enjoying every moment of not working and trying to savor the small things in life, like watching the horses and looking for bugs.

Typical arrangement. Everyone clustered but Apache, who’s on lookout.

Last night, Mike and I talked a bit about our Buddhism practice and whether we were doing a lot of living in the moment. We agreed we are doing better than we once did. That’s why they call it practice, I guess! In any case, I’m pretty content right now if I just focus on home and friends.

Three Weeks of Retirement Left

I’ll try to get as much horse riding and swimming pool lounging in as I can for the rest of the month, because I accepted the offer on the job I was debating and it starts June 30.

The Pacific Time hours will be a bit of a challenge, because I’ve never worked in a time zone later than mine, but since it’s relatively cooler in the mornings in the hot months here, I may find doing horse stuff and other ranch chores more pleasant. I can adjust!

I’ll still have time to look for birds at my birding station, which was sited today.

Theoretically, I’ll retire again in 6 months or so. I did like the main interviewer a lot, so I think I’ll enjoy making a few more handouts and answering a lot more questions about project and portfolio management software. I’m sure glad I didn’t entirely flush that knowledge from my brain in March.

Looks like plenty of space for rainwater capture here.

In the meantime, Lee and I are taking a short drive around our area, first to close on a property sale in no-longer-scenic Cedar Park, then spending the night in Waco and going to the zoo we didn’t get to go to when storms came after Lee’s canceled jury duty. Just some couple time.

I may be a little slower, but I get there.

It’s a nice reward for making it through all the interviews and paperwork. I’d suspected they’d choose someone young and energetic. Well, my friends keep telling me I’m energetic, so I’m passing as the elder statesman energy bunny.

New and Exciting Things around Here

Things are happening over here at the Hermits’ Rest! It’s our turn to have some construction projects completed. The first one is a beautiful screened porch that Lee had really wanted for a long time. Our recent mosquito invasion has convinced me it’s a good idea, too!

The porch is an extension of the “outdoor room” that was part of the original floor plan of our house. It was open on one side, with doors leading out from the family room and my office and windows on the outside wall. There is even an outdoor fireplace! Sounds great, right?

I assure you it rarely looked like this.

It turned out that there were a couple of problems. First, the opening caught the north wind, which blew dog hair, leaves, June bugs, and other debris inside to be trapped in a vortex of ugliness. Also, wasps and Barn Swallows loved the sheltered areas for nesting. They like them a LOT. This nest on the back door wasn’t there last week.

We will have to leave the door open until this set of babies fledges, so no mosquito-free joy for a few weeks.

Note we have a dog door for the canine family members. They’ll have to suffer with TWO dog doors to get out.

George and his crew did a great job on the porch. It looks like it’s always been part of the house!

I was happy to see they finished the inside with Hardie plank, like the outside and they put foam insulation in cracks where the walls meet the stone. It’s like we added another living area!

We have some furniture to get and we will put a large fan in the ceiling. That will help where the rock wall is. Lee plans to bring in his spare anti-gravity chair, because he dreams of sleeping outdoors. I want a desk or table to work from home at, one that isn’t too big.

But first, we want to put a floor in there, which will be easier to sweep than the concrete. We happen to have a pallet of the travertine flooring we used in the downstairs of the house. It’s a challenge to install but looks great.

An interesting development right now is that the black willow seeds are flying around and getting on the screen. Luckily we can get them off and this season only lasts a while.

I love how the slats make shade even in late afternoon. Added benefit.

Enjoy some construction photos.

But that’s not all, folks! Another project Lee wanted to embark on was capturing water from our roofs. He and Chris decided to collect water from our garage first. The start for that project is to build a concrete pad behind the garage apartment where Lee’s brother lives. They will move the air conditioner onto the pad, and put a big old water tank on the other side between the door and window (I think; it’s not my project).

From what I can tell, they will have leftover concrete, so they decided to make another concrete pad for me to put my birding station on. They want to make me a bird blind, but I think that will be later. Lee says he’s getting a special seat to put there. We will see!

I believe this to be the frame for my little pad. This is not its ultimate location.

Oh. And I accepted the job offer. Goddess protect me.

Fears, I’ve Had a Few

What fears have you overcome and how?

Fearful is not how I’d ever describe myself. I feel more like my horse, Apache, who is always vigilant against the unexpected and anxious when asked to do new things. We have a lot in common, he and I, which may explain why our progress is becoming a skilled horse/rider pair has been steady, but slow.

That leads me into one of the fears I’ve been working to overcome, which is the fear of cantering on this horse. I’d probably have been cantering long ago if I had a different equine partner, but Apache is the horse I was kindly given, so he’s who I’ve worked with. And cantering was never his best skill. His tendency to do a kick/buck maneuver whenever he set off to canter when he was younger is one reason my friend Sara gave him to me. She wanted to canter (as a good rider, she knew how) but his imbalance made it scary on him. Heck, he even kicked out to start cantering without a rider for the longest time.

But years of exercise, bodywork, good medicine, and work on his feet led to much improvement. He now sets off very well and only on the wrong lead some of the time. After my trainer worked with him under saddle, he can now do a fine job, and that led me to overcome my fear of cantering on him. Plus I’m way better at staying on when he has a hiccup.

And if I fall I’m just closer to the rain lilies.

A key to overcoming that fear is a skill I’ve only managed to develop in the past few years, which is to push past my anxiety and DO the thing. Riding horses has helped a lot with developing that ability, one many folks are born with. I was born cautious, very cautious. It’s amazing I learned to ride a bicycle. On the other hand, I didn’t break any bones as a child, thanks to caution.

Even this precious dog didn’t break my bones when he pulled me down a steep hill. Precious.

You might not believe this one, but once I was quite afraid to do things by myself. I really didn’t like being alone (other than teen years of being in my bedroom listening to my records). I can remember how proud I was of myself when I walked out of my hotel in Toronto, and ate a meal by myself. It was a whole fish, prepared beautifully, and I had a good time. Working in Toronto for weeks at a time was good for me. I discovered I could ride a subway without a helpful friend, I could have a drink in a bar and enjoy talking to people, etc.

Now I think nothing about eating alone, walking around a new town by myself, or going on long walks in nature. Of course, I’ve educated myself about safety in cities and nature, and I do prefer nature. I know how to spot the plants and animals to avoid. Learning about what you fear is a great way to overcome fears.

On another note, we almost have a screened porch!

I’m glad I can now take a deep breath and just DO a thing. It’s been very helpful in surviving life on a ranch property. I don’t realize how scary my everyday life can be to others until I get an urban visitor. I just know to check for snakes in the henhouse, watch my steps for fire ants, and avoid the poison ivy and nettle patches. I’ve educated myself so I’m not afraid!

Book Report: Matriarch

I had to read it! It’s in Oprah’s book club! Oh, just kidding. I actually read a review of Matriarch: A Memoir, by Tina Knowles that made me want to check it out. Also it’s shiny and pretty. The picture frame effect is very nice

This book was a gift from my spouse. I’m trying to shop local, if I shop.

Truthfully, I was very pleased to have the chance to read this book. I learned a great deal about the early years of my life from a Black perspective. Knowles did a fantastic job of painting a rich and realistic picture of Galveston, Texas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I also learned so much about the role of Galveston in the history of Black Texans. That was worth reading the book right there.

The end papers for the book come from the cover painting. Very pretty.

I was surprised but pleased to learn how much I have in common with this woman who pulled herself up from poverty to create thriving businesses and became a renowned fashion designer, thanks to her mother’s teachings. Yeah, on the surface we’re quite different. None of my children are rich and famous, for one thing!

But underneath, Knowles had an upbringing that led her to have a similar fear of abandonment and drive to mother every needy soul who showed up in her life. She succeeded at being a great (though flawed and human) mother figure, and ended up having relationships that reminded me way too much of my past messes.

Knowles is brutally honest with herself, but does an incredible job of being gracious to others. There’s no long litany of blaming and accusations against others in this memoir. I’ve read so many where the author never acknowledges their own failures and mistakes, but Tina Knowles accepts her responsibilities and does her best to forgive or understand those who hurt her. Well, except she didn’t forgive those nuns in her first school…once again I thank my dad for not sending us to the Catholic school right down the road from us.

The parts of the book where she’s struggling to work and raise her girls and when Destiny’s Child is starting were interesting, mainly because I’m not familiar with the world they were living in. But by the end, when they’re all floating around on yachts with helicopter pads and renting out entire islands for parties, I didn’t have much to relate to. Good ole Jay Z can sure spend money.

Now, lest you think Knowles has ended up all jaded and materialistic, I note that she has started many philanthropic organizations and works hard to help young people living in poverty or other bad situations. Honestly, who knows what I’d do if I ended up mega-wealthy? And I can’t begrudge any of her family the rewards from their hard work, because not one of them just stood around and became famous.

Yes, that’s probably the best lesson I learned in this book, that my prejudices against ultra-rich people need to be tempered. Everyone in the Knowles family, from her ex-husband to her famous daughters to the people in their larger circles worked very hard to become great at what they do. That’s important to remember.

Oh, another thing I learned from Matriarch is that I am completely ignorant of every bit of Beyoncé’s music. That entire genre is a mystery to me, though I certainly know what the musicians look like and what interesting clothing they wear. Sigh. At some point popular music and I parted ways.