I’ve come to love so much about the Hermits’ Rest ranch, nearby Cameron, and all of Milam County Texas.
I love the new rock we got on our driveway today (photo by Lee).
To name a few additional things:
We are nowhere near a subdivision or HOA.
I have water nearby, at least most of the time—the ponds/tanks, Walker’s Creek, and the secret springs.
There is woodlands, to shelter wildlife.
There is land managed as prairie, for flowers and pollinators.
I can go swimming after working outside in a nice pool.
Three of the seasons are great for being outdoors.
We could afford enough land to have horses (it used to be pretty inexpensive).
My family members are here. It’s a compound!
Nobody bothers us.
There are lovely sunsets, too.
Now, I am not home, land of all those positive things. I’m back for a second visit to Breckenridge, Colorado, finally, after I had to cancel last year. Oh my gosh the weather is nice. Clouds, scattered rain, and really pleasant temperatures. In the 60s!
View from my balcony.
It was a long day, as plane travel days are these days. Both my flights were late, which I guess worked out, but there was still plenty of time to catch the shuttle to the condos. I got lots of exercise, thanks to changed gates, too.
Airport
The trip was just fine, though. I met a woman who is studying Cherokee, which led to a fun conversation. And I got to sit next to a beautiful and sweet baby on the long leg of the trip. Her mom did a great job dealing with two young children all by herself. I guess it helped that they were good natured!
She looked kind of like this, only more Asian features.
I’m happy to be back at the same condos as last time. I got a much nicer unit, on the top floor with two bedrooms. There’s a desk to work at and a fireplace. No air conditioning. They don’t need it!
Ah. The top. No one walking on my head. I love the clerestory windows. My room. Guest room. Tub has jets. They will get used.
I only went in a short walk after I ate. You have to build up to deal with the altitude, you know. But there were lots of birds and a few wildflowers left blooming. I’ll do more tomorrow, but until then I’ll love wherever I am.
Yeah, it’s sappy, and awe came in a close second, but I am positive that the positive emotion I feel most often is love. I’m always feeling love for something or someone. Not romantic hormonal love, but more the enduring emotional attachment kind of love.
Apache feels great love for his food dish, most days.
Today was farrier day, so I spent a long time with the horses again. I feel so much love for each of them (and Fifi), and it’s different for each, like a mother’s love for her children. Tarrin said she liked how I speak kindly to my horses…and I do get sorta blubbery around them. They may not understand my words, but they can discern my feelings.
Fiona wants you to know I laughed at her for stepping in her food bucket. She’d been picking it up and banging it against the gate like a prisoner asking out of jail.
Mabel got lots of love today, because she was the calmest she’s ever been getting her feet done, and she was able to stretch her legs out and put them on the stand, which means she looked pretty darned good for her by the time he was finished!
Brava!This is her bad hoof! Almost normal!A calm lady horse.
Of course, I don’t spend all my love on horses. I get all gooey over my favorite plants and birds, and of course, the dogs. They each hear how much I love them ALL the time. It just comes out. I even love Alfred at his most shedding time, which is now.
Clouded Skipper on a clump of Alfred hair that wafted across the lawn.
There’s just so much joy that the dogs bring! And they love us back, too.
Vlassic loves horse hoof trimmings.
And of course, I feel love for so many people, most of whom may not realize it. I feel all warm and fuzzy at friends’ Facebook posts and Instagrams. I just beam inside when listening to friends talk. They are all so special to me! What a sap.
Then there’s my spouse, who loves to take photos of me chewing. I love him anyway.
I know Lee loves me, because he drove me to the Austin airport today and dealt with the dreaded “Austin traffic.” But we got a cool upgraded room with a couch in it, so he’s happy (he sleeps better in couches or recliners than beds). The Hilton at the airport used to be the HQ building at Bergstrom Air Force Base, and is circular. I always enjoy staying here.
A nice place to stay before flying.
Bonus: I felt more love when I looked over at the bar after dinner and saw my former Austin hairdresser and his husband! That was such a happy moment. We got all caught up on each other’s lives and travels. It makes me feel like a native when I run into people like that!
Off to sleep so I can zip back to another time zone tomorrow! I’ll make sure to check for typos in the post title before publishing, unlike yesterday.
As my husband and goal-fixated friends know, I’ve never been one of those people who have goals for every day, week, month, quarter, year, and decade. These folks derive much benefit from analyzing their progress and figuring out their strategies. I used to really admire my friend Russell and his goal-setting (and achieving) prowess. Goals really motivate most people.
Lee had a goal to rid the pasture of giant bur plants. Much progress was made.
I just can’t do it. I’m too much of a “live in the moment” person who changes focus according to my needs. Goals just seem like tedious looming deadlines. I don’t know what I plan to do in the next decade. Not die?
Green Heron’s goal was to be a high wire acrobat. Win! I’d never seen one on an electric wire before!
Oh of course there are things I’d like to do, like visit natural wonders, become a better naturalist, finish my temperature blanket for this year, etc. I’m just not into exact dates and step-by-step plans. Life is not a race with some prize at the end if we make our goals. We don’t all have to set goals in the same way. That’s fine.
See more sunsets! A good goal.
I do admit to having short-term goals. One is to not fall off my horse. I succeeded today!
You haven’t fallen off me in years! But that one time was enough. Photo by Lee.
Poor Drew got spooked big time during my lesson (when he was already a little antsy). Tarrin’s golden baby horse got the zoomies when Drew was fixated on her lovely mother. I thought Drew was going to jump out of his skin as he bolted backwards. But I stayed on, and Tarrin grabbed him to help him calm down. He was hugging her with his neck and started licking her! Poor guy was scared. But I win! I held on. I’m glad I had on my sticky riding pants!
Only Drew photo I got today. He’s a little pudgy. (That’s my helmet on Apache’s saddle—he’s my beast of burden.)
This was another piece of evidence for something that had been on my mind. I’m wondering if he can hear well. We did a few informal tests this afternoon and…hmm. That could explain why he never looks up when I call him, and some of his reactions. We will have to investigate further. Did his mystery injury cause it? The big ole donkey hoof to the head he got?
It’s your fault, Fifi.
Luckily, Apache seems just fine. We are making lots of straightness progress, we are re-learning the side pass, and I’m getting better at riding with one hand on the reins. He is so much happier these days. But he does seem to have to pee every time we head back to the RV after our lessons! He’s working his back muscles, apparently, and that makes you have to go.
It’s a natural bodily function. I sit up to relieve pressure.
My goal for Apache was to be able to ride him calmly and enjoy it. We are getting there! See I had a goal!
What, like “very unique” or something? I find this question difficult, because it didn’t ask for a word that’s used too often, but rather for a word too many people use. In this case, I’m going to suggest “woke” as a word the wrong people are using for inappropriate reasons. People try to use this positive word as an insult and it doesn’t come across well outside their in-group.
Hi. I’m woke AF. Hmm, maybe too many people use “AF” after everything.
That’s not unique, of course. Humans have been changing words with positive connotations to negative ones for centuries. There are many articles on how neutral words have become negative words pertaining to women (like spinster, once a person who spun). As well, people have been misappropriating words from one group and using it in odd new ways for a long time, like white folks trying to be gangsta.
I do believe I’m not gangsta. This is fine. Other people can be if it’s fun for them.
If there’s one thing my misspent youth as a linguist taught me, though, is that languages constantly change, and that words mean what the speaker thinks they mean and the listener interprets them as. So who am I to say something is used “wrong?”
Each of us birds means “chirp” different.
I think I’m allowed to be triggered by some words being used in new ways. I don’t like “Nazi” being applied haphazardly. No, I’m not a grammar Nazi and never was a breastfeeding one either. That offends me. I was hoping our society was beyond that kind of thinking, though apparently it isn’t. Sigh.
I’ve got my raptor friends looking out for totalitarian wannabes.
Warning: if you call me woke I’m going to take it as a compliment. I’d rather be open to new ideas, kind, loving, and peaceful than angry and fearful of anyone different from myself.
On the home front the horses finally got to see the dentist today, after a series of mishaps on previously scheduled dates. I’m very pleased that the delay caused no issues and that everyone is doing well for their age and physiology.
Getting their teeth floated, then sleeping off the drugs.
Everyone was very well behaved, too. The best part was seeing the surprise on the dentist’s face when she saw Mabel. At first she thought I had a different horse! She kept exclaiming that Mabel now has a butt! That you can’t see her spine anymore! Her eyes are big and kind! Yep, she’s improved a lot. It feels so good to realize I’ve helped her become a beautiful, happy animal.
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
I’d sell all my yarn stash, which would take quite a while, and offer knitting and crochet lessons. It would be a fun little pop-up store and I wouldn’t have to worry about maintaining inventory and paying sales taxes except once. I really have no interest in owning a shop. I enjoy interacting with people, organizing, and decorating, but not accounting.
Some nice, organized yarn. Photo from Pexels.
So, that’s not gonna happen but at least it gave me a topic, since much of my day was fairly full. At least I feel better. When I woke up I felt awful, but it must have been all those anti-shingles dispersing. I’m normal other than lingering arm soreness.
I managed a quick walk and saw this Spicebush Swallowtail.
It was very humid, so the heat felt hotter, and I decided to skip an activity in the blazing sun this morning. Instead, I went to the new bird station Master Naturalist project to take my August bird inventory there. At least I could do that in the shade.
Vantage point from new benches.
I had a pleasant time and saw or heard 17 birds. There is a new water feature there, with water coming down a chain into a bird bath. On the chain I got to watch a juvenile Painted Bunting having a nice drink. I didn’t figure out what it was until I got home and looked it up.
Cute little thing
There were also juvenile cardinals out and about, and one did some fine snacking right near me. Birds ignore you if you sit still long enough!
It’s at that awkward in-between stage.
In fact, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were bold enough to sit on the tree branch closest to me as if to inquire whether I had any gnats for them. They are so pretty.
No gnatcatcher photos, but here are the cool furniture pieces that got donated.
I’m not going to go on and on, since I already wrote a blog post for the Master Naturalist blog this afternoon. But I enjoyed seeing so many birds flitting around, plus the chickens, guineas, and turkeys are fun, too.
Old live oak tree near the birding stationTurkey feather. Big ole TomPretty hens
I’m glad I was feeling well enough to get horse supplies afterwards, since Dusty was out of his feed. Lifting 60-pound bags of food and salt got my weight-bearing exercise quota in, too. I’m sure the horses didn’t mind that I went swimming rather than riding, because I was I overheated!
Cattle were hot, too, but it didn’t phase the Great Blue Heron.
Dull but productive day, for sure, but since I’ll be traveling next Saturday, I enjoyed the chores and everyday duties! May tomorrow also be average!
You may have noticed that black-and-white thinking is taking over many areas of life from politics to sports to spirituality and more. I’m not naive enough to think that this is new. I think people draw great comfort from the notion that things are either one thing or the other: good versus evil, man versus woman, us versus them (a favorite theme of mine), gay versus straight, on versus off…you can think of your own examples, I’m sure. It makes decision-making much easier when there are only two very different options to choose from (as opposed to choosing paint colors from the giant swatch collection from the paint company–so hard.
A black and white world would be very different (thanks AI)
Simplicity is comforting, as is knowing in your own head that you are right and have made good choices. We’re all on Team Good and Team Us! No one wants to be on Team Evil or Team Them. Those are the “others” we don’t want to associate with. I get it. But. Too bad.
Us versus Them, even though we don’t know who the teams are.
I’m here to remind you that very few things are actually either/or. They’re more likely either or or or or or. This has been a passion of mine since I was very young. I didn’t even like the part of Genesis in the Bible where Yahweh divided everything into little binary bits. It’s not Night and Day, God! There’s twilight, dawn, dusk, the Golden Hour and many other parts of the daily cycle.
Once upon a time I was writing about linguistics and my job was to describe how some little “feeling” words at the ends of sentences in Japanese worked. I listened to people talk, I watched Japanese movies, I asked people who spoke Japanese what they thought. Then I tried to write it up. It was obvious to me that the little words went from expressing a soft, feminine touch to a hard masculine emphasis. The words weren’t divisible into two categories. It was a continuum or a scale. That didn’t jive with the currently popular theories of how language worked back in the olden days, so my analysis didn’t go over well. I was not happy to feel compelled to slam my little words into a theory that didn’t explain them.
Great depiction of how I used to feel. Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev on Pexels.com
This experience attuned me to notice other parts of the world that were non-binary (long before I heard of nonbinary people). It helped that other people were noticing this, too. Pretty soon I heard that autism was on a spectrum, as were personality traits like psychopathy. By gosh, then sexual preferences turned out to be on a spectrum, which was a big aha moment for this woman who never felt particularly womanly. And this week the whole man versus woman spectrum has been explicated everywhere I look. That’s all good, of course. It’s just that the binary believers aren’t pleased by all this science hoo-ha.
A meme I saw today.
It’s not just human traits. The more I read about biology I see that genus and species in many life forms isn’t as binary as taxonomists would with they were. I learned how hard it is to distinguish some birds and that sometimes species diverge and then re-converge again. The Earth herself doesn’t have as many set boundaries as people think. It’s not land and sea. There are marshes, glaciers, reefs, and such, with the edges changing over time.
Green or blue? If you read any of my reviews on books about colors, you’ll know that green and blue are the same color in some cultures (Japanese for example) and that before people realized blue existed, they said oceans were red. Not distinct colors. Nope.
The more I look around, the harder it becomes to find anything natural that’s really binary. I think working in a binary fashion may be one clue that something is made by humans, like computers, cars, political parties, religions, and the ilk. It’s all very confining.
Eek, it’s the Matrix. Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com
Some of these institutions really try to restrict us from being true to ourselves. For example, in the US the political system forces you to choose a party (I realize there are more than two). You must be Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, red or blue. But most people have their own ideas and opinions that fall somewhere in between or outside the limits of these labels. I don’t like this. I am a pacifist, but I still support law enforcement. I don’t like guns, but they have their place and wouldn’t take them all away. You can see, I’m somewhere in between, as are many people who aren’t among the substantial percentage of the population that prefers to draw comfort in black and white thinking.
Note that the US flag doesn’t belong to any party. Last I heard everyone who’s a US citizen is an American. Photo by Jessica Lewis ud83eudd8b thepaintedsquare on Pexels.com
I guess I’m trying to convey a message here. Please, if you are presented with a view of any issue that says there are only two options or choices, pause to think about it. Are there REALLY only two opposites, or are there actually many points on a continum, of options. We need to allow ourselves to see ambiguity and fluidity as natural and beautiful, since it turns out that’s how the natural world works. I find things more interesting and fun when I see all the possibilities, and I’m fine with not always knowing exactly where I fit in.
And nope, “the gays” do not own rainbows. We all get to love them. Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com
People can change, too. Once you’ve made a choice or decision, you can make another one based on current information. I’m not the same me who made immature decisions in my twenties; I’m a different me with more experience, so my decisions may still be questionable, but they’ll be different, along some nonbinary continuum of growth.
Yes, today was a normal Monday, for the most part. Wake up, coffee, bullet journal (I made a page with mostly pink birds), do some work, take my morning walk, work more, meet with friends via Zoom for lunch, work, exercise and feed horses, swim, cook dinner (including delicious squash Sara gave me), crochet, TV, bed/blog.
Did you say bed?
There were two exceptions to the typical day. I had no pick up a prescription and ended up having a long conversation with the pharmacist, who is a really great person who cares so much about this community. I encouraged her to make her life less stressful like I’ve been trying to do. It was a good talk.
I had another good talk when I ran back into town to pick my son’s repaired work truck up from the shop. I was enjoying talking to him and his partner so much I nearly missed the repair shop. They’re very cool people, and it’s great having them nearby!
This is the only photo I took today. Not much going on.
Any day I get to talk to people I care about is a good day. And if I have time to cook, that’s a bonus! It may be boring, but having the energy to make a turkey breast, cucumber salad, and giant sweet squash was a treat for me.
I still have another squash. Mmm.
But wait! I promised science in the blog post title! That’s because I’ve been working on the scientific parts of the blog website.
First thing. Since I have been tracking the birds I see every month, I decided to add them on the bird sightings page. I even have them as fly-out menus (ooh, work that WordPress). I also made myself use Excel to filter my results. I am not too fond of Excel.
Exciting menu on phone app.
Second thing. When I started this blog I was trying to count how many birds, plants, mammals, etc. I wasn’t keeping it up very well, then I realized I have a list of all these things already. I have an iNaturalist project just for observations on our property and the part we share (it’s called Hermits’ Rest Ranch Flora and Fauna, but I can’t link to it). All I need to do is export them!
This is the iNat project page.
So that’s what I’m doing. I have lists of all birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids I’ve seen since I started using iNat. I’m dreading plants and insects, but I’ll get it done. Mammals won’t be too bad, nor will fungi. Find them under Sightings on the blog. I’m still cleaning things up, but I’ll get there.
So soon there will be useful nature information here in addition to cute animal stories and painful tales of attempted self improvement!
If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
Honestly, I have no idea where I’d go if I won two free plane tickets. I’d probably be pragmatic and use it to fly to Hilton Head in November, first class.
This is what you get when you ask AI to make a picture of plane tickets to Hilton Head. That gave me a laugh.
Also, honestly, today I got so frustrated with my moods, my isolation (sometimes a hermit doesn’t feel so hermit-like and needs someone), and my lack of options that I seriously considered booking a hotel room in Austin and hiding there all weekend watching the Olympics.
But why leave?? It’s beautiful here.
I got over myself and decided not to waste my Hilton Honors points on that. Better to stay where I am and deal with things. And I did. So there. I’m still a little short-tempered, which is how I get when the anxiety attacks attack.
These are not the kind of mushrooms that help with PTSD, but we have a lot of them after all the rain.
And thanks to making good decisions, I got to experience the relief of getting a new ($$$) swimming pool pump. Yes, the original one in our pool has already kicked the bucket. It was making so much noise that it was no fun sitting outside in the nice weather and I couldn’t hear birds very well.
The old pumpWe had to deal with wasps in the control panelUp and running
Lee and I got to sit by the pool and enjoy the silence this evening. That was healing silence. Maybe knowing I am free to flee if I need to makes me happy to just stay where I am.
Bee happy! Finally I got a GOOD bumblebee in a morning glory!
Tomorrow, gotta move some hay I didn’t move quickly enough. Then I’ll need to dry it out before storing it! Horses will enjoy this delicious hay grown right next door!
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
I’ll tell you about one health and well-being strategy I use: if my day was too draining to blog about, I’ll put off answering the prompt. So, I started this yesterday and stopped. I realized I was having anxiety issues big time.
I don’t think I realized it as the work day was going on, but when I stopped working, I got those familiar chest pains that usually don’t happen anymore thanks to my daily medication. It’s some kind of PTSD-like response to my day. My boss was laid off and I was the last to know, thanks to Microsoft Teams suddenly insisting on my password that I forgot. That kind of stuff happens in large corporations of course. I’ve been through it with Lee, at the same company.
Noooo, not Lee!
But my “stress memory” didn’t handle it as well as my intellectual brain did. I went right back to when I was at my previous employer and the boss I considered a mentor and friend got laid off (victim of a power struggle). I’d really liked my job there, for the most part, but things immediately went downhill until I realized I, too, was in the middle of a power struggle I could not win.
My nice job became prickly, just like these beautiful flowers will become those giant burs.
The last straw was when they made someone who worked for me my boss, and a week after telling me I was the strongest member of the team, he turned around and gave me one of “those” little chats about what a poor worker I was. I was so confused I kept asking, “What?” The very lucky thing was that I’d been getting all sorts of calls and emails about another position doing the parts of my job I really liked without the management politics. I took it. It’s a great job.
Happy worker, generated by AI – it is not me
And here I am having chest pains again. Now, I know that my position for next year has passed all the approvals needed, and I’ll get to work only 32 hours, which I find great. More time for camping and horses! But, not knowing where our team is going and all that would make anyone a little uncomfortable. I need to just take it day by day and be positive.
I’m a happy worker bee.
Could you tell my emotions to pay attention to my logical side? I guess that’s really my job. And that’s one thing I do to keep my well-being under control. I keep telling myself everything is OK until I believe it. It’s worked for eliminating negative self-talk, so maybe it will work with getting triggered when a bad experience could be construed to be happening again.
I need a new perspective, like this picture of the front pond from the side I usually don’t see.
At least maintaining my health is easier. I now exercise enough because it’s become a habit (hooray for my Apple Watch). I can’t believe it, but I feel bad if I’m not active. Needing to care for the animals sorta forces me to burn some calories, and the horse lessons are good for both my body and my mind. I’m really feeling good about all that!
I comfort her; she comforts me. It all works out. (It thundered again today, so Goldie begged me to go upstairs and hang out with her.)
Oh yes. I’m traveling in the future. It’s what I promised myself to do while I still can.
Here I am, traveling down the county road in the rain. Does that count?
But first I need to enjoy the present. Indeed, I enjoyed today very much. Who doesn’t enjoy a July day in Texas when it rains and doesn’t get above 90°? I admit to sitting on the porch and watching the rain after work. That felt great.
Porch view. Wet.
Other than muddy horses I have no complaints at all. They are pretty happy with the grass not being so straw-like, too.
So green!
And the dogs had fun outside. Carlton decided grass runners I’d pulled up were toys and tossed them around gleefully. Unfortunately Alfred decided the extra-dead armadillo was a toy and rolled in it. Oh that smells bad. The armadillo carcass is now unavailable to dogs.
Enjoy a happy live armadillo who lives nowhere near me. Source: free WordPress photo library
As for travel, we have camping trips, two condo stays, and a cabin rental coming up, in addition to the Master Naturalist conference. I’ll share more information as the trips take place.
And I’ll have to cancel some if we don’t have caretakers for the ranch. That (and security) is why I don’t share travel plans here. Things tend to change with no warning around here with so many folks in fragile health and such!
Harvey would prefer I stayed put.
All is well. I’m just going to enjoy each day as much as I can without counting on any future plans coming to fruition until it’s time to go! That’s being flexible and embracing change, all right. Right?
The Hermits' Rest 