Ranch Life – Page 40 – The Hermits' Rest

Winning the Lottery without Playing

What would you do if you won the lottery?

I would not win the lottery unless someone gave me a winning ticket as a gift, in which case I’d probably share with the gift giver. I don’t play games of chance (life is a gamble, so I can’t say I don’t gamble).

But today I feel like I won the life lottery. I enjoyed my day, even with the long drive made longer by having to drive around a bad accident on the Interstate. Then I had to ask for help getting my gas cap cover to open. I must have broken it. But a very nice man helped me (I actually walked into the truck stop and picked a man who was being friendly to the clerk to ask for help). After we got the thing open, he saw the knitting bag in the back of my car. He said I looked crafty and me this flattened coin, saying I could bang on it and make myself a silver ring. There are good folks out there!

I listened to NPR the whole way, and though it wasn’t overt fascinating, I learned a few things about brains and such. Since it was sunny, the drive was just more cheerful. Seeing white pelicans flying for the second week in a row helped!

When I got home I checked on the horses. Lee says Drew was mean to him at the gate, like he was with my son the time he got hurt. I think we will have to work on that.

They do seem to appreciate the hay Lee gave them.

My gosh, in only two days the horses got more than double the amount of burs they had before. When I first saw Apache, he not only had all these burs, but hay was attached to it. This is bad enough!

I got many of these off while he was eating. But I have more, plus all of Drew to do before I can work with them.

After the horses and chickens were fed, I was watching football when my neighbor texted me asking if I’d ever seen one of these.

Texas Star (*Chorioactis geaster*) photo by Vicki King

This is a very rare fungus. Oddly, the Devil’s Cigar or Texas Star is found only in central Texas and Japan. I got very excited when Vicki sent the photo, because I knew exactly what it was. There had been an article about finding it in Inks Lake state park recently.

This is the first or second observation in Milam County on iNaturalist. I’m so glad to have photos with the GPS attached so I could share them and get Vicki’s sighting verified. I wish we could hear it hissing! Since very few people have seen the Texas Star, I really do feel like I won the lottery.

Map of iNaturalist observations. That’s our area, north of Cameron with the pin in it.

I’m going to go see it myself in the morning. I hope it’s not faded. What a find! I should be less tired tomorrow and maybe I can write something better in the Master Naturalist blog.

My Leisure Time Surprise

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

This answer will be pretty boring if I give the same answers I’ve given to three or four other blog prompts. Yes, indeed, I enjoy knitting and looking at birds and horses. Most of you know that if you’ve visited this blog before.

But, is there another leisure activity I enjoy? In warm weather I hang out by the pool. That counts. And I read about horses, architecture, and home decorating. The latter helps me deal with what a jumbled mess my own house is right now.

What I’ll read when I’m finished writing this

I think my favorite leisure activity is socializing these days. After staying away from people for so long, I am enjoying seeing friends again. I want to do more of it, but I forgot a couple things this week. Lunches, coffees, meetings, etc., are so nice for breaking up the work day!

Today my friend came over and I did her nails for a party. They look good!

Keeping in touch with friends online is another favorite. Yes, I admit I visit Facebook and valiantly scroll and scroll until I find posts from friends. It’s so great to stay in touch, get advice, and learn that way. Most importantly, I can provide support to others by being available online to listen. I do a lot of that lately.

Yeah, not too exciting, is it? But damn, this is what I’ve looked forward to my whole life: a time to enjoy the little things and the people I care about. I hope it lasts a while.

Now for stories. I went out to feed the horses and saw Drew standing by the fence, staring intently. What? I went on up to get the feed dishes, and something caught my eye behind me. It looked like this:

The horses weren’t at all happy to see Fiona wandering around eating fresh clover. I just wondered how she got there.

How come SHE doesn’t have to stand in the mud?

When I took their food to them I saw that the lower wire on the temporary electric fence had come loose. The big horses were still held in the pasture, but Fiona could walk right under the live wire. Clever donkey.

The wire is fixed now.

Speaking of wires, little Carlton got the staples out where he had a lump removed. Lee found out the biopsy results, too. The lump was a completely encapsulated stick, probably a cactus thorn. It had gotten infected, so he has antibiotics, but should be fine.

However, Goldie managed to nearly rip out a toenail today. It must have hurt a little!

And I do have daily birds today. The rain finally let up, which pleased the birds a lot. We even had two birds returning from their winter hangouts! I heard and saw a purple Martin, and I heard a whistling duck. Cameron residents better get ready for lots of trees full of chattering ducks. Love those guys.

Where I’ve Never Been (around here)

Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

The next big town north of here is Waco, Texas. You know, Baylor Bears, Birthplace of Dr Pepper, Cameron Park Zoo, and the Magnolia Empire. I’ve been to a nursery there, a really cool wetland, a classroom at Baylor (dang that’s a fancy campus), an equestrian facility, an antique store in an old house, and a place with mammoth remains.

However, I’ve never been to any of the Chip and Joanna Gaines collection of enterprises. No Silos, no bakery, no castle, no restaurant, no hotel. (I admit I watch their television shows because I think Chip is funny.) I guess my dislike of crowds has a little to do with it but I also feel like it’s a bit overly manicured and perfect, like Disney World. So I’m probably not going any time soon.

I’ve also never been to the Dr Pepper Museum or the Texas Ranger place. It’s funny how you often don’t go places that are tourist attractions where you live. (I did go to a few places in Austin, though I tended to hit nature spots like the Wildflower Center more than buildings.)

And Austin has succulent nurseries. Trendy.

I think I’ve been to all the “attractions” in Cameron. But new things keep cropping up!

What cropped up here today was more rain. Judging from the intense interest in the wet ground that I observed in the sparrows and cardinals, I’d say lots of waterlogged larvae and bugs are coming up and providing excellent snacks.

I also think the blue herons are just standing beside the rushing output from our pond, ready to snatch up food that floats by. The rain has made them happy.

Where I live, in the middle-ish part of Texas, it’s considered poor form to complain about rain. However, I’m stepping out on a limb to say I wouldn’t mind a day or two to dry out. At least it’s warmer.

Five Fun Things on a Soggy Day

List five things you do for fun.

Sure, I can list five things I do for fun. But let’s make it more interesting and find five fun things to do on a very wet and soggy day.

1. I can listen to birds. Ha, I do that fun thing most days. Today my phone survived listening for birds in light rain, for which I’m grateful. There was a heck of a lot of singing and calling, along with flitting and swooping. Even the owl and kingfisher joined in the chorus in the late afternoon.

2. I can inspect the creek to see if it’s flooding, really flooding, or the floodiest. It was really flooding. The water didn’t go over the bridge, but it sure spread out. All sorts of islands had formed.

I also had fun seeing how the water flowed. I discovered that the big cedar elm I enjoy is so big because it’s in a springy spot.

3. I can hang out with wet horses. Oh my, I have a lot of grooming ahead of me when it dries. But everyone was friendly and didn’t mind that they all got the same food and supplements this one time.

Apache had been refusing his medicine, but I tried burying it in a new cranberry apple pill pocket treat today and it went in. I wish I could talk to him and explain how much he needs the meds. I should have mentioned that yesterday.

We still don’t trust you after that umbrella incident.

4. I can cook warm and nutritious foods. Yes, I am trying to cook more. Today I made a thick bean soup with beef and veggies. The beans were some dried kind that started with an “a” (I discarded the bag too soon). They had a creamy texture I liked. But wait, I found them. They’re Peruvian beans or canary beans. Peruano Mayacoba in Spanish. They do not start with “a” after all.

I used some of that new-ish “Better Than Bouillon” stuff for the base. It’s quite tasty and doesn’t appear to be full of harmful ingredients. I’m figuring out recipes that don’t use sugar and carbs that my household will eat. It’s a fun challenge, especially since I’m a big fan of carbs. But I also eat anything, so I can adapt.

5. I can knit. Knitting is always fun, especially the temperature blankets. The soggy day had so little temperature change that I almost ended up with a solid colored square today. But I got two greens! 50-56°.

This isn’t a very imaginative list of fun things. It’s stuff I do most days, if you categorize looking at floods as analyzing the weather. But that tells me something: I have fun every day, rain or shine, summer or winter. Simple pleasures for the win!

If I Could Talk to the Animals

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

Actually, I think I communicate pretty well with my animals. But, if I could fix one thing it would be to convince Harvey, who doesn’t move unless he truly must, that he can bark all he wants to…outside. Dang, that dog watches all the other ones to dash out and bark their heads of at cattle, coyotes, or deer that dare to get too close to the fence, and he just sits on the couch and bellows his lungs out.

Lee then yells, “Outside, Harvey!” over and over, adding to the cacophony. It gets oh so tiresome.

Ha ha, I’m never bad. (Not true, Carlton)

Today I wished I could communicate with my horses and let them know it was me walking up to them under a giant umbrella. They shot out of their shelter like little four-legged rockets when they saw me.

It was really wet. I needed the rain gear. Poor horses. Then I had the nerve to scare them again when I walked down the road to inspect the drainage. They all stood there with their ears pricked, ready to flee the demon who sounded like me, but looked very scary.

Since the ground is pretty saturated, 2.5” made for a lot of standing water, as well as a lot of flowing water. The creek was extra wide and came close to going over the road.

I should’ve gotten closer, but I was wet.

There were 6 calves and a cow separated from the rest of the herd by the property line fence, and they were NOT happy. My Merlin recording today could also be a tutorial on the variety of sounds a cow can make. Eventually the cow led most of the calves through the water to their friends, but two didn’t follow. They yelled and yelled and ran around randomly, disturbing the sparrows.

The mama and the calves, mostly staring at me like I can fix things.

One finally realized the barbed wire is loose and escaped. The other one came up to me and said MOO twice. So I telepathically communicated with her that the could go through water or the fence. After more running around in circles, she made it. Whew. My ears were sore.

At last the app “heard” the mallard and wren the cattle had drowned out. Yeah, that was my excitement for the day!

Oh, and I made chickpea “pasta” Mac and cheese and it was fine. Healthy eating, here we come.

Pork loin in that covered stoneware baker thing is sooo good.

All right, your turn. What would you say to an animal if you could?

Should We Abandon the Leader Ship?

What makes a good leader?

I have thoughts on what makes a good leader. I’m afraid that my thoughts are really about what kind of leader I prefer, not who meets some objective criteria of “success.”

Goldie is a firm but fun leader of her pack.

If I need to be on a team or work group, I like to be led by someone who is more of a mentor and facilitates the folks they lead to do the best they can at their job, sport, or spiritual pursuit. They encourage and support, yet provide helpful criticism. They are also willing to do hard things like take responsibility for what the group does and make decisions like who to cut from the team, etc.

I try to be that kind of leader. I’ve had some success and some painful failures at leading volunteers and paid teams. What hurts me the most is when I try to protect my team from unpleasant stuff, but it doesn’t work out. I still feel bad for the LLLOnline team.

Currently I have no intention to lead anything, ever, again, even in a token role. I have abandoned the leader ship and am now a happy team member who has way too much input sometimes. I’m now secretary for two groups I once held more responsibilities in. I like that.

Anyway, I think good leaders show respect and spend more time helping their team do well than trying to get ahead, win, or take credit.

On the Home Front

The tack room at the ranch is getting a much-needed upgrade. We’ve limped along with tarp covering its ancient shingled roof, but the winds in recent days have shredded the latest tarp and blown off more shingles.

So the men of the house decided to replace the roof in a permanent way, with a lovely metal roof that matches the rest of the ranch buildings.

Of course, the weather has not helped much. Both days it’s been worked on have been bitterly cold, and today the gales were coming from the north again. I really felt for those guys slapping big sheets of metal around in that wind! I’m glad they brought in professional subcontractors to do a lot of the work.

I can’t wait to show you the finished product, but it will have to wait until I’m back home. We dragged the RV out to northeast Texas to camp on a big lake. I haven’t seen it yet, since we arrived late. I’ll talk about that tomorrow!

Yes, I Like Horses, Even Cold Ones

What is your favorite animal?

I think anyone who has read a couple of entries in this blog can figure out that I’m fond of horses. I always have been, even though most of my life I had neither the space nor the funds to have any. I’m so incredibly grateful for the chance to work with horses now.

They have plenty of food and water! And of course their new shelter.

Horses have fascinated me since I figured out they existed, but I’ve also loved dogs my whole life. I think regular readers can also figure that out.

I’ve had cats when I lived in apartments, but I had a couple that made me decide I like them better at other people’s houses. Cat pee is not a thing I can handle well. Plus, Lee has one of his many allergies to cats, and outdoor cats don’t last long here due to hawks, owls, coyotes, and guardian dogs.

I could use a barn cat, though. Sigh. Mice are another cute animal I’d prefer not to cohabit with.

It’s the coldest day I can remember here, but we’re coping. I’ve especially enjoyed watching the animals running around in the dusting of snow and/or ice. Penney and Carlton seem to be energized by it, and seem to smell many new smells. Alfred was out all day, since he was made for this stuff. Goldie goes out to annoy cattle but doesn’t seem thrilled. Harvey and Vlassic run out to pee and go back in.

The horses have spent less time in their shelters than I expected. Instead they’ve been eating a little more than usual, as expected, and are playing on the crunchy pasture. As a wise family member has said, they are livestock, after all. They are smart enough to crack the ice in their water trough without my help, too. Huh.

The chickens appreciate their heat lamps, but they are not alone. I was a bit startled when I opened the hen house to get food and leave water for them, because there were dozens of house sparrows in there with them. I startled them, too. everyone flew right out.

No bird photos, because I only took these few outside.

As for us humans, the heater downstairs had trouble coping with these 14° temperatures, but upstairs was great. If only my work area and television were upstairs. We found some oil heaters that came with the horse trailer and put one in my office for my Zoom chats and one by where Lee and I sit to watch football. We have plenty of afghans, so it was cozy enough.

One more really cold day and normal winter will return.

How to Keep Up Online

In what ways do you communicate online?

Greetings from the Polar Vortex where it finally got cold, even way down here in Texas.

We’ve been busy keeping ourselves and the dogs warm

Today’s question is harder than it seems. It forces me to admit something that kind of makes me sad: I’m no longer an internet pioneer. Y’all, I’m even in a couple of books for being an early feminist voice on the ‘net. I made websites before color monitors existed. I had email way before most people did, thanks to being at the University of Illinois.

I helped make online communities before Facebook. So what? Yep. That’s the past. Zzz.

I no longer keep up with things. Twitter bored me, I have to admit. I also don’t enjoy watching videos for very long (amusing since I create them every day at work). So I’m not on YouTube for hours. And I cannot tell you how annoying and boring I find Tik Tok and Reels and social media influencers.

Please enjoy them and tell me about it, though. I am fine experiencing those things second hand.

So. Boring senior citizen Suna communicates online mainly in Facebook and communities there, and by reading and writing blogs.

I text friends and family a lot, and enjoy my text groups with them. Certainly I’m up on Cameron news thanks to that! I also really enjoy online Zoom meetings that started in the pandemic but are now just nice ways to keep in touch with people I used to email a lot. I feel so close to friends all over the place!

Email is there still, but mostly for work or nonprofit stuff. The few email lists I’m still on don’t get much of my attention these days, because I run out of time.

For what it’s worth, that’s that. I enjoy the online communities as much as the in-person ones, though. I like blog comments and interacting with readers, a lot. So thanks to you commenters and silent readers. You know who you are!

It’s too cold to have a daily bird, though I did enjoy looking at puffy sparrows today. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow. I know the chickens are enjoying their heat lamps and the horses appreciate the new shelter. I tested both of them out today!

Our heater is still working, so us humans are coping well with 19° F weather. The heat pump unit got wrapped in insulation, so it’s not failing when it got into the 20s like it used to. We are getting stuff figured out, thanks to the brain power of the ranch commune.

The far left square is today. That’s the coldest day I’ve recorded!

It may snow tomorrow! I bet I take pictures. What do you think?

Road Trips and Staying Put

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

Lee and I have been on many memorable road trips, and I hope we have lots more. We made a lot of memories the time we took our first big RV, Ursula, to New Mexico in 2012. We first visited my friend Steve from grad school and his husband, Guy. They lived in Las Cruces at the time.

The only photo I can find from this trip. There were tons in my old blog.

We did so much in southern New Mexico, and we’re only slightly creeped out by surveillance drones. This was long before Build That Wall. I had the best Mexican food ever and saw so many great rocks. And old Las Cruces!

I got to watch Guy work with his rodeo horses at liberty. It was the first time I ever saw such a thing. Guy was so good with the animals and I guess was good under saddle as well since he had a huge saddle he won at gay rodeo in the house.

Later we drove farther north and went through deserts and forests, saw White Sands and the Malpais. We visited petroglyphs and a trading post we returned to on later trips for my turquoise needs.

Since I have no photos, here’s our woods today.

Other than the RV breaking down, all was well. We need to visit Steve again where he is now that he’s a widower.

We aren’t going anywhere this weekend. We were scheduled to camp, but chose to stay home and prepare for the bad weather that’s coming tomorrow. It’s our turn at last.

Who needs to travel when you can watch horses play?

The highlight of preparation was getting some sides added to the horse pens to add a lot more shelter from the wind and cold. Here’s how it looked before.

I was impressed that they got red metal to make the sides from. I didn’t expect coordination! Here are some in progress photos.

It really looks snazzy now that it’s done, and it’s very sturdy. May as well do it right the first time. Next we will get more covered roof for summer shade and rain protection. There will be gutters! Anyway, here’s how it looks now.

We hope the horses use the new shelter. My guys looked pretty displeased.

Daily Bird

I’m just gonna declare all the sparrows birds of the day, because they were just so cute today bopping around through the trees. I didn’t bother them one bit. Enjoy them.

We’re ready for the cold and maybe snow tomorrow. Hope we got everything safe and snug.

Snacks? Really? Geez.

What snack would you eat right now?

Could the questions get any more trivial? I’m actually full from a delicious dinner of boneless pork ribs slow roasted in my covered baking thing from Pampered Chef. I can’t remember what it’s called but it sure makes good, moist meat.

It’s this thing. I looked it up. It’s a New Traditions Deep Dish Covered Stoneware Baker. Cranberry.

I also had a baked sweet potato and less yummy cooked radishes (they were okay), and mixed veggies I made for Lee.

Perhaps my snack was the bourbon old fashioned I made with bourbon and syrup from the Hilton Head Distillery.

I’ll visit Hilton Head this year but until then, here’s the sky this evening. I was listening to a Great Horned Owl.

That’s as fascinating as I can make snacks. I’m actually not a big snacker. Sometimes I eat snack foods for meals. My big indulgence is Goldfish crackers. Not ideal food. But I don’t do that more than a couple of times a year.

I didn’t have much else to talk about today anyway. It was cold and horridly windy, and the Polar Vortex isn’t even here yet. I can only look forward to using more colors in this year’s temperature blanket than last year’s. Yes! Freezing but pretty!

Animals are fine. I wish you could have seen Fiona directing me to which burs she wanted me to remove first. Her “underarm” area was really bugging her. She’s such a smart little creature.

All the horses decided to eat on top of their “hill” (dirt from digging the pond last year).

Carlton seems no worse for wear after his surgery yesterday. He isn’t licking the incision at all, probably because Goldie is still watching him.

See, I can jump up and ask to be let out of the fenced area!

Better stuff tomorrow, friends.