Ranch Life – Page 40 – The Hermits' Rest

Pretending I’m Camping

We aren’t at a state park tonight, because Lake Livingston was getting flooded today. Plus, Lee didn’t want to drive the big vehicle towing a small vehicle in hard rain. It’s rainy all over our area, but a lot worse to the east. Maybe we’ll go over tomorrow.

Looking at the bright side (though it was a dim day), I needed to get a lot of work done today, and I had plenty of time to do it AND have a S’mores brownie with Anita at the bakery. That was one good brownie. And it was sort of camping food, right?

After work, I indulgently sat in the back yard with the birds. I even got a recognizable painted bunting picture!

But the way I turned my day of disappointment into a day of joy came when I decided to go for a late-afternoon walk and pretend I was on one of my nature walls, in search of new and exciting things, and maybe encountering someone interesting to talk to!

There! Pitcher’s leather flower! (Or bluebill, *Clematis pitcheri*)

Finally finding the coolest wildflower in my exotic county road made my pretend hike more exciting right away. It’s hard to spot these native clematis, so my heart swelled up a wee bit.

Then I got to talk to someone interesting, my son, who stopped to chat in his way home. We always have fun telling each other our latest cool nature discoveries. He had a bee swarm near his place and also saw a huge toad. I told him about the scorpion and crawfish from yesterday.

Funereal dusky wing, another exotic find.

I went a bit further, listening to birds and looking for turtles, when another familiar car drove up. It was Buddy, who lives one house further than my son. He told me about a skunk he saw and showed me the rattles from a big rattlesnake he found at his house, which is our former rattlesnake house project. Fitting.

Dickcissels listened at each of my stops.

I got all cheerful after sharing tales with my neighbors and didn’t even mind when I could hear no birds at all for a while, at the top of the hill (which technically is a ridge).

I love looking down the hill at the creek and our house.

My nature hike got interesting again quickly, though, when I heard some interesting hours or squawks coming from the creek. Merlin told me it was wood ducks. Really? You mean, those really pretty ones? This was going through my mind when all of a sudden two pair of genuine wood ducks flew right by! I could even sort of tell they weren’t blue-winged teals, mallards, or even whistling ducks, which are the usual suspects.

They aren’t uncommon in Texas, it’s just that our ranch isn’t ideal duck habitat. But today it WAS a flooded woods.

This last encounter sent me into full Nature Girl joy mode. I was grinning like a child and getting more thrilled with every sight. Look! The kingbird is back! There’s a big hawk, so they’re not all gone! There’s something loud! That was the other man of our house coming home from work and trying to make me jump. Ha. I heard the truck.

Yep. I managed to get exercise, see interesting plants and birds, and talk to folks. That was as nice as camping, practically! We will try again tomorrow, maybe. You can’t wish away rain here, knowing the scorching heat is coming soon enough.

Early Beltane Greetings

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

I’m not very big on holidays, but I enjoy observing the changing seasons. May 1 is Beltane in the tradition I follow. It’s the big fertility celebration where all the flowers are blooming and you dance around the maypole, a thing I’ve done many times.

This cheerful day flower welcomes the changing seasons.

I like a holiday that’s all for fun, isn’t commercialized, and provides a chance to be as wild as you want to be. I’ll probably pick a May basket full of flowers and make a nice bouquet tomorrow.

That will be after my doctor appointment, where I have to get tests done to be allowed to continue my thyroid medication, followed by the equine dentist, another yearly traditional event at the ranch. I hope I can worm the horses while they’re sedated. That should end the parade of horse health expenses for a while.

Today was a first for me in a couple of ways. First, Drew kicked me for daring to try to groom his right side. He really doesn’t want me grooming him, so I guess I’ve been a bad horse owner and traumatized him.

I feel pretty awful about that and confused about what to do. On the one hand I’m supposed to be firm and set boundaries and on the other I’m not supposed to react. I’ll keep trying. My thigh sure hurts. Interesting that he doesn’t mind me cleaning 3/4 of his hooves, and is happy to be haltered and walk with me.

Second, I gave a living being a shot of medicine. Yes, this was after getting kicked. Drew was fine about that. He gets a shot a month from now on for arthritis pain. I’m proud I remembered how to do it. Maybe Tarrin will think I still have some potential as a horse person.

Speaking of pain and meds, Apache is feeling lots better. I’m pleased that he’s walking and trotting well without the boots on. He volunteered to canter but I had him stop. It wasn’t going well and he was hopping. Still, good news that he tried. He seemed energetic.

Also good is that he is now taking his medication like a champ, thanks to the magical cookies Sara made for Aragorn. Aragorn didn’t like them, but Apache seems to look forward to them. I guess I’ll have to get the recipe!

No new Apache pictures, so enjoy this very large mushroom.

Kathleen says this is my week for challenges, after getting stuck in the mud yesterday and kicked today. I’m trying to adopt her attitude of laughing the challenges off and staying positive.

Getting Productive on a Challenging Day

When do you feel most productive?

I was not productive during my usual most productive times today, because we had a couple of waves of rainstorms come through. But generally, I do best between around 9 and 2 pm. I’m a little slow when the day starts, and by mid afternoon, I hit a slump. I think that’s pretty normal.

Today being Sunday, I’d planned to spend my productive hours exploring the more distant parts of our ranch complex for the City Nature Challenge, then I’d hoped to ride Drew for the first time since he got back (I’ve been exercising him, just have had vet visits, birthday dinners, and such getting in my way). But, I was determined to get my observations in and my exercise accomplished, even if it meant dodging raindrops.

I was also determined to photograph a dang dickcissel, which I did.

I felt like I sat on my rear end a lot today, but I also crawled under electric fences, climbed muddy embankments, and walked a few mikes, some of it briskly. I think the rain may have given me more opportunities to see things, so it all worked out.

Crawling on the ground helped me spot this excellent stinkhorn, for example.

I had hoped to photograph more birds today, and I did, though many were pretty bad photos. I was so excited to finally see an indigo bunting this afternoon that I didn’t care how bad my photo came out, as long as I could tell it was blue. Now I’ll believe Merlin when it says it hears one.

The rain smooshed most of the flowers, but I did see a good number of insects. I don’t think I realized we had so many kinds of butterflies before I started recording them. I think that’s a good sign we have left enough native plants around.

Whew. But wait, there’s more. I observed lots of interesting water snake behavior today. In the morning, while looking at the heron, I saw at least four snakes traversing the pond behind the house. I got blurry images, so no ID.

Later, around 6 pm when I decided to get the rest of my exercise goal accomplished, I noticed a snake near the shore of Walkers Creek. As I watched, I saw two more. The creek was quite still, so I could see them real well. Then they obliged me and swam up to the bridge. That let me ID them as nonvenomous diamondback water snakes. What a sight!

All this makes me more firm in my decision to not swim in the ponds or creeks here. Interesting aside: when I came back from my walk to the cemetery, the creek was rushing and gurgling. It was at least three inches higher. That’s what flash floods are all about!

I got a lot done in my non-productive hours!

Spontaining

Today Lee and I spontained, which is our cute couple’s word for doing something on the spur of the moment. He needed to get out of the house, so we did. We ran off to Waco (because any iNat observations I made there would count for my City Nature Challenge totals).

We went to the Waco Mammoth National Monument, which neither of us had ever been to before. I hoped to get lots of iNat observations, but it didn’t matter much, since I’d already gone out in the morning and got sightings of crawfish, a turtle, catfish, and Ssssindy the snake.

Wow, Suna, that’s a great photo of a crawfish.

We enjoyed the monument very much. The actual mammoth dig site is preserved with a cool roof and walls system that protects it. The walkway people go on in tours is suspended from the ceiling, so the bones are safe.

You can see the walkway and the site here.

I don’t think I realized before that this site has lots of mammoth fossils (and a camel). It’s the only such “nursery herd” site ever discovered in the US. Many bones are in a museum at Baylor University, but the ones we saw have been left in situ, and work is still ongoing with them.

It’s incredible that this mass death of mammoths happened, apparently more than once, when the Bosque River suddenly flooded. I’m amazed that these animals were here only 10,000 years ago, too.

Anyway, we enjoyed talking to a college student who was there with her archeology club, to another young adult who helped me get my National Park stamps going, and to the park rangers. I know that helped cheer Lee up.

And after looking at the dig site, we walked on some trails and found some plants and insects. Mostly it was hedge parsley and more hedge parsley, but we found other stuff.

It was nice having Lee help me. He spotted a few bugs! I must be rubbing off on him.

Back at the ranch, I found many interesting bugs and spiders on prairie parsley. If you want more butterflies, grow this! I also got a great look at a kingbird. The buntings and dickcissels are very loud but are also good at hiding.

It was so windy that I gave up on birds. Tomorrow I’m going over to Sara’s to see if she has any interesting plants. I’d probably win the challenge if I was able to go to Tarrin’s, but she’s out of town and I wouldn’t want to impose on her family. Maybe next year!

A little broken, like many of us, but this goatweed leaf wing (*Anaea andria*) was a beautiful find.

All in all, a little spontaining was good for us both.

My Favorite Topics

What topics do you like to discuss?

Why, regular readers know this:

Nature
Horses
Dogs
Knitting/crochet
Home renovations/rehab
Personal growth
Spirituality (not religion)

Speaking of dogs, we sprung Carlton out of the Cameron pound 6 years ago! This is where he is as I write.

Today I got all my work items done and had plenty of time for fun. Some even involved human beings! Anita and I enjoyed a pastry break, followed by an afternoon wine break (Cameron: a place where there’s now stuff to do). And in the evening we had a birthday dinner with one of the people who live here. It was fun, because we’re getting pretty relaxed around each other these days.

Highlight: the bakery has a mixer almost as tall as Anita! Is it from Tasmania?

Most of my fun, which is probably only fun to a naturalist, consisted of taking photos of practically everything that lives on the ranch natively. It’s the City Nature Challenge on iNaturalist, and we’re trying to beat some actual city, or something like that.

Most of my photos were not this good. (Gray hairstreak on white clover)

The challenge started off with a surprise, as the guy who refills the propane showed up but did not get to fill our tank. It had a beehive in it. I hope we have encouraged them to move in by removing the tank cover.

I went all over the property finding plants, birds, insects, and fungi to record. I put on thick boots, but didn’t see any snakes or other reptiles. There are still some places to check, but after finding 161 organisms, I may have nearly exhausted this ranch. I still need to locate the silky evolvulus. It was hiding.

I wish I could go walk in Tarrin’s woods and down her road. There are completely different plants only 30 miles away!

I did stop and enjoy the scenery occasionally.

I’m glad the rain held off so all of us in our area could get our observations in. I’ll keep looking until Monday!

Most populous butterfly to day is the little phaon crescent.

Thanks for reading along as I go on about my favorite topic! I have more thoughts, but it’s been a long day. Your reward is a sampling of insects I saw, without the extra blurry ones.

Animals Are a Luxury Item

This week I’ve spent more on horse care than I earned. The mobile vet came to give the horses all their immunizations and Coggins tests. And next week the equine dentist comes, so I’ll just have to find away to finance that. Next year I’ll try not to get the annual vaccines, dental care, bodywork, and a final rehab installment all at the same time! Oh, and there’s $400 in Apache medicine getting charged next week.

Take a deep breath and think of hummingbirds, Suna.

Yep, pets and livestock are expensive, when properly cared for. And we want to properly care for our animals. perhaps I’m better with their care than mine.

Blurry but pretty. Flapping its wings like me trying to get all these things done.

Proper care isn’t easy! Poor Lee was in charge of the dogs, most of whom have to be sedated to get them still and calm (just Goldie is calm enough to get through her exam unmediated). Alfred became a barrier so we couldn’t use the front door until he woke up.

Penney fell asleep on the vet tech, so she couldn’t be very helpful for a while.

As for the horses, I was in charge of them. I spent a long time cleaning Apache poop from the dry lot since it was past due (I’d done half yesterday). Then I haltered them all, as requested by the vet. All went well, and I managed to separate Drew out, since I got him taken care of at his $2K vet appointment in Bryan. It was hard, because they’ve all been sticking together like glue since Drew came home.

Don’t believe her. I’m the one they all stick to.

Well, all went well except for Mabel. She got nervous. So I spent 20 minutes calming her down using all the horse whispering I could muster. But it worked! She settled pretty well.

She’s in such great condition now. She shines.

She had to get drugged when it came to the strangles vaccine. She’s not font of things going into her nose. Dusty, on the other hand, was quite enchanted with his nasal spray. He even insisted on doing his Flehmen response right into the vet’s camera! He made it to her Facebook page with this.

It was determined that Dusty has pinworms so all the animals will next get wormed. So many fun medical things for these guys! And wormer ain’t free, either. But they need it!

Apache, of course, was fine. I was happy to see his rain rot is getting better after his bath. And he is so calm now.

Or he’s still embarrassed by his leg wear.

We decided to get Fiona vaccinated, too. She didn’t like it much. I also realized she was a big mess with flies and burs all over her. So she got prescribed pour-over fly repellent. I should have thought of that myself. I’m going to try it tomorrow. She is also stuck in the “dry lot” with Apache now. Maybe that will help her. I have big plans to get her all groomed tomorrow, since everyone else is looking spiffy.

Yeesh. That’s a lot of medical stuff. But, the vaccines and tests plus the dentist are just once a year. Break it down by month and it’s only sort of expensive. I guess.

I’ll just have to squirrel away some funds.

At least hummingbird watching is free. These red salvias the pool guys put in were a good investment. I know the pictures are blurry, but I enjoyed the shapes. These are black chinned hummingbirds, by the way.

My blurry buddies. Males have the white stripe around their necks.

By the way, here’s a good bird article that I accidentally left at the top of the email version of this post. Oops.

Risky Moves

Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.

One risk I took was buying and moving into property in a rural part of a state full of people who don’t like people like me. I was concerned that we hermits of the Hermits’ Rest would be truly isolated, other than the folks next door.

I’d always lived in small cities or suburbs, not rural properties. I didn’t know if I’d be able to adapt to the challenges of living with no HOA to keep things tidy, no convenient shopping areas with a Walgreens and a Starbucks every few blocks, and plenty of biting and stinging creatures lurking everywhere.

Prickly pears do have thorns, but it’s wonderful when they bloom.

I’m so glad I discovered I’m quite flexible, I can adapt, and there are plenty of people here that enjoy people like me. I treasure the wide variety of friends I’ve made in this small town, rich and poor, conservative and liberal alike. And it’s such a privilege to have family in our little commune. I’d never have known this was possible without taking the risk of joining Lee in his retirement dreams.

And I’d never have learned so much about the natural world around me. That’s a green heron.

Now I’m the one taking care of livestock, understanding where the dangers are as well as the wonders, and learning new skills every day. I’m bemused by visitors in their shorts and flip flops running from every flying insect and prickly plant. Or worse, being afraid of chickens, horses, or dogs. (You can respect them without fearing them.)

Apache feels as if I don’t respect him, by washing him with medication and putting so much on his legs. But that’s stopping flies!

It takes all kinds, of course, and I’m glad there are options. I bet I could even find community and new things to learn in a downtown of a city. Maybe in my 80s…

Speaking of friends, I’ve come to view Ssssally here as a friend. Might as well.

What Treasures Hide in the Weird Areas

Our last day at Lake Whitney (or the Big Puddle as I’m inclined to call it, since it’s mostly only a foot deep) was mostly a work day, but I found time to hike around near our campsite for an hour around lunchtime. I wanted to see the airstrip that I’d spotted on the map.

The area wasn’t much to look at, since it was pretty scrubby and just had a few trees here and there (what did I expect? It was advertised as being on a prairie). However weird it looked didn’t matter. There was much to observe.

Always look at snags (dead trees). Something will be there.

I have to hand it to this area, there are lots of birds, and they love this type of landscape with mixed open and covered parts. I heard a turkey and a peregrine falcon, along with many of my favorite sparrows, and the new-to-me clay-colored sparrow. There were no tanagers (they like the woods back at the campsite), but I was lucky to experience the sounds of multiple painted buntings calling each other and flying around. Magic! Plus the woodpeckers put on a show. Downies were in mating or territorial frenzies.

More bird action occurred when I went to check out the weird but nice surprise of a whole setup for flying radio-controlled planes. It even had a memorial sign for deceased members. However, those guys weren’t present, so my buddies the barn swallows decided their shelter was an excellent barn substitute. They didn’t appreciate my intrusion. I wonder what happens on plane days?

Yesterday I was too sleepy to write about plants, but today I’m more awake! I’ll say that this scrubby prairie had many flowers to enjoy (and to entice bees and butterflies). Two that were new to me were cute low-growing Comanche Western Daisy (Astranthium ciliatum) and delicate pink diamond flowers (Stenaria nigricans) which are usually white.

Comanche western daisy and diamond flower

Of course my old favorites were also there. I just can’t stop myself from taking photos of insects on milkweed flowers. Not really weeds.

We headed home around three, and once I got the lights on the Jeep to work, all was well. Our first tow vehicle-accompanied trip went very well. We are quite rested.

I wasn’t worried about Apache, because Kathleen took great care of him and the other livestock. He is all medicated up and walking a lot better. Tomorrow he’ll get another trim and we should bring Drew home, too! I sure hope he’s back to his sweet, fun self.

Oh good, Ratty the rat snake is also doing well. She left me three eggs.

Best Birding at Home Ever!

Today was misty and damp, plus I had a lot on my plate between work and chores. Still, the time I did manage to steal time for firing up Merlin Bird ID and listening to/looking for birds paid off big time. I just knew I’d see cool birds this spring, eventually.

I can’t bury the lead: look who helped me feed the horses and shovel poop this evening! It’s a yellow-headed blackbird! Whoa! It was quite friendly and just hung around as I did chores (I was hyperventilating that I saw what I thought I saw).

Very cool migrant I welcomed from Mexico.

The morning was equally exciting. I heard a weird sound when I was out feeding chickens. Then I recalled Lee saying he’d heard something that sounded like a heron, but not like our usual ones. Sure enough, it was a green heron.

You can’t see it, but they were by this pond.

Actually, I saw them flying and realized it was a pair. We have them sometimes, so it wasn’t a big surprise, but the amount of calling these guys did helped cement the sound of green herons in my mind. They went on all day, I think.

Another bird was giving a concert as well. The great crested flycatcher had come up before, and I always figured Merlin had it confused with our common (yet breathtaking) scissor tail flycatchers.

However, the pair (or more) in the woods today sounded distinctly different from their showy cousins. I could tell exactly where they were, because they were calling repeatedly, but I only got a glimpse of two of them changing trees.

But wait, there’s more. Also among the cacophony (of course with cardinals, wrens, titmice, and woodpeckers), was another cool bird. I sure wish I’d seen the yellow-breasted chat, though hearing it was interesting enough. This is another bird I thought might have been identified in error, but when it repeatedly registered and I became able to pick it out, I believed it.

Even if you aren’t a birder, you can see why I was pretty happy with today’s variety—39 birds in all, even without all the winter sparrows. There was a gray catbird in the mix, too, and I almost got a photo of it!

I did get an excellent photo of an orange blister beetle, though.

In mammal news, the painkillers seem to be working on Apache. He had the gumption to try to get away when I came at him with his medication. And he’s eating more, too. The other horses are so good. They hang out with him a lot so he isn’t too lonely.

Oh, one more bit of bird news: there’s a harrier nest in Sara’s part of the ranch! That was exciting to me, since they’re my favorite raptor. Now, please enjoy some flowers.

Horses: Not a Carousel, More of a Roller Coaster

Gee whiz. My horses and I just can’t catch a break. I get one healthy, then the other one is hurt, then they trade places. I wish it were the subtle ups and downs of a carousel, but it’s more of a roller coaster with huge highs and lows, along with high entrance fees.

Let’s enjoy some good news. Droodles seems to be past the side effects of the injections he got last week and is regaining his sweet disposition. His caregivers gave him good reports from the weekend and it made me really happy to see him looking like he wanted my attention when I went for lessons today. Previously, he wouldn’t even look at me when I came.

Tarrin said he remembers how to canter and is now willing to move in all directions, too. I think all the help he’s gotten has made a huge difference. I’m sure grateful for all the effort Tarrin and her wonderful helpers have put into getting him past his issues. Maybe I’ll have a horse I can ride by next week.

That’s good, because my worst fears have been realized with Apache. I’d really hoped his feet were just sore from an aggressive trim. But he was not at all happy without his boots. With them he can walk at a normal pace, but you can tell it hurts. So I brought him for his lesson really to get help.

I’d really hoped the Prascend I’ve been giving him would help. It’s a real pain to get him to actually eat it, even with applesauce. He’s good at spitting it out. It’s costly as well. But, I guess it could have been worse without the stuff. As it is, Tarrin said he’d obviously suffered a laminitic episode. That was my fear.

As always, there are plenty of helpful canines helping with the diagnosis.

It looked to me like his sole was sticking out farther than his hoof wall, and yep, that was true. Dammit. Could be worse; he did not founder. That’s really bad.

This hoof was perfect a few weeks ago. Best it had ever been. Ugh.

It’s so discouraging to have worked and worked to get a horse healthy, only for grass or something to mess him right back up. I’m heartbroken. But, before someone (Sara) reminds me that I knew this was liable to happen when I took over his care. Yes, I know he’s always had PPID or whatever they used to call it. But I’ve sure tried hard to manage it. Not hard enough, though, and it’s my fault.

Well, anyway, Tarrin was able to give a good lesson to her two farrier students in how to do the kind of trim that will bring him comfort. That was at least a good service we could provide. He got all trimmed and went back in his boots. It seemed to help.

Yay, first meadow pink of the year. Cheers me up.

He also got a big ole dose of painkillers, which was not easy. Tarrin had to use all her tempting tricks to entice him to eat it. In the end, he got two syringes full of the powder mixed with water.

Also cheering me up is baby Grace. She finally came out a couple days ago. She has blue eyes and a moon on her forehead.

I’m guessing he’s feeling good now. He refused his dinner, though. Probably thought there must be medication in it. Of course he has to stay in the pens where there is no grass. Fiona may join him. They can grumpily munch hay together.

Yes, yes, I’m sure I’m doing the best I can and none of this is my fault and I should have expected it. But I was sure enjoying happy Apache. I’m allowed to at least briefly be sad.

But hey, maybe Drew won’t bite me now. He should be able to work with me soon. And if worst comes to worst, Mabel is gonna do in hand work! I’ve still got a spare, even if they’re all not rideable. I can still have fun with them.