Ranch Life – Page 5 – The Hermits' Rest

I’m Prejudiced – Insect-wise

This just dawned on me today. While I enjoy watching butterflies, I’m pretty darned uninterested in moths. You know, there are way more species of moths than of butterflies, because they developed long before butterflies did.

My most recent moth sighting is this Green Cloverworm or Black Snout moth (*Hypena scabra)*

And there are numerous beautiful moths, many of which live right here in Texas.

Twin-spotted Sphinx moth (*Smerinthus jamaicensis)*

And I’m not prejudiced against moths just before many of them look so similar to human eyes. Heck, most deer look alike but I still find them beautiful.

I had to ponder for quite a while, but when I walked into my office and looked around it hit me. Butterflies never mess with my sh**. Moths do. First, they show up at night and flutter in my face. I hate that.

Second, those nasty pantry moths have ruined my food repeatedly. I’m so glad I discovered those pheromones in boxes that cause them to die out.

Pantry moth or Indian Meal moth (*Plodia* *interpunctella*) grr.

Third, and worst, is the fact that clothing moths infected my house (before moving here) and ruined probably thousands of dollars of wool yarn and handmade clothing that took me hours and hours to make. Yep. I don’t like those mofos.

I’m not even sharing a clothing moths photo. This one is kind of pretty in its drab way. Brown-shaded Gray (*Iridopsis defectaria)*

I should probably just be prejudiced against certain moths and not generalize, right? Like I don’t condone how a large percentage of white American humans think, but I don’t feel annoyed at all of us. Hmmm. An analogy.

We all look alike anyway. Photo from Pixels.

I’ll work on loving the benign moths. And understanding that the ones who make me upset aren’t doing it directed toward me. They’re just being moths. Perhaps it will do me good to try to remember that humans who upset me are just being humans, and that it’s human nature to upset “the other.”

At Least There Were Clouds

I miss rain. There was a trace while I was out of town, but otherwise no rain since early September. Today the weather toyed with me.

Some nice clouds rolled in early this morning. It got very quiet and the air felt encouraging. It was oddly warm. The birds and I were hopeful.

Alas, the beautiful dark clouds drifted away. Sigh.

On the positive side, it was a great day for birds. I declared it to be the start of Ornithological Winter, because a White-throated Sparrow appeared (more than one, actually). Combined with Chipping Sparrows, Pipits, and passing Sandhill Cranes, I’m confident the season has changed, bird-wise. It will cool off and rain soon!

I’m admittedly tired of having my head feel weird every time I try to do anything more strenuous than walk. Horse grooming and exercising got me worried the cut would re-open, so lucky horses are just getting Bur removal. Yes, as hard as we tried to eliminate them, horses can still find burs.

I’ve been enjoying watching these pretty katydids fly around this week.

Ugh. I’m just not feeling 100% so I’ll write more when I’m more myself.

Ranch Life, Surprises Are All Good

Ya know, these days not much fazes me around here. As long as there’s no gushing blood on humans or livestock, it’s all fine.

I’ve got Penney and her pals watching out for me.

Today was typical. I enjoyed my morning birding—I really missed it last week, and I took Penney out for a tromp through the front field while I took pictures for yet another BioBlitz, for the Native Plant Society. So idyllic!

I settled in at my desk to do meetings and a big task, with my coffee in my hand and headphones over my ears. However, near the end of the second meeting I heard Lee exclaim that the horses were out. Oops! Someone (me) didn’t shut the big gate well and the wind blew it open.

They sure looked happy in the driveway circle, where Lee had accidentally left the water on the little tree for too long. I’m just glad it is not fresh and juicy enough to mess with Apache.

Lee and I decided to let them hang out in the open area for the day, and bungee-corded the front gate shut. I think they had a good day finding pockets of grass that’s not all dried up. I also noticed a lot of rubbing itchy areas on pieces of equipment.

They went right back to their pens for feeding time with just a little encouragement, so it’s all just fine. The afternoon ended with more birding and pleasant sitting by the pool as a family.

I gazed at the birding station from the pool patio. They’ll get back to it soon!

Heck, the only negative stuff for today was an outage of our phone service (worse for others than for me, because it didn’t stop me from working) and frustration with getting logged in to the correct streaming service for football. I’m sure it’s easier for the young folks. Just too many passwords on annoying interfaces!

So I just breathe and look at grass. Aah.

When you don’t let surprises bug you, it’s way easier to deal with the little things, and that’s today’s takeaway.

I couldn’t identify this by sight, but iNaturalist says it’s very dry prairie tea (*Croton monanthogynus)*

Working on Things?

What have you been working on?

I’ve been slacking on my main project, the temperature blanket. I just have to buckle down and sew September onto the main blanket and crochet more black squares. Then I can enjoy October (hoping it cools off someday).

Poorly arranged photo of September. Hot colors.

This doesn’t mean work isn’t being done around the Hermits’ Rest. I was delighted to notice a lot of materials in our back yard when I arrived home from College Station. I also noticed the horses had more hay, so someone or someones had been busy this weekend!

Yes! My concrete bird-watching pad is becoming a birding station. It’s going to be quite a little gem. Kathleen has been painting trim like she’s driven, and her brother and spouse are building the structure.

I’ll have the shade I need in summer and protection from wind in winter. I look forward to trying it out!

I was pretty darned tired today from all that activity at the Texas Master Naturalist annual meeting. So I mostly napped and tried to add more photos before the Texas Pollinator Week ends. I did find a few interesting things, including katydids that I learned about this week.

It’s good to be home and back working on my usual projects, iNaturalist, Merlin Bird ID (got a Great Horned Owl!), crochet, and feeding animals. I fed horses and did not get injured. They’re calmer with their different bale of hay. That’s good, because half my face is green from bruising fun.

I Have My Halloween Costume All Picked Out

TW: cuts and bruises

I usually go as a witch (requires no costume), but this year I can be an accident victim.

I got stuck between Dusty and the gate when Apache charged in to eat Dusty’s leftovers. Usually Dusty flees safely but he was too close to me and I was knocked into a metal gate. At least my glasses protected my eye.

I did bleed a lot, but hoped it would stop. Alas, it did not, so off to the ER for rich people we went. I just wasn’t up for hours and hours at the germy hospital. I was the only patient and was in and out in an hour. I got seven stitches, so I guess my family was right to encourage me to get the cut looked at. The good news is my glasses (non-broken) cover most of the bruising and stitches.

The doctor said my skin looked amazing for my age. Aw shucks. Thanks, Olay products.

Here’s a nice bee fly to take your mind off blood and bruising.

I’m now dreading the numbing shots wearing off, but I’ll be fine and I’ll be more careful when letting Dusty out from now on. Usually I’m quite careful but I was tired from a long day of work and Master Naturalist stuff. That’s when accidents happen.

I’m not particularly looking forward to a long weekend of explaining my face, but I’m cleared to attend the Master Naturalist annual meeting, so I’m going!

More later. All is well, and I’ve done all the right bruising protocols, etc. And I’m on the lookout for signs of further issues.

Worn Out in a Good Way

I’m a tired little teddy bear tonight, so don’t expect anything even moderately pithy. Not that pithy is an adjective I’d choose for my blogging.

I got up bright and early so I could look for birds and pollinators by the lake. I was more successful today than yesterday, and I had bonus sightings of deer, a desert cottontail, and a coyote that I didn’t get a photo of.

After that early fun I set up my outdoor office and got in most of a work day at the park. I got to watch the Green Jays, doves, and woodpeckers while I worked. It was a nice change of pace. I was joined by some friends.

We pulled out of Choke Canyon State Park before my last work call. I managed to take some pictures of the things one sees in the brushy oilfield land on our way home. I was asked for photos of towns, so I’ll give you Kenedy and Nixon. Yes, they are near each other. Enjoy views of deep in the heart of Texas.

So, that’s southern Texas. Now to have a normal day before I go somewhere else. I’m piling on the travel. Zzz.

Heading South Like a Bird

Not that I want it to be warmer; it’s plenty warm still where I live. Nonetheless The plan for today was to head down south for a repeat visit to Choke Canyon State Park. I accidentally rebooked this park, perhaps I had a subconscious plan.

This very anxious cow had both me and the dogs concerned during birding time.

But first we had to get there. The farrier came early, which messed up my careful plans for getting both my work and my travel preparation done (and photography of pollinators for Texas Pollinator Week). Then, of course, work needed me and that got me more out of sync. I kept up my planned work/prep until I went to feed the chickens and give them water.

Of course I stopped for pollinators. This clouded skipper was diving into a flower.

As I turned the water flow on, I saw a brown lump in the grass. Was it something else Vlassic had dragged in from the pasture?

Oh my gosh, no! It was a newborn calf! On our side of the fence! It was doing the classic baby calf thing of laying low and not moving. I knew it was just born, because Tyler V tags new ones as soon as he finds them and he’s looking at least twice a day right now.

No wonder that cow had been mooing so hard this morning! And her milk bag was very full. I got in touch with Tyler then finished working and getting ready. Just as we were finally leaving, Tyler arrived and I showed him where the calf was. The poor thing was getting hot and breathing hard, so I’m glad it got rescued. All it took was for Tyler to walk up to it and it scooted back through the fence. I hope there was a family reunion and the baby got tagged.

That made me as happy as I assume these bee flies were when I took this shot.

Four hours later, we arrived to the familiar sight of Choke Canyon’s scrubby beauty. I quickly realized why I subconsciously rebooked a place we had already been—this time we are just two spots away from the bird blind! The really good one! And there’s javelina poop on our site! Yes! This place has its own beauty and excitement.

Bonus: the leveling system worked and my bedroom slide went out. I can get to my pajamas and art supplies! It’s like we have our motorhome back, though the generator still won’t start.

I did get to walk around just a little bit, and found a lot of climbing milkweed, lantana, and cow pen daisies. I hope these will convince some of the beautiful butterflies I’ve been seeing to stop and pollinate. So far I have a dead queen butterfly and a brown moth. I must do better!

I figure I’ll enjoy a few more birding hikes this weekend as well as take a lot of insect and plant photos! Enjoy scenes from my sunset walk.

Butterflies Are Tricky

Since I’m still feeling a bit under the weather I didn’t do much today. Luckily my favorite activity each morning is listening to birds and watching the wildlife behind our house. Paying attention is hard on the mind (sometimes) but easy on a weakened body.

The insects are enjoyable, and give me visual entertainment when I can’t see birds. There are always wasps and bees, along with flies, not all of whom are annoying (just most). It’s been a mediocre year for dragonflies — there have been years with more and years with less, but they’re always fun to watch.

Of concern this year, though, have been butterflies. Much of the spring and summer there really haven’t been as many as usual. The most prolific were the Gulf Fritillary contingent who love one of the spring vines.

I saw one today, but this is from spring

Next have been the clouded and Eufala skippers, who love the morning glories, of which I’ve shared many photos. Asters are doing a good job, too, as I shared recently.

For the last few days, though, I’m seeing a greater variety, ranging from tiny hairstreaks to large sulphurs and swallowtails. It sure was pleasant sitting in my chair and seeing a variety feeding on grass pollen. Too bad I decided not to move around and disturb them, because you’d have a lot to see! This hackberry emperor posed so beautifully on a corn leaf blown in from harvest that I had to capture it. That’s why we don’t eliminate hackberry trees!

I’ll feel better tomorrow and more up for photography. I’m sure they won’t all sneak away when they see me coming.

PS: Lee made me another book. The pages are thick watercolor paper. It was hard to sew, but he did a great job. The book opens nice and flat, too. He even stamped the cover with a sweet bow!

Mortality Blues

I’ve been re-watching the television series Lucifer, in which the Devil comes to earth to figure out what being mortal is like, among other things. He’s all excited to get to actually feel pain.

Well, I’m glad it gives Mr. Morningstar some giggles. It’s not the case with me these days, nor with so many of my friends in the 75+ age group. They seem pretty baffled at how their previously well behaved bodies are randomly (it seems) failing. Why is my knee giving way? How did I get this heart issue? What the heck!

Carlton is concerned about his mortality though he need not be

I remember how weird it seemed when my indestructible Dad started to show signs of age. Maybe it was good he passed at 80, before his body stopped being so robust. That would have been hard on him.

I’m musing about this because my digestive system, the one inextricably linked to my anxiety and stress, has not been cooperating with me. I was pretty much out of commission today, and I don’t know which of many possibilities caused it. I ended up taking a nap in the cool motorhome after work.

No doubt the horses were relieved I didn’t make anyone work today, but they got fed.

It’s just so frustrating to have your body not doing its job properly when you have plans. That’s my least favorite part of aging, the unreliability of the physical part of myself.

Nonetheless there were highlights today, the biggest of which was seeing a big Wood Stork by the creek. I thought it was a hawk at first, but the head shape gave it away. I hope we see more, and some cranes.

That will make up for how quiet birding has been lately. I hear plenty of birds, but not in large numbers and not very enthusiastically. Maybe they’re all molting like Connie and the chickens.

The Great Egret was another non-Hawk that was in the usual lookout trees.

I will now see if I can sleep. I’ve avoided the news and have not read any depressing books.

Appreciate Your Community

Because of life constraints I don’t get to see some of the people who mean the most to me. You know who you are.

For that reason it was so gratifying to spend time just relaxing and talking to my friend Anita this evening. Even though we only live five miles away, it’s hard to get together right now thanks to work and a geriatric dog.

But we did get to have some of our talks like only people who’ve known each other over half a century can have. I feel lots better just from the in-person check-in (as opposed to social media and text).

We all chatted on the new porch. Now I’ve had two friend visits here!

It makes me want to see a few other close friends even more. All the busyness and over/scheduling just makes it hard. Well, and me being a hermit and wanting to avoid big cities and crowds doesn’t help.

I’m grateful for Zoom/Teams chats and wish I had more. Maybe I should schedule some! Taking action is a skill I’m still working on, for sure! If you want to chat with me or someone you care about, do it! Make a plan. I’ll try to take my own advice.

It’s a full moon, so I can manifest more sociability.

But to those of you I care about and don’t talk to often, know you’re in my thoughts more than you could imagine. My brain is filled with community. Now to maintain it…