Birds and more birds. That’s the past few days. First, the turkey we saw recently has continued to be spotted by neighbors up and down our road. First, Mandi’s dad sent a photo of his sighting.
I look good at this angle.
Then, this evening, the woman across the road sent in her own photo.
This angle brings out my eyelashes.
All the photos so far have one thing in common. They’re in the side of the road. I guess that’s where the best turkey food is? Now that everyone from the creek to the end of the road has seen it, we’re hoping to see more!
What about ducks, you ask?
Well, while there aren’t many here at the ranch, Cameron town has continued to host lots and lots of them. The black-bellied whistling ducks are lurking in trees (yes, they roost in trees), flapping across roads, and vocalizing from rooftops.
Can yo hear me?
I was amazed yesterday when I tried to see what kinds of birds were in town. The whistling ducks were able to drown out even boat tailed grackles. They were acting like they were competing in an annoying bird sound competition. (Other birds included white wing doves, a robin, cedar waxwings, and the omnipresent cardinals.)
Just for fun, enjoy the wonders of the Red House yard.
Bird’s eye speedwellMilk snail bent on destructionFalse dayflower White mouth dayflower AltheaCut leaf evening primrose CandolleomycesIt’s coolPleated ink cap The huge oak that’s not dead
Hmm, the title of this post was about turducken. Where are the hens?
The hen was evicted.
I thought it was really funny that when I went into the henhouse this morning Snacky Jacky (yeah, I broke down and named it) was comfortable and cozy in its own nesting box, like one of the hens. Buttercup was in another box, completely ignoring Jacky. The snake looked well fed, but I think it ate a big rodent, not an egg. I got ten eggs from seven hens in the past two days, so the detente continues.
Tiger swallowtail break!
Hey, it was a good day today, though, because I scheduled better Internet provider. That hotspot ain’t cutting it. I’m very proud of my patience, since I went through three providers before finding something that would work here. The one all my friends love can’t be used because there is a hill between us and the tower. The really, really close tower. Ugh. So, I will have non-ideal satellite until we can get StarLink. But I persevered!!
If I could only attach a dish to this guy, I could get to the tower.
Ooh, and a got a horchata frappe to celebrate cinco de mayo. Yep. An Americanized beverage for an Americanized holiday. We’re becoming quite accustomed to our weekly coffee breaks.
No big disasters struck today, other than realizing that new hotspot just won’t cut it for work, because it’s actually a not-so-hot hotspot. It gives up after about 40 minutes of a 60-minute Zoom call. Not helpful if you’re in the middle of helping someone out. So, I’ll be working from the Red House on Fannin for a while until we have another option.
Luckily butterflies distract me, like this crescent.
So, I’ll share some things that help one forget technology annoyances, like birds and plants. First, I got to see something rare for me as I was out trying to find something to give my chickens, now that their garden got mowed. I heard an unfamiliar bird call, and looked up to see two dark birds coming to the pond behind the house.
Where I saw them.
They circled a couple of times, which was quite lovely, then ended up at the shore of the pond. They were dark, but vaguely egret-like, so I got the binoculars to get a better view. While they refused to make a sound while I had the Merlin’s Bird ID app listening, the app did hint to me that it could be a green heron pair. I’ve seen them before, but not this time of year.
Look for the orange legs. That’s the bird.
Sure enough, the binoculars confirmed the identity. They are beautiful birds, even hiding in a very dark corner of a pond on a cloudy day. That started my day off right!
It looks more like a bird here.
I had lunch outside with Lee, and heard a few songs I didn’t recognize, in addition to the incessant dickcissels and cardinals. So, I fired up Merlin Bird ID again and had it listen for a few minutes. Now I know exactly what a painted bunting sounds like! I’d probably see them if I had a bird feeder, but if I put one in the back yard, dogs would bother the birds, and if I put one on the other side of the fence, cattle would knock it down in no time. But I can hear the beautiful song of the most beautiful bird in North America!
Painted buntings are in there somewhere!
I also got a glimpse of the turkey as Goldie yelled at it (thanks, Goldie). And I spent a lot of time listening to anxious killdeer protecting their nest, which I think is over by the front pond and not at all accessible by me. I wish they would chill out. The dickcissels drowned them out, though. Over half the photos I’ve taken of those little darlings are in mid chirp. They say their name, loudly, like phoebes do. I know they’ll move on shortly, so I’m trying to enjoy them.
Dickcissels with open mouths
There are sill some pretty patches of flowers around the ranch, where the lawn mowers can’t reach. So I can enjoy being less likely to step on a snake yet enjoy floral beauty. Enjoy my series, wildflowers with iron poles. It’s romantic.
I can’t help but try to capture some of the beauty I see. It’s the same old property but decorated differently from week to week!
Silver leaf nightshade Bun bun (one of three)Meadow pinkBlack eyed SusansEngelmann daisies and prairie parsley Lotebush and fruit. Sigh, it got cut down. What variety!
Admittedly, I spent a long time today listening. I think I’m in love with the birdsong identification feature in the Merlin app. I indulged myself this evening by figuring out how many different birds were behind our house (by the pond, in the back yard, and in the woods) in twenty minutes. Whoa, there sure are bunches of birds hiding around here (I did hear a mourning dove and a barred owl the app didn’t pick up – guess I have good hearing still). But check out this list!
House sparrow (duh)
Dickcissel
Cardinal
Mockingbird
Barn swallow
Cedar waxwing
Carolina chickadee
Red bellied woodpecker
European starling
Nighthawk (!)
Eastern bluebird
Purple martin
Crow
Red-winged blackbird
That’s a lot of birds, even without hearing another painted bunting or egret in the mix. What a chorus! By the way, the app doesn’t appear to acknowledge chickens. Aren’t they birds? I guess they are too domestic.
Oh well
I hope my bird and flower enthusiasm were contagious. If so, download that app on your phone and try to listen where you live!
So, this rat snake has been hanging out in the chicken house. The thing is, we’ve been getting plenty of eggs.
My buddy
Kathleen and I agree that this snake can hang out with the chickens and take care of the mouse issue in the chicken coop. I have a feeling the fact that it scares away mice is a real bonus.
I’ll do my job and let you have the eggs. Most of them.
I just go in and pick up eggs, and the snake just watches. It’s fine with me. I took care of my son’s pet rat snake for years. It was always fine with me around. Snakes do their jobs!
I’m guarding the fort.
So, I guess we have a partner in the chicken house. And that’s great.
In sad news, poor Betty got egg bound again. She managed to pass the egg, but it did her in. I really didn’t want her to live the rest of her life in pain, anyway. I sure appreciate her, though.
What a lovely day it’s been! We’ve enjoyed a visit from our friend, Jeff, who helped me with my kids and house during some challenging years. we had just enough time to do laundry after our Red House guests for the weekend so he can spend the night there in dog-free peace.
Porch chatting. Lee smiled AFTER I stopped trying to get a picture.
We had lunch at our favorite local Mexican restaurant, then showed Jeff all the town improvements, followed by a good time catching up and chatting.
Jeff got to tour my son’s studio, which was fun for them both.
We also visited my son and enjoyed their deck, where the trees were covered by dozens of beautiful butterflies who were busy getting ready to make more butterflies.
Question markTwo of themFolded wings on question markFolded wings on red admiral Red admiral Beautiful butterfly tree
We ended the day with pizza. We had six guests and I’d planned for ten. Oops. Lots of pizza I don’t like is left. Everyone ate the spinach one! But it was really pleasant to hear the lively conversation and laughter in the house. It did me a lot of good.
We had lots of entertainment, like Goldie.
My day started all Zen in a weird way. When I went downstairs, there was Drew, noshing away between the dog fence and the driveway. That was not his assigned grazing area. I put on shoes and went out.
Mmm. Grass.
He was all happy to see me and rubbed his muddy self on me. I decided since we were out already, we might as well do his exercises and ground work. He was happy to do that, though it’s still a bit slippery.
Well, hi! Fancy meeting you on your own driveway, Suna!
After we were done, I thought to myself that I could either go clean the house or hang out with a sweet horse. Easy decision! I got out the grooming supplies and took my time taking the mud off my boy. There was a lot. He was happy because I fly sprayed him, too.
You can see my coat now!
I spent a very long time on his mane, which usually annoys him. But I chatted with him and told him random compliments, which got him quite relaxed. I enjoyed the mud removal, actually. I felt like one of those apes picking bugs off their friends.
No more mud balls
Then, when I was finished, I just rubbed on him. I have his poll (top of head) some nice rubs. Out of the blue, Drew gently placed his dear head on my shoulder. I thought it was nice. I realized his breathing was more and more regular. He took a nap on me! Such a gentle, trusting interlude.
You can see his eyes are closed.
When he woke back up, we just stood together, rubbing our faces softly on each other. It was like a dream. What a good boy.
Love
We have not figured out how he got out. All gates were locked. He may have jumped the fence.
As if one napping animal wasn’t enough, while we were chatting with everyone after dinner, Lee was sitting next to Goldie. She’s known for resting her head on people’s arms. Tonight, though, she put her head in Lee’s hand. He said, “I’m seeing her inner eyelid,” then someone else gasped, “She’s dreaming!” Yes, Goldie napped in Lee’s hands, with all sorts of conversations going on around her.
Sleepy girl.
We were all charmed by our big, sweet dog.
Ah, this weekend has made up for the weekday stressors! We hope Jeff can visit more often now that we have a nice place to stay. Maybe we will get other guests, too!
Last week when Sandy the Squirrel accidentally set off the transformer across the road, my fancy wired router bit the dust. Since then, I’ve been trying to get it fixed, replaced with a new one, or replaced by some other thing. It’s been gruesome.
My old antenna receiver has nothing to talk to now.
I have spent over 8 hours on the phone or online chat with various AT&T entities. Today was “only” two hours trying to figure out why I couldn’t get the new hotspot they sent to replace my fancy router to connect to the internet. I got passed from chat to chat. Finally they said they’d call me in 10-20 minutes. Um. They still haven’t called.
No one wanted to help my new hotspot.
I thought to myself, “Suna, you went online and on the phone to avoid driving to Temple. You could have driven back and forth many times by now.”
I thought of bringing my mouse catcher with me to wave around. I didn’t.
I stuffed all my equipment in grocery bags and hauled the Angry Snow Kitty to the AT&T Store. I took my knitting, expecting to wait a while.
By now I felt like this guy. Close to deceased.
Thankfully, they weren’t too crowded and I got a competent young man named Quincey to help me. After much trial and error, with consultation from the head tech guy, they figured out the hotspot was not configured correctly. They had to completely reset it. I was assured I couldn’t have fixed it myself.
My feelings about Quincey.
Triumph! Then, young Quincey showed me I hadn’t cracked my phone screen recently, it was just the screen protector. AND rather than trying to sell me a new one, he looked up which one I’d bought and walked me through getting it replaced under warranty! I just paid shipping. He’d done the same thing recently. How helpful!
My faith in customer service is restored. Both the guys who helped me said to just drive over there next time. I said I sure would. I have always had good experiences with this store. I’ll remember that. Online support? Nope.
Long day. Got a lot done and even received my new internet thingie. Can’t make it go, so more tech support tomorrow. Think of me.
I’m as stubborn as these persistent tie vines, though. I’ll get there.
By the time I got to an event I’d been looking forward to, a party for our recent Master Naturalist class graduates, I had a raging headache. Turns out the weather was changing. But the food was good and I enjoyed talking to friends.
Good job, Barbara D. It was delicious.
After all the serious photos I took, we got goofy with the paper flower decorations.
Yes, there’s an invisible hand behind my head. Mostly invisible. Elegant!Ok, I was goofy. Pamela looks nice.
When I got home, Lee proved he was just as goofy as us. We all needed a good laugh!
Well, we dodged the worst hail from tonight’s storm and haven’t lost power. That’s probably because Martha isn’t across the street. Lightning DID hit the transformer across the road from her, though. Is Martha and lightning equal to Kathleen and snakes? let’s hope it’s coincidence.
…you answer a blog prompt? Ha, no. I just thought the question was so easy! I wind down by blogging and knitting. Writing and handcrafts both involve repetitive motion and take your mind off other things.
Flowers help, too.
I’m happy to report that today only started out demanding, however. I dragged all my computers out to the Red House (our vacation rental) because it now has wifi. I was able to actually get a lot done, though, plus I was able to finish the laundry and sweep the porch.
I enjoyed the bricks on the porch.
However, I still hadn’t heard from AT&T about replacing my router. So I called the special line for my equipment. I talked to some woman who tried to sell me equipment insurance and somehow I got rid of her and was able to talk to a reasonable person. The news was bad. They no longer make my equipment.
I was ready to throw a brick through the phone.
Folks, I was truly annoyed. I was extra frustrated. I have wasted a week trying to get something replaced that couldn’t be. Why didn’t someone say that last week? Grr.
I didn’t mail them poison mushrooms.
I was so patient. I just took a deep breath and ordered a wifi hotspot to use until we figure something else out. I think we will do another service. Stay tuned.
The day got way better after I finally made a plan and could get off the dang phone with the AT&T people. I ran home to get the horses ready for a lesson, and somehow got them ready (-ish — Drew still had globs of mud in his mane but I got the majority off his body).
Lo and behold, Apache wasn’t sick and Drew was in great form! All of us had a really good time. Apache is learning to speed up and slow down correctly and stay straight. I’m so proud of him and so glad he is no longer all inflamed. I succeeded in helping him!
Drew was a relief to ride. He has gotten over whatever was up at the last couple of lessons. Tarrin wonders if maybe he wasn’t feeling well when he was acting so funny. Today was fun. I felt like we were working together.
Here I come! Note my lips. That’s me concentrating. There I go. Trot trot. He is very straight. Me not so much.
It was beautiful watching Tarrin ride him after I was done. He cantered so well and easily. I love watching him move. He looks fancy!
It’s good to be home after a fun few days. Many family members were glad to see me and Lee.
Other residents were not so glad.
Excuse me. Why are you barging into our baby bird and poop production area?
Horses were also glad, and I was relieved to find Apache semi-clean after big rain. Drew, on the other hand, has mud dreadlocks that I’ll wait until tomorrow to fix. They at least got their exercise and food.
It rained a lot. You can see how high the water got. Our backup culvert got used for the first time in over a year.
Luckily, the ranch didn’t get struck by lightning or hailed on. Just rain. I guess if lightning struck, it couldn’t break my internet access any more than it already is. Sigh.
Good news: black-eyed susans are in bloom.
I came home with a big to-do list, most of it involving accessing websites. I had four or five Master Naturalist blogs, two horse shows to register for, weather data to look up, etc. Too bad for me. I believe I’ve used up my personal hotspot bandwidth. I got one short Master Naturalist blog up after 45 minutes.
And every flower seems to have its own lynx spider!
The to-do list did contain some non-internet tasks, so I got them all done. At least I have rainbow nails ready for the work week, which I guess will start off at the Red House, until I get that router fixed.
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?
First, let’s answer today’s prompt from our friends at Day One. Now, there are a few places I’m not very interested in going, at least as they are now. I’m interested in the land and the everyday folks everywhere, though, and would be happy seeing how they live and interact.
I’ll just share butterflies rather than pictures of misogynistic places.
But, there’s politics and religion. And, as a female human, there are places I feel way less safe than I do in the place where I live now (which ain’t all that great for us womenfolk). So yeah, as much as I feel that everyone’s culture is worthwhile and not something I’d want to quash, I am not interested in going to places like Saudi Arabia, where even the mega-rich women who have all the “things” they want have no autonomy. That would not be good for me at all.
A dainty sulphur!
I always wondered if I’d be fine in whatever culture I was born into, thinking that’s the way things should be. But I know that visiting a place where I have no rights, even as a foreigner, is not for me.
Checkered white
All right, so the other place I’m just not going to go to today is my stressfully stressed-out week. While I did get some of the issues solved, no one showed up to replace my router, so I still have to deal with that, but I’ve just followed Kathleen’s advice and put it in my f*** it bucket. I made a conscious effort to find some good stuff, and with the help of friends, by gosh, I did it!]
The potential is always there for beauty and goodness.
I soaked in the kindness of my coworkers in meetings today (eating up all my phone’s bandwidth), and just basked in the friendly conversations at lunch. Thank goodness for friends!
And thank goodness for dewberries! Yay!
Then, this afternoon I got a message from Sara showing me what she saw right on the road in front of our ranch!
Hi, I’m Tom.
That’s a first for me here at the Hermit’s Rest, and a truly encouraging sight. Knowing we have turkeys here rounds out some of the missing pieces of native animals that I was hoping could be here. I’m guessing it got disturbed on the other side of the road in the woods by the creek, because hay was being harvested. Sara really lucked out!
Photo by Sara
The only birds I enjoyed up close and personal today were my chickens. I’m so happy that Not Dead Betty is laying again and has filled out all her feathers. She’s back to normal!
The rest of my mature group of ladies is doing just fine, thanks, regardless of whether the giant rat snake is there or not. I got six eggs today, so I have no complaints! Plus, I do adore giving them their delicious greens and watching them dive in. What pleasure they bring.
Billie, Betty, and BlancaFrom top: Star, Bertie Lee, Henley, Blondie, and ButterBillie Idyll and Blondie hang out on the edges The Big Three always eat first. Star has a very fluffy butt. Top right is Blanca. Henley is 3 and still the most skittish henGonna share some eggs later
It’s such a pretty time of year. There’s always something to watch. I’m back to being balanced now. That’s a relief. All that anxiety and annoying symptoms is no fun.
Admittedly, I am not laughing right now, but I’m sure I’ll be able to at some point. I woke up this morning with the positive attitude that all would be well. I had a technician scheduled to come work on my router, I’d be able to finish my work project, and things would be just fine.
In the long run, of course, everything WILL be just fine. It’s just going to take a lot longer to get there than I would have imagined. It’s funny, I guess, with some perspective. Here I go with my tale of weirdness.
Other good news is that I did finish another row in the temperature blanket. It looks like a Klimt
I got numerous texts today about the technician arriving, but I never saw him. Finally I got a call from the technician guy (who is really nice) asking me if he was at the right address. Hmm.
It turns out he was at the Red House. I had signed into THAT account on AT&T but it didn’t have the address anywhere, so I had no idea. And of course, he couldn’t come to the ranch, since he was assigned to go to the Red House…
…and it turns out I needed him to be there, since the phone or cable or whatever line it was had been obliterated in the ice storm. Why didn’t I know? Because the router there had never been set up. Why? Because there was no phone outlet. So, I needed to get that all taken care of anyway.
As I tried to work and failed miserably, the technician called back. He needed to get in the house, since whoever had built the back porch had covered up the phone wire access point.
My house is still here.
So, I zipped with much haste over to the Red House. Hooray, I thought to myself, I brought the correct key! He could get in! And he did. Brr, it was chilly in there. And hey, it was also dark.
It was chilly and dark because there was no dang power. What the heck? The house had power last week, so that wasn’t caused by the ice storm! People had stayed there and Anita had cleaned up after them. But, no power today. Great. I called Lee and asked him to look into it, but he was quite busy paying our scary tax bill. He says the bill is paid!
And the pool house and hen house are still here.
So, we went on in to figure out where to put the modem. We found the right spot in the dining area and drills started drilling away. The technician asked me to bring him the modem. Um, the modem…it isn’t there? GREAT, another bump in the road!
So, I called Anita, since I’d asked her to plug it in for our first guests, but she’d not been able to find a phone outlet. That’s because they’d all been removed in the renovation. We didn’t think we’d need it…
I asked Anita where the modem was. She had taken it home! Oh. Well, I needed it. Luckily she had a little time and was able to run over with the box, and they could at least get everything set up. I’m going to be super optimistic and assume it will work when the power is turned on.
Meanwhile, I still needed to get my original issue addressed, didn’t I? I spent another hour or so talking to AT&T customer support, once I shouted enough at the automated system that they gave me a person. The system kept insisting I didn’t know my special secret PIN, but I did! The human being I got was really helpful, and had to be patient with the fact that he was talking to me, Lee, and Anita as we tried to first figure out what account the ranch is on, and what the equipment was.
False dayflower at the Red House today.
Eventually, it was officially decided that the router didn’t work, but the rest of the equipment was okay. They almost made me an appointment to come tomorrow to fix things…when the customer supporter said oh, first they needed to be sure that the towers were working. ACK!
No one has called. Dang. I leave to go camping Thursday. We sorta need a router. I think I’m using a lot of my phone’s allotment of data trying to work via the phone hotspot.
Sure, it’s not all bad. Anita and I were able to put up the dining room curtains, which I neglected to photograph, and we did a few touch ups. We discovered the shower curtain doesn’t actually stay up, so we will need to get that fixed before the next paying guests show up. At least it shouldn’t be too hard.
One more good thing! The RV office area is now complete and lovely. The keyboard stand is custom and blends nicely with the decor.
I’m just going to stop here. I’m sort of shaking just writing it all down. I’ve just been laying low and not doing anything that might cause me to fall, break something, or piss anyone off. I’m not getting in the hot tub, so I won’t have a water accident, and I’m certainly not going into the woods where there are snakes. Did I ride horses? No way. I carefully exercised them. If I’m just patient, maybe the time will pass safely.
No swimming for me.
Deep breaths, Suna. We all have our periods of challenges, and sometimes they just keep building on each other until it’s sort of funny.
The Hermits' Rest 