Ranch Life – Page 63 – The Hermits' Rest

Nature’s Jewels and Metaphorical Lumps of Coal

It was a wondrous and ephemeral morning. When I went out to feed the chickens I was surrounded by a swirling fog and glistening dew. I stood there and watched the hens enjoying treats inside a cloud.

I turned to go back inside and glanced at the RV parked next to the garage. That’s when I found Nature’s jewels.

As I looked around I realized the spiders had been very busy around the house, catching so many bugs for us. The dew just highlighted their artistry and industry. Thank you, spiders. I hope you enjoy what I found.

The beauty of the morning helped me get through some painful memories, so I was truly thankful.

Now about those lumps of coal. It’s not coal. It’s those ubiquitous cockleburs.

We plan to move the horses to the pasture with the hay ring, so I went out with my loppers to eradicate the burs growing there. What a pain. But everything east of the pond is in the burn pile!

Those things are so persistent. They were all over me today, too. But all equines are now bur free.

And thanks to the rain, they are still growing! Why are their flowers so pretty?

Tomorrow’s lunch hour will see me out lopping away between the pond and the driveway. I’m not giving up! And hey, I’ll get to enjoy the new life in the pond, where I saw bullfrogs this afternoon. I’m pretty sure there are new dragonfly larvae for them to enjoy.

Bursting with Pride

I have felt this before. When my son first played rock and roll in public. When the other son said he was going to be a high school teacher. When a friend tap danced in her first recital — in her 60s. I know about feeling like your chest will burst open from happiness.

It’s like getting a ribbon for doing hard work (my son hung these for me today)

Today my chest is bursting with pride at the three horses and one donkey at our little ranch. They gave me a good surprise.

They were all way overdue for trims, since our regular farrier has been out of commission for a while. So a different one came today. I wondered how they would do, though I wasn’t very worried about Apache or Dusty. They’ve both gotten good. And Fiona is usually fine.

Well. They were better than fine! Apache nearly fell asleep, and I know the mere 15 minutes I rode him hadn’t been taxing. Dusty was so calm he didn’t seem alive at some points.

But Mabel. She’d not been trimmed in a long time because everyone was worried about how she would behave. I was concerned about her feet.

Mabel. She was such a polite girl! The farrier said she kept trying too hard to help. And she let me pick out all her burs while he trimmed. I’m so proud of that horse! See what good care and kindness can do?

She even has “good feet for a thoroughbred,” I was told. Wow. I’m so happy for her! She has to feel so much better! I can’t wait until she gets her bodywork!

I’m so pleased. And Fiona, what about her? I thought she’d wandered off but no, when it was her turn, there she was standing in front of the tack room, ready for her much-needed trim. I thought that she was in bad shape, but no, she just had a little overgrowth. The farrier said he’d had to take a mini chainsaw to two donkeys earlier today. Poor dears.

Maybe one day I can ride all the horses through here!

Drew missed all the fun! I’m just so happy tonight.

Life, Death, and Snouts

It being Samhain or Halloween, I figured I should write about life and death and moving on. (That’s where snouts come in.) As for life, I was happy to see a turtle head pop up in the new pond. It’s good to see it getting to support life again.

Turtle is to the left of the black leaf.

There is much new life behind us, as more calves show up. This is one of the fuzzy twins. They look like stuffed animals!

There’s death, too, as I discovered when I checked the mail. I found just the tail of a rabbit. Hmmm. I could choose to believe it got away with just a tail-ectomy.

This is also the time of year in my culture and many others, where you think of the dead and welcome memories. While I’m thinking of way too many friends who’ve recently lost spouses or parents, I’m also comforted by my own memories. My stepsister sent me these fun pictures of my dad, so I’ll put them here as an electronic ofrenda.

Much of the day today I thought about transition. The butterflies started it. The snout butterflies are still migrating, and I enjoyed watching them today as they visited flowers and grasses and did mating dances. They’ll lay eggs and make more little snouts as they head north. (I’m also throwing in a Gulf fritillary and sleepy orange — what a great name.)

Like the butterflies, we all move on and do as much as we can while we live. That’s my goal. Keep moving and enjoy my life.

Flitting!

Enjoy your holiday, whatever you celebrate.

Just Enjoying the Morning with My Horse Buddies

We don’t get to do much trail riding lately, but this morning, Sara and I both had time to do it.

I was really happy with how well Apache and I did. First, I mounted from the fence after getting out of our pasture walking. The cows made it a little challenging by their curiosity. They kept bopping Apache on the butt until I showed them away.

Look how far I am from home and I’m fine!

Sara is always challenging herself, and today was no exception. She ponied Sully along with Aragorn. They both did pretty darn well. Aragorn is just doing great these days.

We rode over to the bottom pasture and when we got to the gate, I realized that one of the clever twin calves had snuck into the wrong pasture and was NOT happy where she was. So, Sara gave me Sully, and went with Aragorn to escort the calf home. They were on foot, crashing through trees, but they did it! And Apache stood like a rock while Sully kept poking him (gently; she’s sweet).

After that we just had fun going across mud, up and down hills, over logs, and beside the newly dug tanks. At one point both Apache and Aragorn indicated that they would prefer to be heading to the gate. But we got them to meander back.

Apache even kindly stopped so I could get a picture of this hickory tree I didn’t realize we had.

I did great when Apache tried his sideways stuff. Ha! And once we headed back, he didn’t speed up after I told him not to. We calmly walked back, then, in a fit (feat?) of skill, we managed to open the inner gate then the gate out of the pasture! I had to come back to shut it after dismounting, but that was progress!

This is my selfie on Apache hoping the young cows stay where they are!

We ended the ride happy and calm. He was in no hurry to go in his pen, and seemed pleased to walk to his halter and listen to me telling him he’s good.

There! We are doing everything we want to do and are learning more skills. It’s a lot of fun to ride with friends, so it will be great to be able to have folks join us once Drew is back.

Off into the Wildlife Preserve

Today I got up early. I’m getting good at early weekend mornings. I met some of the Master Naturalist chapter in downtown Cameron and we carpooled off to a genuine field trip, like in the old days! We went to the Balcones Canyonland National Wildlife refuge. It’s a place I’ve driven by many times but never stopped at before. So glad we went there!

It’s there to protect the endangered golden cheeked warbler (who is out of town right now). It’s huge, which is good because suburbs are creeping toward it rapidly. There’s not gonna be much nature within a big radius of Austin soon.

We had lots of fun on a good walk with Chris Harper, an old friend of our chapter, who now works at the refuge. We learned lots about the flora and fauna of the area, which is like where I used to live in Brushy Creek.

I enjoyed finding new plants, even though most were past their prime. Still, there’s much beauty in a Hill Country autumn. Here is just a sampling of what we saw. It’s such a beautiful place, with a creek, meadows, and limestone hills.

I also took a lot of pictures of plants of course. I just love the unusual plants that grow in this area. The karst and limestone make for interesting flowers, not just Ashe juniper that you usually see.

It’s what the golden cheeked warbler nests in. It’s not totally bad! They make nests from the “cedar” bark.

Anyway, it was fun guessing what the dried up flowers were when in full bloom. The liatris, a vivid purple in bloom, is now pale and whiteish. It’s still pretty.

You don’t need to reading me analyzing each plant. But here are some.

See. I didn’t even label them all! But I enjoyed it. If you want to know you can always go to iNaturalist and search for sunasak.

To be honest, I’m in pain. From somehow wrenching my diaphragm muscle yesterday slipping on horse poop while running after the doofuses yesterday. So. Time to rest.

How Not to Deliver a Fridge

I’m hard to annoy lately. Most times I just let stuff go after a minute. But dang, it’s so irritating to watch people making mistake after mistake and not being able to stop it. But I do now have a little refrigerator in the tack room!

So, Lowes finally told me I could have the one I wanted if black was ok. Of course. Who cares? They were to deliver it today. I was concerned, since we got another welcome inch of rain, so it’s wet here.

They called after the rain stopped and I went out to direct them to the little red barn. The truck showed up, and to my surprise they drove down the driveway about as fast as you’d drive down a paved road. I was concerned, but got them to stop. I told them to turn right at the tractor and go to the red barn.

Zoom! They didn’t spin out, but they turned wide and went through the deep puddles, leaving fine ruts. I watched, assuming they’d go to the end of the drive and stop.

Instead, they suddenly veered left until they got to the back of the barn, veered left again, slammed on the brakes, then gunned the engine to back it up perpendicular to the barn. Uh. Okay. Just give me a fridge.

I went to open the doors, which now work right since my son and I shimmed the stairs with a rock. I turned around and there was a dude carrying the fridge in his arms. They didn’t need a dolly. They could have stopped at the end of the driveway. the dude proceeded to dump it on the floor and started to leave.

I asked if he was going to open it. That surprised him, but he did it. After taking a bunch of pictures (not sure why) the driver made me sign for the delivery with a bright pink pen. No problem. I set myself to plugging my new buddy in and rearranging stuff.

It blends in. Yes all my ribbons are on the desk. I keep forgetting to bring string to hang them on.

I finished pulling all the tape off the doors and realized I could still hear the delivery truck. I went out. Shoot. For reasons only known to Hot Rod Harry, the driver, he’d backed up to over by the chickens, slammed on the brakes (I heard it) and tried to rush out.

Yep. They were stuck. ON OUR SEPTIC FIELD. They were trying to use our fence poles for traction. I said to just stop. I’d get help. Hot Rod got out and took more pictures.

The tractor pulled them out after they received a bit of a cursing out for driving so wrong for the conditions and not paying any attention to where they were. Hot Rod took MORE photos.

We concluded they were city folks. No one drives fast on wet ground, especially on someone else’s property. I hope the photos can prove why he was late to wherever he was in such a hurry to go.

Time for a deep breath and send kind thoughts to those guys. Hope they made it home.

I think they caused damage more than the refrigerator is worth. Oh well. I have tiny ice cubes making in my tiny freezer and sparkling water cooling off.

Tired of Prickles

I’m really over cockleburs. My fingers are about to give up from extraction of these sticky things from horse tails and manes. I know someone else who’s sick of burs.

I got over a dozen burs out of Apache’s mane and almost as many from his tail. It’s easier getting them out of tails. I think they are out of good grass, so they’re in the weeds.

Once the horses were eating I went after Dusty. I still can’t get to Mabel, but I will get her tied down tomorrow and work on it. At least I got a good sunset ride on Apache in between.

Another Topic

We are working on furnishing the vacation rental. That’s been both fun and challenging. The sofa did NOT want to go in.

But we now have a king bed in the main room, a trundle bunk in the other, plus the sofa bed. I’m hoping for visitors as well as paying guests!

We still need much of the kitchen stuff, linens, a wardrobe for the small bedroom, more pictures and some curtains. We’re close!

More later, but we should start accepting guests in a couple of weeks. I’m sure grateful to the guys from Denio’s Furniture and our team of helpers for putting stuff together and moving stuff for us!

Meanwhile. It may rain again tomorrow!

Fall Fun

I’m saving conference memories until I can concentrate. I made it home to find that we had visitors and more coming. That’s fun!

Luckily I had a few minutes free to finish out the Pollinator BioBlitz. I hadn’t figured I’d see anything new, but I was happy to be surprised! I saw a new dragonfly, for one. It’s all black.

Plus I saw way more butterflies than I expected, including one I never got to hold still. I’m not sure which of the ones that look purple when they fly it is, it someone will correct it.

Plus, I saw a snout butterfly holding still, finally, and dozens of fiery skippers. And one more fritillary.

I was even more satisfied to finally get a clear photo of the bee fly who is always around the asters. Woo!

Well visitors are here. More later!

A Pleasant Walk around the Ranch

There was frost last night! It’s amazing how quickly it goes from boiling hot to frost around here. Luckily none of my plants were damaged, since I thought they’d still be ok outside. I look forward to putting them in the greenhouse, though!

I decided to take one more sweep of the ranch for the pollinator BioBlitz, just to see if I would find anything different, and I’m glad I did, because I did stumble upon a few things. I’d say the most interesting one is the buffalo gourd.

**Cucurbita foetidissima** (means stinky)

Here’s some info on these plants, which Lee’s dad called “smell apples.” I’m always amused by giant squash in the middle of the pasture.

Cucurbita foetidissima is a tuberous xerophytic plant found in the central and southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It has numerous common names, including: buffalo gourd, calabazilla, chilicote, coyote gourd, fetid gourd, fetid wild pumpkin, Missouri gourd, prairie gourd, stinking gourd, wild gourd, and wild pumpkin. The type specimen was collected from Mexico by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland sometime before 1817. In Latin, foetidissima means ill smelling.

The feral perennial buffalo gourd has evolved in the semiarid regions and is well-adapted to desert environments. It contains high amounts of protein and carbohydrates and yields abundant oil. The carbohydrates that are formed in the tap root have led to the idea of growing the plant for biofuel.

The fruit is consumed by both humans and animals. When mature, a stage marked by increasing desiccation of vine, leaves, fruit-stem, and fruit, the fruit begins its final gourd stage. (from iNaturalist/Wikipedia)

I enjoyed seeing things other than the plants, too. There was a kettle of black vultures circling around. And I identified what they were all gathered around recently on my son’s driveway/access road. It was a skunk. What a cool skeleton! And I got greeted by the current “bull in residence” in the pasture next to ours. He is really friendly and beautiful. I look forward to his babies.

It’s pretty this time of year, and the grass has greened up a little. Finding plants is hard, so I’ve resorted to looking for spring plants that are coming up already and some pretty sad drought-damaged dock. But they all count, and I’m still ranked in the 30s in the BioBlitz. Wait until tomorrow. My camera will be snapping like crazy on the field trip I’m attending in Houston.

Differential grasshopper on the ubiquitous ragweed.

I was happy to see all the twin calves having a good time in the pasture behind us. The cow who was hugely pregnant did indeed have twins. I’m sure she’s really glad to get them OUT of her. The little one’s a hoot. He got hungry and started bellowing for her. She came through!

It’s simply restorative to just take in all that you see around here. Then I feel good heading in for more technical writing and helping lovely people with their software dilemmas. I even enjoyed the sparrows that eat all my chicken food. And of course, my horsies!

Mabel’s Transformation

Friday, when Apache and I came back from our lesson, a brown blur appeared. A horse was galloping full speed towards us, then stopped on a dime at the gate. What energy! Who was that?

No, not Fiona. Last July, Kathleen rescued a large, dark bay horse, who we named Mabel. She was in such sad shape, she melted our hearts. She was skin and bones, and had open wounds on her legs.

You could see her spine and her hip bones stuck out sharply.

Kathleen spent a lot of time getting her veterinarian treatment, dealt with severe choke, and tried to get weight on her. It was slow going. she also had ulcers.

Legs all fixed up. She was all leg, hips, and bones.

I admit that I thought she was pretty ugly. Her head seemed huge for her, even though she was tall. She looked mean and upset. Well, she probably was. She had to feel horrible, which would make anyone irritable. I’m sure her back hurt a lot. It looked awful.

It’s hard to see, but her back looked like a roller coaster.

When Kathleen left in November, I took over feeding her horses. I just kept giving Mabel more food, but the winter was hard on her. At least she had shelter. By spring, I decided to try to get her more healthy myself, since Kathleen’s health stuff meant she couldn’t.

Also. One of the other horses but her tail completely off. She was the bottom of the pecking order.

I’ve been giving her the coconut stuff Drew gets to put on weight, and I’ve given her amino acid oil. She’s been steadily putting on weight since spring and gotten noticeably friendlier.

We have fewer horses here now, and they’ve been getting supplemental hay, so her life has been more peaceful. She’s grown fond of Apache, so he’s now her protector. Her coat grew in shiny and bright this summer. And her demeanor is 100% better now that she’s had her teeth taken care of.

Her face is now pleasant. All the pain wrinkles are gone!

Her tail has grown at least a foot, and it’s so thick and shiny! Her feet look better, which may explain why she’s running now. She gets them trimmed by a pro soon and will be on a regular schedule.

She’s shiny and of normal weight! And look at that face!

I look at these recent photos and get all teary. She’s happy, except when I try to take burs out. She may never be rideable much, but I’m trying to slowly help her build up her muscles.

She will soon start getting bodywork, too. The last time we tried, she wasn’t ready and it hurt and scared her. Maybe now she’s ready! At least she’s got friends, people who care for her, and good nutrition. I’m so glad I could step in and help out!