Weather Report – The Hermits' Rest

Stay strong, fellow humans

Tomorrow is a day I’ve anticipated with a mixture of hope and trepidation, the US mid-term elections. More than anything, I’m trying to quell my fears and send out waves of peace. I love this meme I found in some Buddhist corner of the Internet.

I hope today you will join me, and the world will live as one.

Those of us in Texas have done all we can. My friends in other states have made their own choices. Those of you elsewhere, please hold us in the light over the next few days. This country is by no means perfect, but we have stuck with our system of government for 250 years. Let’s go for 251 (better, 252).

Dark clouds fit the season and the mood.

Sending good thoughts to all of you, even the ones who think I’m delusional. Trying to discern truth from fiction today is very hard. My guess is that hardly any of us have a real clue.

PS: if I wake up sick, it’s nothing nefarious. It’s just all the high-powered flea stuff all the dogs were given. Hope it works.

It may rain tomorrow! Maybe it will stop flooding Arizona and come to us. There are cracks in the dirt.

Feeling sentimental about childhood heroes

What’s one thing you own that holds deep sentimental value?

I think the appropriate answer to this question, today of all day, is to share my attachment to my favorite action figure, Jean-Luc Picard. Today he’s sitting on a hastily constructed altar to honor Sir Patrick Stewart, the actor who played him.

The pansy is attacking his head, and I can’t find a lighter, but I’m trying to honor someone I admire.

I’ve had this Jean-Luc for many years. He’s kind of been like my elf on the shelf in that he’s always getting into shenanigans. He’s climbed many Christmas trees, hidden in Thanksgiving centerpieces, and most famously, served as the “God” on our monthly tarot group altars way back when we lived in our first Texas house (a decade or more ago). The Goddess figures were usually more serious figurines or such, and he always brought a note of levity.

Sometimes he went to work with me and served to intimidate certain colleagues (in my mind, anyway). Until today, he was guarding a big hunk of crystal on the mantel, awaiting his next mission.

I’m sure he’s hiding somewhere in this photo.

Picard is my favorite Star Trek character, and I enjoyed all his appearances in the franchise, including the Picard mini-series. He and Supergirl are my only action figures. (Not true, I searched for action figures in my phone photos and was reminded of Elizabeth Warren.) I’ve never been much of a doll person, though.

More importantly, though, I’ve admired Patrick Stewart, the wonderful man who advocated for animal welfare, human rights, and the rights of humans to love whoever they want to. He always came across as an intelligent, humorous, and kind person. I’d hoped we’d have another decade to admire his work in additional roles, but dementia hits so many of us.

Thinking of Stewart, his family, and friends

Yikes. I just want George Takei, William Shatner, and Brent Spiner to hold on for a while. This is a hard enough time.

Learning to let go of those you love or admire is one of the hardest parts of aging. That and letting go of hopes and dreams.

Speaking of hopes, we’d hoped to get the rainwater collection system set up enough today to get some water in, and the guys did it! I was there, as sprinkles were falling and the valve opened. Water went right in! Now, we got .05” of rain, so it probably has just enough to cover the bottom of the tank. But it’s a start! It helped me feel less sad.

Oh, travel, oh, drainage

What’s one piece of travel advice you always follow?

My blog today has two topics, travel and drainage. They go together so well, right? So, let’s tackle that blog prompt.

The thing that makes my travel easier for me is to book seats near the front of the plane when I fly, even if it means paying a few extra dollars. It not only gets me more legroom, but gets me on the plane early enough that there’s plenty of space for my carry-on bag, then gets me off the plane quickly, which makes quick connections much less stressful. Less stress is good for me.

So many lines at airports! Get TSA Pre-check!

For car travel, I try very hard to go on days that are not Friday or Sunday, which avoids weekend travelers in a hurry. And don’t go to Buc-ees on a holiday weekend. It’s torture.

Not following my own advice, some years ago

And now for drainage. I’ve spent much of my time recently thinking about flooding, since I had five hours on the Texas Hill Country floods of last year during the Master Naturalist meeting and also since there is horrible flooding in the Navajo Nation right now. It’s especially hard there, with so little infrastructure and such scattered populations. Keep them in your thoughts!

Today I watched the drainage system for our rainwater collection system getting set up. It’s important to have a good plan for what will happen once the tanks are full and overflow (seems far fetched right now, but our pattern is drought followed by flooding).

The drainage pipes for the tank behind the garage will go to the field behind us down to the tank (pond) behind the house. That pond drains to a pond further downhill and then to the creek. I’ll have pictures of it later.

Currently the tank could use some water.

The tank next to the house will go into the pipes you see below. The idea is that the water will end up in the lowest part of the front yard, which flows nicely down to the creek. There will be a little retention wetland area to slow the flow a bit. It’s not all 100% worked out yet, so that will be a fun surprise.

The ditch for laying the pipe is very popular with the dogs, who think we’re building them a playground. They are so dirty! Might as well wait until all the yard is smoothed down again to bathe them!

I enjoyed checking on the construction work between meetings and I also did some searching for pollinators. One giant swallowtail was fascinated by my red shirt today and kept following me around. So pretty! This is such a great time of year here in central Texas!

Blitzing the biology

I’ve continued making observations for the 2026 Texas Pollinator Bioblitz this weekend. It’s like I went camping, only I stayed home, with all the walking, stalking and talking? No talking. I just took pictures but that does not rhyme.

I even climbed a hill, the only one around here.

After the incredibly windy day Friday, it was more pleasant to go look for pollinators and the plants they pollinate this weekend. But the wind had bashed a lot of the few plants that should still be blooming. For example, I’d really looked forward to getting pictures of Snow on the Mountain on my walk today, but I had a hard time finding any whose flowers hadn’t blown off.

Anyway, I’m doing okay finding things to contribute. Right now I (Sunasak) look like quite the little blitzer. However, the real hardcore participants include Texas Parks and Wildlife staff and people with good cameras who need to process their images. By the end, I’ll be more in the center.

Anyway, at least it’s gotten me out of the house. The only other stuff I’ve done is feed various animals. Spice messed up the water trough AGAIN and the rest of the horses have found the cockleburs. Apache feels it’s his duty to take over from Drew, so he requires daily work. I don’t think he minds the added attention!

The number of butterflies I’ve seen is larger than I expected. The Gulf Fritillary family is still busy laying eggs on passion vines, so they were easy to get good photos of.

There are many tiny Ceraunus Blue butterflies yesterday, but a good number of others, too.

Of course, butterflies aren’t the only pollinators. I found plenty of bees, wasps, and other insects (which may or may not be pollinators).

I did find a good number of plants, but not many great plant photos. This is not a good time of year for pretty plant images. It’s a good thing I know what a lot of plants look like when they’ve gone to seed!

I also have to report on birds, even if they aren’t part of the Bioblitz. On Friday, with all that wind, I only had 11 species, but it was a bit better yesterday with the arrival of much cooler weather and my little buddies the White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows. Today has been quite good, with over 40 species so far (I’m writing in the early evening). The best part is that I got some photos, including a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that Merlin didn’t register.

I’ll spare you the dog adventures this weekend. They were sort of unpleasant, but in the end, they’re all fine. I hope you are, too, or at least heading that way.

Blown away!

It’s not hot anymore! The weather today would have been quite pleasant, except that the cold front literally blew in. Like a leaf blower on steroids.

Merlin only heard 8 bird species. Luckily my eyes saw three more, but 11 is a real low!

The mountain was gradually moved back to where the backhoe is, so the area could be smoothed down.

And the guys working on the forms for the cement pads had to be careful so pieces of wood wouldn’t blow them around. All the dirt moving also left a film of dust everywhere.

Worst: the cattle ranchers had spread fertilizer yesterday. Everything smells like poop. I was looking all over the house to see which dog had pooped, sprayed Lysol all over the house, and was totally baffled until I finally remembered that tractor pulling something behind it yesterday. Dogs are forgiven, but some horse is in Trouble for messing up yet another water trough float. (Spice)

I did manage to get out and snap some pollinator photos for the bioblitz, though the plants were very wiggly. I was surprised at how many butterflies and dragonflies stayed still long enough, and the workers found me a cool rabid wolf spider with eggs (not a pollinator, but interesting).

The wind had started to die down when we went to eat some Mexican food this evening. That bodes well for a chilly tomorrow!

Water, weather, welcome changes

Folks, I’m still thinking about the book I recently finished, so I’ll share some ranch updates that I’ve been observing and enjoying.

Someday this hill will be helping shape our drainage.

One thing that’s going on is that the project of setting up our huge water tanks to collect rainwater off the house and garage roofs is moving along, even though the least little bit of rain tries to fill the hole where the impressively deep concrete pad to hold the house’s tank is going to be.

Just a little rain started to make a new pond.

For example, it rained .04” yesterday, but because all the rain on the roof falls out of the same pipe, which of course is located on top of the hole, since eventually that’s where the tank will be. Even this morning’s heavy dew had a nice flow going. That bodes well for future dry spells, but not for setting up the forms to pour the concrete.

At least the amphibian population is happy.

This week my son and his helper have been getting things in line to create the forms for the big pad and a bunch of paths/sidewalks leading from our entry gate to the house, the pool, and the pool house. We will be SO fancy! Imagine not tracking in mud and stickers! Imagine not tripping on holes the dogs and visiting critters have dug! It’s so encouraging!

The guys have taken wood scraps we already have and cut or ripped them down to make stakes and holders for the plywood that will make the forms. As you can see, it involved a lot of sawing!

They’ve done a lot of other small jobs around the ranch, like trimming the willow trees beside the driveway, making the henhouse door larger so Darryl, the tom turkey can get in, and fixing two very vexing leaky pipes. Most important, the horses now have water again after the leaks got fixed. I’m so glad that our turn came!

Limbs no longer try to scratch vehicles.

Tomorrow should see lots more progress, and a very happy change in the weather! It’s going to cool off and be very pleasant, at last. I’m looking forward to more time in the birding hut before and after work, and a pleasant experience doing this year’s pollinator bio blitz, which starts tomorrow.

Maybe these mofos will get all sluggish or something.

I do hope the beautiful swallowtail and queen butterflies are still here for my intense iNaturalist activity over the next couple of weeks! And since the Master Naturalist annual meeting is next week in Waco, I’m in a nature-mania mode! Or more of these.

My new funnel weaver buddy, ***Barronopsis texana***

And that’s the news from the Hermits’ Rest.

Real estate can be exhausting

Today it was darned chilly here in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. Thus, I only took one brisk walk.

As long as I got to see a mule deer, I was okay.

Most of the afternoon was taken up with riding around with Alison the real estate gal, fresh back from her honeymoon in Costa Rica. The cold weather surprised her, too! But she put together some houses to look at, and off we went (with Anita). Let’s go look at houses! You may or may not find it more interesting than plants and birds.

I did see another White-breasted Nuthatch at a property.

The first house we looked at was mainly because it was right nearby. We called in the red house, because it was sorta red. It wasn’t really what we wanted in location or use of space.

Then we went on to the green house, which I had high hopes for. This house has decks galore and borders on the National Forest.

This deck wraps around to the front. Note the two-car garage!

The house is listed as having 5 bedrooms and two baths, but the whole upstairs space is just a warren of little rooms that only sort of count as bedrooms. However, one of those rooms has a door leading to a deck all its own, looking into the woods. My office, for sure.

Random hallway space with daybed. They could sleep many grandchildren

The rest of the green house is very nice, though the kitchen is small and has extra-blue cabinets. The living/dining area and decks were great. It is on a secluded street, too, but close to town. This is a house we could do lots with.

The next house we called the old man house. It had my favorite interior, with such homey rooms and a cool enclosed porch with really good blinds. There were only two bedrooms, but a nice Jack-and-Jill bath.

What was wrong with it? Well, the laundry room was hilarious. I could not reach the washer to empty it. And while the yard was nicely landscaped, it was very sloped. Finally, there were so many stairs! Once inside, it was fine. But outside would get harder and harder as we aged.

After this one, we set out to see a house that only had 9 photos online. That’s always suspicious. This house was on a downslope, but not hard to get in. The neighborhood was pleasant. Its main feature was a wall of windows overlooking beautiful trees. If you could ignore the rest of the house and the fact than it overlooks a highway, the view could sell the place. However, the tree house had mirrored walls, a sad kitchen and some bizarre downstairs plumbing. Not quite right.

We had enough of Ruidoso and set our sights on Alto, the neighboring area with no infrastructure other than a post office and a fire station. It’s where the house I liked so much last time is located. We did visit that one again, just to remind ourselves of it. it’s still nice, but Lee is hesitant to buy a manufactured home.

We went to another house in Alto, in a different neighborhood. This has fairly nice houses and good-sized lots. The house we looked at is not fancy at all, but is really cool. Though it’s rough-hewn, Lee and I both liked it. I liked the space around it, with lots of wildflowers.

Inside, the rustic house is very rustic. It has fun light fixtures, lots of quirky shelving units, a beautiful main room and a weird but fun kitchen/dining. There’s also a huge deck. The bathrooms were “recently remodeled” and are quirky, to say the least. The main toilet faces a window. but the floors have radiant heat!

I didn’t get any photos of the cute sunroom in the front of the house. It’s very tempting to just sit there!

Picture from outside showing the view of the main toilet. Curtains are a must.

We may try to get this last house. I like how unpretentious and rustic it is. Lee and I both feel comfortable there. If we can’t get this one, we may try for the green one as our summer escape house. We will have to see.

We had a nice meal this evening in a good Mexican restaurant. My chiles rellenos were wonderful and everyone else’s looked great. It was just a bit chilly inside.

Getting my exercise

What are five simple exercises to do at home?

Today’s prompt reminded me of what I like about autumn: I can walk around as much as I want to without sweating. That’s what I did today in between meetings, and though I’m not home now, walking around is a home exercise for me. It breaks up the time of concentration, and gets steps in, even if I’m just marching around the house and getting Harvey all confused. At the ranch, just getting the mail gets steps in. I guess I count exercise on your own property as “home” exercise.

Walking around gives you bonus nature sightings.

Going up and down the stairs is another home exercise. Today I climbed nine flights, though some of those may have been hills I climbed.

What about weight-bearing exercise, you ask? Lee thinks lifting my Le Crueset (sp) cast iron pots counts. For me, my weight lifting is feed bags for the horses and chickens. The 50-pounders are hard. Lifting saddles onto horses really used to keep my arms in shape. I’ll have to figure out another exercise now, but I do groom them, which can be aerobic exercise.

I enjoy swimming at home, since I’m lucky to have a pool. I haven’t done enough this year, but last year I had good swimming muscles. I hope I’m more mentally perky so I can motivate myself to swim.

My final home exercise is yarn winding. Don’t laugh. It can get the heart rate going pretty darned well. That’s why I often wind my yarn skeins by hand. It adds up. Try it.

There’s always yarn to wind at my house.

I admit that walking gets me most of my exercise. It’s my favorite.

Of course nature interrupts me. Common Checkered Skimmer.

Today was a nice contrast to yesterday, though the wind was pretty fierce. It felt quite autumnal, which prompted Mike and me to probably walk too briskly at times. We had to catch our breath in the mountain air!

Lee and I went on a shorter walk later, and the hills were a bit much for him, too. I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, so I can get more walking in.

We had a nice dinner tonight, our last one with Martha’s sister and brother-in-law. We all were silly together and had good conversation. I’m off for the rest of our trip to Ruidoso, which means more fun is in store.

Fled the heat and drought

Today Lee, Anita and I jumped in the car (or entered normally) and drove the now-familiar route to Ruidoso, New Mexico. The plan is to join our friends Mike and Martha for a week away from the endless heat and crunchy drought of our part of Texas. Three of us will have to work, but it will at least be cooler.

It will also be wetter. It’s been raining a lot in this part of NM, which has tested the new drainage infrastructure Ruidoso has put in since its last flood. It’s helping! Unfortunately, Hondo, down the road, got hit hard yesterday and we passed some very sad scenes. I really feel for that town.

Flooded field, but not the bad stuff. Didn’t want to take pictures of that.

We didn’t hit as much rain as our friends who left earlier than we did. Mostly we enjoyed clouds and sunshine making patterns. Bonus: I saw the native North American antelope, the Pronghorn. I think that’s the last on my list here…oh wait, no bears here yet.

We are now in a nice and comfortable cabin/house with lots of outdoor spaces. We had to put on jackets while sitting outside enjoying the front deck. We hope it doesn’t rain too much so maybe some of us can work outside. I’d like to work and listen to birds at the same time!

The only negative thing is that I seem to have hurt my quad on my left leg, maybe getting out of the car? It hurts like heck. I can still walk, but climbing the stairs to our room got tedious.

Oh! I have one funny trip story. We were driving in eastern NM, and got to the area where there are lots of bird nests on platforms attached to telephone poles. I remembered them from previous trips, and wondered if there could be any information on the platforms online.

So I typed a question into Google. The answer came back fairly informative, but not much more than I already knew. I looked to see where the answer came from. Y’all, the answer came from me. The source was my blog the last time we came and stayed here. Now, that gave me quite a chuckle. AI seems to think I’m an expert on these nests. I’m not. I was guessing in that blog entry. I shake my head!

Time to recover from the trip and get ready for fun. Hope all the elk bugling doesn’t keep me awake. It’s a cool sound, but loud.

Crossing Florida through Cross City

Today I took the day off, so I could enjoy the drive across Florida the interesting way.

Rather than going up to Jacksonville and heading across Interstate 20, we went across the middle of Florida through the parts tourists don’t usually see. This route is for the nature lover—covered in forests, lakes, Thoroughbred farms, and springs.

There are National Forests, State Forests, wildlife preserves, and charming small towns that have not lost their 60s vibe. Even though it was mostly a rainy day, it was refreshing and a wonderful change from condo after condo.

I also enjoyed showing Lee places I loved as a child. Since we’ve already been to Silver Springs (ten years ago for high school reunion) we drove by that beautiful place. So instead, we went to a place where I used to go as a child with my parents and our dog Maggie, Fanning Springs.

This was the most pleasant outing in our hot Florida summers, because the water is pleasantly cool year round. And you could see so many fish (and the occasional manatee).

Much like with finding Mom’s grave, I remembered exactly where it was in the park. It looks so much like it used to! The view out to the Suwannee River was a total match to my memory. Wow, so I took a few pictures.

Even though it was rainy, we had a great time. All those mullets swimming around fascinated us and I had just as much fun on the lovely (but slick!) boardwalk by a smaller spring/seep.

After that fun, we kept driving across the state until I hit another family link, the deepest backwater of Florida, right in the armpit, Dixie County. Yes. That’s its name. The county seat is Cross City, where Mom spent her childhood as the one fancy little girl with big bows and long curls among the children of lumber mill workers. (My grandfather was a surveyor/big fish in a small pond at Putnam Lumber in the 1930s-1960s.)

I heard lots of stories about Cross City, at one time the poorest county in Florida, but I know Mom had some fond memories. She subscribed to the newspaper her whole life.

I was surprised at how little that place had changed. I was also surprised at how much visiting these places from my mother’s past affects me. It brings back memories of things that had been buried in my mushy brain for decades. I now have a lot more empathy for my anxiety-ridden mom and her parenting challenges.

I spent much of the rest of the drive through the panhandle asleep. I was awake for a couple bad accidents that we passed. Rain is scary.

But at least we didn’t hit a bear or deer. Why? Because Florida has these signs that blink when an animal is coming across the road. They are all through the National Forest. What a cool idea!

No photos of the signs, but we saw some great clouds!

Now we are in Pensacola, making Florida seem almost as wide as Texas! I hope it’s not too rainy tomorrow so we can see more nature stuff.