I’m sorta typing this without really looking, since I suddenly have a pretty bug ocular migraine deal going on. I’m sure not fond of those things, and still don’t know what is causing them. The good news is that I can type with my eyes closed, I guess.
What’s wrong with my eyes?
What I wanted to write about is the fact that it’s been rainy the last few days, which came as a surprise to all of us, but a welcome one! It usually stops raining by this time of the year, so we will enjoy every drop we get.
It’s not bad enough to stop things from happening, though. I’ve managed to move the horse and Fiona, and I’m still impressed about how easygoing they are with being taken to the dry area. They just follow me over there and act grateful for their treats.
As you can see, it’s still very green.
Since it’s a lot cooler today, I’m hoping the rain lets up long enough to ride Apache today. I’ll just take him down the race, so he doesn’t put any dents in Ralph’s perfect grass.
Isn’t this pretty? It’s in the mallow family.
The pens at the Hermits’ Rest are getting worked on again. The area under the roof is all cleaned out, and a ditch is getting done to hopefully drain runoff from the future water troughs. Once that’s all clean and graded, the rest of the fencing can go into the stall area, gates can go up, and we will be ready for occupants.
Only stuff that’s being used is in here now, like the chair, the fan, the tunes, and the Vlassic swimming pool.
Well, that’s about all I can write with my eyes closed, so I’ll just leave you with hopes that you are having a good end of June. I feel remarkably chipper and calm (other than my eyeballs), even though I know it’s going to be a doozy of a week!
Wow. It’s been the most pleasant evening I can remember. Once the sun went behind clouds, a breeze came up, and the stifling heat dissipated.
Awesome.
I took lots of pictures today, and when I went back to look at them, I realized it’s been a beautiful day!
The horizontal pipes are going up!
And yes, a lot of work got done on the horse pens. It’s really moving along! After work and my Friends of LLL meeting, I got to watch the process for making the tools to set the vertical bars that are next. These hooks were made from straight pieces of metal.
Hooks, tape measure, torch.
The hooks were shaped on this piece of pipe, which made cool smoke when the metal got hot.
This will ensure the hooks hang from the vertical pipe.
It’s fascinating to watch the tools being made. Such craftsmanship!
Making stuff
Meanwhile, I watered the chickens (Buttercup loves the hose spray), watched the dogs playing happily, and then saw what I thought was Vlassic chasing the cows. When I got up to yell at him, I realized it was a little too big of a fast, black animal to be him. It was our cute little calf, Baby Blue, who is just about the most playful calf I ever saw.
Racing back to the herd.
She ran around her mom and two others, then tore off like a racing cow, if there was such a thing, then ran all the way to the edge of the pasture. She then zoomed back up to her mama for a refreshing drink. I could NOT stop grinning.
I‘m tired now.
Really, who needs television? It’s darned entertaining around here. And I couldn’t even drag myself back into the house, because clouds beckoned.
It’s just beautiful.
I hadn’t seen a nice sunset in a long time. It was too rainy for a long time, then it’s been so blazingly hot I didn’t go out to look, though Lee reported at least one good one. Tonight? Glorious.
Dog, clouds, rain shower
You just don’t get many days this pleasant, that’s for sure. And even though I got a lot of work done, Goldie “made” me take a nap.
A nap for two.
Treasure your good days. Let them fill your heart with joy.
I knew those two relatively dry days in a row were flukes. Last night it poured and poured, right after Trixie showed up to do Apache and Ace’s feet. She was running late due to some car trouble, which gave me lots of time to love on Apache and Fiona. That is always good.
Pet me more.
And I got to love on Sara’s heelers, including the charming and smiling baby Bess. She melts your heart.
I’m a very happy puppy.
Sara had asked Trixie if she had a horse that needed miles on it, and that prompted her to bring her small fancy stallion along with her. He’s gray, and named Archie.
Here comes the man horse.
His arrival sent all equines into a tizzy (except Fiona). Much neighing and prancing commenced. Archie, on the other hand, but on a show like he was a Lipizzaner. Yow. He leapt in the air, twisted, bucked, yelled, and otherwise made his presence quite obvious. I’m hoping he settles down.
WTF?
I made it home after Apache got trimmed, barely asking if his feet looked okay, and hearing Trixie say they looked real good. Two minutes after I got home, the skies opened up. I worried about the rest of the gang, and texted Sara my huge thanks for letting me go first.
Good thing I got all these eggs earlier! One per hen.
It rained all night, hard. It’s the most rain in one day that we’ve had during this long rainy spell. Many days it just drizzled and rained for short periods, so we only got one inch one day in May; the rest were small amounts that did add up to puddles.
First time the pond has filled and spilled in many months.
Last night we got over two inches, so June already has a good rain total! Lee’s stats will be fun to see. I’m hoping to get to Austin this afternoon, once some of the creek flooding is down and before the next round starts. It’s also really wet there!
The newly expanded “little pond” filled for the first time, too, sending its runoff down to the bigger pond. That dirt will be used on another project soon.
Have a good June. I’m ready to support all my LGBTQIA+ friends during PRIDE month!
I thought it would be a good idea to briefly share how my current shawl is going. I’m really enjoying the border, because it’s simple as heck. It does amuse me that I still occasionally mess up, which just goes to show you that paying attention to your pattern by actually LOOKING at it occasionally is a good idea.
You can see that I’m a few inches into the border now.
The good thing is I’m not being graded for this, and it’s not my knitting mastery project or anything. I’m never going to be THAT good. But, I have fun! The idea here is to use almost all of the second ball of yarn for the border, leaving just enough to bind off. Kate Atherley, the woman who wrote the pattern handily tells you about how much yarn you’ll need. It’s a well written pattern, for sure.
You can see it’s getting big!
I like how hefty the shawl has become, though it’s too big to stretch out and get a photo of what the whole thing looks like. It’s going to be pretty, assuming I get more time to work on it.
I will today, anyway, since I’m going to Waco with Sara to do something. Wow. Going somewhere with a friend! To do something! I’m still not planning on any crowded indoor events any time soon, but it’s a huge relief to feel safe enough to do outdoor things.
Not much, but enough to delay the morning horse maintenance plans
And yes, it rained again. We smartly put the bags of Sakrete in the garage, so the fence project won’t get ruined. I put my car outside, but it still looks like the Dustmobile after sitting for so long while I was gone. I’m waiting for things to dry up a wee bit more before getting it washed. One of our friends is doing it for some of us now! Job creation!
The rain has managed to fill up the tanks (ponds) at last. It really has been dribbling in, but we finally got a day with a whole inch, and that seems to have done the trick.
Black scarab beetle enjoying delicious pollen from a Texas thistle flower.
There was a bit of a respite this morning, and things dried out a little. I took advantage of the only hour I had without meetings today to go out and see what’s going on with the ranch plants and their friends. I’m glad I did it then, because it’s been raining and thundering again for the past two hours, which makes for some unhappy dogs.
Make it stop thundering!
I had set out to find invasive species, only to realize I missed the entire 2021 iNaturalist Texas invasive species survey time, because I was in South Carolina. That’s okay, though, because I enjoyed seeing what’s blooming in late spring. There’s a lot of Indian blanket, and horsemint out there, and you can tell they are native, because there are so many kinds of insects pollinating them. The fields are literally abuzz with activity. Bzzzz.
Flowers and butterflies.
I got to see a few new-to-me insects, including two types of potter’s wasps (not exactly sure what they are), and these beautiful tachinid flies, Archytas apicifer. They are huge (for flies), have big, black hairs, and feature shiny green abdomens and bright red eyes. I often saw multiples on one black-eyed Susan flower.
And then there were butterflies! Yes, I’ve seen common buckeyes before, along with the perky little fiery skippers and the red admirals, but the pearl crescent butterfly was new to me, and wow, it’s pretty. The little white checkered skipper looks like lace from a distance, too. In addition to the ones I photographed, I also saw orange sulphurs and gray hairstreaks. That’s a lot of butterflies!
Common buckeye
Red admiral
Fiery skipper
White checkered skipper
Pearl crescent
Butterfly fun
Katydid
The other thing I saw were bees, ranging from honey bees to tiny ones to bumblebees. They were zipping around, so no photos. And I found a katydid and lots of jumpy grasshoppers. This was a great way to spend some of my volunteer time at work!
I hope this provides some cheer if you’re living in a dreary place right now. I’d love to know what kinds of flowers are blooming where you live. I know the irises are in full swing in the northwestern US, and I believe I’ve spotted some peony photos from elsewhere. I love it when people share their local flowers, native or not!
It’s still raining today. There were brief respites, but we’ve had at least an inch. Whew. The good news is we have a lot of mushrooms to enjoy.
Happy puffballs.
I tried to go check out what was going on at the fence project. But it started raining real hard, so we went off to see a horse that we may board over here to keep Apache company. It’s all alone, and belongs to some folks who live near our office.
Howdy. I’m Prince.
He needs a Coggins test and stuff, but if he came here, his owner says we can ride him. That would be fun. At least he’s small, and he’s named after my dad. This isn’t a done deal, but a possibility. In any case, I got to meet a friendly horse.
It then rained more. But, not before I went out to take some pictures of the Black-eyed Susans. I lucked out and Penney joined me. I got some lovely photos of her looking romantic.
I’m so romantic.
She sure blends in well with scenery.
This is just so beautiful. I love the storm clouds.
Being with the dogs makes you notice so many things! I didn’t even get mad at Vlassic when he jumped up and got my entire outfit muddy.
Who, me?
But even muddy weather has its good points. There’s always beautiful nature to enjoy. Like, why were there so many mud daubers on sunflower leaves? And why is Mr. Toad living in this trough?
Wasps and toad.
All in all, it’s good to be back in the swing of things. I got work done and caught up with my Master Naturalist blogging. It’s volunteer week at work, so it was authorized. What fun! I’ll try to get more fascinating tomorrow. I’m still wiped out.
Penney is tired too. All that glamour wore her out.
Hooray for being back at the Hermits’ Rest! by the time we got home, I was all shaky and frazzled, and probably the relatives thought I was babbling. But the dogs sure were glad to see us. It felt fantastic to have my Carlton in my lap again. It was great to get back in my bed, and even great to have Penney lined up right beside me all night!
Harvey is very glad I am back.
The trip through Louisiana was beautiful, mostly following US84, and then following roads that made up the original El Camino Real de Tejas, which goes right to Milam County and is what our Master Naturalist group is named after.
We are in the section just to the left of Bryan on this map.
Highlights included a whole area devoted to catfish farming, including a place that made al the nets and a huge catfish food plant. Talk about specificity! The catfish farms also could have passed for egret farms. There were so many birds!
The lake that used to be the Sabine River and separates Texas from Louisiana.
We also drove through many beautiful national forests, and I carefully observed all the logging activity. Mostly it was lush and beautiful. There were plenty of cute towns, town squares, and such as well. It’s nice to see thriving small towns with no television presence to make them go into tourism overdrive.
What’s this? A dike, holding back the Mighty Mississippi in Louisiana.
The farther we drove, the wetter it got. It’s apparently been drizzling all week at the ranch, which slows down the fence-building operation. Today it’s pouring, but I did manage to go see Apache, Fiona, and the other horses to help put some medicine on poor spice, who has a big wound where a growth was removed. Apache has developed thrush in his feet from all the dampness. Can that poor horse catch a break? But the highlight was seeing the newest member of our farm animal family, Haggard, who is a young Black Angus bull from the sale barn. He’s tame as a kitten, and looks like he’ll be a nice small bull, perfect for first-year heifers to get easy births from.
What a sweet little guy.
Right now, Haggard is in quarantine, but he sure loves it when people show up with food!
Our field is covered with flowers. Can’t wait to get out there in the sunshine.
I said hi to the chickens yesterday, but didn’t see Steel, who is the only chick left and keeps escaping to hide in some tall, thick grass behind the coop. At least that one didn’t wander off and get lost. I’ll try again with chicken babies!
What a sweet little wildflower in Mississippi!
Otherwise, all is well. I may have more fun news later in the day, after I go into town for a bit, but right now I’m just trying to get settled back into a routine and figure out what’s going on. I’m lucky that this week is our work’s week to go do volunteering, because that will let me catch up on the volunteer work I have to do! Ain’t that great!
And, just one more flower from my travels yesterday. There’s always something pretty growing near a gas station, I guess!
It sure is good to be back home, especially since Kathleen cleaned the dickens out of the house. They sure did a great job taking care of things while we were gone. Now maybe we can have some FUN.
It’s been gloomy and uncharacteristically cold over here on the Eastern Seaboard today. I think it’s a record cool day. But, that’s okay. We always have something to do. One of the things I had to do today was pivot on our plans and see if we can stay here at the ole condo longer than planned, to allow for the issues with fuel in this part of the country to settle down a bit.
People are so weird. They are lining up for gas, including putting dangerous amounts of it in their cars! We have the Gas Buddy app, so we’ll be able to find it, but still, driving a little later sounds like a good plan. I’m sort of ready to be gone, but this means maybe I can go to that state park later in the week, after all.
I’ve been working a bit today (you know, things come up), so I won’t feel too bad trying to work while driving again. At the moment, I could only get two extra days, but the guy at the desk said he bets people will be canceling their arrivals and we can maybe get another couple of days in. It won’t cost any more money up front, just cut down on future vacations. I’m glad I have a lot to knit and a lot of reading material!
Lee and I made it through the drizzle to get to eat at a seafood place on the pier near the condo for a late lunch, so at least we got outside.
Oh, look, a Ferris wheel.
I later wandered around the building to get some exercise and had a long talk with the bartender (who had no business at all). She’s going to graduate with an MA in education, and is all set to teach English at the local high school. It felt so good to be able to tell her how proud I am of her for choosing that career path and how much of an impact she will have on young people. It’s the kind of thing I wish I could tell my son. I love it that she said she never wants to be wealthy, just have meaningful work. Ahhh. A young woman after my own heart.
Oh look, a Ferris wheel.
The only other fascinating observation I have today is that this place is crazed for small and large amusement parks. I can see three Ferris wheels from this building! I’ll go into that more later, but did want to share all the amusements I can see without going outside.
This is the small but shiny amusement park they’ve been working on behind the condo. Looks like they are trying to get it open for Memorial Day. By the way, we better be LONG gone before then; apparently it’s wild then.
I hope your life is good, and that if you need to pivot, you’re able to do so with grace and good humor.
Lee and I truly needed some time away. As much as we love the ranch, it’s easy to get in a rut. We’ve really been enjoying some down time to relax, while still doing our work. Ahh.
Gazing at the ocean.
We have enough time to relax now and for the future. A nice retirement plan and the knowledge that we can travel when we want to. Not bad. It’s been a dream of mine, and I hope to share it with the family!
I found some nature!
We have really enjoyed relaxing, watching birds, and letting the sea wash our feet. Sea bubbles are endlessly fascinating!
Shells and bubbles
I did finally find some more birds! I found a house finch and a crow, but didn’t get the crow’s photo. I did enjoy some laughing and herring gulls.
Me and a gull
Laughing gull
Pigeon
Finch
Herring gulls
Birds of Myrtle Beach
We’ve been having the kind of trip we like, relaxed and full of nature.
What? Nature?
Now, here’s something that’s pleasing me. I bought a new bathing suit, one of those “modest” ones. I got shorts, a tunic, and a long-sleeve top for sun protection. I did this because I really hate people staring at at me. And I just prefer for my curves and bumps to be for me.
My swim attire
I appreciate that so many people here don’t give a hoot and wear whatever they want to at the beach. I’ve seen people of so many shapes, sizes, colors, and styles on this trip. It’s great! But, for me, covering up feels comfortable. We each get to do what works for us!
Happy in the sun.
I never thought of myself as modest. I think I’m just not interested in being “sexy” or flirty. I want to protect my skin and still have fun in water. This works for me. Right now, though, we are inside watching storms. It’s so pretty.
Stormy weather.
Take care, everyone, especially those of you dealing with losses and illnesses.
So, Catherine of the comments section wants me to write more about what I’m doing, but still, we aren’t doing anything. That’s the nice thing about having a long vacation: you can actually get some REST, just stare at waves, and watch little kids running around on the beach.
Lots of pelicans to watch!
Here are the things I am currently NOT doing:
Stressing about work
Two blog articles for the Master Naturalist blog (sorry to them)
My newsletter for Friends of LLL (sorry to them)
Reading things I “have” to read
Worrying about family members or ranch animals
Getting a sunburn
I got to watch the moon rise.
Whew, that gets me tired already, just not doing all that stuff. I suppose we should get doing things. I have found a bunch of parks, nature trails, and THREE boat tours, one of which I actually already booked, so never fear, we will be doing some stuff!
The sun behind the clouds this morning looked practically icy.
While the immediate area where we are staying is pretty touristy and gets seedy if you aren’t careful where you go, there’s lots to do just outside of Myrtle Beach, in places like Murrel’s Inlet and Pawley’s Island. We will go to those places, including the excellent state park we went to last year.
I think I got enough wine. Actually, there are four more bottles of red, not in fridge. I drank one. (These are small bottles, by the way, about two glasses each, in other words, perfect for Suna).
After a morning of figuring out what to do, blogging, and struggling to get the podcasts sounding right, we are getting ready to exit the condo. It’s such a nice condo, though, you hardly want to leave, and since we stocked up at Costco yesterday (including twelve half-sized bottles of wine for my drinking pleasure), we certainly don’t need to eat out much (though I do LOVE to do so).
Plenty to eat; some of it even healthy!
I’m sure we’ll find plenty to do next week, even though I’ll be working, so a lot of the time will be spent Zooming and writing things, with an ocean view! I’m hoping the weather stays as nice as it’s been so far, neither hot nor cold, neither too sunny or too cloudy. It’ll be fine no matter what. I like working from alternate locations!
The Hermits' Rest 