It’s northwest of Waco. Where’s that? It’s near the Magnolia Silos. Anyway, this tiny county seat of Bosque County is near Meridian State Park, where I am sitting and listening for golden cheeked warblers.
Only birds spotted so far are this motley crew.
We left the ranch in the capable hands of the other residents to give them some couple time, Lee some truck-driving time, and me some nature time. We even got here before dark!
With the sunset come the evening primroses.
The only problem with our campsite, which even has sewer hookup, is a distinct lack of cell towers. The little connectivity I get is from the public park wifi. Eek. Oh well. What did I expect in the middle of nowhere?
Beauty. I expected beauty.
I have a feeling the work I intended to do tomorrow may not happen. I guess I can go to the park HQ and sit outside?
Or I could go look at this lake, if it isn’t raining.
That’s ok. I have flowers to enjoy, including some new ones, and trails to hike. I’m thankful once again to the Civilian Conservation Corps for building so many beautiful parks for us to visit.
And places for Lee to drive to.
If by some miracle, this uploads, enjoy these floral beauties.
I don’t know what to do or say or think about the divided society I live in. I’ve been trying to hold it together and feeling isolated and more and more defeated. I had such bad nightmares last night that I knocked a glass of water over. What a mess. Things are a mess.
Hint about why I’m sad. I love children.
I know I’m not alone. I am grateful for a supportive network of friends. I’m grateful for people with different perspectives who are willing to talk to me. But there’s so little I can do to help make a safer society (where we don’t worry about all the things we’re concerned about from all sides). The Texas Legislature has no interest in my thoughts. I’m not a huge lobby.
Just a coincidence, I’m told.
I think all the people I know feel powerless, like someone else is making decisions. We just blame different factions. Everyone is frustrated. The world feels like a scary pile of poop. I can’t change that. Even venting among friends only goes so far.
I wish I could just be a bird, or a scarlet pimpernel.
So, I clean things. Poopy things. Thankfully, a vacuum cleaner for the RV arrived. I took out my frustrations on mouse turds. (And dirt; there were only a few turds.)
Clean and ready to go.
That helped. But I needed to clean more. So I shoveled all the horse poop out of the trailer. I hope that doesn’t make me sick. It did involve hay, after all.
I didn’t have to clean the shed. Someone had already weed-eated what the horses had missed. My tack room helps me feel better.
I wasn’t done cleaning. The tack room doesn’t have much of a mouse problem right now, but there are “fly specks” on my stuff. Or were. I cleaned all that, too. Then I got out my good old buddy the label maker!
The bull needs his own bin label.
I have some new horse supplements and will need feeding help soon, so new labels had to be made. I felt so organized and productive. And I’m control. At least I can control my dang horse stuff, and I even feel safe in my little room.
Labels and more labels.
I actually do feel a little better just by making my little part of the world cleaner and happier. And I guess that’s the lesson I needed to remind myself of. I can do what I can do. I can clean things (no wonder I like grooming the horses).
These guys helped by picking up hoof trimmings.
And now I can think about ways to help others. I’ve send some funds to recent tornado victims. I can contribute to organizations I agree with, and I CAN contact elected officials and remind them they’re human and are supposed to serve humans, not institutions. I guess.
Not much exciting going on today, so I’m sharing some jaw-dropping photos of bluebonnets on our property, taken by the great photographer and legendary hermit, Ernest Lee Bruns, Jr.
My contribution to the theme is the latest temperature blanket square, which is grass green and celestial blue.
This also happens to be the colors of the kids’ high school, McNeil High School. Not easy colors to work with.
One more photo by Lee. He and Carlton balance each other out beautifully.
My family likes to renovate homes. You may already know that! We’re low on actual homes, so it became time to renovate the rolling home, Seneca the Motorhome. Lee had a plan to make himself a rolling home office.
Hey, where’s the dinette?
We hardly ever use the dinette that converts to a bed fit only for children. So, the men of the house got to work. It wasn’t too hard to get anything out except the seat belts. Those were in really well, which was a good thing when I was riding in there.
It’s not a table now, it’s a desk!
They unbolted the dining table and put it up the correct height to be a desk. They had to put it next to the couch, because that’s where electrical outlets are. I think it’s a good spot.
Spacious!
I like that you can more easily get to the bathroom when the slide outs are closed. And a person could watch television and work, as long as that person isn’t Lee. He needs to concentrate. He’s ordered a desk chair that will look good, and there will be tie-downs to keep the chair secure when we’re on the road.
I ordered a nice little vacuum cleaner for all the past and no doubt future mouse turds. It didn’t help that dog food was lodged under the dinette! All in all, I’m looking forward to our next outing.
The Bull Part
This started my day off right Sunday. I headed out to feed the chickens and check on the horses and noticed the horses were all near the pens, not out grazing. They do that sometimes, so it wasn’t a big deal. Then I realized something was amiss.
I don’t own a huge, black horse.
Hmm. Droodles and Apache were in the bull’s pasture and Haggard was relaxing in a horse pen. Interesting.
We like having him around.
I was briefly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to set them back to not, but as the photo hints, the horses came back to be petted as soon as they saw me. Then Haggard just got up and sauntered back where he belonged.
Fiona wouldn’t come back, so she was stuck on the other side once I re-shut the gate (which some equine must have opened). By the time I came back to ride horses, she was braying to come back. No bull!
In Conclusion
It was just a nice day yesterday. It ended with a big family dinner including the whole gang, for once. Vlassic enjoyed that we were all outside a lot. It was too nice to stay inside! We Texans treasure pleasant weather whenever it shows up.
Martha and Vlassic had a lot of catching up to do.
Yesterday made up for a lot of struggle and hard work for many in my family and community. Cameron held its Spring Festival, and everyone got to relax and let our hair down a bit. We even got to have Kathleen join us, which made us all happy. I’m so glad she got a break from taking care of things in Yorktown!
It was so nice to hang out together again! And have margaritas from the local winery trailer.
There’s a lot to be proud of here. The Railfan team has nearly finished another two spaces that will eventually be local businesses, and the antique shop was all set up and looking great last night (I forgot to take photos of that, darn it).
Look at those floors! And us having fun.Stairs by Chris, paint by Kim, stain by DeclanI forgot to turn the lights on, but this is lovely, too.It’ looks great, even unfinishedYou can see out of the building, because the doors are open.Anita and Kathleen show off the fireplace. I didn’t get a good photo of the folding doorsThe annex in progress
We really enjoyed the new “annex” space last night. The new sliding doors open up so it’s like you’re outdoors. It was an incredibly comfortable place to relax, laugh, listen to music, and enjoy pizza and crawfish (separately).
The highlight of the night, though, was a very special event. The musicians paused, and Melanie Reed from the Chamber of Commerce called Chris, Mike, Kim, and Dylan up to the stage (they would have also called my kid up, if he’d been there). They had a special presentation for our extra-talented nephew to thank him for all the hard work and creative vision that’s helped the McMahon’s make huge improvements to the buildings downtown that were vacated by the city offices moving to another place. I have to say I smiled so hard that my cheeks started to hurt.
Mike tells Chris it’s all him, yep.
The presentation was a blown-up photo of Chris at work outside one of the downtown buildings looking like the true craftsman he is. We all loved the “cash” sign above him. It was wonderful to see Chris getting the credit he deserves for his part in bringing this vision to life (he would point out it’s a team effort, and that Mike, Kim, Dylan, and Declan also have added their ideas and effort). I’m so glad Kathleen was able to be there to see it, too. We are very proud.
The Railfan TeamGetting presentedDylan and ChrisMike and Chris had a fun eveningI think this is my favorite photo EVERHand in hand
It sure was great to hang out with friendly people and talk and laugh at all the antics. I met many new folks, got to hang out with some of my favorite local friends, actually heard some good news, and for a few hours, didn’t worry about anything. We all need some time to take a break and celebrate friends, community, and accomplishments. I’m looking forward to future progress and pride in little Cameron.
Michelle dressed as a hot dog. She’s the real Yoe Dawg.Pretty by dayPretty by nightScenic – the blur in the sky is the moonThey teased him that he was running for mayor.Then he put confetti all over the future city council member’s head. Barbara WILL get her revenge.More fun photos
Today is so beautiful I just had to go out and enjoy it. Just gazing across the fields and watching butterflies flitting among the flowers lowered my blood pressure. The Hermits’ Rest is beautiful this time of year.
Indian paintbrush glory
I’m still carefully taking photos of each new plant that starts blooming. Each new one makes me smile, no matter how familiar they are. I love watching the year progress. Here are some new arrivals.
Texas vervain, a favorite White sport of blue-eyed grassRoadside gauraCut-leaf evening primrose Not new, but gorgeous toadflax My beloved Venus’s looking glassNot new, but cute bluebonnet and ladybug Plant I can’t identify. Drives me crazy.
The day was so nice I decided to groom whatever horse showed up. Dusty won the prize and got a nice de-shedding. He’s almost finished shedding and is looking shiny. Even his poor little mane is growing in, and his Drew bites are healing. They still play a LOT.
After he was all pretty, we went for a nice walk/graze. He had fun and got some big clumps of grass taken care of. I exercised him by having him walk over poles. He then helped out by cleaning up around them.
Doing his job.
Things have really improved since last week! The magnesium supplements seem to have helped the riding horses settle down, too. Drew especially seems more focused.
I feel better.
I wish I felt better. The toes are not getting better, so riding hurts. I can’t even wear my excellent new shiny flip flops. I’m glad my Skechers flip flops don’t make them hurt much.
Dang. I like these.
Lucky for me my nails are good. I can make them as gaudy as I want to. I put a “jelly” layer over cute little flowers. Then I stuck shiny stuff on there. Hey, everyone needs a hobby.
First off, I have NO idea where yesterday’s whiny-ass post came from. Of course I know there are many good things in my life and people who like me. I was just thinking about other things.
I needed clarity
The week is still weird. I mis-remembered when my appointment in Austin was, so I rushed to feed the horses quickly. Of COURSE they decided it wasn’t time to eat yet and took forever to get there to eat. At least no one escaped.
They were only marginally faster than this little guy I saw on the way to the small pond.
I did get a little time to pull some weeds and enjoy the sunshine and nice temperatures, briefly. I got to pull some “bastard cabbage,” too. I have to leave our property to get much, though, because I’ve mostly eradicated it.
Not eradicated: June bugs. It’s March. They just know I want to swim.
Things are looking up. I finally made it to the eye doctor today, after postponing a couple appointments due to horse events. I found out our eye doctor is going camping with us and other friends next month. Yay. And I had so much fun picking frames with my favorite employee there. She knows just what I like. I did order a pair that are different from what I usually get. They have wire rims!
Sneak peek
After overdosing on cool frames, I got to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner with two of our former Bobcat neighbors and we filled each other in on news we don’t put on social media. Ah, I love in-person meetups. They fill me with positive energy.
Of course, I invited everyone I saw today to come stay at the vacation rental. More in person meetings to come, I hope.
I ordered new computer glasses, too, since they have a new way of doing them. These are so pretty I just want to look at them.
Things are looking up in other ways. This weekend promises to be fun and full of good stuff. I’m reminded of how grateful I am for people who are kind and care. See, I can be positive!
This question made me smile. I’ve felt weird my whole life. I made up a club called the Weird Happys (sic.) in middle school and invited all my interesting, smart, non-traditional friends to join.
I’m a weird donkey who escaped after dinner.
I’ve always been weird, non-standard and rather off center. That’s never been a problem except when I wanted someone I found fascinating and atypical to be my friend, but it turned out I wasn’t their kind of weird. Trying to fit in NEVER has worked. I eventually wear out my welcome and am shown the door. Like:
My previous job
My church (was informed I no longer fit their demographic because I liked small, community oriented congregations)
The animal welfare group I helped found (those of you who know, know why)
La Leche League (turns out I’m not a good cult candidate)
The yarn shop friends where I used to teach knitting and crochet (some individuals are still friendly, though)
My book group (they ghosted me!)
My marriage to my kids’ dad
Etc.
I felt bad about these things at the time, but now I realize I don’t need to put my weirdness where it bothers others. I have choices, and it’s better to be true to myself than to try to fit in.
These guys just deal with my weirdness because they have no choice. Awww.
Anyway, my word is weird, and I’m happy now. I’ll enjoy the communities I have now while I can, and move on gracefully when it becomes apparent that I’m not a good fit.
I’ll be as graceful as blue-eyed grass, which appeared this week.
But hey, I still feel accepted by most people in my Master Naturalist group (I don’t expect them to all love me, just to work together). And I’m doing okay in the little horse community I’ve found myself in, thanks to us all loving horses! That’s plenty of folks to be weird around.
I am glad folks accept that I get frustrated when I can’t ID a plant.
Plus, my hobbies and family keep me happy and centered. I can be a Weird Happy!
It’s been a challenging few days. Have you ever been through a period where even the simplest things turn complicated? It’s felt like that lately. I mean, I just wanted to wash my car yesterday and every one I went to was closed. No wonder I don’t like going to Austin anymore. And the dentist said I need two crowns. All that flossing didn’t prevent that.
You need a better perspective, Suna
But I got to see my former coworker for lunch, and that was positive.
Austin never fails to charm, though. The maintenance people at the hotel where I stayed mowed around the wildflowers.
Plus, I got through row 4 of my temperature blanket yesterday. The black and green square is where February starts. That was the ice storm, too.
It looks like abstract art.
The horses have been challenging, other than being so good getting their feet done. I was really looking forward to getting a lesson today, at long last. They were, at least, good getting ready to go, but that challenging life thing struck again and we couldn’t get into the road to Tarrin’s because a huge, stopped train blocked us. Sigh. But we went the other way!
We were between a rock and a hard place. (Actually this is another thing I miss about Austin, the limestone karst)
For Apache’s lesson, Tarrin tried to get him frustrated, so we did new stuff. To our surprise, he was all calm and learned to trot over small jumps. On the last one I did everything right and he JUMPED! And it was FUN! Hooray! Our hard work paid off!
That’s right. I did it.
We then proceeded to see if he’d leg yield at a trot. Did he get annoyed? No. He DID IT. It wasn’t perfect, but he did it! I wish I could say he never showed his Old Patchy behavior, because he did fall apart as we went to the trailer. I handled it, though, keeping as calm as I could. I’ve learned a lot!
You didn’t bother to take my picture. Hmph.
Drew, on the other hand, didn’t need a lot of prompting to misbehave. Or be a teen. He and I did ok doing some serpentine moves, but he decided I was easy to manipulate and melted down. I “got to” work through it and did a lot of leg yielding with him. No fun but we got through it with a lot of help from Tarrin and ended up able to weave through poles and go over obstacles. I was proud that I stayed calm.
Look, I’m busy shedding and neighing.
When I was done, Tarrin ride him and he continued to indicate his displeasure. I learn a lot when I watch her handle rowdy horses. And Droodles did look pretty acting pissy.
Drew kept neighing his head off, which is quite unlike him. Tarrin said she’d never seen him act that way, either. Her theory is that it’s the extra sweet spring grass. It’s not making either horse lame, but they’re not quite themselves. Other horses are acting similarly right now, which made me feel better. It’s not ALL a lack of skill on my part!
Diagnosis: magnesium. I got some to feed tonight, and I’ll order more tomorrow. Let’s hope that helps. I don’t want summer too soon!
I’ve been rushing through horse stuff this week and not done much thanks to the rain. Just a couple of short rides and slogging through mud. That changed today.
I enjoy mud and grass.
I got a new de-shedding tool, which did its job so well on Drew I can tell he’s lighter this spring. I also cleaned both saddle pads and Apache’s cinch. I was impressed and actually enjoyed the cleaning. So satisfying.
This was solid hair before.
After rather unsatisfactory rides on both horses (we need our lessons to start again!) Sara came over to trim Drew and Apache’s feet. It’s good practice for her and more horse time for me.
Note clean white horse. He was not that way earlier in the week.
I managed to try the new tool on Dusty, who shed a good amount, too. It always makes him happy to get attention. Mabel got some curry combing but was not pleased when I tried to remove her mud balls.
Reminder of her muddiness. You can see the balls in her mane.
After stopping and starting multiple times I got MOST of the mud off. Guess what she did after I got her clean?
I rolled. Twice.
She seemed happy with herself. Actually, she had the best day of any of us.
I got to watch Apache get his feet done. I got to watch Drew get his feet done, too. I was fascinated!
I always love petting and loving on the horses when they get their trims. So much love, nibbles, and warm breath. And with Mabel “helping,” Drew, Patchy, and I got even more love than usual.
Is my blade of grass sexy?Shh. I’m napping. Behold, we are clean buddies!
It’s nice to see everyone clean and happy. Well, Fiona was hiding behind us, trying to get at Haggard’s bull treats, so she didn’t get groomed. I did get her on Tuesday, though.
I’m glad I was up to all this, because I was pretty sickly yesterday. I MUST remember to go east of fried food!
The end
But it’s okay. The horses always make a day better, even when riding hurts my dang toe. it’s gonna be a while healing, since dogs keep stomping on it and I keep falling into holes in fields.
The Hermits' Rest 