The Hermits' Rest

Prairienet: How I Made Friends and Found a Career

Today’s post is prompted by the happy coincidence that I found my very first volunteer nametag while unpacking a box today. It’s from way back in 1994 or 1995, when I was still living in Champaign, Illinois. Before THAT, I’d been an active member in the Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group, where I met a whole bunch of wonderful nerdy people, including my PC mentor and close friend, Mark Zinzow, and the eventually famous eccentric genius Michael Hart, who was working on Project Gutenberg even back in the late 1980s. (I regret not having time to contribute back then.)

I did that, because I’d been the de facto PC tech person in every job I’d had since I got my first IBM PC (with two, count-em, two! floppy disk drives) to write my dissertation on, and I needed helpers! Yes, I actually knew how everything worked, back in those simpler days and times.

Time passed and I got a fine job working at Wolfram Research as a technical writer (career score #1) (where I got to work with my second eccentric genius friend, Stephen Wolfram). I stayed friends with the PCUG folks, though, hung out on Usenet to learn more. A few years later, after I’d left Wolfran Research to raise my two sons, I saw an ad for classes on the World Wide Web and websites, which was hosted by Prairienet, a community internet kind of deal where many of my old friends were volunteering. The kids’ dad said maybe this newfangled web thing would be a way to keep my tech skills up while raising the kids. I agreed.

I took a class from a wonderful woman named Karen Fletcher, and suddenly I knew enough about HTML to teach classes myself. This was my first technical training experience (career score #2). Karen was a wonderful friend, even keeping me in touch with horses way back then thanks to her partner who was a horse trainer. She was also a Master Gardener, so we hung around with similar folks.

So, while my kids were little and I was learning about breastfeeding from La Leche League (not linking to them), I was also learning about websites from Greg Newby, Karen, Mark, and others over at Prairienet. And hey, here’s a fact I love to share: the first website I ever made was for my LLL group. It didn’t have any images, though. Why? It was before you could put images in! Everything was text! We were lucky we had bold and italic to spice things up. And lots of asterisks.

One of the friends I met in Prairienet was also a coworker, Bruce Pea. What a nice guy. He got it into his head to write a user manual for Prairienet, since he was all techy and understood how it worked. However, he was not a writer by trade, so I stepped in to copy edit that 1995 book, The Prairienet Companion. I can assure you it was a lot easier than copy-editing the Mathematica Book (second edition), which I had also been working on.

This book contained 95% fewer occurrences than the first draft contained. Thank you, past me.

I turned around and one day there I was, a technical writer and trainer specializing in software documentation and training who also built user communities. Careers are weird! It’s mostly luck and coincidence for me, not a path I was driven toward. But I sure had fun between 1985-1995 learning my webmastering chops!

Another fact: I am still friends with Connor Kelly, the first person to ever find out about a La Leche League meeting online. That’s career score #3, because I swiftly combined what I learned on Prairienet with what I was doing in La Leche League, and in just a year or two was on the real internet, making the website of the whole LLL organization (and many others on the side). That led to volunteer-organizational fame, no fortune, and a lot of drama. And in LLL I helped create a user community, like a baby Facebook that failed due to drama and infighting but looked good enough on a resume to keep.

Hmm. I think I just wrote my biography in a half hour. I can’t believe I dredged up all these memories of myself and the internet as we grew up together. I bet my own spouse hadn’t heard so much about what I did during the decade I just summarized. I’m glad I found that little pin.

Yearly Social Event

I didn’t have much blogging time today, since most of the time I was in meetings or driving to and from Cedar Park (Austin suburb) to get my teeth cleaned. That was unpleasant, since I’d delayed it 2-3 times due to all that COVID exposure.

I ran to Tractor Supply in the way home, so all animals have food. But I had to hurry and feed horses so I could get ready for this year’s Chamber of Commerce banquet. I hadn’t been to one in a while due to COVID and trying to keep a low profile with the family business.

I dressed as a hippie and Lee as a zombie.

I mainly enjoyed seeing some of my friends in town that I’ve missed. It’s nice to know you have a few friends, wherever you are!

Lee and all the Chamber Board and volunteers did a great job. It makes you proud of your little town to go to these events. We heard how great the Texas economy is doing from the speaker, and really enjoyed the yearly awards, which didn’t just go to rich business owners. Awards went to regular folks who helped out their neighbors in the freeze last year, a family plumbing business and the new high school basketball coach. It was nice to see people of all races, ages, and genders recognized.

You can tell we are in Texas by all the hats, though.

We had a fine dinner and conversation, too. The wine selection was great, too, much of it local. Since the venue was the Youth Livestock Pavilion or something like that, the Texas decor looked great. I hated to help tear it down!

Now you know why I’m not a fascinating blogger today. But it was nice to get out to a well ventilated place. Glad it wasn’t tomorrow. It’s getting cold again, and all that fresh air would be chilly.

I’m an Equestrian?

Yesterday was a big day for me and Drew. We have been in our first horse show and survived. I guess it was our first half horse show, since we still have another event to do, but this one was challenging to say the least. I had a lot of support from Sara and Tarrin in my endeavor, but hey, Drew and I did it! We even looked pretty good for a stooped old woman and a young gelding.

Competing hard! All images are from the video taken on Sara’s camera, because who had time to take pictures while everything was going on?

It was a most excellent day, I must say, for both me and Sara, and there was just one little glitch on her cool camera that can follow a horse around, which impressed the heck out of me!

Yes, it is true. I ran the whole thing. Whoever said horse stuff wasn’t exercise was being silly.

Sara did two events, Trail and Agility (Agility is Trail only fast). I did Trail. Since I was doing “in hand” my Trail wasn’t as hard as hers was. Tarrin ran around and set up the course for each of us and tried to keep things from falling down, especially the object we were supposed to knock off a pole and the “slicker,” which is a jacket you have to put on and take off without spooking your horse.

Here we are in our outfits with our numbers. I needed a hat. Luckily, I found my gray cowboy hat when I got home, so I’ll be set next time.

We were all impressed with both horses. Aragorn was a real trooper, because he had to do one thing twice. But, what a guy! He was especially pretty on his double slalom, in my opinion. I think Sara was pleased overall.

I went through my course once, just to be sure I knew where to enter and exit, then we did it for real. I was so happy with how Drew did! He only had trouble with the side pass maneuver, and even then he got it on the second try. I was thrilled at how well he did going over the brush. It probably helped that he was familiar with the hill. He bumped into me a couple of times, and slowed from the trot once or twice, but all in all, he did super for his first time.

And I did super for my first time (according to my audience). That was a lot of jogging. I looked rather overly serious, and my posture sucked. But, it’s something to work on! I look forward to the judging results to see what areas we have for improvement. That’s the best thing about Working Horse Central shows: they are educational and focus on ways the human and horse can improve their performance based on soundness and kindness. If you are looking to become a better partner to your horse and develop skills you will use every day, check them out!

This is so cute. He “rang the bell” himself, then backed out fine. Apache is over there supervising.

Now I have a baseline to improve on, and I know all the things I do with Drew this year from the ground will make starting out in the saddle with shows a lot easier. Yay for us all. Sara and I still have to do our Functionality tests, which we will do once Tarrin takes down the obstacles and restores the dressage arena area. I think we should do well on that one if I remember the order of the steps. I may have Sara call them, or not. It’s not too hard. Here are a few more pictures of our progress.

Anyone who really cares can watch this YouTube video. Thanks to Sara for filming.

I am very proud of this little boy, his trainer, and even me.

Trapped in Two Ways

I couldn’t sleep last night for two reasons, and I realized this morning that it’s because I was feeling trapped and powerless. I don’t need a lot of power, but some would help, like the leadership I’m working on with horses. Bear with me as I think “aloud.”

Yeah. The deal is, I have few other areas where I’m in charge. My personal space is a good example. I’m an introvert. I need somewhere to be alone and recharge. Currently it’s the bathroom.

I used to have an amazing office in a cool old house in Cameron, which I’d invested my heart and soul into decorating to my own quirky tastes. We had just gotten my window of glass objects up when we had to leave for COVID reasons. Then last year’s cold front killed my plants.

It was so pretty. I helped make the desk.

This is where I both feel powerless and trapped. While I was told to stay away for COVID reasons someone else was moved into my office, with my glass collection that I couldn’t keep at home because of the dogs. I was told it was because the climate controls weren’t working upstairs so they had to temporarily move in. I said sure.

That person left, and I had hopes of going back to the good wifi, but now I’m informed I’ll never get it back. It’s not my office. Of course it’s best for the business. Still. That broke a piece of me, since I’d set that up as my retreat and barely got to use it. I’m trapped at home with all the dogs.

At least I’m being allowed to bring some of my stuff to the house. How it will fit is beyond me, but I sure appreciate the kindness. I’ll work hard to make this office/den my own, but I’m never able to relax there. Dogs take up every seat, and I have to cover my good furniture so it won’t get ruined. That’s why it looks like I have a solid colored couch.

I have some lovely art I will have to bother the very nice new office occupant to remove, and all that glass. I can’t move it until we bring china cabinets over.

Which brings me to the other reason I am trapped. My Austin house is gone. There I had a bedroom with a television I could watch whatever I liked on. I had internet. I had space to myself. I could use the whole bed!

Current bed. Four dogs (the lump is Carlton under the covers depositing dirt).

In my bedroom at the ranch, I have one-eighth of a bed and one end table. The rest is Lee’s office, since his old office now belongs to someone else (he likes working at home anyway), and the sitting area had nowhere to sit. Trapped. But hey, I have my closet once I deal with all the clothes from Austin.

Ooh. I feel whiny today. So, that was why I feel physically trapped. Mentally, it’s slightly different. The good news is I CAN work on fixing that, but it will be a lot of work. You see, I feel right now like I don’t have any say in big decisions that are made. I just get told, and not to ask questions. I don’t know who lives at my house or what’s happening in our businesses (apparently we are back to buying and renovating houses, with a family member as general contractor—which is better than constant contractor failure from before).

I think there is a plan to do x, but then find out y is happening. Lee tells me I mistake brainstorming for planning. That makes sense. I’ve been working for the past couple of years to not have expectations. Stuff really isn’t in my control, since I can go with the flow and other people have more important needs that make it hard to plan. I get that and support it! Just sometimes it’s hard to deal with.

It occurs to me that I need to take that serenity prayer to heart and just focus on what I actually can change or plan for, and know what I can’t. Help me do that, please, readers?

I know my supportive family members are doing their best and I appreciate them. My issues are mine, not theirs. I AM grateful to have my office stuff and SUPER grateful to have my horse facilities! Improvements coming soon!

So, if I keep posting about horses, well you can understand that it’s because I set that schedule. I pay for it. I am making myself better through them. And one day I’ll be able to escape from all the noise and go riding alone. Goals.

The Traveling Tack Room

Let’s have a post that isn’t a pity party or poor me, shall we? Let’s talk about how we got our future tack room to the ranch.

Step 1: take tractor to the old church and former Hermit Haus.

So, before COVID when we thought we were going to fix the old church up and rent it out, we bought a cute little building to store seasonal supplies in. Later, when we thought we’d have an active office for the family business, we used it to store Christmas stuff. I decorated a lot.

Once the office became closed to visitors and periodically closed to everyone for safety reasons, the stuff just sat there, along with the old yellow ceiling tiles Lee wanted to insulate the building with.

Step 3: put house on trailer. That was impressive.

Fast forward to this year. The plan to make our portable building into a tack room was changed. A second portable building came over to be the tack room, that’s the one they moved earlier in the week.

The men talked about how we weren’t using that building or another one on the next property we’re renovating. Hmm. Tack room and workshop! So yesterday we fetched the little red building.

I was really impressed that the men were able to get the building on the trailer with just our tractor. That takes skill. Lots of it. And coordination!

Step 6: head through Cameron, tailgated by someone with little sense.

After checking that we were less than the height that would require an escort, Lee and I tried to follow the building, but were thwarted by a traffic light. I was glad when we turned off the main road and took the road that leads to our house the rest of the way.

Whew, I was glad when we were home. Of course, then the house had to come off the trailer, and we had left the helpful tractor back at the church. Never fear, the backhoe was here. I think removing the building was worse than loading it.

Now the house and shipping container need to be put next to each other and leveled. They got the leveling supplies today. Then the insulation will go in and the inside tricked out with saddle racks, hangers for tack, shelving, a little fridge, and more. And there will be space for an air conditioning unit to keep things free from mold. That will have to wait until electricity shows up.

Maybe I can have a chair, so I’ll have a she shed. Why not?

Stay tuned tomorrow for another positive post, this time about my first horse show. I’m sure grateful for the guys’ help on this!

Suna and Apache Go Forth and Ride

I must have the best horse trainer and instructor on earth. She has helped me and my horse work through our issues and come out better than ever. She said it’s like we went through marriage counseling. So true!

Apache did well during his week with Tarrin. She got him back to paying attention to his rider and getting confident. Lots of great work gave him such a good tuneup. Obviously. We went out into the pasture like we did it every day.

We also successfully made it down the passageway he had so much trouble with last week, twice, without incident.

I am concentrating. But I’m happy inside.

Apache gets to stay another week for further refinement. It is probably not his idea of fun. It may be, though, because he has always seemed to be having fun when we did things together in the past. We always enjoyed trail rides with Sara and going to clinics. I’m looking forward to a clinic in a couple of weeks, now that we are doing better together.

I feel a lot better now that I have the tools I need to communicate well and not confuse Apache. And I can stop his inclination to test me quickly. We both have refined our skills. Of course, there is way more to do.

Coming around the round pen to test his new skills.

Wait until we get to trotting and someday cantering! That would be real progress for him. He’s never been balanced enough to canter well. Let’s hope his trainer has more education ready to roll out. I think she does.

Thanks to my photographer friends, Tarrin, Teddy, and Lee. They captured moments that will keep me going in the coming weeks whenever I feel useless and unimportant. I’m important to my horses!

I have a big day tomorrow. More on what I’ve been learning tomorrow. Today I learned that Suna and Tarrin don’t like me pushing into them.

I’ll Just Show My Knitting

After the most disturbing evening of television watching EVER last night, I hope the poor shawl I’m working on won’t forever be linked with the dismal 2022 Winter Olympics. It’s not the shawl’s fault I was holding it in disbelief as I watched the poor little girl who won the gold medal being totally ignored.

I said I’ll talk about knitting. So, this has been a pleasant break from baby blankets. It’s soft and cuddly, though I’m not sure if it’s all that attractive.

I’m done with the brown baby llama yarn, so I’m going to end with a few inches plain, then bind off with a border of the silk/wool blend. I’m not sure what the border will be.

Now I’m trying to decide what yarn and pattern to use for two more baby blankets, since Mandi is expecting boy #5 and my mentor from my previous job is also expecting. I’m no longer a fast knitter, but it helps me relax.

Wonder what pattern I should choose? Ideas?

Consider my pattern choice while viewing this morning’s sunrise.

I’m the meantime, I’m relaxing and trying to recover from a shoulder tweak from lifting and tossing hay bales. I need a farmhand.

Hit a Wall, Figuratively

Oops. I’ve been pushing myself too much. Working long hours followed by caring for 6 horses followed by evening meetings…and in between trying to be helpful to others. I’m wiped out.

I did go out for a half hour today. I saw lots of birds and heard more.

My poop-scooping arm is about to give out, which is really kind of funny. I’m taking a break for a few days and am scaling back my weekend plans. I need to listen to my body and mind, both of which are screaming about fatigue. Yuck.

I guess this is just part of my normal cycle. Too much caretaking and being patient has hit me in the head. I am just exhausted.

How prickly do I feel? Like this mesquite.

HOWEVER. I am encouraged to keep going at work by kind people today who told me how grateful they are that I’m there to help them 2-3 hours a day and make them all sorts of professional-looking handouts. One guy said, “They’re so readable and clear!” Hooray for everyone who trained me, I guess!

Yep, people have no idea how their little bits of encouragement can keep others going, even when they’re tired. Think about that when someone helps you out—letting them know you notice their efforts could be just what they need to keep moving after they run into a figurative wall.

What Ranch Couples Do for Couple Time

Today Lee and I found ourselves with a need to go into town and a free hour. Ooh! What to do?

Lee suggested we drive down a road we pass often but had never been down. I said that sounded fun.

The only hint about what was on the road was a sign saying there was a load-zoned bridge somewhere. Our Tahoe wasn’t too heavy, so off we went.

We were happy to realize that the sun was setting, which made our little drive almost magical. It was one of those sunsets when the sun went in and out behind clouds. Plus this road is a gorgeous well maintained dirt road, so it was fun to go down. We figure a county commissioner must live there, since our county is one of America’s great centers of potholes.

We had a blast looking at cool abandoned buildings and pristine cattle ranches, along with pretty pastures and wooded areas dotted with ponds and creeks. This road is a treasure.

What a pleasant break from work and chores that was! And when I got back, Drew got let out of the pen, like he should be.

I highly recommend taking a scenic ride on a country road with your beloved on a winter evening. Exploring your own area can bring scenic surprises. It had been extra windy with blowing rain today, so the late sun was a treat. Enjoy riding along with us.

Hope Springs, um, Each Spring

One of my favorite parts of living at the Hermits’ Rest is anticipating spring’s arrival. It’s darned early here! And today I noticed my beloved bluebonnets are up and ready to grow buds.

I feel hope for the future when I’m reminded that Nature keeps plugging along. There are a few flowers out, especially the beautiful dandelions. I even snagged a bee in one photo!

See the bee? Or a fly that looks like a bee?

Not many other insects are out right now, which disappoints the chickens.

Things are actually settling down a little bit over here. I may have time to review some documents or watch presentations from last year’s Master Naturalist conference that I missed due to COVID. Or I can just enjoy nature and the animals.