I feel a bit weird writing a cheerful post today, but maybe it’s a good example to f the ability to hold two emotions at once. Right now, talking about the swimming pool is a good distraction.
Glamour shot.
As I type, the hot tub is filling up. I can even see water reflecting on the tiles. It will take a long time to fill the pool, and then we will get instructions!
That’s my rum and Coke editing for me.
It was another interesting day for the Pool of Dreams, and I hope one of the last pre-swimming fun days. Two really nice guys came to do the acid washing, a nephew-uncle duo (who truly loved Goldie and now want a Great Dane). I decided it was a lot more fun to watch them than to try to re-learn the piece of software I was messing with, so I spent a lot of time observing the process. First, there was sanding. The nephew sanded all the potential rough spots quite carefully.
I was happy to see all the protective equipment he used.
While that was going on, the uncle took apart “Mandi’s swimming pool,” slowly and methodically. I was surprised to see he just let all the water out, until I realized all the excess concrete particles had settled to the bottom. I sort of wanted to keep it and make it into a little patio or something.
Alas, he demolished it with a pick-axe.
After the sanding came lots and lots of rinsing with a hose. That got rid of any grit that was hanging around.
He already had on his mask while he rinsed.
Then came the smelly part, which involved a lot of muriatic acid. He had a circulating pump that re-used the water/HCL mix. It was stinky, but sure left the pool surface shiny and clean. Of course they did it to the hot tub, too.
Between the power washer, the acid, and the hose, that was one clean pool.
It was impressive to watch, but probably my favorite part was when he pumped the diluted acid mixture out and it made smoke when it hit the dirt. We figured nothing would harm that Bermuda grass, so it was fine to send it that way.
Smoking
I did stay upwind of the acid. Once that was all done and everything cleaned up, they installed all the covers, light bulbs and such, which made the entire hole in the ground suddenly look like an actual swimming pool. To say I was pleased would be an understatement! My pool of dreams is becoming real.
Oh, look, the hot tub is full. You can see all the drains down there.
The nephew was very impressed with the glow-in-the-dark tiles on the steps and seats and took pictures of those. I guess they are a new feature for the pool company. When everything was done, they were kind enough to power wash the patio, which had some staining from the plastering process. Now my whole setup is fantastic.
Wow, that looks pretty darned nice.
What’s left is to get the chemicals in the pool (it’s a salt-water system), get the cleaning system set up, and learn how to use the pool. That will happen on Thursday, we are told. I can’t wait to see it all full and with the lights going. I guess that’s my Christmas present.
Dogs like it, too. I’m glad I got a photo of how their shadows looked on the empty pool!
This made my solstice good. Like with everything in life, there are sad things to balance out the happy, but at least most of the time, I’m fine with that. Sigh. Okay, for whoever among you it is who goes through every picture in the galleries, here are a few more photos from today.
I tried to get a photo of the surface of the pool. It’s so natural!Trying to show the shiny surfaceDogs having fun.Me and Lee having funCows having fun (they all left today)Acid!
Finally and at last the plasterers showed up to put the finished surface on our pool of dreams. Doesn’t it look great?
It’s so lovely. Why is Penney running away?
I love the shiny surface, too. Isn’t it inviting?
And the red trim matches the trim on the house.
I’m such a kidder. That’s some sort of sludge pool of water sucked out of the plaster. The process was pretty complicated and took a lot of guys to accomplish. They also went through many bags of white cement and shiny stuff.
Guys fill a hopper with dry material and mix it with water. Then it goes through a hose to the pool.
It was fun to watch. They sprayed the goop out in globs. It sounded like gargling and was quite goopy looking.
Spraying at right. Smoothing at left.
As soon as they got it sprayed, someone would start smoothing. They did two coats of rough smoothing. The second coat had shiny stuff in it, which looked really cool.
You can sort of see the sheen.
The guys wore interesting shoe attachments that didn’t mess up the plaster much, as they skillfully smoothed the quick-drying glop.
On the final pass-through, they really smoothed and sprayed a textured coating (for safety). It’s quite subtle. They also cleared off the lights and the glow-in-the-dark tiles.
Finished hot tub.
There are still some pipes sticking up, which I assume are the drains, but the did a bit of finishing.
Looking toward the deep end. Hey, no water!
Tomorrow more guys will come in and do an acid wash. I assume they’ll do final touches as well. Then, I do believe water will go in! I have no idea how long it will take. Lee says 2-3 days.
Looking the other way. From these photos it looks like there will be some shade all day. Maybe.
I can’t wait to see how they do the chemicals and lights and stuff. We will have to have “Pool School” soon! It sure has been a relief to see progress. It also turns out that if we had started later, those supply chain issues would have caused even more delays. Eek.
Enjoy a few more pictures! They are in chronological order.
Last weekend, as I was driving home from my Drew lesson, I listened to an episode of Hidden Brain, by Shankar Vedantam. I’m so glad I did, because the story he shared, gently and neutrally, made the point that I’ve been slowly and painfully trying to articulate for the past few years:
More than one viewpoint about people and situations can be true at the same time.
Me
I’ve always been deeply aware that circumstances are rarely black and white. No one’s all good or all evil. No form of government is all bad or all good. No religion is perfect or all bad. You get my drift and may even agree.
But what this episode, “Both Things Can Be True,” clarified for me is that while it is much easier to see people only one way, it is entirely possible to hold two completely conflicting views of someone. The woman in the story comes to see an important person in her life as both someone who saved her life and betrayed her. She could be both grateful and angry. And that allowed her to reach peace.
I can understand that professional football is highly flawed and can lead to head injuries with lifelong consequences. I can also enjoy watching it and be a fan. Integrative complexity?
The ability to do this is called integrative complexity, which is not a new concept, but was new to me. That’s what has let me cope a little better with the complexities in my own life (sparing you the details).
From what I observe, though, not many people are into the complexity thing. It’s easier to over generalize.
I see it so often where someone fucks up and the people around them switch from seeing them as good and label them as evil. It’s happened in my family, both to me and to someone I care deeply about. I see it, too, when people declare all Republicans or Democrats are evil, all Christians or Muslims are extremists, all police officers are corrupt…etc.
No wonder there’s so much divisiveness. Black and white thinking is just easier.
I am so tired of that bullshit.
It’s not easy to let go of ingrained patterns of belief. Don’t I know it! But integrative complexity is, I think, exactly what is needed to create a world where people can work together to solve the real problems of the world…once we accept that solutions, too, are not all black and white.
It was a really hard day in f so one ways. My friend’s memorial service wasn’t one of those uplifting ones that celebrated someone, but more of a sermon. I really hope it comforted her family and friends.
This comforts me
To console myself after we were dismissed by the preacher, I went and ate some toast and fried chicken at Dairy Queen. Then I checked on the progress at Anita’s house in Cameron. I’m grateful she’s coming here. And her house looks great with its new insulation, plumbing, and air conditioning. It’s like a new house.
Ooh, Anita has a French door!
I had a few minutes, so I got a cheerful red velvet shirt to wear over my funeral dress. at least the Bling Box cheered me up, since friends were there and we had fun joking around. And Jennifer, who happened to be there, helped me pick perky earrings.
Outfit not as cute as I’d hoped.
Next, I headed over to the Master Naturalist holiday party, which the incoming President and VP did a fine job with. I feel good about organization going forward.
Such a nice event.
We gave the 2020 class their prizes, and that’s when I realized my festive red top, when combined with the dress I was wearing, made me look as if I were about to give birth. Hmm. Not my best look.
Carolyn looked good, though.
I drank wine to help me deal with the previous event, and did my best to enjoy seeing all our chapter members after so long. Our county has low COVID rates right now. I hope it keeps up.
Two good things made me more grateful. First, more than one person came by and told me I’d done a good job as President for the past two years. I was really grateful. It was a hard job and I was often overwhelmed with things. But, I got them through a slump after the previous leader died, and I handled the COVID changes. Whew.
We honored our intrepid 2020 class.
The other thing I’m grateful for is that Catherine, who comments here often, told me she had a gift for me that was really from a blog reader who follows my stuff. Apparently, I’m inheriting this item from someone who passed away, and when the dreaded saw it, she insisted it was for me.
It was the biggest Dallas Cowboys flag I ever saw! Now I need to hang it up. What a kind gift! I was really touched and grateful to receive this well-loved flag. Thanks, blog reader! I’ll get a picture of it flying up soon.
Since I didn’t get a picture of the flag, here’s our chilly sunset.
So sure, even with floods, deaths, illnesses among my friends, and all that, there is still stuff to be grateful for. By the way, I’m also an honorary grandmother, as baby Ruby arrived yesterday. Life goes on.
Oh year, you’ve always got something new for us. So many of my friends have been dealing with floods and bad weather. I knew our turn would come. We now have waterfront property at least for a while. I’m just glad we didn’t get damage like so many other parts of the US have.
The front pond is at its highest.
It started to rain at 3 am and it’s still going. Some of it was that kind that sounds like a bathtub filling. We knew we’d have some fun views this morning.
Big and fast flow!
Once again we are glad we put in the overflow culvert in the dam. So far it’s preventing the driveway from washing out like it did a couple of times early on.
Thanks, overflow!
Once it stopped raining so hard, I went out to check on things. Mainly I wanted to be sure the bridge wasn’t flooded, since I have events this afternoon. Yes, I will wear a mask.
Walker’s Creek is a river again.
Luckily there is space under the bridge, at least for now. Nothing looks too bad. I’ve seen much worse!
It did flood into our arroyo from the field across the road.
The cattle seem okay, and their owners are out walking to check on them, since they certainly could not drive.
And hey, the pool and hot tub are available for wading!
Inviting!
The horses have moved out from under the shelter, so it looks like the excitement is over. Onward to what should be a challenging day.
Today seemed to last way longer than your average day. It is always that way when I think I have something all planned out, only it actually isn’t. I thought the pool people were coming this morning, but nope, that got postponed again due to rain…somewhere.
While waiting, I perked up my office/den with some lights. Ho ho ho.
Then I thought a technician was coming to repair my dead laptop. They said it was scheduled (they being some disembodied text bot). But next, I got the message that the part was delayed, so I would have to wait until Monday. I got annoyed, to say the least. Then, boom, the technician drove up.
In a desperate attempt to cheer myself up, I put nail things on my stubby little nails.
Erica, the technician, was a fun woman, and we had a reasonably good time working on my system. She had about a five minute task to do (replacing the brains of the thing), but she could not get the cover off. Three of the screws would not completely unscrew. Now, Erica didn’t want to break my new computer, so she called tech support. That went about as well as when I called them earlier this week.
When will this end?
The woman she talked to seemed to have no clue what Erica was asking. I realize she was talking through a mask, but she kept saying that the screw would not unscrew. The call went through several levels of support until they finally said I’d have to send the laptop in for a replacement, which would take even more time than I’d already taken.
Nope, I said, let’s figure this out. So, Erica called a guy from where she worked. Sure enough, this random guy, knew what the Dell Technical Support team did not, which is that those three screws do not come undone. You have to pop the case open with them still partially in. ARGH.
Erica is relieved the computer booted.
Once we had that down, it did indeed take five minutes to fix the computer. Naturally, one of the teeny screws fell off the desk. We spend another twenty minutes looking for that. Even the magnet couldn’t find it. All I found were dead bugs and places where Carlton had peed. He is having an issue this week, probably due to the Harvey episode.
But the afternoon got so much better. As Erica was getting ready to go, she looked into the main room of the house. She asked if she could please look at it. She ran into the room, just beaming, twirling around and exclaiming that is was Christmas! She said my decorations were just so cheerful. I can hardly express how happy that made me. No one here cares at all about decorations, so I felt very happy to know I cheered someone else up. My smiling muscles were hurting.
The dogs were having “fun” today. I’m really glad Vlassic is neutered.
By the way, the laptop works and is almost set back up.
Cows
The other thing that got me all cheerful today was watching the dogs play with the mama cows and babies behind the house. The cattle are so curious and keep coming up as close as they can, until a dog moves and scares them into backing off.
These dogs are fascinating.
I must have spent a half hour this morning just watching the calves and their antics and how hard Goldie tried to get them to play with her. Unfortunately, Carlton and Vlassic can’t help but bark at them.
Hello new friends.
I hope you enjoy these sweet bovine faces as much as I did!
I have an itch.I love that little faceMmmmmilk
Companionship
The companionship I’ve been experiencing over the past couple of days has been with two horses. One is not a surprise, and it’s Apache. Wow, has that boy settled down since his lesson last weekend. I’ve been trying to do at least something with him every day, and that has helped. He has paid so much attention to me in the round pen that it’s not like the same horse. And we have been doing the thing where he needs to walk straight along the edge of the round pen, and by golly, that head has not curved ONCE in two days. Today we even sped up a little! As well, he has been walking with me practically glued in the correct position. I can feel him breathing at my elbow almost all the time.
Last night the trainer said what she wants more than anything is for us to be able to enjoy our time with our horses. Success!
The other horse that’s been a wonderful companion is Kathleen’s horse, Miss T. After Trixie looked at her and said she was in pretty good shape, I thought, well, why not pay her some attention? She sure seems to want it. Yesterday I gave her a nice grooming, and she was pretty patient while I worked on the issue she has with her tail (a big scab is growing out). We went for a nice walk, and Mandi checked her soundness. She stumbles a bit, on occasion, but it may be because she needs her feet trimmed (which will happen next week).
Miss T is so happy to hang out with people
I put her in the round pen, just to see if she would trot for me. Did she ever. Everything I asked of her, she did, including turning, stopping, and showing a lovely balanced trot. I told Mandi it was sort of like driving a Jaguar car, so responsive and elegant.
Today I did that again, after going on a walk. She had never been in the front field before, but she followed me nicely, and the couple of times she got concerned, I just told her it was okay and we walked on. Hey, this is what I’ve been reading about horses doing. I guess it can actually happen! And when I put her in the round pen, she was so attentive that I decided to see what would happen if I took the lead rope off.
T demonstrating her confirmation. Those are some high haunches! She is all muscle.
Wow. She did everything I asked, walking and trotting, turning and stopping. I tell you what, if you tell T, “Whoa,” you’d better be prepared for that horse to stop. She stops on a dime, and looks ready for her next instruction. She’s like the horses in videos of fancy quarter horses.
I hope we can do more with her as time goes on. T is a darned good horse. Maybe I will ride her this weekend, if there is any time at all. I wonder if the things planned for the weekend will go as scheduled or be absolutely unpredictable like today’s events?
And one more thing. I had two flies die in my beverages today. Gee! This had been such a good cup of coffee! And my wine was so good that I just fished that one out. What a day.
I’m just glad we can sit on the porch and watch the happy lights on the fence turn on as the moon rises each evening. That brings a little bit of predictability.
The chickens have informed me that I haven’t shared much about them in a while. So, since they are acting extra cute these days, I’ll update you on their ups and downs.
I feel pretty
The best news is that one of the chicks we hatched, Peeper, seems to have made it through to a happy adolescence. She was three months old on December 7 and is quite large for her age.
You can see my green tail feathers and how my comb is already coming in.
It is hard to get good pictures of her, because she’s so dark. She has her dad’s green tail feathers and cute little ear tufts, while she has most of her mom’s brown coloring. I can’t wait until spring to see what color her eggs are. I’m guessing dark olive green, since Buttercup lays dark brown eggs and Bruce is an Easter Egger rooster.
I may be mottled, but I was FREE!
The sad news is that we have lost two hens this week, in unrelated incidents. Springsteen, the Jersey Giant, had lost most of her feathers in the molting season, but was starting to get them back when the freeze hit. I think she may have gotten too cold, given that she was the lowest on the pecking order and may not have been able to huddle up with the rest. Darn. She laid nice eggs.
To distract you, here’s another picture of Peeper.
Babette, the fancy French hen, had been having trouble for months, because Bruce kept pecking at her head when he mounted her. I had her separated for a month or so with Peeper and company, and she seemed all right, but she got let out when I was out of town, and I think she must have gotten pecked too hard. While she never laid more than a couple of eggs, she sure was pretty. I hope I can get another of her breed, the Faverolle.
At least something is productive. The dandelions are out and have little friends.
On to better things! At long last more of the “new” hens from last spring have started to lay. Blondie, who is a HUGE yellow chicken, has been faithfully churning out eggs all season. They are small with little white dots. For a few weeks, hers were the only eggs we got.
I can’t help it if I lay small eggs. I’m a good layer!
But, a few days ago, Blanca, the one who lays the beautiful sky-blue eggs, started back up again. That made me really happy. I guess she just took a short winter break.
Blanca says she had to keep up with Billie.
And lo and behold, Billie Idyll kicked in, and is laying white eggs every other day or so. She also finally few in some tail feathers. Now we are getting around three eggs a day, which is fine for the winter.
I was just waiting to lay eggs until my tail feathers showed up.
The older hens and Bruce went through a particularly unattractive period in the early autumn, when they molted. There were feathers everywhere. But, now they are looking more like themselves, especially Star. She was looking pretty bedraggled after hatching out Peeper and the other chick, but she now looks like her old self, except all her feathers are gray (she’s the one who had some gold neck feathers).
Bruce is showing you his magnificent tail. Note his ear tufts and Peeper’s matching ones!
Bertie Lee, Buttercup, and Henley are all looking better, too. Henley has more white spots than she used to, which is something her breed does. They are taking their winter break, as is their right. I’m sure they’ll pick up again when the days start getting longer.
We appreciate the opportunity to check out horse poop and take dust baths in the pens.
The only one of the “new” hens who hasn’t laid an egg yet is the extremely beautiful Easter Egger hen, Betsy. I have no idea what her problem is. We got them in the summer, so she should have laid something by now. At least I’ll know when she does, as they will be an interesting color, I hope.
I just can’t be bothered with laying eggs. Can’t you see I’m beautiful?
I’ve been letting them out a little a few days a week. I’m now worried, since I saw a hawk earlier, but they sure do enjoy wandering around. I’ll just be sure to lock them back in if they begin to not come home again. No more garage chickens. They now have a warm place to stay when it gets cold!
We promise we won’t go sleep in the garage, say Bertie Lee, Star, Bruce, Henley, and Buttercup. Looks like Bruce is trying to get Star broody again.
Even though chickens can be a pain to take care of sometimes (like when burrowing somethings get in and eat their food), I enjoy their happy little sounds and their antics.
No day is great when the first thing you see is a bright blue screen on the new laptop you’ve only had two months. And yes, that’s what greeted me this morning, when I came down thinking I had 2.5 hours to work on training stuff.
At least it was a pretty morning.
Instead, I spent 2.4 hours on a tech support call, repeatedly rebooting and having to enter a giant, endless passcode. I became cranky. When the young man informed me I had to reinstall the operating system and could do it only if I had a USB drive of a certain size, I became vexed. Of course I threw out all my old Planview drives and only have the giant one where I brilliantly store all my backup files. It was too big.
Look who felt well enough to come out with the other dogs.
Now, I know how hard that job is and that they are reading from a decision tree and actually have no clue how computers work. I know the guy was trying while he repeatedly had to consult various things. But I also had to work.
The Christmas cactus cheered me up.
Of course my colleague on an Asian subcontinent had pinged me long before I came downstairs, so I had to help her while on the phone with the other guy. One big happy family, since we work for them same company. I got her going. Then the OTHER fellow I’m working with on that project needed help.
We think Carlton cleaned his shoulder up last night. It looks less gross.
I was really patient, for me. But in the end, someone has to come work on the laptop in person. So glad I spent extra for that. This means all blogging will be done on the phone for a few days.
I will stop with the whining and summarize that today was very long. The woman who pinged me before I came down to work was still asking questions when I was trying to work with the horses.
Not All Bad
Setting up equipment.
The day had good points, though! The Pool of Dreams finally saw some more action today! An electrician came to get all the power for the equipment set up. He couldn’t get the wiring to the part of the garage where the fuse box is, so he will have to come back.
Lee and dogs supervising the control panels.
I was relieved to get this done. The plaster is supposed to be Friday. We’ll see.
Looking tidy!
I have more to share that’s somewhat cheerful but I’m tired of typing on the phone. I’ll be back soon.
I started work extra early today, so I got to stop before the pre-solstice sunset caught up with me. It had rained and misted much of the day, but the late-afternoon sun was shyly peeking out from the clouds. It turned the ranch into a jewel box of shining droplets hanging from every fence, blade of grass, and plant.
A twinkling world
I walked along just wishing I had someone to share this with. Lee was up working. Kathleen isn’t here. Mandi was at work, sigh. I know the little things I was enjoying so much weren’t the kind of things a lot of people would even notice. I mean, there was also a lot of holes from hogs or something, animal poop, and normal ranchy things.
For example, I was surprised to see these kernels of corn in the middle of our pasture. Did it come out in deer poop? Did a bird drop it? I have no idea. It has to be deer corn, because no one grew corn around here this year.
It came to me that these were the kinds of things my friend Christi often posted as she looked out on her own ranch. Trees, sunsets, random cactuses, weird mushrooms, corn in the middle of the field. Tears came to my eyes, because I’d just been reading about when her memorial service would be held, fittingly enough, right in the middle of Sara’s and my lessons with her trainer friend. She’d probably get a chuckle out of that.
There were a bunch of these interesting stinkhorn mushrooms in the field today.
Well, then, I said, as my heart literally began to ache, I should share the shiny and quirky things I see around the Hermits’ Rest today, in honor of her memory and her love of this part of Texas.
Willow branches
I hope you enjoy how even the lowliest blades of grass became shimmering waves of diamonds in the sun today. It’s a real tribute to a shining soul. Be sure to look at the pictures up close, so you can see all the droplets.
Today was simply heartwarming. This is why I love horses so much.
We had a good day
Trixie was coming today to work on Apache’s feet, which I’d forgotten to have done on schedule. So, she rushed over during my lunch hour to take care of it.
The Buckskin Buddies watched with great interest.
Trixie started working on Apache and his issues. There was T, watching so closely. She really wanted a turn. So we went over just to look at her beauty. Trixie says she looks very well bred.
Vlassic also wanted attention.
Since she wanted attention, T got her neck adjusted, which made her extra happy. She kept turning her head, licking and chewing, and even yawning. All signs of a happy horse.
I like this lady.
Apache has his feet in their best shape ever, too. His abscess has completely grown out, too. He’s still in attachment mode, too, very affectionate and loving.
One more cute story from today features Fiona. As Trixie was working, she asked if Fiona needed a trim. I said I didn’t think so. Then, I looked over at her. She was on the other side of the gate, also demanding attention. She looked at me and picked up her foot, banging it on the gate, twice.
Yes, she wanted a trim, please. And she showed me the foot that needed trimming most! She’s a genius ass! I hope that made you smile, too.
Being around happy, relaxed animals is the greatest therapy there is for me.
Being loved by people is good for us rescue horses, too.
The Hermits' Rest 