I spent a nice time today just looking at the plants and insects around the Hermits’ Rest. As I was walking down the path I enjoyed the Mexican Hat flowers (Ratibida columnifera or upright prairie coneflower).
They come in lots of colors.
I’ve always loved these plants, because they look cheerful, have cool leaves, smell interesting, and attract lots of insects.
They are just plain cute.
I’m glad they are all along the drive between the two main houses, because I get to be distracted by the butterflies, bees, and bugs.
Hungry beetle.
What’s weird is that I’ve been noticing weird flowers in the Mexican Hats. Really weird flowers.
Crazy Hats
They range from double flowers to extra flowers growing out of the cones to multiple cones. It’s quite odd.
This looks like Mickey Mouse’s hand.
Of course these aren’t “normal.” I see no flowers like that along the roadside. These flowers are next to the field where the oats were grown that became this year’s silage for the cows on the land we’ve leased out. They applied herbicide to get rid of non-oats, and it landed on the edges of the oats.
Engelmann daisies and Mexican Hats in front of the oat area.
I feel bad for the flowers, but we gave permission for the spraying. That’s modern farming. As a Naturalist I may have a different viewpoint, but these folks need to make a living and feed their cattle efficiently. And they ARE cute when they are young.
Feed us.
There’s plenty of wild space here at the ranch, so I’m happy. Look at this gorgeous milkweed beetle!
I’m cool. More than just monarchs eat milkweed.
It’s grasshopper season, too. There are just “a few” in the pasture where Sara’s horses are.
A popular hangout.
And I just have to say some of the bugs make me smile. This flower scarab beetle with its pollen butt is just cute.
Stop looking at my butt. Another scarab and thistle.
I’m very grateful to have so many things to discover and observe here. I really enjoy sharing it with all of you. It’s a great journey.
Yesterday was quite a good day! I don’t think I have ranched so hard in a long time. So many things to do, and so many involving dirt and more dirt. It was great to have a non-rainy day.
To start the day, Sara and I played on the ground with Apache and the cute mare, Bonnie. Everyone got very clean, even Fiona, and we all had a nice time walking around. Apache still looks good (other than that abscess, his feet look like a textbook illustration of a fine horse foot), and Bonnie’s a nice girl. Since I don’t have more photos of that, enjoy Alfred drying off after a quick bath in the Little Pond. Gracie says, hmm.
What is he doing?
After that, I “helped” with the horse fencing project by holding tape measures and other vitally helpful things. I even got to move something in the tractor to help the auger thing work right. So ranchy.
Ready to drill.
Next up will be putting poles in at all the marked spots, if it doesn’t rain.
It’s all lined up.
But wait, there’s more! I hope to get some new pullets from Bird and Bee this week, so we worked to get a separate setup for them in the chicken run. As long as I keep giving the chickens tomatoes, they don’t care who moves in next door.
Just give us more tomatoes.
It came out pretty spiffy for something made out of stuff we had on hand! All my chicks escaped while I was out of town, but don’t worry, we will try hatching again, with a new, more secure area.
It looks welcoming.
Later, it was time to move some cattle that recently arrived at the Hermits’ Rest, and I got to “help” wrangle an escapee, which turned into a fun time with lots of help from others and good conversation. I enjoyed watching the new cattle settle in and establish their “pecking order.”
All ready to put in posts.
I’ve been ordering some supplies for my tack room over here and for taking care of Apache and Fiona in our paddocks. I needed a few more chicken and horse things, so off we went to Tractor Supply, with me all covered in really disgusting mud (okay, not all covered, but you couldn’t miss it). I was told to wear my work cowboy hat, so I looked pretty legit. The best thing we got was a cool utility cart for hauling horse poop. It will be fun to use and looks to be quite sturdy.
I got a chicken feeder and horse bandages.
Actually the most fun part of the trip was getting lost wandering around the area where the ranch is. There are some pretty homesteads and lots of nice land out here. But, I’m still a hermit, so don’t move here (or Austin, if you can afford the skyrocketing home prices).
Since I have no photo of getting lost, enjoy Spice and Lakota eating each other’s food, because they knew Sara was paying attention to Bonnie the new gal on the block.
The other horse’s food is so good.
On the other hand, the ranch seems to have opened up post COVID. Lee’s friend from high school, Matt (who reads the blog), was here for a couple of days, so that was our first overnight visitor. You can tell Matt was here, because the brother-in-law mowed around his car. And my son and partner are coming today!
I’d say the coolest visitor, though, was the guy who delivered all the bags of concrete for the poles.
He had a fun little forklift kind of vehicle that made the process seem easy! I really enjoyed watching him drive the concrete around, plus he seemed like a nice guy. You can’t beat that in a delivery, right?
And, it’s raining. Oh, weather, you annoy me. How’s it going with you?
In years past I’ve mentioned my fondness for the migratory dickcissel birds that come through here at the Hermits’ Rest each year. They’re small sparrow-sized birds with big sound and friendly personalities.
I usually see them on barbed wire or electric wire. This is a female.
They have a charming gurgling song and often chirp away after sunset. I don’t know why this is.
This is a male.
They hang around here late spring through mid summer. I wasn’t sure if they bred here or not until today when I was walking over to see Apache and Fiona.
Friendly female
Females followed me along the road, moving down the fence as I passed.
Look at her mouth!
Eventually I made it to the old, hollow, cedar elm just before the cattle guard. There I saw much dickcissel activity, and both a male and a female. They were working on a nest!
Looking for building supplies.
I was so pleased to see this! I hope to soon see or hear babies when I walk by. Here’s a bit more on these birds from iNaturalist.
Horse update
I’m other news, we have Bonnie the quarter horse visiting for a while. She’s 19, and wanting to do stuff.
Looking forward to more horse fun.
Apache went for a walk with her (and us humans) and they got along fine as long as Apache didn’t get too close, because her flank must look delicious.
Practicing being a perfect gentleman.
It’s looking like Apache is healing well. We walk and walk, and he is fine. I’m hoping riding can resume by the weekend.
Times are getting more exciting here in little Cameron, Texas, and it’s not just because Anita will move here soon. Lots of new businesses and jobs have been coming in, and the upcoming relocation of some of the County offices to the old hospital will be freeing up some cool places for investors to come in and start new businesses. We all have our favorite “dream shops” we want to see, but which buildings are right for what?
That question is what led to my fun day yesterday. A few people who are members of the Cameron Chamber of Commerce got together, and let by the fearless Melanie, trekked all over the downtown area to look through the buildings that would soon be available and “re-imagine” them. Looking through historic buildings and offices is my idea of fun, which is why I volunteered to tag along and was so grateful for the opportunity to help out in a small way.
We looked at buildings that are still being used, buildings that were full of mold, buildings in great shape, and ones that required some imagination. We all had clipboards to write down our ideas.
I was enthralled by how many county records are in the old buildings.
I liked that some old buildings have cool windows up high with views, which makes me envision loft living. Other places would make great bars, bookstores, restaurants, gaming places (one even used to be a roller rink…could it be again?).
My favorite things, I guess, were seeing how many dang old jails there are in this town. The one we looked at yesterday was really big, and I had NO idea it was there. Ooh, scary.
Old jails make excellent, secure storage.
This jail adds to the ancient hoosegow, old jail museum, jail in the old police station (where someone lives now), PLUS the actual County Jail that is in use. My big idea was to have a “Jails of Cameron” tour, with little jails painted on the sidewalk to lead you from one to another, each with something interesting to see or do. That didn’t go over terribly well.
The jail could be turned into a restaurant, where you eat in cells and people serve you through the little door…right? Sounds romantic to me.
Other people had real ideas, so it will be fun to see what comes of all this! At least I know they aren’t building a subdivision next to my house or anything, because I made Lee buy all that land. I was a visionary, I guess.
PS: It sure was fun to do something with people like this. We couldn’t have a few months ago!
Oh goodness, I skipped a day of blogging for the first time since I resolved to post every day quite a while ago. I had good reason, though, it was a busy day with lots of fun meetings, animals to care for, chores, and conversations. By the end of the day, when I could have blogged, I chose to sit on the porch and talk to my family. Who could blame me for choosing in-person interaction? (Okay, someone could, but I probably don’t like them.)
A grasshopper.
There are lots and lots of bugs (including mosquitoes) out right now, and I especially liked this fuzzy caterpillar.
I got the chickens a big brick of treats at Tractor Supply today, since they completely finished their last treat, which was watermelon rind. They can certainly clean out a watermelon.
Let’s see. I also met a large fish, who’s apparently a local celebrity in Bea’s Kitchen (more on why I was there, later). It’s a fine and friendly fish.
I seem to be unable to add captions, but the fish says hello. Sigh, WordPress seems to give new features, then take away old ones.
And in case you were thinking I forgot the dogs, here’s Carlton making himself WAY too much at home in my bed this morning.
That’s some stink-eye! I’m off to do horse things and then finish my indoor writing tasks. I wish all of you a reasonable weekend, with weather that fits your desires (mine is no rain).
It’s been an interesting few days of social activities since I came to the Austin house Tuesday evening. I got my hair turned back into my preferred whiteness yesterday, and that always makes me feel better…prettier…fancier. It makes that last month or so with the extensive roots worth it. I think adding the silver worked well to make the roots less obvious, so I may do that again, especially seeing that the bleach made it go away.
Working on hair seems like such a privileged thing to do, but I save up for it. Yesterday I even got a nap while sitting under the hair dryer. And it’s always fun to listen to the stories my hair stylist tells about his life and adventures. Well worth the time and sort of worth the money.
Getting pretty isn’t very pretty, however. My hair looked like worms when I came out of this dryer. I felt like a butterfly undergoing metamorphosis.
As soon as I was released from my cocoon in the salon, this social butterfly ran next door to participate in our first vaccinated people’s book club meeting indoors. All of us were so happy to be able to both see and hear each other! We did have to keep steering the conversation away from topics that might lead to strong words (Did you know none of the homeless people in Austin are willing to work? Neither did I.). One of the women there lives in the alternate world, and said she’d not worn a mask except the few times she went to Austin last year. Wow. I kept waiting for Anita to jump on her, but we were all good and decided not to cause a book club scene.
I took myself, my PRIDE! shirt, and my giant rainbow earrings (I wonder why that one lady wouldn’t talk to me?) home just before yet another bad storm rolled through. Those are so hard on poor little Pickle the dog. Anita and I tried to distract her by watching weird shows about people with weight and skin issues, and she did eventually calm down.
Today I am back to feeling pretty and social. I was feeling so femme that I suddenly painted my fingernails and toenails this morning, and put on ALL the makeup I haven’t worn in a year. It worked out, because the office had more people than I’ve seen since February 2020 today. It has been so much fun seeing old coworkers, meeting some in person for the first time, and eliminating misconceptions (one coworker is much smaller than her large Zoom personality would indicate).
I may not be gender fluid, but I sure go from tomboy to lady-like in a flash. Hey, you just take fun wherever you can get it, right? I like wearing my “costumes” and looking different every day as much as my hair stylist likes to wear a white t-shirt and khaki shorts every day!
By the way, today I tried out the new “columns” functionality in WordPress. It looks pretty good on the computer, but let me know if it looks weird however you view the blog.
And yes, I will podcast again. I’m just really low on time these days (or bone tired) and can’t get to a lot of my volunteer and optional activities.
Since I am the hyper-volunteer that I am, I’ve been helping out with the PRIDE employee resource group where I work, as part of our diversity and inclusion initiative. Not surprisingly, you meet gay people in such groups. I’ve made a new friend there, who lives in Seattle and works at a company we recently acquired. C is a bit younger than me, but we share a lot of memories of the past.
Way too rainbow for many people. But, it’s not just for fun.
When no one else is at our meetings, we chat about stuff, and yesterday we got to talking about the differences between being young and gay when we were young and how it is now. Looking that far back, it becomes very clear how much things have changed for the better in North America. It also confirms how much I admire my gay and lesbian friends from the 1970s through 1990s, who really lived on the cusp of a more accepting world. This led me to some thoughts as Pride Month in the US starts.
Both of us remembered that when we were in high school NO ONE admitted being gay, and there were just whispers about certain theater types and flashy dressers. Whew, I feel bad for some of the guys, especially, who were pressured into dating women and must have felt really uncomfortable. Not to say that it was easier for women…and none of us even really grasped the possibility of being trans back then. I know lots of people who have children from the inevitable marriages that happened back then who treasure those kids and are grateful to understanding former partners.
I’m lucky to be able to fly my flag at work.
When I went to college, so many young men were coming out. My friend had similar memories of college being the first place where people felt safe to be themselves. Today, young people are so much freer (as a whole, not saying there still aren’t issues) to be open about figuring out their sexuality, loving whoever they want to, and not feeling forced to make a permanent choice. The fluidity nowadays is something I wish we had when I was young.
And while there is still a lot to fear for minorities today, fewer people feel like they must hide to stay alive. There are still workplaces and other spots where people my age are careful, though. Why, even ten years ago a friend of mine called his husband “Joan” at work to deflect an intolerant supervisor. And I hesitate to wear my Pride outfits in Cameron, even.
One reason that I have chosen to be an LGBTQIA+ ally for all these years is that I saw how dangerous it could be in the Gay 1990s for people to speak up for themselves when faced with homophobic behavior. My gay buddies used to stand up for me when people said sexist things in my presence, so it was only fair for me to point out homophobic speech and action when I saw it. That’s the job of the ally, to show that we do notice these things and won’t accept them.
I’m grateful for the men who have been my allies.
I’m here, noting when I feel uncomfortable, use an improper pronoun, or say something inappropriate, and I make sure to acknowledge it, then move on without making it into a “woe is me, poor cisgender ally person.” Being an ally may sometimes be hard, but it’s merely a choice for me. Being gay is NOT a choice and not something you can take a break from if it’s hard.
What makes me, my friend in Seattle, and so many others of us who are getting older right now very happy is seeing progress, seeing happy and productive people out there living authentically, and watching as society inches toward equality and inclusion, at least here. We are not forgetting those who live in parts of the world where people who are not cisgender males by birth are not at all safe. I guess our work just has to keep going!
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!
That’s not normally something I’d say, but after seeing the progress Sara and I made on our tack room, I’ve changed my tune. However, I feel sorta like Apache right now—ready for a nap!
Suna tired me out this morning. All that walking!
It had gotten to be quite a mess in there, especially after the salt licks melted onto the floor from the humidity. Sara spent hours yesterday cleaning up the floor and everything on it, which was not easy. And she cleaned the A/C filter. Yuck.
Ick
Ick and disarray
That should be white
What the heck is all this?
Before pictures. A layer of ick on everything and no organization.
I felt a little bit bad when I cleaned the fridge, because it was full of beet pulp, which got on the clean floor, but even when I was cleaning scary spiderwebs (Sara found brown recluses yesterday) off the windows and such, I kept the floor pretty good.
This may look like a mess, but it’s organized and dusted!
Some of the cleaning was quite challenging, but I enjoyed organizing our stuff, getting rid of old things, and seeing what we have. Now I know where all the medicine is, and will have all the stuff Mandi put together last year to start my collection. Fungal things stay with Sara, hoof things go with me, thanks to our horses’ issues.
Now that the table is clean, we can see what’s what, too.
I found duplicate things and stored them, arranged cow stuff sensibly, and have a little area for bath stuff. So proud of myself.
That dresser looks WAY better compared to the before pictures!
I even cleaned out my tack box. I may have done it one other time, but it was before Sara got her nice new one. Now I have just the things I use every day.
A semi-clean donkey
One of the items got a lot of use today, the black pumice-like brick that looks like a grill cleaner. It got a lot of Fiona’s winter hair off, and she really enjoyed it. She certainly liked it better than fly spray or wound cleaner (she has a little cut on her leg).
Here’s Ace keeping an eye on that dog!
It was nice hanging out and cleaning, plus it was fun watching Sara work with Ace. He’s made a breakthrough and is progressing fast all of a sudden! His new eating plan is already helping his metabolism, and it’s also helping his mind!
I don’t even know where to start telling you how cool our new fencing is. The craftsmanship is incredible. My gratitude is immense. But look, here’s one completed run.
Harvey is trapped! Not really.
The fence may look like normal horse fencing (not all barbed wire like cattle fencing), but what you can’t see is that all the parts were fabricated by one person and the whole thing was installed by one person, not a team. Plus, many of the tools used to make this a one-man show were hand-made, as well.
The industrial-strength auger
All the heavy braces required deep holes filled with concrete. You can’t dig those with a shovel! Luckily, the nephew happened to own a big, yellow auger that attaches to a tractor. But, what to do with it in between uses? He fashioned a way to hang it from the rafters of the future stall roof, then dug a hole for stability. Cool!
Daisuke at work
But, how the heck will all those t-posts and the metal support poles get dug? Well, I wish you could have seen it in person! First, each post got spray painted to show how deep it needed to go. Then they all got started by hand, which involved climbing up the front-end loader forks and pounding them down with a huge mallet. One mallet made the supreme sacrifice and separated from its handle during the process. Always have a backup!
Doing a wheelie. Some posts didn’t go in as easily as others. I forgot to edit this one, so the world looks sideways.
Then, one by one, Daisuke, our “big helper” tractor did the work of sinking all the posts. It is really fun to watch, especially when a post hits a rock and won’t go any further. Daisuke’s front tires go off the ground. We may have to break out the bigger tractor for some fine tuning.
Just getting started, but a good photo of the fencing on its spindle.
So, how do you string all the fencing by yourself? First you make a spindle kind of thing. It’s like a record player, and goes round and round. You put a pole on it, then put the roll of fencing on that. You can then attach to one end, and just slowly drive Daisuke backwards and unspool the wire. Ta da!
The tensioner, right after it was finished.
Great, so after that, you have a length of fencing, but it’s pretty loose and wobbly. You need to tighten it, which is much easier with a helper. However, if you’re a master welder, you “just” (easier said than done) make yourself a tensioner to attach to the tractor. There are the same number of hooks on it as there are spaces in the fencing. You hook them on the end of the fencing, and gradually tighten it, then fasten. That’s really clever.
Getting ready to stretch. Pretty cool.
Before the afternoon was over, there was an entire length of fencing, which confused the heck out of the cattle.
Fencing row number one.
By the end of the day, two rows of posts were laid out, and the top strand of barbed wire was up on the second row. Once there are three rows (we are making two pens to rotate the horses between, for parasite management), the more detailed work of putting in the fencing around the stalls, adding gates, and setting things up will start. There’s plenty of work left for our one-man crew.
Two rows of posts, and fencing ready to be strung.
And the cattle aren’t being ignored. There’s a shiny new gate that holds their heads in place so they can have their shots and other things done to them. That should work with these fairly docile cattle. We’ll still have to borrow the fancier equipment over at the Wild Type area for palpitation and anything that requires no movement. (I say “we” but I mean “he.”)
A head gate, I think it’s called.
We are glad it didn’t rain yesterday, so all this stuff could get done! Since it’s a US holiday to honor people who died in wars, I’m off work today. That means I can do my own physical labor and help with cleaning the tack room. Sara did the floors yesterday, so I get to do everything above floor level today. I’m not complaining; it needs doing, very much!
All clean and shiny, and no longer limping. Hooray! Patchy may not be as pretty as some of those fancy horses, but he’s beautiful to me.
Plus, I’ll get to hang out with Apache and Fiona. Apache feels good enough to do ground work, and Fiona is finally shedding, so I’m working on her coat. She does love attention!
I hope you are having a fun time, whether it’s a holiday or a “real” Monday for you. Life feels so much more “normal” now, with everyone home and doing stuff (and I even had a traveling friend drop by yesterday!). I’m savoring every moment.
The Hermits' Rest 