[Note: that should say “toad,” as you will see later, but I like that the title rhymes.]
Last night, while our merry community members were sitting on our porch watching the weather, we noticed that Vlassic, the little black dachshund mix was looking at something else. He was very intently observing the water trough that the dogs drink from and swim in (one that will soon hold some fish).
Hey, what’s in there! It looks fun! It’s swimming.
We soon realized he had spotted a frog-like creature in the trough, who seemed to be trying to get out, but with little success. Upon further examination, it appears to be a Woodhouse’s toad, but I’m waiting for confirmation on that. We had a long discussion about the difference between frogs and toads, but hey, they all go rivet rivet.
Let me OUT of here. There’s nothing to eat but mosquito larvae. Wait, I like that.
Meanwhile, Vlassic was running up and down, sticking his feet into the tub to try to reach his little buddy. It was really entertaining, so we let it go on.
Yowee! Did we ever get a variety of weather yesterday! After a muggy morning, clouds began to build up, but rain kept going all around us (which often happens, at least in our perception. I guess severe weather is just going to be the norm as “global heating” continues.
Scary sky and dog looking for a toad (see next blog post)
The wind got whippier and whippier, though, and by the time we were getting Father’s Day dinner ready, it became quite breezy on the porch, where we spent a lot of time watching clouds make interesting formations.
Fresh vegetables and organic meat loaf. Farm living.
After eating our harvested squash, fresh beans, most delicious little roasted potatoes, and yum yum, a great meat loaf by Sara, we realized the wind was really, really hard and it was much cooler.
As the days grow longer and longer here in Texas, our harvest starts arriving. It’s lots earlier than in other parts of the US, where nothing’s ready until August, but hey, it gets hot here early.
Some Good News
This has been a great year, too, with the rain continuing to fall much later than usual. It’s raining now, in fact, and it’s only 79 degrees (too bad it was up to 93 at the end of our horseback ride this morning).
My shadow and the garden. Beans are to the right. Giant squash is in my shadow.
I think I’ve mentioned that our neighbor Tyler started a vegetable garden this year. Yesterday, as I was looking for chickens, I peeked in and saw a really, really big yellow squash. And Tyler is out of town.
So, this morning after putting up the horses and Fiona (who went with us on our whole ride and caused no trouble), Sara and I went in and harvested the giant squash and zucchini that were lying under the large, healthy vines. We have to hand it to Tyler, his fencing and netting combination have worked great to keep meddling animals, birds, and others out of his crops. We left him plenty of small squash to harvest for himself once he gets home.
There’s always a surprise lurking around the Hermits’ Rest. Some of them are dangerous. I came home from checking the chickens and snakes yesterday evening to see Alfred with “something” between his legs. He sure looked happy.
Look! I have a thing!
Upon closer inspection it appeared to be, um, skin. Huh? He was loving it. If Carlton or Vlassic approached, he roared like a lion. It seemed to be skin from a deer.
I’m not sharing.
Lee said Carlton found it by the arroyo. But Alfred took it over. Okay.
The light turned this grass pink.
Later, I needed some exercise, so Lee and everyone except Alfred went for another walk. The light led to many stunning photo ops. I turned around after taking a picture, I saw Vlassic emerge triumphantly from the tall grass, with something as big as himself in his mouth, with Carlton trailing behind.
I got something, too!
Oh my. I think it’s the other side of the deer. Yep. Where’s the inside? Where did it come from? Our guess is that someone had the hide on the back of their truck after dressing a kill, and it blew off. Well, it isn’t deer season. Hmm.
This thing is great! (The hair is on the other side.)
Any ideas? Who or what did this?
And watch your toes! And your nose!
As Lee and I were heading back to the house, we saw what looked like yet another hunk of skin. Oh no.
I am NOT a lump of hide.
But I quickly recognized the shape. It was Snappy, our resident snapping turtle. Or maybe Son of Snappy (or daughter). I was glad the dogs were off rolling in poop, because I could do without them losing a toe or nose.
Hey. I bite.
Luckily only Vlassic spotted Snappy, and he listened when we told him no. We got the dogs in safely.
I later looked out the window and saw Snappy ambling on toward the pond behind the house. I guess it was pond switching time.
Let’s go inside. It looks like there are two suns.
I’ve had enough weird and dangerous things for a little while.
You’ve heard all about our snake and chicken issues. Today I was happy to see the hens in the chicken yard, so I could give them some new food. But as I walked toward the yard with the food, I saw a funny-looking garden hose. That was yet another snake. It was heading under Tyler’s bedroom, where I’m thinking the eggs now are. Sigh.
I’m pretty sure this is a garden hose, says Rosie.
The chickens didn’t care. They just wandered by it and went out to eat bugs. Sigh again.
I wrote this post about reclaiming the strip-mined land at the Alcoa plant near Rockdale, Texas. for the Master Naturalist Blog. I thought you might like it, too. I know this is a controversial topic, though I just wrote what the guy walked about.
Our June Chapter Meeting speaker was Marty Irwin, who had a long and successful career doing range conservation for Alcoa and other companies who performed strip mining for coal in this area. After Gary Johnson introduced him, Marty shared some pretty fascinating details with us, so I thought I’d summarize them for any who were unable to attend. (I was so busy writing that I didn’t get my usual zillions of blog photos. Oops.)
So, here’s his Facebook picture, appropriately enough, with a large buck.
If I get any facts wrong, I apologize in advance. Also, note that his presentation wasn’t compatible with our laptop, so we all imagined what he was talking about as he went along. Thank goodness he was good at describing.
Mike Conner got his 1,000 volunteer hour milestone pin, too. Congratulations!
My energy levels have been changing lately, and I must say I just don’t understand it. Most of my life, I’ve sort of trudged through the day, then got a burst of energy late afternoon through the evening. I always wished I was a “morning person.”
The old me (from our wonderful Shutterstock collection)
My guess is I perpetuated this by arranging my life to suit those proclivities (and I lucked out to have kids that liked to sleep and jobs with flexible hours). Lucky me.
These days, though, I have been feeling a lot of energy throughout the day. I’ve been able to focus more and get a lot of stuff done. I’ll get home from work and marvel at all the things I got done, things I didn’t forget to do, and plans I’ve made for more things to do.
Of course there is a consequence to all this. I’ve been getting pretty darned sleepy by 9 pm, which makes me feel like one of my parents or something. I just run out of steam and have to have a snooze. I often perk back up and can read/watch television a bit later. But I would be a failure on the party scene, for sure.
The dogs, however, are vigilant! Well, at 9:30 they are also snoozing.
What Caused It?
I’ve actually started taking some pro-biotics that have all the B vitamins with them along with chicory and something else to make the gut flora all perky. It’s been a couple of months, and lo and behold, not only is my tummy all happy, but I’ve felt more alert and focused. (It’s by United Naturals, but I don’t want to do a commercial for them; you can look them up.)
The promised weight loss has not happened, but I can focus on eating more helpful things, and that should come along, even though menopause changed my metabolism to be even worse! I think the energy means my metabolism is better. I look forward to getting a lot of walking and yoga in each day, which pleases me.
I think I’ll just revel in all this energy. It’s a gift. It feels good to feel good, even when life has its challenges!
PS
It was a sad day today, as one of my coworkers and a member of my team has his last day today.
Bye, Jon.
We had a nice Indian lunch with him where our whole team got to say goodbye, other than the coworker we had bagels with last week, who couldn’t be with us.
I am glad his new job will be close by, so we can still see each other, and we both spend our weekends up north, so Jon: you can’t get rid of me! Good luck!
You know how your childhood issues, fears, and old patterns haunt you no matter how hard you try to move past them? (If you don’t, wow, you’re one exceptional human.) That’s certainly a struggle I’ve dealt with my whole life, or at least since I’ve realized you actually might be able to move past such things.
Spiders aren’t my childhood fear, but they make a good representation for scary things
I’ve made great progress in recent years with a lot of my “issues” (thanks to my fine therapist and Brene Brown books). I no longer blame everything that goes wrong in my life on my own shortcomings. I no longer hesitate to speak up when someone in authority makes a proclamation or judges someone in a way I know is wrong. I care much, much less about whether my personal appearance pleases anyone but me…and so on.
I’ve talked about it before, how I’ve managed to get the negative voices in my head to shut the heck up and say nice stuff instead (“Great work, me,” says my internal voice).
When we first moved to the ranch, I was worried that it would be isolating living so far out here. That’s what Lee, the hermit, wanted. I wanted to have a community to enjoy life with, as well as some peace and quiet. I’m happy to report we are well on our way to a real community out here.
We missed the storms that hit Austin last night, but got cool clouds.
We were relieved to find a place near our friends Sara and Ralph, who warmly welcomed us when we first got here and really helped us set things up. And what would I do without my horse riding companion? Life would not be the same without these folks. We’ve also been lucky to make friends with Cathy, who lived at the cabin when we first arrived, and Tyler, who lives there now and does my snake handling.
When we added Mandi and her family over at Rattlesnake, wow, we could have been happier. They are so helpful in so many ways. One son cares for the horses and hens when I’m in Austin, and another has been helping Ralph with his mowing. Grateful for them.
For some of us, this is really true. I always felt like I should be glued to my hometown, even though I probably will never get to move back to Gainesville. Some folks are more lucky. Lee’s dad was able to buy back a good portion of the farm where he grew up, and got to spend his final days looking out the window at his beloved cattle.
The view Lee’s dad had from his bedroom window.
Lee now owns that farm, but he didn’t grow up there and has sooo many allergies to that part of Texas. But, Lee’s nephew, Chris, inherited the attachment to this land and is now its caretaker, along with his wife and my friend, Kathleen. Chris will never leave this land. For him, there’s no place like home, for certain.
This immense pecan tree is what shaded Lee’s dad’s old trailer (now long gone). Beneath it you see the fig tree that has provided the family with figs for years. I got three cuttings. Continue reading “There’s No Place Like Home?”
The Hermits' Rest 