bloganuary – The Hermits' Rest

Fear Is Scary

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

First, I couldn’t answer yesterday’s prompt and I was so tired I fell asleep early, so I missed a day. I guess I miss out on the Bloguary prize, of which there isn’t one.

Winner winner, you can’t have my chicken for dinner. Buttercup is probably pretty tough at age four.

Second, I’m not going to write down my actual thing I’m most afraid to do, but here’s one that’s less life-threatening: I’m afraid to canter on Apache. (For you non-horse folks, cantering is the gate faster than trotting and slower than galloping.)

How I imagine I’d look. On the ground, in the distance.

I actually have good reasons. First, Apache has historically been a rough canterer even without anyone on him. He was so unbalanced he needed to literally kick himself into gear. Sara had a hard time with him when she tried, too. And I’ve never cantered on anything (Sara says I cantered on Pardner many years ago, when he thought he was herding cattle but I thought it was just trotting, which I sucked at back then.)

But, we’ve been working so hard with Apache to get straighter, and now he’s able to nicely transition on the ground. And I’m a better rider because I have been working hard, too.

So, what it will it take to get me to canter on Apache? Or Drew? That’s easy. Tarrin is working on my confidence by teaching me skills, and I’m practicing those skills. My confidence level is way higher. I even had fun on Drew on Monday.

Speaking of horse issues, Sara came by with her scary farrier knives and finished digging out Apache’s abscess. Today I did a bit of walking with him and a tiny bit of trotting. He told me when he was done, then we just walked around. He’s also taking his meds like a man using the syringe method.

Poor Apache has horrible long hair from his condition, and it was warm today. He’d probably prefer it to be cooler again. I hope he starts shedding soon.

Drew is shedding, though. But. We’ve had a rough couple of days with his sudden sensitivity on his flanks. Yesterday I lunged him, and he kept snaking in at me. I persisted until he yanked the rope out of my hands, bucked, and ran out of the round pen. He then stopped and waited for me. I got the message. After that, he was friendly and not at all nippy.

Today he started out nippy, but did better being lunged. He seems uncomfortable still, but let me pet his tummy area on both sides. I’ve given him some ulcer stuff and got his feeding routine back to normal, in case eating with the other horses when it was so muddy bothered him.

All I can do is try to help, I guess. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have the horses, the chickens, and the land to enjoy.

Honestly, I’ve been feeling good and trying to savor the fine weather and beauty I see everywhere. It’s the best I can do. Who needs to let fear scare you into not enjoying you life and challenges?

A Horse Is a Sport, of Course

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

My favorite sport to watch is, by far, American football. I’ve watched it my whole life, so it’s part of me, I guess, even with all its myriad of flaws and issues (high school boyfriend’s dad played in that last championship Detroit Lions team, and I now realize his odd behavior later in life may have been affected by blows to the head, for example). But, it was fun to watch football with my dad, and now it’s something Lee and I have in common. Note that I also enjoy baseball, which my dad played and took watching very seriously. And I actually enjoy watching golf. I just can’t believe how well people can get tiny balls into tiny holes. The only sports I’m not fond of watching are basketball and hockey. Just not part of my history, I guess.

What sports do I like to play? Well, as a kid I played football and baseball with the neighbors. If I weren’t so stubby and slow (and female) I would have played longer. I’m not exactly talented. I liked tennis in college. But the sport I do now is our version of working equitation, which is an equestrian sport. I think it’s a sport, I mean, there are competitions and prizes, so sure. So yes, my horses and I do sports.

Speaking of those powerful beasties, I got to enjoy them a lot today. That was a nice change from it mostly being too cold or wet to interact much. I took two work breaks to de-bur Drew and Apache, but I could not get them very clean. They keep rolling.

Tarrin came here for lessons today, which is always a treat. I really needed her to look at Apache and help me with his issues. Sure enough, the first thing she did was find where his abscess was hiding! It was under a flap of sole.

She did a lot of scraping, then we rummaged through all the stuff in the tack room and found Betadyne to disinfect it, an antibacterial spray to treat it, and the mud stuff I bought to protect it. I can repeat when the mud disappears.

Tarrin also measured his feet for boots. Note the feed dish full of burs.

Once he was treated you could tell he felt better, because he lifted his other hoof for the first time in a month. That meant he could stand to lean on the sore one at last. We took him out and lunged him a bit, too. He had a harder time going left than right, but was happy to trot around. He seemed so happy to do stuff again.

What he wasn’t happy about is that Tarrin figured out a way to get his pills in him with a syringe. I’m so happy to have a large supply from the lady who sold us our horse trailer. Now I just have to keep shoving them in.

As for Drew, he started out acting really odd, like trying to nip when I groomed him. He seemed to have a stomach ache. That scared me. It probably was because the horses ran out of water. I didn’t know the water had been turned off again. My poor fish. Sniff.

I was too busy to photograph Drew, so here are three of the hens. They enjoyed the sunny day.

But he improved as I worked with him on the ground, and we ended up having a really good lesson. He did so well at things that had been frustrating earlier. I’m getting able to relax more when riding, and it’s almost getting to be FUN.

And finally, here’s the sofa as I found it this morning. They are exhausted from barking at coyotes.

So yeah, those horse buddies are my sport. They are also so nice to be with. They are now both patient for bur removal, so it’s our bonding time. Ahh.

Winning the Lottery without Playing

What would you do if you won the lottery?

I would not win the lottery unless someone gave me a winning ticket as a gift, in which case I’d probably share with the gift giver. I don’t play games of chance (life is a gamble, so I can’t say I don’t gamble).

But today I feel like I won the life lottery. I enjoyed my day, even with the long drive made longer by having to drive around a bad accident on the Interstate. Then I had to ask for help getting my gas cap cover to open. I must have broken it. But a very nice man helped me (I actually walked into the truck stop and picked a man who was being friendly to the clerk to ask for help). After we got the thing open, he saw the knitting bag in the back of my car. He said I looked crafty and me this flattened coin, saying I could bang on it and make myself a silver ring. There are good folks out there!

I listened to NPR the whole way, and though it wasn’t overt fascinating, I learned a few things about brains and such. Since it was sunny, the drive was just more cheerful. Seeing white pelicans flying for the second week in a row helped!

When I got home I checked on the horses. Lee says Drew was mean to him at the gate, like he was with my son the time he got hurt. I think we will have to work on that.

They do seem to appreciate the hay Lee gave them.

My gosh, in only two days the horses got more than double the amount of burs they had before. When I first saw Apache, he not only had all these burs, but hay was attached to it. This is bad enough!

I got many of these off while he was eating. But I have more, plus all of Drew to do before I can work with them.

After the horses and chickens were fed, I was watching football when my neighbor texted me asking if I’d ever seen one of these.

Texas Star (*Chorioactis geaster*) photo by Vicki King

This is a very rare fungus. Oddly, the Devil’s Cigar or Texas Star is found only in central Texas and Japan. I got very excited when Vicki sent the photo, because I knew exactly what it was. There had been an article about finding it in Inks Lake state park recently.

This is the first or second observation in Milam County on iNaturalist. I’m so glad to have photos with the GPS attached so I could share them and get Vicki’s sighting verified. I wish we could hear it hissing! Since very few people have seen the Texas Star, I really do feel like I won the lottery.

Map of iNaturalist observations. That’s our area, north of Cameron with the pin in it.

I’m going to go see it myself in the morning. I hope it’s not faded. What a find! I should be less tired tomorrow and maybe I can write something better in the Master Naturalist blog.

Yep, We Had Family Traditions

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

Ah, I’m sitting in a clean, quiet hotel room, with mindless television and knitting. It’s a perfect time to reminisce about family traditions.

My current family is a bit too chaotic to have a lot of traditions. It’s always something different every day. But my family of origin had a couple I enjoyed at the time and remember fondly.

I’m not home so I can’t scan photos. Here’s our foggy morning.

One I loved was when we lived in south Florida in a family-oriented neighborhood of little cement-block houses. We had a dachshund mix dog named Pumpkin during my college and grad school years. I thought of her as my sister, because she was great to talk to and hang out with. I’m not kidding, I often forgot she was a dog.

Ha! I found a photo of Pumpkin, Dad, and two neighbors.

Anyway, it was my parents’ tradition to take a walk with Pumpkin every evening after dinner. Whenever I was home, I went along with them and my brother. The walk only went to the end of the block, because Mom couldn’t go very far (she was sick a long time, and died when I was 26).

The front of the house, on my 16th birthday. Stylish for 1974.

However, the walks were always fun. We’d talk and joke and comment on the quality of Pumpkin’s poop, which always happened at the corner. (Dad had to go clean it up once a week or so, because they we’d never heard of poop bags in the 80s.) In the winter we’d check to see if she’d produced a “steamer.” Dad loved those.

The walks were often long in time, compared to their length. That’s because we often stopped to talk to the neighbors. My dad and brother were very social. I enjoyed listening to them. It felt so comfortable and convivial. They could talk about all topics, drink beer, tell stories, and get along. They were just nice, hard-working folks. I miss those times.

I realize that hanging out with my family and watching the dog poop is probably a weird tradition, but we all enjoyed it. It was something Mom could do with us, which was so nice. And my Dad and brother were so funny. I’ll treasure our quirky family togetherness time.

Before I left for my 6.5-hour drive to Arkansas, I did get in a little bird watching during the foggy morning. (I haven’t seen the sun since last Saturday.) I’m going to declare our resident loggerhead shrike the Daily Bird, because it matches the sky and trees. Plus, I love watching them grab bugs.

I’m sure the shrike is wishful for the grasshopper season to start! They go into overdrive then.

My Leisure Time Surprise

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

This answer will be pretty boring if I give the same answers I’ve given to three or four other blog prompts. Yes, indeed, I enjoy knitting and looking at birds and horses. Most of you know that if you’ve visited this blog before.

But, is there another leisure activity I enjoy? In warm weather I hang out by the pool. That counts. And I read about horses, architecture, and home decorating. The latter helps me deal with what a jumbled mess my own house is right now.

What I’ll read when I’m finished writing this

I think my favorite leisure activity is socializing these days. After staying away from people for so long, I am enjoying seeing friends again. I want to do more of it, but I forgot a couple things this week. Lunches, coffees, meetings, etc., are so nice for breaking up the work day!

Today my friend came over and I did her nails for a party. They look good!

Keeping in touch with friends online is another favorite. Yes, I admit I visit Facebook and valiantly scroll and scroll until I find posts from friends. It’s so great to stay in touch, get advice, and learn that way. Most importantly, I can provide support to others by being available online to listen. I do a lot of that lately.

Yeah, not too exciting, is it? But damn, this is what I’ve looked forward to my whole life: a time to enjoy the little things and the people I care about. I hope it lasts a while.

Now for stories. I went out to feed the horses and saw Drew standing by the fence, staring intently. What? I went on up to get the feed dishes, and something caught my eye behind me. It looked like this:

The horses weren’t at all happy to see Fiona wandering around eating fresh clover. I just wondered how she got there.

How come SHE doesn’t have to stand in the mud?

When I took their food to them I saw that the lower wire on the temporary electric fence had come loose. The big horses were still held in the pasture, but Fiona could walk right under the live wire. Clever donkey.

The wire is fixed now.

Speaking of wires, little Carlton got the staples out where he had a lump removed. Lee found out the biopsy results, too. The lump was a completely encapsulated stick, probably a cactus thorn. It had gotten infected, so he has antibiotics, but should be fine.

However, Goldie managed to nearly rip out a toenail today. It must have hurt a little!

And I do have daily birds today. The rain finally let up, which pleased the birds a lot. We even had two birds returning from their winter hangouts! I heard and saw a purple Martin, and I heard a whistling duck. Cameron residents better get ready for lots of trees full of chattering ducks. Love those guys.

Where I’ve Never Been (around here)

Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

The next big town north of here is Waco, Texas. You know, Baylor Bears, Birthplace of Dr Pepper, Cameron Park Zoo, and the Magnolia Empire. I’ve been to a nursery there, a really cool wetland, a classroom at Baylor (dang that’s a fancy campus), an equestrian facility, an antique store in an old house, and a place with mammoth remains.

However, I’ve never been to any of the Chip and Joanna Gaines collection of enterprises. No Silos, no bakery, no castle, no restaurant, no hotel. (I admit I watch their television shows because I think Chip is funny.) I guess my dislike of crowds has a little to do with it but I also feel like it’s a bit overly manicured and perfect, like Disney World. So I’m probably not going any time soon.

I’ve also never been to the Dr Pepper Museum or the Texas Ranger place. It’s funny how you often don’t go places that are tourist attractions where you live. (I did go to a few places in Austin, though I tended to hit nature spots like the Wildflower Center more than buildings.)

And Austin has succulent nurseries. Trendy.

I think I’ve been to all the “attractions” in Cameron. But new things keep cropping up!

What cropped up here today was more rain. Judging from the intense interest in the wet ground that I observed in the sparrows and cardinals, I’d say lots of waterlogged larvae and bugs are coming up and providing excellent snacks.

I also think the blue herons are just standing beside the rushing output from our pond, ready to snatch up food that floats by. The rain has made them happy.

Where I live, in the middle-ish part of Texas, it’s considered poor form to complain about rain. However, I’m stepping out on a limb to say I wouldn’t mind a day or two to dry out. At least it’s warmer.

Five Fun Things on a Soggy Day

List five things you do for fun.

Sure, I can list five things I do for fun. But let’s make it more interesting and find five fun things to do on a very wet and soggy day.

1. I can listen to birds. Ha, I do that fun thing most days. Today my phone survived listening for birds in light rain, for which I’m grateful. There was a heck of a lot of singing and calling, along with flitting and swooping. Even the owl and kingfisher joined in the chorus in the late afternoon.

2. I can inspect the creek to see if it’s flooding, really flooding, or the floodiest. It was really flooding. The water didn’t go over the bridge, but it sure spread out. All sorts of islands had formed.

I also had fun seeing how the water flowed. I discovered that the big cedar elm I enjoy is so big because it’s in a springy spot.

3. I can hang out with wet horses. Oh my, I have a lot of grooming ahead of me when it dries. But everyone was friendly and didn’t mind that they all got the same food and supplements this one time.

Apache had been refusing his medicine, but I tried burying it in a new cranberry apple pill pocket treat today and it went in. I wish I could talk to him and explain how much he needs the meds. I should have mentioned that yesterday.

We still don’t trust you after that umbrella incident.

4. I can cook warm and nutritious foods. Yes, I am trying to cook more. Today I made a thick bean soup with beef and veggies. The beans were some dried kind that started with an “a” (I discarded the bag too soon). They had a creamy texture I liked. But wait, I found them. They’re Peruvian beans or canary beans. Peruano Mayacoba in Spanish. They do not start with “a” after all.

I used some of that new-ish “Better Than Bouillon” stuff for the base. It’s quite tasty and doesn’t appear to be full of harmful ingredients. I’m figuring out recipes that don’t use sugar and carbs that my household will eat. It’s a fun challenge, especially since I’m a big fan of carbs. But I also eat anything, so I can adapt.

5. I can knit. Knitting is always fun, especially the temperature blankets. The soggy day had so little temperature change that I almost ended up with a solid colored square today. But I got two greens! 50-56°.

This isn’t a very imaginative list of fun things. It’s stuff I do most days, if you categorize looking at floods as analyzing the weather. But that tells me something: I have fun every day, rain or shine, summer or winter. Simple pleasures for the win!

If I Could Talk to the Animals

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

Actually, I think I communicate pretty well with my animals. But, if I could fix one thing it would be to convince Harvey, who doesn’t move unless he truly must, that he can bark all he wants to…outside. Dang, that dog watches all the other ones to dash out and bark their heads of at cattle, coyotes, or deer that dare to get too close to the fence, and he just sits on the couch and bellows his lungs out.

Lee then yells, “Outside, Harvey!” over and over, adding to the cacophony. It gets oh so tiresome.

Ha ha, I’m never bad. (Not true, Carlton)

Today I wished I could communicate with my horses and let them know it was me walking up to them under a giant umbrella. They shot out of their shelter like little four-legged rockets when they saw me.

It was really wet. I needed the rain gear. Poor horses. Then I had the nerve to scare them again when I walked down the road to inspect the drainage. They all stood there with their ears pricked, ready to flee the demon who sounded like me, but looked very scary.

Since the ground is pretty saturated, 2.5” made for a lot of standing water, as well as a lot of flowing water. The creek was extra wide and came close to going over the road.

I should’ve gotten closer, but I was wet.

There were 6 calves and a cow separated from the rest of the herd by the property line fence, and they were NOT happy. My Merlin recording today could also be a tutorial on the variety of sounds a cow can make. Eventually the cow led most of the calves through the water to their friends, but two didn’t follow. They yelled and yelled and ran around randomly, disturbing the sparrows.

The mama and the calves, mostly staring at me like I can fix things.

One finally realized the barbed wire is loose and escaped. The other one came up to me and said MOO twice. So I telepathically communicated with her that the could go through water or the fence. After more running around in circles, she made it. Whew. My ears were sore.

At last the app “heard” the mallard and wren the cattle had drowned out. Yeah, that was my excitement for the day!

Oh, and I made chickpea “pasta” Mac and cheese and it was fine. Healthy eating, here we come.

Pork loin in that covered stoneware baker thing is sooo good.

All right, your turn. What would you say to an animal if you could?

Who Am I?

Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

Well, I’m glad I don’t hide who I am on this blog, or this would be more of a challenge. No doubt I e answered this before over the years, but here I go, in case anyone is at all interested.

Sue Ann means “graceful lily,” according to name books’ etymological declarations. I am pretty damned sure my parents didn’t look at my round and wobbly baby self and name me based on that.

No, after a couple of days of indecision, they named me after two of Dad’s sisters. Of course, as the Kendalls tended to do, they gave me their middle names. I’m glad. Bettye Doris is a mouthful. Bettye went by “Pug” all her life and Doris Ann went by both names, or either, randomly.

Suna came from an existentialist Japanese movie (and book by Kōbō Abe) that affected me deeply. It was called Woman in the Dunes or Suna no Onna (砂の女). Suna means something like grains of sand, which I metaphorically interpret to be like all the different facets of oneself. The idea of being fluid yet solid, like sand, stuck with me, and so when the time came to choose my own name, that stuck. Like sand on the beach.

I used to be quite the little gloomy existentialist intellectual in the olden days.

By the way, Suna is a given name in other cultures. The source I saw says it’s a female Turkish name meaning “duck.” The cute kind, I’m sure. Ah, upon further reading, it means beautiful and tall, like a drake. I guess since male ducks are prettier?

I saw a lot of ducks today, along with white pelicans, along the Cooper Lake dam.

Or it could be gold, from a Sanskrit word. In any case, a hint of my love for the name comes from the fact that it’s much less beautiful backward. Ha!

I’ve driven that topic into the dirt (another sand reference?) so let’s move on. Today dawned cloudy and gusty. Hiking in that weather is not fun. I did try, and got a couple more plant photographs and bird sounds, but checking the forecast led us to head home sooner than planned.

Rain is forecasted for tomorrow, and Lee didn’t want to take Seneca the motorhome on back roads in bad rain. So we visited the park office, where buying a magnet was quite difficult, then headed out.

This pretty stand of yuccas was one photo I was glad to get. The only ones I saw.

It’s an interesting drive from Cooper to Cameron if you avoid the interstate. There are lots of horse farms (yay) and lots of this kind of thing (ugh).

Proudly declaring to the world he’s Suna backwards.

It was good to be home and get caught up with things back home. It can rain all it wants to now!

A Dream Job That’s a Walk in the Woods

What’s your dream job?

My dream job has changed over the years. If money were no object, I’d teach knitting and crochet part time. I don’t want to be a famous knitting guru like some of my friends; I just want to bring the joy of a lifetime pastime to others. It’s so rewarding.

The temperature blanket for this year is so fun and has purple in it! Cool. Literally.

Nowadays, though, I am getting so much from my time out in nature that it would be a dream job to be a park interpreter. I could lead walks and hikes that show folks how ecosystems work, what plants and animals there are in different habitats, and how to identify what they see, hear, smell, and touch.

I could lead a hike here and show folks all the future wildflowers in midwinter.

I could also teach hiking etiquette. Like, don’t bellow at the top of your lungs and sing rock songs so loud you scare all the woodland creatures for miles, which is what the only other hikers I saw today did. Ugh.

Anyway, we’re enjoying a very peaceful time at Cooper Lake State Park. We are the only people here who don’t work here. It’s glorious and peaceful, probably the quietest state park we’ve been at. Someone was shooting something somewhere nearby and it was SO loud with no other noise around.

It was really cold last night here in northeast Texas, down to 20°. We got in late, and the heater just couldn’t cope. It got down to 58° inside, but I slept so well. Quiet. Once the sun came out, the heater coped and tonight it’s fine.

Because it was sunny and there was no whipping gale wind, it actually wasn’t too bad outside, and I was able to go on a couple of nice walks around this huge lake and the hardwood forest around it.

There were ducks, herons, a cormorant, gulls, greater yellowlegs, belted kingfishers, and more on the lake shore.

The bird highlight for me was getting to see a golden-crowned kinglet close enough to see that little crown. Theirs are way easier to see than ruby crowned.

Woodland birds included lots of crows, blue jays, cardinals, robins, and woodpeckers. The most popular tiny bird was the yellow-rumped warbler, but there were plenty of titmice, wrens, chickadees, and sparrows. Two nuthatches also showed up. Lots of singing and flitting to enjoy. Who cares about the cold!

You could see all the wildflowers and grasses in their winter resting states. There were colorful leaves and berries if you looked carefully, though. I found it fun to try to figure out what the dried flowers and bare trees were. I’ll see how well I did when I put them in iNaturalist.

What didn’t I see? Insects. Not one butterfly showed up. No bees or flies. They’ll be back soon as it warms up again. The little insect-eating birds like phoebes and mockingbirds were busy with other food in the meantime.

I could do this observation stuff for a living with other people! However, wow, it’s nice to do it alone. Traveling without the annoyance of other humans sure is pleasant. I prefer this to cities.

To wrap it up, here are some fun pictures of tracks I found along the lakeshore. There are herons, ducks, little birds, raccoons, and a canine. I didn’t see deer tracks, but I did see deer, so of course they are here!