I wrote this last night, so adjust your mental imagery accordingly.
Sure, sometimes I get sad about losing chickens, but mostly they bring me so much joy. When I see good ole Bertie and Gertie running to see me, any hint of a foul (fowl?) mood I’m in evaporates.
Mom’s home! Maybe she has food! Or shoelaces!
They just want to be where I am. The others are a bit more independent. Today I found all of them taking dirt baths in the asparagus bed (no photos).
This shoelace is too short and doesn’t sparkle. Hmph.
Sometimes I just sit in the grass and talk to Bertie and feed her leaves. Ginger used to do that, too. and Fancy Pants. Sniff. But I still have Bertie Lee!
I’m such a good listener. But I’m annoyed you messed up my nest in the garage.
I do have to be careful with the phone/camera, though, because it’s also shiny, and thus peck-worthy.
PECK!
The other thing I’ve been most enjoying is Bruce as he looks for high objects to crow from. Here he is in the garage crowing from the workbench.
Tallest bird in the garage!
Today he wanted to be king of the welding equipment.
King of the red canister.
Buttercup was really interested in what Bruce was doing.
I’d like to be queen of the welding stuff.
Sadly, there can only be one monarch at a time.
Bruce deposed Buttercup before she even gained a foothold.
I really needed a day to just enjoy the life around me and not have a huge to-do list. It helped a lot with matters that weigh on my mind. I even escaped the dogs and took a nice long walk.
Look at those legs! There’s definitely a whole lot of nothing out here.
From my walk, I determined that Michelob Lite Extra is by far the favorite beer of litterers, followed by Bud Light and Lone Star. and Duncan Hines is the preferred cake mix to strew on the roadside (yes, 3 boxes)! It’s time to clean up again, I guess.
There are three Eastern bluebirds on the fence.
I had to end on a happier note!
I hope you have a Bertie equivalent to cheer you up. Or, you can borrow Bertie.
There hasn’t been an update on our ranch citizens in a while, and tonight’s sunset inspired me to write one.
There’s a bonus dog in this photo!
Last night’s solstice sunset was apparently amazing, but I was busy lighting candles and missed it. Luckily a friend took great photos for me to enjoy.
The sun sets right on our road.
As the sun disappeared it looked like a tribute to the universities I attended (orange and blue!)
Shiny.
Anyway, most of the ranch residents are doing well, but we’ve discovered a new chicken killer, our resident harrier. No wonder they call them chicken hawks. Sigh. But, as always, we have a plan. Since that hawk only goes after them out in the lawn, we’re going to keep the chickens cooped up for a while.
A project!
The newly arranged coop is getting its fancy new roof. Once it’s done, the residents will get locked in. That will annoy Gertie the Guinea a lot, but we want him alive! And hopefully it will remind my buddy Bertie where she should lay her eggs.
Harvey was a great supervisor, I’m told.
And to end on a happier note, I got home early enough today to play with Apache and Fiona. Apache was thrilled, and showed it his usual way.
Oh boy! I get to play with Suna, after I pee.
We got to go for a nice walk, and then I got him to run and trot around for a while. He seems in good shape.
As we were trotting, Fiona got all excited and started galloping around us in circles, hee-hawing away. After four or five circuits, Apache and I turned around to trot back. Fiona then zoomed into the race and began bellowing at Ralph’s cows.
I was wondering if I would ever get her back in the pen, but when Apache and I went in, she barreled in with us. I guess the both had some fun! So did I.
Glorious. That’s the word for today. So, I went out to the woods to look for signs of Christmas and miracles. I found some of each!
The first miracle was water in the stream.
I ended up standing right where the above photo was taken for a long time, just listening to bird songs and watching them flit around. It’s lots easier to spot them in winter. I saw one I could not identify that could have been a black phoebe.
Too blurry. Wah. Not a miracle.
Once I got walking, the subtle signs of Texas Christmas began to appear. First, there was a Christmas cholla. That’s pretty obvious.
Then I found our one holly plant, a possumhaw (deciduous holly).
Cheerful berries.
So, how much more holiday greenery could I find? Of course, mistletoe!
Been wondering what’s going on at the chicken house? Well, now that the family is reunited at the ranch, we’re working on renovating the chicken coop area. Stage One is complete.
Work in progress
The Caso guys spent a lot of time on Thursday reconfiguring the space to be one big open coop. The pointy end is gone, which will make chicken wrangling easier. While we still have the same birds, it will all be open. That will give them room to roam while we shut them in for a week or two to remind them to lay their eggs in the nest boxes, not the garage.
There are limbs to sleep on and boxes to nest in.
The new nest box we made a few months ago is now attached to the coop, so it will be a safer place to roost and lay eggs. The run area got a frame up to hold a nice new roof for shade and protection, which will be phase 2.
It’s squared off! And has a frame.
We will have the water dispenser and food dishes fixed up soon, and it will be the envy of Greater Walker’s Creek Community, I’m sure. I know the chickens, the guinea, and I all appreciate the effort it takes!
Who needs a water dish when there are puddles? (Note chicken tracks)
One of the big highlights of coming back to the Hermits’ Rest has been enjoying the dogs. I had the best reunion with my precious Vlassic yesterday. We ran, we frolicked, we hugged, we took funny pictures. I miss that little guy so much, though I know he is doing a lot of good emotionally supporting Lee’s brother, Jim.
He still loves me!
I feel bad every time I take him with me to Austin, because Jim gets so sad. Vlassic is happy as long as he is warm, so I know he is okay. I just don’t have a snuggle buddy.
True love.
Alfred shows his love and devotion constantly, and he seems to be feeling better, because he’s been hauling himself up on the couch to sleep at night after his barking period is over. I wish that would end, but I sleep right through it now.
Yesterday he was stretched the entire length of the couch. I am glad it’s not shedding season at the moment.
Penney is still a strange little dog, but she will sleep on anyone with a lap or in a bed.
I’m aloof.
As for the rest of the animals, it’s pretty good. Apache was glad to see his food, and Fiona seemed glad to see me. They just like to eat. As for the chickens, it appears that Fancy Pants wandered off while I was gone. Jim, who was chicken caretaker, didn’t notice, so…not much I can do, but I sure do miss her hilarious running. Now the only one left of the first bunch I got last year is Bertie Lee. She is laying eggs in the garage. Sigh. But, today is the day the chicken coop gets fixed up, so we hope to change the egg-laying habits.
There are still four cows in the pasture, but from the looks of one of the big ones, there will be another one soon. And little Rip is growing just fine! The other calf is very fuzzy and round, quite cute. They are all very friendly now.
And that’s the animal report from the ranch. Hoping there’s more to come!
When I got home from Austin, I found 9 eggs. They were all in one spot and all plain brown. The place where Fancy Pants lays was empty, and there were no pink or white eggs. Hmm.
Lee says he sees hens in weird places. Sure enough, I found two pink eggs in the far left corner of the garage.
Eggs were in there. Nice.
We looked in the rest of the garage, and there was Bertie Lee, sitting on a mop, in the far right corner of the garage.
Oh, Bertie.
I picked that egg up.
She makes big ones.
I still don’t see any Fancy Pants or Hedley eggs. Where can they be? Meanwhile, I found Sapphire on the mop. This is gonna be fun.
I give you nice egg boxes, but you lay eggs here??
Him reports that the brown hens are refusing to go in at night. They are in the white henhouse. Not good. It isn’t safe. I guess some chicken effort is needed! Hoping the family can help out!
Even not feeling great, I’m finding things to be excited about. I think that’s part of my charm. Perhaps. Today’s theme is big. For example, this is a big grasshopper, especially for a male. And it’s one of my better photos, right on my driveway!
Differential grasshopper, apparently tired, because he let me get really close. Note wings.
The extent of my walking yesterday was patrolling the back yard with Lee. While I regretted not meeting my activity goal, I still managed to find something big and beautiful. It’s one of my favorites, a yellow garden spider.
I had to take this over the fence. Notice her silver head. The scientific name, Argiope aurantia, means gilded silver-face. This is her belly and some of her web. Obviously she’s an orb weaver!
And now, I’m sure you’ve been waiting for us to see what was inside Fancy Pants’s giant egg from a while back.
Giant egg!
It was still big after peeling. and still rather lumpy.
Peeled. Normal egg in background.
I got out the sharp knife and carefully sliced the big bruiser. Would it be a double yolk? Would it look weird?
That’s a BIG yolk.
I can’t tell if it’s double or not, but it sure is big! Way more yolk than white.
Compare to normal large egg. The normal one has way more white.
I wonder if this one would have had enough food in it to grow a chick? We will never know. But it does make me want to raise chicks. Maybe the next broody hen will get lucky!
BAWK! I’m Buttercup. I’m told I’m a Wellsummer hen. My friend, Butternut, and I have been living in a cozy place with a cozy inner safe space. We like it. It’s calmer since the giant gray chickens left. They were older and quite uppity. Hmph. One of them is already sitting in the leg-laying place.
Shut up, Buttercup. I’m cool and have all my wattles. I laid an egg! It’s pink! So there, Buttercup!
Hey, I’m talking, Sapphire. We got to stay in our safe place, because we got extra-yummy food for growing but also on account of Butternut hurting her foot. The human with blue hair (she’d make a cool hen) didn’t want her getting hurt by the giant rooster or big hens on the outside.
I’m just looking for bugs over here. But yeah, I’m a bully. A very pretty bully.
We had a nice life. Butternut got better. We were good. Then, that dang human opened our doors! Other chickens came into our safe place! BAWK! We hid.
Sure, he’s a nice rooster, but he’s still a rooster!
We got braver when we realized bugs were out there. Mmmm. Bugs. We didn’t get many in our safe place. They escaped.
A bug! This is the life!
We stuck together. That’s how us chickens roll. We form little sub-flocks.
The top of the flock.
Me and Butternut.
Bruce and the gray gals. They are explorers.
Here’s Butternut with the shy black hens.
The sub-flocks
We survived sleeping last night and are feeling a lot better! I’m even joining the others by running up to the humans when they show up. We all like it when the human with the egg-shaped head opens our doors in the morning.
Look! I’m running with Gertie, who likes to chase me.
Butternut is still shy and hangs out in the safe place. She needs to get over it! It’s fun outside!
I’ll stay in here with Hedley. I’ll try to convince her to start laying again, says Butternut.
A Hello from Bruce’s Gang
COCK-a-DOODLE-DO! It’s me, Bruce, the crazy-looking rooster who everyone loves. I’ve been having so much fun lately!
Howdy! Isn’t my comb dashing?
Since Star and Sapphire got released from the other pen, where they were imprisoned with the Butters, we’ve formed a unit! These gals are strong, brave, and beautiful. My kind of gals.
We’ve been exploring all over our land now! There are so many places to check out. So many yummy bugs and plants!
Here we go, wandering around the humans’ pen.
We go into the place with big trees, which worries the humans, but we are fine. We also go hang out with the cows. Wow, there are so many bugs in the mud by their giant water hole. Yesterday, we tried to go into the human pen, but the human who loves the cows said we couldn’t. Bummer.
We just wanted to check for bugs in there! We provide a service!
We just keep going. We find yummy water in the big water holder near where the cows eat.
Love this greenish water. Humans are going to get fish to put in here. Wonder if we can eat them?
We hide under all the humans’ metal things. We eat!
Silly blue-haired human thought the gray hens were lost. This is a great hiding place.
Every night the human with the egg-shaped head shuts our doors so we can sleep in peace. Thanks, humans for the food and safety.
Just wanna day woo. Taking the day off. So far I have played with dogs and chickens. I had a blast watching Gracie Lou playing with heifers. What’s nice is that they were all obviously playing. Here’s a sequence.
Gracie is stalking. Cows are approaching. Note Gracie’s play bow. There she goes!There they go!
That was fun. Vlassic had to get in the act, but he got yelled at.
Tiny black dog is Vlassic.
I also just hung out with the chickens. Why not? They’re all so glad to see me. It’s great to be loved by tiny dinosaurs.
Love Gertie the Guinea and Fancy Pants. Three roosters. Two real.
Okay. Further adventures await! You have a Good Friday. Lol. The phone capitalized the “good.”
It’s been a great day, for many reasons, and a great weekend. We took Apache out again today, and he was his old self again! He and Spice were very brave when they came upon some people building a new gate between our two pastures.
This is as close as the horses would get.
But they had fun. Fiona kept plopping down and rolling whenever she found dirt.
The flies are bothering me.
I also had fun seeing things this weekend. One is that I see signs that I wasn’t mistaken, we DO have a loggerhead shrike this year. I didn’t see one last year, and I was bummed. Today I saw lots and lots of insects impaled on our fence, though!
Dead insects on barbed wire are the work of clever birds.
Plus! I’m very happy to share that another chicken started laying. Her first egg is pinkish and has little blue spots! On the other hand, Hedley, the one that lays white eggs, has started spending a LOT of time in the nest box. She did lay today, but if she’s gone broody I’m just giving her three eggs and letting her go for it.
The new one is on the bottom. Cute!
I also found two new and interesting insects. First is the extremely cool Beelzebub Bee Killer Mallophora leschenaulti, which is a type of robber fly. This things is huge, loud, and intimidating. I saw two yesterday and two today.
A big fly!
The other new insect is what I’m excited about. It turns out that my entry of the Long-jawed Longhorn Beetle Dendrobias mandibularis is the first one Milam county and the farthest north it’s been seen.
I’m the first!
Also, this is one of the most beautiful insects I’ve ever seen. So colorful!
Look at those antennae! And it’s so shiny!
I’ve been waiting to finally see something new and different to share on iNaturalist and I finally did! I feel so scientific.
The Hermits' Rest 