dogs – The Hermits' Rest

Let’s Enjoy Late Autumn

My thoughts on deep subjects will have to wait until tomorrow. Work was quite interesting today but tired my brain out. I was also still a bit tired from being around people at the Master Naturalist holiday meeting. It was very pleasant, but I got peopled out.

Today was beautiful if you like fog. I certainly do. I run around taking pictures of spiderwebs and trees.

The weather forecast said it would be sunny and warmer, and it did get quite pleasant in the afternoon, but I could look directly at the sun.

It was very nice for doing animal chores and watching the birds. The light made autumn leaves especially bright to my eyes.

I even ate my evening meal out in the birding area. I was rewarded by visits from all the sparrows and two pairs of owls, Great Horned and Barred, trying to out-hoot each other. That shut the hawks and crows up! Sunset, a chill in the air, and an owl chorus make for an unforgettable late autumn respite!

No respite for Carlton, who really wanted to lick my bowl. That look didn’t work.

Despite Unusual Weather, I Learned

This morning was just gorgeous. I went out to do my morning birding and discovered I was overdressed. It was sunny and comfortable the whole time I was out, and I was greatly entertained by Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting around.

I went inside to eat and do some office stuff. When I went back to pick up my phone, the wind had completely shifted and it was cloudy and at least ten degrees cooler. I added my puffy vest and an overshirt, which enabled me to feed horses and groom Apache comfortably. He is so hairy this time of year. He was nice and warm.

We made it to Tarrin’s and while it was very brisk and breezy, we still had a good lesson. Both Apache and I are learning a lot, slowly but surely. I appreciate that he’s willing to put in the effort to learn with me. It’s been such a long road of figuring out how to make him comfortable and as healthy as possible while working with my confidence issues. If we are never going to be fancy and sophisticated, I’m okay, because we have developed such a comfortable horse/human relationship. That was my goal. The relationship. The rest is just fun and refinement. My horse is such a comfort end encouraging presence for me.

Clint and Connie would like to interject that they also provide joy and comfort.

I was talking to Lee and my horse friend Jo after I got Apache back to the trailer (he was unnerved by their giant, shiny trailer, but we coped). We said how chilly it has gotten, and I said it’s lots better on horseback. Lee chimed in that it was like having a living radiator. That’s fluffy ole Apache, for sure.

The Jeep has an ancient wreath on it. The scary trailer is in the background.

For sure, I’m glad I was able to stay indoors the rest of the day and out of the wind. At least I got enough exercise today and had the energy to cook some warm food.

This is baked sweet potatoes and onions. My weird idea of dinner.

And the dogs are calmer. Harvey hurts, though. Carlton has been overly friendly.

I’m another white and hairy animal providing warmth.

Good Day for Horsing, Less Good Day for Dogs

This is yesterday’s blog that I didn’t feel like writing last night. One reason may be that I’m so tired and lacking energy. I really have to push myself to get moving and do things that I was eager to do not that long ago, like walks, long horse rides, chores, etc. I’m guessing it’s my brain, not my body that’s the problem. I got lots of tests done recently, so I know it’s not my thyroid. I just may be in a slow cycle.

But I did drag myself out of the house to attend the most recent horse show for my discipline. I’m just not up for participating (Not Apache’s problem, it’s mine). I helped Tarrin out as the scribe while she was judging the show. I’d never done that before.

It was lots of fun to help out. I’m glad I got a chance to write down Tarrin’s comments on each horse and rider pair. It helps me understand the comments I get. Plus it was interesting to see how each pair had strengths and weaknesses.

One horse was a bit nerved out and spooky, but his rider did a wonderful job coping and getting him back on track. These skills take work!

And the little kids were both fun to walk. The tiny one just bounced around on an older horse celebrating his last show. But her mom did a great job keeping her focused, mostly. One time her mom told her to look up, and she obeyed literally, looking to the sky.

All she wanted were her ribbons and her prize (that she chose). She declared that it is for her breakfast. Aww.

The other young one I’ve been enjoying for a few years, and she’s really developing as a rider on her upgraded horse. I also enjoyed how well both she and the horse coped when George the teen kitten jumped up to try to share her snack.

I’m glad I got to go. That was good horse time.

I have no clue why this didn’t format right.

The dog stuff last night was hard on us. Harvey just isn’t the dog he used to be, but he remains grumpy when messed with. Apparently Penney messed with him (under my chair in tight quarters) and when he snapped at her face, she chomped on his front leg. Poor Carlton just fled as fast as he could.

Her right eye has a cut right next to it. Eek.

In the end, while Penney has a cut near her eye, Harvey has a sad looking leg and is still limping today. Lee has some antibiotics for him, thankfully.

You can see one cut of three on his left leg, which he is favoring.

I just hate to see them hurting each other even if I know it happens occasionally with dogs. Harvey just always starts it and ends up injured. Sigh.

Feeling gratitudinal

Even though I didn’t plan it this way, Thanksgiving at the Hermits’ Rest was very pleasant. There was a distinct lack of drama, argument, and stress. And there was an abundance of birds.

Hello, I’m a Harris’s Sparrow, until they change my name.

Since I simplified the meal, I didn’t stress over cooking, which gave me lots of time to play with the camera (and get frustrated by the image transfer software), as well as feed and pet animals. I had a good morning.

Since I had an easy fresh turkey breast to roast, the only dishes I had to carefully cook were my cranberry sauce and oyster dressing. Both came out great. I made green beans and mashed potatoes later, and the only disaster was gravy boiling over. Not bad. I did make a lot of food, but not as much as usual.

Not shown are green beans with mushrooms and rolls (and pie)

My son has decided not to eat Thanksgiving dinner. I understand and respect it, since I have no interest in the Pilgrim stuff. I read some healing thoughts from Native Americans on using this time for gratitude and friendship, so I went with that. After all, we mostly ate food from the Americas, so that worked for me.

Why does everyone post photos of their meals? I’m not sure. I’m just glad I’ve learned to simplify. This was all delicious, especially the dressing.

I did get to enjoy a nice long visit with my son, which doesn’t happen very often. It was fun comparing notes on local owls and sharing stories of past adventures.

Drinking coffee and sitting in the sun. Nice.

Anita was our only guest at the table, so I’m very glad she was able to join us. She, Lee, and I had such a relaxing and comfortable meal, then just hung out. The hanging out parts were the best thing about the day.

Yep, today I had much to be grateful for. I heard from many family members and friends, too.

It’s heartwarming to be reminded of all your connections all over the country. And we are connected through this means of communication as well, so remember that!

Vlassic reminds you that he’s a connection, too. My formerly jet-black dog!

Today was the least stressful Thanksgiving ever, though it’s been getting better every year. Tomorrow we go visit the birds at Port Aransas, and I hope I can get lots of birding in before the next cold front! I’ll leave you with more of today’s photos. Some I won’t label. Those will be house sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, or White-crowned Sparrows

Sometimes It’s Hard to Leave

But then it’s good to be back

That’s the story of my day. Lee and I were enjoying our time together in Blanco and almost decided to stay until tomorrow, but we dragged ourselves home. That’s probably for the best, given the strong winds blowing in that early cold front.

I still managed to get in a walk to the only trail I’d missed on this visit, which allowed me to enjoy the resident non-native geese.

And since I figured out Bluetooth on the upgraded camera body, I can now share images from it and the phone. I’m glad I took it on my walk, and look forward to trying the other lenses. I just took the standard one. It took nice tree photos. I was captivated by cypress and sycamore trees.

I also enjoyed leaves, lots of leaves.

Berries? Want to see berries?

Here are other interesting sights and some new ones for me.

And finally, I can share that I was happy to enjoy the windy morning (very few birds), but a bit sad to say goodbye to Jennifer, even though I know I’ll see her at least a couple more times before she moves away. Sniff.

The dogs were glad to see us, as was the human resident, when we got home. I should have more than just photos tomorrow. At least it will be photos of something that is not next to a river.

Yes! I Can Have Fun!

Yes, there was fun to be had on this chilly, blustery day. Did I say chilly? Well, the high didn’t get above 70°F, which is welcome. However, the wind made it feel colder, prompting a friend to ask if it was too soon to ask for summer back. Um, yes, I’m afraid it is. Tomorrow will be fairly cold, so I’m hoping the wind will die down.

As for fun today, discovering the horses in the driveway again wasn’t part of it. I had to brave the gales to go shut the main gate, all the while wondering how in the HECK the gate got open, since I strongly remember fastening it. No photos. They looked just like last time.

Verifiable fun occurred during my birding time, when I plopped my chair on my unfinished birding station and watched a parade of geese, ducks, and cranes fly over, followed by a cat creeping to the pond and making the Kingfisher and Great Blue Heron upset. (Kingfisher seems to have moved in for a while).

Plus, I finally saw some migrating Monarchs. None of my better flowers are blooming, so I’m not seeing as many as Austin friends are. I hope the wind didn’t mess them up.

I also had fun at work, because I like both projects I’m working on, one writing and one helping folks. I enjoy the conversation.

The real fun, though, came when I opened the huge collection of acrylic markers I just bought. A whole new world of things I can doodle on has opened up, along with the possibility of ruining many things. So far I put flowers on a pair of glasses that needed some rejuvenation. They look better than I feared, thought not “fine art.”

This tones down the silver in the frames.

I sat there wondering if I could decorate my ugly plastic headband. Yes, I could. It ended up looking nice with my blue hair.

I also put identification in a subtle silver on my new binoculars and their bag, hoping not to have these wander away.

The decorations were fun to do. I just have to resist the urge not to decorate every object in my home. I’ll try to just decorate rocks or something. Many people paint rocks.

My final fun was crocheting away while watching Elspeth so far this season. I will next watch Matlock. I like shows with quirky older protagonists. I feel okay not boycotting CBS, since Colbert was on Elspeth. So there.

Speaking of crochet, I finally have my temperature blanket through September. I look forward to months with more green and yellow…maybe even blue?

More thoughts on why I’m encouraged will be shared tomorrow. Ooh, passive voice! Reminds me to go finish reading The Language Puzzle, my current book.

You can see I have a new horse book coming up!

Pollen, pollen

It’s everywhere right now. People always think of spring as prime time for pollen and pollinators, but at least around here the season lasts until it freezes. Autumn brings lots of flowers out for hungry insects over here in Milam County, Texas. I’ve shown you lots of tie vines, or wild morning glories.

In the mornings these clouded skippers cover the vines.

Another popular plant is the southern annual saltmarsh aster (Symphyotrichum divaricatum). They will be blooming until frost. Many tiny insects flit around them, probably wasps. I can’t get them to hold still. But I can catch a few butterflies (these are from today).

Today I spent a few minutes on my way to the mailbox dawdling around the big pollen producer of the moment, goldenrod. We have a patch of tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima) on the dam that creates our driveway. It’s literally buzzing with activity right now, predominantly bumblebees and wasps, but there are also a few honeybees, butterflies, and bonus insects. It’s fun to watch them darting around.

I can see why Texas has its Pollinator Week in October each year, because even though it seems late, there’s still pollination to be done! I enjoyed focusing my time outside on these fall plants and insects (and arachnids). It takes my mind off how little it’s rained lately, current events, and the warm air rising to our bedroom every night.

In my opinion, you should focus more on how amazing garden spiders are.

But wait, there IS good news! The electrician people came today and got our big fans installed on the screened porch. It was a bit of work, especially putting the fans together. I had planned to take some calm fan photos, but instead got to record a rare sight, our usually dignified Alfred being playful with Penney. I’ll treasure these images!

Sweating Like a Horse

It’s supposed to be autumn. It was even down to 61°F here this morning! But it warmed right up and by the time I stopped working on my magnificent SharePoint page and went to the horses to get ready for a rare Friday lesson, it was decidedly toasty. I don’t think I’ve sweated as much in my life as I have this year.

I did get to enjoy this young doe as I had my morning coffee.

I’m not the only one who’s been all sweaty and icky this week. Apache has been encrusted with dried sweat all week, mostly mixed with dirt. I didn’t take a picture of it because I was concerned. I’d brush it off when I groomed him, but it came right back. And he didn’t feel happy all week. He told me in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want to move faster than a walk.

So when we got to Tarrin’s, I told her he’d sweated a lot and was grumpy. She felt along his neck and got salt crystals off it. He was drenched already and he’d just ridden in the trailer for a while (it’s not bad in there when it’s only in the 80s).

See all the strips of dried sweat? That’s after I rinsed him thoroughly.

I knew she was concerned when she started looking stuff up on her phone about extra salty horses. It turns out he’s probably losing a lot of electrolytes with all that salt, which can lead to muscle cramps and stuff, just like with people. His metabolic issues aren’t helping, even though he takes his medication and is not eating the wrong kind of grass.

It’s fun to watch Tarrin research issues. By the time she was done, we had a plan to feed him extra electrolytes (I forgot I’d done that last year) and keep him exercising moderately.

Mabel has some sweat marks but nothing like these.

We are also going to take him (we is probably me and Vicki) to the vet when we reschedule Drew’s appointment just to get his hocks looked at and other stuff.

Drew really needs that vet appointment. Even the shots of Adequin aren’t helping with his hind leg. But he tried his best for Vicki today. She’s not going to lease him though, because he’s too unpredictable.

I don’t blame her at all. It’s probably not a good idea to sell him, to be honest. I’ll keep working with him after he goes to the vet and see if he ever gets better. At least he only sweated like a normal horse today.

By the way, even though I couldn’t sleep last night from making web pages in my head, I ended up doing a fine job on my work project. I really enjoy a good challenge in a supportive environment.

Book Report: How the Hell Did I Not Know That?

I needed some light and humorous reading this week, so I picked up this book to read before bedtime rather than the depressing memoir I’m reading at other times of the day. How the Hell Did I Not Know That: My midlife year from couch to curiosity, by Lucie Frost, certainly provided me with laughs and gave me other things to think about than cults of personality and so on.

One of my friends from when my kids were younger recommended the book, and I believe most everything this friend says, so I bought it. Lucie Frost lives in San Antonio and is an actual Native Texan (who lived in Mexico for some time as a child, so also speaks Spanish). She is also sort of foul-mouthed in an endearing way, so if you don’t like curse words in your books, skip this one.

The idea here is that Frost retired early, in her 50s, then didn’t know what to do with herself. She came up with the idea of trying to learn new things to get herself to stop bingeing on reality television and wine. Spoiler: she got better.

The fun of the book is going along with Frost’s journey of knowledge, in which she freely admits to being ignorant about things many people know about, but also bravely provides a peek at how her mind functions in coming up with questions to ask. She has a pretty funny mind. My favorite of her discoveries is what the balls for different ball sports were made of when the sports were invented. Hint: animals.

While this may not be the most well-written book on earth, it’s quite entertaining and worth spending some pre-snooze time on. Since she and I have much in common spiritually and philosophically, I probably got more out of the book than some folks I know. But if you’re “a person like Suna,” you can get a good chuckle or two from Frost’s stories, and you’ll heartily agree with her conclusions that by keeping your senses open to new things and living in the world with a curious mindset, you’ll feel a lot better.

Example of Vicki’s extremely cute Sheltie puppies. Don’t tell Lee his hair is thinning.

Let me know if this was too controversial and I’ll try harder next time. I’m now limiting Facebook/Instagram posts to cute little animals, except for blog links, which mostly will be cute little animals and book reviews for the near future.

Do I Have the Blues?

It looks like I do. I made a drink from one of Kathleen’s little flavor packets and ended up with the blues: blue drink, nails, hair, and glasses. I will point out that I had a brown shirt (with a blue Roadrunner on it).

Good thing the light washed out my hair.

On a more serious note, I shared this story on Facebook this morning:

What a morning at my birding platform. First, I was just sitting here, watching Baltimore Orioles flying around, when I heard a Green Heron. Then I saw it, flying toward me, aiming directly over my head. I thought how pretty it was, but wondered what would happen if it pooped. Then a big white glob came down! Thankfully it landed just inches off my concrete pad. My blue hair is safe!

Then, after measuring yesterday’s .02” of rain, I gazed over at the fence. Oh my gosh, something was hanging from one of the chrysalises I’d been watching! It was a fresh, new Gulf Fritillary. It’s our most common large butterfly, since we have lots of sorrel vines that they love. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a butterfly emerging in the wild. What a privilege!

The humor and beauty carried me through an intense work day just fine! A meeting ended early, too, so I had time to give Vicki some slightly old frozen meat to make into dog food and exercise the horses. Neither horse was into it. I think I should have let them rest.

They were peaceful on our evening stroll, though. It’s hard to get them all in one photo.

Just a little relaxation with the animals prevents the psychological blues from coming over me, though. Watching the dogs play in the long grass at sunset was a great way for me and Lee to wind down. They don’t get out much, but for once they stayed with us and didn’t run off to roll in poop.

I’m thinking about so many of you all, dealing with what comes your way as best you can. We are in this together. As my friend Kathy just reminded me, we’re all under the same moon!