dogs – Page 12 – The Hermits' Rest

Back at the Ranch: Amazing Animals

I made it home yesterday, but for some reason the travel completely wore me out. I guess travel is stressful, since my right eye wept all day, while the left eye had a tic. The plane travel was fine, other than the fact that the Charlotte airport was dirtier and dingier than I remembered. Of course, the flight from there to Austin was delayed, so I got to stay there and look at food on the floor and seats quite a while. By the time we boarded, I thought I’d fall asleep standing up.

None of this was heavy except the backpack, which was a carryon. It tried to kill me.

Lee was late exactly the amount my plane was late, which meant for an easy pickup, and I did try to converse with him though I was feeling distinctly zombie-like. By the time I got home I was dizzy and nauseated. What the heck? I’m much better today, with no eye issues and only a bit of fuzzy-headedness. Maybe I have 9-11 PTSD or something (for those of you who don’t know, I was on a plane headed to O’Hare when the events occurred, leading to some traumatic times).

I came home to a lot of love, though. Goldie glued herself to me the second I got into bed and didn’t move for a couple of hours. Today she’s been constantly checking on me, and also trying to inform me that she can’t sit on “her” couch because someone put an immense television on it.

So I got up and moved the immense and very heavy television. It’s the old one from our house in Round Rock, and apparently giant televisions were much heavier then. Glodie is much happier now and I can type (she kept nosing the keyboard away!).

Of course all the dogs were glad to see me, as were the chickens. Some horses seemed more glad than others. Apache was ecstatic, and glued himself to me much like Goldie did. He looks good, other than two sores on his shoulder. The good news is his grass allergy issues are gone, thanks to the Zyrtec, and the rest of him looks wonderful.

Drew was more interested in the water trough I refilled than in me, but after he drank he came and rubbed his wet face on me. He looked really clean, and I wondered why. Here is why:

Apparently, while I was gone, he figured out that the front pond is swimmable. The edges aren’t as quicksand-esque as they were when the water was higher, so he’s taken to swimming around and having a blast. Kathleen said the first time she heard the splashing, she thought we had a gator. Nope, just a sea serpent/horse hybrid.

It doesn’t appear that anyone else has joined Droodles in the horse swimming pool, but I sure was happy to watch him cruising around and having a great time.

There’s really no grass, so I need to get more hay out to them this afternoon. The heat is still miserable, and it hasn’t rained. The high was “only” 99 on Tuesday, but it’s still hard on everyone here. I will be getting out early to work with horses starting in the morning.

It was nice to get back to my office to work, though my house looks like hoarders have moved in. The rest of the furniture from my old house got brought in while we were gone and we’re still working out where to put everything. Much of the stuff is in our newest shipping container, and I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to the guys who moved everything out of our old church, up and down those stairs.

Yes, we no longer own a church, which I’m not too sad about, because now Cameron gets a new church. I’m told the minister is really nice, so I’m happy for them. It looks like it’s time for our real estate business to find a new investment.

Thanks for reading, and hi to all you new readers! I do have a book report to write, which I hope to get done tomorrow. It takes thought, and I’m too tired to think right now.

A Mighty Huntress Is Our Dog (and the reptile exhibit expands)

Hi there, readers. Sorry there was no blog yesterday, but I’ll be honest, I was not really feeling like writing about the happenings of the day. The Circle of Life is real, and it certainly becomes clear here at the Hermits’ Rest.

I tried to write this on our newly assembled loveseat, but that lasted five minutes.

I don’t think Great Danes have a reputation for being hunting dogs, but I guess they are bred to protect their property. We’re thinking of renaming Goldie to Artemis, because she truly is a mighty huntress.

Yesterday I went out to survey my domain and feed the chickens, as I normally do, and I saw Goldie intently watching something that looked to me like a bunny. I watched it slowly “hopping” away from the fenced-in area.

But when I got closer, I saw it was not a rabbit, but an injured armadillo. I knew who’d injured it right away, our mighty dog-goddess of the hunt. Goldie could no longer get to her, so my hope was that she could make it to her hole and heal up.

But I forgot that we have an actual hunting dog on the property, Vlassic. Apparently, he also got to the poor thing and hurt it a lot more. He was seen chomping away on the armadillo (which I didn’t see, or I would have stopped it).

By the time I came out in the afternoon, the dillo had made it to the front pond, where she got away from Vlassic, but couldn’t swim anymore. For some reason, this made me incredibly sad, like when the sick coyote died.

I guess I’m just too soft hearted when it comes to animals. Also, since I had just gotten the news that my late friend Christi’s son had just been indicted for her murder and I was still reeling from my two recent friend deaths, I think I am a little more open to sadness than usual. I feel imbalanced, like the scales that are usually balanced between life and death are tipped heavily over to the death side.

I was really sad when Goldie killed this, too. It was a snapping turtle. My favorite huge one.

I know it will pass. But it’s no fun right now. On the other hand, I did get a chance to examine an armadillo up close. It’s cool to see how many hairs they have. I thank the armadillo for the chance to see her. Don’t worry, I didn’t touch her, and she was disposed of properly.

So, our little zoo is still bringing me interesting surprises. This morning I found dozens of caterpillars on the sorrelvine behind the house. I recognized them as black swallowtails. With this many babies, we should have quite a display of butterflies when they emerge from their chrysalises.

But the biggest surprise was in the chicken house. When I went in this morning, I saw that my snake friend was still there from yesterday. I love the snake’s smiling face.

I came back later to see if I’d been left any eggs, and thought to myself, wow, that snake is really long, even for a rat snake (they get to be over six feet long).

Aha, I realized why it was so long. It had two heads. Yes, both my snake friends were actually hanging out in one of the nest boxes. There went my egg supply for the day (but they didn’t get Bertie Lee’s egg, which is always laid on the floor next to their exit door).

I wonder if they are a pair? I’ve seen two together over by the horse pens before.

Our reptile exhibit certainly is exciting. However, I am extra glad we haven’t had any copperheads or rattlesnakes showing up. On the other side of the river, there are lots of copperheads. We should be seeing rattlesnakes now, but I have only seen one this year (and I briskly left the vicinity).

I wish it weren’t so incredibly hot, smoky, and unpleasant outside. But, we’ll get through it. I want to be able to make more use of that new outdoor furniture. But the pool is always there to help me, especially after horse work!

Living in a Zoo

Honestly, I often feel like I live in a zoo. There are just so many critters everywhere I look. This morning I went in to feed the chickens, and realized the rat snake exhibit had moved back in. The BIG one was in there today. I hope she liked her eggs.

Rather than show you the snake, enjoy the first third of the year in temperatures. I’ve started a new segment. It will have way more red and NO blue.

When I went to the Red House to be sure the weekend renters left it in good shape, I picked up branches the bad storm on Saturday had deposited. As I was doing that, I realized I’d moved part of the amphibian exhibit. There was a tiny baby Gulf Coast Toad. Awww.

I was basking in that cuteness as I took a pane of glass that had fallen out of the garage window (and didn’t break) into the safety of the garage, which was apparently doubling as an insect exhibit. The star was the stuff of my personal nightmares. It was a huge black horsefly. I got bitten by one as a child and can still feel it.

These things are not only painful, but deadly.

It’s all-black coloring reminds me of a trendy modern black house. Yes, it’s striking, but is a pain when it gets hot outside.

Luckily the zoo today had some cuteness, and for me it was the free-range cottontails in the pasture exhibit. The ones near the horse pens are still friendly. I enjoyed watching this one exploring and hinting that it wouldn’t mind sharing Dusty and Fiona’s food.

Bunnies aren’t the only ones who like the horses’ food. The chickens have figured out that every afternoon I go into a room and pour delicious pellets into buckets. Fiona’s dish is the perfect size for a pecking hen. This makes horse feeding time even more zoo-like!

I need to get better photos of the “arboretum” in Cameron. There are some crape myrtles that are breathtaking this year!

Back to my indoor menagerie for me. In the house we just have scorpions, moths, one cicada (a dog brought it in), and all the dogs. I’ll be glad when scorpions go back outside.

Carlton and Goldie would like me to go to bed.

More Waterfalls and Flowers and DUNG BEETLES!

I did promise to finish writing up my trip to Pedernales Falls State Park. Gosh, I hope you like wildflowers and scenery and stinky insects. I had lots of energy for hiking/looking at plants, thanks to sleeping so well. Ahh. Total darkness and no barking or licking makes for great sleep.

So, once I woke up on Sunday morning, had my coffee, and analyzed bird songs (so many vireos), I took off for the other nearby trails. First, I took the Coyote Crossing trail, which led deep into a very humid woodland area and crossed a mostly dry creek that feeds into the river.

There were many interesting fungi, ferns, and vines in the moist environment. I also got to see a ladder back woodpecker. Mostly I enjoyed the deep green solitude.

Once past that trail the scenery was very different, with seemingly endless swaths of black-eyed Susans and their friends. There were lots of new flowers there, and I had one of those “Linda Jo moments” when I got practically giddy over plants. But I didn’t have a fellow Master Naturalist to exclaim to!

The next trail was the one that led to the swimming area of the river. I must admit I forgot there was a river to go to, because I was so mesmerized by the flowers. The trail went down steep steps. Every time I stopped I said to myself that THESE were the prettiest flowers I ever saw.

And there were so many butterflies that I felt like Snow White in the meadow. They were flitting all around me. It was magical!

I finally got to the river, and was happy to see it wasn’t crowded. There were just a few families wading around and playing, plus a woman with a big dog.

Mystery flower. INat thinks it’s bindweed.

Eventually I turned to go back, stopping to photograph lizards and more flowers. I let the family with the dog pass me on their way up, then encountered the dad resting halfway up. I said something about taking it slow because I was a naturalist, and we got to talking about his interest in foraging. Talking to them made me not even notice the steep climb! Finally, someone was interested in my blathering.

They left to take a bathroom break and I headed back along the road, where I found some phlox and other plants that like sand.

The family drove by and asked if I would like a ride back, and to be honest, that sounded good. So I joined them. They said they were thinking of driving to the big falls, and invited me along. I’m glad they did. It was a ways down the road.

We had a fun walk to the falls. The best part was when I saw a dung beetle rolling a ball of poop across the path. Carl (the dad) got all excited, because he didn’t know we had them in Texas. That got the two boys and the wife excited, too. She took movies and we had a grand time watching the beetles while all sorts of people passed us, probably thinking we were weird. But it was educational!

We finally made it to the overlook, and it was gorgeous. We saw a wedding party, too. We were all too tired to go down to the river, but they were going to go Monday morning. I was fine just looking down. The photos don’t do it justice, for sure.

And that’s about it for adventures. The rest of the day we sat outside a lot and went in to watch movies. I don’t know what to think about the Legion of Superheroes movie. They did stay pretty true to the characters…but it was nowhere near as good as Ant Man and the Wasp. Marvel does make a good movie.

Back Home

I was glad to get home on Monday, but sure enjoyed my wallows in nature. I needed that rejuvenation. Of course, there’s plenty of nature here. Just look at the baby birds in a nest on our back door!

Too tired to peep. A storm kept them awake.

Speaking of storms, one showed up out of the blue yesterday and dumped a ton of rain in a short time. It was full of thunder and lightning. The dogs were NOT thrilled, and since I was the only one in the house, all five indoor dogs clustered around me. Penney and Carlton were under my desk. Harvey was beside my chair. Alfred was standing on the other side of the chair panting into my face. At least Goldie just stayed on “her” couch.

Eventually, Penney wormed her way into my lap and did that unbearable wiggling and trying to squirm up to the top of my head, or inside me. I’m not sure what her intent is, but it’s hairy, hot, and whiny. Thank goodness I discovered the guys were stranded in the garage so I “had” to take them umbrellas. That allowed the dogs to distribute themselves among three people. Whew.

And oh yes, I’ve had my dose of cuteness. look at Jhayati! She’s so soft! And like my dad, she’s never met a stranger. Sara is in love. I’m pretty thrilled, too.

I Collect Collections

Do you have any collections?

Todays blog prompt made me lol. Do I have any collections? Afraid so. And it started early. Heck I still have some of the first things I ever collected, porcelain horses from my grandfather, as I mentioned recently.

There’s one more, but her leg needs to be repaired.

I come by this honestly. I love sorting and categorizing things, as did my mom. I guess it kept me out of trouble as a kid! I was so busy organizing piggy banks, making card catalogs for my books and lining up my Hot Wheels cars that there was no time to get in trouble.

One of two childhood piggy banks I still have.

So, I declare that collections are healthy and only a problem when you think they’re a problem. No, I’m not a minimalist.

I have collected things with pansies on them for decades. They still make me smile. Mom loved pansies. Mom also had some cool purple glass stuff. I recently shared my purple glass window in the bathroom. Here are teacups.

And there are still more horse statues. And rocks. And nail polish (I need to stop that one). And books, yarn, crystal, wine corks, dogs, horses, ugh. Too much. It makes me happy, sparks joy, or whatever.

If my collections become a problem later in life, I’m sure someone else will enjoy them when they go thrifting. It’s fine with me.

The vet came today. This is our annual reminder that having lots of animals is very expensive. But I’m glad we can avoid certain illnesses, know the dogs don’t have heart worms, and soon will know the horses passed their annual Coggins test.

The dogs were better than usual. That’s not saying much, since four had to be sedated. Goldie had a great time and volunteered to go back in the trailer numerous times, even though she got bonus shots for allergies and her leg sore she won’t stop licking.

Penney, the unstable one, managed to get her shots like a big girl. Harvey still growled through sedation, Alfred got real zonked, Vlassic had to be carried into the trailer, and Carlton was quite a challenge to catch. He even ran off while sedated. But they all did it!

I was too busy helping to take horse photos, but they were troopers, even when the assistant was learning to take blood and give shots. She did great! Mabel was deemed too thin, Apache was too fat, and the other two were just right. I’m glad to get that taken care of for another year.

I had an injured toenail. Who knew? All fixed.

So Many Tasks, So Little Internet

It’s good to be home after a fun few days. Many family members were glad to see me and Lee.

Other residents were not so glad.

Excuse me. Why are you barging into our baby bird and poop production area?

Horses were also glad, and I was relieved to find Apache semi-clean after big rain. Drew, on the other hand, has mud dreadlocks that I’ll wait until tomorrow to fix. They at least got their exercise and food.

It rained a lot. You can see how high the water got. Our backup culvert got used for the first time in over a year.

Luckily, the ranch didn’t get struck by lightning or hailed on. Just rain. I guess if lightning struck, it couldn’t break my internet access any more than it already is. Sigh.

Good news: black-eyed susans are in bloom.

I came home with a big to-do list, most of it involving accessing websites. I had four or five Master Naturalist blogs, two horse shows to register for, weather data to look up, etc. Too bad for me. I believe I’ve used up my personal hotspot bandwidth. I got one short Master Naturalist blog up after 45 minutes.

And every flower seems to have its own lynx spider!

The to-do list did contain some non-internet tasks, so I got them all done. At least I have rainbow nails ready for the work week, which I guess will start off at the Red House, until I get that router fixed.

Circle of Life Turns with a Boom

Life is hard on the animals around Walker’s Creek these days. And life is hard on humans everywhere these days. After dealing with the animals and watching the Parade of Dead People (the national television news) this evening, I lapsed into an anxiety attack. I have just about had enough of death and sadness.

Those of you who are my Facebook friends know that early this morning there was a very big boom, which scared Penney half to death. The power proceeded to go out, but I tried to keep working until my phone hotspot gave up the ghost. We discovered my son’s power was also out, and Mandi’s, but not Sara’s. So it was local.

It wasn’t too long until it came back on. Then, one of the nice people from the electric co-op came over to check on us. He said a squirrel caused the issue, across the road. I didn’t think much of it, because well, squirrels are always doing that form of suicide by transformer.

I spent much of the rest of the afternoon trying to resurrect my router, which was also killed by the squirrel. It is SO frustrating trying to get online customer service…but I did it and got a repair scheduled. Go Suna!

Once again, I went outside to breathe. The woods is my friend, long as I’m careful.

I was already a bit nerved out by all this, when I went out to get some fresh air and eggs. That’s when I noticed the vultures had found Neighbor Coyote. I’m not sure if I’m thrilled that it is lying in state where I can see it.

I went into the chicken house only to find the rat snake lounging across the chicken nests. Oddly enough, though, I got five eggs today (including one from Not Dead Betty!), so that can’t be what’s keeping the snake so thick and shiny…I think it’s eating the mice. If that’s the case, we’re still buddies. That is the biggest rat snake I ever saw, though. I could really see how thick it was today (no phone for evidence).

The circle of life is still chugging along for the rat snake, and it is with the horses, too, even though Apache and Mabel weren’t really interested in the farrier visit today. Eventually Apache came in with me, but I had to take a bucket of food out and rattle it to rouse Mabel. Of course, she was the one who needed to be trimmed the most. Her hooves are cracking and it’s hard to trim them, because they aren’t growing too much. On the other hand, Apache’s heels are growing like crazy from the grass, even though I’m rationing him. That’s stressing me out, too.

The thing that got me in the big downward spiral was finding out that it wasn’t just any squirrel that killed the power; it was the neighbors’ pet squirrel, Sandy. They’d been feeding and taming her for three years! These folks really love their animals, too. That sounds almost as bad as when I lost Stella and Brody and could do nothing to help them.

I have a sinking feeling this squirrel that visited last week was Sandy. Sniff.

So, Sandy and her friends across the road are also in my thoughts.

I do wish I hadn’t come home from buying horse food to try to relax, only to have Lee watching the news. Young man killed by cops. Multiple people killed by some messed up person. That’s in the US. Then war and more war and starvation. I try so hard to have a good perspective on the balance of good and bad in the world, but it’s just one of those periods where my balance is off.

It doesn’t help that I keep falling down. I’m either having a clumsy period or still getting used to my new glasses prescription. Nonetheless, it’s annoying. No, I don’t think I’m sick, have MS, or have Parkinson’s. I did JUST have a checkup!

The week can now go uphill. It has my permission.

Mostly Square and Mostly Wet Photos

It’s rained for many hours. That usually doesn’t happen here. Today’s rain was what Lee calls “a good soaking rain,” which I hope means soil moisture is being replenished.

Wet red yucca, one of the few plants actually planted here.

I endeavored to find inspiration today, since it’s so cold and wet. The temperature has changed so little today that I wonder if my temperature blanket will have a solid square when I get to today.

I finished February last night. You can see it getting warmer.

My sick chicken got upset being confined so I let her out. This morning, there she was, all wet on the ground. So I took her into the warmer and dryer hen house. I thought at least she could feel less damp. But no, I went to check late this afternoon and she had dragged herself all the way to the other end of the chicken run. At least she’s under the covered part. I’m not good at veterinary tasks.

Taking pictures of wet things, and cropping them square, has slightly cheered me up. All the plants and insects are hanging in there, at least.

I can’t get to the horse pens to feed them. The drainage situation there is hard to solve. But they seem fine with all the nice grass and don’t mind wading through puddles to get in their shelter. Apache is probably enjoying the lack of sun on his pink skin.

The rain returned as soon as I came back inside. I guess the ponds will keep flowing into Walkers Creek.

Water’s still coming in from across the road.

It’s time to snuggle with dogs and stay dry. I hope you enjoyed the wet or square things.

Celebration of Floral Diversity

Long day that at least brought good rain without an accompanying tornado warning, that’s what it was. I did get out in the dampness to look for new flowers. Two I saw yesterday when I didn’t have the phone with me were hiding thanks to the rain, but I was pleased to spot our patch of interesting paintbrush flowers.

These usually red flowers do sometimes show some variety. My friend nearby has some yellow ones, too. I think they look wonderful in yellow, though, even if it makes them less interesting to hummingbirds. The apricot one is pretty spectacular, too.

I’d have had some beautiful wine cups to share, but yesterday the tenants turned the field behind the house into little while marshmallows of haylage. My hope is that they come right back.

Former wildflowers. And oats or something that they harvested.

Oh well. I have a few spots with grass making blossoms. Here’s some pretty peppergrass and little quaking grass.

You know, if you don’t mow until the flowers go to seed, you get a lovely show every year. Here are the two sides of my road. I like my side.

I guess we each get to do what we want to on the land we’re in charge of. We have some freedoms still! Speaking of which, now that the fish are gone, Mabel is free to swish her nose in the water all she wants.

Well, good, cause I’m thirsty. (Her ears are back because Apache is coming up behind her to make her move.)

And the sickly hen seems a bit better! You never know.

Roses Are Red, but Bluebonnets Are REALLY Blue

Not much exciting going on today, so I’m sharing some jaw-dropping photos of bluebonnets on our property, taken by the great photographer and legendary hermit, Ernest Lee Bruns, Jr.

My contribution to the theme is the latest temperature blanket square, which is grass green and celestial blue.

This also happens to be the colors of the kids’ high school, McNeil High School. Not easy colors to work with.

One more photo by Lee. He and Carlton balance each other out beautifully.

More tomorrow, perhaps!