dogs – Page 3 – The Hermits' Rest

Searching for Treasure and Scowling at Sheep

What did you do today? As you can guess from the title of this blog entry I did at least two things. Both were fun.

I also looked at some flowers. This is *Sida ciliaris or bracted fanpetals.*

First thing this morning, neighbor Vicki and I went to College Station to a fun Horseman’s Market Fay hosted by the Brazos Valley Driving and Riding Club. This is like a giant garage sale of horse stuff. I had no idea there were so many moldy saddles and bridles, not to mention very used halters, bits, and blankets. But I also saw some beautiful used tack and true treasures.

Each of us saw people we knew (yes, I know a couple horse people, too) and even found a woman who lives in Ben Arnold and knows where we live due to Vicki’s sheep and matching pony.

We did find treasures of our own. I got a baseball cap that says Cowboy Hat, a horse thermometer, a come-along string (green), a funny shirt, and a bunch of hoof picks with silver accents that I will donate to Tarrin for show prizes.

They list for $12 and I got them for $3.

The most fun thing I got was a really pretty leather breast collar with silver accents and black-and-white leather detail. I just loved how it was elegant but not gaudy. It will go with Apache’s saddle.

If you don’t know what this is, it is decorative and also keeps the saddle from slipping when climbing steep hills. If I’m able to replace one hook on it, I’ll show it to you on Apache.

I couldn’t find a good photo so I had to AI one.

After we had each found our horse equipment treasures, Vicki took me to see border collies doing herding trials. This was in a nice arena with air conditioning and lots of large bags of wool. I think she said they also grade wool there.

I met some of Vicki’s herding dog friends and had a great time watching the dogs staring at the sheep.

The reason we glared at the sheep is that they were pretty weird. They spent most of their lives so far eating grass under solar farms. It’s a good gig. Lots of shade.

The problem is that they didn’t know much about anything except eating grass. They didn’t realize they were supposed to be intimidated by dogs, so once they were let out, they just stared back at the gate they came out of, not paying attention to the dogs. Occasionally one would stomp its hooves.

Many of the dog/human pairs just gave up, but a few of them got those sheep going in the right circles, separated one from the group, and got them all into a pen. That was really impressive.

This dog watched intently from the stands.

I hope I get to go to more of these in the future. I’m very impressed by the hard work both the dogs and humans have to do to move the sheep!

Nothing exciting like that at home! Just moving slowly

I relaxed most of the rest of the day, which featured suffocating heat. You can get overheated so easily!

It’s August and It Stormed

That might not be news everywhere, but it rarely rains here in August. It was a bit less than an inch, but pretty spectacular. I was out looking at birds when I realized the wind was picking up. I had a hard time making it to the porch!

I’ve heard the winds were more than gale velocity, so it’s no wonder cushions flew and my birding station became a bare concrete platform.

Lee, the panting dogs and I watched the storm from the new porch, since the wind was blowing away from us. Sometimes the rain was close to horizontal.

We ended up outside longer than planned because, unsurprisingly, the power went out for an hour or so. It was too dark in the house, so I came out and read while bonding with nervous dogs.

I managed to get all my work done despite another power outage, since they came between meetings. So, all was well and the grass will be green.

Oh yes, I remembered to photograph my new planter, which it turns out is English. I’m just a fan of pansies, even if they’re out of fashion, so I’m glad to have it. It rained during the time I was going to plant baby plants in it, but maybe I can soon.

Sorry it’s not too exciting right now. Wait, I’m not sorry. It’s GREAT to not be all stressed about anything! Even the tarot card of the day is cheerful.

This guy is gazing at a bird, accompanied by his otter pal. Yay, another otter. The meaning is to use the wisdom you’ve gained from introspection to be of service to others. I get the hint. Now off to bed.

I hate to get in bed after the house cleaner makes the bedroom look so good! Lee’s recliner is so sweet with its pillows. But he can’t sleep in it like that! The bed is for me and dogs. If you think that’s all weird, I can assure you that LOTS of people of a certain age sleep in recliners.

Investigating Near and Sorta Far

Today was hot, but otherwise a fine Sunday. I started the day by listening to birds, as usual. I felt like getting some exercise, so I took the long walk to the cemetery. It looked very spiffy, and the birds were happy with how nice things looked, both there and at the old school/church property.

I found out later that whoever the Walker’s Creek people are will be holding a picnic there next week! Maybe it’s people with plots in the cemetery—they do that at other cemeteries in the area. what a nice tradition.

While I was there I noticed many Black Vultures gathering in two of the grand dead oaks adjacent to the old “town center.”

I also heard lots of dogs barking and a familiar voice telling them to stop. Were they barking at me or the birds? I went around the corner to Vicki’s house to find out. The answer is that her dogs really don’t like those birds, or they DO and are enjoying themselves. Since I was already there, I paid a visit (so un-hermit-like) and checked out an Australian saddle she’d bought to try to use with Drew.

And, since I was there, I got to go inside and see extremely cute Sheltie puppies. They are very fluffy and bounce around most charmingly. They are destined for great things, given their lineage.

They are very wiggly and hard to photograph.

I had so much fun being a new stimulus for them. Much tummy rubbing and fur ruffling occurred. I also got to see the brand-new puppy whose mother is a national reserve champion herding dog. There was a lot of dog beauty and skill in that house!

The little black girl was too fast to photograph

I dragged my self back home for a shower and some rest. I don’t know why I showered, since I was soaked with sweat after working with Apache and dealing with the water trough Spice had managed to overturn. She, Drew, and Mabel seemed mighty pleased to have done that. At least Apache was good. He’s really getting used to the paths in the front field. He likes the Johnson grass and goldenrod and I like the shady areas.

No horse photos today, so here’s a tired Spicebush Swallowtail.

But, I’m out of sequence. Before horse time, Lee and I took one of our random drives, since he hadn’t been exploring all weekend like I had. We saw lots of crops, which we have in this area because we are east of Interstate 35. The soil is completely different on the west side, because the road follows a fault. Fertile farmland to the east, and alkaline karst formations to the west. Anyway, we saw feed corn being harvested, cotton in bloom, and to my surprise, a rice field. It was irrigated by the Brazos River.

We ended up in Calvert, Texas, which is fairly close to Cameron. Lee saw that some of the antique stores there were open, so we stopped by one, which is in the tallest building in the town. The building was erected by the first Black millionaire in this area as headquarters of a benevolent organization. This is probably inaccurate and no doubt a local person can set me straight.

Picture of a woman teaching a little girl to knit.

The shop had lots and lots in it. Luckily there wasn’t much of what I want, but I wished I had a space for this embroidered screen. It’s very cool. I’d love to restore it.

The screen is tall but I just took pictures of the embroidery.

I did end up getting a planter with pansies on it. I’ll show you once I get it set up. I didn’t get these. They had two similar pairs.

The Queen of England and her spouse as bedroom slippers. Classy.

Enough blather about my day. But I investigated many things, ranging from cute to weird!

Maybe I’m Not Cut Out for This

Yesterday I worked ten hours and had eight meetings, nearly all of which were challenging and some of which were stressful. Yow. I was truly wiped out at the end of the day, but managed stay online another half hour for my tarot group. My ears hurt from wearing headphones all day!

I wished I was on the porch with all the new pillows and cushions.

It has taken me all day today to recover from yesterday. Luckily today I had some nice writing to do, and lunch to enjoy, which helped. And a friend dropped by after work, which was a good surprise.

Drew and I felt similarly yesterday afternoon.

Never fear, I’m still loving my consulting job and the people I’m working with, but it’s a real job so of course there are challenges! I’m just disappointed that I didn’t recover as quickly as I’d like to have. It makes me feel my age. Ugh. I’ll have to figure out a way to ration my energy better. I want to contribute!

This is my bucolic photo of behind the house for Robert.

I spent as much time today as I could meditating and planning how to care for my energy and brain so I can be productive.

See how perky I looked with my official iNaturalist shirt and cicada earrings?

Naturally, hanging out with birds helped me clear my mind. There were so many today, which was great fun. Red-eyed Vireos were everywhere making their weird sounds, as were Great Crested Flycatchers, and not fake Mockingbird ones, either. Just identifying what was flying while I was floating in the pool around sunset was enough to bring me back to my center.

This bird sighting made me chuckle. The Great Egret looks fascinated by the cow’s rear.

I’m sure glad I live here in the peace and quiet (mostly; tonight they’re harvesting Milo or something across the road, which entails big machines, shiny lights, and hubbub.) That’s just once or twice a year, though.

Carlton would like me to go to sleep! Okay!

Tarot cards of the day

Yesterday my card was the Teacher or Hierophant. I like this image of a wise person learning in different ways. It’s better than the mean institutional guy in Robin Wood. Plus it has a Great Blue Heron!

The card was a great choice, since the spread my tarot friends and I did last night was about messengers and the lessons they had for us. I was encouraged to keep going in my new endeavors. Also I had to laugh when I drew the 3 of Cups as one of the messages, because it had happy, playful otters on it!

Today’s card was The Sun, which I forgot to photograph. It’s very summery and happy in the Gaian deck. To me it felt like celebrating that I am handling what comes my way with positivity, even through some painful times of change.

This is Benebell Wen’s image. I’ll replace it tomorrow when I go downstairs.

More Rain

Another front blew in and once again hit hardest southwest of here. We got over an inch of rain, but it just raised the water level in the ponds.

My heart goes out to all the people who just lived through horrific flooding and are seeing it again nearby. There has to be a lot of PTSD in this part of the world right now. And first responders must be stretched to their limits.

That puts my personal hurts into perspective.

Anyway, enjoy some interesting insects with fun names that I saw today.

Texas Eyed Click Beetle *Alaus lusciosus*

Book Report: This Dog Will Change Your Life

I was looking forward to This Dog Will Change Your Life, by The Dogist, Elias Weiss Friedman (2025), because I was in the mood for something light-hearted and perhaps funny, to take my mind off current events. Plus, as you may be aware, I’m fond of dogs.

Well, the book does have dogs, many dogs, even. And they’re good dogs, yes they are. But, not being familiar with the media influencer known as The Dogist (Elias made that name up himself), I didn’t know what to expect. I’m going to be charitable and say that his little quotes from dog owners must be more interesting accompanied by their supposedly very cute photos. Unfortunately, there are no photos in the book, just quotes from his Instagram:

Mister, German Shepherd (6 years old), Washington Square Park, New York, NY •

“He’s new to the city from Portland, Oregon. He’s a softie-he craves attention in a very un-Germanic way.”

Ok. Great. This was one of the better ones.

The book rambles around while Elias tells us about places he went to take photos of dogs and how interesting he finds it. He’s very happy that people recognize him and that he gets to go fun places to look at dogs. The dog parts of the book are okay, but there’s an awful lot about Elias and his life, which is nice but not very interesting.

I couldn’t really figure out the structure or where the book was going. Each chapter is a story about a dog that makes someone happy. I didn’t find much humor in the writing, though. Bland but well meaning is the best way I can describe it. And all that required a co-writer, Ben Greenman, who has ghost written for others.

Harvey says I should just pet him if I need dog content.

I think media influencers may not be very experienced in writing more than a few sentences and linking them together. That makes sense, because they aren’t required to do it to gain their fame. My guess is that The Dogist is a really good photographer who puts his notes by photos of cute dogs, very well. I hope he sticks with it in the future.

Sorry to give a negative review. But this book was just not for this dog lover.

New Job New Motivation

This is an interesting point in my life. Having time for myself for three months was really pleasant, once I got used to being retired. But I’m just as glad to have gone back to work for a while, because it’s opened my eyes to a few things.

Granted, I haven’t been in the new organization a week yet, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how positive everyone is, how helpful they are to each other, and how they all like what they’re doing (mostly). People act interested in each other as people, even contract workers. And they’re generous with their time and expertise. I’m having a great time collaborating with others in roles similar to mine.

Cheerful as a yellow Kingbird on a wire.

The company has many goals and values that I agree with, like diversity and inclusion, carbon neutrality, and having fun (the larger team couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had playing kickball).

Gee, I hope the “new job glow” doesn’t wear out too quickly! It’s refreshing to not be looking over your shoulder for HR to escort you out of the building or to have no idea where your team is going or what’s next. I spent too many years in my previous two Austin tech cultures, both of which had an atmosphere of negativity that I was always trying to make the best of because I needed money. And all those mergers and acquisitions!

I often felt like I was going down rabbit holes.

That’s no longer an issue. I’m working now because I want to be helpful and I’m in a place that values transparency and honesty with customers and staff. I may be tired from drinking information from a fire hose right now, but I’m doing things I enjoy (other than mandatory compliance training). I feel useful, helpful, and appreciated. That’s motivating!

Porch before tile was installed. It’s just dry fit here.

And very soon I’ll have a porch I can work from. The floor is going down, though my son is tired of having to vacuum up dog hair before laying each tile. Dang dogs.

My Favorite Thing about Me

What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

I didn’t have too much to write about today, other than that horses are cute and I have a new favorite light fixture. So, let’s find out what my favorite thing about me might be.

But first, look at the fun Apache and Rylie (probably not spelled right) had today during warmups.

Okay, so, answer the question, Suna. And don’t say you like something except for this that or the other. No self put-downs allowed.

Oh, second, hey look at this light fixture. It looks like planets made of rock crystals.

I used to always say my favorite thing about myself were my feet. They were not too big or small, medium width, and had nice toes. Now they are more mature feet with mature person issues. So, nope, it’s not my feet.

Sorry, feet, you also always have fire ant bites.

All right. I’ll refrain from pointing out the obvious negatives for this, as instructed, and declare my favorite thing about myself is how I can empathize with others, care deeply about people who don’t care back, and always see our commonalities as humans. That boils down to one concept but I don’t have the right word for it.

Take a seat while I add unnecessary explanations, as I tend to do.

Note that I can now set boundaries, so my character feature is one I can now embrace without fear of hurting myself. I’m not going to run out and embrace the toxic people in my life, but I can try to understand them and care, from a distance.

They can’t hurt me, even though I may appear vulnerable, just like today’s maize calligrapher fly can’t sting me, even though it looks like a wasp.

Super Sensitive Suna, as I labeled myself on Facebook today, can take the occasional sadness and hurt that comes from all that caring, but it’s worth it. I just have to expect to have the occasional down periods. It’s a small price to pay to keep cherishing my favorite thing about myself.

It’s a Live Performance?

What was the last live performance you saw?

I no longer am comfortable in large crowds. So I don’t go places to see performances anymore. And my family no longer makes music for each other after some sad things happened. Oh well. I still enjoy performances daily.

So, I’ll say my most recent live performance, which took place 2:00-2:20 today, featured, in order of appearance):

Painted Bunting
Tennessee Warbler
Tufted Titmouse
Northern Cardinal
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Eastern Bluebird
Carolina Wren
Green Heron (weirdest melody)
Mourning Dove
House Sparrow
Rooster
Domestic Turkey, portrayed by Connie Gobbler
Eastern Meadowlark
Northern Mockingbird
Dickcissel
Bay-breasted Warbler
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
American Crow
Barred Owl
Purple Martin
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Cliff Swallow
Warbling Vireo
Great Crested Flycatcher
Common Nighthawk
Red-bellied Woodpacker
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (second weirdest melody)

Accompanied by:

Flies
Gnats
Wasps
Cow (coughing)
Dogs
Cow (mooing)
Honeybees

I missed the rhythm section, the woodpeckers until the Red-belly appeared, and the frequent raptor soloists almost failed to show up until the Nighthawk croaked. All in all, a pretty good show.

Thanks to Merlin Bird ID for recording the concert and iNaturalist for plant ID.

The free refreshments were vine-ripened and delicious.

Vet Visit with Minimal Panic

It’s April, which here at the Hermits’ Rest means all the animals get their yearly checkups. It’s so good that Dr Amy comes to the house in the Neuter Scooter or whatever she calls her mobile clinic. With five canines and five equines to treat it’s well worth the site visit fee.

More good news: red yucca means hummingbirds are here!

The routine they came up with is to sedate all the dogs, take care of the horses, then do the dogs. It went pretty well. I even had time to photograph the cool flower stalk on the palmetto bush.

The horses and Fiona all got their Coggins test done plus all their vaccines. Mabel did not like the strangles vaccine this time (it’s nasal) so she had to get some sleepy juice. Fiona didn’t like any of the procedures and then gave the poor assistant who was trying to draw all her spots for the Coggins certificate the stink eye big time.

No photo of Fifi so here are two sparrows splashing in the pool.

Once again, Dusty was the star and behaved perfectly and looked great. He looked at Death’s door a few months ago but today just had loose poop. We blame the grass. Apache was moving slowly, too, which could either be the grass or the fact we upped his medication. Drew was good and let Amy take out a couple of burs, even.

Drew also points out that he is majestic.

The dogs were a bit more exciting, with their worm medicine and nail clipping the hardest. Poor Carlton has a sore toe. Oenney had a little toe nip. Harvey and Vlassic had to be muzzled, but we knew that would happen. Gee, after all Dr Amy has done for Harvey, you’d think he’d be more grateful. They’re doing a test to see how his liver is doing and think his big cyst on his leg is better. He’s a tough old grump.

The biggest news is Alfred. He was out deep enough that Lee and I could cut the matts out of his coat! It’s a miracle! That dog sure is sensitive when it comes to grooming.

He looks kind of strange without his dreadlocks and tail flags, but it’s so much better. It was hard to get it all out, but we’re happy about it.

It was pleasant to get through all these services with no injuries to any vet techs or animals. And I feel like a responsible pet owner by having everyone treated and checked. I’m happy to have fewer pet dramas for a while.