Hey, not too much broke today, and though we have to wait for an air conditioning part, a convenient “cold” front came through, so sleeping won’t be too bad tonight. This leaves me with my observation for today.
Round cow watching the front roll in.
First, I have an admission. As much as I like birds, I rarely get attached to them. I was fond of Bertie Lee, my old chicken, but I try not to get too attached after living through a couple of grisly chicken massacres. Nonetheless, I find myself feeling as much love for Connie Gobbler, my sweet turkey lady. I love her happy greeting chirps and the way she stretches her turkey neck out to be rubbed. She’s just so friendly and funny. It’s hard not to love her.
Look at that noble face.
Anyway, she has a new habit. When I’m in the pen feeding them and filling the water dishes, she silently sneaks up on me. I feel a presence and turn around to see her beak, less than an inch from my leg, as she stands as closely as she can get. I think she’s figured out she gets extra love and petting when she does that. It’s a weird feeling realizing your fowl is stalking you.
Pet me more!
Today I thought to myself that she reminded me of someone. Hmm. Oh yes, Fiona. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been in the horse pens or out in the pasture doing a chore or working with a horse when I move slightly and realize Fiona’s nose is next to my leg. She’s completely silent and just shadows me until I pay her some attention.
Here’s my nose.
If asked my preference, I’d say I prefer the silently patient requests for attention I get from Connie and Fiona to some of the dogs’ and horses’ rowdier techniques or the standoffishness of Mabel and Spice (they are fine with little physical attention). I can’t argue with Dusty, either. He never fails to amble up and politely present his head for some good rubbing. He’s such a gentleman.
Here’s my nose
I’m not going to discourage the donkey and turkey from their silent stalking, for sure. I just know not to make any sudden moves or I’ll run into a pink nose or a beak attached to a pink featherless neck. I’ll take affection wherever it comes from, however it’s expressed.
Gobble gobble. (Clint is too happy with his fresh water to pose)
I don’t know what to do but laugh. This month has just been chock full of unpleasant stuff, but like one of those clown toys from when I was a kid, when I’m hit I just fall down and pop back up.
It the right image but the toy looks best up. Image from Pexels.
That’s new for me. I used to fall apart. Now I react, but deal with it better. The bad news isn’t everything in life, I realized at last. There’s always good, too. Here’s an example.
Yesterday I’d been thinking how proud of myself I was. I’d paid my credit cards down and could see them being all gone in a few weeks. Ha ha. Wishful thinking! I’d only get that feeling for a few hours.
I’d been looking forward to yesterday for a long time. My friend Lynn Hagan was receiving an award from Texas A&M, and she’d invited some friends to attend the reception and banquet. We had to wear nice clothes!
Lynn on a big screen
I went to pick up my friend Pamela, who defied all the odds and was not late. We were enjoying a trip down the back roads of Milam County, on our way to get Phyllis, when I got a phone call from the contracting company I work for. as I tried to navigate unfamiliar roads I was informed that Dell has decided to end my contract next week. I’m out of work!
I’m impressed by how well I handled the call. I’d had inklings something was up, though I won’t know for sure until I talk to my supervisor Monday. I’m more annoyed that they couldn’t wait until the contract ended so I’d have time to get Social Security set up (if I do get it…times are uncertain). But I’m just fine. I’ll wait to see what the story is there, and in the meantime I’ll see what’s out there. It will be okay.
I admit I was not feeling great as I drove to College Station, but I ended up meeting many fascinating people and making friends at the reception and meal. It felt so good to be in a room full of humanities and science majors! I miss being around people of my background sometimes, though I feel like an intellectual elite person when I say that. It was fun violently agreeing on many topics and making everyone feel welcome.
Centerpieces were all white. Lovely.
I’m glad we were able to go support Lynn as she got her huge framed award.
I couldn’t sleep last night but I did not lay there and blame myself for the job thing or panic about loss of income. I just couldn’t sleep.
But today I did just fine, got all animals at least partly groomed. Mabel kept asking to be brushed more. By the time she decided to leave, her mane was gleaming. And Fiona let me work on her, too. Yay.
Then we left.
Today we are at Inks Lake State Park, which is too crowded for me. But our friend Jen is here, too, which will make it fun to do bird stuff. I’m going to work on my resume and try not to kick myself for dyeing my hair ends purple. Makes me look eccentric.
I haven’t done a horse update in a while. That’s because not much has changed and I’ve been focusing on sick dogs. But today Jackie came to do bodywork for the first time in a while, so there’s a little more news.
I’m here, too. I enjoy taking food containers out in the pasture where Suna can’t find them. Fun!
All the horses have decorative cocklebur crowns these days. It only takes a few days to replace them, so I’ve given up on daily removal. It’s too hard on my hands and my gloves.
Why remove them? It’s a fashion statement.
Drew, as I’ve noted, is having some movement issues. Jackie determined that his back end is doing way better, so yay for that, but he’s still stiff, sore, and unhappy in his neck and shoulders, including the ribs. He let her know just how it feels, like he was doing with me earlier this year. She worked on him a lot and gave me suggestions for getting him to swing his front legs out and round his ribcage.
The look.
I’ll do that stuff and continue to work on extended walks on the ground and in the saddle. At least he still likes doing that, until he stomps his perfect little feet. By the way, I got his tail and back 3/4 of mane cleared up, but he was in no mood for forelock work after his adjustments.
Apache with invisible bur crown, last week.
I got no photos of Apache, because I was busy removing a bucket o’ burs this morning. He is the only horse that got completely bur free. I was happy with his body report. For a horse who eats no supplements and tries to spit out his daily medication, he’s doing well! His feet still look good, too. He’s been fun to work with and ride, as well. I think he will do ok at this weekend’s horse show. We need to get out there and just have fun doing our best.
That head. What a head.
Mabel is still great. She’s shiny, fit, and pretty darned sound. There’s only one crack in her white hoof! She let me get all the burs out of her tail, but only a few out of her mane. I’m just happy she’s happy and holding her own in the herd.
This is Mabel booking it to get away from my picking at her mane. At least she has one.
Dusty is still Dusty. So gentle, kind, and compliant. Well, unless you’re messing with his tail. His mane has no burs, but I only got a few out of his poor tail, which looks like it’s been braided with burs.
Mane, beforeTail, looking better than it does in person. Old Cow Horses like their burs.
Dusty has been getting extra grain most days, because he is looking thin. But he eats well and is cheerful most of the time. I know his back hurts, even with supplements. But he still loves to hug and craves attention.
Feed me.
Goldie is improving. She’s tapering off pain medication and is getting around better. She can pick up the pace when she wants to, and now easily climbs the steps on the patio. She even managed to tell me her water dish was empty this evening, got me to take her out to drink, then stared at the water dish spot until Lee remembered it was in the dishwasher. Clever.
Goldie and dead house plant. I travel too much.
No one read my post yesterday about moths. Oh well. What I find fascinating isn’t always what the audience finds fascinating!
I’m still feeling worn out so I’ll just share some pretty and cute photos for the day and share weighty matters tomorrow. The cutest thing I saw today was this gorgeous new calf. It’s seal brown or gray.
Look at its little nose.
Its mama loves it a lot. It has a tiny Snow White buddy. I hope they stay in the pasture behind us for a while.
Bovine Beauty
I enjoyed the birds a lot, even the Loggerhead Shrikes, who are the current loud birds in the group. There was also a persistent Blue Grosbeak, so I’ve got that sound down now.
That’s the blurry grosbeak. Since my shrike photo didn’t come out, here’s an attractive grasshopper, the pine tree spur-throat.
The late summer flowers are ramping up. I’m just waiting for the asters. And my traveling trick worked: it’s not so hot now and it’s raining!
I guess my experience with being in a vocal trio with a Kerrville Folk Festival devotee, volunteering at a monthly folk coffeehouse for years, and living with a rock/country guitarist for three years or so doomed me. I became pretty fond of Americana music. What’s that?
I’m lucky to have lived in Austin, Texas (or thereabouts) for 30 years or more. There is a lot of Americana music to watch. I watched and listened to a lot of it with my music friends. I loved this part of my life.
Americana! Featuring my friend Jeff.
Oddly, I don’t listen much anymore. I think it has to do with the loss of my older son, who is a wonderful mandolin player (he’s not dead, just refuses to speak). And some unpleasantness happened to my other son in the music scene. Plus, my vocal cords are now damaged and I can’t sing certain notes now. It has taken away the pleasure of music.
My kid at left.
That took a dark turn. Of course there were wonderful musical moments in my life. And music moves me when I do listen. And not just Americana! I love classic rock, classical, and Celtic especially. and the music of nature, naturally. Heh heh.
Suna sings to me sometimes.
Eh. I’ll stop before I go on and on about favorite artists. Enjoy looking at Fiona and Drew.
Friends, it’s been yet another pleasant day with nothing to complain about. The lack of stress in my life right now is very welcome. Plus it enables me to be available to people who do have stress going on.
Hard to stress out when you are surrounded by fields full of flowers, butterflies, and bees.
Yeah, the closest I got to being stressed today was trying not to step on honeybees who were busy on the various clovers and other flowers. The ground was buzzing!
Bees love these yellow ones and the bur clover. I still hate burs.
In a major Suna triumph, I managed to get through an Easter pasture ride with Sara today without letting Apache’s stress get to me. Because of that, we went all over the front pasture, including places he historically had issues with. Mabel neighed at him a little, but I got him refocused.
It was very green
Both Aragorn and Apache did a good job going up and down a hill, then successfully went across the dam on the big front tank. There was a lot of tight turning and steep climbs, but we all did fine. It was even fun. This was the spot where I had to fall off or get impaled by a mesquite tree the first time I ever tried riding out there. That tree is dead, too. And this time, I was in charge, not the horse.
I tried to boss Suna, but she didn’t let me.
When we got to the gate to our place, Apache expressed his opinion that he wanted to go home quite strongly. It didn’t work. I rode him away and THEN dismounted. And yes, he’d been a fine animal, so he got to go home.
Aragorn would like to point out that he was also brave and cooperative.
Because I now have a new hose and spray nozzle, I was able to give Apache a much-needed bath when we got back. There was some deeply ground-in dirt to remove. He was also extra sweaty, thanks to still having a lot of winter coat.
Look at that clean tail.
I was impressed that, even though he wasn’t dry yet when I turned him out, he took six whole minutes before rolling in dirt. I’d thought it would be 30 seconds, max.
Still cleanRollingMore rollingGetting up, all black Shaking it off.
I’m sure it felt good. After he ate his dinner, he let me curry him some more, and the dirt came right off, along with a lot more clean, fluffy hair. I did have to chuckle, because when I finished, I realized that Fiona, Mabel, and Dusty were waiting for their turns. So they each got some rubbing. I’ve created a real love for grooming in these guys! It’s fine with me, because next poor Fiona will finally shed out. That’s always a workout.
Kathleen came back from her latest adventure. I knew she’d arrived when I found the first rat snake of the season in the chicken house. They know she’s here, we’re pretty sure. I’ll keep an eye on Kathleen so she can safely get through her medical stuff with no more help from insects, arachnids, reptiles, or livestock.
Welcome back!Could you please escort the guest away from our perches?
Yeah, they say it goes two steps forward and one step back. Today felt like a big step back for me and Apache. But we have it our best and that’s all we could do.
We think we’ve grown, but maybe we haven’t. Regression time.
Sara and another of our horse friends had set up the obstacles for the Working Horse Central spring virtual show, so I said I’d go over and try it out. So far, that’s never worked out well for us, but I figured we’d get some together time and riding in, anyway.
What can I say? It went better than last time. We got there calmly and did a walk-through of the course with Aragorn, but Apache was not at all interested in riding, just like last time. I got lots of practice being calm and trying not to tense up as he jumped and wheeled around.
There are certain spots he just loses his mind at. I have no idea why. But I did manage to get him back to his normal mind a couple of times. It was exhausting. Sara and I kept trying to figure out what I might be doing differently that caused all our improvements to go out the window. I’m sure I tense up when he starts jumping, though I try my best to not react and breathe calmly. He seems to want me to help him though.
In the end I got the idea that he does better over there with a friend, so Sara led Aragorn and we followed them through a bunch of the obstacles. That actually worked, so we were able to end on a positive note.
I tied my horse up to rest afterwards, and he and Aragorn got all manly at each other. We surmised that Sully must be in heat, like Mabel.
Neither of these guys is known for acting studly.
Apache looked so miserable that I took his saddle off and hosed him down. By that time, the other person who was going to try to film her virtual show. Look at her horse, Cheerio!
Apache just looks like the same horse, a size larger. They are exactly the same color, but A is wet here.
They must have a common Paint pattern. They even share the black forelock and white mane!
I took him home before they did their work. As we arrived at the gate to our property, there was Fiona. She had escaped the fence and came to greet her buddy. I wonder if he’d do better if she came with us? It’s not possible, of course, since Fiona isn’t very popular over there, but maybe in other circumstances she could be his emotional support animal.
But look! Fencing is up for a third pasture! Just need a water trough. I’ll put Mabel and Dusty there, to enjoy the good grass. Apache and Fiona will go to the other pasture a couple hours a day but mostly stay in the small overgrazed paddock, so the pasture they are in now can rest.
Well, at least I got some sun. Apache is pissed off at me, but I hope this episode hasn’t messed up all our hard work becoming a team. I shouldn’t have taken him over there, in retrospect. I just keep hoping we will be able to keep things together better in unfamiliar places. Or familiar places that spook him. I guess no equestrian camping for us any time soon!
No daily prompt today. You don’t want to hear my ideal boring day. So let’s talk about today, which, though long, was quite fine, thanks to tiny surprises everywhere.
An actual tiny bluet (Houstonia pusilla)
Indeed, I was delighted to find some of my tiny wildflower friends starting to bloom, but my day was brightened by a series of less colorful tiny creatures, the sparrows. This morning, dozens of Vesper sparrows and Savannah sparrows covered the fields and fences.
It looks like they are in a maze.
Whatever they’re finding has them distracted enough that I can recognize them (those two are similar).
This guy is very graphic with my poor camera resolution.
After enjoying the morning birds, which included my first roadrunner heard in Merlin, I tried to work until the dogs went off. Men were driving a backhoe on our property. Huh? Turns out there was a water line leak they had to fix. The horses were not amused, but it was fun to watch them be curious then agitated in turn.
What the heck?Must run!Thank goodness he’s leaving. Goodbye scary beast
I think the horses were curious because in their minds, tractors bring hay. They like hay.
Another tiny flower, dwarf verbena (Glandularia pumila)
We were only without water for an hour or so, which was barely an inconvenience. I was able to get my stuff done in time to go back out and bother the horses some more, because it was farrier time. Terry brought a helper today, so they both got to marvel at Apache’s fancy shoes and the Artimud stuff we put in to protect his hooves. It’s quite interesting clay with honey and other things.
I put his shoes back on when he was done!
Drew was his new self, but they got him trimmed. Everyone else was fine, even Fiona, who also finally got groomed and de-burred. She was, by the way, hilarious when I was trying to take off Apache’s shoes. She kept gluing herself to me to where I’d lose my balance. At one point I realized my face was an inch from a donkey butt. She’s really friendly, but this tiny surprise wasn’t so delightful.
Such a cutie.
Dusty also finally had a much needed bur-ectomy. I finally had time to do it while the others were getting trimmed. His nearly nonexistent forelock was all bur, as was his tail. He looks good now!
So nice to see his tail looking good.
I fed them after the trimming, and that’s when the next tiny sparrow flock appeared. I could hardly count these busy guys.
Looks like a pike of metal, but look closer.
The horses had a lot to say about their busy day. Mabel is proud to still have her mane burs and bits of mud. I tried.
You can’t tame me, though I appreciate the hoof work. My bad hoof needed it.
Meanwhile, Apache and Drew each didn’t finish their food and instead tried to get to the other’s pen by testing the gate. Apache tried hard.
Lemme in.
Drew thought that was funny.
Har har har
I think Drew was processing something. Maybe his hoof trim helped his issue.
He had a lot to say.
To calm myself after all the day’s activities, I went back to the woods to see who was there. The wind had calmed down, so I hoped to hear some good songs. Instead, as I stood quietly, I heard sounds like someone or something was approaching. Was it a deer? A bunny? A raccoon?
It was us.
Yep. It was sparrows, this time the white-throated clan. Dozens of them were under the young cedar elms, scratching around for some delicious item. It was amazing how much noise those tiny fellows made!
Watch them go!
I had fun turning my Live Photos into tiny videos of tiny sparrows. But it does help you actually see the birds!
So many!
Yes, I was quite entranced by the little black-and-white heads bobbing up and down. They completely ignored me until I finally had to move my aching back. What a nice ending to my outdoor hours today.
How many? I’m not sure. Five?
I did finally go inside and finish cooking. Yes, I’m not 100% birds and horses and yarn.
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.
Look, a bird. It’s a loggerhead shrike.
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:
Hello!
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.
Easy exit for a short animal.
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.
The Hermits' Rest 