horses – Page 2 – The Hermits' Rest

Solstice Weekend Day of Peace

The days are very short, and the windy, cloudy morning made it feel even darker today. I got to celebrate this day by having no agenda whatsoever. I took advantage of it with a mix of resting and enjoyable activities.

I took a lot of photos, including Apache and Spice blending into one mythical creature.

It was challenging listening to birds because the wind made it feel cold, though it was the warmest day of a warm December. It was also a challenge to photograph birds, because they were all elsewhere this morning (yesterday, when I was busy, they were standing in front of me, taunting.

I enjoyed this pretty doe, who made up for the hidden birds.

And of course I had to take more photos of Darryl, Connie, and friends. Everyone is getting along just fine. I did a lot of reading about turkeys today. I found out they do recognize humans, so we weren’t imagining that Connie recognized Heather yesterday. I also discovered their “beards” are modified feathers, not hairs, and only 10% of hen turkeys have them. Connie is special.

After a nice nap and some football (it put me to sleep), I went on a walk with the camera, looking for birds to photograph. I ended up taking a few horse and donkey pictures instead. Mabel was being especially regal.

I did have a bit of bird fun, as I tracked a little Kestrel as he hunted around our field. Of course, I mostly got photos of his butt. My luck.

It’s so rare to have an agenda-free day. It allowed me to reflect on this extended dark season, and to allow myself a little hope that the light starting to trickle in during this Yule season will be more than just the wheel of the year turning. I’m setting that intention!

It’s a long road towards civil and ethical society.

But hey, it was a peaceful day, and I did get to see at least a few birds!

The resident Great Blue Heron never disappoints.

Oh yes, Apache and I had a better ride today, but I don’t think he likes riding when it’s getting dark with no lighting.

Focusing on the Good, Poultry Edition

I’ll put it right out there: today wasn’t the best day ever at work. Stuff happens. You deal with it and move on. I’ll do that, too!

But things were much more cheerful outside. The sun shone, the weather was pleasantly cool, and Connie got a new boyfriend (I hope). This year, my friend Heather brought us a strapping young tom, who seems as nice as Connie, as far as I can tell. I think today was a bit much for him, so his true personality has not emerged.

Call me Darryl Junior. That’s because I had a brother named Darryl, but Suna insisted on changing my name.

He’s taller than Connie, but not as broad-breasted. I hope he doesn’t get too huge for the door to the coop.

He’s all red because he’s a bit agitated.

Poor Heather was supposed to get here in plenty of time before my first meeting of the day, but she got stuck on a two-lane county road behind four immense wide loads. We still got a little bonding time in.

We enjoyed watching the turkeys inspect each other. There was no violence, just one flappy incident that I got on video.

I love how Connie comes over to check in with me when the flapping is over.

I’m glad they have lots of space to peck around and find treasure. This was Darryl’s first experience with grass, so it took him a while to get to exploring. It also took the chickens a while to check him out. Clint had the Cochins all protected in the small coop for quite a while.

I’m still beautiful. By the way those black things on my chest are called a beard. Who knew?

While all this was going on, the horses were also experiencing change. Horses are not fond of change.

Apache on Alert. Drew right up where the work is happening, trying to “help.”

Work has started on making the pasture fencing permanent. The first step was making and installing braces. This involves cutting large pieces of pipe and welding them together. That’s the auger digging holes in the above picture.

It’s going to be a good, strong fence when they’re done, with a pipe top rail. I think the horse pens will also get upgraded during this project. Huzzah.

See, the chickens eventually came out to play.

I think all the noise had the horses on edge, too. My ride on Apache this afternoon didn’t go well. He was a bit over-enthusiastic in his groundwork. And when I got on him, intending to calmly focus on straightness, I instead got to deal with a parade of anxious Apache behaviors, like throwing his head down to eat, veering away from where I asked him to go…blah blah blah. So, after doing some circles, I got off and did a bunch of walking, stopping, and backing up on the ground. That calmed him down enough to untack in a happier manner.

I also didn’t enjoy you picking all that mud out of my mane.

When I went out this evening to check on the fowl, I discovered Connie and Darryl outside, huddled together against the fence. I guess Darryl didn’t figure out how to go inside, or Connie invited him to stay out (I suspect she stayed out last night). I went and got a large box and put an old soft cloth in it. Hopefully they will go in there and be a bit warmer. Maybe I need to ask a relative to build them a portable shelter.

Ah well, all the animals will settle in, despite the changes going on.

Hey, Animals! Distract Me with Cuteness!

I needed some distraction today, and while I got plenty thanks to 5 hours straight working with engineers on project management tasks, I prefer the distraction provided by my animal friends today.

Do you mean me? Yes, my beauty is distracting!

As a matter of fact, Connie Gobbler did provide cute distraction today. In the morning, I opened the gate to the new chicken/turkey run. About an hour later, while I was checking my bird count, I heard domestic turkey sounds. Sure enough, brave Connie had gone to check the grass out. Once she got over how it felt, she seemed happy.

The heron understood her reluctance to it was too cold to leave shelter.

A bit later, both Lee and I saw Clint the rooster standing in the entrance, stretching to peck but not willing to get on the grass. Eventually, he remembered he was a brave manly rooster and joined Connie in exploring.

I didn’t see Cindy or Cathy outside their pen until mid afternoon when I was feeding horses. They didn’t go very far out, but they seemed happy to have fresh plants and bugs to peck at.

They are barely outside, but that’s pretty brave for them.

I had to turn my attention to horses, since I had a rare weekday lesson this evening. I’m sure glad it was sunny and calm outside. That made the cold weather bearable.

We were just glad the water trough ice got broken up. Thanks, Suna.

I rushed to get Apache ready to go and ended up early, so I took some pictures for my boss. She likes horses.

Apache and I enjoyed our lesson, and got to be in Tarrin’s sunset photos. He is working on being straight and not veering off. I’m proud of him.

After the lesson I practiced putting a blanket on him for the ride home. Tarrin showed me how to use the fancy blanket I got with the trailer. I think I can do it myself now. He does look very spiffy in it.

We will see what it looks like in the morning. I’m sure he will roll in poop with it on.

Writing about the animals has helped! My wrath at the cruel things the US President said today about a murdered celebrity couple is now just a simmer. These are hard times.

My Weird Way to Cut Down on Social Media

It’s only kind of weird, but it works for me the problem is that my phone thinks I look hours and hours at it, when, in fact, I’m not even near the phone. It’s hard to doomscroll if your phone is nowhere nearby and the computer you’re using is only connected to LinkedIn (and honestly, ten minutes is plenty to determine who’s been laid off lately).

I still enjoy social media, but do a quick Facebook check in the morning, play with my Finch self-care app for 20 minutes, see if I got any personal email, then walk away.

Also doing my nails creates at least an hour of phone-free time.

That’s because I leave the phone outside listening to birds once I have to stop birding with my own eyes and ears. The phone may think I’m staring at Merlin Bird ID, but no, I just check in periodically. Any texts or other messages just have to wait.

Today’s bird was this Ruby-crowned Kinglet, as photographed on the phone. blurry.

I can work undisturbed by my online social life except in breaks. That’s helped me from going down rabbit holes and letting myself get upset.

In the evenings, I read other people’s blogs and news sources that don’t try to get me all upset. This all works for me. I can still stay informed and keep up with friends without it consuming my day. This gives me time for horses, birds, domestic fowl, and wildflowers, not to mention friends and family!

She’s talking about us. We are domestic fowl.

So, my social media trick is to get your phone all busy doing something for you and ignore it for a good chunk of your day. It makes checking for messages and updates a fun interlude, not the whole day.

Morning fog on the window screen. It got very foggy this evening, too.

Today I enjoyed many things while the phone was ignored. I took some autumn photos, for one thing.

Pretty day! The yellow is a willow trees.

I watched a new run for the chickens and Connie get worked on. Connie was not impressed and tried to scare away the noisy dudes by gobbling and displaying her magnificent feathers. I didn’t even know hen turkeys could do that!

I also ended up with time to work with horses a bit longer than usual, so I picked out all the burs in Drew’s mane and tail. He was a true gentleman during the process. I think he’s feeling better.

In the evening Lee and I got a new coffeemaker, which is exactly like our previous one, only not worn out. We look forward to coffee tomorrow. I also got a slightly better toaster that should be less likely to burn my thick bread. These are our holiday gifts to each other.

We treated ourselves to dinner in a “real” restaurant and made our server very happy by forgiving him for not realizing we were his table. I had a magnificent beer and some salmon, which means I had a great Saturday with little phone time…until now, when I’m writing this.

Hay Hay! The Horses Are Happy

Gratitude was in the eyes of all the pasture dwellers today. They had not been at all thrilled that a round bale of hay had been unceremoniously dumped in the middle of the entrance to their pens. They were equally irritated at the orange tractor sharing space with them.

Correct tractor and pens, but not the actual location.

Mysteriously, a front tire popped off its rim as Lee drove it into the horse area, intending to drop the hay bale in the pasture where the Powers That Be (horses) prefer it to be. So, they stayed there for two weeks awaiting rescue until today, when strong and clever men from DeWitt County arrived to perform tractor tire magic and get a new bale in the correct place.

I’m pretty sure the horses are also enjoying the pleasantly cool and sunny weather, too. They always charm me after they eat, checking empty dishes in case anyone left any tasty supplements. It’s one of those times when you just enjoy the moment.

I hope you had a couple of moments in your day when you could just pause to enjoy the moment.

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.

Errands Did Me In

Just a quick hello from my fancy new phone to say I’m about to crash. I had many errands to do today, since I am not allowed to work this week. All but grocery shopping occurred but everything took longer than expected thanks to a nice rainy day.

I could fit in my birding station to watch the rain until it got windy.

First I indulged myself and went to Michael’s, the craft store. I try to go as seldom as possible but I needed a few things, like spray sealant for my silly painted rocks, more paint, and embroidery scissors, because I lost my RV pair. I had a good time looking at odd Christmas ornaments and such.

Next got my phone, which is an iPhone 17 Air. It’s very light. I still liked my other phone but it had some issues, so here I am with this golden one. This camera is a little better, too—not as good as the Pro, but I’m pleased. The new phone also came in very fast. I’d ordered it Friday evening and it arrived today. I let the young man at the store put the front cover on. I always screw that up.

Then I headed off for my mammogram. I’m a good person who occasionally does hard things. The new machines don’t hurt as much but I forgot that I have an allergic reaction to either their disinfectant or the machine, so I got an unpleasant boob rash. The technician gave me antihistamines. I was fine.

I quickly went home to set the new phone up, but it refused to comply when asked to download from the cloud. Since I got partially started, I had to spend HOURS unable to text, get calls, or check Facebook. Argh.

Sunset calmed me down, even though I was on my horse.

Nonetheless all is well. I made it to Apache’s lesson though he was filthy with mud and still damp from the rain. I just took out his burs and loaded him up. It’s good we went, since I was dying to see Tarrin’s new arena cover. It’s great, and didn’t scare Apache at all!

Ooh, the other thing I did today was iron on my bird patches I got at the Master Naturalist conference. My Scissortail on my jeans is perfect. You can see the heron on a denim shirt in the horse photo.

Whew. Not working is tiring.

(I’m glad Tarrin took pictures for me today, or I’d have very little to share!)

Take Away My Horse Owner License

Sure, today was both a packed work day and a day of dealing with those anxiety symptoms I abhor, but the horses didn’t do anything to deserve neglect.

It turns out that when the farrier left yesterday, he turned all the horses out of the pens, then like a good rancher, he shut the gate he let them out of, because he’d found it shut. I didn’t figure that out until late afternoon today, which was really not good on my part.

You see, I fed and watered them in the morning, so I just visually checked on them yesterday afternoon, when they were all happily eating the hay in their round bale.

Same thing happened this morning; they were way out in the pasture and looked fine. I never checked the pens other than to note what species of dove was on the upper poles (European Collared Doves).

I intended to feed both them and the chickens early in the afternoon, but as soon as I walked out the door, I had to go back in and help someone. The second time I walked out, I was distracted by a huge tree stump that was headed for the burn pile, but did get the chickens fed before another call.

Huge (already dead and a danger in town)

By the time I finally got out to turn the water off and feed horses, I was confused to see them standing around outside the pens. Then I realized what happened. Poor horses! Luckily it didn’t rain or storm today and they have a water trough outside the pens. So, they were fine.

Dusty plodded right over to his spot and indicated he was ready for his senior feed.

Tuesday is always hard because I start work early and end late, so there was no exercise time, but I did check all their feet and was happy to see Apache’s eye looked good. He’d gotten a piece of hay in it and I’d been treating it.

Being horses, they weren’t upset with me, just happy for food and bur removal. They always cheer me up.

Dusty has to be sure he gets all his “gravy.” He’s a wet chewer.

I think I got more non-spam calls today than I usually get in a month, but I enjoyed helping folks at work, and was happy to get calls from my doctor’s office about getting something to help with these blasted chest pains.

Looking at these guys helps, but I need meds. Do notice Spice’s tail. She’s an active swisher.

Let’s hope tomorrow is nice and calm, with happy pills and maybe some rain!

I’ll be sitting right here in the morning, unless it’s raining hard!

I Like Naps

It’s a good thing I like naps, since I’m very good at falling asleep at this point in my life. I had a very nice nap on the porch this afternoon with the sun keeping me warm and a breeze to keep me from being too warm. Other than waking myself up snoring from being in an awkward position, it was great.

And the good news is that I still had time for horse activities before sunset.

I did have a pretty busy morning after a leisurely birding hour and a little walk. Lots of bluebirds were out competing for grasshoppers, which is always a joy to watch.

I can’t say my morning project tired me out, because after Chris did the hard work of pounding the hanger into the ground, putting up this cool solar birdbath was very easy. And the best part is the bubbler is quiet and doesn’t interfere with bird listening. I hope birds use it. This evening the sparrows were eyeing it.

It turns off at night and when the water runs low.

I spent the rest of the morning doing volunteer work at the Wildscape and bird sanctuary projects. The Master Naturalist volunteers I have done a great job clearing out the space so new plants can go in.

I enjoyed the sights, including a shy kitty and a chicken who laid an egg right in front of me.

I had a great time at the bird sanctuary, where there were at least 20 species out and about. Just the chickadees and titmice were at the feeder, but I saw and heard many more.

After chatting with others at the benches, I went to lunch with the group and had a very good time. I’m glad a was brave enough to do a group thing.

Jackie pretending to investigate a feeder while Debi looks on.

All the mice were out of the chicken feed box, so I can clean it out tomorrow. I guess I’ll need another nap then! Less rodent worry meant tonight’s sunset walk was calmer and I could enjoy listening to the Great Horned Owl and friends for a while. All is well.

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.