Tag: money

Work Hard. Get Rewarded.

It’s not often that your hard work gets tangibly rewarded. For my paying work, knowing I’ve done my best and that what I’ve done may help someone is enough. This week I’ve been quite satisfied to get a lot of that kind of work done.

My rewards are always nature walks.

Some hard work feels very unrewarding, but must be done. I’ve suffered through a lot of financial work this week, which may explain while I’m still having anxiety chest pains. But I’ve trimmed some expenses and added money to my 401K. That’s the direction where I want to go!

On the road to financial peace.

But tonight I did get a reward. Last week I attained 1,000 volunteer hours with Texas Master Naturalists, which was not easy while working full time and owning horses. My friend who also got the achievement took two fewer years than me! I’m proud of Eric, though. He does great work.

I look like a Boy Scout in my vest.

My reward was a gold dragonfly pin. I got bronze for 250 hours and silver for 500. It will be years before I get another one!

So many pins. The colored dragonfly is for initial certification. The enamel pins are for at least 40 volunteer hours and 8 training hours each year. The bottom pins we got for sticking with the program through COVID.

It was nice seeing a full house at tonight’s meeting, with three visitors, even. We enjoyed a great presentation on lichen, where I learned a LOT. I apparently knew very little about lichen. Did you know they are a symbiotic combo of a fungus and algae? And they have a fascinating structure. Now I want to buy a black light flashlight and go out and see which ones glow.

Interesting!
Pamela’s toenail polish reacted to the black light.

We are getting good rain again tonight. That’s so good for the ponds. It will probably knock those few autumnal orange leaves I found today down. It’s ok. I see birds better that way.

Mostly cedar elms
Honey locusts

I’m Getting RICH

Am I offended that my “live blogging” experiment has been a dismal failure (9 hits so far)? Nah. Nothing attracts readers like sick or injured animals, and I don’t have any more of those (and it is FINE). So, I’m due for another round of low visitor count on the ole blog.

I know I captivate so many of you with images of geometrically pleasing cacti that are about to bloom. It’s part of my very tiny cactus collection. And most of the cacti are very tiny, too.

But it’s OK! I’m making money off my humble posts about nature, books, and domestic animals! I monetized my blog when I finally got to 100 followers (thank you followers, even though many of you are businesses trying to sell something). Mandi has faithfully clicked on many ads. And now I am raking in the WordPress ad cash:

That’s RIGHT! I’ve made FOUR CENTS in genuine US currency. It looks like it will take a while for the total to reach $100 and a check to show up. I’m not quitting my day job.

The view of the wetness from Anita’s balcony. She has plants, mostly her cactus and succulent collection.

Nature content: Another big rain day. That makes a month of large amounts of rain at least once a week.