turkeys – The Hermits' Rest

Water, weather, welcome changes

Folks, I’m still thinking about the book I recently finished, so I’ll share some ranch updates that I’ve been observing and enjoying.

Someday this hill will be helping shape our drainage.

One thing that’s going on is that the project of setting up our huge water tanks to collect rainwater off the house and garage roofs is moving along, even though the least little bit of rain tries to fill the hole where the impressively deep concrete pad to hold the house’s tank is going to be.

Just a little rain started to make a new pond.

For example, it rained .04” yesterday, but because all the rain on the roof falls out of the same pipe, which of course is located on top of the hole, since eventually that’s where the tank will be. Even this morning’s heavy dew had a nice flow going. That bodes well for future dry spells, but not for setting up the forms to pour the concrete.

At least the amphibian population is happy.

This week my son and his helper have been getting things in line to create the forms for the big pad and a bunch of paths/sidewalks leading from our entry gate to the house, the pool, and the pool house. We will be SO fancy! Imagine not tracking in mud and stickers! Imagine not tripping on holes the dogs and visiting critters have dug! It’s so encouraging!

The guys have taken wood scraps we already have and cut or ripped them down to make stakes and holders for the plywood that will make the forms. As you can see, it involved a lot of sawing!

They’ve done a lot of other small jobs around the ranch, like trimming the willow trees beside the driveway, making the henhouse door larger so Darryl, the tom turkey can get in, and fixing two very vexing leaky pipes. Most important, the horses now have water again after the leaks got fixed. I’m so glad that our turn came!

Limbs no longer try to scratch vehicles.

Tomorrow should see lots more progress, and a very happy change in the weather! It’s going to cool off and be very pleasant, at last. I’m looking forward to more time in the birding hut before and after work, and a pleasant experience doing this year’s pollinator bio blitz, which starts tomorrow.

Maybe these mofos will get all sluggish or something.

I do hope the beautiful swallowtail and queen butterflies are still here for my intense iNaturalist activity over the next couple of weeks! And since the Master Naturalist annual meeting is next week in Waco, I’m in a nature-mania mode! Or more of these.

My new funnel weaver buddy, ***Barronopsis texana***

And that’s the news from the Hermits’ Rest.

October Big Day

Today was the October Big Day for birders. Cornell Ornithology Lab was encouraging everyone to report all their bird sightings today on eBird or Merlin Bird ID. Of course, I was up for that, and because I had an upset tummy thing, I stayed close to home, making it a good day to observe.

Since its calving season, it was easy to spot Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures, and Crested Caracaras.

There was a mama cow glaring at this Caracara who was enjoying a placenta snack (hey, it’s Nature’s cleaning service).

And House Sparrows were east to find, since they dominate the stump feeder.

Mostly, I enjoyed listening to birds. Mockingbirds are back to singing long and complicated songs, as are Carolina Wrens. (Bewick’s Wrens are still just buzzing.)

This Mockingbird was singing away on a high branch.

My favorite sight came late in the afternoon, when I went on a walk. Eastern Bluebirds were all over the pastures singing and diving for insects. They were pretty blue streaks against the brown grass.

All in all, I recorded 40 species today. That’s about average for this time of year. Below is the list, as checked off in the book Lee went to a lot of trouble to make me, only to find he forgot October. He’s making another one, and I’ll transfer these to the new book.

The list is birds I have seen before in November. It works for October. I just write in new species, and he will add them for next year. He likes to make books!

Good news: I’m feeling better mentally since coming home from New Mexico. I even had energy today to do all the chores and not feel exhausted. That made all the animals happy, because I hung out and played with them.

We were a little offended that you didn’t count us in the Big Day count, but we appreciated the romaine lettuce

I need to lose my post-horse-lesson depression weight, so my goal is to get back to my daily walks and horse stuff. It’s now cool enough in mornings and around sunset to walk without suffering, so I’m taking advantage of it. Besides, I get to enjoy flowers and sunsets!

The only hiccup in the day was putting the red border around September in my temperature blanket only to realize I’d omitted a row of blank squares. Oops. I should be able to show it tomorrow, though.

PS: more good news. I confirmed today that all three goldfish are still alive and swimming. There are still lots of the other fish, too, so Alfred is forgiven.

Take me with you

If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them?

My friend and former housemate, Jeffrey Tveraas, wrote a song about encountering aliens that has always stayed with me. In the song, the narrator asks to go along with them: Take Me with You. (The song is quite catchy.) At this point in my life, I might take my chances and head on out into alien territory.

I figure, being eaten or enslaved by aliens would be preferable to watching my human rights erode. And they might be fun, who knows?

But, here I am at the Hermits’ Rest, wandering around looking for autumnal blossoms and hanging around with my dwindling collection of livestock buddies. I did find flowers!

And I enjoyed all the animals, too. Thanks to the hard work of the ranch family this year, the cocklebur problem in the horses’ manes and tails is manageable. The mowing got most of them. I was also happy to see the turkeys seem happy as they can be after the fox incident. My herbal treatment seems to have perked up their digestion, and all their lost feathers are growing back. Life goes on.

That’s all I can share for today. Keep our family in your thoughts and hug your loved ones!

Oh, and let me know if you meet any friendly aliens!

Texas Rain

Not much excitement is going on here, because we’ve been getting nice, steady, light rain for two days. That’s atypical, because usually we go directly from severe drought to severe flooding, which means most of the rain runs off. This time the water has had a chance to soak in.

It is flooding down at the other family property in Yorktown, though, and in many places south of us. We just lucked out. The rain will continue this week, but I hope it stops in time for us to travel to our final camping destination for a while.

We’re going to leave Seneca at a motor home repair place when camping is over to get all fixed up for more adventures. The lack of hot water, a kitchen faucet, and a bedroom slide-out has all become tiresome.

The RV carport will be empty while Seneca is gone.

But if it rains, it rains. I’m just glad I haven’t had to drive a lot in it, like all the rest of the family have. I go out and obsessively check the rain gauge to get my steps in. And of course, the one time I forgot to put on rain boots is when I had to go in the muddy chicken house to fetch a turkey egg.

Dramatization. Yeah, I know…just wanted to try this.

I was surprised to get over 50 bird species on Merlin today, even with the rain off and on. It’s very convenient that my birding phone can sit on the back porch and not get wet. That enabled me to confirm to Lee that he truly did hear a flock of seagulls fly over. Franklin’s Gulls are on the move, heading to central Canada.

Note that this is the only week in the year that these gulls are likely to!

Let’s see what tomorrow brings! Woo hoo! Maybe more rain.

Blowing Away

The weather was pretty weird today. Low in the 50s, high in the 90s, and so much wind! If I ever complained about the wind before, I was being wimpy. This wind is not a gale but is pretty close. All our poor new porch plants are getting buffeted.

Of course we got all these new plants, only to realize that it is getting cold again tomorrow, maybe a freeze. I guess it all gets to come back in tomorrow. Sigh.

While the wind has been annoying, it’s otherwise been a beautiful weekend full of getting things done at home. Yesterday the chicken house got all cleaned out. That was about time! Kathleen had a fancy mask so she didn’t get sick like I did the time I did it by myself.

The turkeys were not happy with all that stuff going on. Darryl Junior was all puffed up and glowing in turkey colors.

Today I’d hoped to spend lots of time with the horses. They were so lovely out in the field this morning that I wanted to make them prettier.

It wasn’t so windy but still too windy to do the flower photography I’d hoped to do.

Kathleen and I did the best we could, but she wasn’t feeling well and I got overheated. So, Mabel got nothing and Apache just got a little currying. Spice really needed grooming and was so grateful for the attention that she kept nuzzling me. I even gave her a little workout that she seemed to enjoy. She’s a very good horse and so well trained. I’ve enjoyed having her with us.

I also managed to get Drew all shiny and pretty. He still has stains from rolling in poop, but he’s already starting to get shiny. He’s much whiter now, and even his mane is lighter. Now that we are working with him more, he’s behaving very well. I’m glad he’s still here.

Kathleen got Dusty looking most excellent, too. She’s giving him some new supplements that even have his hair shiny. And we think he’s putting weight back on. What a lucky old man he is.

You can see the wind blowing everyone’s tails in the photos.

Okay, back to the wind. We went to eat with friends tonight and noticed the sky was so weird. There was so much dust in the air that you couldn’t see the clouds or sun. It was eerie.

Photo out the car window doesn’t do it justice.

The wind gave me time to get some reading done as well as some nice family time. I hope there isn’t too much damage. Stuff is really blowing around and we saw pieces of metal lying around and downed tree limbs on our drive to and from the restaurant.

It was a good weekend, even if I didn’t do all I’d hoped to.

The Day DID Get Better

No kidding, today started out like nothing was going to go right. My first sight, when I went out to check the exciting .04” of rain we got, was an unpleasant unalive mammal. An hour or so later I stepped in gross septic water because it was draining near the chicken pens.

They do have a new entrance ramp, though.

Next I sprayed cold water all over myself trying to fix the automatic waterer without turning off the water. Bright. I did fix it, and my offspring the handyman built a temporary brace to stop big, clumsy Darryl Junior from stomping on the water hose and loosening the connection. Yay.

There is now another piece of concrete and some wood where my foot is here, to stabilize the hose. Yes that’s my wet shoe. And the other thing is what I put their grit in, and it’s a pig (someone always asks).

Then I dropped stuff and nearly failed in putting mice traps in the tack room (sorry, don’t want to die of hanta virus). I got stuff all over me.

At least I had a good interlude when my Precious Stepsister called and she listened to my anxiety stuff. That’s because I gave her a rock.

Not the rock I gave her, but my message to you!

And finally, I sat down to enjoy Facebook at lunch only to discover this article, detailing how the homophobia in Texas is so bad that a children’s book author whose in-laws I’ve known for decades can be prevented from talking about his charming nonfiction books (I’ve read many of them) in elementary schools because there is one sentence in one book that acknowledges LGBTQIA+ people exist. How low can this place go? Rhetorical question.

Read all about Chris Barton and consider buying a young friend (or yourself) one of his books. As a matter of fact, I bought a copy of every book he’s written for children and sent them to my unofficial granddaughter.

And our US Senator has once again left the state when bad weather is coming. Coincidence, I’m sure.

I was pretty mad at the world much of the day, especially when the dogs found something I won’t mention and brought it into the house to fight over. While Penney tried to kill Carlton (she kept going when he stopped at Lee’s command, so Carlton lost), Harvey ate the contested item. All I can say is I’m glad I was feeding horses then. It sounded pretty yucky.

You can sorta see a scrape under his chin, but his leg is worse; he’s favoring it (but it’s not broken).

After all those small things built up, I was about to go crawl under the covers, but then I had a second good phone call of the day that cheered me up about possible not horrible developments in my life!

See, there’s always good among the nauseating events. You just have to be patient and not spend all day hiding under the covers.

Roller Coaster Day!

Today had its ups and downs, but in the interest of time I’ll just share ups. You’re welcome.

The turkeys are happy to share that their hit is finished. According to my son, they were VERY helpful while he was moving it into place and getting it painted. They really wanted to help him paint and kept trying to grab the brushes.

We’re not shy. We also appreciate our water dish being put on a level surface!

I love how well the hut matches the henhouse, tack room, and horse pens. It’s so classic barn red. And it has a nice metal roof with few sharp edges to give me tetanus.

I hope the dang turkeys use it. This evening I went out to check on them and the only occupants I saw were the chickens in their area and this guy in the backup coop. He is not a turkey.

You interrupted my rummaging through chicken feed!

Oh well. It isn’t going to hurt anyone. The turkeys would peck it to death first.

Other good stuff? Lee and I did a non-hermit thing and went to a friend’s house for dinner. We had a wonderful time in an old farmhouse laughing and telling stories with our friend and the other guest. He was also a hermit. We had a lot in common. This is the kind of thing we should do more often. It’s great to meet smart, funny, like-minded folks out here.

This painting was on the wall. It’s by a friend I miss very much.

When I got home I had a long phone call with my former professor, Doc Shenkman, who just happens to have spent many years training law enforcement officers in ethics and acting within the law. As you can imagine, he had interesting things to say. He’d called so I could cheer him up, but I don’t think the stories I shared from my friends in Minneapolis did that. But, it’s good to hear the perspective of someone trained in law enforcement on recent events.

And as always, we both noted that there are many agents acting as they should, doing a hard and unpopular job. I just want us all safe, treated with respect, and able to express ourselves without fear.

I hope I didn’t veer too far off the cheerful, but all the conversations today (family, work, friends, and new friends) made me feel less alone and a wee bit more hopeful.

Happy Turkey, Grateful Human

Darryl Jr and Connie Gobbler are going to be happier this chilly weekend, because they are getting their very own Turkey Hut! It’s a custom-crafted abode made of the finest leftovers from construction projects.

The space is designed to be big enough for the turkeys to enter and exit but small enough to keep them warm. It will be placed against the henhouse wall once completed. The opening faces south, away from the cold north winds.

Lee wants it to look good, so it will have siding, a metal roof (it slants to the rear so rain will drain, and spiffy paint matching the barns here. I enjoyed hanging out with my son on my lunch break, getting supplies and treats from the bakery. Having some family fun helps remind me of the good in the world.

And this rock symbolizes how today felt to me. I’m deeply grateful to friends who have been incredibly supportive and kind for the past few days. I’m much more emotionally stable just knowing that I have real friends, including those from all over the political and spiritual spectrum, and from both inside and outside the US. And heck, my family have also been so good to me today—I feel a little more inclined to look forward to fun someday. I even had a great talk with a coworker about potential future plans after we finished writing some complex stuff.

Rainbow from earlier in the week, compliments of neighbor Vicki.

So yeah, it’s not the most peaceful time to be alive, but I’ve not been abandoned by all my communities, and I know I’ve led as good a life as I could. No one can take that away!

And tomorrow the turkeys will have a hut.

A Lovely Solstice

It was a fine day, full of pleasant sightings, fun happenings, food, and friendship. I finally got to take some bird photos, and I feel like I’m getting to know the camera better. I even managed to use manual focus to get these cottontail photos. I’m very proud of myself.

Looks like this bunny has had some adventures.

The sparrows were so cute today. And all of them were fun to search out. I told Tarrin’s husband that I think I get what is so fun about hunting. It’s so fun trying to spot them and then get them to stop hiding behind brush. These guys tried really hard to hide.

After getting my fill of birding, we took Apache for a lesson. We got to see two roadrunners on the road to the lesson! Apache got to show off his Christmas gift, which is a new leather látigo and off-billet. They are very brown, but lots easier to use than the cute green webbing one. My little arthritic hands are already grateful.

My saddle may not be pretty, but it is light and comfortable.

While today was the winter solstice in our hemisphere, all the animals seemed to think it’s the lusty month of May. No photos for this, but Tarrin’s bull was trying to get it on, and when I got home I saw that Darryl has seen to it that Connie will have fertilized eggs. That’s impressive, considering that Broad-breasted Turkeys have trouble with mating. And Clint gave the gens done fun. Hmm. Solstice fertility rituals I was not aware of.

My wattle turned all red and blue. Too bad Suna didn’t have her camera.

Our friends Martha and Mike came for dinner, which was good. She made lentil soup and I made very good beef stew. We topped it off with Mike’s family-recipe fudge. We enjoyed all our candles and welcomed the growing light.

Not a bad day, at all! Hoping yours was also good.

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!