weather – 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.

Nothing wrong with uneventful days

Yeah, the last couple of days have been fairly low stress, with just a couple of bobbles. Also the blog prompts are so repetitive that I didn’t feel like answering the last few. Nonetheless, there have been highlights.

Master Naturalist meeting was last night, and I even made the end of the Board meeting (but missed some ruffled feelings, thankfully). A highlight of the meeting was getting a photo with all our living Presidents as our current one received a commemorative Bald Eagle pin.

The other highlight has been Stumpy’s growing popularity with its avian buddies. We now have little flocks of House Sparrows vying for stump space, as well as Cardinals seeking out their sunflower seeds. My patience has really paid off! Here are blurry phone photos to prove it. I’ll have to bring out the good camera now that there’s something to photograph.

Look at all the birds in the tree awaiting their turn.

I’ve felt good about work, because I’ve hit a few deadlines, but I’m glad the weekend is here. We had a pleasant dinner with my son and his partner at the new restaurant in town, which always is a pleasure. I do enjoy the little downtown area.

It rained somewhere near here this evening, but not here. We are back in crispy season, with extreme heat and brown plants. I’m glad to have water to look at here! Tomorrow I’m working with the water garden some more, too.

Hatches Battened, Precipitation Engaged

The first wave of the long-awaited bad weather has arrived at last. So far we have had enough rain to at least make a dent in the dryness. Heck, this morning the mist was so heavy that the screened porch had water dripping down the screens. Here’s where we were earlier today.

That’s all rain. I guess tomorrow or later tonight the snow comes. Or not. Who knows? In any case we parked the motorhome in front of the garage, so it will be out of the north wind. And the generator is working!

Red is bad. Freezing rain or sleet. Yuck!

If you don’t get a blog for a couple of days understand I’m just conserving energy. We and our animals will be fine. I’ll keep knitting my red hat and temperature blanket.

Stay safe everyone! Except certain people who escaped to the beach (and you know who you are). Nah, I want everyone safe. And warm.

Invasion of the Longspurs

There have been two new avian visitors to the Hermits’ Rest in the last few days. I exaggerated when I called it an invasion, but these two aren’t usually seen this far east. I don’t recall ever seeing one, and my bird book confirms I had no previous longspur sightings, here or elsewhere. Perhaps that extra-windy cold front blew this week some this way.

Most recent new lifers. I rarely get them at home anymore.

The first one is the Thick-billed. I was very confused because it wasn’t in my guidebook, which is only a few years old.

It turns out the McCown’s Longspur has been renamed in the process of removing human names from species names. If I’d looked at the Latin name I’d have figured it out sooner. As it is, I needed Merlin to find it, because non-breeding males and females look like all the sparrows from a distance.

The second one showed up today, which makes me feel more confident that some are a little out of their usual range. The Chestnut-sided Longspur would be just as hard to spot in winter, though it is striking in breeding plumage.

Both birds winter in prairies and fields with short grass, which we have plenty of here. I’ll be very interested to see if any more are detected in the next few weeks. I’m not sure where the spurs are. None of the pictures show the feet well enough, if that’s where they are.

Their ranges are similar. Images borrowed from Merlin Bird ID.

In addition to interesting birds, today was also very pleasant, with clear skies and pleasantly cool temperatures.

I was able to go for a walk, play with the fowl and horses, and enjoy the patio rather than cowering to avoid wind. Of course it warmed up—I finally have blankets for three of the horses. Dusty’s is covered in jelly beans. I wonder if they will need them again?

I even managed to complete December in my temperature blanket on the last day of the month! I’d managed to make the last row of black ahead of time. Ahh, I’ll never have to make solid black squares again!

Last week was way warmer than usual for December.

Now all I have left is to join all the blocks and to the border, which is going to be rainbow colors! Why not? That should give me something to do while my peas and collards are cooking tomorrow.

Congratulations to all of you who made it to another year. I have more thoughts on that for tomorrow!

Converting a Coworker

Today was lots of fun in the bird department, as lots of songbirds decided to let me see them. At last I truly believe that Orchard Orioles and Yelliwthroats live in my trees. There was also a Kestrel around all day.

So, I was in a meeting with no agenda (open office hours) with my three fellow Subject Matter Experts, and we were collaborating on various issues when one of us mentioned going for nature walks. That got me and another woman all excited about this ghost plant (Monotropa uniflora) she had seen earlier in the week, and we got into fruits we can forage in Oregon and Texas.

This photo came from a fascinating blog about these ghost plants.

About ten minutes into our rapturous discussion of things we see in the woods, our more urban counterpart told us that she gave in and we’d converted her into looking more closely wherever she walks. I think we felt like we’d accomplished much more that just solving work issues today.

I guess that’s enough cheerful talk for the day, but I must interject that, even though rain was close again today, none fell, so Apache and I had a nice practice session and great time on the trail. I think he’s used to it now!

Storms Aplenty

The morning was pleasant and fair.

Then it got very hot, over 100°F. Suddenly a small but mighty storm blew in. It really blew.

Here it comes, blowing that tree around.

Winds came up and I watched dust and bits of harvest debris flying around. The horses were in a tizzy. I flew around in the heavy winds until the lightning got close and I sensibly went onto the porch.

Luckily it was just a severe thunderstorm and not a tornado cell. Lee and I watched it blow through, with sideways rain and spectacular lightning. It turned out the people across the road were doing the same thing on their porch!

Cozy, since the rain was blowing away from the windows.

We only got .08” of rain, but that’s better than nothing.

Once the storm passed, the temperature went down 15° and it was lovely.

I went for a nice walk and enjoyed watching swallows and nighthawks catching bugs around sunset. A wonderful surprise was seeing a nighthawk sitting on an electric wire in front of our house. You rarely get to see a perched nightjar.

I ended up seeing or hearing 53 bird species today. Looks like some early migration is happening. We are getting some warblers and quite a few sandpipers. It’s good to have them to distract me from other sudden storms that blow in out of the blue!

This, too, will pass. Note overturned chair!

Tell the people you appreciate how much they mean to you.

Resting Truly Helps

The people who tell you to get rest and drink a lot of fluids when you’re feeling sick know what they’re talking about. After a couple of days of a sore throat and congestion I gave in to the fact that not only Lee is under the weather. I caught the latest mystery virus.

We spent all day under the beautiful storm clouds.

Once I accepted the situation I decided to be kind to myself and rest today. Tarrin fit me in for my riding lesson later in the week, so I didn’t push myself to do all the prep work and riding that entails. My only scheduled activity was a Zoom meeting for Annual Meeting field trip planning, which was easy to do sitting down.

This Hackberry Emperor was on the porch, so I didn’t exert myself to photograph it.

It helped that it rained a while, so I just wrote stuff and drank hot beverages. That was most of the day.

I did spy on the Barn Swallow nest. Still just eggs. Wonder where a Guinea fowl feather came from?

Admittedly, I’m still not as good at loafing as I was when younger, so I did take two long walks to enjoy the pleasant weather after the rain.

I thought I was taking it easy, but I got 39 minutes of exercise and 10,000 or so steps in. Plus, I cooked dinner, an easy one, but still…

These views helped me forget feeling sick.

I’m not very good at resting. And I’m nowhere near as sick as Lee, who’s still having chills and congestion and all that. Thank you, immune system, for being so hardy! Combined with my somewhat restful day, I may already be feeling better.

I saw this while convalescing on the new porch watching the sparrows flying in and out.

All in all, it was a perfect day to watch clouds and a perfect evening to watch the Strawberry Moon. Days like this make living in the moment easier.

We’re There, Wherever There Is

After making sure the dogs and elderly resident at the Hermits’ Rest would have good care, Lee and I did our best to get to our latest state park. For some reason, perhaps the cold weather, getting ready seemed to take forever. So many things to feed and water, so much to load, and so many RV chores.

Yeah, I think it was the cold and wind. It took a long time to leave, since we had to check the tires, try to add propane, and get lots of gas. We aren’t sure why the propane furnace won’t come on, because apparently the tank is full. RVs sure have a lot that can go wrong.

Proof that we made it and successfully detached the Gladiator.

We got to Blanco State Park, a tiny park with a lot of frontage on the Blanco River, before dark, which was our goal. Our friend Mike had gotten there a little while earlier, so we got settled in and went to find a nice place to eat.

I did manage a small walk and got this shot of the sunset reflecting in the river.

The park is right in town, so after finding that our first intended destination was now a dive bar, we had a good meal and very yummy beer at a brewery place. There are another couple of places that look good, too.

I’m looking forward to exploring the river and seeing if there are any birds around here. So far I’ve seen one Mockingbird. Hmm.

What a Scary Weather Day

Yikes. Today started out just fine. I got a bunch of work done, then in mid afternoon Lee and I drove to Waco, with me doing my meetings and stuff. Have laptop, will work. Lee was called to Federal Jury Duty, and wanted to check out the courthouse before tomorrow and not have to get up quite so early.

As we drove, we started getting severe thunderstorm warnings. I still had time to check out the lovely river area near the Waco Hilton. They’ve done a great job!

As I was taking pictures of urban birds, I heard thunder. So I went inside and we went downstairs to eat dinner. That was a good idea.

It started to rain, and it got as bad as rain gets in a hurricane, along with similar winds. It was quite a show outside the restaurant windows. Then things went downhill when the kitchen had to stop making hot food, then some roof collapsed in the convention center part of the building. Water was pouring in.

We only had a couple of power glitches. Unfortunately it was not as good back at home. The hospital where Kathleen is staying went on generator power and moved all the patients into the hallways. She said there was a bit of chaos and screaming when the big hail came. They had 80 mph winds.

At home it was bad. Our house, family members, dogs, horses, and chickens are fine. Many trees are down and water was over the roads. Luckily everyone got home safely. My chicken pens blew away. The pool, which had just had a repair today, is full of lawn furniture and a greenhouse frame. But that’s nothing.

Roofing blew off the cabin where my son lives, and the material covering their patio is now in Sara’s horse pen. Glad we have the RV where they can stay until repairs are made. A tree fell on Sara’s horse trailer, and Mandy’s balcony rail is gone.

It was a mess. What is good, though, is how we all checked up on each other. My friends, family, and even the insurance agent/friend started texting and offering to help each other out. It really made me feel safer and like I belong. Plus I was so worried about everyone!

I haven’t heard from the people in our Red House Airbnb. There are so many trees around it that I get worried. Someone will check tomorrow. I just hope we don’t get much more rain tonight.

There IS something more positive out of today! Lee’s trial got canceled, so he doesn’t have to go in tomorrow. I may be able to visit a friend in the afternoon, since tomorrow is my extra early work day. And Lee met the lady who is the court clerk and she told him our planned vacation in a couple weeks would excuse him from the next trial. He still might have to go at the end of June, though. It’s our duty to do this service, so Lee is happy to do so.

Can I Eclipse the Eclipse?

I know that people not in the parts of North America who didn’t see a total solar eclipse today are sick of hearing how awesome the one today was. And I admit that, having seen the annular eclipse last October I was pretty blasé about it.

Who could be blasé about this? Photo by my friend Jeff Tveraas. He has a good camera.

But, awesome is the right word. I was in awe during totality and couldn’t decide what was more fascinating, the corona and visible flares or how dark it got. The solar pool lights came on and I could see stars. Now only the aurora borealis remains on my weather bucket list.

We had to watch from my house, because I now have to take tomorrow off work. I can’t lose two days of pay, since I’m a contractor. But I think we got longer totality at home than where I was going to go.

To commemorate the big event, I did a project where I tried to photograph every flower blooming today. I missed the ground cherries by the horse pens because the rain arrived just as I was trying to feed. Didn’t want to ruin the phone! But, for your pleasure, here they are. I’ll break them up by color. Let’s start with white.