Horse with an attitude

I know my horse, Red Rabbit, pretty well, but sometimes 

it's hard to tell what he's saying.

Here, I think it's either, "Ha-hah, you look funny 

today" or "More ginger snaps, please!"

Playful in the pasture

The deer came out last night just as it started to rain. I love this picture--not only for the personality of the playful fawn; it also reminds me of an Impressionistic painting and I like how the shapes of the doe and fawn offset each other.


"It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart."

A new view

I needed to change my perspective, so I changed my view.

From my desk, I can see the edge of the barn, part of the pasture, and now this new addition:

So far, two hummingbirds have found this giant glass flower, but they spend more time chasing each other away than actually feeding from it.

Meanwhile, my perspective has shifted to getting over a cold and choosing a new direction for work. It's not unlike wandering the trails out in the pasture. Do I take the familiar, well-worn path the horses travel daily, or one of the faint, unclear ones formed by the careful quiet movements of the deer?

Thanks and hugs to my horsey pal Sharon Murphey who 

gave me the unusual and decorative hummingbird feeder. 

Bad cat or bad squirrel?

I came home to a decimated spider plant on my porch.  

I'm posting this because it's a pretty good example of how I feel today. A little chewed up with only a few good leaves left on me. 

This is the second go-around for this plant and me. It got hurt once before, but I didn't take it out of harm's way.

 I shouldn't be surprised it got damaged again.

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you always got."

Mickey Freeman

Asshole indecision

There's just something about these guys that seems like an asshole with legs. And they're assholes for congregating in my ceiling corners.

Since they eat other bugs and are totally harmless, I've left them alone, but they're damn hard to ignore when they keep having parties every night and inviting all their friends.

I tried batting them down with a broom, but they just disperse and climb back up, doing a little squatty dance like they're laughing at my attempts. "Ha! Is that all ya got? You are so outnumbered!"

Sure, I have a flyswatter, but hate to kill anything that's not hurting me. So now I'm undecided. Live and let live, or pull out the heavy artillery: the You-Will-Die-A-Tortured-Death Vacuum Cleaner.

Life in the country isn't always pretty.

What is lard anyway?

Besides the dirty little secret of chefs everywhere, it's basically animal fat. So, here's my formerly tubby cat, Purr--now thin thanks to feline hyperthyroidism--and in need of...well...fat.  Living in Texas means you have access to things like a TUB OF LARD, so what better way to get his scrawny little hiney round again.

Maybe it's not the pinnicle of healthy calories, but it's gotta be better than the evil BPA-lined cans Purina uses in their crappy commercial cat food.

Meadow meditation

This jackrabbit seemed to sense the eye of my camera and stayed motionless for almost 20 minutes. I wanted some video footage of him hopping and browsing, but he didn't budge until the camera timed out and shut down.

That's a lot of patience, grasshopper.


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble."

Titus Maccius Plautus

Ugly and misunderstood

The following piece by David Bottoms gave me a new perspective and appreciation for vultures.


Under the Vulture-Tree
We've all seen them circling pastures,
looked up from the mouth of a barn, a pine clearing,
the fences of our backyards, and stood
amazed by the one slow wing beat,
the endless dihedral drift.

But I had never seen so many, so close, hundreds,
every limb of the dead oak feathered black,
I cut the engine, let the river grab the jon boat
and pull it toward the tree. The black leaves shone,
the pink fruit blossomed red, ugly as a human heart.

Then, as I passed under their dream,
I saw for the first time its soft countenance, the raw fleshy jowls
wrinkled and generous, like the faces of the very old
who have grown to empathize with everything.

I drifted away from them, slow,
on the pull of the river,
reluctant, looking back at their roost,
calling them what I'd never called them, what they are:

those dwarfed transfiguring angels
who flock to the side of the poisoned fox, the mud turtle
crushed on the shoulder of the road,
who pray over the leaf-graves of the anonymous lost,
with mercy enough to consume us all and give us wings.

Sisyphus at work

This determined dung beetle worked harder pushing this piece of poop up the hill than I did making the video, but I did get a lesson in perserverance trying to figure out iMovie on my MacBook.


"Perseverance is not a long race; it's many short races, one after another." 
Walter Elliott 

Flowers in a ditch

On today's bike ride, I passed a line of purple flowers growing in a barren sandy dip along the road."Even in the worst conditions, something good can grow and thrive."

That's how my freelance copywriter business has been lately: barren. But maybe this blog can be an example of something healthy coming out of a dry spell.

Thank you, Red

After a night of very little sleep, I was dragging this morning and feeling blue.
Red always knows how to cheer me up. Something about him squeaking his toy always makes me laugh.

Doe, a deer...a female deer

Last week, the doe I see every evening in the pasture brought her fawn out before dusk to graze. Once the protective mom saw me move at my kitchen window, they took off for the safety of the woods. 

Sights like these make me glad to be a city girl in the country.

"It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy."
~Lucille Ball

Beep beep

This scruffy roadrunner was on my front steps today--probably dining on the tiny frog All-you-can-eat Buffet under my deck. I guess for a roadrunner, little frogs are like sushi: raw, soft and delicious.

He took off when I got too close with the camera, but left with a snide, cocky attitude, as though he'd been kicked out of his favorite restaurant.

I followed him into the pasture, where he did a kind of fly-hop onto a fence post, striking quite the impressive pose.

No matter how close I got, he was faster. I went back inside, feeling like the bumbling coyote. Now I realize if I'd simply sat still and let him eat, I might have better pictures and a new regular.

"Slow down and everything you're chasing will come around and catch you."

~John De Paola

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Little cat trusts big horse

This morning's bareback ride on my horse Red Rabbit started with a little grazing while my cat, Mister Purr, lounged by the paddock. Red walked right toward him and past; I was amazed Purr didn't jump up or move away.

That's a lot of trust.

This friendly, faithful cat has come back from death's door several times, and is now dealing with feline hyperthyroid issues.

If we could all be so strong and brave.


"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." 
- Mother Teresa

Alpaca: cute by day, hoodlum by night?

Every morning, there's a halo hanging over Ringo's big brown eyes. Yes, he looks innocent enough standing there chewing delicate flowers and grasses, but what does he do with his crew of teenage alpaca buddies at night?

Only the moon and Lightening Bolt know for sure.
...

Zen Habits

I'm trying to form some new morning habits, and with a nod to Leo Babauta, I'm taking a bike ride right after feeding the horses, then eating fresh fruit when I get home. Maybe it's better to do it the other way around, but hey, it's a start.

This morning I got lucky: country living serendipity. While biking down the lane I live on, I saw something I've never spotted while in the car: a peach tree--right there on the side of the road and full of fruit.

So I pulled over, put these beauties in my bike pouch and pedaled for home.

It's lovely when new endeavors align so nicely.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not one act, but a habit.”  
Aristotle


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A bolt of Lightening

This morning, while feeding the horses, the neighbors asked me if I'd seen Lightening Bolt, their giant African tortoise. He'd escaped their lovingly-tended Alpaca farm and was on the lam.

LB's usual MO is to auger down by a tree at night, then forage for vegetation once the sun comes out. We checked by every tree in the pasture and made sure none of the big rocks were him.

Fortunately, several years ago, I took an animal tracking seminar from Kat Albrecht--a former police K9 unit tracker turned Pet Detective--on finding lost pets. She uses a bloodhound to track lost pets, but taught us the principles of tracking and escaped animal behavior. Instinctively, I went to the coolest, greenest part of the pasture and sure enough, found a trail where the grasses were smashed down and followed it. Mr. Bolt had gone down a steep bank toward a creek. He must have slipped, because we found him at the bottom of the hill, upside down on his back--a position that can mean death to the giant African tortoise within hours.

Kathy hoisted him back upright and thanked me profusely. John brought the golf cart down to carry him home where he was promptly hosed off and returned to his pen.  

Now the question is: epoxy a flag to his shell, or put a GPS on him? Apparently, he's gotten out before. It seems that in the springtime, a young turtle's fancy turns to thoughts of love. I guess that goes for old tortoises, too.

So, that was today's adventure on 40 acres. It was thrilling for me to be able to help out on the search for Lightening Bolt, but even more exciting to play a part in finding him and saving his life.

Happy & single on 40 acres

I've been living alone on 40 acres for six months now, and feel compelled to share the joys of country life with anyone who's interested.

Nothing brings me more enjoyment than being outside here: walking around the pasture, feeding my horse and his two companions, watching the alpacas next door, the roadrunners, lizards, deer with their fawns and the giddy squirrel who comes to visit my porch.

I want to use this blog to feature pictures and videos of them all, a daily diary of the wonders of living in Texas Hill Country. I've come a long way to get here: from Boston and New York City to be exact.

And I went from claustrophobic to content.

Thank you to Virginia Goszewska and Barbara Metzger for the idea
to start this web log.