Nature Tidbits

Fall is a great nature viewing time. All the animals getting ready for winter...   I've seen so many interesting sites lately, I wanted to write some of them down, let I forget.

Rose-hips collected in Hiller Park.   Tea sounds good!

Plover Prints.
At the beach the other day, Gloria and I walked alongside deep tracks that Ber and I made in the sand the day before.  Picture a straight line of hoof prints, and in each hoof print  is nestled a Snowy Plover, hunkered down below the wind with just the top of a head poking up to keep watch.  As I walked, the shadow of my head passed over each bird, causing it to hunker down even further. Some birds flew off to evade my shadow, hopping into hoof prints further down the beach. As my eyes adjusted to the pattern, I saw more and more plovers, in other rows of hoof prints made by Ber and other horses.  Tiny shelters from the storm.

Photo from Mendocino Coast Audubon Society Web Page.

Raven's Tutelage.
Pulling off the freeway exit the other morning, I looked up at the light pole to see a Raven perched above the light.     Along the arm of the light, like a line of students, sat about 20 small light-grey birds.  Looked like raven and little birds were together, but they couldn't have been.   Quite striking, the black bird, the almost white steel of the pole, and the grey line of birds.

Glow Worm!
Has been 30+ years since I last saw a glow-worm.  I remember late summer/early fall walks in the evening spent looking for them. We'd find patches of them, and I imagined how long they had been living, growing, and reproducing in that small area.  When I walk in the evening, this time of year, I think about them.   And last night, Gloria and I saw one!  At first I thought it was a bubble of dew reflecting my flashlight. Except it glowed when my light was turned off!  Sure enough, it was a fat, scaly glow worm.  It was the only one in the area, so I can only hope it has friends who were just hidden.  Because I'd like this patch of glow worms to keep going...  Here is a link to information and photos of glow worms, though the author states there are non in the Americas. Good pics, though.  

Photo from Flickr Album. 

Orb Weaving Pumpkin Spiders
In a plum tree by my house, there is an industrious, ambitious pumpkin spider. I first met her one morning when I walked right through her web.  Ugh!   The next day, she rebuilt it, with reinforcing tensioners going down to the ground. I like imagining how she did that...brave spider!    Each night, she builds a new web after the ravages of insects destroy them, one after the other.  At first, each web was bigger than the last, until she was taking up a 2'x2' area with her web. 

This is one of her largest webs. It takes up the whole picture, though hard to see in the dark.

One day I spied a male spider courting her, something I have never seen in all my years of watching spiders. He had a strand of his web running parallel to one of her supporting strands. He would run down the strand to where she was sitting in a corner of her web.  She was in a submissive pose, with all her legs hunched up around her. The male would run up, dapple his front legs all over her, like a blind man trying to figure out what was in front of him.  Then he would run back to his branch, picking up his web behind him. He repeated this several times, getting braver and braver with his tap-ity-taps.  Finally, she stood up, severed her support line that he was using--sending him hurling into space--and raced back to the center of her web.  Luckily he had his line, which he crawled up. 

That evening, I saw bundled up in the middle of her web a corpse that looked quite similar to the male spider. And since the day of the courtship, her webs have gotten steadily smaller, including the removal of the ground-tension line, until they are more the size of a dinner plate now, and are tucked up higher in the branches. She seems to be slowing down, and I keep looking for her egg sac.

The spider is now using this bunch of lichen for her resting space. This is new, and I am willing to bet she lays her egg sac in this lichen nest.

At Hiller park the other day, we saw several bright orange spiders, the ones I think of when I think of pumpkin spiders.  My neighbor spider is nondescript--she blends in perfectly with the lichen and grey-brown tree bark.  But the true pumpkin spiders, they look like rose-hips that have fallen into a web!  Just today, my landlord/neighbor gave me a cartoon from the Northcoast Journal.  A cartoon my mom  would have loved:

"Fall is the best time of year in Humboldt County...Except for the pumpkin spider facials!"

Canning Storm

Spent the better part of the last week canning.

Picked up a huge box of pears from my house that I rent out, and then picked up two lugs of prune plums in Rio Dell.

Add three quarts of huckleberries, and this is what you get:

I love canning.   The whole process is just enjoyable labor. And I enjoy the fruits of that labor all year long.  The Christmas gift baskets this year are going to be mighty scrumptious, I do believe.  :)

From left to right, pear sauce, pear butter, plum butter, plum jam, lemon-ginger-plum jam, royal plums.

From left to right, royal plums (repeat), harlequin pear jam, pear chutney, pear marmalade, Asian pear sauce, plum chutney.

From left to right, plum chutney (repeat), pear jam, spicy plum chutney, hot pear chutney, huckleberry jam, canned pears.

Not pictures: 6 pints of dried plums, 4 quarts of canned plums, and two quarts of plum juice.

Phew.  I think it will be a while before I pull out the blackberries, peaches, and nectarines in the freezer to make jam!

I'm a Barn Cat

Bobby, 2005

Bobby, 2011

Anyone who has spent any time at my friend Sharon's pasture knows Bobby. He's a barn cat with a rap sheet.  He was kicked out of several barns before landing with Sharon, where he's lived a great life. 

Phenomenal hunter, he weeded out all the weak quail until the flocks that dared to live in his field were slim, fast, and wary.  He slimmed down the population of gophers, as well. Many a riding lesson has been interrupted with a gift of a severed gopher's head, laid in the dust.

Bobby and his Sam, June 2011

Take 2, June 2011

Bobby and his boy, in the grass, June 2011

Bobby was a force to be reckoned with, and not a cat to be trifled with. If he wanted petting, he'd let you know. And when he was done being petted, he'd let you know that, too. Part Bobcat, Bobby had tenacity and fire, legs that could send him in a vertical leap a kangaroo would be pleased with, and a wrestlers bandi-legged walk.

Bobby is well loved, and he leaves a large hole in many lives.  He will be missed and remembered.
Rest well dear Bobby.

Bobby, out standing in his pasture, 2011

A video from Youtube, "I'm a Barn Cat"   dedicated to Bobby....

Giovanna's Summer

Giovanna's summer has not been nearly as adventureous as Berhwood's.  In fact, her summer started on a highly distressing note.  Giovanna has struggled with soundness and health since soon after she came to live with me.   Or perhaps it was when she moved to Idaho.  Despite conditioning, physical therapy, corrective trimming, chiropractic work, supplements, and numerious vet exams, Giovanna's problems have remained.Those problems left her with no topline, a hollow loin, and a rather scrawny physique. She did not bear much resemblance to either of her parents, and she surely did not look like the horse I brought home in the fall of 2007.

Gio's "pained giraffe" look. 

My friend Sharon could not figure out what I was doing wrong up in Idaho. She kept telling me to work on Gio's topline, and push her up from behind on the lunge. She thought that maybe I just wasn't asking enough of her.   My vet up in Idaho said her stifles were catching, but that she should grow out of that. He was more concerned about degenerative hock disease.   Sharon had separately come to the conclusion that something was wrong with Gio's stifles, but she wasn't sure what.    

Meanwhile, I continued to rehab Gio, get her strength up, then start riding her. A few rides later, her loin would be sore, she'd bee moving around like a giraffe with her neck up in the air and a frown on her face.  So I'd back off, give her some rest, and then start the hand walking, hill work, lunging, and massage, working back to riding again.  This had continued when I moved back to Humboldt, and I just kept working on it, thinking if I did the right thing, she'd be okay.   This June, I noticed that Gio was moving more strangely than ever, and that her stifles were locking up, even when she was standing.   When I had their vet come out for Gio and Ber's annual exams and shots, I asked him about her stifles and sore loin area.  He looked at her, watched her move, and listened to the saga of the last 3 years.   The conversation went something like this:

Dr. C: We can take care of this.
Em (thinking he was going to say euthanasia): Really?
Dr. C: Yes.   We used to sever the medial tendon, but that left the horse unable to sleep standing up.  
Em: I don't want to do that.
Dr. C.: Now we make some lateral slices in the tendon, which makes it thicken up, and stops the slipping.
Em: Oh!

Our last ride, about a week before the vet visit. She was SO sore after this ride.

After a thorough anatamy lesson from Dr. C., I took a few days to think about it and do my research, as well as ask every horse person I knew about the sugery and the issue (upward pateller fixation).   The stifle is the horse's knee, in their hind limbs.  The stifle locks in place when the horse sleeps standing up.  Some horses have a defect that allows the stifle to lock when the horse is moving, which causes some real problems, including pain and changes in posture and movement in order to avoid or attempt to avoid locking the stifle.  The surgery takes care of that in 93% of horses.  5% need a second surgery, and 2% it never works for.

When Sharon came out to watch Giovanna move, she gave a gasp of horror as she followed Gio down a hill.  Evidently my mare's hocks looked pretty scary.  Sharon said that she finally understood what I was talking about, regarding how Gio felt under saddle.    After my research, I scheduled Giovanna for surgery on July 28th.  With trepedation--am I doing the right thing?  Is this really what is wrong? What if something goes wrong?--I took her in at 8 am, and left her.    When I came back to get her around 2 pm, she was glad to see me.  The staff said she'd been staring at my trailer, which I'd left parked there.   She neighed when I pulled up, and started pacing.  Dr. C. was watching her, and talked about how the surgery went.

One of our last rides, pre-surgery

The nice thing about the surgery is she could go right back to normal pasture life. No confinement, no rehab.    The next day, she had a lot of swelling in her left stifle, and oozing of blood. After calling Dr. C. I found out that she moved during the surgery which caused the needle to nick a blood vessel.    The hematoma/edema would go down eventually.    Then, at almost two weeks post surgery, I had a big scare when I picked up her left hind leg--the one that had the hematoma--and she nearly fell down to the right.   The next morning I had her at the vet's to get checked out.    After examining her, Dr. C. said that she was leaning off to the right in order to avoid the pain in the left stifle!  Continued exercise and time woudl resolve the pain.  Phew. We all breathed a sigh of relief.  Though I felt foolish afterwards, I am glad I took her in because the symptoms could have been something much worse. 

Curiously, after bringing her home from the vet the second time, the left stifle's hematoma swelled again.  It was probably the stress and exercise (Dr. C. lunged her in his exam, and she paced a lot in the pen), but it took another 2 weeks to go away.  During that vet visit, he told me to start hand walking her, and in two weeks, to start riding her. We started with 5 minutes of hand walking on level ground, and worked up to 30 minutes over various terrain.  She likes the sessions because I groom her, tack her up with saddle and bridle, and then hike around the property with her by my side. Lots of quality Gio time!   We work on ground manners and things that will translate to work under saddle. 

And Then.... drum roll please....  Sunday, August 28th, I rode Giovanna for 8 minutes.

Anna on Ber, Em on Gio, sometime in June.

I immediately called Sharon.   Giovanna is a completely different horse under saddle.   Gone is the jerkiness, gone is the drifting and feeling like she's going to fall over.  Gone is the sudden abrupt movement, and the head thrown up into the air.  She is soft, round, supple, and secure. She is curious, not scared.   And she is FUN.  Sharon said, "That's how Fahim babies are supposed to be!"    I have my horse back, better than before.  I have a horse that I didn't know I had!     How sad that she was suffering for so long. What a stoic and strong girl.   Thank you Dr. C. for helping me help her get back to where she should be.

Ber with Anna, Gio with Em, June.

Today, August 30th, I rode her for a second time, for a bit over 10 minutes. She wanted to trot but I said, "Not yet, we're still working on walk, stop, and turn with legs and seat!"    But soon, very soon....   

Right now, I'm walking on clouds. Both of my horses are sound, both of my horses are delightful to be around. They are two of the most brilliant lights of my life.

My Boy Berhwood

It has been seven years since the fateful day when Berhwood came down from Oregon for his vet check.  His name was "Will" and he was 18 months old.   He failed the vet check, because he came up lame on the flex tests for both front legs. The vet didn't want to do the rear, because it was pointless.   A horse his age should not fail the flex test!  I won't hash through the details of what transpired after I decided to keep him anyway.  All I know is I saw something in him, and I signed the contract, much to the horror of everyone around me at the time. 

Walking between two bull kelp.

I'm not a gambling person.   And I definitely would not recommend purchasing a horse that fails a vet check.   But I am not sorry I forked over the $800 plus $200 delivery for Ber.  Today, he is the horse that I thought he could become. This summer has been Ber's summer.  Once he got his very first set of shoes the first week of July, he took the world by storm and hasn't looked back.

One day, we went to the beach.   It was a nice mid-day, slightly foggy but not cold.   Ber set out confidently across the dunes. We came to a length of bull kelp laying across his chosen path.  He looked at it, and set out  confidently across the bull kelp.I could hear him saying, "Oh, I know what that is.   I've been here before, no problem!"  Knowing Ber as I do, I sank deep in my stirrups and kept myself light and secure and confident.  Good thing.  The second his right front hoof touched the kelp, Ber shot straight up into the air--must have been 3 feet.  After reaching the top of his leap, he angled forward to land in the clear sand just in front of the offending kelp.   He stood square, looked to the left, looked to the right, gave a little shake, and walked on as if nothing had happened.

I, too, rode on as if nothing happened, and I looked around in case someone was near by so I could ask them how high he jumped.  Sadly, no one saw Ber's leap.   About ten strides later, the delayed adrenaline rush hit, and my knees went weak.  Phew, what a sky ride!    I still wonder what it was that set him off. Did the kelp pop under his weight?  Or did it sink in the sand?  Perhaps it was the slippery texture.  I do know that I need to take him down with a long lead rope and let him explore the plants, sand, and surf a bit, without a rider or saddle, so he can "own" these things. However, it says a lot to me about how far he's come that he was that matter-of-fact about "killer kelp."
 

Checking out the competition.

A few weeks ago, we had another monumental milestone in Ber's training: cantering on the beach.  Ever since he got shoes, his ability to move "forward" and with energy has skyrocketed.   His trot is big and full, he over steps by several inches, and he no longer "falls" into his downward transitions as much as before.  He had never cantered under saddle, and cantering on the lunge line took exhausting levels of encouragement.  After getting his shoes, as we rode around the property where my horses live, Ber would canter up slopes--at first only when he felt like it, and then when asked.  A few times, I had cantered him a few strides, or even a full circle, on our flat exercise area at the pasture.  Sadly, his canter felt more like bucking.  He cantered like a rocking horse, throwing his front end down, in order to pull his hind end up, and then shoving his hind end down in order to throw his front end back up.  Poor guy.   We kept at it, though, knowing that it could get better with more practice.  Meanwhile, his trot and walk were becoming lovely.

Trail blazing an overgrown old highway.

The stronger he got, the more willing he was to canter.   So three weeks ago, at the beach on a perfect low tide that had left a flat firm surface, I asked him to canter.  He did, and he cantered his way into a nice canter.  I could hear him saying, "Wow, this is great. This feels Great!  I want to canter More!"  Like a young rider who wants to do nothing but canter after his first try.   He dropped down into a trot, and had a fairly magnificent forward trot.  After walking a bit, we picked up the other lead and cantered some more.     I'm not sure who was prouder, Ber or me.

Since that day, cantering has become a regular thing at the beach, as well as on the flats around the pasture. Ber is a cantering fool!. I can't wait for Stuart to visit, so we can have some photo proof!

That's Ber and Em on the wave slope.

Somehow, against the odds, Ber has grown into this handsome, strong, brave gelding.  I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.   I know it sounds so cliche, but he makes my heart swell every time I see him.    He is the horse I hoped he would become, and he encourages and motivates me to become the best riding partner I can be, for him..

New Blog

I realized that the title of my previous blog (Dissertation Distractions) was not longer appropriate because my dissertation is DONE!

This blog will keep track of my efforts and progress (and side tracks and meanderings) towards finding my post-doctoral berth.   It's hard to know what to do and where to go.    So I spend a lot of time NOT doing anything and not going anywhere.

Let me clarify. I am busy.    It's just that I am not making myself busy MAKING something happen.   I am trying, hard, to sit with my accomplishments and to sit with who I have become in this life, and allowing the next step to present itself.

Case in point.  I applied for a job with a local school district. This job felt like it was made for me.    Instructional Coach, working with teachers to help them identify areas for improvement and then help them do so through coaching, teaching model lessons, teaching workshops, etc.     Definitely up my alley!  I got a letter of rejection.        I also applied for a job at the university in an office that focuses on diversity and inclusion, working to implement changes campus-wide to better support student success.  Again, I thought this was meant for me, and would use all the skills I have gained.  I had a phone interview, in which I crashed an burned in blazing glory.  I have never done so poorly in an interview!   Why?  Perhaps because I wasn't supposed to get that job.    Sigh. 

I have gone back to my plan to do odd jobs here and there, work on articles from my research in Idaho, and plan to apply for post-doc research fellowships for next year. There's one in Eugene Or that I am especially interested in, if they offer it again next year.  And the Odd Jobs are keeping me busier and busier. 
Writing classes for OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for folks 50 years and up). Talk about FUN.
Writing classes for RWP (Redwood Writing Project)--for teachers and helping with the summer academy and other young writer projects. Also assisting with RWP projects, research, etc.
Assisting professor from Idaho on research for a book he is writing.
Several former Blue Heron students have asked if I can tutor them this summer in writing and assistive software.

When I 'm not working my odd jobs, I am horsing around or taking Gloria to the beach or hiking the hills in search of berries--black, straw, thimble, salmon, huckle.... I have the whole summer before me to search out the sweet, fragrant fruit.  

Life is good.