Keeping track

Haze from distant wildfires made for a dull day so the yellow and greens are not bright. The hills are 15 miles south. On Thursday they would not have been visible. Three miles was about as far as things could be discerned.
This field is about 100 acres of sunflowers and over one mile north-to-south. It is 4.5 miles south of me. There were boxes of bees on both sides of the entrance to the field. I had time to make three clicks on the phone’s camera before several of the bees noticed and came to check out the intruder. I’m curious about how active and effective they have been with the smoke. If it gets real smokey in the near future I’ll stop and check. Harvest may be a few weeks away as, still, the bees seemed active.

On the north side of the county road, a long driveway leads to Brightside Vintage Farm. The photo on this page

About Brightside Vintage Farm

shows the farm and a view up towards where I live. About 4 miles in the direction of the ‘V’ in the ridge. News to me, but promotes itself as a place to have your wedding.

On Wednesday I went east to George, WA and met Phyllis and Cameron in the Park & Ride lot. From there we went 130 miles east to Spokane and toured the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Current exhibitions include (a) armor, helmets and all things about the gear worn by knights during the 15th through the 17 centuries, (b) basketry of the Columbia Plateau, (c) European paintings: 1500-1900, (d) America at 250 – artifacts from the late 1700s to current baseball caps, and more. We also walked through the historic house constructed for a rich Silver miner named Amasa Campbell, built in 1898. You can view photos by searching for “Campbell House – Spokane, WA.” The name Amasa is new so I looked that up. He was a nephew of and commander in King David’s army.

The Thursday evening Pétanque group met. The smoke was light and the game was intense. Nah, it was fun. There was a fly-by of a C-17 Globmaster, a large four-engine military transport aircraft, based at Joint Base Lewis–McChord {125 miles west}. They appear to practice low level slow flights in central Washington. There was just one over the Columbia River going south. Often there are three.

I bought a jar of Nature Made(R) Vitamin D3 at the local grocery store. Cost was $29.99. The same jar is $15.99 on Amazon and there are other brands for less. Horse-feathers!

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

I’ll get to the window in a bit.
Folks I know needed a favor. The lead-in: Last year an older couple in EBRG bought 3-wheel bikes (trikes). A few days later the man (79) had a stroke and the trikes became un-needed. Last week people I know learned of the listing on the web, came to EBRG, and bought them. The problem was they live 50 miles east, in Quincy. They asked if I could use my truck for the job of getting the trikes to their house. Sure.
The truck has a Leer High Rise canopy under which was five years of accumulated wood chips, dirt, spare tire, and assorted odd things. Getting into the bed is difficult and the tire is more than I can lift. The plastic liner of the bed is uncomfortable to be on — standing up is not an option. I got most of the things out easily enough. The tire came out on wood 2×4 skids to a set of saw-horses — I slid it but did not have to lift it. I delivered the trikes Thursday afternoon, then went to Costco in East Wenatchee. The return trip was via Blewett Pass (4,124ft). For a few miles I was above the smoke from the Little Giant Fire in the mountains 50 miles to the north.
While the truck bed was empty I decided to try and clean the windows — one of the canopy and the rear window of the truck. The canopy fits close to the rear window so that cleaning the glass is not doable from outside. Dirt and dirty rain can get in there but not much in the way of cleaning instruments. After 5 years the glass was sufficently dirty the visibility was only about 50%.
I was on my knees trying to clean the glass and noticed two small levers along the top. More inspection and I found “Careful -removable window” near the lower left edge. Who Knew?
After swiveling both levers, I was able to lower the entire window on to the truck bed. Whew. I could easily clean both sides AND the back window of the truck. Fitting the window back in its frame was more of a struggle than getting it out. From start to finish (about an hour) the temperature went from 85 to 87. Other than that — what’s not to like. I may never have to do it again and, if I do, April seems a better time.

Tour: Upper Yakima System Storage [UYSS]
Twelve miles west of me, a new dam and reservoir is in the very initial stages of implementation. Two dozen agencies (local, state, national, and private) are involved with the cost being covered, ultimately, by citizen tax payers. The lead person and manager of the Kittitas Reclamation District (KRD) is an acquaintance of many years {1990?} and, thus, I got invited on an informational tour. About 30 people met near the site and rode on straw bales in a large wagon to near the center that will, at a future date {2030?}, be about 300 feet under water. That spot is near the blue star in the image.
I-90 is on the lower SW corner and north of the Yakima River is Old Hwy #10, running between Cle Elum and Ellensburg. The distance from corner to corner is about 3 miles.

Smoke? Blame the Three Queens Fire
A fire 40+ miles NW of me sent smoke over the Ellensburg area this afternoon — August 8th. It is on the SE side of the “Three Queens” — a triple summet set of peaks, East Peak at 6,693 feet. A recent report claims it is 1,200 acres.
The EBRG wind was 7 mph at 6:00 AM out of the west but switched to the NW about 7:00 and jumped to gust of 30+ mph. Up at 6,000 feet? Who knows. At EBRG, the code for the sky is OVC060 meaning the sky is completely overcast at 6,000 feet with no clear areas visible. This morning it was completely blue. I’m at 2,240 ft, the airport is at 1,740. There is no smoke-smell at ground level. The wind direction is expected to remain the same until Noon next Thursday.
The photos show where it was, not where it has gone. It is now lower and near the upper end of Kachess Lake.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

The 8th month has arrived. The name suggests we should be looking for good things. I’ll settle for less heat, less wind, and no fires.

July ended with 95° and August starts at 82; 64 was the night low so cooling the house was easy.
Saturday (8/1) is windy. Last night at 8:00 there was just 5 mph wind from the East. By 9:00 the switch happened and the wind was out of the NNW in double digits. By morning the steady wind was 25 mph with gusts to 40. That increased to 40 and 51. On the Beaufort Scale of winds, that is called a Severe Gale. I have not found any reports of wind damage or fires near me. Other parts of WA and OR are not as fortunate.

Those pleased with the wind are the owners of the facilities harvesting power from it. The green line in this chart shows the fast ramp up from near none to 3,000 MW – – equivalent to the power needed to run approximately 3 million 1,000-watt light bulbs simultaneously. The chart is from the Bonneville Power Administration representing sources in WA & OR.

My brother’s 2nd son, Eric and wife Jen, are in WA State at a park east of the Tri-Cities and about 100 miles from me. They are seasonal workers (poorly paid volunteers) for a couple of months, get trailer parking, and do park things a few hours for 4 days a week. This is the 5th year they have been vagabonds, traveling, working, visiting friends and relatives, and seeing much of North America.
They came up on Thursday. We went to EBRG’s Red Horse Diner and then out here for a visit, although they had a motel room in town. Friday morning I went in and we had breakfast at the Country Cafe (in the downtown area). We talked family and they shared stories of their life on the road, and of the others they have met. There seems to be a world of fascinating others we know little about.

I managed to do a few yard chores this week but because of the heat not much. I did build 10 inch high sideboards for the garden cart. The cart holds 4 cubic feet and will carry much weight but for grass & weeds, or pine cones it lacks volume. Now better.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

A replacement credit card arrived at 7pm on Tuesday — having been ordered on Saturday morning. Last week’s post explains.

I haven’t done much outside this week. By 10AM the temperature gets to 80°F and I don’t have anything important enough to work therein. I would have to start at 6::00 to get much accomplished That’s for younger people. Friday’s high was 97. Expect 10 degrees cooler for the next 5 days.

The most recent fire happened Wednesday about 32 miles SE of me near the unincorporated community of Beverly (pop. less than 300). Likely human caused, a few houses or structures burned, no injuries. Here is a satellite view with spots where the fire was.

The red dots are where the sensors detect a current hot spot (fire) and these change to orange after 12 hours. There have not been new ones so apparently containment has been achieved. The upper dot on the left covers an access to a cross-State trail for hikers and riders (horses & bikes). I have seen the remains of “camp” fires there in the parking area. Once, several wood pallets (the remains with lots of nails) were there. We would go there to ride the trail east and then turn off north [natural area] or south into a large sand dune region. The red in the image is about 7 miles west to east.
Below shows the nature of the landscape from the gravel road up to the trail access. There appears to be a porta-potty there. I don’t recall one. The annual precipitation is about 7 inches.

A larger fire, 65 miles north of me was started in rugged mountains by lightning on July 15th. It has been named the Little Giant Fire, being near Little Giant Pass. See a photo here:
https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/little-giant
There is a long description of the trail on this WTA page that will give an idea of why fighting fires in the Cascades is so difficult. WTA also has noted the area is now closed and shows a map of the fire area.

I had a local {2 miles from my place to his} person over today (Sat.) to discuss replacing 35 years of mis-matched fencing. The activity won’t likely get underway until October. Plenty of time for people to send cash to cover the expense.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Smoke is in the air from lots of fires. There are no fires close to my location, but numerous small fires are or have been within 50 miles. Farther, greater than 125 miles, there are fires producing smoke that can be seen in satellite images.

The above image is from Friday morning about 9:30 [7/17/26] My location is the red star. State boundaries are red lines. The bright white areas are clouds. The hazy areas are smoke, mostly from grass and short brushy plants. The central part of Oregon received many lighting strikes. The lower right sector of the blue Latitude and Longitude lines shows the north part of the region.

Eastern North America has a large smoke event beginning in northern Minnesota and adjacent Canada. The plume goes from the Lake Superior region, southeast across Michigan and the north half of Ohio. Sister Peggy is in the direct path, with an air quality alert, and her power was off for an hour; cause unknown. The smoke goes across PA, MD, DE, and NJ — then exiting to the Atlantic Ocean. I notice many commenters, including Pres. Trump, being clueless about the fires and why the Canadians don’t put them out. There are many reasons, but the simple answer is no one can.
Another visitor took advantage of the shade under the trees near my front door. The temperature was 95°F. As the shade shifted he got up and moved 15 feet. I didn’t notice when he left.

Friday, I took the truck to the Ford dealer for its 5,000 mile oil change and other stuff. Their service lot was full so I parked in front of a row of new mini-vans. The window sticker price was about $70,000 but I didn’t look to see if there were additional fees. State tax would add about $7,000 and license and insurance might add another $1,500. The total would be about double the cost of the house we bought in 1972 in Iowa. Another thing: houses appreciate and vehicles depreciate. In any case, I’m glad I don’t need one.

A waxing crescent moon (getting more illuminated) was visible in the smoke-colored sky from the Pétanque court Thursday evening. Because of trees I can’t see to the west from my house. By next Wednesday, the 22nd, it will be almost half lit in day 7 of its blossoming.

On the email page, Saturday AM I received a “Fraud alert” as shown below.

I was given two options: “Yes, I recognize it” and “No, something’s wrong”. I didn’t click on either although the answer is #2. I opened my account and searched for a phone number and quickly got to a lady that brought up my account. The next-to-last use was for the truck service mentioned above. Then there was the $100 billing from an English site to a “Health Care” facility. She asked two questions. One: Was that legitimate? No. Two: do I have my card? Yes. Bingo — she cancelled the card and ordered me a new one — expected to arrive Monday.
I use auto-pay for many of my regular expenses, such as the local newspaper, so I have the joy of converting those to a new number.
This has reminded me of a story my mother told. She always wrote checks to pay such bills and someone in the family would deliver the local ones in person. Brother Richard carried a check into the water or electric office, gave the check to the clerk, visited with her, and asked for a date. She agreed, and they eventually married.
The modern version: I talked with a very nice and competent lady with a plesent voice. I don’t know her name, where she is, nor if she wants to go on a date. Still, all is well.
Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

. . . and the Rye Grass Coulee Fire
Growing up, our small town had garbage collectors. Two brothers, neighbors and church members, came with a high-sided dump truck and lifting and over turning the cans into the inner void of the receptive back. Off the stuff went, never to be seen again.
Unless one visited “the dump”. Near the south end of 2nd Avenue (a little less than a mile from our house, there was a wooded beginning of a small stream called Trout Run. That is where the Town’s garbage got upended from the truck. Local kids visited The Dump to watch rats and bears scrounge for scraps of edibles. After using a spotlight to see the critters, there might be a tour of nearby roads looking for deer.
Modern places now have Transfer Stations. The issue is that my County has spent about four years preparing a new site and a new transfer station. Friday was the day for showing it off to the citizens. At the appointed time there was full sun and a temperature of 84 degrees and headed for 88. I planned on going, but skipped. When us aging folks check out, I wonder if some of us — turned to ashes — will pass through a fancy transfer station and get dumped in some unknown site miles away.

For the past week I have been noting the activity of a large black spider along the back of the house near a faucet. She constructs egg sacs. The first one I saw disappeared. Then she built two more. In the photo she is hanging on the lower-right side, about 3 inches over gravel.

I got a new visitor on Wednesday morning. I last saw her Friday morning about 11 AM, although at about 6 PM she is gone.

The left photo is through a dirty window when I first saw her. There was a low morning sun and long shadows. I didn’t know if she would stay if a went out. When I realized she was staying I placed a 5 gallon bucket of water close by. I did not want her trying to get through the brush to get a drink from the creek. Within a minute after I poured the water and moved away she got up (from the position in the right photo) and drank from the bucket.
Thursday morning I spoke to her as I was headed toward the west side of the house and to the brush growing in Jay’s Folly – the empty pond-intended hole back there. She followed me there and wandered around nibbling on some of the plants. She apparently didn’t find much to her liking and only stayed about 15 minutes.
Friday morning, I put a sign out at the end of the lane. If she isn’t here Saturday morning I will assume she has moved on, and remove the sign.

Wednesday we bottled wine from 10 to Noon. This is of interest because shortly after I returned home via the Vantage bridge a fire started and closed my route home, burned two houses, utility poles, and nearly a thousand acres of grass and sage brush. The fire started when a vehicle traveling on Vantage Highway had a flat tire, causing the steel rim to scrape the pavement and generate sparks that ignited dry vegetation. This was on the road I was on 3 hours prior to. I missed a potentially long and inconvenient day by just a couple of hours. Whew!
Pictures and information can be found by searching for:
Rye Grass Coulee fire
Using Google Earth Pro (or similar) the location for the start of the fire is about here: 46.949006, -119.998250
With the Columbia River and the pool behind Wanapum Dam, helicopters and planes had ready access to water. The fire was contained by Thursday mid-day and the roads opened.

Saturday, the County Historical is having displays and presentation about the history of irrigation in the area around Ellensburg. That I will go to and hope their air conditioning works.
Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

I’ve have been removing much woody material about 100 feet west of the house — just next to the creek. I’ve trimmed a few of the poplars up to about six feet. They have a light gray bark and “show” interestingly against the remaining green vegetation. A few are 4 to 6 inches thick but many are less than 2 inches.
Friday morning revealed I had help from a beaver(s). Not that I wanted help because 6 small trees I intended to leave — were gone. The path they took to and from the creek (15 feet long and down about 6 feet) was easily seen.
On the left is a small tree (not taken) showing the trimmed lower 18 inches. That tree is 10 feet tall. On the right is one of the ones severed by the beaver. It appears they start low and remove material in an upward direction. It, also, was 10 to 12 feet tall. For big trees, they will cut them down, take the limbs off, and drag those away. They will leave me with the trunk to cut, store, and burn. [green is not part of the tree]

North of me 50+ miles and on the east side of the Columbia River, a fire started just after midnight {Fri/Sat}. It is burning up a rugged hillside in mostly grass and small brush. The few people living there have been told to evacuate. The wind in that area is “not much” compared to me. There: single digits. Here: 30mph sustained, gusts to 40; decreasing through the night.

The famous Trumbull painting blends facts with artistic interpretation, a common practice in historical art.
Keeping Tracking
on the Naneum Fan
John

A few years ago the high temperature for this time of year was 116°F. Today, at the airport, there was a brief reading of 68°. At 7 PM we have 60°. The next week is also cool. July 4th might make 73°. Mountains all around are expecting rain while my little pocket only gets wind.

Monday: 1 1/2 hour at the dentist for a temporary crown.
Tuesday: Dinner in EBRG sponsored by the telephone company.
Turnout was lower than anticipated so I brought home roast beef enough for 3 meals; real BBQ brought in a long black cooker.
Wednesday: Milwaukee Tool day – I bought $19 of stuff and got a fancy hot dog that sells for $7.50.
Thursday: Wine tasting (I’m a failure) and dinner at White Heron. Either age or something has dulled my sensitivity to the tastes and aromas of wine. It is claimed that Covid can cause loss of taste but I did not have that. In that summer I did have a day of sniffles. Nothing more. On the way home I had to slow for an elk crossing the road.

On the web, I found two items of educational interest.
First this interesting word:

I’m told young folks cannot read this. Don’t know.
And second is an issue with English:
Why is naked pronounced as naked but
baked pronounced baked instead of baked?

I’ve got more brush, weeds, and grass than I can deal with. However when winter arrives I will have kindling for starting fires.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

The 26 years is the length of time I’ve had a large filling on tooth #31, that being the next-to-last one on the bottom right side. I was hoping it would outlast me, but no such luck. Tuesday, at the semi-annual cleaning it revealed a bit of decay that wasn’t there in January. So, I’ll go back Monday for the clearing out, impression, and a temporary crown. I think the final work won’t be until mid-July.
Some dental practices can complete crowns in one day using CEREC technology, but the letters don’t help when spelled out:
CEREC stands for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics or CEramic REConstruction. This system utilizes digital imaging and in-office milling to create custom crowns quickly, eliminating the need for temporary crowns and multiple visits. I guess an important and busy person would find a single visit helpful. Retired folks can look on the traditional method as an opportunity to get out and about more.
The June solstice is on Sunday. For my time zone this will be at 1:24 AM so I’ll not be celebrating. However, when Sunday’s noon sun does arrive at my place it will be 66.5° above my southern horizon. This is represented by the blue dotted line in the drawing. If you were on a cruise and 21 miles north of Havana {aka La Habana} you would be on the Tropic of Cancer, and the Noon sun would be directly overhead. That is represented by the orange dots. Your shadow would be just around your feet. My shadow, at Noon, will be just shy of 3 feet, or a bit more than half of my height. The forecast is for mostly sunny and a temperature of about 72°F. The wind, as I write, is about 28 mph. That should decrease to 5 mph by Noon. A nice first day of Summer.
I am cutting out some brush and keeping others. There is an introduced plant that is just now flowering along creeks and roadside ditches. Locals call it Autumn Clematis, while gardeners embellish with “Sweet” as a prefix. {Clematis terniflora}
This is a vine that can grow to 30 feet. It grows along the ground, on fences, up trees. Like Kudzu, Clematis densely climbs over other plants and trees and grows so rapidly that it smothers and kills them by blocking most of the sunlight and taking root space and moisture. Impenetrable masses of “fuel” accumulate. In Kittitas County the plants are just starting to bloom, and the new growth is lush and pretty, and hiding the danger underneath.
Blossoms of note for this week.
Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

The local Ellensburg newspaper has many photos, and names of many of the graduating class, of the high schools in Kittitas County. The Ellensburg HS with roughly 1,000 students, had about 250 graduates. A gathering with family and friends is too large for the school so the ceremony is held at Central Washington University’s Nicholson Pavilion (basketball).
My 1961 graduating class had 15 of us.
The University holds ceremonies at Tomlinson Stadium (football) and splits the activities. The College of Arts and Humanities, and College of Sciences meet at 9;00 AM. The College of Business, and College of Education and Professional Studies folks meet at 2:00 PM.
I skipped the ceremonies at Clarion and Iowa. We did go to the stadium in Cincinnati. There were National Guard troops on campus. 1967 was the “long, hot summer” of racial riots across the United States. I only remember that a large Collie dog was let into the stadium and he wandered onto the field and proceeded to pee on the platform. Diplomas were mailed, so there wasn’t a procession of the students.
Tuesday evening I went to a CWU sponsored presentation by local dentist Joshua Kirk, DMD, titled “A Bite of Dental Chemistry”. He is a CWU alumnus. Thursday evening was Pétanque.
Home is where the work is. I’ve been removing brush and trees in the area beyond 35 feet from the house and out to about 100 feet. The closer figure is ringed by a gravel road. Thus the house is in a fairly good situation. However there is an abundance of fuel in the zone beyond 35 feet and I am slowly removing some of that.
There is a lot of Red Alder. The name derives from the bright rusty red color that develops when the wood is cut or the bark is scraped.
I need another chemistry lesson. Fresh-cut wood is a pale off-white but changes quickly. Oxygen combines with a chemical called oregonin. That chemical has anti-inflammatory effects, and a web search get hits about studies of health interest, not what I want. Oh well.
The trees in my zone-to-be-cleared lean into the light, which is in the direction of the house. They grow, die, and fall, making a heap of burnable material. The trees are not large so my small battery-electric chainsaw makes that part easy. Cleaning up after that is the tedious part. The pieces in this photo are of a length to make 4 chunks of firewood for the stove. I’ll take them over to the shed and do that part with a plug-in chainsaw. Most of the pieces won’t need to be split, but I will do that to the larger pieces so they dry faster.

The last photo is of Horsetails, on the web as Equisetum. These, near where I’m clearing brush are about 18 inches tall. The pine cone on the left provides scale. I see these along roadsides and only ocassionaly on my property — where the soil has been distrubed.

Now it is time for a piece of apple pie.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John