Author: admin

I baked brownies with home-grown walnuts. That almost didn’t work.
I forgot to set the timer so after about 5 minutes, or 10, I opened the oven to look. A brilliant spot flared on the front of the heating element. Oops! Bits of food, sauce, or grease – that is, keeping the oven and its elements clean – will create hotspots that lead to damage. Did I know this? Sure. Have I cleaned the oven? Maybe 10 years ago. Because the oven had been on for some unknown minutes, I closed the door and allowed the hot oven to continue its job. However, a had a couple of pieces of chicken ready to go when the brownies came out and that wasn’t going to work.
I managed the chicken with the low setting of broil, turning it off and on about every 5 minutes.
After the oven cooled, I reached to the spot that had flared and gave it a little tug. There and at another spot the element separated as can be seen in the photo.
To order a new element one needs the model number. The web helped me find the information, and then I had to find a source. Searching, I found Appliance Parts Pros in Cleveland, TN (just east of Chattanooga). Apparently, they have distribution facilities elsewhere because the package arrived sooner than I expected – from Fresno, CA. The element claims to be made in Mexico. Now I have to clean the oven and install the unit. The company’s web site has videos of doing such things. Something to do before I bake again.
The local BI-MART store’s flyer offered an electric chain saw with a price reduced from $200 to $150. That was for the saw, battery, and battery charger. On Amazon, the battery is $139, the charger is $56. The full kit on Amazon is $219. Color me confused, but I don’t have an idea about how these numbers work. Well, I went to the store, examined the demo on the shelf, and decide to buy the kit.
I already have a 16″ Stihl gas saw. It is a bit of a trick to get started but does a great job on the trees that I work with. For small limbs it is more than needed. A lone operator has to saw, stop and clean up, then start again. Letting the gas saw idle for a few seconds is reasonable, but for 5 minutes? That seems a bit much. I’ve now used the electric one three times for, maybe, a total of 1.5 hours. It is lighter than the gas one, and stopping, starting, and carrying it around is easy. I think of it as being a more friendly option.
Registration: The company has a 3-year warranty for home owners (that is, not commercial types). Registering within 30 days of purchase up that to 5 years. I couldn’t get the web site to work so had to call. That went well but I was required to send an image of the receipt. That didn’t go well. Three (3) – actually 3.5 letters on the left side did not print. Example: it has THANK YOU on it, except only the K is fully printed. Similarly on the last of the word “October” only the “er” is there. The date appears as “er 16, 2025”. The registration team at SKIL objected to this lack of clarity.
I went to the VISA credit card site and copied the billing info from the store. It had only the total billed (not all 8 items) and the following day’s date – the 17th. The SKIL folks accepted this, that I had legitimately purchased the saw kit. Did I mention I had to provide the model and serial numbers for the three parts of the kit?

The weather: The wind gusted to 64 mph on Friday at 1:53 pm. That’s more than the 50 mph speed limit on Naneum Road and the 60 mph on State highways. A steady wind of 44 mph was recorded; 36 to 40 was common. About midnight the wind dropped and went to zero during the night. Unfortunately, I have Black Walnut trees along the driveway and hundreds of the nuts came down. I’ve pushed them to the side and now have to load and cart them off. Rain happened. After about 5 months of very little rain, this morning the barrels are nearly full. I will give the trees a drink.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Both the Black Walnuts and the cold-hardy Carpathian ones (variety of the English type) now have yellow leaves.The photo here (Star Nursery, NV) shows the husk splitting just before the leaves yellow and the nut falls. The Black Walnuts do not naturally open like this. They are a pain both to de-husk and to get the nut-meat out. It is fall and the nuts are falling.

The new bird-feeding station is complete. About 25 years ago I cobbled one together quickly. It has slowly succumbed to weather and gravity – a metaphor for those of us born in the 1940s. The new one is more sturdy and built of better material.

The deceased one had a flat top and was on posts sufficiently high I could not see the top and it accumulated snow, so brushing it off was an issue. The 2×4 wire is meant to allow smaller birds while preventing large birds (Eurasian Collared Doves & Black-billed Magpies) from scarfing the sunflower seeds.
This station has a sloping top with a metal ridge cap. The width is 40 inches and the hammer is for scale. The hammer is placed over an opening that can be covered. I can remove the piece and reach in to get to the small boxes that hold the seeds.
I had to buy a packet of 10 small sheet metal screws ($1.48) to hold the ridge cap down. Other than that, all parts are things that I scrounged from “stuff” accumulated from prior projects. The blue paint is that used on the house siding done three years ago. I now have to mount the station on posts where I can see it from the house. New, battery powered tools have helped much in this project.
I came late to battery powered tools – mine are the Milwaukee M18 brand. The local lumberyard and hardware store has a “Milwaukee Day” with sales and company folks to answer questions, so that’s my source.
Related: I noticed I had used “flat head square drive” wood screws to hold a 2×4 on a garden post. This would have been before I had the battery tool. So, I would have had to use extension cords to reach the spot about 100 feet from the nearest outlet. I would have used two of the 50 foot type. Black & Decker introduced a cordless electric drill in 1961 – my high school graduation year. I bought my first one in 2020.
One of my two circular saws has worn out. My other one is a hand-off from a retired geographer that moved to an apartment. It, too, is old. Maybe there is a new one in my future.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

So looking back on the week – what happened? Nothing.
There is national and international news. Same old stuff.
The U. S. government shut down. The only thing that appears, at the moment, to affect me is that the Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) isn’t being announced because the agency that provides the inflation data hasn’t given it to the SS folks. I’m shocked and devastated.
COLA will be between 2.5% and 2.9%, or about $50/month for the average retiree. Because about half of that is taken from the payout, this is not a big deal.

Here on the Naneum Fan at over 2,200 feet elevation and with clear sky, the early morning temperature has been 37°F. The high today was 64. Gina in Houston reported 91; Peggy in Cleveland claimed an 83.
The cold mornings are cutting down on my outside work. I didn’t go out until 10 AM. Still. I’m closing in on a couple of projects – a new bird-feeding station (photos next week); the surface, border, and accessories for playing Pétanque, and the remodeling of the sign at the entrance off of Naneum Road that welcomes folks to the Rock ‘n Ponderosa.
Later this week, I hope to saw limbs and tree trunks into wood stove lengths, split as necessary, and stacked under cover.

I am going to visit the American Cancer Society’s Discovery Shop in Yakima on Tuesday. I need to do something with two dozen crystal glasses that we acquired as wedding gifts or exchanges back in 1969. And never used! There are sites on the web that will buy such things but they won’t pay near what they would charge for such stuff. And I would have to pack and ship it. My feeling is it is much simpler to carry it to Yakima (where I go to Costco), and be done with it. Besides, if a got a couple hundred dollars, I’d likely donate it to some charity. Cutting out the middle-merchant seems the easy and better way.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

There is little happening here, except for high smoke from fires causing hazy sky and enhancing the orange color of the setting sun.
The moon is in its “waxing crescent” stage with only 42% illuminated and it is low — near the horizon. I would have to get 100 yards away from the house to see it. The next full moon is October 6th. By then the smoke should be history.
This one is named “The Harvest Moon” and for me it will be 8:48 p.m. PDT. The HM usually occurs in September.

Central Washington University began its fall quarter this week. Thus, the town is busy again. The scholarship luncheon group I’m a member of met on Friday. The meal was chicken salad with vanilla cream cheese dessert, with toppings. I took a box of plums, most of which stayed in the Jongeward Plant Services Building.
I asked our hostess what the building just to the east is used for. Here is a photo:

The yellow lines show the approximate location of railroad tracks that were in place as CWU grew. This was the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.
The building, and maybe others, were used by the Green Giant Company (Jolly). I have no idea when, how, and when abandoned.
When we arrived at CWU in 1988 the tracks were gone but the corridor through campus was very much apparent. Today the campus part is unrecognizable because of new buildings. The abandoned RR ends east of CWU just north of the rodeo grounds, while west, the entrance is north of W 15th Ave. on N. Water Street. The length is almost exactly one mile.
Outside the city of Ellensburg, the corridor is known as the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, part of this was originally called the John Wayne Pioneer Trail/Iron Horse State Park. It is a long story.

I will try to find out more about the doings of Jolly Green Giant in Ellensburg. I’ve missed the easy opportunity. Jim Brooks was a geographer and served as the president of CWU from 1961 to 1978, and was an undergraduate also. He was the president that advocated and worked to remove the RR from campus. I could of just asked at one of our frequent gatherings. Had I known to ask. Bummer.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

A neighbor came by about 10 AM to ask what I knew about the fire. What fire? He has a poor sense of direction, so although the place is just 300 yards north of me, he pointed way to the west. I guess my curved driveway is confusing. After we got that figured out, we got in his truck and went to have a look.
Here are the before and after photos.

This building is quite old. It has a shake roof and a fireplace with an old chimney. It probably didn’t have a metal mesh screen and hadn’t been cleaned in 50 years. No one knows. Being old, it was not well built nor insulated. Last night I did not need to have the heat on. The renter- resident, a middle-aged woman, did.
Sometime after 11:00 a fire started and she and another neighbor with a fire extinguisher hadn’t a prayer. The nearest fire station is 5.5 miles away but not staffed. A major County facility is 10 miles south. I don’t know who or what the 911 call brought. In any case, Fire & Rescue put the fire out before it spread. The house is rubble. After the resident has a look for anything salvageable, all the rubble will be sent to a landfill.
I slept through the excitement. In 2010 (?) a fire ½ mile SE of me burnt a drug house – a single wide trailer with additions, I think. I missed that episode also. I must sleep deeply at certain times.
[The “before” photo is from the Street View on Google Earth, dated July of this year.]

I got a flu shot on Monday. No issues. Thursday evening, I went to a presentation about wolves, coyotes, dogs, etc., – members of the Canidae family. This was at the Audubon meeting, but the speaker was Dr. Celine Cortes from CWU. New to campus two years ago.

I called the vision clinic to check on my glasses – ordered August 22nd. I was expecting them 2 weeks ago. It appears a text message was sent to my land-line phone. It appears their system doesn’t have an alert for a non-message. Oddly, before my original appointment, I did get a phone call (automated) on the land-line. There are a few glitches to be worked out before modern technology becomes trustworthy.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

A wine bottling scheduled for Tuesday was delayed until Friday. Because it was a smaller amount than usual, we started at 10:00 AM. I stopped in George, WA to buy gas – $4.40 per gallon. WA is 3rd highest of the states, behind CA and HI. Tax for roads is high and then there is an indulgence or fee paid by large producers of Carbon Dioxide. This raises the cost of most everything because it raises the cost of moving goods. Our electricity rates are lower than the national average, so a bit of compensation.

The County’s schools do not start until after the Fair and rodeo. School buses are now on the roads early morning and mid-afternoon. I try to avoid those time because of the frequent stops. The town of Kittitas has schools on the main street that’s posted at 20mph. That is to be avoided, too. CWU is on a “quarter” schedule and so doesn’t have classes until Wednesday the 24th. About 8,000 students, faculty, staff, and hangers-on will clog the small town soon.
When we arrived, the County had about 26,700 people. Now it has over 46,000. On the left (below) is a year 2000 view of an 80 acre area just a mile north of the University. The red and yellow stars are 475 yards apart.

On the right is the same area in 2024, about a year ago. This is within the City’s boundary but similar in-filling is taking place nearby – the lots are bigger. There are a few new places out where I am, still bigger but more like mini-homesteads.

About once every 3 months there is a sale at CWU of surplus stuff. For many things there is a number on them and one has to bid on a form. The high bid person will be notified and than has a few days to pay and pick up the item. Other things are available for a fixed price. For example, all sorts of chairs go for 50¢ each. Three of the 5 chairs are shown in the photo = $2.50 total.

I also got 4 waste baskets and three bamboo Tiki Torches. My total was $6. Then I had to buy the fuel canisters with Citronella from a local store. I got 4 for $20.00. Back to the chairs: The chairs show a bit of age but are in nearly perfect shape. The green one has a spot on the top left, seen in this small closeup:

One needs new felt pads for easy sliding without marring the floor. I ordered some on Amazon for 53¢ each in a package of 24. Yeah, I have extras. I have a couple of other pieces of furniture I can put some on.
5-gallon paint buckets are 50¢ although the crew seldom cleans them out, so they stick together. In the past, I have ruined a couple trying to get them unstuck. This time, frustrated in several separation attempts, I passed.
The amount of things at CWU’s sale is impressive and this is repeated all over the State and, I assume, other states. I’ll have to find out what happens – and how soon – to non-sold items. Maybe trashed to a landfill. Maybe bought in bulk and shipped to Africa (?) or where.

There was a small rain shower just before dawn today, Sunday. There is 8 inches in the barrels under the roof valleys. The coming week is expected to be clear with temps in the 70s. Nice.
Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Or not. Nothing bad happened to me nor to anyone I know. However, there was a Lunar Eclipse that could not be seen here and winning tickets for the big Powerball were sold in Missouri and Texas. The cash option for each ticket will be $410.3 million, but the “take home” will be $242 M for the Missouri winner and $258 M for the Texas ticket.
I could use some of that because the price of gasoline is over $4 per gallon in this lovely State.

Several near-big fires were started by lighting in Washington and Oregon recently. One, 20 miles east of Mt. Rainier, is called the Wildcat Fire. Smoke from there blew into North Seattle neighborhoods. Air quality deteriorated with the index peaking at over 300 micrograms per cubic meter. Sunday evening it is back to about 20. That fire is 45 miles WSW from me.
Here, most of the smoke stayed at a high elevation. It was similar to a full cloud cover. Not a big deal.
During the night we had a 10 inch rain. Draw a circle on the ground 10 inches in diameter and at least one drop of rain will hit it. And to quote Bob Seger in Night Moves:
“I woke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered?”

Washington State has just transitioned to fall-like weather. Ten days ago, this area had heat alerts with bright sun and near 100°F max temperature. This coming Tuesday the high is expected to be 68° with 80% chance of ¼ inch of rain. Higher amounts of rain and snow in the mountains 60 miles west of me.
I have wood to cut and stack so a wetting rain and cooler temperature tells me it is time to find the chainsaw.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Rodeo and Fair weekend (5 days) in Kittitas County is probably near the worst time to have internet connection troubles. So Saturday morning my connection dropped out and the normal fixes I can do didn’t work. I called support and that didn’t solve the problem. I had already gone through the suggestions before I called –twice. So I got put on the list for a call from the actual technical group.
I cleaned in the kitchen and did a load of dishes. Near dusk I went outside and puttered around. This morning, Sunday, I finished that gravel-moving chore and picked a few plums and watered the trees. Then, with bacon and fried potatoes in hand, I turned the computer on to read a previously stored article and – surprise – the router had risen from the dead!

This got me to thinking – Did the Router over heat?
A quick enquiry on the web found “… one of the main issues of your router not working correctly is overheating.”
One of the things I noticed yesterday was that the router has little feet (ok. I knew this) that holds it a fraction of an inch above the surface on which it sits. What does it sit on? A board. Not just any board, but a short piece of tongue & groove knotty pine, acquired during the remodeling. Meant for a wall, the board has chamfer (beveled) edges {red stars} on the outward facing sided. The importance is that the board appears wider than its smooth flat surface actually is.

The width of the board is 5.25 inches but the flat surface is only 4.5 inches. The tiny feet on the router span the width with no room to spare. At some point the feet and the board became un-wacked, or out-of-whack.

I digress. [American word usage about President Lincoln’s time had the phrase “in fine whack”, meaning something was in good condition. In the early years of the twentieth century it started to refer to mechanisms. It might be that the sense was influenced by the idea that faulty mechanisms responded to a quick thwack. From ‘worldwidewords’]

With the feet of the router not properly adjusted the unit sits on the board without airflow to the under side where a large flat surface allows for heat dissipation. About 20% of the holes are there also – most of the holes are in the ends and sides.
I suppose a design engineer at the company made the choices that keep the router in a proper temperature range. Those choices likely didn’t include a piece of wood soaking up heat and interfering with the cooling process.
When a person calls about coming to get me back on-line, I’ll ask about that possibility. And tell them to postpone a visit.

Summer isn’t over. We have a mid-90s heat watch forecast for Tuesday through Thursday this coming week. Friday we drop into the 80s.

A headline this morning reported on the declining gas prices in the USA. Washington ($4.34/gal), Hawaii ($4.50), and California ($4.58) didn’t get the message.

Now I should get back to cleaning and other tasks.

Keeping Track
On the Naneum Fan
John

Nothing new here. Early morning and just before dark are short times to be outside. Otherwise it is between 95 and 99 degrees.
The local airport reported an odd temperature yesterday. Posted high was 96° but the 5-minute numbers had a 97. (I’m 5 miles from the airport.)
I asked Mark, a contact at the University of Washington, about this.
Mark Albright to me:

“Interesting observation…at least part of the problem is the rounding of whole degrees C to F. The high was 96° F at KELN with 4 consecutive hours of 94° F at 3, 4, 5, and 6 PM PDT. In other words the 97° was really 96° when using higher precision data to tenths of a degree C.”

Monday and Tuesday will also be hot. Then days of 88 and 84. The weekend is expected to be near 80.
The Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair begin Friday. I’m not going this year. I went last year as a “greeter” at the Adult Activity Center’s room where we offered wit and wisdom to drop-ins. Also, cookies and cold drinks.
The City’s main water tank is on a hill 100 feet higher than the rodeo arena and 600 feet east. This is the 100th anniversary and the tank has a new mural.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

This has been a work week at home. The topics are displayed in the photos below.

Every few years some trees produce a glut of their fruit or nuts. There is some suggestion the excessive acorns or other fruit falls or is knocked to the ground for domestic animals (pigs) to eat. These fruits or nuts are called mast and so it’s called a mast year. Two varieties of plums have ripened and there are more than I know what to do with. A third type will be ready late this coming week. I don’t know if plums “mast” in the manner of oaks. It seems that way to me this year but others claim masting happens mostly in wind fertilized trees. Not plums then?

Plum trees have advantages for my location. While cherries sometimes do well (but not always), the birds take most of the fruit because the original trees are way too big for old humans to get to. There was one apple tree here when we bought the place but it is an unknown red type. Again, it is now big tree and fruit is hard to harvest. There was (is) a single pear tree that has stayed alive, but barely. No pollinator, either. I planted hardy peaches – I got a bunch of little ones – hard/never ripened.

So, I have plums. Lots of plums. I will give away most of the fruit.
The earliest ripener is Methley, a small dark purple fruit with red flesh. Last year I soaked a gallon of the little plums with a quart of cheap vodka to make a liqueur. It worked nicely. I still have 95% of it. I bought a bottle of sparkling (carbonated) water to make a cocktail. This is just fooling around as a curiosity.
I’m trying for crock pot jam this year. The right-most photo above is the “in progress” stage of Methley Jam. The left-most photo is a plum called Starking® Delicious™, from Stark Bros of Missouri. [The claim is that this is a “Johnson”.] It has red skin that’s slightly tart and a sweet, with deep red flesh. It is the third to ripen of my four oldest trees. {I have three newer types and will know next year where they fit into the schedule.}
Shiro, a yellow round plum is ripe and I’ve given many pounds away. More to go.
The middle photo indicates the most work this past week. I’ve moved plain old dirt onto the future “boulodrome” – – the playing surface “terrain” for Pétanque – lawn boules game with metal balls.
The site is next to the house where I wanted a non-burnable area in case of a wildfire. After leveling and covering with gravel, I had a type of material called “screening” put on. I thought it would be smaller size. Oops! I raked the larger pieces off and stockpiled that, leaving a small size beige gravel. That surface is on the right side that extends to the tree. I carried dirt and made a rectangle about 14 feet by 50 feet. Next, I need to roll or pack the surface so the balls will roll instead of going “plop” on the loose dirt surface.
When I want a less strenuous outing I cut limps out of selected trees, spread them about, and let the deer eat the leaves. Hawthorne and choke cherry have fruit; cherry and apple provide just leaves. When the deer are done, I clean up by getting rid of the small pieces and saving some of the larger stuff for the wood stove.
The deer will come with me there and it is fun to watch the interactions, especially when there is only one branch available. This spring’s young still have spots.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John