Author: admin

Early morning temperatures have been just under 50°F – – I’ve set the thermostat for 68 degrees and about 2 AM the heat pump kicks on. Afternoon temps get up to near 80 when the sun is fully deployed. The next 2 weeks are forecast to be similar. Official fall in my area is Friday, September 22, 2023 at 11:50 pm PDT.

Wednesday morning I saw movement outside. 50 feet from the house several deer were trotting past just beyond Walnut trees. I took the camera and investigated.

In the image here there is a small “Y” buck with three others that, I think, are young without spots. The bright white spots of the young have been fading over the last month along with the minutes of daylight.

A fifth deer was leading this group. He is in the image below.
As I maneuvered to get the fencing out of the image, he kept watching me.

The others ambled through the grass to the left. I could not get all of them in one photo.

File this under “There is always something”

From the Wall Street Journal: It might be time to ditch expiration dates.
Expiration dates on food started as a system for manufacturers to communicate to retailers when to rotate stock and have morphed into what many consumers consider to be a food-safety deadline. In reality, the dates are mostly general indicators of when food is at its peak quality; there is no regulation and the dates do nothing to keep consumers safe. This misunderstanding is one reason Americans waste a colossal amount of perfectly good food.
. . . 84% of consumers threw out food at the package date “at least occasionally” while 37% did so always or usually, though that wasn’t what most labels recommended. Over half thought date labeling was federally regulated, or were unsure. An earlier study found that 54% of people thought eating food past a sell-by date was unsafe.

I had my 2023 flu shot on Thursday. When such shots first started, we had to line up outside the clinic, slowly move inside to different folks in a long hallway, answer questions, fill out a form, – mostly I’ve forgotten. We had a half hour drive and then an hour processing.
On Thursday, I went to the grocery store where a flu-shot-table was sitting in the lobby. A pharmacist sat at a table doing the jabbing. I was delayed behind an elderly lady that regaled us with 10 minutes of personal (unrelated) monologues. Otherwise, my time would have been about 90 seconds.

A herder of sheep brought the flock to a field about one mile south of me.
In the early part of the 1900s, sheep and cattle were raised in this area and then herded across the Cascade Mountains into the Puget Sound region. That changed as roads and refrigerated trucks appeared. Still, one of our early experiences in Kittitas County was encountering cattle and sheep drives as we explored the hills north of our Naneum Road location.
Here is a photo from this week of new temporary neighbors.

I didn’t get out of the truck, but think this view encompasses about 1/3 of the flock.

I stopped by the CWU surplus sale building/yard and acquired 4 chairs for the deck. They were priced at 50¢ each. The best use of $2 I parted with in a long time.
The chair on the left is arm-less, thus called a side chair. Why a set of four chairs has three with arm rests and one doesn’t is a mystery. I found a photo of a stylish wood dining table set with 6 chairs with one having arms. I guess that’s for grandma so she can push on the arms and not the table when she wants to get up.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan

John

I’ve had an iPhone for 3 years and found taking a photo frustrating. I keep getting videos! Dang.
Yesterday when wanting a photo of a Pink Hollyhock, I got several 1.5 second videos.
I investigated. The problem is that someone a Apple Co. decided that short videos were a great idea. Thus, the default setting is called “Live Photos”. Live Photos were introduced in Sept. 2015 along with the iPhone 6S series. At that time I had a small flip phone – it only made and received calls.
When you open the iPhone’s Camera app, the app automatically begins taking pictures even if you don’t tap the shutter button. This allows the phone to capture photos as quickly as possible. Those photos are automatically deleted if they’re not needed without the user ever being aware of them. Yeah, right!
I never knew what was going on, but I did get the short videos I wasn’t supposed to be aware of. Bummer.

I found the following link, followed the directions and turned the Live Photo slider to off (color goes from green to white).

https://www.lifewire.com/iphone-live-photos-1999618

Here is the first photo I took after discovery:

I’ve also (finally) learned how to get a photo onto my PC from the iPhone.
That is another story.
The second photo – this morning – of Pink Hollyhocks. Seeds given to me by vine pruning colleague Mark and planted this spring. A rabbit nibbled them back when their leaves where just 2 inches out of the ground. I fenced, fertilized, and watered. They did nicely with the rabbit excluded.

The prime person on my house work just had an appendectomy. Recovery times vary but two weeks seems the suggested “do very little” period. This confirms my motto:

I think I will have a glass of wine.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Two workers, Willy and Ruben, for remodeling, came Monday after lunch. We mostly looked over the projects and the assembled materials. The types of saws, nail guns, and so on have to be brought here. Trying to fix the leaky roof, again, was put off because of the threat of rain.
Working in an old house has drawbacks. Some new things don’t fit with the old things and solutions have to be decided.
On Tuesday, Rubin worked on the roof. Willy and I tried to decide how to make transitions where the new wood floor will meet existing things.
The dishwasher got us into trouble.

Many quail on the way to town, and a massive field of short sunflowers – about 180 acres. I’ve spotted 3 such fields and there may be more.
There were 3 or 4 broods in the road (~50 babies). Quail have a problem deciding which way to go. They might start to the right, then reverse once or twice. I slow to a crawl until this suicidal urge runs its course.


Photos are snitched from the web.

According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Washington state was $5.01 on Wednesday. That’s $1.18 more per gallon than the national average of $3.82.

Back to the kitchen. Tuesday – I had a appointment for a truck repair.
The new flooring is ¾ in. thick. The dishwasher is under the counter and for repair or replacement has to be pulled forward onto the floor. Adding new on top of old would prevent that. We were examining this and pulled the washer forward about 8 inches. That caused the plumbing (rigid copper) to break at the valve in under the sink and water started pouring out. I had to go into an adjacent room to shut the water off. About 3 gallons got out before the shut-down. Clean up followed and then Willy went to town for parts, I left with the truck. He was back and repaired the water line before I returned.
More about the kitchen floor next week. Also, about the leaky roof.
I’ll skip over a couple of small items and mention just three.
The front door:
The original door had a lot of dog-claw damage and was also split as though someone hit it hard without unlatching it. It was that way when we came. The following image shows the new look.

The door swing is different. The remodel inside did away with the baseboard mounted flexible stop meant to keep the doorknob from hitting the wall. I needed something else, so added a fluffy one – named her “Doorstop.” The work is useful and easy. She loves her job.

Ruben worked on extending the roof near the front door. Water coming off the roof or just rain/snow would come into the entrance way. He is fixing that. The photo was taken Thursday. Friday (finish) not shown.

Willy began on the wood floor. The starting point required extra work with the first piece needing to be wedge shape so there isn’t a ¾ in. ledge from the entryway into the room. Each piece also had to be cut at an angle.
View is coming in from the front onto brown stone tile. The first board is thin to meet the tile and thick to meet the long boards, each piece just slightly longer than the one to its left. The near-ends are cut at a very slight angle. By Friday afternoon all this and more was finished, around the wood stove alcove and extending to the far wall.
I’m a fan of natural wood and this flooring – Hickory – has a varied and warm glow. I’ll choose a couple of pieces for a close-up next week.
I helped a bit, cleaning up debris, but mostly stay out of the way. Outside, I moved some dirt and rocks.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan

John

Cross filed under “Schist happens”

Near friend’s house – another fire

Friends Suzy and Bob live in the country southwest of Yakima, more west than south, about 13 miles. When leaving the paved county road their house at the blue star is about 2 miles on unpaved streets. The street dead-ends at their drive.
A fire started near the red star (or ¼ mile south) and burned the area covered by the brown dots. They were not home – but 30 miles away. Neighbors went and got the 2 dogs. That’s all I know.
Such fires are almost always caused by something a person did. I haven’t heard what ignited this one. Claim is it started in an orchard.

Air from over the North Pacific Ocean came to Washington Thursday. Since then I have had cooler, cloudy, and a few sprinkles. There has been a lightning caused fire in the very rugged mountains in the northwest part of the State. It is called the Sourdough Fire (1,400 acres). Current weather might shut this down. This is a forested mountain with no people or structures.

My issue this week has been some small ants. In the kitchen. I’ve been dispatching them when I see them. This morning, Sunday, I took more direct action, but don’t think I found a serious source.
I’m 80% done with putting 18 inches of height on the fence meant to keep the deer out. Last year a doe and fawn kept coming. This year there is just a doe and she easily jumps a 5 foot fence. There are 5 fawns around. They and their mothers have been staying away from the house.

I was told my remodel would, again, get underway 10 days ago. I’ll have to call Walter and ask what happened.

And last, but not least: my 4-filter reverse osmosis Culligan system for pure drinking water quit. It is supposed to replenish a 3 gallon tank in just a couple of hours. Mine began slowing down about 10 days ago. Then it took overnight to get a tall glass of water. Thursday it stopped. The soonest a tech can come is next Monday, the 14th.
I have some previously drawn water in 28 ounce bottles, and some frozen. I have a few ice 2 liter bottles in the freezer.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John H.

I had to pick up a prescription today, so a trip to the grocery store was necessary. I paid 81¢ for a three month supply of Lisinopril. A few keystrokes by a good programmer and these “almost a dollar” prices could be set to exactly $1. The folks had just broken open a roll of new pennies. I seldom see new change so that might have been the high point of the trip.

However, in the produce section there were two displays of fresh cherries. First, I saw a simple dark red variety. Very shiny and pretty, with the price of $1.99. I said no. A couple of counters farther on there was a display of Rainier Cherries. They too were pretty and, I thought, pretty pricey – even on sale.

Under the $6.99 price there is a small “Save $3.00”. I always ignore the “save” part and think about how many cherries one gets for a dollar. And, of course, how many pits. Grapes are easier to deal with – lower cost and no pits. I think the phrase “That’s the pits!” came about when a frugal shopper saw cherries for $10.00 per pound.
This morning I picked a pound of Raspberries – now, up to about 5 pounds in the freezer. I watered a few plants and sifted rocks out of dirt. Temperature was nearing 80 degrees. So I quit. High was 94 and it is still – at 7:30 – 88°. I guess I will walk up to the road and get the mail, and that will be enough exertion for the day.

Tuesday evening several of us gathered for a friendly game of Pétanque.
The number of players was restricted because of a fire in grass and brush that came from the north into the Mariposa Vineyard – where I help prune.

Phyllis and Cameron did not come. Another couple (Audrey & Phil) had gone to Wenatchee and were prevented from using the highway that comes past the vineyard. Oops! There isn’t a good (short) detour. It took them about 8 hours to get back to Quincy, from when they left in the morning. Normally, that would be a 40 minute trip.
The two photos are (left): looking to the northwest across Lynch Coulee during the burn, and (right): same direction looking at the vineyard when the fire had been contained, although still smoldering in a few ravines to the north. Containment was at 2,300 acres. That is 2.7 times the size of Central Park in NYC.
The areas outlined in red are burned. Unknown is the damage in the vines to the right, to the edge of the photo. Crews kept the fire away from the few houses in the area.

Cameron wrote: ” It came from the Northeast and was traveling at quite the pace which allowed it to blow past the mowed fire break that we maintain in that area. Much of my vaunted native vegetation is flammable at this time of year and thus burned under the vines, desiccating the leaves. There is some trunk damage, but the majority seem to be simply dessicated and I am hopeful those vines will activate dormant buds along the trunk and cordon. That would mean we don’t have to cut them back to the ground for retraining.”
We did however have to replace most of the above ground irrigation in the most toasted areas. We finished that project this morning {Sat} in a rush as we did not want to add water stress to the fire damage.

In other news, my father was from the Warren, PA area and met my mother there. There are still relatives living in Warren or nearby. This is where police are searching for an escaped killer. The killing was in Jamestown NY (18 mi. north) but then he kidnapped a couple from Warren County and went to South Carolina. I guess that is why he was in the jail in Warren and not in Jamestown. I know a few folks in Warren County. There are a lot of loaded weapons in the region, and not just the ones law officers have.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan

John

There has been several days with temperature near 100°F, no rain, and not much wind. I have done outside things about 4 hours a day. Only watering a few plants (onions, plum and walnut trees, raspberry bushes) is critical. Sifting rocks from dirt is a “fill-in” chore that may never be finished.
Earlier, wind battered the onions and blew blossoms from cherry trees. Only a handful of cherries survived but I’ll have lots of onions, although not as big as they should be. The damaged leaves don’t have the nutrients as they should.

Independence Day came and went without a lot of fire activity. The few fires that started were aggressively and quickly put out. Because most are ignited by people they are quickly reported and responders are not far away. So far, lightning storms have not caused multiple fires in remote locations.
The U. S. has only 30% (acres) of the 10-year average burned area. Meanwhile since May, the U. S. has sent almost 1,500 folks to Canada to help with the many fires there.

Forced to being inside, I cleaned a little and cooked (stew for freezer). I unloaded the old music box on Kathy. She and Francisco came to the area-neighbor to pick up the horse they brought for breeding a few weeks ago.
She didn’t want clocks. I have two, as shown in the photos.
This one my father acquired and cleaned up. He had to make a new wood piece (one of the curved pieces) and refinish the case. The mechanism uses springs. As far as I remember it was not a family thing and I know not from whence it came.
The next clock was in the family. My father wrote a note saying it was owned by my great-grandfather Nels Anderson. He was the father of my grandmother Emily Hultquist.
Emily would have been my great-grandmother. When my father acquired this, I’ve no idea. There are two possibilities. It may have been tucked away in the Clarion house and I never knew, or it may have been with my Uncle John. Father moved into a trailer court, in Florida, after my mother died. Brother Dick sent it and some other things to me when he cleaned out father’s possessions.
This clock has been altered by someone – likely not my father, because he would not have done the things. The wood case looks nice.
I think it originally had a mechanism run by weights. There are small rollers at the top on both sides, not now used. There is a complicated mechanism inside that seems original but simply held in-place by a clamp.

The mechanism appears to be brass and on the edge near the right side top there is a shiny (aluminum) piece. That’s not original. The bottom half of the door is a mirror (see me taking the picture) on the outside, while the inside is ancient particle board (?). It appears to be gouged out so the door will close. Why? My guess is the mechanism is not in its proper seating.
Now for the sad: A General Electric clock is behind the original face. That is the small white circle in the middle. A cord comes down from behind the face and out through a hole in the back. I would have to take some of this apart to learn more. This I do not want to do. I think the alterations make the whole piece next-to-worthless, although the case could be used.

I still have a few other worthy things I need to re-home but guess only the first of the clocks would be of interest to anyone.

Two odd items:
– A letter from the bank informed me a hacking had occurred at a third party business that handles data processing for many banks. They suggested that I spend a few hours trying to protect identity and so on. I have procrastinated. I guess I should stop in and ask the locals.
– A letter from the pharmacy where I get flu and Covid shots arrived. That informed me an “incident” occurred that made Covid shots suspect (useless) from last December until May. I got a Covid shot in early November so I guess I need not worry about that. There has been so much wrong with the whole Covid experience, I likely would not have responded to this item either.
Procrastination seems to be a time-saving life technique of great value as one ages.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan

John