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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

I failed to post anything last weekend. I realized Sunday night and Monday morning I went through the familiar routine of toast and news, medicines, and out to do a bit of work before the heat started. Oh well.

During the past two weeks my early ripening plum – Methley – has turned color and a few have fallen. I need to get them off the tree before a big wind comes.

In 2013, I ordered 5 varieties via mail-order for a total cost of $105.97. Today, they want about $85 per tree, some 10$ less, some 10$ more.
Last year, from a place in Yakima, I got four more plum trees when the place {Roots Nursery} had a half-price sale.
I have miss-identified this tree for years. I planted the 5 trees in a row, from early to late ripening. The late one was called Damson and after a few years I mentally switched it and the Methley. The Damson was least protected from the wind (and not well shaped). It split and died without ever bearing plums – at least I don’t recall a harvest.
I have now figured out from searches on the web that the tree in the photo is a Methley – ripens early and has red flesh. The Damson ripens late and has yellow-green flesh. Settled science. Saturday morning I cut a few branches from the tree and took them over to Megan’s for her and daughter Lindie to complete the picking.
The background tree in the above photo is a Shiro that produces bright yellow fruit. They will be ripe in a week.
Daily, I’ve been cutting limps from Hawthorn trees. Even though they have long sharp thorns, the deer clean off the leaves and the clusters of berries.

The fruit is high in Vitamin C and can be used to make jams, jellies, and even wine. In addition, the leaves can be used as an herbal tea. I have never heard of anyone using the plant in these ways. I suspect the natives did and maybe still do. I’ll have to ask.
All I know is the deer browse around the thorns if I provide the opportunity.

Keeping Track
On the Naneum Fan
John

Wind speed picked up today at about 10 AM. Gusts have been to 40 mph, enough that the weather folks post a “Red Flag” warning – fast moving fires are a threat. So, it is a warning to not ignite anything. This will go on until early Sunday. Over the next 2 weeks the highest forecast temperature is 90° F. August is unknown at this time.

After the miserable experience with the Ford supplied scissor jack, I cleaned up another I had and put it in a box in the truck bed along with a few various sized wood blocks. Meanwhile, I was awaiting delivery of a floor jack that seems to have been warehoused in a facility in Bloomington, CA., about 50 miles east of LA. The next reports: Troutdale, OR. And Union Gap, WA. It was delivered here at 6:13 PM. I paid $109 with a deal – it is now listed at $144.

The yellow sticker says “team lift” and shows 2 people. Note the plastic straps. FedEx driver lifted it without help and then I put it in the garden cart. Claimed product weight is 66.1 pounds. I’ll make a ramp and add it to the truck.
I ordered a load of “screenings” from a local rock & gravel quarry. As the quarry proceeds to separate larger rocks from smaller and various sizes of gravel there are bits of rock and dirt that don’t fill many needs. The mixture gets its own category: screenings. The quarry is 15 miles away, so while this is an inexpensive material, the delivery charge is a hefty part of the total. I paid $289.38 for 15.49 tons (30,980 pounds; 93.4¢ per pound).

It is the brown material, not the gray pile in the distance. I work in the shade and move around as it does. I’ve spread about 1/3 of it and hope to finish it by Tuesday Noon, when I head to the Costco Store and a meeting with Suzy and Bob.
The least crowded times to shop at Costco are typically on weekdays, especially Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. We’ll meet about 1:45 for lunch and then I’ll get a few things before heading home.

The doe and her fawn will eat leaves of the cherry and apple trees. For about a week I’ve, daily, cut a branch for them. If they are nearby, they will come with me still there. There were a dozen deer in the Alfalfa field across Naneum Road today but we didn’t let them know about the cherry leaf treat. People driving on the road will slow and sometimes stop to view the deer and I can hear and see the action there if I’m out that way.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John