Author: admin

Monday
A combined group of CWU retirees and Wildcat Walkers drove to a trail access east of EBRG and trekked to the newly opened Renslow Trestle.
The trestle was for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad that came through the County, Kittitas, Ellensburg, and Central Washington University’s early campus. There are photos at the link below, but first a photo by me of friend Kristin making sure we document our own trip. There were about 20 folks that took the short uphill hike, then across over I-90, and back. It was a bit cold and windy, but there was a scheduled potluck for Thursday noon, so we only visited while we walked.
Previously the abandoned right-of-way was christened the John Wayne Trail. Now it is being re-signed as the Palouse to Cascades Trail.
The Renslow Trestle
A bridge over the Columbia River is now being reconditioned to remove the last major barrier to cross-State trail travel.

Tuesday
I cleaned around the wood stove, brought wood in, and started a fire. I set the house thermostat at 68° and brought the house temperature up to 73° with the fire in the Chinook Stove, with catalytic burner. The house air-handler has a setting for the fan to cycle on-off in 15 minute intervals so the entire house gets heated. (Photo from the web)
With the fire stabilized I went out and split more wood, and used the truck to pull previously cut trees to a convenient place for bucking {cutting to necessary length} & splitting for ‘22 wood.

Wednesday morning was interesting. The chart below has early morning (6:53 am) as the bottom row. Four lines up (starred) is mid-morning.
The purple colored numbers are wind gusts in miles per hour. At that time there were large snow flakes in the air. The sky was clear. There was bright sunshine. And there were gusts of wind up to 59 miles per hour. I stayed inside. There is a 50 gallon steel drum heading through the pasture in the direction of Idaho.

Thursday
I went to the pot luck with the CWU retired folks – driving across the valley 20 miles. Many of them knew Nancy; and me only as her spouse. There was lots of food and Christmas cookies & candy. I brought some home, including a few bites of smoked salmon. The host created that, and now I’m interested. It was very good.
I had to pass through EBRG, so used the opportunity to stop at two stores, then came home and fed the wild quail.

Friday
Phyllis and Cameron came and we took more stuff from the big shed.
The enclosed space with shelves had been cleaned out last week and became a temporary space for items to be kept – for now. Nothing exciting was found. There is enough for about 5 trips to the transfer station (dump) with the pickup. A Waste-Management dumpster seems excessive, but maybe the contractor’s one-ton tilt bed truck would fit the need. A large upright piano is still in there. It once looked about like the image here, but we got it in Iowa, moved it to Idaho, and then to here. It is another of my obstacles to peace of mind. I don’t know how or when we got it. We left Iowa in 1974, 48 years ago. It was old then and no one has played a tune on it since the day we acquired it. It is in poor shape with some damaged wood and likely filled with mice nests and related litter. The mice chew on just about anything. I need to look inside. Horrors!

Saturday
I worked at wood gathering – bringing trees closer to the house, and to the space next to the garden. When cut to stove length all the chips can be raked, gathered, and scattered for in-place composting. At 2:40 the wind changed and went from 5 to 15 mph and a strong gust. The airport claims 26 mph. That is strong enough that I don’t want to be near the trees.
The high temperature today was 51° – rather then allowing the fire in the stove to go out, it has been doing a slow burn. Still the hallway temperature went to 77°.

That’s it.
From the Naneum Fan

John

There were rather dull happenings this week.

I cut about 1/3 of my downed trees into firewood length and got some of that under cover. I have dry wood for this coming cold. I’ve been working on next year’s stash. I need to clean out the wood stove and test it. This coming week the area is expecting temperatures at or below 20°F.
The air masses now entering Washington State are cold and carry moisture. Snow in the mountains is anticipated, and even to the Naneum Fan. Not much here. Snoqualmie and Stevens Passes may get a foot to 16 inches by Monday evening.

Wednesday I went for an inspection of teeth and cleaning. My last such was in July 2020. I was on a 6 months and a day schedule. The first delay was caused by the Covid panic; then my favorite tooth-tech moved to Colorado. A timely replacement could not be found. Now they are back up to 2, but when I called this past July I had to be given a December date.
I have one potential problem – either a large filling or a crown – and Margie (my dentist) thinks the crown is the better choice. So – January 10th.

Phyllis and Cameron came Thursday. We had a good day of work, food, and conversation. Walter the contractor called while we were eating. He was ½ hour away with the 38 ft. long blue metal roofing. I did not get a photo of the package on top of his truck, so this will have to do.
The trusses to support the roof are scheduled for delivery on January 6th.

That is Annie in the back, the last Brittany and almost no hearing or eyesight. She still likes to go with me, but If I get busy with a task, she goes home. If I fail to open a gate, she has to come back because she can’t get to the flappy door.
We had a bit of snow, mostly gone by the time I took this photo. Snoqualmie Pass (I-90) got 5 inches by 5:00 o’clock. Expect another 5 inches in the next 48 hours.

Outside today I worked for a total of 2 hours on 4 different chores.
Last week I took the backyard fence down so a backhoe could get in there and dig a trench for a drain pipe. In the fresh dirt, today, I had horse prints. Large.
He or she came, investigated, and left.
So I reattached the fence. I need to inspect the driveway but it is hard rock topped with gravel. I’ll look at a few other spots but unless someone saw the horse, I don’t expect to know more.

There were 7 deer nibbling tops off weeds in the field. There were 3 with antlers, one large and heavy. The other two were young.

From the Naneum Fan
John

Thursday and into Friday morning we got about 5 inches of snow. Eight miles south and 700 feet lower there was just an inch. I got to the grocery store down there and parking lots and sidewalks were wet, but snow free. Same up at the University on the north end. About 10 AM, I broomed off snow where I knew I wanted to walk and that was snow free when I returned about 3. Otherwise everything is snow covered. Saturday and Sunday will be mostly sunny and about 40 degrees. NWS thinks we will get into December without more snow.

This time of year I frequently look at the DOT road cameras. The pages were recently redesigned and one of the map icons for a camera was wrongly placed. I sent an email, and got a response asking for a better description. I prepared the small map on the left, below. The green markers have camera icons (white) on them. The black line through one shows the miss-placed camera. It is a mile too far west.
On the right is a Google Earth image. The Pass Summit (4,080 ft) with a ski area, parking, and accommodations is at the upper right corner. The highway comes down steeply from there along the side hill of the Tye River Canyon.
Someone missed a digit and the icon ended up where the red star is on the very steep south-facing slope. I suggested, using the blue line with a small red star near its end, where it should go. It was fixed a short time later, maybe within ½ hour.
I’ve been in contact with Vanguard Group (funds) and Lawyer Ann. We are making progress, and maybe, before year’s end these official things will get signed and filed. Also, I had another visit with the CWU Foundation. Language is still in flux, but we are also going to talk to a few VIPs. Friday I had lunch (& pecan pie) with the group of office workers that Nancy has been partner to for years. I showed the 10 life sequence photos I had gathered for the Audubon group. This is one of the many Ruth Harrington scholarship groups, so we talked Nancy-scholarships. Seemed fitting.

I mentioned last week that the fellow with the excavator – bucket and small blade – would be coming Thursday. He did and we got about 40 feet of drain pipe laid and buried. He also moved three truck loads of rock and dirt from a pile near the front of the house. That went to the fire-wise ring road. With 5 inches of new snow (melting) today he only smoothed those piles out, but nothing else was accomplished. He was gone when I got home, as was the equipment. I’m thinking, he might not return again this year. Sad.

Yesterday afternoon I was up where the driveway meets Naneum Road.
A black car came along slowly and the driver wanted to know if I was waiting for a DoorDash delivery. Her map “app” showed my driveway as Heron Farm Lane. I assured her there was no such road anywhere near. She was looking for Cindy somebody; no phone number. I assured her there were no Cindys and no “Lanes” near the end of my driveway, nor near on the Naneum Fan.
She went up the road. A few minutes later I saw a car up there and thought it was the postal delivery. I didn’t go up and didn’t get there until about 4:00 this afternoon – Friday.
On the ground under my mail box was a Safeway bag (snow covered) with 3 Roma Tomatoes and 2 Avocados. She believed her map “app” and not her eyes and ears.
She was looking for a Lane, so I got on the County’s web site and searched for all roads with Lane as part of the name. That’s possible because of the rural nature of this area. I found Heron Farm Lane about 11 miles south – 15 to 18 minutes driving time. Cindy didn’t get her food. A man at Safeway said it was an independent DoorDash driver and he was, more or less, clueless. He would tell the manager. Walter came this morning with a load of Versaetta Stone siding.
After unloading that, I gave him the bag of food. Case closed.

Freezing.
On the Naneum Fan
John

Here on the dry east side we have a bright day.

Friday was disrupted by a visit by the builders, and Saturday by a return of the person that had worked earlier with a backhoe (with small blade); early July. He moved a lot of brush off, dug a trench, and did pre-road clearing. Then he went away for 4 months, without a word. He says he will be back Thursday. His girl-friend/partner broke her foot and needs surgery. Maybe they need extra money.
Notes on his earlier work here: Click on the bold.

on-going projects

So, I did not get time to write, and this morning (Sunday) is weather-wise a good time to be outside.
I’m posting this now and won’t do anything more on it until this evening.

John

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Okay, back to Monday.
I went to the Union Gap Costco and had lunch there with Suzy and Bob. After a long visit, I did the shopping thing. The Company has a business plan that involves moving things around so one has to hunt for things. This ensures that you see stuff that you might otherwise not be looking for. I did pretty well until I went for Beef Jerky. After several up and down isle trips I went and asked at the “red vest” station. They didn’t know but one agreed to help me hunt. Finally, he went and checked the list on the computer – affirmative – it is in the store. Another red vest said he thought it was on isle C14 or something; and sure enough, there it was.
One of my purchases was cod and halibut. There is nothing in the EBRG stores that compares. I tried a package and it was thin slices of Pollock heavily coated with a crust. I’ll guess 2/3rds crust and 1/3 fish all at the cost of fish.

Tuesday: Evans Canyon
The regional Fish and Wildlife crew planned for a re-vegetation effort on a part of the Evans Canyon Fire of 2020. I’m the blue star. Three of them and 5 volunteers assembled at 10:00 AM. I was 3 minutes late because of snow. I have to go over Umtanum Ridge (using Umptanum Road) southwest of EBRG. The dirt/rock road becomes N. Wenas Road and goes over 3,130 ft. Washington Pass. There was 4 inches of snow. Who knew? That’s why I was a tiny bit late. From the paved Wenas Road we car-pooled a couple of miles. No snow, but big water holes and mud. The white truck became less white and less new looking. I finally got it cleaned up Sunday afternoon.
I spent about 5 hours with a dibble stick: photo – not me. My teacher and comrade for the day was Melinda, local regional WA F&W boss. She took photos but I don’t have them yet. There were others working, but not close to us.
I should get a certificate as this was my first exposure. I think altogether we planted about 5,000 (?) sagebrush plugs.
Others scattered locally sourced native grass seed. The schedule stretched into the late afternoon and it was dark before I got home.

Wednesday I was on the phone for an hour with a Vanguard advisor. The advisor services group will be working over my funds, to improve on my sloppy practices. This coming Thursday I will again talk to the advisor and will have to approve the new plan. There will be a re-balancing each quarter, as needed, always working with the same advisor. I will also have him properly convey charitable distributions.

Friday:
Jessie was here working on the inside knotty pine walls. Walter and I had a long discussion of what to do with the big shed. Also, we did a bit of a walk-through of fixing a few things not quite up to standards in what has been done so far. I expect Jessie to be here again Monday because of rain. There is a roof elsewhere to be pulled off and re-done. They may be able to do that on Tuesday & Wednesday. We expect snow on Thursday. The electrician, Todd, expects to come this week, with maybe half-a-day to finish his work here.
I’ve got the drain under the drive topped off with gravel. Even if I do nothing more on that, it is good for winter. I have a few rocks to load in the cart and move. And I’m slowly working on the newly dropped trees (for firewood). Phyllis and Cameron carted off a few things this week, and I sent their son Joseph (& Julie) several boxes of kindling for their fireplace. They live in the Seattle area.

The Charlie Schulz Philosophy

Click to access the-charlie-schulz-philosophy.pdf

From the Naneum Fan
John

Current weather models suggest colder air and a bit of snow approaching Washington’s Cascades. This isn’t expected to be a big event, but it will kick off winter in our mountains.
Ellensburg is too far east and on the down-slope, so the snow won’t make it this time. But I’m 700 feet higher and that may be enough to get the ground covered.
On the map, depth of snow by Sunday evening is shown. I’m near the ‘b’ in Ellensburg.

I hope to get a few more days of outside work. I did get the drain under the driveway in front of the car port. The total project is unfinished, but if I don’t get anything else done on this, I can get by for the winter.
I’ve moved lots of rock and dirt. Some I was able to put through a ¼ inch screen with the rocks and the “fines” going to different places. This week there has been enough rain that the sifting is not working, so I’ve been carting the stuff to an out-of-the-way stockpile. Work for next summer.

Phyllis and Cameron came on Tuesday and another piece of old furniture (and more) went away. The main piece this time was a dresser, somewhat like the one shown. The photo is of one much fancier than what we had. The center only had a low shelf. The wood was stained dark brown and no grain was visible. That is the last of the things like this that came from Atlanta.

We removed all the things in the chest freezer that had a home in the living room for the past 8 (?) years. That room, as built, was a travesty. Now it has lights, French doors opening onto a large covered deck, an animal door, and proper windows. Some inside plaster and paint are needed.
I had accumulated bushel-size fruit cartons – double cardboard apple boxes. Also, I had ice in plastic bottles. The freezer is not a frost-free model. In the house at about 70° the accumulated frost fell off in about 6 hours. Wednesday, I moved the chest, using rollers of plastic irrigation pipe, into the walk-in pantry of the remodeled 2-car garage. By noon the food was back in the freezer, almost as solid as when it was removed. Phyllis took a few things and I threw out a few. It is nice to have that chore completed. I still have an old chest freezer I though was nearly dead when this one was bought on sale. I’ll get that one empty and donate it – – likely to Habitat.
Phyllis found a dividend check ($10.46) from the CO-OP – dated July of 2020. These dividends are reported to the IRS as income. The bank folks didn’t want to deal with it; and it was in Nancy’s name. Off to the CO-OP. I was given a new check in my name, and went back to the bank for my $10.46. Now I need to get the info to the CPA who is trying to fix the tax mess. Of course, getting a person at the IRS to work on this is next to impossible. At some point though this small dividend will be handled again.
The account at the CO-OP was in Nancy’s name. I did not re-enroll when I canceled the account. If I was spending $10,000 a year there being a member would make sense. Now I mostly only buy seed for birds and use a credit card.
One of the issues with the re-model was the removal of a ramp (inside) leading to a small open window, with a flap, for the dogs and cats to use. Outside there was a small enclosure and another ramp. Annie was getting to the point that she found the ramps hard to navigate. I had the builders add a nice animal door from the living room to the new deck. The animals prefer a different route.
I cobbled together a thing that fit into the sliding patio door. It leaked a lot of air; not a problem for many months, but the next four or five cold months mean a fix was in order.
I ordered a commercial door and installed it Friday mid-day. The two cats, Rascal and Czar, and Annie (Brittany) are into a learning curve – soon to be over, I hope. On the outside the white frame doesn’t match the door. Inside, the door is blond grained-wood; again white for the new thing. Maybe I’ll fix that next spring.
Friday: I can’t manage to send messages or photos from the iPhone to my email (computer) or any place else. {One null send went through.} Thus, if I want photos, I have to resort to a 13 year old Nikon camera. I plug it into the computer with a USB cable and it is recognized as a simple storage device. For the iPhone, I bought a special (Apple Lightening to USB) cable but that hasn’t worked either. Someday I’ll learn how to do photos with the iPhone as I have done with the Nikon for the past 13 years. Oh well.

Two photos of the remodeled front of house
I’m going for a fire resistant building and landscaping. The blue is HardiePlank (cement + fiber) and the lower part is panels of false sandstone. Rather than vegetation, small rounded rocks and gravel provide a non-burnable surface. The far side of the ramp is lined with vesicular basalt (many holes) and this side has lichen covered basalt rocks. There’s more remodeling that’s happened, but there are painting and lights to do, so I’ll wait.

About 6 weeks ago, while still hot and dry, one of the cottonwood trees shed a large limb. It is 33 inches around where it broke. Since it fell, I’ve cleaned the brush out and taken the small branches off. Saturday afternoon I cut it into firewood length (about 15 inches) and tossed those out to where I can get the truck (later). When first felled the wood has about 40% to 50% moisture. Think heavy. When cut, split, and dry that will get to about 12%.
I then cut seven more trees down, with a few more picked out for dropping later this week. All this is meant for next year’s heating, so I have lots of time to processes it.

From the Naneum Fan
John

– – – – – Addendum – – – –

If you know of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, you may like this post:

Jennifer Marohasy – Scientist, Author and Speaker
She lives in Noosa, 500 miles north of Sydney. Click on the next line.

Welcome to my website!

November 6th is current, but may get pushed to the side when she posts a new one. In this one she explains her background and connection to the Great Barrier Reef. There are links to many photos, with more stuff to follow.

About 10 blogs to go for 2021
This week I learned of “bubble and squeak.”
Bubble and squeak is a British dish made from cooked potatoes and cabbage. I’ll pass.
How did I learn that?
On the evening of 13 February, police were called to David and Penelope Jackson’s house in the small coastal village of Berrow in Somerset.
Penelope had stabbed David, her husband of 24 years three times with a kitchen knife – twice as he was on the phone to police calling for help.
He called her “pathetic” – after a row over serving bubble and squeak with her birthday meal.
As paramedics entered the house she said “with any luck you’ll be too late.”

There must be more to this murderous story.
Photos from the web suggested many chefs add other ingredients, such as colorful veggies and sausage or bacon. Bacon is good!

I’ve replaced the faulty computer with a better one – read ‘it cost more’ – known as a Dell Precision 3640 Tower (Intel i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz).
This is a refurbished unit from Dell’s product line sold to businesses a couple of years ago. It is a bigger tower than the last one, but not as big as previous towers I’ve had.
I’m going to name if Squatty Box.

The important thing is that it works. The issue of sites not responding (the problem was on my end, not theirs) is no longer. If it happens now I will replace the router with the latest model; assuming the existing one is failing.
The cause of the issue I had been having was not determined. Because it worked at the computer repair place in EBRG, but not here, they are going to investigate more, clean it up, and resell it – with, I think, a full guarantee to the buyer.
I still have a couple of things to do, such as getting the printer to communicate over the WiFi network, and apply a few more adjustments to internet and software. Much is done but some sites recognize this as a new entity and I have to confirm it is me at home (private) and not out someplace using a public computer.

Thursday afternoon and evening, at White Heron homestead, we had cheese fondue and wine to celebrate the final step in Phyllis leaving the workforce. She officially joined the rest of us seniors. I have a 1 hour 20 minute drive, so I imbibed cautiously.
Two weeks ago Cameron helped me load a glass fronted cabinet here, and we unloaded it there.
Now I have the use of the truck bed again.
So Friday I bought perforated pipe at the CO-OP for the front landscaping, and a piece of pipe to carry water under the drive, in front of the car port. I have some pipe, but it is not intended for an under road culvert.

Carport is around the corner (right), driveway is to the left. Photo was a week ago. Ditch is now nearly finished, I’ve more sand (buckets), have a dozen cart loads of gravel stockpiled just to the right of the ditch.
I may finish this part by Monday afternoon. I only work on these muscle tiring projects for about 2 hours at a time. My right hip also complains.

I needed to go to a place in downtown EBRG. What I did not know —
The town merchants sponsor an in-town candy feast.
Adults leading kids in costumes were everywhere. Cars were abundant and blocking intersections. A fellow at the CO-OP told me this was from 3:00 to 6:00. I went to the Vision Clinic near the west interchange, then into town just at 5 minutes to 3:00. Bad mistake!
I guess this is the new normal.

On the radio, a report claimed kids would get an average of 11,000 calories. That would be about 220 bite-size things like Snickers & Butterfingers. Maybe they meant 1,100 or 22 pieces. I was not fully paying attention to the radio at that point.

The temperature was 22°F this morning. I waited until 40° before starting outside work.

From the Naneum Fan
John

A sub-pinnacle is reached!
Here is a screen capture of The 10-Point. Today’s guide to the Wall Street Journal for Monday October 18th. It is not the print edition nor is there an image, so I still have something to aim for.

There is a major weather event to impact the Washington & British Columbia coasts, likely mostly in B.C. This started Friday, but Sunday and Monday will be more intense.

Winds over the Ocean were strong enough that high waves dumped about 40 containers into the water.
The Naneum Fan will be cloudy with some rain. Not conducive to outside dirt work. If not actually raining then cutting and/or splitting firewood might be doable.

I’m still using the laptop for typing, although my desktop is sort-of okay in another room where I’ve no good place for the keyboard.
One of the issues with the laptop keyboard is the positions of the Caps-Lock, A, and S keys. I have to watch – not good for touch typing. Also, I only have about 40% of the screen space to work with.
My tower computer is in the room with the modem-router where I’ve used an Ethernet cable to make a wired connection, bypassing the WiFi. The kitchen-to-dining room island (?) is not appropriate – and I don’t intend to keep it there. For this brief interlude the monitors are not at the right angle and I have to reach over one to reach the keyboard.
Downloads work as they should.
Unfortunately, one of the monitors is now flaky. It goes black, returns, and repeats. This happened several months ago but was ON most of the time, and cured itself.
I hope to solve all of these problems by late Monday or early Tuesday, with a trade-in for a better tower. The current tower is under-powered for the announced (but not yet fully developed) Windows 11 that I expect to want about this time next year. The monitor issue is likely a cable or connection and easily solved. We’ll see.

Saturday I will go to a birthday party for 4 year old Natalie and Thursday to one for 65 year old Phyllis.

There are cute dog photos here:
https://seattlerefined.com/lifestyle/photos-cute-corgi-halloween-annual-green-lake-walk

From the Naneum Fan
John

My computer has a problem.
The DELL laptop works in the same room on the same wifi network.
Yesterday, I talked with Chris at ComputAbility – the only such business in EBRG. I planned on taking the computer in Monday AM, so filled out a form to be in the queue. However, weather on Monday is to be cold and frosty in the morning. So I said to myself, Self – why not do it today when the weather is decent.
I’ll be using the laptop until I get my unit back, likely Tuesday.

There is nothing much new with me to report, except my new glasses came in. They are similar to the old glasses, but without the scratches.

I found photos of happy dogs on the internet. Sharing:

Give someone a high-five today.

From John on the Naneum Fan
Thursday the 14th