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Locally, Summer started cool and damp. This hasn’t stopped some of the plants from putting up a show. Here are two, photos Sunday by John:

Syringa is the State Flower of Idaho. It is native and fire-adapted. When completely top-killed by fires, it will re-sprout from rhizomes and root crowns afterward. A fire that burns across the root system of clematis will burn the soft rope-like root system. Sagebrush is also killed by fire as it burns down into the roots.
The Autumn Clematis is an invasive plant that can look pretty while blooming but it is our Kudzu. That one is found in Texas and across the south and to the east and north.

When I wrote the check for the water pump replacement, I screwed up and did the numerical part and the written part differently. Banks use the written line. That had One thousand and should have had One thousand seven hundred (or seventeen hundred would do). I realized this on Saturday and called Kelly and left a message. A check for $700 will get mailed on Monday.
So far in 2025, that’s my dumbest stunt.

My 40-year-old (?) Craftsman Radial-Arm saw stopped last week. Several phone conversations later, I’m convinced it is not coming back to life. Unfortunately, the service desk person at a local shop said bring it in, so I built a ramp and managed to get it slid into the bed of the pickup. At the store, the head repair guy said “Oh, that’s an electrical tool and we don’t work on that sort of thing.”
Perhaps the first full-week of Summer will be better.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

It is not yet here. The few days of near 100 degrees in central Washington have reverted to 77 on Sat and 84 today – Sunday. The weather gurus think the airport temps are about 3 degrees too high – investigation is underway. Anyway, I set the house for 68° and slept with a sweatshirt on. This cooler period is expected to last, at least, to the 4th of July.

We had a game of Pétanque Wednesday and dinner at Phil & Audrey’s home in Quincy on Saturday.
Not much else this week.
On Monday, the new heat pump is to be installed.

There are native plants blooming. I will have photos next week. I hope.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

The motor (pump) in the well was replaced and this always causes stirring up of years of accumulated deposits of orangish “rust” – – bacterial cells, and slimy materials that stick to well casings, pumps, pipes, plumbing fixtures. With the well open and the new pump placed the standard plan is to pour a gallon of bleach into the hole and then pump a lot of water through an outside faucet {not into the house}. After many gallons of orange water has been pumped out and new water has seeped through the rocks the water will be cleaner. Then the valve to the inside house gets opened and filters replaced, and life begins to return to normal. With that done, I did a load of dishes and a load of laundry.
I had clean water stored in plastic bottles for cooking. While the “cleansing” was happening I carried water from the creek for flushing. Trees and flowers benefited from the dirty water, rather than just letting it run onto the ground.
But, there is always something.
I’ve been using an old Craftsman 10″ radial arm saw. I can’t find a date on it. The motor was made by Emerson in the USA. We moved to Troy Idaho in 1974, and I think the saw was bought shortly after that.
This week it stopped on an overload and hasn’t responded to the normal fix of cooling and pressing the red “reset” button.
Recently, I’ve been cutting small lengths of trees and tree limbs to firewood size, about 15 inches. Sometimes these are oddly shaped and twist and bind the blade and I have about a second to hit the stop button or the motor shuts off. This week a stop occurred, and the rest button doesn’t work.

An update will follow next weekend.

A few of the plum trees are dropping small fruits, or self-thinning. A good paper on this is from Purdue University.

Fruit Drop Thins Crop

The photo is of my dwarf Shiro Plum tree. My April 27th post started with a photo of this tree at the height of blossoming. Lots of flowers need lots of bees but the trees don’t want that much fruit. If I touch a small yellow one it will fall. They will naturally fall and wind helps.
How do they know to do that?

The high temperature in EBRG was 97° today Sunday. Likely similar on Monday and then by Thursday the NWS says 76°. I’m usually 2 to 3 degrees cooler. The atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean next to Washington is going to send a cooler and cloudy week or two our way. In fact, Monday may be the highest for the Month of June.
Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Episode #37 of “There is Always Something”

Thursday: A no water day! Pump and controller are 25 years old.
I had enough running water to make 8 oz of coffee this morning. [I do have a couple of gallons in plastic bottles.]
A worker, Dylan, for a local Pump etc. place came and replaced the controller on the wall but that didn’t solve the problem. We couldn’t lift the pump out of the well so momentarily I’m without running water. [I also had an appointment at the Ford dealer to have the truck serviced.] I was going to cancel that but when we discovered the pump was stuck 80 feet down, I went to town. Dylan and Kelly (well-guru and business owner), returned after supper and finished the job. However the water is the color of dark honey – colored by the oxidized iron and whatever else has accumulated. The well also got a gallon of bleach (this is called “shocking”) so until I pump 100+ gallons out onto the ground (near trees and flowers) and the color goes away – I don’t have running water in the house. House filters would clog in minutes with that water in the pipes. I went to the creek to get water for flushing and got my boots and pants wet. Uff da!
Submersible water pumps typically have an expected lifespan of around 8 to 15 years, although the manufacture often has a 5 year replacement guarantee. So. I guess I’m lucky this one lasted 25 years.
On a lighter note, Wednesday afternoon Geography had a food and awards party. A good time was had by all. I met the Nancy&John awardees and others. I brought home sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and chips that will feed me for three days. The weather was nice and waited until midnight to change to cool and windy with a trace of rain.
Next door to geography is a green house with a resident tortoise named Snorkel. Photo is from 2016. He is now 17 and weighs 120 pounds. I was early, so I stopped into the greenhouse and met one of his caretakers. She is named after Carl Linnaeus who created the system to classify living things. Her dad was a biologist and they named her Linnea.
Today, Friday, was warm (84o) with single digit wind. Saturday Noon that is expected to change. I won’t be cutting trees down this weekend.
Much of the world calls June 1st the beginning of Summer. So welcome to Summer.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan.
John

I did not realize that kissing pigs was a thing.

I’ve been “brushing out” around several dead trees that are destined for fuel for the wood stove. One of the plants is Western Choke Cherry that is near the end of its flowering. It looks like the photo on the left and in late summer will have black berries.
Folks with lots of time have been known to make jam.

These small trees, out in direct sun, seem to grow only about 10 feet tall. In shade the trunk doesn’t get much larger than 4-5 inches in diameter but the upper branches grow long and spindly. This makes for lots of clean-up for not much wood. Cut fresh, it has a high moisture content and seems heavy. After a year or two of drying about 30% of that weight will be gone and the remainder (10-12% moisture) will be ready for winter heat.
Two other common plants I have to deal with: Red Osier Dogwood and Washington Hawthorne. I leave the former and reduce the amount of the thorn tree. The Dogwood has white flowers and berries and red stems. The fruits of all three plants are utilized by birds and other animals.

My new toaster arrived to be tried Monday morning. The slots are such that a long slice – Seattle Sourdough – will fit. The photo on Amazon has tomatoes and an avocado beside the toaster. I’m not sure why. The brand is Mueller. I checked the local BiMart store but didn’t see anything comparable.

The airport’s high temperature on Sunday was 88°F.
The forecast for the next seven days doesn’t have anything that high nor any rain.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

It is Monday morning, and I forgot to post anything over the weekend.
Other than my toaster having a glitch, nothing exciting has happened.
The toaster won’t engage — stay operational — unless I hold the lever down.
I will have to “kick” it a time or two and if that doesn’t work a new one
is in my future.

The relentless wind has paused. It is forecast to start again this evening
and continue until Wednesday morning. With little wind, I should spray weeds
but it isn’t warm enough. Go figure.

John

Mother’s Day: My mother was born on Wednesday April 3rd, 1907. That being 118 years, 1 month, 8 days ago.

After the visit of Ann and Fred last Sunday, this has been a week devoted to watering flowers and brushing. Meaning cutting small trees and scrubs that grow where I don’t want them. Mostly these are west of the house and shed and to lessen fire threat they need to go. I have short paths through the “swamp” {now wet/damp; later dry} that need maintenance. The brush is relentless and occasionally dead trees or limbs block the paths. I also want to get most of the woody parts removed – much can be burned in the wood stove after two years of drying.
Cutting lengths into stove-size pieces happens on the radial-arm saw — works well for pieces less than 3 inches in diameter. I also have a Milwaukee M18 Sawzall for somewhat larger diameters. Larger trees require using a chainsaw. Twigs and leaves land on the path before the larger parts are carried out. I don’t have to go to a gym to exercise.

On Saturday, prior to a few games of Pétanque, I had lunch with Phyllis and Cameron (winery folks). The Pétanque place is only 5 miles downriver on a basalt bluff east of the Columbia River. It is a little farther by road. Garret had visitors from Bainbridge Island (in Puget Sound, just east of Seattle). I’m a novice, they are much much better. Still, I filled out one of the teams of three. I was on Jimmy’s team (he being the best player there) and he gave advice that I tried to follow. The boules (balls) are steel and weigh almost 2 pounds. The target is called a jack [cochonnet (piglet)]. I had not participated since last fall and my throws were tending to fade to the right. I need to strengthen my wrist, I think.
This game is a favorite of French folks, thus the names of the target and balls.

I have several scheduled activities this coming week. While the brush grows. Bummer.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

The pruning of grape vines ended on Thursday. I’ve been doing outside chores, mostly cleaning growth out of the hole (Jay’s Folly) behind the house, making a little firewood, sprayed one tank of weed killer. We’ve had lots of the famous Kittitas County wind that has prevented more spraying. The maximum gust yesterday was 46 mph and today only 38 mph. After Midnight it is supposed to calm a bit, into the single digits.

Last fall I bought bulbs from an internet source. They came and needed to be planted before I managed to get a nice border and fence in place. The photo is the site seen first as one inters the driveway. There are two others. Some are deer-resistant, such as the Hyacinth in the front and Daffodils farther back. The Tulips are showy but deer eat them.
There is/was a small irrigation ditch thirty feet behind the flowers. Trees have been growing along it for years. Some, and perhaps all of them, are invested by boring insects.
On the left side of the photo the result is shown. I’ll cut these down and photograph what is in them, although I have seen borers in others, I want to inspect these. The wood is destined to be firewood.
Lunch today was at the Red Horse Diner in EBRG. The Joyal’s came from Marquette MI. They have family in Spokane and down toward Moscow ID. They visit each summer and we meet, eat, and talk for about 3 hours.
Often we have had one of the wait-crew take a photo. They were busy when we left, so Fred took a photo of me and Ann. We didn’t get to Ann’s age but Fred is about 10 days older than I am. I think I need to lose a few pounds.
The Red Horse hark backs to the Flying Red Horse of 50s era Mobil Gas stations. The place has hundreds of signs of all things automobile from that period. And the food is good and they don’t mind us staying for 3 hours.

I’m late today, so that’s it.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

A couple of cold mornings did not seem to harm the blossoms on the trees. The yellow Shiro Plum has so many blossoms the limbs are hidden. Unfortunately, I didn’t prune it this year. I’ll do some of that when the bees are done and fruit is set. It will need fruit-thinning.
I drive through numerous orchards when I go to the vineyard (grapes self pollinate via wind) and wonder how many bees are among those many thousands of trees. High density plantings are now the norm. The two images below show the many spring flowers (happening this week) and the result in the fall just prior to harvest.

On average there are about 800 trees per acre with 179,000 acres pf apples: that’s 143,200,000 trees. How many bees? Seems this is a large and unknown number. However, here is a WA bee site:

Washington Honey

At the bottom of the page “Interesting Bee Facts” is worth the click but may be too much information for some.
Migratory beekeeping helps meet the seasonal demands of agriculture across different areas. Bees from WA are moved to CA and elsewhere for the blossom seasons and then back to WA for the season here.
Acres of other fruits (Pears, Apricots, Plums) are smaller, but still significant.
Carrying this investigation further: Ask what happens to bee’s honeycombs after the honey is extracted?

https://www.dadant.com/a-deep-dive-into-the-science-behind-beeswax-its-uses/
So much to read and so little time. I have plants to water and brush to cut.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

I took time off from pruning grapes to attend a presentation and tour of new construction on the CWU campus. Pruning has been disrupted by absences and weather. We are 2/3rd done.

On the CWU campus, one building has been torn down and another will go bye-bye next year. The replacement is being called the North Academic Complex or NAC. This new office and classroom structure is being paired with a GeoEcoCenter.
https://www.cwu.edu/about/media-resources/news/2024/8/cwu-is-utilizing-geothermal-technology-as-solution-to-decarbonizing-campus.php

In very simple terms, warm water will be taken from under the campus, cleaned, processed, moved around (both heating and cooling buildings) and then returned to the 800 feet deep aquifer. It is a massive heat pump somewhat like many folks have in homes.
My home system is an “air sourced” one that requires electric-resistance heating on cold days. The CWU system will use water at about 68°F – a temperature that doesn’t vary.
There is much said and written about sustainability and “carbon” emissions [that helped get the funding], but the important part is saving money. New buildings are designed to be energy efficient, as are new houses.
On Wednesday we heard from several CWU folks and three engineers from the companies doing the work on the water, the buildings, and the heat exchangers.
After the presentations with questions from the audience, about 20 of us toured the work in-progress. The academic building is four stories with a large atrium (natural light in abundance). With work going on all about, we could only walk through on the ground floor. The geo-thermal part is still just dirt with the top of the extraction well the only relevant thing to see.
This building is designed for viewing and meant to attract students and visitors. They have nice visuals of the future building and system. Everything is to be ready for fall of 2026. Over the next 30 years the plan calls for three more interconnected geo-eco facilities, new buildings, and retrofitting current buildings for the heat pump technology. The current gas/steam plant with campus-wide steam tunnels isn’t going away any time soon.

I intended to spray weed killer this weekend, but the weather did not cooperate. Today the average wind is about 30 mph with a 45 mph gust. Saturday was slightly more so. The high gust was 47 mph. About daybreak Tuesday all will become more peaceful, so says the National Weather Service. I recall a tradition of violent weather on Good Friday and then a pleasent Easter Sunday. We don’t always get what we want.
I baked a Marie Callender’s Dutch Apple Pie on Friday, so all is good.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John