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Celebrations

Saturday, Jan 4

John’s birthday -now he’s caught up with me, but claims he is 38

Cover of a birthday card with a old style wooden basked with apples, yellow flowers, and black capped chickedees — From a couple that got apples
from John last fall

We will start this week’s blog with Saturday, because we were so busy in the morning trying to post the blog that we didn’t get anything written. It was a full day. We first worked on that, and then after all the morning chores, got ready and took off before noon for White Heron, for a great celebration. Here’s a photo to tempt you to follow the links below. Click on the picture below and concentrate on the cheese, the rack holding it, over the hot coals, with the fire in the background.

A fire scene with 1/2 wheel of raclette cheese on a skewer; John H. in background with wine; waiting for the cheese to melt — January in the vineyard

First is the Raclette of 2013, or last year’s party in the vineyard. I am in the process of making one for this year. I plan to have it almost completed (in draft form) by the time this blog hits the airwaves. With that said, here is the Raclette of 2014. Minor changes many occur later, but they will be minor.
These pages describe the annual celebration Raclette for the grapevine pruners who volunteer their time for many mornings during the ending days of winter. This year the date fell on John’s birth date and so we shared a cake baked by one of the pruners that has walnut trees, so walnuts were a component. Last year the Raclette was on the 5^th and we didn’t mention the birthday so no cake. Also, better this year was the weather. Last year was cold and we got snowed on. It took all the next day to warm our feet. This year was warm(er) with sun and we carried along some of our stockpiled firewood as a precaution. Really though the raclette is historically a pruner’s meal cooked over stems and pieces of vine cuttings and we try to have some grape wood on the fire at all times. We shared excellent food and companionship. The cheese is imported as a full wheel and picked up in Auburn, WA. For some background reading see the post here and then click on the ‘next’ with arrow at the top right of the page. Nancy disagrees with the explained pronunciation of Raclette. It should be on the second syllable, not the first.

Sunday, Jan 5

Today was involved with rest, recuperation, and chores. John managed to do the normal ones, and then moved 15 bales of hay from the shed to the lower pasture into an old horse trailer from where he can feed the horses in a protected area from the wind when it is gusting hard. I’ve been multi-tasking, working on a number of projects today, none of which is finished. John just ordered a microwave via Amazon, with shipping included, for a good price on a “new” unit, Panasonic. NN-H965WF, delivered to our door. Our rotating spindle has been failing for months (or at least groaning), but finally almost bit the dust completely today, and tonight it was difficult to warm the smallest thing. I completed a recommendation for a friend, a geographer, in another state, and added more to the Raclette web page story for this year.

Monday, Jan 6

I should be going to exercise at the senior center today. Instead I’m staying home to tackle more projects and, tomorrow will be the same. I decided to share our purchase of a new microwave here. Check amazon.com for Panasonic. NN-H965, and click on the type you want, (we picked Panasonic. NN-H965WF ) and then go down the page for “Panasonic Genius 1250 Watt Sensor Microwave w/Inverter Technology” and open. Go down the page between Financing Offers and Product Details, to Special Offers and Product Promotions. Follow the link there. We bought this one (with this description; read them all very carefully).

Used – Very Good Item is in original packaging, but packaging may come damaged. Item has no cosmetic scratches or blemishes. Item has no cracks or dents. All accessories are present and undamaged.

John wrote the following in an email to his cousin’s daughter in PA, today —

Change of subject 1: Speaking of noises – our 10 + or – year old microwave oven started making odd sounds – again. Last year when this happened I cranked the turn-table in opposite directions a few times and it began behaving again. I assumed it was gunked up around the shaft as our house (4 dogs, 1 cat, and me) has lots of unimaginable dirt, dust, hair and on and on, floating around. This week the microwave’s complaints are more persistent. Amazon had some “used” ones of a highly recommended model. The descriptions seem to say something like: These were returned but are actually 99.999% new. One is mentioned as having a scrape on the top ¼ x ¼ inch and another doesn’t have the manual, and so on. Anyway, the used model saved us about $100. Arriving Wednesday We’ll see. –end quote–

The shipment came from a warehouse next to the Cincinnati airport – one of the few places we’ve flown into when the pilot pulled away with just moments to go and made a second try at it. It was windy. Interesting with the river just there north of the airport (in Kentucky).

I spent too much time on the request for my voice mail at CWU on 3571, but it was worth it. It is now fixed. John received a big box of goodies from his sister for his birthday. It’s full of neat things including candy and cookies and old family photographs (even of him as a baby), and of us before we were married, visiting with his grandfather in PA. The goodie box included a 1958 high school yearbook when she was a senior and he was an underclassman, and there are a number of his pictures in it.

The weather is getting nasty — it grappled on us late last night.

Tuesday, Jan 7

All day was a little overcast and sprinkles, with freezing temps, so at one time the ground was white, but didn’t stay. I spent a lot of time trying to work on arranging for Long Term Care Insurance payments, and other normal chores of the day with bills, receipts, filing – all fun stuff. I worked a little on the web page about last Saturday’s outing to White Heron.

Wednesday, Jan 8

Food bank for lunch playing music and SAIL class afterwards. Got my meds but didn’t go in the store — just to the drive-thru window. At the soup kitchen they served us a nice lasagna dish with large meatballs, a mixed green salad, and a great apple cobbler-type dish, with more apples than cobbler. We had a little snow this morning, but not enough to be a problem on the roads. On my trip home, I drove back up to within a couple miles of home, into a dense fog. While I was gone our “new” microwave was delivered. We still need to get it out of the box, but first we have to empty the dishwasher, and load the dirty stuff from the counter and clean that up. John fixed a nice pizza tonight for our dinner.

I’ve been working tonight on several projects, the most important of which is getting the photos and videos processed from my camera for the Raclette / Birthday Jan 4. I’m running out of time to get it completed before the blog goes out this weekend. Maybe it will remain under construction for awhile. Also tonight I tackled one box John uncovered, and sorted through things to take “gift” to my geography colleagues tomorrow. Stuff leftover from my teaching days… including materials and books and even a baseball cap from a local hay exporter where I have done research since 1988.

Thursday, Jan 9

This morning, John took the old microwave off the counter and “installed” the new one. It’s pretty nice, 1/4″ higher, and the circular glass tray’s radius is at least an inch more than the old one. Everything was perfect and had not been opened inside the packaging. There was noticeable wear on the packaging. It came from China (boat or plane?) and then to places in the US (planes, trains, trucks ??). Perhaps the damage on the outside glossy cardboard was enough for the store to refuse acceptance, and we got a deal on a new one for $100 less, plus shipping was included (paid for by our Prime account with Amazon… and delivery from Cincinnati was 2-day Air. John took this photo.

A white Panasonic microwave oven with many colored items on and about it; paper towels, red onions, plastic orange spoon and more — Memorize objects and colors;
quiz at the end!

How this business plan works is a mystery. This stuff is designed and then made in China and moved through several places by many people but cost about the same as a few pieces of lumber at the local dealer. Early ones cost about $50,000 using today’s inflated dollars.

This afternoon was full! It’s a bit cold and nasty to work outside so we both went to EBRG. After we dropped off a box of treasures from my past with the addition of 2 pounds hard candies, John let me off at the Rehab music gig. I carried several things in for others in our music group. We went sale-shopping again when he picked me up. He’d filled my car with gas, bought some groceries, and gone to Bi-Mart for some items, and while there found a 5-shelve plastic unit for putting things on like cans of veggies and package goods. Set-up will require moving/throwing-out some things in the garage. This is part of the rural lifestyle – buy in bulk routine. Thus far, it made it in, in its package, but it is not yet assembled.

Friday, Jan 10

Stayed home today to attempt to finish some more projects. Last night John fixed a stroganoff type of thing with potatoes, ground beef, mushrooms, yellow pepper, and celery. Tonight we had leftovers and will freeze the rest. For lunch, we had egg rolls, pineapple and orange pepper, with chocolate for dessert. I worked on the “books,” piles of stuff, and also gave John his much-needed haircut. Now we have no parties to attend to show it off. We decided against going to our friends celebration (for their son’s new Firefighter job in Yakima) at their house in Maple Valley, WA (across the pass). The weather is forecast to be very winter like, with snow up to a foot and 46 mph winds, and we would be traveling home in the dark.
Been slowly transferring 2-3 CD albums / day to make into .mp3 files to put on my car player. These came from a lady in my exercise class who had quite a collection she gave me part of in a large leather zipped folder. She’d given me a few others earlier, but this came as a huge surprise. It has 16 pages and each page holds 4 CDs, so wow, 64 albums, mostly country, but all sorts of different performers, including: Ricky Van Shelton, Anne Murray, Alan Jackson, The Statler Brothers, Jessi Colter, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Lacy Dalton, Lorrie Morgan, Reba McEntire, and people I don’t really know, such as Rita MacNeil, Lila McCann, and Nana Mouskouri, but they are singing familiar songs.

Saturday, Jan 11

This morning started with blue skies and sun, but dark-colored gray clouds are forming to our northwest, and we expect rain this afternoon. By Sunday am we could get some snow. It definitely will be bad on the pass, and in fact, winds last night put 75,000 without power in the Puget Sound area. I’m sure our decision not to travel across the pass this afternoon and evening was wise. Here is what the NWS thinks will happen: “Total snow when it finally tapers will be 18 inches to 3 feet . . . with the highest amounts on the volcanoes. … On the coast, waves of 25 to 28 feet are expected.” Sprinkling started here about 4 o’clock. In anticipation thereof, John fed the horses about 3.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Mice, cheese, and Perihelion

. . . and other things to celebrate

Sunday, Dec 29

Happy to awake this morning — 4 years after my heart valve replacement surgery. We should have thrown a party – but no – we drove to town to meet a friend to exchange some merchandise I got off the Buy Nothing Kittitas County site– that is stuff freely shared. What came today is a nice vase in which I put my dried wheat to remember my horse Frosty by, although he didn’t ever have wheat, at least while living with us. He did get a few rolled oats and these look somewhat similar. I have a tiny bale of hay somewhere I will find to put beside it. Meanwhile, the photo below shows the before and after photos of the grain in a can (John’s idea of class) and then in the “new” vase. I am putting both in for comparison, because the left was taken with a flash, and the right was not. [John says: We get bales of wheat straw to spread around places where the ground is more dirt (when wet = mud) than grass. There is still lots of grain in the straw and, what birds do not pick up or the dogs trample, produces a small crop of wheat; maybe 2 or 3 pounds. Most I leave. I clipped these last fall and they have been in the kitchen. So how many folks have seen a field of ripening wheat blowing in the wind?]

left photo of a dozen wheat heads in a can; right same in fancy container with a red rim and a blue flower on ceramic — Not so classy versus classy vases

Two other things in the bag of free goodies are gifts for others. One is a set of nice place mats from Pier One Export, reversible for blue or brown, with a centerpiece. Bamboo sticks fit into some loops on either side of the place mats, except for the centerpiece. I will give them to my friend, who sews for me, and who borrowed some linen napkins from me to use and others my mom made — she wanted to use as a pattern. Another item in the package is a chicken-shaped planter that I will give to my friends for their patio. They have larger ceramic chickens in their kitchen on the top of their cupboards. While in town we bought a few food-stuffs and stopped for a quick lunch at Burger King. Also, we brought home two BBQ rib sandwiches ($1 each). The meat was a small flat slab with zero resemblance to a “rib” and didn’t look promising but we removed the raw onion and pickles and replaced with Havarti cheese, caramelized onions, and put them in a hot oven for 3 minutes. With some canned peaches, we survived. I am still (again) working on music for next week (which will last our group for 2 months). Finally, have Buffalo Gals in with the chorus first and four verses at the bottom. We had three different versions and weren’t doing well at all; in addition, our words in the lyrics for the audience did not match our music score. I need to figure out the time spent on each to get it to a finished product ready to mail. Then I will have to print some for people in the group who do not have access to a computer (or one with a printer).

Monday, Dec 30

A day of catch-up, not catsup or ketchup! First emails, then music, then clean up some stuff in the house for recycling or re-homing items. Plans for a few other chores. Yeah, best laid plans of mice and men. I am skipping a trip to town the next 3 days. Our group plays again the day after New Year’s Day. This day has largely been spent on music. I am down to making a .pdf of the 10th of 20 songs, at almost 6:00 p.m., but we have eaten dinner. It is now 10:45 and I just finished the last. Nothing is printed yet, but all the .pdf files are created, with big blue chords written on the music.

Tuesday, Dec 31 New Year’s Eve

I spent a bunch of time working up music for the group. At 14 minutes / page, that’s 4.6 hours, and that doesn’t include the time put in on re-doing some of them, such as Buffalo Gals, Swing Lo, Sweet Chariot, and Leaves in my music software (SongWriter). More were needed, but I worked on old copies (Xeroxed, manually-entered ones), and checked the chords (some of which were incorrect). So, for thinking I was making my life easier by picking two old lyrics books, I failed. Now they are done. I’m mailing the corrected list out with the key and the order, so people can put their music in order, and NOTIFY me if they need something. Meanwhile, I will run copies for the people coming who do not have a computer, and I will email the .pdf files to anyone wanting them, starting with our new pianist, our friendly first violin player who may make it this Thursday, and to ANYONE else with a printer who might wish to have the whole packet. I have 20 files with notes, chords, and words (some more legible than others). All are old time music pieces. The folks in the places we play grew up with these tunes. Just before dark we got a call to see if John could help with loading a horse at a friend’s. He did not like the set-up so after a brief attempt they postponed this activity until tomorrow. Tonight we will have to worry about fireworks and gun noise around us that for some reason upset two of our hunting dogs. I have never understood this New Year thing – isn’t it just a made up date with no real significance? So why the guns and fireworks? Here is a long article we have only glanced at but have a look. The bottom line is that humans have fussed with calendars and use different ones. Have a look here at the “Year of the Wood Horse”. But, Happy New Year!, anyway. We are having a “quiet” night at home, trying to calm the Brittanys from several neighbors’ incessant firecrackers. We have the radio on for background to dilute the sharpness of the blasts from outside (nearest is about 100 yards away). It’s not working very well. Dan is lying at my feet, happy to be touching me. I scratch his back every so often. When we stopped going to field trials we stopped training – including introductions to noise, especially guns. Big mistake. The youngest, Annie, becomes a real pest. Finally, we closed her in a large crate. The others are all right. John “threw” together some brownies and I put the final caramel sauce on–smells quite good. Today for brunch, he fixed hashed browns, an omelet, and I helped finish cooking some bacon. This afternoon he baked some chicken hindquarters until they were very tender. I heated some green Lima beans. (We used to call them butter beans when I was growing up). He baked a small potato, and we shared a can of pears. I found out today the sad news that the large Buck mule deer I photographed met his demise at the hand of a local neighborhood archer, south of us, 1/4 mile. He was taken legally, but it was not kosher, IMHO. He should have been left around our area to upgrade the gene pool. John saw a smaller one this week with 3 does.

Wednesday, Jan 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR – 2014

Today we (John) helped a neighbor by loading their horse into our stock trailer, and transport him back to his home 7 miles or so away. John took care of that and got in a little horse training too, maybe 1.5 hrs., before the horse would enter the trailer. When he arrived home, I had set him up (with his truck) to do a good deed for two more people. I went with him on this trip. One family was giving away a twin size day bed (they lived in Kittitas), 10 miles from us, to another family in Ellensburg, about 7 miles back to town, and then another 11 miles home. About $15 of gas to accomplish these deeds – 2 gold stars on the first day of the year. If we keep up at this rate we’ll be broke by summer. Actually, the horse thing will earn us a meal later on.

Thursday, Jan 2

Filled day. Morning house and email chores as usual, plus an added search for the set of one of the lyrics books I couldn’t find. Checked both cars, front back, under sweaters, coats, and pillows, and found them hiding in the house. Phew. Then John decided it was too cold to work outside and we needed to shop for some stuff in town. So, he dropped me and all my paraphernalia off at the closest nursing home to us, and he went another couple miles to and around town to the bank, to pay bills, go to the Dollar store (for waxed paper and old style mouse traps). [Most local stores sell rolls of waxed paper for about $1.80. The $1-Store sells the same thing for, well, a dollar. Explain that?] Someone invented a plastic-enhanced type of old fashioned spring loaded mouse trap.

2 mouse traps; left has a yellow plastic tray for bait; right has a copper tray — Plastic versus metal bait tray

These (left) work very poorly, but we could not find the original type (right) the last time we needed one. $1 Store had wood ones (but made in Taiwan by PIC) at 4 for a dollar, so out with the new and in with the old. Field mice sometimes make it through the gauntlet of feral cats and into the garage. One came on into the kitchen last fall – remember the broken broom story? The inside cat can only get into the garage if we open a door for him but a mouse can get into the kitchen via holes for pipes and wires. The new-old traps are just another link in the necessary defenses against the rural environment.

Friday, Jan 3

We went to the Adult Activity Center for the potluck today. It was excellent — ribs and coleslaw they provided, and people brought various good side dishes and desserts. Once done, we delivered a few packages around town, and picked up some ourselves. At one place we were today to deliver a package, they sent back a birthday card and some homemade cookies for us. Another place we stopped gave us more cookies, and me 4 new pairs of socks, plus some toe warmers to use for my feet at tomorrow’s outdoor dinner. Another friend loaned me her lined Thinsulate boots, so I expect I shall be toasty warm. John has done the afternoon chores and the wind has been blowing, giving us a chill factor of 30°; nowhere near some of the temps across the states. I think he said tonight they were expecting just above zero in Cleveland, OH, where his sister lives, and about the same back in PA where many relatives live. Farther north it has been and continues to be very dangerously cold, so we shouldn’t complain – this week. We will get this posted Saturday morning and then leave. It is John’s birthday and Perihelion, but our trip is to celebrate the proper pruning of the vines last spring and a successful harvest of wine grapes at White Heron Cellars & Mariposa Vineyard. We will have, like last year, a pruner’s field lunch called a Raclette. You can look it up or await with bated breath our description next week. It does involve cheese – one of the elements of this poem:

Sally, having swallowed cheese
Directs down holes the scented breeze
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
[Geoffrey Taylor, 1933, Cruel, Clever Cat]

Bated versus Baited – get it?

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Christmas week on the Naneum Fan

If you missed it, check out the previous post – The Grandstands.

Sunday, Dec 22
Started by sleeping in from a very late night (morning). Had a wonderful 1/2 hour talk with John’s 95-year-old cousin in PA. She is incredibly sharp. Then a nice conversation with Peggy, John’s sister, in OH. We will not be around Christmas Day, so thought we should get our wishes and calls in early. We were unable to reach John’s brother in CA.
Very much time tonight, with more needed in the morning, of scanning Christmas carols and printing into .pdf files to email to a lady who will join us Thursday to play the Grand Piano at Hearthstone. Ellen’s son Roger will be there, and he came without bringing his guitar, so I am carrying in the guitar we bought from Anne Engels (MT), and she and her son will be there. (She is visiting son Glenn in Ellensburg for another week). Makes it rather special. Now this morning I’m running off the music for him because Roger cannot play along with his mom’s music as it is in the wrong key for her Bb Clarinet. The chords are written in for the key the rest of us play in (two sharps lower). Luckily, I had created the songs for our pianist, so I just have to find those 17 files and click print.

Monday, Dec 23
I spent much time this morning on music printing Christmas music for the two guests of our group this Thursday at Hearthstone. I did not explain the guitar we bought from Anne Engels for John to learn on belonged to her late husband. John cannot make his beat-up fingers bend to form all the chords, or make all the notes, without touching extra strings.
While sitting in my recliner working on the music scanning, creating, and printing copies I saw a flash of white outside the window, which faces the front yard (fenced). There is a 20 ft. high Mountain Ash tree there with bright red fruit hanging and blowing in the wind. The wind was gusting to 45mph, and I told John, something just went by the window — maybe a bag was flying around. I saw it in my peripheral vision (so it is working), but I was not able to focus on it. He looked out the kitchen window to see 12 wild turkeys (Merriam) visiting us. Those inside the fence were eating the red berries that had blown off the tree. I took some pictures and videos from the kitchen window, moved to the front door, and then to a bedroom. John thinks the Ash fruit isn’t palatable, nor perhaps edible, until it has changed in some manner (freeze/thaw; fermented ?) hanging on the tree. Small birds such as Starlings will come and sample the fruit but then leave. Last February (we think) a flock of about 50 came and cleaned the entire crop off the tree in 2 days. So something changed. John’s new bit of wisdom is to not have flowers, flowering shrubs, or fruiting trees close to your doors because bees, dropping fruit, and birds are best seen and not experienced first hand. The Ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) [look it up] is one we could grow here but do not because it smells like dog poop or vomit. See here for our local link to this tree; just 25 miles away.
So back to the turkeys. John took his camera and walked out into the pasture, and took some photos. Pretty cool.

3 photos of turkeys: on driveway; hen on fence; Tom on fence. — We’re leaving now — see ya later.

2 photos of a dozen turkeys; front driveway; and down through the pasture and toward the woods. — A visit from the neighbors.

Tuesday, Dec 24 Christmas Eve
Today has mostly been inside work, except for John’s morning tours of the pasture. Just after John made it back into the house, his brother Dick called from San Jose’, CA. We’d left a message on Sunday when calling everyone, and they were out and about. He was waiting for his sons to arrive and Kit was off to a local bakery. On Christmas Day the folks would head to other places. We had a nice talk, and he sounded good (he’s 11 years older than John). Also, we called our friend, Fred Joyal, to wish him a Happy Birthday today, and Merry Christmas to the family tomorrow in upstate Michigan. Later this afternoon, just before dark, we carried some jars & apples to one neighbor, and picked up two jars of apricot jelly she made and knows I love. On from there to another neighbor a mile away, to deliver some onions, a few potatoes, and some now less-than-fresh Honeycrisp apples. (John sliced and sugared enough apples for a large pie and still has 2 batches to do. They have lasted well.) They traded a package of venison sausage and a jar of strawberry jelly. I had a package with a cutting board in it, to give her, but I forgot and left it at home. [The “authentic Maple cutting board” is in a box with 3 seven ounce salami/sausage rolls and a triangular shaped 2 oz. piece of smokey cheese-food. We bought several of these packages (for gifts) at an after Christmas sale about 10 years ago and two of these just now surfaced. Well, the Maple cutting board still looks good, but we will trash the food.] Later in the evening, we made one more call to Pat Berlin, the daughter of his cousin we talked with Sunday. We think she is his “first cousin once removed.” I have never figured this relationship stuff out. Her birthday falls on Christmas day and we knew we wouldn’t have a chance to call her. She is also in PA, 3 time zones to the east. With John’s help, I worked on cleaning up the counters to get ready to make the food we will take to Christmas dinner tomorrow. John came in and put together a neat lunch, followed by making an apple/ blueberry pie and a cookie sheet of leftover dough with crushed pecans, sugar, and cinnamon. We had a piece of that for dessert.
I’ve been working on the email list to send the link below to all our friends. If you did not receive it, please go here.
It is our Christmas card to send to everyone before the end of the year, saying we will not get the 2013 newsletter out until after the New Year. 🙂
However, before I could send it, I had to transcribe the pictures and videos of the wild turkeys at our house today and yesterday and make the videos to put into YouTube compatible files. That took awhile, but I got them transferred, and you can reach them here:

Tom chases the girls; 29 sec.

On to the fence; 32 sec.

At 11:00 p.m., I FINALLY got it out! Whoopee–a few returned with wrong email addresses. I now have to fix those loose ends, but that can wait for a new day.

Wednesday, Dec 25
Up early, to clean up and then work on fixing the Golden Health Squash dish. See below the beginning and ending of the process.

2 photos: chunked up squash in square dish; and cooked with brown sugar and Pecans — Squash is ready for cooking – finished with sugar and Pecans

The photo above is only the smaller of the two Pyrex dishes we took to the dinner. Finally, after a late start, we finished in plenty of time to drive 20 minutes to our destination. We visited a lot and ate likewise. There were some good foods there we don’t usually have. The main meat dishes included ham and turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, our squash, several different salads, many dips, including some fancy ones (salmon, artichoke), stuffed mushrooms, the hottest peppers filled with something less hot, I have ever had. Had to run get some cool drink to put out the fire. John passed on those. Also was a table of cookies (all decorated) and candies. We didn’t stay around for the cakes and pies, because they took a break to exchange gifts. We needed to get home for John to feed the horses and outside cats – they have him trained so he will feed before dark. I needed to locate the guitar I mentioned previously. I dusted off the case, and managed to get the strings in tune. It does have a tuner attached to its neck so the only issue is will it stay in tune? [it did, just fine]

Thursday, Dec 26
Today, going to play music at 2 places in the afternoon — all Christmas songs. I have a lot of stuff to carry. John decided against going in favor of working on his “firewise” project. I parked at the end of the driveway at the first place and made two trips. First was with my fiddle and carrier, and next with my guitar and another carrier (with music stands and music books). We had a great group, with some new members and visitors in the audience and in the “band.” Here is a run-down on the instruments: mandolin, two guitars, bells, accordion, two fiddlers, clarinet, and pianist (on the Grand Piano). The audience had individual sets of bells to jingle with us, and lyrics of the songs we sung.

Friday, Dec 27
We have lots of clean up in the house left to do, and I started this morning by making my way through 3 boxes in front of the door to our entry hall closet. I know we haven’t been in there for 5 years, because we have a coat rack on the wall beside the door, which holds all our vehicle keys, and coats/jackets of the season. I was looking for a special warm winter coat from my past and hoping for warm boots as well. I found both! I doubt the boots will work, however. The foam insulation (a low density, open cell polyurethane foam ? ) has deteriorated, and after wearing them an hour, I realized the insides were crumbling — so trashed them. John says he read on the side they were made in Italy. Later, I’ll look further in the same closet. The coat is perfect. John made some brownies and they smell delicious. We received an invite today to a Raclette (it happens on John’s birthday this year). So very excited. (That’s why I was looking for warm outside clothing). Also, another party on Jan 11 celebrating a new job in Yakima for the son (in Ellensburg) of a friend, but the party will be in Maple Valley, WA. Our attendance is waiting for the weather report on the Pass. Rest of the afternoon I have spent (still working) on deciding the playlist for our group for Jan & February. Now I have to put them in order in my book, and run copies for the new people. We just had dinner, and I am totally worn out, but it is only 8:00 p.m. Received a blast from the past–about our old Brittany, born in 1976, Dual Ch/AFC/CC Ramblin’ Chocolate Dandy. (See more on tomorrow’s write-up.)
Entered the song, Leaves, into my computer software. It is a song we have long done with our group, and it is very old. Many years ago the mother-in-law of one of our guitarists put a poem to music. Within the past 12 years, he wrote a 3rd verse, and I wrote the 4th and 5th. It’s pretty cool. Guess I should make a link to the lyrics for anyone interested. We localized the last three verses to the Kittitas Valley – as we are the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends.

Saturday, Dec 28
This morning I went walking with John and the Brittanys, and talked to the horses. They see so little of me, they weren’t sure of the change and the three newest ones stood 50 feet away and looked but decided that was close enough. I was all bundled up maybe looked like an apparition – the ghost of Christmas past. Now back to the correspondence with the fellow that had a pup out of our “Choc” — Dual Champion Brittany. He had a pup in the last century from him, and wants another from his bloodlines. My wonderful first-opened email of this morning was from Jeri Conklin offering just the pup he needs. The conclusion of getting information to the fellow, now in CA, ended at 6:30 p.m. and then an hour or so later, Jeri got back in touch with him, after I sent him a bunch of photos and history. I think it’s going to work out. As I told him, it will be a match made in heaven. Then, because I was too busy today, we never got this blog out. Hope you enjoyed John’s attempt at humor with his Grandstand thing. He sort of tricked me because the bush in that photo looks like one at the corner of our house – it is just a photo he stole from the web.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

The Grandstands placeholder

from John

It is Saturday evening and the sun has just gone down behind the Cascade Mountains and Nancy is far from producing her report of weekly doings. She promises to have it ready for me to work on “real soon now.”

I am counting down not just the year 2013 but the days to my rapidly approaching birthday at the end of the coming week. I have been busy building the grandstands for the parade so thought I’d show it to you. Nice? Yes. We are expecting a big crowd.

2 small aqua and white benches; smaller on top of the other — Birthday grandstand

Check-up and more

Visit the previous Solstice post.

Sunday, Dec 15
The good news on my horse is that our neighbor who has helped us bury two previous horses, came down with his backhoe to help put Frosty in his resting place on our property. It was accomplished on a very windy, but sunny day. Winds were gusting to 53mph. This Christmas cactus was blooming nicely for the day, and the clouds resembled the activity trails of a herd of heavenly horses running to great Frosty. One of his buddies (Scotch) preceded him there, and others of ours probably heard of his arrival. About the clouds, see here and here.

blooms on a Christmas cactus backlit from a sunny window — Mistreated but it doesn’t
seem to care a whit

Altocumulus clouds -- lines of whispy white clouds; also called mackerel sky or buttermilk — What is going on up there?

Monday, Dec 16
Took a lot of time today to finalize all the medical paperwork to take along tomorrow to my Cardiologist’s appointment in Yakima. It is just a routine 6-month visit, but has much stuff to take along with me. They want a complete list of medications (and even want the containers), but I have managed over time to just take a detailed list. They accept it.
In addition, I have been recording my blood pressure daily (as requested from the doc last time). Last night my recorder stopped working, but I have enough data to satisfy the doctor that I do not have high blood pressure. I also have tried to coordinate the lab reports and talk to the hospital and my family physician’s office to figure WHY the system will not work correctly on sharing my lab reports requested from one doctor with another in the same system as the hospital lab where I go. I am not allowed to ask them to FAX results to both doctors. What happened to the need to benefit the patient?
The other thing accomplished today was a find of a white board about 2′ x 3′ that a preschool teacher requested on the new list I’m on for “freebies” — Buy Nothing Kittitas County. (It is a closed group through Facebook). I have gotten a few nice things, and given some nice things away too. It beats dealing with E-Bay or bulletin boards, or God forbid, having a garage sale. I’m meeting her Wednesday to deliver the goods. Amazingly (to Nancy), John found it this morning in the shed. Nicest way to depart with stuff is to find someone needing and wanting something for which you no longer have a use.
John tended to the rough and rocky ground from the horse burial. Many rocks moved off to another use and the place covered with straw and manure from near the horse feeding spots.

Tuesday, Dec 17
Started out getting things ready for leaving for the trip to Yakima. John worked outside and the temperature gradually went above freezing. We had a small lunch and hit the road, a little after 1:00 p.m. On to Yakima (I drove). First, to Costco for gasoline, at $3.159/gallon. That’s a lot better than Ellensburg’s $3.269. From there to shopping. I mentioned above that Sunday night my blood pressure measuring unit quit working. We purchased it from Costco a couple of years ago, and never expected a replacement, but took it in, to see if they could get a replacement part. The sleeve no longer expanded to record the pressure, and made sounds like it was leaking. They checked to see that we had bought it there, and then refunded us the cost we paid. We both were in a state of flabbergast, and never expected anything like that. I forgot to ask when the purchase date was, but it was in their system. They refunded us $42.26. We went to the pharmacy and bought a new nicer one for less. Also, we picked up a few more things for us and the animals. I took a powered shopping cart on the way in, but after we came back from the service desk, I passed a woman with crutches, waiting for one. I was coming from the exit side, so as I went by her, she said, are you returning that? I said, no, I’m just beginning, but I think you need it more than I do, so please take it. My good deed for the day, and I got a good exercise walking all over the store.
From there we went to Big 5 Sporting Goods store where we had a $5 coupon. John found some boots just as he likes, on sale, and asked about something to glue down the front rubber piece of the sole across the toe that is coming off those at home. The sales clerk suggested a tube of glue just for leather & rubber. So, he got it a tube of black Shoegoo. From there to the Yakima Heart Center. I was to check in early for a 4:00 p.m. appointment. Surprisingly, I was called in at 4:03. The nurse assistant took my vitals, and then gave me an EKG. We thought the doctor would be in soon, but he was much longer than expected, getting there just before 5:00. He always spends a lot of time with us, and he went through all the labs and past information from the last time we saw him in June. Nothing was wrong with any of my tests, except my magnesium is a little low, so he told me to start adding a supplement of it to my meds, daily. My cholesterol (total is low) was “excellent'” in his words — but he explained my HDL/LDL (ratio) is a bit off because the “bad” C. is quite low while the good C. has not lowered concomitantly. He was very happy with that, and won’t change anything. Several months ago my regular Doc in Cle Elum noticed this and sent a memo with a link to a study about too low isn’t good either. John did some reading and we-all have decided to watch this for any changes or other (maybe related) issues. My blood work was good. In 3 months, I’m going to go through a special test which measures the volume of my newly-shaped heart better than a normal Echocardiogram. So about late March I’ll get that done – reluctantly, because I have to lay on a table with an arm up behind my head for about 10 to 15 minutes (I think). That’s not fun. By the time our consultation was over it was near 6:30 and we and Dr. Kim were the only ones left in the office. He had to find the main switch for the front doors so they would unlock and open without setting off alarms.

Wednesday, Dec 18
Similar to other midweek’s doings. Off to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen to play Christmas carols today. I wore my special Merry Christmas hat. They fed us pizza (homemade there), a large mixed green salad, and some dessert I skipped. Went by the pharmacy for one of my pills, and by Bi-Mart for some Magnesium as prescribed yesterday, by my doctor. Home to try to tackle a number of routine things.

Thursday, Dec 19
Today, most of the morning was spent copying Christmas music and adding legible chords for two new (occasional) members of our music group — guitar players. One is 92! And you would never have guessed his age. Amazing, and quite good on the guitar as well. I hope I’m half as good as he is by the time I’m 75! We had many interested and involved residents, singing along on the Christmas songs, and jingling their bells we gave them.
From there, I came home to deal with many emails that have been waiting and to work on a WTA page to get to people for comments. I hope to put the links in an end of year newsletter. It is not written yet. So many cards and letters are coming, and I will have to print out what I end up putting in the newsletter to send to our friends who do not have an Internet connection. I promise you it will not be as large as the greetings for 2012, which did not make it out until St. Patrick’s Day this year! I also put in a bunch of time sending out jobs for my jobs list I have ignored for the past few days.

Friday, Dec 20
We got up early this morning to make the two pecan pies to take to the scholarship luncheon potluck at CWU. Friends at the same parties (doesn’t happen often) may get tired of our over the top regalia. This was a change today with the hats added.

Nancy and John in Christmas decorated sweaters — An odd couple of pies.

My hat was given to me by my friend since the 6th grade, Nancy “J.” John is wearing my old sweater when I was larger. There was an interesting assortment of food, and ours was the only dessert. After lunch we went by for my INR blood draw and visited in our Christmas clothing with a nurse who hadn’t seen me in 3 years, when I was going in for regular IVs after the bacteria in my blood (after the heart valve transplant). Her name is Nancy, and she was so thrilled to see me and gave me a huge hug, and John too, saying how great I looked. Yes, quite an improvement since the last time I saw her. I have gone back, sometimes with Chocolate Chip cookies to say hello to the nurses in the Outpatient part of the hospital, but she hasn’t been there when I have been in. We need to do that again.
It has been snowing lightly, and can just stay that way, or stop anytime. About 3:00 this afternoon, the sun came out for a very short time! Nothing on tap except catching up until tomorrow. Then, the wind started blowing, gusting to 38mph before slowing. Oops — there it comes again. Chili tonight and pecan pie for dessert, because we did not eat a piece at the luncheon today, preferring to have a real fork or spoon (not plastic), and a glob of ice cream on top. Everyone else was happy to eat or take a piece with them. We still brought a little over 1/2 of one pie home, so that was nice.
Tonight, I also put some final changes on another WTA workday trip, with some final shots of the projects added into two previous days’ documentation.
Check out here, cut and paste if necessary:

http://ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA-TigerMtnOct20-13.html

Saturday, Dec 21

This morning with John, we worked on a rewrite of the web page on the Park Pointe development in Issaquah. The WTA crew leaders have not yet reviewed it, but you can find it at
http://ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA-ParkPointeTrailCombined.html

I am actually still making corrections and additions.
Late this afternoon and evening, we will be dressing in our Christmas garb again and going to an open house. I think we will take a plate of cut up Honeycrisp apples to go with all the sweet stuff likely to be there. Speaking of sweet stuff, we have a funny mistake to report with our Pecan Pies yesterday. Neither of us had a piece until last night. I mentioned to John that it looked flatter and smaller than usual. It didn’t make sense because we always add an extra egg and have sometimes made a tiny 3 inch extra pie. Still, I noticed and mentioned to John that the pies seemed thinner and showed more crust. This morning, John started our conversations with a question — “Do you remember adding white sugar to the mixture?” Nope, we left it out completely, two+ cups. That would have built up the filling more. Apologies to those at the luncheon. We were both working on ingredients and talked about the different amounts of sugar suggested by the two recipes we have. Proper execution did not follow the communication. 🙂 Regardless, it was still pretty as ever and tasted like Pecan pie. We are not the only folks to have problems in the kitchen.
For today’s in-town visit, we arrived near the beginning (just after 4:00 pm), and had such a good time we stayed longer than originally planned. Lots of good food and fellowship. Main dish was a large Crock pot of Taco Soup, with many toppings. Supplementary food included some fried bread with black beans and corn, red & green grapes, deviled eggs, asparagus, peppers & olives, cookies, and candies, and several other little sweet and non-sweet things.
Neat to meet more people from town, some of whom we know and some new faces. Still, this was mostly an elderly crowd and we’re not old. Right?

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Winter Solstice

Hi,
We were invited out to share food with folks Nancy met at the Senior Center (aka the Adult Activities Center) in EBRG. That was from 4 until 8 and it is now 8:45. We will work on the blog this evening and post later or Sunday morning.
We are just north of the 47th degree of Latitude and our daylight hours are stuck on 8 hours and 31 minutes. The few seconds of additional daylight will click us up to 8 hours and 32 minutes toward the end of the coming week. Progress. Hope you celebrate these longer daylight seconds.
Stonehenge is about 280 miles north of our Latitude.

Stonehenge at the December Solstice — One of the ‘no people’ winter images on the web

Connections

Sunday, Dec 8
Morning pealing and cutting Golden Health Squash into little pieces to mix with cinnamon, sugar, our walnuts, and a touch of cloves to take to the community dinner at the Grange 45 minutes away. Lots of food. We ate enough not to need dinner (at least I won’t). Turkey, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, many salads, several breads/rolls, and many veggies, salads, & desserts. The Community Choir entertained us and they were very good. Then some cute little girls in costumes danced for us (starting with 3-5 yr olds, then 7-10, and then kindergarten. Nice jobs by all.

Monday, Dec 9
Began with taking my blood pressure for my week prior to going to Cardiologist next Monday. Then a bunch of work honchoing the lab work information between two doctor’s offices, via their respective nurses. Then John came in and requested my appearance with camera outside. He wanted me to record our latest home-on-the-farm rural living experience. You’ll see more about this later, because now I haven’t had time to go through the photos and movies, but we have determined it is a yellow jacket nest. Luckily, we didn’t have to run for our lives, but John had to remove wide pieces of old lumber covering the wall studs. Rare stuff, that. The nest was between 2 studs and over 3′ tall. Nothing much was in the combs ’cause these folks don’t make honey and don’t over-winter in cold climes. We’ll get to this next week – maybe. Nothing else exciting today: I worked some on music, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (John says we don’t live in a town and so never get Christmas presents.) We do get lots of Christmas cards from all over with connections to our past, and phone calls too. Nice keeping connected. We are not going to get our web page greetings out by the end of the year but will be sending a cute card with wishes (from the Jacquie Lawson site). Keep your eyes out for that coming to a computer near you.

Tuesday, Dec 10
This morning we went to town to get to the hospital lab for a fasting draw for me at 8:45, then off for a Monster biscuit from Carl’s JR, and on to the Copper Kettle for a 9:30 to 11:00 meeting with the Geography Emeritus Profs. From there to Super One and Bi-Mart. John was looking for some very small (8 inches) extension cords, but they had none, so he will order from Amazon. (He did and they arrived Friday). While there I found a camera case for half price ($5), for my new Nikon. It’s too big for my pocket with its case, so now this case has a strap for around my neck and room for the camera and charger. Tonight I go back to town to play and sing Christmas music with The Connections at an assisted living home, Hearthstone Cottages. Came home to a great dinner by John – baked tender chicken and pineapple chunks, baked apples with the rest of the squash and walnuts dish. Finished All I Want for Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Will check out with my banjo buddy tomorrow at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Stayed up until midnight – too long a day.

Wednesday, Dec 11
Didn’t have much time to get ready for leaving for town, but I did manage to re-home and deliver some pans, a bread and a large muffin one. On to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, where many people were loading up on food for the holidays. We played all Christmas songs and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Some new people came in and got excited about the music. One fellow introduced himself and says he will be back next Wed, because he really enjoyed the music. Our old faithfuls were there too. For lunch, we had spaghetti-like noodles, with gravy and fresh (cooked) mushrooms, and then some meatballs that seemed to be better and larger than normal, not in a tomato sauce. Salad with mostly stuff I’m not supposed to eat (spinach, cranberries), but also apples and nuts so I filled up on those. For dessert, we had sugar cookies with Christmas decorations. A young man named Greg, 13, was taking videos. He is home-schooled and just decided to document the organization and operation because he wanted to learn about it. The staff plans to put it on their web page (the F.I.S.H.) page. He took some video of us, but who knows how it will come out.
John made some interesting progress today that he has recorded in part below, after pulling some cut aspens across a ditch and getting the truck jammed. I cannot explain how something got wedged on the old truck under the rear axle assembly. He worked with a jack and sledge hammer (to drive a battering ram) and somehow released it so he could drive again. Here’s his explanation:

drawing of a rear axle assembly to suggest where the log got caught — Log was under the front of this

A view from the rear; log was in front
While crossing a dry irrigation ditch:
I think what happened was that the left front tire tipped up an odd shaped log (about 4 feet long with a broken end) about 14 inches in diameter for most of its length. That piece ended up under the truck and as the left rear tire settled into the ditch (where the log should have been – the log for the right side was still in place) the log wedged under the drive train and caught on the housing exactly where the universal joint (U-joint) [think that is the term for this connection]. Gentle pressure on the gas pedal had no effect. Had I been 50 miles from home I might have tried a bit more power but the truck is a 1980 and I don’t want it to fail. I tried jacking the axle but the uneven ground and the scissor jack (the one most easily at hand) made this difficult – I got less than an inch before the resistance grew too much and I would have had to get better equipment.
Therefore, I got a 10 ft. piece of Aspen trunk (for a ram), a sledgehammer, and two little rollers (branches) about a foot long. I put the two rollers in place and put the ram on top with one end on the log. I used the sledge as one would use a Croquet mallet, on the other end of the log. Several good whacks and the log went forward. I pulled it out. Took the jack out. Put it, the sledge, and the wood blocks I’d used into the back of the PU. Started up and drove off with no problems.
A complication was that had I tried to go backwards more than 3 inches the left rear tire was going to settle into the ditch (assuming it might have gone backwards had I applied enough power). The only nearby log big enough to fill the ditch was caught under the truck. I did not have another that size and would have had to come up with a work-around had I wanted to try forcing the PU backward. As mentioned above, I don’t want to “force” this old truck because if it breaks, it’s toast. Even with the delay, I finished pulling the last of the 70+ tree trunks up to a spot where I want to cut them into usable pieces. (Why she wanted this in her blog is a mystery!)

Thursday, Dec 12
Today, about four of my friends have birthdays. I spent a lot of time on music – more than I really wanted. I gathered much together, and took along some things to take to people in town. I found a home for a 1/4 size violin (given to me), and that had been the plan all along. It will be used for a 6 yr old boy, who has two younger siblings who might follow. I also carried in a heavy-duty jacket that is a little tight on John, I don’t really like it, and the buttons are hard to get in place (that is, buttoned). It has a new home. John cuts and moves a little brush each afternoon and added rocks to the agenda today.

Friday, Dec 13
Morning filled with chores on the computer and off. My goodness, it’s a heat wave outside – up to 46. John has decent weather to move the rest of the large Elderberry bush he cut down. We decided to attend a party of the College of the Sciences where I taught. We visited with a few of the folks we’ve known and a newish “development” hire – her purpose is to raise funds from outside the State system. We are of interest to her because I give some money to students for scholarship awards and it passes across her desk. She tells an interesting story (skiing in Canada, a bone crushing accident, medic-flight to Seattle, convinced her she wanted to be a doctor, and many steps later, settled into this development thing. Found her niche too, we think. I’m still involved peripherally with a few other things at CWU; although I’m no longer being paid. Interesting. I must be nuts. Anyway, John keeps telling folks at CWU they need a demographer. (There is currently a rapid increase in the over-65 population and that’s costing the State lots of money.) Related is this link about where, and from what, people die. Maps are from the very western part of King County. It came to me from a list serve I’m on, the Central Puget Sound GIS Users’ Group.

Saturday, Dec 14
Frosty, my horse, died overnight, and we do not know the cause. He has not been sick but was no longer young, perhaps 24-25. Below is his picture. He was a Fox-trotter. We bought him when he was about 14 and that would have been about 2004 or 2005. His history is interesting. As a young horse (we don’t know his age then), he was part of the cast of the 1997 Kevin Costner movie, “The Postman,” (horse parts shot in Central Oregon). The producers wanted only black horses in a couple of scenes so they spray-painted them. He obviously would have needed a lot of spraying to become black. Until the day he died, he did not like spray bottles used around him. We had to wipe his face with a rag with fly repellent sprayed in it.

% horses as white clouds on a blue sky and the horse Frosty (some white on a black coat, thus the name) — I’ve looked at clouds that way

Above is a lovely sympathy wish from a friend back in Indiana; Frosty is on the right. Of course, I will miss him, but my real regret is I was not able ride him one last time after I recovered from my heart surgeries.
Further interestingly, is information in the Yakima Herald about a woman from Ellensburg who is a competitive jumper– Nannette Bews. This was published this Sept. For many years, the Bews were mainly trail riders — and movie stars, of a sort. They appeared as extras, on their horses, in the movie mentioned above. The most memorable part of the movie for the couple was dyeing Ed’s horse black for the filming. Since all the horses had to be the same color, dye was airlifted from New York to accommodate the scores of animals. “Dyeing a horse is a real experience, I’ll tell you,” Nan recalls. At the time of the movie a young EBRG veterinarian learned about the movie (she is from OR) and went down to watch the filming. Costner was having an issue with the person already there caring for animals and our-sometimes-vet, Thea, soon found herself drafted. She had nothing there to work with and many horses so she told him what she needed and the flew it all in. When that filming was over they gave her all the remaining medicine and equipment. Small world, right? We know someone who knows Kevin Costner and he worked with Frosty!
I went and played music at Briarwood, and we had a huge turnout- as well as a good batch of players (Mandolin, Autoharp, Clarinet, Viola, Fiddle, Timbrel, and two guitars). They fed us a feast – baked flaky crust around a filling of chicken, cheese, carrots, and broccoli. On the table were cheeses, meats, crackers, and cute little Christmas gelatin creations shaped as trees, bells, Santa; a wonderful green Jello & whipped cream salad, and Swedish meatballs with pineapple chunks. Then a table full of desserts – with cookies, Aplets & Cotlets, homemade peanut brittle, excellent chocolate fudge, and a roll of red velvet cake with cream cheese layer.
One of our players was in the hospital from an infection near his pacemaker – apparently having whacked it while working with firewood. We know he went to Yakima Regional last night, and they took it out and put him on antibiotics. They will install a replacement on the other side of his body. We heard from Helga (his wife) tonight that he was up and walking, and will be having the operation on Monday. (His original heart surgery–multiple bypass stuff) was done by the same Doc that worked on my heart.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Via Facebook (see there are a few advantages) from a CWU student we knew early in our arrival at CWU:
Announcing….drum roll please….Dr. Teresa Ryan.

I successfully passed a 3-hours long oral examination for my PhD dissertation, Territorial jurisdiction: the cultural and economic significance of eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) in the north-central coast region of British Columbia.

This from a previous post:
Awesome! Thank you so much Nancy.

You are all with me all the time. You are part of my journey and I am so blessed for it.

Cheers,

‘Smhayetsk
Teresa Ryan

ps. we (as in House, Tribe) had another feast (others refer to these as ‘potlatch’) this past winter in Prince Rupert and moved lineage names; and the one placed on me is ‘Smhayetsk, it means ‘real copper’ and coincides with a river named in our territory tributary to the Skeena River.

Fudge

Well, it is 4:45 and Nancy just arrived home from playing and eating at a place in town. It is deep dusk but not yet dark and there is a bright Moon climbing from the eastern horizon. The full moon will be next Tuesday at 1:29 A.M. (for us). We have warmed up to + and – freezing this week and it seems we are to stay that way for a week, at least.

There isn’t much chance we’ll get the week’s doings posted until late today (Saturday) or maybe Sunday morning. Nancy has already mentioned to some that the horse she rode, Frosty, died during the night. It will be said he died of colic but that is a sign and not really a diagnosis or reason.

She brought a few goodies home from the after-music feast so I’m off to sample a bit of fudge. More as soon as possible.

John

Wassailing in single digits

Sunday, Dec 1
Trying to get over my cough that returned, and work on bills, records, Christmas music, and rounding up Christmasy clothes. We also just worked for a good while on things on the kitchen counter and floors, looking for missing items. It was worth the work. John uncovered the missing favorite carving knife and my mom’s old oval aluminum cooker. Part of the effort was looking for a top for our round crock pot in which John has fixed a nice beef concoction (with tomatoes, onions, and rice). That will be dinner – with leftovers. Now he has taken off for upstream (the diversion from the creek) to adjust the irrigation water in our ditch so it won’t ice over and run out into our pasture, creating a skating rink for us, the horses, & dogs. We don’t need that as we had 2 winters ago. [Ice forms on the ditch water that, then, runs like in a hose until it pops up and, quickly spreading and freezing as it moves over the frozen ground. We had about an acre and half of irregular ice one year.] The horses have had their heated water tank for over a few weeks now, so do not need access to the ditch, and the cats have access to the horse’s trough if it is full enough, plus the “cathouse” is now heated to just above freezing with a pan of water and extra dry food. Yea! I got the dishwasher loaded and started, so am back working on Christmas music. Have to do a major job after getting the new improved version of Frosty the Snowman, using my computer software. Still working on and off on that project. Scanning now, and shortly, I have to redo Jingle Bells to match the words we have on the lyrics being used by the audience to begin with the chorus, instead of the first verse. Finished Jingle Bells and almost completed, We wish you a Merry Christmas. Phew. I wish I got paid for all this work. It’s good volunteer work, however, for the community.

Monday, Dec 2
Our farrier trimmed feet of 3 horses today. John went to town for gasoline in his old farm truck, filling both 20 gallon tanks for over $100, but it won’t need gasoline again for a long time. It is just used on our property for pulling around cut trees, delivering cords of wood (okay, that’s off the property), and countless other carrying of rocks and horse manure around the place, but that doesn’t put the miles on as a regular on-road truck. A current project this week is the removal of an Elderberry bush that is heading toward our electric wires. The 2 pictures below were taken Dec 7; top one is before and bottom one is after the tops of all the parts have been cut off and some loaded into the pickup.

Our old truck backed up to an Elderberry Bush that needs to be cut down; near the power pole and shed — The offensive Elderberry Bush

Cut branches of the Elderberry in truck and on ground; big trunks still to be cut; neighbor's 2-story garage now seen — The half-done job; much cut
but none gone to a resting place

I stayed inside to do various things, and one was to check on Medicare D coverage for drugs. After 1.5 hours of telephone calls (mostly waiting), I now know that my Group Health Retiree Coverage is superior to any other private provider I can obtain for Medicare D, and I get better coverage, with no donut hole, deductible limits; just a co-pay required and with a large top limit, $20,000. More medical today: spent a ton of time on medical lab test histories and set up for an upcoming cardiologist visit for which I was supposed to have two lab tests, one for my thyroid and one for my liver, because of a drug, Amiodarone, I’m on. I just received the request to go in for the two tests, but I remembered I had probably had them recently for our Sept 3 appointment at our family physician. So, I contacted the nurse there, and she verified indeed I had, and the results were within the right range. So, she will mail me a copy of the results, and I have contacted my cardiologist’s nurse. John cannot do any more work in the yard until it dries up or freezes, with rain for 24 hours, it turned everything into mud. Now working again on Christmas music. Thought I was done yesterday, but have to get Here Comes Santa Claus into a different key. It is fairly simple to enter with only 16 measures in ¢ (“cut time”). Speaking of cut, John cut the carpet we bought at CWU surplus to fit the kitchen floor. The mat there was smaller and had started to fall apart. Now we can walk around from the den to the kitchen without stepping on linoleum. The dogs and cat seem to appreciate it as well, and spend lots of time there. Shay has found if she lays on the rug next to the heater vent, she can stay warmer and comfortable. Also, this afternoon I found the information on a new Orthopedic Surgeon in town (whom I met and heard speak earlier this year), so I could recommend him to the mom of the family at Thanksgiving who is having rheumatoid arthritic problems with her knees. I expect this fellow can fix her up, and he is local, hence saving a trip across the pass.
Just printed off a few more newly entered Christmas songs to try out on Wednesday with our banjo player/singer, and then I will have to figure how many to run for people coming to play on Thursday. I hope they will heed my request because I am not going to phone everyone; just the two people without email.

Tuesday, Dec 3
I’m going in today for my INR blood test check at the KVH hospital, and also to the bank & Super One pharmacy. John went along, and we went to Bi-Mart for a 2014 desk top calendar, and ended up finding many other things (including it) on sale. The calendar was 30% off making it a very nice time to be there shopping. Last year it happened too, so I just marked my new calendar to try for about this time next year. Also we found a very good sales price on Bounce dryer tissues, and we were almost out. John likes to stash up on the Aplets & Cotlets boxes when they are on sale for 1/4 of the retail price in Cashmere. [They sell different things on their web site using 14 oz. rather than 12 and different photos and names on the boxes. Comparison shopping is impossible and they have much more and very fancy stuff in the catalogue. Pretty gifts if you need one, though.]
We received the photos today from the Tiger Mountain Work party on December 1. I requested our friend Jon N. take photos of the completed work that John H. was involved with in Oct., and later on his way home from another work trip, stopped and took a few in-progress photos. We worked on the ones to use and he trimmed and brighten some of them for me to include in my “old” page — as a finished project.
It’s not finished yet, but if you check in a few days, it should be there — at (cut & paste)

http://ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA-TigerMtnOct20-13.html

I’m really excited to have these photographs to add, even though the weather did not cooperate much for nice clear photos. On the web page, I have changed the first line to state the DEC 1 photos to be added and then the header and footer will be changed.

Wednesday, Dec 4
Today was Christmas music at the Food Bank. Can you believe Christmas is only 3 weeks from today ? We had a LOT of participation from the audience and the servers. Much more than usual. Wow. Went from there to SAIL class. Home to work on Christmas music, and then off for a Geology lecture on the Ancient Lakes area east of us. The talk was in Ellensburg, by Andy Bach, geographer from Western WA Univ. I have known him since 1995 when he came to WA. Nice guy, and interesting lecture. We have ridden horses all through the area. (John more than me, but I have been at least twice). It is the landscape of old coulees, ripples, and scablands caused by the Missoula Floods, and more recent modifications of talus slopes and “ponds” in old potholes, caused by the Columbia Basin Irrigation project.

Thursday, Dec 5
This afternoon I went to Royal Vista (nursing & rehabilitation) to play Christmas music. Prior to that I assembled the music for some of our group (more time than originally planned), but this should be it for the rest of the month, until someone else comes in to play who isn’t planning to be there today. While I was working, John went on normal morning chores and then came back and left again to fill the horses’ heated trough. They are having to get all their water from there now. He was gone longer than I expected, so I found out all the additional things he did while the tank was filling. Now at 12:30, it is just finally beginning to be sunny. That may warm things up a little. Meanwhile, the plum trees got covered with straw, a fence got moved, and some other things. As I pulled in the driveway I saw him out back trimming more bushes from behind the shed where I park my car. The location is where the fence he moved earlier (made out of pallets) was moved to allow him access to drive the old truck around back. Ever so slowly he is widening the space between brush and trees and our buildings. Being “Fire Wise” the pros call it.
Getting colder here. John considered putting a block heater on my new Subaru, but it is a special part that will cost $150 + labor and 8% tax. We are not sure it is worth that much. He has one on his car and if it is around zero, we can just drive his, and let mine sit.
Sadly, my work is not over on the Christmas music. We had a few glitches today I have to work on to give out next week. I just put We Wish you a Merry Christmas into the right Key for Ellen & her Bb clarinet, so we could all play off the “same” page.

Friday, Dec 6
This afternoon is the annual Holiday Celebration at Dean Hall put on for all university employees by the Anthropology and Geography departments. It’s a real tradition. It is major finger food, but we’ll have plates, and can make a dinner from the offerings. It begins at 5:00 p.m. so many people come from their work on their way home. We arrived 10 minutes early, put our offering on the dessert table, secured a comfy chair in an adjacent room, visited with some early arrivees, and then were there near the head of the line for the opening buffet. All sorts of food was on the table, and we had plenty to choose from. Meats included ham, little meatballs, pepperoni pizza, chili with cornbread/cheese on top, deep fried homemade (pork egg rolls), herring on crackers, many hot pasta type dishes such as spinach, other stuff: a plate of cheese covered with little shrimp, rolls, plates of cheese, fresh fruit, and deviled eggs. I’ll stop there, but there was more. Desserts filled a table, including cakes, cookies, pies (apple and banana cream), candy, and (on both tables) some things known only to the makers.

Saturday, Dec 7
This evening from 6:00 to 9:30 we are invited to a concert and dinner put on by the Music school for fundraising for student scholarships. We already are funding two yearly scholarships in the College of the Sciences, so they are treating us to dinner as a thanks ($50/person). The entertainment is by 100 members of the CWU Choral music program. They will also be our servers. We picked chicken over vegetarian for our meal choice. The invitation claims there will be wassailing and a social mixing hour preceding the seated dinner. John thinks their use of “wassailing” is a bogus throwback to European traditions and thinks there will be few was hail called out tonight and likely no replies of drinc hail. Neither will anyone proclaim “Old apple tree we wassail thee” – but someone thinks wassailing is a neat sound and thinks we should be doing it. We dressed up and had our picture taken.
That’s my old sweater I talked John into wearing, and the choral conductor came around to greet people and thank us for coming. He told John he really liked the sweater. That made my day. The vest I’m wearing is filled with icons of the Nutcracker Ballet.

John and Nancy in very colorful Christmas sweaters — They said semi-formal

Sunday, Dec 8
Today there are several parties, but we haven’t figured out how to be two places at once, so we have chosen the Grange’s Christmas dinner, at 1:00, during which turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes are donated by the Grange, and attendees bring pot-luck side dishes or desserts. We are taking one of our Golden Health Squash (a winter squash) chunked up and wassailed in butter, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon and a dash of ground cloves. It worked. Lots of folks said “Oh golden squash, we wassail thee!” We got home about 4 degrees and had the horses fed, the dogs exercised, and the feral cats tended to – all done just as the sky went dark.
The weather folks are looking for zero tonight and then 14 on Monday night. The cold air is draining into the low spots and so we have been about 3 degrees warmer than they think we ought to be. Folks we know down in central Oregon are getting -15 or so. Look around. Some place and somebody is always less well off. We can wassail to that!

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Way too busy,

The Geog. & Anthro. departments had a pot luck Christmas party Friday at 5 P. M. and tonight (Sat.) we went to a music/dinner fund raiser for the music dept. at CWU. Because Nancy donates to the U for student scholarships we were given tickets (nice) as they wanted $50 each for a chicken dinner. The choral groups performed with some instrumental accompaniment and it was all well done and with a few comical things involved. We left at 5:30 and got home at 10 in 3 degree temperature, headed to -4. In the morning we have to fix squash, walnuts, cinnamon and sugar and off to another food fest at 1 o’clock.

Hope to get a blog done by late Sunday, so check back Monday for Nancy’s weekly doings.

Meanwhile, stay warm and safe.
John