Author: admin

Good grief! 
A wet and windy week, finishing with snow Saturday A. M.

Sunday, Apr 7  Yesterday afternoon, John finished planting the five Ponderosa pine trees and rerouted ditch water (irrigation) for our neighbors’ pastures (south of ours).  He set orange plastic tarps at strategic locations to change the direction of flow.  Today we are staying home to work on projects, me in the house, and John in the yard.  Well, I guess we have to get back to work on the research proposals.  That’s happened but still in progress, because he had to create a template for the evaluations, as we are sending our evaluations electronically.  I suppose we could write into the printed evaluation forms, but then we’d have to photograph each page of 3 because our scanner is not working.  He’s going to help me enter my data into the template for my share of the research proposals.  Several hours later the evaluations have been sent to Toronto via digital delivery.  We old farts recognize how amazing that is.  But how about this: did you realize that Toronto is not only a lot east of us but also a bit south.  Then dinner —  salmon, fried onions & potatoes, and peaches.

Monday, Apr 8  Will be a sleep-in-a-little-longer day, because John doesn’t have to leave early to prune.  That’s over until next year.  I continued working on taxes, bills, and stacks of things.  He is working on his garden, including trimming the wicked blackberry bushes, the ones with incredibly destructive thorns, called Illini Hardy, described and pictured on the site from where ours came, Indiana Berry Company.  Move down the page to find the description.  We also have some thornless Blackberries but they are not especially hardy and were killed back to the ground a few years ago.  They re-grew and provided a nice crop last summer and look good, so far, this spring.

Tuesday, Apr 9  Going to be a very long day.  We leave before 9:00 for a meeting in town with the Emeriti Geography profs, and then on to Yakima for lunch and a Costco run, after which, John’s Subaru gets a work-over, oil change & lube and washed.  On home, only for me to turn around and go back to play music at Hearthstone.  Well, it’s night, and we made it.  I may be in bed within an hour (earlier than usual).

Wednesday, Apr 10  I play music at the Soup Kitchen/Food Bank, and go to exercise.  Heard back from a friend whose hubby ended up in ER and then to a Yakima hospital, anemic.  He’s doing better now.  Let’s end the day on a nice note–our daffodils are blooming.

Thursday, Apr 11 In the afternoon I played music at the Rehab center. John went for the horse club meeting (evening), to hear a talk on a first aid kit for horses, while I loaded more tax receipts and the dishwasher. Now I am in charge of watching for the ferals to eat their dinner. Need to keep our cat in with the doggie window closed, and open later. So far only Tre’, the extra third orange feral (not fixed), has eaten. Our neighbors quit feeding all but one of their barn cats, (how they know only one is eating is beyond us), and we have seen more of this orange one chowing down on our offerings.
Friday, Apr 12 I awoke at 3:00 a.m. and had trouble getting back to sleep, so I slept in this morning after getting up early. I stayed home all day working on computer tax things. Our scanner is broken, so I spent a bunch of time taking close up macro photos of our mileage log for John’s Subaru. Now I have to do my own car’s log. The term “log” is of nautical origin, and apparently began as a chunk of a tree, that is, a log. Then the information was recorded and that recording became the log.
The failed scanner situation necessitates the photos and the information is necessary to get the volunteer (charitable) mileage and the medical mileage to put into the tax form for itemized deductions. It is worth the effort for the tax write-off allowed (only because my time is now only worth pennies per hour). Some advice: get rich and hire someone to do these things. Now I have to enter the figures in my Excel spreadsheet to get the totals to put into Turbo Tax. I did submit my tax extension notice (form 4868) yesterday and sent it certified mail to the IRS in Fresno. I did all sorts of things, including loading TurboTax on John’s computer (from where I print the final copies of the forms), and then backed up my last year’s on that computer from where I had been working on it on my laptop. The new version is now installed on my laptop, also.
For lunch, John fixed a grilled cheese sandwich with Rosemary/Olive bread, venison sausage (gift from a neighbor) sliced thinly, and cheddar cheese. We had a Honeycrisp apple sliced to go along with it and Low Salt potato chips. Late afternoon, after taking care of diverting the irrigation water for our neighbors to the south, he put a pork roast in the oven for dinner. Was able to take the photos from the camera and print them from John’s computer directly to the printer. [Printing works, just not the scanner. We have several months supply of ink so until that runs out the purchase of a new unit with a scanner seems a bad idea – unless the same inks are required. Something else to look into.] Now I have to enter those data and a few more months’ worth into Excel before I can summarize and put into TurboTax, but I’m catching up.
All the ferals said hello to John today as he worked in the yard. One thing he did before it sprinkled was to spray Glyphosate (generic “Round-up”) on some places. He thinks it was on for at least 3 hours before the sprinkles, but the temperatures never got above 53. Best for spraying is sunny and higher than 60 degrees. Our meal this evening was a pork loin roast, succotash, and baked potato. I mentioned succotash to someone here recently, and they didn’t know what I was talking about. John and I were both raised with the variety made with mixed little green lima beans and corn. There are many more varieties, as explained in the site linked to.
We made “turtle” brownies from a box mix (sale item; otherwise expensive; otherwise create your own) including walnuts with package of caramel.  Below the picture on the left is what ours looked like, but I think next time we will add chocolate chips and pecans to the top, more like the one on the right (but adding nuts).  Our pan was a bit too big so the result was thin – note to self and others, in future fit recipe to pan.

We had a piece with the last of butter pecan ice cream and mutilated (broken down) blueberries from the freezer of our old refrigerator in our unheated outside shed. It cannot control proper freezing over very cold temperatures (needs to be in a non-freezing location). Going to bed later tonight than originally planned.
Saturday, Apr 13 Much noisy wind all night, with highest gusts to 45, but in the high 30s all night and this morning still at 36 mph. More interestingly was awaking to snow on the ground; in the Cascade Pass, requirements are chains for big rigs. It’s a mess of snow still on the Pass (and snowing hard); I’m happy I’m not returning from the Association of American Geographers (AAG) meetings in L.A., as several of my colleagues are. They always fly out of Seattle, and I never do in the winter or spring of the year. We will not travel the pass at all for any reason. One year I was in Denver, for the “spring” meetings, and the airport was snow-closed. I stayed on the airport floor or in a chair for 3 days trying to return to classes from that AAG meeting. Bad memories! John is still in the house, not wishing to get out and work in this cold wind chill; mid-afternoon and the wind is 20 mph and temp is 49 degrees. He’s going to work on getting this text and photos into WordPress and I need to get back to various paper-work and kitchen clean-up.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Apr 1 I stayed home and took care of many things. The main item of paper-work was music related. Got in my entry for the fiddler’s workshop in July, (has to be postmarked no sooner than the first Monday in April). I boiled two eggs, added tuna, other stuff, and made a salad for lunch. I also had a couple of slices of Honeycrisp apple. John cut one up to take with him (pruning) but left some for me. All of these things made a nice lunch. I have been working on receipts, dishes, and email. I did not go exercise today, because it was one of those days with only one thing to do in town. I have to go in twice tomorrow.
Taking the dogs along with me, I walked the mail to put in the box for pick-up. Three of them stayed with me, but Meghan (whose hearing is impaired, did her own wandering) was gone for an hour. John got home and planted onions most of the afternoon, besides exercising the dogs and feeding the outside animals in the wind that got up to 37 mph today. That’s enough to get things on the ground moving around, parts of trees come down, and stir up the horses. They would rather the wind not blow. Still, no serious damage occurred around us.
Tuesday, Apr 2 John off at 7:30 a.m. I went to town early, stopping for a special deal on biscuits with sausage, Canadian bacon, egg, and cheese on my way to get to an appt at the AAC, then home to work on taxes, until John got back and we went for our annual eye exams in the afternoon (back to back ones) with the same doctor. Medicare and Group Health will cover the cost of the exam (once every two years, and $150 for the glasses). I have plastic implants so do not use glasses. John last got new ones (fancy transition and progressive) in 2007 that are now very scratched and not-quite doing the job. The new lenses were $405 !! Jeez, we think that was after a $150 payment by insurance. [More of this story, below.]
Wednesday, Apr 3 At Noon, I played music at the Food Bank, and then went on to exercise. After vine pruning, a Pea Soup lunch was planned if I went, but it was impossible for me to accompany John because I cannot cancel our weekly appearance, especially the night before (as there are only 2 of us on instruments). Tonight I am sending out a message inviting people to a potluck for our music group at one of the player’s homes. If we get at least 8 there, John will roast a pork loin. He says it will take 3 days to thaw and a day to cook. Thus far, I have not heard from anyone able to come. We may have to postpone until later in the month.
Thursday, Apr 4 John was off to WH at 7:35 a.m.; in addition, I stayed up to work on taxes. Got a phone call from the winegrower at 8:25 telling me to turn John around, because it was raining over there. It is 24 miles NE of us but there is a big ridge (5,000+ ft. high) between us. Our elevation is 2,240 feet while the vines are at about 1,000. I tried unsuccessfully and the phone didn’t ring. Seems there is either a phone problem or a ‘John problem’ – I probably can’t fix either one! I called Cameron back and told him, and so when John got there the two of them worked in a light mist. I went to play music at Royal Vista and came directly home.
Friday, Apr 5 It was rainy again, but I called the winemaker and they had blue skies over there. John left. This is John’s last day of pruning, and he was going to bring home several buckets of grape pomace,

as well as stop for another box of Honeycrisp apples for our neighbor. I had been up since 5:00 a.m. and, because I couldn’t sleep, loaded dishes, and stayed up to work on taxes. I had planned to go to town to the potluck (first of month, AAC, for pulled pork sandwiches, exercise, and a grocery visit for meds), but John had to go in the afternoon when he got home to pick up 5 baby Ponderosa pine trees from the Kittitas County Conservation District. He gets something every year and has since we moved here in 1989. He has planted a mixed-forest around our house, here in the shrub-steppe. He also needed to go by the optician’s office because I heard Wednesday that the place we’d just been the day before for our eye exam, has a special on for the month of April. Buy a new pair of glasses with frames, and get a pair free (limited lens offerings on the second pair). On the previous visit John started by telling the optician that he intended to keep the frames he had, so she never got to explain the special offering. When he went back, she apologized but he explained it was his first statement that got her off-track. Anyway, now the cost goes up some but he chose a second pair that will be optimized for computer monitor work. Others to choose from were anti-glare for night driving and “special-dark” for being in bright sun. These did not include progressive lenses . . .
. . . and the dark tint doesn’t go away completely in low light. The whole deal is a bit odd insofar as there is nothing to try out before purchasing. Then again much of life is that way. So, on to . . . Early morning, I was on the phone talking to my neighbor, and saw one of the “Eurasian” doves on the fence near our patio. This was the first “up close” look at them for me, although they have been around the area for a couple of years. The one left before I got the camera – but later, I did. Supposedly, they travel in pairs.
Saturday, Apr 6 Started with both of us reviewing proposals for the Canadian Silverhill Institute of Environmental Research and Conservation
John has 7; I have 6, and we will switch when done before evaluating for the final send.
For brunch, John fixed an omelet w/ ham, bell peppers, and onions, (using Almond milk). I’ve been using that for over a year, after going off my large amount of whole (not non-fat) chocolate milk twice a day for pill taking. I was drinking two full glasses/day. I apparently developed a milk protein allergy. I’ve been fine since switching, and have increased my cheese and ice cream intake without incident. The problem was affecting my voice projection. Now I can sing again and yell for the dogs.
Was telling someone in my exercise class about the almond milk, and they wanted to know how one “milked” almonds, so I looked it up on line and found you can make your own. (I have no desire to go to the trouble; will just wait till it goes on sale at the grocers, which happens usually once/month.) I also found I could request coupons for some money off from the Blue Diamond (in CA) company — products are labeled as Almond Breeze. It might have preservatives and other stuff in it, but homemade only lasts 3-5 days in the frig. I want it to last over a month (one can buy shelf life for longer use, or in the refrigerator section, a mixture that lasts for 3 weeks). See this link for the almond milk-making story.
After brunch, John was getting ready to put aside the review until dark, and preparing to go plant his 5 Ponderosa trees in buckets so he can care for them inside our fence. The deer will destroy young trees, so he has to build a fence to surround each one until they are grown to stiff-trunk size. Meanwhile, he has to get water to them. Put these words – deer antlers rubbing trees – into an image search and get a look at all the problems.
I was back sitting in my recliner, looked out, and saw a pair of the Eurasian doves on the fence. I grabbed my camera and only got one picture, but here it is to compare with the previous week’s photo of a pair of mourning doves.

We provide a link below to the description about the ‘invasive’ species — Eurasian Collared Dove. We do not know if Mourning doves are affected by the intruders. We do know they produce an annoying “call.” A friend who manages the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area and who grew up across the street from our house, says it is a “noxious” dove that has really increased in numbers and distribution. . . Here is a link with more info and photo.
Another, I found, is at this link.
This has a nice description of the bird, its obnoxious call, and “scream,” along with some more about the nature of the beast, although little is really known about how it affects the rest of the bird population of the region.
Meanwhile, here are Nancy’s photos of the two species in our backyard: Mourning doves last week and Eurasian Collared doves today.

I need to get back to the taxes, but before I do, I shall tell the Rascal stories for the week. Recently, he has started chasing off Woody (she was his friend the past two years), but now he has taken to sitting by the corner of the house near our Lavender bush to tackle the 3 ferals on their trip to their feeding place in the hay mow. It’s gotten worse over the past couple of weeks, and we figured something was up, because he quit eating his own food in the house, so he must be stealing theirs. He never has liked canned food with any fish in it (mackerel, white, or tuna). So we were buying that more cheaply at the Grocery Outlet for the ferals. They also have full time access (as he does) to hard food. John chased him with clumps of dirt as he was chasing Woody recently, and then again later, when he went after one of the orange cats. John ran him back into the house, and we closed the doggie door window to keep him in, while the others ate. That worked fairly well, but then we closed the door on him in the bedroom, to prevent having to close the window for the dogs exit and entrance (which he also uses). We’ve been doing that regularly this week, and his desire for canned food in the house has returned. Story two–has been the continued bringing us offerings of mice and voles into the house. No snakes yet this year. John has been finding things on the floor during the night or early morning and disposing of them. This morning, while John was exercising the dogs and feeding the horses, I walked down the hall and Rascal was ahead of me carrying a large vole he’d just brought in. I yelled at him, telling him to take it out. OUT OUT — and he ran by me, back to the doggie door, and left. Phew. I didn’t have to deal with it. Story three–he has several beds in the house where he sleeps. (1) in the guest bedroom window on the ledge by the large Jade Plant, which will have to be removed when we clear out the room (a week’s work) to use for guests (that time is nowhere in sight); (2) beside the computer in the back bedroom; (3) on our bed; (4) occasionally in the window that is part of the doggie door; (5) a chair in the living room, but it is blocked off now because of being full of boxes, (6) in the middle of the loveseat in the den, right where it’s difficult for two dogs to occupy their favorite spot. Occasionally, he’ll let us move him to one side or the other, so one dog can join him. Finally, I found (7) a couple of days ago. There is a plastic storage container on its side on the guest bed, to be used for towels or sweaters, but is empty now. It had two sweaters in it and and I saw him in there sleeping. He’s taken over our house. He continues living up to his name, “Rascal.” You might remember he came from an orchard (friend’s) across the valley.
Now at the end of the week, it feels like Spring.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
PS:
Hey, this is a cool thing that happened by BBC in 2008. Maybe you’ve heard about it. I hadn’t.
First is the explanation of how they filmed the phenomena of flying penguins,

The original is here:

. . . even though we’re late getting this posted to say so!

Saturday, Mar 23 I went this afternoon to the Celebration of Life for Marty Kaatz, my friend and colleague who died last Nov, and John stayed home to plant his five new plum trees. The Celebration of Life was surprisingly interesting. Many family members and older colleagues spoke. A large number of friends, community members and university folks were present. The place was full. They had some tables and chairs and then set up a bunch of chairs in rows in front of the food, behind the tables and chairs to the front of the room near the speakers. Speakers included their son, his wife, a granddaughter, several Emeriti Geography profs who taught with him, a retired historian who served with him on the Brooks Friends of the Library committee, a close friend for over 40 years who with her husband joined Marty and Carla on hiking, skiing, and other trips and dinners over the years. By the time I arrived at CWU in 1988, he was retired, but he stayed involved with the department, faculty, students, and community until the end. He and I shared materials, research efforts, students, and he even sat in on my introductory GIS (Geographic Information Systems) class. I taught him how to use PowerPoint, and he gave wonderful visuals with his research. Today, the food included fruit/veggies (the largest strawberries I have EVER seen (larger than a golf ball and they were tasty too. Cheeses on a plate, bread, crackers, and a bunch of cookies and a very large Italian cake. It was nutty with excellent thick cream cheese frosting.
Lots of people there I knew, some faces recognized (but without a name), and it was a nice reunion/celebration of wonderful memories of a great fellow. Luckily, I got to sit down for the first hour and also while I ate and visited toward the end of the afternoon.
When I got home, we called John’s cousin, in PA, who was 95 today! She had a big party and lots of the family came in from around the state and nearby states. They had pizza, salad, coffee, cake and ice cream. We talked to her for 25 min. getting a review of the party, all the cards, food, gifts, people there (~30, so was like a family reunion). She has already reserved the room (in her apt complex) for next year’s party and invited us. We then called her daughter, Pat, and for 20 min. talked to her and John’s sister, Peggy, who was staying there until tomorrow, when she returns to Ohio. Pat said her hubby Ken had bought a Powerball lottery ticket for tonight’s drawing, and if they won they would pay for someone to look after our animals so we could come out! Sounds like a plan (but they didn’t win). Now John’s out exercising the dogs, feeding the horses, and will come back and feed the cats. He threw together a nice dinner, hamburger, sliced Jarlsberg cheese, cut Honeycrisp apples, and baked beans which I had on top of my hamburger. Been spending time on a recommendation nomination for a graduate student for the award John and I fund each year. It’s in the CWU Geography department and is called the Hultquist Distinguished Service Award, for Graduate students in the Resource Management program, or the undergraduates in the Geography department. Here’s a link to the explanation.
Sunday, March 24 Checked for Jim Carvo’s obituary, and made a new pdf file without all the advertisements. Worked on various projects.
Monday, Mar 25 Stayed home to work on taxes, but have been slowed with other pressing emails needs. John did not go to White Heron pruning today. Cameron, the winemaker went to Seattle. We went to town to deliver my car to have its seatbelt fixed (more below). We’ll retrieve it in the late afternoon tomorrow. Finally, finished sending hay articles and the nomination recommendation. A friend called about his need for an immediate operation (tomorrow) in Bellevue on a detached retina, result of 2% failure (rate) in a previous operation. (He’s doing all right now, several days later.)
Tuesday, Mar 26 John off at 7:30 a.m. I must get work done on taxes. First, I checked email, and while doing that, got a call that my car is already fixed (seat belt replacement). They also found that a drain tube near the Moon/Sun roof had shrunk and come undone and that’s why water was filling the area and (during winter) froze the belt’s environment. Phew. Happy to have it fixed and will get it this afternoon when John gets home. The mechanics went down the street and bought longer plastic tubing to install. I installed PDFlite software today (free) and it allows me to take music from my SongWriter software and make a .pdf file from it. That becomes an easy way of sharing with our Fiddlers and Friends group.
Received a sad note from the wife of another retired colleague (Joel), that his cancerous tumor returned, and they will be moving back West soon, where most of their families are. Finished the day by sending out a bunch (10) of Jobs list announcements.
Wednesday, Mar 27 Off to Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Worked all a.m. on last minute work with My Wild Irish Rose and I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen. Three of us entertained and had pineapple juice, pasta, veggies (none left for me), salad, & Starbuck’s donated desserts. From there I rushed to the AAC for exercise. Visited and filled out some forms, got some past-prime apples for the horses or the deer. On home to take care of more email and receipt filing (taxes) and similar chores.
Thursday, Mar 28 John off to prune at 7:35 a.m. and I stayed up to work on chores. Now need to get some lunch and get out to go to town for Hearthstone music, meds, and another stop. It turned into a busy chaotic day, just a lot of odd stuff needing done.
Friday, Mar 29 John off at 7:30 a.m. Nancy to AAC at 11:30 for lunch, program, and exercise. Go to grocery for eggs (big sale) and meds. Someone sent me this link to an article about things not to eat.
Think we are in trouble for several of these, as I had a piece of English Muffin bread toast before leaving for lunch before my exercise class at the Senior Center (still hard for me to call it the Adult Activity Center). They announced it would be ham, mashed potatoes, and trimmings. Wow–see below for what all it included. It was free to members. Included an Easter parade, so we were encouraged to wear fancy hats. The only one I have is a brown felt one with a pheasant tail feather. Not very spring like, but got people’s attention!! Ha ha. I wore a bright yellow western shirt with light tan pants, and a nice tan vest. I didn’t win a prize (3 people got prizes and were voted on by the audience). Some were really lovely and quite clever.
Okay, here is the menu, so I have already told John I do not need to eat dinner. Ham, the best scalloped potatoes ever, green salad (with walnuts, tomatoes, several kinds of lettuce and spinach, but enough I could get only the light green stuff, and some garbanzo beans, red beans, green beans, and onions. Then for dessert, two cold pies: butterscotch and chocolate with hard bits of chocolate. It was really scrumptious. We were talking at our table of how many free dinners they have provided for us all year. Maybe they are feeling guilty at the increase to $25 from $20 the past two years. It’s still a heck of a deal. You have to be 50 to join, but there are tons of activities, including the exercise class I’m in and don’t have to pay a physical therapist for (was costing me $25 for 45 minutes of the same things I’m doing at SAIL exercise, free).
On my way home, I went to St. Vincent’s looking for a small pair of tongs to take the hot bread out of our toaster and for other small uses. I had a nice set that have disappeared on the counter ??? someplace. I got them free at a yard sale last year. John also wanted me to look for a (light wt) blue denim jacket. I looked for both, but ended up buying an insulated carrier with a long strap, for a 16.9 ounce (that was the best fit) drink for John to carry along on his trips away from home. My 24 ounce ones won’t fit it in and I already have a carrier. He seems happy with it. It only cost $1.49.
Saturday, Mar 30 Chores today with Nancy inside, John outside–except Nancy went out to tell John about talking to the wife of our friend who got through his eye surgery well (retinal). And, John demonstrated his plans for mixing (from White Heron vineyard) the spent skins, pulp, seeds or pips, and stems of the grape (pomace) into mulch for his blueberry plants. He is expecting the pomace to help keep the soil acidic but his cheap pH meter doesn’t confirm that assumption. So he has something else to investigate. Here’s an interesting link about pomace and other winery waste. Therein it says “pomace is packed with phenols and other antimicrobial compounds which inhibit bacterial decomposition” – and this seems to be contrary to the conversion of raw sulfur to a useful soil acid. Something else to investigate. He also brought buckets of sand (deposited from the Ice Age Floods) for a top dressing of his onion patch. He’s got 3 specialty varieties he is going to try – two are red (one flattish), and the third is big. We’ll see. He says onions need to expand rapidly (‘bulb’, a verb) and a sandy top layer allows them to do this. Later in the year we’ll have some photos of things actually growing. Now the Plum trees look like dead sticks and the onions (tiny sets) look even worse. Also, we’ll show our pomace/sand entries for the mulch. John came in, and got a short rest, a drink, and with my new clipper blade covers (what’s the word, oh, guards). I gave him a much needed haircut. Now he is fixing a mini-pork roast for dinner.
Sunday, Mar 31 We made a chocolate cake to take to an Easter lunch at

Swedberg’s, and picked-up neighbor Louaine on the way. Dinner consisted of roasted pork loin, asparagus, peas, scalloped potatoes, carrots/pickles, blueberry muffins, cake and ice cream. Easter brings up the odd topic of bunnies bringing colorful eggs but how they do this has never been discovered. But never mind that mystery. Have you ever wondered about those beautiful Pysansky (Ukrainian decorated eggs)? The egg is decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method. It is now famous around the world as a colorful Easter egg. The video clip below shows how to make these beautiful Eastern European eggs. Check this out:

It is about 3 minutes long.

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

Sunday, March 17, Actually, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, 2013.  We went to the music jam at the Grange.  I took my recording point and shoot camera – more below.  The weekend event of gargantuan proportion was the mailing of the link to my 2012 “Greetings” pages.  Finally, after struggling with email construction of recipients, just before midnight I sent it.  Right away a few emails bounced, so I had to wait until the next day to sort through the problems.
Monday, Mar 18  John left at 7:30 a.m., and I stayed put. I have aching muscles, especially aching quadriceps femoris [“four-headed muscle of the femur”], from getting up and down, running all around at the Grange taking videos, moving a microphone, and sitting and playing.  My mission today involved rebuilding the email list of recipients of my belated 2012 greetings, and realizing that somehow when combining names into lists, I failed to get 88 copies sent.  How did I realize that?  I decided to put a note on Facebook that it was out and if a person didn’t receive it, to let me know, or check their SPAM file.  Several people whose first names alphabetically followed “Jennifer” were affected.  So the Julies, Jims, . . . , through Kellys, had to be sent today.  I finished the letter for a scholarship nomination reference for a former student who was graduated in 2009.  Always something.
Tuesday, Mar 19  John was off at 7:30 a.m., but I slept in, because I’m still recovering from sore muscles from running around this past Friday, Sat., and Sun.  Have had a few neat responses from the 2012 newsletter.  Tonight, I did go in to Royal Vista to play and sing with The Connections.
I got home just before 8 to a wonderful chicken and veggie dinner —  breast meat seasoned with lemon juice, pepper and a no-salt seasoning.  The veggies were a combo of frozen carrots John put up from the Columbia Basin, cashews, peppers, and onions, in a sweet brown sugar sauce.  Then he made a special open-face parmesan covered toast (broiled, actually).
Wednesday, Mar 20  John stayed home today; weather was lousy, but the main reason he didn’t go prune was the winegrower is driving to the “wet side” of Wash. to participate in a wine event.  With slush on the Pass and rain in Puget Sound lowland, that’s not going to be fun.  Meeting and greeting those interested in wine is important to his business, so he goes frequently.  Evelyn and I went to sing and play at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  Nice to meet a new volunteer server, one of the students from the class I went to last week, saw her poster presentation, and also to hear she is applying for a special internship this summer in Arizona that she found from the jobs list.  I went by the hospital for an INR blood check.  That came out fine, 2.1, so I don’t have to return for a month.  I went to SAIL exercise, but wanted to take it easy because of my sore quad muscles.  I helped a little lady who is unstable on her feet.  The lady who made the knitted scarves I have been getting over the past few months, brought in some little booties for adults.  Most had fluffy balls of yarn on them, but one pair was plain and my color (blue), so I brought it home.  Put it on top of my wool socks and inside my flannel slippers, and I have had happy feet all afternoon and evening.  Very nice treat.  And free at that.  Brought home two pieces of banana nut bread, that we had for dessert with Butter Pecan ice cream.  Probably don’t need the calories, as I have gained a little weight since fall. John worked outside in non-cooperating weather — sunny, windy, rain, snow, cloudy, and repeat in phases.  I drove through the same thing.
Thursday, Mar 21  Most mornings are still frosty so John starts the car to get the windshield clear, feeds horses, and than starts for White Heron about 7:35.  It is at least sunny today, but the wind is still blowing.  Dry Creek today for me, playing and singing music.  We had new “Coca Cola” chairs without arms, and they were much appreciated.  As you heard last month, they got rid of all the non-armed wooden dining room chairs, replacing with arms for all in the building.  We have to have no arms in order to play our instruments.  We asked for folding chairs, but they cannot have them in the facility because they are considered “dangerous” (a response to liability and regulatory issues).  However, armless chairs are a musician’s friend and we had told them we would no longer come if they could not provide acceptable chairs. They brought these from the Coca-Cola Room (whatever that is) and they are perfect for us.  Try a search with, coca-cola chairs, using ‘images’ and see all the stuff that comes up.  Who knew?  All interesting things, but the ones we used

were the “retro” model, square bottom, red leather/plastic, and metal legs.  Found one on the web for $129. (such links may not last, so order yours now)
Friday, Mar 22  The ground was thinly covered in white this AM.  I have been doing taxes, dishes, clothes, and paying bills.  Not going to town today.  John arrived home, tired and wind chilled, but it is actually worse here (el., 2,240 feet) than where he was pruning at 900 feet. Photos here as things will be during the next 2 to 3 weeks: White Heron seasonal images.
Click on these in the link to see larger photos:

1^st column, 4^th photo – pruned vines;

2^nd column, last photo – between the winery and the house;

2^nd column, top photo – view south with “Death Camas” blooming

The following link has photos from our dry inland area.

On the low valley benches it is “pink tip” time – the Apricots have just started to push out their buds.  The grape vines, however, show no sign of life.  It has been cold thus far but soon, when cut, there will be sap flowing from the wound.  At home, John is not going to plant the plum trees until tomorrow.  This afternoon the wind is blowing in 33 mph gusts, sustained 24 mph and going to 22° tonight.  He is going to go out (in the sun) to separate rocks from dirt. The former to go into a walkway and the latter into an additional space for Strawberries and Yellow Summer Squash.
Saturday, Mar 23  Going in the afternoon to a Celebration of Life for my long time Geography colleague, Marty Kaatz.  When I get home, we will call John’s cousin, Ethel Reynolds, to wish her a happy 95th birthday.  There is a big shindig planned, starting at 11:00 a.m. [PA time] at the apartment complex where she lives in Brookville, PA.  John was born in the Brookville Hospital because that’s where his mother was!  The home town of Clarion (16 miles farther west) did not have a hospital and the norms of the time were strongly encouraging hospital births.  We checked an internet site that says in the United States home births declined from 50% in 1938 to fewer than 1% in 1955.  John’s two older brothers were born in the early ’30s while his sister and John were early ’40s babies.
Sunday, Mar 24 A full obituary for our good Jim Carvo will appear soon in the Yakima paper. He has been friends with us and two of our Brittanys since 1998.  He and his wife came to visit me in the ICU in Yakima in 2009-10, and then to the nursing home, he brought Brittany Brigitte (for visits in the chair next to my bed).  Nancy and John will always have special love for him, and his wife, Rosy.  Milly (Brittany) stays behind to comfort Rosy, along with Jim’s ornamental special chickens.

Hope your week was great.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

 

John’s Grandmother arrived from Ireland (click link) in April of 1895.

Sunday, March 10 I don’t even remember what we did this day. I have been working up something to give at CWU in Jennifer Lipton’s Remote Sensing class. I worked on finalizing some changes to the web pages for the 2012 greetings to warn people not to view with Internet Explorer or Opera.

Monday, Mar 11 John left for White Heron, 7:30 a.m. I worked on requests from past students and talking to folks in need of something or just someone to talk to. I spent time on my talk for tomorrow, and handling concerns by the farrier to come early, with John not home yet, and then finding out I had to include a visit to the hospital in my schedule tomorrow. The message got botched and I was not informed. (Found out later in the week, it was on my cell phone and I had not seen the message of a voice mail notification).
Tuesday, Mar 12 LONG, LONG day. I have almost forgotten. Bye to John 7:30 a.m.; after a fast breakfast, I left at 9:00 a.m., for a 9:30 to 10:45 meeting with Emeriti Geographers at Copper Kettle; on to 11:00 a.m. KVCH hospital for Pulmonary Function Test; then for a fast bite to eat and on to Grocery Outlet for special cheap cat food for the ferals, then to CWU to get ready for a presentation at 2:00, arriving at 1:20, but talking to a friend whose husband has terminal cancer. Yes, I know that last was a run-on sentence. Then it was time for my PowerPoint (PPT) about the Jobs list I moderate (570 people who get announcements of job possibilities). It’s called Northwest Geography Jobs (and is a Google Group), but it covers jobs all over the U.S. The event I attended was Jen Lipton’s Final poster presentations (29 students) for Remote Sensing, and I reviewed them all with her. Finally, with 4 minutes to go, I gave out a page of instructions and a fast PPT on what I needed in an e-mail from them to put them on the jobs announcements list, if interested. There were already six people in the class who were members, and the first person to discuss his poster was all dressed up. Told the class he went to an interview today for a job he received from the list. That made me very happy.
Wednesday, Mar 13. John was off at 7:30 a.m. but accidentally rushed out without his cell phone and wallet (hence, no driver’s license or money for a donut or box of apples). Luckily, he had no problems or need for either. I went to the food bank soup kitchen, played, and sang with two others. Then off to exercise class.
Thursday, Mar 14 This was a rude awakening from a call from a wrong number at 5:45 a.m., and then at 6:40 a.m. from person in the music group who spent 3 hours in ER with heart palpitations and wasn’t going to be playing with us today. We were at Rehab with only a handful of instruments: Banjo, two fiddles, viola, but we had quite a following from the residents (two of whom got up and danced with their walkers). The staff was thrilled and cheering them and us on. Most of the morning was spent working on challenges, and a late afternoon call from my friend that her husband died this morning at 6:00 a.m. Got gas in my car and picked up Shay’s thyroid meds on my way home. John had KVTR (horse group) tonight, with a good guest speaker on horse nutrition.
Friday, Mar 15 Worked on much stuff, mostly getting a sympathy letter with pictures of my memories of my friend who died, and his Brittanys (from us), and got it in the mail to his family. He was one of our main readers of the blog from the beginning of it, but has been too ill the past 2 months to get to the computer. Also, had a message from my cousin’s daughter from GA that she was in Seattle, and wanted to drive by Granny’s house. John had learned from the vineyard owner that the Smith Tower (on which our carpenter-Granddad worked) has an observation deck – so I found that info on the web and passed that along with the location of the old house. I left for a noon scholarship luncheon. It was in the Psychology Building on the north of campus. We had pizza, salad, brownies, and a crème soda (long time since I had that; pretty good). Then exercise.
Saturday, Mar 16 Busy day. Went to 66th Anniversary party at Bar 14 for our neighbors, Lorene and Bob Swedberg, with many family and friends from the valley and around WA. I visited with several friends who’d known them both more than 66 yrs (they are my friends too, through my exercise class). March is also both their birthdays. Food was good, and many people from the community and family were there. Food included roast beef, turkey, ham, Swedish meat balls, Teriyaki meatballs, two yummy cakes, (I only had a piece of one). Then by the St. Patrick’s Day party in downtown Ellensburg, where a number of friends performed music, and dancing. Friends who play stringed instruments (or Celtic drum, a Bodhrán) in two different groups, Celtic music, and the Ellensburg Women’s Chorus. From there, rushed home, and took off across the valley with John to a pot-luck birthday celebration at 5:00. At 8:00 it was dark and windy. The outside cats hadn’t been fed but the horses had been; therefore, John’s time outside was brief. This blog’s work was put off, and so will be late.
Sunday, Mar 17. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In 1965, I went through the area in Scotland where he was raised. Or so some say. Today, John and I
are going to a Bluegrass Jam session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange and will take along some Irish music to sing and play (see below).
The other good news is I will release the long awaited 2012 Greetings from us today. It will be at this link-location, later tonight (our time), so for you all back in the east, you’ll be receiving it tomorrow.
I will send a notice to folks, in bcc, which often makes it come as SPAM, so be on the lookout for it in your SPAM folder. It’s coming from our Cedaridge account, or just check the above link when you get a chance. Warning it is long if you follow all the links. A lot happened in 2012!
We left for town before 1:00 and picked up some (expensive) sunflower seeds, on our way to the Grange Bluegrass Jam session, where I took my camera and tripod, 2 of our apples to share, and my microphone setup. It went really well, but I had my Tylenol along to take half way through, and was so busy, I forgot till I got home (and was hurting bad); probably got more exercise than on an “exercise” day. I was getting up to move the microphone to people (those who would allow it), and my camera was set up on a tripod, but couldn’t get everyone in the circle into the view, so I kept having to rearrange it and stop between songs. That also makes for not so long videos, which is nice. Up and down I got, and then back to sit on the side of the circle to play and sing, if I knew the song lyrics. Interesting and fun afternoon.
Thankfully, it was too cold and too windy (gusts highest today were 40 mph this afternoon) for John to work on his plum tree planting, so he accompanied me and helped carry stuff, load the bird seed (50#), and cut the apples, reload all the stuff for the home trip. I brought home some leftover cake (actually frosted brownies) and cookies from last night’s Grange chili feed they left for us and our audience to enjoy today. Pretty neat. Our apples were a hit. We are down to 4 here, so John will have to stop and buy another box tomorrow on his way home from pruning. Tonight, I’m hoping to finish a letter of reference for one of my former students (will go out tomorrow), finish this blog, and get the 2012 greetings emailed. I think I have one more addition to the reunion page, after finishing a lot of the other pages this morning. I’m adding warnings to the top of all pages not to use Internet Explorer or Opera as a browser to view, as the font sizes are way wrong and makes a huge mess (literally). Sending this off to John now for his embellishments.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, March 3 Making some slow progress on things. Very slow. I made more progress on the reunion page and on correcting addresses in the family file. No work on taxes, or receipts. Maybe tomorrow. I did a huge load of dishes, pans, and such. Also took some pictures of our newest project — digging 5 holes for plum trees inside the back fenced yard. The west-most of these is mostly rock and the next a bit less so from the ancient Naneum Creek streambed. So as to not have to cart the rocks very far John is reconfiguring a gate-panel such that the path to that will be about 2+ feet of rock with a little gravel on top.

Currently, the soil in that spot is very nice (no rocks) but stays grassless because of the daily foot traffic – John and 4 dogs. The first photo shows, at the near-right, the gate (to be flipped side-to-side) and the outside hole partially filled with rocks. The second photo shows the source of the rocks and the soon-to-be home of a little Plum tree.

We received confirmation they are on their way. Next week – the new walkway. Wow!
Monday, Mar 4 John leaves at 7:30 a.m. for White Heron. Boy, it was cold and he had to warm the car before leaving. I slept in for a little while longer, because I awoke at 6:30 but the real problem was going to bed too late (11:30 p.m.) and waking at 3:45. I could not get back to sleep for over an hour, at least when I last looked at the clock. Started off with emails and got all involved in too many projects before my toast. I had my first cup of coffee as soon as I was up. Made all sorts of arrangements for future medical tests, including a Pulmonary Function Test I’m supposed to have yearly because of taking Amiodarone, an antiarrhythmic drug for my heart. Note this ‘important warning’:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a687009.html
NOTE: The links may have to be copyed and pasted — they seem not to work as hot-links at this time.

But I have successfully been on it for almost 3 years and have not had an atrial fibrillation episode since. They were bad before getting on the medicine, so there is lots to be happy about this – so far.
Ordered John a pair of “dress shoes” because his of 25 years now show the wear and tear of being used about once a month. Yet, in the meantime he’s  gone through boots, probably 15 pairs or more. These new ones are black and are half price of the regular price, with free shipping from Blair in PA. We hope they fit. Much of the day was working with a web page that doesn’t work at all when viewed in the Internet Explorer browser. It is fine with Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Now another page is NOT okay with Opera. I’m getting stressed. The other pressing thing is our hay paper draft just returned for proofing prior to publishing in the APCG Yearbook. I need to make time to look through it before John Bowen (my co-author). There’s more but I’m quitting for bed.
Tuesday, Mar 5 John went to town for errands, including gasoline and ice cream – one of the 5 major food groups. Last year at pruning time gas in Quincy (town near to vineyard) was about 20¢/gal. less than in EBRG. This year it is a penny higher. Why is that? We should be closer to Clarkson, WA where it is only 3.02. Here it is up to 3.54, from a yesterday’s price of 3.49. So much for a couple of weeks ago in Yakima at Costco for 3.31. It is now back up there too.
Okay.. some progress on the proofing of the hay paper, and actually I have found 5 problems. (Eventually we found 22.) Wonder if they were in the original send. Will have to find it and see. Meanwhile, need to adjust clothes in the dryer I have washed this afternoon on one of my chores. It snowed here today but not real bad; just a touch of white on the ground. Tomorrow a.m. we’ll see what the weather is at 7:20 and whether John will go pruning.
Wednesday, Mar 6 Got behind on the blog because of all the things happening. I spent a lot of time on the paper draft review. John stayed home because it was snowing hard here and raining at the vineyard and too nasty to work at pruning. It was also too messy for him to do many chores here, except for feeding the animals that is daily, regardless of the weather. He spent time cleaning dishes, counters, and floors, while I went to town to play music at the food bank, and attend exercise class. In between the last two, I dropped a letter in the post office because I don’t trust our carrier to pick it up from our mailbox. I went to the hospital for my INR and was happy to learn the reading was within range again (2.1), yet they wish to be sure the changed dosage is working, needing checked in 2 weeks. I heard that St. Vincent’s had a special clear out of winter clothes, a plastic bag filled for $5.95. I decided it was on the way home and dropped by to see if I could find something for John. I got enough (including a large winter coat) and figured it was more than would fit in one plastic grocery bag, but the cashier found it challenging to keep stuffing stuff in. When I thought it was way full, she said, oh, no, I can get this in the bag, so she took the jacket and pushed it in on top, using the handles to pull the sleeves through to fill the bag to overflowing. I had to bundle it up and hold in my arms to make it to the car. I put it in the backseat and immediately all the stuff popped out. I called John and told him to bring a garbage bag to meet me because I knew we needed it to get all the stuff into the house. I still haven’t gone through to show John what all I got, but considering the one large outside winter coat/jacket had a 6.99 price tag on it, and I only paid 6.43 for all this stuff – was amazing. Everything I got was in good shape, no zippers that didn’t work, no holes, no wear on sleeves, spots, etc. The things included a 100% wool vest for John, the large coat, another nylon outside jacket, a sweatshirt for him, a sweater for me, a large striped shirt for him, a pair of Lee jeans in excellent condition for him. John works in clothes until they are falling apart so we wonder what goes on with others that things in new-like condition are sent to places like St. Vinneys. By the way, April 23 will be the 200th birthday of Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Ozanam

We carried a large Honey Crisp apple and a Pizza Hut ‘Hawaiian” to friends (Kelly and Kent) in EBRG. They own the Roslyn Brewery.
http://roslynbrewery.com/links/products.html

The top two of the products (on web page) are sold in 22 oz. bottles. So we had beer and pizza (2 more of the major food groups) with apple slices, and brought home a stash of beer. Roslyn is the real town that sometimes was used in outdoor scenes for the TV program, Northern Exposure. Therein it was called Cicely, Alaska where a young Moose passed in front of “Roslyn’s” Café during the opening scene. The Brewery is just across the street from the café – without the apostrophe s.
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/2782246.jpg

Thursday, Mar 7 Most of the morning was spent working on challenges, and John left for pruning at 7:30 am. He had a good day, but got back after I left for town. I passed him on the highway and we waved. Play at Royal Vista and ended up with 10 there (only one without an instrument, but she sings). Visited with a few folks (residents), and then with members of the group, outside. My eye has been bothering me tonight and was today and yesterday, and if it is not better tomorrow I’m going to the eye doctor to have it checked.
Friday, Mar 8 Started early, by saying to John, “So long, drive carefully and have a nice day,” as he left for wine grapevine pruning at White Heron. Been on the phone with a bunch of issues all morning, and a few on email. Now tackling some other chores. Decided my eye was improved enough not to have to go to the doctor. Cannot believe my time on the phone about issues at the university (and I’m retired), but found out this morning my virtual office phone has been given to a temporary hire, and so he is not available except when in his office. If not there, a message says you have reached the virtual office of Nancy Hultquist in Geography — and leaves my home phone for contact. I still have people calling from old numbers given to people for job references for my students.
Also, am uploading a file to You tube.

which I will see if it works. Had to get extra privileges to increase the upload time to over 15 minutes. I’d made the mistake of recording at a high quality. So, it’s a huge file. Normally I take at the lower level and do well. Well, it’s working. Also worked on several other projects to help friends. I won’t itemize them here.
About Saturday — I pick up my friend who is almost blind, and we go to Briarwood for me to play in our music group, and for us both to eat the potluck the group provides – at 3 pm. I have to be a light afternoon eater because at night John and I are going for a lasagna dinner birthday party for neighbor, Lorene. This one will be early (about 6 pm) and too close in time to the other.
So, we’ll post this Noon Saturday and hope the day goes as planned. In the coming week on Tuesday and Wednesday, look for the comet Pan-Starrs next to a crescent moon at dusk in the western sky.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/08/naked-eye-comet-pan-starrs-at-its-brightest-this-weekend/

This will be tough for most folks to see, so maybe watch for it on TV.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 24  Worked all day on emails, mostly creating a list of my family members to add to the sending out of our 2012 greetings.  I also have at least one other list to check for friends who are not currently listed on my Cedaridge account from where I am emailing to a 2012 Greetings Group.  I sent requests to a bunch of family members and am receiving feedback with corrected emails.  John worked outside, some on digging holes for fence posts, and I do not know what else.  Then he came in and worked more, putting up 7 to 8 ounces of walnuts, in the freezer.  I cannot wait until he makes them into a praline sauce and roasts them.  Then we are going to add to our special Crockpot chocolate (in place of the salted dry roasted peanuts).  I continued working on the web page for the reunion last summer, to go out with our 2012 greetings.  Most of my work now is with answers to questions, and trying to finalize a good email list for family members.

Monday, Feb 25  Off, with John, to town.  Stopped for a burger and fries, and on to drop me off at exercise, and he took off for the grocery store where he bought some frozen Stouffers’ Lasagna on sale.  We are having it for supper.  Smells really good.  I think we are having the spicy version tonight.  Been working more on gathering information about my mom’s family for the reunion page.  Temperature went to 47 and the wind blew a lot, but now it’s not even 8:00 p.m. and already is down to 35.

Tuesday, Feb 26  Stayed home today, working most of the day on the mailing list for my family who were at the reunion last June and those who couldn’t attend.  I am merging the unknowns using an old email acct we have had since 1995 and used to use as our only email account.  Didn’t have all the accounts that I now have on Gmail.  There are some old-reunion-information-gathering ones on there to help me out.  The rest of the day we completed some other chores.  The biggest was John cleaning out the freezer to put in some choice wholesale meats he bought:  beef, chicken, pork, and seafood.  This is expensive but everything is fast frozen  in dense/thick plastic in portions for 1 or 2.  We have been buying in large size packages at the local stores to get the lower price but then stuff has to be repackaged and put in our old chest freezer – a 1950s model.  That’s both a PITA and a cost.  Nancy went to an auction in Iowa (we left there in 1974) and out-bid a fellow that wanted this freezer to store worms (night crawlers) for his fishing trips.  She only paid $35.  Yes, we know it is old and inefficient but it is also in the back of the garage now filled with “stuff” – so there it stays until its last resting place is nigh.  The garage is semi-heated and as the freezer is a solo affair it works fine there (so far).  We have a fridge with a large top freezer in an unheated shed.  As the temperature in the shed gets to about cold-milk temperature that unit doesn’t get its thermostat triggered and things in the freezer part get too warm.  Several 2-liter soda bottles of ice act as a buffer and stay solid but things such as sliced and sugared fruit (Peaches, Strawberries, . . .) begin to soften.  Other than turning heat on in the shed, there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix this issue without spending time and money.

Nancy likes a yellow Plum called Shiro.  Plum trees (usually) need a second different chum for pollination.  After some local and regional searching to little success, John found an on line source – and bought a 5 tree package.  Oops!  Now he needs 5 holes.  This photo shows 2 of the 5 with just the sod removed; on right with markers in the center of circles 4 feet across.

He decided to do this inside the existing fence, where the twigs, shoots, and foliage will be safe from the deer, and as they are dwarf trees the promised fruit will be out of their reach, also.  All fruit trees outside the fence (we call that ‘the orchard’) are full size trees but pruned by the deer to their browse height. The so called “browse line” as shown in this image pilfered from the web.

Wednesday, Feb 27 Today, I have had two more responses from family members, and I need to get to work this evening on finishing the email list and get this thing sent off.  Yesterday, I had some more input for the reunion web page.  Today, I was tired from staying up until after midnight last night, so I slept in this morning and was late with breakfast but had to rush out for playing at the food bank soup kitchen and then go to exercise afterwards.  There were VERY few people there today.  Usually it fills up, with at least 8 tables (I have never counted them) with 6 chairs at some tables and an extra on the ends of the table in front of us, because we are on one side and need room for our stand and so people don’t walk through and knock it over.  On a busy day, there may be 50 to feed, and the servers and we eat too.  I am sure there were only about 15 there today.  People do sign in but I didn’t count (we are always the last), only the servers are after us.  I’m not sure they sign in.  Today was an especially good meal, except for one dish I couldn’t eat.  The main dish, donated again by the Ellensburg Pasta Co. was Chicken Alfredo with large slices of chicken.  The dish I couldn’t eat had kale along with spinach or broccoli (something dark green), with other stuff but I couldn’t have any of, because of the Vitamin K (abbreviated: VitK) in dark green veggies.  They had a mixed green salad, with very few spinach leaves, so the server could pick around them for me to just the iceberg or lighter lettuce.  It had walnuts and cranberries (which I can’t have, but can easily pick out).  For dessert, an in-house cobbler like thing, with large Bartlett pears in a dark brown sugar sauce, with a shortcake/coconut topping, all nicely cooked.  I do not usually like pear pies, but this dessert was really quite good.  Okay, back to chores on the addresses compilation.  I did try to copy (on our multi-function printer, scanner, copier) some mileages from my car log [John says he will explain this term sometime when I’ve written less] for 2012, but only one page printed and the next went all gray ??  I left it and a couple hours later John tried.  His first page came out well, but the same thing happened to the second.  I hope our printer is not getting ready to die.  We use it a lot.  [Scan and copy are gone but it still prints.]

Thursday, Feb 28  How did I miss writing anything about the day?  Must have been too busy with things.  Major trip of the day was with John to town for me to play violin with the group at Hearthstone, and to visit with friends afterwards, who came to listen and participate.  It was Glenn Engels (now living in Ellensburg), and his mom, Anne from Montana.  Anne worked as a nurse and corresponded with John when I was very ill.  She had come over to visit with her son and give him support and help for his eye surgery last week, in Pasco.  It was a success.  He lives across the street in an apt. right near where we were playing, so they could walk over.  We stayed after and had cookies and hot chocolate and a nice visit.  Then John and I went to the grocery store to take advantage of the specials that happen all week but also some are only for Thursdays.  Finally, they had restocked the bulk Sweet & Low on the shelf.  I met two friends in the store so got to visit while John looked for things.

Friday, March 1

[or, 1. März in German]   Absolutely no trips away today.  John got a lot of chores outside done.  The first was cleaning dog poo from the now snow-free backyard and bringing straw into the yard to cover bare spots.

To protect blueberry plants from cold and dry winter air he filled their protective wire containers with straw.  So he up-ended these, turning them into wire baskets, and filled them with the straw to be carried to the yard.  (photo at left)

I took a couple of pictures for the record, and later he spread it around the back to cover the mud (photo below) which might otherwise happen, before the grass grows.  I spent almost the entire day working on emails, help with proofing for some people, organizing events for future music contributions by our group, distributing jobs via the jobs-list, and continuing building the email address directory for sending our 2012 greetings, soon.  Also, I got involved early with a mistaken email announcing the AWG (Assoc of WA Geographers meeting) this spring to be held at CWU hosted by the Geography Department.  I knew about it and have been in on the planning and of course, I’m on the email list.  The president sent out a note to everyone on the list telling them to keep dates in the first week of April on their calendar.  She was mistaken and I realized the dates were given wrong and should have been the first week in May.  I got back to the person in charge (John Bowen), and he got back to me and then sent a rejoinder to the list with the correction and attached the program of planned events.  I’m glad I caught it early.

Saturday, Mar 2  Nothing special today.  John will be working on outside projects and me on inside ones.  I plan to finally give him much-needed haircut.  Just struggled through it without proper clipper attachment combs that fit my Oster machine.  I know I have them somewhere, but wouldn’t have them before he needs his next haircut.  I just called Drs. Foster & Smith (pet supply place) for a couple, hoping they are the right size.  The ones I have been using fit an old Wahl one, which died right after I finished his last haircut.  I thought they would fit on my other clippers, but they don’t.  So, for $12 (less that the cost of a haircut), I will get two .. one a 3/16 and the other a 1/16 inch cut.   Hope that works.  I should have ordered a couple of dog collars.  The shipping is $5.99 regardless of what you get up to $49, and then free after that.  At least coming from Wisconsin, I do not have to pay 8.1% (or higher) tax.  Right before 7:00 p.m. the temp went to 49 from a high of 58 today but now the winds are gusting to 37 mph.

Hope your week was great.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 17 Decided against going to the Grange Bluegrass Jam today. I don’t have the stamina and need to recover. I slept in, but then I have spent a lot of time working on my greetings web pages. John made a wonderful omelet with rosemary/olive toast, orange slices, and bacon cooked very crisp, from which he removed most of the fat. It made a nice brunch. Now he is out doing chores in the 48 degree weather with >30 mph winds. He’s alternating tasks: moving rock, digging holes, and cutting brush. A little progress shows on each project. I need to do the same. I promised John I would be done with the greetings web pages project weeks ago, so I could move to taxes. I should just do the same as he, and divide my time. I keep thinking I’m almost done. Then my cuz got back to me with a few vital corrections to the family reunion page. How John and I both missed them is beyond me! Now I have made changes, along with a few more my friend back east found. Hours spent this afternoon and evening on tax receipt organization and filing. I am not done and still have to order and put into my Excel sheet, but good progress is finally recognizable. John made us a nice chocolate cake for more calories and I frosted it.
Monday, Feb 18 The day was not busy, except for time spent on the computer and clean up. The annual greetings are almost ready to be sent. Our friend made it over safely from Montana. She had a yucky drive across I-90’s Lookout Pass (4,710 feet; border of MT and ID), with intermittent snow flurries. Here is the 1950s view.   While this webcam says “live” it seems not to be (5 minute update, maybe).
Spending time now again putting tax receipts into an Excel spreadsheet for easier totaling. I still have 1/2/ year of receipts to order into monthly folders.
Tuesday, Feb 19 Worked most of day on chores and going to Yakima with John to pick up the 2 knives he ordered from Cabela’s. While there, we had lunch, got gasoline from Costco, went by a Farm and Garden store that sells fruit trees, to check if they had or expected to get yellow plums. John looked into getting trees from Issaquah when over there near the end of March working for WTA trails, but found out they charge $35/tree, and he needs at least two, probably three. They called to say they only have the yellow one and a few others he isn’t interested in. From Stark Bros he can order three for about $20 each. Not sure how much shipping added would be. We can call back to the Yakima store, March 11 when they expect a shipment and see what they have at what price. We visited several stores for flour and powdered/bulk Sweet & Low, to no avail. Stayed up late working on projects.
Wednesday, Feb 20 Went in for exercise class today, but first by the hospital for my INR blood draw check. Turns out it was high (3.5), so my dosage has been cut back. I have not been drinking alcohol either. Just when I think it has stabilized, I “fail” the test. I will have to go for another check in 2 weeks. More chores: pay bill at dental office and pick up 2012 records for medical expenses for the two of us. On to two different grocery stores for more supplies. The one new one in town has lower priced canned cat food (tuna and mackerel) by 20 cents/can than our normal store. Cats are fine with it. They get dry food available all the time, but canned food every evening. On the way home, I called my neighbor who cuts my hair, to see about an appointment some time soon. She said, well, I could do it right now if you want. Suited me fine, because I have needed a haircut but couldn’t do it for the past several weeks while sick. I stopped off on my way home. What a treat! It was getting long and straggly. She couldn’t have done it the next few days, so it was perfect timing. Am back working on taxes. I still need to finalize the list for sending our 2012 annual greetings, and also need to work on the jobs list-serve I manage and have ignored the past few days. Too much going on in my life, and I’m retired, right? John figured out tonight it was a much better deal to order his plum trees from mail order at Stark Bros (located in Missouri and another state), and ended up getting 5 for just $21 each, with NO TAX and NO SHIPPING costs. It was a no brainer not to order from them. He bought all dwarf trees (won’t go to 20′), named Plum Dandy assortment (clever) of 3 different including the yellow we want, Bubblegum, and Methley plum. A friend locally has had excellent trees from them over the years, so that was a good recommendation she made at the right time in our decision making.
Thursday, Feb 21 Playing music at one of our favorite places, Dry Creek. However, today we were sorely (literally) disappointed. They have disposed of all the chairs without arms. For people playing musical instruments, this is a disaster, and they do not have any folding chairs in the place, or stackable chairs. I had to sit on an uncomfortable piano bench, and didn’t know to bring a pillow. Luckily, only 5 people showed up, or else we’d have been in bad shape. They brought in one padded bench for one player. There are only a couple of players who can use a chair with arms. We told the activities director we would not be back in the future if they didn’t provide usable chairs for us. We’ll see what happens. The removal of the chairs appears to be a safety issue – can’t have anyone falling!
Friday, Feb 22 Today is another scholarship luncheon meeting. I’m missing a movie and free lunch of Potato Soup and apple crisp at the Adult Activity Center. We had pizza (two had many olives which I don’t like, so I had Hawaiian style), salad, and cookies and a sheet cherry thing with oatmeal sprinkled on top (added fiber). Our table decorations were confetti and little chocolate Easter eggs. Two friends had surgery today; one was heart-related and the other, eye. Hopefully, both will be successful. This time last week, another friend had cancer surgery.
Saturday, Feb 23 This morning is messy with snow on the pass, but sunny and very windy here. At the airport 5 miles south, our gusts were recorded up to 37 mph the past hour, during which there were 30 mph sustained winds. The temperature has gone up to 47°. For brunch, John fixed an omelet, bacon, and a piece of his bread/toast. He is now busy shelling Carpathian walnuts from last fall’s harvest, while I finish with this blog writing. I’m working on computer projects, mostly the newsletter. It is almost ready to distribute but I have to create a mailing list so I don’t send it to someone twice, and I have a record of whom I sent to. Keep your eyes open to receive a notice soon. I’m making one last addition to our landscaping earth and rocks link. Then, I can return to recording tax receipts. Will finish this now for distribution tonight, when many of you are used to receiving it.

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

Stay away from the one and plant the other.  Watch the flowers follow the sun and make intricate geometric patterns.

Saturday, Feb 9  Got the week’s doings completed without saying anything about today, so will review here a little.  I was recovering most of yesterday.  Took my last dose of codeine cough syrup about 7:00 p.m.  Sad to hear last night of another friend’s brother’s death.  It’s no fun to get old.  I have a friend in Idaho, a few years older, who has lost 13 friends or relatives in January this year.  I worked a lot on receipts, bills, and checking health charges and insurance payments.  What a continued mess.  Found an Aug 2012 annual physical for John was posted with the wrong code.  Took me a 1/2 hr on the phone, mostly waiting to find out why the bill was wrong (in my opinion).  Such has happened a lot to us over the past 3 years.  I hope you all will check your medical paperwork and not just accept it as correct and pay the bill, when you may owe nothing!  I was correct, but it took awhile to solve.  The code was submitted incorrectly as a visit, not a routine physical, and a co-pay was charged (my first clue something was wrong).  Not only that, but only a portion was credited and then most of it was counted on my deductible and we owed it (always happens at the turn of the year, when we have to pay $250 before they pay the bill).  Yet with both Medicare (1^st) and Group Health (2^nd) coverage, we have been fully covered on annual physicals, with no co-pay.  Next, I called my doctor’s office.  The accountant indicated she knew it had not been coded properly, and she had resubmitted (I noticed that last year to alert her, when I figured the Medicare paperwork had not been filed).  John and I always have ours the same day, and mine came through all right.  Turns out, Medicare just finally reimbursed them for his IN FULL (in January).  [Both Medicare and Group Health premiums have gone up for 2013 compared to last year, including the deductibles and co-pays.  So we are paying a little under $6,000/year for insurance and, on top of that, co-pays and medicines that are not covered.  Then there are many hours trying to keep all of these things on track.  Dental coverage is entirely separate, so more cost there.]  The rest of the day besides bills and sorting receipts from stacks around the room, was spent on working on the annual greetings I have been trying to get out before Valentine’s Day.  (I did not make it).  Today, I finished one link of the story about John’s WTA work in 2012.  I have worked on it for a couple of days, mixing its time with other life’s activities.  Actually, it’s not yet finished.  I’m waiting for John to proof it and make additions or deletions.  Almost done for my proofer outside of this house, my valuable asset.  She is back east so won’t see it until tomorrow.  We just finished a late dinner.  Then we had one dog go out for her evening run (to potty), and she noisily encountered a skunk by the back fence and came back in smelling awful.  It was an indirect or in-the-air hit, apparently, with no noticeable fluid on her.  The others were out with her, but they escaped the cloud of mist.

Sunday, Feb 10  This was a not-too-much-to-do day.  Mostly worked on web pages for the 2012 greetings.  A little kitchen and other clean-up by us both.  More tomorrow.

Monday, Feb 11  The day started early with a trip to town to drop off John’s computer to fix the missing sound problem that began with a power outage several months ago as well as to drop off my Subaru for a mileage-triggered major maintenance, oil change, and tune-up.  At 4:30 p.m. came a phone call from our mechanic.  My car had its 60,000 mile required maintenance and the bill totaled $914.98.  Almost $550 was labor – drive belts being the big deal at 60,000.  Such things have to be priced into the cost of ownership ‘cause you don’t want something to go wrong when traveling at 70 mph on the interstate.  Now it is supposed to last another 60,000 miles.

Tuesday, Feb 12  Morning brought a trip to a new edition of an old local restaurant chain, Copper Kettle, for a coffee klatch with Emeritus Professors from Geography.  The oldest is 86, I think.  He actually led the discussion (first mentioning trips to the 3 Gorges Dam in China and the new Lock(s) at the Panama Canal, he and his wife made some time ago).  We talked about lots of things but mostly about the cost of education, and a need for funding current ‘scholarships’ as our State and University seek to adjust to a new business model – meaning higher costs and less funding.   This led to the old GI bill, and on and on, for almost 1.5 hrs.  John and I were the only ones not filling up on coffee.  There were 6 guys and one other gal joining us, the wife of the most recent retiree.  We have decided to meet every second Tuesday morning of the month.  Now that the weather is better, it might work for a while.  We left home at 9:00 a.m. and did not return home until 4:20.  From the meeting, John and I headed to Yakima, for some necessities, having lunch there.  Tried making two stops at places we normally do not shop.  The first we went to turn in our $8.00 coupon on a special ConAgra brand bread flour the web said was available at Wal*Mart.  It was not.  Did our run to Costco as well, getting meds for two neighbors and for another friend in town, and greenhouse grown tomatoes from Canada (a big industry in B.C.) for another.  On the way back to Ellensburg, we stopped by the new Cabalas store to pick up two knives John ordered for in-store pick up, saving $5 on shipping.  Well, they weren’t in as expected, so sadly, we will have to drive back to get them, and only have 2 weeks to pick them up.  Jeez.  So much for planning.  Well, he wants to go to a nursery and see if they have a yellow Plum tree – maybe that should be a Ylum tree!  On the return trip we detoured through EBRG for me to pick up my rejuvenated Subaru.  After John did the animal chores, we carried some medicine and some cat food to our neighbor.  For dinner, John made chicken, biscuits, and fried cauliflower.  No work yet today on annual greetings; maybe yet tonight.

Wednesday, Feb 13  John saw two eagles this morning, in trees by the road.  They visit the area when the cows give birth, using the opportunity for easy meals of placental expulsion (aka afterbirth).  I’m still not feeling well yet.  We did go and I played music and ate at the Noon Food Bank soup kitchen.  John drove his truck to town, dropped me off for an hour, and ran errands:  (1) BiMart for “generic Round-Up” at a good price, and seed starter pots and (2) gasoline station to fill gas cans for the old 1980 pickup.  That’s why we drove a PU – not wanting to carry gas inside one of the cars.  He also went by the grocery store and got some stuff, namely used his $8 coupon for Wesson Soybean oil rather than flour we cannot get.  On by the bank and then to pick up John’s computer that has been being fixed finally after taking in early Monday morning.  He will be thrilled to have his “right arm” back.  I know the feeling.

The computer sound problem was only partially resolved.  The output for the powered subwoofer and paired speakers seems to have died. There is still a port for a lesser set of speakers.  So our 8 year old motherboard is now connected to 20 year old speakers rather than 10 year old speakers – progress?  The operating system is Windows XP and Microsoft is abandoning it next spring, having tried before and gotten a lot of blowback.  The company is pushing a new Windows 8 and MS-Office 2013 that cost a lot for things we don’t need.  John is investigating “Open Source” systems and software.  Ideas are here:

Open Source
Ubuntu
Libre Writer

We are very dependent on our computers for Web things and keeping in touch but don’t need fancy phones, high costs, monthly fees, and such for things we don’t use.  I skipped exercise again today; just not up to it yet.  But, I did get a fair amount of work done on the 2012 greetings.

Thursday, Feb 14  Happy Valentine’s Day.  Will be going to Rehab for music, and likely drop off something at the Geog Dept. at CWU.  John did not go along.  He is easing back into outdoor chores as the temps come up and the footing dries out.

Friday, Feb 15  A little bird flew into the back window this morning and knocked himself out.  I held the dog to keep her from leaving the house to get him, and yelled for John, who came and rescued it.  It was still moving a little, so he brought it in and held it until it got its senses back and could be released.  It seems to have recovered.  If there is long term harm to them when that happens, we don’t know.  Others we know do the same thing and we hope for the bird’s full recovery.  We have been working this morning on a Blueberry soil pH story with a link from the 2012 greetings.  A friend wanted to know about our Blueberries so John is working on an explanation.  We are not in a good location for them so there are procedures he has to do to prepare the soil for them and then manage the water so as to not undo all the preliminary work.  I am still working on other pages.  We left before noon today for the Chocolate Valentine’s Day party at the Adult Activity Center.  It was from noon to 1:30 but did not include lunch.  There was sherbet punch, cookies, chocolate cake of two varieties, cupcakes of many types, cookies, and candy.  They had a chocolate fountain with pineapple, bananas, cantaloupe, apple slices, and pretzels.  Further across the room were chocolate-dipped strawberries our neighbor (around the block) made.  She won one of the 3 prizes for desserts contributed by participants.  All present could vote on their favorite, or the wackiest, and some other category.  There were probably 50 people there.  They had some games and gifts for everyone.  After practicing (we found them unsatisfactory) on what we might take, we went empty handed, deciding not to enter the contest.  It was a sunny, warm day today, and John took along a book titled “e: The Story of a Number.”  The number starts out and just goes on and on

as shown here: 2.718 . . .

The number shows up in many math situations and also in nature associated with spirals.  Just stick – spiral sunflower – into an ‘images’ search box on Bing or Google and have a look.  So John read in the car while I exercised for 50 minutes.  That was about all I could manage after laying off a couple weeks with my cold.  This afternoon John did the normal chores plus cut some dead trees for corral rails and moved some of the larger rocks out of the raised soon-to-be drive to the hay barn.  The bulldozer work last fall resulted in a lot of “finishing work” for his attention. I worked on more of my web pages for the annual greeting that I hope to finish and distribute this weekend.  Making good progress; finally it’s coming together.

Saturday, Feb 16  Got some computer chores and postal mails completed.  John’s taking the last of the small apples to the deer but at a spot 100 yards from the house.  We are trying to discourage their attachment to the house area.  There are 12 minutes left on my landline phone we’ll use today to call Cousin Ethel (93) in PA.  I’m scheduled to go to Briarwood Commons at 2:00, to play music, on the way, picking up my friend, Lois (w/ macular degeneration that has happened to Ethel also), and then the residents will feed us afterwards.  I’m back, and they had chicken noodle soup with turkey, rolls, and several desserts.  My favorite was a cookie with white chocolate chips and pecans.  They appreiciate us as much as we appreciate the attention.  When I got home, I made the long distance call to Ethel, but ran out of minutes too quickly.  Used a card and we talked another half hour.  Nice to visit with her.  John worked on everything up to the last couple of sentences while I was in town.   Then, while I was proofing and he was outside with cat feeding duty, he alerted me to a bright pink cloud over our blue roofed pole building.  The sun was just going down but still peaking over the Cascade Mountains about where Mt. Rainier is with respect to us.   I grabbed my camera and ran out and almost missed the photo ‘op’ but here it is (less pink than it was).

Hope your week was great.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

 

Sunday, Feb 3   Good morning; nothing scheduled away from home. I slept in again after dreaming and coughing a lot during the night. John says I should not eat a big dessert right before going to bed. Okay, will try to remember. He cleaned up the kitchen counters, and made several loaves of bread. It smelled so wonderful while cooking and then while cooling, until I could have a piece. We didn’t take photos this batch, and he changed a few ingredients, but neither of us can taste a difference. I worked a lot on the computer and a little on receipts, but not as much as I should have. Did finish my reunion web page draft and get it off to a few cousins. Have notes back from two of them. Made those changes and some others a geographer friend in NJ offered. It’s amazing what one misses in proofing their own work. I did manage to tally my volunteer hours for January and turn them in (email). Oh, darn, I forgot today to send out my playlist for Feb (starting this Thursday) for people who were not there last Thursday. Guess I’ll do that right now while thinking of it. Okay, all done, and also contacted the new director of Royal Vista (friend of a friend of mine), as we will be there this week on Thursday. It’s already 11:00 p.m. and we need to hit the hay.

Monday, Feb 4   Not going to town today, just for one thing. It’s another stay-at-home day, because of not wishing to drive 25+ miles for one trip.
We got lots of cleaning done, and I have worked on bills, emails, and other stuff. Managed to get out another edition draft of the reunion page to cousins in GA and FL.

Tuesday, Feb 5   Tomorrow I will combine trips. My car needs gasoline and there are bills to pay and appointments to keep. John will likely go along with me and do some shopping. He needs to get a new (different) light for our washroom. He’s decided he’s tired of the fluorescent one in there. Wednesday, Feb 6 I was really coughing and sniffling all last night and this morning, so I just went to the noon food bank soup kitchen to play but skipped exercise. Been trying to sort out several things this afternoon. Tonight we made a test batch of cupcakes to gear up for an affair at the

Adult Activity Center for next Friday – day after Valentine’s Day and a chocolate desert extravaganza.

Thursday, Feb 7    Today is the first Thursday of the month; that means we are at Royal Vista. Afterwards we went to the pharmacy and got my cough syrup with codeine, which my doctor prescribed for me this morning. I’m already getting better. I also took a nap for 1.5 hrs tonight before dinner.

Friday, Feb 8    I’m skipping exercise as need the rest and until I get better. The coughing is less and I slept all night!! Still congested – just less of a need to cough. Sunny here today and 43 at noon.
John says: This weekend is supposed to bring a serious snow storm to the US east coast. The potential is there in the atmosphere but slight changes in movements and speed can still greatly affect the outcome, although it is now (Friday evening) snowing. Forecasters have already shifted the expected greatest snow depths a little to the east and the western edge no longer extends into NE Ohio. They still show Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts in the 24+ inches band. Really interesting though are the strong winds and thunder. Not being common these will get mentioned much but also indicate the ingredients for the storm are sweeping to the northeast very rapidly. Thus, snow depths as great as forecast may not show up. We’ll know by Monday morning. Still, it is unlikely to match the storm of 1888. Here is a good report about ‘America’s Greatest Snow Disaster’ with interesting photos. The eastern storm was preceded by intense cold in the west as mentioned under the first photo. The region is a reservation of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. The claimed -56.8o F. is sufficient to bring about what, in Siberia, the Reindeer People call the Whisper of the Stars.
When someone mentioned the blizzard of 1888 on a blog John likes to read another person commented that it must have been difficult dealing with all the snow without power equipment. Another person responded thusly, “They did have power equipment. Here’s a 4 HP snow roller. Snow rollers predated snow plows and were used to pack the snow so 1 and 2 HP sleighs could pass readily.” Another article is here, with a similar photo (centered), and underneath and to the right is a photo of the resulting traffic.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan