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Nancy worked Mon & Tues getting ready, Wed going, and the rest of the week in Olympia, returning about 6 P. M. Sat.  When she catches up with the rest of the world, we’ll get her view of things.

Cheers,

John

Smoke still gets in our eyes

Sunday, Sept 16  We already covered never on Sunday, in last week’s blog.  Therefore, we will move along to Monday.

Monday, Sept 17  Bad smoke-filled valley this morning producing low visibility.  Early up to get to the hospital lab for a blood draw (fasting) for both of us.  I also had my regular monthly INR.  We went afterwards for a biscuit with Canadian bacon slice, regular bacon pieces, cheese, and an egg from Carl’s Jr. and then to the grocery and pharmacy with the idea of our both getting a Shingles shot as recommended in our last annual physical by our family physician.  Today, John’s shot cost us $87.50 and insurance will pay the other half.  Rather expensive, I thought.  So, I decided to wait and talk to my Cardiologist this week before I get one.  There are all sorts of warnings on the allergies and medications and supplements a person takes, they have you read before taking the shot.  (I did ask him, and he deferred my question to my family physician.)

Do not have to show up for jury duty for this week; have to call again next Monday.  I’m relieved because I had several appointments I did not want to miss.

Tonight, besides taking a break to make large BLTs with our tomatoes primarily, I was busy going through a 90-minute class on line so we can pass the human subject review required of us by the university for protecting the privacy, confidentiality, showing no coercion, etc., of interviewees in our proposed study.  I passed all the modules, answered all the 4 questions correctly at the end of each, and got a certificate in return, saying:

Responsible Conduct of Research Training

COMPLETION CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that

Nancy Hultquist

has completed the Human Subject Review Committee tutorial, Protecting Participants in Social and Behavioral Science Research, on 09/17/2012.

This course included the following topics:

•       Historical events influencing the ethics of human research

•       Current ethical standards

•       Risks and harms

•       Benefits

•       Informed consent process

•       Privacy and confidentiality protections

•       Research with protected populations

•       The review process at Central Washington University

•       Researcher’s responsibilities

Tuesday, Sept 18   I picked up John B at Dean Hall at 12:45.  Went to Andersons for a tour of the compressing of hay, and loading for transportation by containers to world ports (most in Asia), and afterwards we headed to Wesco International to interview the owner.

[John says: Container shipping was the idea of Malcolm Mc Lean in 1956 —

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5026.html

or this —

http://www.isbu-info.org/all_about_shipping_containers.html

Photo here:

http://www.carexshipping.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/container_shipping.jpg

You see them on the highway looking like regular trucks but they come apart and go to sea.

http://jiyolive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/2.jpg    ]

I am off again after a long afternoon to play music in town, and John is going along to fill up his car so I have gas to drive myself to Yakima tomorrow to see my cardiologist.  He’s got too much to do to go along with me, and I have to rush back to play music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen and then go to my exercise class.

I got enough exercise today more than for a whole normal week.  We walked all over Anderson’s (an exporter’s) container yard from barn to barn and looked at various hay compressing units required to produce the product for export.  Then drove 14 miles to past Kittitas to another exporter (Wesco) and had a long conversation with the manager/owner.  Both were very interesting and educational.

Tonight John and I will pick up some tomatoes from a friend to whom I delivered squash today, and then we will go get a charbroiled chicken sandwich with some fancy Mexican name, TORTA.  I don’t know what it is.  Perhaps I should look it up on the Internet.  I just looked at the coupon.  It has beans, cheese, guacamole, and charbroiled chicken, tomato, and lettuce and salsa… supposedly . [John says:  It is a linguistic advertizing trick to get you to buy their flat-bread sandwich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torta   ]

Wednesday, Sept 19  Early start this morning, leaving at 7:45 for Yakima for two Heart Center appointments, the first with my cardiologist (last visit was May 1), and I also needed a 3-month check (digital read out) from my ICD.  On my way to the freeway, I passed a field of corn being harvested, so I took some pictures to share with my colleague, John B..  Then on down and up the hill on I-82, to the view point.  Took a couple of photos of the smoke-filled valley and the ridges behind with all the smoke from the fires.  On to Yakima, and got there 20 minutes before my scheduled appointment.  Even though it was my doctor’s first appointment of the day, he was over at the hospital and was about 20 minutes late.  But they took me in early and did an EKG and a chest X-ray, (normally done once a year).  My report was good.  He doesn’t want to see me back for 8 months.  Wow–cool.  After his care was completed, I walked around to the ICD check place and was a little early for my appointment.  That went well, and while I was there, I asked if I could have my BP checked because it was a little high when I started (138/74), which I attributed to my driving myself down and seeing and worrying about the fire.  However, I had been relatively relaxed for the rest of the hour while there, so she called in a nurse to retake it.  It was 120/70, not bad, even though it is still a little higher than when I take it at home.

Off to Ellensburg to play music and be treated to lunch at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  On my way down the hill, I pulled to the other viewpoint and took a movie panning around the valley, of the smoke on the far ridge, and also took a couple of still pictures.  I came via the same road I had taken pictures of earlier of the corn harvest, and the whole crew with 3 large corn harvesters had moved farther down the road to another large field.  I stopped and took a movie of the machinery working close up (cutting and stripping to just the corn cobs).  Pretty cool.  On to the Food Bank.

Once there I visited with a couple of the volunteer cookers and servers, and set up padded folding chairs for 4 people.  We had our usual banjo and fiddle, plus two singers today.  At the beginning and end, we were joined by an 82 year old man who carries his harmonica and plays with us when he can.  Today he played, You Are My Sunshine.  After we had a nice meal — chicken Alfredo with nice large slices of tender chicken, nice green salad, and homemade sweet biscuits (similar to shortcake, but cooked just like a hamburger-sized biscuit), with a fruit compote poured over it.  Boy, was that scrumptious.  From there to SAIL exercise class.  I didn’t have to lead the class today because another of our group did.  After that, I drove home, but saw big billowing smoke clouds and stopped to photo them, and then realized there were new fires in the canyon drainage west of us (Wilson Creek).  Those continued to grow and burn on the ridge.  My friend took his binoculars and looked across the valley and saw flames and also several fires and flare-ups in Wilson Creek.  I decided not to go out after dark to look for the flames, because I figured it would give me nightmares.  I did walk up the driveway twice tonight to get a better view of the smoke, and took some more pictures.  I will  post them on our continuing “web page.” http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/August2012Rock’NPonderosa.html

There is a report here (with photos):

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Table-Mountain-fire-in-Wash-triples-in-size-3880802.php

On from there we continued with chores.  John picked a box of pears from our tree we inspected on a first walk together up the driveway to get the paper.  So I just took several photos of the clouds of smoke.  He bought some peaches on his way back from the trail work last Saturday, and we fixed them tonight to freeze into little packages and kept some to have with ice cream and blueberry muffin for dessert.  After we put the peaches up, we drove to the end of the driveway to check on the fire.  We saw nothing alarming.  Here is a note John wrote to a friend in WTA (WA Trails Association):

I’ll be coming Friday to Issaquah to work on trail to get out of the smoke. Our first big fire was west of here and came to about 6 miles away. There isn’t much to burn between here and there, so it stopped.   Now, the forest north of us** is burning. The fire is up at 5,000 feet or so; we are at 2,200. Trees (P. Ponderosa) come down to about 3,500. Then there is low grass and intermittent brush. A downhill fire is not so fast moving and may not progress too far.  Still it is just about 6 miles from us tonight. We are in the watchful/waiting mode again. Haven’t hooked the truck to the travel trailer yet – as we did last time. **  Some nice trails up there. I cleaned out a couple of downed trees for the Cle Elum district a few years back.  I think the fire burned through there this afternoon or a bit earlier. Later this fall or next spring, I’ll go have a look.  John

Thursday, Sept 20  Began the morning early, logging on to the website,

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us  which allows mapping active fires by downloading a .kmz file and using it within Google Earth.  An example of the first one Sept 19 evening and the next Sept 20 will be on the evolving web page (above link) on Wednesday’s entry.  Maybe more, because we have kept up the vigil.  (NOTE update Sept 23 just before posting this blog; a 10:00 a.m. view showed no red dots; meaning no new fires within the past 12 hours.)  Then we spent a lot of time doing various chores and left for me to play music at Dry Creek, while John went shopping.  Came home and at 4:30, I pulled a new image from later this morning, and we are in MUCH better shape.  The only reds are way north of us.  Note, this is the explanation of the data mapped:

CONUS MODIS 1km Fire Detections  This KML displays the MODIS fire detections at a spatial resolution of 1km for the past 6 hours, 6-12 hours, 12-24 hours and the previous 6 day period. Each 1km MODIS fire detection is depicted as a point representing the centroid of the 1km pixel where the fire is detected. The 1km footprint of the MODIS pixel for each detection is also displayed.
Data current as of 20-Sep-2012; 1715 Mountain Time (20-Sep–2315 UTC). 2012; KML file generated by the USDA Forest Service Active Fire Mapping Program.  Please see http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us for additional fire mapping products and information.

[MODIS image is here: http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2012-09-21

Note the right side where 3 resolutions are available to download.  Open one of these; the largest one if your computer can handle it.  Then your pointer should appear as a “+ sign” and clicking on the image should expand or zoom – You will have to find our area – central WA — by using the scroll bars on the side and bottom.  Wind is blowing from South-to-North and the smoke is drifting into the valleys to the north.  This was taken on Sept. 13 but for the past week the wind has brought smoke into the Kittitas Valley – we are at the upper point of the greenish triangle, also know as the Naneum Fan. ]
We had a late dinner; beef roast, squash, lentils & barley, tomato sauce, cooked in the crock pot.  I fixed some corn on the cob in the microwave, and we had some of our own yellow pear tomatoes (thumb size).  I didn’t get the work done on my hay project I had intended.  I took my camera to town, and stopped to take some pictures of a wheel line, shooting out water.  Well, my battery got low, and it only let me take ONE picture.  Will have to try later.

I got a note that the field trip I was signed up for in Olympia didn’t get but 4 people signed up, so they are cancelling it.  I’m so disappointed.  Now I will decide if I need to spend an extra night there–or if I couldn’t just drive over for Thursday and Friday nights–must decide soon.  Actually I moved to another all day field trip to the Port of Gray’s Harbor and Aberdeen, WA redevelopment.

Friday, Sept 21  John left at 6:30 for Issaquah Highlands, east of Seattle, (Google Earth location is  ‘grand ridge drive, Issaquah, WA ’, to work on trail with a Microsoft volunteer “Day of Caring” group.  Go to that image and find the word ‘King’ (in green) and the trail is in the woods between the location marker and King.  There are enough MS-folk (33) that several WTA assistant crew leaders are needed.

The air quality decreased enough last night to cause me to get up in the middle of the night and put on a face mask, and to turn on the fan to clean the air inside the house.  A check of the active fire site shows they have stopped the advancing fire across Hwy 97 at the big curve where John has to travel in the morning.  I have not checked the DOT site yet to see if the road closure has been lifted.  (It was at 7:00 p.m.) [John says:  On the quite steep east side of the road – crews cut many trees and all the low brush and moved most of it off the slope – only large downed logs and large standing trees (trimmed to ~8 feet up) are left.  I think they then started a fire at the top of the slope but that is not visible from the highway.  Lots of non-local, even Canadian, fire crews are up there working.]

Stayed home from getting out when I didn’t absolutely need to.  For much of the day the visibility at the airport (5 miles south of us) was a half mile.  Wow.. never saw it that low here.  And the winds were calm since last night, but just before 2:00 we registered a 3mph wind from the NNW.  It seems to be a little better.

I called my doctor’s office to get a prescription for a good mask to wear in this, because of my heart condition.  I can pick it up from the hospital tomorrow when I’m in town.  Have called around to a few people in need to let them know about that.  I had to do the leg work on this, because the first comment from the Dr’s office in Cle Elum (45 minutes away) was you will have to pick up the prescription here.  I said, I’m sure you can FAX it to the hospital, and I will find the number and call you back while we’re waiting for the Dr. to write the prescription.  Jeez.  I found the number and the location is Respiratory Services at the local hospital.  I called back with the information and then an hour later, the nurse called to tell me the doctor wrote the prescription and it was being faxed.  Rest of the time I’m spending on my part of the hay project.  John made it home about 5:00 p.m.

=====  Happy Fall Equinox! 10:49 am EDT

http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/sky-this-week/the-sky-this-week-2012-september-18-25

See the 3^rd paragraph.  Therein the phrase “apparent disc” is used.  This alludes to the fact that our Sun is so large that a spot on Earth gets light from an edge of the Sun’s surface and then, more and more of it as the two move in relation to one another.  Such issues are explained here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/110921-autumnal-equinox-northern-hemisphere-first-day-fall-2012-science/

Saturday, Sept 22  The sun is barely shining through the smoke haze. When I left for town, and while there, the visibility was only 5 and 6 miles; now it is better, at the airport, but not up here close to the hills.  The breeze has started again, however, so that might help a little as long as it doesn’t aggravate the fires.  John is still on the road, coming down from the north through the fires.  On my way to town, I stopped off at the post office and put a card in the mail for a special friend in my home town, Atlanta, GA.  And, then on to the hospital, where I picked up 4 heavy duty masks for being out in this smoke.  They know me in there from coming in for my yearly pulmonary test and occasional heart monitor checkouts.  It is the Respiratory and Cardiac Services department at our local Kittitas Valley Community Hospital.  I thanked them for being there to distribute them on the weekend, when all the public offices (health dept, and school health services) are closed.  They thanked me for coming to participate, as it is a health need particularly now in our valley.

I had my camera along and on the way to town, I took some photos of a wheel line with water.  On the return trip, it was cool that I came up Naneum, face to face with a LARGE herd of sheep with their Basque (or Peruvian) shepherds, walking them down Naneum Road from the hills to the north.  I pulled off the road into a driveway type cut off, and took pictures of them all.  I even got a snippet of a movie.  Too bad I’m no longer teaching Economic Geography, but I will share my treasures with John Bowen.  Talk about being at the right place at the right time.  After I pulled away and watched  them proceed down the road, I saw the other shepherd pulling their house trailer turn in front of me to “go around the block”.  They will camp down the road for a couple of days in different pastures on their way south, over the Yakima Training Area south of us to Moxee, a town east of Yakima.  Actually, they must have turned and gone west because John saw them on his way home over southwest of where I had seen them.  Maybe I will go tomorrow and take a picture of them in a field.  They usually stay a couple days, and move on.

We had a good time at Briarwood Commons (Retirement Community) with a very few folks playing and singing, but the audience was good, and they all contributed.  They had made us a feast to thank us for coming to play.  We had little chicken salad (mostly chicken) sandwiches, two pasta salads, wheat rolls with butter, wonderful green pea/ham/carrot soup, a fruit drink, and coffee to go with a table full of desserts.  There were oatmeal/raisin cookies, zucchini bread, red velvet chocolate cupcakes, with homemade boiled white frosting, sweet crackers with peanut butter.  I had one of each of the last two selections.

Guess that about does it.  I need to work on loading the dishwasher I never finished yesterday, and to return to inputting my words and photos into our presentation on the hay industry we have to present in 2 weeks.  It’s coming along well.  That’s the presentation in Olympia, with John Bowen, my CWU colleague.

John made it home a little after 6:00 p.m. tonight.  Today the WTA group included five Boy Scouts plus 7 or 8 others.  They were west of Skykomish about 3 miles and then a little SW up a 6 mile gravel road on a trail that circles Lake Elizabeth [See at:  47.70271, -121.518423 ].

He came home and is fixing his dinner, but I have eaten too much this afternoon to need anything to eat.

John was sitting talking to me about his day, when Rascal brought a live bird into the den.  Luckily John picked the cat up and carried him outside with the bird in his mouth.  He was still alive and when the cat let go of, the tiny thing flew away.  YEA!  Glad John got him outside and we didn’t have a bird flying around our house.  It was a little sparrow (?), maybe.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

I hope to find some time to update the page you have been reading for the past couple of weeks, but it will probably just happen in spurts.  I have mentioned some stuff in this week’s blog, but the content is not yet there.  If you log on and see a red notice toward the top about adding something by Sept 9, then nothing has been added yet.  Please visit again soon.  Here is the link.

http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/August2012Rock’NPonderosa.html

My emphasis and concentration is now on the presentation upcoming in less than 2 weeks. Thanks for staying tuned.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes on email, animated cards, postal snail mail ones, and phone calls.  I repeat some of this below on the real day, with added touches.  I started receiving wishes a week in advance.

Sunday Aug 26  After a bunch of bloodcurdling cat screams awakening us in the middle of the night and finding our Rascal asleep on the loveseat, we went back to bed.  Early this morning, John saw all 3 ferals (Woody, Sue, & Cashew), leaving their haymow loft and walking off through the corral into the swamp, so we know they all are okay.  Now John had to begin his morning out moving horses out of where they are not supposed to be, up by the new pole building.  My horse, Frosty, is notorious for going through temporary ill-built fences and teaching the others to follow.  I also went next door to feed, water, and give attention to the neighbor’s cat while the owner is overseas.  Need to water her plants too.  A few days ago, John mowed her blooming knapweed, so it would not spread throughout the neighborhood.  It is nasty stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_knapweed#An_invasive_species

http://www.mtweed.org/images/client/diffuse-knapweed/weed-id-1453265453_3bba542399_b.jpg

Today has been slow, but both of us have been busy on chores.  I have worked on various projects inside, and John has been outside, except for a 40-minute much needed nap.  High temperatures were up to 91 today, and he tried working all outside ditch digging in the shade of our cottonwood trees.  He has managed to construct a new diversion and short ditch to water the pasture on the north of the new building without impacting the construction site or approach thereto.  Previously water went past the front of the building and that is now an entrance driveway of dirt, rock, and crushed gravel.

We had a nice late lunch with leftovers from Friday night’s potluck and a new ear of corn from our garden, plus some other stuff in the frig.  We had crackers, Jarlsberg cheese, the rest of the kippered salmon and tuna . . .

[John says about “kippered” — seems to describe another food product insofar as this fish is in a small glass canning jar and much like tuna from a can you might buy in a grocery store.  Not this sort of thing:

http://www.sausagemania.com/kippermania.html  ]

{Sorry, Nancy here.  A fellow who spent much time in Alaska referred to it by that name, after tasting it.  He said it had been smoked and salted.}

. . .from Friday, two kinds of grapes, and our shared ear of corn.  John worked until late and so did I, but we had leftovers (pork, sauce, tomatoes) on toasted hamburger bun, with another ear of our own corn, and a bunch of grapes.  Nice.

Monday, Aug 27  Taught SAIL exercise class and rushed to a 2:30 meeting with my co-author at Dean Hall, CWU.  We had a productive meeting, and I took along a box of books and materials to distribute to colleagues there in Geography and History.  I think I have said we are preparing a paper to give in Olympia, the first week of October, on the Kittitas Valley hay industry and export market.  I am in charge of setting up interviews with a few growers, and John Bowen is setting up the interviews with processors/exporters.  We start those interviews next week.

Tuesday, Aug 28  Today started early with getting ready for our annual physical exams, and driving via I-90 to Cle Elum, because Hwy 10 is still closed, from working on the bridge (the infamous Taylor Bridge that caused the fire).  We both had good reports and went to lunch afterwards in Cle Elum.  Then we visited the Kubota dealer to check out a tractor with a backhoe and front-end loader.  Very pricey!  From there we came on home via highway 970 and 97 with views of some of the fire damage at Bettas Road and at the wind farm east of 97.  Was rather amazing to see where the fire had run up the hill, crossed 97, and went on eastward.  John had his camera and I had two of mine.  I put one on a movie to get a round perspective of the Bettas valley.  Close to the road John took some pictures of the large trees cut down to stop torching and firebrands – See this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire

and search the text for ‘firebrands.’   It didn’t help.  The fire came up the slope to the road and burned the guardrail posts.  Long stretches of railing will have to be rebuilt.  The county put up large orange cones to warn people of the fragile nature of the guardrails.  The location where we stopped is here:

47.151655, -120.696388

Zoom in to see where we parked.  Follow up the gravel road and there are 4 wind towers.  Just east of this are two ridges of 3-bladed wind towers (blades are white, shadows are black).  The fire burned through all the grass and brush on both sides of the road.  The large trees along here are Ponderosa pines.  Zoom way-in across the road from our parking site.  This location is 11.2 miles from our house to the east-south-east.

From there we drove down by some burned out houses and some that were saved.  Went cross-country east at Smithson road, but missed part of the burned area, getting closer to us going across Reecer Creek Road.  We came on home, after stopping and taking a couple of pictures for the presentation on hay growing and export from our valley with its importance in the global economy.  Best news today/tonight on the local newspaper’s Facebook page:  Tuesday, August 28, 2012 5:14 pm posted By DAILY RECORD staff —

Fire officials expect the Taylor Bridge Fire to be 100 percent contained by 6 p.m. today, according to an update from the type 3 incident management team that’s been managing the fire since Saturday morning after taking the reins from the larger type 2 team that managed the fire for the first 12 days.  “Because of the number of residences that were threatened, the team utilized palm infrared thermal units to ensure that heat near the containment line and homes was located and extinguished by fire crews prior to determining the fire was 100 percent contained,” said incident commander Alan Lawson in a news release.

Wednesday, Aug 29  I don’t remember much about this day except many uncomfortable feelings.  I got up and saw John off for his trail work, at 7:00 a.m. (see below).  Then I got ready myself and started in the dental chair at 9:00 a.m.  My dentist and his ace assistant worked on two major molars in the left upper side of my mouth.  The work had a few glitches, such as the clamp for the rubber dam flying off from my mouth and hitting the wall.  There was much cleaning and build-up needed, and then impressions taken because they are going to put a bridge in the next time I am in there (about 3 weeks) that fits onto the two crowns and puts in a tooth where I’m missing one.  I didn’t leave the chair until 11:30.  A very long 2.5 hours.  I had taken squash from our garden with me, and the dentist, secretary, and 2 assistants, came out to my car to take what they wanted.  I still had some left, so my next stop was to set up to play music at the Soup Kitchen of the Food Bank.  My mouth was all numbed, but I managed to sing and play, and eat a little lunch they offered us.  I gave another squash to my friend that plays and sings with me.  After that was over, I drove to the Adult Activity Center, set up the music and told them I did not feel like staying.  I was beat.  Drove home by way of our Geog. Dept. secretary’s house.  She has been in that job since 1997.  I dropped off two plastic grocery bags of squash, mostly yellow, inside a brown paper grocery bag with handles I used to hang it on her front locked gate.  Then once home, I rested all afternoon with a couple of breaks to feed Rascal (he was asleep on the loveseat with Shay, when I arrived).  Eventually he awoke, wanted fed, and then left.  He was hanging around when the 3 ferals were in to the haymow for dinner, and then left to go over to the swamp area.  Today, earlier, we saw all three orange cats; that means there is one un-caught and un-fixed roaming around.  John talked nice to it but even that shooed it away.

John left early for a WTA work “party” near Stirrup Lake, on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Here is the report from the crew leader back to the 12 folks there:  Well, a wet day, sort of, but a good day’s work done by all.  Didn’t get to see the process, but MikeT and MickiK and MartaS led the teams that rebuilt some 150 feet of rocky, grassy, rootbally, generally BAD trail into GOOD trail (that team included Dana, Mark, John, Carli, and Louise…she of the WFPie hat) .  Up above, Pete and MikeH finished off yesterday’s retread/regrade/ford with a rock wall and still more retread (as MikeH put it: “Not bad for two septuagenarians and one octogenarian”).  The work looked good…as a matter of fact, were I a thru hiker I would feel I’d fallen into heaven while walking all that new trail.  Thanks, mikeo 

John will explain the WFPie hat comment above. 

[ After 5 work trips a volunteer earns a new Green hat with their name or chosen nickname.  Louise wanted her nickname to be “Works for Pie” but that is too long so she has WF Pie on her new hardhat.  This photo shows a temporary name-tape one wears until the 5^th trip.

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1052/525907456_eeb436a412_z.jpg

More experienced workers can earn an orange hat and if one develops the skills and wants the responsibility the next step in the rankings gets you a blue hat.  Beginning workers = green; Assistant Crew leaders (ACL) = orange; Crew Leaders = Blue.  Other agencies have other colors.

http://www.wta.org/magazine/1023.pdf/at_download/file

Note in the write-up that a most important function of the “Blue Hat” is to distribute snacks – trails don’t get built without a lot of chocolate! ]

Thursday, Aug 30  Today is Mt. View Meadows entertainment.  Nine of our music group showed up, and without some of the regulars, that was amazing.  I stopped and visited with friends who are having some serious medical issues, and took them some squash, yellow beans, and clothes that no longer fit me.  Came on home arriving just before John returned from his trail work today.  He stopped by a fruit stand and bought some larger beautiful tomatoes, a huge onion and some peaches.  Tonight we had BLTs for a late dinner.  I will get up early to put another together for John to take for his lunch tomorrow.  I forgot to get lettuce today, so our neighbor kindly shared some with us.  I went over to pick it up after going to our other neighbor’s to take care of her cat.

Friday, Aug 31  Stayed home today.  Had offers of tomatoes from a friend and needed to pick up a thesis at the library, but I didn’t see any need to drive to town for that with a gallon of gas costing $4.15.  One trip to town without any running around would take a gallon.  Our exercise class was cancelled because of the fair and rodeo.

An interesting phone call came in from a neighbor who reported that a black bear had gotten into another neighbor’s bees.  Apparently, there are several bears around, and there was the cougar around last month, over the creek and through the woods from our house.

Saturday, Sept 1  Happy birthday to me!  I have had an incredible number of birthday wishes, more on Facebook than I’m able to respond to, but I’m reading them.  I will wait until the end of the day and send a blanket post on my wall to everyone acknowledging their kind wishes.  Also, I have appreciated all individual emails, animated cards, and even telephone wishes (the old way, huh), and certainly the postal mailed ones.  THANKS.  While I stayed inside working on chores this morning, John picked a large box of squash and a smaller box (but large amount) of yellow beans.  We will have to sort them later and put into the outside shed refrigerator, until we next drive to town and can deliver some to friends.  We figure we have given over 80 pounds of squash away, and we have frozen a little for us, and eaten a lot as well.  Also, while he was out working (more on that below), I made us BLTs for lunch.

Lovely day for butterflies outside my window.  Just saw a beautiful Lorquin’s Admiral on our Nanking Cherry trees on the side of the patio.  Also have been pale yellow ones flitting around today.

Here is the report on John, who spent an hour moving the borrowed heavy magnet on wheels around our driveway and front yard graveled parking.  Totally amazing how much he retrieved (full nails, metal, and paper clips).  That page (link below) begins with pictures of the large magnet’s results from the floor of our new pole building.  Today, I have added a picture of the box of things picked up since John started using it, just including today’s additions (or should say retractions!).  I will add to the page that is continuing to be constructed to back up images of things we’ve been talking about in this blog through August.  Next week after the fair/rodeo/Labor Day weekend is over, the owner will return to pick the magnet up.  He was the contractor for our pole building.  (That link, again, with changes from last week, is

http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/August2012Rock’NPonderosa.html

Another interesting chore of yesterday and today for me was tallying our volunteered miles and hours.  They have to be reported each month to the RSVP program in Ellensburg.  RSVP stands for Retired Senior Volunteer Program.  I volunteer all my music around the county and John volunteers his time in the forest working on trails for the WA Trails Association.  He most recently worked 3 days this week and that time is reportable to RSVP, as is mine.  I also record the mileage we both use to get there.  That is no longer of interest to the RSVP folks, but it is something John and I can deduct from our income taxes as a mileage donation.  FYI, I put in a total of 46.75 hrs and drove 402 miles over the month of August, and John put in 25.75 hrs and drove 386 miles on the last 3 days of August.

Today is the first day of hunting season, and there have been several rifle shots to the west and north of us.  Could be deer, or someone shooting a cougar or a bear, or as John says, perhaps someone just got a gun for a birthday present.

Okay… that’s enough for this week.  I will go work on the page still under construction whose link I have given above.  I have added a few pictures of the new pole building and some of the fire.  I will keep working on it, and share with you when I add more.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday Aug 19  Interesting morning.  First, I slept in for much needed rest after the past week.  It was scary this morning to awake at 5:00 with flashes of “dry” lightning in the sky right before daybreak.  More with thunder followed that.  At 6:00, we got a few drops of rain.  I tried going back to sleep.  John went outside to work on fencing while it was still below 70.  He has a lot of work to do to make changes to gates, fences, to replace those he moved for the building construction.  More rain later and he came inside to cool down.  He saw helicopters flying over and later we heard there were lightning strikes a few miles to the east.

We got a call from our contractor that he had a present for us.  He brought by the final bill and accepted a check to pay the balance.  We had a nice visit and I continued with house and email chores.  John went back out to work on fence.  Late this afternoon our friends with two rescue horses are coming to take a ton of hay we are donating to them.  I passed along a notice from a member of the Swauk-Teanaway Grange about a community meeting tonight on the fire.  I have had a couple of calls, one from a fellow at the radio station who saw my post to the list (Elk Heights-Taylor Bridge Fire).  Guess I should stay inside to ‘man’ the phone, while John’s out manning the fence building.  On the well-photographed old barn on Hwy 97 . . . Good News! . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoscribe/1454173065/

from near-fire-resident Marc Fairbanks that the old beautiful structure was spared.  Had heard differently from several others.  Rumors and bad information were rampant with this wildfire.  The County has a large area and a small population so the firefighters (many volunteers) and equipment were out-matched by this fire [they were dealing with 4 or 5 fires elsewhere as word of this fire came on the air waves].

Megan and Chris came over tonight and loaded 24 bales of oldish hay (~a ton+) from our barn onto their flatbed trailer.  We donated it to them for their two rescued thoroughbred horses, as mentioned earlier.  Otherwise, we are home until tomorrow at noon, when John will use the new pole building to assist the farrier with 3 of our horses.  At the same time, I’m going to go for a haircut on my way to town to go to SAIL exercise and to the bank to move CDs to our checking to cover the rest of the finished building.  It wasn’t enough so we will have to get a bit from our home equity loan that’s tied to our checking account.  It costs us $50 to have the service, and 4.5% for the money.  Of course the question remains as to whether that is the best solution, or would be taking money out of a retirement account—some of which is in the S&P500 that has gone up ~13% so far this year.  Sell high, they say!  Decisions.

Monday, Aug 20  It cleared up here yesterday, but started pouring smoke back into the valley today.  Some of that is from set fires [wind is now blowing back into the burned zone] to widen the lines around the last of the area burning, and keep it from jumping initial fire lines when the wind shifts again – which it will.  At least we are getting usefull reports now unlike before when rumors and confusion were swamping actual information.

I tried to sleep in till 9:00 because I was up till 12:15.  It didn’t work.  I got a call from a friend.  I needed to call the AAC to see about an appointment that got left off my calendar (which I finally found last night).  Needed to call the dentist to reschedule an appointment that conflicts with possible jury duty.  Then our horse farrier came 2 hours early (20 minute notice), and messed up my getting ready for the day.  I was scheduled for a noon haircut.  I only got a cup of coffee for breakfast.  Did get the haircut and had made myself a tuna fish sandwich to take along to town to have for lunch.  I made it to town, amidst the smoke.  Went inside, grabbed a piece of poppy seed cake with sugar frosting, and went over to a “give away” table, where I was going to eat my lunch and drink my lemonade.  While eating, I looked at some of the things on the table and ended up loading a few things into a nice carry-bag with tropical fish on it and even a zippered pocket (also for grabs).  I took some note pads, a few greeting cards, an insulated holder for a bottled drink (for John), and a neat new tee shirt for me with Camp Appalachia written on it, in big bright red and green letters.  I can always wear tee shirts, in this kind of weather.  Tomorrow I have to go back to the same place for foot care, and I will take some squash and yellow beans for the very same table.  Tonight I went to my neighbors and delivered some heavy boots that are too big for me but should fit the farmer and also took them yellow beans.  Returned canning jars and was rewarded with two pint jars of apricot jam, thanking me for all the apricots I have recently brought them.  I’m the one that came out ahead on that deal!  Canning is something we left behind in Iowa.  John cooked a boneless roast in our Crockpot with tomatoes and barley.  It was amazingly tender for a late dinner.  We had one (our first) red tomato of the summer, and it was scrumptious too.  John picked enough yellow beans and squash tonight to feed a very small army.  I will also take some by to other friends in town, and maybe even drop some off at the food bank.

Tuesday, Aug 21  Foot care and massage: 2:00 and 2:30 and I made it to both.  Winds started blowing this afternoon with up to 43 mph gusts.  I’m surely glad they have gotten rid of all the hot spots.  Here is an interesting part of a report today.  Comment on fire:  Commander Reed said the Taylor Bridge Fire is in the top 10 of dangerous, catastrophic fires he’s witnessed and worked on throughout the country.  In just four hours, the fire spread 14 miles.  “That’s just unheard of,” Reed said.  He said it was the perfect storm of conditions, fueled by Kittitas Valley winds.

We did some interesting cleaning today.  John was looking for a box of work gloves bought and buried about 8 years ago.  He searched closets, stacks of boxes, and I don’t know what all.  In the hall closet, which we seldom use, he found some interesting things, some things I don’t even remember.  A pair of almost new hiking boots I must have gotten at a yard sale; same with a pair of felt boots (slippers), with tops, which fit fine and I can use to walk around the house or take to wear at people’s houses when I remove boots, in the winter.  Found some interesting posters, and things in map tubes.  Most interesting was John’s mom’s diploma from business school in Warren, PA.  He doesn’t know how or when he got it.  We are going to tell his sister and suggest if she doesn’t want it, it might go into a museum in Warren, PA.  It is a neat historical document.  (Actually we talked to Peggy a few days later when she called to check on us.)  We decided to photograph it and send that to her, and perhaps also to the Warren Historical Society or Museum, to see if they want the original mailed to them.  Neither of us are interested in framing and keeping it.  Found two boxes of pennies.  One had $21.50 worth rolled up; the other is a ceramic dish about two inches high with a diameter of over 6″, full of loose pennies.  Our bank has a mechanical counter that sorts them and rolls change, so we will have to haul those in one of these days.  I forget all the other stuff he uncovered.  Oh, one thing was a gift from our neighbor when she and her husband went to China and we took care of their house, chickens, plants and dog.  They brought me a lovely 100% silk yellow blouse, but it was too small for me to wear then.  Now I can wear it and it is very nice.  They brought John a small framed painting of a horse.  Now we can use both, after all these years.  Found John 3 brand new shirts still in their packages (from yard sales a few years ago).  At least 3 nice sweaters, one fits me, and the others, John.  It was like Christmas.  I’m sure I’m forgetting some things.  John piled them all on the bed, so we had to sort through before the evening was over.

Wednesday, Aug 22  We were late at the Soup Kitchen starting music because of tons of people coming to carry away food from the Food Bank.  For some reason, a lot of folks were up from Selah (30 miles away near Yakima).  I got out in time to make it to exercise class, carrying my beans and squash along for folks there.

Here’s a link worth seeing–particularly the deer and fireman.  Do not know the location of that one.  Look at the whole bunch of pictures.  Someone on one of the site’s comments mentioned about the picture saying the fireman with the deer was named Cody.

http://inciweb.org/incident/photograph/3152/8/

Thursday, Aug  23  Never found time to make notes on this day.  Will try to remember a little of that busy one.  John went with me to drop me off to play music while he went shopping at 3 stores.  We had a good turnout at Hearthstone.  John, not having found the box of gloves he lost track of, bought a new pair for WTA trail work next week on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) south of Snoqualmie Pass, just north of a lake called Stirrup.

Coordinates: 47.301607, -121.415301

One other thing he bought today was a large package of pork chops at an excellent price, at Safeway, where he’d gone to pick up a good deal on Pepsi.  It provided a really nice dinner, and made him realize we needed to go buy more the next day, before the sale was over.  We almost never shop at Safeway – they require using a special card and they have one of the most complicated (busy) ads in the newspaper.

Friday, Aug 24  Today was an incredibly busy day.  We baked cobbler for 16 people for a night potluck.  I left John to finish cooking them, because I had to go to town for two blood draws at the hospital, to pick up 10 large intact packing boxes we loaned my deaf student to move across town, grab a bite for lunch ’cause I missed it, teach my afternoon SAIL exercise class (that I only started and another lady took over so I could leave), pick up some stuff at the grocery, and then come home and pack all the stuff (Lemonade, Ice Cream, kippered Salmon/Tuna from my Indian (Native American) student’s father & crackers for appetizers, and pears for the table, along with two large pans of cobbler (our pie cherries, local blueberries from the Yakima canyon, and our Carpathian walnuts)–all above were for the potluck with our music group last night.  Couldn’t have done it without John’s help.  We left at 5:00 p.m. going to Grace Episcopal Church for the eating and then music afterwards.  We did not get home till after 10, and John still had all the outside animals to feed in the dark.  I tried to work on email responses.  Didn’t crash till 11:45, and I really did crash.  Slept in until awakened Saturday morning by a phone call.  I guess I needed the rest.

Saturday, Aug 25  This morning I got all involved helping John unload the last of our stuff from the travel trailer, so he could drive it around the block and into our pole building. [It and one of the cars were loaded and parked so as to leave in a hurry as necessary.]  While he was driving around, I had to open some gates, and be there when he returned to be sure he got through the gate without touching on the side he cannot easily see.  It’s better coming straight in and not having to back up as once before.  There was plenty of room and he was at the right angle today.  Earlier in the day, he’d shown me the large magnet (which I cannot get too close to with my ICD), and that our contractor loaned us after demonstrating and picking up a lot of nails, screws, metal pieces, and whatever from the re-used concrete that makes up the base of our pole building.  Truly amazing.  I hope to put a picture out on the developing web page of our Pole Building in time to add a link to this blog.  I still have much work yet to do on that page, so it will be another site under construction.  Here:

http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/August2012Rock’NPonderosa.html

Same with my page on the Wilkins reunion, the wildfire, and probably another couple of things.

Just got a note from a former student who is a member of the Yakama tribe.  [Note: Tribe spelling is with a middle ‘a’ while us white folks use an ‘i’ there.]  I thought I would share this, because their celebration of life is truly touching and interesting.  One of  my other former students (a Yakama) died within the last year, and another friend (former Geography Professor, Morris) attended the 24-hour funeral.  Here is the recent note (from Dana Miller on Facebook):  Arrangements for Uncle Marcus Slome; dressing will be Monday, August 27, 2012 at 9AM at Toppenish Creek Longhouse.  Washat services to follow and then lunch.  After lunch, move to the 1910 Shaker Church for overnight services.  Garment ceremony at sunrise and burial at the 1910 Cemetery 8AM.

Another Facebook reminder from Caitlin LaBar, our NW Butterfly expert:

Check    http://northwestbutterflies.blogspot.com/   for the following:

Northwest Butterflies: Question Series: Butterfly Senses

John spent most of the day out and reports the young deer still have spots although seem to be growing like weeds.  Or maybe weeds grow like young deer.  Actually, being mid-summer in the steppe zone – it is dry and the weeds are about done growing.  Milkweed are about to burst open, to this:

http://www.betterphoto.com/uploads/processed/0920/0905131824491butterfly_milkweed_2009_05_10-.jpg

We share our space.  Milkweed and butterflies are closely in sync and it is interesting to watch this throughout the flowering of the plants.  As for the follow-on stuff, John uses Caitlin as an information source.  Read her comment on her page about “Taste” and then see this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkweed_butterfly

Note the thing about poisonous glycosides in paragraph 3.  Ain’t life grand?

The temperatures are down (Summer’s over!) and the fire is contained. That’s enough for this week.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday Aug 12  John left the house early while it was 65 to water the garden and take down the old round pen.  He hasn’t gotten to the latter yet, because of all the other chores.  He did take Shay with him and she was a happy companion.  Rascal was outside, but I haven’t seen him since the middle of the night when he wanted fed canned food.  I need to get going and get to work on my research on Timothy Hay now that our friends from Lake Tahoe have come and gone from Ellensburg.

My day should have been less stressful, but it turned into just the opposite. Yikes; the airport says it is up to 70 now and worse that we will have 99 degrees today.  Turns out we went to 100 and it stayed at 99 for several hours before and after the 100 recording.  I surely hope the fellow gets here soon to deliver the round-pen panels.  It will take a couple of trips, and luckily it’s only about a mile round trip, and that they offered to deliver it.  It takes a much larger flat bed than is on our truck.  We got a call from his mom at 11:00 that it would be later in the afternoon.  Right in the hottest part of the day before 3:00 p.m. at 100 degrees.  The hour ahead and the two after were 99.  They were able to get all the panels delivered and John started setting them up, only to realize when the gate was the last panel delivered, that it had to be connected to one of the previous panels already standing.  The gate had been welded with a connector about ½ inch off so a panel connector had been cut with a hacksaw to make the two fit.  When they delivered the last pieces it was too hot to figure which panel, but later in the evening John determined which it was.  Sadly he had a lot of work with no help to move the pieces and reconnect.  I don’t think he’s through yet.

Much of my time was spend working with our computer that kept losing its connection to the Internet.  I was trying to work on two major projects, one required searching the local newspaper for articles on the production of Timothy Hay in the Kittitas Valley (where we are located), and the other was to help advise an REM graduate about her interview for a job tomorrow morning.  (Update, she ended up getting the job!)

Monday, Aug 13  Bad news came today with news a fire was started west of us near Cle Elum.  The winds were severe and the dry brush, dead grass, undergrowth, and Ponderosa pine forest caused a horrible wildfire.  It was a fretful afternoon, evening, and night.  I think I may have some repeats in my story below, and in advance, I apologize.

We drove out at almost dark to see where it was.  We got on Reecer Creek road and up to Hungry Junction, at the top of the hill and could not see flames.  Deputies were coming to 1.5 miles west of us on Wilson Creek road telling residents to be ready to evacuate.  We were pretty sure we were safe.

Tuesday, Aug 14  The fire was still raging and the winds were extremely  high, consistently.  Unfortunately, we are right in the line of fire (pun intended).  I made a surveillance trip up to the north and west of us on Wilson Creek road, on my way to town.  The one road up Lilliard Hill was too rough to traverse in my Subaru.  I passed a neighbor driving to the spot I was seeking, whom I had never met before.  He took my cell phone number and was willing to call me after he found out the situation and how close the smoke and fire was from above.  He did call me before I got to town, and told me that he thought they had created a back fire to burn back toward the advancing one from the west.  I continued my trip to deliver some squash, pick up some apricots for my neighbor to make jam, and to go take digital images of some of the historical photos in our city library collection on Haying in the Kittitas Valley.  I’m co-authoring research for a presentation on Hay here in our valley, with a colleague who took over teaching some of the classes I used to teach.  We are going to present it in Olympia the first week of October, at the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers’ yearly conference.  I was in the library about an hour, and when I came out I saw the plumes of smoke much worse than when I had left.  I postponed the rest of my squash deliveries, and drove straight home.  I was quite worried on the way home seeing the big plumes of smoke west of our home, and then I got a call from a friend who is a firefighter and was concerned we needed to get out of the path of the advancing fire.  I also heard from another person that the fire had jumped the firebreak that was attempted.  There were firefighters who claimed that it was going so fast that, if the winds kept up, it might well go all the way to the Columbia River before stopping.  We would have been in the way of that advance.  Very LATE afternoon we found the residents in the area within our country block square were being advised to evacuate, when a deputy came to our door, advising we should be “ready to evacuate.”  We are on the east of that “block” on Naneum road.  North of us is Charlton, South is Thomas, and West is Wilson Creek.  We really never thought it would come all the way to us.  They were bombing with retardant until dark, and John recognized the winds changed and found they were expected to change even more later–to Easterly.  That’s very unusual for around here, as they are normally NW or WNW.  Ours and everyone’s prayers must have been answered.

However, John kept working to right before dusk to contain the horses.  I spent all my time searching for valuables and packing them into the car.  At 11:00 p.m., I drove over 2 miles west to Wilson Creek road to check for signs of fire.  I saw none.  The lady who cuts my hair lives on the road south and west of us.  I saw her lights on at 11:02 so called her and asked if she would call us before they took off in their 5th wheel.  They are much closer to the suspected advancing line.  She will do that, so that means we can get some sleep.

Our travel trailer was almost all packed and my Subaru had all our musical instruments in it (except keyboard, piano, pump organ), plus meds, my ICD checker, tax receipts, the external backup for my last two laptops and some clothes, shoes, work boots, pillows & snacks.  John fixed a safe haven for the horses away from the trees in the middle of our pasture over the irrigation ditch for water and gave them hay.  He carried panels to keep them contained (like a big round pen, yet it’s multi-angled to keep it standing).  They were comfortable there and we didn’t have to cart them away.  Thanks to all our friends offering trailer assistance and pasture (many of our friends did, and that was a wonderful offer).  Thanks also for offers of packing, transporting, spending the night at friends, and encouragement to keep a positive attitude and not to stress out.

We took Rascal out in a crate with hard and soft food, and left him a couple hours in the travel trailer.  The reason we did, is that he is an inside/ outside cat and if we fed him, he might have left and not come back till after we left, had we determined we needed to.  Once I was home from the recent surveillance trip, however, I decided to let him out again.  He came back in the house with us now, after stepping out of the trailer.  I’m sure he had no clue what happened, but the fact it had a happy ending was positive.  He had two plates (canned food & dry).  He ate all of the canned and somehow transferred a full covering of the saucer with hard food from the other bowl.  We figure he was making a statement, but it would have been interesting to see how he managed it, and to understand the reason for his actions!

Wednesday, Aug 15  We awoke at 4:45 and John took off to run the run I had previously been doing to check for fire progress in our direction.  His was a round trip of over 10 miles, but it gave us confidence this morning when John could see no smoke or fire, and the winds were calm.  The temperatures went to the 50s and the wind direction changed from WNW to S and E (winds take their names from the direction from which they come).

Facebook, which I almost never do was active this morning, when someone sent me a message through there and I was notified by email.  I figured I could notify a lot of people if I could figure out how to post to my Facebook Wall.  Here’s something similar to what I wrote:

Hoping this makes it to my wall and to all of you.  I wrote this to a friend in Bend, OR, after she contacted me on FB, sending it to my wall.  I’ll add to it, but wanted to let you know we are fine.  Thanks for everyone’s offer of help.  We were right in the line of fire (pun intended), and served notice to evacuate late yesterday afternoon.  We packed our travel trailer with crates for dogs and cat, and waited to leave till the last minute.  Right before midnite I drove to where I could see and didn’t see any flames or even a glow.
We stayed knowing we would hear from a friend 1.5 miles closer to the fire when they decided to leave.  At 5:00 this morning, after a little sleep, John took the trip I had been taking (plus farther and more) and saw no signs of fire or smoke.  The winds are calm.  Thanks for your prayers. We all in the neighborhood were spared.  LUV, Nancy

It worked and almost 60 folks replied.  It has been hectic, stressing, and all adjectives you can think of.  We were right in the path and it got to within 5.16 miles of us (measured on Google Earth, by my friend, Miriam in Indiana who got access to the fire data of the hot spots.  I will eventually  put it on line with a link for you to see it.  Her map has our house on it; talk about personalized.  Very neat and nice of her to do.  We were in the advisory zone for evacuation, so we fixed up our horses (John did) in the middle of the field behind the pole building (now completed), and put panels up to contain them away from the trees and in a wet area actually over the irrigation ditch so they had access to water and gave them hay.  We kept a watch on the fire from a hill about 6 miles down the road.  Every 5-6 hours or so.
Previously, John moved our travel trailer up closer to the house, put crates in for the dogs and one cat (ferals were going to have to fed for themselves), and hooked to the truck, heading out the driveway.  While John was building the place for the horses, i packed and loaded things into the travel trailer, but mostly into the car.  I got really tired carting all that stuff outside and packing.  Then at several hour intervals I drove to see if the flames were any closer.  That day the winds were blowing severely from the west, bringing the fire right toward us.
We did not evacuate and the fire was stopped with fire retardant from airplanes.  The winds changed and we were spared.  The fire continues on the west side of Hwy 97, and north into the timber.  It has flared up tonight on the north side of Hwy 970, the road that goes through the Swauk Prairie and near the Teanaway, where we have a friend living.

Links worth watching regarding the wildfire has some striking photos.

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/free/top_story/taylor-bridge-fire-percent-contained/article_6845d20e-e6fc-11e1-921d-001a4bcf887a.html

One of the better reporting places is King5 news (Seattle); this is an earlier one:

http://www.king5.com/news/Woman-didnt-lose-all-her-animals-in-wildfire-after-all-166350016.html?fb_action_ids=10100481078846203&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210100481078846203%22%3A10150981724871193%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210100481078846203%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Thursday, Aug 16   Report on Aug 16: http://www.king5.com/news/local/Kittitas-Cle-Elum-Taylor-Bridge-Wildfire-Wednesday–166245586.html   I have never completed writing up my story on the fire, and needed to finish sooner to get it off to people who are asking.  Where does the time go?  I never made the report to send out on email, and decided to try to keep this blog entry up-to-date, so I could just use it for both needs.

Here is another link that shows a lot of pictures on the situation:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wastatednr/7789659164/in/set-72157631083674982

Our morning was filled with chores, meeting with the county agent who came to review/inspect the new pole building’s completed state, and pass on it.  That went well.  Two visits, at the start to look at the holes for the poles; then at the end to be sure the bolts were properly in the trusses and the purloins were done properly, and maybe something else inside.  There was no viewing of anything on the outside, not even the poles.  That required building permit is going to cost us $750.  Yesterday, I called about putting it on our insurance as an outbuilding.  We cannot because of the wildfires, a moratorium on any new additions to insurance was imposed.  John went with me to play music today, and we went ahead and ate at Burger King.  Last time there (several weeks ago), we got the food to go, and didn’t realize till we got home that it wasn’t the complete order we had paid for.  I called and talked to the then manager, Alex, and he said he would give my information to his supervisor and it would be sent to Yakima and I would receive a free coupon.  I never received anything.  That story has a happy ending.  We got our lunch and part of dinner free today.  I asked my favorite checker and she called the manager (now Rhonda).  She was extremely nice, and told me they would replace my missing chicken sandwich with two, along with small fries and drink, and I had already gotten a cheeseburger for John to eat with the one chicken sandwich I expected to get, originally.  Ended up when she tried to write that separately, it took it and put it on her card, and they paid for our whole meal (and we had leftover a full original chicken sandwich we brought home in our cooler).  We had taken the cooler full of squash to share with the people in our music group.  The Geography secretary for 27 years (Lois) is now living at this assisted living retirement center.  She is in good shape and loves to dance still, so as we played waltzes, she came to the front and danced.

Friday, Aug 17  Today was a wonderful lunch at the Adult Activity Center.  It cost $3.00, but wow–what a meal.  I wish I had known there would be leftovers because I could have brought a cooler for taking home a bought plate for John, but the meal started at 11:30 and I didn’t leave town in 100-degree temps without a cooler until almost 3:00.  Here is the menu:  BBQ (large beef ribs, baked beans, cornbread, and strawberry shortcake), with coffee & lemonade.  Then I left to go to two close-by garage sales, and got some neat stuff for 25¢ (small mirror on a fold over stand), 50¢ for a pair of down boots with leather bottoms; and a bunch of free stuff (pillows, tongs, plastic CD holders, and a nice heavy plastic carrier for a Skil Saw).  The neatest part of that sale was two Melodicas for sale.  One had twice as many keys as the one John’s sister Peggy sent me, and the other was smaller.  They had no clue what they were, so I explained.  They’d looked the one up on Ebay and found their asking price of $70.  I would not have bought it at that price at a yard sale, even if I didn’t have one.  I returned to the center to lead my SAIL exercise class.  Another group member led Wednesday when I was still getting through the excitement of the fire.  I cancelled all activities in town that day to recuperate.  Next week I will lead the group again on Wed. and possibly Friday.  Another person in the class is sharing leading when our “leader” is feeling bad, gone for some reason, or out of town, as all next week.  It’s nice we can keep it going.  There are several people who are over 86, one man who’s 89, and a neat lady who’s probably in better shape than all of us, who is 92.

Friday night newspaper reported on a house that escaped the fire in the Bettas Valley.  This is an interesting story:

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/free/news/family-s-bettas-road-house-survives/article_a60192dc-e895-11e1-9f0a-001a4bcf887a.html

Tonight I waited for a 6:00 p.m. phone call from someone needing music at a place west of Cle Elum, the Ensign Ranch.  It never came.  I guess I’ll wait longer.  (still not here by 7:00 p.m. Saturday).  Hmmmm.  It came finally a few minutes after I sent this to John to review and post, and we will not be able to do the “gig.”  The plans were for a singles group from NW Washington, Mt. Vernon, Bellingham area, Everett, and they wanted “music in the woods.”  With the age and conditions of our group and the location, I declined.  Several of us have been there before, and it is not a pleasant experience.  One time we had to ride on a raft across the river and carry in speakers.

Saturday, Aug 18  Started at 8:00 a.m. at a yard sale down the road and over from our house, at friends of friends of ours.  It was on a dead end road (narrow) and we didn’t know there was parking at the house.  So we started walking and then the owner met us on the road to tell us.  John went back for the car, but I continued walking to the house.  Guess I got my exercise for the day.  There John found a book on Seattle that has “then and now” pictures of the Smith Tower my grandfather worked on at the start of the last century.  And, he found a 2 gallon gas can like this but older:

http://openairenergy.com/images/418ji3maaql.jpg

The company has been sued repeatedly – They say people used the cans to pour gas directly on a fire; lawyers say the things were poorly designed and dangerous.  John says: I have no idea, but an article is here:

http://www.miamiok.com/news/article_3841b81a-0bf7-11e1-b0d0-001cc4c002e0.html

John says if anyone is close enough to a fire to pour gas on it from any type of container – he or she should get a Darwin Award, not a financial reward.  A better plan is to partly fill a small can (tomato, peaches) and throw that from a distance – once launched, run like hell, but watch over your shoulder as the fire returns along the vapor trail.  Entertainment before the digital age!

Then we decided to go back to another couple of sales in EBRG, and found some neat stuff.  Our first stop was where I bought a few things yesterday and saw some containers in which I can pack sweaters.  They were still there, so I grabbed them.  The nicest find was at a different sale, a pair of new (worn once, maybe?) boots for $3.00 that fit John!  They’re leather on top and rubber on the lower part, something like this (by Northside Boots)

http://astore.amazon.com/nortcom-20/images/B002HWS5K6

We couldn’t find two more streets that have been extended away from the city and are unattached.  Came home and found them on Google.  (I hit them later in the afternoon, when I went back to Briarwood to play music.  The last place we stopped was a great find for me.  There was a very nice cowboy hat (I participate in several musical events where the theme is western), and while talking the lady down on the price of the hat, I saw 3 music stands in excellent condition with “make offer” on them.  While I was debating, she took my picture with the hat because I said, I need a mirror to see what it looks like.  She showed me on her phone and I said, well, I will pay half your original price, I guess.  She said, how about you give me $10 for the hat and the 3 music stands.  Wow!  If I had made the offer it would have likely been for a little more for the stands, so I got a fabulous deal.  She even took my email and shipped me the picture she took.

We managed to unload most of the stuff in the trailer and the Subaru when we got home.  Now we are grabbing a fast bite to eat and I’m returning to town to play music at Briarwood, and deliver some squash and yellow beans.  If I have time, I may stop at one of the two sales we missed earlier.  ( I did).  Bought too more packing crates for half price, at the sale where we were this morning, and they had reduced all the quarter items to free.  I grabbed more things and carried them away in one of my tote boxes.  Stopped by another sale we had missed earlier, but got nothing.  Also found another we had missed, and bought for 50¢ a pair of insulated flannel bedroom shoes with leather bottoms.  The others I got this morning are a little large, but might be all right with heavy socks in the winter.  On to the place where we were playing music.  Only 6 of us showed up today, but we had an involved and interested group, plus they fed us amazingly again (as usual).  On the menu was:  Oriental chicken (cold salad with slaw), macaroni salad, hot bread and butter, grapes and cut cantaloupe, cheese & crackers, homemade zucchini/pineapple bread made from one of our zucchinis I took by to the cook, Bill.  The dessert table was full.  Two types of brownies, one with German Choc topping, and the other with choc.  Peanut butter homemade cookies, 3 other store bought cookies, and the best peach cobbler I think I have ever had:  made with maple syrup and pecan crumbles; covered with real whipped cream.  I do not need any dinner.  For drink, I had pink lemonade.  People who wanted coffee could have it.  Really cool, my former student, Glenn, has just moved into Briarwood Commons.  He has eye problems now as is being hearing impaired, but I wanted to introduce him to the people there, and have him join us for our music and for the food.  They welcomed him and were really happy I invited him.  I think he enjoyed himself and got full.

I’ll get this to John now for his additions and posting, and meanwhile I will try to start work on putting put some recent photos out on a web page to share.  I might not get it done until next week — or even later, but perhaps I can get a preview soon to catch you up on all our recent happenings.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Saturday, Aug 4.  Morning started with our builder coming for his backhoe for a short/small job southwest on Look Road – partly doing a friend a favor.  After he left and the gate to the road closed, John let the horses up into the driveway area with grass beneath the orchard trees.  The fellow planned to return at noon, but he got here 2 minutes before John got to the road to open the gate at 11:30.  John had moved the horses back to their pasture and opened the (second) gate to our work site.  I spent much of the day on the blog, paying bills, and cleaning, and we had leftovers for dinner.  Now we are waiting to have raspberries on ice cream and go to bed.  I hope that the house will cool down tonight because tomorrow will be a very warm day.

Sunday Aug 5  We planned the trip to Costco to get Acetaminophen and a few other necessities, and because at 100-degree temps it is too hot to do anything else outside, other than drive an a/c car to a store with a/c and return to our house with a/c.  We did, and spent 5 hours away.  For lunch, we had a piece of pizza (large combo) of which I had two little bites, and I had a polish sausage, giving John about a 4-inch piece of the “hotdog.”  We had a VERY BERRY Sundae (it’s a cup of soft serve frozen yogurt with LOTS of strawberries mixed in, and more dumped in on the side).  All that cost us total $5.14.  I guess that’s a decent price for a lunch for two with the dessert and refillable drink (Pepsi/diet pep mix).  We spent $267 dollars (over $7 was tax), but bought $26 worth of stuff for one neighbor and $10 for another.  We got red seedless grapes (from Richgrove, CA) and blueberries (from Oregon), and salmon (a bag of pieces that we have had before that is very good), some marinated boneless turkey breast that we’ll have tonight for dinner leaving leftovers for this week, and dog and cat food.  We also got 3 colors of bell pepper (red, yellow, orange), bread (Rosemary), and some Crystal Light (I still drink for my drink of choice, after giving up Pepsi, many per day); and toilet paper, which is cheaper than I ever remember.  We should have bought two packages!  Have any of you had those pretzels filled with peanut butter?  They’re HK Anderson originally made in PA and we got a huge canister of them under the Kirkland brand.  Also some mild German Sausage, frozen beef patties for when we want something quick without a lot of effort.  John even bought some large blueberry muffins so we’d have something different for breakfast.  Oh, yeah, and my two containers of Acetaminophen I went down there for, along with the gasoline for my car.  It was driving on vapors when we arrived, and I saved $3.14 on 14.25 gallons!  It cost us $14 to drive the 100 miles, however, (if I’m getting 25 mpg)–oh well.  Mostly we make such a stop on a multi-purpose (doctor or car care) trip.

Oh–I bought one of the $20 phone calling cards to share with John’s sister.  We still have $12 left on the one we have, but this one is cheaper and has more minutes than the one she is getting.  I called and gave her the numbers to use when hers runs out.  John watered the garden and (unrelated) has gone to lie down.  I think I will take a nap too.  It’s too hot to do anything else, but our a/c is keeping us cool.  John was down for 2 hours and I slept at least that much and maybe more.  Guess we really needed it.  Yum, turkey tenderloin with squash, onions, peppers for a late dinner and blueberries on ice cream for dessert.

Monday, Aug 6  John picked 5 pounds of lovely yellow (mostly) and green squash this morning, and 9 ounces of yellow beans.  We have had a few of them and they are wonderful.  Also ran out and took some pictures of the building floor, and they came today with a large dump truck full to put in the base of recycled concrete.  Two guys are working on screwing the little pieces of board onto the trusses that will be propped up on the poles and cross pieces.  John went back out with his camera to take more pictures of the last load of recycled (broken concrete pieces) that will be compacted into the flooring.  It is 1/2 as expensive as standard gravel.  Clouds moved on and temperatures are up again.  At noon, up to 91, and John just came back in, very hot and tired, and frustrated he’s lost his wire fence tool, maybe buried it in the stuff in the back of the pickup where he’s been throwing things.

http://www.etoolsetc.com/images/products/CHA-85.jpg

A little searching and John found the darned thing was in a bucket in the shed.

I’ve been transferring some You Tube videos up to the web so people can access them.  More building supplies and machinery delivered this afternoon.  John showed them where to put the boards needed and then showed a different guy, later in the afternoon where to leave a piece of machinery they will use to lift the trusses.  This is quite an operation.  Tomorrow or soon, they will come out with a load of gravel to smooth out the edges of the base of recycled cement pieces.  Good thing John was around to coordinate.  I also didn’t go to town this afternoon, so I could use my ears to hear the arrivals.  I heard the brakes squeal on the last delivery before the dogs saw the machinery coming down the drive.  John was outside when the boards arrived earlier.  Tonight, just before dinner, I looked out the window and up and saw the most beautiful Mammatus clouds. Not ours, but here’s one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mammatus-storm-clouds_San-Antonio.jpg

We both took our cameras out and starting shooting photographs.  We have more color (orangeish) in ours — awesome.  I will put the best out on the web one of these days and point you in their direction.

Tuesday, Aug 7  Today started very early as expected.  The building crew with an extra person arrived at 5:55 to put up the trusses.  John and I went out for 1/2 hour to photograph the work from 6:30.  I was very tired, and still am, because of not sleeping well last night.  Unusual for me.  It got to 59 last night but the house didn’t cool inside as much as desired.  Morning has broken and the temps are expected to reach 97 today.  Bummer.  At 8:15, it is up to 68.  Today I go to town to deliver some squash and get a massage for my aching shoulder muscles.  I did and went shopping for some CO₂-drinks for John.  While there I got half my meds order and a sirloin roast on sale (for the Crockpot), so that we don’t have to heat the house using the oven.  We are both tired, especially from no afternoon nap.  Dinner is late, but we’re eating and going to bed early.  John picked raspberries this morning and blueberries tonight and I just finished cleaning, sorting, and sugaring them.  Turned out not to go to bed early.

Wednesday, Aug 8  I slept in this morning, while John got up and opened the gates for the builders at 6:00 a.m.  They worked all morning and left at lunchtime.  The temps never got above 85 and the winds were above 33mph up to 38 from early morning.  I left for town for playing at the food bank and going to SAIL exercise.  They fed us a good lunch today (pasta w/cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage, chicken salad on large tomato slice with grapes and celery, green salad, garlic bread).  We played music and had a good time.  John stayed home and put the roast in the Crockpot about noon, added tomatoes, onions, carrots, and barley.  It was truly scrumptious and served with the red grapes.  We went out tonight after it cooled some to take pictures of the building progress, and John explained what they did today.  They finished all the top roofing supports and cross pieces having to do with the trusses.  Tomorrow the metal will arrive at the builder’s house, be put on his long trailer and he will bring it in the morning for attaching to the roof and sides of the building.  It’s beginning to take on a personality, and I like the shape it’s in.  Then we picked 9 lbs. of yellow and a few green squash and 10 ounces of yellow beans.  We had some of the yellow beans last night and they are very good.  The squash have a hard time sucking up enough water in the hot dry air.  John splashes their large leaves with water a couple times each day and they seem to applaude that relief:

http://tinyfarmblog.com/tag/summer-squash/

Scroll down to “Perfect (market garden) squash!” – this is what ours look like now.

Thursday, Aug 9  Only thing on tap in town is playing at the Rehab where I spent 7 weeks.  John is going with me because there is a Thursday 12 hr “produce sale” at Super One.  We took our 9 lbs. of squash in and shared with our music group.  Morning was filled with assembling music, taking pictures of the building, and cleaning the kitchen.  The building now has its metal roof and one complete side finished with metal.  It’s looking nice.  After we got home, I spent a lot of time helping students and friends with projects.  We got Bing cherries for our neighbor and for us, more red seedless grapes, which we will share with our friends from South Lake Tahoe who arrive tomorrow night.  In addition, nice ears of corn that we had one of tonight with beef Crockpot concoction from last night with fresh Bing cherries from Chelan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UtoaUVKiNA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelan_County,_Washington

[I think the first one has audio, but a power-outage maybe has knocked that function out here – something to fix.]

Friday, Aug 10  Most of last evening and this morning was helping proof and provide content suggestions to a gal from CWU who is applying for a job gotten from an announcement on “my” jobs list serve.  We were getting help from my geographer friend, Miriam, in Indiana on vacation.  John picked yellow beans this morning, and we are taking them by to friends with more squash.  We traded one person for some of her tomatoes.

It was a crazy day, and as we were fixing dinner, our power went off, and stayed off for 2 hr 22 min.  We were frying “babies” (yellow squash), and sausage to have with beef leftovers that had not yet been warmed.   I’ll let John tell that story of fried babies.  [In the early 1900s, my mother’s family lived on a farm with very little dollar income and a big distance to the nearest store.  The young girls used yellow squash as “baby dolls” to dress and play with.  My thought is that they used the ‘extra’ ones (perhaps larger and tougher).  The best for eating are tender and when scraped will ooze liquid that is slightly sticky (sugar?).  These squash, sliced to half-inch rounds and fried in butter, are a treat.  Thus, “fried babies.”]

We needed to go to town to meet our friends from Lake Tahoe.  We didn’t leave until almost 8:00 P.M. and then didn’t return ’til after 11:00.  It was scary to come into the house and smell hot iron skillets — we had left turned on and not thought to turn off when the electricity went off.  Luckily they were both heavy cast-iron!! And, nothing flammable was nearby.  See Point #2, here:

http://www.macheesmo.com/2010/07/ten-reasons-for-cast-iron/

The few pieces of squash we had not taken out were quite crisp.  So the stove and all the lights – including all those indicators on the stove back – went out when a tree fell from the wind.  About this — John’s going to make a suggestion to the power company for their monthly booklet.

Saturday, Aug 11  Morning started with waiting for a phone call from our friends – mother, daughter, and daughter’s friend (both recent H.S. grads) from South Lake Tahoe, CA.  We were going to meet them and take them to breakfast at the Wagon Wheel in Kittitas.  We got there about 9:50.  Had a nice breakfast and brought home a doggie bag with pancakes, sausage, English muffin, and sourdough toast.  Sent them off to have a tour of the Wildhorse Wind Farm a few miles east –

http://pse.com/inyourcommunity/kittitas/Pages/Wild-Horse.aspx

but haven’t heard if they stopped or what they thought.  They are headed for Rathdrum, ID, from where they will leave tomorrow for a raft trip on the West Fork of the Clark Fork River in Montana.  It was a nice visit.  It’s been about 7 years since they were here for a visit.

After we ate, we drove home by way of a yard sale with horse things just a mile north and west of us.  We purchased a large professionally constructed round pen (used very little), and with perfect bottoms on the panels to prevent horse injury.  Somewhat like this one:

http://www.hideawayfarm.co.uk/H-Images/images/Round_Pen.jpg

Search images for [ “round pen” +horse  ] and see the variety.

We have one we put together a bunch of years ago, but it is unsafe at any speed.  Like this:

http://www.wyattlivestock.com/horse-round-pen.jpg

If a horse caught a foot in the lower rail making up the “foot stand for the panels,” it could easily break a leg.

You can find videos on horse training using a round pen on the net.  Have at it – interesting stuff.  Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhRq2AiegC8

John had already decided to move the panels in our current round pen to encircle the new pole building to protect it from the horses messing up the metal sides, or getting to the hay inside.  The lady’s son has a 20′ flatbed trailer and in the cool of the morning (Sunday) he and friends will  dismantle it and bring it to us.  He claimed he only needed some beer to convince his buddies to come along and help him and John with the move.  I know what you are thinking.  Did we win the lottery?  Nope, but we have a couple of bank CDs about due with a 4% rate about to roll over to an actual rate of just above zero and an effective rate below zero.  Also, we had a bit of individual stock in companies that were doing zilch, so we sold those too.  And our bank is so thrilled to loan us money they make it easy — we have a ‘protection equity’ (house; almost paid for) loan attached to our checking account that prevents our checks from bouncing and we get stuff and they get their money back in monthly installments and our interest – and that is still tax deductible.  Whew.  Govt., taxes, rules – the head spins.  Besides, our government spends money it doesn’t have, creates more, making ours less valuable and encouraging purchasing things now that will be worth more of the funny money they are creating.  Or, something like that!

Temperatures are high enough (max. of 98 at the airport) this afternoon to keep us in the house.

Hope your week was a good one.

 

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan