Category: Post Visit

Sunday, Oct 21  A scheduled music session for the afternoon presented the question of the day – stay home or go?  Rain or Sun?  Assuming the former, we took care of a bunch of chores this morning; John, early, fed the neighbor’s horses (one last time).  Morning was fine for working on yard chores, but it was rather cold.  Turned out the sun shone all day, and it would have been fine for working.  However, we grabbed a fast lunch and drove to the Swauk Teanaway Grange for the monthly Bluegrass Jam session.  I didn’t count but there were a fair number of folks there.  I will try to recall.  Guitars (6), one Dobro, one Mandolin (who switched with a guitar occasionally), Bass Fiddle, one Banjo, and 3 violins.  The audience had about 10 or more.  People brought yummy food.  I took zucchini/pineapple bread my friend Bill made me a loaf of yesterday, and brought 1/2 back that wasn’t eaten, also there were brownies, another zucchini/cream cheese/nut bread, and some wonderful toll house cookies.  They always make coffee, and John left a donation for a Pepsi he got from the frig. There were a couple people there, who John new from our trail riders club, and a couple who we met at a multi-day Bluegrass session in the Canyon last year over Mother’s Day.  It was close enough for us to just go down 3 days in a row, and at that point I did not have the travel trailer.  Don’t know what’s for dinner tonight.  We filled up on goodies at the Grange!  Ah ha.  We threw together leftovers and two nice potatoes, steamed in the microwave oven.  We had some of our tomatoes and a Honeycrisp apple too.  The guy didn’t make it with the bulldozer, so yet another waiting game.  We have other things to do, we invited ourselves to pick apples and pears across the valley (ditto last year). More on that below.  And we need to go to Costco soon.

Monday, Oct 22  We decided it was going to be a nasty rainy day, so we’d go to Yakima.  We made a couple/4 stops on our trip.  It snowed on Manastash Ridge while we were in Yakima, and as we went across the valley and uphill home, it snowed a lot on us.  We got home to 4 inches (at least of snow here) and it is still falling.  Normally, we do not get snow until Halloween or the day after.

We had a fruitful shopping day.  We went first to Big 5 Sporting Goods on Nob Hill Blvd. for boots (better/different selection than EBRG), and found a nice new pair for $45 (normally $70 at other retail outlets – so they claim).  And then we went by the new Penney’s store (now called JCP, kind of like KFC, ha ha), and I bought myself a pair of Skechers® with a good inner sole for my foot problems, for $45.  I have worn nothing but Brooks Addiction for 15 or more years, (recommended by foot doctors for plantar fasciitis), but the price is up to $120 (plus added 8% tax), the last time I bought them in 2010.  So, this was a good day.  We even got gasoline for $3.74/gallon.  And, we picked up 2 pepperoni pizzas on sale for $3/off (linked to the apple/pear picking plans), got some pecans for the pies John has to make for the Christmas potluck Scholarship luncheon (he is expected to each year, since he started in 1988).  Also some chocolate chips (coupon $2.25 off 4.5# bag), so we can make cookies to thank our computer guys and mechanics.  (This is also a tradition).  We got a large package of red seedless grapes, dog & cat food, and some other stuff we needed.  Even got some AA batteries for the friend we’ll see tomorrow to pick their free apples.  Our total bill was 12¢ shy of $220.00; amazing how things add up.  Oh, I forgot the bratwursts (probably not good for us, but much enjoyed), and a couple of packages of their very large muffins, filled with blueberries.  Returning to the timeline of the shopping trip and then home, John is back in from moving snow off the walks and patio and feeding all the animals.  It is still snowing, more like a misting rain now.  Sadly, got a phone call tonight that my (music group) friend died (cancer).  He’s better off, to be out of pain, but it is still tough, particularly for his wife of 57 years.  He’s been very much a large part of my musical life for two decades.  Years ago I went in to local sewing goods store and violin music was coming from the back room.  The store was his wife’s.  I likely would have met him in some other way but probably in a public venue, so this simple homey connection helped our friendship develop.  I will miss him.  He played in every group I played with, sometimes 3 times/week, and more days at Christmas time.

Tuesday, Oct 23  John worked on outside chores much of the morning after running the dogs and feeding the horses, and it is no longer snowing, but is  ‘winter’-cold.  He had to move some hay from the barn to a horse trailer that is closer to the horses’ feeding stations and easier to feed from.  Also, he took some time to clean out some of the groceries still in the car from yesterday to add some empty boxes for the apples.  We are leaving after 3:15 for the other side of the valley where they only had a dusting of snow — John to pick apples and me to visit, and then we will eat dinner there.  We are taking from our COSTCO trip – pizzas, grapes, and crystal light.  They will add their onions, tomatoes, and peppers to the two large pepperoni pizzas.  We have 6 to feed and a year old (who loved the pizza).  Two are growing teenagers.  Conversation included many topics, such as the son’s overlapping baseball and football seasons, daughter’s painting class using this guy’s methods

http://bobross.com/index.cfm

she is doing a painting that will soon look something like this one:

http://www.deshow.net/d/file/cartoon/2008-12/bob-ross-landscape-painting-281-8.jpg

The one she is doing eluded John’s searching.  Actually, here is a link to a photo with my holding it — her mom took this when we went to pick her up from painting class.  Moss, grass, leaves, and highlights are to be added.

http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/2012GreetingsPix/Jessica’sPaintingStart.jpg

We played with baby Michael and discussed apples and irrigation.  The sad thing about the apples is that a hail storm destroyed (for commercial purposes) almost all of the fruit along the hillside (numerous growers, hundreds of acres).  See this:

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/top_story/tree-fruit-sustains-significant-damage-in-hail-storm/article_69b7c288-d675-11e1-b919-001a4bcf887a.html

Only fruit low on the tree and on the opposite side from the direction of the storm is worth picking, maybe a dozen or so per tree loaded with apples. Should look like this:

http://www.treepicturesonline.com/apple-tree-4.jpg

But, instead, most look like these:

Really bad: http://www.apsnet.org/publications/imageresources/PublishingImages/2004-05/IW000040.jpg

Less bad:

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/tfabp/Misc/2.jpg

If the apples have only dents (previous view bottom and top left) they might be usable for juice.  The center hit in the above view cracked the skin and the resulting decay – dark brown/black – prevents this apple’s use.  Harvesting a crop with any such apples is too much of a problem as, after picking, an inspection might discover a few like this and the entire shipment would be discarded – picking and transport costs just adding to the loss.  So, only the few pickers like John (with owner Urban’s help) manage to salvage a few of the apples – about 150 pounds in our case – 2 types of pears, plus Romes, Honeycrisp, and Jonagolds.  Oh, and a few of the heirloom variety Winter Banana:

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/winterbanana.jpg

Wednesday, Oct 24  Well, today everything changed from what was originally planned.  First, it started out snowing early and we hadn’t even realized we might get it.  It went on till about 10:00 am.  Then it melted the rest of the day.  The sun came out once, but mostly was cloudy all day and chilly.  John moved panels to protect the contents of the new metal pole building from the horses – also prevent damage from rubbing and pooping in it.  He has moved over 100 gallons of water (siphoned) from rain/snowmelt catch barrels from off the roof of the house, front and side. Rain water has the need pH for blueberry plants but it is a bit late in the season.  But one of the intersection gutters (valley gutter) dumps water right at the front door, like this:

http://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/studies/roof-shapes/roof-names-ds.jpg

Folks that design houses must live in apartments.  Note the different orientation of the garage/roof in each of these:

http://gemoftheweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/front-house-w-garage.jpg

versus

http://www.englandhouseplans.com/House_plans/PlanImages/elev_lrS1025B.jpg

Imagine a foot of snow on each sliding and melting into a pile on the ground.  That one place would have a frozen mess right in front of the garage door — as does ours – while the second one would have the garage accessible but the front door would be a wet and snowy mess.  Yes, the fancy house has “rain” gutters – so called because they are not too helpful with snow and ice, and unless heated, have a tendency to be ripped off by those added weights.  Oh well – we should move to a warmer place.

I worked on notifying friends about the upcoming funeral and copied the obituary published in this afternoon’s paper.  I got it out long before it was on the newsstands, so that was neat.  Had a few responses and had to respond.  Then at the last minute I was rushing from a fast breakfast to get dressed to leave for town to play music at the Food Bank.  I walked out onto the front porch and was standing there waiting for John to push the snow off the windshield, doors, and windows, when the phone rang.  I decided to go back in and catch it, hoping it wasn’t a political call, which we have gotten 2 and 3 of some days.  It was my banjo buddy I was to meet at noon, saying she had rolled her car and totaled it coming to EBRG from S. Cle Elum and wouldn’t be able to play today.  Luckily, she was not hurt.  But, I turned around and decided not to go to town.  I had plenty of chores needing done, and tomorrow we both are going to town for several things.

Thursday, Oct 25.  I got a Noon haircut from my neighbor around the rural block.  Left at 1:25 for the afternoon in town with John.  While I was playing music, he went and bought groceries, picked up his eye ointment, bought some things on sale, saving $16.00, stuff we would buy anyway, so it truly was a saving.  John picked me up and we drove a block up the street for me to have blood taken for an INR check.  Then to the bank, and on our way to the next stop, friends from Yakima came up behind us at a stop light, honked, and pulled us over to talk.  We met his daughter and her husband who were here from Virginia till Saturday.  Hope they don’t run into problems flying back into the influence of the hurricane, Sandy.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at3.shtml?5-daynl#contents

Of all things we visited outside our cars in the Jack in the Box parking lot.  What a chance meeting.  Small world.  Then on to the library, where all the metal inside my body set off the alarms, and scared me, so I asked to be escorted out through a different exit, at the back loading dock.  Thank God it did not set my ICD off to shock me.  Then off to pick up the bags of onions.  Dinner of leftovers tonight, but I added a full tomato for myself, from our garden.  Boy, it was excellent.  (Oh, John also cut a bunch of the lower limbs from the Mt. Ash tree to keep the deer from jumping over the 4′ fence to come eat them.  We don’t want a deer getting hung up in the fence but they are welcome to the berries.  Also, he had to pull out and cut our gorgeous grape vine leaves, which froze badly overnight.  The lilac plant still has green leaves.  Go figure.

Friday, Oct 26  Finally, the man down the road and over some, who owns a bulldozer for hire, arrived in our driveway to check out our needs.  He had a tree fall on his house, so our project is put off over a week from now.  I hope it doesn’t snow to stick before it gets done.  The snow we had earlier in the week is mostly gone.

Noon today was a scholarship luncheon in Bouillon Hall, the old building where I had a nice office on the second floor with a wonderful view, and much space, for over 10 years.  We had 3 different soups, and I sampled them all.  First was an Italian Toscana soup (made with onions, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and whipping cream); second, a corn chowder with potatoes; third, a taco soup, with red kidney beans, ground beef and a chili-like base.  Whole wheat rolls and butter, and a green salad with cherry tomatoes.  If that wasn’t enough, our hostesses had two wonderful homemade pies.  The most unusual was layered with caramelized nuts, pumpkin, cream cheese cake, and a yummy crust.  Best pie I have had recently, but she also had a yummy apple pie with a Dutch apple crumbly topping.  From there, on my way out of the building I grabbed two heavy- duty boxes, flattened but very usable, in which to recycle paper.  Then off to SAIL class, carrying a box of apples to the Adult Activity Center to share with my class, and also, I took along 10 pounds of onions to share with an older couple, both members of our class plus a smaller box of apples for them.  Of all things, I then had to drop by where we played music Thursday, in order to pick up a Tambourine our oldest member (83) left behind.  I retrieved it.  Then in the afternoon, late, after 5:00 we picked up a large pizza, had it cut into 16 pieces, and took it to our friends house a block away, where John stayed while they went to the viewing of my friend who died.  I had some pizza with John and a few of the family, before they left for the funeral home, and I left for a retirement home, to play and sing gospel music from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00.  They had a birthday cake afterwards, and I stayed for a piece.  Then left about 7:20 and drove back by the funeral home, and made a stop to visit with the family.  I gave one of the sons a ride back to the house, went inside for a short visit and to pick up John to drive home.  Tomorrow will be a much longer day.

Saturday, Oct 27  More rain.  We had to leave before noon today to get to town in time for the family to get to the church and set up things before the funeral.  I stayed in their house with John for a little bit and then donned my raincoat and drove about a block to Jack in the Box to get our lunch.  John wanted a full one with a drink, cheeseburger, and fries, and I got a small hamburger and shared his fries.  We only visited for a short while and I left to go to the funeral, to meet another friend there.  It was a beautiful service with 4 immediate family members giving Eulogies, a trio of musician friends (Flute, Cello, & Harp), playing Ashokan Farewell.

http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfarewell.shtml

That was a meaningful song for the deceased and his family, and they were playing from his handwritten music score for the piece.  All musicians in the valley are used to his crafted music, with notes and chords, and transposed versions for a trumpet or Bb clarinet.  We will now permanently include that song in our group playings in his honor.

The audience sang two hymns, and the bishop said a few words.  It was special for me because the bishop is also our eye doctor.  After the service, the family left for the cemetery.  It was raining the whole day, but thankfully, the rain stopped for the trip to the cemetery, the burial service, and the trip back to the church.  Then it started pouring again and it is still raining, at 9:30 tonight.  John was staying in the house to watch out for it while I participated in the funeral.  I did not go to the cemetery, but went back and visited with John for an hour, and returned to the church for a dinner.  I got there 1/2 hour before the group who went to the cemetery, but was able to sit and visit with friends.  Once everyone got there we had a ham dinner, with rolls, salad, rice and potato casseroles, and desserts.  I should have picked up two pieces of ham my first time through, but didn’t, because when I went back through the line after everyone was seated and many were done eating, there was little food remaining.  I was going to take a plate back to John.  However, the only thing left on the table was salad (which he doesn’t really like), and one rice casserole.  Nothing else.. oh.. yes, pumpkin bread (he doesn’t like), and one tiny piece of chocolate cake.  So, that’s what I brought him (plus my left over roll parts and the edge I cut off my piece of ham).  Good thing he had some stroganoff he made yesterday to come home to.  He also had to feed the horses and feral cats in the dark and in the rain.  We didn’t get home until 8:00 p.m.

I turned this over to him late to tweak and to post.  It might not make it out until Sunday.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Oct 7  Spent much of the day resting from my several days away in Olympia, and working on the blog update from Wed to Saturday because I never had time while there to enter anything.  Not much else happened.

Monday, Oct 8  Another day of rest and playing catch-up.  John is collecting and placing rocks along side of the hay barn to prevent gravel from inside leaking to the outside – at one corner the original land surface was 23 inches lower than the opposite far corner – the catercorner.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kit1.htm

Smaller rocks go in an excavation along the garden wall that is a parking/turn-around space.  We do need to try to winterize our travel trailer today or tomorrow, and go for a fast dinner at our neighbors.  Then we need to get our materials together to go see an estate lawyer tomorrow afternoon.  Not a fast dinner.  It was quite long, but enjoyable.  In addition, I came home with 5 new blouses.  Three of them are mine that my sweet neighbor gave me earlier but kept to fix buttons on.  We took tomatoes from our garden (picked not quite ripe) over to add to dinner.  We had red ones and yellow pear ones.  Both were excellent.  For dinner, we had corn, pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, and applesauce; had cake and ice cream for dessert.  Sad part was I started coughing.

Tuesday, Oct 9  Interesting and full day.  Morning was spent looking for legal paperwork and other stuff to take to the lawyer’s.  I called a title company and was emailed a scanned copy of two deeds from Idaho for our old timeshare weeks.  That was time-consuming on the phone, but ended up not costing me $1.00/ page to have it mailed in hard copy.  (That still would have been reasonable and surprised me a lot).  Foot care for Nancy at 2:00 (which I wore a mask for not to spread germs at the Sr. Center); visit with estate planning lawyer at 3:00.  I cancelled music at Hearthstone at 6:30, because since last night, I have been coughing regularly – seems a big nuisance but not overly serious, yet.  Menthol cough drops do not help and a spray (red stuff) is ineffective too, but it was for sore throats that I did not have.  I guess we made a little progress in the hour we were with our estate lawyer.  A solvable issue is figuring out whom to get to take care of immediate needs of feeding animals and finding them new homes if we die in a common accident.  A bigger deal is what to do with our “estate” insofar as the common plan is to leave stuff to the children.  I don’t even have a sibling while John has an older sister and a still older brother.  Then there is the dispersal problem after the cleanup around the house.  Cars are somewhat valuable.  Much of the rest is practical.  Much could be thrown away now and save someone else the chore.  Anyway, who will handle everything.  It is not an easy decision, and just by looking for legal papers this morning, we realize that we surely must spend a lot of time organizing and tossing the hundreds of pounds of papers that have built up through the years.  I found 5 drawers of filing cabinets and maybe more in two others I haven’t searched that can be immediately recycled.  Maybe after I dump that, I can use some of the drawers to fold clothes into!  We don’t have enough closet space, because I’m still sorting out old large clothes and not having a place to put the smaller ones.  I have already dispensed a lot of the larger sizes, but I know there are more to go. [John says:  We have lots of space but too much junk.]  But back to the big question:  Assume you have $XX and need to write down exactly what it should be used for following your death – what do you write?  Having no answer for the lawyer — on to the grocery store!  I needed a resupply of meds.  While there, on the last day of a weekly sale we loaded up on our favorite mixed flavor large (mostly blueberry) muffins.  Unfortunately, they put them in boxes of four with two others of a different flavor.  It was two boxes for $3.98 each (plus one box free).  Not a bad price considering we bought a box of smaller muffins (4) for $2.00 each in Olympia.  Home for a good dinner, but I’m still miserably coughing.

Wednesday, Oct 10  Today did not go according to Hoyle.  I coughed much all night and awoke with sore muscles in my body and chest.  I interacted with my family physician’s nurse throughout the morning and finally decided I was improving.  I canceled both trips to town, however, and rested the entire day.  The only thing I did was feed the cat and clean up the kitchen sink and counters.  Oh, I also looked through papers I had packed away when we were preparing to evacuate from the advancing wildfire.  Most importantly were insurance papers for all the vehicles and the registration (with a new yearly tag) for the old Chevy ’80 pickup because John needed to drive it to town for gas (a thrice yearly thing) and to go pick up some concrete culverts tonight from a friend on the other side of the valley.  He also packaged up some boxes filled with recyclable paper and took them to town.  John did a ton more around the place in addition to normal chores of feeding animals.  The funniest thing that happened today was his working around the deer in our yard.  He had been cleaning out the garden, and was going to need to mow the strawberry plants tops off, but he hadn’t done it yet, and when he left the garden last night, he left the door ajar, into the 6′ fenced area.  Overnight, the deer cut the tops of the plants off for him, saving him the effort.  Then today he picked the last of his blackberries.  He started making good headway picking the Carpathian walnuts before the Douglas squirrel squirreled away a bunch.  He still has more to pick.  Okay, another chore I must finish is recording on an Excel spreadsheet all the mileage driven and hours spent on volunteering efforts around town for me and in the Cascades on trail work for John for the month of September.  It is due  around the beginning of the following month for the local RSVP,

http://www.seniorcorps.gov/about/programs/rsvp.asp

and I’m behind, with going to Olympia the first week in October.  These numbers go to the retired volunteer group and helps in their acquiring funds.  Almost done.  Only to put in John’s mileages, and time.

Thursday, Oct 11  Awoke without coughing finally, but still very sore.  I knew I was up to making it to the two musical venues and did, even managing to sing.  First, I notified my Dr.’s nurse that I wouldn’t need to be squeezed into see him.  It was nice they cared enough to double book me.  I still cannot imagine what I had that came on so rough and tough but cured quickly with a lot of rest and a lot of liquids.  The first venue was Community Days at the F.I.S.H. Food Bank, for needy folks in the community.  They have free medical attention (shots), haircuts, clothes, food, and a meal.  I don’t know what all happened in the “back room” warehouse.  Two of my friends and I played for 45 minutes in the front room where they served a nice meal:  ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, a very nice fruit cup, some sort of pasta, some tomatoes, squash, and other stuff.  From there I went to the Rehab center where I spent 7 weeks in 2010.  We had 8 people show up for the music.  A sweet lady on a walker got up and “danced” because she said when the music began that her feet just started and had to keep time!  John went to a meeting tonight of our trail riders club, but it was 2 hours (home to return) of nearly wasted time.  There was no program or business to speak of but he did get to visit some with friends.  Neither of us have been riding since summer of 2009 so the connection is fading.

Friday, Oct 12  John spent much of the day picking walnuts and drying them in the sun, but having to put screens over them to keep the Jays from carrying them off.

http://www.nps.gov/band/naturescience/images/stellers-jay.jpg

He picked them to keep the squirrel from eating them.  Funny thing was that when he saw the Steller’s Jay going after them, he put out two of our Brittanys.  Annie simply went over and picked up a Carpathian walnut, proceeded to shell it and eat the inside meats!  Today on the evening walk, Annie brought him a live vole, and Shay brought him a dead squirrel.  He was not just killed but assume one of the cats got him.  That’s good.  He was ready to take his gun out.  I hope that is the only one.  [It’s not – at least one more.]   We’ve brought the nuts inside as the Jays were coming onto the porch.  When he was picking day before yesterday, the squirrel was up in the trees chattering at him.  I need to explain why we are against having the squirrels around.  They have done past damage to our truck engine and especially in our shed, stuffing black walnuts away for winter in the insulation until it has shredded and fallen loose.  It is a total mess that we haven’t had time to repair.  The truck incident was covering the air cleaner and motor with husks and very fine shavings from the nut shells such that we had to haul it to the mechanic to have it air cleaned and fixed.

We did not get the travel trailer winterized because John spent hours this morning fixing up a nice certificate of appreciation to give at tomorrow night’s dinner.  He was a little miffed at me for waiting so long to give him the parts (photos and text), and he had problems with his computer and the MSWindows Word to put text and photos together, but it is very nice and now framed, ready to go.

Good dinner tonight:  Salmon, shrimp, and our yellow tomato.  We grew several large tomatoes of this type and the elderly neighbor would not eat any because “that’s not a tomato.”  Except for being yellow, we can’t tell any taste difference although some other variety might be:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-yellow-tomatoes.htm#

There was an extra orange cat in the haymow tonight eating the cat food.  John shooed him off.  I spent time this afternoon working on the notes from a panel session I participated in, in Olympia.  Oh, that reminds me; I must put together an email address list of the audience there and the panel members.  I was in charge of that.  That finally was accomplish Sat. a.m.

Saturday, Oct 13  Tonight is the special event, a Musical Appreciation Celebration for the Gordons, Jeanne and Gerald.  Jeanne’s father started the Old Time Fiddlers music in the region in the 1950s.  They are in their eighties and we are having a dinner in their honor tonight to thank them for all their musical offerings to the community for all these years.  Jeanne played the accordion and Gerald a guitar.  One of our members (now we are called the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends), has written words about them to the tune of Jeanne’s favorite song, Just Because.  I will share below.  Thanks Evelyn (our banjo player) for your resourcefulness–(because just because).

Just because you really have talent

Just because you really have heart

Just because you really have something not too many people have got

You give of your time and your effort

Year after year after year

Well, we’re telling you, Gordons, we’re telling you

You real-ly are so dear!

Evelyn printed the lyrics so we can all sing it to them.

I’m finishing this now so John can return, add to, and post this.  He is now over in our neighbor’s field loading future firewood.  Last year beavers dropped several large trees (12-15 in. diameter) into a hay field.  John cleaned up the mess but left the large pieces along the edge of the field.  They get lighter as they dry and so are easier to load.  We now have rain in the near future so it is time to get the wood out before dry/hard is replaced by wet/sloppy in the field.

He finished just as we got a little sprinkle.  Being on the lee side of the Cascades means mostly dry for us (8 – 10 inches of precipitation per year), but the north Pacific atmosphere has just changed and Washington and adjacent British Columbia is undergoing a rapid switch to a stormy pattern.  The region just off the coast has had a High Pressure cell blocking flow eastward.  That’s now gone.  Cold air is moving south from the Bering Sea

http://unboxedwriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sea.jpg

and moist/warmer air is sliding across the Pacific.  Typhoon Praipiroon has charged that air with moisture.  See image and location here (in a looping .gif file:

http://earthweek.com/2012/ew121012/ew121012e.gif

And what NASA thinks here:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2012/h2012_Prapiroon.html

A 170 knot jet stream is now aiming this atmospheric river toward the west coast mountains.  There will be major rainfall and reports thereof.  It has been very dry all summer.  Just today the WA-DOT was warning about the buildup of oil and dirt on the roads and how slick it will get when wet.

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-rain-could-making-morning-commute-dangerous-on-highways-20121011,0,6469397.story

We need the rain.  Bring it on!

All from here for now.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

We are late.  9 AM Sunday and still several hours before the weekly post is ready.  Cheers,  John

On the 8^th a storm went from SW to NE along the east slopes of the Cascades.  It was a storm with many lightning strikes and almost no rain.  In a stretch of about 70 miles over 90 fires were started.

Sunday, Sept 9  very windy today, all morning, with two hours of 40 mph gusts, later 47mph!  And then back to 40 and sustained speeds from 26 to 32mph and higher as the day went on (blew on?).  John has picked a beautiful bowl of large blackberries from our thorn less plants, and they must have gotten more water than those in the garden.  Gorgeous.  Also more corn, and a bunch of yellow pear tomatoes.  John found a new pair of boots to replace the work boots that have a hole in the side.  He bought these in 2008, for $30 marked down from $40.  Today he saw that Bi*Mart had a like pair for a little more, so we need gasoline in the car, to deliver some squash to a neighbor, and to buy the cat food I forgot.  I hope Rascal comes home to eat it.  We haven’t seen him for a whole day and night.  John found ONE pair of the work boots that fit him, and he bought them.  He paid $35 today for $48 boots.  I spent all afternoon transcribing my notes from an interview and getting some pictures off the web on the hay (and straw) industry.  We heard planes and helicopters out looking for fires.

Monday, Sept 10  started with hay grower interview at 10:00 a.m. on the other side of the valley on the Thorp Hwy.  This was cool because the grower has had two Brittanys from our lines.  His first died the year the 2010 litter was born.  She was 14.  He called just at the right time, and I gave him first pick of the litter.  At the beginning and end of our interview, I was able to meet Bri, a nice liver & white Brittany.  He shot 35 birds (quail) over her the first season, and last year 100.  He even shot a goose!  Pretty cool.

I got home and John had a pizza in for our lunch.

Sadly, we have the first problem with the new tractor.  He was using it and a hydraulic line broke, so it spewed fluid all over and stopped the backhoe.  I hope it stopped it before any damage could occur.  Our friend who is a farmer, musician, and friend, and fixes all his hydraulic stuff is on his way over here from Thorp.  It’s about 20 minutes at least.  He’s bringing his pressure washer and tools to see if he can help John remove the hose so we can take it to a parts store and get a replacement.  Then we’ll have to replace all the lost hydraulic fluid.  He was making progress with the backhoe and is very upset at this happening, although I do not believe he had any part in the breaking process.  It probably just wore out.

John worked for about an hour digging a hole and another removal of a ditch edge.  He realized he will need to get someone with a heavier earthmover (bulldozer), to take out all the stuff in the center of the “new’ round pen.  It would be a LONG time using our baby-rig.  However, it is perfect for smaller jobs around the place.  He will love (already does) being able to dig a posthole not by hand.

Our friend came and is going soon, and he didn’t use the washer to clean it because it would create mud and John has to lay under the tractor to work on the line.  (Or would be dirt to mud from added water).  He did bring the wrenches to take off the ends and clamp where the tubing was “crimped.”  John can take it to NAPA and get a new one, and I believe he knows how to put it back on, and yes, we’ll get more hydraulic fluid and add it too.

Tuesday, Sept 11  John took off early for a work day on the Pacific Crest Trail at Snoqualmie Summit.  Tomorrow is my day off from events in town until tomorrow night, when I drop John off for a physics lecture [about the Higgs boson], and I will go to the south end of town for playing music with The Connections.  I plan to use my time all day (with John gone to work on trails), working on transcribing my notes from interviews with hay growers, and cropping my pictures I have taken over the past few days.  I also I hope update more stuff on my web page.  I stayed home today and slept in, and mostly have spent time on the computer and dishes, oh, and calling the Dr.’s office about a $38 charge for something insurance should have paid for my lab blood work for the thyroid test.  It always amazes me how things aren’t done right, and how many people likely just pay their medical bill without questioning it.  Turns out it was not properly submitted to Medicare or Group Health.  They even had a whole raft of charges from 2009 – 2011 on the same bill that WERE paid.  Also, I’m not usually home this time of day, so I have enjoyed watching many quail in the backyard.  Smoke fills the valley.

Wednesday, Sept 12  John’s going to be working on the PCT under the ski chairlifts at Snoqualmie Summit.  [Smoke from our Valley drifted west and through the Pass along with one medical helicopter, likely headed for Harborview in Seattle.]  I went in early for a dental appointment to install my dental bridge.  It went extremely smoothly and I have essentially 3 new teeth in the upper left.  It only (Ha ha) cost $2,150 (after insurance.)  We’re having fun spending our retirement money.  Then on to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, to play music, and where I was given a violin to find a home for with a youngster.  The fellow will bring it to the FB tomorrow and I will pick it up between 10 and 3:00 .  Need to get me to the Rehab center by 1:45 and John will drop me off and then go himself for foot care, and come back to retrieve me.  Therefore, we will go ahead of time to get the violin.  Today we had 3 people singing with us (all guys), and it was rather neat.  For lunch, they fed us a nice pasta dish with lots of meat, corn on the cob, large green mixed salad, and pineapple zucchini bread for dessert.  While there, I picked up some almond/coconut milk (expired) and some bread.  Went on to SAIL exercise class and did that for an hour, helping with the music and a few chores with assisting first time members.

We left about 6 and drove to town to Jack in The Box for a hamburger for me and one for John plus two tacos.  [Too much going on to cook at home.]  We carried our drink and drove to the parking lot at the University, finished eating in the car, and made it to a lecture on Rattlesnakes.  The Prof (biology) even brought a female rattler and handled it for us, putting her head into a plastic tube, so that kids there and any adult could touch it if they wanted, and see the rattler close up and touch it and the snake.  Yes, I did.  She rattled through most of his talk (in a wooden box).  The rattlesnake lecture was quite interesting.  We have probably walked by hundreds (most likely on horseback), and they really are not interested in going after people or horses.  If you were a mouse, that’s another story!  His comment was that for every one you hear, you have walked by another quiet hundred.  He made the point that stairs in homes are more dangerous!  You can look it up.

Sadly, parts of our garden froze last night.  Tonight we picked many squash, a few tomatoes (yellow pear small ones, like cherry tomatoes) a little corn, a couple of green peppers.  The squash plants were hit severely.  Most of the tomatoes likely won’t make it either, but we left them hoping they will ripen some more.  It’s supposed to go to 37 tonight, but the freeze last night was not anticipated.

Thursday, Sept 13   John has foot care today and won’t go on a WTA trail crew.  I will play music in the afternoon at Rehab where I stayed for 7 weeks.  In this valley, we are surrounded on 3 sides (S, W, and N) by wildfires (caused by lightning) very bad smoke haze; even John’s voice is affected.  I’m glad neither of us has asthma or needs to be on oxygen.  The visibility at the airport was seriously low today.  It went to 4 mi, 6 mi, 8 mi and finally got up to 10 late afternoon, which is about its width.  We couldn’t see the hills on the other side of the valley (20 miles) when we started our drive in today, at 1:00 p.m.  We drove by the Food Bank for me to pick up the half-size violin donated to me to find a young person to play it.  It’s in a very nice hard case, but needs new strings, and probably the bow restrung, yet the price was right.  I know of a 4 yr old whose brother is 12 and plays the violin, so perhaps I could give it to them, and they could have it repaired.  John took me to the Rehab for music, and then he went for gasoline and for foot care for himself.  He doesn’t have a medical need as I do, so he had to pay $20, but that’s better than paying the full rate and I get by with only $10.  We had a small number of players, but did have 2 guitars, a banjo, a tambourine, and 3 fiddles.  My retired colleague was in the Rehab, from after a heart attack, but he was sleeping when I looked in.

John left his good clothes on from today, and I made us a BLT for supper.  He has taken off for the KVTR (trail riders’ meeting); he is taking the box of nails and metal picked up from our driveway, parking spaces, and around the place.  It’s quite amazing (as you have seen if you checked our evolving web page listed at the end of the blog).  I’m staying home to transcribe notes from our most recent interview with a hay grower.  Got only one done; has taken me many hours today (this morning and tonight).  It would have been easier had I not waited a week before transcribing and translating my notes.  Some were rather cryptic.

Friday, Sept 14  Decided against running over to George today for the Bluegrass festival, but may well go in the morning.  John leaves early for a trail work team west of Stevens Pass.

Good news.  John got the hydraulic replacement line installed today, and started it and it works (oh, and he added two gallons of fluid to the tank).  He checked (with my standing there), the uplift of the front-end loader, and then moved to the backhoe driver’s seat and worked out a load of rocks and dirt using it from the edge of our round pen.  Then he picked up (with the hydraulics) both ends and drove it over to near a tub of water, where he had towels and “409” to clean off the tractor from the spray of hydraulic fluid.  I’m so proud of him (town kid that he is) for fixing it and grateful to our farmer friend who helped show him how, and taking it off to get the replacement.  It was doubly nice that he drove here all the way from Thorp.  I think (know) John’s a much happier camper now. 

Because of our being away tomorrow, we may not publish this until Sunday.  (That’s what happened).  At least one of you out there in cyberspace wrote to see if we were okay when it wasn’t published.

I was very impressed by the Physics presentation we attended tonight at the University.  The chair of Physics, who is from NY, organized and presented the evening offering of experiments about the science of physics.  His name is Michael Jackson.  He goes by Mike, and he wears Bermuda shorts almost year round.  He is outgoing, exuberant, and great with kids.  Half the audience was young kids, and he involved them throughout, asking questions, and the kids responded (much better than college students do).  He used them for assistants.  He also had 8 or so of his own majors there to demonstrate various concepts (such as spreading out the mass of a student lying on a bed of sharp nails.  The fellow then held a concrete block on a board on his chest, and another student broke it with a sledge hammer).  He demonstrated AC current and lightning rods and electromagnetism, and a simple electric motor that Faraday invented (discovered) long, long ago (in 1841).  We learned about induction and conduction and energy.  We observed how liquid nitrogen can rapidly cool metal and affect the reactions through parts of experiments.  We saw examples of Aluminum being used as a conductor.  In addition, there were wires that were magnetized and with current running through them, acted differently with repelling or attracting.  He had a camera set up so the people not on the first 2 rows could still experience the experiment.  He showed us the gravitational force and demonstrated a pendulum.  There was over an hour of non-stop educational entertainment.  Oh, he showed how running a wire with a current next to a compass would affect the needle.  Maybe my description is a little fuzzy but it was great fun, and a totally fascinating and interesting presentation.

He demonstrated current and lightning rods and their shape.  They (Mike and students) used a Van de Graaff generator for several demonstrations,

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

including how a lightning rod (thumb tack) dissipates charge.  With the lights out in the room, the student assistant waved his hands close to the metal globe and sparks jumped out, like little lightning strikes.  Then he put a tack on the side, and had a woman come while warning her to be ready for a big spark.  She put her hand close to the ball where the tack was.  The tack acted as a lightning rod and did not “shock” her, or even show a spark.  It was quite cool.  They put a stack of throw-away aluminum pie plates on top of the globe and with it turned on the plates lifted off, one by one and fell away.  Explanation and more here:

http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/vdg.shtml

And in it is this statement:  “People with cardiac pacemakers should never operate the generator or come in contact with it.” I was sitting on the second row back and probably was over 3’ away!  I knew there would be a section on magnetism and that I cannot be near large magnets such as are found in Wind Turbines.  I was careful not to get as close to the  Physics experiments as I did to the rattlesnake two nights before!

This was my first Physics lecture since 1959, when I was in a high school Physics class with Mr. Garner.  I remember his class well and all the neat experiments we did.  I was his lab assistant and got to grade all the student lab manuals.  I could even put comments and sign off in his writing on his name.  He always signed with a large G with a circle around it.  (I was a Junior).  Now I’m trying to remember if I wasn’t his assistant for the 9th grade General Science class, which I also had taken from him.  Perhaps that is the story.  It wouldn’t make sense for me to have been grading lab write-ups while taking the class.  I had Chemistry my senior year from a different person who was not nearly as good a teacher.  Interestingly, I still have an old designed GA flag (with the Confederate crossbars) that my Physics teacher had hanging in his den, took down (probably replaced with the new one), and gave it to me!

Oh, there was a yard sale across the street and we got to the building early, so walked across to it.  I bought a perfectly new condition dark green sweatshirt with an Alaska emblem with nice wildlife and a saying, the last American frontier.  (I paid a dollar).  It is XL and probably will fit me fine and might also be okay for John for a dress up sweatshirt.  I will not let him work in it, however.

There is heavy smoke coming from the hills west and north of us from the lightning-caused fires, many now blossoming into serious size.  On our way home tonight, we saw a huge red glow from the nearest one – about 15 miles away.  There are fires on both sides of Hwy 97 and that’s the road John has to drive early in the morning to go to his trail work past Leavenworth.  He plans to leave at 6:00 to give him plenty of time to drive slowly and give right of way to the firefighters.

Saturday, Sept 15   John rolled out early for a trail west of Stevens Pass.  Then, an early morning wake up call for me from our hay provider, down the road (for one Harobed load).  They want to come today, so that changes my plans to leave.  I will need to move trucks and make access room to our new building.  I managed to get into the old ’89 Chevy truck without a step stool.  The ’89 Ford has running boards, so it’s not as much of a problem.  With John not here, I tried to postpone it until tomorrow, but that wasn’t possible.  I don’t know what would have happened if I had already taken off for the planned yard sale to look at tools for John, on my way by Olmstead Park for the Threshing Days, and on over to George, WA for two bluegrass workshops.  I’ll just have to wait for next year for that, and then John can also participate in the guitar workshop.  I do plan to photograph the hay unloading process today, and perhaps we can use one photo in our Olympia talk on the hay industry.  Unfortunately, the Harobed arrived just before 3:00 (John’s not due home until 6:00 p.m.) and we put it in the pole building, but it must have had a weak spot and when he pulled forward, it was leaning.  He pulled forward to leave the stack standing, and it did for a little while.  However, gravity got the best and the back of the stack fell off and rolled all the way out about 50 feet into the pasture.  I was standing beside it, and saw it going so was able to run to the side of the building where I was behind the travel trailer.  Only one bale came off that side, more on the other, but all the rest went off the back.  I would likely have been crushed had I been standing directly behind it on the ground.  Scary, very.  My heart is still beating hard (as I wrote this Saturday afternoon).  I should have taken my blood pressure and heartbeat rate, or maybe not.  Ha ha.  I did finally, but it was after I had talked to the grower and explained what happened and also started writing this blog entry.  First time I took my BP on my right arm, and it was 143/68 w/pulse, 62.  Then a couple minutes later I took it on my left arm and it was 114/85 with pulse 61.  I think I read the diastolic correctly on the second one.  I know the 114 was correct.  So I guess I’m okay.  I do know that John is not going to be very happy to see how many bales he will need to move.  I could have gone a long while without this much excitement.

Now the rest of the day I am able to work on transcribing my notes from hay grower interviews, and taking off some pictures from my camera of our tours at hay growers and at one processor/exporter.  We have another interview next Tuesday with another exporter (assuming I’m not serving Jury Duty).  John made it home okay, but we both were too tired to do much sharing of information and just got dinner ready, ate, and went to bed.  I didn’t have the energy to finish the blog to give to John for our normal Saturday night posting.

Sunday, Sept. 16.  John was up early to go fix the fallen stack of hay.  We got a phone call from the grower saying there may have been some weak bales that caused the tumble.  Now that I have looked back at pictures, I think it might have been.  Why?  Because the baler broke a piece of chain and a wheel on the tension bar, and  a couple of bales were not properly packed.  If those weak bales were in our stack then it would not have been stable.  We’re just fortunate it didn’t fall sideways and hit our travel trailer, the new metal shed walls, or me.  I was out behind directing (from the side), and then was photographing the process on a movie.  The grower brought two bales to replace the loose ones (no need, really), but we did not find the parts of the machinery, so we have to be on the lookout as we feed the bales.

This afternoon we were scheduled to go to the potluck for the Kittitas Valley Trail Riders.  It is normally held in August, but this year was postponed by the wildfire that was within a half mile of the ranch where we were having it.  Today was rather ironic because the lightning caused fires are in the hills to the north, with one having expanded to 2500 acres and still going.  The smoke was very hazy in our valley today.  When we left for the party, we only had 4-mile visibility.  The winds shifted and we had 10- mile visibility on the way home.  The food and fellowship was excellent.  The host cooked large hot dogs for us on a grill and cooked a huge pot of corn on the cob from his garden.  People brought all sorts of stuff from smoked salmon, to cheese/chicken casseroles, to other noodle dishes and salads, and there was a table of desserts to die for.  We took our famous (or infamous) Kittitas Valley Cobbler (Pie cherries we grew, blueberries we bought last year from a woman at this very potluck, who has a farm in the Yakima Canyon south of EBRG, and our own Carpathian walnuts.  As usual, it was a big hit.

We came home to a report from the Crew Leader (Blue Hat) from yesterday’s trail work crew, which is sent to the crewmembers (and to the WA Trails Association staff).  Part of it follows:

“John H, Jon N, John Mac, Garrick, and Miguel, excellent job on the lower section.  You surpassed my vision for the section.  I had no idea it could look as good as it did by the end of the day.  Great job improvising on the rock wall and turnpike structure.  I very much enjoyed your ability to make that tricky section look great and function very well.  Hopefully the hydrology won’t win out, and that giant boulder we all moved will break the flow enough not to erode away your tread.  But you all really hustled throughout the day and moved a lot of material.  You all worked really hard and put a ton of effort into that tread.  Killer job!

John Hultquist: thank you very much for being an orange hat!  You provided great leadership and wisdom to the crew.  It was nice to be able to leave you to your skills and know that the group was in good hands.  Took a load off my shoulders and helped me pass out candy more efficiently.  Thank you for your donation of time and love to WTA and the trails of Washington.”  [John says:  I’m old enough to be this fellow’s father and likely have triple the days of trail work – but I like doing the work and don’t want the responsibility of being the (Blue Hat) crew leader.]

This link will continue to have a few things added this week after this blog is posted late, so stay tuned, and check back for updates.

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

We can’t get rid of all the smoke in the house even with the AC and/or fan running.  Open a door to let a dog in or out – and smoke gets in our eyes.  A little rain might help.  None expected.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, July 15  It’s a little cooler here today and windy again.  John has returned from several hours of outside work, including picking raspberries, Rainier cherries, and working on the pasture fence demolition.  John’s resting now and then we will tackle putting up the berries.  We just had a nice long telephone visit with his sister Peggy in Ohio.  I just got off my computer and have thrown a bunch of clothes that have piled up, in for a wash.  Most of the first load is John’s clothing that gets dirty and sweaty from his outside work.  We are concerned we haven’t seen Rascal since yesterday morning.  It’s not like him not to return a couple times a day for food, a sleep, and cuddling.

Early morning has in store leaving for a trip to Yakima.  We need to have John’s root canal checked after 6 months and to take the ’09 Subaru for its oil change and lube (maybe for a 48,000 mile warranty thing, or we might have to go back for that).  We have 49,500 miles on the car now.  I almost always drive it and leave the ’04 sit in the driveway because it uses (or likes) higher priced gas.  [The ‘09’s next major shop-time is at 60,000 miles, not now.  Good thing, as that one will be about $1,000.]  While we are in Yakima, we will cross the street into the town of Union Gap and go to Costco.

We left for Yakima this morning at 8:45 and didn’t get home till after 2:00. Kitty Rascal was awaiting our return on the bed when we got home.   This is so unlike him.  We figured he was coyote, cougar, or owl dinner.  He appears in good shape, just very, very tired.  I wondered if he went across the creek on a limb or bridge, and couldn’t find his way back without swimming.  We had storms in the hills that raised the water level a lot.  We’ll never know.  John thinks he’s found a friend, maybe north of us a bit.  I rubbed him all over, talked to him, and told him how happy I was to see him, and asked where he’d been for 3 days.  He didn’t respond, except to yawn, knead his feet, stretch, and roll over.  Dang, it is nice to have him back.  He has NEVER done this in the time we have had him (since August 2011), when he was small. We all slept for two hours this afternoon.  Rascal slept hard himself and has eaten a lot of canned food.  We put up about 5 pounds of strawberries tonight.

Tuesday, July 17  Light day, except for a concentrated shoulder massage and check up from last week to see if the work helped.  The verdict is that my 4 muscles controlling my rotator cuff are in bad shape.  They’re called the S.I.T.S. (stands for Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres minor, and Subscapularis) muscles.  There is also involvement with my Deltoid muscle.  If you follow this link, you’ll get a good explanation of the anatomy.

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

along with this link:

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

My light day turned into more stops.  Needed to pick up thyroid meds for our sweet Shay (oldest Brittany).  In addition, I contacted the Better Life Natural Foods store in EBRG to see about the samples of the popped wheat berry products (of our friends in Condon, OR) that I took by for them to consider adding to their inventory with an order.  See this link to see the description:   http://www.wheatspringsbakery.com/

Wednesday, July 18  Back to the regularly scheduled Soup Kitchen, Food Bank stint, at noon followed by SAIL exercise.  Today’s food was good again, being donated by the Ellensburg Pasta Company.

http://ellensburgpasta.com/

The opening page has a slide show that changes every 6 seconds.

It was a tube like pasta  called penne, with tomato sauce and sliced bratwurst; garlic bread, green salad (too much dark green for me and my need not to have Vit K stuff such as spinach), and cranberry cake for dessert, also which I cannot have.  But when I got to the AAC for exercise, they put out some nice chocolate frosted chocolate cookies and I had one big one.  While there, I heard about the mud/rock slides in the canyon that have closed off Hwy 821 again, from Selah north about 17 miles.  Seems to be at highway mileage marker 20 where the last one/two were in 1998.  There are two reports on the web from the Daily Record (Ellensburg) and the Yakima Herald.

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/free/top_story/landslide-in-yakima-river-canyon-closes-state-route/article_a9bb1d2e-d0ff-11e1-9e8b-0019bb2963f4.html

And, at:

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2012/07/18/landslide-closes-yakima-river-canyon-road 

Finally tonight at 9:00 p.m. it is down to 76 degrees.

Thursday, July 19  We had the 2:00 gig at Dry Creek this week.  It was fun to see my friends living there, plus all the new folks we have met through the years, with playing our music.  They love it and often we have a couple of people dancing.  Everyone sings along and appreciates our being there.  We give them a book of lyrics.  John and I are driving to the other side of the valley tonight to load the horse trailer with hay.  We did, and have 30 more bales of really nice hay, for $10/bale.  They are quite heavy but the loading chore was mostly done by David Hammond, son of our friend and Geog. Dept. colleague Ken (also retired now).  Thanks, David.

Friday, July 20.  This morning I slept in late after having a rough sleepless night.  John took a lot of time and unloaded all 30 bales into the runway of our old barn.  I have been taking care of stacks of mess in the den, very slowly.  We had a (small, short, fast) hail-rainstorm this afternoon, and the wind is still blowing, but the sun is out, and the storm has moved on to the northeast.  I thought about going to Kittitas to check in and buy a tee shirt, but decided I’ll wait till Saturday or even Sunday.  Starting Monday next week, is the WA Old Time Fiddler’s Workshop and camp out.  John will be taking a 1/2 day beginning guitar class, and I will take my usual Intermediate & Advanced fiddle class with Roberta Pearce (She of Nampa, ID.).  I have been in her class since she started and we think that was at least 15 years ago.  I’ve written of her and daughter Katrina previously:

http://bluegrasstoday.com/29406/left-handed-fiddler-katrina-pearce/

Katrina will be teaching an advanced class call Hot Shots.

Saturday, July 21  We have nothing truly planned until leaving about 3:10 to go across the valley for a Mormon celebration with grilled chicken, veggies, potluck, and our group providing the music, from 4 to 6:00 p.m. and we are invited to come, play, and eat free along with our spouses. This is being held at the (public) Damman School [Google Earth:  46.9703, -120.5705 ] for reasons unknown to us – if we find out why, we’ll add it next time.

Now it is still Friday, but I’m going to pass this along to John to put on the blog, because we will be busy tomorrow at the time we would normally do so.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Before heading to the opposite end of the country last week I started the week’s report.  John just posted a short thing and ignored my start.  Therefore, we are including that part along with some of the latest activities.  So, starting back on:

Sunday, June 17  Finished up and posted this past week’s blog, late.  We’ve been very busy.  I managed to unload my cameras from all the things I took on Saturday at the retirement party for the Dept. Head.  I had 90 pictures on one camera and a movie for each person who spoke at the roast.  It will take more than one CD for all the stuff, but it will provide nice memories and make a nice gift for the Huckabay family.  I know I surely appreciated the pictures taken at my retirement celebration.  Worked some on the jobs list, and Caitlin LaBar will take it over in my absence.

Monday, June 18  Busy day with deliveries in town, going to a massage for my sore shoulders/neck, and then to exercise class and for meds.  I have been trying to pack and set up things for my trip.  Today I did more arranging of clothes to take along, and set up my meds for the week.  Paid some bills and responded to a bunch of emails.  I am trying to cut back on my incoming email while I’m gone to Georgia.  Found out tonight I don’t have to be at the Yakima airport to leave Thursday until an hour before.  Also, found I get lunch on the plane from Seattle to Atlanta, and I get dinner on the airplane returning from Atlanta to Seattle.  Nice.  In addition, I can get Internet for the return two Delta flights from Savannah through Atlanta and to Seattle for $12.00 paid in advance of my trip (which I did).

Tuesday, June 19  Foot care at AAC this afternoon and The Connections was in the evening.  Much of the morning was spent thinking and packing.  Printed out an updated medications list.  Importantly, I put my paperwork in a name tag holder for around my neck to go through security to show I have an ICD and wires from heart surgery, so I cannot be magnetized or walked through a metal detector.  Last time I was X-rayed on my trip across country.  Imagine that’s the case this time as well.  However, I don’t know what they will do at the small airport in Yakima (they patted me down), but in the Savannah airport they had an X-ray machine.

Wednesday, June 20  Early dental cleaning appointment, done in time to play music and eat at the Soup Kitchen Food Bank; also got some free English Muffin Toasting bread and a Rosemary/Olive loaf one that John likes.  They encourage us to take the day (or 2) old bread.  There is a room with several tables full of boxes of bread from several different stores.  Then off to fill John’s car with gas, at $3.95/gal with national avg. at $3.51.  Back by the AAC to set up the music for SAIL exercise and tell them I wouldn’t stay today.  Was on my way to the pharmacy for meds and on home to continue packing.  Took over an hour to get my boarding passes printed and get the stuff in order.  Now back to packing, and setting up something else for my music group before I leave.  I think I have everything packed in.  The power supply for the Toshiba laptop is bigger and clumsier than the compact laptop itself!

Thursday, June 21  We are leaving a little before 9:00 a.m. to drive to Yakima.  I have to leave at 10:55 and be there an hour ahead.  It takes us an hour to get there.  The flight has plane changes at Seattle and Atlanta, to Savannah, where my cousin and her husband will pick me up after my plane lands at 11:11.  We’ll then drive on to Guyton, GA to her mom’s house where we all will be staying.  Susan was in our wedding 43 years ago, when she was 13, and her dad, Henry (my mom’s brother), gave me away.  Sadly, he died in 2003.

Friday, June 22  A day of rest for me in Guyton, GA with my aunt and her family at the old farm place of my grandparents, called Hickory Hill.  That evening, two couples joined us for a great dinner of Shrimp Creole, salad, and much else.  It was a great evening with many stories and laughs.

Saturday, June 23  Today and tomorrow are the scheduled days for the Wilkins family reunion, held every two years, the weekend after Father’s Day.  This year it was held at the Woodlawn Plantation (owned by Warren Ratchford, my cousin).  You can get a small intro to the place at  woodlawnplantation.com   It is rented out for weddings, for three days at $2275/ (I think per day, for the facilities only.  Food and entertainment are extra, and catered.)  When Woodlawn Plantation was originally built in 1840, the main house was one-story (changed to two stories in 1890).  The plantation served as Camp Davis, a Confederate-training facility during the American Civil War.  It was actually renamed Woodlawn in honor of Warren’s grandmother, Nilla Belle Wilkins Ratchford’s old home south of Guyton.  The first Wilkins family reunion was held there in 1933 at the first Woodlawn.  The grounds are beautiful with old trees and numerous perennials and flowering trees.  The day started with BLTs and side dishes.  I was involved with giving out and writing name tags with the connection to the Wilkins family, so, e.g., I was NANCY, Frances’ Daughter.  I got to know lots of people that way.  The Ratchfords there were connected through Nilla Belle.  We had tee shirts for the reunion.  There were games outside in the sun (and heat), but I stayed inside in the a/c where the food and meetings were held.  The “corn hole” game was played between rows of Scuppernong grapes.  The game is like horseshoes, but there are holes in a wooden construction and little “bean bag like things” that I guess are filled with corn.

For dinner, a large pig (cooked in a pit all day) was brought in and put on the main table.  Also, there was coleslaw, beans, and my favorite of all southern food, Brunswick stew.  I ate more of that than anything else.  After dinner, I played music with a few of my cousins in preparation for Sunday morning “worship.”  We stopped to play a trivia game with families divided into 3 teams:  Team Henry (I was on), Nilla Belle’s, and the Dream Team.  We answered questions about the Wilkins family (my favorite and probably why we won), and sports, music, and movies (which we did worse on).

Sunday, June 24, second day of the Wilkins Family Reunion in Guyton, GA.  It was a wonderful breakfast, followed by an inspirational service, starting with a few people in the yard, with Martin Wilkins (my mom’s brother Henry’s son, presenting).  They tried singing hymns, but it was too far away from the piano, and I stepped out on the porch in the heat, to play violin accompaniment, and was eaten alive by gnats attacking my ears and face.  Everyone returned to the parlor where we continued with music for well over an hour.  My 90-yr old aunt Mary Ratchford Davis (Nilla Belle’s family) played the piano, by ear and in whatever key was needed by the two trumpet players.  We’d let them start and we would join them.  I am used to doing without music in all the venues I play in, so it was easy for me.  I was using my second cousin’s full size violin he loaned me.  He is just starting.  His sister joined us on her flute for songs for which she had music.  We played and sang anthems/hymns and gospel songs.  Many of the other folks sat around and sang.  I finally left to get a late breakfast at 11:45, because I played through the earlier one.  It was biscuits, sausage, and wonderful fruit (large strawberries and cantaloupe).  Then for lunch, we had chicken and ham (baked beautifully for 6 hrs by Neil Ratchford (83 yrs old) and more side dishes brought by locals.  It was a great time.  We ended with a family meeting to discuss plans for the future reunion in 2014, and to share family updates.  We left with a handful of leftovers (including some Brunswick stew!).

Monday, June 25  Today in the morning, Susan and her John, left for North Carolina for a week in the mountains near Highlands and Cashiers, NC.  Marise and I stayed home eating leftovers for lunch, and then took a trip around the county (Effingham) to

Guyton and the two cemeteries where all our kinfolk are buried (back into the 1880s):  Old Providence Cemetery and the Guyton Cemetery.  At both places, there is an adjacent “Black” cemetery, which was interesting.  Then we went on a road trip around Guyton to see some of the old places still standing where I spent time when I went to south GA and Sullivan’s Island, SC as a young kid.  Some of the structures are gone (e.g., Nilla Belle’s Boarding House), but the building that housed the old drug store is still there, and many old antebellum houses.

[John says: insofar as the term “antebellum” —  when used by a Georgian — indicates the time before the War of Northern Aggression (ended in 1865) it might seem that the leading adjective “old” is unnecessary.] – and (from Nancy), most people call it the Civil War.  The “War of Northern Aggression” moniker is from my friend Bill Smith in Atlanta, GA who is married to Dot (raised with me from when we were babies).

Marise and I also visited the original Woodlawn, which now is no longer in the family, but stands majestically with a surrounding Pecan tree grove.  From there we visited “Whitesville Plantation,” a community of large upscale houses.  It was Marise’s first time there, and she drove slowly, while I made a movie of the houses from the street view.  It was cool.  I also had made movies of many of the individual family stories.  I took along two digital cameras, each with an 8-Gigabyte storage card.  I took movies on one and photographs on the other.  Later that day we drove around Springfield, the county seat.  That evening she drove me in a little truck around the old Hickory Hill place where my grandmother and grandfather raised 8 children, and the residence started back with my great great grandfather (another John Wilkins).  I took photos of old photos of the folks in the Wilkins family.  The acreage (now 350 down from an original 600) has the Ogeehee River running along the south edge of the property.   Back in 1970, John and I were there with our canoe and went on the river.  She showed me all around and we saw some “Swamp” mosquitoes I have to look up on the web.  They were HUGE, probably 20 times, or more, larger than a regular mosquito.

Tuesday, June 26  This morning Marise took me back to Springfield and we toured the Effingham Historical Museum.  It was very nicely done.  They also have restored period housing, barns, blacksmith shops, cane syrup production, and have an old

Turpentine Still on the grounds.  We only viewed one house and looked down the hill on all the rest.  We had to return to Hickory Hill for lunch and then drive to Savannah to get me on the airplane for home.  Marise got me there a little before 4:00 in plenty of time to go through security and get to my plane (Delta to Atlanta, for the first link).  The plane was delayed a LONG time, because the plane coming to get us in Savannah, was flying from Atlanta, and Obama was in Atlanta (airport), so they shut down all air and ground traffic in the vicinity.  John and I do not understand why he cannot fly into an Air Force Base, rather than a commercial airport.  My plane was ready to take off, but had to sit 45 minutes on the tarmac while waiting for the clearance to leave.  I almost did not make my connection in Atlanta to Seattle.  I got to the gate after many people had already boarded.  All the rest of the trip home was fine, but late, even leaving Seattle for Yakima.  John was there to pick me up after midnight, and we still had an hour’s drive home.

Wednesday, June 27  Slept in, but not long enough.  Went to play music at the food bank soup kitchen and to SAIL exercise.

Thursday, June 28  Music at 2:00, and I’ll leave off the rest of the day because it is explained next.

Friday, June 29  I have been swamped since returning and trying to catch up and plan for our music venues. This morning I’m putting in the Battle Hymn of the Republic to SongWriter so I can change key for our clarinet player, and put the words next to the notes (rather than at the bottom of the page).  This effort is for a 4th July patriotic songfest with BBQ at the City Library for people in the community over 50.  My music group plays from noon to 1:00 on Monday, July 2.  Last night I spent a couple hours struggling with God Bless America, in a different key (G) from the way it is written.  On the plane to Savannah, I created Yankee Doodle Dandy (odd, considering I was going to the south to rebel country).

Anyway, the reunion was a total blast and I had the time of my life.  The weather was bearable and a/c was in the car, houses and plantation eating area where the activity was.  The storm off the coast also brought some light rain and cooler temps for the last two days there.  I hope to get some of my experiences on paper before they are a distant memory.  So much happened.  I took tons of pictures and many movies, as already mentioned.  I went back above to re-create the (almost) week away in south GA.  Meanwhile, tonight I spent over an hour cleaning/fixing two batches of strawberries John picked this afternoon, before trying to move 80 bales that was delivered by Harobed today at 2:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 30  Just spent some time finalizing this for John to post this blog.  We are making a cherry / blueberry / walnut cobbler to take to a BBQ potluck in Roslyn this afternoon.  John worked some more on weeds, watering, and hay this morning.  While Nancy was in GA the dogs and I began experience encounters with aggressive deer.  This is “bambi” season and the does come out of the woods to chase us away.  They will go after the dogs but run from me so I have had to work though the center of the pasture and try and keep the dogs (4) away from the edges.  Great fun!  We had not seen any little ones until Thursday morning when mama and two spotted fawns showed up behind the house.  We have had several mild winters and the local herd has grown to “problem” size.  This is one of the stories of folks moving into the animal’s habitat and then complaining when nature intrudes on their idyllic setting.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan