Category: Post Visit

Sunday, Apr 21 Off to bluegrass jam today. Only a few folks there. We had two fiddles, 2 guitars, a mandolin, bass fiddle, and guitar & Mando switching person. We went around the circle a bunch of times. I used all 3 of the songs I took along (and had copies for): Blowin’ In The Wind, I’ll Fly Away, and I Want A Girl, and then we played two of my picks, You Are My Sunshine, and Red River Valley. Oh, darn, I meant to take the extra Blowin’ in the Winds with me to our music group this week, and I spaced.
Monday, Apr 22 John started off by going to town to craft a custom-made computer with our gurus at CCSOE (Complete Computer Services of Ellensburg). Last time (2005) he started by buying a complete system from Hewlett Packard (HP) but it was junk so he sent it all back. Then after much review and multiple parts purchased from all over the country he cobbled together a full system with 2 monitors and other goodies. That was very time consuming, although very interesting. The system still runs but it is showing its age, as is the operating system, Windows XP, and all the other software he has been using. But technology has marched on and he doesn’t want to go the “do it yourself” route again so, this time, he went to the folks that host our e-mail and web pages and set us up with this blog usage space (in the midst of Nancy’s “lights out” time) in December of 2009. The new system will be more computer (faster but using less electricity) in a smaller case but with bigger screens (not CRTs this time). It is much more than “just” a computer. There is something called a solid state drive (SSD) that will make it sort-of “instant on” plus other speediness. The tech at CCSOE asked if John wanted that and his answer was “No, I don’t need it.” The fellow, young enough to be our grandkid, said, “But it’s a cool feature!” So that got ordered. Now John is hunting for a statue or stuffed toy for on top of the yet to arrive “cool” computer, tentatively named Penguin – ‘cuz it’s Cool!
John’s completing the new garden space and fencing it while the computer parts come to EBRG and are assembled. Strawberries arrived and need to be planted. Maybe more on both topics next week.
Tuesday, Apr 23 Much time this morning on unexpected projects. Now to get to the hay paper work & timing. Worked hard on it but also on several more demanding unplanned projects, and did not finish the hay paper. Did leave at 5:15 for town for a free dinner for community volunteers. We got there after many but found a place at a table with most of our group and their spouses. Another several were at an adjacent table. Food included pasta with two types of sauce, white or red (had meat), salad, veggies, garlic bread, and the best spread of desserts you have ever seen. Many were left and one of the ladies twisted John’s arm until he agreed to take some home. We brought 4 pieces — cherry and carrot cake, and 2 cream puffs. We started with dessert because the line was so long at the main buffet. There was a short program of thanks after dinner to the many volunteers in the community there being honored. We were encouraged to take a donated gift home with us from a table near the exit and to take something from our table (flower seeds, plants, and a few other things). From the last table I picked up a pocket level, with a measuring tape in it, for John, and I took a mystery bag. It was full of goodies. Four pens (always can use them), a coffee mug from Dry Creek, one small pill dispenser for a week, some Baby Ruth candy pieces in the mug, and for the refrigerator a large magnet with emergency numbers. Oh, and a package of Guatemalan coffee, which I will share with the department because we don’t brew the stuff.
Wednesday, Apr 24 Worked on paper and sent it off before leaving for lunch/music at the Food Bank, and by the computer folks to pick up John’s hat he left there Monday, then to exercise and home. Got a couple of loaves of bread today, and lunch was okay. Once home, we delivered strawberry plants, and a box of onions, to our neighbor who gave us some Yukon potatoes from their root cellar. They need to be used very soon.
The very neatest thing that happened today, was I walked by the patio window and saw a special combination of birds and managed to get this photograph. I’m so excited. Click for full size.

Here we see a pair of (California) Valley Quail, one Dove, a pair of Red-Winged Blackbirds, and a Gold Finch on the fence waiting.

The platform is newly installed away from the shrubs near the patio. Rascal (cat) was using the newly leafed-out bushes to stalk the birds. Annie is interested also – House Finches seem not to care.
Thursday, Apr 25 Will be playing with the Fiddlers & Friends at Hearthstone today. Thankfully, there were more people there than Saturday when we only had two. Charlie was back from his heart pacemaker implant operation and able to play his guitar. Just seeing him was wonderful. Same ole, same ole, for this day.
Friday, Apr 26. An early call woke me and I misunderstood John’s intro so I talked incoherently for a minute before getting straightened out. Then later we received an out-of-state call from a friend that her CWU-retired husband had died. I need to contact our mutual (university) friends. The illness was known to be terminal but the timing was surprisingly soon. In between calls I was working on the hay paper, and did finally send off the final copy to my co-author. I had a scholarship lunch to attend at CWU and then an exercise class, followed by a bunch of things in town. Trip to the CWU Library, to the telephone company twice, and the last time was to go back to town to the phone company to pick up a new modem for our computer. It has been failing recently, so they gave us a replacement. Just now (8 P.M.) we made roasted walnut chocolate frosted chocolate flat cake for me to take to the fundraiser for the Grange at the fairgrounds, where I have to work as a cashier for 4 hours. At least I get to sit down, and don’t have to work in the kitchen. It is in conjunction with the barn quilt displays and an evening “Barn Dance.” Now finishing the blog because I won’t have time tomorrow, and it needs to get out to you faithful readers. I’m sure there was other good news this week that I have omitted. Such as – It didn’t snow!
Saturday, Apr 27 Day for volunteering, for me, so off I go. And it has warmed up this week. Stuff is blooming. John plans to take a photo of our Tulips, Forsythia, and Rainier Cherry blossoms in the same shot, and put in as a lead to next week’s blog.

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

John is trying to add photos or other images to the blog.

We like to feed small birds and even Quail but there always is a problem with other animals wanting to get some of the Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. The 2 photos below show the issue when the feeder is hung too low. Deer will even stand on their hind legs and reach up and grab the feeder and shake seeds out.  They almost pulled the bottom off.  We tied it up higher in the trees.  The birds liked this but so did a little squirrel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As John assembles the photos from the past, we’ll add some more of this story.

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