Sunday, Jan 7
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 7: SpO2 low 83, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.7%. Pulse avg. 53.8, low 47. Slept 8 hrs 24 min.
This morning, I got the photos to Google to send to the AAC about the event on 1-5-18, Jeopardy & Scrabble games day with lunch. I started working on dishes, and it took me until very late afternoon to be able to start the dishwasher.
I printed 19 copies of a back to back page for the last two songs of our Jan-Feb music to add to the audience copies. Now just need to get John to staple them onto the current booklet. Then I have to arrange the music for my book, and for Charlie & Gerald’s book, and reach Maury by phone to check his music (and the 3 changes from 2017 Jan). Neither Gerald or Maury have a computer or access to email.
We posted the blog at 3:44 p.m.
We celebrated with a piece of chocolate cake, following our lunch (sausage, eggs, peaches, and cheese toast).
Late afternoon, Jeri Conklin on Facebook posted a set of photos of our co-owned Brittany, Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (call name, Daisy). She is only one “leg” away from an AKC Senior Hunter (SH), with SH title to add to her name. The photos were taken during a training session this morning, which included two honors, a stop-to-flush, a point, and a retrieve to hand (pigeon). Jeri was the handler, and hubby Kurt, the photographer.
Daisy – all 4 feet off the ground running; & Finn (brace mate) too.
Daisy on her 1st honor on the point of her Weimaraner brace mate, and her 2nd honor with Jeri. Jeri’s just kneeling with her hand on her hip, watching. The handler cannot talk to or touch the dog stopped on an honor. 
Daisy on point brought a comment on Facebook (“very nice photo!”) from David A. Simons, from La Puente, CA, who connects to her through his dog he raised as a teenager, FC Simons Ruff-Shod O’dee. He asked after seeing this photo if he was in her pedigree. Yes, he definitely is (on the sire and dam).
Ruff was born 8-28-74 (which coincides with our move from Iowa to Idaho). He achieved his Derby points in the field with David handling (Derby dog competition goes to 2 years of age). That trial was held at Las Flores Ranch in southern California. 
David and his son, Jurgen, with Cody, his retriever from the Simons breedings.
Ours and Daisy’s connections to David is via Ruffy (the name we called him). We moved from Iowa to Idaho with 2 cats and a Brittany, Lovely Wistful Lady (Wisty, named for her wistful eyes). That year, we joined the Inland Empire Brittany Club (newly forming regional club with AKC) based in Spokane, WA, 90 miles from Troy, ID, where we lived. Through the IEBC, we met a field trainer, Dan Richmond. On Dan’s string was Ruff. John ran him in Amateur events, and we bred to him starting in the 1980s. When he was 9 yrs old, we bought him from another owner (after David).
I showed him because his conformation was excellent and he should have been a Dual Ch (field and show). I went on the Montana circuit with Carol Pochardt with Ruffy and others of our dogs and managed to get a bunch of reserves (2nd place, no points) because his teeth were quite worn (nothing wrong with the position of his bite). Judges didn’t like it, however. While he had show placements (and points) in his younger days, he never finished the Ch. But, he produced many Duals when bred to our Dual Ch. Sirius Sashay (born in 1978). Their breedings created Brittanys with excellent temperament, conformation, and hunting abilities. One owner of more Duals in that family than any other, is Michele Pelle. She still has semen stored from her DC/AFC MC’s Brett Jared O’dee from Shay & Ruffy. Simons dog is on both sides of Daisy’s pedigree.
Carol Pochardt, mentioned above, lived in Moscow, ID (13 miles from Troy) at the time, and she took Ruffy through Shoot-to-Retrieve trials, for many wins, and he competed in the Western Regionals in Oregon, with a friend from WA who handled GSPs. Ruffy had a nice long life and made it to Ellensburg, WA with us. He lived for 2 more years to almost 17, and was in good health and still hunting (and seeing and hearing), whereas Shay lost her hearing, but not her scenting abilities.
By the way, the Tre’ at the end of Daisy’s name is because she was the third Shay named thusly in our Cedaridge lines. 
Daisy-Stop to flush before another bird found (from her point above) with a retrieve to hand (pigeon).
Monday, Jan 8
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 7: SpO2 low 83, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.4%. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 35 min.
I called Larry at Safeway Pharmacy about Stephen’s selling me two bottles of 100 mg Allopurinal, for $26.54 each. I put the one for 90 tablets on the counter, but I had the 180 in my pocketbook from my last purchase there. I just looked it up again, and found for 180, the GoodRX price is $24.30. That was approved by Larry 3 months ago when a clerk did not want to honor the Discount Drug Card. So, theoretically I was affected twice this time, and accepted the extra bottle (I had only ordered ONE), but both were there. I have not opened them, and realize I cannot bring them back. I asked him if I could have difference returned in cash or credited to my credit card. He agreed, and a few days later, I received cash for this calculation: $26.54 – 24. 30 * 2 = $4.24. It pays to stay on top of all medical charges (including doctor visits), and whether the insurance was billed properly.
I went to SAIL today, and did some other things. It was supposed to snow today, but didn’t. I hope it doesn’t decide to, tomorrow.
I contacted Umpqua about ending the mortgage payments in Feb., but got nowhere, except probably it will just happen in February and quit being taken out of our checking account. We’ll later have to arrange with the Assessor’s Office how to pay the taxes, or just get them and pay them when the bill comes. It has been going into escrow and taken care of. End of story happened later with a postal notification from the bank, about the reconveyance fee of $106.61 to reconvey the ownership to our name, when the mortgage is paid. We have 30 days to get a certified check to the Spokane office to finish the procedure.
I checked on line and found this: The reconveyance fees will vary according to the state that you are in, but they are currently in the range of $50 to $65. They do receive upgrades every once in a while, but there is no defined schedule as to when these fees are assessed or changed. Your lender or lawyer may charge a slight premium for the convenience of paying the county registrar on your behalf. You can check with your local municipality to see what the state charges if you think that you are being overcharged by your liaison.
Also, Obtaining a Reconveyance When a Mortgage is Paid Off
In the state of Washington, when you pay off a mortgage, the lender must issue a deed of full reconveyance on the trust deed that secured the mortgage. The reconveyance deed is a recorded document that eliminates the lien that was recorded on the property. After the reconveyance is recorded by the lender, the property does not have any deeds of trust and is considered “free and clear.” The county recorder sends you the reconveyance after it has been recorded. After you pay off a mortgage in the state of Washington, your lender is required to issue a deed of reconveyance within 30 days of receiving the payoff. This shows that your property is free of encumbrances.
I plan to call the Assessor’s office to see what the charge for a reconveyance fee is for our county.
Check all medications to see what Costco will charge for them after finding out we can use the GoodRx price there.
I started tonight with John’s Tamsulin which is ready to run out and found that for the past 3 months we’ve paid $15.20/30 capsules. At Costco, we can get 90 capsules for $20.18. WOW!
His HydrocholoroThiazide 12.5 tab for 90 is actually cheaper at Super 1, so I will just keep a watch on all our meds. My Allopurinol 100 for 180 tabs at Safeway is $24.30 & at Costco $22.81, but at Costco, the added value is we get 2% back on all purchases there!
Here’s a happy note to add to our blog; check out the video below: Dog sledding reminds me of our old dog, Tailwind Talisman (Brittany), carrying a tennis ball up a flight of stairs, dropping it, and retrieving over and over again (in our Troy, Idaho house).
Fun on the snow [~80 seconds ]
Tuesday, Jan 9
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 8: SpO2 low 84, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 90.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.1%. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 23 min.
I dropped by the Historical Museum and paid our membership, and received this quarter’s Newsletter. On it is the list of talks, and we will go to several of them: Nick Zentner (geology), Allen Aronica (native Kittitas Indians), and Kelsey Doncaster (local history). I have put those on the desktop calendar hung on our kitchen wall. Nick’s is first, March 29. Allen lives near us, and plows our drive as needed, and we share things. Kelsey was my student.
Today was the first day of ballroom dancing instruction at the senior center (Ellensburg Adult Activity Center). 
You can see the rest of the people participating in the videos below, except for me, the videographer. I did practice some of the steps with the teacher (from CWU, Adam Meyers) and with my friend Evelyn (not in the pix above), but in the videos.
Video Jan 9 Ballroom Dancing Part 1
Jan 9 Ballroom Dancing – Fox Trot & Music Part 2
Wednesday, Jan 10
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 9: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 54.6, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 41 min.
Food bank, SAIL, and go by the Gym for Klaire (a probiotic).
I took my Amoxicillin at 2:00 p.m. during the middle of my exercise class in preparation for going at 3:00 for dental cleaning by Tracy. I received a nice report. Now to get insurance to pay for special prescription for fluride added toothpaste.
I paid my dues on line for the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG) retired rate, but it showed me my extra donation I normally make, but did not tally it into my total paid, so I was only charged $15. I guess it’s okay, as I won’t be attending the conference and luncheon I used to attend in past years to honor the women’s recipients of scholarships. Others in the profession still teaching and receiving part of the costs for attending conferences can pick up the slack. This year’s meeting is farther away than I want to drive, in Chico, CA. I did attend a meeting once when it was held in Olympia, WA a couple years ago.
Thursday, Jan 11
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 10: SpO2 low 85, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.7%. Pulse avg. 52.9, low 47. Slept 7 hrs 45 min.
We awoke to 5” of snow!
I called Cle Elum KVH office to request a refill for John’s Tamsulosin 0.4mg capsule for 90 to go to a different place (Costco Pharmacy in Union Gap). Costco’s price is $6.73/mo.
I completed washing dishes this morning. Weather is nasty. John went along with me to EBRG to help with the set-up and take down of chairs, and music. He reads in an adjacent room, but can still hear our wonderful music.
We had an amazing amount of people there today, 14 (Nancy, Gerald, Charlie, Minerva, Tim & Roberta, Maury, Kevin, Dean, Anne, Manord, Laina, Amy & Haley). We sounded pretty good today and had a very appreciative audience (as usual). Haley (our 4 yr. old mascot) charmed them at the end, with singing, Hey! Good Lookin’.
I got so busy with the snow and John and going to Safeway for some good sale prices that I forgot to go by my dentist’s office to pick up my prescription toothpaste they recommended to me. Now I have to wait until Tuesday after Monday’s MLK day. Oddly, CWU takes Monday as a holiday, and so has activities on Thursday the week before. Many, if not most, of the students here are from Puget Sound area and go home on weekends and, especially, for 3-day weekends.
We went to Bi-Mart after playing, because John saw in their newspaper flyer they had sunflower seeds for $6.00 off. With all the birds coming in daily and depending on us, we loaded up. I got some gel for my eyes (severe dryness prevention), some Fisherman Friends cough lozenges, plus many wire holders for Christmas ornaments (for a dime). I hope to use them to add extra silver bells to my bell wreath, which we use for keeping time to the music during December. Picture was in previous blog.
I wore my boots with a big flat sole and rubber bottoms, and really needed then in the parking lots where we stopped. I also needed them to get to and from my vehicle, at home, even with all John’s shoveling this morning.
Friday, Jan 12
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 11: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 53.7, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 40 min.
I called Cle Elum to see if the prescription for John made it to Costco. We were going in either case, but yes, it’s there.
We went to Costco to pick up my glasses and get some meds for John, at an incredible savings over Super 1 pharmacy. $15.20 there for 30 days supply and at Costco, where it’s $20.18 for 90 tablets!!! (through a GoodRX coupon). The only place in Ellensburg, honoring that is Safeway, and it is higher priced there.
We’re back from Costco, with good news. I have my new replacement glasses, the right eye still is not corrected to the same strength as the left, but it is a little better than it was. It may well be that that right eye will have to have its film removed with a laser, but thus far, it is not blurring yet, as the left eye did, and had to be lasered Oct 30. So, I will wait, patiently. I was given new eyeglass holders that can be folded up (easy to put in a shirt pocket), and, when one is done using them, one can return the glasses into the protective case. I guess you could call them a collapsible eyeglass case. I’ll have made a collage to show the concept, in case you are a reader who has never experienced such cases for eyeglasses. I had never seen one. 
Mine are black, but I chose to find some colorful images on the web to use for a demo picture. Also my eyeglass frames are much nicer and daintier than the one pictured. My lenses do not have a frame completely around them but sit on my nose piece with only the top and sides as part of the frame.
John’s year old glasses are covered with fine scratches, so while there, we also checked on the cost of lens only, if John wished to replace his. The Mt. Rainier trail was especially rocky and dusty (workers made more dust) and John was there over a dozen times last summer. The standard “wipe on your shirt tail” procedure is a poor choice in all the grit. Even lenses-only are a little pricey at $160, and the clerk said the company might reject the frame too, and you’d have to buy another. We were hoping they could remove the protective film from the glasses, but apparently that is not an option there. Ten years ago our local provider did this, but we don’t know if the current glasses are made in a different manner. They are from Costco Optical.
Saturday, Jan 13
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 12: SpO2 low 84, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.6%. Pulse avg. 52.8, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 23 min.
I’m trying to figure how to attend a wedding Mar 10, in Vancouver, WA, that requires at least a one night stay.
We spent an hour before brunch taking all the meat off the rotisserie chicken we brought home yesterday. We packaged up enough chunks of white meat to add to salads for a month or so of Wednesday lunches that I carry to the Food Bank, every Wednesday. The rest we nibbled on while working, and some will go into a pan to cook to remove the fat, use the broth, and have some base for casseroles.
Sunday, Jan 14
No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 13: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.1%. Pulse avg. 54.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 43 min.
Morning started with dishes cleanup, animal feedings, email review, overnight news and oximetry review and capture, checking weather (we had a bright spot of sun on the hill behind us, but no longer). It’s going to be another dreary overcast drippy roof snow-melting day and week. Some of the ice on the back patio concrete melted a little and John was able to remove. Temperature is 37°, misty, with only 1.5 mile visibility. When we awoke it was 4° in the town where John was born, Brookville, PA, and where his cousin almost 100 yrs and her daughter live (in separate houses).
Phew. After making lunch, John’s been working on outside chores and me inside, plus trying to finish this week’s blog to get out tonight. I just finished loading the dishwasher I had started yesterday.
Finishing up the blog and ready to turn it over to John, for editing and putting onto WordPress, but he is also busy fixing baked chicken thighs for supper.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan
Seattle’s view of the super moon with the Smith Tower in the center. That is the > 100 year old building my grandfather, John Benjamin Wilkins worked as a carpenter, lived in West Seattle, and began raising 3 children there. My mom was the youngest born in 1914. Then they returned to GA and raised 5 more children. 
(John says: “Since the heads up way last summer, Nancy has notified hundreds of people and sites to make the change. 3 cheers for her.” 
Super-1 gives a 5¢ discount to those with their own box or bags, and that also saved the 5¢ tax. That is a dime in my pocket.
Here is a photo from The Free Box Facebook site that grabbed my attention and I asked John if he wanted them. He has a unique use for them.
Cabot berries, being large and heavy, tend to lay on the ground. This makes for contact with organisms, both fungus and crawly things. I want to experiment with 3 or 4 ways to keep them off the ground, and keep irrigation water off the berries. [Remember giardia? I do.] Among other ideas, I want to cut the end of the cans out, sink them into the soil with extra fill, and have a single-plant raised bed. I’ve ordered new plants for delivery after March 26th. {End John}
We took cashews by to Louaine.
I had to put trax on my shoes to walk to John’s car today. Mine had very little gas, and we are driving it to Costco tomorrow to get my new prescription glasses ordered and we’ll buy gas while there at a much lower price.
They served it with a wonderful looking spinach salad, but I cannot have spinach because of its vitamin K content & my being on Coumadin, so I took my own Iceberg lettuce/tuna fish/egg/ pistachios/Bleu cheese salad. John told me I should have had a few bites, and upon reflection I agree.
Each table started with the same number of letters, and we replaced them as we used them to put on the board. They were face down on a table so one couldn’t see the letter or the points worth. Also, it helps to have Scrabble players at your table to know all the rules for doubling up, and having successful words.
We got clever with our positioning of the letters off the board.
In the photo, under the near fog is Selah, and after the gap is Yakima. The next ridge is 7 miles south of the gap, and we could not see any of it.
accompaniment with our music group for Christmas songs, when bells fit in.
The house and buildings are 240 yards from the road and lights begin there. Some of the lights make animals and there are real ones also. John was driving — blame the bumpy ride on him.
John unloads Jessica; Cameron picks up and stacks; John throws pieces up. [Jessica, the Crosstrek, is named after a song.] 
Left is the round version – Right, the square, note the splitting, because the rind is not as thick to hold (or as good to eat)
Phyllis, Cameron, Nancy ^ & ^ Nancy, John, Phyllis (2015)
John greets Lynne arriving & Phyllis joins with a bottle of wine.
Altesse greets Linda & Bob from Newman Lake (north of Spokane) – and we have the wine ready – Roussanne. 
Fire making the required coals! That’s my blue pot on the rocks with Pineapple and Walnuts, warming. Cameron visits with Linda, and Bob with Tom. 
Top: Around the fire: steamed sausage pot (top right), cheese on the right, and potatoes. The blue pot has the pineapple.
John visits with Erik; . . .Phil with Phyllis.
Bob, Lynne, Mark, Cameron, Audrey, and Raclette cheese holder
Cameron, Bob, Margaret, Linda, John, wine, wood
From set up to eat up. Left, in house (with wasabi peas, pickles, sesame crackers, cranberry wrapped goat cheese, Brei, cutlery in napkins, and plates stacked; rt, finished product, by the bonfire.
John with his WTA Carhartt Award jacket, Evonne with our Banana Award, from my past. Me with my prize for her. She’s on the right leading stretching exercises at the start of a WTA work party, and John’s setting up the tools in the background, to present the safety talk. A volunteer made the costume for her to wear.
New Year’s Eve phone call catch-up with John’s sister, where the temperature is very cold. 
This view is looking south. Note a stack of fruit bins on the right side, and the green of the trees. For us, the landscape was dusted with a thin coating of fresh snow that highlighted the physical features. I was particularly interested in the snow on the talus slopes, but unable to take a photograph of what I was seeing.
structure, shown in purple in the diagram. The Iodine gets cleaved from the rest and has to be processed by the thyroid.
Here is the location of the video:
Four photos this evening from our back patio (by Nancy). Mt. Rainier is 63.5 miles over there.
Maude Buszek’s Bald Eagle in Physical Therapy Waiting Room
I grabbed these off her Facebook site for my collage. Sorry the eagle is not better focused in my collage. Later, I will get some of her bird photos (and her permission) to share here.
This pink flying pig they found on Ebay and have put him up in their barn adjacent to the pigs and strung lights around him. The one on the right is a live big mamma. The babies are sold to local kids for 4-H animals that are then shown at the County Fair and other sorts of events. My uncle Henry had a big pork raising operation in rural Georgia. He had hundreds. Neighbors have several. Not even close to the same scale. And, in the south, mama and babies were inside, feeding was under a roof, and there was a large adjacent area that was fenced. Anyone going closer that 100 yards had to have their boots disinfected by standing in a shallow pan.
This is 2017: Alice Benoit’s Rose Marie ^^ 2015: my Daisy in CA
Her answer to my question above: “This is from scratch for the chickens. I’ve read that many years ago folks would use flour sacks (yes from when flour was sold in sacks) and turn them into dishcloths, aprons, even clothing, that the manufacturers got word of this and began to purposely design their flour sacks with more attractive designs for their second use.” 
with all the seed-heads included. That has to be enclosed or the deer will tear bales apart and make a mess.
Quail inside new enclosure; still inside with Junco outside. 
Nancy’s attempt to capture deer with John’s camera.
Buck in his second year. The misshapen tip of the left ear is a family thing. We first saw this in an old doe about 10 years ago.
North Umpqua Brittanys – most of her dogs and puppies go back to our bloodlines, so this is a family greeting!! We have been friends for many years. She lives in Glide, OR. She has a nice web page with videos and pictures, if you want to be entertained and get a Brittany fix. Paste “North Umpqua Brittanys” into a search box if you care to have a cheer-up look from a wonderful Brittany breeder.
Sue coming off the platform, and Woody and Sue resting and watching from there. The top is about 6 ft. X 4 ft. with metal roofing, so in light rain or snow the platform is suitable for occupancy. It makes a good lookout.
Thanks to John for capturing this and the cats above on his camera. We have a lot of quail visiting us each day in the front yard, feeders, and driveway.
. . . . . Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends,
They were different on each of several tables of three rows.
(left) Instructions for making the base; craft table participants. Connie Bright (2nd from the right above) helped with the snowmen making materials, and with a game of pin the lips on the snowman toward the end. It was interesting (see below).
Part of the Landon family are here; from the right, Laura, Beckett (who incidentally has borrowed my ¾ size violin I had in the 4th grade, turned it into a viola [with a different string setup]), Trip Landon (who played the piano for us today, but the day before, played Christmas music with our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends. The gentleman across from Beck is his grandfather, Gary Brown, a US Navy Submariner. Dad Johnny joined them later for the meal, but Beck had to leave to go back to school. Both Gary and Johnny are veterans, and both boys played patriotic music with our music group back in November for the AAC’s early Veterans’ Day celebration. Look back in the blog to Nov 3.
Here he is playing for the rest of the party, and an AAC member, Jackie, thanking him at the end. Jackie is in my SAIL class there.
Start with blindfold, placing a kiss on the snowman, and the one getting the sticker closet to his lips won a package of chocolate kisses. You can see the errant ones, and others were even farther off the snowman. 
Posing with our hats and friends, Nancy, Jessi, Marilyn, Curtis. Long ago, Curtis was my student in Geography classes at CWU. 
Left are two shots of Rudolph at the AAC, and him with me, 2017
By Mikka Jameson, Carrie Hall, & Keri Armstrong, Ellensburg, WA
By Padi Pierce, Carrie Patrick McKamey, Alisa Lundy Peterson
I also got a plate for my 92 yr old friend, Gloria, who has been a member of our exercise class since 2010 at the center. She is not coming anymore because the assisted living place she moved to has two SAIL classes she can attend. 
By Sam Scripter: “Willamette Falls, @ Oregon City, with Mt. Hood gracing the horizon,” 12-5-17. [Copy and paste Willamette Falls into Google Earth to see the location.]
‘polecat’, not seen around here but a better climber. Just some of the issues when living in a rural setting.
Left is the contest at the start of the party. The two winners are 2nd and 3rd from the left. Right is my friend Mildred with me.
Sides of apples, eggnog bread, banana/choc chip, pumpkin bread, and a plate: ham, green beans, & potatoes w/ gravy. I had water, and most all had cranberry punch (I cannot w/meds).
Nancy with the heavy metal box with game parts. I’ll have to take it to Hearthstone or Briarwood to set up to play with some of the residents (next year in my spare time; what’s that?)
Nancy on Santa’s knee, Mrs. Claus, Connie, & just the 3 of us. 
Here we all were at the end, only holding our instruments, not playing. Left to right, foreground is Gloria, my 92 yr old friend, who just moved into Hearthstone. She’d come down to listen and sing along. We had a nice audience behind the cameraman. Players from the left: Laura, Maury, Manord, Evie, Charlie, Dean, Nancy, visitor Katie, Anne. Some of our regulars were out of town on Thanksgiving trips. 
Laura, Manord, Dean, and Nancy
Nancy and Katie happy to see Evie arriving. Right photo Evie is in the middle with Manord and Charlie. 
Most seed eating birds are attracted to black oil sunflower seeds. The black in the name describes the all black hull. The oil in the name refers to the higher oil content per gram in this smaller sunflower seed. Cardinals, chickadees, finches, sparrows, nuthatches, and other small birds prefer black oil sunflower over any other seed because of its high fat content and thinner shell.
The “before” location was on pieces of wood over gravel. The “after” location would be up in the air, using concrete blocks for support.
Here is the ramp and lever process photo, with the video below.
Final resting place for cable table, with John and companion critters (Brittany & cat) following him up the driveway to feed the horses. Note the bird on the top of the table and on the veranda.
Comments: I really don’t know enough to talk about the values above. I only know that my doctor requested the T3 be done after the FT4 results were in, with the elevated TSH test. I do not know the meaning of T3 uptake and total, or the significance of the values. We return for a visit this coming Tuesday morning, and I will learn more before then, and more still then. 
Looking across Naneum Fan to the ridge (tops ~5,500 feet) where the Wilson Creek and Naneum Creek drainages combine and flow into our valley. West is to the left, toward the higher Cascades.
Photos by Myrna Antonich from her backyard (that pole is her clothes line – the old conventional kind many of us grew up with).
Jeri Conklin with Ginny (left) & Linda Azevedo with Daisy (right). They were braced together (luck of the draw), (Ginny is Daisy’s mom), and they both had excellent bird work and retrieves to hand. Ginny is a little “overweight” from her recent spaying surgery. 
Here we have Daisy held by Jeri Conklin, with Linda Azevedo (her handler in the Senior Hunt test) and Kurt Conklin behind. This all happened today, December 2, 2017. The Hunt Test was held southeast (Claymine Road) of California City, just north of Edwards Air Force Base.
Kiana’s Poi Debut – 11-24-17
The spool was once used for puppies. There is a small solar light on top and a couple of bowls for seed – under partial cover.
Amy Davison sent this of our Carpathian walnuts candied and roasted, and sent the recipe. She said her house smelled amazing. Daughter Haley shelled them. 
I took this before I left so I would know what he wanted. These are 4” and he wanted 3”. 
Next is a view of Rock Creek Valley where the lava of the Rosa flood-basalt came through the surface. The violent eruption throws hot material into piles where, somewhat air cooled, it compacts, cools, and leaves mounds and ridges. Below, on the right shows the interior of a spatter-ridge. (John took these photos on Sunday, Nov. 19th.)
Some believe the eruption was along the bottom of the valley (black spots are cows). The scene is from the ridge where the right side photo is from.) The landscape has undergone a lot of action over 15 M. years, so it is hard to know.
dog house from its lonely existence at the edge of the back fence. It rode on our wheel barrow replacement – a Gorilla Cart.
This is the old dog house John converted to the outside cat house to house the heated water bowl and hard food for the feral cats.
Centerpiece and Barb, Dee, and Katie Eberhart (their orchard’s apples we picked were served at the celebration luncheon, 11-3-17).
Veterans Celebration Nov 3, ’17 at AAC (Senior Center) – our neighbor and friend since 1989, Allen Aronica, in red vest.
Color guard * Nancy introduces music, 2017 * Nancy in 2013
All the meat is skewered and grilled, with a choice of chicken, Picanha (beef), top sirloin, (both beef cuts are from the top, the rump), and lamb. We ordered some of all. A few meals we had were round dinner plates, not the oval shown above. There was plenty of food on a round plate. Meat, with black beans, rice, salad, cassava, and a piece of bread. The place also serves sandwiches on Hoagies, but no one had one. I know everyone enjoyed themselves. 
We had a blast for the afternoon, and got home before it was completely dark, so John could feed the horses. Kathy got John to smile!