Monday, Feb 6
For Feb 5 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.02. Events: 2 CSR, 4 H, 15 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Pulse avg. 55.5, low 51.
Last night late, I sent the photos to AAC from Friday. John sent me a note to Nick Zentner about the fossil bowl in Clarkia that I need to coordinate with Bill Rember, a geologist and friend from Idaho. He now lives near Fernwood, ID and Emerald Creek on a fossil site of his own. He gives educational tours.
We received at least 8″ of snow overnight, and John started shoveling before 8:00 a.m. on the paths front and back. He worked for 2 hours, came back in for breakfast, and went back outside. Our wonderful neighbor, Allen Aronica, arrived to clear our driveway. I am sure we would not have been able to get out (either of the trucks would), but the cars are lower. We were fortunate nothing was planned and calling us out. At a cousin’s, Allen got his tractor bogged in an off-road hole and had to bring a tracked backhoe to get himself out. He then did a few more driveways and packed for a trip to Arizona.
My car was parked out of the shed because of all the melted snow in my parking space. We did not want the ice to freeze on my tires, but that meant with all the snow overnight, John had a big cleaning job.
John early cleaning snow from my rig, about 9:00 a.m.
This below is my rig being moved back at 11:45, and Allen leaving with the second swipe of cleaning the driveway.
GOOD NEWS. I had a robot call from Super 1 pharmacy that my prescription was in. I called the pharmacy and asked if it was the Entresto and it was. So, I asked the co-pay cost – if it was the $40 Group Health was going to charge me. I asked if they had run my co-pay from Novartis and they said they did not have the card, but only the one for the free 30-day supply they had sent in. I had given them all numbers for both the free month and the continuing, over a month ago, but I guess it was not loaded in the system, so I called Boston for the proper numbers needed to obtain it.
The pharmacy assistant was going to call me back either way. She ran it and my co-pay is only $10/month for a very expensive drug. I am so happy I went through all the paperwork to apply, got help from my cardiologist’s office (who had to FAX 17 pages of medical information on me to qualify). It is almost a month since I was put on this new drug (Jan 12) and the paperwork trail started. What an awesome feeling. I am writing my cardiologist’s nurse, Colleen, right now to give her the good news and encourage others who might need the drug to go through the process to save the $400-500 / month cost. The only condition is that a person must have a supplemental “commercial” insurance provider (such as I do, with Group Health). Medicare is my primary, and that will not work, nor will it work for people on Medicaid. The pharmaceutical company making the drug is the one offering the co-pay reduction. Did I say – I am quite happy. The previous drug I was on was a generic and still cost me over $70 in cash through GoodRx. It was more than double the cost by going through my regular pharmacy with the formulary used for the co-pay (that was for Telemisartan/ Micardis). Doctors, nurses, and technology = good. System = nuts.
I worked more on our music and finished a draft copy of Johnny Cash’s “Forty Shades of Green” to send to Evie for review. It’s to add to the playlist of Irish songs for March and April.
John’s got a lot of snow moved but is looking for a snowblower sale at the end of this season. We at leftovers for lunch and put a chunk of beef in the Crockpot.
Medical news: Dr. Paul M. Schmitt has been our doctor since 1988. He’s been wanting to retire but the rural community clinic is not high priority for many doctors. Now a new doctor is coming and Paul hopes to stop seeing patients early in May. John will have one last visit on May 1.
The new guy:
Our new primary care physician, Dr. Norman Wood, D.O. That is a different form of a Medical Doctor, which appears on the web to be similar, but without specialization, rather being concerned with the whole body’s skeleton and relationships to organs, nerves, muscles, the whole picture merged with attitude and activities of the person (my translation). If you search on Doctor of Osteopathy, you can find a lot of information. Here is part of the introduction we received from the Clinic (now a unit of the local hospital).
Dr Wood has an interesting and varied background. He received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and worked in law enforcement for over ten years, including six years as a special agent for the U.S. Customs Service. He then returned to school to study Medicine at Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, he became the 15th member of his family to become a physician. His oldest son, Matthew, is the 16th.
We are confident that Dr Wood will be a wonderful addition to our team. He has practiced primary care medicine since 1995 and enjoys taking care of entire families. He owned four medical clinics in Maryland and West Virginia before moving to Washington in 2013. Since moving to Washington, he has worked with the Veteran’s Administration and in urgent care.
Outside of his medical career, Dr Wood is an avid bow hunter and enjoys fishing for trout.
In early 2017, Dr Wood will work closely with Dr Schmitt as Dr Schmitt transitions into retirement after 40 years of practicing medicine!
Tuesday, Feb 7
For Feb 6 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.74. Events: 1 CA, 14 H, 3 PP, 25 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 37 min with (max = 21 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low was 89, no events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Pulse avg. 53.8.x, low 47.
Jazzercise went well today, with 5 of us there.
I went to my 3:30 appointment for a Shingles shot at 507 Nanum St at the Kittitas County Public Health Dept.
Report on the Shingles Shot, $23 for administrative costs. I was seen by Tim Roth (who will be the speaker next Friday 2/17, at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC) at the Health Forum). He has been my friend for a long time, through music at assisted living homes and later when he was a nurse at Royal Vista. It was neat that he was the nurse (the only one to do injections there) to administer my shot. I started with filling in the form asking for my name, location, phone numbers, primary care doctor, and I answered some questions about my medical records. I asked what the $23 administrative costs charge covered. The gals at the front check-in desk said it was for processing the papers with the state, and to cover the time of the medical nurse to interview and administer the shot. He spent 15 minutes with me going over the meaning of the shot, the cause of Shingles, the expectations of the shot, and went through questions of medications I should not be taking to have the shot. He asked my allergies or reactions to any injections, or meds, and a number of other questions about my medical history. He mentioned about its being a Herpes-related virus, about possible reactions to the shot, and what to expect and what not to do and what to do to exercise the arm after the shot. It is not given in the muscle and it is a live vaccine, so that is why the allergy questions are asked. One with a weakened immune system, say from chemo or radiation, should not have the injection. Or, not if a person has been on a prolonged use of steroids, or is allergic to gelatin, or to the antibiotic, Neomycin. The latter two are included in the injection.
Wednesday, Feb 8
For Feb 7 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.17. Events: 2 CSR, 9 H, 12 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 41 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 49.
I braved the snow and drove to pick up Gloria, and we went to the Food Bank for music and the SAIL exercise class.
I came home tonight, and decided not to go back for tonight’s Nick Zentner lecture. The weather forecast was for nasty stuff – but wrong in the real world. People were in the ditch on my way home. I traveled 20 mph and was stressed (normally, I am okay driving in snow). This all over town was scary, with ice beneath the snow pack and no visibility. I could not get my defrosters to keep up on the front or back windshields.
We are supposed to get a foot of snow (that changed to 2-3″) tonight, and it is coming down hard at 4:00 p.m. I hope I can get out of my driveway tomorrow.
Tonight before we ate dinner (just about 7:00 p.m.), got a call from our neighbor that she had high-centered her car on the deep snow trying to get into her garage. John worked on it for about an hour, but will wait until morning to see about it. She doesn’t have to be to school until 2:00 p.m. so we have a little bit of time.
Thursday, Feb 9
For Feb 8 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.27. Events: 8H, 17 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 19 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Pulse avg. 55.0, low 50.
John and another neighbor got the next-door neighbor’s car out. Neighbor Ron brought an old tractor-like thing with a rear blade and got the snow out of the driveway. The car, a newer Honda, has nothing to hook on to for pulling – apparently Hondas are not supposed to be used in snow country. By turning the front tires to the side, they got in behind the tire and found a rod or brace made of steel. The rest of the car seemed to be plastic. As the car moved out of the ice holes (she had spun the tires, all 4, hard) John filled those with gravel. Problem solved.
I’m going to town for music at the Meadows Place. I made it there and cleaned the ice off my wipers. The trip in was still a little sketchy with no pavement showing until I reached the Kittitas Highway. All the roads had been shoveled but the view of the edge was not visible, so one had to slow way down when approaching coming traffic.
On my way out, my trip through the ditches across our driveway hit on the ice in the dead cat space and knocked out a chunk of ice. When I got to town, I kicked out the rest I could. On my return trip, I saw what had come out and veered some to the right, but too much, and did not come far enough forward to miss a pile of snow. Sadly, I stopped and added more work to John’s activities to clean up to allow the car to go forward into the parking shed. I am so sorry after all the shoveling he had done for the neighbor last night and this morning.
Friday, Feb 10
For Feb 9 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.93. Events: 2 CSR, 7 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 31 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85 10 events <88% with overall avg., 91.1%. Pulse avg. 55.1, low 50.
I left this morning about 9:15 to drive to the Early Childhood Learning Center, on the CWU campus (in Brooklane Village) to meet two others (Evelyn and Bob, friends from the Food Bank group) to present for 15 minutes to the preschool class of her 5-year old granddaughter. There were 8 children there, a teacher and two assistants. Classes are limited to 15, throughout the day, and they have 50 total students. I got there ahead of the others and asked the receptionist a bunch of questions.
Once we were in the classroom, we each described our musical instruments. Evelyn plays a banjo, I the violin, and Bob had his traveling (smaller) guitar and his harmonica. We visited and met each of the kids and learned their first name. We sang two songs at the start. The first one, several of the kids knew and sang along with us, “You are My Sunshine.” The second one they didn’t know, but we played it, as Bob likes to play the harmonica for it. He starts off and we only play our instruments until the second time through, when we sing the words. Then we did the “Alphabet Song” with all the letters to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and then we did the actual song (Twinkle, Twinkle). The kids knew that one. After that, Evelyn handed a bag of “shakers” to the teacher, who distributed them to the children. We wanted them to keep time to the music, and they did a good job.
The first song we did sang with them (and they did the gestures as well), was
If you’re happy and you know it
Clap your hands. Clap, Clap.
If you’re happy and you know it
Clap your hands. Clap, Clap.
If you’re happy and you know it
and you really want to show it
If you’re happy and you know it
Clap your hands. Clap, Clap.
Other verses include stomp your feet and shout Hooray! Finally, the last verse has all included. They had much fun with that one.
Finally, we sang, “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and had them keep time to the music again. They did well. We tried to have all the kids pick an animal, and managed to get a few different ones, Cow, Horse, Chicken, Kitty, Pig, Sheep, even a Fox for one little girl named Audrey. I asked her what sound a Fox made, and she sniffed – so that’s what we all did. We had 3 wanting Pig, but we only did it twice. Finally, we ended with Dog.
They all stood up to say thank you and goodbye, and we went on our way. We all had a good time.
Ocean’s dad was there and took a video, but had my old camera in his hand and snapped a few pictures. I forgot to set the focus for him, so they are not in good focus, but you can get the idea.
Evelyn and I listening to the children introducing themselves.
Bob, Evelyn, and I playing Oh! Susanna. I was wearing my Washington Old Time fiddlers hat.
It was sleeting when we came out, but the fog had cleared. When I left home the skies were blue, sun was shining, and everything was melting. I drove a little over 4 miles and ran into thick fog, so much that I had to turn on my headlights. I was in thick fog for the rest of my trip.
After we left the school, I needed gasoline and stopped. It was still sleeting. I remembered to use my Discover card, which is giving a 5% rebate on gasoline purchases for Jan-Mar. Our CITI Visa card gives 4% year-round. So my per gallon reduction was $.12/gal, making my cost $2.30/gal. We had only paid $2.29 I think the last time at Costco, where we get 4% off.
I left there for the feed store, where I got 50# of Critter 14 for the deer. They seem to be in need of food with all the ice and snow covering everything. We have given them two deer blocks they are also working on, when they are not checking the horse hay for seed heads.
From there I went to the Food Bank. Neither of the other two musicians could go, but I have friends from the horse club we were members of for 20 years, who always cook on Fridays there, so I went alone. I saw the director, Brooke, on my way in, and she was so appreciative I had come by. I set myself up and played for 20 minutes, until one of the regulars (Michael) came in for his meal, said to me, but it is not Wednesday, and I said I know, but I was in town with my fiddle, so I thought I would come by. He came over and stood behind me and sang with me the last song, “Your Cheating Heart.” We had fun. I put my violin away and went to be served. It was a great casserole with sausage, noodles, toasted breadcrumbs, all in a neat cream sauce, a serving of buttery corn niblets, a nice mixed green salad with red & yellow peppers, a sugarcoated cherry-filled piece of cake, and milk for a drink.
While there, I got a couple of donuts for us and some cake. Starbucks donates their day old stuff. The Food Bank encourages people to come in any time during the day for coffee and treats.
I came home to work on music for our group for the next two months. It has to be ready to go in 2 weeks.
Saturday, Feb 11
For Feb 10 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.17. Events: 5 CSR, 28 H, 1 OA, 17 RERA. Time on 9 hrs 9 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 54.4, low 50.
For music lovers:
From my friend and flute player, Amy Davison, in our music group, if you have access to Facebook, check this out. The Devil Went down to Georgia, a guy, a guitar, and a washing machine.
For dog lovers: one more video of from my friend and dog lover, Rich Kim, of a blind dog whose “seeing eyes” companion is another dog. This will cheer you up, if you have access to Facebook.
I worked more on meds and bills, and music. John started the trucks, let them warm and charge some, and worked more in the yard with snow and ice and icicle removal. This is the first year in about 5 that we’ve had big icicles. Like Goldilock’s porridge, the weather cannot be too hot nor too cold.
He had to feed the horses and cats before we left for the Grange for a Scholarship Fundraiser dinner. Every cent for the ticket entry ($15 each) and any extra donations once there, go to fund the student scholarships. One faithful long-time Grange member covers the cost of all the food. Three students received awards last year, and they sent greetings by video from their respective universities.
We were supposed to be at the Swauk Teanaway Grange, (on Ballard Road, Cle Elum) for the doors to open at 5:30. We got there at 5:15, and the parking lot was already filled, so we had to park on the Ballard Hill Road below. It was an uphill walking trip, but John was kind enough to go get the car and come up to pick me up at the end. I was extremely grateful. While I had on my boots, I did not want to risk falling on the ice.
The meal — a big effort by Jim & Patti Gylling — offered colored pasta, hot veggies (Carrots, Broccoli, and Cauliflower), ravioli, spaghetti sauce, sausage purchased at the local Owens Meats, a quality shop in Cle Elum, garlic bread with cheese, a salad with greens (spinach & beet greens, olives, tomatoes, carrots), and pie for dessert w/ whipped cream. The moon was full and bright on the drive home. We had good roads for much of the trip, except the last 5 miles or so off Hwy 97. John drove us up and back. It is about a 45-minute trip and a little over 25 miles one-way.
All people connected with education in any way were asked to fill out a pink index card with the years, location, and what they did (taught, assisted, drove bus). After dinner each was asked to stand to be honored for their service to education, and the descriptions on the pink cards were read by Claire Lucke, the leader of our Grange. I was the one with the longest record of teaching, 41 years: 22 at CWU, 15 at U of Idaho, 2 at U Iowa, 2 at Georgia State U. I left out my teaching at the Univ. of Cincinnati, where I taught computer programming. I also taught math and English in a downtown Atlanta Business School in my first year of college, where I was taking Gregg shorthand. The courses I mostly taught in 4 states were geography and GIS. John was recognized for his teaching as well in PA, ID, GA, and WA. He started teaching high school math and earth science in 1964/65.
Claire’s introduction (pink cards in her hand for later). Part of the crowd being served. John and I are at the far end of the middle table. After dinner, we watched a very nice presentation on the big screen, made by Jim Gylling – including videos of and by each of the three specifically to be shown at the fundraiser dinner. He and his wife, Patti, had put on the dinner and program again this year. Last year, their son was one of three recipients of a $1,000 scholarship. 
Travis reported about his studies in the Department of Aviation at the Univ. of North Dakota, even taking us up in a Cessna and a Piper (I think). Going through all his books and equipment was instructive. They reported via video from their respective universities – Holly at the Univ. of Idaho studying civil engineering (and enjoying mathematics classes, such as Differential Equations), and Kimberly at Creighton University, a private school in Omaha, NB, majoring in English and related topics (philosophy, ethics, ?). They all did a fantastic job of thanking the Grange members.
Here we are after dinner:
Many people had left and we were visiting and waiting for the parking lot to clear so John could retrieve the car and pick me up. We visited with Joy Rucker and her mom, Babs Ballard.
This was the scene at 5:15 p.m. when we arrived from the east on Ballard Hill. People were coming out of the parking lot to park on the road. We stopped uphill from the driveway. I got out and John parked the car close to the edge. Then we walked down the snow-covered road, up the driveway, and to the front door (right of the steeple, back ~ 3/4 of the building. There is a parking lot in front and behind the building, with a smaller one at the entrance (left above).
Below you can see the setting in good weather.
Note the car on the far right – that is about where we parked in the snow and walked.
Sunday, Feb 12
For Feb 11 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI=2.83. Events: 2 CSR, 1 CA, 1 OA, 16 H, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with (max = 19 L/min). Ended 5:00 a.m., back without anything (Oximeter either) until 9:00. Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 52.4, low 47.
John has done the morning feedings and is cooking brunch now.
Ham, fried potatoes, and a cheese/mushroom omelet. 
I need to fix the card to send to Dr. Sharma. I am going to put Charlie’s picture playing guitar in our group, mine with violin at Veteran’s Day by flag at AAC, and mine with Ted Leber and Santa Claus at the AAC, with a thank you for performing our open-heart surgeries and wish him well on his recovery (from open-heart surgery). I have been alternating with blog work and washing dishes. John’s been outside some today, feeding animals and moving (not much) snow.
The grape vine pruners are e-mailing back and forth about that, but the nasty weather is not giving up. John thinks it will be another week before he starts. Others may try to get a few hours in, but even that seems unlikely.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan
Pheasant shares with the quail and deer inside and outside the fence. Right photo shows a doe jumping over the fence. The deer are also raiding our plate of feline hard food at the front door. John now has put 5-gallon buckets all around the entrances to keep the deer out, but allow the cats in. We have 4 feral cats eating our dry food. 
First People of the Americas (as revealed by their skeletal remains) by James Chatters [left most above – red shirt, with Nick Zentner, CWU Geologist.] [CWU Anthropology Prof. Steve Hackenberger, right, waiting to introduce Jim]
The pound cake is around the bowl of strawberries, and the angel food cake surrounds the edges. We carried 4 bags of strawberries, in 8-ounce bags. We only brought 1 bag home, and perhaps only 1/4 of all the cake. 
I was the photographer, because the staff and volunteers were busy cooking and serving. Therefore, I did not get in any of the pictures, but if you want to see all the photos I took, check on Facebook next week for the page for “Ellensburg Adult Activity Center”. The AmeriCorps gals will post the pictures I took.
Noella Wyatt with cake, photo left by Nancy Hoffman, and ones on right by me of the cake. Note from the back of the sofa, the litter of chocolate cats, and others all over, and under the cake. Notice the very clever scratching marks on the sofa’s right side, middle lower right photo. Even the sofa is edible.
Our full moon has been lovely, and this morning’s sunrise skies were beautiful with pastel colors, but I did not get my picture of the moon before it went behind the trees, so I will show you, but you best get the wonderful views from the Seattle area.
Left is our backyard view where the moon is setting behind the trees, and right is out the front door.
Compare to the link given above for yesterday from KOMONEWS (in Seattle) of the beautiful full moon.
It is still in the back of my car, along with 80 pounds of Black Oil Sunflower seeds in 20# bags that were on sale (through the end of January) at Ace Hardware. Buy one at $15.99 and get one free. John has now removed the sunflower seeds.
Now for a peek at today’s action in California at the Vizsla field trial for Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (call name Daisy), co-owned by Nancy with Jeri Conklin in Lancaster, CA. The timing for the trial was good. CA is getting hit with rain and/or snow in great amounts, but today was between storms. Friend Sonja with horses and dogs, in South Lake Tahoe, is up to her keister in snow. The Tahoe area has power outages and washed out roads. 
At the line, wetting down and ready for the breakaway.
Daisy on point, with judge’s boot blocking her face. Holding and turning to watch the flush, made her head visible.
Scott Azevedo wetting her down after the find before finishing the stake, and on the right, in the “spa” at the end of her run. Look at the water droplets in each photo. 
I went to the food bank today, but skipped SAIL exercise class today to run errands so I could get back in time for a much-needed haircut. I stopped by for some sunflower seeds at Ace Hardware that John wanted (on a good sale – buy one bag, get one free). The fellow before me had just bought the last 4 bags, so they will have more in this Friday, will reserve 4 bags for me, and call us. (That did not occur; we went by Friday to no avail because while they had been shipped in, they’d not yet taken them from the back storage area). I went by our car mechanic (Seth Motors now run by the grandson, Justin Seth) also to pick up 2017 calendars for John (his request), and while there he gave me two baseball hats for us and another carrying bag with their name on the side. [When first in EBRG and still giving blood, John met Grandfather Seth – a volunteer providing a steady hand and a glass of orange juice.] I also went by Super 1 for some sale items, and on the way home, I went by Bi-Mart for more of the reduced price canned cat food. All this rushing around, was caused by wanting to make it back home to leave my violin inside in the warmth, and bring in the groceries, so that I could head over a mile to get my haircut at 3:00 p.m. That happened, and I had a nice visit with Celia and Bobby Winingham and viewed their local contingent of backyard deer. 
Where’s my dinner (1-4-17) _______ Same buck in 2016 (pix by Celia)
The two on the right are “our” Cedaridge pups, Molly & Tobie. I drove them at 8 wks of age to Spokane and Anna’s hubby Paul flew in from Wisconsin to meet me. He carried them back together in a carrier in the passenger part of the plane. So cool. These are not the first dogs they had from us, but sadly, they will be the last because we are no longer breeding Brittanys, since the last litter in 2010.
The young women in two of the pictures are Megan Willwerth and Lauren Healey, working for 10 months as AmeriCorps employees here at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center. The left photo shows them starting the buffet so they can go serve Black-eyed Pea Soup to the people at the tables. After lunch, they conducted a New Year’s Trivia game for 3 teams (tables) at the party. The questions were in three categories: Facts about New Years, New Year’s Traditions, and 2016 Pop Culture. The last being a topic that we become farther away with each new movie or TV show.
Left is the smaller pan of potatoes we took. Middle shows the larger one in front of the woman in the photo. Right shows part of John’s plate, our shared pie, my plate, and my bowl of soup (black-eyed peas with veggies, bacon, and sour cream). 
Left is Katrina Douglas, Director of the center; right are her parents Dudley & Sharon Kell, whom we met at our table. They have only been in Ellensburg since June, and we told them about the Dudley Bridge over the Yakima River west of EBRG.
Left is a photo of a collection of dolls from around the world that belongs to Marion, an AAC member who brought them to display because of the international theme. Right is a photo op of John and me with props, but his sign said 2017, and he didn’t hold it high enough to be seen behind my little New Year’s Hat (also provided by the AAC). The 17 of 2017 is behind my hat. We enjoyed ourselves at the party.
Ending the day with a beautiful sunset, shows snow, of which we got at least 2 more inches the next day, and it is still snowing Sunday, as we finalize this treatise. The plan is for 2″ more tonight and then flurries through Wednesday. West of us, in the Cascades, there will be more snow and strong winds. I-90 is open but a mess (Sunday at 3). We need to go south, on I-82, Tuesday about Noon.
Left I took from the kitchen window, and then John told me the sun was on them from the bedroom window. The right photo is taken through a dirty window. That’s the next window to clean. Quail live by having a hair-trigger flight plan so I can’t step outside or open a window. Another problem is that all my photos in the blog are low resolution.
Pheasant in front yard. Middle picture-see Mt. Ash berry in his mouth, and the right one shows his foot is banded. Check out the Pheasant in the front yard, 1-7-17 video below. 
Pineapple is on the left between the squash and our potato creation. 
Monday, Dec 26 
This collage is busy, but if you look from left to right across the top and bottom, you’ll see the story unfolding. Top left shows Daisy waiting her turn to run. Middle top shows a Jumbo White Coturnix Quail flushing that she probably thought was a dickey bird. She chased, jumped, grabbed, and retrieved to hand to Jeri. Normally, one would not praise “not stopping to flush”, but in this case, knowing she had previously quit retrieving, made it all okay. Her spirit has returned. 
Daisy on second point and Jeri searching for the Chukar. She had to go around the tree to launch the bird, and Daisy held and watched. 
Third Chukar find. Jeri searched and finally found it and flushed. Far right, Daisy marks the bird, but stays put. Good girl.
The Mariposa vineyard surrounds their home and winery (not seen), White Heron Cellars. Foreground vines belong to Jones of Washington and likely is their smallest vineyard. Jones is a major family corporation and this little plot has a storied background. 
Left to right: Erik, John, Phil, Mark, Tom, Bill, & Cameron
Behind Linda (Bill) and Audrey (Phil), on the left is the wood, some of which John contributed this year. 
Nancy (John)-Phyllis (Cameron)-Lynne (Tom)-Margaret (Mark)
Altesse-2016 Roussanne-2015 Chickens protected by dog.
Bonfire (some vine cuttings are required) and side dishes
Potatoes (some purple) and sausage steaming over wine and vine cuttings. Tops stay on the iron skillet roasters.
The cheese comes from the Puget Sound or left side of the State, because the proper cheese can’t be found locally. Cameron creates the bed of coals for cooking beneath the cheese, which is skewered on a 3-pronged pole mounted device to move it over the fire to melt – and then to swivel away during “scrapping” or the “racletting.”
This plate shows a purple potato, some slaw, and a sausage with the cheese coming and being scraped down onto Bill’s plate.
Three more plates served, with John on the right. 
My parting shot of the view from our Raclette site, over the vineyard and down toward Crescent Bar and West Bar. The right shows folks visiting and saying goodbyes around the roaring fire.
It was a fun day. We were gone 7 hours and got home just at dark.
Below is a photo of Bekah and Vincent. Vincent is from Taiwan and lives in Sydney, Australia. Bekah has been a meteorologist in Wellington, New Zealand, but her company is moving her to their Sydney office. 
They did not have a lot of time in the states, and with many people and places to visit, so we were very grateful they shared some time with us. And, a big thanks to John and Robin for giving us packages of some very lean ground beef (best we’ve ever had) from their herd. We have cooked one package, and had a meal of hamburgers one night and then nachos the next. I took photos I will send them, but will not put any more in this week’s blog.
Left are her pictures she shared on Facebook to see if I wanted it. It was new and she was not going to use it. The right pictures my insulated carrier I will use for it. I photographed it when I got home, in front of the woodshed outside our back patio door. 
Lovely card from our friends in Salzburg, Austria, we met in Idaho at the University in the 1970s. Heinz Slupetsky with his family, wife and two girls, has kept up with us all these years. 
and through the snow
First, he gave them a deer block. Here he has made pictures for me to use in a collage to answer questions you might have. The deer block he hammered on a little to show the contents better. Claims to be 10% protein. The smallest doe (fawn) has figured out nibbling on it.
She prefers this cob mixture. It’s easier to eat, and higher in protein.
Here’s the scratch and here are the quail Christmas morning next to the deer block finding the scratch. Now he has a place in the backyard for them, but they haven’t found it yet.
I loaned it to a resident to hold and play with our songs, because I have both hands occupied with the violin, and I could not attach it to my foot. I need to find out her last name so I can write her a sweet thank you note, and send her a thank you picture.
Hers she donated to John. It is new. It has many slots for cards and things. I think one will work well for his picture ID (Driver’s License). (John says: Washington politicians fuss about silly things and ignore their duties. Our WA drivers licenses are soon to be obsolete with regard to national security; called REAL ID. WA residents won’t be able to get on an airplane or visit a US Gov’t Office, such as Social Security. They have known of this for 10 years.)
I wonder if John remembers where he got this (he doesn’t). I know he never used the coin purse, so the one given to us by Lindsey is perfect. 
The broad view shows the placement in the limbs of the tree, and the shots on the right are two Juncos enjoying the scratch. Generally the name Dark-Eyed Junco is given to these birds but there are color-pattern differences.
John made the pecan pies from his mom’s recipe. My hat is from my friend since the 6th grade when we met. Her name was Nancy also, and we went around Atlanta as a duet playing our guitars and singing, when we were in high school. We both played violin in the high school orchestra. 
On the way home we drove to the Brickmill Road display of Christmas lights we saw several nights ago. Below is a collage of part of what we saw.
The top left is the entrance and at the end of the driveway is a sign pointing up the drive for more lights. We took this as an invitation and drove farther toward the house. The top right picture was near the entrance, and the bottom panorama is south of the house, where we turned around. It was a striking presentation.
I delivered the computer to Monica’s office in Geography for getting Microsoft Office Suite software put on and went by the bread room for some sweets that I planned to take to the Retired Geographers’ meeting Tuesday morning.
Left (taken from the very right side of the other) goes back to October behind the shed; over the “Jay’s folly” depression – camera at a utility pole. Note all the green-yellowish vegetation. Right photo taken Nov 30 is from the opposite direction, showing the reduction of brush and trees (fuel). The center of the depression is 75 feet from the back (wood siding) of our house. 
For these two, note the utility pole (at corner of shed). The slightly brownish brush in the center (left photo) is Elderberry with a brush pile in front of it. The “after” photo on the right has had enough material removed that the big trunk of a Ponderosa Pine is now visible. It is on the neighbor’s property. The stumps of the Aspen trees have been left long so leverage can be gotten if we want to remove them. These are likely clones and all part of one large organism. For context, see 
Left photo is the entrance to the north side of the folly before, and the right photo is the last day’s clearing on the left (south) side, directly behind our house. All the limbs and trunks under 8 inches diameter went through the chipper. What a time saver that is. They also piled logs for John to use later for firewood.
You can see the two Ponderosas that are in both photos, and the one on the right centers on the “folly” hole, which had filled with brush. Some of that (very entangled) is still there, waiting for John to pull it out and get into a brush pile they can come back in the spring to put through the chipper. The FireWise crew had promised an upper-County landowner to do a small job before they quit for winter. Plan is for John to use the truck and a chain to get the stuff out to a better place. 
Left to right: Dee Eberhart, Jo & Ken Hammond, George Macinko, Diane & Jim Huckabay, John behind, Urban Eberhart, John Bowen, Sterling Quinn, James & Lillian Brooks, Rose Shriner. 
Jazzercise was today at 2:00 p.m. at the senior center. It was quite a workout today, and we all felt it the next day. I felt before then by having to play fiddle tonight, when I went back to Hearthstone for Christmas music. That was with “The Connections.” Because of all the different keys changes that thankfully I can do (by ear) because I know the songs, I was the only other instrument besides the piano. There we saw a bunch of our followers who love the music. As a kid in elementary school, I learned the 
Megan Willwerth is on the left and Lauren Healey is on the right.
You may wish to hear it on You tube with photographs of the time in WWI – 1915.
Haley on the front row of the audience and the beginnings of our table of food. Haley’s mom, Amy is at the end of the table with the red shirt with white Christmas tree. We also had cheese cake and raspberry sherbet punch.
Here I am with Haley on the piano bench, just before we started. I made it into a collage, with the left photo being out of focus, but showing both the little derby hats with holly and deer antlers. Haley gave me the green one to match her red one, two weeks ago, and now checks to be sure I have it for our weekly sessions. In the first, we have both hats on but in the second, you can see she is tipping her hat and waving. I was sitting in the middle of our musical group to be the “conductor” and to coordinate the songs in the audience booklets.
Left photo, John’s early morning push-brooming efforts. Right shows him cleaning a little from the newly scrapped driveway, and the deer keeping track of the activities.
Then about 3:30, when John was back in the house, a little buck with 3 points on one side and 2 on the other, visited. We have been leaving the gate open, but they are able to jump the 4′ fence. It is just an unnecessary danger with snow and buckets there.
Likely a 2 or 3 year-old. He showed up this week and is sometimes traveling with the regulars.
Left photo is the X-ray of the two implants. The one on the right is smaller because of the room in my mouth. Each will eventually be covered with a gold crown. Right photo is the view inside my mouth. Both were taken at the 11-28-16 appointment, and shipped to me via encrypted email. Much amazing technology.
It has an SD card slot on the right side (out of sight here), and 3 USB ports (one 2.0 and two 3.0), plus some others.
In addition, this is the report from SleepyHead with CPAP merged with the Oximetry.
If I compared to Friday this week, we’d get totally different graphical results while the CPAP was off. Very strange indeed. 
Sue on left, Randy in middle, getting John ready to go to surgery.
Dr. Harris came in and John asked him how big the piece of mesh was. He held up his hands to show (and you can hear the conversation in the video below). 
The collage above shows the vitals screen as John was coming out from under the aesthetic, and his blood pressure was lowered significantly. Screen shows 42 for pulse and that, too, is a few beats low. Occasionally it is 44 but usually up towards 50. On the right, nurse Lin, is talking with him and removing some of the things so we can leave.
John in the waiting room at 6:30 a.m. before admission to Surgical Outpatient services (they abbreviate, SOP, which I find strange). On the right, he still has his intravenous hookup on his left hand, but Lin removed it. We were ready for the trip home. 
Then early morning, 8:40 a.m., 4 of the crew arrived for their last day of fire-wise work.
We decided later to go feed the male outside cat, and put out hay for the horses, down farther in the pasture. That done, John went to get the mail and paper, which came after dark last night. As we were coming back, two of the crew came out in the chipper rig (as seen above) through the orchard, to take one fellow back to town so that he could leave for the Puget Sound area before Snoqualmie Pass got messy. Two workers stayed. The fellow returned about 10:40, and I took a video of the trip around the house I had missed earlier. 
Haley
Here I am showing my costume at the start and on my way out the door, I posed with my white elephant gift (a microwave egg cooker). 
First shot and the on the right, they are all saying HO HO HO !
Paper one on left, gift box in middle (our name spelled wrongly), and porcelain ornament on right.
We started at sunrise with 3 residents waiting to have their morning treat. John obliged and threw them a bucket full of cuttings. Mountain Ash trees are pretty but the limbs break easily and outgrow their strength. In past years birds have gotten most of the fruit but John wanted the tree trimmed back, and did so before his visit to the hospital. They would eat more than they get. Now they are resting under the walnut trees, so we had to circumvent them and go out the back door with Annie to throw hay into the feeders and over the fence for the horses.
Here we are waiting for John to bring the branches of berries. Mom is in the rear (dark spot on left cheek), and the buck twin is in the middle, little doe in front. It has been good to watch them grow from little babies with white spots.
A company that has made large bells since 1570 made one (ordered in 1751) for the Pennsylvania State House. This was 36+ years before the Constitutional Convention and Ratification, 1787–1789, and the United States of America. A news story this week claims the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made the Liberty Bell is going out of business.