Category: Combined News

“Dog Days” originates from the ancient folks, who associated the rising of the star Sirius, known as the “Dog Star,” with the hottest and most uncomfortable days of summer in the regions about the Mediterranean Sea.
Until Friday, this has been a cool week on the Naneum Fan at 2,240 feet elevation. But Saturday was warm (89°) and today, Sunday it came up to 99°F. Monday and Tuesday are each expected to reach 94. Some claim the Dog Days go through to the 11th. Wednesday is supposed to be cooler, so we are very close.
Mornings to about 11:00 are sufficiently pleasant so that I can do a few things outside. I’ve been working on dismembering three Hawthorn trees that are old, large, with dead limbs, and close to a small barn. The deer will eat the leaves and the pea-sized fruit. They manage to so so despite the thorns. The next day I move the limbs and cut new ones. The young ones still have spots and are more skittish of me than the older ones.
Another animal I see is the Douglas Squirrel – inset in the photo below. They have a couple of favorite places to sit and eat the seeds from the Ponderosa Pine cones. The leftovers accumulated under a tree in front of the house are in the image below. Before they take it apart, a cone is the size of a baseball or larger.

Washington radar sites are lighting up at night – not with rain, but with birds heading south. Cliff Mass, a Univ. of WA professor, put up a post today with images.

https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/08/birds-know-that-summer-is-ending-soon.html?lr=1754867156634

The technology can show which direction the birds are migrating.

There is another fascinating technology for those of us that grew up having to talk to an operator to make a phone call. Modern phones dispense with all we went through. Case in point – Nephew Eric visited a cousin in Sweden and we talked for 15 minutes. My last contact with Lars was at Christmas in 1992.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

I have several projects on a daily basis, none particularly interesting.
The animals and I have to eat and this also requires purchases and clean up. Boring.
Each day I try to fill one bushel-size box with stuff destined for a land fill. Much of this would burn, but that isn’t done in this area. Mornings have been windy and cold, a good time to stay busy inside. Dust. Boring.

I do a bit of landscaping every day, and some rebuild of fence where a couple of posts rotted off after 30 years in the ground. I’m also cleaning up an area under some trees where I had an outside workbench. It became a place for stuff that should have been discarded.
This area is under a row of Austrian Pine – obtained from the plant sale I volunteered with before they decided to go with “native only” material. I have just 5 and they are not happy. From the web I learned they “ look like they’ve had some “winter-burn”, caused by dry soils in winter and/or sudden and drastic temperature changes.
” Sure enough, that fits the Naneum Fan characteristics.
They are only 15 feet tall, but right beside them are two (native) Ponderosa Pines about 30 feet tall. They have two issues. I planted them thinking I would relocate them, so they are just 2 feet apart. Still, growing like weeds, they are next to the utility lines and too close to the buildings for my fire sense.
A neighbor (2.5 miles) has a personnel business of tree removal, trimming, and chipping. For him to work, I need to clean out the mess I’ve made over the last 30 years. Also, the trees along the driveway need trimmed, and I have a dozen brush piles that need removed.
The only good thing about all this will be the feeling when the project is finished.
Then there are horses. I’m working with Rodeo City Equine Rescue to foster the 3 Tennessee Walking Horses. These we bought in 2010 when Nancy was set on getting back on a horse and riding with friends. The horse she had been using was old, so she found new ones. Then the medical folks said “Bad Idea”!
We are in the beginning of this process. The horses haven’t been handled or trailered for 10 years. About every other day I get them in a small enclosure, halter them, and do a bit of ground training.
I planned on doing some of this today – but horses find wind objectionable. Things that shouldn’t – move and noise comes from all directions. Below is a chart of our wind today:
The purple numbers indicate the high wind gust for the previous hour.
I don’t like those sorts of winds either. So I decided to do errands in EBRG. I need gas in a can for the lawn mower, so needed to take a truck. At some time (when?) I had the radiator cap off and while the 50 yard trips on the place didn’t bother the engine, the 20 minute drive to town did. Just as I made the turn into the first store, the engine quite, steam came from under the hood, and the electrical power (steering & brakes) quit.
I, sort of, made it into the parking lot and out of the way. Then I found that my new iPhone was not well charged. I learned how to operate the phone on “Low Power Mode.” Triple A (AAA of Washington) was great in acknowledging where I was, and that I had a phone that might go away while we talked. However, the towing service had two truck issues today, so a driver was in Yakima getting a replacement.
About 80 minutes later, Kim of AAA called to make sure I was getting the service I needed. I explained, and she (in western WA) was able to check and tell me the driver was “on Canyon Road south of I-90 and heading north”. That told me the unit was less than 5 minutes away.
Because of Panic20/21 I had to ride home in my truck, facing backward, and perched up on the flatbed transport vehicle. The photo below shows the idea – but my truck was aimed the other way.
My truck is a 40 year old Chevy, so this may be the end of it – 10 years overdue.
I did use the 90 minute interval to walk to the grocery store just 2 blocks away. I ate an early supper while I waited, so did not have to fix anything but pour a glass of wine, after the animals were fed.

A boring week, except for the last few hours.
Hope things were better for you.

From the Naneum Fan,
John

I’m going to combine the 3 things we have been doing into just one.
Health news will be first up.
Other interesting stuff will follow, and indicated.

Current health & related situation:

Serious issues here; briefly . . . (for those recently learning of this)

Many know that Nancy is having a life-changing health episode. Some may not know that she had Rheumatic fever as a child and years later needed a Mitral Valve replacement. That was done in December, 2009. She also needed a bypass at Thanksgiving that year, and had heart damage. Then the blood thinner Heparin almost killed her.
You can search up Heparin – HIT.

2020 has been unkind and Nancy’s heart disease has progressed. Other issues, maybe related, include declining mind-hand coordination. She has used multiple e-mail accounts for the earth science jobs list and a few other things. I need to figure that stuff out and shut them down.

We have avoided Covid-19, but not Panic20. Many functions in Washington State were closed, including the Senior Center and the eldercare facilities where she & others played music. These kept Nancy busy, interested, and doing soft exercise. There is evidence of a linkage between these things and elderly health. Nancy’s health was already compromised, but Panic20 didn’t help.

We have had the first of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The second doze is set for 3/18 (John) and 3/19 (Nancy).
Tomorrow (Sunday) she is to have pre-sleep study Covid test. Then she goes for the sleep study Wednesday at 8PM, and I pick her up the next morning a 6AM. The place is 50 miles away, so that’s a bummer.
The cardiologist wants her to get more Oxygen at night, that requires some form of breathing assist. That may mean a CPAP unit.
She doesn’t have the serious apnea issues, but apparently does have {assumption from expert knowledge} shallow breathing during sleep.
She went through this years ago, then lost a lot of weight, and stopped using CPAP.
A weight loss of over 10% triggers a “new test requirement” – apparently so the proper sort of apparatus can be prescribed – and likely the health providers meet legal norms. By the time the test is done, and so on, about 6 weeks will have gone by since the cardiologist said she needed to up the night time Oxygen in her blood (SpO2).

As her heart function declined (and maybe something else unknown), sometime in late December her legs swelled. Also the Potassium level spiked. Doc took her off one medication and doubled the other water pill – Lasix. We were introduced to compression socks. We wish for you, dear reader, to never encounter this need.

Newest wrinkle is finding an in-home hospital bed designed to allow raising her feet and legs above her heart. The idea is to ease the burden on the heart. Friend Elise (New Jersey) has been helpful in sparking this and providing information. A Monday chore.

Check back next Sunday for updates.
Thanks,
John