Saturday, June 30 Some of this you heard part of the story in last week’s blog, but the afternoon BBQ changed a little from the original plans. We drove to Roslyn, the place where Northern Exposure was filmed between 1990 and 1995,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Exposure
up through town on Pennsylvania Ave, to our friends’ house on the hill on the way up to the old cemetery. Roslyn was historically a mining community and the cemetery is filled with numerous cultural artifacts from all the different nationalities and ethnicities, represented in the town over time.
This comment is from Wikipedia:
“Between 1886 and 1929, workers came from countries such as Italy, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia as well as from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to work in the mines. These immigrants maintained the traditions of their homeland, as seen in the historic Roslyn Cemetery with its 26 individual ethnic and lodge cemeteries. Many Roslyn residents today are descendants of these immigrant miners.”
What’s neat to me is that my grandmother, Alouisa Petash Wilkins, was from present-day Slovenia. Okay, back to the BBQ. We were there early, but actually sat around and visited until the bratwurst, all beef hot dogs, veggie burgers, sirloin burgers, and corn were grilled. People brought some neat salads and we had taken a large pan of our Cherry-Blueberry-Walnut Cobbler. We didn’t get back to EBRG to pick up some music for tomorrow until quite late, and got home, even later. John still had all the animal chores to do (exercising dogs, and feeding all the outside cats and the horses).
Sunday, July 1 Truly this is a day of rest (at least for me, as I slept in). John started early on the computer and then out to move the rest of the hay into the barn. He loaded all but 19 bales, because he had to stop to train (remind) Jazz that he is not supposed to walk away from him in the field when he walks toward and calls him. John has been fitting in horse-training sessions with the younger horses for some time now. It is sunny and no longer rainy, so that is nice. He came in to cool down and for a mid-day nap, and we just finished the last of the Jewel strawberries fixed in the fridge. He will go pick more this afternoon and give me another chore. Today I must spend time on getting the music together that a few folks were missing for tomorrow’s EBRG – BBQ & musical performance. It’s in fairly good shape so won’t take a lot of my time. The major thing I must do today is give John a haircut. I have needed to do it for several weeks. I surely wish we had put in the price of a haircut over the years since I have been cutting it. We would have a nice nest egg for retirement! (Unfortunately, the haircut never got done in time for the events we attended this week).
Monday, July 2 Patriotic music in Ellensburg today (our group played for an early 4th of July Picnic inside the Hal Holmes community center next to the city library). We began playing music at 11:45 and played for over an hour. The first and last songs were the same, and everyone in the room stood and saluted the flag. We sang the national anthem a cappella with the audience. It was moving. After we played and sang a number of songs, including patriotic ones and songs about the USA, we were treated to a free lunch, consisting of hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, potato salad, macaroni salad, large sliced tomatoes, lettuce, chips, watermelon, lemonade, and ice cream. We also had a nice visit over lunch. Shortly after I almost finished my lunch, my friend Karen, came in with her accordion and her packets of music lyrics for everyone in the audience to have access to the words for the sing-along. I went on the stage with her and we lead the group, singing and playing our respective instruments, for another 45 minutes. It’s no wonder my body ached from all the bowing activity.
Tuesday, July 3 Today marks the day 2 weeks ago that I received a box in the mail from John’s sister, Peggy, in Ohio, with a neat Hohner Melodica with a 27-key keyboard. It is a German-made instrument her friend Kathy had for use in the classroom years ago (she recently died at 86). It is an instrument one blows on and plays similar to an accordion, with a smaller keyboard–the only problem is you cannot play and sing at the same time! (Ha ha). It was so nice that she shared it with me. In addition, she included two music books, one of them songs of the sixties by Peter, Paul, and Mary. I’m thrilled with that so I can put the music into my software to make for the groups with which I sing. Folk songs are ALWAYS popular. It is impossible to find music scores on line free anymore. The other book is a beginning guitar book, which John can use to learn.
John picked over 5 lbs. strawberries this morning, and we fixed them and froze 4 packages before I went to the imaging session at the hospital for a mammogram follow-up to the one 6 months ago. It was a tough session; being a complete regular mammogram, followed by four magnification X-rays. Lifting my arms out of my range of motion, and leaning in and turning my head was painful, and trying to get around the ICD while being squeezed for the X-rays. Filled the car’s gas tank on the way home and came back for lunch. John is taking the truck and dropping me off for an acupuncture treatment at 2:00. He’ll go do some shopping and then pick me up and we will go over to pick up the travel trailer. It took us an hour and a half to deal with the trailer. The head of the service department charged me for certain things, but also threw in other stuff free (e.g., fixed the screen door that was missing a push piece to close out bugs; steam cleaned the carpet; gave me the battery warranty free). He installed a new 12-volt battery. Filled our water tank, propane tanks free, and put gasoline in the new generator. This afternoon we bought a water line replacement and the connections for the sewer hose. He showed us how to start the propane fridge and water heater, plus the inside room heater. Before that, he had shown us how to start the generator, turn on, and adjust the newly installed a/c. They had fixed the wiring on the tail light that was screwed up, and replaced all running lights, tail light bulb, and many little things on the trailer for connections or door access that needed fixed. They had to change the wiring connection to the electronic brakes and the power to the trailer. So much for buying an old trailer “as is” at a good price. We paid for the rest of the work and left for home. I have been hydrating myself with lemonade ever since getting home because of all the stuff done to my body today. I should have taken a nap, but now it is too late.
Wednesday, July 4 Happy Fourth of July! Both John and I slept in, worn out from our activities of yesterday. We drove an hour to George, WA for two free concerts and a free piece of a giant cherry pie (with a slab of ice cream for an additional 50 cents). While there, we met and visited with our friends since 1988 at CWU, Jim Hinthorne (and his wife Jean), who was a geologist that I team-taught GIS with, once arriving. There were 3 courses we teamed on, all with UNIX based G.R.A.S.S. (Intro GIS, Advanced GIS, and Database Development). He has since retired and they own a large motor home that is their home on wheels, pulling a car behind it. They have come up to Crescent Bar on the Columbia River to stay for several weeks, and come to Ellensburg to visit their daughter’s family. It was a nice reunion (only 20 miles up the hill from the Columbia River, to meet us in George). The music groups playing were “Jangles” (Seattle’s Premier Western Swing Band) at noon, and at 1:30 a young group of boys, called “North Country,” played Bluegrass. We met our friends about 1:00 p.m. and enjoyed a great visit under a huge Hackberry Elm tree, with a view of the stage and the two musical groups. They brought their dogs, and many of the youngsters enjoyed petting them. We stayed until 5:00! I was so tired when we got home I laid down for at least an hour; never went to sleep but vegetated well. Our neighbors started fireworks before dark, and finally have stopped, we hope. Two of the dogs get anxious and the horses get excited but what they think is unknown. Even though the Britts are “bird” dogs we haven’t done much with the current group. The CWU era was not conducive to training and field trails. We transitioned to short horse rides early and that has waned with my health issues. One dog settles for a crate and the youngest one goes between John and me, wanting attention and assurance. I think she picks up on her mom’s anxiety. Thankfully, the other two Brittanys were fine with the noise. John also went out twice to give the horses some carrots to keep them calm. Our neighbor – other side of a row of trees from our pasture – was setting off large firecrackers and a few aerial rockets.
Thursday, July 5 Nancy slept in and John started early with chores. We will be playing music at Royal Vista nursing home and delivering packing boxes to a friend for moving across town. That got done along with several other things. Now it is after dinner, and it’s late, but we need to fix strawberries. They are lovely looking. John picked a big mess of them; all beautiful and large – variety = Jewels. They would win a blue ribbon at the county fair, but it is not till Sept 1 weekend, and they will be done by then. We just fixed them up and have 3.5 pounds of strawberries to freeze. Now from last night we will have some on our ice cream before falling into bed.
Friday, July 6 Started with having an estimate for a pole building to house hay and our travel trailer. John took Ebony to the vet for a bad front left leg – bowed tendon.
http://www.mdhorse.com/showarticle.asp?kk=50
$150 later, we have medicine for her pain and will need to get her front feet shod with lifts to relieve some pressure. She’s getting rather old and we haven’t ridden her in the last 10 years or more – for the very reason that she has had this before, and as the linked article indicates, these injuries easily get worse and never really fully heal. Late in the afternoon, I drive to Silver Ridge Ranch to play music for a square dance for young people on the (Puget Sound area) Mormon trek re-enactment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers#Reenactments
[Start at the top of the link for a fuller story.]
We will be there from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.. Here I am, reporting back after the last 4+ hours. I am quite tired from my escapades. I stopped off at the Cottage Cafe in Cle Elum and had a nice layered breakfast for dinner at 4:45 p.m., a Corned Beef Hash Skillet, with hash browns, choice of eggs (3 I think), corned beef hash and covered with cheddar cheese. Last time I had my eggs over easy, but this time I had them scrambled. I had salsa on it. Also, it came with toast, so I had an English muffin with strawberry jam. It was funny how I ordered it. I asked to have 1/2 of it packaged to take with me, and I intended to eat a half there sitting at the counter on a barstool. Well, not exactly. I had one piece of the toast, and couldn’t eat all of the 1/2 served, so I added the remainder into the package to go. I should have asked for only 1/3 to eat, as it is an extremely generous portion of food. I put the carton inside my cooler for the trip to the square dance play date and then on home. We will eat the remainder tomorrow. I was frustrated to see the price of gas in Cle Elum at a cash-only place, was $ 2.43/gal., when I had paid $2.61 a few days before in EBRG. They will take credit cards but add 10¢ per gallon. John had found this place last week when I was out of town, while traveling to the Buck Brannaman horse training clinic.
Where we played tonight was only 15 miles west on I-90 from supper and is called Silver Ridge Ranch. The place is mainly an RV park but horses are encouraged, and John and I have ridden before on the roads and trails there. I was vaguely familiar with the surroundings, so I managed to find the area where we played without too much effort. The musicians had never played together before (not more than a pair). Two Asian violinists are brother and sister. Bob and I play together in two groups. The other violinist has never played with any of us. The keyboard player and bass had played together, the guitar player has played before with Bob, and once, I guess with me, long ago. It was our first time to play together as a group, and we did amazingly well. The violins and guitar had electric pickups on our instruments so we could be heard.
The kids were good sports, but they had not had any lessons in square dancing, and there was not a caller there. We started them out with Oh, Johnny, Oh, which has square dance calls in the words of the song. Therefore, we had to teach them dosado, allemande left, promenade, and a few other movements.
http://noriks.tripod.com/ENGLISH/514100e.html
The leader could not carry a tune, and kept getting out of synch with our musical accompaniment. So, after several failures, I took the microphone from him and lead the group. Considering I have never done that in my life, it was rather neat. I think I last square dance I danced was in elementary school. I only called the one song, multiple times. After that we just taught them the moves, described it, or had someone from the audience demo (for example, a couple from the RV park joined in and taught them to waltz, later, after the Oh, Johnny, Oh stuff). The kids eventually got very good at that. We also taught them the Grand March, where they pair off finally up to 8 people across. It was fun to watch, finally, when it all came together. We played from 6:00 to 8:00, and for the 15 minutes previous, trying to get used to one another and get the volumes on the microphones correctly balanced. The drive home was troublesome because of the setting sun that was blinding in the mirrors. I had to keep changing them (side ones and the rear view one). It took me just under an hour to return, however. My body was also aching from all the action playing and climbing down and back into the bowl, carrying instruments, and other equipment. I used my mom’s old kitchen chair (with steps), a nice old stool, that I can prop my feet on the stairs, and also put a pillow in it.
While I was gone, John picked a bunch of strawberries and fixed them. We had a bunch on ice cream when I got home. We are planning for Sat. — in the heat of the day — to freeze the rest and include some to be picked in the cool morning. Also, while I was gone, my family physician reported in an email that my mammogram was fine and showed no more signs of calcification for which to be concerned. That’s a big relief.
Saturday, July 7 I was very tired and slept in, putting a heated bag of flaxseed on my upper right arm and then on my neck. John went outside to do many chores, especially watering things, as we are expecting full sun and 96 degrees today and 98 on Sunday. I am extremely happy we have a/c in our house. We opened up the windows last night and brought the inside temp to about 72. Now we’ve closed the windows and won’t need the a/c until late afternoon. Well, we both just went out in the hot sun nearly to the far end of the pasture, to doctor Ebony. John hollowed out a carrot and inserted powdered phenobarbital and sugar. Once she got a taste of it, she spit it out. He held her mouth shut and tipped up and got most of it ingested. He removed two bandages and put on a liquid spray called equine leg paint. Good I was along to hold her lead and shoo away the other horses. Maybe he will get this posted on the blog in a timely fashion now, and we will then do our work in the kitchen on the strawberries. Thankfully, we do not have any scheduled events for Saturday or Sunday, and not even Monday, except for my SAIL exercise class, which I have missed all this week.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan