Sunday Aug 19 Interesting morning. First, I slept in for much needed rest after the past week. It was scary this morning to awake at 5:00 with flashes of “dry” lightning in the sky right before daybreak. More with thunder followed that. At 6:00, we got a few drops of rain. I tried going back to sleep. John went outside to work on fencing while it was still below 70. He has a lot of work to do to make changes to gates, fences, to replace those he moved for the building construction. More rain later and he came inside to cool down. He saw helicopters flying over and later we heard there were lightning strikes a few miles to the east.
We got a call from our contractor that he had a present for us. He brought by the final bill and accepted a check to pay the balance. We had a nice visit and I continued with house and email chores. John went back out to work on fence. Late this afternoon our friends with two rescue horses are coming to take a ton of hay we are donating to them. I passed along a notice from a member of the Swauk-Teanaway Grange about a community meeting tonight on the fire. I have had a couple of calls, one from a fellow at the radio station who saw my post to the list (Elk Heights-Taylor Bridge Fire). Guess I should stay inside to ‘man’ the phone, while John’s out manning the fence building. On the well-photographed old barn on Hwy 97 . . . Good News! . . .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoscribe/1454173065/
from near-fire-resident Marc Fairbanks that the old beautiful structure was spared. Had heard differently from several others. Rumors and bad information were rampant with this wildfire. The County has a large area and a small population so the firefighters (many volunteers) and equipment were out-matched by this fire [they were dealing with 4 or 5 fires elsewhere as word of this fire came on the air waves].
Megan and Chris came over tonight and loaded 24 bales of oldish hay (~a ton+) from our barn onto their flatbed trailer. We donated it to them for their two rescued thoroughbred horses, as mentioned earlier. Otherwise, we are home until tomorrow at noon, when John will use the new pole building to assist the farrier with 3 of our horses. At the same time, I’m going to go for a haircut on my way to town to go to SAIL exercise and to the bank to move CDs to our checking to cover the rest of the finished building. It wasn’t enough so we will have to get a bit from our home equity loan that’s tied to our checking account. It costs us $50 to have the service, and 4.5% for the money. Of course the question remains as to whether that is the best solution, or would be taking money out of a retirement account—some of which is in the S&P500 that has gone up ~13% so far this year. Sell high, they say! Decisions.
Monday, Aug 20 It cleared up here yesterday, but started pouring smoke back into the valley today. Some of that is from set fires [wind is now blowing back into the burned zone] to widen the lines around the last of the area burning, and keep it from jumping initial fire lines when the wind shifts again – which it will. At least we are getting usefull reports now unlike before when rumors and confusion were swamping actual information.
I tried to sleep in till 9:00 because I was up till 12:15. It didn’t work. I got a call from a friend. I needed to call the AAC to see about an appointment that got left off my calendar (which I finally found last night). Needed to call the dentist to reschedule an appointment that conflicts with possible jury duty. Then our horse farrier came 2 hours early (20 minute notice), and messed up my getting ready for the day. I was scheduled for a noon haircut. I only got a cup of coffee for breakfast. Did get the haircut and had made myself a tuna fish sandwich to take along to town to have for lunch. I made it to town, amidst the smoke. Went inside, grabbed a piece of poppy seed cake with sugar frosting, and went over to a “give away” table, where I was going to eat my lunch and drink my lemonade. While eating, I looked at some of the things on the table and ended up loading a few things into a nice carry-bag with tropical fish on it and even a zippered pocket (also for grabs). I took some note pads, a few greeting cards, an insulated holder for a bottled drink (for John), and a neat new tee shirt for me with Camp Appalachia written on it, in big bright red and green letters. I can always wear tee shirts, in this kind of weather. Tomorrow I have to go back to the same place for foot care, and I will take some squash and yellow beans for the very same table. Tonight I went to my neighbors and delivered some heavy boots that are too big for me but should fit the farmer and also took them yellow beans. Returned canning jars and was rewarded with two pint jars of apricot jam, thanking me for all the apricots I have recently brought them. I’m the one that came out ahead on that deal! Canning is something we left behind in Iowa. John cooked a boneless roast in our Crockpot with tomatoes and barley. It was amazingly tender for a late dinner. We had one (our first) red tomato of the summer, and it was scrumptious too. John picked enough yellow beans and squash tonight to feed a very small army. I will also take some by to other friends in town, and maybe even drop some off at the food bank.
Tuesday, Aug 21 Foot care and massage: 2:00 and 2:30 and I made it to both. Winds started blowing this afternoon with up to 43 mph gusts. I’m surely glad they have gotten rid of all the hot spots. Here is an interesting part of a report today. Comment on fire: Commander Reed said the Taylor Bridge Fire is in the top 10 of dangerous, catastrophic fires he’s witnessed and worked on throughout the country. In just four hours, the fire spread 14 miles. “That’s just unheard of,” Reed said. He said it was the perfect storm of conditions, fueled by Kittitas Valley winds.
We did some interesting cleaning today. John was looking for a box of work gloves bought and buried about 8 years ago. He searched closets, stacks of boxes, and I don’t know what all. In the hall closet, which we seldom use, he found some interesting things, some things I don’t even remember. A pair of almost new hiking boots I must have gotten at a yard sale; same with a pair of felt boots (slippers), with tops, which fit fine and I can use to walk around the house or take to wear at people’s houses when I remove boots, in the winter. Found some interesting posters, and things in map tubes. Most interesting was John’s mom’s diploma from business school in Warren, PA. He doesn’t know how or when he got it. We are going to tell his sister and suggest if she doesn’t want it, it might go into a museum in Warren, PA. It is a neat historical document. (Actually we talked to Peggy a few days later when she called to check on us.) We decided to photograph it and send that to her, and perhaps also to the Warren Historical Society or Museum, to see if they want the original mailed to them. Neither of us are interested in framing and keeping it. Found two boxes of pennies. One had $21.50 worth rolled up; the other is a ceramic dish about two inches high with a diameter of over 6″, full of loose pennies. Our bank has a mechanical counter that sorts them and rolls change, so we will have to haul those in one of these days. I forget all the other stuff he uncovered. Oh, one thing was a gift from our neighbor when she and her husband went to China and we took care of their house, chickens, plants and dog. They brought me a lovely 100% silk yellow blouse, but it was too small for me to wear then. Now I can wear it and it is very nice. They brought John a small framed painting of a horse. Now we can use both, after all these years. Found John 3 brand new shirts still in their packages (from yard sales a few years ago). At least 3 nice sweaters, one fits me, and the others, John. It was like Christmas. I’m sure I’m forgetting some things. John piled them all on the bed, so we had to sort through before the evening was over.
Wednesday, Aug 22 We were late at the Soup Kitchen starting music because of tons of people coming to carry away food from the Food Bank. For some reason, a lot of folks were up from Selah (30 miles away near Yakima). I got out in time to make it to exercise class, carrying my beans and squash along for folks there.
Here’s a link worth seeing–particularly the deer and fireman. Do not know the location of that one. Look at the whole bunch of pictures. Someone on one of the site’s comments mentioned about the picture saying the fireman with the deer was named Cody.
http://inciweb.org/incident/photograph/3152/8/
Thursday, Aug 23 Never found time to make notes on this day. Will try to remember a little of that busy one. John went with me to drop me off to play music while he went shopping at 3 stores. We had a good turnout at Hearthstone. John, not having found the box of gloves he lost track of, bought a new pair for WTA trail work next week on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) south of Snoqualmie Pass, just north of a lake called Stirrup.
Coordinates: 47.301607, -121.415301
One other thing he bought today was a large package of pork chops at an excellent price, at Safeway, where he’d gone to pick up a good deal on Pepsi. It provided a really nice dinner, and made him realize we needed to go buy more the next day, before the sale was over. We almost never shop at Safeway – they require using a special card and they have one of the most complicated (busy) ads in the newspaper.
Friday, Aug 24 Today was an incredibly busy day. We baked cobbler for 16 people for a night potluck. I left John to finish cooking them, because I had to go to town for two blood draws at the hospital, to pick up 10 large intact packing boxes we loaned my deaf student to move across town, grab a bite for lunch ’cause I missed it, teach my afternoon SAIL exercise class (that I only started and another lady took over so I could leave), pick up some stuff at the grocery, and then come home and pack all the stuff (Lemonade, Ice Cream, kippered Salmon/Tuna from my Indian (Native American) student’s father & crackers for appetizers, and pears for the table, along with two large pans of cobbler (our pie cherries, local blueberries from the Yakima canyon, and our Carpathian walnuts)–all above were for the potluck with our music group last night. Couldn’t have done it without John’s help. We left at 5:00 p.m. going to Grace Episcopal Church for the eating and then music afterwards. We did not get home till after 10, and John still had all the outside animals to feed in the dark. I tried to work on email responses. Didn’t crash till 11:45, and I really did crash. Slept in until awakened Saturday morning by a phone call. I guess I needed the rest.
Saturday, Aug 25 This morning I got all involved helping John unload the last of our stuff from the travel trailer, so he could drive it around the block and into our pole building. [It and one of the cars were loaded and parked so as to leave in a hurry as necessary.] While he was driving around, I had to open some gates, and be there when he returned to be sure he got through the gate without touching on the side he cannot easily see. It’s better coming straight in and not having to back up as once before. There was plenty of room and he was at the right angle today. Earlier in the day, he’d shown me the large magnet (which I cannot get too close to with my ICD), and that our contractor loaned us after demonstrating and picking up a lot of nails, screws, metal pieces, and whatever from the re-used concrete that makes up the base of our pole building. Truly amazing. I hope to put a picture out on the developing web page of our Pole Building in time to add a link to this blog. I still have much work yet to do on that page, so it will be another site under construction. Here:
http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/August2012Rock’NPonderosa.html
Same with my page on the Wilkins reunion, the wildfire, and probably another couple of things.
Just got a note from a former student who is a member of the Yakama tribe. [Note: Tribe spelling is with a middle ‘a’ while us white folks use an ‘i’ there.] I thought I would share this, because their celebration of life is truly touching and interesting. One of my other former students (a Yakama) died within the last year, and another friend (former Geography Professor, Morris) attended the 24-hour funeral. Here is the recent note (from Dana Miller on Facebook): Arrangements for Uncle Marcus Slome; dressing will be Monday, August 27, 2012 at 9AM at Toppenish Creek Longhouse. Washat services to follow and then lunch. After lunch, move to the 1910 Shaker Church for overnight services. Garment ceremony at sunrise and burial at the 1910 Cemetery 8AM.
Another Facebook reminder from Caitlin LaBar, our NW Butterfly expert:
Check http://northwestbutterflies.blogspot.com/ for the following:
Northwest Butterflies: Question Series: Butterfly Senses
John spent most of the day out and reports the young deer still have spots although seem to be growing like weeds. Or maybe weeds grow like young deer. Actually, being mid-summer in the steppe zone – it is dry and the weeds are about done growing. Milkweed are about to burst open, to this:
http://www.betterphoto.com/uploads/processed/0920/0905131824491butterfly_milkweed_2009_05_10-.jpg
We share our space. Milkweed and butterflies are closely in sync and it is interesting to watch this throughout the flowering of the plants. As for the follow-on stuff, John uses Caitlin as an information source. Read her comment on her page about “Taste” and then see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkweed_butterfly
Note the thing about poisonous glycosides in paragraph 3. Ain’t life grand?
The temperatures are down (Summer’s over!) and the fire is contained. That’s enough for this week.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan