Saturday, Nov 3 Different day. Put out the blog earlier than usual, but didn’t finish all of today’s doings. Finally, Mr. Bulldozer Man arrived to check again on the amount of earth and rocks to be moved. That took awhile, but I stayed inside all day waiting for the phone call. First was at 9:10, but he didn’t return the call until after 3:00, and then came up for the estimate. He spent quite a bit of time. When the weather is better tomorrow, John will take me around with my camera and show me the plans, and the work he has been doing on fencing over the past week+. Several other phone calls today: one from Peggy, John’s sister about going without a phone and Internet for a couple of days after the storm, Sandy. Luckily, she had her cell phone, and then luckier, when she thought she was running out of minutes, she went to the phone to Check Usage, and found out they had added 50 minutes to our plan (we have the same one; 300 mins for $20, now it’s 350 minutes.). I told our other friends with the same company, Consumer Cellular, and they were very happy to hear. They are the ones who originally put us onto the company. It’s less pricey than AT&T where we had ours from 2005.
Then yesterday I got a better deal from our Internet DSL provider and telephone land line provider for the next two years. We are too rural for the cable company to reach us. Just before John went out to meet the bulldozer man, he put in a pork roast with apples, onions, and water to cook slowly. Boy was it good, and the baked apples were especially good, better than either of us expected. Setting the time back and going to bed. Part of our new “free for 2 years'” service is Caller ID. I surely wish I had had that during the pre-election political phone calls. There is also call waiting, which I used late Friday afternoon this week to switch back and forth between a call to the WA Healthcare benefits system and my family physician’s nurse regarding my blood draw results.
Sunday, Nov 4 John walked me around a sunny pasture to view all the projects he’s been working on and planning. I took many pictures of the before, plus the background has some pretty fall colors, backed by a lovely blue sky. It will be neat to see the after (next week, not this), as the guy is coming with a truck, bulldozer, and backhoe/front-end loader (bigger than ours), to move a bunch of rocks (from our alluvial fan), dirt, and rebuild and re-contour some things around the property. It’s not your normal landscaping job but it will serve our needs quite well. This will also make a 2/3 loop around the house and shed that, when covered with gravel, will provide a nice firebreak. We may finish the loop next fall. While out, I took pictures of our Tamarack (Larch) trees golden with blue sky behind.
They have cute little cones
http://www.edwardbach.org/images/plantpages/Larch.jpg
but are poor seed producers. They are also a needle leaf deciduous tree and in the fall have a nice golden color (locally found on the north facing slopes of the eastern Cascades). Like this:
http://treespictures.net/Larch.jpg
The next link shows a tree above the heading “Big Tree Bob” … on the road to Haney Meadows – 15 miles north of us.
http://www.conifers.org/pi/Larix_occidentalis.php
One of my pictures looks north to the orchard with a pretty red-leafed cherry tree in amongst the yellow others (apple, cherry, plum) with cottonwoods to the rear. Also, cottonwoods and aspens are in other places in the pictures. Our largest 100 yr old cottonwood has already lost almost all its leaves.
John took a bag of dry cat food over for our neighbor and while he was there he unloaded his truck full of split firewood for them into their wood shed. He’s been doing all sorts of other chores about our place today, and it was nice because the temps were around 60 with no rain. A weather change is on the way, however.
We fixed BLTs for supper. I went to the unheated garage and found a proper tomato ripe enough, and John trimmed the worst of the fat from the bacon and started it cooking. I washed some lettuce that is drying and sliced the tomato. Now after the bacon cooks, we can assemble the rest of the award-winning sandwich. Meanwhile, we are eating a fresh pear, a Bosc.
http://cynthiadavid.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/immature-bosc-pears1.jpg
Supposedly it only grows in CA, WA and OR (as well as in Australia and Europe); how ’bout that! It is crunchy and tasty and better than a Bartlett. Its flesh is denser, crisper and smoother than that of the D’Anjou pear (a web observation). We also have some D’Anjous. However the D’Anjou pear skin is a pretty purple color. I’m not sure I ever had one while living in the south. We had a huge tree in our backyard where I grew up. It had yellow pears (I assume they were Bartlett).
Monday, Nov 5 Awoke to a bunch of deer in the front yard (3 resting in the orchard, doe & 2 fawns) and a doe and 2 fawns up by the house eating mountain ash berries. Then John went to reheat his coffee, saw the horses up where they shouldn’t have been, but still in the pasture. He went out and found he had left a between-pastures gate open when he fed last night. They all followed him back when he loaded the wheelbarrow and put hay in their feeders. We then filled out our voting ballots after a discussion of the issues presented in the WA Voter Pamphlet. We are so happy this election is almost over and the political calls and mail will cease. At least we are not in Ohio or Florida or one of the states where so much effort is being made. And, we don’t watch TV so we are not inundated there. The entire State votes by mail – our County switched in 2008 – one of the last to do so. The weather is sunny again today, and John is helping a chainsaw and splitting maul turn our trash wood into firewood for the neighbors. Then we went to town to deposit the voting paperwork in a big special mailbox like thing at the Courthouse. On to eat a fast food lunch, and back to the grocery store where we loaded up on ice cream at a $3.19/each carton savings. Got 3 different flavors: cherry with nuts & cherries, Ozark Black Walnut, and Butter Pecan, more canned cat food for Rascal and another bunch of cheaper food for the ferals; filled John’s Subaru with gas, and came on home. John exercised the dogs after pushing the deer out of the route and went to cut and split more firewood. Tomorrow it will get delivered (a second load) to the neighbors.
Tuesday, Nov 6 Nothing new here. Nice and sunny, and we’re staying home today on election day. Heard last night there was a storm coming up the east coast and will affect S Georgia. I just read that the storm caused some deaths south of Atlanta, and actually in Tennessee, and many in Atlanta are without power. “Early Tuesday, 132,000 Georgia Power Co. customers were without power, including 48,000 in metro Atlanta.”
Things are shaping up around our place, but they will change a lot next week. A recent photo-making trip around the landscape will act as the “before” pictures, and we’ll have a contrast with pictures taken after all the earth & rock moving occurs next week. What’s worrying me is that by the time the bulldozer man gets here to scrape off and move stuff, it will have snowed again. Today and the past couple of days would have been ideal for the work. Now we may not get photos of finished product until spring.
John’s taken off for the neighbors with another truck load of wood for their woodshed. He’s got room for one more load there.
Okay.. off here, with the hopes of setting up my computer to back up itself on an external hard drive, while I clean up clutter, file, recycle, and otherwise keep busy. Later, reporting: I managed to get my Documents all backed up. That makes me feel a little more secure. This is from my computer that was new in January. Also, while cleaning up stacks, I found some papers to recycle, but first got some stories from them to send to geographer friends still teaching. After John returned from delivering the wood, he moved an old telephone pole used as a barrier and the metal roofing taken from the small barn a couple of years ago. Both things were in the way of some scraping and leveling planned for ‘soon’. For dinner, John threw together a bunch of leftovers. I’ve been watching the map of electoral college votes, throughout the night. But also, I have been taking care of other chores, mostly on email, plus I washed a load of dishes. I think we will have some dessert and fall asleep sooner than normal, even though we were in bed early last night and then awoke earlier than usual. The wind is blowing hard tonight.
Wednesday, Nov 7 John spent his day filling the neighbors woodshed–no room for any more–and then, back home, removing old fences and setting up some new temporary ones. This day I had the usual, playing at the Soup Kitchen of the Food Bank and going to exercise at the Adult Activity Center. Well, it was the usual but with added flavors. I left the house at 11:30 and returned at 4:30 with a virtual lapel decoration of at least 5 gold stars for my good deeds of the day. The Soup Kitchen was fine, and we played and sang for over 1/2 hour until the servers started leaving their positions to eat. Today had the normal pasta donated by the Ellensburg Pasta Co. (tomato/ground beef with penne pasta and sauce), green salad, and a wonderful fruit salad, the only thing I had to remove was the grapefruit (not allowed by one of my meds). Sad because I love grapefruit. It was full of cut grapes, apples, pears, mandarins, carrots, garbanzo beans, and probably more. After a nice visit with folks at our table, I went on to the Adult Activity Center. I walked in with my fiddle (to keep it out of the cold car), and across the room was the lady in charge, calling my name. I took off my coat, grabbed a chair, and went to see what she wanted. She said our teacher called in sick that she was dizzy, so would I please teach the class. I did, and we had 15 there. Afterwards, I was walking out with a woman who is the mom of one of my former students (back in the 1990s). She lives by herself at Briarwood, and walks everywhere. She doesn’t have a car. She had her grocery cart (pull type with big wheels) with her, and I asked where she was going. She said, “to Super One”–well I know that’s a block away from where we were in SAIL class, and then her home is several quite long blocks down the street from there. Did I say, she also walks with a cane with 4 footers with tennis balls on them?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SYiiVPqU2jI/AAAAAAAAbKM/_GoVwZgI6Do/s400/up+old+guy.jpg
I told her I would take her and then give her a ride home. At first, I sat outside the store, charging my phone while talking with a bunch of friends I needed to call. Then I realized it had been awhile longer than I had expected, and I started worrying about her. I went inside the store, found her, and I accused her of buying out the store (:-))). She shopped for an hour, buying heavy things such as a gallon of vinegar, pounds of sugar, and other stuff. She was buying ingredients to make baked goodies for the “Christmas Bazaar” coming up at their community center. When we finished putting stuff on the counter and tallying up everything, it totaled $94.29. The no-salt butter, chocolate chips, nuts, and all the other ingredients are pricey. I hope she gets a return on her investment. All the stuff was rung up and the cashier awaited her payment. She was fumbling around, and I realized she did not have any checks in her checkbook. I had left mine in the car, so I went back out and got it and wrote a check. She was embarrassed, and wanted me to take her back home to get the check register of new ones. I said, “No, it’s all rung up, I will pay for it, and you can pay me back.” Finally, we got all the stuff out the door, and I went back in the store for brown paper bags to load the flimsy plastic bags into, not wanting those to fall apart on me. I thought I got at least 3, but only had 2. I could have used 4. We got to her apartment that is on the second floor up two flights of steep stairs. I took the first brown bags full to the top where she was with her checkbook ready to write the check. We went back down and I loaded up more of the plastic bags, just carrying them, and carried the heavy vinegar container separately. She wrote the check and told me to leave her stuff there. Oh, I also retrieved her carrier from the back trunk to leave beneath the stairs. I carried the rest of the groceries up one flight of stairs. She insisted she could get it the rest of the way, so I hugged her and left. I was feeling the pull in my legs, but I took it slowly and didn’t push myself. I told her I could not live where she does and manage those stairs every day. Then I drove home, not arriving until 4:30. Phew. I truly believe I earned 5 gold stars today for my efforts. I’m grateful to have my health back to be able to help others.
Thursday, Nov 8 Awoke to big fluffy snowflakes, which only lasted 10-15 minutes. It was bright sunshine before noon. When the snow stopped the ground was white. John went out and I left. I was gone for over an hour. Delivered a few pears to the folks who played today. We had a good turnout. Four guitars, two banjos, tambourine, two violins, clarinet, and a vocalist. When we arrived the nursing home/rehabilitation center was on a lock down, but they let us in to perform music for the residents, asking us not to tell them why the blinds were pulled. It was a happy day, and the residents enjoyed it as much as we did. The reason for the lock-down was a shooting of a teenager in Kittitas, a little town 6 miles east of Ellensburg. Turns out the kid shot himself in the shoulder; he first blamed it on someone else, with a unique description, so at first the police officers and sheriff’s deputies were looking for a person who was not a threat to the community and was not on the loose. The shooting took place outside of school grounds. The kid went back to the school to the room of his coach. He had gone to his grandfather’s house, took the gun, shot himself, returned the gun to the cabinet and went back to school (still many unknowns). My friend’s young teenager was in the room across the hall to where the guy returned. The guy collapsed (probably loss of blood), and they carted him off to the hospital on the west side (Harborview). It was not a life-threatening wound. My guess is when he came to later, he told the real story. (Actually, the detectives figured it out from his conflicting facts.)
After a fast dinner, John left for a trail riders club meeting. I stayed home. Oh, I forgot. One of the emails I came home to was from a cousin announcing the death of my 91-year-old aunt in south GA. It made me realize how old my own mother would have been if still alive (98). Wow. Time moves on too fast. I missed seeing my aunt when at the reunion this year because she was too ill. Dessert tonight: John’s homegrown blackberries, with blueberry muffin and cherry/nut ice cream.
Friday, Nov 9 Today it is sunny, but cool. Supposed to go to 22 tonight, so I must get back and print out the instructions for the Travel Trailer. We need to drain the hot water tank. Turns out John already did, and just told me tonight. Today was a full day. Started chilly and got chillier as the day progressed. I grabbed a small lunch and left to get my Subaru filled with gas. I stopped where I heard the gas was cheapest, but I realized the cheaper price was only for cash and I already had put my card in and pumped $1.20 worth. I was running late, so I left and went down the street to another station with the same price but no extra charge for using a card. Too many cars in lines to stop then. The first place was elevating the price 10 cents per gallon. How outrageous! I went on to my exercise class, and realized my teacher was ill and I would have to teach class again. Gave a bag of pears to my friend with macular degeneration. Class began and went well. I left for the grocery to get John some things he needed and then went by the hospital lab for a blood draw to check my INR. While there, I took a little bag of pears in for my favorite phlebotomists. From there off to deliver another bag to a member of the music group who missed yesterday. On to the gas station to fill up and there were no lines! There went $50+. On to the bank to deposit the check for the groceries I’d paid for. While there, I took another bag of pears to our favorite banker. He was thrilled. Drove home and noticed some real ferocious clouds on the hills and in front of them between where I was, near the airport, and our home. It looked like a snowstorm. Well, it was! I left Ellensburg in bright sunshine, but came into a blizzard (at least where there had been one)–John said between 1 and 2:00 p.m. As I got to within 1.5 miles of home, I saw fields of white and much slush on the road. As I came by our mailbox, the door and handle was covered with snow. It stopped snowing giving John time to exercise the dogs, feed the horses and the outside cats. He wasn’t in the house very long until it started snowing again. I imagine we got at least 2 inches this evening. He was very happy that he made so much progress around the yard the past few days, and had taken care of the firewood. When we get a nice day, he will thin a few of the standing trees and let them dry for next year. Dinner included a large skillet of corn (ours) filled cornbread, made by John. Oh, yum. It was a perfect complement to the apples and orange chicken. Then dessert wasn’t bad either, our strawberries on cherry/nut ice cream with a hot chocolate sauce John made from chocolate chips. Off to bed, now, rather late.
Saturday, Nov 10 We seem to be under a snow cloud, an isolated spot, this morning. Nothing around us south or west (nothing in the Cascades) or east has snow. Blewett Pass to our north does. It’s quite weird. We awoke to a winter wonderland with falling snow. It is still “spitting.” Then a surprise arrival at 7:30 of two trucks: a small white one with Diesel gas cans in the back was parked at the entrance off our driveway into the pasture. John saw a larger black truck backing out the driveway. He checked and walked to the road, but didn’t see anything. We figure that the fellow to do the bulldozing decided maybe to start today. He lives about 4 miles south, and perhaps there was no snow there. We haven’t heard back. We sort of expected he might return with the bulldozer, but nothing has happened, and it is after 10:00 a.m. John ate a little breakfast and when out to remove snow from two vehicles and to move the other truck out of the entrance to the place that accesses where the bulldozer will have to be taken. Now he is moving a small Ponderosa pine tree, a baby, he’d planted in what is now the wrong place. He moved 2 small firs last week and now has 3 pines in containers. Two of these went into containers in the spring and never were planted. He also put RV antifreeze liquid in the drains and in the shower hose, removed the battery, and got the instructions on the portable generator – and they say to run the thing until the gas is all gone. What? It holds 1.8 gallons. That’s as crazy as the directions for taking care of a broken curly-tailed light bulb. Mr. Bulldozer man didn’t come back, but called after noon saying he would come after 3:00. I don’t believe he arrived until almost 4:00 and now they are out back hoeing in the almost dark. I still hear the rumble of rocks being moved. Poor John, he’s out in <35° weather, supervising. I’m sure the operator of the backhoe is no warmer. They just moved from the first place I saw them over to in front of the pole building on the driveway entrance, which needs to be changed and have some culverts moved into place. Now it has too much of a slant and our travel trailer scrapes on the way in or out. Now he is still here and it is really dark. I doubt John had fed the horses, so will have to don his headlamp and go down. Then come back and feed the ferals. I have turned on the outside backyard light. The cats will be wondering where dinner is. Actually, they have probably been watching the whole sequence from high in their haymow. The first part was over near them in the area of the large round pen. I’ve been doing inside chores all day. Filing receipts, and trying to organize and sort. I turned off my computer for a couple of hours, but then had to check some figures and got back on to take care of some issues. Good thing we changed our mind yesterday on going tonight to George, WA for a bluegrass concert by the group, Pickled Okra! Great name, eh?
Hope your week was a good one.
John came in and said they were learning about the structure of the Naneum Fan – on which we still are. [Search images using ‘alluvial fan’.]
Nancy and John