Changes, Flowers, & Field Trips

Monday, Aug 3

What a difference a week makes!On the patio behind our house, last week’s then single sunflower has added multiple surrounding blooms. But note at the very top the petals have started their demise.

Now, comparing changes within the new room where our attached 2-car garage was previously:Shelving moved from new room through swinging door to the new utility room. I’m standing where the chest freezer will be, and a new Upright Chest Freezer will be placed in the fall where purple bag of dry cat food is above. We’ll have to redo the plumbing connections eventually on the well water treatment.Not to scale, but shows the start of John’s computer desk setup, across the room (behind him) where he’s put up temporarily a Radio/CD player and two speakers. We will be putting the speakers on oak wood two-drawer filing cabinets, and the player in the center on something yet to be determined.

Call from Safeway this morning, to come by Customer Service desk to pick up 2 boxes of Kellogg’s 100% All Bran Buds at $5.99/each. We shall do it tomorrow when in town.
Two more Robocallers blocked today-at least one was political, the day before the election.
I know I worked on things throughout the day, but apparently too busy to make any notes.

Tuesday, Aug 4

Started the morning a little later than usual, but we’d been up till midnight and longer for me last night, trying to complete a document for proofing to send to a fellow Zentnerd in Europe.

This is my morning to have nothing to drink or eat, and to take a weekly pill followed by not lying down for ½ hour and then eating. Today I have to connect my backup external drive for an automatic backup of all new files on my computer at Noon. It can do it without me at home on the computer, but having it in sleep mode.

I loaded and started the dishwasher before we went to town.
We didn’t leave till afternoon, delayed by a visiting neighbor who came down with a gift. It was a salmon he caught where the Okanagan River joins the Columbia River. The Okanagan flows south (Map here) across an open and hot sunny landscape. Its water is warmer than the fish will enter, so they are bunching up in the cooler, larger, river. He took some onions; we had nothing else.

In EBRG, our first stop was to Carl’s Jr for a coupon special of two different sandwiches for each (BOGO—Buy One, Get One free), which we ate on for a couple more meals. From there, on to another place to get some groceries at 10% off, on the first Tues of the month (just on Kroger products—John’s cola drinks). Only bought a few mostly diet on the shelves. While there, we bought some yogurt on sale for the last day at the lower price.
Went by Safeway to the Customer Service desk to pick up 2 boxes of Kellogg’s 100% All Bran Buds. Carmen set this up last week, and checked me out this week.

Drove by Joanie’s taking my old and new neck pillow, an unwanted hot curry package, and some just harvested onions. She has a piece of white fleece she’ll make a pattern for to sew me a cover for my old pillow whose inflatable bellows will only hold one night. Now I have a backup.

We drove by a townhouse on N. Brook Court, to pick up a hairdryer I requested on a free Facebook site. I left a container for her of a few cherry tomatoes.
From Nick’s mudroom I picked up a large envelope with my Craters of the Moon on the Snake River Plain materials. I had loaned him for one of the 75 livestreams.

Wednesday, Aug 5

Midweek of a smoky time in our Kittitas Valley. Regional winds from a fire in northern California – 83,000 acres, called the July Complex – carried smoke into Washington. The fire, red dot, was just south of the OR/CA border. It is close to “contained”, but not fully even on Sunday evening.

The Yellowstone “Hot Spot”
This is a fellow we met and videotaped his lecture in a local Ellensburg IAF Chapter that meets monthly at the CWU Geology building. Those meetings are now canceled for the fall, along with Nick’s downtown lecture series.

Mike Poland: Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Monthly Update: August 1, 2020- (4 mins)

Supper: Sliced roast beef thanks to our new gadget, an electric slicer. So excited about watching him use the slicer, I have forgotten what we ate with it. John put a boneless round roast in the slow-cooker, then put that in the fridge over night. We liked the outcome.

Thursday, Aug 6

About 25 miles north of us:
Tonight at 6:00 p.m. is another ‘Nick on the Fly’ field trip, this to Camas Meadows, presented by his Native guest Randy Lewis. This was a beautiful trip down memory lane with his cultural heritage reflections of living and communicating with nature in the Wenatchee Mountains and meadows.He actually started this presentation in the high hills, rocks, and dirt, above the meadows with some powerful stories.

‘Nick on the Fly’ #9 – Camas Meadows with Randy Lewis

Below is some background information on the meadows with directions to the site, restrictions, and parking notes (one needs a state Discover Pass to enter):
Other interesting facts about the old wildflowers: Camas Meadows Natural Area Preserve
WTA Trail Guide– Camas Meadows
and here’s a comment from the locale newspaper in Wenatchee, regarding the place. Camas Meadows, where the checker-mallow is found, is a beautiful sweeping grassland amongst a ponderosa pine forest with a stand of alders in the middle. Camas Creek cuts through the center of the alder stand. It’s unique to have a meadow at about 3,000 feet of elevation (Wenatchee World News).
Supper: Spaghetti and beef round sliced with a bean/tomato chili mixture John made. Side of peaches and banana, and orange juice.

Friday, Aug 7

Up at 4:00 to 5:00 with cats, but back to sleep, still very tired from yesterday’s activities. I slept in until almost 9:00 p.m., but I was up later than desired last night.

John was up and around doing inside and outside chores. The temperatures are lower today, starting out in the 60s, only supposed to go to 70s today. We are staying home.

Called my PCP’s office to leave a message, for call back by Lizzy or Kaylein to transfer prescription from Kaiser Permanente (mail order) to Bi-Mart Pharmacy for John’s Hydrochlorothiazide (needs to be 25 mg tablet cut in half, which makes it the best price (yeah, I’ll play their games), and the pharmacy obliges by halving these for us. His dosage is 12.5 mg. I never received a response (which I had requested). Telephone communication with that office is next to impossible. I should have left a message with a triage nurse who knows me well, to honcho the request.

Our neighbors’ son must have gotten more ammunition as he is out shooting again. It’s right next to our pasture land, but the horses are not bothered by it, because they’re used to it.
Lunch: John fixed a grilled cheese, roast beef, & mushroom sandwich for lunch; it was scrumptious.

John harvested more onions today, and has written it up in his weekly blog column, Not So Nasty News. Check it out (has nice photo descriptors). Also has some nasty news included about Water Hemlock near our irrigation ditch.
John introduced a term I had not previously known of: (the Wisconsinan Glacier): interesting for the geologists reading this blog. We learned it simply as the Wisconsin Glacier. This mention is of an appearance in Ohio.

Check this link:
Wisconsinan Glacier

As well, he harvested some red cherry tomatoes, which we enjoyed with supper tonight.
His column is full of interesting material, go ahead below mine and go through his Not So Nasty News.

Today, I sent this message to the Geology study group, about two upcoming videos.
Next are the next TWO ‘Nick on the Fly’ programs, #10 & #11. Titles only, so please keep an eye on his YouTube channel for the expected time and date, and when I know the URLs, I’ll notify the study group.
Here is what I know about #10: Peoh Point. Nick will be south of Cle Elum, WA with his guest, Geologist, Jeff Tepper, University of Puget Sound.

Here is what I know about #11: Mission RidgeNick will be on Mission Ridge with his guest, Mike Eddy, Geologist & Geochronologist from Purdue University

Cancelled the music from Australia because our leader, Kathy, was not feeling well.
Supper: Beef crockpot chili, red cherry tomatoes, peaches & banana salad.

Next is something that arrived at 6:30 p.m. from Nick via his message on Instagram I just happened to refresh and see 9 mins after he posted, for his field trip series ‘Nick on the Fly’ – Cash Prairie and a hike into the William O Douglas Wilderness Area, near Rimrock Lake, in view of Mt. Rainier, Goats Rocks Wilderness and Mt. Adams. He will hike into Shellrock Peak, and look at deposits from Ghost Volcanoes. Check this out for #12 in the series.Map and Satellite image of area, between Yakima, WA & White Pass, Hwy 12 takes you along the north edge of Rimrock Lake.

Saturday, Aug 8

Started the morning with normal sleeping in for me, and John was up and working in the new room on his computer. Now he’s done his morning feeding chores, and I’ve been up working on my projects. The most interesting is a phone call request which was all though messages only with the nurse of my PCP about a prescription for John being transferred from one pharmacy to another. They received the phone request in the morning and were supposed to call me back in person to discuss the details. I thought I was clear about that, and the details, but I never received any call. This morning, however, I received a call from the pharmacy for pick-up today of the med. I called to check and found it was the right drug, but with the wrong number of months covered. It was filled for one month, not 3 which all of ours normally are. It’s now been corrected, and we will pick it up next Tuesday.

My main chore today is working on the weekly blog, and to load dirty dishes.
Brunch: Bacon, peaches, blueberry pecan pancake with maple syrup.
Nice temperatures for working outside today and tomorrow (in the 70s (currently 64°) with a 32 mph breeze. Tomorrow in the low 80s, Monday higher 80s, Tuesday back to lower 80s highs, Wednesday cools to 70s. At 3:00 p.m., wind gusts went to 38 mph. Next Sunday – 90°, maybe.

We did receive our mail earlier than usual today, and delivery of our newspaper. The front page had an interesting story which relates to several of the videos we have been recently getting from Nick to South Cle Elum Ridge and to Easton’s Cabin Creek. Unfortunately, the article started on the front page of the paper and moved 6 pages back to be completed, giving me a difficult time to get the text into a form that could be read in here, so I did the best I could. There is going to be a survey of county residents, and I know Darcy Batura who is involved in the planning in the upper county, so I wrote her, asking how to be sure to be included in the survey. She said she would keep me in the loop.
I’ll put the two parts below separately so they are readable. The map I put in the header serves the best information about the land use patterns of ownership.Finally, change of subject:
Here’s an important background for those who enjoyed Randy Lewis’ presentation Thursday night this week, to catch his presentation back during the Nick from Home Episode in June (#59), if you missed it then.
The link is way below (at the bottom) and other info you need to watch before the actual presentation of Native American Geology.
Nick will comment a few minutes through the storytelling by Randy Lewis, in a video which was filmed by students and merged later into the final video. The most amazing thing to me is that the students filmed Randy at a separate time from when they filmed Nick, and then, with their teachers help they merged the parts of the story so it looked as if it was give and take and shared throughout the time.

I’m going to start with that, so you are sure to watch that 24-minute Vimeo video (with password protection) before you watch Nick’s video with Randy, which is a field trip to Wenatchee along the Columbia River there, looking down from up on the hill on the way to Saddle Rock. In Ellensburg, we are not far (straight distance, without roads) from there over Colockum Ridge into the Kittitas Valley.

Okay, the password you will need is Spexman Uppercase on the S is required.
The link to the Vimeo, is: just click on this link below, and then type in the Spexman password by hand, unless you can copy/paste it.

The Winter’s Tale; Dragon Spexman; Narrated by Randy Lewis; comments interspersed with geology by Nick Zentner (23 mins)

Please watch this all above, before viewing the video below.
You may have a white bar covering the bottom of the screen that blocks the translation of the Indian language appearing in yellow. Click on the X to remove that obstacle.
Actually, on the bottom far right, click on the insignia with 4 dots, and moving your cursor over it, it says “enter full screen”. You truly want to do that to watch the whole program.
After you watch it, then go here for Nick’s field trip with Randy down from Saddle Rock but above the Columbia River.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #59 – Native American Geology (6-6-20)

At 5:00 p.m. our wind gusts are up to 43 mph
Supper: Shrimp, fried onion rings, bowl of homemade crockpot chili, blueberry pie and frozen strawberry yogurt for dessert.

Sunday, Aug 9

Early morning, there was a 5.1 Earthquake 2.5 miles from Sparta, NC just south of VA and just east of Tenn. First time since 1916.

Sparta, 5.1 Earthquake

John’s worked outside moving rocks, for over an hour and fed the horses. He’s back in the new room now working on his computer and will be returning to the kitchen to fix an omelet.

I’m working on the blog, and other household chores.
John put together a brunch; large so left-overs for Monday. Started with a cheese omelet with 3 colors of bell peppers, tomatoes, & mushrooms, and some of the thin sliced beef. Also, home fries with onion and mushrooms. Orange juice.

I’d started unloading the dishwasher, he did more, but still it needs finished.
I stopped to put in all my meds in the dispenser for the week. Okay, all in and back to the blog. Temperature went up to 81, and John came inside to the cooler house (73 without a/c turned on). The room intended as a “living room” has lots of glass on the west side and it warms up. That’s on the fix and improve list.

I just checked Instagram and found that this afternoon Nick posted another field trip (to Bellingham, WA) to a backyard interview with Myrl E. Beck, Emeritus Prof of Geology at Western Washington University. Add that to our list, as #13 more details to follow as I learn them.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan