Sunday, Jan 20 We try to post this blog at the latest on Saturday night, but we couldn’t manage it last time, and then we left right after doing it and realized it went out without a title. John fixed it late in the afternoon–changing the title to Silver Frost Week. This morning I spent time getting music ready for the Bluegrass Jam Session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange. It’s about 45 minutes from our home and is from 2:00-4:30. We got there with only a few other people there. More came in as we played. Ended up with 12 players and an audience about the same. We go around the circle and we pick a song, give the timing, the key, and a copy of the chords to the players. I picked Clementine, Kentucky Waltz, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Jambalaya, and led the group on those. I had a few copies for the audience, so they could sing along if they wished. We carried along a large platter of brownies John made last night (with our walnuts). We also took along a 20 pounds of onions to give away. They keep pretty well, but we have many more than we can use. They only cost us 16 cents/lb. last fall but it is time to get them used. When we left we were swamped in fog and it stayed that way until we topped a hill on our way out of the valley. Then we had sunshine and blue skies. What a change! On the way back the fog was much worse and started earlier in the trip. John loaded a crock-pot with beef, potatoes, onions, and carrots to cook while we were away. Now we look forward to two days without any activities away from home. Our past week was very busy. We deserve a break. Perhaps we will get a few more TO-DOs off the list.
Monday, Jan 21 Most exciting thing was awakening from a dream and finding it was only a dream. I spent a lot of time on line with emails, and now am going to try to work on some of the web pages needing developed (unfortunately, that chore never happened). John fixed lunch and then we went outside to take more pictures of the ice crystals of the frozen fog. Actually before I start the web page creation, I will have one of John’s brownies we brought home yesterday. He had one last night, and I decided to go to sleep instead. Now I’m ready. It was good. I do have a pain in my neck from something I did earlier in the day; I guess I pulled a muscle. I’ve been sitting with a heated flannel bag full of flaxseed hoping it relieves the pain (heats in the microwave). I think it may have helped some, but I will try a treatment after dinner. Dinner was beef stew and cheddar cheese biscuits. I spent the several afternoon hours before dinner working on the ice crystal photos. I expect I will sleep well tonight. The 4 turkeys were around all day and tons of songbirds. We don’t know what happened to the fifth turkey. Haven’t seen her in several days. The optimistic thought is that she found a fancier Tom to hang out with. By our back door, at one point, there were over 40 birds in the Nanking cherry trees and on the concrete where John spread black sunflower seeds.
Tuesday, Jan 22 Not much today. I ended up (stupidly) burning myself with the last heat application after dinner last night. At least my muscle pain is almost gone, but I now have blisters. Dang. No need to do anything in town till tomorrow. I managed to wash dishes, take 3 pictures of frozen fog on Ponderosa pines to add to my web page, received an email from my cousin on my dad’s side who is into genealogy and who has helped me figure out kinship relationships with my mom’s side of the family. I’m trying to identify relationships (who is a second cousin or a 1st cousin once removed, 2nd removed, sort of question) for people at the reunion I went to last June. Such info will enlighten the web page part of our annual greetings. I think I understand most of it now, so I can finish writing beneath the photos. John is now mixing ingredients for bread. Earlier before noon and lunch, he helped a neighbor from a mile away load some of our trash firewood into his car. The fellow slipped on ice at his home and was sore and hurting. John stockpiles wood in October after things cool down and we’ve had a rain. That knocks the dust down, lowers the fire danger of using a chain saw, and is more comfortable. It never fails that someone we know needs a little when it is cold, snowy, windy, or rainy. Life’s that way. The little bit that could be put in the guy’s car means he will have to come back in a couple of days. John’s got lots of cut wood but only 1/3 of a cord ready by the driveway:
Now John is baking the bread. The 4 turkeys have been around, a couple of deer, and many songbirds. Still overcast and cold. High has been 23, but not as cold as friends back in Michigan and Wisconsin or relatives back in Ohio and Pennsylvania. I’m making a little headway on web page development. We had a piece of John’s bread after dinner, and before bed we had ice cream and strawberries.
Wednesday, Jan 23 Early morning, I looked out the back door and saw 4 turkeys roosting in different trees. By the time I got my camera and walked outside, there were only 3. They weren’t around a lot today. My back muscle was bothering me this morning, so I didn’t play my violin at the noon food bank soup kitchen, but just sang, and the banjo player played. We had 4 people singing. Then after vegetable spaghetti, Asian salad with almonds, mandarins, and cabbage, and green salad (I didn’t have) with a peach apple cobbler-like thing for dessert, I went to exercise class. This morning before leaving, I worked on the frozen fog page, which I hope to have finished by the time this blog is posted.
Thursday, Jan 24 Nice early morning photos with blue sky and sun. Got a few more into the web page, on silver frost, which is nearing completion. I’ve been working on a few other web chores, and just got an invite to a party tomorrow night with friends we’ve known since our arrival in Idaho in 1974. Hearthstone is the only thing on the schedule, other than getting an INR blood check. John will go along and buy food for the birds – he thought maybe oats — because Black sunflower seeds are expensive, but after reading on the web, decided the sunflower seeds were better value, so we went with them. Also, while in EBRG, we made stops a the bank, P.O., hospital, and to shed some more onions. Came home to one phone call after another. Some friends are medically not doing well. This is sad. Been working more on finishing the Silver Frost web page, and I think I’m there, with last photos taken this morning. Temperatures are supposed to go up and the fog is lifting.
Friday, Jan 25 Early morning call from my doctor’s nurse requesting me to increase my dosage on Coumadin, because my INR is lower than it should be. Cool, that means I can have alcohol (wine) at the party tonight, and not worry. This morning, finished (I think) the Silver Frost link for your enjoyment.
Scholarship luncheon (soup & salad) was at noon with SAIL exercise after. We left home at 4:30 for the gathering in EBRG, not leaving there until 11:30 PM in a freezing rain. We slipped and slid down the driveway and sidewalk, and across the street to our parked car and John had to scrape ice off the windshield before we could drive. The party was a celebration by a couple because she was recently made permanent in her job following a 6-month probation. We enjoyed the company of family there, folks we have known since 1974 through our association with Brittanys in the west. The grandparents and parents drove over from the Puget Sound side of the Cascades from Issaquah and Mt. Vernon. Their trip home was much longer than ours. We had no ice on our trip home nor in our yard.
We carried some local Roslyn brewed beer, a bottle of White Heron Malbec wine, and a fruitcake (after checking with the parents and grandparents and finding out they liked it, in case no one else did). Food was plentiful. Meat choices were turkey or beef burgers, beef hot dogs, beefalo jerky, baked potato halves with cheese & bacon, many salads, a table full of dips, shrimp, deviled eggs, chips, peppers, carrots, and several kinds of cookies.
Saturday, Jan 24 We were both tired from yesterday’s activities, and we slept in until 9:00. So did the dogs and cats. The birds awaited their seed. Didn’t see any turkeys or deer today. I spent most of the day resting, not even working on my web pages, which I need to get to. I was inspired last night talking about genealogy with our friends. They gave me some ideas. I cleaned up the kitchen counters and dishes, pots, and pans, and made room for John to mix up some bread dough. He has now baked it and it smells wonderful. I may go cut a piece and butter it while warm. Turns out the bread first needs to be taken out of the pans. Two are normal metal bread pans. A very impressive loaf John baked in a large vintage oval Corning ware roasting dish. Gorgeous. I just photographed them for John to include in the blog, with his newly found talents of inserting stuff. Okay, here you are, the photographs.
I have to wait for him to remove them from the pans and then wait until it cools for 20 minutes before we can have a piece. We had a piece of the large oval loaf – light brown because of the flours used. He greased and put corn meal on the pans in the manner English Muffin bread is usually done, but he worked this dough as regular bread to keep the small-holes and uniform texture of standard yeast bread.
showing color and texture
Then for supper he added milk, red sweet pepper pieces, cheese, and pieces of chicken thighs to a can of condensed canned clam chowder. Except for the high salt content this worked quite well.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan