Sunday, Oct 6
Was included in last week’s blog because it wasn’t published until this day.
Monday, Oct 7
On John’s “run” with the dogs this morning, he cut it short, when he saw a coyote at the lower end of our pasture. Without the dogs, he returned with the truck to make lots of noise and exhaust smell, and to go into the area where a spring flows. A tree had fallen over it and the path. Because the horses occasionally take that route through the woods, he cleaned up. Haven’t seen ol’Wile E. since. Mere coincidence?
John is outside, cutting down some trees, after spending recent time cutting up fallen ones. Earlier we searched for the cause of the air in the house water. He wanted to have more information to discuss with our plumber. His main work today involved checking various faucets, connections, and checking out the noises. He’s decided the entire house system has air in the lines, but why the frost-free line to the horse trough also has air, makes noises in the house (garage) in the water storage/pressure tank, makes no sense. If the pressure switch failed with the line open perhaps the outside line could draw water out of the tank. More later.
Right before John fixed dinner, I managed to order my Sierra Trading order again, I thought I had completed it on my birthday, with a $30 gift certificate. The goods never came, so I called to check. There was nothing in their system. I requested a new certificate from Subaru to replaced the one that expired 9/30. I couldn’t find the same socks and flannel booties I originally ordered, but I found 3 pairs of nice wool socks of varying sizes on the length of the cuff–one above the calf, one midway, and one closer down around the ankle. I hope this order arrives in a reasonable time. I have been tracking it, (UPS), and it made it to Spokane yesterday, but no activity since. I guess UPS doesn’t deliver on Saturdays. The Subaru folks extended my certificate to the end of this month, and this was also a good sale on stuff at the end of the year I guess. I don’t know why wool socks would be considered seasonal especially when one of the best buys has snowflakes, but I suppose the other two were used for non-winter hiking boots.
Tuesday, Oct 8
When we awoke this morning, all the water faucets spewed blasts of air. Bad pump? Low water level in the well? John filled the dog’s water bucket from a barrel of rain water (crystal clear) and then we went for the monthly Emeritus Geography Profs’ meeting at the Copper Kettle for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or iced water. Seven of us visited from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. After the meeting, John and I first went to the hardware store for filters for the in-line to the water heater. Then off to a jeweler to have him cut John’s wedding ring off. His ring finger knuckle is arthritic (or deformed and enlarged from years of hard hand work or just age). After the ring was sawed through, it still took awhile to get it off. It will have to be rejoined with gold, and the price of gold has changed since 1969 ($35 per oz. versus ~$1275) making the fix about 3 times the cost of the ring. It will take them about a week to complete the task. Making it fit over the left knuckle makes it too large for a ring on that hand, so they will fix it sized to his right hand. I looked up on the web what wearing a wedding ring on the right hand meant. Supposedly, that is currently the fashionable thing to do in European countries. Then we went by the Mid-State Coop, and got the name of their water pump technician. He was out on a job, and was going to call us later, when he was free. He lives only 1.5 miles NW of us, so it was right on his way home. He spent an hour determining the problem. The decision was that the holding tank bladder had ruptured so the tank needs replacing. The pressure switch had failed also — completely filled with crud (probably mineral deposits). We are having to pay him by the hour for his labor ($75). We definitely went into the wrong profession. He also recognized that the tank we had (38 gallon), is insufficient for our system needs, and will be bringing and installing an 82 gallon one. He expects to be here around 9:00 a.m. John has to get up early to move stacks of boxes from the left side of the softener’s salt tank to make room for a much wider diameter water tank. We hope that fixing that one thing will solve the problem and not require replacing the pump (which has been in since 2000). We don’t know the life of a well pump. I had to leave for town, just as he was leaving our house. I was expected in town at 6:30 to play church anthems and sing with The Connections, at an assisted living home, Hearthstone Cottages. The people there are in better shape than many of the other nursing homes we attend. John had a lot of chores to do while I was gone, but when I got back at 8:00, I had to wait only a few minutes for dinner he’d cooked after feeding the horses, cats, and talking to his sister (in Ohio). For dinner it was a fresh tomato, pot stickers, and Korean seasoned chicken thigh strips, fried onion and yellow squash. The stickers and chicken were on sale at Costco recently, so we got them for situations when actually cooking something is time-dependent. For lunch, we had tomatoes, and egg rolls (same idea from Costco).
Wednesday, Oct 9
Our water problem was traced last night (maybe) to a bad pressure holding tank. The technician is bringing a new one this morning. He’s due any minute. John has been moving junk and boxes from the garage to create space. I am only here for awhile before heading to town. I hope I come home to water in the system. I know it will need a lot of filtering to remove all the crud from all the pipes, that has been blown off during the air spurts of the past week.
I went for my Food Bank Soup Kitchen music-providing event, and afterwards, we had pork chops, applesauce, rice with corn & cheese, and coleslaw. From there to the AAC for exercise. All went well, and I came home to have water in all faucets at a turn — not clean or clear, but running water… yippee! I waited a couple more hours for the hot water heater to heat up before washing dishes. John had drained the tank and put in a new filter. We will wait several days for the sediments and color to clear up before washing clothes; otherwise, all the whites won’t be. John moved dozens of boxes and stuff to the concrete slab in front of the garage and covered the pile with a tarp. Some haven’t been seen in a decade but now we have to sort it all out and throw most away. We were hoping to leave this task to the next house owner. But, while the task only just been started, one good find is a box of Urban Growth books I knew were there, but had been missing for a several years. I had promised them to a “new” prof who was essentially my replacement, and teaches GIS, Urban Geography, and other courses I taught. I gave him most all my materials for the Urban class, but it was offered for real the first time this fall, since he arrived. I had promised him two dozen of the USGS Special Circular 1252 hard copy reports, “Urban Growth in American Cities,” that uses Aerial Photography infrared color images of 16 large towns in the U.S., (e.g., Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Seattle/Tacoma), seeing the tremendous growth outlined by the imagery, for decades since the 1970 Census. I had access to the circular on line when I was teaching the course, but when I went looking for it, I found there is a NEW version available from Amazon for $12.50, and if it still exists on line- it’s not available now with the gov’t shutdown. I’m glad I’m no longer teaching and depending on gov’t sites for my data for map-making in my classes!
Thursday, Oct 10
We went for my fasting blood draw early this morning, in time for breakfast at Carl’s JR. We had the special large Biscuit with egg, cheese, Canadian bacon, and sausage. Normally that’s two kinds of bacon, regular pork strips, but I asked for a (free) substitute of a sausage patty, which is our preference. We stopped off at Les Schwab (tire place) for a change of season check of air in John’s car’s tires. From there we went to the grocery to get some sandwich meat for John’s WTA trip lunches on Friday and Saturday. Then when we returned, he took time to take the dogs for their morning exercise, while I ran off copies of the changed music for the group. When he returned, we had to weigh onions: 10 pounds each for two persons and 5# for another, and bag them for me to take to the Rehab, where we played today. John stayed home to work on cutting fallen trees into firewood size pieces for our neighbors. This weekend, while he is in the hills, the clan is gathering to celebrate the arrival of a new great grandbaby. The able bodied ones are to come take a couple of pickup loads for the wood shed – John has usually done this but would rather be making trail.
Friday, Oct 11
John got up at 5:00 a.m. and was out of here at 6:00 a.m. for Hobart (near Issaquah) to do WTA trail work. I stayed to work on clean-up projects from the activities associated with no water for a week, and moving boxes out of the garage to the front yard and put under a tarp. I intended this morning to add something to this blog, but after doing emails and phone calls, I turned off my computer to get to work on other pressing projects. My computer was off for hours (very strange for me when not traveling away from home). I fought with the water and air in every pipe. Worst was the hot water, because I wanted to wash dishes, and couldn’t. I called and talked to both the pump technician and our plumber. The first tech who just put in the tank didn’t really have a clue, but the plumber made a few suggestions. Finally, after running every faucet in the house and outside, it may be getting a little better.
Once it got to 60° outside I bundled up, got a chair, lifted part of the tarp, and started going through a few more boxes from school that I had not tackled in years. Most of the stuff was from the early 2000s or even some the 1990s. Disgraceful. Much could be tossed totally because of outdated technology–example everything to do with overhead projection systems, transparencies, and special holders to protect transparencies! I found a brand new box of a dozen WHITE lead pencils, and am curious what they are used for. I looked on line, and found I could buy a box on Ebay for $20. I also tried to find out their use, and only could find that sometimes woodworkers use them. Books of stuff back to 1970, which are of no use to most people, but I pulled a few that might be of interest to some friends and will offer before recycling. Lots of old term or project papers that can just be recycled immediately. I pulled off any usable covers and will take them to school to share with the students. I actually always preferred a plain staple.
Found some stuff to add to the box I’m making for the person now teaching Urban Geography, mentioned earlier in Wednesday’s blog report. Covered the remainder with the tarp. I uncovered a nice flower pot with a saucer, hung in a macramé hanger. I cannot remember its source. I hope John can. I need to find someone special to give it to. I think it’s associated with my mom in some way, but I don’t think she had anything to do with making any part of it. Maybe I just got it for her, or from her, and it’s been in our things. This one is red, and I recall having a dark green one. Maybe it will turn up in another box. Then after getting cold and tired of sorting for 2 hrs. outside, I returned to work on the dish loading into the dishwasher. I finally held my breath and started it, hoping the air spurting in the hot water faucets would not affect it. It’s doing all right, right now 1/2 way through the cycle. It made a few noises, but managed to clean the dishes, and I turned it off before the dry cycle to dump off the red water caught in places such as the tops of mugs.
I got a call from Kim Khan that John’s wedding ring is ready to pick up, but I told him it would be next week before we’d be in. John made it home about 5:45 p.m. and had the feeding and exercising chores to do. Then he fixed a nice dinner.
We had a phone call to respond to tonight from a friend about her horse’s problem, possibly Pigeon Fever, and she remembered we had the problem once with one of our horses. Now we are getting ready to finish up things and hit the hay. Tomorrow morning John leaves early for the same park he visited and worked in today. It is a new trail, in a county park, with a lot of new digging required. The names of the trails there are Elk Ridge and Carey Creek, on
Taylor Mountain near Hobart, south of Issaquah.
Seventeen worked today, with the Crew leader and two Assistant Crew Leaders (ACLs) as John is. King county rep (Jack), with a chain saw, was there too. Tomorrow, 30 total are signed up, with a couple more ACLs. John’s not going but there will be a like-sized crew there on Sunday.
Saturday, Oct 12
John left at 6. I stayed to fix stuff and wrap presents for the neighbors’ great grandson’s party, and lunch. The stuff I fixed was cleaning and de-stemming a bowl of sun gold cherry tomatoes (our last for the year), and washing but not de-stemming 2 large and 2 medium red tomatoes, in case needed. I opened a new jar of Blue Cheese dressing and carried it. After a nice filling lunch (lasagna, ham, beef/corn casserole, several salads, a nice Chinook salmon spread from fish caught by a son in the Juan de Fuca straits, one with quinoa & garbanzo beans I skipped, a cheese plate with Blue Cheese (my favorite), two cheddars, and goat milk cheese with a cranberry & sugar coating, a mixed green salad with beet greens, spinach, & endive, and some cooked/spiced beets. There was a platter of yellow and red peppers, and other veggies, including someone else’s red cherry tomatoes and some of our Sun gold ones added. We visited and then opened gifts and watched pictures of the recent wedding of the baby’s parents. We had a dessert choice, or a little of both, of white frosted chocolate cake and an apple/pear crisp. I then honchoed a work crew of our neighbor’s family (one gal, and 4 guys to pack wood from our property across the street to their parents (or grandparent’s) woodshed, to use to heat for the winter, supplemental to inside electric furnace house heat. Over the years, John has cut up fallen trees from their place and ours. We call it trash-wood. It is mostly cottonwood and quaken aspen, with minor amounts of WA Hawthorne, a few pine limbs, and some willow from the wet areas. Eventually, John made it back about 5:40 and went out with the dogs, to feed the horses, and then back to visit with the folks still loading wood. At dark he came back in to get food to feed the ferals. All four were there tonight. I took care of our inside-outside cat while he was out visiting, and I closed the window on the doggie door to keep him from messing with the ferals’ food.
Now John’s back working on a post to say this won’t be out before tomorrow, and I have to take photos off my camera I took at the party, and off my old camera that he took a few pictures of the trail work today. Before he got back home, a gal on the trail took a picture of him working, and sent it to my email (from her I-phone). I have put that on line with a couple of the photos he took on my camera today. They were taken in low light, and so the focus is not as crisp as normal. While I was finishing working on the page (below), in came a report from Evonne, the crew leader, with a link to a bunch of pictures a fellow, nicknamed Big Rock Jonnie, takes on his camera, and gives the flash card to the crew leader, who puts them all on Picasa for everyone to share. At the moment I only pulled two special ones from there; maybe more to come. Meanwhile, here is the link to check.
Sunday, Oct. 13
Water problem is not fixed.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan