Sunday, Dec 8
Morning pealing and cutting Golden Health Squash into little pieces to mix with cinnamon, sugar, our walnuts, and a touch of cloves to take to the community dinner at the Grange 45 minutes away. Lots of food. We ate enough not to need dinner (at least I won’t). Turkey, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, many salads, several breads/rolls, and many veggies, salads, & desserts. The Community Choir entertained us and they were very good. Then some cute little girls in costumes danced for us (starting with 3-5 yr olds, then 7-10, and then kindergarten. Nice jobs by all.
Monday, Dec 9
Began with taking my blood pressure for my week prior to going to Cardiologist next Monday. Then a bunch of work honchoing the lab work information between two doctor’s offices, via their respective nurses. Then John came in and requested my appearance with camera outside. He wanted me to record our latest home-on-the-farm rural living experience. You’ll see more about this later, because now I haven’t had time to go through the photos and movies, but we have determined it is a yellow jacket nest. Luckily, we didn’t have to run for our lives, but John had to remove wide pieces of old lumber covering the wall studs. Rare stuff, that. The nest was between 2 studs and over 3′ tall. Nothing much was in the combs ’cause these folks don’t make honey and don’t over-winter in cold climes. We’ll get to this next week – maybe. Nothing else exciting today: I worked some on music, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (John says we don’t live in a town and so never get Christmas presents.) We do get lots of Christmas cards from all over with connections to our past, and phone calls too. Nice keeping connected. We are not going to get our web page greetings out by the end of the year but will be sending a cute card with wishes (from the Jacquie Lawson site). Keep your eyes out for that coming to a computer near you.
Tuesday, Dec 10
This morning we went to town to get to the hospital lab for a fasting draw for me at 8:45, then off for a Monster biscuit from Carl’s JR, and on to the Copper Kettle for a 9:30 to 11:00 meeting with the Geography Emeritus Profs. From there to Super One and Bi-Mart. John was looking for some very small (8 inches) extension cords, but they had none, so he will order from Amazon. (He did and they arrived Friday). While there I found a camera case for half price ($5), for my new Nikon. It’s too big for my pocket with its case, so now this case has a strap for around my neck and room for the camera and charger. Tonight I go back to town to play and sing Christmas music with The Connections at an assisted living home, Hearthstone Cottages. Came home to a great dinner by John – baked tender chicken and pineapple chunks, baked apples with the rest of the squash and walnuts dish. Finished All I Want for Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Will check out with my banjo buddy tomorrow at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Stayed up until midnight – too long a day.
Wednesday, Dec 11
Didn’t have much time to get ready for leaving for town, but I did manage to re-home and deliver some pans, a bread and a large muffin one. On to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, where many people were loading up on food for the holidays. We played all Christmas songs and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Some new people came in and got excited about the music. One fellow introduced himself and says he will be back next Wed, because he really enjoyed the music. Our old faithfuls were there too. For lunch, we had spaghetti-like noodles, with gravy and fresh (cooked) mushrooms, and then some meatballs that seemed to be better and larger than normal, not in a tomato sauce. Salad with mostly stuff I’m not supposed to eat (spinach, cranberries), but also apples and nuts so I filled up on those. For dessert, we had sugar cookies with Christmas decorations. A young man named Greg, 13, was taking videos. He is home-schooled and just decided to document the organization and operation because he wanted to learn about it. The staff plans to put it on their web page (the F.I.S.H.) page. He took some video of us, but who knows how it will come out.
John made some interesting progress today that he has recorded in part below, after pulling some cut aspens across a ditch and getting the truck jammed. I cannot explain how something got wedged on the old truck under the rear axle assembly. He worked with a jack and sledge hammer (to drive a battering ram) and somehow released it so he could drive again. Here’s his explanation:
A view from the rear; log was in front
While crossing a dry irrigation ditch:
I think what happened was that the left front tire tipped up an odd shaped log (about 4 feet long with a broken end) about 14 inches in diameter for most of its length. That piece ended up under the truck and as the left rear tire settled into the ditch (where the log should have been – the log for the right side was still in place) the log wedged under the drive train and caught on the housing exactly where the universal joint (U-joint) [think that is the term for this connection]. Gentle pressure on the gas pedal had no effect. Had I been 50 miles from home I might have tried a bit more power but the truck is a 1980 and I don’t want it to fail. I tried jacking the axle but the uneven ground and the scissor jack (the one most easily at hand) made this difficult – I got less than an inch before the resistance grew too much and I would have had to get better equipment.
Therefore, I got a 10 ft. piece of Aspen trunk (for a ram), a sledgehammer, and two little rollers (branches) about a foot long. I put the two rollers in place and put the ram on top with one end on the log. I used the sledge as one would use a Croquet mallet, on the other end of the log. Several good whacks and the log went forward. I pulled it out. Took the jack out. Put it, the sledge, and the wood blocks I’d used into the back of the PU. Started up and drove off with no problems.
A complication was that had I tried to go backwards more than 3 inches the left rear tire was going to settle into the ditch (assuming it might have gone backwards had I applied enough power). The only nearby log big enough to fill the ditch was caught under the truck. I did not have another that size and would have had to come up with a work-around had I wanted to try forcing the PU backward. As mentioned above, I don’t want to “force” this old truck because if it breaks, it’s toast. Even with the delay, I finished pulling the last of the 70+ tree trunks up to a spot where I want to cut them into usable pieces. (Why she wanted this in her blog is a mystery!)
Thursday, Dec 12
Today, about four of my friends have birthdays. I spent a lot of time on music – more than I really wanted. I gathered much together, and took along some things to take to people in town. I found a home for a 1/4 size violin (given to me), and that had been the plan all along. It will be used for a 6 yr old boy, who has two younger siblings who might follow. I also carried in a heavy-duty jacket that is a little tight on John, I don’t really like it, and the buttons are hard to get in place (that is, buttoned). It has a new home. John cuts and moves a little brush each afternoon and added rocks to the agenda today.
Friday, Dec 13
Morning filled with chores on the computer and off. My goodness, it’s a heat wave outside – up to 46. John has decent weather to move the rest of the large Elderberry bush he cut down. We decided to attend a party of the College of the Sciences where I taught. We visited with a few of the folks we’ve known and a newish “development” hire – her purpose is to raise funds from outside the State system. We are of interest to her because I give some money to students for scholarship awards and it passes across her desk. She tells an interesting story (skiing in Canada, a bone crushing accident, medic-flight to Seattle, convinced her she wanted to be a doctor, and many steps later, settled into this development thing. Found her niche too, we think. I’m still involved peripherally with a few other things at CWU; although I’m no longer being paid. Interesting. I must be nuts. Anyway, John keeps telling folks at CWU they need a demographer. (There is currently a rapid increase in the over-65 population and that’s costing the State lots of money.) Related is this link about where, and from what, people die. Maps are from the very western part of King County. It came to me from a list serve I’m on, the Central Puget Sound GIS Users’ Group.
Saturday, Dec 14
Frosty, my horse, died overnight, and we do not know the cause. He has not been sick but was no longer young, perhaps 24-25. Below is his picture. He was a Fox-trotter. We bought him when he was about 14 and that would have been about 2004 or 2005. His history is interesting. As a young horse (we don’t know his age then), he was part of the cast of the 1997 Kevin Costner movie, “The Postman,” (horse parts shot in Central Oregon). The producers wanted only black horses in a couple of scenes so they spray-painted them. He obviously would have needed a lot of spraying to become black. Until the day he died, he did not like spray bottles used around him. We had to wipe his face with a rag with fly repellent sprayed in it.
Above is a lovely sympathy wish from a friend back in Indiana; Frosty is on the right. Of course, I will miss him, but my real regret is I was not able ride him one last time after I recovered from my heart surgeries.
Further interestingly, is information in the Yakima Herald about a woman from Ellensburg who is a competitive jumper– Nannette Bews. This was published this Sept. For many years, the Bews were mainly trail riders — and movie stars, of a sort. They appeared as extras, on their horses, in the movie mentioned above. The most memorable part of the movie for the couple was dyeing Ed’s horse black for the filming. Since all the horses had to be the same color, dye was airlifted from New York to accommodate the scores of animals. “Dyeing a horse is a real experience, I’ll tell you,” Nan recalls. At the time of the movie a young EBRG veterinarian learned about the movie (she is from OR) and went down to watch the filming. Costner was having an issue with the person already there caring for animals and our-sometimes-vet, Thea, soon found herself drafted. She had nothing there to work with and many horses so she told him what she needed and the flew it all in. When that filming was over they gave her all the remaining medicine and equipment. Small world, right? We know someone who knows Kevin Costner and he worked with Frosty!
I went and played music at Briarwood, and we had a huge turnout- as well as a good batch of players (Mandolin, Autoharp, Clarinet, Viola, Fiddle, Timbrel, and two guitars). They fed us a feast – baked flaky crust around a filling of chicken, cheese, carrots, and broccoli. On the table were cheeses, meats, crackers, and cute little Christmas gelatin creations shaped as trees, bells, Santa; a wonderful green Jello & whipped cream salad, and Swedish meatballs with pineapple chunks. Then a table full of desserts – with cookies, Aplets & Cotlets, homemade peanut brittle, excellent chocolate fudge, and a roll of red velvet cake with cream cheese layer.
One of our players was in the hospital from an infection near his pacemaker – apparently having whacked it while working with firewood. We know he went to Yakima Regional last night, and they took it out and put him on antibiotics. They will install a replacement on the other side of his body. We heard from Helga (his wife) tonight that he was up and walking, and will be having the operation on Monday. (His original heart surgery–multiple bypass stuff) was done by the same Doc that worked on my heart.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan
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Via Facebook (see there are a few advantages) from a CWU student we knew early in our arrival at CWU:
Announcing….drum roll please….Dr. Teresa Ryan.
I successfully passed a 3-hours long oral examination for my PhD dissertation, Territorial jurisdiction: the cultural and economic significance of eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) in the north-central coast region of British Columbia.
This from a previous post:
Awesome! Thank you so much Nancy.
You are all with me all the time. You are part of my journey and I am so blessed for it.
Cheers,
‘Smhayetsk
Teresa Ryan
ps. we (as in House, Tribe) had another feast (others refer to these as ‘potlatch’) this past winter in Prince Rupert and moved lineage names; and the one placed on me is ‘Smhayetsk, it means ‘real copper’ and coincides with a river named in our territory tributary to the Skeena River.