Life’s Scenes, Brittanys, & Events

Monday, Feb 12

We’ll begin this week with a beautiful photo of our valley, taken by a friend of mine, and submitted to our local Facebook site: Community Connect Kittitas County.

This photograph was awarded the winner by vote! If you visit the site, you will see it as the cover picture. Pretty awesome.by Lise McGowan: Sunflowers and irrigation in Kittitas County.

We awoke to a cold morning, 25°F. at 7:00 a.m.
John stayed home today, because grapevine pruning was cancelled with Cameron still in Seattle at Pike’s Place Market. Tomorrow they will resume.

Last night we published the blog.

The following link is interesting about the uses DNR can make of drones in places or instances of gathering data not easily attainable.
DNR use of Drones

Morning news from Jeri Conklin in California about “our” Brittanys:
After a very long weekend of running dogs, Camelot Brittanys congratulates Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH (Daisy) on finishing her SH title;” (Next is Daisy’s mom),” FC KWK Windswept Guinevere of Camelot JH on earning two more SH legs, that last one is always the hardest”; and next is a family member), “Copley’s Warrior Princess of Camelot JH on earning her FIRST SH leg with an amazing run as evidenced by her 10+ score in Retrieving. The gunner missed her Chukar and the second gunner winged it, but it kept flying and she followed it till it crashed, over 300+ yards away! She then brought it to hand, solid as ever! I knew she would bring it back, who knew it was going to be over a distance of 3 football fields plus! Needless to say, she will always have that great story to her name, one I will remember as I handled her through it. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our journey along the way.

I spent a lot of time today looking at alternatives for finding a place to stay to attend a wedding in Vancouver, WA on March 10. I have it set up with friends in Winlock. Now pray for no snow on White Pass on March 9th. All I have to do is stay healthy to make the drive alone. We cannot leave the animals for overnight and 2 days, so John will not be going.

I participated in SAIL today.

John went to town after I got back home. His main reason for going was to pick up a fixed flat tire for his Gorilla Cart used to take hay to the horses. It was a punctured tube, and they did not charge him for fixing it. Our Hawthorne trees around the property have wicked thorns. We don’t actually know what it was that caused it, but John has been slowly getting rid of the ones nearest the buildings where he usually uses the cart. Might be better not to disturb them. Maybe they are angry!

Ham, succotash, cornbread, pears for supper, crafted by John.

Tuesday, Feb 13

After feeding the horses, John left at 7:40 a.m. for WHC.

This was my friend Glenn’s birthday, and his friend took him for a breakfast, at a new restaurant, The Wild Huckleberry Cafe’. He got a short stack (2) pancakes, and then sent me pictures, which astonished me, and I will put a before and after in a collage for you to be amazed too. He said the waitress told him most people cannot complete the meal. I think just one of that size might be too much. I think I’ll pass on going there for breakfast. Before ~ . ~ . ~ ~ . ~ . ~ ~ . ~ . ~ ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ After

My activity of the day started at 2:00 at the Senior Center.

THIS was our second class of Line Dancing today, Feb 13. These videos are for the participants. I have a most of the emails for group members, and will share with them. Those of you reading this who were not in the class, you may just pick a few. Don’t miss (3) & (5).

First – (1) Dancing, Nicole Jones & Katharine Turnage leading;
taken by Elaine Bleggi (I was dancing on the back row).

Link (1)

(2) taken by Elaine Bleggi

Link (2)

I alternated dancing to learn the steps and videotaping the rest of the hour. It was nice to have a break from the exercise and get a record of us. It’s difficult to see the steps through the crowd to watch the instructor. We need to have the steps demoed on the screen before as a lesson, I think. I’m not sure of the best way to do that except in advance of class, or to find it on the web and use that. (Someone will have to spend extra time on that creation and we only have 1 week left after Presidents’ Day.) If I were to take a video as these during the class, focusing on the teacher and lesson at the beginning, it would be too late to show before class, because we are moving to other steps each week, with only a slight review of the previous weeks.

(3) Macarena dance (Elise, in NJ, you were right!!)
This one and those to follow, I videoed.

Link (3)

(4) Katharine Turnage demos the grapevine (35 seconds)

Link (4)

(5) Grapevine with music Elvira (1 minute 16 secs)

Link (5)

(6) 43 seconds trying to follow a guy on the recorder

Link (6)

(7) A minute 27 seconds following a guy on a recorder

Link (7)

(8) Two mins 17 secs with Nicole leading from another recording

Link (8)

(9) Cupid Shuffle, shown by Nicole Jones (only 32 secs after class)

Link (9)

Wednesday, Feb 14 Happy Valentine’s Day

John left at 7:30 a.m. for WHC after doing the morning feeding of the livestock.

Food bank for music and vittles following; on to the Senior Center at 1:30 for a Spirit of the West woman roper visiting the AAC.

I planned to video some of her performance. It was held the same time as our SAIL exercise class, which is cancelled for today.

Once there, I asked her permission and she gave it to me, but did not want me to make them public on You Tube. I told her that I only make “unlisted” ones, which is true, and a person has to be given the link (by me); they are not public or listed by her name.

However, this blog does get picked up on the web, so I will not put any of her links herein. I’ll just indicate what I have, and if any one of our regular readers wants to have me send you the links, I know you have my email address and you can request. I will not list them here, specifically, but just a teaser description for each.

She gave me her email, and I promised her I would send the links to her. She is here for our yearly Ellensburg event, this weekend, Spirit of the West.

Here is what we experienced this afternoon: (It was one fantastic performance; great entertainment). My descriptions of the videos follow:

(1) Who is singing this song? Western quiz to start her routine.
(2) A short introduction by the 2018 Queen of the Spirit of the West.
(3) A clever introduction by Karen to the Cowgirl Show
(4) Rope tricks, comedy, & jumping rope (audience counting)
(5) Watch 15 secs of a Cowgirl Roper Magician
(6) 1 min 22 secs, Displaying One Whipping Good Time
(7) 39 secs Whips Display of Awesome Ambidexterity
(8) A life growth lesson culminating in a paper torch
(9) Ukulele trickster with Ellensburg flavor; watch the Finale!
(10) Bell choir & audience chorus; Name that tune in 4 notes!
(11) Final Five minutes of Fun

Let me know if you want me to email you personally the UNLISTED private links.

As it was Valentine’s Day, I dressed accordingly and requested Katrina to take my photo with the two AmeriCorps staff members who have been so supportive in all activities there this year.Nicole Jones, Nancy, and Jessi Broderius with a Happy Valentine’s Day wish. My hair was rather windblown from the Ellensburg winds today, but I have on my colors, and am wearing a heart-shaped pendant John made at his dad’s when visiting long ago. Dad and brother Dick made things from Agate and other stones, either collected (Dick) or perhaps purchased. The chain was a simple purchase as was the mounting hardware.

This year instead of chocolates or sparkling wine, John brought me a box of huge Honeycrisp Apples and then photographed the box with 9 apples weighing 10 lbs. These he bought from Double Diamond packers in Quincy.

Quincy’s gasoline this week is cheaper than Ellensburg’s by 11¢/gal. That’s a perk considering how much mileage he is putting on going over 4-5 days a week for wine grapevine pruning.

Thursday, Feb 15

John left at 7:45 a.m. for WHC after doing the morning feeding of the livestock including one cat. I took care of the rest.

I managed to sleep some but now all my chest muscles are aching from yesterday’s (particularly the evening) coughing. No other signs so I will go today to play, and continue constant use of Fisherman’s Friend® original strong menthol cough drops. I should buy stock in the company. {John says: Not! It is a private company in Fleetwood, England (north of Liverpool) along the Irish Sea.}

We played at Pacifica today in a constrained space. They are in the midst of a major renovation, and doing it all around the residents. We had a good time and the audience was quite appreciative as usual.

Friday, Feb 16

John left early for pruning at White Heron.
The wind blew terribly here for hours, culminating after he returned, reaching 46 mph gusts at the airport. I am sure they were higher out here.

After coughing all last night and still, I did not go to town today. I have been working on getting better to go tomorrow to play music at Briarwood – they feed us. Currently, I have no signs of a cold and no fever.

Saturday, Feb 17

Started with a lot of snow coming down and now at 9:00 we have ~3” (looks like to me), John has fed two cats, 4 horses, and we are enjoying fruit and bran.

We had a telephone call from a couple in Moses Lake, WA who had a Brittany out of our lines awhile ago; now looking for a pup.

I have to get out in the weather and go to Briarwood for music and food. I have printed some music to take which I got from Katie Eberhart in Bend, OR. She plays as we do, at places around her town with her accordion group. She will join us at Hearthstone next week, while visiting her parents here in the valley. She joined us the last time she was here the end of November.

Nice Facebook message from Jeri Conklin in CA. Ginny, the mother of our Daisy finished her SH title today. Here’s her comment, with picture below:
Pending AKC confirmation, congratulations to FC KWK Windswept Guinevere Of Camelot JH, now Senior Hunter! … Her daughter Daisy earned her senior hunter title last weekend! What a journey with this girl. Now to MH.”  Jeri Conklin with FC KWK Windswept Guinevere Of Camelot JH (Daisy’s mom) pending SH after her name w/ AKC confirmation.

Afternoon music: . . . celebrating with friends, we all had a trip there, experiencing wild weather. Started with snow, then rain, then sun, rain again on leaving, and north & east of town we had a double rainbow twice today in our valley.Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends-Maury, Dobro; Kevin, Banjo; Manord, 12-str Guitar; Gerald, 6-str Guitar; Charlie, 12-str Guitar; Evie, Violin; Nancy, Violin; Dean, Harmonica & singer; Rita, Singer.

We ended the day at Briarwood Commons Apartments, being treated to a wonderful meal after our playing music for an hour. We go there every 3rd Saturday of the month. Next month will be especially fun on St. Patrick’s Day. They always decorate their activity room, and plan the main course as something appropriate for the month (Valentine’s Day), or a holiday. We always look forward to going there because they love us and are so involved with singing along with us, in addition to pot-lucking and fixing a meal. Today’s consisted of vegetable soup, Jell-O fruit salad, spicy breaded wings, and a bunch of desserts: homemade cream cheese pie with cherry pie-filling sauce, brownies, various cookies, and apple/cherry punch, water, or coffee.

This weekend coincided with the Ellensburg’s Spirit of the West, so that’s why I dressed in my western blouse and Ellensburg Rodeo hat. The red blouse has cloth fringe and silver metal pieces on the front that look as if it came from a western saddle. I should have just taken a photo of the shirt, but here is my collage of silver trim and accents for saddles, which it is based on.Sunday, Feb 18

I slept in and John managed the morning feedings of critters.

I have been working on the blog and just completed the weekly chore of sorting a week’s meds into the daily “pill boxes” for morning and night.

The weather outside changed again, and just started snowing lightly. That did not last long. A little sun. Now a cloud. The weather diviners think our temps are about to plummet.
We would just as soon keep the clouds, because the clear skies are going to give us low temperatures tonight, to 15°; even worse tomorrow night, to 11°. Not nice, but better than minus digits in other parts of the country!

John fixed us a brunch (sausage, eggs, fresh orange slices, peaches, and rosemary olive toast). We had a pound of sour cream that was approaching its ‘use-by’ date so he made a mixture of rice, black & green beans, ham, sausage, onions, and mushrooms. Altogether, it came to about 6 pounds. Now in the freezer in 1 pound bags.

The little birds are hungry today. The Quail have been few. Often they come at dusk. Time to carry out more sunflower seeds.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan