The “shrub-steppe” is the type of natural environment found here and today local experts (KEEN) are out doing an “up close and personal” thingy for children, new comers, and others. It’s the 12th annual “Get Intimate with the Shrub Steppe” :
I am starting this on Sunday, May 1st, this week, because you already know what happened yesterday. You don’t know, however, that we had eaten so much for lunch, that we passed on dinner. (Well, a piece of toast and a cookie was all we had).
Sunday was the nicest day we have had this whole year. No wind and sunny, with temps to 65. John stayed out working most of the day starting with removal of the chain link panels from the truck. I only had a light lunch because I was expecting a meal tonight at the Taize’ service. One of the ladies of the church made it and it was scrumptious: a casserole that is most like Enchiladas but without the tortillas that I don’t like. She fixed it with chicken, sour cream, green chilies, pepper jack cheese and cheddar cheese, some spices (no salt), chili powder, and I don’t know what else, but it was fantastic. We had a nice mixed salad with cucumbers (I don’t like, but could pick out), radishes, carrots and several kinds of greens. For dessert, she fixed a cobbler with blueberries, Marion berries (I do not like the seeds), and raspberries, served with whipped cream on top. Good thing I had a small lunch.
Monday. Rain today, after the beautiful day yesterday. That will hamper John’s outside work, which was making pretty good progress. I will take off for exercise class, maybe a nursing home visit, and then get home to all the chores waiting. I haven’t done anything but email and eat some snacks. John has spent the last hour or more planting squash seeds and tomatoes in little pots. There were only 14 seeds for squash (yellow) in the packet that cost $2.50. Boy, that’s different from what it used to be. He thinks there might have been a slight reduction in price, maybe 20%. The tomato seeds are a special Burpee Big Boy. There are 30 seeds in there, and it cost $1.79.
Tuesday. My dental teeth cleaning for the day was cancelled because my hygienist broke her foot in a fall from her horse. The rest of my day was doing household chores, paying bills, cleaning, and emailing. Also helped proof an academic report tonight for a geographer friend still employed in another state. Boy, how nice it is to be retired and not have to be writing yearly performance reports for teaching, research and service.
Wednesday. Morning spent on chores and haircut for Nancy. Amazing how much it has grown out in a month (after waiting all those months not to be bald and losing hair in handfuls). Then John took a break from his outside tasks to go with me and let me off at the exercise class. He went and bought “stuff” at the hardware store. He is replacing a small wooded bridge in the pasture – so here’s a bit about that:
Types of structures here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm07232804/page07.htm
John’s is a Type 3 “puncheon” – the drawing above for Type 2 shows split logs and this sort of surface is the meaning of puncheon.
In this link, near the end, is a drawing (in an oval) of a “standard puncheon” with a curb or “bull rail.”
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/fspubs/07232806/page10.htm
That’s very close to what we now have. “Bull rail” is a tern from sailing although the name seems to have been used so long no one knows why.
http://www.insidepassagenews.com/bull_rails.html
Trail crews spend lots of time building and repairing small bridges and puncheon type structures. Another common trail improvement, called a turnpike, is described here:
http://www.justinwp.com/blog/search/trail_work/
. . . go down to “Summer Trail Work Update. Now you know more than you really wanted too!
Our prior little bridge was a reinforced wooden pallet used primarily to get the wheel barrow across the irrigation ditch. An initial pallet – not reinforced – was used by the horses but was not up to the hoof pressure. A pallet is only 4 feet across so the horses were as apt to jump it and the ditch. The real purpose of the new structure is to provide a structure sufficiently long that jumping is not possible and, thus, the horses will have to walk across it. The trick is to put it in a place – and them in a situation – where they have to use it, for example, drinking water on one side, food on the other. They will train themselves to cross without hesitation. This is expected of horses on trail rides. The alternatives are not pleasant.
Now, back to the daily story line —
We had skipped lunch, so after getting my Protime (aka INR) blood draw at the hospital, we went for a treat from Burger King. We had coupons for all except for buying a small drink and small fries. That made a nice meal. We halved an original chicken sandwich, and had 4 chicken tenders (free) with honey mustard and BBQ sauce.
Thursday, pretty routine. Worked on stuff around the house and John worked in the yard. I went to play at an assisted living home, and came by to visit my friend in the nursing/rehab center.
Friday, I stopped at a sale on the way home and bought us a homemade loaf of cinnamon/raisin/nut bread. I arrived home just as John was bolting together the bull rails, decking, and stringers for the new bridge. I got to help by putting washers and nuts on two bolts. His work platform was across the bed of the pickup and when finished he just drove to the pasture and unloaded it. He fed the horses and then it started to sprinkle. Poor timing for it because we got a call from our neighbor’s daughter who was visiting across the street and had a flat tire on her Honda. John went over and changed to the spare in the rain so she could take it into Les Schwab (a regional tire store) for repair or replacement in the morning before driving to Seattle.
Saturday morning. John finished up his KVTR newsletter and got it to the mailbox, so we will not go to town today. It is nice and sunny and not windy for a change. I have a lot of stuff to do in the house, even though it would be nice to be outside. He also got the bridge positioned (in the training mode situation) in the pasture and the horses are using it. In a few days he will move it over to the irrigation ditch and come up with a new “obstacle-project” for the horses.
RAIN ! Wow. We don’t get much rain here – maybe 8 inches per year. A sprinkle started while we ate lunch, just after John said he would be going outside. The sprinkle turn into a real rain, then into a deluge – about 20 minutes of can’t see through falling water. Ya’woda thunk we were back east. Then it stopped. Then we got a little more and now Mr. Sun has emerged. Pasture-grass, flowers, and gardens throughout the neighborhood are happy with this. The folks out getting intimate with the shrub-steppe – probably not so much.
We are joining our neighbors for lunch tomorrow and have to bake a cake to take. Better get to that.
Happy Mother’s Day !
Love from Nancy and John