Monday, Oct 22
We had a lot on our plate today. We’d finished the blog last night at 11:00 p.m., but then added a link after it had been published.
This morning we had to get ready to leave for the day, but first, John had to meet our farrier in the driveway to hold our horse, Myst, for her feet trimming. They were done in time for us to take off for town after 11:00 a.m. to pick up a friend (Kristin Ashley) in Ellensburg, and drive to Cle Elum. The haze was really bad because of a high pressure system hanging over our region until Tuesday, and no winds predicted to carry it away.
Kristin works at the nearby Wild Horse Wind energy site, and gives tours. She says when there is no wind, people ask more questions.
The drive to Cle Elum on I-90 usually is picturesque, featuring Mt. Stuart (as I have shown previously in this blog), but today, it was totally grayed out in the haze.
We got to town, picked up Kristin, and our first stop was at the KVH Clinic for John’s and my Pneumonia (PPV-23) vaccines. There was a slight delay in signing in and getting a nurse to provide the shots, but it allowed us a little time to visit before leaving Kristin in the waiting room. We were happy to be met by Triage nurse, Lacey, who often calls me with my blood test reports every month. I had never met her in person. We left and drove to the other end of the small town to go to the Cottage Café. We had $20 off our meals there from our Anniv. in July and my birthday in Sept. We had already used John’s January coupon. Nice thing about that restaurant is you can use your birthday or anniv gift anytime during the year, not just in the month your birthday or anniv falls, as is the case with The Palace in Ellensburg.
Our trip home we took by way of Lambert Rd, the Teanaway River, Taylor Bridge Rd, Hwy 10, with views of the Yakima River and geological features.
My Photos Link to our Fall Colors Trip
Tuesday, Oct 23
I decided to get up early and begin planning for this week and the next two, that I have put off. I also decided against going to town today. I hope I don’t win a big (or little) prize at Bi-Mart. You have to be present to win on Tuesdays.
I have accomplished several things for Friday’s luncheon, but still have a bunch to do (wash and dry apples to take for eating and for giveaway). John took me out to sort what I wanted. He and Annie are back out tending to other things in the yard and barn, while there is still daylight.
We had a good brunch to tide us over. I managed to order some meds for John, make some phone calls, and do a bunch of organizing emails, charge my FitBit, count out some of the utensils and plates needed for Friday’s luncheon. I got some more stuff from the car to add to the mix (cups and decorated plates), but still have to make Crystal Light Lemonade to serve as the beverage. John fixed the labels on the 2-liter cola bottles to indicate the contents.
I’m now taking a break to write the AAC people in charge about the upcoming Nov 9 Veterans’ Day celebration planning.
Continued working the rest of the afternoon and evening in the house, and John outside on numerous projects. One thing he did was cart old dried cottonwood cut to fireplace size to the road with a big FREE sign. Someone stopped and took some, so he replenished the stack a couple days later. We have plenty of Ponderosa pine, if we need to fuel our wood stove.
Wednesday, Oct 24
Today was a normal Wednesday: get my salad ready for taking to the Food Bank, where I play music with others, and stay after for the meal. While there I greet the Senior Nutrition table (mostly filled with people I know by name at the Senior Center). They love our music and always sing along (from the opposite end of the building). A couple of them also follow from there to participate at the AAC in the SAIL exercise class. Several of the musicians also have joined the Senior Nutrition program and we have to sign in with our electronic card for ID. The gov’t provides this service, helping cover some of the costs of nutritious food, and oddly enough, age or income is not a factor. Ironically, the original pot of money funding this was provided by the Tobacco companies. I also carried in several pair of slacks to give to Evelyn to try on, from the smallest ones given to me (down to size 8).
From there on to SAIL exercise class and then home to tackle things needed completed for Thursday and Friday. I did run by a couple of places with deliveries and to pick up my medications.
Thursday, Oct 25
Slept in until 8:00 a.m. Awoke to a message my dessert baker is ill and cannot make dessert for tomorrow’s luncheon. I called and talked to my friend Pennie at the Super 1 Bakery, and she has set aside in their cooler, a cheesecake sliced into 16 pieces with toppings of plain, caramel, chocolate, strawberry, and orange. I’ll stop by to retrieve today after I finish our music at Hearthstone, and while there, I’ll pick up two medications for John. Then John and I will turn around and go back to town for an Ice Age Floods chapter lecture about the Manastash Anticline (rock layers bend up). This one is in Juniata County, Pennsylvania; Route 322.
I will videotape it. My camera is all charged up and ready to roll.
First, my report of our music at Hearthstone. We were short a couple who were sick, but had a good bunch there and did a fine job.
Dean Allen (our harmonica player & singer) brought his little brown jug and told the story behind it, right before we sang the song, “Little Brown Jug.” It’s a quite old bottle (maybe to the 1850s), originally with “stomach bitters” in it. The old label is still almost intact. Dean has written up his story on how he acquired it, but I will save that for next week, and just add a teaser of photo of parts, now.
Top of label is on left and middle of label is on right.
Raised letters on the glass bottle and a handwritten note about Dean Allen’s first haircut, 75 yrs ago, taped to the bottom of the bottle. More of his story to be continued …
We went by Burger King for a special offer on two Crispy chicken sandwiches, and I got nervous waiting forever for them to deep fry the chicken. I returned to the car and told John I wondered if they had to go out back and butcher the chicken before fixing. I had waited ~ 15 minutes! Hence, we were late getting to our normal front row seats, but kindly the people there ahead of us all shifted over to allow us to be on the end in front of the screen to which the speaker planned to point. The 6 folks only had to move one seat to their left.
The speaker was Harvey Kelsey, Research Associate in Geology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. His topic was the Manastash Anticline (which forms the south side of our Kittitas Valley).
The full title of his talk is: The story of a Yakima fold — the Manastash anticline — and how it informs backarc deformation in the Cascadia subduction zone over the past 15 million years
His abstract goes into more detail, and more detail in the video:
The Yakima folds of central Washington are prominent anticlines that are the primary tectonic features of the backarc of the northern Cascadia subduction zone. What accounts for their topographic expression and how much strain do they accommodate and over what time period? We investigate Manastash anticline, a north-vergent fault propagation fold typical of structures in the fold province. From analysis of cross sections, the crust has horizontally shortened by 11% (0.8-0.9 km). The fold, and by inference all other folds in the fold province, formed no earlier than 15.6 million years ago as they developed on a landscape that was reset to negligible relief following voluminous outpouring of Grande Ronde Basalt. Deformation is accommodated on two fault sets including west-northwest-striking frontal thrust faults and shorter north- to northeast-striking faults. The frontal thrust fault system is active with late Quaternary scarps at the base of the range front. The fault-cored Manastash anticline terminates to the east at the Naneum anticline and fault; activity on the north-trending Naneum structures predates emplacement of the Grande Ronde Basalt. The west-trending Yakima folds and west-striking thrust faults, the shorter north to northeast striking faults, and the Naneum fault together define the deformational framework in the backarc of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
My video follows – please, realize it is “unlisted” and not publicly shared on YouTube. You must have the link to reach it.
IAF Ellensburg Chapter-Harvey Kelsey, Manastash Anticline
The Apple Corer-Slicer arrived in our mailbox and John brought it to the house. Our mail mostly comes between 3 and 5 PM – this was near the end of that. Talk about cutting it short. We cleaned it and took it along to the luncheon on Friday.
Friday, Oct 26
I worked on packing the stuff I need to take tomorrow to the luncheon. John fixed the apples to carry along. He’ll help me in with all my stuff: two boxes of apples, brown lunch bags to take away 3+ apples each (Honeycrisp & Gala), a box with cheesecake, two 2-liter bottles of Crystal Light, plates, utensils, apple corer/slicer, plastic ware, container of Cheez-its, serving things, and more. I carried a bag full of the lighter of stuff. Luckily, we did it in one trip with my trusty old pull luggage carrier to stack upon, and having the parking lot just behind Bouillon. The elevator dumped us out just one door away from where we were headed.
Here are pictures, including of a gift we received from Bobbi Broderius’ family. They used one of our timeshares to exchange from our PNW ownership to one in Kauai, HI. 
Bobbi, Nancy, Amy – Table setup for Scholarship Luncheon 
“from both sides now!”
Hand-carved wooden turtle from Kauai, served as guard for Ruth Harrington’s scholarship fund and is seen above at far end of our table.
Amy McCoy’s daughter, Madelyn made us her special corn muffins to complete our dinner. She is a senior in high school. Mom Amy added honey butter, and made the crockpot of chili with all the sides. Thanks to Monica Bruya for bringing the veggies (carrots, celery, orange pepper) – not pictured below, to add to our festive table.
Madelyn’s corn muffins, Amy’s chili, onions, sour cream, cheese, missing veggies, Cheez-its®; my corn muffin with honey butter. 
Desserts/sides: Hot Apple Cider & festive straws (Amy), cored & sliced apples by John, Caramel apple dip (Amy), varied Cheesecake (Nancy & Super 1), Halloween candy corn & decorations (Amy). We found the apple slicer worked best on the smaller apples. With the big ones, seeds and endocarp (?) have to be cut away.
Do you know the history of candy corn?
Candy corn – stacked thusly, it does look like an ear of corn!
John and I had picked the apples from the Eberhart’s Orchard, on 4th Parallel Rd, after the commercial pickers left. We doled out 3+ apples to those there in the little brown paper bags, and we sent the remaining sliced apples with Ruth to her 1:00 p.m. group today. John returned in time for a bowl of the wonderful chili and corn muffin, and then helped me clean up and carry home our stuff. Thanks to Amy for all she did for the day.
Before coming home, we also made an unusual stop (for us) at Fred Meyer to check out their good price (88₵) for a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi if you bought at least 4 or more. We bought 6 of each (Pepsi & Pepsi Zero). While there we bought 8 PowerAdeZero for me at the best price currently in town, 69₵/32 oz. John had seen an ad in the paper for Fred Meyer having Red Baron pizza for $1.99 limit 5. That’s a great price, but it required a digital coupon. Not having a smartphone, we could use (John’s was home), and we were traveling in my car with my cell (not smart), so I asked if we could work out the price somehow. They figured it out and we went away saving $10 on 5 pizzas.
Saturday, Oct 27
I was very tired from this week’s activities. John got up before I did, but I slept in late to recoup.
We had an incredible brunch put on by Chef John. We shared a totally blue-throughout pancake filled with blueberries. It was topped with peaches, and served with two sausage patties; no room on the plate for eggs. This should get us through the day.
I’ve been busy washing dishes, many left over from yesterday’s luncheon fixing and serving.
John and Annie come and go – doing things. The weather is threatening to rain as it gets darker. Soon the cats will be arriving for their evening vittles.
I have spent much time on the computer as well. I have finalized the send of the Earth Science Weekly to 100 people of what Mark Francek (Geographer extraordinaire) sends every week. This week’s version came at 5:04 a.m. this morning. I was asleep.
Much of my time today was spent finalizing two recently taken videos to distribute to those interested.
I just looked out and saw two cats, so I added some hard food to their bowls. When I went out, I heard John mowing at the end of the driveway. Now as I was adjusting the drying of the dishes, I heard him coming down the drive on the riding lawnmower. He says he ran out earlier and had walked back for gasoline, but while here, he raked walnut tree leaves. He’s tired of that. Some years the wind blows them away, but once wet, they make a ground cover that doesn’t move much. They will end up in the garden as fresh organic matter.
I’m now finalizing another video to send out for review. Just got it sent.
Soon, we have to feed the cats their canned food. John is still out tying up loose ends, as the cold and dark season approaches. Sue (yellow cat) just came in the rain, and had some hard food and a few bites of pâté (paste ?) and bits.
I did take some photos today of the wooden turtle from Kauai, HI. We still have yet to find out the type of wood – probably is Monkey Pod wood or maybe Koa. Actually to my eyes, it looks like Myrtle wood, but I don’t know of that being grown in Hawaii. However, there are over 800 varieties of trees grown in Hawaii! 
Turtle’s underside – flash vs. no flash – to better see, Kauai 2018
Note: if any of our friends wish to utilize one of our RCI timeshares, we space-bank them ahead for 2 years (and they have to be used or are lost). We cannot travel together any more, and stay away for a week. But, we are happy to share a week anywhere in the world for the cost of the exchange fees. Right now that is $400/week for anywhere in the world that one is available and the sooner the better you make the reservation, the better your chances. Please contact us well in advance for exotic places. If you pick a place with a few hours’ drive, I can save you the guest certificate fee by driving along with you and checking in, spend a night, or two, and return home. Please do not hesitate to ask. I used to use them to go to Geography conferences and would stay the week in neat places, sharing with friends. Once we had 6 people in a unit in South Lake Tahoe. Other places I went included St. Augustine, FL, Honolulu, HI, San Francisco, CA, and Whistler BC, Canada.
Sunday, Oct 28
I was still tired from the past couple of week’s activities, so after going to bed late and listening to the rain all night, I slept in. Started working on the blog and photos to get ready.
John went out for morning chores before it started raining, and returned to fix an incredible mix of things for our noon brunch. I’m calling this the Naneum Fan Special, and I had to take a photo of my plate to share:
Naneum Fan Special by John: Two eggs over easy topped with white cheddar, hash browns, sausage patty, our own strawberries are hiding half a pancake, stuffed with chopped pecans.
Before the rain today, John got rid of the rain from yesterday and last night, by starting the siphoning of water from barrels on our front porch. House is not designed well. There is a roof-valley that dumps right at the front door. There are no rain gutters, and if there were, they would likely ice over in winter. Heating tape up there and in gutters might work. Might?
Sun came out and John thought he could go out for activities, but at 2:00 it is raining again, but the sun is still shining, so somewhere in the valley there is a rainbow. We can’t see much from the house.
Minus a rainbow, I will tell you a nice saving a reptile story from my friend, Elise, in New Jersey. She’s always sending me wonderful close-up photos of wildlife, flowers, insects, and landscapes from her trips to a nearby park. This just came through ½ hour ago.
I saved a copperhead today! He was on the side of the road, leaving the park, but this road is narrow, so when 2 cars pass, you have to move all the way over, which would have killed him.
He was big, about 2.5 feet +/-. Someone pulled over, got out (I guess to see if I needed help) and told me, “Ya know that’s a copperhead right? He’s a big one”. I said yeah, I know, but he still does not deserve to die; I am just trying to get him off the road…with a really long stick! He was so sluggish because it was 49 degrees. He tried to strike but in more of a leave me alone kind of thing.
So I found a really long, like 6-7′ stick and left some branches on it to block him. I got him on the stick and in the brush (it was about a foot embankment for him so he probably would not have made it). I do hope he gets to a warm place. It’s not that I like venomous snakes, but still…I do like reptiles, though.
For supper: Onions from the garden as beer-battered rings, baked chicken, and Butternut squash.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan