Beginning Sunday the 17th – another quiet day on the ranch, we hope. No trips planned away. Today is the day our accordion player returns home from the nursing home where she has been recuperating 3 months from hip replacement surgery. This will be a lot better for her husband, not having to go to visit her every day, a 24-mile roundtrip. And, he still had to do all his farm chores.
It is morning and John is doing stuff outside. He returned about lunch time, and our neighbor delivered strawberries. I read a book on Beginning Mandolin, and went to sleep (for about 3 hrs.). I guess I needed it. He slept for maybe 1.5 hrs and then worked on his computer awhile. He left for cutting brush on the west side of our pasture. Vegetation is creeping into the pasture from the fringes. Some things have pretty blossoms, some edible fruit, some come with thorns, and some with all of the above. Currently Syringa and Elderberry are flowering and Currents and Serviceberry have ripe fruit. All are easy to recognize. See:
Western Serviceberry;
http://fieldguide.cdlandtrust.org/fieldguide/shrub/western-serviceberry
Golden current;
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_202/1193924136430tyI.jpg
Mock Orange (Syringa);
http://c33532.r32.cf0.rackcdn.com/a8753ab9-6b45-4bf9-bffd-823a525a04df.jpg
Western Blue Elderberry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_cerulea
With late afternoon shade, he is working to remove some of the less desirable plants and thus open spaces around those shown in the links above. I went to have a look and we just returned from a walk around the 7 acre pasture (not quite down the whole way and back, but most), with John, the dogs, and the cat. It was a little hot for the clothes I had on, and the cat was very winded and hot, as was I, when we returned. The dogs got to go in the irrigation ditch but the cat and I did not. While down there John went over and fed the horses. He has driven the horse trailer with hay inside, down to the middle of the 7 acres, so he doesn’t have to carry by wheelbarrow so far from the barn (up at the north end of the pasture).
Finished dinner and am feeling better, finally. We will go to bed after ice cream with strawberries for me and blackberries for John. Amazingly, I went to sleep after having had the long afternoon nap.
Monday. Was going to go to exercise class, but slept in, and was quite congested this morning. Will just stay and eat lunch with John and work on cleaning up the den for our Sears repairman to come tomorrow a.m. to fix the frig freezer compressor fan unit. It went off 3 times this morning and once last night before bed. It will be nice to get it fixed. (Note–he cancelled out because he had to order the part.) Then we take off tomorrow afternoon to Yakima for a checkup for Nancy, an upgrade to the engine’s software for the 2009 Subaru, and a trip to Costco. The rest of the day was slow for Nancy, taking a 2 hr nap and doing very little else. Supper is over, and we will likely be in bed earlier than usual tonight. John got a lot of rocks moved, brush cut, raspberries lifted and propped off the ground, horses fed, and a few other things.
Tuesday started with a rain storm. We expected the Sears repairman early, but he called from Yakima and said he would have to order the part from the factory. It won’t get here till 2 weeks; actually it came in Saturday’s mail but he won’t be back till Aug 2 to fix it. We also had to leave for Yakima ourselves at noon to take me for my Heart device (ICD) checkup (every 3 months), for John to take his Subaru for the replacement talked about above, and then he had to come retrieve me from the Heart Center waiting room. I had my computer along so I could kill time. I couldn’t get onto a wireless connection, however, so couldn’t access the Internet. My checkup was fine. Next appointment with my cardiologist is sometime in August. Then we went to Costco. Got a bunch of stuff, but also forgot a few things. Didn’t get home till 4:30, put up the groceries, and I took off again for town to play religious music at one of the nursing homes. Then home for home-amended spaghetti sauce on thin spaghetti. It cooled off some today from previous days, making the trip really fine.
Wednesday. This morning we started out early with John running the dogs and feeding the horses. I joined him in the front yard (where we have a few fruit trees, but still call it our orchard.) The cherry trees are full of birds so we realized if we were to have any, we needed to start picking. John’s method of picking (because the trees are so tall, and we do not have tall ladders), is to go up a ladder and/or climb on the larger limbs and then saw the branches. After 4 years with no cherries (cold and wet weather) and, thus, no trimming – there has been lots of growth. This is our way of pruning every so often. Today we “picked” from the branches. After John downloads the branches, he comes down and cuts the big branches into smaller pieces. He has a nice hand saw he got from service to the WA Trails Association (WTA) for 50+ days of volunteering:
http://www.coronatools.com/item/rs-7130?referer=hand-saws
WTA engraved his name on the handle. These cut on the pull stroke and are quite effective – and dangerous.
I picked cherries for an hour and then called our 85 yr old neighbor to see if she wanted to come sit in a comfy lawn chair and pick some cherries off branches for their family. She probably got about 15 pounds. John and I picked and probably got 15 pounds to take to friends in town and then another two boxes (8 pounds each, maybe) and put in the outside refrigerator in our shed. We will pick more in the morning when it is cooler. I left this morning at 11:30 to go play music at the Food Bank, but missed my afternoon exercise class because I was not up to par. Came back and John and I picked more cherries from branches he cut while I was in town.
Then we visited two people and dropped off the cherries, visiting at one, and then going by the Univ. for me to sign paperwork for a thesis committee I was on last spring. On to another home, where they traded us some Walla Walla sweet onions for the box of cherries. On home to relax.
Thursday. Started the morning slowly, sleeping in after losing a lot of sleep in the middle of the night. We picked more cherries and then John picked red raspberries because of all the thorns and the fear I would start myself bleeding. Then off to play music at Dry Creek where they gave the 7 of us there, nice orange or chocolate ice cream bars. Then afterward I dropped off some cherries to a friend, visited the grocery store for pop for John and chocolate milk for me. Then I took off for home but stopped at some other friends’ house to give them some cherries we picked this morning (all Rainiers), and mixed with some Bings from yesterday’s picking. We are having a hard time keeping up with the pilfering by the birds. The folks (in their 80s from my exercise class) had me in to share a nice visit with coffee and cookies. On home and I’m resting again in my recliner. John’s out doing chores in a windy environment. The temp is down to the low sixties, which is very nice. I know the rest of the country is burning up. It started at 58 here this morning and only got to 73 at the hottest. Fine with us. The winds have been regular in the twenties and topping at 37 mph gusts.
Sad news tonight late (9:30 p.m. our time). CH Cedaridge Vintage Cork died at just 6 years old. He had his show championship and was on his way to being a Dual Champion (field and show). He is Annie’s brother (different litter), Kip’s brother and a sweet boy. His coloring was white and orange just like his great grandma, Dual Ch/AFC/Can Ch Sirius Sashay, and he had her big run, personality, and birdiness. He also took a lot of characteristics from his mom, Cedaridge Legacy of Shay, who is still with us.
The bad news came in a phone call from his field trainer in PA that Cork died from the heat. Another dog (theirs, named Soldier) was at the vets and not doing well. They may lose him too. (Actually good news is that he got to the vet having seizures, was put on IVs and has survived.) Cork was dead when they found him upon returning home. Ten dogs were in their own crates with water and fans blowing, in their garage. Doors were open to keep air circulating. We checked the weather for Pittsburgh after I got off the phone with Brian, and it was 94 with a dew point of 73 for several hours this afternoon. That reflects a pretty high heat index – we were told later it was 124. The heat wave back in the East has been horrible, but is now easing some.
Cork had become part of Brian and Helen’s family. He was with them twice as long as with us. We have trained and campaigned winning Britts and know the time and work involved, and the human/dog relationship that develops. Brian is going to miss him a lot. I know how hard it was for him to make that phone call. We have pictures of Cork lying in his lap in a recliner. His wife, was driving as he called me on their way back from leaving Soldier at the vet. She took Cork through his show championship, with help for his last major from another Brittany breeder in the NE.
We are feeling the loss and sadness, but have great memories of his time with us and the reports over the past few years of how well he was doing. He only needed a major win and a few points to be the Dual, and carry on our lines. Now that is not possible. At least we can rest in knowing he has happy hunting grounds across the rainbow bridge and that he will meet up with others behind him in our Brittany family (and cat and horses), or those kin to him at our house while he was here; plus he will be there awaiting us, when it is our turn to cross the rainbow bridge.
Happy hunting, Cork. We will miss your cute antics.
Friday. Didn’t sleep well last night so today was not a normal Friday. Did go to town for a free shoulder/neck massage, much needed and enjoyed. While in town I picked up Thyroid pills for one of our older dogs. She needs a half pill twice a day, hit two garage sales on the way home, but one was totally overpriced so I didn’t stay or buy anything. I went to the other on the way home, and normally I won’t do anything advertised as an “estate sale” because they are usually totally over priced too, but it was on the way. I’m so glad I stopped. I got several nice blouses for a quarter each, a dog and cat comb and brush for 5 cents each, 4 paperback books for a quarter each, bottom of a nice music stand (which I need), sunglasses case, 5 pairs of socks, a leather wallet for replacing John’s that has disintegrated (purchased in Iowa in the 1970s – we think), a plastic container with top, another leather/zippered holder, a set of blinds, and a can with large 5” nails and roofing nails, a Phillips head screwdriver, all for a dime each. It was definitely worth the stop.
After I got home, we picked some more cherries, and then took some to friends. They reciprocated with a 19” Rainbow trout they had caught. We had 1/3 of it for dinner last night, baked by John in a lemon sauce, mashed potatoes and some fried onions. We froze the rest for another day. The meat was salmon colored because of the natural origin of the fish, caught downstream from the Grand Coulee Dam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ZffI6by3A
We wonder the age of the fish. This was the smallest fish they caught. They fished for 2 days and got the limit of two per person both days.
Saturday, a long and warm day. Started with 3 hours put in by me and 4 hours by John with cherry picking. He first picked from the lower branches. Then when I came out (with the cat), he climbed the ladder and cut some mid-height branches, and went on up a Bing cherry tree to take off higher limbs. I sat below in a lawn chair and picked into a box. John would come down long enough to cut up the larger branches into more manageably sized ones for me to pick. We always pick with the stems on because that increases their life and freshness. Some of these were messy and sticky today because of aphids and birds eating parts of berries and messing up those around them. Finally late afternoon I had decided to go to town to check out the sale I was at yesterday, and a couple of others in “Grasslands”, a subdivision of pretty nice houses. John was ready for a break and decided to go along with me. My final destination was Kittitas, WA to pick up my registration materials, my name tag, and buy a tee shirt for the WA Old Time Fiddler’s Workshop this coming week (starts at 9:00 a.m. Monday). I didn’t want to have to be doing all that on Monday morning, when I have to be loading my music stands and instruments into the air-conditioned building for the day. Certainly, I cannot leave my instruments in the hot car. I’m taking a morning mandolin class (beginning) and an Advanced Intermediate Fiddling class in the afternoons. The latter is a full day class, but it is with my teacher of 19 years, and she was happy for me to get the morning mandolin class and miss hers in the morning.
Before we got to Kittitas, we stopped at 3 garage sales, first, the good one where I was yesterday. Everything was half price and it was already very low prices. I wanted to ask if they had the top part of the blinds I bought yesterday, (they didn’t) but they gave us the double wide blinds because they were just going to throw them away. We will have to buy the connectors to put in the wall to hold them. I also wanted to see if a can of nails for a quarter was still there, it was, and John was happy with the 12.5 cent price. The neatest thing that happened was that the daughter and granddaughter of the family were there. The granddaughter was my student in 2005 and when we saw each other it was old home week and hugs time. She knew I had been very sick, and was so happy to see me doing so well. She now lives on the west side of the state and had just come back to help with the yard sale. I talked to her for awhile about her jobs since graduation and then took a spin around to see if there was something else we wanted. I picked up more blouses for a nickel or a dime–some are probably too small for me, (mediums), which I will give to my neighbor who has lost down to that size and given me all her L and XL ones. Also found a nice colorful ceramic fish dish to give to our fishing buddy, a couple of leather belts for a nickel, a pair of tennis shoes almost new, size 11, but they are too tight for John. We’ll give them to the farmer across the road, who is married to the lady I’m giving the blouses to. Only .75 paid for the shoes. John found a nice glass Pyrex top that will fit our bowls and be nice for warming things. At the other sales we hit (only 2) we got 2 nice pillows in a nice case for a buck. One is big like John likes, and one is smaller like I like. John’s is replacing his of the same make and style that “his” dog chewed a hole in (to the foam stuffing). You’d think at 11 years she’d quit doing that. I also got a couple of nice long sleeved blouses (polyester) for cooler weather (a quarter each), and a nice sun hanging made from a ceramic dish with an edge for the smiling sun’s face. We will give to our friends down in the Yakima valley near Zillah, who hosted our Wine Geography class, and whose Winery’s name is “Paradisos del Sol.” They also had one of our Brittany puppies. Also John picked up a new-like towel and 2 washcloths for 50 cents total. I found 5 pair of socks for a dime each, and an almost “new” bra for a quarter. Think that’s about it. Being right before closing time had the people lowering their prices nicely.
On to Kittitas, where I bought my tee shirt for 2011 WOTFA Workshop, a nice blue with white lettering and “snow covered” edge on the trees on the front. I picked up my name tag, and materials for the week, plus visited some with folks I only see once a year, and it was good to get it done today when few people were around, so that I don’t have to go in really early for the starting assembly at 9:00 a.m. It was fine to drive the 10 miles out there and to have John’s company. He will only go out one time next week, when we have our end of week, Friday, class recital.
Hope your week is nice and that I have the stamina to get through mine.
Nancy and John
in cool and windy WA.