Sunday, October 23, 2011. Today was a busy morning for John finishing up the 22 year moving of the pump house to beside our house. I got some more pictures this morning, and now have to take another in the house’s new location. I have been working all morning on notifications about a Reecer Creek Restoration project (one canyon west of us), and I’m notifying students and others in the area about the need for volunteers to plant trees. John is now cleaning out the truck and will next load with firewood to take to our neighbors. I have actually also been sitting with a nicely warmed (in the microwave) bag of flaxseed on my left shoulder pain. It is feeling much better. I need also to clean up the kitchen before he returns and wants to dry fruit. He just gave me a chore to cut the bad spots off some of our tomatoes and cook the rest to freeze for using in sauces this winter. I did it, and then later when he returned he cooked them down and froze them. Later this week he used some in a chili he made. He also worked more on applesauce and fixed a great dinner: pork roast, candied carrots, baked apples, and a baked potato we forgot to eat. Will have it tomorrow night for dinner with leftovers.
Monday, October 24, 2011 Nothing much new today. John made good progress on the “cat house” getting it off the skids. He also worked on cleaning up beyond the walnut trees where we used to have a patch of raspberries. He finished the applesauce, but we didn’t get to do any drying of fruit yet. I started by going to my neighbor’s 2 miles away for a much needed haircut. She was running late because she got a 4 point buck over the weekend, in a canyon east of us. For Eastern folk that’s an 8 point: http://www.ifish.net/board/archive/index.php/t-174943.html
I went to town and to exercise class, got a couple of gallons of expensive gas to get us to Yakima tomorrow, to Costco and to Yakima Heart Center to see my Cardiologist. I picked up my lab results from last week at the hospital. Went by the P.O. to send two letters our postal carrier failed to pick up on Saturday morning. I’m still upset about that. Also stopped at a yard sale and bought two barely used captain chairs each in a heavy “nylon” sack and large umbrella, all for $5. The guy also had a lot of insulation unused and packaged, but we are not yet ready for that.
Tuesday, Oct 25 Somehow I was too busy to write anything in the blog on this day. It started with getting up early to take off for my 10:55 appointment with my Cardiologist in Yakima. We left our house at 9:30 and got to the chainsaw (Stihl) dealer in time to buy a couple gallons of the bar-oil for John’s chainsaw. Then on to the doctor’s office just in time for my appointment. I had to fill out the normal prerequisite form and was resting when called in at 11:12. The nurse takes all the vitals and then leads you to the office where the doctor arrives in awhile. He apologized for being late, but then spent over an hour with us. John goes to my appointment with me. We left there starved for lunch at Costco, sharing 3 things: polish sausage, chicken bake , and a strawberry sundae. Probably not the kind of lunch for a low cholesterol diet. Ha ha.
Then a shopping spree which filled up our cart and the car. I’m glad we didn’t have much to buy for friends (just two bottles of wine vinegar), or we would have had to pile the dog food on the luggage rack !! On home, and we got delayed for a few minutes in a cattle drive on the road with no way around, 2.5 miles from our house. Drove in the driveway quickly, not even stopping for the mail. I jumped out, ran into the house for the keys, and back into my Subaru to drive back to town for my acupuncture appointment at 4:00 p.m. John stayed home to unpack all the stuff from Costco, and to feed the horses, cats, and exercise the dogs. I didn’t get back home till almost 6:00 p.m.. We had a late supper.
Wednesday, Oct 26 –another day another $1. Not really, I collected some money today but didn’t spend any. Went to the Food Bank at noon for playing music in exchange for a meal from the Soup Kitchen. It is really a nice community effort for those who need the help. It is free. Today’s lunch was homemade Turkey Noodle soup, salad (greens and all colors of pepper, and about 7 different dressings to choose from), garlic bread, and a little piece of chocolate cake with choc frosting. Nice meal, oh, and tomato juice (a large cup) to drink. On from there to Exercise class. Good time there. Home to work on the computer. It is getting colder, having gone well below freezing last night. The already yellow leaves of the black walnut trees . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_leaf_color
had a peak “abscission” event – leaves separating from the stems —
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Abscission
and covered the ground. Most of the nuts are still hanging but we have 5 gallons (Want some?) John collected to keep away from the resident Douglas squirrel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Squirrel
who makes such a mess of our big shed (insulation) and car motors if he gets underneath the hood from below). Without the luxury of so many walnuts perhaps he/she will return to the nearby pine trees.
Thursday. Oct 27 Hopefully getting caught up with drying fruit before any more spoils. Well, if tomatoes are a fruit and not a vegetable, then I caught up by cleaning up 15 of them and cooking down for sauce use. Then music in the afternoon and while I’m busy John will go shopping for a few things. They had a tea / apple cider and cookies for us at the end of playing. Then off to the University to deliver the ¾ bushel basket to the prof now teaching Economic Geography. Kids nowadays do not know what a bushel is, and many of the agricultural statistics are still reported in bushels. Pictures of bushel baskets often show them heaped but, in fact, for shipping they had tops. Shown on this site:
http://housmancrabbingsupplies.com/default.aspx
And the filling of a railroad car with stacked bushels is described here:
http://www.cumminsnursery.com/reefers.htm
Today apples and other fruit is shipped in corrugated cardboard, as shown here:
http://www.globebag.com/corrugated.html
On home to more emails and John had more outside chores. Nice late dinner of chicken alfredo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettuccine_alfredo#Alfredo_sauce
with pork, bacon, and cooked Rome apples added. John bought a little oil heater, electric, small one to put in the outside cats’ house to keep it warm for them this winter. The cost of the small heater was only a bit more than a heated water bowl and that alone would not keep the space warm. Searched for cat and dog heat pads and related items. $$Ouch!
Friday, Oct 28 Got cancelled out of today’s scholarship luncheon; put off till Monday because the two people in charge have the awful bug that is rampant around campus and town. John worked a bit on the cat house.
He pulled off the 30 year-old shingles and replaced those with cut pieces of metal roofing we took off of the hay shed (barn) when it got a new roof. I went to town late for a 4:30 party/dinner at Briarwood, of two soups (both very good), and cornbread, rolls, and several desserts. I filled up for sure. Just drove in and back — 17 mi roundtrip. They were happy to see me. So, I’m glad I went.
Oh.. I forgot to say, that my favorite cousin (always thought she was my aunt, because she was older), that I got to see in a nursing facility in Marietta, GA while there in May, died today. She had pneumonia for the past couple of weeks, but she was really in bad shape with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and not (for some time) communicating very well. Her eldest daughter is 74, so she must have been in her mid-nineties. I held her hand and told her about my memories and I thought she recognized me and smiled and responded. I was glad I made the visit. Most of the family couldn’t stand to visit her in such a deteriorated condition, but I’m very glad I did. Her house was where I learned to ride horses when I was a youngster. They took me in as family when my dad was ill and my mom had to work. I was there for 2 weeks with the Chicken Pox. I had a light case and was out riding horses. “Blackie” liked to swim and took me into a nearby lake. I didn’t have any scars from the wetted pox.
Saturday. Oct 29 It is sunny and cool. We have had to destroy (give to the deer), a few pears that went bad before we had time to dehydrate them. We still have some left and many apples to work on. John will be finishing putting screws on the metal roof of the cats’ house. He’s worried at not seeing the cats this morning, after all the time he has spent moving the old pump house it into our backyard and refurbishing and. While he is outside, I will go back and print off a bunch of letters for the Memory Book.
Last night we both had terribly realistic dreams that kept us from having a decent rest. Must have been the chocolate covered cashews and ice cream?
There is a snow storm back east where we have family and friends.
Here in Washington the snow level has not yet gotten down to our (2,240 ft.) elevation. Hope your weekend is wonderful. Snow if you want. Or none, if that suits you.
Nancy & John
still on the Naneum Fan