Sunday, April 21
Still Happy Easter and we have not yet published the blog. John’s been doing many different outside chores and is out again.
We just now published the blog at 9:31 p.m. and are both tired and ready to go to bed. I found some changes needed in my YouTubes from Thursday night, so I will make those corrections and then hit the hay. First, I had to recharge my FitBit, because it was dead, so I stayed up longer than I wished.
Later this week, after our blog was published with the photo of some decorated Easter eggs, we were sent a photo of some fancy decorated eggs from a long-time blog reader Nancy Bridges, in Sandia Park, NM (north central part).
These are amazing. They came from her neighbor. I asked for a higher resolution images of the egg photos sent, for an explanation, and learned that Donna and her young daughter Addie live across the street from them and are like family. Nancy says she gave them a web site that tells how to make them using silk fabric from and old tie. Nancy’s husband, Denney had a tie with birddogs on it that he gave them to use. (Side note: the Bridges had Brittanys from our lines. Denney is a pilot, and flew into the Ellensburg airport from Montana, bringing officials of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to a meeting. On their flight back, he carried back a puppy to deliver to folks in MT to a town near the Canadian border, far away from a commercial airport. John thinks it was Wolf Point, MT, but I do not recall. I should have asked Denney, but they will see this and maybe remember the details better to tell us.
Monday, April 22
John leaves for White Heron for pruning, and I’m get work done that needs to be sent soon – or done yesterday.
Guess I was tired. I awoke to say goodbye to John and earlier to put out the cat, cat food, and greet Sue’s morning arrival with a pet. Then I laid back down and slept until 9:30 when a blocked call came in. I’m so happy our new Panasonic land line system allows blocking calls. I have managed to block two which have been harassing us for months. (Now later in the week I’m up to six being blocked). It still rings in – but only once, and immediately hangs up. I wonder what happens on the calling end, and if they can tell it is blocked or if it just indicates the call was answered and hung up. We are still getting calls (up to four/day from some places, namely the Fire Charity Fund). That is a definite scammer call with only 4% of the funds collected going to fire victims.
While editing a resume for a friend in New Jersey, I recalled a long-ago memory of my Business School education, between college attendance in fall, 1961 (starting with a $500 scholarship at Emory University) and then during the summer of 1962. I’m happy for the memories, but quite grateful I re-entered college at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA (Brookhaven), for summer classes and caught up on all my freshman English and Mathematics courses. In fall quarter 1962, I began classes at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta, from which I was graduated on time, allowing me to catch up with John at the Univ. of Cincinnati for our graduate work in 1965. We both were 1961 high school graduates.
This postcard depicts the Marsh Business College, formerly located at the northeast corner of Peachtree and Harris Streets in the heart of the Atlanta downtown business district. The corner is now part of the Regency Hyatt property.
I was off working on my jobs list, forwarding an opportunity for graduate school in CA, and while using the Pacific Coast email for transfer of a job, this came up… an interesting history of APCG of which I am a member (through AAG, the main Association of American Geographers, of which I’m a lifetime member, my reward after 50 years of paid membership.
History of the APCG:
Founded in 1935 by a gathering of geographers including graduate students and faculty from universities, normal schools, and junior colleges, the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers has a long and rich history promoting geographical education, research, and knowledge. Members gather at its annual meetings for social and intellectual interaction. They receive the annual Yearbook, first printed in 1935, that includes abstracts of papers from the meetings and a number of full-length peer-reviewed articles. The Yearbook is now part of Project MUSE, a widely used academic database that provides full-text coverage for over 400 journals. We thank the Yearbook’s publisher, the University of Hawai’i Press, for helping make this possible. Members also receive the bi-annual newsletter Pacifica. Since 1952 the APCG has also been the Pacific Coast Regional Division of the Association of American Geographers, serving AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, WA, BC, and YT.
John arrived home from pruning and we ate separate lunches. He went outside to shovel manure into the pickup, and I returned to filing receipts and paperwork for the current and past year. John came back in to invite me to tour the yard to see flowers, trees, and garden things he’s growing. So I took a break and went on a tour with him, our companion cat, Czar (Mackerel Tabby), and Annie, our companion dog (Brittany).
These daffodils and tulips are in 3 locations in our “front” yard.
Upper left is long-haired mackerel tabby, Woody; rest are of Czar, short-haired mackerel tabby. Czar is the most recent one in the family of four “feral” cats. We wonder about Czar’s origin. He must have been dropped off in the neighborhood, because he is < 3 yrs. That was determined when he was neutered. He befriended us and we did not have to use a trap to capture him, as we did the other three several years ago.
Neighbors in our 1st garden; hens & chicks beside asparagus.
Today has been a crazy day. John just left to pick up tabs for our 2003 Ford Truck which expired 3/12/2019. He has to get there before they close at 6:00. He needs to drive the truck to White Heron tomorrow with a load of manure. This will be their last day of pruning.
Fortunately, he noticed the expired tab and came in the house to look for where I might have put the registration. We could not find it. I started going through the stack of paid and unpaid bills on the table beside my recliner. I didn’t find it, and decided to check my computer for receipts for vehicles. Not there. He couldn’t find anything but 2018 and 2017 in the truck’s glove compartment. So as a last minute hope, I checked the DOL site where one renews tabs. Sure enough, they needed renewed and had not been done. I rushed through to request it, and got almost to the end and realized it was 5:20 p.m. and they closed at 6:00 p.m. I gave John the phone number and he called to ask if he could come get them tonight. Yes, and I printed a receipt for him that it was paid, even though the cashier said she could check on line. I was still processing it when he called her. He took my Forester papers too, because I had just renewed them a couple days ago and not picked up yet. He got there in time to receive both. So it was a good deal all around.
He left there and went to Bi-Mart, where he bought some spray (like Round-up but cheaper), 3 tomato plants, some seed packets, and came on home. He was tired from his long day of pruning, loading manure, feeding livestock, and so he sat down for a nap. I went and took my shower, so I could do it while he was in the house. Once out, we fixed our supper. He had cut an apple and some smoked turkey into cubes for me, so I fixed a salad with Iceberg lettuce, turkey, apples, pistachios, tomatoes, and bleu cheese dressing, using Cheez-its® as croutons. He had tomatoes & broccoli with dressing and a bowl of chili with the few pieces of smoked turkey I didn’t need in my salad.
I have been processing the photos I took on our tour of the yard this afternoon, which you have seen above.
Tuesday, April 23 
John left for White Heron and the last day of pruning. The back of the truck under the canopy was filled with dry horse manure. Eventually it will get put on the purest sandy parts of the vineyard. After the morning pruning, Cameron and John unloaded the manure. Sadly, while John had his camera along, he did not take a photo of the load. Instead, I’ll show you what he brought home after a stop in Kittitas for a load of Poplar chips given to us.
The picture below shows the pile of chips and it’s alongside of a photo of the load when John arrived home this afternoon. He backed the truck to the pile, and shoveled/raked into truck bed. He will use it to cover paths in his gardens and up through the sagebrush & steppe vegetation on our property closest to the road.
Chip pile in yard and truck bed what got brought home (about 6x8x2 = 96 cu. ft.). The load of manure filled the entire space, except a small amount at the back. [about 8x6x4 = 192 cu. ft.]
I had other tasks I was working on this morning before I left for my haircut. The biggest was trying to sort out the return trip for the chips, as John did not have the telephone contact to call the fellow in Kittitas with the expected time of arrival.
There were other things I spent time doing – getting ready to leave and trying on some clothes to see which would work for an upcoming event, and checking the size of another few. Also had to finish emptying the dishwasher and reload and soak more dirty dishes. I still am not through with that.
John fixed us a pizza tonight. I’m continuing work on filing and mixing in cleaning up the cameras for tomorrow’s last Nick Zentner presentation for April. I need to charge camera batteries.
I’ve been working on several different projects, and now we are ready to have dessert and crash for the night.
Wednesday, April 24
We called our farrier and scheduled Myst for a trim, May 1.
I have to get ready for leaving at 10:50 for the Food Bank, to setup music stands and chairs. I’ve made my salad with John’s help cubing cheese, apples, and smoked turkey, to take along for lunch. Need to fill my car with expensive gasoline, go by the pharmacy, and grab some razors for John. I may not have time to go to SAIL today. I need to get home and be sure my cameras are ready to film tonight.
I succeeded in downloading a camera manual for my Nikon S9500 a couple days ago. I have been searching the manual for the way to get rid of the sound of the shutter when taking a still photo. I just finally found it and made the correction. A search on sound settings revealed the directions. I turned off both sounds for shutter and button sounds.
From the front row of Morgan Performing Arts Center in Ellensburg, WA:
Nick Zentner’s fourth (and last this year) “downtown” lecture April 24, 2019 is titled: Hells Canyon and the Ringold Formation.
Nick begins his lectures with chalk boards and moves to visuals.
Here are the links:
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Hells Canyon & the Ringold Formation (Part 1: Boards)
Check the visuals near the end for the story of Lydia Staisch’s (** SEE BELOW **) research on our area and the USGS changes she is providing with her research. She was on campus last year and introduced many to her procedures of studying the zircons in sandstones from sites of the past.
Hells Canyon & the Ringold Formation (Part 2: Visuals)
. . . and a special entry:
West VA story from Nick’s past, Whitewater Rafting New River
The one above was filmed on my Nikon camera – the story about Nick as a recent grad trying to predict the age of the river canyon of the “oldest” river in North America. It’s hilarious and worth viewing the separate clip. Because I was operating one camera with my left hand for the Part 1 (Boards) of the entire lecture, and this with my right hand, following Nick around the stage. Trying to keep his head in view was difficult, but you can follow. This story goes back to 1990. He arrived at CWU in 1992.
** Lydia Staisch was with us last year, the end of May:
Lydia Staisch-Research Geologist–Ringold Formation White Bluffs
FOOTNOTE: regarding Lydia Staisch’s May 31, 2018 presentation at CWU to the IAF chapter meeting (abstract):
Lydia Staisch, USGS Research Geologist, will present her team’s research on the “Sedimentology and U-Pb detrital zircon provenance of the Ringold Formation: implications for the ancestral Columbia and Snake River drainage” at 7:00 PM on Thursday, May 31, in Central Washington University’s Science II Building, room 103.
The research team of Lydia Staisch, James O’Connor, Christopher Holm-Denoma, and Jeremy Alexander have been using detrital zircon provenance and age dating of volcanic tephra to potentially rewrite geological understanding of the ancient river courses of the ancestral Snake River.
The Miocene–Pliocene Ringold Formation has been an important marker for understanding where and when the ancestral Columbia, Snake, and Salmon/Clearwater Rivers flowed. Over the past century, many researchers have provided important insight into the river history, and most studies have focused on fish fossils and river cobbles as evidence. However, the details and mechanisms for river reorganization are still debated. To add to the story, we provide a new data set of detrital zircons, which provide a unique fingerprint to identify source terrane.
We analyzed fluvial sandstone samples from the Ringold Formation on the north side of the Saddle Mountains for detrital U-Pb zircon provenance. Above and below the sampled sandstone, we dated interbedded tephra layers that bracket the time of sandstone deposition between 7.0 and 3.4 Ma. Importantly, these new ages show that the Taunton fish fossils are older than previously interpreted. For comparative analysis, we dated detrital zircons from modern Columbia, Okanogan, Spokane, Methow, Yakima, and Salmon River sands, and supplemented this with existing detrital zircon ages from the Snake River Plain.
Our new evidence, along with extensive paleontological data from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, entirely change the story of drainage reorganization. We show that the Snake River was in Pasco Basin and depositing sandstones before 3 Ma, which is when most other researchers suggest it flowed elsewhere. Whether this means that Hells Canyon was carved before 3 Ma is still up to debate, but we have several weeks of fieldwork immediately before this talk that is specifically aimed to answer that question.
My videos while she was here from Thursday night: May 31, 2018
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Lydia Staisch Ringgold Formation Sedimentology & Provenance
Nick Zentner’s invite to tomorrow’s noon lecture by Lydia
2+ minutes
I also followed her to a noon lecture on the Yakima Folds the next day, which if anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll pass along my video of her talk and one of the Q & A.
John and I also went on Nick’s Field Trip June 10th, and filmed as much as possible. If you are interested, let me know. It will be a hassle to share but I’m willing. I have ~ 10 videos at the 4 stops on the field trip. It was a great exposure followup to Lydia’s lecture.
Current 2019 Information on Nick’s “downtown” talks at the new venue – Morgan Middle School.
Follow-up Professional Filming by Julian & Sierra:
Meanwhile, below are 3 of the ones on the CWU YouTube Channel. You can search on that and subscribe, and you’ll be able to reach much of Nick’s stuff, and next week you’ll have access to the professional version of the April 24th lecture.
However, check his own collection at his own website for all of his story.
Nick Zentner’s Personal Web Site
The professional versions of the first 3 lectures at Morgan are now posted on the CWU YouTube Channel: with one more to come, next week.
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1-Professional version of Nick Zentner’s 4-3-19 lecture:
2-Professional version of Nick Zentner’s 4-10-19 lecture:
3-Professional version of Nick Zentner’s 4-17-19 lecture:
Thursday, April 25
I charged the battery in my mic, good thing, because I had to loan it to Charlie as his was dead. He leads the singing and he needs the mic so the players can hear his interpretation of the music. Also, I called Gloria and Clare to remind them we would be there today at Hearthstone to play the last of the March/April music.
When I got there I was excited to be presented with a gift from Sharon Jenson (our bass guitar player), who knows my desire to dress in clothes for the music we are playing. I had worn a green shirt and green pants for the Irish music we were playing still from March. I put on the gift vest and wore it today. I did not get my photo taken while there (should have), but came home and took this to show her and thank her for the gift to add to my box of clothes for special music occasions. I have a whole wardrobe for Christmas as well. And, patriotic stuff for July.
Irish vest (Thanks very much, Sharon!)
John and I went to the CWU Foundation Scholarship Donor and Recipient Reception, at the Lombard Room starting at 6:00 p.m. It finished earlier than planned and we got out before 8:00 and were home before dark. Cats were happy to see us returning.
We were seated at ~16 tables, and once there, we were unable to mingle with other tables. The desire was to have the donors meet their recipients and to share their progress since the award.
We succeeded with one of our recipients this year, Mallory Triplett, a graduate student in the Cultural & Environmental Resource Management [CERM] program. Our conversation was enlightening; we learned about her current assistantship research and about her planned thesis research to be completed this coming year. She will be studying a stone used by the Native Americans for implements (arrowheads, spears, projectiles, etc.). It is Tachylyte, a glassy volcanic rock found in thin dikes or sills of basalt near where the basalt has come in contact with water, and was cooled rapidly. Her topic is fascinating, and I will be following her progress. She has a geology minor and also majored (with husband Josh) in Anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology at the University of Idaho, where John and I were before arriving in WA. Josh is also in the CERM program at CWU.
Here’s our photo last year at the time of the award presentation, to 2 recipients of the Hultquist Distinguished Service Award: Caleb Valko (undergrad Geography) and Mallory Triplett (graduate Cultural & Environmental Resource Management). 
Caleb, Nancy, & Mallory
Nancy & Mallory *********** Josh, Daphne (~5 mos.), Mallory
Dale Comstock was at our table (he is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics) as the donor of scholarship awarded to a young man who is an Abstract Mathematician, well above John’s and my head (knowledge) of mathematics.
Also at our table was Tim Englund (originally a mathematics faculty member), but now he serves as the Dean of the College of the Sciences. He and John worked on a trail maintenance trip through Washington Trails Association (WTA), where they volunteered together in 2006 and carpooled to the work site. It is an amazingly small world. They will be joining the trail work again on the first weekend in May and June, working on our local Kittitas valley’s Manastash Trail, with ironically, the crew leader being Beth Macinko, who is also a student in the CWU Cultural & Environmental Resource Management program. Beth is the granddaughter of George & Mary Ann Macinko. Mary Ann was there tonight, at a table across the room from us, visiting with her scholarship recipient.
Shortly after we were seated, we were encouraged to go for food. It included such things as meatballs, skewers with onions, peppers, mushrooms, pastries with various contents, shrimp on lettuce leaves, several cheeses (Brie, Cheddar, Gouda) and crackers. Desserts: mini pies (pecan, cream & fruit), brownies. Beverages offered were coffee, flavored water, and canned drinks. The meal was served buffet style. After eating and visiting, there was a program with a few speakers; two were scholarship recipients, one remotely by video from Japan, and the other, a Hispanic student, first in her family to attend college, only possible through scholarships, and a part-time job.
I did not see Caleb (he was likely at a table elsewhere with another donor, or he might not have been there because the other donor was unable to come because of being in the hospital for 3 weeks in Seattle). Caleb received more than one of the scholarships presented by Geography.
The principal reason for the meeting tonight was to introduce donors to their recipients. While I do still know some of the students, other donors do not. We enjoyed many stories among the 3 of us, Mallory Triplett (CERM grad), John, and me. John was also talking WTA/trails with Tim.
Mallory explained the assistantship she is working on and I asked about her thesis topic. I have described a little about that above. I learned that her minor was Geology, she is from Sandpoint, ID, and had a horse while still there. I found out she’d be interested in many of the lists I moderate/maintain to share videos taken at CWU on Geology or Ice Age Floods research. As well, I provide a service weekly to send Earth Science Web Sites to over 100 people, and those are passed along from a geographer friend in central Michigan, Mark Francek. He sends his out weekly, except during major school breaks (as December and Spring), and he does not publish them in the summer months. One year he went with a few students across the country on bicycles studying U.S. geography. I succeeded today in adding Mallory to all the lists.
Friday, April 26
I am going to a Scholarship Luncheon today, in Barge (oldest building on campus), Room 115. We had a nice lunch of Tortellini soup, BLT pasta salad, and cookies (which I forgot to take). It was held in the office of the CWU Foundation, the folks who put on the Donor/Recipient Scholarship Appreciation program last night.
At 10:40 a.m., I sent out this week’s links for Wednesday night’s Geology lecture.
The rest of our day was busy with outside chores for John and inside ones for me.
Saturday, April 27
Below the Wind Gusts map are the temperature and winds recorded at our airport this afternoon. We never made it to 52 mph, thankfully, as forecast as a possibility by the Pendleton National Weather Service.
We did experience high winds today. At 9:53 a.m. the airport weather station, 5 miles south of us, reported 43 mph gusts. Down the road a couple miles from us, we shall put in an appearance today at the Bar 14 Ranch for a party. The party will have a Taco Bar, grilled thin marinated steak (Carne asada), salads, desserts, and more. There is live music, and they are planning to hang a Piñata. We got there just in time to see the kids trying to knock it open for the Mexican candy inside.
Composite photo description: Piñata (day before), Birthday boy, Jude eating cake outside at the party, live music behind Uma (purple hat), mom Raychel (light blue jacket) holding Jude. Taco Bar behind photographer.
Piñata, Jude 1st BD “spring” party, Uma, Raychel, Jude-Live music
John needed to go to town for some colas and for some Black Oil Sunflower seeds on sale at Ace Hardware, so we hit the party on the way home, hoping we wouldn’t get blown away.
Once there, we visited with Dave & Linda Lundy (Grandparents of Uma & Jude), and the rest of the family. We decided to give the Lundys the wine to share, one a Red Blend of 2/3 Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon (1/3), and another, Rose’ of Syrah, one of my favorites. In addition, we gave them 3 large lemons from our stash sent from the Resslers in Cathedral City, CA, which Linda is going to use to make her favorite dessert (from the UK), called Lemon Posset. I wish we could taste her creation, but I asked her to send me a photo of them when she makes it. Luckily, she can freeze them after they are made, because the lemons need to be juiced soon. Lemon juice & zest, cream, and sugar are the main ingredients. Can be served with fresh fruit, if desired.
Visited with a couple of my former students and their children, ate from the great taco bar, had dessert (awesome cake made by Linda covered with strawberries), and we left because we were getting cold in the wind. The temperature was below 50, the wind was constant and creating a cold wind chill.
Once home we continued house projects. I followed up on searching for the map above of wind gusts, and learned of this NWS forecasting maps current for the week. I went back & forth with a meteorologist at Pendleton about this. Open the link and click on None Selected. I selected Day 1 and for the forecast, I selected Wind, and I clicked GO. It gave me similar information and I found out the software used to make them is Python; also learned that the National Weather Service still relies on much weather related software written in Fortran (which was the programming language I learned in the sixties and taught during my graduate assistantship at the University of Cincinnati Computer Center, where I was stationed.
Access to Nat’l Weather Service Forecast Maps
Sunday, April 28
John has been outside late morning, doing yard chores. He just returned for our brunch. I have been working on computer issues, mostly finalizing my blog draft for him to review. Also, tried to straighten out problems with a Jacquie Lawson card sent to our friends the Wests, in Yakima, to a valid email address. For some reason it is not being delivered. I just sent another entry they can add to their address book to allow the delivery. We will have to try that by sending another card, to test the theory. My fall back is I sent a copy to myself, so I can always forward that from my account (which won’t be blocked).
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan