December 3rd was the end of the run (1967) for a special train, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Limited
and we (Nancy & John) had gone in two different directions from graduate school in Cincinnati! He went for more graduate work at the Univ. of Iowa, and I went to Atlanta, GA to teach with my Masters at Georgia State University.
This morning (Sunday, in 2011, Nov 27th), I slept in, and John worked on the computer till he decided to go get some yard work done before it rained. Now the sun is out and he is napping after lunch. He did all the morning feeding chores, and cleared out brush on the path through the woods over a natural spring (path does go right over it). He found a headless quail and lots of feathers. That’s under the owl tree-hangout on riparian land [“the swamp”] on the south side of our acreage, and where John took pictures a few years ago of Great Horned Owls roosting. They must be back for feasting, although he didn’t see them today. I need to have him find the pictures on his computer so I can put them on a link to give you in the blog. Maybe I will put it in the Seasons Greetings newsletter for this year because it never went into one in the past, and the owls are still around our place hooting, hunting, and whatever else it is that owls do.
I have been working on in-house chores; feeding Rascal, cleaning the dishes, learning more about my new cell phone (which I guess I have used too much and wore down the battery), writing a letter of recommendation which is a huge chore on line to the Univ. of Minnesota, for a student first in my classes starting in 2006. It supposedly is easier to do it on line, but it is really not simple to fill in all the evaluation forms, and also write a narrative letter with specific topics they want covered personally, and then uploaded. Here are the items requested to be covered in the letter: unique positive factors, potentially negative factors, comparative strength of record, relevant research or other scholarly experience, rigor and reputation of the undergrad college and major, rank in class, professional promise, ability to express views orally and in writing, ability to conceptualize and integrate knowledge, any other factors or considerations that you think should be brought to the attention of the admissions committee. Jeez. Like I’m supposed to know all these things from 5 years ago. Doubt I would have been able to respond at her graduation in 2008. I would not cover all these in a typical letter of recommendation for entrance to a graduate program that I might write on my own. Some of the requested evaluation criteria I don’t have a clue about. We don’t measure college students on their “rank in class,” for example.
Dinner tonight was leftover thin slices of last night’s tender loin roast, with beans added (nothing like pork n’ beans, I assure you); very good, and a baked potato, John’s home-made Rome applesauce, and pieces of Jarlsberg cheese (Swiss-like) of Norway, bought at Costco. We took time to put up another 48 ounces of sorted walnuts (into halves and pieces) for the freezer. Still have several bags to go.
Monday, Nov 28 Spent the morning doing email chores, and John did outside chores, plus did a neighborly thing for new people who are primarily Spanish speakers. While he was running the dogs and feeding the horses this morning, he heard someone chopping on a log with an axe. It was not a normal splitting sound, so he grabbed his chainsaw and went to see if he could help. The woman speaks English but the man does not (he might understand some), but John found out that they had a month-old chain saw (Poulan) from a local store, that had quit working. They had another small one that was electric (meant for the end of a pole) :
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/LargeImage.aspx?SKU=7214562&Image=7/7214562_090209l_gv.jpg
but it was dull and small, and he had a log about 12” in diameter he was trying to cut through. Their heating bill is really expensive (this month $280, and ours was only $122). That house they are renting has a history of high electric bills. They have a small wood stove in one room. John cut up what the fellow had dragged from the woods (old Aspen, mostly). John went to the downed trees and cut more and the fellow carried it to an old shed. During this time I went to town for my exercise class.
We plan to make chocolate chip & nut cookies tonight for me to take to my massage therapist tomorrow. Guess shrimp are on the menu for tonight. Also need to sort some more walnuts. Whoopee. We did the dough and cooked 9 cookies tonight. Will do more in the morning. Smells so good in here now. Warm cookies! Eat your heart out.
Tuesday, Nov 29 I spent the morning baking cookies (they have our own walnuts). I took away 3 dozen to my Natural Health providers (acupuncturist, massage therapist, and the office gals). I went in today for my massage. It was mostly on my neck that flared up last week. There were other things done as well in the hour. It was really worth the time. We could both feel the tenseness of the muscles around my neck. I really haven’t completely recovered, but the worst of the pain, especially turning my head to the right, has gone. This treatment today I believe really helped. I came on home, forgetting to get canned cat food at the Dollar Tree store. We used the last can last night. Rascal started eating both kinds again yesterday. He must have had a wild critter filling his tummy for the past two days. I saw him going after a grasshopper/ cricket type insect today as I was leaving for town. When I left, John was over at the new neighbor’s again cutting wood. He was pretty much alone today, but the son came and introduced himself as he was leaving for town and told John his dad and mom were both in town. I had been too busy this morning before leaving and so I skipped lunch. Got home and John cut me some Jarlsberg cheese, which I had with some good crackers, several pieces of dried pear, and a couple of cookies. I had left about 2.5 dozen for us. There is still probably a third of the dough left, so at some time I must bake some more. I can only do a dozen in the oven at one time because I tried earlier last week putting two cookie sheets in, but the circulation was not right and I overcooked them and had black bottoms and soft centers. Live and learn.
Tonight we had chili for dinner, and John added home fries to his, but I passed. However, we did sort the rest of the walnuts and I finished making the rest of the cookie dough into cookies. I didn’t count how many I made and probably can’t now because John was eating them as fast as I baked them. Okay, time for beddie-bye. We kept 12 ounces of the walnut halves in the frig (rather than freezing with the rest), in hopes to try to make some glazed (sugar coated) pieces.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/maple-glazed-walnuts-recipe/index.html
(It’s now Saturday as I reread this to give to John to post on the blog, and we have yet to make time for doing that, maybe tonight?).
Wednesday, Nov 30 I left for playing music and eating at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Wow did we have a good showing today (end of the month?) and a fantastic meal. It was Lasagna (made with ricotta cheese) and quite good. I had a huge serving. My friends all went back for seconds, but I didn’t. We had a soup bowl of applesauce and a salad. Really a great (free) meal, and then off to exercise class. It’s nice they serve us a meal for playing music for the crowd.
I went to the bank to close a savings account (it had made a whole 4¢ interest over the year–and on to the dollar store. John worked on brush removal down near the large Ponderosa pine tree, up from where the owls hang out. It was a nice day with temps around 50. I had a fun cell phone conversation with the fellow I’m doing the memory book for. He is doing well. That’s great news.
Thursday, Dec 1 John went with me to town and took the OLD ’80 Chevy truck for gas, and had loaded it with boxes of old magazines and papers to be recycled by the Elmview folks in town.
John let me off to play music at a nursing home, and it was the 80th b.d. for one of our musicians. Another group member got a cute card-reprint of “The Music Man” by Norman Rockwell with a young boy (singing?), beagle, and sister with ears covered.
http://www.angelartco.com/artwork/The-Music-Man-13052.htm
The boy isn’t actually playing the guitar in the painting but our birthday boy can play one – and about 3 dozen other instruments. Rockwell used this theme another time:
We all signed the card. Then we sang happy birthday (joined by a number of the residents) at the start and then again at the end. It was cool, and the home provided cookies for the celebration at the end. We mixed in some Christmas songs with our normal old time repertoire.
While John was stopped unloading the paper, he saw some fluid leaking out of the truck. He took it by our car repair guys, and they were too busy to fix it then, but found out it was a water pump gone bad. They added coolant. Also, a belt that will have to be removed when they replace the pump will be tightened or replaced and take care of the power steering problem he also was having. Well, this truck is 32 years old and we bought it new. Much of it is deteriorating; especially the inside upholstery (on the dashboard), and the seals around the doors, and a back window (1 of 4) is broken out (but John has taped it up), and one of the latches on the front vent windows broke and it cannot be fully closed. Still, it is a 4WD and a good “farm” truck. He seldom drives it to town, except to fill up with gas. He uses it deliver split wood to our neighbors, carry brush around the place, and occasional to move hay from the barn or shed, and down to the lower pasture (particularly when the wind is howling).
Tonight we went to a lecture at CWU on the Missoula Floods that scoured off central and NE Washington. The area most affected by the Ice Age Floods is called the Channeled Scablands. (scablands comes from the landscape being stripped of all its soil down to the basalt bedrock). It was from an ice blockage of a river in Northern Idaho that backed up a huge lake in the valley where Missoula, MT now sits. You can see old shorelines there, still today, particularly when the snow falls. The ice dam broke (probably over 89 times) and released all the water down and into the Columbia River eventually and then ran out across the eastern part of the state, on its way to Wallula Gap, down in the southeast, where it backed up again, and then drained on into the Columbia down between OR and WA, including into the Willamette Valley and eventually went out to the ocean – scouring, carrying, and depositing loads of rocks. It was carrying ice bergs with large granite pieces (from Canada) and deposited it on the high elevations when slowed down and backed up into lakes. The speaker was Richard B. Waitt (now nearing the end of a very long career) whose name appears in reference #16 (and several others), here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods
Friday, Dec 2 I didn’t get to sleep till very late last night (this a.m.), and so I slept in, and was awakened by a phone call from an accordionist with whom I used to play all Adult Activity Center first of the month potlucks and sing about 25 songs. She’s been busy this fall and we stopped, but today she didn’t have her grandkids to care for, and we were able to play and do Christmas songs. I took John’s very red Rome applesauce (cooked with skins) and stayed for exercise class. Then home to pick up John to go to the annual Christmas party with the combined departments of Geography and Anthropology. It is the University event of the year and has been for 25 years! One is supposed to take finger food. We took a Christmas tin canister of our dried apples surrounded on a bright red plate with fruit berry candies from Aplets and Cotlets. Good stuff. We just bought several boxes of the candy. It is made here in WA State in the town of Cashmere. I have taken my class (summer one) there for a field trip before to see how they make the candy, and looked at all the geography of from where the ingredients come. It is a neat place, and they let you walk right through the whole process, from mixing, cooking in big copper boilers, to assembly, adding nuts and powdered sugar, and packing into boxes.
Saturday, Dec 3 Nothing happening today, for a change. So, now the sun is out, we are through with pizza for lunch, and John is going out to work on chores while the temperature is bearable. It was supposed to cool down below 20 last night, but it didn’t. He’s reclaiming the edge of the pasture (20 feet or so) from encroaching brush; among others
http://www.calyxflowers.com/Floral-Library/Content/Red-Osier-Dogwood.aspx
I have computer things to do and will take a break and try to deal with some of the other stuff needing attention. First, I have to fill in a recommendation on line (includes a digital letter and answers to a form for one of my former students (mentioned earlier) to go to a Masters program. I completed it while John was formating this! As soon as I finish that, I must do another for a former REM masters student from here whose committee I was on 12 years ago, who wants to go to a Ph.D. program in Montana. Even though retired, I’m still involved with university matters. Last night while in at the department Christmas party, I had to sign the title authorization papers for a thesis I served on before I became ill. The paperwork was just coming through.
Hope your next week is a good one.
Nancy & John
still on the Naneum Fan