Sunday, Jun 16
We’ll start this week, with a special photo taken on Father’s Day by our friend, Evie Schuetz.
Here’s what she said about it on Facebook, when she posted it:
Father’s day gets me to feeling all nostalgic, so I went out to see what my parents were doing upstairs. Same as when they were here on earth, they saw to it that I received more than I had hoped for. Everywhere I turned I saw beautiful things; a gorgeous moon, fiery sunlit clouds, the greenest fields I’ve seen all year, and a magnificent sunset. This particular scene is what captured my interest the most though. Mom used to call these “cotton candy skies.” I know it defies logic, but sometimes it feels like they’re still sharing things with me in companionable silence.
Clouds and Mt. Rainier from the Kittitas Valley by Evie Schuetz
Next was the same day but taken by my other Kittitas Valley photographer friend, Lise McGowan.
Nice partially framed moon through the trees, by Lise McGowan
Monday, Jun 17
We published last week’s blog at 10:04 p.m. I’m staying home today to try to get better and make progress on projects with deadlines. Thus far I have been spinning my wheels, but it’s including things on and off the computer, and we stopped to have brunch.
Got the July music out to KV F&F. Need to finish getting out the May 21 report on awards. I also need to get Jack Nisbet’s talk to the AWG meeting sent to folks I know were there or wanted to be. My time is being spent getting the email addresses of members of the Association of Washington Geographers.
I worked on my receipt filing needs and need to make more progress tomorrow when I stay home.
We had a nice supper tonight–baked chicken thighs, stir-fry veggies (snow peas, bell peppers, carrots, water chestnuts), and our neighbor Ken’s potato salad.
Tuesday, Jun 18
My friend Lise McGowan was out scouting for us all. Here’s her photograph and story:
Check the description of contents in Lise McGowan’s text below:
So yesterday morning I was up at 3:50 am photographing the setting of the Strawberry full moon! Most of you were still sleeping (even my friends on the east coast) so I thought I would share. It’s setting over the Manastash Ridge furthest south I’ve seen it in a long time! Cell towers are to the far right. Large transport trucks are camped at the rest stop off of I-82 about 1/2 way down. My friend Nancy B. Hultquist shared this website with me and thought it would be great to share with ya’ll, my friends!!! Enjoy!!! (Nancy here; see below for the link I sent.)
John adds: {Lise mentions the location of the moon. Lunar movements are very complex, and because they affect tides, and are of interest to astrologers, Lunar Cycles (link) have been studied, calculated, and commented on for thousands of years. See here regarding caring for your hair in January. }
Once you open the link below, please refresh or reload, and then check out the top video (time-lapse of the moon) in the story on space.com:
June 2019’s Full Moon on space.com
John drove my Forester down for its recall on the brake switch light, which controls many things besides brake lights. He is doing this for me because I need to stay home and work on my computer and filing so I can turn it over to the computer gurus in town to assess its problems and order me a new part to send for and when back, they can install. I have diagnosed that myself, and so I have not been turning it off so as not having to risk not being able to turn it back on. I have already mentioned that I was having to press the switch as many as 15 times before it would turn on.
He filled my gas tank on his way home (in Ellensburg), because for once, the price/gal was 6₵ less than at Costco in Union Gap. While in town he checked our number at Bi-Mart. No win on a jar of dry roasted peanuts for the last digit in our number.
Once home, the wind was still blowing 40 mph, and he needed to go out and walk the dog and carry some hay to the lower part of the pasture to get the horses out of the wind.
He napped awhile, and then went back to town to fill his car with gasoline for his trip to a WTA work day at Dorothy Lake on the other side of Stevens Pass. He needs to leave here about 5:15 a.m. to miss the start of construction on Blewett Pass, to get on up through Leavenworth to Hwy 2. While in town, he went by Super 1 and found a large package of smoked turkey breasts.
He cut up cubes for me for my salad that I need to take to the Food Bank tomorrow, and also cut cubes of apple. I cleaned up my head of Iceberg lettuce and put it in to crisp overnight.
More work on receipt filing and organization, on computer projects (sending jobs out to the jobs list I manage), and creating an emailing group list to send to folks who attended a presentation at CWU Geography of the spring meeting of the Association of Washington Geographers. I joined in 1988, when I arrived in EBRG. It also includes people who wanted to be there, but were unable. Our speaker was Jack Nisbet, an author and naturalist from Spokane, talking on the cultural, geological, historical, and natural environments of the Columbia Plateau. It was a fascinating presentation, and the finale to a nice conference over two days. You already heard about it in a previous blog during the week it was presented.
I’m working on creation of another email list for receiving our two events on May 21, that I have to get out to folks. Too many activities are stealing my time from completion of both projects.
Wednesday, Jun 19
John is going past Stephens Pass to a WTA work party with Nate (blue hat), 3 ACLs, a total of 8 Green Hat workers at Dorothy Lake.
We received some photos, Saturday, from the crew leader, and John went through them with me to describe the projects and what was going on. I picked three photos with him in it to lead off the discussion. 
Prying up a fallen log to be sawn; two other projects. Right-most is the view from down-trail of the 2nd project described below.
You will be convinced after hearing/seeing his explanation of the next two photos. He always does his best to tell me about the projects he worked on, or knew what happened. This time we didn’t have all the before and after photos, so he had to draw the explanation on the finished trail shots.
I asked him to do that and it follows below in two photos, with the description of each one. I’m grateful for his efforts in describing what happened, because I’ll never get out to participate in a WTA work crew, and each trip I get his review of all the photos submitted.
John’s description of the photo above and below, follows:
The purple line:
On the right, the uphill side, there was slumping of soil and vegetation, with tree roots above and through.
Where the red F is, there was a sharp drop, not quite 90°, but it dropped 20 feet before there was a change. The fern and log (L) were not there. Likewise, for the rocks at R.
All the material under the purple line was dug or cut out and pushed over the hill, at F. An old log (L) was carried to the site and the larger end placed against the tree (T) base. The smaller end was placed, with rocks on top, against the sawed-off end of the ancient log. Adding woodsy soil and the fern (F) finished the down-slope side.
Mineral soil – orange/brown – was cut out of the hillside and used to make the tread.
The WTA volunteer is carrying a Grub-hoe.
Another project
The purple line represents a large tree root removed. On this side the level of the tread was 8 inches higher than on the far side, but the root stuck up another 8 inches. Stepping from the far side, over the root and a few inches down to the tread is the sort of thing hikers hate.
While a volunteer cut the root out, John worked on the hillside and the tread. The trail is now a proper width (length of a pick handle), and there is no pointless up and down – sometimes called a PUD.
Here is a link to all the photos from the trip, without explanation:
WTA work trip, June 19, Dorothy Lake, Photos
I went to the FISH Food Bank Lunch for music playing and got food today (spaghetti & meat sauce) to accompany the salad I took. I brought home a container of Greek Yogurt, an apple, and a piece of good looking cake (I’ll share with John tonight). I have been sorting, tossing, and filing all afternoon since arriving home. I skipped exercise because my feet are not yet up to that.
This afternoon I washed a huge load of clothes and I’m still drying them. If we had a clothesline, they would have dried quickly in the breeze today. 
Wind speeds yesterday and today recorded 5 miles south of us, at the airport. We have continued this entire week with high winds.
John fixed us a pizza for supper and is now sleeping in his chair. He had a very long day. I’m tired and still drying clothes so probably should finish that and we should have a small dessert and retire early.
Thursday, Jun 20
This afternoon, the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends provided music at Pacifica for over an hour. We had 13 there, and an audience exceeding that count, with only 11 copies of music to share with the audience (they keep disappearing throughout the 2 months we use them). A few residents come forward at the end, each time, to tell us how much they appreciate our coming. One woman today wanted me to know that a lady who sat next to her never comes out of her room to any event, but loves coming to hear our music, and was there today just for us. I thanked her for letting me know. We know the names of quite a few of the residents and often their favorite songs as well. Others will come forward and talk to members to tell how they used to play a musical instrument and which one. It’s always a rewarding experience. Music is healing.
John’s out retrieving one of our horses from stuffing themselves on grass in our neighbor’s pasture on the south side of ours. He will also have to find the exit route and repair it. The wind is blowing fiercely. We are grateful our neighbor called to alert us. It took John awhile because he had to open the gate between our pastures and the other horses joined the first. Once he got all ours back into our pasture, he could close the gate. She had already corralled her horse. John tried repairing the corner, adding rails, fixing and stretching broken barbed wire, but really is not sure how the horse managed to find his way out. They have remained in our pasture since (until Sunday morning!)
I need to fix myself some brunch so I can leave for music.
I finished the chore of putting all my medications in for the week to the container for daily dispersal.
Once home this afternoon, I spent time registering a marked for tracking $1.00 bill at the Where’s George site: wheresgeorge.com
I found it in my own stack of things. Now I will send to our sister in Ohio, and let her put it into circulation, or send on to another friend, after she registers it. We will both be informed of its next destination. Be sure to put the location on your report, if you ever find one in circulation. I think I forgot to put the same type of information in. And I couldn’t see the report below until after I had done my registration. Next time I’ll know better.
This is the report I received on this one. Interesting, it passed through Queen Anne Hill (in Seattle), because that is where my grandmother Wilkins worked as a domestic when she was in Seattle while my grandfather worked as a carpenter on the Smith Tower, before 1914, when my mom was born (their 3rd child). They left for south GA when she was 6 months old. The house is still there in West Seattle, and several family members have visited there and gotten a tour. Pretty cool. John and I actually carried my Granny there after we had reached Idaho and could drive to Seattle to show her.
Here is the following of a tracked dollar bill.
I spent more time tonight sorting through paperwork, tossing, and filing.
Friday, Jun 21 Summer Solstice
We spent the day on chores in the yard, house, and computer. Dishes we have to keep up with daily, but clothes are getting more closely needed watched too.
I delivered two white garbage bags full of newspapers (WSJ and local Daily Records) to a gal who needs it for packing to move. On my way home, I stopped at a yard sale and bought two pair of newish black jeans for John: size 36/32. He needs to lose weight and get into them. That’s a good incentive. The price was right, $1.00/pair.
I’m having many problems with trying to organize emails of past events and future events, without enough time to work on them.
We eat well in spite of it, and John fights the wind every day. Plants need water and weeds tended to. We noticed today the Magpies are robbing the cherries and they are not even ripe yet.
Sunset in our valley on the Summer Solstice, by Lise McGowan
After 10 days or so, we will start to notice the shorter minutes of daylight. This will trigger the “bulbing” of our onions. onions
Saturday, Jun 22
Frustrating correspondence with the Jacquie Lawson site about errors in greeting card deliveries. Raised my blood pressure, literally.
This came early morning too, and is very interesting. I hope all the lady bugs come in to our cherry trees which last year were covered in such stickiness from aphids. John says our plum trees also suffered aphid infection. He poured an insecticide around the base of the cherries but missed the plums along the back fence.
They are much distressed. Will treat them next spring.
Pix by Amy: Chrysalis, Ladybug, Ladybug & eggs on Maple Tree
From Amy Davison:
Haley (daughter, 6 yrs.) pointed out our Maple tree was covered in ladybug eggs this morning. We’ve not seen this before.We get a sticky misty residue each year from this tree. I thought it was the tree until today. Last year when staying in a campground in Shelley, Idaho, we kept tracking in the stickies stuff into my parents’ RV and cars. It was from aphids hatching. Aphids are a major part of the ladybug diet!
Haley continued her research to their backyard plum tree and found a different part of the ladybug’s cycle of life. Below this photo, I have placed a link to a video, which informed me of much I did not previously know. I expect you will learn from it too. Thanks, Haley and Amy, for the education.
Pix by Amy Davison of Ladybug Larva
Life Cycle of a Lady Bug – Instructive Video
Late afternoon we left for Marte Fallshore’s and Dale Brubaker’s home with a dessert (apple & berry strudel, cut into smaller servings) for the potluck and two bottles of White Heron wine. She is roasting a turkey for a supper at 5:00 p.m. They are celebrating their 25th anniversary and her retirement from CWU, where she taught Psychology. While I was there we worked on many university projects and graduate committees. They are a musical family, she plays the double bass and he the fiddle. The music starts at 2:00 p.m., but we are skipping that because of my continued left shoulder problem. Once there we stayed a long time and only got back home about 9:00 p.m. We had a nice visit with friends we never have time to sit down with and truly interact.
I’ve been working trying to finalize the send of videos to an event the first of this month. Maybe I’ll get it out tomorrow, after the blog is completed.
Late tonight, I realized I had not cleaned the strawberries I got Friday, so I did them and John sugared them for me. He beat me to bed. Berries are for Sunday.
Sunday, June 23
I slept in and have been working on this and other things. I must organize my medical records to take for my new cardiologist appointment tomorrow morning in Yakima; that meeting is preceded by a device check (implanted defibrillator). And, on the way, I will leave my computer at a repair facility for an evaluation while we are away for several hours.
This morning we had another glitch present itself with a morning call from our neighbor, Susan, that our horse (Jazz) was again in her high grass pasture. John was able to find where he came through by running him around until he showed him the escape route. Old fence, old wire, gravity. Fixing the corner earlier was wasted effort. He took along his phone and a drink, and managed one call about Noon. He only has one bar on his phone and had trouble getting to me just now. He rarely uses the phone except when in the car and it has a Bluetooth® set-up.
I cannot get through to his phone. Getting my message only, which happens when it’s off or out of reception. It’s now 1:16; I’m beginning to get hungry. I fixed a salad for myself and just finished it. It’s 1:45 and no word from John, so I shall call again. I guess I had better put on walking shoes and go check to see if a tree fell on him in this wind.
I got to the first gate and he was coming through it, so I didn’t have to go far. He had no idea about his phone. It was black and not receiving. We turned it on and checked my phone to him and it went through, so must have turned itself off. He never tried to call me again but sometimes when he turns it on, it is black and he cannot get a call out to me either place, landline or cell. When it works, it is fine, but recently, it’s been not working in his car either. We haven’t a clue. He needs to use it more, and learn. He keeps it charged.
While he was gone, I called the Exxon station because all the information on ‘gasbuddy’ was a long day old. Their price is still $3.05/gal. He plans to take the old ’80 Chevy pickup in to fill both tanks, while the price is down. I just checked another station and found it is $3.03+/gal there (Circle K on Main St.). He went there and filled both tanks with almost 31 gallons of fuel.
The bookstore near the University, Jerrol’s, is celebrating 72 years this week, so is giving away ice cream. He took a cooler and will stop by and bring home 2 cups for us. He also went to the grocery across the street.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan