Sunday, May 27 Today is a quiet day at home. John carved a path to the living room to watch a DVD on horses that our friends from Yakima thought we would appreciate. He moved 8 boxes and has given me instructions to clean up at least one a day. (I have already failed this week; adding this on Saturday). The movie is called “Buck” and is the story about a horse trainer named Buck Branaman. Years ago (18 or so) John took his horse Teak through one of Buck’s clinics here on the outskirts of Ellensburg. Our player did not work (starting and stopping erratically; perhaps a dust overload), and we saw only about 10 minutes of the movie. Something else to fix or replace. Today, it started out sunny and windy. The temperatures are expected to go to 70, but the gusts last hour (when John was exercising the dogs) went to 41. Glad I’m not out trying to play music in the park for Memorial Day. A couple of folks who play with our group have another professional group they play with, and they will be at the Odd Fellows cemetery (IOOF) and related city park with celebrations for memorial day, a day ahead today. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows began in 18th Century England, it was deemed odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need without recognition and pursuing projects for the benefits of all mankind. Later that day here, there were 43 mph gusts, and sustained winds all day were about 30 mph. The City turned on sprinklers in a park and the the National Weather Service declared a severe extra-tropical cyclone. Just kidding.
John found a nice listing of Vitamin K content of foods I should OMIT. Follows, a list of those (most of which I knew): kale, collards, spinach, turnip, beet, dandelion, or mustard greens, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, spring onions or scallions, parsley, asparagus, sauerkraut, endive, or green leaf lettuce. Also recommended not to eat because they are high in Vitamin K, are okra, cabbage, rhubarb, plums dried or stewed, cowpeas or black-eyed peas. John has stayed inside most of the day, with the winds sustained at 31 mph and gusting to 41 for the past 4-5 hours. I stayed in the house doing chores needing done. Cleaned the kitchen and have been sorting through things on the counters, and filing, paying, tossing, or whatever is required. I need to clean up and sort through a box/day and keep at it. This long weekend I have to do more than that. Every room is piled high and there is no flat space anywhere. We said we would do that over a year ago, but I didn’t have the stamina. I might have it now. Now I have to change my attitude and do something! I did manage to tune his guitar and show him how. He is getting ready to go out for a while. He’s trying to dig posts out of the ground from part of the old fence that needs replaced, near our Carpathian walnut trees and tamaracks, and now near his set of blueberry bushes. If it is too windy, he’ll move to another chore where there is less dust. For sure, he will not be near the cottonwood trees because large limbs (or entire trees) fall in this situation. The horses are smart enough to stay away as well.
Holy mackerel. John went back outside to work, and there are now 32 mph sustained winds with 43 MPH GUSTS.
I did locate enough white cardboard mailers I once bought to mail membership certificates to GTU members. GTU is Gamma Theta Upsilon, an international geographical honorary society. I’m invited to the initiation ceremony this week at CWU Thursday night with dinner. That will be nice. When I was there, I was the chapter adviser. I’m happy it is continuing in my absence.
John and I are having a late dinner tonight, because the pork roast was put in late. Boy was it ever good! John cooked it slowly and with onions and cherries (two kinds from our orchard, which had been frozen). He fixed lima beans (that I can have, even though they are green), and we had one of his large biscuits. Our inside/outside cat was thrilled to eat some of the pork roast.
Monday, May 28 Happy Memorial Day. My dad was a veteran, and I’m proud of him. John took two flags and put them at the end of our driveway. We mostly did chores all day. I went through a couple of boxes of papers left over from over 40 years of teaching. Am recycling most, but also giving some books to colleagues or donating to the Map Library and Gov’t Documents Depository. It is such a time-consuming chore.
John set up the trap to again try to capture the last kitty from near the camper where he’s been sleeping. Tomorrow is another day, with a luncheon engagement with a former student who hasn’t been in Ellensburg in 15 years. He’s been teaching in South Korea, and has a wife and two girls over there. It was his vacation and he needed a validation of his diploma; a new ruling for teachers from foreign countries, particularly teachers of English. They are trying to put their own folks into most of positions. Interesting that his wife is a Korean, who teaches English. Therefore, he has not learned the language as well as he might have.
Tuesday, May 29 Started out by catching Woody, one of our cats who already has been spayed. They said that would not happen. So much for experts! I invited the Huckabays to go with me to lunch today, and John went on to Yakima to Costco.
Lunch was enjoyable but the price was NOT. I didn’t pick the place; Huckabay did. I don’t like eating there because they have weird things on the menu and charge TOO much for them. A tuna salad sandwich cost me $7.95, and was mostly sprouts and grated carrots, with a little bag of awfully hard potato chips. (Tim’s ?) I bought Jeff’s lunch and it cost $9.95 !! for a French Dip Roast Beef sandwich (also with chips). It was listed on the board as a Blue Plate special and I figured that was the “special, lower cost for the day,” but there was not a price listed. I about died when I was given the total $20.51. (He had coffee and I had water). Rats. If I had known he could have had a hot sandwich off the menu for the same price, but had soup or salad with it, instead of only a tiny bag of chips. Go figure. I’m back from the Dentist with a free temporary on the broken tooth, but it was cracked badly enough that I will need to have a porcelain crown. It won’t get done until I’m back from Georgia.
I meant to say about our tonight’s dinner. On my way home from the dentist, I stopped by Carl Jrs and got two nice chicken/bacon/cheese sandwiches for $5.00 (coupon). Also two yummy-looking tacos with chicken and beef (one of each), for a buck apiece. That’s for John’s lunch tomorrow. Then, I bought some cool crosscut fries for 1.29 (normally 2.19). I had coupons for everything, meaning I couldn’t get my 20% Sr. discount. After eating them, I decided I didn’t enjoy what I had and will not order that again. I don’t know how John felt. It was filling, and parts of the chicken in the sandwich were okay. Carl’s has great biscuits (only on breakfast sandwiches), but other stuff seems to be more standard.
Wednesday, May 30 John asked me this morning when I was going to retire! (Officially, I did April 2010). However, today I went in at 8:30 a.m. to 10:50 for hearing final project presentations for an Intermediate GIS class I taught for years. I have been invited back every year since I was recuperating winter 2010 (for this class’s finals). I help evaluate and ask questions and give compliments to the students. Today only 3 were given and they were all excellently done. I go back Friday for the last set of presentations. After I left there I went to the grocery store for meds and half a piece of coffee cake (my late breakfast), and then on to play music and sing at the Soup Kitchen at the Food Bank (where I and a banjo player perform every Wed. from noon to 12:30), and then they feed us. Today was a great meal with baked potatoes and toppings plus a vegetable soup more like Brunswick Stew to me. Then off to my exercise class at the Adult Activity Center, afterwards I went a 1/2 block to view an older fellow’s travel trailer which I hope to talk John into my getting for driving short distances to stay overnight for jam sessions. Then I drove back to CWU to listen to a public talk by a candidate (last of 3) for the chair of geography.
Thursday, May 31 was a long, long day, and tomorrow will not be any better. Today’s started about 6:00 when John came in to say we had not captured a cat. Then I was tired and went back to sleep. He awoke me at 7:30 saying it was time to call the vet to cancel the neutering. I did, but I was not feeling ready to get up yet, had a neck ache and so I sat in my recliner and went back to sleep after the phone call. John suggested I not put this in the blog, because people will think I’m mentally challenged, but it is a rather funny story, so I will share. I went back to sleep and had a very realistic dream. Guess the cat capture has been on my mind. I dreamed very vividly that John went back out and brought back the kennel with two orange cats in it. The one we wanted to catch plus Cashew. I looked in the crate, talked to them, and then told John I needed to call the vet and see if they could still neuter one of the cats. (I was still dreaming, but I apparently woke myself up when I reached for the phone, redialed the vet, and the line was busy). I kept trying until they answered, and told them what happened and they said to bring them right in. I got up to get dressed and walked down the hall, after looking on the top of the “cage” on the den table, and not seeing the cats .. saying to John .. (at the computer in the back room, “Where are the cats?) Of course he was confused, and I realized it had not happened and was a dream. Yes, I had to call the vet and tell them what happened and that we would not be arriving. Hope you get a laugh from it.
I have been bargaining with a fellow in town on his travel trailer. My friend Bill went to check it out after I had looked at it, because John and I do not have the knowledge. He verified we could add an a/c unit to the top, and get a little (Honda recommended) generator to run it.
Tonight at 6:00 in the 3rd floor Dean Hall atrium was a nice GTU (Gamma Theta Upsilon) induction of new members. This is the “club” I was chapter adviser for, for the time I was at CWU (starting a couple of years after I got there in 1988). That CWU chapter had been around since 1963.
Friday, June 1 I went to the university for the rest of the final GIS project presentations, followed by Acupuncture, Potluck with tacos and fixings as main dishes at Adult activity center. Home for a little rest, and then off with John in our ’89 Ford truck to buy the used travel trailer. We got it home safely, but had trouble getting it backed into a good place at our house. John pulled forward into our pasture and was trying to move the trailer backwards, into a graveled place in our “orchard” beside the garden. He couldn’t see what he was doing (and I couldn’t give proper directions). Then he turned it around in the pasture, pulled back up into the driveway, heading out, and backed up to the place in our front yard (gravel), and then pulled down off the driveway in front of the gates to the pasture. Sadly, that revealed another problem with the scraping metal pieces (of the manual levelers, which hang down) on the rear end. He had to build up the depression with a series of boards (like a bridge). After he got that done, I volunteered to drive it and back up with his directions. Part of the problem was I could not see the back of the trailer, just as he had found earlier. Finally, I got situated to see it in my mirror, and could see to go straight by the Forsythia bush beside a black walnut tree. He was calling directions until I got to where I could see the whole back of the trailer. The movement of the trailer with turning the steering wheel is extremely sensitive and took some getting used to. Got it positioned in front of our large shed, but it sticks way out with the truck attached. We can get around it with both cars so I think we will be fine for a little while.
Another part of the frustration parking story was that John had tried seeing if it would fit in another place in our front yard between the front of the fenced “yard” and the line of Tamarack trees on the south of our house. When he came in, I said, “Did you decide about the other place?” To which he responded, “Yes, I have decided to get a divorce and move to an apartment in town.” Luckily, we got it finally positioned properly.
We plan to hire our friend to help install the a/c. Yesterday was very hot, and we were inside the trailer plus outside getting it hooked up, and it was totally obvious I cannot exist without a/c. Also, John asked me this morning (after I suggested it last night), for me to ask our friend if he might be able to assist in moving a large (side) awning from our OLD motor home to this trailer. Twenty years ago we spent $800 for it, and it is still in excellent condition; not used a lot, and never here in Ellensburg with the winds. I don’t know if there is anything else that can be scrounged from that motor home or not. It is a 1977 Pace Arrow, with a rotted out roof, and the motor doesn’t run. It has a furnace, water heater, a/c, large Onan generator, and might have some other things that could be transferred. I am not suggesting transferring the generator, because a small portable Honda will be perfect.
This travel trailer was missing the hose to hook up to the drain for the brown and gray water. We definitely have one of those on the motor home. In addition, the sliding plastic on the screen door of the travel trailer is missing half of it. Ours on the motor home is in fine condition, so we could perhaps remove it from there. I imagine there are other small things like that we could transfer. I need to go step inside and review my memory. We haven’t used it since the 1990s. I have to get the paperwork processed Monday, because the tabs will expire that day! Timely, eh. Also, we need to replace the back right light because it doesn’t work for turn signal or for brakes and rear lights. The previous owner was very helpful and generous with the tongue hook up. He gave us his extension with a larger ball (than is on our one for the horse trailer). Also, he gave us an extra fan (not sure for what it is to be used, but it’s a backup) and a spare tire, which had not come with the original. He left all the stuff inside the closet, cabinets, and drawers, spreads on the beds, tools, and such.
I have been out on the web looking for a/c units and Honda generators. The Honda portable generator is a cool idea, because we could also use it around our place, year-round. I noticed that the few places I looked the cost for an a/c unit was $750-$900 but shipping would be $110 or so. Sites do a poor job of explaining the differences versus the cost. More busy work. I imagine we might be able to buy a unit locally (or in Yakima) without the shipping charges. The Honda generators are closer to $1000. So, that’s the story of my new purchase (at a very reasonable price). The seller came down considerably on his original advertised price. I’m happy I looked at the bulletin board at our grocery store when I went in for my meds earlier. Now I have a home-away-from home for over-night stays while at a music event. The first one will be the end of July, a week-long workshop in Kittitas. The next is a Bluegrass jam over at George (yeah, WA), in the community hall city park. John doesn’t think we have any other need for it, because he cannot travel places with me, because of all the animals. It wasn’t a good idea to pay to fix up a really old motor home whose roof is rotted out from leaking around the roof vent and a/c unit, and it would require motor work to repair a gasket that blew the last time we used it. The tires (six of them) need replaced, but those on the travel trailer are practically new steel-belted radials.
Saturday, June 2 John has been busy with outside chores. The wind is blowing but the temperatures are in the lower 70s. His first concern was to empty the rain barrels and water his blueberries with the “distilled” water. It rained a little overnight. He wants to use rain water on the blueberry plants because the creek water is loaded with minerals that “buffer” the solution and make adjustmets difficult. Blueberries need their soil a lot lower than pH 7 and rain is suitable – even though a bit rare in this location. Aquarium owners face this problem and seem to discuss it in more common sense terms. For example, here:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=94
This afternoon we are heading to a Geography Club end-of-year potluck a few miles from our place. We are taking slices of the last of the large Honeycrisp apples. They are in very good shape for having been harvested last October. Two in the final box were over-the-hill and went to the compost pile. Since John got them at Quincy during his pruning trips they have been individually wrapped in newspaper and stored in the fridge. Prior to that they were in Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOkWE7HKvk
The students are preparing the meat (large beef hot dogs, and Bratwurst), and it is a potluck for the rest of us. I think John said we have 8 of them left, so we will cut and set up the dehydrator (4 fill it), and then take the rest with us to the party. We completed that and all is well. We are back, after spending three hours there, eating and visiting, and the stuff available was incredible, including fresh strawberries, a number of different salads, cooked chick thighs, on with savory sauce marinade and another with spicy jalapeno, grilled yellow peppers and purple onions, peach rhubarb cobbler, apple and cherry pies, and white/choc chocolate cookies. Really a great amount of good food. The wind was blowing but the sun was shining. It was held at a faculty member’s house out in the country, only 5 miles from ours.
John came home and fed the cats, horses, and took the dogs for a run, while setting up irrigation. I’m late getting this to him to post but at least we had enough to eat starting at 5:15 that we will not need any dinner for sure.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan