Category: Random issues

Nancy’s working on her literary creation and I’m about to go to bed.

On the way to work in the forest this morning the sky was full of sun, blue sky clouds and rain. I passed through (5 minutes travel time) heavy rain just before reaching our meeting point. But there the ground was dry. We did not get rained on, the sky was alternately clear and cloudy, and no wind. [Later – learned the wind at home was gusting and blowing leaves out of trees.]

We were hiking out about 3:30.
A little wind was noticeable. One of the crew (Paul) stopped just in front of me and said “What’s that sound?”
“You mean that knocking sound?” Yes he said.
We were stopped under a very tall and very dead tree. It was swaying in the slight breeze and, about 80 feet up, hitting another tree. Up high the movement was several feet. Sway – knock. Sway – knock.

I touched Paul on his back, and said “Let’s walk.” We did.

Just another active day in the forest.

Sleep well.

John
*false photo snipped from the web

Hi all,

The photo at the top is from the back door. There are likely many things that pass by out there and occasionally we get a picture.

This has been a busy week on the Naneum Fan. Nancy has had trouble keeping up with writing things down. Or is that – writing things up? Actually, she writes things sidewise or sideways, same difference.

I had previously scheduled 3 days in one of the State’s special places to work on a trail. Still with the long daylight I can get home at 5:30ish and do the usual things here, such as feeding the horses and letting the dog exercise.

I picked a pound of strawberries before dark and after supper we had some on ice cream. Now I’m going to bed. (John writing, and I’m not far behind.)

Monday is considered the first day of summer from an astronomical viewpoint 6:34 p.m. EDT or 3:34 here on the left coast. The Full Moon rises on the same day as the Summer Solstice, an event which hasn’t occurred for nearly 70 years.

All the best,
Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

. . . the next full post will be Sunday evening.

This is the week of the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association workshop that is being held in Moses Lake.

The town is east of us and from here the trip involves going over a ridge (Rye Grass) and then down to the Columbia River and back up the steep canyon, all on Interstate 90. Nancy went over for Mon. thru Wed. and then came home and did the regular Thursday music gig. We are going back this Friday morning.
Nancy will practice with and then play in the afternoon presentations of the Workshop classes. This will be with the instructor she has known for over 20 years while the workshop was held in the town of Kittitas and just a few miles from us. With luck we will get home between 5 and 6 o’clock.
On Saturday Nancy is scheduled to play music in EBRG and John is to go west to help on a hiking trail just this side of Snoqualmie Pass.

It will take some work for Nancy to get the week’s activities into digital form and then we’ll team-up to get it properly into WordPress. Expect the posting to be mid-day Sunday.

———–
Meanwhile, our State is experiencing serious fires that have put a lot of smoke in the air, caused evacuations including an entire small town, and contributed to a major pile-up [now cleared] of cars (14?) and big rigs (9?) on the interstate that we will take (if it is reopened) this morning. The alternative is the very old cross-state 2-lane highway. The WA-DOT has not posted an update since 6:47 last night. The main problem yesterday was smoke, blowing dust and ashes from the fire (started at a rest stop by a large motor home that burned). We need to leave home by about 8:30 AM or so to get to Moses Lake for the practice session at 11. Time now is 5 minutes to 7. Things to do, including getting Nancy up and in motion.

Cheers,
Nancy and John
on the Naneum Fan

Visit the previous Solstice post.

Sunday, Dec 15
The good news on my horse is that our neighbor who has helped us bury two previous horses, came down with his backhoe to help put Frosty in his resting place on our property. It was accomplished on a very windy, but sunny day. Winds were gusting to 53mph. This Christmas cactus was blooming nicely for the day, and the clouds resembled the activity trails of a herd of heavenly horses running to great Frosty. One of his buddies (Scotch) preceded him there, and others of ours probably heard of his arrival. About the clouds, see here and here.

Monday, Dec 16
Took a lot of time today to finalize all the medical paperwork to take along tomorrow to my Cardiologist’s appointment in Yakima. It is just a routine 6-month visit, but has much stuff to take along with me. They want a complete list of medications (and even want the containers), but I have managed over time to just take a detailed list. They accept it.
In addition, I have been recording my blood pressure daily (as requested from the doc last time). Last night my recorder stopped working, but I have enough data to satisfy the doctor that I do not have high blood pressure. I also have tried to coordinate the lab reports and talk to the hospital and my family physician’s office to figure WHY the system will not work correctly on sharing my lab reports requested from one doctor with another in the same system as the hospital lab where I go. I am not allowed to ask them to FAX results to both doctors. What happened to the need to benefit the patient?
The other thing accomplished today was a find of a white board about 2′ x 3′ that a preschool teacher requested on the new list I’m on for “freebies” — Buy Nothing Kittitas County. (It is a closed group through Facebook). I have gotten a few nice things, and given some nice things away too. It beats dealing with E-Bay or bulletin boards, or God forbid, having a garage sale. I’m meeting her Wednesday to deliver the goods. Amazingly (to Nancy), John found it this morning in the shed. Nicest way to depart with stuff is to find someone needing and wanting something for which you no longer have a use.
John tended to the rough and rocky ground from the horse burial. Many rocks moved off to another use and the place covered with straw and manure from near the horse feeding spots.

Tuesday, Dec 17
Started out getting things ready for leaving for the trip to Yakima. John worked outside and the temperature gradually went above freezing. We had a small lunch and hit the road, a little after 1:00 p.m. On to Yakima (I drove). First, to Costco for gasoline, at $3.159/gallon. That’s a lot better than Ellensburg’s $3.269. From there to shopping. I mentioned above that Sunday night my blood pressure measuring unit quit working. We purchased it from Costco a couple of years ago, and never expected a replacement, but took it in, to see if they could get a replacement part. The sleeve no longer expanded to record the pressure, and made sounds like it was leaking. They checked to see that we had bought it there, and then refunded us the cost we paid. We both were in a state of flabbergast, and never expected anything like that. I forgot to ask when the purchase date was, but it was in their system. They refunded us $42.26. We went to the pharmacy and bought a new nicer one for less. Also, we picked up a few more things for us and the animals. I took a powered shopping cart on the way in, but after we came back from the service desk, I passed a woman with crutches, waiting for one. I was coming from the exit side, so as I went by her, she said, are you returning that? I said, no, I’m just beginning, but I think you need it more than I do, so please take it. My good deed for the day, and I got a good exercise walking all over the store.
From there we went to Big 5 Sporting Goods store where we had a $5 coupon. John found some boots just as he likes, on sale, and asked about something to glue down the front rubber piece of the sole across the toe that is coming off those at home. The sales clerk suggested a tube of glue just for leather & rubber. So, he got it a tube of black Shoegoo. From there to the Yakima Heart Center. I was to check in early for a 4:00 p.m. appointment. Surprisingly, I was called in at 4:03. The nurse assistant took my vitals, and then gave me an EKG. We thought the doctor would be in soon, but he was much longer than expected, getting there just before 5:00. He always spends a lot of time with us, and he went through all the labs and past information from the last time we saw him in June. Nothing was wrong with any of my tests, except my magnesium is a little low, so he told me to start adding a supplement of it to my meds, daily. My cholesterol (total is low) was “excellent'” in his words — but he explained my HDL/LDL (ratio) is a bit off because the “bad” C. is quite low while the good C. has not lowered concomitantly. He was very happy with that, and won’t change anything. Several months ago my regular Doc in Cle Elum noticed this and sent a memo with a link to a study about too low isn’t good either. John did some reading and we-all have decided to watch this for any changes or other (maybe related) issues. My blood work was good. In 3 months, I’m going to go through a special test which measures the volume of my newly-shaped heart better than a normal Echocardiogram. So about late March I’ll get that done – reluctantly, because I have to lay on a table with an arm up behind my head for about 10 to 15 minutes (I think). That’s not fun. By the time our consultation was over it was near 6:30 and we and Dr. Kim were the only ones left in the office. He had to find the main switch for the front doors so they would unlock and open without setting off alarms.

Wednesday, Dec 18
Similar to other midweek’s doings. Off to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen to play Christmas carols today. I wore my special Merry Christmas hat. They fed us pizza (homemade there), a large mixed green salad, and some dessert I skipped. Went by the pharmacy for one of my pills, and by Bi-Mart for some Magnesium as prescribed yesterday, by my doctor. Home to try to tackle a number of routine things.

Thursday, Dec 19
Today, most of the morning was spent copying Christmas music and adding legible chords for two new (occasional) members of our music group — guitar players. One is 92! And you would never have guessed his age. Amazing, and quite good on the guitar as well. I hope I’m half as good as he is by the time I’m 75! We had many interested and involved residents, singing along on the Christmas songs, and jingling their bells we gave them.
From there, I came home to deal with many emails that have been waiting and to work on a WTA page to get to people for comments. I hope to put the links in an end of year newsletter. It is not written yet. So many cards and letters are coming, and I will have to print out what I end up putting in the newsletter to send to our friends who do not have an Internet connection. I promise you it will not be as large as the greetings for 2012, which did not make it out until St. Patrick’s Day this year! I also put in a bunch of time sending out jobs for my jobs list I have ignored for the past few days.

Friday, Dec 20
We got up early this morning to make the two pecan pies to take to the scholarship luncheon potluck at CWU. Friends at the same parties (doesn’t happen often) may get tired of our over the top regalia. This was a change today with the hats added.

My hat was given to me by my friend since the 6th grade, Nancy “J.” John is wearing my old sweater when I was larger. There was an interesting assortment of food, and ours was the only dessert. After lunch we went by for my INR blood draw and visited in our Christmas clothing with a nurse who hadn’t seen me in 3 years, when I was going in for regular IVs after the bacteria in my blood (after the heart valve transplant). Her name is Nancy, and she was so thrilled to see me and gave me a huge hug, and John too, saying how great I looked. Yes, quite an improvement since the last time I saw her. I have gone back, sometimes with Chocolate Chip cookies to say hello to the nurses in the Outpatient part of the hospital, but she hasn’t been there when I have been in. We need to do that again.
It has been snowing lightly, and can just stay that way, or stop anytime. About 3:00 this afternoon, the sun came out for a very short time! Nothing on tap except catching up until tomorrow. Then, the wind started blowing, gusting to 38mph before slowing. Oops — there it comes again. Chili tonight and pecan pie for dessert, because we did not eat a piece at the luncheon today, preferring to have a real fork or spoon (not plastic), and a glob of ice cream on top. Everyone else was happy to eat or take a piece with them. We still brought a little over 1/2 of one pie home, so that was nice.
Tonight, I also put some final changes on another WTA workday trip, with some final shots of the projects added into two previous days’ documentation.
Check out here, cut and paste if necessary:

http://ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA-TigerMtnOct20-13.html

Saturday, Dec 21

This morning with John, we worked on a rewrite of the web page on the Park Pointe development in Issaquah. The WTA crew leaders have not yet reviewed it, but you can find it at
http://ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA-ParkPointeTrailCombined.html

I am actually still making corrections and additions.
Late this afternoon and evening, we will be dressing in our Christmas garb again and going to an open house. I think we will take a plate of cut up Honeycrisp apples to go with all the sweet stuff likely to be there. Speaking of sweet stuff, we have a funny mistake to report with our Pecan Pies yesterday. Neither of us had a piece until last night. I mentioned to John that it looked flatter and smaller than usual. It didn’t make sense because we always add an extra egg and have sometimes made a tiny 3 inch extra pie. Still, I noticed and mentioned to John that the pies seemed thinner and showed more crust. This morning, John started our conversations with a question — “Do you remember adding white sugar to the mixture?” Nope, we left it out completely, two+ cups. That would have built up the filling more. Apologies to those at the luncheon. We were both working on ingredients and talked about the different amounts of sugar suggested by the two recipes we have. Proper execution did not follow the communication. 🙂 Regardless, it was still pretty as ever and tasted like Pecan pie. We are not the only folks to have problems in the kitchen.
For today’s in-town visit, we arrived near the beginning (just after 4:00 pm), and had such a good time we stayed longer than originally planned. Lots of good food and fellowship. Main dish was a large Crock pot of Taco Soup, with many toppings. Supplementary food included some fried bread with black beans and corn, red & green grapes, deviled eggs, asparagus, peppers & olives, cookies, and candies, and several other little sweet and non-sweet things.
Neat to meet more people from town, some of whom we know and some new faces. Still, this was mostly an elderly crowd and we’re not old. Right?

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Hi,
We were invited out to share food with folks Nancy met at the Senior Center (aka the Adult Activities Center) in EBRG. That was from 4 until 8 and it is now 8:45. We will work on the blog this evening and post later or Sunday morning.
We are just north of the 47th degree of Latitude and our daylight hours are stuck on 8 hours and 31 minutes. The few seconds of additional daylight will click us up to 8 hours and 32 minutes toward the end of the coming week. Progress. Hope you celebrate these longer daylight seconds.
Stonehenge is about 280 miles north of our Latitude.

Sunday, Dec 8
Morning pealing and cutting Golden Health Squash into little pieces to mix with cinnamon, sugar, our walnuts, and a touch of cloves to take to the community dinner at the Grange 45 minutes away. Lots of food. We ate enough not to need dinner (at least I won’t). Turkey, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, many salads, several breads/rolls, and many veggies, salads, & desserts. The Community Choir entertained us and they were very good. Then some cute little girls in costumes danced for us (starting with 3-5 yr olds, then 7-10, and then kindergarten. Nice jobs by all.

Monday, Dec 9
Began with taking my blood pressure for my week prior to going to Cardiologist next Monday. Then a bunch of work honchoing the lab work information between two doctor’s offices, via their respective nurses. Then John came in and requested my appearance with camera outside. He wanted me to record our latest home-on-the-farm rural living experience. You’ll see more about this later, because now I haven’t had time to go through the photos and movies, but we have determined it is a yellow jacket nest. Luckily, we didn’t have to run for our lives, but John had to remove wide pieces of old lumber covering the wall studs. Rare stuff, that. The nest was between 2 studs and over 3′ tall. Nothing much was in the combs ’cause these folks don’t make honey and don’t over-winter in cold climes. We’ll get to this next week – maybe. Nothing else exciting today: I worked some on music, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (John says we don’t live in a town and so never get Christmas presents.) We do get lots of Christmas cards from all over with connections to our past, and phone calls too. Nice keeping connected. We are not going to get our web page greetings out by the end of the year but will be sending a cute card with wishes (from the Jacquie Lawson site). Keep your eyes out for that coming to a computer near you.

Tuesday, Dec 10
This morning we went to town to get to the hospital lab for a fasting draw for me at 8:45, then off for a Monster biscuit from Carl’s JR, and on to the Copper Kettle for a 9:30 to 11:00 meeting with the Geography Emeritus Profs. From there to Super One and Bi-Mart. John was looking for some very small (8 inches) extension cords, but they had none, so he will order from Amazon. (He did and they arrived Friday). While there I found a camera case for half price ($5), for my new Nikon. It’s too big for my pocket with its case, so now this case has a strap for around my neck and room for the camera and charger. Tonight I go back to town to play and sing Christmas music with The Connections at an assisted living home, Hearthstone Cottages. Came home to a great dinner by John – baked tender chicken and pineapple chunks, baked apples with the rest of the squash and walnuts dish. Finished All I Want for Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Will check out with my banjo buddy tomorrow at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Stayed up until midnight – too long a day.

Wednesday, Dec 11
Didn’t have much time to get ready for leaving for town, but I did manage to re-home and deliver some pans, a bread and a large muffin one. On to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, where many people were loading up on food for the holidays. We played all Christmas songs and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Some new people came in and got excited about the music. One fellow introduced himself and says he will be back next Wed, because he really enjoyed the music. Our old faithfuls were there too. For lunch, we had spaghetti-like noodles, with gravy and fresh (cooked) mushrooms, and then some meatballs that seemed to be better and larger than normal, not in a tomato sauce. Salad with mostly stuff I’m not supposed to eat (spinach, cranberries), but also apples and nuts so I filled up on those. For dessert, we had sugar cookies with Christmas decorations. A young man named Greg, 13, was taking videos. He is home-schooled and just decided to document the organization and operation because he wanted to learn about it. The staff plans to put it on their web page (the F.I.S.H.) page. He took some video of us, but who knows how it will come out.
John made some interesting progress today that he has recorded in part below, after pulling some cut aspens across a ditch and getting the truck jammed. I cannot explain how something got wedged on the old truck under the rear axle assembly. He worked with a jack and sledge hammer (to drive a battering ram) and somehow released it so he could drive again. Here’s his explanation:

A view from the rear; log was in front
While crossing a dry irrigation ditch:
I think what happened was that the left front tire tipped up an odd shaped log (about 4 feet long with a broken end) about 14 inches in diameter for most of its length. That piece ended up under the truck and as the left rear tire settled into the ditch (where the log should have been – the log for the right side was still in place) the log wedged under the drive train and caught on the housing exactly where the universal joint (U-joint) [think that is the term for this connection]. Gentle pressure on the gas pedal had no effect. Had I been 50 miles from home I might have tried a bit more power but the truck is a 1980 and I don’t want it to fail. I tried jacking the axle but the uneven ground and the scissor jack (the one most easily at hand) made this difficult – I got less than an inch before the resistance grew too much and I would have had to get better equipment.
Therefore, I got a 10 ft. piece of Aspen trunk (for a ram), a sledgehammer, and two little rollers (branches) about a foot long. I put the two rollers in place and put the ram on top with one end on the log. I used the sledge as one would use a Croquet mallet, on the other end of the log. Several good whacks and the log went forward. I pulled it out. Took the jack out. Put it, the sledge, and the wood blocks I’d used into the back of the PU. Started up and drove off with no problems.
A complication was that had I tried to go backwards more than 3 inches the left rear tire was going to settle into the ditch (assuming it might have gone backwards had I applied enough power). The only nearby log big enough to fill the ditch was caught under the truck. I did not have another that size and would have had to come up with a work-around had I wanted to try forcing the PU backward. As mentioned above, I don’t want to “force” this old truck because if it breaks, it’s toast. Even with the delay, I finished pulling the last of the 70+ tree trunks up to a spot where I want to cut them into usable pieces. (Why she wanted this in her blog is a mystery!)

Thursday, Dec 12
Today, about four of my friends have birthdays. I spent a lot of time on music – more than I really wanted. I gathered much together, and took along some things to take to people in town. I found a home for a 1/4 size violin (given to me), and that had been the plan all along. It will be used for a 6 yr old boy, who has two younger siblings who might follow. I also carried in a heavy-duty jacket that is a little tight on John, I don’t really like it, and the buttons are hard to get in place (that is, buttoned). It has a new home. John cuts and moves a little brush each afternoon and added rocks to the agenda today.

Friday, Dec 13
Morning filled with chores on the computer and off. My goodness, it’s a heat wave outside – up to 46. John has decent weather to move the rest of the large Elderberry bush he cut down. We decided to attend a party of the College of the Sciences where I taught. We visited with a few of the folks we’ve known and a newish “development” hire – her purpose is to raise funds from outside the State system. We are of interest to her because I give some money to students for scholarship awards and it passes across her desk. She tells an interesting story (skiing in Canada, a bone crushing accident, medic-flight to Seattle, convinced her she wanted to be a doctor, and many steps later, settled into this development thing. Found her niche too, we think. I’m still involved peripherally with a few other things at CWU; although I’m no longer being paid. Interesting. I must be nuts. Anyway, John keeps telling folks at CWU they need a demographer. (There is currently a rapid increase in the over-65 population and that’s costing the State lots of money.) Related is this link about where, and from what, people die. Maps are from the very western part of King County. It came to me from a list serve I’m on, the Central Puget Sound GIS Users’ Group.

Saturday, Dec 14
Frosty, my horse, died overnight, and we do not know the cause. He has not been sick but was no longer young, perhaps 24-25. Below is his picture. He was a Fox-trotter. We bought him when he was about 14 and that would have been about 2004 or 2005. His history is interesting. As a young horse (we don’t know his age then), he was part of the cast of the 1997 Kevin Costner movie, “The Postman,” (horse parts shot in Central Oregon). The producers wanted only black horses in a couple of scenes so they spray-painted them. He obviously would have needed a lot of spraying to become black. Until the day he died, he did not like spray bottles used around him. We had to wipe his face with a rag with fly repellent sprayed in it.

Above is a lovely sympathy wish from a friend back in Indiana; Frosty is on the right. Of course, I will miss him, but my real regret is I was not able ride him one last time after I recovered from my heart surgeries.
Further interestingly, is information in the Yakima Herald about a woman from Ellensburg who is a competitive jumper– Nannette Bews. This was published this Sept. For many years, the Bews were mainly trail riders — and movie stars, of a sort. They appeared as extras, on their horses, in the movie mentioned above. The most memorable part of the movie for the couple was dyeing Ed’s horse black for the filming. Since all the horses had to be the same color, dye was airlifted from New York to accommodate the scores of animals. “Dyeing a horse is a real experience, I’ll tell you,” Nan recalls. At the time of the movie a young EBRG veterinarian learned about the movie (she is from OR) and went down to watch the filming. Costner was having an issue with the person already there caring for animals and our-sometimes-vet, Thea, soon found herself drafted. She had nothing there to work with and many horses so she told him what she needed and the flew it all in. When that filming was over they gave her all the remaining medicine and equipment. Small world, right? We know someone who knows Kevin Costner and he worked with Frosty!
I went and played music at Briarwood, and we had a huge turnout- as well as a good batch of players (Mandolin, Autoharp, Clarinet, Viola, Fiddle, Timbrel, and two guitars). They fed us a feast – baked flaky crust around a filling of chicken, cheese, carrots, and broccoli. On the table were cheeses, meats, crackers, and cute little Christmas gelatin creations shaped as trees, bells, Santa; a wonderful green Jello & whipped cream salad, and Swedish meatballs with pineapple chunks. Then a table full of desserts – with cookies, Aplets & Cotlets, homemade peanut brittle, excellent chocolate fudge, and a roll of red velvet cake with cream cheese layer.
One of our players was in the hospital from an infection near his pacemaker – apparently having whacked it while working with firewood. We know he went to Yakima Regional last night, and they took it out and put him on antibiotics. They will install a replacement on the other side of his body. We heard from Helga (his wife) tonight that he was up and walking, and will be having the operation on Monday. (His original heart surgery–multiple bypass stuff) was done by the same Doc that worked on my heart.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Via Facebook (see there are a few advantages) from a CWU student we knew early in our arrival at CWU:
Announcing….drum roll please….Dr. Teresa Ryan.

I successfully passed a 3-hours long oral examination for my PhD dissertation, Territorial jurisdiction: the cultural and economic significance of eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) in the north-central coast region of British Columbia.

This from a previous post:
Awesome! Thank you so much Nancy.

You are all with me all the time. You are part of my journey and I am so blessed for it.

Cheers,

‘Smhayetsk
Teresa Ryan

ps. we (as in House, Tribe) had another feast (others refer to these as ‘potlatch’) this past winter in Prince Rupert and moved lineage names; and the one placed on me is ‘Smhayetsk, it means ‘real copper’ and coincides with a river named in our territory tributary to the Skeena River.

Well, it is 4:45 and Nancy just arrived home from playing and eating at a place in town. It is deep dusk but not yet dark and there is a bright Moon climbing from the eastern horizon. The full moon will be next Tuesday at 1:29 A.M. (for us). We have warmed up to + and – freezing this week and it seems we are to stay that way for a week, at least.

There isn’t much chance we’ll get the week’s doings posted until late today (Saturday) or maybe Sunday morning. Nancy has already mentioned to some that the horse she rode, Frosty, died during the night. It will be said he died of colic but that is a sign and not really a diagnosis or reason.

She brought a few goodies home from the after-music feast so I’m off to sample a bit of fudge. More as soon as possible.

John

Sunday, Dec 1
Trying to get over my cough that returned, and work on bills, records, Christmas music, and rounding up Christmasy clothes. We also just worked for a good while on things on the kitchen counter and floors, looking for missing items. It was worth the work. John uncovered the missing favorite carving knife and my mom’s old oval aluminum cooker. Part of the effort was looking for a top for our round crock pot in which John has fixed a nice beef concoction (with tomatoes, onions, and rice). That will be dinner – with leftovers. Now he has taken off for upstream (the diversion from the creek) to adjust the irrigation water in our ditch so it won’t ice over and run out into our pasture, creating a skating rink for us, the horses, & dogs. We don’t need that as we had 2 winters ago. [Ice forms on the ditch water that, then, runs like in a hose until it pops up and, quickly spreading and freezing as it moves over the frozen ground. We had about an acre and half of irregular ice one year.] The horses have had their heated water tank for over a few weeks now, so do not need access to the ditch, and the cats have access to the horse’s trough if it is full enough, plus the “cathouse” is now heated to just above freezing with a pan of water and extra dry food. Yea! I got the dishwasher loaded and started, so am back working on Christmas music. Have to do a major job after getting the new improved version of Frosty the Snowman, using my computer software. Still working on and off on that project. Scanning now, and shortly, I have to redo Jingle Bells to match the words we have on the lyrics being used by the audience to begin with the chorus, instead of the first verse. Finished Jingle Bells and almost completed, We wish you a Merry Christmas. Phew. I wish I got paid for all this work. It’s good volunteer work, however, for the community.

Monday, Dec 2
Our farrier trimmed feet of 3 horses today. John went to town for gasoline in his old farm truck, filling both 20 gallon tanks for over $100, but it won’t need gasoline again for a long time. It is just used on our property for pulling around cut trees, delivering cords of wood (okay, that’s off the property), and countless other carrying of rocks and horse manure around the place, but that doesn’t put the miles on as a regular on-road truck. A current project this week is the removal of an Elderberry bush that is heading toward our electric wires. The 2 pictures below were taken Dec 7; top one is before and bottom one is after the tops of all the parts have been cut off and some loaded into the pickup.

I stayed inside to do various things, and one was to check on Medicare D coverage for drugs. After 1.5 hours of telephone calls (mostly waiting), I now know that my Group Health Retiree Coverage is superior to any other private provider I can obtain for Medicare D, and I get better coverage, with no donut hole, deductible limits; just a co-pay required and with a large top limit, $20,000. More medical today: spent a ton of time on medical lab test histories and set up for an upcoming cardiologist visit for which I was supposed to have two lab tests, one for my thyroid and one for my liver, because of a drug, Amiodarone, I’m on. I just received the request to go in for the two tests, but I remembered I had probably had them recently for our Sept 3 appointment at our family physician. So, I contacted the nurse there, and she verified indeed I had, and the results were within the right range. So, she will mail me a copy of the results, and I have contacted my cardiologist’s nurse. John cannot do any more work in the yard until it dries up or freezes, with rain for 24 hours, it turned everything into mud. Now working again on Christmas music. Thought I was done yesterday, but have to get Here Comes Santa Claus into a different key. It is fairly simple to enter with only 16 measures in ¢ (“cut time”). Speaking of cut, John cut the carpet we bought at CWU surplus to fit the kitchen floor. The mat there was smaller and had started to fall apart. Now we can walk around from the den to the kitchen without stepping on linoleum. The dogs and cat seem to appreciate it as well, and spend lots of time there. Shay has found if she lays on the rug next to the heater vent, she can stay warmer and comfortable. Also, this afternoon I found the information on a new Orthopedic Surgeon in town (whom I met and heard speak earlier this year), so I could recommend him to the mom of the family at Thanksgiving who is having rheumatoid arthritic problems with her knees. I expect this fellow can fix her up, and he is local, hence saving a trip across the pass.
Just printed off a few more newly entered Christmas songs to try out on Wednesday with our banjo player/singer, and then I will have to figure how many to run for people coming to play on Thursday. I hope they will heed my request because I am not going to phone everyone; just the two people without email.

Tuesday, Dec 3
I’m going in today for my INR blood test check at the KVH hospital, and also to the bank & Super One pharmacy. John went along, and we went to Bi-Mart for a 2014 desk top calendar, and ended up finding many other things (including it) on sale. The calendar was 30% off making it a very nice time to be there shopping. Last year it happened too, so I just marked my new calendar to try for about this time next year. Also we found a very good sales price on Bounce dryer tissues, and we were almost out. John likes to stash up on the Aplets & Cotlets boxes when they are on sale for 1/4 of the retail price in Cashmere. [They sell different things on their web site using 14 oz. rather than 12 and different photos and names on the boxes. Comparison shopping is impossible and they have much more and very fancy stuff in the catalogue. Pretty gifts if you need one, though.]
We received the photos today from the Tiger Mountain Work party on December 1. I requested our friend Jon N. take photos of the completed work that John H. was involved with in Oct., and later on his way home from another work trip, stopped and took a few in-progress photos. We worked on the ones to use and he trimmed and brighten some of them for me to include in my “old” page — as a finished project.
It’s not finished yet, but if you check in a few days, it should be there — at (cut & paste)

http://ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA-TigerMtnOct20-13.html

I’m really excited to have these photographs to add, even though the weather did not cooperate much for nice clear photos. On the web page, I have changed the first line to state the DEC 1 photos to be added and then the header and footer will be changed.

Wednesday, Dec 4
Today was Christmas music at the Food Bank. Can you believe Christmas is only 3 weeks from today ? We had a LOT of participation from the audience and the servers. Much more than usual. Wow. Went from there to SAIL class. Home to work on Christmas music, and then off for a Geology lecture on the Ancient Lakes area east of us. The talk was in Ellensburg, by Andy Bach, geographer from Western WA Univ. I have known him since 1995 when he came to WA. Nice guy, and interesting lecture. We have ridden horses all through the area. (John more than me, but I have been at least twice). It is the landscape of old coulees, ripples, and scablands caused by the Missoula Floods, and more recent modifications of talus slopes and “ponds” in old potholes, caused by the Columbia Basin Irrigation project.

Thursday, Dec 5
This afternoon I went to Royal Vista (nursing & rehabilitation) to play Christmas music. Prior to that I assembled the music for some of our group (more time than originally planned), but this should be it for the rest of the month, until someone else comes in to play who isn’t planning to be there today. While I was working, John went on normal morning chores and then came back and left again to fill the horses’ heated trough. They are having to get all their water from there now. He was gone longer than I expected, so I found out all the additional things he did while the tank was filling. Now at 12:30, it is just finally beginning to be sunny. That may warm things up a little. Meanwhile, the plum trees got covered with straw, a fence got moved, and some other things. As I pulled in the driveway I saw him out back trimming more bushes from behind the shed where I park my car. The location is where the fence he moved earlier (made out of pallets) was moved to allow him access to drive the old truck around back. Ever so slowly he is widening the space between brush and trees and our buildings. Being “Fire Wise” the pros call it.
Getting colder here. John considered putting a block heater on my new Subaru, but it is a special part that will cost $150 + labor and 8% tax. We are not sure it is worth that much. He has one on his car and if it is around zero, we can just drive his, and let mine sit.
Sadly, my work is not over on the Christmas music. We had a few glitches today I have to work on to give out next week. I just put We Wish you a Merry Christmas into the right Key for Ellen & her Bb clarinet, so we could all play off the “same” page.

Friday, Dec 6
This afternoon is the annual Holiday Celebration at Dean Hall put on for all university employees by the Anthropology and Geography departments. It’s a real tradition. It is major finger food, but we’ll have plates, and can make a dinner from the offerings. It begins at 5:00 p.m. so many people come from their work on their way home. We arrived 10 minutes early, put our offering on the dessert table, secured a comfy chair in an adjacent room, visited with some early arrivees, and then were there near the head of the line for the opening buffet. All sorts of food was on the table, and we had plenty to choose from. Meats included ham, little meatballs, pepperoni pizza, chili with cornbread/cheese on top, deep fried homemade (pork egg rolls), herring on crackers, many hot pasta type dishes such as spinach, other stuff: a plate of cheese covered with little shrimp, rolls, plates of cheese, fresh fruit, and deviled eggs. I’ll stop there, but there was more. Desserts filled a table, including cakes, cookies, pies (apple and banana cream), candy, and (on both tables) some things known only to the makers.

Saturday, Dec 7
This evening from 6:00 to 9:30 we are invited to a concert and dinner put on by the Music school for fundraising for student scholarships. We already are funding two yearly scholarships in the College of the Sciences, so they are treating us to dinner as a thanks ($50/person). The entertainment is by 100 members of the CWU Choral music program. They will also be our servers. We picked chicken over vegetarian for our meal choice. The invitation claims there will be wassailing and a social mixing hour preceding the seated dinner. John thinks their use of “wassailing” is a bogus throwback to European traditions and thinks there will be few was hail called out tonight and likely no replies of drinc hail. Neither will anyone proclaim “Old apple tree we wassail thee” – but someone thinks wassailing is a neat sound and thinks we should be doing it. We dressed up and had our picture taken.
That’s my old sweater I talked John into wearing, and the choral conductor came around to greet people and thank us for coming. He told John he really liked the sweater. That made my day. The vest I’m wearing is filled with icons of the Nutcracker Ballet.

Sunday, Dec 8
Today there are several parties, but we haven’t figured out how to be two places at once, so we have chosen the Grange’s Christmas dinner, at 1:00, during which turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes are donated by the Grange, and attendees bring pot-luck side dishes or desserts. We are taking one of our Golden Health Squash (a winter squash) chunked up and wassailed in butter, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon and a dash of ground cloves. It worked. Lots of folks said “Oh golden squash, we wassail thee!” We got home about 4 degrees and had the horses fed, the dogs exercised, and the feral cats tended to – all done just as the sky went dark.
The weather folks are looking for zero tonight and then 14 on Monday night. The cold air is draining into the low spots and so we have been about 3 degrees warmer than they think we ought to be. Folks we know down in central Oregon are getting -15 or so. Look around. Some place and somebody is always less well off. We can wassail to that!

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

The Geog. & Anthro. departments had a pot luck Christmas party Friday at 5 P. M. and tonight (Sat.) we went to a music/dinner fund raiser for the music dept. at CWU. Because Nancy donates to the U for student scholarships we were given tickets (nice) as they wanted $50 each for a chicken dinner. The choral groups performed with some instrumental accompaniment and it was all well done and with a few comical things involved. We left at 5:30 and got home at 10 in 3 degree temperature, headed to -4. In the morning we have to fix squash, walnuts, cinnamon and sugar and off to another food fest at 1 o’clock.

Hope to get a blog done by late Sunday, so check back Monday for Nancy’s weekly doings.

Meanwhile, stay warm and safe.
John