Keeping track

We have a young buck deer – first year antlers – that seems to like our space. Also, there is a doe with 2 little ones, and another (a twin herself raised on our property, named Dawn) with 1.

Monday, June 29
Front entrance door and guard rabbit
[ ! false juxtaposition ! ]

Etched sketches and wildlife on paneling: Farmhouse, windmill, turkeys, geese and deer.

Nick’s nights off were Mondays and Fridays. Our friend in Nick’s audience presented during those evenings, starting at 5:00 instead of 6:00 p.m. PST. She’s going to continuing musical interludes on the same days, in Nick’s absence. Tonight was a musical tribute to Astor Piazzolla with Tango music, played by our friend from Australia who is instrumental in the Nick Zentner study group. The music is her (with a pianist), playing her clarinet at gigs a few years ago. Now she primarily plays her recorders.

Kathy plays the Tangos of Astor Piazzolla

Tuesday, June 30

Up at 7:30 and took my Alendronate on an empty stomach. Plugged in my 5Tb external backup drive for its Noon backup.
Called ComputAbility (David) tell him I cannot come today because of my Noon Backup drive doing its thing. Did it in 29 minutes. I needed to take my laptop in for him to remove the battery to get the correct number of the part to order.

Here’s another resource for the study group, relatives & friends – the playlist for Helicopter views with Maria (pilot) and Nick Zentner (interpreting the geology from above the Rocks):

Nick Over the Rocks

We didn’t leave until noonish, to take Glenn Engel’s Swiss Cheese by at our first stop and be able to email him as we are leaving. Made connection, but we missed seeing him waving at us from his new garage (we didn’t yet know the location of) as we were rounding a 90° driveway turn toward his carport location which is where I thought we were meeting. We did connect and exchange the goods.
We drove on to have my blood draw for my INR. Sadly, my favorite phlebotomist Kim was not there. I checked in and indicated my reason for coming.

Wednesday, July 1

Exciting way to start our day at 7:00 a.m., two fawns in our front yard (midst the remodeling efforts):Mom doe and twins top; twins and one single below

Don’t miss the video below (only 1-minute viewing time). See the smallest fawn nursing. My excitement standing in the wind on the front porch so close to them, made my camera work rather shaky.

Video – Mom with Twin Fawns July 1, 2020

Set up for zoom for Patriotic Bingo at AAC. 10:30 -11:30 a.m. I successfully entered and we played 5 games, with my winning one, design was railroads. Nice, as I used to love riding the rails to Guyton, GA from Atlanta, GA (called the Nancy Hanks train) to spend my summers, alternating among Guyton, Savannah, GA, and Sullivan Island, SC.
My winning Bingo game card was the likeness of a railroad; only using the I and G, from BINGO. I already had the Free in the middle circled before the pattern we were seeking was called.

I went by ComputAbility with my laptop, about 2:15, and had David check the battery ID number and order one to install. After dropping that off, John dropped me off at the lab and went to buy a 40-lb bag of wild bird seed advertised on their flyer. None was available in the store. While in town we went to Fred Meyer for the smaller ounce bottles of PowerAde, but while advertised in their sales flyer, they had none in stock in the store or in the back. The bird seed and drinks were not the reason for the trip to town, or that would have been a bummer.

Thursday, July 2

Blast from our past with Cedaridge BrittanysRight with Brittany, is Charles (Mick) McBride holding FC/AFC Sher-loc Shay-Dee Holly, one of our Brittanys, born in 1986. Fun visiting with him after so many years.

Friday, July 3

Went by ComputAbility with my laptop to have my new battery installed, and while there, David got rid of my Chrome and made Firefox my default browser so it would not shut down on me. It’s been working okay since then and I have the battery emptied and recharged (about 2.5 hrs), now at 100%. I have to remember at the beginning of each month to run on battery only down to under 10% and then plug it back in. Also, so it doesn’t get too hot and swell the battery (warping it), I have to put a hard book, or similar, in my lap so the fan air can actually cool the battery.

After that, I went by Woods Ace Hardware to pick up 5 40# bags of Wild Bird Seed, that had been announced on their flyer, but they didn’t have any in the story when John went by on Wednesday. I’ll called at 8:30 a.m. and they set aside the order; and then helped load.

From there to Joanie with a sack of about 6 pairs of pants, she’s going to do some alterations, and cut down the size on so they don’t swallow me. She also puts elastic in the waist, so I can tighten the waist by tying knots, as the elastic stretches. She’ s been my volunteer seamstress for years, for which I am extremely grateful, especially while I was losing weight. All of the really large sized pants have already been donated to others.
These needing altered now are size 14. She and hubby Ken are moving to Spokane, and leave Mondays with a load, stay overnight, and then come back on Tuesday. Her sewing machine is already in the Spokane house.

A new friend from Australia, I met starting St. Patrick’s Day this year, through Nick Zentner’s, “Nick from Home” – – there were 75 episodes. The new friend is Kathy Williams-Devries, and she was taking his off days to entertain our group members with various music activities.

Kathy’s program tonight was a musical tribute to pipe organists around the world with her friend Greg. He will describe each organist for the piece in the playlist, which they have put together and then at the end, were able to enjoy Greg playing his own pipe organ in his home (on an island, off the coast of Brisbane, Australia). While we were listening, to other organists, he was joining in the live chat with the audience watching the videos.
The program went for 10 minutes’ shy of 4 hours.

Kathy Williams-DeVries from Brisbane, Australia with guest Pipe Organist extraordinaire, Chevalier Gregory Hartay-Szabo (He’s a Hungarian knight twice over!)

Link to Kathy’s Playlist of Pipe Organists Videos tonight

Gregory Hartay-Szabo has his own YouTube Channel you may subscribe to, if you like Pipe Organ music. He just started it, and it has two videos as of 7-3-20.

Link to Greg’s YouTube Channel

Supper: very late, with fried boneless/skinless chicken breasts, fried hash brown potatoes, bowl of peaches, banana, red grapes, with wine from White Heron Cellars and Mariposa Vineyard, named Roussanne (a white Swiss grape). Our Brittany is named Cedaridge Vintage Roussanne. She was named for the grape varietal, because she is mostly white and orange. She has an orange heart on her side. (same as in the Thursday photo above of the Cedaridge Brittany pup named Holly has on her side). It’s a trademark on many of our Brittanys.

Saturday, July 4 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

If you missed fireworks this year, see this:

Illegal Fireworks over Los Angeles from Helicopter

John’s photo from 2019. John went up the driveway early to hang our flag on the post by the road.There’s our flag flying in the wind last year, with me as we came back from playing patriotic music at the Senior Center. We did not have that early celebration this year because of COVID-19.
John’s been outside working a lot today.

I was basically off my computer laptop from 11:30 a.m. yesterday until 5:00 p.m. and then tied up for almost 4 hours with the Pipe Organ Music program from Australia. I missed responding to any emails until July 4 at 9:30, still picking up pieces of my computer laptop changes to installation of a new battery. Not as easy as popping in and starting to use it.

Our major contractor is here today (after a visit to Roslyn and watching a small parade, we think), working on our new room (where the 2-car attached garage was). The inside doors are solid wood pretty pine, one with handles and one swings both ways and re-centers itself. It opens with a push of an elbow or a butt. He is working on the baseboards around the room beneath the paneling, and building a metal frame around the breaker switch box. Others of his workers, and the electrician, will be back Monday to continue work on the room, the carport, and the walkway (wheelchair access to the house), plus the new siding on the house from rock on the bottom to blue HardiePlank® fibre/cement fire resistant siding above that. Plenty yet to accomplish.Photo by EvieMae Schuetz in Kittitas, WA (where fireworks are legal), displaying beautiful colors again this year, without wind!Photo by Lise McGowan with her added commentary: Rising of the Independence Day full moon looking east!! Fireworks to the west!! The end to a blessed day! God bless America! He is watching over us!

Sunday, July 5

My prime chore today is finishing my draft of the blog for John’s editing. It was slow going because of all the conflicts with the Internet and my Browser cutting on and off throughout the day. Reasons unknown. That really hampers creation.

Jason Ireland is back to finish the log milling today with his sidekick worker (roller/feeder/board & post remover), Ernest of the Great State of Texas. They started about 11 and worked until 4:30 – not real hot, but full sun and lots of fine sawdust blowing in the wind. John facilitated a little, as needed, but mostly kept to his own chores. One was making space in our red shed to put the new lumber. Top: Early in the milling process with Ernest and Jason Ireland; bottom the posts and boards cut with slabs in the back.

Don’t miss the video below:

A View of Process of Milling the Logs

Next I need to respond to a couple of things in John’s Not So Nasty News this Friday (which is now below this). We were in our canoe on the Chattahoochee River: He says, “All I remember is passing near the air base at Marietta and having a very large plane pass low over us.” I say, “John, it was a C5A Transport plane from Dobbins Air Reserve Base (outside of Marietta, GA).
C5A Transport plane Note photo above this entry point. That’s just what we saw from the canoe.
Read about our 4th of July trip to Stone Mountain to see fireworks by reading John’s Nasty News from Friday evening. We were on the lake shown below.
Stone Mountain, GAIgneous intrusion pluton granite dome carving on north side. Located near Atlanta, GA-Confederate Memorial Carving.

Geology of Stone Mountain

Carving Description on Stone Mountain

Over the past week we’ve had Pecan pie, peach pie, and now cherry pie (with vanilla ice cream). The weather has been nice also.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jun 22

Starting this week with photos of the trusses over the walkway to the house (lasted all week and still in progress).

Sent out the CWU Geology Field Trip news to the Nick Zentner study group. Plan readings for Bailey Willis and Oregon Geology.

This is Nick Zentner’s last week of this series of lectures from home, livestreaming on YouTube. We made it through this week to Sunday’s Craters of the Moon presentation. Nick’s trying to tell us the cherry crop is doing fine.

Tuesday, Jun 23

Up at 7:30 and took my Alendronate on an empty stomach. Plugged in my 5Tb external backup drive for its Noon backup.
Here is some progress on the remodeling of the new room, with laying, grouting, and gluing the tile blocks.
Left view through an opening that will have a swinging door to enter the utility room. Water tanks are there but the refrigerator, freezer, and shelving are yet to go there. The tile has not been cleaned yet, but you can see in the foreground and along the right side the “backer board” on top of the subfloor. Right view, with water units of the right, and 2 panels of wildlife (deer, geese, turkey, rabbits) and a few other historic farm scenes. These panels are sort of “busy” and are only on one 8 ft. wall and the one behind the camera. This wall has a door to the outside, and the electrical box – so it is only about 60% paneled.

John drove me to town 10:30, first to the AAC to deliver a donation of books to their library and to give away older ones in theirs to neighborhood street libraries of which we have quite a few. Our downtown library is closed for COVID-19 reasons and so is the AAC (Senior Center), so their donation box is in the front of their building in the parking lot. We dropped off several books, and visited a bit, on our way to more shopping.

I received a phone call regarding my 2020 Census form we supposedly received several weeks ago in our mail. We never received it. So the fellow on the line, working for the Census, but living in Roslyn, WA told me I could fill it out on line and he would help me through the process. It’s not as straightforward as it should be. However, it is an alternative to having them deliver a person to get the information, and I had a computer to access the site: My2020census.gov. I started the questionnaire and he helped me complete the procedure, which took 24 minutes!! (I put my confirmation # assigned through email for submission in my pictures to add to my Tax 2020 folder.

We lost our electricity at 3:54 PM – system wide for PUD customers, with no prediction of time to regain it. Great! I’ll likely miss tonight’s Livestreaming, at least part of it. I’m sure the pre-show stuff has already begun. Outage lasted 3 hours !! [John says they almost always fix it in under 4 hours.] and I missed all but the last 20 minutes of the live lecture. At least it is available for replay.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #71 – 6-23-20 CWU Geology Field Trip

Wednesday, Jun 24

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #72 – 6-24-20 Bailey Willis

Entered new people into the study group data base. Need to finish the readings for tomorrow night’s lecture and send to the study group.
Go to bed asap to get up and leave by 7:40; driving my car.

Thursday, Jun 25

Leaving for White Heron at 7:40, take computer laptop and power supply. I dropped John off and then I went to East Wenatchee COSTCO, another 22 miles.

When I got back to the winery, I took a few photos & some videos of the process. I’ll just put in a couple of photos now. I don’t have time up check the videos and see if they are worth uploading. So, if they’re good, I’ll share in a future blog.Erik, Ray, John, Tanja, Cameron. Very left Erik upends boxes of new bottles and sets them under the fillers. Ray takes full bottles off the line and places them one at a time in the corker. John snags them from the corker and places them on the table to his right. Tanja places heat-shrink caps, then passes the bottles to Cameron who is running the label(s) applicator. Wine, in clear bottles, is Rose’ of Syrah.

I came back and worked on my laptop for about an hour until they finished. Then we went outside to enjoy lunch. We didn’t get away and back home until 4:00 p.m. Returning, we talked with Ethel (102) from the car, for about 20 minutes, until we had multiple basalt cliffs around us.

The evening presentation, actually the early commenters, was about to start.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #73 – 6-25-20 – Oregon Geology? (with 3 guests: Marli Miller, Carrie Gordon, and Ellen Bishop)

A long tiring day.

Friday, Jun 26

Started suggested reading for Cinder Cones to send study group.

Tonight was a musical tribute to Weber by our friend from Australia in the Nick Zentner study group, who gives a presentation on Nick’s nights off. She’s going to continue the musical interludes on the same days, in Nick’s absence. (Mondays and Fridays).

Kathy Williams-DeVries from Brisbane, Australia
Tonight’s was Weber Music, via her previously playing on her clarinet, which she no longer plays much, because she now plays her recorders.

Tonight’s sunset was striking and we missed it because of all the trees on our west side of the house. These photographs were taken by a former graduate student for whom I served on her Thesis Committee (after I retired). Her thesis documentation: Evans, Jennifer. 2012 (Spring). Incorporating LiDAR and GIS to Model the Presence of Gullies at Yakima Training Center, Washington. (Huckabay). She works at the place where she completed her research. YTC – US Army
She lives across the street from our local hospital, and it is viewable beneath the skyscape. She took these with her phone!!Photos by Jen Evans Yenter, ~9:15 p.m. (bottom is a panorama)

Saturday, Jun 27

I was up earlier than wished with cats, first at 2:45 a.m., instead of coming in the doggy door, Czar went to the window and meowed, loudly enough to awake me. Back to bed. At 4:00, outside cat Sue started meowing loudly and had brought a mouse to the front door to offer me. I didn’t want to be awakened for that, so went back to bed. Finally, awoke at 7:15 a.m. Began the ritual for taking notes of the pre-show comments that start 2 hrs before the program. We knew the program would start early tonight, to allow Nick time to thank people for gifts from around the world. Farthest this morning came from Japan. Some unique & artistic gifts. Tomorrow is going to be a very special morning, and probably a tear jerker. Watched Nick’s penultimate livestream for this session.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #74 – Cinder Cones

I had things from COSTCO for neighbor Louaine. Her place was the first stop and then on to town for several things needed at Bi-Mart, Mid-State Coop, and Safeway. We went to Safeway primarily for sales of PowerAde for me and their brand of Colas for John. Also on sale, we got bananas, cherry, and peach pies. We went to Safeway primarily for PowerAde for me and Colas for John, both on sale. Grain for the horses at Mid-State, dog food at Bi-Mart. Bi-Mart clerks and shoppers were 90+% into the face mask thing. At mid-state Co-op it was more of a some-had thing. Some customers had masks and none of the clerks did. No plexiglass in sight either. It’s sort of an open-airy place with much happening outside. Our governor wants us to pay $100 if we don’t wear a mask in public settings.

I am working on the suggested links to send for tomorrow morning’s Nick talk on Craters of the Moon.
We had a nice conversation with our sister Peggy who is 3 time zones earlier. We kept her up late tonight.

Sunday, June 28

There appears to be only one person in the area with a traveling milling machine (band saw). Jason Ireland, and co-worker came late morning and stayed to about 5:30. They cut our pile of logs into 8 ft. sections and stacked them for tomorrow’s make-lumber session. John also had them take out the 3 Tamarack trees that remained – close to the future car-park. Note that the closest tree is dead and cut off, and not in the way.
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The final Nick presentation for this series ended with the highest I saw of 1,584 people watching. There will be a hiatus of unknown duration.
To say thanks to Nick, one of the presents the group constructed was a world map with icons at the location of all viewers to watch his livestreams. Also there is a map of the United States with better resolution.This final program lasted 2 hours. Longest and most attended lecture since March 17, 2020, when Nick started this series.
You can skip through a lot of it and enjoy many different things about the Craters of the Moon National Monument on the Eastern Snake River Plain of Idaho. Be sure to watch the videos in the “cozy fort”.
‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #75 – 6-21-20, Craters of the Moon
Most importantly, look at 1:52 minutes in near the end to see the whole gift book of pictures from a bunch of his viewers.Top is Nick Zentner with the front cover, a painting by Patrick Swan, a 6 yr. old student who was always at the front of the class with his questions of Nick at the end of the lecture. His mom is Theresa Swan, who with the help of 9 others, put this book together in a very short time, and a lot of work. They constructed the maps above too. The bottom photo has friends from Sedro Woolley, WA (Steve, the crafter of the Cozy Fort), John and I at White Heron Cellars Mariposa Vineyard overlooking West Bar, where the Giant Current Ripples are that we had a livestream field trip to a week ago, and in the bottom right is Elizabeth and her pet rat, Zeke. She was raised in Eastern WA but now lives in Cardiff, Wales.

Supper: (John’s creative delicacy: leftover chicken and veggie stir-fry covered by pineapple crisp, with scalloped potatoes, and crumbles-topped cherry pie for dessert.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jun 15 John took me outside to see a baby deer in our garden. I got two pix before it jumped and scurried off. I wish I’d reacted fast enough to start a movie of the exit. Another deer has been hanging around, who was a twin born here in our barn. It was late in the season, and we thought the female twin was not going to make it through the winter, so we started feeding her and her brother. We named the twins, and Dawn is still hanging around, but she’s never had a baby. We wonder if she is the mom. A couple days later we saw them together, so now we know.

Here’s a beautiful scene from the Kittitas Valley, our nice agricultural irrigated valley in the shrub steppe semi desert:Lovely farm near Kittitas, WA photographed by Evie Mae Schuetz

I’ve been emailing catching up on two days away from my computer (my life-line)!
Supper. Lasagna, pears, and cauliflower.Sunset by Tonieka Kokjer in Kittitas County Visual Delights FB

Tuesday, Jun 16

Nick Zentner’s entering the penultimate week of this series of lectures from home, livestreaming on YouTube, with the first tonight. We made it through this week to Sunday’s Yellowstone Geology lecture.I took my Alendronate on an empty stomach and ate a half hour later. Started checking with CWU library looking for access to Library Archived Faculty documents. I figured out the location of the research on debris flows in the Teanaway that Marty Kaatz did research on, but am unable to gain access because the library is closed. I talked to my friend in the Reference Department and he gave me the email to write to request a scanned copy, from the Archives, but no one there got back to me by phone, or email. Eventually she did. And sent me much information.
I forgot to connect my 5Tb external back up drive for its Noon backup.

Rascal just brought in a Douglas squirrel and took it under the bed. Not too happy about that, but actually would like to get rid of the critters because they get into our shed’s insulation to store their walnut harvest, and make a terrible mess. The walls were not all covered so the stashed nuts have caused some of the batts of fiberglass to break loose. Maybe next year John can clean out this building and make it useful.

Tonight’s livestream is on Landslides of WA and I got my suggested links out at 10:00 a.m. and then realized shortly after that I left out all links to the Oso Landslide in 2014. So, I finished that research and entering the links & description and mailed it at noon to our study group members.

Tonight, Nick will be joined by Karl Lillquist, a physical geographer whom I taught with from the time he arrived on campus in 1995); one of his concentrations is mass wasting issues (debris flows and landslides).

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #66 – 6-16-20 Landslides in Washington, guest Karl Lillquist

Wednesday, Jun 17

Morning work included John and Walter bringing in the water softening unit and holding (pressurized) tank. We were supposed to have water back today around noon, tried at 12:30 p.m. and it was wired wrong. Sparks flew when the circuit was switched. The pressure switch is comprised of an internal spring mechanism which is connected directly to electrical contacts. Walter is a builder, not trained as an electrician or plumber. When the sparks flew, the contacts fused so a new pressure switch was needed. A “smart phone” photo sent to the real electrician, Todd, allowing him to bring the proper switch. He was able to come at 2:30 and we had water by 3 PM. I was very thankful. Six days without running water has been miserable. We always have filtered water in 2 L. bottles, and John carried irrigation water for flushes. Just above the level of wilderness camping. Well, we have had electricity.

Worked on emails, adding 3 new study group members from last night. At 10:00 a.m., I sent out the 6-17-20 General letter to 6 new members.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #67 – 6-17-20 Thomas W. Symons

Thursday, Jun 18

Things got changed this morning for tonight’s lecture, so I had to create a new list of materials to send for a different lecture. I had material for a trip to the Geology Department at CWU, but Nick changed it and went instead to the Thorp Prairie on a field trip. I worked until 2:00 to find background material.

I had to plan to be ready to take photos of the raising of wood beams (trusses will sit on these) over the future walkway. Because the structure is angled, actual measurements could not be done until the roof over the “header” was removed. The initial estimate was about 9 inches off and the beam that much too short. A new one will be cut (in EBRG) and ready in the morning. [The just-a-bit short one will be used over the back patio.]
Meanwhile, look below in John’s Friday column, Not So Nasty News, and see the photo of the beginning of the walkway. Note his “nasty” comment about me and the dog. She’s really the one avoiding it because she fell off the original version into the hole mentioned. I was walking the plank fine.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #68 – 6-18-20 – Thorp Prairie field trip

Filled up my meds for the week.
We had pizza for supper.6-18-20, Noctiluscent cloud by Theresa Vandenberg, ~10:00 p.m., looking toward NW, from S. Ruby St, Ellensburg, WA

I really got into this, and found these videos below to entertain yourselves as they did me, all the while learning.

Noctilucent Clouds Explained • Aug 16, 2016 (3.5 mins)

What are Noctilucent Clouds? • Jul 2, 2018 (1 min)

Saved the best for last, with true moving videos in action of the progress of the “night clouds”:
The Noctilucent Clouds (NLC) 4K – UHD • Jul 8, 2016 (5 mins)

Friday, Jun 19

Recovering from a sleepless interrupted night (with cat demands, mostly), after being up late working on projects. So I slept in until 9:00 a.m. (except for normal 5:00 a.m. issues).
Now working on more unfinished projects. John’s outside.
I went out to take videos of lifting the first beam for the walkway cover.

Tonight was a musical tribute to Mozart by my friend from Australia in the Nick Zentner group, who makes a presentation on Nick’s nights off. She is a clarinet player for the longest part of her life, and included that at the beginning tonight, but mostly we have heard her music on her collection of recorders.

Tonight’s was Mozart music, with her explanation of the instruments played at the time, combining a performance by a large group of men on the instruments of the time period—actually she provides the complete playlist with titles & links in the descriptive part of the video below.

Kathy Williams-DeVries from Brisbane, Australia

I left this music after about an hour to have a phone conversation with a University of Idaho friend since the 1970s. John and I met Bill Rember (Paleogeologist) almost as soon as we arrived at the University. He now lives on his own fossil site near Clarkia, Idaho, 40 miles NE of Moscow.

I cannot get access to the video of his talk (48 mins), except through a web page in the archives at the University of Idaho that has a link to the video. His presentation is on the history and description of fossils in lake bed sediments from about 16 million years ago. Once you get to the link, you can watch the video on a full screen and see it a little better.

Bill Rember

Description: Paleobotany & Stratigraphy of Lake Clarkia Presented by Bill Rember, Department of Geological Sciences. Univ of Idaho, 48 minutes to Malcolm M. Renfred Interdisciplinary Colloquium, 2015

Supper: Shrimp, Butternut squash & beans, pears, and Fruit Tart for dessert.

Saturday, Jun 20

This morning’s field trip to view the Giant Current Ripples at West Bar, began with a thank-you acknowledgment of a gift Nick received from two viewers and admirers (who are wood crafts people). Here is their unique gift.Representative memory of Lost Rock Hammer incident at Drumheller Channels Columnar BasaltsNick on top with his rock hammer

Blooper on camera

LiDAR image of field area reported on this morning

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #69 – Giant Current Ripples

Lunch: Soup for me.

I am working on the suggested links to send for tomorrow morning’s Nick talk on Yellowstone Geology. Sent late afternoon.
Walter came over and laid a bunch of tile in the new room. Need to check it out, tomorrow. Have a few pictures for later viewing.

Sunday, June 21 FATHER’S DAY

This morning’s video had the highest number of world-wide watchers that we have seen (1,434). This one went 115 mins., which is the longest.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #70 – 6-21-20, Yellowstone Geology

After it was over, I finished adding dishes I’d started last night, and turned on the dishwasher. It was still running, when John left for town to get some groceries at sale prices, and to pick up steel washers needed for a garden gate.

When John got home, I had my lunch of Top Ramen soup with chicken & Cheez-Its added. Now to work on the blog. I started working early afternoon, and now it’s late afternoon, with little accomplishment. My Chrome keeps hanging up and crashing – very stressing.

Supper: Roast, potatoes, and gravy (mushroom, corn, onion).

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jun 8

Today, we had an unexpected visitor..John’s photo. Particulars of size, age, gender unknown. It is not little. Neighbor Allen has seen one recently and it compares with a large one killed (2019) up on the hill north of him (and us).
A couple of days earlier, our small-bird-enclosure was scrunched by a heavy object that left black hairs on the top fence cover of the feeder. We have a square of 4 chain-link panels, 6’ high, and inside that there is a small enclosure for small birds. It is made of wire fencing with 2″x4″ spacing. John figured there must have been a bear involved.

Our neighbor, Allen Aronica, a mile up the road, has seen two – one big, one small. The big one is estimated at about 500 pounds. With no experience on such matters, John thought this one was about 200 pounds. Oh well.

Morning started earlier than desired. One worker arrived at 7:10 and the other followed shortly, only to turn around and leave again until 8:00 a.m. Now they are back and arranging what will happen today. Construction continues. Walter just arrived with concrete to unload and he’s leaving for a west side medical appointment. They have 5 (?) projects they alternate on. Paint takes a day to dry. Concrete about 3 days of curing. Here there are both inside and outside projects, and no rush, and that helps them. Today the skylights are being finished in the living room and the den. Gives the rooms a different look and feel.

It is a bit noisy, but I’m working on Spokane Geology suggested background for Tuesday night lecture. I just finished sending the invite letter and stuff to the new folks on the Zentnerds list.

Soak dishes. Just spent a lot of time, loaded the dishwasher and started it. John’s been dealing with the contractor and worker about the walkway out front and plans for putting up the rock wall siding, and now I’m back to alternate working on stack of receipts on table left of my chair. All to be cleaned off to access the patio door that John installed (Nov., 2015), and walls on either side. We have 2.5 sheets of wood paneling still unused. That and a bit of knotty pine will finish the inside of the door project. That’s a long time between concept and completion. Soon, though.

I washed clothes at some point, and move paperwork from the left table beside recliner. I then called the public health department with question about the Ensure mess analysis.

Lunch break: Beef chili for me (with our crockpot beef from a couple days ago), and hamburger with his chili for John, with fries.

We made it through all the livestreaming lectures planned for this week.

Images from Nick Zentner livestream 58, Wenatchee Geology, Jun 6, 2020 combined effort by Kathy Williams-DeVries (music) and LethaLee Fox (visuals)- 6 mins

A second and different highlights video:

Nick Zentner livestream from Wenatchee with Jason and Julie, Jun 4, 2020 (3 mins)

Strange supper. Baked potato with cheese & blue cheese dressing, corn on the cob, and I never got my peaches and banana or chicken.

Photo by Kyle Olson, in Kittitas County Visual Delights

Tuesday, Jun 9

Heron & Moon, North Beach, Maryland, photo by George Hall, Getty Images

Speaking of Herons (symbol of the wines from the Mariposa Vineyard), the next photo is from White Heron Cellars, of our loaned piece of equipment to work in the Ice Age Floods sands. Locals know of the deposits in places where the massive flow of water backed up. Names here are the Moses Coulee, Trinidad – the hill of land-scam fame – and the West Bar on the Columbia River. The view, looking south, is backed by the Columbia River, and top right over the backhoe is the sandy West Bar with Giant Current Ripples.

Watch the 3-minute video explanation of the Ripples:

Giant Current Ripples Created by the Ice Age Floods, June 2013

I took my Alendronate on an empty stomach, and was awaiting eating a half hour later, when Walter drove in the driveway to check on the last skylight above my head in the den. It needs some re-adjustment. That visit took a lot of time, so I was late eating.

Worked some on the Jobslist follow-up sends today which I have ignored a few days, until last night, which generated some more work to do as the administrator of the Google Group (since the early days of Bitnet)! I send out job announcements covering many disciplines to >800 people in about current worldwide jobs or internships. (The list is called NW Geography Jobs, but covered are Geology, Anthropology, Biology, Meteorology, Conservation, Environmental Studies, Political Science, Urban Planning, Government jobs, Outreaches, and more). Contact me for an application if you are interested.

Wednesday, Jun 10

Started early. Jesse came to work on rock siding.
Morning crazy and lasted all day.

Tonight is a field trip to the Ginkgo Petrified Forest to talk about the founder of the State Park, 30 miles east of us at Vantage, WA, and 20 miles south of the previous photo. ‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #62 – 6-9-20 George Beck

Bill Rember, one of our early friends when we arrived in Idaho in 1974, is a fossil geologist and interested in this material.
I will call Bill afterwards and send the background links readings for Nick’s presentation on Israel Russell.

Thursday, Jun 11

I went to ComputeAbility at 10:00 for David to fix my broken computer. I was supposed to pick it up at 1:00 p.m., but it took until Friday evening to get it home and set up to use it. I’ve chased John away so I can use that computer – tower, Intel Core i7, and 2 nice screens. Decent speakers. Only problem Nancy had was the software is totally different from what’s on her laptop.

Tonight’s livestreaming lecture by Nick:

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #63 – 6-11-20 – Israel Russell (early geologist)

Friday, Jun 12

Sunrise after the storm–5:04 a.m. east of Kittitas by Evie Schuetz

Started out the busy day with interrupted sleep every 2 hours. Thunder and lightning, again 2 hours later, with more rain hitting on the skylights and metal roof outside the window, waking me, then cats wanting something to eat at 5:00 a.m. I went back to bed for 2 more hours and got up, tired.

Tomorrow we will start the part of the remodel that has us without running water for a few (4 ?) days. All the water cleansing pieces have to be moved so the wall can be patched and painted. The stone-faced tile of the floor gets glued on, with a 24-hour curing time. The grout goes in between the tiles – and that needs 2.5 to 3 days of curing. So preparing for that was a large part of activities for today. Over the past month, John has been filling 2 L. bottles with filtered water.

I washed clothes and dishes. I had a nutrition drink early to tide me over, until lunch, which we never really had. Just 2 Reece Peanut Butter Cups.

I had originally planned to be at ComputeAbility around 10:30 to pick up my computer that had run all night cleaning off the disk, and backing up our information from both laptops – the current one I got in 2016 and the prior one (backup of the prior one was already on the current one). Unfortunately, it still had at least 4 hours to complete the clean-up and back-up onto our new 5 Terrabyte external drive. Yet, I did not get a phone call until 6 hours later (4:00 p.m.) to drive in to get it.

I squeezed in a haircut around our rural block with Celia (who has cut my hair since I arrived in town in 1988). She is my neighbor and retired from the Band Box Beauty Salon, quite a few years ago, but she has continued to cut my hair at her house. I was quite shaggy today.

I’m very pleased with the results of the computer, just very sad it took 2 days. The charge was only $84 plus some cents. The business gives a 10% senior discount on the first hour of labor, and David the technician, did some fancy planning and also set it up to transfer each week (at Noon) a backup on the external drive (5 Tb) of anything added since the last image was created. That will protect my contents better than they have ever been previously. I couldn’t be happier. I now have 179 gigs of space on my C drive, and I am going to pare down a bunch of extra stuff in my documents I know I can get rid of, and change my procedure on creating weekly blogs, not to duplicate materials from the previous week that remain the same.

I worked hard last night on John’s computer to watch Nick’s live streaming and make captures of most of the pre-show comments, plus get suggested readings ready for tomorrow morning’s broadcast on the topic, Kittitas Valley Geology. I was able to send those last night. Good thing, because of all I had to do today, and no computer.
I also had other errands to run in town when I went for the computer.

Kathy Williams-DeVries from Brisbane, Australia:

Tonight’s was Renaissance Relaxation, with her explanation of the instruments, and a created (and shared playlist) for all the music of the evening.

Supper was a cheese burger with fried onions, baked potato, peach & pear slices, and I suspect ice cream for dessert to settle my stomach.

Saturday, Jun 13

Get on my new computer for capturing comments and conversation around the world at 8:00 a.m. Maybe I’m not back. High winds all night continuing to take away Internet—I may not have connection this morning for livestreaming. I made it through but lost the comments for the live chat streaming. Got knocked off several times before the actual Nick talk started.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #64 – Yakima Valley Geology

Lunch will be a grilled ham & cheese sandwich with PowerAdeZero on the side, and maybe chips?

I am working on the suggested links to send for tomorrow morning’s Nick talk on Paleomagnetism. Sent at 2:30 p.m.
Took some photos of the utility room walls set up for painting yellow. Now coated with texture and the primer.
Existing with no running water in the house is not a lot of fun, but we’re managing and should be okay for the next week. We are eating meals off heavy-duty toss able paper plates.

Sunday, May 14

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #65 – 6-14-20, Paleomagnetism

Below is a nice musical melody by a group from Atlanta, GA which was played at the end of the livestream above, and which was enjoyed by many of the >1,000 worldwide viewers this morning.

Love is the Answer by Todd Rundgren – Foxes and Fossils, 6-10-2020

Lunch: I had chicken noodle soup with Cheez-its.

Supper: Fried breaded shrimp, onion rings, and corn-on-the-cob.

This is not a happy story about COVID-19:

Rebekah Jones’ Dashboard

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jun 1

Snipped from after weekend storm 3-D photo published on Visual Delight’s Kittitas County Facebook site, taken by Tamie Schaut.

Blog published before 11:00 last night, but was still up at 11:30.
I awoke not feeling well and am slow starting, but just loaded a sink full of dishes to soak for the dishwasher. Now to address other concerns. Diuretic day, I’m not ready for running up and down the hall to the back of the house.

I asked Kaylein (my PCP’s nurse) to ask Chelsea about my Vitamin D intake, being very high, and affecting bone mass.
She reported back later, and ordered a Vitamin D blood test.

House: Walter arrived before 8:00 with another part, the swinging door for our new room. Allen Aronica will soon be here to dig post holes.Left image: Opening for swinging door (SD) into utility area, white pine left, animal paneling behind, hickory panels beyond stepladder. Right side image: SD frame not quite finished, using knotty pine and select white pine.

Allen came down with his track excavator at 9:00 a.m. The guys discussed the need, location, and depth details. Below: Top left has a wood frame on the ground to show locations. Top two, discussing the plans, and looking at the last two holes in very rocky ground (alluvial fan), very different from the first holes, mostly dirt. Bottom photo was the first hole dug. A video of that follows below:

First Hole Dug for Posts to Hold Covered WalkwayTrusses

Now I can rest, maybe and drink my nutrition drink, which I feel I badly need. Then Allen went out to our old barn and dug more holes for posts. A RR-cross tie holding a gate rotted after 25 years. Three new holes out there.

Below are pictures of one of the new windows, I had ready to go in last week’s blog and left it out in the rush of finalizing. Top- progress on 2 new front windows; the room shown has Hickory panels with knotty white pine above and below the windows. Molding is not completed. Floor is not down – boxes of flooring tile on the left side covered with plastic. The wall on the right is a new wall, behind which is the utility room to house Culligan water treatment, freezer, and refrigerator.

That wall will get white pine panels you’ll see above in that photo. A different paneling will be inside the utility room – on the 2 small ends, rest will be painted a pale yellow. John has a couple of panels called “Hunter’s Forest” that have a scene with deer and trees; just enough to do the two small ends of the room. Actually, you can see one panel above through a hole in the wall for a swinging door.
John bought the panels in November, 2015 thinking he’d cover about half the interior walls of the house – dining area and living room. That project stalled when he seriously contemplated moving all the furniture around.
Five years ago each panel was $35. Now they are $70. John wonders what the cost was when his Dad did the walls of his home in Clarion, PA.

Action is also moving to the outside. Some of the material is already here – posts and beams for the covered walkway. Trusses (the A shaped frame of a roof) should be ready (pre-built) – photo after they get here. They are 6 feet across; the walkway will be 4 feet across.

We made it through all the livestreaming lectures planned for this week.

Tuesday, Jun 2

Forgot to take my Alendronate !! Take tomorrow.
Call from Kaylein with PCP Chelsea’s decision about my consumption of Vitamin D3. Lower (because of bone density issues by 1000 units, so I will only take 4000/day).

Tuesday, picked up several pairs of 38×30 pants from Laura & Johnny’s place, plus had a nice visit looking at her flower gardens. Some cool purple flowers I know nothing about; their leaves are prettier than their flowers (which are quite small). Coral Bells, I think.

Laura’s shade plants?

Picked up my Atorvastatin from Safeway and John two medications from Fred Meyer Pharmacy, while in for the 10% off Senior discount, (1st Tues each month), for his 10 2-liter bottles of diet and regular cola. While there we also bought a bunch of Reece’s Peanut Butter cups for .33/each (a very good deal).

Finally, back again for my blood draw (for an INR and Vitamin D test), which I went for first, but there were 10 people ahead of me, so left and went back as our last stop.

We were away from home for almost 4 hours. Actually, our last stop was the Yellow Church Café for a late lunch, using our $25 gift certificate, my last “win” in the COVID Bingo 3 challenge. The prices are quite high there, but we don’t eat out much, so guess they are high everywhere. John’s ½ pound hamburger cost $15, within a house ciabatta (bread bun), Tillamook white cheddar, garlic aioli, lettuce, tomato, onion and a pickle spear. Also, came with a choice of potato salad or clam chowder. I picked the chowder, then he didn’t want it so I enjoyed it (he’d have preferred French fries). I got a Cobb salad ($17) made with Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, avocado, purple onions, hard-boiled egg, bacon bits (homemade), and blue cheese dressing. I got three meals from it, and John got 2 meals from his burger.

I didn’t get my INR report (2.1) until Thursday, because of a miscommunication at the doctor’s office.

This morning the latest highlights of Episodes of Nick from Home arrived from Kathy Williams-DeVries in Australia: this is really only going to be appreciated by regular viewers of his livestreams. We’re sort of an “in group” with known repetitions and instances that happen during the talks.

This has the background recorder music (up to 40 recorders in concert) playing music behind the highlights. Kathy explains this merging creation of the sound tracks in the video Friday night this week.

Nick from Home Highlights Livestreams 41-50, 6-2-20 (4 mins)

Tonight is a talk by Nick on a topic north of us:

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #56 – 6-2-20 British Columbia Geology? starts 5:20 minutes in

Wednesday, Jun 3

Took my Alendronate at 7:30 a.m. Couldn’t eat until after 30 minutes passed, but took me so long to clean up dirty dishes & pans that I was almost an hour having my French Toast breakfast, with maple syrup. I haven’t fixed that in many years.

Then I finished the PDF for suggested background materials regarding tonight’s livestream (Geologic Mapping), and it didn’t get it sent until 10:30, because of interruptions with the house remodeling project going on. It’s going to get worse because the insulation contractor was here this morning, and they determined the skylights must be finished (opened through the ceiling into the attic) in our living room and den before the insulation in the attic can occur. The den is where I am setup with my laptop. So, today, I must finish those suggestions to send out early morning to the study group.

John is going to move all things out of the room into the pickup with canopy until they are done opening up the area for the Skylights, which were installed in the roof in 2010 without any shaft work.

Just had to break to consider the remodeling project and hear the plans of proceeding inside the house.  This may really mess up my morning tomorrow for accessing my computer.  Guess I have to get readings ready today to suggest for the next lecture, tomorrow.  I’m running out of steam and time, and computer time on my laptop.  This is nuts.  They are going to move me totally out of the den, so today, I have to figure what I need in here for the next 3 days, as it will be moved out to cut holes in the ceiling, to go through to the roof.

Tonight is a presentation with Nick and his guest speaker, Andrew Sadowski, Washington Geological Survey (WGS) Statemap Geologist: (Geologic field mapping, structural geology, neotectonics), who is a staff member of the CWU geological sciences department, out of (WGS).

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #57 – 6-3-20 Geologic Mapping Today starts 4 minutes in

Supper: 3rd part of Cobb Salad from Tuesday’s purchase at the Yellow Church Café. John had something else.

Thursday, Jun 4

Wild day today. Much cleaning up and sorting very early this morning, then visits from contractor’s crew, and request to take photos of the cementing of footers for the walkway poles. Then people in the house to cut out the ceiling to reveal the skylights. I took photos and a video of the living room too, but still cleaning up the den to allow access to cut that one tomorrow. Other work is occurring in the new room (old garage) simultaneously.

Need to work on loading the dishwasher that got waylaid early morning. John has watered onions, tomatoes, and more.
I had to have a nutrition drink early to tide me over. Then, later we had a bowl of chicken soup with added chicken, wild rice, carrots, and tomatoes (Progresso).

Biggest time sink for me today was calling 8 places, to check if they were registered through the bad credit card account, or through the routing number of our bank’s checking account.

Tonight’s livestreaming lecture by Nick:

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #58 – 6-4-20 – Wenatchee Geology (field trip)

Tonight’s supper after Nick’s virtual field trip is a beef stew which cooked a long time since yesterday (in a crockpot). Dessert: Chocolate ice cream with strawberries.

Spent the rest of the evening sorting through receipts and checking for payments to warn people about on Citi Bank statement that come out automatically. Thought of two more tonight, and still need to check through more statements.

Friday, Jun 5

Concentrate on trash under the table in the den, for skylight opening; alternate with dishwasher loading, and fixing the fraudulent VISA card payment notification.

As you all know, we are in the process of a major house remodeling project and spending much time cleaning out contents of rooms. After 40 years, the house insulation needs rejuvenated, and there never was any above the garage ceiling.

I’m continuing to work on receipt organization and filing, and now 2 days ago added the problem with a stolen ID (fraudulent payment) on a credit card, which I’ve been busy notifying places about the newly changed number.
They replaced my card only a couple days ago, with a totally new number. Contacting the businesses has been a big chore. No easy way, except for a few places. Even my medical health insurance through the Public Employees E Board, took 2 days. I went through a telephone robot (after a long wait) to a series of buttons to push to finally get to billing, only to be told to call back later because they were busy with their workload. So I wrote an email letter to the Board of directors, and receive an acknowledgment last night I would be contacted in person. Finally, this morning, a person called and helped fix the issue. I’ve been this morning on the waiting for the WSJ (for now 33 minutes, waiting for an agent).  This is driving me bonkers.
They just answered and said they were having communication issues and couldn’t help people and to call back in a couple hours. Jeez.. what a waste of MY TIME. I’m to ask for billing (print edition). I just logged on to my online account looking for a solution and found that I can go to the customer care center and change my credit card information. Phew. So, I did.

No livestreaming video lecture from Nick Zentner tonight; his day off (along with Monday). So in the time slot at 6:00 p.m. PST, we’re going to enjoy music virtually, with our study group member, Kathy from Australia.

Kathy Williams-DeVries from Brisbane, Australia: Her Recorder music background creation for Nick Z video starts with volume better at 7 minutes in

Supper was a bowl of chili.

Saturday, Jun 6

On for capturing comments and conversation around the world at 8:00 a.m. John left shortly for grocery shopping today.

Guest this morning: Colville Confederated Tribal member Randy Lewis (K’ayaxan) – a descendant of the Wenatchi/P’squosa, Methow, and Okanagon bands – joins Nick for a very special live broadcast. Excellent presentation. Preceded by a video produced a couple years ago by both men.
It covers the legends of the local Native Americans, and anyone will enjoy it. So many of us have ties to Native Americans in our background (mine is Cherokee), that it’s a moving experience for many of the viewers. This was a virtual field trip to Wenatchee where many of the Indian legends are revealed in the geology of the area, particularly the rocks.

Check this for sure, before watching the next.

(You may need to enter the password ‘Spexman’ (with no apostrophes).

The Winter’s Tale; Dragon Spexman

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #59 – Native American Geology
The morning was busy with John assisting and my videotaping some and photographing the opening to the attic for the one skylight in our most used room. I had to move to the back of the house to our old computer table to set up my laptop.

Walter came to finish the skylight in the den. John helped by capturing dust from cutting the sheet-rock ceiling. He used Walter’s shop vacuum. Photos next week.

We each broke for our own lunches, and John spent time helping Walter and alternating with working in the yard on various projects. (One major project is building a taller fence and gate to keep the deer out of the garden).
It was cool and windy today. I managed to load and wash most all of the dishes we’d dirtied. Most of my time was spent on planning for the livestreaming geology for tomorrow, when the subject is the San Andreas Fault of CA.

Supper: Baked chicken breast, with red potatoes. John hit the hay, and I’m not far behind. I had to take care of the last two cats out front and bring in the food that might attract raccoons.

Sunday, May 7

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #60 – 6-7-20 San Andreas Fault

I was working this morning multitasking several projects, all with time deadlines. We had 1,292 watchers at 9:55 a.m. this morning from around the world. I think that’s the most I have seen.

Unannounced, Walter brought 48 stone panels (2 per package; heavy) that John helped unload. They had arrived late Saturday at the local dealer who wanted them off their inventory. Still packed, so no picture.
Supper: for me chicken breast and fried onion rings.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan