Category: Random issues

Sunday, July 28
Fires again in the area. It has been named the Colockum Tarps fire. I have been collecting data from MODIS Imagery Hot Spots to share with people nearby. We are in touch since last night with our friends at the White Heron Cellars winery where John volunteers time in the spring pruning grapevines. They are downriver on the opposite side from the fire. It is being pushed by 30 mph winds uphill toward us, but well to the east, and we are downhill and 13 miles straight-line distance away, in the valley, and not in danger. I have been making maps as the satellite thermal imagery changes every 6 hours. Here’s an example, when the fire was still advancing southward. The yellow pin in the middle of the left side of the photo is our home.

[Click photos for larger image.]
This afternoon and evening, we took some photos of the plume. The other photo below is from MODIS imagery showing the plume from the nearby fire and a second one farther to the south, but still in WA. For more on that one see “Mile Marker 28” fire.

The MODIS image (above) – north smoke is from the “Colockum Tarps” fire; south smoke is from the “Mile Marker 28” fire near Satus Pass. The photo (above) with the orange Sun is from late afternoon on 7/27 from White Heron Vineyard – note the grape vines. The fire is on the opposite (Wenatchee or west side of the Columbia Valley) from the vineyard. The distant ridge line and slope is called “the Colockum” with a drainage and a “not-much-of-a-road” going up and over. The fire started near the intersection of the Colockum Pass Road and another close to the river called the Tarpiscan Road – a much better and well traveled route. The locals pronounce this name as beginning with “Tar” as the vigneron explained to John, with emphasis on the second syllable. John’s western Pennsylvania hills-English had it as “Tarp-i-scan” – but Tar it is and the fire’s name (according to John) ought to be the “Tar-Colockum.”

Here is one showing fire on Colockum Ridge with White Heron grapes in the foreground. Distance to the flames is approximately 8 miles due west.

Today for lunch, John made a fantastic Belgian waffle type pancake, with a side of bacon. The pancake had our own blueberries and strawberries sugared on top (John picked earlier and I fixed), covered with a couple small scoops of vanilla/raspberry swirl ice cream. Here’s a picture to make you drool.

Monday, July 29

Today we left about 9:15 and returned home at 4:15. The main reason for going was to an appointment with Dr. Pham, at the Yakima Heart Center. It was about my heart, specifically my implanted cardioverter defibrillator device, seeking advice from a nuclear cardiologist (officially an electrophysiologist). My regular cardiologist requested the other specialist evaluate me and my device (and condition). Reason — consideration of putting in a second wire into the other part of my heart (left side). I have one already in the right side. I was not happy with the prospects of having another surgery, when I have been doing so well. GOOD NEWS. I do not qualify, because I only am borderline on one of the four decision tools for having it done. Phew.
Meanwhile, we waited an hour to see him, spent an hour with him, had lunch, and went to Costco, for gasoline and groceries, and all that kept us gone a long time, especially with coming back through Ellensburg for a few items.
Regarding the wildfire NE of us. I made a newer map and see that our friends at White Heron winery & vineyard had quite a fireworks show last night looking across West Bar (location of ripples from the Glacial Ice Age Floods). There even was a fire on the east side of the Columbia below Babcock Bench.

Tuesday, July 30
Slept in and then spent the morning on the computer and cleaning the dishes piled in the kitchen.
John helped me take a neat photo of a small (1.5 inches) Praying Mantis today, by moving her to a grape leaf. Lighting and focus is not the best, sorry.

After lunch, I drove to CWU to the music building to meet a fellow from Issaquah, to exchange my violin bows. He had the oldest for re-hairing you’ve already heard about last week. It was glued shut at the frog and not worth the cost of repairing. I took him my newer bow, for re-hairing and he brought a loaner for me. After seeing the condition of the one I had and hearing it would cost $70 to re-hair it, and it was only a $25 bow, I decided to buy a new Revelle, carbon fiber bow. The action of the bow and the sound produced from my violin was amazing, comparing to my old (but best bow). A shot of my new Revelle bow with its Abalone frog.

And here is just the close-up; click for a better view.

Wednesday, July 31
Off today to Food Bank music, SAIL, and to the dentist, carrying yellow squash to share. We are getting fine ash from the fire (not embers). It is moving away from us and from our friends’ cabin in the hills east of us. I think I finally have an idea on the 6 hr lapse between MODIS flights. It seemed to change between 9:00 and 9:30 am PST — so I will check (over) 6 hrs later when I get home from town, and again at 10:30 tonight.

The fire has calmed down and never did threaten us, but scared the breath out of me today when I went into the AAC after the Food bank music and my teacher said it was in Coleman canyon. That’s 2 miles east of us, and while I really didn’t think it was, based on my looking at imagery in the morning, it was still alarming. When I went to the dentist and heard of an evacuation in the vicinity, I became concerned and called John. He grunted and said “relax” or “chill” – maybe both. Once home, I convinced myself the rumors were in error. As it turned out the evacuation was from Cooke Canyon farther over north and east (I had known about the fire’s approach to this high-up hillside).

Thursday, August 1
Today is the day for playing at Royal Vista. My new bow worked well yesterday at the food bank, and I much appreciated it today when I was the only violin in a much bigger room. I needed to be heard, and I am positive it is louder, and has a better bounce and grab of the strings. I spent the morning looking at the new hot spots imagery and sharing fire-info with people. We are not in danger, but the hot spots did reach the crest of “the Colockum” and thus technically into our valley at the north edge of Parke Creeke road, 15 miles east of us. The winds have changed this morning and our valley at the moment is not as threatened.

John is working trail near Snoqualmie Pass with a Washington Trails crew on Friday and, so, was searching tonight for his Northwest Forest Pass. This one has “volunteer” (= free) on it and was sent via WTA about 5 months ago. We can bury an elephant in clutter in that length of time. John ended up bringing in the whole contents of the glove compartment, which I proceeded to sort through and toss stuff no longer needed, about 95% of it. I also found some receipts I needed to file. I found the current registration, insurance, papers on the new tires on the car, and the motor club road insurance that both our Subarus have. A wad of paper napkins had found their way into the compartment too. The Forest Pass was on the hutch in the dining area.

We made a berry (blue & black) pie and a pecan pie to take to a dinner tomorrow night. Usually we would try to bake pies so they are still warm when we arrive at such an event but John will be going to Snoqualmie area to work on the Snow Lake trail and plans to change clothes there and come directly to the event.

Friday, August 2
John’s headed to the hills 7:00 a.m., and it started drizzling here within a 1/2 hour. I had planned to go to the AAC for a potluck and exercise afterwards. I decided I had scheduled too much for the day, and stayed home, but will go by for my INR in town on my way with the pies to dinner. The dinner tonight is with my former two students, the LaBars, along with another CWU Geography faculty member of the past, and the gals’ parents. I also loaded some crackers and canned smoked salmon, given to me by one of my Native American students in the Resource Management program at CWU.
My INR was 2.4, which is a good reading.
We visited and ate around 6:00. The roast (BBQ) beef was from their own pasture, with rice, salad, fresh veggies, cherry tomatoes, bread, and our pies. They also had peanut butter cookies, brownies, and ice cream. We had a lovely evening, and wished Bekah a safe trip to her next job in Wellington, New Zealand, as a meteorologist.

Saturday, August 3
Today, John took off early for WTA work – needing gas he left at about 6:40 A. M. – as the crew leaders (blue & orange hats) try to arrive about 8:15, ahead of the 8:30 scheduled arrival time for the green hat folks. They’ll finish for the day between 3:30 and 4, and he’ll be home about 5:00. I stayed home to work on chores and to work on the blog and on a letter to the editor about losing our spot in the Kittitas Elementary School for the annual WOTFA workshop. Meanwhile the weather has been helping with fire suppression and the expansion has stopped at about 125 square miles. The bit of rain and Mudjekeewis, our west wind coming over the Cascades from the Pacific Ocean, has cleaned our air of smoke. The week ended on a good note. Connection – new bow, good notes!

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

John just finished two days of trail work here

47.464991, -121.449890

These coordinates in Google Earth will take you to Snow Lake just north of the Snoqualmie Pass area of the central WA Cascade mountains. The thin white line is the trail between the lake and the Alpental Ski parking lot. He got home about 5:30 and we are a bit behind so the blog will get posted later tonight or Sunday morning.

A small photo and description of the trail and Snow Lake is here:
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/snow-lake-1

This is WOTFA week in Kittitas, WA.  That’s Washington Old Time Fiddlers’ Association.  The summer camp brings several hundred fiddles, guitars, mandolins, and a few double basses. The town has a total population of less than 1,500. Many participants bring a couple of instruments and make a lot of music. It’s quite a show in a small town. John says the difference between a violin and a fiddle is that the first has ‘strings’ and the latter has ‘strangs’. I guess you have to hear that with a southern-mountain twang.

Sunday, July 21
Early morning, low sun, shade: — John plans to unload hay and maybe pick raspberries before it gets hot. He woke me because I wanted a photo of him with the ‘new’ truck with the horse trailer full of hay. His camera has a delay-timer but he got me up anyway claiming I could compose the shots better and then go back to sleep. Here’s my picture but do click for the larger image.

So with only 6 hours of sleep, that’s my plan — an afternoon nap. Meanwhile, I need to get clothes to wear and things ready for the week in Kittitas. Early evening we are going to deliver our keyboard to Katrina (the daughter of my teacher all week) for her to use in her classroom. My teacher is Roberta (Bobbie) Pearce from Nampa, ID, and her daughter is Katrina Nicolayeff, a grand champion, teaching the Hot Shots class. (This group’s Friday performance was stupendous!)
And, while we are in Kittitas, I’ll take care of picking up my registration papers, notification to put on my dashboard, and buy a commerative tee shirt for the week. Also, must drive back through EBRG to get some meat for sandwiches this week to save the $6-7/day for lunch, and to deliver music to one of our group to give out Thursday, when I’m not there. John just picked 2 pounds of raspberries. At the price they are selling them for 6 ounces, he just got us $18.00 worth. Hmmm–that sounds high. Think I will go have a handful of cherries with a piece of Rosemary Olive bread toast. Strange lunch. Maybe I will nap (I did for almost 2 hours), and follow with a salad.
Back from going to deliver the keyboard, the music in EBRG and we got some food from the grocery. Totally forgot the roast beef on sale, but we had some ham in the freezer, and I used it all week. Now dinner is over, and I’m dead tired, ready to retire. Tomorrow I have to be out the driveway at about the time I normally start thinking about getting up.

Monday, July 22
Did come early. I wasn’t ready to arise at 7:00 a.m., but I did. Was finally ready to leave at 8:20, with my ham sandwich, chips, cherries, and crystal light. Boy was I happy to have it. The price for a sandwich went up from $5 to $6, and the all you can eat salad bar is $7. I heard the offerings on the salad bar weren’t as extensive as last year’s. Today was the first day of classes; beginning with an overall meeting in the gym at the elementary school, at 9:00 a.m. That lasted long and we didn’t really get started until 9:40 or so. I’m assisting with a class I have been a member of for 21 years. While helping I will learn the 18 songs she teaches us. Broke for lunch at 11:30, until 1:00 p.m. Then class went until 3:30. I didn’t stay for any mini-workshops, because I needed to come home and rest and go back in for playing for the Kittitas community, at the Gazebo near the library & community center there. I planned to leave at 6:30 to be there by 7:00 to start.
Just after 6:00, I received a call from a lady in the WOTFA for very many years (she’s from Ellensburg), and someone had called her to ask her to bring a microphone setup and amplifier for the players to use. She could not find her microphone, and called me to see if I had one to bring out. She knows I go out to play every year. Luckily, I do have one. So, I found it and took it out. We will use it two more nights this week. Good turnout, and the weather, while hot, wasn’t unbearable. [John says: We first drove through Kittitas in 1988 when looking for a house after Nancy came to CWU. The town looked like the fictional town in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘High Plains Drifter’ called Lago before it was painted red. Kittitas has improved in the past quarter century.]

Tuesday, July 23
Gee — did nothing happen today? I never wrote anything in my notes for the blog. Played at the Gazebo tonight, and went to class during the day. Oh, I just remembered an interesting event. There is a new violin repair shop in town from the west side, run by a fellow who is a bass fiddle player & graduate of performance at CWU Music School. He only is in town on Tuesdays, by appointment, in a little place on Main Street in the B.F. Reed Building located between the old ReCycle Bicycle Shop and the Daily Record Print Shop, down from The Palace. I learned of him from a friend who teaches violin in town. My bow is in serious need of rehairing, and I called him before the beginning of the workshop, knowing I could not get such fast turnaround, but to tell him about my needs and the workshop, where he might consider coming in a future year. He came by and I introduced him to the people involved in the WA Old Time Fiddlers organization, so he could plan to be a part next year, and bring his family for the whole week. While here, today, he took my oldest bow over to one of his Luthiers (In this case the person also would be a ‘bow maker’ or in French, an archetier),but the frog had been severely glued which would require repair worth more than the bow. (I just found out that Sunday morning from Bryce Van Parys, who is the general manager for Hammond Ashley Violins, based in Issaquah.) So, next Tuesday I will take my bow I have been using mostly for the past few years, into him for rehairing. I’ll just use the old one as a backup.

Wednesday, July 24
The two people I normally play at the food bank with today will have to go it alone, and another friend with a guitar will join them. My schedule this week is much more intense than I am used to, but I’m managing to go from 9 to 3:30 with the lunch break, and am skipping the afternoon mini-workshops at 4:00 to come back and raise my feet to relax. Then I have turned around and gone back (10 miles) for evening gigs (Monday & Tuesday night, we played in the Gazebo in the park for the community, and will again on Thursday). I am off tonight, and not going to the dance to play either. Friday at 1:00 is our recital. There are 372 people in classes this year (including mandolin, guitar, fiddle, and banjo). Pretty cool. All the classes get a couple of songs to play with the total not exceeding 5 minutes, and the teacher plays one too. It is always the highlight of the week.

Thursday, July 25
The Fiddlers and Friends group I play with will have to go it alone today, too, because I’m in Kittitas all day, and the evening too. Normally we play at a different nursing home at 2:00 every Thursday of the year. They had a relatively good turnout, considering conflicts. I received a report from two members. My day was crazy, as usual. Off at 8:20 for Kittitas, and found a place to park on the road, away from other cars, and not too far to walk, as the day before, when I was a long block away. Day went all right, just very tiring. I drove back the 10 miles to the Gazebo to entertain the community with others from the workshop. Considering only two of us (the bass player and me), ever play together, it was a true jam session and went amazingly well. I came home to a lasagna dinner with homemade brownies for dessert. John takes good care of me.

Friday, July 26
Phew, I made it to the end of the week. The workshop is held at the Elementary School in Kittitas, WA (a very small burg east of Ellensburg 6 miles), with a bunch of musicians (banjo, mandolin, bass fiddle, guitar, and fiddle coming with their families from all over the state and some adjacent ones. This is my 21st or 22nd year. Yes, I am totally exhausted, so I came home to my recliner. From 1:00 to 3:30 today, was our full classes’ recital for the week (with most of the 372 students playing from 20 classes, as follows, playing, organized from beginning to advanced players:
11 fiddle classes (from very beginning, 4 years of age) to Advanced Hot Shots. Actually, ages of participants went to people in their 80s.
4 guitar classes
3 mandolin classes
2 banjo classes
John and I both laid down for a nap at 4:30 and were fast asleep an hour later when a neighbor called. I picked up the phone and said, “Good Morning! This is Nancy.” Laughter ensued on the other end with repeating the greeting time, “morning ?”. I did not have a clue it was still Friday evening/afternoon. Onward, John took the dogs late for their evening run, after it cooled off some, ending about 8:00 p.m. Dan disappeared during the trip. We worried all night, kept going out and calling, leaving the front gate open for him.

Saturday, Jul 27
Still no Dan, when we awoke. About 11:00 a.m., we got a call from our neighbor (Ben) that Dan was at his house (his property backs up to ours on the southeast side), that Dan had spent the night there. Finally, they checked his collar, and happily, he had one on with our name, address, and phone number. Not all our dogs do. John was in the process of making a large sign to post at the end of our driveway. He copied images of a quail and a Brittany from the web and was in the process of making them very large prints – he had the quail and one/quarter of the dog done when the phone rang. He took off and met the neighbor who came toward our pasture, with Dan, two of his dogs and two of his children. John asked him if one of his 5 or six dogs was in heat, and he had earlier, but she was out, and he thought she had brought his black lab into heat. Dan was still interested in her. Therefore, we cannot let him run free for another week or more. John is always with the dogs when he exercises them in the morning and the evening, so it’s not like they run free unattended but their normal path is separated from Ben’s place by only 75 feet of woods. We’ve seen Brittanys point birds from three times that distance. Still our local air mostly flows from our place toward theirs – not 100% of the time, apparently. So, I am finishing this blog up for John to add to and post late this afternoon. Meanwhile, he’s been cutting a few tree limbs encroaching on the driveway and watering squash and strawberries. I took this photo on the way back from the early morning trek mentioned for Sunday. [Click on the image.]

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

Sunday, Jul 14
Early morning start after late night working on the computer. Never took an afternoon nap, and I should have. John did. I worked on several projects today. I cleaned the kitchen, collected sweaters, packed them away, and still have more to do. John cleaned the raspberries and put away 4 packages, then went out and picked more for us for dessert tonight. He then tackled the kitchen counter between the “den” and kitchen. What a fantastic job. It’s not all done, but a huge start. I printed several things for friends in CA and in GA. Oh, and I printed off a letter to my podiatrist to take by tomorrow, with a copy of the one I wrote 6/25 and thought was being forwarded to him by his office assistant. This printed copy hand delivered on the day he is in the office in Ellensburg will be better than depending on someone else to forward him an email, and then to have him read it. I hope he will read this and act on it soon.
Oh, the most important thing I finally did today was cut John’s hair. We cannot wait as long next time, or I will have to buy another guard to thin out what’s there before “cutting it.” Going to bed now. I need more sleep than I got last night.

Monday, Jul 15
Just when we thought things had settled down, more excitement. I had my coffee and toast and John had headed out with the dogs for a morning run. Before he returned, I saw one of the Tobiano horses heading along the back fence as they often do, but then in awhile, I heard a loud noise of metal. I ran out the door and saw 4 horses still in the pasture near the gate where the others left from (it’s open for them all the time), and they were whinnying. I walked on out on the patio past the Nanking cherry trees, and saw 2 horses inside the backyard. They had pushed down the fence. I put my walking shoes on and went out the front of the house, screaming for John, but he was down in the woods/swamp with the dogs and didn’t hear me. My yelling brought the other 4 horses around to the front and the two horses in the yard to the side of the house, where they could see and talk with the others. That was good because otherwise all of them might have ended up in the yard and perhaps tangled in the downed 6′ fence. I eventually walked out to a shade tree and waited for John, after he finally heard me. He went to put up the fence, got the horses out, and shut off the access back behind. I went around and turned off the barn lights, which John usually does on his way back from his doggie walks.

John went this afternoon back to Buck Brannaman’s clinic, and I went to town. My back is still aching, and I don’t know why. I managed to get through the SAIL exercise class by leaving out things that made it hurt. Went to Goodwill for some new socks at a good price. Went by the US P. O. to be sure my mail got into a box to leave for Yakima, and not depend on my carrier to pick it up, and Super One to take advantage of a few special deals, for John (Pepsi) and both of us (cake, ice cream and old fashioned donuts). Ran by the podiatrist’s office to deliver the “Special Delivery” request.

Tuesday, Jul 16
Succeeded in getting the rest of On Top of Old Smoky into my computer, transposed it for the Bb Clarinet and Trumpet, and ran copies for everyone. Got teeth cleaned this afternoon, and unfortunately, I have to go back to have a cavity under a crown fixed. Wonder how that could happen. Nothing really else exciting today. Lots happened, but not worth bothering you with. Weather warmed again, and storms threatened in the afternoon, but never really came to us, although the 3-state region had lots of lightning (8,000 strikes; WA had ~2,500) and many small fires.

Wednesday, Jul 17
John went to the dump. I went to the food bank for playing music and by SAIL. I have to work up the playlist for August that I can give out before we play Aug 1. I’m sorry we don’t have a 5th Thursday this month so I have a little leeway. While in town, I stopped by the sale where we bought John’s ’09 Subaru right before I got sick and ended up in the hospital. They have a tent sale each year in Ellensburg (the Yakima dealer). I drove my Subaru by to claim my prize, hoping it would be one in 14,888, a 2014 Subaru, for John. I got a pair of pearl earrings (for pierced ears, which I don’t have), and a little 25 piece tool kit. While there I asked my favorite salesman, and he jokingly said, I know you don’t want to sell yours but I’d like to get John’s ’09. I told him that was not likely, and that we had to find a good used truck first, to replace our old falling apart Ford ’89. Last year he had lots of trucks and we drove in to see them – no deal, they were all short-box types. But this time he said, I do have just the truck for you, here on the lot, and another coming in that is newer. I told him I had an appointment for a haircut, so to check what he had, and call our home number with the details. We have to have a full size bed for hauling things not bought at the grocery store.
I received a call from him later about what he found. He had a 2003 Ford, 1 ton, with a full bed, and only 53,000 miles, for around $18,000. He said he would be getting another in a few days, a 2008 Chevy diesel, 1 ton. Price on it would be closer to $30,000. It was hot and he needed to drive back to Yakima and was going to return later. We told him to call us when he was heading back to EBRG. He did, and we drove to town in our old Ford truck, after cleaning it out, and John loaded the 5th wheel assembly into the bed (we let the old broken canopy go too). While on the dump run John filled one of the 2 tanks with $60 of gasoline – oops! Well, he didn’t know what I was doing until after he got home. We met “Mat in the Hat”
at the temporary EBRG lot about 8:00 pm and John drove the 2003 Ford around town. I squeezed into the rear seats of the super cab. Before driving, we had an all-around description. It is silver, pretty high up, but with nice running boards and a handle on both front seats to grab to get into the front seats. I seriously doubt I could have made it in this time last year, so I have improved a lot. For several months, John had to take a stool for me to get into the old truck, and it was much lower than the new one. Okay.. what else, it’s an F350, V10 Triton engine, and has a set of all four brand new tires. It won’t get great gas mileage but has power for towing, including the single overhead cam (SOHC). It is amazingly clean, even under the hood. Has flint colored seat upholstery, some fancy radio we haven’t learned how to use yet, and a CD. It’s a little rough riding for my tastes, but I’ll get used to it. It certainly will be great for pulling any trailer full of hay, or horses, or an RV trailer. The mileage for those vehicles is very poor, but that’s not what we bought it for. We got it for hauling.
Here’s what it looks like:

I intended to take a photo with it all hooked up to our gray horse trailer full of hay, but it’s been too hot to bother.

Thursday, Jul 18
Morning working on music and playlist to hand out today. To Dry Creek, with music list for Aug 1 and the rest of August. We had a small bunch there, but it went all right. Only 2 guitars, a mandolin, 3 fiddles, and a singer. Small but responsive audience. I came on home rapidly, by way of the US P.O., and the courthouse, where I dropped our ballots into a receptacle to save postage. WA uses a mail-out/mail-in ballot and for some reason a few local issues are decided (poorly timed) in summer. This was a single item: namely, shall we continue a 3/10ths of 1% sales tax for public safety. I wonder what the cost of the voting was? We voted “yes” but the official date is Aug. 6th so we have to wait to see if this tax is continued for a 2nd seven years. On to get gasoline for my car. Sadly, at a price 30 cents higher than the last time I filled it in Yakima. I was running on vapors I think. There was nothing showing on my gauge, no mark whatsoever. They are little squares, and the yellow warning light was on. I don’t know for how long it was on, because it is below my sight without leaning forward. It took 14.5 gallons. I haven’t checked but I assume it is a 15-gallon tank. The new truck has a 29 gallon tank. Sadly, we need to fill it. It only had 1/4 of a tank when we bought it.

Friday, Jul 19
Rested a little, worked some in the kitchen, and working on printing music from my Songwriter program into a .pdf (scanned image) that might work. I’m not sure it is as clear and large as the original, but it saves me having to print and hand to a person directly (for example), if I’m not there or they’re not there and need the music. I would go broke mailing copies to people. I already have to mail things to our player from Yakima, because she only comes once a week, and if I don’t have it done by Thursday, I have no choice. She doesn’t have email. John made the trailer wiring work with the lights, so he came in and said we could go today for hay. I canceled my trip to town, and we waited for Ken’s son to come help with the loading after he got off from work, meeting him there at 3:00 ish. That was nice. I sat in a wooden chair with a towel bath mat and was comfortable for the duration. They loaded 4 bales into the back of the pickup and 36 bales into the trailer. Ken gave us a pint or more of blueberries as a bonus. Nice. We’ll have them later on ice cream.
Once home we both had a bunch of fresh cherries (from our frig). I think we have 6 packages left – cherry story is in last week’s blog. I started the dishwasher, and John is taking a nap. I will join him when the washer finishes its cycle, so I can turn it off before the dryer comes on. It’s way too hot outside to do anything there until the sun goes down and things cool off. It is 99 now at the airport. It’s only 95 on our front porch, but that’ s plenty hot enough. I finished the music for Fraulein, finally, this morning, having to run a copy of the music, and get out my violin to play and sing along to get the melody correct. It was not written properly in the “score” of the music I had, and I had it in a couple of keys. I finally changed it to a key I thought I could sing in, and that our group could play (key of G usually works). I had my pen and as I played it I changed the notes on the copy, and then entered it into the computer, and played the midi tune back. It was much better. I also played a video of two people singing it from the fifties to check against my memory as I was rewriting the notation. Guess I’m having fun with this software, even though it is a PITA for taking my time from needed sorting and clean-up. Next I’m going to do the same with Jamaica Farewell (Harry Belafonte’s special calypso music). Not sure which key it will end up in for us. Now I have two versions, one in C and another in D. It’s taking a long time to enter everything. Now the temperatures have cooled down to 80 right before 9:00 p.m. and the wind is still blowing in the 20s.
While eating a late dinner, a message came in from Nampa, ID (from my music teacher for next week). She needs a keyboard for her daughter Katrina to use in her class. I imagine she’s doing the Hot Shots class again this year. We have one, so we will need to get it out to her teaching room, probably Sunday evening.
Finally, I checked everything, all lyrics, chords, notes and printed out in 3 keys: C, D, and G. I had started with F and a different timing. Now I have to get my violin and my singing voice out and decide which key is best for the majority of the singers to sing. Most of the women are altos. Once I decide on one of the three, I have to run it off in a key 2 sharps higher for our clarinet and trumpet players. It’s a rapid transpose, using the software.

Saturday, Jul 20
To Briarwood today. Only a few of us came — our bass player, a couple (he on mandolin, she on guitar), me on fiddle, and another on timbrel and her husband on guitar. Small but lively group with a great audience. We did our patriotic and US songs because it’s still July and also we have all the lyrics typed up for 12 songs. They fed us well as usual, macaroni & cheese with Kielbasa, green salad with almonds and mandarin oranges, various kinds of bread, banana nut, zucchini & pineapple, two kinds of cookies, watermelon, and garlic bread with paprika (very good)–and I’m not usually a garlic bread fan.
It was hot again today, up to 95 or higher, and now wind starting and it has cooled to 85, but it is 7:00 p.m. Right before 8:00 it went to 81. We’ve opened the house and will start cooling down over night. We only have to run the a/c about 6 hours/day to stay comfy.
Full moon is Monday. We will have clear skies so will have a nice look. Daylight minutes are decreasing now as the Sun’s vertical intense rays move toward the Equator. Northern latitude onion growers will soon see their onions “bulb” and prepare for harvest. Thus far, we have harvested about 4 of our onions, for example the purple ones four photos down on the ‘Onion Patch’ page, on the link above. John’s still harvesting raspberries and day-neutral strawberries are just starting. June strawberries are done. We have fewer yellow squash than last year, but plenty for us. Winter squash have nice vines and little baby fruits. More to come.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

The week of our wedding — 44 years ago.

Sunday, July 7
Started off with no wind, but the temperatures keep climbing, and now before 2:00 they’re up to 93, and the winds just started this hour with 22 mph gusts. We accomplished a lot this morning. I slept in, while John went and watered, moved water, even to the sunflowers up by the road. He has to bucket them because they are uphill from the irrigation ditch. I cleaned the kitchen, and he came in, and put the pork loin roast on to cook at 11:00 a.m.; then he made us a yummy brunch–small cheese omelet, bacon, grapes, and strawberries. We’ve been working on our respective computers, but need to get to some household paperwork clean-up, before we take off for the party 6 miles down the road, that starts at 5:00 p.m. (Food needs to be on the table for eating).
It’s tough typing right now. Rascal cat joined me in my lap (on my chest) because I’m sitting in a recliner with my laptop on my legs. He had been earlier for several hours in the middle of the love seat, where two of the dogs like to rest. Now that he’s gone, they can return. Occasionally, one will share with him, but there’s not usually room for more. Taking off for the potluck jam session soon. Checked the roast and poured off the grease (John did), and then I helped cut up some apples to add to the chunks of pineapple and raspberries, with brown sugar, he’s cooking for a side dish, to go with the roast, rather like a sauce. Everything was great. Lots of food — afraid to start listing because I know I will leave out something. Our roast, a large container (hot) of potatoes, cheese, with ground meat, spaghetti with mushrooms, beans, a bunch of different salads, slaw, green, congealed with fruit, and rolls. A couple of cakes. Then we played after dinner until leaving at 8:30 (John needed to get home before dark to feed the horses and the feral cats). We are ready for bed, and have had some ice cream and nuts with chocolate for dessert.

Monday, Jul 8
Need to get INR reading today. Went to Cle Elum for it and had lunch at the Cottage Cafe, where we got $10 off our bill for our anniversary. I also used my gift card from my donation last year to the Brittany Specialty (I won the raffle), which gave me $250 to spend anywhere. Also delivered raspberries for a fellow from there, to the clinic for pickup. We met him at the Big Pines area on the Yakima River at a bluegrass jam the week before Mother’s Day. He loves raspberries better than anything around, so we promised to give him some of ours. They are not as beautiful and big as usual because of not watering them enough, but they are all right–they taste yummy. Also stopped in town for thyroid pills for Shay. Lots of family medications to worry with.
Report on a great lunch. I had my favorite, Corned Beef Hash Skillet (stacked on top of a layer of hash browns, and a layer of corned beef hash and two eggs on top of those stacks, finally ending with a thick covering of melted cheddar cheese. The best cook must have been there today. This was the best I have had there over several occasions. John picked a Black & Blue Salad. On lettuce, it had Cajun steak pieces, black beans, corn, some sort of spicy sauce, and blue cheese lumps all over the top. He enjoyed it more than anything he’s had at that restaurant. Good. And, we got our $10 off, plus a happy anniversary wish from a neat waitress. We actually went in the back door after parking under the shade of a tree, and ended up in the Fireside Lounge. Comfy chairs, and tables, because it is a “bar”. We will always go there in the future, not out front on the barstools or the booths. We also brought home half of our lunch for another time.

Tuesday, Jul 9
Started out with meeting with other Emeriti geography professors. All but one was there. Got a nice report from Jim Huckabay about his recent trip across the trans-Siberian railroad and on down from Irkutsk on another train to Beijing. John and I went to our favorite grocery store on the way home, and also I picked up almost $90 worth of medications. Considering one is for a 3-month supply at $20/mo makes it sound not as bad to be getting 3 different meds. My bad INR yesterday made my Dr. suggest to me this morning to eat some green veggies each day to try to lower it, so we bought some broccoli and lettuce for salads.
Now John is napping, but I already slept in this morning. The temps keep getting hotter. Supposed to be a high of 81 but already has topped it at 93, and we are not to the warmest part of the day yet. I must go back to town tonight to play music, at 6:30. Salad for dinner: pork, bacon, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, yellow squash (small, our own), croutons we made; hope it helps adjust my INR down. Also, there should be a nice green salad tomorrow at the Food Bank that I do not have to refuse as usual.

Wednesday, Jul 10
Going to pick up 20 pounds of Sweetheart cherries 6 miles down the road this morning at 10:00 a.m., already boxed. * report below on disappointment*. Then off for Food Bank Soup Kitchen music (where I was presented with a nice mixed greens salad, green squash, scalloped potatoes, and ham (rather overcooked dry sadly), and a nice dessert of fruit cocktail in a raspberry cool whip kind of mixture. SAIL exercise went all right, but I was low on energy. Wind is blowing consistently all day above 30 mph, mostly above 35. Now last hour it was 37 at the airport, and it sounds worse out here.
Cherries disappointment: I know when a person buys bulk cherries they have to expect some bad ones, but we think the seller, in the future, should perhaps add a couple pounds to the box to make up for the bad ones. We also understand the problem of obtaining quality pickers, and we appreciated the time and money to deliver them from Wenatchee. However, we came directly home with our box and sorted. We put the best in a flat box with newspaper and laid them out to dry. Some were at room temperature and dry and some were chilled and damp. We had 14.5 pounds of good (not great) ones. We had sorted out another set with injuries or ones off the stem, for eating now. We had 2.5 pounds of those. We had a 1/2 pound of ones that were so bad, we couldn’t do anything except compost them. The other too-bad-to-eat fresh ones (2.5 pounds), we can probably make into a sauce after the bad spots are cut out. (Turns out we had to dispose of 1 and 1/4 pounds of those too, after I wrote that first statement). The quality of the good ones didn’t anywhere match the photo in their ad. I took a photo of our box when we got home. They look all right in the box, except for not being the same ripeness; they are very tasty. Perhaps we are spoiled by having and picking our own cherries, but this year ours were frozen out, all but the pie cherries, which John plans to pick in the cool of the morning. We have no Bings, Rainier, or Queen Anne–so, we decided to try some locally obtained Sweetheart cherries. We did receive the 20 pounds we paid for, but we’re not sure paying $1.75/pound for the less than nice ones was a wise decision (especially the 3 pounds).

local news brief (Associated Press) in our paper: Man started wildfire with luminaria
—
Selah police said a man started a 500-acre wildfire by launching a floating luminaria. The bag heated by a candle drifted into a hillside Friday and started a brush fire that took 100 firefighters to extinguish.

The Yakima Herald-Republic reported police are recommending a reckless burning charge against 36-year-old Alejandro B. Olivarez.

He spoke to firefighters at the scene and said he intended for the luminaria to rise into the sky.
—
Thursday, Jul 11
Today was a lunch with a friend who is moving completely out of state, to Borrego Springs, CA.
The couple does like lonesome, so it’s okay.
It was very nice to see her, and I don’t plan to go to CA any time soon, especially with the hot weather there. Last weekend it was 120° at their moving-into house and the a/c couldn’t keep up, so they installed a swamp cooler. We had a very nice visit and lunch at a new Mexican place in town, called Fidelitos. Great food without a lot of grease, plus a huge tree on the back of the property to park my car in the shade, so I could leave my violin there and not cart it in. On to the lab, where my first lab test indicated 1.4 for my reading. Later, after 5:00 my Dr.’s nurse called to say the actual blood test on the withdrawn blood showed 1.5. That’s a ton better than the discrepancy between the different measurement devices the past two times. My dosage was readjusted, and I go for a reading again July 20 th. They wanted me to go the 22nd, but that is the start of my week of the WA Old Time Fiddlers’ Workshop. They’ve decided to have me eat a little green each day, and they will adjust the dosage appropriately. Suits me as salad season is here. From the hospital, I went on to play music at the Rehab. We were moved to a different room, with less space for our bunch and the audience, but it worked all right. We had 2 violins, viola, trumpet, clarinet, 3 guitars and a timbrel for part of the time. My first roommate there when I was in the Rehab came with her daughter (with whom she now lives). Mae is now 91 and loves our music. She was quite an inspiration to me when I first arrived hardly able to move myself. I wasn’t holding food down either, which she reminded me today. I thanked her for encouraging me by telling me when she arrived there she couldn’t walk either and by the time I met her, she was motoring around the place, and doing things for me. We became fast friends. I fixed Tacos again for dinner (with the leftovers from yesterday, plus new salad stuff). Tonight John went to a trail riding meeting. While he was gone, I cleaned strawberries, and the kitchen. Now that he’s back, we will put up the raspberries, have dessert, and go to bed. I spent time today constructing an animated Happy Anniversary wish for John for tomorrow. I added some photos of us back in the sixties, and was allowed only 3. The 3 I picked I had gotten on my camera from close-ups I took at the family reunion last summer of my aunt’ scrapbook. You may enjoy seeing the old photos. This might be our 44th, but we have been friends since 1965. If you wish to see the card, you can follow this link.

Friday, Jul 12 Our 44th Anniversary!
John’s off to the Washington Horse Park, 40 miles west toward Seattle, to watch the first day of a horse riding clinic with Buck Brannaman. John and horse Teak were participants 17 years ago and the clinics are now at year 31. Buck was an adviser to Robert Redford for his 1998 movie, “The Horse Whisperer”, and there was a movie about Buck’s life recently, called Buck. Watch the video on the right at this site. John took this photo on Friday of Buck listening to a question from one of the young riders. (Click on photo for large image.)

I stayed home because of the long walk to the arena from parking, and the long day… gonna try to surprise John with a couple of cleaned up flat spaces in the house. Well, the cleanup is going slowly, but I have succeeded in fixing me a cool salad for lunch (added some pieces of fresh cherries), and need to cut up more for future salads. I have had grapes in salads before, but never pitted cherries. Got the house insurance straightened out (they had taken my check for $53.00, and kept it in their files, but debited it electronically from my bank account). I requested my original check back and that they should have told me what they did. “Well, we wrote “posted” on it,” but I worried that someone later could have cashed it. The original request was from them to write a check and bring it by, so why didn’t they use it? I guess I have been in a mood recently to complain about business practices. The medical stuff is bad enough. More sorting is happening. I just took a break to print off a copy of music for 3 people in the group, in a different key. And, now, I’m going to use the new printer to copy another one for 2 people that is not in my computer to print the music.
That’s the reason this process is slow. As I go through the stacks, I take time to take care of it so as not to create yet another stack. Yippee, that chore just was completed. John thinks the goal ought to be to handle a piece of paper only once.
Speaking of music, I received a very nice thank you from the Adult Activity Center today, for our Patriotic music performance at the BBQ last Friday. In the process, while I was arranging things in my music to make copies to get in the mail to a player who drives up from Yakima, I came across a copy of the lyrics the center had printed out for people to sing along with us. Interestingly, I looked at the back page and saw it ended with page 6. I knew I had sent them 9 pages to assemble. On those 3 pages are 5 songs . . . and we will be using those lyrics for the audiences at the nursing and retirement homes for the rest of July. There are patriotic ones, and also songs of America, such as This Land Is Your Land. I need to print the 3 pages back to back and add to the booklet (of which I have 47 copies). Well, this will be a way to use up the ink on our old printer. I didn’t accomplish that until Saturday morning. Have only printed; not yet assembled. (Now have while John was working on posting this). Rest of the afternoon — lost track.. one thing after another, and not a clear place in sight yet! I did make the stacks lower, and filled more boxes. One bin now has almost been filled with sweaters and sweatshirts for winter.

Saturday, Jul 13
John picked 2.5 pounds of raspberries in a cool morning shade, and I worked on finishing some information I needed to accumulate to get in the mail before it was picked up. We have yet to do the raspberries. John also spent a couple of hours watering gardens, trees, and sunflowers, up by the end of our driveway. On my way back from the mailbox, he had me come over to the new garden to see the empty space where the horses ate some of the growing corn. He had a fence, like this on the left, with other fence (right) tied to the rails

and the horse(s) managed to push and pull it loose. 10 plants were eaten by them turning their head sidewise and reaching through. He replaced the small pieces with a 5 X 20 ft section and used the small pieces to protect a tree trunk from either horses or deer.
Supposed to be the day to finish the blog, but we visited on the phone with John’s sister Peggy, and nephew Rod and his wife Gail, who were visiting with her in Parma, OH. We had a good time reminiscing about their childhood (and even mine). They were talking about the height they used to dive or jump from (the remains of a long gone bridge) into a river. Rod thought it was 25′, and John doesn’t remember. John says people who claim to remember the ‘60s weren’t actually there. Anyway, that got us on the issue of size of things seen as a kid. Right after our wedding, we drove north through GA to PA and I wanted to go by two things I remembered as a kid. On was a “huge” apple in Cornelia, GA. Below is a current day picture of the Apple Sculpture, and another comparing it in the distance to a motorcycle. As I child I thought it was much, much larger. John was not impressed.

The other memory looming larger in my memory was Bridal Veil falls in Highlands, NC, which I remembered as a falls going all the way across the highway. Turns out when I took John by, the road past was new and the falls was coming over the old road, which wasn’t that large, nor were the falls as large as I remembered. Here’s an interesting comment from the web: “Bridal Veil Falls is one of the most unusual and most popular falls in the South by virtue of its location along scenic mountain highway US 64. The old road, in fact, passes underneath the 60-foot high falls.” Some photos below will resemble my memory and then what we saw in 1969 on our way north. Oh well.

Two thoughts from our telephone conversation. I had surmised the reason for the spelling of Raspberries to be because your hands get rasped by picking the berries. Gail checked on line and found the real meaning, which none of us knew. Here is the explanation from the etymology online site: [1620s, earlier raspis berry (1540s), possibly from raspise “a sweet rose-colored wine” (mid-15c.), from Anglo-Latin vinum raspeys, origin uncertain, as is the connection between this and Old French raspe, Medieval Latin raspecia, raspeium, also meaning “raspberry.” One suggestion is via Old Walloon [Nancy’s insert, Walloon is a French dialect once common in Belgium, and detested by the French] raspoie “thicket,” of Germanic origin. Klein suggests it is via the French word, from a Germanic source akin to English rasp (v.), with an original sense of “rough berry,” based on appearance.

Next comes a term (seen by the relatives) that may go back to the Latin toga but the origin seems a bit uncertain. “Toggery” seems to be a used in the sense of school apparel or a collection of clothes somewhat “uniform” or as an approved selection. When John was in about 9th grade the boys were to wear ties and trousers (not jeans). The specifications were not specific and this led to outlandish outfits with ties a foot wide, down to the knees, and garish colors. The rest of the story is very fuzzy and maybe didn’t last too long. Over many years and many schools there may have been a tightening up of such ideas to thwart the innovativeness of young teenagers.

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

Sunday, Jun 30
Finished the blog quite late for last week.

Monday, Jul 1
Started with 70s temperatures on their way to 97 today, and a morning rain. Helicopters have been flying over. John found a dead muskrat in the backyard, while mowing the weeds. I wish the cats would kill the Douglas squirrel that keeps squirreling away nuts in our insulation in the shed, and even in our truck engines. Maybe they did. We haven’t seen one lately on our bird feeder packing in the expensive black oil sunflower seeds. Then it rained, and then it started warming on my way to town. Yikes, just keeps going up. Now up to 100° at the airport just before 5:00. Not a good time to go outside yet to pick strawberries, or do anything else. John did put our new printer out of the package onto a bookcase near the counter and new computer. The bookcase is full of odd glassware, covered with a layer of grey dust because the front glass door was open a couple of inches for over 5 years, probably, even longer. Now 94° on our front porch (in the shade), John just left with the dogs for a “run.” Back fast; too hot; they only went up the driveway for the mail and paper. It went up eventually to 101 for the high of the day. Thank God for A/C.
We put up some of the strawberries and did a taste test between the Jewels and the Cavendish. No noticeable difference in flavor although the largest Cavendish are bigger than the largest Jewels.

Tuesday, Jul 2
I decided to stay home all Tuesday to try to catch up on things here. John will try to unload the gray horse trailer (we have two); it is larger, but has implement/attachments in it from the tractor. We need to drive across the valley for 2 tons of hay before the end of the month. We lost our hay source from 2 miles down the road, brought by Harobed, because the elderly owners sold and moved to town. They sold to a guy who co-owns the Ranch & Home store in town, and he just transferred all the hay there, where they can get twice as much selling it singly or a few bales at a time as they would have from 4-tons at a time customers.
I wrote that first paragraph last night. Now it is a new HOT day. Maybe John won’t feel up to emptying the horse trailer of heavy equipment. The temperature is already up to 85° at 9:00 on its way to another 101° today. However, the good news is that it is forecast to be cooling for July 4. I surely hope so. John took the dogs for their morning exercise, and while he was out, Rascal came in through the doggie door carrying on a long conversation — on and on, more than his usual announcement of entry — he was truly trying to tell me something. I followed him to the kitchen feeding station and showed him the melted lump of ice cream we’d left for him last night. Then he wanted fed canned cat food. Finally, he put himself to bed for the day. That’s been his plan, cat around at night, and sleep in a/c comfort during the heat of the day. Shortly, John returned from exercising the dogs. I told him about the conversation with Rascal, and he invited me into the backyard. At the edge of the patio in the newly cut grass, not too far from the dead muskrat deposited yesterday, was the body of the dead Douglas Tree Squirrel. This has made me very concerned about my powers of suggestion. I should put it to productive positive work to wish for health and happiness for my friends. (Note yesterday’s wish I made in the blog above, in case you missed it the first time through). I told another friend who said he was going to stay on my good side, for fear of my getting angry with him!
Glad I decided to stay home today. It’s up to 98 already before the hottest part of the day!
John came past the inside display of the outside sensor and saw it was 100.0o F. At 2:16 this area is shaded but it gets sun all AM onto dark wood and concrete. Also, note the (dry) 16%, relative humidity.

Thinking of cutting his hair, but had to rest from loading dishwasher and getting ready for the cutting. Just figured my volunteer hours (and mileage) for June. I’m down this month, and John has not done any WTA work yet this year. My June miles are 312.5 and 37.5 hours required. Last month was 44 hours and 354 mi., and April was much higher! 383.2 miles and 50.5 hrs. I have to keep track of each month and send my totals to the RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) office here in town before the 5th of the following month. Just found out I cannot report the SAIL activity unless I’m a certified instructor, just helping with the music and assisting fellow classmates does not count as volunteer service. However, I can count all the hours for my music service around the community (but not for special in-house visits to shut-ins or others of that nature).
Received five more photos of the June 29 storm taken from the Wildhorse Wind farm west of town up near Whiskey Dick mountain. If you haven’t already received this link from me on email, then go check this out.
Interesting dinner tonight. Somehow through raging winds, John managed to grill a selection of meats: chicken, pork, salmon, and steak. We had a large amount, and leftovers for lunch for him tomorrow while I’m away. He uses regular charcoal and small pieces cut from branches of an apple tree. The apple wood smoke makes him think of a small fire at the front of a cave and makes him believe he grew up near the crest of the Tian Shan range in Kazakhstan.

Wednesday, Jul 3

Long day, but slightly cooler than yesterday.  Down to 82 at 7:00 p.m.  Went to a high of 89 today.  I spent a lot of time working this morning on music, but got away in time to make it to the Food Bank before noon.  It was very hot in there today, and even though I had on a short sleeve shirt, I got too warm.  We played 1/2 hr and then had a fairly good lunch, made with pork chops and a southern battered recipe, rice, yellow squash, and cornbread, with lemon meringue pie for dessert.  I ate too much for then going to exercise.  I need to take a power nap, so believe I will do that while John searches for a missing wiring cable for our truck/horse trailer connection.  It has been hooked into the truck for 15 years but was removed last year when we bought the old camper trailer.  It was, of course, safely stashed where we could easily find it when required.

That above was written late afternoon.

Some of you heard my story about having a (self-diagnosed) mild heatstroke, but I will review it shortly here.  I came back home late afternoon and was feeling lousy; finally decided I should try to rest and take a 20 min. power nap.  I didn’t finally lay down until maybe just after 6:00, and then I slept, after telling John I didn’t feel like eating chili.  I slept for almost 3 hours.

Wow… I think I got way too hot today at the Food Bank, (it was almost unbearable, and we also sit to play music in front of the freezers, which push out much hot air!)  I rode in my hot car over to the AAC, parked across the street and down to get into the shade of a big tree.  Once into the Senior Center I was tired and non-energetic almost the entire time.  At one point I sort of stepped out of the circle to sit down, and Sandra (our leader) asked if I was okay because it looked as if I stumbled.  I told her I just tripped over my imagination, but .. I guess I wasn’t all there.

Stopped by to pay a dental bill on the way home, and was out again in the sun for a short time.  Came down the road by the Univ. and the wind was blowing hard.  I was under big trees, and something hit the top of my car.  I looked to see if there was a branch in the street behind me.  Nothing.  Continued on up to a Univ. parking lot and parked under the shade of a tree to check the top of my car.  I cannot see the top of my car from the ground, so I climbed up on the driver’s side, grabbing the luggage rack, and looked.  I saw nothing.  My sun roof was still in one piece.

Upon reflection (when I awoke), I think I had experienced a “mini” heatstroke.  Have to be more careful in this heat.  For the record, if it is that hot in the Food Bank Soup Kitchen next Wednesday, I will not be able to stay and play.  I hope they will consider setting up a fan to blow on me.

I hope with the 4 July party tomorrow on the 5th at the Adult Activity Center where we also are playing music, with all the people coming and heat from the kitchen while making food, that the staff at the AAC will turn the air-conditioning to cold.

I was drinking (water) the whole time.  I had a glass in front of me at the Food Bank, and I had my own along to carry around 20 ounces in an insulated carrier with a strap, for the exercise class.  I know all about not getting dehydrated!!  I put the strap around the back of my chair and take a swig often.  I have always been susceptible to heatstroke since I was a kid and had two (one at the beach eating watermelon), so until this day I’m averted to the stuff, and another time diving from a high dive at the Oglethorpe Hotel on the road to Savannah Beach, swimming pool.  No joke.  Guess the water has to be ingested, not just on the outside of your body.  I think once a heatstroke, there’s always the possibility for a re-occurrence.  In addition, there are all the medications I’m on, which request me not to be in direct sunlight for very long.  John has read also that people with heart problems are more susceptible.

Two interesting stories in our local paper tonight, the Daily Record.

KITTITAS COUNTY       Hiker found on Manastash Ridge

Kittitas County Sheriff’s deputies along with emergency medical personnel and civilian ground crews found a hiker who went missing after leaving a trail to get her dog Wednesday, according to the sheriff’s office.

The search began at 9 p.m.  on the Manastash Ridge Westberg Trail after the hiker, 19-year old Melanie Swanson of Ellensburg, was reported missing by fellow hikers.  Rescuers eventually found Swanson, who was in and out of consciousness after apparently falling down an embankment.  Crews packed her out and she was transported by ambulance to KVCH Hospital for treatment.

Update:  the dog is still missing.  Our friend Ken, who lives at the base of the trail saw the dog this morning, but it ran away back to the hill, probably looking for its owner.  He called the number of the person to contact, and several people came looking for the dog, to no avail.  The girl who fell is still in Intensive Care.  No update reports on her condition or if the dog was located.

STORY TWO:  from the Daily Record.

Woman rescued from the river – found unconscious by people in a passing canoe

A woman may have drowned in the Yakima River Sunday afternoon if not for two people who found her unconscious while they were canoeing, according to a news release from the Kittitas County Sheriff ’s Office.  Amy Thorpe and Patrick Gonseth of Yakima were canoeing downstream from Big Pines Campground in the Yakima River Canyon when they found an unconscious woman, Brandi Leingang, 27, of Yakima, with no life jacket lying in the water and hung up on a patch of rocks.

Leingang’s feet were pointing downstream and her head was propped up on the rocks just enough to keep her mouth and nose out of the water.  The woman started to show signs of consciousness after they pulled her into their canoe.  They then paddled upstream for about 20 minutes to get back to the boat launch, where they asked someone to dial 911.  A Bureau of Land Management employee arrived on scene, followed by a Kittitas County Sheriff’s deputy and EMTs from Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue.

Lucky to be alive

Friends floating the river with Leingang could not say how or when she fell into the river due to their level of intoxication.  In the release, Kittitas County Sheriff Gene Dana said Leingang was lucky to be alive.  “Thorpe and Gonseth are both lifeguards and Thorpe is the coach of a Yakima area swim team,” he said.  “Too much alcohol and no life jackets is a classic recipe for a tragedy.”  [John says word has gone out on the internet recently that women are smarter than men.  Really!  Search for it.]

Thursday, Jul 4

Decided after my “mild” heatstroke yesterday, not to go do anything today that might expose me to heat, so we cancelled the planned trip to George, WA for the annual 4 July concert in the park, with free cherry pie.  We told you about that last year, and meeting our friends there.  This is an interesting comment from Celia, my neighbor, who cuts my hair, shared this via Facebook.  She lives only a mile around the long rural block.  She says:

          So we went camping because our air conditioner was broke & had to wait on part. Turn on the gas refrigerator in the trailer & it started smoking!! Come to find out part  is on the recall list.  Well that’s ok, we have a generator.  This morning pull rope assembly broke.  They say things happen in 3s.  Ok I’m done now, I hope!!

Today has been filled with non-exhaustive, but some very frustrating, chores.  A few clean dishes unloaded and a stack of rinsed ones set by to reload the dishwasher.  We cleaned up about 2.5 pounds of strawberries, and froze most of them, except what we will eat tonight.   We have worked for a while unpacking the new printer (required un-sticking an amazing amount of little blue plastic tape strips), starting the beginning process of loading ink cartridges, paper, and then installing the drivers.  It took a long time, probably a couple of hours, and we have it recognized on John’s computer, but not yet on mine.  Oh–I think I know why.  His probably has to be turned on for me to access the printer.  No, that was not it.  I had to reload again from the CD, and do it differently.  Third time was a charm, but didn’t happen until 10:00 p.m. after we’d had dinner.

Also, a couple hours ago, one of our neighbors (not sure which), began celebrating that sound like cannon ball explosions.  Huge booms, no popping or whistling.  It was still light, so no idea if there were displays in the sky or not.  This could be a long night, with noises such as this and usual fireworks, for we have two dogs that intensely dislike them.  Makes no sense, considering they are bird dogs – except we haven’t been working them that way recently.  Now we wonder if we can eat dessert and go to bed, or if we need to wait until midnight to calm the dogs.  Right now things are quiet, but we had about 6 of the loud cannon blasts go off before dark.

The good news is I can print wirelessly through the new printer, as can John.  This is really cool.  Only thing I have to do is turn it on before I can use it.  I hibernates itself when left for a while (haven’t found out how long yet).

Friday, Jul 5

Began my day trying to locate the phone number of the transfer station here in town.  It took calls all over the US, to find out I could have looked under Kittitas County for the local number in our phone book, and not “waste management” or “transfer station” (Ellensburg, WA) on the Internet.  Jeez.  They are open today until 4:00 p.m.  (Tues-Saturday, 8 to 4), so we will worry tomorrow with the recycle stuff and the dump stuff).  John unearthed more boxes of junk while looking for the missing part to the trailer brakes, which has not yet been found.

Today, we go to town to start eating at a July 4 celebration on the fifth! at the Adult Activity Center, where we begin eating hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixings at 11:30, and then have trumpet music at noon for 20 minutes, followed by some of our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends group.  Last night we only expected a few guitars, one fiddle (mine), clarinet, and timbrel, plus singers.  I put together a master copy of the lyrics printed in large print, and run off (by the Sr. Ctr) for the audience to sing along on our songs, which included: America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee), America the Beautiful (Oh beautiful for spacious skies), Battle Hymn of the Republic, God Bless America, In the Good Old Summertime, Home on the Range, Oh! Susanna!, Yankee Doodle Boy (I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy), You Are My Sunshine, Red River Valley, There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere, This Land is Your Land, ending with the Star Spangled Banner sung acapella.  There will be many flags around to stand up and salute.  There’s even one on the hat I’m going to wear, and my blouse looks like part of a flag, with stars and stripes.  A couple of years ago, I wore it, and an old veteran I have known for a decade came up to me, saying, “I don’t know whether to salute you or raise you up the flag pole.”

I was very surprised to see the turnout of people to play in the group.  We ended up with 2 fiddles, 4 guitars, 1 mandolin, 1 viola, 1 bass fiddle, 1 clarinet, 1 timbrel, and singers.  We had an audience of 106 people, and they participated, singing with every one of our songs.  It was very neat and many good voices made it inspiring.  The last song was the Star-Spangled Banner and was sung Acapella.  I gave the beginning note, and our bass fiddle kept the beat.  No one else played an instrument.  We got home mid-afternoon from a successful party.  The food was hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, and all the fixings.  Burgers prepared for public places have to be cooked until they are “safe” – meaning they are tough and dry.  These were.  It helps to toast the bun, have cheese melted on the bun, and have a nice ripe tomato slice.  None of that happened.  Oh well.  Several people brought additions (salads, fruits), because it was held at the same time as the usual first Friday of the month potluck.  Ice cream bars for dessert.  All’s well that ends well.

Everyone in the room stood up, saluted the flag, and sang.  They all knew the words (we had not put them in the packet).  Some folks thanked us and said the last brought tears to their eyes.  I am happy the music was a success.  We don’t have any pictures as we have in the past, and we were scrunched at one end of the building, on the floor, and not on a stage as in the building where we have performed in previous years.

Saturday, Jul 6

Day of the junk removal did not happen.  Instead, John picked raspberries early, and they still have to be prepared.  Then he picked strawberries, which we have put away.  Did some house cleaning and other chores on the web.  We may get this posted tonight.  One last report.  In recent blog reports, I neglected to put in pictures about our “new” puppy.  I did mention her name, however.  Here’s a little more of the story:  We now have her registered with the AKC as Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’.  She was the only orange and white one in the litter.  She will be staying in California, with Jeri Conklin, the breeder and co-owner.  Jeri is a great friend to make this offer.  We cannot bring another Brittany into our household now, and she is able and willing to campaign her in show and field (hunt test) events in her area.  Physically, I’m not yet able to do such work (and maybe never will be).  She bred her dog, Ginny, to Kip, a tri Brittany from our breeding, and a full brother to Cork, who we lost to a heatstroke in 2011, while finishing up his Dual Championship with a field trainer in PA.  His name was Ch. Cedaridge Vintage Cork.  Then, his sister (Cedaridge Vintage Rousanne) two years younger, had one litter in 2010, when I came out of the ICU.  We lost her ability to carry on our lines, by mammary tumors in 2011, which required her to be spayed.  We started our lines in 1977, and hated to see them eliminated so close in proximity.

The new pup’s father is Cedaridge Tri-tip Kip and he lives with our friend Sonja Willitts in South Lake Tahoe.  Sonja’s experience with our Brittanys goes back to 1977 (the first litter we bred).  She was only 18, and got a nice liver dog from us that she named Whispering Tic.  We became fast friends in Idaho, going all over the Pacific NW to shows and field trials, with Tic, and his sister I kept, Jigsaw.  Sonja is keeping one of the liver males (Tug), and Jeri is keeping another liver male (Jessie).  Here are some photos for you:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

The storm mentioned in the “Placeholder” posting yesterday apparently damaged our DSL provider’s equipment. There was service early this morning (Sun., 30th ), then it went away all over the area. Some time after Noon they seem to have gotten it back to robust.

Saturday, Jun 22
A large bowl of strawberries having just been washed, trimmed, de-stemmed (capped), and ready for the next step – I’m doing some music changes in a program called SongWriter. I can’t seem to find a way of fixing berries that is as comfortable as being in the big padded recliner. I had entered God Bless America last year. Now I can just print out copies. Thought I had to add I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy, but found it was also there from last year–under a different starting name: Yankee Doodle Boy. Mostly, I worked on music tonight. I forgot to say in the blog last week just put out today, that John ordered us a new printer [Epson WF-3540] to replace our old, now-scannerless, one. The advantage of the new one is that it is wireless so I can print a page without sending it via e-mail to the back room computer or carrying it back there on a USB drive or disk.

Sunday, Jun 23
Lots of stuff accomplished today. Worst thing was waking up from a nightmare about people coming to our MESSY and dirty house. Guess that inspired me to do more cleaning today. Peggy, John’s sister, called to say it was 89 in Cleveland. She told me I needed to clean up a box a day. I’ll strive for that (didn’t make it every day). John said we were only making a box a week, recently. Very recently, it’s been better than that. After my nightmare, I was motivated today, but his comment was I am not capable of working 8 hours / day on the mess. Very true. I’m sitting now resting as I write this, after being on my feet for a couple hours. Did a lot, found a lot, but didn’t get John’s hair cut.

Monday, Jun 24
This morning John picked about 4 quarts of strawberries. I cleaned them but he finished cutting the last 2 dozen, added sugar, and froze 2.5 pounds. We saved some for dessert. I spent most of the morning on emails for colleagues and students. I left at 1:00 (in the rain) for SAIL class, with a stack of magazines to donate to the Adult Activity Center (ones such as Audubon, Smithsonian, Natural History). Then on to my new best friend the podiatrist right afterwards, while it was still raining. John realized he wouldn’t want to work in the rain, so he worked in the big shed on some of the junk there. I was on time to my foot doctor, but he was running behind. Ended up waiting an hour! but then he spent about 15-20 minutes with me, going over what ails me and what we can do about it. Turns out the Pathology Report (from Alpharetta, GA of all places, near my hometown), reported I have a fungal element with features most characteristic of dermatophytes (Trichophyton rubrum). (Only on one foot; where the heck could I have acquired that) ?
There are 3 potential cures he explained: (1) topical treatment daily for 6 months, (2) internal medications for 3 months, but there is some concern with metabolism within the liver and potential damage, plus it is not 100% effective. I don’t want to mess with that with all the meds I’m already on for my heart, several messing with my liver. (3) Laser technology, done once, checked again in 6 months, a therapy that has been approved by the FDA, but is not likely covered by my medical insurance. Probable cost, $400. It only can be done in the Yakima office. I have decided that will be my choice. It likely cannot happen for at least 5 weeks. I have to talk tomorrow to the Yakima office to make an appointment and find out the issues with my insurance. I’m between phone calls with Drs and insurance companies with ignorant and unresponsive people about my foot problem and the laser surgery. They want $400 at the time of surgery, and won’t submit the bill because they say they have in the past and it wasn’t approved. So, I’m writing the Dr. to explain my side of it, and let him know he can request an urgent consideration for an authorization by my insurance company (has to be done before my treatment). John thinks the USA’s health system ought to get rid of all the bs and just treat people. There are more folks moving paper, talking on phones, and punching keyboards than there are fixing what’s wrong. Our farrier had a referral for a sore shoulder but by the time he could get an appointment the shoulder was much better. He told them his wrist and thumb hurt and would the doctor look at those. No, sorry – you need a referral for those, I can only examine your shoulder. Service with a smile – but useless. Phone has been ringing off the hook with other stuff, so I haven’t yet done all the things planned. Still have to cut John’s hair.

Tuesday, Jun 25
Crazy morning home. Intended to get a lot of stuff done, but am now waiting for a phone call from my Cardiologist’s nurse. I walked up to the road to put a letter in the mail to a friend in Atlanta, only to have the nurse call. I don’t know when she will get back to me. They almost never will speak to John about my medical condition. It’s about an early morning request call to make an appt. with Dr. Pham, a Nuclear Cardiologist, to evaluate my need for another wire on my Implanted Cardiovascular Device (just at the end of the week I scheduled an appointment, near the end of July). Finally, ate a late lunch and just finished, when another phone call I was waiting for arrived from our electric utility district office. Next I just got the receptionist in Yakima to give me her email so that she could forward my email to the podiatrist doctor. Phone has been ringing off the hook with other crap, so I haven’t yet done all the things planned. I’m frustrated with access to this podiatrist, because I’m spoiled on my interactions (email) with my family physician and my cardiologist and their respective nurses. Never did get to cut John’s hair. The high swivel-chair made it to the kitchen and I cleaned up the sinks, counters and dishes, and he made incredible progress on old cardboard, collecting trash, crushing cans, plastic bottles, and tin cans. Made several bags of garbage to take out front to be packed off to the “transfer station” (the new name for a garbage dump)!
{ John says: Most folks never see this aspect of their trash but we toss it out of the back of a pickup truck onto a concrete floor. Then a large front-end loader pushes it onto a conveyer belt and it trundles off to fall into a large compacter. That makes bales of trash about the size of an old Nash and these are loaded onto a flat-bed trailer truck. Far beyond the sight and smell of the average urban resident, the truck deposits the bales in a shallow depression in God’s not-so-green Earth. It is rumored that much of the glass dropped in recycling bins is crushed and poured like sand over the bales of trash. With minor adjustments in this process our major cities could build massive pyramids or Towers of Babel-like structures for future folks to wonder about. We liked the old dumps better where night spot-lighting of scavengers (rats and black bears) providing occasional summer entertainment. My father’s generation became excellent marksmen using 22s at such places but that was frowned on by the time I was a teen – spotlights were okay, though.}

Wednesday, Jun 26
John’s picking strawberries. He also took some photos on my old Canon digital camera that had lost its proper white balance (Canon calls this ‘tone’.) Everything taken with it had a blue tinge throughout and much of what I took with it had to be adjusted on the computer. He found the on-line page for the camera and took the promised photo of the Owl in the Strawberry patch.

He doesn’t like the small cameras and has an older Nikon (D40X) he prefers to use. The Owl photo is with the “fixed” white balance on the Canon. We had a photo of the “Dude in the Garden” (aka a scarecrow) previously. He trades the Dude and the Owl in and out to keep birds from damaging berries. Using the Nikon, he took a photo of one of the new dwarf plum trees near ground level showing shoots coming from the dwarfing-root stock. Click on the photo for a large version.

Because these shoots come from the original root stock and not the type of fruit desired (Bubblegum Plum; late August; reddish bronze) – they get removed.
He had a noon dental teeth cleaning, dropped me off at the Food Bank, returned & then took me to SAIL class. He went shopping while I was exercising. Came home to a lot of work. Had a late dinner of a hamburger on a “gourmet” roll. John has hit the hay, and I’m on the way. Needed to send out a few job announcements to the jobs list before quitting for the night. I worked a lot on music this afternoon, getting ready for tomorrow and next week’s patriotic playing. Today at the food bank we did a few, such as America, America the Beautiful, and I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy (although I’m not). We never cleaned and cut the strawberries, so skipped dessert tonight. I had brought home some nice yellow cake pieces (sort of a Bundt cake with a glazed frosting) to have with them today. The activity center puts out sweet things to go with coffee, and encourages us to take them. It will hold in the frig till tomorrow. Oh, our new printer came today, but we’ve not yet set it up. We did remove the outside box to be sure the printer box was not-damaged. The outside container was beat to hell, with punches and holes in it. Had me worried but it was just a shell for the original packaging.

Thursday, Jun 27
Worked this morning on printing music for our group. Then left for town, only to come upon a blockage of Naneum Road on a curve several miles down from our home. I only had 1,000 feet to go to the turn I needed to make, but had to turn around and head back up the road over a mile, to go around a long block. It was in a 30 mph curve, not unlike the ones up by our house, but the road is well marked with curve and speed limit warnings, where ours is not. A tractor trailer truck pulling a heavy duty flatbed trailer with a large earthmover ma-chinery piece on the back had jackknifed and was covering the whole curve on both sides. I never got close enough to know if the driver was trying to go in or out a driveway or field or whether something else was happening. Regardless of who, what, or how – Naneum Road was devastatingly blocked dinging me about 3 miles and 10 minutes. Went directly to Hearthstone without time to have a blood draw for my INR test. Once there I parked away from everyone where no one could hit my car with their door. Helped set up chairs and ta-bles, and gave out some of the music. Met a new member of the group, a trumpet player. I hope he will not be too noisy for the group to handle. He teamed up with the clarinet player, because they play in the same key, which you have heard is two sharps higher than what the rest of the group play in (I have been transposing music for our clarinet player for a couple of years. For example, when we are playing in G with one #, they have to play in A with three #s.) After playing, I went to the hospital to the lab for an INR test on my blood (it was within range, just fine, at 2.7. Then I went to the grocery with the cooler John put in my car, and bought some chicken hind quarters on sale for 98 ¢/pound. While there I picked up a few other things we use that were on sale this week. I had sadly skipped lunch, because of time, but it was 4:00 p.m. by the time I finished at the grocery, too late to have any lunch. I looked at the coupons in my possession, and found I could drop by Jack in the Box on the way to the University, and get two spicy chicken sandwiches and two free tacos from a previ-ously received coupon. From there I called and left John a message I still had to drop by the university to leave several things for my colleagues. NO one was around, and I hadn’t taken my keys, but I found the computer systems analyst working in one of the offices. He has a key and kindly walked to the other end of the building’s 3rd floor to let me in the main office where the postal boxes are. NICE – otherwise, I would have had to go back tomorrow, and I am not planning a trip to town at all tomorrow. I came home to strawberry-cleaning chores. I just finally sat down from an hour’s work cleaning and cutting 2.5 pounds of strawberries John picked yesterday. He helped me finish the process of the cutting and packaging (for freezing), and we had plenty for our dessert tonight. These are called Cavendish and our earliest ones although they are considered a mid-season type.

Friday, Jun 28
Stressed out this morning with a call from my physician’s nurse that my INR was higher on the test than was indicated to me by a reading of a drop of my blood at the time (2.7). Frustrating, as I have not been doing anything (i.e. drinking alcohol) that ought to cause it to go up. This morning, the lab report on the vial of blood, run last evening, claimed 3.6 or something way high. Weather heated up today to 93. In anticipation of the coming end of the World heat wave and a planned Saturday away, John worked into the afternoon on watering both gardens, trees and flowers around the front “yard”. Then at 10:30, our farrier came that caused him be tied up for over an hour, holding horses. After that he picked strawberries. I just put them from a box into something for the refrigerator until he awakes from his hour + nap and we can work on them together. We are short 4 berries of having 4 dozen. [John says: who counts Strawberries?] {Nancy says, when you are taking from a dirty large bucket and putting into a smaller dish for the frig.}
I’m working on a number of chores of organization, for the celebration of life this weekend, for other record things, for kitchen sinks, for doctor and insurance requests, & calendar planning. I spent a lot of time looking for a local bagpiper, and for singers and material for the Sunday program. Well, shoot. I just missed the hours on Friday till when my Podiatrist is open (only until 3:00). Now things wait until Monday. Been continuing work on the song lyrics for next week, but didn’t quit finish. I’ll get them out before they come to work on Monday. I have them all done but one, and I want to check all of the 9 pages before sending. I hope they can run back to back to save paper. I doubled up a couple of songs on one pages. Tried making it larger print for older people. Next, I have to make arrangements for the following weekend for a potluck for our music group. Our 12-string guitar player and his wife are hosting a young gal from Belarus for 5 weeks this summer in town for the program called the Children of Chernobyl. They drive to Seattle Wednesday to pick her up and take her to visit their family near Tiger Lake. After holiday celebrations, they take a ferry to Seattle, from nearby Bremerton, to show her the big city. On home and on Sunday afternoon there will be a potluck, for which John is fixing a huge pork loin roast. I’m in charge of making arrangements to get people informed and to their place to eat at 5:00 p.m. We take our instruments along and play music after we eat. Well, another day and more strawberries to clean and put away. But, we left it for tomorrow. Good news of the evening, a young female bagpiper was found to play music at Lois Robinson’s celebration of life. I just heard they cinched it tonight, after my helping find the contact information late this afternoon.

Saturday, Jun 29
This morning, awoke to a message that the music to the song, I Love Life, was found in the piano bench.
John did a lot of early morning watering, including the raspberries behind the house (that are already producing). We left for the Wests, about 11:15 to stop off at Costco for gas for the new car (“only” $3.57/gal), and by the time we subtract the 4% using the Amer. Express card, it will only be $3.43. While there, John picked up some cat and dog food, some bread, & some grapes. We got through and arrived at our destination just after 1:00. The trip down was fine, but hot. Was 91 in Yakima, in the shade. Had a nice visit and afternoon with great food for 6 people. We provided the steaks, and the hosts the rest. Rice, two salads, nuts, and drinks, and a fine dessert, Pistachio Pudding Dessert on a cake base. Scrumptious.

While there, we experienced the storm John mentioned in the Place marker last night.

More on the storm:
Follow-up on the June 29 storm in our region–once home, I started reviewing the sends on the Internet from my friends and acquaintances. I have put them together (some links and photos) for your enlightenment. All these are from EBRG because I did not have my camera along in Yakima, which John already has written about. Here is a video taken by Alex Eyre

For you geographers reading this, you may remember his father, J. Douglas Eyre who was at Chapel Hill in the Geography Department for 44 years. Before that, Doug was in Michigan for 3 degrees, and even at UW teaching for 6 years. I went to school in Atlanta, GA for my undergraduate degree, and returned in 1967-69 to teach geography at Georgia State University. I knew all the geographers, some better than others, in the Southeast AAG. Doug retired in 2001. About the same time, maybe a year or so later, I met his son in Ellensburg while playing fiddle at the fairgrounds for some event. We met, and had our picture taken together (need to find that), after we realized I knew his dad. I think I saw his name on his nametag, and asked if he was kin to someone from NC. Small world, eh?

Here is a second video link from a former geographer colleague, Allen Sullivan, in town, from Manastash Road, a little southwest of EBRG, just down the road from the next reporter.
Message from Ken Hammond, farther out Manastash, on Cove Road, at the base of the hill trail everyone hikes for conditioning.
Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 3:16 PM, Kenneth Hammond
About an hour ago, I had just finished loading out another 135 bales of hay, when the sky opened up with drenching rain mixed with large hail. It washed the road, no doubt scarred the apples and pears, and though I have yet to go down to see, probably punched holes in a lot of garden plant leaves. I got totally soaked each of the several times I went up to the pump to see if lightning had shut it down. Oh well, I don’t melt, fade, or shrink. The rain has now stopped, and I just checked the pump again. It ran right through it all, but I now hear more thunder. That means more lightning. It is all very interesting. I am glad I have serious surge protection on the computer.
I don’t know how widespread that intense storm was, but wherever it hit, people with hay down must feel a bit snake-bit.
The storm is moving over us again. Gotta go check on that blankety blank pump.
And today, Sun., June 30 at 11 30 AM , in reply to mine back to him last night.
It was an interesting storm. There was more than a half inch of rain in less than an hour. The wind was blowing so hard, hail was landing in on the hay in the barn. The man who got the hay we were loading is bald. He was hurting when he got hit. Some of my corn is about 3 feet tall and it is now really leaned over in the wind. I will straighten it back up when it dries a little. The garden is sort of a mud hole right now.
Every year has peculiar and interesting qualities.

Storm related photos:

Zoe Rushton took the first 2 photos.

The hail in hand photo is by Avia Beach.

Sunday morning — started off interestingly. I was fixing my coffee and toast and found a little green frog on the counter. How the heck he got into the house is beyond us, especially into the kitchen. Night before last, John opened the door to the garage, off the front porch, to let out some of the built-up hot air. Perhaps froggie got to the kitchen from there. ?? I think there is a hole in the wall. Mice used to come into our house somehow from the garage, but with all the cats around, we haven’t been bothered recently. John got him to hop into a shoebox, and relocated him in short grass out back by the creek. Hope he survives all right. Small little cutie, a little over an inch long, with legs folded.

John picked a large bucket of beautiful strawberries, mostly Cavendish. He only intended to pick several for brunch, but there were more available and ready, plus they were wet from yesterday’s rain, so he picked all. We just finished fixing them, and he figured it was ~3 pounds of finished berries plus the touch of sugar.

Heard from a friend in Alabama she had a red sunflower blooming. She and I had never heard of one, but when I mentioned to John, he said, yes, they come in all sorts of colors. He had bought a seed pack this year with various yellow, gold, and red combinations of petals, but never got them planted. Here is her picture (click for large view):

I finished putting all the music lyrics together for the July 5 performance for Independence Day to send when we have Internet service return. I called central control and found out the storm yesterday wiped out all coverage in the Ellensburg area. They figure the storm damaged some equipment, and “the technicians are working on it.” We just regained service after at least 3 hours down. Some people in the area were out since 11:00 p.m. last night. Three hours was bad enough for our progress.

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

We were away from home most of Saturday. Expecting hot and sunny John watered plants on Friday and a few more this morning. Dogs, cats, and horses were assured we would return. A little after 11 and with a temperature about 90 we headed south. It got warmer as we passed through Yakima (95) but dropped to 83 at our destination about 15 miles west and 1,000 feet higher. From our friends’ deck we could see west to the Cascade Mountains where storm clouds had formed. Within the hour the storm came to us. Rain, a little hail, and lots of wind. The folks have a weather station and it recorded a gust of 51 mph. There was thunder to the north and west of us but nothing close. During and after the storm it was cool. A fantastic atmospheric display. Ellensburg got a good dose of this storm that seemed to travel along the east slope of the mountains. Parts of the town flooded. The road south of our place had lots of leaves, small limbs, pine cones, and such, down. When we came home there was a little drizzle but only enough to dampen things. After caring for the animals and fixing 2 pounds of strawberries (picked yesterday), we are tuckered out and won’t get a full report published until mid-day Sunday. (Noonish here; 3 back East.)

Sunday, Jun 16 HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
Warm here today and not windy. John has taken care of much garden activities, mostly watering. In addition, he picked almost 2 dozen big strawberries, filling the box fuller that was pictured yesterday. I have cleaned them and much of the kitchen, and am tackling other chores. The a/c just came on, so the hallway temperature must have reached 77. We had 89° high outside for a couple hours. We called a few friends/relatives, or left messages on their recorders. John and Rascal are napping, but I slept in a little longer this morning, so I’m up, and answering the phone (or not). We have been getting 1-877 calls labeled TOLL-FREE. I looked it up on the web. It is a non-located prefix, just as 1-800 or 1-888, and most likely is a telemarketer. If I don’t answer, they never leave a message, but now with caller ID I can see it to ignore. Two calls came this afternoon two hours apart. Every day we have at least one call from such. I believe the caller ID is worth the money. I have it free for 2 years, but at the end I will be so spoiled, I will subscribe. John’s cooking a pork loin (seasoned) roast. Been setting up with AAA to come pick-up John’s pickup on Tuesday to take to the repair shop. While going through things today, I found I’m almost out of checks, so needed to order them. It’s highway robbery. Last ordered 150 duplicate checks in Sept 2011, for $13. Now they want $21.50 for 120, so I will wait and see if I can find a source cheaper than that.

Monday, Jun 17
Called Pittman towing, but I cannot schedule through them, and must wait until tomorrow to see if he is free, after I call Auto-AAA. There is one other AAA provider in town, and we will get, whoever is available to come out. We got the other, McIntosh.
[John adds: Here’s how to waste time. Nancy spelled the car-tow place’s name as Macintosh. Worth a check, and made the correction. Her spelling could have been either an apple or a computer (now known as a Mac) marketed by a company called Apple. Now about the fruit. You can read about this red/green wonder here.
The second paragraph tells you of John MacIntosh discovering, in 1811, a new sapling (you do know that apple seeds do not “breed true, right?). In the first link – the wiki page – there is a comment about the MacIntosh farm in “Upper Canada.” If you click on that link and look at the map you will see an “orange” place in the very southern part of Canada. A first this seems strange. I used this in classes I taught to try to get students to question things they read and how they, versus others, thought about the World. Imagine you are on a sailing ship from merry ol’England or France. You approach North America and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and sail until rapids stop your passage. You have just passed through “Lower Canada” and must go beyond the rapids and to higher elevation to get to that “orange” place on the map. Upper Canada meant “higher” not the northern part.  A student once asked to be excused from class because she was going “up” to Canada, so I questioned where.  Toronto, she said.  Well having friends in Toronto, I knew she was headed mostly east but also south – about 220 miles south of Ellensburg.  And that’s how to waste time – now back to Nancy and paper bank checks.]
I didn’t have to call about my checks today, because in cleaning off a flat space loaded high, I found 3 sets with 50 checks each!  I moved them to the Roll-Top desk where we have kept them for years.  Managed to package two books to send to a friend in Alabama, and another to a friend in NM.  Those got mailed today.  Then on to my SAIL exercise class.  I picked up a couple of sympathy cards there for my friend’s family, and 3 copies of the local paper she was pictured in the day she died.  Then “SAILed” through class, and on to Super One to use some good coupons for less expensive ground beef, provolone cheese, French bread, Almond Breeze for me, Diet Cola and Cola for John (also on sale).  The pharmacy did not have my prescription ready for Metoprolol that I called in last week.  They said they had faxed 6 requests.  I was going to call or email when I got home, but was too busy with other things, and got a call from my Pharmacy late afternoon saying they had finally received the approval from my cardiologist in Yakima.  Good thing it wasn’t an emergency need.  Actually, if that should happen, they will give me some to take until the prescription arrives.  Now I call a week ahead (for good reason).
After the grocery, I stopped by Briarwood to pick up a card for Lois’ family. That gave me two cards from the EBRG Senior Center-AAC, one from Briarwood, one from me (us), and 4 copies of the paper write-up she never got to see.
John picked another pound of strawberries, and I cleaned them.

Tuesday, Jun 18
Called AAA and arranged for the pick up of Chev ’80 pickup to carry to our repair garage. It left here just after 1:00 p.m.. John’s been building a scarecrow and yesterday put up an owl (plastic blow-up). He’s trying to protect the strawberries from birds. Today he also picked another pound of strawberries for me to clean and freeze what we don’t eat tonight.

We both have been “startled” by the “guy” in the garden.
I had planned to be busy with cleaning up boxes in the house all day, and in the evening to go play music at Royal Vista. But, all those plans changed this morning, and I have been worrying with planning for music for July 5th, canceling July 4th’s music, recording a CD of America Songs, notifying people of the change in date of the Celebration of Life for friend Lois. My trip to Royal Vista was cancelled for tonight, as well, because of double booking in the absence of the retired activities director. Need to finish cleaning the strawberries in the morning.

Wednesday, Jun 19
I went to play music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen and to SAIL exercise class afterwards. Between times, I got important paperwork in the mail for co-ownership of a Brittany female that was bred in California to carry on our lines (bred to our Tri male from S. Lake Tahoe), Cedaridge Tri-Tip Kip, Cork’s full brother. Cork was our almost Dual Ch. Brittany, who died in PA of a heatstroke in 2011. The pup will remain with Jeri Conklin in CA because we cannot take her back into our house. Her name is Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Trἐ.
While I was gallivanting all over town, John cleaned our filters in the heat pump system (heat and a/c), plus two filters on our water system.

Thursday, Jun 20
Morning was busy mostly with arranging and searching for music. I have misplaced some July 4 patriotic songs and went through 7 or 8 loose leaf 3-ring binders searching for it and for one song we were doing today, to give to a member of our group who couldn’t locate her copy of Faded Love. Our printer scanner is broken, so I couldn’t just scan a copy of mine from my music book for her. Then I put into my computer generated music program, Down By The Old Mill Stream, for us to try (first time) as a group. John heard from our garage they had fixed his truck so I dropped him off to pick it up, to fill with gasoline, and to pick up eight 5-gallon buckets at CWU surplus plus put in a bid for a large amount of pallets. As well he took advantage of the Thursday 12-hour sale at Super 1 grocery. He got home only a few minutes before I did. It was raining hard on me on the way home.
Recap on today’s music at Dry Creek: We had a fine turn-out of players and also a big audience. We had 4 fiddlers, banjo, 3 guitars, mandolin, Timbrel, and our singer. Wow.

Friday, Jun 21
Will not go to town today, tomorrow, or Sunday, to make headway on this messy home. As I go through things to sort, it creates more work and all takes time I haven’t had. John has already run the dogs and then hung extra bottom rails around the new garden. A little dear deer entered and ate tops of 10 plants before he found her and ran her out the gate. He worked on another fence around a planter box (pallets) in the front of the house that box has flowers and strawberries and the deer like both. Small trees also have to be protected.

John’s morning involved constructing a ramp for our older dogs to access the window inside the house to the doggie door. One was having trouble jumping up 2 feet to get to the previous exit, atop two boxes – those, now, I have to sort through. I found a box for putting in my old CDs in plastic cases after I back them up on my USB port for music in the new Subaru. If we leave CDs around on a shelf, the dust in this house builds up on them, as on everything else. I have to vacuum boxes and items around before I can sort through them. Even with a filter on our heat pump, much dust circulates and deposits itself. You should see John’s two new computer screens and tower. Static cling at its worst.
Also today, I have been trying to set up using one of our timeshares for friends going to New Orleans, and RCI has a special deal on today at a reduced trading power. Turns out the dates and availability are not there & open. Oh, well, we tried. Any of you out there who want to travel, check with us for using one of our timeshares. The price is right for a whole week anywhere in the world that’s available for ~$189, with a $50 (I think) added on for a gift certificate, required if I’m not available to go along at check-in. If however, you pick a room at our home base in Idaho, there is no gift certificate needed. We have one expiring Dec 31 2013 and need to use it or lose it. Now that I no longer attend conferences, I don’t have the opportunity to use them as I once did. (John prefers to work on trails in the Cascade Mountains.) I used one for week in Honolulu, another time in San Francisco, in mid-Texas, at Lake Tahoe, and in the hills above Denver. Often, the daily conference rate for a hotel room almost reaches the cost for the entire week for a traded timeshare.

Saturday, Jun 22
Morning. John is out doing yard chores, exchanging the owl on a pole overlooking strawberries, for the scarecrow, or vice versa. We did succeed in mailing details to our friend in Moses Lake about meeting July 4, in George, WA for the annual day of music, cherry pie, and other celebratory stuff, under the shade of some large trees.
John just picked 2.5 pounds of strawberries and brought them in a little before 1:00; now we will have leftovers for lunch, and I will tackle cleaning them later, after I complete this blog. He’s also filling the water storage tanks in the new garden, using gravity flow from the irrigation ditch. He brought in the mail and a paper, with this thank you to an unknown somebody.

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

Sunday, Jun 9
Bad date in my memory. 4 years ago, during CWU Graduation ceremonies at the Geography Department, colleagues convinced me I looked and acted ill. I took myself to the local hospital and the admitting doctor sent me to the intensive care unit. Thank God, I’m still around to enjoy life. And play the fiddle, which I will be doing tonight. Today the wind is still blowing, and will be interesting for playing music outside tonight after 6:00 p.m. Morning was spent trying to put a tour together of our area for a friend from NJ, but it just won’t work with all the distance involved. We were hoping to go to Mt. Rainier, but the road to the best viewpoint, Sunrise (in good weather), is still winter-closed. Then we considered north and east of us, but that has the same problem in a different way (time), between all the important sites to share. There are few close-by. She would be driving up 4 hours from Oregon, where she is visiting, and then we’d have a whole day of driving with me after that. We were planning to stay in a motel and have her head back the next day, but it’s too much for both of us. As mentioned above, tonight we played outside on a porch in 41 mph gusts. Just three of us gals, clarinet playing first violin, me on fiddle, and another gal on guitar. They had us play before and after dinner as a gift of music to the man having his 80th birthday party with family and a few friends. Fiddle music is his favorite. They fed us a great BBQ pulled pork dish (I had mine without the bun), several salads, and fresh Bing and Rainier cherries. They were awesome. The whole meal was fantastic. The older contingent seemed to really enjoy our music and the b.d. boy really did. He stayed with us for every song, and sung along on many. We did about 16 songs. The only problem was the noise of the flapping tarp, and the 3 wind chimes in the wrong key. A funny comment we heard from our hostess on our way out — thanking us again. She said, “We really love the choices.” Had to laugh at the comment her grandson said, “Grandma, do you like that kind of music?”
Going to bed 2 hours sooner tonight than last night, when I only got 6 hrs of sleep. That’s no longer enough for me.

Monday, Jun 10
Appointment at podiatrist at 1:00 p.m. My time was spent with Dr. Cardon — at Cascade Foot & Ankle, in Ellensburg. I got there early to fill out paperwork, but they didn’t do anything until the starting time, inviting me in to prepare for the doctor. The assistant asked me a few questions, took my blood pressure (I thought it was way high, 152/82). Maybe I was anxious. It was done with one of the little wrist devices, not one with a wrap-around thing. She noticed my tee shirt (with mandolin, fiddle & guitar), and asked if I was a music teacher. Her father manages a music store in Yakima. Wasn’t too long until my Dr. arrived. Shook my hand and listened to my story, and looked at my feet (the right one is the one with the affected toenails). He said he would test it and send for a Dermatophyte test (I think that is the one). He mentioned that my condition could be one of at least 5 possibilities. He claims they will know within 2 weeks, and I am scheduled to come back to visit with him about the results. I asked him if he would be able to help me with trimming my nails. He told me he could do it before I left today. I got on the table and he clipped (for the sample to send to the lab), and then clipped the rest of the nails. On the right foot (the “infected” one), he used a fancy precise Dremel tool, to scrape the “stuff” off the tops of the nails. (It was much larger than the little one that had been used previously at the Adult Activity Center by the nurse there). It’s almost impossible not to hit the skin beside the nail (with a small one too), but he had a silver nitrate stick to stop the bleeding. He went ahead and did my left foot’s nails (they are normal). I was very appreciative. I asked him if he had an assistant to do the foot care and he said no, “I prefer to do it.” So, I said well I hope you will write my insurance company that it is necessary for me to come back every 3 months. He said he doubted it would be a problem and he would be happy to. (Since the office help in charge of Insurance, had a different opinion. Meanwhile, we await the story on what ails me. This type of “fungal like infection” is known in patients with Diabetes, but I am not diabetic. Just the fact of knowing I’m being looked after by someone who seems to know what he’s talking about and is easy to talk with, and professional, makes all the difference in my attitude today. I was truly a happy person when I left his examination room to go fill out my new patient paperwork. It didn’t take too long, and I still had time to go late to my SAIL exercise class. I was able to do a couple of the exercises that make us rock on our toes, and raise our foot up to “stand” on our toes. I had ceased doing those because it hurt my “fat” nails pressing on the shoes. No problem today.
I took my own blood pressure tonight, and it is way down from earlier. It was 113/63 in the evening, and 106/53, pulse 61 at 10:35 p.m. I spent over 2.5 hrs sorting through 3 boxes of stuff left over from the early years of my CWU teaching that I kept for some reason. Managed to recycle a box full of paper, take off paper clips, throw away old disks, and overhead transparencies, other obsolete things, and retrieve reusable file folders, organizers, pens, and another box with magazines I can recycle but not even take to the table at the Adult Activity Center. We are donating a lot there and to our dentist’s office. John fixed some good breaded fried cauliflower to go with beef burger (why is it called hamburger?) and some fresh grapes.

Tuesday, Jun 11
Morning meeting with the Geography Emeriti that lasted from 9:30 until 11:00 a.m. Then we took off for Yakima and Costco. After lunch and a trip to Lowe’s to walk through and admire their trees (amazed at the prices, even of plants such as Oregon Grape that we cut out around our place), and then flowers, we went inside the store. I found a comfortable chair, put up my feet, and relaxed. One of our largest tomato plants had suffered wind damage so John stood it back up and piled dirt and straw around it. While I rested, John went looking for stakes. He found 50 lath stakes for 30 cents each; the first ones we found outside were 60 cents each with a small square cross section. Winds crested today at 46 mph, and for 8 hours were in the forties. We left there and drove to the Yakima Heart Center, and spent time with a cardiologist ‘assistant’ for my results of the Echocardiogram, from last week. It was very positive. My blood pressure was good, the lab blood tests were all within appropriate ranges, and the echocardiogram was evaluated at 35% efficiency. All signs point to increasing heart health. I was incredibly relieved because there was some concern by my Cardiologist 2 weeks ago, that if the echocardiogram showed less than 35%, it would be necessary to consider re-doing my implanted device to add another wire to stimulate the heart. I was NOT happy at all at the thought of another surgery. Those results reported today explain my happiness with the trip to Yakima.
In addition, after thinking I had figured out the Navigation system on my new car, I tried to show it to John. I’m not so smart, as I thought. On the drive home, I set it in the parking lot at the doctor’s office for my destination, our home address on Naneum. Main problem, I tried to change the route and go home on a street east of the hospital, when it wanted me to go to a main road 10 blocks west of where I was. I figured that was too much out of my way and the traffic wasn’t bad yet on the one I headed to instead. I told John it would work and it would just re-calculate the route (as it did with me yesterday on my trip home from Ellensburg, but nope– the guy could not catch up with my choice and wouldn’t shut up regarding his chosen route. We could not find any way to shut him up. Finally, I got to a traffic light, turned off my engine and restarted, and didn’t worry with him anymore that trip. I knew how to get home. I wanted to show John the cool summary once you get to a destination, that had shown the ETA before arrival, but then once at my destination, showed the total time, the miles, and even the top speed, as well as the mileage (which I know from another screen). I wonder if I could have said to Voice recognition, STOP, or RESTART, or if I have to have recorded commands to say to the system. More research needed with the manual. I have since found the way in the manual, and if it ever happens again, I will know how to fix it without stopping the car.

Wednesday, Jun 12
Whoopee — John got my new license tags put on my car. I fixed up the car records at CWU, for parking, and am ready to leave for the Food Bank, picking up my banjo player buddy at her work, because her car is in the shop. We didn’t have much either one of us could eat at the food bank soup kitchen today. Too much Vitamin K stuff for me. When I walked in, however, I saw two Heirloom tomato plants about 2′ high. I went and asked the fellow in charge if I could have them, and told him about the wind destroying ours yesterday when we were in Yakima buying stakes to stake them up. He told me I was welcome to them. After that, I went to SAIL exercise class and on home.

Thursday, Jun 13
Productive morning — harvested some Lavender for my friend and banjo player to deliver today when we go to the Rehab center for music. It turned out it is not Lavender, but some other plant with pretty purple flowers, which Evelyn identified Saturday as Salvia, of the mint family. John said the Arbor Day Foundation or some other group sent us two plants supposed to be Lavender. It has a very Lavender-like look but not the fragrance. An imposter. Here is my photo taken in the morning sun. Click on images for bigger photo.

Also, finally documented our new dental coverage on the retirement medical plan through CWU. It will cover a lot more things than the previous plan I was on for a year, and most preventative treatments at 100%, with no deductible. Other fixes are usually at 80%. I managed to get on the web and download my ID card, after talking with a woman in Seattle. I don’t know what a person without a computer and printer is supposed to do. They no longer issue cards for people. Actually, I got the .pdf of it, and emailed to my dentist’s office supervisor. Needed to get it set up for John’s teeth cleaning and evaluation coming up soon. Talked to a friend from our past who is coming to EBRG this Saturday, so we have arranged a meeting at the place where we provide music and they feed us (story below). Today is our regular weekly music gig and that went well. We had a good turnout, of 3 guitars, a banjo, a singer, 2 fiddles, and a Tembrel.
Sad news tonight received about 8:30 p.m. My 87 yr. old friend Lois died of a heart attack yesterday morning. She had macular degeneration and I often took her places (especially on the weekend, when she couldn’t ride the Hope Source bus). It was a total shock. I had just seen her Monday by my side in exercise class. Such a sweet lady. Last night I was calling her to remind her of picking her up tomorrow to go listen to music and eat at Briarwood. She always went along on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Loved going; it was sad today to not have her with us in exercise class and will be sadder tomorrow. It really hit me hard because unlike the rest of my friends I have recently lost, I wasn’t expecting this. At least she went fast.

Friday, Jun 14
John went with me to the AAC where they had quite a brunch spread for Father’s Day: Scrambled eggs, ham, fried potatoes, pancakes, toppings, and a ton of fresh fruit, along with orange juice. He drove separately to get gas in his car and to leave me there for garage sale-ing before going to my SAIL exercise class. I also took a 100-hikes in Colorado book to a gal who has been working in the center for a year. She is taking a job there helping homeless and almost homeless ones get assistance. This book will be a great introduction to the state, and give her something to remember us by.

My garage sale-ing escapades today. Only two, which I hit after dropping off my house insurance check a few blocks away. The first sale was exciting, and I didn’t even look at all the stuff there. I looked at a baseball hat with a flag (that lights up). With today being Flag Day, I wish I’d had it for our brunch, as there were several military people there with their Service hats on, and one lady with her red/white/blue flag shirt. The cap was brand new, but too expensive ($5.00) for my pocketbook for once or twice a year (today, 4 July, and Veterans’ Day). I was talking to the lady of the house and she asked if I wanted something special. I told her I want a set of small metal (aluminum) tongs like some we have misplaced. She didn’t have any. So, I said, do you have any pillowcases? She said, oh, I forgot to put those out; they are still in the house, come with me. She pulled out 25 individual cases, and said, well, I need to keep these dark purple and the black, and these for my RV, but you can have any of the rest. I asked her what she would charge if I took them all. She said $5.00. I didn’t try to bargain further. I knew I just priced a pair at Bi-Mart for $5.99. For 19 that makes 26 cents each with no tax due. I said okay. She was walking out of the house and her husband said, here put them in this bag. It is a nice carrying bag with a pretty design. It will be great for carrying my music and stand. I mentioned that, and thanked them. Coming on out she asked about my playing. I told her about our group and said to the man, I really liked your baseball hat with the flag, but it is more than I want to pay for wearing only a couple times a year. He went out and picked it up and brought it back to me and said – look, it has a battery that lights up the flag. I said, oh cool, it would be great for patriotic days such as today. After we talked, I told them we needed a fiddler to join our group, because I was the only one left now. She blurted out a name and I didn’t have anything to write with, but she did, so I asked her if the woman had email, and if she could call her and give her mine. I hope this works. We truly need more fiddlers. Meanwhile, the gentleman took the hat, put it down in my bag, and gave it to me. What a nice surprise. After leaving class, I drove by another garage sale, which I should have attended earlier. They apparently had good prices on a range of tools. But, while there, I saw some pillowcases, sheets, and nice clean pillows for a very good price. Now I don’t have to find the missing pillowcases around the house, and I can replace pillows the oldest dog chewed a hole in. Now she can no longer get on the bed, so blankets, sheets, pillows, and cases are safe :- )

Must go finish the letter of reference and fill out the form to get in the mail tomorrow. I didn’t make it today, with all that happened last night. Then I planned to tackle more boxes in this room. John is losing patience with my slow clean up, sorting, tossing, and recycling. I never got to them, but I did tackle a few things needing done. Neatest was strawberries. He picked a little less than a pint, because he saw robins in munching on them, and ants were going after the punctured ones. I took a photo, and then cleaned them up for our dessert last night. These are the June bearing Cavendish type. They didn’t need added sugar because they were so sweet and tasty. For your enjoyment:

Saturday, Jun 15
Morning was filled with cleaning up receipts, paying bills, washing some dishes, doing email, and getting ready to go to town for music and to meet a friend (Brittany times in the 1970s and 1980s). Still trying to get to the box clean up. Everything takes so much time. I drove us to Briarwood, by way of the Post Office, to be sure the letter got in today’s mail. I cannot depend on our carrier to always pick up stuff we leave turned up on its side, and the flag lifted. Then on to Briarwood, where we arrived the same time as our friend from Moses Lake. She brought a kennel for her dachshund and while she was here to enjoy the parade (city puts on a dressed parade each year), she bought a 7-week-old one. Cute. They had to sit in the crate while we were in there because food was served and that’s the health rules. She and John sat back on a comfy sofa while we played and sang with the group… for an hour. At the end, they fed us. Today was choice of chicken salad sandwich (excellent) or turkey-salami/cheese (John & Trudy said they were also good). Chips, grapes, a 5-bean salad that was sweet, not vinegary, a mandarin chiffon salad, and a Caesar salad. They go all out for us once a month. They fixed a punch of lemonade flavored with raspberry. Or, a person could have coffee if desired. There was a dessert table as well. I had a homemade blueberry muffin.
We had a nice turnout of folks for playing music. Our bass fiddler from Winlock, WA was in town, I was the only fiddler, and we had 3 guitars, a singer, a Tembrel, and a mandolin.
We got home and I was still trying to wind up some projects, and realized we still had minutes on our landline to use this month, so we called Peggy, John’s sister in Parma, OH. Heard all about the tornado that was coming down on them. She was ready to go to the basement at 11:00 p.m. one night this week, but it died out just as it was to hit Cleveland.
Now John is out mowing behind the back fence. The horses have been eating down the grass, but some things they don’t eat and he is mowing a space 20 feet wide to reduce the fuel for a fire. There’s very little space back there on our side of the creek to work with.

Sunday will be Happy Father’s Day.

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