Category: Weekly report by day

Sunday, Oct 5

John left this morning for trail work at Franklin Falls. You learned about that in last week’s blog – but not that what they were constructing is called a trail turnpike. At the end of the day, photo on left, John’s crew had built and placed 2 log rectangles in a slightly sloping (and often wet) section of the trail. John is straddling a ditch on the uphill side, and as that was dug (mostly by Kaylee – in orange), rocks were tossed into the center section. The pieces are laid end-to-end with cross pieces seen just in front of Kaylee’s feet. Large rocks are put in first, then smaller ones to fill the voids. The work was not finished at the end of the day so the section got some flagging and waited for another crew.

On the right and a week later, John is pictured on the finished turnpike near the upper end of one of the boxes. The 2 cross pieces, and all the rocks, are covered with gravel brought from the parking lot with a powered totter. Use Google search with images and this set of words – trail log turnpike – to see lots of other related photos.

Monday, Oct 6

This morning started out early with the annual maintenance visit for our Culligan systems. Turns out when we were having all the trouble last November with our water-holding tank, the repairman with John’s assistance bypassed the softener and we did not realize it, until today. That means we have had no softened water for almost a year. Guess that’s why we weren’t using salt!

I have had all sorts of problems with the CPAP, but made it through last night without quite as bad an experience as the night before. Still cannot get my pillow positioned right with all the paraphernalia around my head. I did take my friend’s advice and set up the mask ahead of going to bed in the dark, and then connecting the air hose at the start of the night. If I have to get up to potty in the night, I only remove the air hose and not the entire mask. I also changed the crazy Velcro settings that were way too tight and managed to stay in bed for 7 hours, but wasn’t sound asleep by any means. I had many unusual dreams about things (all okay) but that I wouldn’t normally have. I don’t think I remember any nightmares in recent years.
The pillow I was/have been using and even had at both overnight sleep tests, will not work with the headpiece on this Eson mask. I switched to a smaller airplane one, and think I will switch even further down to one from economy class that is not as big. I was flying first class on someone else’s dime when I got the larger one.
Tomorrow is also my day to go to the sleep-doctor and the respiratory gal if I can call today and arrange it. I want to switch headgear to a friendlier one. My claustrophobia is getting to me. I called at 9:00 a.m. and never heard back. Called again at 1:15 p.m. and found their computer system was down, so apparently my message was never delivered.
We had one of our largest tomatoes for BLTs today. It is over 1.25# and here is my proof. John says it is not our largest, and we are not sure of its name. We had three large varieties, Big Boy, Celebrity, and Fantastic, which we think this is. The name above the plant was blown off the fence–perhaps it is called Fantastic or Super Fantastic, which they certainly are.

Tuesday, Oct 7

Good news for a change on my CPAP machine/mask experience. We left at 11:45 today and went to my sleep doctor’s office (45 mi away) for a consultation with the doctor on the results of my second sleep test that occurred 9/20. First, I had to go through an assistant who asked me to describe all my sessions with the machine. I did, and I also asked her if she could read my SD card and give me a report to be sure it was recording properly. She said she couldn’t because their computer system was down. I asked what the software was and she said Encore. It was obvious I was extremely disheartened with the news. She said she would discuss what I had told her with the doctor. Before she left, I gave her a copy of the color graphs I had from data on my own 3 days on the machine, but was hoping to get a check on their software with my SD card. I had printed and taken the results of a SleepyHead graph (from my data) provided to me by my technology aware friend from my long ago Idaho days, who also uses a CPAP machine of the exact same model, but with a different mask. She took them away and the doctor came back and had the graphs with him.
The beginning of the conversation with him was if I had started using the mask and my reactions and response. That set me off on a rant. He asked what was wrong with my experience. I’d already shared all this with the assistant, but I gave him a playback of the past 3 days of pain, suffering, and my lack of decent sleep. After listening to all my complaints, in a very concerned and understanding voice, he said, “Well, we need to get you a different mask that is more comfortable.” Then he told me my results (which I already knew because I had requested from a technician at the sleep center, that both report copies be mailed to me, and I had studied them in detail. I remembered many of the details, some of which I said to him, in the process of the description of my second sleep test. I asked him about the timing on my awake time and if the ramp (controlling the air pressure was reset). As he looked at the data, he observed that yes it was, but that I had only gotten 5 minutes sleep in that last couple hours from waking up and going potty. My total sleep time for the whole night was 3 hrs 14 min. I knew that from the reports, and I asked him if the sleep time was sufficient for useful data. He seemed surprised I knew the timing and said, “You are completely right.” (I doubt he knew I had seen the results). He also mentioned that it was more than enough time for them to gather what they needed. He continued discussing my situation, saying I did not have a serious sleep apnea problem in the first test (nor the second) with the CPAP in place). However, I do have a serious problem that might affect my heart, with my blood oxygen saturation level lowering to 79%. On the second test, it came up to a minimum of 89% with the CPAP engaged and for all but one minute of my time, it was in the 90s. For that reason alone, I am a candidate for a CPAP machine because of my heart history. Related reading at this link: Hypoxemia
During the time we were visiting, the assistant returned and asked for my SD card, as their computer, like Lazarus, had come alive. She took it away and returned with the report. Meanwhile, he had looked at the graphs I brought in, and was happy to know I was going to be able to keep track of my own statistics and that I wanted to. He mentioned that he was not familiar with SleepyHead, but he thought there was an alternative available through the Philips Respironics folks website. I have not looked yet since coming home. I did ask him if I could get a copy of the software; he said no, because it allowed machine changes to be made and they did not want people messing with the settings. (I realize I can also make setting changes on the machine, but am not supposed to.) In parting, he said I was proceeding well, and to keep it up with the trying the new mask; that slowly my nights would be better and I would get used to the system. He gave me 3 possible ones to consider: a nasal pillow (made by ResMed), Nuance Pro, Swift Fx, and WISP. That first one was good to hear, because I have one made for a female for my old machine. The last one was great to hear because that’s the style my friend has and I had seen a picture of his face with it on his head.
With all that news, I thanked him and ask if he could Fax the prescription over right away so I could call the Medical Supply place to go by and pickup a mask on the way home. No problem, he would. He wants me to come back in December, but I can call anytime with questions.
From there we drove to Costco for gasoline ($3.399/gal), late lunch, and shopping for a few things. While sharing a Polish sausage, piece of combo pizza, and a very berry sundae (made with yogurt), I called the Medical Supply place about the CPAP mask change need. I got a very helpful person, Alyssa, and I first asked for my Respiratory Therapist, who wasn’t there. Then I asked for her boss, by name, because we had met him last week. He was not there either, so she asked if she could help. I said, “I surely hope so.” I told her we had just come from my sleep doctor and he had faxed my prescription over for a change in mask(s). She said she would check to see if it was in. It was, so she told me to drop by and try them on to see which I wanted. (I could only take one, but had a choice of 2 of the 3 mentioned above.) I turned in my Eson mask. Once done in Costco, I drove back by the place. I had carried along my nasal pillow ResMed mask that came with my CPAP machine. I couldn’t get it to fit on my machine, so I hoped I could get a converter. I also had my new machine, and the mask along with me. We walked in and there were 4 women present. I asked which one was Alyssa. Alyssa had just gone back to the warehouse. I said — oh my, and proceeded to tell one my story. Her name is Kelsey. She listened and said she could check and help me. Meanwhile another gal, Alejandra found two masks on the counter between her desk and the missing Alyssa’s desk. We decided they were meant for me. One was a ResMed and the other a WISP. When I saw the ResMed (nasal pillow), I asked if it had changed much over the years, and they said, not really. I pulled out my old one and ask Kelsey if she could look at the tubing to see if I could maybe get a converter for it to fit my machine. She pulled out a piece of connecting plastic from the hose, and hooked it right up with the hose on the new one. I didn’t realize that part was removable. So, that fixed it and made it usable on my new machine. I knew I wanted to take the WISP so we went over to fit it to my head and nose. There are 3 nose sizes. Petite, S/M, and XL. She looked at me and said you probably will take the petite. I laughed and said I have never been a petite in anything in my life. We put it to my nose, and she measured (by looking), and said, that’s perfect; you have a small nose. Then to satisfy my curiosity, I tried the next size up, and it was too big. It was probably the size on the Eson, or possibly larger. Regardless, I was happy, and she said, “I will go in the back and find you two other petites you can take along. You’ll want to change them once a month, and when you come back in 3 months, we’ll give you 3 new ones.” The last thing that happened was I mentioned the plastic on my face would likely irritate me. She said, “Oh, I can go see if I have a “fabric” frame and change it. Sure enough, she did. While still on the discussion of plastic, I asked her how best to clean the nosepiece. She said — didn’t your technician give you a “can” of wipes when she fitted you for the mask last week. Nope. She did not, and John was there to agree. She said, “Well, she should have. I will get some for you (they are called CPAP Mask Wipes).” I have now heard from my friend there is also a cleaning spray one can get.

Wednesday, Oct 8

Reporting in this morning on my sleep last night with the new WISP mask for my CPAP machine. Last night I started with resetting it to work right with the machine. It still is probably a little tighter than necessary, but I had to tighten it to keep it from leaking. It is SO much better than the previous one. I can touch my eyes and even intake water from a glass without removing the mask. It won’t just slip over my head, however. I have to unhook one side. I made it 5 hours before having to get up, and then once up, I decided my nose needed to be blown and my eyes needed some drops, and my head needed a rest from the head gear (even though it was much better than the first mask). I went back to sleep and got about 2.5 hours more sleep without the mask.
Being Wednesday, I’ve got a busy day. Food bank music and SAIL exercise class are on today’s agenda. I carried some tomatoes and other produce to a few folks. One house on my way to town I left some onions, squash, tomatoes, and apples, and in exchange received two jars of plum preserves from some plums we had shared. From there on to the Food Bank where I gave more tomatoes and apples to my banjo buddy who with me entertains the Soup Kitchen crew. Today was especially neat because while we played Five Foot Two, the office assistant stood up and started doing a Vaudeville routine. She grabbed a broom and borrowed a hat from a patron. She got a roaring ovation. Then we entertained for over a half hour, and had many people singing along. It was a fun day. For lunch today, they fixed a Shepherd’s Pie that was scrumptious. It was baked in mashed potatoes, with carrots, yellow squash, and included very tender roast beef. They served some sort of squash, cut up with dark green peeling and light yellow inside, but I didn’t like it. Then a nice green salad with cherry tomatoes, with parmesan sprinkled on top, and for dessert, they served an apple chocolate sauce covered cake. We visited with one of the patrons as we ate, and he said he was going to his car to get his guitar and serenade us while we ate. He plays his guitar left-handed. The first song he did was one he wrote himself. It was quite well done. Then his second song was a Roger Miller song, and he did that well too. That encouraged a couple of people at our table to talk about how much music makes the world go round and makes it a happier place for people. From there, I took one of my graduate student friends out to my car and shared more of our tomatoes and apples. On to SAIL class with more tomatoes and apples. On my way in, I gave a large tomato to the bus driver (from Hope Source that gives rides to disabled people). He was surprised and happy to receive it. Some of the biggest ones really excited people and they went quickly, one each to several people. There were only 3 apples left at the end, so I asked a gal who depends on a walker and a ride by the Hope Source folks, with a lift for wheelchairs and walkers on a bus, if she wanted the 3 little tasty apples. She did, so I found a bag to put them in for her. I left there with my planned leftover box of large, medium, and small cherry and yellow pear tomatoes for another music group member who cannot be there tomorrow, and their house is on my way home.
Once home I decided to try out my other CPAP mask (a nasal pillow one) that I got free with an older machine, now that I had the ability to connect to my new machine which records statistics on an SD card. That worked well, so I will use it tonight to see how I can get through the night. It is MUCH more lightweight than any of the other masks, and I assume will be my mask of choice for most of my time. We’ll see. I still have to try the WISP again to be sure to get its head gear completely adjusted to not cause me any discomfort when using it with my favorite pillow.

Thursday, Oct 9

Memories of last night’s horrible CPAP mask experience:
(1) 11:30 – 2:00 used the ResMed from a previous purchase from this provider (that was given to me). It is a ResMed Nasal Pillow model.
(2) 2:10 to 5:30 used the “new” WISP mask again.

Regarding (1) Okay. I tried setting up the ResMed mask earlier in the day. Tonight I started with it adjusted and reclined on the pillow. The back white plastic piece is bumpy and painful. The upper headgear and facial gear straps are covered in cloth. Overall it is better (less intrusive) than the WISP, however the nasal pillow didn’t leak air while I was sitting, yet, it did while in my sleep position. I had to tighten the headgear to manage the leaks. I could not go to sleep. There seemed to be air escaping from the connector to the nasal tube. As well, I had trouble with air escaping my mouth on its own, and not because I was opening it. It was as if it was forcing it to open. I did my best to try to make this work from 11:30 to 2:00, but finally, totally exhausted, I gave up and switched to the WISP.
Regarding (2) The WISP mask seemed okay at the start, but still difficult with having pressure from the pillow on the back piece of fabric gear. I’m going to change to a small foam pillow tonight. I had more trouble with air leaking from the actual bottom side of the petite nosepiece plastic when turning my head ever so slightly. I managed to make it until 5:30 and then removed and slept w/o a mask until 10:00 a.m. (with a short wake-up when John got up).
Talked to my neighbor Jerry Anderson this morning. Jerry is the one I exchanged dates for doctor visits with because he goes south for the winter and was running out of time here. I’ve had his cell# and now have his address in AZ. He seems to have more apnea symptoms than I do but comparing mask issues can still be useful.
Being a Thursday, I went to play music, today at the Rehab. We had a great turnout of players and audience. Megan was able to be there with her big bass, Ellen on clarinet, me on fiddle, our new singer Bob (from the Food Bank), Evelyn on banjo, Gerald on Guitar, Manord on his banjo guitar, Maury on guitar, and Minerva on guitar. We made lots of music and had a lot of participation, including our little walker-supported and singing dancer, a resident named Helen. What’s so cool is she knows the words to the songs and dances along singing. After we played, I shared 4 types of tomatoes with the group. From there off to Briarwood to deliver more tomatoes, and got two blueberry muffins from a resident in return, on to the Senior Center to take a little sack of yellow pear (small) tomatoes to Katrina, who cannot have red tomatoes because of the acid.
Finally, I stopped by Pam’s (the bulk harvest contact) to pick up 25# of potatoes but ended up with ~35# for $2.00 ($.05/pound is not a bad price). The remainder of my $2 goes to pay for potatoes to be donated to the Food Bank. When I was there, Pam had a back trunk full of bags of potatoes for them. I guess my donation would pay for 6# of potatoes. Rather amazing. These are from the volunteer efforts of a local LDS church. Anyone in the community is able to participate, and we have for several years. We had a LDS band member who invited our group to his ward’s potlucks, celebrations, and chili feeds — we played music in exchange for a good meal. This was an outgrowth of that connection and continues after his death.
Back to the CPAP affair:
On my way home, I called the medical supply place with a question about my CPAP mask. I left my number and a request for Kelsey to return a call. I was probably 7 minutes from home, but I left both numbers. As I parked my car at home, the cell phone rang. They could not put me in touch with her, but tried to help me. I would have rather talked to Kelsey, but I tried to explain my question. The woman I had on the phone’s interpretation of their policy of trading masks was that only one trade was allowed in the first 30 days, and I had just used mine this week. That is not what I thought after visiting on Tuesday. Kelsey will return my call tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the other helper answered my question about the other masks I had not taken. I was under the impression I could only evaluate one at a time, and therefore I could bring this one back if it didn’t work (next Tues). That mask was by ResMed and is a nasal pillow type called a Swift Fx. I have my fingers crossed for a call in the morning.

Friday, Oct 10

Goodness… another rough night with the CPAP. This time I started with the new WISP mask on at 11:00. I slept intermittently, awaking at 1:10 and at 2:10. I made a few adjustments for a leaking around the lower part of my nose piece, which seemed to relate and depend on my position (best with head straight ahead–not to either side). For the last 4 years since my illness, I have slept on my back with an upward tilt. I USED to sleep on my right side. At 2:10 I awoke and had to go potty– had a runny itchy nose, and completely readjusted all 4 headpieces. I needed to put fluid (moisture tear drops) in my eyes, and dry my nose. I decided the mask had gotten off center, and that’s likely why the leakage was occurring. I changed my pillow from the little foam I started with back to my normal one. At the first, my air was doing fine. When I tightened the 4 straps, I put more pressure on the fabric on my cheeks. I think that mask will not work because with the Cherokee Indian blood in me, I have high cheekbones that get in the way of those facial straps to the nosepiece.
I honestly believe I never got back to sleep. I noticed the times and at 30 minutes and 45 minutes and I hit the ramp to reset the pressure with hopes I could fall asleep more easily. I was still fighting the mask at 4:30, when I gave up, and removed it. I knew I had to have some sleep to get up and travel to the doctor with John for his visit to an internist, regarding a colonoscopy. I went right to sleep and slept for 3 hours. I am tired now at the end of the day, because I never took a nap.
Morning call to my CPAP medical supplies provider. I asked to speak to the gal I couldn’t reach yesterday. She wouldn’t be in until noon, so I decided I would call back after noon. Meanwhile, I got a call from Alyssa prompted by my late afternoon call yesterday. This was a wonderful surprise, but I was running out of time to talk for needing to go with John to town. However, she listened to my sad story of woe and impressions of what I thought was supposed to happen, and she said not to worry. They wanted me to be happy with a comfort zone that allowed me to use the machine. While normally I would only get one change of mask within the first 30 days, they would make an exception and for me to come by Tuesday, while down there to see my cardiologist, and they would fit me for the lighter head piece mask, Swift Fx, by ResMed with the nasal pillow feature. A big burden was lifted and I thanked her and told her how much I appreciated all the support she had given me, starting last Tuesday. She told me they could not resell the mask once it was used. I imagine they can rent it out, however. I think I will ask if they can honor a doctor’s prescription, maybe paid for by my secondary insurance as a mask to switch with in the future. I would prefer having at least two masks, depending on my mood, or even if I switch to the nasal pillow and decide I don’t like the nose part of that one. I need to ask if I can change to a new mask at my 3 months time. They are supposed to change every 3 months on the rental agreement. I don’t know if it is a change and I kept the old mask, or an exchange and I have to turn in my current mask. So much to learn. However, I’m happy to be looking forward to the change this Tuesday after my cardiologist appointment. Meanwhile, I will keep trying to use the mask until Tuesday.

Saturday, Oct 11

First, I need to review my CPAP experience last night. I put on my mask about 11:00 and adjusted it in front of a mirror to be sure I was symmetrically set up, unlike last night. Problem always is that the reclining sleep position causes differences in the fit. I awoke hourly, and had a few noises to contend with. I may have made a strap adjustment. Mostly, the sound from the machine was the normal inhale sound and exhale sound the unit makes…sort of a groan in two tones. Around 3:00 I awoke to high-pitched squeaky sound from the nosepiece. I shifted the nosepiece and finally got rid of the noise. Then, however, by 4:35, I had to get it off my head. I was not able to continue. So, then I continued without the mask and slept until 9:00, with a slight awake time at 7:00. I’m much more rested than yesterday.
Early morning before the wind started we took a walking tour of the Northeast Woodlot on our property. We have small wooded areas on all sides except the Southeast side. I shall give you a small picture description of our route.
We started on our way for John to show me the very large cottonwood tree that fell in yesterday’s winds while he was working relatively close by. Behind him, he heard the cracking of the falling tree, and scurried in the other direction. Sadly, it did not come all the way down, but hung up on two other trees (one young and one near dead itself). The combination is hazardous and there is no way for John to remove any of it. The trunk of the big dead tree (about 3 feet thru) failed about 4 feet from the ground – sort of like breaking a bread stick. When John lived with his parents, his mom would claim anything like this leaned toward Fisher (small country crossroads). This one actually leans toward Seattle, or mostly west. He also showed me some of his handiwork near the neighbor’s fence line where he has been cleaning off trees that have fallen on the old fence. I wanted to take some photos of the autumn colors, although they do not compare to the beautiful pictures below from friends in New Jersey and Ohio (but of a place in West Virginia).
Here you go: First, the lovely yellow cottonwood leaves around the little irrigation stream on the NE side of our property.

The partially fallen tree.

John is clearing some of our property to have a reduced fuel load if there is a fire but in this section he is hoping to prevent another “tragedy of the fence line.” The photo below is of the partial skull of a small deer. Near the tree (above) and old barbed wire fence has been nearly flattened by fallen trees. There are many wild roses and others sorts of shrubs there. We think the deer bounded into this mess and could not get out, thus dying there.

In the photo below, the 3rd log from the left (smallish one) was across the fence and that’s where the deer was found. [Smaller trunks on the right with bark are from the clearing and thinning operation of 2013.]

Growth is relentless and the leftovers from downed trees makes a nice pile and that makes a place for the quail to go. We’ve many such piles, and lots of quail.

The foreground plants are rabbitbrush. The blooms are now old but 3 weeks ago they were still being visited by bees.
Winds got to 39 mph gusts twice today and we also got .02″ of rain at the airport (5 miles south). I ran out with my rain jacket and moved under the eaves some boxes of magazines and other things from the garage that didn’t need to get wet. John worked through it down at the lower end of the pasture. Says he was under Alder trees and was somewhat protected. Walking back would have just gotten him wetter. He didn’t go to Franklin Falls today – poured there – but will go Sunday. It is not to rain then.

The next photo is from a morning email from Bill Howard (our best man). He describes it: We are currently vacationing at Pipestem State Park in south-central West Virginia; the fall scenery is magnificent. Yesterday, despite steady rain, we took a long hike in the woods.

Below is from another email this morning — it’s from Elise my friend in Andover, NJ, actually taken at Heater’s Pond, in Ogdensburg, NJ, 10/11/14. She took on a nice hike around a lake about 10 mi from her home, in northern New Jersey.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Sept 28

John left this morning at 6:40, stopping for gasoline at the I-90 exit at the Love’s Travel Stop, for $3.69/gal (still commonly called Pilot’s in EBRG). He was gone all day working on trail at Franklin Falls.
This is a lovely short trail close to Seattle and frequented by many people. Our friends from 1988, Alli and Paul Martin, sent John this photo of their two daughters, Georgia and Liz at the end of the trail. John has been working at the beginning of the trail, near the parking lot, not within view of the falls, but he has walked up there in the past. The last couple of hundred feet is a scramble along a rock face. Then there is a nice gravel bar and the plunge pool. Fixing this short section is at the talking stage – likely to be done by a contractor. (click to make big)

Georgia and Liz Martin at Franklin Falls

Just west of the parking lot for the Franklin Falls trail, a new trail to the camp ground is being carved out of the forested hill side. This is John removing a root.

Behind him, in a dug-trench, large rocks are being placed – making a rock wall – behind that smaller rocks topped with gravel will make the tread.
Rascal was gone a lot one night and morning and finally came back limping on his back right foot. It was swollen and appeared to be an injury that had scabbed over, but then possibly abscessed. It was the weekend so I didn’t want to have an after-hrs vet call. I tried putting an ointment on it, and it seemed to make it soften and drain, after he kept licking it. Today, it was not as swelled. It had a slight discharge, but I put a Kleenex on it, and it appeared to be clear liquid, not pus. He’s not limping as much. I didn’t have any small antibiotic pills and no triple antibiotic cream. He’s eating and sleeping a lot, and only going outside a little (probably only to potty, because he returns soon after leaving through the doggie door).

Now, to update you all, as we know more results from this weekend. Photos thanks to Alice Benoit and Karen Barrows. Daisy (in the photo), is my co-owned (with Jeri Conklin) female named Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ (Daisy, call name). The Tre’ in her name is associated with her being the 3rd Shay in our lines following our female, DC/AFC Sirius Sashay, and Cedaridge Legacy of Shay. With Roy Stockton handling Saturday, Daisy won 1st place (1 amateur point) in the Amateur Walking Derby at the NCBC trial in Corning, CA. Sunday, Paul Doiron handled her to a 2nd placement in Open Derby. We haven’t yet heard about that run and bird work.
Enjoying attention on the stakeout chain.

Displaying her Cedaridge smirk, but it can become a wider grin (of happiness).

Daisy on point of a bird under the bush in her winning race.
Daisy from my birthday 9-1, running at the Oregon Brittany Club in Madras.

On a roll this weekend, her brother, Cedaridge Kip’s Tug Toy (Tug, call name), was at a show in Carson City, NV with his owner, Sonja Willitts, who also owns his father, Cedaridge Tri-tip Kip, out of our breeding. The mom of these pups is Jeri’s female, KWK Windswept Guinevere of Camelot (Ginny, call name). We’re happy to report Tug was awarded Best of Winners (5 pt major), 9/27; on Sunday 9/28, Tug won another 5 pt major (BOW). Yes, it was a fantastic weekend for all of us. Thanks to all people involved.

Sonja had a professional photograph taken yesterday for his first 5 pt major, but we won’t see that for a couple weeks. This was taken by Kevin Willitts (note below on Thursday, Oct 2 for two links to see Kevin in action as a veterinarian working on Cinder, the bear badly burned in WA). When Sonja got home from the last show, at my request she displayed his ribbons and sat his dad, Kip, beside her. NOTICE, the Digital Photo Display on the table at center-left. That is Sonja in a show photo with the judge and ribbon for a 3 pt major on Tug’s great, great, great, great, Uncle (Whispering Tic) in 1979 with from our 1977 breeding in Idaho. That’s when I first met Sonja, and we have been good friends for 37 years now.

Monday, Sept 29

Decided to follow-up on a continued billing from 2 different publishers for a renewal (at a higher price), and a special rate for welcoming us back. We never left getting the Smithsonian magazine, which we have enjoyed for over 40 years. I made a phone call to the place we always got it for $12 for students and faculty members and found out our last subscription through them was in 2009. They apparently lost their contract for a time, but got it back when customers started complaining about the higher charge from a Publisher’s place in VA, who keep calling and bugging us. Last time they renewed us when the $12 one was not available was at $16. Now it is up to $29.95. I had called a year ago and found out the $12 was now available from our old place, so I knew I would renew through them. When I said that recently to the VA based firm, they lied to me again and said they were not carrying it. The name of the organization we prefer has changed their name to College Subscription Service, but it is in the exact same location with the same phone number. I have a direct line to a person who has served us for years. It is now subscribed at $12 and we will be notified next week on our email. The VA place called again, when I was gone in town, and John told them they would have to talk with me. When I was sick this service started their subscriptions through them, after calling John. Now we are finally out from under their painful marketing practice, I think, with the next phone call I get from them.
The rest of our day included inside and outside chores.

Tuesday, Sept 30

We went to Howard’s Medical Supply in Selah (wrong, it was the one in Yakima that no one told me was the location), so I was a little late for my appointment. We left our house at 9:00 a.m. for an appt 9:45 with Arleen Lommers (in the business for 20 years advising CPAP users on equipment setup). I took some tomatoes to Starla the receptionist there, who is from Ellensburg. In addition, I took along my freely given Respironics CPAP machine (which had originally been bought from them), and they gave me a new smart card with the proper air pressure (8) to use as a backup unit for travel. John and I went through the introduction to the machine and mask prescribed by my sleep doctor, Dr. Kumar, from the results of my two sleep studies. Through Medicare, this machine will be rented for 13 months to keep track of my progress every 3 months, and get new parts during the contract. Philips Respironics also make the newer machine, but it is a model that’s lighter, quieter, & better in some ways.
Finally, we left for Selah for the 9:45 appt. Got there right on time, but it was the WRONG place. They have two medical supply stores, and we guess this was the original one, but they expanded to a larger facility on 16th Ave in Yakima (north end of town). We got back in the car and took off. My appointment lasted about an hour and we were showed aspects of the machine and mask. The respiratory therapist programmed its settings to the doctor’s specifications for me. She explained everything to us (except how to make those settings), demonstrated, and answered all my questions. It is a Respironics REMSTAR Auto A-Flex, with a small SD card for the data collection. That will be good for my using free software, SleepyHead, and putting the SD card in my laptop, for viewing graphs and charts in color of the measurements made during my use. Every 3 months, I have to take that SD card to my sleep doctor’s office for them to see the results. The old CPAP machine’s card is larger and different, more the size of a credit card, and would not be accepted by my laptop. It has a heated humidifier (as does the old one). Both units have a Ramp feature; the new one is set for 20 minutes, starting at a pressure of 5. It has a System One humidifier that surprisingly costs more than the CPAP, maybe because I’m only renting the CPAP part. The machine is mine at the end of the rental (I believe). We did not hang around Yakima to go to Costco, but came on back to take care of things in the valley.
The rest of our day was full of going to the hospital in Ellensburg for a blood draw for my INR (3.0), then over across the valley for a couple hours to our friends’ orchard, where during heavy wind gusts, we picked a couple hundred # of apples — Gala, Jonagold, and Honeycrisp. They are mostly for us to freeze, make applesauce, and eat raw. We have given a few away, and likely will give some more to close friends. We did not pick as many as last year and will not deliver to the Food Bank or the Adult Activity Center.
On the way home, we delivered 6 macramé hangers to a family in Kittitas. She was thrilled, and it gives us a few less things to worry with getting rid of because of not having the room to use. If we had an enclosed porch we could hang them, but outside with exposure to sun and rain, the rope deteriorates. In 45 mph wind they move a lot.

Wednesday, Oct 1

Each week, Wednesday is Food Bank music and SAIL exercise class. I carried some tomatoes to a few folks. At the Food Bank, we checked the replaced chords on Froggy Went a Courtin’, and it was just fine. Our two sing along fellows absolutely love that song and harmonize enjoyably. This new sheet should be good for the larger group; Thursday’s Fiddlers and Friends.
Just home and beginning to check mail. We’re driving back to CWU tonight for a lecture and wanted to try to fix up my CPAP to use. Last night we didn’t bother trying to figure out where to put it and get it started properly and me fitted to its use. I was having trouble in the office undoing the left part of the nosepiece and had trouble resetting it back on as well. That concerns me when I have to get up during the night and reset in the dark, by myself. I know I will learn more as I use it. Since worrying about that, my friend suggested just leaving the headgear on and disconnecting the air hose. Why didn’t I think of that?
We went to IAF lecture to hear Paul Blanton, on the topic: “Arroyos in the Foster Creek Watershed.” The issue was rapid erosion of steep walled gullies after early settlers altered the land cover. His study site was to our NE, and just south of the Grand Coulee Dam. It was interesting and well done, but took a lot of time, and put us home late for dinner.
John tried a couple of things gleaned from the web to make our scanner work. What he tried didn’t work, but it will make copies. That will be okay for the changed music I need tomorrow. I don’t understand why it doesn’t use the scanner when copying, but that’s okay. It is late so he will search for a solution tomorrow.

Thursday, Oct 2

Music at Royal Vista. I took copies for all of Froggy Went a Courtin’ now completed, with corrected chords. Pretty good turnout of players. John was the produce man at the end and we shared small tomatoes, larger ones, and some blemished (won’t keep long type) apples, which several people just ate in the parking lot. The blemished we are giving freely for people wishing to make applesauce, freeze for apple desserts, or dry some.
I need to see if I can get my CPAP machine ready to go tonight. I was unable to accomplish it, again tonight. It needs to be lower than my sleeping position (according to the user manual I had to read through before using the machine). The Respiration Therapist never mentioned that to me.
Instead, for the last blog entry tonight, I will share a report from my friend Sonja Willitts about the female bear from Washington’s Methow valley wildfire this summer. Her hubby Kevin is the vet in charge of the bear, Cinder.
Click the following to see: Cinder – link One
She sent that link yesterday and this link today. Both are worth the watch. Today’s is a slightly different link to another story about Cinder. Cinder — link Two

Friday, Oct 3

When John came in last night from his yard work in the pasture, he neglected to close the gate again. We received an early morning call from our neighbor that our horses were in the road. He managed to get by them and turn around to herd them back toward our driveway. He called on his cell phone, and John went right out with a pan of grain. He shook it and the younger horses came in the driveway, thinking they would be rewarded. Ebony, the oldest horse, was a little slower coming but it was for her anyway. So, John closed the gate and came on back down the drive. All the horses returned to their pasture. That botched up our morning plans, but we were extremely grateful to our neighbor for his notification and assistance.
Worked all day on chores, including trying to unload stuff near where I sleep to put up my CPAP unit. Maybe tomorrow. I think I will work to get it set up and try it during the day, in the daylight when I can see the dials and figure how to connect and disconnect my mask.
For dinner tonight, we had fall-apart all day Crockpot-cooked large beef roast, with fried mushrooms, our cherry tomatoes, and golden deep-friend onion rings, made from our Ailsa Craig large sweet onions–better than any Walla Walla or Vidalia onions, I assure you.

John found new ideas for fixing our scanner problem on our Epson all-in-one printer. YIPPEE. Replacing a thing called TWAIN (communications protocol that regulates communication between software and digital imaging devices) worked. The word TWAIN is a backronym used in the early 1990s to reflect the difficulty, at the time, of connecting scanners and personal computers. The official website notes that “the word TWAIN is from Kipling’s The Ballad of East and West — ‘…and never the twain shall meet…’ [The backronym is: Technology Without an Interesting Name.] I wanted the scanner for the music preparation I have to do, and other record keeping paperwork for bills and medical records. Last night he spent an hour downloading new drivers and installing them, but it did not work. Tonight he researched more on line and found some more suggestions to incorporate, but it required the long time of downloading again and the re-installation. This time it worked and we both can access the scanner (on our shared printer) through a wireless connection to both our computers.

Saturday, Oct 4

Excitement this morning the first 45 minutes up — with 12 wild (Merriam) turkeys in our front yard on the cement slab. I photographed and captured some interesting footage, first from inside the house, and then I actually walked out the front door and took more. Will have more evidence later when I process the pix and the videos. The two large males along last year are not with this group. Perhaps these are the offspring of last year’s 13 turkeys. This photo is of the ones mostly inside the fence to show the pretty vegetation colors. Red berries are on a Mountain Ash tree inside the fence, the edge planter has Marigolds, and the yellow tree in the distance is a Black Walnut.

Here is the link to see my video of the visiting turkeys heading over the fence. It is 12 seconds long.
Managed to wash the muddy work pants for John’s trip tomorrow to Franklin Falls, put up blackberries he picked a day or so ago, (4 small bags), added to a freezer bag and frozen. Emptied the double sink of dirty dishes from yesterday’s activities, and all this before my first cup of coffee! John made sure the turkeys had gone away and then took the dogs for morning exercise.

Today John packaged up several garbage bags of tin (aka steel) cans and aluminum ones. He also moved out many boxes of recyclable paper and trash from near our Culligan units, to allow access for a yearly maintenance visit Monday morning. I went to visit a neighbor and take her the last of our yellow squash and a few tomatoes. She is the one I mentioned last week as having started a pineapple plant, and I asked her to call me when this one bloomed out. I took my camera down and captured this for the record.

We managed to get the CPAP machine ready to blow for tonight. I have practiced with it in the daylight such that I hope once the lights are out I will be all right. Here’s my description sent to a friend with the same CPAP machine & mask type, who has been advising me about mine. I sent this at 11:11 p.m. tonight:
I said: I liked your advice about doing it in the daylight. I have my CPAP sitting beside me and it is hooked up but is making air sounds (intake and exhale) I don’t like when I breathe. John says I will get used to it, but I find it aggravating. I don’t know if music in the background would help or not. My ears are very good, maybe to my disadvantage with the CPAP. We’ll see if I can sleep. I need to clear my throat and cough, and it won’t let me. I need to blow my nose and can’t. The sound seems more to be coming from the machine but the other squeak is not as regular it seems to be coming from the right side of my nosepiece.
I just re-ramped it to lower the pressure. I had tried earlier typing on my laptop and it didn’t work well because it’s difficult to see around the nosepiece and head straps. I’m glad I don’t wear glasses. Before I go to bed I usually put gel or drops in my eyes because they dry out (with my intraocular lens replacements for cataracts–successfully in since 1997). Such “liquid” input to my eyes causes me to have either to blow my nose or clear my throat. My other complaint is the constriction of my forehead. I truly don’t like the fact I cannot wipe my eyes or access them, with all the facial nosepiece headgear on.
Okay, here I go to set up for the night. I will give it the best try I can.

Sunday, Oct 5

John left at 6:40 for another Franklin Falls WTA trip.
I stayed in bed, trying to get some sleep after an absolutely horrible first night’s experience on the CPAP machine.
Here’s the story. I finally last looked at the clock at 11:32 p.m. I don’t know how long it took me to fall asleep. Perhaps my SD card will tell me. I had difficulty getting pillow support under my head with the mask on. I felt it was too tight, but didn’t want to try to adjust in the dark, after it had been fitted by the technician. The other problem I had was the back heavy felt-like cloth piece getting in the way of my comfort pillow (under my neck for support). I had interrupted “sleep” for the next 3 hours, and finally took the head apparatus off at 3:30 a.m. and got up to go potty. I had severe neck muscle pain on my right side, pressure points on my forehead, and pain on the lower back part of my both sides of my skull. My discomfort level was high, and my head ached probably from lack of decent sleep. I was cold and had to put on a sweatshirt. Once to the bathroom I noticed a red splotch and indentation in my forehead, so I got my camera and took a “selfie” to show to my sleep doctor and my CPAP technician. I hope you can see the red spot (and indentation) I’m pointing to on my forehead.

I believe I will try resetting the Velcro “pressure” on the top headpiece and try again tonight. Meanwhile, early this morning, I shut off the machine, and went back to bed to attempt to get rested. I was not feeling well at all. Last glance at the clock was after 4:00 a.m. At 6:10 I awoke with John’s alarm and stayed awake to see him off and then went back to sleep. I cannot believe how long I slept–until 10:55 a.m. That is very unusual for me, so I must not have gotten good sleep from 11:30 to 3:30 last night, and caught up with my normal 7 hours of sleep.
After readjustment tonight, if the mask gives me problems, I will switch to the different mask that came on the free CPAP machine given to me. That mask seems less intrusive and I saw an example on the demo shelf in the Medical Supply place next to the one I was fitted with. I also have heard from John’s brother and several others that sometimes a person must go through different style or sized masks to find one that works well. Makes sense – we have different faces, don’t we?

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Click here to learn about the Equinox.

Sunday, Sept 21

On my way home from Yakima, I filled my Subaru with 13 gallons of gasoline at Costco, saving the .18/gal under the price in Ellensburg. I made it home at 8:00 a.m. from my overnight “sleep” test in Yakima. I only managed to sleep for 3.5 hrs, if that, at the start of my study. The mask was uncomfortable and confining and of course, my nose itched and I could not reach it. My bed was raised to ~40°, pillows set, and I managed eventually to go to sleep because I was tired and ready to be done with this experience. I awoke abruptly at 2:30 a.m. and asked what happened. Also, it was impossible to talk with the mask in place blowing air in my nose, because one’s mouth needs to stay closed so as not to leak air. I was afraid I had had an “event” to cause me to awake to regain breathing properly, but that was not the case. She said, “You just woke up.” I realized I was hot and too heavily laden with covers, so asked her please to come help me and to turn the temperature down a little. I had already kicked off the spread. This occurred while my tech was on a break, so another tech came to my room to help me. She adjusted the thermostat and turned on a fan. While she was still there, I asked if she could disconnect me to go to the potty, as I was already awake. She did. When I got up, I realized the fan was blowing too hard, right into my face, and I asked her to turn it off. She had lowered the temp on the heating/cooling system. She hooked me back up but apparently, I got into the bed differently from before, and I could not get comfortable or put the pillows into the positions they had been in earlier when I began the test. I struggled for way too long, trying to go to sleep even moving my knees up to relieve the lower back pain, but I still could not do anything about the neck pain. I had shoulder pain as well. Finally, I called my own tech back in to readjust the pillows and bed. I asked the time, and it was 3:50 a.m. almost an hour and a half since the wake up episode. While there, she also found me a lighter-weight spread. And, because we could not seem to re-orient the pillows properly, I tried another I had carried along (it is the little kind from an airplane). We put it under my neck and that seemed to work to relieve the pain — however, it was pushing my head forward, and I think it was affecting the nosepiece of the mask, because I heard a sound of air escaping. Apparently, that did not show up at the control room (I was told later when I complained).
Regardless, I could not get back to sleep between all that discomfort and sounds. I was hearing water running in the wall (turns out the toilet was still running from my earlier visit, but we didn’t find it until I was completely done with the test), and my technician shook the handle to stop it. She mentioned she thought she heard something over my microphone room tap, but didn’t realize what it was. At 5:00 a.m., I was “awakened”; I am sure I had never gone back to sleep during the previous hour. My estimate is that I barely got maybe 3.5 hours of sleep on this entire visit. (turns out I found out Friday, that I only slept for 3 hrs. & 14 minutes. I think they prefer to have at least 4 hours of data. The only very positive result was the answer to one of my questions, “What was the lowest percentage that my blood oxygen saturation level reached?”
Apparently, it went to 89% for a minute, but was in the 90s the rest of the time. I think that is promising. She could not give me a count of the number of times my breathing paused during the test, but indicated I did have some “events.” I will have to wait until the final chart printouts are reviewed by the staff during the week. I don’t know if I will get any feedback at all until my appointment with the doctor (October 7), but I will ask. I requested a printout of today’s overnight data charts collected, and as expected, I was refused. Not sure why, considering the graphs will not change. I am allowed a copy of them after the doctor has reviewed everything.
My first experience goes back to June 19th with an explanation in June 20th date below in this blog of all the measurements taken and the reason for them.
I received an offer of a CPAP machine, 5 years old, from a person on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site (it is only for freely given items). I will accept and if I don’t need it I shall re-gift to another member of the site who wants it for her mother as a backup unit. I fully expect them to rule I must have one.
Today, I received a nice boost from a member of my Jobs list serve efforts–with the following she put on her Facebook page and “tagged me” so it went to all my Facebook friends.
She said, I am so excited to announce that I’ll be joining the Washington Water Trust as their newest Project Manager working to restore stream flows in the Yakima, Walla Walla, and Okanogan basins. This is an incredible opportunity for me both personally and professionally and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the support from my friends and colleagues with the Yakama Nation, my dear friend and mentor Jeanne Demorest, and my amazing husband Caleb L Ribellia. I must also acknowledge the wonderful Nancy B. Hultquist for the daily job announcements that she continues to send out. It’s because of her that so many of us are able to find such rewarding paths in life. Here’s to the next chapter! It somehow keeps getting better and better.
An interesting side note is the previous person in this job was also my student, and he sent me the job description to send to the list.

Monday, Sept 22

Up early (but with 9 hrs of sleep)–guess I was playing catch-up from the bad Saturday sleepless night fiasco. John slept in too. I had to soak my feet before going to the foot doctor for a toenail trim (he does it every 3 months), it’s on Medicare’s tab, and he is the one I go to for the laser treatment every 6 months on the toenails on my right foot. That work has to be done in the Yakima office, and I’m not scheduled until December.
John had to get the horses ready for their trims today at 10:00 a.m. I left at 9:30 and went by Carl’s JR for some of their large Biscuits: Sausage, Cheese, & Egg. I bought 6 at the special sale price, and brought them home for the freezer, yet, I ate 1/2 for my breakfast and froze the other half for a later single breakfast for me. Made it to the doctor’s office in time for my 10:15 appointment, but I didn’t get in right away and was upset at what happened. I had visited with another woman in the waiting room, and she was scheduled for the same doctor as I was, but after me at 10:30. Yet, she was called in before me. I went to the receptionist to inquire if the woman had more of a set up procedure, because my appointment was scheduled before hers. She said, “Oh, well she was here before you.” I told her that was a wrong procedure. She went away and apparently talked to the nurse, who shortly came out and got me. I still had to wait to see the doctor, but it was worth the wait, because he did a very nice job. That’s the same place I have had scheduling problems before, such as being put in a room, and forgotten. I guess he did see me first because when I left, I was in the parking lot making phone calls about my next stops and also arranging my produce in the back of my car for delivery, when I saw her come out of the building.
On from there to deliver some tomatoes to a friend a few blocks from the office, but we were drenched by a rainstorm. I didn’t have a hat or jacket, but did have an extra shirt, which I threw over my head and shoulders. On from there to deliver more produce, squash and tomatoes. During the rainstorm, I made a couple more telephone calls to arrange the rest of my deliveries. The next one was north of town because I knew they’d be leaving for the SAIL exercise class I normally attend, but couldn’t today because of a meeting during the same time. When I got there, they asked me if I wanted to visit and have a cup of coffee, so I accepted. That turned into an invitation for lunch; we had a cup of lentil soup, a homemade muffin, and some slaw. That was a nice surprise. Next stop, back on the south side of town to friends to share more tomatoes. I was beginning to feel like a produce person for sure. I still had a few tomatoes left, and decided to keep them to offer to the woman on my last stop in town. We met after she got off work at 1:00, but she was running late leaving and didn’t call me until 1:15. She decided we could meet downtown at the Dollar store because she had to deliver another gift to someone who worked there. She was cleaning out her house and one thing she listed was a CPAP machine, as mentioned yesterday, which I spoke for. We arranged to meet in Ellensburg.
Once there, she walked the unit over to my car, and took time to explain everything to me. I first asked her to tell me the history of the machine. She got it for herself about 5 years ago to stop her snoring. Her doctor told her if she lost weight, she would stop snoring. She lost about 50 lbs, and it did negate her need for the machine. She showed me how it worked and told me the medical supply place (in Selah, WA), it came from Howard’s Medical Supply. She demonstrated all the working parts, but told me I needed to take the unit to Howard’s Medical Supply, and they would program my “pressure” requirements into a computerized “smart card” (a little smaller than a credit card) to slip in the machine that sets the correct pressurized air flow. I knew that was going to be one of the things in my report from the test on Saturday, and I knew the importance of the technician raising it slowly and watching my body’s reaction to get the proper pressurized flow amount. This unit [from Philips Respironics] has a built-in humidifier, and she showed me how to open, fill , and clean the parts. She showed me the filters and how to remove the humidifier to make the unit smaller for use as a travel version. It is in a nice case with a shoulder strap and barely looks used. She also had had the nasal piece on the head part switched to one for a female, so it fit her better. She showed me how to put the head gear on, it seemed to fit me just fine, and was not as confining as the one I had on last Saturday night. She was careful to warn me not to go home, turn it on, and start using it without the proper adjustment. Her initial testing work-up was done at the same place I went to in Yakima through Memorial Hospital. She was thrilled to take the remaining tomatoes because she lives NW of us, and said her husband’s tomatoes are all still green. It could be she is at a slightly higher elevation. I don’t know her specific address, so cannot check her elevation on Google Earth.
One of the other attempted deliveries today was to give away my contribution to the Ellensburg Buy Nothing group — 6 Macramé hanging flower pot holders. The person they are for lives in Kittitas, but I couldn’t reach her on the phone today, so have postponed that delivery until another day. I have since tried to reach her later in the week, but have been unsuccessful. I am not willing to leave them on her porch by her door. I’m sure someone would walk off with them.
John has David, our farrier, coming at 10:00 to trim two horses. I left a check for him.
Talked to Nan B. at Stoneridge Resort (our timeshare) accounts receivable and am set on an annual automatic payment, so I can ignore any bill I receive from here on out.

Tuesday, Sept 23

We left the house for Yakima at 9:30 a.m. and did not return until dark. It was crazy, mixed with an ICD check appointment for me at the heart center, trying to obtain my sleep study results from upstairs (unsuccessfully), stopping to pick up pizzas to take to our visit 30 minutes west of Yakima (past Wiley City) for lunch. Our friends insisted on paying for the pizzas, and I objected, to no avail. Our lunch was a Cowboy pizza (their choice), and a Papa Murphy Special (our choice), with 1/2 Pepperoni & 1/2 Hawaiian. They had cherry and small orange tomatoes we ate on the side. We had a nice long afternoon visit with them and their golden retriever female, loaded our chipper (we had loaned to them 10 years ago), into our truck in the rain, and left for Costco.
Below is the loading process near the end with John pulling the chipper from the ramp to the front of the PU bed.

Filled the truck with 25 gallons of gas totaling, $90.65 (.18/gal cheaper than Ellensburg), shopped at Costco, and came home to all the animals needing attention and food; we did not get around to eating until very late. They sent us home with some leftover pizza and the great dessert Suzy had made. We saved the pizza for the next day. We put some coconut shrimp in to bake, had it with tomatoes, and then ate the dessert, without blackberries this time, because we had taken all we’d picked and didn’t have time in the dark and rain to pick more. It was made with a yellow cake mix, pouring a sugar pineapple cooked mixture into the cake, and then covering that with Vanilla pudding. Right before we ate it she put on Cool Whip topping, and then poured grated roasted coconut on top. We had taken along some of our blackberries, and we had them on top of the cake. It was very delicious. We also took them one of our Butternut and an Acorn squash. They offered us in trade a spaghetti squash, but neither John nor I are really keen on them, having grown a few many years ago. It’s an interesting concept, however.

Wednesday, Sept 24

Today was a long day starting a little later than yesterday, but consisted of leaving at 11:10, going to town and dropping off two huge butternut squash, the smallest was over 5 lbs, and the other we didn’t weigh, but it was much larger. The idea was to give them to the woman in charge of lunches at the Food Bank to make for lunches for noon. I played and sang there today, with me on the fiddle and our banjo player. We had two folks from the Food Bank (the director, Roger), and Bob, one of the servers and dishwasher loader today, sing with us. Today for lunch, we had quite a spread. The main dish came from Cornerstone pizza, and was LAMB…no joke, and very good. With it, we had a warm pasta with yellow squash, cheese, tomatoes, and some other kind of white cheese, I think. Green salad. A large homemade biscuit, a helping of plum preserves, and some sort of apple cake for dessert.
Answered a few emails, and went with John to help pick blackberries to share with our neighbor. Then I delivered them while he took care of finishing picking some for us. I drove them down the road 3 houses, and carried her the paper and mail, plus the cashews I got for her while at Costco yesterday. Visited with her, her dog and cat, and peeked at her own pineapple plant she started. This is her third time, and it has a little pineapple on it. So cool. She took me back to her computer to see pictures of her previous plant (last in 2008), in all stages of flowering. She will call me to come photograph it when it gets its purple bloom. The following description is from the web: The pineapple is a tropical plant with edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries, and the most economically significant plant in the Bromeliaceae family. Pineapples may be cultivated from a crown cutting of the fruit, possibly flowering in 20–24 months and fruiting in the following six months. Pineapple does not ripen significantly post-harvest. Click for a picture of a flower . Her own pictures have more pastel colors and the purple blossoms are lavender. I cannot wait to see the next steps.
We enjoyed a great supper tonight. To the leftover pizza, I added sliced pieces of our own sweet white onions, and some fresh mushrooms we got at Costco yesterday. Ate a handful each of our nice cherry tomatoes we picked this afternoon.

Thursday, Sept 25

Music at Hearthstone. Carried produce for Mary Ann and George, who enjoyed our performance. Got The Old Rugged Cross finished, and got Froggy Went a Courtin’ completed, with correct notes but realized once there, that we still had problems with chords. Tim helped me out and I have checked them out and returned to two people to check who play chords regularly on a banjo, mandolin, and guitar. Fixed up Gotta Travel On, by adding two previously left out chords.
John went along, and read the Wall St. Journal in an adjacent room, and we carried in some produce for several in town, in addition to there at the music venue. We went by the grocery on our way home, picked up one of my meds there, and then drove by the Feed Store for two bags of pelleted feed for our old horse, Ebony, who has made a miraculous recovery, then on to pick up 50# onions. Next to CWU to drop off a bunch of yellow pear and cherry tomatoes in the building where I had an office for 13 years. They are for a pasta salad and the family of the woman entertaining our scholarship luncheon tomorrow.
When we arrived home, there had been a message left at 1:24 p.m. from the Sleep Center, for me to call and get a message from Natalie. I called right away (just after 4:00 p.m.) knowing they would close at 5:00. There is never a live answer there, so I left a message. No phone call was forthcoming. John used the oven for pork ribs with a scattering of onions on top to keep the aluminum foil off the meat. After a couple of hours in a slow oven he added mushrooms and some BBQ sauce. We had some just- picked tomatoes with dinner. Here’s the thing about averages. Put one foot in a bucket of cold water and the other foot in a bucket of hot water. On average, you will feel just right. So, our average 1st frost date is the 2nd or 3rd of September. We haven’t had frost yet and none is expected during the next week – well into October. Compared with tomatoes, the demise of the summer squash seems to have been early but we have had plenty and have given many away. There are still a dozen little yellow ones but they increase in size very slowly now with cooler temperatures.

Friday, Sept 26

Called the Sleep Center this morning, and got the proverbial voice-mail message, so I left another — obviously in a disturbed / frustrated state. I mentioned not having a call returned yesterday before quitting time. I also gave my times at home this morning (only until 11:20 and I would be leaving for town and left my cell phone), because I wanted a response before they close on Fridays at noon. I had a call recorded on my home phone when I got home that had come at 11:29. I was gone (but I had also left my cell phone #). Thankfully, about 11:36, she called my cell.
Backup a moment to earlier today — after I got the message again, I called the direct line to Iona (the sleep specialist scheduler) whom I had to go through for both previous sleep studies. I got her in person (she has an office away from the reception area), and told her my story and she said Natalie would not be back until Monday. I told her I did not want to wait to find out what the message was because I figured it was related to the second overnight test, 9/20. She said she would look on my record and see what she could find. Lo and behold, the interpretation had been done, and Dr. Kumar wanted me to schedule an appointment with a CPAP provider to get fitted. He wants me to start using a CPAP mask to sleep. I asked Iona what some of the parameters from the test were. She did not know, as she didn’t have access to those records. So, I told her I needed to speak with someone right away who could satisfy my concerns. I did not want to wait until Monday to reach Natalie. I wanted to have the figures from the interpretation, my questions and concerns answered, and to visit with the doctor prior to starting the CPAP process of fitting. She said she would notify the front desk.
Back to this morning — on my way to town, now 11:36, I received a call from Justin, (responding to my earlier phone message left on the machine for Natalie). I only knew that because when she introduced herself, I said, “Oh, Iona must have told you I needed to talk about this.” She indicated that message had not made it to her, just my other morning message about wanting to know what the message from Natalie was about. I was driving and talking in my speakerphone; first, I told her I was on my way to town, and could only talk, not take notes. And, she first reiterated that the Dr. said, based on my results, that I needed to go visit the CPAP fitting place before my appointment with him on Oct 7. I told her I did not want to visit anyone (including the doctor) until I had a copy of the interpretation and a copy of the parameters determined, plus the graphs. Then, she said I would have to come down and sign release paperwork to pick up my records. I told her I was 50 miles away and was down Tuesday of this week downstairs to the Yakima Heart Center, and I tried calling ahead to come by and sign any paperwork releases (if needed), to get a copy of my results. I told her that no one ever acknowledged my request.
I had a copy of the June 16 first session, which I got from Dr. Pham. The only reason Dr. Pham had them was my request through Lori before my appointment with him. They had not sent them down and it had been several weeks. My family physician didn’t have a copy either. They seem very protective of the information, which I am entitled to, and which should also go to my cardiologist and my family physician.
This gal’s name is Justin. She was far more professional in explaining things, than most anyone I have spoken to there. After a few minutes talking, she must have decided I was asking intelligent questions and so she said, I can go over the results on the phone. I explained that I was not at a place where I could pull over and take notes yet, but would be in 3 minutes, so to keep talking and answering my other questions, please. She did. I told her my desire to have a hard copy of the results without driving 100 miles and asked if she couldn’t send me the “release” paperwork and let me sign and return it. She said she could and would. I asked her to please get it in today’s mail so I would have time to get it back so they would send the results. (John just picked up the Saturday mail and it is here!). Then I asked if I could request a particular medical supply place to get my CPAP machine or if I had to go with the one I originally checked in June. Now I know more about them and local people’s experiences with providers. I have been highly recommended to Howard’s Medical Supply in Selah, WA. She said yes, they could send a referral to them.
Finally, I got to a place where I could pull into a parking lot and take notes. She provided what she had and then explained further some of the findings. I asked several questions, a couple I already thought I knew the answer to, and I then made some more requests. She told me my pressure setting for the machine would be 8. That is what has to be programmed into the “smart” card on the machine. She also told me I only had 1.9 apnea (paused breathing) / hypopnoea (shallow breathing) events. Of course, that’s with the mask on, so I don’t know how anyone ever gets through the second test without being recommended for a mask. My blood oxygen level this time was mostly in the 90s, with one minute down to 89%. The fact I did not get a good night’s sleep and was not rested by morning makes me question the benefits of wearing a CPAP mask. Perhaps over time and in one’s own bed things improve.
She also said I was asleep only 3 hrs & 14 minutes. My guess of 3.5 hrs was right on.
The other question she could not answer, but said the Dr. could, was my concern IF the pressure was changed (lowered) after I awoke at 2:30 a.m. and never could return to sleep. I know the technician started my pressure low and intended to build it up overnight. She told me she had to keep track of the titration for the results (I guess to get the best pressure to prescribe for me). I asked Justin what the times were on the pressure changes. I assume whenever 2:30 arrived, that the technician did not lower my pressure. I am concerned that contributed to the reason I couldn’t get back to sleep, as well as my uncomfortable positioning. All she could give me was the pressures I experienced over the entire test, without any times associated; they were 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 8. I still have questions about that part of the test. I want to know if I was re-ramped lower when I awoke — and if not, if that’s why I was so uncomfortable the rest of the night. I doubt it was, or at least it was not reported in the list of pressures given over the course of my study. The apparatus may keep people from dying prematurely but the process seems confusing and comfort is low on the priority list.
Then I had one more stop before lunch. It was to the old Lind Hall, where I had an office from 1988 till 1997. Geology and Physics are still housed there, and I was taking 5 historical books and magazines to Nick Zentner. All about Mt. St. Helens and one on the Channeled Scablands. He was thrilled and I was happy to find an appreciative home. From there next door to my Scholarship Luncheon, named for Ruth Harrington, who started them many years ago to raise funds for students. I have been a member of this group since I arrived on campus in 1988. We donate $50 to the scholarship fund, and then we have to fix a meal for ~12 people one month. I’m scheduled to do the October meeting (4th Friday), and then in December, early, we have a potluck. That’s the one they always expect John to come to and make two of his famous Pecan Pies (from his mom’s recipe). He’s been doing it every year since 1988, when he was still in Troy, and I moved over alone for the first year of teaching. I’d go home on weekends, and that is how I brought the pies back over for the luncheon.

Saturday, Sept 27

I started the morning with washing (clothes and dishes), and with doing some emails. About 2:00 p.m., we received nice news from my friend Sonja Willitts with “Tug” a brother to “Daisy” and son of her dog (from our breeding), Kip. She had him in Carson City, NV today for competing in his first Open Dog show event at the Bonanza Kennel Club show. He took a 3-point major today. That’s not all! It is his second major and he now has the 2 majors required for a show championship title, except for getting the rest of the required 15 points. The best news of the day is that he went Best of Winners over all the dogs and 20 bitches for a 5-point major! So, with only a few shows and just over a year-old, he has 8 points (his first 3-pt major was in a previous show from the puppy class, and you have seen that picture below in this blog). I was extremely happy to learn of the news, but enjoyed even more hearing the excitement in Sonja’s voice on her replay of the event. She goes back tomorrow for another show appearance. My fingers are crossed for more points (only get points for a first placement). Later in the afternoon, I had more good Brittany news from Jeri Conklin, the breeder of Tug and Daisy (our co-owned dog). Daisy had won a first place in an Amateur Walking Derby event in Corning, CA. She had an exceptional run, and a couple of birds. She received one field point for that win. Tomorrow, she will be entered in Open Derby and we have our fingers crossed.

We had a nice lunch and John returned to do more tree and brush removal. He has been working on a fuel-laden spot 100 feet or so off the SW corner of the house. Many downed tree limbs are there and a couple of large fallen trees – parts are crunchy like toast. In the middle there is one large Hawthorne and many smaller ones. They are a pain to get out – very hard wood and very sharp thorns.
Source: Janet Pesaturo

He will pick tomatoes today, so we can have enough for him to carry along to lunch on the Franklin Falls trail work again tomorrow. I need to finish this blog so he can finalize it to put out tonight, because he will be gone all day tomorrow. While he was working on the blog, I cleaned the tomatoes and put our dinner on the table. Then our connection went down, but now is back up and he has put the box of tomatoes in his vehicle. Now he can add the photos and the links, and publish tonight.
He has to be up early to leave by 6:50 a.m. for Franklin Falls WTA work day.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

of summer. Yikes!

Sunday, Sept 14

Took 1/2 day to finish and publish last week’s blog because of all the fancy things to describe and picture. John spent much of the rest of the day on yard chores, and I spent time on house chores, and email stuff too. Late afternoon he picked 3 types of tomatoes and some blackberries. I managed cleaning and sugaring them when he brought them in, and we will have on our apple/caramel piece of cake tonight, actually on top of the ice cream on top of the cake. I brought it home from yesterday’s music event. They always encourage us to take some of the leftovers. We are happy to oblige. I gave away my tomatoes I took to two of the musicians and to the lady in charge of the food prep – today she did a superb pulled pork BBQ dish. I was behind on my jobs list email, so processed a few of those. We just finished a dinner of roast chicken with our own corn and tomatoes. Surely is nice having the garden and all John’s hard work is appreciated by us and others we share with. We don’t do canning, but we do freeze a few things.

Monday, Sept 15

Today was catch up day. I managed to pay some bills awaiting, but still have a couple more to do. We picked corn for dinner and feed the horses some shucks along with cut up stalks John gave them. Then he picked tomatoes. We had some of each with BBQ pork ribs (country style, no bones) he had fixed previously.
I took a photo of the prime apple in our almost completely pruned apple tree that John left because of its beauty on a sole limb. We finally harvested it later in the week, and it was scrumptious – except for the bird damage (2 oval hollows). The deer have been waiting near the edge of the orchard each night to eat the leaves off the pruned branches. We have a peach tree but after the peaches got the size of golf balls they froze (we think) and stopped growing. They have been mottled brown and pale green all summer. Now they have softened (ripening just a little) and we pulled some and tossed on the ground. The deer will now eat them and leave the seed. John claims they have no flavor and do not seem sweet. Apples are much preferred but we don’t have many.

Tuesday, Sept 16

Annual physicals for both of us in Cle Elum; mine at 10:15 and John’s at 11:00. By all accounts we are stable and more-or-less healthy. Our doctor is 68 but is not planning, yet, to retire. Still, the clinic – that he helped start and is now part of the local hospital group – could use another 1 or 2 primary care specialists. There is likely to be a shift toward care from middle level trained folks, such as physician assistants and nurses, as a national shortage of regular doctors seems to be in our future. Walk-in care at some places is growing. The Clinic used to have special flu shot days and there would be a line out the door. Now every pharmacy in the area gives flu and other sorts of shots and the clinic no longer even asks about flu shots. Change is good; right?
Back to town for lunch, and on to Rite Aid for a special reopening sale with 2 liter Pepsi products for only 88¢, and no limit. Guess what! We filled the cart. While there, a salesclerk arrived to tell us that through December, we could get 20% off everything in the store by getting our flu shots there. So, while I had had a shot at the doctors visit today, it was a Tetanus (Tdap) /Pertussin, and normally we get a flu shot with our annual physical, but they did not have the vaccine yet in the clinic (part of KVC- our local hospital). Rather strange that they were told there is a shortage, yet all the pharmacies have managed to obtain them. We were able get it at the Rite Aid pharmacy by using our Medicare card. While there, they asked if we wanted a pneumonia or the Tdap (Tetanus I had just had), that includes Whooping Cough protection. We were going to get it for John, but turns out it would cost $41 on our Group Health policy. We skipped and I asked our nurse later if it would cost us to have gotten his with our annual physical, as I did. She checked and he had one in 2013, so is not due even though he is doing outside work that exposes him to the need.
Had to go back to town by myself to play music and deliver some produce. Came home to a dinner by John with a Cajun Jambalaya mix (Louisiana Brand) he bought today in town. It had rice and peppers, onion, and spices. John added our cherry and pear tomatoes and chicken and pork (from last night) – he had found the mix knowing we needed something special to finish off the leftovers. It worked! I cut up two pears (our own) that we had ripened in a bag with a small apple and we each had a full pear with dinner.

Wednesday, Sept 17

Food bank music, and SAIL exercise class. Between I dropped off $8 for 50# of yellow onions from the basin, to be delivered later (we will pick up a few miles from our house, right on the way to town). Gave away tomatoes and Acorn squash today, even delivered a yellow one by a friend’s house on the way to Royal Vista to present pictures of her great granddaughter to my neighbor, who’s in for a fall that bruised her hip and leg badly and dislocated her shoulder. The shoulder is fixed, but the body limb and groin pain remains. While there, I visited with another friend, and at 3:00 p.m., my friend Karen was scheduled for playing her accordion for the residents. She asked me to stay and play along (my fiddle was in the car from my noon engagement). We entertained the residents for an hour, and they truly enjoyed it.

Thursday, Sept 18

Finished 3 music pieces to take to Dry Creek today. Re-did two songs in a different (more sing-able key), and tried The Old Rugged Cross in a different key (G), better for more people, and easier to play than the one we had it in previously. I needed to try out the notes before putting in the rest of the verses. Success! Now I can change for next week and give a copy to everyone for their songbooks. I’m sure we did a lot more today, but it was likely the same ole, same ole. Interestingly, I looked on line to see the history of that saying. It supposedly did not begin as same ole, same ole, meaning the same old thing — doing something you’ve always done; but, in fact, the earliest version mentioned was workmen’s complaints on pay day. Their accents sounded close to that, but actually what they were saying was Same Old, Same Hold, about the money employers held out to pay for “expenses” that the company charged each workman. That reminds me of the history of the coal-mining company town, Carbonado, WA, where the pay was in “company scrip.” It could only be spent in the company-owned store in the town, and only by the employees. The prices were highly inflated, because no competition existed. Country musician, Merle Travis, made a reference to coal scrip in the song, Sixteen Tons, on his Folk Songs of the Hills album.
Chorus: You load sixteen tons and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
All the words can be found here: Sixteen Tons
I need to find the music score for that and add to our repertoire. It has always been a favorite of mine. This history is very interesting and so here is the link: Ernie Ford
Carbonado was mentioned above. The Story of Carbonado is summarized at the link and John adds a little too. Other small historic towns are mentioned and most are now gone. Many of the old railroad beds have been used for years by hikers and horse riders. Pierce and King Counties now own much of the land and are adding facilities for recreation. I, John, worked on a trail in that area. We wrote about that last fall.
More about Nancy’s connection to an awareness of the company town of Carbonado, WA. Nancy here again with this comment: I served as a major player on a master’s thesis committee (in History) at CWU, after participating as an adviser for a term project in my senior Urban Geography class researched and written by my then student. In subsequent years of my teaching the course, John Streepy made a guest appearance every year to share his knowledge and slides of Carbonado with the class. (He still works in the CWU library, so was available locally.) If anyone is interested in using Inter-Library Loan, a copy of his thesis is available on the 3rd floor, Brooks Library, CWU. See this citation: John Hamilton Streepy. Carbonado: The History of a Coal Mining Town in the Foothills of Mount Rainier, 1880-1937. 1999.

Friday, Sept 19

Busy all day doing paperwork about sleep apnea and never finished. Paid bills and straightened out (I thought) forwarding of my email to nancyh@cwu.edu to come to our nancyh@ellensburg.com account, but it did not refresh and start working overnight. So, come Monday, they will get another call. Tried to pay some bills on line, and that failed too. Computer technology was overwhelmingly a pain today. Our Internet connection has also been sporadic.
Up late washing and drying a huge box of pretty tomatoes for John to carry with him for sharing at lunch on the trail. For 23 ? people, this seemed better than buying donuts for all as he did last week. After our work, John said, They’re pretty as a picture. So guess who ran for her camera !!

At the bottom center (blown up below) is a yellow pear tomato with the stem cap still on it (in the center of the green oval). It is the only one of the yellows to have this. With careful picking almost all of the red ones (Sweet 100) can be picked with the cap intact. Why not the yellow?

Fast jump forward to Saturday afternoon: The box of little tomatoes was a hit at lunch – a few people were inquisitive and envious. About 3:30, back in the parking lot, a couple of wilderness Forest Service rangers stopped by to visit. The WTA crew leader had called the FS to report what appeared to be a Zip Line (aerial ropeslide) over the trail and across the nearby stream. John was transferring tomatoes to empty small cookie bags so he could bring the box home. One of the bags with a dozen tomatoes went up the trail with one of the ladies.

Saturday, Sept 20

At 6:50 AM John needed to head off to Franklin Falls for a WTA trail work trip. Our electricity went off during the night, and I realized it at 5:20 AM as I was returning from the bathroom, so I set a manual kitchen timer for 50 minutes to awake John because I knew his alarm resets when the power flips. Somewhere we still have a wind-up one. So he did get up at about 6:10 as needed. We had him pretty much packed last night, and he heated a Carl’s JR sausage/cheese/egg biscuit from the freezer to eat in the car on his way to Franklin Falls. I finally decided to try to go back to sleep for an hour. Slept from about 7:30 to 9:30. Phew. Guess ’twas needed.
Our “new” microwave is not working correctly. It heated John’s breakfast sandwich, but didn’t do well heating water for my coffee. Odd sounds! I hope we sent in the warranty. It’s less than a year old. John whirled the tray around a few times and it is doing fine at the moment – we reheated pizza tonight with it.
I finished the printout on CPAP and sleep dentists, sleep apnea, and got it ready for my neighbor, who has no computer and wanted to see some information on an Idaho website. He drove up to save me the trip down, and I gave him some tomatoes too. He lives about 100 yards south of us but it is a mile or so by road. He is older and doesn’t walk far. Finally, I finished sending photos I took last week at White Heron to our friends. I managed to wash clothes and pack my suitcase, plus made a chicken salad for lunch.
Tonight, I drive myself to the Yakima Memorial Hospital Sleep Center for my second sleep apnea test, this time wearing the CPAP mask from the start of the test. I hope they will give me a printout of the results when I leave; imagine they will not, and make me wait to go in for an appointment to the sleep doctor.
John made it home at 5:00 p.m. and the dogs were eagerly awaiting his arrival to take them for their exercise.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday, Sept 6

We managed to get this blog out (almost midnight) last week, after spending much of the day on it, while John did outside chores. This week it will not likely happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, Sept 7

I worked on finalizing a special piece of music to take as a potluck special tonight at our music group’s potluck (The Green, Green Grass of Home). John put a pork loin roast (about 9 #) into the oven to take as part of our contribution. He then went outside to find a shady place to work. I helped him cut plums (two types of our homegrown ones) to make a pan of Roasted Plums to take for accompanying the cut pork pieces to be placed individually on plates. I also took a serving dish of pear and cherry tomatoes.
Here is the plum recipe: Preheat oven to 425°. This is for 1.5# of plums. Layer sliced plums in a baking dish. Sprinkle them with a spicy combo (1 tsp each of cinnamon ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, with 1/3 cup brown sugar. Drizzle 1/3 cup lemon juice (concentrate) on top. Toss gently. Cover w/foil, bake 20 minutes. (We actually had 3 times that amount, used a lower temperature, and more minutes).
We had a lot of food and 17 people eating, with 11 musicians jamming afterwards for a couple hours. We brought home leftovers of our pork and plum sauce and froze some.

Monday, Sept 8

Home today; working on various projects. John cut a 15 year old volunteer cherry tree down – such things usually do not have nice fruit, and this was no exception. He cut 3 rounds for setting hot frying pans on and cut the smaller end into firewood length. The rest, about 5 feet, is going to a friend that likes to make inlaid game boards using different woods. Cherry is lighter colored than many other woods and will work for projects of this type. We will deliver the cherry wood in the morning at the Emeritus Geography Professors meeting at the Copper Kettle that starts early this week at 9:00 a.m. John will have blood samples taken shortly after 8 AM, having fasted for 12 hours. Then, he gets to eat – I have coupons for egg/cheese/sausage biscuits. It will be tight. Then we have only two stops before home, but then I have to go back to town for a music thing in the early evening. I will combine that with picking up my free birthday dinner to bring home to share with John for supper. It has to be used before the end of the month, so I must hurry, and only once/month do I go to Ellensburg after 4:00 p.m. (the time after which one can request the dish described below). I was able to pick up 2 dozen donuts for only $3.98 before music at 6:30. They mark down the day’s donuts at 6:00 from the ones that were fresh in the glass counter in the morning. Tonight’s dinner is shown below with leftover pork loin roast, our tomatoes and corn, and our friend’s peaches.

Tuesday, Sept 9

We made it to the hospital for a fasting blood draw for John with a detour several miles out of our way. A moving van was across Wilson Creek Rd, completely blocking both lanes of traffic (he was trying to back into a long rural driveway from a confined space on the 2-lane road). We turned off at a nearby E-W road and went east 1.5 mi. to our own road (where we should have been earlier). We had a wait at the lab w/ 3 folks ahead of John. Then off to Carl’s JR for their sausage/egg/cheese biscuits. By 9:06 we made it to our meeting of retired geographers at the Copper Kettle, with another delay caused by a tractor trailer truck in the drive we need to access to a parking spot. This started as a bad trailer day. After our 2-hour meeting, we delivered the cherry wood. From there to Grocery Outlet for cat food, of which they had none! We bought a couple cans of dog food for our oldest dog, and a Marie Callender’s cherry-almond pie. We had to run a check by the dentist’s office, so we took a box of Early Girl tomatoes to Mark and the staff. Tomorrow I have to deliver more along with some yellow squash.
The rest of our afternoon was spent on projects, until I left for town for another event, but first a stop at Super One, hoping for 2 dozen lower-priced donuts for John to carry along to share with the 16 workers at the trailhead tomorrow morning. I also bought him some nice London broil roast for his sandwich for lunch. We already had Jarlsberg cheese to add. On to Hearthstone for music. I met two friends there and gave them some tomatoes and a just harvested Acorn squash. Left there to go by the Palace Cafe’ to pick up my free birthday dinner, Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine. Their version has tiny mushrooms and thinly sliced zucchini with a decent amount of chicken pieces in a large serving, enough for two. John fried some large mushrooms, sliced, and we added them to the dish. We thought afterwards that we could have spiced it up with pineapple and cashews. Oh well, it was a nice dinner and we even have some leftovers for tomorrow night. It was good getting it gifted and still being able to bring it home and fancy it up some. I know that is not what they wish to happen so I give the waitress a nice tip.

Wednesday, Sept 10

John left at 7:00 a.m. for the Franklin Falls trail – a 70-minute trip. Action starts at 8:30 but early arrivals get to visit (with donuts) – often the assistant crew leaders (ACLs) are apart on the trail and can’t share much info then. I spent 1/2 hour trying to update my SiriusXM Satellite subscription to cancel at the current automatic renewal price of $185.50, for the year. I finally spoke with a gal in the Philippines, and after a lot of hassles, I convinced her I was unwilling to pay the price quoted, for listening only to one station (Bluegrass). From that point, she offered me lower prices, first for $113.13 for a year. I still said no, and she gave me the last available price to keep me on, at 6 months, for $26.06 (includes fees). I knew I could get a coupon from the web for that same offer, but figured I would go ahead and accept from her, and be done with it.
The only hang-up is at 6 months from now (3/10/15) I have to cancel or it will automatically continue for only 3 months at $38.66. I have written myself notes all over to argue again for the coupon rate at that time. If that doesn’t work, then I will cancel and go the other route. By charging me $38.66 every 3 months, the yearly fee is $154.64, which is still better than the $185.50 they wanted me to pay next week. However, if I can keep getting it every 6 months for under $30, I’m happy. Someone that spends a lot of time driving could likely justify the higher fee.

Thursday, Sept 11

Went to Rehab for providing music (today, two of us, the banjo player and I, even stood, played, and waltzed around (individually) as a partner to a sweet old lady with a walker, who also mouths the words as she moves in front of us) – some day I must get someone to video her. She also flirts with the guys in our group, one in particular, who flirts back and who, at the end, tells her he loves her. The residents and staff all love her and applaud each time she gets up. She must have danced 6 songs today. On by Royal Vista for visiting, and continued with all sorts of things to do at home. The most interesting was coming home to find that John had picked a full large wheelbarrow full of squash (Acorn and Butternut).

According to internet garden sites, winter squash do not keep, if frosted, and our forecast was for 34 degrees on Friday morning. The plants had mostly stopped growing and ripening the darn things anyway. Some of the Butternut are still slightly greenish – the one at the top center is one such. They are okay to eat, and we did have one, but long storage is not going to happen – they say. We’ll see. Where the Acorn squash touch the ground they turn orange when ripe. A few were hanging off the ground and so have only green skins – still ripe though. John thinks it odd that folks say to try to pierce the skin with a finger nail to see if it is ripe. If you can, it is not ripe. Then they tell you to try not to scrape or damage the skin because that causes more rapid deterioration during storage. They must have gotten their gardening certificate out of a Cracker Jack box!
The other thing we did today was John cleared a space in the garage to set up his shelves, on which he put all the squash. While cleaning he found some missing items from our past I need to give away. One is a 1986 Norelco Coffee Maker. We never brew coffee anymore, and likely only used this couple times when we had guests for a dinner, long ago. Also found 4 macramé flower pot hangers I must have picked up in a yard sale. Neither one of us has any recollection of them. I had promised one I thought I had that my mom made, with a green ceramic base, to a gal here in town. However, I have never been able to locate it, and still haven’t. Meanwhile, I shall offer her these, for her high-ceilinged house.

Friday, Sept 12

I had planned to get up in the morning and cut John’s hair, but we never made time for it. Instead, I spent time cleaning my car to drive friends over to our favorite winery and vineyard to visit the Chef’s Extravaganza in Trinidad, WA (name comes from a fraudulent land scheme many years ago), a very beautiful spot on a hill overlooking the Columbia River hemmed in by sheer basalt cliffs. There is a recreation area called Crescent bar with condos, houses, golf, and (usually) access to water sports. This year the local economy has been severely affected by the lowering of the water at the Wanapum dam after a crack was found in the structure. All docks north of the dam, particularly at Vantage and north on the Columbia to the next dam (Rock Island) have been left high and dry, with no access for recreationists. There are acres of exposed sediment and as we crossed the I-90 Vantage bridge we looked down on a massive growth of lovely Purple Loosestrife – an invasive plant classed as a noxious weed in the Great State of Washington.
We left the house about 3:15 to go to town to the Feed Store for Ebony’s Equine Senior, and on to pick up our friends. I drove. I can only have small tastes of wine with food, because of heart meds (blood thinner), so become the “designated” driver for such affairs. We arrived about 5:15, and, being early, could drive to the back of the winery where there is a small grassy amphitheater – our friend (Joanie) we took along has knee issues from surgery on both in 5 months. We were there in time for a nice visit, taking pictures of each other, meeting folks, and watching the 3 chefs prepare all sorts of stuff from local products of the Quincy Basin.

Let me give you a small introduction to the annual event, which coincides with Farmer Consumer Awareness Day Weekend in Quincy, WA, during the first part of September each year. White Heron has provided the chef’s extravaganza evening for quite a few years. Much work gathering the ingredients happens by Cameron Fries the 3 days prior to the event. He goes around the basin taking donations of foodstuffs from local farmers. When the chefs arrive, they find piles of local goodies.

They sort through and make various creations. Cameron (the viticulturist, enologist, and owner of White Heron Cellars and Mariposa Vineyard) soaks the dried beans so they can be cooked that evening. That’s the only preparation preceding the evening.
We had Rainbow Trout (from a farm in the basin), prepared 3 different ways by the 3 chefs. One was baked (w/ tomato, onion, peppers), another breaded and fried, and another made a spicy trout chili. One other meat dish provided was BBQ ribs with beans. All chefs had various concoctions of veggies: sliced carrots and jicama (see below **) topped with rock salt; fried/breaded eggplant with Parmesan flakes; HUGE tomato slices (red, yellow, purple, with a slice of mozzarella on top and two types of basil garnishing; cucumbers/onions; a bowl of couscous – a dish made with steamed granules of durum wheat mixed with vegetables; grill-roasted corn-on-the-cob, with shucks and off, cut into small servings; a couple of great mixed salads (one including corn, tomatoes, apples, peppers of all colors and another with zucchini, tomatoes, cheese), all served with clusters of Flame seedless grapes for the sharing at tables. The dessert was my favorite – made with blueberries and others in a little bit of Roussanne wine.
**Jicama is a crispy, sweet, edible tuber that resembles a turnip in physical appearance, although the plants are not related. It has been cultivated in South America for centuries, and the vegetable is quite popular in Mexican cuisine. Jicama’s unique flavor lends itself well to salads, salsas, and vegetable platters. Also known as a yam bean.

We were serenaded by the Massy Ferguson musical group after the beginning courses of the dinner. We were there in time to occupy a table near the chefs, and invited four gals to join us. They were from Kirkland (but she has a condo at Crescent Bar), Seattle, Medford, OR, and another from the west side, but they were sisters, and visiting their 96-year old dad in nearby Quincy, attending this party every year. This weekend celebrates the Quincy Basin Farmer Consumer Awareness Day(s), and on our way home, we could see distant fireworks in Quincy. Some of you remember the huge Honeycrisp apples John would pick up from Double Diamond in Quincy for $10/box. White Heron Cellars and Mariposa Vineyard is very special to us, and that’s where John spends a few days over about 5 weeks volunteering wine-grape pruning. We work up a nice account to be able to have a bottle or two of wine (special with no label), delivered to our table, & presented by the owner of the vineyard and winery. We chose Pinot Noir.
We didn’t get home until almost 10 p.m. and had forgotten to leave any lights on for the dogs, but John fed the horses and cats, and we all went to bed.
National news: it’s a good idea when house hunting or building to have knowledge and an appreciation of coastal geomorphology, along with other such concerns in non-coastal places, such as floodplain prone or other natural forces. This happened at Malibu, CA today.

Saturday, Sept 13

Started with putting in a placeholder for our blog. Now I am creating the text and choice of photos, with John’s help, but I had to leave this afternoon for playing music at Briarwood Retirement Commons, where they feed us afterwards. Our trip to Briarwood was short musicians playing, with only me on the fiddle, Gerald Gordon on guitar, and Joanie Taylor on Viola. Gerald and I led the singing, and the group is very participatory, just as are the residents of Hearthstone and Dry Creek, but the difference is the FOOD they prepare for us (takes the place of supper, a little early). I took along a platter of some of our pear & cherry tomatoes. From the few larger Early Girls I carried, they sliced the largest ones to add to the table of offerings. The main course was awesome BBQ Pulled Pork (exceptionally tender and with a tasty sauce), served with BBQ beans, sliced onions, potato salad, coleslaw with carrots, chips, and the dessert table was loaded, with selections from Caramel Apple Bundt cake, chocolate cake made with Heath English Toffee bits and choc chips, a white frosted lemon cake, molasses cookies, little apple-twisted turnovers, and Bill’s fabulous pineapple- zucchini bread. While he couldn’t’ be there (his day to do afternoon Food Bank Saturday dinner), he sent an extra loaf to John and me as thanks for the zucchini we took to him to make it. What an amazing presentation by a bunch of nice people. They sang along with lyrics I handed out for 18 songs today.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Okay, a wasp?
Anyway, Nancy was busy this week and on Friday we went to White Heron Winery for a harvest festival. We got home about 10 PM. Hoping for a blog post by Sunday, Noon, here in the Pacific Time Zone.

Our day-neutral strawberry plants are still blooming and producing and there are still pollinators. Nancy took this photo on Thursday.

Much of today was spent on chores inside and outside. For late August, we managed to get the blog out on time. Then missed entering the following picture, just received today. This is Cedaridge Kip’s Tug Toy after his first major show win (3 points) from the Puppy 12-18 class !! His handler is Sonja Willitts, my friend and owner of several of our Brittanys since 1977. She now lives in South Lake Tahoe, and owns Tug’s father, Kip, Cedaridge Tri-tip Kip. (Yes, he is a tri-colored Brittany).

We also received a great photo of John after his work yesterday (8-29) at the Snow Lake Trail, just north of I-90’s Snoqualmie Pass. Under John’s right boot the rock is white. The rest of the rock is the color of the soil – all but the white part was buried.

Well after the lunch break, the WTA crew leader, Kayla (right side, no hat), following directives of the Forest Service trails manager, determined the rock was a tripping hazard and had to go. There seems to be a version of Murphy’s Law that says the nearer to quitting time starting to dig out a rock, the greater proportion of it will be buried in the trail and the more compact the soil. The short story is that just at the time to leave, 2 Johns and a Christie levered the rock from Earth’s grip, then grabbed packs and tools for the hike out. Kayla and another volunteer filled the hole with soil and then, they too, got ready to hike. The short interlude gave Christie time to get a photo of John on the rock. This was John’s 5th or 6th time on the Snow Lake Trail and he still hasn’t seen Snow Lake.

Sunday, Aug 31

Early morning sadness from GA that a family member, Brady Brannen (only 41) died. He was the only son of Maribeth and my cousin, Bill Brannen, Jr.. Bill (Sr.) and Nelle Brannen are alive and living in Alabama, at ages, 92 & 91. The funeral will be 9/7 with an Anglican service provided by Bill’s brother, David. Interment will occur in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA, near my father’s grave on the Brannen-Eiseman lot. Check out the interesting history of this place.
Winds high, but temperatures down. I’m working on music. John is doing yard work, but part of the time did not involve much real effort. John did a Hultquist trick (I’m a Hultquist, so I can call it that as it includes me, and I practice this all the time). We have a knack for working with something, and immediately covering it and losing it. He went for a file to smooth inside the curve of a new metal hook meant for the end of a chain. Note the green arrow in the picture.

Having found the file, the hook had disappeared. A search was undertaken and steps retraced. Repeatedly. Finally, he found it covered up with a piece of plastic near where the file had been.

Monday, Sept 1 MY BIRTHDAY and Labor Day (only coincides every 7 years)

Doing nothing much today, but resting. Thanks for all the birthday wishes that started a couple days ago and really starting pouring in this morning, via Facebook. Many special cards received, but this photo by David Covert is a favorite worth sharing.

I have been resting while putting music notation into my computer and printing the master copies for our playlist for the next 3 months. (December we switch to Christmas music). I’m rather pleased with the list, and have included some new ones as well as creating more legible scores from some we have done in the past.
We had a wonderful lunch of BLTs with our own Early Girl tomato we picked yesterday. John found a picture taken in Fort Collins, Colorado – posted this week on the internet.

Note the price. Holy cow! In small print (lower left on the sign) it says Grown in California. At about 6 oz., these will cost $1.87 each. That’s about what the baby plant cost us back in the spring and it is loaded with ripening fruit. One of our best returns on investment.
I heard from my friend that she had succeeded in placing the single chick from another hen’s chicken with one mama of hers. Now she has been accepted and is running around with the others, about the same age (2 weeks).
John’s been out doing various yard chores in the nice weather. He has moved chips, watered trees, picked pears, mowed near the road, and will pick blackberries later.
One birthday wish sent said that someone once told him, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.” Although the rest of the message was very positive, I don’t believe that is a very positive statement for a birthday wish, at our age. Ha ha.

Tuesday, Sept 2

Finishing up the master-sheets for music this morning, and checking email. I also received a gift certificate for $20 from the local book store, Jerroll’s — a nice surprise. John caught me with Rascal in my lap while I worked.

Need to write a sympathy note with Rainbow Bridge photo I took from our front yard, along with my memories, thoughts, and meaningful poetry to share with Maribeth and Bill and the rest of the Brannen family.
We will be going to town to copy our group’s music for the next 3 months’ playlist of 24 songs, arriving by 3:00, with John to help with the stapling. While in town, we also delivered tomatoes and zucchini to folks at the Briarwood retirement home and to a friend at CWU, who returned the favor with a bag of peaches.

Wednesday Sept 3

Before I left for my normal activities at the Food Bank and SAIL class, I was on the phone, and John came in to tell me the wild turkeys were back. By the time I got off the phone, grabbed my camera, and went out, they were in trees near the creek, unseen, but quite vocal. The dogs had scattered them and they were regrouping or at least checking in with each other. While out there, I took some pictures of our fruit trees, one pruned: red apples, (missed recording the pears already picked), yellow apples, smaller darker plums you saw in last week’s blog, peaches, and blackberries.
On the way to the uphill part of the orchard, I saw a lovely bunch of asters along the irrigation ditch:

We talk in this blog about John’s pruning fruit trees and moving the brush resulting after the deer have cleaned off all the leaves. Here is a partially pruned apple tree (beneath the red arrow).

On a nearby apple tree are these pretty apples, yellow with a distinctive red tinge, and red ones (probably old fashioned delicious).

Next door to a yellow apple tree (not shown) is a different kind of plum as you saw in last week’s blog — more tear-dropped and purple throughout. They are behind our other tree, so we are still enjoying them.

On back around the house to the thornless blackberry bushes.

John picked a dozen or so yellow squash, which I delivered to town to Gloria, Carole, CJ, Minerva, and Joanie. Later in the evening, I took some blackberries, squash, and tomatoes to neighbors. On my way home from town, I stopped by a nursing home (Royal Vista) where we will be playing tomorrow, to drop off some music, and also to visit two friends there. Our neighbor dislocated her shoulder when she fell on her right hip, but luckily no broken bones, just bad bruising. The shoulder was reseated properly at the hospital.
We fixed a good dinner tonight: baked chicken, Early Girl tomatoes, with deep-fried onions (half of a large white Ailsa Craig) in a beer-infused batter. Some folks claim the batter works better with egg white and/or corn/potato starch, and some say to “dredge” the raw onion ring in flour. We have lots of onions. Time to experiment. The beer (maybe too ordinary) did not seem to add anything so it might be best to just drink it – or buy a more flavorful type.

Thursday, Sept 4

A cool day today, full of photography, gardening, and music, and then home to rest.
For brunch, John fixed pancakes and we had our own strawberries (thawed) on it, with bacon. He had 2 eggs, but I passed on the eggs.
I wrote a 3-page letter of sympathy to my cousin and his wife, about their only son. I filled it with personal memories and stories meaningful to me and them.
Afternoon was our play date at Royal Vista. Wow, we had 10 musicians there today – more than in recent years! Received my free birthday dinner from the Palace Cafe in EBRG and a gift subscription to THE WEEK magazine from friends here in EBRG.
Below are a couple of photos from the newest garden, taken this morning before I left for town, carrying packages of Pear and Cherry tomatoes for the music group members in a cooler to deliver at the end of our playing.

The first is a long shot of the new garden’s south side, with corn and squash. The Acorn and Butternut squash are vining types and they have grown across everything – into and up the corn stalks and into the yellow summer squash. The big Ponderosa Pine in the distance is on the edge of our 3 acre “swamp” – mostly to the right (west) of the pine. A branch of Naneum Creek is in there, as are a couple of very old stream channels. There are wet spots and a couple of springs and the growth of the vegetation in this riparian zone is relentless. We like to keep a couple of winding paths open through there and to take out some of the dead wood for a neighbor that uses it for heating.

On to the tomatoes, only the cherry ones and an Early Girl.


Friday, Sept 5

Today, I received a birthday dinner card ($10 off) from the Cottage Cafe in Cle Elum. My favorite any time of day is Cottage Corrned Beef Hash, and John’s is Black and Blue Steak salad; look it up on their menu. They have been doing this for 9 years and now have a mailing list of 6,000 folks. Mentioned above is the salad with black beans and steak that is worth the 25-mile trip. Or, we can combine eating a meal when we go for our annual physical, this year Sept 16. The coupon can be used any time in the year, not just in the month of your birthday. Besides our b.d., they also award us one certificate for our anniversary.

John and I left at 9:00 a.m. to Yakima for an oil change at 10:15. I had to take my Subaru down for its oil change/lube/filter that was supposed to be every 7000 miles, but my car started telling me it was required now, with notices on the panel in the middle of the car, saying, Time for New Oil Filter; Check your Engine Oil. Somehow it was reprogrammed in our last time there, but we were never notified that our owner’s manual was revised to require a change every 6000 miles, and the little sticker also was reporting it was not required until 1000 more miles. Summer time usually includes a wash, but they are expanding and the excavation work required the water lines to be relocated. So the nice metallic blue paint is still dusty.
After that service, we drove by the Recycling center to check prices paid for aluminum cans, paper, and plastic. They no longer take glass, but the fellow told me that in Ellensburg someone still does. We have just been recycling it and other stuff (donated only), at the transfer station. If we can get a monetary reimbursement, I need to check. I had heard they no longer had a buyer for glass. Ten years ago, they were crushing it and selling to the highway department to use on road beds. I never quite understood that. [John thinks they use it to cover the surface at the disposal site; helps reduce dust.]
We need to take the truck to Yakima to retrieve a chipper loaned to friends who no longer have a need for it. John has created many piles of brush needing chipped that has built up over the years, and he is currently adding a lot from pruning cherry & apple trees. We have plenty stacks of branches for the quail to use for cover, so we need to get rid of the other stuff. If this little one won’t do the job we may hire a local person with a large one.
John and I went to Costco today to get one of their pork loin roasts, because we had none in the freezer to fix for the 20 people coming to a music potluck at our friends house, Sunday night. I carried along my laptop and while waiting for my car, I put in 1/2 hour getting ready to figure out the problem with the first song in the songbook, “A Little Street Where Old Friends Meet” that we found yesterday had a serious problem. I realized the discordance (pun intended), but am still unsure how it happened. I had moved parts of the song from several places (versions) into my computer music-writing software, and added chords for the changed keys we need it in (no way our group could play in E Flat (3 flats)), and somewhere along the way I screwed up, having notes from one key, on a staff with another key’s designation, which didn’t go along with the chords in that key. What a mess. I restarted in order to correct it and finished late afternoon with an additional 2 hrs+ work. I transposed from E flat to C for us, and to D for our clarinet player. It was never meant to be so involved, believe me. This song was originally written and recorded in 1932 in the UK, but later made popular in the USA by Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole and others. It’s a very pretty song. If you don’t remember it, check this You Tube of Nat King Cole (you hear his voice but only see his picture, sitting at a piano).

Saturday, Sept 6

Has been spent mostly involved with finishing my draft of the blog for John’s revision later today. I thank him for that and for his catching up on yard chores, mostly this morning I think was watering blueberries and new plum trees, moving more trimmed limbs into stacks, and cutting some others. He arrived to fix a wonderful huge brunch, of Blueberry pancakes, topped with cut-up nectarines from a friend, with hash browns & our own onions, bacon, and an egg from our neighbor. That should keep us going until 8:00 p.m. tonight. For your viewing pleasure: here’s my plate:

John and Annie just left for another hour’s yard work; cleaning out an overgrown lane along the south fence line. Good that he is in the shade – the temperature went up in the last hour from 80 to 85, and on to a high of 88; yet the predicated high today was 79.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

. . . neither of concern to us.

Sunday, Aug 24

You know by now the blog did not get out Saturday night when it was written and ready, because when John went to put it into Word Press, the access site was down. I reached the owner of the business to tell him, (via email), but he said he had updated the server the day before (or maybe it was yesterday), and that he wouldn’t be able to check it until he was in the shop Monday morning.
Well, today started with thunder in the hills and has continued most of the day. We have been trying to do all sorts of things. I’ve been working on stacks of to-do things and still am at it. John went out to move the boxes of stuff from the horse trailer so he could try to get our youngest horse into the trailer to take in to the vet soon. His eye-stye flared up again, so it cannot be done with a pasture visit. This may turn out to be a problem with the rodeo and county fair starting this week. Some of the vets have to be there to inspect incoming animals so vet availability for local visits is more or an issue than at other times of the year.
I managed to figure today how to put The Old Rugged Cross into my software. It will be a challenge to get it into a key our clarinet can play. I managed to have the original score in the key of Bb, but that would be difficult for the strings to play, so I needed to transpose it to a minor D key (with one flat = ﻁ) and then work with that, changing the chords to the key of F for the guitar players. Then I had to create a version for those guitar players who cannot play chords in the key of F, to D, so they can use their CAPO on the 3rd fret. I know this it more explanation than necessary, but it lets readers know the effort that goes into putting certain songs into my software. The reason you have already heard is to be able to transpose to a key matching our Bﻁ clarinet player’s music to our key (different by hers being 2 #s higher, or one flat fewer). Back to Old Rugged. After I got it into F, I could not transpose from there to a key the clarinet player could play. I had to raise her notes a full step and change the key signature to one sharp (F) to merge it properly. I wasn’t able to figure out how to do that using the computer system until a day passed, and then had to use white-out and hand-enter the # on all the staffs.

Monday, Aug 25

I stayed home again today to make headway on the stack of boxes. I filled at least two boxes — one with magazines not worth sharing at the Senior Center (AAC), and another with office paper. Those will be taken to the recycle center (donated) where we don’t have to pay a fee as we do for normal trash; worth it because of the weight of the papers & magazines. In between time I took care of more receipt keeping and bill paying. I just got a message from our friend Suzy West, mentioning her impending retirement and she used the term in the phrase, “Supposed to be updating the financials. Better go.” I smiled and recognized my need to change my description of my such work here. In addition, I entered all John’s volunteer hours (trail work) for the month, and all my volunteered music time to the community, as well. Those have to be submitted at the first of the month. These reported hours help the local volunteer organization in their fund-raising efforts but don’t do much for us, except for receiving a nice free meal once a year at the fairgrounds, provided for all county volunteers.
Good BLTs for lunch with our own tomato. John picked many plums today, small tomatoes, and squash (all yellow). We delivered to 3 neighbors all of the above, plus two got some of the white onions mentioned in last week’s blog. Tonight John fixed the first harvested Acorn squash. It was not as ripe as it should be so we have to learn how to tell when they are. [When the spot on the ground becomes orange; meaning they have to be turned over to tell.] He fixed it anyhow and it was fine, just light yellow instead of orange. It went fine with the leftover roast, an English muffin, and we will have “doctored” plums with ice cream for dessert.
Managed to figure out the music problem from yesterday, mentioned above. I can print the score, but it will have the one flat of our key on the beginning of every staff of measures. I did fix with white out and added one # (F) by hand. Then I copied from that master. It surely beats transcribing all notes by hand. I would never have time, patience, or energy to do that manually. It’s difficult enough on the computer.

Tuesday, Aug 26

Began with an early morning wake-up call, not the best way to start the day. We just got through eating a late brunch, and plums were included with the meal. They are so very tasty. We have both been busy on chores. John did not have to travel to Snoqualmie Pass to move rocks today – we have our own. He manually moved 50 to 100 # today from a spot he has been tossing them 1 or 2 at a time over the past 3 years to an out-of-the-way bigger pile. He did this while the dogs were checking out the morning’s new smells. More usefully, he picked 2 pounds of beautiful blackberries from the thornless bushes. As most of the other fruit trees and bushes, this year, they are loaded. Alternating between cleaning dishes, working on music, mail, email, “updating financials,” killing flies (bugging the heck out of both of us; now fruit flies in addition), vacuuming dust of years off some items before sorting, sorting, recycling, waiting on hold forever trying to get cancelled on a postal mailing list coming from Utah. That last never happened. I seem to spend half my life unsubscribing from unsolicited email or postal mail promotions, or getting rid of other such printed copies, such as academic publications no longer needed. Companies seem to sell mailing lists and we get solicitations from places of zero interest or need to us. Some are age related – hearing tests, prepaid burial – and some auto promotions – “We want your 2009 Subaru ‘cause we need used cars.” – yeah, right!

Wednesday, Aug 27

Stayed home because my banjo buddy who plays at the food bank soup kitchen with me was out of town. I spent the day cleaning and working on music for the next two months, for our Thursday group’s playing. John watered and worked on various yard projects, picked some blueberries, and I took many of the picked things and put them in a chef salad tonight, including things not customarily found therein, such as blueberries and blackberries. Also we had a few teardrop shaped plums colored red/purple on the inside with a cling-type seed, unlike the clingless round ones. Sliced and into the salad they went. Both our plum trees produce very sweet and tasty plums. The first picture below shows two of the last of the dahlias John planted in the newer garden, to differentiate it from the older Tiger Lily garden. Here they are displayed on the only zucchini in our garden. We normally do not consider growing zucchini at all, but this plant came from a bought package of seeds marked straight–necked yellow summer squash. We have harvested a lot of squash this year as well, and have given away a bunch all over town, but the plants are showing stress and likely will be ending their production very soon. Many of the over-grown squash have ended up in our neighbor’s hog farm, or in another neighbor’s zucchini pickle relish.

The round plums are all off the same productive tree with a few left in the refrigerator. There are about 4 pounds of the red ones on a different tree, just now ripening.

Thursday, Aug 28

This morning we tried to get ready for carrying produce to town. We took two separate autos because I had to stop at the hospital for a blood draw, go on to music, and John had to go to the grocery and to Les Schwab to check out buying new tires for his 2009 Subaru. Last time in, the service dept claimed we needed new tires. They gave us a “quote” and said they didn’t make any money on the Cooper Tires. John went to Les Schwab today (a western chain we have bought from since arriving in Idaho in 1974), to check out a sale in progress. The current tires had been purchased there as a 70,000 mile tire and with just 43,000 mi. on them. John wanted their take on the issue, which was: You don’t need new tires. These have at least 10,000 miles left on them. Because of the all-wheel-drive, some miles on Forest Service roads, and high speeds on rough I-82 & I-90**, the tires are worn more than anticipated. Even so, if they don’t make it to 70,000, Les Schwab will give us an adjustment when we buy new ones. How’s that for a great reason to stick with them? They could easily have sold us 4 tires today. John bought a frozen turtle pie to celebrate. And, in addition, a new hickory ax handle.

[**Concrete sections were put over unstable ground so after a decade or two of moving around, the WA-DOT had many hundreds of rectangular holes cut in the road way, inserted steel connectors, and refilled the holes. These are rough little parts and go for miles. They were very selectively placed in the road so that normal positioning of a car in its lane directs the tires to hit thousands of these – like a small pothole every second. Great planning. Our government at its finest!]

John picked fruit and veggies this morning, and I packaged them up for people in our “band.” I sorted some yellow pear tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, squash, blackberries, and plums (two types) to fill special requests. While we had both plums still (because the larger are no more), we took a photo (displayed above in Wednesday’s discussion).
We played music at Hearthstone Cottages today at 2:00 to 3:00 and they always provide cookies and tea/coffee/water for us at the end. I took along one a new song in two keys to see which works better for us. It went all right after all. They had chocolate-chip cookies at the end, and I brought two home (one for each of us). Several musicians were not there because of being out of town, but three of them because of participating in events at the Fair and Rodeo that goes through Labor Day. We try to stay away from town this weekend. On the way home I went by our Grocery Outlet store to buy lettuce and canned cat food for a much cheaper price. I had a special coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase for this weekend only, so I used it and saved! It was stuff I have to buy anyway. No frills or useless spending, and their prices are significantly competitive.

Friday, Aug 29

At 4:30 am we were awakened by a dog barking – not ours – across the creek on the west side of our property. For an hour. Crazy. John had to leave at 7:00 a.m. for Snow Lake Trail, so about 5:30 we both got up for the day.
I’m glad the fires are out. The winds have been very high for hours. Last hour were up to 30 mph with 39 mph gusts, and before the day was over, they were 40 mph.
Got a note from a friend she couldn’t access our blog, getting an Internal Server error. I checked and got the same thing. Thank goodness I knew in time to call the office and they said they would leave a message on the boss’s cell phone. Jason, the owner, fixed it and called me back. He was still sending upgrades to various parts of his system, and neglected to put in some security code on our account to let others onto my site to read our blog. I’m glad my friend looked while he was still available. However, now I have his cell phone # if this happens again, outside working hours.
I worked more on music today, putting in “Don’t Fence Me In” (which turned out to be more time-consuming than intended), and I worked to finalize “Waltz Across Texas,” which also had some unexpected difficult spots. I have only to enter the chords now on both.
I never took a nap, because neither did John. We had a nice dinner. Leftover fries from yesterday’s lunch wtih new white onions John grew and fried with mushrooms he bought yesterday. Then he made small ground beef patties. It was a nice meal. The only thing we might have added would have been tomatoes. I didn’t think about it at the time, and the plate was full. John had taken some for his lunch, anyway, and I had had many myself too. I put catsup or ketchup (Who knew?) on my hamburger. It was all very tasty.
Trying to go to bed early, considering how early we were up this morning, and a long day of work, (John worked harder than I did). He was on the Snow Lake Trail, moving roots and rocks out of the path. They had a small group but 2 new personalized green hats (for 5 days of volunteering) were awarded. Those two were the least experienced of the crew, and with a knowledgeable bunch they got a lot of work done.

Saturday, Aug 30

When we were born 1st class letters cost 3¢.
When we were married (1969) the cost was 6¢.
This morning the cost is 49¢.

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

Sunday, Aug 17

Managed to get the blog posted last night for a change. I started by being up early during the night and losing at least an hour’s sleep, so I slept in this morning while John picked squash, tomatoes, and plums. John heard some activity next door at our neighbor’s and we are sort of in charge of looking out for her place when she’s gone. He went over and found a couple of people there to remove a tree from off the garage, and another from a shed (once a chicken coop). When John yelled a greeting, the fellow with the chainsaw came over to introduce himself and said he recognized the voice. John had him in a physical geography class many years ago, and recognized his name. He had his 19-yr old daughter along helping load branches and wood into the trailer, and the last time we saw her it was when she was little. This is the same fellow I wrote up in my blog during my week away in Moses Lake (June 14 week), having met him in Starbucks! (He lives in Ellensburg, but travels all over the state for the WSDOT working on vegetation in the medians and on the sides of highways.)

We left before noon, dropping by for me to visit the tree trimmers next door, give them some produce, and then carry some produce to other people around our long rural block and on over 5 miles, to return a CD of photos of the fire our friends had shared (you have seen a couple week’s ago his photo of the retardant plane and drop). We also returned a map from another neighbor and delivered more stuff. I’ve been working most of the afternoon proofing a letter of intent for my former student’s application to a Ph.D. program in Canada, and now I have to finish writing my own letter of recommendation (LOR) for him. He was my student in a couple of classes in 2007-08, but we have kept in touch all these years. It got hot here this afternoon, so we upped (lowered?) the a/c and closed the windows. There was a slight breeze when we were out, so standing in the shade was not a problem. When it gets down to the 80s we will go to the garden to check on things. I gave away all my yellow pear tomatoes and want some with dinner. I went with John to the newer garden when it cooled down and took some photos and managed to get one of a fawn staring at the dogs and me from the area near our creek. Sadly, I missed the one with the mom also in the view finder. The picture below is focused on the weed just in front of me, but you can see the deer’s interest in us; mostly the dogs, though. You can also see the white spots. Shortly after I took that, the dogs moved in front of the mom and her fawn, and they bounced away to the “swamp” area on the west of our property.

Monday, Aug 18

Well, it has become a hot day out. I have spent a lot of time on the phone about medical appointments, a ton of time on email about letters of reference, and a multitude of other requests and tasks, not to mention chores around the den sifting through monthly receipts. I have yet to tackle other necessities for this month. John has picked up a bunch of plums this morning, blown out of our tree last night. Now he’s down working on firewood and brush underneath our huge Ponderosa pine at the lower end of our pasture. At 1:15, our a/c just kicked in. We had an afternoon visit in the heat, with our neighbor Allen Aronica from up the road. We shared fire stories and gave him some plums and onions. We delivered some produce to neighbors, and John grilled chicken for supper. We surely had many quail running around near the house at dusk. The sentry was on a fence post about 20 feet from the house.

Tuesday, Aug 19

I started with medical issues again, but this time with that of my neighbor’s. I listened to the dilemma and decided to offer my next week’s overnight sleep test appointment to him, because he is in much worse need than I, and the closest appointment for him is in November. They will be in Arizona by then, and I can easily reschedule for a later date.
John picked up about 23 plums and brought them in for me to clean up. We will make a plum delivery run in a bit, around our rural block, with squash and onions too, and a printout of helpful medical information for our neighbor who goes for a sleep evaluation tomorrow. This neighbor is downhill of us and shares our ditch irrigation water. Sometime ago, he had a 10-bypass operation on his heart. He was recommended by his cardiologist to have the sleep test evaluation to assess his situation because of the symptoms he was having. He does not have a computer, and John and I have been researching these issues since my test a couple months ago. I printed copies of some useful information, along with two signed copies of a professional letter to the Yakima Memorial Sleep Center doctor and staff, indicating my willingness and request to transfer my appointment to him.
I managed to post 7 job announcements on our NW Geographers list that had accumulated over the past two days. In addition, I made progress on my LOR for my former grad student to enter a Ph.D. program in Canada, but I need to transfer it and other information into an on-line form. Things nowadays are surely different from what they used to be for writing support letters or filling in forms for an evaluation of a potential candidate for a job or for academic entrance. Previously, it all went through postal mail, on letterhead, with hand-done signatures.
The winds have been blowing hard all morning and afternoon, and consequently, we received an outfall of plums. John picked up a bunch twice today, and just went out for the mail, paper, and brought in more than 2 dozen. I put 8/bag in the fridge for sharing with others, and left some for us.
Been terribly busy all day… don’t know where the time went. We went on an 18-mile round trip around the neighborhood in our rural area, giving away plums, onions, squash, and little tomatoes. We were gone the better part of an hour, and visited 7 houses. John just went out and brought in a small box of tomatoes, medium size reds (Early Girl), small yellow pear ones, and a few cherry tomatoes. We made a nice chicken chef salad tonight, using many of the tomatoes. We also munched all day on plums. I think I have almost completed all the work on my LOR form for my former student.
We figure we have given 100 pounds of sweet plums off our one tree for people to eat, freeze, dry, or make jam.

We’ll get some jam (and farm eggs) in return. We have been eating our fair share and freezing some. I won’t take the time to dry any as our freezer still has frozen dried fruits from the last 2 years. Below are a few photos of our produce production this week. I missed getting any photos of the large containers of harvested plums we shared around Ellensburg and our rural block. Not all the plums have fallen from the tree. John is also picking, so we have some that are intact – when they fall they often have wounds from hitting tree limbs or they split when they encounter the ground. Many of those have gone to the jam makers.

Dahlias still overlooking the newest garden.

Acorn squash, nearly ready.

Butternut squash, not so ready yet.

Yellow pear and cherry tomatoes.
2 cats, sister and brother, often visit John in the garden:

Woody (female) (above) is inquisitive but more standoffish than her brother.

Johnny (male) vocalizes more and will allow contact at feeding time in the hay loft but not in the yard or garden. He likes to supervise garden activities. I should mention we haven’t seen a mouse since we acquired the feral cats. We daily feed up to 5 ferals, and they have dry food available in their cat house all the time. Normally, it is only 4 who are in for feeding in the evening. They know the ropes. When John goes to feed the horses, they watch, and follow him back to the house (or have already positioned themselves in the hay mow, awaiting his arrival). We also still have our inside-outside cat, Rascal, who gets fed dry food, and canned twice a day. If you haven’t seen his picture in a year, or more), he is a spittin’ image of Woody, but his hair is short.

Wednesday, Aug 20

Off for Food Bank & SAIL, dropping plums by to Gloria & Paul’s on the way. Oh, I picked up a container (blue plastic folding box) from the free table at the SR Center and loaded a huge (probably 7-lb zucchini to bring my neighbor for making relish). We’ll get a jar of that too. Back for a haircut with Celia and to deliver a box of plums for jam. Added a few yellow pear tomatoes, which are yummy and will soon be coming on rapidly. A busy rest of the day. Winds blew & blew. John picked and watered.
I had a phone call from the scheduler at the Sleep Center reassigning my test and thanking me for donating my overnight test appointment time (8/28) to my neighbor. Then he called to thank me. All the people involved were impressed with my permission letter suggestion to provide him the opportunity. That made me happy to hear. Especially with the carefully guarded medical record information, I doubted they would take me seriously, but I’m happy they did. They also think he goes to bed early enough that they will get a complete evaluation in during the night, unlike they did with my first test. I found out some answers to questions I had about my first test from the scheduler, who was actually only filling in and normally is a sleep technician. So, that was very good. I was still upset from never having had any of it explained — other than, “just come back for a second test with a CPAP mask on from the start.” Initially we did not know enough to ask good questions. When I began asking her questions about my study, she responded with coherent answers. John and I have done a lot of examination of the issues on line and I knew more about it all this time. I do expect they will determine from the test that I am in some (?) danger of a low blood oxygen saturation level while sleeping, and that I will need to wear one of the masks at home. Talking to others, though, I seem to be in better shape than many.

Thursday, Aug 21

Morning brunch: French toast, bacon, and plums, fixed by John by sprinkling with sugar, cinnamon, and ground cloves. We are using a lot of the plums to cut into bite-size pieces, fixed as above, and we have started freezing some for future use. The 7 yellow squash plants are responding to less intense sun and slightly cooler temperatures, thereby gifting us with about 30 pounds of fruit twice a week. So, nice trip to town to drop off squash and plums with the music group members and to play music at Dry Creek Assisted Living home, where people have their own apts. We had a nice turnout: clarinet, viola, fiddle, and 7 guitars! Great audience with good participation and appreciation. We give them the lyrics and they happily become involved in the sing-along. John picked plums and squash today to take along with him to the WTA work crew tomorrow. He’ll leave here early to get to breakfast – what had been a Thursday tradition has become a Friday one. Mostly the breakfast bunch has assistant crew leaders (ACL) + the CL and gives all a chance to visit. When on a trail working they often are 50 to 250 yards apart and work with new or recently new volunteers – not with each other. I’m staying home to work on needed chores. He managed to get a beautiful bunch of hand-picked, non-split plums to share at lunch with the 23 people working for the day.
I received a phone call from an excited neighbor about the billowing cumulus clouds over the hills we have only last week been watching burn, sending plumes of smoke upward, creating clouds. We agreed it was not fire-related, but I looked for the radar imagery and determined it was NE of Wenatchee and about 50 miles away within a yellow-hatched marked thunderstorm warning hazard zone. John came in and found web reports that a thunderstorm was on the Waterville Plateau – as the radar showed. Here is the scene from the end of our driveway:

Note the anvil-head pointing east, the way the wind is blowing.

Friday, Aug 22

What an absolutely crazy day — it’s more than half over, with only 4 hours left until John returns from the hills, and I have spent all my time on the phone handling bill pays, or on line transferring money to pay them so that I don’t have to use a stamp.
Much time was taken trying to alter bill payments automatically through Discover, because my latest card (SAME number) has a new expiration date and a new security code. One would think a phone call would be sufficient, and it was in some cases but not in others. I’m stressed from the effort. Our local PUD (utilities) accepted my request. Our “local, NOT” telephone company will not accept, requiring me to come into town in person with my new card to change it. I’m very unhappy with that after being a long-term customer since 1989. Next I need to call my cell phone folks in Oregon and hope they will just change it via phone or on line. I refuse to drive to Oregon !! Happily, they took the telephone request.
While on hold, I received a phone message from my neighbor that his sleep test had been moved up 2 days, so my old one would be available, but I already planned for the upcoming 20 Sept one, and John has arranged to be out of town on a WTA event the next day, leaving before I would get home from the test. I thought I should call the scheduling center, but didn’t get to them until just after NOON, and they close at Noon on Fridays. Sheez.
The hassle continues with credit card requests. I have a request in to Chase Bank about a payment on a loan, which they said they are not allowed to do by Federal Law. The bank manager called me and explained they were not allowed to, but only could remove from our bank account, as a bill pay. Now I’m trying to get my Safeco Insurance for the vehicles changed. I would get $22 cash reward back / year. Every little bit helps. In the process, I talked to our agent (still in Idaho), who realized our payments were coming out twice a month for two different polices, and we have been being charged a $2.00 fee for each policy autopay, monthly. I asked if we could combine them, and we can, while also changing credit cards. The money I save will cover the premium for paying monthly rather than once or twice a year.

John called about 3:30 to say he would soon be leaving the parking lot (the WTA work crew location) and would be arriving home by 5:00 p.m. He had 3 ears of fresh corn to compensate for the plums and squash he took to give to the folks there. In addition, another person brought brownies for the crew. Just after he hung up, we started getting rain, which fast became torrential, and followed by thunder (and I assume lightning). John saw it beyond Thorp on his trip home, and the clouds dumping water.
He had moved buckets from under the roof line, and only part of the water was going into our 55 gallon barrel. I moved one 5 gallon bucket over, moved the barrel beneath the largest river of water falling from the roof, and was getting soaked in the process. I moved two other buckets and reached for one to put under another side of the barrel, but somehow my foot slipped, and I ended up on the ground, falling into the dirt and rocks off the edge of the wooden deck. I wasn’t hurt, but was laying on my side, and finally able to sit up (with rain still pouring down on me). I could reach a post, but couldn’t get the leverage to pull myself up. I sat there for a minute, moved myself up onto the concrete slab porch, tried putting my feet back under me, but they were only 6 inches below my butt, and I couldn’t get up. Our exercise class has been standing up from a sitting position in a chair, not from a lower place on the floor. I turned and saw behind me a box the size of a case of wine full of recycle paper. I pulled myself around and got on my knees and was able to use the box to push up on and raise myself. By this time I was totally soaked and had dirt, mud, and water over my pants and shirt, and my hair was completely soaked. I got back into the house and changed clothes to assess the damage. I will probably have some bruises on my left arm, both knees, and a bruise on my right thumb/palm, from hitting something on the way down. This evening before bed, I found a few small bruises, no broken skin, and a lump on the inside of my lower left ankle (it was gone by morning). I’m very grateful I did not break something, and that I was able to get up. Otherwise, I would have had an hour’s wait for John to arrive home to find me and help me up. The rain soon stopped and the sun came and John arrived about 30 minutes later. All’s well that ends well.
The Chase Bank crap goes on. I called my bank to see how to change the bill pay on our new Chase credit card account, so it would automatically pay the balance each month from our checking account through an automatic withdrawal. It took me an hour (literally), talking to two different people in the Philippines, to get the deed taken care of, but it still won’t be until 3 working days have passed and I reenter the system to verify some authorized (smaller than a dollar) charges, which verifies I’m the owner of the account. While on the phone I canceled our other Chase credit card (they have 15 types; this was called Slate – as in cheap stone, I think) because it had no rewards for usage connected to it. I also had to create an account on line to make all these changes. If a person doesn’t have a computer and a fast internet connection all these things would not be easy or even possible. The only reason we have a VISA account is that the charge to some businesses for using Discover is 7%. Our dentist gives us a 5% discount on our bill, if written by check at the time of service, so as not to use a credit card. They only take VISA or MASTERCARD, so that must be their charge.

Saturday, Aug 23

Morning was nice and after some outside things John put a chunk of boneless beef in the oven for a long slow roast. We will share another ear of corn tonight, with one left. Our own is filling out, so maybe soon we’ll have our own. We used a garden ripe tomato for our BLTs for lunch. The temperature has already exceeded the predicted high for the day; now at 83. John and the dogs walked up for the mail for about 7 pieces, all useless. Oh well, the dogs like to go. On the way up and back John brought in more plums, and a pretty tart yellow apple to go with dinner. The roast was super tender and juicy – having been cooked with our Ailsa Craig (from the Gaelic ailsse creag, which means fairy rock) onions, for almost 8 hours, covered, in a very slow oven (235 degrees).
When we went to post the photos and text of this to the Word Press site in order to publish in a timely fashion, the web site was down.

As you now know, it is finally back up, but not until late Monday morning. What happened was a server upgrade by our provider, but something went wrong, and this site was not operational. He couldn’t fix it until Monday morning, even though he was aware of it over the weekend. Perhaps we should post on a day when they are still open for business.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Our web site service made a change on Friday and knocked us off for the weekend.

Monday, at about 10 AM PST we have arisen from the dead.

Phoenix

With a few other things to do — we expect to get a blog posted later today, Monday. Because the time is past Noon in the East anyone back there can expect to find something about supper time.

Cheers,
John