Category: Weekly report by day

If you missed it, check out the previous post – The Grandstands.

Sunday, Dec 22
Started by sleeping in from a very late night (morning). Had a wonderful 1/2 hour talk with John’s 95-year-old cousin in PA. She is incredibly sharp. Then a nice conversation with Peggy, John’s sister, in OH. We will not be around Christmas Day, so thought we should get our wishes and calls in early. We were unable to reach John’s brother in CA.
Very much time tonight, with more needed in the morning, of scanning Christmas carols and printing into .pdf files to email to a lady who will join us Thursday to play the Grand Piano at Hearthstone. Ellen’s son Roger will be there, and he came without bringing his guitar, so I am carrying in the guitar we bought from Anne Engels (MT), and she and her son will be there. (She is visiting son Glenn in Ellensburg for another week). Makes it rather special. Now this morning I’m running off the music for him because Roger cannot play along with his mom’s music as it is in the wrong key for her Bb Clarinet. The chords are written in for the key the rest of us play in (two sharps lower). Luckily, I had created the songs for our pianist, so I just have to find those 17 files and click print.

Monday, Dec 23
I spent much time this morning on music printing Christmas music for the two guests of our group this Thursday at Hearthstone. I did not explain the guitar we bought from Anne Engels for John to learn on belonged to her late husband. John cannot make his beat-up fingers bend to form all the chords, or make all the notes, without touching extra strings.
While sitting in my recliner working on the music scanning, creating, and printing copies I saw a flash of white outside the window, which faces the front yard (fenced). There is a 20 ft. high Mountain Ash tree there with bright red fruit hanging and blowing in the wind. The wind was gusting to 45mph, and I told John, something just went by the window — maybe a bag was flying around. I saw it in my peripheral vision (so it is working), but I was not able to focus on it. He looked out the kitchen window to see 12 wild turkeys (Merriam) visiting us. Those inside the fence were eating the red berries that had blown off the tree. I took some pictures and videos from the kitchen window, moved to the front door, and then to a bedroom. John thinks the Ash fruit isn’t palatable, nor perhaps edible, until it has changed in some manner (freeze/thaw; fermented ?) hanging on the tree. Small birds such as Starlings will come and sample the fruit but then leave. Last February (we think) a flock of about 50 came and cleaned the entire crop off the tree in 2 days. So something changed. John’s new bit of wisdom is to not have flowers, flowering shrubs, or fruiting trees close to your doors because bees, dropping fruit, and birds are best seen and not experienced first hand. The Ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) [look it up] is one we could grow here but do not because it smells like dog poop or vomit. See here for our local link to this tree; just 25 miles away.
So back to the turkeys. John took his camera and walked out into the pasture, and took some photos. Pretty cool.

Tuesday, Dec 24 Christmas Eve
Today has mostly been inside work, except for John’s morning tours of the pasture. Just after John made it back into the house, his brother Dick called from San Jose’, CA. We’d left a message on Sunday when calling everyone, and they were out and about. He was waiting for his sons to arrive and Kit was off to a local bakery. On Christmas Day the folks would head to other places. We had a nice talk, and he sounded good (he’s 11 years older than John). Also, we called our friend, Fred Joyal, to wish him a Happy Birthday today, and Merry Christmas to the family tomorrow in upstate Michigan. Later this afternoon, just before dark, we carried some jars & apples to one neighbor, and picked up two jars of apricot jelly she made and knows I love. On from there to another neighbor a mile away, to deliver some onions, a few potatoes, and some now less-than-fresh Honeycrisp apples. (John sliced and sugared enough apples for a large pie and still has 2 batches to do. They have lasted well.) They traded a package of venison sausage and a jar of strawberry jelly. I had a package with a cutting board in it, to give her, but I forgot and left it at home. [The “authentic Maple cutting board” is in a box with 3 seven ounce salami/sausage rolls and a triangular shaped 2 oz. piece of smokey cheese-food. We bought several of these packages (for gifts) at an after Christmas sale about 10 years ago and two of these just now surfaced. Well, the Maple cutting board still looks good, but we will trash the food.] Later in the evening, we made one more call to Pat Berlin, the daughter of his cousin we talked with Sunday. We think she is his “first cousin once removed.” I have never figured this relationship stuff out. Her birthday falls on Christmas day and we knew we wouldn’t have a chance to call her. She is also in PA, 3 time zones to the east. With John’s help, I worked on cleaning up the counters to get ready to make the food we will take to Christmas dinner tomorrow. John came in and put together a neat lunch, followed by making an apple/ blueberry pie and a cookie sheet of leftover dough with crushed pecans, sugar, and cinnamon. We had a piece of that for dessert.
I’ve been working on the email list to send the link below to all our friends. If you did not receive it, please go here.
It is our Christmas card to send to everyone before the end of the year, saying we will not get the 2013 newsletter out until after the New Year. 🙂
However, before I could send it, I had to transcribe the pictures and videos of the wild turkeys at our house today and yesterday and make the videos to put into YouTube compatible files. That took awhile, but I got them transferred, and you can reach them here:

Tom chases the girls; 29 sec.

On to the fence; 32 sec.

At 11:00 p.m., I FINALLY got it out! Whoopee–a few returned with wrong email addresses. I now have to fix those loose ends, but that can wait for a new day.

Wednesday, Dec 25
Up early, to clean up and then work on fixing the Golden Health Squash dish. See below the beginning and ending of the process.

The photo above is only the smaller of the two Pyrex dishes we took to the dinner. Finally, after a late start, we finished in plenty of time to drive 20 minutes to our destination. We visited a lot and ate likewise. There were some good foods there we don’t usually have. The main meat dishes included ham and turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, our squash, several different salads, many dips, including some fancy ones (salmon, artichoke), stuffed mushrooms, the hottest peppers filled with something less hot, I have ever had. Had to run get some cool drink to put out the fire. John passed on those. Also was a table of cookies (all decorated) and candies. We didn’t stay around for the cakes and pies, because they took a break to exchange gifts. We needed to get home for John to feed the horses and outside cats – they have him trained so he will feed before dark. I needed to locate the guitar I mentioned previously. I dusted off the case, and managed to get the strings in tune. It does have a tuner attached to its neck so the only issue is will it stay in tune? [it did, just fine]

Thursday, Dec 26
Today, going to play music at 2 places in the afternoon — all Christmas songs. I have a lot of stuff to carry. John decided against going in favor of working on his “firewise” project. I parked at the end of the driveway at the first place and made two trips. First was with my fiddle and carrier, and next with my guitar and another carrier (with music stands and music books). We had a great group, with some new members and visitors in the audience and in the “band.” Here is a run-down on the instruments: mandolin, two guitars, bells, accordion, two fiddlers, clarinet, and pianist (on the Grand Piano). The audience had individual sets of bells to jingle with us, and lyrics of the songs we sung.

Friday, Dec 27
We have lots of clean up in the house left to do, and I started this morning by making my way through 3 boxes in front of the door to our entry hall closet. I know we haven’t been in there for 5 years, because we have a coat rack on the wall beside the door, which holds all our vehicle keys, and coats/jackets of the season. I was looking for a special warm winter coat from my past and hoping for warm boots as well. I found both! I doubt the boots will work, however. The foam insulation (a low density, open cell polyurethane foam ? ) has deteriorated, and after wearing them an hour, I realized the insides were crumbling — so trashed them. John says he read on the side they were made in Italy. Later, I’ll look further in the same closet. The coat is perfect. John made some brownies and they smell delicious. We received an invite today to a Raclette (it happens on John’s birthday this year). So very excited. (That’s why I was looking for warm outside clothing). Also, another party on Jan 11 celebrating a new job in Yakima for the son (in Ellensburg) of a friend, but the party will be in Maple Valley, WA. Our attendance is waiting for the weather report on the Pass. Rest of the afternoon I have spent (still working) on deciding the playlist for our group for Jan & February. Now I have to put them in order in my book, and run copies for the new people. We just had dinner, and I am totally worn out, but it is only 8:00 p.m. Received a blast from the past–about our old Brittany, born in 1976, Dual Ch/AFC/CC Ramblin’ Chocolate Dandy. (See more on tomorrow’s write-up.)
Entered the song, Leaves, into my computer software. It is a song we have long done with our group, and it is very old. Many years ago the mother-in-law of one of our guitarists put a poem to music. Within the past 12 years, he wrote a 3rd verse, and I wrote the 4th and 5th. It’s pretty cool. Guess I should make a link to the lyrics for anyone interested. We localized the last three verses to the Kittitas Valley – as we are the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends.

Saturday, Dec 28
This morning I went walking with John and the Brittanys, and talked to the horses. They see so little of me, they weren’t sure of the change and the three newest ones stood 50 feet away and looked but decided that was close enough. I was all bundled up maybe looked like an apparition – the ghost of Christmas past. Now back to the correspondence with the fellow that had a pup out of our “Choc” — Dual Champion Brittany. He had a pup in the last century from him, and wants another from his bloodlines. My wonderful first-opened email of this morning was from Jeri Conklin offering just the pup he needs. The conclusion of getting information to the fellow, now in CA, ended at 6:30 p.m. and then an hour or so later, Jeri got back in touch with him, after I sent him a bunch of photos and history. I think it’s going to work out. As I told him, it will be a match made in heaven. Then, because I was too busy today, we never got this blog out. Hope you enjoyed John’s attempt at humor with his Grandstand thing. He sort of tricked me because the bush in that photo looks like one at the corner of our house – it is just a photo he stole from the web.

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

. . .  all that goes with it:  Tax preparation, Easter, gardens, and daffodils:

http://www.cornwall365.co.uk/cornwall_image/4,A-Host-of-Golden-Daffodils,_MG_4865_250207.JPG

Saturday, Apr 7  Took it easy today, caring for my cold, however, we loaded three large Honeycrisp apples into the dehydrator.  John also finished the blog, while I designed a picture he made of a very large apple (on a scale to measure its heaviness) for putting on the web.  We gave you that link in last week’s blog.

Sunday, Apr 8  Happy Easter.  We will be joining our neighbors for a mid-day feast.  Early this morning, while running with the dogs, John had the pleasure of seeing “our Naneum owl” down in the swamp.  A couple of years ago he was able to get a photo of a pair.  They were in adjacent trees but very close to one another.  A student is using one of his photos for her presentation and labeled it the Naneum Owl (That’s because she did a Google Image search and I’d named the photo Owl-Naneum; it picked it up from our newsletter greeting).  Here is a link to the type of owl and relevant information:

http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/birds/great_horned_owl.htm

We are back from a great fun dinner, including ham, potato salad, applesauce, broccoli, green bean casserole with fried onions on top of the mushroom soup mixture, rolls, raw carrots, plums, sweet pickles, and rhubarb blueberry cake for dessert with ice cream if you wanted.

Monday, Apr 9  Neat day.  I stayed home to recover more from my cold.  I’m still coughing but I believe I’m much better.  Only sad thing is that John has caught it.

The reason it was neat was that I accomplished quite a bit, as did John.  He did his normal feeding for the neighborhood livestock and ours.  We went to play with the kitties and talk to Big Sue.  They are slightly growing and getting faster on their feet.

Then John spent the afternoon planting trees – Grand Fir and Ponderosa Pine.

I stayed on my computer going through the tax program and getting questions that I needed responses to from Turbo Tax advisors and from our Mutual Funds Investment counselor in Arizona — (HQ is in Pennsylvania). I reached her on the phone and figured out the answers to those questions about retirement rollovers, and then waited a long time for help from the Turbo Tax advisors (had to speak to two different ones and the wait was longer than the solution).  I got my answers I needed so I’m truly on a roll again.  Oops, Rascal came in with John from feeding the outside cats and is awaiting some special food himself.

Last week I wrote about the dog Rhu that likely would need a new home but they decided to keep him.  They live near Reno and another friend, Sonja, lives in South Lake Tahoe with one of our Brittanys and my childhood-sized (3/4) violin.  They met in between their homes at a convenient place for a longish visit.  Then Rhu’s owner, Julie got the violin from Kip’s owner, Sonja, and has now carted it to EBRG for me.  I missed seeing her but she was able to drop it off at the Adult Activity Center.  What nice friends I have.

Tuesday, Apr 10  I am not busy tomorrow until leaving at 3:30 for a massage appointment and then meeting an Olympia College geographer friend for dinner and then off to play music with The Connections.  Will be a busy afternoon and evening.  It all went well, but I was very tired and didn’t spend much time awake tonight, going to bed a little earlier than usual.

Wednesday, Apr 11  Today started out with all the regular chores, but I stayed in the recliner after breakfast and worked on filing tax receipts.  I didn’t spend much time at all on email and the computer.  Left for the Soup Kitchen at the food Bank, and played music.  Did not sing as much as normal because it would start me coughing.  Got through it and then we tried to eat.  This was the worst lunch they have ever served there.  The meat was a sausage cut in two and fried, with cheese on top and on top of that a piece of lean (mostly) bacon, sort of like ham, with fat attached.  Then there was a half of a green pepper stuffed with a mixture of rice (sticky) and cut up veggies, dessert or bread was a thin slice of tortilla (I guess) with sugar and cinnamon on it.  There were small cubed peaches (canned) for dessert, so I skipped that.  It was really weird and I wasn’t alone in my thoughts.  The head cook came over to thank us (as we were eating) for playing the music.  She leaned over to the two of us (musicians) and said, “What do you think about lunch?  No one said anything, so I said, “Well, it surely is different.”  She seemed pleased and said, “that’s what I intended.”  No one else at my table liked any part of it either.

Went on to Bi-Mart and picked up more canned cat food on sale.  Then off to the hospital for a blood draw for the INR test (blood thinning).  Turns out it was back down again to 1.7, and they are not happy with that.  I complained of my cold symptoms, and the nurse was alarmed I had yellow mucous, so she talked to the doctor, who put me on Amoxicillin at 3/day for another 10 days.  It doesn’t seem that long since I had the same thing prescribed over a month ago.  We had an interesting meal tonight of leftovers.  Much better than my lunch today.

Thursday, Apr 12  Not much today.  Still a lot of coughing from me.  John’s sneezing is about gone too.  John went out to work on chores for the neighbor and to plant our strawberries.  He ordered 25 but got 27 (typical for strawberries by mail-order).  I went to play at the Rehab center and it was a good thing.  Only 6 of us showed up.  I made it through without coughing, but had taken a mask in case I started.  I stopped by the new Carl’s Jr in town and bought a special BBQ bacon/cheddar/fried onion hamburger (two for $5). John ate his not realizing it was supposed to have cheese on it.  Mine did; his didn’t.  Or maybe he had a ‘senior’ moment.

Spring seems to have sprung.  The Willows are blooming . . .

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Willow_catkin_2_aka.jpg

and the Black Cottonwood . . .

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/images/blackcottonwood/populus_balsamifera_fruit_smcdougal_lg.jpg

Grasses (and weeds) have grown enough that our neighbor told John to stop feeding the horses on the pastures.  Then he decided the six mares could do with about half of what they had been getting.  There are a couple dozen mule deer helping with the nibbling of anything green.  It has been so cold here this spring that everything, even grass, is late.  Two years ago trees were leafed out and flowers were blooming by April 1^st.  Two severe frosts in the first week of April froze the cherry buds and killed the leaves of the black walnut trees.  They did come back but there were no nuts in 2010.  Anyway John’s feeding chores have lessened just in time to do some gardening.

Friday, Apr 13   I started the day not feeling well after wheezing and coughing all night.  I wrote an email to my Dr. and called to alert them to its being there.  He responded that starting me on a diuretic was not a good idea, and to keep my antibiotics going, and come in Monday or Tuesday if I wasn’t better.  Therefore, I stayed home and worked on taxes all day.

Interestingly, last night I only ate half of sandwich, and we had the remainder for lunch today.  John had told me last night there was no cheese on his burger, and I said, “Well there was plenty on mine.”  When he cut it today to heat up for lunch, he verified there was lots of cheese on mine, but had been none on his.  I wanted to call the store, but they don’t yet have a phone number listed.  We both went back to work for a couple hours, and he came in to tell me to come out and bring my camera to record what he had done.  Today, he was working on a long trench (~20 feet) digging down to just above a rock layer, putting in a layer of dry manure and straw, and preparing where he will plant his 25+ asparagus plants.  Then I also got some pictures of the strawberries he planted yesterday, and last year’s strawberries from which he removed the straw cover.  They are already showing new light green growth from uncovering two days ago.   You can see the pictures on the following link below, which I put out Saturday night and John wrote the details on my beginning template.

http://elixant.com/~nancyh/NaneumFanGarden.html

The oven’s got chicken thighs baking and in the fridge’ there’s a can of sliced peaches.

Saturday, Apr 14  John got his haircut by me this morning.  If we had put even $5.00/haircut in since I began cutting his hair (before we were married), we would have at least $100.  We did our separate chores, him outside in the garden and me inside on the computer.  Ate a small lunch (for me, not for him), and then both went to town to Briarwood.  He shopped while I entertained with a few others.  Pretty good turnout of 3 guitars, accordion, two violins, and a viola, with an occasional mandolin.  We had a new gal from the college join us today, who plays the banjo.  She also plays with the Bluegrass Jam group at the Grange, and likely will tomorrow too, third Sundays of the month, but this is our last this year.  There will be a group campout and jam the end of May.  Most people, who take this more seriously than I do, go to competitions, festivals, and events through the summer.  Back to this afternoon.   We surely had an appreciative group who really got involved; one lady got up and did Hawaiian hand movements and dancing to Tiny Bubbles and Pearly Shells.  This group of retirees always puts on a great spread for us.  Today were ham sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, cut into 4ths, diagonally, three nice salads, and many desserts.

John and I came home and he buried asparagus roots. It is a chore but once done the plants will likely live here as long as we do.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1603.html

The stores have had Mexico grown asparagus for about $3.50/pound.  The Washington commercial harvest has just started and locally it is sold in road-side stands in boxes of 25 pounds.  We haven’t seen this year’s price though.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/04/12/2104569/asparagus-season-starting-in-tri.html?storylink=fb

I worked on tax input while John was in the asparagus trench.  Then, after he ran the dogs, for their evening exercise, we went to visit the kitties.  John pulled them out of their nest and put them on the hay lined floor in front of me (I was sitting on a bale of hay).  Mama (Big Sue) watched from the rafters.  John laid down and played with them and I picked each of them up and also petted them from above.  They are getting more mobile and interested in things.  John plans maybe tomorrow to build a little enclosure to give them more light, but high enough to keep them in.  In our small hay barn they are well protected from the wind (it was high today) and rain.  We’ll document the arrival of spring here on Naneum Fan and get some more photos posted for next week’s blog.  Meanwhile, check out the garden pictures mentioned above in the blog with a link.

We are thankful we do not live in the mid-west – storms and tornados all over today – and wish the best to anyone in that region.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

 

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_357/123290483458gZMl.jpg

Saturday, Mar 10.    This turned into a nice day.  John had all his and the neighbor’s regular animal chores, but he got them all done in time for us to leave right before 4:00 to go to Yakima for playing music at a fundraiser auction (silent and real) for the Riverside Christian School in Yakima.  We got in return a really nice spread of food for musicians and spouses.   John and I had a really nice visit on the way down and back.  Midday I went to my neighbor’s to deliver a birthday cake (cobbler from our cherries & walnuts, and blueberries ) that we made last night.  And, while there I changed the dressing on my neighbor’s toe operation.  I will do it once a day till it heals completely.  He gave me instructions and we did a nice job.  Medical types had wanted people to come to Harborview for instruction.  Can you imagine?  That’s in Seattle.  Over a mountain.  Sort of like going to New York City for picante sauce

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxnieYctVM

I told him I was willing to go to Ellensburg to a doctor’s office or to the hospital, but I was not driving all the way to Harborview to learn how to do something I could probably easily be coached by him.  That’s what happened, after his nephew, the caregiver for the past couple of weeks, had to leave to start a new job.

Sunday, Mar 11.  I slept in late, was invited to lunch, changed the foot dressing, helped fix, ate lunch and cleaned up, and got home late.  John had taken 4 pictures at the auction last night of our music group, so I worked on getting them emailed to the participants, with thank you notes for last night, and watched a late afternoon snow storm.  Talked to John’s sister tonight.  Sadly Kathy had to return to the hospital, and is a very sick lady.

Monday, Mar 12.  It’s snowing here but John took off for grapevine pruning anyway.

The weather is better there: 23 miles to the NE, 1,400 feet lower, and a 6,000 ft. ridge in between.  I stayed up to clean up the kitchen and get ready to leave for helping my friend with the dressing on his foot, before I have to take off for town.  I do plan to take in some cherries, blueberries and walnuts for our friends to make one of John’s Kittitas Downsideup Cobblers for a special dinner of ethnic foods.  She figures that such a dish is appropriate for where she has lived for 1/4 century.  I must also pick up my meds that I ran out of, or will tomorrow, and drop by the bank for some cash.  John has found a source for the largest Honey Crisp apples you can imagine.  They are the size of grapefruits and weigh about 16 to 20 ounces each.  The larger ones are packed 9 to a flat, the smaller ones have 12, with a plastic liner and individual cups for each apple. He’s getting the box for $10 over in Quincy, from Double Diamond Fruit – a local company “storing, packing, and marketing apples, apricots, and cherries.”  There was a school bus accident (turn over) and 39 kids injured on the road south of Quincy near where John turns off to go to the vineyard.  The roads were dry.  Driver drove off the edge, over-corrected, went over a short but steep gravel incline, and tipped onto its side.

http://www.kimatv.com/news/Dozen-kids-injured-in-school-bus-rollover-near-Quincy-142336575.html

It snowed here hard all morning (started after John was 10 minutes down the road, and lasted until I left at 12:25 to drive to town to deliver the fruit to a friend, go to the bank for cash, and to my exercise class.  It wasn’t till I got to EBRG that the snow stopped.  I had to clean it off both the windshield and the back one.  Oh, had to put in a nursing bandage/dressing change on my neighbor’s foot that took over a half hour before I left for town.  And, I picked up my meds before coming home.  I was so tired that I laid down at 4:15 and slept for 3 hours.  Guess I needed it.  Spent the rest of the night eating a late dinner and proofing job application statements for a friend.

Tuesday, Mar 13   Another long day.  Did not have to do bandage and dressing today.  My “patient” went to his Dr. for an examination and they did it.  Thankfully.  Today I had to go by the vet to get a 3-month supply of Thyroid pills for Shay.  Then off to Cle Elum for seeing my family physician, just for a follow-up.  I drove through a snow storm almost the whole way there, and when I came out 50 minutes later, it was sunny and bright.  My Dr. was positive that I looked better than ever, and was “back” to 100%.  I don’t feel I’m quite there yet, but it was nice being complimented.  I know I’m so much better.  He said I didn’t need to check back with him till annual physical time in July.  Certainly suits me.  [John says: I put the  “–”s around ‘back’ because the meaning is “about as good as you can expect to be with the heart you’ve got.”]  Tonight was a dinner in town and playing at Hearthstone, so I didn’t get home till 8:00.  I spent an hour on writing a letter of recommendation for a student to go to grad school.  I last had him in classes in 2008, but I remember him well.  He was a very good student.  It’s cold outside–down to 31.5 .

Wednesday, Mar 14  We both took care of chores, and John left for pruning.  At 11:30 I left for playing music at the “Soup” Kitchen, and on to exercise at 1:30, then home to work on taxes.

Thursday, Mar 15 — a slow start but busy ending with a little excitement thrown in.  I got up quite early (still dark) with John and he had to go do all chores in the dark (the daylight savings time thing) to be able to leave earlier than normal to pick up one of the pruners.  I decided to go back to sleep in my recliner and 15 minutes later my cell phone rang.  I do not get reception in that part of the house so I had to walk back the entire length of our L-shaped house.  It was the vineyard/winery owner, Cameron, calling to say if it was raining in EBRG, perhaps John didn’t need to make the trip over.  I told him he’d already left 15 minutes prior, so he thanked me and hung up.  I went back to the recliner and settled down under a blanket.  I managed to go to sleep for the next couple of hours !  Cool.. I needed it.  I didn’t have to go do the bandages this morning because my neighbor had an early a.m. appointment in town with his doctor.  They put a bandage on when done.  I worked on several chores, and ate some lunch (following on a late breakfast).  Didn’t leave till about 1:00 to drop off some stuff on my way to play music at Dry Creek.  Amazingly, we had 13 people there today.   Wow.. and we had a great audience and one of them got up, took off her shoes and socks, and cut a rug . . .

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/39/messages/462.html

. . . to Five Foot Two & Yes Sir That’s My Baby.  It was neat.  I wish I had had my camera.  She was the Geography Secretary for 27 years at CWU.  Toward the end of our playing, we played 5 Irish tunes, and it sounded pretty good for only doing it once a year.  I called John from town to be sure he made it home okay.  The weather turned sunny from blustery, very windy, and rainy when we started.  I finished loading the dishwasher and sat down with my computer.  Just as I was ready to send off some pictures to one of the couples at the Yakima gig, last Saturday, and John was out feeding our horses, I heard a loud cat scream and looked out to see Rascal being attacked by Big Sue (the old yellow cat).  She had him on the ground rolling around, and I ran out the back door, screaming at the top of my lungs.  It broke them up and she went out around the back of Jay’s Folly, …  [“folly”: a pond with almost no water and lots of brush; a relic of the prior owner hoping to store water for late season irrigation; bottom is cobbles and sand so for water storage it works about as well as a colander:]

http://www.hostalibrary.org/seed/indoors/colander.jpg

… and Rascal ran around the back of the fence and jumped up a fence post and ran in the open patio door.  I followed him in, and he went back to the guest bedroom up by the window at the front of the house.  I was talking with him and decided he was not hurt, when John walked in the back door, asking where we were.  He had been at the barn and heard the cat fight screams and my yelling.  Rascal is okay, but I’m not happy.

Friday, Mar 16  I stayed and slept in, but then had to go eat at a scholarship luncheon.  It was a full table of food, and good because I never had breakfast, except a cup of coffee to warm up.  Two ladies put it on and had large cookies from Vinmans Bakery,…  [well regarded for miles around, pricey (not for the faint of wallet), minimal WEB site:]   http://vinmansbakery.com/ … a loaf of bread, rolls, butter, a nice salad, and a Crock-pot of spaghetti in cheese sauce with red peppers.  From there I went to the activity center to pick up my 86 yr old friend to give her a ride home.  We did not have exercise today because a group was working on pine needle basket weaving.  Here’s a photo of the unassembled product: http://www.needlebasket.com/images/longleaf_pine.jpg

I picked up a 5 grain bread loaf that was being given away – having been donated on its “use by date” by a well known grocery chain.

Saturday, Mar 17  Another crazy one, started at 2:15 a.m. with a cat fight outside.  It woke me up and I jumped out and ran to the back door, yelling, but never saw the combatants.  John walked out without trousers but with slippers and flashlight (aka a torch) and found nothing.  (British) English Translated For Americans:

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/engtran.html

I went back to the guest bedroom, and Rascal was up on his perch, so I ran back outside to tell John I had found him.  He stayed in the rest of the night.  Normally he leaves about 4 or 5 but it started snowing at 2:30 and continued till 7:00 and measured up to 4 inches.  It was wet snow.  Then it was quiet and the sun shone a little, but at 10:00 a.m. it started snowing BIG huge flakes again and went on for 45 minutes.  Very interesting.  I went over and did my neighbor’s foot bandage at 10:45 and then came home to work on a letter of recommendation.  Then John took a nap and got up & put on his awesome (yard sale) Irish Claddagh sweater with the pattern in green, gold, purple, and black on white . . .

http://www.carvinginnyc.com/claddagh.htm

It stays in a safe place and he only wears it occasionally.  Everyone always loves it.  Today was special, because he wore it to the celebration where we were playing music, and several Irish tunes.  He got up and modeled it.. and everyone cheered.  Then at the end we played Irish Washerwoman and he came to the front and did a little Irish jig.  Everyone was impressed.  A lady got up to dance too, but he went and sat down.  They had a nice meal for us, so I didn’t need to eat any dinner.  There were little corned beef sandwiches with a piece of lettuce, potato salad, slaw, and a fluffy green fruit salad.  There were desserts too, but I only had one sugar cookie with green frosting.  Tonight we had a piece of John’s “brownie” cake for dessert.

Sunday, Mar 18, will start with John doing horse feeding chores for us and for the neighbor’s 10 horses.  Just after lunch we will drive to the Bluegrass Jam Session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange about 30 minutes up the road (in good weather).

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan