Category: Random issues

Sunday, Nov 6, 2011 — Nice morning and we drove to Cle Elum, meeting our friend Morris at 9:00 a.m. at the Cottage Cafe.  We had a great visit (over 3 hours, starting with breakfast), and presented the memory book to him.  I told him there were additions coming, and we will take them to him later, or mail them to him if he is gone from Roslyn.
I have 74 student entries and 7 colleagues.   I know he will cherish the memories.  He said he will start reading it tonight, and he will cry.
I imagine he will.  John did just proofing them.  John also had tears in his eyes today just listening to Morris’ stories.  It was really neat.  I only teared up once, but several times while putting the book together.
He’s a good fellow; that much I know and he was very appreciative of our friendship (John’s and mine) over the years.  As we were leaving he hugged each of us and told us each, “I love you.”  We love him too, and we will keep up with him wherever he goes.  He knows he can call on us if he needs to.  It’s still on my camera but I took a picture of him with the book, outside under a tree.   I should send it, I think, to everyone who put a letter in the book.  I only wish I had been able to find more people from his past.  There is still time to add to the book.  I will just format them, add to the table of contents, and send him the copies and a new copy of the content names (now at two pages, soon to start a third).

John did more work this afternoon (in the cold) on the inside of the cat house.  I stayed inside and worked on music and emails, pretty much.  I’m tired and will try to go to bed early tonight.  John fixed some good dinner with ground beef & onions, cheese on top, a baked potato, and I had two types of tomatoes.  They are thinning out.  I will miss them when they’re gone.

Monday, Nov 7, 2011  Loose cows in the front yard of our neighbors out by our mailbox.  John went and helped herd them back into the fence, with the help of two other neighbors.  He’d make a good cow dog or cutting horse.  Neither were with him.  He saw our horses upset with the bawling cow sound from up on the road, and went to check it out.

We went to town for lunch, and then John dropped me off for exercise class while he ran some errands.  We had to get our Absentee Ballots . . .

[John says: Absentee?  Nancy is showing she needs to pay attention to current developments.  Washington State voters vote by mail. Our county switched for the 2008 elections.  Most others earlier. Pierce County went from 90% to only-mail this year.]

. . . turned in to the Courthouse pickup before tomorrow (Election Day).  He got an electrical outlet for inside the cat house.  Also, he checked the price on some boots he wanted.  We are back from town and just ordered  $69.98 worth of boots and slippers for John with free shipping from Blair in PA.

[John says: Blair Corp. was founded as the New Process Company and is still headquartered in Warren, PA.  John’s dad’s family is from Warren and some relatives worked for the company when it was a simple hometown affair.  Things are considerably more complicated now!  See the section titled “Continued Growth” on this site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Corporation

He looked in town for the same thing (the boots) and similar things were $115 – $250, plus would have had 8.1% tax added.  The slippers are $20.00, and are the about same as obtainable in Yakima but he’s not found them here in town.  A local store had slippers starting at $60.  Maybe they were made of real sheep wool?]

Tuesday, Nov 8 — It was another crazy day.. I was gone most of the day to 3 things:  foot care at noon, back home briefly,  4:00 Acupuncture, stayed and ate in town, and then played music at 6:30, not getting home till 8:00 pm.  Now my feet are cold and I need to check the fruit in the dehydrator.  John and I spent over an hour loading one up while it was still early and cold outside.  We put in banana chips, a pear, Gala apples and a Rome.  I need to go turn them.  I looked at them and had to ask John for his opinion and to help put it back together.  There are some plastic clamps on the sides I can take off but not put back on.  I have to concentrate the next time I take them off so I can restore it.  I think I have before, but tonight, I wasn’t making the connection (literally)!

Wednesday, Nov 9 – John and I got the dehydrator unloaded and reloaded with a couple of pears and mostly Gala and a couple of Rome apples.  We only got 6 ounces of apples dried from the bunch ?? (how many John?  >10 ) yesterday.  Maybe that’s why dried fruit is so expensive.  I went to town for music and food at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Over 40 there today, so not enough food to go around.  We eat last because we play music through their lunch.  We had a tomato basil soup, with a very few oyster crackers, a small serving of meat loaf (and the servers didn’t get any! (sad).  A little fruit cocktail, the garlic bread toast was all gone, and there was a small piece of apple pie.  I didn’t need any more.  I took cans of V8 tomato juice for me and the banjo player.  Then off to check the price of gas, and to exercise class.  Home now, and need to put together our Veteran’s Day music to practice tomorrow at the rehabilitation facility where I was last year for 7 weeks.  It’s practice for the next day at a downtown stage next to the library, where there will be a meeting for ice cream sundaes, honoring the veterans who also have a morning parade and a free BBQ at the downtown fire station.  My group is playing from noon for 50 minutes, and we will do a few patriotic songs, mixed in with songs about America.

Thursday.  Nov 10  I ended up spending most of last night on music (U.S. Army Air Force Song).   Was going to transpose for the clarinet player, but the fellow who wrote the score had about 5 notes wrong.  I figured it out by playing on a virtual piano keyboard.  (uses a Java Script).  Boy, it is so cool what can be done nowadays.
However,  I don’t want to take the time to write in the Chords and the words, so will just print them in, and then make copies on my printer.  That didn’t work.  This morning while John was cutting apples, I cut and taped the words onto the “new music”.  Then I wrote in the chords by hand.  I finished just an hour before I had to leave and made copies to give out (and punched 3 holes in everything).  Meanwhile, John finished putting the dehydrator stuff (apples and pears) out so we could load it this morning with apples.  Earlier he put up the applesauce (beautiful dark red from the Rome’s skins) into freezer containers.

Playing went well this afternoon, even though were very short on players.

We had only two violins (and it was just me when the other one played his mandolin).  We had a guitar, banjo, and a bass fiddle.  Plus a singer joined us.  All there today, except the banjo player will be there tomorrow at the Veteran’s Day playing.

Chili for dinner and a tiny bit of ice cream with cashews.  That’s the end of our ice cream from a major sale a few weeks ago. Waiting now for the next sale (on large plastic tubs).

Friday, Nov 11 – Happy Veterans’ Day.  We went today to town for the Veteran’s Community celebration and played music from noon till 12:48.   We included America, America the Beautiful, This Land is Your Land, and Anchors Aweigh, Battle Hymn of the Republic, The Marine’s Hymn, God Bless America, The U.S. Air Force Song.  Our group did really well, and got lots of applause and appreciation as we were leaving.  We did some patriotic songs mentioned above, and played lively regular old time music such as Five Foot Two, and Jambalaya.  We ended with You Are my Sunshine, and everyone sung along.  Several people I know from exercise class at the senior center and also people from nursing and retirement homes and one person from the community we know were there.

Then visited and watched other performers (cute little girls doing jazzercise), and then some Peruvian dancers.  John came in after I was done and had an ice cream sundae.  I had a root beer float.  He had filled his Subaru with gasoline, and gone to the grocery store for a few things.  Then we went to Burger King for a Whopper we halved.  We had a coupon entitling us to a free one if we bought small fries and a small drink.  So we both ate lunch for $3.43.  It is overcast (was sunny earlier), and cool.

Now John and I have had a pork roast dinner (he bought it today on sale), and then we looked out and it was SNOWING big flakes.  We are not ready.  One western mountain reporting station had a foot of new snow today by early afternoon.  We won’t get much as the air is coming from the Northwest and moisture doesn’t cross the Cascades well. Ellensburg is within the deep red area near the center of this map:

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/pcpn/wa.gif

However, the ground is covered in white.  Welcome Winter!

We will post this tonight (Fri.) because Saturday evening we are going to a music potluck and jam session.

Hope your next week is wonderful.

Nancy & John

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, October 30, 2011.  No in-town projects, but lots of out of the house (and in-house) projects.  Same ole; same ole.

Monday, October 31, 2011    —    HAPPY HALLOWEEN        Off to town for a scholarship luncheon.  We were each fed a baked potato (Yukon Gold) grown in one woman’s garden.  She claimed the plants are special because they don’t come from “eyes on seed potatoes.”  That’s not exactly true but these potatoes do have an interesting history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukon_Gold_potato

Their shallow eyes have a rosy pink coloration:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodhistory/a/yukongoldhistry.htm

So they say.  We have not raised them and photos don’t show much.  Let’s all buy a few and have a look.

The luncheon with the Yukon’s was a two-hostesses affair.  There were many different toppings provided, and the table was lovely with orange and black plates and many decorations, and a little bag of candy corn for each person to take home.  Pumpkin pie was for dessert.  I went on to exercise class and then to visit our Geography department secretary (who was there when I arrived in 1988), and before she left, she had in 27 years of service ).  She lives in one of the retirement centers where our music group plays.  I took her picture with her cat and picked up a note she wrote for the memory book.  I added it and the pictures to her page.  We had a very nice visit.

Tuesday, Nov 1 — Not much today.  I worked on the memory book; John worked outside, and I went for a massage, for my shoulder (and neck).  It seems to be helping.  I drank lots of water and was not in as much pain as two weeks ago.

Wednesday, Nov 2 –Today was a trip to town for playing music and eating at the food bank.  We had Salisbury steak, milk gravy on it and on mashed potatoes, corn, cut raw carrots, and applesauce.  John finished digging the ditch for the power cord to the cat house.  It might rain or snow soon and an un-dug ditch in nasty weather is a thing to avoid.

I transposed the Marine’s Hymn today for our Clarinet player.  We are practicing for Veteran’s Day performance coming up.  I looked up Anchors Aweigh and also transposed it for her. (Sadly she missed our play date today; oh, well, it will be ready for her next week.)

There is a big old HOOT owl making noise in the woods north of us.   Very loud.  Always makes me worry about the cats outside.  Well, the big old Hoot owl is very likely the smaller male (young or old ?) of a pair of Bub virginianus.

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Bubo&species=virginianus

I just put a blanket around my cold feet.  Jeez, and I have heavy socks plus down booties.  And the heat is up to  69 in the hallway.  However, I’m sitting here in the recliner next to the cold window (patio). Temp now is 42; was only 55 today in town. Going to 30 tonight, and they are calling for snow in the morning.  BAD—mentally we are not ready for cold – and some folks think the PNW will be colder than average for the next two weeks:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/814temp.new.gif

. . .while average for the next 3 months through the end of January.  Are we to believe we will have early cold and then not colder than normal afterwards?  That will be nice.  One winter here it went to 17 below and did not get above zero for 3 weeks.

So back to goings on:  When I got home, I cut up and cooked 12 tomatoes.  John put them into two containers of 1.5 pounds each.  Our tomato seed pack has paid for itself.  Hurrah!  Got yet another letter tonight for the memory book and have processed it, but not yet printed it.

Thursday.  Nov 3 was John’s lucky day.  He found his black plastic lens cover in the pasture, before being covered by dropping leaves, snow, or deer scat.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36722129@N06/3474320972/

Well, you do know what snow and leaves look like!  Next, he decided to clean up the freezer and other stuff from the garage to take to the dump (transfer station).  He found the keys to his Subaru that have been lost for at least 6 months.  They were in the freezer apparently having fallen from his upper shirt pocket while he was putting something down in the chest freezer.  They say luck comes in 3s.  At the dump, the guy next to him unloaded 7 pieces of unused plywood, each about 3’ by 4’.  John asked if he could take it and the guy in charge said, “This is my first day and I really don’t know but go ahead and I will look the other way.”  He wanted to go for 4 lucky things and buy a lotto ticket.  He didn’t have time so we still are not rich.  He did a lot while I was playing music–filled both tanks of the 1989 Ford truck, shopped at the grocery, taking advantage of a 12-hr. special sale.  Nice that he bought some sirloin steaks for only $2.98/pound.  And, he got some bananas for .38/pound that we intend to dry.  Some say sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Sounds good.  Dinner tonight was the steak (tougher than expected), baked potato, and tomatoes (they are thinning out).  Fruitcake (frozen last December) with ice cream for dessert.

Friday, Nov 4 — Day that had much stuff happening at the house (yard) with John, and with Nancy in town.  Nancy went to a potluck at the Adult Activity Center, stayed over and worked with a gal on a puzzle (only found 3 pieces to put in), and then we both went to afternoon exercise class.  I had taken some of John’s homemade applesauce from the Rome apples so it is a lovely red color.  The Center fixed a nice bunch of spaghetti with meat sauce, toasted garlic bread, and people brought some neat potluck stuff, including a wild rice/tomato/celery salad, a Waldorf salad, a casserole with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, pearl onions, made with two soups (one a shrimp soup, which gave it some color), plate of red grapes, & cookies and ice cream for dessert.  I missed the plate of veggies that came late with someone.  For our dinner, John cooked chicken breasts, and I cut up a tomato to have with mine.   It was neat that he put our Carpathian walnuts in brown sugar with our Acorn squash (bought; not grown in our garden).  Getting the walnuts cured was a task.  He has worked hard with them spread around the house in flat boxes, and turning them a couple times a day.  Now we have to package them up for the freezer too.  Perhaps we’ll figure out something neat to do with some of them — a praline candy type item maybe.  We still have much fruit to dry.

Saturday. Nov 5 — Waked up to temps of 21… now at 12:30 p.m. it’s up to 42 and John went outside while the temps are bearable.  He was going to do some inside work helping me on dehydrating bananas, but a friend sent a photo of rocks from one of her horseback rides with a “What’s this?” tag.  He gathered some ideas and photo links from the ‘net’ and then wanted to go outside where the sun was shining.  I will work on this blog and clean off the table, fill in my Absentee Voter’s Ballot, and wait for him to help with the drying.  We now have an extra dehydrator given to us. It is older, square, with metal screen trays, but not the older high metal ones.  This looks like a little microwave.  I have never seen one like this.

John just came in after working for 2 hours picking up black walnuts that have fallen in our driveway and yard.  They are too much trouble to try to keep, although he may pick out 50 of the largest to do something with later in the winter.  Problem is having to open them with a hammer; they are not as easy as the English-type walnuts he has harvested this year.  He wanted to get them off the ground so the Douglas squirrel will have to go elsewhere for food.  It may be she/he has already left or been killed by the owl we’ve been hearing.  We are thinking it has been two months since the critter was in the yard.  Meanwhile something has been snacking on the pine nuts from the Ponderosas.  Birds maybe? http://www.flickr.com/photos/44884897@N03/4448421360/

Hope your next week is wonderful.

Nancy & John

still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, October 23, 2011.  Today was a busy morning for John finishing up the 22 year moving of the pump house to beside our house.  I got some more pictures this morning, and now have to take another in the house’s new location.  I have been working all morning on notifications about a Reecer Creek Restoration project (one canyon west of us), and I’m notifying students and others in the area about the need for volunteers to plant trees.  John is now cleaning out the truck and will next load with firewood to take to our neighbors.  I have actually also been sitting with a nicely warmed (in the microwave) bag of flaxseed on my left shoulder pain.  It is feeling much better.  I need also to clean up the kitchen before he returns and wants to dry fruit.  He just gave me a chore to cut the bad spots off some of our tomatoes and cook the rest to freeze for using in sauces this winter.  I did it, and then later when he returned he cooked them down and froze them.  Later this week he used some in a chili he made.  He also worked more on applesauce and fixed a great dinner:  pork roast, candied carrots, baked apples, and a baked potato we forgot to eat.  Will have it tomorrow night for dinner with leftovers.

Monday, October 24, 2011  Nothing much new today.  John made good progress on the “cat house” getting it off the skids.  He also worked on cleaning up beyond the walnut trees where we used to have a patch of raspberries.  He finished the applesauce, but we didn’t get to do any drying of fruit yet.  I started by going to my neighbor’s 2 miles away for a much needed haircut.  She was running late because she got a 4 point buck over the weekend, in a canyon east of us.  For Eastern folk that’s an 8 point:   http://www.ifish.net/board/archive/index.php/t-174943.html

I went to town and to exercise class, got  a couple of gallons of expensive gas to get us to Yakima tomorrow, to Costco and to Yakima Heart Center to see my Cardiologist.  I picked up my lab results from last week at the hospital.  Went by the P.O. to send two letters our postal carrier failed to pick up on Saturday morning.  I’m still upset about that.  Also stopped at a yard sale and bought two barely used captain chairs each in a heavy “nylon” sack and large umbrella, all for $5. The guy also had a lot of insulation unused and packaged, but we are not yet ready for that.

Tuesday, Oct 25   Somehow I was too busy to write anything in the blog on this day.  It started with getting up early to take off for my 10:55 appointment with my Cardiologist in Yakima.  We left our house at 9:30 and got to the chainsaw (Stihl) dealer in time to buy a couple gallons of the bar-oil for John’s chainsaw.  Then on to the doctor’s office just in time for my appointment.  I had to fill out the normal prerequisite form and was resting when called in at 11:12.  The nurse takes all the vitals and then leads you to the office where the doctor arrives in awhile.  He apologized for being late, but then spent over an hour with us.  John goes to my appointment with me.  We left there starved for lunch at Costco, sharing 3 things:  polish sausage, chicken bake , and a strawberry sundae.  Probably not the kind of lunch for a low cholesterol diet.   Ha ha.

Then a shopping spree which filled up our cart and the car.  I’m glad we didn’t have much to buy for friends (just two bottles of wine vinegar), or we would have had to pile the dog food on the luggage rack !!   On home, and we got delayed for a few minutes in a cattle drive on the road with no way around, 2.5 miles from our house.  Drove in the driveway quickly, not even stopping for the mail.  I jumped out, ran into the house for the keys, and back into my Subaru to drive back to town for my acupuncture appointment at 4:00 p.m.  John stayed home to unpack all the stuff from Costco, and to feed the horses, cats, and exercise the dogs.  I didn’t get back home till almost 6:00 p.m..  We had a late supper.

Wednesday, Oct 26  –another day another $1.  Not really, I collected some money today but didn’t spend any.  Went to the Food Bank at noon for playing music in exchange for a meal from the Soup Kitchen.  It is really a nice community effort for those who need the help.  It is free.  Today’s lunch was homemade Turkey Noodle soup, salad (greens and all colors of pepper, and about 7 different dressings to choose from), garlic bread, and a little piece of chocolate cake with choc frosting.  Nice meal, oh, and tomato juice (a large cup) to drink.  On from there to Exercise class.  Good time there.  Home to work on the computer.  It is getting colder, having gone well below freezing last night. The already yellow leaves of the black walnut trees . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_leaf_color

had a peak “abscission” event – leaves separating from the stems —

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Abscission

and covered the ground.  Most of the nuts are still hanging but we have 5 gallons (Want some?) John collected to keep away from the resident Douglas squirrel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Squirrel

who makes such a mess of our big shed (insulation) and car motors if he gets underneath the hood from below).  Without the luxury of so many walnuts perhaps he/she will return to the nearby pine trees.

Thursday.  Oct 27  Hopefully getting caught up with drying fruit before any more spoils.  Well, if tomatoes are a fruit and not a vegetable, then I caught up by cleaning up 15 of them and cooking down for sauce use.  Then music in the afternoon and while I’m busy John will go shopping for a few things.  They had a tea / apple cider and cookies for us at the end of playing.  Then off to the University to deliver the ¾ bushel basket to the prof now teaching Economic Geography.  Kids nowadays do not know what a bushel is, and many of the agricultural statistics are still reported in bushels. Pictures of bushel baskets often show them heaped but, in fact, for shipping they had tops. Shown on this site:

http://housmancrabbingsupplies.com/default.aspx

And the filling of a railroad car with stacked bushels is described here:

http://www.cumminsnursery.com/reefers.htm

Today apples and other fruit is shipped in corrugated cardboard, as shown here:

http://www.globebag.com/corrugated.html

On home to more emails and John had more outside chores.  Nice late dinner of chicken alfredo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettuccine_alfredo#Alfredo_sauce

with pork, bacon, and cooked Rome apples added.  John bought a little oil heater, electric, small one to put in the outside cats’ house to keep it warm for them this winter.  The cost of the small heater was only a bit more than a heated water bowl and that alone would not keep the space warm.  Searched for cat and dog heat pads and related items.  $$Ouch!

Friday, Oct 28  Got cancelled out of today’s scholarship luncheon; put off till Monday because the two people in charge have the awful bug that is rampant around campus and town.  John worked a bit on the cat house.

He pulled off the 30 year-old shingles and replaced those with cut pieces of metal roofing we took off of the hay shed (barn) when it got a new roof.  I went to town late for a 4:30 party/dinner at Briarwood, of two soups (both very good), and cornbread, rolls, and several desserts.  I filled up for sure.  Just drove in and back — 17 mi roundtrip.  They were happy to see me.  So, I’m glad I went.

Oh.. I forgot to say, that my favorite cousin (always thought she was my aunt, because she was older), that I got to see in a nursing facility in Marietta, GA while there in May, died today.  She had pneumonia for the past couple of weeks, but she was really in bad shape with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and not (for some time) communicating very well.  Her eldest daughter is 74,  so she must have been in her mid-nineties.  I held her hand and told her about my memories and I thought she recognized me and smiled and responded.  I was glad I made the visit.  Most of the family couldn’t stand to visit her in such a deteriorated condition, but I’m very glad I did.  Her house was where I learned to ride horses when I was a youngster.  They took me in as family when my dad was ill and my mom had to work.  I was there for 2 weeks with the Chicken Pox.  I had a light case and was out riding horses.  “Blackie” liked to swim and took me into a nearby lake.  I didn’t have any scars from the wetted pox.

Saturday. Oct 29   It is sunny and cool.  We have had to destroy (give to the deer), a few pears that went bad before we had time to dehydrate them.  We still have some left and many apples to work on.  John will be finishing putting screws on the metal roof of the cats’ house.  He’s worried at not seeing the cats this morning, after all the time he has spent moving the old pump house it into our backyard and refurbishing and.  While he is outside, I will go back and print off a bunch of letters for the Memory Book.

Last night we both had terribly realistic dreams that kept us from having a decent rest.  Must have been the chocolate covered cashews and ice cream?

There is a snow storm back east where we have family and friends.

Here in Washington the snow level has not yet gotten down to our (2,240 ft.) elevation.  Hope your weekend is wonderful.  Snow if you want.  Or none, if that suits you.

Nancy & John

still on the Naneum Fan

 

[Well not exactly.  Procrastination is said to refer to doing low-priority things so as to avoid doing things that need doing.  This week we accomplished something that we first attempted 22 years ago.  Being difficult and of low priority it did not get done.  What’s the word for that?]

Sunday, October 16, 2011.  Today I was still tired from yesterday’s many activities.  John left again for trail work at Stirrup Lake, and I slept in.  Finally got up and fed Rascal, and John had uncovered the tomatoes and fed the outside cats before taking off at 7:00 a.m.  I managed to clean up some dishes and load them in the dishwasher.  Finally, at 12:55, I left for my friends again to ride up with them to the Grange for the Bluegrass Jam Session.  We had a few different new people join us, some several returns, and several who didn’t make it up from Yakima or over from Eatonville this time.  We had a much larger audience this time and they joined in and sang along or clapped with the songs, and also gave us applause at the end of songs.

It was nice.  They had cookies and brownies (of which I brought some home to John).  I hope to make some Toll House cookies next month to add to the food fare.  They also brew coffee.

Monday, October 17, 2011.  Well, another week began and I had several afternoon meetings, plus several things to finish in the morning before leaving.  Went to exercise class and then to the University.  Visited several people there, and then went to a presentation in the Cultural Museum in Dean Hall.  They had fancy food, little crisp wafer things with Feta cheese, blue cheese (I love), pita bread with humice (I don’t like and didn’t have), and chocolate covered LARGE strawberries.  Water to drink.

Tuesday.  We need to put up a lot of apples today, but haven’t started.  And, I have a massage appointment at 2:30… then must go to town for 6:30 music date at a nursing home.  Instead, John has been shucking walnuts and I have been doing emails.  Maybe later in the afternoon or evening on the fruit.  Nope.  John took fire-wood to the neighbors and I went to town for music, and while I was gone, the entire time he cut apples for applesauce, which is now cooking.  I’m sore (very) from my thorough massage today.  Have been working on emails for the memory book of retiring colleague… off and on all day.

There is a story that happened this afternoon just before I left the first time.  John came in the front door and saw an orange cat inside our house (by the doggie door).  He thought it was Little Sue but now is not sure.  It jumped up on the window and bounced back on the floor and then got up on the boxes and went through the doggie door.  We don’t know where Rascal was at the time.

Wednesday, another crazy day.  Had to be at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen for music and then to exercise class in the afternoon.  I was still pretty sore from yesterday’s work-out.  Ran by the Geog Dept on my way home to pick up some letters to add to Morris’s memory book.

Thursday.  Slept in late and lost most of the morning.  On to Curly’s in Kittitas for a Taco Thursday special with people from the KV Trail Riders club.  Four horses with 3 riders made the trip from Ellensburg to Kittitas using the John Wayne Trail.  This is a very flat section of the old Milwaukee Road.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Milwaukee,_St._Paul_and_Pacific_Railroad

In this section of WA State, the trail is part of the Iron Horse State Park:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Horse_State_Park

The riders tied their horses at the hitching posts near the Old Milwaukee Train Station.  It is less than 100 yards from the trail to the “Taco Thursday” eatery.  I had a large Taco Salad, minus olives and onions, but with tomatoes instead and additional sour cream.  John had two tacos, nice looking, and he ate a little remainder of mine I couldn’t finish.  Then I rushed from there to play music at Dry Creek, and John went home to work on yard chores.  He is moving a small shed (looks like an outhouse, with a 5 inch concrete base) from back by the creek.  It was an old pump house from about 1983 to 1986; we moved here in 1989.  He is going to get it over closer to the house and fix up with a light or heat tape for the outside cats to have shelter this winter. The bottom half will be used for tool storage, plastic buckets, and gold doubloons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubloon

Friday started early going to the hospital for a blood draw (a fasting one) so I was starved when walking out of KVCH.  We went to Super One shopping and got a dozen apple fritters and shared one on the way home.

Now John’s out working again on the pump house moving.  We will wait to do fruit drying for darkness.  I don’t want to do it alone.  I’m thinking of taking a nap too, but probably need to stay awake for my phone call from my doctor’s nurse with the results of the blood draw tests this morning.  I should have napped.  It is 5:07 now and still no phone call yet.  Sometimes they call me after 5:30.  Long days for a doctor’s office and nurse, especially on a Friday.  Finally, she called at 5:40, with the news my INR is 2.4 which is fine, and so there is no Coumadin dosage change and I don’t have to be tested for another MONTH.  Nice, because I get tired of being poked every two weeks.  I did put in a bunch more time on the memory book for Morris.

Also had a funny thing happen with Rascal.  He has been helping John eat his morning toast and he will eat some of my apple fritter too; when we are having dinner he usually begs with the dogs.  Last night I put some toast, with cheese, and spaghetti sauce on top cut up on his plate and he had two servings.  This cat doesn’t act like a cat, but more like a dog.

Saturday.  Awoke to rain this morning.  Been sending out checks for bills and managed to walk up the driveway to put them in the mail before pickup.  Last year I wouldn’t have been up to the walk.  I got really upset when John found the “Saturday substitute” postal carrier did not take my mail.  That is the second time we have had that happen on a Saturday.  John says there is no incentive for him to bother with it, and horror, the US post office will likely be stopping Saturday delivery and other strange things as it tries to remain relevant in a digital world.  Nothing on the schedule today away from home (for a change).  Actually, I was ready to shut this down, but John is making applesauce from our own apples, so I’m back working on this blog and other computer needs.  We never got to the cutting and drying, but instead John moved the pump house into the backyard.  Fascinating how he created a “travois” to ease the task of sliding the rough concrete bottom across the rocky place between the creek and the house.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois

The November issue of Scientific American magazine mentions the possible use of travois for dogs within the cover story about recent discoveries of the “First Americans.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-americans-researchers-reconsider-peopling-new-world

[Scroll down to the Supplemental Material” and click on the tiny photo and have a look at the interactive section. Okay, so it is not a WOW! thing, but still it is nice.]

So John pulled with a 1980 4×4 pick-up rather than a mangy wolf-dog while I took a few pictures.  A movie would have been better.  It was getting dark toward the end, so I didn’t get the finished location by the side of the house.  Perhaps in the morning, before he disconnects the truck from the “sled”, I can get a decent photo.  It started to sprinkle (again).  We are having a water-sourced supper – fish and shrimp.

Hope all is wonderful for you.

Nancy & John,

on the Naneum Fan.

Sunday (Oct 9) – Slept in this morning (Nancy did) because of yesterday’s wipe-out day.  Then after breakfast and John’s exercising the dogs and feeding the horses and outside cats, I worked on washing dishes, and then clothes.  After John got through catching up on headlines (on the computer, we cleaned peaches, pears, apples and plums and cut, pre-treated and filled two dehydrators.  After a small lunch, John is going to package up the carrots and put in the big shed in the frig there.  He found some very large carrot bags (with holes in them), which we have gotten carrots in from Costco.  Now what?  Blanch and freeze, maybe. Then he packed up about 20 pounds of potatoes and carrots to take to our neighbors.  We did, and then we “traded” her for 5 packages of her newly frozen peaches.  John’s out shucking Carpathian walnuts.  He eventually came into the house, and has been working on apples for making applesauce.  We had a long telephone conversation with our friend from California with whom we have not spoken for many months.  We are both tired and wanting to go to bed early, but the applesauce is still cooking.  Before we hit the hay, Rascal brought in another little frog, this one was green and smaller than the last.  We retrieved him alive and put him out near the “pond” in the back.  I don’t think the pond has any water in it yet, but it is a shaded depression.  We’ve been hearing croaks all summer.

Monday.  Up very early after a restless night, to a rainy day, and the need to take John’s Subaru to town for the body repair.  Got there after dropping off John to pick up his pick-up from the place who fixed my Subaru’s axle on Friday.  I delivered his Subaru and he picked me up for the trip home.  Strange–they said we were a day early, that we were scheduled for tomorrow morning.  I KNOW I wrote down Monday, Oct 10^th on our calendar and we were thinking we would not have it all week.  Oh, well, as long as it is done by Friday (they said yes), because John has to take off for WTA trail repair.

Today will be mostly inside work (probably fruit for sure), as it is raining outside still.  Actually, John ended up outside, but inside the barn, moving a ton of hay.  It had not been packed in properly, and he needed to move what was in the breezeway, so the horses could step inside out of the bad weather and all be under the cover of the barn.  I was dead tired from not sleeping last night, so I slept for the couple hours he worked.  The rain finally stopped about 4:00 and the sun peeked through the clouds for just a few minutes.  Rascal had slept with me and he awoke, ate, and went out to play with Woody.  They are still playing.  Guess they like each other.  They look somewhat like siblings – Woody’s coat is shaggy while Rascal has smooth and shiny hair.  Later I looked and Rascal had climbed the ladder and was looking out the top of the hay (under the roof).  Then later John looked out and saw Big Sue stalking Rascal, so he called Rascal in the back door.  She has chased him in the doggie door window before.

Dinner (spaghetti and sauce) early tonight and now it’s too early to go to bed, so we will put up some more fruit in the dehydrator.

Tuesday, whoopee, awoke after a good night’s sleep. John’s been making more applesauce (13 pounds now in the freezer) and I have been loading the dishwasher, cleaning out the dehydrators, and washing the trays.  Not reloading the dehydrators yet.  I have to go to an acupuncture treatment later in the day and play music in town afterwards.  I’ll just stay in town for that.  Did and all went well.

Wednesday.  Today was music at noon and exercise in the afternoon.  I also went by Geography at CWU.  We had many phone calls tonight, from Vermont, Oregon, and Thorp.  Throughout the phone calls John shucked Carpathian (English) walnuts from our trees that he picked today while I was in town.  They come out of the green covers a whole lot easier than Black Walnuts.  Now after a lot of email work, it’s time for dessert and beddie bye.

Thursday.  Stayed up way too late last night (12:30) so slept in this morning.  Now working more on the Memory Book for retiring colleague Morris and will go to play music this afternoon at the Rehab place where I spent so much time last year.  Then John and I are going to the “pocket” [see note below] to pick Romes and maybe some pears that didn’t go to market.  John’s car is ready so we can pick it up.  WHOOPIE.  He says it’s mine now.  I broke it, have to claim it.  The trip for apples was awesome.  They picked a large box of Romes, and then some Galas, Red Delicious, Jonagold, and  Winter Banana:

http://www.applejournal.com/gal009.htm

These last were a favorite or settlers because they would “keep” well into the late winter.  More info here:

http://www.vintagevirginiaapples.com/apples/winterbanana.htm

We wanted the Red Romes (they are sort of hard to find) because of their good baking character and because of the solid bright color:

http://www.nyapplecountry.com/redrome.htm

Also they picked Red Bartlett pears – they are beautiful:

http://usapears.com/Recipes%20And%20Lifestyle/Now%20Serving/Pears%20and%20Varieties/Red%20Bartlett.aspx

While still hanging in the tree, pears are often damaged by birds and then yellow jackets enlarge the wound.  We were warned by the matriarch of the family to look at the whole pear before grasping.  Good advice.  John saw one with about a dozen yellow jackets in one wound.

We are invited back for more if we wish.  These trees have been sidelined by changes in the operation and changing tastes of consumers.  Most of this fruit will not be harvested for commercial sale, if at all.

Friday.   John left to work on the PCT near Stirrup Lake:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Crest_Trail#Washington

Doing these work trips John figures he has walked about 20 miles of the PCT and has only 2,643 miles still to do.  But, he has walked back and forth on the few miles carrying tools, rocks, and a considerable number of mountain blue berries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry

This isn’t a good year.  They are late, not very sweet, and the bushes, while numerous, are sparsely covered with berries.

While John was away I had lots to do on the computer on the Memory Book.  I was too tired to spend an hour driving to town for an hour of exercise, when I was not feeling great.  I knew I needed to rest up for this weekend of music.  John got home before 5:00 and we did go pick up a 50 pound-bag of onions we had ordered and paid for last week from the same person we got large baking potatoes and carrots.

Saturday.  John left again at 7:00 a.m. for his WTA trail work at Stirrup Lake, and I left 40 minutes later to go to get a ride up to the Swauk-Teanaway Grange with friends.  On my way to their house, only 6.5 miles, I saw 15 deer, and then drove into fog at their house.  It was 31 degrees when I left home and 34 at their place.  We drove to the Grange and went in for a Hunter’s Breakfast.  Ours was free because we donated our music, from 9:00 to noon.  We actually ate ham, eggs, and pancakes before starting to play.  It was nice and we were appreciated.  I drove home the 6.5 miles to check on the dogs and cat and turned around to make it to a 2:00 play date at Briarwood Commons in Ellensburg from 2 to 3:00.  Four of us who went to the Grange, made it back to the afternoon session.  That is a small contingent of our normal group, but we did well.  At the end, they fed us choices of different desserts, including bread pudding with whipped cream topping, 4 kinds of cookies (homemade)  and homemade frosted brownies.  Also there was peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.  We did not go hungry today.  We were invited also to a special dinner at the Food Bank for Search and Rescue that started at 5:00.  I didn’t want ham twice in one day, with all the salt, so I didn’t grab John up and take him in when he got home right before five.  He needed to feed the cats, horses, and run the dogs, and I was quite tired and wanting to rest.  I didn’t even turn on my computer till 6:00 p.m. so I’m a little late getting this draft to John for polishing and posting.

The “pocket”:  Local place names can be fun.  In this case our Valley is shaped like a canoe oriented from the SE to the NW.  The SE end of the valley is known as the Badger Pocket and the northeast facing slopes have numerous orchards.  These slopes get very little solar energy input in the spring of the year so the trees do not leaf out and flower early.  They are still in bud form during early frosts.

Zoom in and out at this map and check out this protective environment.

http://washington.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,1,fid,1503111,n,badger%20pocket.cfm

 

Nancy & John still on the Naneum Fan.

Sunday (Oct 2) – we attended in the afternoon the beginning REM (Resource Management) potluck at the chair of Geography’s house.  The weather was fine (no rain as last year), and the turnout fine, and the food great.  Our host cooked BBQ Elk ribs, smoked a turkey, and fixed antelope/deer chili.  There was also a Minnesotan’s made soup with carrots, chicken, wild rice, and it was really yummy.  There were large baked potatoes from the same place I got mine on Saturday.  We ate so much we didn’t need any dinner.

Monday brought good news from my Cardiologist’s nurse, via email:

Nancy,

Just sent the ultrasound report to Dr. Schmitt. Looks great, no renal artery stenosis, no abdominal aneurysm.

CEM

John and I put fruit (Honey crisp apples and large yellow Shiro plums)

http://www.grandpasorchard.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=trees.plantDetail&plant_id=49

and 3 Roma tomatoes for good measure to fill the last small part of the last tray.

John is working on a note to a friend about the photography elements of the dragonfly picture.  I worked on cleaning dishes, handling emails, looking for receipts to be reimbursed for department purchases, and we ate leftovers from yesterday: baked potato and Smoked turkey, adding our own tomato (very tasty).  It is a hybrid Big Boy and our first this year to ripen.  John checked and he paid $1.79 for the seed packet.  We hope for more before the “end” of the season.  We have not yet had a freeze and have our fingers crossed that we don’t.  John cut up some cheddar cheese to sprinkle on the heated potato, and also we put some parmesan/garlic cracker chips on the plate.

Now we have just cleaned up another dehydrator I got at the yard sale last Friday.  We have put peaches & apples in it so far.  I sat down to rest while John finished coring apples.  My hands were getting too cold in the ice water lemon juice we are pre-treating them with.  He finished and now two are working.  We still have one other we borrowed from a friend, so one of these days we will have to load it.

Tuesday.  Was a busy day from the get-go.  Started with getting ready to go to the family physician in Cle Elum.  I missed breakfast, so John stopped at the Cle Elum Bakery (renowned for great baked goods), and we got a plate with donuts and apple fritters on it ($3.00 for five).  Two chocolate bars, a donut with yellow crème in the center hole, and 2 fritters.  I didn’t have my drink along, and John doesn’t like coffee, but I got a cup of brewed stuff to go with mine, putting in half and half and sweetener.  It was quite good. The place has two small tables – both tilt a bit if bumped.  We tried both.  Sloshed coffee twice.  Told owner.  Fix promised.

We had made the trip with time to spare for getting to the 10:45 appt.  John went along because he was also going to get a flu shot (as I was), but I had an appt. to talk about various recent tests and rashes I had, and the need for an inhaler.  All was taken care of with good results.  Cost of the inhaler was a surprise:  $40 and that was after my insurance paid $10.  If it works it will be worth it.

After the appointment we went to BK for a Whopper; had a coupon, buy one, and get one free.  We didn’t get any fries or drink to go along with it.  We don’t think they made much money on us today.

Got a phone call from the Internet tech support here in town, after my complaint this morning to Kansas about our DSL service being impossible (slow, intermittent, zip) starting at 4:30, and still not working at 10:00 p.m. last night.  They finally fixed it.  It was a problem with the DSL connector box 1/3 mile from our house.

I went to town by myself today to my massage therapy session, then to the pharmacy for my meds, and by our car repair garage to schedule my Subaru in for an oil change.  We will be without John’s Subaru all next week while it gets repaired following the kiss & run by the deer.

John went over to do work for the farm family across the street.  He was gone for several hours after I got back home.  I never asked him what time he left.  The dogs and cat were happy to see me.

I put some more tomatoes in the dehydrator, fed the cat, and started working on emails and cleaning up an account that is filling up.  When John came home, it was just before dark, so he fed the horses, outside cats (now he climbs a ladder and puts the food up at the top of the hay shed on the hay, where the 3 cats sleep (and now eat).  The skunk, we assume, will not manage to get up there to steal food.  Then John went and picked strawberries.  I fixed them after dinner, and we will have them on ice cream for dessert.

John fixed our dinner:  leftover Rainbow Trout (from last night), baked potato with cheese, a cut yellow plum, some of his homemade applesauce, and some little crackers.

We decided to wait on putting up fruit till morning (into the dehydrator), and just after I sat down to work on the computer, in comes Rascal with something alive.  I followed him down the hall to the computer room, telling John he had something again.  Turned out it was a brown frog! (small one).  John took the cat and put him outside and I got a paper towel and picked up the little frog.  Took him out to the front yard and released him, alive and well.  Boy, we have quite a little hunter, but I wish he wouldn’t bring them into the house through the doggie door.  It is nearing too-cold for snakes.  Little favors.

Wednesday.  Unusual that it rained all night and most of the day.  Usual stuff for this day; played music (just two of us) at Food Bank Soup Kitchen, and we had Ham/noodle (more like dumplings) soup, green beans, a biscuit and fruit (canned) on sponge cake.  Personally, I didn’t enjoy the fruit at all, after all the fresh fruit we have been eating the past 2 weeks.  At 1:00 p.m. I thought I had time to get to the bank following my blood draws, but they were busy and I had to wait a half hour.  I decided to stay and wait.  So, I was late arriving at the exercise class by about 12 minutes.  It’s okay.  They were happy to see me and Jan had already starting leading the class with my CD of Fifties songs.  After that, I picked up some clothes from a friend, and came on home.  I’m going back in tonight for a Cancer Donation Bingo game, from 6 to 8:00 and searched through the leftover rainbow trout for bones, and have a clean dish of fish.  Rascal had some too.  He loves to eat people food.  Also threw in some leftover pieces of apple fritter and he ate those.  In the mornings, John shares his buttered toast with Rascal.  We will add the remaining fish to spaghetti sauce and I will eat when I get home.

I’m home and just finished eating with John.  We had his homemade applesauce with dinner.  In town, I won one game and picked out a nice red nylon sweatshirt type with a V neck, and an emblem on it saying City of Ellensburg, Adult Activity Center.  Pretty nice for all the time I spend there.  I brought John some toll house cookies from there tonight.  It is still rainy outside, and cool.

Thursday.  Still overcast and now very windy.  Jeez, I hope it clears up before Saturday when we have to play music at a Farm Festival in a field southeast of us!  Just checked the future weather and it claims no rain, light wind (really), and temps at 62.  We both went to town and never got lunch, so I’m sitting here at 5:45 p.m. munching on dried fruit.  John has gone to the neighbors to pick pears.  We are having rib eye steak (was on sale today), and baked potato.  There will be leftover steak he can take tomorrow for his lunch.  He is going again to do trail work at Foss River.  Okay–today, we dropped my car off at Royal Vista and he drove me to get some more of the potatoes and carrots (that come from east of us over past Moses Lake).  We bought probably 40 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds for a friend, and maybe 20 pounds of carrots.  I lost track because I was in a hurry to get back to play music.  They gave us a box of culled carrots for our horses (broken pieces or really strange looking ones).  After John helped me get into the nursing home with all my stuff, he went shopping.  Came back for me about 3:00.  He took my violin and the vegetables home.  I went over to a Museum presentation at Dean Hall (where I used to teach), on Tall Tales via postcards from all over the U.S.

http://funnypagenet.com/tall-tale-postcards/

http://www.cwu.edu/~web/cwu_news/News.php?ArticleID=2903

It was interesting.  They were going to have a folksinger and someone doing some storytelling, but I just looked at the Museum “show” and introduced myself to a few people, and left.

Then I called John and we met at the auto repair shop. He had the box of carrots and potatoes in the car and we dropped them off at our friends’ house on the way home.  There was only $1.25 worth, and she gave us $2.00.  Said it still wouldn’t cover the gasoline!  On home and my cell phone rang.  It was the fellow at the repair shop.  He had found already that the right-side drive axle was throwing oil and needs replaced. We had heard a funny noise, but had not said anything to him about it.  It was intermittent, and I don’t drive that car very often because it takes higher grade gasoline than our other one.  I had actually forgotten about the noise.  It occurred occasionally when backing out of my “parking” space in the 3-sided shed out front, and backing up to the left, to go out the driveway to the right.  Anyway, in the good ol’ USA we make sharper right-hand turns than left-hand turns.  That causes failure of the right-side drive axle sooner than the left one.  Who knew?  At 53,440 miles.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/maintenance/1715877

Tonight before dinner Rascal brought in a baby Vole.  We didn’t thank him, but John picked him up and put him outside.  He dropped the Vole from his mouth as John put him out the door, so the door got closed with the vole inside.  John grabbed him up with a plastic bag, and I let Rascal back in.  We hope he gets the idea not to bring home live critters.

Friday.  Nice wake up call.  My Subaru is fixed and ready.  They found an axle last night to install and replaced it this morning along with changing the oil.  A boot on the foot of the axle was spewing oil on the inside of the engine and they found it upon an entry inspection when I took it in yesterday afternoon (at 4:15).  Good we took it in ahead of time because they had time to find and order the part last night.  We began doing business with this place in 1990 after the local Chevy dealer replaced belts but did not tighten the fan back into place.  On a trip to Yakima we had to stop and borrow a wrench to fix it.  21 years later we still haven’t been back to that dealer.

Off today for potluck at AAC (stuffed baked potatoes, KFC chicken, and lots of stuff brought as potluck), and exercise after and to Starlight at 4:00 to wish Morris well in his retirement for health reasons.  He is a wonderful friend, and was hired the same year as I (back in 1988).

John made it home safely from his trip to the woods again, and brought back more of the good corn on the cob, and 25 pounds of Gala apples at 68¢/pound.  While having lunch on the trail, he took a photo of two trees —  see here:

http://www.elixant.com/~nancyh/WTA-WestForkFossRiver/BigTree-WestForkFossRiver.html

It stays dry under the big one and the little “j-shaped” one in the middle of the trail presented a problem.  John cleared dozens of thorny Devil’s Club

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlafleche2/3615853600/

from the up-hill side (behind the black & yellow rain jacket), dug out a new tread there, pulling the debris around and past the little tree.  Almost like a miracle, it seems the tree just moved to the right.

Saturday.  It was 35 degrees early in the morning before sunrise on the front porch post with just a quick frost away from the house. There was a little wind until about 3 a.m. and then none – Clear sky and no wind and the temp went down.  I was scheduled to be at a family farm 7 miles away to play music.  I dressed warmly in two pairs of pants (denim jeans on top),  and 4 tops.  A cotton ¾ sleeve blouse on the bottom, covered by a windbreaker type V neck shirt, a black sweatshirt with pumpkins embroidered on it, and over that a heavy vest.  I had a glove on my right hand to hold my bow (because it was in the shade and getting cold).  My left fiddle-fingering hand was in the sun, so that was nice.  I took the glove off after 2 hours.  We started playing music just after 10:00 a.m. — eventually there were 6 of us (3 violins, a viola, a guitar, and a banjo).  A couple of our group came in after 3 of us started.  We played till noon and broke for lunch.  They fed us a bowl of chili with all sorts of toppings, and a grilled hotdog, with chips, and an apple.  Drinks were coffee or pop or water.  We went back to playing after a half hour break, and played until almost 2:30 p.m.  That is much longer than we normally play.  We were all tired with sore fingers and arms.  It was volunteer, but they paid us with our lunch, and a Goat Milk Product.  I chose a bottle (canister) of goat milk cream (with other ingredients, such as aloe).  Would have cost me $12.95 if I had bought it myself.  They had soap and various products, including chocolate muffins, which I did not have one of.  John came and picked me up and visited a little with folks there.  While I was gone, he helped our neighbors pick pears and then loaded wood in his pickup and took it over to toss in their woodshed.  He will go back over later and stack it.

I did not sleep well last night, and this play day was tiring, so I came home and lay down at 4:15.  Last I looked it was 4:29, and then John came in from running the dogs and feeding the horses and I awoke (at 5:45).

This morning before we left, John took the dogs and our oldest (and smallest dog), Meghan, got chased and rolled by a coyote.  John saw it and went running toward it, yelling, and it peeled off back into the woods.  Then tonight, the same dog got chased by a deer, and John went toward the fence that Meghan came under and was only 6 feet from the deer.  Again he yelled and when it saw him, the deer ran back down into the pasture.  Annie (our youngest) saw what was happening and she started chasing the deer.  John called her off.  Rather a full day for all.

We had not see the outside cats for a couple of days, but tonight the younger cats (Woody and Little Sue) are back, playing and eating with Rascal, in the top of the hay shed on the side of our house.  We have not seen Big Sue.  We hope she stays away.  We wonder if she returned and took them along with her over to our neighbors across the street, where she had been being fed.  It could be they found their way back to our place where they feel more comfortable.

Once I was home, John picked yellow squash, and really spent most of his time while I was sleeping, picking and de-husking Carpathian walnuts from our 7 trees.   Now he has to find a cool dark place to store them to cure.

Guess I should get this finished and sent to John to put on the blog.  We hope your week has been a good one, and next week is even better.

Nancy & John

on the Naneum Fan.

Saturday night (9/24) at almost 11:00 p.m.  Rascal just brought into the house a live small black Vole (check this link for clarification: http://www.rogerbolger.com/Moles_Voles_&_Shrews.pdf

I got John to capture it, after chasing the cat and “mouse” into the back computer room, and then back to the den, where he had started.  Rascal was flipping him around, and when he would run, he’d grab him in his mouth and tote him around.  Once or twice I gently put my foot on him, and Rascal reached under and grabbed him out.  We froze him.  He was dead when we put him in the freezer (in a bag).   Oh my, we started out this morning with the Steller’s Jay.  Now he has gone back outside.  Wonder what he will bring in next.  I’m going to try to go to sleep.  What a Rascal! We surely named him correctly.  Luckily, he did not bring any more animals in the window, and slept most of the night in bed.  However, in the middle of the night or early morning, there was a cat scream outside the bedroom window.  John got up and looked and Big Sue was on the “veranda” – the entrance to the doggie door window!  He didn’t see anyone else.  He watched her jump down into the yard and sit for awhile.  Then he sent Shay out the window to check, and that made Big Sue move over to the cable table, where she stayed a long while, till John decided to stop watching.  Rascal was on the bed this whole time.

Sunday. “Morning has broken” (as Cat Stevens used to sing), without sun, with a little sprinkle, but cloudy and cool.  John decided to go out and work in the yard awhile after taking the dogs for their morning exercise, and feeding the outside kitties.   Check out this short video with gorgeous pictures set to the music, Morning Has Broken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ESHjYat9rk

For a longer version with beautiful pictures set to the lyrics, check this 3-minute version.  This is craftily presented even to the footsteps in the sand, “where his feet pass.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0TInLOJuUM

Here are the lyrics of this “prayer for anyone that has some faith”:

Morning Has Broken, As Sung by Cat Stevens; lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for the springing fresh from the word

 

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven

Like the first dewfall, on the first grass

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

 

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the one light, Eden saw play

Praise with elation, praise every morning

God’s recreation of the new day

We never got to the dehydrator loading yesterday, and we decided to do it today.  I have hand washed the inner parts and the top and bottom, as suggested by the manufacturer for a new unit.  When John returns from outside we will work on filling it.

John finally came in around noon, and we did a few things checking out the peaches he bought, that were in a box on the clothes washer.  YIKES, he screamed, and I rushed to see what was wrong.  I was standing in the kitchen.  He had just looked at the box yesterday (peaches were individually seated in a plastic shelf), but one had gone bad and had black mold and hairy fungi all over it.  It had reached to 4 peaches surrounding it.  John picked out ones around it, and brought the bad ones in.  I cut off the bad part down to where the “brown meat” stopped, and then washed the remaining peach and the knife.  I cut up the remaining parts of the peaches (with skin) into a bowl.  Given another half day might have been disastrous.  John washed a yellow plum and we put half of it in a bowl for each of us, and then I spooned a few peach pieces into a bowl for our lunch.  Before we ate, I put some sugar on the peaches and John held a plastic bag for me to fill to put in the freezer for his next Peach Cobbler.  We took the last of the juice in the bowl, and spooned it over our small bowls of fruit.  After eating them, I heated bacon, and put together a nice BLT for each of us.  Now we are done, but relaxing before we put fruit in the dehydrator.  We need some lemon juice to pre-process the peaches, apples, and pears, and what we have is pretty old.  We imagine it will be okay, however, as it has been refrigerated.

Okay– all done and the dehydrator is loaded and drying.  John and I both worked hard, cleaning the fruit, cutting (mostly John’s doing) and de-seeding (mine), put into the lemon juice (except for the plums).  We started with a tray of Italian plums (halved); next were Honeycrisp apples, and then a tray of pears, two kinds (Starkrimson and Bartlett), finally a tray of peaches.  Hopefully this first load will be a success.

We sliced some of the peaches and put sugar on them to eat later.

John has been out putting up a barrier to keep the horses out from behind the hay shed where the kitties are eating, playing and drinking.  Woody sat up on top of the hay watching John dig a post-hole, and the other two yellow felines were at the top of the ladder in the hay shed, sleeping.  Rascal is in next to me on a blanket, while I type on my laptop.  I forgot to say we made some great cinnamon/sugar sticks today from the leftover pie dough.  We have enjoyed them throughout the day.

Well, what was for dinner?  Surprise; John bought some white/yellow corn on the cob at the fruit-stand stop, and we cooked one tonight for each of us.  They had small and tender kernels, both yellow and white.  I had some leftovers from the Scholarship luncheon (my lettuce/pea salad), and some little yellow tomatoes, and a piece of sour dough toast.  John had corn, toast, and grocery store-boxed fried fish.  I suspect we’ll have peaches on ice cream for dessert.  Meanwhile Rascal has been sleeping all evening; wonder if he will go out “catting” tonight.  Just so he doesn’t return with voles or mice.  We cannot lock our doggie door.  All we can do is close the window, but would rather not when dogs will go out on their own in the middle of the night to potty.

Monday.  Whoa, lots of hospital time this morning.  John carried Annie in to the vet.  She looked at her drain hole on the soft tissue place near her mammary glands.  She said to keep her from licking it and gave some meds, and put “diaper rash cream” on it.  John went to the grocery and bought more.  John loaded our dehydrator again this morning while I was at the hospital.  He put more peaches, pears, and apples in.

I went by myself to the hospital for my two tests.  The first was to get a  Holter Heart Monitor (24 hr.).  While there I was given another EKG, and it looked very good.  My heartbeat was 65 and in normal rhythm.  Then I took a Pulmonary Function Test.  Last one I had was Nov, 2010.  The technician explained all my results to me.  I asked him about the problems I was having with my voice, projection and singing.  He said I would probably improve with an inhaler and I needed to see my family physician ASAP.  I made an appointment this afternoon for Oct 4^th.  We need to go anyway for flu shots.   Afternoon found us both going back to town for my exercise class, and John went to buy us some stamps at the USPS, to the grocery for more things, and to fill the car with gasoline.  We were running on vapors.  We were both hungry from having no lunch, so at 2:30, we went to Burger King for a Whopper each.  I had a coupon for one free with the purchase of another ($3.49).

When we got home, John went over to check at the neighbors about getting them some firewood for the winter.  While there he brought home a few nice tomatoes (for our BLTs tonight with corn-on-the-cob).  Also brought some coats my neighbor gave me.  She has lost a lot of weight and now cannot wear the size I am.  So, rather than give them to Goodwill, she is giving them to me.  Anything I cannot wear, I pass long to my friends, in exercise class or in the music group.

Tonight, I made a CD of my 50s songs from my high school reunion to take to my exercise class this Wednesday.  I did NOT like the new music the staff of the Adult Activity Center made to replace our CD that was sticking some (but only near the end of the hour).  No one else in the class liked it either because there was no beat to keep up with.

Tuesday.  Our morning started with a small breakfast before I went (alone) to the hospital to have the Holter Heart Monitor removed, and then over to deliver some yellow squash in trade for tomatoes at a friend’s, and then off to my 2^nd acupuncture.  It was pretty intense, with me on my side and the treatment concentrated on my bad left shoulder.  He used heat, needles, suction cups, and massage.  I was a little woozy at the end and sat in my car for 20 minutes, resting, before driving home.  I believe it did some good.  The pain became less as the treatment went forward.  I really hope this will break up the scar tissue that is plaguing me and my rotator cuff’s surrounding muscles–affecting my movement and extension (reach) of my left arm.

While I was in town, John went to the neighbor’s, taking down a volunteer cherry tree they wanted rid of, because it unfortunately sprouted in the pathway to the back of their house and also it produced lousy cherries.  They let it get big enough to produce fruit, and when it did, the cherries were mostly skin and seed.  John cut it down and also used his truck to remove the root ball.  Then he came home and worked on weeds in our corral.  He was going to put in a fence post, but the wind was blowing too hard and would have blown up dust and dirt in his face.

Lunch — I fixed a meal from the fruits around.  Here’s what we had:  yellow and red cherry tomatoes, multi-grain crackers and cheddar cheese, a yellow plum and a red one too, and finally a yellow pear.  Fall colors all.

After lunch, we filled the dehydrator again.  Before I left this morning, I had washed all the trays.  John did most of the fruit cutting, and I dunked the fruit into the bowl of lemon juice, and then we shared putting it on the trays.  Things we included were nice large peaches and Honeycrisp apples he had bought on his way home from trail work last Friday.  He intends to go again this weekend and will buy more!  We also cut pears (both kinds), and then finished with 2 large Roma tomatoes.  We’ll see what they dry out tasting like.  I also put the previously dried fruit (peaches, plums, & apples) into two half pound freezer bags for the freezer.  We can take out what we need when we want.

Tonight John fixed a pork roast for dinner, along with onions, carrots, and corn-on-the-cob.  Leftovers went into a black plastic bowl (then frozen) for a meal for John sometime when I’m gone (say, Wed. – see next).

Wednesday.  Well, today was Nancy’s day to go to town to play music and eat at the Soup Kitchen of the Food Bank – aka FISH:

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/news/article_ffb45f52-68eb-11df-aeb4-001cc4c03286.html

There were only two of us there today; a banjo player and me.  We did all right, considering.  Food was vegetable beef soup, cucumber (Yuk), onion & tomatoes salad, bread with butter, and a strange cobbler, made from Peaches (okay), Plums (okay), and Cantaloupe (WHAT THE HECK?).  From there I moved to the Adult Activity Center, and put in my fifties music to play for my exercise group.  My foot care had been rescheduled from 1:00 to 1:30, and that is the start of my class.  I went ahead and took the appointment because my toes needed attention.  So, I stayed in the class until the lady was done with the person in front of me.  She was running 20 minutes behind schedule because her first client was LATE.  That threw off everyone else the rest of the day.  Some people have no concern for others.  I got finished in time to make it back for a few exercises in class.  I came on home afterwards, and put together a music book for a new member (guitarist) joining our group.  Tonight we had BLTs and chips for dinner.  John picked strawberries and has fixed them, so we will have them on ice cream tonight.

Thursday.  Another strange full day.  Started with the normal stuff we do every morning, and then we both got to work on filling the dehydrator with fruit pieces.  This bunch had pears, peaches, apples and tomatoes.

Then tonight we realized it was no longer running.  So, we ate a late dinner (Chicken, veggies stir fried, tomatoes, and French fries), and called our neighbors 8.5 miles down the road to see if we could borrow their dehydrator.  Went in and visited an hour and brought it home.  It is now finishing our fruit.

Back to this afternoon.  We both went to town.  John dropped me off to play music at Mt. View Meadows and we had a nice bunch of residents who appreciated our being there for them.  They sang along (with words we gave them).  The new activities director made chocolate cookies with choc and white choc chips.  She is trying to entice us to come more frequently – the place was on our once-a month-list – but now only for the 5^th Thur. of the month.   The baking cookies smelled good cooking and then we stayed afterwards and ate them with the residents (many of whom had already eaten theirs while we were still playing music).  John had gone to the grocery store for my meds, and chocolate milk and some other things.  He met one of our players, and traded our yellow squash for pears and little yellow tomatoes.  He also went by the bank to get some money for us both.  He is going again to work trails west of Steven’s Pass, and plans to stop by the fruit stand and buy more fruit as last week.

Yesterday afternoon, when we got back from town, we checked and the dehydrator was no longer working.  In the morning, John had dropped the top power head and cracked the plastic around the switch.  He plugged it in and it worked.  We checked on it the next 3 hours and it was working fine.  Something must have shorted out during the afternoon.

Our trays fit the borrowed dehydrator, so that was good.  They have to be rotated and moved around (up and down the stack, because the heat is on the bottom with no fan).  The new, non-working, one had a top heater/blower (like a hand-held hair dryer).

John leaves at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, for his trail work near the West Fork of the Foss River, south of Skykomish, WA up on the north side of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

Friday.  John took off and I had fallen back to sleep.  When I awoke the house heater was running and the cat was beside me, purring.  I went out to feed the outside (untamed) cats, and then fed myself.  Not much, because I was going to go to an assisted living home (where we played music yesterday), having been invited for Baked Potatoes and all the toppings.  I went and it was wonderful.  A real meal that filled us all up. They served us tapioca pudding for dessert.  Sat at a table with 3 gentlemen; two had been Marines or Navy personnel on carriers.  We asked the lady in charge questions and found out it costs $79/ day (“but it is negotiable”) to live there with 3 meals a day and laundry, plus nice things in the rooms (own bathroom, microwave, and frig).  That’s better than going to Holiday Inn.  They no longer allow animals there, however.  Left there and stopped at my friends to pick up some tomatoes.  I will trade her yellow squash tomorrow when I go back to town.

This morning I started by calling the NESCO people in Wisconsin to see what the cost was of a replacement power head.  It would be $15.99 plus $6.50 postage and handling.  Yikes, I’d be better off to get another from Bi-Mart.  It was on sale and the 30-day sale ended two days ago.  I called them and asked if they would consider selling me a new one at the same sale price I had back on September 18^th.  I told her what had happened, and the cost of a replacement, and she said I should just bring back the unit and get a replacement; that they have a 30-day guarantee.  I said, “Well it’s our fault; we dropped the power head unit (it fits on top down into the center of the trays,” but she said she would ask her supervisor.  She did, and they said to bring it back in, and they would just give me a replacement.  Amazing.

I will clean it up tomorrow and repackage it and take it back for a trade.   Meanwhile, today, before going to my exercise class, I stopped at a yard sale at a lady’s house where I bought a lot of clothes last year.  She recognized me and said how much better I looked.  Actually I knew her niece at CWU when I worked there.  As I walked in, I asked if she happened to have a dehydrator for sale.  She did!  Said she never used it and decided to put it in the sale.  I checked it out (on the far back table), and she had a $10 price tag on it.  Obviously, that was a good price, but I bargained anyway, and she dropped it to $8.  It will work fine to help us get through all the fruit John plans to bring home.  Also got 4 paperback book s for John for a quarter each.  Then on to my exercise class.  On the brink of not going, thinking I was tired, but still . . . I went and neither of our regular leaders was there, so I led the group.  They were very happy.  There were only 8 of us there.  Wednesday, there had been 18! (our largest group ever)

After that I took my pills back to the Pharmacy, requesting they halve them.  They are not “scored” and it is a pain for us to do it.  They were willing and have a little implement that does it.  I will pick them up tomorrow.

On to one last yard sale, out south of town in the rural area.  There were lots of clothes and most stuff I really don’t need.  I have many blouses from yard sales, and a lot recently from my neighbor (including the coats and sweaters).  I just browsed and found some wooden frames for a quarter each, that I can give to my artist friend who likes to frame her small paintings.  Coming back around the center table I found a Christmas vest.  It has never been used; still had the tag on it.  It will be perfect for playing music at Christmas events, of which we do many.  There was also a nice white silk blouse to go with it (on another rack).  Each was $1.00.

Then also there were some sweatshirts for certain holidays:  Christmas again, and Halloween, and a nice navy blue Lake Mead Cruise sweatshirt (We wonder – does the company provide these for workers?  Otherwise, why do they exist?)   Each in excellent shape.  Each a buck.  Nice finds.

On the way back home I passed by some friends of friends we have known awhile, and they are moving.  They were having a “farm” sale.  I stopped and went in and reminded them who I was and our connection.   Looked at their stuff but wished John was along to pick out books for himself.  Then I saw some metal fence posts marked $3.00 each.  I’m sure they are worth that, but I said, “If I bought them all, would you make me a deal?  The wife said, “Yes, if you take them all, we’ll sell them for $2 each.  I accepted.  John says we really don’t need that many, but I know he’s always putting up fences to separate the horses, so he will use them.  She also offered me a Fence Post Driver for $5 and I took that too.

We will go back Monday probably to pick them up.  Need to take our old truck, because I don’t want to mess up my Subaru.  As I was leaving I told him where John was and about him getting some yellow plums.   They said they had a yellow plum tree (called Greengage), . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greengage

and they didn’t have time to be moving and pick the plums.  So, they picked a bag for me, and threw in some Macintosh apples.  Wow.  Nice.

John was quite late getting home tonight, because he had to stop by the fruit stand again.  He brought more Honeycrisp apples, some Galas, more yellow plums, some purple plums, more Starkrimson & Bartlett pears, and a box of peaches (harder than those last week), and they gave him a half dozen corn.  Last week he bought $27 worth and this week he bought $47 worth.  She gave him the same excellent price on all species at $1 / pound.  One of the Honeycrisp apples almost weighs a pound, so is probably a 90 cent apple.  All the fruit is beautiful.

Saturday.  Good Lord, Grand Central Station at the Naneum Fan and Rockin’ Ponderosa.  Started at 4:45 a.m. with dogs going out and finding a skunk on the opposite side of the fence, who was returning toward the pasture from eating the outside cat food.  No more leaving food out overnight.  Meghan and Annie (less so) got drift-spray so fragrance came through the doggie door window and then into the house also on their coats.  John turned on the fan to make the filters work to remove some of the aroma.  It’s still in here.  He took off at 5:45 a.m. for his day working on trail again at the West Fork of Foss Creek south of Skykomish.  I turned up the heat a degree and tried to go back to sleep, but it was not meant to be.  A wrong number awoke me at 7:00 a.m.  (This woman calls here a lot; I wish she would get her act together).  About 7:45 a.m. I got a call from a lady in Oregon (there for a funeral) who is planning a big shindig at their farm this Saturday, Oct 8^th, and she has invited our music group to play for the Farm Festival.  She’d like us for all day, but we will get there at 10:00 a.m. and play as long as we can taking breaks.  They will have recorded music to play while we break.  They have a sound system rented with two microphones, and a connection to the pre-recorded music.  But they want us to play tunes of old time music and gospels.  We have invited the Cle Elum (with Yakima players) Bluegrass Jam session folks to join us.  There are also a couple of young violinists from EBRG planning to come.  Perhaps the Anderson’s granddaughter will play Boil them Cabbage Down with us (or we will back her up).

They are planning for us to get there by 10:00 a.m. to get set up

You can go to the BLOG on this site to learn more about the farm.

http://www.andersonfamilyfarm1979.com/gotmilk.html

They have advertised all over the region, at Starbuck’s on the west side, and all over Ellensburg are flyers.  They are expecting a LOT of people.

Maybe as many as 800.  We will be playing on a truck bed with bales of hay and chairs for those who want.  There are rocking chairs if someone wants.  We will get a free lunch (BBQ) and sides.

Okay, back to Saturday.  I went to town for several errands.  Stopped first by the lady’s house who puts on the Scholarship luncheons, to drop off some plastic black dishes that frozen foods come in.  They are dishwasher safe, and she brought a stack to the last luncheon to serve John’s desserts in.  When I stopped, she offered me some fruits: plums, apples, pears, and tomatoes.  I graciously accepted them even though we have a house full of fruit now from John’s carting stuff home.  We also have more dehydrators we can hook up and dry some of this stuff, after we clean and prepare it.  We are both too tired tonight from our long day, so we will do it in the morning.

Left there and dropped off some fruit for a friend on Mt. View, and forgot the reason I was going in to her house.  Duh.  The fruit was an add-on by John, but I left in the frig the requested yellow squash John picked in the dark last night, and I also forgot (in the car), wooden frames I bought for her.

Went on down to Bi-Mart to trade in my broken dehydrator.  Now I have a new one.

I was hungry, so I went for a hamburger.  Then back to the grocery to pick up a dozen sweet things (6 apple fritters & 6 chocolate old fashioned donuts); also got my pills the Pharmacy had cut in half for me.

Off to north of town to a place where I was able to get potatoes (HUGE ones) from the Columbia Basin, for 10 cents/pound.  I got 20 pounds.  Then I got 20 pounds of VERY LARGE (but sweet) carrots for a nickel a pound.  On my way home I passed very close to some friends from the exercise class, where John and I had dinner a month or so ago.  I called and asked if they would like some and they were thrilled.  So I drove by, got her to come out with two bags, and she grabbed six large potatoes and probably as many carrots too.  They have guests coming next weekend so she said they would feed them then.  I should take pictures of these carrots and put them on line to share with you.  They are big and fat, and they are what the local Twin City Foods uses for their cut carrots frozen under many names, such as Belair, and sold across the U.S..  I used to talk about their operation in my Economic Geography class.  I had a blind student once who I got John to go down and a lady went to the top of the pile of carrots outside the plant, and gave him three of the largest.  We compared them to the skinny carrots we get in the grocery store, and passed them around the classroom, so he could feel them and others could see them.  I also had taken a photo with a quarter for scale, some of the large and small carrots, plus an apple.  It is in my PowerPoint I used in the classroom.

John got home at 6:00 p.m. and we spent time unloading both our cars.  His stuff got very wet from working in the rain some today – not all day, luckily.  John didn’t bring any more fruit, but he went to our garden and brought in a RED tomato!!  Our first.  If we get 2 more that size we will have recouped the $1.89 paid for the packet of seeds.  No freezing forecast for the next seven days here high on the Naneum Fan.  Valley low spots hit 31 degrees a few nights ago.

Okay—this is a day late arriving to you.  Hope your next week is a good one.

Nancy and John,

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday.  Going to the Bluegrass jam session in Upper County (Kittitas) from 2:00 to 4:00.  John is going to help a friend move at 2:00 p.m. in Ellensburg.

Meanwhile, an early morning phone call put us on a different track.  We had found last night two misspellings in the blog sent and were going to correct them, but this morning our 88 year old neighbor called to ask for John’s help today to load hay from his upper field.  He called at 8:00 a.m.  I was still drinking coffee and reading an article on Jim Skinner, 66, from the Midwest, who is the interesting, successful and laid-back CEO of McDonald’s, the burger and Golden Arches corporation.

I asked the farmer when he needed the help, and he said, “Today”.  I told him John was not available in the afternoon because he was helping a friend move.  So, he said, “Well how about now.”  I told him it would take him about 10 minutes, and so he said he would meet him there.  He will not be able to help but just observe.  Don’t even know why he is going.  Well, a son showed up and the farmer drove the “little” truck (holds a lot less than John’s) and so they took out about 10 bales per trip and John can carry more than twice that amount.  They had to drive .5 mile down to load it into the barn.  John just got back home at 10:00 a.m.  Our nicely cleaned out pickup (yesterday – for moving stuff this afternoon) needed to be cleaned out again.  There was a light rain for most of the morning.  You have heard the phrase “Wait for rain to make hay.”  No, I guess not.

Rascal is STILL in bed. He must have had a hard day yesterday.  The temp is 53 out and the heater is running in the house, keeping it at 69.

Went and checked on Rascal and told him I was going to feed Woody.  I did and he joined me.  Woody’s food bowl was totally empty, but now is filled and he was eating when I left.  I didn’t see the yellow cats – now being called Little Sue and Big Sue.

Fixed some breakfast and took meds.

Now John’s out feeding our hungry horses.  They whinnied at me when I went out to feed Woody.

Yummy, John made us a basic grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, and I ate yellow and red cherry tomatoes with mine.  We just got off the phone with his older brother in San Jose’, CA, whose birthday is today.  He’s 11 years older than John.  Now John’s in the backyard taking out the roots of an old Nanking cherry tree and talking with Woody.  They visit a lot that way, and it helps in the taming-of-the-wild-one process.  We hope.

In the afternoon, John’s help with moving apartment furnishing things went all right (with a few glitches), such as being stopped by a cop for driving with the back end loaded and the tailgate down, so the license plate was not visible.  A co-mover stopped somewhat out in front to wait as John didn’t know where they were going.  Her back right taillight was out.  John talked him out of even talking to her by telling the officer what they were doing and that “we have enough trouble” with the move; we don’t need more.

My bluegrass jam session was a lot of fun, and ran later than planned.

We will go back next month, and in fact, we have been invited to participate in the Hunter’s Breakfast, a fundraiser for the local field & stream club.  We get a free breakfast from our participation jamming for 3 hours.  Breakfast will be pancakes with ham and eggs, homemade apple butter, piping hot coffee and fresh orange juice.  It’s being held at the Swauk Teanaway Grange east of Cle Elum, and about a half hour from our house.  Did you see the story of the Department of Justice holding meetings and paying $16 for each muffin.  Must be a damn fine muffin.  This whole Hunter’s breakfast is offered for $7 – no muffins, though.  It does include coffee while the DOJ paid $8.24 per cup for their guests.

http://news.yahoo.com/16-muffins-8-coffee-served-justice-audit-023623142.html

On the way home, I called John and he said to go by Bi-Mart to pick up a dehydrator they had for us.  He tried earlier in the day and none was on the shelf.  It is a $29.99 cost for a much higher valued product, a Nesco dehydrator with a Jerky Gun included.  John found that on the web, he could order the same without the Jerky gun, for a total of over $40.  This seems to be a good year for fruit – apples, plums, pears (more below) – so rather than rely on friends for the service. we will try it ourselves.

Monday.  Nancy got Montezuma’s revenge again.  ?? from what? maybe bacteria on tomatoes ?  I had some little yellow ones that John did not have.  However, I washed them, but had them last night, and for yesterday’s lunch.

This is getting to be a pain.  I don’t feel like eating lunch, nor going to exercise class.  John has been really busy all morning mowing the backyard, moving the root-clump of the Nanking cherry tree from the backyard, carting off logs from the back woods beyond the backyard fence, moving a 20-30 pound rock – practicing for another WTA trip, I guess.

I took care of a lot of emails, planning for the upcoming scholarship luncheon at the University and our contribution (will be a salad and 2 desserts, for 12 people), and getting the information for a CWU sticker for my car that allows me to park closer to the building because I’m still limited in my walking distance while carrying things.  I did get some envelopes for sorting tax receipts so I suppose I should get to work on that.  Also washed a load of clothes this morning, so all was not lost.  I did spend the couple hours while John napped, putting tax receipts into large 9 x 12″ envelopes for further sorting before I can enter them into my computer EXCEL sheet.  I just bought 25 in a package Saturday.  Very strange today, when I took out 12 for the months of the year, and counted the remaining envelopes in the package, there had only been a total of 22.  I called Bi-Mart to ask if I should complain to the company (Mead), and they said no, they would just open a package, and give me 3, and would leave them at the pickup desk for me to get tomorrow afternoon.  Now is that good business practice or what ! ??  This is the same place that sells a complete Corona hand saw and, nearby, a replacement blade that is meant for a different handle.  Uff da.

Tuesday.  Been cleaning dishes this morning, and John did outside chores, moving around trees, rock, manure, filled the hole in the backyard where the cherry tree was removed, visited with the cats, and then loaded the pickup with gravel and took it to our friend to repair holes in driveway.  I’m now getting ready to go for my afternoon massage and to pick up meds.

I’m going back to town to play music at a nursing home, with The Connections.

One other fiddler and I were the only musical instruments there tonight.  There were 3 singers.  Really a small group, but we did our best.  The other fiddler played base chords, and I played the melody on the old church anthem favorites.  I remember a few we played:  Fairest Lord Jesus, The Old Rugged Cross, Just As I Am, Amazing Grace, and In the Garden.  I just got out and found a bunch more gospels on the web.  I copied the words, so we can try them one of these days.  We have requests for gospel songs from the residents of the nursing and retirement homes we attend.

John fixed chicken and squash (our own home grown), fried onions, and I added tomatoes.

Wednesday.  Started with things around the house, and then I went to town to play music at the food bank, and eat.  We had a nice turn-out with 4 of us musicians.  The food was probably the healthiest lunch any of us have had in awhile.  Was zucchini fritters (squash, onions, garlic, cheese, egg), cooked on a grill.  With it was a cucumber (I don’t like, so they pulled them out), onion, tomato salad, and watermelon for dessert (I still cannot stomach that).  I came home and had an apple fritter (shared with John).  Because of my morning Vascular Ultrasound in Yakima tomorrow, I was unable to eat anything for supper but liquids, and Jell-0 did not seem appealing, nor was it made.

Thursday.  Medical day for me and for Brittany. Annie.  We had to be in Yakima this morning at 8:45 for me to have a Vascular Ultrasound.  My cardiologist requested it because my blood tests recently have shown kidney dysfunction. (I don’t know yet what that means.).  So this is to test to be sure I don’t have any disease in my kidneys and also to be sure my veins are working properly from my heart to my organs.

Came home and had to turn around and get our Annie dog to the vet at 1:15..  She’s the one who had puppies last year, and this year had mammary tumors and had to be spayed.  She was doing fine, but we noticed a swelling around her mammary gland where they took out the tumor, and last night it turned red.  Before we left for town, I gave her 500 mg of Amoxicillin from our stash.  She is scheduled for surgery on this coming Monday.  They need to open it back up to see what’s going on in the soft tissue.

As soon as we were done there, John dropped me off at Hearthstone to play music with “my group”.  Then he took Annie home and came back to pick me up.  Off to the grocery and bank and finally back home very late.  He has been making a tart cherry pie for me to take to the Scholarship Luncheon tomorrow.  And, he has made a peach cobbler to take too.  He needs to get packed and his lunch made so he can get out of here at 5:45 a.m. to get to a WTA work site near Index, west of Stephen’s Pass. WTA lists this work party on the Lake Serene trail.  It is 3.6 miles to the Lake with a 3,000 foot rise – explained by the “towering and formidable Mount Index.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/lake-serene

On the small Google map you can hit the minus sign and zoom out.  A wide view will show the nearby cities of Puget Sound and Ellensburg too – at the right scale. Click on a few of the thumbnail photos in the first few trip reports provided at the bottom of this WTA page.  On the 2^nd page of reports the one for Aug. 13, by Kelbell is worth a click.

Friday.  John left at 5:55 and I got up to work on the chilled salad I have planned.

As I was working in the kitchen I saw Annie licking vigorously at her incision.  I checked and found Annie’s swelled tissue broke and released much fluid, mostly pus.  I put towels beneath her and she cleaned and cleaned for 1. 5 hrs.  It looks pretty good, considering.  Perhaps it was a reaction to a suture, and they won’t have to search for more tumor they missed.  I can always hope.

I returned to making my salad: (Lettuce, peas, red onions, sour cream/mayo, topped with Parmesan cheese.  A friend brought a hot  casserole with stuff from her garden, and I carried about 60 yellow bite-size tomatoes I got from my friend in Thorp.    It was a great meal for 10 people, but we had enough leftovers to bring home for John. Only a tiny amount of pie and also peach cobbler remained.

On John’s return trip, he stopped east of Leavenworth at a roadside stand. He brought home several LARGE specimens of different varieties  of apples — Honeycrisp is new and large and pretty: http://www.groworganic.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/f/t/ft043-d.jpg

Another great find was a scarlet hued pear – see the info here, especially the 4^th paragraph about trying to tell if they are ripe.

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2009/09/select_starkrimson_pears_by_th.html

The lady at the fruit stand explained this “bright red is mush” thing to John, found one to show him and then tossed it.

He also brought a few Bartlett pears, yellow plums, red plums as equally colorful on the inside as out, and a box of nice looking peaches.  He often stopped at a different (nearby) grower’s stand but they have been disrupted by this:

Use Google Earth, and go to 47.558932, -120.592671

[Cut, paste, and zoom in just a little.]  The current image is dated 6/30/2006, but note the yellow lines!  In 2006 this was planned highway relocation to remove the dangerous intersection in the lower right.  That has now been completed and all the fruit trees south of the new interchange have been reconstituted as a rock and gravel surface.  This orchard produced many types of apples, including Romes.  No Romes now.  Progress!

http://www.nyapplecountry.com/images/photosvarieties/redrome04.jpg

Saturday.  I guess when he comes in from morning chores around the place (moving gravel), we will be busy putting the fruit up, freezing some, and trying our new dehydrator (turns out we never got to that, so maybe tomorrow).

This morning started with a surprise.  We had left food and water for the outside cats, and decided all were doing fine, except Woody was missing (till later).  So we sat down for toast and coffee.  A large strange noise came form the living room where the doggie door is set in a window.  Rascal brought in a Stellar’s Jay (big as him almost), through the doggie door window.  John went and picked up a dazed, but alive bird, took it outside to the backyard, and when he went to throw it over the fence, it flew to a nearby tree (without its one feather that was dislodged).

http://sdakotabirds.com/species_photos/photos/stellers_jay_1.jpg

Cat report:  “Woody”, and his sibling (Little Sue, a yellow cat) has joined him plus Big Sue (another yellow cat), who we figure is Sunshine’s mother, and the mom of these two kitties born under a quail brush pile next to our barn.  John had seen them when they were VERY young.

Neither of the 3 outside cats are tame yet, but they are eating out of a dog house (protects the food from the rain), and drinking water from a Pyrex dish.  They live in the wood pile.  Rascal is very good about trying to tame them.  He can play and eat and walk beside them, but we cannot yet.  He still comes and goes out the doggie door.

That’s about it from here, this week.  We have a light weekend, so hopefully this will get put out tonight (Saturday).  This week, had I not been retired, I would have had to begin teaching my three classes.  Thank goodness, I didn’t have to work that into my schedule this week.  I don’t know how I would have had the time.  I still don’t know how I taught full-time all those years and still had a life.

Nancy and John

on the Naneum Fan

Well, here it is Monday night, and I have my computer laptop back all cleaned up of the virus that blasted the .ini file to keep me from doing anything at all.  We didn’t pick it up until almost 5:30 p.m.  Charge to reconstruct it to run was $178.  They had to reload the operating system, and back up and clean up the hard drive.

Sunday was pretty interesting, but I stayed home, and John went again to work on the Gold Creek Trail.  He had to walk in 2 miles to the site, and then had to work in the sun all day, and then walk out the 2 miles.  He did that two days in a row, and finally today he is feeling the sore muscles.  The reason they were working in bright sun and not under the shade of trees, was that there was an avalanche (2007) that took out all the trees and the trail, while downstream damage (high water flow) restricted access to the slide area.

See this but imagine much larger trees and ½ mile wide:

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1990/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1990-33179.jpg

This is in a wilderness area so the work, even on the large trees, has to be done with crosscut saws.  Here is what it looks like:

http://www.crystallake.name/twork/25jun07/cs7.jpg

On the lower part of the trail two bridges were needed.  One was like this, but smaller:

http://www.sahale.com/Baker%20Timber-single%20log%20with%20rail.jpg

Another was made with three side-by-side flat-topped logs about 12 feet long – like this:

http://images.travelpod.co.uk/users/foothills_bears/2.1250064640.celine-crossing-a-log-bridge.jpg

Other parts of the trail were repaired over several summers. Meanwhile, with the area freshly cleared of vegetation and open to the sun, pioneer species (colonizers) of small shrubs, along with Salmonberry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonberry

and Devil’s Club (note photos 3 and 4):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_club

. . . filled the area and the “less than a trail”- foot path hikers were using to get across the slide.  This year, with the big issues taken care of, the WTA volunteers concentrated on cleaning out the brush with loppers, small saws, weed whips, grub hoes, and McLeods (last 2 shown here):

http://www.americantrails.org/resources/info/tools5.html

[End of trail part]

Monday.  We decided to go ahead of time to Cle Elum for my 3:00 appointment for Acupuncture, at the office there because no times were available this week in EBRG, and I needed to get in this week.

We had some coupons from Burger King and decided to use them. We ended up getting a Jr. Whopper and a Whopper, fries and drink.  Sat out in the car in the shade of the building to eat.  With the windows down and a breeze blowing through, it was not unbearable.

Went to the Cle Elum office for my first Acupuncture.  In the Ellensburg office, I had previously met the person who would give me the treatment, when I was in for my first massage therapy.  We had to climb up many steep stairs with good railings to get to the office.  I made it, thank goodness.  Absolutely, could not have last year.  They had an elevator in the back of the building, but when we decided to use it to leave, it would not go down.  It would close the door, I’d press 1 (we were on 2), and it would open the door again.  After 3 times, we walked down the stairs.

John sat outside the office and read a book.  My appt. lasted for 1.5 hrs.  We didn’t know how I would be, so he was my driver.  Cle Elum is 30 miles from Ellensburg.  They started with reviewing my medical history, meds I’m on, procedures I have had done, and what artificial things are in my body.  For example, because my ICD has an integrated pacemaker, they cannot use electrical stimulation.  Then the first assessment was done by feeling my pulse in both wrists.  Finally I got up on the table, and was on my stomach, with a head rest, and two protective cushions under my chest and left arm.  The middle one was to protect me from leaning on my ICD, which sort of sticks out.  Needles were inserted (I don’t know the total and have to ask next time, and request a picture with my camera).  They use a straw to guide them in, (I’m sure that I’m not using the correct terminology).  It is a very small needle and it doesn’t go in very far.  There was no blood.  I think I only felt 3 of them.  There was also a lot of massage involved, and there was a heat lamp.  Except for one maneuver under my left arm pit, to access the rotator cuff muscles that are troubling me most of all, there was no pain.  He warned me that it would be painful and I would hate him.  And, that it might bruise.  It did hurt, I did bruise, but I didn’t hate him.  I figured it is something that had to be done to reach the tense/tight/scar-tissue damaged muscles.

Came home all right, and I took off for my neighbor’s house 1.5 miles around the corner.  She is the one who cuts my hair and has since 1988.  She no longer has a shop in town, having closed it when she got breast cancer, but now cuts hair of some old clients, in her home.  I was delivering a small box of the last of the plums off our tree.  Well, on my way there, about a mile into the trip, a doe deer jumped from the bushes into my car (our newer white 2009 Subaru).  It hit along the front fender and front part of the light assembly.  It did not deploy my air bag, and it didn’t veer me off the road.  I slowed down to be sure the deer got up and walked off.   Then I continued on to my friend’s house and got out to look at the damage.  There was nothing bent into the tire, and the light was not broken.

Tuesday.  Getting ready and showering, etc., to go to the doctor’s in Yakima.  We did feed the kitties before leaving.  Only two were there this morning but tonight all 3 are.  They ate all the food and drank all the water, so John replaced it again tonight.  Yellow kitty (Sue/Sioux) is more skittish than Woody (new name for Bronco).  Now Woody is coming into the backyard and playing with Rascal, and Rascal also joins the two of them outside the fence and in the wood pile.

Today was my trip to my cardiologist in Yakima.  He was late getting to my 11:00 appt, but his assistant took care of giving me a chest X-ray, and an EKG.  At first I was worried that something had shown up on my Echocardiogram to prompt him to request them.  I mentioned that to the assistant, Jolene (made me think of the song), who said–oh no, this is normal.  We do this once a year for all patients.

He came in about an hour late, but spent an hour plus with us. He is so thorough and explains everything about all the tests, and about what my heart and other organs are showing.  My heart showed improvement on many counts.  He was happy.  My kidneys show a questionable condition, but he has ordered some tests to check that out.  My liver is in good shape and not being compromised by the meds I’m taking.

I asked him about switching off the Coumadin for a newer drug, which didn’t require blood tests every few weeks.  He said I was not a candidate, and talked about the “agent” in the med, and that he has used it on some of his patients, but he wouldn’t want to try me on it.  Information here:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=127184342076&topic=18562

My source about this has A-fib but not the internal hardware and other issues I have.  He switched last spring and is happy with the new drug.

My hemoglobin was really high (above 14) and that is good.  Last August, when I collapsed, it was way down to 7.5 and they had to give me several units of blood.

Also, my Doctor is an EKG guru and one look at the charts suggested to him that my heart might do better (producing a normal rhythm) . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinus_rhythm

. . . if my pacer base was set lower so my heart could function more naturally.   He had the device check lady re-program my device, not to start pacing till I drop to 50 beats / minute.  It was set for kicking in at 60, but he noticed my heart had some sinus rhythm in the mid-50 range but was being interrupted by the pacer.  He says I will be better off with my heart doing its own thing – all else being within bounds.  We’ll see if this works.

So, it was a long day at the doctor’s but pretty much with good results.  We followed the exam with lunch (meeting local friends) at the near-by hospital’s cafeteria.  I was the only one with a certain salad and the only one that got an intestinal upset.  Oops! Took until Thursday to shake that.  More below.

Wednesday.  We went to EBRG for Nancy to play music and we both ate at the food bank.  On arrival we were greeted with the aroma of a covered barrel grill (real wood) smoking away outside cooking pork.  With the well blackened ribs they had corn-on-the-cob, beans (a couple of different types in a bbq sauce), a squash casserole and watermelon.  Wow! This was the best meal I have had there.  John and I had taken some yellow delicious apples and yellow summer squash to one of the people playing with me.  Afterwards, we took the Subaru to the repair shop for an estimate on the front end/side damage.  He looked at it, took pictures, and we left to come back later for the details because he had to write the estimate, send it to Safeco (Insurance company), to get it approved.  Meanwhile, John took me and my fiddle and himself and a book to the Sr. Center.  I exercised.  He read.  It was cool inside.

We  went back and got the news on the estimate.  They will have to replace the right-front headlight assembly, and the right fender, but because of the “pearl” of the “tricoat” paint job (it’s only white!), there are three coats to cover the fender and, also, to blend in the “look” with all adjacent parts.

http://www.tomorrowstechnician.com/Article/48555/bodyworks_the_dos_and_donts_of_refinishing_pearl_tricoats.aspx

Yikes.  The total time to do this is 20 hrs, and so we have to leave it all week.  The parts cost is $550. And the total cost will be $2135.21, of which we pay $100.

Thursday.  Craziness continues.  John left at 6:05 for Pancake Inn at Snoqualmie Summit and breakfast with the old trail crew leaders and assistants, and I went back to bed.  I had been sick with Montezuma’s revenge since late yesterday afternoon, and all through the night, every 1.5 hours.  Finally, I’m better this morning, and will go for my music venue this afternoon.

Have no idea where I picked up the bug, but it might have been bacteria on a lettuce, walnut, with grated pepper jack cheese salad I had after my cardiologist’s Tuesday’s appt.  We ate in the Memorial Hospital Cafeteria, which one would think would be more cleanly than other places.  I didn’t have anything different from John for other meals, so it almost had to be that.

Helicopters are flying again, so there must be a fire in the nearby hills or canyons. We are 5.5 miles NE of their base.

Other news last night–another kitty (older yellow one) has appeared at the feeding station out back.  We think it is probably the mother of the two kittens and also of our lost Sunshine.  So now we go from zero to 4.  Yikes.  We need to get the older one tamed so we can keep her from having yet another litter, with yet another vet expense.  And there are the younger two who also will need “fixed” and their shots.  Amazing the cost of veterinary care– just the basics.

Musically, today was a small participant day, as there were only two fiddles (and only me when the other played his mandolin).  We had one guitar, one banjo, one clarinet, and a singer, but we had a VERY appreciative group and that really helps.  Two got up and danced.  Cool.  The one out in front of us, leading the pack, was the gal who was the Geography Dept. Secretary for 27 years and much of my time there at CWU.  She is a delightful friend, and now resides in the assisted living home.

I have an appt. for a Renal Vascular Ultrasound to check my kidney functions.  Of all the recent tests, this is the only thing to show up questionable and requiring further research.  It is not a test I can have in the hospital in EBRG.  I can have two others I have to have every year, as a precaution (Pulmonary test in a chamber and a Holter Heart Monitor put on for 24 hours).  While I was there they did that adjustment on my ICD to change the pacemaker’s takeover and also ran the check normally done every 3 months.  I would have been due in Oct., but now not till 3 months out.  Sadly, I have to travel to Yakima for those readings and appts.

John has been gone working on wilderness trails for 2 days each of the past weekends, and today (Thurs.) he went up for a day, leaving at 6:05 and had breakfast with other “old timers” at the Pancake House at Snoqualmie Pass.  He had a waffle.  On the trip home, he got slowed to 2mph about 4:00 on the Interstate for construction, and called me from his cell phone, saying he didn’t know when he would arrive home.  He finally arrived home at 5:40 after being detained for 45 minutes.  The crew leader already made it home to Seattle, and sent out an email report on today’s work, which arrived while John was still on the road home.

Guess we both are tired and ready to go to bed earlier than usual, after dessert.

Friday.  This is an easy day for me.  I decided against going to town till tonight for our jam session potluck.  I will get plenty of exercise and a lot of good food.  We took Chicken Alfredo with cashews added; the person hosting the event cooked one of his large Rainbow trout (with salmon-colored meat) that his wife caught on a fishing trip they made on the Columbia River this summer.

I’ve been doing chores, just finished dishes, and have been working on emails, and notes to sick people (my cousin in Atlanta), and a friend in Illinois.  There is always something.

John is staying home today, as this weekend’s weather is predicted to be rainy, and he does not wish to work in the rain.  Yesterday, they got rained on and his shirts got wet.  He had a rain jacket along but spread it out over his backpack, to protect it.  The coat did its job and he rolled it inside-out and stuffed it into the backpack for the return hike. [They get wet from the work –perspiration- so a little sprinkle is of no consequence.]

I really had trouble yesterday and this morning, not being able to get speed on the Internet through any portal.  It finally cleared up and I could access things on line (after several hours).

John currently is outside fixing up the “wood pile” vicinity for the cats.  He is taking over a dog house with a nice roof, to put their food and water in to protect them form the elements.  He will have to figure out something to put over the wood pile to keep it dry beneath, where they are living.  He also is nailing together the “cable table” (previously used for telephone wire) as it is deteriorating.  It’s part of the stuff next to the fence and little shed (inside the backyard), on which the cats go back and forth to the fenced yard.

I need to go out and see how he is doing.  Just did.  Wow—he cut out brush and grass near the fence, so now we can see the kitties and their feeding and play area near the wood pile.  John also moved the cable table over further, and cut out a Nanking Cherry tree that was interrupting the backyard area.  He has various wooden pathways for the kittens with boards and pallets propped up so they can move across the fence where he’s been feeding them, behind the hay shed and near the wood pile.  The dog house was the one we used for the last litter of Brittany puppies.

When I went out to admire John’s work, Woody came out from under the wood pile and over to the new water bowl and feed bowl in front of the dog house.  He even explored the dog house with the straw inside.  Rascal was chasing bugs on this side of the fence in the backyard while all this was going on.  I stayed there watching and John went into the house.  Woody continued and so did Rascal.  Rascal was investigating the new set up with the table and the access to his “ladder” up to the top of the hay shed (where he sleeps in the day, when not in the house).  Meanwhile, Woody went up the pallet that is slanted on end, to the top of the fence post nest to the ladder, and then he stepped up on the ladder!  I have never seen him there, but Rascal goes there a lot.

Shortly, Rascal found his way to the fence post and went down the pallet to check out the new dog house and new feeding bowls.  Then Woody joined him.  They both had a drink and both explored the dog house, so, we think this will be successful.  Now with the brush down, we can look out the doggie door window and see most everything.

Wind is howling again at 10:00 p.m.   We are back and ready to hit the hay.  Attended the jam session potluck tonight and filled up with a lot of good food.  We had the huge trout, alfredo, plus beans, garlic bread, congealed fruit salad with whipped cream, watermelon (none for me), and strawberry cream cheese Bundt cake.  It was all very yummy.  Came home and found Rascal had put himself to bed on our bed.  John went out and added food and water for the outside kitties.  Woody was up on the top of a leaning wood ramp John built for them.  He let John walk right by him, stop and talk, and refill the water and food.  This time a few days ago he would have run and hidden beneath the wood pile.  So, we have progress.  Woody is a mackerel tabby just as Rascal, but with long hair, and no white bib or white feet as Rascal has.  Rascal is a short-haired cat.

Saturday.  We slept in, including Rascal.  It was cold outside, below 50.  So much for ripening tomatoes.  John has been out taking care of cleaning out the old pickup and fixing the back shattered window (broken by a vagrant piece of firewood), and getting the old truck ready to load some recyclable paper and magazines in to take to the shop near the airport tomorrow that is near where he is going to help a friend move stuff from his storage locker to his new rental house.  Today, John is staying home to do various chores, and I’m going to town to play music at a retirement community, where individuals have their own apartments in a complex.  This is the place that feeds us when we are done.  Today’s meal was a winner.  We had make-your-own tacos, with cooked hamburger seasoned with taco seasoning, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, & guacamole.  There was cut cantaloupe and blackberries, raspberries, and blue berries, and several types of desserts:  chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and nuts, carrot cake, cookies, and brownies (the latter two homemade).

We played and the group sang along with us for slightly over an hour.  It was really nice.  I stopped at two yard sales (in the rain) on the way to play, and got a huge metal bowl for using to mix bread dough or put salad in for a large group.  Paid 50 cents.  Also at another one, I got a very nice hand knitted colorful hat with a brim for another 50 cents.  Went to the grocery store for kitten food and chocolate milk for my meds, to Bi-Mart for some large envelopes to store tax receipts (by month) in.

So, it was a productive trip to town.

Now, I’m giving this to John to put on the blog this week.

Oh, first I have to make a web page you can get to, to see a photograph of  the dragonfly John took a couple of days ago — evening, on an apple tree, using flash:

http://www.elixant.com/~nancyh/BlueDragonfly.html

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Posted last week’s blog early so we could attend a great birthday party with friends in Maple Valley, WA, a 50^th party for the daughter of friends we have known through the Brittany connection (shows and field trials) since 1974.  We first met Chris (birthday gal) at field trials when she was just a teenager.  Now we have watched her children grow up.

John picked as many blackberries as he could, but the thorns were bad and it was hard to get to, even though he had a ladder to put over the plants.  He picked for over an hour and only managed to get one flat box full.  We weighed them this morning, and have 6 lbs, 10 ounces.  He had hoped for 3 times as much.

We did enjoy the party and seeing people we knew from the past, and meeting some new ones (friends of theirs); all their grandkids were there with their boyfriends, so that was nice, and some of the siblings of the gal celebrating her 50th, whom we also knew as they grew up.

We stopped for lunch in North Bend (Burger King) because the invitation said only snacks and cake for the party.  WRONG–there was enough food for 100 people and only about 35 there.  They had BBQ (pulled pork and pulled chicken), nice rolls, a couple of salads (Potato and Chinese Cole Slaw), fruit, and then a table with a chocolate fountain on it. (I have never seen one before).  Like this:

http://www.leileiscuisine.com/images/MontezumaFount-MC-purple202.jpg

Lots of pieces of things to put in the chocolate, including:  Bananas, pears, apples, blueberries, large strawberries, blackberries, cookies of small shapes, rice crispie squares, and probably more that I have forgotten.  I should have had John take a picture of the tables of food.  Wow.

We visited till after 5:00 and drove home getting here before it was dark, so John could feed the horses in the light. Good driving across the pass; no construction to deal with!! And 10 degree cooler temps with a nice breeze at their place.  Very cool.  On the home trip, I had a cell phone conversation with a former colleague who moved to Maryland, and she was in the rain of hurricane Irene.  We had a nice visit and I never lost reception on the pass as John drove.

Sunday.  We got up early (John did) and played with Rascal and let me sleep another hour.  Then we went to pick up Annie. When we pulled in their “yard” parking lot, there was a gal walking a Brittany, and John said, “Look there’s a Brittany.”  I said, “That’s Annie!”  So we called to the handler and she brought Annie over.  Wow, was she happy to see us.  The gal said every time she took her out to potty, she thought she was getting to go home.  It’s been a long time since we took her in Wed. morning, so I’m sure she was convinced we had abandoned her.  She didn’t know I was calling in every day to see how she was doing.

We got her home, and she went potty a lot.  I wonder if she had gone the whole time?  Also, she wanted to be petted and comforted (from my recliner).  Rascal realized something was different and came over and sniffed her but did not bat her as he had been doing.  Then he crawled up into my right hand and purred, while I kept petting her with my left hand.

John took the others for a run (and he fed the horses).  She laid down once on the sofa, but decided to go to her secure spot under the guest bed.  She slept there for a long time.  I imagine she did not sleep well during her time at the vet.  She is used to her comfy “love seat” sofa, or under the bed.

We left her about 2:00 after John put up blackberries (we ended up with 6 pounds, 10 ounces), and he picked plums (from our tree).  We went to Yakima to visit our friend (with Annie’s puppy), who was in Yakima Memorial Hospital, having had a bad kidney removed Friday.  He and his wife had come a couple times to visit me while I was in two different hospitals there, and I certainly wanted to return the favor.  It meant so much to me.  He even came up to Ellensburg, with the older Brittany he had from us to see me in the Rehab center, the beginning of 2010.  He brought her right into the room, and she jumped up to the chair beside my bed, laid down and let me pet her.  What a sweetie.  That was when I couldn’t get in and out of bed yet.  That Brittany was born in 1998, and she died a few months after Milly came into their house.  So, the timing was good that they had Milly, and now that Annie cannot have any more puppies, I’m so glad they have her.  We had a nice long visit and also we first went to Costco for 1/2 tank of gasoline, and bought some sale stuff too, that we missed last time there.

John just left to do the horse feeding without taking any of the dogs.  We do not want Annie getting her underside dirty in the irrigation ditch.

Kitty Rascal ventured out the doggie door window, tonight.  Previously, he had been out the back patio door only briefly.  He is an affectionate kitty.  He slept the whole time we were gone to Yakima, and when John sat down to have a Pepsi, he walked over (John called him) and he got in his lap.  However, now he is in the backyard and wants nothing to do with coming to John.  I went out and couldn’t find him anywhere.

John found a board that had been propped against the fence, and tilted, which apparently knocked kitty over the fence into the wood pile.  John found him outside the fence in the wood pile.  He ran from John into the hay barn and climbed to the top, but then John turned around and there was a scruffy brown kitty also coming out from the wood pile.  John didn’t see the orange kitty that had been with the other a few days ago.

When Rascal returned he missed seeing the other cat leave and rush to the woods.  Then John had to capture Rascal who didn’t want to be caught.  He knew there was that other cat around.

Well.. We’ll see what happens in the future.  Not a good sign.  We are scheduled to take him to the vet for a neutering (costly) and the rest of his shots, plus rabies on Tuesday.  Actually the shots cost as much as the neuter.  Whole bill: $99.  Oh well, it’s just money, right ?

Monday.  Never left home today, but did lots of house and yard chores, with lower temps and higher winds.

Tuesday.  Started early with taking Rascal for his vet work (Neuter & shots), and Annie for a checkup of her incision.  On to the grocery store afterwards and home.  I’m going for a haircut at my neighbor’s this morning.  Was going to go to town afterwards to get my driver’s license renewed and a picture of the “new me,” but I called and the agent said, “Don’t come today.  This is the worst day of the week.”  Wonder why that is; and she said, “Come tomorrow.”  I found out they are not open Mondays, so that’s why Tuesday is a bad day.  Later this afternoon we pick up Rascal.  Wind is howling still.  We successfully got Rascal, and he was lethargic until bedtime, when he decided to romp and play and demand attention.  Prior to that he was sleeping in my lap wanting cuddled.  I couldn’t even enter my tax receipts because he was in the way of where I prop them to enter, and then move to my envelope on the “right.”

Wednesday.  Morning came early and Rascal wanted fed again and to harass us both.  He jumped on piles of clothes in the guest bedroom, dumping them to the floor, and in our bedroom, doing the same.  Guess he’s back to his old “Rascal” self.  Today it is much cooler again, so that is very nice.  I played music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, but at the end of the month, there were over 50 people there and not enough food to go around.  Wasn’t all offerings left for us when we got through playing music.  From our garden, I took yellow squash to four families.  Went to my exercise class, and then for the Driver’s License renewal.  It went very smoothly.  I was in and out in less than 10 minutes; rather amazing.

 

Thursday, September 1, 2011, Happy Birthday to Nancy!  Thanks for all the cards and wishes I’ve received.  This afternoon I went off to play music at a nursing home.  My group started with an instrumental Happy Birthday song, and then ended singing it with some of the residents.  Pretty cool.  The nursing home had a plate of special cookies for all of us, in honor of my birthday.  Rest of the day/night was quiet.

Friday.  Up early for John to take off for the hills.  He joined a WTA work party (trails) at Old Wagon Road Trail for the day.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/franklin-falls

He hasn’t been able to participate since I got sick the summer of 2009.  I know he has missed it, so I’m very happy he could participate today.

I went in for my first therapeutic massage.  It went well.  My shoulder and back and neck muscles were very tight.  He worked on me an hour.  His suggestion / recommendation at the end was to consider alternating with acupuncture, which would help free up the muscles.  My insurance will cover 8 sessions, and so I decided to go with it.  Next week, however, I will go again to him for a massage.  They couldn’t work me in till the following week for the acupuncture.  I called my family physician to be sure with my Coumadin and situation that I can expose myself to acupuncture.  He said, “No problem, but be aware you may have some bruises.”  I also found some positive comments on the Internet from M.D.s that were not advertisements from natural health individuals.

On my way home, I stopped off at one yard sale.  There I bought some towels for a dime each, a fold-up small umbrella for a quarter, some washcloths for a nickel each, and a ladder (6 ft, wooden) for $5.  Then they gave me a loveseat-sized sofa that has two recliners side by side.  When John got home, we went back to town in the truck to get the sofa and ladder.  These folks were getting rid of their parents’ stuff, because they had moved into Hearthstone Cottages.  They wanted to clear out the house, and they thanked us for carting off the sofa.  Now we have to clean up the den, especially the table that is loaded again with stuff, so we can remove the current (worn out) loveseat and replace with this, using the back patio door as access.  That will be a lot easier than moving in through the front door and having to make a sharp corner.

When I left the house about 9:15 a.m., Rascal was nowhere in sight.  When I got home, he was sleeping in my chair.  I took my chair away from him, and he ended up on the loveseat.  He stayed there most of the time till John got home.  Then while John was standing near the living room, he saw Rascal come in through the doggie door window.  That was the first we knew of him coming back and not just going out.  He brought a moth in with him, and then left again, to sit on the “veranda” while we went to pick up the ladder and loveseat.

John had such a good time working trail today, he plans to return tomorrow and work another day.  Two volunteer days earns a full year’s Northwest Forest Pass.

Today is Saturday, and I’m a little sore from yesterday’s massage on my back, arms, shoulder, & neck.  Also I’m not used to reclining on a table (even though padded), on my stomach. They did put cushions under my legs, and beneath my shoulders, but it still was awkward from what I’m used to.  My head was face-down on a cushion, but I had to leave my eyes closed, and I didn’t like that.  Later, I turned over, (under a sheet the whole time), and he worked on my head/neck.  I would have liked to have had a pillow under my head, but that was not possible until later.  He moved my left shoulder back and around and put pressure against it, with my having to return the same move toward the resistance.  While on my back, there was a cushion roll under my knees.  Maybe some of you understand this, but it was my first ever professional massage, and the whole thing was a brand new experience I’ve managed 68 years without.

This morning at 7:00 a.m. John took off again for working on trails in the hills.  He enjoys that.  I was left to sort plums he picked last night, but I just picked out six good ones for us to eat, and arranged with my neighbor to come pick up the bucket (plastic from ice cream), full, to use for plum jelly, and also to put some in his mom’s dehydrator for us.  They had borrowed our aluminum one for a granddaughter to use, and we do not believe we ever got it back.  John thinks it was in poor shape when we loaned it, so maybe it died.

I need to pick up some receipts from the unsorted pile on the table and get them into an envelope.  Also, do some dishes, and wash some clothes.  Have to make some headway while John is off working.  The animals are resting, but Shay just went out the doggie door window, and started barking in the backyard.  That awoke Rascal, and I think he went outside too.  He’s probably chasing moths or bugs.  He is back inside on the loveseat, sharing it with Meghan.  He’s been out already this morning, but had come back in for a couple-hour nap.

John will be back in the afternoon, leaving there after 3:00 p.m. and will be back home before 5:00, hopefully.  Yesterday had VERY bad traffic on the I-90 corridor with people leaving the Puget Sound region for mountains, rivers, EBRG Rodeo and other places-east for the long weekend.  He was not happy.  What normally takes a little over an hour took 2, and he came to a stop several times, on a 2 to 3 lane Interstate.  No fun.

Our neighbor has come and gone; took the plums we had and brought a long handled picker and picked more.  He left it for John to use.  There are still a bushel of plums at least, on the tree, but all are not yet ripe.  This was a good year.  If we pick more, the family will dry some plums for us and for them in their dehydrator.  That’s nice.  John took 2 plums and 3 cookies for his lunch today, but dried ones will be nice through the winter.

New addition, Saturday at just before 3:00 p.m.  Good thing I was here.  Got a phone call that our Harobed load of hay was being picked up from the field and would be on its way to us shortly. The second method here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nwPlE1_SLc

I got out and took down the two gates (pole and cloth rope), to let the driver in.  Put two dogs out front to warn me when he was coming down the driveway, and so I went out and met him and told him where to stack it.  It was in a different place from last year.  Now when John arrives home, he will have yet another chore, to move it by truck to the barn – because our barn is not large enough for the loader.

John just called from the pass Franklin Falls parking lot, at 4:00 or a little after, saying it was loaded with people trying to get in and many (like him there early) blocked from getting out.  I hope he makes it before midnight.  Actually he got home about 5:35, and surprised me.  He’s been out the past hour plus, unloading some of the hay from the stack, into the shed.  He moved 13 of 56 bales (100+ pounds each).  He’ll finish in the morning.  The kitty came back in from under the wood pile outside the fence, so he has access (known only to him) to and from the backyard (6’ chain link fence).

Expect this blog will get finished and posted tonight, because we plan to drive to the lower Yakima Valley tomorrow to visit friends in Zillah.  From yard sales we have several “sun faces”

http://kathysceramickreations.com/images/albums/NewAlbum_c8d38/tn_sun_bird_feeder.jpg

to deliver to the folks that run Paradisos del Sol Winery:

http://www.paradisosdelsol.com/

Now for dessert – bye!

Nancy and John

on the Naneum Fan