Category: Random issues

Saturday night after we posted the blog, we had another patriotic dessert:  Red Raspberries, Blueberries and White Vanilla ice cream.  Yum yum.

Sunday.  Will be a very light day, we hope.  Nothing planned at all in town.  John did get some gasoline in the Subaru, however, so we won’t run out if we do decide to go somewhere.  I’m sure it will start out with John feeding the horses, and exercising the dogs.  Kitty and I will stay inside.  Good thing we did.  It is getting to be a scorcher today.  Imagine — it’s nice we don’t have any outside activities planned.  Just stay in the cool house and do chores inside.  Many need to be done.  High temp of 89 predicted today, and it is well on its way there at noon being 83.

Monday.  Was supposed to not be as hot today, but it got to 86, and then clouded over, and now is 76.  So, John went outside in the back to cut brush.   This morning we had to take our Annie (5 yr old Brittany) to the vet for a second opinion from my regular vet.  Annie has a mammary tumor.  The vet said it was best for her to spay her and remove the tumor, because the hormones from the ovaries would keep it going and she would likely have incurable cancer and die sooner than otherwise.  I’m so sad that this “ends” our breeding program started in the 1970s.  I’m in a pretty saddened, funky mood.  She’s the one who had puppies last year that we raised when I was so sick.  I’m glad we went ahead with having those puppies (from the accidental breeding).  The extra sad thing is that her brother, Cork, the one we just lost to heat stroke, was the only other place we could carry on our bloodlines.  Well, maybe not quite.  My friend in S. Lake Tahoe has Cork’s full brother, and so we might consider someone breeding their Brittany with him.  I think John is ready to be out of breeding, but I’m really not quite there yet.  Yes, we are getting older, but, when you have been in this as long as we have, it’s hard to give up easily.  At least that’s my story for now.  We take Annie in for her surgery this Wednesday.

Tuesday.  Morning during cool temps, John has been cutting brush.  Now he’s running the dogs and feeding the horses, plus giving the strawberry plants a dose of chemical to kill the little bugs that come out at night and punch holes in the berries.  Then we will be taking off for a trip to Costco.  We did and have returned now.  It was a good trip and we loaded up on a lot of things we will use for several months.  We had a nice lunch, and then bought out the store (spent over $300), but with rarely purchased items such as color cartridges for the printer, and a container of 100 CDs, and a Verizon long distance card with 700 minutes on it, and we just spent an hour of it talking to John’s sister in Cleveland.  They didn’t feel the earthquake.  I need to get on Fox News and read about it.  John was on looking but I haven’t yet.

Lunch was interesting, inexpensive and good.  We shared a Polish Sausage (I had about 4 bites), and we shared a Chicken Bake.  It was very interesting.  A wrap that must have been deep fried with chicken breast (lots of big pieces), and the roll was 12 inches long.  The chicken was in some cheese sauce, I guess, and there was cheese on the outside of the closed “roll wrap”.  I thought there were little pieces of ham, but John said that wasn’t listed on the menu.  I don’t know how to describe it.  But now I do, because I just found the recipe on line:

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/512/Costco_Chicken_Bake42333.shtml

You can see there — these INGREDIENTS:

6 ounces pizza dough
4 ounces grilled, sliced and seasoned white chicken breast
1 ounce mozzarella-provolone blended shredded cheese
1/2 ounce cooked and chopped bacon
1/2 ounce chopped green onion
1 ounce Caesar dressing (per bake)
1/2 ounce Parmesan cheese
and the instructions for preparation are on that site.  They are BAKED truly as said and not deep-fried.  They have a LOT of calories, however.

We also got a 20 ounce refillable Pepsi with the Polish.  Also shared something called a Very Berry Sundae.  It is a large cup (I don’t know ounces), full of vanilla frozen yogurt and an incredible number of strawberries (in a sauce).  It only costs 1.65.  In fact that whole meal was under $7.00, and yesterday we had for the same price from Jack In The Box, a much LESS quality and quantity meal.  We had fries (small), a small coke, we split a spicy chicken sandwich (no bigger than a small hamburger roll), and John had two greasy Tacos (I cannot even stand to taste them).

Today, we brought home a pan of Chicken Alfredo that will last four meals for the two of us, and was marked down $3.00.  It was $14.74, I think, so $11.74 divided by 8 is not too bad, $1.47/ meal.  Surely couldn’t go out to eat for that!  And all we have to do is heat it.  John added cashews to the part he fixed tonight.

Wednesday.  Last night John encountered two kitties by the back woods where he was cleaning brush.  He took them food and water, and the food was gone this morning, so he replenished it.  It’s just in a cleaned out path behind our large shed.  He retrieved empty dishes and replaced with a bowl of food, but they haven’t yet found it. Perhaps they are out hunting and will return tonight to sleep and check out the food bowl.

Plans changed again, but John started the day by taking Annie to the Vets.  My noon meeting was canceled and so I decided I would skip today’s blood draw and exercise class, and do the blood draw tomorrow when I’m in town.  Meanwhile, I have worked on taxes.  Got a couple more months done and am starting on another.

We heard from the Vet at noon that Annie went through her operation fine, and it was good we did it, as she had a large, nasty tumor.  My vet and her assistant were pleased we made the choice we did.  Me too.  As several of our friends (many of you included) said, she will have several years more of quality time making us happy.

We are awaiting a phone call from a former student moving back to EBRG and needing help unloading his moving van into a storage locker.  The later the better.  It’s damned hot here.

Thursday.  We missed them last night, and this morning, but they got unloaded and we might join them tonight with pizza, beverages, and tomatoes.  We did run back to town tonight, buy a pizza add tomatoes (washed them) from my friend (just put them on a plate).  They are tiny Romas, and very very tasty.  Also threw in a box of Costco cookies (there were three different types: choc chip, snicker doodles, and white choc/nut chip cookies (my favorite).  We took beer, lemon lime, Pepsi, and my old standby, Crystal Light (lemonade).  It was a nice visit.

It started out cool this morning but got terribly hot by afternoon.   John put fly spray on all six horses, including the 3 new horses (we’ve now had for a year), and rasped all four feet of Jazz.  Jazz has two issues.  He won’t allow our regular farrier anywhere near him – must be the full Santa Claus beard.  Next, he “forges.”  When he walks there is a clicking sound as the same-side front and back feet touch.  Here is an explanation:

http://bwfa.net/93forging94_referred_to_as_clicking.html

With all the other things we’ve been doing John has neglected Jazz’s forging and other horse issues.  Once he starts working with a horse it is poor practice to stop until something positive is accomplished and the horse is “comfortable or happy” with the outcome.  Thus, one doesn’t start with a time deadline.  After everyone got some fly spray, John used a new (and very sharp rasp) to remove material from the front of the front feet of Jazz.  This web-photo illustrates the idea.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/horse%20rasp%20front%20feet/Parellihorses/feet/fredrf.jpg

and this – see the last picture — shows the activity:

http://knowyourhorse.org/2011/01/trimming-hooves/

Once you can get the horse to hold the position with a foot on a stand, then you can rasp off quite a bit, with the front a little flattened or “squared-off” (as in the first link) and than that foot will “break-over” more easily as the horse moves forward.  Try this, put your own hand flat on a table with palm down and fingers forward. Now tip your hand forward (pivot over the straight out fingers) until your knuckles (top) are laying on the table top. Now tuck your finger tips under your palm (make a fist) and again rock your hand forward.  It’s a lot easier to do without your fingers sticking out in front. It is much easier for the horse too, without the hoof sticking out in front.  John’s not doing anything extreme here – just helping the horse a little.  Jazz will stand “ground tied”

http://www.equisearch.com/uncategorized/tied-nothing/

for John while this work goes on.  Soon we’ll try a trained farrier without a beard, actually a female, and get the correct angles and shoes on this guy.  Now, back to our regular programming . . .

We won’t pick up Annie till Sunday morning.  I called today and she is doing well, and everyone likes her and is “loving up” on her.

John’s back at his computer, in the other end of the house.  I’m getting tired, no nap today, and it was a fairly busy day.  We played music and it was TOO DAMNED hot in the nursing home.  Even the residents were complaining, but they sang along and enjoyed themselves.

Went for a blood draw (my INR was a little low, so my dosage has been upped).

My friend in the music group went to a surplus sale at CWU (my old school) and bought a Dulcimer case for $5.  Incredibly it fits mine PERFECTLY.  And the case is hard, which is nice. I have been storing mine in a folding-chair holder (nylon), and I did buy a keyboard padded case for at a yard sale, but it still is soft.  This will protect it a lot better.  Also got a cute little doll for my fiddle teacher from Nampa, ID who collects dolls.  This is a pretty little girl with ‘Monday’ written across her shirt, big blue eyes, a nice white straw hat with purple flowers, and dressed nicely (total size about 8 inches).  I hope she likes it.

Friday.  Not much going on other than maybe checking out a garage sale on my way to or from the exercise class.  Just talked in person (phone) to my vet.  She said it was a hairy operation and she had another tumor on her ovary, so our decision was definitely the right one.   She said it might have been iffy if we had bred her.  Now she is doing all right, but still healing, and she has a hematoma that our Vet’s decided to check out next Tuesday, but not to do anything to for now.  She said it was messy in there and they had to “tie” off a bleeder.  Annie is doing fine and eating.

I just called to see how she was, and the receptionist said she thought she was fine but would check.  Dr. Thea came back on the phone to talk to me in person.

Other thing done this morning was taking a few photos of things around the house that I needed to send to various people.  I took a picture of the case that looks custom made for my Dulcimer.  Also took a picture of a painting John’s dad did of a slide I made in 1965 looking toward Helsingborg, Sweden.

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

I have a friend (Osa) who was born in Sweden and whom I met and had dinner with in Portland, and want to include it with a picture taken of her and me at the NCGE banquet. Also took pictures of 2 other paintings of Brittanys in our past:  FC Simons Ruff-Shod O’Dee, given to us by Ethel Moore (artist – Huston), and another of Lovely Wistful Lady (Wisty), our first Brittany we got in Iowa.  She had beautiful brown, wistful eyes.  John’s dad painted Wisty in front of a cascading stream from a picture he had taken in Cook Forest State Park near where the family lived.  Dad’s picture looked about like #13406 on this page:  http://www.kaltenbaughphoto.com/cookforest/page5.cfm

This isn’t a typical birddog portrait but from a person that really didn’t like dogs, it is special reminder of both father and dog – both now long gone.

On another topic:  Our friends’ cross-country tandem bicycle trip is nearing the end.  Their blog can be found at the following link:

http://web.me.com/kpcc2011/CCat140/Cross_Continent_2011.html

if you are interested.  The past week included Niagara Falls and the Erie Canal.  They will end their journey in Maine.  Hopefully, they are not impacted by the hurricane.  They are concerned about a son in Virginia Beach close to the water.  They will be visiting him before returning to Marysville, WA, and then to New Mexico.  We have enjoyed sharing the trip through their blog.

John’s going with me today to shop at the grocery, while I go to my exercise class.  He will pick up apple fritters for me.  This morning about 7:45 a.m. I got a call from the bakery that the fritters were of the quality I prefer and did I want a dozen.  Of course, please.  John was amazed and said I was probably the only person in the world to receive such custom service from a grocery store bakery.  I don’t mind being spoiled.  I’m sorta used to it, with all John has done for me.

We are headed to the “Wet Side” on Saturday for a birthday party and to pick blackberries on the property of our friends.  Actually, it is expected to be a nice day and the berries are “ready.”  Blackberries are classed as invasive weeds in the Puget Sound region and the patches are considered enter-at-your-own-risk entanglements – take flares, cell phones, and first aid kit.  It will be a long day with a 1.5-hour drive each way.  Sunday we have to be at the Vets at 10 AM to pick up Anne.

Therefore, we are posting on Friday evening – thinking it might be Monday before we get back to this wordsmithing thing.

So, that’s it.

Nancy and John

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday.  Today holds the treat of a potluck with our Trail Riding club, and while we haven’t ridden this year we will join them to eat and for fellowship, however.  The temps predicted have been revised downward.  Some wind is expected and if not too much will make for a nice day and also keep the bees away from the food.

Last night, we decided (after the blog was posted), to make the crust for our cherry delight dessert. That starts as a big cookie sheet of a runny mixture.  Well, it came out thinner on one side and corner than the opposite side.  John thinks he pushed it into the oven and the pan road up on the back of the rack.  It will have to be.  This morning brought great news from a friend in Atlanta that she and her beau will be getting married next July 2012.  Unfortunately, if I go to my mom’s family reunion in south GA next year, it will be on the weekend two weeks ahead, (June 22), and that is too long for me to be away or so I think right now.  John’s already picked raspberries this morning and now has just returned from running the dogs and feeding the horses but returned to the yard to move more of the brush he’s cut.

Well, just before leaving for the afternoon KVTR potluck, we finished putting together the dessert.  We took the lop-sided crust and divided it into three parts.  The really thin part John ate.  The rest ended up taking two pans (one rectangular and a small pie pan).  Yummy–everyone enjoyed it but there were a dozen pies and cobblers and so on, so there was some left.  We shared with another couple and so had some for later.

There were lots of wonderful fresh fruit desserts there, and grilled hotdogs, many salads, beans, and more salads, and quiche.  We didn’t eat as much as we could have, but surely enjoyed what we did.

The temperatures were lower than expected and the wind was blowing.  It was actually very pleasant underneath the shade of a shed on the property of one of the members, out northwest of Ellensburg.  While there, we bought 18 pounds of blueberries from a club member who raises them south of EBRG in the Yakima Canyon, and brought a few boxes along, in case anyone was interested.  Last year John drove to Naches (50 miles) and picked – started at 8 and quit at 11 when the heat became a bit much.  He had 24 pounds.  Got a pretty good price, but that place has changed hands, and no longer provides the same service for the good price.  Well, you can pick for $2.50 – 3.00/pound elsewhere.  The folks there had plastic buckets and the cost was $1/lb. up to heaping full which was charged as 10 pounds.  About 12 for the price of 10 pounds.  Not counting travel time and gas – just berries – cost us $0.84 per pound.  This purchase yesterday of beautiful already picked boxes of 6 pounds, at $3.00/ pound was a great savings on John’s time, efforts, and gasoline.  Except for 2 pounds, John has frozen the blueberries in 8 oz. packages.  Kitty is playing zoom zoom.  We were very tired and full from the potluck, so went to bed without supper, and earlier than usual.

Monday:  John worked some on brush cleanup in the yard and pasture.  He found another water hemlock plant near where he found the other, and so he dispensed with it.  I went to town for exercise class and to buy canned food for Rascal (Tuna & Egg is his favorite).  We were down to the last can today.  Came home to a bunch of emails, predominantly associated with the jobs list serve I maintain.  And we heard from a few others about safe travel home from their summer vacations.  Others are still at the beach having fun.  We are here in Ellensburg, in the wind, having fun.  The temps got to 75 today and tomorrow they are calling for 80.  The winds yesterday topped out at 41 mph gusts.  Today they are “only” 29 mph.  The house is still cool, so we won’t have to use the a/c. this afternoon and evening.  John, kitty, and dogs are napping.  I slept in this morning.

The other thing I forgot to write above is that I received a CD in the mail from a local radio station, and it came postage due for forty cents.  I’m taking it back to the p.o. tomorrow to complain.  It weighs 4 ounces and had 1.48 on it.  Guy at the p.o. tried to tell me it couldn’t be thicker than 1/4 inch.  Now I ask you, how could a CD holder envelope with bubble wrap hold a CD case and be only 1/4 inch.  Makes NO sense.

Tuesday was full of surprises.  John mowed on the other side of our back fence, and it looks nice. The idea is to have a no-brush fire-break – it is not yet as wide as he would like it to be.  I took off for a foot care appt, stopping first at the post office to question the charge on the CD envelope mailing.  I had to pay the 40 cents because it was mailed as a large envelope, first class, and it was really a Parcel, because of its thickness. I should have asked what Media Mail would have cost.  So, I called and asked the p.o., and they told me I could check on line.  (Pissy, not to give me information I requested.)  Then on to an Echocardiogram.  It was scheduled for 1:45 and I was there ahead of time, but wasn’t taken in until after 2:00 p.m., and it took the better part of an hour for the Echo, but I’m glad for the test.  My cardiologist will be back in Sept and hopefully will interpret the results.  That was my request anyhow.  Then I set up an appt with him for Sept 13 in Yakima.

While I was gone, John took Annie to the vet to check on her mammary “tumor”.  Their recommendation was to have all removed, but, I’m going to get a second opinion from my regular vet.  I was planning to breed her at least one more time, because she is the only one who can carry on our lines, now that her brother, Cork, is gone at an early age.

Wednesday.  Morning starting slowly, but have just about handled all the incoming emails.  Just about; not quite.  John is back out after running the dogs and feeding the horses, picking a few pie cherries for putting with blueberries on a dessert to take to friends tomorrow.  Wow.  That tree has really produced a lot of cherries this year.  I must go to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen at noon for music and after to exercise class.  We only had 3 people provide music for about 25 folks at lunch.  They fed us taco casserole and salad.  There was watermelon for dessert, but I cannot eat it. (A childhood event of too much sun and too much watermelon and I’m averted.)

Thursday.  John’s just picked the LAST of the raspberries and now is making 3 pie-cherry/blueberry treats for taking to dinner at others’ houses, tonight and tomorrow, and one for the freezer for the future.  I went off to play music at Dry Creek and we had a really good turnout with 8 of our group there.  It was a nice fun time, and we even had one lady up dancing to Five Foot Two followed by Yes Sir, That’s My Baby.

The dinner tonight was interesting.  We had a couple of curries and brown rice, and a really yummy shish kabob, with marinated beef, peppers and onions.  Along with the dessert we took a Cabernet Sauvignon from Texas (gift from a Texas friend).  I had a sip but the others said it went well with the grilled beef.  John wondered where shish kabob came from so here is the link:

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

Friday.  Long morning, getting the kitchen cleaned up for the Culligan repairman to check out the unit’s leak and replace filters.  Now John is out cutting brush (a wild (Autumn) clematis, choke cherries, wild roses, cottonwoods and a few other unidentified things) under the large Cottonwood tree.  It’s good the wind is not blowing and making it dangerous for him to be there. If you search the web for Autumn Clematis you mostly get pictures of pretty white mounds of flowers.  Ours is not so nice.  I’ll just say that it grows on fences and with our wind and its weight, the plant can destroy a fence in a few years.  Try this site:

http://www.arthurleej.com/a-wildclematis.html

. . . where the next-to-last paragraph claims our (east of the Cascades) vine in not exactly the same.  It is still a pain.

I have mostly been working on the computer on email, but I need to switch to other organizing chores.

We are invited to dinner again tonight.  We again are taking along a yummy blueberry / tart cherry cobbler that we made (John mostly, who has started calling it 4^th of July crumble) yesterday morning.  Rascal and the dogs coexisted tonight in the house from 5:45 to 9:45.  Long and nice dinner, of roast beef (excellently cooked), vegetables with about 8 different things in it (very, very good), watermelon that I don’t like, but the lady of the house pulled out some purple grapes just for me.  How nice!  Their daughter and husband were there and we had a lot in common (horses and non-horse medical things) and great conversations.  Pretty cool.

Saturday.  John’s been working in the yard this morning, watering and sawing a broken top from a pine that was hurt in the wind.  Now he is napping, but we have to leave shortly for my playing music at a retirement center, where they feed us when we are done.  John will go grocery shopping and drop me off and pick me up.  He did, and joined us for the last song, “She’ll be coming round the Mountain,” and for dessert.  The rest of us went ahead and chowed down with a choice of half sandwiches (tuna salad or egg salad), two types of pastas (I passed), a great potato salad I loved, yummy, Mandarin/orange Jell-O salad, and a card table full of desserts (several types of cookies, cakes and strawberry fixings with Cool Whip on top).  Guess who doesn’t need to eat supper tonight.

Missed getting a great picture yesterday of Rascal sharing the chair with Meghan.  He cuddled up beside her as he does with John and me.  This afternoon we didn’t get home till after 4:00 and I was really tired, so I slept until 6:30.  It finally cooled down from 93 to 91 (at the airport), and just before 7:00 p.m. it got to 89.  Now later tonight it’s down to 67.  John was out.  He claims he was ‘reding-up’ things.  I always thought the term should be spelled, read, because to me it is Making “Ready” the room.  “Red up” is the sixth line in the table here:

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

. . . where line 2 is “outen the lights” – another phrase used in non-Dutch western Pennsylvania, although his mother’s folks claimed German ancestry.  Still the folks in Clarion County (PA) have over 200 words and phrases often confusing to outsiders and they sound funny, too!

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday.  Long hard day with trip home from Portland.  Phew.  I had left the motel right before 8:00 a.m. and found a free parking space just next to the Marriott’s east entrance.  Our presentation went well, and I got out of Portland at 10:22 a.m., got right on I-5, and up and over to I-84.  The next bunch of miles was miserable with incredible traffic. I finally stopped for a short relaxation at a rest stop near Rowena and about 10 miles from The Dalles.  I called John from there to complain.  He suggested I cross the Columbia River at The Dalles (right below the dam outflow) on 197 and go north to Hwy 14 and on back through Goldendale, WA.  It was a great relief as the only traffic was an occasional car coming out from a winery.  I took one photo for a geographer friend of the basalt and a picture of Mt. Hood, but I missed some awesome shots from up on the hill above the Columbia River with Mt. Hood in the background.  All I was concentrating on was getting home.

Didn’t make it home until after 3:00 p.m. and I was totally exhausted.  So I took 2 acetaminophen and got into my recliner.  I went to sleep and slept hard for four hours.

Last night and the night’s before were not conducive to sleeping, and my sleep was disrupted almost every hour last night.  To get up at 6:30 a.m. on little sleep was tough.

Kitty was in rare form tonight.  He (we now know his gender after taking him to the vet for shots & worming) explored all around the den, and up into my recliner to say hello, purr, and knead his feet. (We have not named him yet, because we will let the name evolve to fit his/her personality).  The M on his forehead causes the term, Mackerel tabby, but he also has a bull’s eye on his side and other uniform tabby markings.  He is symmetrical and one of the prettiest grey tabbys with white, pale orange, and black.  He is now able to walk around the dogs as they rest on the floor. That’s great!  Or have them run by him without alarm on his part.

Oh, on the weather.  When I left Portland this morning it was a pleasant cloudy 66 degrees.  Got warmer into the 80s in the Columbia Gorge.  Thankfully I had a/c in the car and traveled quite comfortably.

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

The last photo on the Geology description has a slider – East is to the left.  Note all the trees.  This is the wet side. The cool/wet Pacific Ocean influence fades away along the stretch of the Gorge in which I traveled.

Now look here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biggles1/2869934012/

This is the dry side – just south of Goldendale, WA.  Now those hills are covered with wind towers.

Kitty has become part of the household and is wandering around the den, up beside my recliner, purring, climbing, investigating, and enjoying life.  He loves (just this morning, Monday) sitting by my side on the recliner while I type on the laptop.  He wanted to follow the on-screen mouse-pointer, but I wouldn’t let him.  He wandered away and is back, just looked over the back of my recliner, and I took a picture of the “M” on his forehead.  He’s expressive with meows and exploring.  I will get the pix off my camera soon (after I get a cup of coffee & toast), but may have to wait till John returns from running the dogs.  He still wants to be on the table beside me and I cannot have him there with all the stuff piled up.  Just came back and settled down on the right of my chair backed into my pad on which the lap top sits. I reach across to the mouse, but now am typing and he is lying against my right arm that’s on the keypad.  He is content.  John put Kitty in his bedroom (the computer room) where there is a litter box and food and water, and fixed the door open so he can come and go, but the dogs cannot get in to the treats in the litter box.  John put him back there while he got the 4 dogs out the door for their morning exercise and to feed the horses. John set this up just this morning, and Kitty already knows how to use the pass through and came back to be with me.

Ok now John is back.  Kitty has run under the sofa while the dogs rushed in, but now John has gone for an hour to pick tart cherries and Kitty is back by my side watching the dogs eat.  I will end this and go fix my breakfast.  He is doing just fine, and so are we, and very happy to have him.  The rest of the day was quiet, pretty much.

Tuesday.  Slept in again.  Still catching up from the sleepless nights in Portland.  John finished up his trail riders newsletter and we both spent time assembling 50 of them, putting on stamps, folding, taping, and boxing.  This is supposedly the last of hard copies, as they are going to try to put it on the website.

Back from the vet’s and Kitty has the first set of shots, worming for round and tape worms, and an appointment for future work.  He needs us to determine a name different from “Kitty.”

We had to visit the vets twice today.  Annie needed to have two pieces of cheat grass seeds removed (under Anesthesia).  They were embedded in her ear drum, or very close.  We brought kitty home and returned for Annie at  5:30 p.m..

Kitty is a male, so we are calling him Rascal for the moment. [ Later in the week we decided that is an appropriate name and I guess it will stick.]

Wednesday.  Today John went with me to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen where I and two others play music, at noon, and are fed lunch as a thanks.  John took along some of his yellow squash to donate to the food bank, and while there early, he helped set up tables and chairs.  We had a nice lunch today of Chili (with cheese), salad, cornbread, and peaches.  Then he dropped me off at the exercise class and went shopping, but he forgot to get Dream Whip for the Cherry Delight for this weekend’s potluck.  There’s always tomorrow or Friday.  We were gone 4 hours and the kitty, Rascal, slept the entire time.  I don’t know where he is now.  Just found him in the back computer room with John.  I sat down and copied a few pictures John tidied up for me from Portland and of Rascal, and stayed long enough for Rascal to get out of his “box” by the computer and get up on the top of the filing cabinet, drink some water and eat some food.  He’s got this all figured out.  Smart little guy.  While there I ate some sweet cherries mostly Bings and then came back to the den where my laptop is.  He followed me and is now beside me resting.

John went out to take pictures of a plant he found by the irrigation ditch this morning.  It is a Water Hemlock.  That is deadly to horses, so he has now gone out to get rid of it.  The horses right now are closed out of the place in the pasture where John found the plant.  I believe he is going to check the rest of the ditch down through the pasture to be sure there is none.  He dug it out as best he could, including the roots, which are even deadlier.  Ours is Water Hemlock (Cicuta douglasii)

http://ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=9996

. . . where Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium#Socrates

A bit more of the story of Socrates is here:

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/greek/philosopher/phaedo.html

Regardless, ours is in a box in the back of the old Chevy pick-up and will go to the landfill at some future time.

Thursday.  Put out a page of information about the Water Hemlock now blooming in our valley, and at our house (- ((    (very sad face).

Check out the page at:

http://elixant.com/~nancyh/WaterHemlock2.html

Today John spent some time clearing more of the brush along the ditch.  Hasn’t found anything else poisonous but has located two wasps (?) nests near the edge of the pasture.  He’s taken the cut brush to a large pile of similar things – larger old logs and stumps on the bottom provide open space within – and thus quail cover.  He’ll investigate the nests on some cold morning.

I went to town to play music (at the old Rehab center where I spent so much time last year), and on to the grocery store for eggs and Dream Whip® for our cherry delight

http://justapinchassets.com/images/photo/1/5/7/0/2/large.jpg

we are taking to the KVTR (horse trail riding club) potluck this Sunday afternoon.  This picture is in a pie pan, but we will make it on a large cookie sheet.  The crust is made from saltines and nuts, and baked.

I came home and rested some, played with Rascal, and now he is sleeping again, charging up to keep us awake during the night.  Might close him in his room so we don’t have to deal with it when we should be sleeping.

Funny guy, and quite a kitty.  He plays zoom, zoom, just like Sunshine, and wanted to get on my chest this afternoon in my recliner, but he doesn’t yet know how to control his claws completely, so that doesn’t work well.  He is a purrer and very affectionate, however.

John is fixing baked chicken for dinner.  It was good, with potatoes, and green lima beans, and John’s chunky naturally-pink apple sauce.

Friday.  Started out with a good night’s sleep finally, by closing Rascal up in “his room.”  Nice.  Then I managed to succeed in getting our PowerPoint on the Portland Urban Heat Island compressed (the images), so instead of 36 megabytes it is now just over 12.  Thanks to my friend Jennifer for this knowledge and the use of her Gigabyte mail site for me to use to distribute large files.  After a small breakfast I played some with Rascal and then took off for a massage at the Adult Activity Center.  My back and shoulder muscles were particularly tense today.  Guess it’s been a long two weeks, since I last saw her.  (This is a free service; she donates 20 minutes to a half hour to folks there twice a month).  She said today she really would love to get me on a table for a full body massage, (rather than in the chair I’m in there), so that something could be done with heat and arm pressure to get the blood flowing through my tense muscles.  She is not a preferred provider for Group Health, which I have, so she recommended someone else here in town who could help me.  I will need to get a reference from my doctor, and when I know more about what to ask for, I will.

On the way home I stopped by a yard sale and loaded up on cool stuff for John, and for my music group.  The lady had a ton (well, more than 10 large 3-ring binders which work well for storing music).  She gave them all to me for 50 cents.  Then she gave me some metal poles that fit together in a triangle or square to put around plants such as tall flowers to tie them up and give them strength.  New, these were covered with green plastic but now much of the iron is exposed.  Good for half-dead plants, I think.  And then most of a container full of an Ortho chemical for insects in sensitive areas, which might work someplace.  John will have to investigate the active ingredient and its proper use – in his spare time.  The new strawberries are being attacked by something and maybe . . . or maybe not!

The yard-sale-lady had an old bushel basket which I got, and will offer to one of my colleagues.  When I taught Economic Geography the kids had no clue what a bushel basket or a bushel of anything was.  I would take a small one (a peck, a quarter of a bushel) to class to show them, and show them a picture of a bushel basket.  Remember the old song, “I love you a bushel and a peck, a b & a p, and a hug around the neck” …  You don’t!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3p7PKP9lBE&feature=player_embedded

http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/guysanddolls/bushelandapeck.htm

This one is for crabbing but has the lid –

http://housmancrabbingsupplies.com/images/Wooden2.jpg

most web images don’t show the lid:

http://www.groworganic.com/1-bushel-basket-with-2-handles.html

We got interested in weights and measures while teaching the wine class because of the historical carry-overs and then the switch to the metric system.  There is a little of that history here:

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

Many of the agricultural statistics are still reported in bushels/acre.  Also, measurements are appropriate such as the weight of a bushel of a product:  Wheat (60 lbs.), Cotton (32 lbs.), Timothy Grass (45 lbs.), Sudan Grass (28 lbs.), Soybeans (60 lbs.), Apples (48 lbs.), Muscadines [grapes] (50 lbs.), Okra (26 lbs.), Tomatoes (53 lbs.), Onions (57 lbs.).  My source on the grains is the Univ. of Missouri’s Agronomy Dept. and for the fruits and vegetables, the Georgia Farm Bureau.  I put in the Timothy Grass and Sudan Grass, because those are baled here in our valley, and exported to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries.  Back to the yard sale: There was also a container with miscellaneous stuff John will be able to use, including a couple of pieces of agate (one that seems to be an Ellensburg Blue).  If so, maybe I will have a ring made from it.  (We have been here since 1988 and never found one).  Another 5-gallon bucket and metal strap:

http://www.hardwarestore.com/pop-print/larger-image.aspx?prodNo=40464

Everything totaled $6. Not bad, so I just drove home without attending any more yard sales or staying for exercise class, and I have been on the phone to set up a future full therapeutic massage through my insurance.  The cost for an hour is $60, but hopefully Group Health will pay for most of that.  I’m working through my primary care provider (family doctor) now for the referral.  I’m excited because I was not ready to go to an orthopedic surgeon, but I have really had a loss of flexibility and range of motion in my arms, particularly the left after the device surgery June 2010.  I was not allowed to move my arm above my shoulder for 8 weeks, and any movement I had gotten back from physical therapy, I lost.

Hot here; a/c has been cycling on for over an hour.  It’s 85 here and 5 miles south at the airport is 90!  Our potluck Sunday may be 88-90.  At least we‘ll have shade.

John just brought me a taste of tapioca-thickened tart cherries he is fixing for our potluck item, Cherry Delight (his mom’s recipe with saltine crackers and chopped nuts in the crust).  It’s pretty tart but also quite tasty.  He’s making his own “pie” filling, or in this case, topping.

Well, it’s Saturday, and I have spent the morning on the computer, doing dishes, and playing with Rascal.  John worked outside moving hay, more brush work, and watering six Blue Spruce – those planted near the edge of our property so as to block an ugly building put up by a neighbor.  They have to grow a lot, though, and they don’t grow fast.  They are one of a half-dozen species of needle-leaf trees he has around the place.  Now he is in the kitchen working on berries and cherries.  He was a pound of Pie Cherries short, so went back out and picked them.

Nothing else much happening here, so I will send this to John to put on this week’s blog.

Hope you all have a grand week.

Nancy and John

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday — the 24^th:  Pretty much a light day with no trips to town.  Getting ready for my start of the fiddling/mandolin week in Kittitas, WA that starts Monday at 9:00 and goes till 3:30 with some evening events I will attend.  John bought sandwich making materials for the week, to save my paying $5.00 for lunch each day.  To that we will add low salt chips, cookies, and home ripened cherries.

Monday.  Great reunions with people I haven’t seen in a year or more, and last year, while I was there, I was in no condition to be exerting myself.  The next week I collapsed from anemia, ended up for another week of ICU, and had to endure the second bout with Endocarditis and 30 days of IVs containing two antibiotics.  I only managed through last year because a was given a small room with a big soft chair to rest in, and so, I participated only enough to say that I was there, but I did play in the ending recital of classes.

This 2011 year, my morning class (Beginning Mandolin) went fine, and I had a nice 1.5 hr lunch break and found a comfortable chair in the janitor’s lounge they let me use (all week).  I have been using a pillow to subdue the classrooms chairs – they of the hard and strangely shaped mold.  My afternoon advanced fiddling class went well.  It was with my teacher of 19 years there at the workshop.  She is from Nampa, ID, and this year her daughter, Katrina, is also a teacher at the WOTFA workshop in Kittitas, WA.  From 2007:

http://www.idahopress.com/community/article_51a2d468-20f9-5417-b371-d9d7f36847a8.html

This video shows Katrina (a left handed fiddler), in 2008 as “Pearce” but she continues winning now as “Nicolayeff” and won the Championship for this year’s Weiser, ID celebration – again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gcOhO8PWfs

This one is fun and Roberta (mother) had our class learn this and we did it for the show on Friday (and Katrina played piano).

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

Tuesday.  Learned lots in both classes and then went back over to Kittitas for a performance in the cold wind outside at the Gazebo.  It was great, and a couple of my friends joined me there.  Way too cold though.

Wednesday.  What a way to start this day, sadly, with driving out the driveway to go to Fiddling Camp and finding Sunshine, our pretty kitty (only 10 months old) dead at the end of the driveway, apparently bumped on her head from being rolled by a car.  She had not been run over, just hit.  But she was dead, and not for very long.  We get so little traffic that it is amazing.  She also has not been going up to the road to our knowledge but stayed in the back or front yard. If a car came in the driveway she would run for the house and dive through the window-flap.  She loved to climb the trees with John when he was picking cherries or lay on a horizontal limb of a black walnut tree. This is definitely not our year for animals.  To lose 2 of our buddies tragically from accidents, in the last week, has us in an emotional pit.

I got home and told John it was crazy because it hit me so hard.  He said he kept thinking of her all day as well.  I’m glad if she had to go this soon, that at least we know what happened to her.  If she had been carried off by a coyote or a very large owl (but, she was probably too big and heavy), and just disappeared, we wouldn’t have known.  I had to pick her up and put her on my car hood to take her back to John to bury.  She wasn’t stiff so it hadn’t happened long before I found her.  She does leave a big hole.  Just last night she crawled up into John’s lap in his chair.  She often crawled up beside him on the sofa or the bed, but not usually in the chair, instead next to him in a little box with a towel in another chair.  She always met me in the middle of the night when I went to the bathroom to be my companion and get petted.  She also always ended up in bed for the last hour before time to get up.  This morning not.  All outside cats we have had lived to be 18 or 20 and died of old age (or in the case of Midnight, a stroke that paralyzed him and we had to euthanize him.)  Thought I would share our sad news.

Fiddle and mandolin classes went all right today, but my mind wouldn’t allow me to be completely there.  Tomorrow is another day.

Thursday.  Classes were fine, and I went back at 7:00 p.m. for playing in the Kittitas Gazebo, one last time this week.  We had a tremendous turnout, of entertainers and a big audience.

Friday.  Today was the final morning of classes, and then we practiced  for the afternoon performance.  John was able to come out and view the recital.  My fiddling class was 6th to play, and we did 3 songs.  The first one always highlights the instructor, but she included us in her choice.  We did Dueling Fiddles, a takeoff on Dueling Banjos.

Tune from the movie Deliverance, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8

She led us off, and we returned as the “duel” echo.  Katrina composed this version, and accompanied us on the piano, after the “dueling” beginning.

Then we switched to “hokum” bowing, which really got the audience’s attention and appreciation.

This is an ad, but explains the idea http://www.onlinelessonvideos.com/product.php?productid=16351&cat=0&page=0&featured=Y

And this one will exhaust you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunOH7haPK4&feature=related

[John says if you can’t perform Orange Blossom Special you aren’t a fiddle player, you are just playing – Roy Clark and crew can do both.]

We merged into Foggy Mountain Breakdown, also with hokum bowing, and then went back to Dueling Fiddles again for the ending.  After that, the class did a medley of a very beautiful song, Bygone Days, followed directly, by There’s an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor. Then I had to wait around for my Beginning Mandolin class to play.  We were 2nd from the end.  Oh well, it allow us to enjoy the entire show.  In that class we played Rubber Dolly, and were assisted by an advanced guitar class. I had given John my camera and set for a movie, but I forgot to empty the memory card, so it was full and couldn’t record.  Luckily, he watched a woman recording some of the show, and thought she got most of ours.  He pointed her out to me and I went up afterward to see if she was willing to put on a CD and send to me if I paid the cost of the CD and the postage.  She said she would.

Saturday.  I was beat from this busy week.  I slept in this morning and have done little else except pick cherries with our neighbors.

It brought back sad memories of losing Sunshine:   My friend wanted to come pick cherries for jelly, and his mom from across the street came too.  Things around keep reminding both John and me of Sunshine.  Today our most recent reminder was out in our front yard, in the shade of the trees, sitting in lawn chairs with the 2 neighbors, picking from limbs John cut down from the trees.  It was so sad, because Sunshine was such a part of our picking cherries this year, climbing up the trees, resting, watching John, and even climbed the ladder and went out on opposite branches from where he was standing cutting.  Then she’d come down with him, and lay on the ground with us, getting up every so often to chase a butterfly or grasshopper.  I suppose these memories will fade, but right now they are very vivid.

Nothing else is planned for this Saturday, but tomorrow morning we will meet friends in Kittitas, probably, for breakfast on their way back from Seattle, via Mt. Rainier for Spokane, and then they fly back to Michigan in their own plane.

Wishing you the best,

Nancy and John

 

Beginning Sunday the 17^th – another quiet day on the ranch, we hope.  No trips planned away.  Today is the day our accordion player returns home from the nursing home where she has been recuperating 3 months from hip replacement surgery.  This will be a lot better for her husband, not having to go to visit her every day, a 24-mile roundtrip.  And, he still had to do all his farm chores.

It is morning and John is doing stuff outside.  He returned about lunch time, and our neighbor delivered strawberries.  I read a book on Beginning Mandolin, and went to sleep (for about 3 hrs.).  I guess I needed it.  He slept for maybe 1.5 hrs and then worked on his computer awhile.  He left for cutting brush on the west side of our pasture. Vegetation is creeping into the pasture from the fringes.  Some things have pretty blossoms, some edible fruit, some come with thorns, and some with all of the above.  Currently Syringa and Elderberry are flowering and Currents and Serviceberry have ripe fruit.  All are easy to recognize.  See:

Western Serviceberry;

http://fieldguide.cdlandtrust.org/fieldguide/shrub/western-serviceberry

Golden current;

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_202/1193924136430tyI.jpg

Mock Orange (Syringa);

http://c33532.r32.cf0.rackcdn.com/a8753ab9-6b45-4bf9-bffd-823a525a04df.jpg

Western Blue Elderberry

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

With late afternoon shade, he is working to remove some of the less desirable plants and thus open spaces around those shown in the links above.  I went to have a look and we just returned from a walk around the 7 acre pasture (not quite down the whole way and back, but most), with John, the dogs, and the cat.  It was a little hot for the clothes I had on, and the cat was very winded and hot, as was I, when we returned.  The dogs got to go in the irrigation ditch but the cat and I did not.  While down there John went over and fed the horses.  He has driven the horse trailer with hay inside, down to the middle of the 7 acres, so he doesn’t have to carry by wheelbarrow so far from the barn (up at the north end of the pasture).

Finished dinner and am feeling better, finally.  We will go to bed after ice cream with strawberries for me and blackberries for John.  Amazingly, I went to sleep after having had the long afternoon nap.

Monday. Was going to go to exercise class, but slept in, and was quite congested this morning.  Will just stay and eat lunch with John and work on cleaning up the den for our Sears repairman to come tomorrow a.m. to fix the frig freezer compressor fan unit.  It went off 3 times this morning and once last night before bed.  It will be nice to get it fixed.  (Note–he cancelled out because he had to order the part.) Then we take off tomorrow afternoon to Yakima for a checkup for Nancy, an upgrade to the engine’s software for the 2009 Subaru, and a trip to Costco.  The rest of the day was slow for Nancy, taking a 2 hr nap and doing very little else.  Supper is over, and we will likely be in bed earlier than usual tonight.  John got a lot of rocks moved, brush cut, raspberries lifted and propped off the ground, horses fed, and a few other things.

Tuesday started with a rain storm.  We expected the Sears repairman early, but he called from Yakima and said he would have to order the part from the factory.  It won’t get here till 2 weeks; actually it came in Saturday’s mail but he won’t be back till Aug 2 to fix it.  We also had to leave for Yakima ourselves at noon to take me for my Heart device (ICD) checkup (every 3 months), for John to take his Subaru for the replacement talked about above, and then he had to come retrieve me from the Heart Center waiting room.  I had my computer along so I could kill time.  I couldn’t get onto a wireless connection, however, so couldn’t access the Internet.  My checkup was fine.  Next appointment with my cardiologist is sometime in August.  Then we went to Costco.  Got a bunch of stuff, but also forgot a few things.  Didn’t get home till 4:30, put up the groceries, and I took off again for town to play religious music at one of the nursing homes.  Then home for home-amended spaghetti sauce on thin spaghetti.  It cooled off some today from previous days, making the trip really fine.

Wednesday.  This morning we started out early with John running the dogs and feeding the horses.  I joined him in the front yard (where we have a few fruit trees, but still call it our orchard.)  The cherry trees are full of birds so we realized if we were to have any, we needed to start picking.  John’s method of picking (because the trees are so tall, and we do not have tall ladders), is to go up a ladder and/or climb on the larger limbs and then saw the branches.  After 4 years with no cherries (cold and wet weather) and, thus, no trimming – there has been lots of growth.  This is our way of pruning every so often.  Today we “picked” from the branches.  After John downloads the branches, he comes down and cuts the big branches into smaller pieces.  He has a nice hand saw he got from service to the WA Trails Association (WTA) for 50+ days of volunteering:

http://www.coronatools.com/item/rs-7130?referer=hand-saws

WTA engraved his name on the handle.  These cut on the pull stroke and are quite effective – and dangerous.

I picked cherries for an hour and then called our 85 yr old neighbor to see if she wanted to come sit in a comfy lawn chair and pick some cherries off branches for their family.  She probably got about 15 pounds.  John and I picked and probably got 15 pounds to take to friends in town and then another two boxes (8 pounds each, maybe) and put in the outside refrigerator in our shed.  We will pick more in the morning when it is cooler.  I left this morning at 11:30 to go play music at the Food Bank, but missed my afternoon exercise class because I was not up to par.  Came back and John and I picked more cherries from branches he cut while I was in town.

Then we visited two people and dropped off the cherries, visiting at one, and then going by the Univ. for me to sign paperwork for a thesis committee I was on last spring.  On to another home, where they traded us some Walla Walla sweet onions for the box of cherries.  On home to relax.

Thursday.  Started the morning slowly, sleeping in after losing a lot of sleep in the middle of the night.  We picked more cherries and then John picked red raspberries because of all the thorns and the fear I would start myself bleeding.  Then off to play music at Dry Creek where they gave the 7 of us there, nice orange or chocolate ice cream bars.  Then afterward I dropped off some cherries to a friend, visited the grocery store for pop for John and chocolate milk for me.  Then I took off for home but stopped at some other friends’ house to give them some cherries we picked this morning (all Rainiers), and mixed with some Bings from yesterday’s picking.  We are having a hard time keeping up with the pilfering by the birds.  The folks (in their 80s from my exercise class) had me in to share a nice visit with coffee and cookies.  On home and I’m resting again in my recliner.  John’s out doing chores in a windy environment.  The temp is down to the low sixties, which is very nice.  I know the rest of the country is burning up.  It started at 58 here this morning and only got to 73 at the hottest.  Fine with us.  The winds have been regular in the twenties and topping at 37 mph gusts.

Sad news tonight late (9:30 p.m. our time).  CH Cedaridge Vintage Cork died at just 6 years old. He had his show championship and was on his way to being a Dual Champion (field and show).  He is Annie’s brother (different litter), Kip’s brother and a sweet boy.  His coloring was white and orange just like his great grandma, Dual Ch/AFC/Can Ch Sirius Sashay, and he had her big run, personality, and birdiness.  He also took a lot of characteristics from his mom, Cedaridge Legacy of Shay, who is still with us.

The bad news came in a phone call from his field trainer in PA that Cork died from the heat.  Another dog (theirs, named Soldier) was at the vets and not doing well.  They may lose him too.  (Actually good news is that he got to the vet having seizures, was put on IVs and has survived.) Cork was dead when they found him upon returning home.  Ten dogs were in their own crates with water and fans blowing, in their garage.  Doors were open to keep air circulating.   We checked the weather for Pittsburgh after I got off the phone with Brian, and it was 94 with a dew point of 73 for several hours this afternoon.  That reflects a pretty high heat index – we were told later it was 124. The heat wave back in the East has been horrible, but is now easing some.

Cork had become part of Brian and Helen’s family.  He was with them twice as long as with us.  We have trained and campaigned winning Britts and know the time and work involved, and the human/dog relationship that develops.  Brian is going to miss him a lot.  I know how hard it was for him to make that phone call.  We have pictures of Cork lying in his lap in a recliner.  His wife, was driving as he called me on their way back from leaving Soldier at the vet.  She took Cork through his show championship, with help for his last major from another Brittany breeder in the NE.

We are feeling the loss and sadness, but have great memories of his time with us and the reports over the past few years of how well he was doing. He only needed a major win and a few points to be the Dual, and carry on our lines.  Now that is not possible.   At least we can rest in knowing he has happy hunting grounds across the rainbow bridge and that he will meet up with others behind him in our Brittany family (and cat and horses), or those kin to him at our house while he was here; plus he will be there awaiting us, when it is our turn to cross the rainbow bridge.

Happy hunting, Cork.  We will miss your cute antics.

Friday.  Didn’t sleep well last night so today was not a normal Friday.  Did go to town for a free shoulder/neck massage, much needed and enjoyed.   While in town I picked up Thyroid pills for one of our older dogs.  She needs a half pill twice a day, hit two garage sales on the way home, but one was totally overpriced so I didn’t stay or buy anything.  I went to the other on the way home, and normally I won’t do anything advertised as an “estate sale” because they are usually totally over priced too, but it was on the way.  I’m so glad I stopped.  I got several nice blouses for a quarter each, a dog and cat comb and brush for 5 cents each, 4 paperback books for a quarter each, bottom of a nice music stand (which I need), sunglasses case, 5 pairs of socks, a leather wallet for replacing John’s that has disintegrated (purchased in Iowa in the 1970s – we think), a plastic container with top, another leather/zippered holder, a set of blinds, and a can with large 5” nails and roofing nails, a Phillips head screwdriver, all for a dime each.  It was definitely worth the stop.

After I got home, we picked some more cherries, and then took some to friends.  They reciprocated with a 19” Rainbow trout they had caught.  We had 1/3 of it for dinner last night, baked by John in a lemon sauce, mashed potatoes and some fried onions.  We froze the rest for another day.  The meat was salmon colored because of the natural origin of the fish, caught downstream from the Grand Coulee Dam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ZffI6by3A

We wonder the age of the fish.  This was the smallest fish they caught.  They fished for 2 days and got the limit of two per person both days.

Saturday, a long and warm day.  Started with 3 hours put in by me and 4 hours by John with cherry picking.  He first picked from the lower branches.  Then when I came out (with the cat), he climbed the ladder and cut some mid-height branches, and went on up a Bing cherry tree to take off higher limbs.  I sat below in a lawn chair and picked into a box.  John would come down long enough to cut up the larger branches into more manageably sized ones for me to pick.  We always pick with the stems on because that increases their life and freshness.  Some of these were messy and sticky today because of aphids and birds eating parts of berries and messing up those around them.  Finally late afternoon I had decided to go to town to check out the sale I was at yesterday, and a couple of others in “Grasslands”, a subdivision of pretty nice houses.  John was ready for a break and decided to go along with me.  My final destination was Kittitas, WA to pick up my registration materials, my name tag, and buy a tee shirt for the WA Old Time Fiddler’s Workshop this coming week (starts at 9:00 a.m. Monday).  I didn’t want to have to be doing all that on Monday morning, when I have to be loading my music stands and instruments into the air-conditioned building for the day.  Certainly, I cannot leave my instruments in the hot car.  I’m taking a morning mandolin class (beginning) and an Advanced Intermediate Fiddling class in the afternoons.  The latter is a full day class, but it is with my teacher of 19 years, and she was happy for me to get the morning mandolin class and miss hers in the morning.

Before we got to Kittitas, we stopped at 3 garage sales, first, the good one where I was yesterday.  Everything was half price and it was already very low prices.  I wanted to ask if they had the top part of the blinds I bought yesterday, (they didn’t) but they gave us the double wide blinds because they were just going to throw them away.  We will have to buy the connectors to put in the wall to hold them.  I also wanted to see if a can of nails for a quarter was still there, it was, and John was happy with the 12.5 cent price.  The neatest thing that happened was that the daughter and granddaughter of the family were there.  The granddaughter was my student in 2005 and when we saw each other it was old home week and hugs time.  She knew I had been very sick, and was so happy to see me doing so well.  She now lives on the west side of the state and had just come back to help with the yard sale.  I talked to her for awhile about her jobs since graduation and then took a spin around to see if there was something else we wanted.  I picked up more blouses for a nickel or a dime–some are probably too small for me, (mediums), which I will give to my neighbor who has lost down to that size and given me all her L and XL ones.   Also found a nice colorful ceramic fish dish to give to our fishing buddy,  a couple of leather belts for a nickel, a pair of tennis shoes almost new, size 11, but they are too tight for John.  We’ll give them to the farmer across the road, who is married to the lady I’m giving the blouses to.  Only .75 paid for the shoes.  John found a nice glass Pyrex top that will fit our bowls and be nice for warming things.  At the other sales we hit (only 2) we got 2 nice pillows in a nice case for a buck.  One is big like John likes, and one is smaller like I like.  John’s is replacing his of the same make and style that “his” dog chewed a hole in (to the foam stuffing).  You’d think at 11 years she’d quit doing that.  I also got a couple of nice long sleeved blouses (polyester) for cooler weather (a quarter each), and a nice sun hanging made from a ceramic dish with an edge for the smiling sun’s face.  We will give to our friends down in the Yakima valley near Zillah, who hosted our Wine Geography class, and whose Winery’s name is “Paradisos del Sol.”  They also had one of our Brittany puppies.  Also John picked up a new-like towel and 2 washcloths for 50 cents total.  I found 5 pair of socks for a dime each, and an almost “new” bra for a quarter.  Think that’s about it.  Being right before closing time had the people lowering their prices nicely.

On to Kittitas, where I bought my tee shirt for 2011 WOTFA Workshop, a nice blue with white lettering and “snow covered” edge on the trees on the front.  I picked up my name tag, and materials for the week, plus visited some with folks I only see once a year, and it was good to get it done today when few people were around, so that I don’t have to go in really early for the starting assembly at 9:00 a.m.  It was fine to drive the 10 miles out there and to have John’s company.  He will only go out one time next week, when we have our end of week, Friday, class recital.

Hope your week is nice and that I have the stamina to get through mine.

Nancy and John

in cool and windy WA.

 

Sunday – was supposed to be a real day of rest from activities in town, but turned into a work day for both of us.  Mine has mostly been computer work plus I washed some dishes and loaded the dishwater after several days’ build-up.   Also did a load of clothes.

John is gone to take care of our neighbor’s chores.  First he went to a lady down the pasture and irrigation ditch from us to check if she was finally getting water that he diverted plus cleaned the ditch up to her place over the last week.  It was flowing finally and had watered an apple tree and pasture.  Then he diverted it to go to our “middle ditch” and on to properties south of us (two more neighbors).  Now he is across the street to pack several pickup loads of hay amounting to 2.5 tons – this from a field that heavier equipment can’t get to.  The hay will go into a low shed that cannot take a Harobed load.  The day started cool and shaded but got hot before he finished.  He put up 63 bales in three trips.

Our kitty spent the day, till John arrived home, in the middle of the bed sleeping soundly.  She spent most of her night out in the backyard prowling.  No idea what she does out there, but she didn’t want to come in at 5:00 when the dogs went out.  Sometime after that she came in on her own, through the doggie door.

I’m slowed down a little because of the swollen lymph gland.

Last week when it was so hot for two days, (Wednesday especially), I had an apparent heat issue or just mild dehydration related to a diuretic and the warm temperature.   My blood pressure went way up (for me) and I felt lousy all over.  I was feeling bad during my exercise class.

Then Friday I had a strange burning/tingling in my mouth under my tongue.   Wasn’t till later I realized my lymph gland on the right side was swollen.  That indicates an infection.  I took some Amoxicillin I had and will continue till Monday when I am scheduled anyway to go in for a fasting blood draw for various tests, and John and I are both scheduled for physical exams on Tuesday.  The swelling is a little “down” this morning, but I took another antibiotic just in case it is a bacterial infection.

We heard that our friends made it back all right to CA with their new Brittany puppy.

We ate dinner and then took all the dogs AND THE CAT for a walk.  We left from our backyard and around the front of the house, leaving the cat in the backyard, but she came over the 6’ fence (on a pole setup John made for her) and followed us out the driveway into the orchard, all around the orchard where John showed me cherries on a couple of trees, a bunch more on the ground apparently blown out by the wind, and then over to where he was watering some blue spruce trees he planted near our neighbor to the North’s fence line, on back to what used to be a “nursery” and we never transplanted the trees–where there are a couple of yellow apple trees, loaded.  Maybe a few peaches on a peach tree or two.  Then back up to the ditch and across a little bridge to where there is quail habitat and two of our dogs were on point on a quail talking and running around on the path I was on.  He flew across the fence and they watched and then were nosing all around.  We continued but the cat didn’t follow us, yet heard us on the other side of the bushes and ditch and somehow came running behind us.  She must have found the bridge or jumped because she wasn’t wet.  We went back down the driveway after all the dogs got a soak in the ditch.  By the time we got back, to the front gate, the kitty (Sunshine) was panting, because she hadn’t been in the irrigation ditch.  I came on in the house with Dan (the only male we have), and the other 3 girls stayed out with John to feed the horses.  The cat laid down in a hole of dirt but John said she didn’t stay there long, and came on out to help him.

Monday.  We were up early to go to the hospital lab for blood draws for both of us, before our physicals tomorrow.  It went well.  I still have a swelled lymph gland and so I came home, ate breakfast, took all my pills, plus another antibiotic and 2 acetaminophens.  It was bothering me earlier, but now is somewhat better.  I’m just relaxing in my recliner.

I was going to go back in for exercise class, but I just reached up because my left ear was sort of “itching” and felt some liquid like water in my ear as from a shower (which I didn’t have).  Pulled it out and looked and it was blood????  So I have been stuffing it with tissue paper.  I think I will just relax today and not go in for exercise.

Whoopee – good thing I stayed home.  The refrigerator freezer started its noise and I got my camera and captured an .avi (movie) of the frig, by opening the door and recording the sound that went on for 43 seconds.  Very clear and a perfect solution for the repairman to hear.  I scheduled an appointment for next Tuesday morning.  Maybe we will get it fixed this time.  They are not allowed to replace a unit/motor if it is not making the noise for them to hear.  So, it will cost Sears another trip out, and we hope he has the part.  I tried reaching him today just to ask him to call us so we could be sure he didn’t have to order the part.  But that’s not possible; it’s not the way they do business.  Their loss.

Tuesday is 7-12-11 and our 42^nd anniversary.  Helluva a note to spend the afternoon in the Dr.’s office, where we BOTH had physicals.  But, the up side was that we both took long soaking baths to be clean for the Dr.  I had a really hard time getting out of the tub as that is not something I have worked into yet.  I managed to turn sideways, and pull myself up with my lousy left arm & shoulder, onto my knees.  Then John came in and grabbed my good right arm to help me up into a standing position.  Then I was all right with stepping out over the side (that is one exercise we do in our “class”.)

My news from the doctor is all good, and tomorrow I hear back the results of the blood culture, or maybe the next day.  I think it needs 48 hours (turned out to require 72 hours) to culture the blood to see if there are any bacteria in it.  My doctor, John, and I feel pretty sure it is not, because I do not have ANY of the same symptoms I have had the past two times.  Still for peace of mind, I wanted them to run a culture while they were doing all the other blood tests.  I passed them all and my blood pressure was low and good.

The ear bleeding stopped 24 hours after it started, at noon today.  My Dr. looked in the ear and said the ear canal was quite inflamed.  We do not know why, but he said if I stuck something down there it would begin bleeding all over again.  He prescribed an ear drop medication that has an antibiotic and soothing ointment.

The other thing, the swollen lymph gland, is an indication I have an infection somewhere.  He suggested staying on the antibiotic for 2 more days, and then if it didn’t clear up, to go see my dentist in case it is a bad tooth.  I have no pain anywhere, so who knows?

At least I feel better just knowing I’m okay on most accounts.

Wednesday – stayed home to rest and recover today, and John went out to assist with trimming the feet on 3 of our horses.  All went well and the temperature was bearable.

Today I’m just resting and getting rid of my aches and pains (a neck ache and lack of stamina) from the excitement of the past week.  I cancelled the two events I would normally do on Wednesdays.
About the blood culture drawn Monday— I called today to see how the culture was progressing.  They check it every day, and nothing has been indicated yet, so that is good.

Thursday.  Finally got all my high school reunion pictures together with an explanation of how to access them, and sent a link to a couple of web pages, one I created from pictures of my elementary school days, and one from part of the group at the high school 50^th reunion.   If you’d like to look at it, follow the link:

http://elixant.com/~nancyh/GardenHillsBrownieTroop327.html

I learned 4 chords on the mandolin from the Web on you tube beginning lessons.  I was feeling some better today, and so was off to play music at the Rehab center.  All was well.  Saw my friend Bekah afterward, my student heading to the Marshall Islands for a job for 2 years forecasting weather for the military base on Kwajelein Island (an atoll).  I had a Leavenworth tee shirt that I wanted to give her.  We had spent time there to accept a $1000 award I nominated her for and she won, several years ago.

Friday.  John is loading rocks and gravel into a “driveway” next to his garden.  Sunshine is helping, and enjoying climbing on her jungle jims: the Rainier cherry tree and two walnut trees.  Then she scoots back to the Tamaracks and Carpathian walnuts near the east side of our house and climbs there.  She’s quite the acrobat.  We don’t remember any of our former cats being such climbers.  She goes up and down quite well, needing no help from us.

Never got the stamina to tackle the kitchen, still need to do that tonight, but put in my week’s supply of pills in the week-by-day separator, before I could take the morning meds.  Then I left for town without lunch (but carried two white choc chip cookies to eat before exercise class). Dropped by a yard sale on my way there and planned to stay for Bingo after the exercise class.

Well, my Bingo day went very well.  They let us play 3 cards each, and I won 8 games (more than anyone there).  Everyone won at least one game, and several won 2 or 3 games.  Some 45 minutes in they served us ice cream sandwiches or ice cream sundaes. I had the latter and only took vanilla ice cream and put root beer on it to make a float.  Yum.

Presents I picked for my wins were a Vanilla-Honey jar of hand soap, 3 large different flavored chocolate candy bars, a nice little implement with an emery board on one side and soft brush on the other— I suppose it can be used on feet; a travel shoe polishing kit, with brown and black and a little rag in a plastic container; two nice large U.S. flags (about a foot long) with sturdy sticks about 2 feet long. The fee for 2 hours of Bingo was $5.00.  It was well worth it for me today, plus I enjoyed the time.  So after having all the good luck, I went to the grocery to pick up my meds and also some chicken salad that will be easy chewing with my sore mouth, and 3 things (recommended by my pharmacist) for treating my irritated mouth (beneath my tongue).

On the way to the AAC today, I stopped at a yard sale (in a storage locker).  They had tons of hardback and paperback books, priced only at a quarter each. They have prices inside marked as high as $39.  I bought 4 for John, the reader in the house.

Then I got to the AAC for my exercise class a little early and looked in the Library.  The shelves were full of books, but there was a straw basket on the floor with a large hardback book of five of Louis Lamour novels.  I walked back out and asked the director if I could check it out to bring home to John to read.  She said, “If it is in the basket, just take it.”  So, I did.

I figured with my good luck, I would buy some lotto tickets while at the store.  John just laughed when I told him I bought 2 at the checkout, and then bought two scratch tickets from a machine by the door on my way out.  I haven’t scratched them yet to see if I won.  I bought a Bingo scratch and a Dog scratch.  I did scratch them before going to bed, and while I came very close to winning something, I didn’t. I NEVER buy these things and John, when he buys, only buys a ticket that–if the big winner–will change his lifestyle.  He claims buying is equivalent to paying taxes to the State except for the very remote chance of winning something.  Of course, half of big winnings go to taxes and that’s why the amount won has to be about $5 Million to make any difference—that is, change your lifestyle.

Got home and John was in the driveway headed home after two hours of working on 100′ of fence the horses managed to take out.  He learned about it while sitting at his computer and looked out the window and saw Jazz, one of the horses, in a place right by the house where he shouldn’t have been.  He went to check and as he did Jazz found his way back to the pasture.  This was a two-strand wire fence and the posts had to be bent back to vertical and everything had to be reattached.  Years of brush made the task more difficult so he cleared that too – it being part of the reason the horses get into positions they ought not to.  He suspects the escape was more of a herd thing where Jazz got trapped against the fence and went through it rather than argue position with one of the others.

Saturday.  Well we both were tired and slept in this morning.  Decided to walk to the road for the papers and stopped to check out the garden growth.  It’s really looking healthy.  The tomato plants are beautiful, but there are not yet any blossoms.  Tomatoes need night temperatures above 50 degrees to set fruit and we are only getting that about every other night, and just barely.  The strawberries are beautiful too, and the yellow straight neck squash.  There are 3 little squash viewable.  There are lots of cherries on several trees.  They are not really loaded like some years, but still we have many almost ripe.  We share with the birds but the trees haven’t had any fruit in about 3 years (cold, wet, windy) and the local bird knowledge isn’t what it was when we had fruit several years running.  Hope so.

A number of years ago we had a Black-billed Magpie couple with a nest in a tree just 30 feet from our largest cherry tree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-billed_Magpie

[Under ‘Reproduction’ read about the nest.]  That fall, John cut the tree down and cleaned up the fence row there and the next spring the birds did not return.  We still have Magpies around but not raising young next to the cherries.

It was threatening rain while we were in the garden, but we walked on up the driveway, picking Western Salsify (Goat’s beard) blooms along the way.

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

John has done a nice job of getting rid of most of those weeds that eventually develop into puff balls to spread their seeds.  At the link, click on the photo near the bottom with the caption “Wishie or Clock of the Salsify.”  When the wind hits the wishie (Don’t you just love that term?) it explodes and each one of those little stemmed parts floats and twirls while it searches for a home.  Too bad they are of so little use.

We got dumped on within 50’ of the front door.  It rained for awhile and now is clearing and sunny but humidity is up.  John went out with two dogs (Shay and Annie) and Sunshine joined them to help him empty the rain barrels.  He is taking buckets of water from them to put on his blueberries.  These need a very acidic soil.  The rainwater is neutral (pH~ =7) but doesn’t have the minerals in it that the creek water does and so doesn’t produce the “buffering” action:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7719550_buffering-capacity-soils.html

Using water from the ditch just makes it much harder to get the soil amenable for blueberries.  Rainwater doesn’t solve the problem – but doesn’t make it worse either.

Before I take an afternoon nap, I need to get on line and renew the tab on my Subaru.  In looking for our license information I found that I need to renew my 5-year driver’s license by 9-1-11.   If you forget and wait too long then you have to go visit the driver’s license bureau and take a test.

We found a small snake, dead, on the patio this afternoon.  Don’t know if Sunshine or one of the dogs killed it.  It was about a foot long, had a silver underside, a dark top, and a light thin line the full length of the back. We threw it in the compost pile.  Then found this link regarding Northwestern Garter Snakes:

http://www1.dnr.wa.gov/nhp/refdesk/herp/html/4thor.html

Too late for a close inspection unless we dig it out again.

Best to all

Nancy and John

from mid-summer

 

Sunday (the 3^rd) – hopefully this will be another gentle day of rest.  The day has started out cool.  Temp at 11:00 a.m. is up to 70 but is not supposed to be as hot as yesterday.  Winds are sustained at high 20s with gusts to 37 mph the past 3 hours.  I spent most of the day on email chores, and fixing up a July 4^th wish to send to all our friends and relatives.  Hopefully you got yours, but if not you can check the links below:

Please click on EACH link below and view to enjoy both.

Please do not respond on line unless you put your name in the message, because of the way I did these, when read, the reply comes back as if it was from me, not you.  I won’t have a clue who wrote the message if you don’t identify yourself.  That happened to several of my sends, and is frustrating.

About the cards:

The first one is a new card (from the UK) with the central character a kitty resembling the female we adopted (from our barn), last Dec 4th.  She is now quite the member of the family and romps and plays with our 4 Brittanys inside and outside the house.

Under the greeting, Happy Independence Day, click on the line that says: Click here to learn more about the music, and continue by clicking on Next, at the bottom right.  It’s a neat story.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2944613764619&source=jl999

The second one is a beautiful rendition of State flowers that ends in a unique way.  It’s beautifully done and appropriate for the Fourth of July.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2945120134619&source=jl999

Be sure at the end you click on the left side after the Eagle of Flowers has drawn, to see your (or any other) state flower.

John has been doing some brushing, irrigation ditch clean-out and moving small rocks around in a blue wheel barrow.  About a dozen more loads and a gravel topping will complete a very old project – one, getting rocks out of the way, and two, making a parking place in shade most of the day.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY … started out trying to sleep in from a poor night’s sleep, but we were awakened by an early morning call.  Is it just us, or is it a courtesy only East of the Mississippi that one doesn’t call someone before 9:00 a.m.?

We put a pork loin roast in the oven to take over to our neighbors for dinner (at lunch time).  It went off as planned, with the neighbors providing all the stuff to go with the roast.  We had salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, celery & carrots, blueberry muffins, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Too much food and only 6 people.

The folks have an over abundance of vegatation on the place – especially Hawthorn trees that grow along fence lines and lean into the fields.

John has sharpened his chainsaw and is off just before 6 a.m. to the upper pasture – with stout gloves — to take out a couple that are in the way of the swather.

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

In the following link, picture three shows why it is called a thorn tree:

http://www.bellarmine.edu/faculty/drobinson/WashingtonHawthorn.asp

John calls them Ironwood trees as something similar grew in the region where he lived in Pennsylvania;  maybe this one, the Carpinus caroliniana subsp. virginiana.

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

He remembers hearing of the wood’s use to make pegs, dowels, and nail-like items as the wood is very tough.  No thorns on this one though.  The rest seems to fit.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Qualities_of_Ironwood_Also_Called_Hornbeam.html

At the local airport the temp got up to 78 but is headed back down.  The house siding is brown and warms up in bright sun, making the south and west facing rooms heat up in the late afternoon.  I switched to shorts and a 100% cotton top.  The A/C is back on to keep it at 76 in the hallway, but the room I’m in is in the bright sunshine and one of our blinds broke over half the glass sliding door.  Too much stuff to fix around this house.  The house was built in 1981-82 so some of the old things are wearing out – just like us.  We should stay home and fix things but it is more fun running all over.  We’ll have to decide on what sort of replacement will be suitable for the blind – a web search turned up about 1,000 & 1 things and wasn’t much help.  After a look through the “big box stores” we may get the terminology figured out and try again.

Day after the 4^th, Tuesday, was supposed to be a light day, with no trips to town, but John started out early by going over at 8:00 a.m. to the north pasture of our neighbors to clean up the mess he created last night with cutting the Hawthorne trees.  He put a chain around bunches and dragged with his 4WD old pickup (’80 Chev), over to a wet portion of the field that cannot be planted with grass hay.

I stayed home and took care of things around the house and emails.  We’ve rested a lot after he returned, because the temps went up to 93 and it is not conducive to working outside till it cools down.

Had leftovers plus cantaloupe for dinner.

Wednesday found me sleeping-in because I did not sleep well last night, or the night before with all the fireworks.  This morning I didn’t have much time before leaving for playing music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  Normally I do this 3 Fridays a month, but now for July and August, we (3 of us) will be doing the music on Wednesdays.  They feed us too.  Today was prime rib meat soup with lots of green beans and a few noodles.  I cannot say I really enjoyed it and only ate a little, but it was tasty.  Also a nice salad w/ dressing, lemonade (mine) on ice (theirs), and a small piece of yellow cake with orange frosting.  Problem today is the heat.  It is 92 and most places I was today had no A/C, so I stripped down and went barefoot too, when I got home.

Today/Thursday was an interesting WINDY day.  I didn’t have to go to town till leaving at 1:25 p.m., for a nursing home where we played.  We played over an hour, and I got out as soon as possible driving home because I didn’t want to leave my violin in a hot car (turned out the wind whipped up a lot–up to 49 mph gusts and lowered the temperature significantly).  However, I drove home, dropped the fiddle off, and went back to Kittitas for a baby shower at 4:00 p.m.  We had a blast and there was plenty of food to fill up on and cake for dessert.  I do not need to eat any supper.  Played only one game and it was neat, but mainly we sat around and talked.

Most interesting find there among the group was what a small world it is.  After looking at a familiar-looking person for much of the time, she realized she knew me and had been in several of my geography classes at CWU, along with her husband, also a Geography major.  They met in our Wine:  A Geographical Appreciation class.  We last saw them in 1998.  Stayed till almost 6:00 and had to fight the wind all the way home.  My car was only getting 19 mpg because of fighting the raging gusts.  Normally, it will cruise at 27 mpg.  The temp is down to 56 on our front porch and for the past 2 hours the gusts have been 45mph!  Highest this afternoon was two hours (apart) of 49mph, one already mentioned for gusty Ellensburg.

Friday was different from most.  Started with a Sears’s repairman to evaluate our freezer part of the double fridge.  As expected, it would not make the singing and screaming noise while he was here.  We have to wait till he hears it before he can replace the fan, which he fully expects is the culprit.  I left for a shoulder massage and it was relieving.  I didn’t really feel up to waiting around for exercise class, because I was rather beat from the heat and my reaction Tues and Wed, so I went to the grocery store and by one yard sale ($2.00 bought me a brush for our cat’s tail to get out the seeds she is bringing back from her outside yard jaunts, a pair of denim pants for John, and an acrylic sweater for me, in red/white/blues.  If the temps were as cold July 4^th as today I could have worn it.  Then tonight we went to a party.  I’ll wait and describe later, but essentially it was to meet the Brittany puppies (6 weeks old) and have snacks (pretty substantial) with the Chemistry and Science Education faculty.  Very much fun.  Snacks included little Smokies (pigs in a blanket), fruit salad bowl, chips, dip, veggies and a couple of dips, and salsa.

What a day Saturday turned into.  We met up for lunch and a visit with folks from CA coming to pick up their Brittany puppy from friends here in Eburg, where we were last night at the party.  Our friends from CA bought lunch for us.  It was a great visit.

From there we took them to the house with the puppies, visited a little and then drove to town for gasoline.  John’s car was running on vapors.  After that we drove to two yard sales, and found a few good things.  John found a pair of NEW high topped strong irrigation/mud boots, in his size for $3 (probably worth 45+ bucks).  He saw a nice large blue blanket for 50 cents.  At one other sale he found two glass lids that will likely fit our crock pot that needs one.  Or one will work on another pan or skillet. For a quarter each, it was a real deal.

From there we went to Briarwood Commons (retirement center), where I was scheduled to play music with my “group.”  We had a really small number today.  I was the only fiddler, and there were two guitarists, a base fiddler, a clarinetist, and two singers.  While the audience was also smaller than usual, they had words to most of the music and sang along with many of the songs.  It was quite nice.  This is the group who also feeds us afterward.  Today were two types of salad (mixed green & mixed fruit), egg salad finger sandwiches, and a table of desserts with whipped cream topping (homemade pumpkin pie, Bundt cakes: cherry, blueberry, & orange, and cookies).  Wasn’t necessary to eat dinner tonight, but John had a little of the lunch leftovers with other chicken leftovers and carrots from a recent dinner here at home.  I ate more than him at Mexican restaurant lunch (Prawn Fahitas) and after the music, so I won’t have anything tonight.    I’m still full.

This morning before 10:30 a.m. John and I rushed and struggled to get out the newsletter that John writes for the Trail Riders club, and I helped him fold, stamp, and get 48 copies of the 6-page  newsletter out to the mailbox as we left.  We SHOULD have taken them with us to town to the Post Office.  Our postal person did not pick them up out of our box (John always arranges them in a plastic bag), and instead, the carrier threw in the mail and magazines over the top–Damn.  We were not happy campers.  By the time we found them left in the mailbox, (a very large box and they were at the front), it was 3:53 p.m., and the pickup in Eburg on Saturday is by 4:00 p.m. outside the USPO.  There’s no pickup on Sunday, and so club members will be late getting theirs before the meeting on Thursday.

Once home, we were both tired and slept for two hours !  Over the last day or two I’ve developed a swollen lymph node under the jaw line on the right side.  We both have blood draws scheduled for Monday morning for annual physicals on Tuesday.  Meanwhile, I’ve started taking amoxycillin that I keep on hand for pre-treatment before dental appointments.  A couple of weeks ago John had a tooth pain that the dentist checked out but they (he and John) settled on treating with amoxycillin, although he wrote a prescription for Medrol DosePak, in case, over the weekend, John wanted (or needed) additional relief. That hasn’t been needed.

I’m late finishing this up for this week, but I will now, and send off to John to put on the WordPress blog.

Our best regards

Nancy and John

in windy Kittitas County

 

Sunday – June 26: A quiet day, except for cattle in the driveway.  John left to exercise the dogs and feed the horses, but was back in the house almost immediately.  There were 4 calves half way into our driveway.  He and the neighbors herded them into another neighbor’s corral.  Some phone calls were made, but the owner wasn’t found until almost dark that night.  The cattle (4 young bulls) were claimed and taken “home”.  They are used for practicing roping for the rodeo.

Monday was a crazy day.  I spent all afternoon, undoing what I started a couple of weeks ago.  We had been invited to play music at a 4th of July celebration for the community (for those 50 +) and it was to be on this Friday, July 1 at 1:00 p.m.  Turns out, not so, and I found out TODAY when I went for exercise class and saw a flyer.  In fact, the thing starts at 11:30 a.m. and goes till 1:30 — a picnic for everyone.  It is being held inside at an auditorium off the city library, with room for tables and a stage with microphones.

I had to call everyone in my “group” just in case they don’t read their email.  After exercise class I went to pick up a list of chords for the Mandolin, and a book written by a mandolin blue grass teacher, from a friend of mine who plays the violin, viola, and mandolin.

Also I made an appointment for an annual physical.  I have not had one in the last two years when I was so sick.  Now I’m able to go in for one.  John had his last in March of 2010, so he will go with me and they will do us “back to back” in different rooms.   Nice to combine appointments for one trip, because we have to drive 30 miles one way.

Late afternoon I went for a walk with John and the dogs to get the paper. Sunshine was on a cable table – a big wood spool from the electric company. It was near the fence, so not wanting her to jump off and over the fence; John moved it to under the tree she’s been climbing.  She was up it again this afternoon, just lying on the lowest branch, enjoying life.  I still have yet to get a picture of her there.  It will make a cute one.  Being draped over the limbs, John says she looks like a little sleeping Cheetah.

Tuesday.  A day not to go to town, with plans to do some cleaning and sorting but that nor practicing the mandolin ever got done.  I spent a lot of time on email and then on contacting people about music dates.  John spent some time outside in the heat (one of the hottest days recently at 88), and with no wind for cooling.  He worked on cleaning horse manure from the pasture, corrals, and barn, and then working on removing Canada thistle.  The horses will eat the flower buds off but leave the rest unless it is chopped off at the base – then they will eat that.  He came in about Noon, ate lunch and then worked on the computer awhile, but finally decided against returning to the heat, and so took a nap.  We both were up quite early.  While he was napping I tried to complete tasks (I wrote a review of a book for a friend of mine), and then I tried to nap.  Unfortunately phone calls kept interrupting.

It got so hot and I never turned on the A/C but I took off my socks and changed to Bermuda shorts; first time this year.  Now it’s cooling down outside and John opened the house… windows and it is cooling down in here.  My base of operations is a recliner beside the sliding glass door/window on the west side – very sunny and warm mid-to-late in the afternoon.  There is a concrete slab as a patio that, if roofed, would shade the glass.  A future project.

Finally between phone calls, I got about an hour nap, 1/2 hour at a time.  One call came from the Medical Insurance Company saying we would have to pay the $159 bill for cleaning out John’s ear wax because deductible and co-insurance criteria had yet to be met.  This was the end of last year, so I do NOT understand but guess I have no choice but to pay it.  Damned medical expenses.  That was after Medicare paid some of it.  I have to go back to check to be sure, but that’s the only thing I can remember that happened to John last year, besides an annual physical.

John was fixing dinner and got a call from a neighbor needing help moving a Burro a couple miles up the road… and needed our trailer.  John had to remove the riding mower – its winter home had been under a tarp inside the trailer.

Just had another phone call from the Navajo relief fund in a southwest state.  Probably they were calling from the Philippines as we had had a person earlier this year collecting pledges for rural older people on a North Dakota reservation.  Tonight, I asked her to please remove our name from the calling list and she hung up on me.  I don’t know why people are allowed to call when we are listed on the DO NOT CALL list.

Dinner was surely great.  We had sliced beef (steak) fried with carrots and red peppers and mashed potatoes.  Yum.  Now the only thing wrong is my eye is hurting and dried out.  Guess I should put some gel in it and think about going to sleep earlier tonight.

Oh, before I leave, let me thank my Aunt (80) in Guyton, GA for sending me a bunch of paperwork on the Wilkins family (my mom’s family).  She and her daughter made a trip a month or so ago to old cemeteries in Savannah and the Guyton area, to obtain names and dates of birth and death from tombstones so we can update the genealogy of the family.  There were many papers that had been started by my mom’s youngest sister, but she died suddenly a few years back.

Wednesday is full of household chores and I’m going in to exercise class and to the grocery store, besides finalizing more music for Thursday’s and Friday’s performances.  Weather cooled down today and the wind returned, making it nicer.  Also keeps flies off the horses.  Our windows were open all last night, and we actually awoke to a cool house.

My right shoulder has bothered me all day (no known reason).  I cannot blame it on vacuuming, because I didn’t.  I did sit at John’s computer today and transpose 3 songs for our clarinet player to be able to play with us.  Have to change the Key to two sharps higher, and move the notes up a whole note.  I have a music program on my computer that I use.  It still took me 80 minutes to do 3 songs:  America, America the Beautiful, and Oh! Susanna!  Still to do — the National Anthem.

Thursday.  Early morning phone call from friend that he had to go to ER last night (11:30 p.m.) with atrial fibrillations.   They treated him with an IV and took an EKG and a chest X-ray.  He had no pain, and got home by 2:00 a.m. and to bed.  He called me at almost 7:00 a.m. with the report that he was all right, but needed to contact his family physician this morning for making an appointment.  Couldn’t do that till after 8:00 so I suggested he go back and catch a little more shut eye, which he did.  He called back at 8:15 to say he has an appointment tomorrow at 1:00 in Cle Elum, so he won’t be able to be with us at the July 1 Hal Holmes play date tomorrow.  He does feel good enough today to go see his wife in the Rehab center (but will NOT tell her what happened so as not to worry her), and then will join us at Mt View Meadows today.

Play date went all right this afternoon, and they had punch and cookies for everyone there, plus us.  Nice touch.  They also cancelled the request for us to come back on the 4^th of July.  That’s fine.  We are missing many of our group anyway at other events.

John saw two more kittens on the fence near the barn.   They ran down under our motor home.  He put out some water for them.  We’ll take some food out soon.  He tried to grab one from the fence but it did not want to be caught.  Speaking of food, we had a great dinner with pork and chicken, green lima beans, and mashed potatoes with gravy John made from the drippings of cooking the pork roast and chicken thighs.

Now we are seriously thinking of working an hour and heading for an early sleep.  It has been a long day that started very early.

Talked to a Sears Repairman in Austin, TX tonight to schedule someone to visit our refrigerator to see why it is occasionally screaming (probably a bearing in a fan in the freezer compartment going bad).  He told me Austin had had 22 days already this summer of over 100 degrees.  WHOA, that’s too hot for me.

I spent a lot of time yesterday at the Patriotic party given for seniors in the community every year by the Adult Activity Center.  Our music group has always provided the entertainment, but this year it was at the down-town auditorium off the library, inside, out of the wind and the heat.  They provide a picnic already described above.  I was the MC this year from a stage with microphones.  We had two groups, and I played with both, so I didn’t eat lunch till the very end.  Started setting up at 11:15, played with one group for 25 minutes, and then a larger group came on the stage, our normal Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends, minus several regulars who were out of town, ill in a nursing home, or going to a doctor’s appointment.  We had two stand ins (accordionist and guitarist) who never play with us.  That was rough to keep us all together.  As well as MC, I’m sort of the lead off and the conductor.  But, we made it through and got lots of compliments.  We did the national anthem at NOON, and invited the audience to join in singing.  They stood up and put their hands over their hearts, looking at the flags all around the room.  It was very moving.  I stood up with all but three members who played accompaniment (accordion, guitar and clarinet).

Came home and laid down to rest.  Maybe got an hour’s nap, or less, and was awakened by a long time friend from Othello.  She and I hadn’t talked in over two years.  We had a great chat on her lunch break from Wal*Mart, where she works.

Went for a walk up the driveway with John and the dogs to retrieve the paper.  We stopped and examined the blue bird house that has had a Tree Swallow living in it.  They usually are friendly and great flyers, and look a bit like tiny penguins.

http://www.gschneiderphoto.com/gallery3/var/albums/birds/swallows/treeswallows/tree-swallow-milkweed-profile_5583.jpg?m=1292888748

We hadn’t seen her in 4 days, and we wondered.  The dogs were sniffing as we walked by.  The mom had been flying out every time we got near the house.  John took off the top and looked in, and all the babies were dead.  Either something got the mom and she was no longer feeding them or something caused them to die and she left the nest for another location.  Rather sad.  Each year “we” have raised a family in that box, that John made and carved the name BETH on the front of.  Other boxes around the property by the barn have different names.

Saturday: When we went to town I looked to see what I could find ON THE WAY at garage sales… and didn’t go out of the way for any.  The first one was on the road to town a mile west of us.  They were very nice people and we enjoyed visiting with them.  Their clothes were 50 cents each, and John found a beautiful 100% wool sweater that is probably too small for him, and I cannot wear wool, but we figured for a half dollar we could find someone who would like.  I could also wear a long sleeved tee shirt underneath it.  It is red/white/blue lovely design but with the high temps, it will not work for the Fourth of July.  Also, he found a sweatshirt for him, one that will fit me, and a tee shirt with Leavenworth written on it.  I normally don’t pay more than a quarter for a tee shirt, but the people were so nice that we went ahead and handed them 2 bucks and didn’t bargain.  Then we stopped at another sale at an EXPENSIVE house on the way to town, but they had stuff we didn’t need (baby clothes), and high prices also.  On to town for my meds, ice cream, cantaloupe, potatoes, onions, and fritters.  Back by the Dollar Store near the town’s center looking for tops for the canned cat food.  John checked the $ store, but came out empty handed.  Meanwhile, I walked to a sale (leaving our car in the shade) and  found an aluminum cooking pan (9 x 13) with a lid, for a buck.  That is what we use for our cobblers, and having the top will be nice.  I looked at sweatshirts for John but they all had hoods, which he does NOT like.  Then while I was paying for my pan, he found a large glass serving plate with an interesting scene – period 1900s, horses pulling a sleigh with a Christmas tree.  It was only a buck too, and it will be perfect for serving  round upside down cakes or something similar.

It’s hot here today; 88 with no wind.  I was burning up, so John just flipped on the A/C.  I will finish this and send it to him to put on the blog.  We hope you all have a nice July 4^th weekend.

All our best regards

Nancy and John

and summer

 

We have had 2 warm days, now it is cool again.

Sunday – from last week — Happy Father’s Day.  I forgot with yesterday’s blog entry and said we had nothing to do this weekend.  Just after I sent the blog to John, we had a phone call from our neighbors, inviting us to dinner on Father’s Day.  We joined them and there will be 3 fathers present.   It was a nice dinner with tons of food for 11 people.  Here was the menu: Roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots (cooked and raw), salad (lettuce with tomatoes), green jello salad with pears, rolls, butter and jam, and for dessert a great chocolate / cream pie.  Fun conversations as well.  We are both tired, and John is napping.  I may be soon as I finish checking my email.

I forgot to mention the morning antics of Sunshine.  That gave us many laughs.  She was outside the front door… by herself, her choice.  She went out when John and the dogs came in from feeding the horses, and exercising the dogs, in the wind.
She was playing around in the gravel and dirt, and I happened to look out the kitchen window to see her climbing up the Mountain Ash tree.  It is probably 7 inches in diameter, and John recently took off the suckers and bottom limbs up to about 5 feet.  She climbed all the way up to the lowest branches, and on to two above, out of sight in the leaves.  The wind was blowing hard and she was being thrown as if on a roller coaster.  She was hanging on and turned to come down.  Made it down to the bottom branch and jumped to the dirt below.  She then walked out and plopped down on the concrete pavement, relaxing in the shade.  I’m glad she didn’t hit there, but on the dirt instead.  She stayed out there for 5 minutes and we had to pick her up and bring her in so we could leave.  When in the house she can go through the window to the backyard, but she has had to train us to open the front door.

Not much happened Monday except exercise class, and Tuesday found us in Yakima, at the auto dealer having the white Subaru serviced.  I took along my computer, but I could not connect to a wireless network there.  We went to Costco and will get stuff for others as well as for us.  One thing we got was 330 Chinet Plates for the July 1 celebration for an early 4^th of July celebration.  It’s being sponsored by the Adult Activity Center and Briarwood Retirement Center, but being held in an auditorium in downtown Ellensburg, next to the community library.

http://www.ellensburg.org/zimages/pics/images/libraryStatue.jpg

Two music groups I play with will perform and I am in charge of all the organization, song choice, and creating the play list.  That has kept me busy all week, because I also have to look up words on the Internet to print.  I’ll lead the singing and the group, and we will have microphones on stage.  Normally, when we play for nursing homes and retirement communities, we don’t have microphones.

Also contacted my banker and he checked for a cancelled check at the end of 2010, paying my dues to the WA Old Time Fiddlers Association.  He got a hit and I got the proof they had cashed it but never renewed my membership and I haven’t been getting the monthly newsletter.  I also need it to register for the summer workshop in Kittitas.  I have decided to take a morning class in Beginning Mandolin, so I can finally learn to play the one I bought myself for a birthday present 3 years ago.

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

Mine (FM-53S) is made in Korea for Fender;

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0955300032

Mine (used) did not come with the rosewood fingerboard below the strings, but the holes for attachment are there.  So, a mystery!

While at CWU, I did not seem to find the time to learn to play and then after I got sick I couldn’t, so now is the time.  It is tuned the same way as a violin, hence I will be able to know the “notes”, and to keep it tuned properly.  I just have to learn how to chord on it, get the technique down, and build calluses on my left hand fingers.    Now I only have the index and middle finger calluses from playing the violin, and I do not know yet if the placement will be the same for the strings on the mandolin.  John says I need to spend 15 minutes/day till the end of July and my class, getting my fingers ready.  I’ll try.  Also, I looked on the Web to learn some chords from you tube videos.  There is a surprising amount of information out there.  Irish Washerwoman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tXWa6q9PsM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA82NOHXIP0&NR=1

Sierra Hull (with others) – Instrumental

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLq2GDLlk&feature=related

Wednesday.  Started out with household and yards chores.  One thing I did was retrieve my Mandolin in its case and dust off the outside of the case.  I took it to town with me so I could stop by the music store and buy a strap for it, to be sure it fit.  I carried it with me to the AAC for my foot care and exercise class.  Also delivered the Chinet plates I got for the July 1 shindig.  After exercise I went to the grocery for a few things and then on to the music store, where I bought the Mandolin strap and got it put on for me.  I’m all set for beginning lessons the end of July.  I’m excited.

Finally, the sun has come out at the end of a very overcast and threatening afternoon.  This weather is quite strange.  Up to 83 temp today and just before dark it’s gone down to 71 and the wind restarted a couple of hours ago.

Tomorrow is more music.  I need to print out some new patriotic songs (new copies of music and words, but not new music).  You will know them:  America the Beautiful, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, You’re a Grand Ole Flag, God Bless America, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Yankee Doodle Dandy, (guess I’d better pull out Dixie), and There’s a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere.  All that got done and we had a very nice play day today.  We were surprised to see our friends show up from Winlock, WA (on the wet side of our State).  Nice to have them join us.  We love having the Bass Fiddle added that makes our sound so much fuller, and also have the additional fiddler.

[Winlock, WA was a major producer of eggs (no longer) and has an “egg”

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/4033

to prove its historic importance.]

John loaded trash and garbage into the pickup truck to take to the transfer station (the dump).  He got rid of a lot, for a $15.00 fee.  That did not include any recyclable items (paper, cans, glass), because there was no room left in the truck.  That will have to happen another day soon.  We have many boxes ready to go but John hasn’t gone since before I landed in the hospital at Thanksgiving in ’09.

We just had a nice dinner and are waiting for a good dessert.  John found some leftover (frozen) apple pie in the freezer while cleaning up and we have ice cream to go on it.

Friday was a free shoulder massage, Food Bank Soup Kitchen music, with a payback with lunch (beef, potatoes, carrots, salad and apple pie) and an afternoon exercise class.  Only 10 of us were there but we gave ourselves a hard workout.  Also I stopped at 3 garage sales, but only bought at one, spending 85 cents for four things: 2 blouses, a carrier bag with a Native American scene on it, and a loud pink baseball hat.  Our winds are blowing (not as hard), and the temps are in the sixties, (very nice) today.  John has cut metal roofing from off the barn into 3-foot lengths and is fixing it onto the side of his garden to protect the small plants from the wind.

Saturday brought a nice visit with friends over a Dutch Oven cooked roast beef dinner.  Both daughters were home this weekend and we haven’t seen them since Christmas, as a family.  John made a blueberry/apple cobbler for us to carry with us.  I took along my Mandolin to have the mom and one daughter show me a few things about it, as they have some experience.

We’re late getting this blog out, because of last night’s doings.  This Sunday morning started out with the mystery of 4 young cows in our driveway, and John having to herd them out.  He thought they were the neighbors, but not.  So with several other neighbors helping, they pushed them into a pen —  across from us they still have the remains of a small dairy operation.  When the owner finds them missing and starts asking around the mystery will be solved.  The wind is not blowing hard today for a change.  John decided to mow the grass up near the road because people come down the road too fast and miss the turn.  A roll-over could start a fire at the road/bank edge and the less dry grass there is, the better chance we have of it not coming past the fence.  John now has some plants on either side of the driveway he wants to protect — Althea bushes (Rose of Sharon)

http://www.botanical-journeys-plant-guides.com/rose-of-sharon-bush.html

from last fall (4 plants, and we think 3 survived).  They were old to begin with and he didn’t pay a lot of money for them; and Rocky Mountain Maples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_gardener/3051989344/

http://www.westlight.net/autumn_photographs/autumn_maple_5158.html

That’s about it, so I will stop and when John comes back in for his afternoon rest, or for lunch, I will have sent this blog to him to put out for our faithful readers.  Hope your coming week is a good one.

All our best regards

Nancy and John

in gusty Kittitas Valley