Keeping track

Nancy’s title was: “Never a dull moment in our lives”, but that doesn’t fit on the WordPress title line – so I shortened it.

Monday, Oct 29

I am not sure why people don’t follow my mom’s suggestion of never calling someone before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. We were rudely called at 7:28 a.m. It always scares me receiving a call so early from someone I know well, but upsets me, especially when it is not necessary at all and later this evening would have been okay. On that upset note, I’m up for the day.

We need to sort apples to take to town today for the upcoming Veterans’ Day celebration at the Senior Center (AAC). While sorting, we boxed two small boxes of apples for another friend in town, and John packed a small box of English walnuts for another friend, which we delivered along with some other items for her daughter and friends with young children. When John and I delivered the apples to the AAC, we stayed for my SAIL exercise class.

I called for either of the triage nurses, Cody or Lacey, at my PCP’s office, about having my chest x-rays from Feb 2018 available for review regarding a Pneumonia diagnosis, but a PA’s noting I had a hiatal hernia (HH). He pegged the Pneumonia, but I’m concerned about the HH seen (that I couldn’t see), and happy I’m not having any symptoms; yet, I am requesting a re-evaluation of the X-rays by my regular physician at our upcoming annual physical wellness tests (Nov 20 & 27). Lacey returned my call and assured me she would approach it with my MD and get back to me with the verdict. She did a couple days later. It will be possible. I’m grateful for her help outside of her normal calls to me to report my INR results, from monthly blood draws checking my Coumadin dosage.
I have my lab records in order to request a follow-up on my Thyroid annual blood test as requested by Dr. Lisa Stone, the Endocrinologist in Wenatchee whom I saw originally the end of 2017. In April this year, I had a follow-up set of blood tests, which she reviewed, and suggested having another done the end of this year. I also have to set up my annual PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) to check my lungs to be sure they are not being scarred by the Amiodarone medication (taken successfully, for atrial fibrillation, since 2010.).

Finished assembling all my meds for the week.

Tuesday, Oct 30

Staying home today to tend to details for this week, the past, future.
It is cool, with sunshine and a slight wind that calmed down as the day proceeded.
I did take some photos of the fall colors of our Mountain Ash tree out front, with many of the yellow leaves having been blown away.Top photos were taken today, Oct 30, but the bottom photo was on 10-24-18 without blue skies.
→ [John says: If I cut the berry bunches off and throw them over the fence, the deer will eat them. At this time of year birds ignore them. They know (How?) the pretty fruit is sour (has an acid, Sorbic, I think). The fruit will hang on the tree during the winter and becomes more to their liking. I am trying to find out what happens. During spring, birds will find the fruit and over about 4 days, it will all be eaten.]

Nancy, again: Wonderful brunch John made with an omelet creation loaded with protein and veggies. Here is a shot of the pan minus today’s portions. With my smaller piece, I had toast with Apricot jam.Day-before-Halloween omelet: chocked full with cubed smoked turkey, colorful peppers, tomatoes, purple onion, cheese, 6 eggs.

John and Annie left for yard and barn and fence work, and I stayed behind to sort the plates, cups, and other things left over from Friday’s luncheon, and to wash another load of dishes. I’m working on various other chores. I need to combine some photos to send to Audubon folks, and create a Google Photos link to send, from last meeting Oct 18, with the video you have already seen in blog, with another short clip of the speaker’s humor.

Here are the “set-up” photos of the Kittitas Audubon talk of Ken Bevis, Oct 18, which was in last week’s blog (see there for the video of his presentation); meanwhile, check the link below.

Photos during setup, talk by Ken Bevis, Kittitas Audubon

I needed to cut John’s hair, eat dinner, and finish the link sending to the Ice Age Floods (IAF) group. John came in at dark and took a nap. We ate a late dinner, and put off his haircut until later. We had chicken, cauliflower, seasoned fries, and shared a baked Honeycrisp apple.
Used some of our new honey from Kauai, HI that was brought back by a friend.

Wednesday, Oct 31
HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Halloween Card from the Naneum Fan (non-animated)
(See link below to the Jacquie Lawson real thing (with animation) I sent to a few people and then captured the one I sent to John, but I wanted to share the link to a neat card and story from Jacquie Lawson, to our blog readers who might not have been on the original list delivered Oct 30th.
The link is below, please follow: but, PLEASE BE SURE to IDENTIFY yourself on the reply, because it will only come as if from us to us at our joint account, where we are notified a person saw it and replied. Thanks! It is culturally and artistically very interesting. Yes, I realize this is now LATE in coming.
Spooky Halloween Card – 2018

I fixed my lunch salad and sent off the note of planning for tomorrow’s retirement/rehab music.
The Food Bank was special today on Halloween when many dressed up in “costumes”. We had pumpkins (me, sorta), a witch, a cute little hat (Evelyn) the banjo player, and other things on different people serving the Senior Nutrition program folks.
The tables and centerpieces were decorated, and one can be seen below in the second set of photos.Here I am in my Pumpkins in Love sweatshirt. Note my hat (actually John’s rain hat I gave him), and Evelyn’s cute little hat atop her head. My necklace has a few lights that turn on. I removed the blinking option (gotten on the first 2 switch clicks).
We had a special request from the Senior Nutrition Lunch table for I’ll Fly Away, and then at the end for Amazing Grace. In between we did all sorts of different songs in our normal weekly folder.
I took my salad and added to it a cup of fruit cocktail mixed with yogurt, given to the Sr. Nutrition table. I also brought home a big pumpkin cookie to share with John for our dessert tonight. They had tables all decorated and we had great fun with the folks there.

Afterwards, I went to the Activity Center (Senior Center) for our SAIL exercise class. These were on my camera, the others above were taken on a “client’s” Smartphone and emailed to me. Left is at Food Bank, taken with a flash (behind the table centerpiece), and right is at the AAC (Sr. Center) after my SAIL exercise class. The pumpkin weighed 127#. Members could guess the weight to win it.

I came home to cut John’s hair. It didn’t take me as long this time because we didn’t wait as long between haircuts; I think I did it in 24 minutes, and without leaving cowlicks.

I’ll end the day with my friend’s Halloween costumes, which truly supersede mine. First, the 5-yr olds, Ladybug Haley with her butterfly friend, Carly, and then a night costume for downtown, Ghost Haley. Their kindergarten allowed no masks, (hence the left photo costumes).

Following are two other friends – Sonja Willitts (known since 1977 in Idaho) now in S. Lake Tahoe, CA and the Ghoulish hand art on Amy Davison’s face (the mom of our friendly ghost, Haley). Amy is our band’s flute player, fiddler, penny whistle, and miniature washboard contributor. Quite the talented gal and also an artist, & baker, who does weddings, parties, and other special events.Sonja Willitts and Amy Davison in Halloween dress.

Thursday, Nov 1

John was up early in the rain to feed the animals, open the gate, and drive to White Heron for bottling (Red Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot). He carried along some Jarlsberg cheese to share with at the tasting after the bottling crew finished their work for the morning. Others brought apple-chunk infused sausage for the grill, salad, soft cheese, and crackers. They drink a bit of the wine they worked with, and John brought 3 bottles home. He and I got home about the same time ~ 4:00 p.m.

I worked on cleaning dishes we keep dirtying, and shooing away the Collared Doves and Magpies. Once in the kitchen I slammed the window (I often do) to scare them, and ended up starting John’s “sleeping” computer. On my way to the front door to slam it to get rid of them, I “slept” his computer again.

I’m getting ready to leave in an hour to go in to the Rehab to play music with 9 others. Ended up being only 8, because one had a migraine and didn’t make it. My early morning call-in for the chair count was met with a strange response. I finally called again after leaving a message on voicemail for the Activity Director, to ask for the Assistant Activity Director I have known since I was a patient there. She told me the Activity Director was not there today; why the original operator put me through to voice mail is unknown. Carol took care of setting us up and having the dining tables removed and enough chairs available. I arrived early to help.

I rushed home to turn around and go back to town with John for a 6:00 p.m. meeting at the Kittitas County Historical Museum, and a presentation from our neighbor, Allen Aronica, about his Native American family background in our valley. Here is the flyer for tonight.I videotaped his presentation. I videoed it but my first battery ran out of power at the end of a little over an hour. I replaced it and lost a couple minutes of interesting follow-up on one of the family cemetery stories.

Allen Aronica, November 1, 2018 The Kittitas People (main talk)

Allen Aronica, when battery was dying, just 2 mins

Allen Aronica, Comments and Questions after his Presentation

Here is a link to the Schedule and home page of the Kittitas County Historical Museum, so you can check for next year’s 10 planned lectures.

Kittitas County Historical Museum Description

I am currently working on an email list to send to Kittitas County Historical Museum folks that I know were there that night, or might be interested in seeing Allen’s presentation. I have not yet sent anything.

After his talk, we picked up two crispy chicken sandwiches at Burger King, not getting home to eat until after 8:00. Actually, I didn’t look at the time.
John went to bed at 10:35 and I’m not far behind.

Friday, Nov 2

We plan to sort apples in the morning to take to the Kittitas Neighborhood Pantry at by 1:00 p.m. We did and went. We did not weigh them in, but we figured it was > 50 pounds.
They had us go through for a few things – some mushrooms, a yellow pepper, a couple of pears, two desserts (brownies frosted with cream cheese frosting & 4 eclairs), two little packages of cat treats, and two cans of peaches. From there we went around to the clothing bank to deliver some Honeycrisp apples to the volunteer workers. While there, I picked out a pair of white corduroy slacks for me I’m wearing tomorrow night with my black WTA emblem shirt, and a pair of brown corduroy slacks size 8 for my banjo playing friend (see her photo above on Wednesday).

Saturday, Nov 3

We need to make an early trip to town to Super 1 for a special sale {8 am to 8 pm} of baking items. Because of limits, we’ll take two carts. We made quite a haul. Four dozen eggs at 88₵/carton; 4 cake mixes and 4 Fudge brownie mixes at 68₵ each, 4 brown sugar (light & dark) packages at 88₵ each, 3 White Bleached Floor at $2.38 each, 4 Butter package @ $2.48 each, and 3 Boneless Bottom Round Roasts for $2.98/lb.

Early afternoon we will take off for the annual WA Trails Assoc. (WTA) Volunteer appreciation event & awards for various trail maintenance workers. It is being held in a different location, north of the city, at the Mountaineers Program Center. We still had to deal with Seattle traffic, a bit more than most Saturday afternoons because of a university football game.

We had an unpleasant rainy trip over the pass (better than snow, however, which would have kept us home). We left just before 3:00 p.m. and arrived about 5:30 p.m. John drove my Subaru to North Bend, WA, where we paused and changed drivers. I drove the rest of the way with John as my navigator co-pilot. We make a good driving team, from 53 years together, beginning with driving my ’35 Ford that I drove to Cincinnati, OH, where we met in graduate school.

On the trip home, I drove the entire way, in about 2 hours, 10 minutes. It was tough driving and wore my arms out holding the steering wheel tightly because of standing water on I-90. I was very tired and sore before getting home, but we made it safely about 10:30 p.m. We were able to enjoy some butter pecan ice cream on a cream cheese frosted brownie. We did not stay for a piece of cake at the WTA dinner.

I spent a lot of time backing up on an external disk drive all the movies I have taken over the last year on my little Exilim camera, and charged both batteries, so John can put it on his belt to hike on the field trip tomorrow.

At the WTA party, I had my Nikon camera along and videotaped many of the award presentations and a few other tidbits. The disadvantage to using it, is the bandwidth increases dramatically to upload the video to YouTube. So, 4 minutes of movie costs 2.5 hours of upload time. Such is life.

Even though I was very tired, I still stayed up until after 1:00 a.m. (non-daylight saving time).

Sunday, I will work on uploading the videos, but will cover some of them here, because they occurred tonight. I still haven’t downloaded all I took from my camera because I need to free up some space on my computer. It’s reaching its capacity.

WTA Preliminary Statistics for 2018 Trail Volunteer work, presented by Jen Gradisher.

Title slide (only estimates through October, more figures arriving) showed ~150,000 volunteer hours of work on 254 trails, by ~4,500 Volunteers.Trail Programs Director, Jen Gradisher

WTA Trail Volunteer Statistics

I’m using John as my model for when all of the ACLs were asked to stand. We were on the front row, so John is turning to face his many “Orange Hat” colleagues.

Hats off to ACLs 2018
presented by Zach McBride, Puget Sound Field Manager

Crosscut Saw Award, presented by Tim Van Beek, Volunteer Vacation manager (‘week longs’) to the only one present tonight, Jim Langdon. This is WTA’s best award [a 2″ slab of Ponderosa Pine with an engraved segment of a crosscut saw], for reaching >500 days working with WTA trail crews. John will likely never reach that, but he did make it to >300 this year and will get a label to put on his orange hard hat. He has completed all the previous milestones receiving nice award gifts, in addition to making good friends along the way.

Top WTA Volunteer Award – Crosscut Saw Award

Sunday, Nov 4

John left for Nick Zentner’s Field Trip to the Mattawa Ash Fall Tuff, to be there soon after 10:00 a.m. to get a seat in the lead CWU Van with Nick and Karl. He succeeded. The trip visited 3 sites where volcanic ash fell about 11.8 Million years ago. The source was southwestern now-Idaho, where the Yellowstone hot spot was then located.Left was taken on the field trip; John in brown jacket walking up the one mile trek with others; Right was taken on Nick’s spring reconnaissance trip, better than with the blowing dust of Sunday.

I stayed home because of the 30-minute plus uphill hike I am not able to do. We both realize that. I cleaned off my camera memory for John to make videos of Nick’s talks, and he took his own camera for still photos along the trip.

It’s getting dark at 4:33 p.m. John had called from Mattawa, at 4:14 that they’re on their way home. I imagine it will be very dark before he arrives. He was standing in an orchard waiting for the leaders to return to the van. He got home about 5:30 p.m.

I don’t have enough space left on my C drive to transcribe the videos I took last night, let alone what John took today, so all those will have to wait.

We first have to leave in the morning for me to get an Echocardiogram. And, John will go to Costco, fill my car with gasoline, and buy a few groceries and anything else that looks interesting.

This won’t be published until late on Monday. I’ll save Monday to start week 2 with for November.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Oct 22

We had a lot on our plate today. We’d finished the blog last night at 11:00 p.m., but then added a link after it had been published.

This morning we had to get ready to leave for the day, but first, John had to meet our farrier in the driveway to hold our horse, Myst, for her feet trimming. They were done in time for us to take off for town after 11:00 a.m. to pick up a friend (Kristin Ashley) in Ellensburg, and drive to Cle Elum. The haze was really bad because of a high pressure system hanging over our region until Tuesday, and no winds predicted to carry it away.
Kristin works at the nearby Wild Horse Wind energy site, and gives tours. She says when there is no wind, people ask more questions.
The drive to Cle Elum on I-90 usually is picturesque, featuring Mt. Stuart (as I have shown previously in this blog), but today, it was totally grayed out in the haze.

We got to town, picked up Kristin, and our first stop was at the KVH Clinic for John’s and my Pneumonia (PPV-23) vaccines. There was a slight delay in signing in and getting a nurse to provide the shots, but it allowed us a little time to visit before leaving Kristin in the waiting room. We were happy to be met by Triage nurse, Lacey, who often calls me with my blood test reports every month. I had never met her in person. We left and drove to the other end of the small town to go to the Cottage Café. We had $20 off our meals there from our Anniv. in July and my birthday in Sept. We had already used John’s January coupon. Nice thing about that restaurant is you can use your birthday or anniv gift anytime during the year, not just in the month your birthday or anniv falls, as is the case with The Palace in Ellensburg.

Our trip home we took by way of Lambert Rd, the Teanaway River, Taylor Bridge Rd, Hwy 10, with views of the Yakima River and geological features.

My Photos Link to our Fall Colors Trip

Tuesday, Oct 23

I decided to get up early and begin planning for this week and the next two, that I have put off. I also decided against going to town today. I hope I don’t win a big (or little) prize at Bi-Mart. You have to be present to win on Tuesdays.

I have accomplished several things for Friday’s luncheon, but still have a bunch to do (wash and dry apples to take for eating and for giveaway). John took me out to sort what I wanted. He and Annie are back out tending to other things in the yard and barn, while there is still daylight.

We had a good brunch to tide us over. I managed to order some meds for John, make some phone calls, and do a bunch of organizing emails, charge my FitBit, count out some of the utensils and plates needed for Friday’s luncheon. I got some more stuff from the car to add to the mix (cups and decorated plates), but still have to make Crystal Light Lemonade to serve as the beverage. John fixed the labels on the 2-liter cola bottles to indicate the contents.

I’m now taking a break to write the AAC people in charge about the upcoming Nov 9 Veterans’ Day celebration planning.

Continued working the rest of the afternoon and evening in the house, and John outside on numerous projects. One thing he did was cart old dried cottonwood cut to fireplace size to the road with a big FREE sign. Someone stopped and took some, so he replenished the stack a couple days later. We have plenty of Ponderosa pine, if we need to fuel our wood stove.

Wednesday, Oct 24

Today was a normal Wednesday: get my salad ready for taking to the Food Bank, where I play music with others, and stay after for the meal. While there I greet the Senior Nutrition table (mostly filled with people I know by name at the Senior Center). They love our music and always sing along (from the opposite end of the building). A couple of them also follow from there to participate at the AAC in the SAIL exercise class. Several of the musicians also have joined the Senior Nutrition program and we have to sign in with our electronic card for ID. The gov’t provides this service, helping cover some of the costs of nutritious food, and oddly enough, age or income is not a factor. Ironically, the original pot of money funding this was provided by the Tobacco companies. I also carried in several pair of slacks to give to Evelyn to try on, from the smallest ones given to me (down to size 8).
From there on to SAIL exercise class and then home to tackle things needed completed for Thursday and Friday. I did run by a couple of places with deliveries and to pick up my medications.

Thursday, Oct 25

Slept in until 8:00 a.m. Awoke to a message my dessert baker is ill and cannot make dessert for tomorrow’s luncheon. I called and talked to my friend Pennie at the Super 1 Bakery, and she has set aside in their cooler, a cheesecake sliced into 16 pieces with toppings of plain, caramel, chocolate, strawberry, and orange. I’ll stop by to retrieve today after I finish our music at Hearthstone, and while there, I’ll pick up two medications for John. Then John and I will turn around and go back to town for an Ice Age Floods chapter lecture about the Manastash Anticline (rock layers bend up). This one is in Juniata County, Pennsylvania; Route 322.I will videotape it. My camera is all charged up and ready to roll.

First, my report of our music at Hearthstone. We were short a couple who were sick, but had a good bunch there and did a fine job.
Dean Allen (our harmonica player & singer) brought his little brown jug and told the story behind it, right before we sang the song, “Little Brown Jug.” It’s a quite old bottle (maybe to the 1850s), originally with “stomach bitters” in it. The old label is still almost intact. Dean has written up his story on how he acquired it, but I will save that for next week, and just add a teaser of photo of parts, now.Top of label is on left and middle of label is on right.Raised letters on the glass bottle and a handwritten note about Dean Allen’s first haircut, 75 yrs ago, taped to the bottom of the bottle. More of his story to be continued …

We went by Burger King for a special offer on two Crispy chicken sandwiches, and I got nervous waiting forever for them to deep fry the chicken. I returned to the car and told John I wondered if they had to go out back and butcher the chicken before fixing. I had waited ~ 15 minutes! Hence, we were late getting to our normal front row seats, but kindly the people there ahead of us all shifted over to allow us to be on the end in front of the screen to which the speaker planned to point. The 6 folks only had to move one seat to their left.

The speaker was Harvey Kelsey, Research Associate in Geology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. His topic was the Manastash Anticline (which forms the south side of our Kittitas Valley).

The full title of his talk is: The story of a Yakima fold — the Manastash anticline — and how it informs backarc deformation in the Cascadia subduction zone over the past 15 million years

His abstract goes into more detail, and more detail in the video:

The Yakima folds of central Washington are prominent anticlines that are the primary tectonic features of the backarc of the northern Cascadia subduction zone. What accounts for their topographic expression and how much strain do they accommodate and over what time period? We investigate Manastash anticline, a north-vergent fault propagation fold typical of structures in the fold province. From analysis of cross sections, the crust has horizontally shortened by 11% (0.8-0.9 km). The fold, and by inference all other folds in the fold province, formed no earlier than 15.6 million years ago as they developed on a landscape that was reset to negligible relief following voluminous outpouring of Grande Ronde Basalt. Deformation is accommodated on two fault sets including west-northwest-striking frontal thrust faults and shorter north- to northeast-striking faults. The frontal thrust fault system is active with late Quaternary scarps at the base of the range front. The fault-cored Manastash anticline terminates to the east at the Naneum anticline and fault; activity on the north-trending Naneum structures predates emplacement of the Grande Ronde Basalt. The west-trending Yakima folds and west-striking thrust faults, the shorter north to northeast striking faults, and the Naneum fault together define the deformational framework in the backarc of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

My video follows – please, realize it is “unlisted” and not publicly shared on YouTube. You must have the link to reach it.

IAF Ellensburg Chapter-Harvey Kelsey, Manastash Anticline

The Apple Corer-Slicer arrived in our mailbox and John brought it to the house. Our mail mostly comes between 3 and 5 PM – this was near the end of that. Talk about cutting it short. We cleaned it and took it along to the luncheon on Friday.

Friday, Oct 26

I worked on packing the stuff I need to take tomorrow to the luncheon. John fixed the apples to carry along. He’ll help me in with all my stuff: two boxes of apples, brown lunch bags to take away 3+ apples each (Honeycrisp & Gala), a box with cheesecake, two 2-liter bottles of Crystal Light, plates, utensils, apple corer/slicer, plastic ware, container of Cheez-its, serving things, and more. I carried a bag full of the lighter of stuff. Luckily, we did it in one trip with my trusty old pull luggage carrier to stack upon, and having the parking lot just behind Bouillon. The elevator dumped us out just one door away from where we were headed.

Here are pictures, including of a gift we received from Bobbi Broderius’ family. They used one of our timeshares to exchange from our PNW ownership to one in Kauai, HI. Bobbi, Nancy, Amy – Table setup for Scholarship Luncheon “from both sides now!”

Hand-carved wooden turtle from Kauai, served as guard for Ruth Harrington’s scholarship fund and is seen above at far end of our table.

Amy McCoy’s daughter, Madelyn made us her special corn muffins to complete our dinner. She is a senior in high school. Mom Amy added honey butter, and made the crockpot of chili with all the sides. Thanks to Monica Bruya for bringing the veggies (carrots, celery, orange pepper) – not pictured below, to add to our festive table.Madelyn’s corn muffins, Amy’s chili, onions, sour cream, cheese, missing veggies, Cheez-its®; my corn muffin with honey butter. Desserts/sides: Hot Apple Cider & festive straws (Amy), cored & sliced apples by John, Caramel apple dip (Amy), varied Cheesecake (Nancy & Super 1), Halloween candy corn & decorations (Amy). We found the apple slicer worked best on the smaller apples. With the big ones, seeds and endocarp (?) have to be cut away.

Do you know the history of candy corn?

Candy corn – stacked thusly, it does look like an ear of corn!

Photos from Luncheon Today

John and I had picked the apples from the Eberhart’s Orchard, on 4th Parallel Rd, after the commercial pickers left. We doled out 3+ apples to those there in the little brown paper bags, and we sent the remaining sliced apples with Ruth to her 1:00 p.m. group today. John returned in time for a bowl of the wonderful chili and corn muffin, and then helped me clean up and carry home our stuff. Thanks to Amy for all she did for the day.

Before coming home, we also made an unusual stop (for us) at Fred Meyer to check out their good price (88₵) for a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi if you bought at least 4 or more. We bought 6 of each (Pepsi & Pepsi Zero). While there we bought 8 PowerAdeZero for me at the best price currently in town, 69₵/32 oz. John had seen an ad in the paper for Fred Meyer having Red Baron pizza for $1.99 limit 5. That’s a great price, but it required a digital coupon. Not having a smartphone, we could use (John’s was home), and we were traveling in my car with my cell (not smart), so I asked if we could work out the price somehow. They figured it out and we went away saving $10 on 5 pizzas.

Saturday, Oct 27

I was very tired from this week’s activities. John got up before I did, but I slept in late to recoup.

We had an incredible brunch put on by Chef John. We shared a totally blue-throughout pancake filled with blueberries. It was topped with peaches, and served with two sausage patties; no room on the plate for eggs. This should get us through the day.

I’ve been busy washing dishes, many left over from yesterday’s luncheon fixing and serving.
John and Annie come and go – doing things. The weather is threatening to rain as it gets darker. Soon the cats will be arriving for their evening vittles.

I have spent much time on the computer as well. I have finalized the send of the Earth Science Weekly to 100 people of what Mark Francek (Geographer extraordinaire) sends every week. This week’s version came at 5:04 a.m. this morning. I was asleep.

Much of my time today was spent finalizing two recently taken videos to distribute to those interested.

I just looked out and saw two cats, so I added some hard food to their bowls. When I went out, I heard John mowing at the end of the driveway. Now as I was adjusting the drying of the dishes, I heard him coming down the drive on the riding lawnmower. He says he ran out earlier and had walked back for gasoline, but while here, he raked walnut tree leaves. He’s tired of that. Some years the wind blows them away, but once wet, they make a ground cover that doesn’t move much. They will end up in the garden as fresh organic matter.

I’m now finalizing another video to send out for review. Just got it sent.

Soon, we have to feed the cats their canned food. John is still out tying up loose ends, as the cold and dark season approaches. Sue (yellow cat) just came in the rain, and had some hard food and a few bites of pâté (paste ?) and bits.

I did take some photos today of the wooden turtle from Kauai, HI. We still have yet to find out the type of wood – probably is Monkey Pod wood or maybe Koa. Actually to my eyes, it looks like Myrtle wood, but I don’t know of that being grown in Hawaii. However, there are over 800 varieties of trees grown in Hawaii! Turtle’s underside – flash vs. no flash – to better see, Kauai 2018

Note: if any of our friends wish to utilize one of our RCI timeshares, we space-bank them ahead for 2 years (and they have to be used or are lost). We cannot travel together any more, and stay away for a week. But, we are happy to share a week anywhere in the world for the cost of the exchange fees. Right now that is $400/week for anywhere in the world that one is available and the sooner the better you make the reservation, the better your chances. Please contact us well in advance for exotic places. If you pick a place with a few hours’ drive, I can save you the guest certificate fee by driving along with you and checking in, spend a night, or two, and return home. Please do not hesitate to ask. I used to use them to go to Geography conferences and would stay the week in neat places, sharing with friends. Once we had 6 people in a unit in South Lake Tahoe. Other places I went included St. Augustine, FL, Honolulu, HI, San Francisco, CA, and Whistler BC, Canada.

Sunday, Oct 28

I was still tired from the past couple of week’s activities, so after going to bed late and listening to the rain all night, I slept in. Started working on the blog and photos to get ready.

John went out for morning chores before it started raining, and returned to fix an incredible mix of things for our noon brunch. I’m calling this the Naneum Fan Special, and I had to take a photo of my plate to share:Naneum Fan Special by John: Two eggs over easy topped with white cheddar, hash browns, sausage patty, our own strawberries are hiding half a pancake, stuffed with chopped pecans.

Before the rain today, John got rid of the rain from yesterday and last night, by starting the siphoning of water from barrels on our front porch. House is not designed well. There is a roof-valley that dumps right at the front door. There are no rain gutters, and if there were, they would likely ice over in winter. Heating tape up there and in gutters might work. Might?

Sun came out and John thought he could go out for activities, but at 2:00 it is raining again, but the sun is still shining, so somewhere in the valley there is a rainbow. We can’t see much from the house.

Minus a rainbow, I will tell you a nice saving a reptile story from my friend, Elise, in New Jersey. She’s always sending me wonderful close-up photos of wildlife, flowers, insects, and landscapes from her trips to a nearby park. This just came through ½ hour ago.

I saved a copperhead today!  He was on the side of the road, leaving the park, but this road is narrow, so when 2 cars pass, you have to move all the way over, which would have killed him.
 
He was big, about 2.5 feet +/-.  Someone pulled over, got out (I guess to see if I needed help) and told me, “Ya know that’s a copperhead right?  He’s a big one”.  I said yeah, I know, but he still does not deserve to die; I am just trying to get him off the road…with a really long stick!  He was so sluggish because it was 49 degrees.  He tried to strike but in more of a leave me alone kind of thing. 
 
So I found a really long, like 6-7′ stick and left some branches on it to block him.  I got him on the stick and in the brush (it was about a foot embankment for him so he probably would not have made it).  I do hope he gets to a warm place.  It’s not that I like venomous snakes, but still…I do like reptiles, though.

For supper: Onions from the garden as beer-battered rings, baked chicken, and Butternut squash.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

The year is near being used up — get busy.

Monday, Oct 15

To cheer up this post, I will start with two lovely photos from my longtime friend, Nancy J (Maude Buszek, photographer) with two photos she drove from Michigan 3 hours southwest of her home to take photos at an historical farm in Shipshewana, IN.

This is from Amish country, the 3rd largest concentration in the USA. Two of Maude’s farm views – Buttermilk clouds and a disk harrow.
{search ‘images’ for horse drawn disc harrow}

Our day in WA started very early by publishing the previous week’s blog at 12:12 a.m. We both slept in later than usual.

The morning was filled with normal chores and new ones. One thing I had to do was load my medicines for the week, when I realized I was running low on one. I had already planned to go pick up two I ordered last week. I was surprised to have the new request waiting for me when I went in after calling the same day.

Today, apple sorting is first on the agenda, when it warms up a little. John drove his car up to our front gate, so I had access to the landline as I was expecting a call that actually never came through. While we were sorting into boxes to give to the Senior Center (AAC), our neighbor Louaine, Roberta B, and Amy, we got a phone call from Mary Ann M. thanking us for the apples we took her on Saturday, saying she had shared them and everyone was thrilled. We had offered to bring her more, especially because her granddaughter likes to make applesauce and dehydrate them. She was letting us know she would love to have some more for another friend. So, we added two more boxes for her.

We left for town, dropping off a box with our neighbor, and then on to the AAC to give them a large box with 3 different kinds, mostly Honeycrisp, which we had not taken previously. We retrieved all 3 empty boxes today. I stayed for SAIL exercise and John read news using the WiFi. Meanwhile, they repacked the apples in small brown bags – one of our ill-thought purchases at Costco. On the way out in the parking lot, we gave a box to Roberta. This coming Saturday, John will be going to her backyard to retrieve English walnuts she has collected. He will take our own containers so we don’t have to return hers.

We had to go by the pharmacy to get two of my prescriptions, and while there, John picked up a few other groceries we needed. We drove on to Mary Ann’s house, dropped off apples, and on to fill his gas tank. Luckily, we found the least expensive in town at Circle K for $3.36; the 7-11s were both up to $3.50 & 3.54! John talked to the man filling their pumps, asking where the gasoline originated. He said it was sent by pipeline from Billings, MT to Moses Lake (50 miles east), where he had picked it up.

Add the ending stop by Amy’s to deliver apples and go north of town to drop off WSJs to a gal that works at airport storage and is a business student who appreciates receiving them.

Lindsey Babcock of the Bureau of Land Management called at 1:17, 10/15/18 while we were gone, left a number to return her call, in Spokane, but it was after her work hours when we returned, as they close at 4:00 p.m. She wanted to interview John about a trail maintenance WTA trip he was on recently at Fish Trap Lake (9/29). I spent a bunch of time searching for a connection by email and finally found one. She is the District Manager at the Spokane Office of BLM. I managed to get a message forwarded to her to call us in the morning after 8:30 a.m. I ended up finding a web link still published on the web which produced a 404 error, so I reported it to the BLM contact who forwarded my email to Lindsey. It was a win-win situation. She was actually in Portland at the main office. I had found the original news release of when Lindsey was hired in WA in 2015.

Two weeks ago in the blog I posted a link to the Yakima Herald article about one of John’s trips to maintain trails. I also shared it on my Facebook page, and it was commented on by several students, from our past, but the most interesting was from a young woman who knew both John and me as her teachers. She now lives in Leavenworth. I might have mentioned this previously, and that she wrote back her interest in hiking. So, next year, John will coordinate to stop and take her along – if the timing works. Meanwhile, another friend who works for WTA as a crew leader, also lives in Leavenworth, so we have introduced them.

Tuesday, Oct 16

I’m not going to town today, but will stay home to get well.

This morning started off with a 7:52 a.m. telemarketer call from Jacksonville, FL (EST – we are 3 hours earlier in PST). It just rang once and hung up.

Last month, our music group was forced to sit in a weird arrangement and we had issues with hearing and timing. Terri (the activities director at Pacifica Senior Living) where we play this week, presented the dilemma about our music group’s positioning to the Executive Director about the need to move the two heavy tables we are not allowed to touch. She asked for my emails to be forwarded to her (I offered that option to Terri on Sunday). They promised to fix this. Their staff will be moving two heavy granite-topped tables so we can set up in front of the piano.

I ordered the Chevy (1980) truck’s license sticker, but it had expired so I had to pay for it and speed up the delivery by picking it up at the courthouse. I’m not quite sure why that is required.

Wednesday, Oct 17

John left at 5:45 a.m. for Soaring Eagle, a King County Park, 17 miles east of Seattle. He took Gala apples (some washed for the crew) and a separate box for LeeAnne, the crew leader. She got a Butternut squash too, ’cause she cooks.

I put out dry food for the outside cats. When John went out with Annie (in the dark) to open the gate and start his car, he passed Czar, eating near the front door; the companion cat he is, he walked all the way up the long driveway with them in the dark for John to open the gate and he came back with them to the front door. That activity always amuses us.
I took another dose of Tussin Dm because of congestion, and went back to bed until 8:30.

I had previously decided I would skip SAIL exercise today, but this morning, I decided I would not go to the FISH Food Bank for noon music either. John left me some egg omelet and sausage that he took from the freezer. If I had gone to play, I eat there.

I called the doctor’s office in Cle Elum to confirm plans for when we could go in for our Pneumonia shots (PPV-23) when nurses were available (best times are before 11:30 or after 1:30), so we have to figure our timing around that for combining with the need to go with our friend to the Cottage Café on Monday.
I didn’t call until 3:30, and reached her.
Worked on dishes, emails, and charging batteries and phone, and John called to say when he was leaving and would be home.

He was within 3 minutes of the time expected (5:00). Except for the 2 ends, the trip is all on I-90. Unless there is an accident, the timing is easy to calculate.
His trip to the trail work was good, but a bit chilly at the start. No hills. The park (Soaring Eagle) is on a large pile of glacial material left 13,000 years ago when the ice melted.

Thursday, Oct 18

Slept in until almost 9:00 a.m.
I set up the email list for contact with the Scholarship luncheon (new group this year), for putting out an announcement Monday for our Friday hosting event (Amy McCoy & me). I completed that chore, so Monday’s job is ½ done. Now to write the memo to go to the group members. Oh! I have to select apples and make 2 jugs of drink, plus pick up a dessert my friend Amy is making for me to take.

We played at Pacifica today. I requested of Terri, 11 chairs. It went well with the new set up. The staff had moved the tables and cleared a lot of room for us. It’s probably the best it has ever been, except we miss the old Classic Coca-Cola chairs they disposed of when they did away with their old soda fountain memorabilia room. I’m sure that is the worst remodeling decision by the new management they could ever make.

As soon as I could get away, I drove to the AAC with a hand full of brown paper lunch bag size bags, for them to use for putting in produce people donate and bring in to give to the members. That’s how our donated apples we picked across the valley, and before that our plums, and other produce were distributed. Pre-bagging makes things simpler for the staff.

On the way back I went by the Courthouse for the truck license tab with my receipt from paying on line yesterday. It was an easy transfer without a very long wait. I found 27₵ in the parking lot when I got out of my car. One of the pennies was bright and new looking, so there was a little girl coming to get in the car next to me, and I handed it to her, with good wishes. It is a thing I learned long ago as a kid—that if you found a penny it was good luck, and if you gave it away, it took luck with it to the recipient as well. It does make people smile, and that’s good.

From there I drove to Briarwood to take 8 large apples to Lee Kiesel – ½ were Jonagolds and ½ were Honeycrisp. She is going to use them to fix something special for serving Saturday at the meal they fix for us following our playing music. Only five of us can be there to play (small number). She plans to make cabbage & Tortellini soup (see the write-up on Saturday for the rest of the story), and there will be other food. They put on quite a spread every month on the 3rd Saturday.

I delivered the plums (dried) and packaged that I bought at Costco for my friend Gloria. She and her sister met me downstairs at Hearthstone with money and I gave them change and the goods.

We went back to town for the Kittitas Audubon general meeting to a very nice presentation: Ken Bevis: Forest Wildlife, Stewardship – Plus a Few Songs.

It was a fabulous performance tonight.  I videotaped it and will share (after I get permission), with a few friends and also with people from Kittitas Audubon (KAS) I have emails for (and here eventually as well).
Okay, got it: so here is the link . . . {If it does not start at the beginning, pull the slider back so it does. }

The fellow is a kick: a musician, a scientist, and bird lover.  I bought a CD from him of songs he has written and recorded.  It is worth the $. He was singing alone tonight, and none of those songs are on the CD. It has much more involved songs, and with other instruments, and singers, although he is still the lead guitarist and singer. He sang songs tonight with his talk about Bears, Bull Trout, Hummingbirds, and other critters.  Ken is an entertainer, talented, and presented a good talk about forest health, wildlife, and trees.  His style is unique and enjoyable; you’ll see in the video what I mean. He definitely keeps one’s attention.

John and I didn’t get home until 9:00 p.m. and we hadn’t had supper or fed the cats.  I managed to feed two cats but the other two must have filled up on dry food and left for their favorite sleeping place (wherever that might be).  Actually another showed up to eat the rest of the food left on the one plate. I fixed myself a nice salad, and John had a baked potato, leftover chicken (an already baked thigh), and some of my Cheez-its I use as croutons.

Friday, Oct 19

We both slept in this morning, but I stayed lying down longer than John. Early, I did take care of feeding hard pellets to the outside cats.

I got dressed to go to Kittitas. I went by way of Thomas Rd to Fairview, and there was a loose black cow on the side of the road. I always call 911 to report such a sighting, and they are grateful, sending out some deputies to find and notify the owner. I know the owner on the south side, but not on the north. Our horses have been out on the road once, were reported, and I have spoken with deputies about ours previously. It’s a nice gesture for law enforcement to be so supportive of the open range area.

My trip was to take two boxes of apples John packed into the back of my car, to the Kittitas Neighborhood Pantry. There I got carrying help from a client. They weighed in at 61# total (a box of Galas @ 39# (actually a smaller apple) and a smaller box of larger Honeycrisp apples at 22#. They were very much appreciated and we were asked to bring more back next week. So we will.

I’m also going to take some already washed to give at least two to all dozen people at Ruth Harrington’s Scholarship luncheon which I’m co-hosting on Friday.

While there, I went around the back to the clothing bank and found two pair of slacks in my new size. One is a purplish red cotton, and the other is a light tan pair of light corduroy; both are rather neat. While there, I donated some time helping sort the jeans and slacks into the proper size stacks. They become mixed up and disheveled incredibly fast. I moved one size 22 from the 16s, and an 8 from the 22s. The 14s had several different sizes mixed in as well. I never tackled any other stacks, because I had to get home. Two ladies volunteering were happy for the help and they could use more.

On my way home I went from Fairview to Rader, to the corner where the large Lavender farm is. She has requested on the Buy Nothing East Ellensburg site before that she needs packing materials so I always share ours from Amazon. This was a large load of air-filled bags that was big enough for a white garbage bag. I had removed them from the large box I used a week ago to take the CPAP machine and all my supplies to loan to Suzy West.

Tomorrow I’m taking some slacks to Briarwood to share in their laundry room giveaway shelves (after I offer the people there for our music to check and take out any to try on). If some go unclaimed, I’ll pick them up and carry them to Kittitas.
Currently, they have more than will fit on their shelves in Kittitas.

Saturday, Oct 20

John plans to go to town this morning with plastic bottles and glass to recycle and tubs and buckets to hold walnuts. They are in the lady’s containers now, but John doesn’t want to have to go back again. He also bought some gasoline without ethanol and additives to use in our yard/garden equipment. I forgot to say one of his chores the day before was mowing the grass on either side of our fence along the county road. That helps to reduce fuel for fire started by passing vehicles, and it makes the approach to our place look better.

The purloined walnuts have messy black husks from a bad case of Walnut Husk Fly. { LINK; with photos – Yuk! }
We have managed to keep ours somewhat under control by cleaning them up quickly – even taking walnuts off the trees before they would naturally fall. The link suggest how to do more, so next year that will happen. The husks are get messy and black but that doesn’t damage the nut. John has about half of them cleaned (about ½ bushel) and doused the remainder with bleach infused water.

I drove to town to play music, visit, and partake of the Briarwood buffet.
It was an interesting afternoon. We only had 5 players there (Maury & Marilyn, Gerald, Me, & Dean), but a full house of wonderful singers to be our chorus. We even sang Happy Birthday to Katie and Betty there, for Amy’s yesterday, and Lee pointed out that we didn’t remember to sing for me last month, so I was also included. Afterwards, they served us a delicious feast. None of us will need to eat any supper tonight. The main course was very hot soup made by Lee Kiesel (in photo with me below). Ingredients included Italian sausage, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, with Tortellini. We had rolls with butter on the side to have with the soup. Everyone there agreed it was Lee’s best soup ever, and she said it is even her favorite. She was sorry that Roberta Clark wasn’t able to be there, because she had apparently told her she wanted to taste her version of that soup. I don’t know those details, but I will give Roberta the message.

They had their normal large dessert table in the place where they usually have salads, except you’ll see the Honeycrisp apples with the special dip were placed on that table.  In addition, at the end, we were served a hot crockpot Cherry Crisp topped with a lot of vanilla ice cream, and with our meal a cup of hot apple cider also in a crockpot. You can see why I called it a food fest!
They always decorate with a seasonal theme (on the wall, the plates, napkins, and tables). It’s a class act, and we certainly appreciate their efforts.

Dean brought his little brown jug and told the story behind it – a very, very old bottle, originally with Stomach Bitters in it.  The old label is still almost intact. I missed getting a photo of it and will have to remember next Thursday to take my camera and add it to next week’s blog, along with the entire story about where and how he acquired it. I’m sure he will continue bringing it through November, while we are still including the song, Little Brown Jug.

Here are a few captures of the day:Maury, my plate, Marilyn, & Gerald, other residents waiting to eat.
Desserts with Honeycrisp apples and Jo Ellen serving Cherry Crisp with ice cream.End of crockpot cherry crisp, served with ice cream and hot cider with our whole meal

At the end, a resident, Aaron took our photo:A little out of focus, but it is touchy to go only ½ down to focus on my camera and then follow through. I often mess it up myself. This shows me with Lee Kiesel, who was the one who made the wonderful soup and cut up the Honeycrisp apples I took her, made a fabulous dip (cream cheese, with puffed marshmallow crème, & pineapple juice). She and I enjoyed eating more apples and dip than anyone there. Beforehand, we were talking about my pants matching her shirt, and now that I see this photo, I realize she is a little shorter than I, and the pants were too short on me, so I have put them in a bag to take her. She wears the same size. I have another pair of slacks that match the green, but I think her pants match the pink in the shirt better. How funny. I do have a pair of “pink” pants, so I will not have to take hers.

Sunday, Oct 21

We are having sunny fall days. John has been outside removing a few rocks and old firewood of Cottonwood and Poplar. He made a “free” sign and piled some of the wood near the road. His sign is on an old plastic sled and he used funny spelling and spacing. The sign is odd and so is he.

I have been inside all day working on various projects, including this blog, listening to my new CD from Thursday night, processing the video, photos from recent takes, washing dishes, cutting produce to freeze, and other non-exciting things.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

John wrote a two-part follow-up to the Liberty Lake Bridge Project from the last couple of weeks. It’s a nice pictorial educational discussion.

The specific entry links are below for the future, or just scroll down from this week’s blog post:

(1) Cedar Grove — Part One

(2) PART TWO: CGB Project
Yep, John wasn’t consistent in naming the parts, a few days apart.

Monday, Oct 8

We started by visiting the foot doctor for both our toe nail clips we get periodically, funded by Medicare. Next one is in January, so that will cost us because of the roll-over of deductibles that restart the beginning of the year. Today was covered.
From there, we went to the senior center to use their Wi-Fi to download some updates to John’s “Smart” phone, which requires a Wi-Fi access. John’s phone was initially set-up there so as we walked in, it immediately connected. Our home Wi-Fi is not connected to the outside world.

While we waited for Katrina to get done with a meeting, I asked John to take my picture in another “new” outfit. Here I am:What’s behind my head; my new plum pants; the Swan gourd.

It took 10 minutes but we got it done, and something else was updated as well. We each had a computer in the AAC’s computer room, while we waited. John was able to check on the progress of the hurricane over western Cuba, headed to the panhandle of Florida. I was able to manage some emails on several accounts. We left for lunch and returned for me to attend my SAIL exercise class. John had taken along my birthday present book on WA Geology, so he had a good read while I had a good session. We stopped by Super 1 on the way home. It was raining nicely for the rest of the afternoon.

Continued all night and filled our barrel out front, under the roof’s valley.
The next morning, I took a photo of the clever barrel setup John engineered from free barrels given to us on the Buy Nothing Facebook site. First picture is John’s start of the water flowing for the demo, which had operated through the night from roof runoff.The video that follows demonstrates the cleverness at work of “engineer” John, reforming these plastic barrels given to us in damaged condition. The short white one had to be cut off to be useful. The taller one is bottom up, with the bottom cut out.

Barrels Capturing Roof Runoff at our Front Door

Connection from our past with a student from the 1990s at CWU.

In last week’s blog, I shared two newspaper stories about the day John went to the woods to assist with WTA trail building near Roslyn, only 35 miles from our home. I shared on Facebook the first story from the Yakima Herald, and got a couple of comments. The most interesting was from a student from the 1990s at CWU, who knew both John and me. We knew her by one name and she now goes by a different first name and her last name is her married name. She is interested in hiking and will be interested in working with John in future projects when he goes through Leavenworth (where she lives) on his way to WTA projects past Stevens Pass. He can pick her up on his way through and take her to the work site. She wants to give back to help with the trails she so much enjoys using.

Tuesday, Oct 9

John left at 11:30 to pick apples and I left at 11:45 for Costco, but came back by way of Ellensburg. John picked a bunch of Jonagolds and Galas. At the Eberhart Orchard he found lots of apples and a nice view of the Kittitas Valley. Our place is way across, about 12 miles, at the center line of the car.I filled my car with gasoline at only 3.19/gal (in Ellensburg it’s up to 3.35/gal). John has to fill up tomorrow or Tuesday. Oops, just checked the Costco price. It’s up to 3.25/gal. We are usually 10₵ higher up here.

I picked up both our meds, had a sandwich for lunch and brought ½ home to John (Baked Turkey & Provolone). The Wests introduced us to that the last time we were there for lunch with them. Also got some Sunset Plums/Prunes for my friend Gloria.

I took pictures too. The drink is not Coke, rather it’s PowerAdeZero. I took in my insulated bottle holder.My half sandwich, with my bottle of PowerAdeZero – The pointy hill is now called Pushtay. It was changed from a name some thought was derogatory, and the State accepted a change proposed from the Yakama Nation, the Wanapum Indians and U.S. Army. If you want to know more about this one and many more, there’s a book with the subtitle of How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame, by Mark Monmonier (a geographer). LINK

Wednesday, Oct 10

I was up at 6:30 and stayed up because of being worried about so many things I have left to do before Friday. I didn’t get to the main one, but made a dent in all the rest.

I went to FISH Food Bank for noon music and then to SAIL and by Amy’s to drop off some garden/orchard stuff.
John’s going to unload apples and work with his walnut harvest (Carpathians, not black), and not pick apples until tomorrow.

I wore another pair of pants of the new bunch, a navy blue pair by some company with only 3 initials (EHL). [John says: This is one of those companies that bought another via a huge debt, and then filed for bankruptcy a year later {1995}. EHL = Eddie Haggar Ltd.]
With them I added a nice smaller fancy dressy sweatshirt in light blue. I took my camera along to the AAC for SAIL and asked one of our new AmeriCorps folks, Roxanne Laush, to take my picture in the same place I took hers yesterday. Optical illusion. I’m really not smaller than Roxanne, but I wanted more of my outfit in the photo so that’s what I got. This is another new outfit with smaller clothes size, both gifted.

Thursday, Oct 11

Called Roberta’s cell phone requesting 12 chairs for KV F&F playing at Meadows Place. A baker’s dozen actually came to play: Amy, Charlie, Dean, Evie (stands), Gerald, Kevin, Laura, Manord, Marilyn, Maury, Minerva, Nancy, & Sharon.

John and I planned our schedules so he would meet me at the Senior Center after my music. He delivered 2 boxes of apples for the staff to wash and dry. They have clay (white Kaolin) sprayed on for insect control, and where sun is intense, for lessening of sunburn. [Web photo]

I wrapped up my case with the violin to keep it warm. We went in John’s blue car to focus on picking Honeycrisp apples. Some are very large, and some have issues. We got about 15 odd boxes – some wine boxes, but others too.

I came home and spent a lot of time cleaning off the table that housed the CPAP machine so I could get to the parts and the power cord to clean up. Need to sort and pack the other supplies and put all in a box to transfer to Suzy when she comes from west of Yakima, to visit her mom. Mom is now in an assisted living facility in EBRG.

Friday, Oct 12

I talked with Cody at our Cle Elum doctor’s office. She checked on medication conflicts with Robitussin Dm cough syrup, none, so then I called around to find the best price. John is going to town to deliver some apples to a couple people and to go by Bi-Mart for getting the liquid to treat my cough that has gotten worse, plus with added congestion. Bi-Mart was the only place that had the 8-ounce one I wanted, (others only had 4 oz), and theirs was $10.99. If I doubled the 4-ounce price from Rite-Aid, it would have been $14.29; Super 1 would have been $13.96. Bi-Mart wins, and I will get the larger bottle. John got there and realized they had the GoodSense generic version of the same exact cough syrup bottle for 3 bucks, $8 less !! – it’s named Tussin Dm. That is really quite incredible, but it’s doing the job well and I’m grateful to John for looking.

While at Bi-Mart he also bought a bunch of 40-lb. bags of Black Oil Sunflower seeds, at $17.99 each. This is way down from the ones he bought a week or so ago, in the mid-$20s range, at a feed store. Also, Bi-Mart’s normal price on them is $24.00.

While in town, John is dropping off some apples to our friend, Mary Ann Macinko, and we will take more by next week for others of her friends and relatives. He also took a big box by to our new neighbors, who recently moved to Ellensburg. We met the mom and her 3 daughters, but have yet to meet the dad, who was at work.

I stayed home today to get well and go through paperwork. I made a few phone calls, worked on the computer, the dishes, and forgot to make a couple of phone calls I needed to, even after remembering to make several. Guess I needed to make a to-do list to follow today, to keep me on track.

Saturday, Oct 13 . . . . My parents anniv., 1937

I slept in after getting up the first time and putting food out for the cats at 6:30. Once up, I check our joint email and found a note from our friend, Suzy West, that she would be coming up to visit her mom in Hearthstone today, so we await a call this afternoon to go in and meet her after she makes a trip to the parents home (now with one of the kids there) to pick up some stuff.

I’ve been finishing packing up my CPAP machine and all the supplies for her to have to try out and use. I no longer need to use it, because my heart is providing sufficient SpO2 to my blood during sleeping time (the only reason I was put on it).

While working on the “stuff”, I got a call from a gal in my exercise class, and I just put her on speaker phone and kept talking. My cold symptoms are much better after using the cough syrup John got for me yesterday, and I’m still taking it when needed (only once today).

John is busy building a structure in our little once-red barn. It is a raised platform, about 6 feet off the dirt floor. The bags of bird food will go there and not have mice get into them. Is hope a plan? Anyway, it is starting to get near freezing in early morning if the sky is clear. Apples are there now, but will have to be moved into the house or garage soon.

I have fixed my brunch (eggs, sausage, tomato, toast), and John has returned to eat his lunch (re-heated pizza). We await a call from Suzy, that came at 3:30 and I managed to locate John to drive to town. We returned a couple hours later. 

First stop, Super 1 parking lot to turn over the box of CPAP stuff. We gave her about 15 pounds of apples, with 3 different kinds. 
The back of our car when we left for town, had things for several people. Pictured are the apples and the CPAP box full.One apple box went to Wests, other to Mary Ann Macinko, and the right box was the CPAP machine and parts, plus supplies.

After the delivery in the parking lot, we went to Bi-Mart for three more bags of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and some of my Fisherman Friends cough drops (original strength, menthol).  
Then on to Briarwood to deliver some clothing to a lady and her husband. I have known her brother through music since the 1990s). And, one more stop at the Pacifica Senior Living Apartments on Mountain View, to drop off apples with Mary Ann.  She has many friends and relatives in EBRG, so may take more to her is she unloads these.

Sunday, Oct 14

Day began with emergency events for neighbors and for one of our outside cats, Czar. John took care of opening the gate and feeding the horses, and now is driving our neighbor to KVH to pick up his brother’s van, after the brother drove himself in with a heart attack last night. Brother was carried to Yakima, and is now doing well – we guess – after procedures in the Cardiac catheterization unit. However, yesterday, the well brother’s truck blew its radiator when about 50 miles from here. Problems galore for this family.

On John’s way out, he spoke to one of our outside cats, Woody, and yelled at me to come feed her. When Czar heard his voice, he meowed from behind the door of our shed, where he spent the night (John was in and out of it working yesterday afternoon). I should have realized that, when I didn’t see him this morning. He is always by the front door waiting for his dry food, as early as 6:30. The only one to appear was Sue, and I had fed her as well as the inside/outside cat.

Then we got some brunch and John put the boxes in his car, and we went over to the orchard to pick apples. We started with Honeycrisp, but they were not in the best of condition. Some are quite large – softball size +. We filled half the boxes, and moved uphill to the Galas. We had a great fall day. Now we’re back home and offering some to another neighbor farther up the road. Tomorrow, we will take some to the senior center and to a person who I know from there and from Nick Zentner’s field trips and lectures. She’s the one who will be giving us some English walnuts this coming week.

All cats ate something tonight.

John baked an apple/blueberry pie that now should be cool enough to eat. It’s time.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan