Keeping track

but with good things too

Monday, May 28 Happy Memorial Day !

I finished the blog last night, because I had link problems after John had hit the hay. He’s the WordPress person in this family. Finally, I got them all fixed and published.

We were up early for John to take the new Flag to the road.

I’ve been working hard trying to complete the videos and a few photos to send to the Geography Department and to the winners of the scholarship awards. Need to finish and go take a photo of the flag flying with the sun behind me.

We learned our co-owned Brittany in California garnered 3 awards for 2017 Dog of the Year awards in the CA Brittany Club. Photo shows her 3 trophies (cheeseboards) and each came with 2 wine glasses with an etched Brittany head.

Jeri is going to send us the Gun Dog of the Year trophy and keep the wine glasses. We have too many wine glasses (by the carton) from our tastings in our summer class for 12 years: Wine: A Geographical Appreciation. We set up 3 glasses for each person during the final tasting, and we purchased all the wines for the event (usually 12 or 13).

Here are the placements

Field Dog – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH – o Jeri K Conklin & Nancy Hultquist.

She (Daisy) & her Mom (Ginny) won 2017 awards:

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS
Gun Dog – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH (Daisy) – o Jeri K Conklin & Nancy Hultquist

This next is Daisy’s mom:
Amateur Handled Field Dog – FC KWK Windswept Guinevere of Camelot SH – o Jeri K Conklin

PERFORMANCE
Senior Hunter – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH – o Jeri K Conklin & Nancy B HultquistWe both went out to see the flag blow in 44 mph gusts. It’s still fluttering. The flag kit came with 3 small screws to attach the pole receptacle to a wall. It needed a much more substantial method. Two by sixes and large lax screws, plus braces, are in place – for now.

Adjusting the Flag Position 5-27-18 (getting ready yesterday for today)
Yesterday’s Flag Adjustment

High Winds on the Naneum Fan

Czar Went to the End of the Driveway with us to see the Flag
Czar is a Companion Cat

Then Czar Rolled in the Gravel
Czar’s Favorite Pastime

Our irrigation ditch is without water & John removed the dam.
Waterless Irrigation Ditch

Dinner was baked chicken, with succotash, and sourdough toast with butter and Parmesan cheese. It was very good.

Tuesday, May 29

This was totally a recuperating day for me. The winds blew hard all day, so John was unable to get any work done in the yard. A piece of tree trunk (dead) came down, and if anything had been under it when it fell, it would have gotten crushed. It is against and over part of our fence. Out of the way, so it can wait to get cleaned up – on a day with no wind.

Here’s what we did today. We went to town to pick up a Stihl brusher for work at our house fire-wising and work on trails (probably in the future in the Spokane area with a WTA crew John knows).
Washington Tractor’s sales rep (Janie) with John. The handle bar attachment is in travel mode, lowered and swiveled down. Note the size of the unit by comparing to the back of the pickup bed. His next chore will be to create a way to carry it on the luggage rack on top of his Crosstrek for the trip to Spokane or elsewhere.
It arrived with a string-trimmer head. We also bought a tri-blade head, shown at right.Once home, here is the end of the unit and the right shows John attaching the handle to a carrying harness.

Next we have a video once home of the demo of using it for weeds.
Goodby weeds!

Wednesday, May 30

Food Bank as usual for music and I carried along my salad for lunch. Afterwards I was off for SAIL exercise class.

I think, once home, I continued on projects relating to my computer.

Thurs, May 31

We have water in the irrigation ditch today. Seems the rocks and logs have found a new home.

This is a BYE day for our KV Fiddlers & Friends music (5th Thursday) – well deserved., so, John and I went to Costco for things for us and others.

We had a great evening at the Ice Age Floods (IAF) local chapter meeting at a presentation on local geology by an excellent speaker, Lydia Staisch from the USGS in Menlo Park, CA.As a guest lecturer for the local chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute, we enjoyed Lydia Staisch’s presentation on the Ringold Formation, Sedimentology & Provenance: Implications for the ancestral Columbia & Snake Rivers.
Lydia Staisch, Ringold Formation
Lydia’s Questions & Answers
Nick’s Invitation to the audience for Lydia’s Noon Talk Tomorrow
Invite by Nick Zentner

Friday, Jun 1

John left about 4:40 a.m. for the WTA work party at Mt. Rainier. Likely earlier by ½ hour, but he wasn’t sure. By arriving early he gets to visit with the assistant crew leaders, and leaders for WTA (2 this time), and a National Park trails crew member. Introductions of everyone, and safety talks start at 8:30.

My laptop computer and I left for CWU to meet the systems analyst for help uninstalling the rest of Sophos, which is an antivirus software they wanted to sell me, and they managed to alter my system so I could not complete the uninstall, even though I had administrative capabilities.

This was the beginning of my end-of-week problems that actually began last week when I tried unsuccessfully to uninstall Sophos, the “free” antivirus software. It’s ended costing me dearly. Now I need to add administrative management to get into the user group to get rid of it. Thus far, I have not succeeded. The end of my meeting was to leave without the need being fulfilled of gaining administrative access to my Windows 10 Home addition. I somehow have lost that ability. I will be seeking options tonight. Subsequently, no one has been able to make the change. I will have to resort to a complete reset of my total computer (more to follow here).

From that meeting, I went to the Geology lecture Science II, Rm 206, at Noon, where I took a video of Lydia from an awkward angle in a small room.

Noon Talk on the “Yakima Folds” (these are E-W ridges folded in the area south of Ellensburg):

From Gravity Anomalies to Graded Streams, crustal structure and Quaternary acceleration of deformation rates in central Washington Presented by Lydia Staisch.

Yakima Folds Presentation

Lydia’s Q & A on the Yakima Folds talk

Ending Questions & Answers

I went to SAIL exercise at the senior center. Katrina instructed the class in her usual wonderful manner. She makes exercising fun. Afterwards, I went by a friend’s to check on her cat. She and her son went on a trip (plane) back to the East coast for ~ 10 days. I found a problem with the automatic waterer and made a temporary fix.

I spent more time researching my computer problem and trying to find a solution.

Saturday, Jun 2

I spent a lot of time on phone trying to fix my computer problems. I was on the phone with tech support through Costco where I purchased my computer, fall of 2016.

I went to town with John to get gasoline for his trip tomorrow, by Super 1 for groceries, and by Anne’s to check out the cat situation with the waterer malfunction. Cleaned up the wet papers from the day before, and decided to replace with a conventional bowl of water.

John moved water hoses, filled barrels, watered trees, some flowers, and picked strawberries for me to fix. Then we had them on Key Lime Pie for dessert. Just a few have ripened. Late next week there should be lots of ripe ones.

Updated my meds and called in the one I’m running out of. Monthly ones are a pain. I wish I could get for longer. I need 90 pills for the month. NEED TO CONTACT the Pharmaceutical Company for Entresto about the “break” on co-pay for insurance. Might have just been limited to one year without renewal possibility. I was getting it for $10/month. Now is $40. Buying it through GoodRx – without insurance – is not an option, because we are talking $469 (from the cheapest place, Costco).

The late afternoon and evening I spent on the phone with support in the U. S., and finally with a tech support person in India working for Dell. With just that one person, I spent 2 hrs and a fee (because my year’s warranty was over), but the fee was only going to apply if they could fix it. They could not without resetting the computer to what it was when I bought it. I could not do that before backing up the entire computer’s files and folders.

I decided I needed a new external drive disk to use to back up everything, because of lack of enough space on my current one.
John provided an initial search for one and found one I wanted at Office Depot. Later, I looked to follow through on purchase. I had questions and got into a Chat with an Office Depot staff member at some place away from here, and learned information I needed to make a phone call to the store on Sunday.

Sunday, Jun 3

John left at 5:00 a.m. for Mt. Rainier. (Longmire, via Steven’s Creek Canyon)

I moved the water hoses (am doing every 2.5 – 3 hrs.); one near pine trees and Forsythia bushes, and another on the Carpathian Walnuts.

Outside temperatures decreased over a strong start mid-morning. Now it’s windy and cloudy also. There was some very light rain on the western slopes of the Cascades, but not here.

I worried with computer issues much of the morning, and finally called the Office Depot in Yakima to see if I could come there for buying an external disk drive.
It took me two phone calls, but I finally located the technical support person, Jared, who heard my story, and made an agreement to help me tomorrow at the Yakima store at 10:00 a.m. As he doesn’t have the 2Tb Seagate I wanted, I will buy a Western Digital 1Tb drive from him for a very low price, use my American Express card that gives me another 5% discount, plus he will look at my computer, teach me how to set it up to backup all files and folders on the system. I will not have to pay him to reset my computer, and he knows how. My main concern is the software loaded there. I’m sure that will be gone with the reset, but it will restore my Windows 10 Home to allow me to have administrative privileges.

I am sure I will have problems with some of my added on software, mainly SongWriter 2012. I captured their contact for a future need. They will have to give me permission to reload on the same computer after the fix, and then I have to find where the disk got put. I may be without the use of the software for awhile.

I finally ate a late lunch at almost 2:00 p.m.

The weather is very strange today. It was 50° when John left this morning, by 1:00 p.m. heated up to 81° (at the airport). It was hot when I went to move hoses, but I didn’t look at the temperature till 3:00 here, and it was 70°. The winds started after 2:00 p.m. and have gusted to 46 mph (again, at the airport 5 miles south of us).

I’m waiting patiently to hear from John. He had problems reaching me on Friday coming home from Mt. Rainier, and now at 5:46 p.m., he’s still not been heard from, so I should be getting a call soon that he made it to Yakima. He called a few minutes later. He was coming through the Selah Gap. Now scheduled home in a few minutes, and Annie’s already outside waiting for him in the front yard. She’s been going out with me every few hours to move hoses, but she will be thrilled to see him and get to go for a real walk.

She will likely tell him she’s been ignored all day. He made it just now at 6:30 and I heard her yip in excitement. I noticed he got out of the car and then put on a heavy shirt and knitted cap. I checked the front porch temp and found it at 66° – it’s probably a bit cooler out in the yard and the wind, which is still blowing hard.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Celebrated Even When Retired

. . . … Other events in our lives …

I’ll start with some follow-up comments for the weekend that started this week. You’ll remember hearing that John went to WTA’s Crew Leader College in North Bend, Sat & Sun. He has described the activities, in last week’s blog, but here are the photos to add to an understanding, and explanation of his new purchase this week (yet to be delivered), but ordered this Thursday, in Ellensburg.Toter (background) with Beth in blue jacket and hat. Brusher in foreground. What we’ve ordered. Middle photo: Blue hat here is Holly demoing drill. Colleagues stand at right angle to worker and help keep a vertical hole. Right: Full view of Stihl FS 240 brusher.Closer view of Toter at work, carrying 3 large posts.
Right side: Beth and John, WTA buddies taken at the Geography Awards Event Tuesday this week. Beth is the granddaughter of one of the donors (Mary Ann) of a scholarship award (Macinko Award in honor of her husband, George) given to a prospective life-long geographer.
I have visited Beth on email, but this was our first meeting in person. She worked with John on a WTA trip a few years ago. Last year she signed on as a Crew Leader. She does 4 and 7 day back-country trips, some very strenuous hiking required, so he hasn’t (and won’t) see her on her outings. He’s wearing his casual blue “bucket” hat and his WTA emblem on an orange shirt and, as an Assistant Crew leader, his WTA hard hat is orange. [Needs to shed a few pounds, doesn’t he?] After CLC he was presented with a new orange hat, so no longer has a faded one from long ago, and it has a nice tightener on the inside straps that his old one lacked.

Monday, May 21

We finished the blog tonight – very late, and I awoke this morning early, with only 6 hrs (if that) of sleep. The 3 outside cats came this morning, so I fed them, and also our inside/outside one wanted fed. I was awake and needed to send pictures to the folks at the AAC for the Friday event, so I put those into a Google Photo shared link and sent. If you are interested in seeing the photos, they are available here: (If you access it and click on a photo, then look above and click on “info” to see what I know about the photograph.)

AAC_Senior Prom Night_May 18, 2018

I was relieved from Jury Duty in July for health reasons.

Sent a check to Scotch Hill Cemetery – John’s relatives are guests there.

I tried catching up on my missed sleep, but didn’t get enough to feel up to going to town for only one stop; I canceled going to SAIL (exercise at AAC) at 1:30.

John made us a great brunch – omelet, sausage, fried potatoes, toast, and orange slices.

Here’s another interesting video on the Kilauea Volcano today, May 21, 2018. You may have to wait awhile until it loads, but eventually start it over again to get the complete running view. They are keeping folks away because of the deadly sulfuric gasses being emitted. We have a VCR with footage of a friends hike to the edge of the volcano rim taken probably 15 or more years ago. It’s rather impressive. On an interesting note, after I retired in 2010, the university removed the VCR units and capabilities from the classroom media presenter devices. That would have seriously affected my use of short clips to enhance my lectures I used in all my classes. They closed the Library’s media center for checking out reel movies and VCR tapes, and did away with them. I am not aware of any mechanical way to transfer information from a VHS tape to a digital copy. I just looked it up and found there is! One can buy a VHS to DVD Video Capture Device unit on Amazon for $35. I don’t have the incentive or need and especially not the time to do that conversion. Apparently, all the camcorder tapes I have of fiddling classes at the WOTFA summer workshops could also be transferred. I’ll have to leave my treasure trove to someone else. Meanwhile, here is the footage I wanted to share of the current eruption of Kilauea:

Fly Over 5-21-18 Kilauea Volcano Summit

Tuesday, May 22

Crazy morning. I awoke sick after a decent night’s sleep. John was due in town about 8:30, but when he went to open the gate, he noticed our irrigation water was down, and it had been slowing down over the past few days. A landowner downstream from us stopped to talk and said the diversion ditch providing our water has filled with rocks again. He will try to address the problem in the next 2 weeks. Last year they had to go through the Fish & Wildlife folks for a permit to clean out the rocks. John finally got back, loaded his car and went an hour late to town.

While there he filled his car with gasoline, went to his appointment, and then made two other stops. I canceled my 2:00 dancing class plans hoping to get to feeling better. We must leave our house in time to be at the Univ. by 4:30 p.m. for the end-of-year party with scholarship awards, in the grass east of the Dean Hall building (shady). We are taking a Crushed Pineapple-filled Lemon Cake, lawn chairs, drinks, and my camera for videotaping the award ceremony.
We are back in the house from setting up & cleaning the lawn chairs to take to the event tonight. I charged my camera battery. I did my part of fixing our lunch salad, after John cut the smoked turkey and apples. I’m feeling better than earlier, but I’m happy I stayed home from the AAC Just Dance class today.

I tried unsuccessfully to uninstall Sophos, a free anti-virus program, but now have to add administrative management to get into the user group to get rid of it. Thus far, I have not succeeded. The idea is that Windows Defender will take over as the anti-virus protector, once I rid my system of the Sophos invader, which I have to take credit for installing. I talked to Craig Scrivner (our computer guru in Geology/Geography, our Systems Administrator) at the party, and was told how I was supposed to do that, but didn’t have my computer along, so when I got home and tried, it did not work. I will have to take my laptop in to campus next week to get him to help me, or reach him in person by phone. I need to go by the Geography Dept anyhow so should be able to combine trips.

We left at 4:00 for Campus. We took lawn chairs and the cake, with a little flag John put on a skewer to identify it. The department also had a two-layer partitioned 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 white cake which most people had, and so we brought about half of our cake back home.Image on the flag of our Pineapple-Lemon Cake

While we’re talking lemons, here is a collage of our favorite 5 yr. old, whose preschool class raised and released butterflies. All you lepidopterists out there will appreciate this.They all hatched for the 3 preschoolers. A windy day and they didn’t want to leave, but liked the lemon sugars, and the rose.

Back to Geography: I took my Nikon camera and videoed all the individual awards for those there and those unable to be there. Ours is below. I’m sending all the rest to the donors, the students awarded scholarships, and to the Geography faculty members. I sent the presentation video of the GIS certificates to Bob Hickey, to send to all those recipients.

Many people joined the party, from babies, to young students, to faculty & staff members from several departments, to older retired members of the department. Mallory & Josh with Baby Daphne <> John, Mary Anne, Lillian, and <> Elaine with part of the crowd behind.

Hultquist Distinguished Service Scholarship Award

Mallory Triplett- Graduate student, Nancy, Caleb Valko, undergraduate

Hultquist Distinguished Service Award – Caleb Valko
Video:Hultquist Award – Caleb Valko

Hultquist Distinguished Service Award – Mallory Triplett
Video:Hultquist Award – Mallory Triplett

May 22, 2018 Awards – Geography Department and Cultural &
Environmental Resource Management (CERM) graduate program

Brooks/Shaw: Caleb Valko

Joseph P. & Gillian A. Stoltman Scholarship:
Isaac Anzlovar and Jamie Liljegren

Macinko: Isaac Anzlovar

Martin Kaatz: Andrew McDonald

Hultquist Distinguished Service Award:
Caleb Valko and Mallory Triplett

Wednesday, May 23

John left before 8:00 a.m. for White Heron Bottling of Rose. He carried along a large chunk of Jarlsberg Cheese for the tasting and sharing afterwards. He brought home 3 bottles of Rose’.

These flowering shrubbery photos go back over 10 days, but they never got put into our blog, and they are worth seeing in full bloom. Purple Lilac foreground, background Crabapple. Right image – Flowering Crabapple, has very small fruit, not a mess. Oregon Grape (yellow, foreground) with Lilac blooming and Carpathian Walnut in progress of leafing. Right: Mountain Ash near our front door

I’m taking care of paying bills, talking to the dentist’s office about my appointment tomorrow for a cleaning, and continuing to send videos from last night’s award ceremony up to You Tube. I must finish fixing my salad to take along and pack my carrier.

I’m going to the Food Bank for music and on from there to SAIL. I was rather sore today playing the fiddle and doing exercise, even with taking it easy both places.

Thurs, May 24

My morning was filled with printing and sorting new music for this afternoon to take to a dozen people, for our practice preview session before the regular program. We have 25 songs in this set. I provide lyrics packets and many in the audience will sing.

John and I made separate trips to town because we couldn’t figure how to combine without keeping him away from home for 5 hours.
He’s doing watering chores (onions this morning), using well water. Garden and flowers are doable. Larger fruit trees may suffer if ditch water isn’t back on in another week.

I drove myself to town because John had to drive the truck to pick up his Honda mower from WA Tractor and pieces of free wood at Wood Products Northwest. Below is an old image. Today they had a pickup load laying there.I went to play music and then went to the dentist, for a 4:00 p.m. appointment for my teeth cleaning.

On one of the free Facebook sites, I spoke for a porcelain doll to give to my friend in Nampa, ID who taught us violin classes for 22 years in Kittitas at the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Summer Workshop (for a week). She has a doll collection and will be in Moses Lake this summer (I went to the workshop there once a couple years ago, but it was too hot for me existing there and being out in the heat on the way in and out, even staying in the a/c comfort of her RV on my friend’s farm. John and I plan to meet Roberta and her daughter for dinner this year, and I can deliver the doll then. It was a gift from a gal on the Facebook site, The Free Box. I asked her to consider me for it yesterday morning, and she delivered it to me at Hearthstone at the beginning of our music. She’s a pretty doll, but not antique. She’s only a few years old. Bobbie Pearce replied to my email, and would love to add her to her collection. While most are antique, she has several newer ones. Top of Porcelain Doll – Bottom – Full Standing View

I made contact via private messaging on Facebook, and now I await her returned response to my email about timing. I included the picture above. Once she knows the schedule, we can figure the time we’ll come pick them up. She and her daughter Katrina (a left-handed grand champion fiddler) will go with us to dinner in Moses Lake.

I started researching Historic Hay Stackers when I saw the following picture taken 20 years ago by Fred Newschwander. It is on Thomas Rd., only 1/2 mile from our house, but longer by road. Fred was our veterinarian shortly after we arrived in town. We knew him also through our membership in the Kittitas Valley Trail Riders club. John was the Club’s Monthly Newsletter Editor (we), for a number of years, printed on our computer and mailed to the membership. Finally, they got a web version going and we later quite riding and going to the meetings.

Fred’s history in the valley is updated here recently at a CWU presentation in May.

Ellensburg Veterinarian Honored at CWU Banquet Left photo by Fred Newschwander ~ 20 years ago. This is what it looked like when we arrived in 1989. Now the wood is more weathered; the right photo was taken 5-27-18 by Nancy Hultquist. The location is south of Thomas Road west of Naneum Road, on the left, before the first curve.

Here is the best video description I can find from the National Park Service in Montana.

Horse-drawn Loose Haying at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana (National Historic Site)
Check the video below.

Horse-drawn Loose Haying at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana

This equipment uses the Beaverslide Hay Stacker, named from its location in the Big Hole Valley in Beaverhead County, Montana. The lift is done with a series of cables and pulleys, which are powered by horses moving away from the raked load, hoisting it up the slide.Beaverslide Full of Hay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beaverslide Stacker Empty

Friday, May 25

John left about 6:40 a.m. for the WTA work party at Gold Creek/
Gold Pond just this side of Snoqualmie Pass. The pond is an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible place with an asphalt trail and many interpretative signs. Most of the work was cleaning debris from between bridge decking, brushing, and the repair of one bridge approach. It involved cutting brush and moving rocks and dirt. John was on that project. See the prior blog, Item #3, for a bit more – John’s find!
Once over a decade ago, we walked around the pond with our best man and his wife (who died after 12 years of fighting cancer).

Did I mention I fell while dressing in the small bathroom, when my sock slipped on the bath mat on the linoleum floor, throwing me backwards onto the floor bruising and straining some parts of my body. Reflecting on yesterday, I was telling a person in our music group that I had taken a Percocet (serious pain pill I cannot get any longer), but it helped.  It didn’t really help me through the rest of the afternoon, however.  I had a dentist appointment for teeth cleaning at 4:00 (why I had to break at 3:05 to take my antibiotic during our music that went late past 3:00).  Lying in the dental chair with my sore back (where I hit the wall), and my butt where I hit the floor, and my arms (got a pillow for the right one) and blanket for the left one, was hurtful more than the tartar scraping. I hit the right arm (my bowing arm and the good one) on the counter and toilet on the way down, and on the left one (my arthritic shoulder), I hit the floor on my thumb, which hurt Wed and Thurs holding the violin to play notes.  I guess the right arm was hurting from bowing, because when I drove from Hearthstone to the dentist and then on home, it was actually hurting too much to hold the steering wheel. I’m better today, but certainly looking forward to a 3-day rest period.

Traffic alerts on I-90 started early today at 2:46 p.m. for eastbound from milepost 33 to milepost 106, with heavy traffic volumes, so travelers are experiencing 30 to 45 minutes of added travel time between North Bend and Ellensburg. John hasn’t called yet, but I imagine his trip will be affected. Guess I have time to unload the dishwasher and load the soaked sink full. He left his cell phone in his truck from yesterday’s trip, so he couldn’t call me. I was expecting him at 5:30 and he was right on, even with the slowed traffic. At least it kept moving. Annie was happy to see him.

I worked more on the photo and video projects to share with others from Tuesday, and for use in this week’s blog.

Last night John went to bed ahead of me, because of his needed early arising. I was ready to hit the hay and had an itch on my back. When I reached around I came in contact with a live critter. A young tick had adhered its head into my skin. It was out of my sight, so I just pulled at the thing, got its head and some of my skin, and then had it between my fingers, so I quickly got to the closest toilet and flushed it away. Then I pulled up my night shirt and looked in the mirror. Yep, a blood spot. Then I continued feeling and checking. I don’t know where it came from. I have not been outside walking in the woods, and have no clue how it got to where it was – one of life’s mysteries. Maybe it came in on Annie or John.

Saturday, May 26

Morning started early at 5:00 a.m. when John was getting ready to leave for Dorothy Lake WTA trip (Stevens Pass area). After feeding two outside cats, I went back to bed at 5:35 when John drove away.

Slept in and then started trying to do things on the computer, but now the time has slipped away, except I found a home on Facebook for getting rid of two pairs of jeans we cannot use. I need to finish the photos from the Geography awards party and ship off the videos. I need to work starting the dishwasher, fix brunch, and continue with the blog completion. John got his TW’sNSNN column out last night. My aches are still there, so I am using the long weekend to recuperate, so that I can start anew next Tuesday, having missed a week of exercise at the center because of holiday travels and closures. Our teacher was leaving early Friday for her trip for the weekend, and there was no one certified to teach the class. I once taught it while our then only teacher went to S. America and then to Canada, on another trip, and I would step in and lead the class. I had to stop because only people can teach it who have taken the all-day certification course, and had regular renewals. I didn’t mind helping when needed, but I did not want to be scheduled regularly. The reason it’s required is that their liability insurance would not be valid if I (uncertified) were teaching. Then I would be responsible for all the medical bills if someone fell while taking the class, and got hurt. No thanks.

Our winds continue. High 30s and lo 40s for the past 24+ hrs. Highest today was 47 mph.

I just had a great brunch, making it with leftovers from yesterday. A good serving of John’s enhanced Chicken Fettuccine from Costco, to which he adds veggies (green beans, Lima beans, carrots, celery, and corn), normally mushrooms but not this one, ½ of a tomato, leftover slightly less than a half of a Honeycrisp apple not finished in John’s lunch on the trail yesterday, finishing with cookies from Briarwood. That should give me sustenance to complete the rest of the afternoon. I did replace the outside cat’s water (full of seeds and windblown things), and the dog/cat water inside the house.

Responded to some overdue emails, now to load dishwasher and take pills. Done, and in 54 minutes from 2:03, I will have a dishwasher load of clean dishes.

Now back to the blog and photos from the Tuesday Awards dinner. Temperature is still low and nice today, but the wind is still howling. Up to 47 mph gusts last hour, 46 mph the hour before, and 45 mph the hour before that. It’s been over 40 for most of the day.

John called from Leavenworth at 5:38, and is about 70 minutes away, but then hit 5 red lights and kept talking through his Bluetooth. He said the place is full of tourists.

I found, removed, and flushed down the toilet an engorged tick on Annie’s head. We’ll have to conduct a major search when John gets home. Also, recently when our outside cat went to be neutered, they found an engorged tick on the back of his neck. I suppose of the 4 cats we own, we should check the ones (3) who will let us touch them. Our long-haired Woody still won’t after 6 years. I have just recently begun to be able to pet the orange one, Sue, mamma of Woody. Even if I found one, I doubt she would allow me to grab it and pull it off.

John made it home a little after 6:45 p.m. and now is out in the 47 mph wind with Annie.
John’s WTA trip’s photos arrived Sunday morning from the crew leader, with a nice report thanking all the workers, for their completion of specific tasks.

These collages tell quite a story that is too much to put into words for this blog. John explained each photo in detail to me this morning after they arrived from Nate Schmidt at 8:30 a.m. I hope John can summarize the story in a couple of sentences.
John is pictured with other workers in a WTA trail report by a hiker (Ed Moore) who came through the work site. That photo is below. Note the piece of old tree on the left side.{Photo by Ed Moore, hiker.}
and the link to the Dorothy Trail report is HERE

Below are two collages of the work accomplished to clean up the mess of a large tree that feel across the trail and wreaked havoc with the uphill steps and turnpike. On the left, John (orange) is up-slope talking with hiker Ed Moore. Niki, lower right, is near another log piece. In front of her is a shovel. The old tree broke above the shovel handle and landed in the trail between Niki and John. The right photo shows damage to the steps; also shown in the first photo near John’s feet.

Below, these 2 photos show the reconstruction near the end of the work day. With about an hour left, rocks and dirt that had been collected are being passed to Carol and Jim who are packing the turnpike. Out of sight, more material is being dug or collected.
The log in front of Carol is held in place (rocks were added later) by stakes, split from a slab of old Yellow Cedar (remnant of previous work years ago). John, very right, has moved to cleaning out a drainage at the upper end of the site. Sunday, May 27

Woke to geese making passes over the house while honking. Multiple times. They must have been playing a game. By the time we were up and about, they were gone. Lots of quail calling around too, but they are not loud nor intrusive.

This afternoon John is getting the new flag flying for Memorial Day. The flag came with a pole and holder meant to be held with 4 small screws. HAHA! Our winds would rip that down in an instant. That set-up would only be good indoors, perhaps a class room, gymnasium, or a great big family room. Our winds dropped below 20 mph, so John put the flag up for an hour while we ate supper. It is now in the house. Next week’s blog will have a photo. Anticipation builds.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

So much happening in our lives – – –
. . . but, that is a good thing! (Morris Uebelacker) …

At 6:00 a.m. this morning, John went close to Bumping Lake to work as an Ass’t Crew Leader (ACL), with Lisa Black. He called me from Gleed, WA (west of Yakima), at 4:17 p.m., made good time, and was home by 5:00 p.m. I had worked all day on several projects.

Tomorrow morning, we need to go pick up Czar, the male outside cat, who made it back from his travels this afternoon just before 6:00 p.m.

We finished the blog tonight at 8:55 p.m., so I have to send a few emails, and get to bed earlier for a good night’s sleep.

Monday, May 14

I called Mike this morning at Habitat for Humanity. He had found a special mailbox for my neighbor. All I know is it is huge, square, made of heavy-duty steel, and will make it through the snowplow and the postman who wrenched her current small mailbox door off its hinges. She’s going to get this one put on a stout pole couched in concrete.

We picked up Czar about 9:30. He’s happy to be home.

I sent this note to the Valley Community Cats Facebook page:Meet Czar – our 4th feral to send through the system for spay/neuter. He showed up in the winter, and I notified Nancy at VCC that we’d be needing to borrow a trap. We first thought he was female and started calling him Sally. He would run in the other direction for the first couple months. He would come in and eat but not stay around if we tried to talk to him through the window. Eventually we realized he was a male, so changed his name to Salazar. Now he is simply, Czar. He tamed himself, coming in mornings and evenings for food, and sleeping around the premises. He loves being petted and is a companion cat with the others following John around doing chores. He rolls in the gravel drive, meowing loudly, to be petted. He allows us to pick him up and carry him 50’. He now has taken to spending days on the veranda of the cable table in our front yard, where we also feed the birds above and the quail come in the fence and eat off the ground. The cats (surprisingly) are ignoring the birds. He follows the shade around, and is there to say goodbye when we leave and hello when we return, or come to the ledge by the front door of our house, when he is hungry. We were able to pick him up and place him in a crate loaned to us by VCC. Nancy and Noella accepted him for their recent trip to Lynnwood, with a bunch of other cats in their car. They had him for a few days before their trip, last Sunday, and for overnight until we picked him up in the morning. We and he so much appreciated the care. Now you see his clipped left ear and he got all his shots and a dose of tapeworm medicine. We now have protected the unspayed females in the neighborhood. Please everyone, consider doing likewise. Nancy will come trap cats for you if you cannot. They are providing a wonderful service which we all need to support. Thanks again.

Here are some more photos of his antics:

Czar in shade on veranda of cable table (Sunflower seeds behind); in the sun wanting attention; sprawled on the concrete, yawning.

I went to SAIL (exercise at AAC) at 1:30.

Tuesday, May 15

Busy day, started with our cleaning out my Forester’s back and putting in the exercise thing, a Gazelle, for its trip to The Habitat Store.
Donation of Gazelle (I bought at a yard sale decades ago for $5) – They sell new for > $120.

We originally tried to give it away to a woman via the Free Givers of Kittitas County Facebook site, but she never managed to arrange to pick it up. This donation to Habitat for Humanity was a nice thanks for their finding a special rural mailbox in their incoming pickups for my neighbor. Both of us are pleased, and John is happy to get rid of one more thing out of the shed where he wants to park his car, named Jessica (after the song).

I picked up my meds at Super 1, rest of the Entresto, and a bunch of Metoprolol (considering I have to take 3/day that’s a lot for 3 months, and happily one of the cheapest heart meds I’m on, for $15. The Entresto is the most expensive at $40/month; thank goodness my Kaiser Permanente insurance covers it. I would have to pay cash $463/month at the Costco Pharmacy using GoodRX pricing (their price is better than any other GoodRx store in Ellensburg).

We did 3 dances to start with today, getting the lessons at the beginning, and then dancing for the rest of the hour, with time at the end for review and our choice. We did the Hokey Pokey, the Chicken Dance, and a line dance, Popcorn. Then others for review and by request, including the Macarena.

After the original videoing (see a few below), I danced along with the others. I pushed my pulse up pretty high a couple of times, and my Fit Bit recorded totals of

May 15 2018 11:41 p.m. pulse 68
5,020 steps
2.12 miles
1,781 calories burned
1 stairs
26 min. aerobic exercises
68/250 exercise man

(1) Hokey Pokey 5-15-18 AAC Lesson
Hokey Pokey

(2) Chicken Dance 5-15-18 AAC Lesson
Chicken Dance

(3) Popcorn Dance 5-15-18 AAC Lesson
Popcorn Dance

(4) Popcorn Line Dance with Music
Popcorn Line Dance w/ Achy Breaky Heart

Nicole sent the dances for next week:
– The Bunny Hop line dance
– Mambo No 5 line dance
– Down South Shuffle

I did get a tour of the Habitat for Humanity store, when I donated my old Gazelle, and then climbed two steep flights of stairs to the Maximum Gym to buy my Klaire Probiotic for 2 months. Then off to Bi-Mart to check numbers, and on to the AAC for Just Dance class. Afterwards, on the way home, I stopped off two places at yard sales and then on home to bring in all my acquisitions for the day. A good purchase was 5 pairs of blue jeans for John, some almost new, but the best was a giraffe costume I got for our little mascot for our music group, to give her as a Pre-School graduation gift. Here is the cute photo that resulted on Saturday, after I took it to our music date Saturday afternoon. Wednesday, May 16

Last night I got my salad setup to take to the noon lunch for after our music, but need to add bleu cheese dressing to the lettuce this morning, and add other ingredients, except croutons I’ll take along separately and add once I’m ready to eat.

SAIL will be taught by Evelyn (who is our banjo player at the Food Bank lunch music).

I played music and ate at the Food Bank today, and went on to SAIL exercise, by way of Hospice Friends to pick up some application materials for my friend who had a stroke.

We were invited for a spaghetti dinner to celebrate a birthday at our neighbors.

I’ve been away from home a lot this week and keep falling farther behind in keeping in contact with folks on email, including getting job announcements out on the Google Group jobs list, with almost 800 members now.

Thurs, May 17

I called in our chair count (all dozen) to Pacifica for this afternoon’s music.  

On my way to play music, I stopped by the lab at the hospital for my standing order monthly blood draw. I was happy to get there before my fav phlebotomist left for lunch, and I still had time to stop two other places before music time arrived.

I came home late and missed the phone call with my results but they came through the next morning, and all are fine: INR: 2.2, Potassium: 4.7, with my next month’s date being rechecked is 14 June.

We went to hear Brandon Rossi’s presentation, “Get Ready for Ravens” at the Kittitas Audubon local chapter monthly meeting. There I met up with several friends and met a new one, Arlene, a friend of Joanie who has a common friend, and has her new email address. She’s going to send it to me through my friend, Joanie. I’m happy I went; it was quite interesting, and we have some mutual friends at the US military’s Yakima Training Center, where Rossi works in the Environmental section.

Brandon Rossi – Common Raven Ecology

Common Raven Ecology

Brandon Rossi – Questions & Answers on Raven presentation

Questions & Answers on Raven presentation

Last video finishing up the Q & A for Rossi’s talk

ending Q&A & Comments after Battery died

We brought home a brownie each for dessert and were late getting home at 9:30 p.m.

Friday, May 18 Mt. St Helen’s 38 years later !

Starting off with an awesome memory of the Mt. St Helen’s Eruption, with photos that were kept quiet for 34 years. Here is a link to tell you the story:

Photographic Memories of the Mt. St Helen’s Eruption

Be patient with it, and read throughout. You will not be able to reach one of the videos, but you will see 19 pictures if you stay and go with the flow (no pun intended).

Busy day for me. I got ready to rush in for the first part of Ruth Harrington’s Scholarship lunch (the last one this year), held on the 3rd Friday instead of our normal 4th Friday’s meeting because of the conflict with Memorial Day Weekend. I picked up a piece of butternut squash/onion pastry, 3 pieces of fresh fruit, some salad & colorful cherry tomatoes, to put with my additional stuff I always put in salads. I was due at the Senior Center (AAC) for The Senior Prom for 2018, put on by the CWU Recreation students, starting with a luncheon (Chicken Fettucine with salad and apple pie), followed by dancing and photography, and awards.

They were still serving lunch by the time I got there after Noon, so I got a serving of Fettuccini with a good amount of chicken breast meat, not many noodles, and no broccoli. Elaine (the cook) fixed me up special. I added my salad to my plate and enjoyed being there. My plate with salad I brought; students left, AAC members right and end; then right, showing my bellbottoms, on outfit Katrina (AAC Director) asked me to wear to the Senior Prom, and she took the photograph. She likes that “suit.”

Another collage having fun with Marilyn Monroe & Elvis Presley:Lady in white, Corrine, student helper with Ernestine (I know from other places in town, who had her Prom Night 2018 Prop facing the wrong direction and was saying whoops! Middle photo: Carol in her Elvis T-shirt kisses him; Nancy w/Anne in her Chocolate Kisses T-shirt from the Hershey, PA tour, which is no longer as neat as when John and I took it a 1/3 century ago, and got to walk across metal stairs and walkways right over the vats of chocolate and to be down and see up close the kisses dropping and coming off the conveyor belt.

Here are a couple videos for your enjoyment. Don’t miss the dancing wheelchair gal (her name is Carolyn) and she is in my exercise class at the AAC (Senior Center), but it’s open to non-seniors needing the exercise.

(1) First dance – “YMCA” at the Senior Prom celebration

First dance – “YMCA” at the Senior Prom

(2) “I Did It My Way” Dance 5-18-18 SR Prom AAC

“I Did It My Way” Dance

The King and Queen (by audience vote) are in this video. She’s in a long blue dress (Judith) and her husband (Peter) is dancing with her. I have gotten to know them through dancing classes and they danced their way into our hearts with a very old fashioned dance at the AAC Talent Show a month ago. I videotaped their talent there (she sang as they danced), and she videoed (and sang) with my talent (playing the violin and leading the audience singing “You Are my Sunshine” and “Jambalaya.”)
King Peter & Queen Judith; Joanne; Connie; Joe with Poker Chip award.

Saturday, May 19

John left for WTA’s Crew Leader College at 5:30 a.m. to meet friend, Bill Weir to drive over for this day’s events.

John fed the first batch of cat food, I went back to bed, and slept in.

When I was up, and through the morning, I fed the rest of them again, and set up the attendance for today’s music at Briarwood.

I have been working on transferring videos I took to the web of the activities at the end of this week.

Now time for a late brunch before going to Briarwood where they feed us afterwards.

I showed up for music at Briarwood, and we had 7 people there to play music. One was a family, the mom is our violinist, husband played the guitar, and baby Neil slept on the floor in his carrier until almost the end of our music. Then we were fed an excellent BBQ meat, with salads, and desserts. I was quite filled up, but the ladies provided two plates of dessert to bring home for John.

Sunday, May 20

At 6:00 a.m., John takes off for N. Bend, for the second day of Crew Leader College. There were lots of folks {100 +} involved in a dozen or more learning activities – some very hands-on.
John participated in (a) a short session about Cultural Artifacts led by a King County geo-archaeologist and a Univ. of WA Burke Museum person with about 50 specimens from that collection; (b) practicing with gasoline powered tools [weed and brush cutter, drill, toter**]; and (c) an emergency response session with several parts, including radio communications. The work at Mt. Rainier last summer yielded about a half dozen “incidents” that made it onto the WTA-2017 Summary of Incidents Chart.
{ ** Go back to the previous part of the blog published Friday to see picture of toter. }

After John left, I was up for a tiny while, and went back to bed. I was able to finish dishes that had piled up over a couple days, and go retrieve my camera from my car to transfer the pix from it to my computer.

John called at 4:00 but immediately his battery died before I could find out where he was. He was just onto I-90 east of North Bend, with “Jessica” pointed to home. I assumed he’d be home in 1.5 hours and he was. [Odd thing about this is that the first rule of Emergency Response is to check batteries before heading up the trail!]
Annie was thrilled, because they immediately went for a 20-minute walk.

I’d fed and visited with the cats all day and worked on chores (mostly the blog and things needed for it).

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, John returned to trail work on the Lost River Trail. The crew was Lisa, Rebecca, and John. We introduced Rebecca in the blog for Saturday, May 5th.

Interestingly, they learned Lisa once worked in a bookstore with a hubby named John. Both bookstores, in Idaho, sold the “country living” manuals written by Rebecca’s mom, Carla.

John and Rebecca teamed up on removing big rocks from, and forming a new tread, on the trail.

Here are photos:Photos by Blue hat, Lisa Black

Left photo shows how the trail looked on Sunday Morning. A small rock and a large hidden one are at ‘B’, behind the person’s legs. Rock ‘A’ has two parts. In right photo they become ‘C’ & ‘B’.
In the right picture, Rebecca has uncovered ‘new A’ – a 90% buried rock where we want the trail to go. Blue dots under and to the right show about where this rock rested. Having been there for a thousand years – it was evicted.
A new trail magically appeared – with a little help from Grub Hoe Rebecca, and Shovel John.Compare with left side photo, above.

One of the rocks had a space under it, home to a cute 6 inch long Salamander; Sally. When John moved that rock, Sally Salamander took refuge under Lisa’s boot. We had to find it a new home, and took it off the trail a dozen feet. Still, it wasn’t very happy with us.
We did not get a photo of the salamander, so found something similar on the web.

Raccoon returned tonight, after Czar came for an evening snack. I was sitting at John’s computer reviewing the blog for final submission, heard some noise, of Czar leaving abruptly, and looked right into the eyes of the raccoon coming up the ladder by the window. John went out, shooed him off, and cleaned up the spilled food. Never a dull moment in the rural area with wildlife.

Monday, May 7

We published the blog for last week at 12:05 a.m.

We took the Ford truck to pick up 5 pallets from a gal in Ellensburg, and if there are any flowers left after the storm, we’ll carry her a bouquet (there were, and she was happy). We got there at 1:00 p.m., loaded up, and continued to SAIL exercise, where John sat and read the Wall St. Journals that have accumulated. I drove my car so we could travel (leaving the truck w/ pallets there to pick up on the way home) so we were able to go to Costco, Big Five, and Bi-Mart. I returned shoes to Big Five which were not to my liking, but I was wearing the other pair I like and bought the same day. Costco we got some gasoline for my car and a few things we needed at Costco, but the best part of the trip was meeting our friends, Suzy & Bob West there, and we had a nice visit over cold mocha for Bob, piece of pizza for John, (Nancy took two bites), and John and I shared a Very Berry Sundae (made with Frozen Yogurt). We were very late returning home.

Write a note for Meadows today to get a count for those coming Thursday, knowing we will have a conflict with several of our players who are down in the Yakima River canyon this week at a bluegrass jam session at Big Pines campground. They are likely having a chilly and windy time this week.

On a day without photos, I am going to add some from my longtime friend since 6th grade, Maude Buzcek, whom I grew up with as Nancy J. It’s hard for me to revert, but she is such a wonderful photographer, I will publish her real name so you can someday recognize it hanging on a wall in a public building.

The first photos this week are from her trip to Florida, where she resided for many years. Now she lives in Michigan. Last week you saw and adult Tri-color heron in a drainage ditch. Below are three more of the species.My favorite above is a newborn. Then are 3 babies with mom. A Tri-heron taking off. Photos by Maude Buzcek, included with permission. Please do not share or copy any part or the whole.

Tuesday, May 8

8:00 a.m. I called RCI to confirm a possible Hawaii vacation that “hit” for a resort on Kauai for a friend. Indeed, it had come through, but the dates could not be used by the family. While on, I explained that to the agent, and she said, “Well, there is an availability the week before,” so I put a hold on that, until I could reach the family. They got back to me in time to cinch the week in September. So I’m happy we don’t lose the banked time share, and they are happy they get to use it for 4 people in their family. That makes me very happy too. They are paying all the costs that I have to establish on our end to release the use to them through a Guest Certificate. If any of our friends are planning a trip anywhere in the world, give us as much notice as possible (a year is nice for finding exactly what you want), but our trading power goes out for 2 years from March 2018.

Called and ordered my Entresto.

A few places in WA are having water issues. EBRG too, but less so. There was lots of water over the road and people’s driveways on my trip in today. We are okay. Unusual to see water on the road on Thomas, Alford, Sanders, and at Mercer Creek over B Street, I heard Dollarway had some, and then saw more on University Way and Brooklane Drive on my way home. This is not unusual with snowmelt and especially in the hills (to 5,000 feet) north of our valley, rain on snow events. In years past it has been high enough that I have old photos of John standing on University Way at Chestnut St. with water almost to the top of his high irrigation boots.
Some of the small streams through EBRG have been channeled and even run in tunnels under entire blocks. What could go wrong?

These are a few from today: Mercer Cr. is the culprit here, B St is north of 15th, and the right photo is taken north of Mercer Creek Church.

I was at Nancy Hoffman’s house over the noon hour (her lunch hour) to pick up a crate and paperwork for Czar. I went by Bi-Mart and picked up 4 of the Friskies Party Mix that our cats like so much for treats and by Super One for a couple items.

A little before 2:00 p.m., I went to the Senior Center for our “Just Dance” class led by Nicole, our AmeriCorps staff member.

While there, I took a few videos including Zombie Dance with Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the Korean Dance (Gangnam Style by Psy), and a review of last’s weeks class on the Cupid Shuffle. Only 6 people were present, with an audience of 2, and 5 people participating in the dances I videoed, with Nicole too, as our instructor.

VIDEOS at JUST DANCE – see below mine, for an explanation from the web, mostly on Korean Gangnam Style. I got involved last night reading about Michael Jackson and Thriller and his death in the summer of 2009, and realized why I was not really familiar with it. That summer was the start of my downfall with 9 weeks of IVs daily to get rid of the bacteria in my blood that invaded my heart and ate on my heart valves, causing a major change in my life at the end of 2009.

First, here are the videos I captured in class Tuesday, May 8 with Nicole leading our learning the dance steps.

(1) Lesson Zombie Dance, Nicole AAC, May 8, 2018 in Just Dance Lesson Zombie Dance

(2) Lesson Zombie/Thriller (Starting 2.5 mins)
Lesson Zombie/Thriller (start 2.5 min)

(3) Group with Zombie/Thriller
Group Zombie/Thriller

(4) Korean Dance (Gangnam Style by Psy)
Korean Dance (Gangnam Style by Psy)

(5) Cupid Shuffle – Review Nicole AAC, May 8, 2018 in Just Dance
Review Last Week’s Cupid Shuffle

For more background to Korean Pop Culture and Dance, here are some links for those interested to check out. The introduction to the first dance is long, but interesting and probably worth your time, especially for those of us in the class.

Background: Korean Gangnam Style by Psy
Has the actual pronunciation at the beginning of the video. (sounds like condom, almost )
Gangnam Style on Good Morning America, ABC News 09-12-2012 Korean Dance, Good Morning America, ABC News

This one is totally hilarious: GANGNAM STYLE on Australia’s Got Talent (watch the large lady judge change her demeanor through the video).
Korean Dance, Australia’s Got Talent

On an academic note, you will enjoy this one (at least I did).
2013 Harvard University Korean History Professor & Psy
It’s a very long video, over an hour. Please start watching at 20 minutes to hear Psy’s story. His talk is completely without a script and full of surprises. The funniest is about 10 minutes into his talk about his 2nd day in the U.S., in Boston, not speaking English, but needing help from a pharmacist for his diarrhea.
Harvard Univ. Historical Culture with Psy’s Story Korean Dance Style

Story–article in the Harvard Gazette about his visit:
Harvard Gazette about his visit

And the list goes on, amazingly… in Paris May 11, 2012 near the Eiffel Tower with a large crowd
Korean Dance 2012 Crowd @ Eiffel Tower, Paris

A very interesting interview with Psy by a BBC News reporter (How does an artist follow a world-wide mega-hit? The Korean singer Psy produced and starred in the video Gangnam Style in 2012 and it has now been viewed 2.47 billion times. The BBC’s Steve Evans went to meet him.)
BBC News Interview with Psy

If you want, here is the original Nicole sent me of the Korean video seen around the world and the one on Michael Jackson and Thriller:

Gangnam Style
Original 2012 video Gangnam Style with Psy

Thriller
Michael Jackson’s Thriller Video

Here are Nicole’s comments about Michael Jackson’s: Thriller was the second one that we spent most of our time on. Thriller is the name of the song by Michael Jackson. The zombie part was because in his video and such there are zombies. It is the iconic part of thriller as during the dance we are the zombies that do the dance with him.

Viewing all these will take up much time, but you may learn a lot you previously did not know. I surely learned a lot about the Korean Dance style. I’ll let someone else follow the Michael Jackson Thriller / Zombie connection.

Wednesday, May 9

Last night I got my salad ready to take to the noon lunch for after our music, but need to add Bleu cheese dressing to the lettuce this morning, and add other ingredients, except croutons I’ll take along separately and add once I’m ready to eat.

SAIL was taught by Evelyn (who is our banjo player at the Food Bank lunch music). Jessi, our AmeriCorps teacher was in a two day workshop for the senior center.

More bird photos from my friend from her trip to Florida. We’ll start with white Egrets:Two of Great White Egret preening; a Snowy Egret; a Cattle Egret carrying a twig for nesting material; young Egrets Sky Gazing. All photos by Maude Buzcek, with permission.

Some babies for follow-up: Baby Egrets and the two right photos are of Wood Storks

Thurs, May 10Kittitas Valley Storm, night before last, Mikka Jameson photo (permission to use). Photographer says, “This was taken from the Currier Creek Development off Old Hwy 10 west of Ellensburg, WA.”

Yesterday evening I started to cut John’s hair because he was looking too much like Einstein. It was LONG overdue. He needed gasoline for his trip tomorrow, so he drove me in, where we parked in the shade, and he carried all my stuff into Meadows where we were playing music. He helped move tables and set up chairs, and went into the side room where he read more in his book on the discovery of the ‘Elements’ of the periodic table and about the odd characters associated with the stories of their research. He greeted and talked to various people he knew (mainly Katie Eberhart, our visiting accordionist from Bend, OR), and also helped with the chair and table reset process.

Then we both left for other chores. The cost of gasoline has risen again. He’d warned me of that, because of the Venezuelan and Mid East turmoil’s political problems raising the price of a barrel of oil.
We just have to pay the price because we need the gas to fuel our activities – he travels 2 days / weekend to the mountains on WTA trail maintenance trips. But, he enjoys the work. I have to run to town on many trips over a week, sometimes all 5 days, and an occasional Saturday.

We didn’t get home until late, and Woody was here. Our feral tom cat Czar didn’t show until 5:10, so we fed him dry and canned food while I stood near him. John brought the crate up to the porch and I opened the door. John took some boxes to the shed and returned when I told him he was done eating. Czar lay down and rolled over on the concrete driveway wanting to be petted. John petted him and then scooped him up and brought him over, putting him in backwards into the crate.

I went on back in to get the paperwork and write a check for the fees while John went back to do one more thing in the garden. We were able to leave right after 5:30. I drove and we called through our Bluetooth to tell them we were on our way. It’s only about 8.5 miles away. We visited and left for home. He is there to wait for a Sunday morning 5:00 a.m. leave to Lynnwood, WA to a Spay-neuter Clinic with 19 other cats going along with Nancy Hoffman and Noella Wyatt for “fixing” and treatments – through their efforts with Kittitas Valley Community Cats, for which they are the leaders. It’s an incredible community service project they manage.

We’ll pick him up early Monday to bring him home – all neutered, clipped ear, and a rabies & FVRCD shost. (There are 5 viral diseases that cats are commonly vaccinated for: herpes (rhinotracheitis) – the ‘R’ in FVRCP; calici – the ‘C’ in FVRCP; panleukopenia (“feline distemper”) – the ‘P’ in FVRCP. I assume the FV at the front is for Feline Vaccine. He’ll also have a tapeworm treatment all at a much reduced price, boarding (no charge) before trip, and the transportation (no charge) over to Lynnwood, WA, but I donated extra for all the help they provided for us.

John had put a casserole in the oven when we originally got home after 4:00 p.m. with chicken breast chunks, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, chicken noodle soup, small pasta shells, topped with grated mozzarella cheese and rolled Cheez-It® crackers.

More animal photos from Maude … how about some red birds ? Roseate Spoonbill landing, two flybys, and one with babies in nest near Rockledge, FL. Photos by Maude Buzcek.

Friday, May 11

John off to WTA at 6:00 a.m. I have had a crazy couple of days and done nothing on weekly chores that need done. I stayed home to recover from lack of sleep, and work on projects needing attention.

Called Mike at Habitat for Humanity, left a message, and he returned my call later. They do have a Wilson, more recent tennis racket for $5 and another for $4. They do not get wooden ones (as mine are) any more. I wonder if those can still be restrung. Need to contact Holly Beard in Kittitas to offer my 60 yr. old tennis rackets. And tell her about the buys at Habitat. She asked for several for her family on the Buy Nothing site, but has not had any offers. I have not yet offered until I check mine out. I know I’m not going to be playing any more tennis in my lifetime.

Today is a Mother’s Day tea, at AAC, but I am not going in, regardless of being the volunteer photographer for events.

I was available with gasoline prices for John to call me from I-90, Exit 34; truck stop and restaurant place just east of North Bend. The price had gone up in Cle Elum, so he came on the extra 30 miles to have that much more gasoline for his weekend trip. He stopped at a place called JRs which was selling considerably less than anyone else in town, at $3.12/gal. He only needed 5 gallons. Today their price went up to $3.20, and they are likely the lowest in town.

His Forest Service Rd trip into and out of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie today was on a new 11 mile road. 15 years ago the trip was over a sorry excuse for a road. Some of the workers shared horror stories of past problems with the road causing $500 repair to one guy’s car.

I changed my nancyh@cwu.edu password today, finally. Every 6 months it’s required and is a pain to do.

Ate a good lunch – sausage patty, many orange slices, two eggs over easy, and Rosemary olive toast with apricot jam made by my neighbor.

Back to washing dishes, taking meds. Worked a little on the jobslist and had some email waiting.

While waiting for my Earth Science Weekly to arrive from Michigan, and our geographer friend, Mark Francek, I checked email one more time before stepping away from my computer for another chore in the kitchen, and this week’s send had arrived. I opened only one of the offerings and enjoyed it so much, I thought I would share below for your enjoyment too.Polarized Light Microscopy Reveals Hidden Beauty

Call from John at 3:45 – 1-1/2 hours away. John made it home at 5:35 p.m. and it is starting to sprinkle a little with big dark clouds looming.

I’ll end Friday with some alligator photos from Maude Buzcek:Reptilian Tussle _^^^^^_ ^^^^^_ Big Boy (standing is knee high on a person)_^^^^_ Gator in late afternoon, Viera Wetlands. Photos by Maude Buzcek.

Saturday, May 12

Here’s a true heart-warming story from Karen Douglas Barrows, Brittany breeder and friend in Glide, OR via Facebook. Starting with her picture:North Umpqua’s Born To Tri MH (call name, Trina) Photo by Karen Barrows.
“ Trina was born May 24, 2012. She was one of nine in the litter. Trina was born with a full cleft palate (soft and hard palate). Pups with CP are unable to suck. For the first three days of her life I fed her with an eye dropper. She was losing weight and was down to 4 oz. On the third she went to the vet. He gave us a ferret nipple and told me to take her home and feed her; I am sure he didn’t think she was going to make it. I feed her every 2 hours around the clock and by the third day she learned to swallow as I squeezed the bottle. Team work … I would warm her milk and put her in my shirt when I had to go out somewhere; she had to go everywhere with me. She started gaining weight and was eagerly eating. She spent her time with her mama and littermates. Never a peep out of her — no crying, very content. At 2 weeks she was able to consume enough milk to last for 4 hours at a time. The main concern for a pup with a cleft palate is aspiration pneumonia; well, at a week and a half she aspirated in the middle of the night and refused to eat. So early Saturday morning we headed for the vet. She was put on amoxicillin, responded very well, and started eating again. When she was three weeks old she started eating puppy kibble and was weaned off her milk. She was a nice fat little pup. At 6 weeks she went to OHSU to be evaluated to see if she would be able to have surgery. They said definitely they could fix her mouth. She was whisked away and we were bombarded with things they wanted us to do: one being a feeding tube. They said she needed it to get ready for surgery. As we weren’t sure what was happening, we agreed … even though she was healthy happy and eating well. We took her home and that was the scariest night for us. She developed much mucus and was having trouble breathing. I held her all night making sure she could breath. With the feeding tube in place she could no longer eat kibble as there wasn’t enough room in her throat to swallow the kibble. So we were back on milk. She had to wear doll clothes to keep the tube covered so her littermates didn’t pull it out. Had to change the dressing twice a day. It was a nightmare. She wasn’t doing well with the tube at all. On the 4th of July the stitches came out and her tube came out. (Which ended up being a blessing). On July 5th went to my vet. Said he could put another back in. But after discussing it, we couldn’t come up with any advantages to putting it back in. So we left it out put her back on kibble and she was healthy and happy. When she was 4 months we took her to Medford and she had surgery and they closed her CP. After a few weeks she had 2 places reopen and they had to do another surgery. Which in the end was another blessing. The vet barely split the incision the entire length and brought it back together making a much stronger incision. If you look now at the roof of her mouth, you would never know she had a CP. The time leading up to her surgery she had sticks, grass, rocks, you name it — in her cleft palate. My husband was really worried about her nasal passages and if she would be able to scent birds. The vet said there shouldn’t be a problem. She had to wear a muzzle for 2 months so she wouldn’t chew on bones or hard objects. I had 2 families waiting for her to see if surgery was successful, but when the time came, I could not let her go . So she stayed with us. I told her that she couldn’t be a show champion so she had to prove herself in the field. 
She has kept up her end of the deal . Karen ”
Here’s her website: North Umpqua Brittanys

Sunday, May 13

At 6:00 a.m., John takes off for Goat Creek, off Hwy 410, almost to Bumping Lake for a WTA trail work party (the last for now, with Lisa Black). She emailed him about bringing his 24” crosscut saw. There is one small log and they would like to not have to carry a longer saw a mile up a steep grade.

John called from outside Yakima at Gleed, at 4:17.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

. . . … Pretty Flowers on the Naneum Fan …

Here are some photos from this past weekend on John’s WTA trip to Boulder Cave and Edgar Rocks.John & Will at Boulder Cave Trail, whole crew at Edgar Rocks, and large rock tipped out of the trail. About 10% was sticking up in the center of the trail, like a little pyramid. Green Hats have it balanced on end, ready to help it off the trail.

Monday, Apr 30

John has been planting bulbs of various types of flowers. Dahlias have yet to appear, and gladioli bulbs are still hiding in the garage. Here are some pictures I took this week.At end of our driveway, the mixed view from Naneum Rd.; orange/yellow tulip; and yellow/orange daffodil.

Closer to the house are other flowers, some tulips, but mostly daffodils, and several flowers not yet in bloom.Unique setting for these daffodils; the ones in the background are seen in the right photo. Main daffodils near house: yellow, white, and white with orange center.

We published the blog for last week at 12:55 a.m., making the deadline before sunrise.

Our farrier came to trim Myst this morning.

I scheduled our annual eye appointments on the same day for June 5, Tuesday morning. This is at a clinic on the west end of EBRG.

I stayed home today from SAIL to work on music.

Our cherry trees are blooming. If not much rain, wind, or freezes – we’ll get cherries this year. The Shiro (yellow, round) plum is blooming with others showing signs.

Tuesday, May 1

I will not go to the 2:00 p.m. “Just dance” class today; too much left to do on music prep.

John has captured a couple of yellow jackets on the inside window where the cat and dog have their door to the outside. Parts are a little warped there and a space allows the insects to get in. Another thing needing to be done. Ate brunch, and

John went to help move a couple of trees that fell at our neighbor’s. He got his chainsaw gear together, but he didn’t have to use that because the water is going beneath the trees. We are in the midst of spring melt and there is too much water. The irrigator (with cattle there) needs to minimize the flow from the diversion on Naneum Creek.

John continued with inside and outside tasks, and I worked mostly on music for 3 players and 19 audience copies. I have to replace 5 new songs at the end of the packet and replace the cover. John was a huge help removing staples tonight, and re-stapling after I made the changes.

Wednesday, Apr 25

Busy day mid-week: I got my salad ready to take to the noon lunch at the Food Bank where we play music. On my way to SAIL, I took Roberta Clark’s music book she left behind at Briarwood, and put it on her front porch.

From SAIL, I picked up my prescription from Super 1. Then on my way home, I picked up two glasses and a glass butter dish (freely given), as well as a double camping chair with a place for drinks on a tray between. We can use it for the upcoming potluck Geography end-of-year awards dinner on the lawn at CWU.We received 2 of the wide mouth matching clear tall glasses and the butter dish; right, the double camping chair. On my way there, I also stopped by another house to pick up some empty plastic flower pots, mostly small.

Thurs, May 3

John left for bottling Amigne at White Heron. He brought home two bottles of that and two of Malbec (the previously bottled variety). Amigne is a very rare grape, most is in the Valais region of Switzerland, and a little is at White Heron.

I’m going to Rehab for music and afterwards by the Food Bank with egg cartons they need for a shipment of a pallet of boxes of flats of eggs (now in their walk-in cooler). Dozen-size egg cartons are preferred, but 18-ones taken as well.

John bought some tomato plants at Bi-Mart today and some yellow crookneck squash.

We had a raccoon figure the way across the structure to get over the fence and come to our front door. It was set up for the 3 outside cats. We’ve had dry food for them under the overhang of the porch. The spot is accessible by a sloping pallet with a ledge. We thought they had been going through a lot recently. So, we will not leave out food after dark. John heard a noise out front, looked out the window tonight, and saw the raccoon. [We’ve seen her/him/it just twice. About 15 years ago we saw a couple of them here, but none until today].

Earlier I had looked out the front door window and thought I saw a strange cat earlier, but it was dark in the yard and I couldn’t really tell. I don’t think it was the raccoon, but I suppose it could have been. We have now brought all the hard food inside. The cats are usually only there during the day, so we will only put it out then, but also pick it up before we leave the house late, not to return until after dark.
On a related note, Sue (orange) has brought dead mice to the front door on a couple of mornings. Perhaps she thinks we are trading with her because we pick them up and carry them away.

Friday, May 4

John stayed home to do yard and garden chores. I went to AAC for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. I was the volunteer designated photographer so I arrived early for a good seat and set out my stuff I had brought along for my lunch (a great chef salad).

At the party, before and after lunch were two opportunities to participate in crepe paper flower making or tossing a ball into cups.Two groups of Crepe Paper Flower Makers before and after lunch.

Flower Making (Beginning)
LINK

Demo with Explanation of Crepe Paper Flower Making by Jessi
LINK

Jacquie tosses ball one direction and Shirley tosses in the other, with Nicole supervising.

Lunch was an Enchilada casserole with Jell-O on the side. Many activities inside. Outside was a Piñata experience conducted by Nicole with 2 piñatas she hand-crafted STURDILY.

A number of people went out to the parking lot for the “breaking” of the two Piñatas. They were tough enough to give everyone who wanted a chance to make a mighty swing.

First Attempt by Victoria LINK

Joe Gets First Piñata Down
LINK

Then Ed passes out the candy from the first, and others keep trying for the second reward.Shirley grabs a few pieces from Ed, and Curtis tries his hand at knocking open the 2nd Piñata.My setup, first hit, and follow through. Very short video below. I handed my camera set already on video to David Douglas and he recorded the first few seconds of mine.

Nancy’s First Try (13 secs) – Penultimate Event!
LINK

In between that event and returning for SAIL exercise class, I drove to Kathryn Carlson’s to pick up egg cartons and shopping plastic bags for her donation to the FISH Food Bank.

At the end of SAIL exercise class I asked Jessi to take this photo of me in my shirt from the material my student, Clement Otu-Tei bought for me from his home country, Ghana, Africa and gave to me. He used to call me “mom” so I thought this was appropriate to send as a thank you. My friend Ellen Fischer sewed it into a shirt for me. It is a heavy smooth cotton material.I made a stopover at a large yard sale on Mt. View Rd, where I found an incredible deal on jeans for John. They are brand new still in the package—priced at $59.50, but I paid $2.00 each for two pairs. The find of the century! Back by way of BiMart for Party Mix for all the cats, but I had to get a rain check as they were out. The price was right, but the date of their next shipment is unknown. The sale goes through 5/13, but I’m covered.

Came home after SAIL by way of 3rd avenue and saw another Garage sale sign with directions to Grasslands, an east side subdivision of EBRG. Donations to go to people going to Brazil to build a community center. I got a few free things there, and paid $3.00 for several others. Most of it I’m giving away. One free thing is a clock with a marble base for John, but we will have to hunt for a short 1.5 v battery. We have only longer ones.

We left a little later than we wished for the concert, but it was late starting. Folks started in formed lines, but soon there was just a milling about and the lines dissolved. We visited with friends we knew and with those we didn’t. The room was not full, so getting in early made little difference.

It was an interesting presentation.You can read his story on his website, LINK
He can only use two fingers on his left hand, and the little finger and ring finger curve downward.

Billy McLaughlin’s Unique Guitar Recovery from Dystonia
LINK

It was dark when we came back from the music building, and the cats were waiting to be fed again (Woody & Czar). They all ate before we left, but we left out hard food for them. The raccoon returned after we were home, but John chased it off, and it never got to the food.

Saturday, May 5 HAPPY CINCO de MAYO !

John left this morning just before 6:30 a.m. for Naches area, Lost River Trail & Edgar Rocks.

A volunteer, Rebecca Emery, made the startling connection that John had hired her when she was 16 – back in Moscow, Idaho – to work in the bookstore he managed. John knew her mother, Carla, once well known for the Encyclopedia of Country Living. There is an entry for ‘ Carla Emery ‘ on Wikipedia, and the books are still sold.
So, about 33 years later, Rebecca and John got to work (on trail) together for two days.

Today, I worked on a number of projects with deadlines and finished only a few.

We received 4 six-inch white plastic irrigation pipes about 30’ long (quite old, but okay) from our neighbor.

Sunday, May 6

John left just before 6:30 a.m. for the Lost River Trail. He went early to get a head start because Lisa (crew leader) and Rebecca (the only others for the day) hike much faster than he does. It worked well – he got to the tools, got them out of their hiding place, and did about 10 minutes of work before the others arrived.

I arranged to get Czar through the KCFOA (Kittitas County Friends of Animals) to be neutered in Lynnwood. I’m picking up the “crate” and the paperwork from Nancy Hoffman at Tuesday noon. She lives on Strange Rd. We are to take him to the shop behind their house (her husband’s, Paul) accessible from the Vantage Hwy. on Thursday evening. They will keep him until Monday at 5:00 a.m. when they leave for the west side, with several cats to be neutered or spayed.

It started raining this afternoon. Shortly after John started his drive home, rain began on Hwy 410. At Yakima the traffic increased. Things got more sane when he got off I-82, south of EBRG.

The Lost River Trail is noted for ticks. They seem to drop out of the sky. Ones on John’s bright orange shirt were easily spotted and knocked off. I checked when he got home, and found another in his hair.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan