Category: Random issues

Contrasting views
Today I took the top photo from just outside the back door.
Five miles away, at the airport, the instruments claim no wind and visibility of 2 miles. Here, I can see about 80 yards. Some call this a silver frost.
The next photo was taken from Sweden about a week ago.
Found at this link:
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=11&month=12&year=2022

The site explains the green and pink colors. Under a few lines of text there is a link to click on: “ take a look at the 1st ” – Wow!
I guess if you have money and time, a visit to Abisko, Sweden could be a nice tour.

Are you fed up with Christmas music? Radio stations started playing Jingle Bells on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. December 20th would be a couple of days too soon.
Jingle Bells was not conceived as a Christmas song. The history of it is here: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2016/jingle-bells-history
If you care.
My night time lows have been between 6° and 14°F. The current forecast claims it will be Zero by next Wednesday morning. Great. After that, it climbs slowly. By Christmas morning I’m looking at about 20, although Sunday’s numbers are not yet posted.
The cold and freezing fog limits the time I am out, and the more time I have to eat. Not good. I’ve gained a few pounds since summer. This brings me to my “Wellness Visit” of Thursday. This is the 1st of two appointments. The purpose is to establish that the patient is still sane and mobile. One part is to remember three words for about 3 minutes and repeat them back to the Nurse. Drawing a clock is part two. Last December my mind was somewhere unknown. This year both of these exercises proved that my mind had returned – perfect mental health, or something.
The nature of the questions does suggest that the medical professionals have to deal with some odd and maybe nasty situations.
One site explains, in general terms:
First, your primary care doctor will ask you to fill out a questionnaire called a Health Risk Assessment that evaluates your health status, frailty and physical functioning.

It also assesses other aspects of your health, such as:

Psychosocial risks (e.g., depression/life satisfaction, stress, anger, loneliness/social isolation, pain, and fatigue)
Behavioral risks (e.g., tobacco use, physical activity, nutrition and oral health, alcohol consumption, sexual health, motor vehicle safety and home safety)
Activities of daily living (e.g., dressing, feeding, toileting, bathing, grooming, physical ambulation including balance and your risk of falls)

At my clinic a nurse handles 90% of the visit. My “doctor” – a Physician Assistant – comes in and says hello and visits for a few minutes. Then I go down the hall and have blood drawn. Next visit, called a Chronic Ailment visit, will start with a nurse and then a longer visit with the “doc” about the results of the blood and urine reports.
For me, this requires a 30 mile (one way) trip. This week the roads were clear. Next week there is a chance of snow and 16 degrees. This will be on the 22nd. Here the Solstice happens on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 at 1:48 pm PST. So, Thursday will be the first full day of the winter season, and the daylight hours will begin to lengthen. About January 10th or so, this will start to be noticeable.
That’s it for now – time to feed the wood stove.

Keeping track on the Naneum Fan.

John

Allen came a few days ago and plowed the 6” of snow. Actually, with a blade behind the tractor, is “plowed” the right word? Don’t know. Anyway late Friday afternoon snow began to fall and by 10 pm there was a new 6”. That makes for a foot of snow where he or I haven’t moved it.
The small birds and quail have a problem finding seeds in snow this deep. I buy a mixture of little seeds and Black-oil Sunflower seeds that meets with their approval. The small birds only go a few dozen feet away when I go to replenish the feeding station. The quail leave and settle in the trees about 75 yards away. They don’t return as quickly as the little ones.
Thursday there must have been a hawk nearby. Some of the quail were on the covered ramp and hunkered down motionless. I’ve had two quail knock themselves silly flying into windows. Both recovered and flew off. I think this happens only when the flock takes off in a panic in multiple directions – an action that the predator has trouble dealing with. One of the problems in feeding any of the animals is that the predators soon learn and watch.
¾ mile away, a family throws buckets of apples (rejects from a packer) in their front yard. At times it seems the entire local deer herd – 50 or so – is there at the same time. Usually there are only 10 to 20. There are cougars around but they have stayed a good distance away from the small cluster of houses.
Wild animals are not the only beings that have snow related problems.

A lady in Washington State received a $553 fine for driving in an erratic manner. The photo below suggests why. She told the officer her wipers didn’t work.
Wipers are supposed to work. I suspect a fine for that was tacked on to whatever else counted toward the $553. Buying a broom would have been cheaper, and she likely had one.

Earlier this week a truck driver on I-90, about 15 miles south of me, made a mistake in an icy fog. I haven’t found what that cost him, but he was cited as the initiator of a 38 vehicle pile-up.

One of the photos shows an overturned truck and its cargo, famous Washington apples in 5 pound bags and 40 pound boxes (a bushel).

There were no serious injuries to humans. I wonder what the total dollar cost was of this incident. There were police, fire trucks, EMT crews, commercial sized tow trucks — from two counties and a 10 hour closure of the main cross-state highway.

Flipping the page – some folks are having fun. The view below is from Saturday morning at Crystal Mountain Ski area just 50 miles away from me in the general direction of Hawaii. The usually route from me is closed for the season, so if I wanted to go (I don’t.), the trip would be 150 miles.
The home page has a rotating camera, and there are several others.
https://www.crystalmountainresort.com/the-mountain/mountain-report-and-webcams/webcams

Meanwhile, a deer needs a battery. His string of Christmas lights won’t light! This year’s entry, from Oregon, is on the right. On the left is a 2019 version. This seems to happen more often than folks see Santa Claus!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/buck-rescued-with-christmas-lights-tangled-in-its-antlers/ar-AA14WDyC

Did I mention I have some snow to move.
It is going to sag because my outside temperature just rose to 33°F.
An hour later from the above the temperature is 35°F and Allen has cleared the driveway. 😊

Keeping track on the Naneum Fan – 12/10/2022

John

Sunday at 11 o’clock there is snow on the east slopes of the Cascades. The forecast is for an inch or so both during the day and another inch tonight. The fall rate better decrease, ’cause I already have an inch. My area has an East wind (from the east) that blows the snow into the covered entrance and into the big shed, places I usually do not have to clear. Bummer!
Winter, that is what it is like outside, started here about 3 weeks ago. However the two standard definitions are Dec 1 to Feb 28 (Climatological Winter) and Dec 21 to Mar 20 (Astronomical Winter). Those interested in the topic of “what’s outside” will find observations and summary data for 3-month periods – in the current case Dec/Jan/Feb. Those that care about the Sun – Earth configuration pay attention to the special position of the vertical rays of the Sun.
There is a long history of folks tracking the Sun and celebrating the few unique configurations, such as the winter solstice when the night is long and the day is short. But the key concept is that the length of the dark stops getting longer, reverses, and the daylight begins getting longer.
Our ancestors celebrated the special Earth-Sun configurations long before folks started recording weather data. So that’s what most folks still do.
Anyway, I have lots of winter on my covered entry ramp and two buckets of fire wood.
Outside work this week was minimal. I used the log splitter and re-stacked the pieces. Those will dry faster but I don’t currently need them.
Feeding the wild birds and trekking to the mailbox and back is not enough exercise to compensate for what I eat. I need to give up ice cream and pie until the weather improves (March?).

Keeping track on the Naneum Fan
John

This being Thanksgiving Week, I made plans. I was going to go to Kathy’s and Francisco’s but he tested positive for Covid, so on Tuesday that plan was canceled. We’ll have to reschedule. Snoqualmie Pass was clear and dry. Darn.
The photo below (snitched from the local paper), is from Wednesday afternoon. Find the red star – That’s most of me.
Prior to the Covid Panic, Nancy and I would contribute to an go to this community dinner. For the past 2 years volunteers cooked and prepared take-out dinners. I can prepare a better meal, and driving to town and home again would not have been worth the effort.
This year they were back to the community affair and I know the lead person, our Senior Center director, Katelyn, ran the show, so I went at 3, talked to her and three or four others, and left at 3:33.
I really don’t care for the standard fare. This one had a slab of turkey breast and green beans (plain). The gob of instant potatoes had instant gravy. The stove top stuffing was plain, and there was a big fluffy white roll.
I might not have gone, except … the local grocery had a sale of big red table grapes and I thought those would make a good contribution to the dinner where I would be Thursday. 30 years ago we were introduced to a local family with 6 or 7 girls — one being Suzy, now married to Bob West.
Bob was a Xerox repairman when we met, but once that company began to decline, he came back to school to retrain. He was in my physical geography class and some of Nancy’s classes. Nancy got to know the mother and father because they liked to dance when her group played at a few of the EBRG venues. We usually went to a noon dinner across the street and then went to the family homestead for supper. Now, one of the daughters and her husband have a large house and the family, and friends, gather there.
But back to the grapes – 99¢/lb. is a great deal. I know there will be turkey and ham and just about anything else one might think of. It is always a quandary as what to take. Knowing I can never think of anything to take that won’t be there, I saw a sale for big red table grapes and went for those.
I rinsed and cut about 8 pounds into clumps and placed them on paper towels in a cardboard box. I was greeted at the door by one of the family and he and I decided to put them on the table just as I had handed them to him. He said that in a few minutes one of the ladies would see them and bring a nice platter or bowl so as to better present them. In under 3 minutes that happened.

All this reminded me of family Thanksgivings my mother hosted in the 1960s.

– – –
Yesterday the local weather forecast claimed my temperature would drop to 4°F next Friday at dawn. Now it shows as 12 degrees. All the lows have been raised by 8 or 10 degrees. I’m not complaining, just wondering. Today was warm – high 40s all day. I was able to be outside from about 11 to 3:30.
A bit of rain and/or snow is forecast for the rest of the week. Inside projects – I don’t like – loom.

Keeping track on the Naneum Fan

John

Other than the local NWS weather station stopping, nothing much is going on. The Ellensburg airport Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) hasn’t worked since the 17th, Thursday, at 12:55 pm. A station 26 miles west, near Cle Elum, at a Highway maintenance area called Bullfrog does work, and I have outside sensors. This being Saturday, the down time will last until Monday or Tuesday.

Outside in the Sun, it “feels like” 40 degrees. Each day I get something done – cleaning up an old mess, or putting time in on a active project. I have a new covered feeding area for the Quail and smaller birds, and the deer can’t get in. I still have one of the older places to dismantle, but one is gone. The remaining one can be “disappeared” in about 20 minutes.

This afternoon I intend to mulch leaves with the push-type lawn mower. I’ve raked about ½ the Walnut leaves and carried them to where I will plant onions next March. [I checked this: for nouns ending in f {leaf} there is not a grammar rule. You just have to know the plural is leaves. Why is this?]
https://www.grammar-monster.com/plurals/plural_of_leaf.htm

The tree photo is from here:

Western Larch, Larix occidentalis

Locally, many folks call these trees Tamaracks and are preferred firewood. They tend to not have large side-limbs, meaning very small knots. Thus, they have straight grain and are easily split.
They prefer the north-facing (damp) slopes of the mountains. They are more of a Rocky Mountain species, but the western higher parts of Kittitas County have plenty. I obtained some and they grow here if I water them. When I don’t get enough water on (this year), they have a dull yellow fall color. They are a deciduous conifer; the needles turn a golden color in the fall, then shed. Check the link for more photos.

Thanksgiving Day is forecast to be in the 50s and sunny.
I’ll say thanks to that.
John

Over the past 2 & ½ years I have often posted photos and comments on the remodeling of the property. The house was not of high quality when built and 35 years of wind and snow had taken a toll. I inquired at the County about the need of a permit and got an unexpected result. A Federal map classified the location as being in a flood plain, thereby limiting what I could do. The map is wrong but bureaucrats follow rules, not facts. I wrote a letter saying that if certain things weren’t soon fixed the structure would deteriorate beyond repair and we would have to move. I was offered an option of paying a $500 indulgence for an official okay to fix things.

The first photo shows the look of the place at 39 years old.
A wood deck (A) has rotted and become dangerous. Also, it was built to match the concrete behind pallet (B). There is a 5” step up behind where the two pallets meet. Water draining from the roof splashes on to the area at the front door.
‘C’ is an area once covered in black plastic. The plastic goes under the deck. What was the water supposed to do? At ‘C’ and extending 20′ out, the area widens, is covered by red cinders, and has a 15′ high Mountain Ash Tree; pretty, but messy.
‘D’ is a concrete area that extends to the right in front of a 2-car garage. Note the step; that’s two to get to the front door. The concrete was poured at the level of the garage floor and not sloped out. Rain and snowmelt coming off the roof splashed back against the house and could run under the garage doors. ‘E’ shows how high the water splashed onto the house. The siding is porous wood sheeting, and absorbent.
Next: getting started.

‘D’ is where a shed-roof car-park will be.
‘A’ shows the stump of the tree and the old wood deck gone, except of a temporary ramp. Note the refrigerator this side of the door. ‘B’ is the concrete approach to the garage. Multiple cracks and slight dipping on the right were issues. ‘C’ shows a new floor being constructed inside, on top of the old concrete. The total height, when finished, will be slightly over a foot with fiberglass insulation under a stone floor.
Concrete ‘B’ soon was gone, as was the stump near ‘A’. Next photo.

The inside and outside framing of the new room is in progress. There are two windows. Behind ‘w1’ the space is clear, while at ‘w2’ there is framing for a walk-in pantry that will be accessible from the kitchen. To the right of ‘P’ there is one of several stakes – markers for holes to support posts. Also, to the right of the worker there is a Big Brown Shed (BBS). It is 6 feet from the side of the house, has a metal roof, and dumps water and snow against the (garage) side.

Next is a November 2022 view, that is, now. The BBS now has a long (39 ft.) roof line sloping away from the house. The house siding (A) is false sandstone with cement/fiber above – both chosen for the fire-resistant property.
There is a matching wall in front of the passage between the shed and the house. A similar wall is in front of the front door, to the left of the covered ramp. The concrete ramp goes to the height of the house door – no steps, where before there were two. On both sides of the ramp, river washed stone covers the area. There is a hidden “dry well” with a ton of rock in front of the window – left of A – and extending 15 feet in the direction of the camera.
On the left is a blue metal sloping roof (C)– car park area. Compare with ‘D’ in a previous view.

Next, inside the new room.

Most of the room has Hickory paneling, with Knotty Pine trim. The very right edge is the corner of the walk-in pantry. The room’s ceiling was meant to be the violet color the Vanguard Group uses as a logo.The contractor, Walter, and I visited the paint department of our favorite supplier, looked at samples, and chose one. The store’s lighting must have given a false view – we ended up with a conversation starter. Even though 2022 has been a bad year for stocks and bonds, the money for this remodel has come from the markets, or more accurately from the cushion they provided. Cash-out of other investments were mostly the source of the $$.

The inside of the pantry has ends with panels and sides that are a simple beige paint. Refrigerator, now inside again, is hidden behind the inset.
The paneling is printed with drawings such as seen on the left insert. Recall, this was part of the garage and had two steps down from the laundry off the kitchen. There is a double-hung (swinging) knotty pine door from the pantry into the new living space – part computer room.
Before going outside, here is a shot of the failing ceiling in the garage, and a second one of the front door. These are just 2 of the many problems the house had. The door still needs to be replaced.

The ceiling was attached with small nails usually used to hold cedar shakes on a roof. They should have used screws. I put one of these sheets back up years ago. The railing for the door stopped the fall. All of this was fixed and properly secured with screws and taped before getting the lovely purple paint.

Next shows the front door. It should have been replaced years ago. Note the crack below the latch. (Sorry, this one is a bit unfocused.) Over the years our Brittanys seriously scratched the door. We didn’t want to replace it until the dogs were gone. Now that I have no dogs, the price of the door I want doubled in the past 12 months. So, I wait.

There was a concrete slab (12 x 12) on the back side. We covered it and much more (air handler) with a matching roof and post the same as the covered ramp. Note the near right side with the high small windows. There were 3 large windows here. The room inside heated up because of sunlight.

The new roof of the big shed appears (upper left) behind & above the patio covering. Below: The BBS looked like this. The red line shows where I expected the new roof line to be.

While not finished, below is what it is today. Note the overhang – top left.

On the south side of the house, we added a slightly raised deck, covered. Windows and double doors, and an animal door, were added. The room through the new doors was built with no ceiling lights, and only one small window that could open. The west wall had about 60 sq. ft. of glass, facing the sun. Three photos prior, you can see those were taken out and replaced with thin windows high under the soffit. Two of the big windows were used on the west side of the covered deck. Much of what has been described is hidden by small plum trees in the view below.

When viewing the next photo, imagine being in the corner of the room and looking out in the direction of the plum tree. On the lower left there is the magnetic-catch animal flap with a narrow window above. Next, the doors open onto the deck. Then another openable window. In the ceiling, note the opening – shaft – to the skylight. Also, we added flush LED ceiling lights; used throughout the remodel.
The next photo is from the entrance to the room from the rest of the house.

The original wood within the house was dark brown. With the remodel, doors and framing now look like this on a hallway closet. On the left there is knotty pine wood. This is just inside the front door.
Bedrooms and bath rooms still have the old dark wood. A new kitchen would be nice – it too was dark but a previous owner painted much of that light blue. I might take the blue and dark off, but not until several other things get done. (I did a small test.)

While the house projects were being done, I did cleanup and landscaping. However, in recent months I’ve been working on the wood supply for this winter, and for the following winter of 2023/24.

Once placed in the sun to help “season” the freshly cut pieces, it has now been moved under cover.

Keeping Track on the Naneum Fan.
John H.

The house was built with an electric furnace and air conditioner. The heating part failed about 17 years ago and we replaced the entire thing with a state of art electric heat pump. This unit becomes less efficient when the outside air temperature drops below freezing. At some point the electric resistance heaters take up the chore of heating the inside. That is more expensive than when the compressors move thermal energy in or out.
The National Weather Service thinks my nighttime (early morning) temperature will drop to 15°F by 3 am this coming Wednesday. As I write tonight at 8 pm, outside it is just at freezing.

So it is time to turn the chair around. During summer, the recliner faces the back sliding door and I can watch the sky, deer, and birds. The wood stove is behind the chair. After turning the chair around, I can warm my feet and watch the flames change color and dance around.

I started a fire at about 6 pm and watched the temperature rise. An initial hot fire is necessary to get the temperature in the stove and up the flue to a degree that the hot gasses are going up and out. When properly hot the catalytic burner can be engaged by moving a lever on the side. This burns the particles from the fire that one sees as smoke. When working properly there is nothing to be seen coming out at the top. The hot gases will cause the air to shimmer as it does above an asphalt road under a summer sun.
In the photo, there is creosote on the bottom corners of the glass. This is from last spring’s end-of-season use when the fire wasn’t hot enough to burn it off. I made sure the screen at the top of the flue stayed clean but the house was getting up into the mid-80s and I was opening doors and windows – and wasting wood.
When I started the fire tonight, the house was 68°. The room with the stove quickly climbed to about 75, and then I turned the house fan on to spread the warmth around. Bedrooms and hallway are now 71 degrees.

I mowed some of the remaining tall weeds this afternoon. I was expecting to use up the gas and park the mower, without the battery. My butt got warm and my hands got cold. There is still gas, so I have an unfinished project. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

Friday we bottled Syrah wine from the 2020 harvest. And next Thursday we are scheduled for something else, although I don’t know what.

For about 10 days, I’ve had the information guide and ballot for the election next Tuesday. All I have done so far is to ignore the dozens of phone calls that want me to listen to a pre-recorded message that tells me how someone wants me to vote. I pay for the phone and the connecting service and for 3 or 4 weeks the political types use the phone more than I do. I think I should get 25¢ for each time they call.
Anyway, I’ll complete my ballot and drop it in the box at the Court House on Monday. Washington is a 99+% vote-by-mail state.

News reports of “inclement” weather – is there any other kind – to the west of me caused power outages, flooding, and road closures. Both directions of Snoqualmie Pass were closed because of accidents. Puget Sound Energy had about 160,000 customers without power but at Noon Saturday only 57,000 outages remained. Flooding has not been serious so news reporters are not covering any of that.
Ellensburg is the largest town on the approach to the mountains so the DOT stops people from going beyond the west exchange. All the necessities for survival are here, and with enough warning travelers can stop sooner. Past Ellensburg to the west, civilization thins precariously.

Now, a snack, feed the stove, and bed.

Keeping track on the Naneum Fan
John

If the electricity flicks off and back on while the oven is on, the heat does not return. It has to be started again. I have an older oven, so this makes sense. I just didn’t think about it until a found a barely warm roast when I expected to find a fully cooked and tender meal.
I restarted the oven, but didn’t want to wait 2 hours for supper. I had to adjust.
The house heater/AC unit maintains the settings and auto-starts when the power comes back. It looses the time setting. If modern electric stoves do this, I don’t know. A short web search did not find anything.

Friends from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Marquette) have been on the road and I met them in EBRG for lunch. We dined at the Red Horse Diner. Recall the flying red horse of the Mobil Gas Stations.
Anne and Fred came to the University of Iowa and lived near us when we had a house in North Liberty.
I think Fred arrived at the same time Nancy came, after we were married. I had been there 2 years. They had a young Black Lab and we had a Brittany puppy. We spent a lot of time together for two years, have kept in touch and been able to visit because they come west to visit relatives and friends.
The Diner has a 1950’s car theme with lots of signs. The food is standard American with large servings. Anyway, It was good to see them and catch up on their doings.

Other than their visit, the week did not have other exciting events. The weather stayed nice, with cold mornings. Snow is still only in the mountains. This image is from 50 miles north and a bit west of me. The elevation is 4,000 feet.

That’s it.
Keeping Track on the Naneum Fan
John

Previous owners planted apple and cherry trees. The apple trees (3?) never did much and there is just one left. In the distance past, I have cut a small amount of wood to throw on charcoal, but otherwise I just pull the apples for the deer. Thursday afternoon I pulled several that had bird/wasp damage. Two were in good shape, so I brought them inside and ate slices while supper was cooking. I believe the tree is an old Red Delicious.
The fruit has never been good, and was not this time. I had a small burger, cheddar cheese, and a few corn chips. I headed to a store in EBRG, then to a presentation “color in nature” – that was to be about birds, mostly, as it was sponsored by the Audubon chapter. They always seem to have trouble getting started at 7, and it was 7:20 when the photos and the speaker got synced.
By that time I wasn’t feeling well, first over heating and then indigestion. By 7:25 I was out of there. At 7:50 I was home and in the kitchen and decided to drink some water to see if my stomach would settle.
Oops! Bad decision. Within seconds I up-chucked into the kitchen sink. Apparently this was known to everyone but me.
On reflection, emptying whatever was going on in my stomach may have been a good thing. By 10:00 I was better, by 11 better still, and by midnight I was feeling good.

My new toy is a small electric log splitter. You can see it and what it does in this one minute video.

I sat mine on an old water tank (horse trough) so that the working area is at belt-height. It is in a 3-sided shed, so I built a wooden box that can cover it when not in use. So far I’ve spent more time getting it comfortable in its new home than I have splitting wood. It works.

My August 27th report included a photo of vultures near the top of a dead Cottonwood tree.

August heat begins to fade

Today, at dusk, the turkeys settled in the same tree, although lower. They had been under the feeder where I put black oil sunflower seeds. I don’t want to have them get used to that. Maybe I need a new design.
There was a slight drizzle during the night Thur-Friday.
Now, our area is expected to have a freezing temperature by Sunday morning. Then a moist system moves into the area. Rain is expected Monday and Tuesday with “a chance” for the rest of the week. Not snow, yet. Soon I may have to use some of the wood and get a fire going.

Keeping Track on the Naneum Fan

John

This area has had day temps in the mid-70s and mornings about 50. There is some high haze from lingering fires; especially for us from the Bolt Creek Fire. However, there are 14 others in Washington, mostly in National Forests in rugged terrain.Most of these will continue burning until the weather changes. That is expected to happen this time next week. The jet stream has been looping to WA’s north giving us the weather mentioned above. Next Friday will see a shift (so forecasters think) so the big curve goes away and the winds will come across the Northern Pacific Ocean and head directly for Puget Sound. 2 inches of rain west of the Cascades will be common and the ridge tops will get up to 3.5 inches. Here, on the lee side, they think we will get about one-half inch over a four day period.
If this happens as projected, fire danger, smoke, and nice weather will end.
There is a rapid elevation change on this side –6,000 feet to under 1,000 (at the Columbia River) in just 50 miles. This makes weather-watching interesting.
Meanwhile the covid situation continues to confound everyone.
On the left side map, Kittitas County is the yellow one in the center of the State. King County (Seattle) is to the west. On the right side we are on the high side of the middle blue color, with 53% of residents completing the primary vaccination series. In King County it is 83%. Our case rate is 39 per 100,000 (The county only has 48,000 people.).
King County with over 2 million people has a case rate of 96. That is almost 2 ½ times greater.
Just one more reason to not live over there.

I cut a tree that fell over a previous downed one. The newly cut one broke when it hit. The result is shown below. In simple terms folks refer to heartwood (the central part) and sapwood (outer parts) and the bark. The first image shows a more complex labeling.


Note the two arrows (green & red), and the green star. The green arrow points to living fibers that are long, flexible, and strong. The green star is on the outer bark. The inside of that has fibers missing from the piece tied with the blue string. That piece had fallen apart.
The red arrow points to the heartwood. It broke because the cells are harder and strong, but less flexible. Often the heartwood is darker, but not so in this relatively young tree. Often the bark will show insect damage and the heartwood will have begun to rot. Larger trees can start to hollow out and become massive animal habitats. See top image.

A Washington Trails Association (WTA) crew was working on a trail relatively close by (45 minute drive) so I had the “Blue Hat” crew leader swing by to pick up some things I no longer need. I’ve worked with Alan dozens of times on numerous trails. I had a dozen things that WTA folks can sort out, and there were a few things that Alan will likely use personally. I passed along 3 bottles of White Heron wine for him and wife Kelly. After 15 years of full-time work with WTA, he is semi-retiring. Kelly has a landscaping business so he is not expecting much rest. Further, his knowledge and skill level is unmatched by any current WTA folks so they will be relying on him for training and special projects for a couple of years.
. . . . . . . . . .

Keeping track on the Naneum Fan

Stay safe
John