Rain, Water, and Cherries

Monday, June 13

For June 12 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 6 min with AHI=2.94. Events: 1 CSR, 15 H, 4 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 19 L/min). Oximetry: okay for the night.

Another crazy day. We left early for Yakima to the Subaru dealer for my scheduled oil and lube, at 10:00 a.m. It was completed, and we went for lunch and to Costco for gasoline and shopping. I drove away in a beautiful washed car. As of Saturday morning, the end of the week, it became a muddy splashed mess.

At 4:30, I left again for town to go to a jam session planned by the retirement community at Briarwood Commons (apartments) where we are entertained for a late lunch, and we entertain with music on the 3rd Saturday of the month. I carried along some music for the audience in case they wanted to choose something. We had 2 guitars, 2 mandolins, and a fiddle there. It was fun, but my shoulder was sore, particularly after playing for almost two hrs. They treated us to finger food at the end.

Tuesday, June 14

For June 13 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 16 min with AHI=0.80. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 16 L/min). Oximetry: all right all night long.

I went to the Emeritus Geographers meeting by myself today, and did not take any cookies because Carla Kaatz called me and said she would bring packages of biscotti. I came home and had a bite to eat for lunch, returning to town for two appointments.

I went to Kittitas via No 81 road to pick up more girl baby clothes.

I got to Jazzercise in time and tried keeping up. Only two of us showed (one person her first time). Of the normal group, two folks were gone – because one had a hurt leg and the other was gone to Montana.

My PT manipulation by a new therapist (to me), named Deanna, gave me 45 minutes of manipulation, after a 10-minute moist heat application. I was hurting by the time I left the workout, because I also had to demonstrate some of my own exercises I do at home and to learn two new ones.

That evening I went back again to where I was this morning (Hearthstone), and played and sang religious music with 4 members of The Connections. I was truly out of it by the time I got home (tired and in pain).

Wednesday, June 15

For June 14 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 26 min with AHI=6.10. Events: 8 CSR, 26 H, 5 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min). Oximetry: just fine all through the night, even though the AHI was very high.

I drove by Kittitas (again), this time to pick up a baby car seat, for an upcoming baby shower:
1-babyCarSeat From there I went to the Food Bank, then by the Courthouse to drop off egg cartons and a seed packet, then to SAIL exercise class, after which I went and Xeroxed this next month’s music — including 13 patriotic songs and on to 22 songs for the assisted living home visits starting tomorrow, and going through the end of July.

Thursday, June 16

For June 15 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 32 min with AHI=1.07. Events: 1 CSR, 7 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Oximetry: good all night long.

John took me to town and let me off to set up for music at Dry Creek, play and he went on to get gasoline in his car for the first of his 3 days at Icicle Creek for WTA trail maintenance this weekend.

Link: images from Icicle Creek, WA

We grabbed a large pizza special with three meats, brought it home, added cheese and mushrooms, and had a piece for dinner. John took a piece for each of the 3 days he was at Icicle Creek and froze it, so he could carry it up for his lunch. John picked and I sorted strawberries – needed for me to deliver on Friday.

Friday, June 17

For June 16 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 15 min with AHI=0.96. Events: 1 CSR, 6 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min). Oximetry: fine all night long.

John left at 6:35 a.m. for Jack Creek WTA work party.
Google Earth coordinates:
47.603766, -120.918719

Zoom in to see the trail and Creek (the bridge left and down from marker is built to carry horses/mules. A WTA volunteer took a photo of John on the bridge but we don’t have it yet).

I fed the two orange cats but did not see Woody. I ran Lemon out of the front yard after I saw him spray the cable table, and I fed him around back, where he normally eats (and we prefer).

I am leaving at 10:27 for Briarwood with strawberries for Lee Kiesel to add layers to her trifle, planned for Saturday afternoon there, where we play music, and they feed us a late lunch.

I got home and took photos of the creek behind our house, out of flood stage. 2-AfterFloodingEastNaneumCreekBehindHouse The left photo above is looking downstream from the end of our path, and is the place Annie stepped into the creek in flood stage back in April that we reported on in mid-April’s blog. I called her and she managed to grab onto the roots, behind the curved tree above (left), and John leaned over the fence and grabbed her collar. I was standing right behind that tree videoing the area flooded to the right. You’ll have to look back to April for that story and those pictures and videos. The right photo above is also to the right of the left picture, looking upstream, of the fallen dead tree. The top was carried downstream (on East Naneum), and a lot of debris was thrown up on the Bar 14 road over the bridge rails during the flooding runoff. Those photos and videos are also in the blog in April.

Downstream Up Path To Cat’s Mow Beside our House 6/17/16

East Naneum Creek 6-17-16 after flood

Naneum East behind our house where Annie climbed out April

I didn’t talk to Karen Barrows, 9 miles from Ellensburg until 4:00, and John called at 4:15, so we will just go in together and he can get gas before we come home. We’ll pick her up at Motel 6 and take her to Perkins for dinner. Ended up buying dinner, and the two gals paid the tip (generous). Meal was $54 for four of us, and the tip left was $15, by our friends, Karen & Sheri (from Redding, CA with her Brittanys). I had a $35 gift card I used for us, received from the Brooks as a thanks for providing cookies to the retired geographers meetings monthly, for the last two years.

Now we got home and will have our strawberries on ice cream for dessert.

Saturday, June 18

For June 17 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 56 min with AHI=0.14. Events: 0 CSR, 1 H, 20 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Oximetry: Excellent all night.

What a day! Started out very early wishing John good-bye and marveling at the rain all night long and all morning, still raining when I left for town. I was concerned that my friends from Oregon had not brought their raingear. I loaded a large canvas bag with 3 rain jackets and 2 large bath towels. On my way to town, I stopped off 5 miles from home to drive through the rain on a bumpy road with big puddles for another a mile and a half. Luckily, I found their rig and my friend Karen was sitting in her truck. She had a good jacket on but jeans that were getting wet. She had not brought rain pants, and I do not even know where mine are packed away. We haven’t field trialed since the 1980s, so they have never made it out of the packing from Idaho to WA. John does use the rain jacket for trail work, but not the rain pants.

Much of the morning I worked on getting the notes, chords, and lyrics for 5 verses into the key of G for our group to have to play at Briarwood for a lady who gave it to us at the Jam last week. The name of the song is The Frozen Logger. She wanted Gerald to sing it because she remembers him and her family singing it at the Grange when she was younger. Only a few of us were there today – Amy (flute), me (fiddle), Charlie (12-string guitar), and Gerald (6-string guitar). Anne was late joining us from her trip back from Spokane, and just joined us for singing and for a late lunch.
The group had a great spread for us, and a good number of people there to sing along. They served chicken salad sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and two fruit salads. For dessert, we had Lee’s famous Trifle with John’s strawberries in 3 layers. She also made her white chocolate chip-pecan cookies and butter cookies. She packed cookies and fixed a bowl of the trifle for me to bring home to John.

From there I came home and finished packing the baby clothes for the baby shower we were invited to tonight. It was a potluck and cookout of skewered veggies, chicken, and one person brought Salmon as her offering. Numerous other dishes filled the table and counters. We were late getting there because I waited to go until John made it home. We got there just before 7:00 p.m. They were just finishing opening the gifts, and so she went through many of the three bags and large blue plastic container I had filled up. A collage below shows a few things – things out of sight are mostly clothes, blankets, and burping or changing pads.

Here is a photo of the stuff we carted into their house:
3-MeganGiveawayBabyGirlBNEE The invitation indicated receipt of gently-used baby clothing and “stuff” was welcomed. I asked on the Buy Nothing list and received all this (and more), which is going to another person for her boy expected in September.

I fed the cats twice tonight, because they missed being fed in the morning because of the rain.

I picked up a gift for me from Jen Lipton at the baby shower, from our student from Nepal, Utsab Bhattarai. We have been writing him letters of recommendation for a Ph.D. program in Australia, and he and his family just made the trip from Nepal to their new home for his graduate study.

Below is a collage of the gifts. It shows a nice jacket, The North Face Gore-Tex rain jacket with hood, a beautiful small purse-like canvas bag, and a neat key chain with a Kukri knife from Nepal. I will have to be careful to share the jacket with John on trail maintenance trips that require working all day in the rain. He needed this yesterday where it rained most of the day, and a couple weeks ago, when it rained on them at the White River Trail at Mt. Rainier. 4-CollageGiftsFromUtsabBhattarai2016

Sunday, June 19

For June 18 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 4 min with AHI=1.18. Events: 0 CSR, 6 H, 3 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 20 L/min). All hypopnea were in the period 1:57 a.m. to 2:18. The 3 RERA (restriction in breathing causing arousal) were in the hour between 3:15 and 4:15. Oximetry: its battery ran out, so it didn’t register pulse and SpO2 but for just over 3 hours.

Early morning sighting of twin fawns. Missed getting the two together, but they were very cute romping with mom across our backyard. John and I both got a nice view. I grabbed my camera, but only got single pictures of one of the little “guys.” Very cool. We had seen vultures flying and were concerned a coyote or cougar had killed the first little fawn we saw last week. You have seen one photo previously, and another more recent one from this week was in the placeholder to notify you this would be late arriving. Nice to see the “twins” today.

Heard from Karen Barrows that because of her bad experience yesterday at an overbooked (entries) hunt test in Ellensburg, that she was leaving this morning for home, with her three Brittanys. Her friend, Sheri Saul, from Redding, CA, stayed with her dogs, but was still running them until 7:00 last night. They had 55 dogs to run today, and it didn’t look promising. Perhaps the organizers need lessons in organizing.

Today, Jim and Kevan Ferrier with Kevan’s wife, Megan Walsh, and Kevan’s mom Jamie came over to fall a couple of trees, check out another, and load their truck with dried firewood. We had a couple of piles of larger pieces with twisted parts and knots that John cannot split easily – and doesn’t need to. Jim has a powered splitter so that works out well.

While here they “dropped” two dead cottonwoods. I only taped on one fall on video. 5-RoseEndOfDrivewayWithCottonwoods This collage has a rose that is blooming now, we got from our neighbor, and it is planted at the end of the driveway near the road and entrance to the cottonwood trees and stacks of wood. In the right photo, are several dead trees. They only fell two today.

Cottonwood Dead Tree 1 down 6-19-16
6-OurIrrigationDitchWaterfallNearEndOfDriveway
Our diversion ditch on our property, 6-19-16 We have a personal interest in the local stream because of the watering (garden, natural and introduced trees & shrubs, pasture) we do, likewise for neighbors for miles. We are in a much “greener” area because of irrigation.

A broader perspective is that the canyon to our north is disgorging tons of rock, sand, and silt. We remove a lot of sand and silt from the water that makes it to our ditches. The stream beds are filling with rocks – up to the size of a football. Where the water flows under a road and swells up and over the bridge (bringing woody debris), county road crews try to keep the flow going. Long term, the water wants to go elsewhere and eventually will. There is one instance of this near us that has not caused a problem. There may be others. Just a local reminder of how dynamic Earth is: … Volcano in the news

Monday , June 20

Monday morning, our day of publishing the blog late, June 20, 2016 started well.

We saw the two fawns. I’ve been calling them twins, but we are wondering now, as the original sighting last week or so in the blog was the doe with the black spot on her face, and we only saw one fawn then. However, the past two days we have seen two spotted fawns. This second video below appears to show one of the fawns being larger than the other, but the clarity of the video without adjacency in the “frame,” does not allow proper judgment. Bottom line – we do not know, but they are cute and traveling together now with only one doe.

Twin Fawns First Sighting 6-20-16

Returning Twin Fawns Opposite Direction 6-20-16

Mom Follows Looking for Two Fawns

John went out and brought me 4 cherries of two different kind and they are almost ready to harvest and eat. This video below I took earlier in the week, about 3 days ago. Rainier Cherries

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

We’re working on it

Doe&OneOfFawnTwins-2 Hi all,

The photo at the top is from the back door. There are likely many things that pass by out there and occasionally we get a picture.

This has been a busy week on the Naneum Fan. Nancy has had trouble keeping up with writing things down. Or is that – writing things up? Actually, she writes things sidewise or sideways, same difference.

I had previously scheduled 3 days in one of the State’s special places to work on a trail. Still with the long daylight I can get home at 5:30ish and do the usual things here, such as feeding the horses and letting the dog exercise.

I picked a pound of strawberries before dark and after supper we had some on ice cream. Now I’m going to bed. (John writing, and I’m not far behind.)

Monday is considered the first day of summer from an astronomical viewpoint 6:34 p.m. EDT or 3:34 here on the left coast. The Full Moon rises on the same day as the Summer Solstice, an event which hasn’t occurred for nearly 70 years.

All the best,
Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Strawberry time

Strawberries
Monday, June 6

For June 5 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 30 min with AHI=1.64. Events: 1 CSR, 9 H, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min). Oximetry: excellent.

I started early (6:00 a.m.) finishing blog for John to edit and put on WordPress. He slept in until the Magpies made so much racket.

We did not finish it and publish until after Noon, and I had a 1:00 appt for a haircut at my neighbor’s 1/2 mile away. It was posted without the normal final proofing, once it’s entered into WordPress.

It is 97° outside. John has been going out every so often to water the strawberries. I’ve been slowly cleaning the ones he picked earlier and brought in.

Tonight John made a chicken/red pepper/mushroom/cashew/shell noodle creation for dinner.

Leftover from last Saturday’s Award Geography End of the Year party was this photo taken on the Bowen’s camera of me with the two winners of our distinguished service award.
1-TriciaNancyJessie-HultquistAward2016
Tricia Snyder, Nancy, and Jessie Martin, both graduate students in the Resource Management program.

Tuesday, June 7

For June 6 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 56 min with AHI=1.01. Events: 0 CSR, 6 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Oximetry: okay all night.

My physical therapy exercises painfully completed. Today is hot and sunny again and, again John sprayed a mist on the strawberries – actually twice. He had watered the ground before the big heat so these sprayings are to lower the temperature and increase the humidity.

I went by Joanie’s and Ken’s to pick up my bag and blouses. Joanie had kindly removed an extra button from one shirt and sewed onto another for me. She plays mandolin or viola with our group, and has been sewing new elastic in my pants for some time. I surely appreciate her help. She has taken up clothes (vests) that were too big for me; no charge for anything. It’s nice having my own seamstress.
2-collageCostcoHandleRepairBefore&After
Joanie’s hubby, Ken, kindly hand sewed a fix in the Costco grocery bag handle. It was given to me, and I don’t recall its being cut then, but I know I wouldn’t have cut it with anything I was carrying in it. Another of life’s mysteries. Left photo shows the cut strap. Ken put a “backing” piece on and did lots of cross stitching. Better than new.

From there, I went to AAC jazzercise, getting there ahead of time in order to write my check for my fee for an upcoming field trip to Tillicum Village on Blake Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle. That doesn’t happen until July 20th, but all tickets have to be purchased in advance (this week). It’s a big planning effort, but happily, enough people signed up to take the trip to make it a go. It’s a little pricier than most of their day trips, but there are lots of associated costs of transportation, admittance fees, and the luncheon buffet (Salmon Bake Native American style, venison stew, and steamed clams appetizer) is included. We will be on a cruise ship to the island for 45 minutes from Seattle. More discussion to follow with pictures after I make the trip. The area is a national park honoring the British Columbian Kwakiutl tribe’s culture.

From there I went a long block south, parked in the shade of two old spruce trees, and went inside the 3-story building for a painful manipulation at PT. I returned home via Kittitas with paperbacks to deliver. They are destined for inmates of the King County Jail. They only are allowed paperbacks, and a gal that lives in Kittitas works over there three days a week as a psychiatrist counselor. She donates the paperbacks. Hard back books are not allowed. Three of the books I had picked up earlier and John filled another box with paperbacks, largely fiction, from our house. We will go through all our old magazines eventually too. If there are too many, we can take them to the donation stacks in the City Library, at the entrance to the building.

Wednesday, June 8

For June 7 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 21 min with AHI=0.94. Events: 1 CSR,6 H, 24 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 14 L/min). Oximetry: just fine throughout the night.

I was hurting too much to do more than 5 minutes of exercise, but managed to get a small workout on my shoulder, and then also play fiddle at the Food Bank and then afterwards in SAIL exercise class. I had picked up Gloria and we went to the food bank together, ate, and then drove back by the Creative Kids preschool to drop off my donation of a clown shirt for their upcoming circus event and parade. It is a cute short-sleeved sweatshirt.
3-BlueClownSweatShirt
Gloria and I left SAIL 15 minutes early to take her to the hospital respiratory/cardio department, for her to be fitted with a 24-hour Holter heart monitor. That went well.

John was gone all day to take his 2009 Subaru outback for its 90,000-mile work. In this case, the service cycle begins to repeat and this is the same as 30,000. We expected multiple hundreds, but it was “only” $343.33. The 60,000 mi. one is more extensive and costly. Besides paying for all the checks on systems, we had three windshield wipers at $6 each to replace. Our oil change and lube and filter was prepaid, and worth about $100. It took a lot longer than planned as he got there at 1:00 but called me from Costco at 4:30 and made it home about 6:00. He thinks they had a couple of disruptions – a lady with a car just fixed came right back because they had missed something. John had a newspaper and 2 books to read, so he hardly noticed.

Thursday, June 9

For June 8 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 2 hrs 10 min with AHI=5.10. I am not sure why it recorded such a high AHI, and I do not know why I took the mask off. I awoke at 3:00 and the machine was turned off, mask off. Events: 1 CSR, 11 H, 5 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min). Oximetry: actually very good all night. It ran, while the CPAP did not for 2 extra hours, but then I slept another 2 without either. The extra time compiled to 4 hr 3m and the AHI went down to 2.72, although still not representing the entire night for CPAP.

Worked on the July music.

John drove me to town in the truck (’cause it needs to run once in awhile) so he could get 3 bags of horse feed and go by a couple of places. He found a nice pair of slippers at Goodwill and a fantastic book on Prehospital Emergency Care, with many color pictures. Quite a large book (1268 pages). I looked it up on Amazon. We have the 8th edition. The 10th is available for $32, but that is to RENT. The 9th and 10th editions are available new for over $100. Washington Trails wants the leaders to have some first aid training.

Friday, June 10

For June 9 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with AHI=1.87. Events: 1 CSR, 14 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 21 L/min). Oximetry: was fine all night.

This was another crazy day. I went to my 11:00 PT appointment, met someone in the parking lot early, to receive a nice pair of Nike sandals and a leather wallet. Nicest padded flip flops I have ever worn. Now to get my toenails cured and willing to be seen in public. I have an incentive now, as well as encouragement for the medication to dry after applying daily, before putting a sock on.
4-NikeSandals-Wallet
Both of these were free from the Buy Nothing East Ellensburg /Kittitas site.

On to a heavy-duty exercise manipulation following a nice 10-minute moist heating pad application. I now have new exercises to add to my routine, including rolling the back of my shoulder muscle (not sure which muscle, have to ask) on a tennis ball. I know the location, and it hurts to show me I’m in the correct place.

The wonderful thing about my visit was it was a two-week check on measurement angles of my range of motion in four directions. I am happy to say all of them showed improvement, two more than the other two.

Below is a collage of the two new exercises along with my measurements indicating the GOOD increase in the angle of my rotation.
5-Collage-MeasurementResultsLatest2ExercisesAdded
Late afternoon, John raised the blinds on the patio door, and saw a little fawn. He called me from the kitchen and I grabbed my camera. As we watched, we saw his mom standing in the back, and he walked over to her. They left. All the photos are taken through the woven wire fence with 2″ x 4″ spacings. The middle photo gives a good perspective of visual size sense from the door.
6-CollageFawn&Doe-With lines
The left image has a purple line that is 5 spaces up, or 20 inches. The ears poke above that line about 2 inches. The antlers on the bucks are growing and still in velvet. The adults will stand on their hind legs to get leaves and cherries.

Saturday, June 11

For June 10 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 58 min with AHI=2.51 Events: 3 CSR, 15 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Oximetry: all night was fine.

This morning was busy dealing with neighborhood irrigation issues. As snow melt and/or spring rains decrease the available water is less and adjustments are needed. Our landscape trees were heavily watered so far and the Strawberries are fruiting and John is using well water on them. That’s because they could have been the source of the Giardia he suffered from last August. We are sure it came from the creek water, but it might not have been from the berries. Precaution seems a good strategy anyhow.

I left for town about 11:00 to run errands and get to the party in the park, Fun & Friends of the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site – this one combining all the subgroups we split into so it was nice to be able to meet up with people from the past, and now no longer in my group.
Below is a collage of all of us moved to a table in the sun because we were freezing inside the shelter, using that table. [Hot and sunny went away.] All the food remained on the table in the right of the photo. That one shows some of our shared menu items. One gal brought two foot long sub sandwiches cut up to share, I took 3 containers of the best strawberries in the west, picked fresh this morning by John, and cleaned by me. I had them packed in a cooler with ice and only put out one bowl at a time. It was interesting to hear people’s responses and amazement at the taste and even ripeness of the berries, almost as if they had never ever before eaten strawberries directly from the garden. They were all beautiful specimens. I didn’t make it home with any berries!! Probably took 3+ lbs. Also brought was a large container of very good homemade potato salad, packed in a bowl of ice. After the photo was taken, another person added a homemade bowl of Cole slaw to the shared table, and a package of Oreos with peanut butter/chocolate filling.
7-Fun&FriendsBNE6-11-16
This set of blouses had not been spoken for in my new Buy Nothing subgroup, when I offered them, so I managed to take them today and find a person (new to me) from another group, who wanted them.
8-TwoShirtsLarge-LongLightBlueDecorated&SS TeePurple
While there, I picked up from another person a black long sleeve soft spandex blouse. As well, a woman delivered 3 hats I had “won” on the current new buy nothing site from her. She lives way out in the pocket, probably a 1/2 hr from my house. I was happy not to have to drive out there. The flames one is for John, white one for me (a bucket hat, too big for me, but probably too feminine for him), and a happy face high funny hat again too big, but I will use a safety pin to make it fit, and use it to cheer residents when we play, “You are My Sunshine.” I may be able to talk Joanie into making a seam in it. Here is a collage of the hats:
9-ThreeNewHatsCollage
Sunday, June 12

For June 11 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 51 min with AHI=1.47. Events: 1 CSR, 10 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Oximetry: good all night.

Our temperature was cool at 45°. John left at 5:50 a.m. to make the trip to Mt Rainier’s work party on the Wonderland trail at White River. There was snow in the Cascades above 5,000 feet with more coming in the next 48 hours. John’s route via Chinook Pass (5,430′) had no snow but did have a little remaining cloudiness. The crew moved large rocks for a wall and many buckets of gravelly-sand from the White River (water free areas) for the tread. The White River area campgrounds are not yet open. Still there are hikers, climbers, and viewing from the road.

Two cats came to the cable table early (as he was leaving), so I fed them, and continued by following one (Lemon) to the back haymow where he prefers to eat. He was purring at me and came right down on the stacked hay beneath the mow to receive his vittles. He sadly has rhinotracheitis, or at least the symptoms, with bad conjunctivitis. There is nothing we can do to get an antibiotic into him to treat the condition. He is not one that we caught and had neutered and vaccinated.

Been working on projects trying to get energy to do exercises. I have done a few but they were quite painful (as expected). No pain, no gain.

I fixed a nice tuna melt for my lunch treat, and entered my new PT dates on the calendar. Once I finish the blog draft, I’ll fill my medicine dispenser for the week. Also, early morning I fed the cats and cleaned the kitchen counters and dishes. John called from near town to see if he needed to go into EBRG for any reason. Nope. When home he took care of the horses and picked a pound of Strawberries. Now we’ve eaten supper and await dessert.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Mock Orange is blooming

Mock Orange
Monday, May 30

For May 29 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 55 min with AHI=3.05. Events: 6 CSR, 14 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min).
Changed back to the old mask and it did not seem to affect the high AHI. Oximetry was OK and that is really the only reason I am on the CPAP machine.

Morning came with sunshine and no winds. Three cats were on the front porch awaiting food. One is a new stray, and we do not know the gender. It appears to have 3 colors, so possibly is a female, yet our Mackerel tabby male, Rascal, also has 3 colors.

With no notes, I don’t remember what we did all day before afternoon arrived.

Around 4:00 Anne and Glenn Engels arrived for some pallets for “raised” garden beds. At 5:00, they left with four. She hadn’t decided on a design and, thus, we await the completion of whatever.

My upper body is aching–shoulders and upper arms, from attempts at physical therapy exercises.

Nice casserole for supper. John’s the best chef in the west (probably the world). [John: I cook. I don’t chef.]
Spun wheels all day doing chores and finishing few. We did get out the blog, so I guess that is significant.

During WTA’s recent training days, Anna Roth (orange hat – assistant crew leader) visited the various and widely spread work sites. She took photos, a few of which are below. These are from 12 miles east of North Bend, WA on a trail called the CCC trail. Link

CollageCLCpix
A: Gear ready for carrying. Saw teeth are covered to protect them – and the person doing the carrying.
B:Rick found a log, Doug’s got the saw – now with handles. Someone said something funny. Directive #2 of WTA is to have fun.
C: Safety is Directive #1. John, with a small saw, is cutting stubs of limbs off the log. When the cut piece drops these broken limbs can dig into the ground, break and fly off, or if the log rolls they can catch on something and change its direction of motion. None of these are good.
D: The “D” is on the left arm of our chief sawyer for the day. He is explaining the technique of “under bucking” a log that will pinch in on the top (note the notch). Knowing the log has “top bind” that will stop the saw, the majority of the cut will be finished from the underside, and the cut will open and allow free movement of the saw in the kerf. Thus, we are under-bucking. [Below the sign-out for this post, John has a bit about the term bucking.]

Tuesday, May 31

For May 30 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 10 min with AHI=1.14. Events: 0 CSR, 7 H, 19 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min).
Oximetry: just fine.

At 1:00, I had a physical therapist appointment and got worked over pretty well. My friend Joanie says PT stands for Physical Torture. I totally agree. I know – no pain, no gain, but it is going to be a long trip to avoid the shoulder surgery and fix the adhesions. I will try hard. (It has been very difficult; I am writing this parenthetical comment late in the week). I went to Jazzercise directly from there, and I probably will not do that again. On future Tuesdays, I am going to PT after Jazzercise, so maybe I will be warmed up, or maybe that will not work either. I only have two Jazzercise days in June and then our teacher is gone for a month on a trip to Europe. Today’s was a wait-listed appointment, so I didn’t have a choice in the timing, as it was the only thing available this week, and I’m supposed to go be manipulated twice a week for 45-minute sessions. The first 10 minutes of my time was spent on a recumbent bicycle that pulled my arms up and out and back as I pushed the pedals. The left arm support was set different from the right. I think I averaged 32 steps, but did not understand the gauges, what they were measuring, and what my goal, if any, was.

2:00 Jazzercise. While doing Jazzercise (only two of us there), a gal who lives in Kittitas near a house we almost bought in 1989 (and I’m glad we didn’t), brought a load of baby things to me for my growing gently used clothing, blankets, etc. for baby showers I have to attend. (One couple asked for gently used baby stuff). Majority of this received today consists from newborn socks to hats, little shoes and boots, dresses, bibs, with blankets and changing or smaller ones for burp pads (I guess). Most of these are for baby girls. I have another bunch meant for boys. So, now I have to figure how to present it – wrapped, bagged, boxed or what. I was also given some gift bags, but I have more things than will fit even in a very large gift bag. I am leaning toward using a large plastic container with a lid. We’ve checked for a few of these items on the web and discovered that cats, dogs, and horses are cheaper to keep and care for than kids. Later in the week, at a Geography party, we saw a baby tent – on Amazon they are $90.

I drove to Kittitas to pick up some other things; one a package of little boy’s shoes for a gal on the Buy Nothing site who is my neighbor. We both are 10 miles away from the source. I went to another place but she forgot it was Tuesday, the planned day of pickup, so I will go again Thursday, when I also have to meet another person to whom I need to deliver some stuff, and to pick up from another. I picked up two hooded bath towels (on the hood, one has a cat and the other has a dog). What will they think of next? Here’s a photo for those of you who have no clue (as I). These seem to cost from $10 to $20.
Hooded Towels Animals & cue tips
Wednesday, June 1

For May 31 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 42 min with AHI=1.05. Events: 0 CSR, 6 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 16 L/min).
Oximetry: Looks okay, except for jags when changing fingers on Oximeter.

I left before 11:00 to pick up Gloria, and on my way, I stopped around the corner from her house to call my foot doctor’s assistant in Yakima about the medication that was ordered from a lab in Texas for me March 15 but never delivered. I have called the doctor’s office a couple of times, to no avail. I was supposed to receive it and start application of the cream daily for 3 months to kill a bacteria and fungus determined by a DNA test on a piece of my toenail.

This morning, I reached Brittany, Dr. Cardon’s medical assistant, who gave me a phone number to call tomorrow morning to give my permission to receive the shipment and to verify my address. Why did this procedure take so long? The medical assistant claims the lab is supposed to call me for the information, but I was never called, and no message was left for me to call their number.

I picked up Gloria and we went to the Food Bank for music.

I intended to drop off a seed packet at the courthouse for a friend from Thorp, but she was not at work today because of being ill.

After we finished at the food bank, we went to SAIL exercise. We only had a few people there today, maybe 7. From there we went to the hospital for me to get blood drawn for my INR. It was back to normal. I imagine all my asparagus (high in Vitamin K) eating a couple weeks ago, lowered it. The garden still yields and John took some for lunch on a WTA trip.

John worked on outside projects all day. We both took 1.5 hr naps this afternoon. I was still wiped out from yesterday’s PT.
John has been harvesting strawberries daily. At the moment we can eat all he gets but the crop is about ready to expand exponentially as serious sunshine and warmth approach. This link is worth checking. Too bad all these strawberries are being wasted in Arlington, WA.

pickers needed

Thursday, June 2

For June 1 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on was only 2 hrs 59 min with AHI=1.00. Events: 0 CSR, 3 H, 4 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min). I looked at the clock when I awoke, thought it was 4:00 but it was 1:45! Needed to go to the bathroom, so unhooked my CPAP, and when I realized the actual time, I did not set it back up again. I was in pain all night and morning. I waited until 5:54 to take Tylenol. Oximetry: all right for the short time it was on.

This morning, I phoned a pharmacist (Rob) at the lab in Texas, named Trinity Pharmacy (844 213 5670). I must have the answer before noon tomorrow, or I will cancel until I hear from Cardiologist Kim about the possible conflict with my medications. After finding my cardiologist is not in the office today or tomorrow, but is with his critical patient in the ICU, I put the request on hold until I hear next week from him. He is also the ICU’s hospitalist the entire week.

The Texas lab, using DNA analysis, creates the compound produced to eradicate the specific bacteria and fungus on my toenails. I have to apply it daily for 3 months.

I need to know before I pay $65 for it if it conflicts with my meds and heart situation. The Compound required for me will be made of an Antifungal, Traconazole and an Antibiotic, Vancomycin that are put into DMSO for making it a liquid to apply as fingernail polish.

My insurance does not cover the cost of compounds, and this bottle lasts for only 2 months. I am required by Dr. Cardon to apply daily for 3 months. While it’s similar to a nail polish, it is supposed to be applied to the skin (½ in. or so) near the cuticle as well as the nail, and I was warned it would stain the area, brown.

It was to have been shipped FedEx from Trinity Pharmaceutical Labs in Texas. This was diagnosed March 15 but now I just found out, the Dr.’s office has not been communicating with the correct FAX number. [John: Why is a medical facility still using facsimile technology, or FAX? The idea was first used in 1843 and the modern version in 1924.]

Turns out medical assistant, Brittany, at Cascade Foot and Ankle there in Yakima must have called after my call to her, yesterday, to check, because they only received the FAX request after my phone call to her. Again, why this never happened with my other three previous inquiries is beyond me.

John took me to the Rehab for music, went to fill his car with gas for tomorrow’s trip to Mt. Rainier and do some shopping. Besides his time, we surely do donate a lot of gasoline costs and Subaru wear and tear. Too bad that is not a tax-deductible expense. But he gets to muck around in the White River and do things that would get the average visitor arrested.

We had 7 people providing music at the nursing facility, and John came back to help me out with my stuff. We managed to make it to three stops in Kittitas, with John driving. I delivered a bag of clothes to a thrift shop, unexpectedly met a friend and her children out front, picked up baby things from two different people, so it was a successful trip.

Friday, June 3

For Jun 2 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 41 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 1 CSR, 0 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 7 L/min).
Oximetry: excellent.

My haircut at 11:00 today was cancelled for emergency medical reasons, unfortunately after I had showered, cleaned my hair, and dressed for the trip.

John spent the day at the base of Mt. Rainier. On his way over he saw a beautiful view of the mountain with an interesting cloud, but he didn’t have his camera. He tried using the camera on his cell phone, but it did not get the whole scene in the frame. We looked at it when he got home. The next day, posted on Facebook, I saw a photo taken today of the mountain with the lenticular cloud. The photographer, my friend, has just moved from Ellensburg to rural Puyallup, WA. I captured it for John to see and got her permission to publish it here. John’s view was from the East, looking west, and the cloud was bigger and mushroom shaped. Tendrils of cloud were streaming down the outer edge.
MtRainierLittleCloud-6-3-16byStaralLago
The picture below is from Google Earth, centered on the White River, but with North to the right. Coordinates: 46.901042, -121.642552 Zoom in and out to see where this is – about 6.5 miles from the peak and 57 miles from home, but twice that far by road. There is an S (south), an M (middle), and on the right side an N (north). These mark log bridges for hikers on the Wonderland Trail. About every 3 to 5 years the logs get moved or smashed by the river, or the water channels move and leave a dry place under the log – and a new channel with no crossing.
White River
The logs are usually 50 to 60 feet long and weigh 2,000 pounds. These all have posts and hand rails. The image below (from the web) is similar to what one will find on many trails. The log and railings are (when available) de-barked Yellow Cedar because it is slow to deteriorate compared to other trees, such as a Fir. Now for the truth: John spent all but an hour of his work time in the nearby forest (shady), and not more than 200 feet from the parking area.
log bridge
Saturday, June 4

For June 3 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 11 min with AHI=3.28. Events: 3 CSR, 17 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 16 L/min).
Oximetry: surprisingly fine.

John’s off Saturday to Cowiche Canyon getting to Ellensburg to ride with a co-worker, leaving at 7:30a.m. Bill Weir is an Orange Hat too (Assistant Crew Leader).

Lisa Black (right) was the crew leader; John, as one of the assistant crew leaders, explained the use of the McLeod tool – a large rake & hoe.
John&McLeodLisaBlackCLonRight
Betsy Bloomfield, one of my former students at CWU in the 1990s in the Resource Management graduate program is now the Executive Director of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. She was along on the work party as well. Ed Stover was along for the WTA trip, and he took most of the pictures shown, but then Lisa grabbed a photo of Ed with Betsy and Becky. The flowering shrub in the center photo is a Mock Orange native Mock Orange, Philadelphus lewisii.
Betsy,BeckyBetsy,EdBetsyBecky
John made it home in time to get cleaned up a little for going to the End of the Year Geography Awards and Potluck about 10 miles from our home.

We carried a frosted cake, cookies, and donut holes for the dessert table, not recalling they had invested in a cake for the graduating students last year. Again, this year was a beautiful half-chocolate and half-white cake with the initials of all the graduating geography majors and minors and resource management folks.
GraduattionGeographers2016Cake
The graduates are from several undergraduate (BA, BS) degree programs and an MS in the graduate Cultural and Environmental Resource Management program.

John and I donate money for two student scholarships each year to honor “distinguished service” to the department, university, and community.

Here is a video I took of this year’s presentation of our award.

Hultquist Geography Award for Distinguished Service 2016

Sunday, May 29

For May 28 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 52 min with AHI=1.54. Events: 2 CSR, 9 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min).
Oximetry: good all night.

John did a bunch of early morning watering before the temperature went up. Now at 3:00 p.m. it is 98. He has been napping and I have been working on various projects, not the least of which is putting in medications for the week, alternately working on the blog, uploading videos from yesterday’s party, cleaning strawberries and dishes, working on the job announcement s list I manage, trying to do shoulder-breaking exercises every 3 hours for my shoulder’s adhesive capsulitis, amid the painfulness. I haven’t succeeded well today. It is still 98 outside but thankfully only 77 in our house.
We just celebrated with a piece of leftover cake from yesterday’s party. John got a nice nap, but I slept in a little this morning.

We intend to go grocery shopping later when it cools down.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Crosscut saw bucking

If you have a better idea about the term “bucking” – let us know.
The term for cutting a log into pieces is “bucking.”
Searching for the source (etymology) of this usage has turned up a gaggle of misdirections, or so I think. However, here’s my best guess.
There is a word in Dutch that can mean trestle, namely bok.
Look at the photo, below, and focus on the thing that holds the piece of tree trunk, let’s call it a sawhorse.
sawhorse with log
That structure looks a lot like a trestle, thus, bok (Dutch), and thus buck (in English). Heating homes or other buildings in eastern North America (think Maine to Pennsylvania) during the settlement period involved the felling and cutting (across the trunk or grain) of a gazillion logs. Cutting a log laying on the ground is awkward and tiring, not to mention the issue of the teeth of the saw getting dulled by hitting soil or rocks.

Putting the log up on something is a really smart thought. A leap of linguistic imagination could swiftly lead from bok to boking, and then, bucking. Consider a man saying to his sons, “Boys, let’s go out and lift logs onto the trestle and cut them logs across into lengths suitable for the fireplace.” Probably that is not what the old man would say. But, he might say, “Boys, let’s go buck some logs.”
Works for me. Dry Side John, June 2016.
[sawhorse is found in American usage in 1778; bok in the sense here from 1817. Both were likely used much earlier.]

Nothing ever happens

Well, of course, stuff happens.
That is why we cannot get a grip and post a report by Saturday or even Sunday.

Looking for Monday Noon posting and that is Left Coast Time.

Now, time for pie & ice cream. Then sleep.

Sweet dreams.

Flower of the week

Onion view for blogOur flower of the week, here on the Naneum Fan, is Wild Onion. This variety is called “Taper-Tip Onion”: Link

Because of unexpected visitors on Sunday we needed to put a short note up to warn the thousands of readers of the delay. If you are reading the version of this on the web, at rocknponderosa.com you may go to the bottom, but if you are using an emailed version, you will need to use the link here …A short note
… to see a picture closely looking down on these pretty little flowers. This is a very good year for these, as there are hundreds of them between the house and the road.

John has consented to show some of the trail work from last week:

Here are photos showing projects on a trail 25 miles east of Mt. Rainier at a place called the Goat Creek trail in WA’s William O. Douglas Wilderness.
Goat Creek Trail before site 1 annotatedPurple dots locate the trail on a side hill. Photo is from up-trail looking back down. Note the green dot locating a break in the trail caused by toppling of trees, lower right. On the upper side are downed trees and the one with the small yellow dot is in the way of widening the trail in that direction. We decided to get rid of all the logs on that side hill.
Goat Creek Trail before site 1b with green dot We cut the log about where the yellow dot is in the first photo. Being “Wilderness” means using an ax or a crosscut saw. Above, Susan takes a turn at the cutting. Note the small green dot on the saw tip – blurred from movement. John is off to the right and taps the orange wedges to spread the kerf (cut) as the cutting proceeds.
Goat Creek Trail before site 1c Above, Susan strikes a pose. John is 97% hidden behind her.
In the photo below, the cut section has been removed, as have all the rest of the logs on the side just above the newly dug and smoothed trail. Compare with the first photo of the sequence. Note the other logs where the crew is standing in the first image, but now they have all been moved below the trail. Goat Creek Trail after work site 1Below is a “before & after” look at another trail issue.

The view is looking down-trail. The small standing tree is at the edge of the trail. To its left, the broken trunk (when it had limbs) blocked the trail.
Progect 2 before and afterTechnically this is classed as a horse-okay-trail. On the right, Susan and John finish the smoothing of the tread. Lisa Black, our Blue-Hat Crew Leader took the photos. Others are here:
Goat Creek Trail photos

Monday, May 23

For May 22 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 39 min with AHI=1.06. Events: 2 CSR, 6 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Oximetry: looks great all night.

We left just before 8:00 a.m. for a 9:00 a.m. appointment at the Yakima Heart Center. I drove and we filled up my rig at $2.299/gal, while the price in Ellensburg, remained 20 cents higher. It was an okay appointment, my blood pressure was nice, causing the cardiologist to comment favorably. Then labs were explained and another appointment made to check up again in a few weeks on my creatinine levels. That is a blood test measuring the level of waste product in my blood and urine. I was instructed to drink more water throughout the day.

From there we went to Costco and bought almost $200 worth of stuff for us and $37 worth for our neighbor.

I have been working tonight on paperwork to take to the Canyon View Physical Therapy for an evaluation by the owner to see if they can help my shoulder problem. I’d like to have better use of the shoulder – without surgery.

Tuesday, May 24

For May 23 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 50 min with AHI=2.57. Events: 8 CSR, 15 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 7 L/min). Oximetry: Rather consistent and okay throughout the time.

I sent out a message to my music group (KV F&F) about Hearthstone, about the Briarwood Jam Session planned for the future, and our special annual event on July 1 celebration the Fourth of July, held at the Senior Center. We have played for that event for over a dozen years, at 3 different locations in town.

I went to town for an 11:00 a.m. consultation / evaluation with Natalie Joyce, Physical Therapist, and owner of Canyon View Physical Therapy in Ellensburg. I was very pleased with her knowledge, consideration, testing, and concerned professional explanation. She decided I was a candidate for their help, and sent me home with “practiced” exercises I need to do 5 times per day. She approved me for 2 times a week, coming into the center for 45-minute sessions. One of the tools used was a walking cane, plastic. I went by Hospice Friends in town on my way home, and borrowed an old smooth wooden walking cane to use in place of a broom. The physical therapist gave me a rubber piece to use around a door handle for one of the exercises. She demonstrated each exercise and then gave me a diagram (see below) of the five exercises I’m responsible for doing at home. She does not expect this to be an easy task, and she will evaluate my progress to see how we are doing on getting my range of motion back. These exercises are recommended for me for treating adhesive capsulitis (commonly called a “Frozen Shoulder”). I plan to give it my serious attention.

I’ll break them down and say what I remember to guide me (and a friend’s friend back in New Jersey) through them.

The overall plan is to do these 5 exercises five times a day, after all three meals, and 2 snacks. (We are not regular with meals.) I think it is better to consider my waking hours and do them at 3-hour intervals, if I am where I can.

The first three are done in a prone position. I do them in my recliner.

Exercise One: Shoulder Flexion
Exer 1- Shoulder with cane
Firstly, the “wand” in the PT room used was a fancy walking cane. HOWEVER, note the directions. I am to grab my wrist and lift, and do NOT use the cane (or wand). I have found that using my right arm to lift the left makes the right one hurt, so I have pushed it and raised with the muscles in my left arm to the point to count after reaching the stretch.

Secondly, the diagram of the man lying on his back is wrong, or at least I feel is misleading. There is no way I can do that movement to raise anything over my head with both arms, so my instructions were to use my right hand to grasp my left wrist and lift my arm as high as I can, and hold for 10 seconds. I have since adjusted that procedure (as mentioned above).

Exercise Two: Shoulder External/Internal Rotation
Exer 2- Shoulder with cane Ext-Int Rotation
Exercise Three: Flexion on Counter
(standing without rolling chair need), or I can alternately do this at home in my recliner leaning forward with both arms. When away from home, I will use a counter or table.
Exer 3- ArmRaiseNoWheeledChairStand@counterReach forward with thumbs up. You can use both arms or assist the left with the right.

Exercise Four – Scapular Retraction: Bilateral
Exer 4-UsingRubberPieceTiedToDoorHandle
Anchor a rubber strap to a doorknob. Grab each end. Sit in a chair or you might stand if the height angle is right. As directed, pull arms back. I don’t have handles on my strap, (as pictured), so I think I will use glove to lessen the pressure on my fingers and hands. At home I have stood next to the patio door, locked it, and pulled backwards while standing.

Exercise Five: Circular Movement, Clockwise and Counterclockwise
Exer 5-Pendulum
Stand for this and lean over with left arm dangling. This diagram is misleading. I find it is better to face the table and lean left and right to cause the circular rotation, keeping my right hand above my knee, and moving my body from side to side. The goal is to move the left arm without using the arm itself (i.e., “Don’t stir the pot.”) It will be turned by your body motion to move clockwise and then counterclockwise in a circular pattern. I also can stand, lean forward, and get the required movement by swaying my body from left to right leg, without a table in front of me.

I made appointments for the next 6 weeks. I came home and checked my schedule and also canceled and reset my appointment with personal doctor Paul Schmitt until I have completed a couple of weeks and had my progress evaluated by the therapist. The paperwork has to be reevaluated for Medicare to continue paying for the sessions, if the need is still there and progress has been made. Later, I was called as an appointment for next week (Tuesday) was possible because of a cancellation and I was on the wait list.

Wednesday, May 25

For May 24 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 12 min with AHI=1.90. Events: 2 CSR, 8 H, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Oximetry: Okay throughout the night, and after the CPAP was off.

I called my Pharmacist to ask if Aleve (Naproxen Sodium) would conflict with my assorted meds, as Ibuprofen does. Yes, it is in the same drug class. Therefore, I cannot take it. She suggested using Aspercream with Lidocaine, and I will check with my physician (Dr. Paul).

I did my exercises this morning (half of them) — 2 sets of 10 I only did on the first three, did all on the 4th, and I did all the 20 in both directions of the last one. I was hurting, and did a few more at the Food Bank and at my SAIL exercise class, but I’m supposed to be doing over 20 minutes of them 5 times a day. Where does one find the time and the energy? I’m still hurting from yesterday. I picked up Gloria and took her along with me to the two events for the day. We rushed her home because she had her own physical therapy session at 3:30.

On my way with Gloria, to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen for music, I picked up some shirts for John from a gal in town. Turns out we have mutual friends where John prunes wine grapes. Small world. Wow, a bunch of nice dress shirts and sporty tops. We just went through the box. Maybe we can toss a few of his worn out shirts.

Thursday, May 26

For May 25 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 39 min with AHI=2.15. Events: 3 CSR, 10 H15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Oximetry: okay all night.

Permission granted by Dr. (Paul) Schmitt to use Aspercream with Lidocaine for shoulder pain exacerbated from the exercising.

John held Myst for the farrier to trim her feet. My part in this was writing the check to pay for the work. After the trimming, John went down to switch the water from west-side to east-side of the ditch on the neighbor’s land. Later he will remove the “dam” and let it go to the next neighbor south. She is the new owner there and hasn’t got the hang of this water thing, yet.

We will have brunch and I will be taking off in an hour for playing music at Hearthstone while John goes shopping for a less expensive pellet-feed for the horses. He succeeded in finding one at a different place. There are only 3 stores in town for buying such items.

At our music gig, we had a nice turnout of audience and fair amount of players. Two violins, flute, tambourine, and 4 guitars. We were joined by the Activities Director there, only to hear she was moving on. Luckily, we will play there one more time before she leaves. She has been a member of our group every time we play there (monthly), and also at events held at the Senior Center, to which she brings residents of the facility where she works.

Friday, May 27

For May 26 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 8 hrs 9 min with AHI=1.35 Events: 2 CSR, 11 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 16 L/min). Oximetry: Just fine all night long.

Today was an interesting day on the road. I drove John’s car so I could fill it with gasoline for his trip tomorrow across Stevens Pass. I first went for that chore, followed by going downtown across from our bank to the off campus location for a CWU administrative office. We only had about half our usual crowd, probably because of people leaving early for the Memorial Day weekend. We had a lovely luncheon, with a special Macaroni and Cheese casserole, an Asian salad, some fresh strawberries, and a tasty lemon dessert.

From there I drove to Kittitas on my way home (about 6 miles out of the normal return route). Reason was to pick up some items from people on the new Buy Nothing East Ellensburg/Kittitas/Vantage list, of which I am now a member. First, I picked up 2 monkey blankets for upcoming baby showers. These were freely given (and they are not inexpensive). [John wants to know why baby events are called showers.] Nancy here, I think it is because you’re expected to shower the parents with gifts for the new baby.
monkeyLoveesSecond stop was to deliver some used stuff to a woman at her shop on Main Street, but she was closed for the long weekend. Then I went a couple blocks north and picked up two large bags of baby clothes, blankets, towels, and a nursing cover. On to the next place on my way home to pick up a folding lawn chair. I broke one of ours last year so this is a freely given replacement.

Saturday, May 28

For May 27 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 7 min with AHI=3.37. Events: 5 CSR, 24 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). I had the new mask on again that is almost impossible to set up from the top of my head connection to the pressure tube. I think my positioning is hampered and causing a partial obstruction to the airway. I will experiment more tonight. Oximetry: Okay all night.

John was off at 5:30 a.m. for a WTA work party at Barclay Lake, near Baring, WA, on the other side of Stevens Pass. This is his second trip over there this season. This is about 25 miles from the Puget Sound town of Monroe (~20,000 folks). While he was well on his way home there was an accident on the road (Highway 2) that would have delayed him several hours. [The old road nearby has a bridge collapse that prevents a detour along this stretch.] Link: Wreck on Hwy 2

He’s been without his cell phone all this week, but the results of a search for it at the last minute before leaving this morning resulted in his finding it under the front passenger seat of the Forester that I drive. He was riding there Monday when I drove us to the doctor. Also, and awesomely, in the same place, he found his Nepalese wool hat wrapped around the older missing phone we have since replaced. Hmmmmmm. In that old phone’s carrying case was a thin Casio calculator that we like to have when we go to the grocery stores (especially Costco) to compare ounce prices. In addition, this old phone will take photos and one can remove them from the phone by a USB cable. Our new phones have a camera but do not allow one to remove them. They force you to pay for TEXT messaging to send the photos to an email address. We refuse to do that. Yet, now I can just keep the phone for emergencies when I do not have my big camera along. Maybe I can teach John to take photos on it, and he can pack it in his backpack for trail work days. He thinks not, because he has a 9 year old Nikon D40X that actually takes great photos, but is large and heavy compared to phones, yet images easily download to his computer.

John made it home about 5:00, but as he stepped out of the car, both legs cramped. He stood holding onto the car door and car to stretch his legs, and then turned around in the other direction for over five minutes to stretch muscles until he was able to walk again. He says they did too much fast hiking. The day was rainy and cold so he did not drink until after he was off the trail and on the way home. Maybe a bit of dehydration? They got several serious trail issues taken care of, no one was injured, and they had a lot of fun in the mud. WTAers consider that a great day! [John remembers from high school that basketball players got cramps so he doesn’t blame this on his old legs.]
He did the night feedings and lay down to nap for an hour. Then we had supper.

Sunday, May 29

For May 28 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 35 min with AHI=4.30. Events: 5 CSR, 24x H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 12 L/min). Oximetry: Fine throughout the night.

Fortunately, John awoke without pain in either leg. He went out, did a few chores, and brought back a large handful of beautiful strawberries from our “newer” garden. They get more sun there and are doing nicely. This is the first harvest of the year. My job was to clean and cut them. He added sugar, and then we had them for brunch on top of a simple pancake. I had my leftover egg/mushroom/ham fried from last night’s dinner, and we had pears from a can.

We tackled a bunch of projects in and outside the house, and then were surprised by an unannounced visit from a couple in Everett we have never met. She was the daughter of the folks who built the house (1981), which we have lived in since 1989. She’s in her fifties, and she had not been here since 1982. She remembered a few trees in the orchard when they were smaller. Recognized the house and the old red barn, and the little shed where I park my car. We walked them around the orchard and to the barn, out to the pasture and the side of the house, which has the old pump house converted to a place for feeding and watering the feral cats in the winter (it has a heater in the bottom). We about froze with 35 mph winds and temperatures of 62. Wonder what the wind chill was. Neither of us had on a coat, gloves, or scarf, and we were out for over an hour. The experience was very rewarding and nostalgic for Barb and her husband, Ed, whose company made the aluminum framed windows in our home. About 15 years ago, a niece of Barb’s, came by, we did the tour, and she gave us a little family history. Barb took photos, and is hopefully going to scan some old photos of the house when it was new. Sadly, her dad died shortly after it was finished and her mother died about a year after we moved here. There was another owner for about 3 years. John took a photo of them in front of the house.
cropped of two
Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

A SHORT NOTE

Wild Onion
We had a visitor this afternoon and did not complete the weekly stuff.
The visitor was the daughter of the couple that owned this property and had the house built in the early 1980s. Before that they came and camped on weekends. We did a walk-a-bout and took pictures.

We’ll do the regular thing Monday.
Cheers

Windy week of activities

Sunday, May 15

For May 14 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 54 min with AHI=6.13. Events: 7 CSR, 29 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min).
Oximetry: all over the chart. Weird. But I felt fine, so no repercussions, I guess.

John left at 6:00 a.m. on a cold rainy day, for his last day of WTA Crew Leader College, but found the weather on the “wet” side is actually drier and better! That’s good because today he was out in the woods working on the Advanced Crosscut Sawyer learning session. I’m a bit concerned about the fog he will have to drive through near the summit. {Counter-clockwise spinning storms are passing to our south. Westward moving moist air is moving up-slope on the east side (normally dry-side) of the Cascades.}

I cannot believe how tired I was. I slept in until almost 10:00 a.m., highly unusual for me. Maybe it was related to interrupted sleep of the high AHI reported above for last night by the CPAP machine’s SD card (I read every day and graph the data from the night before).

I worked today backing up my activity on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site because that Facebook site is being closed soon, after being split (sprouted is the term) into 3 smaller groups: North Ellensburg/Thorp, South Ellensburg, and East Ellensburg/Kittitas/Vantage (the new group I’ll join because of our house location).

I also (at John’s request) cleaned the left side of the hallway of boxes of various things, plastic bags of clean clothes and linens, and uncovered a closet door, with horizontal shelves, which I cleaned up a couple of shelves on to make room for some organization of more things. One thing I found on the top shelf was a stack of jigsaw picture puzzles and a few board games. I took the time to offer the puzzles and one board game to the new BNEE group. I mention some results after the puzzle collage below.
1-CollagePuzzleGiveaway
The 3 puzzles on the left I managed to re-home with minimum effort with people meeting me at the places I was in town this week. The two on the right have the largest number of pieces, and I will leave those on the free table at the Senior Center to be done with them.

I also repackaged packages of stick-on ribbons we bought in an after Christmas sale years ago. I believe I need to offer them on the Buy Nothing site, or start sticking them on every give away. Bags of music for our group audiences I organized into a box and recycled some we have no longer any use for from previous play dates over the years. Finally, I organized the clothes too large for me now into bags to give away. I put some towels on one of the shelves I uncovered in the closet. That’s handy to the bathroom off that hallway.

Monday, May 16

For May 15 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 40 min with AHI=2.70. Events: 9 CSR, 18 H, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min).
Oximetry: looks good, except for an hour when the pulse decreased to the lower 30s a couple of times.

Awoke before 7:00, stayed up, washed dishes, and fed one cat before John got out of bed.

I finally got a note sent off to my friend Lynne whose photo exhibit I visiting last week in Ellensburg. She does gorgeous work and has traveled all over the world. One photo taken in Croatia grabbed my attention because of my grandmother’s area where she grew up in present-day Slovenia, near Croatia. I told Lynne and sent her my 2012 story of the Wilkins family, I had put into our annual greetings for that year, when I returned from our reunion in Guyton, GA. She was happy to hear my story, and mentioned they rode the train through that area of Slovenia, when they were there.

Now at 4:30, John went to Safeway, and I am going to take a short power nap.

We are extremely frustrated with our computer going off and on its Internet connection. There are too many fragile parts between the main “pipes” of the internet and our rural location. The signal goes away and then comes back on its own. This might happen a dozen times in a day, or it might not happen for 3 or 4 months. The provider thinks the issues are in our house. No surprise there.

Tuesday, May 17

For May 16 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=0.89. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min).
Oximetry: chart was very smooth, with high SpO2 all night.

I worked on chores, and then left for Jazzercise.

Wednesday, May 18 Anniversary of Mount St. Helens Eruption in 1980.

For May 17 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 16 min with AHI=1.90. Events: 8 CSR, 9 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min).
Oximetry:

John invited me to put on my boots early morning and take a trip through the yard to see wildflowers and our domesticated iris. We have much wild iris (a nuisance) in the pasture that is difficult to get rid of. Neither the horses or the deer will touch it. Lots of water in the spring and then not much after is good for it and not for other things, such as grass.

First, are the pretty little bunched purple flowers, officially known as, Phacelia linearis.
2-CollagePhacelia linearis Naneum Fan 2016
These are next to our new driveway to access the back of our property with a turn-around for a fire truck in case of wildfire from the west of our property. Actually, it helps protect all our buidings because it acts as a loop fire-break. Someday it will get a gravel surface.

Also, from the old cottonwood trees, we have had the seed pods falling and blowing around the yard. I didn’t have my camera when John I returned from town recently and found it white all the way down the driveway on the dark gravel. It looked like it had snowed. The town streets were filled as well with yellow snow from the flowering trees around town (locust or maple ?)
4-Collage3PhotosCottonwoodSeapods

Another interesting plant John tries to reduce is a “Fiddler” plant. Its head looks similar to the neck of a fiddle. [John says: That is why it is called “fiddleneck.”] Looking on line, I found Fiddlehead Fern, but I don’t think our shrub-steppe area is wet enough for ferns, and they are not closely related. Many web photos have linked the names “fern” and “fiddleneck” with this non-fern plant.
Like a curled lock of hair.

3-CollageFiddleNeckPlantNaneumFanXfernWeb
Above is a collage with three on the left from our walk. The second in is an enlargement of the 3rd from the left. The one on the right is from the web, where it is wrongly called a fern. However, it has a less hairy appearance than those here, but red dots in the throat of the flower, so I include it. There is an “intermedia” version, so there is more to this plant than we have time to figure out.

Next is a collage of our domesticated Iris we start from rhizomes provided by Celia Winingham, who has cut my hair since I arrived in Ellensburg in 1988.
5-CollageJohn&Nancy'sIris
Iris out near our old barn, on the way to our newer pole barn. Missing in this photo are the salmon (bronze) colored ones and the more recently blooming yellow ones.

I mentioned a board game I found in our hall closet, and I was able to meet Joanna while in town (at SAIL exercise) to transfer it. She introduced me to her cute 7.5 month old baby and later sent me a photo of her son playing the game. She wanted to teach him because she grew up playing the game, and no longer had it. It’s for ages 8 to Adult. Results seen below:
6-CollagePENTE-GameGiveaway

Thursday, May 19

For May 18 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=1.77. Events: 2 CSR, 12 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min).

Today, I rushed to town for a special event at Central Washington University (CWU), a presentation in S.O.U.R.C.E. by Trinity Turner. Here’s the history on this. She’s the daughter of a friend I have known since the early 1990s from the WOTFA workshop at Kittitas where we were in an Intermediate Fiddling class taught by Roberta (Bobbie) Pearce from Nampa, ID. Trinity came to Central and joined the Geography Department where I taught for so many years. Her talk was on using GIS for making “Story Maps” to represent spatial temporal information.

From there, I went to KVH for blood draw with my paperwork and get INR while there. It was low (probably from enjoying our fresh asparagus. They had taken my Dr.’s name off the list as retired (he doesn’t retire until the end of the year, and he was in that very hospital working all week). I called the main office in Cle Elum and talked to Laura (staff member I have known there the longest), and she was grateful to hear, agreed with all my observations, and will report it.

At 1:20 I showed at Brookdale, Senior Living Solutions, for our usual third Thursday of the month’s music. We had a good turn-out and got to meet our new fiddler, Evie Scheutz. She enjoyed meeting our crew, and playing with us. She is happy to be a member of the group. I knew she was practicing for a competition, so I asked if she would place her tunes for us. She did and got applause from us and the audience, and in addition, we “backed her up.” She was quite nervous, but I’m sure it was a positive experience to give her a little exposure to a strange group before the Saturday competition.

John and I went to town to hear Megan Walsh and Dusty Pilkington give a presentation on the importance of fire in our ecosystem at the local chapter of the Kittitas Audubon Society, of which we are members.

The Daily Record link for tonight’s talk is here: News Link

Here is one from back in December of 2015 about hers and Dusty’s work: News Link #2

Friday, May 20

For May 19 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 57 min with AHI=1.51. Events: 8 CSR, 9 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min).
Oximetry: very nice SpO2 and pulse graph, but only for 2.4 hrs, when it ran out of charged battery. My bad for not recharging it.

I carry a 3-ring binder along to all our KV Fiddlers & Friends performances at assisted living homes. Yesterday, I was in a hurry to leave, and left behind one of the binders that two guitarists share. While there, I took Lenna, a resident, a 650-piece jigsaw puzzle you saw in the photo above.

I went on to the AAC after buying a bunch of canned cat food at less than half price. That’s always a treat to the pocketbook and appreciated by the cats for sure. I caught the end of good talk on bicycles for the elderly: trikes and 4 wheelers. The free lunch was the best part. Baked potato with various toppings and salad.

I sent out the invite to the Emeriti for June 4 End Of Year Geography party, at which the Geography Club provides the burgers, hotdogs, and beverages, and participants bring potluck appetizers, salads, sides, or dessert.

John left early for a WTA day on the trail. John and 3 first-time volunteers cut a tree that came down on a trail-turn on a steep hillside. Once the tree was cut and the sections removed, they rebuilt the turn.
WTA Barkley Lake 1

The whole crew, below, worked on 4 different projects. A different tree crashed into the railing so the left end had to be reconstructed. The still intact but crooked part is solid and serviceable.
WTA Barkley Lake 2

Saturday, May 21

For May 20 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 31 min with AHI=2.17. Events: 2 CSR, 10 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min).
Oximetry:

John left at 6:00 a.m., to fill up with gasoline for a WTA trail maintenance work day being held at Goat Creek Trail, near Chinook Pass, WA (just east of Mt. Rainier National Park).

I got 1.5 hrs more sleep and have been tackling chores. John fed Lemon before he left, and I fed the two girls out front after he was gone. They both (mother and daughter, Woody) came onto the cable table in the front yard, and mom, Sue, jumped down and ran toward me to be fed on the concrete in front of the garage, inside the fence, where we have been feeding her to keep away the skunk. She more often eats out back up in the “cat’s mow.”

Here’s a photo of Woody, up her favorite tree, a Black Walnut.
7-WoodyInHerFavorite WalnutTree
Evie Scheutz (our new fiddler with the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends) has been only playing the fiddle for 2 years, taught by a CWU student. She is the epitome of what a fiddler should be doing. She puts in 4-6 hours practicing every day. She entered her first competition in Union Gap, WA today (Play the Gap), and won 4th place in the Old Time (music) Adult group. The link below happened today at the Union Gap .
EVIE AT PLAY THE GAP
8-Evie'sAward
This was her award.

Sunday, May 22

For May 21 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 50 min with AHI=0.59. Events: 5 CSR, 4 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Oximetry was good throughout.

I’ve been tackling chores all day, while John went to his WTA trip today (3rd day this weekend). Today and yesterday were to the Goat Creek Trail in the Mt. Rainier area off Highway 410. Today he put 182.6 miles on his Subaru, leaving at 6:38 a.m. and returning at 4:38, a nice 10 hr day. Yesterday’s trip was a little longer (185) because he detoured through Ellensburg for gasoline.

My chores included working on this blog (still need to put the finishing touches on so John can enter it), washing dishes and clothes, doing various types of paperwork, gathering information for my upcoming doctor and physical therapist appointments, feeding cats, and planning for future visitors.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Celebrations, Wind, Computer, and Horse Issues

Sunday, May 8 Happy Mother’s Day!

For May 7 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 35 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 2 CSR, 0 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min). Oximetry: very smooth, with high SpO2 all night.

John will go to the WTA trail as on Sat. last. He can leave a little later today than yesterday, because all the people except him are staying over in the campground, the tools are already up the hill, and there is no need for a discussion about the use and safe use of maintenance tools.

He was kind to help me slice some Jarlsberg cheese to take to lunch today at Swedbergs across the street, where I am going to celebrate Mother’s Day with our neighbors, two sons, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and great grandson. I created a special card for the occasion, and am carrying along a few other sweet tummy treats.

I slept in another hour after John left. The wind is blowing hard. 45 mph gusts as John was leaving, and continued until the hour before 10:00 when it went to 48 mph. It was there for 2 hours, and then between 1:53 and 2:53 at the airport they measured 52 mph. WHOA. John made it home at 4:38 p.m.

I’m continuing to file and toss papers and restarted my Seagate weekly backup at 5:13 Sunday, but I do not know how to make it not copy everything. Something is not right.

Monday, May 9

For May 8 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 7 min with AHI=1.14. Events: 6 CSR, 7 H, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 7 L/min). Oximetry: all good all night.

I spent a ton of time and still am not done with Dashboard back up on my Seagate Drive. I finally late afternoon made it through a process for technical support. I started early in the morning by re-registering my Seagate Disk Drive. Then for a couple hours, it refused to recognize my Serial Number, saying it was not in the system. Finally, I guess the 14th time is a charm, it let me on to write my questions and they will provide an email tomorrow to one of my gmail accounts. John is using our joint account to register his, and they would not let me use that address for mine.

Spent even more time worrying with arranging for the CWU retireds meeting in the morning. Now we have changed rooms, so there can be a PowerPoint shown. I fixed chocolate chip cookies from the frozen dough John pulled out of the freezer last night. I have 33 cookies for the meeting and we are expecting nine members, plus the speaker.

I sent out an organizational announcement for the Meadows Place, an assisted living home behind the Rehab where we play music on the second Thursday of the month. I need to request attendance of musicians, so I can give a count of how many arm-less chairs we need to have set up. It’s a weekly chore I have to manage.

Tuesday, May 10

For May 9 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 8 hrs 5 min with AHI=2.10. Events: 6 CSR, 17 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 6 L/min). Oximetry was okay for the time it was on. Don’t know why it was off the rest of the night, after a 4:00 a.m. potty break. It stopped after 16 minutes, guess the charge died ??

We left at 8:00 a.m. so we had time to stop at Complete Computer Services to give them my laptop to figure out what happened. I guess the last thing I did last night was to shut it down through the system advanced options. The restart did not work, and I didn’t like any of the other options available. Ryan, the “windows” man, turned it on, had to wait awhile, but it came up fine. Now I think I should have tried before I left this morning. Oh well, he didn’t charge me for the service and that made me very happy.

In rushing out with that and the stuff we were taking along, I left the cookies behind at the front door. We realized it once we got there, and I was going to drive back home. Discussion ensued. Our main grocery store was just 1 mile away so I drove John to Super 1, where he went inside for the goodies, and I called and talked to the young man with whom I left my computer. John went in and found the cost of the amount of cookies I made for the group would have been over $18 – so instead, he bought apple and blueberry mini-strudels. It was fine and “only” $8.00. We were thanked today for 22 months of taking goodies with a $35 gift card from Jim & Lillian Brooks. Perkins is the place. We’ll use that for something special coming up this summer. I came home and froze the cookies I made for today to take next month.

Our meeting went well. The speaker explained his travels and research in Argentina. He was investigating oil drilling and production and why they are spending more money and getting less output. He spent time in an oil boom town, very small and remote. The place looked windblown and dusty, and long time residents were poor folks having a hard time coping. He received many compliments and questions from us old folks.

We managed to leave by 10:45 for our eye exams with Dr. Davis. We both had good reports, and neither of us paid the $44 for refraction. I don’t need the numbers as I have implanted lenses. John’s glasses are fine. So we just needed the medical exam that is covered by insurance. Our eyes, vision, and pressure are fine, and the back of the retina is all right too. The clinic uses

OptoMap ~~Have a look.

The cloudiness in John’s eyes is holding at 2+, that being less than the average for men his age. While I was there, I got a call from Ryan that I could come pick up my computer. On the way home, we did. Got home with not much time to spare, but I grabbed a bite for lunch, changed clothes and went on back in for Jazzercise class. On my way there I picked up some alpine boots, but when I got home, I found they would not fit, so I found another home to share them with, with someone less than 7 miles from our house on Naneum.

On my way home, I stopped by for mothballs at the Dollar Store (to attempt a send off of the skunk), and from there, I went around the block to view a friend’s photo exhibit in the Gard Vintners. Lynne Harrison is her name. Wonderful work.

I got home a little before 4, rested only a short while, and took off again for town, to play music with The Connections at Hearthstone, where I started the day!! We had a nice turn-out and participation from an appreciative audience. I was happy to get home for dinner.

Wednesday, May 11

For May 10 CPAP. Reported figures. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 20 min with AHI=1.26. Events: 5 CSR, 8 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min). Oximetry: excellent all night.

On my way from picking up Gloria, my Wednesday traveling buddy, we stopped a few blocks west of her and picked up an aluminum tripod and small commemorative creamer from the Spokane Expo ’74 (year we moved to Troy, Idaho) from a person on the BNE group. We went on to the food bank and met a woman there to give me a box of goodies – jars for the mothballs to reside, in order to out-skunk Pepé Le Pew.

Gloria was with me at the Food Bank, joining the singing and dining. Today, in addition to pasta, they served a lobster bisque. I had a large cup of it, rather than the pasta, because the large amount of garlic in it disrupts my tummy. I also took along a small helping of my own made tuna fish / egg salad to replace the pasta. They had a nice salad with the iceberg lettuce I can eat, and blue cheese dressing, with a brownie for dessert. We drove by the Kittitas Medical Supply place for my 3-month refills of CPAP supplies, on to SAIL exercise, and back afterwards to a nearby building to pick up my medical entry paperwork for my Physical Therapy evaluation. That’s to be in 2 weeks. On the way home we stopped by the bread room to partake of some things. We have always been encouraged to take things, but they have changed the hours, and the bread room is no longer open when we arrive for playing music. We both got a loaf of whole wheat bread, she some dinner rolls and I, an Olive Oil Loaf. The local grocery stores donate bread not sold by its best-by date, and the only place to store it is in a semi truck, so the food bank can’t keep it long – and why they encourage people to take the bread, even when they do not need to partake of normal food distribution. Better to use it than lose it to mold. There is always plenty and there’s a limit of five items.

Thursday, May 12

For May 11 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 45 min with AHI=0.52. Events: 0 CSR, 2 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 11 L/min).

Finished up giving away (notifying at least) for the BNE seed packets. I have given away 2 of the 4, and those go next week.

Called Hospice Friends and will pick up an egg carton foam pillow for my chair. Got it and it was a better one than previously offered. I have worn that one out from sitting on it.

Our neighbor we honored on Mother’s Day was ill this morning, and once in ER, they decided she had to be transferred by ambulance to Swedish Hospital in Seattle for reaming out her esophagus that had constricted and kept her from swallowing anything. That doesn’t sound pleasant, but if it works, that’s fine.

John went with me to town, driving his car to fill with gas for this weekend’s trip. After letting me off at Meadows Place, he proceeded to get gas from the cheapest place in town on the north side, at $2.32. Then was able to find some cat food at Grocery Outlet on his way back to the grocery store we normally frequent, but where the price of the same can of cat food with a 10-cent off coupon is still 15 cents higher priced. He stopped off at Safeway for his cheaper (89¢/2 liter) colas. And eventually, he came back to pick me up, a few minutes before we ended. Twelve people contributed music, and we had a number of happy people in the audience, including some of the staff, singing.

Friday, May 13

For May 12 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 7 min with AHI=0.42. Events: 3 CSR, 3 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Oximetry: Interesting, between 5 and 6:00 a.m. my pulse dropped to 38 lowest, yet my SpO2 remained high except for dropping to 83, an hour after I went to sleep.

Early in the day we had a little excitement. I looked out the back window and saw our horses where they are not wanted. I found John in the front yard and asked him if they were supposed to be there, after he’d told me yesterday he did not want to let them in the backyard. He was surprised, because he had not put them in there. I looked again and saw two sections of the fence were down. He went around to open the easy gate for them to leave and to get the downed fence out of the way so they would not get tangled in it, leaving. Then he proceeded to fix it. Ancient boards and nails became loose in the high wind. At some point screws will have to replace nails in some of these things. Screws hold better and longer.
CollageMystDownedFence&TobianosFirst view, left above is Myst with her nose in Raspberry plants, and behind her are the downed sections of fence. Right are the other horses, Cheyenne, Jazz, and Breeze behind the heat pump.
CollageGate-FenceFixingHorsesMunchingThis shows the open gate (left edge) for them to use to leave, John walking toward the fence needing picked up and re-strung, and far right is Jazz munching on a mouthful of grass. Many years ago the boards came from an fence – old then – in EBRG from friends who were moving.

Backyard Horses / Downed Fence 5-13-16

Owen Orvald is 10 today. Need to find a special b.d. card special for him. I sent it between machine down time on Internet connection. What a PITA. Owen is the first child of a student from shortly after we arrived at CWU. Now the family is near Reno.

I have been trying to get some computer work done, but the Internet won’t stay up long enough to write a message.
I did manage to get this sent to a local contest.
XmasTre'

I submitted this photo Jeri took of Daisy for Knudson’s Kooky Pooch contest to get 40# dog food / month for a year. Now people have to access Facebook and vote for her.

Go to Facebook – VOTE for Daisy

Saturday, May 14

For May 13 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 20 min with AHI=4.50. Events: 11 CSR, 24 H, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Bad report, which causes me to wonder why. I must have set myself up incorrectly last night for proper airflow. Oximetry: only on for a couple of hours, because I must have jarred it off my finger in the middle of the night. Not a good recording night on either device.

John leaves early, 5:30 a.m., for North Bend, for Crew Leader College. Unfortunately, he awoke much earlier and could not get back to sleep. I awoke at almost 4:00 and he decided to go ahead and get up. He did find all his gear, pack his lunch, and get out of the house. He had to go to check and put things in his car, so I warned him to be careful and not get sprayed by the skunk. Got a chuckle from him. He printed me the program for today. He will get there for the kickoff, hoping to get there soon enough for a seat in the room, and maybe a donut. His training session is Basic Crosscut Sawing, which he has experienced, so this is a refresher with 2 sawyers he has not worked with. The goals are to discuss and practice a successful log out, types of bind (tension/danger) encountered, dangers in logging out trails, and successful planning for cutting logs so that the trail is cleared with minimum effort.

I stayed and slept for another couple hours, but now have gone out to retrieve a potted hen and chicks plant for a gal to come pick up this morning. There was a pungent skunk odor around the front yard. While out, I fed one of the ferals, Woody. I’m keeping an eye out for the others in the afternoon. The clouds have moved in, threatening, and they were calling for rain where John will be outside working. He found a light rain jacket to carry in his backpack.

I only got 1.5 hrs in for cleaning up my presence and recording the information from the old BNE site, so I can leave and join the new subgroup, based on my Ellensburg location.. now BNK (Buy Nothing East Ellensburg-Kittitas-Vantage). Now the Internet has been down since 9:14 a.m., and it is down all over Kittitas & the whole valley, as well. I tried calling the 1-800 number, for Fairpoint Communications, but they no longer have a local presence and their national one is not being recognized. Yes, I’m royally ticked off. We cannot get anything else out this far from town, and we do not wish to subscribe to cable, even if it came this far out. Service returned about 2:45 p.m., and the phone number started working again, so it was broadly based as John found out looking at outages of Fairpoint across the U.S. today. We were fortunate our landline through them continued operating.

I’m getting by with doing dishes, eating, sorting, and working on the text of the blog. No way we can publish it without a connection. Continuing with cleanup & filing. Charged my phone and oximeter (uses the same charger – nice after the original with the Oximeter quit working a 3rd time. The service company I bought from on Amazon replaced the first two, but I didn’t want to ask again, and then tried my older cell phone one and it fits and works.

John’s saw group finished and was back at the USFS in North Bend by 4, but WTA brass wanted a group picture at 4:30. John called about the time expected, after 20-to-5, and I went right out to feed Lemon out back, and it started sprinkling. I went to the front door, saw Woody on the cable table and her mom Sue right behind. I ran back in to get a plate for Sue. I had only seen Woody, until I walked out. It was starting to sprinkle more, but not bad as it has gotten in the past hour. I managed to feed Woody on top of the table, and convinced Sue to come in the front gate onto the concrete. They both cleaned their plates. Now for John’s arrival it is raining much harder, and I didn’t put up the barrel or buckets to catch the roof water, but he’ll be home soon to rectify that.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Flowers bees skunk shoulder

Sunday, May 1 May Day brought many surprises

For Apr 30 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 44 min with AHI=00. Events: 1 CSR, 0 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min), but then got an additional 3 hrs sleep off the machines. Oximetry good all night.

John left at 6:38 a.m. (He arrived too early yesterday, and is going to the same place, with the same volunteer crew).

I’m staying home to tackle projects. We published the blog last night. I took my camera out to record some of our flowering trees and bushes.

Here’s a collage of the crabapple tree:
1-CollageCrabappleMay1-2016
Our lilac tree is adjacent to the crabapple.
2-LilacBushNextToCrabapple

Here’s a video of Lilacs Blowing in the Wind May 1, 2016

Those are just across the fence from the Mountain Ash tree that you will hear more about later in the week.

I heard back by email from Natalie Joyce, Owner of Canyon View Physical Therapy to whom I had written my situation and whether or not she was willing to evaluate my shoulder problem, with lost range of motion and pain, to see if Physical Therapy would be a possibility. I am unwilling to go through shoulder surgery. I had tried 2 years of massage therapy and acupuncture that improved it but only to a point.

She got back to me via phone and email:
“Thank you for reaching out Nancy. As I stated in our (telephone) conversation, I will wait until after your consult with Dr. Schmitt and then touch base with you. I will give you a straightforward answer about whether or not PT is appropriate and/or if I think I can help once we have a chance to sit down together for an evaluation. I certainly am impressed by your grit! It is an amazing story and I am glad you are here to tell it. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”

All the best,
Natalie  

Today I spent working on a number of projects. I arranged the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends schedule for 2016 to share with a new singer who hopes to join our group. She will start next week. I contacted the director of the Issaquah Singers to have her approve my videos I took last week and share with her group, washed clothes and dishes, filed a few months worth, paid bills, and did my normal removal and display of data from CPAP and Oximeter.
Whoopee..I received an early call from John at Manastash Ridge, just before 4:00, on his way home, as they finished early. Nice.

Annie was surely happy to have him home to take her for a walk. I took her out with me when I went to take photos and that little jaunt made her happy, but she prefers going longer distances with John.

We have now had our dessert treat, and I’m returning to my chores.

Tonight, we had a visitor, who we suspected was living under our shed.
3-NaneumSkunk
Monday, May 2

For May 1 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with AHI=0.72. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min).
Oximetry good all night

Dealing with dishes, bills, and John with yard chores. Now he is resting.

A little after five, our new neighbor (purchased the place last fall) downhill from us, with whom we will share irrigation water, came to meet us, and to have John show her around the hydrologic neighborhood. He spent quite a bit of time, and took her up to show her the diversion control, but later with more time he will show her a structure farther upstream where there is a split of 1 into 3 (streams). Two miles on up, Naneum and Wilson Creeks are joined for (historical) permitting of a grist mill. Then they are split into Wilson (on the west), and west and east Naneum. Two miles down from us, the 2 Naneums come together again. Just down from the 1-to-3 split, the water spreads out, slows, and drops rocks, gravel, and sand. Over the last 100 years this has made a mess of the stream structure. John hopes to move before there is a serious decrease (or increase) of the water coming our way. We came 27 years ago.

Tuesday, May 3

For May 2 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 1 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 1 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Good nights with little activity seem to follow being worn out during the day. Oximetry good for the time.

Heading for Cle Elum to see my family physician about my shoulder. We arrived at 11:30 and were taken back at 11:32. John went with me and we both met with our doctor. We are sad he is retiring – phased now, full in December. He’s been my doctor since 1988, John’s since 1989. We had a nice visit and he will have his staff set up a referral to the place in Ellensburg I wish to go for Physical Therapy on my left shoulder. We also discussed transferring me to a medical doctor in Ellensburg rather than having a PA there in Cle Elum. But he will be around part-time (is now), and they are hoping to hire an MD. Before we left, I made an appointment for 7 weeks out to check back on my progress with the PT.
I came home and called the Internal Medicine folks about getting in to be seen by Dr. Kelly Noyes, new in town. No more new patients have been considered since December. Further checking revealed that she doesn’t take Group Health insurance, which is a requirement in my case. Here’s hoping they will make a good hire up in Cle Elum and we get auto-transitioned to her/him.

We enjoyed our drive up Hwy 10 with all the yellow wildflowers on the south-facing slopes and the white ones on the north-facing.

Wednesday, May 4

For May 3 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 16 min with AHI=0.16 Events: 1 H, 3 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10L/min). Oximeter ran out of charge before midnight.
4-BeeOnMountainAsh5-1-16
Today’s activity on the Naneum Fan was noisy and fragrant. Our Mountain Ash tree in the front of our house is alive with the sound of bees pollinating. I attempted to catch the noise to share. Please, turn up your volume and visit the link below.

Busy Bees in Mountain Ash

I picked up Gloria and went to the Food Bank & SAIL class. I drove by a gal’s house on the way to exercise class to deliver a bag of clothes. Some of the clothes I was giving to her and her daughter, and a couple I was leaving with her to fix for me. She is a seamstress who does all her work by hand. After our class, I showed one of my friends how to put on a CPAP face mask properly, adjusted it to her head, and sent her on her own to try it overnight. Found out the next day, it worked very well for her and she got the first good night’s sleep in a long time, without leaks keeping her awake. For that I am very happy. I like the mask very much, except for the air pressure hose attachment to the top of my head, but her machine is set up at a different level. Perhaps after she gets her own, I will move mine lower and return to using my mask.

Doreen Harrington (Ruth is her mother-in-law) gave me a square scarf on the BNE site. I have to pick up from Barge (actually Kamola), next Tuesday, after Jazzercise. Ruth organizes the CWU lunches that raise money for scholarships.

Stacee P. gave me a Chef’s Mark knife set (well, of the original 20-piece cutlery set, she had 17 knives left, minus 2 and without the scissors).

Thursday, May 5

For May 4 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 34 min with AHI=0.15.
Events: 1 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min).

John drove me to town. We went by S. Willow and picked up four tank tops. 2 purple, green, and an orange & white striped. Those were given to me to use in my physical therapy classes so my shoulder joint can be seen and the tissue reached, if necessary. I had a black one given to me last week, and this one asked if I would like some colorful ones, so I thanked her and accepted them. Now I have one for every day of the work out week. John let me off at the back door of the Rehab and went on for other errands – to Bi-Mart, Super 1, and to AAC to deliver my Toppenish Murals book for people to view/read who are going on an upcoming trip (I’m not going). I gave the staff a copy of my photos of art in geography and geography as art, and the text of the paper I wrote and presented in 2005 at a Geography Conference in Denver, CO. That was a memorable stay, on my way home. We were snowed in at the airport and lived on the floor for 3 days. I was not a happy camper. The airport provided blankets, toiletries, and kept the food places open so we could buy food. I had just gotten my cell phone, and it made it possible to rearrange my trip back, once the snow was cleaned from the runway. Years ago, John left a Denver area meeting ½ day early just to miss an approaching storm. When that storm got to Iowa it shut the place down.

John also got gasoline for his weekend WTA work trip and picked up my medications at the pharmacy. We had 9 players there today with a full room of audience, plus Jeanne in her wheelchair in our circle.

We came home by way of North Water to pick up the set of knives given to me on the Buy Nothing site. They are probably not the best cutting knives, but we’ll try them awhile and see what happens. The Fingerhut web site for these Chef Mark ones, made in China, sold for $40, and published bad customer reviews, which are still out there to read. The company no longer stocks them. Most of the buyers stated that none of them cut well, and could not be sharpened. I have found a similar situation with a couple I have tried. The steak knife did not do a good job of cutting my pork, but pulled it all right. The bread knife worked on chocolate bunnies, but not well on bread. I plan to try some more of the specialty ones. Check Saturday, when I tried another. John says maybe they aren’t worth sharpening but he has been to busy to worry about them.

Through the week, we received photos from the WTA field trip folks, so I will put a few of those into a collage for today.

WTA Boulder Cave Trail work, done April 30 and May 1.
5-CollageBoulderCaveScienes
Intro photo: looking out of Boulder Cave, a wildflower, and two little hikers.
6-CollageJohn&CrewBC
Crew Leader Lisa Black, John, and others at creek. Bottom right: cleaning an asphalt trail in a picnic area. Top right: John and crew closed a long cut-off going down hill shown by orange dots. Below: On the left is the decommissioned cut off (orange dots going up) filled with rocks, branches, and old logs.
7-CollageBefore&AfterTrails
Middle photo is water damage from the trail going down toward a board walk near the cave entrance. Right side is a reconditioned piece of tread that had many rocks and multiple threads. All the rocks are gone and out of view and the tread smoothed.

Friday, May 6

For May 5 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with AHI=0.80. Events: 1 CSR, 6 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min). Oximetry was off for 2 hours – I must have knocked it off my left hand finger.

I arranged for annual physicals with Dr. Schmitt in Cle Elum – not until November this year. Last September the front desk scheduled us for September again. That, somehow got lost in a computer software update. No one seems to know why or how that happened. I received a note with my recent prescription Thursday, which alerted me to my not having a doctor’s visit set up this year. I called to question it because I thought we were scheduled to be in, after Sept 21 (has to be a year after the last). We might have missed a last visit with Dr. Paul or showed up when they were not expecting us. So the prescription alert helped. +1 for that.

Worked on my replacement for my Oximeter, which appears to be dying (its battery), and I am not sure if it can be replaced or if I just have to get a completely new unit. It is not quite 2 years old, but I have used it every night to assess my percentage of oxygen content in my blood as I sleep, and also keep track of my pulse. Some meds I’m taking lower my pulse when I sleep, and the SpO2 is enhanced while I sleep, by the CPAP machine I have to use. It makes me happy to have an oximeter to record my data, because CPAPs do NOT report the very information I need and for which I am on it.

Saturday, May 7

For May 6 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 4 min with AHI=1.81. Events: 5 CSR, 11 H, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min).
Oximetry: normal all night.

John took off a little after 6:30 a.m. for his WTA work day near Naches, and will be returning to the top of Manastash Ridge and call me from the viewpoint, so I can call in an order for pizza he’ll pick up on his way through town.

Will be a 3-topping for $7.99 take out — Philly Steak, Pepperoni, Canadian Bacon. John used Discover for a 5% cash rebate, and the clerk gave us a $5.99 special coupon on 2 toppings through this week, adding a topping, and saved us 40 cents more. Nice.
The gasoline is still $2.23 at both 7-11s, so he will jog through Ellensburg, because the price in Naches is $2.29. John’s lunch Sunday will be a slice of pizza, part of an orange, pecans, and some junk food.

I have been busy doing mostly computer work, dishes, working on the blog, and feeding cats. I did boil eggs to put with some tuna fish for my lunch salad. I tried another skinny knife from the set that looked like a knife to cut tomatoes, but I used it to cut my hard-boiled eggs, and it worked fine. I wrote the retired geographers about John’s and my conflict with an eye exam that will conflict with the end of our meeting Tuesday morning. We will have to be pulling out of Hearthstone on our way to the doctor by 10:45 at the latest. It will work. My guess is our guest speaker, Elvin Delgado, will be completed by then.

When I went out to feed the cats early morning, I saw the petals from the mountain ash tree falling to the ground. What a difference three days make! Look back at the blossoms on May 3. I took a few photos today and put into 2 collages:
8-Collage5-7-16MtnAshClusters
This is on the tree in two different places.
9-Collage5-7-16MtnAshPetals
This contrasts the tree with the petals fallen on the wooden deck.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan