Keeping track

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

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

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

About the cards:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Had leftovers plus cantaloupe for dinner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our best regards

Nancy and John

in windy Kittitas County

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All our best regards

Nancy and John

and summer

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sierra Hull (with others) – Instrumental

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

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

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

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

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

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

to prove its historic importance.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All our best regards

Nancy and John

in gusty Kittitas Valley

 

Sunday has started out a nice day.  I am resting after cutting John’s hair (much needed).  He’s out in the yard working.  Today I go in to hear a family group play and sing blue grass and Celtic-inspired songs.  All eight children play musical stringed instruments and the mom too.  Should be nice.  It will be a good break from being a performer to just sit and listen and enjoy.  I did manage to load the dishwasher, but that’s the extent of my housework thus far.  Need to wash clothes and to clean up stacks of papers.  Maybe later. after the concert.  Nope, I’m back and have just been sitting and resting since.  The concert was fantastic.   Eight kids (oldest 22, youngest 10) played and sang.  It was really a fine concert and went on for 1.5 hours.  Many of the family members play more than one instrument.  One fellow played a guitar, mandolin and violin; another played the drums and a violin; another played the Bass Fiddle and a Bass guitar; many of them sing as well.  One gal played a cello and a violin.  Their mom joined them to sing two songs.  What a talented family.  If they are in the vicinity again, I will return.

Sunday night I was editing a friend’s book and my computer was invaded by a nasty virus that tried to take over my system and lure me into buying some software (a SCAM).  I knew enough not to buy it, but I didn’t know how to rid my computer of the virus.  It had been missed on my Antivirus program.  I thought maybe when I rebooted the next morning all would be well, but it wasn’t.  So, after a frustrating hour with my laptop, I called and took it to the computer gurus in town to doctor my system.  It took them all day and till noon Tuesday to rid it and install two more malware programs to keep an eye out for these horrid things.  They only charged me for an hour of their time, so that was very nice.

Monday had three trips to town.  First to deliver the computer, with a short stop to see my friend in the nursing home.  Back in the early afternoon to exercise class, and to the store for supplies and my meds.  John took the car in at 4:00 to go to the dentist and grocery store.

Tuesday began with a call from the dentist to see how John was doing and a request for me to fill a slot that freed up at 10:30 am for a teeth cleaning I very much needed.  I went in and John went along with me to confirm that the location of the local radio station had not changed during or since weather data were collected there during the period 1954 to 1974.  He learned that the location is the same but the current crew is too new to remember that activity.  With those chores done we went to the grocery store for needed things and then by to pick up my virus-free computer.  Wow… it’s nice to have it back.

Then later in the afternoon I went back again to town, this time for a “tea party” — not that Tea Party!   It was given by a friend (in music in the valley) for her visiting sister from New York City.  The sister has taught at Juilliard Music School for 40 years.  My friend wanted to introduce her to women in music in Ellensburg.  There were many of us there, some from the choral groups in town, several from bands and orchestras, and a few friends who supported the “tea” by making sandwiches and cookies and serving tea.  We had Scones, nuts, little “cocktail” sandwiches, sugar mints, and two types of tea (Earl Grey and a special “organic” market spice tea).  I had the latter and enjoyed it a lot, especially the taste of orange.  I spent much time on the backyard patio in the lee of the house, with a view of the Columbines and large red Poppys in the garden.

Wednesday started with a bunch of chores, and this afternoon I will join my SAIL exercise class.  I hope I don’t have to lead it today.  That’s much harder work.  Now, later, I can say I didn’t have to lead the exercises but I’m still worn out.  The wind was really blowing again today, with high gusts of 45 mph, and several over 40, with sustained winds on average for several hours of 32 mph.

Tonight John made some awesome chicken soup for dinner.  We found out our trip planned for Friday to Leavenworth needs to be Thursday instead.  Good thing our cat and dogs are using the doggie door John set up yesterday.

Thursday will be music at Dry Creek, and I will run home to get John and hit the road for Leavenworth.  We pick them up at their motel at 6:00 p.m.  Our friends are on a cross-country Tandem bicycle trip.  We left at 4:20 and drove through awful traffic and insane idiot drivers on a mostly 2-lane mountain road, but reached Leavenworth

http://www.leavenworth.org/modules/pages/index.php?pageid=1

in front of their motel at 5:40.  We had planned to meet them at 6:00.  We visited, saw their tandem bike (named Alto), and then walked downtown for dinner.  It was a nice German restaurant and we enjoyed, rouladen,  Schnitzels and cabbage rolls.

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

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

Had a nice visit too, and John and I pulled out of Leavenworth about 7:40.  We had a slower trip back home, but almost no traffic and no deer seen on the road or side of road.  We had seen one small in-velvet buck going up.  We got home just before 9:00 p.m. and the dogs and cat were fine.  They had access to the house and the backyard through the previously mentioned doggie/kitty door.  Turns out the German food did not agree with me.  Either a spice or the red cabbage and sauerkraut (?).  But I was miserable the rest of the night burping and awoke in the middle of the night, itching all over.

Friday mid-morning, I am better but the lack of sleep is not good.  Anyway, I went to the food bank and played music.  There were just two of us.  We had a nice spaghetti dinner and salad and a cinnamon roll type cake with white frosting.  Then I went to exercise class, but I was tired.  Checked out a couple of garage sales, but they were expensive and junk (or both).  Went back for Bingo but only had 3 people show, and we needed at least 6.  However, the 3 of us there were fed pie and ice cream before leaving.  I had a small piece of Cherry and also Apple, with chocolate ice cream with choc chips.  It was quite good, and they even gave me two pieces of the Cherry Pie to bring home to John.  Then on home I came.  I’m sitting in my recliner checking email and thinking about the leftovers from Leavenworth. I had some of the Wiener  Schnitzel (Viennese Schnitzel), with toast, but not any cabbage.

Now it’s Saturday and a quiet day, except for the wind blowing hard again.  John’s out preparing his fence around the garden for solid panels on the bottom on the west (prevailing winds) side.  Last year, we took metal off the roof of the small barn and replaced it with asphalt shingles and “torch down” on the “wing” or less steep part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lep0_624CwM

The plan is to have the solid barrier reduce the damage to plants from the wind.  Yesterday, John brought in a 36” blackberry cane (one of his thorn-less ones) broken off from the wind.  He came in just now to say the center shoot (leader) of a Ponderosa Pine has been snapped off on a young (but too high to fix) tree beside the driveway.  I’m getting ready to do inside chores.  I have been putting them off all week, so I must show John that I really can do them.  He told me this morning that I kept saying it but never did.  Well, this weekend we have NO events to attend, so that will give me more time . . . (sound of phone ringing) . . . Uff da ! We’ve just been invited to Father’s Day lunch tomorrow.  I’ll get to those chores another time.  (Actually, John wrote the last couple of sentences, because he answered the phone.  I have done a few chores since, but stopped to come back and “proof” this blog.)  Now I will go back to the den and report next week on progress there.  Hope you all have a nice week.

All our best regards

Nancy and John

in the Valley of the West Wind

 

Sunday wound down with an evening meal in town with friends over elk steak. We sat in the backyard and watched quail, sparrows, and flickers flit around.  It was overcast and yet quite nice, with a few drops of rain, very few.  What a lovely way to end the weekend.

There were only 5 of us, and it was comfortable and casual.  We took a bottle of rose’ wine, a plate of cut up Jarlsberg cheese, and multi-grain crackers with black sesame seeds – that look quite odd.  VERY yummy.  Also carried along some raisin cookies.  There was a Pecan Pie store-bought that was all right, but doesn’t compare with John’s.  I will be ready to go to bed soon, and won’t need any more dessert.

When we first found the crackers with black sesame seeds John investigated. Who knew sesame seeds were so interesting?  Not us!  It’s amazing what one learns when you come down out of the hills.  There are other colors too.  A basic link is:

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

The following has good photos of the plants, flowers, seed pods and more:

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Sesa_ind.html

. . . and you can learn the name in 84 languages.  Follow the link at the end to “Perilla” and the “crispate foliage” – an issue also mentioned in the wikipedia link.

Monday is a Geography Dept. waffle/pancake feed and the recipe is made with a sour dough starter.  John had a dental cleaning appointment and missed most of it and the award ceremony.  I was there for all, enjoyed a nice waffle with fruit, company of the Emeriti Profs, and also became the photographer of the event.  Several awards were given to Geography and Resource Management grad students along with our donated one for the Hultquist distinguished service award.  The money was split and presented to two students, one an undergrad and the other a grad.

Tuesday we didn’t need to go to town, and just fought the wind all day.  It was blowing hard since yesterday evening.  The last reading was the highest today, 47 mph gusts and sustained 38 mph winds.  Poor John has had to put up with it for two days.  Today for lunch he fixed a great BBQ, made from a longtime-cooked piece of beef and mixed with spices we recently bought (non salt spice).  He mixed in BBQ original sauce and cooked it down until it rivaled the open-pit southern variety of my recent Atlanta trip.

Wednesday.  Finally the wind quieted some, but then it rained.  John added the word quieted – he thinks it would make sense to report wind in decibels and, in fact, he often wears ear protectors (from the old Herter’s company).  See this link; answers #4 and #5:  http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300215

We both went to town, for my exercise class; John stopped at the airport and the waste management station seeking information about the history of Ellensburg weather station sites.  Afterwards he took me by the hospital for a ProTime blood draw (turned out neat because we saw my friend there at the hospital.  She was my first roommate at the Rehab center over a year ago, and was my inspiration to get back on my feet).  We also dropped off one of his newsletters for the vet who will be speaking on the Horse Equine virus at Thursday night’s meeting.  While I was in class, John went to the grocery for cat food and litter, grabbed some chicken breasts and English muffin bread.  When we came home, however, I was hungry and we had some Jarlsberg cheese and multi-grain crackers.  Late afternoon call came from my family physician’s nurse that my INR is 2.3 and I can stay on my same Coumadin dosage.  Now I’m tired, but do not plan to take a nap because bedtime will be here soon enough.

Thursday – I have music at the Rehab center at 2:00 and then in the evening I will join John and go to the KV trail riders meeting.  It was neat because the friend we met yesterday came with her husband and daughter to hear us play music at the old nursing home where we spent so much time.  On the way home we stopped at a yard sale and I found a western shirt like I have one of in a smaller size that I can now wear and give away the other.  The veterinarian’s talk was very well done and interesting.  She is an excellent speaker.  It was good to see everyone now that I’m in better shape than the last time they saw me.

Friday is playing music and eating at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  It’s a beautiful day today, and I’m going to exercise class.  Stopped by my neighbors to pick up a book to deliver to someone in town, and she has lost weight (I have gained) and she gave me several really nice blouses.  I took her two that I have outgrown.  Stopped at a yard sale and bought a blanket for a buck.  We have one dog (11 years old) who STILL chews holes in blankets.  You’d think!  But no, she keeps doing it.  Today at the Food Bank, 3 of us played instruments and we had an extra singer.  We had a nice time and were appreciated.  Food was good too.  It was a chicken/rice/barley/veggie soup, with whole wheat and multi-grain bread, a pasta salad (that I’m not big on), and a nice piece of cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese filling (I guess), along with  blueberry/pomegranate juice.

Off from there to exercise class and there were only 6 of us there, with no leader, so I did the honors of leading for the hour.  We enjoyed ourselves, and I got a good workout.  Came home and found a present in the mail, from the local Classic Hits radio station we listen to.

We frequently enter the monthly contest and respond to the survey of listeners as to which songs we want to hear and how often.  Several months ago we got an album of the Beatles, and then later one of the Doobie Bros.  Today’s is an old re-recording of two live 1974 performances, in Iowa and in Kentucky, of the Grateful Dead; I’ve enjoyed listening to them as background music this afternoon.  John’s outside working with the horses and on his fence around the garden.  I walked out to get the paper and was able to assist him by holding one of his crosspieces.

We still haven’t seen anything in the paper about the fire .6 mile down the road from us a couple of nights ago (during the high winds).  The fire department fought it from 11: 00 p.m. and all through the night to keep it from spreading into one nearby house and adjacent woods.  Turns out it was a Meth Lab.  That’s the word from a friend of a friend, but not even a fire report has been posted in the newspaper.  It was a complete loss of the mobile home house and adjacent buildings, and an RV, and camper, plus who knows what else.  No one was home at the time.

Saturday.  In the morning, alone, while John worked on getting out two plum trees and all their roots, I went to yard sales.  Nothing too exciting was purchased, but a couple of blankets for 50 cents, and some freebies:  a footstool, wooden things, & a large cotton spread.  Also got an almost new dish drain for a buck that we really have needed but didn’t want to pay $35 at Costco.  Also, I got some nice sunglasses for me and some long-bladed clippers for John for a buck each.

Then I went back in another musical performance at Briarwood retirement community and today’s food was interesting.  Little wiener dogs (cocktail type) barbequed and cooked in a Crock-pot.  Nice salad and tomatoes and cukes (I don’t like), and some pasta salads I don’t like either.  A table full of great desserts (no complaints there): Molasses cookies, chocolate cake with choc frosting, brownies, and pinwheels.

The nicest thing that happened occurred after the performance, when a man came up to me and said, “I was your student in a couple of classes back in the early 1990s, and you were a wonderful professor who influenced me incredibly.”  Boy that was nice to hear.  Never hurts to hear compliments, especially 20 years later!!  He even reminisced about things he remembered from the classes he took from me.  He took GIS and Economic Geography.  He knew John too, and had a class from him (Physical Geog).  Before he told me that, when he first came up, he asked how John was.  I remembered him once he said his name, but he does look a lot different from when he was my student.  He still has the same expressive eyes and pretty smile, however.  He was there with his wife (both from Moses Lake), and they were there with his mom who lives down the street on our road, a few miles.  She is going to move into the retirement home where we were today.  We talked a little afterward when I asked him what he had been doing in his career.  He said he had been a development planner in several cities in WA and OR, but just retired from the Moses Lake job.  Pretty cool.

All our best regards

Nancy and John

in Washington State

 

 

Happily for our faithful readers (all 2 of you), this will be short this week.  Last week’s blog was way too long, but I figured I had a lot to say.  It’s been a slow week this week, because I have been resting up from my trip to Atlanta, and tying up loose ends here in WA.  I’m still not done with unpacking even though I really didn’t have that much with me.  I saved $40 by carrying on and not checking my luggage.

Sunday was spent in part with friends who are moving to Reno.  We took some food into Ellensburg to share with them, us, and their worker bee friends and relative.  We took pizza, pineapple salad, and lemonade.  They all appreciated it very much.  John also helped with loading a few boxes and drawers and pieces of furniture during some of the time we weren’t eating.

We also delivered some of our tulips to a friend from my exercise class who wanted to put flowers on her family’s graves, and didn’t have any blooming now.  We are higher in elevation by almost 750 feet, so ours were still in bloom.  Our lilacs are just starting this week.  We have had lots of rain off and on recently, and that hampers John’s yard work and grows the grass even higher.  He’s been spraying for weeds, and has to do it when the wind is not blowing or a rainstorm coming.  That’s been a real challenge.

I also spent a lot of time early this week working on my pictures from the Atlanta trip, and getting them burned into a CD to send to the webmaster for our class web page.  It is nfhs61.com.  All the pictures from different photographers are not there yet.

Have also been emailing back and forth with classmates, while reminiscing about past Atlanta and our memories.  After so many years, It’s been a lot of fun touching bases again with a number of friends from high school days, and before in Elementary school.

Monday (Memorial Day) and Tuesday we stayed home and didn’t go to town at all.

Wednesday, exercise class started up again and John went with me to town to run some errands and wait for me to finish.  We left town for Yakima and Costco, because we needed some printer cartridges for John’s running off the KVTR newsletter this weekend.  He has to have it in the mail by Saturday.  Also, for the Geography Department’s end of the year award ceremony and pancake feed this coming Monday we bought large numbers of dinner plates, hot and cold beverage cups, napkins, and plastic forks, spoons, and knives.

Thursday started with my loading the dishwasher, and John hiding from the wind, in the lee of the house, 10 feet from the front door, trimming our Mountain Ash tree.

http://www.tree-pictures.com/mountain_ash_tree_pictures.html

It was quite bushy with many low suckers, so much so,

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

that we couldn’t see the car, the pasture or anything past it, and it is about to bloom.  Bees love this thing and John likes to remove all the lower limbs so the flowers – and bees – are above us and the dogs. John’s 37^th principle of being a homeowner is to never plant anything that blooms between your front door and your car.  A few years ago he removed a plant given to him as “bamboo” but was actually Japanese knotweed . . .

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

. . . an interesting plant that you are better off not having, especially right next to your front door.

The afternoon was playing at the nursing home where one member of our group (an accordionist) is recovering from hip replacement surgery.  It was nice to have her wheeled in to sit and sing with us.  She’s not yet up to playing her instrument.

Thursday night was a lecture on ‘”Ice Age Mega floods and the Landscape of Eastern Washington” by a professor from Arizona.  It was one of the best presentations I have ever heard on the topic, and we have heard many.

http://www.iafi.org/floods.html

Friday was a special day at the Adult Activity Center.  It’s the first day of the month, so we have a potluck and the theme this month is for Father’s Day.  The music was music from the fifties.  That’s pretty neat considering I just returned from my 50^th high school reunion, where we were given a CD of hits from the 1950s.  The center provided hamburgers and hot dogs, grilled over charcoal.  Everyone attending brought a potluck item.  I’m taking some of John’s pink apple sauce (color from the skins).  Then in the late afternoon we are invited to another party, with the graduate students’ club, ERMA, (Environmental Resource Management Association).  We also had grilled hamburgers (meat and veggie) and all the rest provided by the club, and it was a potluck.  We took a large Lattice Apple Pie we bought at Costco and a colleague brought a fruit flavored cheesecake.

Except for a lot of yard work today before the party, John’s spending his time working on the newsletter for the KV trail riders club, which has to be in the mail by Saturday to get to people in time for next Thursday’s meeting.

Saturday is another party, a surprise 50^th birthday party in the late afternoon. Supposed to be a lot of good food and fellowship there too.  The morning was spent printing, folding, and mutilating the newsletter (complete with printer jams) for 46 copies, and then stamped and taped the edges.  He might make it to the end of the driveway before pick-up.  (He did).  About the party–you have never seen so much food.  There was food for 100 and about 50 came.   We had homemade lasagna (to die for), ham, Teriyaki meat balls, a couple of salads, deviled eggs, much fresh fruit, rhubarb pie, and a huge birthday cake (about 3 X 4 feet) that had chocolate cake filled with strawberry filling, and white cake with the same, and a white frosting with chocolate bits.

Won’t need to eat supper for 3 days.

Came home to the a/c running.  It comes on at a house hallway temp of 77.  Don’t know how it got so hot – except we had all the windows closed and the sun was out.  That’s been rare all spring and caught us off guard.

It’s now Sunday.  John was expecting to work on the blog last evening but couldn’t find it and I went to sleep.  I think I sent it to his computer!?  Don’t know what happened to it.  I’m resending, after reading through again for corrections.  John is out now in the cool, non-sunny, non-windy morning, digging the last two post holes for the fence around his garden (to keep the deer out).  He’ll be back in later to put this on the blog to get out to you all.

All our best regards,

Nancy and John

up on the Naneum Fan

 

WARNING, THIS IS LONG.

I will fill in a few items from last week that weren’t in this blog previously.  All the effort I went to get the letter from my doctor was useless as was putting all my wallet cards in a conference name tag around my neck.  The TSA people only looked at my driver’s license and my boarding pass.  They took my word that I had a chest full of metal and let me stand at the X-ray machine or the one that “takes off your clothes”.  Nothing was said, and because I was in a wheelchair, I think my trip through was faster than most.  I walked through the machines, stopped, stood on the yellow footprints facing sideways, held my breath and was X-rayed, I guess.  Airporter Shuttle bus trip over from Eburg to SeaTac was uneventful and fine.  We did not lose any time with stops for construction.  AirTran was just within the gate and two doors down.  My one complaint was I had to stand in line (a long one) for requesting a wheelchair.  I don’t know what would happen for people who are unable to make it through the line.   You will see later that Atlanta has a different policy in place.

I was wheeled out to my plane and the plane flight was non-stop, a 5-hour trip.  My trip was in seat 27 F (window) and next to me was a couple from Spokane.  We got to talking and found out their son was at CWU and is a pilot on AirTran.  I asked his name because I used to get lots of Flight Tech students in my classes, particularly the Map Reading and Map Interpretation one.  What a surprise when I said, “He was my student; I remember him well.”  I described my memory of him and they pulled up their phone with pictures.  Yep, I was sure that was him.  What a small world!  The man gave me his card, and I gave him one of mine.

In Atlanta I had a wheelchair waiting for me at the exit from the plane.  Then the man who pushed me actually pushed two chairs.  He had to take us both on the train and in the elevators.  It was very nice to have the help.  In the wing where the gate was I needed for departure, there were no electric cars; only moving sidewalks, and it was a long way to baggage claim.

When I got to Atlanta’s baggage claim, there were my friends waiting for me.  I was so happy to see them late that night.  Not too far to the parking garage and “home” to Decatur.

Thursday, my visit to cousin’s houses and transportation by other cousins, went as planned.  The only additions are that we enjoyed a tour of the stables and horses at the Marietta stop.  We met her 30-year old Stallion and what a nice boy, gentle and still willing to stand in a “show” pose.  All of the horses loved the carrots my cousin brought for them.  At the Mableton stop (to meet my 3^rd cousin once removed), we viewed pictures of our old relatives, and talked about genealogy.  It was totally fascinating.  In Marietta, I met a whole bunch of cousins and their kids and grandkids that I had never met.  We did plan a trip for lunch into the day, and had a good meal in a fancy restaurant.  It was not fast food by any means.  Dinner (Pit BBQ and Brunswick stew) we picked up on our way to Mableton and then once done with dinner in Marietta, we had leftovers, of which I carried some home to the place I was staying.  The dinner was scrumptious.  Added to the BBQ we brought, was potato salad , a great cake (cream cheese pound with thick creamy caramel frosting, rolls, chips, fruit, lettuce/pea salad (best I’ve ever had—see the link below for the directions from my cousin-in-law who made it):

http://thewannabecountrygirl.com/pea-salad/

What a fantastic time and beautiful view of the woods down from the house to two pastures for their horses.  They are sited on about 37 acres.  Very neat.  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the house and people for John to see.  I did take pictures of my cousin showing us her horses.

Friday. Was another full day, and after a breakfast with the family, the lady of the house and I went to The Container Store.  We have been friends a very long time – because our mom’s raised us as babies together.  Most of our baby pictures have the two of us in them.  Back to the store, of which there is one in Bellevue, WA.  This one was in Buckhead (old neighborhood near where I grew up); a fascinating place. I have never been in one.  For the location of stores, check out this map:

http://www.containerstore.com/locations/index.html

We were in search of a shoe container and two plastic boxes, one an egg box for storing decorated Easter eggs.  While there my friend showed me around and we only saw a few rows of the store.  I was amazed at all the containers I saw, and intrigued by the display of real things in them.  Kinda like a mannequin in the window of a downtown department store with clothes of interest.  We drove around in my old neighborhood of Garden Hills where I spent my grammar and high school days.  She drove me by my old high school and my old grammar school:  Garden Hills Elementary School, which is still in operation.  My old house is no longer there on Piedmont Road, so that was a pity.  Then on the way home we drove by my other house where I lived later in life (after 1963).  I swear it is so ugly and unkempt that I’m almost sorry I saw it.  It had an extra driveway added across the tree roots, and not paved, and a large dark brown fence as if they did not want anyone to see in.  They even fenced off the old carport.  I think something was going on there that they didn’t want seen.  If you look on Google Earth, there is a large white roof in the structure in the backyard.  I think it is a greenhouse and they are growing pot.  We considered reporting it, but didn’t.  In case you want to see what I mean, look on Google Earth, or the Satellite view on

http://maps.google.com/

for 1938 Fisher Trail, NE, Atlanta, GA.  You will see the large white structure in the backyard (west of the house) in the image.  My friend also drove me by Echo Lake further up Briarcliff Road to bring back memories.  That’s where I caught a large fish when I was a kid (won a contest—it was a ¾ lb Catfish).  That’s also where I learned from my uncle, how to fly cast.  My dad had already taught me to do regular casting.

We came on home and I rested for an hour or so, and then my friend and I went to the reception and registration at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center at Lenox Square.  She knew many of my classmates from her church, but she graduated from a different high school (and they had their reunion the previous weekend).  She and I met several of our crew in the elevator and found our way to the proper ballroom.   I grabbed my registration materials and we found a mutual friend.  I visited a bit with folks and had a good time.  It was amazing to see how some people had not changed that much in 50 years, but others were unrecognizable.  It was loads of fun to reminisce.  I came from the farthest distance, but there was one fellow who is in Budapest who would have “beaten me for the prize,” but there was none.  After the reception was done we left to be at the Druid Hills Country Club for an evening meal with the couple and me and her friend from my class.  We had a great dinner of scallops with a nice salad, and I had a crème brûlée for dessert.  Yum.  Something I never remember having in my life.  It is composed of egg yolks, white and brown sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream.  With a blowtorch, it is flamed on top to have a little hard crust.  Pretty neat and very tasty.  Check out the you-tube video below to see how it’s done and what the final product looks like.  Mine was served with a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry on top.  (Don’t even try to start counting calories or carbs or fat or cholesterol !)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_16ZZtTH_Y

Saturday morning I was picked up by a friend from high school days, who lives in Decatur, 1.5 miles from where I was staying.  She drove me to our old high school for the 45 minute tour, led by one of our classmates on the Reunion Committee and still living in Atlanta.  Small groups of about 12 went through, and we went on the “reverse tour” only running into one group we passed in the hallway. John has already included in last week’s blog the use of the school now.  I took a lot of pictures for memories.  After that tour we piled into my friend’s car with the addition of two classmates, and drove to the Varsity down town.  Again, John mentioned that to you last blog, but you don’t know what I had.  I ordered an order of Fried Onions, a chili dog, and a frosted orange.  Twenty of our classmates showed up and we sat at adjoining tables and booths.  A lot of fun was had by all.  The most interesting thing that happened there was hearing from my fellow classmate that he had worked in the medical industry on cardiac devices.  I asked which company.  It was Medtronic.  He showed me his ring from the company.  I said, “Oh, I have a Medtronic artificial porcine heart valve, and pulled out my wallet card for it.  He looked at it and held it over behind his left side and started telling me a story about something he had marketed and the fellow’s name.  It was a neat story and the name Hancock was mentioned.  After that build-up, he brought the card back to the front of us and turned it over and showed me that I had that “issue” of a Hancock porcine valve, called a Hancock^® II Mitral valve.  It has been used in patients for the past 25 years.

On the link below, read more about it, if you want:

http://www.medtronic.com/health-consumers/heart-valve-disease/about-surgery/our-heart-valve-products/hancock-ii-tissue-valve/

Although I met a wonderful bunch of friends all the way back to grammar school days, I think this was the most memorable occurrence while in Atlanta, May 20, 2011.

That evening I saw many of my old classmates and we shared memories.  I’m sorry I didn’t get around to everyone there.  Guess we will have to reconnect at the 55^th.  One other special one was the gal in my class who also was in my church, and we started in the Cherub Choir together at 2.5 years of age.  She brought a photograph taken of us when we were about that age, maybe 3 or 4.  I tried taking pictures of the picture but had trouble with the flash reflection.  I hope to get her to scan it and send it to me on email.  It was very clear where we were and the gal between us was also a NFHS graduate, but she has since died.

I was too tired to make it to the ending at midnight, and I had gone with my friend and her friend in his convertible.  They stopped in Decatur, to pick me up.  I made a call about 10:30 to my friends where I was staying and asked if they could come pick me up.  Thankfully, they did.  It had just been too long a day.  I was fading fast.

I neglected to say we had a fabulous dinner.  Everything was excellent and hot.  That’s quite a feat with 95 classmates (including two teachers from our day and their wives), and about 40 spouses, or significant others.

On to Sunday.  It was going to be spent entirely with the couple I was staying with and their children and grandchildren.  It was a wonderful day.  We actually started out going to an event at the historic Oakland Cemetery downtown — Tunes From The Tombs:  A Weekend of Music and Spirits Benefiting Historic Oakland Cemetery.  The temperature was in the mid-90s and there was no driving through the cemetery allowed.  My father and grandfathers and mothers and great grandparents are buried there.  We decided that parking so far away and walking in was not something I was up to doing and they didn’t want to try either.  So, we left there and went on out to Snellville (by Stone Mountain, where John and I spent our honeymoon, once canoed in the lake to watch fireworks, and also our high school class went there after graduation to climb to the top on the “easy” side.).

A fascinating slide show is on their website of restoration necessary after damage done to downtown Atlanta by a tornado on March 14, 2008.  I didn’t even know about this.

http://oaklandcemetery.com/restoration.html

Another neat website is the Southern Hiker coverage of the 1.3 mile hike up the mountain to the top:

http://southernhiker.com/stone-mountain-walk-up-trail/

Of further interest is the bas relief carved on the side of the mountain of 3 Confederate generals.  The one in the middle is Robert E. Lee with his horse Traveller.  I am kin to him, and my maiden middle name is Lee.  I’m Nancy Lee Brannen Hultquist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:STNmtn_closeup.jpg

will show you the carving on the side of Stone Mountain.  The mountain is an igneous intrusion and composed mostly of quartz Monzonite forming a dome or monadnock.

We were going to Snellville to watch their grandson (#22) play baseball.  We got to meet him before the game, see him bat, and then we had to get back home to meet their son and another grandson.  That night dinner was grilled pork loin roast, snow peas, and I’ve forgotten the rest of the menu.  We had two kinds of ice cream for dessert.  We had an enjoyable visit with the family and with a 2-year old Boxer, who loves to hug people.  He was very well behaved and part of the family, completely at home at the grandparents’ home.

Monday brought another great visiting day.  A college friend and her sister picked me up and we drove to a newly (2006) incorporated town called Johns Creek in north Fulton County.  There we visited with my first geography teacher (1962) and his wife.  They were also the chaperones on my 1965 Geography Field Trip to Europe.  You have already been introduced to a little of this in last week’s blog, with John’s additions and edits.  While there we got a complete tour of their house.  Then we went with them to lunch in an eatery fairly close by, called Egg Harbor.  Really a cool place:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/egg-harbor-cafe-johns-creek will give you reviews, but this is their website:  http://eggharborcafe.com/

My geography professor had Barrington Benedict (grilled Canadian bacon and poached eggs on an English muffin with Hollandaise sauce, with Harbor potatoes.  I had a Bacado Omelet, with crispy bacon, fresh avocado, melted Jack cheese, topped with sour cream and a great salsa, served also with a side of harbor potatoes and an English muffin.  It was excellent, but after looking at the menu on line, I might have ordered something unique such as their GA cheese grits and eggs.  One of us had French toast, and I don’t recall what the other two had.  We took a few group pictures, and left.  Our tour continued down Piedmont Road and to the “Midtown” area, where the sister of my friend lives.  It is right across the street from where my friend who housed me grew up as a child and I visited her and her grandparents’ house on the corner.  Small world, because these people knew each other from their church.

That evening we went to an Irish pub for dinner with one of their friends and had fish and chips.  The guys left and went over to the other guy’s house to sharpen his chain saw so they could take it with them this weekend to cleanup some of the fallen trees at their Lake Burton house that was damaged a lot by the tornado that went through on May 4^th.

Tuesday was another visiting day, first attending the Voter’s Guild meeting and lecture after lunch at the Druid Hills Country Club.  I was fascinated by the hats worn by most  of the women in attendance.  One woman had on a particularly large and interesting light green hat, which turned out to be one she wore to this year’s Kentucky Derby.  I was snapping pictures left and right and meeting people.  The meal was excellent too.  My friend’s husband joined us for lunch, and then went back to work at his office downtown at the State Bar of Georgia, now housed in the old Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta building on Marietta St.  After lunch, we went for a visit and tour of the building.  Meanwhile, we listened to an after dinner speaker on the importance of privacy rights to citizens.  His name is Bob Barr, and he was a former federal prosecutor and former member of the US House of Representatives.  He represented Georgia’s 7^th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003.  He was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the US in the 2008 election.  He was an interesting speaker.

We left the country club and made our way downtown, through Georgia State University, and by the parking garage I used to park in.  The school has expanded so much that I didn’t recognize anything.  I was there from 1962 till ’65 and then came back and taught 2 years, ’67 to ’69 in Geography.  John and I returned the summer of 1970 and taught a summer course together and John worked on a research project at the Atlanta Airport.  We made it by back streets to the parking garage of the old Federal Reserve building and went inside to my friend’s husband’s office.  He was the General Counsel for the Georgia bar for many years till 2010 (I think).  He now is still going to the office every day and taking part in business.  Every 2 weeks he is on call for Ethics questions from lawyers all around the state.  The week I was there he talked one day over his 8 hours to 30 lawyers.

He took us on a tour of the building, the old Federal Reserve. It was particularly interesting seeing old telephone booths, the old vault, the windows where John and I bought $100 of pennies for his dad long ago (probably in 1970), we even saw the first floor rebuilt office of Woodrow Wilson, who practiced law in Atlanta, long ago.  They have his old office, the roll-top desk he used, and the wooden door of the office.  There are huge conference rooms and old furniture and beautiful rugs the Feds left there.  We even saw the shooting range in the basement where the guards practiced their gun skills.

That evening we went again to the Irish Pub for dinner.  This time we had Shepherd’s Pie.  We went back because they have an open mike type environment for Irish and Celtic music.  There was one group of folks there who played a little Irish music mixed in with some Appalachian blue grass.  There were several fiddles, a mandolin, and guitar.  I was in heaven but we could only stay for an hour, because I needed to pack for my trip home the next day.

When we got back to the car, my friend put in a CD of Appalachian Fiddle music.  Then she brought it in the house and found another so we sang and listened all the way home and then sat there for a couple hours in their house.  She pulled out her birthday present, a Dulcimer, which she just got last November, and hasn’t yet learned how to play.  I don’t know how to tune one from scratch (yet) but I did play the melody on the bottom string (or I tried).  It was really hard to keep up with the fast tempo of the music being played (even though I knew most of the songs).  If I had had my fiddle I would have not been able to keep up either.

So, we stayed up till late, and we enjoyed ourselves very much for our last night together.  We got up at 6:30 the next morning, ate a nice breakfast, and took off for the airport.  It was a good trip back, and my nicest item to mention about the Atlanta airport is that I did not have to wait in line to request a wheelchair.  Instead, the staging area for wheelchairs was across from the check-in counters (and long lines of people).  I was off and being pushed to my gate, very soon.  I got on the plane easily, and the trip was on time, but when we got over Kansas, we ran into horrible turbulence – the worst I have ever experienced for an extended time.  The pilot even moved down from 38,000 feet to 32,000 and it helped for 5 minutes and then started up again.  I was happy the plane didn’t break up.  We had no view of the ground the entire trip (so much for paying extra for a window seat).  It was raining in Seattle when we arrived, but we had a nice landing and we were early by a half hour.  Unfortunately, that time was made up by waiting on the tarmac for a slot to pull into.  I was the last person off the plane and there was no wheelchair waiting.  I was in the wing without electric cars and the trip to baggage was more than I could attempt.  So, I waited.  They recalled for a chair for me.  I waited.  Finally a person appeared.  I was starting to worry about making it to baggage claim gate 00 where I was to pick up my Airport Shuttle, but thankfully, I made it with only 5 minutes to spare.  Phew.  Rained on us all the way back across the pass and into Ellensburg.  We were early because we didn’t have to stop in North Bend for anyone, and we didn’t run into a 30 minute delay on the Snoqualmie Pass road construction that had happened every day for the past several.  John met me at Starbucks in Ellensburg, and I was so happy to see him and be home safely.  Coming home was also nice when I walked into the house and all the dogs and cat greeted me with open paws.

It’s taken me a couple of days to recover and I have been sleeping as much as 9 hours/night.

Thanks to all the people I saw while in and about Atlanta the region.  This was a very special trip for me and I am very happy I was healthy enough to make it.  I’m very grateful to my friends for housing me for a week and chauffeuring me all over town.  Thanks, as well, to my other friends and relatives who transported me to various visits and events.  I’m already looking forward to the 55^th.

All our best regards from Nancy

(home on the Naneum Fan)

 

Written on Tuesday: I don’t know when John will put this out, but I’m leaving for Atlanta, GA Wednesday morning and won’t return for a week. This is for my 50^th North Fulton High School reunion, and I’m also going to have a mini-reunion with family on my father’s side.

Sunday this week we told you was a birthday party, but we celebrated it without the honoree because of a flood in the church basement where they operate a day care center.  So, they had to mop, suck out water, remove furniture and rugs, and otherwise clean up the mess.  We went ahead and ate without them but with another family member visiting from Spokane.  That was in the middle of the day.  I went to Taize’ in the same church that night, and we met upstairs.  I saw the family there and got the update on the clean-up.  They were pretty worn out and still had a couple more hours of work.

Monday included a trip to town for exercise and to get meds, visit my friend in the nursing home, and come back to work on packing, and deciding what to take.  John printed out maps and directions for me to use while down there.  We got a surprise call late, asking us to come back to the same house for the delayed birthday dinner.  We did, and enjoyed a lovely roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies and salad.

Tuesday — working on getting ready to leave, deciding on clothes, washing, drying, and cleaning things; and doing emails, talking to a friend from high school who was planning to come to the reunion, but sadly had a motorcycle accident and broke his collarbone into 2 pieces, and two ribs in two, and cracked in total, six.  He is unable to travel.

Wednesday.  Tripping all day.  Leave on Airporter Shuttle from Ellensburg, get to Sea Tac and get through security.  I have all my paperwork for the ICD Defibrillator and information on having an artificial heart valve.  I have a letter from my doctor and wallet cards from MedicAlert & Biotronix the other about my Porcine valve.  Then make it to the AirTran (now part of Southwest Airlines) non-stop flight to ATL, arriving at 9:35 PM.  My friends with whom I’m staying will meet me in baggage pickup and take me home.

From Ellensburg the preferred airport is Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, known as SEA-TAC; not to be confused with the more recent town of the name SeaTac.  On the best day the car trip is 2 hours.  There are no best days.  Traffic, accidents, and road construction can ruin a person’s plans.  We’ve tried Spokane, Pasco, and Yakima airports.  A 50 mile trip to Yakima gets one a flight to Sea-Tac.  Pasco is a 2 hour drive and Spokane is 3 hours.  Connections are not great from either place.  Years ago I would drive to the SEA-TAC area and rent a room for a night; there then would be a shuttle to the airport and a week’s parking at the motel. That plan eliminated the traffic problems but added to the cost and John did not have to drive.  A couple of years ago the community got the service of a small bus (The Airporter) that picks folks up at about 9 AM (just a 12 minute trip from home).  It takes a little extra time but allows for a potty stop as compensation, and the cost is not unreasonable.

Thursday, plans are for a cousin to pick me up in Decatur, pickup some Old Hickory House BBQ,  take me to Mableton to visit another cousin, and on to another cousin’s house in Marietta.  We will visit her mom in an assisted living home, and then have dinner with all her family and one other cousin’s wife.  That cousin has died.

Friday will be light till late afternoon, when I go to the North Fulton High School 50^th Reunion reception from 5:30 to 7:30, and afterwards to dinner with the folks who are housing me.

Saturday starts with being picked up by one of my classmates who lives in Decatur.  She will drive us to pick up others and go to our old high school — but is no longer a public high school.  Via a long term lease and a multi-million dollar investment my HS has become a private primary and secondary campus for the Atlanta International School.

http://www.aischool.org/page.cfm?p=301

On the left side of the page, click on “Campus” to see a picture.

[Note from John: Nancy is having a grand time and reporting on major changes to the area she once knew well. She just called to say as part of this yearning for the idealized past they had gone to “The Varsity” — an eatery known and loved by all.]

http://www.thevarsity.com/history.php

Sunday.  Will spend all day with the family I’m staying with, their kids, and the grandkids.

Monday.  Will be picked up by a long time friend from college and we will get her sister and travel to visit the couple who started me in Geography—my first geography teacher and his wife.  They were also the ones who chaperoned the Field Trip to Europe in 1965, to 17 countries, with 19 girls and 4 boys.  It lasted 9 weeks.  The friend picking me up was also on that trip.  We will visit and go out to lunch in Johns Creek, a new town in the Atlanta region since I was there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Creek,_Georgia

I don’t return home till May 25 and it will be an all day trip back as well.

All our best

Nancy (in “The South”),

and John (in the Great Northwest)

 

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

Starting this week’s blog on Mother’s Day, Sunday.  Went to our neighbors for lunch, picking up another neighbor on the way.  We had parts of 5 families there, and lots of food.  Too much cake (two chocolate with white frosting); pork roast, potato salad, fruit salad, creamed peas, & rolls.  Didn’t need any dinner, but I went to play music at Taize’ and had another meal: chicken veggie casserole, salad, and more dessert (chocolate and lemon rolls).  No wonder I am gaining weight.  While eating I turned my head and thought I was seeing the outside of my intraocular lens replacement but that wasn’t it.  I came home and went to bed, hoping to awake in the morning with it gone, but it was still there.

Monday:  Ended up going in this morning to the eye doctor because of the little funny things showing in the corner of my right eye (cobweb floaters).  John was really worried about me so I made an appointment with my eye doctor.  Turns out it is Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD).

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

My pressure was fine in both eyes, and  I passed all the severe problems tests on my right eye with the “floaters,” but I have to keep my head above my heart, not ride horses or do jolting activities, and wait for it to normally heal on its own.  I decided against going to my exercise class this afternoon. This PVD apparently happens to 75% of people over 65, and for the most part is not very serious and will not be treated, once diagnosed.  It has to heal naturally.  Still this was a little disturbing.

It won’t hurt my going to Atlanta, (leaving May 18 till May 25 for my 50^th high school reunion), as it’s okay to fly on airplanes.  Hopefully, there will be no turbulence to give me a jolt.  Once I was on a flight from Glasgow to London, and we did have a rapid descent from a downdraft (I guess), and once flying into Lewiston, ID a similar thing happened on landing with winds from the Snake River Canyon.  That was like (I imagine) a bucking bronco horseback ride.  Had to hold onto the seat in front to stay steady.  Seat belts kept us from hitting our heads on the ceiling of the plane. ☺  Good thing in Atlanta, there are no bungee jumps planned.

I didn’t want to put anything in the blog before now, because I wanted to be sure I would be able to make the trip and also, I was afraid I might leave someone out who was reading the blog.  I cannot visit everyone I would like to, while down there, so I will have to plan another trip in the future, now that I have my health back.

Tuesday.  Slow day.  To town for my feet.  Bought some new (expensive) Brooks Addiction walking shoes.  They are my only shoe of choice for over a decade.  The price has gone up over the years, now to $110, but it’s worth it to me to have comfortable support.

Wednesday.  Well, it threatened all day, but finally the bottom dropped out and it has been raining and blowing.  We carried John’s computer in today, because it was very noisy and we thought perhaps the power supply needed replaced.  It was very dirty inside (as normal with our house from all the dirt and dust coming in on the dogs’ feet), and so they cleaned it and then took out the one fan that was dying.  They turned another fan around that was blowing into the tower, so it would blow out instead.  The one that was dying no longer is manufactured, so they couldn’t replace it.  They fixed it up and it is quiet and clean now.  Cost us $78.  John was pleased because he expected a charge over $100.  The place is Complete Computer Services and the place that did the set-up for John when he wanted to start this blog back in December of 2009.  John was expecting to pay for a new fan or even a new power supply and, as no new parts were needed that kept the fee just to a basic service call.  These are a nice bunch of guys but they always make fun of John’s mammoth computer, cobbled together from parts from several on-line retailers.

Then we picked up our geography department secretary Marilyn and took her to lunch at Pizza Hut with our free pizza.  We got 1/2 half with tomatoes, pepperoni and mushrooms, and the other half with Italian sausage, green pepper and olive.  John and Marilyn had the latter and also shared some of “my” half.  I had two large pieces and a third of another.  We were stuffed.  We had stuffed crust (with cheese).   It would have cost $14.00 but we got it free with my coupon.  Cool.

We then returned Marilyn to school for a 2:00 p.m. meeting – the purpose of which we knew but she did not.  It was a surprise award ceremony for her.  She got the Employee of the Month award and will be in the running for the Employee of the Year.  She got a check for $125 (before taxes), and a plaque.  It was awarded by the President of the University.  I had given the department head a picture of her and a lady from town designed it into the frosting of a cake, with edible inks. Okay, that doesn’t sound too appetizing. We do better later.

Thursday.. normal / plus music day.  Played at the Rehab center (where I spent so much time last year) and then we went to a music group potluck.  Lots of people, musicians and good food there.  John and I took lasagna (prepared by a well known company) but we added cut and pre-fried circles of Bratwursts on top and covered with two types of cheese.  Yummy.  I stayed to play in the jam session afterward.  A brother of our guitarists’ wife is visiting from Germany.  He and his wife will be in the USA for 3 weeks. John had to eat and leave to get to his Kittitas Valley Trail Riders meeting.  I made it home after 9:30.

Friday… what a crazy day.  Started with a trip to town to get a shoulder massage at the Adult Activity Center.  Followed by a short trip a few blocks, maybe a mile, to play music and eat lunch at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  Boy was it good today:  ham-cheese-onion quiche, cut apples, a bran-type cake bread with butter, and some sort of blueberry / something mixed fruit drink.  Then back to a rummage sale at the Catholic Church where I have gotten nice stuff in the past, but nothing today.  On to my SAIL exercise class, but we didn’t have a teacher show and there were 10 of us.  At a few classmates’ urging, I led the class in our various exercises.  They seemed to like what I did, and thought it was good because of my humor and making it fun.  Then off to pick up my meds, and to go to the bank for some cash.   On the way home, I passed but did not pass-by a couple of yard sales.  Didn’t find too much, and still need to try on a new-condition pair of jeans I got for $1.  Also got a wooden salad bowl as from the 70s (although I guess you could put fruit in it as well).  After a 20 minute search of the internet, John gave up trying to find a similar bowl.  These bowls are made of wood chips and something (resin) pressed into various shapes.  Too cheap and too many apparently – no one seems to care.  I also found a nice square frying pan (Teflon coating), in excellent condition.  The last two items were 50 cents each.  Came home and worked on the computer and then walked out to survey John’s work for the day.  He built a “guarded water walkway” with two 27 ft. telephone poles, along the sides of our irrigation ditch. The water passage allows the horses to move from one pasture with little grass to another with more grass and, in the process learn to cross water obstacles in a calm manner.  The three older horses will do this from training a few years ago.  The water channel between the poles is about 3 feet wide, 4 inches deep and 27 feet long.  The original set up was with fence panels and only 10 feet long.

Saturday.  Wow, last night we were awakened by flashes of lightning, clashes of thunder and finally rain.  We don’t often get thunderstorms here, so it was interesting.  This morning we had nearly twenty tons of hay delivered (340 bales; 39,940 pounds)) and put into our hay shed, without John having to do anything except make the place ready, open the gates, write a check, and then put up barricades so the horses cannot get to it. I left for a play date at Briarwood this afternoon where they feed us.  On my way I stopped at two yard sales.  At one I got two Mannheim Steamroller CDs (both Christmas music) for a dime each.  This is one fantastic group, and my friends from West Yakima brought me one of their Christmas CDs while I was in the ICU in 2009.  Their energy was to flow into me and bring me back to life.  So I grabbed these today and then played one around town and all the way home.  One more stop at a retirement home was another great choice of the day.  They were having an in-house yard sale at Dry Creek, just up the road from where I was going to perform and eat.  A lady had clothes (mostly blouses) hanging on plastic hangers.  I’m looking for something that is 100% cotton, so I don’t die in polyester while in Hotlanta.  She was charging a whole quarter for each item.  They are my size and so I grabbed 6 things.

I’m excited.  At least two/maybe 3 will work for my trip.  Made it to the music venue in plenty of time, and there were 7 of us there.  We played and sung our hearts out and the audience loved us and participated.  They are the ones who always feed us.  The food will take care of my dinner tonight.  We had two casseroles, (one, chicken with noodles, sauce, peas and corn), the other had rice, tomatoes, cheese, bacon, sausage, and was rather Mexican tasting), rolls w/ butter, several desserts, and a huge salad of different types of lettuce, tomatoes, and onions.  Oh, and there were two different kinds of chips and salsa and 3 other dips.  I don’t need to eat till tomorrow noon.

Tomorrow we are going to our neighbors again to celebrate another birthday.  It’s nice for them to include us in the family gatherings.

John just returned from checking on the horses.  Just as he got out there another storm started with wind tearing leaves from trees, then rain and thunder.  He sent the three horses down through the waterway to the larger pasture and let the newer horses out via a gate.  With the storm and darkness the horses don’t need additional stress.

Next weekend with Nancy in Atlanta we are unsure of access to a computer for her and so what we will do for a blog posting is unknown.

All our best,

Nancy and John on the Naneum Fan

 

The “shrub-steppe” is the type of natural environment found here and today local experts (KEEN) are out doing an “up close and personal” thingy for children, new comers, and others. It’s the 12^th annual “Get Intimate with the Shrub Steppe” :

http://kittitasee.net/

I am starting this on Sunday, May 1^st,  this week, because you already know what happened yesterday.  You don’t know, however, that we had eaten so much for lunch, that we passed on dinner.  (Well, a piece of toast and a cookie was all we had).

Sunday was the nicest day we have had this whole year.  No wind and sunny, with temps to 65.  John stayed out working most of the day starting with removal of the chain link panels from the truck.  I only had a light lunch because I was expecting a meal tonight at the Taize’ service.  One of the ladies of the church made it and it was scrumptious:  a casserole that is most like Enchiladas but without the tortillas that I don’t like.  She fixed it with chicken, sour cream, green chilies, pepper jack cheese and cheddar cheese, some spices (no salt), chili powder, and I don’t know what else, but it was fantastic.  We had a nice mixed salad with cucumbers (I don’t like, but could pick out), radishes, carrots and several kinds of greens. For dessert, she fixed a cobbler with blueberries, Marion berries (I do not like the seeds), and raspberries, served with whipped cream on top.  Good thing I had a small lunch.

Monday.  Rain today, after the beautiful day yesterday.  That will hamper John’s outside work, which was making pretty good progress.  I will take off for exercise class, maybe a nursing home visit, and then get home to all the chores waiting.  I haven’t done anything but email and eat some snacks.  John has spent the last hour or more planting squash seeds and tomatoes in little pots.  There were only 14 seeds for squash (yellow) in the packet that cost $2.50.  Boy, that’s different from what it used to be.  He thinks there might have been a slight reduction in price, maybe 20%.  The tomato seeds are a special Burpee Big Boy.  There are 30 seeds in there, and it cost $1.79.

Tuesday.  My dental teeth cleaning for the day was cancelled because my hygienist broke her foot in a fall from her horse.  The rest of my day was doing household chores, paying bills, cleaning, and emailing.  Also helped proof an academic report tonight for a geographer friend still employed in another state.  Boy, how nice it is to be retired and not have to be writing yearly performance reports for teaching, research and service.

Wednesday.  Morning spent on chores and haircut for Nancy.  Amazing how much it has grown out in a month (after waiting all those months not to be bald and losing hair in handfuls).  Then John took a break from his outside tasks to go with me and let me off at the exercise class.  He went and bought “stuff” at the hardware store.  He is replacing a small wooded bridge in the pasture – so here’s a bit about that:

Types of structures here:

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm07232804/page07.htm

John’s is a Type 3 “puncheon” – the drawing above for Type 2 shows split logs and this sort of surface is the meaning of puncheon.

In this link, near the end, is a drawing (in an oval) of a “standard puncheon” with a curb or “bull rail.”

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/fspubs/07232806/page10.htm

That’s very close to what we now have.  “Bull rail” is a tern from sailing although the name seems to have been used so long no one knows why.

http://www.insidepassagenews.com/bull_rails.html

Trail crews spend lots of time building and repairing small bridges and puncheon type structures.  Another common trail improvement, called a turnpike, is described here:

http://www.justinwp.com/blog/search/trail_work/

. . . go down to “Summer Trail Work Update.  Now you know more than you really wanted too!

Our prior little bridge was a reinforced wooden pallet used primarily to get the wheel barrow across the irrigation ditch.  An initial pallet – not reinforced – was used by the horses but was not up to the hoof pressure.  A pallet is only 4 feet across so the horses were as apt to jump it and the ditch.  The real purpose of the new structure is to provide a structure sufficiently long that jumping is not possible and, thus, the horses will have to walk across it.  The trick is to put it in a place – and them in a situation – where they have to use it, for example, drinking water on one side, food on the other.  They will train themselves to cross without hesitation.  This is expected of horses on trail rides.  The alternatives are not pleasant.

Now, back to the daily story line —

We had skipped lunch, so after getting my Protime (aka INR) blood draw at the hospital, we went for a treat from Burger King.  We had coupons for all except for buying a small drink and small fries.  That made a nice meal.  We halved an original chicken sandwich, and had 4 chicken tenders (free) with honey mustard and BBQ sauce.

Thursday, pretty routine.  Worked on stuff around the house and John worked in the yard.  I went to play at an assisted living home, and came by to visit my friend in the nursing/rehab center.

Friday, I stopped at a sale on the way home and bought us a homemade loaf of cinnamon/raisin/nut bread.  I arrived home just as John was bolting together the bull rails, decking, and stringers for the new bridge.  I got to help by putting washers and nuts on two bolts.  His work platform was across the bed of the pickup and when finished he just drove to the pasture and unloaded it.  He fed the horses and then it started to sprinkle.  Poor timing for it because we got a call from our neighbor’s daughter who was visiting across the street and had a flat tire on her Honda.  John went over and changed to the spare in the rain so she could take it into Les Schwab (a regional tire store) for repair or replacement in the morning before driving to Seattle.

Saturday morning.  John finished up his KVTR newsletter and got it to the mailbox, so we will not go to town today.  It is nice and sunny and not windy for a change.  I have a lot of stuff to do in the house, even though it would be nice to be outside.  He also got the bridge positioned (in the training mode situation) in the pasture and the horses are using it.  In a few days he will move it over to the irrigation ditch and come up with a new “obstacle-project” for the horses.

RAIN ! Wow. We don’t get much rain here – maybe 8 inches per year. A sprinkle started while we ate lunch, just after John said he would be going outside.  The sprinkle turn into a real rain, then into a deluge – about 20 minutes of can’t see through falling water.  Ya’woda thunk we were back east.  Then it stopped.  Then we got a little more and now Mr. Sun has emerged.  Pasture-grass, flowers, and gardens throughout the neighborhood are happy with this. The folks out getting intimate with the shrub-steppe – probably not so much.

We are joining our neighbors for lunch tomorrow and have to bake a cake to take.  Better get to that.

Happy Mother’s Day !

Love from Nancy and John