Sunday Aug 19\u00a0 Interesting morning.\u00a0 First, I slept in for much needed rest after the past week.\u00a0 It was scary this morning to awake at 5:00 with flashes of “dry” lightning in the sky right before daybreak.\u00a0 More with thunder followed that.\u00a0 At 6:00, we got a few drops of rain.\u00a0 I tried going back to sleep.\u00a0 John went outside to work on fencing while it was still below 70.\u00a0 He has a lot of work to do to make changes to gates, fences, to replace those he moved for the building construction.\u00a0 More rain later and he came inside to cool down.\u00a0 He saw helicopters flying over and later we heard there were lightning strikes a few miles to the east.<\/p>\n
We got a call from our contractor that he had a present for us.\u00a0 He brought by the final bill and accepted a check to pay the balance.\u00a0 We had a nice visit and I continued with house and email chores.\u00a0 John went back out to work on fence.\u00a0 Late this afternoon our friends with two rescue horses are coming to take a ton of hay we are donating to them.\u00a0 I passed along a notice from a member of the Swauk-Teanaway Grange about a community meeting tonight on the fire.\u00a0 I have had a couple of calls, one from a fellow at the radio station who saw my post to the list (Elk Heights-Taylor Bridge Fire).\u00a0 Guess I should stay inside to \u2018man\u2019 the phone, while John’s out manning the fence building.\u00a0 On the well-photographed old barn on Hwy 97 . . . Good News! . . .<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pictoscribe\/1454173065\/<\/a><\/p>\n from near-fire-resident Marc Fairbanks that the old beautiful structure was spared.\u00a0 Had heard differently from several others.\u00a0 Rumors and bad information were rampant with this wildfire.\u00a0 The County has a large area and a small population so the firefighters (many volunteers) and equipment were out-matched by this fire [they were dealing with 4 or 5 fires elsewhere as word of this fire came on the air waves].<\/p>\n Megan and Chris came over tonight and loaded 24 bales of oldish hay (~a ton+) from our barn onto their flatbed trailer.\u00a0 We donated it to them for their two rescued thoroughbred horses, as mentioned earlier.\u00a0 Otherwise, we are home until tomorrow at noon, when John will use the new pole building to assist the farrier with 3 of our horses.\u00a0 At the same time, I’m going to go for a haircut on my way to town to go to SAIL exercise and to the bank to move CDs to our checking to cover the rest of the finished building.\u00a0 It wasn’t enough so we will have to get a bit from our home equity loan that’s tied to our checking account.\u00a0 It costs us $50 to have the service, and 4.5% for the money.\u00a0 Of course the question remains as to whether that is the best solution, or would be taking money out of a retirement account\u2014some of which is in the S&P500 that has gone up ~13% so far this year.\u00a0 Sell high, they say!\u00a0 Decisions.<\/p>\n Monday, Aug 20 \u00a0It cleared up here yesterday, but started pouring smoke back into the valley today.\u00a0 Some of that is from set fires [wind is now blowing back into the burned zone] to widen the lines around the last of the area burning, and keep it from jumping initial fire lines when the wind shifts again \u2013 which it will.\u00a0 At least we are getting usefull reports now unlike before when rumors and confusion were swamping actual information.<\/p>\n I tried to sleep in till 9:00 because I was up till 12:15.\u00a0 It didn’t work.\u00a0 I got a call from a friend.\u00a0 I needed to call the AAC to see about an appointment that got left off my calendar (which I finally found last night). \u00a0Needed to call the dentist to reschedule an appointment that conflicts with possible jury duty.\u00a0 Then our horse farrier came 2 hours early (20 minute notice), and messed up my getting ready for the day.\u00a0 I was scheduled for a noon haircut.\u00a0 I only got a cup of coffee for breakfast.\u00a0 Did get the haircut and had made myself a tuna fish sandwich to take along to town to have for lunch.\u00a0 I made it to town, amidst the smoke.\u00a0 Went inside, grabbed a piece of poppy seed cake with sugar frosting, and went over to a “give away” table, where I was going to eat my lunch and drink my lemonade.\u00a0 While eating, I looked at some of the things on the table and ended up loading a few things into a nice carry-bag with tropical fish on it and even a zippered pocket (also for grabs).\u00a0 I took some note pads, a few greeting cards, an insulated holder for a bottled drink (for John), and a neat new tee shirt for me with Camp Appalachia written on it, in big bright red and green letters.\u00a0 I can always wear tee shirts, in this kind of weather.\u00a0 Tomorrow I have to go back to the same place for foot care, and I will take some squash and yellow beans for the very same table.\u00a0 Tonight I went to my neighbors and delivered some heavy boots that are too big for me but should fit the farmer and also took them yellow beans.\u00a0 Returned canning jars and was rewarded with two pint jars of apricot jam, thanking me for all the apricots I have recently brought them.\u00a0 I’m the one that came out ahead on that deal!\u00a0 Canning is something we left behind in Iowa.\u00a0 John cooked a boneless roast in our Crockpot with tomatoes and barley.\u00a0 It was amazingly tender for a late dinner.\u00a0 We had one (our first) red tomato of the summer, and it was scrumptious too.\u00a0 John picked enough yellow beans and squash tonight to feed a very small army.\u00a0 I will also take some by to other friends in town, and maybe even drop some off at the food bank.<\/p>\n Tuesday, Aug 21\u00a0 Foot care and massage: 2:00 and 2:30 and I made it to both.\u00a0 Winds started blowing this afternoon with up to 43 mph gusts.\u00a0 I’m surely glad they have gotten rid of all the hot spots.\u00a0 Here is an interesting part of a report today.\u00a0 Comment on fire:\u00a0 Commander Reed said the Taylor Bridge Fire is in the top 10 of dangerous, catastrophic fires he\u2019s witnessed and worked on throughout the country. \u00a0In just four hours, the fire spread 14 miles.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s just unheard of,\u201d Reed said.\u00a0 He said it was the perfect storm of conditions, fueled by Kittitas Valley winds.<\/p>\n We did some interesting cleaning today.\u00a0 John was looking for a box of work gloves bought and buried about 8 years ago.\u00a0 He searched closets, stacks of boxes, and I don’t know what all.\u00a0 In the hall closet, which we seldom use, he found some interesting things, some things I don’t even remember.\u00a0 A pair of almost new hiking boots I must have gotten at a yard sale; same with a pair of felt boots (slippers), with tops, which fit fine and I can use to walk around the house or take to wear at people’s houses when I remove boots, in the winter.\u00a0 Found some interesting posters, and things in map tubes.\u00a0 Most interesting was John’s mom’s diploma from business school in Warren, PA. \u00a0He doesn’t know how or when he got it.\u00a0 We are going to tell his sister and suggest if she doesn’t want it, it might go into a museum in Warren, PA.\u00a0 It is a neat historical document.\u00a0 (Actually we talked to Peggy a few days later when she called to check on us.)\u00a0 We decided to photograph it and send that to her, and perhaps also to the Warren Historical Society or Museum, to see if they want the original mailed to them.\u00a0 Neither of us are interested in framing and keeping it.\u00a0 Found two boxes of pennies.\u00a0 One had $21.50 worth rolled up; the other is a ceramic dish about two inches high with a diameter of over 6″, full of loose pennies.\u00a0 Our bank has a mechanical counter that sorts them and rolls change, so we will have to haul those in one of these days.\u00a0 I forget all the other stuff he uncovered.\u00a0 Oh, one thing was a gift from our neighbor when she and her husband went to China and we took care of their house, chickens, plants and dog.\u00a0 They brought me a lovely 100% silk yellow blouse, but it was too small for me to wear then.\u00a0 Now I can wear it and it is very nice.\u00a0 They brought John a small framed painting of a horse.\u00a0 Now we can use both, after all these years.\u00a0 Found John 3 brand new shirts still in their packages (from yard sales a few years ago).\u00a0 At least 3 nice sweaters, one fits me, and the others, John.\u00a0 It was like Christmas.\u00a0 I’m sure I’m forgetting some things.\u00a0 John piled them all on the bed, so we had to sort through before the evening was over.<\/p>\n Wednesday, Aug 22\u00a0 We were late at the Soup Kitchen starting music because of tons of people coming to carry away food from the Food Bank.\u00a0 For some reason, a lot of folks were up from Selah (30 miles away near Yakima).\u00a0 I got out in time to make it to exercise class, carrying my beans and squash along for folks there.<\/p>\n Here’s a link worth seeing–particularly the deer and fireman.\u00a0 Do not know the location of that one.\u00a0 Look at the whole bunch of pictures.\u00a0 Someone on one of the site’s comments mentioned about the picture saying the fireman with the deer was named Cody.<\/p>\n http:\/\/inciweb.org\/incident\/photograph\/3152\/8\/<\/p>\n Thursday, Aug \u00a023\u00a0 Never found time to make notes on this day.\u00a0 Will try to remember a little of that busy one.\u00a0 John went with me to drop me off to play music while he went shopping at 3 stores.\u00a0 We had a good turnout at Hearthstone.\u00a0 John, not having found the box of gloves he lost track of, bought a new pair for WTA trail work next week on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) south of Snoqualmie Pass, just north of a lake called Stirrup.<\/p>\n Coordinates: 47.301607, -121.415301<\/p>\n One other thing he bought today was a large package of pork chops at an excellent price, at Safeway, where he’d gone to pick up a good deal on Pepsi.\u00a0 It provided a really nice dinner, and made him realize we needed to go buy more the next day, before the sale was over.\u00a0 We almost never shop at Safeway \u2013 they require using a special card and they have one of the most complicated (busy) ads in the newspaper.<\/p>\n Friday, Aug 24 \u00a0Today was an incredibly busy day.\u00a0 We baked cobbler for 16 people for a night potluck.\u00a0 I left John to finish cooking them, because I had to go to town for two blood draws at the hospital, to pick up 10 large intact packing boxes we loaned my deaf student to move across town, grab a bite for lunch ’cause I missed it, teach my afternoon SAIL exercise class (that I only started and another lady took over so I could leave), pick up some stuff at the grocery, and then come home and pack all the stuff (Lemonade, Ice Cream, kippered Salmon\/Tuna from my Indian (Native American) student’s father & crackers for appetizers, and pears for the table, along with two large pans of cobbler (our pie cherries, local blueberries from the Yakima canyon, and our Carpathian walnuts)–all above were for the potluck with our music group last night.\u00a0 Couldn’t have done it without John’s help.\u00a0 We left at 5:00 p.m. going to Grace Episcopal Church for the eating and then music afterwards.\u00a0 We did not get home till after 10, and John still had all the outside animals to feed in the dark.\u00a0 I tried to work on email responses.\u00a0 Didn’t crash till 11:45, and I really did crash.\u00a0 Slept in until awakened Saturday morning by a phone call.\u00a0 I guess I needed the rest.<\/p>\n Saturday, Aug 25 \u00a0This morning I got all involved helping John unload the last of our stuff from the travel trailer, so he could drive it around the block and into our pole building.\u00a0[It and one of the cars were loaded and parked so as to leave in a hurry as necessary.]\u00a0 While he was driving around, I had to open some gates, and be there when he returned to be sure he got through the gate without touching on the side he cannot easily see.\u00a0 It’s better coming straight in and not having to back up as once before.\u00a0 There was plenty of room and he was at the right angle today.\u00a0 Earlier in the day, he’d shown me the large magnet (which I cannot get too close to with my ICD), and that our contractor loaned us after demonstrating and picking up a lot of nails, screws, metal pieces, and whatever from the re-used concrete that makes up the base of our pole building.\u00a0 Truly amazing.\u00a0 I hope to put a picture out on the developing web page of our Pole Building in time to add a link to this blog.\u00a0 I still have much work yet to do on that page, so it will be another site under construction. \u00a0Here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.ellensburg.com\/nancyh\/August2012Rock’NPonderosa.html<\/a><\/p>\n Same with my page on the Wilkins reunion, the wildfire, and probably another couple of things.<\/p>\n Just got a note from a former student who is a member of the Yakama tribe.\u00a0 [Note: Tribe spelling is with a middle \u2018a\u2019 while us white folks use an \u2018i\u2019 there.]\u00a0 I thought I would share this, because their celebration of life is truly touching and interesting.\u00a0 One of\u00a0 my other former students (a Yakama) died within the last year, and another friend (former Geography Professor, Morris) attended the 24-hour funeral.\u00a0 Here is the recent note (from Dana Miller on Facebook): \u00a0Arrangements for Uncle Marcus Slome; dressing will be Monday, August 27, 2012 at 9AM at Toppenish Creek Longhouse.\u00a0 Washat services to follow and then lunch.\u00a0 After lunch, move to the 1910 Shaker Church for overnight services.\u00a0 Garment ceremony at sunrise and burial at the 1910 Cemetery 8AM. <\/strong><\/p>\n Another Facebook reminder from Caitlin LaBar, our NW Butterfly expert:<\/p>\n Check\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/northwestbutterflies.blogspot.com\/<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 for the following:<\/p>\n Northwest Butterflies: Question Series: Butterfly Senses <\/a><\/p>\n John spent most of the day out and reports the young deer still have spots although seem to be growing like weeds.\u00a0 Or maybe weeds grow like young deer.\u00a0 Actually, being mid-summer in the steppe zone \u2013 it is dry and the weeds are about done growing.\u00a0 Milkweed are about to burst open, to this:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.betterphoto.com\/uploads\/processed\/0920\/0905131824491butterfly_milkweed_2009_05_10-.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n We share our space.\u00a0 Milkweed and butterflies are closely in sync and it is interesting to watch this throughout the flowering of the plants.\u00a0 As for the follow-on stuff, John uses Caitlin as an information source.\u00a0 Read her comment on her page about \u201cTaste\u201d and then see this:<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Milkweed_butterfly<\/a><\/p>\n Note the thing about poisonous glycosides in paragraph 3.\u00a0 Ain\u2019t life grand?<\/p>\n The temperatures are down (Summer\u2019s over!) and the fire is contained. That\u2019s enough for this week.<\/p>\n Hope your week was a good one.<\/p>\n Nancy and John<\/p>\n Still on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday Aug 19\u00a0 Interesting morning.\u00a0 First, I slept in for much needed rest after the past week.\u00a0 It was scary this morning to awake at 5:00 with flashes of “dry” lightning in the sky right before daybreak.\u00a0 More with thunder followed that.\u00a0 At 6:00, we got a few drops of rain.\u00a0 I tried going back … Continue reading “Fire news and other stuff.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-gM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1042,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![http:\/\/www.betterphoto.com\/uploads\/processed\/0920\/0905131824491butterfly_milkweed_2009_05_10-.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nWe share our space.\u00a0 Milkweed and butterflies are closely in sync and it is interesting to watch this throughout the flowering of the plants.\u00a0 As for the follow-on stuff, John uses Caitlin as an information source.\u00a0 Read her comment on her page about \u201cTaste\u201d and then see this:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Milkweed_butterfly<\/a><\/p>\nNote the thing about poisonous glycosides in paragraph 3.\u00a0 Ain\u2019t life grand?<\/p>\nThe temperatures are down (Summer\u2019s over!) and the fire is contained. That\u2019s enough for this week.<\/p>\nHope your week was a good one.<\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\nStill on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday Aug 19\u00a0 Interesting morning.\u00a0 First, I slept in for much needed rest after the past week.\u00a0 It was scary this morning to awake at 5:00 with flashes of “dry” lightning in the sky right before daybreak.\u00a0 More with thunder followed that.\u00a0 At 6:00, we got a few drops of rain.\u00a0 I tried going back … Continue reading “Fire news and other stuff.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-gM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1042,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.betterphoto.com\/uploads\/processed\/0920\/0905131824491butterfly_milkweed_2009_05_10-.jpg\"){kind=link}