Saturday, Dec 22\u00a0 There’s a little more text for today after the posting for last week’s blog this evening.\u00a0 We broke for a late dinner of a great grilled cheese (Jarlsberg and cut-up leftover beef roast) sandwich with a bowl each of the leftover chowder.\u00a0 We had no idea that much was left.\u00a0 I found it late last night when I was tasked with cleaning the Crockpot outside and the removable ceramic bowl.\u00a0 We had filled it too much and some had shaken out, into the box, and down the sides, plus had spilled into the bottom of the box and the bottom of the outside heat unit.\u00a0 It sat there from 5:30 until 10:00 pm plugged in and heated all night.\u00a0 Therefore, the crusted cooked spilled part was a mess.\u00a0 I imagine I spent an hour on the clean up of all parts, but that was a fair share after John spent so much time on the preparation.<\/p>\n
Tonight while I was proofing his changes and additions to my original, he made the dinner described above.\u00a0 The sky cleared today, and the temperatures are dropping.<\/p>\n
Sunday, Dec 23 \u00a0No snow.\u00a0 No acetaminophen (Tylenol), so we need to go to Bi-Mart for that and to exchange our oil heater that quit working.\u00a0 We left for town with some ideas about other stuff needed.\u00a0 We decided to get the ingredients for the special Crockpot candy to try.\u00a0 First stop was Bi-Mart, where we got the replacement for the deceased oil heater. \u00a0They had one up front for us and we just traded, no questions asked, or receipts required.\u00a0 Boy was that nice.\u00a0 John carried it back to the car and I went on in for the meds.\u00a0 John found me there, and helped me decide which bottle was the best deal (we got 1000).\u00a0 I just calculated that is two cents each pill.\u00a0 Now I will have to compare with the Costco price, where we usually buy them.\u00a0 Then we walked on back to check for some other items for the candy.\u00a0 Found some almond bark we needed but it was the chocolate kind.\u00a0 Considering we were not making white candy, we went ahead and bought it.\u00a0 Off to Super 1, bought pineapple for the ham we’re fixing for Christmas dinner with our neighbors and checked the price of dry roasted peanuts.\u00a0 They were twice as high per pound as they’d been at Bi-Mart, so we went back to Bi-Mart for them, and off to Safeway for a ham and colas on sale.\u00a0 The 99 \u00a2\/lb. ones were all gone, but we got a $1.29\/lb. one instead.\u00a0 Still a nice deal for the better part of the ham.\u00a0 It’s much less expensive than a rib roast, and will be quite tasty.\u00a0 Came on home, with John driving the ’04 Subaru, and I talked on the phone, while I had good reception, which we do not get at home.\u00a0 Had a nice talk with a friend on her birthday.\u00a0 On down the road north of our house and saw five Merriam turkeys eating by the side of the road, behind a fence. [A large file, text starts under the first photo \u2013 so look there in the green<\/em>.]<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.nwtf.org\/conservation\/bulletins\/bulletin_4_9-9-09.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n We drove on by, and said I want a picture of them.\u00a0 I didn’t recall that I was carrying my camera in case I saw the buck deer with the nice rack.\u00a0 Therefore, when I found it, John drove me back up and let me out, because they were spread out in the field.\u00a0 He said they wouldn’t fly, but they surprised me and did.\u00a0 Another car was coming down the road toward me, and I don’t know if they or I spooked them but they flew into the trees.\u00a0 I wish I had had my zoom on my camera to catch their pretty tail spread, but once they landed in a tree, I was able to get the silhouettes of two in the top of the tree.\u00a0 That will work to put in my wildlife part of the newsletter.\u00a0 We had not seen any for a couple of years and wonder if the fires to the north destroyed their food sources and caused them to come down to our lower elevation.<\/p>\n Monday, Dec 24\u00a0 Christmas Eve, and nothing planned.\u00a0 Wonder if the snow will really stop as predicted and sunny weather will be here.\u00a0 The answer is YES!\u00a0 And the temperature has gotten up to 40. \u00a0Supposed to snow for Christmas, however.\u00a0 We made a couple of long distance calls this morning that were fun.\u00a0 We were both on the phone line.\u00a0 On a related item, I found I could get a \u201cfree\u201d 2013 pocket calendar from CWU Credit Union, so I ordered two through campus mail.\u00a0 I’ll pick them up later this week. We keep a small balance at the Credit Union just to maintain contact there but like most such places the interest rate is very low \u2013 the \u201cfree\u201d calendars are compensation! \u00a0I looked yesterday at Bi-Mart and they wanted $3.98 each for some that started 3 months at the end of 2012 and went only through Dec 2013.\u00a0 That’s no good.\u00a0 I spent time getting some photos and videos out on SkyDrive where people could view them and download if they wish.\u00a0 They were of my geographer friend’s retirement party several months ago, and I gave them the gift of documenting the entire thing.<\/p>\n Lunch was great–grilled sandwiches with Guggisberg’s Baby Swiss<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.babyswiss.com\/facilities.htm<\/a><\/p>\n cheese and roast beef.\u00a0 Back to working on newsletter.\u00a0 Made some progress and John fixed a nice dinner with ham, butternut squash, rice, sweet & sour sauce with little pieces of chicken and carrots.<\/p>\n Tuesday, Dec 25\u00a0 MERRY CHRISTMAS!\u00a0 We made it over (was still snowing), to our neighbors with the ham John cooked.\u00a0 It was scrumptious.\u00a0 I helped make white\/cheese sauce for the cauliflower she had cooked, and gravy for the mashed potatoes she’d fixed.\u00a0 She also made an onion type casserole, and her son brought large Croissant rolls.\u00a0 She’d also made a Jello, Dream Whip fruit with bananas salad.\u00a0 We had a nice dinner, with sparkling cider, and also she’d fixed a nice apple strudel type dessert.\u00a0 We finally stopped our visit, took our gifts, and left.\u00a0 We left them all some of the ham, and still brought some home for us.\u00a0 All at the meal had big helpings as well.\u00a0 Their gifts are the same each Christmas, and we love them.\u00a0 I received two large jars of homemade Apricot jam, and she always fixes John a couple pounds of her excellent fudge with nuts.\u00a0 We’ve been home for a couple hours, and I’ve been working on the annual newsletter.\u00a0 I’m making slow progress.\u00a0 I ate so much this afternoon that I didn’t want much dinner.<\/p>\n Wednesday, Dec 26\u00a0 It’s still snowing lightly, but the sun is showing a little.\u00a0 John has cleaned off snow from the cars and front walks and back walks.\u00a0 I decided not to go to town today.\u00a0 Too bad because we are out of bread (even in the freezer).\u00a0 Too many grilled cheese and meat sandwiches and toast recently.\u00a0 I just heard some noise and looked out to see our wonderful neighbor with a big tractor and blade on the back, plowing out our driveway.\u00a0 He and a cousin do about a dozen driveways on our stretch of road \u2013 we are sort of in the middle.\u00a0 Most folks have 4x4s so it is only when the axle housings begin to leave a gouge in the snow that anyone thinks to clear it out \u2013 \u2018cause any more snow and you have to push it with the bumper to reach the highway.\u00a0 Now we really do need to make bread, cookies and candy and take him a thank you gift.\u00a0 I’m busy after a lunch of a Croissant<\/em> . . .<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Croissant<\/a><\/p>\n with ham and Swiss cheese, and going back to the annual newsletter construction.\u00a0 Today I mostly worked on the story about the house my grandfather built in Seattle.\u00a0 I\u2019m coordinating with my cousin Susan on the details, because she and her husband John visited there this summer, got a tour of the inside and took photos.\u00a0 The house was built in 1910 and still is there in SW Seattle.<\/p>\n Thursday, Dec 27 \u00a0Last night I didn’t sleep well at all, so was rather lethargic, but I did accomplish some things before lunch with my cousin (in Florida) Susan\u2019s help.\u00a0 She sent me two better copies of our grandparents pictures from 1908 and 1910, for me to put in the annual greetings, in progress.\u00a0 John helped me crop them and I put them on the web page for the Wilkins clan.\u00a0 I managed to type into my SongWriter software the song, Auld Lang Syne<\/em>,<\/p>\n [lang syne<\/em> means \u2013 \u2018long since\u2019 but here is the full story:<\/p>\n http:\/\/caledonianmercury.com\/2012\/08\/30\/useful-scots-word-auld\/0035077<\/a><\/p>\n . . . in the key of G, and put words, and chords on it, plus transposed a copy for our clarinet player.\u00a0 Printed out some and gave to the folks there.\u00a0 Only had 6 today:\u00a0 2 guitars, banjo, tambourine, violin, and clarinet, but we had an appreciative audience who participated by singing and ringing bells and keeping time with shakers to the last of the Christmas songs this year.<\/p>\n John drove me in, and let me off, while he went shopping for yeast (so we can bake some bread, and to buy a loaf of bread we can have until we make some.\u00a0 He also picked up two of my prescription meds.\u00a0 And some milk and eggs for the bread and cookies we plan to make (have been planning for a while).\u00a0 Now to find the time to do that!<\/p>\n Came home to find very little mail, and two deer bedded down under our Ponderosa pine trees by the blueberry patch, right next to the drive.\u00a0 They didn’t bother to move when we got out of the car and walked by them into the house.\u00a0 Today, we were invited to our friends for a New Year’s Eve potluck and jam session afterwards.\u00a0 Guess we’ll thaw a piece of ham recently frozen — people really seemed to like it a lot last time.\u00a0 Forgot to say this morning when John was exercising the dogs, Annie, the youngest, brought him an antler, about 10″ with 2 points, from a young buck. According to the following site our little buck shed a bit early but what triggers the process it doesn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.kingsoutdoorworld.com\/stories\/antlers_story.htm<\/a><\/p>\n Possibly the antler came from the deer who has been hanging around and whose picture we took a couple days ago.\u00a0 Eventually the picture will be in our annual newsletter, I’m still working on.\u00a0 John is expecting one of the dogs to find a second antler.\u00a0 The found one is a perfect match to the left antler of the little buck in the picture, outside our computer room window.<\/p>\n Friday, Dec 28\u00a0 No snow, but cold, down to 19 degrees.\u00a0 Went for a haircut at noon today, and then went off to town for exercise class. \u00a0There were only 6 of us there, but our teacher had health problems and her eye was bothering her with a drooped lid, so she went home and I led the class.\u00a0 I told her she should go to the eye doctor, but she wouldn’t take my advice.\u00a0 She’s leaving next Friday for Germany!\u00a0 Came on home and decided against driving back in tonight for the gospel music hour because the roads were lousy (ice under compacted snow), and people were not honoring staying on their side of the middle of the road (which was not visible with the snow cover). \u00a0Truck drivers were the worst, with one-ton ones and even pickups pulling horse trailers!\u00a0 When I left, John put all the ingredients into a Slow Cooker to make chocolate candy with peanuts.\u00a0 We think there are too many peanuts, but it did come out well.\u00a0 Now we have to figure how to pack it away.\u00a0 They are in little paper muffin cups.\u00a0 Came back and worked a little more on our annual end of year (I hope) newsletter, but still have a way to go.\u00a0 Now I’ll go back to that work.<\/p>\n We have a full moon tonight.\u00a0 Check this out:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.latintimes.com\/articles\/1722\/20121228\/full-moon-december-2012-longest-final-celestial.htm<\/a><\/p>\n Saturday, Dec 29\u00a0 Nothing planned.\u00a0 Will post this on Friday and then if Saturday is exciting we can worry about what to do about that.<\/p>\n Hope your Christmas week was a good one.<\/p>\n Note: 3 x 11 x 61 = Happy New Year<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.wallpaper4u.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Cold_Winter_Scene_Wallpaper__yvt2.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n Walls for the wind,<\/em><\/p>\n And a roof for the rain,<\/em><\/p>\n And drinks beside the fire – <\/em><\/p>\n Laughter to cheer you<\/em><\/p>\n And those you love near you,<\/em><\/p>\n And all that your heart may desire!<\/em><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.rexwallpapers.com\/images\/wallpapers\/landscape\/winter-scene\/winter_scene_30.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n Nancy and John<\/p>\n Still on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saturday, Dec 22\u00a0 There’s a little more text for today after the posting for last week’s blog this evening.\u00a0 We broke for a late dinner of a great grilled cheese (Jarlsberg and cut-up leftover beef roast) sandwich with a bowl each of the leftover chowder.\u00a0 We had no idea that much was left.\u00a0 I found … Continue reading “Nadir past, Sun ascending”<\/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-1126","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-ia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126","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=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![http:\/\/www.wallpaper4u.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Cold_Winter_Scene_Wallpaper__yvt2.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nWalls for the wind,<\/em><\/p>\nAnd a roof for the rain,<\/em><\/p>\nAnd drinks beside the fire – <\/em><\/p>\nLaughter to cheer you<\/em><\/p>\nAnd those you love near you,<\/em><\/p>\nAnd all that your heart may desire!<\/em><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.rexwallpapers.com\/images\/wallpapers\/landscape\/winter-scene\/winter_scene_30.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\nStill on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday, Dec 22\u00a0 There’s a little more text for today after the posting for last week’s blog this evening.\u00a0 We broke for a late dinner of a great grilled cheese (Jarlsberg and cut-up leftover beef roast) sandwich with a bowl each of the leftover chowder.\u00a0 We had no idea that much was left.\u00a0 I found … Continue reading “Nadir past, Sun ascending”<\/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-1126","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-ia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126","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=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.wallpaper4u.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Cold_Winter_Scene_Wallpaper__yvt2.jpg\"){kind=link}
![http:\/\/www.rexwallpapers.com\/images\/wallpapers\/landscape\/winter-scene\/winter_scene_30.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\nStill on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday, Dec 22\u00a0 There’s a little more text for today after the posting for last week’s blog this evening.\u00a0 We broke for a late dinner of a great grilled cheese (Jarlsberg and cut-up leftover beef roast) sandwich with a bowl each of the leftover chowder.\u00a0 We had no idea that much was left.\u00a0 I found … Continue reading “Nadir past, Sun ascending”<\/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-1126","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-ia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126","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=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.rexwallpapers.com\/images\/wallpapers\/landscape\/winter-scene\/winter_scene_30.jpg\"){kind=link}