Starting this week with Saturday, picking up from going to a Celtic music performance while John was sending a report to the blog last week.\u00a0 I told you then it was planned, but I was writing it on Friday night.\u00a0 I went with a couple from my music group to the Teanaway Grange to hear Prairie Spring’s concert.\u00a0 This was my first time to hear the three of them play their own stuff.\u00a0 As individuals, they are sometimes members of our fiddlers and friends group.\u00a0 As a trio they perform Celtic music and it is superb.\u00a0 One woman is on the fiddle, another is on the Auto Harp and Drum, and there is a fellow on the guitar.\u00a0 They do instrumentals and some vocals.\u00a0 There was one song where they had audience participation on the chorus.\u00a0 The audience was incredible too.\u00a0 They were stomping the floor and clapping and giving vocal appreciation calls. (Those have a name but I missed what it was called).\u00a0 I took a Costco Fruit Cake all cut up in pieces to the potluck.\u00a0 It was well received.\u00a0 Later we found a fruit cake in our local grocery store, for 7.98\/pound.\u00a0 The Costco one was only 3.72\/pound.\u00a0 The quality of what we got was excellent.\u00a0 It was so full of fruit and nuts it was difficult to cut.\u00a0 It was not mostly cake and in fact we couldn\u2019t find any cake even though the ingredients mentioned flour!\u00a0 Next time we are at Costco we will be buying more and freezing them to use throughout the year.\u00a0 They do freeze well, but you have to age them 4 weeks before storing them.\u00a0 We found information on the web.<\/p>\n
Sunday, John and I worked in the morning on chores, his being all outside in the cold.\u00a0 \u00a0He has put a tarp over the top of our old Motor Home, because last year it leaked from a vent on the roof.\u00a0 After lunch we went to our friends southeast of town to get a couple of hearts from their beef that was butchered in the morning.\u00a0 John wants to dissect them and see what they look like (after hearing and learning all about the valves in my heart over the past year and a half).\u00a0\u00a0 They have some extra \u201c tenderloin\u201d their butcher called it, and he said it wouldn\u2019t age well in the hanging process for aging, and that he would just toss it.\u00a0 John determined from a web search that it is really called hanger steak.\u00a0 Here is what Wikipedia describes it as: \u201c\u00a0\u00a0 A hanger steak is a cut of beef steak prized for its flavor. Derived from the diaphragm of a steer, it typically weighs about 1 to 1.5 lbs (450 to 675g).\u00a0\u00a0 In the past it was sometimes known as “butcher’s steak” because butchers would often keep it for themselves rather than offer it for sale.\u201d\u00a0 John is cooking it for our dinner on Tuesday of this week.\u00a0 Check below for our assessment.<\/p>\n
The taize\u2019 service Sunday night was different from previous times.\u00a0 We had a snow storm, and the students cancelled their coming.\u00a0 We only had two violins for the music.\u00a0 The minister was not there because she went to the Philippines to be with her family for Thanksgiving.\u00a0 One of our former musicians will lead the communion and another will read the scriptures. \u00a0Few people came to the service from the community.\u00a0 It was, however, a nice one.\u00a0 And, the supper was thick potato & leek soup \u2013 with the consistency of mashed potatoes.\u00a0 There was Vanilla Diet Pepsi to drink, and many desserts left over from a previous service in the day.\u00a0 Good tea cakes (which I always called shorties).\u00a0 Mostly just butter and sugar and nuts, rolled in powdered sugar.\u00a0 I drove home in a raging snow storm at 20 mph because I couldn\u2019t see out the windshield and the road was not clearly visible for the center line nor the sides and where the berm existed or dropped off into a ditch.<\/p>\n
Monday found us on the road to our family physician in Cle Elum (35 miles away) for working on the ear wax filling John\u2019s right ear and keeping him from hearing, and for lab tests (and blood draw) for Nancy. The Doc claims that ear grunge almost always occurs in only one ear.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 \u00a0[The \u201cover the counter\u201d remedy didn\u2019t work, thus the trip to the pro.]\u00a0 On the way up, it was not snowing, but it started as we pulled into town, and continued, all the way home.<\/p>\n
Tuesday was a slow day, except I used all morning to organize the play list for our upcoming performance of our music group.\u00a0 We will try it out tomorrow at the Hearthstone facility in town.\u00a0 After that is over, we will go to the Community Thanksgiving dinner.\u00a0 It\u2019s always fun.\u00a0 One of the women in my exercise class is cooking one of the several turkeys they provided at the center for volunteers.<\/p>\n
Winter has arrived.\u00a0 We have about 8 inches of snow from the last two days of its snowing hard.\u00a0 John has been doing lots of chores getting ready, and it\u2019s a good thing.\u00a0 Today he put black sunflower seeds in a bird feeder and hung it up in a walnut tree to keep it out of reach of the deer.\u00a0 The quail found it amazingly fast.\u00a0 There were juncos and starlings (we think), in our mountain ash tree eating berries.\u00a0 The starlings were all puffed up and sitting on the branches.\u00a0 We only saw one or two moving around eating.\u00a0 Maybe the others were full and resting.\u00a0 Later in the day, they were joined by Flickers.\u00a0 Before long, ALL the berries were gone.<\/p>\n
Report on Tuesday\u2019s dinner.\u00a0 John fixed that Hanger Steak mentioned above in Sunday\u2019s report.\u00a0 He cut it across the grain, and the flavor was great, but it was still tough.\u00a0 We had it in a nice gravy with onions & mushrooms, served over mashed cheese potatoes.\u00a0 We had green sugar snap peas with it.\u00a0 We will follow tonight with Marion berry pie and ice cream.<\/p>\n
Wednesday will be even colder than today. Tonight it is supposed to drop to single digits and possibly go below zero; they\u2019re calling for minus 4.\u00a0 Last night here it went to 15, but friends in town said it was down to 10 at their house.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0It is 7 now at the airport at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Okay, Wednesday . . . [Too cold, – 8 here.\u00a0 Lower in the valley it was -12.] . . . is here and I went to town in John\u2019s Subaru (his has gasoline and I didn\u2019t want to have to stand in the cold filling mine).\u00a0 We played music with a lot of Christmas songs added to some of our regular repertoire of old time music.\u00a0 We were a hit and everyone enjoyed singing along and thanking us afterwards.\u00a0 It makes it worthwhile.\u00a0 I visited with a 92 year old lady who came up especially to tell me thank you and how much she enjoys us, but then she said, \u201cYou are looking so much better than before.\u201d\u00a0 I was happy to tell her I no longer have any infection.\u00a0 She smiled and gave me a hug.\u00a0 The residents there love us as family.\u00a0 Before we started, I was talking with a woman in a wheel chair.\u00a0 She looked up and saw the silver necklace I had on, on top of a black long sleeve \u201ctee\u201d shirt.\u00a0 It is of a lone wolf, baying at the moon.\u00a0 She said, \u201cIs that a wolf around your neck ?\u201d\u00a0 I answered yes it was and told her where it came from in northern Idaho.\u00a0 (given to me by friends, after they visited the wolf sanctuary there \u2013 50 miles NE of Spokane, WA).<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.wolfpeopleofcocolalla.com\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n She said, \u201cYou need to come to my room and see all my wolf stuff.\u00a0 I just love the creatures.\u00a0 I once had a wolf from a \u201cpup\u201d in Alaska.\u201d\u00a0 So we visited a little longer and she told me all about him.\u00a0 Then it was time for us to start playing music so I had to leave the conversation.<\/p>\n Then off to Rite Aid to buy some Alcohol Swabs for my neighbor.\u00a0 Then on to the Community Thanksgiving Dinner.\u00a0 My music group had already gotten there but I was able to join them at the table.\u00a0 We were served a plate full:\u00a0 Turkey, potatoes and dressing, with gravy, a veggie medley of cut up carrots, corn, and peas, a roll and butter, cranberry sauce on the table, but I cannot have that with the Coumadin I take, and it ended with a piece of pumpkin pie.\u00a0 Now tomorrow I will have another meal with turkey.\u00a0 [Coumadin and vitamin K intake have to be consistent.\u00a0 Thus, foods with K, such as cranberries, can be eaten but overall the same quantity has to be eaten each day.\u00a0 Keeping track of the details and then eating some everyday is so difficult that most folks just don\u2019t eat any of the things on the list of high Vitamin K foods<\/em>.]<\/p>\n Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving.\u00a0 We were up early with a 7:30 a.m. phone call from a friend wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving.\u00a0 We left the house at 12:30 to go to our neighbors.\u00a0 I helped with peeling carrots and putting relishes into a serving dish: homemade pickles, prunes, and canned olives.\u00a0 There was quite the feast.\u00a0 One of the daughters-in-law baked and brought the turkey, dressing and gravy.\u00a0 Her daughter made rolls and a Jell-O\/pear salad.\u00a0 John made Blueberry\/grated apples pie and an apple pie.\u00a0 We brought home enough of both to cut and fit half of each into a pan to freeze for me to take to a potluck Dec 3rd<\/sup> at the senior center where I will play Christmas music with an accordionist (just the two of us).\u00a0 The lady of the house today, made a large pumpkin pie that was superb.\u00a0 Also, she made yams, mashed potatoes, and a cranberry\/marshmallow dish.\u00a0 Another neighbor brought a green bean casserole.\u00a0 There was enough food for an army.\u00a0 We enjoyed the company and stayed till almost dark, needing to get home for John to feed the horses.\u00a0 Our dogs were good while we were away, and ready to go outside when we got home.\u00a0 It is too cold to leave the window (doggy door) open now.\u00a0 That limits the time we can stay away.<\/p>\n I came home and worked on transposing more music for our clarinet player.\u00a0 I have done 12 small songs for the Taize\u2019 service next week, Dec. 5th<\/sup>.\u00a0 I have about that many left.\u00a0 I\u2019m learning how to use the program, and getting better at it.\u00a0 Remember, I have to do it with the computer, clicking note by note, one whole note above the one written on the music I\u2019m transposing from.\u00a0 The program knows how to change the key to one appropriate for a B flat clarinet.\u00a0 This procedure was written up in last week\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n Friday will be a slow day.\u00a0 Maybe I will get some bills paid and tax receipts filed.\u00a0 (I didn\u2019t, but I did transpose some more Taize\u2019 music for the clarinet.)\u00a0 There is no exercise class because the senior center is closed for Thanksgiving.\u00a0 We don\u2019t really have any reason to go to town.\u00a0 John needed to do the chores with horses, birds, and giving apples to the deer.\u00a0 I can help with the dogs and sighting the deer\u2026 as they come to the back fence to beg.\u00a0 The buck (4 points on each side) came to the back fence, and John threw him some apples.\u00a0 He let John walk out and take pictures as he was eating them.\u00a0 Sorry we cannot put pictures in this blog.\u00a0 If you want to see him, let us know and we will send to your email address (be sure we have it).\u00a0 Send your request to nancyh@ellensburg.com<\/a> please.<\/p>\n John dissected a beef heart we got from our friends when they butchered their cows (mentioned above on Sunday).\u00a0 I took pictures while he cut through and examined various portions and tried to match parts with drawings. \u00a0\u00a0John looked for photos on the web but there are only drawings of not much use for his intent.\u00a0 Also, the hearts we had were sliced off at the top and sliced into the chambers to let them drain.\u00a0 Still, we could see quite a lot. The nerve fibers for electrical signaling inside the heart were all there.\u00a0 This suggested link is a bit technical, but still useful:<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Electrical_conduction_system_of_the_heart<\/a><\/p>\n The bands for closing the valves (chordae tendinae)<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chordae_tendineae<\/a><\/p>\n were mostly there but some damage had been done by the person removing the heart so that was disappointing.\u00a0 The surface arteries were there but the major veins and arteries to and from the lungs and elsewhere were all nearly gone.\u00a0 So if you want to try this, ask for a more complete specimen.<\/p>\n Saturday was a slow day, but we did go to town shopping and to deliver some apples.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time in the afternoon transposing the rest of the Taize\u2019 music for my friend who plays the clarinet.\u00a0 John did all the normal chores with the animals, including feeding apples to the deer and sunflower seeds to the birds, who knock them out of the feeder (up in the walnut tree) on the ground and the deer eat them too.\u00a0 He hangs it way up in the tree to keep the deer from raiding the bird feeder, as we have had happen in the past.\u00a0 Somewhere we have a picture of a large buck standing on back legs eating from the feeder.<\/p>\n I guess I should stop this and get it to John to put on the blog tonight.\u00a0\u00a0 Sunday will be pretty much the same as last week.\u00a0 Nothing special is planned.<\/p>\n We hope your Thanksgiving was as good as ours, and that next week will be a good one for you.<\/p>\n Ours will be full of events\u2026 and we\u2019ll tell you next blog.\u00a0 Till then, our best regards to you and thanks for reading our news.\u00a0\u00a0 We are so happy to be able to report good health news, instead of what\u2019s been filling most of this blog since last Dec 4th<\/sup>, when John began doing the reports.<\/p>\n Nancy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starting this week with Saturday, picking up from going to a Celtic music performance while John was sending a report to the blog last week.\u00a0 I told you then it was planned, but I was writing it on Friday night.\u00a0 I went with a couple from my music group to the Teanaway Grange to hear … Continue reading “SATURDAY — learning and eating”<\/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-679","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-aX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","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=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}