{"id":776,"date":"2011-05-07T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T22:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/hultquist\/?p=776"},"modified":"2011-05-07T15:19:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T22:19:00","slug":"saturday-a-bridge-and-rain-on-the-shrub-steppe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=776","title":{"rendered":"SATURDAY — a bridge and rain on the shrub-steppe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cshrub-steppe\u201d is the type of natural environment found here and today local experts (KEEN) are out doing an \u201cup close and personal\u201d thingy for children, new comers, and others. It\u2019s the 12th<\/sup> annual \u201cGet Intimate with the Shrub Steppe\u201d :<\/p>\n

http:\/\/kittitasee.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I am starting this on Sunday, May 1st<\/sup>, \u00a0this week, because you already know what happened yesterday.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know, however, that we had eaten so much for lunch, that we passed on dinner.\u00a0 (Well, a piece of toast and a cookie was all we had).<\/p>\n

Sunday was the nicest day we have had this whole year.\u00a0 No wind and sunny, with temps to 65.\u00a0 John stayed out working most of the day starting with removal of the chain link panels from the truck.\u00a0 I only had a light lunch because I was expecting a meal tonight at the Taize\u2019 service.\u00a0 One of the ladies of the church made it and it was scrumptious:\u00a0 a casserole that is most like Enchiladas but without the tortillas that I don\u2019t like.\u00a0 She fixed it with chicken, sour cream, green chilies, pepper jack cheese and cheddar cheese, some spices (no salt), chili powder, and I don\u2019t know what else, but it was fantastic.\u00a0 We had a nice mixed salad with cucumbers (I don\u2019t 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.\u00a0 Good thing I had a small lunch.<\/p>\n

Monday. \u00a0Rain today, after the beautiful day yesterday.\u00a0 That will hamper John\u2019s outside work, which was making pretty good progress. \u00a0I will take off for exercise class, maybe a nursing home visit, and then get home to all the chores waiting.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t done anything but email and eat some snacks.\u00a0 John has spent the last hour or more planting squash seeds and tomatoes in little pots.\u00a0 There were only 14 seeds for squash (yellow) in the packet that cost $2.50.\u00a0 Boy, that\u2019s different from what it used to be.\u00a0 He thinks there might have been a slight reduction in price, maybe 20%.\u00a0 The tomato seeds are a special Burpee Big Boy.\u00a0 There are 30 seeds in there, and it cost $1.79.<\/p>\n

Tuesday.\u00a0 My dental teeth cleaning for the day was cancelled because my hygienist broke her foot in a fall from her horse. \u00a0The rest of my day was doing household chores, paying bills, cleaning, and emailing.\u00a0 Also helped proof an academic report tonight for a geographer friend still employed in another state.\u00a0 Boy, how nice it is to be retired and not have to be writing yearly performance reports for teaching, research and service.<\/p>\n

Wednesday.\u00a0 Morning spent on chores and haircut for Nancy.\u00a0 Amazing how much it has grown out in a month (after waiting all those months not to be bald and losing hair in handfuls).\u00a0 Then John took a break from his outside tasks to go with me and let me off at the exercise class.\u00a0 He went and bought \u201cstuff\u201d at the hardware store. \u00a0He is replacing a small wooded bridge in the pasture \u2013 so here\u2019s a bit about that:<\/p>\n

Types of structures here:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/t-d\/pubs\/htmlpubs\/htm07232804\/page07.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

John\u2019s is a Type 3 \u201cpuncheon\u201d \u2013 the drawing above for Type 2 shows split logs and this sort of surface is the meaning of puncheon.<\/p>\n

In this link, near the end, is a drawing (in an oval) of a \u201cstandard puncheon\u201d with a curb or \u201cbull rail.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.fhwa.dot.gov\/environment\/fspubs\/07232806\/page10.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s very close to what we now have.\u00a0 \u201cBull rail\u201d is a tern from sailing although the name seems to have been used so long no one knows why.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.insidepassagenews.com\/bull_rails.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Trail crews spend lots of time building and repairing small bridges and puncheon type structures.\u00a0 Another common trail improvement, called a turnpike, is described here:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.justinwp.com\/blog\/search\/trail_work\/<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . go down to \u201cSummer Trail Work Update.\u00a0 Now you know more than you really wanted too!<\/p>\n

Our prior little bridge was a reinforced wooden pallet used primarily to get the wheel barrow across the irrigation ditch.\u00a0 An initial pallet \u2013 not reinforced \u2013 was used by the horses but was not up to the hoof pressure.\u00a0 A pallet is only 4 feet across so the horses were as apt to jump it and the ditch.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The trick is to put it in a place \u2013 and them in a situation \u2013 where they have to use it, for example, drinking water on one side, food on the other.\u00a0 They will train themselves to cross without hesitation.\u00a0 This is expected of horses on trail rides.\u00a0 The alternatives are not pleasant.<\/p>\n

Now, back to the daily story line —<\/p>\n

We had skipped lunch, so after getting my Protime (aka INR) blood draw at the hospital, we went for a treat from Burger King.\u00a0 We had coupons for all except for buying a small drink and small fries.\u00a0 That made a nice meal.\u00a0 We halved an original chicken sandwich, and had 4 chicken tenders (free) with honey mustard and BBQ sauce.<\/p>\n

Thursday, pretty routine.\u00a0 Worked on stuff around the house and John worked in the yard.\u00a0 I went to play at an assisted living home, and came by to visit my friend in the nursing\/rehab center.<\/p>\n

Friday, I stopped at a sale on the way home and bought us a homemade loaf of cinnamon\/raisin\/nut bread. \u00a0I arrived home just as John was bolting together the bull rails, decking, and stringers for the new bridge.\u00a0 I got to help by putting washers and nuts on two bolts.\u00a0 His work platform was across the bed of the pickup and when finished he just drove to the pasture and unloaded it.\u00a0 He fed the horses and then it started to sprinkle.\u00a0 Poor timing for it because we got a call from our neighbor\u2019s daughter who was visiting across the street and had a flat tire on her Honda.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning.\u00a0 John finished up his KVTR newsletter and got it to the mailbox, so we will not go to town today.\u00a0 It is nice and sunny and not windy for a change.\u00a0 I have a lot of stuff to do in the house, even though it would be nice to be outside.\u00a0 He also got the bridge positioned (in the training mode situation) in the pasture and the horses are using it. \u00a0In a few days he will move it over to the irrigation ditch and come up with a new \u201cobstacle-project\u201d for the horses.<\/p>\n

RAIN ! Wow. We don\u2019t get much rain here \u2013 maybe 8 inches per year. A sprinkle started while we ate lunch, just after John said he would be going outside.\u00a0 The sprinkle turn into a real rain, then into a deluge \u2013 about 20 minutes of can\u2019t see through falling water.\u00a0 Ya\u2019woda thunk we were back east.\u00a0 Then it stopped.\u00a0 Then we got a little more and now Mr. Sun has emerged.\u00a0 Pasture-grass, flowers, and gardens throughout the neighborhood are happy with this. The folks out getting intimate with the shrub-steppe \u2013 probably not so much.<\/p>\n

We are joining our neighbors for lunch tomorrow and have to bake a cake to take.\u00a0 Better get to that.<\/p>\n

Happy Mother\u2019s Day !<\/p>\n

Love from Nancy and John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cshrub-steppe\u201d is the type of natural environment found here and today local experts (KEEN) are out doing an \u201cup close and personal\u201d thingy for children, new comers, and others. It\u2019s the 12th annual \u201cGet Intimate with the Shrub Steppe\u201d : http:\/\/kittitasee.net\/ I am starting this on Sunday, May 1st, \u00a0this week, because you already … Continue reading “SATURDAY — a bridge and rain on the shrub-steppe”<\/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-776","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-cw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","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=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}