Sunday \u2013 June 26: A quiet day, except for cattle in the driveway.\u00a0 John left to exercise the dogs and feed the horses, but was back in the house almost immediately.\u00a0 There were 4 calves half way into our driveway.\u00a0 He and the neighbors herded them into another neighbor\u2019s corral.\u00a0 Some phone calls were made, but the owner wasn\u2019t found until almost dark that night.\u00a0 The cattle (4 young bulls) were claimed and taken “home”.\u00a0 They are used for practicing roping for the rodeo.<\/p>\n
Monday was a crazy day. \u00a0I spent all afternoon, undoing what I started a couple of weeks ago. \u00a0We 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.\u00a0 Turns out, not so, and I found out TODAY when I went for exercise class and saw a flyer.\u00a0 In fact, the thing starts at 11:30 a.m. and goes till 1:30 — a picnic for everyone.\u00a0 It is being held inside at an auditorium off the city library, with room for tables and a stage with microphones.<\/p>\n
I had to call everyone in my “group” just in case they don’t read their email.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Also I made an appointment for an annual physical. \u00a0I have not had one in the last two years when I was so sick.\u00a0 Now I’m able to go in for one.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u00a0Nice to combine appointments for one trip, because we have to drive 30 miles one way.<\/p>\n
Late afternoon I went for a walk with John and the dogs to get the paper. Sunshine was on a cable table \u2013 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.\u00a0 She was up it again this afternoon, just lying on the lowest branch, enjoying life.\u00a0 I still have yet to get a picture of her there. \u00a0It will make a cute one. \u00a0Being draped over the limbs, John says she looks like a little sleeping Cheetah.<\/p>\n
Tuesday.\u00a0 A day not to go to town, with plans to do some cleaning and sorting but that nor practicing the mandolin ever got done.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time on email and then on contacting people about music dates.\u00a0 John spent some time outside in the heat (one of the hottest days recently at 88), and with no wind for cooling.\u00a0 He worked on cleaning horse manure from the pasture, corrals, and barn, and then working on removing Canada thistle.\u00a0 The horses will eat the flower buds off but leave the rest unless it is chopped off at the base \u2013 then they will eat that.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We both were up quite early.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Unfortunately phone calls kept interrupting.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Now it’s cooling down outside and John opened the house… windows and it is cooling down in here. \u00a0My base of operations is a recliner beside the sliding glass door\/window on the west side \u2013 very sunny and warm mid-to-late in the afternoon.\u00a0 There is a concrete slab as a patio that, if roofed, would shade the glass.\u00a0 A future project.<\/p>\n
Finally between phone calls, I got about an hour nap, 1\/2 hour at a time.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This was the end of last year, so I do NOT understand but guess I have no choice but to pay it.\u00a0 Damned medical expenses.\u00a0 That was after Medicare paid some of it.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0John had to remove the riding mower \u2013 its winter home had been under a tarp inside the trailer.<\/p>\n
Just had another phone call from the Navajo relief fund in a southwest state.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Tonight, I asked her to please remove our name from the calling list and she hung up on me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why people are allowed to call when we are listed on the DO NOT CALL list.<\/p>\n
Dinner was surely great.\u00a0 We had sliced beef (steak) fried with carrots and red peppers and mashed potatoes.\u00a0 Yum.\u00a0 Now the only thing wrong is my eye is hurting and dried out.\u00a0 Guess I should put some gel in it and think about going to sleep earlier tonight.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s family).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There were many papers that had been started by my mom\u2019s youngest sister, but she died suddenly a few years back.<\/p>\n
Wednesday is full of household chores and I\u2019m going in to exercise class and to the grocery store, besides finalizing more music for Thursday\u2019s and Friday\u2019s performances.\u00a0 Weather cooled down today and the wind returned, making it nicer.\u00a0 Also keeps flies off the horses.\u00a0 Our windows were open all last night, and we actually awoke to a cool house.<\/p>\n
My right shoulder has bothered me all day (no known reason).\u00a0 I cannot blame it on vacuuming, because I didn’t.\u00a0 I did sit at John’s computer today and transpose 3 songs for our clarinet player to be able to play with us.\u00a0 Have to change the Key to two sharps higher, and move the notes up a whole note.\u00a0 I have a music program on my computer that I use.\u00a0 It still took me 80 minutes to do 3 songs:\u00a0 America, America the Beautiful, and Oh! Susanna!\u00a0 Still to do — the National Anthem.<\/p>\n
Thursday.\u00a0 Early morning phone call from friend that he had to go to ER last night (11:30 p.m.) with atrial fibrillations. \u00a0\u00a0They treated him with an IV and took an EKG and a chest X-ray.\u00a0 He had no pain, and got home by 2:00 a.m. and to bed.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t do that till after 8:00 so I suggested he go back and catch a little more shut eye, which he did.\u00a0 He called back at 8:15 to say he has an appointment tomorrow at 1:00 in Cle Elum, so he won\u2019t be able to be with us at the July 1 Hal Holmes play date tomorrow.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Play date went all right this afternoon, and they had punch and cookies for everyone there, plus us.\u00a0 Nice touch.\u00a0 They also cancelled the request for us to come back on the 4th<\/sup> of July.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine.\u00a0 We are missing many of our group anyway at other events.<\/p>\n John saw two more kittens on the fence near the barn.\u00a0 \u00a0They ran down under our motor home.\u00a0 He put out some water for them.\u00a0 We\u2019ll take some food out soon.\u00a0 He tried to grab one from the fence but it did not want to be caught.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Now we are seriously thinking of working an hour and heading for an early sleep.\u00a0 It has been a long day that started very early.<\/p>\n 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).\u00a0 He told me Austin had had 22 days already this summer of over 100 degrees.\u00a0 WHOA, that\u2019s too hot for me.<\/p>\n I spent a lot of time yesterday at the Patriotic party given for seniors in the community every year by the Adult Activity Center.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They provide a picnic already described above.\u00a0 I was the MC this year from a stage with microphones.\u00a0 We had two groups, and I played with both, so I didn’t eat lunch till the very end.\u00a0 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\u2019s appointment.\u00a0 We had two stand ins (accordionist and guitarist) who never play with us.\u00a0 That was rough to keep us all together.\u00a0 As well as MC, I’m sort of the lead off and the conductor.\u00a0 But, we made it through and got lots of compliments.\u00a0 We did the national anthem at NOON, and invited the audience to join in singing.\u00a0 They stood up and put their hands over their hearts, looking at the flags all around the room.\u00a0 It was very moving.\u00a0 I stood up with all but three members who played accompaniment (accordion, guitar and clarinet).<\/p>\n Came home and laid down to rest.\u00a0 Maybe got an hour\u2019s nap, or less, and was awakened by a long time friend from Othello.\u00a0 She and I hadn\u2019t talked in over two years.\u00a0 We had a great chat on her lunch break from Wal*Mart, where she works.<\/p>\n Went for a walk up the driveway with John and the dogs to retrieve the paper.\u00a0 We stopped and examined the blue bird house that has had a Tree Swallow living in it. \u00a0They usually are friendly and great flyers, and look a bit like tiny penguins.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.gschneiderphoto.com\/gallery3\/var\/albums\/birds\/swallows\/treeswallows\/tree-swallow-milkweed-profile_5583.jpg?m=1292888748<\/a><\/p>\n We hadn\u2019t seen her in 4 days, and we wondered.\u00a0 The dogs were sniffing as we walked by.\u00a0 The mom had been flying out every time we got near the house.\u00a0 John took off the top and looked in, and all the babies were dead.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Rather sad.\u00a0 Each year \u201cwe\u201d have raised a family in that box, that John made and carved the name BETH on the front of.\u00a0 Other boxes around the property by the barn have different names.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 The first one was on the road to town a mile west of us.\u00a0 They were very nice people and we enjoyed visiting with them.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I could also wear a long sleeved tee shirt underneath it.\u00a0 It is red\/white\/blue lovely design but with the high temps, it will not work for the Fourth of July.\u00a0 Also, he found a sweatshirt for him, one that will fit me, and a tee shirt with Leavenworth written on it.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 On to town for my meds, ice cream, cantaloupe, potatoes, onions, and fritters.\u00a0 Back by the Dollar Store near the town\u2019s center looking for tops for the canned cat food. \u00a0John checked the $ store, but came out empty handed. \u00a0Meanwhile, I walked to a sale (leaving our car in the shade) and\u00a0 found an aluminum cooking pan (9 x 13) with a lid, for a buck.\u00a0 That is what we use for our cobblers, and having the top will be nice.\u00a0 I looked at sweatshirts for John but they all had hoods, which he does NOT like.\u00a0 Then while I was paying for my pan, he found a large glass serving plate with an interesting scene \u2013 period 1900s, horses pulling a sleigh with a Christmas tree.\u00a0 It was only a buck too, and it will be perfect for serving \u00a0round upside down cakes or something similar.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hot here today; 88 with no wind.\u00a0 I was burning up, so John just flipped on the A\/C. \u00a0I will finish this and send it to him to put on the blog.\u00a0 We hope you all have a nice July 4th <\/sup>weekend.<\/p>\n All our best regards<\/p>\n Nancy and John<\/p>\n and summer<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday \u2013 June 26: A quiet day, except for cattle in the driveway.\u00a0 John left to exercise the dogs and feed the horses, but was back in the house almost immediately.\u00a0 There were 4 calves half way into our driveway.\u00a0 He and the neighbors herded them into another neighbor\u2019s corral.\u00a0 Some phone calls were made, … Continue reading “SATURDAY — Country things and music”<\/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-805","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-cZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","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=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![http:\/\/www.gschneiderphoto.com\/gallery3\/var\/albums\/birds\/swallows\/treeswallows\/tree-swallow-milkweed-profile_5583.jpg?m=1292888748<\/a><\/p>\nWe hadn\u2019t seen her in 4 days, and we wondered.\u00a0 The dogs were sniffing as we walked by.\u00a0 The mom had been flying out every time we got near the house.\u00a0 John took off the top and looked in, and all the babies were dead.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Rather sad.\u00a0 Each year \u201cwe\u201d have raised a family in that box, that John made and carved the name BETH on the front of.\u00a0 Other boxes around the property by the barn have different names.<\/p>\nSaturday: 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.\u00a0 The first one was on the road to town a mile west of us.\u00a0 They were very nice people and we enjoyed visiting with them.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I could also wear a long sleeved tee shirt underneath it.\u00a0 It is red\/white\/blue lovely design but with the high temps, it will not work for the Fourth of July.\u00a0 Also, he found a sweatshirt for him, one that will fit me, and a tee shirt with Leavenworth written on it.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 On to town for my meds, ice cream, cantaloupe, potatoes, onions, and fritters.\u00a0 Back by the Dollar Store near the town\u2019s center looking for tops for the canned cat food. \u00a0John checked the $ store, but came out empty handed. \u00a0Meanwhile, I walked to a sale (leaving our car in the shade) and\u00a0 found an aluminum cooking pan (9 x 13) with a lid, for a buck.\u00a0 That is what we use for our cobblers, and having the top will be nice.\u00a0 I looked at sweatshirts for John but they all had hoods, which he does NOT like.\u00a0 Then while I was paying for my pan, he found a large glass serving plate with an interesting scene \u2013 period 1900s, horses pulling a sleigh with a Christmas tree.\u00a0 It was only a buck too, and it will be perfect for serving \u00a0round upside down cakes or something similar.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s hot here today; 88 with no wind.\u00a0 I was burning up, so John just flipped on the A\/C. \u00a0I will finish this and send it to him to put on the blog.\u00a0 We hope you all have a nice July 4th <\/sup>weekend.<\/p>\nAll our best regards<\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\nand summer<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday \u2013 June 26: A quiet day, except for cattle in the driveway.\u00a0 John left to exercise the dogs and feed the horses, but was back in the house almost immediately.\u00a0 There were 4 calves half way into our driveway.\u00a0 He and the neighbors herded them into another neighbor\u2019s corral.\u00a0 Some phone calls were made, … Continue reading “SATURDAY — Country things and music”<\/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-805","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-cZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","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=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.gschneiderphoto.com\/gallery3\/var\/albums\/birds\/swallows\/treeswallows\/tree-swallow-milkweed-profile_5583.jpg?m=1292888748\"){kind=link}