Sunday (July 31) we met our friends from Michigan mentioned at the end of last week\u2019s blog entry.\u00a0 We were buddies (hunting and dog) in Iowa City, IA.\u00a0 They helped us move all our belongings to Idaho.\u00a0 We have some wonderful stories of our past, so we caught up a bit this morning over breakfast.\u00a0 We had a humongous breakfast and a wonderful 2 hr visit at a local diner in Kittitas, WA, called the Wagon Wheel Caf\u00e9. \u00a0They were happy to see me looking so much better than this time last year.\u00a0\u00a0 We all had the Wheel Breakfast, but I had the Mini version.\u00a0 They had two pancakes (the size of the plate), two eggs, two large sausage steaks, and John had links.\u00a0 I had one pancake, 2 pieces of crisp bacon, and one egg over easy.\u00a0 Water… lots and lots of water.\u00a0 They had coffee.\u00a0 We meet them every year when they come back to visit family in Spokane, but this year they had a wedding to attend on a cruise ship at Seattle, so they drove to that, stopped by Rainier on the way back, stayed in Yakima and came up to Ellensburg to have breakfast with us.\u00a0 Normally we drive over to Moses Lake and meet them for lunch each year.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m now resting, but John just went out and picked 15 ounces of raspberries.\u00a0 (They\u2019re selling for $2.50 \/ pound in the grocery, and the Rainier cherries are selling for $4.98\/pound.\u00a0 They did not look anywhere near as fresh and good as ours.\u00a0\u00a0 Bing cherries were selling for $3.98\/ pound.\u00a0 Got a lot of rest in the afternoon, when it was too hot to go outside.<\/p>\n
Monday, Monday.\u00a0 Only a couple of things planned today in town: my exercise class and delivering some raspberries to a friend.\u00a0 John picked 25 more ounces this morning before it warmed to bee temperature.\u00a0 Guess I know what we will have on our ice cream tonight and maybe on cereal in the morning.<\/p>\n
I spent the morning writing a story about Kitty Sunshine in our life.\u00a0 Then I washed some dishes that had been sitting around, to put in the dishwasher for a thorough hot cleaning.<\/p>\n
Tuesday.\u00a0 Relatively quiet morning for Nancy, but John did a lot of yard work, picked the remainder of the sweet cherries, set water, fed and exercised animals, and Nancy stayed inside working on the computer.\u00a0 Got a picture of the grey tabby cat that was offered to us by a friend and her kids.\u00a0 They have been socializing him but they have too many cats already, so wanted to give him to us.\u00a0 He is only about 8-9 weeks old, and is a handsome kitty with lots of color and a great personality.\u00a0 We will pick him up tomorrow (probably) and give him a new home.\u00a0 Finally, at 2:00 p.m. the Sears Repairman arrived and fixed the freezer compressor in the side of the refrigerator.\u00a0 Nice to have fixed on our \u201cservice contract\u201d that otherwise would have cost $280.\u00a0 Later this afternoon, we piled in the truck with the horse trailer behind and went across the valley to get 34 bales of hay.\u00a0 This is nice grass hay and uniformly large bales.\u00a0 It filled our trailer.\u00a0 I participated in conversation (retired prof from my department) while the guys pack it in from off the stack.\u00a0 It had been lifted and stacked there by a Harobed. We arrived there at 6:30 and left about an hour later \u2013 all activity in the shade of the barn and the late day Sun.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow is a busy day, and I hope I can make all the events and still have time to pack and get ready to leave the next day for Portland. \u00a0Am scheduled to play music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen,\u00a0 go by the hospital for a blood draw, and then to exercise class where I will deliver some raspberries and some pie cherries.\u00a0 Then hopefully meet up with a friend from Montana who is coming to Eburg for the night and has brought along some hiking boots from her husband, who wore the same size as John.\u00a0 After that, hopefully, we will go pick up the new kitty, and John can bond with him\/her\/it while I\u2019m gone.\u00a0 In Portland, I will have my computer with me and free WIFI, so I should be able to keep up with most of the emails\u2026 and send this back to John to post on the blog this week.\u00a0 We made all the events, and didn\u2019t get home until 7:00 p.m. \u00a0Ate a late dinner of rib eye steak and potatoes (and I had tomatoes).\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get done with packing, however, and I am ride-a-bumpy-horse tired, so I think I will get some sleep and start in the morning when I awake.\u00a0 I did wash clothes today, so should have a few clean ones to pack.<\/p>\n
Kitty is back in the \u201ccomputer room\u201d with John.\u00a0 It de-crated immediately, then ventured under the bunk bed, and then back to John\u2019s feet.\u00a0 He picked up new kitty and put in his lap.\u00a0 There was immediate purring and kneading of feet.\u00a0 They are so cute when they do that.\u00a0 Then John closed the door, leaving kitty in the room, with his litter box and food and water.\u00a0 When John went back after dinner, kitty was in his computer chair.\u00a0 Cool, reminiscent of Sunshine but it\u2019s likely all kittens would do about the same.\u00a0 This is worth a watch and a read:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/cats.lovetoknow.com\/Why_Cats_Knead_Paws<\/a><\/p>\n Thursday; and reporting in from Portland.\u00a0 I left about 11:40 and drove an awfully long time.\u00a0 I\u2019d planned on going in the \u201809 Subaru (a \u2018regular\u2019 gas engine), but after cleaning the windows all around from cherry tree and bird drippings, John discovered the right rear tire was flat where it touched the ground.\u00a0 So, we cleaned out the other car (a 2004 that takes premium).\u00a0 I drove by way of Costco to fill my tank (3.92) only to drive farther down the highway and find it 3 cents cheaper per gallon. Oh well.\u00a0 Stopped in Goldendale at the Les Schwab Tire Ranch to have the air in my tires checked, and they were fine.\u00a0 On to Portland.\u00a0 Lots of traffic all the way, and then there was an accident on I-5 slowing the whole 3 lanes down to\u00a05 mph and less for over 6 miles.\u00a0 Not nice.\u00a0 Finally got through and turned on 405 and found my way to my motel, not arriving till after 5:00 p.m., much longer than planned.\u00a0 I did make it late to the opening ceremonies, however, and had a good time meeting with old friends.\u00a0 There were some 6 or 7 different hors d\u2019oeuvres and I ate five of them for \u201cdinner\u201d; plus a few cherries when I got back to my motel room.<\/p>\n Friday was a busy day, and included attending several paper sessions, a lunch meeting with the Remote Sensing Task force, of which I have been a member for 14 years or so.\u00a0 Then I went over our paper with Paul from NY that we give Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m.\u00a0 Stuck around for more afternoon sessions with people I know from my past, and then was picked up by a former student (from 1994) who works in Portland.\u00a0 We had a nice Thai dinner and she took me back for the night festivities at the Marriott.\u00a0 They included a 25th<\/sup> anniversary of the National Geographic Society\u2019s Geography Alliance project, sponsored and lead by Gil Grosvenor.<\/p>\n This was followed with an alumnae party for all previously involved geographers in this program.\u00a0 I participate both in Idaho and in WA (1994), so I met a few people there, and also partook of brie cheese, aged cheddar, gorgonzola and crackers.\u00a0 I again skipped the free drink.<\/p>\n Saturday morning.\u00a0 Went to midday activities.\u00a0 Heard an interesting paper on Point Roberts, WA and had lunch with my friends from 1966 in Cincinnati, who are from Upstate NY.\u00a0 Came back to rest and work on the blog but will go back this evening for a group dinner.\u00a0 I just sent this and then called John.\u00a0 He\u2019s to add something.<\/p>\n John continues to pick a few raspberries each day, freezing them in 6 ounce packets.\u00a0 Six such today and enough for ice cream in the evening.\u00a0 The Montmorency Cherry<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.arborday.org\/Shopping\/Trees\/TreeDetail.cfm?id=95<\/a><\/p>\n that is supposed to provide a pollinator for the sweet cherry trees usually blooms too late to be of much help for that function but occasionally goes over-board with its own fruit production.\u00a0 This is one of those years.\u00a0 John has picked many pounds and the tree is still loaded and (now) mostly ripe.\u00a0 It looks like the one here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.northernmichigancherryfarm.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n We eat sweet cherries fresh (and give away most of them) but the tart ones we freeze for late fall and winter desserts.\u00a0 A favorite:<\/p>\n http:\/\/allrecipes.com\/Recipe\/Cherry-Delight\/detail.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n We make one that looks like the one on this site, about half-way down:<\/p>\n http:\/\/aroundmyhome.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Our recipe came from John\u2019s mom and used Saltine crackers and finely chopped nuts but many others use a graham cracker base.\u00a0 Blueberries make a great one also but the color doesn\u2019t last, so finish the procedure just before serving.<\/p>\n The new cat is still nameless and of unknown sex.\u00a0 The color pattern is called Mackerel Tabby, see here, especially the second page — The Magnificent “M” :<\/p>\n http:\/\/cats.about.com\/cs\/tabbycats\/a\/tabby_cats.htm<\/a><\/p>\n This next one is the most similar I\u2019ve found<\/p>\n http:\/\/cats.about.com\/cs\/justpictures\/l\/blmar_freckles.htm<\/a><\/p>\n Except, ours also has a \u201cbull\u2019s-eye\u201d on the side \u2013 see third photo here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tabby_cat<\/a><\/p>\n Twice it has walked across the keyboard while I try to finish this.<\/p>\n Nancy in Portland<\/p>\n John on the Naneum Fan (WA)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday (July 31) we met our friends from Michigan mentioned at the end of last week\u2019s blog entry.\u00a0 We were buddies (hunting and dog) in Iowa City, IA.\u00a0 They helped us move all our belongings to Idaho.\u00a0 We have some wonderful stories of our past, so we caught up a bit this morning over breakfast.\u00a0 … Continue reading “SATURDAY — On the Road Again”<\/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":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-dn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","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=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}