{"id":868,"date":"2011-10-02T18:44:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T01:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/hultquist\/?p=868"},"modified":"2011-10-02T18:44:45","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T01:44:45","slug":"sunday-watching-tomatoes-ripen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=868","title":{"rendered":"SUNDAY — watching tomatoes ripen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night (9\/24) at almost 11:00 p.m.\u00a0 Rascal just brought into the house a live small black Vole (check this link for clarification: http:\/\/www.rogerbolger.com\/Moles_Voles_&_Shrews.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

I got John to capture it, after chasing the cat and \u201cmouse\u201d into the back computer room, and then back to the den, where he had started.\u00a0 Rascal was flipping him around, and when he would run, he\u2019d grab him in his mouth and tote him around.\u00a0 Once or twice I gently put my foot on him, and Rascal reached under and grabbed him out.\u00a0 We froze him.\u00a0 He was dead when we put him in the freezer (in a bag).\u00a0 \u00a0Oh my, we started out this morning with the Steller\u2019s Jay.\u00a0 Now he has gone back outside.\u00a0 Wonder what he will bring in next.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to try to go to sleep.\u00a0 What a Rascal! We surely named him correctly.\u00a0 Luckily, he did not bring any more animals in the window, and slept most of the night in bed.\u00a0 However, in the middle of the night or early morning, there was a cat scream outside the bedroom window.\u00a0 John got up and looked and Big Sue was on the \u201cveranda\u201d \u2013 the entrance to the doggie door window!\u00a0 He didn\u2019t see anyone else.\u00a0 He watched her jump down into the yard and sit for awhile.\u00a0 Then he sent Shay out the window to check, and that made Big Sue move over to the cable table, where she stayed a long while, till John decided to stop watching.\u00a0 Rascal was on the bed this whole time.<\/p>\n

Sunday. \u201cMorning has broken\u201d (as Cat Stevens used to sing), without sun, with a little sprinkle, but cloudy and cool.\u00a0 John decided to go out and work in the yard awhile after taking the dogs for their morning exercise, and feeding the outside kitties.\u00a0 \u00a0Check out this short video with gorgeous pictures set to the music, Morning Has Broken.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7ESHjYat9rk<\/a><\/p>\n

For a longer version with beautiful pictures set to the lyrics, check this 3-minute version.\u00a0 This is craftily presented even to the footsteps in the sand, \u201cwhere his feet pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e0TInLOJuUM<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are the lyrics of this \u201cprayer for anyone that has some faith\u201d:<\/p>\n

Morning Has Broken, As Sung by Cat Stevens; lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon<\/p>\n

Morning has broken, like the first morning<\/p>\n

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird<\/p>\n

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning<\/p>\n

Praise for the springing fresh from the word<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven<\/p>\n

Like the first dewfall, on the first grass<\/p>\n

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden<\/p>\n

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning<\/p>\n

Born of the one light, Eden saw play<\/p>\n

Praise with elation, praise every morning<\/p>\n

God’s recreation of the new day<\/p>\n

We never got to the dehydrator loading yesterday, and we decided to do it today.\u00a0 I have hand washed the inner parts and the top and bottom, as suggested by the manufacturer for a new unit.\u00a0 When John returns from outside we will work on filling it.<\/p>\n

John finally came in around noon, and we did a few things checking out the peaches he bought, that were in a box on the clothes washer.\u00a0 YIKES, he screamed, and I rushed to see what was wrong.\u00a0 I was standing in the kitchen.\u00a0 He had just looked at the box yesterday (peaches were individually seated in a plastic shelf), but one had gone bad and had black mold and hairy fungi all over it.\u00a0 It had reached to 4 peaches surrounding it.\u00a0 John picked out ones around it, and brought the bad ones in.\u00a0 I cut off the bad part down to where the \u201cbrown meat\u201d stopped, and then washed the remaining peach and the knife.\u00a0 I cut up the remaining parts of the peaches (with skin) into a bowl.\u00a0 Given another half day might have been disastrous.\u00a0 John washed a yellow plum and we put half of it in a bowl for each of us, and then I spooned a few peach pieces into a bowl for our lunch.\u00a0 Before we ate, I put some sugar on the peaches and John held a plastic bag for me to fill to put in the freezer for his next Peach Cobbler.\u00a0 We took the last of the juice in the bowl, and spooned it over our small bowls of fruit.\u00a0 After eating them, I heated bacon, and put together a nice BLT for each of us.\u00a0 Now we are done, but relaxing before we put fruit in the dehydrator.\u00a0 We need some lemon juice to pre-process the peaches, apples, and pears, and what we have is pretty old.\u00a0 We imagine it will be okay, however, as it has been refrigerated.<\/p>\n

Okay– all done and the dehydrator is loaded and drying.\u00a0 John and I both worked hard, cleaning the fruit, cutting (mostly John\u2019s doing) and de-seeding (mine), put into the lemon juice (except for the plums).\u00a0 We started with a tray of Italian plums (halved); next were Honeycrisp apples, and then a tray of pears, two kinds (Starkrimson and Bartlett), finally a tray of peaches.\u00a0 Hopefully this first load will be a success.<\/p>\n

We sliced some of the peaches and put sugar on them to eat later.<\/p>\n

John has been out putting up a barrier to keep the horses out from behind the hay shed where the kitties are eating, playing and drinking.\u00a0 Woody sat up on top of the hay watching John dig a post-hole, and the other two yellow felines were at the top of the ladder in the hay shed, sleeping.\u00a0 Rascal is in next to me on a blanket, while I type on my laptop.\u00a0 I forgot to say we made some great cinnamon\/sugar sticks today from the leftover pie dough.\u00a0 We have enjoyed them throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Well, what was for dinner?\u00a0 Surprise; John bought some white\/yellow corn on the cob at the fruit-stand stop, and we cooked one tonight for each of us.\u00a0 They had small and tender kernels, both yellow and white.\u00a0 I had some leftovers from the Scholarship luncheon (my lettuce\/pea salad), and some little yellow tomatoes, and a piece of sour dough toast.\u00a0 John had corn, toast, and grocery store-boxed fried fish.\u00a0 I suspect we\u2019ll have peaches on ice cream for dessert.\u00a0 Meanwhile Rascal has been sleeping all evening; wonder if he will go out \u201ccatting\u201d tonight.\u00a0 Just so he doesn\u2019t return with voles or mice.\u00a0 We cannot lock our doggie door.\u00a0 All we can do is close the window, but would rather not when dogs will go out on their own in the middle of the night to potty.<\/p>\n

Monday.\u00a0 Whoa, lots of hospital time this morning.\u00a0 John carried Annie in to the vet.\u00a0 She looked at her drain hole on the soft tissue place near her mammary glands.\u00a0 She said to keep her from licking it and gave some meds, and put \u201cdiaper rash cream\u201d on it.\u00a0 John went to the grocery and bought more.\u00a0 John loaded our dehydrator again this morning while I was at the hospital.\u00a0 He put more peaches, pears, and apples in.<\/p>\n

I went by myself to the hospital for my two tests.\u00a0 The first was to get a\u00a0 Holter Heart Monitor (24 hr.).\u00a0 While there I was given another EKG, and it looked very good.\u00a0 My heartbeat was 65 and in normal rhythm.\u00a0 Then I took a Pulmonary Function Test.\u00a0 Last one I had was Nov, 2010.\u00a0 The technician explained all my results to me.\u00a0 I asked him about the problems I was having with my voice, projection and singing.\u00a0 He said I would probably improve with an inhaler and I needed to see my family physician ASAP.\u00a0 I made an appointment this afternoon for Oct 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 We need to go anyway for flu shots. \u00a0\u00a0Afternoon found us both going back to town for my exercise class, and John went to buy us some stamps at the USPS, to the grocery for more things, and to fill the car with gasoline.\u00a0 We were running on vapors.\u00a0 We were both hungry from having no lunch, so at 2:30, we went to Burger King for a Whopper each.\u00a0 I had a coupon for one free with the purchase of another ($3.49).<\/p>\n

When we got home, John went over to check at the neighbors about getting them some firewood for the winter.\u00a0 While there he brought home a few nice tomatoes (for our BLTs tonight with corn-on-the-cob).\u00a0 Also brought some coats my neighbor gave me.\u00a0 She has lost a lot of weight and now cannot wear the size I am.\u00a0 So, rather than give them to Goodwill, she is giving them to me.\u00a0 Anything I cannot wear, I pass long to my friends, in exercise class or in the music group.<\/p>\n

Tonight, I made a CD of my 50s songs from my high school reunion to take to my exercise class this Wednesday.\u00a0 I did NOT like the new music the staff of the Adult Activity Center made to replace our CD that was sticking some (but only near the end of the hour).\u00a0 No one else in the class liked it either because there was no beat to keep up with.<\/p>\n

Tuesday.\u00a0 Our morning started with a small breakfast before I went (alone) to the hospital to have the Holter Heart Monitor removed, and then over to deliver some yellow squash in trade for tomatoes at a friend\u2019s, and then off to my 2nd<\/sup> acupuncture.\u00a0 It was pretty intense, with me on my side and the treatment concentrated on my bad left shoulder.\u00a0 He used heat, needles, suction cups, and massage.\u00a0 I was a little woozy at the end and sat in my car for 20 minutes, resting, before driving home.\u00a0 I believe it did some good.\u00a0 The pain became less as the treatment went forward.\u00a0 I really hope this will break up the scar tissue that is plaguing me and my rotator cuff\u2019s surrounding muscles–affecting my movement and extension (reach) of my left arm.<\/p>\n

While I was in town, John went to the neighbor\u2019s, taking down a volunteer cherry tree they wanted rid of, because it unfortunately sprouted in the pathway to the back of their house and also it produced lousy cherries.\u00a0 They let it get big enough to produce fruit, and when it did, the cherries were mostly skin and seed.\u00a0 John cut it down and also used his truck to remove the root ball.\u00a0 Then he came home and worked on weeds in our corral.\u00a0 He was going to put in a fence post, but the wind was blowing too hard and would have blown up dust and dirt in his face.<\/p>\n

Lunch — I fixed a meal from the fruits around.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what we had:\u00a0 yellow and red cherry tomatoes, multi-grain crackers and cheddar cheese, a yellow plum and a red one too, and finally a yellow pear.\u00a0 Fall colors all.<\/p>\n

After lunch, we filled the dehydrator again.\u00a0 Before I left this morning, I had washed all the trays.\u00a0 John did most of the fruit cutting, and I dunked the fruit into the bowl of lemon juice, and then we shared putting it on the trays.\u00a0 Things we included were nice large peaches and Honeycrisp apples he had bought on his way home from trail work last Friday.\u00a0 He intends to go again this weekend and will buy more!\u00a0 We also cut pears (both kinds), and then finished with 2 large Roma tomatoes.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see what they dry out tasting like.\u00a0 I also put the previously dried fruit (peaches, plums, & apples) into two half pound freezer bags for the freezer.\u00a0 We can take out what we need when we want.<\/p>\n

Tonight John fixed a pork roast for dinner, along with onions, carrots, and corn-on-the-cob.\u00a0 Leftovers went into a black plastic bowl (then frozen) for a meal for John sometime when I\u2019m gone (say, Wed. \u2013 see next).<\/p>\n

Wednesday.\u00a0 Well, today was Nancy\u2019s day to go to town to play music and eat at the Soup Kitchen of the Food Bank \u2013 aka FISH:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dailyrecordnews.com\/news\/article_ffb45f52-68eb-11df-aeb4-001cc4c03286.html<\/a><\/p>\n

There were only two of us there today; a banjo player and me.\u00a0 We did all right, considering.\u00a0 Food was vegetable beef soup, cucumber (Yuk), onion & tomatoes salad, bread with butter, and a strange cobbler, made from Peaches (okay), Plums (okay), and Cantaloupe (WHAT THE HECK?).\u00a0 From there I moved to the Adult Activity Center, and put in my fifties music to play for my exercise group.\u00a0 My foot care had been rescheduled from 1:00 to 1:30, and that is the start of my class.\u00a0 I went ahead and took the appointment because my toes needed attention.\u00a0 So, I stayed in the class until the lady was done with the person in front of me.\u00a0 She was running 20 minutes behind schedule because her first client was LATE.\u00a0 That threw off everyone else the rest of the day.\u00a0 Some people have no concern for others.\u00a0 I got finished in time to make it back for a few exercises in class.\u00a0 I came on home afterwards, and put together a music book for a new member (guitarist) joining our group.\u00a0 Tonight we had BLTs and chips for dinner.\u00a0 John picked strawberries and has fixed them, so we will have them on ice cream tonight.<\/p>\n

Thursday.\u00a0 Another strange full day.\u00a0 Started with the normal stuff we do every morning, and then we both got to work on filling the dehydrator with fruit pieces.\u00a0 This bunch had pears, peaches, apples and tomatoes.<\/p>\n

Then tonight we realized it was no longer running.\u00a0 So, we ate a late dinner (Chicken, veggies stir fried, tomatoes, and French fries), and called our neighbors 8.5 miles down the road to see if we could borrow their dehydrator.\u00a0 Went in and visited an hour and brought it home.\u00a0 It is now finishing our fruit.<\/p>\n

Back to this afternoon.\u00a0 We both went to town.\u00a0 John dropped me off to play music at Mt. View Meadows and we had a nice bunch of residents who appreciated our being there for them.\u00a0 They sang along (with words we gave them).\u00a0 The new activities director made chocolate cookies with choc and white choc chips.\u00a0 She is trying to entice us to come more frequently \u2013 the place was on our once-a month-list \u2013 but now only for the 5th<\/sup> Thur. of the month.\u00a0 \u00a0The baking cookies smelled good cooking and then we stayed afterwards and ate them with the residents (many of whom had already eaten theirs while we were still playing music).\u00a0 John had gone to the grocery store for my meds, and chocolate milk and some other things.\u00a0 He met one of our players, and traded our yellow squash for pears and little yellow tomatoes.\u00a0 He also went by the bank to get some money for us both.\u00a0 He is going again to work trails west of Steven\u2019s Pass, and plans to stop by the fruit stand and buy more fruit as last week.<\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, when we got back from town, we checked and the dehydrator was no longer working.\u00a0 In the morning, John had dropped the top power head and cracked the plastic around the switch.\u00a0 He plugged it in and it worked.\u00a0 We checked on it the next 3 hours and it was working fine.\u00a0 Something must have shorted out during the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Our trays fit the borrowed dehydrator, so that was good.\u00a0 They have to be rotated and moved around (up and down the stack, because the heat is on the bottom with no fan).\u00a0 The new, non-working, one had a top heater\/blower (like a hand-held hair dryer).<\/p>\n

John leaves at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, for his trail work near the West Fork of the Foss River, south of Skykomish, WA up on the north side of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.<\/p>\n

Friday.\u00a0 John took off and I had fallen back to sleep.\u00a0 When I awoke the house heater was running and the cat was beside me, purring.\u00a0 I went out to feed the outside (untamed) cats, and then fed myself.\u00a0 Not much, because I was going to go to an assisted living home (where we played music yesterday), having been invited for Baked Potatoes and all the toppings.\u00a0 I went and it was wonderful.\u00a0 A real meal that filled us all up. They served us tapioca pudding for dessert.\u00a0 Sat at a table with 3 gentlemen; two had been Marines or Navy personnel on carriers.\u00a0 We asked the lady in charge questions and found out it costs $79\/ day (\u201cbut it is negotiable\u201d) to live there with 3 meals a day and laundry, plus nice things in the rooms (own bathroom, microwave, and frig).\u00a0 That\u2019s better than going to Holiday Inn.\u00a0 They no longer allow animals there, however.\u00a0 Left there and stopped at my friends to pick up some tomatoes.\u00a0 I will trade her yellow squash tomorrow when I go back to town.<\/p>\n

This morning I started by calling the NESCO people in Wisconsin to see what the cost was of a replacement power head.\u00a0 It would be $15.99 plus $6.50 postage and handling.\u00a0 Yikes, I\u2019d be better off to get another from Bi-Mart.\u00a0 It was on sale and the 30-day sale ended two days ago.\u00a0 I called them and asked if they would consider selling me a new one at the same sale price I had back on September 18th<\/sup>.\u00a0 I told her what had happened, and the cost of a replacement, and she said I should just bring back the unit and get a replacement; that they have a 30-day guarantee.\u00a0 I said, \u201cWell it\u2019s our fault; we dropped the power head unit (it fits on top down into the center of the trays,\u201d but she said she would ask her supervisor.\u00a0 She did, and they said to bring it back in, and they would just give me a replacement.\u00a0 Amazing.<\/p>\n

I will clean it up tomorrow and repackage it and take it back for a trade.\u00a0\u00a0 Meanwhile, today, before going to my exercise class, I stopped at a yard sale at a lady\u2019s house where I bought a lot of clothes last year.\u00a0 She recognized me and said how much better I looked.\u00a0 Actually I knew her niece at CWU when I worked there.\u00a0 As I walked in, I asked if she happened to have a dehydrator for sale.\u00a0 She did!\u00a0 Said she never used it and decided to put it in the sale.\u00a0 I checked it out (on the far back table), and she had a $10 price tag on it.\u00a0 Obviously, that was a good price, but I bargained anyway, and she dropped it to $8.\u00a0 It will work fine to help us get through all the fruit John plans to bring home.\u00a0 Also got 4 paperback book s for John for a quarter each.\u00a0 Then on to my exercise class.\u00a0 On the brink of not going, thinking I was tired, but still . . . I went and neither of our regular leaders was there, so I led the group.\u00a0 They were very happy.\u00a0 There were only 8 of us there.\u00a0 Wednesday, there had been 18! (our largest group ever)<\/p>\n

After that I took my pills back to the Pharmacy, requesting they halve them.\u00a0 They are not \u201cscored\u201d and it is a pain for us to do it.\u00a0 They were willing and have a little implement that does it.\u00a0 I will pick them up tomorrow.<\/p>\n

On to one last yard sale, out south of town in the rural area. \u00a0There were lots of clothes and most stuff I really don\u2019t need.\u00a0 I have many blouses from yard sales, and a lot recently from my neighbor (including the coats and sweaters).\u00a0 I just browsed and found some wooden frames for a quarter each, that I can give to my artist friend who likes to frame her small paintings. \u00a0Coming back around the center table I found a Christmas vest.\u00a0 It has never been used; still had the tag on it.\u00a0 It will be perfect for playing music at Christmas events, of which we do many.\u00a0 There was also a nice white silk blouse to go with it (on another rack).\u00a0 Each was $1.00.<\/p>\n

Then also there were some sweatshirts for certain holidays:\u00a0 Christmas again, and Halloween, and a nice navy blue Lake Mead Cruise sweatshirt (We wonder \u2013 does the company provide these for workers? \u00a0Otherwise, why do they exist?)\u00a0\u00a0 Each in excellent shape.\u00a0 Each a buck.\u00a0 Nice finds.<\/p>\n

On the way back home I passed by some friends of friends we have known awhile, and they are moving.\u00a0 They were having a \u201cfarm\u201d sale.\u00a0 I stopped and went in and reminded them who I was and our connection.\u00a0\u00a0 Looked at their stuff but wished John was along to pick out books for himself.\u00a0 Then I saw some metal fence posts marked $3.00 each.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure they are worth that, but I said, \u201cIf I bought them all, would you make me a deal?\u00a0 The wife said, \u201cYes, if you take them all, we\u2019ll sell them for $2 each.\u00a0 I accepted.\u00a0 John says we really don\u2019t need that many, but I know he\u2019s always putting up fences to separate the horses, so he will use them.\u00a0 She also offered me a Fence Post Driver for $5 and I took that too.<\/p>\n

We will go back Monday probably to pick them up.\u00a0 Need to take our old truck, because I don\u2019t want to mess up my Subaru.\u00a0 As I was leaving I told him where John was and about him getting some yellow plums.\u00a0 \u00a0They said they had a yellow plum tree (called Greengage), . . .<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Greengage<\/a><\/p>\n

and they didn\u2019t have time to be moving and pick the plums.\u00a0 So, they picked a bag for me, and threw in some Macintosh apples.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Nice.<\/p>\n

John was quite late getting home tonight, because he had to stop by the fruit stand again.\u00a0 He brought more Honeycrisp apples, some Galas, more yellow plums, some purple plums, more Starkrimson & Bartlett pears, and a box of peaches (harder than those last week), and they gave him a half dozen corn.\u00a0 Last week he bought $27 worth and this week he bought $47 worth.\u00a0 She gave him the same excellent price on all species at $1 \/ pound.\u00a0 One of the Honeycrisp apples almost weighs a pound, so is probably a 90 cent apple.\u00a0 All the fruit is beautiful.<\/p>\n

Saturday.\u00a0 Good Lord, Grand Central Station at the Naneum Fan and Rockin\u2019 Ponderosa.\u00a0 Started at 4:45 a.m. with dogs going out and finding a skunk on the opposite side of the fence, who was returning toward the pasture from eating the outside cat food.\u00a0 No more leaving food out overnight.\u00a0 Meghan and Annie (less so) got drift-spray so fragrance came through the doggie door window and then into the house also on their coats.\u00a0 John turned on the fan to make the filters work to remove some of the aroma.\u00a0 It\u2019s still in here.\u00a0 He took off at 5:45 a.m. for his day working on trail again at the West Fork of Foss Creek south of Skykomish.\u00a0 I turned up the heat a degree and tried to go back to sleep, but it was not meant to be.\u00a0 A wrong number awoke me at 7:00 a.m.\u00a0 (This woman calls here a lot; I wish she would get her act together).\u00a0 About 7:45 a.m. I got a call from a lady in Oregon (there for a funeral) who is planning a big shindig at their farm this Saturday, Oct 8th<\/sup>, and she has invited our music group to play for the Farm Festival.\u00a0 She\u2019d like us for all day, but we will get there at 10:00 a.m. and play as long as we can taking breaks.\u00a0 They will have recorded music to play while we break.\u00a0 They have a sound system rented with two microphones, and a connection to the pre-recorded music.\u00a0 But they want us to play tunes of old time music and gospels.\u00a0 We have invited the Cle Elum (with Yakima players) Bluegrass Jam session folks to join us.\u00a0 There are also a couple of young violinists from EBRG planning to come.\u00a0 Perhaps the Anderson\u2019s granddaughter will play Boil them Cabbage Down with us (or we will back her up).<\/p>\n

They are planning for us to get there by 10:00 a.m. to get set up<\/p>\n

You can go to the BLOG on this site to learn more about the farm.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.andersonfamilyfarm1979.com\/gotmilk.html<\/a><\/p>\n

They have advertised all over the region, at Starbuck\u2019s on the west side, and all over Ellensburg are flyers.\u00a0 They are expecting a LOT of people.<\/p>\n

Maybe as many as 800.\u00a0 We will be playing on a truck bed with bales of hay and chairs for those who want.\u00a0 There are rocking chairs if someone wants.\u00a0 We will get a free lunch (BBQ) and sides.<\/p>\n

Okay, back to Saturday.\u00a0 I went to town for several errands.\u00a0 Stopped first by the lady\u2019s house who puts on the Scholarship luncheons, to drop off some plastic black dishes that frozen foods come in.\u00a0 They are dishwasher safe, and she brought a stack to the last luncheon to serve John\u2019s desserts in.\u00a0 When I stopped, she offered me some fruits: plums, apples, pears, and tomatoes.\u00a0 I graciously accepted them even though we have a house full of fruit now from John\u2019s carting stuff home.\u00a0 We also have more dehydrators we can hook up and dry some of this stuff, after we clean and prepare it.\u00a0 We are both too tired tonight from our long day, so we will do it in the morning.<\/p>\n

Left there and dropped off some fruit for a friend on Mt. View, and forgot the reason I was going in to her house.\u00a0 Duh.\u00a0 The fruit was an add-on by John, but I left in the frig the requested yellow squash John picked in the dark last night, and I also forgot (in the car), wooden frames I bought for her.<\/p>\n

Went on down to Bi-Mart to trade in my broken dehydrator.\u00a0 Now I have a new one.<\/p>\n

I was hungry, so I went for a hamburger.\u00a0 Then back to the grocery to pick up a dozen sweet things (6 apple fritters & 6 chocolate old fashioned donuts); also got my pills the Pharmacy had cut in half for me.<\/p>\n

Off to north of town to a place where I was able to get potatoes (HUGE ones) from the Columbia Basin, for 10 cents\/pound.\u00a0 I got 20 pounds.\u00a0 Then I got 20 pounds of VERY LARGE (but sweet) carrots for a nickel a pound.\u00a0 On my way home I passed very close to some friends from the exercise class, where John and I had dinner a month or so ago.\u00a0 I called and asked if they would like some and they were thrilled.\u00a0 So I drove by, got her to come out with two bags, and she grabbed six large potatoes and probably as many carrots too.\u00a0 They have guests coming next weekend so she said they would feed them then.\u00a0 I should take pictures of these carrots and put them on line to share with you.\u00a0 They are big and fat, and they are what the local Twin City Foods uses for their cut carrots frozen under many names, such as Belair, and sold across the U.S..\u00a0 I used to talk about their operation in my Economic Geography class.\u00a0 I had a blind student once who I got John to go down and a lady went to the top of the pile of carrots outside the plant, and gave him three of the largest.\u00a0 We compared them to the skinny carrots we get in the grocery store, and passed them around the classroom, so he could feel them and others could see them.\u00a0 I also had taken a photo with a quarter for scale, some of the large and small carrots, plus an apple.\u00a0 It is in my PowerPoint I used in the classroom.<\/p>\n

John got home at 6:00 p.m. and we spent time unloading both our cars. \u00a0His stuff got very wet from working in the rain some today \u2013 not all day, luckily.\u00a0 John didn\u2019t bring any more fruit, but he went to our garden and brought in a RED tomato!!\u00a0 Our first.\u00a0 If we get 2 more that size we will have recouped the $1.89 paid for the packet of seeds.\u00a0 No freezing forecast for the next seven days here high on the Naneum Fan.\u00a0 Valley low spots hit 31 degrees a few nights ago.<\/p>\n

Okay\u2014this is a day late arriving to you.\u00a0 Hope your next week is a good one.<\/p>\n

Nancy and John,<\/p>\n

on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday night (9\/24) at almost 11:00 p.m.\u00a0 Rascal just brought into the house a live small black Vole (check this link for clarification: http:\/\/www.rogerbolger.com\/Moles_Voles_&_Shrews.pdf I got John to capture it, after chasing the cat and \u201cmouse\u201d into the back computer room, and then back to the den, where he had started.\u00a0 Rascal was flipping him … Continue reading “SUNDAY — watching tomatoes ripen”<\/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-868","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-e0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","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=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}