Sunday (Oct 2) \u2013 we attended in the afternoon the beginning REM (Resource Management) potluck at the chair of Geography\u2019s house.\u00a0 The weather was fine (no rain as last year), and the turnout fine, and the food great.\u00a0 Our host cooked BBQ Elk ribs, smoked a turkey, and fixed antelope\/deer chili.\u00a0 There was also a Minnesotan\u2019s made soup with carrots, chicken, wild rice, and it was really yummy.\u00a0 There were large baked potatoes from the same place I got mine on Saturday.\u00a0 We ate so much we didn\u2019t need any dinner.<\/p>\n
Monday brought good news from my Cardiologist\u2019s nurse, via email:<\/p>\n
Nancy,<\/em><\/p>\n Just sent the ultrasound report to Dr. Schmitt. Looks great, no renal artery stenosis, no abdominal aneurysm.<\/em><\/p>\n CEM<\/em><\/p>\n John and I put fruit (Honey crisp apples and large yellow Shiro plums)<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.grandpasorchard.com\/index.cfm?fuseaction=trees.plantDetail&plant_id=49<\/a><\/p>\n and 3 Roma tomatoes for good measure to fill the last small part of the last tray.<\/p>\n John is working on a note to a friend about the photography elements of the dragonfly picture.\u00a0 I worked on cleaning dishes, handling emails, looking for receipts to be reimbursed for department purchases, and we ate leftovers from yesterday: baked potato and Smoked turkey, adding our own tomato (very tasty).\u00a0 It is a hybrid Big Boy and our first this year to ripen.\u00a0 John checked and he paid $1.79 for the seed packet.\u00a0 We hope for more before the \u201cend\u201d of the season.\u00a0 We have not yet had a freeze and have our fingers crossed that we don\u2019t.\u00a0 John cut up some cheddar cheese to sprinkle on the heated potato, and also we put some parmesan\/garlic cracker chips on the plate.<\/p>\n Now we have just cleaned up another dehydrator I got at the yard sale last Friday.\u00a0 We have put peaches & apples in it so far.\u00a0 I sat down to rest while John finished coring apples.\u00a0 My hands were getting too cold in the ice water lemon juice we are pre-treating them with.\u00a0 He finished and now two are working.\u00a0 We still have one other we borrowed from a friend, so one of these days we will have to load it.<\/p>\n Tuesday.\u00a0 Was a busy day from the get-go.\u00a0 Started with getting ready to go to the family physician in Cle Elum.\u00a0 I missed breakfast, so John stopped at the Cle Elum Bakery (renowned for great baked goods), and we got a plate with donuts and apple fritters on it ($3.00 for five).\u00a0 Two chocolate bars, a donut with yellow cr\u00e8me in the center hole, and 2 fritters.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have my drink along, and John doesn\u2019t like coffee, but I got a cup of brewed stuff to go with mine, putting in half and half and sweetener.\u00a0 It was quite good. The place has two small tables \u2013 both tilt a bit if bumped.\u00a0 We tried both. \u00a0Sloshed coffee twice.\u00a0 Told owner.\u00a0 Fix promised.<\/p>\n We had made the trip with time to spare for getting to the 10:45 appt.\u00a0 John went along because he was also going to get a flu shot (as I was), but I had an appt. to talk about various recent tests and rashes I had, and the need for an inhaler.\u00a0 All was taken care of with good results.\u00a0 Cost of the inhaler was a surprise:\u00a0 $40 and that was after my insurance paid $10.\u00a0 If it works it will be worth it.<\/p>\n After the appointment we went to BK for a Whopper; had a coupon, buy one, and get one free.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t get any fries or drink to go along with it.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think they made much money on us today.<\/p>\n Got a phone call from the Internet tech support here in town, after my complaint this morning to Kansas about our DSL service being impossible (slow, intermittent, zip) starting at 4:30, and still not working at 10:00 p.m. last night.\u00a0 They finally fixed it.\u00a0 It was a problem with the DSL connector box 1\/3 mile from our house.<\/p>\n I went to town by myself today to my massage therapy session, then to the pharmacy for my meds, and by our car repair garage to schedule my Subaru in for an oil change.\u00a0 We will be without John\u2019s Subaru all next week while it gets repaired following the kiss & run by the deer.<\/p>\n John went over to do work for the farm family across the street.\u00a0 He was gone for several hours after I got back home.\u00a0 I never asked him what time he left.\u00a0 The dogs and cat were happy to see me.<\/p>\n I put some more tomatoes in the dehydrator, fed the cat, and started working on emails and cleaning up an account that is filling up.\u00a0 When John came home, it was just before dark, so he fed the horses, outside cats (now he climbs a ladder and puts the food up at the top of the hay shed on the hay, where the 3 cats sleep (and now eat).\u00a0 The skunk, we assume, will not manage to get up there to steal food.\u00a0 Then John went and picked strawberries.\u00a0 I fixed them after dinner, and we will have them on ice cream for dessert.<\/p>\n John fixed our dinner:\u00a0 leftover Rainbow Trout (from last night), baked potato with cheese, a cut yellow plum, some of his homemade applesauce, and some little crackers.<\/p>\n We decided to wait on putting up fruit till morning (into the dehydrator), and just after I sat down to work on the computer, in comes Rascal with something alive.\u00a0 I followed him down the hall to the computer room, telling John he had something again.\u00a0 Turned out it was a brown frog! (small one).\u00a0 John took the cat and put him outside and I got a paper towel and picked up the little frog.\u00a0 Took him out to the front yard and released him, alive and well.\u00a0 Boy, we have quite a little hunter, but I wish he wouldn\u2019t bring them into the house through the doggie door.\u00a0 It is nearing too-cold for snakes.\u00a0 Little favors.<\/p>\n Wednesday.\u00a0 Unusual that it rained all night and most of the day.\u00a0 Usual stuff for this day; played music (just two of us) at Food Bank Soup Kitchen, and we had Ham\/noodle (more like dumplings) soup, green beans, a biscuit and fruit (canned) on sponge cake.\u00a0 Personally, I didn\u2019t enjoy the fruit at all, after all the fresh fruit we have been eating the past 2 weeks.\u00a0 At 1:00 p.m. I thought I had time to get to the bank following my blood draws, but they were busy and I had to wait a half hour.\u00a0 I decided to stay and wait.\u00a0 So, I was late arriving at the exercise class by about 12 minutes.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay.\u00a0 They were happy to see me and Jan had already starting leading the class with my CD of Fifties songs.\u00a0 After that, I picked up some clothes from a friend, and came on home.\u00a0 I\u2019m going back in tonight for a Cancer Donation Bingo game, from 6 to 8:00 and searched through the leftover rainbow trout for bones, and have a clean dish of fish.\u00a0 Rascal had some too.\u00a0 He loves to eat people food.\u00a0 Also threw in some leftover pieces of apple fritter and he ate those. \u00a0In the mornings, John shares his buttered toast with Rascal.\u00a0 We will add the remaining fish to spaghetti sauce and I will eat when I get home.<\/p>\n I\u2019m home and just finished eating with John.\u00a0 We had his homemade applesauce with dinner.\u00a0 In town, I won one game and picked out a nice red nylon sweatshirt type with a V neck, and an emblem on it saying City of Ellensburg, Adult Activity Center.\u00a0 Pretty nice for all the time I spend there.\u00a0 I brought John some toll house cookies from there tonight.\u00a0 It is still rainy outside, and cool.<\/p>\n Thursday.\u00a0 Still overcast and now very windy.\u00a0 Jeez, I hope it clears up before Saturday when we have to play music at a Farm Festival in a field southeast of us!\u00a0 Just checked the future weather and it claims no rain, light wind (really), and temps at 62.\u00a0 We both went to town and never got lunch, so I\u2019m sitting here at 5:45 p.m. munching on dried fruit.\u00a0 John has gone to the neighbors to pick pears. \u00a0We are having rib eye steak (was on sale today), and baked potato.\u00a0 There will be leftover steak he can take tomorrow for his lunch.\u00a0 He is going again to do trail work at Foss River.\u00a0 Okay–today, we dropped my car off at Royal Vista and he drove me to get some more of the potatoes and carrots (that come from east of us over past Moses Lake).\u00a0 We bought probably 40 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds for a friend, and maybe 20 pounds of carrots.\u00a0 I lost track because I was in a hurry to get back to play music.\u00a0 They gave us a box of culled carrots for our horses (broken pieces or really strange looking ones). \u00a0After John helped me get into the nursing home with all my stuff, he went shopping.\u00a0 Came back for me about 3:00.\u00a0 He took my violin and the vegetables home.\u00a0 I went over to a Museum presentation at Dean Hall (where I used to teach), on Tall Tales via postcards from all over the U.S.<\/p>\n http:\/\/funnypagenet.com\/tall-tale-postcards\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.cwu.edu\/~web\/cwu_news\/News.php?ArticleID=2903<\/a><\/p>\n It was interesting.\u00a0 They were going to have a folksinger and someone doing some storytelling, but I just looked at the Museum \u201cshow\u201d and introduced myself to a few people, and left.<\/p>\n Then I called John and we met at the auto repair shop. He had the box of carrots and potatoes in the car and we dropped them off at our friends\u2019 house on the way home.\u00a0 There was only $1.25 worth, and she gave us $2.00.\u00a0 Said it still wouldn\u2019t cover the gasoline!\u00a0 On home and my cell phone rang.\u00a0 It was the fellow at the repair shop.\u00a0 He had found already that the right-side drive axle was throwing oil and needs replaced. We had heard a funny noise, but had not said anything to him about it.\u00a0 It was intermittent, and I don\u2019t drive that car very often because it takes higher grade gasoline than our other one.\u00a0 I had actually forgotten about the noise.\u00a0 It occurred occasionally when backing out of my \u201cparking\u201d space in the 3-sided shed out front, and backing up to the left, to go out the driveway to the right.\u00a0 Anyway, in the good ol\u2019 USA we make sharper right-hand turns than left-hand turns.\u00a0 That causes failure of the right-side drive axle sooner than the left one.\u00a0 Who knew?\u00a0 At 53,440 miles.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/cars\/how-to\/maintenance\/1715877<\/a><\/p>\n Tonight before dinner Rascal brought in a baby Vole.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t thank him, but John picked him up and put him outside.\u00a0 He dropped the Vole from his mouth as John put him out the door, so the door got closed with the vole inside.\u00a0 John grabbed him up with a plastic bag, and I let Rascal back in.\u00a0 We hope he gets the idea not to bring home live critters.<\/p>\n Friday.\u00a0 Nice wake up call.\u00a0 My Subaru is fixed and ready.\u00a0 They found an axle last night to install and replaced it this morning along with changing the oil.\u00a0 A boot on the foot of the axle was spewing oil on the inside of the engine and they found it upon an entry inspection when I took it in yesterday afternoon (at 4:15).\u00a0 Good we took it in ahead of time because they had time to find and order the part last night.\u00a0 We began doing business with this place in 1990 after the local Chevy dealer replaced belts but did not tighten the fan back into place.\u00a0 On a trip to Yakima we had to stop and borrow a wrench to fix it.\u00a0 21 years later we still haven\u2019t been back to that dealer.<\/p>\n Off today for potluck at AAC (stuffed baked potatoes, KFC chicken, and lots of stuff brought as potluck), and exercise after and to Starlight at 4:00 to wish Morris well in his retirement for health reasons.\u00a0 He is a wonderful friend, and was hired the same year as I (back in 1988).<\/p>\n John made it home safely from his trip to the woods again, and brought back more of the good corn on the cob, and 25 pounds of Gala apples at 68\u00a2\/pound. \u00a0While having lunch on the trail, he took a photo of two trees —\u00a0 see here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.elixant.com\/~nancyh\/WTA-WestForkFossRiver\/BigTree-WestForkFossRiver.html<\/a><\/p>\n It stays dry under the big one and the little \u201cj-shaped\u201d one in the middle of the trail presented a problem.\u00a0 John cleared dozens of thorny Devil\u2019s Club<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mlafleche2\/3615853600\/<\/a><\/p>\n from the up-hill side (behind the black & yellow rain jacket), dug out a new tread there, pulling the debris around and past the little tree.\u00a0 Almost like a miracle, it seems the tree just moved to the right.<\/p>\n Saturday.\u00a0 It was 35 degrees early in the morning before sunrise on the front porch post with just a quick frost away from the house. There was a little wind until about 3 a.m. and then none \u2013 Clear sky and no wind and the temp went down. \u00a0I was scheduled to be at a family farm 7 miles away to play music.\u00a0 I dressed warmly in two pairs of pants (denim jeans on top),\u00a0 and 4 tops.\u00a0 A cotton \u00be sleeve blouse on the bottom, covered by a windbreaker type V neck shirt, a black sweatshirt with pumpkins embroidered on it, and over that a heavy vest.\u00a0 I had a glove on my right hand to hold my bow (because it was in the shade and getting cold).\u00a0 My left fiddle-fingering hand was in the sun, so that was nice. \u00a0I took the glove off after 2 hours. \u00a0We started playing music just after 10:00 a.m. — eventually there were 6 of us (3 violins, a viola, a guitar, and a banjo).\u00a0 A couple of our group came in after 3 of us started.\u00a0 We played till noon and broke for lunch.\u00a0 They fed us a bowl of chili with all sorts of toppings, and a grilled hotdog, with chips, and an apple.\u00a0 Drinks were coffee or pop or water.\u00a0 We went back to playing after a half hour break, and played until almost 2:30 p.m.\u00a0 That is much longer than we normally play.\u00a0 We were all tired with sore fingers and arms.\u00a0 It was volunteer, but they paid us with our lunch, and a Goat Milk Product.\u00a0 I chose a bottle (canister) of goat milk cream (with other ingredients, such as aloe).\u00a0 Would have cost me $12.95 if I had bought it myself.\u00a0 They had soap and various products, including chocolate muffins, which I did not have one of. \u00a0John came and picked me up and visited a little with folks there.\u00a0 While I was gone, he helped our neighbors pick pears and then loaded wood in his pickup and took it over to toss in their woodshed. \u00a0He will go back over later and stack it.<\/p>\n I did not sleep well last night, and this play day was tiring, so I came home and lay down at 4:15.\u00a0 Last I looked it was 4:29, and then John came in from running the dogs and feeding the horses and I awoke (at 5:45).<\/p>\n This morning before we left, John took the dogs and our oldest (and smallest dog), Meghan, got chased and rolled by a coyote.\u00a0 John saw it and went running toward it, yelling, and it peeled off back into the woods.\u00a0 Then tonight, the same dog got chased by a deer, and John went toward the fence that Meghan came under and was only 6 feet from the deer.\u00a0 Again he yelled and when it saw him, the deer ran back down into the pasture.\u00a0 Annie (our youngest) saw what was happening and she started chasing the deer.\u00a0 John called her off.\u00a0 Rather a full day for all.<\/p>\n We had not see the outside cats for a couple of days, but tonight the younger cats (Woody and Little Sue) are back, playing and eating with Rascal, in the top of the hay shed on the side of our house. \u00a0We have not seen Big Sue.\u00a0 We hope she stays away.\u00a0 We wonder if she returned and took them along with her over to our neighbors across the street, where she had been being fed.\u00a0 It could be they found their way back to our place where they feel more comfortable.<\/p>\n Once I was home, John picked yellow squash, and really spent most of his time while I was sleeping, picking and de-husking Carpathian walnuts from our 7 trees.\u00a0\u00a0 Now he has to find a cool dark place to store them to cure.<\/p>\n Guess I should get this finished and sent to John to put on the blog.\u00a0 We hope your week has been a good one, and next week is even better.<\/p>\n Nancy & John<\/p>\n on the Naneum Fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday (Oct 2) \u2013 we attended in the afternoon the beginning REM (Resource Management) potluck at the chair of Geography\u2019s house.\u00a0 The weather was fine (no rain as last year), and the turnout fine, and the food great.\u00a0 Our host cooked BBQ Elk ribs, smoked a turkey, and fixed antelope\/deer chili.\u00a0 There was also a … Continue reading “SATURDAY — What happened this week?”<\/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-871","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-e3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871","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=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}