Saturday, Mar 31 \u00a0Here the weather is lousy.\u00a0 It started out snowing, then rain, then snow, and overcast and now is dripping again–just in time for John to do livestock chores.\u00a0 The neighbor\u2019s to-be-fed animals are in 3 different areas. \u00a0In past weeks he used the newer truck to drive to town for gasoline for the older truck \u2013 thereby keeping both functional. \u00a0Today he just drove the old one in and filled a 20 gallon tank and 5+ gal. in cans.\u00a0 Total = $92.\u00a0 Before he left, he brought two boxes and a huge old suitcase \u2013 dust covered — out of hiding for me to deal with.\u00a0 A few boxes don\u2019t have tops and things get thrown in, then dust. \u00a0One box was sorta amazing.\u00a0 It had no top so was quite dirty.\u00a0 I vacuumed everything.\u00a0 Contents were mostly clean (not now) socks, several don’t have a mate.\u00a0 Then I found a plastic (kid’s) carrier (over the shoulder and handle straps) that I must have gotten at a yard sale (I honestly do not remember), and inside are two long rolled up heavy duty extension cords with a double extender for connecting more than one item, and are brand new.\u00a0 There\u2019s a $3 circle tag, and I don’t know if it was for the whole thing or not; probably.\u00a0 The box with a top had several really neat books, road maps from all over — Canada, Belgium, Hawaii, and Germany (nice ones with terrain on them).\u00a0 You don’t see printed state road maps anymore in WA, so the ones I have are classic.\u00a0 That box also had 3 packages of notes (discarded by a previous Prof.) on the Netherlands, Planning, and the Delta Project (which I took slides of in 1965) and used to talk about in some of my geography courses.\u00a0 I also found some neat USGS publications, a couple very historical, and some newer Satellite imagery comparisons over time, around the world.\u00a0 I have people at CWU I will entrust them too.\u00a0 Oh, the maps I’m giving to the Map Library.\u00a0 They have cabinets with them from all over the world, and people can check them out.<\/p>\n
I have yet to look at the 30 boxes John packed out of my office when I was in the ICU.\u00a0 They are out in the shed, and there are stacks of boxes piled around inside our house I have to sort through first.\u00a0 This was a good start today, and I really should do this much every day.\u00a0 Easier said than done.\u00a0 I say that every time I do a couple and then I go for days before doing more.\u00a0 We have some rooms (living and back bedrooms), that are totally full, except for paths to walk around sideways.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_iAD82Dlk9GA\/TONY6O4QwxI\/AAAAAAAAB4k\/hXXLuEX-bgU\/s1600\/CLUTTER.gif<\/a><\/p>\n The other thing I have yet to go through is a large American Tourister hard luggage I used to always check through to AAG and NCGE meetings and then bring home lots of heavy books and materials.\u00a0 There is a map tube (portable and extendable) inside.\u00a0 If I really had significant posters or maps not to fold, I would bring them back as an extra checked “bag”.\u00a0 Nowadays that wouldn’t be worth an extra fee.\u00a0 I cleaned all the dust off the outside, and John just lifted it onto our bed, for me to cull through.\u00a0 I did go through it and found a brand new carrier for my Dell laptop that the recently deceased Macbook replaced.\u00a0 The Mac was 4 and the Dell lasted about that long so the never used carrier is about 8 years and counting.\u00a0 With the new Toshiba, for an additional $50 we got a combination of accessories with the big-$ item being a carrier.\u00a0 Oh well..<\/p>\n John went out to see the kitties and handled them all. \u00a0Big Sue growled at him, from above on the hay bales.\u00a0 She came over and looked down but he told her to stay up there.\u00a0 They don’t all have their eyes open yet.\u00a0 Big Sue is a feral cat and mother of at least 3 litters, including this set of 5.\u00a0 I hope we can catch her when she’s through raising these and get her spayed.<\/p>\n http:\/\/exquisitekitty.com\/CAT-CHART.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n John left in the sprinkle of rain to feed, and then it poured, and now the sun is shining so brightly I might need to put on sunglasses to sit in my recliner and keep and eye on the birds coming to the feeder.\u00a0 And with food in mind, for dinner we are having lima beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy with pieces of pork from yesterday.<\/p>\n Sunday, Apr 1\u00a0 Well, lots of cleaning and kitchen work today by both of us.\u00a0 I did the counters and loading the dishwasher (and unloaded it first), and then while I was working on that, John cleaned up the washroom.\u00a0 That is our initial recycle-garbage collection area and gets crowded with boxes and bags of bottles, cans, and junk,\u00a0 keeping us from accessing the clothes washer and dryer.\u00a0 So at least for a few days I can get some washing done.\u00a0 We also went out to check on the new kitties.\u00a0 The mom still runs from us, and growls a little while we handle the babies, but now that we are feeding her canned cat food she is much more willing to let us handle them while she watches (and eats) from a\u2019top the baled hay.\u00a0 Mamma-Sue and the babies will be much better off with her having the canned food.\u00a0 She also has water and dry food available at all times.\u00a0 She’s getting canned food twice a day.\u00a0 Their little eyes are still not all open, but we hope they will be soon.\u00a0 They are about 3 weeks old.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.kittenbaby.com\/age.php<\/a><\/p>\n In the late afternoon, we went to work in the cleaned kitchen and John sliced and dipped several large Honeycrisp apples into lemon juice with cinnamon.\u00a0 I moved the cut and soaked pieces into the dehydrators.\u00a0 (These were neglected after their last use — not a good idea; got to make myself clean them this time before we pack them away.)\u00a0 I placed all the pieces nicely on the racks.\u00a0 We used and filled two dehydrators.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s our story Nancy put out Saturday, April 07, 2012 before posting this.<\/p>\n http:\/\/elixant.com\/~nancyh\/HoneycrispApple.html<\/a><\/p>\n Monday, Apr 2 \u00a0John left early for wine grape pruning.\u00a0 The weather was nice today.\u00a0 I spent most of the morning on the phone trying to find a new home for one of our pups from the 2010 litter, Rhu, who we raised till he was 4 months old. (more below)\u00a0 I also got our application for the WA Old Time Fiddlers Workshop at end of July in Kittitas in the mail for required postmark today.\u00a0 I’m taking my usual class (Intermediate and Advanced Fiddle) with Roberta Pearce, and John will be taking a week of half-day beginning guitar class.\u00a0 Sadly, his costs as much as mine ($100) for the shorter period.<\/p>\n Tuesday, Apr 3\u00a0 John went for his last day of pruning, and I stayed home to work on things.\u00a0 I never went back to sleep in the morning after he left.\u00a0 Paid bills, did emails,\u00a0tried talking to pharmaceutical company about my Lipitor costs.\u00a0 My health insurance has notified me it will no longer allow the brand name to be used, and I must switch to a generic as of June 1st.\u00a0 My cost will go up, but I cannot any longer use the plan I was on the past several months, getting Lipitor for $4.00\/month co-pay.\u00a0 It is not possible to keep up with all the healthcare rigamarole.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly good at this sort of thing but some things happen that seem not to be explainable.\u00a0 How do some folks cope?\u00a0 Like the elderly lady that calls several times each month.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t recognize our voices and will say things, such as \u201cWho are you?\u201d \u2013 and then hang up.\u00a0 We try to be alert to her calls and are trying to keep her on the line long enough to identify her.\u00a0 Then maybe someone could contact her and help her.\u00a0 She called 3 times in 5 minutes this week. \u00a0How would she handle health care hurdles?<\/p>\n Back to the puppy mentioned above:\u00a0 Folks moved from EBRG to the Reno area for work and now he is gone a lot doing fieldwork and she is \u2018expecting\u2019 and 2 dogs and 2 kids (sometimes either a dog or a kid is sick) add up to a full plate.\u00a0 I tried \u00a0to find a home for the Brittany they have from our 2010 litter.\u00a0 No success yet.\u00a0 Good news about the pup.\u00a0 They have decided to keep him.<\/p>\n Got a note from a student on whose thesis committee I’m serving and need to review her latest rendition.\u00a0 I spent tons of time editing it over a month, a month ago. I didn’t keep track of my time.\u00a0 Because John and I have each been through this process we know she is under more stress about this than I am, but still, I do have other things to do.\u00a0 We have some research grant proposals to evaluate from a Canadian institute<\/p>\n http:\/\/silverhillinstitute.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Click on \u201cBoard\u201d and scroll through the list and note the \u201cHomenucks.\u201d\u00a0 Last being Peter and a friend from our time at the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 Click on \u201cAdvisors & Reviewers\u201d and you can find our somewhat out-dated bios. \u00a0We have been doing this for several years, but the time snuck up on us and the first set just arrived yesterday.\u00a0 There seems to be a disconnect between our countries\u2019 postal services.\u00a0 They are due Apr 15, so we will send them back in digital form.<\/p>\n Wednesday, Apr 4\u00a0 I awoke with a sore throat.\u00a0 Hmmmm.\u00a0 Had to get ready to go to town for two events and then come back and do more chores, before going to a talk on the Ice Age Ground Sloth . . .<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Megalonyx_jeffersonii<\/a><\/p>\n . . . found within 30 miles of us on a sediment-covered bench near the Columbia River, in 2003.\u00a0 It was a nice talk and afterwards we grabbed some food from Jack in the Box.<\/p>\n Thursday, Apr 5 \u00a0\u00a0John read proposals in the morning, after feeding chores, and then went to town with me for me to play music.\u00a0 He went shopping and came back and picked me up and we took some of my found-materials to school to donate to my colleagues.\u00a0 We stopped by and visited with a fund raiser in the Dean’s office, and wrote our donation check for the student Distinguished Service Award Scholarship (currently in our name).\u00a0 Coughed a lot once coming home and on through the night and was miserable.<\/p>\n Friday, Apr 6\u00a0 Awoke not feeling well at all, so I canceled all three events for the day.\u00a0 I have just been working on the computer, and evaluating my share of the research proposals.\u00a0 Doing a little tax input in between times, and paying bills.\u00a0 Well, the rest is helping, as my cold symptoms are decreasing from the morning mess. \u00a0Delivered by UPS today between snow flurries: \u00a0Asparagus (Jersey Supreme),\u00a0Anne (Fall Yellow) Raspberries, Cavendish June strawberries, blueberry bushes (Bonus –supposedly the size of a quarter!, Bluecrop, Duke, Nelson, & Patriot) plus a booklet on growing blueberries.\u00a0 Total cost $105.97. \u00a0All the way from Indiana!\u00a0 Delivery as scheduled for spring planting —\u00a0and tonight the temp is expected to dip to 20.\u00a0 Go figure!\u00a0 Tonight after supper I’m trying to stay awake by working on this blog, but the smell of skunk is making me miserable.\u00a0 Shay was standing out on the window doggie door veranda, barking, till we both yelled at her, from different windows, to get in the house.\u00a0 She must have seen a skunk outside the fence, and he must have sprayed.<\/p>\n Saturday, Apr 7\u00a0 After early chores we loaded a dehydrator with sliced Honeycrisps . \u00a0\u00a0John hopes to get this posted and then plant several baby pine trees.\u00a0 The baby kittens need some attention too.\u00a0 All eyes are open and they are starting to exhibit real catness.\u00a0 They will soon need their nest-home enlarged.\u00a0 The dilemma is that it is now small and cozy but nighttime temps have been low.\u00a0 Perhaps a straw-bale play area connected to the nest is the way to go.\u00a0 Otherwise, nothing special planned for the day.\u00a0 Easter will have us over at the neighbors for festivities.\u00a0 Easter is said to be a moveable feast — if you have some spare time and want to investigate this matter you can start here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Easter<\/a><\/p>\n A 2008 posting \u201cBlame it on the Moon\u201d (dates are not appropriate for 2012) on the subject is here:\u00a0 (scroll down below the banner pictures, to the Moon)<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.hawaiicatholicherald.com\/Home\/tabid\/256\/newsid884\/1227\/Default.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n Hope your week was a good one.<\/p>\n Nancy and John<\/p>\n still on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saturday, Mar 31 \u00a0Here the weather is lousy.\u00a0 It started out snowing, then rain, then snow, and overcast and now is dripping again–just in time for John to do livestock chores.\u00a0 The neighbor\u2019s to-be-fed animals are in 3 different areas. \u00a0In past weeks he used the newer truck to drive to town for gasoline for … Continue reading “Kittens, plants, cold, snow”<\/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-970","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-fE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","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=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_iAD82Dlk9GA\/TONY6O4QwxI\/AAAAAAAAB4k\/hXXLuEX-bgU\/s1600\/CLUTTER.gif<\/a><\/p>\nThe other thing I have yet to go through is a large American Tourister hard luggage I used to always check through to AAG and NCGE meetings and then bring home lots of heavy books and materials.\u00a0 There is a map tube (portable and extendable) inside.\u00a0 If I really had significant posters or maps not to fold, I would bring them back as an extra checked “bag”.\u00a0 Nowadays that wouldn’t be worth an extra fee.\u00a0 I cleaned all the dust off the outside, and John just lifted it onto our bed, for me to cull through.\u00a0 I did go through it and found a brand new carrier for my Dell laptop that the recently deceased Macbook replaced.\u00a0 The Mac was 4 and the Dell lasted about that long so the never used carrier is about 8 years and counting.\u00a0 With the new Toshiba, for an additional $50 we got a combination of accessories with the big-$ item being a carrier.\u00a0 Oh well..<\/p>\nJohn went out to see the kitties and handled them all. \u00a0Big Sue growled at him, from above on the hay bales.\u00a0 She came over and looked down but he told her to stay up there.\u00a0 They don’t all have their eyes open yet.\u00a0 Big Sue is a feral cat and mother of at least 3 litters, including this set of 5.\u00a0 I hope we can catch her when she’s through raising these and get her spayed.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/exquisitekitty.com\/CAT-CHART.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nJohn left in the sprinkle of rain to feed, and then it poured, and now the sun is shining so brightly I might need to put on sunglasses to sit in my recliner and keep and eye on the birds coming to the feeder.\u00a0 And with food in mind, for dinner we are having lima beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy with pieces of pork from yesterday.<\/p>\nSunday, Apr 1\u00a0 Well, lots of cleaning and kitchen work today by both of us.\u00a0 I did the counters and loading the dishwasher (and unloaded it first), and then while I was working on that, John cleaned up the washroom.\u00a0 That is our initial recycle-garbage collection area and gets crowded with boxes and bags of bottles, cans, and junk,\u00a0 keeping us from accessing the clothes washer and dryer.\u00a0 So at least for a few days I can get some washing done.\u00a0 We also went out to check on the new kitties.\u00a0 The mom still runs from us, and growls a little while we handle the babies, but now that we are feeding her canned cat food she is much more willing to let us handle them while she watches (and eats) from a\u2019top the baled hay.\u00a0 Mamma-Sue and the babies will be much better off with her having the canned food.\u00a0 She also has water and dry food available at all times.\u00a0 She’s getting canned food twice a day.\u00a0 Their little eyes are still not all open, but we hope they will be soon.\u00a0 They are about 3 weeks old.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.kittenbaby.com\/age.php<\/a><\/p>\nIn the late afternoon, we went to work in the cleaned kitchen and John sliced and dipped several large Honeycrisp apples into lemon juice with cinnamon.\u00a0 I moved the cut and soaked pieces into the dehydrators.\u00a0 (These were neglected after their last use — not a good idea; got to make myself clean them this time before we pack them away.)\u00a0 I placed all the pieces nicely on the racks.\u00a0 We used and filled two dehydrators.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s our story Nancy put out Saturday, April 07, 2012 before posting this.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/elixant.com\/~nancyh\/HoneycrispApple.html<\/a><\/p>\nMonday, Apr 2 \u00a0John left early for wine grape pruning.\u00a0 The weather was nice today.\u00a0 I spent most of the morning on the phone trying to find a new home for one of our pups from the 2010 litter, Rhu, who we raised till he was 4 months old. (more below)\u00a0 I also got our application for the WA Old Time Fiddlers Workshop at end of July in Kittitas in the mail for required postmark today.\u00a0 I’m taking my usual class (Intermediate and Advanced Fiddle) with Roberta Pearce, and John will be taking a week of half-day beginning guitar class.\u00a0 Sadly, his costs as much as mine ($100) for the shorter period.<\/p>\nTuesday, Apr 3\u00a0 John went for his last day of pruning, and I stayed home to work on things.\u00a0 I never went back to sleep in the morning after he left.\u00a0 Paid bills, did emails,\u00a0tried talking to pharmaceutical company about my Lipitor costs.\u00a0 My health insurance has notified me it will no longer allow the brand name to be used, and I must switch to a generic as of June 1st.\u00a0 My cost will go up, but I cannot any longer use the plan I was on the past several months, getting Lipitor for $4.00\/month co-pay.\u00a0 It is not possible to keep up with all the healthcare rigamarole.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly good at this sort of thing but some things happen that seem not to be explainable.\u00a0 How do some folks cope?\u00a0 Like the elderly lady that calls several times each month.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t recognize our voices and will say things, such as \u201cWho are you?\u201d \u2013 and then hang up.\u00a0 We try to be alert to her calls and are trying to keep her on the line long enough to identify her.\u00a0 Then maybe someone could contact her and help her.\u00a0 She called 3 times in 5 minutes this week. \u00a0How would she handle health care hurdles?<\/p>\nBack to the puppy mentioned above:\u00a0 Folks moved from EBRG to the Reno area for work and now he is gone a lot doing fieldwork and she is \u2018expecting\u2019 and 2 dogs and 2 kids (sometimes either a dog or a kid is sick) add up to a full plate.\u00a0 I tried \u00a0to find a home for the Brittany they have from our 2010 litter.\u00a0 No success yet.\u00a0 Good news about the pup.\u00a0 They have decided to keep him.<\/p>\nGot a note from a student on whose thesis committee I’m serving and need to review her latest rendition.\u00a0 I spent tons of time editing it over a month, a month ago. I didn’t keep track of my time.\u00a0 Because John and I have each been through this process we know she is under more stress about this than I am, but still, I do have other things to do.\u00a0 We have some research grant proposals to evaluate from a Canadian institute<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/silverhillinstitute.com\/<\/a><\/p>\nClick on \u201cBoard\u201d and scroll through the list and note the \u201cHomenucks.\u201d\u00a0 Last being Peter and a friend from our time at the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 Click on \u201cAdvisors & Reviewers\u201d and you can find our somewhat out-dated bios. \u00a0We have been doing this for several years, but the time snuck up on us and the first set just arrived yesterday.\u00a0 There seems to be a disconnect between our countries\u2019 postal services.\u00a0 They are due Apr 15, so we will send them back in digital form.<\/p>\nWednesday, Apr 4\u00a0 I awoke with a sore throat.\u00a0 Hmmmm.\u00a0 Had to get ready to go to town for two events and then come back and do more chores, before going to a talk on the Ice Age Ground Sloth . . .<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Megalonyx_jeffersonii<\/a><\/p>\n. . . found within 30 miles of us on a sediment-covered bench near the Columbia River, in 2003.\u00a0 It was a nice talk and afterwards we grabbed some food from Jack in the Box.<\/p>\nThursday, Apr 5 \u00a0\u00a0John read proposals in the morning, after feeding chores, and then went to town with me for me to play music.\u00a0 He went shopping and came back and picked me up and we took some of my found-materials to school to donate to my colleagues.\u00a0 We stopped by and visited with a fund raiser in the Dean’s office, and wrote our donation check for the student Distinguished Service Award Scholarship (currently in our name).\u00a0 Coughed a lot once coming home and on through the night and was miserable.<\/p>\nFriday, Apr 6\u00a0 Awoke not feeling well at all, so I canceled all three events for the day.\u00a0 I have just been working on the computer, and evaluating my share of the research proposals.\u00a0 Doing a little tax input in between times, and paying bills.\u00a0 Well, the rest is helping, as my cold symptoms are decreasing from the morning mess. \u00a0Delivered by UPS today between snow flurries: \u00a0Asparagus (Jersey Supreme),\u00a0Anne (Fall Yellow) Raspberries, Cavendish June strawberries, blueberry bushes (Bonus –supposedly the size of a quarter!, Bluecrop, Duke, Nelson, & Patriot) plus a booklet on growing blueberries.\u00a0 Total cost $105.97. \u00a0All the way from Indiana!\u00a0 Delivery as scheduled for spring planting —\u00a0and tonight the temp is expected to dip to 20.\u00a0 Go figure!\u00a0 Tonight after supper I’m trying to stay awake by working on this blog, but the smell of skunk is making me miserable.\u00a0 Shay was standing out on the window doggie door veranda, barking, till we both yelled at her, from different windows, to get in the house.\u00a0 She must have seen a skunk outside the fence, and he must have sprayed.<\/p>\nSaturday, Apr 7\u00a0 After early chores we loaded a dehydrator with sliced Honeycrisps . \u00a0\u00a0John hopes to get this posted and then plant several baby pine trees.\u00a0 The baby kittens need some attention too.\u00a0 All eyes are open and they are starting to exhibit real catness.\u00a0 They will soon need their nest-home enlarged.\u00a0 The dilemma is that it is now small and cozy but nighttime temps have been low.\u00a0 Perhaps a straw-bale play area connected to the nest is the way to go.\u00a0 Otherwise, nothing special planned for the day.\u00a0 Easter will have us over at the neighbors for festivities.\u00a0 Easter is said to be a moveable feast — if you have some spare time and want to investigate this matter you can start here:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Easter<\/a><\/p>\nA 2008 posting \u201cBlame it on the Moon\u201d (dates are not appropriate for 2012) on the subject is here:\u00a0 (scroll down below the banner pictures, to the Moon)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.hawaiicatholicherald.com\/Home\/tabid\/256\/newsid884\/1227\/Default.aspx<\/a><\/p>\nHope your week was a good one.<\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\nstill on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday, Mar 31 \u00a0Here the weather is lousy.\u00a0 It started out snowing, then rain, then snow, and overcast and now is dripping again–just in time for John to do livestock chores.\u00a0 The neighbor\u2019s to-be-fed animals are in 3 different areas. \u00a0In past weeks he used the newer truck to drive to town for gasoline for … Continue reading “Kittens, plants, cold, snow”<\/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-970","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-fE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","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=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_iAD82Dlk9GA\/TONY6O4QwxI\/AAAAAAAAB4k\/hXXLuEX-bgU\/s1600\/CLUTTER.gif\"){kind=link}
![http:\/\/exquisitekitty.com\/CAT-CHART.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nJohn left in the sprinkle of rain to feed, and then it poured, and now the sun is shining so brightly I might need to put on sunglasses to sit in my recliner and keep and eye on the birds coming to the feeder.\u00a0 And with food in mind, for dinner we are having lima beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy with pieces of pork from yesterday.<\/p>\nSunday, Apr 1\u00a0 Well, lots of cleaning and kitchen work today by both of us.\u00a0 I did the counters and loading the dishwasher (and unloaded it first), and then while I was working on that, John cleaned up the washroom.\u00a0 That is our initial recycle-garbage collection area and gets crowded with boxes and bags of bottles, cans, and junk,\u00a0 keeping us from accessing the clothes washer and dryer.\u00a0 So at least for a few days I can get some washing done.\u00a0 We also went out to check on the new kitties.\u00a0 The mom still runs from us, and growls a little while we handle the babies, but now that we are feeding her canned cat food she is much more willing to let us handle them while she watches (and eats) from a\u2019top the baled hay.\u00a0 Mamma-Sue and the babies will be much better off with her having the canned food.\u00a0 She also has water and dry food available at all times.\u00a0 She’s getting canned food twice a day.\u00a0 Their little eyes are still not all open, but we hope they will be soon.\u00a0 They are about 3 weeks old.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.kittenbaby.com\/age.php<\/a><\/p>\nIn the late afternoon, we went to work in the cleaned kitchen and John sliced and dipped several large Honeycrisp apples into lemon juice with cinnamon.\u00a0 I moved the cut and soaked pieces into the dehydrators.\u00a0 (These were neglected after their last use — not a good idea; got to make myself clean them this time before we pack them away.)\u00a0 I placed all the pieces nicely on the racks.\u00a0 We used and filled two dehydrators.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s our story Nancy put out Saturday, April 07, 2012 before posting this.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/elixant.com\/~nancyh\/HoneycrispApple.html<\/a><\/p>\nMonday, Apr 2 \u00a0John left early for wine grape pruning.\u00a0 The weather was nice today.\u00a0 I spent most of the morning on the phone trying to find a new home for one of our pups from the 2010 litter, Rhu, who we raised till he was 4 months old. (more below)\u00a0 I also got our application for the WA Old Time Fiddlers Workshop at end of July in Kittitas in the mail for required postmark today.\u00a0 I’m taking my usual class (Intermediate and Advanced Fiddle) with Roberta Pearce, and John will be taking a week of half-day beginning guitar class.\u00a0 Sadly, his costs as much as mine ($100) for the shorter period.<\/p>\nTuesday, Apr 3\u00a0 John went for his last day of pruning, and I stayed home to work on things.\u00a0 I never went back to sleep in the morning after he left.\u00a0 Paid bills, did emails,\u00a0tried talking to pharmaceutical company about my Lipitor costs.\u00a0 My health insurance has notified me it will no longer allow the brand name to be used, and I must switch to a generic as of June 1st.\u00a0 My cost will go up, but I cannot any longer use the plan I was on the past several months, getting Lipitor for $4.00\/month co-pay.\u00a0 It is not possible to keep up with all the healthcare rigamarole.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly good at this sort of thing but some things happen that seem not to be explainable.\u00a0 How do some folks cope?\u00a0 Like the elderly lady that calls several times each month.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t recognize our voices and will say things, such as \u201cWho are you?\u201d \u2013 and then hang up.\u00a0 We try to be alert to her calls and are trying to keep her on the line long enough to identify her.\u00a0 Then maybe someone could contact her and help her.\u00a0 She called 3 times in 5 minutes this week. \u00a0How would she handle health care hurdles?<\/p>\nBack to the puppy mentioned above:\u00a0 Folks moved from EBRG to the Reno area for work and now he is gone a lot doing fieldwork and she is \u2018expecting\u2019 and 2 dogs and 2 kids (sometimes either a dog or a kid is sick) add up to a full plate.\u00a0 I tried \u00a0to find a home for the Brittany they have from our 2010 litter.\u00a0 No success yet.\u00a0 Good news about the pup.\u00a0 They have decided to keep him.<\/p>\nGot a note from a student on whose thesis committee I’m serving and need to review her latest rendition.\u00a0 I spent tons of time editing it over a month, a month ago. I didn’t keep track of my time.\u00a0 Because John and I have each been through this process we know she is under more stress about this than I am, but still, I do have other things to do.\u00a0 We have some research grant proposals to evaluate from a Canadian institute<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/silverhillinstitute.com\/<\/a><\/p>\nClick on \u201cBoard\u201d and scroll through the list and note the \u201cHomenucks.\u201d\u00a0 Last being Peter and a friend from our time at the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 Click on \u201cAdvisors & Reviewers\u201d and you can find our somewhat out-dated bios. \u00a0We have been doing this for several years, but the time snuck up on us and the first set just arrived yesterday.\u00a0 There seems to be a disconnect between our countries\u2019 postal services.\u00a0 They are due Apr 15, so we will send them back in digital form.<\/p>\nWednesday, Apr 4\u00a0 I awoke with a sore throat.\u00a0 Hmmmm.\u00a0 Had to get ready to go to town for two events and then come back and do more chores, before going to a talk on the Ice Age Ground Sloth . . .<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Megalonyx_jeffersonii<\/a><\/p>\n. . . found within 30 miles of us on a sediment-covered bench near the Columbia River, in 2003.\u00a0 It was a nice talk and afterwards we grabbed some food from Jack in the Box.<\/p>\nThursday, Apr 5 \u00a0\u00a0John read proposals in the morning, after feeding chores, and then went to town with me for me to play music.\u00a0 He went shopping and came back and picked me up and we took some of my found-materials to school to donate to my colleagues.\u00a0 We stopped by and visited with a fund raiser in the Dean’s office, and wrote our donation check for the student Distinguished Service Award Scholarship (currently in our name).\u00a0 Coughed a lot once coming home and on through the night and was miserable.<\/p>\nFriday, Apr 6\u00a0 Awoke not feeling well at all, so I canceled all three events for the day.\u00a0 I have just been working on the computer, and evaluating my share of the research proposals.\u00a0 Doing a little tax input in between times, and paying bills.\u00a0 Well, the rest is helping, as my cold symptoms are decreasing from the morning mess. \u00a0Delivered by UPS today between snow flurries: \u00a0Asparagus (Jersey Supreme),\u00a0Anne (Fall Yellow) Raspberries, Cavendish June strawberries, blueberry bushes (Bonus –supposedly the size of a quarter!, Bluecrop, Duke, Nelson, & Patriot) plus a booklet on growing blueberries.\u00a0 Total cost $105.97. \u00a0All the way from Indiana!\u00a0 Delivery as scheduled for spring planting —\u00a0and tonight the temp is expected to dip to 20.\u00a0 Go figure!\u00a0 Tonight after supper I’m trying to stay awake by working on this blog, but the smell of skunk is making me miserable.\u00a0 Shay was standing out on the window doggie door veranda, barking, till we both yelled at her, from different windows, to get in the house.\u00a0 She must have seen a skunk outside the fence, and he must have sprayed.<\/p>\nSaturday, Apr 7\u00a0 After early chores we loaded a dehydrator with sliced Honeycrisps . \u00a0\u00a0John hopes to get this posted and then plant several baby pine trees.\u00a0 The baby kittens need some attention too.\u00a0 All eyes are open and they are starting to exhibit real catness.\u00a0 They will soon need their nest-home enlarged.\u00a0 The dilemma is that it is now small and cozy but nighttime temps have been low.\u00a0 Perhaps a straw-bale play area connected to the nest is the way to go.\u00a0 Otherwise, nothing special planned for the day.\u00a0 Easter will have us over at the neighbors for festivities.\u00a0 Easter is said to be a moveable feast — if you have some spare time and want to investigate this matter you can start here:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Easter<\/a><\/p>\nA 2008 posting \u201cBlame it on the Moon\u201d (dates are not appropriate for 2012) on the subject is here:\u00a0 (scroll down below the banner pictures, to the Moon)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.hawaiicatholicherald.com\/Home\/tabid\/256\/newsid884\/1227\/Default.aspx<\/a><\/p>\nHope your week was a good one.<\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\nstill on the Naneum Fan<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday, Mar 31 \u00a0Here the weather is lousy.\u00a0 It started out snowing, then rain, then snow, and overcast and now is dripping again–just in time for John to do livestock chores.\u00a0 The neighbor\u2019s to-be-fed animals are in 3 different areas. \u00a0In past weeks he used the newer truck to drive to town for gasoline for … Continue reading “Kittens, plants, cold, snow”<\/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-970","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-fE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","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=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/exquisitekitty.com\/CAT-CHART.jpg\"){kind=link}