Sunday, Apr 15\u00a0 \u00a0I did not go to the bluegrass session at the Swauk Teanaway Grange. I thought it best to stay home to recover from my cold and work on taxes.\u00a0 John and I took a walk at the end of the afternoon, and looked at and took pictures of Oregon Grape, an aspen, a pussy willow, and what is locally called Golden Currants.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.swcoloradowildflowers.com\/yellow%20enlarged%20photo%20pages\/ribes%20aureum.htm<\/a><\/p>\n The Oregon Grape will have bunches of bright yellow flowers and very blue fruit. Stick the term \u201cOregon grape\u201d into Bing or Google images-search.\u00a0 The above link shows the yellow flowers of the Currant and its translucent golden fruit. These are one of the first plants to sport new leaves in the spring.<\/p>\n We then walked back around the barn and took pictures (too high up and far away) of the cottonwood…all the trees are blossoming.\u00a0 Pretty neat.\u00a0 Saw kitties and took pictures and a small movie.\u00a0 Do you want to see?\u00a0 Go here: http:\/\/www.elixant.com\/~nancyh\/BlossomingTreesOrangeKittensNaneumFan.html<\/a><\/p>\n Monday, Apr 16 \u00a0Interesting day.\u00a0 John left early for Yakima to have his Subaru serviced, and while there, he visited Costco, for gasoline and a few necessities for us and for the dogs and cats.\u00a0 While he was gone, I finished printing off the tax returns. After getting his signature, I took the packet to the USPS to send certified mail to be sure it is delivered properly.<\/p>\n Had an interesting experience in acupuncture today.\u00a0 They are trying something “new” to them (my two acupuncturists) that’s been around since the 1980s when a Japanese fellow invented the use of tape being taped in the back of the neck to work on shoulders.\u00a0 While he was doing that, I asked if it would work on my scar (from the open-heart surgery), which is causing my shoulder problems with range of motion of my arms (and why I skip doing some of the SAIL exercises).\u00a0 He looked it up and there was nothing written in the manual, but we decided to try it, so I’m taped on the front of my chest scar and the back of my neck.\u00a0 I’m all ready for it to work.\u00a0 The tape stays on for 4 days.<\/p>\n www.japaneseacupuncture.co.nz\/treatments\/acutaping\/acutaping.html<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.lhasaoms.com\/Acupressure_Taping-108-1782-page.html<\/a><\/p>\n Tuesday, Apr 17 John is gathering and holding horses for trimming by our farrier. \u00a0I’m going for an echocardiogram, to make ready for seeing my Cardiologist in a couple of weeks.\u00a0 It went well, and I dropped by Bi-Mart for kitty canned food on sale.\u00a0 Also got some chocolates marked down 75% (Easter bunnies candy).\u00a0 Will turn around and go back to town for music at a nursing home.\u00a0 I’m so happy to be done with the taxes I mailed yesterday, now to get caught up on the ones I need to enter, while it’s fresh in my mind.\u00a0 John and I visited and played with and handled the five kitties.\u00a0 We figure they are about 4 weeks old.<\/p>\n Wednesday, Apr 18\u00a0 There is a free spring luncheon at the Adult Activity Center today, with BBQ Chicken and potato salad.\u00a0 That’s at noon, and I’m skipping my play date at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. \u00a0SAIL exercise class followed. \u00a0It was an awesome lunch.\u00a0 I mentioned above the main menu, and the potato salad was very good so I brought the recipe home, also had several varieties of potato chips plus cheesecake and brownies for dessert.\u00a0 I only had cheesecake, but I brought home two pieces of chocolate Bundt cake with a sugar glaze.\u00a0 He’s eaten his already and I will have mine later.\u00a0 We went out and visited with the kittens.\u00a0 They are getting bolder and learning how to climb.\u00a0 Before I left town, I went to Exercise class.\u00a0 Now I’m tired but I slept better last night for 9 hours (best in many, many weeks).\u00a0 Less coughing, so maybe I’m getting better again, finally.\u00a0 Phew.<\/p>\n Thursday, Apr 19\u00a0 Music today and an appreciation dinner for Volunteers in the community tonight.\u00a0 We had Lasagna, salad, bread, and fabulous tables of desserts.\u00a0 There were \u00a0few words said of thanks to all of us there (room was full and I didn’t count).\u00a0 We had our group at one table, and there were 8 of us.\u00a0 I imagine there were at least 20 tables total, maybe more.\u00a0 There were many door prizes including the pot of pansies (centerpiece on all the tables).\u00a0 I won a lovely basket: small potted flowers ready for planting, garden implements, and other equipment.\u00a0 John kept the two tools, and I gave away the rest to a music\/gardener friend with smaller hands than us.\u00a0 There were work gloves (too small) and even a pad for kneeling in the garden, little metal pots, and all in a plastic basket with holes on the sides, and handles.\u00a0 Must be for washing veggies, carrots or potatoes, before bringing in the house.<\/p>\n Friday, Apr 20\u00a0 Another busy day.\u00a0 John removed the rest of the tape on my back between my shoulders and I think I will not have that done again.\u00a0 I had removed the tape on my front, and it was very painful, even using cream.\u00a0 I may consider just putting one on the top of my arms where I occasionally have pain.\u00a0 We fixed a very large Pineapple Downside-Up Cake in our 12″ iron skillet for the potluck tonight. \u00a0We even used our own-grown walnuts \u2013 roasted for 10 minutes.\u00a0 We played with the kitties.\u00a0 I made it to town in the afternoon for my SAIL exercise class and to pick up more meds.\u00a0 Then at 5:20, we took off for the music group potluck.\u00a0 We didn’t finish and get home till almost 10:30.\u00a0 We had a lot of people there and a jam session following dinner (19 to eat, 14 to play, and 2 mid-session visitors).\u00a0 Here is the menu.\u00a0 Plenty of food, and oh, so good.\u00a0 The line started with desserts (ours, and\u00a0 homemade cookies), which we saved till the end.\u00a0 A very large pizza (pineapple on top of two meats).\u00a0 On to salads (green mixed with imitation crab meat and 3 dressings), fruit salad, a chicken\/grape\/walnut salad, a pea\/cheese salad, bread sticks and rolls, sweet potato casserole, meatloaf (sausage & beef), scalloped potatoes, fried chicken, spaghetti w\/meat, lemonade and coffee.<\/p>\n Saturday, Apr 21 \u00a0Nothing today but yard work and housework, and getting this on the blog, plus creating the associated web page mentioned above. \u00a0Well, John did go check on the kitties and their expanded territory he fixed yesterday.\u00a0 There is a tunnel between hay bales from their nest in the back room of the barn where they are protected from horses and dogs.\u00a0 They have access to about a third of that room, contained, for now, with bales of straw.\u00a0 They can climb out of their nest, up the short side of a hay bale and they do, but as of yet, they are only using the tunnel one way (back into the nest, but not from).\u00a0 With five of them and momma in the nest they stay cozy warm.\u00a0 Our outside temp was just 37 this AM but we have reached 70 this afternoon.\u00a0 Maybe it will go to 77 on Sunday.\u00a0 Almost warm.\u00a0 About time.\u00a0 But, by the middle of the coming week the forecast is for mid-to-high 50s with night time lows at about 35.\u00a0 John has just put tomato seeds in little starter pots and sometime next month they may be ready for the garden.\u00a0 This year he is trying \u201cBox Car Willie\u201d that can be found on this page:<\/p>\n http:\/\/homeharvestseeds.com\/ferrymorsevegetablestomatoseeds.htm<\/a><\/p>\n and \u201cSiberia\u201d \u2013 a cool weather variety:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.humeseeds.com\/tmtosib.htm<\/a><\/p>\n . . . that is supposed to \u201cset fruit at low night temperatures.\u201d\u00a0 Tomatoes mostly want the night temp to be above 55 degrees F. \u00a0The Siberian tomato is one of the heirloom tomato varieties (reportedly from Russia) and some claim it can set fruit in cool weather — as low as 38\u02daF.\u00a0 Last year the Big Boy plants seemed to take forever.\u00a0 The plants grew big and lush but fruit was late getting started.\u00a0 If you want to try growing tomatoes, look here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.gardenguides.com\/113627-tomato-plants-produce-tomatoes.html<\/a><\/p>\n That Russian source sounds suspicious because everyone says tomatoes came from South America \u2013 following the Spanish colonization.\u00a0 Still, if it sets fruit in cold temperature, we\u2019ll not worry about its name or its source.<\/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":" Sunday, Apr 15\u00a0 \u00a0I did not go to the bluegrass session at the Swauk Teanaway Grange. I thought it best to stay home to recover from my cold and work on taxes.\u00a0 John and I took a walk at the end of the afternoon, and looked at and took pictures of Oregon Grape, an aspen, … Continue reading “Little Things”<\/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-978","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-fM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","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=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":980,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}