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2012 Greetings - Annual Posting (not 'til 2013, St. Patrick's Day)

from Nancy & John Hultquist, Ellensburg,
WA


on the Naneum Fan @ Rock N' Pondersosa (John's name for our place)


FOR BEST VIEWING, LINE UP YOUR MARGINS TO ALLOW THE LAST ROW OF 4 PHOTOS TO BE ALL SEEN.


WARNING - this is long.   You may decide not to follow all the links  :-)  

Nancy-JohnDec14LunchWpecanPies

Nancy and John Dec 14, 2012 at a scholarship potluck luncheon with Pecan Pies John made using his mom's recipe


Thoughts on
a winter’s day

— as usual started by John before Dec 21 (on 12/15/12) — now we know the world is the same as we know it -- now 12/21 - made it through

Winter 2012  ---  Something to think about

Today is Saturday the 15th of December and some folks believe the world is going to end next Friday.  Will it?  Good question!  Just in case, we’ll (try to) rush this greeting so the writing effort is not wasted.   From Nancy -- I didn't get it finished, but we are still here on the Solstice.  This treatise John wrote is too much fun and educational to eliminate, so keep reading.

        From Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1602:

HAMLET:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

Will we be, or not be, after next Friday?  Reference is to the Mayan calendar roll-over of Baktun.  Last year the end of world date, or The Rapture, – May 21 – failed and so was rescheduled for Oct. 21 when it again failed.  There have been many such expectations and so far all have failed.  Don’t give all your stuff away and stand on a mountain top -- waiting.  One could become a skeptic if this sort of thing keeps happening.

It is the Christmas Season for many and other seasons for others.  A few real cards have arrived with a common theme that gatherings of family and friends or even long distance contact is a favorite seasonal thing.  We recently shared a meal with friends, he of Italian descent, and partial to Bagna Cauda.  Conversation included references to food parties of the past, one being fondue (cheese, chocolate, oil) and all the things dunked into the pot.  We mentioned Genghis Khan, a 1970s thing of heating stuff over a domed iron plate over charcoal.  Hosts and guests had not heard of this (we’re older) and so wanted to know more.  I said I’d look it up.


That led to this observation:  we keep having to unlearn things.  George Washington was presented as a man that would not tell a lie.  Then we hear he did not chop down a cherry tree.  So why did he admit to doing so?  Years ago we switched to margarine because it was better for one’s health.  Apparently not.  Still, it was fun breaking the little yellow bit of coloring and working it into the packet of semi-soft sort of white stuff and making yellow stuff.  Johnny Cash “borrowed” the essence of his famous hit, Folsom Prison Blues.  There are many of these but the Genghis Khan cooker is the latest.  The domed iron item occupying the space between hot coals and the food was said to be fashioned after the helmets worn by the troops of Genghis Khan.  Just a week ago an item on the internet claimed this was a Japanese marketing ploy used by Hokkaidō sheep growers to increase the use of mutton in people’s diets.  They promoted the story that Mongolian soldiers used their helmets for cooking.  It was, and is, marketed with the name Jingisukan.  It was mental anguish to find out about this deception.

Some of these things are simple disappointments.  Still, questioning every thing you hear and read is time consuming if you want to know what is true.  It is much easier just to disbelieve everything and move on.  But what if you don’t move on.

Consider the end of the world next Friday.  The impetus for this world shattering (or not) event is the Mayan Long Count Calendar.  All that will happen, so it seems, much like the odometer on an auto when it reads all 9s, is that the numbers all switch to zero and it starts over.  So, not a problem.  Move on.  Then in an idle moment or at night when you wake – there it is again.  What’s that calendar all about.  So, you work your way back.  It is not called the Long Count Calendar for nothing.  This will be the 13th time for the passage of 144,000 days which takes us to 1,872,000 days ago for the calendar start date.  That would be 3,114 BC – using today’s Julian calendar.  But the Maya civilization established the calendar in about 500 BC, roughly 2,600 years after -- -- --.  After what?  No one knows.  If the world ends next Friday we will die, never knowing.  Perchance to dream.  Ay, there’s the rub.


Something to think about when you lie down to sleep on the Solstice.
but not before thinking of this weather forecast sent by a friend:

WeatherForSolstice2012

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Here we go, Nancy here, who tried diligently to get this out on the web before Dec 21.  I'm only 3 months off.  Happy St. Patrick's Day for 2013 !

This includes highlights for our year, perhaps more than you care to receive, so just skip down and look at the photos, or the titles of events.  Many will be links to web pages describing things we participated in or were affected by the year of 2012.  A few of our weekly blog readers have had a preview of some of this, but I have tried to break them up into the events only and have added some photos, perhaps many you have not previously seen.


We haven't had any beautiful "silver frost" (officially hoar frost) this year yet, and last year we received it Dec. 22; photos here from last year.  (We had some, Jan 2013, but will save for next year).  We still have all 6 horses, as seen below.

Our Horses Dec 12
          2011 & Ice Frost

                               Our horses, Cheyenne, Jazz, Ebony, Myst, Frosty, Breeze

We still have many resident deer (14 was the highest count at one time on our property; saw up to 20 on the neighbors').  Toward the end of December, we missed getting pictures of a buck with 4 points on each side of his head, a nice rack of antlers, but we do have a few pictures to share of others taken this year.  If you look back at 2010 greetings, you'll see a picture of a bigger buck near the bottom of the page in an oval shape: 
 
http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/2010Greetings.html

Fawn 2012 Doe and Horse Does and
                  Myst Little Buck   
We had 3 does each with fawn twins this year.  Doe with horse behind.  Our horses and deer co-exist well.  Here is the smaller buck of our herd.  Later, he lost his antlers, and one of our Brittanys (Annie) found it on their exercise run, retrieving it to John, and a couple weeks later, John found the other. 

Mountain Ash
        in Ice  Doe 2  RascalWithStarlingMt.Ash RascalInNankingCherry

Our Mt. Ash Tree with Silver Frost (2011); Doe eating berries; Rascal stalking Starling (upper rt) & earlier climbing in Nanking Cherry tree.

Merriam Turkeys in Tree  Dec 25-4 of 5 wild
        turkeys in our pasture  Quail Sentry
Merriam Wild Turkeys Fly -- keeping them safe from cougars and  coyotes, both of which we have.  One neighbor saw a bear this year too.  The middle picture  was taken Christmas about noon, from our back computer window, of 4 of the 5 walking into our pasture.  The fifth was there but I couldn't get it in pix.  The picture on the right was taken earlier in the year to show a Quail sentry on the bird feeder.  It is the lost feeder we are looking for to use for winter feeding.

Beautiful Mammatus Clouds Aug 2012 Cirrus Clouds Dec 2012 Tamaracks Beside our House
  Neat views around our home, on the Naneum Alluvial Fan.  Mammatus clouds in August; Cirrus clouds in December; Tamaracks (Larch) in fall.

VISITORS CAME THIS YEAR FROM OUT OF STATE

JohnCaseySonjaNancy Joyal&Hultquists2012  Jim&JeanHinthorne
   Casey and Sonja Willitts from South Lake Tahoe, NV             Fred and Ann Joyal from Marquette, MI              Jim and Jean Hinthorne from Silver City, NM

We met Sonja in Moscow, ID in 1977 when she bought a Brittany puppy from our first litter.  She and Nancy traveled all over the PNW going to dog shows and field trials, and carrying our horses along to the trials.  When we met Sonja, she was 18 and now Casey, her daughter, is 18. 

October 1, we enjoyed our nice (annual) visit from Fred & Ann Joyal, who come to visit his relatives in Spokane, WA and northern ID.  We usually meet part-way in Moses Lake, WA for lunch.  They live in upstate Michigan and have been friends from Iowa, since 1970.  We had a Brittany, they had a Black Lab, and we went on many upland game bird/duck hunting/training trips together or just hiking around the Coralville Reservoir.  John and Fred once went on a Colorado elk trip, from Iowa; and then they and their dog helped us move a huge U-Haul van to Idaho in 1974.  We were pulling my old '35 Ford, filled, and we pulled their car with the U-Haul.  Ann and I had their dog and our Brittany in our stationwagon, along with our two cats. 

July 4th, we spent in George, WA (yep, really, & with a restaurant there, Martha's Inn Cafe-now closed), with friends, the Hinthornes, we have known since 1988, when I began teaching in the GIS class and workshop offerings with Jim (a Geologist) at CWU, using the old Unix based, G.R.A.S.S. software.  They travel up most years because their daughter and family live in Ellensburg.  This year they stayed in their RV at Crescent Bar, mentioned below in the discussion of White Heron winery and vineyard.  At George, WA east of us, each year there is a fabulous all day concert in the park.  They provide a large free cherry pie and there is no cost to attend.  They bake it in a 15 x 15 ft. flat metal pan with cherry filling that has pre-baked and shaped biscuit pieces on top.  They charge 50 cents for ice cream on top. 

Link to 2009 one:  http://yourrecipeforsuccess.blogspot.com/2009/07/july-4th-george-wa-worlds-largest.html 

JOHN'S TRIPS TO WHITE HERON WINERY TO PRUNE WINE GRAPES

GrapeRunner  Leaves Grape Vine  Larger Grape Clusters

Spring 2012 found John driving an hour each way daily to White Heron Cellars (winery) and the Mariposa vineyard to help for 3 hours with wine grapevine pruning.  On his way back, he'd stop and buy some large Honeycrisp apples from Double Diamond in Quincy, a distributor with controlled atmosphere buildings. 
Follow this link,  http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/HoneyCrispApple2012.html , to learn more and to see a documented example of their size on a scale.  Meanwhile, without pictures of any of the pruning, we'll send you to a page about the White Heron winery and vineyard, where we used to take our class (Geog 465: Wine, A Geographical Appreciation) for a field trip, tour of the winery and the vineyard, and where we would  have a catered dinner with 6 small courses and a different wine with each.  It was the highlight of the entire summer class. 
This link will give you a little introduction:    http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/WhiteHeronCellars2012.html


OTHER SPRING EVENTS:  5 NEW BARN KITTIES & BLOSSOMING VEGETATION

  Aspen Catkins  header 5 kitties John's Hands for
        scale  Golden Currant &
        Oregon Grape

Take a peek here, for more information from April, 2012:

http://
www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/Orange Kitties and Blossoming Vegetation2012.html



NANCY'S TRIP TO GUYTON, GEORGIA FOR THE WILKINS FAMILY REUNION

Confluence
                Sava & Sora, Slovenia, Medvode Mary's Mtn near
                Medvode
Confluence of Sava and Sora rivers                                               Mary's Mountain                     

Medvode is a town in Slovenia.  The Sava & Sora rivers join there, from which the town's name is derived. 


The significance is that's where my grandmother, Alouisa Petash Wilkins, grew up within view of Mary's Mountain.  She came to the USA when 16, in 1902.  She met our grandfather, John Benjamin Wilkins, a carpenter and builder from south Georgia, while he was working on the construction for new growth related to 100,000 from people moving into Vancouver, BC.  They married in 1910 and moved to Seattle for him to work, possibly on construction associated with the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, which was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest.  We know he worked on the Smith Tower, an early high-rise building in Seattle that still stands today.  Their first 3 children were born in Seattle; my mom was the 3rd.  They moved back to southeastern Georgia to the old Wilkins farm (Hickory Hill) outside Guyton, GA in 1915. 

For more about the Washington State connection and this year's reunion, go to:
 
http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/WilkinsFamilyReunionGuytonGA2012.html


WILDFIRES - August and September

Plume taken during TMF by rappel crew,
        Wenatchee
A massive smoke plume from the Table Mountain Fire, taken by a Wenatchee Rappel Crew en route to another fire.


For more about the Wildfires impacting us, go to:   

http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/Wildfires2012.html


JULY - WASHINGTON OLD TIME FIDDLERS MUSIC WORKSHOP 

The last week in July is always the time the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association (WOTFA) puts on a week-long workshop with classes to take for all ages and many different instruments.  This year John took a guitar class, but didn't do very well because of arthritic type fingers that keep him from making the reach needed for chords.  I took an Intermediate/Advanced Fiddle class with my favorite violin teacher, Roberta Pearce, from Nampa, ID, whose class I have been in for 19 years!  Someone jokingly said, "You should have learned by now."  The reason I go back every year, is that she's like family, and every year she teaches us a different repertoire of songs (~ 16).  I volunteer as her assistant and take care of certain things with the class, and in addition, I make movies and a few photos to share with the class.  I have one video to share with readers of this newsletter.  I have uploaded it for you to You Tube.  It is a Cajun song played in cross tuning (strings are tuned differently from the normal violin).  The 2 minute video I took of Roberta and her daughter, Katrina Nicolayeff, a left-handed fiddler, and grand champion.  Katrina played the fiddle sticks while Bobbie played the fiddle.  This example was what they used to teach us the song, after we learned the technique of percussion from Katrina.  We paired up and the class had one person do each part.  The class learned the song, and we had lots of fun.  We used chopsticks for the "fiddlesticks".
Here is the link to follow.  It is not public, but you should be able to reach it with this link: 

http://youtu.be/ad1gM8XEWDM

KITTITAS VALLEY FIDDLERS AND FRIENDS

Leader KVF&F
 Nancy
Our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends music group plays old time dance music and sing-along songs in nursing, assisted living, and retirement homes.  We play every Thursday somewhere, and one Saturday/month at a retirement center, and I play one day a week at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen with our Banjo player, and one day a month in a Blue Grass Jam Session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange about 45 minutes from our home.  Our group plays the 3rd Saturday of each month, at Briarwood Commons, a retirement community of apartments.  They always love to have us and create a potluck for us after we play, with all sorts of good food.  Occasionally we are asked to do other gigs.  It is all volunteered time.  Our group consists of the following instrumentalists:  Tambourine (used to be our accordionist), guitar, violin (fiddle), viola, banjo, bass fiddle, mandolin, clarinet, and sometime spoons.  I'm the "lead" singer and conductor.  Only several of us sing.  A few people cannot sing and play at the same time.

This year we did the community Spirit of The West celebration in February, the Riverside Christian School Auction/Dinner in Yakima in March, a July 4 celebration on July 2, and a Mormon holiday special on their Pioneer Day July 21, held outside (with good food) at an old schoolhouse in the valley.  Some of us also went to the northern part of the county for music at the square dancing celebration the Mormon Trek (no photos).  There, I even called one square dance, "Oh, Johnny Oh."  Our music group member for many years was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), and he arranged places for us to entertain for church functions for years.  Sadly, cancer took his presence away from us.  He is in several of the photos taken at 2012 play dates, seen on the next link.


For more on our music activities during 2012, click on this link:  http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/KVF&F2012.html


GARDEN GOODIES ON THE NANEUM FAN 

asparagus roots
Asparagus roots - 2 dozen +

John continues to use his green thumb to plant vegetation, trees, bushes, flowers, and fruit berry bushes, or move native vegetation around.  He planted asparagus this year.  Shortly after planting 25 plants in a long row, we realized I'm unable to eat asparagus because of the Vitamin K conflict with one of my blood thinner required medications.  We know our friends will be happy to eat the extra John cannot, but I can eat a little.

Check this link for more details:   http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/Garden2012.html


OUR POLE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION THIS SUMMER

Early Bldg In Process & John with hay
Early view of Pole Building with John moving a wheelbarrow of hay through gate

Check this link for an intro to our new Pole Building:

http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/PoleBldg2012.html

See it again in the Hay discussion below.


ALL ABOUT HAY -- MORE THAN YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW

HayFieldInEllensburg Grasses Used For Hay Harobed

See the associated explanation at this link:    http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/KVHay2012.html

DOGGIE/CAT DOOR CREATION + MAKING FERAL ADJUSTMENTS

John Demoes New Doggie/cat doors bedroom feral
          recovery room Cashew In Basket
         Dog doors, in &out - Feral cats after spays & neutering in fenced recovery room a week inside our house.  Note male's left ear clipped.

        Check out the new construction on the side of our house across from the cat's hay mow and heated cat house. 

For more details:  http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/RebuildingDog-CatDoor2012Greetings.html


LANDSCAPING CHANGE AT THE NANEUM FAN

bulldozer chance backyard backyard
                          access

MORE TO COME IN THIS SAGA -- but for now,


Check this link for more details:    
http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/LandscapeChange2012.html



WASHINGTON TRAILS ASSOCIATION (WTA)

Crew For Microsoft Day of Sharing near
        Issaquah
The work crew for Microsoft's Day of Caring for trail work near Issaquah.  John is a WTA Asst Crew Leader (orange hat) - others were there.

John got out again this summer for some Washington Trail Association work; only day trips, again because I am still not capable of taking care of the horses' feedings and exercising the dogs twice daily for a week (or even daily).  This year he was not working in very picturesque places, and thus we do not have many nice photogenic scenery shots to share as in past years.  However, we have a few. 

Check this link for more details:     http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/WTA2012.html

FRUIT AVAILABLE TO OUR TABLE

On John's several "day" trips to work in the northern part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area, he stopped and bought apples, pears, and plums from a roadside stand.  We had less work this year in our own orchard with a very small crop of Rainier, Bing, and Royal Anne cherries.  We had a few pears and several plums, but many raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries.  Later this fall our seven Carpathian walnut trees produced a fair amount of walnuts, which John played tag over with a Douglas squirrel, harvesting them and bringing in the house to dry.

Late fall, our friends on the south side (north facing slope) of the valley invite us over to pick apples.  They have an orchard, which was destroyed for commercial use this year by a hailstorm.  They invited us over and he and John picked many boxes of apples:  Winter Banana, Delicious, Gala, Rome, Braeburn, and Honeycrisp.  We made many pounds of dried apples in our dehydrator last year, and this year more applesauce and ate a lot of them fresh.   


We mentioned the Honeycrisp story earlier, but if you didn't follow then, please check:  
http://www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/HoneyCrispApple2012.html

             DECEMBER, 2012                        

DECEMBER Festivities.  You learned at the beginning about our Christmas scholarship luncheon, and there is a little more about the season to share.  Below are gifts we received and one we gave away to the Adult Activity Center. 

WreathSwagWithSnowyOwl  DonnaJ'sSnowyOwlNWofUs  RudolphAtAAC  Geography Ornament

A wreath swag from a neighbor, and a snowy owl ornament from another friend; a real snowy owl at a friend's barn NW of us; stuffed Rudolph that Nancy found at a yard sale and donated to the Adult Activity Center.  The geographic ornament just arrived on a card from a PA geographer, Percy.

We ended the year with 19 musicians at a potluck and jam session - Dec 31, 2012.  A very nice ending to the old year.

Here is a cool video for the season, below.  It's an interesting perspective from a virtual sleigh ride over the real landscapes, on a December day on Planet Mars, compiled by NASA from images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4r3G4NNixEw


and for more information on the rover, check :   http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro


We lost some good friends, relatives, and animals this year.

Thanks to everyone for all you have meant to us through the years. 
We appreciate your friendship and kinship.  Thank you, one and all.

Thanks also for all annual greetings with letters and pictures
we have received in postal mail and electronically for the 2012 year. 
We truly value them all and are happy hearing all your news for the year
from friends and family, far and near.

We wish for you all to have a nice year and good health in Twenty Thirteen. 
 

Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings to you:

a very belated Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukah,

with a big Happy New Year's wish to all.

Love and hugs, Nancy and John & all our critters

Brittanys (Shay, Meghan, Dan, Annie); Cats (Rascal, Sue, Johnny Cash-ew, Woody);and you already saw the horses' names at the top of this page.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

"For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "For (the sake of) old times".



This page was created by Nancy Brannen Hultquist - Dec 2012-Mar 2013; the text is from the shared writing of John and Nancy Hultquist.  Comments to nancyh@ellensburg.com (only e-mail account which John also reads) or nancyb.hultquist@gmail.com or cedaridge@gmail.com   Cedaridge is our "Brittany" name.