Losing Track of Time

It seems like I was just here posting, but I look at my calendar and it's been a week. Idaho currently has 1,170 confirmed cases of Covid-19. That number is just an illusion. We (our country) still don't have enough test kits, and we are still only testing people that check all the boxes as far as symptoms go. If someone dies of Covid-19 and they were never tested, they still do not get tested. Not tested means not reported. There's no comfort in that number. We know it's far worse than what is reported.

New York has 131,916 cases and 8,898 deaths now! It's terrifying.

Mostly I try not to dwell on our situation and how unprepared we are as a country. Being at home we have lost all track of time. Weekends do not feel like weekends, and weekdays do not feel like weekdays, despite the fact that we are all working or studying from home.

Spring has arrived and that is something to smile about. It's been rainy and gloomy, but the light is changing, and it's starting to green up outside. I love Spring.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is recommending that people wear homemade cloth masks when they have to leave their houses for essential supplies. This is so that people who have the disease and don't exhibit symptoms and/or don't know they are infected cannot infect others. It doesn't protect the person wearing the mask from catching the virus, but it is a good reminder not to touch your face.

I made masks like this for my family, and I'm continuing to make more for others until I run out of elastic and fusible interfacing.

Wearing an N95 mask can protect you from catching the virus they are in short supply and must only be used by health care workers and first responders. There isn't enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers and it's ugly.

Working at home is weird. After the first day I really struggled to stay focused. Today was better, but it's so isolating. I'm thankful for the home gym we set up in our basement last year, because sometimes I need to just get up and walk on the treadmill. It's also nice to be able to start a load of laundry and move it when it's ready for the dryer when I need a break from sitting. Staying up on the little chores like that is easy when you're working at home.

When we aren't working on work, we try to make a little progress on any one of our million projects we have going on at any given time. Whenever we can be outside, it's much easier to put the virus out of our minds.

Here is my dry creek bed. It was looking so much nicer in August, before we had to pull a large section up in order to dig a trench to run a propane line. Our oil furnace died so we took the opportunity to switch to a propane furnace. It was a lot of work, but we don't have the diesel smell when our heater is running now, and we're actually spending half of what we used to spend on heating because our new furnace is a high efficiency furnace and not 30 years old like the last one.

We got it all put back together before the snow flew, and then we had a crisis with our well at Christmas and had to dig another trench through the same general area. We were digging for a week solid starting Christmas Day. It was horrible, miserable, work. Over spring break we got that trench mostly filled in, and now we're starting to put it all back together again. If we get some nice weather this week, I should be able to right everything and move onto newer projects.

I'm very excited about this project that Peanut Head has been working on. These are new roosts for our chickens.

The best part is the tray that collects the droppings. It slides out in order for me to empty it. It will save me so much time when I clean the coop. 

Sadly our flock is down from 13 to two hens and one rooster. We lost five hens to a predator last spring when we were letting them free range. We even lost two babies. Then several weeks ago we lost another four hens to a predator, again when they were free ranging. Needless to say we aren't letting them free range anymore unless we are outside with them. We get one egg every other day now. Bad timing.

We recently bought three Rhode Island Reds and three Sapphire Gem chicks, but one of the Sapphire Gems died. 😥 We've also ordered six Brahmas that we are hoping to get this month. I love the Brahmas because they are big and they have hairy feet. Or maybe that's feathery feet. It will be fall before any of the new hens start laying.

We got out for a hike on Friday when the weather was just barely decent. We went to Menan Buttes and it was nice. It was a little over four miles with a lot of vertical incline and a lot of rocky terrain.

My family kicked my trash and I was sore the following day. Honestly, we haven't been hiking together since Zoe was a baby. It was a nice afternoon.

Baney was exhausted too. He's snoozing right behind me.

Here's a better picture. I love his sweet little crossy legs. His crossy legs are what made me fall in love with him. He's such a Delicate Flower.