A small flare and easing back into work

It seems the cumulative stress got me in a small flare last week.   I’d like to say I was smart and took a day or two to slow down into putter mode.. Nope I doubled down and made my self sick enough to be completely miserable for a couple of days of feeling awful physically and emotionally.  My body basically said “I quit” and all my my plans became nothing more than words on my note pad.  I do a good job working around my physical limitations most of the time but combining stacking a wood pile in 100+ F. heat was not in my plan and I did not adjust my expectations/ goals optimally.  Living in what is basically “Crisis Mode” all the time is not good for people.  Much like a soldier, kept on “FULL ALERT” 24/7.  Anyone’s performance will degrade after a couple of weeks and now it has been over 130 days/ 4 months of masking up and constant updates and daily contradictions on dealing with the Wu-Flu. I’m disabled military so I don’t have to worry about paying my mortgage and I don’t have kids in school.  My stressors are lower compared to many people, but my body just shut down and stopped for a few days.

What seem to help me bounce back was to stop everything for a day and eat very light bland meals of soup, scrambled eggs and toast, plus drink lots of water.  I started feeling better and started just getting some of the basic house keeping chore caught up like laundry and cleaning the big bathroom.  Today, I move and stacked 4 wheel barrows worth of wood. It might sound like a lot but it is not a lot of stacked firewood.  I take comfort in that I don’t have to stack that little bit of wood in the future.  I guesstimate I have stacked more than half of the total firewood delivery. It’s going to be close if I can stack all of this wood under the carport or if I’ll have to stack the firewood in the “kennel area” wood racks.  I will have to fix the ” kennel” wood rack area but all of that wood has seasoned for over 18 months and is mostly Doug fir or hardwoods like cherry and apple. I don’t want to bury those wood racks in “green” fire wood of any sort.

I got the first coat of enamel paint to protect the wood of my garden cart/raised bed mini garden.  I drilled the drainage holes and I think adding a little bit of landscape cloth to hold the dirt but allow water drainage would the right move for the cart.  This little (mobile raised garden) is a prototype.  I’m not a carpenter, I’m just slapping materials together to see if the project can work, at relatively low cost and can be practical for me.  The enamel paint is to protect the wood (frame) from water damage. The landscape cloth is to protect the plants from any out gassing of the paint as well as hold soil in the bed while allowing for water drainage. I will be using enamel paint to protect the 2×4 frame but what will hold the sides of soil is Cedar Fence wood. Cedar has great water and insect resistant properties. While I can’t stop all insects I can pick woods that are rot resistant.

I’m becoming a big fan of using 30% vinegar as a safe weed killer.  Now I have a more soil that is alkali, so adding some acid based products is not going to kill the soil like Round up. In my weed killing experience for tough weeds you need to use the 30% vinegar for weeds like morning glory, and it seems “cheat” grass.  This vinegar seems to work on most broad leaf weeds like dandelions,  some thistle plants and some plants like cheat grass.  If you are spraying weeds you need to use 30% strength.  I tried using 20% strength vinegar on the weeds and it did not kill most  weeds While I was not impressed with the 20% vinegar as a weed killer. I used it to clean some windows that were covered in hard water stains. These are crappy quality aluminum frame windows that have not been cleaned in at least 10 years and sprayed with “irrigation water” for over 15 years.  I won’t say the windows are perfectly clear but the first vinegar wash made the old windows much clearer.

My steps to clean off window hard water stains:

1. Spray 20% vinegar on the glass and see if it clears up the glass.
2. Use paper towels to clean the glass.  DID NOT WORK.
3. Spray again with vinegar and use a squeegee and cotton cloth to clean glass.  Results were better but I need a mild abrasive to clean the glass
4.  Use a type of “Magic eraser” sponge with the vinegar spray and water to wipe it clean.

Windows are not perfectly clear but I can see though the glass of the cleaned windows and now I see how badly the porch windows have a bad hard mineral build up. I don’t expect the old windows to be perfectly clear.  I just want to see through them and now I can effectively clean those windows. Not big deal cleaning a few porch windows but I’m making things better my home.

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Bathroom painted and added one A/C unit

I wimped out and the 95-100 degree F. heat in the last week and foretasted for at least another 10-14 days made me install the portable/window A/C units.  If it cooled at night to the low 60’s I could probably get by but at night it is in the 70’s and my fans can’t cool the house enough with over night at that temperature to keep the house comfortable during the day.  last year I built a little wooden frame to help the portable A/C unit air intake fit the window opening.  I added a bit of thermal barrier that looks like bubble wrap encased in something like Mylar.   This an easy to use thermal barrier for insulating for odd shaped spaces.

If any of you have used one of the  “portable” A/C units the hose is a beast to deal with and the little plastic bracing that comes with is mediocre at best. I made a little wood frame that fit my window and had thermal barrier that covered all of the window opening.  An A/C unit in a window is not effective if the open window lets in hot air. I used many “colorful metaphors” getting that bit of wood frame work correct last year. This year it took me less than 5 minutes to install the window outside air intake for the A/C unit.  I literally took me longer to roll the unit in place, plug it in,that it took me to install the little thermal barrier wood frame for the window.  Perhaps it is just me but I tend to be caught off guard when something I to work/build to make life easier, actually makes a job quicker or  works much easier than I anticipated. I tend to get a bit anxious as it should not be this easy…

I painted the small bathroom without taping off the edges and overall, it went well.  I have been wanting to paint a semi-gloss paint in the bathroom to make it easier to clean the walls. I do have few spots to touch up but doing the “cut out” /trim work first seemed to work good for me. The blue paint dried darker than I anticipated, but I’m very happy with the results of the paint job.  Now the paint looks good and I’m noticing the rest of the bathroom does not look so good.  I spend some time pondering why a person would work so hard to not make something lasting or simply go cheap. Well  I have been there and done that ,so I should not be all high and mighty about peoples choices because I don’ know why the made the choices they make. That is okay   just because I don’t understand peoples choices  does not make them bad/evil people.  Just different and different can be a good choice,

First garden bed soaker hose is done

I got the first garden bed set up with a soaker hose. I’m moving away from using a sprinkler to more water goes into the garden bed and not watering the weeds outside the garden bed. Overall I’m pleased with the results though it is not a true “drip irrigation system” . The first big bonus is 25 foot soaker hoses are relatively cheap and will water my 10 foot long raised garden beds without watering a lot of the ground outside of the garden beds.

Lessons learned : Drilling through 2×4 with the hole drill tool is tough. What I did was start drilling the hole on one side of the 2×4 use a drill bit to mark the center of the hole and then finish drilling out the hole from the other side of the board. I’m sure there are people that will say “any idiot knows…” I am that idiot and I did not know, though it seems apparent after trying to drill a large hole through one side of a 2×4. It can’t work, but if you use a a drill bit to set the same hole from the other side of the 2×4 you can make a hole for the hose.

If I can afford to to put in a drip irrigation system in the future most of the work is done so using the soaker hoses is a “test” or proof of concept of a drip irrigation system done on the cheap!

How are are the garden plants doing? The lettuce, swiss chard and spinach is growing very well. The Bok choy looks like a bust again. My sweet and dent corn seem to be growing but the Squash and pole beans seem to be a bust. The tomitillos and herbs are doing great but the tomatoes and peppers are lagging. I need to get on top of the weeding and make the watering more focused on the plants because the weather is “wonky” with a couple of days of 90 F. degree heat for a couple of days and then dropping into 60 F. degree heat + rain. This is hard for farmers and gardeners because the expected/normal weather is not happening.

I’m going to finish adding the soaker hoses to all my garden beds and get some more winter squash plant starts to fill in my garden beds. Mama nature is fickle you can do everything correct according to the books and get nothing out of your garden. You can do almost everything wrong and get food from your garden. Doing the real work of making soil, weeding and know when and what to plant will matter over a few growing seasons. Any work you do for a garden seems to pay off at least 6-12 months later! Failure is only an opportunity to try new stuff and you will fail, that is how you learn!

I think the Rioters tried to setoff a riot in Boise

Idaho is a Constitutional carry state so you can openly carry or conceal carry a firearm without a “Certificate of Mother may I” from the state.  Boise had a small protest that went on after BLM bailed and one fire arm discharge that is being treated as a sort of “accident” in Boise.  Up north people came out strapped in Ceour ‘D Lane Idaho for some protesters and everyone stayed polite and there were no reports of looting or fires.  I was looking at the USA map and Idaho has not had much in the ways of rioting, looting and other mayhem. A couple of small protests and a battery powered candle light vigil for George Lloyd.  I myself was outraged by the death of George Lloyd because of what I see is “Police Brutality” and lawless cops. We have seen it in Idaho from cops doing no-knock warrants, to shooting dogs to shooting people with very little cause as I see it.  I used to support cops and was totally supportive of following the law. Not any more! If you are a cop and are afraid of getting bit by a dog pick a new line of work.  I will no longer give you cops the benefit of doubt because you have proven you don’t deserve it.

I know it is not all cops are bad, but enough are bad and are protect by their peer, unions and the city, counties and states that don’t fire the bad cops, You “GOOD” cops don’t get a pass any more. It was not just one bad cop sitting on that neck for 8+ minutes there were 4-5 other cops that let him commit that brutality. Don’t come at me that being a cop is stressful!  Lots of jobs are stressful and you can do the job or not and you don’t get a pass for doing a stressful job.

Enough on covering the rioters. I started cleaning up the Iris plants and the front yard beds a OMG it was a workout.  I have cut most of the Iris leaves around 3-6 inches and started cleaning out all the old plant material along with some weeds.  From what I have read after the flower stops blooming it is safe to cut the green leaf parts of the Iris between 3-6 inches and then dig up the root/rhizome for replanting.  If the root/rhizome is mushy it probably is not going to grow. Have a spot for those new Irises from the old beds or share the Iris Rhizomes with your neighbors.  Clean up the root with a sharp knife and wrap in newspaper/craft paper. I have several purple/ lavender and purple/ gold mix Irises.  But the real beauty is a pristine white iris that I have no idea how it propagated.  Serendipity is a wonderful thing!

I got the tree cut down so a lot more sunlight is hitting the front yard lawn. I treated the lawn for some nasty bugs and I added some lawn “Food”/nutrients and the grass is growing like crazy. It looks like some of the weeds are getting choked via the new grass growth but it is still early days. I really want to create a gazebo seating area with a small fire pit but that will take a bit of study and money to make that happen.  For now I will just clean up the area and work on getting it some what level for future projects.

Things are getting crazier!!!

It has been almost two weeks since I posted and I apologize for slacking off.  While it may sound strange I’ve been examining myself about my reactions to the WuFLU, how the government reactions have played out and now we have riots in many cities all over the USA.

Some impressions about how the front yard is doing since the big tree has been gone:

1. Every plant is putting on a lot of growth with the additional sunlight, that includes the weeds!  My strawberry garlic and flowers have benefited from more sunlight.
2. SW Idaho had a couple of 95+ degree days the new windows, fans and blinds kept the house around 75 degrees.  Overall I don’t think losing the big tree will affect my homes’s internal temp. but it will have a huge affect on the plants in the front yard.
3. I’m still brainstorming ideas of how to use the area/section of yard but I have not committed to any particular idea other than adding a sitting area of some sort around the the tree stump.

Mom and I had the first steaks grilled on the patio over Memorial day weekend.  I wanted to clean up and rearrange the patio area as it was looking a bit shabby.  I used one of the pressure water wands  on the vinyl siding to clean off a years worth of dust, dirt and cobwebs.  The siding still needs a little scrubbing to get it clean, but just using the pressure wand on the garden hose really made that part of the siding look much better and was much less work than dealing with the wood siding!

I have a “vision” of my patio to be an outdoor kitchen as well as sanctuary to sit and just enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning or a beer/glass of wine in the summer evenings.  I  did a lot of clean up of weeds around the back yard walkways.  I mowed the lawn and the grass is doing very well except directly under the apple tree.  I trimmed a few branches to let more sunlight hit the problem areas.  I know that Spring time is not the optimal time to plant grass seed but using the compost/steer manure mix to augment the soil and cover the grass seed has not only helped the grass fill in the lawn but it seems to keep many weeds from taking root.  I cleaned up many thistle, weeds and dandelions in my backyard but in the lawn area there is only one dandelion plant.

I had one lawn spot that got infested with a mint.  While I knew mint could invade a spot I did not anticipate how woody the stems got close the the ground or how tough it was to dig up the roots.  I doubt I got all the mint roots in this area but I laid down some small pebble/sand mix to give my cats a place to dig/scratch and do all those cat things in a place that is away from my garden beds. While it is early days into this test the cats seem to love having this area to scratch, lounge, play and so far no pooping.  I set out an old cat litter box beside the patio to encourage the kitties to practice better sanitation.  Results are positive so far, so I will make more little digging areas  around the yard that are pet friendly.  I am using materials that make it easy to scoop up the poo and it might help keep mice out of the house if they smell predator poo around the house perimeter.  I don’t think you can stop animals from following their instincts but you can make places that are easier or more difficult to follow those instincts.  Laziness is a survival tool because the animal expends less calories by being lazy.  I’m not sure why cutting down that mint seem to open up that section of the patio but the kittens love it and it is a “hoot” to watch the kittens pounce, lounge and generally enjoy this new area of the backyard.

Onto the riots:

1. I think these riots/protest are being organised to take advantage of the USA. I don’t think it is a conspiracy per se, but tapping into people’s frustration and anger as an opportunity to create chaos.
2. We recently had an SJW mayor elected in Boise and she got slammed about some of her “Studies/suggestions”.  A local person was contacted by Black Lives Matter about organizing a protest and then BLM dropped coming to Boise.  There was a small multi-racial protest about police brutality on the state house steps. Idaho is a Constitutional carry state! That means if you can legally purchase a gun you can carry it openly or concealed legally any where in public.  I doubt BLM wood want a bunch of private citizens legally stopping riots and looting simply by protecting themselves and property.
3. Red/conservative states are opening up economically and the Blue/progressive states want to maintain the lockdowns for some reason.  It’s not like any governments care about people dying unless it looks bad to the politicians.  Let conservatives/libertarians/republicans get back to work!  If the virus is so bad those people will get sick/die first!

I don’t know about this virus and if it safe to go back to normal interactions.  I think it is probably safe but I can’t say for certain.  I’m in a “vulnerable group” of having a immune disorder so I wear a mask because I’m at risk.  I wore a mask when the WHO/CDC called me bad names and locals looked at me as a “weirdo” back in March. I wear a mask shopping then and now because I think it is the best thing for me and my health.  Wearing a mask was never a political statement or to be trendy and if I think wearing a mask is dumb or unhealthy,  I’ll stop wearing a mask.

I was a shut down International travel, close the borders, protect the seniors and wear a mask for 2-4 weeks and perhaps close schools over Spring break up to a month.  I was never a shut down all small businesses or hospitals/clinics/dentists type of person.

I hope people will learn after seeing stuff either first hand or on the internet/tv media will learn the the lessons of self reliance and the government won’t protect them. Perhaps kids that want to learn will thrive intellectually being home schooled.

Cleaning/organizing the shop

The shop has needed a major cleanup and organizing for the last couple of months so I can get all those projects done I have been putting off until I had time to get them done. I have time now so I got started moving and cleaning some of the dirt and getting my shelves and work benches empty of scattered boxes of Mom’s onto her storage pallet.  The job was easier than I expected and I had room on Mom’s pallet for several boxes of books, a box of mom’s knickknacks and a couple of older solar panels that were taking up space on part of the work table. I was surprised by the weight Mom’s older solar panels.  These panels are about 10 years old and they weigh a lot more and are more bulky than panels I have bought in the last 3-5 years.

I think the alternative energy folks are over zealous and unrealistic about replacing fossil fuels for consistent industrial levels energy production.  To give credit where credit is due new solar panels are lighter and give more electric wattage in a smaller package that is good for people that want off-grid electricity.  I think the use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources is great. Solar/wind energy might be a good choice for residential home owners and off grid cabins, RVs and boats but it is not ready to be a consistent power source for industry.

Back the shop clean up I can see why the shelf failed under the weight of a couple of small boxes of books.  The former owner seemed to love re purposing old hollow core doors for shelves. While the shelves seemed to have the bulk to support some weight those hollow core doors never made to be shelves and hold 20-60 pounds of books. Even cheap bookshelves have a solid core of MDF/particle board and the will bow under the weight of hardcover books over time.  I have some 2×4’s to add some strength to the existing work table. I won’t replace the shelf as my little snow blower and tiller have a nice little spot to be stored.

One of the positives of this pandemic is many people have the time to get to many of those hobbies they wanted to try/work at getting more proficient. At least if you don’t have a psycho governor like Vermont or Michigan and arbitrarily declare buying home improvement materials for a garden are non-essential. You would think keeping small businesses and stores selling stuff and generating sale taxes would be important to city,counties and state politicians.  Watch your local politicians and how quick they want to open up the economy and how quick they want to go all “Stazi” encouraging citizen informants to make their enforcement policies easy for the government.

I was disappointed that only 10% of the customers in Fred Meyer were masked and the “Social distancing” seemed to be lacking. These are not evil people they just are denial or this virus is not REAL to them.  Much like crime always happens to someone else, until it happens to them or someone close to them this flu is not real to them.  If this is happening in your neighborhood don’t report “safe space offenders” but notice who goes out masked up and tries to be safe as possible keeping extra social distance, wearing masks, gloves, buying garden seeds and plants.  Those are the people you want to cultivate and be a neighbor you want to help.

It is okay to feel the world is getting a bit crazy.  The world is getting a bit nuts at this time and you see what is happening in real time so feeling anxiety or panicked is a normal response.  Reach out your arms and spin around, that is all you can control. You won’t get any politician recalled or voted out of office for many months.  What are you going to do for yourself and your family/community?  I mean you being pro-active and not whining on facebook and twitter.  I have read some people are setting up a barter system via Nextdoor.com.  this might be a thing as some folks will trade several pound of flour for some yeast.  Sugar is also an item on the site.  Coffee is still in stores for a descent price. I suspect the supply chain could break and coffee and tea could get expensive or unavailable. As for yeast buy in bulk and yeast can be stored up to 5 years in a freezer.  Yeast also helps makes an easy sourdough starter.

Life will change, how much it will change I have no idea. No change is all perfectly good or bad.  It will just be different.  I’m not that special about being prepared.  I just asked what if….? then added items I thought I might need if things went sideways.  What I did today was water my little back yard lawn and cleaned my shop to make a new work area.  Nothing special at all and most anyone with a home, shop yard could do the same and probably as good or better than myself.

I can pay all my bills right now. I’m on SSD and a little VA benefit so I have some income that I’m used to living on but I suspect inflation is coming by this fall at best and Spring 2021inflation probably . My mortgage payment is locked by contract. SSD/VA payments might lag behind inflation but as long as I can make my house payment I should be okay with my preps for food and energy.  I’m concerned how this new economy will affect people that did not prepare.  There is not much I can do other than control my reactions.

Don’t worry about the national debt. We had a point in 2008-2010 when USA citizen were wiling to take a hit and get US government to reduce the debt.  That time has passed and more inflation will hit people.  It’s just history of people making bad choices. Your money may become worthless.  Any plant out of your garden will become priceless.

Got some plant starts, seeds and shopping

I cant start all of the plants I want to have from seed as many of my seeds are a lot older than I thought and are not germinating. If you have gone to many seed suppliers you know they have sold out of many of the seeds or the shipping time is so long you will miss the “Prime Time” of planting or starting seeds. Two or three weeks in Spring time planting season can be critical to starting your garden.

I got Sun gold cherry tomato and early red tomato.  Most of my pepper seeds seemed to be old so I got a yellow and red bell pepper along with two tomitillo plants.  If you want tomitillos you must have at least 2 plants for cross pollination.  I have bought new seeds and have started them but those seeds are still waiting to germinate so I’m adding more store bought plants just in case my starters are a bust.

I was a little disappointed in people I saw shopping in Fred Meyer’s today.  I’m guessing about 10% of the people I saw had on masks of any sort and very few were wearing any kind of protective eye wear. Many people seemed to be browsing the store rather than having a list of items to get and get out as quickly as possible.  The parking lot seemed about average for a Saturday and while people were not panic shopping they did seem complacent about the Wu-Flu.  There was no tissue paper or paper towels but plenty of hand sanitizer in small 2-4 oz bottles.  Pet supply shelves were hit hard but it looked like most people were buying mostly mid quality/cost pet foods.  There was plenty of the very cheap and more expensive wet and dry pet food on the selves.  I bought the last bag of 12 pound store brand of dry cat food that is 38% protein. My cats are doing great with cat food and I mix it with a 31% protein mix I get from the local farm store.  My cats also get a half a can of wet cat food every night.

A new thing at my local Fred Meyer is cashiers not handling reusable bags.  I love reusable shopping bags when I use my walker shopping but I know those cloth bags could hold bacteria and viruses so I shifted over to the more rigid plastic coated bags because I could spray (Lysol) sanitize the bag. This bag is coming into my home so I’ll do everything I can to keep the virus outside my home.

I asked the cashier if she could handle the bag and the store policy was no.  Okay can you let me bag my stuff after you ring it up?  YES!  Great, the cashier follows store policy and I can use my easy to sanitize bag for groceries.  I don’t know where the plastic bags most stores use are made but it is probably China or a place whit with WU-Flu so this is a win-win for stopping extra contamination.  Cashiers should not need to be the experts about the virus or be attacked by customers that feel a mild inconvenience is an assault on their rights as a consumer. 

I know wearing a mask properly is annoying it feels like breathing into a very sauna at best. You have to adjust your googles or glasses from fogging up. Putting on gloves and using hand sanitizer is not fun and all that hand washing can dry and crack your skin.  Don’t go out shopping unless you want to put up with masking up, wearing gloves and sanitizing everything when you get home.  I’m not telling you not to go shopping but the cashiers and workers in stores deserve customers that are willing to mask up in the stores. Even if wearing a mask is annoying to you.

Get over what other people do, you can be the little hero the wears a mask out shopping! Be nice to the cashier and people keeping stores open and relatively safe with extra cleaning. It is those cashiers, truckers, janitors along with doctors nurses, CNA and cleaning staff that are heroes.  Farmers, gardeners and handyman of all sorts are the heroes keeping this economy going.

The elites hate that they are behind the power curve and are not all that important to peoples daily lives and the people are starting to realize it. I like to think that people given good info will do the right thing.  But most people don’t get good info and don’t do much research on there own.  I’m not an expert, just a former Army Field Sanitation NCO that learned a bit about the spread of disease. The answers are simple for a pandemic.  They just are not easy for people.

Really it should be a simple if not easy process:

1. Isolate all countries and stop travel and shipping.  This is brutal to trade but a 1-2 week level of stoppage should be enough to mitigate the virus.
2. Stop all flights for 1-2 weeks. All nations take the hit equally and then slowly open flights to those countries that get control of the amount of people using hospital’s care.
3. Give a USA open for business order but allow states and cities to modify that order locally.
4. This is crazy but give people good info and let them decide the level of risk they will accept.  I know this idea will drive the state and local governments crazy to let people decide risk/reward.
5. I think most people are ignorant about this virus. The Government at all levels has failed to educate the people.  Getting a cold or the normal flu does not make you a bad person. Most likely you will get the Wuflu and have flu like symptoms.  The pneumonia  part of the Wu flu is when stuff gets scary.

Bend the curve stop the spread of the flu and that is easy:

1. Wear a mask and glasses to stop the spread.
2. Social distancing will help
3. Add a few vitamins and mineral to your diet. Vitamin C and Zinc, D3 seem to help fighting all flu viruses.
4. Stay on your property and work on that garden. I’m sorry for folks that live in High- Density areas and are dependent on mass transit. This should show you the government won’t save you and you are on your own.
5. You better hope those farmers have a good harvest and plenty of farm animals are grown for meat and the truckers are allowed into cities to feed you.
6. Nine meals from anarchy…

 

A good day working on the yard and raised beds

The irrigation water is slowly starting to run to my house, so I added some grass seed and compost/soil mix to the ” grass lawn” section of my back yard.  I know Spring time is not the best time for growing a lawn but I want to start filling in that lawn area and I have the seed and cheap irrigation water available now to keep adding lawn seed with compost/soil that should help the grass seed take root and grow!  I want a section of healthy lawn around my home as it seems to keep the back yard much cooler in the summer.  A bonus on a grass lawn is my pets love laying down and even eating grass on occasion and I know the grass is grown without nasty chemicals. Just a little bit of manure/compost, a little garden soil and a whole lot of water!  The pressure from the irrigation water is minimal. I’m watering about a three foot square  for now, but the irrigation water will get more pressure in a few days.

I got my deep raised bed cleaned out.  Gosh that bed had a bunch of nasty roots that needed the garden fork to bring up to the surface.  Overall I’m pleased as the soil is almost black and rich in nutrients.  I think this deep raised bed will be my root crop garden of parsnips, turnips, and carrots this year.  I added some of the green plastic fence to cover most of the bed, because my cats and Tucker the peke love to dig and or poo in the freshly dug garden beds. I have neighborhood full of cats and my own cats, that will leave some unwelcome deposits in my yard and garden and the local squirrels don’t seem to pay much attention to my instructions on good neighbor behavior.  Critters will do what they do based on nature.  The critters are not evil they just do what they do by instinct.

I filled a large trash bin with grape vines to clean up a couple of beds and  I’m not going to finish cleaning up the Grape vines this Spring.  I have to clear out the grape vines from my other raise beds for plants in May and then keep cleaning the older growth of vines.  Ironically cleaning out those old grape vines/ canes  will make the grape vines go crazy with new growth.  I know I’m making progress cleaning up the grape vines but today it did not look like I cleaned up, despite the fact I filled a 65 gallon trash bin of old grape vines/canes.

Good news I can get the old/sick Elm tree cut down next week thanks to the Trump bux.  This will help my local wood supplier keep working, they get fire wood and I get rid of an old diseased tree.  That BOOM from the earthquake made me think the old tree landed on my neighbors home or dropped a large limb on my roof.  Best to take care of the tree now rather than deal with it if  comes down in a storm.

I lost track of time getting the berry plants cleaned up, another raised bed ready for planting and planting some grass seed in the backyard.  It felt good to get more of the raised beds ready for planting, adding grass seed to my backyard and cleaning up the old grape vines.  Working outside getting some jobs done feels good to me and makes me happy!

If you are like me living in the city on a small plot of land you probably can’t grow enough food to feed yourself year round. You can grow enough food via a garden to grow some fresh food to your diet. Every little thing you can do will help even if it is growing herbs in a kitchen window.  That is one less thing you buy in the store!   It is so easy to buy bread in a store compared to making it at home.  I bought store bread though I have all the ingredients for my home made bread.  Making my bread at home is now easier than masking up to go shopping in the public.

I don’t think the shut down can last much longer as people are getting a bit stir crazy and small business must get back to work.  It might be unpleasant but people like me must isolate/self quarantine as much as possible and wear protective gear to be safe from other people.  I’m immune-compromised , I have had pneumonia and some lung damage. That is my problem to deal with this Wu-Flu that kills people like me.  I don’t demand the rest of the country make things safe for me. I’m handing out masks to my neighbors and telling them how to sanitize them for re-use. That makes me safer in my neighborhood.

Life is dangerous and it can kill you at any time!  There is no reason I have to do stupid stuff to tempt the reaper.

 

I got my ramen noodles!

This is a big deal because I got the “rain check” for a case lot sale and this small country grocery store got hammered by people coming from the “big city” to grab/buy everything  for the Wu-flu virus.  Small stores/small towns don’t have the basic infrastructure to deal with a lot of people descending on them via this flu.

Folks in the cities, you are not going to escape this virus as it is every where.  You could be bringing that virus with you because it has a several days of being infectious though you feel fine.  Please stay at home as big cities have larger hospitals to deal with this infection.  Most small towns have a health clinic or very small hospital at best.  Most small towns depend on big city hospitals for trauma/emergency rooms or ICU beds.

I understand the feelings of fear and uncertainty with this virus.  It is a bit of the “fight or flight” syndrome that us human have and it’s tough to stay home and do almost nothing for days or  a couple of weeks. Staying home, social distancing and going out to stores only when you need something is exactly the best thing you can be doing.  How many hospitals have ICU beds/ ventilators do you think are in Idaho or in any other flyover states?

The Midwest grows food and drills for oil.  I’ll agree shipping all manufacturing of critical goods Overseas was a bad choice but the USA makes food, paper products, lumber and has oil along with a lot of basic machinery for mining, timber and other materials to make potential products once factories get up and running in about 3-18 months depending on how much retro-fitting or building factories from the ground up is required.

Despite what the “Elites” believe you can not conjure food nor factories with a “Thanos” snap   If we could start up factories yesterday. It will take at least 3-6 months for those factories to produce a large enough amount of products to be put on store shelves.  That is a very optimistic forecast  in the USA Factories.

Many stores like Dollar tree/Family dollar are hiring.  Or other companies that are considered essential TODAY!  You probably won’t replace all of your income but if you can pay utilities and have food in the house that is a start.  You can work on the bigger bills like, credit cards, rent and mortgages later in 30 days or in May.  Mortgage companies and banks are facing huge margin calls, so foreclosure notices should be slow for home owners and landlords.  Courts are shutting down and that should limit evictions for 30-90 days.

I’m not saying you should not pay your debts/bills.  This is an Emergency and food, fuel and utilities for your family comes first then rent, credit card bills, and the mortgage payment can be put off for a month or two.

Being fearful, scared or feeling a little bit panic is not only normal. It is a rational response as long as you don’t “Freeze” or get overwhelmed and do nothing.  Stop your panic, know what you have, know what you need and slowly get those things you need to live.  It might be cash to pay your bills. Heck I’ve prepping for almost a decade and while I feel confident in my preps, I feel a bit worn out with the washing my hands, getting the garden ready as quickly as possible rather than enjoying my time in my yard puttering around I’m focused at growing as much food as possible as quickly as possible.

Those tomatoes aren’t going to grow any faster because I’m in a PANIC!  This virus panic will take some time to show how bad it will be in the next few weeks.  Plan for the worst, hope for the best.  Get plenty of sleep, take your vitamins, putter around your garden, even if it a few pots of herbs on your balcony or in a window.  Clean your house and make it your sanctuary/safe space. This situation is going  to suck!  This situation will also pass. Humanity won’t die, the earth will be fine and with a little luck all people will realize Globalism sucks!

People are getting tense, stressed and frustrated around here (SW Idaho)

I admit that I’m one of those people getting frustrated because I’m not seeing much in the way of social distancing. I stopped at the Family Dollar because Mom wanted a comforter she saw on Friday.  The parking lot wasn’t full and the amount of people in the store did not seem excessive when I got in the check out line.  Things changed quickly and the checkout line started stacking up behind me and no one was keeping any real “social” distance.  Many people were in and out of the store searching for toilet paper, wipes or other items that had sold out and leaving empty handed.  Some of the shelves were empty but there were plenty of OTC meds, cleaning supplies heck even some milk, beer and wine on the shelves.

It was like people had tunnel vision to get one or two items. If that item wasn’t available they were off to another store.  This is why I think you need to make a list of all the items you want to buy/have at home.  Every time you go shopping you are taking a risk. I think it is better to try and get as many items on your list at any one store, rather than focus on getting one or two items but going into many different stores.  I was committed to the check out line but while I was at the store I picked up some red pepper flake, a 15 pack of beer along with Mom’s bedspread set. I wanted the red pepper flake and the beer was just a spur of the moment purchase that might become important if I have to keep dealing with idiots.

I have been tempted to carry a small spray bottle of water to spray people who don’t understand the concept of social distance in lines or other gathering spots.  A bit like spritzing your cat or dog when the pet goes where they should not!  I wonder if people would learn that the spray bottle of water droplet is sort of like if someone is coughing or sneezing on them and their grocery items?  The only reasons I am holding back is either I’d get arrested or sued.  So if you are out shopping, assume someone has a spray bottle of water or germs and keep your distance of 6 feet/2 yards or 2 meters.

I had a little tickle in my throat like I might be coming down with a cold on Sunday so my tolerance of idiots was very low. I got my humidifier fired up with a few drops of tea tree oil.  Today I got out and cut some wood for kindling and opened up the doors to get more fresh air moving through the house. The tickle is almost gone. Getting out in the sunshine, opening the house up to fresh air really helped boost my spirits as well as feeling much better physically.  I’m taking a B complex with vitamin C, a mineral compound of calcium, Magnesium and Zinc and I’m adding a some more D3 to that mix.  Be careful with vitamins and minerals as some are fat soluble like D3/calcium that you can overdose on.  B and C vitamins are water soluble so if you take a little to much you can pee away most of the vitamin your body does not use. Do your research because more of a good thing can become toxic in a larger dose.

I have to hit the bank on Tuesday and want to stock up on twenty and fifty dollar bills to have on hand.  I have one case lot sale Rain checks I want to buy.($20.00 cost) With the Stock market going crazy and many people out of work/laid off I think we are heading into economic recession if not something worse for the next few weeks.  I want to have some cash in $10, $20 and $50 dollar bills on hand.  I’m leaving some money in the bank for buying stuff online like e-books or it there are items I want to order online.  I don’t think you should try and screw anyone but there will probably be businesses that will start having sales on goods/services that will need some “cash flow” to keep going during economic hard times.  This can be a WIN/WIN for you and the business.  You get stuff done and the business keeps enough cash flow to pay employees and themselves during this economic hiccup.