2020 – Archived Blogs – All Is Right On The Homestead

It’s the weekend after New Year’s Day. The sun is shining and we have the making to the start of another wonderful day and wonderful year up here on our little hill. I have no idea what 2020 will bring our way that’s for sure. Heck, I don’t even know what tomorrow will bring our way, but we stopped worrying about that quite a while ago. I’m sitting out here on my back porch with a cigar, enjoying the beautiful morning, and thinking what an incredible year 2019 was for Colleen, me, and our family. The year certainly had its ups and downs, but in the grand scheme of things the rough spots proved to be nothing more than a few bumps in the road. If nothing else, 2019 was a year of change for us, and while we may not have expected some of the changes and some may have caught us by surprise, Colleen and I embraced the changes and everything worked out just fine. In some cases, things turned out even better than we had hoped. To that end it only seems fitting that I greet the New Year with some our best memories of 2019.

Once Colleen got Christmas 2018 taken down, packed up, and put away, the waiting game for spring started. We started stock piling seeds for our gardens and tried to figure out how we could get more out of our tiny little half-acre. I had gotten a book of homestead DIY projects for Christmas and decided I liked the way they suggested building raised bed gardens. That was the first project on my “To-Do” list. When you live on the side of a hill, on the edge of a forest, raised bed gardens placed in the sunniest spots you can find is the way to go unless you can afford to terrace the whole lot which we couldn’t afford.

The weather gave us a break in late January so I headed down to Lowe’s and got the materials I needed to build a new style of raised bed garden. Of course, finding the sunny spots and then leveling the frame was another different challenge. The new design of the raised bed proved to be fantastic, and little did I know that that before the start of summer I would build four more frames for our front yard. We never could get grass to grow out front so we figured the gardens were worth a shot. By the early middle of February Colleen’s bulbs were starting to push through the leaves in her flower gardens and we figure it was time to start getting our gardens ready to plant. The start of February also held a special treat for Colleen. Alysia got tickets for the two of them to see Cher in concert.

Mid February is when things really start to get busy around here. High school baseball season starts right after Valentine’s Day and for me that meant long days at school. Little did I know that last season would be my final year coaching baseball after an 18 season run. Spring also comes early to Central North Carolina and by the end of February and before beginning of March we had snap peas and radishes planted. I ended up building a second raised bed for Swiss chard and beets. Our luck with root crops had been dismal for us in years past, but we had new raised beds and felt if we were ever going to be successful we needed to give it another try. Of course, once we had the raised bed gardens in place we realize we needed to put fencing around everything to keep the deer out.

March means anxiously waiting for the gardens to start producing, our annual St. Patrick’s Day feast, lots of baseball, lots of rain, and the anticipation of spring break at school. Of course, the biggest change to come our way in March was the birth of our granddaughter Lily. We couldn’t have been more excited or happier to have her join our family. Unfortunately, spring break didn’t show up until mid April last year which was a whole lot later than usual. The new raised bed gardens were doing great and I suppose the rain we had really helped things along. Rain and baseball don’t mix however, and we started having to reschedule games to the point we were playing three late games a week. Getting home at 11 o’clock at night and getting up at 4:30 in the morning was making an already difficult year at school for me even harder. By the time April showed up I was on the verge of exhaustion. Colleen said she could tell something was going to have to give and she was hoping it wasn’t going to be me.

We made it to spring break and I was able to catch my breath a bit, but that didn’t last long. Things seemed to go downhill at school from there. I had been butting heads with the principal for the last four years. I tried to make it work, but the guy is clueless as to how to run a school. The once flagship school into which I had poured my heart and soul under the supervision of the three previous principals was sinking fast. Several other exceptional teachers had already left the school. Everything came to a head in early May and I had had my fill so I tendered my resignation. I hindsight it was the best move I’d made in quite a while. I had no idea what was in store for me next, but over the next few weeks I finally got the rest I needed and started feeling human again. In the first few weeks at home, I found myself out in the yard working in the gardens and building more raised bed frames.

Colleen finished out the school year in mid June, and our summer started in earnest. Our gardens started producing hand over fist. We had started getting Swiss chard in mid April and it just kept coming until October. The snap peas and radishes produced magnificently. We had our best crop of tomatoes going until the squirrels got into the gardens. We managed to grow some nice beets and eggplant too. We even had plenty of green beans, cucumbers and a small haul of potatoes. The only things that didn’t do very well was our peppers, summer squash, zucchini squash, and cantaloupe, but even those were a marginal success over past years. I eventually pulled the withering pea plants and planted a midsummer batch of lima beans which despite being planted late gave us a very nice yield. As well as our gardens were doing, they weren’t the highlight of our summer.

Towards the end of June and the start of July I found the time to finish our chicken coop and fence in the pen. I even got some netting to cover the pen to keep the hawks and owls out. I was sitting on the back porch one evening paging through Craigslist and I found the chickens for which Colleen and I had been looking, four young Buff Orpingtons. I contacted the farmer and made arrangements for us to get the birds. Getting the girls was an adventure in itself. I used the GPS on my phone to get us to the farm, a few counties and an hour or so away, but I didn’t realize I didn’t have service out there and I couldn’t get directions back home. Fortunately, we remembered enough of the landmarks to get us part of the way back and once we got to a state highway I recognized, we were able to find our way without difficulties. I think Colleen and I will be laughing about that trip for a while to come. I think getting chickens was the biggest step we took in the direction of a self sufficient homestead last summer

Summer was going great. At the beginning of August we published our first book. The truck died right about then so we had to dig into our savings so we could buy the Trail Blazer. I had landed a few interviews in early August too and was just waiting to hear back from the different schools. I was out fishing with Steven when I got the one call for which I had been waiting. A small public magnet school just ten miles from the house needed a math teacher and I was their man. Or course, we spent the next two weeks jumping through all sorts of hoops to get my paperwork finalized, but I was back into the classroom before the end of August. For all the years I had been at my old school I thought it would be difficult to get adjusted to new surroundings. I was wrong, and everyone went out of their way to make me feel welcome and at home. Now I’m just working to live up to their expectations and I think I am succeeding.

At the start of the new school year Colleen headed back to our old high school. She is a teacher’s assistant in the special education group and she likes what she’s doing. The hardest part of our new situation is that we no longer get to ride back and forth to school together, but Colleen also doesn’t have to worry about me driving home at night exhausted every night during baseball season. By the end of September we were getting used to being at two different schools. Colleen had figured out how to prep meals for the week without cooking them first which proved to be a huge time saver in the afternoon after school. I was staying busy though because I had come into a position that required me to take over from another teacher a few weeks into the semester I hit the ground running, and I was very thankful for the intersession break at the end of September and beginning of October. My new school is a year round school so we have a break between each quarter.

The girls started laying eggs at the beginning October and within three weeks all four girls were giving us eggs. Colleen and I couldn’t have been more excited and by the third week in October we got our first clutch of four eggs. Naturally, Colleen got a egg basket to put on her baker’s rack to hold the eggs we were getting. We had done so well with our summer gardens we decided to give fall gardens another try last year so in mid October we planted broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, celery, and onions. Things didn’t work out quite the way we had hoped. Everything was growing just fine until the squirrels found the broccoli, cabbage, and lettuce and chewed all the plants down to nubs. They left the celery and onions alone. I’m definitely going to have do something this spring to keep the squirrels out of the gardens this year.

October quickly passed into November, the leaves start to change color, and before we knew it we were looking for our Thanksgiving turkeys. Things got a little busy between school and getting ready for Thanksgiving. I was starting to find my sea legs at school, so to speak, but I was still writing a lot of lesson plans. I figure I’ll be doing that all for this entire school year. Colleen went through a bit of a rough spell at school, but everything had pretty much settled down by the time Thanksgiving got here. We had our usual gathering of the clan for Thanksgiving and this year. Colleen even made Crème Brûlée for the dessert. I was bummed though when she wouldn’t let me play with my propane torch in her kitchen. The kids hung around for a while after dinner and they ended up sitting on the floor playing games just like they were teenagers again. Of course at some point in the afternoon, the boys found their way out to the fire pit and had their usual holiday burn.

With Thanksgiving being late this year, the first part of December was crazy and wild. The tree and the decorations had to go up and the shopping needed to be done. The first Christmas tree we put up got bone dry after a week or so and had to be replaced. That chewed up an unexpected chunk of time. The weekend before Christmas Colleen’s sister and brother-in-law came into town for a visit. Colleen had a wonderful little dinner party, some of the kids made it for dinner too, and it was an absolutely fabulous way to start off our Christmas celebration. Christmas Day was a bit strange for us this year. The kids seemed to come by the house in waves. James and Donna spent Christmas Eve at the house, as did Louis. Alex showed up early Christmas morning. He was house sitting an hour away. Micayla showed later in the morning. Steven and Lily showed up at lunchtime without Anna Maria who was home sick in bed. By sunset everyone had left and then Al and Alysia showed up after dark on their way back from Al’s parents’ place out on the coast. They stayed as long as they could, but they had to get home so they left after a while. Anna Maria was back on her feet by Friday, so Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily came by on Friday morning to open presents and have a mini-Christmas after the fact.

Christmas and New Year’s Day are now just wonderful memories and last week was all about catching our breath and coming down off of those happy holiday clouds. I moved a bunch of firewood that still needs to be split one day. Rain was in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, so Colleen and I spent all day Thursday taking down and storing the outside decorations and the Christmas tree. By Friday morning everything was back to normal operations and Colleen and I spent the day getting caught up on our errands and market runs.

Colleen heads back to school on tomorrow morning. I don’t have to go back until Wednesday. This weekend has been and will continue to be about getting ready and getting back down to business. 2019 sure did whiz by us, but we’re still standing. We couldn’t be more excited about all of the opportunities that will come our way this year. Colleen and I never know what each new day will bring our way, but we adapt and make the best we can out of every situation. Everything happens for a reason and we know that even when we can’t figure things out at first. We take one step at a time, live one day at a time, and find great comfort in knowing that everything will work out just the way it should if we are patient. The world is a crazy place, but up here on our little hill we can look around and know that all is right on the homestead.

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January 12, 2020: When Is Winter Coming?

It’s kind of hard to believe we’re almost halfway through January already because it sure doesn’t feel like winter. The temperatures are mild to say the least. Oh, we started a few days early last week with temperatures at or below freezing in the morning, but the days warmed up nicely and they really warmed up as we got closer to this weekend. It’s still well before sunrise and we’re starting the morning in the mid 60’s. We did have plenty of sunshine all week if you don’t count the quick rain storm that moved through on Tuesday and high temperatures got up around 70 by the end of the week. The only real rain we had of which to speak came through last night. It was that big line of storms that had been sweeping across the continent and while we didn’t get the tornadoes that some places got, we did get a good bit of wind and some thunderstorms. Everything is pretty well soaked this morning, but the storms are all north and east of us now. With any luck we may even see some sunshine later today.

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Our Christmas break ended last week and Colleen headed back to school on Monday. I had a few extra days off and went back in Wednesday to a teacher workday and my kids showed up on Thursday. There really wasn’t much to the school week. I think the kids’ brains were still on break even with the full moon on Friday. Colleen didn’t have any trouble getting out of school at her regular time, and apart from a stop at the laundromat on Monday and the market on Friday, she got home in time to enjoy at least some of the abundant sunshine. I only had one meeting last week in the two days I did have school. I ended up getting home both days right before sunset, but they were pretty sunsets.

I wasn’t going to school on Monday so I didn’t do much on Sunday. Colleen, however, spent all day in the kitchen to make sure she had meals prepped and ready to go for the week. I did follow Alex down to the shop so he could leave his Explorer there on Monday. He needed his annual inspection sticker and a little bit of routine maintenance. Since Colleen had been in the kitchen all day, I volunteered to cook dinner on the grill. It was kind of our last fling on Christmas break so Colleen pulled some rib-eye steaks out of the freezer for dinner. We don’t eat steak very often, but celebrating a wonderful Christmas break seemed as good a reason as any to have steak.

Even when I don’t have to go to school and Colleen does, I get up with her in the mornings to see her off. Monday I had every intention of doing my school work to get ready for when I went back to school later in the week. It didn’t take me long to realize that wasn’t going to happen. I sat on the porch for a while and watched the sunrise, then went inside, lit a fire in the fireplace, and darned a pair of my favorite wool socks. Other than that I spent my day puttering around the house. My repairs on the foot of the dining room table were finally finished so when Colleen got home we tried to set the table upright again and didn’t we catch another foot on a chair and have it pop off. I’m back to square one with repairing the table and maybe by next weekend it will be upright and usable again.

Tuesday I still didn’t feel like doing my schoolwork, but I didn’t have a choice so I lit another fire in the fireplace and set up a couple of TV tray tables so I could work in front of the fire. Fortunately, I didn’t have nearly as much to do for school as I had first thought and I had everything done that I needed to do about mid afternoon. We did have a quick rain storm blow up right before lunch, but it was done before Colleen got home from school. Alex wasn’t so lucky. He works outside and he got caught in the rain. Rain and tree cutting don’t work well together so Alex’s boss shutdown operations and sent everyone home early.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Colleen and I both had to be at school. For me, Wednesday was just a workday and I was able to get everything ready for my classes on Thursday and Friday. Despite the full moon on Friday I didn’t have any kid problems either day. The last half of Colleen’s week stayed mostly calm too. The full moon did seem to be having its way on Friday afternoon on my way home. There was more traffic than usual with a bunch of crazy drivers, phone service was in and out while I was trying to get some banking done, and there was a new girl behind the counter at the pizza place, and she had made a mess of everything. I ended up eating half a pizza before I got home. I had one heck of a dandy surprise waiting for me when I got home too. Alex’s crew had a tree job not too far from here so they dumped the oak and maple logs in our front yard for firewood.

Yesterday it was time to get caught up for the week. I used some old feedbags to wrap the nesting boxes to give them a little extra protection from the winter, not that we’ve had much winter yet. Colleen spent the day in the kitchen making soup and baking. Alex surprised both Colleen and me by getting up early and starting to cut the logs his crew had dropped in the front yard on Friday. I bet Alex spent a good four or five hours cutting and maybe only got through half of the pile. We already had a pile of poplar and maple rounds sitting by the log splitter and I figured I had better get started splitting firewood. I spent the better part of the afternoon with the log splitter and I only got through half of that pile. Fortunately, all of the wood we have on the ground is headed to the seasoning racks for next winter.

Today looks like Colleen and I will be playing catch-up again. The storms that moved through the area are gone this morning so Alex may even do more cutting today. I have my usual Sunday school work and Colleen will be prepping meals for the week. The school week ahead of us is a full week, but we do have a long weekend next weekend. This year is already showing the signs of being another fast year, either that or days aren’t 24 hours long any more. Colleen and I should be in the gardens in less than a month. Well, it looks as though the sun is trying to make an appearance which will make working inside even more difficult, but there are things that need to be done. Even as busy as this weekend has been and will continue to be, it’s a grand feeling to stand on the back porch, look around, and know that all is right on the homestead.

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January 19, 2020: Winter Is Coming Sooner Or Later

Last week turned out to be another strange week both from a weather standpoint and from what Colleen and I did in school. Sunday wasn’t such a bad day considering, the line of storms that ravaged the country blew through here on Saturday night. The weather at best was day by day for the rest of the week. When we did have sunshine, it was cold especially when compared to the spring like weather we had the week before last. Most of the rain we got came through in the night, when it did rain during the day it was a biting rain. Fortunately, the clouds kept temperatures just warm enough that nothing froze around here. The worst we had was some dense fog in the early morning that made the drives into school a little precarious. All the same, Colleen didn’t encounter any problems from a traveling perspective.

Things were wet Sunday, but there was plenty of sunshine and it was nice enough outside that I was able to work on my computers on the back porch for most of the afternoon. Like usual, my Sunday afternoon was dedicated to getting ready for the week ahead of me at school. Colleen spent most of her day in the kitchen cooking and getting meals ready for the week. One of the things I like best about the cold months around here is Colleen’s propensity to make soups and stews. Last Sunday one of the things she made was a big pot of gumbo and the gumbo cookies to go along with the gumbo. Even with all the things that needed doing, the day had a relaxed feel to it and by the time dinner rolled around, we were pretty well set to tackle the upcoming week.

The school week was strange for both Colleen and me. The kids at Colleen’s school were getting ready to start their final exams so everyone spent the week reviewing the semester’s material. My school is a year round school so we don’t have mid-year finals, but we did have three days of benchmark testing. Unfortunately, a good many of the kids know the benchmark tests do not affect their grades so I’m not sure a lot of them really put their best foot forward. The tests chewed up three hours each morning from Monday through Wednesday so not much teaching got done either. Thursday and Friday were okay with the only real challenge being getting the kids back into focus after three days of testing. On the bright side, the sun is setting later and later each day and by mid week I was coming to some beautiful weather and brilliant blue skies.

The rain on Monday and Tuesday kept Alex home from work. That’s just the nature of a tree service company. The rain had moved out by late Tuesday morning and when Colleen came home after school, Alex was out in the front yard cutting up the logs his crew had dropped in our front yard last week. The boy made a huge dent in the pile, but there were still a few logs on the ground when I got home from school. I took one look at the pile of cut wood that needed splitting and was never so thankful Colleen talked me into buying a 25-ton hydraulic log splitter last year. I still had a pile of cut maple and poplar we stacked up a few weeks ago to split and when I saw Alex’s pile, I had visions of swinging an 8-pound maul for the next three years. I knew right then and there I would firing up the log splitter very soon so all this wood had time to season. We definitely have enough wood for next winter and I wouldn’t be surprised if that wood carries us into the winter after next.

Now that the weather has turned cooler, Colleen has gotten into the habit of making some warm mash for the girls when she gets home in the afternoons. One day in the middle of the week Colleen came home, got the girls their warm mash, and then decided to wander around the yard to check out her flower gardens. With the warm weather we had last week, a lot of her spring bulbs were starting to push spikes of green up through the leaf mulch on top of the gardens. I was still at school and my phone started vibrating in my pocket. My darling wife could hardly contain her excitement. She found a couple of daffodils getting ready to bloom. In many ways my wife is very much like Olivia Walton, especially when it comes to seeing the pretty colors of flowers in the dead of winter.

Colleen and I were looking forward to our 3-day holiday this weekend. Having an extra day in a weekend takes a good bit out of the urgency to get things done and ready for Monday, so we decided to take yesterday morning to get our errands run. Apart from our usual market run we took the time to dawdle in the garden center at Walmart. Since we both have a good case of spring fever working, we walked out of the garden center with a bag full of seed packages for this year’s gardens. We didn’t get everything we wanted to get and we don’t know exactly where everything will go yet, but we are definitely gearing up for our spring plantings. I suppose as long as the sun is shining this weekend I will have to find some time to work in our gardens. I won’t be planting anything, but I can surely clean up and amend the soil with some compost. I should get a good idea of how much extra soil we will need to make up for last year’s settling too.

Colleen spent yesterday afternoon restocking our larder with the canned goods we bought and reorganizing her kitchen pantry. Colleen is a might particularly about her pantry too. Most of the dry goods get stored in see through, airtight containers and everything else gets arranged in such a way as they can be easily seen. Nothing frustrates Colleen more than have to hunt for buried ingredients when she is cooking. For my part, I headed down to the log splitter yesterday afternoon to split as much wood as I could while the rains held off. I got lucky and got a couple of hours of splitting firewood done before I had to give it up for the impending rain. Even Alex who had been at work all day yesterday got into the swing of things around here once he got home. It was well after sunset, the rain had let up a bit, and Alex went outside and filled up the porch rack with firewood.

It’s cool and breezy, but the sun is shining this morning. Alex went into work again today and Colleen is already in her kitchen. Everything seems to be drying out nicely so it looks like another good day to split firewood. If I’m lucky I may even get a jump on my schoolwork. What else gets done today and tomorrow is anybody’s guess. Colleen and I will do what we can today. Tomorrow will take care of itself. A lot of people ask us why we don’t worry about many things. The answer is simple, if there is nothing we can do to change the outcome then what is the point in worrying. Our life is a simple one, we are happy, and while we may not have a lot of things we certainly have everything we need. There is very little that we don’t have that we want. Every night Colleen and I can go to bed with a profound peace of mind knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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January 26, 2020: Old Man Winter, Is That The Best You’ve Got?

Last weekend was a long 3-day holiday weekend for Colleen and me. Sunday was a beautiful 50 degree day, but the temperatures really started taking a nose dive right after sunset. Monday morning when we woke up, the thermometer was just above freezing and that’s where it stayed all day. For the next three days we got a good arctic blast and morning temperatures were in the low 20’s, and we were lucky if we saw 40 degrees during the day. Friday morning we started the day above freezing, yesterday we were in the 40’s, and this morning we starting the day with the mercury just below 35 degrees with a stiff breeze. It still beats sub-freezing temperatures with a wind chill in the teens. For the most part we had clear skies to go with the cold temperatures, and the only precipitation we got was a good line of rain storms that moved through the area on Friday night. Yesterday warmed up to almost 60 degrees and today we’re hopeful that we’ll see 50 degrees. The upcoming week looks like it will be a repeat of today with temperatures staying between freezing and 50 degrees. I guess Old Man Winter is having a tough time this year, not that I’m complaining.

Since there was no real urgency to anything we wanted to do last Sunday, Colleen did a little cooking and I got outside to get some things done before the weather turned cold. Knowing it was going to get cold, Colleen made a big pot of her spicy chicken soup, sopa de pollo picante, and some corn muffins to make sure Alex and I had something hot in our lunches for the week. Much to our surprise Alex has developed quite a liking for soup to the point we got him a special soup thermos for his lunch. I spent the afternoon down at the wood pile to split firewood. As luck would have it, I had just about finished the pile of poplar and maple when my log splitter blew a hydraulic hose. Fortunately, replacing a hydraulic hose is an easy fix. It’s just a matter of me getting a new one.

Monday was the first day of our cold snap. I thought about covering up our celery and onions Sunday night, but decided not to do it. The onions fared just fine and the celery didn’t do too badly. I spent most of the day in front of the fireplace on my computers working on my schoolwork which I will have to do again today. Whenever I needed a break from my computers I would just run out to the back porch to get more firewood to keep the hearth rack full since I was keeping the fire burning all day to chase the chill out of the house. Colleen headed down to the laundromat right after she finished her morning coffee. It was her usual 45 minute trip and in between dryer loads after she got home she baked a few treats for the week’s lunches, but for the most part it was a low key day around the house. I did get my schoolwork finished even though Tuesday was a teacher workday for me at school.

Wednesday through Friday at school couldn’t have been any slower and the days seemed to last forever. Nothing particularly extraordinary happened at school for either Colleen or me. It was finals week at Colleen’s school so only the kids that needed to take a particular exam showed up on any given day. I just had three regular school days. I did have a couple of meetings in the mix, but they were just part of the regular routine so they weren’t difficult to work around. With the sun setting later in the afternoons now at least I was getting home with a little bit of daylight left to the day. Since I had done most of my schoolwork at the start of the week there wasn’t much for me to do in the evenings. Colleen and I would lock the chickens in the coop after dark, collect the eggs, and I would sit out on the back porch with a cigar, Colleen would clean the kitchen and make our lunches and then kick back upstairs in bed with her tablet.

With Friday finishing up our long, drawn out week, I suggested that I would take Colleen out for dinner. It was a definite plus that Friday was payday. I got home at my usual time on Friday afternoon, but neither Colleen nor I had anything in the way of spunk so we nixed the idea of going out to dinner. Colleen had been pouring over a new stack of magazines all week and came across a recipe for a Bolognese soup. It’s not often Colleen wants to cook on a Friday night, but the soup recipe had so captured her interest that she spent the whole evening in the kitchen. The soup wasn’t ready for dinner, but when it was done we both had to have a small cup of it to try it out. The soup turned out incredibly well and there was no doubt that the recipe would get added to Colleen’s cookbook.

Yesterday actually started out kind of slow for us. Alex headed out to work before Colleen and I ever got going. I joyfully spent the day outside, most of which I spent in the gardens. Yep, I was working in the gardens in mid-January. I never did get around to replacing the hydraulic hose in the log splitter, but I did prune our pear tree and get three gardens ready for the spring planting. Colleen spent her day in the kitchen. Colleen made some focacia bread to go with the Bolognese soup, a big pot of red beans, rice, sausage, and chicken soup, a couple dozen blueberry muffins, and she even prepped a meal for the upcoming week. We both finished up in the early afternoon, enjoyed an early dinner, and after we took care of the girls for the night, we spent the better part of the evening relaxing. I managed to get to bed early and ended up with a good night of 12 hours of sleep.

It’s a little bit cooler this morning, but there is plenty of sunshine. The deer are even taking advantage of this beautiful morning as they grazed the green grass in our backyard. I’ll be spending the afternoon in front of the fireplace working on schoolwork for the week. Colleen has a few things she wants to do in the kitchen today. I’m not real sure what this coming week has in store for us, but then I never am. Life up here on our little hill is slow and measured. There isn’t anything we can do to change yesterday. We take each new day as it comes, do our best at making it a great day, and don’t worry about tomorrow, preferring to let it take care of itself. Each and every day is a new adventure and a special gift unto itself. I guess that’s why they call it the “present”. Be well my friends because one thing we know for sure is that up here on our little hill, all is right on the homestead.

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February 02, 2020: It Doesn’t Seem Like Winter

So far this winter has been one of the strangest with which we’ve ever dealt here in Central North Carolina. Last week’s weather didn’t bring a whole lot of change to what we’ve been having either. The mornings started out right around freezing, give or take a few degrees, and the afternoons got up to near 50, give or take a few degrees. The week had its share of cold biting rain too. None of the rain we had lasted very long and the worst rain we had showed up Friday after lunch and it was gone by yesterday morning. Things were still well soaked, the clouds stayed around all day, and we put a fire in the fireplace to chase the damp chill out of the house. This morning there is plenty of sunshine and the temperatures are headed up towards 60 degrees.

Last week was calm and easy at school. Colleen started a new semester on Tuesday and had a makeup work day on Wednesday, but other than that there wasn’t anything particularly unusual. With any luck the next several weeks will mostly mimic last week and that should make an easy ride for us into spring break this year. Of course, daylight hours are still short so I would come home every afternoon looking at a front yard full of firewood and feel frustrated that I had to let it just sit there. The best we’re going to do for the time being is to keep everything moving in the right direction and then play catch-up on the weekends. Our spring “To-Do” list is really starting to grow, and there is only so much time on a weekend so quite a bit gets left undone unless there is some urgency to the project.

Last Sunday was pretty run of the mill around here. I did my usual writing in the morning and then spent the afternoon in front of the computers doing my lesson plans for school. Colleen spent the better part of her day in the kitchen prepping meals for the upcoming week. Colleen did find the time to experiment in the kitchen and make a fantastic fish dinner. Being from New England Colleen and I love fish, but for soon odd reason fish is the one part of her cooking repertoire that has holes in it. She makes some fantastic fried catfish and awesome fish chowder, but she doesn’t have any other fish recipes in her cookbook. Well, she has a new recipe now. Sunday night’s dinner was outstanding. I think the success of the meal also has Colleen looking around to see if she can hunt up other fish recipes.

The whole week actually stayed rather low key for us. Colleen stopped by the laundromat on her way home from school on Monday. Tuesday I found out that all of my Math 1 class had scored better than the county average on their mid year benchmark tests and I stayed after school for the model rocketry club I started. Even with staying late, I was still home before 6 o’clock. The rest of the week was relatively uneventful. Colleen would get home, bring the girls their warm mash, and collect the eggs. Despite the cooler weather and the limited daylight hours the eggs are still coming. Surprisingly, the girls even gave us four eggs on a couple of days last week. Alex seemed to be the only one with something pressing on his agenda. Just about every evening he would hole up in the entryway alcove and work on repairing one of his chainsaws. We ended the school week with pizza for dinner on Friday evening. The ride home from my school is proving quite convenient for me to pick up pizza on the way home.

The cold biting rain that showed up on Friday afternoon was gone by yesterday morning, but the skies stayed gray, everything was still soaked, and the air kept that cold, damp bite to it. It didn’t take me long once I came downstairs to clean out the fireplace and get a nice fire going. Colleen got up with a bee in her bonnet and spent the morning and the better part of the afternoon in the kitchen. I found my way out to the back porch and went through my “To-Do” list to see what I could get done on the day. I ended up doing mostly small stuff, but it all needed doing. I glued the foot back on the pedestal of our dining room table so with any luck we can have it back upright and in use in the next few days. I finally did get the hydraulic hose off of the log splitter, but I didn’t have the motivation to go out and get the replacement hose. It will have to wait until next weekend. The chicken pen was still muddy, but I decided to go ahead and clean the pen and hen coop anyway. I even found a little time to relax and do some wood carving.

Colleen and I were planning on just heating up some leftovers for an early dinner yesterday evening, but Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily surprised us with a late afternoon visit. Whenever our kids come to visit everything else gets put on hold. Colleen and I were very surprised and excited when everyone walked through the front door. Lily is a little more than a week away from being 11 months old and she has grown so much. She is a crawling demon now, and it’s so much fun to watch her explore whatever she can get into. Buttercup and Lily are quite enamored with each other, but Buttercup is still too big and excitable to play with Lily. The kids stayed as long as they could and then were on their way. After we had a lovely visit with the kids, it was simple task of heating up dinner in the microwave so we could eat.

We did have a little bit of an adventure around here yesterday evening. I love carving wood and did quite a bit of it in my younger days. I decided to pick it up again to practice for my retirement in a few years. I just recently got a new set of carving knives with one especially designed for hollowing out wooden spoons. I left them on the table on the back porch yesterday afternoon, and yesterday evening Alex decided to give wood carving a try. Now, Alex knows his way around knives and when it comes to butchering game, he’s second to none, but wood carving is a different game. The hollowing knife slipped on him yesterday and he took a layer of meat off of the back of his hand. Fortunately it wasn’t too bad and a little bit of Mom First Aid had him bandaged up in no time. When he came back downstairs with his hand wrapped up all I could do was shake my head. I joked about the knives being very sharp and he agreed with me, and then he pointed out that he needed to remember to keep his hands out of the way. I’m not sure if he’ll take up wood carving like his old man, but I bet he’ll be extra careful with the knives if he does.

After a gray day yesterday, we have lots of brilliant sunshine today. Between the sunshine and the mild temperatures I really have the itch to get into our gardens, but it’s only the beginning of February and I know better. I’ll have to wait at least two more weeks before the cool weather stuff can go into the ground. Even if I wanted to work in the gardens today, I have schoolwork that needs doing. Colleen got most of her cooking and baking done yesterday so she had her sights set on cleaning the house. Like always, we have far too much that needs doing for the time we are afforded in a weekend. All the same Colleen and I will keep putting one foot in front of the other. We know things will get done and they will get done when they need to be done. We lead a simple life and wouldn’t want it any other way. While lots of folks wonder why we live this way, in our minds there is no better feeling than looking around and knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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February 09, 2020: More Weird Weather

It was yet another weird weather week here in Central North Carolina. Last Sunday I was sitting out on my back porch enjoying a bright and sunny 70 degree day, and yesterday morning the mercury was sitting at 28 degrees. In between that we had two days of the heaviest rains we’ve seen around here in a while. We ended up getting something like 3 inches in less than 36 hours. If the rain wasn’t enough, there was thunder, lightning, 50 mph wind gusts, and the threat of a tornado thrown into the mix. It was raining so hard last Thursday afternoon that Colleen had to stop on her ride home because she couldn’t see the road. Schools in the area were closed Friday because of flooding, power outages, and the way the wind was buffeting the school buses. The sun was out most all day yesterday and while things started to dry out, the day never really warmed up. Today is supposed to be warmer with plenty of sunshine again.

As nice as last Sunday turned out to be, the most I got to enjoy it was while I was sitting on my back porch doing schoolwork. For some reason it seemed like I had more than usual to do last Sunday, and it took me most of the afternoon and evening to finish it. Colleen spent the better part of her Sunday in the kitchen baking and prepping meals for the week, as well as taking care of all of the other things like feeding the chickens and collecting eggs so I could finish my work. I’m not sure I give her all of the credit she deserves, but this little homestead just wouldn’t function without her.

Monday morning it was back to school for both Colleen and me. For the most part our week at school wasn’t too event filled, that is until Thursday. Monday afternoon Colleen found a rather interesting 8 acre lot with a run down house on it for sale on Zillow. The place seemed to have great potential for our retirement homestead. Tuesday morning we found out that the owner had accepted an offer on Monday evening. Tuesday and Wednesday passed easily, but on Thursday things got a little crazy. The leading edge of the weather front moved in on Wednesday night and by mid morning Thursday, there were storm warnings, flash flood warnings, and tornado warnings popping up everywhere around here. Right before lunch both Colleen and I got word that our schools would be sending kids home early. Right after lunch they dropped a tornado warning on my school and we had all the kids out in the halls in a duck and cover position. Fortunately, the whole incident only lasted about twenty minutes and we never saw a tornado. Colleen did got caught in a torrential downpour on her way home and had to pull off of the road. By the time everything moved through the area early Friday morning, there were quite a few power outages, a good bit of localized flooding, and local schools were put on a 2-hour delayed start for the morning. Colleen and I went to a school at our usual time, but within an hour of getting there, all classes got canceled for the day. There was still a stiff breeze with 50 mph gusts that were causing problems with the school buses. My school lost power shortly after school got canceled. My principal sent everyone at school home the day, and told everyone else to stay home for the day. Colleen took a half day of leave and got home before lunch.

Colleen and I decided to go to lunch and get our weekly shopping done on Friday afternoon. We stopped by Tractor Supply Company to get some chicken feed and I picked up a new hydraulic hose for my log splitter. At Walmart a lovely lady who reads the blog regularly recognized us and introduced herself. She was quite excited to meet us. Colleen and I were both surprised and flattered, but I don’t think we are cut out to be famous. The whole thing did have us feeling kind of special for the rest of the day though. We came home to find the wind had taken out our neighbor’s fence. Colleen and I tried to brace it back up, but the wind caught it again and put a permanent end to the fence. The hydraulic hose I got had the wrong fittings on the end so I called the manufacturer and found out the log splitter was still under warranty so they are going to send me a replacement hose for free. Thankfully that was the end of our excitement for the day. I’m not sure we could have handled much more.

Yesterday was a different sort of Saturday for Colleen and me. The ground was still soaked from all of the rain and the temperatures never really warmed up so it was going to be messy doing any work outside. Colleen headed straight for the kitchen yesterday morning and before I knew it there was a pot of pork posole soup simmering on the stove. I put a fire in the fireplace and set my computers up to get my schoolwork done. Steven swung by the house looking for Alex who wasn’t home, but before Steven left he helped get the dining room table set back up. After a month and a half, I finally finished getting the feet reattached to the pedestal bases. Colleen was very happy to have a usable dining room table again. After Steven left Colleen and I kept going on our designated tasks. I finished all my lesson plans for school before dinner. After dinner Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily stopped by for a visit before they headed out for their weekly market run. Colleen made sure they left with a dozen fresh eggs since the girls have been so productive of late. By the time Colleen and I decided to call it a night, I had just about all of my schoolwork done and Colleen had prepped a new chicken meal she is going to try and made hermit bars and applesauce muffins in addition the soup she had made earlier in the day. We went to bed last night with a clean slate for today.

Colleen and I took our sweet time getting going this morning. There was no rush to finish our morning coffee so I sat and watched the deer grazing in the backyard. I even promised to cook omelets for our brunch which will be real treat for us. With my schoolwork done and Colleen’s weekly cooking done, I’m not sure what today will bring our way. It’s still too early to plant gardens, but the day should be nice enough to do some work in the yard to get them ready for the spring planting. We sure don’t get many Sundays like today during the school year, but I’m sure we’ll make the best of it. I’ve still got six weeks until the start of my spring break, but it will get here soon enough. I suspect we’ll be planting our cool weather crops before too long as well. Like always, Colleen and I will keep taking one day at a time, never quite sure what each day has in store for us. This is how we live. We smile a lot and always seem to have fun. No matter what happens though, at the end of each day, we are always thankful for what we have and we know that there never really is a bad day. There is a crazy world running around out there, but up here on our little hill, all is right on the homestead.

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February 16, 2020: I’m Writing This Winter Off!

We came out of last weekend still wringing wet from all the rain that fell right before the start of the weekend. We had a couple of dry days and then the threat of another big mess had everyone on edge. The rivers and lakes were all full, there was some flooding, and quite honestly, there was no place for any more rain to go. The fates were smiling on us though, and the Appalachian Mountains forced everything to take a more northerly path and it was just the edges and tail of the storm system that caught us midweek. We didn’t get anywhere near the amounts of rain that had been forecast. Once the rain passed through, an arctic cold front came in to the area right behind it, and from the 70 degree temperatures at the beginning of the week, the mercury dropped to 25 degrees yesterday morning. We never did got out of the 40’s yesterday, but there was plenty of sunshine and today, things are a bit warmer. We may have one more cold snap later this week, but with February winding down, I’m about ready to write this winter off as “The Winter That Wasn’t”, at least around here anyway.

I had managed to get my schoolwork done last Saturday so that really freed up Sunday for me. It worked out pretty well too because it was just far too wet on Saturday to get anything done outside. Sunday morning I was feeling ambitious so I made omelets for brunch. By the time the sun came out on Sunday afternoon, I was outside working on the gardens. Last year the squirrels found our gardens so this year I’m doing what I can to keep those furry little demons at bay. I’ll be covering all of our fences with chicken wire and then putting a canopy of netting on a PVC frame over the tops of the gardens. I’m not sure if it will do the trick, but if it doesn’t I’ll be looking for some other way to keep the squirrels out of the gardens. Colleen had taken care of most of her weekly cooking on Saturday too, so she had a rare day off that she spent reading and relaxing.

The way the school week started for Colleen and me only reminded us that there was a full moon. By the time we both got home on Tuesday afternoon it had felt like we had already put in our five days. It wasn’t that anything terrible happened, but between the chaos at school and all of the small things that jumped out at us, we were worn out. Fortunately by Wednesday, things had started to settle down and Thursday and Friday made for a soft landing into the weekend. Colleen ended up making three runs to the laundromat on the week. Other than Colleen doing the laundry and the two of us taking care of the girls, the best I can say about our school week was that we just held on for the wild ride. Ironically, the real highlight week came in the middle of the week for Colleen when she came home to find some of her spring bulbs had started to bloom.

By the time Friday morning showed up Colleen and I were watching the clock before we ever left for school. Colleen stopped at the market on her way home. I stopped and got pizza for dinner on my way home. I stopped at the convenience store to get a lottery ticket and a soda to go with my pizza. I got the lottery ticket and some little powdered donuts for Colleen, but I totally forgot about my soda. I really was that tired. The only ones who didn’t seem to have a hard week were the girls. They came through the rain just fine although the slick clay in the pen made things difficult for us human types to navigate. Fortunately, neither Colleen nor I landed on our backsides last week, and the girls did a great job of keeping up with giving us eggs.

Saturday morning the sun was back out, but the temperatures were below freezing again. Colleen and I made sure we took plenty of time to enjoy our morning coffee. The replacement hydraulic hose for my log splitter got delivered Friday afternoon and I toyed with the idea of getting the log splitter back together and up and running. I decided instead to sit inside in front of the fireplace and get my lesson plans for the upcoming school week done. Colleen spent her day in the kitchen. There was the usual get ready for the week baking and cooking, but Colleen found time to experiment with a new cookie, a coconut macaroon. She only made a small batch of macaroons because it was a new recipe, but they sure did turn out well. I’m betting there won’t be any left when tomorrow evening rolls around.

I guess Colleen and I were still worn out from our week because we sure didn’t do much after dinner. Colleen cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes like usual. Right at sunset we headed down back to lock the girls in for the night. I grabbed a cigar and headed out to the back porch where I got treated to a colorful dusk on the western horizon. Colleen called it an early evening and after I finished my cigar I headed upstairs to call it a night. I do get a three week semester break towards the end of March so I’ll really have a chance to rest then, but I don’t have any breaks between now and then. Colleen has a 4-day weekend this weekend so she’ll at least be able to catch her breath before she heads back into school.

I suppose things could have more challenging than they were last week. Even if they had been, Colleen and I would have just kept pushing forward, putting one foot in front of the other. We know there will always be bumps in the road, and we know we sure do not have time for pity parties. When things don’t work out so well we’re not looking to point fingers, rather we see it as a learning opportunity, and believe me when I say we learn a lot every day. At the end of any given day we may be dog tired, but we always have a reason to smile because there is always something that went right during the day, and we know that the good things that happened are our stepping stones forward. Like that famous Broadway song says, “The sun will come up tomorrow…”.

I didn’t think there would be a whole of sunshine today because things were rather cloudy when I got out to the back porch this morning. I was wrong and there is plenty of bright sunshine right now. The air outside is still a bit chilly, but Colleen put a fire in the fireplace so everything inside is warm and cozy. Winter is definitely winding down around here though. We may have another cold snap, but Colleen and I are looking forward to our spring gardens. Even so, we never really know what each new day will bring our way and that’s why we take things one day at a time. There is a lot of crazy out there in the real world, and lots of folks worrying about a lot of things they can’t control. Colleen and I like to keep our focus close to home because we know the things we do up here on our little hill are the biggest part of making sure that all is right on the homestead.

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February 23, 2020: Seriously, Mother Nature?

Okay, so as weeks go, last week was just downright strange. The weather started out decent enough for me to spend most of last Sunday morning out on the back porch. We had a little bit of cloud cover move into the area during the afternoon and it hung around all day Monday. Tuesday saw a little more sunshine, highs around 60 degrees, and for the first time all winter there was the mention of snow in the forecast for Thursday. Mentioning snow in the forecast is a big thing here in Central North Carolina, but mentioning snow and seeing snow are two very different things. By Wednesday the clouds had taken over the skies again and the snow on Thursday was imminent. Wednesday the word went out that the schools would be either getting out early or canceled all together on Thursday. Colleen’s school fell under the early release category while my school was canceled. When the snow finally started to fall on Thursday afternoon, there was still some question as to how much snow would fall. Friday morning we had anywhere between one and three inches on the ground depending on where you were, and the temperatures had dropped into the 20’s so all of the slush under the snow on the roads on Thursday night had turned to solid ice by Friday morning. There was plenty of sunshine on Friday, but the temperatures didn’t get over the freezing mark until mid afternoon. Schools were closed Friday and Colleen and I stayed home barely venturing out of our front door. Friday’s sunshine did melt the ice on the roads and they were dry for the most part by sunset. Saturday morning the snow was all but gone and the temperatures started the day at around 20 degrees. Last night the temperatures dropped back to just below freezing, but we have plenty of sunshine on tap today with high temperatures approaching 60 degrees. I’m not even going to try and guess what’s waiting for us this week.

Last Sunday afternoon was pretty easy for Colleen and me. Since Saturday had been gray and cold we managed to get a good bit of our indoor work finished, including my schoolwork so we made an easy day of Sunday. Colleen lit a fire in the fireplace and then cleaned the house Sunday morning while I was writing out on the back porch. We had a quiet lunch of the Bolognese soup Colleen had made on Saturday, and after lunch I took a quick run to Tractor Supply Company to return the hydraulic hose that didn’t fit my log splitter. I even picked up a 5-pound bag of seed potatoes for our garden. Once I got back home I headed down to the log splitter with the replacement hose the manufacturer had sent me, only to realize they sent me the wrong one. I was kind of disappointed once I figured out about the hose and that took the wind out of my sails for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Monday and Tuesday had a bit of a different twist to them. Colleen had both days off from school while Alex and I had to go to work. My school days were uneventful for the most part. I’d leave the house in the morning at my regular time and then get home at my regular time. Alex would leave before me and get home before me. I’d pull into the driveway and Alex would be on the front porch rebuilding his chainsaw. Colleen made her usual run down to the laundromat on Monday morning and spent the rest of the day cleaning up around the house, even finding some time to get into our basement. She got back down in the basement for while on Tuesday as well. I know she made some headway because I ended up bringing two boxes of old magazines to school so the art teachers should have something to cut up.

Colleen and I both went to school on Wednesday and for the most part the day was routine. We definitely knew we would be getting snow on Thursday at that point. Wednesday night they canceled school for me and put Colleen’s school on an early release schedule for Thursday. I went into school on Thursday because without kids it got turned into a teacher workday. Colleen clocked in to school as early as she could so she could get all of her hours for the day and leave as soon as possible after the kids were gone. I came home early in the afternoon. Colleen didn’t get to leave until 1:30 and by the time she got home the snow had started falling. It was a dandy little snow storm too, and before we knew the snow was starting to pile up and stick to the roads. It kept snowing a good bit after sunset too.

For a while the roads had been melting the falling snow, cover them with a nice layer of slush. The temperatures dropped Thursday night far enough below freezing so the slush on the roads turned to ice making the roads, particularly the residential streets, all but impassable. There was no school anywhere around here on Friday. Snow days up here on our little hill mean it’s time for Colleen to make soup and bread and that’s exactly what she did. I pulled out my computer and spent the day doing school work and working on our website. The temperatures barely got over freezing on Friday, but there was plenty of sunshine and by mid to late afternoon the ice had melted and the roads were dry for the most part. Alex even ventured out to run some errands.

Yesterday was sunny and warmer, but still way to soggy to get anything done outside. As it turned out, we didn’t get a whole lot done inside either. We kept the fire going all day and managed to take care of a few small household chores. I spent some more time working on my schoolwork. Alex spent his day at work making up time because he stayed home on Friday as well. I did get to treat myself and watched the first baseball game of the spring training season on the back porch yesterday afternoon. I suspect I’ll be watching a little more baseball this year since I won’t be coaching for the first time in eighteen seasons. Oh well, things change.

Today looks like it will be even better than it was yesterday. I still have a little schoolwork that I need to get done. Colleen and I do need to take care of a small market run and I’d like to clean out the chicken coop today. Of course, if I can work watching another ball game into the mix, I will be out on the back porch. The calendar says spring is now less than a month away. With any luck Colleen and I will start planting the cool weather stuff next weekend. As for anything else that may or may not happen next week, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Nothing is ever guaranteed in life or up here in our little hill, but there is no better feeling than coming home every day, looking around, and knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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March 01: And It’s March!

Last week finished off February and there was nothing exceptional about our weather. We did have a couple of days of some pretty heavy morning fog for our drives to school. It made Colleen’s drives to school in the dark of the morning a good bit more harrowing than my drives into school though. She has to travel about three times further than I do now. To go with the morning fog, we had a couple of days of rain thrown into the mix, and this weekend we got hit with another round of low temperatures in the 20’s with a few days that never made it up to 50 degrees. The rivers are still high from the rain we had a couple of weeks ago and the snow we had to end the week before last. All of the creeks and runoffs are back down to their usual levels, but the bottoms I drive by on my way to and from school are still holding water. The 10-day forecast looks promising enough though for me to consider planting the cool weather crops later today. In New England where Colleen and I grew up, we didn’t start even thinking about getting into the gardens until late April or early May and then we were rushing things. Last year Colleen and I had our cool weather gardens planted around Valentine’s Day so it does feel like we are late this year.

The school week started out just plain crazy for both Colleen and me. There was a shortage of substitute teachers at Colleen’s school so it was a scramble to get classes covered. At my school, I walked into a maelstrom of meetings that seemed to consume every free minute I had during the day. I either had a before school, after school, a planning period meeting, or some combination thereof scheduled every single day last week. Colleen stopped by the laundromat on Monday after school and the market Friday after school. I stayed after school on Tuesday for the model rocketry club meeting and on Friday I stopped off to get pizza for dinner. Somewhere along the line I picked up little head cold that hung around all day Friday and Saturday. The daylight hours are getting noticeably longer and at least I’ve been getting home with a little bit of the afternoon left. I did get nominated for teacher of the year at my school, but I graciously declined the nomination. Still after the turmoil of the previous four years at my old school, it felt good to be recognized for being a master of my craft.

One thing Colleen and I did notice is that more flowers are starting to bloom and the first of the flowering trees are starting to bloom. That’s what really got me starting to think about getting our cool weather gardens planted. I knew today was supposed to be warmer than yesterday so I decided to spend yesterday getting all of my schoolwork done so I can get outside later today. That worked out really well yesterday morning when I got to sleep late, giving my body a chance to beat back that dang head cold I have. Buttercup got Colleen up early and before I ever came downstairs for my coffee, Colleen had taken care of Buttercup and even went down back to let the girls out for the day. The only thing I really had to do yesterday morning was clean out the fireplace and to start the day’s fire before I headed out to the back porch with my coffee.

Colleen has been going through the freezers for the last two weeks or so, pulling out all of the frozen leftovers for us to eat for dinners. As of yesterday morning the only leftovers we had in the refrigerator or freezer was Friday night’s pizza. Colleen has been going through cookbooks all week too, looking for new and different recipes. She had already planned to spend all yesterday in the kitchen and by the time I got my coffee and was headed out to the back porch she was kneading bread on the counter. That was just the start of her day and by the time she finished cleaning her kitchen for the last time yesterday she had made Italian bread, a soup with sweet potato, mushroom, and chicken, a super frittata with biscuits baked right into it, and a new maple glazed oatmeal muffin.

I finished my coffee on the back porch and after a short conversation with a deer that had meandered into the backyard, I headed inside, set up shop in front of the fireplace, and got to work on lesson plans for the upcoming week at school. I finished one set of lesson plans right before lunch so I took a break to enjoy the sunny but cool day on the back porch. Having got my head cleared out after a little while on the porch, it was back to the computers for me. I finished the second set of lesson plans by mid afternoon. There was still a good part of the day left so I grabbed the replacement hose for my log splitter and headed down back. It didn’t take me very long to get the hydraulic hose back on the splitter so I fired it up to check for leaks on the off chance I hadn’t tightened the hose connections enough. The log splitter started right up, I finished splitting the wood I had left when the hose blew, and then I checked for any leaks. The connections were bone dry so it looks like everything is set to go again. I still have to finish cutting and splitting all of the wood that Alex’s crew dropped off in the front yard a few weeks ago.

Alex took off Friday evening to spend the weekend with his brother Louis. After I came back upstairs from repairing the log splitter yesterday, I suggested to Colleen that we go out to dinner. Friday was payday so it was a good time for us to treat ourselves. A little Mexican food was just what the doctor ordered and we even got back home while there was enough daylight left for us to close up the hen coop for the night. I finished the day with a cigar and a cup of hot cider on the back porch while Colleen and Buttercup headed upstairs to relax in bed. It had been a busy day for both us, but we were feeling pretty darn good about everything we had managed to get done.

Having a Sunday without school work hanging over my head is something I could easily get used to enjoying. Colleen is already in the kitchen today. She’s planning on roasting a turkey for dinner using a recipe she found from the early 1900’s. Once the day warms up a bit, I’ll be out in the front gardens planting potatoes, snap peas, and radishes. I don’t suspect the planting will take me all afternoon so I’m sure I will be doing some more garden maintenance too. I’m not too sure about the timing of the planting this year, but it seems late to me because we had the peas in the ground by Valentine’s Day last year.

Today certainly looks like it will be a grand day up here on our little hill. I can’t say much about what the new week will bring, but Colleen and I will take it one day at a time and see what we can make of it. With winter fading quickly, things will be getting busy around here. We have our annual gathering of the clan for St. Patrick’s Day coming up soon and my spring break starts in just three weeks. This year already seems to be flying by us. Before we know it, Colleen and I will be counting down to our summer break. That’s still a ways off though and today is at hand, we will focus on our doings today and let tomorrow take care of itself. This year has started off quite well up here on our little hill. Colleen and I couldn’t be happier in our simple life nor could we be more thankful for the bounty we enjoy. There is nothing better than a beautiful day and a free afternoon to remind us that all is right on the homestead.

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March 08: Spring Is In The Air

I have to admit the weather last week was pretty tame. We got a little bit of rain, but it wasn’t much and it didn’t last very long. We did have a serious threat of some heavy rain and bad weather Thursday night, but all that mess stayed well south of us and then slid off to the east before it started moving north. The only nights we could have considered cold were Friday night and last night when the temperatures dropped to around freezing, or maybe just below. It looks like that this will be the last of the cold weather we may see for the next couple of weeks though, unless we get some unusual arctic blast. I don’t think the odds are very good for that happening fortunately, especially since we are looking at high temperatures in the 70’s for the upcoming week. If those temperatures hold for any length of time I wholly expect to start seeing leaves on the trees in the near future. This morning though everything is sunny and bright, and despite starting the day around the 30 degree mark things should warm up nicely by mid afternoon.

Last Sunday was a banner day up here in the hill. After things warmed up in the afternoon I headed outside and planted two gardens. One garden has potatoes it and the other has snap peas and radishes. Nothing has broken above the soil yet, but with warmer temperatures expected this coming week, by next weekend we should have something sprouting. Colleen spent last Sunday experimenting in the kitchen. The main attraction was cooking a turkey for dinner the way the cooks at the Biltmore Estates would have cooked it for the Vanderbilt’s back around 1900. It didn’t turn out great and both Colleen and I have decided that either she did something terribly wrong, unlikely, or the Vanderbilt’s had incredibly bland palates. Fortunately, the turkey itself tasted just fine in turkey salad that made which we ate for lunch all week.

School and the weather were just plain weird all week. It’s not that anything went particularly wrong, but there was a lot of gear shifting and direction changing that wore us out, and the weather threatened in the evening, but most of it missed us. I had more meetings than usual that I had to attend. Both Colleen’s school and my school had a bunch of teachers get sick so both of us were picking up a little extra work here and there. Try as I might to get out of school at the regular time all week, it always seemed that something managed to keep me there for a few extra minutes. I did get out early on Tuesday to go vote. I guess the last straw was Friday after school while I sat in the Trail Blazer trying to order pizza on my phone app. Something wasn’t working right and I finally just called Colleen to make sure she had plenty of leftovers I they refrigerator. Maybe we’ll have pizza next Friday evening.

Up here on the hill things went pretty much like usual all week, not that we had much energy to do anything extra though. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on Monday afternoon with two bags of laundry. In the afternoons, Colleen would check on the girls and collect the eggs. I would get home at my usual time, dinner would be ready, and we would try to relax. If we finished dinner early enough I would try to get outside to check on things. Colleen’s spring bulbs have started pushing through the leaves that have been lying on the gardens all winter. The hyacinths are already blooming along with a few of the smaller azalea bushes. Unfortunately, Colleen has not had time yet this year to clean the leaves out of her gardens.

In my wanderings around the yard last week I always seemed to end up looking at the wood pile down by the log splitter. I had hoped I could get home early enough on Friday to start stacking the wood. What I didn’t realize was that by the time Friday evening rolled around I would be completely drained and just downright exhausted from the week. After dinner it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I did find a few minutes to sit on the back porch, but I was so wiped out I never heard Colleen head down to the hen coop to lock the girls in for the night and I was headed upstairs to bed before the last of the dusk’s light had vanished from the western horizon. I guess I must have really been tired because I slept until sunrise yesterday.

Even after a good night’s rest Friday night and getting up before the sun, motivation was hard to be found yesterday morning. Colleen got a better jump on the day than I did. I was still sitting on the back porch with my coffee when I heard the vacuum cleaner going so I figured I better get moving. We desperately needed to get our weekly market run out of the way so Colleen put the vacuum cleaner up and we headed to Walmart. Colleen and I did enjoy a good laugh at Walmart though. We’re used to seeing bread, milk, and eggs fly off of the shelves whenever the words snow or hurricane find their way into the media. Yesterday the toilet paper and cleaning supplies had vanished from the shelves. It kind of made us wonder what society is coming to. I guess the word of the day was panic and that means throw common sense out the window. There was still plenty of hand soap and towels in the store. Anyway, Colleen and I went about getting our usual things and headed home. Fortunately, we’re pretty well stocked with cleaning supplies, paper towels, and toilet paper.

I guess we got home a little before lunch. Alex helped us bring all of the stuff in the house. He had been up most of the morning and seems to have had more motivation than either Colleen or me. I had mentioned to Alex that he might want to clean the porch or stack some firewood while we gone, and while we were gone Alex had done his best to clean up the front porch and then started stacking some of the firewood that I had left piled up in front of the log splitter. I figured that wouldn’t be something I got to do until spring break, but every little bit that gets done before then is helpful. Colleen spent yesterday afternoon cleaning up her kitchen and making muffins for the upcoming week. I sat down in front of the computer to do my schoolwork. I got a good bit done, but will be doing more again today.

We sure weren’t a ball of fire yesterday, but we made it through the day and got a few things done. We’re moving a little bit better this morning. Colleen’s already been in the kitchen a while. I have some errands to run a bit later and, of course, there is still schoolwork to get done. Colleen and I aren’t really sure what to expect from the upcoming week given we had the time change last night, there will be a full moon, and the week finishes with a Friday the 13th. Things are crazy out there in the world right now and they sure don’t need any help getting crazier. I guess Colleen and I will just take things as they come and keep putting one foot in front of the other. No matter what happens though, we know at the end of each day we can come home, look around, and be thankful that all is right on the homestead.

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March 15: The World Is Crazy

Holy Cow! I’d just as soon not see a week like last week for a good long while again. Last Saturday night we pushed the clocks forward an hour, Monday we had a full moon, to finish off the work week we had a Friday the 13th, and by sunset yesterday the governor had shutdown all the schools in the state for at least two weeks because of the rampant panic associated with the coronavirus. It’s probably worth mentioning that the NBA, NHL, MLB, the PGA, NASCAR, and every other major and minor sporting event were suspended as well. The weather warmed up considerably and we did see a little bit of rain, but it wasn’t much. It was enough to help the gardens though and combined with the warm temperatures more flowers started blooming and planted seeds started to sprout. The tail end of the long line of storms that had swept across the country late in the week finally showed up around here in the middle of last night, but the rain missed us, go figure.

Colleen enjoyed a 3-day weekend last weekend because her school had a teacher workday on Monday. I had a full school week and it was loaded with meetings right until Friday after school when we found out our 3-week intercession/spring break got pushed forward a week as a precaution to the coronavirus. The county in which Colleen works elected to keep school open for the upcoming week as of Friday, but yesterday a teacher at another school in that county tested positive for the coronavirus and the county opted to shutdown schools for two weeks. By yesterday evening the governor of the state had unilaterally closed all schools in the state for at least two weeks. So here we are, sitting calmly up here on our little hill, getting ready to enjoy an unexpectedly long spring break.

Monday we took advantage of Colleen’s day off to get her car into the shop for its annual inspection. We were very lucky we did too because the car had blown a brake line and was losing brake fluid. Fortunately, they caught it in time and Colleen did not have the brakes go out while she was driving. The guys at the shop did a great job and we had the car back that evening. In the mean time, Colleen used the day to take care of a number of small things around the house and she even got her huge Christmas cactus, “The Beast”, repotted. The Beast hadn’t been doing well of late and desperately needed repotting. Because Colleen didn’t have access to her car, last Monday was the first Monday in quite a while Colleen did not visit the laundromat to do our laundry.

Colleen made up for Monday by stopping at the laundromat on Tuesday. Wednesday we got the first indications of how crazy things were going to get when Colleen stopped at the market to get corned beef and there wasn’t any, and the shelves were starting to empty out. Colleen stopped at another market on Thursday and got some corned beef, but ended up waiting in the checkout line for 20 minutes because of all of the people. Friday I stayed after school for a faculty meeting so the principal could update us in closing the school for the next three weeks. I stopped and got gas and pizza on the way home. Colleen and I were glad to be home and over dinner we started talking about making the necessary adjustments to our daily activities to get us through all of this craziness and the summer. Yep, I said summer because I have a bad feeling the impact of all of this panic will be far reaching.

Colleen and I are not the panicking types so at home things keep going pretty much like usual. The warm weather did wonderful things for our gardens especially the vegetable gardens. The radishes sprouted and yesterday I saw where the peas had started pushing through the ground. I’m still waiting for the potatoes. The onions and celery that overwintered in a front garden look great. I don’t know if we actually have any onions under the ground but the stalks at strong and healthy. The celery had a little bit of frost bite on the outside leaves, the hearts of the plants are doing really well, and we are starting to get stalks large enough to harvest so Colleen and use the celery in soups and stews. With a few weeks off now, Colleen and I are already making plans to get into the gardens, get things cleaned up, and do some more planting.

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, Colleen and I have plans for our annual holiday gathering of the clan later today. It’s one of those things my red headed, blue eyed, Irish wife insists we do. Colleen started her baking Friday night when she made over three dozen chocolate cupcakes and a couple dozen macaroons. Naturally green food coloring got added to the macaroons for the holiday. Knowing I didn’t have any school for the next three weeks, I took the night off and enjoyed a lovely cigar on the back porch. I even stayed up a good bit later than usual and didn’t find my way upstairs until 10 o’clock which is usually well past my bedtime. Colleen had stayed up a little later than usual doing the baking, but she was in bed by 10 o’clock too.

Yesterday wasn’t too crazy of a day up here on the hill. Colleen found out Friday evening that her school would be shut down for at least the next two weeks so we both enjoyed our morning coffee without feeling rushed. When Colleen did find her way to the kitchen she started right in on baking some Irish soda bread. She even played with the recipe a bit to include some beer in the dough. There were a few odds and ends we needed from Walmart so while Colleen was baking I ran to the store. I got into Walmart and was blown away. There was no toilet paper, no paper towels, no cleaning supplies, no milk, no bread, no eggs, and the canned goods shelves were empty. I just scratched my head in disbelief that so many people had panicked. Fortunately, I just needed fishing supplies for my break and another couple of nonessential items.

With no schoolwork hanging over my head yesterday it seemed like a great day to get started on my “To-Do” list. The lawnmower came out of winter storage and I got after the backyard before it became any more of a hay field. With the yard done, it was time to clean the chicken pen and coop. Or course, the girls wanted to help so they scratched through every pile I raked making me rake everything a second time. It looks like the pine shavings are starting to build up in the compost again so I’ll have to run everything through the screen again so I can get some compost to put into our gardens over the next couple of weeks. Colleen spent the afternoon cleaning the house and then frosting cupcakes. I suppose in the grand scheme of things the day wasn’t too terribly busy, but it was productive. I sure hope the rest of our break goes this easily.

Colleen has already started cooking this morning. The corned beef is boiling in the pot. The kids will find their way over here sooner or later and Colleen is aiming to have the meal on the table around 12:30. I’m not sure as to what else the day will bring, but we will take things one step at a time. With all of the chaos in the world, today will be a day for celebrating the family up here on our little hill. It’s our annual St. Patrick’s Day gathering and over the next month we have five birthdays to celebrate so we will do it all today. Colleen and I always look forward to time we can spend with the kids. Those days are precious to us and it doesn’t matter what else is happening. We’re not sure what will happen tomorrow or next week, especially now that the world has gone crazy. We do know that we will take things one day a time and in the end everything will work out the way it should. Colleen and I will take care of the things we can and not worry about the things we cannot. At the bottom of our hill the real world is wildly whipping around, seemingly out of control. Up here on our little hill, all we need do is look around to know that all is right on the homestead.

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March 22, 2020: Spring Break Or Week 1 Of Quarantine

For most of the country it’s been the first week of quarantine, but up here on the hill it’s been the first week of spring break. Colleen and I are homebodies to start with, so social distancing only seems routine for us. In no way am I trying to downplay just how serious this whole virus thing really is, it’s just a statement about our life. The week itself was a nice one if you take into account everything going on in the world. We got enough rain to keep the gardens watered, but not so much to flood everything and the heaviest rain seemed to fall in the middle of night leaving us with very pleasant days. Most of the days a hoodie in the morning was more than enough to stay warm and by mid afternoon it was easily short sleeve weather. Friday even got into the 80’s. It really was perfect weather for working around the house, fishing, or just sitting on the back porch.

Last Sunday was our annual St. Patrick’s Day gathering of the clan. Colleen cooked up the traditional feast of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. It’s not like we really celebrate the day, it’s more like it gives an excuse to have a family gathering. Of course, my darling red haired, blue eyed wife, Colleen Mary O’Connell, fancies herself Irish so she decorates the house and goes all out for the feast. This year sadly James and Donna couldn’t make it, nor could Louis and Micayla. Since we also have five birthdays coming in the month and following the day we also use it as a group birthday celebration. This year was special because it was Lily’s 1st birthday. As with any one year old, I do believe the significance of the day was lost on her.

Monday morning showed up right on schedule, but with a twist. My 3-week intersession break had been moved up a week and Colleen’s school was shutdown outright. The closures were due to the concern over the coronavirus. I actually had teacher workdays on Monday and Tuesday so Colleen and I were up both days at our regular time. I headed into school right on schedule. I put my time in, did what I had to do, and at the end of each day on my way home, I stopped by the river to do a little fishing. I added a few catfish fillets to our freezer for my time. Colleen headed to the laundromat Monday morning after I left for school and by the time I got home everything was dry and put away. Being still somewhat worn out from everything that had been going on at school, Colleen also decided it was time to clean up her cookbooks and recipes, and while she did the bulk of the note transcribing and rewriting on Monday and Tuesday, she was still working on things this morning.

Wednesday morning found me up with the sun and not an alarm clock thankfully. By Wednesday morning we also knew that the world was starting to hole itself up in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Interestingly enough, this means only very subtle changes to the lifestyle Colleen and I lead. After years of trying to raise six kids on very little money, we sort of got used to staying close to home, doing things at home, and having fun around here. I did make one change to my routine though, and I started heading down to the market daily at 7 o’clock so I would encounter as few people as possible. Since pickings on the store shelves were sparse, I was only able to get a few things on our list. I’ve ended up going to the store every morning since Wednesday, I get what I can, I never spend more than 30 minutes in the store, and then I come home. It’s kind of turned into a game of scavenger hunt for me.

Wednesday was also the day I had been waiting to arrive. I got to get out into our gardens. I did a little maintenance and upkeep on the potatoes, peas, and radishes that I had planted more than a week ago. Everything was sprouting nicely. I added more dirt to a third raised bed to account for the settling from last year and then I planted Swiss chard and beets. They are both from the same family of vegetables so they are ideal for planting companions. The fourth raised bed we have is for beans, but it is way too early to plant those so after I cleaned up that raised bed I planted some more radishes. That should give us a good four weeks of fresh radishes from the garden and the radishes will be gone before it’s time to put the beans into the ground. Colleen spent the day working on her cookbooks again and even tried a new recipe for dinner.

Thursday got off to a bit of a slow start for me. After my run to the market I just sort of hung out in the back porch. Colleen decided to wash the bed linens so after I got back from the market she headed down to the laundromat. She even got into the scavenger hunt game by getting a couple of loaves of bread from the dollar store next to the laundromat. Colleen got back home in less than an hour like usual and started drying everything. I finally got moving and started to tackle the wood pile that I had split earlier in the year. I spent all afternoon stacking firewood, but to look at the pile on the ground it sure didn’t look like I had made a dent in it. Between dryer loads Colleen pulled her pantry apart, cleaned it top to bottom, and then reorganized everything. With store shelve pickings being thin of late, Colleen wanted to make sure she could see when we were starting to run low on things so we wouldn’t be caught running out of anything.

Friday morning I was out the door headed to the market at my usual time. By the time I got back Colleen had taken care of the chickens for the day and was dressed and ready to head out into her flower gardens. Before I was going to do anything, I wanted my morning coffee. Colleen spent the morning pulling leaves out of her flower beds. She managed to get her lily garden done and she started working her way down the garden on the property line where our neighbor’s fence had been, but the midday heat chased her inside after working all morning. After I finished my coffee I spent all morning stacking firewood. After lunch Colleen decided it was time to put our summer screens up on the windows. Because of the way our windows are designed, the screens actually get mounted on the inside of the house. I spent the afternoon stacking firewood. By the time I ran out of energy in the afternoon, Colleen had all of the screens up and we had a lovely breeze blowing through the house. To make things easy, Friday’s dinner was pizza.

Yesterday wasn’t quite as nice as Friday had been. The sun played “hide ’n seek” with the clouds for most of the day. After I got back from my morning market run, I had my coffee and finally finished stacking all of the firewood I had split. With that pile done, it will be back to cutting and splitting the wood Alex’s crew dropped in our front yard about a month ago. Alex’s has been doing some work in it but it’s a lot more wood and big pieces too. One of the rounds got away from Alex a while back and rolled down the hill a ways. Unfortunately, the piece is too big to be lifted and moved, I mean like 500 pounds too big. Alex started trying to split that piece yesterday. He split it in half using a maul and three wedges. It took a while and he finally decided he was going to have to use a chainsaw to cut it down further. I decided there wasn’t anything else I was going to do for the rest of the afternoon so I went fishing for a couple of hours. Colleen spent most of her day buried in her cookbooks again and by the time I got home she also had a ham dinner ready and waiting.

I kind of feel at a loss this morning without any schoolwork that needs to be done, but I’m sure I’ll get over it. We’ve got a good breeze blowing and the temperatures are chillier than the last few days too. My morning market run is done, the dog and chickens are good to go already this morning, I’m trying to sort through my “To-Do” list, and Colleen is already buried in her recipes and cookbooks again. About a dozen deer meandered through the backyard this morning and I found myself thinking I know where to get some meat if things get really bad out there in this crazy world. Colleen and I have always tended to stay close to home so right now, apart from my early morning runs to the market, everything still feels pretty normal up here on our little hill. Colleen and I can’t change what is happening in the world, but we can make a huge difference around here and that’s exactly what our goal is. It’s the simple things like smiling and saying good morning to everyone in the market from a safe distance, giving the neighbor or our kids a dozen fresh eggs when we have extra, or even just spending extra time in the gardens that can make each day special. Up here on our little hill, things are slow and easy like usual, everyone is healthy and happy, and we are thankful for the things we do have. Colleen and I can stand out on our back porch, any time, day or night, and celebrate each and every day because all is right on the homestead.

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March 22, 2020: Another Week On The Hill Or Week 2 Of Quarantine

Two weeks of staying home done and we’re getting ready for week number 3. We’re sitting right up here on our hill and for the most part everything is fairly routine. We’re not the type of folks that get out and about too often anyway. Mother Nature is still messing with the weather. We got some rain at the beginning of the week and it was cold and damp enough for us to put a fire in the fireplace. It’s not that it was terribly cold, but the rain added a good bite to the air. Things started to warm up later in the week and by yesterday the sun was out in full force and the temperatures were teasing the 90 degree mark. The combination of rain and warm temperatures are doing well by the gardens at least. It looks like we’ll have another warm and beautiful day on tap for today and with no preparation needed for school, it looks like Colleen and I will be outside again.

I’m still technically on my intersession break for another week so there isn’t much I have to do for school other than keep up with my email so I can stay on top of things happening because of the fluid nature of the situation. Colleen on the other hand has to telecommute to get her hours logged so she can get paid. Since Colleen is a TA for the special education group she doesn’t have the work options a teacher has so she has prostrated herself in front of a computer screen taking online training courses. Colleen is not one for sitting still for extended periods of time and the training is tough on her. She hasn’t reached the point of banging her head on the table yet, but she has started coloring the tablecloth. To her credit, Colleen has finished 10 or 12 courses so far and has quite the collection of certificates going to prove it along with keeping up with everything around here.

With no school prep needed last Sunday, Colleen and I basically took the day off. It was a little bit chilly, but not enough to keep me off of my back porch. Colleen ironed my school shirts during the afternoon, and they’ll probably stay ironed for a while they way things look. I played with making videos in anticipation of having to set up online classes in the not too distant future. I cooked dinner on the grill so Colleen didn’t have to get into the kitchen to cook. I figure I’ll be doing a good bit more grilling over the upcoming weeks just to give Colleen a break. A couple of steaks, some grilled vegetables, and grill baked potatoes made for a wonderful Sunday dinner.

We had a good bit of rain on Sunday night, and there was a definite bite to the air on Monday morning so while Colleen was getting ready for her video conference, I got a fire going in the fireplace to chase the chill out of the house. With all of the teachers and staff on the video conference, the software started acting up and Colleen ended up just turning on the closed captioning to follow along. The software acting up was not a good omen for online classes at this point. I spent some of my afternoon in front of the computer, as well, answering emails and doing a little online training myself. It was a strange day though as Colleen and I tried to figure out how to effectively work from home.

Tuesday morning I put another fire in the fireplace so Colleen could be comfortable while she was in front of her computer. She didn’t jump on her computer right away though. Because she had the video conference on Monday morning, Colleen held off on going to the laundromat and doing the laundry until Tuesday morning. I worked on the computer some too, but got an email right after lunch saying I wasn’t required to work from home until after my break was over which will be after next weekend. Everything was still wet and soggy outside so I did what I could in the house. I did get out to the back porch every now and then to relax a bit. The warmer weather and the rain had started to turn the forest behind the house green as more and more trees are starting to get the beginning of their leaves. It won’t be long now before the trees have full canopies overhead.

The skies cleared up and the temperatures started warming up on Wednesday. Colleen was in front of the computer again for most of the day. I took advantage of the day by getting out and checking the gardens, which like the trees are doing quite well with the warmer temperatures and ample rain. Alex who had been working all week found out his job was classified as an essential service. He will at least keep working through all of this mess. I spent the afternoon putting some order to our “To-Do” list because even with working from home, it looks like we are going to have plenty of time to get things done around here. The highlight of the day was the arrival of Colleen’s new washboard. She didn’t know if she would be able to go to the laundromat once all of the shelter-in-place orders came down the pipeline, and our septic system can’t handle the washing machine discharge so Colleen wanted a washboard in case she needed it to do laundry. She didn’t seem particularly amused when I suggested we could start a jug band if she didn’t need to use the washboard.

Thursday was a beautiful day, not too hot, and not too cold. After spending the morning helping Colleen copy and transfer some of the computer files she needed, I ate a little lunch and then headed down to the compost pile to run everything through a screen. By running everything through a screen I was able to separate the usable compost from the stuff that hadn’t broken down yet. The good compost went in a separate holding pile while everything else went back into the compost bin. There was a whole lot more in the bin than I expected and by dinner time I only had it gotten through about a third of the pile. Colleen spent her day in front of the computer training, and taking the occasional break to preserve her sanity.

Friday morning Colleen was back in front of the computer. I headed down back to finish screening the compost. I finally did finish the compost right before dinner. I ended up with close to three wheelbarrows full of useable compost for our gardens. Alex went fishing with Steven when he got home from work. I ran and got pizza for dinner, and after dinner enjoyed a cigar and a beautiful sunset on the back porch. I won’t say Colleen and I have this work at home thing figured out quite yet, but we are definitely on the right path. This is going to be one steep learning curve for sure.

Yesterday a Colleen was chomping at the bit to get outside into her gardens and was outside working in the gardens before I ever finished my morning coffee. I finished my coffee and got out into the vegetable gardens. Between weeding, amending the soil, and putting up chicken wire on the outside of the garden fences as defense against the squirrels and chipmunks, I was out there until the middle of the afternoon. Alex got up and headed out to the fire pit to start burning our collection of yard waste. That little project may take a while. The heat of the day finally chased Colleen and me inside and to the cover of some shade. Colleen even pulled a couple of our floor fans up from the basement to help move the air around I the house. After that we just tried our best to catch our breath.

I sure don’t know how long all this virus stuff is going to stick around. I do know that Colleen and I are doing our best to keep some sense of normal going up here on our little hill. Alex is still working and Colleen and I are trying to get our arms around working at home. Money is tight as usual, but we’ve learned how to squeeze a nickel until Jefferson screams over the years. Since we’ve always pretty much kept to ourselves, the social distancing thing is no big deal for us. If we do have to make a market run, we do it early in the morning to avoid as many people as possible. I guess the best that any of us can do right now is to take things one day at a time. Even when everything is at its best, Colleen and I have found that taking things one day at a time makes everything simple and much easier for us. So for the time being, we keep getting up every morning, putting our feet on the floor, and smiling because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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April 05, 2020: Week 03 Of “Stay At Home”, But A Very Pleasant Week

It’s a perfectly lovely Sunday morning up here on the hill. We have blue skies, plenty of sunshine, and the temperature is headed to 70 degrees or so. It’s also officially the last day of my intersession break. Tomorrow I start to work at home. I’m not sure when or if we will start online classes, but I’m sure I’ll find out. On the whole, last week was a very nice week. We were supposed to have some rain on Tuesday, but it broke up and didn’t show up until Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning everything was still a little bit wet, but it didn’t take long to dry out. I’m thinking that we are getting to the point where we will have to water our gardens for lack of rain because it hasn’t rained since. The daytime high temperatures are staying consistently in the 65 to 75 degree range which is proving very good for the gardens. We’re expecting the same this week and there isn’t much rain in the forecast until later in the week.

I spent last Sunday morning writing on the back porch, but Colleen was all about the beautiful weather and headed outside to work in her gardens as soon as she finished her morning coffee. I didn’t get out into the yard until after lunch. I didn’t do a whole lot out there either. I moved and stacked the firewood that Alex had split earlier in the week and then I put some compost on the top of the gardens which Colleen cleaned. Colleen loves lilacs and try as she might, they just won’t grow here in North Carolina. The closest thing Colleen found to lilacs that will grow around here is called a “Bloomerang”. Colleen was very excited to show me the bloom on her bush while I was outside with her. Not much else happened on Sunday with the exception of me grilling lamb chops for dinner.

up Colleen headed down to the laundromat first thing Monday and got in, out, and back home in her usual 45 minutes. Once she got that first load of clothes into the dryer she found her way in front of the computer to log her work at home hours. Right after she left for the laundromat I got outside and starting picking up pine cones so I could cut the grass in the backyard. We actually use the pine cones as fire starters for our fireplace. I had the backyard picked up and cut by lunchtime, and after lunch I cleaned out the chicken coop and put in fresh bedding for the girls. Since it was my last week of break I spent the afternoon and evening on the back porch carving the wooden spoon I’m making for Colleen. It’s not quite finished yet, but it’s getting there. Colleen picked another couple of training certificates for her time spent in front of the computer.

Tuesday morning Colleen used some her of leave time because we needed to go to Costco to pick up supplies and food. We got there right when the doors opened for the “over 60” crowd and boy was there a line waiting to get into the place. Fortunately, everyone was quite nice and calm, everyone observed the 6-foot rule for social distancing, and Costco was only letting so many people in the store at one time. I think it took us about 30 minutes before we got into the store. Believe it or not we got almost everything we needed or wanted except for TP which they did not have. We’re still okay on TP, but I’m not sure how far what we have in the basement will take us. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for some when I make our market runs. It was supposed to rain during the day, but it never did, instead waiting until after sunset. I ended up doing a few little things around the house for the rest of the day while Colleen spent all afternoon in front of the computer.

Wednesday morning Colleen had an online staff meeting. That was when she discovered that she could color the tablecloth instead of doodling. It was cool enough Wednesday morning that I needed to put a fire in the fireplace to chase the damp chill out of the house. Between shuttling firewood into the house, keeping the fire banked, and answering my email for school I pretty much chewed up the morning. Things had dried out enough by the early afternoon that I was able to move some of the more manageable rounds from up in the front yard down to by the log splitter. After Colleen had all her time logged and added a couple more certificates to her stack to show for her efforts, she headed into the kitchen to make a pot of soup. To go with the soup for dinner we had a green salad, and in the salad we had fresh celery that Colleen had me cut from our garden right before dinner. Alex came home and found it rather amusing that Mom was coloring the tablecloth so he let her use his 100-pack of colored pens. We all got a big laugh out of that when they showed up on the dining room table.

Thursday morning Colleen was in front of the computer again. I decided it was time to pull out the chainsaw and see if I could break down the big 500 pound round and get the pieces up by the log splitter. It took me all morning to do. I cut slits into the top of the wood, drove wedges into the slits to break off pieces small enough for me to handle, and then used the wagon to carry one piece at a time up to the splitter. After lunch I reclaimed some garden soil from our raised gardens against the back porch which we are dismantling and used it to mound up our potato plants. Our girls have been doing a fine job of keeping us in fresh eggs, so much so that we were able to give Steven and Anna Maria a dozen earlier in the week. Thursday night Colleen decided we were going to have breakfast for dinner, eggs, pork chops and waffles. Breakfast for dinner is a bit of work, but always a treat around here. Just to make things all the better, Colleen and I found some bourbon barrel aged maple syrup at Costco on Tuesday. I have to say, even growing up in New England where maple syrup is king, this maple syrup was incredible. Even if we have to order it online in the future, this stuff will be a staple in our refrigerator.

Friday started out routine enough. Colleen got right to her computer in the morning. I helped with moving some files and getting copies converted so she could email them to work, and then I headed outside to clean up our winter ready firewood storage area. With all of the firewood we have, we need extra space to store it so I want to move the wood that started seasoning last summer up to the winter ready racks for next winter. I had everything cleaned up and ready to go by lunch. After lunch I headed out with the chainsaw again to see if I could cut and split some of the bigger pieces of firewood in the front yard so I could move them down by the log splitter. That’s about when everything blew up. The neighborhood lost power so Colleen was dead in the water. I had just started moving the cut up firewood when Alex called because Explorer died. The Explorer is really dead this time. Fortunately, Alex’s boss will let Alex use a company truck until he can get a new vehicle. By the time I drove out to help Alex, everyone got home, and we got the Explorer towed back home, the electricity was back on.

As luck would have it, the electricity stayed on just long enough for Colleen to finish some schoolwork and make dinner. Shortly after that we lost power again. We rarely lose power and if we do it is usually weather related. I don’t have a clue what was happening on Friday. Anyway, I dug out the camping lanterns we keep for just this kind of thing and I sat on the back porch with a cigar and watched the sunset. With the last bit of light fading I headed down back to lock the girls in the coop for the night, and then headed upstairs to go to bed. The power came back on about an hour after I had gone to bed. I had forgotten that one of the lights was on in the bedroom when I went to bed. Talk about waking up with a start when the power came back on. After a little milk and a quick snack, it didn’t take me long to get settled again and I was able to sleep well through the night.

Yesterday was another beautiful day and just perfect for working outside. Colleen got back into her gardens and Alex and I tackled some more of the firewood. With the pile down by the log splitter getting rather large, I filled the gas tank on the splitter, fired it up, and start to split firewood. Alex and I knocked out a bunch of firewood over the course of the morning. Alex would stage and feed me the wood and I would split it. We made quite a pile of split firewood and only got through about half of the pile by the log splitter. It sure looks like we have a lot of firewood stacking in our future.

This morning I was out the front door right after I got dressed. I didn’t even wait to have coffee. I wanted to get our market run done before too many people got to the store. Colleen even made me a mask to wear to be on the safe side. The store shelves are still a bit thin, but I got most everything on our list including a 12-pack of TP. It was the first TP I had seen on the shelves since this whole mess started. By the time I got home, less than an hour later, Colleen had taken care of Buttercup and the girls. After everything got put away Colleen headed out to work in the gardens and I had my coffee. I’m not too sure what the rest of the day will bring, but Colleen and I have no plans to leave our little hill any time soon. We take everything one day at a time, keep things as normal as we can, and are more thankful than ever that all is right on the homestead.

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April 12, 2020: Week 04 Of “Stay At Home” And Spring is Here!

Okay, that makes 4 weeks of shelter-in-place and things are about as normal as they could be up here on our hill. For the most part, it was a pretty nice week. We had lots of sunshine and we even saw temperatures get up into the 80’s, but it is spring and the weather is subject to change on a dime which it did. A line of thunderstorms rolled in on Wednesday night and things started to cool down. The rain was good for our gardens, but by yesterday morning the temperatures were just below 40 degrees. It wasn’t cold enough to bother the gardens since we only have cool weather plants in the ground at the moment, but it sure was quite the change from the 80 degree weather earlier in the week. Things are a bit warmer this morning and we’ll warm up even more to start the week, but it looks like we have another blast of cold air headed our way again later this coming week. I suppose before too long we’ll be wishing we had a cool spell to break up the hot weather.

After my solo market run last Sunday, I settled in to do all of my writing for the day. Colleen took advantage of the beautiful weather and got outside to work in her gardens. By lunchtime she had the whole garden up by where our neighbor’s fence used to be, cleaned out and looking good. We lost power again early Sunday afternoon so I just headed upstairs to take a nap. I guess the power was out for a couple of hours, but when it came back on Colleen decided to go ahead and make the paella she had planned anyway. Colleen did have to improvise a bit with her paella because there just weren’t any mussels or clams available at the market. Colleen decided to use lamb chops and it was a great call because dinner turned out exceptionally well. After dinner I was out on the back porch enjoying a cigar and didn’t we lose power again. Fortunately, it wasn’t out long.

After two weeks of sitting through staff meetings and watching training videos, Colleen was on spring break last week. It also happened to be my first week of school after my intersession break so I was the one in meetings, watching training videos, and building lesson plans for school starting Monday morning. I figure with all of this work at home time, I should be able to have everything I’ll need done by the start of the new school year this fall. We still don’t know for sure if and when we will go back this year. As of right now, the “Go Back to School” day is May 18th, but that is subject to change depending on conditions out there in the real world. I’d much rather be in the classroom with the kids right now, but I’m not going to waste this opportunity of having all of this time to work on lessons either. I have the feeling that the dining room table is going to be operation central for the next month or so.

Over last weekend I found out they were getting ready to lock down my school. That’s not necessarily a bad thing except there are three chickens that live in the school’s courtyard. My principal asked me if I could give the girls a foster home until we got back to school and I agreed, so around lunchtime on Monday Colleen and I headed down to the school to get the girls. It took us a little bit to wrangle three chickens that had free roam of the courtyard, but with the help of a few corners and a long handled net we safely got the girls. The next big challenge was going to be to integrate the new girls with our girls. That didn’t start out too well and two of the new girls spent Monday night in separate kennels in our pen. The rest of the day was just typical for around here lately, I did schoolwork and Colleen did stuff around the house and then made dinner.

Tuesday morning I decided to let one of the two kenneled chickens out of its kennel and things went okay for the most part. Once the girls were set to go I headed back inside to get back in front of my computers. Colleen hadn’t done the laundry on Monday so she headed down to the laundromat on Tuesday morning. With no school clothes to wash, it was a light load of laundry so Colleen did the bed linens as well. She was gone a grand total of 45 minutes and even managed to get some milk from the dollar store while she was out. It was another beautiful day so Colleen got the wet clothes going in the dryer and then headed outside to fertilize her gardens and start her annual raking project. Between the laundry and working outside Colleen stayed busy most all day. I spent the afternoon calling my kids and their families to see if everyone was alright. After dinner I got to get outside and check the gardens which are doing quite well especially the potatoes. At sunset both Colleen and I were pleasantly surprised when our four girls and the two new girls that had been out and about all day, peacefully all went into the coop for the night.

Wednesday morning after I let the girls out of the coop, I let the third new girl out of her kennel. Things were iffy right off the bat, but I left her out hoping things would settle down. Once the girls were all out, it was back upstairs to the computers for me. Colleen headed outside to keep raking and won’t you know it my darling wife ran across a 2-foot long copperhead while raking. While there was the initial “OMG A SNAKE!” reaction, Colleen handled the situation in grand fashion. She used her rake to flip the thing into the woods and then she got back to her raking. Wednesday evening the skies were threatening and the one new girl was still not getting along with everyone so I put her back into the kennel for the night. The other girls headed up to the coop quietly. The line of storms missed us, but come early in the morning we got some rain and a little bit of wind. It was enough to wake me up well before sunrise, but the gardens got a good watering.

The rain stopped before sunrise on Thursday morning and it turned out to be a beautiful morning despite being a little soggy. I decided to leave the one problem chicken in the kennel again for the day. I didn’t want to have to get into a muddy chicken pen if there were more problems. I was back at my computers doing my schoolwork all day, but Colleen decided it was too wet to work in the yard so she headed into the basement to start cleaning it up. Cleaning the basement has been on our “To-Do” list for the last couple of years. As a lot of basements tend to be, ours is dusty and mildewy. Colleen would work for a while and then come upstairs for some fresh air. Colleen kept going back down into the basement for most of the day. Our basement is still packed to the rafters with “stuff”, but there is definitely more space to move around down there now.

I knew it was going to get cold Friday night so Friday morning I let the problem chicken out of her kennel hoping she would finally get along with everyone enough so she could spend the night warm inside the coop. It seems after several days of solitary confinement the young lady was more amicable. She even left me a peace offering of an egg in her kennel. It was back to schoolwork for me Friday morning and I even had a chance to chat a bit with a couple of my kids. Colleen headed outside to finish raking the east side of our lot along the property line and after lunch she headed back down into the basement. It’s a good thing trash day is this Tuesday because the bin is almost full. The big surprise came Friday evening at sunset. The girls had been relatively quiet all day and that evening seven birds quietly made their way up the walkway and into the coop. Colleen and I buttoned everything up for the night and we didn’t hear a peep out of the coop as we headed back into the house.

It was cool yesterday morning, but when I opened the coop door at dawn seven hens came strutting out of the coop, down the walkway, and all was seemingly well. I headed upstairs for my coffee and waited until after I knew Tractor Supply Company would be open. I needed to make a run to get more chicken feed and dog food. Colleen gave me a mask to wear and I was on my way. I was in and out of the place in record time and home shortly before lunch. Alex was up when I got home and asked if he could help around the house so I suggested he cut the backyard which he did. Colleen had been pouring over her recipes and freezer inventory list trying to put together a menu for the upcoming week. After lunch I cleaned out the chicken coop and put new bedding in it. For some reason I couldn’t keep my eyes open after that so I headed upstairs for a nap. When I came back downstairs Colleen was making pie crusts for her potato pies, one of which we had for dinner.

After dinner Colleen did a little more baking and I just relaxed on the back porch. At sunset Colleen and I headed down to the hen coop to shut things up for the night. All the girls save one were in the coop. The last lovely lady had managed to squeeze through an opening in the gate and was standing there waiting for me to pick her up and carry her to the coop door. There were a couple of extra eggs waiting for us in the nesting boxes too. Despite all the upheaval of introducing new girls into the pen this past week, we are now getting four or five eggs a day. That certainly keeps us from having to get any eggs from the market. I will have to make sure to close up that opening in the gate though.

We have on again, off again sunshine this morning and the temperatures are a little warmer. We’re supposed to have some rough weather move through the area tonight and into tomorrow. Most of today shouldn’t be too bad though. I do want to get into the gardens. I think Colleen will be baking a little and maybe sewing some masks later. With everything so unsettled in the world right now, Colleen and I are very thankful that everything up here on our little hill is calm and mostly normal. We’re not going crazy being under the shelter-at-home orders, and in fact we have plenty to keep us busy. Every day is an adventure for us whether we are doing chores, schoolwork, or just relaxing. Everyone is healthy and we have plenty of everything to keep us going. Quite honestly, it’s pretty much how we spend our summer breaks from school. We do have to come off our hill once or twice a week out of necessity, but we make those trips as quickly and safely as possible. I’m not sure how long all of this mess in the world will last, but we are doing fine and we are very thankful that all is right on the homestead.

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April 19, 2020: Week 05 Of “Stay At Home” And We’re Redefining Normal

Spring is definitely settling into Central North Carolina. The days are getting warmer, the nights aren’t as cold, trees have their leaves, and everything is green. Last Sunday was Easter and while the kids checked in on us by phone or text, we didn’t have our usual gathering for Easter dinner. The storms that had spun up so many tornadoes as it plowed its way across the central states was getting ready to bear down on us. The real storms didn’t get here until right before sunrise Monday and fortunately the worst of the storms slid north of us. We got a good bit of wind and about an inch of rain, but we fared well. Behind the line of storms was what I hope will be the last of the arctic air headed our way until this fall. The mornings for the rest of the week started at or just below 40 degrees but the days warmed up into the 60’s or low 70’s. We did get a little bit more rain yesterday morning, but it was gone by lunchtime and we had a beautiful afternoon with light spring breezes. Tonight and tomorrow are supposed to be wet and stormy, but that is yet to be seen.

For the most part, Sunday was a pretty nice day. It was a quiet Easter Sunday though, without the kids being around. Colleen spent the day in the kitchen tinkering with a couple of recipes that yielded a great batch of both muffins and cookies. With not having to get ready for the school week, there isn’t any pressure to get everything done on our weekends now. I spent the morning writing and in the afternoon I found time to get out into the gardens. Our first real picking of this year yielded a good bit of fresh celery and a nice batch of fresh radishes. As it was Easter Sunday and we didn’t have our usual big ham dinner for everyone, I grilled some steaks for dinner. We had the usual fare of baked potato and Colleen fried some yellow squash and zucchini for our vegetable, and then just to make things that much better we had a radish and onion side salad with some Greek vinaigrette dressing all topped with feta cheese.

I actually had a holiday on Monday so I didn’t have to do any schoolwork, but I didn’t sleep late either. There are still chickens that need tending in the mornings. Colleen didn’t have the holiday and she ended up spending the better part of her day watching training videos and taking tests to earn her certificates. We woke up to howling winds as the storms moved through the area, but by 8 or 9 the storms had passed. We didn’t take much damage from the winds. I had let the girls stay in their coop while the storms blew by us and when I went down to let them out, I found the PVC frame holding the netting over the pen had taken a hit. I sure am glad PVC is easy to work with because it didn’t take me long to make repairs. Of course, the girls were squawking their little hearts out inside the coop encouraging me to work faster. By mid afternoon the skies had cleared up and we had just a gorgeous spring day working for us.

Tuesday was our first chilly morning and I put a fire in the fireplace. I sure don’t remember ever having a fire in the fireplace this late into April before last week. With the weather being funky on Monday morning, Colleen held off heading to the laundromat until Tuesday morning. Once she got back home and got the clothes going in the dryer, it was back to her training videos to log her work at home hours. I was back in front of the computer screens as well. I spend my days answering emails, contacting parents and students, holding online office hours to help the kids, and building lesson plans for next school year. The way things are going I’ll have one of my entire courses mapped out and ready to go before we get back in school for the fall, maybe both courses. Colleen found time in the afternoon to take the girls their usual afternoon treats and she was pleasantly surprised to find things were relatively calm in the pen. There were even 7 eggs in the nesting boxes. Both Colleen and I are breathing easier over the chickens, but they sure took their sweet time deciding to get along with each other.

Wednesday morning was cool again and I put another fire in the fireplace to start the day. Colleen and I seemingly have settled into our work at home routines in front of our computers. Alex had come home Tuesday night with what appeared to be a stomach bug. He didn’t go to work on Wednesday and slept until noon. When he woke up he was feeling a whole lot better and he just spent the day relaxing and trying to feel human again. Alex’s government stimulus check showed up in his bank account which made him feel a whole lot better because that’s a big chunk of change he’ll be putting toward his new vehicle. The afternoon turned out to be another gorgeous spring day and once I was done with my work, I headed outside to enjoy it with a cigar on the back porch.

Thursday morning wasn’t quite so chilly and I didn’t need to put a fire in the fireplace. Colleen and I sat at the dining room table all day doing our schoolwork. I had a couple of kids show up to get some help during my online office hours. It was good to see and talk with some of my kids from school. Colleen and I were in the middle of our second week of both working from home by Thursday and it was starting feel normal and routine. Up until the week before last I had been on intersession break. Even Buttercup is getting used to us being at the dining room table and she just camped out on the loveseat so she could keep an eye on us. Colleen picked up an extra certificate on Thursday morning, but by lunchtime she was struggling with one unit that just wasn’t making any sense to her. She took a short break for lunch and then was back at the unit. By the time dinnertime rolled around, Colleen was mumbling under her breath and she still hadn’t earned her certificate.

Friday morning before I ever got started on my work, Colleen was waving her certificate in the air. She had started early on the unit that had given her so much trouble on Thursday. She also relocated her work area up to her sewing room. It actually worked out better for her because I had a couple of meetings on Friday and the talking would have been distracting to her. Colleen ended up picking up two more certificates on the day and while none of my kids showed for office hours, I did reach one kid by phone and had a video conference with a parent and the other teachers their kid has. Colleen and I are finding out that working on a computer all day is proving to be tiring. I think it has to do with just watching and staying focused on the screen. We both let out a huge sigh of relief when quitting time rolled around. I headed out to the back porch with a cigar and some scotch while Colleen made dinner. Dinner was cheeseburgers and fries which was just perfect for a Friday evening and then we spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Yesterday started wet and dreary. Colleen headed into the basement to do some more cleaning down there. Being as I am somewhat of a glutton for punishment, I decided that I would sit down in front of the computer to get our taxes done. Of course, we owe the government more money as always. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time we got a refund. Alex is getting a refund this again year, but not a big one. In fact, the price of e-filing his state taxes cost more than he is getting back from the state so he just signed the forms and mailed them. After lunch Colleen was back in the basement and Alex and I spent a couple of hours splitting firewood. I was able to get more celery and radishes from our garden yesterday afternoon. I never knew you could eat celery leaves before but as it turns out they are both a good substitute for spinach or similar greens and they are quite tasty.

Today started out sunny, but it didn’t take long for the skies to turn gray and the air to get a bit of a bite in it. I did have to make a market run first thing this morning so our pantry is full again. There are still a lot of bare or lightly stocked shelves at the market, but I was able to get most everything on our list. TP is still tough to find, there wasn’t any chicken on the shelves, it was thin picking in the meat section, but bread and milk seem to be holding their own. The market run was unusually large for us, but the larder, freezer, refrigerator, and pantry are full again. Given the crazy stuff going on in the world, things are calm and peaceful up here on our hill. Colleen, Alex, and I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, making the best out of each new day. I’d have to say we’re doing well in the midst of all the uncertainty. We couldn’t be more thankful for everything we have, we don’t worry about what we don’t have, and we are always reassured when we look around because all is right on the homestead.

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April 26, 2020: Week 06 Of “Stay At Home” And We’re Still Here

Week 6 of stay-at-home is in the books and week 7 is up next. I guess I would have to say last week was what I might typically associate with spring. The weather flip-flopped between sunshine and rain all week. We had cool morning temperatures and when the sun was shining things warmed up quite nicely. The rain certainly has everything a lush green now. Our gardens are doing great and the leaves on the trees have filled in enough to obscure my view of the near ridge on the other side of the ravine that is past the wood line. Most of the rain we got was at night so Alex went to work every day. The gray days made it a little bit easier for Colleen and me to sit and work in front of our computer screens during the week. By the time dinner rolled around Friday afternoon, the governor had shut down school for the rest of this school year so Colleen and I will be working at home until our summer break starts. At this point we’re not even sure if school will start on time in the fall. Like everything else, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

I ended up with a rather large market run last Sunday morning that kind of threw the timing for my day out of whack. It’s not like I don’t have all the time in the world on my hands these days either, right? Once Colleen got the groceries put up she headed outside to do some yard work. I enjoyed the sunny day by getting caught up on my usual Sunday writing. Steven swung by the in the early afternoon. Anna Maria and Lily were taking naps and Steven was bored. I told him there was plenty of firewood in the front yard that needed to be cut up and before I knew it Steven and Alex were out there with a chainsaw. The pile of logs is getting smaller, but the pile of cut firewood rounds is just as big as ever. Not a whole lot else got done Sunday save for the pot roast dinner Colleen made so I guess, all in all, it was a pretty easy day.

Monday showed up right on schedule, no surprise there. Alex headed off to work at his usual time. Colleen and I spent the day in front of our computers. The weather was threatening on Monday morning so Colleen put the laundry on hold for a day. I had to wait for a break in the rain to let the girls out of their coop. The rain finally did clear out before lunch, but it was another of those frustrating days for Colleen with her training videos. By the time lunch got here she had to take a short break and do some baking so she wouldn’t go crazy. She finally did get through the lesson that was giving her problems, but not without some serious mumbling under her breath. My day didn’t turn out bad at all and I realized I was just about finished with lesson plans and class notes for the first unit of one of my courses. My goal is to have all of my courses laid out and ready to go by the time we do go back to school whenever that may be. By dinnertime the sun had dried things out pretty well and even the girls didn’t look the worse for wear.

Colleen was out the front door with the laundry Tuesday morning shortly after Alex left for work. It was her usual 45 minute laundry outing and she even managed to get some bread and milk from the dollar store right next to the laundromat. That trip off of the hill into the hinterlands was the last one for the week for either of us. I had an online department meeting a little later in the morning, but for the most part it was just another day in front of the computers for both Colleen and me. Colleen did take some time later in the afternoon to turn the leftover pot roast from our Sunday dinner into beef stew for dinner Tuesday evening. I sure am glad that Colleen learned how to feed our family on a thin budget over the years because under the current circumstances, stretching our food stores is definitely making a huge difference.

Wednesday turned out to be a beautiful day and Colleen and I dug into our schoolwork so much so that the morning quickly evaporated into lunchtime and we barely noticed. The afternoon flew by just as quickly and by the time Colleen and I were done for the day, it was bright, sunny, and warm. On one of my market runs I was able to pick up some chicken drumsticks. I’m not kidding when I say that there were people complaining that the packaged drumsticks was the only packaged chicken on the market shelf, but they were. I was excited and thankful to get a pack of drumsticks because I saw opportunity. Colleen put part of those drumsticks to good use for dinner on Wednesday evening when she made Arroz Con Pollo. She even added a whole bunch of fresh veggies to the rice to really make dinner something special. It always amazes me at how closed minded some people can be.

Thursday was pretty run of the mill as far as work-at-home days go. I pretty much managed to finish up the first unit of one of my courses for the fall. Colleen added another three of four certificates for successfully completing training to her rather substantial and still growing stack. I hadn’t realized it, but in the evenings Colleen has been reading about and watching videos on growing herbs and their various uses. Thursday evening when I went upstairs I found her working in her sewing room and she had the sliding glass door to the second floor porch covered with yellow sticky notes. She was building a master grid for everything she was learning about herbs. Honestly, it was all pretty amazing. I spend my gardening time focused on vegetables and herbs rarely enter my mind so this will be a big plus to our overall gardening picture.

Friday morning was gray and wet again, but the rain was gone before the sun came up. Colleen and I jumped into our schoolwork a little earlier than usual so we could quit a little earlier that afternoon. Even though it had rained Thursday night, Friday was another beautiful day. Everything had dried out quite nicely by the time we finished the day of schoolwork so Colleen and I decided to get outside and do a little gardening before dinner. We have a couple of gardens against the back porch that really hadn’t done as well as we had hoped over the last couple of years so I am dismantling them. In those gardens though were an oregano plant, some chives, and some leeks that had overwintered well. Since Colleen is starting to work with herbs, we figured it would be a good time to pull the stuff out of the gardens and we transplanted everything into pots on the back porch. In the garden the oregano really didn’t look that big, but once we got it into a pot we realized just how big the plant had gotten. We had even trimmed that plant back last summer so Colleen could dry it and fill one of spice jars in her pantry.

Friday night when we closed up the coop for the night, Colleen and I noticed some blood on one of the feeding dishes and water jugs. Yesterday morning both of us got out to the pen to let the girls out of the coop one by one so we could check them out. It seems that one of the girls took a good peck to the base of their comb. It mostly looked superficial and it seemed to be okay so we let the girls out for the day. I spent most of the day working out back by the pen so I was able to keep an eye on things. For the most part, the girls were calm and relaxed so I felt good about the blood being just an isolated thing much like a kid scrapping their knee. There is almost no squabbling now unlike the first few days when we introduced the chickens from school in to the pen.

Colleen spent a good bit of yesterday in the kitchen and working on her herb research. I got outside and finally got around to putting up the clotheslines for which Colleen has been asking. The project was quite a little endeavor given the trees are round and they are on the side of a hill. It took me a bit to figure everything out, but I figured out to secure everything with some bracing and I got everything level and even. Colleen and I ran the lines in the middle of the afternoon and everything turned out well. I was fortunate that I had enough extra materials lying around the place. I surely wasn’t too keen on the idea of having to go out and get anything from the store. This was a classic case of necessity being the mother of invention.

The sun is desperately trying to burn away this morning’s clouds. It didn’t rain a whole lot last night, but it rained enough to knock down our potato plants. I’m not worried about it though because I figure everything will stand back up once we get some sun. The girls have been in and out of the coop all morning and from the way they are squawking, I figure it will be another good day for eggs. Colleen has already found her way into the kitchen this morning, but come mid afternoon I suspect she will be back on her herb project. I’ll be grilling dinner tonight so there won’t be a lot Colleen will have to do for dinner. It should be a quiet Sunday up here on our little hill. Things are starting to warm up around here and with any luck we should have plenty of sunshine over the next few days. Things are still a mess out there in the real world so Colleen and I are quite content to sit tight, right up here on our little hill, because it sure doesn’t take much looking around to know that all is right on the homestead.

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May 03, 2020: Week 07 Of “Stay At Home” And It Was Kind Of A Tough One

We’ve got some beautiful sunshine and some warm temperatures to start today off, but the weather was rather mercurial over the past week. It never got colder than 40 degrees, but we sure did have a bunch of wind and rain. With everything being soggy and wet most mornings, those temperatures in the 40’s had a little bite to them too. Most of the rain we got came through in the late evenings or overnight except for the mess that woke us up on Thursday morning. We didn’t get hammered nearly as a hard as some parts of the country, but we did get an inch and a half of rain between sunup and noon. Friday things calmed down weather wise, but it was still gray, and yesterday was just plain gorgeous. They say April showers bring May flowers and since April seems to have melted away thanks to this stay-at-home ordeal, warmer days will be most certainly welcome.

Last Sunday I had to make a market run so I did that first thing in the morning. It was a gray morning, but there was the promise of a sunny afternoon. I did most of my writing after I got home from the market. Colleen put the groceries away and then did some baking. We hadn’t had scones in a while so Colleen gave her recipe a little twist. Instead of using jam in the scones, she used some fresh strawberries that I had brought home from the market. The afternoon turned out to be bright and sunny as promised. It was a quiet afternoon though and for dinner I grilled some pork chops. Even though the stay-at-home had been in place for the sixth week, things were pretty routine and relaxed around here.

Monday it was back to in front of the computers for Colleen and me, but not before Colleen headed down to the laundromat to do the week’s laundry. It was her usual 45 minute trip with a quick stop at the dollar store. It was a light load of laundry so Colleen washed the comforter that Buttercup uses for a bed. It was the first real chance Colleen had to use her new clothes lines. She also hung up a bunch of shirts and stuff that usually get hung in the basement to dry. We found out the hard way that shirts tend to shrink when they get dried in a dryer. Most of the rest of the day Colleen and I were glued to our computers doing schoolwork.

Tuesday started off on the cool side and a Colleen even had to turn on a space heater in her sewing room so she could be comfortable while doing her schoolwork. Colleen ran into a couple of tough training videos and her frustration level went through the roof by the middle of the afternoon. I spent all day putting together a 3-inch three ring binder with all of the stuff that I had finished for the first unit of my Math 1 classes. The highlight of the day though was when I realized the fennel I had started in peat pots looked like it was going to actually grow. I’ve had dismal success with starting plants to transplant over the years. The fennel still isn’t very big, but I put a little compost in the pots and with the warmer weather starting to hang around, I am hopeful.

Wednesday turned out to be one of the toughest days we’ve had up here on the hill in a long time. I slept a little late and Colleen took care of the morning chores. She decided to switch up her routine a bit and do some laundry in her wash tub before starting on her schoolwork. Colleen went outside to set herself up and found one of girls was dead. When I came downstairs Colleen was in tears, cradling the dead bird in her arms. I’m pretty sure the thing broke its neck in a weird accident, but I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t want to start cutting up the bird in front of Colleen to find out so I just got rid of it. Colleen finally headed back down to do the laundry which kept her distracted for a while. I tried to run a hose down to her wash tubs only to find our hard water had frozen all of the hoses to the spigots. I had visions of a major plumbing repair job if I broke any of the pipes. Fortunately, about 20 minutes of the fittings sitting there soaked in WD-40 freed everything up enough that I was able to get the hoses loose without snapping any of the copper pipes. If all of that wasn’t enough, I was just getting rolling on my schoolwork when our printer died. I tried everything I of which I could think to troubleshoot the problem and get it working again without any luck. Later in the afternoon I just gave up and went and bought a new printer. Working at home and not having a functioning printer is not a good combination.

Colleen and I woke up to howling winds and torrential rains on Thursday morning. Still feeling the effects of our tough Wednesday, Colleen made a pot of her spicy chicken soup first thing in the morning before she dove into her schoolwork. I don’t know if it was the weather or if I hit a rhythm, but I got a bunch of work done on my second unit for my Math 1 course. Colleen finally got back on a roll and added some more training certificates to her stack too. The morning’s storms cleared out around lunchtime and by late afternoon we had beautiful blue skies with plenty of sunshine, even though everything was still soaking wet. Thursday was payday so that afternoon after we finished our schoolwork, Colleen paid the bills. Money is tight these days, but we’re holding on, and we are fortunate to still both be working from home. After dinner both Colleen and I were exhausted, probably more so mentally than anything else, so after we put the girls to bed for the night we called it a day.

Friday was a gray day, but there wasn’t any rain. Things started to return to normal around here and both Colleen and I knocked out a good bit of schoolwork on the day. Colleen and I decided that after our schoolwork was done we would run to Tractor Supply Company and then Walmart. TSC wasn’t any big deal. We got some scratch for the girls, a few extra packages of vegetable seeds for the gardens, and Colleen found some herb plants for her herb project. Walmart on the other hand was scary! Half the people were walking around without masks and about as many were ignoring the one way direction in the aisles. Colleen and I loaded up two buggies full of stuff and got out of there as quickly as we could. We hadn’t been there in more than a month, but we sure were glad when we got out of the place even though we forgot a few minor things.

Yesterday started out cool, but there was plenty of sunshine. When things started to warm up Colleen hauled out her wash tubs and washboard to do some bed linens. I got started on building a fence to replace the one that had been between our neighbor’s yard and ours. The fence is actually nothing more than a break between Colleen’s gardens and our neighbor’s yard. We like our neighbors. As neither our neighbors nor we have any extra money to buy a new fence, I settled on a natural wattle fence made of branches and saplings. I got about half of a 5-foot section built. This fence looks like it will be an all summer long project though. Of course, never having built a wattle fence before I am on a learning curve, but it was a quick learning curve and after a few missteps at the beginning, the fence is starting to look good if I say so myself.

It’s another beautiful morning today. I let the girls out of their coop for the day right as the sun was starting to peek through the trees. Colleen is working on a few things in the kitchen right now. With any luck we’ll both have some time to get outside later in the day. I’d like to add some more to the fence and then get into the vegetable gardens, and Colleen wants to transplant the herbs she got on Friday. It sure is hard to believe that April is gone and May is here already, and we are getting ready to start week 8 of the stay-at-home. The days have started to melt together much in the way they do in midsummer around here. Colleen and I aren’t sure how the state will handle going back to school this fall, but I’m sure we’ll find out in due time so we’re not worried about it. For the most part, staying close to home has been a good thing for us. We do our schoolwork during the week, but still have time to get other things done around the house. We take every day one day at a time and let tomorrow take care of itself. Things are crazy out there in the real world, but up here on our little hill all is right on the homestead.

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May 10, 2020: Week 08 Of “Stay At Home” And Things Finally Calmed Down

Another week of stay-at-home has passed and things have settled down up here on the hill. It’s a wee bit chilly this morning, but we have plenty of sunshine and the promise of warmer temperatures later today. Last Sunday was just a downright beautiful day and so was Monday, but the rest of the front part of the week brought us gray skies and some spotty rain. Thursday and Friday started bright and sunny, but the clouds moved in again on Friday afternoon and we got a little more rain Friday night. Behind the rain was a cold front, and while yesterday and today brought us plenty of sunshine, the mornings started off in the 35 to 40 degree range which is most unusual for May here in the heart of the Carolinas. It was cold enough for Colleen to bring her plants in from the porch on Friday afternoon, but things should start to warm up later today fortunately.

Last Sunday was pretty laid back around here. I did my usual writing in the morning and Colleen decided to bake some bread in the morning. I just love the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven. I managed to find some time in the afternoon to work on the fence I’m building and then check in on our gardens. Colleen made macaroni salad and I grilled some chicken for dinner. Apart from the fact that Colleen and I didn’t have any schoolwork to do on Sunday, the day felt pretty much like any other day. It seems that our extended stay-at-home now has the days all melting together. I wouldn’t be surprised if by the time summer shows up, we completely lose track of what day it is.

Monday was another beautiful day and like most Mondays, Colleen headed down to the laundromat first thing in the morning. The day started on a high note when Colleen came home brandishing TP and Clorox wipes she got at the dollar store while she was waiting for the washing machines. I had already started my schoolwork by the time Colleen got home, and it wasn’t long after she got the first load of clothes into the dryer that she had gotten in front of the computer doing her schoolwork. Right before dinner I managed to get out into our vegetable gardens and get a good bit of weeding done. I was pleasantly surprised to find my second planting of chard had sprouted and there were small peas pods starting to adorn our pea plants.

Tuesday started out gray, but we did get a bit of sunshine later in the afternoon. Colleen started her day by baking some cookies because she ran into a particularly problematic training video on Monday afternoon. Having felt like she accomplished something first thing in the morning, she settled herself in front of her computer and got through the rough training video and a couple more during the day. The afternoon sun didn’t last long as line of storms was headed our way. I did manage to get outside and check on the gardens before dinner, and everything looked much better after my weeding on Monday. In a sure sign that spring is here, Colleen had a rose blooming on her rose bush in one of the front gardens too. Spring is prime egg laying season too, and the girls are doing a yeoman’s job of keeping us in fresh eggs. Right now we’re keeping the kids in eggs too, but we do have an eye on water glassing some eggs to preserve them for the winter months.

The weather was dicey all day Wednesday. We saw the sun for a few minutes in the afternoon, but on the whole it was a gray day. It was a good day to be working on the computers though, and Colleen ended with a few more certificates while I kept hammering at my lesson plans and class notes. There was nothing particular out of the ordinary that happened on Wednesday other than Steven showing up after work to pick up the TP that Colleen had bought for him and Anna Maria, and to get another carton of fresh eggs. Colleen did find some time to devote to her herb project. The sliding glass door is pretty well covered with yellow sticky notes now and I suspect it won’t be too long before Colleen gets outside and starts making things happen in the garden and her planters and pots.

Thursday started out sunny and stayed that way most of the day. Colleen and I planted ourselves in front of the computers all day. Colleen ran into another one of those tough videos again and was muttering under her breath by late afternoon. I had a much easier go of the day and even planted a row of turnips in our garden in the morning before I landed in front of my computer. Alex got home early Thursday afternoon and since the sun was out and everything was dry, he pulled out the lawn mower and cut the grass in the backyard which was starting to look a bit shaggy. We had a hen sitting in one of the nesting boxes when Colleen took the girls their afternoon treats so we waited until we put the girls up for the night before we collected the eggs. Since the egg basket on Colleen’s baker’s rack was getting full again, we decided it was time to get serious about water glassing eggs so I tracked down some hydrated lime online and ordered it.

Friday started out sunny, but by noon the clouds had moved in overhead and we were dealing with the threat of rain again. Colleen had started on her schoolwork earlier than usual and got through a problematic video session. The rest of the day was easier for her and she plowed through a couple more videos adding those certificates to her pile. By the middle of the afternoon both Colleen and I had finished our schoolwork for the day. I went down back with Colleen to give the girls their afternoon treat and was quite amused when I saw all the chickens come running to the gate as Colleen tried to get into the pen. The rest of the evening was quiet and low key and I even went to bed right after sunset.

A weather front had pushed through the area on Friday night so yesterday morning things were a little wet and considerably cooler. Colleen opted to stay in the kitchen for most of the day, but with a bright sunny morning I headed outside. I spent the morning finishing the first section of my fence and I started building the second section. After lunch I headed down to the log splitter and started splitting the firewood that Alex and I hadn’t gotten to do last weekend. Alex got home from work a little early again and came down back to help me. Between the two of us we finished splitting everything that was there. Before I can start moving the wood in the front yard down to the splitter, I’ll need to stack up all of split firewood so we have some room.

We have a cool and sunny morning today. I have some tentative plans for the day, but whether or not I get to them will depend on who calls or stops by for a visit because it is Mother’s Day. I expect at least Steven and Anna Maria to stop by the house, but who knows who else might show up. Fortunately, with working at home during the week there isn’t much Colleen or I need to get ready for school. What doesn’t get done today, will still be there tomorrow. That’s just how things go up here on our little hill. Colleen and I take each day one at a time. We don’t worry about tomorrow because we know everything will get done in due time, and exactly when it needs to be done. It’s the lifestyle we have chosen and it serves us well during normal times and it has served us especially well during this period of stay-at-home. We’re in no rush to go anywhere, we take care of things up here on our little hill, and we can look around and know that all is right on the homestead.

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May 17, 2020: Week 09 Of “Stay At Home”, Time To Start Counting In Months

Week 9 is done and week 10 is up next. Before long I’ll have to start counting in months. The week started off cool, but with plenty of sunshine. Things started warming up come the middle of the week, but we did have some cloud cover move into the area. Surprisingly we didn’t get more than an occasional sprinkle of rain. By Friday the sunshine was back, yesterday the temperatures got close to 90 degrees, and it looks like we’re going to have another beautiful day today. We’re supposed to have some rain show up tonight, but right now there is plenty of sunshine. I don’t think it will be quite as warm as yesterday, but by no means will it be a cool day. My hopes aren’t too high for a nice week upcoming weather wise though, but Colleen and I will work our way through it one day at a time.

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day and things pretty much slowed down as I expected they would as the kids stopped by to visit or called to talk to Colleen. James and Donna live a good hour and a half away, but were in town so they surprised Colleen with a visit in the morning. They’ve been busy trying to repair, remodel, and generally get their homestead going so we hadn’t seen them since last Christmas. Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily stopped by for a visit too. After the kids all left, Colleen had a bee in her bonnet and decided she wanted to make a turkey and bacon stew with dumplings for dinner. Dinner turned out great and for one of the few times I can remember in this house, there were not any leftovers. The recipe also turned out to be the 50th on Colleen’s list here on our website.

Monday Colleen and I found our way back to our computers and schoolwork. Colleen made her usual quick run to the laundromat before she got started. While Colleen stuck to her training videos for school, I shifted gears getting away from my usual lesson planning and I spent the morning doing some professional development. Since we had wiped out Sunday night’s dinner leaving zero in the way of leftovers, Colleen was back in the kitchen late Monday afternoon, but not until she took a little trip into our gardens to get some fresh celery. She replaced spinach greens in the meal with celery greens and it brought out a whole new explosion of flavor.

The sun was shining Tuesday morning, but by Tuesday evening clouds started to move into the area and those clouds stuck around right through Thursday. The weather didn’t make much difference though because Colleen and I spent our time in front of the computers doing schoolwork. To keep my sanity I still managed to find time to take a break here and there, and of course, that means I found my way out to the back porch. There seemed to be a couple of very active little Carolina Wrens that were just flying up and down between my back porch and our second floor porch. It looks like we are going to have a little family before too long. My potted fig bush died over the winter and in between all of the dead sticks, the wrens were building themselves a nest. Colleen and I decided to just leave the pot up on the porch until the baby wrens have hatched and fledged.

Friday promised to be a beautiful day and the start to a beautiful weekend. Colleen and I started our schoolwork early so we could finish up a little early and take advantage of the afternoon. Colleen got on a real roll and finished up her first set of training videos. I think there were like 50 in that group so Colleen has quite the stack of certificates. My day was the usual office hours and lesson plans and I had a meeting thrown into the mix. By the middle of the afternoon Colleen and I were done with our schoolwork for the day and we needed no encouragement to get outside for the rest of the afternoon. Colleen finally got around to planting some of the herbs she had gotten as part of her herb project and planting the begonias in her garden up by the driveway. I managed to harvest another group of saplings and weave them into the fence. I figure I have a few more forays into the woods for saplings before the second section is finished.

Yesterday felt like a summer’s day and Colleen and I were outside pretty much all morning. Colleen decided it was time to clean up and rake the front yard again. I added some more saplings to the fence. I spent the rest of my morning reclaiming dirt from our raised bed gardens in the backyard. Reclaiming the dirt was easier said than done because while running the dirt through a screen was no problem, I had forgotten because the beds were deeper than normal I had filled the bottom of the gardens with rocks and stones to help with drainage. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll do with all of the rocks now, I suppose, if nothing else, we can always build up around the fence to the chicken pen with all of the extra rocks now.

It wasn’t too long after lunchtime when the heat of the day had Colleen and me looking for the cover of shade. I did manage to get enough dirt reclaimed and mix in some of our compost to fill two big flower pots and plant some cucumber seeds. I put the pots in the corners of our fenced in gardens with the hopes that the cucumbers will use the fences on which to climb. Later in the afternoon I got all of the firewood off of the back porch because I’m pretty sure we won’t need it until later this fall. Colleen and I headed out to the gardens right before dinner to harvest our first picking of peas for the year too. The plants are covered with flowers and some peas. We wanted to get the peas we could while they were still young and tender. It may take us a couple of days, but we’ll have more than enough for a meal before too long. Having fresh vegetables in the garden is certainly a plus and keeps us from having to go to the market.

I sure don’t know what today has in store for us. I’m not even worrying about what a new week will bring us. Colleen is already outside working in the front yard this morning. I’m trying to decide what I want to accomplish in a little while. Alex is still in bed and has the day off. He’s been working a lot of extra hours and weekends now that the daylight lasts longer and the weather is warmer. Colleen and I will just keep going one day at a time. We’ve got a few more weeks of school and then summer break. We’re waiting to hear about school starting up in the fall again. I know some states are starting to relax their stay-at-home orders, but I’m not so sure we’re quite in the downhill side of this mess. It really doesn’t matter for Colleen and me though. We pretty much stay close to home even in the best of times. There’s lots that needs doing up here in our little hill, we have everything we need and most everything we want. We greet each new day with a smile and embrace it because we know that we can make everyday special. At the end of each day we are thankful for all we have accomplished and we can rest our head peacefully because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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May 24, 2020: Week 10 Of “Stay At Home”, But It Seems Like Any Other Week

That’s a wrap on week 10 of stay at home. The word for the last week was rain and a lot of it. We sure didn’t see a whole lot of sunshine until Friday afternoon. The week up until Friday had been nothing but gray and wet days. We got more than 5 inches of rain during the week and while it was just fine for the gardens, it definitely wore on Colleen and me. Surprisingly, Alex went into work every single day. Some days the chickens did better than other days, but on the whole they were usually pretty wet by the time we locked up the coop every night. Fortunately, it was never a cold rain since the temperatures just barely got below 60 degrees. Even with the sun on Friday afternoon, by the time we put the girls up for the night it was raining again. That rain moved through the area pretty quickly and yesterday morning we woke up to 60 degree temperatures and a bright sunny sky. It’s not quite as sunny this morning, but there isn’t any rain in the forecast just clouds. It is the long Memorial Day weekend for us and while the beaches have started opening up with the relaxation of the stay-at-home orders, Colleen and I will be spending our time very close to home.

Last Sunday was pretty typical for around here. I spent the morning writing while Colleen headed out to the front yard to rake and clean up. Once she finished what she wanted to do out front, she got her wash tubs and washboard out and did some laundry. She was still doing the laundry when I finished writing so I headed down into the woods to get another armful of saplings for the fence I’m building. We didn’t do much else on the day instead deciding to spend a little time relaxing during the middle of the afternoon. We did have a dandy chicken fried steak meal for Sunday dinner. What Colleen can do with the cuts of meat at which some people turn up their noses is nothing short of incredible. Chicken fried steak is a real family favorite around here.

The rain showed up first thing Monday morning. It wasn’t a hard rain, but it rained on and off all day long. Alex left for work at his usual time and Colleen wasn’t too far behind headed to the laundromat. I was on the computer by the time Colleen got back home, but I really was struggling with a lack of motivation and a mental block. The wet clothes went into the dryer and then Colleen was on the computer too. Much to Colleen’s chagrin, the new set of videos she needs to watch all run about two hours long each. Just for good measure Colleen had online meeting right before lunch too. My darling wife fought through a couple of videos on the day and got her certificates. Of course, we would check on the girls through day just to walk around. They were wet naturally, but the rain didn’t seem to bother them as they scratched around in the mud.

The rest of our week was a real struggle, motivationally speaking. The gray skies and rain just didn’t want to stop and had us feeling like we were trapped. The days passed with the usual time on the computers and online meetings. Oh, we managed to get a few things done inside too, but it wasn’t much. It seems that even Buttercup was running low on motivation. Of course, she was never out of sight of Colleen even when Colleen was in the kitchen cooking or baking, Buttercup was there. Colleen doesn’t have the heart to shoo Buttercup out of the kitchen so Colleen has become quite adept at working around our 130 pound throw rug. By Friday morning both Colleen and I were getting a little stir crazy. We started our day early and took a break a little after midday to get our Costco run out of the way, but once we got back home it was back to the computers for us. Fortunately, we won’t be back in front of the computers until Tuesday now.

Friday’s Costco run was big, but not huge. It was very productive too. We were amazed that they actually had TP while we were there so of course we got a package. Mostly, we were there to get meat. We ended up with about 15 pounds of hamburger meat, 20 pounds of chicken breasts, a large pork loin, and some red snapper. We got some fresh veggies too. Since our freezers are pretty well packed we got the meat with the intention of canning it. Just to make sure we had enough jars we stopped at the dollar store on the way home and picked up a couple of extra cases of mason jars too. Given the events of the last couple of months and fully expecting another wave and more stay-at-home to rear its head this coming fall and winter, it’s starting to look like it will be a busy summer of canning for us.

Yesterday morning started off slow and easy. After breakfast I filleted the snapper and cut the pork loin down into pork chops. Colleen found room for that stuff in our freezers. Once I had finished cutting, I was out on the back porch setting up the table and stove to start our canning when I heard a loud crack overhead and watched a rather large dead branch come crashing down into our pool. Unfortunately, not only did the branch get the pool frame, but it tore the liner too. It looks like we’ll be doing a little pool shopping in the next week or two. With no AC, the pool is a necessity around here in the summer to help us stay cool in the hot afternoons, and those hot summer days aren’t too far off right now.

For the most part, the whole of yesterday went pretty well though. Colleen and I got on with our pressure canning right around lunch time. Colleen cooked the ground meat and packed the jars and then turned them over to me so I could can them outside. Whenever we can, I sit and watch the canner so the pressure doesn’t swing or get too high. With the first batch of jars in the canner Colleen got the next batch of jars filled and ready. We have canned burger raw before and it comes out just fine, but Colleen likes it better if the burger is cooked first. Each batch of jars has to can for 90 minutes so I was outside with the canner all afternoon. There was only enough hamburger to fill two jars in the last batch of jars, so Colleen filled out the last batch of jars with chicken so there were seven jars in the canner. Colleen raw packs the chicken so it’s a little easier than burger. It looks like we have two or three canner runs today to finish off canning the last of 20 pounds of chicken we got.

It’s a lovely morning and just about time to get rolling. The morning chores are done and the girls are scratching around in their still muddy pen. I’ll be setting up my canning station out on the porch again today and Colleen will be packing jars with chicken. I think Colleen will be doing some dry canning too later today. Since we have tomorrow off, nothing will be rushed today. Depending on when we finish I may get into the gardens later too. If not, the gardens will still be there tomorrow. Overall, the stay-at-home hasn’t affected us too much. We’re not ones for going out and we really do enjoy staying busy up here in our little hill. Colleen and I figured out awhile ago they can still run the rat race without us, so we checked out. Our life is simple, we are happier and healthier than we were, and we really do enjoy all of the things we do to keep our little homestead rolling. There is nothing better than getting up in the morning, taking a good deep breath of fresh morning air, looking around, and knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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May 31, 2020: Week 11 Of “Stay At Home” And May Is Done

The last week of May was a cloudy one, but I suppose messed up weather is the least of things to worry about right now. The clouds seemed to win the battle for the morning skies every day except yesterday and today. We got more rain in the middle of the week again and even this morning everything is soggy. We still have ground water running off of the hill. The chicken pen, in particular, is still slick, muddy, and sloppy, but at least it started drying out yesterday. I’m hopeful that at least by this afternoon it will be dry enough so I can change the bedding in the coop if nothing else. On the bright side of things, there isn’t any rain in the forecast for at least the next several days. We still have a few clouds this morning, but it looks like the sun may win the battle today. There’s a nice breeze today so that should help dry things out too. With today being the last day of May, summer is right around the corner and things should start warming up soon and really start drying out. I suppose once summer gets here we’ll be wishing for an occasional day of rain.

Last Sunday Colleen and I picked up on our canning where we left off on Saturday. The last of the chicken got canned and Colleen dry canned some rye flour and powdered milk. Dry canning is a whole lot easier than regular canning. In fact, while I was watching the pressure cooker with the chicken it, Colleen did the lion’s share of the dry canning. Oddly enough, with all of the canning Colleen and I have done over the years, this was our first experience with dry canning. The whole day of canning went very well and we will certainly be doing more dry canning. It’s what Colleen is planning on doing today. The canning last Sunday took us most all of the day, but I did manage to find time to grill some pork chops for dinner.

Monday was Memorial Day and after canning all day Saturday and Sunday, it became quite apparent to Colleen and me that we were in desperate need of more shelf space in the basement. Our larder is in the basement in lieu of a root cellar. With the decision made to get more shelf space, it wasn’t long before we headed down to Lowe’s to buy a couple of more shelving units for the basement. Of course, no trip to Lowe’s would be complete without a trip to the garden center and coming home with more plants. Colleen found a number of herbs to expand her herb project. They are all still out on the back porch waiting for the next gardening day. Once we got home, Colleen and I headed into the basement to clean, organize, and put the shelving units up. Monday was supposed to be a day off for us, but like usual we got wrapped up in a project and ended up working all day.

For the rest of the week the weather was sketchy, and Colleen and I were in front of the computers. Colleen racked up a bunch more certificates, but if she needed a break she would head downstairs to move stuff to the new shelves and organize everything. Of course, in the process she figured out which of our stores was running low. By the end of the week she had one heck of a long market list. I sat through a number of meetings and managed to get a few more days of lesson plans and class notes finished along with helping a bunch of kids with some extra work to improve their grades for the year. School is winding down now and all my grades need to be finalized next week. Even with the end of the school year fast approaching, I will keep working on lesson plans and class notes right through the summer. It’s a teacher thing.

Friday afternoon we had a short break in the clouds and we actually saw the sunshine. I managed to get out and get a good look at our gardens. The rain did wonders for our chard, beets, and radishes. The potatoes are only a couple of weeks away from harvesting now. The potato plants are starting to die and turn yellow and then we will leave the potatoes in the ground for a few more weeks after that so they get a thicker skin. The pea plants are heavy with pods. The celery has bolted and the plants are covered with flowers. I was thinking I was going to pull all of the celery up, but then I remembered seeing celery seed in the spice rack at the market. I did a little research and sure enough celery seed is a good spice for adding flavor to things like potato salad and in pickling. It looks like after harvesting celery all spring we’ll get a harvest of celery seed as well.

After a week of organizing our shelves in the basement and taking stock of our stores, Colleen had one long market list come Saturday morning. Knowing we didn’t want to be out in the stores for any great length of time, we headed out first thing on Saturday morning to get our shopping done. I’m glad there weren’t a whole lot of people in the store because it seems like too many folks are getting lax when it comes to staying healthy and safe. Colleen and I got home right around lunchtime, unloaded our haul, grabbed a quick bit of lunch, and then started unpacking the bags, organizing everything, and restocking our larder. I usually don’t help put away the groceries, but I did yesterday, and it took most all afternoon to finish. The larder is set for the summer now with plenty of extra room for our summer canning.

Colleen will be dry canning again today. Fortunately, I don’t have to get too involved. I’ll see what I can do outside although everything is still pretty wet and mucky. My “To-Do” list has the usual stuff at the top of it, like cleaning the chicken coop and moving firewood. The temperatures are starting to warm up and the sun is still winning its battle with this morning’s clouds. Some deer made their way through the yard earlier today, and it was nice to see they are getting their tawny summer color back. While everything in the world seems upside down these days, Colleen and I keep putting one foot in front of the other knowing, in time, everything will right itself. We don’t waste effort or energy on things we cannot control. There are enough people doing that already. Living is tough enough without any of that extra baggage. Colleen and I sure don’t know what tomorrow will bring so we let it take care of itself. We are quite steadfast in believing that, and at the end of each day we can happily look around our little half-acre up here on our hill and know that all is right on the homestead.

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June 07, 2020: Week 12 Of “Stay At Home” And Summer Is Coming

We closed out May last Sunday and Monday brought us a new day, a new week, and a new month. The weather couldn’t have been any better to start off the month either. We didn’t see a drop of rain until Friday and even then is wasn’t heavy, but it was enough to water the gardens well. By week’s end, we did get our first real good taste of summer when the temperatures climbed up to and through the 90 degree mark. Unfortunately, along with the heat came the humidity making everything feel sticky and pushing the heat index up past 95 degrees. Today promises to be another bright and sunny day with temperatures a few degrees cooler than yesterday. Colleen and I are just about ready for the summer heat though. We replaced a few of our floor fans this year. We burnt up a few towards the end of last summer so they needed replacing and we were pleasantly surprised to find some of the newer fans are much more efficient at moving air. The only thing we are really missing at this point is a swimming pool. It seems like pools are quite the hot commodity this spring, but with any luck our new pool will be delivered in the next week or two.

Last Sunday was a pretty mellow day around here. I did my usual Sunday morning writing and Colleen spent the better part of her day dry canning rice and pasta. Yea, we know the FDA doesn’t recommend dry canning, but we’re not trying to store stuff for years. We just like to buy things in bulk and want to keep the bugs out of the food stores until we get around to using them. Usually, the stuff doesn’t sit on our shelves unused for more than six months or so. I’ll say one thing though, having a well stocked larder has made the last three months of stay-at-home very easy on us, and with the summer coming we’re looking to replenish our stores should another stay at home order come down the pipes this coming fall or winter. Later in the afternoon I was able to get into the chicken coop, pull all of the old bedding out, and replace it with fresh pine shavings. I grilled dinner in the evening too so Colleen could have a break from the kitchen.

Monday morning rolled around, Alex headed off to work, and Colleen wasn’t too far behind him headed out the front door to the laundromat. Colleen was back at home in no time and most of the laundry went out on the clotheslines so Colleen wouldn’t have to run up and down stairs to the dryer in the basement all day. The rest of our day was spent in front of the computers doing schoolwork. I did get a chance to get out to the gardens later in the afternoon. The gardens are looking good. I got a pound and a half of fresh peas and we should be able to start picking Swiss chard soon. The potatoes are looking rough, but it is getting toward the end of their growing season anyway and once school is out in mid-June, we’ll dig up the potatoes and see how we did.

Tuesday through Friday was all computer and schoolwork. Colleen had herself one dandy week though because she ran into a bunch of one to two hour videos. She passed everything she watched, but she also went through a heck a bunch of coffee and assorted snacks to keep her awake during the videos. I managed to finish off another unit of lesson plans and class notes which will take me through one-third of the upcoming school year. Colleen did find time in the evenings to work on her cookbooks. She has eight loose leaf 3-ring binders with the recipes she uses regularly and of course, she also has her bookcase full of published cookbooks on which she draws when she is the hunt for something new to try in the kitchen.

Colleen and I got an early start of things on Friday and after our morning chores of taking care of the animals and watering the gardens, we both settled down in front of the computers. We were able to knock off a little early and enjoy the late afternoon which was sunny and warm. After dinner we all got to relax some and I even headed down to the chicken pen to watch the girls. “Hug-Me” thought it was time to head in to roost so she stood at the gate waiting for me to come and get her. Since the other girls were all still scratching around the pen, I took “Hug-Me” out of the pen and let her sit on my lap for a while. Colleen found it all quite amusing when she finally came down back and found me there holding and petting a chicken. The girls finally did head to roost, I carried “Hug-Me” to the coop door, and then Colleen and I closed everything up for the night.

We started with the sun and the warm morning made it feel like we were already starting our summer break. Colleen headed out to the front and started weeding her moss on the first tier of our terraced yard. I spent my time gardening. I transplanted my fennel and a couple of volunteer tomato plants that had been growing with the beets and chard. They’re in pots on the back porch now. I finally got around to planting the green beans in our raised bed gardens too. I finished up working in the gardens by harvesting another meal’s worth of snap peas. Colleen got creative and made a special chicken salad or I should say a special salad for the chickens. Yesterday it was cooked rice, oats, and fresh greens. Yes, our girls are spoiled. One of the ladies was in the nesting box when Colleen brought them their afternoon treat so we didn’t collect the eggs until yesterday evening when we locked up the coop for the night.

Colleen and I are looking forward to our summer break which starts for her next weekend and on a week from Tuesday for me. We’re still not sure what the start of next school year will look like for us, so we’ll just have to wait and see what comes down the road. We don’t have much to say about the decisions the state makes anyway. Rest assured Colleen and I will be staying close to home all summer while we tackle our “To-Do” list. Our list is loaded again this summer too. There is the usual yard cleanup to be done and firewood racks to be loaded up for the winter. I still have a good bit more firewood that needs to be split as well. We’re looking at doing more canning than usual this summer and cleaning the basement. Colleen and I will take things one day at a time knowing that whatever we don’t get to do on one day, will still be there waiting on the next day. With any luck the crazy world will put itself to rights sometime soon, but until then we’ll get up every day, greet the morning like an old friend, go about our business, and be very thankful at the day’s end that all is right on the homestead.

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June 14, 2020: Week 13 Of “Stay At Home”, Three Months And Still Counting

Last week was week 13 of the stay-at-home order. It was another week for wonky weather. Last Sunday was nice enough even if it was a tad on the warm side. Buttercup thought it was downright hot and she camped out in front of a fan. Monday and Tuesday were dry, but mostly cloudy. We had a little bit of rain on Wednesday, but on Thursday the skies opened up. Thursday afternoon a thunderhead built itself right over our heads and for the next several hours it just kept building and dumping water on our heads. We ended up with somewhere around 3-inches of rain, there was a lot of lowland flooding, roads got washed out, and we even lost power for an hour and a half. The sun came back out on Friday and yesterday, but things really only started looking like they were drying out this morning. It’s supposed to be an absolutely beautiful day today, but there is more rain in the forecast for the week in front of us. I guess I should have expected the rain since it will be the first week of summer break for Colleen and me.

Last Sunday was pretty slow up here on the hill. I spent most of the day writing and working on our website. Colleen spent her morning working with her herb garden. Some of her herbs are doing better than others, but I figure it will be a matter of time before she gets everything worked out anyway. She is trying to grow dill, cilantro, sage, and thyme from seed so our porch rail has lots of little peat pots lined up on the top of it now. She did trim back her oregano plant and ended up filling up our dehydrator to dry the oregano. I think we planted the oregano three years ago and it has over wintered twice now and is a good looking bush. While Colleen was checking on some of her herbs on the second floor porch, she realized a couple of wrens had built a nest around the sticks of my dead fig bush and that there were three newly hatched chicks in the nest. The day got warm, the heat chased Colleen inside, and not wanting to just sit around she did a little baking before she started dinner.

Monday was the start of our last full week of working at home for school. Colleen got out of the front door headed to the laundromat not too long after Alex left for work, she was home in just under an hour, got the clothes hung out on the line, and then spent the rest of the day in front of her computer. I did some schoolwork on the computer during the morning, but I needed to go to school around lunchtime to clean out my classroom for the summer and help monitor kids who were coming into school to clean out their lockers. I’ll admit it was nice seeing all the familiar faces. I had to laugh when I walked into my room and I still had the lesson plan and work on the front board from March 13th. Not much else happened on Monday, but we did get our first real taste of the heat and humidity for the upcoming summer months.

Tuesday through Friday Colleen and I spent the days working in front of the computer screens. Colleen was trying to finish up the last of her online training and I had some online training I needed to get done to get ready for the possibility that a good bit of our teaching next fall might be done online. Late Thursday afternoon and into Thursday evening we got hit with a dandy thunderstorm. The storm dropped three inches of rain on us in a couple of hours, flooded or washed out a number of local roads, and took the power out for a while. The sun did come back out on Friday morning, but everything was soaked. Colleen and I both finished up our training by lunchtime and after lunch I drove Colleen out to her school so she could turn in her room key for the summer. With the room key safely back in the hands of the school administration, Colleen was done for the school year and officially on her summer break. I still have to work tomorrow, but that will be my last day before I start my summer break.

Needless to say by the time Friday evening rolled around, Colleen and I were done in after a week of sitting in front of our computer screens. For the first time since March we decided pizza was in order for dinner. The highlight of our evening was realizing that Colleen’s peach colored day lilies had started blooming in her lily garden. The rest of our gardens were doing well after all of the rain we had, and we’ve even started harvesting the Swiss chard. Alex spent Friday evening on the phone trying to work a deal for a Jeep he found on Craigslist. I’m not sure how much progress he’s made, but he does seem optimistic. Alex has been without his own vehicle since the middle of March when his Explorer died. Fortunately, given the current circumstances in the world, his boss has been letting Alex use a company vehicle until he can find his own.

I ended up sleeping a couple of hours later than usual yesterday morning. It felt like I wasted the whole morning. To add insult to injury, it was a beautiful morning. Right before lunchtime Colleen and I decided we needed to run to Walmart to get the things we had forgotten to put on our list last weekend. We really didn’t want to go, but we needed to go. We did stop by the garden center and Colleen found about a half-dozen plants for a buck each on the clearance rack. She decided they would look good in front of our mail box. Alex was home when we got home so I had some help getting everything into the house. Alex only had to work a half day yesterday and when he got home while Colleen and I were gone, Alex had cut the front and backyard. The rest of yesterday was pretty quiet. Colleen put the groceries away and I put together a couple of tower fans we bought. Oddly enough the girls didn’t give us any eggs yesterday. If I had my guess I’d say our girls are starting to molt. They are about the right age now.

It’s a beautiful morning today and it looks like the afternoon temperatures won’t be getting much above 80 degrees if even that high. There isn’t a whole lot Colleen and I really need to do especially with it being the end of the school year. I’m sure after a few days of taking it easy we’ii get rolling on all of our summer projects. Even then we’ll still take things one day at a time. One thing for sure though is that we will be spending our summer break close to home. We’re still not too confident about being around crowds of folks and, honestly, we are expecting a second wave of the virus sooner rather than later. We’re used to staying close to home anyway so it isn’t a big deal. There’s plenty to keep us busy and it really is a good feeling to look around every day and know that all is right on the homestead.

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June 21, 2020: Week 14 Of “Stay At Home” And It Was A Wet Week

Last week was the start of summer break for Colleen and me. We’ll be starting week 15 of our stay-at-home and even though the state is opening things up, it looks like the numbers are headed in the wrong direction again. Last Sunday’s weather was just fine, but someone forgot to remind Mother Nature that it was the last week of spring and we were on break. Plenty of rain and cooler temperatures showed up on Monday and stuck around through Wednesday. The clouds hung around until Saturday afternoon and while we have plenty of sunshine this morning to dry things out, everything is still pretty wet. There is the outside chance we’ll see a thunderstorm pop up later this afternoon, but even without the extra rain, the air is heavy with humidity as the sun is drying out the ground. I probably should mention that in addition to today being the first full day of summer it is also Father’s Day, but Colleen and I don’t have anything special planned.

Last Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. Colleen and I knew there was some rainy weather moving into the area for Monday so we decided to harvest our potato garden. The garden is only 5’ x 5’ so we didn’t expect it to take us very long to harvest, and since it was our first real attempt at growing potatoes we really weren’t sure what to expect in the way of a harvest. By the time we got done going through all of the dirt, we had filled half of a large cooler with Yukon Gold potatoes that added up to 25 pounds. Needless to say, we’ll be planting potatoes again next spring. The rest of our Sunday was pretty relaxed. I grilled dinner and even braised some fresh veggies on the grill for the first time this season.

Monday was my last official day of the school year although I will most likely be doing some schoolwork over the summer. It rained most all day which was good for the gardens and our plants out on the back porch. Monday, rain or not, was Colleen’s first day of summer break, but just like every other Monday she was out the door first thing in the morning headed to the laundromat. It rained all day so the laundry had to be dried in the dryer in the basement, but in between her running up and down the stairs she did manage to start working on our potatoes and she made big batch of her potato salad. Interestingly enough Monday found us without any leftovers in the refrigerator for lunch do we just scavenged what we could, but Colleen decided to make a tuna casserole for us to eat for the nest few days until we could replenish our daily leftovers. Unfortunately, Alex, Colleen, and I wiped out the pepper steak Colleen made for dinner so there weren’t any leftovers for that meal.

Tuesday morning showed up and disaster struck! Our drip coffee maker died. Not to worry though, because of all of the power outages we’ve experienced over the years, we keep a camp coffee pot close at hand. We always have a camp stove or rocket stove at the ready too, but it was just the coffee pot not the electricity that went out this time, and the camp coffee pot works just fine on the stove too. The rain was still falling so getting outside wasn’t an option. I did make run down to Lowe’s to get some boards to brace up the new shelving units we got over the previous weekend. The particleboard shelves were starting to bow a bit under the weight of everything Colleen had stacked on the shelves.

Wednesday was wet and cloudy, but the rain had pretty much stopped by lunchtime. Colleen did a little baking first thing in the morning and then the two of us headed into the basement to add some braces to our new shelves. The new shelves proper are particleboard which does like moisture or high humidity and they were already starting to really bow under the weight of the canned goods in our larder and all the humidity in the air from all of the rain. It was mid afternoon when we finished, Colleen was satisfied that the shelves were sound, and after that it was just a pretty typical day around here. We still have the second shelving unit to brace up, but it doesn’t seem to be as bad as the first shelving unit.

Everything was still soaked on Thursday, but the rain had stopped. Colleen decided to head into the basement on her cleaning binge, and I headed outside to move firewood. I didn’t have a whole lot to move, just the seasoned stuff that we hadn’t used last winter. I pulled it from the piles stacked at the end of the winter ready area and moved it up to the first racks so it would be the first wood we pull come this fall and winter. Colleen’s basement cleaning adventure was in full swing by mid afternoon and the trash can been that had been emptied on Tuesday was full again, so Colleen has three piles starting to build up in the basement now, stuff to be thrown away, stuff to keep, and stuff for the flea market. The flea market may not happen until next summer with the current state of the pandemic, but the stuff is ready. By Thursday evening we had more than just paths through which to walk in the basement.

I hadn’t slept well Thursday night so I wasn’t moving very quickly on Friday morning. Colleen was up well before I was, and she took care of the morning chores. By the time I got out to the back porch with my coffee, Colleen was doing a little porch gardening. Of course, Buttercup had to be underfoot making it a little cramped out on the back porch. Colleen re-potted a couple of her herbs and moved a few plants up to the second floor porch. Most of her herbs are doing alright, but the thyme, rosemary, lavender, and cilantro are giving her a bit of trouble. I figure she’ll be back on her computer doing more research to figure out what is going wrong. I finally got moving after lunch. Alex got home early and helped my move the old pallets, on which I had stacked firewood, out of the winter ready area. I finished cleaning up everything around there and positioned the rest of the metal racks.

Yesterday started off cloudy, but it didn’t take long for the sun to burn through the clouds. Colleen had the vacuum cleaner going in short order and that was my cue to get moving. I headed down back to the seasoned firewood pile and started hauling the wood up the hill to the winter ready racks. It took me until just after lunch to get a second half-cord rack full. It wasn’t terribly hot, but with the high humidity I was soaked to the skin with sweat by the time I finished. Colleen had finished the housework by lunch and after lunch she headed into the basement, again. I headed out to our gardens to plant more green beans and some squash. By the time the sun set and we headed down back to lock the girls into their coop for the night, we were both pretty tired.

As today is Father’s Day, Colleen let me sleep a little late while she took care of the usual morning chores. I came downstairs to find a pot of fresh coffee and Colleen finishing her breakfast. I headed outside to the back porch to a beautiful morning. I expect I’ll be hearing from the kids throughout the day which will be a treat for me. It doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing much in the way of rain this week so with any luck I can tackle any number of outside jobs. Of course, we still do have a good bit of firewood to move into the winter ready racks. Colleen and I will stay close to home this summer, even closer than usual. We really don’t mind though. We have plenty of everything we need and if we don’t have it, we don’t need it. Well, we have everything with the exception of a pool for those really hot days, but the pool will be delivered here. Colleen and I will keep taking one day at a time. It seems we are very well suited to this semi-solitary lifestyle. In fact, other than limiting our trips off of the hill, very little has changed for us. We get up every morning, put our feet on the floor, and point ourselves forward. We take one step at a time and at the end of the day we are very thankful to know that all is right on the homestead.

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June 28, 2020: Week 15 Of “Stay At Home”, But The Sun Made It Better

Well, that’s a wrap on the 15th week of stay at home and the week in front of us will make it four months. I will admit that last week was a beautiful week for us to stay close to home and get some work done. Our gardens are doing great too. We got a little bit of rain one night in the middle of the week, but we have had a run of sunny days with morning temperatures starting below 70 degrees. The daytime highs at worst only got into the low 90’s so Colleen and I were able to get outside in the mornings and get a good bit of work done. Unfortunately, we still haven’t gotten our pool delivered so Colleen and I couldn’t enjoy a dip in the water to cool off in the afternoons. We’re not real sure when our new pool will arrive, but it was supposed to be here in the middle of June. Getting a new pool this summer is like trying to find hen’s teeth.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and the kids checked in with me. James called, and then Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily even came by for a short visit. Colleen has spent a good deal of time cleaning the basement in the preceding week and found a bunch of the kids’ old toys. She brought up some Matchbox cars so Lily could play with them and it was 5 minutes after that when Steven, Alex, and Lily were all playing in the floor. Colleen was able to give Anna Maria a number of cast iron cornbread and cake molds as well as a large stoneware Dutch oven. When Alysia called later in the day, Colleen offered her the Rudolph Christmas Village Colleen retired last year due to lack of space and Alysia was excited to get it. That’s a little bit extra space in our basement now. Most of the rest of day was quiet and peaceful. I didn’t do a whole lot, but I did get to grill dinner Sunday evening which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Monday was laundry day and Colleen was out the door after she finished her morning coffee. The whole trip took her a little longer than an hour because she had to run to the pharmacy as well. Alex had been working on a deal for a new car all weekend so after Colleen got the clothes out on the line, she got on the phone to get insurance that was needed, and then we ran to the bank to get Alex’s money for him. Alex got home early and then he and I ran around all afternoon getting his new car, a Dodge Caliber, and getting it registered so he could drive it legally on Tuesday. We cut it close too. We ended up at the DMV just a half hour before it closed, but when we got home for dinner we had the car, the car registered, and the plates were on the car. Needless to say, I sure didn’t do much after dinner and was very glad to call it a day and head to bed after I locked the girls in the coop for the night.

Tuesday things settled down a good bit and Colleen and I spent the morning outside taking care of things in the yard. Colleen spent her time working in her flower gardens. I went about hauling firewood up the hill from the seasoning racks to the winter ready racks. If I owned a FitBit I surely would have made my steps hauling the firewood. I did manage to fill one of our half-cord metal racks before the sun and the heat of the day beat me down. I took a short nap during the heat of the afternoon, but Colleen headed back outside after lunch to add all of her what-not decorations to her gardens. I have to admit Colleen’s gardens are looking good again this year.

Wednesday morning Colleen and I were back outside working. I got another one of our winter ready firewood racks filled and Colleen got the property line at the top of our hill on the west side of our lot raked and cleaned up. Can you tell my wife is a little OCD? Colleen rakes our whole lot from property line to property line every year. She had already spent a good bit of time cleaning up the front part of the yard and now her attention has turned to the backyard which is much bigger. The sun and the heat of the day chased us both inside to the shade and fans around lunch time again. Colleen tried to get back outside to her raking after lunch and even though the yard was covered in shade, it only took her 10 minutes to figure out it was too hot to do anymore raking. I headed out to the gardens, harvested the last of our snap peas, pulled up all of the withering pea plants, and did some weeding. I still need to get back into the garden, add some compost, work it into the soil, and plant our lima beans.

Thursday morning Colleen and I were back outside. Colleen grabbed her rake and kept going on the backyard. I got the wagon and started hauling firewood. I filled another winter ready rack and in the process emptied one of the seasoning racks and started on our second seasoning rack. All of the firewood in the seasoning racks has been there since last summer or fall, so it is nice and dry and will burn well this winter. Thursday evening I headed down to the hen coop a little early just to watch the girls. Much to my surprise there was a raccoon wandering around in the back of the property, maybe 15 or 20 yards behind the chicken pen. Having a raccoon around is not good news for chickens. I knew we had raccoons and foxes in the area, but I’ve never seen any predator that close to the pen before. Fortunately, the raccoon didn’t seem particularly interested in our girls and ambled its way down the hill into the woods. After talking with Alex a bit later, it seems the raccoon has been around for a little while.

Friday Colleen and I took a break from working outside and decided to get our market run out of the way. Since we had more to get than just groceries, Colleen and I needed to make a trip to Walmart. A trip to Walmart in the best of times can be a pain, but now half the folks in the store aren’t wearing masks and ignore the aisle direction signs. Colleen and I got in and out as quickly as we could, but not before Colleen found another garden ornament. Colleen found a solar light up chicken that she just had to have. I think my darling wife is turning into a crazy chicken lady. Friday evening I headed down to the hen coop early, but this time I brought my air rifle. The rifle has enough punch to kill the raccoon, but I’m only interested in convincing it that it is an unwelcome visitor at this point. I don’t like killing things unless it’s for food. I won’t try to kill the raccoon unless it becomes a nuisance which it hasn’t yet. The raccoon didn’t show up Friday evening and besides, that raccoon will really have to work to get into the pen and coop.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I were back outside in the yard. I finished filling the last of our winter ready racks with firewood and in the process emptied all of our season racks. The next things on my list are to refill the seasoning racks with all of the wood on the ground and split and stack more wood to season. Colleen is slowly, but surely working her way down the hill in the backyard with her rake. Raking the lot is her baby and I won’t do anything in the yard until this fall when I have to blow all of the leaves into the woods. Pretty much right on cue, we finished up and wanted to hide from the heat of the day at lunchtime. Alex, who wasn’t working yesterday for a change, took off for Steven’s place in the middle of the morning so he could change the oil and get a real good look under the hood of his new ride. We really didn’t need his help around the house, but he will be needed when it’s time to move the big pieces of un-split wood down by the log splitter. Yesterday evening I was down by the hen coop with my air rifle again. The raccoon didn’t show up last night either. I buttoned the coop right around sunset and called it a day.

We’ve got a mix of clouds and sun this morning and after Colleen took care of the morning chores, she headed out back to do more raking. I’m just sitting here on the porch writing for the time being. It doesn’t seem like the world has figured out how to get itself squared away yet, but Colleen and I don’t have plans to go anywhere, not that we ever want to go anywhere anyway. There certainly is more than enough to keep us busy up here on our little hill. A lot of folks might think we are crazy, but rest assured we are not. In fact, we’re pretty well set to weather anything 2020 can throw at us. We’re looking at canning more things over the course of summer, and finding other ways of becoming less dependent on having to go out there into this crazy world. Of course, it would be a great help if our pool got delivered. We lead a very simple life. We are not big on going out to dinner, the beach, movies, or anything else like that. There’s a lot to be said for being content and happy with what we do have and not wanting all of those material things that other folks can’t seem to live without. I dare say we’ve figured out how to check out of the rat race. There are enough rats running around out there already anyway. It sure is a great feeling to get up every morning, grab a cup of coffee, look around, and know that all is right on the homestead.

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July 05, 2020: Week 16 Of “Stay At Home” And Still More To Come

Here we are with another Sunday, another week, and another month of staying at home. Actually, it’s been 16 weeks now so I guess it’s just less than four months. Summer has definitely arrived here in Central North Carolina. I don’t seem to remember that we got much more than a quick sprinkle of rain at any time during the week so Colleen was out watering gardens every morning. Even without the rain, the humidity was through the roof all week. The humidity was probably 90 percent every morning and I don’t recall it dropping below 50 percent at any point during the week. Daytime temperatures are starting to register 90 degrees or better regularly, with nighttime temperatures dropping just into the upper 60’s, if we are lucky. I suppose it could be worse, but so far at least it’s tolerable and the house fans are doing a great job of keeping the air moving and the house feeling cool. There is one advantage to not having AC and that is we don’t feel trapped inside the house so we spend a great deal of time outside. Even Buttercup has been staying outside with us.

By all measures, last Sunday was low key. I spent the morning and a good part of the afternoon writing. Colleen was a little bit more ambitious than I was and she headed out to the backyard to rake during the morning while things were still relatively cool. Slowly, but surely she is working her way down the hill towards the wooded southeast corner of our lot. The afternoon was pretty typical. We edited the blog and got it posted. Colleen brought the girls their afternoon treats and collected the eggs. The six girls are being pretty consistent, giving us four eggs a day. I grilled some rib eye steaks, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob for dinner. And after that it was an easy slide into the rest of the evening and bedtime.

Colleen and I weren’t looking at Monday as being terribly busy, but the way things turned out we were busy all day. Colleen was out the door first thing Monday morning headed to the laundromat and pharmacy. I headed out into the gardens. I spent the morning weeding, planting and harvesting. We have plenty of Swiss chard again this year. Colleen got home, got the clothes on the line, and then did some baking. Around lunchtime UPS delivered what we thought was our new pool even though the box seemed kind of small to us. Colleen and I spent the afternoon tearing down the old pool with hopes of setting up the new pool. As it turned out, the pool company shipped us a kiddy pool instead of the pool we ordered. At least the old pool got torn down. After dinner I was still feeling a bit frustrated so while Colleen cleaned up the kitchen, I headed down back and started stacking firewood in the seasoning racks. There were two piles and I managed to get the small pile stacked before I called it quits.

Tuesday morning saw the end of the month of June and Colleen and I decided it was time to tackle the big pile of split firewood and get it into the seasoning racks. I was up early so I took care of the girls and got treated to a beautiful sunrise as the sun poked through trees on the eastern horizon. Colleen and I worked on that big firewood pile all morning long and only got about halfway through the pile. By lunchtime I was wringing wet with sweat and when we took a break, Colleen made me change into dry clothes. After lunch Colleen decided she wanted to do some raking in the yard and I headed down to the hen coop to change out their bedding. A few other small things got done too, but after dinner we were worn out.

Wednesday it was back to the wood pile for Colleen and me. It took us the entire morning to get the last of the split firewood stacked into the seasoning racks. After lunch Colleen went and raked the area clean. I took one look up the hill at the un-split firewood that needed to be moved down to the log splitter and decided I didn’t have the energy to do it. It would have to wait for another day. While Colleen was raking I headed inside and finished our taxes. They weren’t due until July 15th this year and since we owed the government money, I saw no reason in rushing to give it to them. At least they’re out of the way now. After two days of busting tail to move firewood, Colleen and I didn’t do a whole during the evening and we called it and early night after we secured the girls in the coop for the night.

I had an online meeting for School Thursday afternoon so Colleen and I decided to make a morning run to Costco. The most important thing on our list was ribs for our 4th of July meal, but we ended up getting a bunch of other stuff to build up our larder even more. While I was in front of the computer for my meeting, Colleen was putting our Costco haul away. Notably, what we did not have to get was TP and paper towels. My meeting went okay and while Colleen and I are doing great despite the stay-at-home, some of my fellow teachers are really struggling with the semi-quarantine. I wish there was more I could do to help, but I sure do not have a clue as to what I can do. The governor was supposed to say something on Wednesday about the start of school, but he put it off until July 16th so everything is still up in the air which I’m sure is very unsettling to some teachers and parents. On the bright side, it was a beautiful evening with a gorgeous sunset.

Colleen and I didn’t realize that Friday was the start to the long weekend. We had just assumed Monday would be the holiday. We really do tend to lose track of time on our summer break. Anyway, after a busy week we decided Friday would be an easy day. In the morning Colleen and I went out looking to find a local produce stand I had discovered on the internet. Boy, oh boy, did we hit the jackpot! The place is about 10 miles from the house and while not as big as the Farmer’s Market which is 40 miles from the house, this place certainly has everything we’d ever want. We spent a grand total of $25 and came home with quite a haul. Getting a charge out of our success at the produce stand, Colleen and I spent the afternoon adding braces to our second set of larder shelves. I guess the day didn’t turn out as laid back as I had hoped.

Yesterday was the 4th of July and a traditional gathering of the clan day for us, but not this year. The day turned out to be one of the hottest so far this year. Alex had to go to work in the morning. He did get off work early and went to visit Louis though. Colleen baked some bread in the morning and by noon I had the smoker going with ribs and a pork butt inside. We actually did have a slow day overall. I even found time to pick up my wood carving again as I sat out on the back porch. Although dinner was great, it was quiet and Colleen and I started talking about trying to pull together a gathering of the clan for Labor Day. Of course, that gathering will depend on the conditions that exist out there in the real world. With the kids spread out in either direction from home we try to find a time that allows for adequate travel time when we start talking about a gathering of the clan.

I was thinking today might be another easy day for us up here on the hill, but Colleen has already grabbed her rake and headed down back. The day shouldn’t be as warm as yesterday, but it is still July and the day will still feel steamy if not scorching hot. We do have the chance of an isolated thunderstorm. I think I may just pull out my carving knives again today and not exert a lot of energy. I’m sure everything that needs to be done will still be there tomorrow. School is still up in the air with nothing definitive to be heard for at least another week and a half. Colleen and I will keep going one day at a time. We really couldn’t be more thankful that everything is going so well up here on our little hill. Everyone is still healthy, the larder is stocked, the gardens are doing well, and the chickens are laying so once again this week I can say with complete certainty that all is right on the homestead.

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July 12, 2020: Week 17 Of “Stay At Home” And The World Isn’t Looking Too Good

We’re just about a month into summer, 17 weeks into stay-at-home, and the summer heat is finally here, although it hasn’t been terrible around here yet. The government has still provided very little detail about when and if school will start this fall, but the school districts have their plans in place. There isn’t a thing that Colleen and I can do about school so we just keep putting one foot in front of the other and don’t worry about what will happen. We’ll deal with it when it gets here. In the meantime, things sure did warm up around here over the last week. The high temperatures had been hanging in the upper 80’s to start the week, but the last few days we’ve been pushing through the 90 mark and it looks like Mother Nature has her eyes set on 95 degrees for today and most of the upcoming week. We’ve had a bunch of thunderstorms move through the area, but we really only got wet from the rain once and that was Friday night. We did have a few gray mornings, but the sun pretty much burned the gray off by noon on those days. This morning it is bright and sunny and it’s starting to get warm already.

Last Sunday turned around into just another day like most of our days tend to do on summer break. Colleen and I lose track of the date and what day of the week it is a lot of times. If this is what retirement is like, I’m ready to start. Colleen decided she wanted to do a little raking in the backyard before the day got too hot. I guess she started raking around 10 o’clock and at 1 o’clock she hung up the rake. I wasn’t quite as ambitious, opting to pull out my carving knives and cut on a kitchen spoon I had in the works after I finished my morning writing. Since Colleen and I ate a late lunch we ended up skipping dinner. We had a quick evening storm blow up that knocked the temperature down a few degrees, but we didn’t get any rain. Mostly, it was just a quiet evening at home and as the sun set, I took care of the chickens and then sat out back to watch the porch come to life with all of Colleen’s solar powered garden lights.

Monday was laundry day and Colleen was out the front door headed to the laundromat right after she finished her morning coffee. I spent the morning splitting large, cut rounds of maple firewood into halves and quarters, small enough for me to lift and shuttle down to a pile by the log splitter. Splitting those pieces into fireplace size sticks would have to wait for another day. Colleen got the clothes out on the line after she got home, and then she headed into the kitchen to bake and do some dry canning. The heat finally got the best of me so after lunch I laid down for a bit of a nap. Once I got up I was out on the back porch carving and I managed to finish all of the knife work in my spoon project. Colleen is tickled pink at the prospect of getting a new, usable wood spoon for her cooking. The evening skies did threaten us with a little bit of rain again, but everything went around us.

I didn’t do much Tuesday morning because I had a mid morning online meeting for school. Even with everything still up in the air for the start of school, my principal wants to make sure we have our ducks in a row to get going once we get the official word on things. Colleen spent the morning cleaning the house and then found the time to work on making masks. After my meeting and a little bit of lunch, I just headed out to the back porch and started sanding the cut marks out of the wooden spoon. The afternoon was just too hot to start working on the firewood again. I did do a little bit of porch gardening. I weeded the various potted plants on the back porch and even thinned my tomato plants back to just two plants per peat pot. They need to get a little bit bigger before I transplant them. We did get a sprinkle of rain in the evening, but it really wasn’t enough to get anything wet. I spent by the evening sanding more cut marks out of the wooden spoon I had carved.

Wednesday morning Colleen was out raking the lot again and I was moving firewood. Even after two days of moving firewood, the big pile up in the front yard was only starting to look like I was making a dent in it while the pile down by the log splitter is already looking rather large. I have this feeling it’s going to be a while before all of the wood is moved, split, and stacked. Fortunately, all of this wood is for the winter of 21-22. It should be good and seasoned by then. Colleen hadn’t slept well Tuesday night so after spending all morning raking, she tried her best to relax on Wednesday afternoon after she collected the eggs from the chicken coop. I had another online meeting right before dinner and after dinner neither of us did much.

Thursday morning it was Colleen’s turn to have an online meeting about the start of school. Her meeting ran long! It’s a bigger school than mine and they’re still up in the air about everything too. I sure didn’t feel like moving firewood so I spent the day finishing up the first pass of sanding on the spoon. Colleen did a little baking after lunch and neither of us did much other than our usual chores the rest of the afternoon. Colleen did whip up some her summer veggie and sausage sauce to go on top of some ravioli for dinner, but I guess mostly we just had a down day. The skies threatened with more storms around sunset and there was a weird orange-ish hue to skies at the start of dusk, but we sure didn’t see any rain. Colleen stayed upstairs while I tucked the chickens in for the night and after that we just called it a day.

Friday morning Colleen and I had plans to head to the produce stand we found last week. In addition to a week’s worth of produce we were looking for a bushel box of tomatoes to can and add to our larder. We usually can Roma tomatoes. The stand didn’t have a bushel of Roma’s, but their other tomatoes looked good so we got those instead. We also loaded up on a good bit of fresh fruit which we hadn’t planned on doing, but everything looked really good and we’ll always eat fresh fruit. Since we were out anyway, Colleen and I stopped at the market on our way home to get our market run out of the way for the weekend. We hadn’t planned on getting a whole lot, but there were some dandy sales so Colleen and I took advantage of the opportunity to get more things for our larder. We got enough orzo and penne regatta for Colleen to dry can five quarts of each during afternoon. The rest of the day was quiet and laid back and leftovers made dinner quick and easy.

Yesterday was canning day. After our morning coffee Colleen and I set about canning our bushel of tomatoes. I prepped the tomatoes, Colleen filled the jars, and then I babysat the hot water bath. It seems we’re getting smart about our work load because we had eight lovely quarts of canned tomatoes sitting on the counter and everything cleaned up by 3:30 in the afternoon. Apart from taking care of the chickens and collecting eggs, we didn’t do much else on the day. We would have gone swimming after we were done canning, but we still don’t have a pool and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting one this summer. I’ve already made it number 1 with a bullet on my “To-Do” list for next spring. Heck, if I have to buy it at Christmas time to make sure we have it for next summer, I will! It’s one of the few luxuries we afford ourselves around here.

It’s a beautiful morning right now and the temperature is quite comfortable, but it will be hot by this afternoon. The morning chores are done and Colleen is already outside raking. It’s still cool enough that I’m of the mind to tackle some firewood this morning. We really don’t have any specific plans for the day though. Everything about school is still up in the air so there isn’t much we can do there. I guess it’s going to be just another quiet Sunday around here. Colleen and I will take things one step at a time and see what comes down the road. This evening I’m sure we’ll just catch our breath, look around, and feel very good because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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July 19, 2020: Week 18 Of “Stay At Home” And Mother Nature Has Turned Up The Heat

That sews up 18 weeks of stay at home, bring on number 19. Colleen and I are getting very good at keeping our outings to a minimum. The week as a whole was a good one. There wasn’t any real rain to speak of up here on the hill, but there were thunderstorms around us that popped up from time to time. I guess the only time we got enough rain to make a difference was on Friday night and then we got a good 30-minute downpour last night. It sure wasn’t a whole lot of rain, but it was enough to give Colleen a break from watering the gardens yesterday morning and this morning. Most of the week the temperatures got up to 90 degrees or so, and the heat index flirted with the century mark. Yesterday the temperatures got into the mid 90’s and the heat climbed up towards the 105 degree mark. It looks like we’re in for more of the same today, but it is a beautiful morning. Unfortunately, we still do not have a pool, so in the heat of the afternoons Colleen and I are doing everything we can to stay as cool as possible. I am growing quite fond of the practice of taking a siesta.

Last Sunday morning while it was still cool, Colleen headed down back behind the chicken coop to rake some more of our half-acre. I pulled out the maul and wedges and split some of the big firewood up at the top of the hill in the front yard into pieces I could lift and move. Some of that wood was just downright uncooperative too. The heat of the day chased us inside right around noon, and while Colleen did her baking, I finished my usual Sunday writing. At least sitting in front of a fan while I was writing was a lot cooler than working outside in the heat of the day. For the most part our floor fans do a good job of keeping the air moving in the house. Later in the afternoon I fired up the grill and grilled some salmon and corn on the cob. Colleen made a tomato, pineapple, and onion salsa to go with the grilled salmon. We ate well Sunday evening. After dinner we just relaxed and tried to stay cool.

Monday was laundry day. Colleen decided that she did not want to go to the laundromat so she dragged out her tubs and washboard and did one of the usual two bags of laundry by hand. My darling wife has the heart and soul of a real pioneer. She genuinely enjoys doing the laundry by hand. Not to be a slacker, I headed outside as well and moved the wood I had split on Sunday down by the log splitter. I still have to split everything down into fireplace sized sticks and then stack it in the seasoning racks. The heat of the day chased us into the house around noon again. Colleen got a mind to bake some bread after we ate lunch. She dug up Julia Child’s recipe for white sandwich bread. Steven and Lily stopped by for a short visit while Colleen was letting the dough rise. It’s always a pleasure when any of the kids stop by for a visit. It wasn’t too long after Steven and Lily left that Alex came home. He got his W2 forms and then headed back out to finish his application for his apartment. After dinner Colleen dove into her new book on medicinal herbs that had showed up in the mail. I just relaxed until it was time to put the girls to roost for the night.

Tuesday morning Colleen was down back doing the second bag of weekly laundry and I was splitting firewood again. It’s getting to the point where I will need to get the chainsaw out and cut up the last of the logs still on the ground. Bear in mind that this firewood is for the winter after next so there really isn’t any great rush, but we would like to get it done. We still have to split it down and stack it in the seasoning racks too. With any luck it will be done before Thanksgiving. After lunch Colleen and I tried to do some work down in the basement. I wasn’t much help because we looked at a number of boxes of my old books and I really didn’t want to throw them away. Colleen still managed to fill up half of the trash bin with other junk. Alex came home all excited. His application for the apartment had been accepted and his move in date is August 1st. Boy, things sure will be different around here without Alex at home.

Wednesday was actually a slower day than usual for us around here. Colleen had her annual checkup scheduled for right after lunch so she just took it easy and cleaned up around the house during the morning. I headed outside to move the firewood I had split on Tuesday. I was done before lunch, but I was still soaked to the skin from working outside in the heat. Colleen headed out to her doctor’s appointment right after lunch, but she got her times screwed up and ended up being an hour early. Fortunately, Colleen’s checkup went well and it looks like she’ll be around for another 100 years. By the time she got home I was getting ready to start my online meeting. Our principal does a great job of keeping everyone up to date on things, and Tuesday night the school board had a shift in plans, putting the whole county on remote learning for the first 9 weeks of this school year. Colleen is still waiting for the county in which she works to make their final decision. After dinner Colleen dug into her medicinal herb work again and figured out that if she used a French press and coffee, she didn’t necessarily have to make herbal tea out of things. Yes, we ordered a French press coffee maker since neither I nor Colleen is a tea drinker.

I had another meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon, but I wanted to get something done without killing myself before noon. I headed out to the garden and started harvesting the celery seed. I got half way through our plants and filled a large spice jar for Colleen. In the process I noticed the celery roots had started sending up new plants. I broke the new plants off of the main root and planted them in another part of the garden. While I was in the garden Colleen was down back in the “holler” raking and cleaning things up, again. Our days had been getting progressively warmer and like usual we were in the house and out of the sun by noon. Colleen got to experimenting in the kitchen for dinner and came up with a new pork chop dish. The pork chops were smothered in sautéed onions and apples and covered with a cream and bourbon sauce.

This summer, Fridays have become the one day Colleen and I will leave our hill. We head to the produce stand to get a week’s worth of fresh fruit and veggies, any veggies we want to can, and then we stop and take care of our market run on the way home. This week we got another bushel of tomatoes to can on Saturday and an extra half-bushel bag of produce for Steven and Anna Maria. When we finished our market run we stopped by the kid’s house to drop off the produce and after a short visit we headed home. Colleen and I got home a little after noon and there was an Amazon box waiting for us on the front porch. It was Colleen’s French press and a couple of grinders, one for herbs and one for coffee beans. Alex got home early and since his application for his apartment got approved earlier in the week Colleen got a hold of our insurance company and helped Alex get his renter’s insurance set up. Alex will be moving into his new apartment on August 1st. It was definitely an evening to have pizza for dinner, and the most effort I could muster after dinner was to take care of the girls around sunset.

Saturday was canning day, but we didn’t get started until after Colleen had made lasagna for the upcoming week. The canning went as smooth as silk. I prepped the tomatoes, Colleen packed the jars, and then I water bathed everything. We had 10 quarts of tomatoes cooling and had everything cleaned up by 2 o’clock. By then the heat index had pushed through 100 degrees so I headed upstairs for a little siesta to beat the heat. Once the tomatoes cooled, Colleen added them to our larder in the basement. Dinner was hit or miss, whatever we could find in the refrigerator. We did get a nice downpour during the evening that cooled everything off and gave the gardens a good watering.

It’s still early enough this morning for the day’s heat not to have taken hold of things. Colleen is trying to get her baking done. Our “To-Do” list is still a mile long, but with the scorching forecast for this afternoon, I think we’ll take it easy today. School is still up in the air for Colleen, but we should get some news this coming week. I’ll be teaching online for at least the first semester. The rest of the world around us is still going crazy over one thing or another. Honestly, all we see is a lot of talking and not much getting accomplished, but then again it is an election year. Up here on our little hill though, Colleen and I just keep going one day at a time. Everyone here is doing just fine and at the end of each and every day we couldn’t be more thankful that all is right on the homestead.

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July 26, 2020: Week 19 Of “Stay At Home” And It Was Hotter Than Last Week

That makes 19 weeks of stay-at-home and we’re getting ready for week 20. If we thought week 18 was hot, I guess that made last week a scorcher. We had temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s most of the week and 100 degree plus heat indices all week. Thunderstorms threatened in the later part of the week and we did get a little bit of rain Friday morning, but by the afternoon the sun was out and things were steamy to say the least. Colleen and I did what we could in the mornings, but by lunchtime we were hiding from the heat. We still don’t have our pool situation resolved so hiding means staying in a dark house in front of our fans or taking naps. Fortunately, our floor fans do a great job of keeping the house 10 to 15 degrees cooler than outside. Some people think we’re crazy because we don’t have AC, but Colleen and I have found that AC is a trap and we get outside and stay more active without it and we have gotten used to the summer heat around here.

Sunday started our week off hot with a heat index of 105 degrees. Colleen finally got to use her new French press coffee pot to make some coffee with oregano. She doesn’t have any sinus issues and she certainly isn’t fighting an upper respiratory infection so I think it was just that she wanted to try it and see what the coffee tasted like. I did my usual writing all morning. Steven and Lily stopped by for a visit and Colleen spent some time in the kitchen baking, but for the most part it was a slow day. I found some time to read in the afternoon. The heat didn’t let up much as the afternoon slid into evening so the evening stayed quiet. Once the girls were in the coop for the night Colleen and I pretty much called it a day.

This may sound weird, but Colleen is enjoying doing the laundry by hand and Monday morning she was down back by her wash tubs again. In fact, she did the second half of the laundry Tuesday morning and then did the bed linens on Wednesday morning. I sort of took the low road on Monday. I had an online meeting right after lunch so I set my computers up on the back porch and did schoolwork all morning. I got a good bit done too. My meeting ran long but that was okay because our principal is doing a great job of keeping all of the teachers in the loop for the start of school. The start of school is going to be crazy this fall. While I was in my meeting Colleen decided she wanted to make a big meal for dinner even with the heat. Our floor fans did a great job of keeping the house at 85 degrees and everyone enjoyed the Arroz Con Pollo for dinner.

Tuesday morning found Colleen back down at her wash tubs doing laundry. I headed out to the gardens to harvest the last of our celery seed. It’s a slow methodical process, but now Colleen had a big jar of fresh celery seed in her spice rack. I was able to break more celery starts off of the main roots so we have eight new celery plants growing in another part of the garden. I don’t know if we’ll have fresh celery come this fall, but last year’s celery overwintered well and we had fresh celery all spring this year. After lunch Colleen and I harvested the beets which grew weird this year in our garden, but it was another scorching hot day so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hiding from the heat. We even played it low key for dinner, using the microwave to heat up leftovers.

Colleen was back at the wash tubs on Wednesday morning. Colleen was supposed to have a morning meeting about the start to her school year, but the school never sent her the online link for the meeting. I headed down back to start the summer screening of our compost pile. Since I rake all of the dirty chicken bedding into the compost pile the pile tends to get filled up quickly with pine shavings. I screen out all of the bigger shavings in summer, return the compost proper to the pile, and put the shavings around the outside of our raised beds gardens. Eventually I figure the pine shavings and leaves on the ground will turn into compost too, but in the meantime it acts like mulch and keeps the weeds down. In the spring I screen out the compost again and put the compost in a separate pile for us to use in our gardens. I stayed out back until lunch time when I had to come inside for anther online meeting. My principal got some new information on the start of our school. The start of school is going to very interesting this year, but I am excited about the opportunity to teach online because my head is busting with ideas to make it interesting and successful for the kids.

Thursday I had an afternoon doctor’s appointment for my annual checkup. I thought they would be doing blood work so I didn’t eat anything after breakfast. I spent all morning doing schoolwork so I wouldn’t be drop dead tired for my late afternoon appointment. I even figured out how to narrate my class slides to help the kids. With everything online to start school this fall, this should be a big help to the kids. Colleen found some time to bake during the day. My doctor’s appointment didn’t go quite the way I had expected. Since my appointment was later in the afternoon they didn’t do any blood work so I fasted for nothing, and it seems my blood pressure has crept up a little. My weight is more or less stable, but the doctor still wants me to shed some weight to help the situation and he suggested I cut out the carbs from my diet. That will prove to be tricky given my love of bread and Colleen’s love of baking. Fortunately, I love fruits and vegetables too and our gardens are doing well this summer.

Friday morning after Colleen watered the gardens we headed out to Lowe’s to get a new ceiling fan, the local produce stand, and then to the market. The ceiling fan in the master bedroom had died and I couldn’t repair it this time so it was time for a new fan. Without AC, fans are a necessity around here. Colleen and I got our usual bag full of fruit and veggies at the produce stand and we got a bag full for Steven and Anna Maria as well. Our market run was a small one and then we headed over the Steven and Anna Maria’s place to drop off their bag of fresh produce. I did some more schoolwork on Friday afternoon. Colleen took care of the girls and then started putting together a low carb dinner. No potatoes, rice, or bread, but we did have plenty of veggies including a new cucumber and onion salad that Colleen wanted to try out and the beets from our garden to go along with Colleen’s Zoukie fish burgers. Even without my beloved carbs it was a great meal.

Saturday morning Colleen and I came out of the chute on fire. She headed out to the front yard to weed whack and rake while I headed down to the log splitter to split firewood. I spent a good three hours splitting firewood and was a bit disgruntled when I finished because it didn’t look like I had made a dent in the un-split pile. I’m not sure when the heat chased Colleen back inside, but by the time I finished she had already sewed a new mask for when we go out. Steven and Lily showed up for a visit and while Lily was exploring in Colleen’s flower gardens, Steven moved more of the big un-split firewood down by the log splitter for me. When he finished that he even put up our new ceiling fan. I headed upstairs to take a nap after Steven and Lily left, and after Colleen took care of the girls she put together another wonderful low carb dinner. Colleen did let me have ONE bread muffin with my dinner.

I think today will be a slow day. It is Alex’s last weekend at home before he moves into his own place next weekend. I might try to get some more schoolwork done today and this evening I’m grilling steaks for everyone. Colleen and I will pick some fresh green beans from our garden later to go with the steak and Colleen has promised me I could have half of a baked potato with dinner. I think Alex will miss his meals most of all once he moves out. The back porch is still mostly in shade but the temperature is climbing. Everything is quiet up here on the hill today. Colleen and I will just take everything that comes down the road today in stride. The crazy world can just keep going its own way and we’ll just sit calmly up here on our little hill. I know things aren’t right, but two wrongs never made anything right. Colleen and I are thankful for all we have and want for very little. We’ve found our peace and we are reminded of just how lucky we are every day when we look around and know that all is right on the homestead.

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August 02, 2020: Week 20 Of “Stay At Home” With Lots Of Thunderstorms And Steamy Days

And just like that July is done, and we are at the mercy of August. The weather got a little unsettled last week and we got our share of those late afternoon summer thunderstorms. The heat indices danced around 100 degrees for most of the week and with the addition of the rain and wet ground, things got a mite steamy, especially in the evenings. With all the heat and rain the gardens are doing well without Colleen having to water them too much though. The backyard is getting kind of shaggy so I’ll have to cut the grass sometime soon, but other than that it’s time to start thinking about school which starts for me on August 17th not counting the workdays the week before that. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get outside much to start the new week. We’re getting into the peak of hurricane season and as if right on cue there is a storm moving up the east coast, and it is expected to make landfall a few hours south of us. I don’t think we have too much about which to worry, but we are expecting some rain late Monday and through Tuesday morning.

Last Sunday was hot and humid and Colleen and I were moving slowly. Trying to hide from the heat meant I got off the back porch once the sun started swallowing everything up and I camped out in front of my computer and a fan in the dining room. After our blog was written, edited, and posted, I just did what schoolwork I could do. Colleen was struggling to keep her eyes open and ended up taking a nap until just before dinner time. Since it was Alex’s last weekend of living at home we had a small celebration of sorts for dinner and I grilled some steaks, corn, and potatoes. I’m still watching my carb intake, but we made sure Alex got the biggest, thickest steak we had. After dinner the evening passed quietly and without event.

With sunrise on Monday morning Colleen and I were back to our summer weekday routine. With more hot temperatures in the forecast, Colleen wasted no time in getting out back to get her laundry done. I needed to finish some more schoolwork so it was in front of the computer for me. The big surprise of the day was when Steven showed up in the late afternoon. Alex came home from work not too long after Steven got here and the two off them started cutting back the tree limbs that were hanging over the roof in the front of the house. Colleen and I are hopeful that without easy access this fall and winter, the squirrels will stay off of the roof and out of the attic. It’s a perennial battle with the squirrels around here, but I think we have the upper hand this year.

Tuesday morning found a Colleen back down at the laundry tubs doing the second half of the week’s laundry. Of course, Buttercup hung out on the back porch to make sure Mommy was alright. The boys had left a pile of limbs and branches on the ground from their tree work on Monday so I went through everything and dragged the wood that was big enough for firewood down by the seasoning racks. I will cut the wood down to size at some point in the future. Steven showed up later in the afternoon with his truck and chipper. Everything that I didn’t want to use for firewood got run through the chipper so there wasn’t much lying around after the boy’s handy work. There were a few small sticks and some leaves still lying about, but Colleen with take care of those when she re-rakes the yard. Steven said he needs to come back and take care of the branches in another tree on the back side of the house by the hen coop.

Wednesday morning Colleen had a follow up appointment for her annual checkup first thing in the morning. I headed down back to finish screening the bigger pine shavings from the compost pile. The shavings went around the raised bed gardens as mulch and everything that went through the screen got put back into the compost bin. Of course, once I finished getting all the pine shavings out of the compost I cleaned the chicken coop and changed out the bedding in the coop. All the pines shavings I cleaned out of the coop ended up in the compost bin. I’ll screen those out at the end of winter or the beginning of spring next year. Towards the middle of the afternoon we had a dandy thunderstorm blow up right on top of us and by on top of us I mean there was lightning frying the tree tops, thunder rattling the house, and the rain showed up in a torrential downpour. The power flickered once, but came back on. We weren’t quite as lucky with our internet. The internet went down, stayed down, and was still down when Colleen and I headed to bed that night.

Thursday morning Colleen and I woke up to find there still was no internet. It’s not that it’s a big deal, but it is our form of communication with family, friends, and the outside world in general. At least the air was still cool on Thursday morning so I headed down back to split firewood. Colleen headed upstairs to her sewing room to work on more masks for us. We foresee needing more than one or two masks each especially with school starting and the possibility that we may have to go into school from time to time. I spent all morning splitting firewood and felt like I barely made a dent in the pile. I’m hoping I can get it all split and stacked before Thanksgiving. We finally did get our internet back up and running around lunchtime. Steven dropped by in the middle of the afternoon to let us know he won his first commercial contract for his new tree service company. The rest of our afternoon and evening was quiet fortunately.

Friday was the day Colleen and I decided to get all of our running around and errands done. On top of our usual run to the produce stand and the market, we wanted to visit a local discount department store and Costco to get a few things for Alex’s new apartment. His move-in day would be Saturday. It took Colleen and me until just after lunch to get home from the produce stand and the market, but we did get a late start. We even filled up a half bushel bag with fruit from the produce stand for Alex. Our foray into the real world that afternoon was for sheets, eating utensils, cleaning supplies, and some key food stuffs for Alex. What kid starting out on his own doesn’t appreciate a case of Ramen Noodles? We stopped at the Dollar General on the way home and I got a text from Alex wanting to know if we were okay. He got home before us, saw where I had taken off one of the front porch stair treads, saw the groceries still all over the counter, and thought either Colleen or I had fallen and had to go to the hospital. I assured him we were alright and would be home shortly. Steven was at the house when we got home so the boys started unloading everything we had bought. When Alex realized it was stuff for him he just backed his car up to the Trail Blazer and then moved the things into his car. When the boys were finished, they took off to go fishing and we didn’t see Alex for the rest of the evening.

Yesterday was the big moving day for Alex. Colleen and I decided it would be best if we didn’t have anything major going on during the day so I did some more schoolwork and Colleen worked on our masks. Alex slept late, but no sooner than he was up, he was out the front door headed to his apartment with his first carload of things. He made a couple of other trips over the course of the afternoon and then waited for Steven to show up with his truck to move the bigger pieces of furniture and his bed. Of course, Murphy was working overtime yesterday, and as soon as the boys had Steven’s truck loaded up the skies started getting dark. I had them cover everything with tarps before they left, but I’m pretty sure a few things got wet including the mattress. After the boys left and as soon as the rain stopped, Colleen’s OCD kicked into gear and she headed out to clean up the front porch where Alex usually hung out.

I think Colleen and I will take things slow and easy today. It looks like for the first day in the last couple of days, we don’t really have the chance of thunderstorms today, but everything is still wet so it will be steamy today; and then again, it is the weather so there is no telling what will happen. I suspect Colleen will be in the kitchen or looking for low carb recipes for her cookbooks today. I’ve been doing pretty well staying away from the carbs especially the breads. I may just find myself in front of the computer later this afternoon doing schoolwork. Honestly, it’s about all the motivation I have today. So far it’s been a quiet morning though. The deer have wandered through the yard. The fawns still have their white spots but the spots will soon fade. The bucks are starting their annual antler growth and look quite handsome in the velvet. I will grill dinner later today, but it will seem strange without Alex around. He is our baby and the last to move out on his own. Colleen and I really are quite proud of him. Apart from Alex not being here at home, not much else will change. Colleen and I will keep taking things one day at a time, not worrying about what tomorrow might bring our way. Life is good up here on our little hill, and honestly, Colleen and I couldn’t be more thankful for everything we have. Today we started a new chapter in our lives, but like always we are reassured in having the peace of mind that comes from knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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August 09, 2020: Week 21 Of “Stay At Home” And We Had A Hurricane!

This year is flying by despite all of the chaos in the world. We just finished week 21 of stay-at-home and it was our last week of summer break too. Just to keep going on the theme of a crazy year we had so far, a hurricane raced up the east coast last week. We got a good bit of rain between Monday and Tuesday, but it really wasn’t all that bad around here. The rest of the week the skies threatened us with the usual mid-August afternoon and evening thunderstorms and like usual they managed to miss us for the most part. We did get enough rain though that Colleen didn’t have to water our gardens during the week. Just to make things interesting on the week, the area got rocked with a mild earthquake this morning. It’s not the first we’ve ever had around here, but they are very rare. Of course, given the way things have been going this year, having an earthquake thrown into the mix this morning seems about right. Who knows what the rest of this year will bring our way, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if we had a blizzard for Thanksgiving. It will probably be the result of a huge dip in the jet stream right when a late season hurricane is moving up the coast.

Last Sunday was a bit of a strange day. Alex spent his first night at his new place on Saturday night so it was just Colleen and me in the house. Alex did show up in the middle of the morning to get a few things that he had left here, but he wasn’t here very long. Colleen spent the day cleaning and reclaiming his bedroom. I didn’t do a whole lot, but I did grill dinner on Sunday evening. Since it was just Colleen and me, we treated ourselves to salmon fillets and some braised vegetables. Colleen is watching my carb intake like a hawk, but she did let us have a small baked potato too. Colleen and I spent the evening relaxing and still getting used to not having Alex around the house.

Monday the hurricane started its trek up the east coast. It was still well south of us, but not knowing when we would start to see the rain bands move into the area, Colleen opted out of doing the laundry for the day. The morning was actually pretty nice and we even got Alex’s Explorer picked up and hauled off before the rains started. The rains showed up about noon and since we weren’t going to work outside Colleen kept cleaning and rearranging things upstairs while I sat in front of my computers doing schoolwork. We got a break in the rains after dinner and it gave me just enough time to get the girls into the coop for the night, getting everything secure without getting soaked, and before the hurricane came through the area.

The hurricane was a fast moving one this time and the eye passed about 50 miles to the east of us during the night. Tuesday morning everything was wet, but the sun was shining when Colleen and I got up. Colleen spent her day upstairs and pretty much finished her room reclamation project. Alex’s bedroom is now a suitable guest room and Colleen’s sewing room has a lot more space in which she can work. She even put a work table in her sewing room. Colleen even found a little time to spend making more masks for us. I spent all day in front of the computers. I got a good bit more schoolwork done and even had time to get some reading done during the afternoon. On the whole, we did have our usual daily chores, but the day was pretty low key for us, and it was productive.

Wednesday morning was bright and sunny. Colleen didn’t waste any time getting down to her wash tubs and getting our weekly laundry washed and hung out on the line. I spent the morning reading for school again and then spent the afternoon in front of the computers doing schoolwork and in an online meeting. Colleen took care of a few things around the house and even tried her hand at making peppermint essential oil so she could make flea spray for Buttercup. The heat wasn’t too oppressive so after she took care of the girls and collected the eggs, she made some pork chops smothered in sautéed apples and onions in a cream and bourbon sauce. It was still strange for us though to sit down for dinner and not expect Alex to come home from work.

Thursday was a gray morning, but I had a mid-morning online meeting. It was a training session for the learning platform the school will be using this year. Fortunately, I’m comfortable with the software, but a lot of other teachers are feeling overwhelmed right now. I did offer to help the other teachers where I could, but there is still a lot I need to learn about the platform. Colleen took advantage of her cleared out sewing room and to dig through her box of remnants to find more mask material. I won’t need them so much to start the school year, but Colleen has to go into the school this coming Thursday and she will need a few masks to get through the day. Fortunately, Colleen is only going into school for workdays so there won’t be any kids there. Her district is starting fall classes online, but they are chomping at the bit to get kids back into the building. My classes will be online for at least the first nine weeks of school. Thursday evening Stephanie, our prodigal daughter, checked in with us which was a real treat. Stephanie lives in Louisiana and we don’t get to see her very often. The chat I had with Steph was online, but she did send me pictures of our new granddaughter and our 14-year old grandson.

Friday morning turned out gorgeous and it was errand day for Colleen and me. After our morning coffee we headed out to the produce stand and then we stopped at the market on the way home. We did make a quick stop at Walgreens too, but they didn’t have the digital thermometer we wanted. For that matter, they didn’t have any thermometers. I guess thermometers are another casualty of the current situation. The day turned out to be bright and sunny, but even still, Colleen spent the afternoon putting the groceries away and I worked on the computers. We had to punt our usual Friday evening pizza for dinner because of my carb restrictions having leftovers so Colleen didn’t have to make dinner. I don’t think we’ll be having pizza for a while, but that’s okay as long as there are some of Colleen’s tasty leftovers in the refrigerator. I’m slowly getting used to not having three of my carb loaded favorites on a regular basis now, pizza, French fries, and potato chips.

It was another beautiful morning yesterday and Colleen and I wasted no time in getting busy. Colleen got right into her kitchen to try her hand at homemade mayonnaise. Her first try flopped, but her second try turned out great! I headed out to the gardens to pick green beans for dinner and I even came back in the house with a very nice pair of summer squash. For the rest of the morning while Colleen was in the kitchen, I was outside cutting the backyard. It took me longer than I had hoped, but the grass was still damp thanks to some overnight rain and in some places the grass was knee high. Alex swung by the house later in the afternoon to pick up a few more things for his apartment and just like the rest of our kids, Colleen made sure he left with some addition food stuffs for his apartment.

There isn’t any rain in the forecast for today, supposedly, so Colleen got right outside this morning and washed some towels and bed linens. We did have a small earthquake in the area this morning, but we didn’t feel it. I guess we should have expected it the way this year is going. I’m not sure what the rest of the day has in store for us, but the humidity is already starting to creep up to that uncomfortable level. I guess we really need to start thinking about what we need to do for school in the upcoming week. That’s more for me than Colleen though. With any luck today should be a quiet one around here. Colleen and I will keep taking things one step at a time and see where our feet lead us. Everyone is doing well up here on our little hill and it is reassuring to look around every day and know that all is right on the homestead.

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August 16, 2020: Week 22 Of “Stay At Home”, Let The New School Year Commence

Last week was the start of school in the form of teacher workdays for Colleen and me. I was tied to a computer for the week starting on Tuesday and Colleen had to go into the school proper starting Thursday. The district in which I teach had already committed to staying online at least into the middle of October. The school district in which Colleen works was hoping to get kids back into the classroom in a couple of weeks, but on Friday they ultimately conceded the kids would be out until mid October. The weather was pretty good most all week, not that Colleen or I would have noticed being as busy as we were. About the only time I got to relax on the back porch was in the mornings before I had to get on the computer and in the evenings after dinner. Mother Nature did her best to remind us it was still summer by driving the humidity up to the oppressive level after dinner every day. The days never really got hot, but the evenings were downright rough. We started hearing the rumbles of thunder on the distant horizon on Thursday evening, but we didn’t see any rain until Friday evening. Yesterday the whole day was gray and rainy and it looks like we’re in for the same thing today, but maybe without the rain.

Last Sunday proved to be somewhat of an unusual day. Anticipating the start of school, Colleen headed down back first thing in the morning to wash bed linens and towels. That took her most of the morning. I just sat on the porch and did my usual writing. Colleen got the laundry drying on the line and then headed into the basement to do some more cleaning. Colleen did take a break to edit our weekly blog and have lunch, but she headed right back downstairs when lunch was over. I was in desperate need of some motivation for the afternoon, but the best I could muster was sitting on the back porch reading a book for school. Alex stopped by to dig some worms out of our compost pile so he could go fishing, but he wasn’t here more than 15 minutes. By the time dinner rolled around, Colleen was not of the mind to cook Sunday dinner so we just had reheated leftovers. We seem to have more of those now that Alex has his own place.

Monday was my last official day of summer break. Colleen headed down back to do the usual Monday laundry while I lingered on the back porch with my morning coffee. I did finally get going and found my way to the computer to do some schoolwork. With Colleen’s summer break coming to a fast close she headed back downstairs to do some more cleaning in the basement and in doing so she filled the trash bin up again last week. We had chicken creole for dinner which was sort of a treat because my teacher workdays were going to start in the morning. After dinner and for the fourth week in a row, I dragged the trash bins that were almost too heavy to move out to the street before I camped out on the back porch waiting for sunset.

Tuesday morning I had just enough time to enjoy my morning coffee before I needed to get to my schoolwork in earnest. It was a beautiful morning outside and Colleen took full advantage of the weather by heading outside and raking the entire front part of our little half-acre. When Colleen finally did come back into the house she was carrying a colander full of turnips she had harvested from our gardens. My afternoon was capped off with a long online faculty meeting to start off the new school year. As long as the meeting was, it was still better than sitting in an auditorium or the likes. There wasn’t much either of us felt like doing after dinner so we just relaxed until it was time for me to put the girls into the coop for the night and then we called it a day.

Wednesday was my district meeting day and it started early and lasted a while. I finally got a break right before lunch. Once my meetings started Colleen headed upstairs to work on masks and she stayed upstairs most of the day. After lunch I headed out to the back porch and found my tomato plants getting eaten bare by hookworms. The words that came out of my mouth were not nice. I think I pulled a dozen of those little demons off of the plants and once I was satisfied I had gotten them all I headed back into the house and wrestled with the learning platform we will be using for online classes this fall. The learning platform wasn’t cooperating at all either. I finally just had to throw in the towel for the day when it came time to cook dinner. Since it was Colleen’s last day of summer break, I grilled a couple of small rib-eye steaks for dinner. At least dinner turned out right.

Thursday morning Colleen pulled out of the driveway and headed for school shortly before dawn. Yes, she had to physically be at school for a workday. When the sun started coming up I made my way down back to let the girls out for the morning, and then I decided to repair the front porch stairs with the time I had left before it was time to get to work on stuff for my classes. Even though Colleen was at school, all of her meetings were online so everyone just sat in their classrooms and watched the meetings. From what I can gather, it was a full day of meetings too. Colleen came home hot, hungry, and worn out. Just to make matters even more interesting, the school still hadn’t told her what she was supposed to do to start the school year. Colleen left all of her frustration on the other side of our front door, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and after dinner she spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Friday morning Colleen was out the front door before the sun again. I hung out on the back porch with my coffee until sunup. I took care of the girls and then spent the rest of my morning on the computer. Right before lunch we found out that Colleen’s school district would be 100 percent online until at least mid-October. After lunch I had a full afternoon of online meetings and Colleen had a meeting where she finally found out what the school wanted her to do. Since her school is offering their teachers the opportunity to work from their classroom or from home, the school plans to set up learning centers for the teachers’s kids. Colleen had the choice of overseeing a learning center or being a gate keeper, responsible for checking everyone’s temperature before they entered the building. Colleen jumped on the gate keeper job in a heartbeat since she wasn’t keen on being in a room with kids, she gets to school early anyway, and the gate keeper job lets her leave early to come home. It may not seem like the greatest thing in the world, but given the current circumstances at least we’re both still employed.

Yesterday was catch-up Saturday for us. Colleen and I had gotten used to running our errands on Friday, but now we’re both tied up with school on Fridays so the running around got pushed to Saturday. We were out of the house early yesterday morning headed to Walmart. It’s not one of our favorite places to go and we really try to avoid going there if at all possible. Unfortunately, we really didn’t have a choice yesterday. On our way home we stopped at the produce stand and since we had gotten everything between Walmart and the produce stand we needed, we bypassed the market. Colleen reminded me that Alex wasn’t at home anymore and we would have to carry everything thing into the house. We got lucky though. We got everything out of the Trail Blazer and into the house before the rain started falling for the day. The rain started right after lunch and kept us in the house for the rest of the day. I ended up on the computer again while Colleen put the groceries away. After dinner we just waited for a break in the rain so we could close up the coop for the night without getting too wet.

The rain kept falling through the night, but had more or less stopped by the time we got up this morning. Colleen took care of the morning chores. The chicken pen was still muddy and when I checked on the girls they were just sitting on the leg bracing under the coop. Colleen got an early start and is already in the kitchen and I will be in front of the computers for most of today. It’s not exactly how we like to spend Sundays, but the work needs to get done. No matter what the start of this school year brings our way, Colleen and I will tackle it one day at a time. The way things keep changing it doesn’t make sense to worry about tomorrow. Colleen and I are both fortunate and thankful that things are calm and peaceful up here on our little hill. At the end of each day, we leave the baggage from the day out on the front porch, catch our breath, and gratefully look around knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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August 23, 2020: Week 23 Of “Stay At Home” And We Have Online Classes

It was an interesting week around here to say the least. The new school year started with online classes. The weather behaved for the most part and things seem to be starting to cool off a little. I’m sure we have a couple more hot days in store for us before the end of summer, but summer is definitely winding down. We are still getting some late afternoon and evening rain and thunderstorms, but the days have been sunny for the most part. Even when the mornings started out on the cloudy side, the sun managed to burn off the clouds during the day. We did have one dandy thunderstorm one evening in the middle of the week that popped up right on top of us and chased Buttercup upstairs right next to the bed, but it didn’t last very long. I guess Friday night was the wettest night of the week and we had rain on and off throughout the night, but other than everything being wet yesterday morning, the day turned out to be a nice one overall.

Last Sunday afternoon was busy, but quiet. With classes starting on Monday I spent the day in front of the computers getting things ready for my classes. Colleen spent most of her time in the kitchen. Colleen has decided that since we have plenty of eggs she wants to make the mayonnaise rather than buy it at the store. This is proving to be an interesting challenge for Colleen, but she is slowly but surely getting things squared away with the process and the mayonnaise she makes is much better tasting than store bought. Colleen even managed to get some baking done on the day as well and we ended up with some very tasty strawberry oatmeal bars for snacks for the week. Our Sunday dinner was a treat for us, being pan-seared tuna and roasted vegetables.

School dominated everything during the week for us. Colleen has to go into school everyday, but I can teach classes online from home. Monday started out bumpy. Colleen’s car did not start. I didn’t have time nor did I want to get under the hood at 5:30 in the morning so Colleen took the Trail Blazer to school. We’ve had the Trail Blazer for just over a year now and this was the first time Colleen drove it. Colleen got to school without any problem. I took care of the morning chores once the sun came up and then spent the rest of the day in front of computers. My classes went okay and I did spend a good bit of my day handling SOS emails from kids and parents fighting the technology of online classes. Since it was the first day of school and Colleen was driving the Trail Blazer she opted to not stop at the laundromat on the way home. Once she got home and took care of the girls, Colleen decided to wash part of the week’s laundry by hand. I guess she did about half of our usual bag of laundry and got it out in the line, but after dinner rain was headed our way so Colleen had to scamper back down to the clotheslines and collect the laundry before the rain started. She finished drying everything in the dryer.

Tuesday morning started a little smoother than Monday. Colleen got to school just fine and set up her check-in station so she could get everyone‘s temperature before they entered the building. Only about half of the teachers there are working in their classrooms even though classes are online. I took care of the morning chores at sunup and then spent the rest of the day at the dining room table in front of my computers again. Colleen went about her usual afternoon activities when she got home and even managed to get the second half of the laundry washed and on the line. After dinner we just sort of kept a low profile and enjoyed a colorful late evening sky.

Wednesday passed without much to do. I had online meetings all morning and took care of schoolwork all afternoon. Colleen got pretty settled into her school routine. Once Colleen got home she took care of the girls, collected the eggs, and started on dinner. After dinner a thunderstorm popped up and it sent Buttercup heading for shelter next to the bed. It was a short, intense storm and the thunder rattled the house. The storm passed and we had beautiful blue evening skies again.

The road got bumpy again Thursday morning. We woke up to find we did not have any running water in the house. Fortunately, we keep enough bottled water on hand for just such an occasion and other than the water issue in the morning, the rest of the school day went just fine. There was lots of sunshine all day and when Colleen got home she called about the water and before we sat down to dinner the problem had been fixed and we had running water again. Colleen made her Super Frittata for dinner and other than that the evening was quiet. Colleen and I both went to bed thankful we only had Friday left in front of us.

Friday morning seemed to start smooth enough, but when Colleen got to school she realized she had left her lunch in the refrigerator. By the time she got home she was very hungry. I started my day on the back porch with a cup of coffee, got to watch the deer graze in the backyard, and then spent the rest of the day in my classes. Even though I hadn’t exerted much in the way of physical activity all week, my brain was toast by the end of day. Colleen chased me upstairs to bed early and she took care of the girls for the night. Unfortunately, I woke up a little after 10 o’clock and was wide awake. I spent the next few hours in front of the computers doing schoolwork before I got tired again and headed back upstairs to bed. I didn’t sleep very well either.

Yesterday was catch-up day and that meant running errands. I woke up in a brain fog which made the morning a bit rough, but I pushed through it. Colleen and I went to the produce stand and then the market, and fortunately that was all the running around that needed to be done. I tried to do some schoolwork once we got home, but it was a struggle. Alex and Steven showed up in the middle of the afternoon. When the boys found out Colleen’s car wouldn’t start, they both got under the hood to check thing out. The car still doesn’t start, but the boys eliminated the battery as a problem. Steven thinks the problem is probably the starter and he said he would change it out in the next few days so I guess the Honda will sit in the driveway a little while longer. Colleen chased me upstairs to bed after dinner again yesterday evening. I slept until 10 o’clock again, but last night I took some ibuprofen PM and was able to fall back asleep.

Things are still a little gray this morning, but there isn’t any threat of rain today. Colleen was up early this morning and already has given Buttercup a bath and sprayed her with Colleen’s homemade flea spray. Colleen wants to get the week’s laundry done today and get some baking done for the week too. I’ll be working on school stuff all day. Colleen and I are both hopeful that we will find a balance between our school activities and the things that need doing around here very soon. Right now it mostly seems like we just are putting out little fires. I suppose that is to be expected given the change in routine last week. Everything will work out just fine though. Tomorrow will be here soon enough so there isn’t any point in worrying about it today. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time and one step at a time. Apart from being a little tired this weekend we are doing well. The sun is starting to come out and it certainly looks like we have the making of a grand day to start the new week. We may hit a bump in the road during our daily travels, but they really don’t amount to much in the big picture. Everyone is happy and healthy around here and we don’t have to look very hard to know that all is right on the homestead.

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August 30, 2020: Week 24 Of “Stay At Home” And We’re Still Counting.

We just finished our 24^th week of stay-at-home and our second week of online school. It also happened to be the last full week August and Mother Nature wanted to make sure we still knew it was summer. Thursday the heat index got up to 100 degrees. Of course, this wacky year did it’s best to remind us it was still 2020 as the Gulf Coast of Louisiana got pummeled with a Cat 4 hurricane. Not much happened up on our hill in the way of weather though. There really wasn’t any rain during the week and I got to see the sunrise every day except yesterday. Yesterday morning was cloudy and the rain did spit on us for a little while, but by mid-afternoon the sun was out and the day got warm and steamy. Today we’re starting out with sunshine and it’s a sure bet things will be warm and it may get a little steamy again. September starts next week and while things may start to cool off, Colleen and I are still expecting at least a few more hot and humid days before fall starts.

With the start of school two weeks ago and school being online, my life has gotten pretty one-dimensional lately. I spend most of my time on the computers either in class or getting ready for classes. Any free time I get is spent trying to rest or sleep. It’s not that school is physically challenging because it is not, but it is a huge mental challenge as I try to convert everything from a classroom environment to online. I spent last Sunday on the computers getting ready for Monday and Tuesday. Colleen, who doesn’t have to get class work ready, is keeping things floating around here. Rather than heading to the laundromat on Monday after school Colleen headed outside first thing Sunday morning, washed our laundry, hung it out to dry. Colleen spent the rest of the day baking, cleaning up around the house, and getting her stuff ready for school on Monday morning.

From Monday morning through Friday afternoon it was just me and the computer for classes, meetings, and preparing schoolwork. Colleen’s days are just as long as mine, and she pulls out of the driveway by 5:30 headed for school and gets home from school before 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Once she’s home for the afternoon though, it’s time to take care of the girls, do what housework she can, and get dinner ready. We have such an exciting life. I guess it is what it is, but it keeps us going and we do so enjoy things being relatively simple. Of course, we do only take things one day at a time and don’t worry about tomorrow. We figure everything will get done in its own good time. Anything we don’t get to do on a given day will still be waiting for us the next day.

As mundane as things seem to be lately, the week wasn’t without its highlights. Monday evening Colleen and I treated ourselves to homemade Ruben sandwiches for dinner. We had had a boiled dinner of corned beef and cabbage on Sunday evening so we had plenty of leftover corned beef. Being as the doctor wants me to cut back on my carb intake, French fries or potato chips which I love weren’t going to happen with the sandwiches. Colleen being ever creative as she is made some oven baked squash fries to go with our meal. Now, they certainly weren’t French fries, but they really were quite good and will be an excellent replacement for French fries with future meals. What I especially liked about the squash fries was that they tasted like a treat I would get at a state fair or the likes.

Even though Colleen and I were starting to find our stride by the middle of the week, the 100 degree heat index made Thursday rough for me just sitting in front of the computer all day. Of course, the floor fans were going all day to keep the air moving in the house. Even Buttercup found the late summer afternoon heat a bit hard to handle and she spent most of the day spread out on the landing with a fan blowing on her. Buttercup is getting older now and has slowed down some, but when she hears Colleen pull into the driveway in the afternoon Buttercup is all puppy again. If I don’t open the front door and let Buttercup run out to the car to get Colleen, Buttercup will stand there whining and crying until Colleen gets into the house. My kids in my online class get the biggest chuckle when they hear Buttercup in the background.

Colleen is the gate keeper at her school now. Every morning she sits outside and checks the temperatures of the teachers before they go inside to the building. On Friday, one of the teachers brought Colleen bouquet of sunflowers. Well, that just made Colleen’s day. All the same, by the time we finished our dinner on Friday evening both of us were exhausted. I went to bed early but woke up in the middle of the night to a ruckus in our cul-de-sac. It seems a group of teenagers had congregated out front for a posturing match. There was a lot of attitude in the air and a little bad language thrown around. I sat outside in the front porch with a cigar to keep an eye on things. I figured it was probably better for the kids to be there than downtown doing something stupid. The show lasted a bit more than an hour, but nothing much came of it and I had no trouble falling back asleep once things quieted down.

Saturday was run around and play catch-up day for Colleen and me. We finished our morning coffee and headed out to run our errands. We made a quick stop at Tractor Supply Company to load up on chicken feed and supplies. After that we headed to Perkins Orchard to get our fresh produce for the week. If you live in the Durham NC area, the place is really worth checking out. Colleen and I stopped at the market on the way home and we pulled back into our driveway before noon. After lunch I headed out to the gardens to harvest our own veggies while Colleen put the groceries away and cleaned the kitchen. Unfortunately, school is keeping Colleen and me pretty tied up during the week so I can really only get out to the gardens on the weekend. I got plenty of green beans yesterday, a few cucumbers, some Swiss chard, and some summer squash, one of which was quite large. Colleen was very impressed with our squash. I spent the rest of the day on the computer doing school work while Colleen took care of various things around the house.

It is a beautiful Sunday morning. The deer have wandered through the yard. Colleen is getting ready to take care of her usual Sunday chores. As much as I would like to work outside, I have schoolwork to do so I will be in front of the computers for the better part of the afternoon. It looks like the world still can’t figure out which way is up, but there isn’t a thing that Colleen and I can do about that. We are actually quite content to stay close to home and let things run their course. We take things one day at a time and do the best we can with what each day gives us. We sure don’t know what tomorrow will bring our way, but I guess we’re about as ready as anyone can get for whatever happens. The 24 weeks of stay-at-home have proved to be only a minor inconvenience for us if even that. We keep tabs on the family and everyone seems to be doing well. The world may still be acting crazy, but around here all we need to do is look out from our back porch to know that all is right on the homestead.

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September 06, 2020: Week 25 Of “Stay At Home” With One Final Blast Of Heat.

After 25 weeks under stay-at-home orders, one might think things are getting rough here on the homestead, but not for us. Colleen and I had school all week last week. I taught online from home and Colleen headed into school every day so she could check the temperatures of the teachers that wanted to teach online from their classrooms at school. The weather was just fine all week. Mother Nature gave us a good blast of heat towards the end of the week. Temperatures got up into the 90’s with heat indices over 100 degrees. We did get some rain on Monday night, but it was gone by Tuesday morning, leaving us with wet ground and a heavy fog hanging in the trees. The morning sun easily burnt the fog off before lunchtime. Things cooled off yesterday with the thermometer only getting up to 80 degrees. The temperature dropped below 60 degrees last night for the first time in a while, and this morning I had to put on a hoodie to enjoy my coffee on the back porch. I’m sure the hoodie won’t stay on very long this morning, but the cool morning air certainly feels good.

Last Sunday was a quiet day. Colleen headed out and got what little laundry there was done first thing in the morning. I did my usual writing and then spent the afternoon doing schoolwork on the computer. The day stayed slow after that. Colleen finished her usual weekend housework and then she managed to find time to take a nap in the afternoon. There was plenty of sunshine all day so the grill came out for dinner and I roasted some corn, potatoes, and butternut squash to go along with our grilled pork chops. After dinner it was back to the schoolwork for me, but I am slowly but surely getting my arms around everything, and I didn’t have to stay up late to get everything ready for the upcoming week.

For the most part, last week was a typical school week or at least as typical as online school gets these days. Colleen and I hadn’t realized that there was a full moon on Sunday night, but first thing in the dark of Monday morning Colleen got reminded on her way into school. Colleen ended up being an hour late for school because she got caught in traffic behind a pretty bad accident on her back road travels. The county sheriff finally started redirecting traffic on some other back roads and Colleen who doesn’t know how to use the GPS on her cell phone had to find her way to school by Braille. She did finally make it without any further problems. Compared to the morning, coming home was a breeze.

The rest of the week was uneventful. I had my usual classes and meetings all week. Colleen went to school in the mornings and when she came home in the afternoon she would take care of the girls and collect the eggs. We did get a new coffee percolator during the week. When our old drip coffee maker died in the summer, we started using our camp stove coffee pot. When school was getting ready to start we got a new drip coffee maker, but after having coffee from the camp stove pot and real percolated coffee, the drip coffee seemed weak and almost flavorless. The new percolator took care of the flavor and is much more convenient for school mornings. Colleen says the new percolator is boring though because it doesn’t perk into the little glass top aggressively enough for her so now she is on the hunt for an old 50’s style, clear glass coffee pot.

Friday came quickly enough and Colleen and I decided to take it easy for the evening. Alex stopped by for a quick visit after work and on his way to Steven’s place to hang out. Work is going well for him, he’s doing well on his own, and he looked healthy and happy, albeit a little tired from working. Alex visited for a while and told us he and Steven were planning a trip to see Louis this weekend. We haven’t talked to Louis in a bit, but Alex said Louis had re-upped for a six year stint in the Army. Colleen made sure Alex had a carton of fresh eggs in his hands when he headed out the front door so he was smiling when he left. After Alex left Colleen and I didn’t do much else other than tuck the girls in for the night.

Saturdays are usually busy for us, but with a 3-day weekend in hand there sure wasn’t much urgency to yesterday. After our morning coffee and breakfast Colleen and I headed out to get our usual errands out of the way. We had our weekly adventure to the produce stand and then stopped at the market in the way home. There were a whole bunch of apples on the seconds rack in the produce section at the market so Colleen and I decided we would make apple sauce this weekend and we bought every apple on the rack. We ended up getting a half a bushel of various apples for just over $5. Colleen spent yesterday afternoon putting groceries away and reorganizing the freezers while I cleaned out the chicken coop and replaced the bedding with the help of the girls, and I worked on a non-math activity for the kids at school. My school doesn’t have online classes on Wednesdays instead setting time aside for the kids and their social and emotional development, so another teacher and I are trying to put an online club together for the kids.

The sun is up, the chickens are out, and the temperature is pleasant. It looks like it is going to be a great day today. Colleen and I will be making and canning apple sauce and then who knows what. I suppose I may do some schoolwork, but with tomorrow being a holiday any schoolwork not done today will get done tomorrow. We may have been under stay-at-home since mid-March, but things are quite good up here on the hill. We certainly haven’t had any trouble finding things to keep us busy. Honestly, we don’t have a complaint in the world. The world at the bottom of our hill keeps doing its thing, good or bad, and we keep taking one day at a time up here. The family is healthy and happy, we’re even starting to make plans for a Thanksgiving gathering, and, as always, we just have to look around every day to smile thankfully and know that all is right on the homestead.

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September 13, 2020: Week 26 Of “Stay At Home” And We’re Definitely Headed Towards Fall.

The change of seasons is definitely on its way. After a beautiful Labor Day weekend the temperatures just barely reached 80 degrees for the rest of the week, and the skies were a little cloudier than usual. Even though there was the threat of rain for most of the week we really only saw the rain on Wednesday night. I guess Mother Nature wanted to give us one last reminder of summer too and while the temperatures were fine during the week, the humidity was through the roof on Thursday and Friday making everything feel clammy and pushing the heat indices into the upper 80’s. It could have been worse, but the house fans did a fine job of moving the air around so I was reasonably comfortable for my time spent in front of the computer. Yesterday Colleen and I ran into a bit of mist during our early morning running around, but by the afternoon the sun had made its way through the clouds, and this morning it is absolutely beautiful.

Colleen and I started off Week 26 of the “stay-at-home” with a long Labor Day holiday weekend which gave us Sunday free from getting ready for the new school week. We had picked up a half bushel of apple seconds from the market on Saturday so on Sunday we made and canned some apple sauce. Like usual, I peeled and cored the apples, Colleen cut the apples up, cooked them down into apple sauce, and filled the jars, and then I babysat the hot water bath. We ended up with a dozen pints of apple sauce to add to our larder, and of course a couple of jars disappeared quickly after the kids stopped by for a visit. We were finished by mid afternoon and we spent the rest of the day doing odds and ends, just basically catching our breath and relaxing. We’re still trying to get ourselves to an even keel on regular school weekends so having an extra day off last weekend was just what the doctor ordered. Our next day off doesn’t come until November now.

Monday was the actual Labor Day holiday, Colleen and I spent the better part of the day getting ready for our upcoming school week. Even with the school week only being four days long we still had a bunch of stuff to get ready. Colleen and I tried to squeeze a Costco run into our day without realizing Costco was closed for the holiday. We did end up stopping at the dollar store on our way home and got a couple more cases of quart canning jars though. Steven and Alex came over to the house on Monday morning and tried to fix Colleen’s Honda. The boys replaced the starter, but to no avail. It looks like the car will be headed to the garage here in the next little bit I guess. The boys took off to go fishing in the afternoon while Colleen and I went about our usual activities to get ready for school. It didn’t seem like we accomplished much on the day, but by the time we headed upstairs to bed that night, everything was ready to go and Colleen’s big satchel was loaded and ready to go for the morning.

Tuesday through Friday were pretty routine school days for us. The end of each day found us tired and worn out. Colleen would take care of the girls and collect the eggs when she got home from school and then make dinner. Thank goodness for leftovers though which make dinners easy. The girls have slowed way down with their laying so Colleen was only bringing one or two eggs back from the coop every day. The girls are molting and looking pretty ratty because of it. I did some reading on chicken molting because this is our first molt. It seems like it can take anywhere from one to three months for chickens to lose their old feathers and get new ones. I guess we’re looking at some time in late October to get through this round. We have added more calcium to their diets to help them, but I don’t think there is much more we can do other than wait.

Yesterday was just crazy busy around here. The morning got eaten up with running errands. Colleen and I made our usual runs to the produce stand and the market. We brought all of the things we bought home after our market run. We brought everything into the house, put the cold stuff into the refrigerator, and the headed back out to Costco to get caught up from last weekend. We didn’t get back from Costco until right before 1 o’clock and then everything had to be brought into the house, repackaged, and put away. One the bright side the sun had started to burn off the morning clouds and drizzle by the time we got home and the afternoon turned out to be very pleasant, but we stayed busy all day.

Just to make things even crazier yesterday, Colleen planned on having a full blown turkey dinner yesterday evening. There was no special reason for it, and it was just for Colleen and me, but with the temperatures getting cooler it’s getting to be soup and stew season. Apart from last night’s dinner, the turkey will feed us for the better part of the upcoming week and Colleen now has the fixings for the first round of turkey soup for the season and a variety of other meals. I really blew watching my carb intake last night with dinner, but there was no way I was going to pass up all of that wonderful stuffing and those mashed potatoes and gravy. Colleen will be stripping down the turkey later today and she will have the makings of a pot of turkey soup simmering on the stove some time after lunch.

We have a gorgeous morning to start today. Colleen is already doing last week’s laundry. I’ll be heading inside before too long to get working on my schoolwork. I’d like to think I’m making headway on being prepared for another week of the online classes and I think I am, but this year is a whole different game for school right now. Things are peaceful for the moment though. The birds are out, the girls are scratching around in their pen, and the deer have made their way up the hill for the day. Despite our somewhat general idea of what needs to be done in the day, Colleen and I are never quite sure what each day has in store for us. All the same, we just take things one step at a time and do what we can. Some days we get more accomplished than others, but we never worry about what doesn’t get done or tomorrow for that matter. The world can get as crazy as it wants, but Colleen and I always take things one day at time and at the end of each day we are always thankful to be able to look around and know that all is right on the homestead.

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September 20, 2020: Week 27 Of “Stay At Home” And Fall Is Here Early.

Last week sure turned out to be an interesting week for weather up here on the hill. The hot summer heat broke, and we started the week with some just downright beautiful days. The morning lows were around 60 degrees and the afternoon highs got just to 80 degrees. Things got a little dicey around midweek when Sally got here. The rains started on Wednesday evening and lasted until early Friday morning. We easily got over 2 inches of rain while the storm passed over our heads. Behind Sally there was plenty of sunshine for Friday and through the weekend, but it seems that fall temperatures started to move into the area a little early. We still have a few days of summer left, but temperatures got down into the mid 40’s and the afternoon highs only got into the 60’s starting on Friday . The temperature change suits us just fine, but I suspect things will warm up a little again in the near future.

It seems that Sunday has become laundry day now that Colleen and I are back in school, and Colleen was down back doing the laundry first thing last Sunday morning again. Now that Alex is living in his own place the laundry doesn’t pile up nearly as much as it used to pile up and it doesn’t take Colleen very long to get everything washed and drying on the line. Once the laundry was done, Colleen camped out in the kitchen for the rest of the day stripping down the turkey we had for dinner on Saturday evening. She made some turkey salad for our lunches during the week, a couple of turkey pot pies, and she started a big pot of turkey soup. That one 15 pound turkey would end up feeding Colleen and me for most all of last week and then some. I spent my Sunday getting notes and lesson plans ready for the upcoming week of school.

Monday through Friday was pretty much consumed with school for both Colleen and me. Colleen would leave the house at 5:15 or so and I would sit down in front of my computers not long after that. The week sort of got turned on its ear because I ended up having to administer diagnostic tests to my kids for most of the week and Colleen’s school needed her to give up her role as gatekeeper to take care of other things like administering online tests. Colleen’s school finally did provide her with a laptop computer on Friday. Up until then she had been doing everything they needed her to do on her tablet. Colleen really didn’t check her computer out until Friday evening when she got home and then we found out it wouldn’t turn on. She has to get the tech folks at her school to look at it on Monday. At home, things were pretty routine for the week. We took care of the animals, ate our dinner, cleaned up when we could, tried to find time in the evenings to relax, watched the sunset, and slept at night. Some nights the sleep was iffy at best. I guess our biggest concern of the week was how wet the girls got with all of the rain we had on Thursday.

Saturday finally got here and it was time for Colleen and me to play catch-up. Like most Saturday mornings of late, the first order of business was a trip to Perkins Orchard for our fresh produce and then a stop at the local market. Perkins was hopping when we got there. Colleen and I got the produce we needed for the upcoming week and made arrangements to get a bushel of Asian Pears to can next weekend. On the way home we stopped at the market to get the other things we needed for the week and we were home just a little bit after lunch. Since our market lists were short yesterday it didn’t take Colleen very long to get everything put away which left her with a bunch of free time in the afternoon.

I had schoolwork I wanted to get done yesterday so I spent the afternoon in front of the computers. I guess I’m getting more efficient at getting my schoolwork done because it didn’t take me quite as long as I thought it would to get most everything done. Colleen decided it was time to start moving her plants from the back porch to the more sheltered second floor porch for the fall and winter. We actually have plans to turn the second floor porch into a greenhouse of sorts, but that’s a project for upcoming weekends. Colleen was still moving plants around when I finished my school work for the day. I took a break out on the back porch to enjoy a cigar and watch the wild life in the backyard. The spots on this year’s fawns are starting to fade and the bucks have started rubbing the velvet off of their antlers which is a sure sign that fall is right around the corner.

Colleen finally reached the point where she had to stop working on her porches and start dinner. Since I knew it would take Colleen some time to get dinner ready, I got a jump on some yard work I wanted to do this weekend and I started cutting the grass in the backyard. I probably got half of the yard cut before it was time for dinner. Alex stopped by for a visit after dinner. Living on his own seems to be going well for him. He hung around until just about sunset. Alysia called to check in not long after that and I took care of the girls for the night while Colleen was chatting on the phone. It’s not like we had a bunch of down time yesterday, but it sure did feel like things had finally settled down compared to the last few weekends that had been chewed up with getting ready for the next week at school.

Colleen and I woke up to a cool fall like morning again today even though it is still technically summertime. I suppose our day will be busy. Colleen is already getting ready to do last week’s laundry. I have a few things for school to finish up, I’d like to finish cutting the backyard, and we want to get the Honda down to the shop. We never really know what will come of any given day so we just take things one step at a time. We’re definitely not sure when the Stay-At-Home orders will be fully lifted even though the government is slowly loosening things up, but it really doesn’t matter much to us since we tend to stay close to the house anyway. Colleen and I will just keep doing what we do and keep moving forward. Everyone is fine and doing well so we are thankful. Not much has changed in the last 27 weeks up here on our little hill, and I doubt much will change in the next 27 weeks. It really is a great feeling to look around and know that all is right on the homestead.

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September 27, 2020: Week 28 Of “Stay At Home”, The Leaves Are Still Green, But Fall Is Here.

We just finished week 28 of “Stay-At-Home” and it looks like we still have a ways to go. My school district announced Thursday evening that all classes will be online until after the New Year. Colleen’s district is chomping at the bit to get kids back into the classroom, but that has yet to be seen. Last week did bring us the start of autumn, some cooler temperatures, and rain to go along with the start of the new season. Fortunately I didn’t have to leave the house to teach my classes. Colleen on the other hand had to drive into school every day to play gatekeeper and then handle her usual array of daily odds and ends. The remnants of Hurricane Beta came through the area later in the week bringing us a full 24 hours straight of rain, but certainly nothing as torrential or devastating as the Gulf Coast saw.

Colleen got the laundry done first thing last Sunday morning. And that was just the start of a busy day for us. With a full week of school in front of me I spent the biggest part of Sunday doing schoolwork. I did take a break long enough to call AAA and have them tow the Honda to the shop and follow them down there so I could leave the mechanics some details and instructions. Colleen spent the better part of her day at in the kitchen making a big pot of her beef, bean, and barley soup, prepping a meatloaf for later in the week, and then making pork chops smothered in a cream and bourbon sauce with apples and onions for dinner. Needless to say the kitchen was a mess after dinner and Colleen spent her early evening cleaning everything up.

For the most part, the school week was uneventful. The shop had the Honda repaired and ready to go by Monday evening. Colleen definitely got a new found appreciation for driving the Trail Blazer in the morning when the weather was less than amicable. It looks like Colleen is finally convinced that the Trail Blazer is the vehicle she needs to be driving back and forth to school. Since I’m not going back to school until after the New Year at the earliest and I only have a 10 mile drive, I will be driving the Honda to school. That was pretty much the big news during the week. When school is in, online or otherwise, we do what we can and what we need to do to get through and that is about it.

The weekends around here are all about playing catch-up for Colleen and me, and this weekend was no different. We ended up sticking a couple of extra errands on the front end of our usual run to the produce stand and market. My phone was dying and dying quickly so I needed to get a new one, and with the cold weather right around the corner it was time to head to Lowe’s to get a new rack to stack firewood on the back porch. We haven’t put a fire in the fireplace yet, but the forecast is calling for mornings to be in the low 40’s very soon. The cool temperatures normally wouldn’t be a problem if Colleen and I were both headed into school every morning, but I’m staying home all day for school now so having some heat in the mornings got bumped up the list. Looking at the winter-ready firewood I already know I’m going to miss Alex being around the house because I’ll be hauling all the wood up to the back porch now.

Perkin’s Orchard was packed with people yesterday when we stopped to get our weekly produce. Colleen and I did have the good fortune to run into a fellow teacher from my school and his wife. It was their first visit to Perkin’s Orchard. Colleen and I filled our usual bag of produce, but we couldn’t get a bushel of pears yesterday. That took canning pears off the table for today rather quickly. We were able to get four very nice pie pumpkins that we are planning on turning into pumpkin butter and then canning though. We hit the market on the way home and while it was a quick stop there, the whole morning was long and we didn’t end up getting home until well after lunch.

Yesterday afternoon kind of melted away before Colleen and I really got rolling. Colleen mostly put the groceries away and I took care of a few odds and ends on top of doing a little bit of schoolwork. The wood rack got put together and put in place on the back porch, but I sure didn’t have the gumption to start filling it. Dinner was just cheeseburgers and after dinner Colleen and I just did what we could until it was time to close up the hen coop and call it a day. It’s not like yesterday was incredibly taxing, but we sure managed to stay busy all day and I guess we did get some needed things accomplished.

The sun is finally up this morning, the girls are out of the coop and scratching around in their pen, Colleen already has last week’s laundry washed and on the line. It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get to the pumpkin butter today, but maybe tomorrow. I’ll do my best to get my schoolwork sewn up today, but I sure couldn’t tell you what else will get done around here. It’s going to be one of those days. Sometimes our plans change on a dime and we have to think on our feet and come up with Plan B. Colleen and I will do all that we can today. We know everything happens for a reason and so we take things one step at a time. Sometimes the road gets a little bumpy, but we all find a way to make it through to the end of each day. Even when things don’t work out as planned, at the end of each day we can look around and smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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October 04, 2020: Week 29 Of “Stay At Home”, The Temperatures Are Starting To Cool Off

It only took fall a couple of weeks to settle into the area, but we’re into October and fall is definitely here. We didn’t get much in the way of rain last week. Mother Nature did send a good line of storms our way on Tuesday evening and through the night, but everything cleared out nicely and just left everything wet for Wednesday morning. Last weekend we had lovely weather with temperatures touching 80 degrees, but there was a cold front behind Tuesday night’s storm and things have cooled off quite a bit. This weekend our night time lows got down into the 40’s and the high temperatures didn’t and won’t make it out of the 60’s. This morning the house was cool enough that I was inclined to put a fire in the fireplace to take the chill out of the air. The fire definitely did the trick and it wasn’t too long before everything was toasty warm. I suspect with me teaching from home until at least after the New Year that we will be going through more firewood than usual since I will most likely burn a fire during the day. Fortunately, we have plenty firewood seasoned, stacked, and ready to go.

Colleen and I originally had planned on canning last Sunday, but since Monday was a teacher workday Colleen decided we would use Sunday to get all of our regular weekend chores out of the way. Colleen, like usual, started her Sunday by getting the previous week’s laundry washed and on the line. I got in front of my computers and took care of my schoolwork for the week. Colleen spent the rest of her day in the kitchen and even managed to make a big pot of her Bolognese soup. Anticipating the cooler weather, soups and stews will become a big part of our menu and a pot full of soup will usually last us a whole week. On the whole, last Sunday turned out quite well and Colleen and I managed to get most all of our chores and work out of the way.

With Monday being a teacher workday, Colleen didn’t have to set the alarm clock or go into school. I had done most of my work on Sunday so we were ready to start canning bright and early on Monday morning when we got up. Colleen was busy in the kitchen before I ever got rolling. While I was enjoying my morning coffee on the back porch, she managed to make and can some pineapple, tomato, and onion salsa. Since we’ve started visiting Perkins Orchard on every weekend now, it seems we always have a fresh pineapple or two on the counter. Once Colleen was done with the salsa it was time to make pumpkin butter. I cored and peeled all of the pumpkins and Colleen cut everything up, turned the pumpkin into mash, added the spices, and then set everything on the stove at a low simmer until it thickened up appropriately. It took a good couple of hours for the pumpkin butter to thicken up and around 2:30 Colleen was filling half pint jars. We ended up canning 21 half pints on the day.

Tuesday through Friday were just regular school days, well, about as regular as school online gets. Of course, Buttercup has to go out to the driveway everyday when Colleen gets home, but even that is becoming routine now too. Colleen and I both now know the high schools will not be returning to school proper until after the New Year. The highlight of the week though was my club meeting for the kids on Wednesday afternoon. My partner and I only planned on an hour long meeting, but things went so well the meeting ran two hours and nobody noticed. It was great to see the kids talking to each other and having fun even if the meeting was online. It seems even some of the parents are excited about the club, but since it’s a school activity during school hours the club is limited to just the kids.

Yesterday Colleen and I came out of the chute fast and early. With everything we needed to do to catch up on this weekend we somehow forgot to eat breakfast before we were out the front door to get our morning errands out of the way. We had our usual Saturday morning with a run to Perkins Orchard produce stand and then a quick stop at the market. We even got a half-bushel of pears at Perkins so we could do some more canning this weekend. We kind of had a feeling we would be canning pears this weekend so even after we got home we didn’t slow down. Once everything was in the house and put away from our running around, there were our other weekend chores to done.

Yesterday afternoon was bright and sunny and with cooler temperatures starting to hang around, Colleen and I figured we better get the wood rack on the back porch filled with firewood. Filling the back porch wood rack had been Alex’s chore for as long as he had lived with us and he did a great job of keeping it full for us, but Alex has his own place now and that left just Colleen and me to fill the rack. I would get a wagon full of wood off of the winter-ready racks, pull the wagon to the base of the porch stairs, and then throw the wood up onto the porch. Colleen would get the wood and then stack it on the rack. It took a little bit of doing, but we got the rack filled. Once we got the rack filled Colleen headed upstairs to work on insulating the floor of our second floor porch so we can turn it into a greenhouse of sorts and I got in front of the computers to do some schoolwork.

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I’m not sure if we got up early this morning or it just seems that way with the sun rising later and later each day. I put a fire in the fireplace and Colleen took care of the girls before she got ready to do last week’s laundry. I guess it will be about mid morning before we get started on the pears we want to can today. I don’t have a lot of schoolwork to do today, mostly grading, and Colleen wants to make another pot of soup for the upcoming week. I guess it’s going to be a pretty typical Sunday for us, albeit busy. That’s pretty much how weekends go around here. We are slowly, but surely starting to find a bit free time on weekday evenings, but until we get another break from school, weekends are going to be when we play catch-up. It seems the world is still acting crazy and with the start of a new flu season, Colleen and I are hoping things don’t take another turn for the worse, but we are ready. We’ll just keep living our life one day at a time up here on our little hill. We’re quite content to stay to ourselves and all this “stay-at-home” hasn’t bothered us in any great way. The world will do what the world will do, but around here we have reason to celebrate every day because all is right on the homestead.

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October 11, 2020: Week 30 Of “Stay At Home” And We Have Another Hurricane In Town.

The rain is falling and we’re closing out the 30th week of stay at home with the remnants of yet another hurricane. On the whole it was a pretty nice week though. The temperatures did dip down into the low 40’s at the beginning of the week and I put a fire in the fireplace to chase the chill out of the house last Sunday morning. We really didn’t need one for the rest of the week, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before we start each morning with a fire. We had plenty of sunshine all week long which made for beautiful afternoons, but the rain moved into the area on Friday night. The rain wasn’t too bad yesterday, but just after sunset it started raining steadily and it’s been raining ever since, well mostly ever since because we do get a break every now and again. This weekend’s rain is what is left over from the last hurricane to slam the Gulf Coast. The storm itself will pass well west and north of us, but not far enough away so that the rain missed us. I suppose everything needed a good watering anyway.

Colleen started last Sunday morning hot out of the chute. Before I knew it and while I was still on the porch writing, Colleen was down back doing the previous week’s laundry. She had ordered a new clothes wringer and it got delivered towards the end of the week so she was anxious to give it a try. She pulled an old metal desk out of the basement and made herself a dandy little clothes washing station. Colleen is most pleased with her new clothes wringer. Once the laundry was done, on the line, and I had finished my writing, Colleen and I sat down and canned up a half-bushel of pears. Pears are easy and once I have them quartered, cored, and peeled, Colleen packs them in light syrup, seals them up, and everything goes in the water bath to can. Since we only had a half-bushel Colleen even did the water bathing on the kitchen stove. We ended up with a half dozen pints and 4 quarts of canned pears.

Monday through Friday ended up being a rather humdrum week for us. Oh, I’m not complaining, in fact it was about time this online school thing settled down into a routine anyway. Colleen would leave for school in the dark each morning and got home in the middle of the afternoon. I had my usual online classes and weekly meetings. Of course, now that things are settling down, my school district told us they were going to change our class schedule starting in another week or so. There were a few odds and ends that did pop up during the week. Colleen found one of the jars of tomatoes we had canned during summer had gone bad, she labeled the pears we canned, and brought them to the basement to add to our larder. We had a beautiful red fox meander up by the porch stairs one morning. Fortunately, I hadn’t let the girls out of their coop for the day yet when the fox came around. Mostly everything went pretty smoothly though.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I were out the front door to run our errands just as soon as we able. Our first stop was Perkins Orchard to get our weekly supply of produce. I was pleasantly surprised to find fresh McIntosh apples the owner had gotten from the mountains west of here. I grew up near McIntosh apple orchards in New England, but down here in the Carolinas, McIntosh apples are hard to find fresh. Like usual Colleen and I stopped at the market on the way home to get groceries and didn’t Colleen find some rather pretty and different flowers she just had to have. We got home we’ll before noon which is unusual for us on a Saturday morning. Once we got everything into the house and put away, we grabbed a quick bite of lunch and got ready for the next adventure of the day.

I guess it was late last May I ordered a new swimming pool. During the previous winter a dead branch had fallen on our old swimming pool, tore the liner severely, and mangled the frame. I found an inflatable pool for $200 dollars with a decent delivery date so I ordered it. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that the pool was as coming from China. Well, the pool took twice as long to get here than it was supposed to take and they sent us the wrong pool. Instead of a 14 foot diameter and 4 foot deep pool with a filter assembly, they sent us a 4 1/2 foot diameter, 10 inch deep pool. That sure wasn’t going to be much help in keeping us cool over the summer months so I started the process of trying to get our money back. Fortunately, I had used PayPal to pay for the pool so I just followed the usual PayPal process. There has been a good bit of back and forth since then, but last week the company finally agreed to refund our money if we sent the wrong pool back to them. Colleen and I repackaged the pool in the original box, addressed it as instructed, and headed down to the UPS store. We got a big surprise. It will cost us $380 to ship the pool back to China. Well that isn’t going to happen for a $200 refund. Needless to say I’m back online with PayPal and the pool is still sitting in our family room.

Things are slow around here this morning. Colleen won’t be doing the laundry because of the rain. I managed to get a got bit of schoolwork done yesterday so I don’t have much to finish today. I let the girls out for the morning when we had a break in the rain, but other than that I’ve just been sitting on porch, watching chipmunks run around, and noticing that the leaves are starting to change color. With any luck Colleen and I should have another quiet week in front of us. The weather is supposed to be nice too. Colleen and I will keep taking things one day at a time and handle whatever comes our way. I’m still blown away that we are already in the middle of October and I suspect Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. No matter though because while the world is still acting crazy, our life is simple and easy up here on our little hill. Colleen and I are very thankful for the life we have and we smile broadly every time we look around because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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October 18, 2020: Week 31 Of “Stay At Home” And October Is Melting Away.

We’re starting this fine October morning off with the mercury sitting at a balmy 40 degrees. We just finished week 31 of our prolonged stay-at-home and we’re getting ready for week 32. After a rainy weekend last weekend, the weather on the whole was pretty nice this last week. Things took a few days to dry up and then the rain came back on Thursday night and stuck around through Friday morning. By Friday afternoon the sun was battling with the clouds and yesterday was just beautiful. As one might expect with the season, we’re starting to get chillier mornings and this morning it was cool enough that I even lit a fire in the fireplace to chase the chill out of the house. I may just keep a low fire burning all morning and into the early afternoon. Things are supposed to warm up a little this week though so I may not need to light a fire every morning, but soon I suspect.

The rain last Sunday really put a damper on our usual activities. We ended up getting over three inches of rain for the weekend and with the rain still falling Sunday morning Colleen wasn’t about to do any laundry. The rain didn’t really slow us down though. Colleen spent all day in the kitchen and I spent all day with my computers doing schoolwork. I’m actually getting more proficient with online teaching, but every time I think I have a handle on something I end up trying something else and add more to my plate. I really should stop doing that. Anyway, I’ll be teaching online until at least after the New Year. With the numbers starting to increase again and with schools that started in person already reverting back to online, there is a very real possibility that I could be looking at spring break before I get back into the classroom proper.

The school week passed relatively quietly. I was giving quizzes and tests most all week. Unfortunately, the sound card in my school laptop fried out on Wednesday, but I run two computers and after a few minor adjustments to other computer, I limped through the rest of the week. Ironically, the hardest part of the week was managing my club meeting on Wednesday afternoon. It didn’t take me long to decide it was time for me to buy a new, second computer for myself. Colleen’s week was, more or less, routine. She did have to drive to school in the fog and rain on Friday morning. Let’s just say just she has a new found appreciation of driving the Trail Blazer. Riding up high when the weather is lousy is much less stressful than riding low in the Accord. The week did bring the seasonal reminder that I will need to blow the leaves off the yard before too long too. I think I’ll have to cut the grass one more time too before I get the leaf blower out.

Yesterday Colleen and I started out about early as we could. We added the extra errand of getting a new computer to our usual list so we had to time everything so we would be at Best Buy when they opened for the day. As it happened there is a Walmart near Best Buy so we were able to start our errands early at Walmart and finish just about when Best Buy opened. Best Buy didn’t have the computer I wanted in stock so it will be delivered here to the house this coming Wednesday which is just fine by me. I didn’t have to traipse around to another Best Buy and I don’t have to make an extra trip off of our hill later in the week to pick up the new computer. As yesterday morning was just gorgeous and since Colleen and I had bought a new Christmas music CD we decided to listen to it as we ran around doing our errands. Here it is just the middle of October and Colleen and I are ready for a little Christmas. It’s 2020 and right now anything goes.

The rest of our errands were our usual stop at Perkins Orchard for our weekly fresh produce and then a stop at the market to finish up our grocery list. We got home, unloaded everything, ate lunch, and then started putting stuff away. No trip to Walmart would be complete without stocking up on dog treats for Buttercup. Colleen and I had a good laugh when we realized how many different treats we had for our spoiled dog. Buttercup has it made here. The afternoon was quiet and while Colleen put her pantry in order I did some grading and answered emails for school. Whoever said being a teacher gives you lots of free time obviously never tried being a teacher. All the same, I would never go back to a regular 9 to 5 job. Teaching may be a lot of work, but it is fun, well at least in my mind anyway.

I guess I best get moving this morning. Colleen is heading down back to do the laundry and I have to close my grade books for the quarter and get ready for classes this week. At least I have a teacher workday tomorrow. Colleen has one on Friday. Fall is already a month old and October is more than halfway done. Before long we’ll be looking at Thanksgiving. No matter what each day brings our way Colleen and I will greet each new day with open arms. We take things one day a time and don’t worry about what tomorrow might have in store for us. There is just too much crazy in the world right now and it seems like everyone is screaming while no one is listening. Well, that is what it is, but things are quiet and calm up here on our little hill and Colleen and I couldn’t be more thankful because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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October 25, 2020: Week 32 Of “Stay At Home” And We Have Another Hurricane Brewing In the Gulf???

October is coming to a close quickly, but I still don’t think Mother Nature has her seasonal act together. Last Sunday it was cold enough for us to start a fire in the fireplace. I think that might have been only the second or third time this fall, but with the thermometer sitting at 40 degrees, the house was a bit chilly when Colleen and I got up. Sunday was the only day we needed a fire though because temperatures started climbing on Monday and we were pushing upwards towards 80 degrees again by yesterday afternoon. On the whole, the week was very nice. We certainly had plenty of sunshine, well at least until this morning when the rain showed up right around sunup. I’m not sure how long the rain will last today, but the long range forecast says we can expect more nice weather for the upcoming week even if it is supposed to be a little cooler again. It does look like we will see some more rain later in the week and then it may get cold enough again that I’ll have to put a fire in the fireplace.

Even though it was chilly last Sunday morning it was a lovely fall morning, and Colleen was out back doing the laundry right after she finished her breakfast. She said the chilly temperatures didn’t bother her. My darling wife is of good New England stock. I spent my Sunday morning on the back porch writing, like usual, and after lunch it was back to my schoolwork. I really wasn’t pressed too badly for time since it was the end of the quarter and I had a teacher’s workday on Monday. I didn’t have to get my lesson plans or class work sewn up, but I did have to get all of my grades cleaned up and posted. Colleen went about her usual Sunday routine and after the laundry was on the line, she spent most of the rest of the day in the kitchen getting ready for the week ahead of us.

Colleen headed off to school in the dark of Monday morning, but I didn’t have any classes on the day. It’s not like it was a day off though because I still spent most of my day on my computers doing schoolwork. It seems that this online teaching gig is turning into a seven day a week job. Fortunately, the pace is a little slower and I don’t have to leave the house. I did get to take a few breaks out on the back porch and enjoy the lovely weather and admire the start of the leaves changing color. Colleen got home at her regular time and once I finished with my schoolwork we did enjoy a quiet evening and a lovely potato pie for dinner.

Tuesday through Thursday were just regular school days for both Colleen and me. Nothing unusual came of the days. My new computer did arrive on Wednesday and at Colleen’s suggestion I started setting up my new base of operations. We have a good sized antique gaming table that has plenty of room on it for my computers so I set it up by the front window. Sometime in the next week or so, I’ll move my computers there and get everything off of the dining room table. My new spot is closer to the fireplace and it opens up the dining room table just in time for the holiday season. I do have to area clean the rugs though before I move everything over. I’m actually running a bit late on my carpet cleaning this year.

Friday was a teacher workday for Colleen so she didn’t have to go into school. She did get to sleep a little later in the morning, but Buttercup didn’t let her sleep too much later. I had my usual school day with my classes, but once they were done I shut everything down for the night. Colleen spent most of her day working on a Christmas project. Given the year it has been so far, we’ve decide to pump a little Christmas spirit into the house early this fall. Last weekend while we were running around Colleen came across an advent calendar she had to have. It’s now sitting on top of the bookcase in the family room and Friday night we decided to have our dinner in front of the TV watching a Christmas movie. It’s the first time we’ve watched the TV in quite a while and it was a most welcome break from all of the crazy happenings in the outside world.

Yesterday it was my turn to sleep late, and by late I mean just until sunrise. Colleen and I ran our usual Saturday morning errands to Perkins Orchard for our fresh produce and the market for the rest of our groceries. Like most Saturdays, yesterday was definitely a catch-up day for Colleen and me. Colleen got the groceries put up and her kitchen and pantry put to rights, did some housework, and even found time to work on her Christmas project. I spent all afternoon out in the yards with the leaf blower. I’m sure Alex’s ears were buzzing because over the past few years that has been his job. The front yard was pretty well covered in leaves and the backyard was getting there. I know from experience that it’s better to blow the leaves off the yard while they are still manageable rather than wait for the yard to get buried with all of the leaves. By dinner time Colleen and I both figured we needed a break and found ourselves in front of the TV for dinner, watching another Christmas movie.

Well, the rain is falling, the girls are getting wet, Colleen is already in the kitchen, and my schoolwork is waiting. We’re heading into the last week of October and next weekend we turn the clocks back an hour. Colleen and I have no idea what the upcoming week has in store for us, but we’ll greet each day with open arms and do what we can to make each day special. Apart from Colleen going to school every day to be the gatekeeper and our weekly run to the market on Saturday, we’ll be staying close to home especially with the virus numbers on the rise again around here and pretty much everywhere for that matter. There isn’t much we can do to change things so we will just sit tight knowing this too shall pass. Colleen and I really don’t mind all of this stay-at-home. It’s pretty much what we do even in the best of times. Of course, all we have to do is look around to know that all is right on the homestead.

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November 01, 2020: Week 33 Of “Stay At Home”, Bring On The Holidays

Just in case you missed it today is November 1^st and the start of week 34 of the great stay-at-home experiment. I say that tongue in cheek because I’m still trying to figure out what happened to the first 10 months of this year. It’s not that I’d really want to go back and revisit the last 10 months considering we barely left the house since mid March with everything going in on the world these days. I suppose down the road a bit we’ll all look back and ask each other where we held up in 2020. Fortunately, there is no place Colleen and I would rather be than up here on our hill. Last week passed in a mostly uneventful way for us. Last Sunday was rainy and dreary and we have a repeat of that again this morning. The temperatures started cooling off making it feel like fall had finally gotten here and tonight we might see our first frost of the season. We did have the remnants of another hurricane blow through the area bring some rain and some stout winds with it. On the bright side, we didn’t see any of the snow that a lot of the country saw.

I basically took Saturday off last weekend which left me with more schoolwork than I like to do Sunday. The schoolwork had me at the computers until well after dark. Colleen spent her day in the kitchen cooking. I guess that’s no surprise. To go with the usual batch of weekly muffins for breakfasts, Colleen decided to put together a pan of lasagna. When she got done building the lasagna she seemed to think the pan weighed more than usual so she put it on a scale, mostly out of curiosity. The lasagna weighed in at a whopping 14 pounds. Fortunately, that lasagna will feed the two of us for four meals, and to help cut back on the carbs, Colleen replaced half of the noodles with sliced yellow and zucchini squash. We ended up eating half of the lasagna during the week and the other half is neatly tucked away in the freezer for future meals.

Apart from Colleen’s foggy drives into school every morning the rest of the week passed relatively smoothly, well, smoothly except for losing power for almost 7 hours on Thursday. The hurricane that moved through the area wasn’t too bad save for the very gusty wind that ended up knocking a lot of trees down, many of which took power lines with them. I was just finishing up my first class of the day when we lost power. No power or internet for online classes is very much like a snow day in winter. I was fortunate to be able to drive down the road and find a live Wi-Fi connection so I was sitting there in the car with my laptop wedged between me and the steering wheel explaining the situation to one of my classes. The kids found it quite entertaining that I was on Zoom in my car. I did everything I could to get the kids moving in the right direction for their work and then it was back home and wait for the electricity to come back on. We finally did get our power back around sunset, but not until after Colleen fixed dinner out on our camp stove on the back porch. I was pleasantly surprised on Friday to find out that the kids had done a great job of doing their class work asynchronously.

Remembering how buried I was in schoolwork last Sunday, I suggested to Colleen that we get our planned Costco run out of the way on Friday after school. I suppose I could have used Friday afternoon to blow the leaves off of the yard again, but getting an errand out of the way seemed a more prudent use of our time. Colleen and I don’t like being in crowds of people and the thought of a Costco run on a Friday afternoon wasn’t something we looked forward to doing, but we bit the bullet and headed down the road right after my last class finished. Much to our surprise Costco was not crowded and we got in and out very easily. It seems that Friday afternoons may be the best time to go to Costco.

Our Costco run actually proved to be a great break from being home for Colleen and me. We ran into another teacher from my school. What treat that was to see a familiar and smiling face. You could see the smile through the mask! After our short visit, Colleen and I not only got the things we needed, but we even got some of our Christmas shopping done. We both had to laugh though because we ended up making a nice dent in our Christmas lists and it was still October. We’re sure not planning to make our usual shopping runs this year and I sure don’t know exactly what we will do, but Colleen and I will pull it off just like we always do. No matter what the world throws at us this year, it’s a sure bet that the holidays will be just as festive as ever, even if they do look different from past years. Heck, we’ve already started playing Christmas music and one of Colleen’s Christmas cacti is blooming too.

Getting the Costco run out of the way on Friday afternoon made yesterday morning’s errands whole lot easier on us, and we were back from our run to Perkins Orchard and the market right before lunch. Colleen spent the better part of the rest of her day working on Christmas projects and organizing her kitchen while I started steam cleaning the rugs and getting my week’s worth of grading done. It wasn’t really cold, but the afternoon temperatures never reached 60 degrees so a fire in the fireplace added some extra heat to the house and helped the rug dry after I steam cleaned the first part it. Colleen and I did take a break to eat dinner and watch a Christmas movie. After dinner I stayed up long enough to finish all of my grading and get my grade books caught up so that is one less thing I’ll have to do today.

With any luck this morning’s rain should end by lunch time and the sun might just come out this afternoon too. Of course, with the holidays fast approaching, our “To-Do” list doubled in size. It’s the same every year and every year we wonder how we’ll get everything done, but we do. Everything about this year has been strange, but Colleen and I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, undaunted. Colleen and I have already found that we are in quite a holly jolly frame of mind and even though Thanksgiving is still four weeks away, we are looking at our Christmas decorations in the basement thinking that they will be coming out early this year. 2020 has been one heck of a year so far, but Colleen and I plan on seeing it out in grand holiday fashion because through it all we’ve been able to look around up here on our little hill and smile thankfully knowing that all is right on the homestead.

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November 08, 2020: Week 34 Of “Stay At Home”, And It Was An Interesting Week Even With The Distraction Of The Election

We started Week 34 of our “Stay-At-Home” with moving the clocks back an hour and near freezing temperatures. It was the first time this fall we got close to the freezing mark, but close is no cigar. We never did see the freezing mark. It was cold enough though that Colleen and I needed a fire in the fireplace for the first part of the week. By midweek things started to warm up again and this weekend we are looking at temperatures in the middle 70’s. We didn’t get any rain all week except for last Sunday morning, and there is another named storm in the Gulf of Mexico. It seems those storms are popping up weekly. Colleen and I had Tuesday off from school for the election and since we voted absentee this year we spent the day taking care of things around the house. We did what we could the rest of the week, but come yesterday we still found ourselves playing catch-up. I suppose playing catch-up will be the way of things on weekends around here for a while, especially with the holidays on the horizon.

There was a cold biting rain falling last Sunday morning so the first thing I did when I got up was put a fire in the fireplace to chase off the chill in the house. Colleen got an early start in the kitchen baking muffins and making soup. Between the fire in the fireplace and the aroma coming from the kitchen, things just couldn’t get any better. I went about my writing in the morning and spent my afternoon doing schoolwork. It looks like today will go the same way for me again. The time change made the day seem weird and we did get crossed up on our times at one point. We only have one wall clock that isn’t digital and we completely forgot about it after we changed all of the digital clocks in the house. The clock is above the pantry in the kitchen and even though there is a clock on the stove and microwave, the wall clock seems to be the one on which Colleen relies. Colleen was getting frustrated because she thought it was getting late so when the clock said it was 4 o’clock she started making dinner. Dinner was ready for 5 o’clock and that is when we realized it was only 4 o’clock. Dinner was early but it still was delicious.

We hadn’t quite adjusted to the time change on Monday morning and Monday morning proved to be a real Monday morning. Colleen woke up bumping into walls and then as she went to pull out of the driveway on her way to school, the headlight burnt out on the Trail Blazer. One light was already burnt out so taking the Trail Blazer to school in the dark wasn’t going to work. We scampered a bit, jockeyed the vehicles around, and Colleen took the Honda to school on Monday. Once Colleen was gone, I got a fire going in the fireplace and started getting ready for school. The wet, cold weather of the preceding weekend had prevented Colleen from doing the laundry so on the way home from school she stopped at the laundromat. Yes, indeed, it was most certainly Monday! At least the sun was out and apart from being a little chilly we had a beautiful day. Fortunately, Colleen had made plenty of food over the weekend so getting dinner ready once she got home was just a matter of reheating something from the refrigerator.

Tuesday was Election Day and both Colleen and I had the day off from school. We had voted absentee this year which was a first for us so we just made the best of our day at home. We had taken the Trail Blazer to the shop on Monday afternoon. We had planned on that anyway so we could get the annual inspection out of the way. I had a doctor’s appointment early in the morning so I drove the Honda. My appointment went fine. I’ve lost a little weight and my blood pressure is down. My cholesterol results came in a bit later in the week and they were down too. After I got back home, Colleen and I got the Trail Blazer back from the shop and went about doing what we could around the house. We even found time to reload the wood rack on the back porch. With me being home and the mornings being cooler and keeping a fire in the fireplace, we’ve already emptied one of our half cord winter ready racks of firewood. What didn’t get done was blowing leaves which are really starting to pile up in the yard.

Things finally settled down on Wednesday and the rest of our school week ran smoothly. The new coat we ordered for Buttercup got delivered on Wednesday. We ordered a XXL coat for her, which might be a bit big, but Buttercup who loves wearing coats is absolutely delighted with her new outerwear. Wednesday was also the last morning I needed to put a fire in the fireplace last week. The last part of the week stayed low key for us. The girls are still in their molt and with the shorter daylight hours they aren’t laying many eggs. Fortunately, we have a bunch of water glassed eggs to see us through. Come to think about it, our larder is pretty well stocked at this point which bodes well for whatever comes down the road in the next few months.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I were out the front door first thing to do our usual running around. Our first stop was Perkins Orchard to get our weekly quarter bushel of fruit and vegetables and then there was the stop at the market on our way home. We really didn’t have a big market list. It seems now that Alex is living in his own apartment, our market needs have diminished greatly. Of course, we do look around for sales while we are at the market and yesterday we found a dandy sale on coffee. We walked out the market with 10 pounds of coffee for just $20. I don’t think we’ll be running out of coffee anytime soon. Even with our running around yesterday morning Colleen and I were home before lunch. After lunch I moved some furniture in the living room and finished steam cleaning the living room rug, and after that there was schoolwork to be done. Colleen spent the afternoon in her workroom. Yesterday evening we treated ourselves to Swiss mushroom burgers, battered dipped baked veggies, and a Christmas movie on the big screen TV.

We have a beautiful fall morning on our hands today. It looks like the local color is finally starting to show too. I guess it will be just another typical Sunday for us around here. Colleen will be cooking most of the day and I have plenty of schoolwork that needs doing. On the bright side, the elections seem to be finally over. When it comes to politics, I am apathetic towards it all. This year’s election had the same results as the last several elections, half of the people are celebrating and half of the people are ticked off. Personally, I could care less. I just want the government to leave us alone and let us take care of our own business. It seems the more things change though the more they stay the same. Fortunately, while the world is going crazy, things up here on our little hill couldn’t be any better. All we have to do is stand on our back porch and look around to know that all is right on the homestead.

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November 15, 2020: Week 35 Of “Stay At Home”, Cold Weather Is On The Way And They’re Tightening Things Up Headed For Another Lockdown Maybe

We just finished our 35th week of “Stay-At-Home” and after months of trying to ease up the restrictions, the numbers spiked and our governor has backtracked and started tightening things up again. It looks like last week we had the last of our really warm weather for the year too, although we are getting used to the temperatures swinging all over the place of late. We got some dandy rain in these parts during the middle of the week. The counties to the east of us got the worst of it with lots of flooding and road washouts. Some counties even canceled school on Friday it was so bad. Around here we got just under 2 inches of rain, but we’re expecting another front to push through later today which will bring us a little more rain and then send temperatures down into the 20’s for the first part of the new week. They will be the first sub-freezing temperatures of the season for us. Of course all of this rain has knocked most of the leaves off of the trees, leaving a wet brown mat covering the ground. The leaves all need to be blown off of the yard, but it’s not worth doing it while they are all wet so it will have to wait.

Last Sunday was pretty run of the mill for us up here on the hill. The weather was certainly nice enough, but my day was filled up with writing and schoolwork. Colleen went about her usual Sunday baking, cooking, and cleaning. The time change and the weather patterns have prompted Colleen to return to the laundromat to do our weekly laundry, although with Alex now living at his own place, Colleen can almost go to doing laundry every other week. Colleen did get to try a new salmon and pasta recipe for our Sunday evening dinner. I thought it turned out quite well, but Colleen still thinks it need a bit more tweaking. When it comes to tweaking recipes, I’ve learned to let Colleen run with her instincts because they almost always turn out better.

Monday and Tuesday were regular school days for Colleen and me, but we had Wednesday off from school to celebrate Veterans Day. One would think that with all the crazy things going on in the world and around here Colleen and I would take a day off in the middle of the week to rest, but no. I did sleep late, but as soon as I was done with my morning coffee I was upstairs putting together a small greenhouse for the second floor porch. Colleen and I want to enclose the whole porch and turn it into a greenhouse, but we just don’t have the time at the moment. Since it was Colleen’s birthday on Wednesday, I did the next best thing and bought her a metal frame greenhouse for her back porch. Colleen spent most of her day in her workroom working on Christmas projects and after I finished the greenhouse and then worked some more on cleaning the rug on the living room, it was back to the computers and schoolwork for me. Even though we stayed busy all day, the day off from school really did prove to be a nice break for us.

The remnants of yet another hurricane blew through the area on Thursday. The rain was hard and steady and Colleen was very thankful for driving back and forth to school in the Trail Blazer. The steady rain stripped most of the trees of their leaves and Friday morning we were left with yards that were filled with all sorts of wet debris. The yards really to need to be blown clean, but before I even attempt that huge project, everything needs to dry out quite a bit. There is just no point in killing myself trying move wet leaves. The sun did come out on Friday afternoon, and Friday ended up being a quiet day. Colleen and I celebrated the end of the week with a dinner of chili cheese dogs and chili cheese fries. It may not sound much like a fancy dinner, but I’m on a carb restricted diet and chili cheese fries are not carb friendly. I thoroughly enjoyed my Friday night treat, but now it’s back to being good with my diet.

Yesterday started out early for us, we had a gorgeous sunrise, it was a beautiful day, and we stayed busy all day. Colleen and I ran our usual Saturday morning errands. We made our regular trip to Perkins Orchard for our weekly produce, stopped at the market on the way home, and even squeezed in a stop at a discount store to get a Christmas gift. After lunch Colleen and I loaded up the porch rack with firewood in expectation of the cold temperatures this coming week. Naturally, I pushed things too far and aggravated an already tender ligament or tendon in my right arm. Of course, that didn’t slow me down a whole lot and I steamed cleaned another section of rug before dinner. Colleen made a pot of soup for dinner and I guess we were hungry because we ate the whole pot.

Well, this morning started off nice enough. We had another lovely sunrise and apart from two minutes worth of rain it is a sunny day so far. What are left of the leaves on the trees are still falling. Colleen is already in the kitchen getting ready to do a little cooking. I’ve been chipping away at my schoolwork since Friday afternoon so I don’t have a lot of it to do today. Mostly, I guess we are just going to get ready for the onset of cold temperatures. At least we have plenty of firewood at the ready. Thanksgiving is right around the corner now, but it will be a different holiday season for us with everything that is going on in the world. Still, life is good up here on our little hill and we are thankful everyday for all we have and the good life we live. There really is a lot to be said for being able to look around, smile, and know that all is right on the homestead.

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November 22, 2020: Week 36 Of “Stay At Home”, Thanksgiving Is Thursday For Certain And Another Lockdown Seems Imminent!

Another week of “Stay-At-Home” is in the books, not that there is anything different with that for Colleen and me. It was a full school week for us, but we did have some colder temperatures settle into the area after last weekend. There wasn’t any rain during the week, but it most definitely was cold enough to put a fire in the fireplace every morning. It never really got warm enough during the days either, so I wasn’t able to let the fires burn out. Things did warm up a little later in the week and I was able to keep the fire going at a low burn. I will admit that having a fire burning all day really made the house feel cozy even though I had school all week. The kids in my classes got a real kick out of me having to step away from the computer, too, when I had to put more wood on the fire. Buttercup sure didn’t mind the fires in the fireplace either and she spent the better part of her days curled up on the love seat next to the fire place.

Overall the school week went well. Apart from classes I stayed busy keeping the fire in the fireplace going. Colleen ended up going to school on Wednesday only to find out the school was having an impromptu remote learning day. Nobody mentioned it to Colleen and apparently she isn’t even on the email list that let everyone know about the change in school plans. She stayed at school for a couple of hours, but an assistant principal ended up sending her home and she was walking through our front door a little before 10 o’clock that morning. Not to waste the day, Colleen spent her time in the kitchen baking bread. Colleen did have a dentist appointment in the middle of the afternoon too. Since it was Wednesday, I didn’t have classes, but I did spend all day in front of the computers doing schoolwork. Schoolwork seems to be the story of my life of late so I am looking forward to our short Thanksgiving break. The back half of our week pretty much mirrored the front half of our week.

Yesterday Colleen and I actually took a break from schoolwork and our usual routine, mostly. Al and Alysia, our oldest daughter and her husband, came to visit for the day. I honestly cannot remember the last time a day went by where I haven’t opened a computer to do schoolwork, but I sure didn’t yesterday. Colleen and I have been telling Al and Alysia about our trips to Perkins Orchard for a while now so yesterday we decided to take them with us while we ran our usual weekend errands. The kids thought the place was great! Colleen and I were excited to see that Perkins had gotten their first shipment of Christmas trees! Anyway, after looking around for a bit Colleen and I walked out with our usual quarter bushel of fresh produce and the kids had a quarter bushel bag too. The kids were so impressed that they are talking about making the hour or so drive in from their house just to shop at Perkins Orchard. We did our grocery shopping on the way home with the kids in tow. They went shopping for a bottle of wine while Colleen and I did our grocery shopping. Turkeys we still $0.39 a pound so we got our second turkey for this Thanksgiving. One bird will be oven roasted and the other will be smoked. The leftovers will feed us for a while.

Colleen and I hadn’t seen Al and Alysia since our St. Patrick’s Day gathering of the clan for our traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. The kids are more concerned about the numbers in the outside world than Colleen and I are. Anyway, Colleen fixed a wonderful dinner of salmon, pasta Alfredo, and a side of acorn squash. We had a lovely Chardonnay with a slow and leisurely meal and got caught up with each other. After we ate, Colleen just left the dishes in the sink and we just kept on visiting with the kids. It seems the current circumstances in the country have the kids thinking about the benefits of a sustaining homestead. Colleen showed the kids how to make homemade mayonnaise and the kids were very excited to take the batch that Colleen made home with them. Sadly, the time slipped through our fingers and before we knew it was time for the kids to head back home. Colleen and I cleaned things up after the kids left. I took care of the girls for the night and Colleen and I called it a day, a special and wonderful day we got to spend with some of our family.

We have a beautiful morning today and I even got to sleep a little later than usual. Buttercup woke Colleen up early. Thanksgiving is this Thursday and Colleen is already in the kitchen baking pies. Of course our “To-Do” list has gotten huge, but that is the nature of the beast I suppose. I’ll be headed inside shortly to get my schoolwork done and fortunately there isn’t much of that this weekend. It’s going to be a different holiday season this year for sure. One concession to the circumstances Colleen and I have already made is in planning a buffet style Thanksgiving dinner rather than our traditional sit down dinner. Our kids can come and go as they see fit. All the same, we are looking forward to seeing the kids. Colleen and I keep taking each new day one day at a time and not worrying about what tomorrow holds in store for us. One thing is for sure though and that is it will be a very festive holiday season up here on our little hill. We welcome each new day with open arms, find our way through the day, and happily and thankfully go to sleep every night knowing that through everything all is right on the homestead.

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November 29, 2020: Week 37 Of “Stay At Home”, Thanksgiving Is In The Bag So Bring On Christmas!

It was a brilliant sunrise today and we now have a beautiful Sunday morning up here on the hill! The sun is shining, the air is still and the wild critters are digging around in the leaves looking for their breakfast. Apart from some rain on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, it was a great week to be on Thanksgiving break. A much needed break I might add too. Colleen had the whole week off from school and I only had online classes for Monday and Tuesday. I probably should have done some schoolwork over the break instead of leaving it all for today, but it what it is. We’re supposed to get a good bit of rain tonight and then right behind the rain are some cold temperatures heading our way for next week. Colleen and I have a three week run of school in front of us until it’s time for our Christmas break. After the Thanksgiving break I think we can make it now.

Last Sunday was quiet around here. I didn’t have a whole lot of school work to do so I got to enjoy some time on the back porch. Alex stopped by for a visit and he and I chatted and got caught up on things while Colleen was busy in the kitchen. Sunday was French meat pie day. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas season Colleen makes French meat pies using a recipe handed down in my family. Before we lost my Mom she even showed Colleen how to make them. I know the pies have been made on my Mom’s side of the family since before I was born and I know my grandmother and great-grandmother both made the pies so they really are a treat for me every year. I’m not real sure who the recipe will go to next, but I figure with six kids, one of my daughters or maybe one of my sons’ wives will pick up the gauntlet at some point.

My two days of school to start the week went well. I used both days to let kids make up any work they were missing so it really wasn’t all that tough on me. Colleen spent Monday and Tuesday preparing things for our Thanksgiving buffet. Given the current conditions in the country with all of the health concerns, Colleen and I decided to forego our traditional big family sit down meal in favor of a buffet. Of course, that meant changes and modifications to the usual Thanksgiving menu, but Colleen still planned on having plenty of food on the table. The biggest problem she had was finding space in the refrigerator or freezer to store all of the food she was preparing. All in all though, I suppose it was a small inconvenience.

Wednesday was a beautiful day for the first day of my Thanksgiving break and it was turkey cooking day. Colleen put one of the birds into the oven for a good old fashion roasting while I took the other bird down to the smoker. There were a few deer wandering around out back, but they didn’t seem to mind me being by the smoker. We learned a few years back that two smaller turkeys cooked quicker than one large bird and everyone really enjoyed the two different types of turkey. We started the turkeys about mid morning and by mid afternoon I was carving the meat and stripping down the carcasses. Colleen even had plenty of time to boil the bones and leftover turkey parts to make the stock for her turkey soup. I know Colleen was busy all day in the kitchen, but I sure couldn’t tell you what she made to finish up the preparations for the feast.

Thursday morning showed up damp and dreary, but it was Thanksgiving. The house wasn’t terribly cold, but the damp air warranted a fire in the fireplace nonetheless. It sure didn’t take the fire long to chase the chill and damp out of the house and have everything feeling warm and festive. Alex was the first one to show up and it didn’t take him long to fill his plate with Mom’s home cooking once the dining room table was filled with food. Alex hung around for about three hours before he headed on his way to see Louis and Micayla who had to stay home and close to base for the holiday. James and Donna drove up from their place a little more than an hour away. James dropped Donna off at her daughter’s house so she could spend the day visiting with her and the grandkids while James came up here to spend the day with us, yet, another concession to the health concerns of the time. Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily showed up around 6 o’clock. They had spent the day with Anna Maria’s parents. They stayed for a bit and visited, Lily who is quite mobile now ran around the use until she was worn out from the day, then Steven took Anna Maria and Lily home and came back to sit in front of the fire pit outside with catch up with James. Hanging by the fire pit is one our family’s traditions on holidays that didn’t start until the kids were older. It was definitely a different Thanksgiving for us, but it was still very special all the same.

For 20 years now, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been Christmas tree day for Colleen and me and this year it was no different. Usually we get our Christmas tree from Lowe’s, but this year we headed to Perkins Orchard. They had some beautiful trees for sale so we not only got our weekly shopping for fresh produce done, but we got our tree there as well. We stopped at the market on our way home and got that errand out of the way too. We got everything into the house except the Christmas tree which went into a bucket of hot water on the front porch while we had lunch and Colleen put the groceries away. Over the last month or so Colleen has been getting extra cilantro and drying it to fill her spice jars for her winter cooking. The cilantro jars are now full so now we will be picking up a bunch of extra ginger every week which Colleen will dry and grind up for her spice stash as well. Once this week’s ginger was drying it was time to bring the Christmas tree into the house. As luck would have it we got the tree into the tree stand and vertical on our first try. Colleen and I have had some entertaining battles in previous years trying to agree as to whether the tree was straight up and down or not. Colleen headed back into the kitchen once the tree was up and I set about to putting the lights on the Christmas tree. With the lights on the tree, I then helped Colleen string the tree with our traditional cranberry bead garland. That was about all we had for tree decorating in us in the day and since it was well past sunset, we decided to call it a day and head upstairs for the night.

Yesterday turned out far busier than either Colleen or I had anticipated. We didn’t have to run our usual errands, but we did have to run to the Tractor Supply Company for feed and other supplies. Since Walmart was just down the road from TSC we decided to make a foray into the store. Fortunately, the store wasn’t packed and Colleen and I took advantage of the light crowd to wander the store in search of Christmas gifts. It definitely looks like people are starting to panic as the government is once again locking things down. Everything we wanted was in stock, but TP, paper towels, cleaning supplies, guns, and ammunition were noticeably in very short supply. We have plenty of the things we need at home, but the bare shelves didn’t bode well for the holiday season and the start of the New Year. All the same, it was a beautiful day to be out of the house for a while.

I guess we spent a good bit more time in the stores than we had planned and didn’t get home until well into the afternoon. Everything had to be brought into the house and Colleen and I still wanted to decorate the tree. After a late lunch, or early dinner if you prefer, the ornaments came out and Colleen and I started decorating the tree. Decorating the tree took us a while and it was just about sunset when the last of the ornaments got hung. Colleen headed down back to lock the girls up for the night and then came back upstairs to tackle the mess in her kitchen. After a short break I started putting tinsel on the tree. It’s a good thing I’m a little OCD. Hanging tinsel is tedious at best. I finished with the tinsel about the same time Colleen finished in her kitchen and after a long day we headed upstairs for the night.

One would think that after a nice holiday break we could ease into next week with an easy Sunday. Not so, and Colleen and I have a busy day in front of us. I still have all of my schoolwork to do and Colleen will be baking and cooking for the upcoming week. We still haven’t refilled the porch rack with firewood and with the rain forecast for tonight and the colder temperatures headed our way we definitely need to get some firewood on the back porch. It is what it is and we have three weeks to go until our Christmas break. Everything is different this year, but so far everything is just as festive and merry as ever. Colleen and I will not let circumstances dictate to the joy of the season. We will take things one day at a time, joyously smile, and be thankful for all we have up here on our little hill. The world may be a mess, but all we have to do is look around here to know that all is right on the homestead.

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December 06, 2020: Week 38 Of “Stay At Home”, Time To Be Holly, Jolly And Make Ready For Christmas

The week started cold and stayed cold except for yesterday which wasn’t bad temperature wise and we didn’t need to put a fire in the fire place. We got some rain last Sunday night and into Monday morning and then again on Thursday night. Thursday’s rain came with a good stiff wind too. Other than that it was just cold. We had temperatures drop into the 20’s in the middle of the week. The freezing cold did in the last of our summer gardens with the exception of our late season celery which we hope will overwinter like it did last year. Of course, the cold temperatures meant there was a fire going in the fireplace pretty much all week. Colleen and I still haven’t filled the firewood rack on the back porch so I’ve been shuttling wood into the house from our winter ready piles. A little extra exercise probably is good for me anyway. This morning it’s just cold and dry with plenty of sunshine making for the start of another wonderful day. I suspect the day will just wind up being a usual Sunday for us though. Colleen and I might get a few extra things done, but most of the day will be dedicated to cooking for Colleen and schoolwork for me.

Last Sunday started out like most Sundays around here. Of course we were just coming off a full moon so anything could have happened to make things crazy. Colleen and I enjoyed our morning coffee and then got down to our usual routine. I had more schoolwork to do than I had originally thought and Colleen stayed busy all day so by day’s end we were both pretty worn out. It’s a good thing we had plenty of leftovers from Thanksgiving because Colleen sure didn’t feel like making a big dinner. We ended up having turkey pot pie in front of the TV, watching a Christmas movie, while a lovely fire was burning away in the fireplace. I tried to do some more schoolwork after dinner and did get a little bit more done, but I had to leave part of it to do on Monday morning. This online school stuff is really time consuming.

The school week passed without incident for Colleen and me. I’m finding that I can get a good bit of my schoolwork done in the mornings now which takes a lot of the workload off of my evenings. Colleen found out that her school has a teacher workday this coming Friday so she only has a 4-day work week. She also found out that the school board for the county in which she works voted to give school employees a Christmas bonus this year. Neither Colleen nor I have seen a Christmas bonus in quite a number of years. My classes went well all week and on a couple of afternoons I even managed to get out to the back porch to enjoy a cigar and the beautiful afternoon sunshine. The evenings were pretty typical too. Colleen and I would eat dinner in from the fireplace while we watched a movie, or at least part of a movie, and then I was back at my schoolwork.

Thursday night’s wind and rain didn’t dampen our spirits on Friday morning, and by lunchtime sunshine and blue skies had replaced the morning clouds and things had started drying out. Colleen got home at her usual time and we still had some free time on our hands before dinner when my last class of the day finished. Colleen spent her afternoon in her work room wrapping the last of the Christmas presents and I sat on the back porch sipping a little scotch along with smoking a cigar. Colleen has all of our Christmas gifts wrapped now. It was chili cheese dogs and chili cheese fries for dinner on Friday and that seems to have become our decadent Friday meal of choice. We really don’t want to venture out from our little hill so we had been looking to replace our Friday pizza for a while and as far as we are concerned right now hot dogs, French fries, and lots of chili and cheese fit the bill just perfectly. We didn’t do much after dinner, opting to spend the evening relaxing after our week of school.

Yesterday proved to be a little interesting. The day started out pretty much like most of our Saturdays, but Colleen forgot her mask at home so we had to turn around and come home to get it before we got to run our usual weekend errands. It really wasn’t a big deal and Colleen and I enjoyed the little extra time we had away from the house. Thankfully we were by ourselves in the Trail Blazer so we didn’t have to torture anybody with our singing along to the Christmas music on the radio. Neither Colleen nor I can carry a tune in a bucket! Our first stop, like usual, was Perkins Orchard which was fairly busy. Lots of folks are still getting their Christmas trees. We got our tree last week so we just needed our weekly fresh produce. On the way home we stopped at the market to finish our weekly grocery shopping and once we got home, there we stayed.

We were running a little later than usual yesterday, but we didn’t care. Our Christmas shopping is done! Colleen spent the afternoon getting her animated Christmas village set up in the living room which hopefully she can finish today or maybe tomorrow. I replaced the doorknobs and deadbolts on the front and side doors. The old doorknobs and deadbolts had succumbed to the ravages of age and were in desperate need of replacing. I managed to get a little bit of decorating and some grading done too. It’s not like we had a terribly difficult day, but we stayed busy and by the end of the day both Colleen and I were pretty well worn out. That seems to be the way every day ends around here so Colleen and I are definitely looking forward to our Christmas break in a couple of weeks.

Well, the fire is going this morning, Christmas music is playing on the stereo, we had a beautiful sunrise this morning, and now we have a bright sunny day on our hands even if it is seasonably cool outside. With any luck I can get my schoolwork done and spend the evening relaxing in front of the fireplace. Colleen is already busy decorating. I still need to find the time to decorate outside, but finding that time is proving to be a challenge. Christmas just wouldn’t seem right without our usual exterior illumination so it will get done. Everything in the world is still a mess, but this too shall pass. Apart from school, there isn’t much on our agenda for the upcoming week. Colleen and I will just take things one day at a time like usual and continue to make ready for Christmas up here on our little hill. Colleen and I are doing quite well through everything that is happening these days. The kids are all doing well too. Our retirement is still a few years off, but we are so ready. The joy of the little things in life suits us just fine. We couldn’t be more thankful for our quiet, simple life and everything we have. There is really nothing we want. We are in a great position to handle whatever comes down the road and everything is all the better when we look around and know that all is right on the homestead.

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December 13, 2020: Week 39 Of “Stay At Home”, Less Than 2 Weeks Until Christmas And One Week Until Christmas Break

And we have another week of Stay-At-Home in the books. With the numbers spiking up everywhere, our Governor has tightened up the restrictions again. Personally, I think it is more of a political move and we’re just going to have to wait things out. A little common sense would go a long way, but common sense seems to be in short supply these days. The weather wasn’t bad all week, but it was cold enough that we had a fire in the fireplace through most of the week. We even had a snow flurry Monday afternoon. Yesterday was and today will be warm enough so we haven’t lit the fireplace since Friday. We did get a little bit of rain last night too, and tomorrow we are heading back down the thermometer. Colleen and I still haven’t filled the porch rack with firewood, but I’ve been getting plenty of exercise going up and down the porch stairs to the winter-ready firewood racks. They are calling for rain tonight and tomorrow so the air will be damp and cold to start the week. Fortunately, it is the last week of school before Colleen and I start our Christmas break.

There really wasn’t much to our Sunday last week. We did have a fire burning all day long though which Buttercup thoroughly enjoyed. I started my day out on the back porch like usual, but our Christmas shopping is done and the presents are wrapped so we didn’t need to go anywhere. Getting them bought and wrapped was no small feat either having six kids and their spouses, significant others, and grandkids. Usually, we are running right up until Christmas Eve. Of course, we’ve only started our decorating even though the Christmas tree went up the day after Thanksgiving. It’s like everything else around here though. The decorating will all get done, and done in due time. Colleen and I have gotten very good at taking things one step at a time. Colleen did start putting up her big Christmas village in the living room earlier in the weekend, but it didn’t get finished until the end of this week. She has one more village to set up and a few stand alone things, and of course, we do still have to finish decorating outside. We really do like to do Christmas in a big way around here.

The school week wasn’t too eventful. Colleen only had a four day week with a teacher’s workday on Friday. The “Service Engine Soon” light came on, on the Trail Blazer dashboard. I didn’t realize that was the equivalent of the “Check Engine” light for other vehicles so Colleen ran the Trail Blazer all week until we could get it to the shop on Friday. Luckily it was just a sensor that had gone bad and was quickly and inexpensively replaced. I spent my days in online classes and keeping the fire burning to keep the house warm. I did find out though that I thoroughly enjoy the very last part of the evenings when the house is quiet and the day’s fire is burning down to its last glowing embers.

Since Colleen got to stay home on Friday, she got an early start of things. She had the vacuum cleaner out and going before my classes started and once I was in class she spent the better part of her day finishing up her Christmas village. The afternoon had warmed up enough and there was enough daylight left for me to start decorating outside after class. The first things to get put up are the icicle lights around the edge of the front porch roof. I was feeling pretty good about having some extra time in the afternoon and was making good progress until I had to get the ladder out to get to the highest point on the roof. I have gotten used to not wearing hard shoes with staying inside and teaching online all week. I didn’t think anything of hanging lights in my house shoes, well, that was until I was carrying the ladder and tripped on a tree root. I went down like a stone! The sharp shooting pain in my toe was the first telltale sign that I had broken my toe. Being me and stubborn I got up, got Colleen to help me, and finished putting up the lights. When I finally did look at my toe, it was swollen and quite black and blue. I’ve broken enough toes in my life to know a broken toe when I see one and to know there isn’t a darn thing in the world any doctor can do for it. It is what it is and I guess I’ll be limping some while the toe heals itself.

Colleen and I had our usual errands to run Saturday morning, but not until after we enjoyed our morning coffee and a spectacular sunrise. My toe was still tender, but I got my boots on my feet and laced them up tightly. At least the boots gave my foot enough support and protection that I could move around reasonably well. We headed down the road to Perkins Orchard to get our weekly supply of fresh produce, but found out they would be closing for the winter on Christmas Eve and wouldn’t be reopening until the spring. We ended up filling up two bags instead of our usual one bag. We’re thinking about getting a bunch of extra produce next weekend and doing some canning on our Christmas break.

Yesterday afternoon was quite pleasant outside and while Colleen spent her afternoon baking, I went outside to do more decorating. I did make sure I was still wearing my boots and I stayed away from the ladder. I managed to get the garland up on the front porch without killing myself. Dinner was just leftovers and while Colleen was cleaning the kitchen after dinner, I was making inroads on my weekly grading for school. I got most all of it done before I called it a night too. I finally did take my boots off before bed and though my toe was swollen, discolored, and tender, it had fared well over the course of the day.

Buttercup got Colleen up before sunrise this morning, but I got to sleep a while longer. By the time I was dressed and came downstairs Colleen had the dehydrator loaded up with the ginger we had gotten yesterday. She’s drying it and then will grind it up to keep in her spice stash to last us through the winter. I headed down back to take care of the girls for the day and after that I found my way to the front porch with my coffee. I guess Colleen will do some more baking and then decorating today. I need to get my schoolwork finished for the upcoming week. We are really looking forward to the start of our Christmas break on Friday though. It still seems like there is way more to get done than we have time to do, but everything will come together when it should. Colleen and I will just keep taking life one day at a time and trust we will get everything done. We may not know what today or this week has in store for us, but we do know that we can just look around to know that all is right on the homestead.

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December 20, 2020: Week 40 Of “Stay At Home”, Next Stop Is Christmas Day

Wow, it’s hard to believe we’ve been under stay-at-home orders for 40 weeks now and we are still counting. Last week was the last week of school for Colleen and me so we are now on our Christmas break. The week’s weather wasn’t particularly good. The cold temperatures seem to have really taken hold around here and with the rain we had in the beginning of the week, the middle of the week, and again today, all of which added a good stiff bite to the air, this last little bit of fall definitely has a winter feel to it. We did see a little freezing rain in the middle of the week, but not enough to cause any problems for Colleen on her morning drives to school. Since I’m teaching school online, I didn’t go anywhere and just had to keep the fire burning in the fireplace to keep the first floor warm during the day. Today’s rain is supposed to end by lunchtime, but Colleen and I do have a quick trip to Al and Alysia’s place on the books for later.

Last Sunday ended up being a busy day for us. Colleen was in the kitchen baking first thing in the morning while I was out on the porch doing my usual Sunday writing. Time has been at a premium lately so with plenty of sunshine Sunday afternoon I finally got around to putting up some of our outside Christmas decorations. I had no intentions of getting it all done, but I wanted to get the icicle lights and garland hanging from the roof of the front porch. As luck would have it, I tripped on a tree root while I was carrying the ladder around to the side of the porch. I went down hard and it wasn’t pretty. Apart from bruising my pride with the fall, I ended up breaking a toe. I guess that will teach me to wear work boots which I wasn’t, when I work outside. With Colleen’s help though, all of the icicle lights and garland got hung on the front porch despite my broken toe.

It was mostly a slow week at school. The week passed without too many problems. I would get up and watch the sunrise when I could before my classes, and Colleen would head into school. Colleen got a few presents from the staff at school who really appreciate her being a gate keeper, but she also did have a couple of dentist appointments after school. They went as well as any dentist appointment could go, but they did leave her a bit wore out as much from the associated anxiety of going to the dentist as anything else. Colleen even took a nap when she got home on Friday. The strangest thing that happened during the week was the forsythia started to bloom. It isn’t even winter yet, let alone spring. All in all though, we were both very happy when Friday night rolled around, and we officially started our Christmas break.

Colleen and I knew that Christmas would be different this year. Al and Alysia let us know last weekend that they canceled all of their travel plans this year. I can’t say as I blame them given the current circumstances. It didn’t take Colleen and me very long to come up with a game plan to make their Christmas a bit more holly jolly though. Colleen and I are going to make a quick touch and go trip to their place to leave them their gifts. We are planning on visiting from their driveway and just leaving their gifts on their front porch. I guess that is as extreme as it gets for social distancing. I think I may even try to set up an online get together for Christmas morning. Colleen and I are still not sure what will happen with the rest of the kids, but we’ll play it by ear and do the best we can.

Colleen and I were in no particular rush on Saturday morning and we savored our morning coffee before we got started on our weekly errands. We headed to Perkins Orchard to get our weekly fresh produce and we got a bushel of apples too. With two weeks off for Christmas break we are going to make and can some apple sauce and dry some apple slices into apple chips. I guess that’s not the usual holiday activity, but it is something both Colleen and I enjoy greatly and we have no plans of going anywhere for our Christmas break. We did stop at the market too yesterday and along with our usual weekly groceries we treated ourselves to some shaved deli roast beef and provolone cheese so Colleen could make our traditional cheese steak sandwiches. Usually we go to the food court at a local mall to get them, but we haven’t been nor will we be going anywhere near the mall this year.

Yesterday after we got home and got the groceries put away I headed outside to put up more garland and Christmas lights. After last Sunday’s adventure and subsequent broken toe I was very careful with walking around in the yard and while I was on the ladder, and yes, I had my work boots on my feet. The ground in front of the house was still soft from the rain during the week so Colleen came outside to steady the ladder while I was climbing around. It took us the better part of the afternoon and by the time we finished I could really feel the cold in my old joints, but the front window was framed in garland and lights. I still have to put lights on the front porch and Colleen and I have to decorate the yard, but we still have 5 days to go until Christmas. Usually the decorations are the first things to go up after Thanksgiving and the Christmas shopping is the last thing to get done, but this year everything is backwards.

The rain is starting to let up a little bit, there is a heavy, foggy mist hanging in the trees, and the girls are finally out of their coop. The fire has taken the chill out of the house and Colleen and I have some time before we head over to Al and Alysia’s place. Apart from finishing up our decorating, there really isn’t much we need to do this week leading up to Christmas Day. The whole year has been strange and it will seem strange to be able to relax this week without all of our usual last minute running around. The world is still upside down, but everything is just fine up here on our little hill. Colleen, I, and the kids are all healthy, there is a roof over our head, and there is food for the table. Who knows, Colleen and I might even find a little time to sip some brandy and play Scrabble in front of the fireplace. Whatever does happen this week, Christmas Day, and on our time off after Christmas, Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time and be thankful for all we have because all we need do is look around to know that all is right on the homestead.

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December 27, 2020: Week 41 Of “Stay At Home”, Christmas Is Done, Bring On The New Year!

What a week we had up here on our little hill. Colleen and I both were home all week. I had a teacher workday on Monday and I took care of my work, but for all practical purposes we were on our Christmas break. The weather was mild enough to start the week, but the rain started on Wednesday night and lasted right through Thursday, Christmas Eve. We got just under two and a half inches in a 24 hour window. Once the rain moved out, the temperatures dropped down to 20 degrees and stayed under 40 degrees. We may get up into the 40’s today. Of course, with those kinds of temperatures Colleen and I had a hardy fire going all day, each day, and it’s going again this morning. We do have a stack of cedar logs out back and we made sure to add a few of those logs into the fire on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to add to the holiday effect. We had hoped that the cold temperatures would have moved into the area before the rain left early Christmas morning, but it didn’t happen and we didn’t have a white Christmas. We did have a bright and sunny Christmas Day though, albeit rather cool. The sun came back yesterday morning and this morning, it is a crisp 25 degrees with bright sunshine again.

Colleen and I started our big push to Christmas Day last Sunday when we headed over to Al and Alysia’s house to drop off their Christmas presents from the family and bring the presents from them home for the rest of the family. While neither of the kids were sick, and still aren’t, they were concerned they may have been exposed to the virus and they didn’t want to risk getting anyone sick. Sadly, they canceled all of their Christmas plans this year. Colleen and I left the presents on the porch for the kids, they swapped them out with the presents we needed to bring home, we had a short distance appropriate visit with masks, and then Colleen and I headed home. Colleen and I did stop at the cigar warehouse on the way home so I could get some special cigars for the holiday. We stopped at Walmart on the way home too to get a new coffee pot and some more comfy jammies for Colleen.

Monday was a teacher workday and I finished up my grading for the year and answered a few emails that had found their way into my inbox. After Colleen and I got some apple slices into the dehydrator to start drying into apple chips, Colleen spent most of the morning and a better part of the afternoon setting up her Victorian Christmas village. The afternoon actually warmed up nicely so once I was done with my schoolwork I headed outside and started putting up the last of the Christmas lights on the front porch. I didn’t finish them on Monday, but I did realize that the lights would be all of the decorations outside that I would be able to get put up. The inflatable and fixed decorations that usually go out in the yard for Christmas were not going to make an appearance this year. Colleen and I ran out of time. We did modify one of our usual holiday traditions though. Since we had no intentions of going to a mall this year, Colleen made cheesesteak sandwiches with chili cheese fries for dinner Monday evening. That’s our usual holiday treat when we go to the mall to look at decorations and pick up a last minute present or two.

Tuesday was easily the warmest day of the week and the first thing we did Tuesday morning, after we had our coffee was to load up the porch rack with firewood. I had been shuttling firewood directly from our winter ready racks into the house for the last couple of weeks, but with heavy rains and cold temperatures expected, we figured it would be best to have a full rack of firewood on the back porch for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. With the porch rack loaded up, Colleen headed inside and pulled the first batch of apple chips out of the dehydrator. The dehydrator really isn’t all that big, but we got three pints of apple chips which Colleen dry canned and added to our larder. It didn’t take us very long to get a second batch into the dehydrator either. I got to finish up the last of the outside lights in the afternoon and Colleen started her preparations for our Christmas Day buffet.

The start of the predicted rain got pushed into Wednesday night so the day was actually pretty nice. I vacuumed in the morning while Colleen was in the kitchen cooking. Right after lunch I actually got outside and was able to work in the gardens. We have one garden that has celery planted because celery overwinters well, or at least it did last year for us. I added some compost to the garden and then added a thick layer of leaves as mulch. With any luck we should be harvesting fresh celery once things start to warm up come late February. Colleen had been going nonstop in the kitchen since early morning and by 7 o’clock she was worn out so everything else had to be left for Christmas Eve on Thursday.

The rain showed up in the middle of Wednesday night and hung around all day Thursday. Did it ever rain too! We got close to two and a half inches of rain in 24 hours. It’s not often we get that much rain, but the normally dry ravine in the back of the house had turned into a raging torrent of water resembling the runoff from a spring melt up in the north. Colleen spent all day in the kitchen again and I did some more vacuuming and cleaning to make ready for Christmas Day. Unfortunately, that much rain causes our septic system to behave badly and by mid afternoon the ground water had started backing up the septic system. I spent a good part of the afternoon keeping my eye on things so the system wouldn’t start overflowing onto the basement floor. Fortunately, the worst of the rains passed by dinner time and the water level started to recede. It could have turned out badly, but we dodged that bullet and when we got up on Christmas morning everything was back to normal.

Friday was Christmas Day and for the first time in memory Colleen and I woke up to an empty house. It was actually a bit of a luxury for us as we had plenty of time to enjoy a cup of coffee and get ready for the day. Louis and Micayla were the first to arrive around 10 o’clock. Alex was about 30 minutes behind them and about 30 minutes after that James and Donna showed up. Steven, Anna Maria, and Lily didn’t show up until the early afternoon after Lily had taken her nap. Colleen’s buffet brunch was a wild success and, of course, there was the usual great paper tear albeit in stages this year. All of the kids had left by 4 o’clock and once again Colleen and I were in a quiet house with just Buttercup. We cleaned up as much as we could, nibbled a little bit of buffet leftovers for dinner, sat and watched the fire burn down for the day, and then headed upstairs for the night, totally wiped out from a day of celebrating.

Yesterday Colleen and I did almost nothing. It really was quite the unusual day for us. Both of us had gotten “lounge wear” for Christmas. I think “lounge wear” is just the new term for fancy pajamas. The house had a distinct chill to it when we got up so it didn’t take me long to get a good fire burning in the fireplace. About mid morning Colleen made a big pot of ham and black bean soup that not only added a little more heat to the first floor, but also had the house smelling divinely. Not much else got accomplished yesterday. Colleen and I sat in our recliners all afternoon, in front of the fire, reading a couple of books we had gotten for Christmas. We had the soup for lunch and foraged buffet leftovers for dinner. I have to admit, we did feel a little strange not having anything that needed to be done yesterday.

Buttercup woke Colleen and me up this morning and while we do not have a great deal that needs doing, we will need to make a run to the market for this week’s essentials. We might put another batch of apple slices into the dehydrator, but I doubt we’ll be motivated to do much more. Tomorrow we’ll find our motivation and start getting ready for Christmas 2021. Yes, Christmas is a yearlong activity for us. With the New Year just around the corner, the world is still a mess. Countries are going back into lockdown and new mutant strains of the virus are popping up. I couldn’t even begin to guess what 2021 will look like, but I get the distinct feeling it won’t be pretty. Fortunately, none of that really matters up here on our little hill. Colleen and I will keep taking things one day at a time and depending on our common sense to stay safe. This year certainly has been different, but not bad for us. We do what we can to make each day special and at the end of each day we smile thankfully because we know that all is right on the homestead.

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35 Replies to “2020 – Archived Blogs”

Kevin says:

January 5, 2020 at 6:04 pm

May 2020 continue to bring blessings to the homestead.
1. Pops says:
  
  January 6, 2020 at 10:28 am
  
  Thanks… Hope you have a great new year too. 🙂
Linda White says:

January 26, 2020 at 7:00 pm

Hi from philly. Every Sunday I look forward to reading how collen and your week was. It was cold most of the weekhere. Yesterday rain so hard our skylight leaked in to the bathroom. Repairman is coming tomorrow. Hopefully he fixes right this time. Other wise all is good here. Hope you have wonderful week at school.
1. Pops says:
  
  January 26, 2020 at 7:38 pm
  
  Thanks… Stay warm and have a great week! 🙂
LISA says:

February 2, 2020 at 1:40 pm

Oh wow, I hope Alex will be okay. I love reading the blog because you give so much more info then just the daily Post. I’d really be interested in Colleen’s fish recipes, it looks awesome in the picture. I hope you and Colleen have a great week!
1. Pops says:
  
  February 2, 2020 at 1:50 pm
  
  Thanks, Alex’s hand is tender, but it will be just fine. he got a piece of meat just over the web between his thumb and forefinger.Colleen has a backlog of recipes to write at the moment, but I will let her know to add it to the list…. Have a great day 🙂
Beckie Barrett says:

February 17, 2020 at 11:11 am

Sounds like things are going well for you two. We have had ups and downs here in Kansas a few days of warm weather then snow and ice. I stay in on the snow and ice days. We have had quite a few cloudy days. All is going well here. I keep busy. I sure do miss my husband and I have to get the taxes ready and find someone to do them for me this year. There are always challenges in life and in the last year I have over come a lot.Hope have a good day.
1. Pops says:
  
  February 21, 2020 at 10:19 am
  
  Hi stranger, glad to hear from you. Glad to know all is going well. It is tax time isn’t it. UGH! Hope you have a great day…. 🙂
Pat Fillmore says:

March 1, 2020 at 3:39 pm

Congrats on being asked to be teacher of the year. I am sure it helped your self esteem shows the school you came from was not meant to be God had something better for you and they appreciate you.
1. Pops says:
  
  March 1, 2020 at 8:13 pm
  
  Thanks… It was pretty neat considering I just started at the school last fall. At this point in my career though, I’m not particularly interested in resume building…. 🙂
Pat Fillmore says:

March 8, 2020 at 3:25 pm

I look forward to coming home from church on Sunday and reading your blog while eating lunch.
1. Pops says:
  
  March 15, 2020 at 8:18 pm
  
  Thanks… I am running a bit late this week though… 🙂
Beckie Barrett says:

March 16, 2020 at 10:22 am

Sounds like a lot of fun. Hope it is a great day for all. I have missed reading your posts.
1. Pops says:
  
  March 20, 2020 at 6:08 pm
  
  Thanks… Sure hope all is well in your corner of the world. 🙂
Justin says:

March 24, 2020 at 5:38 pm

I don’t typically comment on posts, but as a long time reader
I thought I’d drop in and wish you all the best during these
troubling times.

From all of us at Royal CBD, I hope you stay well with
the COVID19 pandemic progressing at an alarming rate.

Justin Hamilton
Royal CBD
1. Pops says:
  
  March 24, 2020 at 6:03 pm
  
  Thanks… we’re holding our own ground right now… one day at a time… You take care too and I hope you had a great day.
Pat Fillmore says:

April 12, 2020 at 3:00 pm

No end in site when kids can go back to school here in Winnemucca NV. The teachers though are working with students via internet or kids who do not have it have packets for the parents to pick up. The head of the school district said though the kids at the end of the school year will get either pass or fail.
1. Pops says:
  
  April 12, 2020 at 4:36 pm
  
  That’s pretty much how they are running things here. Kids are going to have a lot of work to get caught up on in next year’s classes. Hope you’re having a very Happy Easter… 🙂
Patrice says:

April 13, 2020 at 4:57 pm

Glad to hear you are all doing well. This remote learning is a new experience. We started today. Had one student. Stay well and tell Colleen I said, “hi”.
1. Pops says:
  
  April 13, 2020 at 6:46 pm
  
  Hi Patrice, Yep, we’re doing just fine. Colleen sits and watches training videos all day to make up her hours and colors the tablecloth in the process. I just have to have 2 hours of office hours a day if the kids want to check in and other than that I’m building wicked lesson plans for next fall. Hang in there and be well. 🙂
Pat Fillmore says:

April 26, 2020 at 3:30 pm

I am 67, pharmacy clerk sister grounded me. I did not know you had a Summer break maybe only a month I use to work at a year round school. I live in rural Nevada. Friday ours said the same thing no more school. Here though a week or 2 after it happened, the parents were able to get their kids chrome book. Kids are being taught on line. In cases where they have no device. Parents by drive by pick up their kids weekly packets. When done they drop them off in a barrel. Superintendent of the school said no letter grades just pass or fail. I cannot go out because of my age. Gave my Son my debit card and shop for me. Wife works at Wal Mart so had them get my groceries.
1. Pops says:
  
  April 26, 2020 at 4:07 pm
  
  I teach year round school… Summer break is only 5 or 6 weeks. Our kids are doing school online right now too. No grades, we can’t even give them pass/fail. County is providing all of the material too. Kids that don’t have internet access are getting hard copies of everything. Sure don’t know what’s going to come of it all. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see….. Stay safe and be well.
Nancy says:

July 5, 2020 at 8:13 pm

It sounds like you and Colleen had a great day even with having a “gathering of the clan”.
Trudy Harlow says:

August 9, 2020 at 8:58 pm

Just a note to research completely the use of essential oils on dogs. Peppermint oil can be toxic when applied to dogs or infested by them.
1. Pops says:
  
  August 10, 2020 at 11:53 am
  
  Thanks for the note…. Colleen had mentioned something about that, but said she had diluted it down sufficiently for it not to be a problem. Mostly, it’s just to discourage fleas when Buttercup goes outside.
Pat Fillmore says:

August 16, 2020 at 5:21 pm

I was concerned about Colleen still having a job. So glad she does and I would of chose what she did. The least amount of being exposed is the best thing.
Pat Fillmore says:

August 23, 2020 at 3:47 pm

I live in North Nevada and we have had smokey sometimes like very foggy from the California fires. I know what you mean about Buttercup. I had a Yorkie that would shake and even 5 hours later shake when we had a thunderstorm.
1. Pops says:
  
  October 12, 2020 at 1:56 pm
  
  I bet things are touch and go with the fires burning out west…. Have a great day…. 🙂
Nancy Sadewater says:

December 13, 2020 at 7:03 pm

I enjoy “catching up” with your weekly posting here as I don’t always get to read the daily ones. Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us. Merry Christmas to you, Colleen, Buttercup and extended families.
1. Pops says:
  
  December 21, 2020 at 2:02 pm
  
  Thank you for following us on our adventure. I certainly hope that you and your family have a Very Merry Christmas too.
Kevin says:

December 22, 2020 at 9:47 am

I hope you and Colleen have a wonderful Christmas season on the homestead. I always enjoy reading the posts!
1. Pops says:
  
  December 24, 2020 at 8:37 am
  
  THanks… Have a very Merry Christmas!
  1. Pops says:
    
    December 27, 2020 at 2:49 pm
    
    Thanks… Sure hope you have a very Merry Christmas too.
Nancy Sadewater says:

December 22, 2020 at 10:35 am

Merry Christmas to you and your extended family.
1. Pops says:
  
  December 24, 2020 at 8:37 am
  
  Thanks and a Merry Christmas to you!

Comments are closed.