Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[rosemarythyme]

Well WA state apparently can't keep track of their numbers so no updated statistics since March 28th or so.

For those interested in how other countries are handling things, my immediate family all currently live in Taiwan. My mother doesn't understand why things are so different in the US so she sends me email every few days to tell me we're doing things wrong (sorry mom, I don't run the government!) She says they're at 5 deaths so far for the entire country. Anyone coming into the country is quarantined and the government tracks where you are during quarantine. If you follow quarantine they give you food and masks and other supplies to encourage you to follow the rules, if not there's heavy fines. She says every adult is assigned 3 masks a week and children get 5 a week. Otherwise, schools are still open, and most industry is still running as normal.

 

[Mahonri]

Mahonri, I remember you from way back. Nice to see your name!

Still trying to talk my wife into a coop under our massive grapefruit tree... still praying.

 

[seminolewind]

I have clay too. The adobe kind that early Californians built their houses from No lie! That stuff is a freakin' ceramic! Unless we've had a lot of rain and then it turns into a slip 'n' slide!

Do you compost, seminolewind? I've been working on my clay for 20 years and I now have planting beds deep with arable soil.

I'm a very lazy composter. I set up big piles (forget that 3'x3'x3' nonsense!) and let them do their thing. It takes about a year but I have 4 piles going at any given time so there's always one to open up and take 40-60 gallons of compost from.

There is no way that roots appreciate hard ground. That's why I turned to raised boxes. I had special garden mix delivered which is soil, sand, and mulch. Really nice and fluffy. It stays that way for years if you don't walk on it.

The very best I've had was LI NY soil -average, and mulch and lime. My mulch was a pile of horse manure in the woods, after a few months I would dig in and get something we named "black gold". The manure turned into something like rich black soil that smelled like black soil and we loved it. Mixed into my normal soil, my plants grew like crazy.

Then I moved to Florida and trying to grow anything on my property would need watering 3 times a day even with mulch. Planting in raised boxes-the heat was fierce and the plants dried out quickly. It was a no win situation.

Now Im in Southern Indiana and grass grows unbelievably fast but I think planting takes too much work to make the clay "gardenable). So I am putting together raised boxes with my own mixture of soil. So I like horse or cow manure left to compost and mixed into the dirt. IN fact since I have a horse I should find a shady corner to start a pile.

My yard turns into a slip and slide as well. It's awful.

 

[seminolewind]

Well WA state apparently can't keep track of their numbers so no updated statistics since March 28th or so.

For those interested in how other countries are handling things, my immediate family all currently live in Taiwan. My mother doesn't understand why things are so different in the US so she sends me email every few days to tell me we're doing things wrong (sorry mom, I don't run the government!) She says they're at 5 deaths so far for the entire country. Anyone coming into the country is quarantined and the government tracks where you are during quarantine. If you follow quarantine they give you food and masks and other supplies to encourage you to follow the rules, if not there's heavy fines. She says every adult is assigned 3 masks a week and children get 5 a week. Otherwise, schools are still open, and most industry is still running as normal.

Oh Mother and guilt!!!

 

[BullChick]

My state is up 1,000 cases since yesterday, but fortunately nothing in my area has gone up. It’s false security for the sheep, but I am still hoping it’s really that low.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Oh Mother and guilt!!!

She excels at it in a very passive aggressive manner. She's also a hypochondriac which of course doesn't help things right now.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

1. Ability to preserve food. Dehydrate. Freezing. Canning. Pickling. Fermenting.
And of course, appropriate storage cotainers and spaces.
2. Fishing.Hunting.Foraging wild plants and fungi.Crabbing.Gathering shellfish.Gardening crops.Raising livestock.Dumpster diving...

Fishing and hunting is illegal in my city. Wild plants are limited. Hard to add freezers to apartments. Concrete jungles don't have foragables. Even in the suburbs you're lucky to get some dandelions, and then only IF you don't get the cops called on you for taking plants from other peoples properties or looking like you "don't belong". (Bonus points; surviving/coming out unscathed when someone does call the cops on you. Especially for dumpster divers.) Many apartments ban pressure cookers, hot plates and deep fryers. I'm not sure where the nearest stream with living fish is... For years of my life I didn't have a lawn to garden or raise livestock... Many cities ban vegetable gardens in the front yard and livestock everywhere....

None of this is a good replacement for a trip to the grocery store.

All these things presume you have ability, space, privilege, and aren't so sick you can't actually do them. The ability to do these things - before or after getting sick - is NOT a given especially for people in certain situations or demographics.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean everyone can.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Sounds like a distraction to me. I am so not worried about drugs crossing the borders, the pharmaceutical companies are way worse.

 

[seminolewind]

I just have to say
I do not believe anyone that not ever have a nice thing to say about anyone. Bashing someone all the time

I have a problem with someone who can't say not one positive thing about someone ever. That's a liar.

I have a problem with those who should be leaders - think about their constituants (sp) above all and working hard for them.

I think it's really really sad when some people are trying to make lives better or working for our benefit seem to be continuously bashed by those who could rolling up their sleeves and using
that energy for something positive.

Just venting.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hard to add freezers to apartments. Concrete jungles don't have foragables.

Oh that's a good point. My friend in NYC said her family (and some neighbors) have resorted to storing food on their fire escape. If she buys a week of groceries for her family all at once, they just don't have the refrigerator space for it, so fresh vegetables get kicked outside.