Covid-19 - Let's Do Some Yard Work - chat

[cluckmecoop7]

I've noticed lots of people out on hiking trails, walking their dogs, and doing yard work, etc during this Covid-19 mess. What are you doing to pass the time?

I have expanding my chickens run and making a second flock.

Lots of small businesses are closing down.....people are can't make a living. I was going on a walking trail today and while driving there I saw a guy on the side of the road selling lobster. I guess he couldn't sell to the restaurants that he usually did because lots of places are closing down!

Chat abut your life during this mess....

- Clucky

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

I'm mostly staying inside, but I should be getting out more -- starting the garden, getting back into the habit of walking, and so on. Also, cooking... I should make that chicken-shaped cake that I've been wanting to do for a while now. And a cake shaped like a basket of flowers. And maybe some roll cakes....
All on different days, of course -- I don't have that much energy!

 

[cluckmecoop7]

I'm mostly staying inside, but I should be getting out more -- starting the garden, getting back into the habit of walking, and so on. Also, cooking... I should make that chicken-shaped cake that I've been wanting to do for a while now. And a cake shaped like a basket of flowers. And maybe some roll cakes....
All on different days, of course -- I don't have that much energy!

I just realized I've been baking more than usual lately.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Comfort food. I have been sleeping a lot. Reality sucks.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Well, sleeping passed the time. (But me personally - I would rather go outside!)

 

[nao57]

This is a great time to be doing stuff! Its not a good time to be waiting for others to do something first! I firmly believe this.

Times of crisis will catch the unaware hard, because they are waiting for others to point it out to them. But people who want you to spend your money will want you to be unaware and thinking all is well, and the others won't want you to disturb their bubbles.

So I feel its a great time to be doing my own things at home.

I'm working on things I can do to be self employed, and that's what I've been doing for awhile. This Covid stuff didn't start that, it just reinforced the confirmation of it.

For now in the garden, I've been making potash out of ash collected from cooking fires, barbecues. I've made some worm boxes also to grow worms in, both to feed the ducks and to create fertilizer for the garden. (Table scraps, throwaway organics.)

Here in Utah, we have terrible soil. It has to be carefully managed. Its clay and hard, and there's not a lot of water, making it worse. So the past years of gardening have drained the nutrients from the soil. Last year and the year before, I kept trying to get other family members to get the fertilizer and have them help and each time they'd get lost on distractions. I feel even family members you shouldn't wait for them to move to have the energy to do projects with, even if you like them as good people, etc. They couldn't be relied on when things were good, so I feel it will be dangerous to just follow the crowd and let them decide my future.

People right now, don't know how to manage themselves well. They've let popular culture dictate how to live too much; keeping up with the Jones' instead of common sense. So they will either be unreliable or be distracted, or have false ideas.

I've been looking at the Covid numbers and we aren't through the woods yet. But my neighbors and people in my town want to go protest and open up their businesses because they are fed up with the loss of income. And they aren't really thinking about the exposure. Its a 2 edged sword. They are right that the economic damage is worse. But the economic damage is going to be here, whether or not they sit this out or not. I'm worried they'll get the worst of both by trying to play both sides of the fence.

I don't think its a good idea to be out among lots of people at beaches, or parks.

But enjoying your backyard is great. Family cook outs in the backyard over a firepit with tinfoil dinners were done a few days ago. These are the best. Taste good too.

I'm trying to not do work on Sunday. But Saturday and Friday and tomorrow I'm planting and trying to do more staple foods in the garden. Stuff that can actually feed people like potatoes and so on. I've set up several rows of potatoes already and going to put in a few more, as soon as I can get more composted soil etc. (Potatoes are great for space efficiency and volume of food, but hard on soil; they need fertilization where they were the previous year.)

I've seen videos that you can get ducks to avoid some garden plants like potatoes, and squash etc. But I know for a fact they love swiss chard. So I've got to finish setting up a barrier between them and the garden, so I have control over when they go in. I had tons of slugs and snails last year when I didn't have ducks, and also previous years. So this year, I'll be ready for those snails.

I lost a ton of bush beans plants to snails in the garden in the last 4 years. I'm not kidding that the snails love bean plants more than anything it seems. They'd go after those first before any other plant I had going for me, every single year.