Last night I challenged my friends and family on Facebook:
Name a SONG you wish was a MOVIE.
I gave my example (Down South by Tom Petty) and my friend Cindy picked Wild World by Cat Stevens. Great choice, great song. And right now it definitely seems like a real wild world, doesn’t it? Although I am not completely shocked that the world is experiencing a viral pandemic, it is a weird time and according to the news, which has droned on incessantly, “unprecedented.” Well, yes and no. According to the CDC:
“The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history… It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.” – Source
I remember when I first learned about the flu of 1918. I was in my English Comp class in college. I had a fantastic professor who introduced all kinds of authors and subjects, and the flu epidemic was one of them. I remember thinking as I read the stories and the numbers… why didn’t I know this before? And how did this happen? I was frightened then, to be honest. I could not imagine that scenario playing out.
And yet, here we are, with pandemic affecting the entire world. Even those countries not hard hit with people getting sick will feel economic shock waves.
So, here we all are. Baby, right now it’s a wild world.
And yet, Mr. Gordon and I… we are keepin’ on keepin’ on. We have an ample larder; I work from home, Mr. Gordon is now working from home (we both work full-time in tech… he with his English degree and me with my Poli Sci degree, har har); we have what we need to get by. Some items we did order from Amazon – like the powdered milk I ordered on March 17. I’m glad I did. It’s actually not that bad.
Some of the things we’ve found to be helpful during this time:
- Finishing projects started earlier this year – see below for a photo of the pretty “geese flying” screen that Mr. Gordon made me for the living room so that I could “hide” the TV. I love it.
- Starting a new project – we brought home chicks! – and I explain more about this choice in another post. (We have been talking about raising chicks for years – so the idea wasn’t new.) Click here to read Finally, Chickens!
- I have been taking advantage of my library systems e-book loan program and borrowing library books via my Kindle. I have a post about it here. Perhaps not everyone is aware that they can borrow books electronically. Here’s a post that will teach you how!
- We are not going out to the grocery store. We are sourcing our meat and eggs from a farmer up the road who is practicing physical distancing
- Getting creative with the ingredients in the pantry and fridge. Some Greek yogurt? Some hamburg? Let’s make Greek burgers with yogurt lemon dill sauce! Let’s serve on homemade bread! 🙂 See below. By the way, that green tomato on the plate is from last summer – we pickled green tomatoes!
- The NEXT night Mr. Gordon made homemade deep-dish pizza dough and we topped with leftover pizza sauce (from the week before), leftover feta cheese and crumbled hamburger from the night before, along with sliced onions and black olives. AMAZING.
- Focusing on the garden – we would be doing this anyway right now. I am tending to my sprouts. Growing your own food… Knowing HOW to grow your own food… Hmm, now more people are finally getting a glimpse as to WHY that is so important!
- Related – our neighbor dropped off 5 to 6 yards of composted sheep manure. We now have to figure out what to do with… 5 to 6 yards of sheep manure. 😀
- Sanity measures: Acorn TV (British TV) ran a special – free month to try, $5,99 thereafter. I took advantage of that!
- Just good to be able to do: Banking via app. I finally downloaded my bank’s app so I can remotely deposit checks. (I know, it took me THIS long…) But now I can even avoid going through the bank’s drive-thru.
- Protection measures: Mr. Gordon sewed us face masks and inserted clean, new HEPA filters as an extra measure. While we are not going places, we did wear them when we went to pick up our chicks.
Okay… I’m moving to photos to tell the rest of the story.
Enjoy!
Interested in a Chili Recipe? Click here!
Happy Easter – looks like the Bunny visited this old one-room schoolhouse!
Your Turn!
Tell me about what you are doing? What tips might you have?
What were you well-prepared for… what were you not, but will be in the future?
Examples: I will definitely keep a supply of powdered milk on hand. That has been really useful! Also, I am going to find a source for raw milk. This has been on my radar for a long time, but now I will make it a priority. I also need to start making my own cheese. 🙂
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Some photos on this page taken with my Canon PowerShot SX530 HS Camera; others with the ol’ iPhone! 🙂
I am so impressed and inspired by what you are doing to become/stay self-sufficient (not going to the store, etc.). And I want those Garden Genie Gloves. They remind me of Freddie Krueger!
Aw, shucks – thank you, Cindy! <3
By the way, Mr. Gordon read your comment and and said: "They remind me of Freddie Krueger!" - Insert Cindy's little laugh here...
Ha! You are our adorable Betty Rubble! <3
As your mom and dad, we are working each day to stay as healthy and safe as we can. I have been creative and though I have always tried to be frugal, I am doing that more so now. When I bake, I make sure I use the oven to do more than one item. That way you can freeze for later. I make many meals out of one item and combine with something later on to not waste anything. We are blessed to have a girl who shops for her family and shops for us at the same time. This has allowed us to have some things we need and never found the need for a grocery order before now. I would Just pick up things as needed as we could do that. Not now. She is a God-send. I pray for her safety as although she’s 40 ish, there are many getting sick at that age. So my advice is just do your best to “stay safe”. That’s all any of us can do. Happy Easter!
Happy Easter, Mom! I am so glad that you have created a community of support for yourself! THAT is another way of building self-sufficiency: knowing how and where to get assistance when you do need it. I’m so glad you continue to stay home and stay safe!
Much like you, we have found that many of our ‘normal’ ways of life are still very much the same. We tend to keep a well stocked pantry/freezer of items we preserved or purchased in bulk (beans, grains, etc), so sourcing fresh items has been our biggest reason for heading out. We have always talked about moving onto some property (and likely will do so when the boys graduate), but through this we wish we had that property now. We are so, so thankful for our yard that we do have now though! We love our place. It’s very calm to sit in the backyard and listen to the birds. I can’t begin to imagine what sheltering in place would look like for families in apartments. But, having some property to wander around on sure would be nice!
The biggest bonus to all of this is that my husband has not had to travel for work and the boys have been home. We typically would have eaten dinner together every evening (whether just the boys and I or if my husband was home), but after dinner the boys would have had work or homework and there would have been church work for my husband and housework for me. The last few weeks, our evenings have been free for family game or movie nights. The boys have finished all of their school work and chores during the day, my husband tries to get all of his work wrapped up before dinner so we get the whole evening together. It’s been so nice to have all of this time together. I knew we only have a few years left with our boys at home. So I am soaking up all of this extra time!!
PS Your baby chicks are so cute!!! Kinda makes me want to add more to our flock 🙂
Hi Bekah – I’m so glad that you are able to take advantage of the situation in a good way! I know that you have shared before that your sons are growing up and will be out of your “nest” before you know it! Treasure this time, indeed.
I have been enjoying having lunch with my husband since he’s working from home for his company, I work in the office, and he works in another room. (He says I’m too loud, haha!) So yes, a “perq” right now. He likes going into his office, so he will be glad to do that when it’s safe. I’ll miss him. 🙂
Funny you should mention where you live and being at home, and thinking about others who might not be in the best living situation. Gordon and I were JUST talking about that this weekend! If we were still living in our city home, I don’t think we would be handling the “stay at home” measures so well. Also, we lived in an apartment for about 11 months while we were selling our city house and looking for our (current) country home. I said to Gordon this weekend how tough it would have been to stay in the apartment.
Always need to look for the good and find the gratitude, yes?
I hope you and your family continue to be safe and sound!
It sounds as if you guys are hanging in there! Chickens! How fantastic. It’s a good time to take advantage of learning and doing, which is exactly what we’ve been doing over on the homestead.
Yup, Kristin – just doing what needs to be done and making use of the at home time… in the evenings and on the weekends, of course! Our schedule has not changed much as we still are working for our employers.
Hope you all are hanging in there on your end, too! 🙂