Sunday, March 29, 2020

Sunday Stills


Donneur and George

Taco, Johnny and Sam

Bear and Digby

treats for Sebastian . . . 

. . . and treats for Quigly

Blu and Indy

Bear and Lighty

Ralph and Cocomo

Gus, Gibson, Lotus and Romeo

B-Rad and Ascot

Paramount, Sam,  Happy and Johnny

Cocomo and Silver

Moses and George

Ralph, Fendi and Doni

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

COVID-19 Diary, Part 2

A week ago I wrote about the scary world we live in with COVID-19. Jason and I are sheltering in place, attempting to homeschool while still working full time, and avoiding contact with the outside world as much as possible. Over the last 15 days I've left the farm once and Jason has left the farm once. I went to the post office and Jason went to the grocery store.

Before Jason went to the store we made a list of needed items, planned his route through the store to make his time in there as efficient as possible, and even planned what time of day he would go. We picked the end of the day as we thought there would be the least people there at that time, which seemed like a fair trade knowing the shelves wouldn't be as well stocked at that time. Jason asked me if I wanted any type of junk/comfort food since we're trapped at the farm all the time. I said no, that the only thing I really needed was more eggs and that I would be excited to have some fresh fruit. When Jason returned home from the store he announced that there were no eggs available. I was crushed, I really like my eggs and will eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He did get me some fruit so I have some blueberries and strawberries to eat which I really appreciate. He also proudly produced four bags of frozen tater tots. Tater tots were definitely not on the list, we don't ever buy tater tots, but Jason excitedly loaded not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 bags worth of tots into our freezer. Although it was hard, I only gave the mounds of tater tots a raised eyebrow. My inner dialogue was more along the lines of WTF??

I was very sad about no eggs and didn't care at all that we had a mountain of frozen tater tots. Thankfully Kate came to the rescue. The next day she went to the store and wow did she score. We got two rolls of paper towels(!), a bottle of liquid gold (HAND SANITIZER!!), and she also found me a carton of eggs. It was even a jumbo carton of 18 eggs. Paper towels, hand sanitizer and eggs all in one day? I felt like a kid at Christmas in this strange world we now live in.

Since Carter's hair was almost covering his eyes and we can't take him to get a haircut, Jason attempted to use the clippers and give Carter a haircut himself. The results were not great. It looks like Edward Scissorhands had a go at Carter's hair. Every day I use scissors to try and even things up and make it look less like someone tried to cut his hair with hedge trimmers but it doesn't improve things. Now Jason wants me to cut his hair. I really don't want to attempt this but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. Thankfully Jason doesn't have much hair to cut.

We are also doing our best to continue homeschooling. I have no clue how to teach someone about the proper use of commas. Since Jason spent his first 30 years in Canada using the metric system he's in charge of teaching Carter about the metric system. He's not any better at that than I am at teaching the proper use of commas. Not to mention we still have to work more than full time.

As if March hadn't offered up enough challenges, we had a massive rainstorm yesterday, early evening. We got 3+ inches of water in less than an hour. I have never seen so much water on this farm. Ever. And there is not one, single acre of floodplain on our farm. The blackout rain conditions damaged a small portion of fence, washed out a small section of our driveway, did some damage to the arena, and brought down plenty of limbs for us to clean up. I have never watched rain come down so hard in my life, not even during the infamous 2010 flood. There was a very thin line in this storm that brought the massive rainfall to a small area of a few miles, and we happened to be in the small area where it happened. Within an hour of the rain stopping all of the standing water - acres of it - had receded and you would have thought we had made up the entire experience.

It's hard to believe we haven't even made to the end of March.

Charlotte and Maggie

Penny and Dawn

Maddie, Cuffie and Cinnamon

Cinnamon and Cuffie

Gracie and Traveller

Missy

Jake and Maisie

Diamond and Lily

Lily and Traveller

Duesy and Merlin

Baner, Sport, Bruno and Merlin

Dooley, Remmy, Havana and Art

Taylor and Alfie

Cody, Renny and Sport

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Sunday Stills


King, Trigger and Hemi

Cisco, Thomas and Moe

Levendi and Revy

Apollo and Thomas

Rubrico, Roho, Squirrel and Gus

Sushi and Rubrico

King, Thomas and Baby

King, Thomas and Baby

Ricardo and Convey

Chance and Cisco

King and Faisal

Rey and Convey

Toledo and Rocky

Rubrico, Ripley, Wilson and new face Franklin

Wilson and Ripley

Rubrico

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

COVID-19 Diary, Part 1

This morning Jason and I were reminiscing about the good old days - of two weeks ago - when our biggest complaint in life was how much it had rained this winter. I would give a lot to go back to those times from long ago. Then this crazy thing called coronavirus happened, then it was named COVID-19, and then it officially became a pandemic. And all of you know the rest of the story, as schools, restaurants, flights, businesses and borders closed. I see on social media that a lot of people think it's all a hoax, or that it's just another form of the flu, and none of these steps are necessary. I don't fall into either of those camps. As someone who is currently considered immunocompromised (and is also asthmatic and autoimmune), I'm the ideal target for COVID-19. Jason and I are doing our best to shelter in place and self quarantine as I'd prefer to avoid getting personal with COVID-19.

I haven't left the farm in eight days. I've learned that I left the farm far more often than I ever realized to run small errands. It feels like I've been in isolation for at least a month, yet it's been 8 days. I've learned that Jason and I suck at homeschooling. Neither of us are natural teachers, and Carter would be happy to provide a testimonial to back me up on that statement. I've been reminded that my mom can be inconveniently stubborn at times - no need for the peanut gallery to leave 500 comments that I come by my stubborness honestly. I've asked her twice to come stay with us as it would really make me feel better for her to be here at the farm or at my sister's house (who lives a few hours away). Since she feels fine she of course would rather be trapped in her own space than trapped in someone else's space. I've also been reminded that I'm a much happier person when I ride. I've not ridden for a few days as I've decided I don't need to risk having a freak accident on my horse and ending up with a broken bone or something. What if our (awesome, wonderful) help gets sick or has to shelter in their homes? Jason and I need to take every step to stay healthy as horse care must go on no matter what.

I also feel oddly out of sorts much of the time and fluctuate between feeling really stressed and anxious and then really normal when I'm caring for the horses. On one hand our life is carrying on as usual. The routine at the farm hasn't changed. The horses still get fed twice per day, grooming still happens, all of the regular things happen every day. It's comforting to be around the horses who are blissfully unaware that the world is experiencing a pandemic and daily life is being severely altered for so many people. When I read the news or social media, I get a constant barrage of dire warnings and bad news with no end in sight. Thus, with the exception of trips off the farm my daily life is completely unchanged, yet the world around me is melting down. I flip back and forth between thinking I'm overreacting to everything and under-reacting to everything. My daily routine is almost completely unchanged, yet the world around me has almost completely changed.
Let us know how you're doing these days. Has your daily routine changed a lot or a little, how about your horse time?


Blu and Sam

Bear and Digby

Fendi

Fendi and Ralph

Romeo and Gus

Lotus, Ralph and Cocomo

Blu and B-Rad

Happy, Digby and Quigly

Taco, Paramount and Ascot

Indy

Happy and Sebastian

Taco and Johnny

Silver and Moses

Gibson and George

Donneur and Gus

George and Lotus

Lighty and B-Rad