Coronavirus Update: Week 10

Things were loosened this past week, but not much really felt different. Menards still requires masks (I'm wearing them out in public anyway) and doesn't allow kids in. And really, I suppose that's my only standard for recent comparison as I haven't been many (any?) other places.

Here are some random updates from the past week:

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Day 64: a final remote faculty meeting:

... while Ella slept next to me.

I also "met" with graduating seniors and other professors from my department to hang out for an hour. Here's a link to that on my photography/teaching blog.

Later, the compost site was WET:

I backed up to a puddle to get wood chips.

From an Instrgram post: "Found while sifting through all the free compost brought home from our local St. Paul compost site: a hanger, a toadstool garden decoration, mousetrap cheese, a cigarette mouthpiece thing, and a pair of glasses:"

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Day 65: this was a quiet day as my wife was home and I started a big chunk of my final grading. It was also our first negative COVID-19 test of our household. My wife had a slight fever and wasn't feeling great for the previous 4 days or so. (It's common for her to be working directly with COVID-19 patients at the level 1 trauma center that she works at [depending on what service she is on that day/week].) She was able to work from home on Monday before having Tuesday off. Monday night, she went in for a test, and it was reported negative on Tuesday.

I also posted this: "Well, the 2' fences are keeping the bunnies out, but the squirrels are having a heyday in our planted beds. TOTAL DUG UP DESTRUCTION of our rows of radishes, carrots, and green beans. If any 'rows' germinate, I expect them to look about like this."

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Day 66: more online learning. First, a meeting with his speech teacher:

Then more (regular) homework.

The chicken wire that I put over the seeded bed worked well overnight:

F.U., damn squirrels.

And then Charlie and I biked about 3 miles that evening: "Nearly 3 miles around St. Paul with this small fry tonight:"

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Day 67: after planting 5 days before (see the bottom of that link), we had radishes poking up:

A few miles with both fellas.

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Day 68: the boys and I met my parents for a quick exchange of goods (rolls, asparagus, propane tanks, etc) and a quick parked-in-our-cars-next-to-each-other-while-eating lunch. (But we felt safer knowing that my wife tested negative 3.5 days before, and had only spent the previous day in the hospital, so the likelihood of her catching something the day before, giving it to me, and having me pass it on to my parents all within 24 hours was super slim [if not medically impossible].) The boys did some good reading in the car:

They've been obsessed with crushing chalk, mixing it with water, and "painting" with it.

One of the things I got from my folks was more field stones. I posted this on Friday night: "The first pic was 3 weeks ago when I started transplanting 30 'hills' of hostas and ferns from friends and neighbors. (And split hostas from our alley and our backyard.) Grass just will NOT grow under our big front tree, so it's time to stop trying. The second pic is tonight after placing a lot of field stone from my folks (some of which I probably unloaded from a rock box yeaaaaars ago). There's still more I want to do along the alley, but this is a good start so far! And I'm already noting which ones to split again next spring to fill in other areas. Thanks friends!"

"During," after I transplanted a bunch (I never took a true "before" shot)...


... and "after" on Friday night.

I also commented: "Also: look at ALL THE DEAD BRANCHES we cut and pulled out of our bushes. They are quite thin near the entrance to the alley right now. But they also look so much better. Still have a few scabs from that project..." Once the bushes get trimmed from the top, I want to curve the rocks around to the right off in the distance of that 2nd shot. And plant more hostas back there in the spring.

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Day 69: random stuff around the house/yard, and I taught Henry how to properly wash our kitchen floor! So now that's a twice-a-week job for him. Sucker.

And we played at the park, and I posted this on Facebook later:

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Day 70:

I also built a raised chicken wire cage as my green beans were sprouting and running into the chicken wire that was laid across the top of the soil. So mid-afternoon, I figured I'd scrounge up some scraps to make that happen. I had a gross/awesome blister form from using the stapler to attach the wire to the wood:

With a pile of sawdust in the background.


The new "cage" on top of the carrots and green beans!


Insta pic with the caption: "The green beans were getting trapped under the chicken
wire, so I built a 'cage' out of cedar scraps and leftover chicken wire. Hoping it holds!"

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This week is the boys' LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!!