Various Things

I actually set my sewing machine up and did some sewing on it!  Mending, to be sure (two pairs of trousers and one pair of shorts, a garment apiece for the malefolk of the house, the totality of the mending pile ATM), but stitching nonetheless!  I haven't sewn anything in months, which is probably a symptom or cause (perhaps both) of the general depression that Covid-19 has caused for me.

I am terrified of Covid-19.   We're fortunately in an area with not many cases, but I'm even second-guessing Squiddle's playdate with his school friend tomorrow.  He hasn't seen K in months, and K's grandmother says they've been mostly isolating too, but still.  What if.  Both my mother and husband have medical histories that mean they're more likely to have complications.  Is his socialization worth the risk?  Impossible to know what the risk is against an invisible enemy.

I keep trying to step back and remind myself that I can only control so much.  At some point the school district is going to ask us to commit to either online or in-person learning for fall.  For Squiddle, it's still a coin toss.  But for Jazzy, he needs the in-person learning to help with his speech delays....

I need to stop circling.  The chickens have figured out how to get in and out of their coop.  I'm amused that when I peek in while shutting them in at night, all six of them keep squeezing into one nest box.  They are outgrowing the chick-sized feeder and waterer, though, so in the last Lowe's run Wonderful Husband picked up a couple mud pans and some S-hooks for me.  I'm going to drill holes in the pans and use the hooks to secure them to the mesh of the tractor run.  One for food (positioned beneath the coop, for when it rains), and one for water.  Hopefully they'll work.

And I finally hauled straw over and got garden beds #2 and #3 mulched.  I don't know if the beets or leeks are ever going to come up, but we're now hitting hot and dry summer days, so the mulch will help keep the soil moist.

I managed to snag the last basket of salal berries from the co-op this week (pickup on Wednesdays), then researched them and realized that we have a fair amount of salal around the edges of the yard!  (Not ripe yet.)  So here's to hoping that we like the berries, and to knowing another plant that should be spared as we trim things back.

I've also been thinning out the cedar strand by our barn.  It was so densely packed that even Jazzy wouldn't be able to get between the trunks, and half of the trees are thin, spindly, and dead.  I'm taking out the dead stuff first, then planning to thin the plants some more so there's a bit more light, moisture, and nutrients to share around.