Early Spring

How are you all doing?

We are doing mostly good with occasional spikes of anxiety/stress. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world right now. Our government is now telling us that we need to stay home until the end of April to reduce the spread of the virus. I think it’s more difficult for Extroverts than Introverts like me, but it’s still not easy to not go wherever or whenever we want, to have to be concerned about “social distancing,”  to not have the stores fully stocked, and to know there’s an infectious virus lurking out there.

EJ just went back to work after a week home sick. he video conferences with his doctor this morning and she believed he may have a “bug” going around out there, but definitely not the Covid-19 virus. I get anxious about EJ’s health and our finances. I have to remind myself every now and then to “breathe” and trust God. When I don’t remember, I have friends who help me remember. 🙂 We really do have so many good things in our lives.

At about 4:30 am yesterday we lost our power for a few hours. I am not sure why. I woke up when it came back on at 7 am but we didn’t get our internet back until an hour later. I felt very disconnected from the world, and I thought that, wow, I would have no way to contact many of my friends around the world if I ever lost the Internet permanently. Yikes. My life would be dimmer without them. I am concerned for my friends in various places in the USA and the world. I try to check on them often, especially those I know who are high-risk and alone. I wish I could whisk some of them away to our Enchanted Forest to keep them safe and cared for. If you feel alone, need encouragement, or would like me to pray for you, feel free to join my I Love To Go A Gardening Facebook Group.

This afternoon a guy EJ knows stopped by to give us some beef heart, tongue, liver–various cow parts that I told EJ that I will never eat unless I’m totally starving, even if they are supposedly very healthy. They sound gross to me so EJ will have to cook and eat them himself. The guy also gave EJ some information about beekeeping if we can ever afford the startup costs. EVERY hobby is expensive to begin, it seems. I think it would be awesome to keep bees even though I’m a bit scared of getting stung–but I think that I can learn not to be scared, right? I love honey, and I find the legends about bees interesting. My favorite is an old superstition that says you have to tell the bees when something big happens—a birth, a death, a marriage, a move–or they would move away or die. I talk to Hannah Joy, the cats, and the chickens, so I would have no problem talking to bees, just for fun.

EJ went outside (maintaining social distance) to chat with the guy and showed him our garden and chickens. The guy said we had an awesome setup. I think we do too, but it’s always nice to hear others say so. 🙂 We gave him three dozen eggs as a thank you for his gifts.

The weather is still cool, but our snow is all melted. The lilac bush is beginning to bud and the lilies are poking their heads up from the dirt. We’ve also seen sandhill cranes flying overhead.  It’s still too early to plant a garden, but Spring is creeping in.

I don’t walk Hannah Joy to the mailbox in the winter because she sometimes gets a wild look on her face and goes running back and forth on her leash. I don’t want to risk having her pull me off my feet. I slipped and fell in the driveway a couple years ago and broke bones in my wrist; I do not want to have that happen again. But with the snow all gone, we restarted our walks. Hannah loves it.

Hannah keeps us laughing. She is not a very patient dog. When she wants something, she wants it NOW. If I don’t immediately give her what she wants, she gets on my lap and paws at me, and wiggles, and then starts to complain. I caught her on video. Just for the record, I feed Hannah twice a day. I feed her first thing when we get up in the morning and then I feed her between 5-6 pm in the evenings. Plus, she gets treats. She sometimes thinks she should eat earlier in the evening.

Theo our outside cat stayed in the fenced-in garden/coop all winter, but he’s been venturing out now that the weather is getting nicer. A couple days ago EJ and I watched a flock of wild turkeys in the back yard. They suddenly took off half running and half flying and we saw Theo chasing them. After a few seconds, he started to run back the other way as if he suddenly thought, “Oh, crap! What am I doing?” Theo is a very affectionate cat. He always greets me when I go out into the garden and follows me around while I do my chores. In the last couple of weeks, he’s been leaping onto my back and riding around on my shoulders. I finally got him doing it on video, as best as I could:

I’m glad that since we have to stay at home, I have the Enchanted Forest to stay home in.