Lockdown

Here are a few of the things we have done during lockdown. Gayle has spent a lot more time than normal playing with the children! He has never been at home without having a lot on his mind, and had energy to do things with them. His health is better than in past times when he had time like this. He has helped Little Miss with her preschool work a number of times.

He did an art lesson with Mr. Imagination and Little Miss one day.

Miss Joy loves having him around! She can steal treats from him sometimes. This was apple crumble with coconut cream on top.

Mr. Diligence hauled home grass clippings and other stuff for mulch from across the road one day. Little Miss helped him, so he gave her a ride home.

Gayle made soap for us. I had intended to do this job in January, and got the tallow out of the freezer for it then. In early March I got the supplies out to make the soap—and discovered we didn’t have enough caustic soda (lye). I ordered more, and it arrived just before lockdown started—was I ever glad I ordered when I did, as we couldn’t get it now. I still hadn’t gotten the job done, so Gayle did it for me, with my supervision, one morning while I taught school, and then he cut it into bars a few days later. Now we have enough soap for a year or two.

He also pumped a ham full of brine. We’ll eat the ham next week, after Mr. Intellectual smokes it for us.

Today (Sunday) there are two board games going on at the kitchen table. Esther and Mr. Intellectual are playing a variation of Settlers of Catan, and Gayle is playing Monopoly with Simon and Mr. Diligence.

Since Simon is home, he’s been working on his van. He also took time to wirebrush the rust off a little wheelbarrow that was given to Little Miss, weld it together, and paint it. She is very happy with her “new” wheelbarrow!

As we walked home from our picnic down by the river today (we beat the rain!) we saw something unfamiliar beside the highway across the river. Esther zoomed in with her camera, and this is what we were seeing! Someone got creative.