Moving Around

This week was a spectacular week for travel.  First, we traveled to Whitewater, Wisconsin to move Justin out of his dorm room.  We were supposed to have done that back in mid-March, but we received an exception because Justin is high-risk.  Mixing him in with a bunch of college students, recently returned from spring break, and their families, as everyone rushes to move home, wouldn't have been a good idea.

So we were able to move out with no one else around this week.  It's not like they needed the dorm room.  The place was deader than a graveyard. Justin is taking an online class this summer.  We have no idea if the dorms or the school will open in the fall.  Refunds for the food service plan and dorm rental have been slow.  The university is in tough financial shape. 

Yesterday, Allie and I drove to Milwaukee to start moving stuff out of her apartment.  Allie's lease is up at the end of July, but she didn't bring home enough underwear and socks to make it until then.  As it turns out, we brought home a little more than I was expecting:  six big tote boxes, a large suitcase and assorted other containers.  Poor Callie barely had room in the bench seat of the truck to crouch on the way home.

Early in the week, we had some cold nights, but we still spent some time outdoors.  The DNR is reluctantly allowing small warming or cooking fires with a prohibition against all other burns. A small warming fire was just enough to take the edge off, along with S'mores.

Keeping a close eye on the Fire

Allie burning a marshmallow

You wouldn't like it.

Today's excitement was a grocery run for curb-side pickup at a large Sun Prairie supermarket, Woodman's.  We were running out of some hard-to-find items that aren't available locally, including the frozen fruit mix that I use for our morning smoothies and my Kombucha.

Yes, I'm still making fermented tea on a weekly basis.  I gave up on the ginger flavoring, which required making a ginger syrup from diced ginger and sugar.  Our local store was out of ginger for weeks, so I started substituting a few frozen berries from the berry mix.  The process is a lot easier and provides the Kombucha with a lovely flavor and color.

All Better

I have a faint recollection as a young child of my mother spraying Bactine on a skinned knee, saying, "All better now." Well, I don't know if my recent illness was coronavirus or not. I tend to think not.  But I'm all better now.

Life has settled into a routine, and it's not too exciting.  Five mile walk in the morning. Firewood processing in the afternoon.  I'm just trying to spend as much time outside as I can.  When I'm cooped up in the house too long with the revised family unit (4), I can go a little stir-crazy.

In the beginning of this shelter-in-place event, I was spending lots of time reading as much as I could about the virus and steps to combat the virus.  That was helpful in the beginning.  I like to educate myself  as much as possible about something like this.  Beyond a few important known facts, there is still a lot that nobody knows, especially for a virus that has changed everything for the entire world.

Now, I scan the news for new developments, but most days there really isn't anything new to learn.  This thing is going to take time.  Back when the kids were young and challenging, I used to make a lot of firewood to reduce stress.  I have a feeling that my piles of firewood are going to get a lot bigger this year. 

I go into Lodi about once per week to do our family grocery shopping.  Our grocery store doesn't offer delivery or curbside pickup.  The produce isn't always the freshest, and the inventory can be limited, but I can find enough for us to eat and the basic essentials for living.  I'm very grateful that the store exists.

 When we first moved to this area, there was a period of time when Lodi didn't have a grocery store.  The nearest store was more than fifteen miles away.

There's also something about shopping local in a small town.  On one of my recent trips to 'The Pig," I  put all of my week's groceries on to the conveyor belt and then reached into my pocket for a wallet that had been forgotten at home. When I told the cashier that I was going to have to run home to get my wallet,  the store manager rushed over and told the cashier that it was no problem because I was a long-time customer.  She told me to take my groceries home and then call in my credit card for payment.

The store manager knew my face, but didn't know my name or address or anything about me, except that I'm a regular shopper.  She didn't ask for my identification.  She trusted me to go home and then pay for my order over the phone.  When I called in with my credit card, I thanked her for her trust.  "Anything we can do to help," she responded.

That's the kind of place that Lodi can be. 

Sick

Yeah, I got sick around Easter.  In different times, it would be no big deal. I don't get sick very often, but it happens. Fever, chills, aches and pains, headache, sore throat, upset stomach and runny nose.  Blech.

Unfortunately, many of these symptoms are associated with the conrona virus.  I was mildly concerned, but I never thought that I had corona virus.  This felt too much like other bugs that I've caught.  If testing was widely available, I could run down to the doctor's office and find out.  However, there's still a shortage of tests.  Public health guidelines are to stay home and self-isolate unless your situation is really bad (difficulty breathing).

The good news is that I haven't had any breathing issues, and my fever went away after a couple of days.  I stayed on Tylenol for most of the week, so I wasn't positive if the fever went away on its own or if it was the Tylenol.  Now I need 3 days of no fever (without Tylenol) , seven days since onset of symptoms, and a decline in symptoms.  If the fever doesn't return, I should be good to go on Sunday.

To protect Justin and the rest of the family, I moved up to the Scamp.  My little electric heater has kept it mostly comfortable during some cold temperatures.  Callie the crazy dog has been good company and has kept her eye on me day and night to make sure that I stay isolated.

During my staycation, I read "Call of the Wild," binged on downloaded episodes of Bosch and the Wire, and slept a lot.  Those tv shows are really good, but "Call of the Wild" is timeless.  It's available for free at the internet archive. It's especially recommended for anyone with a dog like Callie.

I returned to my long walks on country roads on Wednesday.  I rarely see anybody.  This is a stream in the marsh near my house. When I first looked at it, I saw two decent-sized trout. My friend Jon (now deceased) told me there were trout in this stream, but I never saw proof until this week.

I'll probably start splitting wood again this weekend.  On a hill like we have, leaning trees sometimes pull up by their roots and fall.  That happened this week to an oak.

The domino effect changed five other trees.  The tangle is probably too dangerous to mess with at this point, but gravity will eventually bring them all down to create more potential firewood.  My chainsaw can be very patient.  There are less dangerous downed trees in my woods to process.

Nature has many lessons for us. When a tree falls in the forest, it doesn’t really matter if anyone hears it.  But there is often collateral damage.

Closed

Sunrise from our Hill

My favorite local places to hike are:  Gibraltar Rock (less than ten miles away) and Devil's Lake (less than thirty miles away by way of the Merrimac Ferry).

Yesterday, Governor Evers closed those two locations, along with dozens of other state parks and state natural areas in southern Wisconsin.  This was not unexpected.  State public lands have been flooded with people seeking outdoor opportunities but who were not practicing social distancing.  In fact, the record crowds of people, together with closed bathrooms, limited garbage service and no added staffing, resulted in increased vandalism and litter.

I've been staying away because it was all too predictable, given human nature.  The Lodi Marsh remains open, as far as I know.  We've been hiking there about once per week early on weekday mornings to avoid crowds.

Lodi Marsh

Unfortunately, Callie has had a couple of hostile encounters with other dogs there.  One was an off-leash pit bull that the owner had no control over, even after we walked fifty feet off the trail to avoid it.  Another was an on-leash bigger dog that its owner wasn't able to control.  The dog literally dragged her owner 30 yards to get into Callie's face.  Callie's behavior has improved dramatically since she joined our family, but she doesn't tolerate other dogs in her face.

Australian cattle dogs are part Australian dingo, and she seems to have received more than her fair share of that part.  Sometimes, I think Callie must be swearing at the other dogs in dog language.  She definitely brings out the worst in other dogs.  The only dog that she tolerates is Elvis the service dog.  Callie seems to think that Elvis is a docile cow tied to Justin's power wheelchair. 


The best place to walk has turned out to be on the country roads east of my house.   The old dairy farm roads are almost always empty of traffic and people. 

After a five mile walk in the morning, we work on the firewood project in the afternoon.  This involves cutting down dead trees, bucking the downed trees into rounds, and rolling the rounds down the hill (we call it firewood bowling).

Then we pile the rounds into the splitting pile, split the rounds into firewood, and stack the firewood  on pallets.  Each year, we move seasoned firewood (1-3 years old, dependent on species) from the outside storage area into the pole shed for the coming winter.

There's still plenty of work to do outside while social distancing. With temperatures in the 20's and 30's for the next 7 days, we will still be burning last winter's firewood to keep the house toasty.

The Driveway

The plan was to be about 500 miles from home and on my way to New Mexico by today. Instead, Callie and I are camping next to our pole shed on the hill.  I really can’t complain. I have nearly every convenience of a rustic campground: twenty amp electricity, a water spigot down the hill, and  a bathroom inside the house. The Scamp has a bathroom, but there are no open dump stations to unload so we will let that go unused for awhile.

There is also a fire ring, although the state of Wisconsin suspended burning permits and strongly discourages campfires so as not to place any strain on emergency services responding to grass fires.

Numbers for “the virus” have been climbing in Columbia County, but no deaths so far. Dane County, where Madison is located, is a bit of a hotspot. Milwaukee is the big hotspot here with deaths starting to climb, and hospitals putting up triage tents in parking lots.

Our family is staying relatively healthy. Julia’s dad Gene is out of the hospital. We have scaled back our hiking trips. Mostly, we hike from our front door. There are country roads to our west and trails to our east.

This is actually a pretty good place to ride out the storm. Camping in your driveway is better than not camping at all.

Safer at Home

Lockdown sounds so draconian, so Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers issued a "Safer at Home" emergency order, which basically means the same thing.  Like many states, the lockdown order has many exceptions.  The one I'm particularly fond of is that we are allowed to get out and exercise, provided that we maintain social distancing.

We've been getting out to hike every day.  Our state parks are still open for hiking, so Julia and Allie headed to Devil's Lake yesterday.  This morning, Julia and I left the vehicles at home and walked out our front door to the Lodi Marsh Segment of the Ice Age trail.

It was a perfect day to hike.  The sandhill cranes were calling; the squirrels were out and about; and Crazy Callie, the border heeler, was leading the way for our 8.5 mile hike.

It's a stressful time.  Julia's dad was admitted to the hospital tonight with suspected pneumonia.  We don't know yet whether it's bacterial or viral.  (3/26/20 update: he does not not have Coronavirus or  pneumonia; the diagnosis is acute kidney injury due to dehydration)

Exercise, meditation, prayer.  We all need to manage this weird time that we are in.   Besides hiking, I've moved all of next winter's firewood from my outdoor stacks into the pole shed.  Now it's time for me to cut and split some more wood.  Rain is predicted for the next few days, so I'm not sure how much I'll get done.

I finished a really good book that I downloaded from the library:  "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead.  What we're going through certainly pales in comparison to what runaway slaves went through on their attempts to get north.   I highly recommend the book.

I can't recommend this cruise offer that I got in the mail yesterday.