It snowed last night.  This conveniently allowed me to run the gas out of the snowblower — a task I’ve considered undertaking several time over the past several mild weeks, but I never got around to it.  Now, instead of just letting the thing run until it was out of gas, I moved some snow around.

So close

There was enough gas to finish 95 percent of the driveway, so it all worked out nicely.  Here’s to procrastination.

The snow cover also allowed us to have a camp fire in the newly-cleared fire pit withouth having to obtain a burn permit.  It was a lovely evening to cook out over a fire.

Then, after Brooklyn 99, Zoe unveiled her Bakeshop project: eclairs.  Everyone was delighted.

Here’s what it all looked like:

Studying by the woodstove

Cooking on the campfire

Ebby resting comfortably next to Jen

Ebby came home today and spent much of the afternoon resting on our bed.  She ate a little and purrs when we lay next to her and pet her.   Everyone is happy to have her back.

Cutting cotton and watching Brooklyn 99 (Halloween episode)

Today many of us embarked on a humanitarian mission to help especially the medical community.  Jen has joined a club working to sew respiratory masks out of cotton material to help protect nurses and physicians.  She picked up the fabric from a friend, and measured it into the right sizes.

Then we helped cut them into the right shape.  Jen is going to iron them and return them to her friend, who will sew elastic flaps onto them to hold the masks in place on the person’s face.  Judging by the material used, the medical professionals will be quite fashionable in the coming season.

Other things that went on here today:

It had the feeling of a snow day. We’re expecting up to six more inches overnight.

This device helps make wontons, which look like this right before they’re cooked..

Online fellowship

We enjoyed the virtual company of our Durham Unitarian Universalist friends for a Zoom Sunday service today.  It was a unique pleasure.  We don’t want to place anyone above anyone else, but hearing Carmen play piano all the way from the West Coast was a definite highlight.  Sunday actually felt like a Sunday, even if the rest of the days last week felt pretty much the same as one another.

Some of us got outdoors, much to Daisy’s delight.  Paths at Wagon Hill were a little crowded, by we managed to keep a safe distance from anyone we encountered.

At Wagon Hill

Also today:

Practicing for tv theme medley

Being Saturday, today was light on the demands of remote working and a heavy on the desire to be out among our friends.  Then we realize our friends aren’t really out either, and we find stuff to do around the house.

A few shelves were decluttered.  Some laundry was processed.  More firewood split.

Lanie’s Suzuki Book 4 violin Recital was put on indefinite hold.  If we can get a copy of the piano accompaniment, we’ll figure out a way to live stream her performance to the world at large. She has been practicing a lot and knows the songs very well.

We picked up local produce from Tuckaway Farm (eggs, potatoes and spinach) but continue to strike out with all-purpose flour.  We keep hoping it will get restocked soon and we’ll catch some before it all sells out again.  That’s about the only thing we lack, but Zoe needs some for her Bakeshop class.

Other things we were thinking about today:

Daisy eviscerated a stuffed chipmunk.

Zooloretto

Chinese takout for dinner

Quick cleanup

Jumanji: The Next Level for movie night

We’re still waiting for Ebby to come home.  Her temperature was up a bit, according to an incredibly early-in-the-morning phone call from the veterinary hospital.  She still is not eating, but her temperature was back down when the called again at a reasonable evening hour, and the doctor sounded hopeful.

Zoe’s string of acceptance letters was snapped by a wait-list notificatoin from Colby (Colby!).  She seems unphased by this news.

I got to help distribute GoBags to homes of kids from our school, and felt useful doing so.  I did not get to drive a school bus, a possiblity I mentioned to my family.  The driver of the van I was in chuckled at the thought of me driving when I mentioned it.

Here is more from today:

Talking onf the phone to Grandma, who knows all about what we do because she reads this blog

Paiting the Terraforming Mars counter trays

We didn’t drink all of this tonight, just some.

Paisano goes good with pizza.

Terraforming Mars again tonight

Lanie’s cake creation has home-made mango curd inside and that is as good as it sounds.

Bad news first: Ebby’s apetite wasn’t coming back and she threw up again, so we brought her to the emergency veterinarian.  A sonogram and complicated surgery later, the surgeon says she’s still not out of the woods, even though all the thread is out of her and multiple holes in her small intestine have been sewed up.  The next 72 hours will be very important for her.  If she is able to eat tomorrow, she may be able to come home and gain her strength back here.  We are all hopeful.

Only one of these people has been wait-listed at Amherst.

On the plus side, Zoe got acceptance emails from two colleges, Amherst and Mount Holyoke.  She is now four-for-four in acceptance letters.  Too bad she won’t be able to visit either of these colleges for accepted student days because accepted student days are off.

We also started online learning in earnest. For dinner, Lanie made an extra lasagna, which we carted over to friends who are suffering through quarantine and sickness at the same time, though we are hoping they’re not suffereing from the sickness which is causing everyone else to be quarantined.

Here is the day in pictures:

From my workstation, I could turn around and see Lanie, and there’s Jen working in the dining room.

Ready for Lanie’s lasagna assembly line

Dream come true: I sat in with the Indigo Girls during their Facebook livestream.  This number is called “Land of Canaan.”  

Catan tonight

Today we learned the ailing person we had come in contact with tested negative for Covid-19, so there’s at least one person we know out there who does not have it.

Books retrieved

But maybe we won’t lighten up much in our quarantine procedures.  The only one of us who went out was Nadia, and she needed to get a few books from school.  Remote learning starts tomorrow.

Well, I also made my newspaper delivery to Grampy, but besides that, it was a lot of sequestration for all of us.

Around the house today:

Time to prune the peach tree

Their process looked a little unorthodox, but the girls succeeded in giving Daisy a bath.

Smallworld

And coloring

Facetime with Grammy

I opened a new hot sauce from my set that;s wrapped up like dynomite.

Zoe celebrated a second-place finish in hearts. It’s not important who came in first.

Today was Tuesday, we had to remind ourselves.  We encountered a somewhat illicit box of Lucky Charms (I went to Hannaford, didn’t get near anyone, and used the self-checkout with the back of my knuckle, but I had to get Grampy a newspaper anyway), and we recreated the famous Irish Rock A-Z anthology that Jen brought back home from Ireland in 1993.  It’s now a spotify playlist.  Also, it’s possible that Leo Moran of the Saw Doctors saw my facebook post to Uncle George.  He has yet to comment on it.

Chores

It may have been the best St. Patrick’s Day ever.

Here are some highlights:

Workin’

Conserving bandwidth

Skype violin lesson with Ms. Louise

NCIS

More dog training

Pasta with Ceci for dinner

Aerial dance practice

Ebby came home from the vet, but she’s still not eating much.

Here we are at home.  All day. For a while.  With the rest of the nation.

Our case is slighly more fraught than most other people. We’re actually awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test (not performed on any of us) to see — among other things —  if we really, really have to quarantine ourselves.  (We don’t think that’s the case, but until we know for sure, we have to be cautious. That’s why I’m not at the teacher workshop today.)

In fact, though, today some of us did go out:

Lanie took the Dais for a long walk.

Send good thoughts towards Ebby’s digestive tract.

Zoe and I dropped little Ebby at the veterinary hospital to see why she keeps throwing up and hiding under the bed.  (Ebby’s throwing up and hiding, not Zoe.)

Zoe went for a run.

I visited Grammy and Krissy and dropped off our tax information to the greatest sister in the world.  (I have two sisters; Karin’s great, too.)

I borrowed Kevin’s wheelbarrow, maintaining a safe, six-foot social distance all the while.

Here are some other highlights of our first day sequestered:

Dog Training

Mosiac coloring

Baking

‘gramming

Tonight’s game, Puerto Rico, was preceded by a lively “La Vida Loca” dance. (Ricky Martin is from Puerto Rico, of course so it all fits together.)

We finished off what looks like the last of this year’s maple production. We ended up with almost 10 cups of syrup and a few batches of maple sugar cand

Other things that took place here today: reading, raking, Dutch Blitz, correspondence, logging, music practice (guitar, violin, cello, and piano, though not all together) and watching two episodes of The Great British Baking Show.  Also, Jen managed to work all day with us buzzing around.

Nadia is here, too. She rejected any attemps at picture taking.  We’ll try to capture that elusive one sometime soon.