March 2020

Id say we
All need to be prepared and stocked up. I can see a shutdown and confined to our homes coming. The National Guard has arrived here in idaho. They are swarming and guarding! So get what you can and what you need. PrepaRe for the worse. Stay healthy.
I read about Jims passing. He has struggled for several years now. I hope he is riding in the skies and pain free.
I have dental appt on 27th...i will go to if im allowed or they havnt shut down. I want to get all this fixed so we can travel sometime. Im hoping we dont miss granddaughters graduation.
Everyone be careful. Take vitamins my jessi says and wash hands.

What part of "don't go out unless you absolutely have to" here in AZ is the motto so far.

BUT, I got another good tip from my friend's sister who is a Dr. in
California.........she said to gargle with Listerine after each interaction with another person..........

just an added tip.

This whole thing is so frantic and people are literally acting crazy.............

I'm sitting here alone practicing social distancing.....................peace internally....................

Hope everyone has the same................

Me too. I haven't been out for about 6 days. Since Indiana has fewer cases than some other states, and none in this county, I'm going to go get a couple of necessary items, and right back home.
I was encouraged to hear last evening that some long used drugs seem to be working really well to cure this disease.
It's going to be warmer today, so I'm going to socialize with the jet ski and its water spots.

We have to remember how fortunate we are to be home anyhow.........the working people are frantic as
to where their next meal, house payment, etc are coming from.............big prayers for
our country.................

In the press conference today, President Trump said that there will be no penalties for missing or late payments for the next 90 days, and no evictions or foreclosures. They want to get some serious money to people who need it as fast as possible, within the next two weeks.
Many companies are continuing to pay their employees. Most of the baseball team owners are going to continue to pay the concessions people as if the games were being played. The others sports team owners will probably follow suit.
Help is coming.

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug that has been used for YEARS for malaria and arthritis. Both are showing great promise as treatments for those who contract the virus. To me, that sounds very encouraging.
Last night, I saw a guy talking about the French using it in a study group of 40 people. 100% cure. Very small study, but promising.
A very long time ago, I remember seeing one of the MASH shows where they were using chloroquine in Korea, 1952. Don't ask me why I remember that; I don't know. In the show, some of the Koreans (not the Americans) were having a bad reaction to it because it uses eggs in it's production. The Koreans then didn't get many eggs at that time. They used Primaquine for them.
Yeah. That's way more information than you ever wanted to know. LOL

I just pray the folks that lost everything can recover or that encur severe corona virus come out OK...........
This is the biggest mess America has had to face in my lifetime. Here in AZ we are activating the National Guard
for grocery stores, food banks, etc.............

We are doing okay here, so far. The first case in our region was confirmed today and is being treated at the Roanoke hospital I was in almost 8 years ago. They are a very good hospital. It's an elderly man, but they didn't say how he contracted the virus. Roanoke is 50 miles from here. The big Volvo truck plant here is closing down next week. They are the biggest manufacturing company around here and have about 3000 employees. Some folks entire families work there.


We have been staying home. Like TRUDY, we are stocked up. Having animals keeps us from letting things get too low. Our farrier is coming tomorrow. It's probably good to get this done while we are still not covered in virus patients. We aren't really thrilled with this fellow. Daisy has not been sound since the last time he was here and cut her hooves way too much. It's kind of bad to pay someone to lame your horse. Donnie will be able to watch him this time. By the time the horses are due for their next trim, Donnie might be able to do them.

All 8 of my new chicks are still alive and growing like weeds! Our (good) neighbors across the road stopped by this afternoon and talked to Donnie outside while I was at the barn. Their incredibly cute little 3 year old girl, Paisley, asked a bunch of questions about the pecan in the big cage. She meant peacock! So we are now calling our peacock, Pecan.

Hang in there everyone.  Us country girls can survive in the worst of situations, we know how to make the best of just hanging out in the barn or on the porch waiting for the storm to pass.

A bright note in our life arrived yesterday.  GIRL SCOUT COOKIES.... yummmmmm granddaughter Bailee showed up with our order of cookies.  Also brought along her homework so Grammy could help her with it while we ate cookies.  There is nothing better than a Thin Mint or a Do-si-dos to bring out a smile.

Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Stay healthy...

Grammy's help with homework while eating cookies is the best life can get.

I had ordered groceries on Walmart's website and went to pick them up today. Walmart is doing all they can to be helpful. They have given their delivery people the option to sign the receipt for the customer, for which I gave the okay. There was no contact at all between the girl and me, even though I don't think either of us are contagious. SO FAR, this county still doesn't have any identified cases.
But, I sure am getting tired of the perma-gloom and cold weather. This too shall pass.

Yes, ELLEN, you can order from Walmart that way. I did my order the same way.

Our workforce was hugely hit today................


You're right TRUDY................it's in God's hands. We, as Americans, are just so spoiled we can't follow directions,
rules, orders, or the law in many instances..........you can see the upset in the peoples' eyes.........

All I can do is stay home and do my part and pray for the best...............

I do have one hysterical story that happened two days ago. My friend broke her hip March 9th. She had surgery
and was then sent to rehab......She said the rehab was the motel 6 of rehabs. The therapists were great, the nurses awful.
So, she decided she had had enough and signed out. Her daughter made transportation arrangements. The
van showed up to pick her up and it looked like it came from Sanford & Sons. The driver couldn't even get
the door open.......anyhow, she made it home in the end but I laughed my head off............There's always something
to laugh at. I called her today and asked how she's doing.......she said she had a good shower, good meals,
and good therapy this morning. All is well. AND, she has her comfy chair.

God bless...........

Curbside pickup is available at most of our grocery stores now. Some of them have a $5 charge for it, but Walmart is free. That has been in effect since last summer for most of them.

My neighbor across the street has twin sons, one in college and one working in Chicago. The one in college is finishing his last year of school at an Indiana school. He decided to come to the lake house to "study" and do the online classes. Considering that there are 6 cars of young people here, I can't help wondering how much studying is getting done. They also seem to come and go quite a bit. I'm staying away from them - not because I don't like them (they are basically pretty good kids), but I don't want to contract whatever they might be carrying around with them. Since Illinois has a shelter in place order, they could be here for quite a while because they can't go home. We'll see how well they like one another after a couple of weeks of close company. Could be entertaining.

How sad is this?  At 6:30 AM my neighbor calls me and says "do you need anything from the store? I'm at Giant, senior citizen shopping is from 6 AM to 7 AM and they have stuff on the shelves."  This is what we have become because of this crazy pandemic.  And as I slept I had a dream that I was shopping and was the only person in the store and there was lots of food all around me.  I HATE shopping but here I am dreaming about it...Going to my friends house to pick up eggs and hand them out later this morning.
We are his egg distribution center. God help us....

It is really crazy now..........we will survive it though. Thank God for computers. As for us here, life is still
the same. Being retired has other privileges tho, like shopping very early.

We had a citizen die of corona virus but didn't live close.........he was in his 50's with several co-morbidities.

And California has now been put state of emergency precautions. It's spreading, for sure.

So far, here, nothing has changed........We received two loaves of home made bread from neighbors.
YUM, wheat with honey.

God bless............

Okay.  Spring can come now.  I have washed all my sweaters and they are ready to be put away until next fall.  HOWEVER, it just started snowing, so I guess short sleeves are out of the question for a little longer.  

I have three fresh loaves of bread, with enough flour for 3 more. I should be good for about 6 weeks on bread.

Today was good neighbor day in our hood........With churches closed we had neighbors neighboring all day.......
It was fun and happy.  Good for all..............

Of course, we all practiced social distancing....an almost 4 yr old told me she couldn't stand next to her mom because of the crown virus

God bless.

I made a trip to a good butcher shop this morning to stock up. That is not an unusual thing for me to do. I usually do that 2 or 3 times a year. Since the traditional grocery stores are selling out fast, the butcher shop has been doing a lot more business. I have it all repackaged and vacuum sealed, so it will last for a long time in the freezer.
There wasn't as much traffic on the roads as usual.
As of now, this county doesn't have any known cases of COVID-19. "Known" is the operative word here.
Doesn't matter. Gas in the car, food in the freezer, and I'm in for the duration.

Same here ELLEN........I'm ready as I can be..........

AND, we can't do anything to prevent the wide spread other than follow the rules and advice of those in the know.

It was cute this morning to see the neighborhood kids all come around to see the horses. There were 8 in the group
and happy..........and, it brightened my spirits. I love their lust for life with jumping and laughing.

Love to all.

At least we don't have shelter in place here in Arizona....................yet.

We have been asked to stay home other than essential trips for groceries, doctors, etc. For me, having some warmer weather in the next couple of days will help a lot. I do feel sorry for people who are cooped up in apartments in cities. They don't even have anything good to look at, just another concrete building.
I can watch the birds and ducks as they do their return migrations.
When the weather warms up, I can get out and run around on my "new" golf cart. So, I am grateful to live where I do. I'm trying to look for things to be grateful for.

Donnie and I got up before our chickens today and went to Kroger's and Walmart for some fresh veggies, bread, milk, and a few other things.  We hadn't been in a little over a week and it was shocking how many empty shelves there were at Kroger's.  They did have our favorite milk, but no eggs, little bread, and fewer fresh veggies than normal.    WalMart's stocking was a bit better, but some things were scarce to non-existent there, too.  

We were somewhat of a spectacle in our facemasks.  No one at Walmart had one on besides us and only one lady at Kroger's.  We didn't care.  In another week, it will be normal wear around here.  




I bought some materials to make facemasks for the hospital or nursing homes here. I met another lady there, at 7 a.m., doing the same thing for her son, a cancer doctor. He told her that people were canceling their cancer treatments because they were afraid of the virus. He needs masks to give to his patients. She made one with the Batman symbol on it for her son. :-)

Ark, get some bread flour and make your own bread.  It's really easy, especially if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attached.
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk (poured into the water)
2 TBSP butter
6 1/2 cups BREAD flour
3 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP salt
2 packages rapid rise yeast
Put the liquid in the bottom of your mixing bowl and then add all the other ingredients on top.  Turn on the mixer to low speed, let it knead for 8 minutes.  Put the bowl in a warm place for 2 hours.  
Take the dough out of the bowl and shape it into loaves.
Let it rise again for about an hour.
Bake at 400° for about 30 minutes.
This will make three 1 pound loaves or two 2 pound loaves.  
I bet you can't stay out of it while it's still warm.  The first loaf will disappear quickly.  The other two can be frozen until you need them.

ELLEN: Thanks for the bread recipe. I think I'm going to try it, I bought some bread flour & yeast at the Amish store last week. My last attempt at bread was I made a very nice bread shaped door stop that weighed about 5 pounds. LOL LOL

Things have calmed down a little around here. The stores are stocked again. Because of George & Stacy's respiratory issues and spending time with Karen (my friend who has brain cancer), I'm still self isolating as much as possible. I would never forgive myself if I made them sick.

There is only 1 case here in Montour County, most of the cases are in Pittsburgh and Philly area. We are basically farms in this area and already spend time hanging out on the farm so it's not a huge change in our activities. Our church does a on line service so we don't have to miss it.

We are getting ready to have a garden this summer, Rick came over and plowed it up and we are waiting on Josh to bring over some cow manure to spread and work into the soil.

Stay safe and healthy...
Love & prayers...

Trudy, I went back and edited my recipe.  Be sure to use BREAD flour.  That makes all the difference in the world. Buying the flour and yeast from the Amish is a good thing. I go to Shipshewana to get those things because they are the best. My neighbor swears by King Arthur bread flour. I haven't used it, but he's a lot better baker than I am so I don't doubt him.
I'd been making rolls for YEARS using regular all purpose flour.  Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't.  When I started using bread flour, it came out right every time.  Now, I just buy bread flour and use it for everything.

It's now a day later. We actually had a nice afternoon, with sun and temperatures in the high 50s. Everyone who has a golf cart was out, including me. It was nice to go check out the world.

Today was beautiful here in Az, too...........wegot out for a wheelchair run and saw several neighbors from
a distance.................everyone seemingly in good humor............it has forced the world to stop/