Hellooo!
I hope you are doing well given all the news and “shelter in place-ing.”
The weather has finally cleared here. Yesterday was the first all-sun-and-no-rain day in a while. We took full advantage of this and worked outside for the majority of the day.
We first moved the animals into new pens so that the grass in their former pens will regenerate. You can see the obvious difference between a lived-in pen and a new one. The new pens are full of tall green grass while the old ones have short brown grass.
The orchard is the worst place to mow. The grass grows in what seems like seconds, and bumps in the ground make it hard to do a clean job of mowing. We are trying out moving the pigs into the orchard. As a safety precaution, we laid cement blocks around trees with low-hanging branches so the pigs don’t eat them… So far, they are doing a fantastic job of munching on that grass.
The previous day, I had finished taking the blueberry hoop house netting and piping down. I also moved the pipe anchors closer together so the pipes are bent enough that you would not have to crouch when inside. The headspace is at least 8 1/2 feet high now (Picture: do not be fooled— that ladder is huge). I covered the ground around the bluberries with landscape fabirc. Grass tends to grow over them, so hopefully, doing this will stifle that growth. Jared and I poured mulch over the fabric to make it look better (just like with the lavender).
After finishing that, Jared helped Daddy lay down the brick path in front of the house. At first, Daddy tried putting the brick directly on the fabric, but the ground was too bumpy so he and Jared poured an even layer of rock on top of the fabric before placing the brick on top. It is nice and steady now! While those two worked on the path, I started hanging the netting for the hoop house. The clips that attach the netting to the piping will fly off if you tug the netting too hard, so I twisted some ties around them for good measure.
We have new peach trees and a magnolia that we planted behind the house. Daddy is starting an orchard there. For now, I remind myself to water them each day because we do not have a t-connector that would connect the water tubing. The trees sure drink up a lot of water. About four gallons a day!
Speaking of water, Jared and Daddy (mostly Daddy) are vacuuming the dirt out of the pond to clean it and find the presumed hole that is letting water leak out. That is going smoothly.
Schooling.
Today is Monday, the supposed first day of school. This is the day that all of my teachers sent out their emails describing the week’s… to-do list more than schedule. The teachers are only required to be available for three hours a day, and we students only have to attend one Zoom meeting per teacher per week. The assignments at the time are small, but I am hoping they will get more complex as the weeks roll by. Yes, weeks. Inevitably, the school will not be reconvening until my Sophmore year. I do not know how long I thought its decommissioning would last, but not that long. I am working on putting together video call meetings with my friends, but other than that I haven’t had much communication with people from school. It is nice in some ways: I do not have to worry about my appearance every day (sorry Daddy and Jared), and I have a largely free schedule. I have taken to doing yoga each morning and going on early runs every other day of the week. My teachers seem worried about their students’ mental and physical health. I worry about my classmates’ and friends’ too, but not about mine. Homeschooling has unintentionally prepared me for this kind of situation. For that, I am ever so grateful. I am also grateful that I get to be here in the sunshine and fresh air.
Love,
Lauren
Hoop house
Brick path
Hoop house clip
Daddy vaccuming the pond