Working From Home x 2 and Grow Lights

Anya napping thru the chaos

Working From Home x 2-
Sorry I've been on radio silence. Work/life has been crazy. Crazy weather also hasn't helped, snowed last week, then 72 yesterday!

The last week or so I've been feeling really disconnected. Dave is too. I'm having trouble keeping track of what day it is because I haven't been going to work much the last two weeks. I got set up to work at home this last Wednesday, but then there wasn't any work for me to do after that. I'm very grateful to be paid and have benefits through all of this by my corporation. I find out at the end of every business day if I'm going to be working the next day. It's always a wait-and-see kind of thing. I was off work all week last week, except for two hours to pack up my desk, and pick up my work equipment to bring home. Basically the work I do is for a large medical organization, running insurance for office visits, and non-essential office visits are drying up. Most healthcare providers are not seeing patients for anything that's not deemed critical. So this is a wait-and-see proposition. I'm guessing this could go on for months, the question is how many? I'm just trying to do lots of things at home and stay focused, get some intellectual stimulation by watching documentaries or whatever. Dave started working from home yesterday when he brought home his technology that he needed. His company has sent home almost everyone except the shop workers. Because his business is deemed critical he will probably keep working everyday as normal but from home. He works for an industrial electric motor company that works on equipment for hospitals, municipalities and the farming industry. Lucky for us we had two spare bedrooms that we could set up easily. The one I'm using already had a small desk in it for Dave's spare computer-

The other bedroom had room to set up his table he brought home. We didn't think they'd send him home to work since there's less than 10 people in his building, but they did-

This is considered temporary but who knows how long temporary means? Two months, six months, 18 months? I have no clue. I'm very fortunate I'm still getting a paycheck. I know not everybody has that luxury and I'm very grateful. So far we're both healthy, our kids are healthy and our grand kids are healthy. Both my six year old hens are laying, bless their hearts! We have 2 dozen eggs now in the fridge, awesome! I try to let them out to free range every day, a few times a day-

Rosie on the right, Ellie on the left

Not sure if I'll be able to get new chicks, as they are in short supply locally. A lot of people are planting gardens and buying chickens. A Victory Garden re-boot of sorts. Victory Gardens started in Canada, more info here Victory Gardens It will be good if people keep doing this after things calm down.

Speaking of growing food and farming this video is interesting Helpless Farmers Devastated by Pandemic . I saw this on the news last night and shook my head. This is definitely a sign of a broken agricultural system. These farmers would rather let their food rot in the field then selling them in small batches, through social media, or giving it away. I think sometimes the old system of farmer subsidies created a helpless mentality that if there's no traditional buyer just let it rot. Time to think outside the box. Give to shelters, and food banks are already heavily hit. That could be feed for livestock animals if nothing else. This is wasteful.

We planted the cold frame with seeds several weeks ago and they're coming up very slowly.  This weekend we'll be planting some other cool weather vegetables over in the main part of our garden if the weather cooperates. It's been warm but a cold front has been blowing in all day, up to 60 MPH gusts. Supposed to be in the 20's next few nights. Will plant radishes, a couple of kinds of carrots and more spinach and lettuce. Seeds that I started inside our indoor little green house in the bedroom are doing well, but some seeds aren't up yet-

Top old grow light is more purple

Dave found some starts for Basil and pickling cukes, the new grow light has more of a white light. I will split these up into bigger containers soon-

We found a big Rosemary-

Using my $3.00 thrift store teapot for watering-

We decided to add two more grow light to start more veggies and flowers. We couldn't find any local stores that have grow lights but we found two on Amazon and they are great! They're actually better prices than what we could find locally, with free shipping. So we have three grow lights on the rack for the next month to help speed things up, instead of one light. Easy to install, just plug in, has rings on top to suspend from the rack-

 
                                                                                     

You can see edge of grow light

Tomorrow I'll start some bush beans and slicing cucumbers on another rack. Plant more food!