Hooped Up

Adjusting to this new normal looks very different in some ways and very similar in others. I still get up and go to work every morning. Call it coincidence or divine providence or whatever you want, but how odd that I got my job back just before this happened. While everyone is scrambling to figure out how to telecommute, I continue doing what I’ve done for 10 years. (Pro tip: Get up, shower, and get dressed just like you’re going out. Working in your PJs won’t help you to feel like a professional.)

I have been wondering how cancer care may change in the face of this epidemic. I transcribe for an oncology clinic in the mid-south. This article popped up this morning in one of my medical transcriptionist e-mails:

Current Best Practices to Facilitate the Management of COVID-19 at Cancer Care Institutions

This was put together by experts at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) (part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network [NCCN]), the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the University of Washington. Your useless factoid for today: I had bone marrow harvested 25 years ago at Fred Hutchinson and kept in storage at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance until my oncologist said I didn’t need it anymore (it was an insurance policy in case the leukemia relapsed), at which point I donated my cells to science.

I also see that some medical institutions are asking people to make masks to combat shortages. I need to check with my physician friend, Cathy, but if that is something I can do, I will.

In the meantime, garden preps continue. DD#2 finished beans, tidied up the greenhouse, and got trays and pots ready. I’ve been collecting cardboard all winter, and that’s getting spread out where I plan to put the squash. And I got the hoop put up over the perpetual lettuce bed:

The husband provided me with a supply of rebar scraps. The PVC piping was already out in the storage shed. It took about half an hour to pound the rebar into the ground (thankfully thawing out), put the pipe over it, then spread out the spun-bonded poly. It isn’t wide enough to go over the whole setup, so we had to spread out two lengths that I attached together at the top with clothespins. I did briefly consider bringing the whole works inside and seaming the two pieces together on the machine, but I think this will hold just fine. This isn’t meant to be permanent. It is meant to give the lettuce a head start.

[After dinner, the husband and I went out so I could show him my handiwork. We have this joke—started by my mother-in-law many years ago—that when the bull does some hard and difficult job, the cow’s response is to moo in admiration. I can’t even remember where that came from anymore but we use it a lot. At our house, either gender is allowed to moo in admiration at something the other one does.]

Today’s task will be to get some aged manure mixed in with the potting soil and start planting seeds.

I also went down to the root cellar yesterday afternoon to check on the status of the potatoes. They have a built-in timer and tend to start sprouting about now. We need to wait for the rest of that snow to melt—and move some of the black plastic to other parts of the garden—but it’s going to be time to plant those soon. When the raspberry canes start leafing out, I’ll have to go through and prune them.

I worked a bit more on the Candy Coated quilt last night. One side of the quilt is done and I’ve started moving up the other side. The only downside to that Candy Coated pattern is the number of seams. I have to change my needle more frequently than I do with other patterns, but quilting loops is very soothing and this is going quickly.