what are you doing while under lockdown?

[maki2]

just a normal kind of day, chores, playing with my friend's dog, fixing meals and making extra helpings to put into the freezer for another day when I don't feel like cooking.

Cutting and packaging inventory for my Etsy shop for the 2020 holiday season. Its been rainy so I have been putting in some time on that work and also after dark in the evenings. If I get enough inventory done in May I can take the summer off other than designing some new products

 

[Cammalu]

FINALLY I bought a car I can tow four wheels down. I’ve been using a borrowed car for the last month or so. I get to return it today! Yay!!!

 

[bullfrog]

So what did you buy?

 

[travelaround]

Cool.. Cammalu has a new car... Maki is working her art business... Vanheads is ready for adventure.

There's plenty of adventure here in the Klamath River Valley.

In the last few days I've had visitors: a baby skunk, a big raccoon, and a deer who was just outside my back door, looking around as if looking for his herd - there's a group of them that frequently come through; they like my yard because I have no dogs.

Lawn got mowed, for the most part. Time to start all over again. Should be easier this time.

JeaninaBox - what a lawnmowing adventure! I'm amazed that you did so much in one day. You must be in great shape to do all that work all at once. I admit, I'm taking it easy. I mow until I'm tired or break a sweat and then I'm done for the day. It is great exercise.

Now I am learning how to prune the bushes here ... wrong time of year for it so I'm just reading and watching videos about it. Everything growing here, just about, is out of control.

This week I've made three new videos for my Booktube channel. Here's the most recent... about what I've read so far this year for a reading challenge I'm doing.


[video=youtube]

 

[WalkaboutTed]

Since we're stuck in place, we've been working on our future 10' x 16' tiny house. It is currently mostly used for storage, but we already have a sink, a/c, fridge and small soaking tub in it. We've been staying in the trailer in an RV park here in NM for the duration. Eventually we'll sell the trailer and just live/travel in the van. The trailer is too much of a hassle-except for this sheltering in place stuff.

Hopefully, as soon as accurate antibody tests for covid-19 are available, we'll test positive. Hubby was in Japan in Jan/Feb/March and got some suspicious symptoms and I got sick after he got back with worse (but not terrible) symptoms, even though I had been in quarantine with him after he arrived home. But until then, we're hiding out as we don't wanna risk getting sick, just in case we didnt have the virus.

All in all, keeping busy has been pretty pleasant. I just miss seeing and hugging my sons!
Ted

 

[maki2]

If your doctor would write you up so you could get tested and you did test positive...
Then you might be able to save someone's life by donating your plasma. It is just a thought, something to talk over with your husband and your doctor.

 

[maki2]

Walked out on the beach next to home base for a little break to grab a few minutes of vitamin D3 time.  A small flock of Mudlarks were busy combing the beach as the tide was on the wane. So adorable in their spring time plumage. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

 

[WalkaboutTed]

If your doctor would write you up so you could get tested and you did test positive...
Then you might be able to save someone's life by donating your plasma. It is just a thought, something to talk over with your husband and your doctor.

If we didn't live in BFE, I would probably volunteer to do that.  I donated blood regularly for years. There's a lab 20 miles from me, but the closest blood bank is an hour+ away.  In any case, the antibody test is not accurate enough yet-too many vendors, no quality control and no oversight.  We'll wait until we go to Phoenix (400 miles from here) for the next doc visits in a couple months. This whole virus thing is moving too quickly for me to keep up with all the new info and changes. 
Ted

 

[maki2]

The University of Washington in conjunction with Abbott laboratory recently developed a serology antibody test with a 100% accuracy rating and it is now in production. This was one of the projects partially funded by the Bill and Linda Gates foundation.  It is now being used and distributed but of course not world wide yet. It takes time to ramp up the production of the test. But it is a real deal, a gold standard antibody test!  But it does require a 5millileter blood draw, with results returned in 24 hours. Right now the UW Virology department can process 1,000 test a day with the potential for much more. They began using this test on April 21st.

So not a hopeless situation as far as antibody testing as there is now at least one very accurate test. What they don't have is a home test for it as this one does require going to a clinic for a blood draw. 

Of course Seattle does have thousands of known cases of infection in the immediate area of King County and even more in nearby Snohomish county which will give a good base to begin the test in. The Abbott company will be shipping 20 million of the test throughout the USA in June. Not overnight, but only a few weeks away

 

[maki2]

Had a nice day, it was my 70th birthday. Got greetings from family. My workshop mate treated me to our birthday cake tradition of going to a local bakery that specializes in selling cake one slice at a time. Terrific cake! As it is now take-out only we took it to one of the boat launches by the ship canal for a little picnic in the car.

This is a rendered image of a design  from my 3D CAD program.
Today I put in some more work on the design; I want to begin selling it within a couple of months. This one will be sold as a digital pattern that customers can download and cut on their own machines or hand cut from cardstock paper.  It is a 1:48 scale little house that can be used as a dollhouse with an open back or it has an option to have  back panels on it if they want to use it for a lighted Christmas village house. It is a small building 1:48 scale, inspired by a wooden German dollhouse from the early 1900s but not an exact scale model replica of it. So about 6-1/2" across and 5-1/2" high and 4-1/2" deep.

 

[maki2]

Thanks Sofi,   talent is just one of those things, it takes a lot of failures to get there
It also requires a lot of patience to get there. But of course the older I get the less patience I seem to have.

 

[Cammalu]

Ted, if that was the virus then I’m really glad you survived it!

Bullfrog we had to have a car we could tow so we bought a Jeep Cherokee trailblazer. I never would have considered a Jeep but we need something we can tow four wheels down on occasion.

Travelaround I love to watch the wildlife also. Right now there is a possum out there so round it looks as if it will pop. I’m assuming a bunch of babies in the pouch?

Hard to tell how big she is but this pic was taken about a minute ago. She’s cute as can be.

We are hunkered down in KY with Abnorm and his wife, Paulette. In a couple of weeks a few more YARC Camp folks will be pulling in. We will spread our chairs out at the campfire to keep enough distance. We have all been VERY careful and it’s very doubtful any of us is infected although Abnorm and Paulette did get extremely sick a few months ago while in Quartzsite.

 

[travelaround]

I missed Maki's birthday! Sorry and belated Happy Birthday to you!

Cammalu - I like your possum better than the two skunks who were fighting with each other in my front yard last night. Never have I heard so much angry screeching! And of course... they couldn't help but do what skunks do... but it wasn't much and today the scent was gone. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to take a picture. Never saw skunks fighting each other before.

 

[TMooney]

Love your self. As a prisoner would say it's how you do your time.

 

[maki2]

Love your self. As a prisoner would say it's how you do your time.

Be sure you wash your hands....

 

[nature lover]

I've washed my hands, used sanitizer, cleaned with bleach so much that when I pee it cleans the commode automatically.

 

[travelaround]

Heh... now everyone is OCD not just me. The world is safer to live in.

 

[crofter]

Reading about bats. Did you know that the largest gathering of bats (20 million estimated) is in Texas? They are Mexican long tailed bats, and carry rabies virus and dengue fever virus. 

https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/bats/mexican_free_tailed_bat.php


http://www.batcon.org/our-work/regions/usa-canada/protect-mega-populations/bracken-cave

Cactus is still blooming, such pretty yellow flowers.

Stocked up on food again. Seems like the blueberrys are not as tasty this year, and neither is the sharp cheese.

My fave neighbor is heading back to Cali, can't stand the hot nights.

-crofter

Description of links: First link to article about desert bats, second link to article and video about Texas bat cave.

 

[GypsyJan]

crofter:
"Seems like the blueberrys are not as tasty this year, and neither is the sharp cheese."

Could it be the virus robbing you of taste and smell?

 

[crofter]

.... Mexican long tailed bats, and carry rabies virus and dengue fever virus...."


https://wildlife.org/covid-19-concerns-may-halt-bat-fieldwork/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...abcf52-7a8e-11ea-9bee-c5bf9d2e3288_story.html

Sorry about my error, the dengue fever virus is carried by bats in southern Mexico, not in Texas.

-crofter

Description: article about the future of bat research in US. WP link does not work.