Week #2 of Life in the Midst of Social Distancing

Welp, gotta admit, this is tough, but I know we are not alone. This is not an ideal or easy scenario for anyone right now and I recognize that we are extremely lucky to enjoy spending time together, to still have our jobs, our health, and to have all of our friends and family safe and well at this time, and of course to not be in literal lockdown. So we are doing what we can to muddle through and make the best of this, even if Sam does literally run away from us as soon as her "day" is over so that she can close the door to her room and play on her phone and talk and text with her friends 😂

On a more serious note, the governor has declared all non-essential businesses closed. The reality is that a lot of restaurants and stores had closed already and many people had already been working from home or having their offices closed to the public. As an essential service organization, we are still open, and our small staff is doing all it can to assist those staying at our shelters and those in the community who are unsheltered during this trying time. We are trying to limit exposure as much as possible given the circumstances, and as I don't work directly with our clients, I am trying to limit my time in the office as much as I can but I do have to go in for things like payroll, printing, sorting mail and cutting and reviewing checks.

Monday: Worked from home and knew weather was looking iffy for Tuesday morning, so decided to go out for a run in the morning once it was light out before I started in on work. It was cold - only 18 degrees. Brrr! - but calm, and I got some nice glimpses of the sunrise through the trees. Felt good and enjoyed my run on the semi-frozen cart paths. (6.1 miles)

Took the side trail off the cart paths to catch the light above the Heath

Then it was onto work. Ended up on a 1 1/2 hour conference call before lunch so Sam had trouble focusing and went up to do her math work in her room and then came down but I was still on the call and I therefore could not assist her with the prompts for her writing assignment. Sigh. But we made it through, and it turned out to be a fairly productive day for both of us in the end. Hurray for small favors. We stopped structured work time at 3:00 and headed over to the Heath for a walk with Ryan.

Overcast and spitting snow, but still lovely to be out enjoying all the interesting features of the Heath itself and this time of year with thin layers of ice atop the open water at the edge of the bog, needle ice coming up through the mud, geese and mallards out in the middle of the Heath, and a whole lot of chattering away from the child. 😃 (1.2 miles walked)

Found a few skunk cabbage coming up in a sheltered area!

Came home and made cookies before dinner, because, well, priorities, people!! 😋🍪

Tuesday: Woke up to snow. Very pretty and heavy, sticking to the trees and making a mess of things, probably 6" overall, but the upside is that it will likely melt rather quickly. Went into work for the day and left Sam and Ryan at home to work and get school work done. Before I got home, they got in a nice afternoon walk/science observation session out on the powerlines too.

Morning backyard view

Out walking in the snow

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Wednesday: Another work from home day. Headed out a little before 6:30 and ran across the powerlines to Highland Green Road. The heavy snow had frozen back up overnight and was lumpy and tough to run through. Hit the sidewalks for a stretch before taking a quick jaunt down to the water's edge, and then returned via the back dirt road. Tired, but a lovely morning with some pretty light. (6.0 miles)

Fiery morning light

Then it was onto work and school...

My assistant looking rather peeved that I've invaded her space 😹

My co-workers 😆

We headed out with Ryan a little after 3:00 pm for an exploration around Mt. Ararat and the powerlines. Always fun to get out in the woods, and one of the pluses of all of us being home is that there is more time for family walks. And I think Sam appreciates the chance to get out of the house so there hasn't been a whole lot of complaining about getting out either! (2.1 miles walked)

Taking the trail less traveled

Such a cool rock formation/quarry area, and neat to check out with ice still on the rocks!

Cool ice formations

Raccoon prints!

💗

We were supposed to all be down in MA this coming weekend to celebrate Irene's 70th birthday, but since that in-person celebration was put on hold, we all got on Zoom tonight to sing happy birthday to her. It was quite funny with the 4-year old making funny faces into the camera and being the one in charge of blowing out the candle and eating the birthday cupcake 😂

Physical Distancing Birthday Party celebration!

Thursday: Started work at home, went in to the office for a few hours to get a few things done that needed to be done in person and then came home and worked at the kitchen table for the rest of the afternoon. Sam and I stopped work around 3:30 and headed out for a walk while Ryan went for a run. It was a really nice warm afternoon, and good to get out for a short walk and talk around the block with the kiddo. (1.0 mile walked)

Friday: My day off, which is no longer my own 😑 Ah well, I know there are bigger things to worry about right now, but I will admit I did like having the day to myself... Headed out for a run around 6:30 am. Early morning runs almost guarantee social distancing, although today I did see one other woman running on the bike path and a few people out walking. I definitely feel like more people are getting outside during this Covid-19 pandemic. I mean with no other entertainment available, it's like people are saying, 'oh hey, nature exists!' I can only hope it continues long after the virus has abated, but it is kind of funny right now to see how many people are out and about walking! Ran down to the bike path and up through town on the roads. Pretty light over the Androscoggin and a nice calm morning. Felt good. (8.0 miles)

Then it was off to the grocery store, which was relatively quiet. There was certainly enough food to be had (and even toilet paper, which I didn't need so I didn't buy - stop hoarding, people!), although there were still some bare shelves in certain sections, and no wipes in existence at all. Back home to unload the groceries and then set in helping Sam start in on school work while I did some laundry, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned the shower and did some dusting and vacuuming. We Facetimed with Morgan over lunch, played a game of Yahtzee with Ryan and then returned to school work for Sam and cleaning for me. 

Around 3:00, we set out to Dresden on another farm stand mission. Even though many farmers are no longer attending the farmer's markets, Maine has so many great farms with farm stands, and I feel so strongly that supporting them and eating locally grown food is incredibly important always, but perhaps even more so now. So this week the plan was to head to Goranson Farm to pick up some greens, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Yum!

I had seen that there was a wildlife management area right down the road from the farm, so after we picked up our veggies (and an oatmeal creme sandwich for Sam - yum!), we headed off to find the Green Point Wildlife Management Area. There was a sign and a few cars parked in the lot but no trail signs per say, just an old road that wandered through an old apple orchard and led to a dirt road that went down to the banks of the Kennebec River. A neat, if random, exploration for the afternoon. The wind was whipping and the river looked like a lake or the ocean, it was so wide with waves crashing on the shoreline. We did spot one wooly bear making its way across the orchard and saw a mink in the overflow pond/stream just up from the river, which was cool! (1.8 miles walked)

Waves on the Kennebec

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😂

Apple tree by the shore

Old road

Saturday: Up early again and out around 6:30 for a long-ish run. Headed out onto the cart paths and then down into the Cathance. Still some ice in a lot of spots, but as long as you're willing to slow down and do a bit of sidestepping, it was manageable. Decided I'd keep going farther out into the system and go out to Head of Tides. Beautiful morning to be out and the trails all to myself! Finished up with the rest of the cart paths, a bit of mileage on the back dirt road and the powerlines and a final mile along Canam before heading home. Saw several turkey vultures circling high above, the pair of Canada Geese and two pairs of ducks plus what I'm pretty sure was a beaver in the Heath, and enjoyed the roaring river. Lucky to have this trail system so close to home! (15.0 miles)

After a quick snack and shower, the three of us headed out for farm stand trip #2 of the weekend, this time just up the road to Whatley Farm off Cathance Road. They were doing online ordering so that when you arrived at the farm, your bag was all ready for pick up. Awesome! We ordered a big bag of spinach, some golden beets, bacon and a sampling of their sauces (hot sauce, salsa, chili garlic ginger sauce and tomato puree). Yum!

After that easy pick-up, we stopped at the Head of Tides Park and took a hike through the woods on the trail from there. Conditions had changed even in the few hours between when I was out at Head of Tides and when we went out later in the morning, with more mud, more water atop the ice and a lot more squish 😆 We don't normally hike over here, mostly just run out here from home, so it was a fun chance to see the forest and trails with a different eye. Got in a really nice hike, with lots of birdsong, skunk cabbage coming up in the swampy areas and one very large dead snapping turtle seen (it appeared to have died of natural causes), and some good squishing in the clay/mud along the river's edge at Head of Tides as it was low tide and the river was out. (3.0 miles walked)

Head of Tides

Then it was home for lunch, a few chores and putting together something I've had on my list to accomplish since Christmas when Ryan and Sam gifted me a frame for my Western States bib and photos. A fun addition to our Badass wall! 😍

Sunday: Slept until the cats woke me up and then didn't rush to get out the door. Still, wanted to get my miles in before the rain started and finally headed out around 7:30. Ran the route Ryan had run yesterday with a slight variation at the end, basically out the powerlines and back dirt road to hook up with the Ravine Trail, then around on Highland Green Road to run the cart paths at the club house. I returned via the back dirt road so that I wouldn't have to add any mileage on Canam to get a nice even 10. Saw three deer, heard lots of bird call and saw one crow flying over with a stick in its beak. Legs felt fine but I was hungry. Must not have eaten quite enough yesterday. Happy to finish up with a solid, if not overly mileage-heavy, weekend. (10.0 miles)

And then I came home and baked my feelings 😋😆😏 And why, yes, yes, indeed, we did eat up all the oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies I baked on Monday 😂😂 so today it was pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins. I feel no remorse or guilt here. You gotta do what you gotta do these days, people! And homemade baked goods are always good to have around 😃