How you keeping yourself busy?

[Pulsegleaner]

Hi all

Well, with more and more of us in some version of lock-down/shelter at home/ whatever you call not being able to leave the house regularly. How are you all keeping yourself busy (besides gardening of course!)

On my side:

Gardening (first as one would expect) This is actually very difficult around here since it is JUST beginning to be spring, (or at least the form of spring defined by things being available) so there isn't all that much to BUY yet. Add on the fact that, by Sunday EVERYTHING non essential in NY is being shut down indefinitely ( and I rather doubt they will consider plant nurseries "essential") at it looks like it's going to be a kind of bleak gardening year (it doesn't help that most of the seed companies are getting overwhelmed and shutting down temporarily). In fact my plans tomorrow (assuming they are open) involves doing basically a Hail Mary run to one local nursery to load up on peat pellets, since I need them to get the cucumbers started. I probably have to give up on my coveted red violas (they weren't in when I went today, and as I said, by next week, they'll be no way to get them)

Crafting I've been doing quite a lot of jewelry making to keep my hands busy. But this of course needs supplies, and with the craft stores closed, I have to use mail order and wait a week or so for each thing I need. Plus most of the supplies I use are in extremely limited supply. (Plus it would be nice if a few more of my things sold online, but that is another matter)

It's just getting sort of boring. The next book I want to really read isn't due out until mid May, there aren't THAT many TV programs I want to catch up on.

Normally I'd also do some cleaning, but every time I do that too much I get bronchitis, and this is definitely NOT a time to have lung trouble.

So over to you

 

[seedcorn]

Long walks with dog.
Internet surfing-obviously......
TV
Planted seeds.
Texting kids/friends
Working on aquarium.
Was going to do some “projects” but now won’t as state about ready to shut down-don’t want to start what I may not be able to finish,

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I envy the woman I follow on Youtube who lives in Montana (I think) and spends her time hunting agates and petrified wood on the riverbanks. That would keep me busy indeed (but I live in an area where the rocks are usually pretty boring)

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I have been hassling people in china for medical protection products. one of my stores needs to be converted to a production of some sort but there is a lot already coming back online in the epicenter areas. Even if I could produce polymer coated woven cloth for an outer garment it would be useful.

I need to burn the sticks I collected and piled in the garden. Its time to plant but I have been so distracted. Alabama is just getting hit and we have no idea what is coming judging by my last trip to the grocery store. My wife and I wore gloves and freaked people out

 

[flowerbug]

i'm continuing my projects of getting my bean pictures going, so yesterday i built a rig to hold the camera once i had all the hardware and widgets gathered.

in the process of testing that i discovered a few things i didn't like with the program i'd written to move the files off the camera to my local computer so i spent some time messing around with that and then that led me down yet another rabbit hole it will take me a few more sessions to get back out - i'm kinda picky about some things.

i read a book or two here or there. i feed food scraps to the worm farm. i chatter with some friends in e-mail or on forums. i take naps (at a cellular level i'm quite busy!). we've had some cold and rains so i haven't spent as much time outside as i'd like. purely depends upon the weather as to how much i can get done out there this time of the year. sometimes i can get a lot of pre-season things done when the weather is dry enough.

@seedcorn i didn't know you had an aquarium - a hobby i used to enjoy.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I used to have an aquarium as well, when I was younger. I think I gave it up when one fish (a tinfoil barb, if I recall) got so big it began eating anything else I put in there !

Even today, when we go to the pet store to pick up food for the cat, I go and look at the fish.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm building high tensile fencing around 18 acres of land...got gates up today and some A bracing...posts coming on Monday, extending garden fencing and reinforcing existing fencing, getting ready for lambs, building a wood shed/pole barn, getting ready to clean up after the timber guys leave~that means tons of firewood and brush to be cleared, stored, chipped, piled, building gates for porches, and taking care of sick grandchildren and an ever increasingly confused mother~trying to organize her bills so I can start to slowly ease into managing her spending.

Oh...and tweaking a hive I built a few years back so I can bait it to try and capture a wild swarm....needs to be done yesterday as I saw scout bees today already, building a small pallet shed to hold farm junk...got it half built, busting down piles of 10 ft x 4-5 ft skid pallets with a pallet buster to use the lumber for building the pole shed, trying to arrange somewhere to put broodies...got my first in the coop already but am waiting until she's truly serious to give her a bunch of duck eggs and a million other projects I'm in the middle of but have yet to complete. My previous broody coop was turned into sheep winter shelter, so it's a race to get the sheep out into fencing so I can reclaim that area for broodies.

Trying to keep busy is not an issue here....it's finding time to fit it all in between the rain showers, taking care of folks, and such.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I am exempt from shelter-in-place, but I have been trying to spend as much time at home as possible. I have been walking the dog back through the fields, spring cleaning my house, and trying to get a quilt I am working on finished.

 

[seedcorn]

I'm building high tensile fencing around 18 acres of land...got gates up today and some A bracing...posts coming on Monday, extending garden fencing and reinforcing existing fencing, getting ready for lambs, building a wood shed/pole barn, getting ready to clean up after the timber guys leave~that means tons of firewood and brush to be cleared, stored, chipped, piled, building gates for porches, and taking care of sick grandchildren and an ever increasingly confused mother~trying to organize her bills so I can start to slowly ease into managing her spending.

Oh...and tweaking a hive I built a few years back so I can bait it to try and capture a wild swarm....needs to be done yesterday as I saw scout bees today already, building a small pallet shed to hold farm junk...got it half built, busting down piles of 10 ft x 4-5 ft skid pallets with a pallet buster to use the lumber for building the pole shed, trying to arrange somewhere to put broodies...got my first in the coop already but am waiting until she's truly serious to give her a bunch of duck eggs and a million other projects I'm in the middle of but have yet to complete. My previous broody coop was turned into sheep winter shelter, so it's a race to get the sheep out into fencing so I can reclaim that area for broodies.

Trying to keep busy is not an issue here....it's finding time to fit it all in between the rain showers, taking care of folks, and such.

I am tired just from reading of your projects.

 

[flowerbug]

I used to have an aquarium as well, when I was younger. I think I gave it up when one fish (a tinfoil barb, if I recall) got so big it began eating anything else I put in there !

Even today, when we go to the pet store to pick up food for the cat, I go and look at the fish.

i was into all sorts of things any chance i got, Mom would always roll her eyes at all the things i would do, from ant farms to trying to figure out what animals were where, i had a small microscope, ...

she claims my favorite toy was the magnifier glass so i could burn things (including myself). i think she was just jealous.

the initial aquarium had a mix of species but eventually it settled down to the last two fantail goldfish. many other residents over the years. when i went away to college i had to find a home for the last fantail. the other had died when it got big enough to get gravel stuck in it's throat and starved to death before i knew what was going on. the other one had the same thing happen but i was able to get the gravel out with a toothpick. i have no idea how long it lived after i gave it away.

at college i didn't have any more tanks until some years later then i had a small one until i moved into my own place and that was when i set up some large tanks including 100gallon salt water tank for a reef (no fish just the various reef animals i could find for low cost). i had some corals growing that started from very tiny pieces that would break off at the pet store. the owner was a friend enough that he would let me take them and see if i could grow them for not too much $. when i moved away i sold off my entire collection of tanks and equipment. the most expensive items were the really bright lights which i did bring with me and put them in storage. i gave them to a friend years ago and he used them but unless you are into reef tanks you really don't need as much light as they put out (and the heat too was a bit much). now i would be interested to see what the LED lights could be like, but i'm not going to get back into the hobby. it just gets too cold here and i don't like to use energy or supplies for such reasons as that any longer. i can read and study about things online now if i want to read up. still it was a facinating time for me and i would watch the reef instead of watching t.v. much more relaxing and interesting... the fish tanks were also very soothing to me.