The Coronavirus: The Great Chicken Run

Covid-19 has certainly created some new opportunities for us.  Small projects are getting completed around the house, we try to do new and different activities, and we take advantage of things that normally would not have occurred to us. 
  
And so it was that on Saturday, Sam and Mitch went to the North Carolina Fair Grounds at 7am to wait in a long line of cars to buy bulk chicken. Forty pounds to be exact.  

A local poultry grower, Raeford Farms, had to sell the chicken that would normally go to all of the local restaurants. Since they are all closed, except for take-out, the distributor sold it directly to anyone willing to wait in line. 

There were four trucks, each with 44,000 pounds of chicken to be sold in 40 pound boxes. Since Sam and Mitch waited in line we bought the chicken and split it with them.  They got to the fairgrounds 90 minutes before the distribution and then waited in a line of cars for another 90 minutes - weaving around the fairgrounds - until they made the purchase.
  
When they got home we opened the box and discovered that everything was in one big bag.  We also discovered that "whole breasts" meant exactly that; the two halves were still attached. It took Lisa another hour to separate and package everything into baggies. 

Lisa joked that ten years from now one of the funny memories from this world event will be, "remember when we bought 40lbs of chicken?!"  

Still in the midst of this pandemic, with North Carolina just hitting the peak and other states not there yet, the Brown family continues to get by rather well. Nothing is like it was but there is hope that we can get back there someday. The world has faced pandemics before and recovered. We will get through this.  

We will eat a lot of chicken.

The Coronavirus: Home Project #1

This project happened for two reasons. First, the inch thick roots of the tree were growing into the sidewalk to the house. Second, I was bored and knew this would be a good use of my stay-at-home-order time.  

The tree that M&I homes planted ten years ago was taken down and replaced by a nice flower bed.  I liked the tree - really I did - and I will miss it.  The tree was a source of pride for me for a while because ours seemed to be the only one on the street that really took off and started to grow. 

It was a good tree all year long. In the spring it would be one of the last trees to bud, a sign that the weather had indeed turned from winter. In the summer, its leaves would turn up and show their silver undersides during rainstorms. During the hail storm of 2017, damn near all of the leaves were stripped off of it. In the fall, the leaves would turn a deep red and fall to the pavement leaving stains like temporary tattoos until spring. At Christmas, I would wrap and hang lights off of it to add color to the holidays.   

Despite the memories, the decision to take down the tree was pretty easy. The roots were going to cause damage to other parts of the house costing money in repairs. 

Our neighbor, James, had an electric chainsaw and I thought there was no time like the present. I cut down the big limbs first with the boys grabbing them and piling them at the end of the street. The trunk was pretty easy too; a couple of good cuts and it fell right where I wanted it to. TJ got a chance to work with power tools. Just like earlier this year when he shot guns, he took the tasks seriously and with a bit of trepidation.

And then all we had was a stump sticking about three inches out of the ground...an ugly stump and I had no real plan to remove it. Then COVID-19 kept me at home.  

Grant discovered his inner lumberjack and helped me dig, chop, and haul away parts of the root ball.  We did a lot of it by hand. It was both cathartic and exhausting. It took three days with an axe to remove a small portion of the root ball.  I would swing the axe and Grant would get out the pieces. Slowly we made progress. 

Samantha and Mitchell came down from Chapel Hill over a weekend. We continued to dig, chop, and haul pieces away but I knew we would need a real chainsaw. Home Depot rents them and for $50 we cut through big sections of the stump. We exposed the root ball - and I mean root ball - whoever planted the tree in 2010 never cut the burlap bag causing the roots to curl over and around each other. The tree was not going to give up without a fight.

However, with every cut and every chop, it was clear to us that the entire stump was moving.  Wiggling.  With a couple of precise swings it would come out.  I got the last swing and pulled the root ball out and held it up like Medusa's head. It was a victorious moment. 

TJ, Grant, Mitch and I filled the whole up and raked around the bricks to make it look nice. We emptied the contents of Grant's science experiment; two plastic bins of compost material (one with worms and one without worms to see if there was a difference in the soil) and filled in the top with garden soil. With a trip to the Garden Hut around the corner I purchased ground cover and some flowering plants to add some height and proceeded to get my hands dirty.  

I am not much of a gardener but I do like getting my hands in the dirt from time to time. In time we might replace the flower bed with a small flowering tree but for now I am satisfied with the work everyone did and can focus on the next COVID project. 

The Coronavirus: Easter Still Happens

In the middle of all of this uncertainty we have found a wonderful strength in our church.  In this season of Easter we are reminded that the collective know as "church" does not go away just because we cannot be together.  Our church did another great job of creating an immersive Easter Sunday service, complete with a time-lapse sunrise, old hymns, contemporary songs, and even an Easter Egg hunt to keep the kids engaged.  Sitting around the kitchen table in our pajamas is the new normal for Sunday service.  

The kids did a great job of painting the front door to look like a stained glass window.  A great deal of time and effort went into it from all three kids and the end result was greater than my expectations. In this case, Lisa was right. 

The pastor made a good point; in the Christian faith, this holiday far out measures Christmas. Without Easter - its meaning of resurrection and salvation - then there is no faith. He also went on to say that a religious figure recommended that this celebration should be a week long and celebrated with champagne. No argument here. 

As to be expected, Easter dinner was a little haphazard.  When you are trying to practice Social Distancing and shop at the last minute then  what you can get at the Harris Teeter at 11:30 is what you are having for dinner.  In our case, turkey breast, broccoli, rolls and a bottle of wine. Not bad since we were hoping for a ham. Betty joined us.  It was the first time she had been in the house since the start of the "isolation". I think she enjoyed being out of her house and being anywhere else.  Even if it was down the street at our house.

In other, semi-related news this past Covid week, we introduced some culture to the routine and watched several Broadway musicals; some on Netflix, and some on YouTube.  Shrek - The Musical was sweet, but weird. Jesus Christ Superstar was a little too loud and over the top. Bruce Springsteen On Broadway, my personal favorite. Finally, Les Misérables was a huge hit with the boys, who are still singing "Master of the House" all the time. Trying to get them to understand that the main character almost goes through a rebirth as he gives himself to God.

We are now a full month into isolation.  

Everyone says things will never be the same but I disagree.  We can rise again and come together as a physically united community having gained strength as a socially and spiritually united society.  

Happy Easter  

The Coronavirus: Choose Your Attitude

Week three of the COVID-19 quarantine. I pause and read what I just typed knowing that this might be a quarter of the time we will be inside and away from school, work, and social gatherings.  If there are months left to "flattening the curve" then we need to be honest with ourselves.

COVID-19 will test us down to the person. Families will discover their strengths and weaknesses.  Communities will rise up while others struggle. As a friend said, we will discover the best and the worst of us.

Here in the Brown family we have settled into what seems to be a routine.  The boys go to school.  I work from home. Lisa has started her new job. We find time to workout, take Lucie on walks, and get things from the store, but, for the most part we are confined to the house.

Thirsty Thursday - Virtual

One of Lisa's saying is to choose your attitude. Find that positive mind set whenever possible. She usually says it when I am frustrated with things.  In the midst of this pandemic it means looking out for one another. When the boys get frustrated with one another, an adult steps in to redirect them. When I get snarky, Lisa encourages me to go for a run. If Lisa gets into her zone, I let her go into the office, close the door, and keep the kids away. 

You have to be careful not to get cabin fever.

Yesterday, we had an online version of Thirsty Thursday, when our local gang gets together to vetch, laugh, and enjoy a cold adult beverage or two.  

We continue to send messages of hope, resiliency, and humor in our sidewalk chalk messages. "What do you call a bear with no teeth?"  "A GUMMIE bear!"  More than a few neighbors have commented that they enjoy the dumb jokes.

Both boys have started to help cook dinner. I mean they are really learning how to measure, pour, cut, simmer, baste, and serve a meal. Grant made a marinated, slow cooked pulled pork.  TJ made tacos for Taco Tuesday. We call it home economics, but we really just look at it as time together, well spent.  

Last night we watched a documentary on US National Parks. The boys actually sat through it and seemed to appreciate seeing places and wide open spaces that we might visit one day. 

When I need to take to take out my frustrations I head outside and whack on the stump of the tree that used to stand in the front yard.  The tree's root system was growing into the sidewalk and would have broken the sidewalk eventually.  Our neighbor James had a chainsaw and I had the desire, so I took it down.  Grant has been helping me dig around and chop at the trunk for five days now.  It is a long term project that I could easily hire someone to do in about two hours, but where it the fun in that? This way I get some exercise and purge any negative attitudes.   

I have started showing them flash mob videos; the Do Re Me song from The Sound of Music in the Central Station Antwerp train station and Ode to Joy from the plaza in Sabadell, Spain.  In part because its fun and in part because it reminds us what we are supposed to be like as a species; connected in physical space in a communal experience.  

Not every day is easy and not every easy day is easy all day long, we are getting through this.