Lockdown Weeks 2 & 3

Days are blurring together and Easter Weekend has been and gone.

Lockdown has become our new normal, although to be fair, it hasn't been that far different from times when I haven't been working anyway. I've become a hermit by nature over the last few years, avoiding people is fairly normal for me.

I only leave the house to do a weekly grocery shop.  The first week or so, I found it quite stressful.  While on the whole, I'm not overly worried about the current situation, not personally anyway, I found that I procrastinated badly about leaving and was very tense when I actually got into my car.  We don't get a lot of traffic up our way.  There are only seven houses on our five km road.  So I'm used to seeing almost no cars for at least half of my journey into town.  I didn't see another person for at least three quarters of the trip.  I saw two cars on the road between home and the supermarket.

There was a queue outside the supermarket and a security guard at the door.  People were lined up with well more than the recommended two metres between them.  Compared to photos and videos I've seen of supermarket queues around the country, this was quite a small line.  It didn't snake around the car park like many I've seen.  It consisted of maybe ten people.  Since then, I've found one queue that was easily twice the length.  Even then, it only took about 20 minutes before I was in the store.

People are mostly the same but different at the same time when they shop.  Many will stand back and wait rather than brush past each other. I haven't seen anyone lose their rag or behave in an irrational or impatient manner.  But there aren't many conversations in the aisles.  When I see a friend or workmate, our total interaction seems to consist of a simple nod, "How are you going?" with little to no slowing of pace.

Only one shopping trip left me really wound up and tense by the time I got home.  It was a combination of a lot of little things and I think it was a reflection of where my head was, rather than anything in particular that happened during the trip.

I've finished my youngest granddaughter's blanket.  I'm still spinning flat out.

I've been knitting during my daily video calls with my family.  This time it's a jersey for the oldest, I've finished a pair of socks in between this and the blanket.  This has led to a list of requests for future projects from my sister.

This sister used to be a wine rep to supermarkets and she has boxes filled with open bottles of red wine that have gone a little vinegary.  She suggested using it to dye some wool.  I've done some research and found that a mordant is needed.  I've ordered some Alum online and I think I'll have to wait until after lockdown before it's sent out, but I will post how it all turns out.

Update: I've done this now - read about it.

Miss 14 has been getting used to (and sleeping through some) calls online.  Most of her classwork is online these days anyway so getting the work isn't too far different for her anyway.

Hubby has been doing a mix of working from home and going in to work.  He has been busy in his time at home.  He's attacking the gully.  He has decided to do all of one side before starting the other side.  He set himself a goal of clearing to at least one fence post on the fence above each day.

The sides of the gully before cutting

This has been challenging on a number of levels.  Firstly there's the slope.  In places it's almost completely vertical.  Cutting at the top and at the bottom isn't too bad, the bits in the middle are not quite so easy.

The slope with a some of a pile at the bottom.

Then there's the honeysuckle.  In some spots, there's such a tangle of it, tying up the gorse and blackberry.  Where there are trees, there is often so much of it, strangling and smothering that it can be hard to find the tree underneath.

Trees buried under honeysuckle

Hubby has gotten very good at identifying which is which when cutting and pulling it down.

I've spent several hours out there helping him, by pulling on what becomes a big dense ball of honeysuckle tangled gorse, broom and blackberry, exposing the vines that are still connected so Hubby can cut them from above.




The other major challenge has been the fire ban.  While we're officially okay to burn, there has been a request from the fire service that we don't while lockdown is going on.  So we have several very large piles waiting for the opportunity to burn it all.  And we urgently want to burn it.  Previously, we've cut paths through the gully, leaving piles in places.  These piles have ended up being new mounds of thick blackberry. Obviously, we'd like to avoid a repeat of this.

More of the piles waiting for burning

We've found an old fence.  At first it looked as though a couple of half rotten old posts had been dumped in the gully at the top of the slope.  Then the partially buried barbed wire emerged.  Some has pulled up easily enough, some has had to be cut for digging out at a later date.  Several strands of straight fencing wire have been exposed down the hillside today.  One strand came out, the others will require more work first. It's hard to be certain whether it was old fencing dumped, or still in place from where it was previously before time, weather, erosion and plant pests had their way.

The goal of one fence post per day has been mostly achieved each time he goes out.  He usually manages more than one.  At this rate, we should be finished this side soon enough.  Hopefully, we'll be able to follow up with the odd spraying and that should be sufficient.