Wow. It’s been over two months that we have been quarantined at home due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
First of all, it has been a lot of fun spending time with all of you during this time. Your mother is an essential worker, so I have been home with you, helping to homeschool you while working on my business. We have good days and bad days, but overall, you all have done a great job.
We’ve actually accomplished many things around the house while we have been home and I wanted to start a list of them here so we don’t forget them. So far (updated on May 30, 2020), we:
- Took apart our old vegetable garden and planted a new one which includes tomatoes, leafy greens, squash and peppers and as of today (May 30) it is doing well,
- Spread topsoil and planted grass seed in some low areas of the yard,
- Cleaned out the upper slope of our back yard which has had leaves and brush caked up there for years and I got a nasty case of poison ivy in the process,
- Cleaned out the area on the top of the stone wall behind the vegetable garden and put new mulch down. The bushes have come back to life now that they are not stifled by leaves!
- Cleaned up the big bed around the tree at the front of the house, installed weed barrier and new mulch,
- Installed weed barrier and mulched the slope along the trail on the side of the house (half of it),
- Cleaned out the entire garage,
- Researched how to and built an indoor hydroponic garden. This a way of growing vegetables with only water in buckets and with proper grow lights. We have established a three-step system. We start the seeds in egg cartons with pH balanced water. After one week, we move them to a starter tank in the garage with air being pumped into it. Finally they go to bigger five-gallon buckets, filled with nutrient rich water, and placed underneath a high quality grow light (see photo below). This has been a fun project and is yielding lots of veggies!
- Moved the treadmill from the garage to inside of my home office (I use it every morning),
- Finished painting and installed shelves in my home office,
- Hung pictures in the living room and your playroom. We decorated the playroom with photos of all of your artwork.
- Picked up a beautiful piece of furniture (asian style) for living room corner,
- Re-designed the girls rooms and painted the room. We also installed shelves in your room.
- Purchased an above ground pool which we plan to install this weekend.
- Took bike rides every day (you are all getting so good with the bikes).
- Started a cooking challenge. Each day, one of you will cook all three meals for the day (starts today). Meals for today will be bagel breakfast, macaroni and cheese lunch, and pizza dinner. Can you say carb-loading? We don’t eat carbs often, hence the choices.
Needless to say this has been a productive time at home. Yes, sometimes stressful, but also relaxing in a sense. No sports to run around too. No outside responsibilities. Just trying to entertain each other.
We are starting to integrate back into society, but I’m glad we had this time together.
Love,
Dad
P.S. Here is the hydroponic garden:
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