So what's been going on down on the Ranch?

Everything has been clicking along like normal, well, as normal as it can be.

Besides the men not being in town for 5 days a week, they'e been here.  Besides all the little outside activities that help keep us sane, being cancelled right and left, it's pretty much been the normal, 18 hour days here.









We always kept plenty off food, both for us and for the livestock on hand.  After all, we aren't a hop, skip, and a jump to anywhere so it's just prudent to stay on top of things.  The girls give us eggs and grinding our own wheat, baking bread, making cheeses and meals from scratch are the normal here but I have to say though, even our supplies ran low at a point.  And I too was shocked at the scene of emptied store shelves.  I can clean a shower with homemade vinegar and citrus oil, the hens had bugs and are happy with freezer burned green beans, but the alpacas need special feed on top of their pasture and hay.  Luckily, our local tractor supply ordered in bulk for us and we loaded up as much as we were able.

Being way out in the middle of everywhere, we are fairly self- entertaining, so that's where it hit the hardest for us.  It is rare that we do any shopping besides the basic food, and replacing worn out clothing.  We just aren't "out" people, and I'm certainly not a window shopper.  The boys survived on home buzz cuts, and mine just went up into a bun. 

Doc and I both missed our several times a week at the local range, and I missed all my competitions, but I suppose it's all for the greater good.  Being stuck on the ranch, working outside most of the time,  with a list of chores and projects to get done was far and away better than many who were literally housebound.  For those of you that were, I am truly, truly sorry.

So here I sit on a perfectly SPLENDID weather Sunday, on the deck, in my high-top chair, toes curled around the deck railing like a great hawk surveying the valley below.  In the distance I can hear someone bringing in a second cutting of hay, the great chitter chatter of the sickle mower sounds like a giant cicada.  The wind is breezy enough for the great lake below the house to be dotted with quickly tacking, white sail boats.   Giant, towering, silvered cumulus clouds march by in neat, flattened rows on a mission.  The flock of hens has spotted me on the deck and are racing towards me in hopes that I'll drop them an apple or some grapes and the alpacas, well, they could care less about anything other than the new green grass in front of their noses.

I think back to the last 5 months and try to put it in some kind of order.  It really is a blur.  I remember people mentioning that they were having trouble remember what day of the week it was due to loosing their weekend reference points.  For me, it's just all one smeary mess.  It seems to have all gone by so quickly.

March rolled in, and like thousands of others, the plea for PPE rolled in to anyone that could thread a sewing machine.  I teamed up with the local 4-H and made surgical hats to start, as they were more complicated and they needed more of them to start.  Then the call for masks came in.  I quickly depleted my person stash of quilting fabrics.  Anyone that has a quilter in the family knows that's a LOT of fabric.   I personally stopped counting at 380 masks.  When I ran out of fabric and had to brave the world for more, I myself masked up and made the journey to town. 




By this point the local need was down, and personal masks were not yet recommended, let alone mandatory, but they were elsewhere.  I moved my whole operation to my etsy shop and put all the other etsy projects on hold.  Of course, as soon as I opened up orders online, my 18 year old sewing machine decided to have a complete and total digital sewing machine failure.  The mother board died.  In a scramble, with orders pouring in, I started calling all my "local shops" to see if anyone had one in stock.  By a great stroke of luck, I purchased the last Bernina machine in a shop that was a 3 hour round trip.  By evening, I was literally back in business.   

Now that more and more people are well stocked, and more and more imports are coming in to buy, even with more areas under mandatory mask rules, it seems like supply has caught up with demand.   I have a pile of about 200 more cut out and ready to sew, but after that, no more.  I'm making many for the college and high school kids in the family that need them to get through the day (you really need several), but then it's just special order.

The shop has now pleasantly gone back to antiques, weaving, orphan barrel dresses, french seamed pillowcases, and historic caps.  I even built a portable little shop that can be take to local businesses when they have outdoor open houses and visiting vendor days to boost local sales.