Cornerstone in the Spring (April 11, 2020)

Bunny trail?

A river of wildflowers

Dead oak, the old shed belfry, and two vultures perched on the far treetop

Cow's upper jawbone

The old shed was in much better shape until a year ago, when it was in the way of new fencing we put up with our neighbor.  The fence builder used a fork lift to move the shed out of the way.  Built in 1985, when we bought the 7.5 acres northeast of Walburg.

I don't know what kind of wildflower this is or what kind of caterpillar or millipede is on it.  So much to learn!

Springtime for cacti too!  See the bright green buds?

Raindrop, cricket and mushroom (or toadstool? I don't know.)

We have bees! (April 11, 2020)

Randy Oakley of Oakley Apiaries in Elm Mott telling us how to set up our hives.

The hive on the right buzzed all the way from Elm Mott to Cornerstone.  A screen in place at the opening kept the bees inside.  The box on the left is for later, when the original box is full of bees and honey and the hive needs room to expand.  The grate is a queen excluder. She's larger than the worker bees and drones and will stay in the original box, the brood box.  The second box, placed on top, will become the honey box.

We used cinder blocks and gravel to create a level spot for the hive.

Bees like a little sun, a little shade, and an east or southeast facing entrance.

We removed the screen blocking the entrance.  A few bees ventured out and seemed to like the last of the bluebonnets.

Packing up to head home.  We took both the car and truck, unsure of how the Zoomer would fare after leaving paved county road for the nearly mile-long bumpy dirt road to Cornerstone.

First tomatoes(April 11, 2020)

Papa's tomatoes are doing very well this year.  Little green tomatoes, yellow blossoms.  First ones should be ripe in May.

Coronavirus shopping days (April 10, 2020)

Time for a road trip?  Gasoline was $1.34/gallon at Costco.  Now that so many of us are home, a guy did the Cannonball Run from NYC to LA (3,000 miles) in 27 hours, breaking all records.  He attributed his win to the wide open highways.

The Costco line wasn't too bad but we decided to skip it and go to Sprout's instead.

Shorter line at Sprout's, but only 70 shoppers allowed inside at a time.

Homeschooling Day 3 (April 9, 2020)

Something made Fox laugh during the Zoom meeting with her class.

We had an Easter egg hunt so Fox could practice multiplication.  Each egg had a multiplication problem inside.

As Fox correctly answered each problem, she could trade the egg for a quarter.

Shopping at H.E.B. (April 7, 2020)

Had to go to H.E. B. on April 7, so followed the Surgeon General's very easy instructions for making a homemade mask out of a handkerchief, although I used a cup towel and pony tail bands.  Why does the Antelope Island T-shirt have a bison on it?  Because a herd of bison lives at the island near Salt Lake City.

Good news for some kids?

I was able to walk right in.  But the line must sometimes wind around the side of the building?

What happens when Coronavirus closes a restaurant (April 6, 2020)

Amon was working as a cook at Russo's New York Pizzaria when the mayor's order came down on March 17th that restaurants could be take-out/curbside only.  Russo's couldn't survive financially.  The owner asked Amon to help him clean out the kitchen.  As much food as possible was donated to a food bank, but trash cans full of food were thrown out.  Amon brought over lasagna, fresh mozzarella, and a 12-piece chocolate cake. He took home 40 pounds of pepperoni and crumbled hamburger meat, clams, cheese, calimari.  He could have taken home a lot more but didn't have any more room in his freezer. 

Amon brought over an unopened decadent chocolate cake that was going to be thrown out along with many, many trash cans full of perfectly good food.  Papa Tom took the rest of the cake to work on Tuesday, thank goodness.  In other good news:  Since Russo's closed, Amon has been hired by Austin's Pizza as a cook/delivery driver and to work the meat counter at Sprout's.  Both jobs should be safe until everything opens up again.

Fox's first day of homeschooling (April 6, 2020)

The first day of homeschooling began with a Zoom conference with Fox's teacher, Mr. Oden, and classmates.

 Taking a break to look for rolly-pollies and watch the roof repair across the street.

Luckily, we checked under the porch swing before sitting there to read.  A wasp was building a nest!

Fox's birthday present from Aunt LaWanda, a very cool backpack and mermaid coin purse, arrived.

Zephyr after the rain (April 3, 2020)

Zephyr's being followed by a cat shadow.

Costco in the rain (April 3, 2020)

The advantage of shopping at Costco during a rainstorm is that the line of people (not cars) to the edge of the parking lot vanishes.  Upon leaving, you show your receipt to the masked worker from afar.

The disadvantage of shopping at Costco during a rainstorm is that you could get soaked on the way to your car.  But no!  The oh-so competent Costco workers let you drive your car to the covered area and they load it for you!  Thank you, Costco.  And thanks to Tom for the great idea of bagging up our groceries so the workers could quickly drop bags instead of individual items into the back seat and hatchback.