Status Update: Go...Go...STOP!

Title reflects my life this week.

 I was busy, busy, busy last Monday - Wednesday with my normal work travels to our office further down the coast. I got home Wednesday night, then up bright and early Thursday for my first barn shift. I'm pretty sure I won't have a problem fitting it in prior to a 9am start time at my 'real' job. I work remotely from home on Thursdays, so my start time is slightly flexible and my 'commute' between barn and home is about 5 minutes :)

 In real world news, those 3 - 4 hours of barn work pay the same as about 1 hour at my normal job. Good thing I like it. I'm going to look at it as AM Barn Boot Camp, rather than a source of much income.

Fridays, I have off 'real' work, so work at the barn was a little more relaxed - I started a little later and didn't have any pressure to be anywhere as soon as I finished. I popped up to my barn after and got both ponies out, fields mucked, and both ponies' dinner prepped and was still home by noon! Friday was super productive and I was feeling like Superwoman.

Bridget was a fire breathing dragon on Friday...for the first time in my life I just about got off and led her home because of  the spooking and spinning and general porpoise impressions otherwise.

Unfortunately, I felt super washed out and tired later in the day and despite my hopes of just needing some more sleep it quickly became apparent my coworker had given me her nasty head cold earlier in the week.

Saturday/Sunday the cold was raging in full force. Given all the risk associated with COVID-19 spread, I've been choosing to work from home and isolate myself rather than risking giving anyone a cold and potentially making them more vulnerable to anything more serious that's going around. Our area is getting hit pretty hard and is a retirement community and I'd hate to contribute in any way to increasing risk for anyone.

So, my past weekend consisted of gardening in my yard, reading some books, and some spring house cleaning. I was going to my horses once a day later in the evening when no one is around and cleaning my paddocks and feeding a late dinner. It's a very small barn (one other boarder) and my horses and things live in their own space, so I think it's relatively low risk to do that. The barn owner tosses hay for breakfast and fills water buckets, so I think we've got a good system.

It's pretty quiet there (and getting so green!)

This week, things went south fast re: the coronovirus. My work is closed(?) as of this afternoon (As of this minute I am actually not sure if I am supposed to be working or not...I work for local government and they are now in emergency response mode, staffing levels TBD. I'm guessing a lot of us will be laid off temporarily starting tomorrow.)

Kitty: "I hope you're not planning on staying home and sitting on MY couch!"

Even though I guess we all knew this was coming, it still feels like a shock when I think of how everything was 'go,go,go' last week, and today almost everything on my calendar is cancelled and we're encouraged to just stay home. The local grocery stores are cleaned right out due to people panic buying (if this is you, PLEASE stop and consider that there are others out there who need groceries too), I can't find hay locally for the horses, and everything has been cancelled indefinitely, even that long awaited vet visit for Bridget. G and I are both potentially facing temporary lay offs until things stabilize a little and our organizations have a better idea of how to proceed.

None of it really matters though in the grand scheme of things and doing our best to keep people safe. If the hay delivery doesn't come, the horses will just have to eat the bales of their less favorite hay that I have left. G and I are probably going to finally clean out those cans of soup he bought by the case last summer. (In a few more days I'll be in solidarity with the ponies re: my opinion of lunch options, lol)

Sophie's actual face the last time I tossed her a flake of THAT hay instead of her favorite.

I'm determined to try not to worry too much about anything and have been trying to filter the media I consume to a bare minimum. Our house backs on to a lovely trail network in the forest that leads down to the beach, my garden is in need of some spring prep, and of course I can ride the horses for hours around here without seeing another person. All very enjoyable and perfectly acceptable things to do right now.

A nice vista, and I think I've only seen someone on the trail once this year.

Stay safe everyone (and I hope you're all able to visit your horses for some stress relief)

Beach wave noises work great for stress too