Going Galt Halted by Corona - Taunted by Separation Anxiety

Going Galt - The Steps We Use to Get Out of Dodge

GOING GALT SERIES - STEPS TO GETTING OUT OF DODGE

Part 9

I am SO jealous!

There's another family that started Getting Out of Dodge at the same time we did. The difference between our adventures is that their house in Washington sold very quickly and before the virus took hold. 

And for FULL price!

You should check out Good Simple Living's YouTube channel, if you haven't heard about it already. 

They are doing an excellent job progressing on their new Idaho homestead. 

Meanwhile, nobody is even looking at our home and the Coronavirus has now brought everything to a complete standstill for us.

What's Next?

I'm not sure, honestly. There's not a whole lot I can do at this point with my house unsold. Our Governor issued a Stay-at-Home order and extended it to the end of April.

What started out as an ambitious dream-come-true has turned into a surreal nightmare of sorts.

I am now completely separated from my family by nine hours and don't know when I'll be able to travel back there. Or when they can travel up here. 

My hospital, following the Governor's declaration, will put me in a 14-day quarantine if I go back to visit (again). 

Since I am a new employee, I haven't had the time yet to build up Paid Time Off. 

I've missed two birthdays and Easter this month. Video calling for family events just isn't the same but it is better than nothing.

Staying Focused

With the addition of a giant 4'x6' whiteboard, I have started to write down my thoughts and action plans. 

I have always been a daytimer-planner type of person. Usually mapping out a good five years in advance. 

But I have found that it is easy to slip into depression when I'm isolated. When I returned from going home over Spring Break, I was given a 14-day quarantine for going out of town. 

That new rule came into effect while I was gone. 

Sitting here in this rental for 14 days starts getting a little...weird. 

I started sleeping... a lot. 

At first, I just chalked it up to needing some sleep. But I realized it was more likely due to depression and excessive sleep will make it worse. 

That's why I started using the whiteboard. 

I have only met a few people in town and won't be interacting much since we can't have social gatherings, including church meetings. 

So with the help of my visual brain (whiteboard), I have gotten back on track with my fitness plan, gardening schedule, financial mapping, relocation efforts, and all the other tasks on my plate.

But I'd be lying if I didn't admit to having a few meltdowns thinking about my family.

Returning to Work

I was released from quarantine and returned to work last Monday. It was nice getting out of the house. I found myself reluctant to go "home" at 5pm because there was no reason to go.

I'll continue focusing on my new job and see what unfolds around me. I told my realtor to lower the asking price on my house by $25,000 to see if it spurs anything. 

My mom sent me a text yesterday that she was furloughed from her teaching job. She's 68 years old and trying to figure out how to pay bills. 

So in the middle of feeling paralyzed, I'm trying to figure out how I can help my mom. 

I see the national unemployment rate skyrocketing so I'm thankful for my job. 

And I'm thankful that my job put me into a decent rental property at no cost to me. I got lucky and they waived the rent for three months to give me time to find a place for my family.

So for now, I only have a house payment down south. But come May 31st, there will be an additional rent payment due where I am staying now. 

I don't see a way that finances will handle that extra burden at this point. 

On the Gardening Side

Since it takes my mind off the negatives, I enjoyed moving some of my starts into bigger containers.

Medicinal Calendulas

I'm still not ready to move them outside. Locals have told me to watch a certain mountain top nearby. 

When all the snow is gone off the top, that's when it is safe to plant in the ground. 

So my plants are still in the back mudroom for now. I moved my medicinal flowers out of the barrel trough and into butter containers.

When they get too big for that, it should be time to transfer them outside. 

I transferred the cabbage starts from the rootbeer cans to the trough for more room to spread. 

And because I ran out of room indoors, I experimented with putting three starts outside in the ground. I have no idea how hardy these little cabbages are but they sprouted so quickly, they might do okay. 

I also received the gift of some old hay to start a potato garden. So I spread out two small bags of potatoes on the ground and covered them up. 

Continuing to Recon

I'm still listening to my Baofeng to see what is going on locally. I also walk a 2-3 mile trek through the nearby neighborhoods to get some exercise. 

This allows me to watch for houses that are For Rent while learning the local street names. 

I enjoy a nice level walk but enjoy these steep mountain roads even better. I can see this being a permanent routine given how good of a cardio workout I get huffing and puffing up and down these roads.

Speaking of which, the sun is starting to set and I haven't been out of the house today. I'm going to throw some shoes on and get a quick walk in before dark.

Our local Air Evac helicopter was sitting on top of our hospital when I came back from a walk the other day. With the flags flying nearby, I couldn't resist taking a few photos.

Thanks for listening. 

Greenland Movie Trailer 2020 - Add More Stress to Your Daily Pandemic Routine

Need a Little More Stress?

Greenland Movie Trailer

I noticed all the trailer previews for this movie were removed on YouTube for copyright violations so I removed the preview here. That's the last thing I need right now.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Looks like it will be a really great movie. 

There is still a copy listed here:

https://thewatchtowers.org/comet-disaster-movie-trailer-for-greenland-being-removed-from-the-internet/

We Interrupt This Quarantine to Bring You the Red-Breasted Nuthatch?

Sell, Rent, Lease Purchase - I Don't Care, Just Do Something!

Part 8

So, I'm bogged down in the middle of this moving process. The coronavirus has brought home sales almost to a halt. At least as far as my house is concerned.

We only had the house up for sale in south Idaho for two weeks when the craziness started. We went from multiple inquiries per week to zero in the first month.

Now being on month two, I'm not too happy about it. 

Why?

That unsold house holds the downpayment I need to purchase a home up north. And if I do find a rental, and believe me they are few and far between, how am I going to pay for a rental and a home?

"Don't wish life was easier, wish you were better." - Jim Rohn

I know Jim...I'll stop complaining.

What a wonderful time to pick for a bug out relocation, right?

Along Comes a Quarantine

While down south over Spring Break, packing up the last few things, my company up north held a meeting.

In that meeting, they decided that any employee who goes out of town will have a mandatory two-week quarantine upon their return.

When was this new ruling to take effect? That very day it was discussed in the meeting, of course.

So, I've had two weeks of quarantine in perfectly good health. This has allowed me even MORE time to do my office reports because I had much less human intervention slowing me down.

After 5pm, I  have been working on getting my garden starts going and checking out a few national trails for exercise.

The key right now is to keep things portable. Garden in buckets that can be relocated when we find our final destination.

Gardening 

With many of my supplies still down south, I looked around for things to improvise a garden. I found this long, white trough in the back of my company rental.

I dragged it into the back porch room (screen room, mud room?) and put some cardboard under in case I over water it.

I used my diet Rootbeer cans for starters. Sprinkled in a couple of soup cans and one heavy cream carton.

My seed stash is from many years ago and still seems to be viable. They are all from Seeds for Security who used to sponsor some contests on this blog years ago.

My cabbage sprouted after only a handful of days. I may have dumped too many seeds together in each can. Not sure how I'll separate those little fellers out.

The rest are beans and potatoes. Oh, except for the white trough. In it, I planted some medicinal yet beautiful Calendulas. I can't wait to see how pretty those are when in bloom.

Getting to Know the Town on Lockdown

Since it is hard to start meeting people during a nationwide lockdown, I did the next best thing I could think of...listen to the police scanner.

Nothing lets you know what's going on in a new town better than listening to their local police channels.

So at breakfast each morning, I turn on my Baofeng UV-5R and let it scan the six local channels in my area.

Breakfast and my Baofeng UV-5R

I now know the local nursing home has a resident with a high fever. Remember I work in healthcare so this catches my attention, especially during the corona mess.

Which, by the way, this whole county still has zero cases of the virus. Another sign that I've landed in the right place to escape the plagues of the big cities.

I know where the dogs like to run amok. I have an overall sense of just how busy our officers are in this town and the severity of the issues.

Pretty quiet, just what I had hoped for in this little town.

I'm pretty impressed with these Baofeng units. I purchased them in 2013 during my Gathering of the Preps back in Mesa, Arizona and they are still going like brand new!

I had to watch a YouTube video on how to use them again but that took all of ten minutes.

Now they have all the local police, fire & rescue, and weather programmed in and stored.

I push one button and it says "Scanning Begin" which starts a repeating scan of my saved channels. Whenever activity sparks, it stops on that channel.

What a great purchase for such a low price. I fully intend to sit for my ham radio license by the end of this year.

Exploring the Local Trails

I visited the Heyburn State Park to get my allowed quarantined exercise (cough, cough.) It was rated as an "Easy" trail and I found it using my newly downloaded AllTrails app on my phone.

It was the closest to me and the first on my list to explore.

And since gas was only $1.79 per gallon, I was actually happy to fill up the tank and go for a little drive.

The Heyburn State Park building is closed due to the coronavirus but all the trails are still open. I was above impressed with the park building.

If I could build my home right now, I would love for it to have this type of look:

The rock and wood mixture soothes my soul. In my mind, this structure is the epitome of living in the woods. Of course, I have no idea how much it would cost to build something like this...and right now, I don't want to know.

I just want to enjoy the splendor.

The trail I took was over two miles in length. It basically took me along the edge of the marsh and allowed me to explore a little.

Even though I am not a big fan of scouting marshlands, this trail still provided ample outdoor air and beautiful scenery of water, mountains, and sky.

A few places revealed floating docks that jutted out into the lake. It was a bit windy but I still enjoyed walking out to the edge of the docks.

As far as wildlife goes, I saw a few waterfowl, a red-breasted nuthatch and this thing:

 Joking aside, the red-breasted nuthatch is actually a thing. I didn't get any decent pictures but here's a little more information on the bird.

The Downer for the Week

I video called home to virtually participate in my youngest daughter's birthday. During the call, I must have pulled something that was plugged into my computer system.

Out of nowhere, my two dual-curved computer monitors lunged forward on my desk. I thought I had caught them both with my hands since I was leaned in to see the video.

But when I put them both back up, there was a huge damage area on the right screen. I was so bummed. This "home office" was the first I had ever bought for myself and I really liked using it.

I took full advantage of sales before Christmas and got some really great deals. But, that doesn't matter now because one screen is trashed.

Unfortunately, I did not buy any extended warranty and this is not a factory default. I have learned to minimize the window on the right monitor and simply set the left margin at the margin of the damaged area of the screen.

There are too many other things to focus on financially right now to worry about replacing this monitor.

The lesson learned here is to secure monitors down to the table regardless of how sturdy the stands seem.

Ending on Gratitude

Lastly, I'll just mention how grateful I am that we were able to get our missionary daughter home. Things have become ten-fold worse in Ecuador since she left.

Here is a picture of a truck full of coffins in Guayaquil, the town where she was staying.

 We continue to pray for the people of Ecuador and those affected around the world.

I'm off now to go walk the neighborhood. Another way to learn the local streets and do some recon.

Take care and stay safe.

Researchers: FDA-Approved Drug May Kill Coronavirus in "Under 48 Hours"

I am making no claims here but wanted to get the word out just in case.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011

Report: Researchers Say they Found an FDA-Approved Drug that May Kill Coronavirus in “Under 48 hours”

Researchers in Australia report that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved drug commonly used to treat parasites, appears to be effective in treating the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19). The drug is widely available and can be “repurposed” for this application, doctors said.

The ScienceDirect journal, Antiviral Research, published an article by a group of Australian researchers from Monash University in Melbourne reporting that Ivermectin appears to be effective at inhibiting the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The article states:

Ivermectin is an inhibitor of the COVID-19 causative virus (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro.
A single treatment able to effect ∼5000-fold reduction in virus at 48h in cell culture.
Ivermectin is FDA-approved for parasitic infections, and therefore has a potential for repurposing.

Ivermectin is widely available, due to its inclusion on the WHO model list of essential medicines.

“We report here that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic previously shown to have broad-spectrum antiviral activity in vitro, is an inhibitor of the causative virus (SARS-CoV-2),” the researchers write. “Ivermectin, therefore, warrants further investigation for possible benefits in humans.” [Breitbart]

Dr. Kylie Wagstaffis the leader of the research team and he issued a statement on the breakthrough:

“Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective—that’s the next step,” 

Newsweek magazine reported. “We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it.”

More Research

Here's an interesting article from Japan on human use of Ivermectin.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043740/

Abstract

Discovered in the late-1970s, the pioneering drug ivermectin, a dihydro derivative of avermectin—originating solely from a single microorganism isolated at the Kitasato Institute, Tokyo, Japan from Japanese soil—has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people throughout the world. 

Originally introduced as a veterinary drug, it kills a wide range of internal and external parasites in commercial livestock and companion animals. 

It was quickly discovered to be ideal in combating two of the world’s most devastating and disfiguring diseases which have plagued the world’s poor throughout the tropics for centuries. 

It is now being used free-of-charge as the sole tool in campaigns to eliminate both diseases globally. 

It has also been used to successfully overcome several other human diseases and new uses for it are continually being found. 

This paper looks in depth at the events surrounding ivermectin’s passage from being a huge success in Animal Health into its widespread use in humans, a development that has led many to describe it as a “wonder” drug.

Amazon has the item here

For under $7, it might be good insurance. 

I am not a medical doctor and this is not an attempt to give medical advice on prescription use. I'm simply sharing research data so you can decide for yourself.