@4kids4us “A local garden center worked out a deal with Perdue Farms,”
You are in my neck of the woods.
We didn’t see the Blues and the Thunderbirds since we are just a tad too far east of the path from Baltimore to DC.
We were able to see the fly over in Atlanta; it was something else! I was surprised by the amount of car traffic with people driving to spots for viewing. My mom lives up the street from two of the hospitals in the path, so we drove to the top of her parking garage; we were not the only ones with this idea. The number of people we could see on the top level of other parking garages was a surprise, although I don’t know why I was!
Too many people without mask, although they were SD. It was nice to be out in public for a brief time. I dropped off some supplies for my mother, so got to say hello from a distance.
RT is both respiratory therapists (the folks who help keep airways open) and I believe Rate of Transmission. It needs to drop below 1 — 1 means one person gives the virus to 1 other person. The lower, the better, of course. When it’s spreading rapidly, it’s above 2, meaning one infected person gets 2 more infected and one can see how that quickly spreads.
The abbreviations can be confusing.
Dealing with Covid 19 is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. It’s too early to know for the most part which places “did it right” or got lucky. Too little data.
Over the next few years hopefully we’ll be able to use our knowledge to plan for future events, but as for the current situation, there is still so much we don’t know we’re still just making educated guesses for the most part.
Yes you can’t use motorboats because they don’t want you going to get gas and other supplies unnecessarily 
Plus most people don’t actually live where their boats are parked so this is a way to reduce travel.
Non motorized boats and fishing are still allowed.
It’s gorgeous out here. We took baby for his first stroller walk today and ended up having to walk in the street because so many people were in their yards so close to the sidewalk. Luckily not too many people driving around. No where to go
Our high school boosters tied ribbons in school colors on the trees along the road where the high school is located, hung a banner on the school fence with each graduating senior’s name on it, and the seniors held a car parade. School isn’t quite over for them yet, but this kind of acknowledged the senior picnics, awards nights, and prom that would ordinarily happen this time of year. There is going to be a virtual graduation at the time the actual graduation was scheduled for. Also, they booked a venue later in the summer in hopes of holding an in-person graduation there. That strikes me as a bit optimistic, but it does show they care and are doing all they can.
DD attended a birthday party on zoom last night. The host asked everyone to either dress up or wear a costume. They chatted and played games together for hours. It felt so good to hear DD laughing. She is normally a very happy girl, but SIP has dampened everyone’s spirits.
We will be making mint juleps this afternoon for Kentucky Turtle Derby Day!
About food-processing:
Hog production is typically done on a “just in time” basis. The pigs’ lives are planned out across the 9 to 10 months it takes from a sow’s impregnation to the slaughter of a market hog. Farms have just enough room to hold the pigs they need to have at each point in the life cycle to fulfill their production goals, and not much more. The whole system depends on having the biggest pigs promptly slaughtered so the next-biggest pigs can take their place in the barn. Otherwise, overcrowding occurs.
So now that meatpacking plants (which typically handle the slaughter and dismantling of farm animals) are increasingly shutting down over coronavirus outbreaks, that poses a problem for hog farmers, and to some degree poultry farmers (pasture cattle typically have more space, giving their farmers a little more leeway).
That means there are a lot more animals than there is room to put them on farms. "Latest data suggests that because of plant closures and slowdowns, we are processing about 40% fewer pigs, which means an extra 500,000*0.4 = 200,000 pigs that are left on the farm. Every. Single. Day,” Lusk writes. “Do that for 5 days, and that’s 1 million ‘excess’ pigs left on the farm.”
Source: Jayson Lusk, a food and agricultural economist at Purdue (not Perdue). You can search for his blog if you want to read more.
The way I look at it is during a pandemic, it’s better to be safe than sorry. If my personal civil liberties get temporarily infringed upon, so be it. Small price to pay for the greater common good. I will be ok if I can’t buy some seeds (or most other products) for a few weeks.
And why I’m at it, it’s perfectly fine to have a peaceful protest at State capitols about the SAH orders but do you really need to come armed with assault-style weapons. Really??
And then you wonder why states want to put limitations on the sale of these weapons. If you act like a responsible gun carrying person than you will be treated like one.
When we got our grocery pick-up today, the chicken we ordered was there, but not the pork chops. Not too surprising. Since we didn’t enter the store, I have no idea what the meat cases looked like.
What was more disappointing was that we didn’t get our avocados.
Yay - my husband just scored our favorite flour (King Arthur) at the neighborhood upscale grocery. He’s picking up steaks for tonight. Luckily we already got our stimulus payments.
FWIW, all chicken sold in the US is “antibiotic-free”. They just put that label on packaging as a marketing tool. Chickens take only six weeks from hatch to slaughter. While they are vaccinated as chicks, their lifespan is so short (not to mention valued at so little) there is not a need for antibiotics.
Gorgeous day outside here. We spent it working on various farm projects and working with our 4 remaining ponies - 3 adults and one 2 year old. The 2 year old would normally sell this fall. Hopefully that can still happen. Right now I don’t even have her advertised - not sure if it’s legal or not to sell her.
I have to go out and do evening chores in 5 minutes (taking a quick break inside).
On a day like today (70s and perfect outside), I wouldn’t want to go out for anything (off the farm) anyway even if life had been normal! I love perfect spring days.
@Creekland ! You are a pony breeder??!! What breed?
I love ponies! I have a 30 year old retired welsh arab cross and a 28 year old welsh pony on my farm.
Apologies for the pony interruption, now back to COVID
Guilty here - I did an unessential shopping today. I couldn’t get any flowers from Freshdirect, so I waited in line at Trader Joes to just get some flowers. It was my first time in a grocery store for a while. The place pretty well stocked. They made stand at least 6 feet away from the cashier while he rang up my stuff. I got a beautiful orchid plant (double potted) and 2 bouquet of flowers. I then stopped of at my local Walgreen, they had Charmin and Lysol wipes.
My brother from Austin went to a restaurant today for breakfast and it was empty. He posted it on FB and I couldn’t click on Like on his post.
Right now, there are only two animals at the Dane County (Wis.) Humane Society awaiting adoption: a 12-year-old cat and a 20-year-old Appendix Quarterhorse, named Big Guy. Around here, as in many parts of the U.S., there have been many more animal adoptions than usual during the pandemic.
So I posted some survey results back in reply #336 ( http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22778224/#Comment_22778224 ). It looks like most people are still somewhat or very concerned about the virus (regardless of what you personally feel).
That suggests that, even if additional government restrictions were lifted, lots of people would not return to normal activity (including economic activity). What developments do you think will be necessary for most people (not necessarily you personally) to believe that it is safe enough for them return to normal activity? For example:
- Widely available effective vaccine.
- Better treatment that reduces the risk of death or other bad outcomes.
- Better definition of risks and risk factors (i.e. no longer looks like a lottery of poorly defined odds, but a situation where someone can get a good idea of his/her risk based on known risk factors), at least for people who now know that they and others they live with are low risk.
- ???
When the Blue Angels flew over here yesterday, they had B52s with them. One of those lost a metal panel which fell onto private property. No one was hurt, and the panel was retrieved. I didn’t see them, but they were about an hour late and there are too many trees to run out and expect to see anything that fast.
- Widely available effective vaccine.
- Better treatment that reduces the risk of death or other bad outcomes.
- Better definition of risks and risk factors (i.e. no longer looks like a lottery of poorly defined odds, but a situation where someone can get a good idea of his/her risk based on known risk factors), at least for people who now know that they and others they live with are low risk.
- ???
For me , B . dont think A is going to happen anytime soon.
Well mr r just went to our downtown for food pick up. No one is social distancing or wearing masks. They’re giving him weird looks for wearing one.
It’s so frustrating and quite frankly infuriating. And people wonder why our governor had to give such specific stay at home orders.