Sad Day

I lost a chicken this fall. Not lost as in she ran away, but lost as in she was killed by a hawk. Poor thing. 

I just happened to look out the window when I saw feathers flying. That was when I saw the hawk using her beak to rip the chicken apart and then spit out the feathers. As soon as I started walking toward the coop, she flew away. I wouldn't have hurt her because I know raptors are federally protected, but I'm glad I didn't have to figure out how I was going to get her out.

I know it was just a $4.00 chicken, but she was my favorite $4.00 chicken. She was the one who would run right over to me when I came into their area - checking to see if I brought treats. And while the others were much more skittish, she always let me pick her up.  That's probably why she was the one who got eaten.

I know I can't complain too much. In all the years we've kept chickens during the summer (we started in 2015) this is the first time we've lost one to a predator. We've had predators try - we've scared away three raccoons and a fox over the years, but this was the first time one of them made it into the run. 

Teenagers...

About two weeks ago my bicycle disappeared from my front yard. Bicycles get stolen on Mackinac all the time, but rarely from dead end streets way out of town. So it was odd that it was taken from my yard, and after most of the workers had left for the winter. 

Often, missing bikes get "borrowed." Most of the time the missing bikes turn up. People take them to get home late one night and then abandon them in the bike racks at their employee housing. Which is why I took that picture of my bike last June. It was my "just in case my bike disappears I can put it on the Island Residents' Facebook page asking people to keep an eye out for it" picture.

My husband and a few friends did the housing circuit with no result; the assumption being that my bike was in fact stolen and taken from the island when whoever took it left for the season. I resigned myself to its loss and knew I'd need to pick out a new one in the spring. Just to be safe I filed a police report and the very nice recording officer offered to look for it since I was in quarantine.

A couple of days ago, my husband and I took a walk (masked and with the permission of the Health Department.) We had to stop at my parent's house to check on their snowmobiles - lo and behold what did we see but my missing bike! Apparently my daughter borrowed it, left it at my parent's house and completely forgot. Even asking her to check the bike racks at school to see if it might have been left there didn't jog her memory! To her credit though, as soon as she saw it in our bike rack (complete with her old bike helmet) she admitted her mistake apologized.

Frustrated

I made it seven days. Seven days out of quarantine, five of them at work. And then, someone decided to come to work sick. Sigh.

This person thought, despite having to fill out an online questionnaire each and every morning before coming in to school, that their sore throat, headache and general feeling of crappiness, was "Just a cold." Had they accurately noted their symptoms, they would have gotten this message:

I know because it is the same message you get when you check the box next to "Have you been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid 19?" Which I now have to check; again. And it's so incredibly frustrating. I'm kind of in awe; I mean who thinks going into work with even mild symptoms, in the middle of a global pandemic, is a good idea? Who?

And I tried to remain distant, I really did. In fact, my seat at lunch was eight feet away from the others in the room. (I'm nerdy, I measured.) Safe, I thought, but the health department disagreed. Four members of the staff, one substitute teacher and an entire elementary classroom are now quarantined.

So, I am teaching from home. Again. Praying that my family and I stay healthy. Again. The high point of my day today was my walk to down to the Medical Center, in the rain, for a Covid test. Thankfully, I managed to find a little beauty along the way.

For the record, I support the LMAS District Health Department  100%. I understand that quarantine is an effective strategy to stop the spread of Covid-19, and I'm following their guidelines because I want to keep others safe and healthy. 

Halloween 2020: Covid Style

This year I had a mouse and a traveler on the Oregon Trail. (He tells me, he wasn't just any old traveler, he was a specific character from from the musical The Trail to Oregon!)  We decided to go cheap on costumes for 2020 since we weren't sure trick-or-treating would even happen this year. All we bought was my son's vest, which set us back $4.00 at the thrift shop. (I made the mouse costume for a dress-up day or a play at school years ago.) When we finally decided that we could make trick-or-treating happen, the kids didn't care what their costumes were just as long as they could celebrate.

We made sure the kids could go out and collect candy yet remain socially distant. One end for rapping on doors and one end for retrieving sweets, all while staying 6+ feet away. Sadly, we decided to save them just in case they need to be used again next year.

The kids built this contraption so we could safely pass out candy. I dropped handfuls of candy into the top of the tube from up on the porch, and it came out of the worm's mouth and dropped into an awaiting candy bag. (It's supposed to be a sandworm from the movie  Beetlejuice - one of my kids' favorites.) It was a huge hit, especially with the little kids. 

The haul was a little lighter than normal, but that wasn't surprising. Instead of the normal 10 - 12 pounds, each of them brought home around eight pounds (a little more than 3.5 kg.) - still plenty for a smorgasbord of treats while we watched Hocus Pocus. (We watch it every year on Halloween.) 

Look closely at my son's haul... Notice anything interesting? Yup, someone decided to give him a White Claw. We're not sure if it was an accident or a trick, but he willingly turned it over to his dad as soon as he got home. If something like that was ever going to happen, 2020 was the year.

 

Happy Halloween

I'm not sure what tonight it going to bring. No matter what happens, we're prepared. My husband and the kids built a socially-distanced-candy-delivery-system for passing out treats; and  I made socially-distant-treat-collecting-bags so they kids can get candy safely.

I'm having visions of next year's Halloween special on TV - How The Corona Virus Stole Halloween.  Maybe the virus's heart will grow three sizes and decide to stop infecting people. It could happen; it would be a Halloween miracle...

Just Plain Weird

 

The last couple of weeks have been odd. Like, really odd. For the past two weeks I've been teaching from home. OK, I know, lots of teachers are teaching from home right now; there's nothing strange about that. But, the kids I've been teaching have been at school.

You read that right, I have been teaching lessons at my dining room table to kids who are present in the school building. Oddly enough, it has worked out well. I'm not sick - just quarantined due to being exposed to Covid-19 - so I'm physically able to work. The school hasn't needed to hire a sub due to my providing daily Zoom lessons and assignments through Google Classroom. (Don't worry - my students have been supervised by an in-person-adult.) Despite how well it's worked, it's by no means a perfect solution and I've been counting the days until I can return to my classroom. (Not that being home has been awful, by any means. You should see my basement, it hasn't been this organized in years.)

The Health Department has given my husband, my daughter and I clearance to return to work and school tomorrow. It's perfect timing. I get to go back to school for the Halloween party! Seeing town is going to be strange, too. I haven't left the house since Friday, October 9th. 

Seems like a long time, doesn't it. The Health Department quarantined my son for two weeks from the onset of his symptoms. The rest of us had to remain at home for two weeks after his last possible infectious day. (Which for us ended up being 21 days.) I'm glad they've been cautious. I would have hated to be the cause of any of my students getting sick. Healthy kids are 100% worth having to teach from home!

Sick

I'm so glad my husband, the kids and I got outside last week. We took a long walk through the woods on one of those perfect sweater-weather fall days. The ground was damp enough to have that earthy-leafy fall smell and there were enough leaves on the ground to crunch beneath our feet as we walked. It was glorious.

I'm glad we got out, because as of Friday, we are in quarantine.

My son has tested positive for Covid-19. Today, he's OK.  He's clearly sick: sore throat, snotty nose, exhausted, not hungry (no fever though.) But he's not in a hospital on a ventilator and for that I am thankful. Now I just need to breathe. Breathe and try to stop worrying about whether or not my husband or daughter are going to get sick.

 

The outpouring of support we've received has been amazing. Every single person I've spoken to in the last three days has offered to help us. I feel so  incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so much love and support!

Reading

Much to my husband's dismay, I have always enjoyed Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga. This summer the newest book in the series came out, so of course, I had to get it. It was quite interesting. It's the same story told in Twilight except this version is told from Edward's perspective rather than Bella's. 

Sigh

A staff member at school has tested positive for Covid-19, so I'm back to teaching from my dining room table. (Right now that person is asymptomatic, and doing alright.)

 

 I cannot tell you how impressed I am with my students.

They show up on Zoom, every morning at 8:30 on the dot, ready to work on the day's math; they work without me for a while, and then Zoom again later in the day. They've been bright and cherry and have diligently worked on every assignment I've given them. No teacher could ask for better kids - or parents!

 

As of right now, it looks like we'll be Zooming until Wednesday the 14th. Then, hopefully, it's back to school. And just in case you're curious, I always get parent permission before I use student photos on my blog.

** 10/18: Edited to add: Due to staffing issues the administration decided to keep us virtual all this week. As of today, the plan is to return to face-to-face instruction tomorrow. (10/19/20)

Happiness is

 

 

...fall flowers...

Special Delivery

UPS travels to the Island on the freight boat in the standard brown UPS truck. Once on the dock, the packages are taken out of the truck and loaded onto a dray to be delivered around the Island. In the winter the packages come to the island via airplane.

A couple days ago I was walking down Main Street and a box on the UPS dray caught my eye. Do you see it? Nestled between goodies from Amazon and Target is a box labeled "extreme caution! LIVE SCORPIONS." 

Here, take a closer look:

At first I was a little surprised, I mean who on Mackinac would be ordering live scorpions? Other than the Butterfly House, but my son works there and I think he would have told me if they were adding new scorpions to their display. I did a double take and saw the box was actually a box of Michigan Chillers  books, by Jonathan Rand, headed to the Island Bookstore. I certainly appreciated Mr. Rand's sense of humor; he had me giggling all the way home.

Finally

We finally got the last of our returnables back to the store. It took us two trips with the car since the 14 kitchen-sized trash bags full of bottles and cans wouldn't all fit in the car at the same time. Thank goodness we have plenty of storage space in the basement.

When all was said and done, we had almost $90. If you're not from Michigan, we have a bottle return law here. Each time you buy a carbonated beverage, you pay a ten cent deposit on the container. You get your ten cents back when you return the container to the store. During the spring, all stores in Michigan stopped accepting returnables due to Covid. They're taking them back now, but at both Wal-Mart and Meijer only half the machines are open to keep customers socially distanced. Plus, both have a $25 per person, per day limit. Luckily, there were four of us.

Hunting

During our last week of summer the kids and I spent a lovely day on Nine Mile Point. (Nine Mile Point is located between Petoskey and Charlevoix on Michigan's lower peninsula.) No day on Lake Michigan would be complete without hunting for Michigan's state stone, the Petoskey stone.

Petoskey stones are actually pieces of  fossilized coral (Hexagonaria percarinata if you're curious.) When the stones are dry the don't look very interesting, but when they're wet or polished, the shape of the coral is easy to see.

In just a half an hour or so, we found quite a few. Our next step is to get some different grits of sandpaper so we can work on polishing the stones (following these directions.)  Hopefully, once they are polished, they'll look something like this one.

Not my picture (this one is for sale on Etsy for $65.00,) but it gives you an idea of what they look like polished.

First Day 2020

The first day of school is here any my wonderful coworkers talked my teenagers into taking a first day picture with me.

My daughter is 14, my son is almost 16, and I am the shortest one in the family...

Back to School

It's hard to believe it's been 178 days since we left school (on Friday the 13th no less.) Tomorrow we'll be back at it, in person, and I'm glad to be going back.

My classroom is ready to welcome the kids I have the privilege of  working with this year. My tables are set up for socially distanced lessons, with lots of space and plexiglass between students. Our entire elementary, K-6, is only 17 students, so we're able to do some things larger schools just can't.

Tomorrow will be my 28th first day of school, in the classroom I love, with kids I can't wait to get to know better. I know this year isn't going to look like the past 27 years, and it's going to everyone a while to adjust to this "new normal," but I feel confident. We've got strict protocols in place and the entire staff at MIPS is going to work tirelessly to keep all the Island's children safe, healthy and learning.

Nope

I noticed this sign a week or so ago during 

Mackinac Island's annual Fudge Festival. 

Oh Rybas,  did you forget
how to make plurals?

Remember, when a word ending

in a consonant + y is changed into a plural, 

the y is dropped and ies is added to the end.

Mummy becomes mummies.

Baby becomes babies.

Family becomes families.

Journey becomes journeys.

(It does! Look again - there is no consonant before the y.)

So, taffy becomes taffies.

I have to admit it - I am that person. 

I do feel the uncontrollable urge to silently correct

the grammar on signage.

Most of the time the issue the incorrect 

use of an apostrophe, but that's a rant for 

a different day.

 

That said, I freely admit that I do
occasionally make mistakes, and
I try to be gracious when I am corrected.

Mornings

There is something about mornings on Mackinac that I adore. All summer long I've been doing physical therapy for my back; which means going across to the mainland twice a week. I purposely scheduled my appointments so I could go across on the first boat each morning. Several of my friends thought I was nuts - why would I purposely make it so I had to be up and at the dock for an 8:00 am boat? Yuck.

I'll admit it - I like the first boat. Partially because it's considerably less crowded than the boats later on in the day. There have been a number of Covid-19 exposures on the boats this summer, so anything I can do to avoid crowds people is a good thing. (I'm also trying to always ride on one of the open-air decks rather than inside the cabin. Star Line claims to be fogging the cabins to disinfect them between every trip, but I've been on the boat a lot this summer and I've not seen the fogger used more than I have seen it used.)

I also love how peaceful Mackinac is in the morning. Town is dramatically different in the early hours than it is later on;  there's space on the sidewalks, I don't have to weave in and out of people and it's so much quieter. Don't get me wrong, I love the tourists - without them the Island's economy would fall apart. It's just nice sometimes to not be right in the middle of the craziness.

Masks for School

We are going back to school in person in September and the high school students and all staff will be required to wear masks while in the building. I decided I needed some fun masks for school, because, you know, I need some fun ones.  Daleks, Harry Potter, NASA and chickens all make me smile. And, this way I will have enough masks to get through an entire week at school without having to do laundry.

Quarentine Project: The Cat Quilt

During quarantine  and this odd summer, I've tried to keep busy. Last winter I made a quilt for my son, so it made sense that this year it was my daughter's turn. We repainted her room last spring, and it was time for some new, more grown-up bedding.

I wanted it to match the walls in her bedroom so I chose the turquoise -

she wanted wanted it to match our cat, so she chose the pattern.

Once it was on her bed, she was happy with it; well, mostly happy. She didn't think it was soft enough. I tried to reassure her that after a year or so of  washes, it would be just as soft as the other well-loved quilts we have in the house.

Good Deed

 

I found this monarch caterpillar in the middle of Grand Hill as I walked home this afternoon. It seemed an odd place for a caterpillar so I scooped him up, determined to drop him off on the nearest milkweed plant. (Their numbers have dwindled in recent years and while they aren't listed as threatened endangered in the US yet, they are considered "a species of special concern" in Canada.

I carried him for a half mile or so; looking for milkweed the entire way, but not finding a single plant. Luckily, I veered off the road to look in the back of an empty lot. I made sure he was happily munching on the leaf before I went on my way and headed for home.