Last Days "Off"

"Have fun on your 2nd honeymoon," Grandma said.

If she thought we'd have lots of spare time with Shane being away, she wrong. Shane being out of the house gave us an extra hour or two tops! There were lots of chores and work to do!

I took this picture when I was picking up stems from a feeder. It reminded me of a boneyard.

I spent a large chunk of my Friday making up a unit test for triangles after my office hours. I probably could've got done faster, but I got the idea in my head to add superhero stick figures to some of the questions.

Hopefully, I won't get sued.

I don't have the time or talent to make them all myself, so the internet came to the rescue. It wont' be enough to make anyone who hates trig like it, but if I can get a smile where there normally wouldn't have been one, I'll take it.

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Virtual school has only gotten more draining with time. I probably work at least 65 hours a week between it and the barn (and paid for 36.25!). 

It's gotten more frustrating, too. I have students who don't show up at all and others who do maybe 10 minutes of work for the week. Meanwhile, I think 5-6 hours of work a week is fair. Split between 4 classes, that's an expectation of 20-24 hours per week....and the students who actually give a consistent effort have made progress and can usually finish faster than that. In physical school, I could hunt slackers down, but in virtual school it's much harder. 

Saturday I got to take a break from grading to do something I've wanted to do for a while: We went to the dump!

Some tasks are 'Carrie-locked.' She knows how to haul and she's good at it. We need to get the small trailer inspected, so we can haul the gator and mower to get serviced. But for today, I got to help put on my first hitch lock.

Then I filled up the back of the truck with over 200 lbs of trash (according to the dump's scale). 

Including at least 20 lbs of cat waste (according to "That's a lot of poop!"). We left the metal trash can at the dump when I realized there was nothing to brace it against once I threw out all the bags. The cat pee had corroded the inside and it had warped over time, but it still felt a little wasteful. 

Shane going to my parents didn't give us a ton of time off, but the time it did give us off helped. For me, it was one less thing to juggle. I knew he was getting the best care and attention and I got to turn my focus elsewhere.....but apparently not to blogging! My last post was right before Shane got home and I didn't start to catch back up until Thanksgiving break! But it wasn't that I didn't have ideas of what to write.

I took this picture while trying to scoop poop in the waning light. There's still plenty of light to see and walk around, but the turns start to blend with the dirt in the shadows. It all sort of blurs. The big piles are easy enough to distinguish, but sometimes I'm scooping at nothing looking for little bits while stepping over (or on) others.  

I imagine it feels similar to slowly losing your vision. You think you see well enough most of the time, but then you find you're missing more and more little bits and it gets harder and harder.

And the metaphor could be extended to being desensitized to something. Or to having the right tools for the job, like light!

Sometimes mundane tasks are great for having time to think. I work in the quiet when mulling something over, but will put on music or the Dice Tower to fill time, as well.

Our Paths Diverge - My Tale

Friday morning, Shane hopped into the truck with his clothes, school work, and birthday tablet from Nana and Pop. He was en route to Charlotte, NC where Pop and Bruce would pick him up for two weeks of virtual school in SC.

Carrie and Grandma wouldn't stop there. The trailer was hooked up to the truck and they were bound for Charleston, SC to pick up Nibs. From there, they'd transport Nibs to a farm near Orlando, FL before returning home.

I wasn't going anywhere. It was a work day for me and someone had to manage the barn and feed six hungry horses. 

There's usually at least two hours of work every morning provided that things are handled properly the last time chores were done. 

For example, Magic gets beet pulp at his meals. It starts as pellets, but when given time to soak expands tremendously.

The idea is to set the beet pulp soaking for the future feeding each time meals are made.

Little things like that can add time to the process if not handled. 

I'd say the main bulk of the chores are: Feeding, scooping, throwing hay, and picking up stems. Those usually take at least an hour and a half. Then there's usually odds and ends like running the spreader, picking up stalls, stuffing hay bags, or stall waters that pop up and fill the other half hour.

Ernie's off stall rest now, so the workload should lessen some. It's more work to clean a stall than it is scoop in the dry lot. 

I have to walk the stall mess and bedding to the woods and dump it by hand rather than use the spreader.

When all the horses are allowed back out into the pastures then the workload should lessen even further. The horses are all locked from the fields as they baby grass takes root. We were told to keep them off of it for two months and I'm looking forward to December.

Loki was my  happy companion, throughout. He disappears when I'm with a horse, but shows back up when called. He's taken an interest in the hose and washing the buckets lately.

Loki would prefer to stay right beside me as I teach virtually, but he has to hang out with the cats instead.

Friday was remarkable for Loki, because he got to sniff a new person. An appraiser came by to examine the house for a refinancing. 

And he came in the house, too. Socializing is a little more awkward these days. If the appraiser wanted to stop and chat I was happy to. But if he wanted to get his job done quick and get out of the house I was fine with that, too!

I took a picture or two of him taking pictures for my lunch break. He didn't stay for long and I had to get back to work and grab Shane's supply drop from the bus.

Laura came out later to walk Ernie and let him eat some clover. Loki's a big fan of Laura if not the horses.

Dumplings and rice have become my standard bachelor meal when the day ends. This time, I had beef mandu instead of gyoza and a ginger beer to wash it down.

I was either outside or locked up working all day, so I laid down on the couch for a little bit. The cats swarmed me. They like their space, but with Carrie and Shane gone it must've been too much space for them!

Saturday morning, I noticed Loki trying to eat shadows on the wall. He wasn't very successful.

He's got a much higher success rate with catching his tail!

I started to miss Shane when I went to scoop the cat poop myself. The kittens are potent!

They supervised, too (and nearly went for a swim).

Normally, Carrie would've let the cats outside to play, but I was taking no chances without her there. Loki was my only companion (and wheel-biting hindrance) as I wheeled down they hay for the day and did barn chores.

I don't know how it got there, but there was a log in the girls' dry lot. Other than that, it was business as usual.

Barbara and Heidi came out to ride later on.

I played host and checked in on them before going back to work and housework.

Which included dishes and cleaning up after the cats.

Thanks, kittens.

There's really not much exciting things I can write about doing laundry and taking care of business. Without my family around, I get bored and take care of things.

My only adventure of the weekend came Saturday night. I tried to do some chores ahead of time, because I knew I wouldn't get home until after 8 PM (Barbara was nice and scoop Maddy's dry lot before she left. Thanks, Barbara!).

In a typical case of "Opportunities happen simultaneously just to make it difficult," I made two social calls. The first was to meet my co-teacher, Marcell, in person. I showed up on his back porch while his kids napped. He's a little hard of hearing, so it was hard to talk at just the right level and not wake anyone up!

However, my book club decided to meet at the same time. I talked for a little bit before scooting along and arriving late to that...partly because Carrie had said, "Goodbye! I love you! Oh, and the rear driver's side tire on the Subaru is low and the fuel light came on if you're going to go anywhere." I made it to Costco on fumes.

Gas prices are low, at least.

When I got home, I had to finish the barn chores and make supplement cups for the morning. I made an oops, too. Carrie reorganized things since the last time I'd made the cups. Do you see a difference between these pellets? 

I certainly couldn't. They even smelled the same. On one side, the pellets were magnesium. On the other, they were a joint supplement. 

I sat down on the couch at the end of a long day and was immediately swarmed by cats again. Happy literally got in my face and started licking my nose.

I'd have been happy to go to the bedroom, but keeping the animals happy and healthy is part of watching the house.

Our cats seem to actually care about us, too. Aria waited for me to sit down Sunday morning for my morning routine.

Loki tried to catch her shadow on the wall! I thought it was funny enough to take a picture!

Laura and Amy arrived to do their round of barn chores. Loki and I went out to help. I was more useful, but he was more photogenic.

While I am not enamored with all the chores, I do like having a reason for people to visit our property. I like being part of a neighborhood/community. I stayed out, helped, and chatted most of the time Laura and Amy were around. I got to see Laura try to run around with Ernie in the arena after I told her Carrie had started letting him exercise some 'at liberty!'

I treated the rest of the afternoon as a sabbath. The work has been constant since school started and it's vital to be still sometimes. 

I did work on chores, transferred pictures to get ready to update the blog, and eventually hopped on the computer to do grading in the evening. 

Carrie got home in the evening, and our tales rejoined but that's another post.

Right Outside My Window

Virtual school went from being "less work is more" to plainly "more work." I have to convert everything to be used online and it takes longer for me to grade through things when kids turn them in at all hours of the day over weeks instead of in one big bunch.

This past week (10/22), I was so busy with Shane and horses in the morning I ran out of time to convert something. I posted a PDF instead which promises more work on the backend when I have to grade everything by hand. And some kids will submit over email, some will take a picture of a piece of scrap paper held at odd angles, others will post online like they're supposed to, but only the front instead of the front and back, etc.

A lot of my kids (even the honors ones) seem to be weaker at algebra skills this year (Possibly because of how last year ended!). These questions are examples of some problems I put up. I expect the honors kids to be able to attempt them on their own and either get the solution on their own or understand it when I start to go over how to solve ("Ooooh!"). With my other classes, I plan for everyone to be able to understand the solution by the time we work through it. I want all kids to see how the patterns line up.

Hint - If you haven't done math for a long time, the big ideas are this:

• Midpoint and bisect are a fancy way of saying "Cut in half" or "divide by 2" in Math-ese.
• The 'equation' I teach for that is either "The big thing / 2 = the small thing" or "2 of the small thing = the big thing."
• The other 'equation' used on the line is "Part + Part = the whole thing"

 

These problems are examples of where the calculations are what make things more difficult rather than the concept. "If you can't see what it is, change the numbers to something easy and look for the pattern. If the big angle was 80, what would it be cut in half? 40! The numbers will change and get harder, but the pattern will stay the same. Use easy numbers to look for that pattern."

I won't give all the answers, but the bisected angle problem goes something like this:

The big angle = 2 of the small angles.  

The big angle's measurement is the secret code 8x+19. 

The smaller angle's measurement is the secret code 6x+1.

Therefore, 8x+19 = 2 (6x+1)

If kids get that far, they can type it in the computer and it solves it for them (know how to use your tools whether it's a saw or a computer!).

I do all my teaching and working sitting on the floor by a window in the bedroom. A window that sometimes odd things happen out of it!

The heavy machinery that drove by in the previous picture was a tractor.

It was pulling a device that cuts a narrow furrow in the ground and fills it with grass seed.

Carrie is serious about pasture management and wanted to set the barn up now for future success. It did my heart good to hear her talking to the guy and the words "we can do the math to see exactly how many bags of seed we'll need" were uttered.

Definitely something to bring up to the class as a real world application! And I was able to hold my computer up to the window so my 4th block could see the tractor roll by, too.

I checked in on Carrie and the barn in between classes. This happened while Shane was in SC or I'd have needed to check in on him, too!

Maddy was the most dissatisfied with the interloper.

It had the audacity to drive up to her run-in shed!

Her face says, "WHY HUMANS!? WHY!?"

Another day (also the week Shane was out of town) I noticed a trailer park outside during my final block.

We were hosting a virtual riding competition. The trainer who used our arena for the clinic, Heather, was entering Worlds for western dressage (or something like that).

Carrie and her husband were the official videographers. Heather practiced until the sun dipped lower behind the trees and then did her routine to send off to the committee! 

I haven't heard how she did yet. I don't know if the people who advance will head to a new bracket (virtual or in-person) or be given a prize (virtual or in-person!). 

I'm not the biggest fan of teaching virutally, but it is nice to be home so much. Otherwise I'd miss out on seeing some neat things.

It keeps me close to my other 'office.' At this point, I'm almost willing to call it 'the family business.' I don't always have time to change out of my pajamas before it's time to work!

Horses poop. I'm a big part of the process from stall to hopper.

If we could find a way to monetize this stuff we'd be rich.

I actually like zipping around on the mower. I'd go even faster if I could!

Fall observation - You can see the vapor trail behind the mower in the mornings!

Shane's back in town, so he adds another step to the day. I plan on teaching him how to use the equipment to help out more when he's older. Pop taught me to use the riding mower long before I could drive a car.