Distancing

The world has changed a lot in the past two weeks. We've gone from the laughable toilet paper panic and frenzied hoarding, into an apocalyptic-feeling reality where most of the shops are closed and you aren't even allowed to have a barbeque with your extended family.

We didn't get to go to the agility trial on the weekend. On Monday, the 16th, all competitions were canceled until the end of April. Now the two trials in May have also been canceled, and the agility nationals have been postponed to a currently unspecified date. At this rate, we'll be lucky to have any competitions at all this year.

People remain divided between the panicked, the complacent, and the cautious. It's hard to know where on the scale to be. Am I reacting appropriately? Am I taking this seriously enough? Or am I worrying too much? It's a constant internal debate. And going shopping is more stressful than ever as I have to keep in mind the social distancing rules. Did I walk too close to that person? Am I standing too far away while they're talking to me? Thankfully most shops have Xs taped onto the floor and lines to show you where to stand in the queue, where to walk, so I don't have to guess all the time. I try to remember to smile and say thank you to people but honestly, I just want to get my groceries and get back home because it's exhausting. And finding cheap enough groceries continues to be a struggle because everyone is still buying them excessively, leaving us with the more expensive options.

Skuggi "blocking" at the supermarket yesterday, a task I always used to encourage people to give me extra space and now it's more useful than ever.

But so far our lifestyle hasn't suffered a drastic change with all these new restrictions, unlike many others. We've already been out of work for nearly eleven months now. And we haven't been able to afford to go anywhere aside from shopping for most of that time either. The only thing I really miss is the agility trials. I had high hopes for Skuggi's agility this year but as always life finds some way of ruining plans.

Sprinting to the finish line at our last agility trial, November 2019.

But otherwise, life just continues. I'm still sewing dog gear, mainly for my own dogs now since markets are canceled and I have no custom orders. We're working on agility things so hopefully by the time trials start again we will be able to superspeed out of Novice. We own 20 acres and our property is bordered by bushland, dirt roads winding through the trees, which is lovely for walking the dogs. As for Skuggi's assistance dog training, with social interactions basically forbidden, doing his public access test won't be happening for quite some time. The trainer I was going to do it with isn't able to get back to Australia this month as planned. He lives in the UK now and as you know, all international travel is banned. His license to certify assistance dogs expires in July and he said he won't be renewing it. So that's the end of that. When this is all over I guess I'll have to find another trainer who can certify him. Until then we carry on as normal as possible. 

Sparkie and Freya enjoying a bush walk earlier this week.

We picked up some wood and some wire netting to build a chook shed yesterday. I don't know when we'll be able to afford the actual chickens, but the materials were all free and it will be a fun project. And our little garden is growing well despite the kangaroos getting into the lettuces a few weeks ago. As well as the now rejuvenated lettuces, we have peas, strawberries, watermelon, radishes and an assortment of other sprouting herbs/vegetables.

Our garden.

Getting By

In my lifetime, there have been several outbreaks of "deadly diseases." But they always felt so distant. Australia was always safe enough from these things and nobody really worried about it over here. We have good healthcare available and a decent system for dealing with these things.

But a few weeks ago COVID-19 really started to affect Australia. In our local town, the feeling of panic amongst the community was intense. Everyone was in a hurry. People were stockpiling groceries like the world is going to end. A woman came into Mitre 10 in a rush as I was buying some clips for dog leads, looking around in a harried manner. When asked by a staff member if she needed help, she asked if they sold toilet paper. We have three big supermarkets in our town and apparently, they've all sold out. She was told that while Mitre 10 did have toilet paper usually, they'd also sold out earlier in the day. She walked out of the store with an increasing air of panic.

"We probably won't be able to contain this virus," said our health officials last month, "Everyone is at risk." They also told us not to panic but those words came too late and were easily overshadowed by the dire warning that came before. People are afraid and the media is loving it. "Deadly." "Death toll climbing." The whole country panicked. People ran to the shops and brought everything in bulk, leaving very little for the rest of us.

Fast forward to this week. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, bringing a fresh wave of fear to the country when it seemed like things were starting to calm down. Now, the Australian government is limiting how many people can meet up at a time. Events are being canceled. The recommendation to have two weeks of supplies on hand is impossible for us to follow. Without an income (besides the tiny amount we get from the government a fortnight), we are severely limited in how much we can buy at a time. And what's left on the shelves now is the more expensive products, which makes it even harder.

We're being careful, of course, but I'm not scared of getting sick. I'm scared that we won't have enough food to get through if this situation gets worse or if we did get sick. It's a tough time to be broke.

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In other news.

Our calves were going to be transported at the end of last month, but then the guy who was going to move them changed his mind because some of them have horns. He was worried about his truck getting damaged, which is fair enough but still annoying. Someone paid in advance for a month's worth of feed for the calves so we didn't have to worry about that, although we're halfway through that feed now and there's still no sign of our situation improving.

Someone gave us enough money to get a new generator, so I am able to keep sewing dog gear. We went to the local markets last weekend and sat there for five hours, and I sold absolutely nothing. A disappointing day.

 Skuggi hurt his foot so we weren't able to go to the agility trial at the beginning of the month. He's healed now though so we're planning to go to one next Saturday. Although at this point, I'm not sure if the trial will still go ahead.

We keep applying for jobs, but potential employers continue to muck us around (if they even respond to us at all) and then give the job to someone else. Nobody seems to understand how desperate we are. I'm so fed up with it.

So I think that's everything I needed to update you on. Life has taken on a bit of surreal feeling in the past few days. We live in very interesting times.