Quarantine Log, June 14 - June 20

Sunday, June 14

Bill helped me with the garden fence.  We put the deer string around the top.  It needs to be a barrier about 6 ft high.  The string is more a visual barrier than physical, but it seems to do the trick.  The rest of the day was quiet and peaceful as Sunday should be.

My new FitBit was delivered mid-day, so I got it set up and going.  I am always excited to have a new tech toy. I can now easily read the time and other data.  The new one has GPS and tracks my flights climbed, so it is a big improvement over the old one.

Nationally, we have seen continued peaceful protests and increased incidence of COVID in the south and west, including locally.  Just heard someone say that this election cycle is about the 3 E's - Epidemiology, Equality and Economy.  Rings true!

Numbers:
NY Times - 10:30 am
Global: 7,788,500 cases; 430,216 deaths
US: 2,086,958 cases; 115,472 deaths
TN: 29,683 cases; 465 deaths; 601,161 tested; cases +415
LoCo: 196 cases; 167 recovered; 3171 tested
          6.1% pos rate; 5.9% tested

In five days, LoCo has increased by 26 cases, but active cases have remained steady at around 25.


Monday, June 15

We started the day with a walk up the hill and past the Brocks.  New FitBit said it is 1.7 miles, same as our usual Melton Hill route, but it doesn't seem as far.  It is one long hill instead of up and down.  FitBit said it was 14 flights of steps (10 ft vertical/flight).

In the afternoon I worked on masks and started some bread to be finished tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 16

This morning I delivered about 20 masks to the church.  I am now making them in small, medium and large sizes.

Today, I used the last page in my hand-written book, so I'm looking for a new book.  Since people are out more, there is less of a "feel" of quarantine.  I'm also finding the daily discipline more difficult to maintain now that the weather is better.  It is often hot in the afternoon, so I'm more inclined to do some activity outside in the morning and put of quiet activities, like writing, until the afternoon (or not get to them at all).  I will maintain my "Q-log" through June and then reassess.

Numbers:
TN Dept of Health, 3:15 pm: 31,830 cases; 493 deaths; 639,722 tested.  The state is now at 10% tested with a little more than 5% pos rate.
LoCo: 210 cases


Wednesday, June 17

At 10 am we set off on another adventure, this time to Lake Tansi near Crossville for 2 nights.  We hope to go to Fall Creek Falls for a hike on Thursday since it is a short drive from Lake Tansi.  Starting mileage 96,708.  We arrived at Lake Tansi (60 miles exactly) before lunch so we had time for a visit with Laura and the girls before they left for home.  The rest of the day we did very little.  Late in the afternoon, we walked around the little Lake Hiawatha, really a settling pond.  Dinner was take-out from the restaurant almost next door.

LoCo count today was 214.

Lake Hiawatha (big pond)

Thursday, June 18

Lake Tansi is in the Central Time Zone, so we woke up early local time.  We were on our way to Fall Creek Falls by 9 am local time.  The drive took abiyt an hour.  Our first priority was to hike to the base of the Falls. The trail down is less than 1/2 mile, but vertical drop is more than 250 feet.  The height of the Falls itself is 256 ft., the highest free-fall waterfall east of the Mississippi River.  The water flow was very low.  It may be the least we have ever seen.  The water flow is controlled from the lake.  It took us about 30 minutes to get down.  We enjoyed the cool and the view for a little while before starting back up, about 40 minutes up.  Fortunately, it was a cool day, so I made it with no problems.

We enjoyed our picnic at the Nature Center.  Behind the Nature Center, the Cane Creek Cascade was also carrying very little water, just a trickle over the Falls there.  The Swinging bridge is out and being rebuilt.

Overlooking Cane Creek Falls behind Nature Center

Swinging Bridge has been removed to be rebuilt

Cane Creek Cascade

Fall Creek gorge

We are near the bottom, resting on a huge boulder

Proof!  My new hiking shirt: Left Foot, Right Foot, Breather - Pat Summitt

Just a trickle of water coming over the Falls behind Bill

The trail is steep, but so beautiful

My favorite view.  You can barely see the water today.

Friday, June 19

Happy Birthday, Bill! 74 today.  Juneteenth is being celebrated this year as never before. BLM movement, protests and Trump's crazy tweets have brought much needed attention to the "Black 4th of July"

We made it back home before lunch.  We followed through with our plan to get ribs from "Taste of Texas" in Loudon for the birthday supper.  Very Good and enough to eat again.

Today there are 226 cases in Loudon County, with 41 active.  The number of new cases is not diminishing. Lots of places around the state and country are reporting daily record high of new cases all this week.  TN had 1188 new cases today! Knox Co is up to 604 and Sevier has jumped to 387 since reopening.

Saturday, June 20

Nothing much going on this Saturday.  First green beans will be ready to pick tomorrow or Monday.  First squash picked today along with some Swiss Chard.

Bee Balm with Bumble Bee