Quarantine and Farm Life

So like almost all of the rest of the country, we here at St. Alban’s farm are practicing social/spacial distancing along with self quarantine by staying at home as much as possible. For us this has not been as disruptive as for many other people. We already home schooled, so besides some activities being canceled, it has not changed much for my wife and girls. As a retired Veteran/small time farmer I already spent most of my days alone on the farm and even with a pandemic, farm work keeps going on. The list of chores and projects just keeps growing and you just have to keep working. The animals don’t know that it seems so much of the world has come to a screaming halt…they just scream from their feed and for some attention.

My biggest concern at this point as a farmer is what happens if the feed stores shut down. For farmers, feed stores are just as important as grocery stores are for the rest of the country.

Probably the biggest impact for us so far as been the shut down of our church. Fortunately, as an ordained priest, I am still able to celebrate the Eucharist here at home for my family. Even with that though, it is not the same as being together with our church family. As Father Chip, our rector, put it “This has been the most lenten Lent ever. I mean giving up chocolate, big deal. Now so many of us have been forced to give up just about everything that made up our daily lives.” So we look forward to celebrating the breaking of this enforced fast…whenever that may come.

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