I don’t have a lot to say about running right now. While I’m so grateful to have running as an outlet to relieve stress and as a way to get out of the house, I’ve been spending most of my time frantically gathering up new hobbies quicker than I can manage to keep myself distracted from the pandemic. So, given it’s my turn to write some words as a Board Member, I thought I’d share some of those with you now.

New Quarantine Hobby #1: Chickens
We live on about 4.5 acres which is just enough space to play farmer and so this year we’re adding chicks to the “farm” which currently has two beehives, two sheep and a handful of garden beds, and a dog afraid of all of the above. The chicks arrive in May and in the meantime I’m gathering up supplies, researching coop designs, and asking myself daily if eight chicks will be enough…

New Quarantine Hobby #2: Sewing Clothes
I really like to make things myself and I’ve been meaning to make myself some new pants for a while. I have ordered at least four sewing patterns since This began, and enough fabric to sew a pair of each. While I was at it, I cracked open a book I got for Christmas on…

New Quarantine Hobby #3: Quilting
Well, I had the book, so might as well? They look so cozy and pretty, and I found someone on the internet making them all sorts of colors with dyes she created from plants foraged from her land which leads me to…

New Quarantine Hobby #4: Natural Dyeing
This is the art of extracting color from plants and minerals and getting them permanently color fiber. Since I already had the undyed cotton fabric for the quilts, might as well also experiment with some linens and wool. And maybe knit a multi-colored sweater knit from all my experiments. But wouldn’t it be really awesome to have some “farm”-grown indigo blue jeans…

New Quarantine Hobby #5: Growing Dye Plants
Yep, indigo seeds in the mail along with about 10 other dye plants. Some of them need to get a head start on our short growing window so let me go ahead and also get into…

New Quarantine Hobby #6: Starting Seeds Inside
Thankfully Garderners’ Supply has curbside pickup. I’ll get a start on my veggies while I’m at it.

And the list goes on. I’ve been baking cookies out of foraged pine needles from trees we cleared to make room for even more garden beds. I learned how to make bagels from scratch. I have a running prioritised list of what I want to watch on Netflix, HBO, etc just in case nothing jumps out at me when I settle into screen time on the couch. I’m halfway through reading War and Peace and I seem to add another book to the to-read pile everyday. Oh, and as someone who always works on the Internet from home, I still have my normal work to do.

Now I wonder while I feel so frantic and stressed out? For that, the cure is running (and dancing around in my kitchen while I’m waiting on my homemade broth to reduce). Hope everyone is finding their own ways to make it through this chaotic time. And if anyone wants to talk about any of the non-running hobbies I mentioned above, feel free to reach out — akievet@gmail.com.