Easter Dinner.

I had a ham in the freezer from Christmas and made from scratch "funeral potatoes" for our dinner yesterday.  Tasty!

Skyler's plate.  He cut up his ham all on his own.  His vegetable was carrots, ours was green beans.

Yay for Saturdays!

Skyler got to see Grandpa again!

They opened up the garage since it was so nice out.  Pretty impressive looking at the layout from the driveway!

FaceTime with Abby.

Skyler got to talk to his friend Abby on Thursday using FaceTime.  They both seemed happy to have some outside interaction even if it was only for 15 minutes.

Ipad and a cat.  Life is complete.

Topaz, the return trip.

A lunch stop by the railroad tracks to cheer him up.  He was disappointed that we didn't make it to Topaz Mountain to look for rocks.

Looking north on the Lyndyl sub.

Sitting on the tailgate while he at his sandwich.  It was SO windy!

Southern view.  No trains were spotted.  :(

He wanted to stop in the town of Eureka on the way home to check out some mining remnants.  This is the foundation where the electric motors and gear case were that ran the hoist to the mine.

Hoist frame built in 1890.  Shaft is 3,000 feet deep!

Topaz Internment Camp part 3.

 We had initially planned to head to Topaz Mountain after visiting the camp but 66 miles of gravel road changed my mind.  I didn't need to rock-blast my pickup.

Glass was everywhere.  Presumably, window glass?

Barrel staves.

Wide open!

Using Mommy's phone to take a picture of what appears to be lava.

Window screen.  Kind of sobering to see.  Think of the interned people looking through this screen.

The last of our adventure tomorrow.

Topaz Internment Camp part 2.

Lots of interesting artifacts to see.

Stove?


Where one of 3 elementary schools once was.


Coal.  There were numerous remnants of coal piles everywhere.  I can't imagine how cold it would have been in the winter here.


Look at the yellow brick well!


Appears to be a remnant of the sewer system.  There was a brick pipe running south at the bottom.


A flyswatter handle.

Part 3 tomorrow...

Topaz Internment Camp part 1.

We made the drive down south Sunday.  It was a real eye opener and makes our current lockdown situation seem pale in comparison.

Geriatric dog came along.  She panted the entire day!


It was SO windy Skyler took shelter in the bed of the truck.


Names of people that died while interned. :(


It took until 2007 to designate it as a National Historic Landmark!?


Some facts about the camp.  It boggles my mind that this could ever happen.

More tomorrow...

Finally!!

Skyler finally got to see Grandpa and play model trains on Saturday.  They both practiced safe social distancing and wore masks.

Look at that layout!!

Grandpa even modeled his house!  Complete with him operating a lawnmower!

And Skyler's tree swing out back.  Well done!

Make your own compass!

Using only a needle that has been magnetized, a paper arrow, and a glass of water.

Daily call to Grandpa.

Not knowing how long any of this isolation shit will last, we're being extra careful and avoiding anyone other than our direct family here.  This sadly means, not seeing Grandpa since he's technically in the "at risk" category due to his age.  Grandpa is in excellent shape & I'm not too worried.  Nevertheless, better safe than sorry so we call him every day to talk.  Skyler really looks forward to talking to him and telling him what he's been up to.

This was Wednesday afternoon.  Just a boy and his cat.  Our garden for this year is the tray on the right.  :)

Junior engineering.

Skyler has continued to work on his cardboard locomotive the past few weeks.  He put the finishing touches on it yesterday.

Windshield wipers from bamboo skewers.  Note the exhaust and horn on the roof.


He even engineered the sliding door!  There are numerous LED lights inside and a flashlight mounted for the headlight.

Gawd...

Another earthquake last night in Idaho.  Just get it over with already!

Typing!

Skyler has been wanting to learn how to type for a while now.  One good thing about quarantine?  His school has sent out a website for kids to learn how to type!

Lesson 1 completed!  ASDF JKL;

Online.

Skyler's school has sent out a healthy amount of online learning options.  Brainpop.com is one of his favorites.  On Friday, he was learning about the Covid19 outbreak all on his own.

Melt your heart!

Let's build a locomotive!

Using anything and everything he can find in the house during quarantine!

This started last weekend, his "control stand."

After working on it all day yesterday, we have this!

Complete with the control stand inside.

He now moved it into the basement and is constructing the cab sides.  Stay tuned.

All by himself.

Skyler walked down to Whitney's house to do some schoolwork yesterday before we got the "stay safe, stay home" order from the Governor.  So much for that plan, guess it's just the 3 of us stuck here in the house the next 17 days.

Carrying his books headed South.  The ominous sky doesn't help our current situation.

New normal?

We walked down and got to see Grandpa briefly yesterday afternoon.  On our way home, we saw this at the park.

Sad.

Run!

To try and get the TRAX train to honk!

He didn't make it in time. :(

Science time.

Skyler took advantage of science time yesterday and used his microscope to compare a cat hair, dog hair, and a whisker that Eddy had shed.

We prepared the slides together using a drop of water to adhere the top film to the glass.  He was pretty thrilled  to do so.

More new normal.

Aftershocks continue.  Our 72 hour bags are by the front door.  Homeschooling all day sucks.

Let's hope these remain unused.