Residents coping with stay-at-home order

Lake County residents are taking Gov. Steve Bullock’s “stay at home” directive seriously to avoid contracting or spreading the dreaded coronavirus.

But not too seriously. There is still fun to be had, learning to be learned, work to be accomplished.

Cristen Two Teeth, who oversees grants to help reduce youth substance abuse at CSKT Tribal Health, has been able to work from home outside Ronan. Sounds nice and convenient, until you realize she also has five kids home from school.

Working from home is not too bad, Cristen said, though the lack of social contact means that to reach people dealing with substance abuse.

“I’ll have to get more creative to meet our goals,” she said.

She said that besides keeping everyone from snacking all day, one of the biggest challenges has been figuring out how to meet all her kids’ online school requirements, from Ronan Elementary through college at SKC, with “spotty” wireless internet and one computer. They recently augmented their device cache with two Chromebooks checked out from Ronan Schools, and the kids are picking up paper assignments from school. One middle school child was leading a cooking class at Glacier Lake School and is working with her dad to offer it online to her fellow students. She attends a weekly ZOOM meeting to keep in touch with schoolmates.

Cristen is conscious of the need to keep things upbeat.

“Kids get just as worried as adults about what’s going on right now. It’s an interesting time,” she said.

teeming with color

Greenhouses are bursting with beauty and tasty greens, ready to fill the valley’s yards and gardens as soon as the weather warms. Owners are cognizant of the need to protect the public and their staff from viral infection, but are looking to open to the public toward the end of April.

Coronavirus “hasn’t changed our way of operating yet,” said Kathy Shore of South Shore Greenhouse in Polson. “We’re planting just as if there’s a tomorrow. We will do whatever we need to do to get plants to people.”

She said they will have lots of organic lettuce and greens soon, and recommends people grow them in flower pots until flower season.

Cheri Gerlach of Mission View Greenhouse said, “We are totally full — we’ve been growing since February.” She said people who know what they want may be able to come in in a week or two and pick up starts, but for now weather is too cold.

“Get your ideas in mind before you come,” she advised, rather than coming in just to look around, so as to maintain social distancing and not get crowded.

Safe at home

Many area residents report enjoying some extra time at home. One gentleman, a federal government employee who is working from home, said his dog is enjoying taking him for more walks.

Perhaps the virus shutdown is hearkening to simpler, less busy time, and allowing folks a chance to see what their creativity comes up with when life slows enough to allow one to be bored. Several Polson folks responded to the Leader’s question about how quarantine is affecting their lives. Some are writing letters to old friends, taking online classes, hiking, riding horses, finishing taxes and other chores.

Arlene Ackermann said she is getting a chance to deeply clean her kitchen, and work on jewelry crafting, finding creative ways to pass on her grandmother’s jewelry to her granddaughter.

Polson’s Rose Tomasik is sewing, painting and watching the “Sinbad” series after work at a bank.

Jo Daniels, who always starts spring with a two-page jobs list, thinks she might get through a few more of them than some years. She is currently pruning 116 fruit trees and planting seeds. Like so many others, she says she and her husband Ken feel safe from the virus tending to their rural Montana place, but they have kids who are still working in vulnerable jobs in places such as Richland, Washington where the virus rages.

What is evident is an effort to support each other in the community and take isolating ourselves seriously to help prevent overload on our cherished health care systems. The virus is here, and it will spread, but with kindness and all of us learning to wash our hands and stand back just a bit, we are taking care of each other.