It has been an interesting week as my fellow Canadians have been in pseudo lockdown and things are showing signs of getting back to normal with the COVID-19 curve flattening. The kids are stuck at home with me and there are no social gatherings (which I live for) but everything is otherwise not too different for me as an entrepreneur working from home and making my own schedule.

I have helped @town-crier with some stories as we dive into community volunteer work and wonderful organic, local brand recognition and ask that you follow that account for more stories and business on the blockchain.

It is a bit weird, but here is your Zeke Peek.

When a package arrives in my mailbox, and it is adorned by a Nicolas Cage with a creepy moustache, you know it is going to be a good week. My original STEEM partner @evileddy is finding his way back to the blockchain and his new home on Hive. I can't go into the goodies in the box (though completely legal and awesome!) but suffice to say that a care package from afar is such a unique and personal connection with a guy I love like a brother.

One thing in the package may catch the attention of my fellow computer geeks. I know quite a few tinkerers (@parabyte, @sequentialvibe, and many others) and they all seem to love to play with Raspberry Pi contraptions. I am a geek but have to focus on my side of the business so we can make progress! So, this PiHole is numbering nicely and essentially blocking unwanted browser traffic protecting a bit of my privacy and optimizing internet bandwidth by filtering unwanted content.

Kinda cool to have a personal IT department nice enough to help me improve my network!

I will keep the awesome segways going by recalling another @evileddy ism, "2 things I don't scrimp on are toilet paper, and coffee." I let my better half buy the toilet paper (shortage was very temporary in these parts) but I am in charge of the coffee. I buy it from a local roastery called To Bean or Not to Bean (Shakespeare reference!) https://stratfordcoffee.com/ The first reason is the coffee is GREAT and is a perfect start to my day. The second is that it is run by a nice family and supporting local business is a passion of mine. The third is the collaboration with the community and this roast which is a partnership with local musician Ron Sexsmith https://www.ronsexsmith.com/ and his new album Hermitage https://rsexsmith.lnk.to/Hermitage

Win all around and I prefer to mix the dark roast (bold) with the medium roast (caffeine) for the perfect fresh cup.

Morning and evening beverages have been fueling me to jump into community action with @town-crier. It all started with a partnership to promote a local Beer Festival, then came a pandemic, and it continued into volunteering to help the community. We have worked with dozens of companies, restaurants and front line workers to unify and have fun flattening the curve. This week, we fed the hard working fire fighters at both fire stations https://www.towncriermarketing.ca/post/feed-your-fire-fighters and @town-crier is spreading the good word on Hive @town-crier/supporting-our-fire-fighters in the name of @leofinance.

The weather finally improved just in time for some garden work. Knowing we will be spending a good amount of time at home this summer, I splurged on 2 yards of garden soil, compost and mulch, and built the next raised garden box. Tomatoes, cucumbers and beans/peas will dominate the biggest one. Hopefully the asparagus will be big enough to eat this year!

The second box will again be the pepper box with chili, habanero, jalapeno, ghost, sweet, and a new addition this year, Dragon Roll peppers.

The newest box has a big row of Strawberries, and a couple rows of different kinds of carrots. If I can manage to keep the critters out, it will be a huge accomplishment made with Chicken Wire!

These babies are called Lupins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupinus and were planted last summer. @lynds is the east coast Lupins Whisperer and had been advising us before the STEEM thing happened. I have reconnected with her and have been informed that these should produce those nice big flowers this, their second year. I will make sure to blog about the garden and keep @lynds apprised of our progress ;) These ones were grown from seeds and I have purchased an additional seedling to plant in another flowerbed. Here's to lupins!

Another addition to the garden this year is our second stab at blue berries. I had a plant or 2 a couple years ago but they didn't really catch on and disappeared. This year, I made sure to buy 5 (so that they can pollinate) and have planted them in the flowerbed across the yard from all the other madness. I am hoping we can keep these ones alive and happy so hat we can have more berries in the yard in a couple years.

Getting the garden built, earthed and planted is hard work! Hard work calls for some beer and I am the Blockchain Beerologist so you know what I did! A nice IPA in a newly designed can from Goose Island was the perfect hydration for gardening.

I have heard tales of some countries forcing breweries to close as they are non essential and cannot understand the wisdom in that! Hopefully people are home brewing more!

I also like to support local and did I mention gardening is hard work? That calls for a nice local hazy IPA after the long day was done, fruits and veggies were planted, and it was time to slip into the hot tub! Mind The Stairs packs a tasty punch with the alcohol level of an imperial IPA but the awesome smoothness of a regular hazy IPA. You will notice that it is not very hazy either and the brewer told me that it settled so much they almost considered changing the label to get rid of the mention of hazy.

Either way it was delicious and a perfect end to the week.

That wraps it up for this week. I am working on keeping busy and hoping that the public doesn't rush into getting back to normal and forget the safety protocols still needed to contain this virus. School is cancelled and summer plans are in limbo so lets do the best we can to leverage the freedom that comes with distancing.

Stay safe and happy!

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How does the lock-down look in your neck of the woods? Link me your weekly update!