Daev and Lynn’s plan for “Socially Distanced Entertaining” or
Low risk, high fun gatherings for drinks, movies, maybe food in the era of CV-19.
Revised for “fully vaccinated” gatherings in 2021.
The space
Add pics of tents, tables, and firepit
Food and drink
Yes, let’s have some!
Communal cooking
– We can supply a burner at each table idea to cook right there. I have installed two 20 amp circuits for induction surfaces with a cast iron skillet.
– We also have a pair of propane “Burton” burners.
– I can also fire up the camp stove grill. Note it is safely distanced from the socializing area.
Hand washing
As of 2020.07.24, I’ve installed an outdoor hand washing sink by the backyard patio.
It even has warm water! Cool, eh?
Paper towels and a touchless soap dispenser complete this picture, new pic soon!.
Climate
We’re in the Banana Belt, but this is Santa Cruz; that late afternoon breeze can feel brisk! Bring layers or a jacket.
Inside restroom access
We have two bathrooms for guests to use.
One has a ceiling vent, both have windows. It turns out HEPA filters indeed catch CV-19 particle sized well, so HEPA filters have been added too.
We don’t have touchless water fixtures, but the soap dispensers are touchless.
This part is out of date. This is saved here for historical reference.
Still true as of 2021.03.21
As of 2020.08.18, the biggest pandemic risk factors seem to be:
- Face to face w/o masks.
*Wear masks whenever possible. - Enclosed spaces.
*Outdoors is generally safer, due to airflow and dispersion. - People closely packed together.
*Spread out, a couple of meters greatly decreases droplet and aerosol density. - Time near other people.
*Covid has a critical viral load threshold, i.e. less time near others decreases the viral load transfer.
This means masks, outdoors, people spaced a couple of meters apart and lots of air flow is much safer overall.
Observe communal touch surfaces are proving to be less risky, but compulsive hand washing is not considered a fetish. 🙂
For the people part of the equation, we’ll wear masks unless everyone within a couple meters is fully vaccinated.
Also, please wear masks when approaching the communal drink pouring and food stations.
For the outdoors, the key risks are lack of distance/space, poor air circulation, and lesser risk common touch surfaces.
As of 2021 March-ish, vaccinations are becoming readily available. Yay!
If you are fully vaccinated (ie 2 weeks post last injection) great!
But please note:
– Being fully vaccinated just means you’re very unlikely to get a bad case and wind up in the hospital.
– It has yet to be proven how much vaccination reduces the chances of *you* infecting *others*. I.e you can be asymptomatic ands still be a danger to others.
– Please understand being fully vaccinated is not a license to abandon masks and social distancing in general, not until a large majority of the world’s population is also vaccinated and protected.
Here are our risk reduction strategies.
Addressing Distance and Space:
We’re setting up our back yard to have 3 or so well spaced 2-4 people groups (cohabitating people pods) to sit and socialize from. Distances between groups are a couple meters or more.
We have a side gate and sidewalk to get to the back yard w/o going thru the house.
On occasion, we may use the fire pit (not in following pic, located to far left). Two couples can sit about six feet apart, plus the flame will be going up between them. Let us know if you are uncomfortable with doing that.
Movie watching will be implemented with a projector, the pull down screen is back by the blue tarp.
Addressing Air flow:
Next, we’re strategically placing fans to create “air curtains” to reduce the risk of aerosol and droplet cross contamination. The prevailing wind was also considered.
(In the photo above it’s typically left to right / west to east) .
Addressing Common Surfaces:
We will sanitize each group setting (tables, chairs) before use, and we’ll use an intermediate surface to exchange items and food as needed.
Food and drink:
For those uncomfortable with being “barefaced” to socialize, we have “disposable” face shields available. The face shield sits far enough away from your face to sip a straw under and to nibble finger foods as well.
With mask precautions we can host safely enough to serve wine and cocktails by pouring into glasses on an intermediate surface. Then once we retreat, you can retrieve your glasses. We have some plastic tumblers that are easy to sanitize, or guest can provide their own.
Food and drink sharing.
– Munchies and finger food can be brought by each guest group, or we can serve prewrapped snacks.
– Take out food orders seem safe enough, we can socialize while munching.
– CV-19 doesn’t remain viable with cooking heat or a burst in the microwave. We’ve done some communal food prep (wearing masks) and then cooking it to share following restaurant protocols.
Communal cooking:
– We can supply a burner at each table idea to cook right there. I have installed two 20 amp circuits for induction surfaces with a cast iron skillet.
– We also have a pair of propane “Burton” burners.
– I can also fire up the camp stove grill. Note it is safely distanced from the socializing area.
Guests are welcome to bring their own dishes, napkins, etc. and pack them out, that does prevent most common touch surfaces. Otherwise we have plenty of dishes and cutlery to share, which we run through our dishwasher on the sanitize setting.
Last Updated on 2021-06-02 by Daev Roehr