The ongoing saga or insanity of my family, writing, living post stroke, and the world in general...I'd spend all my time writing if LIFE didn't get in the way.
Thia year we broke apart the pallet elevated raised bed planter boxes. They were honestly falling apart. Mel only put two screws on each side. We plan on moving them to a new location too.
My perennial herbs, such as oregano, sage, and thyme, will be thinned and transplanted. The oregano is one solid root mat and the six plants I planted three years ago is now about forty plants. While the four sage plants are still only four, they are 3' high and about that wide also. Everything is so cramped so transplanting them is a good thing. They'll be healthier and happy after the transplanting in the revamped pallet elevated raised beds.
We are trying something new in the garden this year...wicking pots.
These are 3-5 gallon buckets. This is Mel's experimental garden for this year, She is hoping to cut out weeding all together, Meanwhile, I hand weeded the rest of the garden for a neighbor to till under for us. I still haven't figured out a safe way for me to operate my tiller yet one-handed. With four motorized, sharp steel tines in motion, it sort of ups the ante safety wise. The weeds you see in the short video are wild violets, plantains, and strawberries. I pulled the rest.
The chickens and bunnies have enjoyed the fruits of my labor. They also make tasty additions to our nightly salads too. And to think, most people just toss them away into the trash or compost bin as weeds. Such a waste. Waste not, want not. It's free food. But hand weeding a garden plot is precarious after a stroke. I pull or dig out the plants by the roots. Some weeds are deeply rooted and take some hard tugging to remove them. Enter my converted toy box on wheels. I love my DIY project! If my hinny is planted firmly, I won't throw my balance off. Of course, it means standing up and rolling it a bunch of times, but it's better than falling and I get the job done.
I adapted my rows for in ground vegetable planting along the Square Foot gardening method with companion planting and the Three Sisters gardening method. Only two rows are 26' long for tomatoes and the three sisters. All the rest are blocks no longer than 8' long and 4' wide. This way the garden is easier to tend and harvest. My walkway paths are 3'-4' wide. I grow vertically when I can. We pound T-posts into the ground and space them 4' to 6' apart along the rows. Then we attach wire fencing to the T-posts. The vegetables are supported and can climb up the fencing. It makes for better control over sprawling plants and easier harvesting for me. The less stooping or bending over is better for balance...plus the fencing gives me a way to regain my balance easier so I don't fall.
So there you have it, my weeding and vegetable strategies for my adaptive and nonadaptive garden for living post stroke. It takes a lot of hard work for a weed free garden and make it adaptive so I can grow it, but the taste of a sun ripened tomato over the gassed grocery store tomato is worth it.
On a sadder note, a rabbit I'd had before my husband died went to join him in heaven two days ago. Buddy Baby will be sorely missed for the smiles she gave me for the last six years.
I'll never forget her antics of tossing things around because they weren't to her liking especially when I cleaned her cage and didn't put things back exactly where they should be. She had a way of communicating her needs to me by showing me what she wanted. The ways she found to be on my husband's hospital bed even in it's highest position just to be cuddled and snuggled by him. Or, just lay beside him while both of them napped. How she used to play hide and seek, peek-a-boo by throwing her flannel blanket over her head and peer out from an edge, and tag with me always brought giggles and smile no matter how down in the dumps or busy I was. She was my little buddy and now, will be forever. RIP Buddy Baby.
Well, after spending three hours at Hanger yesterday, I came home with my new new AFO. Instead of being that clearish white tone it's almost beige except for the straps. Instead of five straps it only has three. As you can see, my foot is in perfect alignment. It's actually more comfortable than my old one.
I'm still in a new "breaking in" period so I'm wearing it for two hours a day for the next week, and then three, etc. The foot strap that controls the spasticity in my toes is the reason I can't leave it inside my shoes like other AFO wearers.
Today, for my two hours of wear, I'm going to put it through it's paces. I've got to harvest the wheat grass from our straw bale gardens, pick clover, dandelions, and succulent grasses (weeds) for the rabbits and feed it to them. Yesterday we hung the fans so they would be more comfortable. The daytime temperatures are almost 80.
I've also got 40 tomato plants (32 Roma, 4 Cherokee black, and 4 beefsteak) to plant. It may have to wait until tomorrow's allotted time for the brace. We do love our tomato products. I've also got some herb plants to get out of our growing porch. Next seeds to start are my watermelons, okra, and oriental eggplant. I found some turmeric, ginger, and horseradish roots to plant into pots. It just gets too cold here to over winter them in the garden. The English peas and the bush green beans are already showing green leaves. It's springtime and our busy time.
I hope the new new AFO works like it's suppose to. If not it's another appointment with Hanger. But it may be a moot point because I have an appointment with the neurosurgeon before then. I'll let you know how it goes.
Ugh! That's a dirty word, isn't it? Does anyone really like exercising? I mean besides an anorexic? Sure you enjoy the endorphins release, doesn't everyone like the high? But PT exercises are so boring after a stroke! It's the same thing over and over again.
You might have really pushed yourself just after your stroke. Maybe even for a month or two, but for five years! Honest. A show of hands. How many of you long term, living post stroke are still doing your PT exercises once or twice a day? Weren't you told to do them? I'll admit to not doing them every day. It's more like three times a week, but I also do other things to compensate for the exercises.
Exercising more ranks right up there with losing weight as a New Years resolution, but it's April. But that's besides the point. The range of motion exercises you were given right after your stroke is just as important today as it was when you first had your stroke.
Muscle memory
If you let these exercises slide your muscles will forget how to function. As I said last week, if God says I'm healed, it would be mighty sad if I have let my muscle tone decrease to the point where it didn't make a difference.
New Brain Pathways
By the same token, what if I didn't make my brain try to reroute around the damaged part to make my muscles work? It would always be a very sad day. They are still forming.
Okay, so I've told you why I continue to exercise my paralyzed side. Let me tell you some alternatives to the standard exercises.
Go outside! The same four walls close in on you. Roll or walk yourself out on the porch or driveway. Enjoy the sun and breeze hitting your face. Me, if I went out on the porch, I'd be shooing chickens away, but that's an exercise too. I move my affected arm by the shoulder and stretch my elbow as far as I can. But still this simple action exercises my elbow and shoulder.
I feed our rabbits and chicken twice a day. Their feed is kept in large outdoor trash cans. I will bend my knees, scoop the feed, and use my gluts to stand. Not quite deep knee bends, but it works my gluts and hamstrings. My right hamstring is partially paralyzed. It also works my lower back muscles. The garden is also my workout area. Not all my garden beds are elevated.
We've got me baby chicken on our homestead. I keep my balance and hold each one daily. In case you didn't know, chicks get pasty butts and have to be checked and cleaned or they could die. The brooder box, where they live, is 3x4. They are quick and don't like to be handled. Catching each one with only one hand is an effort of sheer will. They are just getting their wing feathers at a week old and trying to fly.
Speaking of gardening. There is a lot of lifting, bending, balancing, and negotiating in planting, caring, and harvesting a garden. You can get a pretty good work out doing this. I am constantly shifting my weight between legs, using both of my arms to carry flats of plants from the greenhouse to the garden. I may be lopsided when I lower the plants but they don't care. I'm tucking them into their forever home. Shoveling and raking manure is nobody's idea of a joyful task, but for an organic garden, it's essential. Every six months we are raking rabbit manure from under their outdoor hutches to put in the garden each spring. The rabbitry has a poo removal system that has us toting 5 gallon buckets of waste every month to the compost pile.
Currently, the five adult chickens are roosting on the front porch rail at night. There is a pile that has to be scrapped and moved to the compost bin every month. Then, there is the straw in the little chick brooder. They eat and poop a lot. This is swept into the wheel barrow for Mel to take to the compost heap also. This manure won't be used until the next spring. Our current wheel barrow takes two hands. This will change this month when I purchase a one handed job like pictured. I won't be left out on all the fun. It will only set me back $129.
Did I mention that I'm closing on my house on the 7th? Well, I am. My Brunswick house is sold. That's how I can afford it. Yippee! But I digress.
There is still a lot around the homestead to do. Plenty for Mel, our wwoofer and son to do. In the coming months trees will be felled, and cut into firewood. I'm not exempt from stacking it in the wood shed. I'll be gathering tinder, broken branches and sticks for next winter. The work never stops. All of it requires bending stretching and using my muscles until I'm spent with exhaustion, but that's a good thing. I'm getting a work out. I'm using my muscles.
So doing the exercises on those sheets by PT, oh so many years ago, is almost passe. Yes, I still have a folder with those exercises in it. I'll pull it out every so often to check and see what I haven't done in another way. Why do I do it still? For the two reasons given above; muscle memory and new brain pathways.
Yep you guessed it. The blog today is on physical exercise after a stroke. Yeah, right! Sure it is. I hear you. "A couple of weeks ago ago, you said you don't exercise."
I
might have given up my gym membership back in the dark ages when
dinosaurs roamed the earth, (er, um, 1984) but that doesn't mean I don't
do physical exercises.
I do own a stationary air cycle and one of those
ritzy NordicTrack, all-in-one,
FreeStride Trainer. It was an impulse buy before my stroke. Now this
equipment is getting a good dusting before I use them again. After all,
with the decubitus on my foot this past twelve months, it's been kind of
hard to stand let alone exercise with them. I'll be using them again
soon now that they aren't an issue anymore. (Yahhh! Whoppie!) I've kind of been looking forward to it. I may not be able to work out as long as I once did, but with time, I should be.
But it's not like I haven't done any physical exercises since my stroke. I've done loads of balancing, lifting, walking, reaching and a host of other exercises in both physical therapy at the hospital and at home, and just the day to day maintenance of my urban homestead. Not to mention, the care of myself and my darling hubby.
I do do all the grocery shopping for the household. I'll place a bag on my spastic arm too. I don't need no stinking, fancy weighted bands. The bags work just fine. I explained in another blog how I lift and carry those 24-pack bottles of water into the house one handed. Bending, lifting, balancing, walking all in one fell swoop just with this one semi monthly task.
And that's just groceries, earlier this month I went searching for new/old shirts for my hubby. For a man, looking good is equaled to feeling good. His old, medium sized shirt were swallowing him. I bought a couple of XS shirts for him at the second hand store. He refuses to wear pajama shirts but wants to wear his normal dress shirts. He wants it, I get it. I searched through the offerings of three second hand stores close to home and brought home my finds. These stores are huge and have aisles upon aisles of clothing racks in varying sizes. I found three in his preferred colors and style. It only took me three hours. My pedometer read over 100,000 steps! Now tell me, I didn't exercise. It's not a fancy one like the FitBit but a manual job where I hit a button for each step I actually take. If it ain't broke, don't replace it.
Every day up until last month, I walked out to the chicken coop and the rabbit pen to feed and water them twice a day. Last month my five-year old hens and my four meat rabbits took the journey to their next stage of their life...into my freezer. The walk is about thirty feet from my back door. I'd clean up their areas...more bending, balancing, lifting, and walking back and forth to the composting station (10 ft).
Oh, there was also screening the rabbit waste because it will fetch a pretty penny from local gardeners as fertilizer. Then shoveling, shimming, and shaking the mesh filled wooden frame. My meat rabbits (when in full production 10 rabbits at a breeding) and Angora put out enough to fertilize my garden for a year monthly. The profits went towards extra feed stuff like dried papaya, black oil sunflower seeds, and cranberries for them (their treats). I won't even go into my fodder feed system now for their regular feed. But for both rabbits and chickens, I spent $68 a year in wheat seed to sprout. That's it besides oyster shells courtesy of my daughter's oyster roasts for the chickens and hay for the rabbits.
There is the garden. Now a raised, raised bed garden. They had to be built first. My
grandson didn't have all the fun doing this. I helped too. More bending, balancing, lifting, and walking.
Mixing in the compost from the composter. I sift mine to get all the uncomposted chunks out. That way my plants get what they need the most. My screen does double duty between the rabbit manure and the compost. More shimming and shaking, and balance training. My contractor son-in-law put a cross bar on my wheel barrow handles so I can operate it one handed. I'll water, weed, and harvest daily, and then process what I harvested. Whether it's cooking it for dinner, freezing it, canning it, or dehydrating it. It's all upper body exercises and strengthening. Standing and balancing, if I don't have my butt parked on a stool at the counter. I'm pretty well tired out from the previous exercises.
But before harvesting I need to start the seeds which means I need a couple five gallon buckets of my potting version of the soil blend I put in my garden beds. I add my organic fish remains fertilizer to moisten the soil. Want to know how to make it? Buy my book, Are You a Survivalist or a Prepper? (Catch that shameless plug?) But before that, I need to make the starting cups. I'll either use egg shells or make ones out of newspaper or waste toilet paper rolls. I don't eat at KFC enough to start all my plants in the Snack and Go cups. Yes, I recycle or repurpose everything. The plastic tray is a repurposed cookie container from the bakery department.
Already time to pluck again
After a stroke if you have fatigue syndrome, like I do, you have to gauge your activity with your energy level. By now, after two years and counting, I pretty much know which activity is the most draining for me and plan my day accordingly. On days when I have hospital based physical and occupational therapies, I will be totally wiped out until after my nap. On those days, it might be a two nap day to make it to bedtime energy wise. So I do the bunny grooming on those days. Buddy is great and loves to be brushed or maybe he just loves the extra treats. He'll let me do anything to him for the most part and lay perfectly still on the towel covered table. But on the nontherapy days that's when I choose to do my heavy duty gardening and cleaning their areas about four times a week.
So to say I'm not exercising is a lie. But now that the garden is still in its Fall/Winter growing stage, the meat rabbits and chickens are gone until Spring, it's time to break out the NordicTrack and air cycle for winter time exercise. Of course I'll be wearing my old, heart rate monitor, as uncomfortable as it is, so I don't stress out my bum ticker. No sense letting the strength I've built up over the Spring and Summer lag because it's cool-ish outside. At least that's the plan.
I can't leave y'all without a blast from the past...
Last year's garden was a make shift of what I had on hand in an attempt to regain a joy and necessity in my life. My allergies were considerably lessened by eating my organically grown vegetables.
I never stop researching. I believe death is the absence of learning and believe you should learn (relearn) one new thing a day. Or at least I try too. I spend hours on the internet in Google, Youtube, Pintrest, and assorted other sites just researching possibilities.
I'm fairly open to new things. I tend to be an innovator and try new things. If it makes my life easier...BONUS!
So after dealing with bread flats, bag gardening, and milk crates last year, I'm trying some new things this year. I've got all my compost and all those bags of organic soil from last year.
This year I'm trying something different. I decided to do vertical and raised-raised bed square foot gardening to see which method is simpler. If I don't try, I won't know. I surfed the web and found the cheap alternative, because finances are extremely tight. Whose aren't, right? .
3x5 pallet raised bed
I hit upon this site. How to make raised bed gardens out of old pallets. You know me...recycle mama and squeeze each dime into a dollar bill. Pallets are free and this keeps them out of the landfills. This particular one my grandson built for me for corn and tall stuff (green peas, tomatoes, okra, black eye peas) that requires a trellis. It's 4x8 feet.
I've got another one that is 1x16 feet to take the place of my Boxwoods out front. My poor Boxwoods were infested with bore worms and had to go. This raised bed stands two feet high but has a slat shelf bottom one foot deep. You gotta love scrap wood! The front bed will hold my Nasturtiums, Pansies, Marigolds and other edible flowers. I still have to bend over to harvest them, but not as far as ground level.
Not mine but close
Now for my shorter vegetables and fruits, I have some raised-raised beds on legs or milk crates. These are also made from pallet lumber. Yeah, I used a good truckload of pallets with this venture. My grandson was a happy camper to have something to build with power tools! He's almost 15 and the more time he can spend outside creating the happier he is. He also gets time with Grandma which doesn't break his heart either. He spent three glorious weekends with us tearing apart, sawing, and drilling to make me four 4x8 and one 1x16 boxes.
On the underside we used scrap lumber as braces, chicken wire for stability, and cardboard boxes courtesy of our neighborhood grocery store. Now eventually the cardboard will decompose but we also added some landscape weed barrier fabric between the cardboard and wire. On these will go my asparagus, carrots, radishes, bush green beans, squashes, strawberries, and herbs etc.
For the upper divisions into one foot squares were mini blind slats that we Gorilla glued and riveted together. They were "trashed" because of assorted kids, remodeling, and pets over the years. We stockpiled them thinking if we ever needed a couple of slats we'd have them...Ah, come on, we are only talking about five sets. I'm not a true hoarder.
One box is exclusively rabbit and chicken friendly weeds, grasses, and seeds that didn't germinate. Every couple of days, I can move the chicken tractor that my grandson is building for me which fits over the top of it. This for when I don't what the rodeo of dogs and cats wrangling chickens and rabbits. Sometimes it is easier to keep them penned when time is of the essence.
I also found something else that peaked my interest...pallet vertical gardens. We planted several of these with lettuces and microgreens (radishes, kale, mustard greens, spinach, etc) This is strictly for salad munching and the rabbits. Needless to say I planted two of these. One for us and the other for the rabbits. We do love our rabbit food in this house. These are leaning against the house in the space between three windows. Our pallets chosen for this venture were 4x6. My grandson had to move a few boards around to get the proper spacings. We just stapled landscape weed barrier cloth to the inside to make sure the soil didn't wash away. I'm also planning on expanding my herd this year to include a breeding trio of Angoras.
Another thing we are trying on the wooden fence is this...
Arugula
When we replaced the roof, we also replaced the gutter system for a rain catch system. The old gutter was screwed to the fence in four foot sections. After a little discussion we staggered the layout on the fences to make it more artistic looking. I also used replaced oxygen tubing to run in between the gutters so as I water the top on it flows down into the others. Wire caps make a great substitute for drip funnels. I did have to buy a few new end caps for this project but most of it was recycling what I had on hand. In two four-foot sections I have strawberries planted since they are perennials.
Yep it's been a busy couple of months for my grandson, but he loves it. All in all, my total cost, besides gas picking up the 16 pallets, was under $50. Here's hoping this new adventure in gardening works out well. Just think. If I hadn't had my stroke, this adventure would not be happening.
Oh, for another recycled gardening tip...
KFC Snack and Go cups make an excellent seed starter. Just remember to punch holes in the bottom for drainage. The handy plastic cap makes for a great humidity control cover for seedlings and it's divided into two sections for different plantings. No fuss, no muss instant seed starter. Trash to invaluable treasure.
I planted my seeds and placed them in a long plastic container with about an inch of water in the bottom. The plants pull water from the bottom and the extra humidity waters them from the top. They grow in them until transplanted into the garden bed.
So this year I'm gardening with two fingers, a pencil and a spade. Final tally at the end of the season.
Barb Polan and I have been emailing back and forth about garbage and composting. For us it's difficult if not impossible to get the garbage from the house to the rolling bins, and out to the road for pick up. Okay, it can be done in a thousand and one baby steps along the way. A week's worth of garbage takes a week to get it to the road.
It's one of those things most of us really don't talk about. Another adaptability failure issue but we keep trying to adapt to succeed. It's just that success in this case isn't without some major issues. I wonder how Rebecca does it? Hey Rebecca! Chime in.
I guess I could put all my noncompostable garbage in those little plastic grocery bags and carry them to my dumpster one at a time. But that still leaves rolling the dumpster to the road. I don't know about your front yard, but mine is uneven with plenty of pine tree and oak roots to trip me up with a rolling slant. It isn't a smooth paved surface like the picture. I wish!
For anyone that has read my blog for over a year, you know I'm a survivalist, planning on living off-the-grid, and become self sufficient. I even wrote one book in a possible series of how tos.
Funny things happen to well-made plans. I had a stroke leaving me partially paralyzed on my dominant side. I'm having to relearn and adapt every thing I know how to do. I still compost, and as of last year I started gardening again. I'm an avid recycler too.
Bet you want to know how I get the compostables to the composters, don't you. I mean I'm one handed and walk with a cane so no free hand to push and pull with, right?
Plus
One small bungee cord around the handle of the wagon and another around my waist. Okay, it's more like two bungee cords around my waist. I'll walk where I want to go pulling the wagon behind me. I actually use cardboard to make the sides higher. But I keep in mind the weight I am trying to pull. It varies to a max of ten pounds plus the weight of the wagon. Eventually I may Jerry-rig a harness for the German Shepherds to do the pulling, but they are still pups yet.
Originally my compost bins looked like this...
It doesn't
take a rocket scientist to figure out this system would be almost
impossible for me to turn properly let alone get the compost out without hurting myself post stroke.
So I
graduated to this...I can just walk by it a couple times a day and give it a spin. Yes I built it myself from plans on the internet. The guy in Home Depot was nice enough to cut all my lumber and the pipe works for me. I used screws, and nuts and bolts to put it together. What would have been a couple hour project in the old days, took me two weeks to build it. I put the handle on the side for when it gets too full and the barrels get heavy.
No, these are not mine. Just some pics I pulled off off Google. But you get the idea. My set up is similar. I built two double compost barrel set ups in about two months. Between the chickens, Guinea pig and rabbits added to my home organic waste I could have probably gotten away with just one set up except for the amount of yard trash like leaves and cut grass.
I mentioned that I'm going to try square foot gardening this year. Since I set up my raised, really raised beds last year it made sense to me. I started to set seeds four weeks ago but the Arctic Blast hit and then hit us again giving us below freezing temperatures so I'm glad I didn't.
I bought some cedar fence planks to enclose my bag garden beds from last year. I still plan
Yes that's old Mel himself.
on using my milk crates to raise them. I figure four 4x4 gardening plots would be a good start. One 4x4 set on the ground for corn and later for a bunny/chicken friendly grass/clover/hay mix for their grazing pleasure.
Nod to Mel, creator of the Square Foot Gardening method. My exception is that my frames will be 18" deep where his are only 6". I believe in deep rooting my plants. Also I've been thinking of potatoes sweet and Yukons in 2x2 boxes that build up. It all depends on what I can get finished with in time. While "normal" people may accomplish the building time in a matter of hours, for me it takes days. But that's okay because I'm doing it.
So I plan again for the upcoming Spring and gardening. Life is all about changes and adjustments. It's all in how you view it. Stuff will always happen to change your circumstances, but living is what you do with them. You can sit back and gripe or adapt to live through it making the best outcome for your circumstances.
Thank y'all for the concern expressed for me to take care of myself during this waiting game with the Grim Reaper. This is in response to all the comments and emails I've received.
I still sleep fitfully part due to my hubby and the other part due to physical pain. Last night I fell into a deep sleep at 10PM and didn't wake until 7AM. I didn't move a muscle (as in change position) all night long. This became a huge problem when I tried to get up...namely a painful back. I moaned and groaned into a seated position. Rice Krispies sounding with each increment of movement. As much as my desire to check on my hubby was, I couldn't get my body to move. Each step sent reverberating painful shock waves up my spine. Yes, it is a thrill a minute getting older.
But I am taking care of myself too. Rarely a day goes by when someone isn't in the house with us to lighten the load. I usually spend that time napping. I'm still fighting the fatigue accompanying my stroke. The spasticity has worsened in spite of the Botox due to the added stress. Meditation and deep breathing helps bring things into perspective. I have a cardiology appointment next week for my FUBARed heart. The ventricular fib has worsened to the point where I'm having to take medicine every day again. It's just another way of proving me as Abby Normal. Stroke patients have issues with atrial fib before a stroke not ventricular fib. It was a nice vacation from my heart condition while it lasted.
The neighborhood has started burning all the Fall leaves setting my allergies on high alert again. Why can't everyone just compost their yard trash like I do instead of paying hundreds of dollars in the Spring to fertilize their plants? It makes too much sense maybe. Calm, Jo, calm.
I've started my Fall/Winter garden in my raised beds. I've planted garlic, lettuces, mustard and turnip greens, and some sweet and white potatoes. Since we don't get a hard freeze usually until January, I think I'm safe. But just in case I've bought some PVC pipe and plastic. I'm getting a late start this year because it has been so warm up until October. We are still in the 70s and 80s here with night time temps hovering in the high 50s. Anyhow it gets me out of the house and in nature mode but still within ear shot when everyone else's fires and smoke allows.
As far as my therapy goes, I've basically quit for now. Movement causes pain although I'm still working my hand. I'm beginning to think my leg is a lost cause without surgery. The ulcer has healed once again. Wohoo! But I'm still being cautious about the time I'm actually on my feet. I don't want to go through another six months of that stuff.
I just saw my neurologist about me back sliding in some of the areas I had previously recovered but then lost. Yep, I had another tiny stroke. Part of me knew I had. So writing will have to wait until I recover some words and I regain my balance once again. But the good news is I'm recovering those skills fast than before on my own without going through additional PT sessions. I just have to rebuild my mind some more. Too many red and green squiggles are getting frustrating even with this blog. More game playing and such. Lord knows, I get enough practice with speaking with everyone in and out of my house, and the phone.
My hubby had another bout of severe chest pains today. At first (a few seconds) I freaked
out thinking this was it, and then I calmed myself down. I grabbed his
nitroglycerin and the rest of the items in my jump bag. I took his
vitals and called his hospice nurse. What a relief it's not on me anymore. The pain subsided and he fell
asleep again. I chanted a centering meditation ditty and breathed.
Checked his vitals one more time and walked outside. The neighborhood is
blanketed in low hanging smoke.
I've been busy with my husband's family trickling in at my request. He's got a rather large and extended family also. My hubby still feels the need to entertain them. He has so much he wants to say to them but lacks the energy or breath to do so. He asked me why he was sleeping so much because his medicines have not changed drastically, but he has trouble staying awake. I simply told him that it is taking all of his energy to breathe that there's nothing left for anything else. You can't run a car on an empty gas tank.
I know my readers of this blog are standing in the wings as a support
group for me. All the prayers, hugs, and concerns are gratefully
accepted. But know that I'm alright. Also know that I appreciate each and every one of you. Hugs back at you.
Today I'll be revisiting my childhood and making mud pies with my youngest granddaughter, Skylar. Well not really but close.
Last year with my grandkids we started a vermiculture bin. A vermiculture bins, what's that? A highfaluting name meaning worm farming. It was taking too long for nature to take its course with household scraps...almost 6-12 months to get that black gold that does my plants so good in the garden.
It was easy to start with one ten gallon plastic tote, a larger cat litter box, and a drill. My older grandchildren drilled small holes all over the bottom of the bin with several rows at the top rim. Fun with grandma with power tools!
Inside my younger grandchildren layered shredded paper. Doesn't everyone have stacks of old newspapers, checks, and other important or sensitive mail that they need to shred periodically? Even junk mail? I know my mailbox is filled daily with the stuff. We hosed it down and "accidentally" hosed each other in the process. <g>Then they took hand fulls semi composted stuff from my bin about five inches thick. Finally we added some Red Wiggler worms and put the lid on it.
Next, we placed it on the cat litter tray. Oh, I forgot to mention that we drilled two 1/2" holes into one corner of the cat litter tray for draining the worm tea, and I put four wooden building block (from the kid's toy box to hold the ten gallon tub up. We plugged up the bigger holes with old corks. The corks were leftovers from a craft project we'd completed during Spring break. All for about $10 for a plastic tub, a cat litter box, and a pound of fresh worms. It was all placed on a double row of cinder blocks to get it off the ground.
There is more uses for shredded paper in my book, Are You a Survivalist or a Prepper? I'm always looking at things and trying to figure out how to make something else with it. There that's my plug for today. <g> We later moved on to making heater/cooking plugs. It's in the book.
As I told my grands this was a way to fertilize the garden with building up the soil and young plants for yummy vegetables and fruits. Is there anything better than raiding grandma's strawberry patch for fresh strawberries in her old cracked wheel barrow, grabbing an orange, or picking figs off the tree? Not to my grands. It also provided us with plenty of worms to fish with later in the summer and summers to come. They love fishing.
Now it's three months since I last emptied the bottom tub...I have two working tubs as a result of another grandma fun day before my stroke. I've dumped my organic trash into the tub every week, even more goodies with corn shucks and pea pods after the chicken and rabbits finish with them. I do chop them fine so the worms can digest them faster and they love, love, love my husband's used coffee grounds. But it was now time to empty my black gold again. So Skylar was tagged for a one-on-one time with the grandparents. I do a one-one and group projects with all of them.
Since my garden is rotation planting, just before one vegetable is harvested another patch is started that way I have a continuous harvest until the first frost. We all eat fresh for as long as we can.
We dug the worm bin out by the handful, picking worms out as we went. Most of them had worked their way up to the upper container by now for fresh food. All that was left was rich, warm compost. Worm castings (worm poop) was left of all the scraps I had thrown in there. We got the hose and sprayed the picked through "dirt making a muddy mess. Of course we couldn't resist spraying each other. Grandpa even got involved spraying the "dirt" and us with the Super Soaker water gun. When it's reaching the upper 90's in temperature when you are working/playing everything counts when keeping cool.
Yeah this one is a new one.
Next, I mix in Vermiculite or Perlite into the compost to make it really light and fluffy. We filled trays leftover from plant purchases for my small annual flower bed, oh too many years ago. Making sure to to make it all squishy on the top to press the extra water out. The cast off water is recycled into my raised bed since its already diluted compost or worm tea. Fun and fertilizing at the same time. Wohoo!
I keep a stack of gardening trays in my shed to be reused year after year. Also assorted sized pots. I reuse things until they can be used anymore before I trash it. Yes it all goes into a landfill, but not until it is no longer in a usable state. I've delayed the inevitable by years. Anyhow back to mud pies, or should I say cakes that will be my seed starters.
There are big advantages for using younger grandchildren for this because they have small hands. Once all the extra water is drained off, because grandpa went a little crazy from his chair with the Super Soaker and garden hose, she takes a plastic knife and cuts little cakes into the tray.They are about 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch squares. Grandma will later wiggly the knife down each cut for wider spacing. Skylar presses her index finger about up to her first knuckle into each square making holes for planting seeds. Next she'll plant the seeds and cover them up.
Grandpa will go nuts again with the hose trying to wash all the "dirt" off us and we are done until next time in two or three weeks. Did I mention that it's mandatory for all kids to bring their swimsuits and an extra change of clothes on grandparents day? No, well it is. Yes, I could go out and buy a Jiffy seed starting tray...but where's the fun in that?
On a sadder note...today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of my mother's death. I miss you Momma.
But I'll end on a happy note...yesterday was, my #3 daughter's, Keri, birthday. Happy birthday baby!
