Pain

I am rather tired of my "new normal", which seems to involve continuous pain, or expectation of pain. Not in the foot, where all the holes were. In the ankle, where everything was held immobile for months. And in the hip, where everything was torqued out of alignment, because of my position in the hospital bed for weeks, and then later by having the crow boot on my injured leg for walking, which was taller than my other leg. So, my whole hip joint is inflamed. I am taking meds to bring down the inflammation. But it seems to be an interminable time that I am having to wait. At this moment, nothing hurts. But I can be fairly sure that when I stand up, my ankle will be VERY sore, as I have been doing ankle flex-point while sitting here. The hip will hurt at unpredictable moments in my movement. I don't get to sleep very consistently, as the hip hurts at night. I also get jolted out of my sleep, screaming, with sudden shooting pain in the hip. I rather hope that this "new normal", full of pain, will pass into another variations of "normal", as I continue moving, doing therapy, etc.

Gardening!

Well, I have been gardening as hard as I can, these last two weeks. I am limited by not being able to stay on my feet very long, as my ankle and hip hurt too much. I do small increments of standing, with lots of work from a chair, or the ground. (I have a chair that does NOT rudely sink itself in the ground and tip me over into the blackberries.) Today, worked outside until temps hit 77, decided it was time for cold coffee at B&B. This week looks good for gardening. No rain for the next week. Garden has these things up, already: Fava Beans, snow peas, snap peas, shelling peas, MORE shelling peas, kale, turnips, mustard greens, podding radishes, beets, transplants of cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard. Seeds of several dills, borage, more beets, carrots, flowers have all been planted, also. Leeks, elephant garlic are awaiting planting out. Comfrey being harvested for the chickens. Did take a look at the dwarf box hedge, and had D give it a haircut. Considering that the hedge was four inches high, when I planted it, the fact that it now needed to be trimmed back to two feet tall, makes me think it  is doing well. I just need it to be denser, to keep the chickens out, a bit more effectively. Am on XP 4 of new chicken cage designs, this year. Don't have ANY wood to work with, so am trying to work with wire fencing of various kinds. Big White Dog landing protectively on cage during a night alarm doesn't help wire cage status much. I am trying a variation of a chunnel, on the outside of the Mandala garden. My mandala garden is fifty two feet across, which means a fairly large perimeter, where weeds keep planting themselves and throwing seeds over the box hedge, into the growing area. I figure that if I get the entire perimeter enclosed in a chunnel about 2 1/2 feet wide, I would have room for 40 chickens, at the density beyond which I do not go. Don't want to keep that many, right now, but am doing the chunnel in increments, with hatches in between sections. (No more than 1 bird per four square feet, please. And that is only if they are being moved around, onto new ground every day.) A couple of notes about fencing for chickens. If the cage is not much taller than the chickens, you can throw your weeds directly on top of the wire, and the chickens will pick at the dirt and greens of the weeds, without the weeds getting a chance to root again, in the soil. Also, with the welded wire that has a mesh size of 2" by 4", the birds can peck at weeds much more easily than if you use chicken wire, which has a much smaller hole size. They can munch on comfrey, also. They CAN also stick their heads out of the wire, to do a little direct harvesting of their own, so be aware of their reach. Are you frightened of comfrey? Well, I don't think you need to be so scared of it taking over the neighborhood. I've had comfrey in the ground for 16 years, and it has not even filled in as much where I give it permission to do so. The clump gets bigger, but it doesn't sneak around and come up elsewhere, which is what I don't like. I suspect that the people who have trouble with comfrey are the people who try to get rid of it by rototilling it. That just spreads the roots around, and give you lots more of it. Also, I cut the clumps down as soon as they start thinking about flowering, and either feed it to the chickens, or use it as mulch around other plants. At that stage of growth, you mostly have leaves, and you can get 6 or 7 cuttings off of a clump, per year. Comfrey is supposed to be very good for compost heaps. I don't do a regular compost heap, as I've got the chickens to dispose of so much stuff.I did get a few new chicks at the feed store. 1 Buff Cochin, 1 Black Australorp, 4 Ameraucana of differing colors. I would really LOVE geese, again, but they are VERY expensive.>Have gotten to have my granddaughter, E, and her best buddy, L over to my house a bit, lately. Turn 'em loose with water and containers to play with, and all is good. 4 1/2 and 5 years old, SO easy to entertain, sometimes. (BIG grin). Results of water play:

Free at last

I finally was released from the nursing home yesterday, after several false starts. My foot is in a buckle-on boot up to my knee, and I am using a walker and/or cane to move around with. Today, I am pet sitting for a family, while they overnight and holiday elsewhere. Two cats, one dog. The cats, D and K, need medication. Bribes lured them over to where I could reach them without falling down. Bribes again afterwards, to reward them for ease of capture. The dog, R, is somewhat anxiety prone. When his family left, he retired to the master bedroom closet. I let him hang out there for quite a while, then went down and sat outside the closet door, with bribes. He wouldn't even get up for those. So I asked him if I could put on his leash, and rewarded him when he said yes. I told him how brave he was to walk beside that scary walker, and issued another bribe. I showed him that his food bowl had been refilled, but he was disdainful. I let him out, while I ate some microwaved soup, then let him back in. Sadly, he headed straight for the bedroom again. I did tell him that he is welcome to come join me on the bed tonight.

Update

Update

Well, here is an update of the last several months, delivered while I am still institutionalized.

On July 16^th, I became aware of pain in my right foot. I have had off and on pain in it for several years, but never to the point of using painkillers for it. I got grumpy, and went outside to sit in the garden and weed for a bit. Several hours later, I realized that my foot was exquisitely painful, and I could not stand on it. I thought about calling the volunteer fire department, and having them come out and use their lift to pick me up and get me out of the garden, but got very grumpy about the thought of their big feet and big lift squishing baby plants. So, I had Doug put a chair out in the garden, and I fussed and messed around until I was able to pry myself off the ground and into the chair. I then used the chair as an aid to get inside, and took large doses of Ibuprofen. At 4:00 A.M. the next morning, after more doses of Ibuprofen, I drove myself to the local emergency room. “Hey, guys, I can’t get out of the car. Could someone come help me?” No, I can’t park in the handicapped parking spaces that have no curb. I have to park in a parking space where the aides must not only take the wheelchair over the curb to get to me, they also have to run over a bunch of shrubs. Deposited inside, I begin to wait. I was smart. I brought a puzzle book and a pencil. Broken (shattered? crumbled?) navicular bone in my foot. Referral to another doc, painkillers, “go get a wheelchair”. No, may I please have a knee scooter, as it will fit in my crowded house much more easily. Okay, K comes to get me, bringing her sister S to drive my car home. S goes to get more of my painkillers, while K and I go to the local medical supply house, and get me a knee scooter. Mobility! We get me home, and I collapse into the bed. Over the next several days, my foot also swells up, and turns red. Meanwhile, I get a ride to the referral doctor, and find out that the bones can probably be reset, but I have to get financial help  first. Then, I switch to the new painkillers, and start throwing up. Is it the painkillers or something else. As of Sunday afternoon, I haven’t eaten in several days, and more importantly, am not drinking (or urinating). A friend comes to get me. It takes an hour to load me into the car, as I am in extreme pain, and my head isn’t working right. At the emergency room, we wait. They finally take me in, and admit me straight to the hospital. Sepsis and kidney failure. I ask my friends if I can have one of their dangly fuzzy people, hanging off the purse, to take with me and cuddle. I clutch it through everything for the next several weeks. (to be continued).

Had the most AWESOME 4th of July. Went out to  Ocean Shores, met some friends on the beach. Dug a hole to protect a fire from wind. Small barbeque, with hot dogs, lamb bits, bunny bits. Watched younger set play in sand, water, surf, with fire. Then watched fireworks ALL up and down the beach!

Leaving D on his own

So, I am dog sitting for a week. I run home this evening, to drop off rabbit food with D, as he cannot transport that by bicycle. I am doing a quick round of check everything, when someone knocks at the front door. I go answer it, and this man starts yelling at me that my dog has kept them from sleeping for multiple nights, and I better shut that dog up or else. I am trying to say that I haven't even been there to know what has been happening, and I'm trying to ask D if he left P outside at night. The man keeps yelling that he doesn't care where I've been, just shut that dog up, or else. Now, this is the household that shot my peacock, and deliberately ran over one of my cats. All this man wants to do is yell at me and threaten my dog. So, yes, I am worried. After he storms off, I ask D if P was outside, and for how many nights. He is pretty sure she was out for the last two nights, and has no idea why he put her out for the night. I tried that several years ago, in an effort to keep off some of the predators who eat my chickens. I found then that she barked all night, and so I stopped after less than a week. So now, I worry about my beautiful girl, who KNOWS that her job is to protect our property, and tells me when the dog that belongs to the same neighbor is on my property. Which has happened twice in the last month.

Food

What foods have I processed recently, and how? D cut many pears, from the food bank, into twelfths, used one orange to squeeze juice over them in the bowl, then dried them in the food dehydrator. Dried pear strips to carry on the road! Bananas went in food dryer also, subjected to the same orange juice treatment. Sometimes bananas go in with a final dusting of powdered cinnamon. Or chocolate with hot pepper in it.

We mixed up the following recipe for granola:
6 cups rolled oats (could be any rolled grains) (toasted in the oven on 350 degrees F until lightly browned)
3 cups seeds or nuts (sunflower seeds, wheat germ, almonds, cashews) (also toasted separately, watch the wheat germ, it BURNS easily)
1 cup dried fruit
2 teaspoons powdered cinnamon
All gets mixed in a gallon jar, and eaten with milk, nut milk, coconut milk, or yogurt over it.