Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 1 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
The system is crazy, isn\'t it? My essentially deaf/blind wife doesn\'t receive any benefits until she is 65. . Marrying me took a lot of trust on Kay\'s part. She lost her SSDI and medical insurance when she married me. Kay is not one of those women who is comfortable being financially dependent on her husband. She never even shared a joint bank account with her first two husbands. Our main income is my military retirement. Luckily, she is covered under my medical insurance as a military spouse. We\'ve been talking on Facebook about the problems of living comfortably after retirement. My SIL recently sent me this link. How true!!!
[HYPERLINK@www.facebook.com]

We\'ve had many doctor appointments the last few days. They seem to come in clusters for us. We will go months without an appointment. Then, have four in one week.
I\'ve been comparison shopping online for showers. Tigger\'s arrival put the bathroom remodel on hold. I\'m back on that job. I also want to re-paint the exterior of all the buildings. I have a compressor and a sprayer. It won\'t be as difficult as it would have been a few years ago when I would have had to do it all by hand.
I also want to simplify the painting inside. We went a little wild with color last time we painted and I\'m craving white walls again and a consistent floor color throughout. Kay insisted that we build no permanent structures here until the land was paid off. As it turned out, that was a good decision. All the structures can be moved to a new location or sold, except for what is currently my workshop. The time to sell is on the horizon and neutral colors are usually more appealing to buyers.
Plumbing and painting. Grrrr! My least favorite fix-it guy jobs.
I will build one more permanent structure soon, a bath house. I want to keep my Jacuzzi on site. If we are going to continue to work this land, I will need it. My brother got a tax write-off on his tub as a medical expense to manage chronic pain. I never thought to do that, but I do consider it a necessary medical aid like my cane or a w/c.
I have friends and family who have their spas open air on their decks, but I don\'t like that idea for a couple of reasons. Insects and teenagers wanting a romantic, secluded place to party. Kids around here know all the back roads and are quick to pick up on a new place to get off by themselves. Anywhere near the river is a prime spot.

....so both of you have birthdays in May? You said something in an earlier post about being a Taurus, AG. That\'s late April and most of May, right?
The pink wood sorrel is still blooming so it must not be as hot as it feels to me. The sorrel melts away to nothing with the coming of the heat. It is usually sparse by the first of May. I don\'t remember seeing the red rose/pink oxalis combination before. Putting colors together is not my strong point. Nature usually handles that reasonably well. I\'m not sure how I feel about this pairing.