More Disabled Gardeners, Laughing with Joy ...

Come on in, pull up a chair, have a glass of something cool to drink and enjoy yourself . Forget all your worries a moment and have a laugh or two with us. Sometimes we make fun of ourselves and the predicaments we get into trying to garden with various disabilities or ailments. Sometimes we poke fun at the pain we deal with daily. We might even throw in a picture or two. Hope you will join in and that you enjoy our sometimes twisted sense of humor. -scraps

My daughter took this picture of rosa America which bloomed like crazy for some reason this year. We thought it was dead.

We came from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/993564/

This message was edited Jun 28, 2009 8:57 AM

I don't always chime in but you all keep me going as I read these posts everyday. I'm going to try and contribute more but here's a big THANK YOU!

Thanks, I was doing those links while my brain was getting ready for church and navigating a potential fight between DH and DD. Thanks for fixing it.

Planti, That is what I wanted when I started the fibro forum which led to this one. Just a place to go for a little fun and compassion from people who understand where we are coming from or what we are going through. I enjoy coming on Dave's and looking to see what is happening on these forums, the one on pain and the one about laughter. I look forward to it everyday too. Thanks for joining in the fun as well as the pain forums. Tell us something funny to keep our minds off our problems for a while. I sanded window facings all day so I could use a laugh or two. The only thing even remotely funny was I thought I lost a piece of sand paper and even had hubs looking for it and it was on the sander. I had put one on top of the other one. I felt like an idiot but you have to laugh or you would cry. He just shook his head and went back to work. My hands got tired of holding it and will be sore tomorrow. It broke about 6:00 pm and I was kind of glad that we could quit without me having to say I had to because of my hands hurting. I hate always looking like a wimp who complains too much. So what did you do today that was funny? Love and prayers, scraps

We found a mother lode of gluten-free products at the SUPER Stop & Shop one town over. It's a lot farther than we usually go but DD#1 home from college has celiac disease and can't eat wheat, so she doesn't get to eat ordinary bread. pancakes, etc. Anyway that was a little thrill, to buy her GF hamburger buns so we don't have to feel guilty about ours.

Then I was shopping with DD#2 and she had said she hates to go to Home Depot (but it didn't make sense for us to stay home and DH to go out) so we went. And she actually saw stuff she wanted, like pink spray paint and organizer doodads for her room. By the end of it she couldn't wait to come back. She practically had me signed up for a garage remodeling estimate, like we could ever afford that! It was funny watching the salesman talking her up, and she's only 15 but she looks older. I know that I'm not giving him our phone number or last name or address. She maybe doesn't know it yet but I know it. Mr. Salesman doesn't know it but I know it. Ha ha ha. I'm perverse I think - poor guy.

(Jim) Ha! Did you guys think you could get away from me that easy? You have to remember I am an official technogeek. Better luck next time.

I am sitting at the desk on top of three pillows, but I can sit at the desk now. My DW was being discreet when she spoke of my injured elbow. My elbow was indeed injured slightly, but other things hurt worse. Hense, the three pillows I am sitting on. The shopping cart scooters will be a part of future shopping trips. Will not do much for my "cool" image. But, falling on your backside in the produce aisle is even more damaging to one's machismo. Not to mention the damage it can do to your back. It has been meds and beds for the last few days. It is good to be back in the saddle again. Even if the saddle needs to be padded.
Pennsylvania farm boys can get sound out of a conch shell if said PA farm boy played trumbone in his high school band. Same basic principles involved.
Kay hates the tone I use to signals her. She said it sounds like a sick brontosaurus. A comment that prompted a smart mouthed young man to reply, "Wow, Miss Kay, I knew you were older than you looked, but that is amazing. So, what were Neanderthals actually like and what really happen to the dinosaurs."
IO1, Kay says you can come and take this red "Georgia clay" back home any time now. Why does everyone call it "Georgia clay, when it occurs in other southern states? Is it just because of the song "Me and Bobby McGhee?" I think if we had to deal with much Georgia clay Amargia would be all EarthBox gardens. Fortunately, it only occurs in one corner of the property. It makes an excellent rolling surface for the WC garden. Like ready made concrete. It is a nightmare when you have to dig it, though.
Kudzu1 is the house computer for Amargia. Starting a post out "not Jim" is just Kay's weird sense of humor. Most of the time Kudzu1 will be me. Kay recently took out a personal subscription to DG because she needs to use plantfiles so much. A lot of the plants we have here are "passalong" plants that she tries to identify. Nadine is only home for visits and Jenny will not touch a computer unless she has to. Sorry for any confusion. (not Kay)

Jim I am glad you are better and hope you get off pillows soon. I have been there and it is not funny at all. I fell and broke my tailbone once and it is tough to get over. Gotta go for now maybe Ill BBL

(Jim) Hi, Everyone. Nadine wanted me to tell you she hasn’t forgotten about the Accessible Frog. (We will have to give it a name.) She just got her first apartment and things are a little crazy. She says she is not like “a real artist” who can produce an image in a few minutes. It is a time and thought consuming process for her. She has decided not to make the frog a V.I., as well. He has enough problems. But, she is giving him a lizard friend to help in the garden who is a V.I. She thought a lizard in dark glasses would be cool.

Events here today almost had the feel and flavor of an Amish barn raising. Put up a large entrance arch into the Accessible Garden. We try to create some sort of doorway or portal into the different gardens. There is nothing new about that. This one was just a larger scale than we usually do since it is primarily a “working garden,” (Yeah. Right. Like flower gardens aren’t work.) We wanted it large enough that a truck loaded with compost or a dump truck of fill dirt for leveling could pass through. There was plenty of lemonade, ice cream, cold watermelon and such to keep everyone cooled down and their energy levels up. (Jim)

Jim I am going to have to come see your Armagia some day it sounds so special. We had something like a barn raising when we framed the new house. Their was food and drinks a plenty mostly gatorade and soft drinks . But they raised the walls fast I think in one day then next day did rafters. I love it when a group of hubs family and friends get together for a project like that because it is a good group. My family would have to fight over who was boss and how we were going to do it and they would all expect pay for it. All but one brother who was there and has helped alot. he is an alcoholic but he has become so dear to me in the last 4 years maybe 5 since our mom had a stroke and went in nursing home. We have spent alot of time together going back and forth to see her. It is about an hour to nursing home and he is always sipping a beer so i drive and he talks and keeps me informed on all the community news. He reads the newspaper that I no longer have time too and then tells me all about it.He also helps around the houseplace alot. he loves to rake leaves and I am surrounded with trees so all I have to do is ask and he will help me. I need to go to bed Goodnight. Love and Prayers, scraps

A lizard with dark glasses is definitely cool, makes me think of some of the Aruba motifs, but how to fit this all into a small enough format that we can see it if we're a little not-so-clever? I mean myself, sometimes (frequently in fact) I don't understand the punch line of Tshirts or postcards without a lot if studying and explaining. If it were a greeting card that I had time to linger over, I could take in all these details, but not a Tshirt. But I'm thinking these are mostly hypothetical Tshirts anyway.

Please tell Nadine hi, congratulations on your apartment and thank you for thinking of us!

Jim, we're always thinking of a gate into the garden or yard - everyone else has one. But the ones they sell are nowhere near big enough for a wheelchair!

(Jim) Carrie, Nadine is just having fun with the visual images Scraps put in her head. I think she has moved well beyond t-shirt design. There may be a WC froggie comic strip by the time she is through playing. She likes to draw Manga, cartoons in a Japanese style. If you have kids around you probably already know more about Manga and Anime than you would like to. It is very popular, right now.

I drove Nadi to a Manga/Anime convention in Atlanta last summer. (Nadine is "directionally disabled." She might have ended up in Tallahassee, FL if she had tried to drive herself.) I tried to discourage her from going. I thought she would be older than the others there and feel a little silly and out of place. When I pulled up to the hotel entrance where the convention was being held an elderly lady wearing a "Hello Kitty" t-shirt and carrying a "Hello Kitty" toaster came out of the hotel. Nadi just looked over at me, grinned and said, "You really need to get out more, Papa Jim. You are falling behind the times."

Scraps, Amargia is really not that impressive yet, but you would be welcome, Actually, the shade of all those trees of yours sound appealing. Most of what we have cleared and are working is in full sun. I learned today that I can not tell the difference between Blue Salvia and Blue Speedwell, and that I will never keep all the botanical names straight. Oh well, that is Kay's job.

Jim, I am glad that nadine is having fun with my wild ideas. I have way too many of those. They are useless to me and most folks are not impressed. I can no longer remember plant names very well. But to me it is all about the flowers and the joy they bring others. I love sharing a bouquet with someone just for the heck of it. Not on a special day but a normal day that the flowers are an unexpected surprise. I Kind of like to make ordinary days special for my friends. My enemies get the poison oak and ivy.LOL. About Armagia, I need some of your open land and you need some of my shade trees. Have you clicked on my name and gone to my journal or blog thingy there are a few pictures. I can't remember where I put them. Oh to have a brain again. Gotta go look and see where they are and come back. scraps

Ok jim the few pics I have are in my blog. I need to add new pics but it takes forever and I have not had time lately. Goodnight, scraps

Goodnight, Scraps, you are always up so late!

Carrie, that is a big part of the problem with fibromyalgia that others do not understand. It is thought by some researchers to be a sleep disorder, or it was a theory on it at one time. I take powerful meds to sleep but it takes it awhile sometimes to slow me down enough to sleep. Before I got so sick I was a fast paced athletic mom with too many irons in the fire. For years I got up at 3am exercised for about an hour, packed diaper bag and 4 lunches, put supper in crock pot, cooked a big breakfast for a big man, kept my home, lawn, and large vegy garden very neat. I just never slept much. 5 hours would do me and 8 on weekends was a luxury. Then I got to the point I hurt all the time not just when over doing it. I had thought I had arthritis as a teen because it runs in family. I started trying to find a doctor who could enlighten me in about 1990 or so but found out in 1995 I think that it was fibro. I have been known to sweep and mop under the beds of my family while they slept just to try to make myself tired enough that I might could go to sleep. Found out later that exercise late in the evening gets adrenaline pumping and keeps you awake. I over-use that excuse now.LOL. I can't clean or I might not sleep.hehehe. I Thank God for good meds like elavil to knock me out and at least give my body time to recupperate some. That is what makes muscles hurt more is not having time to heal and relax at night. I never go into REM sleep or I do not think so anyway. They can't tell me in a sleep study because I cannot go to sleep to find out. My Dad or his twin never slept over about 5 or 6 hours a night either but did not have too many complaints with muscles that I know of. Need to get going my grandson is coming to play today.LOL have a good day.scraps

thanks for explaining that, scraps, although I confess I might not remember and a month from now say 'gosh, you're up so late!' I think it's also the time difference, that your midnight is one am? Not totally sure about that. Also I always have to go off-line when DH wants to go to bed, and then I feel like I've missed everything!

Hard - incredible for me to believe - at one time i did a one hour aerobics class every day of the week and felt wonderful. (I wasn't even embarrassed about being seen in a leotard.) Now my heavy duty exercise is standing, with a brace, in a walker for two, three or four minutes while somebody holds my other knee. In between I rest. We've come a long way - not down, not up, but surely different from what we ever anticipated!!!!

I personally think that anyone commenting on how late or early for that mattter someone else is up unless it is 3 or 4 in the morning is a bit rediculous. to be up at 6 is normal for some people and to be up until 1 oe 2 is normal for otjhers. My goodness, many of us used to work shifts and any time during the 24 hours of the day are normal. To comment more than once on the hours that anyone keeps seems a bit intrusive to me. I can't imagine having the hutzpah to do so either. Scrapps I understand, just like I understand about Everything worth doing cousing pain.

Bubba and the teepee we built today.if I can load it this is try #4. I am doing something wrong.

Happy fourth everybody. I tried 4 times to send that picture. I was determined to show you guys my Bubba. We rode for miles and played indians and cowboys and cops and robbers. we wrote people tickets on a notepad for a hundred bucks.hehehe we had a ball. I am covered in dust from riding in a dirt pit on golf cart. he calls it his Talledaga raceway. We had a fish fry where the guys do the cooking and then he sprayed the dishes with a water hose. he said washing dishes that way was more fun. I had a blast but my feet are swollen so I have to go prop them up goodnight. scraps a very tired nienie( neenee)

Now that is absolutely laughing for joy! What a terrific teepee! Sounds like you guys had a blast! What fun! Wow, is that duct tape holding the poles together? What a wonderful grandmother you seem to be, scraps. I hope your feet feel better.

Yes it is duct tape. Every red neck and every grandma should have on some on hand in case you need to make teepees or other fun crafts.hehehe. I am a crafty granny for sure we always make something fun at my house. If it is rainy or cold we do art type stuff. My mom is in nursing home and we create projects for her. We use a big piece of poster paper and write big enough she can read it and just have a ball. We write I love you mamaw on top and every child adds something they like to draw or glue stuff they make on it. If you have alot of craft supplies around kids you can always entertain them. We make bird feeders or bird houses or something for whatever holiday may be coming up. I make my DD do the cooking and I play with the kids. She gets a kick out of me having so much fun with them. They stress her out but if you keep them busy they do not whine and ask what time are we leaving. So I have a ball with kids and Jess cooks but last night mike cooked. So jess had a little time to sit and visit with mike. I played pretend so much yesterday that in my dreams I was little again and running and playing. Is that not cool. One day of playing and acting 7 and my dreams changed to childish ones. Instead of laying there worring about having the money to finish the house and furnish it without him working. All of a sudden my dreams were filled with building forts or playhouses and playing. My feet however will not go in shoes they are so swelled.Thank God for flipflops and warm weather or my feet might be cold. Love and prayers, scraps

What a great message...playing with your grandchildren and then dreaming you were a kid again! I love that!!

If that's not laughing with joy I don't know what is! What a wonderful way to spend the day! And dreams, on top of it! (My drugs usually erase or inhibit any dreams.) I used to do a lot of crafts with my kids; I'll never forget the day I tried to throw away the lid of a tube of toothpaste and DD#1 (probably age 5 or 6) said "STOP! Don't throw that away! That could be a vase for a Barbie."

But now my house is filled to the gills with ex-craft projects, my kids are too old to be interested any more, my PCAs don't know what to do, ack! Be sure you build lots of storage into this new house of yours, dear scraps! My fantasy is, if I ever win the lottery, to gut this house or at least knock down a lot of the walls and rebuild or remodel on the same footprint. So we wouldn't have to change the garden... just the nasty insides.

Hey I am glad you enjoyed story because it was refreshing to get to play not work for a change. Hubs just got up from a nap he did not feel like working today and i went to see my mom this a. m. He wants to watch movie so I will be back later maybe.nite

(Jim) Just checked out your garden diary, Scraps. Want to come do the construction at Amargia when you are finished there? LOL.

A previous owner cut down all the old oaks and pecans here because she thought they were "too messy." It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut when she said that. She left only the evergreens, pines and red cedars. Like pines aren't messy!

I am looking forward to starting on the wooded section on the south side this fall. I've been exploring there. I found a very old concrete trough buried under some potato briar. DW tells me it was once the watering trough for their cattle. I have been entertaining myself trying to think of what plants would look best in it.

Also, I found the perfect tree for a tree house. When I married, I acquired 5 grandchildren. Being a grandpa is a blast, even if it is exhausting. The grandchildren have decided, however, that since I married their "Mimi," that makes me "Pipi." I think I WILL work on changing their minds about that. (Jim) A purple canna lily in bloom

Jim I may never want to do anything again after this. I may have to sit in that rocking chair old people always dream of sitting in on the porch. I am so tired of building right now. Hubs does the actual construction I just assist from a chair or stool. I do the clean up, putty the nail holes, sand, paint, and other "little chores" he finds for me. LOL. Some days like today I feel less joyful. my saturday is catching up with me. have a good day. I am off to buy the toilets plumber coming this evening to set them. scraps

Wait, do you pronounce that like Pipi Longstocking, or to rhyme with Mimi? Does it rhyme with Fifi? Um, I might object as well. On the other hand, they might call you "hey you" or late for dinner. The worst thing DH has ever been called by my kids is "not my REAL father!"

DH's grandchildren (who have seen me 2x a year since they were born) call me Carrie. When the oldest was born, they had an aunt Carey, and I fleetingly suggested they might call me Grandma Carrie but was told it would be too confusing. Now Aunt Carey is divorced away, the bio-grandmother has not even met her newest two grandchildren, sent them a package marked from Grandma F, and they all said "who's that?" We believe it's not the title, it's the relationship. I have a relationship with those kids that I care about. They can call me Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle if they want to! (Remember her?)

I remember Piggly-Wiggly grocery stores from when I lived in Maryland and maybe NY also.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was a character in a series of children's books my mother read to us. She cured bad children in bizarre ways. When a child was acting strangely, the mother would call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

The two episodes I remember are one where the kid was a picky eater, he got his own special miniature dishes with tiny portions and every day the dishes were smaller and smaller and he got less and less until he was REALLY hungry and would eat normal family food. In another one, SuzyQ didn't like to bathe. So her mother let her get dirtier and dirtier and then one night sprinkled radish seeds all over her.skin. In a few days they start to sprout (to SuzyQ's horror).. Presto, SuzyQ wants to take a bath again.

All the chapters are like that, make the kid's fault into 'fun' until the kid realizes the error of his ways and does it Mom's way. They were fun when I was a kid and things were simpler.

oh cool. I never knew of them, and my mom read a lot to us, so did I

Now, in 2009, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle seems pretty peculiar. I loved the books when I was a kid - mom read them to us and then I read them to myself. I tried reading them to my kids but they already were kind of irrelevant to their lives and their problems. (Single, disabled mom, very racially mixed and socially mixed urban environment.) In the books it's very 50s, backyards and picket fences and the kids play baseball at the end of the street.

My DH's grandchildren might enjoy them, and nobody much reads to them. Brilliant, Sheri! I'll read them Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle the next time we go out. Where they live is exactly like that!!

http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Piggle-Wiggle-Betty-MacDonald/dp/0064401480/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246971703&sr=1-1

(Jim) It is SUPPOSE to be pronounced like Pipi Longstocking, Carrie, but four of my new GC are very young so it doesn't always come out that way.

That is the nice thing about Dr. Seuss books. They are so off-the-wall all children can relate to them.

That was a dream here at one time. When DW got to the point she could no longer garden, she would sit on the porch and make up off-the-wall children's stories. Nadine would illustrate them. And, the printing business Mike owned would publish them. We tease Kay about her "Tigger stuff." (Winnie the Pooh collectibles) It was the donkey in those stories I liked. Eor?

Off to PA. You ladies behave yourselves while I'm gone. No throwing any wild cyber parties or anything!

Eyore? Eayore? Eeyore? I guess the last. "Go ahead, have a party without me, I'll be fine by myself." DH was only familiar with the Disney movies, and he read all the original books to my kids when they were littler (A. A. Milne) and loved them! I love children's books.

(Kay) Let's party!!! The guys are away. The ladies can play. I have Amargia totally to myself. I was looking forward to this. It was fun for about 12 hours. Once, I could not imagine having people around all the time. Now, I find I've forgotten how to be alone. I am looking forward to everyone coming back. High summer and December are always times to relax, but there are still people around then. I did not realize it could be so quiet here.

I lived alone way out in the woods for over five years. What an English gardening friend calls my Henry David Thoreau phase. What Jim calls my Grizzily Adams period. I was disgusted with the world and very antisocial. Don't know how I did it now. Does this mean I'm cured?

Thank God for the internet. If it were not for the web, I suspect I would be having profound philosophical discussions with the dogs.

Write a book!

Kay, does anyone else live at Armagia beside you and Jim right now?

Well back again, Hope i'm not repeating my self. This all started last week.The same day... First one of my 2 freezers went down and lost a bunch of food. than my car went down. Found out i'd got some rotten gas but worried for abit there.Than my computer went down. THAT WAS THE WORST. Got it back up yesterday. I had withdrawals the worst way. even went down to DD,S to get on a few minutes on her puter. I missed you my friends so much. So.o.o.o if you ever get mad at me just tell me to mend my ways and i'll jump thru hoops for you.
I've updated you on me now i need to go back and see what you have been into. Did i hear something about a party?
Vickie

Yep it was definately a party. Think it was carrie, jim and kay. Lets hear the details guys.
Jim, do you by any chance want any oak,hickory,cherry or sour gum seedlings. To start your forest again. I've got them everywhere. I'm a big advocate of replanting trees.
scraps, Do you think you'll be all settled in by winter? Are you far enough south to grow any winter veggies?
Oh! my DD said she would post pictures for me on DG. She is a bigger procrastenator than i am,so we'll see.
guess i live like Thoreau now. ilove my peace and quiet untill winter.
A deer suddenly decided she liked to eat purple cone flowers and is demolishing my plants. I may have deer stew this winter.

I came across this forum on another site and thought you'd be intrested in some of the links. Fibromyalgia and herbs
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/herbal/msg0516011218056.html?30
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I was in the ICU 8 years ago (I think I've told this story before), literally about to die of bilateral streptococcal pneumonia and influenza. The intern in charge of me decided my meds were making me "excessively somnolent" so she stopped them, all, all at once! These were things I had been taking big doses of for years, klonazepam, tizanidine, gabepentin, no slow taper or even fast taper, just BAM! Sorry, lady, you're not taking these any more, it says so right on your chart. Now that was withdrawal. I had the DT's, and I didn't sleep for 36 hours or so. But an extremely close second is being off-line for more than a day! Cando, you have my deepest sympathies for your recent unpleasant experience! ^_^

Carrie - I had the SAME experience of being suddenly removed from all of my meds for about 49-72 hrs I was in horrible withdrawal and misery. It is amazing the incompetence that is practiced in hospitals. I am a retired RN and quite frankly am terrified of hospitalizations. after all that I was started on Fentanyl patches at 3times the correct dosage and discharged 24 hrs later.. It takes 18 to 24 hrs for that to reach peak level. If I had not been acutely aware of my symptoms I probably would have died of an overdose. I recognised what was happening + the patch was not adhering properly so i was not receiving the total dose, anyway I tore that thing off and prayed. I praise Jesus my Lord for saving my life.

It IS terrifying, and you know what, folks? It's July, the scariest month of all to be in need of emergency medical services.

Birdie, luckily (or not), in my case, I was barely conscious, I was so sick. The reason I appeared "somnolent" was that my oxygen saturation level was way down. Those dopes! My DH knew what the DTs were, he recognized the symptoms in me and put together the fact that ALL my meds had just been discontinued with the fact that I was drifting between unconsciousness and conscious pain with no sleep in between for two days. He begged them to put me back on tizanidine, which he argued, I forget what his point was, but that it wouldn't affect my respiration. Anyway, they did and I somehow lived (although all the docs warned that I would die). Praise be to God.