Old house, narrow doorways and halls. Does have a sturdy grab bar under the shower. Young daughter of previous owners used wc. But that doesn't count as accessible if you can't get TO it. :-) Closest hub is Austin, which is a four hour drive from here. The boys can definitely use the backyard. Screened by trees, garage, privacy fence, and house so nooo one would know. LOL
Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners #8
I've always heard it is female dogs that are responsible for dog spots in the lawn, but we will make sure to go on the grass you don't want just in case, Debra. :-)
I like my spa tub and don't want to give it up, but I want to add a shower I can comfortably sit in. I've seen the style I like at my SIL's house. It was a single unit with molded seats and handrails that were perfectly placed and angled. I have just enough room for one like it in the master bath. I was hoping to find a similar model at the big box stores so I could use my card. I haven't seen anything like it there yet. I guess I'll have to check out a place that specializes in bath fixtures. Nadine rightfully complains that her bathroom should come first. We tore down the wall between the art room and her bathroom with the plan that we would be building on a new, large bathroom addition soon. But we haven't finished that addition. Her "bathroom" is currently just a curtained off corner of the art room. She will be getting my ideal accessible shower first and she doesn't even need it. grumble-grumble. (Jim)
Ah-h-h, I'll let PJ use mine until he has his own.....for a small fee. :-)
Vickie, places to rest along your path sounds like an excellent idea. You can use those molded plastic lawn chairs, if nothing else. If you have much wind there, the legs need to be weighted or secured to the ground though. I need to paint the chair in the Cando Container Garden. Do you have any color preferences? There is a lattice and rose flower pattern on the chair back. What is your favorite rose color? ~Nadine~
Debra, it sounds like a no-go on visiting you AND THAT STINKS! That I should be limited about where I go and whom I visit on a basis of how old their houses are! Is there a hotel nearby that would have an accessible room? This is just a stupid dream - Ray could never get away for my cyber-friends. But I will cling to it to get me through this freaking winter!!!! He says he's taking me to Spain for my birthday!
Ooooh, Spain is a wonderfully warming idea!
Boss agreed I needed to take an afternoon off during the week when possible to balance the every Saturday. Proud of myself because I did NOT go to the specialty nursery closeby and look at dwarf trees. LOL Now I'm thinking a Don Egolf miniature Redbud. Need to put the brakes on and let the yard tell me what to do. Pulled up the Tamora Rose. Smells wonderful, is beautiful in color and form...and thornier than all get out! It will now move on to someone else's house and I replaced it with a Pope John Paul II Rose. Supposed to be creamy white, few thorns, rebloomer, and nicely fragrant. Fingers crossed. Now all I need to do is figure out where to put the Peace Rose. Too thorny for the backyard. Those doggie races might turn out reallllll bad. :-( The Zepherine Drouhin should be fine back there winding around the Crape Myrtles.
Little baby Franziska Maria Clematis I got in the Fall was in a ceramic pot and is greening up nicely. Found a dozen new Lilies coming up. Yippee! So much new stuff planted in the last few months that the front will look completely different this Spring. I am excited. :-D
So Debra, you work 6 days a week? Sounds like my DH.
Yes. We have recycling collections the first three Saturdays of every month, for which I have to be at office to open the building and hand off equipment and such; the company opened a retail store in July which is open on saturday until 3:00; the boss is up until all hours during the week, and he gets cranky when he has to come in early on weekends, which makes our working lives more difficult; and I'm operations manager/executive officer, which means I need to be on site during the week, as well. Not saying I'd want to only get one day off a week forever (been a year, now), but it is necessary for the present and I do not hesitate to invoke my pitiful status as the only one to work six days a week to finagle some shorter hours on weekdays. It ISN'T manipulation. No, it..is...NOT. LOL A gal's just gotta do what a gal's gotta do. I am also exceeeeeeedingly grateful to even have a job, let alone one that pays me as well as it does.
Tony works six days a week for me. Most Mexicans do. Tony's hours have been shortened considerable and his pay has gone up quite a lot so we're both happy with the arrangement. He also gets extra time off for almost any reason and he doesn't abuse that. One year when I did not have much money my Christmas present to him was almost unlimited time off when he had other work without any cut in my pay to him.
What kinds of things do you recycle? A lot of my house is made of recycled materials. I'ave had visits to LA when I returned with buiding materials picked up in the alleys of Beverly Hills. My vehicles tend to be rather beat up so I've met several Beverly Hills policemen. Luckily, I've never been stopped by the one that Zza Zza slapped - I hear he's so obnoxious that most feel she was in the right. Anyway, lots of people in the Beverly Hills flats leave boxes of clothes, shoes, toys, etc in the alleys, knowing that people like me make the rounds and pick things up for resuse.
I've been working in the arroyo while Tony has been brownbagging the last kitchen wall. I need to get the van ready for my trip; I'm leaving for Ca.on Friday. Tony cleaned the inside and I got it gassed up yesterday. I think I'm about good to go. Still shaking the last of the cold.
Several of my citrus trees are blooming.
hugs, katie
We recycle electronics. Computers, monitors, televisions, networking equipment, phones, VCRs, clock radios, office machines, wire...all kinds of stuff. I am not technical and it has taken all of these 7+ years to know what half the stuff is, but we do good and try to make a little money at the same time.
Oh, Debra, I wish you made house calls! We now have a huuuuuuge TV that won't turn on; $150 to find out what's wrong, let alone fix it. We bought a new TV instead and our eyes were bigger than our bedroom - this is more the size for a MD waiting room or better, a sports bar. DH moaned pitifully about his bad eyesight and needing a bigger screen - shoulda got him stronger glasses instead.
lol. That sounds familiar. When Jim bought a 43" plasma for the bedroom and mounted it so he could watch while laying in bed. He said "That way I can see it without my glasses. Wouldn't want me to fall asleep with glasses on and accidentally break them, would you? That would be expensive. :-)
It is amazing how quickly greening up takes place, once it starts. Daffodils, jonquils and Bells of Ireland are in bloom. Jim raised one of the garden faucets so it can be turned on/off without bending over and can be reached easily from a wheelchair. Nadine mowed this afternoon, but she mowed around all the patches of sweet clover. She says the bees need those. The bees are going to make for an interesting landscape, but it is good to see her excited about something again.
We finally got the seed list finished. Having a list to refer to makes things so much easier. There weren't as many as Nadine was afraid there were. They just took up a lot of space because some were in oversized containers. I think I will switch to jelly jars for holding my seeds and dedicate one kitchen cabinet to them. There turned out to be 129 different types of seed. Considering the size of the property, I don't think that is TOO obsessive.
Hope you recover fully in time for your trip, Katie. Kay*
Photo: Professor Einstein daffodil
Seed obsessed...Mama Kay? Naw..no way. lol. At least, coming up with an inexpensive gift for her is never a problem.
Thanks again for the seeds, Debra. They arrived yesterday. I put them in a container before MK could get her hands on them. :-) Mine! Mine! All mine!
Spain sounds awesome! One of the advantages of being a decent sighted guide is where MK goes, I get to go. Now, I just have to convince her to travel more. She prefers driving trips. If we are going to have gas prices like Europe, we need publlic transportation like Europe's.
PJ is probably still a better sighted guide than I am. But, being male, he can't go everywhere she needs to go. Is traveling abroad difficult for you, Carrie? Have the places you've traveled to in Europe had good accessibility in hotels and other public places? ~Nadine~
Trying to choose a place for the Peace Rose. The Graham Thomas planted here between the two fence panels doesn't seem to like it there. Or it is VERY slow growing. Thinking of pulling it up and replacing with the Peace. Problems would be displacing a couple of Gauras because the Peace roots are huge and the hole would have to be enlarged. But the Thomas is really scruffy looking and would probably be much happier somewhere else. Peace is bigger, too, and would fill in that gap better. What to do, what to do...
Here is the Peace. Soaked in water for a couple of days and have the roots in a damp towel until the weekend.
I did'nt let anyone touch my clover patches either. I've got the Einstein daffys too.
I had the Peace and the Tiffany rose and a couple others but rose diseases were so bad here I just let them go. I have a small pink double wild rose and a red climbing rose.I tried to get my DD to come dig them up but she did'nt want them.
Think my TV is about 40" Big enough but not the biggest. It's not plasma but i don't need one since i have Dish.
I'm going to have to really cutback on my gas consumption including one or two trips to town a month. Yesterday gas was $3.19 a gal. This means grocerys are going to take another hike upwards. It bothers me that more people are going to be in need. In the local newspapers,gardeners are being asked to grow extra food to donate to food banks.
Am I being ugly? but i think cooking lessons are going to be needed because so many young people can't boil water. LOL Sell a bunch of carrots and include use instructions.
Remember when they sold potatoes wrapped in cellophane with microwave instructions? Haha ha ha ha.
I initially wanted a climbing 'Peace' to cover an arch, but it doesn't like our humidity here. Black spot is a problem. . I still love 'Peace.'. I'll cheer yours on, Debra. I don't imagine to much humidity is a problem there.
Some college boys were trying to make their own pizza sauce. The recipe they were following called for two cloves of garlic. The didn't understand what a clove of garlic was. They used two entire bulbs. Those use instructions you mention will need to be detailed for complicated things like garlic. :-) Kay*
Nadine, you are welcome. Send me photos when they bloom. :-)
Vickie, you are right. Do they even teach "home ec" anymore? I should know since I have two teaching certifications, but it gets confusing.
Carrie, in the produce section and 10 times the cost of a whole bag?
Kay, I have rethought the whole thing. Going to plant the Peace Rose in the hole where I dug up the Rose of Sharon that went to curbside. Then plant the pink Broom (Cytisus x praecox 'Hollandia') in the fence gap instead of in the ROS hole. Move the Graham Thomas forward some so it is in front of and mixed in with the Broom. (maybe, might still move it somewhere else) As part of the garden certificate order, I am getting a Buddleia Flutterby Petite "Snow White." It's supposed to be small and drought resistant. Plan to put it in the right field foul pole corner of the front bed. Pull up the "Artemesia Powis Castle" just because I'm bored with it. Already tossed the left field corner one and replaced with Baptisia. Fingers crossed it comes back up. Will move the Powis or give it away. Ordered a "Wedding Gown" lacecap Hydrangea from White Flower Farms. Expensive as all get out, but the photos look so beautiful, I'm going to try a Hydrangea again. Wish me luck. LOL
Debra
They still teach something vaguely resembling what older people call Home Ec. It is called Family and Consumer Science. The only thing I remember from the cooking part was how to make Monkey Bread with pre-packaged biscuits so you probably have a point. They didn't trust us with sharp knives (we were only allowed those plastic butterknives for spreading mayo and the like) so we had to use pre-packaged vegetables. But, we do have Food Network and Alton Brown. lol. ~N~
Debra,By the time i finished reading the paragraph about what you planned to do with your flowers, I was wore out.You must be a glutton for punishment. LOL
Today i bought 4 grape vines and 5 pink hyacinths. The muskadines did so well here I thought i'd try them also.I looked at potatoes too---seed potatoes. I've got to find a way to grow some.
We had to have 2 years of Home Ec. divided in 4 sections. Personal hygene,cooking,sewing,home decorating. The sewing was probably the most worthwhile. I made all my kids clothes,drapes,furniture covers and quilts etc. Don;t remember the cooking. I learned the hard way with DH as guinnie(SP) pig.
Nadine, The important thing they taught you was where to find sources for learning. LOL
Kay, Really LOL! I probably would have liked that pizza,I do love garlic.
Ah, but Vickie the beauty is that I only get these things sent to me one or two at a time. So I don't have to do it all at once. And the really heavy stuff like digging up ROS trees I save for those strong young backs that I pay to help me out! It's the plan that comes to me all of a sudden. I ponder and ponder and ponder. Then the yard says, "Hey, YOU. Do it this way!" And I listen. :-)
I did plant the Peace Rose yesterday. Think it might be too deep, but we'll see. The box store started offering very long stemmed Dianthus and Society Garlic. Bought a couple and will try to put them in today. Have to go back today to get a garbage disposal and am struggling mightily with going to another location to check out THEIR stock and clearances. My sister paid me back some of the money I spent for her daughter's cremation and memorial service, so I temporarily have cash burning holes in my bank account. Aiiiiiii. LOL
Vickie, I'll see if I can find Kay's recipe for garlic soup. You might like it. I have the flu so they are feeding me onions and garlic at every meal. It was onion soup today. I don't know if it helps people get over colds and flu, but it sure feels good going down. (Jim)
Jim, onions and garlic are wonderful for colds and flu. :-)
I am proud of myself. Did lose the battle of going to the other box store, but won the war in that I ONLY bought the disposal and a bag of mulch. Had all kinds of plants in the basket and put them alllll back. LOL
Debra, You are definately a better person than i am. I could'nt have resisted. Once n my buggy, It is going home with me.
No, I'm not, Vickie. I'm lazy. If those plants had stayed in my cart and come home with me, I would have had to find someplace to put them and then PLANT. Too much work. LOL
Started a new thread. Guess I'm cleaning house today. Now! Could i get volunteers to come clean my real house. LOL
We came from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1161328/
Come and join us,you are more than welcome.
Vickie, that link leads to the new Compassion thread.
Can we try this one? :-)
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1161333/
That figures!!! Thanks Debra.