Central Texas Tomato Growers, free tomato cages

I have a good number (50+) tomato cages made from concrete reinforcing wire that are free to a good home. I can deliver in my pickup if you aren't too far away or they could be picked up here.

My health and mobility are improving, but not enough to do a full scale tomato garden. I still plan to grow several tomatoes in the ground, but have lots of cages sitting around taking up space. I won't give away ALL the cages, just most.

Reply here or send me a d-mail. DON'T post your home address here, in the open. If you want to pick up some cages here, I will send you my address by d-mail.

I haven't started any seeds, yet, so I would take tomato seedlings in trade. :)

Nobody is interested?

Oh gosh, I would take them if you would deliver them David. To Washington State. LOL. How are you doing? Haven't talked to you since shortly after you had all your stuff done. Are you healing up good? How was your tomato crop last year, with the wheeling them in and out of the garage? I spent over 5 weeks in the hospital which was half of September and into NOvember. So, I think you and I between us made some kind of record.

Hope you are doing much better, and are getting all ready for the new growing season. Also hope you get rid of some of those tomato cages. It does take time for people to see what you wrote. But they will. Hang in there. Jeanette

Jnette,

I'm walking, with a cane. Knees are declared fully fixed, but I still have substantial strength to recover. Don't remember if I said here that I had a couple of recovery goals last fall. The first was that I would be able to walk on the beach with my wife. We had a family trip to the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi in early October. My daughters and sons-in-laws all took time off and we stayed in a condo in Aransas Pass. Neither of the sons-in-law had ever spent substantial time at any beach. I did manage to walk on the beach, even if it was only for about 400 yards, using forearm crutches. That's us below, with a picture of the "kids" sand castle.

The second goal was to be able to climb the short (5') ladder into my deer stand and be able to hunt the first weekend of November. I managed to do that, too. Though Elise didn't want me to go alone. She got up before 5:00 am in the cold, to climb into the deer stand with me and wait for the sunrise. Not only did I make it into the stand, but on the second day I shot a deer. It's in the freezer, waiting to be processed into summer sausage, jerky, and other deliciousness.

My goal this spring is to be able to plant, maintain, and grow vegetables in the ground. I still have to get someone to help run the tiller, but I should be able to do everything else. I'll also reuse the Earthboxes from last year. I'm going to use them for peppers and Husky Red Cherry tomatoes. The full-sized tomatoes I tried last year in the boxes didn't produce that well. Could have been the heat, but for some reason the big plants just weren't happy.

Still moving slow at this point, but I hope to keep improving

David R

David, I am so thrilled for you. That is just wonderful. And yes, it does take a lot to get the strength back, but it will come. Just takes a lot of work and time. But, it sounds like you are doing great. Last I had heard from you, I don't know if I could have done what you did, gone thru what you did. That was amazing. But, the tomato growing helped you do it, didn't it?

I had my hip replaced, or revised, in March. I had just gotten the go ahead to put my weight on it when I broke it. Inside the titanium wire they had in there to hold it all together. Well, that had to be fixed, and I spent almost 6 weeks in the hospital. Just to make sure I didn't put my weight on it and to have therapy twice a day. I finally got out in November with Home Care Nurses and therapists coming in twice a week.

That was so that I wouldn't leave the house in the ice and snow to get to dr. appointments. He didn't want to take a chance on me slipping and falling.

However, I have Osteoporosis so bad that the surgeon told me that as soon as I put my weight on it, something else, somewhere would break. Now isn't that encouraging? Well, I do take steps in the kitchen from the stove to the sink, refrigerator, etc. but that is all right now. I still have to use the electric scooter to get around. But, I'm working on it.

Oh, one other thing. When the first surgeon worked on my hip, he made my leg the same length as the other one which hasn't been like that in several years. It felt so wonderful, it is hard to imagine a little thing like that making so much difference.

But then, when I broke it, that surgeon did his thing, and my leg ended up shorter than the other one once again. I only enjoyed that small "item" a few weeks while going thru therapy.

So good to hear that you are doing so well. Congratulations. Jeanette