Pain can be sneaky
You think it is gone.
but alas as you drift off
You find it has hit you
In the rear more or less for just one last time.
Compassion for Gardeners with Pain - #4
We have had real sunshine for the last three days. I took advantage and spent my time in my veggies and flowers. Came in totally wore out but worth it. Did'nt have as much to do today. Took me three days to hoe 20 tomatoes,2 hills of cukes and 4 peppers. I'm rearranging my flowerpots into a little maze. with surprise rocks, statuettes, and whatever i can come up with.
Saturday i'm going across state for a class reunion. This is going to be fun. Found an old John Denver cd to play along the way. Hard to beleive we've been out of school for 50 yrs.
Birdie, I'm so sorry about your little bluebirds. Please remember that the most important thing about this experience is that YOU cared enough to try to keep these little ones alive. It was not to be and in Gods hands. But you cared.
Vickie
The pill has worn off
the pain has come back
My whole body hurts like
I've been beat with a bat.
Between getting some good rest, laughing about this thread and asking for a big favor from another DG person who said yes without hesitation, I'm floating today. I did almost all the work to complete 8 (eight!!!!) homemade earthboxes and finished up cutting the sidewall out of some tires, a task I have not felt up to taking on for over six weeks. Too dangerous when the pain is distracting.
I'm also making my third batch of biochar.
One of those days when I aactually seem to have made some progress and I'm happy with it and with myself. And no pain drugs except aspirin!
love you all.
katiebear
Katiebear, that is some day, way to go. Tell us about your earthboxes please.
The Self Contained Box Garden Forum has links to directions for making home made earthboxes. I've tweeked the directions a bit and can now make my own for less than $5 each. The new Patented ones sell for over $50 plus postage (they do include soiless mix and fertilizer).
They are a good option for people with physical limitations. I think they will be especially good for winter vegetable growiing. I just can't afford the "real" ones but my tomatoes and one blueberry and two brugs are doing well in my homemade ones.
Check out the forum and I'll be glad to answer any other questions.
kb
What did you use for the boxes that you could make them for $5? I have plastic pipe, so that isn't a problem, and can buy the pond baskets.
Alas an earth-box I so desire,
I hear all I need is a big ole tire.
To get me one I'd work and toil,
But heck, I can't even afford the soil!
Home Depot had 18 gallon totes for about $4.00. I bought 100 pond baskets on eBay and got them for $0.50 each (individually they were $4.50 each). The biggest savings for me comes from using a free plastic box for the inner "box" part. Lots of fruits and vegetables come in them and even here in Mexico I can get them for free. I use cable ties to attach the pond basket to the veggie basket. If the veggie basket has large hole I use a scrap of screen or coffee filters to hold the mix. My power drill and jig saw are handy for drilling the holes and cutting the lids.
I need to learn to use my camera and aatke pictures but I've also talked someone through the process and hers came out fine.
This is fairly easy use of power tools. I am able to do most of the work while sitting down (I have trouble standing for long).
Another cheap-to-free way to make accessible planters is to make raised beds out of old tires. Paul Farber has a website www.tirecrafting.com where he describes this and other stuff. He has a book and a video which are both very helpful. He also answers emails. It's all very low tech. He has been a big influence on my work.
katiebear
Yes it's true an old tire will do
Sawdust and seaweed and leaves will make soil.
Don't forget to add pee, let it simmer or boil.
When the heat settles down the worms move in,
They love a "retired" compost bin.
kb
Well, I'm going to go with grow boxes in my little greenhouse this coming winter, less worry about watering when it is cold outside or I'm not well. Perfect, absolutely perfect.
You guys are such a hoot
I came home so tired and sore
To find your riddles so very cute.
I have been fishing as before
My grass is almost to my waist
My weeds are surely showing
While I make for the river with haste
My chore list is really growing
The time of my life I'm having
Enjoying it while I can
You see I am going fishing
With my big ole' cuddly man
His time off work will surely end
Then I'll go back to gardening
Maybe cleaning now and then
Between on-line chatting with my friends
For my birthday this year I've requested
A "day of labor" -- you guessed it!
They must scrub, they must weed,
Do whatever I need,
Because I'm the Queen. I'm the Bestest!
I haven't finished my todo list yet, but DD#1 is home from college and #2 has Mem. Day off from school! I do need some work on my rhyme scheme, though.
Carrie I am so forgetful that I want to issue you an early Birthday wish. Just in case I forget on monday.
Happy Birthday to You!
I hope your day is filled with joy,
That all your wishes come true.
All your chores get done,Oh Boy!
If I remember on monday I will give you another wish.
Love and prayers, scraps
Steph if you forget, it says on the front (or I guess it's the home) page all the birthdays -- on the side along with "this day in history" etc.
Carrie, I am so bad to go straight to the dmail and this forum that I do not always get around to reading all the home page. When I have some extra time on my hands which is seldom I go through and read alot of articles at once and late at night I wander around lurking and reading some of the forums. I have learned alot on Dave's Garden. I recently renewed my subscription because I have enjoyed it so much. But I could really learn more if I could remember like I could as a youth. Now I loose it as fast as I can read it. However, I know I can come back and reread something if I have a question. If only I had a brain???? Gee, I always loved a scarecrow, now I know why, we have that in common. Goodnight,Love and prayers, scraps
Oh, I don't REMEMBER much! But I first look at the birthdays and the D-mails, then I try to ignore all the forums which are calling to me while I work on an article for at least a few minutes.
Carrie, My baby girl graduated last night so I feel like a new chapter is starting in our lives now. I think it may be old age.LOL. When she goes off to college we will be all alone for a week at a time. I will be so lost without her. She helps me alot. Well, I slept late(11:00) so I must get going and accomplish something today. Have a good day.scraps
What do you guys think about starting a new link on the accessible gardening forum just for our funny poetry. I think a fun thing we could work on today would be your funniest gardening mishap. Whether it be a funny story about planting something in bad location or slipping in the mud while doing so.
I planted a rose of sharon or althea bush too close to my house thinking it would not get very tall and it is growing as tall as the house and flat on one side now but it shades a west facing window that was very hot so I left the eyesore there until I move and I will trim down and move to new place or dig up with the back hoe maybe. That was 20 years ago before I knew about Dave's garden and how to read about the plants first. Scraps
No way a rose of Sharon would grow more than 5 - 6 feet tall at the most up here. That's a good idea for a new thread, Scraps, but what would we call it? I even have pictures to go with mine! "Funny Disability-related Gardening Stories?"
How about something to do with laughter is the best medicine for gardeners with pain? I do not know really. I supply kooky ideas the titles will be your chore. Hehehe
How about ? - Disabled gardeners still laughing with joy!
Works for me Carrie, We could start it off with something welcoming everyone who wants to laugh instead of cry. Who wants to laugh at the perdicaments we get in trying to garden in spite of our health problems.
I wouldn't mind at all if there were a 'sticky' at the beginning of this forum from one of us welcoming people, not just with fibro or MS or Cathy's mysterious whatever she has, and not from the ever-efficient Terry. I dunno, remember the "I can" threads? Those were great.
I can rejoice in whatever we do
I can be happy for me and for you
I may not be able to run a mile
but I'll try my darndest to make you smile! ^_^
You just did!
Oh goody!!!
I love all of you and hope that you have a special day and weekend!!
Sheri
Today my mother was in the hospital on her birthday, 48 years ago... back in the dark ages, when having a baby meant getting knocked out and using forceps and it didn't matter that my father was out of town.
Uh, Carrie...I don't get it. Is today your Mom's birthday and she had a baby on her birthday 48 years ago? Would that be you?? born on your Mom's birthday?? hmmm...maybe I need to read your post again.
No, I was born the next day, tomorrow. I grew up with this horrible story of my birth like a creepy fairy tale told over and over and OVER about how awful it was for her. Of course the next three kids were Lamaze method natural childbirth just slipped out with Dad there cheering her on. It's just every year on HER birthday (May 24) I remember the nasty story of how she spent her 23rd birthday alone in the hospital laboring for x hours to have me the next morning. The spinal didn't work, etc. the labor was induced, the OBGYN was a jerk, and then I had a lumpy head from the forceps.
Oh Carrie,
What a horrible thing to hear every year about your entry into the world. That must have hurt alot to hear that over and over. Who would want to hear what a pain in the ...uh...neck that they were! Oh.....Did your head unlump? ^_^ (sorry, I just couldn't resist that.)
I am very glad to know you. You have such a neat way of writing stories and looking at the world.
People can really be jerks sometimes, huh!?!
Happy early birthday to Carrie!!!!
{{{hugs}}},
Sheri ^_^
Thank you Sheri, and hugs right back at you.
Once all my siblings got born, we didn't tell the story quite as often... Yes, my head shaped up quite nicely, thanks. My parents were Dr. Spock let-it-all-hang-out types, whereas I opted to shield my kids from the nastier attributes of their father, a.k.a. the sperm donor. Also when mine were born, I was having mostly loss of sensation from the MS, so labor was painless and delivery slippery rather than arduous. My mom actually asked my pediatrician when I was like 5 if I was such a klutz because of the high forceps! (He said "no.") Now I have pain. (I liked the numbness better, I think.)
Do you think the title of this thread makes disabled people WITHOUT pain stay away from it?
Hey lumpy(,hehehe, I could not resist either) you worry too much about the title of the forum. I think that we have tried hard to include everyone. If not on this thread then somewhere else on the accessible forum in general. But that is just my opinion. you are so sweet to want to include everyone. What do you think about this,
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.
You're right, we have the whole forum to play in! "Hey lumpy!" Maybe I should get admin to change my name to LumpyLamont. LOL
It's just when I look at my little list at everyone who ever said they had bad arthritis (there's a good arthritis?) or had to take early retirement for medical reasons or can't lug the hose out any more because it's too heavy -- how many of those folks post on this thread. I guess this is just the pain thread, not the everything thread! OK, OK, it's great the way it is. I'm going to bed. G'night.
My thinking was they would have to be on the Accessible Gardening forum anyway in order to find the thread at all. If they are looking at the Accessible Forum for answers to how to make Gardening easier with a disability they would find us I think. I do not know how else to reach out if that does not cover it. So I like the title you mentioned earlier, Disabled Gardeners still laughing with joy!
I also think your idea of planting in pots is a great method for people with trouble manuevering in a typical garden setting. After I get my new yard landscaped I may try to do more in pots because I am having to do everything from a chair or stool so you have a great idea doing so many plants in pots and you can move them if light is not right etc. Someday when I get rich I would like to do a tiny garden on a table like the one I saw on here somewhere. But that is way back on a faraway burner. Maybe an old age project since I am creeping over that hill. Have a good restful night and talk to you all tomorrow. steph
Birdies title and scraps sumary is just perfect i think.
I don't have pain all the time and i feel right at home here. I also loved the I Can threads.
I make a motion that Carrie starts a new thread for us with Birdies title and scraps summary.
We're going to keep this one too. Right?
I went to my class reunion and talk about old memories. Saw people i had'nt seen in 50 yrs. Someone is going to collect all the addresses and e-mail addys and send copies to everyone.I'm looking forward to making new friends from old ones.Back in the days when none of us had good sense.
Have to repeat something i heard. Most of us had 2 or 3 husbands but X changed husbands like we would socks. LOL Never did hear how many husbands x had.
Well, some days it's pain that we need to complain about. Sometimes it's a new experience, or a new and easier way of doing something to share (or a new member of the family). Sometimes it's pain that makes us a group, other days it's ingenuity, and sometimes it's just being fellow travelers.
I can't start a new thread right now, but I will later, OK? Maybe we can start a 'sticky' at the top of the first page, too.
I think this is what has been suggested~~~http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/993564/
is that right??
Hey Ya'll, Today I got to go buy ceiling fans and light fixtures but hubs was a bore because he was looking at price tags and not for looks. But I went along so we could have lights. They are plain as can be but while he is gone one day they might get broken by accident and replaced LOL. I was hurting so bad that I used the ride on buggy thingy and I felt like everybody was staring at me. Do any of you feel that way when you have to use one. I have only used one a couple of times but I have been having leg cramps bad at night when i am on my feet alot during the day. It may be that they think I am overweight and need to be walking but they do not know how bad my pain really can be. I just wondered if any of you have had that reaction. Maybe I was just so self conconscous(spelling) Hope you are all having a good day especially Carrie. Happy Birthday.
I felt like that the first cuple of times that I used one. I soon lerned that people were watching because they just weren't used to seeing that may of these things in use... nothing else..and besides, if they were staring for anyother reason, well that is their problem, mnot mine. I just cannot make everyone happy all of the time, so had to come to accept that.
Seems like maybe it bothers or worried you more than it did anyone else.
I felt funny the first time, then a friend was with me and it made me so happy to be able to shop with her that I got over it. She even took pictures and we laughed together. Now if I need it, I use it.