Disabled Gardeners Still Laughing With Joy

As Scraps said well:

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.

^_^ We can rejoice in whatever we do
We can be happy for me and for you

We may not be able to run a mile
but we'll try our darndest to make you smile! ^_^

Hey ya'll I am so glad you got this new link up and running. Now we can write all the goofy poetry we want and still have the pain thread for more serious conversations and such. I thought it would be fun to start off with a funny critter(animal) story or poem. Not just any critter(animal) but what kind of critter would you be if you were a critter.........

If I were a critter I think a mole I would be
I snuggle under cover for most of the day
Bright light hurts my eyes making it hard to see
I'm digging around in dirt everyday
Only I leave a trail of flowers behind me
As I very slowly make my way

(Jim) We had an odd problem here a few days ago. My dog, Fenny, made the mistake of poking her nose into a wren's nest. Momma bird had a problem with that. She not only chased the dog away from the nest, but pursued her into the house. I have spinal cord injuries and degenerative disc disease so I can't climb or move quickly. I tried everything I could think of, but I wasn't able to get Momma bird to fly back out.

When it got dark and the blind woman I share the house with came home, the bird was still inside. I told her the situation, even though I knew there wasn't anything she could do to help. The lady is blind after all. What could she do?

What I had not been able to accomplish in over two hours, she did in ten minutes. She shut off all the lights in the house. Then, took out our hurricane lantern. She went into the room where the bird was perched. She very slowly walked to the open front door carrying the lantern. The bird followed the light.

Kay calls the sighted LDP's (light dependent people) I guess this means Carolina wrens are LDBs.

Hey I like that story it was great. We sighted people are probably short sighted in many ways to the blind. There other senses are so well developed until they are quite intelligent in many ways that we do not even think about. I never pay attention to another persons perfume unless it is over powering and many times a blind person who is attacked identifies the criminal by smell and voice etc. We should pay more attention I guess to the little things in life. Have a great day.

Kudzu - O am so glad that your housemate was able to rescue the momma bird and guide her to the outdoors ^_^
i did a lot for me today. Mixd up more potting soil an planted some Brugs. Also pottd up some plants that a neighbor friend had given me. She also gave me a rusted out weelbarrow!! I am so excited as I plan to plant lots of Caladium in it and set it out in the shade garden. She had spray painted the top edges red again and so it will bring some n
ice color to my very green shade area!! I am very excited about this.
Hope all of you are having a special day too
Sheri

Today we painted 3 rooms in new house and my muscles are sore so if I were a critter today I would be a snail or turtle because I am creeping along rather slowly now. But must follow hubby again tomorrow.

If I were a critter a turtle I would be
Moving along Oh so slowly
No place important to go
So it is ok that I am slow
I must be ready come morning
To race the old hare a hopping
He is so fast and spry
I feel old as the hills when he passes me by.

Oh, Jim, I call ordinary people "temporarily able-bodied." Welcome, welcome. I think I like Kay already! Stick around; I need some more neurological disorders in the forum, as I have MS and there are a bunch of people with Fibromyalgia on the other team. lol!

Okay, guess I'll drop by and sit a spell. :) I'll take a cup of coffee if you happen to have one? I'm not a poet, though, but I sure love to garden. :-)
~Susan

Welcome, Susan. I have hot coffee and tea. Cream and sugar?

I have some cold diet dr. pepper, I do not like coffee but I will sit a spell and chat with you because I am too tired to do anything else. Susan, It is nice to have you drop in from South Georgia. Another southerner to help keep us company. Glad to have you join us on the forum. You are not required to do poetry just help us keep our minds on something good. I wish we were all on my back porch at the new house and all the work was done and we could just enjoy a visit. Have a good evening. And nice to meet you. Love and prayers, scraps

Gosh, thanks so much for the welcome. :) So sorry I disappeared about the time I dropped by but the DH needed my help. :) Anyway, I take my coffee with a Splenda .. that is, unless I make myself an afternoon latte. I do love those.

Anyway, I'm glad I don't have to be a poet to join! LOL Some folks do call me disabled, though since I'm blind but honestly I think a lot of it is a state of mind. ^_^ I'm sure each of you *know* what I'm talking about. LOL
Hugs&blessings ... ~Susan

Susan, please tell me, how do you do the computer with being blind? Braille keys? I'm wondering because when we do the articles there's a part, where we put in the pictures, where we have the option of putting in descriptions of what the picture shows, like closed-caption pictures. Do you use those? Do you read the articles?

Yes Carrie, I read the articles but go by the discriptions more than anything. My computer doesn't have Braille keys, although you can get a Braille keyboard if you don't know how to type. You can even get a large print one! :-) I learned how to type when I was in school and went blind when I was 20 so that was a blessing to me. Of
course, they didn't have computers back then, but we won't talk about that. hahaha

A lot of things are built into the program. I wish you could sit down and see it in action. It's truly amazing. I use "JAWS" which is an acronym for "job access with speech". The program was invented by 2 blind computer users for other blind computer users. Afterall who should know better what we need, right? They have since sold their little company and it is a large company that offers a large variety of products for the blind and other disabilities. Here's their web site if you'd like to read about them.

www.freedomscientific.com



editted for typo!


This message was edited May 29, 2009 10:02 AM

I can barely type - I use a few fingers on one hand and it takes me forever - I just don't have the coordination. I tried a few very old versions of Via-Voice, voice recognition software. You're supposed to 'teach' it to understand your speech, which (my speech, that is) is a little blurry if I'm drunk. I never got to the point to the point where I could type anything useful.

Well, thank goodness I learned to type when I was in school. I didn't realize back then how much this would come to mean to me later. :) Then in the late '80s when computers came out, I knew that I needed to go back to school to learn something about them or I'd be left behind in this computer age. Once again, that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Back to your original question, though ... I went back to this week's DG news letter. Sometimes I just take things for granted, you know? Anyway, it says "gardening picture" wherever there's a picture, and of course you have the nice article to describe it. :-)

WOW! Okay, you have before you a reformed writer. There's a spot to put in the description, and you can skip it and then it asks you are you sure you want to skip the description? Some people with disabilities might not be able to I can't remember the rest, but I always just click impatiently past it, because it takes an extra 15 seconds to put in the description and how could a blind person possibly be using DG? I can get pretty dumb and narrow-minded sometimes.

Oh really? It does that? How neat! I thought that was my program. You can do that? ^_^ I'm a very visual person. Without discriptions, I wouldn't know what things look like. :-)

And it seems I've taken over this thread. I didn't mean to! Y'all please continue. I only wanted to join in. :-)

Oh, we wouldn't let you take over the thread if we didn't like you, Susan, and it probably just means I was out and scraps is fishing and Birdie is gardening and so forth. I'm excited to see this forum start coming alive after all my years on DG.

Scraps was cutting grass at both houses today. It was an aggravating day with lawn mower too. Had rough day and had to jump lawn mower off with jumper cables about 15 times. I need new mower bad. Anybody got a spare zero turn fancy rig around to give your buddy scraps LoL Be back Later.

I am so blue
How about you?
Pain is a burden
With whom I'm living
He is no fun to have around
If he were a man we would be divorce bound.

Scraps, dearest, THIS is the joy thread, I am so very sorry to hear that in your exuberance you have once more refused to let pain dictate your actions and probably tiled your new bathroom single-handedly or spent the whole day fishing from a painful chair, and you have all of our deepest understanding. But Terry has been teaching us to keep topics on the correct threads. We have a whole thread (now in it's 5th incarnation?) for sharing/venting about blues and pain. Please don't take this the wrong way, hon. I giuess I should go back to sleep.

If pain were a man, I'm sure you would need a restraining order - he'd be one of those kinds of guys who can't take "no" for an answer.

No problem Carrie I was trying to be funny and just got threads crossed up. I thought we were going to write funny stuff on here and was trying to be funny just used wrong topic for stupid poem. It was after I took sleep meds anyway. Have a good day.scraps

Woah!!! Scraps, I certainly took your little poem just like the many others that started this thread. guess I'm out of here. rules, rules, rules.....I didn't know this was a "joy" Only thread and that anything else was verbotten........JMHO & $.02

Carrie - as far as "keeping this tread on topic" here is an exerpt from our opening paragraph "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"
noone jumped in over the numerous entries about typing and different programs..I think it was very insensitive for you to tell someone who wrote a few lines (4 to be exact) trying to make a silly poem about a painful and frustrating day...that she was "off topic"........*sigh*...just when this was getting comfortable too ;-(

This message was edited May 30, 2009 11:24 AM

Yeesh, I'm sorry. I really should NEVER post after DH goes to work in the middle of the night, I get way too serious. Please, scraps, Birdie, post whatever you like wherever you like, I'll try to keep up. You're quite right, this is our forum, and not subject to anybody's "rules" about one topic per thread or being on, off, in-the-middle of, underneath or anything else with respect to the original topic of the thread. I, myself, got confused when I saw there was a post to "Laughing With Joy" and find dear scraps in pain in the middle of the night.

Part of the confusion that's coming more and more often with this MS brain wants things to be hyper-organized and controlled. I can't inflict that on everyone. I apologize.

Oh girls it is ok, we all get a bit bi%#*&% sometimes like maybe our hubs says something he shouldn't and we fly off the handle at him. I did a good job of messing up his day yesterday and so I try not to be too picky over what is said on here. I just think " Oh heck it is Carries day to B&%^$#*& today." heck I laughed today at how bad I acted yesterday to hubs. He will not bring up money to me for a while now. LOL. I showed my behind and did not realise it was because I missed some meds until later after the fight was over. I hate when I lose control like that. but he made me mad way too early in the day before I had my diet dr pepper. I acted like my younger smart alec self. Any day now you will not hear from me unless they have dave's garden in the looney bin. He is going to haul me off and drop off there any day now. Do you think they will let me garden there? That is all I have any interest in anyway. He has lived in a house of girls for long enough to know that pms and hormones can make you cry at the drop of the hat. You would think he would learn to laugh and go on about his businesss but NOOOO!!!!! He had to just keep on and the old smart alec came out again. I have not seen her in a while now but she has still got a smart mouth on her. She threw his mother in his face and everything she could think of that he had ever done wrong. So being off topic is nothing I can't deal with. I got waaayyy off topic on him yesterday. Now I am going to have to apoligize and I hate being wrong and having to apoligize. Have a good night and while I work my tail off tomorrow you guys need to write something funny for me to read when I get home because I am going to need it bad.
Love and prayers,scraps

Hormones?

I try to act funny,
tho I ain't feelin to sunny.

then aim to look glad,
When inside I'm just sad.

but, you all know me better,
and so say "we'll just let her"

go rant and then rave,.....
she'll come back and behave ^_^

I hope everyone has a wonderful tomorrow. I'm afraid I'm not very good at writing funny stuff. Now, laughing ... I love to laugh ... especially at myself and the jams I get in. ^_^
Y'all have a blessed night.
Hugs&blessings ... ~Susan

This message was edited May 31, 2009 1:14 AM

(Kay, Jennifer & Nadine) Jim went off on one of his bird stories here and did not play the “critter” game. We thought we should correct his oversight.

Ode to the Jim Critter

Earth dragon in his jungle lair,
Protecting all his treasures there.
Orphaned orchids, stray canines
Pine cone ginger, passion vines
Owari oranges and sweet Bay
Troubled teens who lost their way
Lemon balm and baby’s tears
Friendships lasting forty years
Roses, sage and fenugreek
The quiet in which to hear GOD speak.
The dragon can no longer fly
His feathered friends patrol the sky
He does at times still kill and maime
But, on his World of Warcraft game
When he has a bad pain day
Trolls and Orks get blown away.
About all that we make no fuss
We just thank God it isn’t us.

Well, no one said it had to be a REAL critter. Homer and John Milton may still be the blind poets the world remembers. But, I think we had more fun while we were here. Wishing a blessed day.

(Jim) Hey! I'm a birdie daddy! Not as cute as yours were BirdieBlue. but I like the scruffy little guys. Found them when I came home from church. More "feathered friends to patrol the sky." Homer and Milton are rolling over in their graves!

Hi Susan. It is such a refreshing change to encounter a NICE southern blind lady. These .....ladies I co-habitate with can be a bit scary at times, but they grow on you.

Thanks Kudzu. :-) It's nice to meet everyone ... and I don't scare easily. LOL

I have to admit that I didn't quite "get" the oem, but I surly enjoyed all of th herbs and other plants mentioned in it.
Was that from a play or something??

Sheri
Wishing all a smiley ^_^ ^_^ day!! ^_^

This is such a wonderful story, I just really wanted to share it with you all. I hope it brings some smiles!!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/996119/#new It is about a mother Thrush who uses her body as a dam to prevent a gutter full of rain water from getting to and washing away her babies. Amazing!!

Hi, I've been lurking the past few days or so. Hadn't been able to garden well due to fibromyalgia, back and knee problems the past two years. This year I can garden, albeit, a little at a time and when I get too sore and tired I have been coming in and thoroughly enjoying Dave's Garden. Yesterday I could hardly move but I kept at it, mainly because there is too much to do and some plants are overcrowded and I fear for their lives and partly because I thought of all you and it pushed me on. Then I played vegetable for the rest of the evening as I could hardly move.
My thoughts as I redo my gardens (I know it is late) is that I need space for getting in between plants. I"ve always had cottage type gardens which don't work anymore due to the clumsiness from sore knees which makes precise stepping difficult. I'm thinking of using stepping stones. Do you think that will create a place for insects that may damage plants to live?
My husband keeps telling me I should cut back the size of my gardens. In a way I have by adding more shrubs and hostas and stable perrenials but there is still a lot of maintenance. Looking forward to see what you all have done to make it more manageable. To me, it is worth the pain because I love gardening so. I suppose too much stress may agravate the fm though. Any thoughts on that?
Anyway, hoping to have more time to enjoy this great thread. Thanks for being there.

Dee

Ha! Try to pry us off, Dee. Very nice to meet you, and welcome to the thread, OUR thread, all of ours, yours too.

It's hard for me to give advice since I can't see what others are doing, but I can tell you what has worked for me. :) I do container gardening. It makes life a lot easier. I use drip systems for watering, and I don't skimp when it comes to flower pots since that's an extension of my garden. I have some beautiful flower pots. :) I saw someone refer to their garden on DG one time as their "pot garden". I loveingly call mine that. LOL I love scented flowers, but decided a long time ago to focus on scented shrubs instead of the little flowers that would need more care. I love to cook, so herbs were a given along with vegetables. Those I grow in Earth Boxes. I hope this helps. I don't know what the requirements are for a "cottage garden". Please tell me more about your garden. It sounds fascinating!
~Susan

I second that, Carrie. Welcome darwim! :) I so totally understand what you are talking about...I in the midst of clearing out a flower bed that got overtaken by grass last year. By the end of summer I just couldn't do anything about it. So this year it's like sod with plants. Ouch! I'm working on it a little each day...and then paying the price. But that's the best I can do.

I call my garden cottage-style...which just means things grow however they grow; thickly, all mixed up, with plenty of weeds. I'm learning to love it that way.

Anyway, I'm glad you are here. Hope you join in the conversation more often!

(Jim) When you have people with different types of physical challenges working together, things get more than a little wild. The poem was my female associates having a little fun with me. They were letting me know that something I did has not slipped under their radars. I bought an expensive Owari orange after giving them a hard time about how much money they were spending on new plants. Worse, I got a little high handed last winter when I was doing the pruning about plants with thorns. Citrus in particular. I went into Sergeant mode and gave the order. No more citrus! No more thorny stuff of any kind! It appears they know about the Owari. I'm going to hide in my office for a while.

I assume the dragon who no longer flies refers to my being retired airforce and I've brought home a few stray dogs and homeless young people during my years here. When the pain is to the point the meds can't cope, I barracade myself in my private office and play the on-line game World of Warcraft. In W.O.W. yeou battle the evil Horde. Trolls, orks and such. I guess the ladies are happy I take out my frustrations in cyber-space instead of on them in real space. Make a little more sense now?

Death, illness, the weird weather and the economic situation have all taken a toll on the number of people associated with Amargia. That is what we call the little piece of land we all work. We are still hanging in there though. We are a very varied selection of people. We run the gamet from an older (I can't say how old. I want to live!) deaf/blind renagade to an able bodied young woman who works in the rehabilitation system. The only thing we all have in common is we are all crazy about plants. and probably a little crazy in general. We are working together to create a community garden. Created for challenged people by challenged people from a tract of land that was considered worthless it was in such bad shape. When attempting something like this a little insanity is an asset.

Looking forward to learning and laughing from what is written on the forum.

Oh, Jim, what a fun/harrowing/exciting project you are involved with! Tell us more!!! Now I understand the poem, more, too.