Friday Garden 2.1 (Updated - Now with bigger landscape photos!)

Progress is progressing slowly, as am I.  I can stand for a bit unsupported, and walk a bit as well.  I really, really want to get the garden going, so I'm pushing myself some.  Good for the body.  Good for the soul.

First, what has over-wintered:

The quince tree, and some garlic and red onion

The Tiger Lillies

 

The Juniper, after some serious hackage.  I plan on taking that sagging left side off, as soon as I can get my hands on a reciprocating saw.

Finally, the Blackberry stick.

 One or two things that didn't make it:

The rosemary in the kitchen bed died.  The nectarine stick (not shown) never came to life, so I declared it dead and uprooted it.  I pulled down the compost stack, so I could move it back to where the late, lamented nectarine stick was planted.

New and Improved, Phase One:

I moved the old bed that was at top/center, and doubled the height of the bed on the left.  Double height beds do MUCH better because of the clay soil.  I moved it rather than adding a new one, because Ace had new ones for $10.00 less that Home Depot, but they put together with screws, rather than the slide-in dovetail tongue and grove assembly  The low bed will be for onions and garlic, after I do some leveling and add some more dirt.

Next, get stuff stuck in the dirt!  (Technical farming term, that!)  Early Girl tomatoes in front corners, "Big Momma" Roma hybrid in the back corners. Two different watermelon on the right and closest between the tomatoes, cantaloupe between tomatoes on the left, and yellow and green bell peppers in the center.

More items, awaiting planting.  It was in the 90s yesterday, didn't crack 60 today, with chill wind and heavy cloud cover.  Sun predicted for the weekend, so manana.  There are more Early Girl tomatoes, white onions, and Poblano and Adobo peppers.  The tomatoes and peppers will go in the older double height bed, after I get in and weed it.  The red and white onions will go in this bed, and I'll be hitting the grocery store for a couple of garlic bulbs to plant here, too.

Phase Two - Caging the Wild Tomato!
New tomato cages this year - enamel coated/painted, in a variety of colors.  When I'm done, I'll have eight tomato plants - six Early Girl and two Big Momma.

Two caged Big Mommas!

 Two caged early Girls.

The newest double height bed in its final configuration.

 Lest we forget the kitchen bed:

The oregano not only made it thru the winter, but it had an offspring!  The original is just out of frame to the left, the new one is upper left.  One Early Girl at the upper right, two Sweet Basil headed this way, and the new Rosemary at bottom center.  One other Basil behind the new Oregano, and Sage in the middle.

I've used compost from both the outdoor pile, as well as from last year's worm bin, so a small science experiment to see if it helps with the shallow bed and kitchen bed.

None but one of my seeds sprouted, and it died, so that was a science fail.  Foo!

Best Baseball Game Ever

I found this article over at Breitbart:

Dodgers Pitcher Plays Catch with Kid in Outfield Stands Before Game

(RTWT at Breitbart)

This story reminded me of the short-lived Long Beach Breakers.   It was an AA team that played that the Cal State University Long Beach baseball field from 2001 thru 2002.  They only lasted two years (as did their league) but I got to see them two or three times.

My daughter and I decided to go see a game one Sunday.  It was pre-season, so we were able to get box seats, looking directly down the first base line.  In the box next to us was a woman with a small child.  My guess was that she was Grandma.  During the pre-game warm-up, the first baseman came over to talk with her.  As he came by, he shook our hands.  I felt like a kid when he did that.  It was the first time in all my years that I actually got to interact in any way with one of the players.  To make it even better, late in the game, he hit a grand-slam home run.

Best game I ever saw.

Update

My cousin asked me how I was doing.  Here's my response...

Thanks for asking!!

Short answer - "better".  The "it hurts when I do that" pain has diminished considerably, so I have much more range of motion.  Still have foot drop and weakness in the left leg, tho.  One of my students from the library got me a walker (!), so I can motor about much more easily and comfortably.  Getting a bit better at stairs, trying to use my left leg so it doesn't atrophy.

I have an appointment in a month with a neurologist, and we'll see what happens after that.  I consulted w/ Dr. Internet (Web MD).  Says surgery is The Last Resort (duh), and that this kind of thing tends to clear up over time.  But, the foot drop is still a major concern.

Make too much money (ha!) for Medicaid, but the county has it's own help program called "Healthy York Network".  The intake lady at the local hospital seemed confident that I would qualify, and maybe even not have to pay.

I really miss walking the dogs...

Sigh...

Follow-up on "The Hits" Post

Here is the e-mail I sent to family and friends a few minutes ago:

Houston, We Have A Problem 

Whilst I'm not in transit to the Moon as 'spam in a can', I've developed my very own problem.

 

Apparently, age, mileage and my own personal mutation in my lower back have converged to short out the nerves that run my left foot and, to a lesser extent, my left leg.  My chiropractor (Dr. Fritz) stopped treatment a week ago last Monday, because he didn't know what was going on.  I met with my MD (Dr. Art) yesterday, who, in no uncertain terms, said that surgery was indicated lest I lose function permanently.

 

I'm scouting out means of financing this, and plan to consult with Dr. Fritz on Monday for a referral to a neurosurgeon, as Dr Art suggested.

 

Prayer in any denomination is welcome and requested.

  

Friday Garden, 2013

It has begun to warm up on a regular basis around here -  supposed to get up to 57 deg today!  The natives are exhibiting signs of Spring Fever, and I'm a bit twitchier than usual, too.  Not being able to get around doesn't help.

BUT!!  I am doing a new Science Experiment (I loves me a good science experiment)!  Last fall, I harvested, dried and saved seeds from plants grown in the garden.  (OK, and one store-bought item - the Red Bell Pepper.)  Yesterday, when I was at the local hardware emporium, I saw the seed starter kit and got one.  It has thirty-six pots in six separate trays, all held in a larger tray.  I just finished populating it with said seeds, and here is the result!

Instructions, starter tray, seeds and map.

Closer on the tray and map.

 

 

The map!

The notch on the lower right of the card corresponds to the notch I cut from the corresponding corner of the tray (hidden by the map).  That way, in a month or so, I will know which sprouts are which, because I know which end on the tray is "up"!

I'm trying to start Poblano peppers, Red Bells, Thai Hots, Honeydew melons, Butternut squash, and more Red Bells.  The Poblano section is sub-divided, because I had some Mulato Poblano seeds left over from last year.  I'm pretty sure that the Poblano seeds I saved were Mulato, because those were the only Poblanos the Doc planted, but they looked a bit different from the ones I had saved. More as that develops!

The tray will live on the Pepto-Bismol(TM) pink shelf at the back kitchen window until they sprout.  Now all I have to do is get the garden beds ready.

Weather

So, we have apparently gone from winter warnings to fire weather watches in the period of about two weeks.

I don't recall fire season appearing so fast in So. Cal.

Huh.

The Hits...

...Just Keep On Comin'

Sometime in early January, I took a fall off the bottom of the steps between my parking space and the yard.  It was dark, I was tired and grumpy, fussing with my backpack and a package all at the same time I was descending said stairs.  Scuffed up my left knee pretty well, and twised my right ankle enough so that I had to hobble a bit into the house.  All in all, not a major deal.  So I thought.

That night, the whole right foot, from the ankle to the sole was a throbbing, painful ache.  I had visions of a visit to a podiatrist the next day, or at least setting up an appointment with one.  Didn't get to sleep until after 4 am.  And yet, then next morning, the foot was just fine.  No indication that it had ever been so insomnia producingly painful.

And then I started to notice a bit of a 'blinch' when I moved in just the right way.  (Blinch, n., a sudden jolt of electric-like pain down a nerve path, coupled with a desire to unload the blinched appendage as quickly as possible.  See also, "Doctor, it hurts when I do that... .")  I figured I'd go see Dr. Fritz when I was a bit more solvent that I was at the time.  He is a chiropractor I met in one of my classes at the library.  As big a bear, if not bigger, than I am.

And so it went, until Saturday before last, when the lower back took an express hand basket to hell, taking my ability to stand upright and walk normally with it.  Fortunately, I was able to get in to see Dr. Fritz last Monday.  The plan was 3 visits per week for two weeks, the re-evaluate.  Which was going along fine until I mentioned that I noticed my left foot "dropping".  He asked me to stand on tip-toes, then on my heels.  I went 1 and 0.  I don't remember the medical terms, but I have no roll or yaw control, and only downward pitch control in my left foot.  No heel-walking.

Dr. Fritz' take is that I have a disk impinging on my spinal cord, causing the weakness in my left leg and foot.  Based on where I told him the ice pick was being stuck in my left shin, he said the impingement was at the L-5 vertebra.  And that I needed to get my M.D. to evaluate it, pronto.  (My word, not Dr. Fritz'.)   The "pronto" part is to get it treated before the damage becomes permanent.  Which could involve diapers.  The evaluation probably means another MRI.  Which I can't afford.

Meanwhile, entropy is slowly taking over the house, as I have little energy for hauling stuff up and down stairs.  I haven't walked the dogs since a week ago Thursday.  I did make use of Sam's "click and pull", so my groceries were waiting for my at the customer service counter.  And I used a cart as a walker when I went through Wal-Mart.

So, prayer in any denomination is welcome and solicited.  I don't know what I'll do if I'm unable to navigate this three story house and, more importantly, walk the dogs.

Interesting.

(Posted over at Leelu's Place blog, too.)