So, as a do-it-yourselfer, I figure it's really a shame that I don't grow my own veggies, right? I've tried several times in clueless fashion, but nothing has ever yielded anything remotely 'productive' (though Michael's had some pretty nice tomatoes in buckets this year). In fact, I've considered myself to have a 'brown thumb' of sorts...that's because my plants turn brown and die, rather than green and thriving!
Logically, though, I figure that it's simply a scientific formula, and that I need to study up and do it correctly...like following a recipe. Small things that I leave out (like salt in baking recipes), can completely ruin my efforts. So, as a beginner, I need to garden-by-the-book, so to speak.
Right! I veer from the instructions to a great extent, still, but I was inspired by my neighbor's garden to try a planter box. Michael graciously spent the weekend building it, and it is now planted with many starts and seeds. I'm quite dubious, actually, as to whether the seeds will actually grow, but I'm giving it a good-faith effort.
The planter box is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide, and it's only 8 inches deep or so. Starts include a few fairly big corn stalks, tomatoes, basil, red bell pepper, cucumber, and cantaloupe. We put in a couple of lantana to attract pollinators, and I transplanted a chive plant. Seeds include sunflower, kale, collards, cauliflower, lettuce, radish, cucumber, basil, oregano, and cilantro. We'll see if we get anything out of all of this!
I also transplanted a mint plant out front, in the flower bed. I hear they'll take over a garden fairly quickly, so I'm hoping that they actually do take over the area in which I set them out front, , but I didn't want them in my planter box for that reason.
That's my new enthusiasm for the week:) Let's hope I can maintain it for the whole growing season. Oh, and in the spirit of this being a 'science', I'm carefully notating locations and dates and notes in a composition notebook, so I can learn from this whole process!
By the way, one inspirational note was hearing that Moscow residents grow over 50% of their own produce within the city limits. I figure that if they can do it in their cold, space-restricted city, then I should be able to do it in a warm, sunny Georgia big backyard! Hopefully we'll be harvesting from the garden by the time the chickens arrive!
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Ice and a Do-It-Yourself Surgery!
I've had an ingrown toenail for a little while now, and it had gotten quite inflamed. I've had them since I was a girl, and I've generally just cut the toenail and wrenched the offending toenail bit out. Anyhow, this time I'd cut and wrenched as much as I could stand, but the infection just seemed to get worse. I was seriously considering visiting a podiatrist, but I asked Michael to try acupuncture anaesthesia, which worked wonders twice when I had tooth extractions. Anyhow, he looked up a technique for the big toe, and it was the only protocol he could find, but it didn't really seem to work for me.
We also scraped the surface of the toenail (I was hoping it might weaken the toenail so that the inflamed area might simply eject the offending part, or, even, that we might scrape all the way through to 'cut' the toenail and then pull). That didn't work, either.
Yesterday, when my toe was aching in a warm bath, I wondered if I should perhaps ice it to numb it, and then I recalled that some topical surgeries are done simply with ice for numbing, for folks who are sensitive to anaesthesias. So, last night I filled a big bowl with ice and water and numbed my big toe for 2-5 minutes. I then clipped away the offending toenail part, down to the root of the nail and pulled it out, virtually pain-free. Amazing. Unfortunately, once my toe started thawing out, it did start throbbing! We bandaged it up with Neosporin, and I took some Tylenol P.M. before bed, and it's feeling alright this morning--even a bit better, I think. We'll see how it grows out and if it heals up properly now!
Anyhow, ice is amazing. I once took a massage class led by a geriatric instructor who called himself 'Ice Man'. He saw only geriatric clients, and he used ice routinely with them--especially for arthritic hands and joints. The hands would be drawn up with pain, and he would apply ice to numb the pain. While the joints were numb, he would stretch the digits, and by the end of the treatment session, their hands would be much less clenched and disfigured.
Anyhow, I'm appreciating ice right now...so simple and effective!
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We also scraped the surface of the toenail (I was hoping it might weaken the toenail so that the inflamed area might simply eject the offending part, or, even, that we might scrape all the way through to 'cut' the toenail and then pull). That didn't work, either.
Yesterday, when my toe was aching in a warm bath, I wondered if I should perhaps ice it to numb it, and then I recalled that some topical surgeries are done simply with ice for numbing, for folks who are sensitive to anaesthesias. So, last night I filled a big bowl with ice and water and numbed my big toe for 2-5 minutes. I then clipped away the offending toenail part, down to the root of the nail and pulled it out, virtually pain-free. Amazing. Unfortunately, once my toe started thawing out, it did start throbbing! We bandaged it up with Neosporin, and I took some Tylenol P.M. before bed, and it's feeling alright this morning--even a bit better, I think. We'll see how it grows out and if it heals up properly now!
Anyhow, ice is amazing. I once took a massage class led by a geriatric instructor who called himself 'Ice Man'. He saw only geriatric clients, and he used ice routinely with them--especially for arthritic hands and joints. The hands would be drawn up with pain, and he would apply ice to numb the pain. While the joints were numb, he would stretch the digits, and by the end of the treatment session, their hands would be much less clenched and disfigured.
Anyhow, I'm appreciating ice right now...so simple and effective!
Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that's right for you.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Fiona's Violin Recital
Fiona finished her first school year of playing violin today. It may be parental bias, but I thought the violinists did the best job of all the musical groups tonight! Hmm, there were, to be honest, some 5th grade flute duets that were perhaps the highlight of the show, but, otherwise, our little violinists have it!
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
Another funeral
Interesting coincidence...yesterday, I completed a continuing education article about whether or not to prescribe aspirin to folks for prevention of Cardiovascular Heart Disease and Stroke. Mind you, I went into it very pro-aspirin. However, I developed some reservations when I read that taking NSAIDS concurrently makes you 4X more likely to have a serious gastric bleed (and how many older folks are taking ibuprofen for their arthritis and such?).
In the after-article quiz, they asked a question about an 83 yr old woman who was asking about taking aspirin for stroke prevention. In the pre-test, I said, "Yes, recommend a low-dose aspirin". In the post-test, I chose the option that said there were no specific recommendations for the 80+ age group, which there aren't--largely because the risk of gastric bleeds is so much greater in the elderly.
Anyhow, they marked my choice wrong! Clearly, the authors are so pro-aspirin that they think we should know to disregard the guidelines and prescribe anyhow! My pre-test answer was correct, according to them.
I was worked up over it, and I woke Michael yesterday morning with a tirade about the number of serious gastric bleeds caused by aspirin and how, even if the risk of MI is reduced by more, I'd be hesitant to inflict the gastric bleeds on patients (the whole 'first do no harm' vow).
Anyhow, how often do I go off about serious gastric bleeds? Grammy (Michael's mother) called last night to let us know that Gramps' older half-brother was in serious condition due to a serious gastric bleed. He passed away last night.
Strange coincidence, isn't it?
Anyhow, Uncle Howard was an interesting fellow. He was a total bibliophile, and his house was packed with so many books that you could barely walk! Stacks to the ceiling everywhere! I have never seen the like...
Uncle Howard was interested in books, physics, airplanes. and guns, I believe. He never married, but he lived with his mother until she passed away and stayed in the same house until moving to a nursing home in the last couple of years.
I don't think I mentioned on the blog that we were just in Mississippi for Grandma Allen's funeral last month. That's Grammy's mother, who was 97, I believe.
We sure have had our share of funerals in the past few years...whew!
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In the after-article quiz, they asked a question about an 83 yr old woman who was asking about taking aspirin for stroke prevention. In the pre-test, I said, "Yes, recommend a low-dose aspirin". In the post-test, I chose the option that said there were no specific recommendations for the 80+ age group, which there aren't--largely because the risk of gastric bleeds is so much greater in the elderly.
Anyhow, they marked my choice wrong! Clearly, the authors are so pro-aspirin that they think we should know to disregard the guidelines and prescribe anyhow! My pre-test answer was correct, according to them.
I was worked up over it, and I woke Michael yesterday morning with a tirade about the number of serious gastric bleeds caused by aspirin and how, even if the risk of MI is reduced by more, I'd be hesitant to inflict the gastric bleeds on patients (the whole 'first do no harm' vow).
Anyhow, how often do I go off about serious gastric bleeds? Grammy (Michael's mother) called last night to let us know that Gramps' older half-brother was in serious condition due to a serious gastric bleed. He passed away last night.
Strange coincidence, isn't it?
Anyhow, Uncle Howard was an interesting fellow. He was a total bibliophile, and his house was packed with so many books that you could barely walk! Stacks to the ceiling everywhere! I have never seen the like...
Uncle Howard was interested in books, physics, airplanes. and guns, I believe. He never married, but he lived with his mother until she passed away and stayed in the same house until moving to a nursing home in the last couple of years.
I don't think I mentioned on the blog that we were just in Mississippi for Grandma Allen's funeral last month. That's Grammy's mother, who was 97, I believe.
We sure have had our share of funerals in the past few years...whew!
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Local & Organic Produce
Fiona and I stopped by the Trustee's Organic Farmer's Market today. We bought some eggs laid by Rhode Island Red hens (we're kind of excited about breeds these days) and some vegetables. Anyhow, this evening I made some scrambled eggs and boiled some Silver Queen corn. I have never heard my children exclaim so much about eggs. Alex, who regularly refuses to eat scrambled eggs, asked for seconds, and he's very excited about having our own hens, as he seems to really like these free range eggs, which have higher beneficial omega-3 fats and lower cholesterol. Oh, the vendor actually had photographs of his chickens wandering about in the fields!
We all enjoyed the boiled corn as plain as could be, as I was out of Smart Balance (a healthy margarine). It was so good that none of us minded!
On a historical note, the Trustee's Farmer's Market is at the site of the original garden established by the founders of Savannah. They still have a decent garden nearby, and I bought cucumbers and squash from it.
Anyhow, it was fun and delicious to have a dinner in the Locavore tradition (local food eaters).
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We all enjoyed the boiled corn as plain as could be, as I was out of Smart Balance (a healthy margarine). It was so good that none of us minded!
On a historical note, the Trustee's Farmer's Market is at the site of the original garden established by the founders of Savannah. They still have a decent garden nearby, and I bought cucumbers and squash from it.
Anyhow, it was fun and delicious to have a dinner in the Locavore tradition (local food eaters).
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Therapeutic Tiling
Thank God it's Monday...:)
We spent a grueling and fun weekend remodeling Michael's work office. It's a tiny 60 squ ft room, so it's a good place for newbie, budget-restricted remodelers to start!
Michael has been working out of a cluttered, disorganized space for the past year, but he'd finally managed to remove a lot of the owners' stuff from the office (like he had extra room to store their things!), and the opportunity was finally at hand to make the office more pleasant and operable. It was sorely needed, especially as the office has had flooding a couple of times over the past year.
The operation was carefully planned--or as carefully planned as I get when I don't know what I'm doing! On Friday evening, we moved out furniture, tore out the old carpet, and painted the office a golden yellow with eco-friendly low-VOC paint. It was especially eco-friendly because we were reusing a color we'd painted Alex's room, so no new waste! I was really glad about it, too, because he has no windows, so it was a relief not to deal with fumes.
On Saturday morning, we embarked on our hazy tiling adventure. Neither of us had ever tiled, and we'd been warned about the difficulty and trouble of it. I fretted at the warnings, of course, but in my typical style, I did what I wanted to do anyhow!
We visited a locally-owned flooring store that sold eco-friendly, water resistant, gorgeous cork tiles, but we were blown away by the $12.50 per sq ft cost! Instead, we opted for some Italian glazed porcelain tiles that the salesperson assured us were first-class and were surplus there, so we wouldn't have to pay freight. Our eco-friendly tiles were thus theoretically about half-price, and we cleared out the surplus for them (thus again reducing waste).
We shopped for tools and bought a wet saw for cutting the tiles, and then we went by Home Depot for a couple of smaller tool items. We fortuitously arrived during a free do-it-yourself tiling class and received some personalized attention, as we were the only participants! Seems ordained by the heavens...especially as the nice worker helped us with some great tips and demonstrated actually laying down about four tiles--the mortaring and grouting steps. We'd been fairly clueless.
So, we finally started on the actual laying of tile in the early afternoon on Saturday. We put down the mortar, placed tiles and spacers, and were home by 6 o'clock. We had to wait 24 hours for the mortar to dry. It was fun to see how quickly it fell into place, although we did end up with a couple of uneven points that we hope are unnoticeable to the casual observer!
On Sunday, we went back to the office around 6 p.m. and grouted. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed the grouting and Michael graciously allowed me to do all the grouting while he did the thankless cleaning and fetching tasks. Pushing the clayish grout around and between the impervious, enduring tiles is unexpectedly therapeutic, and I couldn't help but feel that I was enjoying a peace reminiscent of a potter creating vessels in a quiet studio or, perhaps more aptly, of a child playing with mud!
We finished shortly after 10 p.m. Michael then woke extra early this morning to move everything back into his own office, out of the exam rooms and such. Talk about taking advantage of every weekend moment! I'm relieved to have Monday off, but Michael's just beginning his work week!
Of course, that's just the beginning...next weekend we need to seal the tile and put up shelving and new fixtures and such. We anticipate that the whole remodel will land us at a few hundred dollars, which sounds fairly manageable!
Now that we've laid tile, I am eager to tile my bathrooms, kitchen, patio...and maybe even some wall or counter areas! We've got a lot of other priorities first, though, so we'll see if it happens. No immediate plans for tiling at home...especially since we've got an impending need to build a chicken coop!
It's so rewarding to do something so durable and lasting. I like to cook and bake, but food is gone fairly quickly while I'll be able to admire this job for years.
It's also just plain ole fun to do something completely new. My skin was uncharacteristically dry last night from all the clay, and it was novel for me to slather on a ton of moisturizer and enjoy the effects. I used to give mud wraps at the spa for purifying effects, and I felt like I'd just received a cleansing mud wrap as an incidental benefit of the job!
Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.
We spent a grueling and fun weekend remodeling Michael's work office. It's a tiny 60 squ ft room, so it's a good place for newbie, budget-restricted remodelers to start!
Michael has been working out of a cluttered, disorganized space for the past year, but he'd finally managed to remove a lot of the owners' stuff from the office (like he had extra room to store their things!), and the opportunity was finally at hand to make the office more pleasant and operable. It was sorely needed, especially as the office has had flooding a couple of times over the past year.
The operation was carefully planned--or as carefully planned as I get when I don't know what I'm doing! On Friday evening, we moved out furniture, tore out the old carpet, and painted the office a golden yellow with eco-friendly low-VOC paint. It was especially eco-friendly because we were reusing a color we'd painted Alex's room, so no new waste! I was really glad about it, too, because he has no windows, so it was a relief not to deal with fumes.
On Saturday morning, we embarked on our hazy tiling adventure. Neither of us had ever tiled, and we'd been warned about the difficulty and trouble of it. I fretted at the warnings, of course, but in my typical style, I did what I wanted to do anyhow!
We visited a locally-owned flooring store that sold eco-friendly, water resistant, gorgeous cork tiles, but we were blown away by the $12.50 per sq ft cost! Instead, we opted for some Italian glazed porcelain tiles that the salesperson assured us were first-class and were surplus there, so we wouldn't have to pay freight. Our eco-friendly tiles were thus theoretically about half-price, and we cleared out the surplus for them (thus again reducing waste).
We shopped for tools and bought a wet saw for cutting the tiles, and then we went by Home Depot for a couple of smaller tool items. We fortuitously arrived during a free do-it-yourself tiling class and received some personalized attention, as we were the only participants! Seems ordained by the heavens...especially as the nice worker helped us with some great tips and demonstrated actually laying down about four tiles--the mortaring and grouting steps. We'd been fairly clueless.
So, we finally started on the actual laying of tile in the early afternoon on Saturday. We put down the mortar, placed tiles and spacers, and were home by 6 o'clock. We had to wait 24 hours for the mortar to dry. It was fun to see how quickly it fell into place, although we did end up with a couple of uneven points that we hope are unnoticeable to the casual observer!
On Sunday, we went back to the office around 6 p.m. and grouted. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed the grouting and Michael graciously allowed me to do all the grouting while he did the thankless cleaning and fetching tasks. Pushing the clayish grout around and between the impervious, enduring tiles is unexpectedly therapeutic, and I couldn't help but feel that I was enjoying a peace reminiscent of a potter creating vessels in a quiet studio or, perhaps more aptly, of a child playing with mud!
We finished shortly after 10 p.m. Michael then woke extra early this morning to move everything back into his own office, out of the exam rooms and such. Talk about taking advantage of every weekend moment! I'm relieved to have Monday off, but Michael's just beginning his work week!
Of course, that's just the beginning...next weekend we need to seal the tile and put up shelving and new fixtures and such. We anticipate that the whole remodel will land us at a few hundred dollars, which sounds fairly manageable!
Now that we've laid tile, I am eager to tile my bathrooms, kitchen, patio...and maybe even some wall or counter areas! We've got a lot of other priorities first, though, so we'll see if it happens. No immediate plans for tiling at home...especially since we've got an impending need to build a chicken coop!
It's so rewarding to do something so durable and lasting. I like to cook and bake, but food is gone fairly quickly while I'll be able to admire this job for years.
It's also just plain ole fun to do something completely new. My skin was uncharacteristically dry last night from all the clay, and it was novel for me to slather on a ton of moisturizer and enjoy the effects. I used to give mud wraps at the spa for purifying effects, and I felt like I'd just received a cleansing mud wrap as an incidental benefit of the job!
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