New Things

New Things

            What a week!  I am working with the folks at Advanced Prosthetics in Greenville, SC to get a prosthetic leg.  The last little place on the surgical incision had finally healed so I could proceed to getting a leg fitted.  That entailed having a casting done of my leg so the socket for the prosthetic was a perfect fit.  Then the next day, I taped two interviews about sepsis and how it affected me.  Both TV stations did an excellent job and I was very pleased with how they handled it.

            On Saturday, we picked up four new ducks for our flock; a pair of muscovies and a pair of pekins.  The muscovies are now Albion (Al) and Boudicca (Boo).  The pekins are Ping (female) and Pong (male.)  We have them in a separate run from the other birds and we enjoy watching them when we are in the garden-- see there was a tie in to the garden!

Our four new ducks

Al is a mature male who we think was probably never able to socialize in a flock situation.  He has a wonderful time talking to my old geezers through the fence and even tries to fight.  Keep in mind that duck fights are not a situation when they hurt each other.  It's some feather pulling and a lot of posturing where they march side by side trying to convince the other guy that they are tougher.  Sometimes they wrestle until one proves himself stronger but I have never seen them hurt each other.  Mostly it's a lot of bluster.  Silly things.

            We built a shelter for them and they have a new pool to play in.   On a day like today, they were out taking turns soaking themselves in the water.  The muscovies are dominant but there is enough room in the run that the two pair do not come into conflict and are getting to know each other pretty well.

I know that some people don't care for muscovies, but I am partial to them because of their intelligence and character. 

What does it take?

What does it take?

            Not only has time passed a lot since I started the blog. but other things have changed as well.  While some call it a terrible tragedy, (I lost the lower part of my left leg), it's really not that big a deal.  It came down to me asking myself what is it going to take to stop me from accomplishing the things I want to do?  Not that.   While I can't walk for the moment, I can roll.  You might be amazed at where you can take yourself in a wheelchair, and even sometimes without one.  This one's just the average kind of chair so it has its limits.  I can roll out of the house and out to the garden.  I didn't know I could do that until I tried. 

            In rehab they taught me how to go up ramps.  In spite of ADA laws most ramps are too steep for the average chair bound person to make it up going forward.  The solution?  Go backward.  That means that you use your hands to roll the side wheels and feet (or foot in my case) to push.  You'd be amazed at how well that works.  I use the same method to get around outside in my garden. 

            I started out this spring going out for short bursts to pull weeds.  I had been afraid that being in the chair would preclude being able to get outside and be in my garden.  The more I went out, the more confident I became.  I was bound by only two rules.  The first was not to go out if no one else was home in case I ran into trouble and the second was to always carry my phone.  Both reasonable. 

            When I was outside the other day, I saw a splash of color on my dwarf pomegranate bush.  I'd never seen a pom flower before.  Isn't it beautiful?

            Something I have discovered through what I call this "adventure," is that if I let fears rule me and my thoughts, nothing will be accomplished.  Worse than that, I will miss out on many things that stretch me and make me stronger.   I was afraid that this would be a non year for my garden or that it would look really awful because I couldn't get around.  Not true. 

            So far, this has been the best year ever.  I might be slow, but I am more thorough.  The plants are looking better than I have seen for years.  I plan more what I am doing and work deliberately.  As a result, more has been done.  This is the first of the cattle panels with tomatoes on one side and dragon tongue beans (a delicious heirloom bean) on the other.

            You don't need to be able to walk to garden, although it is useful.  You do need to determine what you are going to do and find a way to do it.  The strength of your character is determined by what it takes to stop you.

It's been a long time between posts and several things have changed.  We are down to just two cats now, Blaze and Blue.  They generally stick close to the house and yard which has a lot to do with their longevity, I think.  I am usually accompanied when I go out to the garden.   There are other cats around, and they get food, but generally hide when we go outside.

The hugle bed which is nearly four years old now, is a little worse for wear.  the wood at the heart of it all has continued to degrade and as it does so, the soil level falls.  It's now about 18 inches lower than than it was at the start.  I think that next year, we will disassemble it and maybe rebuild it into a lower raised bed, but the soil should be fabulous.  Right now with the sides being about four feet tall and the inside so much lower, I used it to winter over some plants but it's accumulating some junk. 

All in all though, it's been a useful experiment and it did work as described in that it needed very little water (and still doesn't) and things grew wonderfully.