WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[Annarchy]

Cut off the lower leaves of one of the volunteer celery plants, sun dried Fri/Sat/Sun. Hand ground it today, filled a spice jar.

 

 

Watered the lawn.  Today is house cleaning day, so I’m trying to keep the dogs in, until the muddy areas dry out enough.  We topped 100° yesterday, yup.... summer has come to the desert.  
 

We have a mocking bird that camps out on the telephone pole, it sings a plethora of different songs, really loud, all.day.long.  
 

It took a month for the butternut & zucchini seeds to germinate, now there are 5 zucchini and 8 butternut plants growing.  Yikes!  I shouldn’t have re-planted. 

This week, I need to harvest the cabbage and some more beets.  

 

[TheCG]

What do you use the celery leaves for?

[Annarchy]

1 hour ago, TheCG said:

What do you use the celery leaves for?

Funny, MIL asked the same thing.  I grind leaves & stems to make the powder.  Any dish that calls for celery, I sprinkle a little in.  Like stuffing, if I don’t have any fresh in the refrigerator.  I usually sprinkle a pinch in my tomato sauces.  A dash on fried pork chops, and some stir fry recipes.  Of, course, depending on the recipe, other spices.  It adds a nice flavor to recipes that call for Worcester sauce, also.
 

DH uses it to make virgin Mary’s, MIL’s favorite drink.  

[Littlesister]

Today has not been a good day at all. Got first hand experience about hospitals and the new rules.  DH has been admitted to the Hospital. I cannot be with him. He fell and hit his head and was disoriented. Come to find out his potassium had dropped really low and he passed out and his defib. went off 7 times. That was scary to say the least. So I am home worried sick and can't be there if he needs me. So they will not let anyone in with patient unless they are preg. or under 18 and then only one family member allowed.  My church members has 2 nurses that work there. The one we know is going to be checking in on him and given me a full report. So at least I have the inside help for him.  the Church has the prayer chain going and praying for him to get better.  So far when I talked to him a few minutes ago, he said the nurses where really taken good care of him. They are coming when he needs one. So that is good. We had issues once before with nurses not coming when needed and that is why I always stay with him at hospital. 

I know I won't sleep any tonight.  I have been just cleaning up the house really good.  Had to clean the blood bath off wall and floor from where he fell. Gotta love blood thinners. If you hit your head it bleeds more. But no internal bleeding. So I am thankful for that. 

Right now I have a bad headache and I am betting my B/p is up from all the worrying. So going to go check B/p and take some advil for it. 

Later everyone. Please keep DH in prayer for a fast recovery.  Thank you all.

[The WE2's]

50 minutes ago, Littlesister said:

Please keep DH in prayer

 

Done...

[The WE2's]

Got four more of the tubs completed yesterday.  Tired to the bone!  My ribs and fanny felt like they were "swollen" and very painful.  Rather than take OTC I tried my tube of Arnica Gel...rubbed my ribs liberally and my hips until it was totally soaked in.  NOW that made a difference!  Guess I'll have to check and see if CVS still carries it!  Would much rather use a muscle rub (that works) than OTC's.

It rained this morning but we went to the homestead anyway.  Hubby mudded the corners of the bathroom and I planted the new tubs with seed, then he came out and helped me cut the netting and then clip it in place.  Keeps the birds and cats out!  I watered in the new seeds but went ahead and filled the reservoir to let the planting medium settle down a bit.

The Comfrey, Chives, Mint and Thyme are looking great in their new transplanted home.  Went ahead and stuck a little "food" in their space to help them out.  Hubby accidentally broke the handle on my favorite potato fork helping me dig up a mess of the Chives.  He'll get it fixed.  The handle was just short enough for me...oh well.  It is what it is.  If there's any more digging out to do, he'll probably have to do it with a shovel or sharp shooter. Wouldn't do me much good to try and use the broad fork...I'm not heavy enough to force it into the ground without "jumping" on it.  And that's not something I want to even try.  My balance is better since the cataract surgery but still not "that" good! 

Hubby's needing to clear a couple of paths for our pole beans.  We're using the heavy ground cover and will burn holes every six inches, and then plant the bean in the hole.  Keeps us from having so many weeds grow up and we can mow on the outside area.

We'll use tubs in the old raised bed area (there's about 6 or them) to plant our Okra in.  Figure if we plant two in each tub and use three tubs, we'll have plenty for our needs.

Also want to use tubs to plant a couple of Blueberry bushes as well and some tubs for our Blackberry and Raspberry bushes. Watched Texas Prepper (?) and he's growing tons of blackberries and fruit trees in tubs...using the Gardening With Leon method...with a little alterations on the tubing.

It's a good thing I don't use a manicurist...my nails and cuticles are an absolute mess!  Even wearing gloves.  If they're not in water they're in soil medium or dirt! 

Fixed Lasagna using Egg Noodles, Cottage Cheese/Egg mix again tonight for our supper. I'll post a pic just for posterity.

Oh...we got the stimulus checks!  The bank is holding it until the 30th...figure?  Guess they like the interest they can draw .  I see a truck repair in our near future.

Hubby did get up to the Roost this afternoon to do a little mowing...it's just too wet.  He was only able to get part of it done, but at least it will keep the city off our backs?  That's the problem with some really small communities where everybody seems to want to be in your business.  Long post I know...but lots going on around our place(s).

[Jeepers]

Littlesister, sent prayers up for both you and your dear husband.            

[Mt_Rider]

Joining with the others.....    Father God, be with LilSister's  DH .....give wisdom to the medical folks.  Ease his vital signs and restore balance to his body.  Help him and LilSister to get some sleep, despite the mess of this incident.  You know every cell in our bodies and you know what is needed.  Keep the virus and anything else from him.  In Jesus Name.....

 

MtRider    Try to get some rest, LittleSister.  He'll need you strong.  

[Jeepers]

[Littlesister]

Thank you all for the prayers for DH.  

I called the nurses station this morning and DH did not sleep well last night. But then it is a hospital and those beds are not the best. 

He is going to have a chest X-Ray today and is seeing his heart doctor.  He is napping right now, so will call him later. I really want to go to hospital to be with him. This virus really sucks. I didn't sleep much at all last night either.  

So I washed clothes, stripped the bed linins and washed all of that and the towels, etc. Had to wash blood off walls and floor where DH hit his head and also wash the bath mat that was on the floor. That was full of blood.  Yes the way he hit his head and being on blood thinners it looked like he took a blood bath. He does have a big goose egg on head. But with him in the hospital, I was able to use a bleach solution to clean everything down. Can't do that with him home. He has asthma and bleach is one of the things that can set him off. 

Prayers have been working all around as his heart rhythm is back to normal. So they are getting his potassium levels back up. 

So I need to find things to do inside today so I can be by the phone if DH or hosp. calls for anything. This sitting home and not being there with him is worse than the virus itself. 

[out_of_the_ordinary]

Littlesister,     for your DH.

 

 

[snapshotmiki]

Thank you for the update, @Littlesister!  I will continue to pray for you both!

 

 

Last night someone hit a tree and it fell over the road (up the street) and downed power lines. Power was out from 945 pm til 805 am. Big dog kept barking as he could hear more with out the fan on for noise damping. Not much sleep and walked this morning before coffee. Mistake! I was exhausted when I got home.

 

Looked for watermelon starts at local hardware store since mine aren't coming up well. No plants. Got oranges and bananas at local grocery and came home.

 

Raked and weeded in front garden. Still need to call cable company and get them to lower bill again. They keep raising it. $20 in two months. That's crazy.

Still need to sweep house and then relax for awhile.

[The WE2's]

A local restaurant was giving out free "Taco Box Lunches" from 1 to 2...so we got in line!  Wonderful meal...one soft taco, one hard shell taco, salsa and chips.  We were about 8th in a line of about 40!  

Did a WM run to replenish the tp and pt we have used, as well as pick up a renewed script for the thyroid pills I take.  Even though it's only been 3 weeks they went ahead and refilled it without me even insisting.  I called it in several days ago and they called and said it was ready for pickup.  VERY surprised...the script came from Germany...and was in three blister packs. Feeling better knowing that I am 3 months ahead. 

The WM here didn't have any limits on the number of shoppers but they had arrows in blue that let you know you could go either way, arrows in green that said "enter here" and read that said "do not enter here".  So...if you wanted something on the next aisle you had to go over 2 aisles to the next green arrow.  I kept telling hubby "follow the yellow brick road"!  There was one couple that walked the wrong way on the blue line...ignoring the words that said "6' social distancing" and neither had a mask.  Both of us did...so...I was a naughty and said "Guess you can't read?"  They totally ignored us.  Maybe they didn't speak English...just sayin'.  

While we were in WM hubby's customer called and said "it didn't rain, how about working"...so since we had a freeby lunch he went ahead and got the toy room raised up and leveled.  Now they'll wait on the sheet rock.

He finished fairly quickly so we went to the homestead and he worked doing some more mudding on the corners and I watered my tubs etc.  Watching for those little green leaves to start peeking up to the sun...excitement!  Didn't water the potato patches since it was supposed to rain...and DID IT!  Along with the thunder...which Abby despises.  When we got home I gave her something to quiet her down and put her big doggie pillow on hubby's side of the bed and she went to her hidie hole! 

Fixed up a paper bag with plastic bags inside to resemble a hornets nest and hung it on the front porch...wasp seem to not like hornets.  

Also checked on my Mason bee houses, they're pretty full.  The windmill has lovely Egyptian onions growing.  I haven't planted anything in the front porch hanging rail containers.  I'll probably just buy some flowers to put in them rather than plant seed.

Abby and I had been sitting on the front porch after I finished the gardening work but when it started thundering we went inside, and hubby cleaned up his tools and we came on here.

The Comfrey looked a bit "lilted" but it will take off soon.  It's just a bit of transplant shock which I expected.

We still have lot of garden work to do...planting the pole beans in the far west side of the property and the Okra in tubs on the south property line mainly.  Then we'll take a look at transplanting some of our berry bushes.  How do you like the "red neck" screens over the potato patches! 

We haven't put the ground cover under the patio set yet.  We'll do that much later when we know we have all the tubs taken care of.  The Elderberry bushes are on their own for the time being.

 

[The WE2's]

Forgot to mention that we were able to watch the "Fly Over" of the Stealth bomber and the accompanying jets...in honor of the hospitals, nurses, doctors and first responders. 

Google it...it's quite a site!

[Jeepers]

Love looking at your pictures. Thanks for sharing them! You have such a nice big yard. I like your 'red neck screens' just fine. LOL. Someone passing by might think they are just pieces of a pallet tossed there and not take notice of what's underneath. 

 

You also have a nice sitting area out there. Hope you three spend many happy hours out there watching your garden grow. 

 

[Littlesister]

I see I am not the only one that uses lots of celery. Never tried to make a powder from the leaves. Will have to try that. I do use a lot of dehydrated and freeze dried celery as well as frozen. I just put up 4 bags of celery in freezer a few days ago. 

 

WE2 how do you keep your greenhouses from blowing over? I had mine tied down and the wind got it and broke the holders on it. haven't had a chance to figure out how I will fix that yet.  Will be a while now before I can get to it.  Love the pictures.

 

Talked with my friend who is a nurse at the hosp. She has been my go between and a god send. Big help.  I have not been able to talk with a doctor as of yet because of this not being able to go in. She told me what to do for that. So I did and will be calling in the morning to remind them as well as she will be there to make sure they have it on chart.  I am very concerned about DH's liver as I think a lot of the fluid issues are that. She agrees and we are going to get him a consult with a hepatic doctor before he is discharged.  I am not playing anymore. I am tired of these doctors that say this or that and do nothing. Time for action while he is still in hosp.  Yes I want him home but I want him well also.  So that means they best get the diagnoses right this time. I don't ever want to see him slumped over like I found him. I will never get that picture out of my mind. They were not checking his potassium and if they even bothered all we got was his labs are good. That will change also.  What happened to all the good doctors, because they are hard to find.

 

 

[out_of_the_ordinary]

1 hour ago, Littlesister said:

I see I am not the only one that uses lots of celery. Never tried to make a powder from the leaves. Will have to try that. I do use a lot of dehydrated and freeze dried celery as well as frozen. I just put up 4 bags of celery in freezer a few days ago. 

 

WE2 how do you keep your greenhouses from blowing over? I had mine tied down and the wind got it and broke the holders on it. haven't had a chance to figure out how I will fix that yet.  Will be a while now before I can get to it.  Love the pictures.

 

Talked with my friend who is a nurse at the hosp. She has been my go between and a god send. Big help.  I have not been able to talk with a doctor as of yet because of this not being able to go in. She told me what to do for that. So I did and will be calling in the morning to remind them as well as she will be there to make sure they have it on chart.  I am very concerned about DH's liver as I think a lot of the fluid issues are that. She agrees and we are going to get him a consult with a hepatic doctor before he is discharged.  I am not playing anymore. I am tired of these doctors that say this or that and do nothing. Time for action while he is still in hosp.  Yes I want him home but I want him well also.  So that means they best get the diagnoses right this time. I don't ever want to see him slumped over like I found him. I will never get that picture out of my mind. They were not checking his potassium and if they even bothered all we got was his labs are good. That will change also.  What happened to all the good doctors, because they are hard to find.

 

 

Little Sister, see if you can get copies of the labs and other records.

 

For the 2nd round of labs I had in Dec., the cardiologist said my potassium was now "good".   I got a copy of the lab work.  Yes, it was in range, so as to not be flagged as "low" but it was just barely....like another .1 less of their measurement and I would have been flagged as low.   I know that's too low.   Thankfully I'm working with a good doc now (well, until everything shut down)  and that's the first thing he brought up when looking over my records from Dec.   We want "optimal" not just barely over the line for the range for it. 

 

     for you & your DH.   Be that advocate for him the best you can without being able to be there.  I know it must be hard. 

[dogmom4]

WE2’s I am so envious of your space. Love it!

[Mt_Rider]

Love the pics, WE2.  Goodness!  We've barely got green grass started and I can just see buds on the aspen trees starting to swell. 

 

Today DH [I assisted] made biscuits and sausage/gravy .      I walked dog on the road and held a whole scarf balled up over my nose when a truck roared by.....DUST!   Didn't have a mask handy but I breathed thru that for a while til the breeze dissipated the dust.  I felt pretty good today.....but my brain was MIA!       Cleared out a corner/rearranged some things.  Did not find the empty olive oil bottle I need to use for another purpose.  I put bleach for the kitchen [CLEARLY LABELED] in them.  The one I've used for a decade ...DH managed to tear the lid when he removed it to refill.     Can't figure out where I would have put one....cuz I don't throw out such useful things, y'know.   

 

MtRider   

[kappydell]

yes, Little Sis, do ask for copies of EVERYTHING and file them.  i noticed a definite improvement in medical care with my cancer docs when they knew I was looking at and checking over everything, and that I would be questioning everything I could not verify on the internet.  Now, of course, I found a good doc, I treasure her.  She likes getting copies of tests, films, and data from other doctors to keep her in the loop on what is going on.  

Today was a busy one.  Since I had no physical therapy, I worked outside with Mary for a bit, pulling branches to a burn pile, moving firewood, and later pulling the onions up in the garden so we can replant that area.  They are a nice scallion size, perfect for cooking for one (Mary rarely eats onions, I put them in everything I can, LOL).  Rather than purchase green onions I'd rather grow them, as they are quite cold-hardy and can be planted here year around.  We picked our first two green peppers, the tomatoes are blooming, and we are battling our first garden pest - aphids - on our blooming tomatoes.  We dusted with sevin but will be watching closely in case I need to break out the skim milk spray for powdery mildew (which aphids carry).  Research is confirming all over the place that a skim milk-water spray prevents downy mildew and some anecdotal evidence that it helps with several related ailments.  

 

So much activity while muscles were still sore from my PT on Monday will make it interesting to try to sleep tonight.  I guess I will be using some muscle relaxants to avoid spasming when I do lay down.  It generally works very well, IF I remember to take it.  Tomorrow is another PT session, in a mask.  Not confortable, but not impossible either.  One of my pet peeves is the folks who wear their masks with either their nose or mouth sticking out, supposedly because it is too hot.  If I can do calesthenics and aerobic work wearing a mask properly, I find my sympathy is a bit lacking for their grousing.

 

Mary gouged her heel on a door jamb rough spot.  We corrected that spot, and the heel is healing nicely, considering the cut is right where she walks on the heel, so it is constantly flexing.  we keep it well covered with triple antibiotic and huge cloth bandage squares to keep the dirt out and check it daily.  Makes working in the yard sort of interesting.....

 

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by kappydell

[Littlesister]

Kappydell, I do have copies of every lab test and other test on DH and myself.  I went back checking and no electrolites were done. I should have paid closer attention to that. Seems the last time potassium was checked was almost a year ago. Seems if it's good they just wait a year before checking it again.  In older people that needs to be checked every 3 to 4 months no matter if normal or not. That won't get past me again.  This sitting at home and doctors not calling me is getting on my nerves. SO, they are no longer going to like me or they will let me in hosp. to help take care of DH.  I just raised HELL with the nurses as DH got his breakfast at 7:30 this morning and he takes metformin. That is to be taken before he eats. So he sat there waiting for his medication. Breafast is cold. He is not eating good because of the stomach issue and now the kidney doctor will not let him come home today.  After talking with DH by phone and not being able to talk long with nurses in and out,  I got enough out of him to know that he is not doing well. So I let them have it. Not allowed out of bed, not even to sit in chair. So told them flat out to get him out of that bed and walking around and letting him sit in chair till he is ready to get back in bed or he would not be walking out of hosp. on his feet.  

 

I understand the reason they won't let me in hosp. to be with him, but I am also his caregiver and no matter how many times I have told them he did not fall they think he did. So I took a picture of the bathroom and explained to them toilet is not a floor. leaning forward from toilet with head resting on the toilet paper holder is NOT a floor and to look at how close toilet is to wall. He cannot fall on floor from that angle and he does sit on toilet to get dressed sometimes as he can't always lift his left leg up to get into his pants. Sitting on side of bed to get his pants on is harder for him to do.  So I am going to move the bed over and make room for a chair to go in there.  Our master bedroom is small but I think I can move things around to get a chair in room.  I do help him to get dressed sometimes if he is having problems with stomach that he cannot bend over to get pants on but for most part he can do it. 

The big question is did the defibulitor kick in and shock his heart before he passed out or after he passed out. No way to know that question. But the fact that potassium was the cause of all this mess. The kidneys were not up to par and the fluid pills made that worse.  And as for his GI doctor, he should have already sent him to a hepatic doctor.  I am so over this trying to get answers by way of phone calls I am not getting. So now the horns are coming out. I am going to just raise Hell by phone. 

[snapshotmiki]

Go get 'em, Littlesister!  I'm sorry that you can't be there to see if they even do what they say they will.  Not sure how I would re-act, but probably not well!

[kappydell]

Sic 'em, Sis!  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.  I went to bat for my husband, abd was quite obnoxious to the nursing home folks when I was in there, insisting on getting what I needed from them (although I never got them to stop sending me sweet tea....maybe I should have thrown it?  Not my style though.....)  the head nurse was good once I got his ear (and bribed him with chocolate cake).  Yes the staff will roll their eyes, try to resist you, etc. but hang in there.  They are so hung up on the  "almighty average" that they forget to pay attention to what is right before their eyes.  

So squeak on, wheel!  

 

[Littlesister]

My friend went in to see DH and again he was asleep so she left.  I called him and talked with him and he said he is cold and was swollen.  He didn't sound good at all.  This is going to kill me before it does him.  He is not doing that good. Called the nurses station  and told them to go check on him and what was going on with his being cold and  swollen and he is horse. So she went and checked on him.  I will be calling back in a bit to find out what is going on. I am also going to talk with her about him further as the so called hospital doctor does not speak good English. Not happy with that. He could be good but not his doctor. 

 

I hope and pray none of you have a love one that needs to go to hospital and you have to go through this. I have heard about how it was but never thought I would be one of those going through it. 

[The WE2's]

On 4/28/2020 at 7:38 PM, Littlesister said:

WE2 how do you keep your greenhouses from blowing over?

 

If you notice (hard to see) we have what we call our "Rack"...it's a 4x4 treated piece of wood that has hooks on the patio furniture side...and the uprights are also 4x4 treated wood that's into the ground about 2 foot.  We strap the mini green houses to that "Rack". I used poly-type rope to tie it.  Seems to work just fine.  Could use bungie straps if needed.