Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

So true Hqueen! Tonight the daily dressing change went much better... he practically slept through it! The really bad abrasions on his heel are finally not sticking to the dressings so it's much less painful for him.
He's been doing so well that I was able to get caught up on the laundry and dishes this weekend (except for his work uniforms, but since he won't be going back to work until November at the earliest now, there's no rush on them).
I was able to get out to the garden as well. Picked a 5 gallon bucket of fava beans... which translated out to about 8 cups of beans to freeze. I also got about the same amount (8 cups or so) of peas. Too tired tonight to blanch the peas so I have them in the fridge until tomorrow morning. They will lose some of their sweetness, but that's just too bad.
For dinner last night I cooked up some pasta with kale and 2 small yellow squashes, then cooked some sausage with extra garlic and hot pepper flakes and combined them along with some shredded parmesan--- YUM! Added a salad of tomatoes in basil and garlic, and some sliced cucumbers, then watermelon for dessert. It was delicious, and my blood sugar this morning was 121, even though I'd had pasta. That sure made me feel good!
We had the leftovers for lunch today (still good even when cold) and then decided tonight that no one was hungry enough to bother with fixing any dinner.

The ducks have finally formed 1 flock, and everyone enjoyed free ranging yesterday and again today. I am greatly relieved to not have to sweat that anymore. A couple of night ago, they were running away from me in the pen when I tried to get them to go into the coop; I managed to stumble and fall... right into the nasty, stinky mess they had made of their kiddie pool! Cut my hand too, so I had infection to worry about as well. My shoes finally dried out last night and I took the insoles out to clean them (muddy water! yuck!).

I'm doing the head-desk thing here because I'm so tired. See y'all tomorrow!

 

[Denim Deb]

That's always a good indication that it's time to go to bed.

 

[hqueen13]

Take care of yourself! Glad the ducks have settled down. I used to sleep through my parents cleaning my leg after my surgery as a kid too lol

 

[Britesea]

The garden is chugging along... I finally got one decent cauliflower head, although since I wasn't looking for it almost got away from me.
This morning I harvested my first Rat Tail radishes, my first Hungarian Black chili, some chard and 3 cukes... now to figure out how to incorporate it into dinner...

DH is doing pretty well now; almost all the scabs from the road rash are gone, and the ankle sprain seems to be doing well. The broken finger is healing nicely and he doesn't need to wear the finger splint. So we are down to his wrist and his heel. He's scheduled for surgery on Aug 4, and I really don't know what to expect in that department except the doctor said he would be in a cast for 8 weeks. His heel is slowly getting better-- the deeper "holes" are filling in with new tissue, and less liquid seeps out between changes. We've figured out a routine that minimizes the pain from changing his dressing daily. It takes a long time though, because basically I pour a dilute solution of peroxide over the dressing and wait 30 minutes for everything to soak, then I can pull the dressing off without it sticking. Then wash it with soap and water. Then wait another 30 minutes for it to dry completely before I cover it with fresh gauze pads, then rolled gauze, then an Ace Bandage and finally the walking boot. Based on how much has healed in the last 3 1/2 weeks, I'm thinking we've got maybe another 3 weeks to go.

Having gone through this has made me rethink just how much I need in our first aid kit if SHTF. I only had enough rolled gauze to make one dressing- never thought about needing to change them. I'm debating trying to wash and save the rolled dressings- they aren't getting any liquids on them anymore because the compresses are capturing all of it now. It seems wasteful to just throw them away after one use when they look like they could be washed and bleached and be perfectly fine for re-use even if they aren't sterile anymore. After all, they aren't touching the wound- the compress is. I'm also thinking of making some more rolled bandages by tearing up part of an old sheet and zig-zagging the edges.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad you're getting some goodies from the garden. Have you grown the rat-tail radishes before? I'm anxious to hear how they are! I might just have to get a few seeds and give 'em a try.

Glad to hear DH is on the mend. I guess this was a good trial run for your first aid kit. I need to think along those same lines and see if mine is up to par.

 

[BarredBuff]

Pretty vegetables!

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm wondering what they did for bandages B4. I know I've read books that were written I believe during WWII, and they talk about rolling bandages.

 

[WendyJ]

The church I used to attend had a ladies group that still rolled bandages for emergency kits for third world places. I remember watching them once and being amazed at how much good an old worn out bed sheet could be. (We are Mennonite after all). They didn't even sew the edges, just sewed strips on end, and had a few spool type rollers that would make about 500 foot rolls. A few of those rolls would probably be great in an emergency kit.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like they would be.

 

[Britesea]

@frustratedearthmother I did a little research on how to use the rat tail radishes (radish pods, some sites called them). It appears that cooking them destroys the characteristic heat, just as it does to the traditional radishes (interesting factoid: the heat is caused by two compounds that are kept separate in the cell walls until bitten or cut- the resulting gas is virtually identical to the mustard gas that was used in war, but in such small amounts we find it tasty rather than poisonous). So I ended up making a kind of "no-potato" salad using cauliflower instead of potatoes, hard boiled eggs, chopped celery, dill pickles and radish pods in a dressing of mayo and dijon mustard. It was delish! We also agreed that the pods are tasty just as they are- a little hotter than a spring radish would be... they would be great on a crudites platter.

@WendyJ I wish I had one of those spool rollers! I've got several strips ready to roll up now. I found 2 more fitted sheets in the back of the closet that have a couple of holes in them as well.