the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

what's your suggestion to help a right shoulder???? I really don't want to fall on it, lol!

look at the good one and say to it "This could be you!" and look at the other. that's to encourage it to not do silly things.

the really obnoxious events are when you sleep on something wrong and wakeup and go, "What the heck! I was sleeping!!!!! I was being good!?!?!"

i'm very thankful my chiropractor got me straightened out and the massage therapist has kept me moving better. i still needed a bump once in a while from the chiropractor when i could feel my lower back and hips getting stiff again. haven't needed that for over a year now. his rate is pretty reasonable if i do need to show up, it's like 5 minutes if he's not too busy.

for me though the best thing is to keep moving as much as i can. if i've injured myself i try to take it easy to give things a chance to recover but after a bit i have to get back to moving or my body will start getting worse. my lower back and left knee absolutely have to be used or they will ache even more. mid-winter i try to get exercises done to prevent issues and so about 30 knee bends (carefully some people can't do them without pain - i also have some Tai Chi warmups that i can do) and some back stretches will at least keep me mobile and not too achey.

ibuprofen helps if it gets too painful, but i try to only take some of that right before bed so it can work while i'm sleeping. it does help and i don't need much, but i also don't want to keep taking it all the time because when i do need it to work i want it to work at the lowest dose possible.

Mom drinks wine.

 

[flowerbug]

I'm thinking I'm lucky to not have -- seemingly -- had the accidents y'all did to disable your joints and movements!!

for sure! completely avoid construction jobs of all kinds and working with people who won't listen or are otherwise incompetent, also avoid, baseball, golfing (or pretty much any sport other than swimming), motorcycles, gardening, large animals, rocks and ladders (if you have big plummeting birds avoid those too if you can).

basically, living wrapped in sponges... or in space, but that comes with it's own set of complications...

 

[flowerbug]

we have our starts from the greenhouse.

some new onions to try (Candy and some yellow ones i don't have the name of at the moment), tomatoes (Big Beef), peppers (red and green fairly common types that have done well for us before). i also have a few hot (or mild according to someone else) pepper plants being dropped off at some time this next week i hope so they will all probably end up in one garden where i do have enough room.

finishing up whatever garden weeding this week and planting the onions someplace (outside the fence).

i'm seeing some onion flowers that will bloom soon for the bunching onions and some flower heads starting on the red onion patch. i'm curious for sure how some of these are going to go because the seeds and tops i planted from certain ones were perhaps a walking type (had scapes on top along with the seeds) so if they repeat having a mixed result that will be fun.

 

[flowerbug]

plans for today, mostly whatever weeding and trimming i can get done. the fence line needs to be checked for things i don't want growing on it or over it.

bedstraw, poison ivy, thorn bushes, wild grape vines, horsetail, burrs, thistles, mints, oxalis, etc... make sure it's removed or cut back if i see it.

Mom said she saw some bedstraw the other day in a spot so i'll check that too and try to remove as much of it as i can.

not really fun gardening tasks but they need to be done.

in terms of progress i think i kept the ground ivy from getting out of control. i've not seen any since last year and don't see new sprouts yet anyplace. it may be too early and perhaps the lack of rains is why, but i'll keep an eye out for it anyways. sure don't need any more infestations than we already have.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I had to look up bedstraw. Turns out I have it here too - I just didn't know what it was called.

 

[flowerbug]

I had to look up bedstraw. Turns out I have it here too - I just didn't know what it was called.

it's not a major invasive yet, but my continued efforts at getting rid of it every time i see it do make a lot of difference.

the other pest species i'd like to make more progress on controlling is deer ticks and those are best managed by limiting deer access. i just don't know if i want to put the $ into more fencing or not (which has a lot to do with my plans if i stay here longer term or not).

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday i got some of the north hedge gone through but missed the bedstraw so had to go back today and finish that up. it was not an easy job as i had to open up the fence and then get the bedstraw from the area i opened up and then walk between the two fences (old one and new one) which had piles of dead rotting wood in there and honeysuckle bushes growing right up over it and i could not stand up straight. then work along the fence between the two fences and not fall or screw up my gimpy leg any more. i ended up going back out and then backing in because i did not want to attempt to turn while walking on those chunks of wood. i hope i got it all.

as fun yesterday in the north hedge i got to cut down a tree i'd pollarded before, well i didn't cut it all the way down but i ringed it so i hope it doesn't grow back again. also found a large patch of ground ivy so i spent some time removing that, but it was not super well established so not as hard to remove as what i'd had to get out of the grassy area.

no major poison ivy vines but i did see some new sprouts so later this summer when it is too hot to do something in the sun i can go play in there in the shade (and mosquitoes). one large wild grape vine did get cut off (and i just put the end of the vine up in the tree so it would not come down again). about a dozen burrs cut off. trash picked up. back property access checked out. yes, the bee farmer has been blocking our access point. maybe he won't have bee hives back there this season. if not he's gotta come back and get the carpet chunks he left back there or i'm going to snag them (not that we need them but i don't want them left back there). someone left a 55 gallon metal drum back there (empty). dunno why but heck they could have just dropped it at the metal recycler's yard which isn't too far from here. *smh* the road going back there is a mess. no, no plans on our part to fix it, the people who farm the property to the north are the ones who mess it up, they can fix it.

the rest of today i did some more weeding and puttering around until i had enough. getting pretty warm out there.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds like you had a busy day! Also doesn't sound like a whole lotta fun...but progress was made.

 

[flowerbug]

Sounds like you had a busy day! Also doesn't sound like a whole lotta fun...but progress was made.

any time i'm in the gardens i consider it therapy and i don't really mind weeding or weedy pest control. to me weeds are future fertilizer, mulch, worm food, ladybug habitat, ...

with all the various gravel mulches i spend some time in each garden getting the gravel out of the garden and back onto the pathway or mulched area. the gravel in the dirt makes it harder to scrape. so there's just got to be a state where i'm ok sitting there doing that and listening to the birds or wind chimes and observing what else is going on in that particular space. often it leads me to yet more tasks and i'm also ok with that as long as i can eventually get back to what i really started out there to do as a goal.

today i may spend half an hour on thistle scraping on the neighboring south farm field since i am sick of having to deal with those all the time and i don't want to let them keep invading the grass and gardens next to them. might as well have some fun. scraping can go pretty quickly. i can imagine the "I'm crushing your heads!" (if you are familiar with the show called _The Kids In the Hall_ (Canadian comedy) it can make me laugh).

then more scraping of some daylillies inside the fence and watering and other weeding. all together it will be a busy enough day for me. 3-5hrs is about my limit these days. by next week i hope i'm up to 4-6hrs.

anyways, nearly done with almost all weeding inside the fenced gardens and ready to plant - even some weeding in the strawberry patch would be a good thing today if i can get to them without trampling too many blooming strawberry plants.

no rain in the forecast from here until Memorial Day. those seeds the farmers planted aren't going to have an easy start of it...

 

[flowerbug]

the thistle scraping didn't go easy so i will just have to mow them down next time i get the mower over that ways.

daylilly scraping went fine. as easy as the first round last week. just have to keep at it once a week for the rest of the season. piece of cake.

found more bedstraw today (along the south treeline - which is the original location they first appeared) so i spent time making sure i got that weeded out of there. i definitely do not need it to get worse.

veggie gardens and strawberry patch got watered.

other brother stopped over, we'd not seen him much so it was good to hang out and have some lunch.

RIP friend Joe. not too surprising considering what he'd been going through recently but he still will be greatly missed. quite a character.