Tag: Disability

Jam and Garden Update

Wolsey1 Comment

I managed to make Jam last Friday. I took it easy all week, so I could do it.

This is fifteen jars of strawberry rhubarb jam. I could not have done it without over six pounds of rhubarb my real estate gal brought over to me. I got up super early and hit the business version of Costco at 7am, and grabbed the strawberries. So far, in my area, Costco has better fruit than anywhere, and it’s cheaper in bulk.

I was up and jamming, done by 10:30am, and back to bed for the rest of the day! That’s definitely a success because I got it done. Baby steps!

As for the garden? See for yourself.

My garden is looking good. You’ll notice I am missing broccoli in the upper left bed. I harvested it, and then all it was doing was attracting cabbage moths like crazy. I decided to pulled it. It will compost it down for next years beds. My bush tomatoes are going crazy in the back. Even with careful pruning I am no match for them.

My cucumbers on the lower left are also doing amazing. I hope I have a lot to can as pickles!

This is my old broccoli bed. It was planted with beet seeds that I soaked overnight. I also laid out some of that Rainbird irrigation tubing so I can keep them watered with the rest of the garden.

I was using the dripper ends on the broccoli going to each plant, but honestly, I prefer the drip lines. They provide enough water, and may not go to each plant, but setting up individual drippers takes time, and is hard on me to hunch over and get it sorted out. This takes minutes and works just as well.

This right here? That is the first tomato of the season. Getting the 55 day tomato seeds from botanical interests really allowed me to hedge my bets. I got a version called Glacier from Botanical Interests which is a semi-determinate, whatever that really means is up in the air for me.

I have ordered seeds from a few different places, but I find Botanical Interests has way better packets, and has information on the plants inside the packets too. Plus, I feel I get a higher germination rate on their seeds. One of the guys who runs that business has a Youtube channel called Epic Gardening. He has good videos, and tutorials, and explanations on there, with a generous side of sales. That’s how I learned about Botanical Interests, so I guess it worked out.

I am in zone 8b, and am closer to the coast. I am in a weird little microclimate that is always breezy too. Like you could be blocked on either side, but our little valley is constantly just a little breezy to outright windy. In this heat, that is a bonus.

While I am not a fan of temperatures above 70F, my garden is loving it. I have been in the Pacific Northwest my entire life, and we hit record temps all July, and are looking to do it for August as well. I figure since this is happening, my beets may get a good bit of sun and warmth to grow up.

This is the first time I have ever had this much space, and a lot of the plants I am growing are first time plants. I am shocked and pleased at how well it’s all going.

Disability and Jam Making

Wolsey2 Comments

My real estate gal, who sold us the house we are in, is an absolute hero. She got the sale despite multiple bids, by telling the seller our history. We are first time home owners, and we’ve both been homeless as kids. That we’ve fought our entire lives, and now that we can buy a house, we didn’t have enough to win a bid war of any kind.

The owner was older, and he chose our bid because he wanted to give us a chance, and even left us a lawn mower, and extra light bulbs, and fridge filters. The guy was a saint.

She still comes and checks in on us from time to time, and last weekend she brought me some rhubarb. My rhubarb plants are tiny, and won’t be ready for harvest for a year or more and she’s a gardener too, and had enough to spare. I was very touched by her gifts.

6.5 pounds of cleaned and cut rhubarb!

My plan was not to do more jam canning until this coming Friday, but with the lovely gift, I felt I should probably do it Sunday anyways. So I went to bed Saturday night fully intending on getting to the store in the morning.

Unfortunately for me, my body was not cooperative. Standing all day and jam canning on Friday, after a full work week was already as much as I could do. I woke up Sunday, and that was it. I was done. I was already sore upon waking. I would have liked to be able to just go go go, but I have a disability and sometimes I just can’t.

Then, I remember I could process the rhubarb by freezing it, and could do the jam this weekend. That gave me days to rest up in preparation for this.

Processing rhubarb.

I cleaned, and cut up all the rhubarb. I peeled the bigger stalks, but left the smaller ones whole. I laid them out on cookie sheets and froze them in batches.

I then packed them into freezer ziplock. I packed two jam bags with the exact amount I need for the jam I am making, and I still have pounds of it leftover. My wife is thinking of making a pie out of some of it. This is honestly garden gold right here.

Sometimes you can only do what you can do. I do have a physical disability, but it would be the same if my disability wasn’t physical in nature. Sometimes you just have to slow down. I have to remind myself that it’s okay to slow down.

I am trying to give myself the grace I would give someone else. If someone came to me and said I can’t do this today. I am already sore, and it might push me into a painful situation where I will go to work the next day and struggle? I’d totally give them the out.

But I think it’s harder to give ourselves that same grace. It’s easy to tell ourselves we can power through, that everyone else is fine, why not us? It think that is a hidden struggle with disability, especially if you have an invisible one.

When I first started having problems with my joints, I did that all the time. It ended up with me in pain, flat on my back. Now, if I slow down, and just do what I can? It just works out better.

I am still going to get that rhubarb jam made, but it will be on my timeline, when I am able. That’s okay.

Everything is Planted & I hurt

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My normal work schedule is Monday through Friday. I took off Thursday, and my wife and I made three trips to Lowes. We got 24 bags of dirt, 12 at a time, and 5 huge bags of beauty bark. As you can see in the pictures the beauty bark filled out the rest of the hoop house aka the Squirrel Interdiction cage.

The problem with having a physical disability is you like to forget and think you can do things you used to do 30 years ago. I am in rough shape. I not only filled the raised beds, added the bark, but I mowed the lawn.

My lawn mower saga is now over. I had ordered that lawn mower from Lowes, and they no-called, no-showed me three times, so I canceled and ordered a Makita battery mower from Amazon.

I was just going to test it to make sure it worked, so I could break down the box, but it was so cool, I mowed the back yard. My grass is only in tufts becuase they used nasty glass and garbage and rock filled dirt to level the lot, so it’s a bumpy nasty yard to mow.

We also have an issue with the driveway as they only put a bare inch or so of gravel over the crappy fill dirt, and it is growing so many weeds now. We are opting to use 2 cups of rock salt in 1 galloon of water to kill the weeds. I have sympathy at trying to get a house ready for sale, but a lot of corners were cut all over.

So anyways, I have things set up in the garden finally, and I was starting to wonder if I had committed a bit of overkill on the hoop house and chicken wire, until the day after I planted it all.

The damn cat, which is lovely and beautiful and feral, had dug up my mint bed to pee in it. I had to drag out the chicken wire and wrap each of those small round beds to keep him out.

All this is to say, I am dead up against a wall of sore and exhuastion today. I spent the day in bed and watched Good Eats on Discovery+ with the wife. She made game maps next to me while I dozed.

I have so much more to do, that it’s nuts. I have 9 more curtains for the house, a kitchen cabinet box, and a coffee table. I’d have been done with this in a few days when I was healthier. Not so much now. I have to take each item day by day.

Like for instance, today I was going to sew one set of curtains, but I just can’t. I hurt. It’s really hard to be able to work with your hands, and be prevented because of your body’s failings.

I am trying to be patient with myself and happy that at least the garden is planted. I will need to top the beds with dirt in winter, and maybe transplant the strawberries to a fuller raised bed, but it’s in its final form. Now, even when I am hurt and sore, I can still do the little planting things. As this condition progresses, I am set up to continue with my garden which brings me a lot or joy.

Garden Plans

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-First published on Tumblr on 4/10/23 before I realized Tumblr has no real archival function.

For most people, they would probably have knocked out this garden on a weekend. I mean, I would have when I was in my 20s or 30s.

However, because I live with a degenerative physical disability, I take time. It took me about a week, working like an hour or two at a time to just dig out the sod, and it took me three different days to do the raised beds.

It’s very nice to see my work come to fruition, but it’s bittersweet because it’s a noticeable loss of ability to take this long to get it done, with recovery periods between each work period.

But, look at my soon to be garden. It’s a mess because it’s in progress. I am going to put chicken wire over the whole hoop house/greenhouse thing, and that way, the squirrels, cats, raccoons, and possums can’t get into my beds.

It’s a 10 foot by 20 foot hoop house frame for about $200 on amazon. The three blue beds are about $200 each on amazon as well.

I chose expensive metal raised beds because 1) I won’t have to redo them, as they won’t degrade like wood, and 2) my physical condition is worsening and raised beds are easier to work with for bending and mobility. I am looking to the future when my body is worse, so if I get it all in now, I will still have it then.

Ideally, I would have liked to get this all in before the last frost, but we own the house so I don’t have to rush. Everything I get to work on this year will be there for me next year.

I have to build in recovery days. Like I don’t have pictures, but I started the chicken wire, and I overdid it a little. It took me three days of soreness and exhaustion to recover. I will put up pictures when that phase is done.

It’s so weird owning a home, where I can do anything I want. I never thought I would own one. It’s like minecraft in real life. Each little project I get to keep, and my world is better for it.

Little Blue House Projects

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With my craft/sewing area almost done, I have a bunch of projects for Little Blue House.

  1. Build a cabinet box. This was what the shit contractor was suppose do. That got paid $275 to do. That they did not do. I need to build and install a cabinet box on the other side fo the dishwasher. I plan to leave it open, paint it, and use it to store large cookie sheets. My stumbling block is that I am trying to straighten out my cupped plywood. I am also partially terrified of my circular saw. It’s a big spoon project because I have anxiety about it. When I get my plywood straightened, I just have to do it and get it over with to not worry about it anymore.
  2. Curtains for the wardrobe craft overflow bedroom. I have the curtain. I sewed it all up. I just need to put up the curtain rod.
  3. Buy a rug for the craft area. I can paint without it, but it would be nice to have a “disposable” flooring for my painting. I am messy.
  4. Put together two more garden beds. I put one together, which took me like an hour and a half and 144 bolts. I bought dirt that will arrive tomorrow. Dirt costs way too FUCKING much money.
  5. Arrange the first three garden beds. I need enough space to build a chicken wire cage around them to prevent the squirrels from eating my food. The great squirrel interdiction shall begin eventually. Shoveling dirt into the beds will be a lot of work for my broken body. Gardening is pushing my physical abilities by a lot.
  6. Curtains. I have to get fabric and make curtains. I’d buy them, but I just don’t like what is on sale. I want white fabric backed curtains so little blue house has white curtains from the outside to match the trim but cool curtains on the inside. I have to sew those. It’s not a huge project, but it tires me out so much.
  7. Screens! All of them are garbage. Like dry rotted and old, and we have cats. So I have to replace every screen in the house. I literally can’t remember that when I go to the hardware store. I forget the minute I walk in and never buy screening, spline, or a spline roller. My wife worries about how hard it will be, but it’s like a 15 minute job per screen if I had the materials.

I like having a new house, but I am a very picky everything-in-its-place kind of person, and it’s a lot. I am over 50 with a degenerative condition, and I am so tired. Sometimes I just can’t do things. 30 years ago I’d be done with everything right now. It’s hard to be kind to yourself when you can’t keep up with your physical capabilities.