Yesterday

 I had a rather good day yesterday.  

Neither knee was troublesome.  Wearing the compression brace for a month helped.

Went grocery shopping again.  I was out of most fruits and I love those for "dessert".  Blueberries, raspberries and blasckberries were on a "buy 2 get one free".  Strawberries are expensive lately, but these were "perfect" so I bought a container anyway.  Found actually ripe Golden Delicious apples.  The grocer thinks "green" is ripe usually.  But still waiting to see peaches, plums and bing cherries...

I finally found egg roll wrappers again.  It had been a couple weeks.  Still looking for cans of straw mushrooms though.  Supply-chain problem, I assume.

Filled the bird-feeders.  The thistle seed feeders for the goldfinches is easy enough.  I buy a 50# bag and store them in gallon containers I keep in the basement refrigerator.  The black oils sunflower seed feeder is harder to fill.  I have to drag out an 8' stepladder (which is getting harder every year) to get high enough to pour a bucketload of seeds into the feeder.  But the cardinals and many other "nice" birds love them, so I do it.  Also refilled the 2 suet feeders.

I grow lettuces and celery and bok choy in trays under lights in Winter.  They are "cut and grow again" crops.  But they eventually die, so I had to replant.  Some red and green lettuces were getting to harvestable size, so I carried the trays upstairs to the Southern exposure plant stand (and I assist them with a light).

Did 3 loads of laundry.  Might not seem like a lot to some of you, but that was a lot to me.  Going up and down the stairs was a pain (literally), but got that all done for a week.

Dinner was stir-fried chicken with bok choy, mushrooms, green and red bell peppers, and onions,  Sauce was chicken broth, cornstarch, minced garlic and ginger, a few minced hot peppers, and sesame oil/soy sauce added after.

Played "toy-toss" with Lori after.  She is the only one who likes toys much.  Laz likes wand toys sometimes, but only to chew on the strings.  

Cleaned the litterboxes.

Do I lead an exciting life or what?  LOL!

The Fenceside Perennial Bed, Part 2

So, more and later pics when it was in its prime...

First, I have to say that I am bad at remembering names.  If I see a flower name, I can usually see the image in my mind.  But seeing an image doesn't get me the name all that well.  I envy those who can do both.

Stoke's Aster.  It may be my favorite perennial.  It lasts darn near forever (I think these are 20+ years old), blooms dependently, and never seems to have a weed problem.

Not sure.  Lobelia?  Salvia?

I love Purple Coneflowers!

Rose Of Sharon?  They didn't last long.

Moonbeam Coreopsis, I think...  They didn't like the garden competion much, so I moved the survivors to a large deck pot where they have resided happily ever since.

'Autumn Joy' Sedum in final color... 

A domesticated hybrid Goldenrod.  It died after several years, but I sure liked it.

Some Aster?

LC's burial spot, surrounded by lovely flowers...

And Skeeter's...

I finally gave up on edging flowers and planted species daffodils.  They still come up, but there are fewer each year.  Grass gets in and gives them some problems.  I planted crocuses among them.  The voles got at those pretty fast.  I'll have to redo that.

So that was the perennial bed in the early years.  Nothing lasts forever, though.  Spring will be the time to fix problems.

 

The Fenceside Perennial Bed, Part 1

I went through my photos and picked out early and prime-growth pictures of the fenceside perennial bed.   I'm glad I separate my processed pictures into years/month/subject.  I have one folder for just "Yard/Garden", LOL!  But there are too many to post all at once, so there are 2 posts.

About 30 years ago, I decided to establish a flowerbed along the fence, about 50' long and 6-8' deep.  I had a rototiller, but it wasn't a good one.  It would go in reverse (even though there was a lever for that) and would only go 6" deep at best.  I hired a guy with a BIG DRIVABLE ONE and he got down 12".  I dug in amendments (compost, peat moss) myself afterwards.

I planted annual flowers and a few shrubs for a few years, but that got massively tiring after a while.  So I decided to switch to perennials.  I knew little about them, but studied garden catalogs and made some choices.  Some worked well, some not so well ("perennial" can be a bit vague sometimes - from 2 years to nearly forever).  A few years later, I studied more concerning "expected lifetime" and chose those 10+ years.  I also added a small 5' plastic pond.

Some are 20+ years and still growing well.  So here are the early pictures of the bed.  There may be some repeats of one flower or another, but I will try to delete those.

The 1st year bare-bones.

Flags to locate very small transplants...

Mature potted perennials (Stokes Aster, a wonderful long-lived plant, still flowering).

Coreopsis?

Columbine.  Spring-bloomer.  They didn't do well in the bed, but they keep showing up in the shady parts of the backyard.

An assortment.  The purple ones in the back are Purple Loosestrife.  I ordered Coreopsis 'Golden Gain' and the nursery messed up.  Loosestrife is invasive.  The nursery replaced my order, but it took 5 years to finally kill off the Loosestrife.

I forget the name of both these, but they didn't last many years.  Pretty, though.

Stella D' Oro daylilies.  Bloom several times each year.

Lupine.  Also short-lived...

'Autum Joy' Sedum.  Deep red Fall color.  Dependable.  Clippings root in water for propagation.

A next-year look at the bed.  

And another...

This one isn't exactly along the fence, but is across from the garden path.  Stella D' Oro on both sides, Purple Coneflowers along the bottom, and I think I put annuals in the center.  

You can see one garden path.    It actually goes behind and on the other side.  I dug out the paths and back-filled with 3" of gravel.  I thought that would defeat the weeds, but it didn't.  But they sure are easy to pull out in gravel!

Tomorrow, Part 2...

Invasive Vine

I have a severe problem with Periwinkle.  It is a broadleaf evergreen vine that keeps its glossy leaves in winter. It’s fast growing, making a six-inch (15-cm) thick weed-suppressing mat, rooting from junctures in its long tendrils as they spread along the ground.  It has a pretty blue flower, which saved it from immediate attacks.  Had I known what it was like, I would have killed it immediately!

It is very difficult to eliminate.  First, the roots grow several feet deep, so it just resprouts when pulled or cut.  Second, it is basically immune to most herbicides (water-based, like Round-Up) because it has a waxy coating on the leaves that repel water.  It takes an oil-based one (and those are seriously nasty).  Third, even small bits of it will rereoot on ground-contact.  Fourth, the stuff grows more vigorously than English or Poison ivy (and I have those too from the Southern neighbor).

I didn't plant it!  It spred into my yard from the yard East of me.  That place seems to get new residents every few years.  One from 2 or 3 times ago planted it and it came through the fence.  It was a relatively ignored area with a few hardy shrubs.

The neighbors after the one that planted it were able to get rid of it by mowing.  Their yard was void of any landscaping.  Constant mowing exhausts the roots and it dies.  I am not that lucky.  It is growing in a narrow strip between the fence and garden.  A regular push mower can fit, but it is a real pain to maneuver.  A gas mower is powerful enough, but mine died a few years ago and I bought a good electric one.  But it can't handle such a tall thick mat and I have to lift it around a few obstacles.

It can be killed with oil herbicides, deep repeated digging, regular mowing, or smothering under black plastic.  Through my failure to kill it where it entered the yard, it has gotten among my perennial beds.  I can't use any of those methods there very well.  I could dig up all the perennials, pot them, and watch for any growth in the pots.  I'm getting too old for that.  

I may have to redo most of the perennial bed.  It is old, and most of the flowers have been dying off anyway.  The Euonymous and Butterfly bushes need to be removed due to age or growing out of control.  The dwarf apple trees it is growing around have never produced edible fruit (squirrels and insect pests ruin them every year).  In fact, if I cut down the dwarf apples, I can use the wood in the smoker/grill.

That would allow me to get in the whole area to mow the periwinkle rototill it, and then cover it with black plastic for a year.  Apparently, that would be sufficient.  Or I could just get a landscaping service to do it.  And then replant it myself the next year.  

I can still do that myself.  And I know a lot more about good perennials and bushes than I did when I planted it 25 years ago!

But dang, periwinkle is an evil vine!

Tomorrow, the perennial bed at its prime...

US Football Game

I am not really a fan of US football.  But I do follow the local team sometimes out of habit.  Some teams have good years and bad ones.  The Washington team is "sort of" mine and they have had bad years recently.  

And some teams have established rivalries over the years.

The Dallas Cowboys and the Washington team (formerly Redskins, now Commanders) have that sort of rivalry.  In the last regular season game yesterday, they matched up.  The Commanders had nothing to lose and the Cowboys had everything to gain by winning and the game seemed pointless for the Commanders.

I expected a massive loss for the Washington team.  But you sometimes forget pride as a motivator.  It is sometimes easy to think of athletes as just "paid professionals" just earning (ridiculous) salaries.  But they get where they are mostly by drive and willpower and competitiveness.  

And as much as some get traded around from team to team, they do seem to bond among each other wherever they are.  Teams that are a group succeed.  Those that are just a collection of individuals don't.  And that applies the men's teams and women's teams (I love women's college basketball).

So, yesterday, with nothing to gain, the Washington Commanders beat the crap out of the Dallas Cowboys.

Hurray!  😂😅😆😊

Did Some Things

After complaining about minor problems, I meant to list things I managed to do anyway.  OK, I'm a couple days late...

1.  I have 2 birdfeeders.  One is thistle seed for the goldfinches.  Actually 2 feeders there on a movable pipe stand.  Those are easy to refill.  I buy thistle seed in 50# bags and store them in gallon plastic jugs for easy refill.

2.  The other is the black oil sunflower seed feeder for the cardinals, jays, titmouses etc etc.  That one takes the 8' stepladder to refill and is awkward even then.  The stepladder was in the far backyard where I was repairing the garden enclosure chicken wire crushed by heavy snow 2 years ago. 

I dragged it to the sunflower feeder liming all the way.  It could have been worse.  I might have had to just drag it.  But I got it set up.  I had the bucket of sunflower seeds at hand and dumped them in.  And I refilled the 2 suet cages.  I can already see that the birds are appreciating both.

3.  Indoors, from outside, my tray plantings of lettuces and carrots and celery were a mess and there were aphids.  I clipped off what was useful of the lettuce and sprayed the carrots with an organic soap.  Took a week to eliminate them.  They don't seem to like celery.  

4.  I have a 2' x 4' plastic box I mix new soils in.  But this time, I dumped the empty trays of freeze-killed lettuce in.  Watered them slightly and pulled all old roots and a few weeds out.  Mixed in some organic fertilizer and refilled them.  Re-planted them.  Seedlings are emerging now.  Hurray.

5.  But that meant they needed light.  I turned on the light stand power and timer and discovered half the bulbs were burned out.  The lowest ones, of course.  It is really hard to get down on my knees to do bulb replacement.  I spilled a bowl of thistle seeds indented to the pollinator garden and had to sweep it it all back into the bowl.  More bending at the knees...

6.  I got the light stand lights replaced so all are working.  I buy them by the case.  If you want to know, 2500 lumens and 5000K is the best combination for seedling growth.  Since they are on 14 hours per day, they only last a year though.

7.  So, after the lights were working, I had to replant some trays.  And because the trays can overflow with watering and the are electric lights below, I had to get trays under them to catch extra water.   And I have to match trays and emerging seedling to height.  You want the seedlings to stay close to the lights.

8.  So I had to move trays around according to their height.  Lifting objects above my shoulder is literally a "pain".  But it had to be done and I did.  Ouch and all that...

9.  I dragged 2 trash barrels of mown leaves to the compost bin.  The previously composted material had dropped 8" so there was room for more.  Carrying them there was "left foot forward, then right foot forward".  Repeat for 100'...

10.  I collected fallen branches, slowly.  I cut them apart with the bowsaw.  I have enough for a small fireplace fire when I want one.  I had thought to do it New Years Eve, but I was too tired then.  

11.  I did some shopping at Walmart.  For whatever reason, they sell Fancy Food real cheap.  While I was looking for the varieties The Mews like, 2 ladies were also there.  One commented on my cat mask and asked about what I knew about getting their cats to eat.

I mentioned that sprinkling a few kibbles on the top got their hunger activated.  Also that dipping a fingertip in the canned stuff and rubbing it on their nose made them lick it and activated eating.  They were thrilled at the advice.  

12.  I repaired the vacuum cleaner.  Had to take it mostly apart at the bottom, but found the input chute was clogged.  That was a real pain to clear but I finally managed it.  Works great again now.  So I suppose I will have to clean the whole house now.

Why Few Posts Lately Here

I used to post more often here.  Mostly about projects, sometimes about world events, sometimes about complaints.  Well, I kind of got inactive for a while.  I simply stopped doing projects for a while...

It's health issues.  I'm not ill, but I've been having increasing physical problems that make it harder to just "do stuff" and it is really annoying .  Let me make it clear that I understand many people my age (72) have far more serious problems and a significant % of the world population would dearly love to have "only" my problems.

So this isn't a competition.  But my issues are MY issues and I'm having some difficulties adjusting to them.  A bit of background and a list:

1.  Back in the early 1960s, my town sent out DDT fogger trucks to kill mosquitoes.  No one thought DDT harmed humans.  We kids rode or bicycles in and out of the fog behind the truck just for fun.  Shortly after, I started to develop slight hand tremors to the point where building plastic models became difficult,  "glue everywhere". The past decade, those have been getting worse.

2.  Two decades ago, my right knee started failing occasionally.  I had to be careful on stairs.  Thge past 2 months, my left knee has been a problem and it has gotten worse.  I even bought a velcro strap knee compression support.  It helps, but I walk kind of stiff-legged lately.  

I'm pretty sure I know what the cause is.  I sit with one ankle up on the opposite knee (either way).  I think it used to be called the "English Sitting Position".  Which is probably OK in itself, but when you have cats on your lap, it puts a torque on the knee (of the ankle on the other knee).  After decades of that, I think I have ruined both of them.

But the result is that I don't exactly run around the house or yard "doing stuff" lately.

3.  I'm getting too many muscle cramps!  At night in bed, I get them in my thigh, calf and ankle on either leg (randomly and never more than one place at the same time.  But they feel like my muscle is about to tear loose from the bone.  I say "bad words" when that happens.  Sometimes no problems for a couple weeks, them every night for days.  Doesn't happen in daytime.  I can't think of a cause for them.  I get enough water.

In daytime, I get rib muscle cramps if I twist around to look behind me or lift something awkwardly.  

I get finger-clenches, too.  Holding anything tightly for even short periods can cause it.  Which means most garden tools can cause it.  Just holding the steering wheel for a while can cause it.  But it doesn't happen immediately.  Usually doing that stuff is OK at the time.  I pay for it in the evening making dinner.  I  prepare a lot of fresh food, which involves a lot of knifework.  All of a sudden, my fingers on the holding hand clench and I can't hold the knife.  Typing for an hour or more also causes problems later the next day.  I don't know what causes the delay, but it is predictable.

I use a lot of Aspercreme and Lidocaine ointments these days!

4.  I've been sleeping badly.  Not that I'm not in bed.  I am sometimes in bed 10-12 hours but getting maybe 6 hours sleep.  Partly, a heated waterbed is addictive and comfy, but I've had heated waterbeds since I was 25 and kept normal sleeping hours most of that time.  I used to be a morning person, but now the idea of getting up at 9 am feels weird.  Sometimes after being up 10 hours, I just want to go to bed again at 9 pm but that means I would be getting up at 6 am and I don't know what to do at 6 am.  I don't know what has changed.  

5.  So I haven't been as active lately as in the past.  And therefore have less to post about here.  But I think I need to take advantage of my medical insurance.  I got a card from them encouraging me to visit a doctor for a "basic exam".  I think I will take them up on that big time.  

My primary Dr (geriatric internist) didn't seem to understand what I was asking for as a "physical" 2 years ago (may have to change Dr).  But I'm thinking of many things to be done.

Full scale physical exam and many tests.  I made a long list based on several websites (I may post it separately in another post).  It may take months to get it all done.  But I've put some things off too long and my New Year Resolution is to get them all done this year.  If there are problems, better to discover them now than later (and it is really already "later").  

Maybe some things that trouble me now can be fixed.  But more importantly, maybe some things that would trouble me more in the future can be fixed or avoided.  

Eating small amounts of meat and lots of fruits&veggies doesn't prevent all problems.  It helps, but isn't a cure-all.  😟