Physical Gripes

As always, I approach any complaints of mine by first recognizing that I am generally fortunate and others have worse complaints.  But mine are mine and they are the only ones *I* have ever experienced.  And so many ailments are impossible to compare; a person with a constant itch, a person with occasional migraines, and a person with sciatica can never really compare how they feel.

Me, I get muscle cramps in my legs, my hands and my upper rib side.  Not at the same time fortunately, but always by surprise and every few days or nights.

I understand the hand cramps, where all of a sudden my whole left hand will claw up.  It happens about 2 hours after I've been doing yardwork.  I'm technically right-handed, but I suspect I was a natural lefty as a child and was taught not to be.  That used to be common.  Regardless, I tend to do many things left-handed.  Like pulling weeds and sometimes in tool use.

I try not to overdo it.  But sometimes I'm fine working for hours and no problems; sometimes an hour work causes left-hand cramps.  And the cramps always start as I'm preparing dinner.  I like to prepare fresh food (lots of raw vegetable work), so there is a lot of knife-work involved.  And that's when the cramps start.

I'm considering the possibility that I actually don't get enough salt...  That may seem strange given modern eating habits, but I eat mostly fresh food  and don't add much salt to my food.  It's not especially deliberate, but I think I may start drinking more Gatorade (an electrolyte drink for anyone not familiar with it).

Then there are the ribside cramps.  I originally thought "heart problem", but they occur on both sides randomly.  Usually after I twist around too much.  So its not a heart threat.  Oddly, it used to occur mostly while I was kneeling on the floor cleaning the cat litter boxes.  I have to pound on my afflicted side and do "wall push-ups" to stretch the rib muscles.

And I got a surprise the past few months.  Because I twisted my right knee in April and kneeling became painful (a whole different problem) I started lifting the litter boxes onto my workbench

[Bizarre but true timing.  I just had a leg cramp and had to walk around for 15 minutes and stretched the right leg each step.  I took a small amount of salt and large glass of water.  It helped.]

and cleaning them up there.  It is actually MUCH easier that way and I will continue to do it that way even if/when my knee heals.  Lets me sweep away loose litter from around them too.

Usually, the leg cramps happen while I am laying in bed.  No reason I know; I'm just laying there motionless and it starts.  Always the right quadricep.  It feels like the muscle is going to tear loose from the bone.   

I suppose it was because I was weeding and planting in some crowded space so I had to squat awkwardly, so it happened while I was still awake.  But usually, I'll just be laying there in bed and it happens.  

Speaking of the right knee, it has been 3 months since I originally injured it.  I wish I had a good cause to blame but it is only stupid.  All my life, I have tended to sit with one ankle up on the opposite knee (both ways).  And I fidget!  So I shake my on-the-knee foot.  I have probably loosened my knee joints that way (though some thought says that OUGHT to strengthen the muscles there).

I can walk almost normally again, but I still can't put my right ankle on my left knee because it seems to twist the knee.  It has happened before but healed after a couple weeks.  I hope it is not permanent.  To kneel while doing yardwork, I have to wear knee pads.  You know those knee pads that carpet installers wear?  I use them.

I'm used to injuring myself and healing fast.  Or at least "eventually".  Years ago, I threw a rock at a groundhog and strained my rotator cuff.  Couldn't raise my arm above the shoulder for 2 months, but it healed just fine after that.

I think I had better start being more careful.  And some preventative exercises might be in order.  I have a bicycle, maybe I better start using it.  Or at least walking a mile a few days a week.

I sure don't want to be using a walker in 10 years.  Or taking medications either... 

Change In Wildflower Design

I was looking at the 2 areas I was surrounding by inset edging, and realized an error.  I had intended the Lachymistra Firecracker, a very pretty purple-leaf and yellow-flower plant, to be enclosed in a small area I could mow around and prevent from spreading. 

But I laid out 2 large areas.  OOPS!  So I had 5 40' lengths of edging; 3 in one shape and 2 in a circle.  Time to change that.  I changed things to a 40' circumference circle for the Lachymistra Firecracker; an 80' circumference circle for the transplanted Black-Eyed Susans, Purple Coneflowers,  Dwarf Butterfly Bushes, Knockout Roses, and Goldenrods; and a kidney-bean shape of 80' circumference for the wildflower seeds and some local weeds with rather nice flowers (they may be volunteer Pinks from some other yard). 

So now the edging looks like this...

The spaces between the edging are mowable widths...

And nice walkable paths...

I finished the digging of the trench to set the edging down in for the farthest back part today.  It was exhausting.  The trench had to be edged with a garden fork to get through the stones or regular spade where the soil was stone-free, loosened in the center with a heavy pick, and loose soil removed with a trenching shovel.

And I'm only 2/5ths done! 

But an hour a day gets things progressing.  3 more hours will do all the edging-trench digging, and who can't use more exercise? 

Rototillering The Front Lawn Soil

My Troy-Bilt Pony rototiller is the type with the digging tines at the rear.  The first kind I bought 25 years ago was a front-tine tiller with free-moving wheels, and those are AWEFUL.  The front-tines jump over everything and you mostly have to hold it back to let the tines dig into the soil (It's like making a mule go backwards).  30 minutes of that, and you have put in a full day's work!

The Troy-Bilt (and this is not an ad for them - I'm just really happy with it) has geared wheels and the digging tines behind them.  So the wheels have a set speed and actually prevent the tines from pushing the whole thing forward (mostly).  So you are steering it more than horsing it around.

There is also a sled-like bar under the chassis that controls how deep the tines can dig down.  Trust me, when the soil is hard it sure is easier to let the tines dig down just 2" rather than trying for 6". 

So I went over the entire front area 1-2" deep for a first shot today.  The area is about 2500 square feet (232 square meters).  It took 1.5 hours.  It was difficult to break down the track treads, but I got most of them turned into pellets.  I stopped for the day.  I was exhausted...

That doesn't mean I wasn't pleased with the results.  The hard-dried track-tread marks were all ground up, and that was all I hoped for on the first run-through.  Tomorrow, I will set the depth sled-bar another 2" lower and see how that works. 

I would LIKE to get the new soil tilled up loose to 6" deep (the maximum depth my hand-managed rototiller will allow) so that the grass will grow deep roots and hold the ground against heavy rains. 

There will be some annoyances.  I already discovered there is a large rock firmly in the ground (meaning I couldn't pry it out with a shovel).  And there are a few places where the rototiller just jumps up suddenly suggesting others I don't see yet.

In hindsight, I wish I had just had the contractor dump the 2 truckloads of soil and spread it out myself.  Spreading the soil by rake and shovel would have been easier than the rototillering.  But it seemed a good idea at the time.

But it will all get loosened enough for planting lawn grass while the weather is warm, so all will work out in the end even if I have to do more after-work than I expected.  Looking at the most positive view of this, I'll just say "Who can't use a bit more exercise"?  LOL!

More tomorrow...