Saturday Happenings

The Mister fell AGAIN this morning as he was walking cross the living room to the kitchen to refill the humidifier container. It seems that when he is carrying something in one hand it puts his balance off enough to cause the fall. This time a nasty elbow skin tear. Lots of blood. He simply does NOT pay attention and moves along without thinking. He did not trip! He just fell over. I watched it happen. DANG do I EVER HATE cleaning up the bloody messes. I have to move a kitchen chair next to him so he can pull himself up to a standing position. 

Today it's raining and I have been busy - before the fall - slicing and dicing fresh carrots and celery in prep for stew or soup or something. I also have a loaf of bread just out of the oven. It is the frozen style and bakes really well and is easy peasy! Rhodes is the brand. There are packs of either 3 or 5 frozen loaves in a bag. The cost is about $1.00 per loaf and it is very good!

Now back to nurse duty as most of the bleeding has stopped and  bandaging is required. See attached photos of injury.

Hangin' in here....Not a happy camper. 

tap on image for better view

With Help....

I have started a new fermenting project - cauliflower and carrots this time without pickling spices or vinegar. Hope it turns out tasty! See recipe below. 

I had to have help in the kitchen to prepare this. In fact not just in the kitchen. On June 20 my left knee gave out as I was getting up from the table. Down I went and knew it wasn't a good thing. Both knees have been giving me trouble lately when trying to get up from any sitting position. After a doctor visit and a very awful brace which I can't get on properly, I've resorted to a wide ace bandage to keep the torn left lateral collateral ligament of my knee in place. The healing may take months! I do not take pain meds, and my old right shoulder injury and right sciatica have flared up due to having to bear my weight on the borrowed walker.

So... I'll just keep on keepin' on! No choice here. The Mister helps cut my vegtables, carries things and washes dishes. Important!

•  Fermented Cauliflower and Carrots

1 medium head of cauliflower - wash and trim out florets

4 or 5 carrot sticks

2 cloves of garlic smashed

1 TBS sea salt

1 Qt non-chlorinated water

Dissolve sea salt in water - pour over, and weigh down to be sure all is under brine.

Ferment at least 2 weeks up to two months at room temperature. Keep out of direct sun.

Transfer to jar, with brine, lid and store in refrigerator. Alternate recipe below:

A Tale...true

Across the road from my house when I was a pre-teen, there was a deep woodland where the neighborhood kids played, mostly war games. It was the 40's. We were nurses, soldiers, civilians, had stick guns, and really got into role playing. There were trails all through those woods and small hidey-holes and bush barricades. One year the gang decided to all pitch in together and dig an underground hut. We "borrowed" shovels and other tools, unknown to parents, and dug out our space in the ground. This activity was a big secret. Pieces of wood, nails, hammers also were part of the project. Finally it was large enough with a scooped-out entrance to be a fun place to be in for short times. There were comic books, benches, flashlights and candles too. We had smuggled in Tootsie Rolls, bubble gum, lollipops, and crackers. The flat roof was made of wood planks covered with branches and leaves to make the entire project invisible. At least we thought it was. It's a wonder we didn't set the woods on fire!

One day, when playing around the area, I stepped on a leftover board directly onto an old embedded rusty nail that went right into my left foot joint that was under the big toe. Yeow! I stepped on the board with the other foot and pulled my sneakered, punctured foot loose. It took some work. I was by myself and later returned home never saying anything to anyone about my injury. It didn't even bleed. About 3 or four days later when my foot was screaming with pain and was hot, even around my ankle, I told my mother about it. She had me soak it in epson salts and gave me sulfa tablets. The next thing I remember was being taken to the hospital and having to have surgery. They said they had to scrape the bone. Apparently not only did I have blood poisoning, I had terrible reaction to sulfa. It was something to do with bone marrow malfunction. My dad had to solicit his lodge members for blood donors and there were many transfusions. The numerous penicillin shots, given regularly in one side of my bottom and then in the other for days, yes - DAYS seemed to get me on a recovery road.

Now there is nothing more trouble in the passageways of a Catholic hospital than an energetic 10 year old, recovering in a wheelchair, running down everyone in the halls, including nuns. They were very glad when I was discharged, so I was later told.

The end of the story here is that I had to stay in the sunroom on the studio couch all day that summer watching my friends rollerskating, bike riding, game playing right outside the windows. The Good Humor man came regularly and my only treat was ice cream once in a while. I read books, Oh, did I read! My mother had many of her and her mother's books saved. Pollyanna and Nancy Drew series bored me. I then turned to the very old volumes of Grimm's Fairytales, Hans Christian Andersen, Aesop's Fables, and poetry. The old, old books were smelly, pages cracked, and very scary reading with horrible etchings but I soaked it up and felt special to have read them! These books stimulated my imagination beyond belief! Today's versions rate zero - nothing at all like those of that time.

I really think this experience demonstrated to me that "telling it like it is" is the best road to travel.

Catching Up

Nope, we haven't had good road conditions or weather to go see the new Great Grandsons yet. Our daughter stopped in with a few of her little camera shots and they are growing and thriving well. We have a forecast of more snow coming over this weekend. Whoopee! Just to make Spring's approach (18 days away) even more exciting. Yeah.

We got our taxes done this morning and sent in. Simple for our preparer but well worth the small charge. Simple for us too; take papers, go there, spend 20 minutes - DONE!

The ice fishermen are out there on the lake again. We have often seen an immature Bald Eagle do the cleanup after they have left. I think dead bait is its current snack. The men and women and children are too far away to see exactly what they catch, but they do catch and often. It's a great sport if you are young enough to be agile and have the correct equipment plus warm clothes and time. One fella even brought his little dog!

My vintage photo album project is complete. The 1967 old color negatives that I found have been printed by a company in KS. They were recommended to me by a woman from a local "Then and Now" group that I joined and I am VERY pleased with the results. The speed and friendliness of the person who I talked with about getting this done was on top of it all and the cost was minimal! Here is an example of two that I scanned from the prints I had made. I scanned them all.

Nope I haven't been doing any baking lately. I had acute bronchitis and pneumonia a couple of weeks ago and, after much medicine, it is all cleared away but I'm being careful. The Mister's arm is all healed and you would never know he had injuries! His hip bruise is faded away completely. 

In case you missed the arrival of the twins this is the link to it.
Twins' Arrival Post

Repeat

DANG!
He stepped on his own foot and fell AGAIN! New elbow skin break. Sore hip, sore knee. Head OK - I think!
Time for a run for more bandaging materials. Won't go to ER. Says he's OK.

Click on image to enlarge

I've finished 20 of the 30 pages in the rejuvenation of the vintage photo album. Very messy project. Running out of tape and patience. Time will tell. Trying very hard to keep it vintage style. Corners working well with additional double sticky tape. Reminiscing. Not for me but for firstborn. 

Role Playing

The Mister is now the taxi cab driver. I am now the nurse.
After splitting headaches and a constant cough I gave up and saw the doc. The Mister, a/k/a taxi cab driver, drove me there, waited until I was diagnosed, prescribed meds, had chest x-rays and patiently waited until I was finished with the visit. The taxi cab driver then became the errand boy and picked up my meds and turned back into the taxi cab driver and took me home.

Then I became the cook. It was dinnertime. Then he turned into the dishwasher.

That was after I became the nurse earlier in the morning, digging out all of the bandage, antibiotic ointment, gauze tape, sterile pads, scissors and stuff that I thought I needed to patch his elbow when he tripped and fell and needed the nurse.

End of story. We are on the way to recovery! Honestly, I do not like being the nurse but I think he likes being the cab driver!

Stop now if you have qualms seeing a bruised elbow. Home care is just not what it is cracked up to be.

Boo Boo

That was a REALLY BAD WITCH! See?

He sewed up well.

Time will tell.

Witch from Hell.

Nighteen Eighty

Back in 1980 I had a fairly severe hand injury and had to go to Philadelphia to a hospital that had a special department to repair and rebuild badly injured hands. The first immediate temporary fix was here, done by a local surgeon who used needles and tape to hold my hand together overnight.  Then dear friends Dean and Sally, who had never even traveled to a big city, took me under their wing and drove me to Philadelphia the very next day and waited during my first examination. It was then determined that I needed surgery and also rehabilitation. Back home we went.

Soon after, the next time I went, lake friends Willie and Dick, who had a place here and who also lived in an area of NJ not far from the hospital, took me home with them and helped me get to the appointment for surgery. They also drove me back when they came to their place at the lake a few days later. What wonderful friends!

For several months after that, I was driven to the Greyhound bus station near Binghamton, NY and then I traveled for many hours to Philadelphia near the hand center. I had my rehabilitation every couple of weeks for several months. After each appointment, I took the bus back to Binghamton and was picked up by someone after arrival to return home.

The Philadelphia Hand Center at Jefferson University Hospital is now called the Philadelphia Hand to Shoulder Center. I will say that when I went there, with my injury, I felt ashamed and embarrassed because I saw so many hand injuries that were horrible and much worse than mine. It was a shocking experience. 

One thing I remember especially was that my hosts were always going to the Wawa. I still chuckle to even say it, as we don't have any Wawas near here!  Of course I now know that "Wawa means "land of the big goose" in a language that is not English. They say the Canada Goose makes a honking sound that is similar to wawa. I also read that there were geese on land in a rural section of Pennsylvania called Wawa. Well there is so much history and so many stories about the word that I have not a clue as to which is correct. Oh well, it doesn't matter - really. I just think "going to the Wawa" is a VERY funny phrase.

Nineteen eighty was a difficult year and it was also a good year. My first daughter was married in November and my hand was pretty well healed.

One Year Ago Today

I'm being extra careful this year! This injury on my left shin took a VERY long time to heal with all kinds of side effects.

Here is the link to the story on the day it happened. This is a reminder to myself mainly to be more careful.  DANG! 

The entire healing process link: 

Beginning to Healed

It's a Long Story - REALLY

The Chopsaw Girl

From 1972 to 1980 I worked in town at a cabinet making factory before the accident. I was a "chopsaw girl." The factory had all sorts of stations such as sorting, stacking, sanding, planing, inspecting, and chopping. The job involved looking at a long plank of wood as it came down the line and immediately deciding how many of certain length cuts could be made from it while eliminating (chopping out) flaws and cracks and knots. There were all sorts of lumber going through the molder, run by a man, including oak, basswood, poplar, pine, cedar and more. There were two of us chopping and I was front chopper. That meant that the first board coming down the line was mine, the next was the girl's behind me, and the one after that was mine again. We had to go very fast so we didn't get behind. If I missed my next board it meant that the other chopper would get mine in addition to hers. Then I would have to go like hell to do two in a row! (Something like Lucy in the chocolate factory!)

When the molder man went to get a new load, we got a break to catch up if we were behind. A coincidence is that her name was also Geraldine May!!! TRUE!  We also could work at the other stations but at chopping we were the most competent. We had thick rubber pads to stand on, knee pads to protect the punch knee and wore goatskin gloves because splinters were horrible. Twice during the day we got a 10 minute break and 30 minute lunch. We punched in and out of the time clock for all.

The machines had a spinning blade and when I punched the knee lever with my knee, it would jump up (activated by air compression) and chop the board I held in place for the chop. It's hard to explain. To chop out a knot, it was chop! Move board. Chop! Move board on to next chop. I pushed away the waste pieces with the board moving to the left, readying for the next chop. There was a poster board pinned up in front of us telling us how many pieces of a certain size we needed to get out of the actual order.  For instance, the order might read: 3,000 12" - 8,000 24" - 800 45" - and so on. Sometimes it would continue on for several days until the order was completed. Then another order would replace  the current one and perhaps be for a different variety of wood. The oak orders were more difficult due to being heavier, very splintery, and sometimes warped.  

We tossed our good chopped pieces to the left conveyer and they went on a roller trolley to a sorting roundtable that moved slowly so the sorter girl could stack the pieces by size, on separate pallets. Many times she would get behind with the table piling up like a pyramid, and wood cuts falling on the floor;  we would stop the molder and line and go help her stack and then start up again.

The shadow guard over our saw blade would come down when the blade jumped up to cut. Sometimes it got loosened by all the action. We each had a wrench on the saw table and we would tighten the nut often. One day my wrench slipped off the nut, hit the blade and pulled my hand into it. I knew it was BAD when it happened but felt no pain -  saw no blood -  I just grabbed the injured hand with my other one, ran up and over the belts away from the work station, while telling the other chopper I cut myself, and headed for the boss's office. He took me to the hospital. When I got there as an emergency patient the pain set in as they tried to see exactly what the injury entailed. My left hand that was holding the injured right hand would simply not release! They gave me a shot of morphine in my neck and I remember my legs both pounding up and down hard on the table. The next thing I remember was being in a hospital bed with my hand all wrapped up and pins sticking out everywhere. 

The local surgeon had pinned it together as a temporary fix with surgical injection needles holding it together until I could be shipped to a Philadelphia hand injury orthopedic surgeon in a large hospital for repair surgeries and therapy. They said our local man actually saved my thumb. The ring fingertip went up the waste chute at the factory, along with the tip of the glove. 

Dear friends drove me to the hand center at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia and they had never even been out of our area! They were horse friends and truly country folks. Another friend drove me back and forth to the Philadelphia hospital for surgeries and therapies very often. It took over a year for me to finally be discharged. When there, I saw so many other severe and horrible hand injuries that I felt I didn't deserve to have so much attention to my small one. 

If you have never injured a hand severely, you can't understand how many things you do with your hands. Try hanging clothes on a clothesline, or emptying a pot of boiled potatoes or spaghetti into a colander. How about changing a sanitary napkin, or other personal care, shampooing, fixing hair, tying shoes! All were very difficult to do. 

Gerri and I were excellent choppers and worked the 7am to 3pm shift. We both had kids in school and it worked out fine.  There were two other choppers who worked the night shift. We actually liked our job. It was both mentally challenging and physically active. After my accident, Gerri soon left and I went to work at a personal care boarding home, doing all the laundry for 30 residents and doing all bookkeeping, including payroll. I liked this job too. The owner recently died and we had remained friends until this year. After 5 years there, I left to go to work for the County as the 4-H Coordinator, planning and executing programs for over 500 county youth and 200 leaders. I was already a leader and never dreamed I would be chosen as coordinator when I applied. I was also put in charge of the county horse and pony program, and was on regional and district and state committees, executing shows and activities. I stayed in that position until 1998 when I retired. 

TODAY Most of what we did at the wood plant is done with computers!! My grandson and his girlfriend work there. It changed hands in 2012 and is now called Diaz Manufacturing, a division of Diaz Companies. Many upgrades and improvements have been completed and the company is an asset to our community.

Bob the Builder, shown in these videos from 2011was just a scrawny teenager on his first job at the plant when I worked there. WOW! 

https://youtu.be/FV0tSdE318k

https://youtu.be/DDjxTKcjEHo

https://youtu.be/PPlNEq514CQ

https://youtu.be/Ye8CmgwNxPk

New Year Blues

OK, it's a pity party for me. On the 30th of December I injured the shin of my leg when a large tempered glass cutting board fell forward and skinned my shin. It was purely a clumsy act on my part because I had put it there and then walked into it.

 Injury Story Link

It has been 9 days. During the first three the bandage stayed on but when removed, partially stuck. Ow! The following two days the new bandage stayed on but stuck again when I removed it! After that I left it uncovered two more days and hoped it would dry with only Neosporin applied around the injury. Two days ago I visited my doctor because the surrounding area was getting warm, tight  and pulling. I was afraid cellulitis was setting in. He gave me a 10 day antibiotic prescription and suggested I return if it wasn't looking better in three or four days. He said I did everything correctly as far as protecting it and treatment, but shin injuries are notoriously difficult areas to heal as there isn't much flesh there. He also suggested I elevate it as often as I can. That is not being done as it is already elevated 10-11 hours every 24 hour period during the combined hours of sleep and nap.  

Time will tell.....by the way it is difficult to wash my hair under the low level faucet in the kitchen sink as a full blown shower is still out of the question. I may have to call a plumber to have one of the higher types installed. 

Or maybe not! They are costly!!

WARNING!

        If you are queasy about looking at injuries, go no further.        

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

😩

Day 9 - Looking downward

Day 9 - Looking straightforward

(photo by the Mister)

Dang!

I was careless this morning. Yeow! Yesterday I trimmed the hambone and stewed it all day for broth to make split pea soup. The trimmings then were saved to grind into ham salad for sandwiches, using my good old Gem grinder. In order to clamp the grinder on the countertop, I have to remove the large tempered glass cutting board. This I did, placing it on the floor against the lower cupboard doors. I promptly then forgot it was there when reaching for a bowl, and kicked it at the bottom. It fell hard against my shin and slid down. When it hit my leg, I knew immediately I had a problem. The blood from the upside down "C" cut was spouting like a fountain out of control and ran down and filled my sheepskin slipper! I ran for the bathroom, knowing there was a large roll of paper towel readily accessible to press against the site. It was a good thing that I was wearing fleece sweat pants or it would have been worse. After getting the flow to subside, using tons of towel, I called the Mister to help, instructing him what to pull from the closet so I could repair the damage. I squeezed almost an entire tube of Neosporin onto a large gauze pad and then wrapped medical tape around several times to hold it in place. His next job was to flush out my slipper and then to clean my foot and leg. It would have been difficult to do all of this if I were alone. Kind of a "funny" site, me, sitting on the toilet top, he, kneeling on the floor fixing me. 

The funniest thing is that he was in the chair waiting to help me with the ham and I yelled, BLOOD! BLOOD! while running to the bathroom. He thought I had yelled FLOOD! FLOOD! and thought I had a bladder problem, so didn't help right away until I told him I hurt my leg and needed his attention.

Yesterday, I just told a friend to always expect the unexpected. I need to follow my own advice!

Sure hope it heals (I'm a slow healer) and doesn't get infected but I don't see how it can because it was washed out so well with the red stuff. There goes my shower for a few days! Oh well, it isn't the start of the new year today so I haven't spoiled it - yet!

click image to see closer

Ow! Still hurts. 

Home Free Part 3

Injuries occurred of course, during the unsupervised free play. That was how we learned our lessons!  “Teddy” two streets over, once cut his finger very badly when he turned his bicycle over on its back and pedaled with one hand while sticking his finger on the spokes with the other hand when the wheel was spinning very fast. He slipped and the finger was slashed and almost cut off when it was stuck between the bike frame and the tire. Dumb, but we all thought it was fun to make the special noise. Mom patched him up before sending him home. I returned his empty bike and didn’t stay to hear his mother screaming.

Playing in and around the poison ivy gave every kid the rash and itch. Calamine was slathered on and we were sent out again. Connie got poison oak, only once, and her arms were covered with huge water blisters that broke and oozed. We ooo'd and ah'd over her calamity. She showed us all where that horrible encounter occurred and none of us went there again! Another lesson was learned. 

There was a rope swing in my backyard and a tire in another’s. The splinters on my swing seat were to be avoided by covering the seat with leaves. The tire would fill with rainwater and have to be emptied. 

Hammers struck fingers, saws made scratches that bled, ropes could burn palms, and paint was hard to remove. Brambles tore faces, bees stung, mosquitoes ate us unmercifully, hot tar burned feet.  Everyone’s knees always seemed to have large scabs or bandaids covering fresh scrapes. Bloody noses were common. Sling shots had to be aimed carefully. Whips stung, and they weren’t wielded by parents, but by ourselves during games of fun. It was a daring game of swords (sticks) that caused Ellen to break her eyeglasses. Pete had a broken tooth and Joey was blamed for swinging a rock on a string into Pete’s mouth. 

We had a hidey hole hut dug deep in the woods and were adding more planks to the roof because it leaked. Even though we had put branches and leaves and dirt on the roof water continued to drip down on us when it rained. Well, by us, I mean the boys and me. Then the worst accident of the summer happened. To ME. I stepped on a rusty nail and got “blood poisoning.” It was a rusty one that was already through the wood. When I stepped on it, the plank came up with my sneaker'd foot as I tried to remove it. I was supposed to stay near home that day and didn’t. Because of disobeying, I didn’t tell my mother about the nail puncture that quickly got infected - really badly. The end result was hospital surgery (I was told they had to scrape the bone!) and many blood transfusions. My dad had to solicit his lodge brothers to donate blood. I was given penicillin injections multiple times daily IN MY BACKSIDE until the infection was conquered. The surgery caused me to be hospitalized for several weeks! The fun part for me was when I finally could get out of bed and ride a wheelchair up and down the hospital halls, scaring the nuns as they scattered out of my way. (My first four children were born in the same hospital.) After I returned home, I read everything available while loafing on the studio couch in the sunporch. My buddies often visited, and wanted to know all about my hospital experience. I was the only one of us who ever had to have surgery or be hospitalized during those years. We ALL learned from that! I also learned that books were a wonderful thing to have to pass the time and enter "escape" mode. I have since tried to follow rules throughout my life. 

Those years were “learning-by-doing” years and the lessons weren’t forgotten.

Here is the site for a similar injury of a child who also received penicillin. I guess I almost died, too!
Comparable Penicillin Story   (click on link to left)