Dorothy Pohorelow

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Wow, Dorothy!  I am glad for the luck you had on that day, glad you made it this far!

Did you get a hip replacement?


Hoping for a speedy and complete recovery for you.

No rebuilding or replacement needed.  The break while very painful was a simple break of the femur head off the femur with very little displacement.  All they had to do was screw me back together... So very lucky there. Another stroke of luck was as a disabled Vet the VA is picking up the total cost of the emergency and rehab treatment or so I have been told.  The home heath care nurse visits were I am told $120 per visit, the PT therapist is even more and for at least the next couple of weeks they will be coming by 3 times a week.

Biggest challenges for now are my 1938 house is not designed for people with walkers.  There is no ramp in front so I need to learn how to do steps before I can go home or we need to get a ramp built.  My small "mid century modest" has of course a small bathroom, with a deep cast iron step over tub... and the toilet is very close to the wall so it will be a tight fit for the potty chair...  Currently on the table is the possibility or removing that lovely tub and transforming the nook into a small walk in shower.  
Like others have mentioned already that ramp has been on our minds but never happened... the thought of turning the tub area into a shower is new but feels like the right choice as it will be months before I have full mobility again and my husband has back issues making using the tub more and more difficult.  

My phones both land line and cell were just out of reach on tables...  One friend suggested I think about an Apple watch which allows calls from the watch...  it is something I may need to look into.  What was and still is terrifying for me was how I became so completely helpless so quickly. I managed to flip from my side to my back but there was no way I was moving anywhere...

Last week I got reminded how quickly our status can change especially for us older women.   One of the terriers managed to trip me and I came down hard on my left hip.   At that point I could very well have been in one of those "help I have fallen and can't get up" commercials.  No phones or means of communicating my plight to anyone not right there.  My husband did eventually come up from the basement as he heard the thud but then it was him wandering in and out and trying to get me to stand up on my own for a good ten minutes before I got him to realize that I needed an ambulance.  
Great EMT and nurses but I am a hard stick and they could not find a vein for pain meds so ended up doing a nasal injection of one to help me tolerate being lifted and carried to the ambulance.  THAT was pure agony....
X-rays of hip to ankle, and a CT scan to be sure I had not injured my head.   Then back for new CT scan of my hip area as it was indeed broken.  Admitted to the hospital that Friday night and surgery was done to repair it on Saturday morning.  Thank goodness it was one of the easiest to repair hip breaks but of course there will still be long weeks of rehab before I am back to normal.  So almost all the planting plans and quail raising plans are out the window until I am fit...  
A friend with a ramp and wheelchair accessible bath told me I was staying here for now while they get my house set up with the accommodations I will need for a while yet.

I am thankful for all the really wonderful folks who are helping me during this time but one of my biggest fears is what if Toli had not been home and what if I had not gotten him to call the ambulance....  What happens if I fall again?  What are you solutions for the possible need to reach outside help when alone and unable to reach a phone or other communication device....

Just a quick FYI  xylitol aka birch sugar is deadly to dogs even in small amounts.

Grow bags or buckets with good potting soil which you can take with you when you move. There are a large number of developed for container growing veggies out there.  What makes it even nicer is you can move the containers around as you learn the best locations for them.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:This could be challenging in one regard. I think that the metal lids used for glass canning jars have an inside coating that appears to be plastic. Thoughts?

But the rubberized seal never touches the food.  It forms a seal with the glass jar.

I found out that I get better germination with seed that is at least a year old... And the plants seem hardier the the few I would get with fresh seeds.

You can swap quail eggs for chicken eggs at a 3 to 1 up to a 5 to 1 ratio depending on size.  They have a slightly different taste and different proteins and nutritional values then chicken eggs. That difference is well worth investigating.   A dozen quail eggs makes a lovely omelet.  Or fluffy scrambled eggs.  AND our dogs love the extras or frozen/cracked eggs.   Also be aware that as with any novel food try small amounts first...

Duck eggs have a tougher egg white.  Good for fried egg sandwiches but not so good for plain fried eggs as they tend to be a bit "tough".  They are wonderful for baking as they hold even the lightest cake together better then chicken eggs.  And yes you swap 1 for 1.

Haven't tried the others in you photo.

For this BB, you will breed a broody quail and raise at least six chicks!

Unlike Chickens,  Coturnix Quail only rarely go broody and are successful at hatching eggs and raising chicks even less often.  Standard practice for those of us with quail in hutches is to collect their eggs and incubate them when wanting chicks to raise for the covey.    Is there anyway this could be altered to include that practice?

My trees from Starks never materialized as they kept pushing back the shipping date until it was too late so I requested and received a refund from them.  The Greenstalks did well and I am looking towards growing more food in them this year.

There was a HUGE change in the "tree yard"  We got quail and the two cages are in that area with the Greenstalks around the edges.  So spring, summer, and fall have been busy with learning, building cages and learning how to get good hatch rates with my little inexpensive incubators.  I am really enjoying my little birds.  Yesterday we had egg drop soup made from quail broth (a friend culled some bad tempered older birds that i made broth from) and the egg drops were made with the second dozen eggs laid by birds I had hatched in my incubator and raised until they were old enough to start laying...
Secondary to the little bird and their eggs is the used bedding from the brooder bin and from the 6 adult quail that are living under plant lights for the winter. The bedding is going over beds as mulch and will be good inputs to our compost pile.