Dang, I was working on my garden, wearing old Berkies which, yes, I know are not the best for yard work. I tripped, then, as I stumbled, caught my middle right toe on the steel milk crate I use as a stool. Now my toe is listing to the right and hurts like the bejesus. I guess today will be sit with my foot up and do paperwork. I’ve finished all the address changes and contact updates for credit cards and bank accounts. All fairly easy online. Crossing my fingers my telephone call last Friday to Social Security will have all the government computers lined up to let me change Medicare, car registration, driver license, etc. Yvonne said to wait 24 hours, but I don’t know if the machines work weekends.
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| Two Beds Finished |
I had hoped to finish my vegetable garden this week. So far, I have two beds seeded with marigolds, okra, and eggplant. Grant wanted to know what kind of eggplant I chose. The available ones. Everyone is planting Victory Gardens, so people like me, late to the seed catalog, take anything we can get. Fortunately, the veggies that grow in Florida in the summer, okra and eggplant, still had some left. No fancy Japanese versions, just good old hearty varieties. It may be late in our season, but I’m giving it a go. In one area, I’m trying an experiment of covering the seeds with newspaper to help keep in the moisture until they germinate. Could work. I’ve also put a row of sunflowers next to our neighbors’ fence. I was continuing the row when I tripped.
There are five raised beds with a drip and misting system mostly in place. A sixth bed has collapsed, and some of the sprinklers and tubing are missing in action under the encroaching St Augustine grass. Each morning, I’ve spent about an hour getting the next area up and running. On hold for the next couple of days.
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| Staining William’s Pen |
My first project was a pen for our Florida box turtle, William. Although I haven’t seen any raccoons here, I was afraid for his safety, so I commissioned Spaulding to build a three-sided enclosure to put against a wall on our patio. I stained and varnished the wood, then threw in several buckets of leaves which William is now hiding in. The floor is concrete, so I put in bricks and pavers for his feeding areas, which I hope will wear down his beak and nails. On Key Biscayne, William lived on our little balcony. Its outdoor carpeting wasn’t rough enough to do anything. In Fort Lauderdale, he and his brother Marlowe, RIP, had an area on our porch where the terrazzo had been cut out. They could dig in the pine back and sand. Even so, I had to take them to the vet for a mani-pedi. Not many vets are willing to trim a turtle’s beak.
While all of this was going on, my niece was finishing her last days of pregnancy, and yesterday our new grandnephew, Carson, was born. An easy delivery, but leading up to it filled with anxiety since the hospitals rules were changed continuously. Dad was allowed to attend; no other visitors. All are fine, although Carson did suffer a broken clavicle during delivery. Fortunately the nurse noticed he wasn’t moving his right arm, and an X-ray confirmed. He will have a little sling for a few weeks, but doesn’t seem to mind. Nursing is going well, and they are home.
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