I suppose, as I am sitting here bemoaning the briefest January thaw ever and wondering how hard Mother Nature is laughing at me about my last 'woohoo Imbolc' post, I should do an update on Janet.
(It also occurs to me, I should have pseudonymed her at some point, but it's too late now...)
She's actually still doing fairly well, all things considered. She knows her name, knows our names, takes care of breakfast, lunch, and dinner as needed. She does her laundry, she cleans her room and bathroom. She can still bathe and basically take care of herself. We did get her a chair for the shower and a hand held shower head to make it easier on her. There were a couple of other minor adjustments to living arrangements that I can't remember right now.
She does look to us a bit more for validation. She will ask to verify the date and day of the week, and nine times out of ten, she is right. She gets numbers more and more confused in her speech, and possibly in her mind as well. There have been some near misses involving money. She misplaces things, and typically I find them for her, usually very quickly. They just aren't in the first place she looks so she gets mad at herself and just stops looking. She blames it on her age. Of course, she laughed the other day when it took me twenty minutes to find my coffee cup.
J: "Oh, you do that too?"
L: "Yes...at least three times a day."
J: "Well, I don't feel so bad, then."
We've taken over helping her to pay her bills, largely because she has cataracts and a hard time seeing. Those are getting taken care of in March. The larger issue though is at night, she has gotten very confused over her evening insulin shot. It's been the same number of units for, well, ever. However lately we have to help her set the number on the insulin pen, and even one day had to explain to her how the pen is used. She hasn't had this problem (she says) for her post-meal shots, though. It's very concerning, as we can't be there during the day to monitor it or help her out if she gets confused.
It would be hard for someone with cataracts to see the numbers on, so we are hopeful that the cataract surgeries will fix it. If it doesn't, it is shocking how quickly it came on. One day everything was fine, the next it wasn't. It makes me wonder what will be next, and if we'll be home to help, or even recognize it when it does.
BUT, we had good holidays I think. We splurged and bought an upright freezer for the garage. Janet paid half (at her insistence). It's large and beautiful and we can see everything in it. The crappy old chest freezer is dead in the garage. It had a good life.
Already I am thinking about all the things I can put in it this harvest. Last year I didn't care too much about yield for freezing because where would we put it? Now, however, we can put it in the big gloriousness in my garage.
AND...gentle reader, if you have made it this far, I am the proud owner of a PRESSURE CANNER! Thanks to mom and dad for Giftmas. I'm ever more excited for spring to get here so that planting can happen, then growing, then harvesting and preserving!
In sum: Everyone's hanging in and waiting for spring.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
An Early Imbolc
Well, this little experiment didn't go so well.
I mean the blogging part. The garden was pretty good. When all was said and done we got 16 pints of tomatos canned and in the pantry. We had enough to make salsa as gifts for the holidays. In addition to salsa, there was apple mint jelly and raspberry jelly. I have some herbs frozen and dried. I also have some green peppers frozen. I think we might have about 6 smallish onions left in the basement,
Much of the winter so far I spent with Seamus focusing on other things, but occasionally returning to what we'll be doing out back. Pond, grape arbor, another bed or two... all are things in the future. And chickens!
Today though, is Imbolc. I think. I know what you're saying. Imbolc isn't until February 1! Well, some of you. Others are saying "What is Imbolc?" Let me get to that first.
Imbolc is spelled in many ways and gets translated a few ways as well. One popular one is "in the belly," and refers to when the sheep would begin lactating before their lambs were born. You thus had one way of judging how big a flock you were going to have and you could also get some much needed fresh protein from the milk. Don't think we haven't had fun with a religion that celebrates sheep lactation.
Another association with Imbolc is that this is when the ground thaws and you can begin working the soil. It's going to freeze again, so hold those tomatoes.
Okay, that's the really quick-and-dirty "What is Imbolc." Now to bring everything back together, in Ohio we typically have a midwinter thaw and it usually falls at the end of January or beginning of February. Really close to the calendar Imbolc. I have decided that in my "listen to my land" philosophy that whenever that happens, that day is Imbolc.
It's been really warm the past few days, in the high 40s and even low 50s fairly consistently. A very welcome change from the polar vortex last week. I went for a run today, even, outside. It was the first time I've ever run in temperatures below 60 degrees, but it was so sunny and I had been cooped up in a windowless office for about six hours. As I ran, I came to the conclusion that today, indeed, was Imbolc. When I got home, I wasn't yet ready to be indoors, so I put on some longer pants and my wellies and hit the back yard. Gus came too, so he got some much needed running around time. I brought a packet of lettuce seeds with me, found the garden rake, and chose one of the smaller pallets. I pulled out the old tomato and muskmelon vines (we got no muskmelons) and cleared away some of the neighbor's willow leaves. The soil was damp and cold and sticky. I broke it up with the rake and then with little to no planning, sprinkled seeds in the eight open areas of the pallet, covering them up.
They may not grow. But if they do, we'll get some wonderful lettuce in the spring. Today was the reminder that the new growing season is not that far away.
I mean the blogging part. The garden was pretty good. When all was said and done we got 16 pints of tomatos canned and in the pantry. We had enough to make salsa as gifts for the holidays. In addition to salsa, there was apple mint jelly and raspberry jelly. I have some herbs frozen and dried. I also have some green peppers frozen. I think we might have about 6 smallish onions left in the basement,
Much of the winter so far I spent with Seamus focusing on other things, but occasionally returning to what we'll be doing out back. Pond, grape arbor, another bed or two... all are things in the future. And chickens!
Today though, is Imbolc. I think. I know what you're saying. Imbolc isn't until February 1! Well, some of you. Others are saying "What is Imbolc?" Let me get to that first.
Imbolc is spelled in many ways and gets translated a few ways as well. One popular one is "in the belly," and refers to when the sheep would begin lactating before their lambs were born. You thus had one way of judging how big a flock you were going to have and you could also get some much needed fresh protein from the milk. Don't think we haven't had fun with a religion that celebrates sheep lactation.
Another association with Imbolc is that this is when the ground thaws and you can begin working the soil. It's going to freeze again, so hold those tomatoes.
Okay, that's the really quick-and-dirty "What is Imbolc." Now to bring everything back together, in Ohio we typically have a midwinter thaw and it usually falls at the end of January or beginning of February. Really close to the calendar Imbolc. I have decided that in my "listen to my land" philosophy that whenever that happens, that day is Imbolc.
It's been really warm the past few days, in the high 40s and even low 50s fairly consistently. A very welcome change from the polar vortex last week. I went for a run today, even, outside. It was the first time I've ever run in temperatures below 60 degrees, but it was so sunny and I had been cooped up in a windowless office for about six hours. As I ran, I came to the conclusion that today, indeed, was Imbolc. When I got home, I wasn't yet ready to be indoors, so I put on some longer pants and my wellies and hit the back yard. Gus came too, so he got some much needed running around time. I brought a packet of lettuce seeds with me, found the garden rake, and chose one of the smaller pallets. I pulled out the old tomato and muskmelon vines (we got no muskmelons) and cleared away some of the neighbor's willow leaves. The soil was damp and cold and sticky. I broke it up with the rake and then with little to no planning, sprinkled seeds in the eight open areas of the pallet, covering them up.
They may not grow. But if they do, we'll get some wonderful lettuce in the spring. Today was the reminder that the new growing season is not that far away.
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