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20/3/19 20:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alwaysbeenasmilerFlowers are blooming, bunnies are prancing around
Peeps grace us with their abominations--
And it's time for new friends!
The picture is a link however you can click HERE as well
For pimping on your journal
for comment
Re: Hello!
21/3/19 20:32 (UTC)I was talking to my son about making me something like a peg for sewing -- he goes to a trade school -- because I'd had no idea that such things were commercially available. I will definitely look into this! Thank you!
I love gardening, but I come and go with it. Right now, ours is overgrown, and I probably won't be able to do anything with it but cover it until such a time as I'm able to get it under control. That probably means a series of raised beds over time, which doesn't actually thrill me, but is better than nothing. I always liked growing vegetables and flowers together, and finding ways to make the vegetables decorative. One year I had acorn and spaghetti squash on an arch, and that looked pretty; so did the cantaloupes in large, sturdy tomato cages. Your yard sounds lovely and well planned!
Re: Hello!
21/3/19 22:45 (UTC)For reference, both crochet and knitting can be done with one hand. There are some extremely creative crafters on YouTube with missing or differently shaped body parts.
Some tools only do one thing, but there's also a branch of adaptive equipment which is very versatile. There are many types of grippers for people with missing digits or low hand strength. Just stick your craft tool in there and figure out how to work with the change.
Cross-stitch or embroidery might be harder due to the small size of the needle, precision movements, and the challenge of getting it into and out of the fabric. However, the more time you spend learning about your current hand shape, the better you'll get at figuring out new ways to do things. Bigger manipulations like knitting are often easier, and help learn how to adapt.
>>I was talking to my son about making me something like a peg for sewing -- he goes to a trade school -- because I'd had no idea that such things were commercially available. I will definitely look into this! Thank you!<<
Check online. There is a ton of adaptive equipment now for all kinds of things. Trouble is, much of it is marketed by audience not purpose. That is, there are catalogs aimed at blind people, aimed at old people, aimed at amputees, etc. -- all of which could help a wider audience but you have to hunt, hunt, hunt to find the good stuff. >_<
But take advantage of your son's skills if he is willing to help! All this stuff got invented by somebody. Prosthetics and adaptive equipment are growing industries, especially stuff people can make at home like 3D-printed hands. (You could probably adapt those patterns to replace your thumb tip -- people are doing that with missing fingers.) If he turns out to have a knack for it, this area has much job potential, working privately or for a company.
>> I love gardening, but I come and go with it. Right now, ours is overgrown, and I probably won't be able to do anything with it but cover it until such a time as I'm able to get it under control. That probably means a series of raised beds over time, which doesn't actually thrill me, but is better than nothing.<<
There are lots of adaptive garden options, from modified tools to seating to structures. In addition to raised beds, you might consider a wall garden, tower garden, hanging planters, and so on. I couldn't get the dratted tower to stop blowing over, but I do have a barrel garden with a couple of hanging pots behind it, which works quite well. Browse online for ideas and you'll see all kinds of creative garden shapes.
One thing you may want is a universal tool handle gripper -- they're usually shown grasping a broom, but work for a hoe or rake too. For a trowel you might want a wrist gripper.
>> I always liked growing vegetables and flowers together, and finding ways to make the vegetables decorative. One year I had acorn and spaghetti squash on an arch, and that looked pretty; so did the cantaloupes in large, sturdy tomato cages.<<
Wow! That does sound lovely. I like browsing permaculture for guild ideas -- plants that help each other grow. I plant daffodils around trees to discourage root nibblers, and comfrey to mine nutrients from subsoil to usable surface.
>> Your yard sounds lovely and well planned! <<
*laugh* Half-planned. I have areas of particular types. It's not micromanaged. If you look in the Photo tag on my blog and scroll back, you can see pictures of it. Last I posted were icicles from earlier this month though.
Re: Hello!
22/3/19 01:05 (UTC)A lot of my problem with things like the garden has more to do with lifelong depression and anxiety issues than with my accident. I'm working on those.
We used to live on a farm, and gardening there was incredible. The dirt was black and soft, and working in it was hardly work at all. You could successfully grow damned near anything by throwing seeds out the kitchen window. Our garden here, on the other hand, isn't so easy, and it's too big. It looked cool the year I had the arch and tomato cages going, but it took so much more work to take care of it even though it's significantly smaller than was our garden on the farm. I took on too much, and while I like the look of a garden you can till with a tractor, some raised beds with managed soil are probably the better way to go for me.
I had flowers that drew butterflies and bees that one year. It was really something else.
Re: Hello!
22/3/19 06:18 (UTC)Go you!
>> I'm missing the first joint of my thumb, and the first joint of my pinkie finger is fused.<<
That's probably enough to make great use of rigging. It uses your remaining body parts to control a prosthesis. You can see it in 3D-printed hands and partial hands. If you can't find a thumb tip rig, one could be invented, and it would let you bend that prosthetic tip pretty much like a natural thumb. The fingers are quite well articulated on the 3D hands, and that's before getting into the toy hands and tool hands -- you might find a mounted tool more useful than a thumb tip.
>> My hand got crushed between a pair of rollers at work. It could have been a helluva lot worse; as it is, I have some pain and sensitivity issues, <<
That sucks. O_O Some new stuff is being done on those topics, but it's a lot more finicky trying to convince nerves to shut up than just popping a peg in place. There's some interesting potential though. The Moon Door pretty much grew out of my disabled friends wanting disabled heroes.
>>and I need to learn to do things in different ways, but there isn't much that I literally can't or won't eventually be able to do. Something like a simple prosthetic would make some of those things a lot easier, though! <<
Oh yeah. There are many options for prosthetics. You can talk to a specialist if you really want, and sometimes they have great ideas; but with a small issue, often it's faster just to experiment and fix it yourself. Occupational therapy is a good bet if you can get it, though; it's all about helping you figure out how to do stuff, and those folks usually know about the good adaptive aids like a nailboard for slicing food (imagine a cutting board with spikes to hold the food still).
>>A lot of my problem with things like the garden has more to do with lifelong depression and anxiety issues than with my accident. I'm working on those. <<
Oh yeah, those are hard. >_<
>> We used to live on a farm, and gardening there was incredible. The dirt was black and soft, and working in it was hardly work at all. You could successfully grow damned near anything by throwing seeds out the kitchen window. <<
That's what we have here. What I don't have is the stamina and heat tolerance to work a vegetable garden through the summer. :( I have had to get creative and figure out other options.
>> Our garden here, on the other hand, isn't so easy, and it's too big. It looked cool the year I had the arch and tomato cages going, but it took so much more work to take care of it even though it's significantly smaller than was our garden on the farm. I took on too much, <<
Yeah, I made that mistake here too. Could not begin to keep up with it. But I can grow herbs and fruit. What I did with the old garden was turn it into a prairie. That takes much less maintenance and has its own charm.
>> and while I like the look of a garden you can till with a tractor, some raised beds with managed soil are probably the better way to go for me. <<
Anything that gets your plants up off the cruddy soil is worth considering. Raised beds, or if you're not thrilled with those, containers. Strawbales, hugelkulture, and lasagna gardens are other alternatives. It is important to find something you like so you'll want to work with it.
>> I had flowers that drew butterflies and bees that one year. It was really something else. <<
There are lots of perennial flowers that will draw wildlife like magnets, especially if you can put in a waterhole. Consider checking for native species in your new locale. Lots of places sell native wildflower blends based on region or soil type. You actually can use a tractor to prepare the ground if you're planting a big patch, and it will still take way less work than a vegetable garden. Some states will even give you seed; look for conservation programs in yours. You can find native grass seed too. Last year we threw down some little bluestem. I though it died because it never put up little green pins like lawn grass does, but later in the season there were tufts of green all over that patch, so it'll be interesting to see if the stuff survived after all.
Many people find that wildflife gardening helps with things like depression and anxiety by providing something beautiful to look at. As a bonus, a lot of wildlife gardening techniques are things NOT to do: don't rake up all the dead leaves, because some beneficial insects hibernate in them. Less work is good.
Re: Hello!
22/3/19 15:16 (UTC)I did straw bales one year! They look really awesome, but I'd only recommend them to someone who has a well instead of city water. If you're not watering those things all the time, regardless of weather, they dry up in the blink of an eye. So pretty, though!
The raised beds I like are the really tall ones. When I was little, I used to like watching Victory Garden, and the thing that I still remember are these raised beds that were about waist high. My husband is for real disabled, and those would be nice for him, too, because he likes gardening but can't do much bending, pushing, pulling, or lifting. I just keep thinking of the cost. We're not likely to move again, though, so I suppose that if we put one or two up every summer for three to five years, we could make the old garden look nice again.
Right now, I do wildlife ungardening. *snicker* We live in town, but when I say town, I really mean a small cluster of houses around a moribund main street. Alongside the feral cat colony, I routinely see raccoons, opossums, skunks, and groundhogs. I don't know the names of all the birds, but I recognize the blue jays, cardinals, wild canaries, and hummingbirds. One of the groundhogs hibernates under our garage and I'm actually a little worried about how he'll manage if I start maintaining the yard again. As of now, he's living the good life out there, and has been for about two years.
Re: Hello!
23/3/19 08:46 (UTC)Clever.
>>I did straw bales one year! They look really awesome, but I'd only recommend them to someone who has a well instead of city water. If you're not watering those things all the time, regardless of weather, they dry up in the blink of an eye. So pretty, though!<<
Everyone says that, but when we used them for insulation, once they got rained on they never dried out again. They'd sprout random mushrooms all summer long.
>> The raised beds I like are the really tall ones. When I was little, I used to like watching Victory Garden, and the thing that I still remember are these raised beds that were about waist high.<<
I loved that show too! :D
>> My husband is for real disabled, and those would be nice for him, too, because he likes gardening but can't do much bending, pushing, pulling, or lifting. <<
Have you see the raised bed keyhole gardens? They come in solid and roll-under versions. You can even buy them if you can't build your own.
https://www.vitagardens.com/product/6x6-keyhole-garden/
http://www.universaldesignstyle.com/terraform-wheelchair-accessible-garden-kit/
>> I just keep thinking of the cost. We're not likely to move again, though, so I suppose that if we put one or two up every summer for three to five years, we could make the old garden look nice again. <<
Good idea. Also that way you can tweak your choices if you don't get it right the first time.
>>Alongside the feral cat colony, I routinely see raccoons, opossums, skunks, and groundhogs.<<
We have those too. Also foxes and coyotes in the fields, and we've startled deer out of the yard a few times. But the most flattering guest of all was a bald eagle! :D 3q3q3q!! We rarely see them around here, but apparently he thought our yard was a nice stopover. We have a few tall trees with bare branches that the hawks and owls like.
>>One of the groundhogs hibernates under our garage and I'm actually a little worried about how he'll manage if I start maintaining the yard again. As of now, he's living the good life out there, and has been for about two years.<<
If you're worried, you can always leave a little part of the yard wild. But groundhogs aren't that picky -- I've seen them out on mowed lawns in town.
Re: Hello!
24/3/19 04:24 (UTC)Re: Hello!
24/3/19 05:44 (UTC)Ahhh ... you know what would work? Plants with deep water-seeking roots like prairie flowers. I bet a straw bale would support a very fine butterfly garden. Some of those things have roots that go down 8-12 feet so if they ran out of bale, they'd just dig in underneath.
Re: Hello!
24/3/19 14:51 (UTC)Yeah, I bet flowers like that really would take off. I'm a by-guess-and-by-gosh gardener who throws things in the ground based on how I think it'll look or because I've never grown them before. Sometimes works; sometimes it does not. Right now I'm toying with the idea of starting ornamental cabbages in spring or early summer for fall/winter because I've never attempted cold weather pretties. We'll see.