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baymule

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Your whole life has been spent taking care of others. This has to be so hard for you. You are so kind and loving towards others and have been a blessing on many. In your typical fashion, you have taken it up with the Lord and your faith will keep you strong. You are blessed with family and friends that will help you through this. Please keep us updated. If it’s not too much to ask, if the chemo treatment makes you too sick, could you get your daughter to let us know how you are doing? Praying for you!
 

Medicine Woman

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Hello everyone. I have been home for a few weeks recuperating from surgery. I miss my job. I really need a pedicure but I can’t reach my feet. So tomorrow morning I will go for my first radiation treatment. My back has like a constant ache that varies in degrees of discomfort. My ribs seem to hurt worse. I don’t know what has been taking so long for my wheelchair to come in. I have several X marks on my abdomen and sides which are targets for the radiation. Standing up is harder than walking but sometimes I feel a clicking when I take a left step that feels strange.
I can take a shower and get most of me clean but I wish I had Sasquatch arms so I can reach my feet and dry myself good afterwards. I keep hearing that a few people are getting sick and I sure hope I don’t get infected with anything at all. I don’t think I need that right now.
So all my children seem to be checking in with me a few times a week. My oldest paid me half of an old debt probably out of concern because I can’t work because I wasn’t going to pressure her and DS has also been trying to catch-up on some of my past favors and has been going to the house to clean the wreck and salvage stuff. He speaks of making me a cabin in the woods. How kind. I am trying to care for the youngest kids the best I can in spite of my situation. They come over and help get a few things cleaned up. It’s hard to be so dependent on others for so many things. I am praying for a miracle. If I look at the statistics I don’t have much hope for a long life. I know I will die just as I know all of you will die but before that day comes I am trying to live. It bothers me that I have misplaced my sewing kit because I very much want to work on a few things…Raggedy Ann dolls for my grandchildren and crocheting slippers. I might as well do a bit of writing while I’m at it because God only knows there will never be a better time for it than now.
Y’all take care.
 

Medicine Woman

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Tuesday I saw my oncologist and I have no new growth. That’s the closest thing I can come to hearing the word ‘remission’. Apparently my doctor doesn’t like that word. 🤷‍♀️.
I threw out one shout out for private orders for citrus and everyone went totally nuts. I ended up with orders totaling 42 sacks of satsuma and had one hardware store run out and by the time I was in route going to the hospital I learned the other one was also. Down to just one. So I ran myself ragged for two days.
 

Medicine Woman

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Things didn’t work out well for my grandnephew at school and he needs to be homeschooled. He has been home at least a week now and my niece hasn’t found a free homeschool program for him but I think she really needs something spiritual because she broke down today and told me she can’t do it anymore. I found a Catholic school with a really cheap pre-K and kindergarten curriculum. I think I will splurge. Waiting for a return call.
 

Medicine Woman

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Harvested Louisiana Sweet oranges for a few orders. DH has a buddy who loves to go duck hunting but apparently doesn’t love to clean or cook them so he has been keeping him up in ammo and we have a bunch of ducks to cook that’s already cleaned and now we are picking up some more. We have one more order of oranges to drop off and we can go home.
I have been feeling nauseated and I woke up at 3:30AM and took Phenergan. I guess it’s my chemotherapy. Good thing I made soup.
It’s been kinda wet lately. The orchard sure can use a good cleaning ASAP.
 

baymule

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Wild duck is delicious. I have fried them, spatchcock style, to medium rare, and they were so good.

My son is working in south Louisiana now, below New Orleans and he’s seen the Louisiana Sweet Oranges in buckets for sale, $50 each. He’s thinking about getting me a couple of them. I’m in zone 8b. How hardy are they for freezes? I’m going to be putting up a barn and could plant them on the south side for shelter. I could even build their own greenhouse around them. How tall and wide will they get?

Maybe you should start some trees as well as selling the oranges. Do they come true if planted by seed? Or do they have to be grafted?

I get ferocious heat and drought. I can keep them watered and provide shade cloth to block some of the sun. Yeah, I’ve totally talked myself into these orange trees!

@frustratedearthmother do you want a couple of them? ❤️
 

Medicine Woman

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Wild duck is delicious. I have fried them, spatchcock style, to medium rare, and they were so good.

My son is working in south Louisiana now, below New Orleans and he’s seen the Louisiana Sweet Oranges in buckets for sale, $50 each. He’s thinking about getting me a couple of them. I’m in zone 8b. How hardy are they for freezes? I’m going to be putting up a barn and could plant them on the south side for shelter. I could even build their own greenhouse around them. How tall and wide will they get?

Maybe you should start some trees as well as selling the oranges. Do they come true if planted by seed? Or do they have to be grafted?

I get ferocious heat and drought. I can keep them watered and provide shade cloth to block some of the sun. Yeah, I’ve totally talked myself into these orange trees!

@frustratedearthmother do you want a couple of them? ❤️
DH did tell me someone was selling LS trees for $50 each. I was floored. Last I knew satsuma trees were going for $35 each. I am starting my own root stock and I chose Ponderosa Lemon over trifoliate for reasons of safety and practicality. The thorns are thin and only 1/2 inch long as opposed to 2 and 1/2 inch, thick thorns. Also if you lose your graft, at least you have a lemon tree. I need lots of pots. I ordered some but I somehow thought I was ordering 201 pots and I think I got 50. It’s better to graft than to have true fruit because it cuts the wait down quite a bit. If you are getting a Louisiana sweet, be prepared for a tree that might reach 15 feet tall. It might only have a drip line of 10 feet though. Most citrus is sensitive to the cold. I am in zone 10 and your son is probably very close to me right now. A satsuma would be easier to house. If you want to provide a winter shelter for your tree maybe think hoop house 🤷‍♀️. But as long as the graft is protected you still have the tree and the root system would cause it to come back fast. I imagine if you have a big compost bin inside the greenhouse that contains the tree that it would probably provide some warmth during the night hours.
I do believe trees would be a good investment so I want to start as many as possible. I even have this idea of promoting them as local Christmas trees.
 

baymule

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I have a hoop tunnel frame, not all of it is there , but enough to make a nice green house. I also have a window collection, for a future greenhouse. Aaaaannndd I have a wood burning heater that there is no room for in my double wide. Some stove pipe and it’ll be good. I’m gonna tell my son to nab me a couple of the orange trees.

I LOVE your idea of selling them as Christmas trees!
 

Medicine Woman

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Hello. I’m getting ready for a storm and I think it will get cold. I WANT A GARDEN!!! I don’t even have room for any more meat in the freezer with all DH’s catfish, the shrimp he buys when his buddy is tired of waiting on the boat and he just wants to sell everything for a price we can’t refuse and various wild game we been eating but I have been relying on produce from the store and canned vegetables. I have been working on the west side of this old house and DH can’t help himself when he sees me playing outside. He just has to come out and take over. Well we picked up the Fava beans from his arch and I pinched a thick, huge cardboard box a woman was trying to put in the recycling bin that we put under the arch to smother all the grass. We have a new rooster in a dog kennel on grass duty. I want to collect that kind of kennel and put a bunch of chickens to work in the yard…. I mean garden 😂. I plan on using the wooden fence and shoe stringing some clothes line wire or maybe zigzag and doing vertical gardening from large planters which will all be sitting on top of cardboard boxes I pinch from the bin or the Dollar Store. I wasn’t sure what to do about the cesspool covering but I finally decided it would be the perfect place to put my rootstock to grow in small pots. DH decided to crack up the lawnmower yesterday and I ran into the backyard to do something away from him so I was cracking ragweed and I got hit on my left butt cheek with an oyster shell so hard. I ended up meeting one of our neighbors who was walking his dog. DH, of course already knew him and he knew all about me already but we never spoke. He is old like us but not in our shape, thanks be to God. So we cleaned up in the backyard a while and lite a fire. We got a lot of junk to bring to the dump as soon as we can. I don’t know why there is a fireplace back there but it looks terrible and it has to go. Yuck!! So we then got back to the west side and I was regretting not taking a before and after picture. I told DH, I want him to enlarge his arch both going north and south and we will collect a few appliance boxes to choke out anything but what we absolutely want to grow. I was really tired and hurting by the time we came inside and we ate leftover gumbo for supper. I decided to bake my own bread because DH absolutely won’t stop eating it and it will keep the house warm. But last night I fried beignets for dessert.
Well like I said I’m preparing for a storm so I’m cracking open the Fava beans, I need to flip the duck eggs over and we have a battery for backup power for the incubator if the power is shut down. We also left a few minutes to go slop the pigs and I grabbed a few branches off some okra to collect the dried seeds i very much want to plant in the backyard (thinking of some ground fabric DH has stored at his place and just spot planting….you know..easy for old people). Hey..better than ragweed. 🤷‍♀️. So I’m collecting seeds right now warming up the house. Dogs getting nervous and quiet.
I will attach a picture. My friend who gave me the rooster sent a cast iron pot back with me because she doesn’t know how to take care of it. She said it was a gift to DH. He was touched she thought of him. So it’s ugly now but maybe after I can show the after picture when we ready to cook in it. I’m using it to collect seeds.
 

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