Between doctor’s visits, rehab, and packing seeds for folks, this week has just flown by. Will got the shelving unit built and installed on our enclosed, unheated back porch. Then he and Dara sorted through our bulk boxes, bags, and containers of seeds, placing them on appropriate shelves, getting the mess off of the floor. What an improvement!

The new shelves are getting filled and look much nicer!
Although we still have a few boxes on the floor, now they’re neatly tucked under the shelving unit.

Usually, habaneros and many other species of hot peppers take weeks to germinate. Mine came up in a week! Holy cow, that took us by surprise. One day nothing, and the next, several leggy seedlings peeked up at us from the flats. Will quickly got one of our plastic greenhouses down out of the storage barn loft and put it in the south-facing windows in the living room. Then we placed the flats in the top shelves, in full sun where they also get plenty of heat, both from the windows and wood stove. We still have a few which haven’t germinated, so they need to keep very warm.

I was shocked to see seedling hot peppers and habaneros up in a week’s time.

Today, while Dara and Sherri were here, packing seeds, David called from work. Granddaughter, Delilah, had climbed up to the kitchen sink, grabbed a knife and cut her finger. He understood from what Elizabeth had said when she called him, that she’d cut her hand and there was blood everywhere! I jumped in the car (my first driving since surgery), tore over to the house, climbed two sets of stairs, and found them in the bathroom. Yes, there was quite a bit of spotty blood on the floor. But thankfully, when I took the washcloth from Elizabeth and peeked at the injury, it was her finger, not her hand. She had about an inch long cut, which was a little deep and seeping blood steadily. I took over putting pressure on the finger via the washcloth while Elizabeth got Melanie and herself ready to head for the ER when David got home. They took her in, and the cut was glued shut. A cheese stick and iPad movie and she’s much better. Thank God! Wow, what a day. Even if it was over 45 degrees out, with sun. I hardly noticed. — Jackie

20 COMMENTS

  1. Wow them peppers didn’t read their book(at least a few did, so are waiting to emerge as ‘appropriate’) Delilah! poor girl! thank The Lord mom an you knew what to do. isn’t it amazing what a little movie can do for the injury. so thankful you were healing enough to drive over; climb! stairs. pray you have no soreness from an little one heals (learns why Not to handle sharp items) God Bless you and yours.

    • Thank you, Mary. My knees did pain me for a couple of days, but they are much better now. All but two habaneros are now up. Wow! That really impressed me.
      I’m so glad Delilah wasn’t hurt worse than she was.

  2. Yikes, what a scare with Delilah! That could have been so much worse. It was sure great you were able to get there and help them until David could get home. Poor Melanie, its terrifying seeing your baby bleeding! I hope your knee isn’t complaining too much since all that happened. Those peppers sure are in a hurry this year. I took a chance and planted some lettuce, spinach and radishes a couple of days ago. It has been very warm here, 60’s and forecast into the 70s next week. It will drop to more seasonable later next week, but if it is going to stay as warm as the extended forecast predicts I am willing to chance it. It is going to be very windy, but it is almost March. We need moisture. It is very dry again and the dust has been blowing on the roads and lots of dirt devils have been seen. Love those shelves. Will is amazing! Sending prayers for a blessed week.

    • Thanks Marilyn. Will IS amazing!! And we’ve been having some very strange weather. Nearly all our snow is gone, and it acts like April outside, not late February! That makes me feel like I’m late planting my seeds, but I know I’m not.
      Delilah is all better and made pizzas with her other grandmother yesterday.

  3. Glad you could “zip” over there. And good call for David/Elizabeth to take her to the ER. Attempted treatment at home that resulted in infection (which can happen even if treated at the ER) could end up a nightmare.
    It was in the 60s here yesterday, not quite that warm today nor will be tomorrow. Almost 70 (yes in February!) on Tuesday.
    Stage one of clean up (using machinery) of the lots we bought happened today – what a difference. It isn’t done – hand cleaning and another round machinery yet to come. But sooo nice to see the invasive “woody plants” turned into mulch. Some poison ivy too but that will require herbicide when the temps are amenable.
    Will take a gander at the garden area in the next few days. I fervently hope the asparagus doesn’t get any idea that it is time to shoot up!
    Isn’t custom shelving great?

    • Yes, it is! Now I’m nagging Will to make another shorter set to go under the window, next to the tall shelving unit he made. Nag, nag, nag. Poor, poor Will.

      We’re starting to clean up around here, too. It’s amazing at how much “junk” gets left in the fall. Then there are the 6 gardens that need clean-up. I’m hoping my real sore knees will shape up quickly!!

  4. Wow, what a scare? I bet you didn’t even think about your knee pain when running to help your baby. It is surprising what you can do in an emergency. I am glad you were up to it, and you will soon be roaming the homestead enjoying your plants. In the meantime, maybe things will not be so traumatic, and you can settle in to doing your seeding and planting. Take care.

    • Yep, I tore over there in record time and even did the porch stairs “normally”, one foot on each step, not two. But I will admit that the next day I suffered from the combination of being up way too much doing seed stuff and acting as an EMT. I couldn’t do rehab on Friday and the therapist not only used the machine to electrically massage my legs but iced them like crazy and taped both of them to help relieve the swelling and soreness. Luckily, it’s worked. Bad Jackie!~!

      • I wouldn’t say bad Jackie. Any person, especially someone in the medical field, who oinked about what you did, doesn’t live in reality. You weren’t playing pickle ball, training for a half marathon, etc. – your bit of “over exertion” was due to a medical emergency.

  5. Jackie I am so thankful Delilah is all right! That sounds so scary, I’m always worried about my 18 month old boy doing something like that. My parents are three and a half hours away right now and I don’t have anyone I could call. Thank the good Lord that is changing this summer! They will be 7 minutes down the road. Just in time for their granddaughter to arrive!

    Praying you can get some seed started and your knee continues to heal

    • Sweet! It’s so nice to have your parents close by. Kids always seem to do something that puts us in a panic! I don’t care how careful you are, there is always something waiting for them to get hold of that will hurt them. We just pray it’s something relatively minor!!

  6. Hi Jackie,
    Those habaneros were definitely a surprise to come up. They weren’t wasting any time and ready to be up growing lol
    I’m glad they got the back porch shelving organized and has to feel better to see it done and
    uncluttered.
    I’m thankful Delilah’s cut wasn’t too serious and was able to get her to hospital to get it checked out.
    This month sure has flown by here too. Can’t believe it’s almost March in no time.
    Been busy here with plant starts and organizing to grow more in outdoor building.
    Not a lot of sun so have to use lights but it works.
    Lettuce, cucumbers and such are going crazy on front porch with lights.
    Due to so many chemicals being sprayed here in the sky and last year so much dying I’m always looking for solutions.
    I hope you have a super good remainder of your day.

    • Thanks Cindy! I was so happy she got quickly treated; they glued her cut shut and put on a protective brace sort of thing to help protect it from bumps. Whew, I was scared when David called and said she’d cut her hand and was bleeding all over. That sounded really bad. Thankfully, it turned out to be a finger and while it was bleeding, I’ve seen much worse.

  7. Surprised you don’t know about using yarrow as a styptic. Have used it many times and on some pretty deep cuts too. Grind yarrow leaves to a powder and keep with your first aid kit (I put it in a well-marked repurposed spice bottle). When cuts occur, sprinkle the powder on the cut (after letting it bleed some to clean out a bit) and keep doing that until it absorbs the blood and the bleeding stops. Cover with a gauze bandage. At that point you can choose to go to the ER or not. Once I had a cut pretty deep and I figured it should be looked at but didn’t want to go to the hospital. Kept putting off washing it off for three days as I was afraid to look! When I finally did it was amazing to see that it was nearly healed! The well-known herbalist Rosemary Gladstar has written about this numerous times.

    • Thanks Nora, I have read about this sometime ago on Rosemary’s site.
      I do keep yarrow now in the first aid kit and glad I do for those cuts.
      Sounds like you’ve had good success with this too.

    • Yep, I do know about yarrow. But this was bleeding harder than yarrow would have stopped imho. Pressure did get it nearly stopped and they glued it shut at the ER when it did stop. Thanks for mentioning that. I’m sure it’ll help many folks!!

  8. I well remember my eldest daughter doing something similar climbing up to the sink and cutting her finger…it didn’t warrant a trip to A & E but it still goes right through me when I think of it!

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