Strains and Sprains

The Buff rooster has been taking it easy for the past few days, spending most of his time either sitting on one of the low roosting bars or hiding behind the trash cans in the coop. (We keep the chicken feed in them.) I am hoping that a few more days of rest will allow that leg to heal completely. I hope he knows enough not to pick any fights with the other rooster.

I’ve been watching for an opportunity, too, to clean out the nesting box with the pile of eggs in it. The eggs have been in there long enough—and nothing has yet hatched, despite the merry-go-round of broody hens—that I was worried a rotten egg would explode and cause a haz-mat situation. I got all the eggs out of the box yesterday and disposed of them. Those hens will have to amass another pile of eggs and try again. (Really, how hard could it be?)

I woke up the other morning with my lower back spasming so badly that I could hardly get out of bed. I’ve been weeding a lot this week, but that usually helps with my flexibility. The husband has a tendency to be a bed hog, and occasionally he will push me into a corner and I’ll wake up twisted into knots like a pretzel. I think that happened the other night.

[He said to me, “Why didn’t you push me back over to my side of the bed?” as if moving 200 pounds of unconscious husband is easy, LOL.]

I was sure that stretching those muscles out would help, but I was in agony no matter which way I moved. I tried everything—arnica, BioFreeze, Aspercreme, liberal amounts of ibuprofen, heat wraps—nothing helped. Finally, in desperation, I laid down on the heating pad for about 20 minutes with it on the highest setting. That relaxed my back muscles enough that I was able to do some stretching exercises. Clearly, I need to do more core strengthening and not rely on gardening work for that.

I used the heating pad and stretched again a few more times again yesterday whenever I felt like those muscles were tightening up. I was able to get the front yard mowed in the morning (I like to cut the grass but I may have to give in and get a riding lawnmower) and then finished the Candy Coated quilt top:

I picked up six yards of fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby last week in Seattle and that will make a good backing for this top.

It was hot yesterday, which made lying on the heating pad even more fun, but it also reminded me how July and August are my least favorite months of the year after March. Heat absolutely saps me of energy and motivation. I am good to about 75 degrees and then I’m done. Fortunately, it is supposed to be a bit cooler today, then much cooler with rain through about midweek. I know the garden needs to the warm temperatures to do well, but I suspect I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the basement or out in the garage for the next couple of months. Any gardening work is going to have to happen in the early morning.

I see at least one snake a day when I go out to the garden, although they are always garter snakes. That big racer snake is keeping a low profile. I’ve also seen lots of ladybugs when I am weeding. The raspberries are covered with bees. The lavender won’t bloom for another couple of weeks yet. We aren’t getting a lot of strawberries this year. I really need to re-do that bed anyway as it’s getting overgrown.

Every year is different.