New Heart-ware

So I’ve been going through all my seed collection and getting excited as usual for spring. I don’t think I have enough room to grow all the seeds I have accumulated but I’ll give it my best shot. I always go into planting the garden with high hopes but soon run out of steam and often don’t finish planting everything. This year probably won’t be much different as far as running out of steam. The thing is I’ll know why this time and perhaps will be able to manage my time and energy in a way to make it work favorably. We shall see!

I recently had open heart surgery to replace part of my aorta, the aortic valve, and two other procedures having to do with a-fib. Monday will mark six weeks since the surgery. I’m healing and slowly improving. I did get mild pneumonia which I feel slowed progress quite a bit as I’d been coughing a LOT. Coughing is very painful as you might guess or know first-hand, since the sternum was split open and then wired back together. I have my heart shaped “cough pillow” with me at all times (mostly)! The cough has improved significantly, thank God!

These heart problems are probably a main reason I’ve had so much trouble gardening in recent years. I’ve been blaming the emphysema, and the always-present-these-days foot problems, but surely it’s been a combination of all these things. The short-winded-ness however, the biggest obstacle to getting work done, has been most likely caused mainly by the heart problems. Who knew? Well, the cardiologist did, but it took me awhile to get on board with it.

I don’t expect gardening, etc. to be any (or much) easier this season while I’m healing and strengthening my heart, but hopefully it will be easier in the future…maybe even later in this season. I guess we’ll see. I’m going to try to get as much help as possible with at least the initial work and then hopefully keeping it up and maintained will be somewhat doable by me, when I’m further along in my healing.

There are some projects I was planning this season but I guess I’ll play some of them by ear.

• The chicken coop is built, took me forever it seems. Just need to finish the fence to make it more secure from predators, and the chickens can move in.
• I definitely need to set up an EZ-Up or something similar near the garden for a place to take breaks or just to go and relax. Yes indeed.
• I was hoping to replace the raised beds. That idea is carried over from last year. Maybe it’ll get done this year, maybe not.
• Still haven’t made the front fence into moveable sections for the tractor to get in and rototill each spring.
• Burn piles, compost piles, junk piles, and much much more!

Well, stay tuned for updates. Happy Spring and…

Happy Gardening!