Sexing my Gourds

Just got in from a quickie....I had two female gourds that needed to be hand-pollinated.  It's very late in the season and I don't know if they'll have enough growing time to mature but we're trying to keep the females pollinated anyway.

The picture on the left is of a male gourd flower and the one on the right is a female.  You can tell the female by the little swollen gourd shape at the bottom of the petals. 

To hand-pollinate, you pick a male flower, pick off the petals and turn it upside down onto the female.  Then you flick the pollen in.  Sounds kinky, doesn't it?? The pic on the right shows the male flower turned over on the female and I just leave it like that.  By tomorrow, I'll know if it took because it will start growing a baby gourd.  The flowers only bloom for one day so you have to jump on it unless you want to leave pollination to chance.  And if you don't have enough moths to do the work, then you have to pull out your breeders hat.

We're trying to get Jim sprung from the hospital tonight.  Still pumping Potassium into him right now.  Maybe a couple of units of blood before he leaves, too.

 

7 hours in ER....again

Shit.  I just got home from the hospital...Jim is still there.  His potassium was horribly low so they decided to keep him and pump him full of burning potassium IVs to try to get his level back up.  I was listening to his heart and he was having a LOT of PVCs so that combined with his swelling and horrible leg cramps made me get him up and take him in.  Hopefully, he'll be released tomorrow.  The nurses are great in Cardiac and we know them all but it sure doesn't compare to being home.

Me...I had to come home and get a little sleep because Chase will be here in a few hours.  His little 3-year-old energy will whup my ass tomorrow!  We'll head over to the hospital for bed rides with Grandpa sometime tomorrow.

Birdie is fine...Chase named him Thumper.  Robin and family are going to adopt him unless someone answers a found ad.  It turns out that I'm a bit allergic to him so I didn't think it would be a great idea for him to move in permanently.

On to bed...

 

 

From the Sailor's Mouth....

Do you ever feel like you have to keep down the crass person that you are?  I live like that.  I have the vocabulary of a sailor.  There just aren't enough places where you can let loose with all of the "fuck"s and "shit"s that you need to.  Or that I need to.  All of my close real life friends know how I talk and they put up with it or join in.  Most of you know this about me and yet I try SO hard not to offend anyone.  Well, fuck it.  I'm going to let it loose.  I don't want to be two people....nice Lisa and raunchy Lisa.  So for your reading convenience, I will label posts or parts of posts like this one so you don't hurt your virgin eyes if it offends you.

I love y'all anyway, you know that.  But....I GOTTA BE ME!!

My daughters will love me for it.  After all, we communicate on the same level!! I'll never forget the day that Erin first called me, "slut"!!  *sniff* My little baby is all growed up!!

*mwah*

A Visitor

This little guy was in our oak tree this evening.  When Jim tried to coax him down, he wanted to come but was afraid.  So Jim got on a ladder and held out his finger and the little guy came to him.  He's extremely tame and very smart.  I think he was probably starving and dehydrated because he's been eating Goldfish crackers and water like crazy. 

Now he's taking a little snooze...he found my grapevine wreaths in my craft shelf and is sleeping.  Poor guy. Tomorrow we'll put an ad in the paper to see if someone lost him.  If not, it would be really hard to part with him.

 

A couple of my new gourds for the upcoming Peddler's Fair:

It's really good to be back on Xanga. 

I have had a want to go unconcious lately.  Last month, I did something I haven't done in 20 years: took a Xanax.  I took one and a whole Benadryl and went OUT for the night.  I just couldn't deal with thinking anymore.  Haven't done it since, though.  I really have no urge to drink right now, either.  I guess that's a good thing.

I mentioned the home birth with my young friend in my last blog.  It was one of the best births that I have participated in out of the several hundred I have helped with.  So this was in the back of my mind, still high from it, when I got called to the hospital last week for my first time back on the floor.  It was the complete opposite of last monday's experience; the mom was a Spanish-speaking county patient.  The doc and nurses treated them like cattle...no I take that back...I think veteranarians would be more caring.  I hope that I made some little difference for her and her husband in treating them as valuable people and their baby as precious.  But when I came home, I cried for quite a while.  Jim and Robin said, "I'll give you a month doing this".  We'll see. 

My salvation may be that I work postpartum now, also, and help with breastfeeding and such.  It may balance out some of what I have to endure.  I was encouraged to find that one OB who made some real bad blunders while I worked with her has lost her licence.  I was dreading working with that doctor again. 

On a better note, I have been listening to some really great music and enjoying the approaching fall.  Autumn is the time of year when I just feel goooood.  The warmth of the light and the angle of the shadows makes me feel connected to the earth.  Like I belong.

Blessings,

Lisa

It's been toooooo long since I've been here. 

I'm doing a bit better these past few days. I've had 2 massages and it seems to have unlocked some of my creative block. I don't know how that works but it does. I started a new painting and a couple of gourds...it feels good to be making things again.

Jim is steadily improving. We did have 2 ER visits this week for heart rhythm problems but he didn't have to stay in. That's a move in the right direction.

Sarah is in Idaho now; she and Jim are looking for a place to live while staying with her biological dad and stepmom. I sure miss them!

My job starts on monday for labor coaching; I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house and bringing some money in. Jim also accepted a job starting in September; he couldn't go back to the old job after his back surgeries so they finally opened a job that he could do in the company and it's actually one that I think he will enjoy.

That's all the news from here for now.

Blessings

Jim was in the hospital again last week because of the Pleurisy and because his blood count was low. He had to have two transfusions. It seems his heart valve is destroying his red blood cells but the Cardiac docs say that this should correct within a couple of months. So we'll probably have a few more transfusions in the weeks to come.

Yesterday, he was in the ER for a heart rhythm problem, which they also say happens in the first months after a valve replacement. Everytime he goes in for something like that, I fall apart a little more. I think that I should be holding up better but it's actually wearing me down. I cry a lot lately.

I'm going back to work in the birth coaching job next week. I think it will be good to have some time doing other things. I haven't been in the mind state to paint or sculpt and I miss it. I really miss the creative energy. I also have ceramics starting again in about 3 weeks so that's another positive. I got my massage but really need another!!

Chase has been keeping me laughing...he's really into Star Wars right now. I miss Jake and Sarah and her Jim. Oh...played my guitar a couple of times in the past week...that was good. But that's all that's new in my life for now.

Blessings.

I haven't blogged much lately because I don't feel like I have much to say.  Life becomes very narrow and simple when you're in survival mode. 

I know that I must be really feeling stress in my body.  My dear friend Cathy (Desertrose) gifted me with money for a massage,  which I have scheduled for next week.  I think it will be a big help. 

One real good indicator for me that I'm stressed is that I have felt pissed-off at Levi (my dog).  A lot of good that does, being mad at a dog!  I feel irritated at his lack of manners.  He has officially knocked both Jake and Chase into the pool.  He can't think of anything but getting his torpedo and gets wild around the pool.  He doesn't mean to be an asshole but I sure wish he was better-trained right now. 

Sarah is officially engaged!!  She and Jim and Jake left last week to head to Idaho, where they are moving.  Jim proposed to her at Multnomah Falls.  I'm so happy for them!  We have been going through a lot of sadness at their moving so far.  We used to be able to drive only 2 1/2 hours to see them or for them to see us.  Now it's a 12 hour drive.

 

Oh to be in the boats today!!