I’ve been trying to get in a rhythm of posting The Weekly Digs every Saturday. As you may realize, this is posted Monday. Saturday I ended up in Urgent Care! The story of how that happened is below but if you want to skip right to the garden stuff, I have it labeled “Homestead News”.
On Saturday, we invited our friends’ kids up to stay and play with our kids for the afternoon. We planned a dutch oven dinner of Cowboy Soup and Apple Crisp. I was going to plant some cover crops because it was going to rain over the weekend and Cam was going to get the fire and dinner going.
Our friends came up to drop off kids and we gave them a tour of the house progress before they left. As I was talking to my friend in our bonus room, all the sudden something blew into my eye.
I immediately couldn’t open my eye without pain and my eye was watering like crazy. I asked my friend to see if she could see anything in there and she said maybe an eyelash.
I couldn’t carry on in conversation so I ran to my car to look in the mirror and see if I could see anything. I could see nothing! It was super painful and my eye continued to tear up. I tried to say goodbye to our friends but it was laughable because I could barely open my eyes and had to continuously wipe my eyes and nose.
After our friends left all the kids ran off to play and I figured I’d try and work in the garden anyway and just wait it out because eventually whatever was stuck in my eye had to come out sometime!
I got about ten minutes into working and that was all I could do. The pain was too much and my vision was blurred. Even though it was only my right eye, I couldn’t close it without closing both eyes. (I can wink with my left eye but not my right!)
I had slight relief from closing both eyes so I blindly walked towards where Cameron and the campfire was. We said a prayer together and then I ended up laying down in the car with my eyes closed but the pain and discomfort was awful.
The kids were sweet and brought me soup before it all got eaten. Three hours after I initially got stuff in my eye, I declared to Cameron I couldn’t take it anymore and I needed to get medical assistance.
Prior to seeking medical help, I had tried to wash it out with eyedrops, stuck my eye under running water for a few minutes, and Cameron poured water on my eye out of his drinking cup several times, all to no avail.
The problem was we still had all our friends’ kids there which we were planning to bring home with two cars because we couldn’t fit everybody in one. Cameron asked if I could see well enough to drive and I said, “umm no!” I was still dripping tears, had blurry vision in that eye, and was in too much pain.
We called our friends and they were so kind (our land is quite a drive from their home). They came and got all the kids so Cameron could run me to urgent care before they closed.
Side note: Why does this stuff always happen on the weekend?! A regular eye doctor would have definitely been preferred.
At urgent care, they put some stuff in my eye to numb it and I felt immediate relief. It was heavenly. Then they put some drops to dye my eye so they could check for a scratched cornea. Luckily it wasn’t scratched but the doctor still couldn’t see anything.
Then they flushed out my eye with something called the Morgan Lens. It was kind of like a giant plastic contact and saline came through the middle. After 30 minutes of that they took it out and I could tell that whatever was irritating my eye was still there!
I left there frustrated and crying. The doctor prescribed some antibiotic drops and we went to the pharmacy to get them. I suddenly had the thought (and it was more like divine inspiration) that whatever was in my eye was under my eyelid because the eye flush was just for the eye and did nothing for the eyelid.
I told Cameron to please buy some Qtips. We drove home and when we got inside I said, “Cameron, I need you to get it out with the Qtip.”
We doused the Qtip in saline solution, Cameron did one swipe under my upper eyelid and then looked at the Qtip and said, “I think I got it”. I immediately looked at it and could see a natural colored debris that looked like a wood shaving. It was very thin and only a quarter inch long but it was there!
I hugged him and cried some more after because it felt so much better. There was still a little bit of irritation because it had been in my eye for seven hours but I was able to rest and felt better in the morning.
Anyways, luckily all the kids had a fun Saturday even though mine didn’t go quite as planned.
Homestead News
Guess what?!
We have running water! Our well pump guy graciously is letting us use his generator until our electric is hooked up. All the pumps to the garden work. That first turn on and drink of water was the most glorious feeling of elation. Haha!
The best part is we were worried about getting sulfur in the water because as the well guys were drilling it smelled like sulfur. Thankfully it seems like they drilled through a layer of sulfur but it isn’t affecting our water. It tastes amazing and the best part is no chlorine, fluoride, or other chemicals added by city water.
Also I can water the garden now with ease! That means more time spent in other areas of the garden and homestead.
We have a video of our water excitement but it’s not published yet (sorry!). Cameron and I have a goal to get more consistent and up to date on our Youtube videos now that the gardening and preservation is slowing down. If you aren’t subscribed and would like to be click HERE.
In the garden, I am harvesting turnips, lettuce, kale, carrots, radishes, and the last of the peppers.
We had our first frost this week, October 16th. There was a freeze warning but the temperature prediction said 37ºF as a low so I figured we were safe. In the morning I went up to look at everything. It was obvious that the temperature got much lower!
The basil, jalapeños, sweet peppers, and tomato leaves were all black. Bean leaves got frozen but luckily most of the beans were mature. We are harvesting and shucking them as we have time.
I have also been sifting out bermuda grass with a homemade sifter Cameron made me. It is basically 2×4’s with handles and 1 inch chicken wire in a square shape. It’s quite a time consuming process but it will be worth it not to have to deal with bermuda in the blueberry rows.
I’m getting started planning the garden and next year’s plants already. Things are going to sell out fast this year and I want to be ready and buy early. I saved many more of my own seeds than the year prior but I still have a few I need to buy.
Usually seed companies don’t ship out seeds packed for the next growing season (2021) until the seed catalogs come out. But I have a feeling they restocked sold out seeds from seed packed for next year.
I ordered some seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds just today so I’ll update on the next Weekly Digs as to whether or not my hunch is true.
Even so, most seeds last more than one year so it is still ok to buy last years seed stock. I have a guide on how long different seeds last under good storage conditions HERE.
