Helping Hands

Quick posting :

Over the weekend a neighbor friend of ours asked if I could help him make order of his tomatoes. Turns out the Baker Creek heirloom brandywines we gave him all decided to germinate. After  adding 6 cherry tomatoes purchased at Lowes now there are 42 indeterminates needing order. In keeping with the 'Gallows' in our front yard I went over to help him build a few for the raised beds he added this year.

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Pretty simple to do. His beds are a standard 4x8 rectangle. Using 4 full length 1x2s @ 8'. The two sides are side screwed into the raised bed. The center is side screwed into a brace in the middle of the bed. Its strong enough to hold up the tomatoes without sagging. In keeping with wind mill tower principles we wrap a string around the cross member and then tie it off to a screw on the raised bed. Creating a 'pyramid'. Now when the wind comes rolling in and pushes sideways on the gallows it keeps them from flexing too far in either direction. Only thing left to do is create a loose loop around the stalk of the tomato and then gently wrap it around the center, tying off the end to the cross member. As the tomato grows up you continue to wrap it up the string. If you wish to keep them from being too unruly, clip off the suckers occasionally. Tomatoes grow stalk, leaf, cluster, stalk, leaf, cluster etc. In the crook of the stalk and the leaf below the cluster will grow a sucker.

Take care everyone!

#23 It's a Wonderberry

Could have done a Harvest monday but decided on Ambulance ride instead. :)

Let me preface this posting with 'Aal izz Well'. (Intentionally spelled this was in reference to a bollywood movie recently seen called, Three Idiots)

The garden assures me that there was plenty of things to be had yesterday, however, we passed it up to have fun at the hospital instead.

Yesterday we had the most splendid of rainfalls. As fellow garden blogger and Michigander, Dorothy, can attest, Michigan really needed it.

The corn was happy. The beans were elated. Heck, I'm sure even the onions are enjoying it. They are in a fattening up stage now. The soil is beginning to crack around them. Exposing golfball sized bulbs so far. Very exciting!

V was at work. The rain stops. I decide to head out front to bring the tomatoes some sort of order again. The downpours did a number on them. No stem breakage or anything of the sort. Just general 'all over the place'.

This year we are continuing to use a gallows and string method. Whereas you wrap a string around the base of the plant and then as it grows up you twist it carefully around the string. The other end is attached to a board overhead. A gallows of sorts. I'll have to get a photo....

Outside in the sun, I was instead using a florida weave method to prop them up as I ran out of small twine.

It wasn't overly hot. It was sunny. Actually quite pleasant (As opposed to today @94F which is a nice AZ winter that the peppers are in love with...).

Ok, Im rambling on here. Sorry. Focus! :)

My vision started to become distorted while I was weaving the tomatoes. A growing feeling of light-headedness. Once the tomatoes were fixed, I went inside to lay on the couch.  Then my head started to hurt. Strange. I never get headaches. Then my left arm/fist was growing numb as limbs do when you sleep on them or constrict blood flow. Lastly a horrendous feeling of nausea.

By this time, V, returned from work. I was attending the tomatoes somewhere between noon and two. She returned say 5 or 6.

Knowing I wasn't in a good health boat at the moment we went to urgent care. Now those are a gem of the US health system. Bleh. I was so nauseated by this point coupled with a pounding headache that I spent near an hour in the urgent care bathroom. Clearing my stomach. No one bothered to wonder about it aside from V. Finally they did come see me. The doctor wasn't the most pleasant of people we've come across in our lives. Anyhow, due to the combination of head ache, nausea, and arm issues they determined I had to go by ambulance to the hospital with the possibility of an aneurysm. My very first ride in one. :)

Lovely. Just lovely.

The doctor puts an IV in my right arm. Of course botches it so she has to do a second. They never do get needles right the first time do they? Anyone?

Six hours in the Er room. Chatting up a bunch of doctors. o2 sensor on my finger. Fluid drip. Some benadryl drip for the nausea. (Didn't realize that it could be used for that purpose) and something else for the headache. That benadryl really had me fading though. :)

Cat scan around 11pm to make sure my brain was good. AND. Yes. I have an absolutely beautiful brain. The grey matter is just the essence of a perfect shade.  No bleeding.

Oh, lastly, the whole time I was shivering uncontrollably. They had to wrap me pretty well in blankets.

What was it then? In the beginning I was really concerned perhaps I was having solanum poisoning after all the tomatoes. However, I haven't a clue as to the symptoms of that. Perhaps metal poisoning from all the yummy garden food?

Their opinion is Migraines. I've never had them before nor the simple headache really. Hmm.

Today Im feeling much better. The sinks are clean.

I am inside with Kiki aka Mr. Pickles and we are thumbing our noses up at the 94F weather outside.

Hmm, but we really do want to make another video for all of you!!!

Happy gardening everyone!