Plugging along despite a setback
Mid March 2022 I was working on cutting a larger opening between the solarium & the pre-existing studio (former garage). I felt a tightness in my chest that wouldn't go away when I laid down to rest so I went in to the doctor, a rare occurrence.
Long story short I had Takosubo syndrome or "broken heart syndrome" (a ballooning of the left heart chamber). The cause is unexplained as angiogram revealed little to no clogging of arteries. I wonder if it was the grinder. I'm scared of power tools now! At any rate, for the last seven weeks I've been using an alternative protocol taught by widely published cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra. Never being a red meat eater surely helped keep it in check & new changes in diet eliminating grains, sugar & cheese has my joints & bod feeling generally great along with dropping weight. It's just the ticker I'm waiting to have zero soreness.
Meanwhile, my plan for a sauna & living pool with heavy lifting will have to wait.
But last year sitting on the sunporch we were facing a fence with snow peas growing on it, ie., a wall, green though it was. That particular garden behind the fence never produced many veggies due to some shading so I decided to remove various fences & turn it into a flower garden. I've been laying a flagstone path a stone or two at a time & we just planted 64 flower seedlings my cohort Jen D. grew from seed. Life is good, one day at a time.
There is a possibility for workshops to finish the building up on the mountain, the "ATV Shed". I'll post that info here if it happens. Thanks for your interest. The natural building movement has so much room to grow around S.Colorado.
Long story short I had Takosubo syndrome or "broken heart syndrome" (a ballooning of the left heart chamber). The cause is unexplained as angiogram revealed little to no clogging of arteries. I wonder if it was the grinder. I'm scared of power tools now! At any rate, for the last seven weeks I've been using an alternative protocol taught by widely published cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra. Never being a red meat eater surely helped keep it in check & new changes in diet eliminating grains, sugar & cheese has my joints & bod feeling generally great along with dropping weight. It's just the ticker I'm waiting to have zero soreness.
Meanwhile, my plan for a sauna & living pool with heavy lifting will have to wait.
But last year sitting on the sunporch we were facing a fence with snow peas growing on it, ie., a wall, green though it was. That particular garden behind the fence never produced many veggies due to some shading so I decided to remove various fences & turn it into a flower garden. I've been laying a flagstone path a stone or two at a time & we just planted 64 flower seedlings my cohort Jen D. grew from seed. Life is good, one day at a time.
There is a possibility for workshops to finish the building up on the mountain, the "ATV Shed". I'll post that info here if it happens. Thanks for your interest. The natural building movement has so much room to grow around S.Colorado.
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Left: View of the new flower garden with cob chicken coop in the background.
Above: Standing in the flower garden looking towards the balecob solarium with it's rocket mass heater. |
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Above: Here's a reminder for what this whole space looked like before (4/2020) building the cob oven, sun porch, solarium & rocket stove.
Left: Mama robin makes her nest on Mother's Day on the exit duct for the rocket mass heater. No worries, there won't be a fire until late fall & even if there were one, the duct inside before exiting has never gotten above 80˚F. |
Raised bed of greens fed us all winter & still rocks on!
This may not be strictly "natural building" but it is permaculture (never been able to afford a class but pretty sure we practice it here!). I built a raised garden bed last year & Jen D. planted it with greens in the fall. I put hoops from an old surrey fringe on it to make a mini-hoop house & when the first freeze came we covered it with repurposed plastic from the mattress store. When deeper freeze came we threw some packing blankets & an old comforter over it. More tarps were added as the forecast dipped even lower. Early spring we scored a huge pile of woodchips from local tree trimmers & put wood chips on the path around to keep the ground from freezing adjacent to the beds.
Well, believe it or not it even made it through -2˚! I suspect all this only worked because the freeze days were short & shifted right back to warmer weather. Still, greens outside all winter in Colorado! ... pretty unheard of if you ask me!
Well, believe it or not it even made it through -2˚! I suspect all this only worked because the freeze days were short & shifted right back to warmer weather. Still, greens outside all winter in Colorado! ... pretty unheard of if you ask me!
Above: building the bed with topsoil from the clay pit plus goat & chicken manure & maybe some kelp; using all repurposed lumber.
Right: the greens surviving winter temps. Did you know if they freeze some, just let them be & they'll recover? |
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Arugula forest. We'll save some seeds but the blossoms are tender & delish & the greens remain so as well.
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Greens through early May feeding my heart health.
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