Taking Care of Yourself Is the Best Medicine

by | Oct 27, 2020 | Uncategorized

I have always been a person who likes to do more than one thing at a time.  To me it has always seemed efficient.  It never occurred to me that perhaps being constantly active in body and mind might be too much and not really healthy.  What I mean is, in my daily life of farm, house, work, animal chores, volunteering, errands etc., my mind and body are constantly active on what I am doing and what I need to do. In the efforts to get all the things done I want to accomplish in a day, I am constantly busy.  From the moment I wake up, I am on the go.

 

I stage items to move about the house while whisking pet hair on the floor with my foot and will scoop that up on my next trip by.  I water and transplant plants, check on the gardens, harvest produce and herbs, preserve everything, clean out garden beds and endlessly weed……. Clean out the chicken house and gather eggs, water everyone and clean those containers, take out or stock canning jars in my she shed, check on the drying herbs there, then go next door to the garage and pull beef from the freezer for dinner and 100 other things that just need done.    I am not alone.  I am sure anyone reading this can relate to the endless “to-do’ list.

I am so far behind on my reading that I always have a stack of magazine including the latest editions of Mother Earth News or Mother Earth News Living with me in the bath.  Every book and magazine I own is water logged.

For the last decade I do butt scrunches while I watch TV or drive so as to be exercising while I ‘waste” time.  My mind and body never really STOP and I move around at breakneck speed.  This year it caught up with me.

This year I turned 52 but honestly don’t feel any certain age.  I am not sure how 52 is supposed to feel but I have tons of energy, rarely get sick and my body feels like it did in my 20s.  I go to the gym 4 or 5 days a week consistently year-round, and hike my dogs for about an hour pretty much every day.  I cook all of our meals from real, unprocessed food, take high quality supplements via pill or powder form every day, drink lots of water, power and care for my body by consuming herbal teas and lots of natural remedies and I try to sleep enough though at times, sleeping is difficult for me.   I don’t sit for long periods of time; I move my body all day long at chores and schedule errands and volunteering for after the gym. Last year I got a pair of Traq shoes which keeps track of those steps and one day I walked over 14 miles in just normal activity.  I think that is a lot.  That is a little above average for me but I am on my feet A LOT.  I like to joke that the only time I sit down is to go to the bathroom and eat dinner.

After all the planting was pretty much done in late June, I was getting the farm ready to host our annual Summer Solstice Party.  We save our cardboard and paper refuse and burn it several times a year.  I store all that on our lower back deck and wanted it all cleaned up for the party so was taking trips back and forth to the burn pile.  I slipped on one of those trips and fell down injuring my right middle finger.  I could bend it so splinted it and went on working.  There was much to do.

Four weeks later it was still REALLY sore and I had my annual doctor’s appointment with a physician I have had for decades.  She examined the finger and said it will eventually heal.  Tendon/ligament damage but no bones broken.  I asked about a bone density test and she said not yet.  I went on my merry way.

Several hours later I was rushing around as usual and needed to retrieve some light bulbs I had stored in our pole barn.  I didn’t take the time to secure the ladder and box that I stepped on to reach them properly and, on the way down lost my footing and fell backwards onto the ground with the ladder whacking me on the head.  I heard a snap and felt PAIN.

I looked at my dangling right wrist and knew I had broken it.  I ran into the house to my husband who was working in his office.  I said I think I broke my wrist.  He looked at it, ran from the room, got ice, sat me down and said we are going to the ER.   I broke both bones of my right wrist and had to have surgery to repair the one and now have a plate and screws in my body.

Being a farmer, I was devastated that work as I knew it would have to STOP.  This was July 23rd, a VERY  busy time on the farm.  For two weeks I had to lie down and do basically nothing while the gardens grew, the chicken house got pretty icky, the meals were very basic and I SLEPT.  I had NEVER been able to nap in my life unless I was ill, but I couldn’t stay awake now.  I made a little bed on my screened in porch with pillows and a sheet and started reading the Harry Potter books on my settee.  Every day I napped for 2-3 hours and when I resumed the dog hikes VERY carefully, I had to take TWO 2-3-hour naps daily.  The dogs and cats were good company as they will take every opportunity to nap and I got through 5 Harry Potter books.

After two weeks I returned to see the surgeon.  They removed the cast and the doctor said I could wear a splint now. Yippee.  This was much less restrictive.  I had several follow up appointments and each time the doctor has been really pleased with how fast I was healing.  I was on weight restriction of course but as soon as I finished the physical therapy, I could do pretty much everything!  I resumed as much farm work as I was able and accepted help from friends and neighbors.

Last week, in mid-October, after my gym class I took two big boxes of gifts I needed to post.  I could have taken them in one at a time but no, in usual Marsha fashion, I piled them both in my arms and was quickly walking to the door.  People were exiting and considering we are living in the era of Covid-19, though everyone was masked, I moved out of the way to give them some room to pass and stepped off the sidewalk rolling my right ankle like I had never done before.  Down I went like a sack of potatoes, boxes flying and I watched my ankle instantly swell.  The urge to retch was really strong and I was in intense pain.  At this point I cried a bit too as I was feeling like I broke my ankle this time and if that would be the case, I was REALLY screwed.  A wrist was hard enough but this injury would stop the dog hikes and the massive running around the farm.  I had a bit of a pity party right there on the ground.

While I was laying there with my head in my hands, one lady did stop and ask me if I was ok and in about ten minutes, the urge to vomit passed so I got up and hobbled into the post office, mailed the packages then went home.  Mitch was getting ready to leave for his annual camping trip with his childhood buddies and I presented my bruised and swollen ankle to him for review.  He went and got the athletic wrap, tightly wrapped it and brought me some ice and Advil, kissed me and left.  The pets gathered around and looked sad.  This was one day Bandit and Bubba were not getting hiked.  We have 6 fenced-in acres, go walk yourselves.  Mommy is possibly broken AGAIN.

So, I lay there and Googled ankle injuries and agreed it was probably a sprain.  There are 3 degrees of sprained ankles I now know and I thought I was a 1 or a 2.  I did not rush off to the ortho and all my friends were chastising me for this.

After the first 24 hours I pulled off the bandage and had a look.  Lots of swelling and bruising but it seemed stable to walk on.  72 hours in I had my regularly scheduled final post-surgery follow up with Dr. Welker on my wrist and I asked him to look at my ankle.  He examined it and said it was a sprain and if it isn’t 100% better by Thanksgiving I am to return.  Ice and elevation and rest to continue and I am doing all that.  As when I was newly injured on my wrist, every day during that first week, I simply HAD to nap.

Again, I am healing remarkably fast and people keep commenting on this.  I am 11 days in and back at the gym.

I truly believe that all the efforts I put into taking care of myself every day of the year is to credit my fast recovery.   Since I started deeply delving into growing food organically, raising chickens and bees, growing mushrooms, growing herbs for teas, tinctures and herbal extracts and exploring healthier ways of eating, I am not only preventing illness but fortifying my body so it is strong and healthy and able to concentrate on healing.  I also have a grateful heart and I think that is also helpful.

Photo by Kayla Maurais on Unsplash

I need to and am going to make a conscious effort to slow down and take my time.  It won’t be easy for me, but what has happened to me in 2020 has truly scared me.   I did get that bone scan and while I don’t have osteoporosis, I do have osteopenia.  I already take the recommended dosages of calcium and vitamin D3 and ingest lots of collagen, magnesium and Triflex for joint support, but I need to take my speed through life below 70 MPH.  I believe I am doing a really good job at caring for this body but I will be a senior citizen in three years (OMG, really?) and taking careful and slower steps are becoming necessary.

While over the course of a lifetime, we will become ill, break bones and more, I do believe taking care of yourself is the best medicine and we CAN heal our body naturally.  During Covid, I published a restorative and healthy cookbooklet on that subject and I hope you will check it and me out.   https://www.amazon.com/My-Healing-Cookbooklet-Recipes-Restoration/dp/1734711906/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Marsha+Cassel+book&qid=1603832048&sr=8-1

I want to become a real natural healer and expert with herbs and through attending several Mother Earth News fairs, know just the teacher I want to contact to reach that goal.

Winter is coming.  The pace of life around the farm is slowing.  Now is the perfect time for me to get a deeper understanding of all the medicine growing right outside under my healing ankle. #naturalmedicine #herbalremedies

 

The Great Canning Supply Shortage of 2020

by | Oct 2, 2020 | Uncategorized

For a great many reasons, the year 2020 will stand out in everyone’s minds.  We don’t need to beleaguer the points about the horrors of trying to avoid and hopefully survive a world pandemic, the economic devastation, the great loss of life and restricted activities worldwide.  Those are all serious things.  I’m going to talk about one thing in particular that has affected me and lots of my people, the great canning supply shortage.

In March and April when things were getting locked down, I already had hundreds of peppers, eggplant, tomato and lots of herb seeds started in little four-inch pots in my indoor greenhouse which is the guest room closet all outfitted with grow lights, aluminum foil coated walls and fans.  I buy all my seeds during the previous fall and winter to I can leisurely organize them, get the planting calendar all filled in and dream about where I will plant everything this year.  This activity sustains me through cold winds, snow and ice.

As I am pondering the coming planting season, I usually get ideas about adding this or that to the growing and I have 3 seed purveyors that I like to buy from.  When I went online in April to get a few things I was puzzled by the “out of stock” notifications on like EVERYTHING.  That is when I discovered that if people are going to be home, they all of a sudden decided to put in a garden.  Every store I went to, every online shop I checked out, everyone, was pretty much picked clean of every seed in America.  WOW.  I thought to myself, this is getting serious.

Now, if I was as smart as I think I am, I would have at that time went to a different aisle in those stores and bought all the canning supplies I would need for the season, but I didn’t.  Honestly, I thought sure, people will grow some tomatoes and cucumbers and make some home cooked meals, but they are not going to go through the considerable effort to can and preserve all that produce.  I was wrong.

Now because I have a great many friends who know I can, I am the grateful recipient of a large amount of quart canning jars.  Throughout the past two decades, many moms and grandmas (sorry if this appears sexist) are giving up all that work and I am always pleased to take the jars.  There is one friend in particular who’s mom Beverly in one giant heap pretty much filled my pole barn room with jars.  Of the hundreds of jars were these really old ones with glass lids and I knew immediately that I would make bath salts with essential oils and house those in there for gifts and for sale.  The older jars can’t withstand the heat and pressure of water or pressure canning, but are still great for other storage and simply beauteous.

At times over the past decades, I have attended estate sales where the folks had passed away leaving piles of jars and canning things that smell like musty old basement or barn and I have happily paid a few bucks and took them all home.  I actually LOVE that stench of old, falling apart boxes that mingles with dirt and grime, mouse poop etc. It smells like HISTORY to me.

So, I always have lots of quart jars in storage ready to be filled, but I was short on jelly jars and the small mouth lids that go under the bands and make the seal to preserve the valuable contents.  I like to give my dad easy jobs, so I put him on the case.  I told him to call every store he could think of and find me some small mouth lids, jelly jars and any plastic reusable lids that he can find. I use those to store the dried herbs I save for teas and medicines and for the yogurt that I make for the chickens. He came up completely empty and gave me the helpful advice of next year to stock up.  Uh, thanks dad.

Many years ago, when I co-owned a big True Value hardware store with my ex-husband, one of the departments I maintained and ordered for was the canning supplies.  Ball jars are now made by the parent company Jardin and like many types of supplies, their glassware and bands and lids are all made at least a year in advance and there is as much as there is.  I don’t know if they knew the whole world would be canning 6 months after the pandemic began so they could start new production to keep up with demand this year, but unfortunately they ran out which means all the stores they ship to also ran out.  Those shelves are empty my friends but I look every time hoping against hope there will be more than an errant salsa or pickle mix on the shelf.   I would bet even Megan and Harry couldn’t manifest canning supplies if the royal ones were in need.

I drove three hours to my Amish store and get some lids but there were no jars and even pectin is hard to come by this year.

I was also able to trade some wide mouth lids, which I use less frequently, and 2 jars of already made jam for some jelly jars and lids from a neighbor’s garage.  That should keep me going.  I am done with jelly making for the year.  I still have pumpkin to can and potatoes but I should have enough for this season.

Speaking of pumpkin, I hear canned pumpkin puree in in scarce supply now too and another thing I was amazed to see gone from store shelves is tapioca and corn starch.  There seemingly  wasn’t one box left of anything to thicken pies and gravy.   As I stepped back I saw WAY in the back on the top shelf one lonely package of Arrowroot.  After I spotted it, my five-foot two body climbed up the shelves and snagged that last package.  Thickeners are needed for many, many dishes and yes you can use flour, but I like tapioca for pies and cornstarch for gravy.   What is everyone doing with all of that I wonder?

So, what next will be in short supply.  There is once again toilet paper (the good stuff too), flour and yeast availability which is good.  I have learned how to make natural yeast though and we have a terrific flour purveyor 7 miles away so I’m covered there.  I should have enough canned supplies to get us through winter which is also good.  I’m just wondering what else I will find astonishingly gone from shelves soon.  I just hope everyone doesn’t join me on my medicinal tincture work and clear out the liquor store of Everclear grain alcohol.  Maybe I better stock up now!!!  You just never know.