Hey guys!

Just reading alot here, trying to catch-up & noticed that whoswho didn't get much attention with the questions, unless someone else started a thread for him/her, so I just wanted to say that I lived in Southern Florida for several years & gardened some of that time, but we rented our places, so I never planted citrus trees & stuff, just did tomatoes & veggies. Peanuts were fun to grow down there!

And Blue...I have what I think is pinched nerves in my hips too...mild right now, worse on the right, but very sharp pain when it comes.
Hasn't been bad enough to get treated yet, but I can see the time will come if it keeps up!

Don't know what caused it or what worsens it, but how do they treat it? I don't like taking meds much, but will if needed.

Do you do exercises & such?

lissann,

Haven't planted a seed yet, but I think you'd better get the luffas started so you can take over towns & villages with them this year!

Bean,

you need to be careful about the pinched nerves thing.

My DH had that. In the first leg he had it, he didn't do anything about it. Over time the nerves were actually permanently damaged so that that leg doesn't respond like it should. Even with strength training and such he can't get it as strong as his good side. The nerves simply don't 'talk' to the muscles like they should. When he is tired his bad leg drags behind him.

Anyway, it started out as tingling and such. So when his good leg started tingling, he actually went and got it looked at.

DH's problem is that he is fat, poor posture, weak stomach muscles, and he has flat feet that ultimately lead to his entire back getting out of whack. He goes to a physical therapist once a week, and that keeps everything working and keeps the good leg good. She really just gives him a massage. But no permanent fix. If he worked on his stomach muscles it would probably help oodles...but he doesn't.

quote:

is that he is fat, poor posture, weak stomach muscles

that is me right there, but do to lack of exercise caused by my problem, i held up an exray film from 2000, 8 years ago, up to the light just now and snapped a shot with quick cam, i wished that thing had a 25 foot cord tho, anyways, i been livin with this for most of my life in some sort of pain, i could never carry a tool box with left side of body cause it put a bind on left side pinching a nurve, if i carried everything on the right side i was fine and this was at age 21 or so, surgewry actualy scares the bageebers out of me but is getting bad nuff i have to seriously concider, before its to late, i had two nasty spills on the ice this winter that scared me plenty,, i still try my best at gardening, bending over n harvesting and pulling weeds i have a very hard time with and usualy all the time i have help with that, however, planting with a tube, hoeing , making a seed row, long as i stay standing up striaght, i'm ok for quite a while, in fact if taxes permit me to, am concidering a troybuilt horse, i have tilled before too, long as im standing tall, however i have trouble turning the darm thing so i just drive it in a big circle on the ends, then son usualy takes over but i still at least gotta do a little of it, stuborn n bull headed sometimes

I see that bulging disc there, that's gotta be painful! I'm a nurse but I'm not a radiologist, and sure doesn't look right to me.

You will know when it's time for surgery, my DH did. Just couldn't stand it any more.

Jim I had back surgery in 2004 and w/out it I would not be up and getting around. I know what kind of pain you must feel. I double herniated my L4-L5 lumbar. I got bent back holding a fridge on a dolly and then slipped on ice delivering a pizza 3 months later.
I went in for surgery needing a cane and help, or a wheelchair to get around and 9 hours later; I was up walking around the whole hospital wing!
Surgery is not too bad, just need a really skilled neurosurgeon.
Jim you'd be amazed at the difference you would feel!

i feel like its time, i was going to get it done this winter, ended up with a belly hernia, doc wanted to fix that first, soi had that scheduled and then got realy sick again, then feel like i got it again after i was feeling better, then they said a flu epidemic was going around, sometimes i dont feel safe going to the doc when i do need to

I have had difficulties with my back but thankfully so far it is strictly due to weight and lack of exercise. So as the weather gets nicer and the days longer, I hope to work on these very soon.

SO I am not speaking from experience but rather wondering, isn't this something you should work on before it becomes so bad that you can't stand it anymore?

I too am a nurse but I was specialized in other areas of nursing so I hope you will enlighting me. But if there are symptoms where it inhibits what you can do regularly, that would seem the time to deal with it.

I had a pinched nerve in my arm but the way the doctor explained it I had carpal tunnel syndrome of the elbow, the nerve being pinched there instead. My last two fingers were numb and tingly and the function was limited. After surgery to move the nerve, it took 12 weeks of therapy to come back some and continued therapy at home.

Beans, you do worry me, you need to be very careful because if you are not you may be doing more damage by not dealing with it now.

http://www.localharvest.org/forum/thread.jsp?thread=961&forum=24

Howdy MHG! I read your post. I think the fuel costs are going to make regular veggies go up and the difference between those and our organic offerings won't be that great. Bottom line, we will still have a market for our goodies.

did you write that????? is very good, and with you thinkin like that i may have to guard my mater patch, my lil pete will keep the mongers away
i have thought about some of that, i think any part of marketing anything, you have to be creativeinvent ways of inexpensive advertizing, word of mouth in these parts work well too but take a few years, maybe two, using the word free in advertizing, am thinkin buying a 50 gallon drum of vinigar and offering free pickle to kids , allways have free samples, information about the heirlooms, heck even a free coffee,have to make it a fun place that bored kids in a small town like alaskan will have fun and want to come back, thinking, maybe some critters and a petting zoo, so many ideas, but being able to grow yourself you can allways undercut the high prices at the super market and advertize home grown organic quaulity with that old heirloom taste at a price that cant be beat, free pickles for the kids,
your read there got me thinkin again, its been a stressfull day

Good ideas bj,one of our members here that grows melons cuts one up in bites and has them out front at his stand. One bite from a customer and they buy a melon!

Hi guys.

Your premise is that rising fuel costs will only affect the other guy. What is it going to do to you relatively?

Plug this into it; You Have to have toilet paper. You Want to get your fresh produce at a farmer's mkt., that 99% of people statisticly, not to mention the venders, have to drive to.
Money is tight. Tight enough to start cutting back. Small impact luxuries are the first cut.
Food, in this country ( except here, preaching to the chior as I am ) with it's Fields of Plenty, mindset, and consumer choices creates a value to the end consumer that high quality/locally grown/organic/fresh ( whatever badge of courage you wanna wear ) foods fall under a luxury catagory to the general population.
And because AgroBusiness DOES feed this nation for the most part ( put your rotten tomatoes and stones down, facts trump passions everytime ).....they ( factory farming ) will get the most benifits from whatever policies are put in place to reverse the recession's spiral.
Back to the "Have to have" and the "Want" - Since fast food is the nation's majority-choice in dining, they won't be cutting back on their grade of toilet paper as much as they will the pricing of their produce. And the price equation includes the effort nessasary for them proccure their food. Which means driving to two places to gather what they have on their list also becomes a "luxury".

........ohhhhh, and unless you're country enough to remember scary long walks in the dark, splinters, cold wood, the Amil Nitrate-like affect of ammonia on a sleep-addled brain, and the dual-purpose of a Sear's and Robuck's catalog; no toilet paper jokes, please........

i did hear they had a recall on jhon wayne toilet tissue

Now here I'm thinking the average consumer is going to think running through McDonald's instead of Wendy's is cutting back... Or maybe they'll just sit home and nurse a Hamburger Helper...

It's not just organic that is perceived as a luxury. It's any kind of fresh food that a person prepares at home. Luxury and inconvenience being merged in the consumer's mind, because it's become a luxury to have the time and "extra money" to buy and prepare fresh food.

IMHO. Or maybe I'm just feeling cynical tonight.