Dixie Chicks

Oh, and duckweed, I don't have to grow it I have a pond full of it. Going to try drying it on my low slope tin roof on the addition on the garage to feed them it year round. Supposed to be high in protein.
 
Some of you have heard this story already, but I will tell it anyways for the ones that haven't.

Hubby has heart issues, has had quadruple bypass surgery & can't be out in the heat. But last year he managed to plow up a good size plot of garden area for me.
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My cousin & I set the date to plant the garden the day after Mother's Day. (Safe day from frost here in Ohio). Just a week before that day I had a mole removed from my face & sent in for biopsy. The day after Mother's day, my cousin came over & we planted all the plants I had started in the greenhouse, and all the seeds I had wanted to plant. We planted tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, cabbage, watermelon, musk melons, green beans, (pole & bush type), potatoes, pumpkins, lettuce, kale, you name it, I think we planted it!

So less than a week after we planted it, dr called. Confirmed that the mole is basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer). Furthermore said they did not get it all & I would need to go in immediately to the Cincinnati skin cancer center for MOHS surgery. Whomever doesn't know what that is, its where they cut a hole to remove the cancer, they put it under a microscope & keep removing layers until it is all confirmed gone. Mine was massive. The size of a quarter or silver dollar.... Couldn't really tell because I was crying too hard. Right next to my nose. Then they had to cut the "hole" section out because the plastic surgeon could not sew a circle without massive scarring. So, she cut a V shape out of my face to create lines to sew together.

Needless to say, I was told the sun is not my friend at all. Basal cell is the most common of skin cancers. It is the most easily treated. It is the most likely to come back
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The garden-DH and I weeded and rotor tilled in the evening when the heat and sun were gone, but by July, it was overgrown with weeds. We let the chickens eat the whole garden. They were super happy. I felt good that at least the garden didn't go to waste. They ate like kings for a week
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The surgery healed fine and if you didn't know I had surgery, its not real noticeable. Here is a pic of post surgery and now. Sorry, it's graphic!



I am super blessed and I try to spread awareness about skin cancer. This year, we will have a garden. I will wear my big old bonnets and plenty of sunscreen and try to work before sunrise or after sunset.
 
I'm looking for someone near an ocean to collect some long kelp strands and dry it and send it on here. The tiny packages I can purchase in Whole Foods here is way pricy to give chickens, though I have. I think that is just what they need when spring arrives. I'd swap for some seeds or another I have or compensate in some way. Maybe seeds from pink cleome, if I can find the envelop I stashed them in? They are nice, and don't have thorns like some I have seen grown from seed packages.

I guess you could say I feed my chickens fresh blue berries. I have three varsities of rabbit eye blueberries, and I have not so far been successful at netting the hens out of them. I also "feed" them turkey figs, as they do like to eat all they can reach, and those that fall on the ground ripe. (so do the wild birds).

A grass cutting service "politely" said that I have what they call a "natural lawn." Translated, that means I have not used chemicals of any kind in over 15 years, and nothing but organic composed poo, and what the hens drop as they range. No chemical fertilizer, poison bug killer, or other amendment, though I have spread some lime and wood ash as the soil is acid, so if a plant is not acid loving, it usually doesn't last here. To neighbors and the lawn people, I have mostly "weeds," but it suits me and it suits the chickens.
 
I'm trying to sprout BOSS it's a love/hate process for me. I'll figure it out if only my black thumb would cooperate. LOL
I am going to grow my first garden this year, lots of greens for the chickens is the plan.
you nevr had a garden before?



I was also wondering like colalrs are high in calcium does that help the chickens is it better then the calcium in the feed or poyster shells?
 
JWB wow, great Mohs results. You look fabulous post healing. So lucky you had Mohs to preserve all that they could, but the very best part is not having to wait two weeks for results, go back in yada yada yada...you leave there knowing they've got it all.

I am blonde and fair-skinned an mamma didn't know about keeping me from repeatedly burning as a child. I have had twenty four skin cancers removed starting in my 40's. Basal Cell, Squamous Cell, Squamous Cells that "acted like" Basal cells. They have been all over... legs, thigh, chest, arms, top of scalp, face, near my eye, foreams, I mean one by one the come...and one by one they go. Since I retired and insurance changed, I can no longer get my plastic surgeon to do the Mohs technique...unless another one appears on my face, then he will. He has his own lab and it is silly he has to use a less effective technique and send it out to another lab.

If you are fair...sun screen head to toe...and a big "50 SPF" hat. Yeah...hope you never have another one. If I was on a different computer, I'd pull up a picture that'd scare small children. I did a whole face treatment that the "sun damaged" and pre-cancer areas would turn red. Entire face...but it also had the effect of a chemical peal when it healed up. ;)
 

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