Well, that was Stupid!

   Have you ever done something and the second you did it, you knew it was stupid? And you wonder why you couldn't have realized it was stupid 2 seconds BEFORE you did it?! It happened to me at about 1 PM on Saturday. Boy, was it ever stupid. Remember how I've been complaining about the green water in my koi pond? I finally decided I needed to buy a pond vac to suck up all the muck (leaves and such) off the bottom of my pond that were decomposing and causing all the problems. I could have been pulling my pump to clean the filter several times a day all summer to get that stuff out of there. I'm not that patient, so I bought a pond vac from my cousin who had only used his twice and no longer has a pond. It is called The Muck Buster. Impressive name, don't you think? Well, let me tell you, it is an impressive machine. It was getting all kinds of muck and stuff from the bottom of my pond and draining it thru a long discharge hose into my yard. Oh, I was having fun! I couldn't even see the bottom of my pond before this. It was like liposuction. I kept poking and prodding with the wand and it kept chugging away and passing all kinds of debris out the other end of the hose. I could see I was making great progress and getting more and more excited about it. Of course, it was 90 degrees out and I was dripping with sweat and splattered with muck, but I was HAPPY! If you have a pond, you'll understand that. I had worked for an hour standing on the south side of the pond and decided to move to the north side. I went to the area where my husband had placed two massive 8" thick by 2' x3' flat rocks that I could stand on without fear of them moving. I was going like crazy getting more muck up when the machine sounded like it was straining. I thought it must have sucked up something too big to pass. I couldn't see the end of the hose from my position so I stepped back to see around my Japanese Maple. UH OH! I forgot I was a foot off the ground. I knew I was falling and would land on my back on rocks. It's amazing how many thoughts can go thru your mind in a matter of a second. I remembered I had handle-less pitchforks as a low fence behind me and knew I'd land on one of them. I knew it was going to hurt. I believed I'd be impaled. I thought how awful for Randy to have to cut his Rocky Mountain bike ride short to come home for my funeral. I thought how upset my Sissy would be to have to come to Iowa instead of Maine this week. And, mostly, I thought about how STUPID I was.... I twisted so I could see where I was going to land and hit the 8 pronged pitchfork on my right side. It has a 3/4" diameter square iron rod sticking up 2" that would fit into a wooden handle, if it had a handle, it didn't. I pushed off of it as soon as I hit and was on my hands and knees for a minute groaning. Then I was sick at my stomach and knew I had to get up and get into the house to see the damage. I staggered into the bathroom and lifted my t-shirt to see if I had a hole in my side. Unbelievably, there was NO hole. I had a perfect red indentation matching the end of that pitchfork on my side about where my bottom rib is. I wasn't bleeding. I started saying "Thank you, God!" over and over and apologizing for being so incredibly stupid.

Here is what I saw in the mirror. I took a picture so if I had internal injuries and died, they'd know what caused it. Morbid, I know, but I was alone and scared.

Here is where I was standing (Upper left corner)and here is the pitchfork I landed on...

After a lot of probing the area of my  rib cage and experimenting with movement to access the damage, I sat in my chair for about a half hour feeling fortunate to be alive and not impaled. I went back outside to clean the pond area and put the pond vac away. When I came back in the house I called my Sissy to tell her about my close call and swore her to secrecy, at least from my Mother. She would be scared to death and always worry from now on if she knew I was working on my pond. So, anyone reading this, don't tell Mom!

Here is what it looked like at bedtime that night...

And on Sunday morning...

  I went to the chiropractor this morning, because I think I knocked some vertebrae out of alignment when I hit. The bruising is spreading out, but hasn't all surfaced yet. I'm so grateful to be here and still able to fly to Maine tomorrow. I didn't call Randy. He needs to be concentrating on navigating those mountains on his bike and enjoying himself without worrying what stupidity I'm up too! I'll tell him when I get back from Maine and the bruising is gone.

  The good news (besides not being dead) is, my pond is looking better and the waterfall is running freely now. A fellow gardener would understand my logic.

  Some of my daylilies are starting to bloom. I'll miss most of their glory while I'm in Maine, darn it! Here are a few photos of them this morning...

This is one of the arbors I built a few years ago. It leads into a corner of the back shade garden...

The hollyhocks in front of the outhouse/garden shed are blooming...

I'll show some photos of Mom's  new and improved garden I didn't take my camera with me last Friday when I made the last improvements. These are from the week before. The arbor entry...

 A pond view standing behind the waterfall...

 My SIL, Joyce, talking to Mom sitting in her arbor turned gazebo. Joyce had been helping earlier, but got cleaned up to go see her mother. She wouldn't have let me take this picture before!

 My big brother, Jerry, performing surgery on the tin man who was injured during the move from the old sunny garden...

 A closeup of the surgical procedure, which involved reattachment of left arm...

 Checking for range of motion to the limb post op...

 Patient fully recovered and on the job guarding Mom's outhouse/garden shed...

 Mom's garden is terraced. This view is from the bottom of some steps between some of the rock walls I built. Notice the arrowheads embedded into the cement? Mom used to love to hunt for arrowheads up till she was 85!

 

 A very contented and happy Mom sitting in her gazebo. Behind her is where the old sunny garden was...

A down hill view looking towards the back of Mom's pond area and house...

 Another set of steps leading to Mom's deck...

One of Mom's old wagon wheels enjoying its new location. It is as tall as me! The old gate is stationary, but Mom loves it, so I nailed it in place just for "show". All the dead ground behind it is the old sunny garden... 

This may be my last post till I get back on the 27th. Hopefully, I'll have plenty to write about when I get home. For now, I'm going to the quilt frame for a couple of hours. Keep stitching!

Becky