Bringing Some Peace & Quiet To The Patio

Materials for my fountain

Last week I spent a few minutes organizing my bookshelves and found some books on water gardening I'd picked up for a dollar at the thrift store. I've always wanted to have a water garden. Something about the sound of running water is really soothing. A little research proved that it's not very expensive to start one. So over the last couple weekends, it happened. 

I started with at trip to the hardware store.  Everything I needed is shown in the photo above: fountain pump, planter bowl, drill (to widen the hole in the bottom of the planter so the cord would fit through), rocks to hide the pump, and of course water (not shown).

I started with at trip to the hardware store.  Everything I needed is shown in the photo above: fountain pump, planter bowl, drill (to widen the hole in the bottom of the planter so the cord would fit through), rocks to hide the pump, and of course water (not shown).

Fountain pump.

The pump I got came with a couple different nozzles to change the spray pattern for the water. Not all of them come with it. There's also different sized pumps depending upon how much water you want to move and how high you want to make it go.

Enlarged hole for the pump's cord.

Step one was to enlarge the hole in the bottom of the pot so I could run the cord for the pump through. This isn't exactly necessary, but I thought it would make the finished fountain look better. I had a rubber plug already fitted around the cord to make the hole water-tight, but not all of them are that way. It is also common to use some sort of sealant to close up the hole around the cord.

Pump placed in pot and hole around the cord sealed with rubber plug

Initial finished fountain

I didn't like the way it looked with just the rocks in this photo because the pump was still visible. I found a wire basket at the dollar store, cut a hole in the center and placed the overturned basket over the pump. This keeps the rocks from blocking water flow to the pump and reduces the amount of rocks I need to hide the pump. I added more rocks until the basket was no longer visible.

Finished fountain!

I'm planning to eventually add plants to the fountain. Until then, I think this will work fine. I have been running the fountain almost once a day and draining the entire fountain and cleaning it to prevent algae from growing.

Fountain in the corner with (L-R): Geranium, White Oxalis, Citronella plant (far back), cactus garden, Purple Oxalis, and Asian Jasmine.

Due to all the turmoil that goes along with a new job, I haven't been able to spend time running rescue or doing paramedic-y things other than working on the re-certification process. Re-certification has to be done every two years in order to maintain National Registry certification. There are a bunch of different topics that you need to receive training in, for a total of 60 hours of training. I have about 8 months to complete 5 hours of training. Easy enough. Until I get back into the field on my own as a medic with my new job, it's time for more garden therapy. Until next time...

Patio Herb Gardening

I know it's been awhile since I posted, but I got a new job a few months back. Consequently, I'm preparing to move again and I've been in training, so I haven't had much time to write. I am happy to report that I have managed to keep a few plants alive despite being extremely busy studying for exams.

These past couple months, the anniversaries of a handful of difficult calls came and went. I've found that memories seem to pick their own time and place to resurface. And it is sometimes difficult to put them to rest. Each time they are brought out of the proverbial closet and worked through, it gets easier to handle. I like to think this process is comparable pruning. Plants are much healthier when trimmed and pruned regularly. And yeah, I prefer to do something constructive while working through things...like gardening. Particularly, working with herbs because they smell so good. Aromatherapy anyone?

One of my favorite planters is my herb box. I started with a light gray plastic window box planter about 5 years ago. The plant arrangement has remained more or less the same since then. I managed to fit four different varieties of herbs comfortably in the box. It isn't my only pot of herbs though.

Gray window-box of herbs in 2012. From L-R:
Lemon Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley and Oregano

Since some of these plants are perennials and some are annuals, I've had to replant the ones that die each year. For home cooking, here's a rundown on six of the most useful herbs to grow.

Thyme: Thyme is an annual (meaning it has a seasonal life cycle and dies after it's flowered and produced seeds), and comes in many varieties. Some of my favorite varieties are Lemon Thyme (lemony smell), Elfin Thyme (tiny leaves and typically used as a ground cover), English Thyme, and Silver Lemon Thyme (which has a silver leaf edges). Thyme likes plenty of sun, hates it when you let the soil get dry and does well when fertilized once a week. I try to trim it pretty regularly and I usually dry whatever I can't immediately use.

Varigated Lemon Thyme

Rosemary: Rosemary (pictured second from left in the photo of my planter) is a perennial. Perennials have a longer life cycle lasting 2-3 years. Actually, Rosemary can be more of a shrub and is sometimes grown as a hedge. It doesn't like too much water, loves sun, likes to be fertilized regularly and will take over a planter if you aren't careful. Rosemary can be trained into topiary, trimmed into all sorts of shapes and grow into a huge bush 4 feet tall and as big around. It goes very well with chicken, and is awesome in spaghetti sauce. Because a happy rosemary plant grows like a weed, I usually plant it in a small plastic pot and then plant that smaller pot in my planter. This helps keep it from completely taking over my planter. I trim it regularly and usually dry whatever I can't use. The oils in rosemary leaves can sometimes be hard to get off your hands. Dawn dish washing soap works pretty well for that, but I also like to wear gloves if I don't want my hands to smell like rosemary for the next day.

Parsley: Parsley is another annual. It is a versatile herb used to make all sorts of dishes. It isn't quite as strong a flavor as rosemary, and while it loves sun, don't let it dry out. If it dries out (which almost always happens in hot weather since it needs a ton of water), it tends to bolt and be in an awful hurry to produce seeds. Once it bolts, you won't get many good leaves off it for cooking. There are several varieties of parsley, but the two I've seen most commonly are those with a flat leaf or a curly leaf. I prefer to grow the flat leaf variety since I find it a lot easier to wash all the dirt off the flat leaves. Parsley is also the host plant for many swallowtail caterpillars. While swallowtail butterflies are beautiful, I don't like having my parsley eaten by somebody other than me!

This is Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley from  the Bonnie Plants website: https://bonnieplants.com/product/flat-italian-parsley/.

Oregano: Oregano belongs to the mint family and I think it is considered a small shrub. It's definitely a perennial--my current plant is several years old. It is a key ingredient in Italian dishes. I've tried several different varieties including Greek (very strong flavor), Italian, Golden (yellowish leaves) and Varigated (silver edges).  I prefer to grow Italian Oregano because I like the flavor. Oregano will tolerate you letting the pot get dry, but it definitely prefers getting water regularly. Fertilizing and regularly trimming it back (especially when it wants to flower) allow you to harvest the leaves for a longer period of time.

Basil: Basil is another annual that tends to bolt if it's pot dries out. Regular watering, fertilizing, trimming and TLC will make this fragrant herb quite happy. Since it's life span is shorter than most of the other herbs I grow, I like to keep a separate pot with multiple varieties of basil. Some of my favorite basil varieties are Purple, Cinnamon, Thai, Lemon, Lime, Spicy Bush (bushy plant with lots of small leaves), and Sweet Basil (the plain kind). I trim my basil plants every other week or so and dry anything I can't use right away.

Purple, Thai and Spicy Globe Basil 

Chives: Chives are another of those perennials that will be around forever if you take care of it. It likes plenty of water and sun and being fertilized once a week. Chives are a member of the onion family and the hallow leaves are picked and used for a dainty onionish flavor. I don't trim or dry my chives, although you can do both. I prefer to pick only the largest leaves when I want to use them for cooking. I usually thin and re-pot my chives once a year.

Chives (front and center)

Did I mention that my cat loves to play in my herb garden? She makes a mess but smells really nice when she's done.

Minerva used to be soooo tiny! And she is most certainly up to no good...

A Day (Or Night) In the Life of a Volunteer Paramedic (Part 1): Typical Shift At The Rescue Squad

I was recently asked by a member of the public what a typical day is like for me. That is such a hard question to answer because each shift is so different. Being a bit of a smart aleck, I asked them "what day?" I work a rotating 24hrs on/72hrs off schedule with the private ambulance transport company. My volunteer paramedic schedule of 12hr shifts is set up around my work schedule. I prefer running as the Region A medic on Sunday and Monday nights. Sometimes I run Sunday days because I can take the chase car to church and respond from there. I also volunteer with the Fire Company which is separate from the Rescue Squad. Fire duty crew is a 12hr shift every 6th night. I work holidays, am out in all sorts of weather and I don't know what a "weekend" is anymore. And I haven't even started on the regular continuing education classes I have to take to keep my certifications current.

But let's give this a try. Let's assume that I'm on duty at the volunteer rescue squad as the regional medic. The shift begins at 6pm, but since everything in fire-rescue goes off 24hr clock time, it's actually 1800. I usually leave home at least an hour before the start of my shift to allow for travel time with rush hour. If it's one of the days when my roommate is working night shift and won't be home to take care of the pets I leave earlier so I can drop my dog Fiona off for a sleepover at a friend's house.

Well, she's already asleep in the car. Apparently, Fiona was more than ready for a sleepover while I'm on duty.

Once I get to the station, I change into my uniform if I'm not already wearing it and call the county dispatch center to place my unit in service. Then I do a quick duty check to make sure I have everything on the unit and change the battery in the portable radio.

One of the ALS Chase vehicles we used to run from the rescue squad station. Oh, and a helicopter.

Then it's time for dinner. You never know when you'll get a call, so food is always a high priority. Every time you sit down to eat, go to the restroom, start your workout, etc., you feel like you're tempting fate to give you a call. Most shifts, I end up coordinating dinner with the ambulance crew on duty. After dinner, I like to do training of some sort.

Extrication Training

Training can be pretty much anything. If you don't train your skills and knowledge gets rusty. You don't want to be trying to relearn that splinting procedure on a call. Training is important! Two of my favorite evening shift training options are doing area familiarization/driver training and practicing ALS/BLS skills. If you know the shortcuts, major streets and intersections--and even better the addresses, your response times are faster because you already know where you're going. Long summer evenings are perfect for this kind of area familiarization. Practicing skills such as intubations on the dummy, doing a drug bag check (and reviewing the indications, doses and contraindications for all the drugs in the bag), and teaching basic skills to new members are other good options. The more you know, the more you practice, the better you will be under stress in a critical incident. I also try to review at least one of the local protocols per shift. Knowing the protocols is very important, and there are always protocols you don't use very often.

Bunk room at the station. The night this photo was taken, I ran a lot of calls and consequently didn't spend much time in here.

After training, sometimes there is time to use the station gym, work on projects, and watch TV before bedtime. I usually pick a bunk room as soon as I'm done with my duty check and before dinner. And at any point in time, this routine can and will be interrupted by calls. In the area I cover, the average time it takes to run a call once you allow for response time to the scene, an on scene time of about 15-20 minutes, transport time and the return trip to the station (often via the scene to retrieve the chase vehicle) is about 2-2.5 hours. Critical patients require more documentation, so the report-writing time at the ED is longer.

People often ask how busy we are. The truthful answer is that it depends upon the day. Calls seem to come in waves. At one point in time, there will be 4 calls going on at once and I'll be on one and there will be units from 3 other stations on calls in my area. Other days I'll run nothing the entire shift. Some shifts I will run 6 calls and never really see the station.

Another question or rather statement I hear a lot, is "so you're an ambulance driver?" Well, technically, yes, I am. But I'm a whole lot more than an ambulance driver. I'm actually a paramedic. I've successfully completed about 2,000 hours of classroom and practical training, followed by about 8 months of field training before I was allowed to run calls on my own. So, "Yes, Ma'am. But I'm a little more than just an ambulance driver..."

Patio Garden Therapy

Late last summer, the garden and I moved…to a bigger patio about 8 miles down the road. There’s no space for an actual garden bed here and the management is really particular about what is on your patio. So I’m making do with a few more pots. I also had to get a storage bench to hold my gardening stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with more pots, beautiful flowers, or a nice reading spot in the middle of them…

Rocking chair and patio tomatoes...and the lovely Fiona with her frisbee.

Back in March, my “black cloud” showed up again, and I ran a series of tough calls. It didn’t seem to matter if I was riding backwards in the bucket seat on the engine, covering as the Region A medic, helping a friend with driver training in preparation for EVOC or having another insanely busy day working at the ambulance transport company. It all began with a code that went out a couple miles from the station Wednesday night.

Every new medic needs at least one confidence-building critical call, where given all the variables everything goes pretty much like clockwork. I’d come down to the station to take one of the new members out in the second out (unstaffed) ambulance for pre-EVOC driver training. Just as we were about to head out, the station tones dropped for a cardiac arrest and an EMT/driver walked in and asked if I wanted to take the call. A quick check showed that we were much closer to the scene than either of the two medics initially dispatched and the first out unit wasn’t at the station. So I grabbed my drug keys, we squirreled it and arrived on scene just after the engine and before all the other EMS units. I grabbed the drug bag, walked in and handed out work assignments to the crew to facilitate the “pit crew method” I heard about at the EMS Today Conference earlier this year. From there it went like clockwork. The patient started in asystole and when we reached the ED 10mg of Epi and 50mEQ Sodium Bicarb later the patient was still in asystole and the doc called the code. Unfortunately, asystole (aka flatline or no heart rhythm at all) is the stablest rhythm of them all.

The next day I was at work, and it was one of those really busy days. One of my patients that shift was a tiny premature baby who had developed necrotizing enterocolitis. Necrotizing enterocolitis is the death of tissue in the intestine and occurs most often in premature or sick babies with a 25% mortality rate according to the National Institute of Health.[i] I checked with the doc in the Peds ED the next week and he confirmed that thankfully this little one was treated in time and survived.

A dressed up patio storage bench turns this corner of the patio into an inviting place to relax outside.
Mama ducky is admiring that orange Gerbera daisy too. 

The next night, after a busy day acquiring the patio storage bench, I had fire duty. Riding backwards on the engine can be fun and a nice break from bossing a medic unit... until you get dispatched on that 2:50am stabbing three doors down from the firehouse, are the only medic on the engine and are first on scene after the police. We did everything we could. This patient's wounds were too severe and he practically bled out in front of us and in the end did not survive. The calls where a patient starts out talking to you and ends up dead are the worst. This one was particularly difficult due to the circumstances.

Needing some version of therapy after those calls, and now that spring had arrived, I started working on the garden again. I still have a few pots I haven’t planted yet. Between turning an old bookshelf into a potting bench and acquiring a storage bench/seat per request from the management company, the patio has become a lovely place to read and work.

New job for an old bookshelf: potting shelf.

The rest of the garden is still in the works, but I have squash, beans, cucumbers and a variety of herbs and flowers growing.

Planter of Basil varieties and the lonely Zucchini plant.

When you spend a significant portion of your time caring for ill, injured and dying people, it's nice to be able to come home and care for something healthy and alive.

Green Beans.

Cucumbers and trellis.

I like to daydream about God being the supreme gardener. He has more plant varieties than I could ever dream of...and He's got the whole universe to grow them in. But you can also think of gardening as an analogy for life. Any gardener knows that caring for a garden requires weeding, thinning, pruning and re-potting. God does the same for our lives. We may not know the master plan for the garden, but He does. And in the end, He works everything together for our good and His glory-- even though we may not see it at the time. In the end, God is the one who gives and takes life. I've gotten to see a decent share of both recently. It's a good reminder that it is a privilege to be alive. Use your time wisely and don't take it for granted. We never know when our time on earth is up. Don't waste your life.

Citronella, Violas and Oxalis (shamrocks) decorating a corner of the patio.

For me, that means doing my job at work or as a volunteer to the best of my ability and then coming home and taking care of my garden... and spending time playing with and training my dog Fiona.

Fiona at 9 months

Besides, who knew Border Collies loved to swim?

Yep...she's out there swimming after a stick.

---

[i] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001148.htm

Creating a Fairy Garden and Picking a Puppy Name

During one of my shifts as the Region A medic a few weeks ago, I stopped by the farmer's market in Purcellville and talked with a couple of the ladies from the Loudoun County Master Gardener's. They recommended a visit to Abernathy & Spencer Nursery off Lincoln Rd. in Purcellville, VA, which is well worth a visit if you love plants. In one of the greenhouses there are a couple examples of miniature gardens. I've always been fascinated by tiny things, and when I was in high school, my brothers and I decided that it would be fun to build an outdoor model railroad and landscape it with small-scale plants. We never did get out of the planning stages.

I did a little research, and found that these kinds of miniature gardens are frequently called "Fairy Gardens" and I decided to make one. My gardening budget is small, and the hardest part of this whole project was finding a suitable container. It needed to be at least 6in. deep and have space for about 10 plants. And it couldn't be very expensive. I visited several thrift shops and came home with a pair of odd-shaped res plastic serving bowls and assorted small dishes and objects that would serve as furniture and tools for the little fairy figure to use in her garden. 

Plants, containers and decorations used in Fairy Garden project

The assembly process took about an hour, more or less. The hard part was figuring out how to arrange the plants so you could see them all and no two of the same kind were precisely next to each other. I think the end result is delightful.

The entire Fairy Garden

Detail of the pond and the fairy herself

The Fairy's house and front yard

In other news, now that I'm finished with Paramedic class (Yay!), I've decided it's time to get a dog. I've always wanted a Border Collie to do obedience competitions, go running and hiking with and play frisbee. I've looked into rescuing one, but given the existing crew of two Welsh Corgis, a Welsh Corgi mix and a large ginger and white cat that my roommates own, it looks like getting a puppy might be the best option to not completely overturn the existing pet social dynamics. So after doing a lot of research, I decided that my best bet is probably to get a female, and while puppies are and insane amount of work, I can start from scratch and train it the way I want. Obviously, digging in my garden, eating my flowers and jumping on the furniture will be taboo. So the aunt of a girl I know from the rescue squad breeds breeds her working Border Collies and competes in dog sports with them. One of her dogs had a litter of puppies the same day I took the National Registry Paramedic written--three boys and a girl. I have first pick of the litter, and I'm planning on adopting the girl.

Further research into traditional Border Collie names has me wondering what to name the little one. Traditional Border Collie names are usually one syllable, often after a natural geographical feature, or the common name of a farm worker. It also needs to be something I'm not going to be embarrassed to say in front of people, and easy to yell across a field. So when we're hiking the Appalachian Trail together and she's running up the trail ahead of me and I need her to come back... Her kennel name is "Daisy" right now. So even though she's going to be a ton of extra work and trouble, calling her "Trouble" is certainly out. I found this nice list of traditional names and decided to pick a few to start with:(http://www.bordercolliemuseum.org/BCNames/BC_Names.html). This is lots of fun...
I've decided to wait until I meet her and get to know her temperament before actually naming her. Still exciting!

Elfin Thyme, Shiny Objects, and Helicopters

Small things, shiny objects and flying things all tend to fascinate people. Who wouldn't look at a very small plant and smile, wonder how the Hope Diamond could be real and take every opportunity to watch a helicopter? I do.

Speaking of shiny objects, I had the opportunity to visit the gems and minerals exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History last Wednesday. The photo below is of the Hope Diamond. It's about the size of a walnut, and if you view it from the right angle it's a spectacular blue, from other angles it usually looks charcoal gray. And it's apparently a priceless bit of rock. Isn't is wonderful that anyone who visits the museum can go see this rare bit of God's beautiful creation for free?

The Hope Diamond on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

While I was there, I also visited the butterfly pavilion on the 2nd floor. You do have to pay admission, but I thought it was worth it. All those beautiful butterflies and moths from all around the world. Wow! I'm still in awe of the wonders of creation and the God who made them all. I think I need to add a butterfly bush to my plant collection, too bad I didn't think of that when I stopped by Southern States my last Region A medic shift.

In my wanderings while playing Region A medic last Saturday afternoon, I stopped by the farmers market in Purcellville to pick up fresh local vegetables. One of the booths at the market was Loudoun County Master Gardener's. The ladies and I ended up talking for a good 15 minutes about the fun and challenges of growing things in Loudoun. I've been having trouble getting rid of mealybugs on my plants, so we naturally got started talking about natural pest deterrents. The best solution to my problem seems to be regular applications of insecticidal soap. But did you know that planting certain things together can help with other pests?

For example, planting marigolds tends to repel rabbits. And nematodes. And marigolds are pretty. I need to plant some. Growing citronella helps to reduce the mosquito population on the patio. One of the plants I picked up and planted over the weekend is a beautiful little citronella plant. 

Citronella plant in the foreground.

While I was in the process of planting stuff, three little praying mantises turned up. They were about the diameter of a 20ga IV catheter and maybe 1in. long. I hope they stay and eat all the bad bugs.

I must also be obsessed with helicopters. I really enjoy calls where we get to fly patients only because I get to watch the helicopter land and take off. Here's this post's helicopter picture.

This the only double flyout I have run to date. Aircare 1 and Fairfax County PD transported the two patients from a rollover accident in May.

Until next time...

Spring Cleaning, Shamrocks and Drug Keys

So spring finally happened. It came much later than I would have liked. Not that I wasn't enjoying winter, it's just that I finally got really tired of being cold all the time. I mean, how could one not enjoy this?!

The famous Rescue Squad snowmen in the making.

Almost done, just needed a few more finishing touches.

Finally done. See?! Poor snowman got impaled by a dead tree branch and had to be rushed to a trauma center by the snow medics for emergency surgery. They've done everything right to include exposing the injury, using full spinal precautions and placing the patient on O2. The patient was too cool for all this and insisted upon wearing his sunglasses during the trip. :-)

I've been so busy with precepting out as a medic in Loudoun that I really haven't had much time to work on my garden. But the hard work and time paid off--On March 17, I was finally released by the EMS council and I was finally issued a pair of shiny new drug keys! I was working the day they were issued, and I was incredibly excited and so worried that I wouldn't get them right away. The medic who was supposed to get them to me was flying out at 6 am the next morning and work was super busy--and I had a rescue squad shift the next day. If I wasn't able to catch up with him that evening, I'd have to wait until the end of the week to get them. I shouldn't have been so worried. I managed to meet him at the ED while I picked up yet another patient going to Fairfax Hospital and  I was finally officially a released Loudoun County medic!

My new keys...and well used PTS ambulance. ::huge smile::

Since I've been so busy and it's been so cold, I haven't done much with the garden yet. We've had some interesting things going on--namely the pipes in the apartment complex froze and broke at the beginning of January. Since we live on the ground floor, all the water naturally drained into our place. We were living out of a hotel room for about 3 months and almost all my plants died. Spring cleaning was fun--moving back in and trying to get the remainder of the flood damage cleaned up.

So I acquired a new plant to start the garden back up again.

It's a little shamrock plant--Oxalis to be more precise. It has beautiful white flowers and so far has been rather tolerant of not getting watered as regularly as it should. Something about me being very busy with paramedic class homework and rotations. Speaking of which...I'd better get busy.

Choosing Plants is Easier than Choosing a New Car

Last week through an unfortunate series of events, my car was totaled in an accident. So I've spent a good portion of last week when I wasn't doing rotations or precepting searching for a new one. By the time church got out this morning and it was time to go back into car shopping mode, it was the last thing I really wanted to do. I honestly thought I knew what car I wanted to get earlier this week. Now I'm not certain.

Turns out that car shopping and plant shopping are somewhat similar. I need a car that I can afford without a big loan, is reliable, gets good enough gas mileage so it won't break the bank when I have to fill it up every week, has excellent safety ratings, low maintenance costs, does well in snow... In addition, I want a car that handles very well--turns tightly, accelerates and slows down well, and has a a sunroof and manual transmission. I still don't know what I'll end up with--essentially it's all going to depend upon availability and price.

Choosing the plants for my kitchen garden is similar--it usually comes down to availability and the cost of plants and seeds. The varieties you start from seed may or may not survive long enough to make it into the garden, so it often comes down to what the nursery has available. Because I have very little space to work with and watering is such a chore, I have to take those factors into account in addition to the climate region the plants will be living in since I keep them outdoors. Disease resistant and heirloom varieties are usually best. Heirlooms have been around for a long time because they taste good. And diseases and pests can destroy the harvest. I usually choose dwarf varieties because my biggest problem is space.

One dwarf tomato variety I've enjoyed growing and plan to grow again this year (I did not take and do not own this photo) is called Tiny Tim. It's a very compact cherry tomato. Last year I had another dwarf patio tomato that produced tasty golden yellow fruit.

Herbs usually don't take up a lot of space. Planting several commonly used varieties in a window planter that can be pulled inside during the winter is a great way to A) have a constant supply of fresh herbs, and B) decorate. Here's a photo of my planter from last summer: 

From L to R: Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley & Oregano

In two separate pots I had chives (a perennial) and several different varieties of basil. Plan is to  start by rehabilitating the herb garden next week since it's still too cold out--in between work & car shopping. We'll see how well that goes...