"New" Home, New Year

This little house has a nice yard for a garden. The soil is in better shape than I thought, but still needs a deal of work to set up garden beds and amending the soil.

While I injured my knee during the move to this house, and it is still not healed, I was able to do far more in terms of physical work than when I started this blog. I do use a cane because of the banged up knee, and I still use the electric wheelchair at the grocery store, but I'm able to stand a good deal longer and walk much further than only a year ago. My weight continues to drop to the point where I now need to replace or alter all of my clothing. 

Building a garden large and varied enough to improve how I eat is key to my plans to continue to improve my health.

For the last few days, I've been working out how much to plant to feed us both fresh and preserved produce for the year. From there, I can work out how much square footage of garden needs to be built.

Part of my research involved old agricultural extension bulletins, and I compiled this list of quantities of foods needed per person over a year. 

Milk – 75 gallons – 5 ounces of cheese counts as 1 quart

Meat / Poultry / Fish -100 lbs broken up as: 40 lbs fresh, 30 lbs cured, 30 lbs canned (5 quarts)

Eggs – 30 dozen

Fats – 60 lbs as butter, bacon, oils

Sugars – 50 lbs (includes 5 lbs honey and 15 lbs molasses)

Vegetables – 300 lbs Tomatoes 2.5 bushels, can 30 to 40 quarts. Green vegetables 60 lbs fresh, 125 lbs stored (includes cabbage) 25 lbs canned (about 10 quarts)

Potatoes – 180 lbs sweet and white potatoes

Fruit and juices – 100 lbs fresh, 20 lbs dried (which is about 5 pounds after drying), 100 lbs canned (50 quarts)

Flour & Cereal – 160 lbs wheat (for bread and cereals)

Dry beans – 15 lbs dry peas & beans

Nuts – 10 lbs – 5 lbs each of peanuts and tree nuts

When I started looking at these numbers, I realized that when broken down to a weekly amount, I was not eating sensibly in far too many categories. I have been doing much better than I was only two years ago, but there is a lot more to be done.

I'm also planning to start setting up at the Saturday farmer's market when it re-opens for 2015 at the end of March. I will be able to sell my artwork and crafts there as well as produce from the garden. This figures into how I will plan amounts to plant. 

Here are the plants & numbers:

Beans – Broken across several varieties for both eating fresh and drying for storage. 45 plants total. Kentucky Wonder, Pole Lima, Speckled Calico, and Jacob’s Cattle Gold.

Beets – Succession planting for beet greens, baby beets, and beets for storage. 100 plants (or more) Using a beet mixture that has a wide variety of colors, sizes and days to maturity.

Cabbage – I like Gonzales Mini Cabbage, but I am also getting a mix packet for other sizes and days to maturity. I will likely have 10 plants.

Cucumber – I have experience with Lemon Cucumber, and the Poona Keera variety has some of the same qualities that I particularly enjoy. Both are never bitter, even if heat-stressed. 6 plants.

Eggplant – I’m growing a variety called Turkish Orange. They resemble orange tomatoes on tall, productive plants. 7 plants

Lettuce – I’m using a mixture of leaf lettuces that will be used in succession plantings. Per medical advice, I should be eating a salad a day, so I’ll be growing at least 70 plants.

Melon & Cantaloupe - I’ll be growing 2 plants in each of 4 varieties for 8 plants total. American Melon, Green Nutmeg, Minnesota Midget, and Hale’s Best

Onion – I’ll need to get sets locally – 100 sets. I’ll also plant a packet each of chives and bunching onions.

Pea - 70 to 100 plants in succession planting for both fresh eating and drying.

Peppers, HOT - This is Texas. I’m just not interested in bell peppers. 2 plants of Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) 5 plants of Chinese 5 Color, 5 plants of Black Hungarian, and 10 plants from the hot pepper mix packet. Ghost pepper is a mega-hot pepper in the million+ Scoville rating area. The house mate is growing them mainly for bragging rights, not for eating. Chinese 5 Color & Black Hungarian are both jalapeno-level peppers that have nice color and flavor.

Potatoes – Medical advice tells me to cut back on the white potatoes, so I am planning on having several sweet potato plants.

Radish – I really like radishes. A little butter, some sea salt… Radishes are so quick to grow, I’m not even going to put a number on these. I’m using a mix of colors, sizes, & days to maturity.

Spinach - I’m ordering a mixed packet. Again, I’ll be sowing these in succession for fresh eating and freezing. 180 plants overall.

Squash – I’ll be growing 2 plants each of Butternut, Acorn, Yellow summer squash, and Eightball zucchini.

Swiss Chard – I like a variety called Bright Lights. The different colors are interesting, and the ability to harvest repeatedly from the same plant is great. 20 plants total.

Tomato – I expect to end up with at least two dozen tomato plants. Rio Grande is a small paste tomato that tolerates a fair bit of heat. Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Kellogg’s Breakfast are two of my favorites. Both are great producers with fantastic flavor.

Herbs – Cutting celery is my answer to the difficulty of growing celery in this climate. I’ll have a couple plants of it, and will try to keep one plant in a container so as to keep it growing over next winter. The other edible herbs I’ll be growing are dill, oat grass, nasturtium, rosemary and several varieties of basil.

I’ll also have several varieties of sunflower, Hopi Red Dye Amaranth, Elcampane, Golden Marguerite, Indigo, Henna, Woad, and Black Hollyhock for use as dye plants.


A multiflora petunia mix and some marigolds will add to the appeal of the front yard, and I’ll be growing three varieties of gourds for crafts. Bushel gourd is used to make storage containers, Luffa gourds can be eaten like a summer squash when young, but the main use is as vegetable sponges / scrubbers. Spinner gourds are tiny bottle-shaped gourds that are useful for a number of crafts.

The house mate will be doing the heavy lifting of building the garden, but I do plan to do most of the planting and tending. This will also add to the total amount of exercise I do!

The Self-Induced Disaster Of Packing And Moving

There is a quote from Benjamin Franklin - "Two removes equals one fire" 

I believe that he was understating the situation. Packing, storing my belongings, finding a new residence, moving everything, getting services arranged for, getting unpacked and reorganized has been a nightmare. It seemed that every aspect of this move has taken at least three times as much effort, funds, and time as necessary.

I'm still working on the unpacked and reorganized steps. Living in this swamp of boxes is leaving me somewhat unsettled and disgruntled.

The future garden site

I injured my knee during the move and I'm still not walking very well three weeks later. The fact that today is my 57th birthday is leaving me with the reminder that I don't heal as well or as quickly as I did twenty years ago.

There is some good news in the midst of this. My new neighbors have been very helpful. One young man came over when we were unloading, and gave some much needed assistance. Another neighbor has offered his help in getting a washing machine set up in the house.

I am truly looking forward to building a productive garden in both the front and back yards. The dappled shade here will help keep a garden productive even in the north Texas summer heat.

One of my favorite seed catalogs arrived this week, and I've been enjoying reading the descriptions and dreaming of tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash.

Creating A Studio Space In My Heart As Well As With My Hands

Humm...what?

My workspace (s) have shifted many times over the past few years. From plein air painting, to knitting in public, to using the bedroom, to the front room, to the whole apartment, to combinations of all of these and more.

My bed as a table for fiber tools

I haven't had a lot of trouble getting into the frame of mind to create for lack of a specific space. I create the space first by intending to create. The decision makes the space.

I won't argue that having a dedicated, organized space would make putting that intention into practice much more efficient!

My large loom has not been set up in several years since I was never able to give it enough space in this small apartment to do so. Small weaving projects were the order of things.

In the next few weeks, this small household will be relocating from a small one bedroom apartment to a two or three bedroom house. A dedicated space for all the technology in use - be it digital or art or fiber - will be part of the deal.

The challenge is in creating a space that welcomes all the varied media I enjoy working with.

I designed a table apron for plein air painting

Drawing and painting area - this will be far more modest in square footage than many I have seen, but I will have storage for all my pencils, pastels, paints, drawing pads, sketching board, brushes, easel, canvas board & stretched canvas.

Carving and pyrography - right next to the drawing and painting, this will include a selection of dried gourds, wood panels and blocks, rotary carving tools, carving blades, as well as sanding, polishing and staining supplies.

Next is the reference library. I have an old laptop that is still functional enough to store all the digital references in knitting, weaving, sewing, vintage sewing machines, wood working, and other topics that I have collected. The physical books I have collected on these topics is far greater than the collection in the area library. My sewing pattern library is also quite extensive.

That brings us to the sewing area. My cutting table is the heart of the workspace, sharing fabric duties with nearly every other activity. My small herd of vintage sewing machines, ironing board, irons, and several racks of sewing fabric require a fair amount of square footage.

My wheel does require a fair amount of space

Finally, we come around to the fiber heart and soul of my studio. My spinning wheel, spindles, fiber, yarn, knitting projects, knitting needles, weaving tools, supplies, knitting chair, loom, tables for knitting and weaving tools handy to either part of the space will probably require the largest amount of square footage.

My aim is to create a workspace that allows for the widest possible creativity and production.

This will make me feel good!

Financial Health Impacting Physical Health

I've been getting stressed over my bills.

I don't have a lot of margin between income and outgo, and it seems that there are so many more things that require more outgo. In the past few months the bills for the electric service, the water bill, my cellphone bill and the inevitable car repairs have been hitting hard.

My blood pressure has gone up.

So, I'm now trying to handle this in an intelligent manner.

I'm trying to get more (and better) sleep.

I'm drinking chamomile tea before bedtime, and using more vitamins.

What I suspect will be the real handling is that I'm trying to create more income to answer the shrinking margin.

I spent a good deal of time yesterday taking pictures of my original hand knit designs and art work. Later today I'll be editing my website to add them to the store section. Then, the work will be directed towards promotion. 

Rule changes and/or rising fees for sales websites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon have given me reason to decide to avoid using these sites.

For instance, the nature of eBay is that used - pennies-on-the-dollar - items will sell far faster than new items.

Etsy recently changed their rules to allow art manufacturers from China access to the marketplace. This tends to snow under the individual artist, and lessens my willingness to offer my work there.

Amazon has a monthly plan that my sales would not yet cover, so that is not a good business decision.

Instead of sales websites, I'll be listing my items on my own website and doing consistent promotion over my social media sites.

The one exception to this will be listing my original knit design patterns on Ravelry. Since Rav is both a social media forum as well as a sales site, this makes sense.

Future plans include getting a good video camera so I can make knitting instruction videos for YouTube, doing more demonstrations of spinning technique at festivals, and getting more of my artwork into galleries.

Stunned; But In A Good Way

I've been continuing doing the exercising with the resistance bands, and I've also been using the wheelchair less as time goes on.

I didn't sleep well last night, so I wan't overly surprised that my blood pressure was too high and my oxygen level too low.

What did surprise me was that I've lost over 100 pounds in the past year.

I've said repeatedly that weight loss was not my first priority in my recovery of my physical ability and resiliency. That remains true; but the current result is still gratifying.

I have been noticing that my clothes have been getting roomier, and that some are getting far too large on me.

Time to put in some work on new wardrobe!

Two Steps Forward And One Step Backward Beats Two Steps Forward And Three Backward

I've noticed that I've been having some sneezing, itchy eyes, etc.. Not enough to feel that I need to take an allergy pill - even an over-the-counter one - but I've also noticed that I've been running out of breath faster on chores than I have been over the last couple weeks.

What I think is happening is that the mild pollen reaction is taking up some of my recovered capacity, and I am more reactive to other pollutants in the air.

This was especially noticeable this morning when I left the apartment to go do an errand, and there was a very detectable chemical odor in the air. I started getting short of breath just getting into my car. As soon as I got away from the chemical smell, my reaction settled back down. I think the lawn crew had sprayed something. Fortunately the odor had dissipated by the time I returned.

I've also been doing some re-arranging inside the apartment and stirring up a fair amount of dust.

The feline staff have been getting rather upset about the changes. Jackson was letting me know that he wanted the fabric put back in the shelves - NOW.

I did manage to get some chores done, and it is getting easier to get more basic actions done every week. Instead of two steps forward and three steps backward, it's been more like two steps forward and one step backwards. 

I won't lie, I do find my lack of capacity frustrating. Just a couple years ago I was able to walk for miles, ride horses, work all day, lift heavy boxes and far more. Now I can barely walk across the parking lot. 

Despite having some tough days, my plan is to continue on my program of a cleaner environment, healthier food, exercise as tolerated and far more production to improve finances. 

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I've been trying to vastly increase production in order to have an opportunity for a good result at the event at the end of April. (I'll be discussing the details on my Feather Creek Designs blog.)

I've been able to do this in part because of my continuing improvement on the health front. My sleep is improving, and my feet are not nearly as painful. I still have a fair amount of swelling, but not as severe.

I've been doing a bit longer walking, more of my own chores, and have been able to do more lifting. These are all positive indicators!

I've also been using the resistance bands I got from MP Pro Products on a regular basis.

Now I'm waiting on warmer weather to get going on some container gardening - I need ingredients for healthy meals!

Applying The New Mode Of Eating To My Gardening Plans

Garden planning time is upon us here in north Texas! 

One of the key things in taking control of my health is the need to eat healthy foods. For me; that translates to the need to grow more of my food so I can eat healthy food. I can then get non-GMO, fresh, local, in-season foods that I know won't have scary chemicals or irradiation. 

The seed companies that I order from do not carry any GMO seeds, and most are heirloom varieties.

I put in my seed orders this week, and I just got confirmation that one of them is already shipped. 

I don't have a lot of space, and many things will be in containers. These make planning somewhat more involved. 

I'll have about 100 square feet of ground space in front of and between some landscape shrubbery in front of my patio. The space is on the north side of the building, so it will get sun until about noon, and then again after 3 pm. This is actually a fairly good thing, as it won't get quite so hot as a full-day direct-sun spot. ( Considering that August in this area routinely has triple-digit temperatures )

I have some seed left over from last year, and got some interesting varieties and some repeats for this year. 

Here is what I either have or have on the way:

Herbs: 
2 varieties of Cilantro
Basil mix - different sizes, colors, and flavors
Roman Chamomile
Chives
Gleam Mix Nasturtium - I am putting this here as it is edible, and when the seeds are pickled, they are great used like capers.
Oat grass - for the felines

Vegetables:
Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean. This did really well for me last year.
Speckled Calico Pole Lima Bean
Bright Lights Chard
Gonzales Mini Cabbage
Lemon Cucumber
Turkish Orange Eggplant
Spinach mix - there are lots of different spinach varieties
Radish mix - ditto!!
Hot pepper mix - lots of spicy coming up!
Black Hungarian Pepper
Bhut Jolokia Pepper ( also known as Ghost Pepper )
Chinese 5 Color Pepper
Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato
Rio Grande Tomato - a southwest variety of red plum tomato. I'm going to try these in a hanging planter
Kakai Hull-less Pumpkin - pumpkin that has seeds without hulls. Don't know where I'm going to put this one, but I really want to give it a try.
Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash. I'm going to try these in a couple of really large containers and trellis them up.
Eightball Zucchini
Yellow Summer Squash
Minnesota Midget Melon 
Green Nutmeg Melon

Flowers & Crafts:
Ornamental Peppers - saved seed from last year. This is the pepper you can see in the top picture. It doesn't have much flavor, so I'll treat them as simply ornamental.
Marigold - one of my favorite flowers
Zinnia - did well on the patio last year, this is saved seed from what I grew
Petunia - saved seed, they did even better than the zinnia
Luffa Squash - while these are edible while young, their main use is for their tough fibrous interior once fully mature and dried.
Bushel Gourd - crafts and storage containers. Needs a fair bit of space


There are a couple things that I am going to be paying attention to in making this work. This is not an ordinary vegetable garden plot. I need to keep in mind that the landscapers that take care of the flower beds in the apartment complex work pretty hard at keeping them attractive. 

Also, the bed has been treated with a pre-emergent herbicide, so all the plants will need to be started in seedling trays. 

What I plan to do to handle these points is to grow everything to transplant size and simply put the pot on the bed and surround it with mulch. Doing this will let me arrange color and size attractively and I won't have chemicals in my food plants. I will plant the ornamental and craft items in the ground once they are to transplant size.

Update And Good News

As I've said a couple times, I'm not worried about weight as such. I'm far more interested in how I feel, and regaining my basic health.

Those are rather subjective measures, of course. Given that, I am using the tale of the tape - my waist & hips measurements - as an objective tracking point.

So, I measured today and discovered that five inches are now "missing." 

This is especially good news since I really had eaten more fast food than I should have while helping a friend organize getting a car and his license. 

I had noticed that I was feeling more flexible, and clothes were looser. 

With this good news, I am energized for more success.

Some More Hopeful Indicators

This morning I woke up without any aches and pains.  Not a big deal in and of itself, but it meant I was not trying to sleep while in pain, so my quality of sleep was improved.

These small improvements are good signposts that I am finally on the right track. 

I am also noticing that I am able to walk at a better pace, I can stand longer, and even though I am still getting severely short of breath, I am recovering my breath faster than I was just a few weeks ago.

Last week was not so great on keeping to the SparkPeople meal plans - too many fast food meals - so I'm working harder at getting on track this week. 

I'm working at getting some more production on additional income lines, and the discipline I am applying to working on that rather than wasting time on Facebook is helping my discipline on the health line. It also is giving me opportunities to get more physical activity in my daily routine.

Sure, fine art and fiber art isn't heavy on the activity requirements, but I am having to do a fair bit of cleaning and organizing to get the time in on the art production. 

I am also trying to speed up on doing the housework in order to be more productive. 

And then there are opportunities for laughter.  I put down my knitting to get a cup of tea, and when I returned, a cat had decided my project was a good place to sit. 

Recovery Days

I'm in my late 50s & feel like I'm in my 90s most days. It seemed that I was getting fatter and sicker the more I got treated by the doctors at the county health system.

Then of course the Obamacare nonsense came along, and I couldn't get care at all. My primary care doctor quit rather than deal with it, and I got told that I would have to apply for medicaid (braving the website & all the identity theft risks) in order to get assigned to another doctor.

This was rather a back door bit of good news, as it caused me to take a good long look at where I was getting with mainstream medicine.

I decided to kick their stuff to the curb, and I have gotten more progress in the last month than I have in the last year.

I started back up with SparkPeople only this week, and it's going very well indeed.

What Is The First Thing I Changed To Regain My Health?

There was an interesting question asked this morning on the SparkPeople discussion pages. That was "What was the first thing you changed??" While most of the responses revolved around changes to their activity level, not drinking soda, drinking more water, lowering their carb intake, etc., only a few mentioned that they had to change their attitude.

That was the first thing I had to change to take this on. I decided to feel better.

I am doing better. I was able to take the trash out yesterday, and I've been moving boxes, lifting heavy weight, and cleaning. Sure, I have to stop and catch my breath, but I have been completing tasks, and that counts for a great deal.

End Of First Month Status Report: Noticeable Improvement

We're looking for results in a few categories:

• Improved physical ability
• Improved resiliency - by which I mean my ability to handle stress and avoid getting ill
• Improved basic health

The results this month are slight, but noticeable. While out shopping today, I was able to walk at an improved pace, and I was able to walk, not waddle. This part tells me that the foot and ankle swelling is down at least a small amount. Still got short of breath, but even that was not as severe.

Last night I did some furniture moving and changed where my bed was located. This involved some fairly heavy lifting. I did have to sit down to regain my breath every few minutes. However, I was able to complete the task by myself. 

I had no problem getting all the groceries in the house by myself. Again, I did need to sit down to catch my breath before going back for the second load, but I was able to complete the task. I was also able to carry a bag of laundry to the car, and I will be going to the laundromat tomorrow by myself to get it done. 

Small improvements; sure, but where I'm heading is the ability to do heavy work. Just a few years ago I was able to walk for miles back and forth across a hay field behind a truck and trailer and toss 70 pound bales up to the person stacking. For the last two years I haven't been able to walk 100 feet with a bag of trash.

Addendum:
If you are wondering why I chose the "Round Tuit" image for this post, it is because I still have a hard time believing that I have had such a rough road to get to this point...sigh.

Finding USEFUL Online Health, Diet and Exercise Resources

There is a lot of information on the internet that has to do with diet, exercise, regaining health, and handling the effects of toxins in our lives.

The problem is that the vast majority of the information out there is not valid or useful. Some of it is totally clueless, some of it is opinion, and even worse, there are real nutcases out there that deliberately put out information designed to injure others.

When attempting to find a way to proceed to regain health and activity after long and debilitating medical mistreatment, this morass becomes doubly overwhelming. The opinions are like diapers in a nursery - everyone has one and you know what they are usually full of.

With all that said, finding a good resource is pure gold. The one I was reminded of today is www.sparkpeople.com.

I actually have been a member for several years, but I had completely forgotten about them in my search for exercise videos for using the resistance bands.

Most of what I saw on YouTube fit in the "totally clueless" category, and one even implied that using a wheelchair was tantamount to terminal laziness.

Not so with SparkPeople. The video I watched today was spot on about using the resistance bands while seated, and the written material made some excellent points about getting exercise while dealing with various disabilities.

I also spent considerable time today updating my information and goals on the various tracking tools they offer.

SparkPeople is going to be a big part of my plan to regain my basic health and resiliency.

Completing Longer To-Do Lists

Do you start the day with a mental or written list of things that need to be accomplished and then beat yourself up when you don't get a quarter of them done?

Do phrases like "over-ambition and under-application" "lazy" and "poor planning" come to mind?

What if part of the problem is that your energy and physical ability are not up to the kind of production you really feel that you should be able to do? How can this be overcome?

Simply making shorter To-Do lists when this leaves out projects that truly need to be done is not a good answer. You may feel better at getting the abbreviated list complete, but you may end up with a sink over-flowing with dirty dishes, the car breaking down because it hadn't gotten maintained, or an empty larder when the storm of the century rolls in and you hadn't done the grocery shopping.

Recognizing that we really are able, competent, motivated beings is really the first step to fixing what is off. If you weren't really able, competent and motivated, you wouldn't feel anything wrong about not getting things done. ( You also would be unlikely to be reading this, but that's another topic.)

The best answer is also the longer-term one: Get your energy and physical state into a higher condition, able to zip though your days and leave successes in your wake. We'll leave that alone for the moment and address things that can be done right now. Today.

Here's a starting exercise. Take out paper and pen and write everything you need to do. Work, Home, Personal care, School, Church, Outdoors, whatever. List it all. Need to shave your legs? Put it down. Move the furniture from the larger bedroom so you can set up a home office? Write that down. Need to call the electrician to wire the new office first? Make sure that's on there. Someone left trash in the yard that needs to be picked up? Likewise.

Now we'll take the list and categorize and prioritize.

First: YOU. Your hairdresser appointment, sleep time, shaving your legs, study time, reading a novel, exercise time.

There is a very valid reason this begins with you. If you don't have enough sleep, feel disheveled, frazzled, and unprepared, none of the rest will get accomplished.

Second: YOUR FAMILY. Keeping the family going does require attention and action. Get the dishes done, the living room cleaned, get the groceries, etc. If there are youngsters, remember that they need to be given ways to help. Delegate chores as possible.

Third: WORK Need to remind the boss that equipment needs repair or replacement? Do so. A project needs to get done this week? Be doing your work when you are supposed to be doing your work. If you've put the first two in order, this is much, much easier to keep in mind.

Then add School, Church, Outdoors, any other categories you've created for yourself.

You may feel more organized right now and try running things on priority basis for awhile and see how that works for you.

A bit more organization may be helpful in some cases. Make up lists that have to be repeated - daily, weekly - various computer calendar tools are really helpful here.

If the howling demands of everyone else wanting to be first leaves you feeling that you need a old-time lion tamer whip and chair; create a time schedule. Rough blocking out of time is really far better than going down to quarter hours.

By now, you see that you can be more productive with just the energy and physical ability you have at present. Putting a few things in their places and creating some order will allow you to get more order in place on a gradual basis.

These small successes will actually improve your energy level.

Moving the Immovable Object

Ever feel like you simply can't get up to do something? It seems that my physical deconditioning is very nearly making that thought true.

While I had received the resistance band set just before New Year's Eve, I didn't start with them until this week.

To start, I am alternating using the resistance bands with sets of ankle and knee rotations while seated. I have also been working on getting the apartment fully cleaned and re-organized. While I had a friend come over to run the rented carpet shampoo machine, I also had considerable work to do to make it possible for him to do his part.

The place does look vastly improved! And I repeatedly got my heart rate up, while not getting too out of breath.


I did feel truly worn out last night, though.

Last night, I dreamt that I was able to ice skate again. I wouldn't even be able to get skates on over my swollen feet at present. That is my first target: getting the swelling down. I may be able to move more easily if my feet and legs aren't as swollen and stiff as they are now.

There are several ways that come to mind of accomplishing this, and I plan to use them together.

• Get a "foot spa" to soak my feet and handle the dry skin. 
• Get a skin lotion that doesn't irritate the over-stressed skin of my lower legs and feet and use it daily.
• Once I get enough reduction in swelling, start using compression stockings to help it along
• Exercise my feet, ankles and knees with the resistance bands.
• Get my feet up on a stool while I am working on the computer. 
• Set aside time to use my spinning wheel every day. The treadling action on my wheel is very mild but persistent.
• Change my 1957 Singer sewing machine over to treadle operation. Also set aside time daily to sew. The treadling action for a sewing machine is different, and a bit more intense than my spinning wheel, and involves the knees more. 

The last two actions also have the benefit of getting a product.