2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[Blue-Jay]

@Blue-Jay have you got any beans in yet?

No I haven't planted any beans yet. So I might as well let the cat out of the bag so you can see him in full living color. My beans (41 varieties of pole types) will be planted in Stanwood, Iowa probably on May 25th. I have 6 lima varieties will be grown in Albion, Inidana probably soon. I will purchase the entire resulting crops of beans from these grow outs.

So here comes the cat and his meow. I had open heart surgery on April 22nd this year. I spent 5 days in the hospital and 8 days in a rehab center here in Woodstock, Illinois. I have been home two weeks this coming Monday. I will have home care people coming each week. My Cardiologist currently has be doing 5 minutes of walking every hour. I use a Spirometer to excercise the lungs through out the day. I can walk out to the mailbox without a walker. Everybody tells I am progressing faster than most people my age that has this procedure done. This will be a year of recovery no gardens for me until 2025.

Now for the procedure. I was diagnosed with a heart murmur back as far as 2016. That means a heart valve that won't close all the way allowing blood to back flow from the chamber it was supposed to be pumping it to. I had a number of presurgical procedures. A TEE procedure discovered that my Mitral valve was severely leaking. The Mitral valve separates the upper and lower chambers of the heart on the left side. They put a ultrasound device down my esophagus to take a look at how the heart and it's valves were working. I was under sedation for this procedure of course. Another presurgical procedure called a Heart Catheter was done and they discovered that one of my arteries in my heart had an 80% blockage. Must have come from all those yummy cheese burgers and french fries over the years. In the Heart Catheter procedure they enter your artery in either your left or right wrist with a thin electronic wire with a device on the end to run that up through your artery to probe around your heart and this is when they discovered the artery blockage. So I was under sedation of course for that also. I had a number of blood tests done before surgery and a lung function procedure to see if I was fit enough to undergo open heart surgery. The Mitral valve was repaired. I'm glad it was repaired and not replaced. The repair jobs are better that a new valve. They took vein material from my upper part of my body to do one single bypass. They open you up at your chest by cutting through your breast bone and have device that keeps your ribs spread open enough to work on your heart. The lungs were collapsed and my heart stopped and I was put on a blood circulating machine during the 6 hour procedure. Putting me back together they wired my Sternum closed so the bone can grow back together.

This coming Monday I will be 4 weeks out from my surgical date. I'm just going to be doing excercises to get the heart rate up to strengthen the heart as it heals. I'm doing walking to gain endurance and to keep blood clots from forming and that also helps promote deep breathing for the lungs. I'm not allowed to drive yet or reach for anything over the top of my head so as not to put pressure on the breast bone as it heals. I will have restrictions removed from time to time. By fall of this year I won't know that I had anything done to me except for the scar on my chest. A small price to pay for the continued gift of life.

 

[heirloomgal]

Wow @Blue-Jay, that's shocking news. I'm glad to hear that you're recovering so well though, that's fabulous. It's amazing that by fall you will be 100%! You're clearly healing so well! As you recover through the summer, we'll all keep you up to your chin in beans with our updates and pictures.

 

[flowerbug]

@Blue-Jay congratulations on getting through it and continuing to improve.

keep at it!

 

[Triffid]

Get well soon, Russ! Excellent news that you are progressing at a good pace. How are you feeling?

I'll be sending as many good vibes as can possibly be vibed while I'm tending to the network beans this year.

 

[pjn]

Glad to hear you are doing so well. Great attitude and keeping with all the exercise.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Wishing you a full and speedy recovery, Blue-Jay!

 

[Branching Out]

You were in my thoughts today as I prepped a few more Blue Jay bean seeds for planting. Sending healing thoughts your way, with best wishes for a full recovery.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Get well soon, Russ! Excellent news that you are progressing at a good pace. How are you feeling?

I'll be sending as many good vibes as can possibly be vibed while I'm tending to the network beans this year

I feeling a lot better than I did the day after surgery. I'm walking a lot more without a walker in the house. I haven't really had a lot of pain which I didn't expect. I thought this would be a much tougher ordeal. My appetite is not fully what is what before surgery but that will probably take more time. Nurses and doctors tell me I'm still in a 90 day recovery period. By the time I'm able to handle a lawn mower or roto-tiller planting time for anything will be in the rearview mirror. Hey! I can't complain I'm alive and survived this operation and will be back to my old self in time.

Thank You everyone for your well wishes and prayers !

 

[Decoy1]

Well Russ, you certainly know how to spring a surprise. I’m so pleased you’ve come through all that with such flying colours. I hope you continue to feel a little stronger each day.

Like Triffid I shall nurture my network beans all the more carefully this season. You’ve obviously made arrangements to grow your beans by proxy this year. Lovely that you’ll still be able to watch their development and be engaged that way. Thinking of you day by day.

 

[heirloomgal]

The network beans are nearly all up. Germination has been utterly amazing. I credit this mostly to your storage of the beans @Blue-Jay , but I did refine my bean transplant approach this year and I think that helped a little. I've always been quite careful with watering the newly planted beans in the pots, and have used a measuring cup to be sure.

My first round of planted seeds got 1/4 cup/pot, and there was a small percentage of those seeds that didn't sprout and instead got mouldy. I switched to 1/8 cup of water for the network beans and that really seemed to improve my odds. I replanted the bean varieties that rotted on me and added only 1/8 cup, and success! 1/4 cup was too much water. I think even when I was trying to be so careful, I was still overwatering them. At first it just didn't seem like enough water that tiny bit, but my intuition said go with it. It is actually quite surprising how little water they need to sprout!! Every time I looked at those crusty looking, cracking middle starter pots and felt the urge to put a little swig of water over them I resisted. I even had a fan blowing over the pots to try and mimic outdoor conditions.

Also, regarding bean seed flies - all plants still remain unaffected. And this is a VERY buggy year. Lots of people abandoned their May long weekend cottage vacation plans here because they were all being eaten alive outdoors. I've gotten so brave that I'm even allowing some beans to germinate in the pots with e-wands outdoors and those too, thus far, have also shown no signs of damage. I'm super impressed and hope this can be repeated in the future, it would be a game changer for sure.