Broadleaf plantain in my garden.
Saturday was work-in-the-yard-before-the-storm-hits day.
The garden needed prepared for the winter: potatoes dug, the now-dry corn cobs pulled from their perches on the stalks, the final beets pulled, more chard and broccoli harvested, dry and tangled tomato vines yanked from the fence they'd been trained on, carrots prepared to stay through the winter. Tilling would have been nice, but between the garden and what was going on in the house, there wasn't enough time to get to it. As it was, I only got halfway through the garden list. But my kids finally got the house clean -- the weekly deeper-cleaning-- along with a post hole dug and fence repaired with my husband. With a lot of reminders. (The kids, that is...)
While stripping corn cobs from the stalks, I felt something sharp on the pad of my ring finger. When I looked, a large drop of blood pooled up immediately; I had sliced my finger on a corn husk. I turned back to my work, but felt something wet running down the finger. Looking again, I saw that it was bleeding quickly, leaving small spatters of blood on the ground. Turns out that the cut was fairly deep. I ignored it for another few minutes, but the bleeding had not slowed. Not wanting to stop my work lest the chickens -- who were in the garden too-- would get to the corn, I looked around, found some still-growing plaintain, and tore a leaf off. The leaves are not only known for helping stop bleeding and helping heal, but have strong fibers running through them. I wrapped the leaf around my wound, winding the trailing fiber around an extra couple times.
It stayed on snugly while I worked, and the tightness was soothing. When I pulled it off ten minutes later, the bleeding had stopped completely. It didn't restart, either, when I finally -carefully- washed off the dried blood. This stuff works!
My husband laughed when he heard the story, and said it was "so MacGyver-ish".
I took that as a high compliment.
The garden needed prepared for the winter: potatoes dug, the now-dry corn cobs pulled from their perches on the stalks, the final beets pulled, more chard and broccoli harvested, dry and tangled tomato vines yanked from the fence they'd been trained on, carrots prepared to stay through the winter. Tilling would have been nice, but between the garden and what was going on in the house, there wasn't enough time to get to it. As it was, I only got halfway through the garden list. But my kids finally got the house clean -- the weekly deeper-cleaning-- along with a post hole dug and fence repaired with my husband. With a lot of reminders. (The kids, that is...)
While stripping corn cobs from the stalks, I felt something sharp on the pad of my ring finger. When I looked, a large drop of blood pooled up immediately; I had sliced my finger on a corn husk. I turned back to my work, but felt something wet running down the finger. Looking again, I saw that it was bleeding quickly, leaving small spatters of blood on the ground. Turns out that the cut was fairly deep. I ignored it for another few minutes, but the bleeding had not slowed. Not wanting to stop my work lest the chickens -- who were in the garden too-- would get to the corn, I looked around, found some still-growing plaintain, and tore a leaf off. The leaves are not only known for helping stop bleeding and helping heal, but have strong fibers running through them. I wrapped the leaf around my wound, winding the trailing fiber around an extra couple times.
It stayed on snugly while I worked, and the tightness was soothing. When I pulled it off ten minutes later, the bleeding had stopped completely. It didn't restart, either, when I finally -carefully- washed off the dried blood. This stuff works!
My husband laughed when he heard the story, and said it was "so MacGyver-ish".
I took that as a high compliment.
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