Modify walk behind roto tiller

[djdicetn]

You talk about going to the mall, and my wife loves to go to the Grapevine Mills Outlet Mall, and of course I frequently go with her. The security personnel in that mall are running around on Segways. I'm sure they're great for some, but can't see one as being practical for me because "standing in one spot" for more than a few minutes is worse than walking. I think you obviously had more severe effects from the polio than I did. I spend a lot of time sitting on a bench in the mall while my wife is in the stores.:laughing:

I had my right knee replaced two and a half years ago. Maybe that being the strong leg made it overworked?? I don't know. After having it replaced, I bought a recumbent bike, and with only moderate resistance dialed in, I'd use it for 30 minutes to an hour. Now, with the same amount of resistance, two minutes is getting a little tough.

Last October, my wife and I and my wife's sister went to the State Fair of Texas. Her sister is one day older than I am:laughing: and my wife is 4 years younger than we are. Generally speaking, they are both in worse health than I am, but they both seemed to do better staying on their feet at the Fair than I did. I have since bought one of those walkers with a seat; marvelous piece of equipment, although I've only used it about 3 times so far.

Overall, I still get around OK. A couple of days ago, I spent 2 hours mowing, edging, and trimming our yard and one next door with my Stihl string trimmer and my Toro ZTR. I can handle that, but I was flat worn out when I finished.

This morning, I took our little Chihuahua to the park, as I frequently do. It's usually 30 to 45 minutes, but this morning we stayed an hour. That's walking trails through the woods very slowly with lots of stops while she sniffs and smells of everything. I do use my Bubba Stik (walking cane), but after an hour of that, I was worn out again.

As I've said before, I had very minor effects from polio compared to so many. But now, at age 73, either age or PPS is gaining on me.:laughing: But since I never expected to live this long anyway, I've got no complaints.

Bird,
Well the Segway isn't a good fit for everybody, but you have a positive attitude towards your limitations which is great!!! I'm about 11 years your junior, so there's no telling whether the Segway will be beneficial to me when I get where you are(Lord willing). They actually do have a "seat" that attaches to the Segway "stick", but don't know whether that would be an option for you or not. They have also recently inventented some "3-wheel Segways that you sit on"....but I know little or nothing about them. I leave the trimming, etc. to my wonderful wife of 32 years and have never tried negotiating that kind of "activity" using my Segway. Good sense tells me that it probably wouldn't work very well:0)

 

[bcp]

The first couple of times I used a front tine tiller, I would have agreed with you. And then I learned how you're supposed to do it, and it's very simple and easy. When our Dad was getting on in years, one of my brothers bought him a really nice rear tine self-propelled tiller since Dad always had a big vegetable garden. I think Dad tried it once and went back to his old front tine tiller; said it was easier to use. Having owned both, I can now understand why Dad preferred his old tiller.

What is the right way to use one? I've never had one in "normal" soil. The only time I ever tried one, the ground was so hard it just rolled across the surface, and would not till forward even when a hole was dug to start in. I switched to a garden tractor rototiller or a Troy-Bilt Horse ever since.

Bruce

 

[docrocky]

Dear Bird, DJDICETN and NHBLACKSMITH: From: DocRocky...the originator of the Thread: Modify walk behind rototiller.

This has to be an amazing event, how remarkable the computer and the internet have become to communication.
If you take the time to review my profile, I am 76 years old and I am a retired Orthopaedic Surgeon and live in the Toledo, Ohio area. I have a very large garden just North of Toledo at my daughter's place near Temperance Michigan. At last measure the garden is 100 feet wide by 400-450 feet long. I plant sweet corn, tomato, peppers, watermelons, cantaloupe, honey dew, egg plant, green beans, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, cukes and a variety of edible herbs. Also some of the largest weeds you can imagine. 99% of what I grow goes to church kitchens to feed the needy, food banks, nuns, priests, friends and neighbors and I am truly blessed that my health and strength allows me to do this by myself. My loving wife helps me distribute our weekly pickings and is a tremendous moral support and keeps my check book balanced as well as my work clothes clean.

Enough said for background! Now the bombshell. In 1939 at the age of 3 yrs. I suddenly could not walk and my left leg seemed to bend backwards, according to my mother. I then began having spasms and my dear Grandmother, who spoke not one word of English, stayed with me all night wrapping my legs in wool strips which had been heated in boiling water as well as messaging the legs all night. Some of you my recognize this technique as the SISTER KENNEY TREATMENT FOR ACUTE POLIO, or as it was termed back then was INFANTILE PARALYSIS. My grandparents as well as my parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. My parents spoke very little English at that time. I was eventually taken to a hospital in Detroit and my family was told that they might have to amputate the leg, or at least that is what my mother and grand mother understood. They stole me out of the hospital and hid me at my grandparents. In those days, communicable diseases such as polio, diphtheria etc required the home to be quarantined. Since the Depression was in full bloom, my father could not loose his job at Chrysler (maybe Maxwell Motors then) or my mother close a small ethnic grocery-meat market they just opened, so I was a fugitive at an early age. All I can remember is a cast was applied to my body to include the left leg (technically called a spica) and the doctor packing the upper edges of the cast with cotton. Now all of you have probably heard that if you hear a story enough, it becomes part of your direct memory. BUT...33 years later as I was a US Army combat surgeon at an Evac Hospital (95th.) in Viet Nam, we ran out of cast bandages which is made with white Plaster of Paris. We opened cans of back up supply, which were from the Korean War and these were pink to beige in color, exactly what I so vividly recollect my spica cast was made of. There was no way my parents were sophisticated enough to discern the difference in the cast material composition or its color to have included it in the reminiscence stories. At that time there were basically 3 strains of the polio virus, 2 of which caused permanent damage. The virus infected what are call the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. These cells are the nerves that go to your voluntary muscles, such as those that let you walk or use you hands etc. A third virus called the Lansing variety for some reason only temporary shut down these nerve cells and usually there was complete recovery after a period of time. The first 2 mentioned destroyed or killed the cells and with this the muscles down the line then atrophied or wasted away to nothing. Some how I was blessed with the Lansing strain and I ultimately had a complete recovery. My grandfather would take me for long walks which I praise as a significant contribution of my recovery. I later lettered in football and baseball in high school, in spite of only being 5'6' tall.

Well, I though this indeed was a remarkable coincidence with the res ponders to my original thread and my having had Polio also.

Bird: You may be interested in the fact that in 1966 while in my training I treated 3 cases of acute polio at the Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio. Tragically this was several years after the vaccine was available and the children stricken were from large families which some had been protected and some were missed, but that DAMNED virus doesn't overlook. Are you aware that some of the Muslim clerics (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan) are teaching that the vaccine is the work of the Devil and many innocent children are being exposed to horrific damage. Makes me sick to think of this.

I think I'll end this for now..I have tons of Texas stories to tell at a later date , if you might be interested, let me know.

God Bless, You All

Docrocky

 

[Bird]

What is the right way to use one? I've never had one in "normal" soil. The only time I ever tried one, the ground was so hard it just rolled across the surface, and would not till forward even when a hole was dug to start in. I switched to a garden tractor rototiller or a Troy-Bilt Horse ever since.

Bruce

Bruce, I've used several different front tine tillers and all had a flat adjustable rod (the name of which I don't know) on the back that could be adjusted up out of the way and then you hold the tiller back and fight it. But if that rod was adjusted to go down into the tilled dirt, you could push down on the handles and let that rod dig in and hold the tiller back. If you pushed down far enough, it would lift the tines out of the ground. Raising up on the handles let the tines dig in and pull forward, so it's simply a matter of holding the handles at the proper height instead of fighting the machine to hold it back.

Of course, I've also owned a rear tine tiller and for most uses, especially large areas to be tilled, preferred it. But for cultivating between rows and such, the front tine tiller worked even better.

 

[Bird]

as it was termed back then was INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Yep, that was the common name for it. It's interesting to me that you said you had it in 1939 and the doctors knew what it was? I guess it was October, 1941, when I had it, and the doctor(s) had no idea what it was. I don't know when the medical profession first identified and named it, and of course, as always, it depends on which doctor you see and where; no way one doctor could be familiar will all the possibilities.:laughing: I have no idea whether my parents saw more than one doctor when I had it. At the time, we were living in Baltimore, MD, and Dad was working at the Social Security offices there. After we moved back to Ardmore, OK, and I started walking on the toes of the left foot, and the family doctor sent us to the Crippled Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City in 1945, was when they said it was infantile paralysis I'd had, but that doctors didn't know what it was back then. So I assume it depended on which doctors.

 

[djdicetn]

Yep, that was the common name for it. It's interesting to me that you said you had it in 1939 and the doctors knew what it was? I guess it was October, 1941, when I had it, and the doctor(s) had no idea what it was. I don't know when the medical profession first identified and named it, and of course, as always, it depends on which doctor you see and where; no way one doctor could be familiar will all the possibilities.:laughing: I have no idea whether my parents saw more than one doctor when I had it. At the time, we were living in Baltimore, MD, and Dad was working at the Social Security offices there. After we moved back to Ardmore, OK, and I started walking on the toes of the left foot, and the family doctor sent us to the Crippled Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City in 1945, was when they said it was infantile paralysis I'd had, but that doctors didn't know what it was back then. So I assume it depended on which doctors.

DockRocky,
WOW....I had told my wife how amazed I was that on a forum like this, that three(myself, Bird & NHBLACKSMITH) polio survivors(or infantile paralysis, if you prefer it) ended up responding to one another. I was affected in 1952(after the Salk vaccine came out), had the boosters and even have the infamous Elementary School "circular scar" from that round of Polio booster shots. Don't really know why I had the shots since I had already been affected by the virus:0) I always used the term polio, because even though my right leg's lower muscle atrophied and my foot was affected I never really was "paralyzed". Now to find out that the OP, DockRocky, was also a polio survivor(that was lucky enough to avoid the major symptomatic effect) is even more amazing. So did your brush with polio influence your decision to have a career as an Orthopaedic Surgeon??? In 2001 I actually needed the services of an Orthopaedic Surgeon out of Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance/Baptist Hospital because I had a serious accident that resulted in a compound fracture of the ankle on my polio leg(I could move my foot in a circle after the accident....OUCH...pretty bad). The first hospital, near Center Hill Lake in Smith County, where the on-call orthopeadic specialist looked at the x-ray of my foot....he just turned the x-ray around and around and around with a puzzled look on his face:0) When I arrived in Nashville I was fortunate that there was an Orthopaedic Surgeon in that group familiar with polio that carefully...with pins, plates and screws re-constructed my ankle or I would not be walking/standing today. I had never worn a leg brace for 50 years just a built-up shoe for the leg being shorter, but after that it was recommended that I get a brace attached to that shoe to give additional support/stability to the repaired ankle. Soon after that I began suffering the symptoms of Post-Polio Syndrome,which was a trying time, and then in 2004 when my wife bought me the Segway my quality of life increased about 10,000%!!! I tell everyone that God enabled Dean Kamen to invent the Segway technology exactly at the point of time when it was what I needed to be able to "walk". I've led a mostly normal life for 62 years, all things considered, inluding marriage to a wonderful supportive woman in 1980 and having a son & daughter(and now 4 grandkids). I never joined any kind of "support group" but simply accepted my physical limitations and moved on accomplishing most things in life that I put my mind to. I'd be more than happy to correspond off-line with any of you guys if you wish to contact me at my djdicetn@tds.net email address. God bless each one of you as well and let's continue to try contributing helpful advice to others on this forum any way that we can!!!

 

[nhblacksmith]

DockRocky,
WOW....I had told my wife how amazed I was that on a forum like this, that three(myself, Bird & NHBLACKSMITH) polio survivors(or infantile paralysis, if you prefer it) ended up responding to one another. I was affected in 1952(after the Salk vaccine came out), had the boosters and even have the infamous Elementary School "circular scar" from that round of Polio booster shots. Don't really know why I had the shots since I had already been affected by the virus:0) I always used the term polio, because even though my right leg's lower muscle atrophied and my foot was affected I never really was "paralyzed". Now to find out that the OP, DockRocky, was also a polio survivor(that was lucky enough to avoid the major symptomatic effect) is even more amazing. So did your brush with polio influence your decision to have a career as an Orthopaedic Surgeon??? In 2001 I actually needed the services of an Orthopaedic Surgeon out of Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance/Baptist Hospital because I had a serious accident that resulted in a compound fracture of the ankle on my polio leg(I could move my foot in a circle after the accident....OUCH...pretty bad). The first hospital, near Center Hill Lake in Smith County, where the on-call orthopeadic specialist looked at the x-ray of my foot....he just turned the x-ray around and around and around with a puzzled look on his face:0) When I arrived in Nashville I was fortunate that there was an Orthopaedic Surgeon in that group familiar with polio that carefully...with pins, plates and screws re-constructed my ankle or I would not be walking/standing today. I had never worn a leg brace for 50 years just a built-up shoe for the leg being shorter, but after that it was recommended that I get a brace attached to that shoe to give additional support/stability to the repaired ankle. Soon after that I began suffering the symptoms of Post-Polio Syndrome,which was a trying time, and then in 2004 when my wife bought me the Segway my quality of life increased about 10,000%!!! I tell everyone that God enabled Dean Kamen to invent the Segway technology exactly at the point of time when it was what I needed to be able to "walk". I've led a mostly normal life for 62 years, all things considered, inluding marriage to a wonderful supportive woman in 1980 and having a son & daughter(and now 4 grandkids). I never joined any kind of "support group" but simply accepted my physical limitations and moved on accomplishing most things in life that I put my mind to. I'd be more than happy to correspond off-line with any of you guys if you wish to contact me at my djdicetn@tds.net email address. God bless each one of you as well and let's continue to try contributing helpful advice to others on this forum any way that we can!!!

Actually, the Salk vaccine was developed in 1952 but was only used in limited trials until its approval in 1955. It was given by injection once widespread use was initiated. The Sabin vaccine began trials in 1957 and was approved for general use in 1961. Sabin's vaccine was given by dropping the vaccine onto a sugar cube and administering it orally. The round mark on your arm is probably a smallpox vaccination that was in general use at the time and nearly everyone has it.

You're right. it's pretty amazing that this thread attracted so many polio survivors. I found it because I was researching polio for a book I am about to write, and being a member of tractorbynet anyway, I went to look. I had polio in 1952 at age 5 and was nearly completely paralyzed. My dad and sister also had it at the same time-dad died from it and my sister was left with only weak ankles. I spent many weeks, if not years in the hospital recovering from various orthopedic surgeries, including three spinal fusions where I spent 9 months in a full body cast, six of those months flat in bed. Despite that I made sufficient recovery that I have been a logger, heavy equipment operator, building contractor, and for the last 32 years a blacksmith (no horses, just ironwork). I met my wife in high school and we will celebrate our 45th anniversary this year. I have three children, 2 boys and a girl and one son and my daughter were Marines, and the other son spent 7 years in the Air Force and is now in the Army. My daughter will be taking over my blacksmithing business as post-polio rears its ugly head and forces me to do less.

I joined this group a few years ago when I bought my 45 HP Kioti to ease some of the tasks around the house. It's great to meet others here who have so much in common and who haven't let it hold them back in life. Good luck to us all!

 

[Bird]

I spent 9 months in a full body cast, six of those months flat in bed.

That would have to have been miserable, but reminds of when I was in the hospital in Oklahoma City in 1949. I was in a ward (room) with 12 beds and one of the boys was in a full body cast. They had a measles outbreak in the hospital and decided to vaccinate all of us for measles. Two doctors, grinning from ear to ear, just having a ball, came around doing the vaccinations. They had the biggest syringe and needle I'd ever seen at that time, and the medicine looked like orange juice. I later wrote a letter to an aunt about it and at the time I could not think of how to tell her how long that needle was, so I just wrote that they had "a needle this long", and drew a line about 2". She kept that letter and I inherited it many years later.

But I digress. Those doctors made each of us turn over on our stomachs and shot half the syringe full of medicine in one side of our rear and the other half in the other side, so we each got stuck twice. Now they had several boys to vaccinate ahead of me and they were all screaming and crying in pain, so naturally, I joined in. After they had vaccinated all of us, except the boy in the full body cast, they stopped to discuss the matter. The hole in the back of his cast for necessary functions was too small for them to get to the spots on his buttocks where they vaccinated the rest of us, so they weren't sure whether they could/should vaccinate him, too. Now he was lying on his back, crying and begging them not to, because every single one of the rest of us was crying and howling in pain. But after some discussion they decided it would be really bad if he should get the measles while in that cast, and they decided they could go in at an angle through that hole in the back of his cast.. So they picked him up and turned him over, with him still crying and begging them not to.

And when one of them stuck the needle in him . . . that fool quit crying and started giggling and laughing, saying, "It tickles.":confused3:

 

[300UGUY]

I also find this interesting. I needed braces until I was 8, then special shoes until I was 12. I am having problems now with weakness in my left leg. It isn't bad, but it hasn't gotten any better. I was born in January 1955, a few months later, the vaccine was pretty much universal in the us.

 

[djdicetn]

I also find this interesting. I needed braces until I was 8, then special shoes until I was 12. I am having problems now with weakness in my left leg. It isn't bad, but it hasn't gotten any better. I was born in January 1955, a few months later, the vaccine was pretty much universal in the us.

300UGUY,
In my opinion, if the weakess is in the muscles of what used to be your "strong leg"(unaffected by polio) most likely it is Post-Polio Syndrome. The common trait is that over a period of time the "strong leg" fatigues more and more quickly when walking(to where it only takes a city block or two before you body says "sit down and rest"). Please read back to some of my previous(and lengthy:0) posts where I mention my wife getting me a Segway in 2004. They were expensive, not covered by insurance like the little 3-wheel electric scooters you see advertised all the time, similar to what you see in Wal-Marts, Krogers, etc. that are covered by Medicaid/Medicare and Segways are a little more expensive today than they were in 2004. But all I can say is my Segway has changed my life, nothing short of "curing my PPS" when it comes to my "mobility". Now my wife's puppies are crying at the mall and I'm ready to shop some more!!!! I do not regret a single penny that we paid for the Segway and it is "light years ahead" of the motorized electric scooters and a recent change to the Americans With Disabilities Act now "recognizes" the Segway Human Transporter as a mobility assistive device under the ADA. Personnally I have had Dollywood and a mall refuse to allow me to use my Segway(for "liability reasons") and there was a class action suit several years ago against Disney that I filed a deposition in where handicapped individuals were denied access to a Disney park/resort. I believe that the ADA will change all of that and I will find out for sure after my wife and I are retired next January and attempt to book an Alaskan cruise. Up until the ADA revision all of the cruise lines would not allow a personal segway on board(but would allow electric wheelchairs and scooters). I have not contacted them since the ADA revision(I did prior to that and was told the Segway had not been tested/proven under the six degrees of motion on a cruise ship....up, down, forward, backward, left & right...and were not allowed on board the ship). I am adamant.....I will NOT leave my Segway at the dock and have a miserable cruise because I cannot be mobile on a ship as big as a city. Check on a segway at Segway The leader in personal, green transportation and look into demoing one at the closest dealer or Segway tour company in a major city near you. I believe you will seriously consider the purchase of one as well!!!!