Healing a Sprained Ankle

One of my most dreaded fears on runs, hikes, and job sites reared it's ugly head again, the sprained ankle. We embarked on a regular Saturday morning trail race in a wonderful County park with rolling hills. Not much different from my "home trail" except no real elevation gain. Knowing the Memorial Day weekend was full of anticipated projects I was completely and utterly content at starting of somewhere mid pack, take it slow, pass when the opportunity presented itself and find a good pace pack to run with. My fear was starting to creep into the back of my mind as I got bunched up with a pack running at a conservative pace leaving me blind to the trail and staring at the heels of the runner in front of me instead of the trail. When the trail opened up on a downhill slant I was able to stretch out to a normal pace and find my stride. The race was a double loop and I took my time at the halfway point, a little hydration, shake some stones out of the shoes, breathe in the wooded air. The next two miles I found myself out on the trail alone as runners spread out along the course. At some point I lost focus and got too comfortable  enjoying the whoop-de-do's and mountain bike made banked turns. Somehwere around the 8 mile mark Pop, Face Meet Trail. That leaves 5 more miles of hobbled trail navigation to go.

 As I have noted in past injury related posts, I AM NOT A MEDICAL PHYSICIAN, but seeing as this sprain is somewhere between the 22nd or 25th on this ankle and one on the right ankle I have a pretty good amount of empirical evidence to feel comfortable in my recommendations.

If you have never sprained an ankle and you found this article, YOU WILL RUN AGAIN, promise. It's usually not as bad as you think the moment it happens and after the inital pain wears off. Basically there are 3 levels, if your hear a pop and you find yourself catching your balance on something or taking an awkward tumble, you see some stars and you get a little nauseous it's a level 1, you'll be just fine. If you hear a pop, face plant into the ground and scream in agony on the ground its probably a level 2, these ones really hurt and you'll probablly be out of commission for a day or two plus not running for at least 3 weeks. If you hear a snap, have no idea how you ended up laying on the ground rolling in your own vomit, feel like it's 200 degrees  and the world is ending it's likely a level 3 or you broke it. A level 3 is a complete tear and you will be out of commission for a week and not running for 6 weeks (at least), if you can't put any weight on it and you puke in your mouth when you take a step it's likely fractured. The shitty news? There's not a whole lot you can do about it and will likely have to immobilize it while it heals.  So what can we do if it falls in the not so bad news of level 1-3?

Everyone is likely aware at this point about RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) but for those who find themselves out on the trail somewhere Compression is about all your going to be able to do if you can't find a cold stream or snap pack in a medical kit. By the time I finished the 5 miles to the finish line my ankle was pretty much mush. An ice pack wouldn't do much but if you can find an ice bucket or ice bath I strongly suggest full immersion. You made need a heavy jacket or a heated blanket (or a flask)  to ward off the shock but full immersion is the only thing that is going to reduce swelling and pain. The next is Compression but you need to be careful here, after the damage has occurred and the trauma has passed you'll need those new red and white blood cells pumping through your veins to start the repairing process. In my backpack I carry two Mueller Ankle Braces rolled up small and tight and a knee brace plus an ace bandage or two (ok, the ace bandage had to be left behind due to shortages of TP during a mountain excursion) After all the sprains I have had I can tell you I can't stand the agony of sitting in a waiting room to have someone tell me its a sprain and we'll have to bandage it up, RICE, and "stay off of it for while", here's your bill. What I can tell you is that out of 2 or 3 of these instances I did have the availability of an acupuncturist and did sit until my butt went numb with needles sticking out of me like a pin cushion. These 2 or 3 times were the fastest helaing sprains I have EVER had and have to recommend that if you have suffered an injury like such, acupuncture IS part of the healing process. The next couple days are going to be painful, and this particular time around I am still getting pulsated throbbing throughout the day and night on Day 7 of this injury. So as far as pain relievers go I prefer Beer, but that has limited use do to work, driving and using equipment ( And I refuse to take anything stronger than Naproxen Sodium). Two natural remedies that I have had great results with have been Arnica and Bromelain. These combined with nightly hot soaks in Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salts) reduce the throbbing, help blood flow for repairing damaged tissue, aid in sleep, and reduce tightening. I can say that the biggest part I struggle with in RICE is the resting part. I did have some shock after the race and did sleep for a considerable amount but the following days I tried to resume "semi" normal activity. As I am realising that's not the greatest idea I should have written this article while soaking my ankle in hot epsom salt while drinking beer, Well, stay healthy and read up on your next training, watch some running videos, write some articles and fear not, the Mountains Are Calling, We Will Go Again. 

Raised Garden Beds- How to Make a Hugle Culture Lasagne Masterpiece!

In a post I made last year I added a video from my YouTube Channel Jason Michael Kotarski on a method to create a raised bed that would age in place, continuing to provide the garden with broken down organic matter. HugleCulture is the method of mounding wood debris including logs and branches, covering with more organic material and planting on top of it. Boiled down this is the farmhand style of cleaning up alot of storm debris, stacking in a pile and watching turn into dirt for later use. This is perfect if you have a lot of space but if you're confined and want to keep things tidy a raised garden bed is the perfect way to build up your soil in a natural way.

The previous raised beds have worked wonders already and as this is the fourth year for these beds we've had a full rotation of crops. Ideally I think I would've liked to do units of five instead of four. For instance, each area in our master plan is designed as a unit, scalable up or down in size, but repeatable by duplication. The four beds are typically, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Beans/Peas, and Tomatoes, each moving to the next bed the next year in a clockwise direction and they all over winter as salad greens. I think the fifth would have been a good way to add one fallow box to add to during cleanups, instead we're building a seperate space out the will be insulated with a glass top to increase temperature to kill off weeds and seeds.

Regular trimming, pruning and cleanup debris

Here's' a a quick photographic journey of the raised bed method. In these instances I combined both rotten logs with new logs to jump start the mycelium. Mycelium breaks down the material providing nutrients and minerals to the soil, it also creates a symbiotic relationship with the roots of the plants.

Big logs on the bottom, branches on top. These will help hold water like a natural sponge in the soil

On these raised beds, I used $3 cedar fence pickets. they're six foot so if I buy six boards I can build a 6' x 3' raised bed for $20. Notice I place my stakes on the inside of the boxes, feel free to do as you please as they are technically stronger on the outside but I like to be able to line trim quick and easy around these things. All the water entices grass to grow and grass growing intices slug growing! 

Yup, skip the bagging, these wonderful maple leafs are going to break down just nice! By adding a leaf layer, the leaves will be pushed down into the branch crevices and help keep our soil from washing to the bottom to quickly.

A good wheel barrow heaping should do the trick

Next comes the mulch layer, you can skip it if you only have leaves but the leaves break down very fast. The mulch acts as a bit of weight, and insulation blanket to keep the bed warm, and another sponge layer.

mmmmm......a Summer's worth of compost!!!!!

 This is the part I love! Mabe because its the dirtiest! The worm bin compost is added. Typically by this time of year there is a healthy mix of compost and worms working to break everything down. There is still moe work to be done so we add a layer of coffee grounds over the compost to reduce any smell ( it's not a foul smell, we just don't want the critters digging it up) and heap another layer of mulch on that.

ahhh......all year I keep these little things fed and wen it comes time to plant the soil is a beautiful rich black earth with plenty of aeration. The compost layer will be almost completely gone within two weeks of spreading. The worms will multiply and work it into the bed with ease. The warmth of the beds and the cracks and crevices of the branches allows the worms in the ground to work their way up. The wood chips will be decomposed after the next winter cycle at which time we will add store bought compost as a topping to bring the beds back up. They'll be half of the bed by the end of the Fall and the following year we add the commercial compost that we plant directly into and cover with mulch again after the sprouts are established.

Well that photo looks like shit

I'll leave this video at the bottom for the squeamish! Me personally? That's an amazing thing dans la jardin. Make sure you check out the YouTube page and follow what we're doing, we hope to spin off to ventures from what we've been working on. I'm working on WellHaus Winery and we have the Farming Prospectus (working title)