Diesels Garden And Hospice Inc.

03/30/2025

Its been a really long while since I have posted last. With nothing happening in the gardens, I have been volunteering at the food pantry and taking care of hospice animals. In the last couple of weeks, we have lost 2 of them due to old age. Sammi was a 17 year old Chihuahua, and Taz was a blind 18 year old Jack Russel Terrier. Its been kind of quiet around here.

In December our board voted to take in a puppy to be trained as a therapy dog. In January I found a perfect one for this purpose, as his favorite person is whoever is standing in front of him at the time. His name is Benny, and he is a small PomChi. That is his picture that is in this post.

The food pantry at Memorial United Church of Christ has been operating for almost a year and a half now. Due to policy changes within our government, the food banks we get our food from are having their orders canceled. Its really beginning to show on our end, the shelves are still partly empty after I restock them. Our 2 storage rooms are almost empty.

We have been serving 100 plus families twice a month. If something doesn`t change soon, the least that will happen is we will go down to once per month.

All this is coming at a bad time as we have almost no money left to function with. Is there anyone out there that could help?

We can use donations of non perishable food and some help with replenishing our funds. I do have one donor that will match the funds I can raise, with the minimum being 1000.00 and the maximum being 1500.00. So we need to reach the 1000.00 level before the matching kicks in. We have until the end of April to reach our total. Contributions can be made through the donate button on our page, everything that is raised from now until the end of April goes to the pantry. I hope to hear from you soon.

05/16/2024

05/16/2024

As you can see, they removed the debris but haven`t filled in the holes or leveled the property yet. Looks like not much of a garden this year.

Still no real news on the Cedar Creek garden, probably not going to happen until next year. Too many things are not settled yet.

A couple people were asking about the Starr Avenue garden. Just to clear things up, it is not a community garden. It is a mission garden, in which all the items grown go directly to where they are needed.

I will be keeping the grow tent running year round at the church. Once the garden is planted it will be used to grow herbs for the church kitchen. We could use some bags of topsoil so we can transplant to bigger pots, if you would like to help please send me a message.

04/21/2024

Yesterday was the first anniversary of my service dogs death. I had been dreading it coming for well over a month.

The picture is from much better times, he was a little over 5 years old there. And that was a common sight for many years.

He spent most of his time working, he looked forward to being able to relax like that. He didn`t have to keep up with where I was or what I was doing. Wherever I went you would find him as well.

I often wondered how he knew what to do. I didn`t teach him those things, he came to me already knowing. My neurologist said he could smell the different hormones. I wasn`t surprised by that, just the fact he knew what to do when detecting them.

I don`t think I will ever find another like him. With a service animal you bond so tightly with each other that you trust each other with your lives. I just wish he could have spent more time with me as a family pet.

I was able to the last 3 to 4 years of his life, but only because he was having some of his own problems. He didn`t take retirement well.

So I made it through the first year ok, for a while there I wasn`t sure that was going to happen. I hope I will be able to say the same thing next year.

If I can find the time tomorrow I will post some pictures of where the house was. This last week has been really busy, I have been spending a lot of time at the food pantry.

Thats it for today, thanks for reading!

04/16/2024

Well its finally here. The City of Toledo showed up a few minutes ago to tear the house down. Figures, I just mowed the property yesterday along with the 2 others.

Now its just a question of what happens to the property once demolition is done. I don`t know whether we will be able to use it or not.

I may be helping Cedar Creek Church get a big garden started, if they ever decide what it is they want to do.

Still haven`t heard about the grant. Hope something happens soon, we have nothing to work with.

I guess it was a good birthday present for me today, watching the house get torn down. I am glad I hadn`t started tilling yet, as they are a good 10-15 feet onto the neighbors property. Would have had to do it over.

Thats it for today, I hope I have more good news soon.

02/19/2024

Its been quite a while since the last post in October. November, December, and January is when the majority of our dogs have died over the years. Roughly half of them in the last 2 weeks of December. Makes for a very rough holiday.

As far as this year, our board of directors decided to do a much smaller garden. The majority of that decision is not knowing when the city is demolishing the house, and we don`t want to be in the way of them getting it done. Lack of financial resources plays another part in it.

Last season we provided over 4300 pounds of organic food. Usually we triple in size every year, but we have reached our limit of space for our grow rooms. Memorial United Church of Christ has decided that our grow room is permanent there, and they would like us to keep it running year round.

Due to the smaller garden this year, the grow rooms I have here will be empty this year. Its going to feel a little strange as I am used to planting over 150 flats, and this year that will be about 50. Its all I have supplies for.

Out attorneys office prepared a grant proposal for us, for the same thing we tried last year. A 45000.00 grant for equipment and supplies.

If it goes through it would be perfect timing. I could help other community gardens get started, so I could still do a lot of good this year. I guess we will have to see what happens.

I have been spending about 3 days a week at the church. On Thursday we get our shipments, and every other Saturday is food pantry day. I am there for that, and a couple days after that to get the room restocked.

We just put another dog into our hospice. His name is Toby, he is 10 years old and almost completely blind. When he first came into the rescue he was covered from head to toe in fleas, they really did a number on his skin and coat. When I first met him I laid down on the floor in all that mess and told him come on lets go home.

He was covered in greasy scales when I got him. The scales are from his body trying to regenerate the skin as fast as it was damaged. So sebum was buried in between each layer of scales. It was bad enough he started to lose clumps of hair. 5 baths later with medicated shampoos he is on his way to recovery, and his fur is no longer falling out.

I was going to post a picture of him today, but he was doing his favorite thing. Napping on the couch with blankets.

From what I can tell, his owner was probably as blind as he was. The guy was 96 when he died. This was the first dog I have ever taken in that made himself at home instantly. So he was no worse for the wear. Toby loves everyone he meets.

As you can tell by todays picture, I am going to plant some clover in the areas not being used. It will help attract pollinators for the garden. I would like to plant some wildflowers, but the seeds are pretty pricey and we just don`t have the finances this year. If you would like to help out click on the donate button at the top of our main page. If you would like to donate by mail send me a message and I will give you the details.

On the subject of donations, so far we are at zero this year. I do need to buy some supplies for planting, so any help would be appreciated. My income has been tied up in new washers and dryers, a hot water tank, and repair of our boiler for our heating system. Its a very rough start for the year.

Thanks for reading, I will make a post when our annual report is released. That shouldn`t be too long from now.

10/25/2023

On Sunday I managed to put both gardens to sleep all by myself. A little over 1000 plants needed picked and then pulled out. They are now drying out a little before I run over them with the mower and till them in.

I got a little over 5 bushels out of there, it all went out on Monday and Tuesday. Last deliveries of the year.

I still have a few Jalapeno plants left, I will pick them again on Friday and take them to our food pantry on Saturday morning.

Thanks to Maggie Werstler Maher and her youth group, the garden was a success. Even with all the theft and vandalism we still managed to send out over 2 tons of food out of that small space. The youth group had helped put the garden in and mulch. Thanks again guys you did a great job. I couldn`t have done it without you.

Next year I don`t know whats going to happen. I know the garden will be about half the size, as the city needs to tear the house down on the one lot. Even once its down I can`t do anything with it, as the owners of the property will change. So unless its given to us I will have to stay off of it.

We do have another option for planting, there is some property out in Curtice that has been offered to us to use. I am trying not to use that one, as right now I can step out of my backyard into the garden across the alley. Much easier than traveling.

Next, my wife may be requiring long term care. When Medicaid steps in she will lose her social security checks, so I will have to cut corners to make ends meet. So unless the amount of donations we receive changes, there may not be a garden at all next year. Its out of my control at this point.

I have to figure out whats happening by January, as I need to buy supplies and start bringing grow areas online. Tents need cleaned and disinfected, and all lights checked. Last I knew, I can no longer buy the same lights that I currently use. I don`t think I will be needing much other than seeds and sterile seed starting mix. So we will be needing approximately 1000.00 to get started.

If you would like to help, click on the donate button at the top of our main page. As always, thanks for reading!

10/21/2023

Well tomorrow is the last day for the garden. There are still hundreds of plants to be picked and pulled, tomorrow is going to be a long day. If anyone is available I sure could use the help. Whatever is left at the end of the day will be dead the next morning.

Since the last time I posted one of the dogs had to go get a dental. According to the vet, 29 teeth were already missing. Due to a severe abscess she now has none.

One of our other animals had to be put under just to clip his nails. They tried several different drugs first, but every time the clipper touched a nail he would get really nasty. Had I not been wearing welders gloves I would have had well over 200 bites. He did manage to pe*****te the gloves once. So now we know just to take him in and have him put under each time. Its easier on both the humans and the dog.

My wife is back in the hospital again, this time for a clot in the leg. Or what they call deep vein thrombosis. A couple days ago she had been diagnosed with a closed fracture. Hopefully this puts an end to all of her pain. Only time will tell.

I`m going to stop here today. If you would like to help tomorrow, you can either message me or reach me at 419 344 5093. Thanks!

09/14/2023

As you can see, 3 boxes went out to Food for Thought today. I will be picking again tomorrow for both the church and 419 Cares.

Facebook sent me an invite to collect bonuses for activity on our posts. If you can`t afford to make a donation to us, this is the way to go. They are paying for page reach, shares, comments, and pretty much any activity that happens on the post.

Sharing increases page reach, as well as giving us more interested readers. If every one that followed us shared, we would have quite the audience to post to.

I am not understanding why they are doing this, or how it benefits them. But I am willing to try it, considering how donations have been very close to non existent this year. We have only collected around 1000.00, with half of that coming from just 2 people. My cousin and a good friend. With the size of our page, I am guessing we will be lucky to hit the required 100 dollar payout. Only time will tell.

Thats pretty much it for the day. Lets see how well we can do with the bonus program.

09/11/2023

Went out this morning with the help of a volunteer and picked 6 more bushels of peppers. Thanks Amber for all your help. All but 2 bushels of them have been delivered, Food for Thought will pick up their 2 bushels today or tomorrow.

This brings our season total to 3300 pounds. We should pass the halfway mark this weekend.
No pesticides or chemical fertilizers have been used. The wood chips and lawn clippings served as our fertilizer, and nature took care of the insects.

More and more baby peppers are popping up on a daily basis. If the nighttime temperatures stay about where they are, we should meet our goal for the year. 7000 pounds, or 3 1/2 tons. When you look at the garden you start wondering how that could even be possible.

Its time to start restocking the grow areas for next season, we need to raise around 1000.00 for supplies. If you would like to help please click on the donate button at the top of our main page.

Donations will be used to buy sterile seed starting mix. I have to start looking for another supplier, the manufacturer that was producing it for Menards changed the formulation. Its being sold as being the same thing, but its not even remotely close. It killed a lot of our plants last winter. It was all ground up bark that turned to black sooty mold when it got wet.

Thats it for today. Thanks for reading, and don`t forget to share!