Vol. 3, No. 2 -- February 2001

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IN THIS EDITION:
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--CARM'S COMMENTS: Carmen Schacht
--MILLIE MAKES IT FUN! Lorrie Long
--RUNAWAY RUNAWAY: Millie Malone
--GOT A SOLUTION?
--RESOURCES
--HELP!
--AGRABILITY FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVENTS

Please join me in a bit of "Chit Chat" as we hear the success stories of some of our readers who use a wheelchair. In addition to resources available to wheelchair users, you will find resources on innovative agricultural opportunities that you may want to check out. (LL)

Success with ambulatory disabilities - neuropathy, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Distrophy, Cerebral Palsy, severe arthritis, and post polio syndrome come to mind. Each disability, depending on the severity, requires a different assistive technology. With my acute neuropathy, I have plastic braces, use a walker, a manual chair, and a scooter that I can back into my van which makes it possible for me to go on my own, hold a job and be very mobile.

My mom had polio as a child. She has one foot and leg smaller than the other and has a slight limp. She has always had to buy two pairs of shoes. I can remember her talking about her heavy, metal braces that she was always breaking.

Mom has always lived a busy, active life. She played basketball in high school, raised five children, worked outside the home, and in her retirement, traveled a lot. She still volunteers for many organizations. In the past few years, she has mentioned that her legs are weaker. Just recently she started using a cane for stability. Growing up, I never considered my mom as a person with a disability. We can all make a difference because assistive technology has come a long way to ENABLE us to do pretty much as we please. (CS)

"I was four when I got polio--the first one in Ida County," says Millie Malone of Dow City, "luckily I was diagnosed properly." At the age of 10, following surgery, Millie was thrilled not to have to wear her brace anymore--not for another 30 years. Even though it was difficult, she did everything the other kids did--even baseball. The boys fought over who got to run for her!

Millie married a farmer and, along with the corn, beans, and cattle, they had three sons within three years (Millie still loves kids including her eight grandchildren and one greatgrand!). Life on the farm was hard but Millie didn't want to admit that she couldn't do what anyone else could do so she did everything except drive the tractor--and that was only because she knew she would have herself a permanent job if she learned! At the end of the day she was often exhausted and her leg hurt.

If you happened by when Millie was bottle feeding the calves, you might have enjoyed a good laugh as she took an unexpected ride straddling a big Charolais' neck! Millie commented, "their legs were longer than mine."

Millie lived on the farm 38 years; four years after her husband died in 1993. "He tried to make a mechanic out of me," she said, "but had no luck at all!" She did help dismantle a hydraulic pump on the combine and put a new one on only to find out that the real problem was that someone had replaced the hydraulic hose with a heater hose! Millie really liked it on the farm and hated to leave but she was afraid she might fall outside and not be able to get help.

Millie's husband was seriously ill for 12 years so she learned all about being a caretaker. "I'm almost a nutritionist," she says, "as I had to fix everything from scratch." She had to watch sugar and salt and keep the fat low as her husband had diabetes and liver problems.

Millie fractured her knee in 1991 when she stepped on a watch battery and twisted her body over her brace. After a long eighteen months in a wheelchair, she could walk but her post polio was worse. While she can still walk some, it's not a good idea as it wears her leg out.

Millie is a member of the Board of Directors of a post polio support group. She "talks" over the internet with people from all over the world and is the editor for the West Central Post Polio Support Group. She is also a contributing editor to the Gleanings for the Nebraska Polio Survivors Association. You will get a "taste" of her writing skills this month in the Chit Chat.

Chuck Larson, representing AgrAbility through the Easter Seals FaRM program, came last spring to help Millie get a ramp put on the south side of her three-bedroom mobile home. "He was a big help," she commented, "he talked to the contractor and gave him the guidelines. It's quite an impressive ramp and really makes life easy!" In addition, staff with the FaRM program will help repair the many wheelchairs Millie is collecting from across the country and redistributing to people who can use them.

LeRoy and Carol Haberl, leaders of AgrAbility Friends and Family, spent an evening with Millie a while back. "They're really nice people," she said. She wants to attend the AgrAbility Friends and Family support group meeting coming up soon.

Mary Yearns and Lorrie Long, representing AgrAbility through Iowa State University Extension, provided Millie with ideas for moving her office to a more accessible location in her home. Millie's grandkids made the move for her in exchange for free pizza! Milllie's comment, "I really like the change!" reaffirms her approach to life in a wheelchair: "If it isn't fun, I make it fun! It makes life a lot easier. You just as well laugh as cry."

The goal of AgrAbility is to help farm families with disabilities be successful. Working together, the FaRM Program and ISU Extension provide access to assistive technology, rehabilitation services; solutions for home modifications, links to nutritional and clothing expertise; information on farm and financial management, and many other needs that the family may have. (LL)

There is an airplane runway beside my house! No, really, go look. Gotcha! That isn't an airplane runway, it's my ramp. Last spring, my vocational rehabilitation counselor Ellen called in Chuck Larson from AgrAbility to help design a ramp for my 16'x80' mobile home. I wanted a sliding glass door leading onto a deck and then ramps from there to my garage on one end and to the sidewalk that runs in front of the house on the other. Between the two agencies, I now have the longest runway, I mean ramp, in Dow City, IA.

Chuck was here a week or so ago and asked how I like the ramp and if there was anything else he could do to help out. I told him I love that ramp. It makes life so pleasant for me. The sliding glass doors let in the southern sunshine all winter and the deck makes a very pleasant spot to have my coffee on warm spring mornings and summer evenings. I can easily get into my garage and load my power wheelchair into my van or I can zip down the ramp and up the sidewalk to visit my kids in the next block or go to the bank or just for a roll around the block. Terrorizing the neighborhood dogs has never been so easy!

As far as anything else I needed, I mentioned that my office was in the opposite end of the house from my bedroom and was very unhandy. Did he know anyone who knew anything about designing an office so that it was more ergonomic and user-friendly? He did, indeed. He contacted Mary Yearns and Lorrie Long from Ames and they were soon at my house with tape measures, graph paper and many wonderful ideas. I have an extra bedroom that I was planning to use, but after careful planning, we decided to move the office to the living room. How pleasant it is to be in the center of the house, handy to the door if anyone comes and close to the kitchen in case I decide to cook something, a highly unlikely event but still a possibility. I am a freelance writer and spend a lot of my time on the computer. Now I can watch TV while I'm printing up my newsletters. I can carry on a conversation with the grandkids who drop in several times a week. I'm very pleased with my new arrangement.

Lorrie, Mary and Chuck have been very helpful to me and I'd like to personally thank each of them for making my life so much easier. Now if Chuck can design an automatic snow shoveler for that long deck....Perhaps we should rig some sort of slatted floor like in a hog confinement building or maybe a Venetian blind arrangement that I can use to let the snow and ice fall right through, then close up again so I don't catch a wheel in a slot. What do you think, Chuck? (MM)

When Bill Fry, from Van Horne, needed a lift to get onto their John Deere tractor, the FaRM Program arm of AgrAbility had no plans, so, with his father's help, they made their own which has worked over the years--with some additional modifications when they bought a newer tractor. They also devised handles for the brake pedals by bolting flat steel plates onto the pedals and then connecting the plates to two small conduit pipes that are within Bill's reach. Later they built a lift on their combine so that Bill can enjoy the dust of harvest!

When Bill decided to expand his lawn mowing business, he had to invent a longer ramp to run his Walker Mower into his bigger trailer. The ramp folds in half with the help of two cable wenches attached to the front corners of the trailer. By the way, Bill is a dealer for the Walker Mower (www.walkermowers.com/). Bill likes the easy-to-operate steering levers. There are no steering wheels, gear shifts, nor foot pedals.

Some suggestions from Ron Bradley in Moscow (Iowa!): --accept and respect your wheelchair: know where and where you can't take it and make sure the ramp you use is built the way you want it. --learn the proper way to transfer from your wheelchair to farm machinery and be safety conscious when working in the shop and around equipment. (LL)

Here is a tri-wheeler for use around the farm that has been used and recommended by AgrAbility staff and "has performed beautifully." www.venturepro.com

The Equipment Loan Program of Easter Seals Iowa www.easter-seals.org/cgi-bin/pubsitelist.pl?keywords=IA has durable medical equipment for loan (when available) including walkers, wheelchairs, Hoyer Lifts, quad canes and other miscellaneous items. In addition, they welcome the donation of new or used equipment in GOOD condition. Contact: 515-289-1933, Extension 222 or 210, or email Tracy Keninger at tkeninger@eastersealsia.org.

Are you looking for equipment (used or new? Check out the Iowa Program for Assistive Technology, Infotech, at www.uiowa.edu/infotech

Innovative Growers is a farmer-owned company designed to increase farmer-members' profitability by producing specialty grains for end users. If you are interested in becoming a member, contact your County Extension Field Specialist: www.extension.iastate.edu/Pages/communications/ag/fs.html

If you are interested in growing organically certified beef and other farm commodities, contact Ron and Maria Rosmann, rrosmann@fmctc.com or call (712) 627-4653. The Rosmanns have developed a market.

There is a new AI synchronization computer planner available to help you make key breeding management decisions. Click on Synchronization System Planner on www.iowabeefcenter.org

Check out the Extension County Calendar of Events for activities in your county: http://dbs.extension.iastate.edu/calendar/

Would you consider writing a letter to our State Representative and Senator encouraging them to support continue funding for the AgrAbility Project? You will find, attached, the model of a letter you could use attached. The addresses for Representative Tom Latham and Senator Tom Harkin are also included. Thank you! (LL)

Freewheelers

--March 10 New Hampton Library (located on West Spring) Pizza Party at 1:00 p.m.!! (CS)

Southeast Iowa AgrAbility Friends and Family

--Schedule for 2001 (for all members and their friends):

April 14 1:00 p.m.
July 14 1:00 p.m.
October 6 1:00 p.m. (RB)

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IOWA AGRABILITY - A joint effort of Iowa State University Extension and the Farm Family Rehabilitation Management (FaRM) Program of Easter Seals Iowa. The program can help farm family members with a disability stay in farming.

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This electronic newsletter from the Iowa AgrAbility Project will be sent monthly to AgrAbility families and other interested individuals. Please send comments and suggestions to:

E-mail: agrability@exnet.iastate.edu

Phone: Iowa State University Answerline at 1-800-262-3804

TDD: 1-800-854-1658.

Web site: www.exnet.iastate.edu/Pages/housing/other/agrability

...and justice for all. The Iowa Cooperative Extension Service's programs and policies are consistent with pertinent federal and state laws and regulations on nondiscrimination regarding race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, and disability.