Oooh, sorry to hear about the injury to your hand. Glad to hear that you are current on your tetanus shot. Told my doctor last fall, "Gotta have another tetanus shot cause I'm a gardener."

Great that you were still able to sow your containers. It's such fun.
Bobbie

ok, as crazy as this sounds, put vinagar on it, it'll take the germs out of it, and make it heal alot faster!! well, come to think of it, i'm sure ya prob know that. LOL being a gardener and all!! we had to do that with talla (my lil one) she stepped on a roofing nail last summer, couldn;'t get it to stop bleeding, i had to put vinegar on a cottonball and tape it to her foot, it cotterized her blood, she finally stopped bleeding. YAY and i kept treating her w vinegar and she healed up fast. dang roofers!! LOL but we learned fast the greatness of vinegar!! so i wanted to pass it on! :'))

Ouuch! Glad your okay. I have a dozen containers to prep. I'm going to be extra careful now, because I am not current on my tetanus!

My first year wsing and I too already had an injury,albeit minor. It wasn't the utility knife I used to cut my containers that I admittedly pushed harder than was probably safe. It was actually while making plant markers with wire and aluminum tape. I was burnishing the aluminum tape with my fingers while watching tv and didn't notice a sharp edge. Gave myself an inch long aluminum tape "paper cut" across my finger that made me bleed like a stuck hog and throbbed for the rest of the day. Next day I realized I had smaller cuts on my other fingertips that didn't bleed but made the skin start peeling off in large chunks. Lesson learned :)

Glad you are on the mend and able to WS!!

DL

Ouch!!!!! What we do for our fix!

I almost did that myself! I've started heating the point of the knife to make the drainage holes. But if you're cutting a "flap" in your bottle, using a hot knife makes the cut a lot wider and that makes a gap between the bottle and the flap.

Knowing my performance with knives even ice cold I'm leaning towards a cheap soldering tool to make holes and make starter opening for cutting containers with sharp scissors. I've been know to clip off a little skin with sharp scissors also but seems like better bet than very sharp, heated knife. LOL

Never knew about vinegar's healing properties. Guess it's an antiseptic too? My father has an ancient bottle of Mercurichrome (merthiolate) he swears by for healing wounds quickly and says nothing could live in that stuff!

Every time I see "clumsy_gardener" name on post I truly relate to that...LOL. Like a bull in a china shop, I am.

Worried I'm going to trample half my WS babies once I plant them out!

Glad to hear you're OK. I'm pretty lethal with my utility knife, too. Always comforting to know I work with a wonderful group of hand surgeons... Just in case I need to get a finger reattached.

Karen

Newbie: Your post made me laugh. It's nice to know I'm not alone! :)

I have heard of the healing properties of vinegar, but was told that it should be cider vinegar. I had a neighbour that even drank it for her arthritis (a couple of tablespoons in a glass of water)

get those tetanus shots everbody and "plant on!!" :)

This is my first year to winter sow and I had my first WS owie. I was using a heated ice pick to put holes in the bottoms of bottles and it slipped and ran down into the fleshy part between my ring finger and pinky. Now I pay much more attention to what I am doing.

Ouchie! Wow that must have hurt. I use an $8.00 wood burning pen to put the drainage holes in the bottom of my jugs. It works like a charm. I do it outside of course. Otherwise the fumes would kill ya! Well you are an official winter sower wounded in action even!
Joann

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LOL, the purple heart of winter sowing!

Hi all, my first year WSing and no battle scars yet. I used my Swiss Army knife to cut up the milk jugs - haven't tried thicker containers yet though.

The awl on the Swiss Army knife works excellent for punching hoes in the bottom. An awl is normally used for punching small holes in leather or wood and is very sharp. It slid through the bottom of milk jugs like butter! Also used the small knife blade to cut the flaps which also cut very easily and safely. Seems simpler than heated knives and soldering tools?

This pic shows the Awl that comes with the knife. I slid it in and gave a little twist to open the hole a little. It was very quick and easy, and quite easy to control.

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