(D♥A) WORK TO BE DONE AND US TIME TOO

Tuesday, the intent was for me to be at Anna's place about noon. It didn't happen quite that way, it was one of those days when everything seems to fight for attention and delay any plans that get in the way. I finally got there about sun down (if the sun had been shining).

We spent the damp, chilly evening discussing matters of business and our future together. Meanwhile she cooked a venison roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and turnips. If I didn't love this woman already, the roast would have done the trick. Time flies when you're having fun, as they say, and at some point, we realized that it was already early morning, so we opted for a bit of much needed sleep.

Morning came, overcast and chilly in spite of the forecast of sunny and warm. The late morning was spent taking care of puppies and more talk of making the necessary adjustments for combining our separate lives. As with any change in lifestyle, the transitions will be a challenge, but more than worth it.

By afternoon, it was time to cut some firewood (the practical aspects really MUST be worked in). Turns out that all the large, dead trees at Anna's place are leaning heavily toward the house or the fence, and will have to be pulled the right direction with a rope. A rope we do not have at this point, as a matter of fact, so I cut up some dead tree tops and small dead trees, which needed cleaned up anyway. Needless to say, a long rope is on the immediate purchase list.

I had intended to leave Wednesday evening, but we ended up going over catalogs and picking out fruit trees for our orchard instead. It was hard to leave Thursday morning but I really had to get back and get some work done. Actually made it home before the truck broke down (head gasket, hopefully nothing worse) but that is a tale for a later post. Maybe after the cold spell.

It seems I am rambling a bit, but the point here is that a lot of important work, planning and decision making took place in a relatively short time, as well as some desperately needed together time. Problem is that each time we part, it is harder, giving more incentive for me to get fences and other preparations made as quickly as possible. I can hardly wait.

(AF) Moving Towards Self Reliant Living

Dave and I still have a long way to go to make it to total self-reliance, but we are both making lots of headway. I look so forward to the day we are finally there, or at least, close enough that we have most of our daily use needs from our own farm, and then use items from our farm in trade for the remainder few things we need.

As I was sitting down to this scrumptious dinner fit for a king the other day, I had to smile with great satisfaction. The eggs were from my free-range chickens (hee, hee, I finally found where the little darlings were hiding them, now they have moved them again, grrrr... ), the green onions were out of my little fall garden, and the fresh greens (locally grown) I received in trade. It was a wonderful, warm feeling of great satisfaction to know that the majority of my meal came from my own hands, was farm raised, and almost completely void of chemicals. Even the potatoes came from our local produce market.

So how could it have been improved? Well, we could have grown the potatoes ourselves (and will next year), the bacon could have come from our own pigs (Dave is working on getting set up for that, as my old hog pen is way too far gone), the vinegar drizzled over the greens could have been from our own apples (going to take awhile for that, but until then, maybe we will luck into some apples like we did the pears), and the butter I cooked the eggs in could have been from our own cow's milk. Oh, I look so forward to having a good milk cow and making lots of butter, yogurt and cheeses!

But for now, this was visual proof that we are making headway towards our goal and one very, tasty, delicious, satisfying meal!