(D♥A) FACEBOOK KIDNAPPED US!

Bubba

 Yep, sorry to say, we have fallen into the Facebook / Social Media trap and it has badly pulled us away from our blog. Network, they tell you. . . . it will build up your blog. . . . it will build up your business . . . . it will . . . it will . . . it will . . .
Then before you know it, you are JUST networking on social media and let yourself get totally pulled away from where you actually started, and from the direction you intended to go in the beginning.

Then there are the "groups" on Facebook. Anna, here, got far too carried away with those. I have created quite a few "selling" groups, and they honestly DO help a LOT of people that need to earn some income, but they do get to be very time consuming. Actually, most of mine go very smoothly, but one or two of them seem to be in a pocket  that requires considerable monitoring.

How about you all? Our readers? How many of you find yourselves getting on Facebook (or any other social networking site) with the full intention of "just popping on for a minute", then find yourself still on there 3 hours later?! I have no doubt but that that is what they intend. I mean, the longer you are on there, the more they make off of advertising, right?

But we truly miss all of our friends over here on blogger, from this blog and all of our others. We miss your comments, we miss interacting with you, and we miss reading all of your posts! We are going to make every effort possible to find a much better balance and get back here more often. In today's world, Social Media, such as Facebook, DOES seem to be of some importance in the circle of things, but too much of it is certainly NOT a good thing! Too much could actually work against all of your efforts.

Dave and I have some enormous struggles going on right now. We are about to drop from exhaustion, but it is only going to grow worse over the next several weeks. But once we get through all of this, life should begin to turn uphill for us. We really, REALLY want to share this journey with you ..... going from what may be our worst and toughest point, to our clearing and uphill road. So in the midst of all of this, we are going to try extra, extra hard to post more often again on here, even if it is just a few sentences, so that at the end of this current battle, you can share our joy as we head into what will hopefully be our "clearing".

So for now, we would GREATLY APPRECIATE all of your prayers, positive thoughts, positive energies, healing, and anything else helpful that you do, that you can do from where you are, to help us along through this extremely difficult time. After this post, we will explain all of it in a series of posts, along with our progress. But for now, Dave is almost here at Anna's Farm and we need to jump in and get to work. We both have had some recent injuries and are in some pain, but we have to set that aside and get through this right now.
Thank you so very much for reading this post and continuing to follow our blog, even though we haven't been posting much, lately. Have a truly FANTASTIC day!

(D♥A) A NEW YEAR BEGINS!

♥  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  ♥

Dave and I would like to wish you and all of yours the BEST Year possible!

 May it be a year filled with beautiful blessings, love and cheerfulness.

And may it be a truly prosperous year, both monetary and personal. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

Where Have We Been?! ! !

A few of our 'kids' snuggled up on their frumpy old couch.

  Oh, my! Have we EVER strayed from our blogs!!! Soooo . . . . What happened?  LIFE!!!

Yes, we have been SUPER busy, to say the least. Sad part is, it is these times that we are too busy to blog that we have the MOST to blog about! As we trudge through life, going about our work, tasks and chaos, we have soooo many blog posts running through our heads. Gosh, if I was to even get half of the ones I have written down in my head, posted here, you all would probably get tired of reading!

Just as it seems to be for everyone these days, life has been extra hard. We are more financially strapped than ever, our efforts to try and earn every penny we can seems to take up every waking minute of our days (and many of our sleeping minutes, too), and with nearly every thing we do to try and move forward in life, something seems to always be there fighting extra hard against us.  We get so focused on trying to just survive each day and each moment, and in the back of our minds we keep saying "we will get back on here tomorrow", but before you know it - tomorrow is months and months away!

Oh, how we miss being on here, posting our posts, reading our fellow bloggers' posts, and commenting around. And you know, we are no further ahead now than we were before we took this little break from blogging to try and throw ALL of our time into getting financially ahead. Actually, we are even further behind, I believe. And far more frustrated from not taking the time to vent our frustrations, and share our joys and discoveries.

SO, the rest of this year, we are going to try our hardest to get back on here, catch you all up to date with us, and catch up with all of you that we follow. We hope life has been treating you well, we thank you for keeping us on your blogging list, and we look forward to being back here on Blogger.

Have a safe and FANTASTIC Thanksgiving weekend!!

TIGHTENING DOWN SECURITY

To all of our wonderful members!!!

Regretfully, we must tighten down the security on our commenting. We were hoping we never had to do this, but, unfortunately, the "strange" comments have gotten totally out of hand, to say the least!

We will start by somewhat tightening down, and hope that does it, but if not, we will have to tighten down further. We greatly apologize for any disgusting messages that have made it through the spam filter and into the body of our blog. I am still hunting them and hope to get them all off before the weekend is out. If you see any, PLEASE point them out to us!!!

We want your experience on our blog to be a happy, wholesome experience. Please bear with us while we take care of this problem and if you have any suggestions, by all means, share them with us in the comments!

Thank you so much for your patience, your visits and your contributions to Two Farms One! We can't thank all of our readers enough for helping our blog grow so fast!

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL, FUN, AND SAFE HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - THE FIRST SUNSET OF 2014

And we got to enjoy it together!!!!

(D♥A) FOR THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN WONDERING

  As the year comes drawing to an end, I have been reading around our blog as if I were just a reader and it has occurred to me that there are probably quite a few questions many of you might have but have hesitated to ask. So . . . I hope to answer many, if not all, of those questions in this post, and if you still have any more questions, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO ASK!

D♥A - Many of you may be reading this as "Dave loves Anna", but the actual meaning is . . .  "the love between Dave & Anna"

Are you two engaged? - - YES!, we are engaged! And we have been for a very, very long time, now.

Are you planning on living together at the same farm? - - YES!, we can hardly wait to be living at the same farm! It sure does seem to be taking a long time, though, doesn't it?

When will you be getting married? - - That is a good question! As much as we would both love to run out and tie the knot right now, there has been (and still is) a lot of Red Tape we have to clear out of the way before we can. NO, neither one of us are married to anyone else. And NO, neither of us are in trouble with the law, or anything like that. But here in the U.S. our government seems to be geared for middle-aged people and older to live as singles, and tosses a lot of clinkers into the older set living as married people. As soon as we get a little more Red Tape and stuff cleared out of our way, we will get married anyway! And we promise, we will tell you just as soon as we have set a date!

Which farm will you be living together at? - - Due to the nature of some of our Red Tape and clinkers, we can not answer that one right now. But we will tell you this much . . . when we finally start that life together on the same farm, under the same roof, it will be in a Tiny House! We will be turning a 300-square foot insulated steel storage building into a very cozy little house. Then our main house will be turned into our business work space. We seem to have so much of our business stuff all around us, that everywhere we turn and look, there is our business. We both seem to be living in our business with a dab of space left for us. So, since we need so much creative space, that is what the current house will be, all business, and we will have our little, cozy, business-free space to retire to at night. So be ready for future posts about our Tiny House building journey!

 Don't let the current grungy look fool you! It will be painted nicely and have a wrap around porch added. And of course, a pretty little yard around it. I can hardly wait! It already smells great inside. It has been being used to store some of my candle making supplies.

The above will be our front door. Imagine it with a BIG sleeping porch added to it, and a pretty breakfast table! The window at the top is to a loft that will be a tiny little guest bedroom.

 This will be our back door. And yes, the window above this door also goes to a loft room. There will be a small porch on the back, too, opening out into an outdoor kitchen, and an outdoor living/dining area (yes, we will have a tiny kitchen, and a tiny living room inside, too, but we prefer to be outside when the weather is nice).

We FULLY intended to be TOGETHER on ONE farm, long before now, but so many things have gotten into our way. . . finances, health, injuries, and quite a few other unexpected turns, but we will get there. We would love it if any of you could help us with a few prayers and some positive thinking to help us get there faster! Right now, finances and physical abilities are our two biggest obstacles, though time is another huge one.

As we embark on your journey to build our Tiny House, we would love to hear your wonderful ideas, no matter how good or silly you might think they are. And if you have any questions for us that we may  not have covered, please don't hesitate to ask. If we can't answer it right now, we will just as soon as we can.

Thank you so much  for taking the time to read our blog!

(D♥A) WEEEEEE HAWWWWWW!!! Happy Dance!!!

WE JUST ROLLED OVER THE 30,000 PAGE VIEWS MARK!!!!

I know that to some of you more 'seasoned' bloggers, this may seem small, but it is huge and exciting for us! And we have ALL OF YOU TO THANK!!!

THANK YOU READERS!!!!

TIGHTWAD TUESDAY - - !mpromptu Picnic

Yes, I know, this is just a little late, but I am really trying to get caught back up on here, so I am going to post it anyway.

A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I were out and about town running errands. As always, we ended up running around much longer than we had anticipated and had not packed a lunch. We just don't have the funds right now to eat out, and, to be honest, we just don't care much for eating out. It kinda scares us.

It was an  unusually beautiful Fall day and we were right around the corner from our local park. We were at the grocery store getting a few groceries and really needed to get back home, but the thought of taking a little extra time to enjoy ourselves at the park for a bit was just too big of a temptation.

We chose some of our groceries accordingly so that we could make a picnic dinner out of them. We decided on Roast Beef roll-ups.  Here is what all we came up with. It looks like a lot, but it really isn't, as we had quite a bit left to eat on well into the week.

The bag of apples was (I think) about $2.59. The veggie chips were $1. They didn't make it to the end of the day, lol. Mayo packets. a nickel each (we only needed 3). Whole wheat tortillas - 10 in the package was $1. The lettuce was 78 cents for a 3-pack of Romaine. A jar of sandwich pickles was just over a $1. And that bag of snack mix candy (our dessert that day and snack two more times) was 75 cents. The most expensive part was the deli roast beef at around $3. We both had water with us to drink, so we didn't need to get drinks.

If you add up just what we used at our meal, it was far less than the price of what it would have cost for just one of us to have eaten at a restaurant! And we knew what we were
eating (for the most part).

The weather was absolutely perfect!  We couldn't have asked for a better day for our impromptu picnic. And some relaxed, kick back time like this, together, was long overdue!

We made roll-up sandwiches, and I do believe they were much better than any burger we could have gotten in the area. Course, everything does seem to taste much better when you are eating outside on such a beautiful day!

 We saved so much money, and this great, spur-of-the-moment outing will brightly stick in our memories far longer (forever) than any quick run to a burger joint. Even if one is financially strapped,  it certainly should never stop anyone from having some enjoyable, carefree time together. And it doesn't take a lot of creativity, just a little thought.

The view from our table was serene and gorgeous, too! You certainly don't get a dining view like that from any restaurant (fast food nor fancy) around here! We were so glad we weren't able to go "grab a bite" at some restaurant on this beautiful day! We would have really missed out on a very memorable and enjoyable outing, and some much needed quality time together.  We can hardly wait to make some time to do it again!

THE VIEW FROM OUR PICNIC TABLE

(D♥A) WE Dodged the Frost Again! :)

It's Fall and it feels it! We adore Fall and its breath of fresh, crisp air! After the heat of summer, any garden that survived (and that usually isn't much) puts out the best quality produce of the season. All the veggies seem to be bigger, much nicer looking, and definitely much better flavored. Don't get me wrong, all of the veggies all through the summer were great, but those fall veggies just can't be beat!

And then there is the beautiful, rich color of Fall! Not only do the trees begin to turn their mix of gorgeous Autumn colors, but the 'weeds' do as well. Kinda makes it worth not getting rid of all of them. Actually, it makes it a lot worth it! I'm not sure what it is, but one of those weeds turns such a deep crimson that I have to take time from my day and just stand there for a spell and admire its beauty.  We really should do things like that more often, you know.

I think we will both agree, one of our favorite gifts from Fall is the abundant variety of apples and pears! There are just so many of them and they are all so delicious we want to try all of them. We can hardly wait until we have a big crop of pears and apples of our own. We have planted a few times, with many set backs. Last summers drought and extreme heat pretty much wiped out all that we had going. We look so forward to starting our new Orchard together next Spring! They won't be ready for next Fall, but they will be before we know it. And maybe by us growing them together this time, it will somehow bring better growth to the trees.

But Old Man Winter keeps trying to sneak in and kiss our much loved Fall away! We have had several nights now, down near freezing, and two of the nights in particular just barely missed by a degree or two! That was just too close! We still have some garden left growing that we are just not ready to give up, yet! We have most (not all) of what we are eating harvested, but we still have our "seed" veggies growing. I finally got most of the seed squash picked, but the Okra, Tomatoes and some Peppers aren't near ready, yet. And we really want those seeds for next year's garden! Having to re-buy what we can grow ourselves just really, really hurts! So we are really hoping for a couple more good weeks above the freezing mark.

One veggie, though, that is just now beginning to ripen and desperately needs a couple more weeks before harvesting is our Tabasco peppers. I don't know about Dave, but these are the best, and most beautiful Tabasco peppers I have EVER grown!!! I never knew Pepper plants could get that tall, nor have that wide of a span! It is really taller than it looks in this pic because it kind of blends into the Fig Tree. If you look on the right side of the pic, you can see that the one 'branch' of the pepper plant is as tall as my eyes! And are they ever loaded!!! We have about 6 of these plants and they are all this loaded.

Please ignore my grubby look and focus on the pepper. I had been out working in the yard all day.

It will look like a Christmas Pepper when they all get ripe!

That tallest pepper limb comes all the way up to Dave's shoulder!

Yep, we are going to enjoy LOTS of homemade hot pepper sauce in our beans this winter! We can hardly wait!

DAVE IS SICK

HELLO to all of our wonderful and beautiful readers! No, we didn't get lost and we didn't forget about any of you. You are on our minds a lot, in very good ways. And we have certainly been missing talking with all of you.

This will have to be brief for today, but I will do my best (no promises) to get back on here this week and give you a much better (and way longer) update. It has been so crazy around here, it will probably take quite a few posts.

Dave has been without Internet for awhile, now. His was getting to where it just wasn't working out there in his neck of the sticks, and a newer, much better Internet system is coming to his area. (Fiber Optics)  He applied well over a month ago to have it put in, and he is still waiting. They talked like they would put it right in, but you know how that goes. They keep saying that they will lay his lines when they work over his way, but nothing, yet.

At the moment, though, Dave is too sick to stay up long enough to use his Internet. He is making great improvements but still on a scary edge.  He has at least 3 more weeks of being bed bound and on an IV, and he is so weak! Just a few minutes of being up and he has to go back to sleep for awhile. And let me tell you, Dave is NOT one to be kept down! This has been so emotionally hard on him, as well. I am so relieved, though, to finally be hearing some strength coming back into his voice.

If you all don't mind, we could really use all of your prayers for Dave's healing that we can possibly get. Here is a hug and a BIG Thank you in advance!!

I will do my best to get back on here and give you all a much better update and explanation later this week. Right now, I need to get off of here and tend to our garden. Fortunately, we had planted most of it over here at Anna's Farm this year, and now, with absolutely no helpers, it is taking every minute I have to tend to it. Going to have to water tonight. It has rained everywhere in the area this week, except out here. But I will have to move slowly as it is still near 100 degrees this evening, with a heat index well over 100 F, and I got up today not feeling very well. I am still praying and hoping hard for rain before the evening is out. We are going to need the bounty of this garden more than ever this year.

Love and miss you all! Hope life has been treating you all very well.

TIGHTWAD TUESDAY - Dinner for Two for Under $5

Yes, we are very late with this post today, but that is because we had to live it, before we could post it.

It is no secret that finances are a real struggle right now, but then it is for a growing number of the population these days. We are both extra careful with how much we spend on food, while still trying to eat nutritiously, and we never dine out any more (for reasons of cost and food chemicals). Every now and then, though, it isn't about just the quick bite to eat without having to cook, but about the dining experience together, unrushed time together, relaxed time together, a break from the daily mundane, an actual date.

With us both having had a stomach bug, we decided we wanted something light, like soup. There is a little hole-in-the-wall, private owned Chinese restaurant that I absolutely love, right on our errand route. We don't eat Chinese very often because it is usually laden with MSG, but I have never had a reaction to anything that I have eaten at this restaurant and we enjoy the once in a blue moon treat. This evening, we decided that a bowl of their soup sounded like just the thing. It is usually a pretty calm, quiet atmosphere there, and very reasonably priced, too. 

Dave ordered a bowl of their Egg Drop soup and a couple of Egg Rolls. I also ordered the Egg Drop soup and a large bowl of rice. Their bowls of soup are generously sized and come with a large package of crunchy rice noodles. I love those noodles... I could sit and munch on them all day!  My rice was steaming hot, light and fluffy with some kind of leafy green vegetable cooked in with it. With a little soy sauce splashed over it, it was yummy! Fortune cookies were included with the meal for dessert. We both just got water to drink. Theirs is filtered and very good (and free).

So, we had two large bowls of Egg Drop soup, two large packages of crispy Rice Noodles, two Egg Rolls, a large bowl of steamed Rice, two Fortune Cookies, great tasting water, and plenty of condiments to pour over everything (including bowls of fresh made sweet and sour sauce). It was an absolutely wonderful meal, a great, relaxing environment, and best of all, great company. We ordered at the register, but they even served us at our table!

The total cost for our entire dining experience . . . . . . $4.94! Yes, that was for both of us together, not each of us. I am so ready to go again, but then, I am also curious to see what other Tightwad meal we can come up with next. We will be sure and let you know.

What bargain dining experiences and ideas can you share with us?

(D♥A) New Commenting Form

A few weeks ago we changed the template that our blog was set to. As we did, it also changed the commenting form (yes, we did this on purpose as we like this one better). Now, you can comment in TWO ways.

You can comment to a post as you normally do... individual comments. PLUS, you can now also "reply" specifically to the comments that are already made. If you simply want to make a comment regarding the post, either click on the word "comments" so that the post with the comment form comes up, or, if it is already up, then simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and begin typing in the comment box.

If you would like to reply, add to, or comment on a comment that someone else has made, look directly under that specific comment for the word "reply". Click on "reply" and a new box will come up so that you can reply to that specific comment. When you make a comment in this way, after you post yours, it will come up under the comment you were replying to.

I hope I am not making this sound complicated, as it is really easy. Once you are there on a page, you will see what I mean and it will all make perfectly good sense. If you have any problems, or your comment ends up where you don't want it, that is no problem. You can always ask me to delete it so that you can repost it. I don't mind at all.

I love this commenting form much better. It makes conversation amongst our readers much easier (and we LOVE comments!) But we are open to all feedback from you, our readers, regarding our changed commenting form. Thank you!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - 2012

FROM ALL OF US AT

TWO FARMS ONE

WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU THE 

SAFEST, HAPPIEST, AND MOST BLESSING FILLED

THANKSGIVING YOU HAVE EVER HAD!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

AND TO THOSE OF YOU OUTSIDE OF THE US

HAVE A VERY BLESSING FILLED DAY!

(D♥A) A Busy October

Whew! Have Dave and I ever been busy! Between broken computers (yes, sometimes Dave's has been down, too), the extreme heat of the summer, heavy drought, and a handful of other time consumers, Dave and I just haven't managed to find the time to write. Odd thing is, it is during those times that you actually have the most to write about!

Throughout the month of October, Dave worked an additional part-time job on the weekends, in addition to his regular full-time job. (Plus, there was all the ordinary farm stuff to take care of at Dave's Farm, too.) But the good part in all of that was that the part-time job was not far from Anna's Farm, so mixed in there, we got to spend a little bit more time together. Granted, we were both far too tired to make good use of the time, but we really enjoyed getting to spend some wind down time together. (It will be so much nicer when we eventually get both farms completely combined!)

One Friday night, a few weeks ago, we sat out in my front yard (Anna's Farm) and watched the sky as a storm rolled in. Fortunately that storm never hit (because it looked like it was pretty viscous), but we really enjoyed watching (together) it rolling in and back out. We were both exhausted, and I had spent the day getting ready for the flea market the next day, so it was a very enjoyably, relaxing and calming evening. 

But the next morning, the rains did come, the flea market was closed, and we took advantage and caught up on some much needed sleep (which we could both, once again, use some more of, now). And oh, how we have needed the rain! The Fall rains came and pulled us out of the drought, but it is beginning to get dry again. It seems so strange talking to our friends and family over in the New York area, and listen to them talking about all of the heavy flooding and extreme devastation, while we are standing here looking at everything around us beginning to wilt back down again (everything that hasn't frozen, that is).

We hope that life is finding you all well and we are doing our best to get back on here regularly, posting and catching up on all of the blogs we follow. We miss you all!

(D♥A) Our Blog Turns ONE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!!

Can you believe it?! Our blog is already ONE YEAR OLD!  The time has gone by so fast. We are having so much fun writing this blog. And YOU, our readers, are what makes it so much fun. It wouldn't be any fun just writing into cyber space.

We want to extend a VERY BIG THANK YOU to ALL of our many, wonderful readers from all over the world. THANK YOU!!! Without you, we would not have a blog. We want you to know that you are truly appreciated!

And we want to extend an extra special THANK YOU to our readers that interact on our blog. It is you that gives us that extra dab of eagerness to keep coming back to write more. It is your interaction that lets us know what is working and where we need to make improvements. Your interaction makes our blog better!

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!

We love and appreciate you ALL and look forward to another great year of blogging! Have a beautiful day!

(D♥A) Wonderful Time Together

Dave and I have not had near enough time together, lately. It seems all we have been doing is work... work.... WORK. It has taken every drop of time and energy we could muster just to try and stay ahead of the drought, which we didn't manage to always do.

But Dave and I got to spend most of Friday and Saturday together. It rained the biggest part of that time, which was wonderful in several ways. The best one was, everything at both of our farms got watered and we didn't have to spend hours on end watering. That meant more together time for us.   And because of all the rain, the flea market was closed, so I couldn't open up. Yes, I could have used the sales, but on the other hand, I didn't lose any sales because anyone that would have purchased anything will probably be out next weekend. So that was even more time we got together.

We had a couple of somewhat heavy spells of rain, but most of it was a very gentle, soaking rain. After such a hot, dry summer .... extreme drought ...... it was a most BEAUTIFUL sight! We spent a lot of time sitting out in it just talking and soaking up some of the rain ourselves. Isn't it funny how most people associate a rainy day with it being a bad day, yet on that day, we thought it was one of the most beautiful days we had seen in a long time. We thoroughly enjoyed it, rain and all (especially the rain) and got to spend a lot of time doing some much needed talking and planning for our future.

Over the course of the two days we also got in some shopping time .... mostly groceries. I never knew shopping with a man could be so enjoyable! Of course we found tons of things that we badly wanted and couldn't afford, but we felt so very blessed that we were able to get what we simply needed.

We also splurged just a little on a sweet treat. I got some candy bars that were on sale. Then Dave found some chocolates in a brand that we had come across and tried last month and fell completely in love with. The brand is Sweet Obsessions and is a rare find in that it is wonderful chocolate at a very reasonable price. Last month we had tried their Milk chocolate bars and their Dark chocolate bars and they were pure HEAVEN! Some people have "our song", some have "our dance" .... well, we have "our chocolate". This one was heart shaped chocolates wrapped in golden foil. Inside the chocolate hearts was a soft, caramel-like filling infused with the smoothest coffee flavor. when you bit into one of the hearts, it was instant delicious .... then ..... the already heavenly flavor just kept growing and growing and growing, getting ever better by the second. I've never eaten a candy like it. But it was no wonder I liked it so much.... Although it is distributed here in the US, it was made in Poland. As someone that is mostly a mix of Polish/Ukrainian it was perfect for my taste buds. We will definitely be getting more of it!

Dave also got the tree cut off of my fence (my neighbor's dead tree had badly crushed my fence), patched the fence so my dogs won't get out, and cut up the tree for firewood. Isn't he terrific? We had also planned on going fishing and made it as far as getting the poles in Dave's car, but we never made it to the river. Maybe we can do that next time. There are just never enough hours to squeeze in everything that we want to do together. But we are hoping to get to go fishing soon and put away some fish for winter.

It was a most wonderful two days together and, although we get to talk often by phone throughout the day (that is, when those blasted electronic devices decide they want to work), it just isn't the same as quality, unrushed, non-working time together.   Love Ya, Dave!!!

ANNA'S COMPUTER BROKEN

 Hello, Everyone! W do hope it isn't as hot where you are as it is here where we are. We also hope everyone is doing well.

We thought we better take a moment to make a short post to tell you all where we have been. My computer is broken  (on a dinosaur of a laptop at the moment) and Dave has been working long, hard hours. Plus, any spare moment either of us have is being spent watering, watering, WATERING, animals, plants and veggies. It has been over 100* F. for the past week, no rain, and no relief in sight. So we are pretty much in survival mode at the moment. Some plants are holding (not growing, really, just holding) and some are literally frying no matter how much water we put on them. Sorry to say, we weren't expecting this and it caught us off guard.

We greatly apologize for being away and for missing so many of our weekly posts. We will be back just the second everything settles down a bit and hopefully get in a few short posts before then, but we make no promises, as it is pretty crazy at the moment. We would also like to extend an extra big WELCOME and THANK YOU to our newest member that joined while we have been away dealing with all of our crazies.

You know.... it's funny ...... it seems that when we are so tied up with life that we can't get on here to blog... that is the time we have the most and most interesting material to blog about! We will be back soon and try our best to catch up on everything.

May you have a very WONDERFUL and BLESSED weekend!!!!

Lambsquarters Bread and a Cooking Blog

Dave and I both love to cook. And not only do we love to cook, but we love to experiment, test, and create in the kitchen. We figure, if it doesn't come out to our liking, then there is always a critter around that will surely eat it, then we can make needed adjustments on the next batch, but that rarely happens, as usually, most things we make at least come out humanly edible.

But we both have a giant multitude of recipes that we use and dishes that we cook, and we are constantly creating new ones. We want to share them ALL with you, but we have been afraid that if we did, it would turn this blog about building our lives together into just a cooking blog. So, for now, we decided to start a "spin-off cooking blog" and see how it goes. We would greatly welcome your opinions on the subject.

You can find our cooking blog at http://cookingattwofarmsone.blogspot.com .  Today's recipe is for Lambsquarters Bread. We hope you enjoy!

(D♥A) Our First Easter

Nope, there was no 'circus' this holiday. I steered clear of it and Dave and I got to spend the entire day together. We have not been getting to spend near enough time together lately, so it was absolutely wonderful to get to spend all of our first Easter together.

Saturday morning Dave took care of his chores and errands, I took care of my morning have'tos, then left for the flea market. I left late for various reasons, but one was that we had an early morning storm pass and I wanted to make sure it was all clear.  When I left my house, it was bright sunshine and nothing anywhere near us on the radar.

But . . . . . . . as my luck would have it, just as I was about 2/3 of the way to the flea market, the sky opened up and dumped rain down on me so hard that the windshield wipers couldn't keep up. I was about to pull over on the shoulder when I finally drove out of the hard stuff. As I pulled in, quite a few were set up, tarps loosely draped over all, vendors and customers standing inside the units waiting for the rain to stop.

The rain soon stopped, I went into the store to grab a bowl of the chili that was being served for lunch (great day for it!) and began setting up. But, once again, as my luck would have it, the rain came again and most people broke down and left. Four of us ended up trying to stay, but one by one, they all left, leaving me there by myself. One last one was going to stay, but as one last thunder clap rumbled, they, too, left, thinking it was going to storm again. But just as they pulled out, bright sunshine emerged.

Yes, I stayed. For one thing, Dave was on his way and I was unable to reach him by phone in the area he was driving through. The other was, well, I was already there, the sun was out, I had no other plans, so might as well stay and open (the main store was still open). Of course no one came because they were afraid it would rain on them so I made good use of the time getting some much needed cleaning and organizing done while everything was quiet and calm. I had sure wished for some sales, though. Most of the vendors figured they would just wait and reopen on Sunday when it was pretty (yes, Easter), but I wasn't, as Dave and I were taking the day off together. So I needed to be open and have some paying customers come in. But when everyone else bails, it really hurts the one that stays.

When Dave got there we stayed until the time I had planned to leave, closed up, ran a couple of errands, went back to my house to feed my critters and gather up my junk to take, Dusty, the puppies and all of their junk. (The puppies aren't old enough to leave overnight, and I am really hoping they are all sold before they are that old). So, we were off to Dave's Farm with 5 dogs in tow. But we did stop and deliver one on the way. Gosh, it is hard letting them go!

With the type of 'ills' I have had lately, the car vibrations really mess with me. That, combined with the hectic day, and I was pretty worn down. Dave got his chores done while I got the dogs settled in, we talked for a little while, then crashed for the night.

Easter morning Dave had to leave for a bit to go give someone a hand. While he was gone I decided to surprise him with breakfast. Unlike me who can't seem to beat the varmints to my eggs and have none, Dave had a good supply. So I decided to make something out of them. I just kept looking around and finding things to toss in with them, including some Henbit I found right outside the kitchen door. Since it was Easter, I wanted to make a large enough pan for us, Dave's dog, Dusty, and the 3 pups. Here is how I made it:

In the cast iron skillet, I heated up some lard. In that I sauteed some finely chopped garlic. While that was cooking I broke some eggs into a bowl, added in some Ranch Salad dressing I found in the fridge, the bits of Henbit (including some of the purple flowers), a couple spoons of water, pinch of salt, and whisked it all up good.

         
I also had brought a half a loaf of left-over homemade bread that I had. I cubed some of that up, tossed it into the skillet with the garlic, and sauteed it all until it was toasty. Then I added the eggs and cooked it all together until it was done. The indescribable surprised smile on Dave's face when he walked in and smelled breakfast cooking warmed my heart like it hasn't been in a long time. And I was proud of myself for figuring out how to work his stove without any help.  We sliced up the rest of the bread and buttered it to eat with it. I was wishing I had remembered to bring some of that Pear Butter I had made last Fall to go on it. It was all so d e l i c i o u s ! ! !    The dogs all approved, too!

  
I went around with Dave while he did his chores, helping what I could, and enjoying seeing the new kids. Dave fired up his smoker (a wonderful one he made himself years ago) and got a big pork roast on to smoke. While he got that going, I got a loaf of bread going in the bread machine. (Yes, I cheated. I just don't have the strength to knead it yet.). The wonderful aromas coming from that smoker tantalized me and the dogs ALL DAY!  Dave kept meticulous watch over it throughout the day, and the pups closely supervised. In between, we got to spend some much needed time walking around the yard and house, making our future plans, talking, and just getting to be together. We also picked out the spots to plant two of my rose bushes I got this year. It was some much needed, well appreciated time together.

The roast was finally done, I baked some potatoes to go with it, and Dave rustled up some sour cream while I went out to the cold frame to grab a handful of green onions to go on them. Oh, how I love stepping out the door to pick something to eat!!!  We totally forgot that I had brought dill pickles. They would have gone so well with dinner.  Dave really knows what he is doing with his smoker. That roast was absolutely PERFECT! It had just the right amount of smoke flavor, and was melt-in-your-mouth tender and juicy. We ate it with some of that Apple Maple bbq sauce that we had and it really went well with it. Sorry there are no pics. We had devoured nearly everything before we thought to take pics!

For dessert, Dave made some Blackberry 'pudding' out of the wild blackberries he had canned last summer. It, too, was delicious, but we didn't eat much of it because we were so stuffed from everything else. Sure wish I had a bowl of it right now. He tried to get me to take some home. But you know how it is when you are full, you don't think you will want it later. We got to enjoy some more 'together' time, and I also spent quite a bit of time picking ticks off of me and the dogs. The dogs had enjoyed romping and playing in some brushy areas, and I had unknowingly sat down to rest, at one point in the day, in a leafy area where the blasted things were breeding. With our ultra mild winter, I am afraid the ticks and fleas are going to be worse this year than we have ever seen, especially since they are becoming immune to everything, too.

Then it came time to load up and take me home. We had just loaded the dogs and I was taking out the last little bit when I ran *smack* into the corner of the hatchback door (it was pretty dark), with my head.   My head cracked pretty loudly, my jaws slid sideways, my teeth clanged together,  and I stumbled back, but managed to keep from falling.  I really could have done without this little remembrance of our first Easter, lol, but I was very thankful that it had just missed my temple. So with ice to my head we headed for Anna's Farm. The trip home was over all too soon, we unloaded sleepy pups, my junk and all,  sat on the bench enjoying the spring night air for awhile, then said our dreaded 'good-byes' as our first Easter ended. That was the hardest part. Oh, how we look forward to the day when we are living under his roof and have just our business set up under my roof!

It was a most wonderful and blessed Easter! We hope yours was, too!      

(D♥A) My Beautiful Flowers!

Remember the beautiful flowers I was telling you about in the last post? ... the ones that Dave picked for me from his yard. Well, even though they are missing a few of the white lilacs from wilting in the heat (yes, I said heat! It has been very unseasonably warm here, lately. And it was awhile that day before we were indoors anywhere), they are still so beautiful I absolutely have to share them with you. I set them outside in the light rain yesterday where they were semi sheltered, but still got a good drizzle, and it really perked them up.

Also, the rose bush he gave me for Valentine's Day is already blooming. Isn't it beautiful!

HAVE A ROSEY DAY!!