Market day with camera...

Last Saturday, we remembered to bring the camera with when we went to set up at the Albert Lea Farmers' Market with Mom. She hauls a large white beast of a van up to the market twice a week with her homegrown, chemical-free goods from the farm. Fruits, vegetables, fresh-cut flowers and free-range eggs that fly out of her van faster than our hands can hand them out!

We arrived Saturday around 7:30am for a 9am opening, staying until closing time around Noon to help clean up and pack the truck back up. Here are the snaps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around the farm...

We've been here two weeks and have been loving our new little rural plot - the quietness is both strange and comforting. We finally have internet hooked up and a little dish pointed to the south brings us way too many channels that we'll never have time to watch.

What we don't have? Any of our belongings from California. Yep... perhaps the air mattress will be burned after we have the house set up with our goods - I'm that tired of it. The items have at least been loaded on a big truck, yet at last check, said truck was still in CA. Oh joy!

The pups have been settling in well - they can't get enough of their grassy open range to pounce around in. This was Gus today, having a rest in the grass.

Dora, on the other hand, was distracted by a squirrel she is desperate to catch, instead of paying any attention to us. Thankfully the squirrel is quite the speedy little devil.

Mom pointed out the other day that, surprise, we have a special tree in our yard! We've driven and walked passed it several times and just never noticed.

Sweet! Look at those apples! Not sure what variety they are, but we can't wait to snag one off in a few weeks and see for ourselves.

There is another tree that is rather intriguing (Green Bean tree anyone?) in our yard...

I believe it is some variation of Catalpa, though not certain about that. I do think this one is going to become our enemy once fall comes and those thousands of long pods turn black, shrivel up and drift to the ground. Fun times!

I've even managed to get a couple of sweets made and photographed! One was this scratch German Chocolate Cake I made for my sister's birthday. I did have to drive over to Mom's place to make it since we have no equiptment here to make anything! This cake was spot on and one we'll make again.

Then, the other day, we plucked a bunch of blueberries from Mom's farm - with a little elbow grease, I was able to finagle these Blueberry-Lemon Cheesecake Bars at our house with the help of a sturdy wooden spoon, a large bowl and a foil pan. Fresh blueberries, a lemon-y cheesecake and a sweet graham cracker crust? Can't go wrong there!

Between working around our place, helping Mom at the farm and at the twice weekly Farmers' Market in town, we have been keeping ourselves busy. My plan is to take a few pictures of both Mom's farm and the Farmers' Market this week to give you another peek into our new life!

Home...

After a long three day drive, just under 2000 miles, we've made it to our new home! Unfortunately the rest of our goods won't arrive for quite some time due to the short notice and busy-ness of the current market. We will just make due!

Internet and TV are another issue - both were on tap to be installed, but DirecTV decided to back out until we get the rest of our TVs and the wireless internet that was suppose to be available isn't due to line of sight issues with their antenna. I have another plan for internet lined up, but that won't happen until Tuesday.

All of that pales in comparison to this though. This is what we woke up to.

Will write more once we've gotten back on-line!