Tim and I were married at Lake Tahoe in 1991 (after a 2-year courtship and a one-year engagement) against the lovely backdrop of Emerald Bay, along with an Indian prayer as part of the minister’s blessing that we would "never be lonely again". We didn't expect it and certainly were not looking for second marriages... it was meant to be. It was a perfect sunny, June day and the guests/family who made the long trip from Santa Rosa and Sacramento to join our celebration were also very special to us. Our Maid of Honor and Best Man were such dear friends and co-workers, Jim and Judith, also married a few years later. We had a grand time in Oregon with them before this, traveling down the coast in our respective motor homes, on my first extended Road Trip! We grew to love Oregon. Today, some of my family have moved there! 

 

We still visit that spot overlooking Lake Tahoe where we married, as often as we can. Later that year, we held an Open House, a backyard potluck at our home in North Natomas for friends and family unable to make the trip for our wedding. Our close friend, Delores Rhodes, made the most awesome BBQ for everyone; she was known for her outstanding BBQ ribs! We celebrated our 31st Anniversary in 2022. We are semi-retired now, choosing to have part-time, local jobs; it’s quite a different life, 'The Good Life', in our Fabulous 70’s!

*As of September 2022, Tim was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma, or liver cancer. He has had liver cirrhosis for years and has been treated for Hep B and C when he was younger. Clean eating with less sodium and sugar or fats will certainly help in his case also.   

 

The decades of commuting to work together from Calaveras county in crazy traffic, causing missed family events and short weekends, all vanished once we both left a 40-hr work week. Now we could enjoy all that and more... grand-kids' time, road trips to Idaho, the Santa Cruz beach, Woods Lake, or Lake Tahoe. We had more time for gardening, photography, community events and music concerts; we made new friends closer to our own age in gold country with similar likes (after some heartfelt prayers as commuting had left no time to foster friends). We have had some wonderful get-together's over the years. We enjoyed exploring those back roads we often discovered on our jaunts; there was such an amazing choice of destinations we wanted to visit. 

 

However, in the last few years our travel plans were cut short... we both suffered heart attacks... his in 2014 and mine in 2016. When something like this happens, it is such a shock; the world, as we know it, just stops with a screech! I was so traumatized by his heart attack that I felt frozen in time, as if I had actually had one myself. I could barely make it through the days; I was in such a mind-numbing fog of worry and terror. Nights were spent listening to his heart vest monitor 'beep beep' throughout the night, waiting with bated breath for it to suddenly stop, and praying fervently that it wouldn't. Its steady red, flashing light was often the last thing I saw before sleep overcame me. It was a horrific time; I couldn't think, couldn't interact with others... I just lost interest in everything I was so consumed with worry. 

 

We had such wonderful support from family, countless friends, and our church pastors. I remember the goodness and kindness of my daughter and family taking us in as they lived close to the hospital, easier for his endless therapy appointments than where we now lived, an hour away in Amador County. I slowly was able to 'let go and let God', The day Tim was cleared by his doctor after 3 months to return home, we were so excited! There's no place like home! Once home, it was still an agonizing time for me as I still worried whenever he was away on errands, praying he didn't have another heart attack. 

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Then in 2016, I had a heart attack which was quite different from his. I didn't fall to the ground or have recognizable symptoms; I didn't even have to be 'shocked' back to life. No, I simply had an uneasy feeling in my chest one morning which moved around to my back--it felt like a big lump that moved slowly, like when you swallow too large a piece of food, making its way from front to back and then back to the front of my chest again. I just felt weak and kind of sick to my stomach, but it never, ever even crossed my mind that it could be a heart attack! I even remember taking  an anti-acid, thinking it may be heartburn. The discomfort continued, so Tim called an ambulance.

 

Once at the Amador Hospital ER, it was confirmed I was still in the throes of a major heart attack! I was incredulous! After 4 hours of monitoring me in the ER room, I was finally admitted, put onto a hospital bed, and wheeled to an all-white room, with white curtains and bed clothes, while soft music played. I had received 3 doses of Nitro by this time, and something for pain; I remember asking the nurse if this was heaven as I was so out of it. It was a lovely, soothing white room. They were my angels. 

 

I had a stent put in that very same day, the surgeon accessing my right wrist instead of my groin, thankfully. Days flowed into nights, and I slept often, barely remembering visitors. I recall my sister Connie Marie, and Zack, my nephew only. On the 3rd day, there was considerable trouble removing the hand brace protecting the surgical site as it kept bleeding profusely, blood spurting everywhere, and it could not be removed. That is until one of the nurses applied an innovative wrap made from fish skin that stopped the bleeding. That was amazing! I was released five days later. My hand mobility would suffer greatly later due to being bound past the allotted 6 hours. It required months of therapy and luckily, I did regain full mobility more than a year later, even though only 90% had been promised. 

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My path to a vegetarian diet was preceded by a lifetime of fast food, daily liters of dark soda, sugary baked goods, fried and processed foods, and red meat almost daily. I was a good cook, having prepared meals for a household of 12 for fifteen years, and prepared large meals for holidays, and special events. I never considered portion control; there was often a combination of meat and starches, fried foods, and desserts. Seconds? Of course! Although  I loved vegetables, and really enjoyed them, they weren't often on our plates. Of course, I only ate the usual's, like corn, beans, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes. 

 

After stumbling onto a startling Netflix film one afternoon at home while looking for a movie to watch, I came across a documentary on the way food is produced, namely beef, called Cowspiracy, that was quite revealing and very disturbing. I then watched the movie Food, Inc.  After that, I watched a few more similar films, and by the time my husband came home, I was in tears... we then watched them all again that evening. We were shocked, to say the least. 

 

After watching those films on the realities of the meat industry, my husband and I chose to try a meat and poultry-free diet for 2 weeks to see how it would affect us. There was no hesitation or transition; we made the change immediately. I read books written by T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, Neal Barnard, Michael Greger, and Michael Klaper, to name a few, all the while gleaning information and taking handwritten notes. I learned that we could receive all essential nutrients from plants because they had protein, some as much as meat! Our trial 'test' period of two weeks easily led to two months, then six months. We had welcomed the vegetarian life. 

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Eating plants instead of meat in our experience has not been bland or boring; we viewed vegetables as not just a side dish but as main entrees on our plates, full of nutrition, flavor and excitement--eating mostly vegetables was a new concept for us. The great thing about plant-based foods is that they tend to be high in fiber and lower in saturated fat, sodium, and sugar, with zero cholesterol--everything I needed to build my health back up and fight diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and eventually, to lose weight. Rejuvenation and repair start at the cellular level. I know it won't happen overnight, it took decades of fast food, sodas, pastry and fatty foods for me to wind up with a heart attack!

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So, as of August 2017, we just stopped eating red meat, including chicken and lamb--just like that. It was not a difficult transition at all and not even planned; it was a natural, next step to better health for us. We were heart patients now, something we had never expected would happen. Some recipes were amazingly delicious; we truly didn't miss meat, and the vegetable bounty was endless! I set about learning all I could about a Vegetarian diet, even dabbling in vegan diets, collecting plant-based recipes from the countless library books I perused weekly, besides the copious online sites.

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As of February 2023, it has been 6 years since we stopped eating red meat and began this modified Whole Food, Plant Based diet. However, since we raise chickens, we do eat eggs and continue to eat shrimp, crab, and select fish like salmon and tuna, and sometimes turkey. Being lactose intolerant, I went the non-dairy route for yogurt, mayo, milk, cream, ice cream, cheese, butter, sour cream, and cream cheese; many brands are available although we prefer Miyoko's brand best for butter and sour or cream cheese. We were now Flexitarians. However, I cannot tolerate eating fried clams as they are boiled and cooked alive! I just never even thought about that before. I may stop eating them, too. We will never return to being full-time meat eaters for several reasons. Health--Compassion--Environment. 

 

Of course, as new vegetarians we made common mistakes... consuming too much pasta, baked and fried white flour products, processed faux meat and cheese, using calorie-dense oils in preparing meals, besides not noticing the high sodium, fats, and sugar content in processed products. Realizing that this is primarily why I haven't lost weight besides being disabled and not very mobile, we are now changing things up even more. Now we have learned to eat cleaner and be more aware; this is a process and, I think, the most difficult change yet. Old habits are hard to break.  

 

Eating a diet of non-nutritive foods like white bread, white rice, potato chips, canned sweet fruit, and sugar-free ice cream isn't healthy for me. That's where the 'whole food' part of the diet comes in--there is an infinite combination of vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices to enjoy. Food I eat is not supposed to have ever seen the inside of a factory. So if it comes from a plant, I eat it... if it's made in a plant, we really try not to!

 

I plan the menus, we shop together and, when I can manage it, we often cook together. I have some major health issues so I am hopeful this way of eating will resolve some of them. I often sit on our vintage green, 1950's 2-step kitchen stool, both feet on the fold-out steps, reading off the recipe ingredients and directions... my husband usually does the prep and cooking. He has become quite proficient at seasonings. Often, I am his sous chef, dicing and slicing vegetables for our meals on a chopping block from my tv tray in the living room. I frequent an online library almost weekly for books on vegetarian meals, vegan meals, reversing heart disease, and of course, learning more about diabetes, a complex disease to maintain and even overcome. It Can be done! Countless recipes have been added to our growing digital file and many recipes have become favorites. We have even learned to prepare foods using an Air Fryer! Every month, we return library books and pick up more that I have put on Hold. 

 

As a Type 2 diabetic since 1992, I have struggled with maintaining blood sugar numbers; managing the balance between portion size, counting carbs, sugars, and fat, along with monitoring my insulin use to cover meals. It is so overwhelming. I choose low glycemic foods that won't spike my blood sugars, and even then, the dawn phenomenon strikes without warning some days, upsetting the balance. On those mornings, my liver produces sugar and my numbers spike. I have to correct with more insulin to cover. I have osteoarthritis in my lower back and hips, arthritis in my hands and feet, diabetic neuropathy in my hands besides two trigger fingers which are painful, 3 bulging disks diagnosed in my spine, and very little cartilage due to osteoarthritis in both knees. I have had Synvisc and Corticosteroid injections for my knee pain in the past with no relief. I also had Torodol shots in 2011 with some relief for my left hip and lower back pain. I am discovering that food is the best medicine!

 

I've been on a health quest since 2017 when I was put on a variety of blood pressure meds including a statin. This mostly Whole Foods, Plant Based way of eating has reduced my daily blood sugar numbers almost effortlessly and brought my 3-month A1c tests of 13.5 down to 6.3! As new vegetarians (flexitarians as we are not entirely vegetarian), we are learning to limit white flour products, bad oils, sugar. saturated fats, and salt. We still stumble but are making progress when shopping for groceries and have learned to totally avoid certain aisles! 

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'Dunn Farm' is my first website created in 1991, created using html which I had to learn first, before there were no such things as website templates. I was intrigued by all the garden sites I found on the computer. My son built my first computer for me, one with all the bells and whistles available at the time which I still have and it works. I was thrilled and so excited to learn how to share our gardens with the world! A labor of love, Dunn Farm is the true story of how we met, and photos of our first home together in the 90's in Calaveras County--it's about the farm, the animals, the gardens, and our family. Now, more recently, I have added a few vegetarian recipes for you to enjoy. 

Visit Dunn Farm soon! 

http://dunnfarm.com/

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