The kids have had fresh farms eggs for breakfast with homemade bread, I am and Michael are still trying to choke down the first cup of coffee of the day. We are still trying to come to terms with the events that took place yesterday and there is a feeling of gloom and despair that seems to hang in the air above us. Yesterday as you all know, our dear lady Elaine fell ill; at 8 pm last night she lost her battle with life and died. All of my older children were with her as was my husband; I was in the house with the other kids. In my heart I sort of knew it was coming but what can prepare a person for death, I think very little. I knew we had lost the battle for her life when my daughter in tears had come into to tell me that she had cut a gash into her stomach. I asked Michael to go out and take off her shoes, just encase it was the shoes that cut her and to help Rachael to clean and blue coat the wound. (Blue coat is a spray that sort of seals the wound and prevents, never get this stuff on your own hands, it will not kill you, but it will take days for the stain to wear off). It was only a few minutes later that Michael told me he had felt the last beats of her heart, in tears her went in to the bathroom to wash up. It is not easy for him to see her go either; she was a huge part of our lives.
Dah’veed decided to keep watch over her body, he did the things her new to do, pee around the area to keep wolves and other predator animals away and came up to the house to ask if he could build a fire, My eldest son Isaiah stayed with him. Michael and I said yes and they stayed outside with her for hours, till Michael and I felt it was not longer safe for them or anyone to do so. The temp had dropped and a drizzling rain, sleet mix was starting to fall from the sky. Elaine is still out in the pasture right now, covered in several layers of stuff till we can bury her latter today. We plan, after thinking it all threw to did as deep as we can in our rocky soul and then use a huge pile of dirt on top of this. It is fitting I think to bury her in a warriors mound, with all the things she loved and used in the time we have had her. I will include photos of us in a glass jar, her hand-woven bird blanket that we rode together with (she and I were never much for saddles), a few jars of feed, a lock of hair from the other horses and one from me. We will start on all this in a little while.
I have school work left to do before tonight, ughhh, so not in the mood.
We had poor man’s feast for dinner last night, those who were up to eating. Poor man’s feast is lentils and rice with onions, garlic, a little salt and pepper; with some ground meat (we used taco flavored ground turkey). This is a recipe we learned about while studying the great depression with the kids. There is a lovely old woman, I think her name is Claire; I will try to find a link to her recipes before I end this post today.
Ok looked it up, so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPQqH3YlHA
I think this is the one we are cooking tonight, if I scored the right link, she has a lot of good recipes, so please check them out.
Rachael and Isaiah are going to the store, with about the last of our money for the month to get some essentials of life, just in case it snows tonight. We had to wait till she was done with milking the cow and other barn course and Dah’veed’s plans to go to the farm below us to help him out for a few hours.
I had potatoes with sour cream to eat today…could not really finish that, and Elijah ate the rest, they are having taco bell instant meals that I bought some months ago for around 30 cents each meal with coupon when they were already on sale. I love bargains!
We plan to start burying Elaine soon. It will be a lot of work. Michael is still feeding birds and miscellaneous livestock and gathering eggs. I am hoping to have turkey eggs and other eggs to list on EBay and maybe on Come to the farm ( It is a auction site for farmers to sell on, where there are no fees, so they get to keep most of the money, unlike EBay where I will spend almost a third on fees between it and PayPal.)too.
The rest off our day will be filled with catching up from yesterday and answering mail.
To those who responded and asked about Elaine and if we felt it was wrong to treat her as the way the photos show, I am sorry, if your best friend was dying you would do anything you have to in hopes of saving their life.
Next the person who wanted to know if this was an often type of event on our farm. No we have never had this happen before and because of this we will be much more careful in the future, we are simple trying to share the real life on a small American family farm. Some days are joyful some are not.
Thank you all for the many email we have received and for your support. Consider clicking on the ads on the page, you don’t have to buy anything, we get a penny or two just for you clicking and every penny counts.
Be Blessed
Shekhinah and Family and all the critters on the farm.
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