While life here is beautiful and peaceful, it does have it's drawbacks.  Yesterday afternoon I started feeling rather unwell.  I recognized the symptoms of a urinary tract infection (uti) so started drinking lots of water, herbal teas and apple cider vinegar.  I knew I had to go to Prince George the following day for a 1:30 appointment, and I also knew that I was the only one to tend the dogs and sheep.  The sheep can go a day without human intervention, but the dogs cannot.  As the day progressed I was feeling more poorly.  The pain in my back and left side was increasing.  I could not eat my supper, which is a real sign I am unwell!  Finally around 11:30 pm I called my friend Lois and told her I was on my way to the hospital as the pain was beyond tolerating.  She offered to drive me in but I knew she was on call (she's a veterinarian).  I did ask her to check on the dogs in the morning and let them out, if I was not back home in time.  I ended up spending the night in the hospital, on heavy duty antibiotics and a good pain killer and anti-inflamatory.  As I waited for the pharmacy to open I pondered the challenges we face living so remotely.  Of course, if Dennis had been home, he would have driven me in and driven me home after without having to spend the night in the hospital.  But, we do, on occasion, spend time apart due to one reason or another.  I do know that I could have called any one of my neighbours and they would have taken me in.  I was in pain, but not unable to drive, so I thought it was not worth waking people up.  One only wants to wake people up in the middle of the night for an extreme emergency. 

Life out here is not for the faint hearted.  While relying on friends and neighbours in an emergency is accepted and expected, one must be independent, strong hearted and level headed in the face of a crisis.

Another thing I learned from this event is that I need to be more prepared for an emergency as far as our dogs and sheep are concerned.  I still had the old labels on the dog food tubs so all the dogs ended up with the wrong food.  Not a big deal for one meal, but the old dogs are on a special, lower protein diet whereas the border collies are on a higher protein diet.  So I now have made and posted on the wall an emergency feeding list.  I have also properly labeled the dog food bins and the dishes. 

Ok, dogs are barking like mad down at the gate.  Time to get outside and deal with what's going on.