Today I am a busy farm wife.  It is slaughtering day.  Not the nicest word in the vocabulary, but one that anyone who eats meat should be able to tolerate.  Those nicely wrapped packages of tenderloin in the supermarket cooler were once living, breathing, fur covered creatures.  It is a difficult day for me and for Dennis, but again, we like to eat lamb so we go through the humane (is it ever?) killing of our livestock.  Joe, our friend from across the lake, is here to run the proceedings.  He will spend the night so today I am in the kitchen making lunch, baking for tea, and making supper.  Tomorrow morning will be a breakfast as well.  I thought about the days long ago when farmers from around the area would get together and thresh the grain from each farm.  The ladies would bake and cook and serve tables of food to many people.  Today I serve 2 men hot soup and corn bread.  Tonight will be chicken and gravy, carrots and potatoes mashed together with garlic and butter, a good salad with the remaining tomatoes from my greenhouse.  Dessert will be a wild fruit compote with ice cream.  The men work hard out there and it is not pleasant work.  The least I can do is have some good comfort food on the table for them. 

I am happy to say that Amigo has a new family to go to at the end of the month.  The absolutely perfect family heard about him via facebook.  We are excited for Amigo and happy he will be going to a loving family.  Thank you to my family for having Amigo's picture on their facebook pages and telling their friends to spread the word. 

A few days ago we were in Prince George.  While there we visited Bill, the father of my friend Lois, who is in hospice.  I have never been to a hospice (should it be an hospice?) house before.  Bill is suffering from the latter stages of cancer.  The hospice house is absolutely beautiful.  It smells good, it looks like a regular home and it is run by the nicest people ever.  I talked to the volunteer coordinator who told me a lot of people don't want to use hospice as it underscores that this is the last place you will be on this side of the sod.   Even though there is nothing one can do to stop death, we try to fool ourselves in that if I don't think about it, it won't happen.  Not that one should ponder death and dying continually, but as one marches towards the inevitable, it is good to get things in order.  Both Dennis and I said that if we spent our last days in the Prince George hospice house, or a similar facility, we would be happy.  It takes the pressure off the family, is a loving and comfortable place to be, and you are surrounded by people who's profession is to help you transition from this world to the next.  It makes a lot of sense to me.  Bill was as happy as a dying man could be.  He couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was there.  I could see the visible difference in Lois also.  She was more relaxed and happy than I have seen her in a while.  I think she felt a huge load off her shoulders, knowing her dad was so well looked after, and that he was so happy to be there.  If you are looking for a charity to support, I encourage you to consider your local hospice house.  Go and take a walk through, talk to some staff and have a tour.  Hospice helps local people in the community at the most difficult time of any person's life.  I am so happy they are there.


Ok, time to get busy with supper preparation, making up the guest room and baking something for tea.  In memory of our lambs, here is a picture of happier times:

This last picture is symbolic in a few ways.  That is Crystal, our nearly 15 year old akita x walking alone down the road.  The fields are empty.   She walks alone towards the blue sky. 

The lambs eat the grass, we eat the lambs, we go back to the earth, the grass grows on the earth, the lambs eat the grass.....

bye for now.