WHAT HAS REALLY CHANGED IN 150 YEARS?

Tomorrow will be the start of a unique journey.  Six women from our little town will journey east along the Oregon/California Trail to share a common hobby and each others friendship.  

These women are all quilters.  They have the local quilt guild in common and a love for laughter.  Their journey is not only about quilting, but about another fellow quilter that was required to move away from them due to life's never ending variables.  This quilter was taken from her beloved mountain home, to live in a large city while her husband finished school to teach dentistry.  Her husband was the local high school cross county coach and was clearing the track for his team with a snow blower, when his fingers were taken off by the snow blower.  This rendered him unable to work as a practicing dentist.  

This remarkable woman will turn 50 during this unique journey, so these women are traveling 1,200 miles to meet their fellow quilter half way.  

While these women are bonded by their friendship and quilting, they are not traveling by wagon, or are compelled by their husbands to make this journey.  They are choosing to do this for a dear friend.  The quilter who was required to move loved the support and companionship of her mountain home and friends.

Her journey in this new environment has not provided her what she has lost.  So, by choice these women are traveling a long distance to provide that companionship again to her for at east four days.  

Many things about this journey are the same as 150 years ago.  Women would gather to quilt for their families warmth but also to console one another and give support to one another during difficult times.  It will no take as long as 150 years ago to get to their destination, as they can travel at 85 miles per hour.  What would have been a several month journey will only take them two days.  

They promise to keep in touch during this journey and give us all updates.     

Death and Community

Life in the 1800's included death and sorrow.  Mourning was a community's responsibility.  Men dug the graves, women prepared food for the grieving family members.  Hopefully life was full and long, but more than likely small children, young mothers giving birth and disease took many early on.  Thanks to our ancestors and the early pioneers for showing us the way by their examples.

KEEPING TRADITIONS

     Traditions define us, comfort us and remind us of where we came from and where we want to go.

     Sometimes we are lucky enough to be able to keep the traditions of our ancestors.  Some traditions are simple such as cooking a particular food at Christmas.  Other traditions take a little more space and time.  

     Our family has been lucky enough to be able to keep the traditions of our ancestors in that my husband's side of the family were freighters.  It was my husband's dream to learn to drive horses and train a team of his own.   This dream was not realized until 1994 when we moved home to the Bear Lake Valley.  We had land to keep horses and means to feed them. My husband has now trained about five teams of horses and is quite a teamster.  

     In 2008 my second oldest daughter married a local rancher who's father also had a love for driving teams of horses.  The pictures you have been viewing in this blog is of one Sunday three years ago when we all decided to get together and work some ground.  My daughter's father in law saved 120 acres to be plowed and fertilized.  He had some corrals that needed cleaning out so we went to town "spreading sunshine"!  What a fun family experience.  Beautiful warm spring weather and great company.