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.