Onward christian soldiers part 11

I woke up in the morning, so I must have got some sleep. When Pa and the boys joined us, Ma told them about last night. Pa and the boys had some pretty funny stories to tell about their night's sleep. Helaman had been sleeping under the stars when it suddenly started raining on his face. It thundered, it lightning-ed, it blew, but you know what he did?
He just rolled up in his tarp and slept like a bug in a cocoon. I have to say, though, a wet bug. But he slept though the rest. ;)

I also heard that Joseph's family had taken in a whole other family who had lost their Pa,

( Their Pa had become an angel) .

I don't remember eating breakfast that day, but I did have two oranges I kept in the pockets of my skirts. 

 As we packed and left the campsite it drizzled, but that was all. We had expected more serious storm weather- it is tornado alley, after all. However, the clouds parted and disappeared to the edges of the sky.  After a while, we were pretty happy to be stopped by our trail boss. First, he told us that other leaders had been watching the potentially severe weather on the Noaa radar. The front had come within miles of us. But the worst part of the storm, had made a distinct split around us this morning. I thought that was pretty cool. It was actually a miracle.

But teenagers, even pioneer ones, can't stay too sober and serious on break for long. We were happy to hear the trail boss round us up for games. Our families as teams, we played many fun games, and I never had so much fun playing tug-o- war.

In fact, the angels came and played with us! They couldn't talk though. Just as well, it was nice having Captain back, pulling with us. (He's in the white)

We beat all the families that challenged us. Most of that was Pa and our boys. We all had a wonderful time. Captain is in all three of these  top pictures, by me, Ma, and Constance. After the tug O war the angels left.
Joseph's  family, ( that had doubled in size since mourning) challenged us, but it was time to continue our journey. (Thank goodness, since our family wanted to keep our winning streak and they were such a big group!)
We saw the angels standing in the fields, as we passed, and they continued to appear and disappear throughout the morning. Then lunch came. We stopped, and looked around for the ATV people that usually brought our lunch but they were not in sight.
(I bet my ancestors would have liked some handy ATV people!)
Our trail boss announced that, as far as food goes, all they had, was a bucket of flour, and water. I could hear everybody in the camp groan. Well, here goes nothing. We were given our portions of flour, and luckily, that bit of flour was  distributed evenly, one scant cup per person, just barely . Some had to walk around asking, "Guys, do you have extra? Any donations?"
But everyone got something to eat. They had to make do with what water was left in their coolers. Each family was left to their own devices to decide how and if to cook their flour before eating. some ate it plain. Some made a slurry. Some tried to make a corncake of sorts. Some cooked it like ashcakes directly on the fire. There wasn't supposed to be salt, but some were sneaky. Or enterprising.
Ma happened to bring a non- stick pan and that's what we used. We made ours into pancake quality batter and went from there to make pancakes.

When a neighbor found some nice wild herb stuff that sort of tasted like Italian seasoning,
(and trust me, this lady knew what she was doing because she was a herbalist, and a nurse.)
we came up with the idea to make crackers. They tasted better. In fact, it wasn't so bad, I thought. It was food. Yes, I had oranges in my pockets, but I did not eat them. I wasn't supposed to have them. It would ruin my "try to relate to, and appreciate the real pioneers" experience I was trying to have. I found out that they had collected all the food from Ma while I was somewhere else. I told my family about them, and said I wouldn't eat them, so Helaman took them. My trek siblings were having a harder time then I was, at eating the flour water stuff, so I thought I'd share a story that I had read out of a journal of our ancestors that my Nana had given my real family. I'd memorized it because I had given a talk in church about their faith through trials last December.
Here is how I told it:

"You know, one of my ancestors that crossed the plains in a hand cart,well, their company had gotten stuck in some snowy high Wyoming pass in the winter, and they were waiting for rescuers, or waiting to die.  they could go no further, and their father had died. They had only the leather from boots on their feet to eat, so they boiled them. When rescuers finally came from Salt Lake, they had brought flour and water to eat. But, they did not have as much flour as we do, a generous cup each, all just for lunch., They had only enough to, pretty much, just flavor their water. But, when my ten/eleven year ancestor had some, he, like other children in the handcart company, asked his mother, "Mother, when we get to Zion, Can we have this skilly soup every day?" All the flour you could eat. Heaven fulfilled.

They laughed, and my mission was fulfilled. There was a little extra batter in the pot, we were going to throw it out, but Pa said, "Waste not, want not."
He slurped the flour-water down, and said, "Tastes like oatmeal."

After I had finished, I went to see how Joseph was doing.

When he had seen me, he turned and showed me his. He had put his batter in between two sheets of tin foil, and cooked it like a tin foil dinner. 

He said, "Look Tali, my family was smart, We made crackers," 

He took the tin foil apart, and there was a gooey sucking sound. They were wet and they were sticky.

I had two perfectly cooked pan cakes in my pockets to show him my family's, but I just nodded at him and left. I didn't want him to feel bad I was so blessed.
But now I have to share the joke. And even Joseph marked this post funny, so he can't feel too bad.