Tuesday

We said goodbye to our Blaze dog (the largest Great Dane), 11 years old, today...who had died in her sleep. Esme took it as well as she could, lots of questions, tears and discussion.  We had lost a few dogs before in her life, but not something she saw and connected so deeply with. We had waited until after the flea market to really tell her - partially because we needed to do maintenance on the tractor, and also because we didn't want Esme to become terribly upset where we couldn't handle it well and she didn't have something else to focus on.  And then she wanted to see...which was hard, but it made it real.  The last dog was Astro, the stray that the neighbor was scared of but we had befriended..she didn't see any of that...but has felt the sting and the loss since.  Blaze being a natural death scared her some, too...as I said, lots of questions about when she was coming back - what it all meant, if anybody ever came back etc.  She did understand, finally.. she's just been hoping it wasn't true and maybe it would work, she said.  She insisted we had to make a headstone. We buried her in a deep hole made with the tractor on the edge of our property - and put cedar logs on top... but Esme said it wasn't good enough...so we let her choose a board for me to chisel Blaze's name into and put it up there.

7:30 flea market, getting ready, setting up etc, math, exercises
-----Power Pack (begin reading vol 1. issue 44)
We bought some tomatoes and planned to make sandwiches later

8:30 packing up, break, stopping for food
home

10:15 Minecraft exploration, nether castles, portals
----(Daddy was doing the tractor maintenance to get it started and the hole dug)
11:00 burial of Blaze dog - making headstone memorial
-----discussion
11:30 break

12:15p - More Minecraft exploration
12:30p - finish reading Power Pack together
12:45p -  greenhouse operations
---planted marigolds, plant maintenance, the kale had come up
1:00p - Minecraft building throneroom

 

Far from this castle she had taken over in the Nether, she had made a gravestone for Blaze there, as well.

2:00 -  weaving loom, tomato sandwiches
2:30 - done