Day 15 Morning: Soil Ingestion Research Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Our Last Time Together in Camp ~ Morning
Day 15 (Wednesday, August 31st, 2011):

I woke at 6:00 AM with a text from Ken informing me the imported blueberries were on their way picked near Kehewin Cree Nation on Moose Mountain.

Everyone was up early and I heard our Muskrat Warrior leave and he came back with Tim Horton's coffee, hmmmmm good.  Then, Graham crawled out of his tent and got into his truck & left.  Everyone was on the go!  He returned about 30 minutes later with Tim Horton's donuts, now that was awesome.  We hadn't been able to eat donuts throughout this project, we feasted waiting for Ken to get here with our blueberries.  He was soon to arrive by 7:30 AM or so.

We were going to use the delicious blueberries for the special pancakes Angelle & I would make for the whole camp. However, we would make sure a sample went with Graham, so he could have a comparable sample miles away from the major activity of oil plants. Ken even provided him with a global positioning (GPS) location. He arrived with Darilyn, my son's girlfriend...she was hurting, it was too early for her because just the night before her, Ken, & Germain came to visit me late after everyone went to bed. Germain was heading out to work & I hadn't seen him since I arrived at the camp, so I was glad to see him, even if it was for only an hour.

The pancakes were awesome with bacon & eggs, we made so much that there was plenty to send over to the staff at the Cold Lake First Nations English Bay Community Centre.  It was our last meal together in our little family camp.  We soon gulped our food down, licked our lips, gave some good belly rubs to finish the feast, & sat for a few minutes washing down our meal with fresh coffee and conversation.

Once everyone was set to start the rest of the day & get ready for the Special Lunch the staff at the Cold Lake First Nations English Bay Community Centre was bepairing in our honor, I suggested we have a closing circle while Muskrat Warrior's dad, Alex Janvier was present with us.  So, we all arose from our seats and did our last walk towards our  famous campfire, stood around it, one last time...

Duane (Muskrat Warrior) honored us by doing the traditional smudge with sweetgrass.  We each went, one-by-one, and shared our hearts, gratitude, and appreciation for this unique and meaningful experience.  We closed our circle with a prayer and acknowledged that we will never be like this together again , in this moment in time.  We needed to honor this moment!  As we closed our circle, we created balance as is tradition with Natural Law...we walked one-by-one around the circle & gave a hug to each one of our new found family. We then walked &stood back in our original place within our circle & waited to receive a hug again from our family...balance was created and in our own way we honored our Mother ~ Earth.