"...and to You it is fitting to give thanks."

I shouldn’t be alive, I should be dead. By all physical means, I shouldn’t be sitting here in Israel writing this. But I am. B’H! By HaShem’s grace, mercy, and love for me am I telling you this story, and to Him be the glory for it all.

Two and a half years ago I went through a pretty rough season. The enemy tried to kill me multiple times, and even after that I had a few additional injuries to deal with. I wish I had written in my journal at that point about what happened, but I didn’t. But I know what happened and when, so I guess I’ll write it down now. Better late than never.


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April 27, 2010 - Mauled at work
I had a little incident at work. At the time, I was working on a dairy milking around 60-70 head of cattle. I loved this job, and would love to go back again.

I was bringing the cows in on a Thursday evening. It was still pretty muddy out, and there were more and more calves every day. I love having new little ones running around, they’re so much fun! One of the calves was walking down the alley in front of me, when he tripped and went nose first into the mud. He was still pretty young and getting the hang of his balance, so I bent down and picked him up, cleaned off his nose, and was letting him walk on when one of the cows (not his mother, mind you) mauled me. She hit me across my knees when I lost my balance and went down. She continued to grind me into the ground with her head, starting at my knees and working up. I was trying to get out from underneath her, but nothing was working. When she got to my waist, she stopped as quickly as she had started, and walked away. Later that week, my boss informed me that that cow had some kind of neurological thing going on that they were treating. Found out then that the cow that had mauled me was the one they were treating...

May 6, 2010 - Wreck with Roxy
I took Roxy out for a ride at about noon. Bareback as usual, and this time it was warm enough to ride barefoot. We walked down the road a ways, and ran through 3 joining hay fields. Roxy loves to run, and she’ll run through these fields and race the cars that are driving on the road. I love it when she does this too, she runs so fast that sometimes it feels like we’re flying. We ran in through the back entrance of the park, and played around on the trails for a little while. It was just like any other ride on any other day, beautiful and peaceful. I decided this time to take Roxy and go say hi really fast to a friend who lives about a mile down the road from the park. She loves it when we come by, and it’s nice to see her once in a while.

As we walked out of the park’s front entrance, I noticed a walker down at the corner of the road to the left of us, and noticed the beautiful pink flowers on the trees at the entrance of the park. We stopped and stood under the tree for a moment to take in the beauty HaShem had created, and then moved on down the road to the right.

We were almost there. I noticed a semi truck heading our way in front of us, and driving pretty fast. “Ok, we’ll be fine. I’m sure he sees us, and Roxy is fine with big vehicles.” Then I looked behind us, and there was another semi truck, also heading our way fast. “Huh, busy day today I guess. We need to get off the road and let them pass.” Neither of the trucks were slowing down. I don’t think either of the drivers saw us. On the left side of the road was a barbed wire fence right up to the road, and on the left was a deep rock ditch. I couldn’t pull Roxy off to the side of the road and wait for the trucks to pass, there was nowhere to go. So we ran down the road until there was a driveway or a yard that we could pull into. I saw the yard, and was thinking that we could just pull off the road, run through the corner of the yard, and into the woods. My friend’s house was just on the other side of the woods, which was actually just a small wooded patch that we play hide and seek in with the little kids.

I remember gently turning her off the road, and all that happened afterword. It all went so fast. She slipped on the asphalt, and we went down. We hit the edge of the road, I remember hearing her hooves slide out from under her and feeling us fall. I yelled “NO!”, though I don’t know if it ever came out my mouth or not. We hit the asphalt and slid a bit, which cut up Roxy’s knees and nose, and my right hand. The initial impact of us hitting the ground slammed my right knee into the ground, which also carried up and adjusted the right side of my pelvis. My horse rolled over me, compressing my now twisted 130-140 pound body under her 1300-1400 pound body, crushing my chest and cracking most of my ribs. By lower back too was twisted and then compressed. Thankfully, she only rolled over me the once, and I came off of her before we both continued rolling. At this point, I blacked out. It’s probably a good thing too. I ended up with a grass stain on my shirt that went over the top of my shoulder close to my neck, and I don’t want to know how that happened. We both continued to roll, and at some point I actually flipped so that my head was facing north, and my horse’s head was facing south, the direction that we were headed. This accident should’ve killed me instantly, or shortly thereafter from all that happened. When I woke up, I was laying about an arm’s length away from a large oak tree. My first thought was a combination between the question of “Am I alive?” and “Roxy”. I rolled over quickly and saw my horse laying there on the ground, on her back, and not moving. I thought she had died. I ran over to her, grabbed her legs and pulled them toward them, and she stood up without missing a beat. She was dazed and confused, and bleeding. Checked for broken bones and more blood, she was fine. Her nose was very tender, so I left it until later. I clamped one of her knees between both of my hands, and her other knee between my shoulder and my cheek. Her knees were so bloody that her blood ran down my cheek. Neither of the semi truck drivers even seemed to notice that we were there, let alone stopping to see if we were ok. I didn’t see either of them after I woke up. The walker that we had seen when we came out of the park saw what happened, said “Hi” as she passed, and told me that it looked like we took a bad spill, but that was all. A few vehicles drove passed as well while I was trying to get us put back together again before heading home. At this point we were close to 4 miles from home, and walking was the only way to get back. I didn’t want to call my Mom from my friend’s house, because of the way Roxy and I looked at that point, I didn’t want to leave that bad picture in the girls’ minds of a girl and her horse all bloody and hurt. So we walked back to the park, and I cleaned the blood off of the both of us, and we continued to walk home.

Thankfully I was bareback. If I had put the saddle on her, the horn would’ve impaled my stomach and there would’ve been a lot of internal damage. I knew that I hurt, but I also knew my horse hurt and I wanted to make sure that she was ok before I worried about how bad of shape I was in.



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The fact that I’m alive today is a miracle. A testimony of HaShem’s grace, mercy, and love. But even though I lived through all these things, there was still a lot of pain and injury in my body. But, only until this trip to Israel.

We have been here in the Mountains of Israel for about 2 months now. About 7 weeks ago, my lungs opened back up. From the accident with my horse and my chest being crushed under Roxy’s weight, my lungs had been compressed and hadn’t opened back up fully. It was hard to run or do much physically, and I couldn’t take a deep breath very well, if at all. The mountains last year were hard on me, because breathing was hard. But this year, HaShem opened my lungs close to the beginning of our trip here!

About 4 weeks later, I was doing my prayers in the vineyards in Shiloh. I stepped backward and something happened to my hip. My pelvis actually separated in the back, and the right side tipped back into place. It has been fine since. It was almost as if HaShem took my body and adjusted it so that it is back to where He created it to be!

A few days later my right shoulder, which has been tight and not wanting to work for me, loosened up. I can now rotate my shoulder without pain! My shoulder being tight before wasn't from an injury that I remember, but it had been tight and unable to rotate for quite a while. It is healed!

I have been so blessed to have been healed while we’ve been here! HaShem is good, and His kindnesses never fail!

“We gratefully thank You, for it is You Who are HaShem, our God and the God of our forefathers for all eternity; our Rock, the Rock of our lives, Shield of our salvation are You from generation to generation. We shall thank You and relate Your praise - for our lives, which are committed to Your power and for our souls that are entrusted to You; for Your miracles that are with us every day; an for Your wonders and favors in every season - evening, morning, and afternoon. The Beneficent One, for Your compassions were never exhausted, and the Compassionate One, for your kindnesses never ended - for we have always put our hope in You. For all these, may Your Name be blessed, exalted, and extolled, our King, continually forever and ever. Everything alive will gratefully acknowledge You, Selah! and praise and bless Your great Name sincerely, forever, for it is good. O God of our salvation and help, Selah! the beneficent God. Blessed are You, HaShem, Your Name is “The Beneficent One” and to You it is fitting to give thanks.”

A Story About A Very Special Book

This was amazing! We had a long day up at Bracha (Mount of Blessing, in Israel). Just before we left, Daniel, one of the younger boys starts, showing us this little book he found in a garbage pile. We were looking at is and realized it was a little tiny prayer book. Daniel asked me if I would like him to run and grab another book from the garbage, that there were a bunch of important looking books there. I almost said "No, thanks, just leave it" because we were just about to leave, but instead said "Please, if you can get one quick." He ran off and was back real quick with this dirty, dusty, wrinkled and falling apart book, about the size of a pocket sized siddur. It was in pretty rough shape; he handed me the cover, then the rest of the book and said "I think these went together." When I opened it up, all I could really read was Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim in Hebrew, and saw the IDF emblems. That was pretty neat and exciting, a really beautiful find.

On the way home from Bracha, I had dusted off the binding and the torah and put them back together. Sitting in the van carefully holding it together, something caught my attention. I looked down at what I was holding, and realized that this Torah, the way it was worn, fit perfectly in my hand. The IDF soldier who previously owned it must have been right-handed, and we would had the same size hands.

I often wonder who was the person who owned this little book, and why it ended up in a pile of garbage up there on Bracha. There is some hand writing in the back, and it would be so neat to meet that person, and to be able to return it put back together. If it ever happens, I hope it'll be with me and it can go back to that person. But until then, and even if it doesn't happen, I'll hold onto it and learn to read.

Thinking about this made me think about the lives of so many people. We were once dirty, dusty, and falling apart. Left where we were, we would've been useless. But we were picked up, put back together and made into beautiful, useful vessels for HaShem.

We know we can rely on our Shepherd for help

I thought this would be well worth sharing. Short and sweet.

Harriot lambed Tuesday morning. This was her first time lambing here under my care, and she seems to be a good mom. She's not one that really wants attention, though she's not skittish. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and is pretty easy to work with.

Yesterday (Wednesday) when I went down to get the horses, Harriot was standing in the middle of the sheep field, calling me. She seemed somewhat distressed or concerned. Knowing this is not her usual behavior, I went down to see what was going on. Poor girl couldn't find her lamb! He had wondered off and fallen asleep in the hay feeder. I found him there, half buried by the loose hay, sound asleep. I called his momma over, picked him up and set him down next to her. She was visibly relieved that she had found her baby, and almost looked like she would've said "thank you" if she could speak - you could see it in her eyes.

It was a wonderful picture to me of how we can rely on our Shepherd to help us when we are in distress. Hm, I love the lessons Abba teaches through letting me care for this precious flock. :) *happy sigh*

I Believe: Miracles - Job 1:21

When I think of miracles, miracles that have happened to me personally, a list starts running through and flooding my mind. HaShem has dome so many amazing things for me, and through me, just thinking about it is overwhelming.

Sometimes, farmers loose some of their stock, but it shouldn't happen as often as it has for me. Almost every year for the past 10 years I've lost at least one, and I don't have huge numbers. One year in particular, I lost close to half my stock, my grades at the college weren't doing too great, and the whole situation was taking a toll on my body. How did I make it? The only way to answer that, is G-d pulled me through.

"HaShem gave, HaShem took; blessed be the name of HaShem" ~ Job 1:21

I have repeated these words of Job's multiple times because of their relevance to my life. Not only does He give and take, but sometimes He gives back, then again takes away. There are two scenarios that come to mind. . .

February 3-5, 2009 Baruch

The first part of the story of Baruch, my little blessing. The first 2 paragraphs written on February 4th, it is only the part until He gave this little one back to me. The last paragraph was written just as I'm typing up this blog post.

"Baruch (which means "Blessed" in Hebrew) was born a twin on February 3, 2009 and my house here in Lynden. That was a Tuesday morning. Wednesday, February 4, came down with severe Hypothermia. We thought he wasn't going to make it. At 8:10 this morning, I thought that he had died, he was all sprawled out in the lambing pen, twisted in odd directions, and really looked lifeless and that rigor mortis had set in already. My first thought was "If he is alive, he'll have a broken neck, leg and possibly ribs." It appeared that his mother had stepped on him repeatedly. We brought him into the house to see if he would be ok, and to warm him up. My hands were cold, so I couldn't feel that he was just as cold as I was, really cold. I found this out after, of course, when I came in from finishing my chores that Mom told me that he was cold - no registrable temp. We had diagnosed Hypothermia, severe Hypothermia. We did all that we could, 3 cc's Vit B, 6 cc's Dextrose 50%, heating pad... all we could do then was wait. And pray. And pray we did. Finally, at 11:00, he started making progress. He had the sucking reflex and took a bit of milk every 15 mins until at 11:45 had taken the whole bottle. His temp hadn't even registered on the thermometer before and now is at 99.2 (normal is 101-103). The dogs barked at something and he sat up and opened his eyes, something that I was amazed he could do. After a few mins, he was up and walking! We waited until we were sure that he was stable (quite a while) and then took him back to his mother who readily took him back, another miracle! Baruch HaShem, he is even alive, let alone walking!

Sometimes the Lord will answer your prayers with a green light, right away, sometimes it's yellow, wait, and sometimes it is a red, no. This time, for me it was yellow, wait. But he did answer my prayer to give this lamb a second chance at life, a live full of little, and big, blessings.

The next day though, he was gone. I had checked on him before I went to bed, and everything seemed fine. G-d had given him to me, taken him away, tested me and gave him back in a way that could only be explained by G-d, and then took him away again. There was a point to be made, a lesson to be learned.

January 31, 2011 Tiffany and Emunah

The first part of this post is long, so for the sake of the length of this post, I'll put a link to it HERE. If you haven't already, read the first part of Tiffany and Emunah before reading the rest of it.

Similar to the story of Baruch, I went down to the barn the next morning to find that Emunah did not make it. She drifted off peacefully, not seemingly distressed or anything. Her Momma, Tiffany, my favorite ewe, ended up with an infection and died a few days later. Emunah had been given to me, taken away, and given back miraculously, to be taken away again. Tiffany, whom I thought would've died days before, was given back to me, I took care of her the best I could, and then she was taken away again.

The whole event was incredibly emotionally draining. Lots of crying, sadness, happiness, and more crying. At the end of it all, what can you say? What can you do? Look for the lessons taught, learn them. Remember everything that happened, it may be useful to you or someone later.

"HaShem gave, HaShem took;

blessed be the name of HaShem."

~ Job 1:21

Remember everything that happened,

it may be useful to you or someone else later.

I Believe: Miracles

HaShem has worked so many miracles in my life, and most of the happened here, in the barn. It would take volumes of books to write down all the wonders G-d has done for me, so I'll have to keep writing about them as I recall and have time to post them. As for now, Shabbat is coming quickly and I have a lot of preparation to do, but I will give you a taste of that which I will write about later. I encourage you to think about all the miracles HaShem has performed in your life, write them down, and keep them in a place where you can access them when you're going through a rough spot in life.

"HaShem gave, HaShem took; blessed be the name of HaShem" Job 1:21 - This has happened countless times. Although He sometimes takes away the ones closest to me, He has given them back to me after they've died. There is hope, one must only believe. And, sometimes, after giving them back, He'll take them away again, to teach another lesson. This too has happened to me. But even in this heartache, I must remember to give thanks where it is due, for teaching me valuable lessons, and for bringing me through the valley of the shadow of death. I promise I won't leave you wondering here for too long. We'll see what happens after Shabbat, I may be able to get the story up then.

G-d has also given me my life back. I've been in a few accidents, specifically 2 a week and a half apart, which should've killed me. Nearly 2 years ago. It took until after the trauma had gone for me to realize that I should be dead, and that only by the grace of G-d am I still alive. I will write about this soon too, as soon as I can.

This has been a very helpful verse in my life,

so I put it up on my barn wall.

A few verses in Ecclesiastes...

I was reading through Ecclesiastes this summer when I was watching the neighbor's dairy, and came across quite a few gems in this book, these are only a portion of them. We have to look past when he says everything is pointless and feeding on the wind, to see the beauty of the book.

Just some very short thoughts. Nothing much really, maybe something will jump out to you as well...

"Two are better than one, in that their cooperative efforts yield this advantage: if one of them falls, the other will help his partner up." 4:9

This is what we need to look for in our next leader:

"... the greatest advantage to the country is when the king makes himself a servant to the land." 5:7(8)

"Also, everyone to whom G-d has given riches and wealth, along with the power to enjoy it, so that he takes his allotted portions and finds pleasure in his work - this is a gift of G-d; for he will not brood over the fact that his life is short, since G-d keeps him occupied with what will bring him joy." 5:18(19)-19(20) So try to find joy in the task at hand, it is a blessing from G-d!

"A good name is better than perfumed oil" 7:1

"Don't grasp just one of these rules; take hold of the other as well; for he who is in fear of G-d will live by both of them." 7:18

"To a wise man wisdom is better protection than ten rulers in a city." 7:19

"Also, don't take seriously every word spoken, such as when you hear your servant speaking badly of you; because often, as you yourself know, you have spoken badly of others." 7:21-22

Maybe this is why I love mornings :)

"In the morning, sow your seed; and don't slack off until evening; for you don't know which sowing will succeed, this, or that, or if both will do well. Then the light will be sweet, and it will be a pleasure to see the sun." 11:6-7

And this one really spoke to me, looking at the situation of the young generation of our time.

"Young person, if you spend your youth only having fun, if you use your early years just to entertain yourself, if you follow your heart as you live your life, and let your eyes be your guide; understand that for all these things G-d will bring you to judgement. Therefore, remove anger from your heart; and keep from harming your body; for neither adolescence nor youth has any lasting value." 11:9-10

Interesting that he pin points these actions as a root of anger...

At the very end, but perhaps the most important...

"Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear G-d and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about. For G-d will bring to judgement everything we do, including every secret, whether good or bad. [Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear G-d, and keep his mitzvot, this is what being human is all about.]" 12:13-14

Israeli Grape Harvest 2011

Israeli Grape Harvest, 2011

We had roughly 250 people for harvest this year, and were blessed to be able to bring in a whoppin 304 tons of grapes for some of Israel's wineries in Judea and Samaria. We had a blast!

Our clippers, or nippers depending on who you talk to, were very familiar to me and quite easy to use. Being a shepherdess who uses hoof trimmers, this was one of the first familiar things to me - the nippers were basi

cally hoof trimmers. :-)

Look at what these vines grow in! It's a miracle that they can grow, and produce such amazing grapes. It's not just

amazing, it's a miracle.

From here....

To here!!!

25,000 bottles of wine ready to be shipped out

Here's the web sites to 4 of the wineries we were able to work in:

Psagot Winery (Wine bottles pictured above)

Shiloh Winery (Vines pictured above)

Mount Blessing Winery

This is some of my most favorite Israeli wine, just in case you're trying to decide which to get... :-)

And last, but definitely not least,

Tura Winery (No pictures, sorry...)

We had some big days harvesting. A 15 ton day in the 115 degree heat (being used to the more cold and wet climate, this was quite different), and a 21 ton day - a record setter!