Relief Society Birthday Party

Table decorations

This past week end we celebrated the Birthday of the Relief Society.  We had 19 sisters in attendance,  It was fun for the sisters to get together.  This is not something that they do very often.  Even this little activity caused controversy.  The Relief Society President lives on the East side of the Highway collapse.  She did not want to come down so she called some of the sisters in the branch and told them we needed to postpone or cancel the event.  We had already ordered the cake and had to drive for an hour to Tuba City to pick it up.  We had already made a deposit on the cake.  We called one of the counselors and told them that the call had been made and what did she want to do?  Sister Dalgai said no way we were going to cancel. We put together an alternate menu.  We were supposed to have chicken salad. The Relief Society Pres bought chicken (frozen) mayonnaise some fruit and a big bag of tossed salad.  She then said that the dinner would be postponed until Sunday.

Gavern Begay, Marry Smith and Delores
Secody

The counselors said no!  So sister Gardner and I traveled to Page and purchased three Lasagna, Family size and drove back to Bitter Springs.  Four hour trip plus an hour in Page.  The sisters loved it.  We asked some sisters to decorate one of the rooms with their items that represented their culture.  (see below)  We invited other sisters to come and cut up the fruit and they had a ball. We had some of the sisters that hardly knew each other laughing and having a great time. They are so isolated that the members hardly get together for things such as this.  It is frustrating how a few can make it tough on the group.Many of the sisters that came were there because we had Susie Gardner make some cute invitations and we delivered them to each of the sisters in the Branch.  They have not had these types of activities.  The all really enjoyed the time together.  Oh, the Relief Society President did come and was very mad that she was not told the "time" and about the activities for preparing the food.

All of these items are handmade by Agnus Yazzi.



Hand made Items by Agnes Yazzi.  Note the Tree of life
Rug.  The wool was carded and spun to make the rug.

Zola Yazzi.  The bear is made from a Blue Bird flower sack
and the stuffing is from old stuffed animals that she has cut
apart and used.  The Hagan look familiar?



 (Below)The large blanket in the middle under the basket is a horse blanket. The boots in the upper right are made from deer skins. There is a Tree of Life rug on the upper left there is a corn grinding stone. The rug on the left middle is the Storm Pattern.

Evelyn Tsosie. 



Evelyn Tsosie



Birthday Cake



Upper Right is a small Papoose Board

Lambing Season

Jane Tisi feeding the lambs

 It is lambing season.  When a new lamb is born if the mother feels she has enough milk she will let the lamb feed.  If there may not be enough milk then she rejects the lamb.  The green mark on their head is a way to tell which ones are not accepted.  A corresponding mark is placed on the mothers head.  This particular mother had triplets.    This is grandma Tisi.  The lambs are fed three times a day.  Morning, noon and night.  The bag on the counter is powedered lamb milk.
The lambs have a pen in the back bedroom where they stay until they are old enough to be on their own.


Gma Tisi feeding the lambs. Elder G

They stay in a little pen in the back bedroom.  They are being fed in the kitchen.  Dinner is cooking on the stove.  When we came she had them sitting on the table.  The bottle they are using they found in the gutter while they were herding the sheep.  When we walked in the door the little granddautghter grabbed one of the lambs and handed it to me.


Jane feeding



Note the black, brown and white lambs

The lambs that are accepted by the mother is left in the pen.  There are goats in the pen and they are next to have their babies.  The next activity is to shear the sheep.  That will come in May.  Gma Tisi will then wash, card and then spin yarn from the sheep that they shear.  The larger smaller lamb below was the first to be born in the flock.  They had one lamb that did not live.

These lambs were accepted by the mother

The brown wool along with the black is used in the weaving of rugs.

Sister G getting her ears nibbled