It’s a good thing I had my hair cut before we left. If I hadn’t, I’m confident I’d have dreads by now. The last time I remember combing my hair with at least five days ago. ? I’m pretty sure Wesley has done about the same. He pulled his hoodie hood off this morning and I burst out in laughter bc his hair was beyond disheveled.
Health-wise, today is a not so great day. Our mentor has cautioned against running place to place so I think we’re going to stick this out. The other campers have definitely brought something in that we’re not thriving with. I woke up with heart pain and Wesley has a headache. Decontamination helped, but the wind switching from a decent E to W breeze helped alot bc it wasn’t blowing towards us from the campsites above. Now it’s blowing the opposite direction and it’s better. I woke up feeling like my whole face was swollen, but my joints didn’t hurt.
We learned some more as the day went on: we’re for sure react to toxins on other people and their stuff and Wesley is sweating out some pretty nasty toxins. Our mentor suggested disposable clothing initially, and we have decided that might be a real thing here for awhile, at least for sleep shirts and towels we fold up for pillows. The cool part is the sleep clothes caught enough that the rest washed out of the sheets so those weren’t wrecked. We’re really looking forward to some feedback from our mentor tomorrow night. It looks like many of the trees here are charred so I’m wondering if there’s FRAT (fire retardant associated toxin) from how they treated a prior fire. Wesley and I both get racing in our hearts when we get too close to trees, but do better in the middle of the path or in larger open areas like our camp site. Some parts of the forest feel worse for sure. I also wonder if all of it gets better after the people leave tomorrow. Lots of unknown and experimentation.
We also started looking for a truck today. I can’t wait to have a bigger storage space bc this SUV is a little too small. I got to briefly talk with the guy at the water co-op today, which was great bc after getting more water jugs, we’re using close to 25 gallons of water each day instead of the 15/day I talked to him about initially. He still doesn’t want to be paid, and I won’t argue. I think using the wringer washer the since April has prepped me well for doing laundry out here. I learned well how how to discern good and bad clothes while washing, and what was causing the problems when my lungs were burning so bad from the clothes back in April. I was able to discern the things that were bad today and have Wes double check me. We’re less two T-shirts, one long sleeved shirt, 2 wash rags, and a towel.
Wesley’s putting the fire out so I’m out for the day bc it’s too cold to sit out here without a fire.
Thanks for documenting your journey. I love reading about it and hearing what you’re all up to. Praying for both of you for the journey ahead. I do have to say I am totally jealous of your views, it sure beats a normal day in the city. ?. Miss you.