Santa Fe Forest Days 5-7

Sorry for the lack of updates. Saturday we started developing sensitivities to the trees in our forest. Sunday we went to Espanola to get supplies and to check out a new area. We drove through a small town and made the mistake of driving through a trailer park. My body crashed and burned and I’ve been like a lit fire cracker since then. I’ve screamed, cried, and declared I hate mold avoidance camping multiple times in the past two days. It’s a good thing we did a burn the ship start. We’ll make it because we have to.

We confirmed that our area does have FRAT with an experiment today. We went to the Valles Caldera Wilderness Area and hiked on a prairie this afternoon and felt better through part of it. They had prairie dogs that we never saw, though I heard one, I looked over to see a herd of elk, as it turned out, and said those don’t look like prairie dogs to me. At first we thought a pack of coyotes, but it was clear they were a deer type animal when they started running. The gal at the info station told us the picture I took a few days ago was indeed an elk. Apparently large, white butted deer appearing animals are elk.

We stopped by a few campgrounds on the way back to our camp site, but they were all wors
e than where we’re already at. In fact they were both bad enough to warrant a turn around now and leave. Unfortunately I ordered some things from Amazon that are coming Thursday and Friday so we can’t just head out so we might be stuck here a bit longer. We’re consulting our group trying to find a better place for a few days.

I feel like laundry might be all I’ve really accomplished since I last posted. My motivation fell off the cliff. Hopefully we can move tomorrow, but we’ll see. If not, the short-term goal in my generalized frustration is to be mad at situations, not people. I’ve tried really hard not to aim my anger at anyone, but Wesley is not enjoying my attitude right now, which took a big jump for the better within the first day getting here. Our mentor says his family is struggling similarly with the storm front that just came through. Our plan is to head farther south soon bc it’s going to get down in the upper 20’s at night this week. Maybe we just need to go to a hotel for a few nights. I don’t love that idea, but most ideas are a struggle right now bc I find myself generally disagreeable. Aren’t y’all glad you’re not here? You can pray for Wesley. Seriously we need a lot of prayer. We need a subleaser for our old apt, a new location, a vehicle, and I need a better attitude bc God has been incredible gracious and I’m being a brat.