#127 / 2010 Survival Camp: Coyote Diary Wrapup

ASTOR PARK: COYOTE DIARY WRAPUP

#127 Nine fifteen AM!! On a Texas Tuesday morning and two coyotes walked right into our campground! I couldn't believe it. All platinum furred, one hiked up a leg and marked the big hole where we empty "the bucket" every day while a second ambled along on the other side of the arroyo. Unbelievable. I got to catch up with my mentor for minimalist camping out here, Colleen. I spoke of her earlier. We discussed living in small places and she is exactly right when she says you have to perpetually organize. That is the most frustrating thing for me. There must be all told at least six hundred different items in this van and they all stay in a constant state of flux. Nothing is ever where I think it is when I go to look for it and I get soooo frustrated. These are the moments I know that ruin Joe's experience when I am fussing and complaining because I can't find something. And it seems impossible to have a place for everything and everything in its place because the circumstances change. If the weather is right I cook outside, if not I cook inside.  If I cook inside everything I need is outside and vice versa. If we sleep up top because the wind is calm I have to bring everything up because it was all taken down when the wind got wild. Up down, in out. I have been looking for my fingernail scrubbing brush for three days. It was in the same place for MONTHS and now I can't find it. I guess we are gonna leave a little early. We hope to get the newsletter out and working out some details about our curriculum for the Peace Camp we are working on this summer. We have limited facilities to get anything accomplished here so we have decided to head out. I talk about the Orthodox Church I enjoy so much in Las Cruces.  They have a special service on April 4 and we want to be there for that. Three hours of chanting beginning at a10pm with a big party early in the morning, with a party afterwards at one am. It's called a Pascha I think. We really enjoy these ceremonies with Michael our friend and mechanic, so I am happy to know we will be in town to share that moment with him. We'll be heading up to Albuquerque soon for three weeks. I am looking forward to some running hot water and PBS and NPR. I really miss NPR. We have a MP3 player that we keep loaded with educational tapes of literary lectures. Other than that our only entertainment is some VERY sporadic AM radio and the only Terlingua radio broadcast, which is on a loop and only changes out once a week it seems. As for other coping skills: When I empty out the water from the ice box with a poultry baster I empty it into a bucket, and then transfer that cold water to the solar shower. Next day it sits in the sun and heats up and we use that to wash dishes or ourselves. The canned food has worked out fairly well. This morning for breakfast we had bacon we cooked on the fire pit with two cans of corn. We had bean burritos, bean burgers, mashed beans, fried beans, rice with vegetables, Ramen noodles with zucchini, tomato and bacon sandwiches, and lots of cookies, shame on me. Despite all the long walks in the heat I can't say I feel any lighter. Happy Trails Beatlick Pamela