It’s about 10:00 a.m. and it’s going to be a hot one today. I am sick. Whatever it is I am in a lot of pain in my joints in my hands and then my knee and everywhere. I don’t know whether this is the new covid or something I ate but I feel absolutely terrible today. Yesterday as well. You don’t need the details of how badly I feel.

Amongst the things that I have to do today are watering. There is plenty of food gathering to do already but it’s not really harvest Time. It would just be to eat fresh food and I have a lot of it lying around. Perhaps the first group of peas we planted could be harvested. They are getting a bit old and maybe ready for drying. I have everything I need for drying racks and I know where I want to put them. Maybe if I have the stamina to do it today and can handle simple tools like a hammer to knock the support posts into the ground, we have a place to drive vegetables we wish to save. If it means anything, the current design idea is simply to use some of these panels I have and raise them by tying them to some metal stakes and then covering it with some lace material. The panels and the material will prevent sagging and there will be plenty of air and sunshine to cure what we wish to dry.

I also probably need to water. I felt terribly yesterday and it was a rest day generally. It has had a good effect on me and I feel better but I am still not perfect. I will have to water today because it’s going to be hot and I didn’t water yesterday. Everything looks fine but if you don’t keep everything moist, they go into distress and then you’ve wasted your time. It’s about water more than anything else no matter what you think is necessary to raise a garden.

And finally, we have our first payday for our cleanup the forest project. Currently, we have six bags of garbage going out. Dim has taken it upon himself to do some work everyday. The other members of the team are busy doing whatever they do. All talk, no action. But then again, they have their own programming as to what is an appropriate way to make money. As for me, I have my own berry bushes and truthfully, I have a few mushrooms growing here. I don’t really like the idea of supporting alcoholics roaming in the Forest just to pillage resources and ruin the forest floor with their belligerence and their garbage. Probably part of everything here. Dim however has embraced the project and he is going to the church today to talk to the bottke there about what we are doing. We both agree it is a very good thing and selfishness for himself to perhaps make more money is not worth doing because the more people who go out to clean the forest, the forest will simply be so much cleaner. There’s actually a lot to learn about the forest and the problems we are having with global warming and a very low water table caused by human activity and pollution. Truthfully, we are fucked. But for the moment, unlike my neighbors, I do not just keep it going because we’re fucked and it doesn’t matter. I am interested in going the other direction and perhaps stopping the abuse and creating life.

So, it’s going to be an uncomfortable day. It’s going to be very hot and I’m going to have to deal with feeling like shit. But the field will get watered one way or another and whatever happens at around 3:00 when the garbage goes out, it will Mark the end of the first week of the project. Currently there are six bags in front of the house and dim seems to think he wants to add two more before the 3:00 mark. Is he getting rich? I think it’s the biggest payday he’s ever had. It’ll be interesting to see what he does with the money but not really. I think the best thing is simply that he has agreed not to smoke cigarettes while in the forest. I can’t prove this but by his attitude, clarity of head and conversation between us, it certainly seems as though he has taken some good ideas for himself along with the garbage has transported from the forest.

So that is the news from here.