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Part II: October 2000Winter Camping
I am quickly settling down to the fact that it is dark from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. and I need to build for 12 hours a day just to get a roof over our heads by the end of the month. Maybe then I'll be able to get some real heat, and be able to thaw out my left big toe that left for market weeks ago and isn't the slightest bit interested in 'wee weeing' it all the way home.
Last night the temperature was probably around 20 below. The stove in the tent keeps the chill off but the spruce bows don't stop the cold coming up through the ground and chewing into my kidneys. I have to keep rolling like a lump of dead animal on a spit to keep warm. The worst thing is getting out of bed, because my sleeping bag isn't perfect for winter camping. I go to bed in everything I own including old socks retrieved from Bridge's ragbag. Consequently it makes it impossible to shed the sleeping bag each morning and get warm.
But being the adventurer that I am I have developed a morning routine. Instead of staggering sleepily into a warm shower then wandering around in my dressing gown sipping coffee and eating Marmite on toast, I strip to my Y fronts, expose my body to the crisp morning air and watch it contract to look like a greedy corn fed turkey that has been plucked by a drunk with four broken fingers. I then throw on all my clothes again and surprisingly enough begin to feel the rather unusual sensation of relative comfort returning to my bones. I then dare to get the fire going and roast a frozen unrecognisable part of a moose on a green stick with the hope, often in vain, of eating it without having to retrieve it from the flames with ash stuck to it and the loss of my eyebrows.Then, and only then, do I venture into the unknown world of Mr. Pilgrim.
The problem is that it is still dark and will be for quite some time. I know it's morning somewhere in the world but that is about it. With no clock, a cold bed and a job to do who knows what time I awake. All I know is that I need light. Being without electricity for over a year now is my only excuse as to why I forgot to buy a light to plug into the generator. After a week staggering around in the dark tripping over lumber, the chainsaw, the dog, the guy ropes and the odd frozen sock I've forgot to put back on during my morning ritual, I've decided I have to go on a quest for light.
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