I can’t believe only a week has passed since I’ve last come in to town. It feels like two or three weeks. Time is so expanded at Nishnajida.

The weather held out long enough for us to do finish the major work on the earth lodge, the final building project of the year. It took a few days of powering up to get the retaining wall together, and get the birch bark and peat on, but now it looks like a castle.

After that, we had about a week of amazing Indian summer weather. We were able to relax, to work on little projects at our leisure. But last night it began to snow and I suspect that I won’t see the ground again until March or April. This means a number of things.

• We’ll be switching to pee jars soon.
• We’ll probably have to start wiping our butts with snow or ferns instead of sphagnum moss.
• Firewood will be wet.
• Lots of hiking around to stay warm and to occupy ourselves.
• I just lost a mitten when it started to snow. I probably won’t find it again until spring.
• I look forward to eating lots of fatty meat to stay warm.

I was excited about the snow before it came, but now I’m a little depressed about it. Life will be harder. Maybe that will make it more rewarding. I will look forward to dreaming and tracking but I’ll undoubtedly have other struggles as the snows continue to fly. Well, I am here and there’s no debating that. One day at a time.

In a couple of weeks, I go to Los Angeles to visit family for the holidays. That will definitely be a culture shock. I’ll be able to visit a few friends, too, but they haven’t really kept in touch with me, and, at any rate, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to communicate the things I’ve experienced here. But the visit will give me some perspective, one way or another, on why I am here.