Second Shift

It was a week of all boys again. I was the only female with 16 males. (We started the week with 10 clients and finished with 13. There were three other male staff.) We had guys in this group that were both remarkably competent and enjoyable to be around, and others that were insanely deplete of self-care skills and totally incompliant. I was working with an amazing staff team. Our senior staff, a 55 year-young former rancher, had endless energy. I never saw him without his leather cowboy hat, which is complete with a feather. His energy, ability to motivate young boys, and positivity reminded me of dad.

The weather was sunny and dry, but very cold. We had a few nights with temps around -10. Unbelievably, I managed to stay warm at night. Cold has been my biggest fear, and I am learning that it actually is possible to stay warm in what I thought was impossibly cold weather.

The winter and this level of temperature calls for ridiculous, but absolutely necessary, practices to survive. It also creates a culture of its own. It takes so much self-care just to survive. Self-care and self-reliance is a huge piece of what many clients are here to learn. This kind of weather really forces the lesson.
To give you a small idea, here are a few winter practices.

To keep water from freezing we have to bury our water jugs in snow. (Simply putting it by the fire at night is not sufficient.)

Whatever you don’t want to freeze (or anything that you’d like to touch in the morning) must go in your sleeping bag. I sleep with my boots, sunscreen, toothpaste, soap, all my clothes, and a few other random items I’d like to touch the next day.

We check the clients’ feet three times per day for cold weather casualties.
Though it’s cold, feet still sweat in boots. So, I keep a pair of socks on my feet and a pair on my shoulders to dry out. I rotate these socks about four times a day to keep my feet dry.

Once the sun goes down, fire is absolutely crucial. It is the center piece of community, cooking, and staying warm.

Before going to bed I make sure I have a water bottle full of boiling water in my jacket. This keeps me warm while doing the rounds to shelters to make sure everyone is safe and “home”.

This week was a lot of work, but at the end of each day I curled into my sleeping bag and felt pretty good and warm. Tomorrow I will head to Joshua Tree, CA for three days of climbing. Hopefully I will have some beautiful pictures to post in a few days!