7/2/92
1:43 p.m.
Place: M______'s land near Condon, Montana
I spent all morning clearing a small spot of ground for a garden.
I realize it's rather late in the year for planting, but we weren't here in the Spring, so there wasn't really any choice.
We used the last of the water that we brought with us this morning to make breakfast, so while I was digging and pulling weeds, Jasper went to fetch water from the creek. He is now boiling a pan full of creek water for us to use for drinking.
It rained a lot during the night, but it's been hot and sunny all day. I feel kind of ill right now, due to the heat and dehydration. Jasper won't let me go to the van to get some juice to drink, because he says there is no use going through it all now when it's not really even quenching anyone's thirst and there will be water to drink in a while.
Nika is obviously very thirsty, as well. She keeps wanting to nurse.
7:41 p.m.
I cooked spaghetti and tomato sauce in the pouring rain this afternoon. It started pouring just after the food started cooking. Jasper and the children went into the tent, but I remained outside to finish preparing dinner. I was soaked through by the time we sat down to eat in the tent (even though we had planned to never have food in the tent).
By the time we finished eating, the rain had finished.
Ula and I took a walk to look for stones to place around my little garden patch and to look for strawberries. We found quite a few of both.
Both children are now asleep and Jasper is reading aloud to me fromGranite Folly, another of the novels from Mile City.
7/3/92
Ula and I went to the creek that crosses the road to bathe and change clothes. I'm going to have to go back there later to wash diapers. We are almost out of clean ones.
We still haven't gotten through all the weeds and trees to get to the creek that is supposed to be running through this land.
Jasper is cutting firewood right now. He tried, for awhile, to find some dead wood on the ground that wasn't rotten, but has given up and is now chopping down a dead pine tree that is still standing.
8:09 p.m.
I never did wash the diapers today, but I did find a way to get to the creek that runs through this property. Then Jasper spent quite a while hacking at the plants around and over the water, so that we could have access to it. He was right about it not being very wide, and there are swarms of mosquitoes around it.
I noticed another tree marked by a bear. This one is up by where the van is parked. Jasper said he had already seen it.
It started raining while I was cooking dinner again. To prevent us from having to eat in the tent again, Jasper quickly propped up the screen tent, which had been laying on the ground for the past couple days. It's not together properly, though. The poles keep falling. We have been trying to decide how it goes together, but it didn't come with any kind of instructions, and we have been unable to figure it out.
Nika is now asleep, Ula is coloring, and Jasper is washing dishes.
It is sunny again.
7/4/92
8:32 p.m.
Happy 4th of July! We're having some natural fireworks here. When I first heard the thunder, there was some debate about whether or not it was someone's 4th of July fireworks we were hearing. There is no doubt anymore.
Ula and Nika just went to sleep and Jasper is reading aloud from the last chapter of Granite Folly.
The rain is beating down really hard and the diapers I spent so much of the day washing are still on the clothes line.
Jasper has stopped reading to listen to the rain. There is a flash of lightening and a huge boom of thunder. He has started reading again. There is a storm in the story, too.
In honor of Independence Day, I served only red and white food (we didn't have any blue food). We had chili, guava paste, and soy milk for lunch and potato soup, rice cakes, leftover guava paste, and strawberry lemonade for dinner.
We had a visitor earlier today, a very friendly, very well fed looking, gray female dog.
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