FAIRY LAKE
Sunday, July 8
Blueberry pancakes for breakfast with maple syrup and butter, and orange juice, yum! I have a warm camp fire burning to keep me warm because the fog is still in and it is cool. I can’t even see across the lake this morning. As the sun came up and burned the fog away I stood on my beach drinking coffee with my toes almost touching the water. I could hear other campers packing up and getting ready to head back to their real lives in town. I smiled as I felt the delicious tingling freedom of being able to stay right here where I am, at the best campsite on Fairy Lake.
After clean up, I plugged the trailer in to the truck for the battery to juice up, so I won’t run out of lights at night, or have my little fridge quit on me. I am not sure how long to do this for, or how long the charge lasts, it is all new to me, and I have no information, and no gauges that tells me these fiddly little details. There is no indication when the grey water from my kitchen fills its tank, nor the evil black water from the you know what. Do they just start bubbling up?
Next on the schedule is to read the instructions for my new inverter. Will it really recharge up my computer and camera batteries, or will it fry them? The instructions are refreshingly readable, and it looks like I can’t use the simple and convenient cigarette lighter option on the dash, instead I will have to lift that big heavy truck hood and attach clamps to the batteries – red to positive, and black to negative, and don’t screw it up or else! I gingerly make the connections as I have always had a fear of batteries exploding and spewing corrosive chemicals all over everything in sight. I hold my breath again as I hook up my camera battery, and presto, no worries, the amber light starts flashing indicating that it is charging. Yay!
It’s overdue time to wash my hair and have a bath, and I am not going to dip in the lake in this cold damp fog, that’s for sure. For my hair, I use the leftover warm dish water being mindful to stop pouring the water over my head before it gets to the nasty little food lumps that are settled on the bottom. Then cold water from the lake to rinse it off and I let it permeate in a grassy spot so that the soap gets filtered out before the water goes back to the lake. It feels gloriously cold and, I feel energized! What once was a daily action item has now become a weekly pleasure, and the silky feel of my hair feels great. Who needs hot water? Well, the techno guy next door does because he just started his generator again – goodbye, bird calls and lake silence.
After another great hike in the woods, this one to Fairy Creek, I am aware that I am feeling pretty happy and content this evening with where I am hanging out and words by Lao Tzu confirm for me why just this, is everything:
“Be content with what you have,
Rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing
Lacking, the whole world
Belongs to you.”