Saturday, August 17, 2013
I noticed a couple more tiny bumps on my ankles, which could be bites from tick nymphs or possibly chiggers. August is the month for baby ticks and they can be smaller than a speck of ground pepper so you really have to check yourself carefully. I had been shooting some photographs from some areas of tall grass, which is one of the places they like to hide out.
I decided it would be smart to fill up a spray bottle with my crushed garlic and lemon eucalyptus infused water mix and spray the trail, my spiral arrow-shooting path and the perimeter of the shack. Ticks really don’t seem to like the scent and it has worked well so far. Also decided I need to be more vigilant about using the tick repellent on my ankles.
With anti-tick measures out of the way I moved on to urine management. My rolling urine collection device was almost full. Urine is actually completely sterile when it leaves the body and is high in nitrogen. If we thought about urine differently it could be seen as a commodity. If you mix one part urine with 4-5 parts water it can be used as an excellent natural fertilizer. When diluted the smell is minimal and dissipates quickly. Some scientists have proposed that we could completely replace the chemical fertilizer industry (a multi-billion dollar industry) if we used urine as the commodity that it is. I am fertilizing my compact garden with it.
With the survival chores out of the way I washed up and made some green tea. By noon I was painting. I had taken a bit of a risk the night before trying to push the blackouts painting further. With the process I use the painting develops through thin, semi-transparent layers of white paint on black paper. It is not really possible to erase or paint something out. The closest thing you can do is to kind of blend and mold things a bit with washes of water. My general thinking is that nothing is gained without taking some risks so I moved forward. I was pleased to find that by the light of day I was able to take this risk and shape it into something more complex than I originally thought I would be able to achieve.
I worked straight into the night only eating snacks. Around midnight I pulled out an earlier painting to compare the two and give it a few more touches. At 1am I decided they were both finished and stashed them away. It will feel good to start a new painting tomorrow.
