April 21

I returned from today’s walk to find my friend waiting. ‘We have decided to go up next week to the summer pastures. I want to know if you would like to come with us’, she announces.

​ Of course I do. It is a signal of support. Equally important, in the pastures of the high mountains I will be out of Internet contact. My friends back home will have to wait for my reply to their pleas to come back for the next project. My real Time Out can start.
 
My friend happily accepts my offer of help in preparing for the trip. The tarps have to be taken off the old truck standing in a corner of the outer courtyard.

The poles and felt panels of two family yurts have to be taken out of storage and inspected. The inspection is carried out by my friend’s mother in law who is the family member with felt-making and felt-repairing skills. I watch her at work on the combing, soaking, compression and framing of the wool patches.

​A supply of kerosene also has to be loaded, as well as two old iron stoves for heating the yurts in the night-time chill of the mountains. Bedding has to be aired and everything selected that will be needed for a two month stay.
 
‘This year Great-Grandmother is coming with us’, said my friend. ‘Go have a talk with her’.