Now there is 25cm of snow on the ground anyone sleeping rough is going to have a really hard time, but some people would rather sleep where they feel comfortable and safe rather than go into a shelter for the night.
I was just chopping some wood at about 2030 other than the sound of me chopping the snowy world is silent. Then I keep hearing the distant strains of someone having a conversation in the distance. Looking around I see nothing and then on the other side of the canal in a field is a lone person walking in conversational full flow. He could be talking into a hands free, but he is so out of the context of the usual activity in that field that not only do I know the conversation is a one way dialogue, I also know that this young man is very paranoid, and his mental health is very fragile. He lives in a breeze block hut with a tin roof on by a farm track, the shed has a tin roof, is uninsulated and has no burner or wood stove. I have only ever seen the outside of the hut, plastic bags are stuffed into the cracks in the wall.
What I do know about cold weather survival is a trick which many homeless people use, and that is why many have dogs too. Dogs, apart from the companionship also provide a structural framework for their lives. Going for a walk just before crawling into a cocoon for the night generates a lot of heat which will keep you warm all night if your cocoon is sufficiently insulated and draft proof. Needing to walk a dog before it goes to bed is a good way of maintaining a routine to warm you up for the night.
Other than these scant and rare moments of contact with this man I know next to nothing more about him, as do most other people around here. This is not through want of trying, the main issue being is that he will not engage with anyone which makes any supportive contact all the more difficult.
I was just chopping some wood at about 2030 other than the sound of me chopping the snowy world is silent. Then I keep hearing the distant strains of someone having a conversation in the distance. Looking around I see nothing and then on the other side of the canal in a field is a lone person walking in conversational full flow. He could be talking into a hands free, but he is so out of the context of the usual activity in that field that not only do I know the conversation is a one way dialogue, I also know that this young man is very paranoid, and his mental health is very fragile. He lives in a breeze block hut with a tin roof on by a farm track, the shed has a tin roof, is uninsulated and has no burner or wood stove. I have only ever seen the outside of the hut, plastic bags are stuffed into the cracks in the wall.
What I do know about cold weather survival is a trick which many homeless people use, and that is why many have dogs too. Dogs, apart from the companionship also provide a structural framework for their lives. Going for a walk just before crawling into a cocoon for the night generates a lot of heat which will keep you warm all night if your cocoon is sufficiently insulated and draft proof. Needing to walk a dog before it goes to bed is a good way of maintaining a routine to warm you up for the night.
Other than these scant and rare moments of contact with this man I know next to nothing more about him, as do most other people around here. This is not through want of trying, the main issue being is that he will not engage with anyone which makes any supportive contact all the more difficult.
