Pun-Intended Consequences

The important thing about wool is that it continues to keep you warm even when it’s soaking wet.

Other natural fibers don’t do this. In fact, quite the opposite. Campers and boaters are usually familiar with the phrase, “cotton kills.” If you’re wet in cotton or linen, your clothes actually sap heat from your body.

If you sink in a lake in late October like I did today, staying warm is important. I was rescued long before I would’ve actually died, but cold makes your muscles seize up, which isn’t good if you have to swim to land.

Which brings me around to life jackets. If the water’s cold enough, you may only have five-ten minutes until your muscles seize (today I probably had 40-60, more than enough time to get to land if I hadn’t been picked up), and you’ll drown.

In a life jacket, even in extremely cold water, you can float semi-conscious for perhaps another 30 minutes or so before you actually freeze to death, which is usually when someone rescues you.

What’s more, you probably know that moving around on land warms you up. Jumping jacks, jogging in place, etc.

In water, moving actually makes you colder. You need to stay still curled up in a ball, which you can only do in a life jacket.

In wool AND life jacket, you’re warm, and your head’s above water, which is pretty much your only and entire goal.

Yep! A really simple “experiment” I learned as a kid and now use in my own courses is sticking your hand in ice water. Compare moving it around in the water to curling it up in a fist. The contrast is stark!

To increase your survival time in on cold water, you want to curl up! If you’re with others, you want to huddle!

if you enjoy my art at all or like what i post, and would like to help me move, i would deeply appreciate it. i am unable to work a typical job due to disability, the constant stress and tenants rights abuses on top of costs i just cant afford anymore, my financial well being is worse than its ever been and, and the constsnt hustling to cover rent and bills is taking a serious toll on my already unstable physical health.

my Paypal.me: one of the easiet way to help outside of gofundme

Kofi: another easy way to help outside of gofundme

Venmo: kurgy

as my mom and i keep talking and trying to work out option 1, general consensus is to try and find a suitable/affordable place before november to move in to early november. to then be ready at least somewhat settled and ready for hernia surgery by mid-november to then go recover in new secure place for the rest of the month

a deeply stressful development in trying to survive until my lease is up is new property management dropping support of the cares act via email to say they can now, upon one missed by 1 day rent payment, immediately begin 5 day max eviction proceedings instead of the standard 30 day notice, so soon after they change all the complex rules around rent payments and implemented their own "tenant portal" where my mystery monthly rent costs arent even posted until the 1st, the exact same day rent is due around the complex, while i USUALLY get my disability pay at this point on the 30th, i make less than $5 an hour and giving me a single day to both learn how much my rent is for the month and scramble to cover what im short on with my entire paycheck no longer covering it while im actively trying to move out.

as of right now i am $800 short on the total repair costs for the room of abt $3055 (room needs insulation and drywall repair, minor fix in ventilation/fan, a minor splotch of water damage near the back of the room between the wall and back gate that often floods so that makes sense, and a previously unknown wiring issue revealed after consultation increased the calculated price by some rip) for secured housing in november. whatever moving costs that come after that i will address when i get to them, but for now $800 stands between me and secure housing and $500 a month rent.

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.

Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.

All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.

After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.

It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.

And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.

The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.

Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.

ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.

Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.

*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.

If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.

items needed are: food, diapers, medical masks, men’s and women’s joggers (all sizes), children’s clothing (newborn to size 14), children’s shoes, summer clothing, men’s clothing, toiletries (lotion, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, etc.), strollers, adult depends-all sizes, dog & cat food