Re: Claudia/Sam
"I can make them shrivel instead of fully die off, if that's what you want?" Claudia said. "As soon as Troy was done with the cars, I was going to try and grab him to shear. My strengths are shriveling, killing, and strengthening the plants, and it's been followed up with movement and getting seeds to sprout."
Claudia shook her head. "Not a water trench, a latrine. One spot for all, and you use soil to cover your mounds to keep the flies down. Once it's filled up, you dig a new one. If it's far enough away from the water source, no one will have to go out of camp to use the bathroom. The depth was pretty specific, because it'll be absorbed by the soil with or without rain.
"Lye soap is made from animal fat and ashes, surprisingly. You pour water over ashes on a straining cloth and what drips out is potash, which is lye. Then you boil down animal fat into grease, mix it with the lye, let it harden, and you've got soap. No scent included. Pretty cool, huh?" she said.
"The best places to pee is around the permeter of your camp, as it keeps the animals away since they don't like the scent, especially the men's, but on that particular site they were talking mostly about keeping bears away from menstrating women because that smell is like a female bear in heat. You don't want to pee anywhere near where you sleep, eat, drink, or bathe because of contamination, which seems like common sense but when you're in an environment like this most people won't think straight.
"As for the bathing privacy, that's a psychological stressor. Normally, you'd separate the men and women bathing time and give each group as much privacy as possible, which could be a simple as turning your backs. I mean, we've all eaten and slept and gone to the bathroom by or with each other, but nudity is a big psychological thing. So, one group bathes, the other guards, and then reverse, and we've got everyone clean."