Fantastic writing, Daniel! The images you picked work well with the story. I particularly like that all happens on a cold mountain above the rest of the world--outside of general reach and understanding and yet basic (sometimes ugly) human needs are met.
And this, one of your most powerful lines: "...work to put food on the table, dirt to dish. Dish to shit. Shit to diaper. Diaper back to dirt. Poverty's numbing economic cycle."