Week 5

Man Day (last week): Dorland, one of our tree runners, competing in the Highland Games

The shale/jungle kife. If you could see your feet, it's because there was too much rock for anything to grow there. My thoughts: "You want me to plant trees where...?"

"Baby Daddy" and his baby

Zip

Jordan's a single father...but I do think she's pretty adorable!

Okay, so I know it's tacky to post two blogs in one day, but I found out this weekend that I have a large readership, and I don't wanna disappoint the masses, so here's one more treat for y'all to enjoy. Also, since our boss forgot to leave work for us, we're stranded in Thunder Bay for a couple days without anything to do other than...write blogs. Plus, I'm a little behind, and I have some great photos and stories to share, so without further ado, a recap of week five. Five down, three to go.

Tuesday I was told to plant with Jordan, so I went into his big, crazy-shaped and densely over-grown piece to finish it up with him. My favourite part of pieces that are full of young poplars is that the leaves hold water really well, so if you walk into a piece in the morning after it's rained, within 5 minutes you look like you've been doused by a super-soaker. That's sarcasm. Go figure, Tuesday was the day I decided to take my rain pants out of my day pack because I'd only used them once so far. After getting soaked by the trees, the clouds opened up and we got soaked by the sky as well. All day I could hear my feet squooshing in my boots, and when I got back to my tent at the end of the day, I literally poured water out of them. I think between my boots and my socks, I had a full cup of water in there! When your feet are wet all day, they call it "trench rot", but I have decided to change the name to "swamp foot" because it sounds more ominous. Needless to say, I had swamp foot that day, and my feet were so sore I could barely stand up the next day.

Wednesday we left camp early at 6:30 because we had a really long bus ride to the block. We had also been told to expect to work late. Of course, on top of the long ride, we got lost and didn't end up starting until 10:00, and we were told that we weren't coming home until we planted 85 000 trees. That's almost an impossible number when we have gorgeous land. We thought the land we planted on Tuesday was kife...but we had no idea what was coming. For one, the ground was shale, so it was like planting a gravel driveway all day. For two, the area was so dense and overgrown that at some points I was standing one furrow (6 ft) away from Jordan and couldn't even see him through the trees. It was like planting a jungle! I could rarely see my feet through the leaves, and ended up tripping over logs and slamming my shovel into my own toes all day.

It's a good thing Jordan and I planted together that day, because I think he'd still be lost in the bush if I weren't with him. At one point we bagged out and I started walking back to the cache. I turned around to see Jordan heading in the opposite direction of the road, towards the forest at the back of our piece. I asked him where he was going, and he said, "To our cache", in a "Duh, where do you THINK I'm going?" voice. He makes me laugh.

Thursday was the same piece, the same land, and the same frustration. At one point I got so angry that I fought a tree with my shovel because it stole my hat. I won the battle, but in the process I tripped over a hidden log and fell over backwards. Jordan, the gentleman he is, saw how upset I was, and...no he didn't offer me a hand up. Instead he yelled, "DISHES!" Dishes is a game we play. It's pretty simple: if you see someone fall, you yell "dishes" and then they have to do your dishes that night. I'm terrible on my feet, even in good land, so I did a lot of extra dishes this week.

The day got better around 2:00 though. Jordan and I were going along side-by-side through our shale-filled furrows, playing the alphabet game, when I spotted some creamy brown soil in the middle of the red shale. I went to put my shovel in it, and all of the sudden it moved, scaring the crap out of me. It was a fawn that didn't see us until the last minute, and when it did it got up really fast and darted off through the furrows. Jordan's instinctual reaction to this was completely natural--within seconds he dropped his bags, threw his shovel, and took off running after the deer. I planted a few more trees, and then heard him tearing back through the bush so I turned around to see. And just then he caught it with his bare hands! I couldn't believe it--he was holding up this baby deer, whose legs were dangling incredibly awkwardly as it started bleating loudly for it's mother. At that moment, Jordan realized the mother could come out of the jungle at any point, so he did another completely natural thing--he decided not to put it down, but instead to head for the road to show people and get some photos. We know we're terrible people... We never did see any sign of the mother though, so we'll never know if it was abandoned or not. To make ourselves feel better, we'll say it was, and we saved it. So we showed Matt, who was planting across the road from us, and then our tree runners showed up to see too. After a lot of debate about what would be best for "Zip", we decided to take it back to camp on the bus so Matt's cousins could pick it up and raise it in their backyard, which still had a deer fence from when they used to raise deer. So Eric Wigboldus and Brandon took care of the deer until the bus ride home, during which it sat quietly with Jordan for an hour, and then me for the next hour. Back at the shop we fed it out of a cow bottle that one of Matt's cousins brought, and it guzzled the milk back like it hadn't eaten in days. It was so adorable! And now Zip is happily living at the Haveman's, being doted on by a bunch of kids who are happy to raise her.

And that was our week! That night we packed up our stuff, and had a sleepover in the shop, since we were leaving to catch our flight back to Hamilton early in the morning. We spent an awesome weekend at home, being with the Burgsma family at a wedding on Friday, friends in Hamilton on Saturday, family and friends in Aylmer on Sunday, and then celebrating Jordan's birthday and apartment shopping on Monday. It was a full, but relaxing weekend, and now it's been extended a bit as we wait for the next helicopter out to Black Bay. Word on the street is there's internet up there, so although I might not be able to call home on weekends (sorry Moms), I'll still be able to blog. I'll be sure to put photos up, because right now, Black Bay is as big a mystery to me as it is to you. I'm excited to get there tomorrow and get planting.

Plant trees!!!!

Week 4

Four weeks down, four to go. “Whoa, we’re halfway there, whoa, living on a prayer!”

I wrote this blog last weekend, and didn’t find any time to post it during the week. Although my routine is about to change, since we’ll be isolated in Black Bay for the next three weeks, I’m going to post it anyways, because I found out that Fanny Geleynse likes to read my blog because I explain tree planting better than her boys do. So Mrs. G., this is what my experience has been like, and it’s likely a taste of what your boys have been up to for the past however-many summers. Enjoy!

My alarm goes off at 6:22, and after hitting snooze exactly 3 times, I roll over, mumble “Do I have to?” to Jordan, then put on the exact same clothes as the day before: bright blue pants that are much too big, but too comfy not to wear, a bright red soccer t-shirt, a touque, and three pairs of socks (yes, still in 30 degree weather)—all of which smell like a week’s worth of sweat and swamp water. Delicious.

I brush my teeth in the bushes, and don’t rinse with water because I was too lazy to refill my water bottle…again…so I end up swallowing a mouth full of fluoride. Also delicious.

I put on my boots, fill my water jugs, go pee, make a lunch, and eat breakfast. Always in that order. It’s clear that routine has come to preceed common sense, because every day I make a coffee, and every day I dump it out. This is for two reasons: 1) camp coffee is gross, 2) hot water goes right through me. I’ve only finished my coffee once, and that was the day we got lost on the way to the block and had a 2 ½ hour bus ride. Big mistake—the process of relieving oneself in the block is both time consuming and frustrating when female. Find a hidden spot, take your bags off, make sure a tree-checker hasn’t wandered into your piece, get your toilet paper out, try not to get scratched by slash…I’d rather hold it til 6:00pm. But I digress…

At 7:05 I get on the bus, because I can count on Brandon being 10 minutes late, and as we leave the camp I begin the process of finding my ipod, exchanging my touque for a head scarf (classier than a bandana), putting on 50 SPF sunscreen, and then duct-taping my fingers. Again, always in that order. Brad describes my duct-taping as “meticulous”. I think I like that.

Then I plant trees.

At 5:00 I get back on the bus, eat a snack, and that’s where there’s a bit of surprise in my day—will it be cookies? Or will I choose the orange? Who knows!? Not me…not until snack time. I ride the bus for an hour, sometimes listening to music, sometimes to “A Grief Observed” by C.S. Lewis, and sometimes to Jordan singing Kesha. Again, it’s a chance to mix up the routine a bit, and really depends on my mood. This week I wasn’t in a very good mood, so Kesha was usually out.

We arrive at camp around 6:00, sometimes 7:00, and that’s the best part of the day: dinner. Kristen always greets me with a smile and asks how my day was, and after dinner and dessert, which are always delicious, I go back to the cook shack to sit on the counter and chat with Kristen some more. Even if I had a crappy day I can count on smiling during those few minutes, which sometimes turn into an hour because it’s hard to leave Kristen’s company.

I head to the tent around 9:00 or 10:00, get on my PJs, tie a scarf around my head because it’s bright as noon outside, and fall into bed, exhausted. Then I close my eyes and I hope I don’t dream about planting trees.

At 6:22 it begins all over again.

It sounds monotonous, but I really don’t mind routine. It’s comfortable, and once I’ve convinced myself that all of this—brushing me teeth in the bushes, riding a bus to work, sleeping with a scarf on my face—that it’s all normal, then it’s not so hard to get out of bed in the morning. However, it’s not to say I don’t enjoy the things that stray from the usual. I think those things may have been what kept me from slumping into depression this week. I was feeling a bit under the weather and didn’t plant so well this week, so when I was feeling grumpy and frustrated, the unusual made my days a bit brighter.

Like a bus ride down to the beach on Tuesday night to cool off and wash up.

And a ride into Thunder Bay on Wednesday night, just to get the iced cap I’d been dreaming about all day in the block. Okay, I admit I bought one, and it was so good that I stopped 10 minutes later at the next Tim’s just to buy a second one. Only cost 20 trees…

And celebrating Man Day on Thursday with steak, beer chugging, and Highland games.

And…well Friday was just a bad day.

And celebrating Graduation Day on Saturday. Since we couldn’t be home for grad, Jordan, Kristen, Greg (Kristen’s boyfriend who flew down for the weekend) and I went out for dinner at the Keg on Saturday night. Ritzy! Also, during the day, since I forgot my ipod, I made up the Graduation Day song , which I sang at the top of my lungs across the block to Tim and Brett, who were also missing grad. I sang it to everyone who would listen, and though I can’t sing it to you, I will share the lyrics because…well, dang, I’m just the next best thing in the song-writing world. Please sing this song to whatever tune you choose, and imagine it being sung as it was meant—as loud as possible, and only occasionally on key:

Happy Graduation Day

You just received your BA

Or maybe it’s a BSc

Either way it’s a degree!

You are smart now all will know

‘Cause you’ll have a diploma to show

But not for another 4 weeks

‘Cause you’re a sucker planting trees!

To all my recently graduated friends—congratulations! I spent a lot of time on Saturday digging up fond memories from the past 5 years and Redeemer, and feeling pride that we made it through all the papers, exams, early morning classes, and late night cram sessions. And we made it because we had each other. So thanks for being there to share in the school stuff, and even better, all the other stuff that keeps us sane. University has been a blessing, and you are all a huge part of that. Cheers to the future, my friends!