PB Saturday

Saturday was a great day! At one point, I was actually smiling in my piece. That is rare. In the morning the crew was split into two groups--one in the van, one on the bus. (Sidenote--why do you say IN a van, but ON a bus? You get INto both and sit ON seats in both...). Anyways, I was on the bus with all rookies, except Brandon, one vet. We were pretty worried we were being sent out to some shitty land, but we ended up pulling up to a block of beautiful, creamy soil with fresh furrows!


The weather was great. It was a hot day, but there was a bit of a breeze, so the bugs weren't unbearable. And I had my ipod cranked so I couldn't hear them anyways. That's the worst--just hearing them buzzing all over you. At one point our supervisor, Jon, came walking through my piece, wielding a shovel and an axe. We chatted a bit about the land and then he casually added, "Oh, yeah, and there's a bear." Great! He went on and explained, "I saw something moving in a tree so I looked up a thought, 'Oh look a koala!' and then I realized, 'Bleep! There's no koala's here!' and when I turned around there was a huge mother bear standing on her hind legs 20 feet away!" Even better--a mother bear! So I asked what to do and Jon says, "Well, mother's get kinda aggressive if you get aggressive so...just pull your headphones out and listen for screaming." Aw man! I don't wanna get eaten by a bear today! So I did take my headphones out, and I listened to the symphony of black flies, deer flies, horse flies, and noseeums for the rest of the day. My routine changed a bit too--plant a tree, look around, plant a tree, look around... But, no bears in sight!


We planted a long day, and I planted hard, so I ended up hitting 3k! Last year my PB was 2400, so I was pretty psyched to beat that by a bag-up and a half. I found out later that Jon promised ice cream to anyone who hit 3k, so we stopped in Kek on the way home. That was the best way to end the day for sure!


Sunday was nothing special, but it was relaxing. As a nomad I've had to rely on the good graces of others to get around, and the planters didn't fail. I got a ride into Thunder Bay with Dave, had a place to sleep at Leif's, got picked up to do laundry by Ian, and then spent a few hours climbing Mt. McKay with some of the guys. That was a tough climb, but the view was worth it!


I spent a little while today planning what to cook for the end of the contract. Before I left Jordan bet me $10 that I'd be asked to finish the contract cooking, and sure enough, since it's going so long, the cook has made other plans, and Green Mantle needs a cook. So I'm filling in for the last 3 or 4 days, and I'm pretty excited to whip out some of those great recipes from last year! More fun to come yet this week!


Anyways, time for bed. Peace, friends!





Mt. McKay











My fingers after Day 4. And that's after a shower! I guess you don't need a band-aid when you have a dirt scab!

Adventuring Again

While this is a rather self-indulgent blog since I'm only gone for two weeks, I figured I'd let y'all know what I'm up to now that I'm out of school for the summer.

School finished on Friday. Well, technically Monday, but I go out of it to go planting. Jordan had heard from Brad Geleynse that the crew we planted for last year was going late, and they needed more planters. So Saturday night I booked a flight to Thunder Bay. Very last minute, very unplanned, very adventurous. And very unlike me.

I arrived early Monday morning, and after a few hours, one of the tree runners who was in town for the weekend picked me up at the airport. Barnes was our tree runner last year too, but I didn't know him very well. He had nicknamed me "The Nazi" because of my strict kitchen rules, and quite frankly, I thought he was a bit of scary dude. But we chatted for all four hours of the drive into the bush, and I think he was just glad to have another planter to help finish off the trees.

When I got to camp it was great to see some of the planters from last year...although everyone kept asking "So you're crazy enough to come back, eh?" Everyone was pretty low on morale, since the land had been shitty, the plant was going long, and they'd been far from civilization for a month and a half.

I got set up in a tent from Dave, and while he warned me that it leaked, I brushed it off--I wasn't here to stay warm and dry! I didn't have a mattress, so I slept on the ground, and when it stormed the first night, I found out Dave was right about the leaking. I woke up next to a small lake. I ad enough dry clothes to plant, and heaped all my stuff on the dry side of the tent before heading out for the day. Apparently I'd showed up for one of the crappiest days of planting this season--it rained all day long, and not the nice kind, but the cold kind that gets in your bones and makes you shiver and shake if you stop and stand still. And the land was a little wild--basically were were planting a forest within another forest.And I tweaked my knee within the first three hours. We planted late, and I was soaked to my underwear, but I survived just fine; there was no way I was gonna start complaining after having been there only a day! I got back to camp to find out that my tent had blown over during the day, and that the lake on the floor had been poured onto my sleeping bag and clothes in the process. I'd shown up with one sweater and one pair of pants and after one day I was out of dry clothes. The planters took care of me real well though--Dave fixed me up with a dry sleeping bag, Eric with a sweater and pants, and Brad lent me a dry pair of shoes. After a drink and a smoke on the porch with the boys, it was all better!

That night it was freezing, and although I slept with a t-shirt tied around my head to keep the heat in, I woke up every half hour, wishing it was morning so I could get up and get moving. It finally came, with sun shining, and we headed out to finish off the terrible block. Instead of cold rain, it was really hot, so the bugs were out in full force. I'd forgotten about the bugs... After another late day of planting we got back, and I fell into bed, exhausted. The t-shirt had fallen off last night, so this time I bobby-pinned a pair of underwear on my head like a toque. It worked like a charm! When I woke up in the morning, everything was a bit fuzzy. When I rubbed my eyes I started to see a bit better, but I could only half open my left eye. I felt my cheek, and it was hot and swollen. Turns out I'd been bitten quite a bit by deer flies the day before, and now my face was puffy and swollen. Time to get out the sunglasses!

Thursday's plant was supposed to be our last long day. It was a hotter day, but we ended up finishing quickly, since the land was a lot better(although I got to plant a forest in a forest again). We got back to camp around 4, packed up, jumped in the lake to cool down / shower, and loaded up on the bus. I think swimming in a cold lake after sweating buckets all day ranks on my list of "Top 10 Favourite Things To Do"--such an incredible feeling! The bus ride was long, loud, and bumpy, but we finally rolled back into the shop at midnight. It seems almost everyone had a place to go, but apparently I'm on a kick where I don't plan anything, so I just found a bunk house at the shop that was unlocked, moved around some of the equipment, and had a decent bed for the night. This morning I snuck into the shop to shower, and here I am, sitting in the office waiting to see if I can get a ride into Thunder Bay for food.

Planting is incredibly frustrating, and after some of the stories I heard, I'm glad I wasn't here for the whole contract. But I'm glad I'm here. There's forests and fields everywhere. There's different people. There's very little stress. There's very little planning. I'm sore, but in a good way. I don't care what I wear. I dont' care how I look (although the fact that my face is lopsided bothers me a little bit). I don't care how I smell. I love being covered in dirt! I like the ridiculousness of riding to work on bus that's about to break down. I like working with people who are young and full of enthusiasm. I like the shared misery. I like the laid-back attitude. I like sleeping in a tent.

I don't like planting, but I like being here.

Back at it!

The land

Despite duct-taping my fingers, they took quite a beating on Day 1

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!

Week 3

Bus party!

swimming at the lake

T-Pain teaching Kristen to ride the dirtbike

Our drinking water is this lovely pee colour...

Mexico, anyone?

Jordan and I having our bus party

My swamp piece that I finished with a PB day of 2100

All lit up

Building the box fortress (Jordan's the one up on the ladder)

I am a man! I will fight this fire with a watergun! (Jordan's in the middle, Barnes is up on the ladder).

Three weeks down, five to go.

In true Danielle fashion, I have decided to write this blog as a list, mostly because I hate prose and it takes way too long to join my thoughts into full sentences. For example, this opening paragraph has taken me five tries. Now you understand why it takes me forever and a day to write essays. But that’s getting off topic already.

Things that don’t make me smile:

1) Heat. The heat was brutal this week, and it’s only May, so I’m scared for June. Wednesday I had good land, and my boss was expecting big things from me, so I pushed myself hard to hit 2400. If you hit 2-4, you get an extra half-cent per tree, so I laughed in the face of the sun and planted 2400 trees. It was the longest, hardest day I’ve ever worked though, and at one point I got so frustrated and exhausted that my tears turned to hyperventilation. But I took a deep breath and kept on with my motto: “Head down, plant trees.”

2) Bugs. Black flies are Satan’s minions sent to make the miserable go insane. Mosquitoes are no better. And ticks… well those eight-legged, flesh-eating monsters, they just belong in the depths of hell. I got my first tick this week. I had assumed the situation would go something like this: “Oh, there’s a tick”, and Danielle calmly pulled the tick off her skin. Instead it was something like this: “AHHHHH!! A TICK!!!! GETITOFFME! GETITOFFME!!!”, and Danielle flailed her arms wildly, too scared to touch it, hoping someone else would save her from being devoured. Thank goodness Tim came to my rescue. By the way, ticks two and three were no better…

Things that make me smile:

1) Box fires. We made a big box fire Monday night when we got back to camp, built sorta like a castle. The flame was huge! It soon died down, because it was just boxes, and the 20-foot flame became a small 6-foot flame. And then I realized how ridiculous it is for a 6-foot flame to look small. Saturday night’s box fire was even better. We started with a pile of boxes over 20 feet tall, which was assembled using a ladder with the tallest guy in camp standing on top, straining to get the top box on. Even better was seeing Jordan and Barnes try to put the humongous fire out with the piss-packs (glorified water guns) on their backs. Funny stuff.

2) Swimming in the lake. This week was a cooker, and my daily motivation became “If you don’t die of heat exhaustion, you get to swim!” Our camp is about a 5 minute walk from a small beach on a big, cold lake, so after sweating buckets all day, nothing felt better than diving under the freezing water to cool down. Insert sigh of contentment.

3) The wonderful “galoosh” sound that black muck makes when you slice your shovel into it.

4) Cliffs. Friday and Saturday we planted a terrible kife block, but in the back of my piece I had a cliff with a 50-foot drop-off. I’ll admit I didn’t work as hard as I should have on Friday because I took a couple breaks to sit in a shady spot on the edge and take in the view of the lake across the valley. And then on Saturday, when Jordan came in to help me finish my piece, we spent awhile throwing stuff off the cliff. I remember several occasions when Jordan called me a night and said something like, “Yeah, today I had a cliff in the back of my piece, so Ryan and I spent half an hour throwing stuff off it. It was awesome!” I remember thinking “That’s that stupidest thing ever…that doesn’t sound like fun.” Wrong, it’s awesome! Yeah for cheap thrills!

5) Chilling with Kristen. Kristen is our cook (and a fantastic one at that!), and we were in the same program at Redeemer. We didn’t chat a whole lot during school, but it’s been great getting to know her here. I’ve established a “spot” in the cookshack, and nightly I park my butt on top of the counter (old habits, eh Mom?) and we spend time chatting and laughing. We both love stupid hypothetical question games, and she was thrilled to learn “Do, Dump or Date?”, which always has us giggling guiltily like school girls when a guy walks in. It also brings back fond memories of afternoons at Maple Leaf…. Insert sigh of missing friends.

6) Breakfast at the TBay Restaurant. This is another thing I’ve been hearing about for 4 years now, and again, it exceeded my expectations. The lady who owns and runs the place loves tree planters, and has an incredibly motherly, yet brisk way about her. When she came to take our order she didn’t recognize me. Our conversation proceeded like this:

“You new?”

“Yup!”

“You been wearing your sunscreen?”

“Yup.”

“You calling your mother?”

“Yup.”

“You changing your underwear?”

“Uh…yup.”

“Good, you’re doing fine. What can I get ya?”

And before leaving she insisted on a hug. She’s wonderful, and I can’t wait to go back!

7) Jon’s dirtbike. Our boss, Jon, brought his dirtbike to camp, and everyone took turns riding it. Travis taught me really quickly, and after a minor mishap that involved revving instead of braking, I had it figured out and took off for 3-minutes of death-defying bliss. It’s like a seadoo, except it’d hurt more if you fall off. Awesome!

8) Bus parties. Jordan introduced me to bus parties after we finished a piece together and walked back to the bus 10 minutes early. There was no one around, so we climbed up on the roof of the bus and laid in the sun. Apparently dance parties also frequently happen on the bus roof (?). Don’t worry Mom, that’s safer than a lot of things we do…I mean other people do…

Week 2

Dirt sleeve

This is what we do when we run out of trees. People you might know (left to right): Kara Jaspers, Sean Fallon, Matt Neal, Rachel Buithuis, Megan Hultink

The hot day; I was wearing a knitted touque from Oma in the morning and that came off pretty quick, that's why I'm wearing a shirt on my head.

My bags--400 trees loaded and ready to go

Partying at Fun Factor last week--glow in the dark mini putt

Second week down, six to go.

The week started on a bit of a low, because Tuesday was a gong show. The crew bosses weren't given GPS's, and we ended up spending the first two hours driving around looking for the block. Jordan kept us all entertained by singing, "Brett, You've Got It Going On" to Brett Elmers. Every morning on the bus I'm excited to start a new piece of land and see what I can hit, but at the same time, I secretly hope the bus will never stop and instead we'll just drive around and never have to plant. But they found the block, and by 10 we were planting. And because we got started late, we also got to work late...yay. That day I decided to try planting solo and found out that I loved it. It was the first time I was in unscarified land, which means there's no furrows to follow, you just always work 6 feet off your own line of trees, so I was a bit confused throughout the day, always wandering around looking for my trees. I'm sure it sounds ridiculous, looking for trees, but they're really tiny, and in land that's covered in grass and brush, they're hard to find!

Wednesday I a slow morning because a lot of my land was swamp. I didn't realize that I could plant it, until our quality checker, Brandon, showed up to check my trees. I turned to him, almost ready to cry in frustration, and said, "I don't know where to plant any trees!" He took his shovel, started poking lumps of moss and said, "Well you could put one here...and here...and here...and here...". I felt like an idiot--swamps are great! After that I really picked up the pace, and by the end of the day I felt like I had a really good handle on unscarified land.

Thursday morning the repo bus headed back to Saturday's block so the majority of the crew could fix their crappy trees. Guess who was in the van? Yeah, that's right, only rookie who didn't have to replant! That's cause I plant quality trees, yo! After a couple hours it started to rain, and I was excited because I love planting in the rain. But then it got harder...and rained more...and got windy...and rained harder...and by 2:00 most people were miserably cold and had given up on the day. I tried to hide under a tarp long enough to eat a couple cookies, but even 5 minutes of sitting and I was freezing, so I just kept pounding. And by 5:00 I'd hit 2k! Two thousand trees is a really abstract number if you don't plant, and sounds low when some people are hitting 4 and 5k. But it's a big milestone on the way up, and it felt good to be the first rookie to hit it. It also felt great to highball some vets, especially ones who wimped out in the cold and had to warm up in the truck. The day wasn't over a 5:00 though--we were welcomed back to camp with a reefer...which basically means stand in line and pass heavy boxes of trees from one truck to another for an hour. But some dry clothes, a cigarette under Brad's tarp, and a ride in the van just to warm up all helped take the edge off the day, and needless to say, I slept well that night.

Friday was fairly uneventful, other than a nice lunch break with Matt Neal. He was having a bad day, and the rain wasn't helping, so I took a 10 minute break to sit under a tarp with him and eat an orange. He's a great guy--really encouraging--and it felt good to start getting to know the rest of the crew a bit better.

Saturday we were told to expect to start late because of a long bus ride, and to work late and plant our faces off because we had a big block with lots of trees to finish in one day. I had a good start to the day, and managed to bag out (finish planting all 400 trees in my bags) before the vets I shared a cache with (Sean Fallon and Matt Neal). But after the first bag up my land got crappier, while theirs got better, so they pulled ahead of me. It was the first really hot day, so the bugs were out in full force. I read a quote somewhere that said, "This is the sound of your insanity: 'bzzzzzzzzz'." Nailed that one on that head. Once they find ya, they don't leave, and I swear they beeline (pun pun!) for every opening on my face. I ate three bugs, and choked one back up. Gross. Oh, and just as I was on stride to hit 2k again, we ran out of trees. Lame.

Saturday night the crew went out to Scuttlebutt's for some well-deserved drinks and down time. We tore up the dance floor, and I got to see strange phenomenon that is a ThunderBay bar crowd. It's a weird mix people between ages 19 and cougar, wearing plaid and cowboy boots, incredibly tight and short skirts, or camo-pants.

Oh, and church this morning was great--I love Grassroots! Pastor Chris had a great sermon about giving in secret. But even better was this little old white haired lady that came over to hug me. Apparently Jordan had talked to her there a couple years ago, so he struck up conversation with her during the break (yeah, there's a refreshment break DURING the service for fellowship and coffee--so great!). I saw him point to me from across the room while talking to her, so I waved and she blew me a kiss, lol. Then she came over, and before I could even introduce myself she was hugging me. She wanted me to write down our names so she could remember to pray for us as we worked / continued looking for work. What a sweetheart, eh? It's people like that who make church such a meaningful experience, not just the pastor or the message. Already looking forward to next week.

In other news, a few shout-outs:

1) Anna, nothing gets me jacked in the morning like some Alphabeat. Love it!

2) Maple Leaf girls, I found liverwort on a lot of the root pods this week, and thought of you. Not jealous that you have to sit in the freezing rain and weed pots though...enjoy!

3) Katlyn, had a cigar on my "porch" for nostalgia sake. Not nearly as fun without you.

4) Mom's turning 50 tomorrow--Happy Birthday Mom!!! Hope you have a great day and get spoiled by Dad. Dad, that's your cue to spoil Mom even more.

Well, I'll be back again in a week! Miss you all very much!

Week 1

Jordan caching hard at the end of a short day

Me, a tree planter

Jordan bagging up 500 trees like a real man

The piece Jordan and I planted together on Saturday. I love planting in snow! I do not love planting in slash!

I was about to say "Our Home Away from Home"...and then I realized, this is the closest thing we have to a home right now.

One week down, seven to go...

I'm officially 1/8th of the way to scratching another thing off my bucket list. Yup, tree planting made it onto my bucket list after I went up for a day last year and enjoyed myself so much I swore I'd come this year. It almost didn't happen when Haveman's lost one of their big contracts, but after Jordan whined and complained enough, they agreed to hire me on. I'm one of four rookies this year, and I'm on a crew with a lot of hard core vets.

We rode up in my parents old beater of a van, and, though I had my doubts, we made it successfully...minus the muffler, which Jordan had to pull off around Wawa. Tuesday we drove into camp, which is about an hour into the bush from the shop in Kakabeka Falls. Jordan volunteered the four rookies to dig hole for the four shitters as our chore, which was really funny...until the crew bosses found out and made him dig with me, lol. Sucker! We pitched our tent in the forest, and have a lovely little home that I don't even have to bother keeping clean. I love it--no sweeping, no cooking, just rinse the dishes with water...life's great at camp!

Wednesday was the first day of planting. My partner is Courtney, and she's a real sweetheart. It's difficult managing land together though, especially when neither of us know what we're doing, so I might decide to plant solo eventually. We'll see how next week goes. Friday was the first day the thought, "What the heck am I doing here?" crossed my mind, but mostly because I was so frustrated with managing my land, rather than the hard work. So once I figure land management out, then I'll be okay I think. I planted with Jordan on Saturday, and that helped a lot. He made me bag up 400 trees at a time, which nearly killed me the first bag-up. But it was good in the end, because the madder I got about how hard he pushed me, the faster I planted to keep up with him...although in the end I was still miles behind him. At the very least, I have a huge admiration for the fact that he has planted 4000 trees in one day. What a stud, eh?

We've had some rain and some snow while planting, but I love how cold it's been. Usually I hate being cold, but right now the cold means no bugs, and once I get planting I warm up really fast. At night though, the cold is not as fun. I sleep under four blankets, wearing slippers, long johns, pj pants, a tank top, t-shirt, sweater, and a toque. I'm glad I have Jordan for snuggling.

Oh, and one funny/embarrassing story: The second day I went to the outhouse before dinner, and after doing my thing, got up to leave and couldn't get the door open. There was a latch on the outside for some stupid reason, and it fell in front of the door while I was in there. Everyone had already gone into the mess tent for dinner, and I was stuck in the outhouse yelling, "Help! Somebody let me out!", hoping desperately someone would come before the fumes or the cold overtook me. Eventually Megan came out of the tent and heard me yell from across the camp. Saved! Danger comes in many different forms while tree planting...

Well, now it's the weekend and we're in ThunderBay at the Super 8. Last night was crew bonding at Fun Factor, and today is church, Iron Man2, and then the Vancouver game. And a call home to Mom because it's Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day Moms! You're the best Moms I've ever had! Love you!

Peace out til next week, hope I get more great stories for y'all!