Or, rather; BbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz
for 8 hours today (all while they are trying to eat or fly into you ears, eyes, face, arms... anything really, they'er not fussy...)
BbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Monday, 16 May 2011
Why i no longer like twigs and pine cones; or, Tree planting...
Sooo, it's high time i made an update, or you're all going to start to wonder which bear ate me.
I haven't been eaten by a bear yet. Just thought i'd reassure you. I have now seen a grand totalk of two very exciting, very fluffy bears :D Win! And both from the safety of some sort of very large vehicle (the sort that would definitely win in a fight).
Anywayz, tree planting.
I headed up here on the 4th via a *really interesting* (being sarcastic incase you weren't sure) 12 hour bus journey. It took me longer to get to Prince George from Vancouver than it did to get to Canada in the first place... go figure, Canada is frigging huuuuge. That said, it was a really really beautiful drive. I had thought it might be a bit samey, having just driven in much the same area back down from the Rockies (and i will finish those posts in a bit, promise, i just haven't had a chance quite yet!), but actually it was every bit as varied and beautiful.
Anywayz, I arrived in Prince George at about 8.30 complete with a number of other tree planters, both for Apex (my company) and others. I gave Paul, my new foreman a call, and he got someone to pick me and a couple of others up and take us up to the UNBC dorms, my new home for the next month or so.
It's really fun being back in dorms - it's like all the best bits of living in uni, but without the work :D On the first night we all met up with beer and a campfire just near the woods behind the dorms, which was awesome. It's all pretty sweet really, and it's costing me less accomodation-wise than our last place did (and i get my own room this time). There's also a nearby resident moose who we see out the window occasionally - for shame, it's one without antlers, so it just looks like a jaunty donkey, but still...
As to the the tree planting itself, we had a couple of days with training and stuff and then we headed out onto the bloc on the 7th May for our first day which was hot and sunny and not at all a bad start. We're just at the end of our second shift tree planting now. We usually will plant for 4 days and then have 1 day off. And having had a 5 day shift this week (for various reasons) I can confirm that 4 at one time is quite enough, 5 was hard.
Typically my tree planting day now starts at about *deep breath* 5.20am. Mmmm. We meet at the trucks for either 5.40 or 6am, depending on whether we need to load them up or not and then drive to the bloc of land we're planting that day. These are all within about an hour of Prince George, so it's not too far to go. We usually start planting as soon as we get there and carry on for the next 8 or 9 hours and then head back. My top number so far is just shy of 1100 in a day. I'm currently aiming for 1500 and my total goes up most days (i started at 490 on my first day). Anywayz, then we head back, eat and play card games or watch Jeopardy until we head to bed (rather early as you can imagine).
At the end of a shift, it's party time. We head back, get some beers and chill out. Clean eat and sleep on the day off and then do it all over again! So, that's about it really - my summer. It's really hard work, but it is the kind of hard work i quite enjoy, and somehow the days go by really quickly and aren't even remotely boring, which is amazing and rather fortunate.
We're in Prince George for another couple of weeks and then we're moving to Houston. After that, buch camp - excitement.
Uh, so that's it for now - i'll try and keep you updated when i get the chance, it's just so easy to socialise and end up with no time to do anything else.
Anywayz, like i said, I shall try and get the other road trip posts up very soon!
I haven't been eaten by a bear yet. Just thought i'd reassure you. I have now seen a grand totalk of two very exciting, very fluffy bears :D Win! And both from the safety of some sort of very large vehicle (the sort that would definitely win in a fight).
Anywayz, tree planting.
I headed up here on the 4th via a *really interesting* (being sarcastic incase you weren't sure) 12 hour bus journey. It took me longer to get to Prince George from Vancouver than it did to get to Canada in the first place... go figure, Canada is frigging huuuuge. That said, it was a really really beautiful drive. I had thought it might be a bit samey, having just driven in much the same area back down from the Rockies (and i will finish those posts in a bit, promise, i just haven't had a chance quite yet!), but actually it was every bit as varied and beautiful.
Anywayz, I arrived in Prince George at about 8.30 complete with a number of other tree planters, both for Apex (my company) and others. I gave Paul, my new foreman a call, and he got someone to pick me and a couple of others up and take us up to the UNBC dorms, my new home for the next month or so.
It's really fun being back in dorms - it's like all the best bits of living in uni, but without the work :D On the first night we all met up with beer and a campfire just near the woods behind the dorms, which was awesome. It's all pretty sweet really, and it's costing me less accomodation-wise than our last place did (and i get my own room this time). There's also a nearby resident moose who we see out the window occasionally - for shame, it's one without antlers, so it just looks like a jaunty donkey, but still...
As to the the tree planting itself, we had a couple of days with training and stuff and then we headed out onto the bloc on the 7th May for our first day which was hot and sunny and not at all a bad start. We're just at the end of our second shift tree planting now. We usually will plant for 4 days and then have 1 day off. And having had a 5 day shift this week (for various reasons) I can confirm that 4 at one time is quite enough, 5 was hard.
Typically my tree planting day now starts at about *deep breath* 5.20am. Mmmm. We meet at the trucks for either 5.40 or 6am, depending on whether we need to load them up or not and then drive to the bloc of land we're planting that day. These are all within about an hour of Prince George, so it's not too far to go. We usually start planting as soon as we get there and carry on for the next 8 or 9 hours and then head back. My top number so far is just shy of 1100 in a day. I'm currently aiming for 1500 and my total goes up most days (i started at 490 on my first day). Anywayz, then we head back, eat and play card games or watch Jeopardy until we head to bed (rather early as you can imagine).
At the end of a shift, it's party time. We head back, get some beers and chill out. Clean eat and sleep on the day off and then do it all over again! So, that's about it really - my summer. It's really hard work, but it is the kind of hard work i quite enjoy, and somehow the days go by really quickly and aren't even remotely boring, which is amazing and rather fortunate.
We're in Prince George for another couple of weeks and then we're moving to Houston. After that, buch camp - excitement.
Uh, so that's it for now - i'll try and keep you updated when i get the chance, it's just so easy to socialise and end up with no time to do anything else.
Anywayz, like i said, I shall try and get the other road trip posts up very soon!
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