Mmmmm... deadly sour-egg-fart smelll... mmm...; or, Chetwynd, mark 1

Chetwynd is a small-ish town about 350km North-east of PG - not too far from the Alberta border. This was to be our home for just under three weeks now, then another month or so at the end of the season. And a suitably lovely home it was too. Ou rmotel was a nice set-up. The "town centre" (so obviously that there's actually a sign telling you that you're there) had a grocery store and dollar store and was in walking distance, and there was a 7/11, dominoes and subway just down the street - life doesn't get any better, obviously... Incidently, these are not my usual haunts in 'normal' life, but pretty much indispensible as a hungry planter.

And now an interlude. Chetwynd has a chainsaw carving competition every year, and so there are soe fantastic carvings around every where - a selection follows (although is lacking my favourite - a preying mantis, because i can't find the picture):

Planting-wise, this contract was good; decent prices for good land and short commutes. Excellent. I guess the theme of the next few weeks was our daily paranoia that we could drop dead from poisonous gas.  Mmmm. A number of our blocks were in close range of a large local gas plant.

Days off spent chilling at a lake

Of course, all precautions are taken, and our foreman, Paul, carried a h2s (hydrogen sulphide) detector at all times, but it's hard not to be paranoid at this particular gas. The main issue is that sour gas REALLY stinks - basically like sulphur (obvs...), so a lot of the time you can smell its residue in the air. However, if you are being poisoned by it, the first thing that it does to you is kill your sense of smell (then you faint, then you die). So if you get a nice waft of it, and then the wind changes direction, obviously the next sensible step is to fear immediate death...  And while i like planting trees and think it's a worthy cause, it's not worth death. Not that this was ever likely... but you can see how one might get paranoid...

Our local friendly fox (NB Canadians get inexplicable excited about foxes, but this one was particularly cute)

Anywayz, as you can see tell, this is clearly not a ghost-writtten blog (in the more literal sense) ; neither i, nor anyone else perished in our noble endevour. Excellent. Another day's work well done. As if we weren't paranoid enough, however, they also insisted upon testing their, "DOOOOOM! Poisonous gas! You're all going to die!"-siren every week, and it makes the *creepiest*, wibbliest rising doom noise I have ever heard. It echos across the whole valley, spreading doom to every corner.  I'll be quite happy never to hear that noise ever again...

'Friday' outfits - amusing clothing combinations to be worn at the end of every shift - a visit to the thrift store is a must

Chetwynd came to a close with a second tree sacrifice of the season (to the tree gods who give us good land and good prices), which is a risky business, because last year we messed up our second sacrifice and that wasn't good for anyone involved. However, this one seemed to go well, and we moved out of Chetwynd to a place called Tumbler Ridge, where lo, the land was good, if not extremely mountainous, and the bush camp was beautiful...

A taste of things to come...

Prince George

The remainder of our contract in PG was spent on decent enough land, and i got back into the swing of things waaay better than i had feared i might. Second year is well worth it - you start off a better planter than you ever were before, right from the get go. (And you're paid a better rate, which doesn't harm either!) I definitely came to realise to just what an extent the first year is an investment more than anything.

Incidently, it turns out that tree planting is a fantastic cure for jet lag (or, perhaps kill or cure... but i won). Having got in at about 9pm, i decided that i woould plant the next day. Everyone seemed to think i was nuts, but, i mean, what else do you do while stuck in PG on a sunday while really jet lagged? May as well make accomodation costs, at least. In the end, i managed 1200 trees of fantastic quality and density, but was practically dead by 3pm (11pm in my head!) and went to fall asleep in the truck.  However, the next day was a day off and it only got easier from there on.

End of my first day, trying not to fall sleep at the truck

The first couple of shifts weren't fantastically noteworthy, nonetheless, there were a couple of notable moments that i particularly enjoyed.

Firstly, about a week in it snowed! In mid-May! Weird... So ' pick your spot at random and hope for the best' planting ensued, which was novel, if not a tad frustrating. On the other hand, it was also sufficiently hot that by midday every last ounce of snow had melted and we were all rather too hot. Turns out it was a nice block afterall, when you could see it.

[picture of snow to-come]

My next highlight came along with one of the first blocks. This was a fantastic day any way since a truck full of vet(ren) planters all snuck off to do it devoid of rookies. It was a little unusual since we were only planting burn piles  (the burnt circles left when the big slash piles are burnt on planted blocks). It's really bizarre that this even exists at all if you ask me. If i were a forestry company i would burn and *then* replant, but as a planter, it's awesome - you get a whole day of easy planting that you get paid more for...
However, the real reason that it was so awesome was that it was a block we planted the previous year - my very first block ever! This meant we got to see all our fledgling trees thriving - trees i had, i think fairly, assumed would simply die... Soooo satisfying :D

It is a little disappointing that said trees are very nearly as tiny as they were the previous year, but i guess they must be taking root alright if they're still there. And, hey, they'll grow up alll too quick in the end...

So, i don't have picture, but this is a true-to-life diagram of last year and this year trees :D

The final momentous event of that contract was not one i will ever remember fondly, and was certainly a reminder of the dangers that can be involved in planting. On afternoon very near the end of the contract, we had finished a good days work and were all headed home. In a split second something went terrifyingly wrong and the truck ahead of us made a call on the radio those ahead of them had gone off the road. We couldn't immediately see it for all the dust, and the distance between us. However, after we pulled over we could see the truck sideways and upside down in the ditch, and  skewered between the cab and the box was a very sizable tree. That was a pretty heart-stopping moment, knowing that it was you friends and co-workers upside dwon in there.

By some miracle the whole lot of then actually walked out of there with so much as a scratch. I guess it's something of a testement to the trucks that we use - all of the side airbags had gone off and, indeed, the music was still playing. Weird and surreal... As i understand it, the driver was not directly at fault, or, in any case it was an accident that could have happened to anyone. Regardless, or perhaps even more so, this gave everyone considerably pause for thought and thankfulness.

Our motley crew 2012, just finished up in PG

So i guess PG came to a close on a slightly somber note, but planting moves quickly, and planters along with it, and so, to Chetwynd...

Vancouver, eh?

Landing in Vancouver for the second time was awesssome. Just like 18 months before, we flew in to clear blue skies and an unseasonably warm summery sunshine. In contrast, rather than a slightly excited/resigned, “well I guess this is home for the next little while”, it was an altogether fuzzier feeling; more like returning home (At least to one of my many adopted homes).

Just like my efforts to get out to Canada to start with, arrival day was going to be something of a rush. My flight up to Prince George (which, fyi, only cost £20 less than my flight from London to Vancouver?!) left at around 6pm and in between times I really wanted to sort out a mobile phone and a bank account. Obviously, this was a whole lot easier than last year because I already knew how such things worked, but it still took me a good amount of the afternoon. Mainly this was because, being a weekend, some but not all of the banks are open, and I ended up going on a ridiculously long hike around Vancouver to every branch that wasnt open before ending up that the one I had first planned to go to anyway (but dismissed...). That, and also because the guy in the phone shop didn't understand the words, “I just want to re-activate this phone and get the simplest pre-paid option you have”. You'd think it wouldn't be that difficult... sigh. * is not going to go on a rant about Canadian mobiles...*

All set up and ready to work, I headed back to the airport, where I managed to not pay excess baggage for the second time in 24 hours (win!). In my remaining non-time at the airport, I found my self getting overly excited by Canadian fast food that I really didn't need to eat. Tim Hortons is too good to pass up after 6 months away though, so I stuffed my self with doughnuts and spent the next hour and half feeling a sickly kind of satisfied. I was only sad that it was too late in the day to get a Breakfast Bagel Belt. Mmm...

The flight up to PG is absolutely stunning. We flew out over the North of Vancouver, and over Horseshoe Bay (which you may remember I blogged about last year – turns out the reason its called Horseshoe Bay is because from the air, it looks exactly like a horseshoe. Funny that). The path then flies you up over the coastal mountains and over a number of the coastal islands. Veeeery pretty. Then, before you know it – poof! Prince George, in all its square, blocky glory turns up, and we're landing into the tiniest airport ever (It's even smaller than Inverness airport!) 

I was soooo excited to land, and a little nervous too, but mostly excited. Neil came to meet me at the airport and we headed in to the grand metropolis of Prince George to grab some dinner, then onwards to the UNBC dorms – once again, my home for a couple of shifts. It was fantastic to see Paul and Amy and Miguel and other familiar faces that night, but meeting the rookies was gonna have to wait til the morning - it was 9.30pm after all, and that is waaaay past the rookie planters (or the old tired planters) bed time.

Next time: Planting, one year on.

Return to the planet of the mooses...

(Written quite a while before i posted! See, Dad, I *was* writing all that time i said i was, just not posting - Canada Day was July 1st - month and a bit ago!)

Hello swarthy followers of all things maple-y!

We're living in exciting times. Not only does the internet appear to have started working again, but I also saw 5 whole, real-life, properly-uniformed mounties today! :D Happy Canada Day! 145^th Anniversary of confederation.

Soooo, what have I been up to lately?

Well, I'm back in Canada, obviously, following my most hasty exit from the country to date. Having waited and waited and waited for my visa it eventually turned up, somewhat overdue, at 1am on the 10th May. I was sooooooooooooooo relieved, not in the least because my ready-made summer job – tree planting in BC, started on the 1^st May...

Having received that all-important email, I set about attempting to sleep, but mostly spent all night on the net getting exciting. By 11am all my flights, insurance, buses etc were booked and I was flying out at 9am the next morning! Weird...

No rest for the wicked, I got up at 7am to tell dad the excellent news and say goodbye for the year, and then pack. By 3 I was on the bus to london (longest drive to london ever as we sat on a car park known as the M4. However, Tom and Lucy and Ben were kind enough to wait for me and we all caught up with a cheeky pint or two before chatting into the small hours of the morning about nothing in particular. I miss doing that. :)

Bright and early (well, dark and early, actually) I headed out to a surprisingly busy bus stop and made my way to london gatwick, which, I quickly discovered, is not in london at all. Obviously...

Having checked my (definitely overweight) bags I did the waiting thing and then got on the plane, ready for 10 hours of pure discomfort (my flight was £189, all in ?!!?), only to find that the plane did not fall out the sky and the dinner tasted much like any other airline dinner. Good deal if you ask me.

And so much for the build up. Next post: Vancouver, eh?