The Definition Of Treacherous
What.. a.. week..
So it starts off like this: we get to our camp, a little clearing amidst 20 something year old pine trees on an old logging road. We all start scouting spots for our tents - I managed to find a nice flat spot with lots of shade - and then we all set everything up. After a good two hours of tinkering, I finally manage to erect the perfect tent. The sleeping bag then seduces me to its cozy chamber, and I drift off to sleep - ready for another fun-filled morning of planting.
I get up at the crack of dawn - 5:30 am to be precise - and I lug myself into the cook tent to make lunch. There's an entire table set up full of goodies: fresh sliced meat, tons of different types of bread, fresh fruit, cookies, rice crispie squares, trail mix, snack mix, pickles, and whole lotta other tasty treats. Once we've finished constructing our satisfying lunches to be, we grab our plates and head to the far tables for a hugenormous breakfast. I believe on the first day I had two waffles, both lathered in whipped cream and strawberry sauce, as well as two freshly baked chocolate chip muffins, some bacon and scrambled eggs, as well as some piping hot oatmeal and a slice of orange. Not too shabby at all!
Anyhoo, onto the less saliva inducing stuff - I had a horrible first day planting from camp. We were on another hilly piece, and it was quite warm outside. At this time I had a decent cold, but I thought I'd tough it out. Bad bad idea. I started getting that tingly feeling midway through the day, and my head and nose were throbbing with discomfort. Finally, having only planted a meager 400 trees, I told Dustin: "I... I'm gonna have to stop.. I feel really.. shitty". I just amble down the side of the hill towards my water jug, and collapse right next to it. I had the worst fever ever, and I couldn't handle it any longer. So I hauled myself over to the truck with all my stuff, all the while uncomfortably numb, and then I just fell right asleep. My fellow planters ended up getting stuck in the ditch on the ride home, and revved the truck out of there, all the while while I was asleep.
I decided to take the next day off, which was a quite a good idea we all thought. Luckily I had the company of Dan, who also took the day off because of a sore wrist. I spent the majority of it asleep, and then the rest of the day I read the Da Vinci Code - an awesome book for sure. The next morning I was still feeling a tad bit too crummy to work, so I took another day off - just lounged in the tent, played some crazy eights and 80's trivial pursuit with Dan, and had a bunch of freshly baked peanut butter cookie's that Katie the cook awesomely delivered to us. It was a nice break. For supper that night we had these humongous burritos, which satisfied my tex mex cravings right on the dime. Mmm mm mm.
Ok, now onto the crazier stuff. Yesterday I thought I'd do my best to work another day before our shift ended, so I got up early, had breakfast and then got into the truck. Graham, Levi, Kirsten, Cody, Kristina and I all squeezed into the ford, and I dj'ed up some classic rock with the pod along the way. Dustin gave me this giant piece, and I felt a little bit overwhelmed by it all. Anyway, the day was sweltering hot - and I'm not talking about like regular May hot, but 35 degree celsius hot, on a huge open block, with absolutley no shade. It was bloody torture. I ended up planting only 670, having to cough with a dry sore throat every second, slurping back warm chlorinated camp water in painful gulps. It was one of the toughest days in my life. Then out of nowwhere, these huge thunder clouds roll in, and we get a little bit of heavenly rain... and THUNDER! DUN DUN DUN! What happens, you ask, when it's 35 degrees, and lightning strikes a forest far away? Insta-FIRE! I didn't even realize it, until I looked up at the horizon to see a huge plume of smoke billowing into the sky really far away. It was huge - it looked like the mushroom clouds from an atom bomb. Anyway, Dustin honks the horn signalling us to come to the truck and pack our stuff up, and he reports to us that there's actually three other huge fires - one of which is about four kilometres from our camp - our camp being downwind from it. So I'm freakishly tired and exhausted, and we all just want to get a motel room and sleep for our day off, and then Dustin tells us we have to evacuate our stuff from camp. This proved to be incredibly inconvenient and agitating - especially because I had zero energy, was still very sick, and I had to clean up and dismantle my perfect tent. I also had to do all of this within half an hour, because we all had to leave for town at seven. Finally when we're all done lugging our hefty loads into the back of the truck, one of the Foreman tells us- oh they actually had the fire under control, you guys didn't have to pack up your stuff - WHAT THE F**&!!! - ahem, excuse my french.
Anyway, we all split the bill on a sleazy motel room, and I just got back from the hospital - after I got them to check out that wound on the back of my knee that I got when I wore shorts. It's infected, but I got some antibiotics so it should clear up they say. Anyway, my time is almost up here at the London Drugs internet cafe - I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat and pick up some supplies. I hope this week will be better than the last!
Peace and God Bless,
El Jameso
So it starts off like this: we get to our camp, a little clearing amidst 20 something year old pine trees on an old logging road. We all start scouting spots for our tents - I managed to find a nice flat spot with lots of shade - and then we all set everything up. After a good two hours of tinkering, I finally manage to erect the perfect tent. The sleeping bag then seduces me to its cozy chamber, and I drift off to sleep - ready for another fun-filled morning of planting.
I get up at the crack of dawn - 5:30 am to be precise - and I lug myself into the cook tent to make lunch. There's an entire table set up full of goodies: fresh sliced meat, tons of different types of bread, fresh fruit, cookies, rice crispie squares, trail mix, snack mix, pickles, and whole lotta other tasty treats. Once we've finished constructing our satisfying lunches to be, we grab our plates and head to the far tables for a hugenormous breakfast. I believe on the first day I had two waffles, both lathered in whipped cream and strawberry sauce, as well as two freshly baked chocolate chip muffins, some bacon and scrambled eggs, as well as some piping hot oatmeal and a slice of orange. Not too shabby at all!
Anyhoo, onto the less saliva inducing stuff - I had a horrible first day planting from camp. We were on another hilly piece, and it was quite warm outside. At this time I had a decent cold, but I thought I'd tough it out. Bad bad idea. I started getting that tingly feeling midway through the day, and my head and nose were throbbing with discomfort. Finally, having only planted a meager 400 trees, I told Dustin: "I... I'm gonna have to stop.. I feel really.. shitty". I just amble down the side of the hill towards my water jug, and collapse right next to it. I had the worst fever ever, and I couldn't handle it any longer. So I hauled myself over to the truck with all my stuff, all the while uncomfortably numb, and then I just fell right asleep. My fellow planters ended up getting stuck in the ditch on the ride home, and revved the truck out of there, all the while while I was asleep.
I decided to take the next day off, which was a quite a good idea we all thought. Luckily I had the company of Dan, who also took the day off because of a sore wrist. I spent the majority of it asleep, and then the rest of the day I read the Da Vinci Code - an awesome book for sure. The next morning I was still feeling a tad bit too crummy to work, so I took another day off - just lounged in the tent, played some crazy eights and 80's trivial pursuit with Dan, and had a bunch of freshly baked peanut butter cookie's that Katie the cook awesomely delivered to us. It was a nice break. For supper that night we had these humongous burritos, which satisfied my tex mex cravings right on the dime. Mmm mm mm.
Ok, now onto the crazier stuff. Yesterday I thought I'd do my best to work another day before our shift ended, so I got up early, had breakfast and then got into the truck. Graham, Levi, Kirsten, Cody, Kristina and I all squeezed into the ford, and I dj'ed up some classic rock with the pod along the way. Dustin gave me this giant piece, and I felt a little bit overwhelmed by it all. Anyway, the day was sweltering hot - and I'm not talking about like regular May hot, but 35 degree celsius hot, on a huge open block, with absolutley no shade. It was bloody torture. I ended up planting only 670, having to cough with a dry sore throat every second, slurping back warm chlorinated camp water in painful gulps. It was one of the toughest days in my life. Then out of nowwhere, these huge thunder clouds roll in, and we get a little bit of heavenly rain... and THUNDER! DUN DUN DUN! What happens, you ask, when it's 35 degrees, and lightning strikes a forest far away? Insta-FIRE! I didn't even realize it, until I looked up at the horizon to see a huge plume of smoke billowing into the sky really far away. It was huge - it looked like the mushroom clouds from an atom bomb. Anyway, Dustin honks the horn signalling us to come to the truck and pack our stuff up, and he reports to us that there's actually three other huge fires - one of which is about four kilometres from our camp - our camp being downwind from it. So I'm freakishly tired and exhausted, and we all just want to get a motel room and sleep for our day off, and then Dustin tells us we have to evacuate our stuff from camp. This proved to be incredibly inconvenient and agitating - especially because I had zero energy, was still very sick, and I had to clean up and dismantle my perfect tent. I also had to do all of this within half an hour, because we all had to leave for town at seven. Finally when we're all done lugging our hefty loads into the back of the truck, one of the Foreman tells us- oh they actually had the fire under control, you guys didn't have to pack up your stuff - WHAT THE F**&!!! - ahem, excuse my french.
Anyway, we all split the bill on a sleazy motel room, and I just got back from the hospital - after I got them to check out that wound on the back of my knee that I got when I wore shorts. It's infected, but I got some antibiotics so it should clear up they say. Anyway, my time is almost up here at the London Drugs internet cafe - I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat and pick up some supplies. I hope this week will be better than the last!
Peace and God Bless,
El Jameso
posted by J-kash at 12:55 PM
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