Put that tree in the ground

My feet are sore, my knuckles tenderized by repetitive glove abrasion, my hips bruised from the weight of hundreds of harmless trees, and my mind a smidgeon to the right on the sanity metre. Treeplanting is hard, rough, and unforgivingly grueling work. We get up at 5:30, down a bowlful of fibrous muesli serial in a pool of lukewarm milk, grab all our gear and water and hop in a decrepit truck with a couple of dirty dogs - all the while half asleep. Then, after a long and bumpy drive up some dirt which barely passes as a "road", we arrive at the block - a wide open stretch of slashed up dirt, trees, stumps, and swamp. Our foreman directs us each to our piece and unloads a few boxes of pine, spruce, and fir from the quad, then gives us the directions for our insane section of land. I pull on my spiked logger boots, unwrap six or seven bundles of trees and throw them in my planting bags - immediately smooshing my already bruised hips. I grab my shovel, and start pounding the ground with trees - all in a meticulous fashion which meets contract standards. Initially I thought that planting a tree would be, well, as easy as digging a hole and shoving a tree in it - but no... you have to insert the tree at a certain depth, make sure the roots are straight, make sure you the soil is saturated with minerals, and then cover up the plug with the dirt. This can take a long time and can be quite frustrating. But after four days of planting, you begin to clue on the little details and plant properly. Well, some of them at least.

I currently reside in a quaint hotel known as the "Bon Voyage Hotel" with five other dudes from my crew. There's Graham, Cody, Dan, Levi, Kirsten and... hehe I forget the other girl's name. A very cool bunch of people. We've all swapped tips and stories of pain already, and we share common interests - like music... and idignancy towards planting. Today is our day off and I am just smitten. Sitting is a wonderful thing, especially on a chair that isn't covered in dirt and little swarms of mosquitoes. We still have four or five days in the hotel, and then we will set up camp somewhere in the woods. As much as I enjoy the cozy hospitality of the Bon Voyage hotel, I am eager to truly immerse myself into the wilderness of Prince George. I'm sure I'll be begging for the hotel later on in a few blog updates or so, but.. I digress.

I'm happy to announce that I passed the minimum wage barrier yesterday, earning $96.50 after planting 740 little sons of b.. ahem, trees. Tommorow I'm going to try for 800, then the next day 900, and then a thousand by the end of the week if I'm lucky. Soon we'll be planting for the big guns like Canfor logging industries, where we will be required to wear hardhats and vests, which will prove to be quite irritating methinks. I mean, we are nowhere close to any immediate danger from things such as trees falling down or heavy machinery, and just because we're part of the "forestry" industry, we have to wear these stupid things. Ah well, I'm sure we'll get used to them. Another dohicky I'll have to watch out for is the company checkers. These guys will be popping by our planting land every so often and checking to see if our trees were planted right (ie perfectly straight, not too deep, not too shallow, straight roots, etc). If they don't meet their standards, then we'll have to spend hours replanting for zero cash. That will suck, surely.

In other news, or information which just merely qualifies as news, I saw a moose and a black bear on the drive up yesterday, which was quite spectacular. Moose really are big suckers! Annnnnd what else.. did I mention I was sore? A couple days ago I made the horrible decision of wearing shorts to work - and it just so happened that I was planting in metre thick slash (junk above the dirt like trees, red rot, stumps, sharp branches, thorns etc.), which had a field day on my legs. I was so scraped up literally everywhere that all the pain blended together uniformly that I could no longer even notice it - it just felt really hot. Yes, it is a rough job.. but we still haven't gotten into blackflies or rain yet, so this is just the beginning! Nevertheless, I think that I'll be happy with the large daily earnings - it should numb the soreness a bit.

Anyway, rather than whining more and more about planting on my day off, I think it's about time for me to sk'daddle from this here internet cafe, and maybe come back to the hotel for a nap and some tv. I got myself a temporary debit card, so I am safe in the water - so no need to worry too much. I hope all of you have a great and productive summer like I'm having so far (just with a side of pain and muesli), and keep in touch if you can. Katie, if you're reading this - keep it real in China, and best of luck on those tough hills!

Best regards,
James "Slasher" Harris