Tree Planting Day 46, July 19^th, (Shift 11, Day 4):

                Happy Birthday Garrett!

                We woke up this morning and I was so warm I didn’t want to get out of bed. But I got up anyway, and got Richard ready for his last day of the shift. So far the day has been chilly (for me) but sunny. J I hope he has some good land so he can enjoy this weather. lol

                Once the dishes were done I did the chores, all but the laundry (we’re going into town tomorrow so they’ll really get washed then lol). Then I sat down with Lesley and one of the planters who stayed home and we talked about living in apartments and bachelorette parties. lol

*

                I went out and played football with Lionel then hung in the hammock and read my Bible for a while.

                Richard came home and he was so happy. It was the last day of the shift and he just felt like he had had a good day. I loved it! He was all bubbly and happy. J First thing in the morning I had snuck a note in his lunch box; he got it around lunch that day and apparently it really lifted his spirits. J

Richard’s Blurb:

So, just for clarification, I actually wake Olivia up every morning…once she’s up, then she makes sure I get ready, lol. Once she’s awake, she’s up and going…I don’t work quite like that, lol. I am very slow in the morning because I don’t usually quite wake up until I’m at the block, which is around 2 hours later, lol. My chore is waking her up; she takes it from there J

Oh, and today, as we were driving to the block, we saw a random car stuck in the muddied up roads and then later on we saw an old pick-up truck stuck as well. We saw some guys trying to get it out (I think they were going to the oil rig camp up the road), so we stopped and helped them out. Apparently they had been stuck since 2 in the morning (that means they were waiting for help for around 6 hours)…pretty brutal.

Tree Planting Day 47, July 20^th, (Shift 11, Day Off):

                We got up first thing and headed into town again. We dropped off the laundry and went to breakfast at Tim Horton’s, went back to move the laundry over and then stopped at the movie theater.

                Shelby had told me that the new Batman movie came out on our day off so we went to get tickets before they were sold out. As we pulled up we saw that the theater was already open! (Normally they don’t open the doors until noon.) We went and noticed they had a showing within the next 30 minutes so we bought tickets and took our seats. The movie was amazing! We both loved it; they did a great job carrying the quality of the last two movies over into another one. Richard said that this trilogy ranked up there with the Lord of the Rings. I don’t necessarily agree but they are really very good. lol

                After the movie we grabbed our laundry, had a snack at DQ, and went to get the groceries. Then we hurried over to McDonalds so we could use the internet. We bought Richard some wrist braces. He’s been complaining of them hurting the past shift so I thought we might as well get them now before they get worse. He wore one of them all day and said he could really feel a difference.

                We headed home not long after dinner…at A&W, go figure lol.

                On the way home I saw a coyote run across the road and a little bit further down I saw a van on the side of the road. As I passed by I recognized Rhett. So I woke Richard up and told him what was going on. He had me turn around and we went back to see if we could help any. As we pull up Richard gets this huge smile on his face as a man steps out of the van. He looks at me and says, “That’s Shaun.”

                Shaun was Richard’s foreman last year. He moved to Bermuda after last season to be a teacher but came back to Canada for a family reunion and decided to stop in for a visit. Richard was so excited to see him.

                After introductions were made we went to go take a look at the van. It was completely out of oil so Richard gave them the extra he had in the trunk of the car. We checked the oil and then tried to start the vehicle. Still nothing. Rhett had taken off to get someone to come help fix it so Richard and I gave the two girls that were traveling in the van a ride back to camp. From that point on Richard drove. J

                While we were in the car one of the girls asked to hear mine and Richard’s love story. Richard and I laughed and I asked her if that was what she really wanted. She said yes so we informed them of our friendship in college, courting long distance, his proposal, and then the wedding. Lol poor girl didn’t know what she was getting into. They loved it though. They were asking questions and laughing and commenting so I guess we didn’t bore them too much.

                Once we got back to camp, we unloaded the car and headed to bed.

Poor Rhett and Shaun didn’t get back until 2 a.m.

Tree Planting Day 48, July 21^st, (Shift 12, Day 1):

                Up again with the alarm; we’re on the early shift but thankfully it’s only for three days. J All our clothes were clean and fluffy which felt great! We got ready for the day, Richard put on his wrist braces and then headed out to work.

                One of the planters stayed home because she pulled a muscle in her back so she helped me by drying the dishes as I washed them. Shaun came in and talked for a while. We talked almost all day, all of us in the cook shack, about every subject to do with tree planting and how our summers were going. It was great! I was so distracted. lol I didn’t get much done today because I had so much fun talking to Shaun. lol

                I got to go out with Lesley and Bonnie to go try and walk on Bonnie’s slack-line (tight rope). It was loads of fun and now, sitting down, it still feels like my feet are wobbling underneath me. lol

                I didn’t have really any chores today because the laundry was done yesterday. So I just kinda hung out. Now I’m scrambling to make sure everything is done and ready for Richard to get home…which should be any minute…lol I was such a slacker today. lol Oh man! 

*

                So, Richard comes home. Greets me with a kiss and then tells me we’re leaving. I was so shocked I just kind of stared at him. He has tendonitis in his right wrist (his planting hand); it takes a while to get over and we only had a few days left so he decided it was time to leave.

                After dinner we made some phone calls to make sure we could stay at the places we had planned to spend the night at even though we were moving the date up. We packed up everything that night and went to bed with nothing in the tent but our clothes for the next day and our sleeping bags.

Tree Planting Day 49, July 22^nd, (Shift 12, Day 2):

                We headed out first thing after breakfast.

Well, that was an unexpected end to my time in the Alberta bush tree planting. Slightly anti-climactic but hey, we can’t all live in the movies. lol We spent two days in our travels home. We stopped in to see Vicki and Nathan (Richard’s sister and brother-in-law) at the West Edmonton Mall where Richard took me on the world’s largest triple loop indoor rollercoaster. We walked around for a while and he bought me a pocket knife for my two month anniversary gift. J hehehehehe I got him a ten minute aqua-massage. Then we met Vicki and Nathan at Boston Pizza, had dinner and went to see Spiderman again (they hadn’t seen it yet J).

                After the movie we got a tour of their house and then headed to Justin and Ashley’s (brother and sister-in-law) for the night. They were gracious enough to house us in their spare bedroom and feed us breakfast the next morning. Meanwhile, Richard and I are reveling in the fact that we had a shower inside (with great water pressure), there were fluffy towels, and it got dark when we wanted to go to sleep! Oh, but above all, there was a bed. A wonderful comfy bed with covers and pillows, and we slept on it! Woohoo! It was great! lol J

                One thing interesting did happen that next morning. Richard and I went to take a shower. About half way through he starts messing with the shower curtain and pulls the whole thing down. The next few minutes were spent scrambling trying to find the missing piece that fit on the end. We finished the shower with me and Richard trading off holding up the curtain while the other rinsed. Then we put the rod back together and wedged it back up onto the wall. Our first time back in a civilized shower and we break it! lol

                After breakfast with Justin and Ashley, we headed out so that we could make it to Three Hills by lunch. There we met with Grandma and Grandpa Tiel (Richard’s grandparents from his mom’s side), had a wonderful lunch and gained a jar of candy for the trip.

                Back on the road we stopped, not too far away, at the Tyrell Dinosaur Museum. We tried not to spend too much time wandering around but ended up staying for over an hour. lol (If anyone knows Richard and dinosaurs they would understand why! J) My husband took so many pictures of the dinosaur bones that he killed my camera! lol We loved walking around and critiquing the evolutionary thinking in all the exhibits. lol

                It took us until about 7 to get to Richard’s parents’ house. We had dinner and then headed over to see Grandpa Reimer (Richard’s dad’s dad lol). Once we left there we came home and unpacked the car a little and fell into bed….exhausted.  

                We had a great trip and a great summer (At least I did lol)! Now we are here in Coaldale, Alberta, Canada preparing for college. J I can’t wait!

Tree Planting Day 36, July 9^th, (Shift 9, Day 5):

                It was another mild morning. I got Richard ready to go and then sent him off. After that I came in to do the dishes. While I was washing Bonnie stood up and said she was going to leave and go take a nap. Not long after she left Lesley started feeling water dripping on her. We thought it was from the ceiling and was checking it out trying to figure out where the water was coming from. It stopped for a while so Lesley sat back down and then almost immediately jumped up and squealed. At that point Bonnie comes in the door with a water gun. Apparently there had been no leak; it was just Bonnie shooting Lesley. lol 

                There weren’t many chores to be done, because we’re headed into town to do laundry so April and I sat and talked for a while. At about noon we started hearing gunshots, 5 of them. We both jump up and look out the door to see what in the world is going on. Not far down the road we see Brett, his wife Marie, and some other guy standing on the side of the road looking into the woods. Brett has the gun in his hands and they’re pointing and looking at something off in the trees. I decide I’m going to go check it out and start walking that way. When I get about 2/3rds of the way there Brett shoots again. When I get to them Marie comes hurrying over. “It was a bear. He had gotten tangled in the tent material (almost like a net) for the trees. He was too aggressive for us to try and untangle him so Brett had to shoot him.” She looked so worried (we have a lot of animal lovers in camp); I just laughed and told her that where I come from that bear would have been shot a long time ago. She smiled, relieved that I wasn’t upset about it. We’re hoping that it was the bear that had been getting into our tents and stuff around camp. So…I got to see a bear, up close. It was a cute little black bear.

                The other guy that was here comes from the company who owns the one that we’re planting for.  He took the carcass and is going to dispose of it far away in the woods somewhere. I asked why we didn’t just skin it and eat it (shows you where I’m from lol). They said that because bear is not in season, if anyone caught us eating it or storing it we could get in a lot of trouble. Whatever…I still think we should have done something with it, fed it to the dogs or something.

                After that not much happened. It is one stinkin’ hot day; if the wind wasn’t blowing it would be pretty unbearable. The guys are supposed to come home a little early today so that they can all go into town for the night. There’s nothing to be done in the kitchen because they’re not making dinner tonight, seeing as everyone is supposed to go into town. Thankfully, I know the cooks, so if Richard still doesn’t want to go in tonight I know what we can and cannot eat. J We’ll see what happens…

*

                Lesley, April, Brett, and Marie all left around 2 to head into town to get the grocery pick. That left just me, Bonnie, and a couple of planters here at the camp.

                Not too long before the planters were supposed to come back we get a visit from a Fish and Game officer. Apparently, someone driving by saw Brett and them dealing with the bear and called it in. So, now this officer was here asking a lot of questions of Bonnie specifically about the bear. He was not very happy that it was shot and you could tell. Once he and Bonnie left to go tour the camping area I hopped on the phone and texted Brett to let him know what was going on; his answer…”Oh boy.” (basically J)

                The officer walked around, talked to the planters that were here, and took pictures of the camp. He wasn’t too happy about all the bear attractants in the area. I totally understand when it comes to the tents and stuff but here around the cook shack we can’t help it. We need the gas and it was 100 degrees outside that day, of course the doors and windows were open while we were cooking!  

                As the officer was walking around I tried to make conversation with him. These guys are packing! lol He had a nine mil. on his hip with 2 extra clips, a night stick, a knife, a tazer, and two     sets of handcuffs. I asked him what all he had on his belt and he started naming them off and pointing them out. When he mentioned he had two extra magazines Bonnie turned to me and whispered, “What’s a magazine?” I suppressed a smile as I told her it was a holder for his extra bullets that he could just slide in and out of the gun instead of having to load one at a time. Well, the officer heard me talking to Bonnie but couldn’t hear what I said so he asked us what we were talking about. Bonnie spoke up. “She’s just explaining to me what a magazine is. I haven’t had much exposure to guns but she’s from the U.S. so she’s pretty familiar with them.” I busted out laughing (ah the reputation us American’s have, I’m not helping it at all! lol) as the officer looked at me and responded, “I’m sure she does. You’re probably carrying one right now aren’t you?” I just laughed and told him no. 

                The planters started showing up about the time the Fish and Game officer left. I got Richard all cleaned up, we had dinner, and then went back and spent some time in the tent talking and playing on the computer. Once it had cooled down a bit we went out to take a shower. We sat for a little bit around a “camp fire” some of the planters had started (the rest had gone into town for the night). Jeremy played his guitar and sang a few songs (very depressing…about framing someone for murder and how the human race keeps fighting over land) while everyone sat around and talked. When we couldn’t handle getting eaten by mosquitoes anymore we went and took our shower.

                Then we headed to bed so we could get up pretty early the next morning to head into town.

Tree Planting Day 37, July 10^th, (Shift 9, Day Off):

                We got up pretty early, for a day off, 8:30…ish. lol We got dressed, packed up our stuff we would need for the day and jumped in the car. We dropped the laundry in the wash and headed to Tim Horton’s for breakfast. After changing the wash to the dryer we went to Wal-Mart to grab the grocery items we needed.

                Poor Richard, lol, he looked like a man following a woman around shopping. lol He had needed a new pair of boots (the ones he had are now completely worn out) so we did that first. I had wanted to get a pair of cotton gym shorts to wear on these really hot days. I knew they would be in the women’s section but I didn’t know exactly where to look. Richard decided he was going to follow me as I’m zigzagging through the racks trying to find them (this store is still under renovations so everything’s not quite where it’s supposed to be yet lol). I could just tell by the look on his face that my husband was tired of walking all over this section to check all the racks. I laughed and told him we could go if he was ready, I didn’t think I was going to find the shorts anyway. He got quite a bit happier after that as we headed into the checkout line.

                While Richard was checking out I went to customer service to see if they could do something about our missing movie. I wasn’t too optimistic but figured there was no harm in asking. I handed them the case and explained what had happened. They were very nice and told me that I could get another one, unfortunately they were out. Instead they gave me a five dollar gift card that I can use later on groceries or something. lol Oh well.

                 After we were finished shopping we headed to the movie theater to pick up our tickets for the movie that night. The new Spiderman movie is out! The last time we went to the movies it cost a little over 20 bucks for two tickets to a 2D movie. We pulled up the prices and notice that they were quite a bit cheaper and this is for a 3D movie. It was Tuesday! lol We had forgotten but the movie theater offers special ticket prices on Tuesdays, it was great!

                We went to get our laundry next. As we pulled the clothes out of the dryer a blue pen fell out. I groaned as I started pulling out clothes and checking them thoroughly for any ink stains. I thought I had checked the dryer before I put the clothes in but apparently not. Someone had left a blue pen and a white paint pen in there. Thankfully the ink really only got on work clothes and underwear. I did get some on my favorite Camp Victory shirt but…oh well…now it’s just a work shirt. 

                Lunch was at A&W (it’s Richard’s favorite, as you can probably tell lol). I wasn’t very hungry so I just had a salad. Then we went to McDonald’s to get on the internet. As soon as everything was checked and some messages sent we went to the movies.

                Amazing movie, by the way, we both loved it! It is one I would seriously consider paying to go see it in theaters again. It was really good J

                We had dinner at Quizznos (another one of Richard’s favorites).

Richard’s blurb:

As we were checking out Olivia said she was only going to get a soup because she wasn’t very hungry. I looked at her astonished, “You’ve hardly eaten anything all day!”

“Yes I did” was her reply.

“Like what? Two donuts, a salad, and now a soup?”

“Three donuts” she corrected me with a sheepish look on her face.

“Oh” I laughed. “Three donuts; do you hear what you’re saying?”

She just laughed at me and told me to leave her alone. lol

That woman, lol, I don’t think I’ll ever understand how she can eat so little…

                Anyway….after dinner we headed home, this time I was driving. lol After we unpacked the car we headed to bed. It was a great day off J

Tree Planting Day 38, July 11^th, (Shift 10, Day 1):

                New work shift, cold morning, early shift but all the clothes are clean and fluffy, we’ve got some extra snacks, and Richard has new boots. J lol (It’s also a nice day, not so hot as it has been and we’ve got a wonderful breeze blowing to keep you from getting too hot.)

                You could definitely tell that it was the first day of a new shift. Richard and I got up a couple minutes late (we couldn’t muster up the strength to push out of the sleeping bag) and were the only ones up and moving around. Normally there’s four or five people making lunch when I get in there and at least one or two eating breakfast once we get into the cook shack. But this morning this was not so. If I hadn’t heard last night that we were on the early shift and then watched Richard set the alarms I would have thought we got up too early! lol As it happened, people started trickling in as we sat to eat our breakfast.

                After breakfast I got Richard ready to go and headed in to do the dishes. There’s no laundry to do today so I just cleaned the tent up and starting writing on this. I watched a sermon by David Platt while I ate lunch and then headed into the dry bus to get something.

                While I was in there a squirrel came running in the door and froze when it saw me. I slowly sat down as he ran out. Not too long later I saw his head peek around the corner and then he hesitantly started toward the back of the bus, all the while with his eye on me. I watched as he jumped in a bag and pulled out nuts and ate them one by one. lol It was pretty cool J Someone had left a bag of trail mix (which they were told specifically to clean up last night *sigh*) in a duffel bag with a broken zipper. I sat and watched the fuzz ball for a bit and then headed back to the cook shack to finish the sermon. 

*

                Once the sermon was over I pulled out Wordless. For those of you who don’t know, Wordless is a story I’ve been writing since I was…12? I would have been writing on it the whole summer but for some reason my computer was being dumb and said I needed to download a newer file converter before I could open it. So, when we went in to town I downloaded the converter and now I have my story back. J

                I was enjoying being back with my characters so much that when I looked down at the clock I was shocked to find that 4 hours had passed! Wow, the day went by fast. lol I hurried to pack everything up and get ready for Richard to get home.

                They came back on time, in fact, Richard and his crew were the first ones here! It was great. J We had dinner, took a shower, and headed to bed. It was still so warm when we went to bed that Richard couldn’t stay in the sleeping bag! lol He finally got in to escape the gnats but otherwise he probably wouldn’t have. lol I was fine J

Tree Planting Day 39, July 12^th, (Shift 10, Day 2):

                Again we were the first ones up and moving around! lol Poor Richard broke his belt…again. lol The pin holding the buckle to the leather came out making it fall apart in his hands. After discarding a few ideas involving twine I realized that I could wear his pajama pants. I know that sounds random but that means that my hips are about the same width as his (not sure what that means but I’m not going to think about it too hard lol). I ran to the tent and grabbed my belt. Sure enough it fit. Now I normally had to wear it on the last hole and even then it was still a little big but it fit him perfectly. I told him he better not ruin my belt because it was the only one I had. lol

                Even though we were running a little behind on getting in to breakfast we didn’t have to rush to eat and we got out on time. J I got Richard ready for work and then started getting his water ready. It was at this point that we realized his red 3.5 liter Colman brand thermos was missing. We looked for it everywhere and finally came to the conclusion that someone picked it up thinking it was theirs (he never put his name on it, should’ve caught that one). He still had the milk jug of water so I wasn’t too worried about it. It’s not supposed to be as hot today and yesterday he didn’t finish all of the water so I think he’ll be ok.

                I got him off on time and then headed into the cook shack to fix his belt. I pieced it all together and then threaded some twine through the pin hole in order to hold it together. I tied it really good and then wrapped that with duct tape. J (I’m such a redneck lol) It holds really well and I’m slightly proud of myself. lol I hope it works, we’ll check it tomorrow.

                As soon as all the planters left I did the dishes and then got started on my chores. Now I’m doing my computer work. J

*

                I wrote on Wordless until just before Richard got home. At about 6 I started cleaning up all my stuff and then headed outside to hang out until he got home.

                It was turning out to be a nice evening. The wind was blowing softly and it wasn’t quite so hot so I started looking around for something to do. It was then that I spied a nice sized rock and a piece of 2x4 about 3 feet long. I took the board and laid it on top of the rock and then spent the next hour or so trying to balance with both feet on the board on top of the rock. It was so much fun! I got to the point where I could stand there without falling and then I tried spinning. J I made it all the way around once without touching the ground! Oh man I was having a blast. When Richard got home I showed him and he gave it a try. Of course he showed me up but hey, I’m not a skateboarder. lol

                We ate dinner, took a shower and then headed off to bed.

Tree Planting Day 40, July 13^th, (Shift 10, Day 3):

                Richard stayed home from work today. We got up right before the late shift left and had breakfast. Then, while he went and got some more sleep, I did the dishes. Once I was done with them I headed to the tent to wake him up and ended up falling asleep with him for another hour! lol He would not get up and finally I decided that “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em”. lol We got up right before noon and headed in to have lunch.

                After eating we left so that Bonnie could finish up her jobs in the kitchen. As we were walking back to the tent I suggested that we pull out the hammock. Oh man it was great! My parents got it for us for Christmas and I think we hung in it for 3 or 4 hours. Just swinging and talking. It was so nice J

                We got out of the hammock right sometime before dinner and watched The Mummy. Then we had dinner and went to bed.

                Oh yeah! They had a costume contest that night. It was so funny. There was a Mexican wrestler ( who was wearing really tight and bright pink and yellow spandex), a nun, a knight, a millionaire, a hippie (I think…), a mechanic, Joseph with his Technicolor Dream Coat, and a couple of girls who emulated planters from previous years who had memorable personalities. lol It was pretty funny to see all the costumes. 3^rd place got half off camp fees, 2^nd got cheese cake, and 1^st place got some unknown amount of beer. lol  

                Once all the festivities were over we headed to bed. J

Tree Planting Day 41, July 14^th, (Shift 10, Day 4):

                We got up bright and early. I got Richard ready for work and sent him off. We did have one funny incident this morning. Richard had taken orange juice with him to work on Day 2. I figured it would be ok to leave it in the dry bus on day 3, it was a nice cool day and it was in the shade. But no. Richard got into the dry bus this morning to grab his water bottle and found that it had a crack on the bottom. The pressure had built up so much from the day before that it had bowed out the bottom and a small crack had formed. Out of that small crack came a nice steady stream of fermented orange juice.

                Thankfully, after the bottle was emptied and cleaned the bottle resumed its normal shape and the cracked closed itself. Still I think we’ll superglue it tonight just to make sure. lol               

                We still haven’t found his thermos and I’m beginning to doubt we will. I sent him out with the milk jug of water again and now I’m wishing I had given him two. Apparently it’s supposed to get up into the high 90s (32 C) and I really don’t want him to get dehydrated. Ah! Oh well, I just hope it doesn’t get that hot, so far it hasn’t but the day’s not over yet.

                After sending him off I headed back to do the dishes. Poor April has Laryngitis and is stuck in town recuperating. Meghan, a planter with kitchen experience, has taken her place for the past two days doing the breakfast shift. She does most of the dishes for me! lol I get in there and there’s not much left, it’s great! lol J

                After doing the dishes I got my chores done and cleaned up the spilled fermented orange juice in the dry bus. lol I also helped Bonnie zest oranges for some kind of orange cake that they’re serving tonight. Now I have this big off-yellow stain on my pants that smells like oranges. lol 

                Brett is out fixing the bear fence so that it would actually keep a bear out, lol, and he said that they have the internet it’s just not hooked up. So, hopefully, we’ll have the internet up and running soon once he gets done with the bear fence. Apparently that’s the priority. lol

*

                Richard got home on time; we had dinner and then sat around and talked for a while. The next day was a day off so we could stay up late and not worry about it. We went and sat in the hammock for a while and then took showers somewhere around 9. We sat up and talked until about 11 before we were finally able to go to sleep.

                Oh yeah, we also found Richard’s thermos. We were sitting outside talking while we ate our burgers when we saw Eldon cleaning out one of the Fists (brand name of the cargo truck the planters use). As I watched, he started throwing things out that had been left in there by the planters. One of those things was a red thermos. I told Richard I thought it was his so I went over to take a look and sure enough it was. Someone had used it for a couple days and then had left it in the truck they had ridden in. So, now Richard has his thermos back and we’re both pretty happy. We also made sure that his initials are on it now so that no one takes it again. lol

 Tree Planting Day 42, July 15^th, (Shift 10, Day Off):

                Like any other day off we spent the morning sleeping until about 11. Then we finally decided to get up and have breakfast. At about 5 in the morning though, Richard’s alarm on his phone started going off, we had forgotten to turn it off. So he gets up and starts scrambling around looking for it. It had been left in the pocket of his pants outside the tent in one of the chairs. lol Sawyer woke us up at about 8 or 9 barking like crazy. Oh man the dog would not shut up! We could hear other planters who were trying to sleep in as well yelling at him to shut up. lol It was kind of funny now that I think about it. J

                I’m so glad today was the day off, it’s been raining on and off all morning and it doesn’t look like it plans to stop anytime soon. At least this way all the planters can be inside and not out there getting soaking wet while they’re working.

                After breakfast we headed back to the tent. It just happened to be Sunday so we watched a sermon together and then had our own little prayer time.

                Then we headed into the cook shack to watch a movie, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, after which Richard got some really good ideas for his thesis thing he’s writing on the law of consequences, so he worked on that for a while. I showed him some of the other stories I’ve been writing on recently and then he helped me get some ideas for one of them.

                We sat up until 9 or 10 discussing theology and ideas for the story. I had a blast, though we did chase some bunny trails. lol I think we ended our conversation debating on the nature of who the Nephilim were. lol It was great fun! J

Tree Planting Day 43, July 16^th, (Shift 11, Day 1):

                Again, here we are at the beginning of another shift. lol We’re on the late crew now so we get to sleep in. Woohoo! We got up, had breakfast, got ready for the day and I sent him off with a kiss. J He headed out with Andrew today (another one of the foremen) so I’m not quite sure where all he’ll be going. Andrew normally has the “special” assignments so no one really knows what all they’re going to do when they’re sent with him.

                I did the dishes and found out that it doesn’t matter how many or how few dishes I have it takes me two hours to do them. lol If I don’t have that many I play and talk, if I have a lot I buckle down and get it done. Well, at least I’m consistent. lol

                The company came in today to inspect the camp. Brett’s kind of under a lot of scrutiny now after the whole bear incident. So everyone was scrambling last night and this morning to make the camp spotless and ready for inspection. lol

                Now, my chores have been done. The tent is clean, the clothes are drying, and I’ve had my Bible study. So, now I’m sitting in the hammock enjoying the wonderful weather we’re having today. It’s slightly cool outside but still good enough for a t-shirt. There’s a nice cool breeze blowing and some cloud cover so you don’t get overwhelmed by the sun. Great day! Now if we can just get the squirrels to shut up…lol

                Speaking of which the bold little buggers are beginning to explore the cook shack! Bonnie has had to chase several away from the door as they stick noses in to get a whiff of the food! Buddy, another new dog in camp, had one of the squirrels treed the other day. Every time it would start towards the ground he’d run over and chase it right back up into the tree. lol It was so much fun to watch.

*

                After Richard got back we hung out for a bit in the hammock so that the temperature had a chance cool down before we took a shower. We brainstormed on some story ideas for a bit before we went to sleep.

Tree Planting Day 44, July 17^th, (Shift 11, Day 2):

                Ok well, I think I’m ready to stop getting up this early in the morning. lol It’s gotten to the point where my body has set an internal alarm clock and I now wake up before the phone goes off. This is not cool! I hope it doesn’t continue for too long after we leave here! Oh man! lol

                My poor husband was so out of it this morning. I don’t think he really woke up at all while he was still in camp. I had to nudge him every now and then at breakfast to remind him to keep chewing. lol But he still got ready with a little time to spare, much to my surprise. lol I thought for sure he would be running to the van at the last minute, but no. J

                They have some heli blocks again today so everyone left about the same time. We were still eating when it flew over the cook shack and landed on the other side of the road. It was really loud and reminded me of the fly-overs at home.

                I came in and did the dishes, washed the laundry, and cleaned the tent. Then I went into the cook shack to eat lunch and watch a sermon. About half way through Bonnie decided to sweep and mop and asked me to leave. So I went and laid in the hammock for a while (I fell asleep lol). When I figured she was done (when I woke up lol) I headed back in and finished the sermon. Then I finished off the studying I had to do and worked on this.

                So far today it’s been bright and sunny but now all of a sudden it’s gotten really cloudy. We’ve heard some thunder and I’ve had to bring in the laundry because it started sprinkling. At least it’s cooled down some though; it was pretty hot again today.

                I also found out today (shh, don’t tell anyone) that we only have two more days left of this shift and then a three day shift after a day break. Once that next shift is over we head to the next camp. The cool thing is that they don’t want to break camp and then set it up again for just a few days at the next camp. So, they are giving the planters the option of staying in hotels or at a public camp ground near the planting site. A restaurant near the hotel where the planters could stay is offering catering for us and Bonnie is going to work for them while we’re there. Richard’s not going to want to stay at the hotel because you have to pay for the room yourself and then the extra camp costs for food but it’ll be great to move to a camp ground.

                 April left yesterday (she was still sick and it wasn’t getting better so she went home) and Lesley…

Ow! A mosquito just bit me on the ear! What is up with that? why the ear? dang it, now my ear itches…

 …will be leaving very soon to meet her boyfriend. I’m so looking forward to this new camp site, we’ll still have to pay camp costs but Bonnie thinks it’ll have running showers and real bathrooms. I really hope it does. I started cheering and jumping up and down when they told me. Lesley laughed and Bonnie smiled, apparently they did the same thing when they found out last night. We all agree that a camp site like that is luxurious compared to what we have here. lol Oh man, I can’t wait to tell Richard! Once we get to the new site we’ll only have 7 days of planting left. J Then we head back to Richard’s house in Coaldale for a week or so before we road trip it to college.

                I can’t believe the summer is almost over. I spent so long looking forward to it that it doesn’t seem quite real. lol Now I’m about to head off to college with my husband…whew, where has the time gone? It seems just the other day that I was home, and single, trying to figure out how I was going to pay for college so that I could go with my boyfriend. lol Funny how stuff changes.  

*

                It started thunder storming about an hour before everyone was supposed to come home. Crew after crew showed up but Jeremy and David’s crews were still missing. I overheard one of the foremen that morning talking about how they would be doing heli blocks and I remembered them saying before that the helicopter doesn’t fly in bad weather. I waited in the cook shack for what felt like forever. Several of the guys were teasing me about Richard having to spend the night on the block, that he wasn’t coming back, or that the heli had crashed and they were all dead. They’re so mean! lol

                He finally did come back though. J The heli had picked him and his crew up and then flew really close to the road just in case they had to land. But he made it home safe and soaked. lol I had his hoodie waiting for him so that he could get out of his wet shirt. We ate dinner, took a shower, and headed to bed.

Tree Planting Day 45, July 18^th, (Shift 11, Day 3):

                Today started out well. We got up and get ready for the day. Somehow we lost one of Richard’s bandannas so now he only has one, which means that I wash it was soon as he gets home and hope it dries by the next morning. Unfortunately, because the air was so wet from the rain last night, the bandanna was still soaking wet. It dried pretty quickly in front of the dry bus heater though. J lol His hoodie was still a little damp too but I dried it too so it was all nice and warm when he put it on. J Thankfully, I had washed his other pair of pants so he was able to change pants and have a nice dry outfit to head out to work in today (even his shoes dried out!).

                Once I got him sent off I did the dishes and then sat with Bonnie and Lesley for a few minutes talking. The next thing I know, Bonnie starts throwing chocolate rocks at Lesley trying to ring her mouth. So for the next ten minutes or so Bonnie through chocolate while Lesley and I tried to catch them. I got two, Lesley got none; hahahaha (I am the Master Commander! J).

                After the whole chocolate escapades, we were talking and noticed a squirrel that kept peeking it’s nose in through the screen door. So, we set a trap for it. We baited a rice crispy box with some kind of peanut butter, chocolate, rice crispy concoction and waited for the squirrel to come back. He slowly followed the trail of food into the box and I jumped to close the lid. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough. He shot out of that box so fast! lol It was so funny.

                Well, that was so fun and work so well that we decided to try it again with a better container. We took a big bucket and baited it with the same stuff. We then had two squirrels fighting over it. One of them jumped into my lap and was trying to get in the bucket that way; the other took off running around in the cook shack! I was so close to getting that stinkin’ squirrel. It was walking along the rim of the bucket but I didn’t think I would be able to push it in and close the lid fast enough so I left it alone and lost my chance.

                Bonnie thought it was the coolest thing ever that I didn’t freak out when the squirrel jumped into my lap. She said she probably would have screamed and tried to hit it. lol I told her about how I used to work at a squirrel refuge so I’m kind of used to them jumping on me. J lol Anyway, we had a blast for two hours trying to catch these slippery, bold squirrels. But then, all of a sudden, they ran off into the woods and we didn’t see them again. We found out why just a few minutes later.

                I had just gotten back from cleaning the tent and was trying to get the laundry done when it started raining. At first it was just a sprinkle so I figured I’d be ok. But then I started seeing lightening off in the distance and the thunder was getting pretty loud. So I headed inside with Lesley and Bonnie. Boy am I glad I did! lol That was a thunder storm worthy of Alabama weather. It was so loud and the lightening was striking it seemed right outside. The thunder was shaking the window panes and the rain was pouring. The storm didn’t last very long but it soaked everything. lol

                Once the rain had passed, I headed back out to finish the laundry and it’s been a bright sunny day ever since. lol I hope all the planters are ok and that they didn’t get hit by that. It would be pretty dangerous out there in a big open field with that much lightening striking all around.  (The only cover they have is a tarp.) If they did get wet at least the warm sunlight and the slight breeze will have them dried out pretty quickly.

*

                It thunder stormed the rest of the day, pouring down rain up to the point where everyone came home. The earliest planters were an hour late; Richard came in at 8:40. The first thing he told me after giving me a kiss was that he was not taking a shower, he would wash his face and arms but he was going to bed. lol As he got all his stuff unpacked and changed his shoes I went in and made his plate for him.

                We ate dinner, got him cleaned up a bit, and headed to bed. It was so cold though that we were both shivering. So we snuggled real close and I burrowed deep into the sleeping bag…we got so warm! It was amazing, I slept so well. lol

                We also found out one of the reasons why everyone was late coming into dinner. Lionel (one of the planters) got stung by a bee or something and, though he had never had a problem before, started having a really bad allergic reaction. When his throat started swelling they flew him out in the helicopter and took him straight to the Emergency Room in Grande Prairie. He came back later that night but he spent most of the day in the ER.

                Anyway, that was why they were behind today. They had to plant so many trees but the trees are delivered by helicopter so some of the guys ended up waiting an hour or so for more trees because the chopper was busy taking Lionel to the hospital.

Tree Planting Day 16, June 19^th, (Shift 6, Day 1):

                Ah, the sound of rain…a reminder that we are back at camp and starting another shift. Here we go! We got up early because no one knew if they were on the early or late shift…turns out we’re back on the late! (Woohoo! We get an extra thirty minutes of sleep!)

                The day was slow, all the clothes had been cleaned so I had nothing to do there. I helped Lesley get the dishes done pretty quickly and then there was nothing to do. So, I headed out into the woods. I took a nice hefty stick and my cell phone and took off walking. For about two hours I walked through the woods, following the road. I went all the way down to the river (10 minutes if you stay on the road and don’t wander to look at anything) and even went a bit deeper in the woods and found an old planting block (field, for those of you not in on the lingo). It was a so much fun, my legs were tired afterward from having to cross so many logs (remember, no controlled burns), and my boots were completely soaked through. (It took me three pairs of socks to dry them out!)

                I then decided to have lunch. I tried to write some on this journal but it just wasn’t working, Hidalgo was more interesting. lol

                April made chocolate oatmeal cookies (oh yes!) and then let me lick the pot (best thing ever!)…and then we watched The Two Towers.

                Not very long after that, Richard came home (in the helicopter! Oh yeah!). He was so happy! It seems that he is getting back his rhythm. He’s been planting more trees in less time, even if the land is bad he’s been doing pretty good. At one point during the day he was doing a box of 315 trees in an hour! I love it when he comes back all smiling and happy, it makes my day J

                We took a shower, had dinner, and then went back to our tents to finish watching Thor (I had charged my computer this time J).

                While we were at dinner we found out that there had been a bear in camp. It had trampled Rhett’s tent sometime during the day. That night Richard and I heard a gunshot…the bear had come back and Rhett took a shot at it. It ran off into the woods so we don’t know if he hit it or not. We’re hoping it doesn’t come back.

                Lesley’s boyfriend called (he’s tree planting in British Columbia, on the West coast…I think, I’m still learning my geography lol) and told her that just the week before, one of their friends had been charged by a grizzly while out in the field. I thought it was interesting that we had a bear in camp the same day we heard about another close encounter with some other tree planters.

                The reason the bear came into camp is because people keep leaving food and empty cans in and around their tents. We’ve warned them but they’re not listening…sigh…we’ll see what happens.

                I finally talked to Rhett, because the out-houses were getting really full, and nicely reminded him that, though the tree planters only have to use them for a couple of hours a day, the kitchen staff has to deal with them all day. Thankfully he agreed that something needed to be done and said he would get on it. That night, the foremen all got out and dug new bathrooms. Oh they are amazing!

Tree Planting Day 17, June 20^th, (Shift 6, Day 2):

                No rain this morning! It was amazing and warm and sunny….ah…just nice. It was also nice that we got to sleep in 30 more minutes! hehehe

                We got to the kitchen for breakfast and they were serving grilled cheeses….for breakfast! Have you heard of anything so absurd!? lol It was interesting, that’s for sure.

                Richard’s boots were still a little wet from the day before so he tried to dry them off some more in front of the heater in the dry bus and ended up burning the tops of them! lol It was kinda funny. They’re not ruined…just crispy…hehehehehe.

                I got him off to work, did the dishes, and cleaned the tent. Then I sat down to type this out…As I was typing, a spider started crawling across the top of the vestibule of the tent. So, I slowly lean forward and slapped it. Now it’s gone…like I can’t find it anywhere…it’s probably crawling around inside my tent….*shiver*…I checked myself all over and looked around where I am sitting but to no avail. This spider has gone MIA and its making me antsy…lol…I just know I’m going to find it crawling on me! *shiver*

                I stopped in the cook shack to drop off my laptop while I did the laundry and as I’m walking out the door, here comes Bonnie in nothing but a towel. I chuckle and ask her if she’s missing something. She just smiles. Apparently the heater for the shower wasn’t working.

                Now, Bonnie has her own shower bag (where you fill a bag with hot water, hang it up, and open the nozzle at the bottom to get the water flowing) and usually uses the extra shower stall that we have just for those. But for some reason she decided today to use the regular shower and it didn’t work. lol So she was headed for the hot water tap in the cook shack to fill up her bag so she could take a shower. lol It was pretty funny.

                After that little distraction, I did the laundry, my stitches in his shirts are still holding (even after being washed in a machine)…yes!...and stuck the sleeping mat out to dry. Now I just pray it doesn’t rain…

                I ate lunch and then decided to wander around camp (within the bear fence lol). As I was crossing over the fence one of the woodpeckers flew down and snatched a moth out of the air right in front of me! If I had wanted to, I could have reached out and touched it. It was so cool!

                Later I set up our hammock and enjoyed reading as I swayed in the sunlight. I noticed that the sky was getting darker so I hurried to put up the hammock and grab the laundry. Now I await my husband’s arrival. J He should be here soon.

*

                Oh man, the planters were in a philosophical mood tonight. We had a new planter (Chris) come in for dinner and as we were passing him to get in line for the food I heard him ask the girls next to him if they were “religious”. I chuckled and knew that as soon as Richard and I prayed over our food we would be labeled by this new guy.

                Well, we got our food and Richard set us down in front of Chris, again I chuckled, Richard had no clue about the conversation I had overheard. Then Kelly (an atheist turned spiritual/intelligent design) sat on Richard’s left. We bowed our heads and prayed like we do every meal and I noticed Chris watching. lol

                As we were eating I could hear the conversation going on at the table behind us and I could tell by the look on his face that Richard was listening intently. (They were talking about predestination, freewill, and couple of really heady philosophical subjects that I don’t remember.) I put my hand on Richard’s knee, hoping that he wouldn’t turn around and get in on it (they would all jump on him together and he wouldn’t get a good word in), he turned and smiled at me. “You hear what they’re talking about?” I asked. He just nodded his head and continued to eat, with the same off focus look telling me he was still listening. I laughed and turned to my food.

                I looked up at the new guy at the table and started talking to him. I asked him if he was into philosophical and theological discussion, because, if so, he was in the right camp (you would not believe the thing these planters discuss, I think they’re trying to be new Platos or something! lol). He laughed and said that we should all just drink beer and play cards. Then he said that I probably did like theological discussions because I looked like a very religious person. I chuckled and told him that I didn’t consider myself religious and explained the difference between religion and true Christianity (opening the door for the Gospel if he wanted to pry any farther). At that point though, Kelly jumped in from the other end of the table and asked if it would be wrong for someone to call me religious if that was their view point (subjective truth/reality). I cocked a half smile and watched as Richard’s face lit up; he was ready for this one. lol

                While my husband got my back on that one, I continued to talk with Chris. Just talking about anything to try and befriend him. Meanwhile I was listening to Richard and Kelly to my left.

                Kelly would jump from point to point, use circular reasoning, and invalid arguments to try and prove that it wasn’t wrong to choose to not to follow God. He had given us our freewill to exercise so if we chose to ignore Him it was glorifying to Him, because it showed that He had given us complete free will. So they were not really rebelling, thus we cannot say that an unbeliever is rebelling against God; they’re just exercising their freewill.

                At that point, another planter (Dillon) heard Richard trying to explain the rebelling of sinful man and  brought up the whole child in the jungle who never heard the Gospel scenario. I knew Richard would try to answer him too, so I fended off that attack from the back. I just told him that that wasn’t what we were discussing. He shrugged his shoulders and went to go get his food (he didn’t really want an answer, the planters just like to argue for argument’s sake. Reminds me of the Greeks and their rhetoric.)

                Anyway…eventually another planter (Carson, a Mormon-Christian mixed something-or-other) came over and started asking questions about the reliability of the Gospels and who their authors were...stuff like that. Those questions we could answer because he really wanted to know, unlike Kelly, he wasn’t just arguing. Apparently the questions he was asking us were ones he had had for a while and at one point said, “What were the other questions I had, now that I can get answers.” It was great talking to him and I could join in on this conversation.

                So, it was an interesting dinner. lol Oh yeah, Richard planted 6 boxes today! Yes! He was pretty happy J

 

Tree Planting Day 18, June 21^st, (Shift 6, Day 3):

                No rain again…I’m getting spoiled. lol Richard was almost late for the truck…what a fiasco that was lol. He was ready to go on time, saw he had a few minutes left and ran to do something. As soon as he was gone they decided they were going to leave early. I ran up to the truck and let David know that Richard wasn’t loaded up yet,  put all his stuff in the back, and ran off to go find him. He then realized that he hadn’t gotten his gloves (he needed a new pair) so I ran to the tent, grabbed one glove (the new one for his planting hand) and then ran to the dry bus to get his other one (the old one for his shovel hand). I felt like a baton racer as he ran up grabbed the gloves, verified that his stuff was in the truck, and took off toward the vehicles. Whew, that was a lot of energy exerted so early in the morning. lol

                I then went into the cook shack, took a 10 minute nap J, and helped with the dishes. April and I talked about sports and competitiveness; it was great swapping stories, she talked about soccer and I talked about Tae Kwon Do.

                Now, the laundry’s been done, the tent cleaned, and lunch eaten. It is so nice outside! I can’t believe it. I took off my long johns and was contemplating unzipping the bottoms of my pants so I could wear shorts. I hope the planters have plenty of cloud cover.

                I found out today that we will moving camp in about 3 shifts to a new place north of Grande Prairie. That will be interesting. That means that everything (and I mean everything) has to be packed up and moved. Hopefully they’ll level out the cook shack a little better this time, we’re tired of everything running to the back wall of the trailer. It makes for some interesting cakes if the cooks aren’t paying attention, they get slightly lopsided lol. We’ll also have to dig new bathrooms. Oh boy.   

*

                It was so nice outside that I couldn’t handle being inside for another minute. I took off out the door and got the football from the car, then I hunted down the four guys who stayed back from work. They were all sitting around talking and listening to music so I walked and asked them if they knew how to play football. One of the guys jumped up saying he didn’t but he had always wanted to learn. We walked up the path a bit and then I taught him how to the throw the ball. We had a blast passing for about 30 minutes before another one of the planters came up and wanted to pass too. Eventually they had to stop…didn’t want to throw out their planting arms….

                So, I was bored again….I headed out to a flat area by the road and did a nice thorough Tae Kwon Do work out. It was really funny watching the truckers’ faces as they passed by and saw me jumping in the air punching and kicking nothing. lol I had a blast! I worked until my ankle started hurting and getting weak. By then I was breathing hard and sweating…felt good J

                When Richard got home I was telling him, over dinner, about my day and what all I had done. When I started telling him about playing football he got really excited and then when I explained that I couldn’t throw it far it cemented it in his mind that he needed to show me how. lol So after dinner, as we were waiting in line for the shower, we passed the ball. It wasn’t long before two other planters joined us (Tiki and Shane). Tiki was pretty good; she’s from South Africa where they play rugby so she’s used to chucking a huge ball. lol It was great!

                It got up to 68, woohoo! We also found out that, starting today, they upped the payment to 11 cents a tree. Yipee!

Tree Planting Day 19, June 22^nd, (Shift 6, Day 4):

                Happy Anniversary! (That’s how Richard woke me up this morning J) lol Our first month as a married couple. What an interesting month it has been. We’ve traveled from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Orlando, Florida to Birmingham, Alabama, then back to Jackson Hole, up to Coaldale, Alberta and finally to Grande Prairie. We’ve spent the majority of our married life, so far lol, in a tent in the woods and the rest in Hotel rooms. Oh man! lol what an interesting and exciting month it has been J

                Everything here is normal today, although it is really nice outside again. We got up and I decided not to put on my long johns because it felt so nice and I knew I would be taking them off again in just a couple of hours.

                I showed April how to use the shower (she normally used the shower bags too). It took us forever to get the pilot light on the shower lit (yes, the water was running lol) but after that I think it went pretty smoothly.

                It finally rained. lol In the late afternoon right before Richard came home. I had just finished watching a movie (Johnny English) and heard the thunder off in the distance. I ran out and got the clothes that were drying and pulled them in, with about 20 minutes to spare. lol   

                From what Brett was saying earlier it looks like they’re going to tack on another two days to this shift so they can finish up the spring plant. Then the guys will have three days off before they begin the summer plant on the 29^th. We’ll see what happens. lol This is the second time they’ve changed the plan today…

*

                Richard had a pretty bad day today. The land they were planting on was horrible, lots of fallen trees that literally covered the ground.

                We went and jumped in the shower and about half way through the generator ran out of gas! lol This means that the water no longer flows. So Richard wrapped a towel around himself (he wasn’t all soapy) and headed out to fill it up. It was at that point that we found out there was another planter showering in the other stall (oh yeah, they fixed the other shower so now we have two!) when she started yelling for someone to fill up the generator. We then find out that there is no more gas in the gas can so Richard grabs a planter who happens to be walking by and asks him to fill up the gas can. Then he sits outside and talks to Shane while we wait on the gas to come back. Meanwhile, me and the other planter sit and talk about our day through the walls of the shower stalls. It was all pretty hilarious! lol The gas came back about 5 minutes later and we were finally able to finish our showers.

                After dinner I started feeling pretty bad. My stomach was hurting and I was shivering like crazy. So we headed to the tent and relaxed with a movie until my computer died. Though I must say that we didn’t really relax…we were watching District 9, which we thought would be something like War of the Worlds or Battle Los Angeles, but no. It’s written like a documentary and it’s very convincing…lol it really looks real. Anyway, in the movie these aliens end up in their ship hovering over a town in Africa. After waiting a few months the people of earth decide that they’re going to cut their way in. When they do, they find these aliens who are about dead from disease and malnourishment. So, being the kind people that we are, we created a place for them to stay on earth, District 9. However, soon the aliens’ population began growing too much and they became very destructive and aggressive. It was decided that they needed to be moved to a new location outside of the city and steps were taken to do just that. The documentary follows the man who was in charge of moving them all out legally and safely. At one point he becomes exposed to some sort of liquid that powers the alien’s weapons and it makes him extremely sick. It was really gross and I have a feeling he’s spreading a plague but the computer shut off right when he passed out not long after he realized that his finger nails were falling off….eww. So anyway, after that I was sitting there in bed and had the stupidest thought, ‘What if I have a plague?’ Then I laughed at myself for being spooked by a stupid movie.   

                We sat and talked for the longest time. Richard couldn’t get to sleep because his legs were cramping. So I massaged them for a while and put the cream on them and that seemed to help.

Tree Planting Day 20, June 23^rd, (Shift 6, Day 5):

                I woke up warm and feeling better J Now I just have to get my throat to stop bugging me. lol I think I’m getting what all the other planters have/had/are about to have. lol Oh well, it was bound to happen at some point, I just hope it doesn’t last long and that I can nip it in the bud. Let’s go immune system, double time it!

                We found out this morning that they are not tacking on the extra days and instead are going with the original plan of an extra 2-3 day shift. Apparently one of the foremen spoke up and told them exactly what his planters would think of their 7 day shift plan and they decided they didn’t want a mutiny on their hands. lol Not to mention, the land is so bad that the planters aren’t able to move fast enough to finish in two extra days. Thus it would have ended up as a 7 ½ day shift…which would not have gone over well. All the guys are sore, tired, and most are sick. They need a day off to recuperate.

                Richard was not looking forward to work today, the bad land and all, but he set himself to it and decided that he was going to have a good day no matter what happened. I love him so much! lol I hope he does have a good day. It’s been overcast and chilly all morning and now it’s starting to drizzle so we’ll see. Sometimes the days that are miserable at camp are some of the best in the field.

                Oh, we also had a mosquito/gnat invasion this morning! Somehow they got into the cook shack and it took us a couple hours of chasing and slapping to thin them out enough that we weren’t getting bit every two seconds. lol It must have been funny watching us run around slapping at the air and yelling in triumph when we got one. lol

                I’ve got everything done for today and now I think I will kick back and watch….the Incredibles. J

Tree Planting Day 21, June 24^th, (Shift 6, Day Off):

                Our day off was pretty uneventful. We watched movies and hung out. I got to play fetch with Sawyer for a bit while we fixed Richard’s boots (some of the sole was coming undone at the toe). Richard submitted a design for the yearly t-shirt contest; if they pick your design you win $250. And finally, there is now another dog in camp. lol David went into town in the morning and came home with a dog that night. I have no clue what she is but she looks like a really small Australian shepherd and her name is Misty.

Tree Planting Day 22, June 25^th, (Shift 7, Day One):

                Back on the early shift…which means it is cold when you wake up! lol Oh well. I will say that I am so glad that Richard wakes up to an alarm clock. The reason being: I missed all of them. lol We normally set 4 or 5 alarms that start going off 30 minutes before we have to get up so that we can wake up slowly. As each one goes off Richard roles over, reaches over my head to turn it off, and then tells me how many minutes we have left. I heard the last alarm this morning and was rather shocked when he told me we needed to get up. lol He laughed at me when I gave him a confused look and asked if the other alarms had been set. Of course they had, I was just oblivious to him reaching over my head to turn them off. Oops. J

                After I sent Richard off, I headed back to the cook shack to wait for everyone else to leave so that I can do my chores. As I was sitting there I started talking to Shane who was on the second shift (lucky man) while he was eating breakfast. Somehow we got onto the subject of obeying the law…not sure now how that happened…but he said that we should follow the law unless it was a stupid one that didn’t make any sense. I chuckled and said, “You’re a Christian, right?” He said yes and I laughed, “I could so quote Paul to you right now.” He looked at me confused so I told him that Paul had taught that you must follow the laws of man unless they directly contradict the law of God. Then and only then were you allowed to break the law. I heard him mumble under his breath, “You can’t take all of that literally…” I laughed again and replied, “You can’t pick and choose what in the Bible you are going to follow.” He just shook his head and said that he didn’t want to “get into this” right now. So I changed the subject and we talked about his day off. Interesting conversation, now I know his view of the Bible.

                Once everyone was gone I did my chores. I so did not want to clean the tent. It always gets really messy on the day off and I knew I needed to sweep and set out the sleeping mat but I just didn’t want to. I got up and did it anyway. Once it was done I felt better. lol

                When we went into town last time, we picked Richard up another pair of pants so he can trade out each shift. So I had a pair of pants in the laundry along with the usual t-shirt and socks. Pants take forever because they’re so big and I can only scrub a portion the size of my hand at a time. But now they’re clean and dry and ready to be put away.

                I went out and played with Misty for a bit. We went running down the road and even took a short walk through the woods. She’s such a good dog! She doesn’t pull on the leash and she stays next to you pretty much the whole time. It is pretty funny though that she thinks she has to hold the leash in her mouth as she walks.

                She also likes to eat sticks. Earlier this morning I was doodling in the dirt as I sat next to her and she kept trying to grab the stick out of my hand. When it didn’t work with her mouth, she would stick her paw on my hand and roll it over so she could get a better angle. lol We wrestled for a bit and then I had to do dishes. It is so much fun to have a dog to play with again, makes me miss my dog, Cocoa. I was teasing Richard yesterday that we should get a dog…he laughed and said, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Oh well, can’t blame me for trying. lol (I know we can’t have a pet, we’re headed to college next and I don’t think they would appreciate us having an animal in their dorm rooms J)

*

                The guys were so late coming home I thought they might have decided to run away. lol Normally they’re here by 6:20 ish but today they didn’t come in until around 8! So while I waited I played with Misty; we wrestled. J

Tree Planting Day 23, June 26^th, (Shift 7, Day Two):

                Richard woke up at 3 this morning with a pretty bad cough and a sore throat. For those of you who don’t know him that well, this is not a good thing. lol My husband gets horrible colds that normally end with him having a cough for a month or two if it is not taken care of immediately. Thankfully Richard was thinking of long term as well and opted to stay back at camp.

                We got up at normal time so he could get breakfast and then I doped him up with Nyquil and sent him back to bed. There he stayed, asleep, until about 11! lol I went back to the cook shack to finish the dishes but once I was done I joined him in the sleeping bag. Oh it felt so good to get so much sleep!

                We finally got out of bed in order to have lunch. I made him some lemon tea with honey in it, to help his throat, and spent the day relaxing and keeping him out of the wind (which makes it worse).

                Around 6 we went and took a shower, got out….and there was still no one here. So we went and had dinner. It was kinda weird sitting in the cook shack eating dinner with no one else, but the cooks, around.

                Dinner was Lasagna but Bonnie loves to modify. She put spinach and carrots in it! lol Then she somehow convinced Richard to try her soup which looked like really runny baby food (it was supposedly a sort of puréed salad soup). Neither of us was very fond of it but he tasted it, which was more than I was expecting! lol -Bonnie is a vegetarian (one of 7 in camp) so she is constantly making crazy veggie sides and soups and it seems her goal in life to get us to try them all. lol We have had some of the craziest foods because of all the vegetarians in camp; Tofu steaks for instance…I don’t know how they eat half this stuff!-   

                Everyone else showed up at about the time we finished dinner so we sat and talked with them for a bit and then headed off to bed.

Tree Planting Day 24, June 27^th, (Shift 7, Day Three):

                Ugh! I hate being on the early shift. lol It always seems you’re getting up at such a horrible time, maybe it’s mental but that extra 30 minutes are amazing!

                 By the time we went to bed last night, Richard’s cold was pretty much gone so he went to work today. Thankfully this is the last day of this shift and the end of the Spring Plant! Now we get two days off! Woohoo!!!! (We plan on going into town for the day tomorrow or the next and spend it at the pool and in places that have free wifi so we can get online. lol Maybe we could even see a movie….hmmm…I wonder what’s out…)

                It is so windy today! It almost blew the awning that was covering the gas cans over. April and I had to run out and straighten it. lol I finished the dishes and cleaned the tent so I guess now we’ll see what the rest of today holds…

*

                They were home late again! lol

 Tree Planting Day 25, June 28^th, (Spring Break Day 1):

                We got up and headed out first thing this morning. Oh man my stomach was hurting so bad, and had been all night. Poor Richard, it was kinda funny listening to him try to breathe with a stuffed up nose. lol I can’t tell you how many times he woke me up and I just had to giggle because he sounded so funny and yet I felt so bad for him. J But, we needed to get some stuff done in town, so after a small breakfast (neither one of us was very hungry) of cinnamon rolls we loaded up into the car.

                On the way into town we saw either a brown bear or a small grizzly on the side of the road! I don’t know which it was because we only saw it briefly as it turned and ran back into the woods. I saw it sitting there staring at us and normally I’m pretty good at making sure Richard knows about any animals on the roadside but for some reason “bear” wasn’t registering in my mind. I just stared at it for a minute and then turned to Richard and said, “I think that’s a bear.”

                First things first: laundry, we went back to our favorite Laundromat with the sweet East Indian man. Then we went to Tim Horton’s for coffee and a snack…back to change the laundry over…over to McDonald’s to access the internet...pull the laundry out…and off to go swimming!

                We stopped at the Rec. center in Grande Prairie and, oh my gosh!, it is amazing! It had two indoor water slides, an Olympic sized swimming pool, a kids play area (complete with slides, huge water guns, and buckets on the ceiling that dump water on your head), a sauna, two hot tubs (one for families that wasn’t so hot, and one of adults that was pretty hot), 5 diving boards, and a surf pool. Unfortunately, that last one cost an extra ten dollars so Richard still hasn’t checked surfing off his bucket list…one day. J 

                We hung out in the hot tub for a while and then took a couple trips down the water slides. They were actually pretty good. lol Then I challenged Richard to a race in the lane swim area. That was fun. J I won! lol I swam the lane about five times before my arms started burning and I was ready to stop. lol

                Eventually we decided to check out the sauna. It was pretty cool…well hot…you get the point. lol (That was horrible but I couldn’t help myself! lol) There was another guy in there for a while but once he left, the fun began. We realized that the room echoed like crazy so Richard began doing some sort of Gregorian chant, which sounded really cool. Then I joined in with the tunes from some Lord of the Rings songs and it sounded so cool! We stopped abruptly when the lifeguard opened the door during their periodic inspection. Once she left we giggled like crazy and started up again. J

                We swam for a couple of hours before we decided that we needed to run some more errands before we headed home. As we were leaving the Rec. Center I realized how hungry I was…starving, my stomach was growling! lol I asked Richard if we could go get some dinner, he kinda brushed it off, “Yeah, we’ll get some soon. Can we do the shopping first?” I chuckled. “Umm, I’m really hungry…my stomach is growling.” He gave me this incredulous look, “You’re hungry!? I guess we better stop and get something then.” lol My husband is under the impression that I never get hungry (because I normally don’t) and finds this absolutely crazy seeing as I eat so little (or so he believes, compared to him…yes but he’s twice my size!). lol So, when I say that I’m hungry he normally gets food right then and makes some sort of crack about marking it on the calendar. lol

                We had dinner at A&W and we shared a Root-beer float. J hehehe Then we got the shopping done and decided that, instead of spending 20 bucks on one movie at the theater, we would spend it on 4 movies that we could watch throughout the next month. We got some good ones from the $5 bin at Wal-Mart.

                Back to McDonalds one more time, to make sure that everything was covered, all emails and messages went through and then off back to the woods.

                We got in the car to leave town and I was surprised that Richard jumped in the driver’s seat (he had said earlier that he wanted me to drive on the main road back to camp) but I figured he had changed his mind. We had some great conversations on the way back and saw a momma black bear with a cub (that makes 3 bears in one day!). Then all of a sudden Richard looks at me and says, “I can’t believe it!” I just stared at him. “How did you get me to drive the whole way?” I laughed…”I didn’t really think that much about it, you jumped in the driver’s seat.” He laughed in return, “You sneaky woman.” J

                Once we got back to camp we unloaded the car and pulled out The Last Samurai (one of our new movies). We found out at that point that, besides Jeremy, we were the only ones in camp. David left right after we got there. It was so nice, to have the whole sleeping area to ourselves and to not see any people when you walk through the camp. J

Tree Planting Day 26, June 29^th, (Spring Break Day 2):

                 I think we slept in until 10….40. J Then we had a brunch of waffles and then back to the tent to watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it’s a good movie and Richard had never seen it. Then we pretty much just hung out in the tent until we got hungry enough for dinner. Made some soup from our “off day” storage in the trunk of his car and watched Déjà Vu (another fun movie).

                About the time we finished the movie was when everyone started showing up. Vans and cars started pulling into camp and then the truck with the grocery pick showed up so we helped unload that. We also noticed a lot of people walking around that we had either never seen before or had not seen this season. Apparently we have some new people. lol There’s about 11 of them. Six will be leaving after this shift (they had a week off from their other tree planting jobs in B.C. and decided to fill that week with work here) but the other 5 are here to stay.

                Once the unloading was done we hurried off to bed so that Richard would get some good rest before the next shift began.

                Oh man the gnats were so bad. The Canadians call them “no-see’ums” but they’re not like the ones we have back home. Anyway, some of them were small enough to get through the mesh on the tent roof and had a blast biting anything not covered up in the sleeping bag. Once you get to sleep they’re not so bad. J

Tree Planting Day 27, June 30^th, (Shift 8, Day 1):

                First day back to work and we’re on the late shift. YES! We woke up rested and ready to go, slightly cold but it’s been worse. I got him ready about ten minutes early so we sat and talked for a bit then I headed in to get my chores done.

                They’ve switched up the cooks’ shifts now so instead of Lesley cooking breakfast and April being in there during the day, it’s Bonnie cooking breakfast and Lesley on day shift. I really missed my conversations with April; they always made the dishwashing times fun.

                Lesley’s boyfriend is here (he’s got 6 days off from tree planting in B.C. and decided to join her), so he was hanging out in the kitchen making almond milk…interesting stuff. lol He, like everyone else, was shocked to hear that Richard and I were married, and that we had only been married for a little over a month. lol

                There wasn’t much laundry to do. I had forgotten to hang out the towels and stuff from when we went swimming so I made sure to rinse them out really well and then hung them in the sun. I cleaned the tent up and put everything back in its place, so now I feel ready for a new shift. Everything is ready to go and set up so that we know where everything is and we can get to it when we need it. Thankfully Richard likes to have a system too, so I set it up and he stays with it. J

                Well, now I need to study. lol In order to keep money coming in while we’re in college I’m going to try to work with the school bus system there in Wisconsin. Apparently NTBI (the college we’re going to) has partnered with the bussing system so that its students can drive the busses during the school year as they take classes. They’ve even made the class schedules conform to the bus schedules so that students won’t miss any. It’s pretty cool and it makes good money. What I didn’t know is that they would send you an entire book on bus driving and then expect you to take a test on it when you got there. I guess I should have expected that…but I didn’t. lol The bus company sent it to my parents’ house in Alabama and it would take three weeks to send it to me here through the mail (the Canadian postal service really is snail mail lol). So my parents’, being the wonderful people that they are, scanned each page of the workbook into the computer and sent it to me via email (one of the things that I had to get to town for). Now that I have it, I must study it…here we go!

                So, after studying for a bit I thought it would be nice to watch a movie. I grabbed out Spiderman 3, one of the ones we bought the other day, and cut open the wrapper. I did this only to find out there was no disk in the case! lol So, for 5 bucks we bought an empty movie case…what do I do with it now? lol I would normally take it back to the store but we won’t be going into town anytime soon…I’ll ask Richard what he wants to do when he gets home. Oh man..lol

                Oh yeah, it seems that something has happened to Misty. She was in camp this morning but as soon as David left for work she ran off and didn’t come back. The last few days she’s been allowed to run loose because she doesn’t really leave camp for any period of time, or at least she didn’t used to. I saw her this morning while I was doing the dishes but come 2 we still hadn’t seen her. Lesley headed out with her boyfriend to try and find her but I haven’t seen them since then. I wonder where they went…

*

                Richard got back around 7:15 and we had dinner. Afterwards I saw David and asked him if he’d seen his dog. He told me that he had heard she was gone. As we were walking out of the shower later we saw David with Misty. Apparently she had been stuck in his tent all day! She had scratched or chewed her way in and then couldn’t get out…oops. lol He took it well though; didn’t get too upset.

                Later we were trying to go to sleep and one of the squirrels kept jumping out of the tree and onto the roof of the tent. It was pretty funny. lol Richard and I sat inside laughing as the whole thing shook around us.

  Tree Planting Day 28, July 1^st, (Shift 8, Day 2):

                Happy Canada Day! lol We woke to rain again, that hasn’t happened in a while. lol Well, I traded the stomach problems for a sore throat. I think I got it from Richard. lol Shame on him. J

                After he went off to work I went in to do the dishes. I was so tired that I fell asleep while they were cleaning up. lol Lesley came over and woke me up so I could wash. Once I finished I did the other chores that needed to be done and then went to bed.

                As I finished the clothes I realized it wasn’t raining anymore and the sun was shining. I looked at the sky trying to figure out how long it would last (I wanted the hang the clothes up outside because it doesn’t take as long but if it was going to rain I would just put them in the dry bus). The sky seemed clear on the horizon so I decided to leave them outside and went to bed.

                I woke up 3 hours later and it was raining, figures. Oh man. lol I rolled over and headed out to get the clothes expecting them to be soaked. Thankfully it wasn’t raining too hard so they had just gotten sprinkled on. I hung them up in the dry bus to finish drying.

                Then I had lunch and helped out in the kitchen. I shucked corn (felt like I was back at my Grandma’s house back when she had the garden) and peeled and chopped potatoes.

                After that I really didn’t have anything to do so I made phone calls. lol I hadn’t talked to my family in a while. It was a blast to hear from them and to hear about how everything was going at home.  I got the recipe for the Kentucky Pie that is a favorite at our house and gave it to Lesley. We’ll see if she wants to make it or not…I hope she does, I love that pie!

                Now I’m just waiting on Richard to get home. Yesterday I ran up to him from behind, he turned around and saw me at just the right time to pick me up and spin me around…J it was great! hehehe 

*

                He came home at about 7 with a hole in his pants again! That man, I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. lol If I keep having to patch his clothes I’m going to run out of thread soon! (I told him so, he just laughed at me J)

                He was so happy when he came home! Morgan (one of the tree checkers) had showed him how to area plant, instead of the straight lines that they normally do. After Richard implemented this technique the planting started going a lot faster and he almost passed his season’s personal best! J 

                We went and had dinner and then off to take a shower. It was really warm and felt great to me, Richard was a little hot but once he went to sleep he said it felt great. lol The gnats got in again, we have an idea on how to keep them out but I’m not telling you what it is until we know whether it works or not! lol J

Tree Planting Day 29, July 2^nd, (Shift 8, Day 3):

                It was really nice and warm this morning when we woke up. We both had so much energy! lol I really don’t know where it came from but I was wide awake by the time we needed to get up and felt happy and energetic (as long as I didn’t stop moving lol). I got Richard ready for work and then headed in for mine.

                Thankfully, my cold is just about gone. My throat doesn’t hurt anymore and the stuffy nose is clear. I’m hoping it stays that way. J I think Richard’s is clearing up too, but with the way he is (he’s always got something in his throat or nose lol) it’s hard to tell. lol

                The dishes took a lot longer this morning. There were so many! Oh man I don’t where they all came from! lol I finally got those conquered and headed off to finish the other chores.

                Speaking of chores…Max (a veteran planter) came up to me right after they came in the other day and asked if I charged by the kilo when I did laundry. Apparently he’s pretty jealous of Richard’s clean clothing…hehehehe J (slightly proud lol) I don’t know if he was serious about me cleaning his clothes or not because he dropped the subject and walked away…but, it’s still pretty cool.

                After the clothes were washed I sat down and listened to David Platt while I stitched up the hole in Richard’s work pants. I hope it holds! lol He’s so rough on his clothes…he says it’s the job but I don’t know, I think it’s partly him…lol J

                I was talking to Lesley earlier and she had a pretty funny story. Richard and I have been praying that the planters here would notice a difference in us. More than just our words but in our actions as well, we want them to see the love we have for each other and to reflect the relationship that Christ has with the church. Well, you remember when I ran up to Richard and he spun me around?...Lesley told me that she and Ananda (her boyfriend) were sitting talking as they watched me run up to my husband. The next day Ananda comes back from work (he decided to go planting because he was bored…weird guy lol) and heads to their tent. Lesley had gone in to take a nap and he found her in there. Apparently he woke her and asked her why she didn’t greet him like I greeted Richard. lol He said, “Isn’t that how the couples around here greet each other?” lol She laughed at him and said that when she married him, she might greet him like that.

                Other people have made remarks on how much dedication I must have to follow my husband up this far. I figure, we’re married, I follow. lol The girls have also commented on Richard’s chivalry saying that it’s a rare thing nowadays. (I know J ) So, they’re noticing but I hope it leads them to ask questions. There was one person (Jeremy) who didn’t know we were married (Richard can’t wear his ring during the work week because it goes on his shovel hand and would bruise his fingers really bad) but we’ve tried to make sure that it’s common knowledge that we’re married. (“Avoid even the appearance of evil”…and all that stuff.) We don’t want to be pushed into the category of partners (the term they use when a boyfriend and girlfriend live together) like other couples in camp.

                Now I’m debating whether or not to wash these pants I just mended or leave them…so tempting…lol.

*

                I went to go wash those pants and found another hole…in the butt this time! lol Out comes the sewing kit again. What did I tell you? lol

 Tree Planting Day 30, July 3^rd, (Shift 8, Day 4):

                The rain is back…lol…it was so cold and rainy this morning. We got ready quickly and tried to stay warm. Once I sent Richard off I got the dishes done and then drank some hot chocolate while I waited to see if the rain would stop so I could do the clothes. It never did, so I headed out into the rain to get the chores done.

                By the time I was finished in the tent I was shivering and my hands were freezing. I was so happy to do the laundry (the water from that tap only comes out warm so I got my hands to thaw out). After cleaning the clothes it was still raining so I hung them up in the dry bus.

                Now, Lesley is the one who works in the kitchen in the middle of the day (at least for this shift) and she doesn’t like anyone in there while she’s working so April and I sat in the Weather Haven (the extra seating area inside a big tent thing). April (the Canadian mind you) was wearing a winter jacket, a scarf, a hat, and holding a cup of hot chocolate. We tried to sit and watch a movie but about half way through we couldn’t take it anymore. We had had to move our chairs once already because water was leaking through the roof onto the table and my back and now it was dripping on her. Thankfully, Lesley let us into the cook shack. Oh man it felt so good to walk into the warmth! I had a glass of hot chocolate and tried to warm up. The rest of the day we spent inside unless we absolutely had to go out.

                Lesley and Ananda were heading into town today (he had to leave and go back to work), so as soon as she was done with her duties they set to packing. I got to show them some of my wedding pictures and we talked while they finished up. We all said goodbye and thought they had left when all of a sudden here they come back inside; the van won’t crank.

                I ran out to our car and grabbed the jumper cables and hooked them up but for some reason they wouldn’t work. Now, I did have two guys there helping me with this whole thing and I do know how to jump a car, so it wasn’t that I was doing it wrong…for those of you who would laugh (like Richard did) and ask me how I did it. I did it right! lol So anyway…We found another pair of cables and using Richard’s car, gave them a jump. All this done in the pouring rain…Oh man it was so cold! After that fun incident Lesley and Ananda left, however, the fun was not over for them yet. I heard later that they ended up with a flat tire at one point too. lol They got to town though! lol 

                It rained all day without letting up. It wasn’t the crazy downpours like I’m used to from back home but it was steady and would still soak you pretty quickly.

                I was relaxing with a movie when the kitchen erupts in a flurry of activity. The planters had come home two hours early! We immediately set to cleaning up the tables and I helped them get the dinner ready (they had just started the burgers and weren’t supposed to be ready for another two hours). Once Richard’s van arrived I headed out to help him out.

                I found him in the dry bus shivering in front of the big heater trying to warm up and dry off (this tells you how cold it was, I have never seen Richard so cold he was shivering). So we went out to take a shower and warm him up. Unfortunately everyone else had the idea as well.

                We ended up waiting about 15 minutes for a shower so we had to find a place out of the rain where we could watch the showers and thus keep our spot. Brett’s camper trailer is parked right next to the shower area so we hunkered down under the front lip (where the trailer connects to a truck). Once the shower was over we headed to the cook shack to try and stay warm.

                Funny enough, everyone was in there too! lol We stood around and watched a game of Risk while we waited on dinner to be ready. Richard took this opportunity to explain to me the basics of the game (I’m still not sure exactly how to play, it’s very complicated) lol.

                As I talked to the other planters I realized just how miserable it was for them out there! Some of the guys were borderline hypothermic, they were shaking like crazy, and some had their feet and hands go completely numb. It was about 38 degrees (that’s in Fahrenheit by the way; for all you Canadians that would be about 5 degrees Celsius) outside and they were out there without any cover in freezing rain. Most had rain gear but the rain here is so sporadic that they don’t take the time to put it on because they get too hot working with it on. So by the time they realized it wasn’t going to stop, and put on their gear, everyone was soaked through.  

                Apparently David, in an attempt to raise the troop’s morale, would go around to the different parts of the block where the planters were working and would take off running around it screaming at the top of his lungs “You’re warriors! You’re all warriors.” lol As far as I know, it worked for some. lol

                Eventually they decided to call it quits and everyone packed up into the vans and headed back to camp.

                After dinner we headed to the tent to watch a movie. We got about half way through before my computer died. lol So we went to bed and decided to watch the rest tomorrow.

                It was still raining and actually rained harder as we fell asleep. I could hear it drumming on the roof of the tent. Funny how it kinda sounds like popcorn popping…

P.S. They cut this shift short; today was the last day J made everyone happy.

Tree Planting Day 31, July 4^th, (Shift 8, Day Off):

                Ahhh…warmth. J It was nice this morning. lol We stayed in the tent until we were so hungry we couldn’t handle it anymore and then headed into the cook shack. After finishing our movie we joined a game of Spades. It really reminded me of all those nights around a table at a reenactment playing cards late into the night by lantern light. I think we played for 5 hours, at least that’s what Richard said. lol It was a blast. We lost twice (lol) and realized that we’re not quite in synch when it comes to card playing. J

                After dinner we headed to bed, we’re supposed to be on the early shift tomorrow so Richard needed to get some rest.

 Tree Planting Day 32, July 5^th, (Shift 9, Day 1):

                This morning was so cold! Oh man I was shivering but, as Richard keeps telling me, a cold morning means a hot day. So far he’s right. lol Today has been scorching (compared to what it has been). It’s supposed to get up into the 90s.

                We shivered through getting Richard ready for the day. Because of the day off and all the wetness of the last day of that last shift everything is slightly disorganized. lol For instance, his belt was in the dry bus but his pants were in the tent. Once we got everything in order we headed in for breakfast.

                It was at this point that we found out that we were not on the early shift. Last night, sometime after 9 they decided that they weren’t rotating shifts like they normally do. So Richard and I didn’t get the memo; we were already in bed. But oh well, we got to sit for an extra 30 minutes in the cook shack and talk with everyone as they came in. It was kinda nice. J

                We finished breakfast and then headed to the dry bus to get him decked out in his planting gear. His boots were still wet so he held them in front of the heater while I dried him another pair of socks and warmed up his hoodie. Thankfully, he was almost able to completely dry his boots.

                As we were finishing packing up I realized that Richard still had a Nalgene full of coffee. I asked him when it was from because I hadn’t seen him make anymore this morning.

                “Two days ago” was his reply.

                “Richard.” I said.

                He shrugged and smiled sheepishly, “It’s just coffee and I figured it would stay cold.”

                I laughed and told him that because he put creamer in it, a dairy product, it would go bad and he couldn’t drink it after it stayed in his bag two entire days. So I ran inside really quick and made him another bottle full, hopefully he drinks this one. lol I’m really going to have to keep an eye on him and the perishable foods and liquids. lol

                Once all the planters were gone, I cleaned up the smoothie table (my new job) and did the dishes. Then I started on the chores. Today, for some reason, I had a lot of energy so I really cleaned. lol I rearranged the tent (we’ll see what Richard’s says to determine whether it stays that way or not) and swept under everything. I pulled out the sleeping bag, opened it up, brushed it clean, and then left it in the sun for a while to air out. I also pulled out the sleeping mat so that it could dry.

                As I was moving stuff around I found two spots where holes had been worn through the floor. I quickly duct taped  them to keep them from getting worse. They weren’t big and I wasn’t worried, but we don’t want to get to that point. lol Better safe than sorry. J

                Then I headed to do the laundry. I pulled out Richard’s wet stuff from the day before and another shirt. This extra shirt was the one I had cleaned already and hung up in the dry bus. Unfortunately, when planters come home wet they don’t care where they hang their clothes as long as they’re hung up on the line. So the shirt was under some else’s and it was all wet and stinky. Thus I had to rewash it…oh well.

                When I picked up the socks to wash them, I thought they looked kinda weird, the wrong color or something. Richard’s socks are a tan-ish color and these seemed a light gray-ish blue, but I just figured it was the dirt and mud. As I continued to wash and scrub I really began to doubt whether these were my husband’s. Number one, they were way too dirty. Richard never gets his socks that dirty. Number two, they were slightly fuzzy and frayed. Richard’s are not. Number three, that blue color was just getting brighter and brighter. Hmmm…

                So, I headed back to the dry bus to see if maybe I had picked up the wrong socks. Sure enough, there, crumpled on the floor, all wet and slightly dirty, were my husband’s tan socks. I headed back to the sinks and, after a moment’s deliberation, decided to finish that other pair and then wash Richard’s as well (someone got a clean pair of socks lol). I even washed the sheet covering the sleeping mat.

                Man, I was starting to sweat standing at the sinks. I took off my fleece top and was considering unzipping my legs so I could have shorts (still considering it as a matter of fact lol). It is so hot! lol Whew. Feels good. There’s a slight wind blowing, just enough to keep you from overheating, but the sun is beating down from a partially cloudy sky and it feels so good! I just want to go swimming now. It reminds me of my grandma’s house and all those summer days I spent in the pool. J Ah! Anyway, enough about the weather…lol.   

                I wasn’t the only one doing laundry today. April forgot to take the kitchen towels and washcloths into town with her yesterday which means they didn’t get washed. This morning we ran out of towels. So Bonnie rolled up her sleeves and washed them all by hand with bleach water and a scrub brush. Then she tied a piece of twine from the gas shelter to the cook shack and hung them all out to dry. It was kinda cool to see them all hanging there in the breeze. Felt like an old timey movie, or like hanging out at your grandparents’, who don’t use a dryer. lol

                Once all the chores were done I sat down and watched a sermon while I ate lunch. Then I started writing on this. Wow, my day is almost done. lol It went fast today; Richard should be home within the next 2-3 hours. J

*

                They came home just a little late this time. lol Richard was so happy and excited; he had almost reached 2,000 trees (just 5 away).

                We ate dinner first because it was taco night and if you don’t get in there early all the good toppings might be gone. After dinner we took a shower and then off to bed.

Tree Planting Day 33, July 6^th, (Shift 9, Day 2):

                This morning I woke up cold with a voice that kept cracking. lol Richard warmed me up pretty quickly by completely wrapping me up in his arms and legs. He was so warm and it felt great!

                We headed in for breakfast and then out to get him ready to go. The heater was on in the dry bus so we had that to keep us warm while he changed his shoes and stuff. Once I got him loaded up and into the van I headed in to do the dishes.

                As I as washing Lesley came in and said she was leaving for the day. She had had a small circular rash on her arm for the last while but no one she had asked knew what it was. Finally, today she asked Brett and he told her it was ringworm. So she decided it was best she head into town, visit the doctor to get some medication to get rid of it, and wash all her clothes and sleeping bag. So…who’s going to do the dessert for tonight?...apparently me. lol

                Bonnie came up to me, with Lesley, and asked if I would be willing to take on Lesley’s jobs for the day. I said no problem. So, after I finished the dishes I baked two cakes with icing made from scratch (a peanut butter cake with chocolate icing and a chocolate cake with peanut butter and chocolate icing, both with the Canadian version of Butterfinger crushed on top), cut up some cucumbers, swept and mopped the floors, and washed all the dishes I used. By the time that was all done it was about one o’clock.

                I was pretty tired so I headed back to my tent and rested for an hour. When I got up my voice was almost back though still strained but my throat was sorer (how does that work?). Now I need to hop on my chores for the day. Richard’s laundry still needs to be done, he’s got another hole in his pants that needs to be mended, and I need to study for that permit test some more (I forgot to yesterday, I was so busy lol).

                Oh, I hope they like the cake. I can’t wait to have a piece!

*

                The planters all started meandering back into camp around 7 and Richard got back at about 8. He was so tired he was about to fall over. It had been a hard day but he had made it and with some nice numbers as well. J We ate dinner (everyone loved the cake; oh man, it was so good…mmm), had a shower, and headed back to the tent where we watched some Transformers before we finally went to sleep….until we were awakened by a certain brother of Richard’s (*cough*…Brenton…*cough*) sending us a text message at 11:30. lol

                I was just about asleep and far enough gone that when the phone went off I mumbled to Richard, “Please tell me that’s not the alarm.” lol We got a good laugh out of it J

Tree Planting Day 34, July 7^th, (Shift 9, Day 3):

                It wasn’t very cold this morning but it sure is a scorcher of a day (guess that saying of Richard’s isn’t quite accurate lol). We went in like normal, got lunch, then breakfast, and headed to the dry bus to get Richard ready to go.

                Random cool thing: Part of getting Richard ready for the day is taping his hands with duct tape to give them some support and to protect them throughout the day. Well, many times I make the pieces too long and we have to cut them down. Those little nubs I stick on the knee of my pants so they don’t end up on the ground and so I’ll remember to throw them away later. The tape normally leaves a black outline on my pants after I pull it off. Anyway, today I looked down at my knee and realized that one of the shapes made the perfect superman symbol! It even almost has an “S” in the middle of it! It was so cool. lol I pointed it out to Richard and he laughed. I have Superman pants! lol 

                Anyway…I got the dishes done and then got on my chores. I realized yesterday that you really need more than a couple hours for the clothes to dry outside. The sun starts to create some pretty long shadows by 5 which cover the area where I normally hang the clothes. Because I got them out late the other day they weren’t quite dry and I had to hang them in the dry bus overnight. Poor Richard, it meant he didn’t have any work socks in the tent this morning but he did have normal socks so he wasn’t completely without. I just felt bad because I hadn’t gotten them done before he needed them…

                Now I can’t find my knife! I got back to the tent last night and it wasn’t in my pocket. I looked everywhere for it this morning and still nothing. Man…I liked that knife.

                I found out today that we’re moving camp in two shifts…so the proposed date is the 20^th. We’ll see if that actually happens. lol I talked Richard into going into town for our day off; I need to do laundry. At first he was hesitant until I told him that the new Spiderman movie was out, then “Ok, no problem, sounds great”. lol I can’t wait to see that movie, it looks so good!

                One more random thing, lol, my voice is almost back! I have a bit of a cough still and my voice sounds pretty pathetic. It’s not like when you’re losing it and it’s cracking like crazy, no, it’s just really high pitched and annoying. lol 

*

                They came back on time today! Yay! lol Unfortunately the cook shack had lost its propane tank  earlier in the day and dinner was so not ready. Something had happened to get the lines clogged or disconnected and so the propane wasn’t flowing to the stove or even the hot water tank. There was a lot of scrambling to try and figure out how to fix it.

                Dinner still wasn’t ready by the time Richard got here so we headed back to the tent to sit in our chairs in the shade of the vestibule. It was great to sit back, prop our feet up and relax without mosquitoes trying to pick you up and carry you away. lol

                Come about 8 o’clock we decided to go check to see if dinner was ready. Sure enough, it was. We had dinner then a sponge bath. It was still way too hot for Richard to take a shower. lol Once we were all cleaned up we headed to bed. It was about 11 before the temperature really started cooling down.

Tree Planting Day 35, July 8^th, (Shift 9, Day 4):

                We had a good morning. It was nice and cool but not really cold. I got Richard another jug of water for the day. Apparently yesterday he didn’t have enough water so he had started rationing it to make sure it lasted the day. Well, I won’t have that. lol So I found an empty milk jug and filled it up for him. He said he was going to bury it so that it got really cold while he was working.

                My voice was still messing up this morning. I could hardly talk at breakfast but a cup of hot chocolate warmed things up pretty quickly. Now I just need to get rid of this cough!

                By the time I got all the chores done for the day I was sweating. Man it is hot here and they are not equipped to deal with it. lol It was supposed to get up into the high 90s (that’s 32 for you Canadians) I was telling April that it may get hot in the south but at least they do something about it. lol There would be some kind of fan or window AC rigged up in a window to keep the cook shack cool. As it is they don’t even know if there is a fan in camp…lol I suggested we build a pool but no one seemed too enthusiastic. J Shelby said I should go to the creek but I’m not quite sure I want to tempt the bears…

                Tomorrow it’s supposed pass 100 (35 C) and they still have the planters out. Poor guys, they were so miserable yesterday. Thankfully, after today, they only have one more day of work before a day off. And…Brett is feeling sorry for them so tonight they get to party. J

                They’re having a barbeque for dinner and Brett is bringing in some beer and coke for them to enjoy. I think we’re even having ice cream for dessert. It should be a good night…if it’ll cool off! 

                Ok, that’s it, I’m putting on shorts…

*

                We had a great dinner. It started cooling off as the planters started arriving. Everyone was sitting around in lawn chairs eating their steak and drinking their beers. Brett and Marie, knowing that Richard and I don’t drink, picked up two root beers for us. They’re so sweet. J