Sorry about the lapse of blogging. I did, in fact, make it to Alaska. Skagway, Alaska to be exact. There was the most spectacular mountains I have ever seen, massive snow covered peaks coming right out of the ocean. Skagway is a dumpy little town except for one street off the ferry which has the most high class touristy stuff ever. Skagway is were the gold rushers headed to the Klondike landed. and nothing exciting has happened in the last hundred years so their still milking that glory. anyway nice mountains.
Before I started treeplanting I got a email saying that anything I bring along has a good possibility of getting broken. this has turned out to be true.
-bags - shoulder strap blew out the second week, I'm using Evan's spares
-rainshell - the zipper lost it's mind and is lopsidedly in the middle, so I have to pull it over my head and look like a homeless person
-wool sweaters - have holes in random places, looks like I got attacked by rodents
-gaiters - one of the foot straps snapped in half, so I duct tape it to keep it on my foot. That same gaiter now has a sizable rip across it.
-boots - boots a really great except the insoles where junk, that problem gaiter slit the laces and my kick plate chipped
-termarest - no longer holes air. so I start every night on a nice cushion and wake up on the ground
-tent - the zipper has gotten so bad I cut open the screen and am using that as the entrance.
The second law of thermodynamics [part of the curse] aside I am actually doing alot better treeplanting. I got 4th, 3rd, and tied for 2nd last week. Mostly because I found a great planting partner.
Matthew 6:19,20 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."
This helps to put everything in perspective for me. Even though lots of stuff breaks [I'm sure I've forgotten a few things] the real value is stored in heaven and that spiritual value is of so much more value. In a few verse Jesus will go on the say that one cannot serve both God and money. Which should in theory be an easy choice because money is such a fickle thing to serve because it always disappears.
~CHAD
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
"Your Much Hairer Than I Remember"
That was the first thing Amber [Evan's soon to be wife] said to me when we got to Whitehorse at 4:30 AM. That's right Whitehorse, like in the Yukon Whitehorse, like brutally far away Whitehorse, like so far north I doesn't get dark until after midnight Whitehorse.
So we have a few day break between spring and summer plant so I tagged along with Evan [my friend/foreman] to Whitehorse. Did you know that 20 hours on a greyhound bus is a horrendously long time? well it is. Nice mountains but really long and hard to sleep in poorly designed seats. But Whitehorse is a really nice city and its all one big adventure because I've never been hear before.
So far the highlight of treeplanting has been Kinuseo Falls. None of the picture on the net do it justice but here is an okay one.
http://www.nbctourism.com/img_user/communities/Kinuseo.jpg
Anyway this a stop along the road on the way home from a brutal day of planting [on 20 cent land] [which means 70 degree angle hills] and it was a long hard day that I did make some money on. So this waterfall was a great reward. and then Evan and I scaled up the sheer rock face five feet from the waterfall just for a challenge. I even brought up the red umbrella that was half way up just to prove that we did do it. it was amazing. The verse that came to mind upon seeing the waterfall in all its magnificence was 'The fool says in his heart "There is no God"' Psalms 14:1.
So we have a few day break between spring and summer plant so I tagged along with Evan [my friend/foreman] to Whitehorse. Did you know that 20 hours on a greyhound bus is a horrendously long time? well it is. Nice mountains but really long and hard to sleep in poorly designed seats. But Whitehorse is a really nice city and its all one big adventure because I've never been hear before.
So far the highlight of treeplanting has been Kinuseo Falls. None of the picture on the net do it justice but here is an okay one.
http://www.nbctourism.com/img_user/communities/Kinuseo.jpg
Anyway this a stop along the road on the way home from a brutal day of planting [on 20 cent land] [which means 70 degree angle hills] and it was a long hard day that I did make some money on. So this waterfall was a great reward. and then Evan and I scaled up the sheer rock face five feet from the waterfall just for a challenge. I even brought up the red umbrella that was half way up just to prove that we did do it. it was amazing. The verse that came to mind upon seeing the waterfall in all its magnificence was 'The fool says in his heart "There is no God"' Psalms 14:1.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A Tribute
So today instead of blathering on and on about the high and lows of treeplanting [and I'm not just talking about falling down the steep hills] I'm going to work on fulfulling a commandment and honor my Father
My dad Rocks. He works super hard [I think he is coming off working back to back 80 hour weeks] and honestly I don't think I have ever heard him complain about his job. Ever. I also don't think he has ever asked for a raise or promotion, he just worked really hard and waited for them to come. My dad also is very good at reading peoples personalities and there were many times growing up when my personality got to get refined and edited and improved. It really sucked when it was happening but now out here I see people who have big obvious personality flaws. So I'm thankful for all the work my dad put into me. My dad is also a good friend. He loves me alot and never pushes his way into my life and offen he is the person who is able to best relate to me. He even is able to say 'you can do better than her' about the girl who let me down. Which blew my mind. Anyway my dad is the best one I've seen out there [in real life and on TV] and he is the person I miss the most out here.
~CHAD
My dad Rocks. He works super hard [I think he is coming off working back to back 80 hour weeks] and honestly I don't think I have ever heard him complain about his job. Ever. I also don't think he has ever asked for a raise or promotion, he just worked really hard and waited for them to come. My dad also is very good at reading peoples personalities and there were many times growing up when my personality got to get refined and edited and improved. It really sucked when it was happening but now out here I see people who have big obvious personality flaws. So I'm thankful for all the work my dad put into me. My dad is also a good friend. He loves me alot and never pushes his way into my life and offen he is the person who is able to best relate to me. He even is able to say 'you can do better than her' about the girl who let me down. Which blew my mind. Anyway my dad is the best one I've seen out there [in real life and on TV] and he is the person I miss the most out here.
~CHAD
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The Becoming....
Those of you who know me know that I'm not competitive in anyway. And those of you who really know me know that that's a big lie.
These last free weeks I've been sitting in the bottom third of my crew numbers wise. And I haven't let it bother me, with excuses like 'I'm still learning' and 'I'm competing against myself'. While two days ago something snapped and I just exploded back into highly competitive mode. I was able to funnel my rage into a 1400 tree day even though I ended up working on four different pieces [and one of them was totally done stupidly]. Our veteran said I was on pace for 2000 if I had kept it up. I finished the day tired for third and it was the first day that Evan said he was proud of me as a treeplanter. Which really meant the world to me.
We finished our contract in Prince George and now were on our way to Tumble Ridge. So last night we took Josh's little Jetta and headed in to town to watch hockey at a restaurant and eat nachos. Well lets just say that Jetta's are not designed for brutal logging roads and neither are there spare tires. so two flat tires and a call to a service truck and two lost hub caps and another different flat tire and three hours and alot of cash. we made it to Prince George to watch the hockey game. we got there in time to watch the last five minutes of the third and see them tie it up. so we watched two over time periods and I throughly enjoyed it. But then we had to leave so we didn't have to drive the stupid logging road in the dark. So I didn't find out that Pittsburg won until this morning. ridiculous.
Philippians 4:13 'I can do all things through him who strengthens me.' Even put my mind on hold and treeplant angry all day, even wait hours and hours for slow, lazy people. and for the Glory.
~CHAD
These last free weeks I've been sitting in the bottom third of my crew numbers wise. And I haven't let it bother me, with excuses like 'I'm still learning' and 'I'm competing against myself'. While two days ago something snapped and I just exploded back into highly competitive mode. I was able to funnel my rage into a 1400 tree day even though I ended up working on four different pieces [and one of them was totally done stupidly]. Our veteran said I was on pace for 2000 if I had kept it up. I finished the day tired for third and it was the first day that Evan said he was proud of me as a treeplanter. Which really meant the world to me.
We finished our contract in Prince George and now were on our way to Tumble Ridge. So last night we took Josh's little Jetta and headed in to town to watch hockey at a restaurant and eat nachos. Well lets just say that Jetta's are not designed for brutal logging roads and neither are there spare tires. so two flat tires and a call to a service truck and two lost hub caps and another different flat tire and three hours and alot of cash. we made it to Prince George to watch the hockey game. we got there in time to watch the last five minutes of the third and see them tie it up. so we watched two over time periods and I throughly enjoyed it. But then we had to leave so we didn't have to drive the stupid logging road in the dark. So I didn't find out that Pittsburg won until this morning. ridiculous.
Philippians 4:13 'I can do all things through him who strengthens me.' Even put my mind on hold and treeplant angry all day, even wait hours and hours for slow, lazy people. and for the Glory.
~CHAD
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