PTTS - Post Tramatic Treeplanting Syndrom

Symptoms may include uneasy feelings when near civilization, desire to pee in the nearest green patch, moodswings caused by too much choice, headaches when around stressed out people, difficulty controlling food intake, low enthusiasm when sitting under fluorescent light for 30 minutes or longer, and apathy towards all lesser challenges. Seriously its a real thing, with doctors and stuff.

So I've been home for almost a week since our season ended two weeks early. Which is disappointing that I didn't get my goal but also really ok cause I was good and sick of living in the bush.

Year End Totals

Tree Count: 88,500 tress (just one full week from hitting 100 000)
Best Day: 4,080 tress

Treeplanting has a funny effect that it is tough and brutal when your out there but I actually began to miss it immediately. But a week of being inside enjoying air conditioning and sitting on a couch have really served to dull that desire. Next year I a long ways a way and I'm typically not allowed to plan that far ahead.

I'll conclude this years blogging season with my verse of the summer. James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

~CHAD

Glory Defined

As treeplanters we make jokes about coming out the bush to 'get fame, riches and glory!' None of which are ultimately found here. Some of us even have to got home to questions of whether treeplanting is volunteer work, and worse I get called an environmentalist! But somehow between the blood, sweat and tears epic quotes from wonderful overdoses of testosterone known as movies come up, stuff like Troy and Gladiator. "What we do in this life echos in eternity!" becomes "What we do today we stand for fifty years! Until they cut them down and start over." just lacks the punch the those epic movies have. Maybe that's why there's no expensive studio over about treeplanting. The glory is just fleeting.

Glory: Great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown.

This coupled with my reading of Dr. John Piper's "The Pleasures of God" has lead me to these thoughts. I'll attempt to summarize over a hundred pages of heavy theology briefly. God is happy. God takes joy in his Son, in Himself, in his great name and in his glory. God's glory is of infinite value. Amazing how belittle God's name and his work and abilities. And his still takes great joy in saving us, but since we have dishonored that which is the most precious and honorable to God (his glory), so to reconcile these two seemingly conflicted desires, he sent Jesus to the cross that the mockery of his glory might be paid for and he might save and redeem sinners. (that totally doesn't do justice to this idea and is probably way to much in one paragraph anyway) But God's glory is awesome. And all of our(my) silly ideas of getting glory really fall flat in light of God's supreme glory.

It struck me as I was sitting my Kinuseo Falls, just watching and listening to the awesome power of this waterfall that God created, God speaking the idea came to mind. "Yeah its nice but I was imagining better, sin's kind of put a damper on it, just wait until you see my full glory in after I redeem the Earth."

~CHAD

Oh they brought the rain.

Now I remember one of my first blog post said something to the effect of 'Bring the Rain' (which I figured out is a quote from transformers asking for a air strike.) But it started raining 40 hours ago and it hasn't stopped.

So much that the roads to the blocks are not worth risking to drive down, so we have a forced day off.

So much that the dry creek bed on the way to our tents is full

So much that people with cheap tents or bad spots got flooded.

So much that the bridge on said creek bed is underwater

So much that it made the fallen log I tried to cross on last night so slippery that I fell of and got to wade through a stream nearly up to my waist.

So much that I have new respect for the dudes in Lord of the Rings that had to wade across streams on their journey because well it sucks.

~CHAD

Beautiful Agony

This was the week that treeplanters live for. The week we finally got the chance to pound all week and get big numbers. I put in 12 000 trees this week. Really blew me out and exhausted me. This is a very welcome weekend.

Some one randomly texted me asking me what it takes to be a great treeplanter. Since I didn't know the number and it cost me money to text I decided to answer their question here. (if it was you please comment)(yes you can comment even if you don't have a blog.)

To be a great treeplanter takes 4 ingredients.

1 - The Right Kind of Crazy. clearly anyone willing to live in a tent for this long and do this job is not quite normal, so a little different is required.

2 - Motivation. A lot of people are motivated by money, I'm not. My motivation is typically competition and the fear of failure.

3 - Determination. Only slightly different than motivation but still important. The inability to quit is a must for the would be treeplanter.

4 - Ridiculously High Pain Tolerance. Not just being able to take the cuts and scrapes, but being willing to charge through bushes and keep going when your knees hurt and your body is thristy and tried. And to be able to emotionally endure the stresses of camp and crew life.

Other things that have been super helpful are things my dad impressed upon me since when I was tiny.

"Rule number one. NO WHINING"

"Krahn's never give up!"

~CHAD

Crash....and....GO UP!

Well first of all everyone knows that the point of any road trip is to see how long google maps says the trip will take and try to beat it. Well google maps said that it would take 13 hours to Saskatoon to Chetwynd. And in my sweet new truck (yes I call my Jeep a truck, deal with it) I did that run in 12 hours including three stops. Yeah I pretty much pounded it.

After accomplishing so much on the break one of the things that I neglected to get done was rest. That just didn't happen and I totally paid for it this week. We had a three day week on tough land and I was dragging hard. Still made good money but Oh man, not fun. Still behind on sleep. Gotta fix that sometime.....

I got to talk to some of my friends from Prairie this week, that is all the ones that didn't get the memo to leave Three Hills after April. It was really a blessing to talk to them. Not really use to getting asked how I'm doing spiritually. Just doesn't get talked about out here. But spiritually I'm doing way better than last year. Some days I feel weak and like I'm losing touch with the world, but my Bible reading is a constant and I'm still reading when there is gas in the tank at the end of the day. But I'm still hungry for a more deeper prayer life.

We moved from that windy field in Chetwynd to beautiful Tumbler Ridge. Where our camps site is glorious. Really feel blessed to be back in TR, its where all of my best memories from last year are from and the mountains are so much nicer and there is still some waterfalls from me to go find, which will make having my truck out here ever better.

Looks like there will only be two or tree weeks left. My feelings towards that oscillate between bummed that i won't make more money and pumped that it will be over sooner.

~CHAD

Welcome to the Whirlwind

Wednesday

9:00 pm - Decide this crazy adventure will work.

Thursday

3:00 am - Wake up. Walk to the bus depot in Chetwynd, without a bus ticket
4:10 am - Board the bus bound for Dawson Creek. The bus driver was nice enough to let me on and pay for the ticket in Dawson.
5:30 am - Arrive in Dawson Creek. Attempt to sleep on the cold hard bus depot lobby floor. yeah right.
10:00 am - Board bus headed for Edmonton.
8:00 pm - Arrive in Edmonton. Got to thread the needle on the very narrow window that Heather was actually going to be in Edmonton before she jets off to camp. Very sweet.

Friday

1:30 pm - Board bus to get Saskatoon.
8:30 pm - Arrive in Saskatoon.

Saturday

11:00 am - Start phoning around to buy a truck
2:00 pm - Looked at a 98 Jeep Cherokee.
3:30 pm - Bought said 98 Jeep Cherokee.

Which leads us to now when I have two days to rest and relax before I drive hard on Tuesday back to Chetwynd in my new truck. Really cool how I was able to pull all this off.

Captain Intensity

This week included the day I've been waiting for. After taking a forced day off because I got some serious heat exhaustion (it was an equally terrible day, really hard to sleep when your sweating), I knew I had to make up for lost time. The day was going to be a gong show because we were flying on a helicopter only to plant burn piles. This is the block that we flew to last year that our crew of rookies highballed the camp on, so it was a memorable block. Anyway planting burns is fast but theres lots of walking to the next spot. But this was a special day I just pounded and ran to the next spot. I really wanted to highball the crew, and kept going faster because I knew Max was on pace with me for most of the day. We ended up moving four times throughout the day and my water and food didn't stay with me, I think I did over a 1000 trees without water. This was also the first time that my body wanted to quit before my mind. Well my body quit and my mind demanded and pushed myself forward, faster and faster. At some point I realized that I was over my personal best and kept going. Then I passed out and the checker brought me water and another box. So I kept pounder. I ended the day with a total 3040 trees and was more exhausted than I ever have been before. On a side note that day the whole crews total was 21000. On of those special days planting I'll probably remember for the rest of my life.

My crew has also taken to calling me Captain Intensity. Apperently its unusual to do life with as much intensity as I naturally do.

Everyone should check out this new ablum from Re:Sound. Its a collection of hymns that have been revamped and are all awesome. http://resound.org/raincityhymnal/

On the Move

This week we finished up our contract with Canfor in Prince George. Canfor had great extra rules that everyone loved. Like wearing visi-vets. They also wanted planters to where hard hats when planting near the bush line where tree might fall down. Because wear a hard hat is the perfect defence against a tree falling on you head. Our policy then became if you see the Canfor people rapidly plant away from the bush line. But mostly I'm just happy to be done with this dirty city of PG. On to the smaller and slightly less dirty logging town of Chetwynd, emphasis on the wind part of of Chetwynd. But we also get a couple days off now. which is needed for crew moral and longevity.

I'm trying to load some pictures on facebook right now. We'll see if that will work.

On a different note: Today is Heather's Birthday. (Heather is my girlfriend for those of you out of the loop) So this is a small shout out to say....HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!

Mighty Careful Stepping There Boys

This week was a gong show. Everyday was an hour and a half plus drive.

Day 1 - we had a crew replant on a hellish block of stick mat and rookie trees. And then it started hailing.

Day 2 - I was working away through some crazy slash [fallen trees and other rubbish] working on my spin moves to keep speed up. Then I slipped and impaled my midsection on a pointed stick. Luckily my abs are now treeplanting abs and thus enormas so it didn't draw blood. I took a five minute break because I thought I earned it. Then I beat the mess out of that stick.

Day 3 - I was planting by myself, alone at the back of a deep walk in block. and there had been grizzly bear sightings on the block a few weeks early. And there was fresh bear poop on the road in. I spent the morning planting at the tree line, jumping at everything. OH NO! nope thats a squirrel. YIKES! nope thats a creaky tree.

Day 4 - short day finishing up that stupid block were all standing around this muddy road and someone said hey you guys should mud wrestle. Naturally I'm in. My opponent was 70 lbs heavier, had college wrestling experience and the ablitity to see while fighting. I think we called it a draw.

Day 5 - Going to a new block this one had road so badly deactivated that we had to get out and shovel and place logs so we could get across four times! only to be greeted with frozen trees and horribly rocky land.

On of those 'try again next week' weeks.

~CHAD

Prayer of the Exile

Do you ever feel reminded of a place you've never been?
Caught up dreaming of arriving there?
That this journey of life might actually be leading somewhere?
Almost as though all of our striving might take us there?

As we travel through these broken lands
Seeing the heartache and pain that saturates these souls
We cannot but wonder at talk of a place
Where all the self infliction will stop

Sometimes against our will we stay
We embrace these wretched lands as our own
And only add to the pain all around
Sinking in with the misery all around

But then we see a shadow of the unseen homeland
Hear just an echo of the drawn out celebration
Which wets our appetite for things barely known
Heightening our imaginations for what we cannot reach

We are privileged beyond measure
For the Master of that land has called us there
The land where the broken is restored
Where all pains are made right

But we must walk and war our way there
And flee the sorrow that smells so sweet
That path is narrow and steep
But the Master Himself will lead us there.

~CHAD

Keeping on Grinding

Well here goes another weeks worth of unscripted stuff that will get blurted out on to the Internet.

This was a really hard week. Everyday we had over an hour and a half to drive to the block which leaves less time to work and the land got harder everyday. Really did a good job of grinding me right out emotionally. Still not sure how to explain this properly because when I try to explain it or talk about it is really seems so minor. I guess the volume on life gets turned up with I'm alone trying to motivate myself to work harder in harder conditions. This day off is really nice though, timely even, not sure I could have taken another day like yesterday.

I plan to spend the rest of the day working on a poem called "Prayer of the Exile." I'm playing on it being long and good which is a sharp shift from most of the poems I write. Hopefully I will have that up for you all next week.

Also I'm disappointed no one took up my Isaiah 58 challenge. Seriously people comments and discussion will keep my blogging.

My book on the Jewishness of Jesus, talked about how Jews in Jesus' day would continually thank God for EVERYTHING. like start the day with thanking God that their souls returned to their bodies, which was quickly followed by a prayer of thankfulness that God restored sight to the blind. All their prayers started with something like "Blessed are you, O LORD our God, King of the Universe." So I've been working on adapting this posture of thankfulness in my own life thank God for little things, like seeing a snowy mountain the distance, having a warm sleeping bag, even having a job even when I'm not thrilled with it. But being a 'theological imperialist' I've adapted the first like of these two line prayers to "Praise Jesus, Author, Redeemer and King...."

Serious?

This morning I woke up to three inches of heavy, wet BC snow on top of my tent. That's right on May 19 we had a huge dump of snow, bigger than any I got to enjoy this winter. Ok well Three Hills has a really light winter but I thought for sure I was in the clear when I got out here. Ice is one thing but mounds of snow is another. So people with less quality tent got the rude awakening of tent tent collapsing. Seems my new MEC tent is made of tougher stuff, now to see if she floods when all the snow melts. It's gotta go some where I just hope not in my tent.

Planting continues to go well. Our crew has good moral and even though we compete we are really good natured about it and encourage each other.

Were not planting today not only because of the blizzard but because we somehow ran out of trees and had to take two days off. Today being the second. I wonder if it will be warm enough to melt all the snow so we can plant tomorrow.

As I've been doing my daily Bible read I came across Isaiah 58 which really stood out to me. It talks about seeking God for you own sake and not for His own sake. But its in the prophetic books so it is a bit complicated and requires a bit more study on my part. But hey give it a read and leave comment and we'll discuss it next week.

~CHAD

Oh yea this again.

I may have made the comment that Treeplanting is just like war. Or that was what I was gearing up for mentally. But honestly its nothing like war. War is usually compared with extended periods of boredom with moments of sheer terror. Oddly enough I've heard truck driving described the same way. But planting is like nothing else. I spent the last nine months trying and failing miserably to explain what it is like. So much that I think I lost a real concept of what is like.

So after dreading it for a while and getting here and being grumpy about it, when I got on the block it hit me. Oh yea this is what I do during the summer. Makes perfect sense. So I had two days of going slow and finding rhythm, followed by a day of experiencing the full spectrum of emotions.(always a whirlwind) which was followed my me hitting a new level in my abilities treeplanting and I actually was the top planter the last two days. I have never highballed before, but suddenly I found a new level of determination and got faster. I'm still coming to terms with this new identity that I could be the best planter on a crew with eight vets.

Your probably wondering is it cold out there. Well the answer is yes. today I woke up and my tent was covered in ice from the weird snow rain action of the last night. and I'm set up on a hill because all the good spots were taken by the time I got to our gravel pit of a campsite. But I've endured worse. Hopefully my body is up for the challenge that my mind is now ready to go for.

On a spiritual note. In reading the psalms I keep coming across great spiritual ideas that are really hard to integrate. What does it really mean to wait upon the Lord. Clearly not sitting in a corner doing nothing. And how does one rest in the Lord, assuming that we define rest as something other than sleep. Ps 131 talks about how the psalmist has calmed and quieted his soul. I think this is a key to understanding these ideas. while not an eat Cheerios kind of decision. Resting and waiting IN the Lord are lifestyle defining ideals. In that worship Jesus with all our lives and leaning into Him as our strength and life giving spiritual support we find true life. Not that I have found that. Or that I know a six step plan. But its a dream and daily Bible reading has been great in prompting me towards that.

~CHAD

Reading List

So as I'm slowing packing up all my junk, worried sick I'll forget something important, I though you all might like to know what I'm hoping to read this summer. So here is my summer reading list, in addition to my daily Bible reading.

Convergence - Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist by Sam Storms
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus - How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg
Can You Hear Me? - Tuning in to the God who speaks by Brad Jersak
Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

And the last two are more for a literary break than spiritual growth

Don't Be That Guy - A collection of 60 annoying guys we all know and wish we didn't by Colin Nissan, illustrated by Sean Farrell
The Symbol Detective - How to Decipher Mystical Motifs-and Know Where to Find Them by Tony Allan

Most guys see treeplanting as a relief from reading books so I have to read a lot just to balance out the average of nothing. I also am intent on not wasting my time in the bush.

I leave for Prince George tomorrow at noon. I am so tired of sitting around. I'm so ready to go bang some trees in the ground.

Check back for continued updates on my adventures, spiritual musings, and humiliating episodes!

WAR!

Here I am staring down the barrel of what I expect to be the hardest year of my life. With another season of treeplanting starting at the end of the week. [see previous blog posts for how much fun that is] And with no firm idea for what will happen after that. But I loaded with conviction that I need to set up my life better. I seem to be getting new opportunities to restart life every four months. Maybe my subconscious need for change is rooted in my rank fear of boredom.

Another note only leaving for Prince George on May 7 left me with more than two weeks off, which was way to long to not have things to accomplish.

I do think this season will be good, devastatingly hard but good. My chief goals are to plant 100,000 trees and learn how to pray. Here I go leaving my city, leaving my girl. Here goes. In the words of some solider from some war movie I probably didn't see....

"BRING THE RAIN!"