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!