Update

Haven't updated the blog in while. Well, not too much time to post about planting when you are preparing for the upcoming season, but are not planting yet.

According to my stats, there's still a bunch of people looking for a planting job. Reality check: It's too late.

I'm off to Edmonton for pre-season work in a few days. More on that later.

And just before I go, here's another planting video from a fast planter's perspective. The planter is Milo McMahon, a Manitoba planter that was featured in the Ed's Up episode about tree-planting.

The soundtrack has been deactivated...possessive music giants do that.

Baggin' Out: An Aussie Explores Plantin'

Here's a Steve Irwin-ish Autralian sharing his discoveries on Canadian Tree Planters with his peers:



Love the tumble of the "Highballer", but I must admit it gets old by the end, and maybe they should just plant! Filmed in an Outland camp in North-Western Ontario, near Thunder Bay.

Manitoba Planting Video

Basically the same deal, here's another vid showcasing planting and transpotation in an Outland Manitoba contract. You won't learn much from the video, but it can give you an idea of the atmosphere when you're up there.

Busy But Alive

Working hard, slept in only two beds in a month and today was the first actual day off I've had (And I've been forgotten in Rocky Mountain House as the cook took my truck to go get the food order and left for camp, so no one picked me up and I'm still sitting in the hotel lobby...Awesome!)

The Saskatchewan contract lasted three weeks and was quite difficult on everybody, but we now moved onto the beautiful Rocky Mountain House area for our spring contract there. We planted about half of the prescribed trees in the shift that ended yesterday. Been working a lot, with not much rest, but it is less demanding physically and emotionally than last year and I have had a few very easy days (including heli slinging duty which mean 10% work and 90% wait). Also, we started with three crews and are now down to two since a crew left to plant oilfields in northern Alberta. We still have two tree deliverers, and delivering one crew is not a difficult job most of the time. Mostly when you're used to deliver three crews alone. We might lose another crew in a week or so, so I'll be delivering one crew plus additional planters from Ontario as their spring season ends. Tehn, towards the end of our summer contracts, all the original crews should be back together for the final stretch.

I've been writing daily entries about the season so far, but I won't post them until the season ends as I have nop time and internet fares are prohibitive.

Until then, keep pounding!

time to go wait...

Back in Planting Mode!

Allright, it's been a while, and I'm slowly getting back in planting mode. And is there a better way to kick-start the season than posting a useless video of your camp supervisor digging a slurry pit?

Giv'r Linn!



I don't know yet where I'll be working this summer, but I'm definitely applying again for a tree-delivery position. More on that later...

Summer Plant

Usually, summer planting is a little more casual, chill. I signed up for a summer plant contract in Alberta in order to be a regular tree planter, not have any responsibilities and be done my day by 7PM max.

I showed up in Edson a week ago, not knowing anyone in my new camp. After planting roughly 100 trees and making an awesome 10 bucks, Byron, the camp supervisor came to me to ask me to help with tree delivery, as his tree runner needed some time off.

So I took on the delivery duties for the week, accepting many repsonsibilities, stress and very long days. Their work area is gigantic, and it's been normal for me to drive for 45 minutes to get to a few planters, then drive another half hour to get to the tree cache, then another 30 minutes to get to another crew. I logged at least 400 kilometers a day this week!

The other interesting part about the forest between Hinton and Edson is that it's heavily industrialized, with pipelines and oil rigs everywhere (Alberta having the second largest reserves of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia, mostly in the oilsands of the north of the province) and I've never seen so much heavy traffic on bush roads! So we basically have to radio our position every 5 kilometers or so, to make sure not to be hit by a wideload in a turn!

I got some pictures, but I didn't take the time to load them unto my computer. As I should have more time this week, going back to regular planting duties, I'll try to upload them so I can post some next week. Interestingly enough, Steve, a crewboss who just arrived from another Alberta camp in Fort McMurray and visited this blog before noted how blogging while planting finally ends up being apologetic for not blogging and not having time to post pics.

Well sorry guys, that's about all the time I've got, more next week!!!

Time to go lie to someone else...

And There We Go Again!

And I'm up north, in Matheson, Ontario more precisely, in Shillington, at one of Outland's regional yards for some pre-season work and training, before getting up to our respective camps to get things ready for the planters. So we basically pack trucks up once in a while, watch videos about chainsaw safety and get back to the motel at 5PM for some beer and joints...

Good life, but it'll get busy soon! Here's a few pics I snapped today and yesterday:




Toronto-North Bay: Another ride up north in an old beat up school bus...Hopefully for the last time of the season!



A flat-deck and some Northern Ontario skies



The Shillington yard.



Tila's fetching it...



Packing up a truck for camp set-up.



Deliverers being good at doin' nothin'...I'm also really good



Our classy motel in Matheson: Vi-Mar!

Ed's back at camp...

Here's some unseen footage from Ed Robertson's treeplanting experience for his OLN TV show, Ed's Up.

After a hard day pounding trees to reach his PB (personal best), Ed enjoys the rewards of a bush camp, a nice swim, some music and chilling around a campfire...and his cameraman enjoys a few shots at some almost barenaked ladies! (Okay, bad one)



Nope, they didn't kick him out right after...

Enjoy!

Tree-planting Slideshow, Summer 2006

Here's a slideshow from a fellow Outland planter in a undetermined camp somewhere in Northern Ontario. I'm pretty sure it's the Kapuskasing camp.

It goes fast, but it does show the essentials of a treeplanting experience, including bugs, days off, camp life.

Ed's Up: Tree-planting

Here's Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson planting trees for a day for his OLN TV show "Ed's Up". He went to a Outland camp in Northern Manitoba, Tolco, under Jamie Nicholls supervision. My good friend Laura Preston (or LKP) will be the tree quality assessor (or checker) there next year.

It sums up "Eastern and Central Canada" (i.e. Non-British-Columbia) planting pretty well. But it remains a TV show, and a few things were scripted (confirmed by LKP). Mostly the way rookies feel during their first days on the block, having no idea what they are doing and why they are here. Listen to what planter Cian McMahon has to say. Pretty much sums up your mental state up there.