Danie Takes on the World: My First Week of Work: In the Bag!

Good afternoon everyone!

My first week of work is all done and I. Am. So. Tired. I must have been a BEAST to have done this job day in and out! Give me a few weeks and hopefully I'll be back up to speed. It's felt good to be back out in the bush with the whiskey jacks (those are birds...not drinks!) and snowy trees. I was thrown right back into things after only one day of paperwork on Monday. Tuesday saw snowmobile training all day... I blacked out as soon as my head hit the pillow that night Zzzz! Then Wednesday it was off on a long drive towards Moricetown (to the West of Smithers) to flag out CMT's in the bush.

A CMT is a culturally modified tree and has been "modified" by the first nations in the past. Some trees have a strip of bark missing from a hatchet strike: these are known as Blazes, and usually mark a significant trail. Another form of CMT is a pine tree with bark stripped/pulled up from the bottom; the inside of the bark (cambium) would have been eaten for it's nutritional value. In the field, after an archaeologist has deemed the trees to be CMT's but not super old (pre-1848, I believe), we can wrap ribbon around the trunk so that the harvesters don't cut them, and leave them for cultural significance.

Then Thursday and Friday I was out snowshoeing north of Smithers checking on our contractor's timber cruising (basically inventory) of a few blocks. I was out with Maciej (the guy who has my old job.. and a Polish name that is pronounced matche) and thought it may be awkward working from the bottom of the totem pole with someone who has my old work truck and my old job... but it really wasn't that bad. He seems eager to talk about just about anything and is good with my peppering of questions as I try to remember my old processes and ways of doing things. He's also from Ontario - Guelph. So we've connected on a few topics from the 'homeland'.

Jill just got back from New Zealand, so I'll be able to catch up with her tomorrow at work. Thankfully I have an office day tomorrow, so I'll be able to rest the old muscles a bit more and see what she has in store for me this upcoming field season.

Both Jill and I are worried about my back - the last time I did this job, my back gave me some grief and has been sore this week. So I've promised her that I'll do my physio exercises and stretches daily... something that I'm not very good at keeping up with... which is probably why my back bothers me in the first place! hah!

It was almost spring here... then got very cold... just last night it snowed for the first time in a while, and now the forecast says we will be around plus 6 degrees into the foreseeable future! All over the place! On Thursday and Friday we were working in -20 degree weather.

Everyone is happy when Tom comes home!

Tom seems to be liking camp more and more. It's hard having him away for most of the work week, but he's loving having Fridays off, and he gets paid for So.Much.Overtime! This past week he was paid for a total of 52 hours in four days! That's more than I did in a week, back home! The other good thing about his set up is that he isn't sweating through the bush that whole time - they spend a good chunk of the day driving to and from the bush. And then when they get back after work to camp his food is already waiting for him! Lucky guy. Breakfast is made as well as bring-along-lunches. He's got it made.

Tom's Office

Out for a hike up the ski hill

Which brings us to your favorite baker-and-definitely-not-a-chef... me. This past week was a bit of a failure for having food organized for the week. I get up around 5:30 am and am not home until 5:30pm... so I REALLY don't want to go grocery shopping or cook anything complicated. SO today I have already made some quinoa balls (like meatballs but meatless), Tom made me some energy balls, and I've prepped some veggies for stir-fries throughout the week. Let's hope the food and motivation to stay organized, persists!

Enchiladas from last week - they completely fell apart haha! But hey were s good. The cilantro avocado sauce on the top was AMAZING.

I'm still working away on my sweater and am loving it. I've made a silly mistake in the cabling that I hope you won't notice... but it's pretty obvious haha . By the time I noticed I had knit far enough past that I didn't want to rip back to fix it. So I'm going with it. It makes it even more one of a kind. Now that I'm back at work, the sweater may become more of a weekend project... slowly but surely I will get there. I've been knitting socks as well just to have something mindless to knit if we are watching a movie or TV show.

"Brigid" sweater

First sock in a pair complete

It was International Women's Day this past week! So a shout out to all of the lovely ladies reading this. Gotta love the girl power!

And finally, I have started learning German! My dad is German and I have always wanted to learn but never have... until I found the free and fun app called DuoLingo! SO far I am just learning the basics, but the app promises that I'm already 14% fluent. Hee hee hee. It's set up similar to a game. Once I've passed a certain level, I can do more with the app, like have actual conversations with others, through the app (not sure if these are other people or a computer...), learn phrases and compete with others. It's fun and quick and I've been trying to practice on Tom all the time; "Er trinkt Bier" or He drinks beer! : )

Well, time to sign off and do some knitting! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! xoxox