What a weak week...

Hey everybody!

Week 4 was preeeeeeettty weak. 2 finishing days means nooo money.
Dang.
We finally got a new site on Thursday and although it is still 2 extra cents (meaning baaad land) we've been able to get good numbers on it! Nick especially! He did extremely well on Thursday number wise. He did almost pass out and throw up though because he "forgot" to eat lunch.

Luckily it felt like someone pressed fast forward this week and it was the weekend in no time flat!
This Friday we celebrated my 20th birthday! Lobster, potato salad, and corn on the cob followed up by brownie banana splits made up the best dinner I have ever had in my entire life. We went out and saw the Hangover 2 at the tiny theater in town and just hung out afterwards. All in all a very successful birthday.
Today was a beautiful day so we spent alot of it outside playing cards and hanging out. Aly and Jake made it down to the water today meaning they were in two different oceans within the week! Pretty cool if you ask me..

I figured we needed to spice up the blog a little bit this week and since I still have no exciting stories to tell you all hopefully these pictures will distract you!

Our glove tans are coming in nicely!Some planting bags and Nicks "special" shovelQuicksilver- one of our tough trucks!Trays of trees- Nick and I can usually put in 8-10 trays a day- each one has approximately 278 trees in it!This is my current land lots of brush piles to climb over!

*For more pictures see my facebook album!*

Love,
Nick and Heather

Week 3: bummerrrrr

Hello friends and family!

So this week wasn't exactly the best week we've ever had treeplanting. It did go by pretty quickly which was super duper nice but we seemed to all have a slower week.
A lot of the days everyone on the crew had to carry in trays, and 4 out of 5 days looked like they were going to be finishing days (meaning we finish up a site) but then turned out not to be. That was pretty unfortunate because it just meant we didn't really push ourselves to get good numbers because we thought we were finishing up. All in all it was a messed up week with only one really good day slapped in the middle.

Wednesday was fun. Nick and I were able to get another 10 that day and it was beautiful out! Unfortunately the bugs have been out and were pretty terrible that day but the whole crew decided to go for a short (and freezing) dip in a nearby lake at the end of the day!

Jake and Aly are still in Panama and will be home on Tuesday! It actually felt more like tree-planting without them here just because that is how it was last year! We do miss them a bunch though. We do so much more with them here! Last weekend we sat on our butts the whole time and watched a lot of cash cab. This weekend we managed to finally get out with the crew and have a potluck. It was preeeeetty fun! We had also planned on seeing Pirates of the Caribbean sometime this weekend but I guess the theater is so small that they aren't getting it for a while! Pretty unfortunate.

Still not too much has happened, we did see a baby bunny out on the plot though! Very cute!
We're apparently moving to a new site soon too, but it apparently isn't the greatest land wise.. not looking forward to it.
We're hoping this week will pass quickly again and we'll be able to have yet another uneventful weekend. Essentially we're holding out for the weekend when Nick's dad is going to come down and hangout! His visit will not only mark Nick's birthday and be super fun, but it's also the half way point of the expected season! It's hard to believe its only two weeks away!

We miss you all but we will be home sooner than you know!
Love,
Nick and Heather

counted wrong...still 10 weeks!

Another week of ex-tree-me planting has gone by!
Our bodies still aren't quite used to the whole hard labour routine but it's alright, made it through the first full week of planting and we aren't totally burnt out so that's a good sign!

This week was a little bit more eventful but not by much..
The weather here is HORRIBLE, for the most part at least. It's been raining here almost constantly and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were the absolute coldest and wettest days Nick and I have ever experienced tree-planting!
It was awful.
It did help me discover that the raincoat I brought with me is not actually a raincoat- just a windbreaker. So guess who was soaked through to the bone for the majority of this week!
Nick didn't have proper rain gear either so after 3 days of intense rain we decided to go out and get rain suits. Although it hasn't rained like that again yet, they're great!
The rain did push Nick and I to plant super fast on Wednesday meaning we both hit our personal bests of 10 trays! (That's quite a bit!)
It also meant we had to do a load of laundry every night though... that was kind of unfortunate.

Nick and I have gotten to plant together quite a bit this week which means we've been singing a lot of Disney... I think we're going to watch Mulan today...

Also, Jake and Aly are doing phenomenally and are getting better and better every day! They just left for Panama today though and we miss them already! Hopefully this week will go by quickly and we'll have them back here with us soon.

Out on the sites this week some funny stuff happened, a van got stuck in the mud, one of our trucks batteries died and the tree truck got stuck in the middle of the road too! Because of all the rain, the roads on our site are AWFUL. So bumpy and muddy and just terrible, our foreman has been doing a great job of navigating them safely though.
One day this week we ran out of trees so the next day we were told not to meet until 8! It was great! We were able to sleep in until 7:15 instead of dragging ourselves out of bed at 5:15! Although it was a shorter day we were scared we weren't going to be able to plant as much as we normally would but we managed to get a good number regardless.

Our crew is awesome and they're so much fun to plant with. Hopefully we'll all be able to hangout on weekends as the season progresses. We also got news that the New Brunswick trip is happening again this year meaning that for the last two weeks of the season Nick and I will be going out to New Brunswick to stay in a hostel with a bunch of planters and spend 10 hour days planting trees out there. We're a little nervous but still excited, plus once we hit that trip it means we're home free!
It already feels like we've been here forever and I can't believe we still have 10 weeks of planting ahead of us.

Nick and I don't have much to do this weekend so if anyone has any ideas of something fun to do let us know!
We might try writing a rap now...

Hope everything is well in Ontario!
Miss everyone,
Heather and Nick

One week down...9 to go!

FIRST WEEK COMPLETE

although it was only three days... we're all very tired.
and sore.
and hungry all the time.

Jake and Aly are doing phenomenally! Incredible even! They're kickin' butt for their first week on the job.

Nick and I are also getting personal bests in the first few days! It's exciting but I don't know if I'll be able to keep this up for 9 more weeks!
Nothing too exciting has happened yet, a couple snakes, a salamander, that's about it.


Just about 10 minutes ago though I was sitting on the couch and a TICK WAS WALKING UP MY LEG. AAAAH- I am now very paranoid that they're going to be all over me... ugghhhhhh lime disease.....

and GUESS WHAT
Aly has mad blisters.... just glad it wasn't me this year ;) !