We made it to New Brunswick!
Our crew merged with another small one this week for our trip down to Fredricton. We left at 6 in the morning on Wednesday all crammed into 3 trucks with our stuff in the back! It was a 5 hour drive but seemed like a lot less for some reason, must have been all the snacks!
The funniest part of the drive was crossing the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, literally the minute we left Nova Scotia the skies cleared right up and when we looked behind us there was a wall of fog showing the border of the two provinces! It was so silly.
After the drive we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, grabbed a bite to eat, then headed out to the plot and planted until 6. Boy is it ever hot and buggy out here! Out here we're on a schedule of 6 days of planting then 1 day off. This week was different since the company doesn't want us to get tired out we planted for 4 days and got today off. We're planting regular days still but starting next week we're going to be leaving earlier and staying out for almost 10-11 hours a day. I'm pretty nervous to work 6 eleven hour days in a row but since it's the last stretch of planting we're just going to keep pushing forward.
There are a lot more moose out here than there are in Nova Scotia and every morning on our way to the site I search the treelines desperately in hopes of seeing one and I still haven't seen one yet! THEN yesterday two of the other trucks saw 2!! and I missed it! I was furious. completely.
Nick and I did see a really big bear paw print though.. you could even see the claws where they dug into the mud. sooooo cool, but kind of creepy because you know there out there in the forest with you...
that's about all that's been happening over here! The hostel is a lot of fun, after work all we do is make dinner and hang out with everyone! Hopefully we'll make it through the next couple weeks and be able to come home to all you wonderful people in one piece!
Heather and Nick
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Big news and big cities
Good evening everyone!
We're sorry it has taken us so long to update everyone,
Although this past week wasn't the most exciting of times we did have some adventures and get some big news!
Last week was probably one of the best weeks so far! The site we had was being finished up and even though we had to deal with some slow days we managed to keep our numbers at a decent level and had a lot of fun doing it! A bunch of our crew members decided to quit for some silly reason but the ones that are left are real troopers! We had some great bonding time as a crew and are all prepped and ready for our trip to New Brunswick!
We started hearing rumors about the NB trip happening earlier than expected and on Monday got confirmation that we will in fact be leaving TOMORROW.
We got today off in preparation for the 5 hour drive tomorrow. We're driving up to our hostel in Fredericton, leaving our bags there and going out to plant for the day! We're pretty excited but at the same time very upset that we have to leave our home here in Antigonish.
Last week the white truck broke down the same day the driver quit! Fortunately (sort of) our crew was small enough to all fit into one truck together while Snow White (the truck) was being fixed. THEN NICK INHERITED THE TRUCK!
It was a glorious day in Nick's life, maybe even one of the best, when he got to drive the truck down those dirt roads and through all those big puddles. He says the little boy in him was just lovin' it! He gets to drive to New Brunswick tomorrow too which he is pretty excited about.
Funnily, the other truck (Quicksilver) broke down on Monday and unfortunately has been retired. She was doing so well and made it so far! We were afraid she was going to be out of time within the first week so making it 5 weeks was preeeeeetty good!
Finally this past weekend Nick's dad came up and we road tripped it out to Halifax to meet him with Aly, Jake and Robyn. After a very fun drive we pulled up to the funniest, tackiest little guest house there ever was! It was called the Fountain view guest house and was complete with a stuffed deer head in the front hallway, and the two and a half star rating framed and displayed proudly by the door! It was super charming and made for some good laughs and was in a prime location! Tim brought us around the whole of Halifax and it was great!
The very first thing we ended up doing was going out for a drink at Maxwell's plum and Nick and I discovered 1 1/2 lbs of mussels for $4.97! MAN I love the east coast. I would move out here on the sole basis of how cheap sea food is... and how much I love the ocean too...
We walked the harbour, saw Theodore tugboat, stopped in at the museum and learned a heck of a lot about the Halifax explosion and the sinking of the Titanic. We also walked up Citadel hill and made it to Point Pleasant to look out over the ocean. On our way out of town we stopped by the graveyard and saw the Titanic graves which was a little freaky...
We also went to Peggy's cove and climbed all over the rocks on our way back to Antigonish.
All in all a phenomenal weekend. It was so good to get out of Antigonish and see a big city again! The harbour was really really cool, watching all the shipping boats, fishing boats, sailboats and even canoers enjoying the water! Loved it! We also made it out to the farmers market which was soooo super cool, they had so many vendors and there was so much neat stuff going on.
Nicks birthday was great too! Sunday night we made it home and had a great big dinner of homemade hamburgers, sweet potato fries and ice cream cake. Also, since we got today off we were able to go out to the pub and watch the hockey game with our tree-planting buddies on Monday night and stay out all the way until 12!
We'll be working a lot longer hours in NB but will try to update as much as possible!
Miss you all and we'll be home in no time!
Heather and Nick
We're sorry it has taken us so long to update everyone,
Although this past week wasn't the most exciting of times we did have some adventures and get some big news!
Last week was probably one of the best weeks so far! The site we had was being finished up and even though we had to deal with some slow days we managed to keep our numbers at a decent level and had a lot of fun doing it! A bunch of our crew members decided to quit for some silly reason but the ones that are left are real troopers! We had some great bonding time as a crew and are all prepped and ready for our trip to New Brunswick!
We started hearing rumors about the NB trip happening earlier than expected and on Monday got confirmation that we will in fact be leaving TOMORROW.
We got today off in preparation for the 5 hour drive tomorrow. We're driving up to our hostel in Fredericton, leaving our bags there and going out to plant for the day! We're pretty excited but at the same time very upset that we have to leave our home here in Antigonish.
Last week the white truck broke down the same day the driver quit! Fortunately (sort of) our crew was small enough to all fit into one truck together while Snow White (the truck) was being fixed. THEN NICK INHERITED THE TRUCK!
It was a glorious day in Nick's life, maybe even one of the best, when he got to drive the truck down those dirt roads and through all those big puddles. He says the little boy in him was just lovin' it! He gets to drive to New Brunswick tomorrow too which he is pretty excited about.
Funnily, the other truck (Quicksilver) broke down on Monday and unfortunately has been retired. She was doing so well and made it so far! We were afraid she was going to be out of time within the first week so making it 5 weeks was preeeeeetty good!
Finally this past weekend Nick's dad came up and we road tripped it out to Halifax to meet him with Aly, Jake and Robyn. After a very fun drive we pulled up to the funniest, tackiest little guest house there ever was! It was called the Fountain view guest house and was complete with a stuffed deer head in the front hallway, and the two and a half star rating framed and displayed proudly by the door! It was super charming and made for some good laughs and was in a prime location! Tim brought us around the whole of Halifax and it was great!
The very first thing we ended up doing was going out for a drink at Maxwell's plum and Nick and I discovered 1 1/2 lbs of mussels for $4.97! MAN I love the east coast. I would move out here on the sole basis of how cheap sea food is... and how much I love the ocean too...
We walked the harbour, saw Theodore tugboat, stopped in at the museum and learned a heck of a lot about the Halifax explosion and the sinking of the Titanic. We also walked up Citadel hill and made it to Point Pleasant to look out over the ocean. On our way out of town we stopped by the graveyard and saw the Titanic graves which was a little freaky...
We also went to Peggy's cove and climbed all over the rocks on our way back to Antigonish.
All in all a phenomenal weekend. It was so good to get out of Antigonish and see a big city again! The harbour was really really cool, watching all the shipping boats, fishing boats, sailboats and even canoers enjoying the water! Loved it! We also made it out to the farmers market which was soooo super cool, they had so many vendors and there was so much neat stuff going on.
Nicks birthday was great too! Sunday night we made it home and had a great big dinner of homemade hamburgers, sweet potato fries and ice cream cake. Also, since we got today off we were able to go out to the pub and watch the hockey game with our tree-planting buddies on Monday night and stay out all the way until 12!
We'll be working a lot longer hours in NB but will try to update as much as possible!
Miss you all and we'll be home in no time!
Heather and Nick
Sunday, 29 May 2011
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" shovel
Quicksilver- 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 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" shovel
Quicksilver- 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
Sunday, 22 May 2011
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
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
Saturday, 14 May 2011
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
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
Friday, 6 May 2011
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 ;) !
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 ;) !
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
In preparation...
Hello family and friends!
Nick and I have started preparing to go tree-planting again in Nova Scotia, Antigonish.
This is round two for us and this year we have the pleasure of Aly and Jake's company! We're expecting it to be a great summer full of aching muscles and big bug bites!
We have spread ourselves out across my living room floor and have been going over and over our list. We haven't quite packed up yet but are planning on doing so very soon. Hopefully we'll be able to fit into 3 suitcases this time instead of 5...
and of course, Nick is taking a rest while I do all the work!
We also did our very first weigh-in:
Heather- 130 lbs
Nick- 152 lbs
Keep these numbers in mind! We'll weigh again when we return!
We decided that paint-balling might be a good way to prepare so we went in yesterday!
It's sufficient to say that Nick kicked my butt...and now I have many welts to go along with my soon to be aching muscles...
Keep an eye out for updates and funny stories!
If the blogs stop coming, assume we've been eaten by coyotes...
We will miss you all very much! Have a good summer!
Nick and Heather
Nick and I have started preparing to go tree-planting again in Nova Scotia, Antigonish.
This is round two for us and this year we have the pleasure of Aly and Jake's company! We're expecting it to be a great summer full of aching muscles and big bug bites!
We have spread ourselves out across my living room floor and have been going over and over our list. We haven't quite packed up yet but are planning on doing so very soon. Hopefully we'll be able to fit into 3 suitcases this time instead of 5...
and of course, Nick is taking a rest while I do all the work!
We also did our very first weigh-in:
Heather- 130 lbs
Nick- 152 lbs
Keep these numbers in mind! We'll weigh again when we return!
We decided that paint-balling might be a good way to prepare so we went in yesterday!
It's sufficient to say that Nick kicked my butt...and now I have many welts to go along with my soon to be aching muscles...
Keep an eye out for updates and funny stories!
If the blogs stop coming, assume we've been eaten by coyotes...
We will miss you all very much! Have a good summer!
Nick and Heather
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