"I'm from the coast"
It's pretty much rained all of July so far. That's great for: the grass and thus the geese, my garden, our fear of forest fires returning after last year's evac alert. It's bad for: electronics when they're taken to the field, the mud in my barnyard behind my house, people who live up north feeling like they can go outside.
I've been doing fieldwork a little and it's been great. I like the rain - I've lost my heat tolerance since I moved up here but apparently my skin is still waterproof and I don't melt. It mostly hasn't rained enough to be truly awful to enter data into the ipad. Rain makes the outdoors feel a little bit private and nicely peaceful. It tends to keep the wildlife from moving around as much so there's a little less chance of an encounter. And of course, my mind/body needs hours of manual labour a day to keep really happy and I hadn't been getting that previously.
I've mourned losing the work program I built, and I'm ready to move on to the next thing. The next thing was supposed to be production field work (which I'm terrible at, too slow!) and I started that out this week, and next week I'm mentoring some folks new to it. I probably have two months of this left before the end of the company I currently work for.
So, really, the next thing is the next thing.
Do I go work for government? It's a lot fewer hours, a little less money, and a really big organization. I can probably handle a lot of the bureaucracy. I'm not sure if I'd feel I was accomplishing much? Good pension, it seems like they can't fire bad folks to save their lives, probably some stability? I wouldn't have to move.
If the new owners want me, I'll probably stay in Fort and go into the restoration part of forestry work rather than the sampling I currently do. I've been on the fence about this type of work for awhile; often it's really squeezed for resources since folks are obligated to do it but want to meet minimum legal standards with mimimum money. A lot of women do the work, which is a sign of its status. On the other hand it's ecosystem-based and uses the part of my brain that just naturally notices things in the bush-- is it wetter here? Drier? What's the soil? Where is the underground water flowing? Where's the sun? --and using those skills puts my soul at peace. I get to interact with any one piece of land for years rather than coming through as a tourist. If everyone who works at this site now stays here, I definitely have a group of folks who'll have my back. It would be a safe place to do this work. And I realise now that my roots have grown into, not just Threshold and my little 7 acres, but into the whole district and all these forests around me. It would be working in my home. I'd be very autonomous, running another program.
I probably have the option of leaving this town and moving to the outskirts of the big northern centre for a forestry job (those might be hard to come by with the industry crashing like it is). It would, I think, be better for Tucker. I'd be able to see Josh more. I would move closer to some folks I know and like but also away from some folks I know and like. I'm uneasy about that option, about being able to afford it if Tucker and I want to stop living together.
I could also move a little south and pick up a job as an environmental monitoring tech at a mine. I'd be outdoors and responsible for my data and not for running a team or a program, which sounds super restful. The land there is even cheaper than the land here, that's pretty much as permanent a job as exists nowadays. I wouldn't make much money and I'd be probably isolated out of my current relationships without figuring out a time split.
I could move a little north and east and pick up a job for an indigenous group. It would be incredibly challenging work, it would position me well for pretty much any resource job in the future, and it might let me build a program and then run it functionally for the next while as opposed to building it and then moving on to build something else. I'd also probably be isolated out of my current relationship, though there might be a little wiggle room. I'd probably also be moving a zone colder, which seems terrible.
I could look into getting an agricultural loan for that greenhouse. It would feel so precarious, especially with forestry collapsing everywhere right now. The owner wanted to pivot it to selling permaculture plants at least as a side business and while that seems lovely I'm not sure how much of a good idea it is. I could certainly grow hardy apple trees well there.
I do not want to go back and live on the coast, not really. The winter sunshine is nice here. The coast is terrifically expensive, expensive enough that I don't think I'd ever be completely comfortable. I enjoy the intensity of the seasons here and I like the privacy.
I guess we'll see what comes back from the applications so I know which are actually viable options.
I've been doing fieldwork a little and it's been great. I like the rain - I've lost my heat tolerance since I moved up here but apparently my skin is still waterproof and I don't melt. It mostly hasn't rained enough to be truly awful to enter data into the ipad. Rain makes the outdoors feel a little bit private and nicely peaceful. It tends to keep the wildlife from moving around as much so there's a little less chance of an encounter. And of course, my mind/body needs hours of manual labour a day to keep really happy and I hadn't been getting that previously.
I've mourned losing the work program I built, and I'm ready to move on to the next thing. The next thing was supposed to be production field work (which I'm terrible at, too slow!) and I started that out this week, and next week I'm mentoring some folks new to it. I probably have two months of this left before the end of the company I currently work for.
So, really, the next thing is the next thing.
Do I go work for government? It's a lot fewer hours, a little less money, and a really big organization. I can probably handle a lot of the bureaucracy. I'm not sure if I'd feel I was accomplishing much? Good pension, it seems like they can't fire bad folks to save their lives, probably some stability? I wouldn't have to move.
If the new owners want me, I'll probably stay in Fort and go into the restoration part of forestry work rather than the sampling I currently do. I've been on the fence about this type of work for awhile; often it's really squeezed for resources since folks are obligated to do it but want to meet minimum legal standards with mimimum money. A lot of women do the work, which is a sign of its status. On the other hand it's ecosystem-based and uses the part of my brain that just naturally notices things in the bush-- is it wetter here? Drier? What's the soil? Where is the underground water flowing? Where's the sun? --and using those skills puts my soul at peace. I get to interact with any one piece of land for years rather than coming through as a tourist. If everyone who works at this site now stays here, I definitely have a group of folks who'll have my back. It would be a safe place to do this work. And I realise now that my roots have grown into, not just Threshold and my little 7 acres, but into the whole district and all these forests around me. It would be working in my home. I'd be very autonomous, running another program.
I probably have the option of leaving this town and moving to the outskirts of the big northern centre for a forestry job (those might be hard to come by with the industry crashing like it is). It would, I think, be better for Tucker. I'd be able to see Josh more. I would move closer to some folks I know and like but also away from some folks I know and like. I'm uneasy about that option, about being able to afford it if Tucker and I want to stop living together.
I could also move a little south and pick up a job as an environmental monitoring tech at a mine. I'd be outdoors and responsible for my data and not for running a team or a program, which sounds super restful. The land there is even cheaper than the land here, that's pretty much as permanent a job as exists nowadays. I wouldn't make much money and I'd be probably isolated out of my current relationships without figuring out a time split.
I could move a little north and east and pick up a job for an indigenous group. It would be incredibly challenging work, it would position me well for pretty much any resource job in the future, and it might let me build a program and then run it functionally for the next while as opposed to building it and then moving on to build something else. I'd also probably be isolated out of my current relationship, though there might be a little wiggle room. I'd probably also be moving a zone colder, which seems terrible.
I could look into getting an agricultural loan for that greenhouse. It would feel so precarious, especially with forestry collapsing everywhere right now. The owner wanted to pivot it to selling permaculture plants at least as a side business and while that seems lovely I'm not sure how much of a good idea it is. I could certainly grow hardy apple trees well there.
I do not want to go back and live on the coast, not really. The winter sunshine is nice here. The coast is terrifically expensive, expensive enough that I don't think I'd ever be completely comfortable. I enjoy the intensity of the seasons here and I like the privacy.
I guess we'll see what comes back from the applications so I know which are actually viable options.