vanni fucci is alive and well and living in hell
SOREBACKATRON BLOG UPDATE:
I have been planting trees for nine days, and have put over 20,000 trees in the ground. My back hurts, my feet are swollen and I have more black fly bites than I care to count, but I AM ONE HAPPY LITTLE ROBOT. The fresh air, sunshine and dirty hands, are such a contrast to how I spent my winter months (hunched over textbooks and hibernating from the outdoors), that I cannot stop smiling, even when the sky opens up and leaks ice meteors all over me. On my crew of 15 people, we've got 8 girls - a world record in treeplanting crews! Not only are there chicks to take the edge of the gender dynamics, but there are a decent number of badass boddhisattvas on crew too, so we've got a pretty sizeable meditation circle goin' each morning. Om. My hybrid sleeping bag and I have resumed our love affair exactly where we left it... swoon. 'Tis soOoO great; we snuggle all night, (especially on the cold ones) and wake up in each other's arms everyday. So yeh, things are way good :)
The planting itself is pretty good too. I am definitely no longer a rookie planter. I can hardly believe this is my third summer doing this! From my first day out, I've been making some sweeeeeeeet cash. Planting of course, is piece-rate pay, so you only get paid for the number of stems you put in the ground (usually about $0.12/tree, dependent on land/contract/prepwork), which means you gotta move FAST to make any money. That speed and efficiency really only comes with experience - you just gotta know where to put your shovel in all types of land. Helps, of course, that I'm on a hard-core crew full of veteran planters with a rockin' foreman in a good company that gives our crew the best contracts and the best tree prices... not a single one of us is making less than $225/day, but the highballers are clearing $400 on their good days. How they put in over 3500 trees in one day is beyond me, but they sure do it... baffles my little mind, it does!
The only thing driving me seriously batty are the bugs. BzzZzz bZzzzzZ... the black flies are really gnarly right now. O_OBzZzzzz. Yesterday I scored a bite on my eyelid (!!!), so today my eye is so swollen I look like the big freaky guy from the Goonies. "Heeeeey youuuuu guuuuuys!" I am not a big fan of the black fly right now, though I have been making a conscious effort to include them in my daily affirmation, lokah samasta sukhino bhavantu... lol, right. grumble, mumble, black fly curses, mumble :D
At the end of each work day, (with all the wind, dust and sweat), my hair is just ridiculously huge. I was having an unspoken contest with a couple of the guys in camp for the title of Biggest Hair... at least I thought it was unspoken until I walked off the block the other day and Kerri starts nudging me in the ribs, mumbling under her breath, "poof up your hair Ariella! Max's fro is gigantic today and we can't lose our crew's big hair title!" Haha, dat'z so silly, it is :D
Best grafitti I've seen so far? SAVE A TREE, EAT A BEAVER. It is on the back wall of our truck, and everytime I look at it, I laugh out loud. The other girls on crew think its kinda crude (?!) which has made me conclude that a) maybe I'm crude ;) or b) that years of hangin' with uberaxl has refined my sense of humour just a tad :P
Wish I had more time to do the individual email thing, but internet is hard to come by for this little treebot. Here's my snail mail address, in case you're feeling like sending me some dark chocolate or a few words of love... :P
ariella botz
c/o andre pastrana's crew
summit reforestation
PO BOX 2786
smithers, BC
V0J 2N0
Much love to each and everyone of you monkeys! Am thinking of you all, and dedicating whole forests to you :)
I have been planting trees for nine days, and have put over 20,000 trees in the ground. My back hurts, my feet are swollen and I have more black fly bites than I care to count, but I AM ONE HAPPY LITTLE ROBOT. The fresh air, sunshine and dirty hands, are such a contrast to how I spent my winter months (hunched over textbooks and hibernating from the outdoors), that I cannot stop smiling, even when the sky opens up and leaks ice meteors all over me. On my crew of 15 people, we've got 8 girls - a world record in treeplanting crews! Not only are there chicks to take the edge of the gender dynamics, but there are a decent number of badass boddhisattvas on crew too, so we've got a pretty sizeable meditation circle goin' each morning. Om. My hybrid sleeping bag and I have resumed our love affair exactly where we left it... swoon. 'Tis soOoO great; we snuggle all night, (especially on the cold ones) and wake up in each other's arms everyday. So yeh, things are way good :)
The planting itself is pretty good too. I am definitely no longer a rookie planter. I can hardly believe this is my third summer doing this! From my first day out, I've been making some sweeeeeeeet cash. Planting of course, is piece-rate pay, so you only get paid for the number of stems you put in the ground (usually about $0.12/tree, dependent on land/contract/prepwork), which means you gotta move FAST to make any money. That speed and efficiency really only comes with experience - you just gotta know where to put your shovel in all types of land. Helps, of course, that I'm on a hard-core crew full of veteran planters with a rockin' foreman in a good company that gives our crew the best contracts and the best tree prices... not a single one of us is making less than $225/day, but the highballers are clearing $400 on their good days. How they put in over 3500 trees in one day is beyond me, but they sure do it... baffles my little mind, it does!
The only thing driving me seriously batty are the bugs. BzzZzz bZzzzzZ... the black flies are really gnarly right now. O_OBzZzzzz. Yesterday I scored a bite on my eyelid (!!!), so today my eye is so swollen I look like the big freaky guy from the Goonies. "Heeeeey youuuuu guuuuuys!" I am not a big fan of the black fly right now, though I have been making a conscious effort to include them in my daily affirmation, lokah samasta sukhino bhavantu... lol, right. grumble, mumble, black fly curses, mumble :D
At the end of each work day, (with all the wind, dust and sweat), my hair is just ridiculously huge. I was having an unspoken contest with a couple of the guys in camp for the title of Biggest Hair... at least I thought it was unspoken until I walked off the block the other day and Kerri starts nudging me in the ribs, mumbling under her breath, "poof up your hair Ariella! Max's fro is gigantic today and we can't lose our crew's big hair title!" Haha, dat'z so silly, it is :D
Best grafitti I've seen so far? SAVE A TREE, EAT A BEAVER. It is on the back wall of our truck, and everytime I look at it, I laugh out loud. The other girls on crew think its kinda crude (?!) which has made me conclude that a) maybe I'm crude ;) or b) that years of hangin' with uberaxl has refined my sense of humour just a tad :P
Wish I had more time to do the individual email thing, but internet is hard to come by for this little treebot. Here's my snail mail address, in case you're feeling like sending me some dark chocolate or a few words of love... :P
ariella botz
c/o andre pastrana's crew
summit reforestation
PO BOX 2786
smithers, BC
V0J 2N0
Much love to each and everyone of you monkeys! Am thinking of you all, and dedicating whole forests to you :)