Photos
These pictures were taken in late July of 2004, while working for the Ministry of Forests in Fort St. James, BC.
One of the tree caches on the block. We have to elevate the tarps so they can provide shade yet air flow, which is what is best for the trees.
Our first block, with heavy layers of fog in front of the mountains in the background.
A moth, hiding in the rocks.
All this water accumulated in the back of my truck after about 20 minutes of hard rain that suddenly appeared from a single thundercloud in the middle of an otherwise hot, sunny day.
Jeff Finley.
Drew Freeman.
A moth on the quad.
A view from one of the large bridges on the drive out to our blocks.
Jodie and Roxy.
Ben Harper.
Our bus was originally labelled the "Death Trap" because some planters didn't feel comfortable riding in it, but I asked them to make sure that this caption was removed, in case an inspector from the Workers' Compensation Board saw it. Instead of erasing the writing entirely, they decided to be creative.
A flower.
Sitting around at breakfast, waiting for a camp meeting to start.
Greg and Carmen.
Martial Lemoine.
More people sitting around at breakfast, waiting for a camp meeting to start.
Jamie and Andrea, taking a break on the block.
Tim Roth, Pete Schmidt, and Mark Shadworth. These three foremen from Nathan Maier's camp came to join us for several days for a celebrity appearance.
Nolan Lacoste.
Shelley Harding.
Our Christmas tree in the mess tent, in honour of our July 25th special "Christmas" dinner. Stephane cooked us turkey, dressing, potatoes, carrots, cranberries, pumpkin pies, and everything else that mattered!
Boxes of spruce trees (darker) and pine trees in one of the caches.
Winching Byron's quad up out of a ravine that he had to cross to get into his block. We used two quads on this particular block. I drove the boxes of trees from the trucks to the ravine, then we carried the boxes to the other side, then his quad took them into the block.
A slashpile with the center burned out.
Dylan Zellar.
Jason Demarce.
Terry Froese.
Nathan Bald.
Curtis, pointing at his shoulder. There is a hidden story to this photo. Curtis was using "nature's facilities" that morning, and after he was done, he stepped away from the scene of the crime. However, he stepped on the end of a stick that his "leftovers" had been deposited on, and the stick flipped up, flinging a piece of poop up into the air which landed on his shoulder. What a shitty way to start the day!
This was taken at 8pm on Sunday night, August 1st, our last night of planting. Everybody is in one piece, bagging out the last of the trees. If you look really closely, you can see a whole lot of little dots up to the left in the picture, towards the base of the big aspen trees on the left. These dots are really a couple dozen more planters workin in a long line away from where I was standing, trying to keep the block square.
The mess tent with the fabric removed, during the camp breakdown.
Talking about what to do after the season ends.
Sunset on block 13, with a quarter moon in the sky.