These pictures were taken in April and May of 2007, in the pre-season and while working for BCTS Kamloops (the Ministry of Forests).

Oh look - Prince George put out a special welcoming sign for me!

Foreman Greg Mancuso, trying on a survival pack during a H2S poisonous gas safety course.

Supervisor Jeremy Rempel, checking out a chain saw during the chain saw safety course. That's Tammy Lamont, another of our supervisors, looking on in the background.

Shelley Harding, our camp cook and head data entry person, explaining some of the sign-up paperwork at our pre-season camp meeting with the new planters.

If I had to list all of my responsibilities as a supervisor, my job description would be several hundred pages long. Basically, I try to make things run smoothly, by solving problems. Well, I should clarify that: I try to make things run as smoothly as can be expected in a tree planting operation. When we set up our cook shack at the start of the season, we had problems with the stoves, so I had to do some propane fitting repairs to get things working again. For those of you who know what teflon tape is, did you know that there is a special yellow type of teflon tape that is specifically designed for propane fittings? This is something that I have to know.

Greg Mancuso (Foreman), Myriam Lefebvre (Safety Coordinator), and Dan Gillespie (Foreman) at our first pre-work meeting at the Ministry of Forests.

Here we have John Hopper, our head forester for the project, explaining some of the planting specifications to the group of first-year planters.

Doing a safety and first-aid simulation in camp, so everybody is more familiar with what is supposed to happen in an emergency.

Tina is acting as our official videographer for the safety simulation.

The first-aid attendants have their hands full with this simulation.

And so does Anna. I think she thinks she's playing doctor.

Making block treats.

Ooops. This truck missed the corner, just around the corner from the campground entrance.

I'm not sure what kind of shenanigans the planters are up to here - this was taken on the night off.

Greg Mancuso and Alice Morgan (foreman), sitting around the fire.

Picking up trees at High Country Cold Storage. HCCS has nearly twenty million trees stored in their warehouses at the start of the planting season.

Alice, after her Level III industrial first aid exam. Guess who just got 95%!

Our dry tent kept blowing away in the wind, so we picked it up and moved it up against the trees. It's amazing how easy it is to do some things when you have fifty people working together. It looks like they didn't even disturb the laundry inside.

The back of a logging truck.

A young pine seedling, planted in 100% mineral soil.

Pizza night. Shelley & Christie had to cook about 65 pizzas, so everybody got a pizza to themselves. That's pretty tricky, in a bush camp with just two ovens. This was voted the most popular meal of the first two shifts.

One of the safety boards in the mess tent. We are required by law to post more and more information every year. Pretty soon, we'll need a mess tent with four wooden walls, all of which we'll turn into bulletin boards.

A view of Kamloops, early in the morning.

Jonathan and Glenn, our networking genuises, playing with the internet. You'll note the trendy Spiderman curtains in my trailer.

Travis is helping to unload the food order for the day. Tree planters eat absolutely unbelievable amounts of food.

A view of the inside of the walk-in cooler. I am always amazed by how many loaves of bread we go through every day.

Part-way through the contract, we had a second pre-work with the forester, so he could explain to us how to approach a new type of site treatment (and we had a third pre-work the next day, when we screwed things up). Here's a photo of everyone walking back to the trucks after the pre-work.

Loading trees into the pickups.

It's important to stretch in the morning, before you start planting, to minimize injuries.

Gabriel is keeping guard while Ashley plants nearby.

The seat belt won't keep Joanne "Double D" still when she's dancing in the back seat of the techno truck in the morning.

I have no idea what these three are doing.

Washing dishes after supper.

Tina and Anna, having dessert.

Dirk, planting on the last day of the contract.

Anna, planting a burn.

Kent and Mike.

Another night off, sitting around the fire and talking.

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