These pictures were taken in May of 2009, while working for BCTS (Kamloops).

A little frog.

A time exposure of the kitchen tent at night.

Oops. I always like to say, "If you don't bleed at least twice a day, you're not working hard enough."

Nate, working on tallies.

Sierra, going through her safety indoctrination before her first day of work.

Liz Rubincam, visiting camp for a few days for a special photo shoot.

Checking out the snow levels on the blocks early one morning, before the planters are awake.

Light snow, but we'll be able to plant an hour or so after the sun hits the blocks.

Emily & Ana, stopping in for a visit.

Rookies, bagging up on their first day, with a shiny new truck, shiny planting bags, and clean clothing.

The special new buckles on the BushPro bags this year.

A hundred-pound propane tank, anchored in the back of my truck. Under certain weather conditions, as can be seen here, you can actually tell approximately how much propane is left in the tank by the frost line.

A view outside of Savona. I think this is maybe the Thompson River, not a lake, but I'm not sure.

Putting new decals on the sides of the vehicles.

Shauna, cutting up some celery for a salad.

Blaine, from Tree-To-Tree, re-certifying his first aid with us.

A tick, from the Greenstone area. Well, technically it came out of Emma's hair and appeared in my trailer, but we think it was from the Greenstone blocks several days before.

Unloading boxes.

The inside of the mess tent.

A faded sign beside one of our blocks.

Emma, helping to get the kitchen unpacked upon arriving at our new camp site. Or maybe looking for some ketchup.

We found this on one of our blocks. We don't know why.

Destruction from a forest fire near Cache Creek.

Bighorn sheep in the hills above Kamloops.

Another view from the top of a mountain near Kamloops, up in Sabiston. This is an interesting photo if you look closely, which shows what the climate in Kamloops is like. Most mountains that you see have trees at the base, extending up to a certain point or altitude, above which they don't grow because it's too cold. In Kamloops however, the region is desert-like, so quite often, the only place that the trees can grow well is high on the mountains, where it's cooler. The valleys are pretty hot, and best left to the rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds.

Water deliveries to the camps are pretty expensive when we aren't close to town. In this particular camp, we managed to avoid getting an extra load of water with some excellent conservation efforts on the part of the planters and cooks, and with a little help at the very end by tipping up the water reservoirs to get the last bit out.

Sitting around the fireplace after supper.

Chip trucks at Domtar, dumping their loads.

You are now entering the "tick block" area.

A group photo of Sean Jackins' crew, on a snowy morning in Welland Creek.

Nic, examining some trees.

One of our fill plants.

Driving to work.

The fire outside of Cache Creek again, still a bit hot.

Andrew, bagging up.

"Welcome to your new block! By the way, it's covered with ticks." Yes, this was the infamous tick block area - part of the Greenstone Mountain fire of 1998, with lots of nice slopes and rock and burned tree trunks.

Getting ready to carry some boxes into the block.

Sarah, feeding some ponies on the side of the road. Jackie would have been thrilled.

A neat-looking tree stump in the middle of one of our fill plant blocks.

Another photo of the Cache Creek fire.

Sean, checking out one of the horses hanging out on the road.

A sign on the Sabiston forest service road.

Moving some rocks out of the way that were blocking the road on the access to the Greenstone blocks. I don't know why, but this photo looks like an original Star Trek set to me.

A tree that looks like it has been seriously attacked by woodpeckers.

A diagram on the bulletin board in the mess tent, to show everyone where all of the main first aid attendants' tents are.

A mother bear, staring at me. I accidentally ended up between her and one of her cubs, which isn't a good place to be. The cub was about 10 meters behind me. However, the mother kept her distance, probably because she had two other cubs with her - one at her feet and one crying in a tree beside her. I kept still and we stared at each other for about three minutes while the cub behind me picked its way over to the mother bear. I was pretty glad that I was carrying bear mace at the time, and happier that I didn't have to use it.

Some of our trucks, getting ready to head up the Battle Creek Forest Service Road.

A first aid practice simulation after supper.

A photo of the northern lights at night, with a partial moon behind them.

Zach, planting some trees on the Paska Lake Rec Site.

A pine seedling, planted in a good screef.

Cattle planting. Usually, when someone refers to cattle planting, it means that a lot of planters are grouped together in a piece. In the case of this block, it literally meant doing a fill plant that was full of cattle. Incidentally, the cattle seemed to enjoy the taste of the trees that we had just planted.

A bird's nest in the grass.

Jackie, one of our checkers.

Tony thought this was a good road. It wasn't, so I had to pull him out. It took a couple hours, and lots of help - this section is the good part of the road.

Sarah.

Two of the crews eating dinner on the last night in Kamloops, after the camp and tents had already started to be taken down.

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