Week 3 details

Well, that was a belated week 3 post - and what a week it was! Three long days in a row of hot, backbreaking work - getting up at 4:30 am, getting going with packing lunch and trees and equipment for the day by 5 am, and working til 7 - 7:30 pm. For us novices, it was pretty intense. At the end of it we had planted about 11,000 trees. We used a tree planter machine that was pulled along by a tractor, with 2 people sitting and alternating putting the trees at 1 m intervals in the furrow created by the blade just in front of us. Then 2 wheels behind us covered up the trees with soil. The next process was to lay black plastic mulch cover using another tractor drawn machine and that was a challenge - the plastic came off a roller, and one person had to lay down behind the roller and watch where the plants were and punch a hole in the plastic with a safety knife so the person coming behind could pull the plant out of the plastic. Needless to say, for this operation to be successful the hole puncher had to be accurate! But the bending over to pull was the hard part, especially when you had to do it for kilometers at a time. So each team member tried their hand at each operation, and it was certainly a learning process. Another important process was making sure the trees were kept in a viable state in the hot sun, by keeping them hydrated with wet peat moss in the shade. Since there were mostly no trees to provide shade, this meant the shade of the truck, and we had to move them around during the day to follow the sun.

I was glad to take the rest of the week off, to recover and work on some other stuff!


Tree planter machine!




Chelsea and me, tree planters extraordinaire!




I was cutting, Harry was pulling - the row seems endless...




Some home improvement - unsealing the bathroom window
now that the cold weather's gone!



Week 3

Well, it seems the hot weather is here to stay (up to 30 degrees in this week's forecast), meaning...it's tree-planting time! We had a little taste of that last week, along with a couple of other projects that kept us very busy, like completing the river irrigation system, building a fence and painting the cabin. This week we have 16000 trees to plant. Yesterday we went to Regina to pick up a new team member, Kevin. While we were there we visited a little Somali store and picked up some spices, ugali flour and ndengu. They also had spiced coffee.  After a visit to Costco, we came back to Weyburn.

Water and plumbing have been a bit of a challenge this past week, with us running out of water one day and having the basement flood a few days. I hope we are finally able to get that under control soon. Our water has to be trucked in from the municipal supply in Weyburn, and is stored in 3 big storage tanks in the basement. With now 5 interns using it, it stands to reason that a fairly regular replenishment run needs to be established, coz water is important.




Hooking up the main connection pipes for the irrigation system.



Drilling holes for the fence posts

Tamping the posts in!



I'm handy with a hammer and nails!



Painting the cabin. Now with this experience under my belt,
I think I will paint my room purple.



Today dawned bright and clear, and the promised higher temperatures actually showed up. It's supposed to go up to 25 degrees later this week, I can hardly wait. Tired after a long day in the sun. We spent the whole day milling styrofoam as part of our zero waste and recycling endeavour. It was hard work but we could see what we had accomplished by the end of the day, which was good. Apparently we set a record for milling the most bags in one day!



13 giant bags filled - a good day's work!



Hauling a bag of styrofoam to the mill.

Week 2 begins!

Whew, we had a big windstorm last night, and was it ever cold! I had to put a third blanket over myself so I could sleep! All this means is that the tree planting is put off once again, and it's 35000 trees we need to plant, not 9000, according to Rodney. Sounds a little intimidating! but we will get through it. Today I got to put on my office admin hat and start my financial / bookkeeping portfolio. Took a while to sort through all this year's receipts, but I finally got it done. Tomorrow I start the computer entries. Research projects have been allocated, and I need to get busy with my experiment design. It is exciting! I also need to do my online Construction Safety Training course.

I got the cutest little pink card reader device for $2 at the dollar store, and it works wonderfully! Uploading my photos will be a breeze from now on. I won't have to borrow one any more. I got my mail from home, kindly scanned and sent to me by Tracy. That was really sweet of her. Some not good news, but will cope. I will have to get creative, and remember the joy of the Lord is my strength.

First Weekend

Our first weekend since we arrived was like any other weekend - started off with intense cleaning! The bungalow we are staying in was a little the worse for wear in terms of the state the former tenant left it in, so we had quite a bit of work to do. But we got it done, and after an amazing perogy lunch made by Kaity and Harry, we took a ride into Weyburn to look around, do some shopping (one of the stops was at the liquor store; 'nuff said), and went to the library where I got a temp membership and borrowed a bunch of books (some things don't change!) Finally we picked up some popcorn for our movie night. We actually had a projector so we could watch the movies big screen on the wall! It was fun, we watched Madea goes to Jail and Beauty Shop.

Sunday I went to a new church in Weyburn, it is being planted by an East Indian pastor and his wife. They were very nice, and I think I will keep going there. They have two boys and cute little girl the same age as Pearl, and just as precocious. I think if they were to meet they would be great friends. I also met a prolife activist and his daughter, and Rodney's parents, with whom we had a good discussion of various topics. Back at the farm, I think I will just veg out for the rest of the day - gotta get started on reading that stack of library books! It is still raining, but we are hoping that it will dry up soon so we can get to the serious tree planting. Apparently we have 9000 trees to plant on 3 farms, so lots of work to look forward to!

TGIF!

Today's weather was  miserable - cold and rainy, and we had to work outdoors in all that in the tree nursery. We also started on doing some plumbing for the irrigation system. I was wearing bright yellow rain gear - unfortunately it was a little too tight therefore didnt last long!

The team in yellow!

Wrenching the pipe

I stopped to take the pictures of a couple of horses in the field next door, and funny enough one of them started posing for the camera! the other absolutely couldn't be bothered and kept eating its grass. Rodney took us into Weyburn and treated us to a fish and chip dinner at a local pub this evening. We played a few games of pool, and after dusting off the rust for the first couple of games I beat Harry the pool phenom! I am looking forward to the weekend and getting an opportunity to explore the town of Weyburn further.

Hmmm, should I, shouldn't I?

Okay, let's do this!

This is my best side

What, pay attention to the strange person with the camera? Not me!

 There are lots of birds in the area too - today I saw black capped chickadee, sparrows and starlings, a pair of Canada geese and a pileated woodpecker.

Day 4

Back to tomato transplants,  and this time different experiments involving various potting mixes. It will be interesting to see how they grow. I also got to plant some cassava cuttings - it has been so long since I did that last! Over 15 years. I hope they can grow in this climate. That would be so cool!

We set up the cutest little portable greenhouse for the tomato experiments. I want one or two like it to take home with me! Some adjustments were required, and it seems I am still quite handy with a saw. Something else I haven't done for ages. This practicum is getting more and more interesting!

I want one of these for my garden, they are so cute!

Sawing away, with Roxy looking on



Finishing touches on a job well done!



Day 3

Today we went SHOPPING! There is a real canadian warehouse store in Weyburn, so it was nice to see familiar brands. Afterwards we went back to the farm and were joined by 2 new volunteers who helped us finish transplanting the rest of the tomato seedlings to the floating nursery. By early afternoon we were done, and it was my turn to make dinner - I made rice and beans. So glad I carried some vinzari and Royco with me! The meal was a success and I turned in early, I was tired.

Day 2

Today dawned bright and clear, and we had our orientation this morning followed by transplanting tomato seedlings to the floating nurseries. What a novel concept, yet so simple. After lunch, Rodney, Kaity and I drove the pickup truck and trailer to Indian Head to pick up tree seedlings from the govt nursery. Apparently the govt will be shutting it down next year, which is too bad coz they've been providing free tree seedlings to farmers all over Western Canada for the last 100 years. One of the things I found amazing was passing fields with significant salt deposits on top of the soil. Rodney said that was the result of last year's heavy flooding, which brought the salt up to the surface. Apparently this area was once the bottom of an inland sea. There was lightning and heavy rainfall, the tropical kind, during our journey. The dirt roads became quite muddy and treacherous in some places.

On the way back from Indian Head, we stopped at a tiny town called Odessa for gas. I saw an interesting sign, and at the end of the road was a magnificent church which seemed too large for the small community. See pics below....


Mixing soil for the tomato seedlings transplant



Transplanting tomato seedlings



Oh little town of Odessa...




Who named this road?

 Nice church, though.

The land is so flat, as far as the eye can see; it is very different. I am used to seeing mountains! but the prairies have their own brand of beauty. The clouds have different and interesting formations. The dirt roads remind me of Kenya. There is abundant and diverse bird life. Truly, this is the land of living skies.