Island Mom on the Prairie: Last week of May

So I have been here for a month. It has been eventful so far, and I am sure there is much more in store. One highlight is on my day off I got to paint my room purple! Score! Well, two of the walls at least. I've always wanted to do that. Then due to rainy conditions we had a week's break from tree planting, what a relief! So we went back and did some work in the cabin, putting up wood panels on the walls. I learned to use a table saw and an air nailgun. I helped set up the tomato seedlings in their floating nursery outside so they can adapt to the environment before they are planted. I also learned how to use the ride-on lawnmower - that was fun! Our group was taken on a tour around Weyburn to look at some of the sites where HELP has planted trees over the years. I saw black-headed seagulls around the landfill, which was interesting. We also saw a robin's nest in one of the trees. We are starting our personal garden patches, and I have planted a bunch of seeds in containers in advance. I hope my sukuma wiki grows!

We were also able to start work on our research projects, of which I have a few, all involving hybrid poplar trees. Setting them up is somewhat tedious but that's ok - it's part of the job. The soil has a fairly high clay content, which makes it a little hard to work with. But it certainly seems to have an abundance of earthworms! I was kept company by a chicken who was eating them as fast as they showed up while I was digging up soil for my experiment. Meanwhile I was being eaten by mosquitoes and biting flies in the heat!