Weblog: Blackwater: First Shift
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We're now working in the area known as Blackwater, which is about 1.5 hours from Mackenzie. The scenery here isn't as stunning as Ospika, but sometimes there are some amazing views over a huge valley.
We're staying at Munro camp, which is almost brand new. The old camp burned down a couple of years ago, so they rebuilt it. Munro is a fair bit bigger than Ospika, and we brushers are outnumbered by loggers and truckers. Altogether I preferred Ospika camp. Munro feels extremely sterile. Everything is white or grey; there are no colours inside at all, so it feels a bit like being in a mental institution or a space station (not that I've spent much time in either, and from what I've seen of mental institutions, they're a bit livelier). Ospika camp had 70s interior design (orange everywhere), but that design actually is quite pleasant. The place had a lived-in feeling to it, and started to feel like home. Munro's TV room just has tables and chairs, and there's hardly ever anyone there and the only thing on seems to be the news or sports, but at Ospika there were couches and it was a place that was nice to hang out in. There are various things about the design of Munro camp that are quite stupid. The rooms have mosquito netting on the windows, but no-see-ums get through and so do some mosquitos. At Ospika there was one big wet room with hooks and big heat fans for drying out clothes, lockers to put our stuff in, showers, sinks, washers, dryers, benches to sit on while tying shoes, and ample room for everybody. At Munro each wing has its own wet room, but its just a little room with a single small electric heater and no ventilation, with a few hooks in the wall. At first the light and heater didn't even work, so we had to keep the door open. When our stuff is wet the room gets incredibly humid, and nothing really dries out at all. It's also extremely crowded in the morning. Most of the bathroom stalls won't close because the locks are misaligned, and to get the couple that will lock to do so you have to push up on the door with your foot. Often there is no paper towel or toilet paper. However, the food at Munro camp is more varied and a bit better than Ospika, and the kitchen setup is better, though the desert selection is lacking and there's no fruit salad available with dinner, which I miss. Another advantage is that all the brushers are in one wing that is not used by anyone else, so we don't disturb the loggers.
The first block we were on this shift was hell. It was only 6km from camp, but unfortunately 2km of that was inaccessible to the trucks or quads (ATVs) due to two bridges being removed when the road in was deactivated. The hike in included fording two streams, which after the first day at least had some logs and stones put in so we didn't get our feet wet. On more than one occasion people fell in, though luckily I wasn't one of them. We also had to carry in by hand all the extra gas, herbicide, and water that we would need for the rest of the day. I don't understand why Apex doesn't have some carts that we could carry over the streams, and then put the stuff in to pull, because carrying 20l of water for 2km uphill is not fun. The terrain was steep and full of slash, and most of what we were cutting were dense, close together alder clumps, which tend to grow in really skewed ways when there is slash. After hearing repeatedly how much creamier Blackwater is than Ospika, this was not what anyone was expecting.
The second block we worked on was much nicer. It was really wet and I spent a lot of my day standing in streams or pools of water, but it was flat and had wide areas of just grass, so we could move between small clumps of alder really quickly. Unfortunately, halfway through the second day we were moved from that block before we finished it due to the wet weather, which was making the whole place so wet that we couldn't apply herbicide. It was especially unfortunate because for once we actually had a good chance of finishing the block with in the number of days that Apex had targetted. While here I got a piece of good news: I have been raised another level.
We joined a block that a bunch of other crews were working on, which had good access but was very steep in places, and full of mountain ash. We don't have to cut mountain ash, except if it's within 1m of a crop tree and 2/3rds or more as tall, but it's troublesome because many small crop trees hide in the mountain ash and you can't see them without going through all of it. It's really easy to miss stuff because it's not at all obvious which areas another brusher has covered. Also, some of us (myself included) misinterpreted something Ian said and didn't cut some brush that we should have. As a result, we spent the end of the afternoon recutting.
At the end of that day, I got some bad news: Vincent and Felix's crews were being merged, and I was being moved to Kyle's crew. Despite not being able to understand a lot of the conversation in the old crew because it was mainly French, I really liked all the guys, and was very sad to have to leave it. The dynamics of Kyle's crew are quite different, and, as I'd noticed with the English crews, there seems to be a lot of talking about people behind their backs. Kyle is more thorough about checking what we're doing and watching us, and seems to spend little time brushing himself (whereas Vincent and Felix spent most of their time brushing alongside us). It'll take some getting used to the new culture, but they all seem like good guys. Tom told me that he moved me to Kyle's crew because he wants me to be more agressive in my brushing, and it's an agressive crew. The crew has two experienced guys on it, who definitely are agressive, but the other rookies on the crew don't seem any more agressive than me, and seem less so than most of the rookies on Vincent's crew, so I'm not sure about that. Tom has also started calling me Manny, because he says it sounds more agressive than Emanuel (which I always introduce myself as). I have no idea how he knows that many people call me Manny.
The block Kyle's crew is on is nice. Good access, not too steep, but unfortunately a lot of mountain ash, which gets awfully boring. We ended up having to recut everything we did on the morning of the first day on the block because we missed so much mountain ash, and because of high stumps and poor herbicide coverage on the alder clumps. Then we had to recut part of it a second time due to poor herbicide coverage, and this time I turned the herb way up, and instead of cutting the stumps, rotated my blade so the herb sprayed out the side, and just painted the whole area around the stumps (and myself) blue. That better be good enough. I've been told that in previous years Apex wouldn't pay for the time crews spent recutting. That's changed now, but I actually feel bad for getting payed after we all did such a lousy job. This crew's style of recutting is much more thorough. Whenever we recut on Vincent's crew I always felt we were moving much to fast, and I always ended up being way behind everyone because I wanted to check everything, and we didn't seem to be very organized about making sure that all of the area was covered. Kyle's crew moves much more slowly and we're careful to make sure that the line moves forward together. Recutting took almost as long as the original cut, which is how I think it should be.
We were supposed to work five days on, one-off, then five-on, two-off, with the two-off in PG, but for some reason Slocan decided to close the camp for the weekend, so we ended up working seven-on, two-off, the two being spent in PG. This is a problem for quite a few people who spent their whole paycheques last time because they were expecting to get their next paycheque before we came back. Calvin and I are staying at the same motel as last break (and as repeat customers get a discount). Even though this place is not the best in town for the price (though the prices don't get much lower), I like it because the manager is so friendly. It's cool to see her grand-daughter (around age 10), who is around the place all the time while school is out, taking such an interest in the place. She's checking people in and seems to know more about what's going on than the manager herself! We were expecting a third person to join us, but he never showed.
The first two days of the shift we worked extra long, doing about 11.5 hours on the block, another 1.5 hours for the hike in and out (we left camp at 5:30 in the morning and got back to camp around 7pm), but I think enough people complained to their crew chiefs (including myself, who has up to now accepted everything Apex did) that we went back to ten hour days. It's amazing to think how tired and sore I was at the beginning of the very first 4.5 day shift, compared to now at the end of a seven day shift. My feet still hurt a bit, but it's not a problem while working at all, and I can walk normally at the end of the day. I was tired, but not so tired that I couldn't have continued for longer.
Last break we had one more day off than we expected, but apparently nobody notified the camp. On the drive from PG, we stopped at the shopping centre in Mackenzie for a minute, and a woman got out of the car that was parked next to us and asked if we were with Apex. It turns out that she works for Slocan, and told us that Munro camp was expecting us yesterday, and because we didn't show up, hadn't made any food for us on this day. She managed to get in touch with them, but had it not been for this coincidental meeting, we would have gone without dinner that night. Also near us was an old van full of planters being repaired. Half of me is so glad that Apex uses all new trucks, but I always find it kind of fun to deal with delays caused by mechanical failures (when I don't have to worry about fixing it, anyway).
The weather at Blackwater is unpredictable, and changes throughout the day. We had a few very wet days, and some very hot ones, but even one of the very hot ones was puncutated by a brief, but intense and cold, shower. The insects have become much worse. I'm not sure if it's the location or just the time of year, but on the wet days the mosquitos are extreme, and now I understand why everyone warned me about the bugs before I left for PG. While brushing they're less of a problem, but when changing blades a swarm forms quickly, and after a minute there are up to ten mosquitos on each arm. For some reason, the mosquitos aren't that big a problem for me on my face or neck, but still an annoyance. I hate to do it, but I've started spraying deet on myself on the really bad days because it's unbearable otherwise.
When I buying all my equipment before starting this job, I was not expecting to brush in my hiking boots, though I figured they would be good backup footwear if the chainsaw boots didn't work out (which indeed they were). Because of that, I just brought some old gaiters that I'd never actually used, but they were almost useless because they don't have a strap that goes under the boot. I improvesed something with duct tape and shoe laces, but it was not effective at all, and I always ended up with lots of junk in my boots. Also, their red colour was definitely not stylish. Last time we were in town, I picked up a pair of Outdoor Research Crocodile gaiters. They were expensive, but they are working great and hopefully will last. I also ordered a second set of planting clothes from MEC so I don't have to do laundry quite so often and incase anything breaks. So far the rad pants are working out really well; other than herbicide stains, they're still as good as new after abusing them every day for more than a month.
I also picked up a portable MiniDisc walkman (Sony MZ-S1). I used MiniDiscs a lot many years ago, but hardly used my old MD recorder in the last few years. The new ones are much smaller, and more durable in the case of the sport model I bought. But the best thing is that the new ones have two more codecs that allow you to store either 2x or 4x the amount of music on a disc (at the expense of quality, of course). At 4x, that provides enough time to record music that will last for half a day of work, which is why a lot of brushers (more than half, I would say) have them. Part of the reason was to have music while brushing, but another part was just so I could keep some of the great music that some of the guys here have with them, that I haven't heard before. Vincent in particular has lots of great music. While waiting for the trucks to leave I stopped by the PG library and recorded some Swollen Members there, then I recorded some of Vincent's CDs on the drive to Munro camp (a few skips due to bumpy roads, unfortunately): Daft Punk Live 1997, Manu Chao - Clandestino, something by Sublime, and Les Cowboys Fringvants - Break Syndical. I also recorded some of my own CDs onto another disc. I didn't end up listening very much, though, because the headphones that come with the walkman are extremely uncomfortable when worn underneath earmuffs.
I'm now in PG for the two days off. We left for town immediately after finishing work, without stopping off at camp first, and will return at 4pm tomorrow. I really would have preferred to have a day off at camp, but it's nice to be in civilisation again too.
Posted on Sat, 12 Jul 2020 at Prince George, BC, CA (altitude 573m) (map/google earth)
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