Weblog: Blackwater: Third Shift
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This shift we managed to finish a block a day and a half under budget, but were over budget on another block. The block we're on now is really flat and involves a 2km very soggy walk in. When Tom was checking it out a couple of days ago he was attacked by a black bear that hit him from the side before he saw it.
Two days ago my saw stopped working; the engine revved but the blade would not turn. Jamie helped me move my herb head onto a spare saw (actually Calvin's saw, since he was following someone else around dabbing their stumps with a herbicide canister because there aren't enough saws with herb heads) so I could keep working (although I only brushed with it for about 15 minutes before the end of day was called). After work I managed to fix the saw myself. The outside of the shaft had been pulled forward because a screw wasn't tight enough, which meant the drive wasn't connecting. I wasn't able to test it after I fixed it because nobody had a spare herb head and Jamie wouldn't give me back the one that we put on the spare saw, so I was worried that my fix didn't work. The next morning when we put on a herb head it didn't work, but thankfully that turned out to be the herb head and not the saw. Then, we put on another one and it only worked for about ten minutes before it broke. I used a spare saw with a manual head for a while and got put in a manual area (no herbicide due to streams or lots of water) while Darren worked on my saw, and he ended up putting on a manual head, which is great because as long as that's the case, I don't have to deal with herbicide. The day was going great, working on some nice dense stuff by myself, which is my favorite way of working, but for some reason that nobody is quite clear about, we stopped work after only half a day.
Our crew's truck looks to be on the verge of a major breakdown. There are bad sounds when changing gears and it hardly has any power. Apparently it has something to do with the diff (I only know what that is because of Scrapheap Challenge).
I lost my watch on the block. Since it was raining heavily one day and I was wearing my full raingear, I figured it would be safe to keep my watch on my wrist because it was covered by my raincoat (usually I keep it in a pocket that closes because the velcro strap comes loose when it gets hooked by brush), but I was wrong. The next day Tom came up to me and asked if I'd lost a watch, and I was amazed that anybody could possibly have found it. I grabbed it without really looking, then he mentioned that it had been found in the bathroom, and after looking I saw that it wasn't actually mine. I'm glad I bought that alarm clock in PG (I figured the risk of losing my watch was great so I needed a backup) so at least I don't risk sleeping in. I'm finding that the time at work passes more quickly now that I don't know what time it is.
Posted on Wed, 23 Jul 2020 at Munro Camp, BC, CA (altitude 1023m) (map/google earth)
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