Into the Wild

It seems as though I have actually been neglecting the school part of my blog which is a bit inappropriate considering it is about being a NAIT Forest Tech student. Believe me, there is a lot I can say about being a Forest Tech student.

The first six weeks will really give you a good ideas of what this program is all about. Our first six weeks is held at Kidney Lake camp and there is quite a bit to do.

A quick run down of the day would go something like this.

Wake up
Camp chore (e.g. cleaning bathroom, starting fires)
Eat quickly
Run to class
Morning class (theory)
Lunch
Afternoon class (practical)
Chop wood
Supper
Shower
Homework
Hang out by campfire

Not to bad at all, but it is the practical that makes it so interesting. Todays practical was planing trees and then checking the plots to make sure the plant was accurate. I sure feel for tree planters now.

Some other practical classes have included weather monitoring, chainsaw work, proper ax technique, plant walking, and wild fire response, which is my favorite so far.

The class has a lot of students that are part of SRD which is great. They are always eager to help out when needed and can always offer experiences they have had in forestry.

One of the smartest things our provincial government did was be proactive and sponsor individuals to go through this program.

I’m on a new week with my icebreaker gear and the shirt is holding pretty well. It still has its shape and true to marketing material, it does not smell.

This shirt has been put through a lot during the last week. Hot weather makes for lots of sweat and lots of spontaneous, bottles of water over my head. With all of this my shirt has not stretched out of shape at all. It breathes well and keeps me cool when it is hot and warm when it is cool except when it is blistering sun outside. In those moments my shirt keeps me hot as it is a dark blue. I can’t remember seeing a lighter colour but I can tell you it would have been nice on those days as it would have offered another line of defense against the elements. I’m sure they do come in lighter colours, I just need one here.

The view from my cabin at NAIT's camp Kidney Lake

Today was a great day. We didn’t have to actually unload the first truck into the second truck and that made it an even better day. To top it all off my gear is doing great.

We arrived at camp around noon and started to set up our cabins. Shortly after all of our gear arrived and we we’re able to start unpacking which made all the difference, as the cabins that were once barren and dirty became home.

Shortly after we split up into to groups and headed of to our first class. I have said this in an earlier post and I will say it again in this post, it is refreshing to have instructors that care about their students. That happens here.

Believe it or not, this is all the gear I brought with me to camp.

Today is day one of the icebreaker test and it was a good starting day due to the heat. We get out on September 19 and I plan to still be wearing that shirt.

Hopefully my cabin mate won’t mind.

As a side note I am writing this on my iPhone so I will have crap grammar and spelling. I also won’t be able to add captions to the pictures. So the first is my gear and the second is a pic of the camp.

9:48 AM

Our truck full of gear broke down. So now we wait on the side of the highway were we will unload a five ton truck full of our gear and load up a second five ton truck.

(Editors Note: Turns out it was not the truck at all, it was the driver)

7:30 AM
I am 45 minutes early. Not sure what to make of it as I am never early.

7:53 AM
I forgot how much guys in college like to stuff paper into toilets.

8:15 AM
Class starts and the teachers seem pretty enthused about forestrywhich is great. If any onereadingthis has been to university you know what it is like to have a teacher that isnon-enthused. NAITinstructorsare refreshing in that they care.

9:15AM
Realize that I need my first aid certificate before heading out to our camp which leaves on Thursdaymorning. Hmm, how do I fix this.

10:30 AM
I found a person that is willing to teach me first aid, one on one tomorrow night until we are done. Pricey.

12 Noon
Got my new student ID. I look kind of goofy and my eyes are closed. It will get me discounts everywhere.

12:15 PM
Bookstore visit (Bye $600)

3:21 PM
Acquire forest work gear (Bye $800)

4:30 PM
Home time

First day and I forgot my lunch money. Sigh.

Today I have fun task list of, cleaning out my house, moving to Edmonton, getting ready for school, and nursing over twenty welts from paintball yesterday. Ouch!

My house after I finished renovating the outside. I will sure miss living at Island Lake.

Although it was great that my house recently sold it has been a huge amount of work as well as I have had to run around taking things to the dump, moving everything to Edmonton and trying to prepare for school all at the same time. The real challenge came when my realtor asked if the buyers could move in tomorrow instead on September like we had agreed upon. This work out great for me in that I won’t have three more mortgage payments that I would have had but it is difficult to juggle everything that needs to be done while getting ready for school.

Two, out of twenty-two welts. My thigh is now a purple colour.

At the same time I am moving a bit slower due to yesterdays activities. All year I have been going on what I call “Rambo Adventures”. These are little excursions that sometimes are adventurous and sometimes just a moment of fun. They have ranged from ice climbing to an all inclusive trip to Cuba to the Indy race in Edmonton. As my going away present some fiends of mine decided to take me on an ultimate Rambo adventure, paintballing.

The entire day was great fun and I even managed to get a couple of hits in. The real fun came at the end or should I say the real pain cam at t he end. Due to me leaving to go back to school it was decided, by my friends, that I have to run the gauntlet at the paintball course. This entails dressing up in a rather large rabbit costume and then proceeding to run from one pylon to a pylon about 100 feet away and back as fast as you can while a line of people, ten in my case, take as many shots at you as they can. It is very important that you are continuously moving forward until you get to the end of your course. A metaphor that would be well applied to life.

I always think it is funny when things seem to be going so well at such a good speed, the universe kicks in to remind you to take it a bit slower. With some immunizations out of the way I was strutting around downtown a bit more cocky then I suppose I should have and that is when the simple act of stepping off a curb resulted in a sprained ankle that might sideline me.

I was very happy with my immunization shots. The tetanus and Hep A/B shots went really well, not that they wouldn’t. I had to laugh during the whole process though because they wanted to do some testing as well so while they were drawing blood out at the crook in my elbow they were stabbing vaccinations in my shoulder.

It was only a short time later that I had to go to the post office to do a change of address. While performing the simple act of leaving the post office I miss-stepped and ended up spraining my ankle. If I had thought of it at the time I would have taken a picture of my foot while I was getting x-rays done. It turned out that after the emergency room, and the x-rays that I just have a sprained ankle. What does this mean for school. I think I will be okay as long as there are no major requirements right away such as running a four minute mile.

Coming up in the next Blissue (Blog + Issue, Im seeing if I can create a word) I’ve received all the Icebreaker gear and have a really big upset regarding the Tissot. Plus it’s time to talk about NAIT.

So I sent out an email awhile ago telling everyone that I had officially decided to return to school and my always loving mom with her goodsenseof humor sent me these pictures in an email. Thanks mom.

My friend the sent me this to make me feel better.

Teddy Bear Cake

This weekend was a great opportunity for catching up with family and putting some items to test that I will be taking with me when I venture out into the bush for my course. The main focus of testing this weekend would be on Icebreaker. Of course, I didn’t tell my family that I would be wearing the same shirt around them for three days.The first day was quite unpredictable with a bit of rain and a bit of sun and a lot of wind. I was geared up with both my Helly Hansen Volt Jacket and my Icebreaker Superfine 140 long sleeve.Through out the day of taking my family sailing and then coming in for some snacks while also being in cool rain and hot sun this shirt did a great gob of keeping me at a pretty constant temperature. When people would complain about being cold, I was fine. When people would complain about being warm, I was fine. I didn’t really notice this at all until day three when one on my aunts had complained about how hot it was and then I realized that I was the only one all weekend that had never complained that it was either to hot or to cold. My temperature seemed to be at a constant.The shirt did get a little wet when in the rain but nothing to bad and it seemed to work well at holding the warmth while wet but it would need a bit better testing for me to conclude thatOf course with Icebreaker material the big test is the smell test. Funny, that for a shirt so functional the main focus is on the smell. This is very important though because if you are some type out outdoor enthusiast then it makes packing clothes much easier.So, I wore my shirt everyday for three days this weekend. At the end of day three, when I was sitting around with some aunts and uncles, they had asked how I could wear a shirt for six weeks let alone a few days. It was at that moment that I volunteered them for the smell test. Now just before telling you the results I will give you a brief breakdown of what the shirt has been through this weekend.

• Driving in a car for 4 hours
• Mingling for a couple of hours
• Boat launch, then sailing 2 hours
• More mingling until bed
• Good night sleep
• 20 minute break while I had a shower
• Back on and after breakfast, sailing during a storm
• Back in for some food and more mingling
• Sailing again on a great night
• Back on land where I was continually in the smoke from the camp fire
• Fireworks
• Smores
• Good night sleep
• 20 minute break while I had a shower
• Cook breakfast with fun aromatic spices
• Long Walk
• More sailing including sustaining a thirty-degree lean
• Back on land
• Drive to the other side of the lake
• Walk around some swampy area
• Back for supper
• Mingling

As you can see there are some definite spots where the shirt had the ability to absorb numerous smells. So what happened when my aunt asked about the shirt and then I had told them to sniff the one I was wearing and that it had been worn for three days straight?Nothing. Well, that isn’t true. They didn’t believe me. Two of them had come in after the campfire and had showers and could still smell it in the morning from the clothes they had put in the hamper. But not this shirt, this shirt had an odor of wool.