My times in Ontario has ensued and planting up north is well underway. The conditions here are not similar to Manitoba in that there is a lot of direct planting, which means the ground has not been prepared. My camp is 4 km into the bush, with a small lake and some islands on the fringes. An old bleeding post and hunting ground has become my new dwelling. Before even setting up my tent, I found remains of a moose in the forest. The hooves which I hung on the posts on the trees above. I built a full shrine with all the animal matter I have collected over this time, bones, skulls, bullets, bird skeleton, candles, antlers, a burial mound and torches. This was to be the setting of my Centurion Method pit, and Galdragildi ve. I performed my initiation rite here, after being an apprentice at the gild for two months now. Another post tells of my experience with that.
The fauna of the landscape are not always pleasant, such as the black flies, horse flies and mosquitoes which have been trying to harvest my blood since I arrived. There is seemingly no escape from them, even in the relative comfort of my canvas tent. The ground varies from wetland bog and fen, to dusty, dry highlands. There is a lot of gradient in each hectare which means a lot of scaling cliffs and rocks, climbing over clear cut and fallen giants. Still I am keeping my production of 2000-3000 trees per day which means my technique has been keeping strong. My resilience, stamina, endurance and agility have all been the elite traits spurring me towards doing this powerful work. In the field, I find myself to be more than just a laborer, but a warrior, and animal. Walking over the land once gives me a more intimate connection with my direction and place, and then I can allow my natural instincts to guide me through. Knowledge of the soil, the other plant life, and the dangers is essential to getting the most fertility from the land. There are a lot of things to think about when planting in this style, and I find it to be just as must a test of the intellect and mood as to the body. Each tree must meet idyllic conditions set by the forester. The spacing apart from the other planted trees, and naturals to give each one their own space for growth, the straightness and depth of the tree. The kind of soil it is planted in, which contains all the minerals, and also the species that is adaptable to that specific bioregion. Which also changes throughout the area, which means plantin 2 species at once. I have been planting black and white spruce, red and white pine.
There are moose tracks in our patch of woods and several bears looming around, but they are quickly scared of our presence. I acquired a new tattoo, of the :thurisaz: rune on my wrist. It symbolizes the elite form which I have had to adopt over the course of treeplanting, the hardness involved with the body, and mindset of Thor. I am currently building a wooden raft from trees and roots with a friend, and had time for the first CM training in the pit, with the tattooer who marked me with the rune. I have roughly 3 days left in this camp, and then moving to a far more isolated location, 3 hours from any town.
:aferalspirit: 