The Pigslinger

Meditating in the tower
Music started to come my ears
I thought, "where could this be coming from?"
Well, it was the wind
Blowing with the sound of an orchestra

  

 After sending my AM weather forecast, putting the seedlings out to get some sun, and finishing any other morning tasks, I noticed something had happened that I had been dreading. The baby mosquitoes had been born and they’re already everywhere. Much of the land around me is called muskeg, which is a type of swamp or bog, giving the mama mozzies plenty of stagnant water in which to lay their eggs. I was warned that this would happen but was hoping that this year, the mamas would forget to lay their eggs, or lay them in a different part of the world. A friend of mine, who worked in a tower last year, told me about this and recommended I purchase a “bug jacket”, which is a light jacket with a lot of mesh in it and a zip up mesh face protector, so it looks like this is what I will be wearing on my walks from now on! However, I don’t believe they can fly up to the top of a 100-foot tower, so I should be safe when I am up there. 

My mum posed to me a few questions that she suggested it may be helpful for me to address in this post, as friends and family have asked her these things. One thing to point out is that I don’t live up in the tower. I have a cabin at the bottom that has a kitchen, bedroom, and office space. My power comes from a small generator, which I run for 3-5 hours a day, the fridge is powered by a large solar panel, and my oven and heaters run on propane gas. At first it was quite odd not having power at all hours of the day. I’m so used to just plugging something into an outlet and having it work. The last two days have been quite dark and stormy, so I had to rely on candlelight for some of that time to have a bit of light in the house. It was quite nice. In regards to when I actually have to be in the tower, I will post a picture of the fire danger levels and our corresponding hours for being on duty. Note that when it says “Check every half an hour,” it is quite a lot of work to climb up the tower, so I wouldn’t be going up and down every 30 minutes. Well, unless I want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger upon my return. I’ll consider it. When I am up in the tower, I have binoculars, a scope, and a map called a fire finder. I’ll check my surroundings when required and if I see something that I believe is a fire smoke, I’ll figure out the coordinates and radio it in to High Level dispatch within five minutes of seeing it. This hasn’t happened yet. The weather here has been quite cool and rainy so far, though supposedly June is lightning storm season, and lightning is a major cause of fires, so that ought to be interesting.

The Cupola is the little cabin on top of the tower.

Last Wednesday, I got my first food and mail delivery. My supervisor and detection aid (they are both responsible for helping get any necessary items for the tower) flew in on a helicopter and stayed for around two hours. It was strange seeing people again, but I enjoyed their company. They helped me lug a bunch of roots and soil out into a hole outside of my site, during which we found a little mouse had made its home within one of the piles of dirt. I have seen this mouse hiding around my garden multiple times now and I wonder if it will be my future nemesis in this gardening. While they were around, the pilot of the helicopter had to carry my empty propane tank underneath the helicopter on a sling back to High Level and then return with a full one. They call this slingin’ pigs. Although I knew what food and mail was going to be delivered, it still felt like it was my birthday when a helicopter flew in delivering me all of these delicious treats and parcels. And I get this every three weeks! A couple of days prior to the helicopter coming, I called the local garden store as I was interested in getting some flower seeds, which may promote bees and butterflies to come around my site. I had a really nice chat with the owner, who said that she would get some seeds together for me. Our detection aid, Sarah, went to pick them up, and the owner had forgotten about the seeds, so she took a few packets off of the stand and said “they’re on the house.” I am so grateful for this gift and very excited to plant them.

They call him The Pigslinger.

Despite the mosquitoes, I am starting to feel more comfortable here every day. I am learning more about the nature around me both through the fungal ecology course that I am taking, as well as my daily jaunts out into the forest, and it is helping me feel more comfortable out in this rugged natural environment. When I was a young child, I wasn’t a huge fan of going outside (possibly due in part to allergies), I would rather play video games or read, so I appreciate this time to get to know it all a little better. Well, all I have left for you is a song that I have been writing recently. It isn't fully completed but enough that I'd like to share it. I'll post it below. Thanks for reading and I hope that your week is very special. It’s my brother’s birthday on Friday so be sure to wish him as many happy birthdays as you can.