Day 2 at the marsh
The morning after I survived that first rough day learning how to hand-pull sphagnum moss, I woke up to a beautiful sunshiny happy day. My muscles were sore from swinging the pulling hook all the day before in the wind and rain, but I was optimistic and I couldn't wait to see what the marsh looked like in the sunshine. It was gorgeous! It was even more beautiful that I could have imagined it would be.
The marsh was very wet. Marshes generally are, but not always. This being early spring, there was a lot of spring runoff still around and we were generally standing in three to six inches of water on top of the marsh. My borrowed-from-a-friend boots from the day before hadn't worked so well, they were the wrong size. At the end of that first day, the foreman fixed me up with a pair of right-size knee boots from a guy who didn't work out, (that happened a lot). The boots actually fit me. It was a whole different experience.
We had problems right away in the morning, just getting out to where we were hand-pulling. We learned from this mistake after this, but we were trying to work in too wet of conditions. The marsh "softens-up" when there is too much water present. The cats kept breaking through and we kept getting stuck. We had three cats on the marsh and the first two got stuck right away. I was on a boat, trying to figure out this whole balancing-on-a-big-flat-board-being-jerked-behind-a-cat thing, when the second cat got stuck. The foreman told the driver pulling me and two other co-workers to leave the cat (and us) there and come over. So he walked over to the foreman about 30 yards away and helped to get that cat out. No sooner were they out and then they were stuck again, both cats.
The foreman hollered over to me to bring the cat over and pull them out.
Excuse me, this is early morning of day 2, I have never driven a cat before. My instructor is 30 yards away and I'm not hearing real good. It's windy. Why does he think I can drive it? And, until this second, I didn't know I even WOULD be driving it.
I drove my grandpas tractors. I have plowed fields. This was quite a while ago. But he was hollering to me to get in the seat and bring it over. So I got in the seat and one of my co-workers told me the basic idea. It is very, very simple. I asked him if he wanted to go (since he knew how to drive), he said no, he didn't drive the cats, only the tractors. So I went.
My foreman motioned to me where to turn around. I pulled him out and then he told me to go pull the other guy out. I was like, 'oh,' because I thought I was driving to him and he was taking over. But, I went and pulled the other guy out. I didn't get stuck either time. The foreman told me to go hook the boat I had been on, and take the guys in. So I left to head back to the boat, went about half the distance and I see my boat-riders waving at me to turn around back toward the other cats. Both were stuck again. So I went and pulled both out again.
I was so nervous about driving the cat in the first place, that I was totally tuned in to what I was doing. That very first day I developed a "feel" for the marsh. All the time I worked there, I was never able to teach it to even one other person.
I pulled the boat in and while I was driving them in, with the other cats following me in, I was the happiest girl in the world! I already LOVED that job. It was hard work, but I really liked the adventure. Already, I had a passion for the work.
A while later, we came back out and starting hand-pulling in another area. I was working with the foreman. One of the guys hauling in a full boat got stuck. The foreman had to leave me alone to go help. He told me to pull the spot I was working on, then take a break until he got back with the cat. Everyone left and I was all alone in the middle of this huge beautiful marsh. I was right where I was supposed to be. I was so very happy that I had survived that first crappy day, or I would have never gotten to that wonderful second day.
I knew I could do this job. I was working outdoors. My crew-mates respected me because I worked along side them. I had satisfaction that I had not gotten stuck when I pulled the other cats out, while experienced drivers were dropping into holes (small ones, mind you) left and right. I was a mosser! And a sweet part of this was not being afraid out on the marsh, when I'd had such a tremendous fear of any marsh, swamp, bog from my hunting dip in the marsh years ago.
Two years prior to this, I had what I shall call a "day-dream" for lack of a better term. In it, I fell forward into a Christmas wreath lying on the ground. As I fell it widened into a round field of knee-high grass surrounded by a ring of trees. I went into it face foward, but somehow, I seemingly flipped over without noticing and landed on my feet in the field. Then it was over.
Day 2, after pulling the spot the foreman had told me to, I stopped to smoke a ciggarette. I heard the cat arrive at the landing, nearly a mile from me, and shut off. Silence. I was musing on my good fortune at having a found a job that suited me so well, when I looked all around me and realized--I was standing in a circular field of grass, surrounded by a ring of trees! Wow! I had the most intense deja-vu. I had known a little about moss, but nothing about sphagnum. I didn't see any moss in my day-dream. All I saw was the grass and the trees. But I'd been HERE all the same. I knew I was right where I was supposed to be.
We left that marsh within 48 hours. It was just too wet to work there. We moved to a different, much drier marsh. I worked on many spots on that big marsh over the years, but I was never in exactly that place again.
The marsh was very wet. Marshes generally are, but not always. This being early spring, there was a lot of spring runoff still around and we were generally standing in three to six inches of water on top of the marsh. My borrowed-from-a-friend boots from the day before hadn't worked so well, they were the wrong size. At the end of that first day, the foreman fixed me up with a pair of right-size knee boots from a guy who didn't work out, (that happened a lot). The boots actually fit me. It was a whole different experience.
We had problems right away in the morning, just getting out to where we were hand-pulling. We learned from this mistake after this, but we were trying to work in too wet of conditions. The marsh "softens-up" when there is too much water present. The cats kept breaking through and we kept getting stuck. We had three cats on the marsh and the first two got stuck right away. I was on a boat, trying to figure out this whole balancing-on-a-big-flat-board-being-jerked-behind-a-cat thing, when the second cat got stuck. The foreman told the driver pulling me and two other co-workers to leave the cat (and us) there and come over. So he walked over to the foreman about 30 yards away and helped to get that cat out. No sooner were they out and then they were stuck again, both cats.
The foreman hollered over to me to bring the cat over and pull them out.
Excuse me, this is early morning of day 2, I have never driven a cat before. My instructor is 30 yards away and I'm not hearing real good. It's windy. Why does he think I can drive it? And, until this second, I didn't know I even WOULD be driving it.
I drove my grandpas tractors. I have plowed fields. This was quite a while ago. But he was hollering to me to get in the seat and bring it over. So I got in the seat and one of my co-workers told me the basic idea. It is very, very simple. I asked him if he wanted to go (since he knew how to drive), he said no, he didn't drive the cats, only the tractors. So I went.
My foreman motioned to me where to turn around. I pulled him out and then he told me to go pull the other guy out. I was like, 'oh,' because I thought I was driving to him and he was taking over. But, I went and pulled the other guy out. I didn't get stuck either time. The foreman told me to go hook the boat I had been on, and take the guys in. So I left to head back to the boat, went about half the distance and I see my boat-riders waving at me to turn around back toward the other cats. Both were stuck again. So I went and pulled both out again.
I was so nervous about driving the cat in the first place, that I was totally tuned in to what I was doing. That very first day I developed a "feel" for the marsh. All the time I worked there, I was never able to teach it to even one other person.
I pulled the boat in and while I was driving them in, with the other cats following me in, I was the happiest girl in the world! I already LOVED that job. It was hard work, but I really liked the adventure. Already, I had a passion for the work.
A while later, we came back out and starting hand-pulling in another area. I was working with the foreman. One of the guys hauling in a full boat got stuck. The foreman had to leave me alone to go help. He told me to pull the spot I was working on, then take a break until he got back with the cat. Everyone left and I was all alone in the middle of this huge beautiful marsh. I was right where I was supposed to be. I was so very happy that I had survived that first crappy day, or I would have never gotten to that wonderful second day.
I knew I could do this job. I was working outdoors. My crew-mates respected me because I worked along side them. I had satisfaction that I had not gotten stuck when I pulled the other cats out, while experienced drivers were dropping into holes (small ones, mind you) left and right. I was a mosser! And a sweet part of this was not being afraid out on the marsh, when I'd had such a tremendous fear of any marsh, swamp, bog from my hunting dip in the marsh years ago.
Two years prior to this, I had what I shall call a "day-dream" for lack of a better term. In it, I fell forward into a Christmas wreath lying on the ground. As I fell it widened into a round field of knee-high grass surrounded by a ring of trees. I went into it face foward, but somehow, I seemingly flipped over without noticing and landed on my feet in the field. Then it was over.
Day 2, after pulling the spot the foreman had told me to, I stopped to smoke a ciggarette. I heard the cat arrive at the landing, nearly a mile from me, and shut off. Silence. I was musing on my good fortune at having a found a job that suited me so well, when I looked all around me and realized--I was standing in a circular field of grass, surrounded by a ring of trees! Wow! I had the most intense deja-vu. I had known a little about moss, but nothing about sphagnum. I didn't see any moss in my day-dream. All I saw was the grass and the trees. But I'd been HERE all the same. I knew I was right where I was supposed to be.
We left that marsh within 48 hours. It was just too wet to work there. We moved to a different, much drier marsh. I worked on many spots on that big marsh over the years, but I was never in exactly that place again.
posted by Lori @ 8:12 PM
1 Comments:
At 6:38 AM,
Lori said…
I neither said, nor thought that. I was far more likely to say or think that he should clean his room.
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