My sport for school this spring term is landscaping. Three or four times a week one of my school’s biology teachers, Mr. Ian Morris, and I go out completing tasks around campus. We cleaned up one dorm’s garden, we cleared a forest of brush, we pruned apple trees, and so much more! To give you an idea of what a day with Mr. Morris would be like imagine an old British guy who looks like this:
AND then on top of looking like a goof, knowing every bird call and plant name we come across. He will then also tell when that tree was planted and by who, and then point at a red tailed hawk and say something like, “They are always so happy looking right before they are going to kill something.” Classic.
So that is my usual day with him, but some days he has tasks that keep him away from guiding me about the campus, so instead he gives me tools and tells me to go off and do something. These are the days of real learning. I am on my own, and cannot double check if what I am doing is right. The first time he did this to me he instructed me to cut down some brush by our arts centre. I must have spent 30 minutes trying to figure out if the plants I thought I was supposed to cut down were in fact the right ones. Could you imagine accidently cutting down a tree or bush that was a few thousand dollars that wasn’t supposed to be cut! So, those days I put into practice what he has so far taught me. What plants are what, and how to then deal with them. (By the way I got the right ones :D)
Today he gave me the task of cutting back some pricker bushes next to the road leading to our science centre. I arrived on location with a hand saw and tree clippers. I was ready to go, and this was what I had to clear:
It keeps going too!
Yikes!
Clearly not a one day task, but the real thing was getting started. Once I did, it was easy going! Except not at all. These bushes were thorrnnnnyyyy. OW! My arms got torn up, but it was okay. I went slow and steady, cutting back until I could reach the beginning of each stem and pull the whole bush off and toss it into a ditch off to the side to slowly rot away and become nutrients for the soil already there, or become munching food for the animals and insects around. I got all the way back to this!
The whole frame use to be bush!!
YES!!! I was so excited! Except it came with price, besides just my arms getting scratched I got bush whacked! I was hauling of a bush I had cut, and was throwing into the ditch when it instead decided to whip around on me!
My back...
Ow…my own fault really, but ow. Now cleaned out, and hoping it avoids infection. Here is to land management! It is so much fun; it is my practise for Zero One! Plus that cut looks cool! If anyone is looking at your screen, but not reading the words, and ask where those cuts came from say a wild cat! Thanks! There will be more on Mr. Morris on the future, he has taught me a lot and much of it I want to share with you all! So be excited! I’ll keep you all updated with what I am doing around campus, and try to take more pictures. Key words here are try. Have a great day SuperForesters!
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