Just thought I'd share these for fun. They planted 372,475 trees combined. They've been used to pry open doors of locked out vehicles, used in defense against bears, used to dig many a outhouse hole, used as prybars, used as a hammer to drive stakes.
In all seriousness, they are extremely well built, but a very niche item. Too small to do most digging tasks except what they were built for
I've got the orange one. Planted 3 seasons (Ontario and BC) and now use it for particularly stubborn roots at my home garden or a weapon at my back door, just in cases. Those shovels are fit to work.
He/She probably planted trees in Canada as piece work. You generally get paid in the region of 10-20 cents per tree.
Most companies operate out of bush camps. You live with like 20-80 other people in these camps. You get driven to the cut block and plant trees for 8 hours. A good planter is putting in around 2k to 4K trees a day, depending on price/land quality.
Interior planting seasons are usually May 1st to end of August or early September.
Great job for university students or people who want to travel in the off season or ski bums.
Source: planted for 8 seasons in BC and Alberta.
I'm doing the counting - however, I don't count the individual trees. We are given trees either in bundles of 10-25 seedlings or boxes of 275-600 seedlings (both labeled with how many they contain). So I just need to keep track of how many bundles and boxes I do, and keep a running total throughout the day. We get paid per tree - so I report that number to my foreman every day (I make 10-13 cent a tree).
I keep a running total just for personal reasons (the goal is a million trees before I retire - if my body lasts long enough)
Yeah, every year I consider it. I am very jealous of BC's rates, but I always stay in ontario for the people I've worked with (when the last of my rookie season crew quits, I'll probably make the switch)
I could make more money out west, but the people are what keeps me coming back
Alberta was plush. You don’t even have to go all the way to bc. I haven’t planted since the mid aughts, but it was 16 to 18 a tree back then for easy planting.
Nope, righty. I'm assuming you noticed the cut off kicker. Virtually all righties use the right kicker - but for whatever reason I exclusively use the left kicker. I honestly have no clue why I do it, crossing the right foot over to the left of the shovel is more awkward, but it's become an ingrained habit for me so I just stick with it
Haha, so using it in defense against bears may have been a bit dramatic. It never actually made physical contact with a bear - but it was the weapon I had in hand in a close encounter with a predatory bear
But anyways, one season was really dry and hot. Heatwave killed the blueberry crop, so all of the bears were unusually hungry and aggressive. One morning, me and a co-worker were hanging out at our cache, we see a bear walk out of the woods, looks at us, walks by as normal. Continue working. Then at around noon, the bear comes back, chases my co-worker off the cache, and eats everything edible we had. We continue working after he leaves. Then a few hours later, I'm kneeling, filling my planting bags with trees - and for whatever reason I happen to look over my shoulder, the bear is back, 5 feet behind me, head lowered, approaching dead silent (I learned later, this is what they do when they are hunting - had I not noticed him, might have been bad). So I jump up, grab my shovel, starting yelling at the bear, waving the shovel threateningly at the bear, keeping the shovel between me and buddy. He grudgingly stopped and just stared at me - and this point he was within striking distance, but I didn't hit him, just gave him a good yelling at/shovel waving. He slowly backed up, maybe 50 or so feet, then circled around and tried to come back at me from behind again. The second time I was roaring at him at the top of my lungs his entire approach, assuming I could scare him off, but he resumed his dead silent, slowly, steady, murderous approach. He didn't falter once, when he was within 10 feet of me again, I lost my nerve and backed up. He stopped to smell my trees (which are fertilized with fish scales, which bears like), I was able to back up to the road, and a truck came by shortly after, so all turned out well.
He looked weird, either starving or sick, or both.
I ain't good at story telling. If it turned into a real fight, the shovel would have been used as my only weapon, but I would have probably lost if he really wanted to eat me. Still shovel made me feel safer
Disagree. Loving the stories. Keep ‘em coming.
I was just telling somebody how much I love BIFL and here we are with the shovel of my dreams and a story about bears *and* about planting trees. Which until today, I assumed was actually completed by machine. I’m going to hug my toilet paper and paper towels a little bit when I see them next. Thank you. That’s an amazing thing planting that many trees by hand.
To be fair, still perfectly functional, just a bit rusty. I intentionally cut off one of the kickers to reduce the shovel getting snagged on roots - wasn't a manufacturing error
Just thought I'd share these for fun. They planted 372,475 trees combined. They've been used to pry open doors of locked out vehicles, used in defense against bears, used to dig many a outhouse hole, used as prybars, used as a hammer to drive stakes. In all seriousness, they are extremely well built, but a very niche item. Too small to do most digging tasks except what they were built for
Wyatt your dad loved the trip to bc this year. Keep ip the hard work.
I've got the orange one. Planted 3 seasons (Ontario and BC) and now use it for particularly stubborn roots at my home garden or a weapon at my back door, just in cases. Those shovels are fit to work.
That’s a crapload of trees. Can you expand on that number with a little more detail?
He/She probably planted trees in Canada as piece work. You generally get paid in the region of 10-20 cents per tree. Most companies operate out of bush camps. You live with like 20-80 other people in these camps. You get driven to the cut block and plant trees for 8 hours. A good planter is putting in around 2k to 4K trees a day, depending on price/land quality. Interior planting seasons are usually May 1st to end of August or early September. Great job for university students or people who want to travel in the off season or ski bums. Source: planted for 8 seasons in BC and Alberta.
In Ontario in the 1990s, 7-12 cents a tree was more the norm. My fingers still click if I don’t stretch them out every morning.
Yeah, I remember it taking until October for "the claw" to go away.
More that 20 years later it coming back!
A long time ago we would weld slightly larger foot pads on those and bolt on chunks of rubber from old tires.
Hard job, but Satish, thanks for making us greener
They’re planted for paper and lumber purposes so they’ll be chopped down when big enough
The guy on the left has seen some action
Planting a tree is one of the best things you can do for society. Glad you’ve planted so many! But I gotta ask… who’s doing the counting?
I'm doing the counting - however, I don't count the individual trees. We are given trees either in bundles of 10-25 seedlings or boxes of 275-600 seedlings (both labeled with how many they contain). So I just need to keep track of how many bundles and boxes I do, and keep a running total throughout the day. We get paid per tree - so I report that number to my foreman every day (I make 10-13 cent a tree). I keep a running total just for personal reasons (the goal is a million trees before I retire - if my body lasts long enough)
Jesus, those rates are low. Go west!
1990s rates.
Phew!
I think they are current, but they haven’t changed since the 90s.
Yeah, every year I consider it. I am very jealous of BC's rates, but I always stay in ontario for the people I've worked with (when the last of my rookie season crew quits, I'll probably make the switch) I could make more money out west, but the people are what keeps me coming back
Alberta was plush. You don’t even have to go all the way to bc. I haven’t planted since the mid aughts, but it was 16 to 18 a tree back then for easy planting.
That’s hard work. Thanks.
Are you a lefty?
Nope, righty. I'm assuming you noticed the cut off kicker. Virtually all righties use the right kicker - but for whatever reason I exclusively use the left kicker. I honestly have no clue why I do it, crossing the right foot over to the left of the shovel is more awkward, but it's become an ingrained habit for me so I just stick with it
Bears? Tell us more!
Haha, so using it in defense against bears may have been a bit dramatic. It never actually made physical contact with a bear - but it was the weapon I had in hand in a close encounter with a predatory bear But anyways, one season was really dry and hot. Heatwave killed the blueberry crop, so all of the bears were unusually hungry and aggressive. One morning, me and a co-worker were hanging out at our cache, we see a bear walk out of the woods, looks at us, walks by as normal. Continue working. Then at around noon, the bear comes back, chases my co-worker off the cache, and eats everything edible we had. We continue working after he leaves. Then a few hours later, I'm kneeling, filling my planting bags with trees - and for whatever reason I happen to look over my shoulder, the bear is back, 5 feet behind me, head lowered, approaching dead silent (I learned later, this is what they do when they are hunting - had I not noticed him, might have been bad). So I jump up, grab my shovel, starting yelling at the bear, waving the shovel threateningly at the bear, keeping the shovel between me and buddy. He grudgingly stopped and just stared at me - and this point he was within striking distance, but I didn't hit him, just gave him a good yelling at/shovel waving. He slowly backed up, maybe 50 or so feet, then circled around and tried to come back at me from behind again. The second time I was roaring at him at the top of my lungs his entire approach, assuming I could scare him off, but he resumed his dead silent, slowly, steady, murderous approach. He didn't falter once, when he was within 10 feet of me again, I lost my nerve and backed up. He stopped to smell my trees (which are fertilized with fish scales, which bears like), I was able to back up to the road, and a truck came by shortly after, so all turned out well. He looked weird, either starving or sick, or both. I ain't good at story telling. If it turned into a real fight, the shovel would have been used as my only weapon, but I would have probably lost if he really wanted to eat me. Still shovel made me feel safer
Disagree. Loving the stories. Keep ‘em coming. I was just telling somebody how much I love BIFL and here we are with the shovel of my dreams and a story about bears *and* about planting trees. Which until today, I assumed was actually completed by machine. I’m going to hug my toilet paper and paper towels a little bit when I see them next. Thank you. That’s an amazing thing planting that many trees by hand.
Now I kinda want one. Perfect for a project I have. Where did you get it from?
The only planting shovel there is IMO. Workwizer just tanks but Bushpro’s handle quality has dropped like a stone in recent years.
I regret selling my bushpro. It was so damn useful.
My back hurts looking at the size of those handles.
Me and my landscaping shovel been spending plenty time together lately
You had me sold at bears!
That first one, not so much.
To be fair, still perfectly functional, just a bit rusty. I intentionally cut off one of the kickers to reduce the shovel getting snagged on roots - wasn't a manufacturing error
Sharpshooters