It’s trendy to talk about being green, recycling, and saving the earth. No one ever pulled a hamstring by talking. Debate glacier science all you want but you won’t be as sore, wet, mud-covered, or exhausted as we were after spending our day clawing around on our hands and knees, back-filling hundreds of holes and, ultimately, planting a whole bunch of trees.
I sometimes work with our install team, and handling timbers and roof panels is physical, non-stop work. We’re like a bunch of busy bees, up and down ladders all day, traversing roofs, walking at heights, carrying heavy stuff the whole time — all at a fast, competitive pace in any weather imaginable. We’re like action heroes armed with tool belts and hammers instead of weapons. Tree planting would be easy, I thought — even after I’d heard rumors of a heavyweight gas-powered auger nicknamed “The Man Killer”.
Our company Arbor Day was for the office crew only. These people are SOFT. They eat lunch INDOORS. If anything I’d be embarrassed by my own physical superiority. How would these office wimps react to seeing a REAL WORKER, up close, outperforming them with heroic feats of strength and endurance?
Maybe our designer, Adam Scott, could answer that question because while he was busy blasting power lifts with Dan (college kid intern) on The Man Killer, I was sucking wind, bent over, wishing my shoulders were stronger while also pathetically trying to imagine an easier way to harness The Man Killer’s power — (Connect it to some 2x4s? What if we stood on blocks? Three guys at a time?)
Nothing sobers you to your own brand of B.S. faster than getting publicly outperformed by a guy like Adam who doesn’t even have the decency to make fun of you while it’s happening. Instead, I’m breathless, apologizing, trying to make my arms stop pulsing while Adam smiles, tells me it’s okay, and offers me breaks. He did everything but rub my back.
The rest of the office crew was just as relentless. We followed a wagon full of trees all day on a wavy path around the property and by 5pm we had gone through the full load. All told we planted 700 trees — mostly Eastern White Pines and White Spruce.
Over time they should transform the landscape. For years our company founder, George, has been coming out here, planting thousands of trees, creating a land retreat for us to use for camping or hunting or embarrassing ourselves in front of stronger co-workers.
Take a look at how much the property has changed since 1995.
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