Moving Trees

So we wake up to snow this morning, right.

And then in our morning meeting we're told that there's some outdoor work that needs to be done. Moving firewood to Baby Chalet - makes sense. We have some guests arriving and they may want a toasty fire given the current weather.

And then we're told Ben would like us to move some trees. It's snowing. And we're going to move trees? So Louise and I met with Ben and he told us where he wanted them, and I didn't tell him where I wanted to put them (or shove them rather). It's snowing.

So we took the firewood out to Baby Chalet, but not without me busting my ass first. We took this cart over, and didn't choose the best path. Well, what I mean is we took it straight down this steep hill. And I, of course could not make it down without introducing the very wet grass to my ass. I have realized that I've fallen so much in my life that my body has this instinctual ability to not hurt itself. It's almost as if its trained now to just be dead weight so my falls are funny rather than dangerous. Hmm...

Well anyway, Ben showed us the new locations - a bit haphazard arrangement but who am I to judge - and of course he wants one on the aforementioned steep hill, and I bust my ass on it again. I had a harder time getting up this time because I was laughing so hard, and Louise's guffaws didn't help. She is a good laugher.

So we used our spades, I used a pick ax - which I am excellent at by the way (but not without a few dirt clods down my back, down the back of my pants, and in my hair), we used our fingers, and our biceps, and toiled with the trees all day. We got 3 of the 8 planted before lunch. We were grateful that it didn't snow too much while we were working.

At lunch, I realized that I needed to be wearing some waterproofs because my pants were filthy and soaked. So I went into the boiler room to find a pair, and the only thing left was this flourescent pair. The were NICE. No worries about missing me in the snow. You could probably see me on the other side of the valley while enjoying a nice beer and schnitzel.

Then we had lunch, and the sun came out. So we were looking forward to ideal conditions for tree transplanting.

But when we put on our boots and walked out the door it was practically a blizzard. The damn sun disappeared, and we were planting trees in a big ass blizzard. What the hell?

But we did it. We accomplished what we set out to do. And I'm almost positive those watching us had as much fun as we did doing it. Sure it was not the funnest task, but like I said Louise is a good laugher, and we laughed A LOT. Especially when she sprayed dirt all over me, at which time I was mouth breathing, so I got a mouthful of dirt. Swiss dirt ain't bad, but the moral is when you're planting trees in the big ass Alps, make sure you use your nose to breath.

After dinner, as the sun was setting, I was feeling tired but proud of our performance for the day. And I looked out the window to this view, and thought, yeah this is good.