Discomfort

I hate being uncomfortable. I would rather be in outright pain than uncomfortable. I prefer the pain that accompanied my broken collarbone than that with the stress fracture in my foot. It was a much more honest pain, that could be dealt with stoically, instead of with fidgeting and whining.

I bring this up because on Wednesday we planted trees in class. I was expecting, and hoping for, that feeling in my muscles that hurts when I first move them in the morning but loosens into a satisfying warmth. Instead, only the back of my right thigh hurt, and in a way that was nagging instead of gratifying. I don't even know what I did. My left side is dominant, not my right, so I'm not sure what I could have possibly done to pull that particular muscle. I guess it will just be added into the category of "things that happen that I don't know why," like getting a blister on the very tip of my big toe at the same time. Alas.

I enjoyed planting the trees, though. Because I show up midway through class each time, I only got to help in planting two trees out of the eleven, a soapberry and a hackberry, but it was still enjoyable.

For one tree, we had to dig through caliche to make a big enough hole. Nic attacked it with a fury, and then we shoveled it all out to put in the tree. Roots were trimmed so that they stood out straight from the trunk; this was to discourage them from curling around and making the tree root-bound. Around each tree, we built a trough and rim capable of holding two or three inches of water for the tree to soak up. Young trees need a lot of water, especially after being transplanted.

The trees were planted almost at random. Scott and Matt looked at the land and decided where they wanted trees, picking low land and high. Then, after marking these places on the map, they compared it to their map of known archeological sites. If the trees were marked in one of the sites, they moved it off to the edge, to prevent any further disruption of these historical places. The class got about half the trees that they had planned planted, so this coming week we are going to hopefully plant the rest.

I enjoyed being outside, not cooped up in the lab. The sun was hot, and it was a good fifty degrees warmer than it had been the week before. I actually managed to get sunscreen on all exposed surfaces this time; maybe next time I can keep it up!