#23 Small Problem

Hey there, I'm back again, and I think this blog will be long again because I will definitely get into a certain topic while writing, but more on that later.

Last Saturday, I actually wanted to visit our neighbor Peter because firstly, I love his house with the large windows and the amazing view, and secondly, I thought he is pretty lonely and some company would be nice. However, before that, I had to take the dogs for a walk (we always go for walks with the quads), so they can learn to listen to my commands. So, I set off, and oh boy, Daisy feels like she has entered her teenage phase for a few weeks now. She has absolutely zero interest when you give her different commands, and then she walks five meters, stops, waits, and then wags her tail and Trooper just wants to keep going. I even took Daisy for a ride on the quad for a while before I dropped her off. Then we were just before the end of the road where I wanted to turn around and go back home, and then Trooper smelled something and boom - he was gone, and suddenly Daisy also found some energy in herself and went after him. So, I followed the dog tracks for ten minutes, but since I didn't have the right clothing for the deep snow, I went back. Fatih and I went together again but still couldn't find them. Then Jenny went, and you could tell - she is the "mom" of the two, because she found them both again, as the dogs listened to her calls. As you can see, the dogs always cause some stress here, especially since this time they ran off in a direction where traps from the idiot (who shoots animals for fun) are also lying (could be). However, through the whole search operation, I rescheduled the meeting with Peter for Sunday, so I had enough time to give our "chainsaw table" an update. The German safety officer in me thought the construction was absolutely unsafe, and another positive point is: now we finally have firewood in a uniform length. You can't imagine how exhausting and annoying it is when the wood is sometimes 30 cm, sometimes 15 cm, or 20 cm long. It's absolute bullshit to stack, and this problem is now resolved. On Sunday, I visited Peter, and the best thing he said was that he really enjoys our conversations. Oh, that made me a little proud. My English is not perfect at all, and I probably make a grammatical mistake in every other sentence, but this statement showed me that I have learned a lot of English (for my standards), and that made me a little proud. However, Peter then continued the sentence with: ' You know, Sam, when you don't have anyone anymore, you feel alone. "That was really sad again, and that was also a reason why I visited him. And I know, sometimes it's really hard and exhausting to talk to older generations, especially when they are very set in their ways of thinking, but here's a little reminder: call your grandparents or parents and chat with them, maybe they also sometimes feel alone. Another advantage is: these people survived their youth without the internet (Yes, dear younger generation, that's possible. One of my biggest shock moments was when a student told me that she spends an average of nine hours a day on TikTok.....so much lifetime - for what? Some videos?) and therefore have a lot of experience and tricks in various things because they couldn't just google everything, and passing on this knowledge is a very important step in learning different things. On Monday, I had such a pleasure because I was supposed to go to another neighbor and help him repair his quad. Before that, however, he was supposed to show me how to sharpen and clean a chainsaw. That was a real change of perspective for me because I was in the role of the student and had a really good technology lesson with my neighbor :D It was really fun because it's also practical knowledge that, in my opinion, unfortunately doesn't get enough attention in school. But I couldn't really help with the quad repair, I was more there for the conversation because this neighbor is also alone and has no one, so I just chatted with him and watched him repair his quad. Otherwise, Fatih, Jenny, and I went hiking on Monday and set up the first camouflage tents for the photographers and threw out bait. Fortunately, we saw not only coyote tracks but also lynx tracks, so we are confident that this could be a good spot. However, the problem is that so far we have only seen isolated lynx tracks everywhere but no lynxes directly. So, we really hope to see some next week. The customers don't want to see wolves, foxes, or coyotes, they want to see lynxes. Furthermore, we have the problem that we're not getting fresh snow. It always snows on the mountains, but there are special winds caused by the mountain ranges that ensure that we rarely get snow here, and the snow around us circulates. Another problem is that it is simply too warm. Normally, temperatures around minus 20 °C are normal in January. Today (Friday), it was only 3 °C - greetings to climate change.

The following paragraph may get a little out of hand due to an agitated Samuel:

On Tuesday, Jenny went to the city. Before that, she wrote Fatih and me a list of tasks that needed to be done. So, I started working on this list while Fatih prepared a big breakfast and then had a phone call. After that, he disappeared into his little house before coming back for the next phone call. Meanwhile, I worked the whole time, and I wondered when he would actually start working. He actually started at half past three (we always work until five). His work consisted of loading wood on the quad twice and taking the dogs for a walk, and that was it. Oh, you can't imagine how angry I was because all the time I thought to myself: Hopefully, he is honest with Jenny and tells her that he didn't work that much. But then I also told myself: Tomorrow is a new day, tomorrow I won't be mad at him anymore, and that's the end of it - I thought. Because Jenny stayed overnight in the city, which also meant that she would come back late on Wednesday. That was motivation enough for Fatih not to do anything again. Well, nothing is maybe unfair...he did work, but maybe for a maximum of two hours, and I can't even tell you what he did. So, I told myself: Okay, if he tells Jenny the truth, it's okay for me, and I won't be upset about it. But if he doesn't tell the truth, then I have to be an asshole (and I know, nobody likes that) and snitch on him. Because just imagine for yourself, if you work hard for your eight hours a day and your colleague doesn't and doesn't say anything about it, and therefore gets paid in full for those two days, you would probably also find that very unfair. Jenny came back in the evening, and after a few other stories, she asked how work went, and then Fatih casually said, 'Yeah, work was good, just a little cold.' And that was the moment when I knew that unfortunately, I have to be the asshole. When Fatih went to bed, I asked Jenny for a conversation, and I can tell you, I've probably never been so angry in Canada. It's not even about the lying. Everyone lies, including me, and yes, lying sucks, but I also tell myself: Okay, what happened yesterday, happened yesterday, and today is a new day, and that's the end of it (of course, that doesn't always work 100%, it's really hard to learn, but I have a good opportunity to practice that here :D), but the fact that he doesn't see how unfair it is to me and that he is actually cheating Jenny out of her money, that made me so angry. Jenny talked to him about it on Thursday morning, and the best thing is that now he's absolutely mad at me because I "betrayed" him. I would have loved to ask him if he would find it fair if Jenny would pay me in full for my free Saturday and Sunday - probably not. And the fact that he blames me and not himself shows me that his age of late twenties is really just a number and doesn't reflect his maturity at all.

You need to know this. The relationship between us has been cooling down since the beginning of the year. He is also someone who likes to tell things that are simply not true or he expresses ideas that come from me and tries to sell them as his own (hilarious, especially since Jenny luckily knew about my idea and therefore knew that Fatih is not telling the truth). There have been problems with Fatih for some time now, and he blamed me for these problems, which is absolutely unfair to me because he and he alone is responsible for his life, and I have absolutely nothing to do with it. For some time now, I have also had the feeling that when the three of us are together, he tries to assert himself over me and establish a kind of hierarchy. Absolute bullshit for me. Both of us are just normal workers here, and no one has the right to put themselves above another. These new events have now led to him not speaking to me anymore, but honestly - I'm here to live the biggest adventure of my life, and I really don't give a shit about something like that, and yes, when I talk about it (or write in this case), I can really get worked up about it, but overall, I really don't care. I'm here to earn money, and for that, I have to work. It's as simple as that.

End of the slightly out of control part.

During the three hikes we had on Thursday, we found a lot of new coyote tracks at the spot where we were on Monday, but no fresh lynx tracks. However, we found another spot with very fresh lynx tracks. So, I'm satisfied with tracks from wolves, coyotes, and lynxes because it will be a very exciting experience for me to see these animals in the wild, but the customers pay a lot of money for lynxes, so the absolute priority is on lynx tracks, which we have fortunately found isolated already. So that the post doesn't escalate too much, I won't explain yet how to recognize the different animal tracks in the snow. Jenny always walks ahead and asks me what tracks they are. Unfortunately, I fell for her joke question. She asked me what tracks they are, and I said rabbit because I thought I could see the two legs and the bushy tail.....in the end, it was just snow falling from the tree, and yeah - felt a little stupid for a moment :D

Today, on Friday, something surprising happened for me. Fatih approached me and asked why I "snitched" on him, and I explained my position to him. Okay, he didn't apologize and claimed that he has a higher position than me here, but I just smiled tiredly at all of that because I know that it was a big step for him, and I wanted to grant him that in that moment.

Furthermore, today, I faced a big challenge. I had to go alone with the quad over the lake because we also have a spot at the end of the lake, and a new bait had to be laid there. Let's just say that if the music is loud enough, you can't even hear the cracking of the ice :D So, I sat in the camouflage tent for 1 ½ hours and waited, but nothing came - not even a bird. But that's completely normal....sometimes I will sit there for six hours during the workshops and see absolutely nothing. So, it was quite an interesting experience.

Today, I also had to walk the dogs, and they actually listened to me today, and after 20 minutes, all three of us were home together. That was a real success for me.

And with this news of success, this blog post comes to an end.

See you next week.

Samuel