#18 Basics

Note: Of course, there are no coyotes in The Lion King, but rather hyenas. Sorry for this mistake, but hyenas are also not dumb animals, so let's get started:

On Tuesday I was still writing about the wilderness, and on Wednesday it finally happened. I saw my first coyotes, walking calmly a few hundred meters in front of me across the lake. Before the coyotes crossed the lake, the neighbor's dog came, and at first, I didn't see him clearly, just a slightly larger black animal wandering through the bushes in front of me, and I was briefly startled. Oh, Jenny enjoyed this situation... she found my scared reaction really amusing because it is completely normal for her here. She also told me that there is one thing she can't handle... that I'm afraid of wild animals because the photographers who come here for the workshops may be afraid of the animals, and then it's my job to take away their fear. So, now I have to learn to remain calm... sounds easier than it is, but in the end, these animals are more afraid of me than I am of them.

Horses

Jenny has two horses: King and Ginger and yes, with King the name is a program. It feels like he's three meters tall and consists of 98% muscles. I have to be honest, I have a lot of respect for these animals due to various personal experiences, and when such a colossus stands in front of me... good practice to stay calm: D On top of that, I have to win King's sympathy (Jenny has been observing both of us, and she said that King likes me... I hope so for both of us) because King is the king in the enclosure, which means he gets to eat first. If you don't give him the "main attention" at the beginning, the following can happen:

• you get bitten
• he treats Ginger badly because she gets "more" attention
• he breaks through the fence and disappears

I urgently want to avoid all these situations for all people and especially for myself. That's why I always go to King first, always give him the food first, and spend more time with him before I say hello to Ginger.

Wolf

After a wolf killed Ursula von der Leyen's old pony, the "problem wolf" was quickly declared fair game (Oops, when it suddenly affects a political person, wolf protection is not so high anymore, but that's another topic). Why the term "problem wolf" is occasionally mentioned in the media, who knows, because the problem is not the wolf, but rather the human who is increasingly encroaching on nature. But that's another topic, and I'm definitely not knowledgeable enough to judge (political) decisions. But we also have problems here, although not with the wolf. Actually, many are happy with Dave and Jenny because they promote tourism here without building big hotels or anything. However, there is one person who likes to go hunting, and the wolf is at the top of his list. Therefore, one of our most important rules is: No matter if we find tracks or even see a wolf, we don't tell anyone because sometimes this man asks other people if they can ask us about a possible wolf sighting, and if I now say: Yes, I saw one at the end of the lake, then this man will immediately set off to kill this wolf (for no reason other than a trophy). What kind of problems do you have to have to kill an animal just for fun.

Woodwork

One thing that often happened to me and annoyed me was when I helped out somewhere in Germany and then had to work with a chainsaw, for example. Then the question usually came: Can you work with it? And I would say: No, I've never used one before because no one has ever shown me how to use it safely. And the response was always: Okay, then I'll do it quickly. Yeah, funny, if no one teaches me, then I won't learn it either, and for a chainsaw, a YouTube video won't be enough for me. Now, here it finally is that I am being gradually introduced. So far, I've only used the smallest chainsaw, but this way I am slowly getting closer to the feeling of handling it before I am introduced to the bigger ones step by step.

Vehicles

Unfortunately, the snowmobiles are still in the workshop, so I haven't been able to gain any experience with them yet, but we also have ATVs (All-Terrain-Vehicles) or simply called quads here. These vehicles are really needed daily, for example, to transport hay or wood (or to search for the dogs...). It's fun to drive the vehicle, maybe a bit too much fun, because today I was kindly reminded to drive a bit slower (party poopers!), but I understand, if something worse happens to someone here, it's not good to be in the middle of the wilderness. At some point, I will also have to drive the big truck ("Have to" - I'm really excited about it!). Today, I went to the post with Dave, and on the drive, he showed me the most important button in the vehicle - the heating for the steering wheel. By the way, this post office is so quaint. It is so old and comparable to a mom-and-pop store. Just really quaint. During the drive, I also saw my first wild horses. I knew that there were wild horses in Canada, but I had never seen them until today. There are about 40-50 of these horses living in the area.

And what else?

Otherwise, my main task is wood procurement and support in building the house, whereby I have to cut all the required wooden elements to the right length. Sometimes it is a bit annoying that Jenny always comes up with ideas in her head, and then she often says she needs the wood four times in length but at the same time has three other requests, and I just think to myself: AAAAAHHHHH! (Sometimes I get really annoyed because it can be exhausting), let me finish one "task" first before you give me five more. On top of that, here my technology teacher's heart often bleeds when I see how Jenny sometimes proceeds with the construction and draws layout lines by hand or gives me a pencil that was probably last sharpened in the summer, or when she just leaves everything lying around and doesn't cover anything, and then all the machines are lying in the snow and.... no, no, no. I would have made a statement long ago and ensured order. :D Of course, you don't make any improvement suggestions after just one week here, so I'm simply ensuring a little order at my workplace. When I cleaned the saw (I think the correct name is: table miter saw) the other day, she also said: Oh, a very good idea, Samuel! I know because you should always leave your workplace/workshop as you found it, ideally clean, because honestly, you never know what's under the snow, and I've often slid for a long way here because a piece of wood was under the snow, and I definitely don't want that at the saw. But despite all the potentially missing safety equipment, I look at the other buildings and think... they all look really good, so in the end, Jenny manages it anyway, and that's what matters.

The past two evenings, I made a fire outside with Fathi. It was like a picturesque movie scene. Full moon, crackling fire, and an owl in the background. We had very good conversations, and during one of the conversations, I remembered another very good conversation, and you can hardly believe it, but I was a bit nostalgic. Therefore:

Warm greetings to all my students who are reading this blog post. I haven't forgotten you and wish you all the best, no matter what path you are currently on! :)

Otherwise, I can only say that the work itself is fun with the outlook, but it is also hard - no question about it. At the end of the day, the body definitely says: Yep, today you carried a lot of wood. But it's also somehow nice because with this view, you simply have fun while working, and I even get paid for it. With the right clothing, you don't get cold, you just look very well-fed. It even gets so warm that sometimes I have to get new clothes for lunch because I sweated through them, and wetness and cold are not a good combination.

I'm curious when I will learn the basics of photography, but I already think I took a good animal photo, specifically of Rosi. She's a squirrel (she also has two daughters - I don't know how to tell the difference between males and females, but Jenny and Dave know) and she comes by every day. There's also a raven here every day (I forgot the name), who sits here every time and watches us work or even accompanies Jenny in the air when she goes somewhere. Pure nature here :D

Well, that's actually it for now. I survived the first week, let more follow.

Until then

Samuel