More Tooling Around

On Saturday April 10th we headed out from the rental house in Macklin.  We went out exploring for the day.  We headed to the east and south of Macklin and stopped at a bunch of old grain elevators and a couple of small towns.  

The weather was overcast, cool and that ever present cold spring wind was upon us again.  Yet again I was forced to leave my view camera in the vehicle and only managed a bunch of snapshots with my phone.  The spring migration seemed to be in full swing and there were geese everywhere.  The Canada Geese seemed to have arrived a little earlier but the Snow Geese were now arriving in huge flocks.  They sometimes were all across the sky from horizon to horizon.  We saw a few flocks of Sandhill Cranes as well.

We found a few interesting stops along the way.  One of the relatively modern grain elevators that we visited had only been recently abandoned and was still fairly intact.  The scale was still there, as well as the control panel.  There was even a piano in the office.  Another elevator that we stopped at had been heavily damaged by recent winds, and part of the roof was ripped off.

Some goose tracks in the mud, and old service station, a couple of old houses, and a fire truck rounded out our discoveries for the day.

We stopped for lunch at the Denzil Hotel and wanted to say hello to the owner Jenn.  She was away at a couple of catering events and it was good to see that her business is doing well.  The Beer Parlour Project visited her establishment last year.  As the afternoon wound down we made our way southeast to Luseland for a planned visit to the hotel there.

Beer Parlour Project - BP42.0 Czar Hotel

At about 3:30 in the afternoon on April 10th we rolled into the Czar Hotel, in Czar Alberta.  This was the forty second hotel that we have visited for the project and therefore is referred to as BP42.0.  We went inside and introduced ourselves to the owner, Val.  Although she had been managing the hotel for a number of years, she had just become the owner a couple of months ago.  She named the tavern Bella's Bar, and was doing a great job of promoting the place locally.

Friday night is steak night, and for $34 you get a nice strip loin steak, grilled to your liking, with garlic toast.  In addition to that there was a large buffet that featured baked potatoes with all the fixings, scalloped potatoes, vegetables, baked beans, salad and dessert.  It was really good, and one of the best meals we have had in a hotel in quite some time.

A reporter from the newspaper in nearby Wainwright came out to write an article about our project.  Sukie was very interested and took a lot of photos, and interviewed everyone.  She stayed for the steak dinner and got a good feel for the vibe of a small town tavern.  Previous newspaper reporters that were out to earlier locations generally just hung around long enough for a quick story and a couple snapshots, but never really got the true feel of the place.  It was nice to see that Sukie took a really serious interest in our project.

The place was pretty busy for steak night and we stayed fairly late into the evening taking portraits and visiting with everyone.  It was a great outing and we really enjoyed it.  By the time we got back to the rental house in Macklin we were pretty exhausted.  It had been a long day of exploring and lots of fresh air, and then the chaotic environment of Bella's Bar all evening.  It doesn't' get much better...!

Tooling Around

On Friday April 10th, Chris and Byron and I went out exploring.  We headed basically southwest of Macklin.  Initially we were in the province of Saskatchewan, but it wasn't long before we had crossed the border into Alberta.  We stopped at a number of country churches, old farm yards and in the town of Bodo.  We spent several hours exploring and taking photographs.  Although the light was very nice, there was a bitter wind blowing, so once again I didn't take out the big view camera.  But I took a whole bunch of snapshots with my phone, and the other two guys used their digital cameras.

We were scheduled for a visit to the Czar Hotel for the Beer Parlour Project and we finished up our exploring and rolled in there at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

Beer Parlour Project - BP32.1 Marengo Hotel

The Beer Parlour Project team visited the Marengo Hotel, in Marengo, Saskatchewan, in July of 2025.  Arturo was along with Chris and I on that trip, while Byron was not.  We were visiting three hotels in short order during that July trip, and our visit to Marengo was on July 21st, a Monday.  Things just worked out that way as a lot of the small hotels are closed on Mondays, and this was one of the few that was open.  So to make the best use of our time, we visited on that day.  Sadly, as was to be expected, it was very quiet in the hotel on that Monday, so we made a promise to the owner Penny, to return for a future visit.

That return visit was on April 9th 2026.  This time around Arturo was not able to join the team, but Byron was along for the ride.  It was quite a bit busier and there were a number of patrons in attendance that we were able to interview and photograph.  So, combined with what we did the first time around on BP32.0, we will be able to put together a nice chapter in our project about Marengo.

The Scenic Route

Our scheduled arrival time at the Marengo Hotel for BP32.1 was at around 3:30 in the afternoon.  So before heading there, we did a very long roundabout drive to Marengo.  We headed southeast from Macklin to Kerrobert, then south to Kindersley.  From Kindersley we travelled a little further south before eventually turning west to pass through Eatonia, Mantario and then north to Alsask.  From there we went a short distance back to the east to Margeno, and arrived just in time.  

During the day we stopped and took a bunch of photographs and explored along the way.  The wind was rather brisk and cold, so I didn't shoot anything outside with my view camera, and saved that for the Beer Parlour Project outing later in the evening.

During the day I took a bunch of snapshots with my new iPhone.  This included a few old buildings in Eatonia and Mantario, as well as at an abandoned sulphate mine.  It was a fun day that was followed up by a great outing in Marengo.

Shortly after I arrived back home from this road trip the area was hit by a late spring snow storm.  It a good thing that we visited when we did...!  I heard that the area around Eatonia got as much as 17 inches of snow.

Look What I got for my Birthday..... more winter

I was born on this day in 1963.  There is only one day in a person's life when the last two digits of their birth year matches their age.  Today is that day for me.

I've tried to stop counting the years as I don't want to be reminded of my age.  I think I'm doing pretty well.  I remain very active and involved in stuff and most people guess me to be a lot younger than I am.

A late spring snow storm rolled through the prairie provinces this week.  It actually started a couple of days ago and tapered off yesterday.  Here in Edmonton we only got a couple of inches and by my birthday it had melted a bit.  Out at Nordegg we got three or four inches, which mostly melted on the 16th, and then another dump fell on my birthday.  I spoke to my friend Frank in Drumheller and he said they got about six or seven inches.  My friend Chris in Calgary says they saw close to a foot.  Parts of southern Saskatchewan, including some areas we just visited, got around 16 inches.

This will certainly help with the upcoming growing season, and hopefully put a damper on any potential wildfires this year.  But as much as I enjoy winter I've always preferred that it be done and over with by the time my birthday rolls around.

On The Road Again.....

On April 8th I set out from home for another edition of the Beer Parlour Project.  We rented the same AirBnB in Macklin, Saskatchewan that we rented twice last year.  This would be our base for five days as we explored the area.  The weather was really up and down.  Some days the temperature was up into the plus double digits, while other days it was only slightly above zero.  We saw the sun off and on, but most of the time it was cloudy.  For pretty much the entire time there was a cold wind blowing, which made things rather uncomfortable.  All the same it was nice to get out.

I met up with Chris in the town of Strome.  He was travelling with our part time Beer Parlour Project collaborator, Byron.  Sadly Arturo was unable to join us this time around.  When we passed through the area last year, we stopped at the Strome Hotel and it was just in the process of being re-opened.  This time around it was up and running, and had been painted a bright yellow on the exterior.  We stopped for lunch and got a feel for the vibe of the place.  It seems it is more a restaurant than a bar so we reserved judgement on whether or not we would return for an official visit.

Later we stopped in at the old hotel in Hardisty.  We had a beer with the owner Rick and introduced ourselves and the project.  We didn't have time for an official visit on this trip, but it seems like a good possibility for a future visit, when we are back in the area.  

We hit the road and ended up rolling into Macklin in the late afternoon.  We checked into the rental house, off loaded our gear.  We headed over to the local bar and grill for something to eat before returning to the house and settling down for the evening.

Mine Buildings

I processed a mixed batch of Infrared film back on March 20th.  This included three different types of film, all in the same developer.  Back in the early 2000's I purchase a couple of boxes of a new, at the time, infrared film.  This was Maco IR820C Aura.  I believe that Maco was affiliated with, or was a brand name of Efke.  Shortly after that the plant used by both companies suffered a fatal equipment breakdown on their sheet film manufacturing line.  All of the sheet film products were immediately discontinued.  I shot some of the film that I had purchased, and then for a decade or more a partial box of 4" x 5" laid around in my freezer.  Last year I decided that I'd better load this stuff and use it up.

So this batch of film had a best before date of April 2007.  I loaded this sheet into a film holder in February of 2025, and got around to exposing it a couple of months later.  I unloaded the exposed film and stored it in my fridge until this past March, when I finally developed it.  

The film was developed in Kodak T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 7:00 minutes at 24C.  I messed up a little as I intended to give 8:30 minutes of development, so the negative was a little thin.

This is a shot of the coal tipple and wash building at the Nordegg Historic site.  I shot this on April 18th 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide Schneider Super Angulon 90mm lens.  A #25 Red filter blocked a good part of the visible spectrum allowing the film to be exposed more by infrared wavelengths.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F22.0.

Nordegg Visits

In late March and early April I made a couple of trips out to Nordegg.  Mostly the weather was pretty miserable.  March went out like a lion and we had quite a bit of snow remaining on the ground, even though it had been totally bare a couple of weeks prior.  It was not particularly warm, and we kept getting more dumps of snow.

From March 28th to 30th I went out to the cottage with my daughter Helena and three of her friends.  They were all on Spring Break from High School.  Evan, Kai and Max joined Helena... and me... for the weekend.  I stayed in the main cottage for the most part, and left the kids over the in the guest cottage.  It seemed they had fun, despite the crappy weather.  I was fighting a bad cold and mostly just laid low, and didn't do much other than ride herd on the kids.  I took them for a drive up to Abraham Lake, and also into town to get pie at the Miner's Cafe.

Then from April 3rd to 6th Margarit and I went back out.  It was mild at first, but then got colder and we were faced with yet more snow.  This was the Easter weekend, and Easter Sunday fell on Margarit's birthday this year.  We had a couple of nice dinners together, got caught up on a few chores, and mostly just relaxed.

I set up a sump pump in our exterior sump, so that we can deal with all the meltwater when it finally warms up.  When we get periods of heavy rain or a quick spring thaw we sometimes get a little water in our crawlspace and the sump pump helps us to avoid that.

I also mounted a TV on the wall in the guest cottage, and attempted to service one of our furnaces that has been problematic.  I couldn't solve the problem and will have to get my mechanical contractor out at some point.  Its not a huge issue as we have other heat sources and mostly heat with wood when we are out there.

I washed all the bedding from the weekend prior when Helena and her friends were out, and made up all the beds again.  Then I turned my attention to a couple of trees out in the yard.  There has been a lot of strong winds this spring and we had about five standing dead trees come down.  None did any damage at they weren't close to any buildings.  But a couple of them became hung up in adjacent trees so I cut these down.  Later when it warms up I will have to finish the job and cut these all to stove length and split them.

While I was out in the yard I noticed some Elk tracks in the fresh snow.  It turns out the Elk and the Deer have been coming around to gnaw the bark off of these recently downed trees.  We see the deer all the time but the elk are rare visitors.  Later I checked the footage on my security camera and it confirmed that it was indeed an elk.

Shortly after Margarit and I returned to the city there was even more snow in Nordegg.  It seems the sump pump won't need to run for a little longer.