Horses...

Here's a shot of the whole group out for a trail ride last weekend at the ranch...

The two older girls, Hailey and Annelise, sure have been around horses a lot lately.  Last week they had a riding lesson on Thursday, and then we went out for trail rides at the ranch twice, once on Saturday and then again on Sunday.  This week they have been at a week long day camp at the Kel-J-Do Stables where they take lessons.  They have been riding every day this week, and as if that wasn't enough, they stayed for their weekly lesson today after the camp.  One more day of camp tomorrow and then they get a break for a while. Good thing, otherwise I was beginning to feel like I would need to get them shod by a ferrier, and de-wormed by the vet...!  In a week our Austrian relatives arrive for a visit to Canada and we will be out trail riding once again.  

Catching Up...

Wow... it's been nearly two weeks since I've posted anything.  It sure has been busy the last little while.

The Renegades played and lost our second playoff game of the summer.  So hockey is now over until the winter season gets underway in the fall.

The home renovations are well underway.  The new laminate flooring is finished, except for a couple of pieces of trim that have been backordered.  Margarit has all the painting done, with the exception of a some casings.  We are now waiting for our new fridge to be delivered, but it too has been back ordered.  I am trying to find time to get to installing new baseboards.  We have some of the furniture back in the house, but need to finish up the baseboards before we move it all back in.

We were back out to the Ranch in the badlands this weekend, camping with some neighbors and out for a couple of trail rides.  The girls are in a riding camp this week and hopefully they get good weather and can be out with the horses a lot.

I sent off a couple submission packages for the Procession West project last week, both to British Columbia.  One went to Nelson and the other to Kelowna.  I have at least three more that I need to get together and out hopefully this week.

I've decided to buy a new view camera.  I really like the Sinar F1 that I have been using since I purchased it new back in 1996.  But it does not fold down to a compact size, and is quite heavy.  The pack that I carry, which includes camera, lenses, meter, filters, film holders, accessories and tripod weighs in at about 75 Lbs.  This is very limiting as I simply can not carry it very far, or when there is significant elevation gain, or on rough terrain.  I am making up a lighter pack that will be reserved for hiking into more remote locations.  The camera that I have ordered is an Ebony SV45TE.  It is made from Ebony wood and titanium.  It folds up to 7-1/2" x 8-1/4" x 4", and weighs about 6 Lbs.  I plan on including three or four of my smaller lenses, about 10 film holders, the camera, a meter and a few filters.  With a light tripod I think I can keep the whole outfit down to around 25 Lbs... about a third of what I have been carrying.

I won't get this new camera for a few weeks, so I will not be able to use it on an upcoming backcountry hike in Kananaskis.  But it should arrive in time to see some use in the late summer and fall.  I'll still keep my Sinar and use it whenever I am not walking too far from my vehicle.  

Renovations Continue

Although there is a little touch up painting remaining to be done, we were basically ready for the installation of laminate flooring which started on July 9th.  As of today, it is basically complete, except for a few pieces of trim that were back ordered.  Margarit made a really good choice and the floor looks really good.  The tones blend in nicely with the yellow paint color that she selected as well.  We can now relax a little and try to reclaim our lives.  There is still a lot to do... baseboards, re-install doors, curtains, lighting, etc.  But, at least now we can put all the furniture back into place and work at a slower pace on these finishing touches.  Here are a few photos of the flooring, as the installation was nearing completion.

Summer Hockey - Playoff Game One

The Renegades finished the regular season in 3rd place out of four teams.  As a result, we played our first playoff game on July 9th against the 2nd place Raccoons.  The last place Avengers, with a regular season record of 1-14, managed to knock off the 1st place Gators in the game just before ours.  The Renegades have not done well against the Raccoons all season, and this game was no exception.  We were beaten by a score of 10-3.  We need to win our second playoff game next week, against the Gators, to stay alive.  If we lose, our season will be over.

Brazeau Day Trip

On Sunday July 8th Rob and I took a day trip up to Brazeau Reservoir.  It was very hot and humid and I found it to be very tiring.  We stopped outside of Lodgepole in an area that had been burnt by a recent fire.  The mosquitoes weren't too bad, but there were a lot of annoying horse flies around.  We made some photographs here before continuing on to the reservoir.  The control gates were open, allowing water to drain from the reservoir into the large canal.  The water was rushing down the spillway with some velocity and making a significant roar.  I spent some time making some photographs here of the patterns in the roiling water while Rob did some shooting of the rocks and driftwood on the shore of the reservoir.  By mid afternoon we packed up and made our way back home.

Home Alone

On Tuesday afternoon, after the long weekend, the girls headed back out to Pigeon Lake.  They took the little VW Beetle, which had just had a new motor put into it earlier in the spring.  This was the perfect opportunity to take it out for a spin.  Besides, Margarit's other vehicle was in the shop being serviced.  It was rainy at the beginning of the week, but got much better later on.  While the girls were out there I was very busy at home.  I played the last two hockey games of the Renegades summer season, both victories over the Avengers.  I was at work full time all week, and every evening focused my attention on getting the subfloor installed at home.  I also found a little time to process a couple of batches of film.  I think I was up until at least 1:00 or 2:00AM every night.  I processed 40 sheets of Kodak T-Max 400 in two batches of 20.  Some of these 4x5 negatives dated back to 2010, some were from 2011, and others were current work from 2012.  This included some studio portraiture as well as still life, the Saskatchewan trip to the Crooked Trees, some from my Unfinished House series, a trip to the Forestry Trunk Road, some Heartland images, the trip to the Nordegg Minesite, the fall prospecting trip, and the recent trip to Kananaskis...

At the end of the week, with the subfloor completed, I headed back out to the lake to pick up the girls.  They had a blast hanging out all week with their cousins.  It was very hot and sunny by the end of the week and the kids spent most of their time out on the water.

July Long Weekend

We headed out for the July Long Weekend with our friends, the Pink family.  We left on Friday morning, as I had taken an extra day off from work.  It was warm and pleasant and we made our way down to Drumheller and stopped to check out the projects underway in the Palcoprep shop.  Later we continued on down the Red Deer River Valley, and set up camp at Dorothy.  The mosquitoes were overbearing and it was not pleasant to be outside, but we made the best of it.  The kids had fun climbing the hills and playing in the playground.  The next day was very hot and sunny and we went for a little drive.  We checked out the Provincial Park at Little Fish Lake, and eventually found ourselves down at the Spray Park in Drumheller.  By Saturday evening we returned to our camping spot. On Sunday morning we packed up and made our way north to the TL Bar Ranch.  The weather conditions were still really nice, and to our surprise there were not nearly as many mosquitoes.  We set up camp and enjoyed the afternoon.  The kids walked over to the corrals to check out the horses.  I had been watching some clouds build up in the northwest and it soon became evident that we were going to be hit by a prairie thunderstorm.  We almost waited to long and just managed to get the awnings on the trailers rolled up as the front hit us with full force.  High winds and heavy rain soon turned to hail, and the kids were caught out in the pasture in the middle of it.  Margarit and Eric managed to round up all the kids and bring them back to the trailers but not before everyone got totally soaked.  The little ones were pretty scared and upset by the hail and the lightning and thunder.  We got everyone dried off and ended up turning in early.  The next day we had a trail ride booked, and by then it was beginning to dry off nicely.  We enjoyed a beautiful two hour ride up to the top of the valley.  By the time that was done, and we got everything packed up, it was late afternoon and we had to head for home.  The Pink family had a week of vacation time remaining and they headed off to southern Alberta.  We made a stop at Pigeon Lake and dropped off our trailer at my brother Wes's cabin.  Then we carried on home.  The girls would be returning to the lake for the remainder of the week, while I had to return to work.  I took quite a few photographs over the weekend, of all the activities, but they were all with one of my film cameras.  So there are no images to be included at this time.

What is it...??

A couple weeks ago the girls found this enormous worm in our back yard.  When stretched out the hideous thing was nearly 8" long and 3/8" in diameter.  I've never seen an earthworm this big before.  I wonder if it is not a night crawler, that got away from someone's bait box.  We didn't want to release it into our yard and create an epidemic of them, so we disposed of it...

Busy Times

We were away camping on the July Long Weekend down in the badlands.  As has become the norm for us, the girls also managed to squeeze in a trail ride at the ranch.  On the way back home we made a short side trip and dropped off the trailer at Pigeon Lake, at my brother's cabin.  On the Tuesday after the long weekend, the girls headed out to the lake to spend the week with their cousins.  I had to return to work...

The Summer Hockey Regular Season wrapped up this week and the Renegades played the last two games, on Tuesday and Thursday, both against the Avengers.  We won both games and closed out the season in third place, with a record of 7-8-0.  The playoffs get underway next week.

In between work and hockey I have been trying to get this home renovation stuff finished up.  It is so much easier with the house to myself as I can stay up as late as I want or need to.  The subfloor is now in place in the living room and dining room, and just needs more screws installed to fully secure it.  Tonight I will finish up the subfloor in the hallway.  The girls will return from the lake on Saturday and then Margarit will finish up the last of the painting.  Most of our furniture is in storage out in our garage.  Looks like we will be ready for the installation of new laminate flooring to get underway, as scheduled, starting next Monday.

I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Once this major project is out of the way then I can re-focus on some smaller chores and hopefully find time to get back to my photography.  I haven't found time to make a photograph with my view camera since early June, and also need to make time to get in the darkroom and work on some printing.