Headstones - Efke PL25M

It was great to finally get back into the darkroom last week and process a little film.  Although it has been an extremely busy summer, and I have had very little personal time, I have still managed to do a fair bit of shooting.  My count so far for the 2017 calendar year is 318 sheets of 4" x 5" Black and White Film, and 25 sheets of color.  I also shot a few mixed sheets of 8" x 10" film earlier in the year.  I haven't really got around to shooting any roll film this year.

The batch of film that I processed last week was Efke PL25M, developed in Rodinal 1:50.  My standard development time is 7:00 minutes at 24C, with the film exposed at 10 iso.  This batch included 14 sheets, all taken in 2017.  I will be posting and sharing some of those over the next little while.  Although I completed the development last week, it took me a while to finish washing and drying the film.  I completed scanning of these negatives after Anna and I returned from our weekend down in East Coulee.

This image is of a small forgotten country cemetery up in Lamont County.  It was taken back in mid May, with a Rodenstock Grandagon-N 90mm lens and a #11 Yellow-Green filter.

Anna and Dad Weekend

This past weekend it was Anna's turn to get out with me for a one on one weekend.  With the Eskimos game on Friday night, we weren't able to leave until Saturday morning.  That football game was the worst one I have witnessed the Eskimos play since I started buying tickets.  They were totally dominated by the last place [in the west] Saskatchewan Roughriders.  I guess injuries are starting to catch up with them as they have been in record numbers this year.  But, they're going to have to pull it together if they want to make it into the playoffs.  Their first place streak of 7-0 is now gone and with two recent losses against western teams they find themselves in third place.

There was a cool looking moth on the door of my truck on Saturday morning as Anna and I prepared to leave for East Coulee.  After taking a couple of photos of it, we hit the road.  It was a relatively early start, at about 9:30AM, and this put us in the badlands just after lunch.  We spotted the trailer in the yard at our shop and got it all set up.  After unhooking the truck we prepared to head out for the afternoon.  After a brief visit with Frank, who was working at the shop, we hit the road.  I wanted to explore an old cemetery in the town of Wayne, but was unable to find it.  We drove around for a while and checked out another small cemetery at Dunphy.  After checking with my friend Chris we got directions to the one we originally wanted to find, but realized it was a rather strenuous hike up the valley from the town of Wayne.  At this point in the afternoon it was already +27C and Anna and I decided against it.

We headed back to camp in the afternoon and did a short evening hike up into the hills near East Coulee.  Then we went back to the trailer and prepared our evening meal of Fettucine Alfredo with salad.  After supper we relaxed for a while in the heat of the evening and decided to turn in early.  We tried to watch a movie on the TV in the trailer but couldn't get it to work.

It is obvious that fall will be soon upon us.  Despite the heat of the day it got rather cold overnight.  Some of the trees are already showing a tinge of fall color, and the harvest is getting underway.

We got up moderately early on Sunday and after breakfast we got going by about 9:45AM.  We wanted to get out to Wayne for the hike up to the cemetery, before it got too hot.  It was about +19C when we hit the trail around 10:30, but this day turned out to be even hotter than the day before.  By the time we returned to the truck, after our hike, about two hours later, it was already +29C.  And, it peaked at about +32C later in the afternoon.  Anna overheated a little on the hike to the cemetery but was a good sport about it.  There is not much left there... only about 10 or 12 old graves.  The site is rather overgrown and totally neglected.  Most of the grave markers are gone or deteriorated badly and in a lot of cases only the bases of the markers remain in an overgrown depression.  There were four graves left with legible markers and all of these dated to 1918 and 1922... so almost a hundred years old.

After an ice cream break in Rosedale we stopped at some old dead Cottonwoods along Willow Creek.  Normally these skeletons stand in a pond of water.  But, with the heat and local drought of this summer the pond is gone and the dead trees stand in a bed of cracked mud.  We took a photograph here before heading back to East Coulee.

This was the time of day when the temperature peaked at 32.  So we packed up the trailer, hooked up the truck and eventually headed for home.  I think it was about 4:00PM when we rolled out of East Coulee.  We made a fuel and another ice cream stop in Lacombe, and got home by around 7:30PM.

It was a great weekend and I enjoyed the one on one time with Anna.  I think she really enjoyed it too!

July Stone House

My friends Chris and Connie posted an article on their website about the stone house that we visited together back at the end of July.  Here's a link to their website and to that article.  Please check it out...!

http://www.bigdoer.com/31105/exploring-history/these-stone-walls/

Last week, for the first time in two months, I was finally able to get back down in the darkroom.  I processed a batch of Efke PL25M in Rodinal developer.  This image turned out somewhat grainy for some reason, rather unlike the others in the batch.  I've yet to figure out why.  This is a shot of the stone house that Chris and Connie have included on their website at the link above.

Winter Hockey

Last week I attended the captains meeting for winter hockey.  My team, the Renegades, will be playing in the beer league again this year. Lots of work left for me to do to get the roster organised.  With all the turmoil at work this summer I just haven't had much time left to devote to this and other personal stuff.  The 28 game regular season will get underway just after the Labor Day long weekend.  Its nice that the break was short after the summer playoffs as I'm anxious to get back on the ice.  Lots of payments left to collect from players to put towards the team fee of over $11,000.  Hope to find a little time this coming week to focus on that.

Feels Like Fall....

The whole family went back out to Nordegg again this past weekend.  This time around we took both trucks, so that we could bring our trailer... and the new ATV.  We headed out right after work on Friday afternoon.  It was about 6:00PM by the time we were fueled and on the highway.  This put us into Nordegg around 9:00PM.  Of course at this point in the season it is already getting dark by this time in the evening.  To make matters worse, it was also raining... rather heavily.

We backed the trailer into the driveway in the rain and quickly put down all the jacks, put out the slide, and plugged in to power.  With no opportunity to sit and relax around a fire, we all turned in early.

It was very cold, wet and muddy when I got up and went outside on Saturday morning.  But the sky was clear and the sun was coming out.  Hailey and I unloaded the new ATV from the back of the truck and rode it over to the storage yard, where we picked up our other unit.  By the time we got back with the two units it was getting partly overcast, and never did get any warmer than about +16C all weekend.  It definitely had a feel of fall in the air.  Later in the afternoon we took both ATV's out and explored a bunch of the trails around town.  Hailey and I had been on most of them before but this was the first time out for the other three girls.  By mid afternoon we headed into town and had a late lunch in the Pick and Shovel Restaurant in the Frontier Lodge.  I tried fishing a few times over the weekend but the trout just weren't rising and nothing was interested in my dry flies.  In hindsight I should have probably tried a wet fly, but I didn't have one with me.

We had an evening fire and a late supper that night and it stayed dry.  But it was very cool again over night and I suspect the the temperature probably dropped down to only +3 or +4C.  On Sunday we did a little more trail riding before getting packed up for the trip home.  We put the big ATV back into storage and loaded the little one back onto the truck.  We had to hit the road by about 2:30 so we could make it back to Edmonton in time for Margarit and I to go to a show.

It was a little frantic as we pulled up to the house and unpacked the essentials.  Margarit had a quick shower while I ran over to the shop and unloaded the ATV.  We got over to Century Park and caught the LRT to the Jubliee Auditorium at about 7:00 and arrived just in time for the start of the k.d.lang concert.  I was really impressed with her singing voice, but rather disappointed in the set list.  She had a seven piece band and they played mostly her Ingenu album from the 1990's, while ignoring all of her older stuff.  That older stuff, with more of a country twang, includes all my favorites and she didn't do any of them.

We stopped for a bite to eat after the show and got to bed about midnight.  Just in time for the start of another busy week....

Not much happened out at the property this week.  The backfilling around the foundations continued and some gravel is being spread in the crawl space.  Some conrete footings were poured for a gate.  Mostly we are just waiting for the framing crew to get started.  Sounds like that won't be until the end of the month and needless to say we are getting a little antsy.  We won't make it back out to Nordegg next weekend but hopefully when we return on the long weekend, things are getting underway.

Another ATV

Last summer I bought a new side-by-side ATV.  This was a Honda Pioneer 700-4.  It was stored at my shop through last year and we finally were able to take it out to Nordegg this past spring.  The first couple of trips we hauled it back and forth on the flat deck trailer that belongs to my company.  But,  since then we have arranged to store it at a compound in the Industrial District in Nordegg.  Eventually once the garage at our property is closed in, we will move it there.

This ATV is great and we really like it.  It seats two in the front seat, and has two additional convertible seats in the back.  We can either use the back cargo box for gear, or flip up these seats for two additional passengers.  But even at that, we can only fit in four of us... and there are five in our family.  So I recently bought a second side-by-side ATV.  This second unit is a smaller Honda Pioneer 500.  It is small enough that we can fit it in the back of my truck if we want to haul it somewhere, and don't need a trailer.  It seats two side by side, with a cargo rack on the back.  Between the two units we will now be able to go out trail riding with the entire family, and still bring along some gear... or a guest.  With all the ATV trails that we are discovering in the Nordegg area, this will be great.  We hope to take this new one out for a test drive the next time we head out there.

Back to our Second Home

Last weekend Hailey and I returned to Nordegg.  Margarit and the two younger girls chose to stay home.  As it was yet another busy week at work, with yet more long days, I slept in a bit on Saturday morning.  By the time we packed up, fuelled the truck and hit the road I think it was about 11:00AM.  This put our arrival in Nordegg at around 2:00PM.  We quickly set up the trailer and then headed over to the Industrial Park to pick up our ATV from the storage compound.  By mid afternoon we were out on the trails.  This time around we explored a bunch of trails, new to us, in the east end of the valley.

These trails are all groomed and maintained trails, devoted to off highway vehicles.  There is a steel bridge over the creek, and all the trails are gravelled.  We knew that my cousin Vic and his wife Susanne were camped in the area with some friends and we were making our way over in the general direction of where we knew they had set up camp.  We never made it that far and ran in to them out on the trails.  By late afternoon we headed off in different directions to return to our trailers for the evening.  Hailey and I headed over to the creek for a bit and I tried my luck at fly fishing again.  At first there was not much action but when I eventually returned to my favorite spot I quickly landed three little brook trout in a span of about 5 minutes.  Unfortunately none of them were quite big enough for the frying pan so they were all returned to the creek for another day.

Hailey and I built a new fire pit and sat around the fire for a while in the evening.  It was really nice to spend some time with her one on one.  We turned in moderately early... probably around 11:00PM... anxious to get back out again the next day.

After breakfast we hit the trails again in the ATV.  This time around I brought my big camera with me and we returned to a couple of spots that we had explored the day before.  I set up and shot a number of images before we eventually reconnected with Vic and Susanne.  We decided to take a drive up to Eagle Peak.  I had been up this way several times this year.  Vic hadn't been there for a number of years and Hailey hasn't seen it for a month or two.  This time around we pushed on a narrow and rough trail up to a spot that the locals call Tabletop.  It is a spot right at the crest, with a bit of a clearing, that allows a view in all directions.  Unfortunately on this day it was very smokey from a number of large forest fires burning in British Columbia and visibility was very limited.  

In addition to the smoke it was cooler, overcast, and threatening rain.  Sure enough the clouds opened up right about the time we were leaving Tabletop.  Vic and Susanne decided to book it back to their campsite that was quite some distance away.  Hailey and I were trapped in an open ATV, without a windshield or a roof, and without much in the way of heavy clothing.  By the time we made it down off the mountain and got back to the trailer we were soaked to the skin and chilled to the bone.  We cranked up the furnace in the trailer, made a warm lunch and changed into dry clothes.  A short time later the rain let up a bit and we ran the ATV back over to the storage yard.  Then we packed up and cleaned up our campsite and prepared for the long drive back home.  We left Nordegg around 5:30 and with a brief stop in Leduc to dump our holding tanks, arrived back home around 9:00.

It was a fantastic weekend and I really enjoyed it.  I remember being out with Hailey and taking photos with my big camera and thinking to myself that "this is the life".  I had completely blanked out work and all my commitments and was really enjoying the day.  That prompted me to come to a decision about my working career.  I have set myself a retirement date three years from now and this week I advised my business partners of the deadline.  They aren't really pleased about it but as I told them... I am now measuring my decisions in quality of life, not dollars, and it is time for me to plan my eventual step away.

Summer Hockey 2017

The Summer Hockey season came to an end this week for the Renegades.  We finished the regular season in 7th place out of 8 teams, with a less than stellar record.  We went into the playoffs facing the 2nd place team, the Edmonton Capitals.  The team really seemed to gel and we put together a solid effort in the first playoff round.  We swept the best of three series in two straight games and moved on to the semi-final.  In the semi-final we faced off against the first place team, the Itchy Beavers.  Our regular goalie and our backup goalie were both away on vacation when the first game of the semi final series was scheduled.  As a result we had to play with a second string backup, the only other eligible goalie that we had.  His usual position is as a forward and he only plays in goal on a very occasional basis.  We had no choice but to call him in as the only other option was to forfeit the game.  Needless to say the game was lop-sided and we lost by a score of 10-2.  Then earlier this week, on Tuesday evening, we played these guys again in the second game of the best of three series.  Even though we were missing a couple of our better players, this one was much closer.  The game was a hard fought physical battle and we just couldn't quite score the equalizer late in the game.  We lost a close one by a score of 2-1.  We felt the officials didn't do a very good job of calling this one but I suppose every losing team probably feels that way.  This saw our season come to an end.

We now have a long extended break before we will be able to play hockey again.  The final round of the playoffs will take place next week between the two remaining teams.  The winter season starts up at the beginning of September.  I don't know exactly when we will play our first game but likely in about 3-1/2 weeks.   Can't wait to get back on the ice.  Now that the season has ended I can wash my gear so it doesn't stink quite so badly.  I live by that old hockey superstition that it's unlucky to wash your gear during the season.

Nordegg Days

We took two vehicles to Nordegg for the August long weekend as my oldest daughter Hailey brought along her friend Emily.  The two older girls rode with me in my truck, pulling our trailer as we headed out of the city on Friday evening, right after work.  I had to give away my tickets to the Eskimos football game so that we could get a head start on the weekend.

We arrived in Nordegg in the evening, before dark, and got the trailer backed up the driveway and setup.  The two girls pitched a tent in the trees at the edge of our construction site.  Margarit and the two younger girls rolled up a short time later.

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed into town for Nordegg days.  The big pancake breakfast was on at the firehall when we wandered up at around 8:20.  We had some breakfast and then wandered around for a while to check out some of the activities.  After breakfast we went back up to our lot.  We drove the girls out to the storage yard to pick up our ATV, which they drove back to the lot.  They spent a good part of the day, and a good part of the weekend driving around on the ATV.  It was busy for the long weekend and Nordegg days so I didn't allow them to cross the highway or head into town.  

It showered off an on through the afternoon and the girls got soaked a couple of times as they were out riding around.  We visited with our friends Shelley and Eric in the afternoon and then later headed back into town for more of the Nordegg days activities.  There was a BBQ going on at the community hall, and later in the evening a band was playing.  We hung around for a while before eventually heading back up to our place and getting an evening fire going.

On Sunday morning we slept in... a well needed catch up day.  In the afternoon the girls headed over to Fish Lake to go swimming.  I stayed behind at our property and finished up working on the "smoke house" that I had started building a few weeks ago.  Except for a door, it is now complete.  After that was done I threw my camera into the ATV and headed over to the historic miner's cemetery in town.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and very warm and I spent a pleasant couple of hours in the forested graveyard making a few photographs.

Later in the evening my youngest daughter Helena and took a ride over to Shunda Creek to try a little fishing.  I bought a fly rod a couple weeks ago and Margarit and I had headed over to the nearby creek to give it a try the evening before.  We saw lots of fish rising, and a couple hit at my fly, but we didn't catch anything.  On this evening Helena and I were back to try it again.  The trout weren't rising as much as they had been the night before but I did manage to catch a brook trout.  Unfortunately it was really just a minnow and I had to return to it the creek rather than bring it for the frying pan.

Later that evening we got another fire going and had a barbecue.  It was a very pleasant evening and we stayed up listening to music for quite a while.

By holiday Monday the subdivision had really cleared out and it was a lot quieter than it had been.  After another lazy morning and a big breakfast of bacon, hash browns and biscuits we finally got mobile again.  This day dawned cool and overcast and it never really warmed up above about +17C.  My middle daughter Annelise and I took a long ATV ride up to Eagle Peak.  We saw our first whiskeyjack of the year, a spruce grouse, and caught a quick glimpse of what I think was a marmot.  We were chilled from the ride at high altitude, almost in the clouds and when we got back to the lot we warmed up around the fire.  Later in the afternoon Shelley and Eric wanted to try going out for an ATV ride so Margarit joined us and I ran the ATV back up to Eagle Peak.  We didn't see any game this time, but stopped a number of times to admire many of the wildflowers.

By the time we got back to the lot it was mid afternoon and time to start packing up.  We had to return the ATV to the storage yard, and then put away everything into the trailer for the long drive home.  It was shortly after 6:00PM when we hit the road, and as a result it was a little after 9:00 when we rolled up in front of our house.

A very busy but refreshing and enjoyable long weekend...

Last Weekend of July - Badlands Ranch

After our day of exploring on Saturday, we headed back to the shop and had an evening BBQ and fire.  It was a very pleasant evening and everyone was quite tired from the heat of the day.  The next morning we were up and mobile at a moderate hour, after sleeping in a little.  My friend Frank dropped by for a coffee in the morning and we had a visit.  By about 10:00AM the heat was already getting stifling, and it felt quite humid.

Chris and Connie and I decided to carry on with our plan and explore an old abandoned ranch in the badlands.  Margarit and the girls were concerned that it was going to be just too hot, so they decided not to join us.  Chris and Connie and I set out for the ranch.  Margarit borrowed Chris and Connie's car and went out with the girls instead.  They went and played mini golf and bumper boats and stopped at a few places around Drumheller during the afternoon.

The rest of us drove out to the badlands.  We stopped and met with a land owner and secured permission to enter his property and visit the old ranch buildings.  By the time we got down into the badlands it was early afternoon.  The sun was hot and bright and the temperature peaked at about +37C.  We only lasted for a couple of hours out at the old ranch but managed to explore and make photographs, before the heat eventually became too much.  The long drive back to East Coulee in the air conditioned truck was most welcome.

Chris and Connie packed up and headed back to Calgary by the late afternoon.  By the time the girls and I got everything tidied up, packed up and hooked up it was close to 8:00PM.  The three hour drive back home to the city saw us pull up in front of the house shortly after 11:00PM.  W managed to cram two full days of exploring into a weekend that was a little cut short.  When we got home we just took the groceries into the house and everyone went to bed.  We spent the next couple of days unpacking and cleaning out the trailer in advance of our next adventure.

Last Weekend of July - Range House

When we made our way in to the stone house, outlined in my previous post, we also came across an old range house.  This was some distance off across the prairie but of course we had to head over to it and check it out.  There was a rather large two story home that was obviously once a homestead.  There was an outhouse out back and another smaller building in behind.  There was an old foundation and some collapsed wood that had obviously once been a barn.  There was a bunch of old junk scattered about... mostly old bits of iron and machinery... that suggested it was once a working farm.  In more recent times a bunk wagon had been parked beside the house.  This included a propane tank, a gas stove, some cupboards and tables.  There was still coffee and sugar and a few dry goods inside, but it looked as though they had been there for a long time.  There were also newer corrals and a chute beside the yard so it appeared that this was a location used for rounding up and dropping off cattle into the summer pasture.  In fact there were two cows and three calves hanging around the house when we first rolled up.

We didn't notice it right away but eventually came across a large nest in the tree beside the house.  There were two hawk chicks in the nest, nearly fledged.  It was obvious that they would be taking to the skies soon.

We noticed a fair bit of wildlife as we were driving around on this day.  Some jackrabbits, racing through the ditches as we drove down some of the backroads.  A large great blue heron, coyotes, mule deer, ducks and geese and lots of shorebirds on the sloughs.

Still later we headed over to a large coal mining operation, quite some distance away from where we had been.  There was an old house here as well, that we were thinking of checking out.  But, as we attempted to walk in to it, we came across some collapsed mine workings.  The old tunnels were quite large and quite deep and the ground around the area was obviously very unstable.  We thought better of this and decided it was in our best interests to abandon this plan.  

By this time it was late in the day and we knew that our daughters would be getting bored back at the shop in East Coulee.  We piled back into the truck and made the long drive back.  It was mid evening by the time we got back and we got the barbecue going, had some cold beer, and spent the evening together with a meal and later around a small fire.