River Cree Christmas Hockey Tournament

My Renegades Hockey Team signed up to play in the annual Christmas Tournament out at the River Cree Casino on the Enoch First Nation.  This Casino is located on the southwest boundary of the City of Edmonton.  This is the third year that our team has entered.  There is a $10,000 first prize, so the tournament attracts some really good teams, and some highly skilled players.  In fact Ryan Smyth, now retired Edmonton Oiler, was playing on one of the teams.  We don't enter the tournament with any expectation of winning anything.  A Division Nine Recreational League team like ours has no chance of advancing in a tournament like this.  Mostly it is just an opportunity to work of some off the food of the festive season, to get some exercise, and to stay in game shape for when our season resumes in the new year.

It's a pretty good deal, and only cost the team $500 to enter.  We are guaranteed three round robin games and one playoff game.  We also got $100 in coupons for the lounge in the casino.  

Our first game was in the afternoon on December 27th against a team from Wabasca.  These guys beat us 8-1 and ended up finishing third overall, out of 30 teams, in the round robin.  Then on the evening of the 27th we played against a local team from the River Cree League.  They finished near the bottom of the standings after the round robin but still managed to beat us 7-2.  On the 28th we played an early evening game against at team called the Moose.  There is a team called the Moose that plays in our Recreational League but I'm pretty sure these weren't the same guys.  This team finished 8th in the round robin and beat us 7-0.

The three losses saw us finish last of the four teams in our pool so we were relegated to the consolation round of the playoffs.  We played our first playoff game last night against a team called HC Beavers.  This game was a much closer match in skill level and we really enjoyed it.  We were down early but kept battling back during the game.  We managed to tie the game with our goalie pulled and two seconds left on the clock to send it to overtime.  Overtime was five minutes of 3 on 3 and unfortunately, though we had some chances, the Beavers scored to advance to the quarter finals.

Most of the guys from the team headed to the lounge after the game to use all the coupons that had been given to us.  

I'm glad I had the opportunity to play this year.  The weather has been so cold that it just ruled out any chance of doing anything outside.  In fact, when I went to the game last night my truck never even warmed up to operating temperature during the drive to and from the arena.  This despite the fact that I kept the block heater plugged in all day.  The thermometer in the truck said -32C when I was driving home after the game, and that didn't even taken into account the wind chill effect that made it feel more like -44C.  The cold snap is forecast to come to an end, but not until the beginning of January, when I have to return to work......

Community Hall

I just finished processing and scanning a batch of film.  Other than the hockey tournament I'm playing in, there isn't much to do this Christmas break due to the cold weather.  I processed a batch of Ilford HP5+ film in 510 Pyro developer.  This was a full batch of 20 sheets of 4x5.  This is the most recent shot in that batch, which included some images from the beginning of 2016.  I recently posted that I finished processing all of my film for 2015.  With this batch of Ilford stuff I now have about 45 sheets left to go from 2016.  Of course I will start shooting new work in 2018 as soon as it warms up.

This image was taken on one of those not-so-cold days back in late November.  It is an abandoned community hall out in Lamont County.  I used a number eight yellow filter to bring out the contrast in the weathered wood and darken the sky a little.  It was taken with a 90mm lens, and my Ebony SV45TU view camera at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  This is just 20 minutes or so before sunset at this time of year on the northern prairies...

C-O-L-D Christmas

Christmas 2017 has come and gone.  I was hoping that there would be an opportunity to get out and do some things outdoors over the break.  My shop is closed over the Christmas break and it would have been nice to get outside.  Unfortunately the weather has not co-operated.  Since Christmas Day the day time high temperature has only struggled up to about -20C.  In the next day or so that high is only forecast to get to -28C.  The night time low temperatures are in the mid minus 30's and once the wind chill effect is factored in it feels like about -45C.

In an attempt to warm up a little I was sorting through some scans of images from last summer.  This shot was taken at the end of July, in an abandoned Ranch House down in the Alberta badlands.  On that day the temperature was nearly +40C.  I get hot just thinking about it.  These old ranch buildings were supposed to be infested with rattlesnakes but the heat was so intense that we didn't see any.  It was a little cooler inside the old log building.  I shot this image on Efke PL25 4x5 sheet film with my Ebony view camera and a wide angle Nikkor 65mm lens.  The light was so low inside that I had difficulty focusing the camera.  I didn't notice that the sharpness dropped off a little on the underside of the log roof.  I employed a forward tilt on the camera to hold the foreground box in focus, and didn't realize what it did to the ceiling.  I stopped the lens down to F20.0, which required an exposure of 2 minutes with this slow, fine-grained film.  The film was developed for normal contrast in Rodinal developer, diluted 1:50, for 7:00 minutes at 24C.

Christmas 2017

As I write this it has now come and gone.... but Christmas 2017 was pretty good...!   It was looking as though it might be a brown Christmas but at the last minute, mother nature came through and gave us a little snow.  On December 23rd Hailey and I decided to load up the new snowmobile and head out to Nordegg.  Rumor had it that nearly a foot of snow had fallen out there...!  After loading up and hitting the road we quickly discovered that the "road" was coated with a layer of black ice.  We encountered a couple of accidents on Highway 2 before we even made it as far as the airport.  By the time we passed Leduc, the road conditions improved.  We turned off the QE2 at the Highway 13 overpass... our usual route to Nordegg.  It seems that the snowplows gave up after the turnoff to Pigeon Lake Provincial Park.  We passed through the Battle River Valley and road conditions were not great.  By the time we crested the hill and made our way as far as the Yeoford corner, things had really deteriorated.  The highway was snow covered and driving was a challenge.  We decided to give up on our plan, but pulled over and unloaded the new snowmobile.  When we got out of the truck we quickly discovered that the trailer and the new snowmobile were covered with a layer of salty and and sandy slush, about 2 inches thick.  We wiped this off, unloaded the Ski-Doo, and tried to go for a ride.  The snow appeared deep at about four inches, but it was very loose an fluffy.  Riding on the road was impossible as we found ourselves grinding along on the gravel.  We attempted to negotiate the ditch, but quickly rolled the sled over on its side.  Obviously I'm out of practice... and a passenger on the back makes balance more challenging.  After straining my back and eventually getting the machine upright we crossed the highway and tried to ride on the more favourable ditch on the other side.  We opened up the machine a little and negotiated the ditch for a stretch of about a quarter mile.  Then we loaded it back up and reluctantly made our way back home.  When we got back to the shop We unhitched the trailer in the shop.  I managed to hyper extend my elbow trying to push the trailer back into the shop.  Sure hope it heals in time for the upcoming Christmas hockey tournament.  We used the pressure washer at the shop to rinse off all the salt and sand and slush and left things to dry.

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve we headed over to my Mom's place for our annual family Christmas dinner.  My brothers and their families were already there when the girls and I arrived at about 3:00pm.  It was an enjoyable evening with a big turkey dinner, followed by a gift exchange between our kids... the "cousins"... and then the annual "white elephant" gift exchange...

Everyone in attendance brings a wrapped but unmarked gift.  The idea is that this is supposed to be something that you re-gift, or no longer want, or just find lying around at home.  Everyone draws a number and when it is your turn you either choose a gift from the pile, or choose something that someone else has already unwrapped.  Every year some gifts prove very desirable, and change hands numerous times, while others are not so popular.  Once everything had settled out, we eventually said our good-nights and headed for home.

Then on Christmas Day, we got up early and had our family gift opening.  Margarit and I bought a turntable, some LP's and some headphones for eldest daughter Hailey.  Middle daughter Anna got an acoustic guitar, with the promise of lessons to start in January.  Youngest daughter Helena got an iPhone, so that she could finally keep up with her older sisters.  Margarit and I don't buy gifts for each other.  The girls bought me an acoustic guitar this year... a pleasant surprise...!!  The lessons that we signed Anna up for are a family lesson that I will take with her.  It was my intention to buy myself a new guitar after the holidays.... but the girls beat me to it.

Later that evening Margarit's family came over for Christmas dinner.  Her brother and his family came to visit, as did her Mom, and we tried to put a dent into the menu that was presented.  Unfortunately Shawn's daughter Bethany and her boyfriend we unable to make it so we ended up with a lot of extra food.  

The mild weather that we have experienced in recent weeks just came to an end.  Just in time for Christmas we got a little snow, but also a plunge into arctic temperatures.  Christmas Eve wasn't too bad but by Christmas Day the temperature dropped down into the -20's.  Overnight on Christmas Day it got down to around -30C.   

Boxing Day was pretty laid back and relaxed.  With the unexpected plunge into cold temperatures I neglected to plug in my truck.  On Boxinig Day it would not start.  So, I plugged it in for while and stayed home and watched the world Junior Hockey Championship while the girls when out shopping.  Later in the evening, when my truck would finally start, Hailey and I went over to the shop and started on building the doors for the cottage.  Then later in the evening, after we got home, I hit the darkroom and processed some film....

Not quite sure what the girls have on the agenda for tomorrow but I have to play two games in the Christmas Hockey Tournament with my team, out at the River Cree Casino.  The forecast is for the weather to stay cold for a few days.  Hopefully by the time my team gets eliminated from the tournament, the weather improves and we can get outside to do some stuff...!!

Winter Hockey at the end of 2017

My Renegades Hockey Team has really turned things around.  We've won six of our last seven games, and are now in third place in our division.  We played two games over the past few days....

On Saturday we played the second place Bulldogs in the late afternoon at KofC Arena and won the game 6-3.  Then last night we played a game against a team from the other conference of Division 9.  This team was new to us and we had never played them in the past.  They were called ENC, and we played them at Michael Cameron Arena, last night at 9:00.  We jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and then they tied the score.  The entire game we would go ahead by a goal or two and then they would catch up.  We ended up hanging on for a 10-9 victory. 
I'm not quite sure how it happened but I ended up with a whole bunch of assists through this winning streak.  I haven't scored a goal all season, but now have 10 assists in 15 games.  

There is now a break in our hockey schedule for Christmas.  I have the team registered to play in the annual Christmas Tournament out at the River Cree Casino.  This will be played between December 27 and 30.  Early in the new year our league will post the remaining games of our winter season schedule and we will resume play through to the playoffs in April.

Sunday Drive to Nordegg

Hailey and I went for a drive out to Nordegg on Sunday.  We left home about 9:30 in the morning, but then decided to stop for breakfast.  We went to one of those breakfast restaurants, and it was really busy.  The portions were huge and we were both stuffed to the point of exploding by the time we got out of the place and hit the road.  As a result of this unscheduled stop, we didn't make it out to Nordegg until about 1:30 in the afternoon.  With the winter solstice just around the corner, it was just about the shortest day of the year.  It didn't really get light until around 9:00AM and out in the mountains, the sun sets by about 3:30 in the afternoon.  This didn't leave us a lot of time to accomplish much.

It was mostly overcast during the drive out, and dark all the way home.  The sun did make it out a few times during the day but for much of the time it was rather dull.  There was a brisk breeze blowing all day and that pumped the temperature up to an afternoon high of about +7C.  There is very little snow left out there, so we didn't even consider attempting to bring the snowmobile along.

We made a stop at our contractor's place and dropped off a payment.  Then we went up to the cottage.  There were a whole bunch of things I wanted to check on.  I checked exact sizes of all the windows for our rollshutters.  I checked some measurments for the trap door into our crawl space, and for a ladder that I need to build to get down there.  I checked the rough opening dimensions for all the interior doors.  I checked the exact size of the bathroom, and the location of the floor joists.  This will allow us to figure out the layout, and order the appropriate size shower base.  I also checked the size of our bay window so that I can plan the counter that I want to custom build.  This information will allow me to start working on the prefabrication of a number of items, over the winter months.

I bought a 12mm fisheye lens for my digital camera.  This Korean made Rokinon has a 180 degree field of view and is fairly highly rated, but surprisingly inexpensive.  You have to be careful using it so that you don't get the tips of your feet in the shot.  It provides a highly distorted image, but covers the full frame of the camera.  I took a bunch of snapshots inside the cottage that give a bit of a feel for what the space will look like.  I also took a few "normal" images of the exterior.  These are all included below.

The siding, trim and soffit materials have been delivered to site and our contractor is supposed to start installing this week.  We should have the exterior of the buildings finished to the lock up stage in the very near future.  Of course the Christmas holiday is coming up, and there may be some weather delays, but the end is near.  When we bought the property from Clearwater County a caveat was registered against the title.  Under the county bylaws were are obligated to build to the lockup stage within three years of our original possession date or risk the county taking the lot back.  We took possession in July of 2016, and should be finished to lockup at some point in January of 2018... well within the deadline.

We have a little bit of mechanical rough in taking place this week.  The electrical rough in is scheduled to take place in late February.  That will leave me the months of March and April to do the insulating, so that we can be ready for our drywaller to start in May.

Hailey and I took a quick spin up to Abraham Lake after we finished up at the cottage.  It has been so mild lately that the lake hasn't even begun to freeze.  It was pretty windy again, and the water was very rough and choppy.  Not quite as bad as the last time we were out here though.  By this time in the day the sun was setting and it was time to head home.  Both of us were still pretty full from the big breakfast and we didn't bother to stop for lunch.  We made a brief stop in Nordegg and topped up the fuel tank of the truck, and grabbed a couple of snacks for the drive home.    The lady working at the gas station said there was a heavy snowfall warning in place for Saskatchewan Crossing, to the southwest of Nordegg.  We never did run into any snow on our drive home but I understand that Nordegg got a dump of about six inches overnight.

The View Through

Here's another new one.  This film was just recently processed.  It was part of a batch of Kodak TXP-320 film that I processed back in late November.  I use my Jobo processor for developing this large format Tri-X film in PMK developer.  PMK is a pyro based developer that imparts a proportional stain in the negative.  The image was taken in low winter light last January.  This is the now abandoned concrete arch bridge over the North Saskatchewan River, near Borden, Saskatchewan.  If you look closely you can see the new steel highway bridge on the right, which now carries the Yellowhead Highway over the river.  This shot was taken at the end of January 2017 when I was travelling to Saskatoon to attend the gallery exhibition for Procession West at Saskatchewn Craft Council Gallery.  I used my Ebony view camera with a Rodenstock 90mm lens and a #22 Orange filter.  It was a fairly pleasant day, though the wind seems to be ever present and quickly chills the fingers and extremities.  The low winter light provided nice contrast, plus the orange filter enhanced that a little, so I didn't bother to give any extra development.

Another Day Trip

Last weekend I had plans to take my middle daughter Anna out on an Owl Prowl.  I had seen three a few days earlier when I was on a business trip down to Drumheller.  But, then I realized that the tickets that I had bought for the girls to see the ballet were for the matinee showing, and not the evening show.  It wasn't an option to postpone until Sunday as I had to play hockey that day.  So, on Saturday afternoon Margarit and the three girls went to the Jubliee Auditorium to see the Nutcracker.  While they did that, I went our for a drive.  I scouted around and drove a bunch of backroads up in Two Hills County.  The view camera came out of the truck a couple of times as I made some photographs of some old buildings.  I've included some snapshots here of a couple of the stops that I made.  As I made my way back into the city, the sun was setting, and I spotted owls in four different locations.  At least three of the four were Great Horned Owls but it was getting to dark too see the last one clearly.  It may have been a Snowy Owl.  All four were in or near Elk Island National Park.  Anna would have been disappointed.  I'll have to take here out some other time...

December Rain

Winter has been pretty much non-existent here in central Alberta this month.  We got a dose of winter earlier in the fall but in recent weeks it has been very mild.  The snow that we had is just about all gone, melted down to just a crust of ice.  Northeast of the city there is still a little snow remaining but around home, and throughout much of the province it is very brown.  We had daytime high temperatures up around +12C a few days ago.  Last night it rained, and when I left the house for work this morning it was already +6C, and the sun hadn't come up yet.  The main roads are in reasonable condition but the side roads and parking lots are extremely icy.  As I approached the end of my street this morning, at a speed of only about 10kmh, and with the truck in four wheel drive, I was skidding sideways down the street and almost took out the stop sign.  Seems it would be easier to get around on skates.  Hopefully the clear skies and wind that are forecast for later today will dry things off a little.  It is supposed to cool of somewhat and there is a little snow in the forecast for Christmas.

Freeze Up

Here is a scan of another recent negative.  This one was taken on the Fall Photo Weekend up in Jasper with the Monochrome Guild in early November.  It was -19C when we were shooting here at Portal Creek on that Saturday morning.  There was more ice on the creek on this occasion, than any other time I have been here in the past.  Layers of ice were forming in the creek bed, with only a small central channel left open.  The ice was building up so thickly that the spot I was standing on to take this shot, on the gravel shore of the creek, was actually over a foot below the level of the freezing creek surface in front of me.  This particular image was shot on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a Nikkor 300mm lens.  The film was processed for normal contrast in PMK developer for 9:35 minutes.  I had to tilt the rear standard of the camera, and stop the lens down to F115 in order to hold the depth of field and render the foreground frosty branch and the background rocks in sharp focus.  This resulted in a shutter speed of 8 seconds, even though the image was taken in fairly bright, clear light, around 12:00 noon.

Progress in Nordegg

I haven't been able to get out to our place in Nordegg for about a month now.  It is a challenge at this time of year as the daylight hours are so short.  It takes six hours of driving to get there an back and that doesn't leave time to do much.  We don't have anyplace to stay at this time of year, so a day trip is the only option.  Our trailer has been winterized and put away for the season.  Although the cottage is now closed in, there is no power inside, no heat, no insulation, and no furnishings.  Not really a place to consider spending the night... at least not yet... and at least not at this time of year.

Our contractor recently completed the installation of the metal roof system.  And, all the doors and windows were delivered a couple weeks ago.  They have now been installed, and the building is closed in.  The only things that remain to finish up the exterior are siding, trim, soffit, fascia and eavestrough.  Here are a few pictures that were taken by our contractor right after the windows and doors were put in.

Winter Hockey Update

My Renegades Hockey Team seems to have turned things around.  We had a bit of a struggle getting a full time goaltender lined up at the beginning of the year.  The guy we eventually settled on lost the first five games.   That was more of an issue with the way the team played in front of him, though admittedly he was a little rusty.  He has won the last two games for us and the team in general is playing a lot better.  Goalie Steve broke his toe a few weeks ago and was out of the line up for a couple of games but since he returned he has been really solid.  Our team has won four of our last five games.  Most recently, since Steve returned, we played last Monday against the "Shootin' Blanks" at Tipton Arena.  The score went back and forth for the entire game and ended up tied 6-6 at the end of regulation.  We managed to win in a shootout.  Then this morning we played the Trojans at KofC Arena.  We jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and then hung on to win 6-2.  It got a little rough and chippy at the end and there were a lot of penalties handed out as things got a bit out of hand.  But it was a fun game to play.  Through the two victories I ended up with 5 assists, which on a personal level sees the old guy climbing up the stats chart.  The team is now in fourth place in our division with about a dozen games left in regular season.

Astoria River

Here's a relatively new one.  This image was taken during the recent Fall Photo Weekend back at the beginning of November with the gang from the Monochrome Guild.  We wandered down from the old highway to the edge of the Astoria River.  This is the spot where we found relatively fresh cougar or lynx tracks in the snow.  It was a cold morning, starting out at around -19C and then gradually warming up a little.  At the time of our visit ice was quickly forming on the rivers and streams.  It was apparent that things would be frozen solid in short order.  As it turned out, it warmed up a short time after our trip, and has remained mild into December.  The water is probably still open...

This image was taken on Ilford FP4+ film with my trusty old Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Schneider G-Claron 210mm lens.  The light down in the canyon was in shade and quite flat so I elected to process for plus development in Kodak HC-110 developer, dilution B, for 14:20 minutes at 20C.  I quite like the way this one turned out and included it on my annual calendar.

December Day Trip

The weekend weather forecast was good so my friend Court and I headed out for a day trip.  We left the city about 8:30AM, and stayed out until the sun set around 4:00PM.  The days are pretty short around here in the winter months.  Another three weeks and we will experience the winter solstice, the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year.  The "mostly sunny skies" that were in the forecast really didn't materialise.  We chased some blue skies all day, and tried to catch a little light, but mostly conditions remained overcast and dull.  We spent the day exploring up northeast of the city, mostly in Lamont County.

Our first stop was at an old abandoned schoolhouse and this was one of the few times that the sun broke out a little.  This was shortly after 11:00AM, and it was still pretty cold.  The thermometer on the truck read -10C, but it felt colder than that, and my fingers were soon numbed from handling the metal camera.  

We explored for a while in the town of Hairy Hill.  I had photographed here many times before, but it was new to Court.  I didn't take any snapshots here but did set up the 4x5 a couple of times for some images of the old buildings.  I've included a scan of a large format negative that I shot here about a year ago.

Later in the day we just scouted around and drove grid roads for many miles in all directions.  We found a number of places that looked like they were worth returning to under better conditions.  Mostly it was the light that put a damper on things as the temperature rose a little, and wasn't all that bad.  There really wasn't any wind so that made things quite pleasant.  We eventually found a majestic old mansion but by this time the light was fading and there wasn't much opportunity to shoot anything more than a few snapshots.  But this, as well as a couple other locations, are definitely worth returning to.

I find that at this time of year, when we are lucky enough to get a mild day with clear skies, I need to have a set agenda in place.  With the short daylight hours there just isn't time to do much exploring.  You need to have a destination planned and head there and shoot it.  Although the low winter light can be spectacular, it just doesn't last all that long.