On the 28th Day he rested...

...sort of....  Since Easter Monday, April 2nd, I have been up early for 27 days straight and set to work doing something.  Mostly it was my day job at Mac Plastics.  I start work at 8:00AM and am generally there until about 6:00PM.  Then sometimes I stay a little later and work on personal stuff... cabinets, millwork and organzing stuff for my construction project at Nordegg.  On the weekends I have been up early as well, and out to Nordegg to work on the cottage.  Margarit and I were up early yesterday and went out there for the day.  For a change we didn't work all that hard, this time around.  We stopped at the flooring store in Rocky Mountain House and checked out some carpet samples and flooring options before heading out to the cottage.  Once there we checked the progress of the drywall work, and took a bunch of measurements so that I can continue with cabinets.  Today, on the 28th day, I slept in.  Then had a leisurely coffee and read the newspaper.  Now I have to get busy and do our income tax returns.  Tomorrow it is back to my day job, and as it is the fiscal year end for my company, we will be taking inventory....

Ready for Drywall

I went out to the cottage in Nordegg again this past weekend.  When I spoke to my drywall crew last week, they asked if they could move the scheduled start date up a week.  They had a cancellation and wanted to start on my project early.  I didn't want to risk getting put to the end of the list so I agreed.  But that meant I needed to get out there and finish up everything in advance of the drywall.

Hailey came along with me and we stayed out in Nordegg for the weekend.  We stayed for the night at the hotel in town.  Its dated but comfortable and clean.  Its a little rough around the edges and a bit on the quirky side, but it was OK.  

In typical teenager fashion my daughter was of very little help.  But it gave me someone to argue and bicker with for the entire weekend.  Not sure if that drove me closer to insanity, or saved me from it.

We left early on Saturday morning and I got to listen to three hours of pop music on satellite radio during the drive.  We saw some wild horses again on our way out.  This was not the same herd that we saw a couple weeks ago as their numbers and colors were different.

Lots of wildlife was out and about again.  The temperature has come up nicely and the spring thaw is well underway.  We saw lots of geese and the ducks are back now too.  The osprey was back to its nest over by Buck Lake, and I saw a few robins.  Lots of deer, a coyote, and a couple of moose on the way back.  I caught a glimpse of a large white bird with some black markings.  I looked like a raptor of some sort, and I'm pretty certain it wasn't a snowy owl.  It just didn't look or fly like an owl.  The only thing I can think of is a gyrfalcon and they do winter this far south sometimes.  I didn't get a good enough look at it to have any degree of certainty.

There was lots of work left to do at the cottage so when we arrived about lunch time Saturday I unpacked and got busy.  The rough in that we had done for the range hood needed to be modified.  We elected to buy a gas range with a built in hood and this doesn't require separate power, and the exhaust duct is different from what we were expecting.  I made these modifications so that I could finish insulating this portion of the kitchen.  I also cut in a fresh air intake for our wood stove.  I climbed up on the ladder and did the spray foam insulation around the two upper windows.  While I was up there I also finished the foam insulation to the headers.  I installed some support blocking in the walls in three locations to secure the railings to.  Then I set to work on finishing the vapor barrier.

I bought a new propane BBQ for out there and I took a break for an hour or so and assembled that.  Hailey and I used it on Saturday evening to grill some steaks and bake some potatoes for supper.  We settled down in the hotel in town later that evening.

On Sunday I was up at 6:30.  I finally got Hailey out of bed about an hour later after I was all packed up and ready to go.  We had breakfast at the restaurant, checked out of the hotel, and went back to work.  I lost track but I think I must have climbed up and down that two story scaffold at least 40 times over the weekend.  That doesn't count all the times I was up and down ladders and the stairs.  By the end of the day Sunday my poor old body was telling me that it had had enough.  But, by late Sunday afternoon I was finished.  Hailey and I spent another hour or so tidying up and made room for the drywall guys to work.  We stored a bunch of materials and supplies downstairs and took out a bunch of trash.

I had to leave one small section of insulation and vapor barrier open for the mechanical guys to access the plumbing vent up in the attic.  The mechanical rough in is being finished on Monday.  The drywall crew is starting on Tuesday, and will look after that last little section of vapor barrier for me.  Now I will get a bit of a break from working out there as we let the drywall crew do their thing.  Once they are done, there will be the painting to look after....

1979 Yamaha ET300C - The Saga Continues

The restoration of my old Yamaha snowmobile is not going so well.  Several years ago I dug my old machine out of storage and started working on it.  I had the seat reupholstered and made a new windshield for it.  Then it was promptly put on the back burner and sat in storage at my shop for a few more years.  This past winter I returned to the project.  I put on a new set of skis that I bought years ago and had in storage.  I bought some new carbide runners for the skis and put those on as well.  I replaced the broken kill switch and had the carburetor rebuilt.  Despite all that it just would not run properly.  Having invested this much time and money in the restoration, I was obliged to continue.  So I took the machine in to one of the local Yahama dealers last month and had them take a look at it.  A few days later I got a call from them saying that one of the pistons was damaged.  They also told me that they can no longer get parts from Yamaha for a machine this old.

So... I turned to the internet to see if I could find some parts.  There was some stuff available on Ebay and it took me a while to track down a proper set of pistons and rings.  I had to compare old part numbers with the numbers that the local dealer provided me.  Eventually I ended up with the right stuff... new old stock... from two different American dealers.  

I ordered everything and this past week the parts arrived by courier.  Yesterday I ran them down to the service department at the dealership.  They confirmed that they are in fact the correct parts and that they can now continue to rebuild the engine.  This should all be done just in time for summer... so that I can store the sled away for the season and hopefully get it out next year.  I also have the brand new Ski-Doo Tundra that I bought this past winter.  I only got that out for short spin for a few minutes.  Early this past winter it was very cold, with very little snow.  Later in the season we got a lot of snow, but I just didn't have time to get out with the sled.  So much was going on at work and with construction of the new cottage that I just couldn't get out with it.  I will be prepared for next winter though.  Both sleds will be stored away and ready for the snow next season...

Now I can turn my attention to getting the ATV's out of storage and getting ready for the summer riding season.

ROSIE Awards

Almost a year ago to the day I was involved in shooting the short documentary film "Forgotten Prairie".  Rueben Tschetter was the producer involved in all aspects of the film as we traveled to Saskatchewan to explore some ghost towns.  My friends Chris and Connie were involved as well, as was a friend of theirs, Byron Robb.  Initially it was thought that the film would be about the few remaining residents in these small towns.  It ended up featuring me, and my documenting of these locations with my large format film camera.  Chris and Connie were also featured as historians that explore and research topics like this.  Here is a link to the film on YouTube, for those that might not have seen it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-r8ZLUcGQ

Recently I learned that the work has been nominated for a Rosie award.  This is the academy awards of the Alberta film industry, AMPIA.  The Alberta Media Production Industries Association...

Rueben has been nominated for Best Screenwriter [Non-Fiction under 30 minutes] for The CACHE Project - Forgotten Prairie.  The awards ceremony is coming up in Calgary in mid May.  Here is a link to the AMPIA site that includes the Press Release and the list of all nominations.

http://ampia.org/the-rosies-awards-gala/

Nordegg Weekend

Another weekend spent out at Nordegg...  This time around I headed out to Nordegg on Saturday morning with all of my girls.  We arrived before lunch and spent the day working in the cottage.  I quickly came to realize two things....

One... the vapor barrier installation was going to take longer than I expected.  And, Two... the girls were useless and actually made it take longer.  Mostly they just stood around and complained about how long it was taking and were of no help whatsoever.

It was breezy, but a nice day, with the temperature peaking at almost +10C.  But by the end of the day I realized that I needed to return to continue with the work.

We stopped in Rocky Mountain House for dinner at the end of the day.  We took the girls to our new favorite restaurant... Cucina... and got back to the city by about 11:00PM.

The next morning I got up at my usual time, and made preparations to hit the road for Nordegg.  Margarit insisted on coming along, so the two of us headed out.  Our three girls slept in, and would spend the day together back home, without us.

When we turned west from Rocky Mountain House onto Highway 11, the weather also took a turn.  The closer we got to Nordegg, the worse it became.  I had snowed overnight... a couple of inches... and continued to snow upon our arrival.  We got to the cottage at about lunch time and made the best of it.  There were a few white tailed deer wandering around the property when we arrived, and they continued to hang around as we got started inside the cottage.  At one point we were watching the deer through the window when a red fox wandered by not 20 feet from the window.  The deer watched it along with us, and it slowly wandered off into the woods behind the buildings.  Sure hope this guy becomes a regular visitor.  Needless to say the photographer did not have his camera nearby as this guy made his appearance.

It seems as though spring is struggling to arrive.  Many of the animals and birds have begun their spring routines, despite the poor weather.  We saw Canada geese, crows, starlings, Red Tailed Hawks, a Swaisons Hawk, a couple of bald eagles and a Great Grey Owl.  Lots of deer, a coyote, and the wild horses had a young foal with them today.  On Saturday when I drove out with the girls I caught a glimpse of what I think was a woodchuck.  The forecast is calling for yet more snow, both in Nordegg and the city, over the next few days.  Maybe things will FINALLY smarten up after that.

A dubious weather record was set in Edmonton this past week.  I think it was on Thursday, when Edmonton hit 167 days in a row with the temperature being below freezing for at least a part of every day.  This breaks a record going back at least 40 years to the mid 1970's.  Not sure what the record continued on to.  I think we hit a temperature below freezing on Friday to make it 168.  On Saturday it may have stayed above freezing.  There were actually moths in the headlights of the truck as we drove home from Nordegg on Saturday night.  That was certainly short lived as less than 12 hours later it was well below freezing and snowing... !!!  Those global warming theorists have it all wrong and can kiss my butt !!!

Over the two days we managed to get a good start on the installation of vapor barrier.  In the two storey part of the cottage, which makes up a little over half the structure, we got all the walls done, the spaces between the joist ends, and the horizontal ceiling.  We also got a small amount of wall done in the open two story part of the building.  All of the windows, with the exception of the two on the north upper wall, have been sealed with spray foam insulation.  Rigid foam insulation has been installed to all of the headers, and just needs to be nailed and caulked in to a couple.  The end is in sight, but it is going to take at least a couple more days to be ready for drywall.

Between my day job and work at Nordegg I have worked for 14 days straight now, with a five day work week starting tomorrow.  I will need to work at least one day and perhaps both next weekend to stay on schedule.  Sure will be nice to get this part of the project done so that I can keep things on schedule... and take a break... !!

Sticks out for Humboldt

On Friday April 6th there was a horrific traffic accident in Saskatchewan.  A bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team was in a collision with a transport truck carrying a load of peat moss.  Fifteen of the passengers on the bus were killed, more than half of which were young hockey players.  The others were coaches, statisticians, assistant coaches, media and the bus driver.....

A sad day indeed, particularly for those of us that play hockey, and appreciate and understand the camaraderie of the game.  

A former resident of Humboldt, now living in Winnipeg started a campaign that really struck me.  He calls it "Sticks out for Humboldt".  He put a hockey stick out on his front porch... in case one of the young guys needs it... wherever they are.  This has really taken off and people all over the county are jumping on board.  I put one of my hockey sticks out on Tuesday evening.  This is a sad time for Canada and perhaps this small gesture will bring some meaning to such a senseless tragedy....

On April 11th one of the team trainers passed away in hospital....
Thursday April 12th is "Jerseys for Humboldt" day.  Everyone is encouraged to wear a hockey jersey in memory of the victims of this accident.  I wore my Renegades jersey to work for the day.

Almost Insulated

I got up at my usual time on Saturday morning, and headed over to the shop.  I picked up my truck, which I had loaded the night before with all the remaining insulation for the cottage.  This load was a little bigger than the first one.  I hit the road around 9:00 and made it out to Nordegg by lunch time.  I spent the early afternoon unloading all my supplies and getting set up for work.  Then I took a short break and headed into town... and booked a motel room at the Nordegg Lodge.  I was the only person registered there at that point.  

I headed back up to the cottage and went to work.  Scott still had his construction heater there so I ran it for half an hour and took the chill out.  It was cool, with a high that only got up to around -7C.  There was a bitter wind blowing out of the southeast, which didn't really bother me working inside, but it was more than uncomfortable whenever I stepped outside.  I got spray foam put in around most of the windows, and installed foam insulation to most of the headers.  Then I set to work on insulating.  I finished putting fiberglass batts into the portion of the horizontal ceiling that we didn't finish last week.  Then I started working on insulating some of the high walls.  I quit at about 7:00 and went into town to have something to eat.  The restaurant was really quiet, and there was only one other patron.  By this time there was one other room rented in the motel.  After supper I retired to my room and tried to watch the Oilers game on TV.  I dozed off during the first period, and then again during the second.  I gave up and turned off the TV and went to sleep by about 9:00.

I was up early in the morning and had breakfast in the restaurant before checking out of the motel.  I was up at the cottage by 9:00.  We got a dump of around an inch of snow overnight and it was cold, overcast and somewhat foggy when I got started.  The temperature was around -10C so I fired up the heater again to make working more comfortable.  This time it had to run for a couple hours to warm things up.  My mechanical contractor stopped by around 10:00 and we went over all the rough in work that needs to be done.  He's supposed to head out this week and get that looked after for me.  Our friends Shelly and Eric stopped by shortly after that.  They've had some issues with the contractor working on their cottage a short distance down the road.  Everything seems to be back on track now and their new contractor finally has their place closed in.  Shelly and Eric gave me a hand to switch the screw jacks to wheels on my scaffold.  This makes access to the high walls and the vaulted ceiling a lot easier.  Margarit drove out in the afternoon with Helena and we worked together on the insulation.  It was cold and still snowing when they first arrived, but later the sun came out and it warmed up to around zero.  We finished insulating all of the walls, including the high ones, and got some of the insulation in the vaulted ceiling.  

The vaulted ceiling is not going to be drywalled, so it doesn't need to be finished right away.  I have to still frame in the light shafts beneath our two skylights before I can really finish this area.  This is not really my focus right now as we want to get things ready for the drywall crew.  The work remaining in advance of that is the mechanical rough in, and the installation of vapor barrier.  The mechanical is now scheduled and I'll had back out next weekend to start on the vapor barrier.  We still have three weekends left before the end of the month to wrap that up... literally... ahead of the drywall crew.  Once the drywall guys get going I'll have a break for a couple of weeks at least as there won't be anything I can really do until they finish.  Maybe I'll have a chance to get back to some photography at that point.

Margarit and I worked until about 6:00 and then hit the road for home.  We stopped in Rocky Mountain House for something to eat.  We checked out a Korean-Italian restaurant called Cucina, that had rave reviews.  It was fantastic and we really enjoyed the food.  The couple that owns the place immigrated from Korea a few years ago and chose small town Rocky Mountain House to get away from the hustle and bustle of a large Asian city.  It was about 8:45 before we finished our meal and hit the road for home, which meant we didn't arrive until around 11:00.

Sure was a busy weekend for me and got up early and returned to my desk job on Monday to get some rest...!!

I've attached a few snapshots of the progress this past weekend...  Several of these are wildly distorted as I shot them with a 12mm Fisheye lens on my Nikon D810 digital SLR....

Rob's Millwork Shop 3

An update on my progress in fabricating stuff for the new cottage....  I've been puttering away on this stuff over recent weeks, but haven't made any significant progress.  Hit a milestone today though....

In recent weeks I've mostly been focused on getting the cottage insulated and ready for the drywall crew to start.  That is coming along nicely... and has consumed most of my weekends.  I have been spending a few evenings at the shop, after work, continuing with my other projects.

I have one interior door completely finished and ready for installation.  I have the other three started.  The frames for the doors are done, and the jambs are built.  Mostly I've been waiting to find some antique windows to frame into these doors.  I have two antique windows that we found earlier this spring.  Both required a certain amount of reconstruction.  I have this refurbishing mostly complete, but I'm just not 100% sure that I'm happy with these windows.  I want to take a little time and look around a little more for some other options, before I continue with these doors...

In the meantime I've started constructing a freestanding pantry.  That cabinet, much like a wardrobe, is well underway.  The body of the cabinet is complete and I am currently working on the side panels.  I still have to build the cabinet doors, but hope to have this all finished over the coming weeks.

I've been working on the bathroom vanity for quite some time now and kind of put it on the backburner in recent weeks.  I had cut some willow branches to fit into the doors and side panel, but wasn't completely happy with them.  They stuck out a little too much, and I wasn't quite sure how to attach them.  I have now resolved these issues.  I cut some new willow branches a few weeks ago.  I flattened them under some weights for a couple of weeks so they would mount in a more flush position.  Then I weighted them down and ran them into our plastic forming ovens at the shop to dry them out and get them to hold their shape.  I now have a couple that fit better into the door panels.  These have been heavily lacquered and screw attached into the reinforced door panels of the cabinet. 
A couple of weeks ago I cut a small birch trunk on the way home from Nordegg.  I trimmed off all the small branches and split this in half.  I then applied a couple coats of lacquer in an attempt to seal the birch bark.  The outer layer promptly turned brown and peeled off like the skin of an onion.  I stripped this away and it left the under bark relatively secure.  This was lacquered with several coats and seems to be holding together.  It isn't quite as white as I would have liked, but still looks like birch.  I mounted a couple of these onto the side panel of the vanity tonight.

So.... the vanity is now 100% complete.  I will wrap it up and store it away at the shop until I am ready to take it out to Nordegg.  I can now focus my attention on finishing the pantry.  Once that is done, the drywall guys will probably be far enough along that I can get final dimensions for fabrication of the kitchen cabinets.  And... in the mean time... if we can find a couple more antique windows, then I will be able to continue with the interior doors.

Of course I also have the coffee table slab, which has also been put on the backburner in recent weeks, to carry on with.

Here are a couple snapshots of the finished vanity.  I will try and take a few better photos once I have all the surrounding junk and clutter cleaned up and out of the way.

News from Dinosaur Valley Studios

It's been a while since I've reported on any projects down at Dinosaur Valley Studios.  The shop has been busy with a number of projects over the past year or so.  This current one is one of the most interesting we've done in quite some time.  This will be installed at the Visitor Information Center in Walsh, Alberta.  The raptor was existing, and just got refurbished and repainted.  But we also built the new wall behind it.  This was delivered to the site and set up around the end of the March.

Follow the Leader

When Margarit and I were out at Nordegg on Easter Monday, I switched out the memory card in the game camera.  When I got home I downloaded all the recorded images.  Most of them were typical of the hundreds of images this camera has taken.  Many of them were of me coming and going as I worked on the cottage.  Delivery of insulation, packing materials in and out, etc.  Also got a couple of shots of the electrical inspector as he did his thing.  This one was a little more unusual as it captured these three deer playing follow the leader...  

Easter Monday in Nordegg

With the shop closed for Easter Monday, Margarit and I got up early and headed out to Nordegg for the day.  The three little girls decided to stay home.  We left the city at about 8:00AM and made the now routine three hour drive out to the cottage.  It was a clear day, but fairly cold, particularly for this time of year.  The thermometer in the truck indicated temperatures ranging from about -6C down to about -15C as we made the drive.  When we arrived at the cottage shortly before lunch time there were six deer on our driveway.  They slowly wandered off into the bush as we pulled up and opened the gate.

It was cold enough when we arrived that we fired up the construction heater belonging to Shunda Creek Contracting.  We only had to run it for about half an hour to take the chill out of the building.  Later in the afternoon the thermometer at the property indicated that the temperature managed to edge up to near the freezing point.  Where the sun was directly shining, it actually was melting and dripping a little.  There was quite a bit of snow, and a fresh layer of about an inch or so.  Underneath that there was a crust of old ice from the previous melting of the accumulated snow.  It was actually quite slick and treacherous in places.  When we arrived I parked the truck on the sloped portion of the driveway in front of our garage.  I left it in gear and put the park brake on.  About 15 minutes after we arrived the truck suddenly started to slide down the slope.  The wheels were not turning and it was just skidding on the ice like a giant curling stone.  It came to a stop a shop distance away without incident but both Margarit and I were rather startled by this.

We spent five or six hours insulating the cottage and put up about 20 bundles of insulation.  All of the upper floor walls and most of the upper floor flat ceiling are done.  All of the lower floor walls in the bedrooms, the stairway, the bathroom and part of the kitchen are done.  I would say that we got about 40% of the building insulated.  But, all the more difficult areas remain to be done including the high walls in the kitchen and dinette/family room, as well as the high vaulted ceiling.  These will be much slower to install as they involve a lot of up and down on ladders and scaffold.  We also didn't get to the installation of any vapor barrier yet.  But this keeps us on schedule as I am looking to have insulation and vapor barrier complete by the end of April so that our drywall crew can start in May.

By about 5:30 in the afternoon we wrapped things up for the day and headed home to our girls.  As we were leaving the Nordegg area we saw a herd of about eight wild horses up near Harlech.  Last winter I saw herds of wild horses almost every time I drove out.  This winter they haven't been around as much.  There have always been tracks and road apples in the ditches, but this is only the second time this season that I've actually seen the horses.

We were both rather uncomfortable and itchy from working with the fiberglass.  There were fibers all over both of us and clinging to all of our clothes.  Mostly we were covered up but you can't avoid the stuff getting on your hands and face, and down your sleeves, and around your neck.  When we got home to the girls at around 8:30 we changed out of our dirty work clothes, tried not to scratch too much, and rinsed off in a cool shower.  A hot shower is a big mistake after working with fiberglass as it opens your pores and all the glass fibers get in, becoming really irritated and itchy.  We managed to avoid this for the most part, but the job is not done and we will have to continue soon.

 

Renegades Winter Hockey Season Comes to an End

The playoff run of my Renegades Hockey Team has come to an end.  The guys swept the first best of three series against the Trojans while I was away in Nordegg doing my electrical rough in.  The next round was against the Bulldogs.  We won the first game but then lost the next two.  The second game was among the worst we have played as a team in quite a while.  We had a short bench, were missing a couple of our best players, had a back up goalie, and played with very little emotion.  The Bulldogs, facing elimination, came out with a determined attitude and a full bench.  We were down 6-1 after the first period, and then started to play a little better.  We still lost that game 8-2. 
Last night we played the final game of the best of three series.  We were down 2-0 to start, but battled back in what became a really close game.  The lead changed hands a few times during the game.  They were out with a full bench once again, and we were short a few guys.  We just couldn't rally back at the end and lost by a score of 7-5.  This brings our winter season to an end, and we will have a break from hockey for about three weeks or so.  The summer season gets underway in early May.

Busy Easter Weekend

This past weekend was the first time I spent Easter at home in a number of years.  In 2014 I took a week off work and the girls and I went down to Kanab, Utah.  I did the same thing in 2015, and we went to Newport, Oregon.  A repeat of the same routine in 2016 took us to Courtenay, British Columbia.  Last year I couldn't take as much time off but headed out to Saskatchewan with my friends Chris and Connie for a few days to shoot the Forgotten Prairie documentary.
This time around there were no travel plans, but it was still a very busy weekend.  I got up early on Good Friday and went to the shop for a couple of hours and worked on my cabinets.  Then later in the morning Margarit and I went out with our friend Tanja, who was visiting from out of town.  In the evening, Margarit's brother Shawn and his family came over for dinner.  Rather than the traditional turkey dinner we made tacos, with tex-mex salad, mexican rice, and an appetizer of homemade tortillas with salsa.  The next morning I got up early once again and went back to the shop.  I spent about six hours there working on cabinets yet again.  I had only planned on a couple of hours, as we were supposed to pick up Hailey at the airport around noon.  She was returning from a trip to Point Roberts, Washington this past week, visiting her aunt Natalia.  But, she missed her flight in the morning and had to catch an afternoon one instead.  The girls and I were out at the airport well in advance of her 4:30 arrival, which was delayed by about 20 minutes, to greet her.
On Easter Sunday we had our usual Easter egg hunt but this time around it was at home.  By late morning we headed over to my Mom's place for an Easter Brunch.  My brother Wes and his family were visiting from Calgary.  My neice Amelia and her boyfriend Alex were also there but my brother Greg and the rest of his family were away in Hawaii.  Later that evening I went back tot he shop and packed up a bunch of materials for working in Nordegg.
With the skylight business being rather slow at this time of year, particularly in light of the ongoing winter weather and delayed spring, I closed the shop for Easter Monday.  I planned on heading out to Nordegg for the day to do some work at the cottage.

Nordegg Service

I took this photograph over a year ago.  On November 6th 2016 to be precise... at 2:50 in the afternoon to be even more precise.  It was taken with my Ebony SV45TU 4" x 5" view camera and a Nikon 150mm lens.  This old service station was spared the wrecking ball and is destined to be restored... much like the old Bank of Commerce that I've previously photographed and posted.  I processed this sheet of Ilford FP4 film in Perceptol some weeks ago and have just now got around to sharing it.  My photography has been put on the backburner in recent months.  Partly because I am so busy with the construction of my cottage... among other things...  And, partially because the weather this winter and spring has been so awful.  I saw on the government highway camera that the morning low temperature out at Nordegg was -27C, a couple days ago.  Today, Easter Sunday and April Fool's Day, here in the city, it was around -15C when the sun rose, and only got up to about -4C during the day.  And, we have not experienced much in the way of snow melt yet, and there is still lots of the white stuff laying around.  A late spring to say the least... !