Day Trip with Hailey

I slept in both days this weekend.  Still really tired from all the hockey I played the last month or so... an average of three games a week...!  On Saturday, after I finally got up, I went over to the Latino grocery store and picked up some stuff.  Then I went to the shop for a while and sort of half-heartedly worked on some cabinets.  Then I picked up a few more groceries at the regular store, and went home to make supper.  I made a big batch of enchiladas, some of which we had for dinner that night some and some of which got frozen for later.  I also made some home made tortilla chips.  While I was doing that Margarit made a batch of Mexican Rice.  We finally got around to eating dinner at about 9:00.

I slept in again on Sunday and then when I eventually got mobile, I checked to see if any of the girls were interested in coming out for a day trip.  Anna was not interested, and Helena was getting together with a friend, but Hailey reluctantly decided to come along.  It was close to 2:00 when we finally got out of town, and snowing lightly to boot.

We headed east through Elk Island National Park and by then the snow had quit and the skies were breaking open a bit.  There was only a light breeze and with the temperature struggling up to about +6 or so, it wasn't too bad.  There were a lot of bison along the roads in the park.  I think they were coming out to the open road sides to graze on the little bit of green grass that was starting to come to life.  We saw them in three or four different areas of the park and the way through, and then more again at the end of the day when we returned home.

In between we drove some backroads up in Lamont County.  I stopped to take a shot of what I think must have been an old community hall in St. Michael.  There was a nearby abandoned house that was kind of interesting as well.  After that we checked out the cemetery at the nearby Roman Catholic Church.  We drove around for a couple of hours and stopped to photograph a dead roadside jackpine.  We also stopped and checked out a few old abandoned buildings and the big camera made it out of the truck a few times.  Hailey was shooting with my medium format Hasselblad system.  Its been a long time since she's done that and she needed a crash course to learn how to do it again.  She didn't pester me with too many questions so it must have come back to her fairly quickly and reasonably well.  There was some rain and snow in the city while we were gone, but we didn't really get any more than a few flakes, and most of that was on the drive out.

We stopped to check out a couple old threshing machines just off the road.  We thought it was OK to wander over and have a look, as we weren't "Trasspassing"

Renegades - 2019 Conference Champions

The winter hockey season has come to an end for my Renegades team.  We won the Division and Conference Championship, so its been our best season ever...!!!

We started out the regular season last September in Division 9.  We were winning most of our games so at the halfway point the league moved us up to Division 8.  Our record for the regular season was 21 wins, 8 losses and 1 overtime loss.  The portion of those stats that counted in the year end standings was our record against teams in Division 8.  There we had 9 wins, 5 losses and 1 overtime loss.  That was good enough for a second place finish.

We went into the first round of the playoffs in a best of three series against the 7th place team called the Wet Bandits.  They won the first game in an 11 round shootout but then we won the next two games to advance to the second round.

In the second round we faced a team called the Padres, who finished in fourth place.  These guys beat us in a conference championship a couple years ago.  This time around we swept them in two games straight and advanced to the division final.

In the best of three final round we faced the first place team called the Itchy Beavers.  We only played these guys once during the regular season, and they beat us.  Then they beat us again in the first game of playoff round.  But we dug in and won the next two, to win the division.  This was our biggest challenge of the playoffs I think.

After winning the division we moved on to the best of five conference championship.  The set up of the divisions and conferences within our league is a little confusing.  We played in the North Conference of Division 8 and won that with a victory over the Itchy Beavers.  But there was also a South Conference Division 8.  During the regular season we played the majority of our games against the other seven teams in the North Conference.  But, there were a few inter conference games against some of the teams in the South Conference.  While we were busy winning the north, the same playoff structure was in place in the south.  The conference championship was between us and a team called the Beavers HC who won the south division championship.  

We never did play these guys through the regular season but on paper they looked like a dominant team.  During the regular season they had a record of 23 wins, 4 losses and 1 overtime loss.  Through the south division playoffs they went undefeated.  They are a good team but as it turned out they were not as good as some of the teams that we defeated to get to the championship round.  We handed them their first two losses of the playoffs in the first two games.  We probably should have swept them and won the third game but found ourselves with some whistle happy referees who dictated the outcome of the game with some really one sided penalty calls.  Reeling from that loss in game three we came to the rink with a focused determination.  I made a point of making sure that our roster was full, that all of our best players were out to play, and that we were well organized with set lines and defense pairs.  From the first drop of the puck we dominated the game and within the first five minutes or so we had jumped out to a 3-0 lead.  We didn't let up for the entire game and totally dominated the Beavers.  We hoped to see our goaltender Travis get a shutout but they got a couple of late goals to spoil that.  Travis was actually our backup goalie, as our regular guy got hurt late in the regular season.  Travis played the last few games of the regular season as well as all the playoff games for us.  He did a super job and was a big part of the success we had.  The game ended in a blowout with a 13-2 victory for the Renegades.

This one was for Vince.  Vince is a long term member of the team that has played with me from the very beginning.  He was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and was unable to play with the team for the past couple of months.  We are hopeful that he can recover and someday rejoin the team.  We were determined to win the championship in his honor... and we succeeded....!!

These are some snapshots taken at the end of the game last night...

Fake Stone

Last weekend when I was out at Nordegg I started working on the exterior of the cottage.  There is about 2 feet of the ICF foundation that is exposed above grade.  These are foam insulated blocks that are steel reinforced and then filled with concrete to create the foundation of the building.  An adhesive membrane is bonded onto the exterior to create a water seal.  The exposed portion needs to be covered with something to protect and finish it.  I chose to use some artificial stone veneer.  These are cast foam panels that are molded and painted to look like rock.  The interlocking panels are screwed into position.  I used a black sheet metal flashing tucked under the lower edge of the siding, and then started installing this fake rock below that.  Its finally warmed up and dried off enough out there that I can start doing this.  I only had a few of the panels out there so I could only start on the southeast corner of the building.  Next time I go out there I'll take more material with me so that I can continue.  As soon as the panels are installed beyond the entrance, then I can backfill around it, finish up the grade, and start building our landing and steps.  For the past year and a half we have been using a small step ladder to get in and out of the house.  That will soon come to an end...!

Do or Die

The Renegades Hockey Team is still playing winter hockey, well into the spring.  After winning the Divisional Championship over the Itchy Beavers a week or so ago, we moved on to the City Conference Championship.  Division 8 in our Recreational League includes a North Conference [called the ERHL Conference] and a South Conference [called the CCRHL Conference].  There are a few inter conference games during the regular season but mostly we played against the seven other teams in our ERHL Conference.  Because we got moved up to Division 8 a little over halfway through the season, we only played games against two or three of the teams in the CCRHL South Conference.  I know this all sounds very confusing.....

At the end of the regular season my Renegades finished in Second Place in the ERHL Conference.  We knocked off the 7th Place Wet Bandits, the 4th Place Padres, and the 1st Place Itchy Beavers to win the Divisional title.

Then we starting playing the Best of Five Conference Championship Round against the Beavers HC, the winner of the South CCRHL Divisional Title.

We won the first game... a close one... by a score of 4-3.  The second game was on Thursday just before the Easter Long Weekend and we won that one by a score of 8-6.  The third game was last night, and it did not go our way.  Facing elimination, the Beavers came out flying.  They also got the benefit of some really piss poor officiating.  The game was intense, but not particularly physical.  The rough play was pretty even both ways, but for some reason the whistle-happy referee... or at least one of the two... insisted on calling virtually all of the penalties against us.  There are three 15 minute stop time periods in our games.... so 45 minutes of ice time.  The Renegades were assessed 30 minutes of penalties, while the Beavers only got 8 minutes... two of those coincidental.  This really impacted the outcome of the game, as we had our best player ejected, and played most of the game short handed.  We did get two short handed goals and kept the score close until the end, but ended up losing the game 5-2.  The series now stands at two wins to one.  We need to win one of the two remaining games to be the champions, while the Beavers HC have to win both. 
The officiating in this last game infuriated our team and we are going into the next one really motivated and prepared.  I have a full roster coming out to the game, and all of our lines and defense pairs set up.  We have a game plan, and are going to bear down and try to put an end to this tomorrow.

I complained to the league about the poor officiating, which I am generally not inclined to do.  But as team captain I felt I just had to speak up about the disgrace that the officials brought to our last game.  Of course this fell on deaf ears, and I suspect we may get some extra attention at the next game.  That game is tomorrow night, right after work.  Hopefully we can bring our season to a close with another championship.... and then I can finally shave this playoff beard.

I gave some concert tickets to my three daughters for Christmas.  Margarit and I were planning on dropping off the girls at the Ariana Grand concert at Rogers Place, and then going out for dinner.  The plan was to pick up the girls after the concert.  But... that concert is tomorrow... the same night as this Do or Die game of our playoffs.  So.... the girls are going to the concert... Margarit is missing out on dinner but hanging around downtown... and I'm going to play hockey.....  Needless to say this has NOT earned me any brownie points.  The girls will be fine about the concert, but I am going to have to make this up to Margarit at some point in the next week or so....  But, as the T-shirt that Hailey gave me for Christmas says.....  "Hockey is not just a matter of life and death... its more important than that"

Next Wednesday I have to attend a captains meeting to kick off the summer hockey season.  Our regular season games will start in the week after that.  Not much time to rest my old carcass before this starts all over again......

Easter in the Mountains

The girls and I spent the Easter Long Weekend out at the cottage.  I closed the shop for Easter Monday, in addition to the Statutory Holiday on Good Friday, so we had a four day long weekend.  Hailey and I drove out on Friday morning, while Margait and the other girls drove out separately later that afternoon.  It snowed fairly heavily all day on Friday and by late afternoon there was an accumulation of a couple of inches of fresh snow.  It was fairly shortlived as it warmed up nicely on Saturday and the snow was gone, leaving mostly just mud.

The girls had an Easter Egg Hunt out in the woods.  Mostly I just puttered around on a few chores at the cottage.  I trimmed the latest two interior doors so they wouldn't drag on the carpet.  I also finished up the jambs and stops for those doors.  I installed a section of handrail on the stairs, and put together a firewood rack.  On Easter Sunday I started installing some of the stone veneer onto the exterior foundation.  If I can get some of this stuff put on, then I will finally be able to build a proper landing and step at our entrance door.  While I was doing that, Margarit pulled out the log splitter and split a big pile of firewood.  There's a lot of yard cleanup to look after this year and now that it has warmed up and dried off a little, we can start to get after that.  I also had the local service company out on Monday to pump out the septic tank and bring us another load of water.  I filled the 2000 gallon water storage cistern last July, and it lasted up until now.  In the future we will probably use a little more water.  Last year we didn't have the shower and toilet installed in the cottage until later in the summer, so there was virtually no water use for the first couple of months. 

 

I pulled the memory card from the game camera and took these pictures off.  The girls were captured during their Easter Egg Hunt.  None of us have been out to the cottage for the better part of a month, so the pictures on the camera accumulated to quite a few.  Seems a Red Fox wandered by a couple of times and got its picture taken.  Also captured one of the deer in a rather odd pose.....

During the extreme cold winter weather I was putting out some oats for the deer.  Now that it has warmed up and there is lots of natural food for them, I haven't been feeding them.  But they still visit regularly to check out if there is anything for them.  The temperature that my game camera records seem to be fairly accurate if the sun is not shining.  But the camera is out in the open, and when the sun shines on it, a temperature much warmer than the actual air temperature is recorded.

Division Champions

Lots of hockey this past little while.  We play a 30 game regular season; on average one game per week, from September to March.  Then the playoffs start.  We knocked off the Wet Bandits and the Padres to advance to the divisional final.  This is the playoff between the top two teams in Division Eight.  The first game against the Itchy Beavers did not go well and we were behind quickly and lost the game  8-3.  The second game of the best of three series was on Saturday the 13th and we won that one 5-3.  The final game of the Divisonal Championship was played on the afternoon of April 14th, at Knights of Columbus Arena.  I really think our opponents took us for granted and just thought they had to show up to win.  They only lost four times during the regular season, and were undefeated in the playoffs up until Saturday.  We played a really solid team game and ended up winning by a score of 8-4.  The championship hats were passed around and as team captain I accepted the trophy on behalf of the team.  There were some pictures taken and I'm waiting for them to be forwarded to me so that I can post them here on my blog.
We now move on to the City Conference Championship.  This is against a team called the Beavers HC that won Division 8 in the other conference.  We have never played these guys before and only played a handful of inter conference games all year.  The first game of that best of five series was last night.  We won that game by a score of 4-3, but it went to overtime before it was decided.  There is a little bit of a break over the Easter Weekend but we are playing hockey up to four more times over the next week and a half.  Depending how this all ends, we will play somewhere between 11 and 13 playoff games.  This is almost equivalent to half of a regular season, and all of these games will be played over the course of about a month.  Getting pretty tired this last little while and looking forward to a bit of a break before the summer season starts in May.  Two more victories and we can win it all... for our team mate Vince...!!

Here's a shot from the league website, taken during the Divisional Championship game on Sunday against the Itchy Beavers....  The Renegades are in white.

 

1000 Central

I was going through some old negatives the other day and came across this one.  It was tough to shoot because this old boat was heavily backlit.  But I think I held the tonal range fairly well, without really too much flare.  This was taken back in March of 2016 when the girls and I spent Spring Break out on Vancouver Island.  Most of the time we were out there we explored the gulf islands of Denman and Hornby.  It's kind of a nuisance to get out there given the limited ferry service, but still well worth the effort.  This old boat was sitting overgrown on the edge of someone's property on Hornby Island...

Divisional Final

The Renegades Hockey Team advanced to the divisional final after knocking off the Padres.  This final round, against a team called the Itchy Beavers, has been our toughest challenge so far.  We played the first game on Wednesday night, and weren't really prepared.  At one point before the game was even half over, we found ourselves behind by a score of 6-0.  We started playing a little better later in the game, and made it a little closer.  The officials did a poor job calling the game and let things get out of hand at the end.  I'm not sure why the other guys were getting so hot-headed and emotional as they had the game well in hand.  We ended up losing by a score of 8-3.  There was a big scrum at the end of the game and two players on each side ended up getting suspended, including two of our best.  I thought I played a pretty decent game for an old guy.  I was only on the ice for one goal against, but was on for two that we scored.... a plus/minus rating of +1.  Not bad in a game that we lost by five goals, or so I thought.  I should have got credited with an assist for one of ours as I made a nice breakout pass on on of our goals, but the officials screwed that up too.

Then earlier this evening we played game two of the best of three series at Clareview Arena.  Our game was on an extra big Olympic size ice sheet.  The rink is a little longer and the neutral zone is bigger, but most noticeably, the ice is quite a bit wider.  This made for a lot of extra skating and adjustments were needed to the way that we passed the puck, and the way we defended.

We were ahead by a score of 2-0 about halfway through the game, despite having a shorter bench with only 11 skaters, and two of our better guys suspended.  The Beavers battled back and score three goals late in the second period to take the lead.  But we came out in the third period, after the flood, and took it to them.  We scored three unanswered goals and eventually coasted to a 5-3 victory.

This sets up the final game of the series tomorrow.  As team captain and manager I'm working to fill the roster and get all of our best players out to the rink.  We want to win this championship for our team mate Vince, who was recently stricken with a brain tumor and has been unable to play.  If we can win tomorrow we will move on to the best of five Conference championship.  In my mind that is sort of a bonus round, as it is against the winner of the South division 8, and we only played those teams a handful of times during the season.  There is a much greater sense of satisfaction if we can come out victorious in our own division, against the teams that we played all season long.

Can't shave the playoff beard yet........!!

Last Weekend

Last weekend, while I stayed home to play hockey, Margarit and the two younger girls went down to Drumheller for the weekend.  They stayed in our trailer in East Coulee.  I guess it was a fairly low key weekend with a little hiking, lunch at the Last Chance Saloon, and just hanging out.  I had a meeting of the Monochrome Guild at my place on Friday night.  We are making some progress in preparing our portfolio boxes and starting work on some themes.

On Saturday morning Hailey and I went for breakfast, and the I worked at the shop for a while.  I routed all the hardwood frames for the last section of kitchen cabinet, and also cut my lunch counter slab to size.

On Sunday I dropped Hailey off at work at 11:00AM, and then continued on to my hockey game.  After we won the game, I went back to the shop for a while and continued working for a bit, before heading back to pick up Hailey at the end of her shift.  We went out for something to eat in the evening, and shortly after we got home, the girls returned from the badlands.  The weekend was full and the time just seemed to fly by.  Attached are a few phone snapshots that Margarit sent to me while the girls were down south.

Semi-Final Victory

We played the Padres in the first game of the semi-final best of three a few days ago and won it in Overtime.  Today we played game two.  Our team was really prepared and determined, and we knew that the Padres, with their backs to the wall, would come out flying.  I had a full roster lined up and some lines and defense pairs pre-arranged.

The Padres scored first on a slap shot from the top of the circle, about half way through the first period.  Our goalie Travis, who is actually our backup, playing for our injured regular goalie, stood on his head through the rest of the game.  We scored one late in the first to even things up, and then another late in the second to take the lead.  By the end we were outshooting them 53 to 22.  We added two insurance goals in the last 2-1/2 minutes and coated to a 4-1 victory, and a spot in the divisional finals.

Some big moron on their team, wearing jersey number six, was being a total asshole.  He took an interference penalty in the second period.  Then in the third he ran right into me, fell down, and I got a tripping penalty for it.  The guys managed to kill that one thankfully.  Then in the last two minutes, after they took their time out, we had them hemmed in to their half of the rink.  They couldn't even pull their goalie for an extra attacker.  This moron cross-checked Ashley, the only female player on either team, and dropped her to the ice.  This guy had probably 6 inches in height and 50 lbs on her.  Her husband Johnny lost it and started to go after him, but cooler heads prevailed and we held him off.  Obviously this clown was just trying to get someone suspended.  He went so far as to take a swing at one of our guys... again one of our smaller guys, knocking him to the ice, in the handshake line after the game was over.

The Divisional Finals start this Wednesday against a team called the Itchy Beavers.

I started a playoff beard just before our first game.  It's getting pretty horrendous looking, and really itchy.  I sure look forward to winning this thing so I can finally shave it off.

Onward to the Cup

The Renegades played the first game of the Semi-Final Round last night.  We played the Padres at KofC Arena.  It was a closely matched, hard fought game.  By the third period we had begun to get used to their style, and started to play successfully against them.  We were ahead by a score of 3-1 in the third period.  They got a goal at about the halfway point of the third period to make it close.  Then late in the game they pulled their goalie for an extra attacker.  They managed to bang in a goal with 17 seconds left, to tie the game.  Not to be outdone, we rallied in the 3 on 3 overtime.  One of our forwards was really solid in their corner, holding onto the puck and fighting for position.  He managed to feed a pass out into the slot, where our defensemen stepped in and banged a slap shot over the goalie's blocker for the victory... 20 seconds into overtime.

One more win and we will advance to the Divisional Championship Round.  We have two cracks at it, starting on Sunday afternoon.

This one is for our team mate Vince...!!!

And Now for Something Completely Different

Most of my photography is of the natural landscape, or old abandoned places and things...  with a portrait or a still life thrown in every once in a while.  The 4x5 view camera that I use most of the time is not suited to action photography.  It takes about 5 to 10 minutes to set up the camera, select the appropriate lens, focus it properly, meter the scene to establish the exposure, and then load the film holder and expose it.
The shows that the Monochrome Guild is installing at Remedy Cafe on April 1st are based on the natural landscape, as well as a selection of images that I refer to as street photography.  I dug back into my archive of negatives to see if I had any work that would fit the "Our City" theme.  I found a few shots that I took, 20 years ago, in the spring of 1999 with my Hasselblad medium format camera.  This is a roll film camera that uses 120 format film.  The resulting negatives are 2-1/4" x 2-1/4"... approx. 6cm x 6cm.  I used this camera a lot before I moved up to the view camera... and I still have two of them, as well as a selection of lenses and film magazines.  I use them from time to time, and have been trying to get my girls to work with them a bit....

Although I shot these images 20 years ago, I never printed them until a couple weeks ago.  I decided to include these two small 8" x 8" prints in the show.  I matted them with an extra heavy overmat.  My friend Nigel steered me onto this stuff, after he saw something similar at a gallery in Europe.  Its more than double the thickness of the standard matboard that I've been using.  It gives the frame and the presentation a little more depth, which I quite like.  Might try this again in the future with some larger prints.

"Winter's Dawn" and "Our City" at Remedy Cafe

Last night, after my weekly guitar lesson, I headed over to Remedy Cafe to help the gang from the Monochrome Guild install our two shows.  Upstairs we have a selection of 13 prints representing the "Winter's Dawn" theme.  These are all prints from negatives taken during our fall trips to Jasper National Park.  These trips have typically been in October and November over most of the past few years.  I included three of my prints in this selection.  Downstairs there are about 15 prints representing the "Our City" theme.  These are mostly architectural and streetscapes taken around Edmonton.  I included two small prints down there.

As we completed the installation upstairs I took a few snapshots with my phone of the installation.  The panoramic shot is kind of humerous as Arturo was walking away from the prints as I panned the camera, and he looks sort of deformed.... 

Afterwards we went downstairs to install the prints there.  These are a little more scattered about in a larger space as there are no larger wall spaces to display the prints.  Rather the prints are spaced about on smaller wall spaces and columns throughout the main seating area in the cafe.  It was about 11:00PM when we finished putting up all the prints and information cards and signage.  Of course I forgot to take a snapshot downstairs before I headed home.......

Renegades Hockey Team - First Round of the Playoffs

Despite being moved up from Division 9 to Division 8... after the halfway point of the regular season, we still managed to finish in Second Place.  This saw us matched up against the seventh place Wet Bandits in the first round of the playoffs.  All the early rounds of the playoffs are best of three matchups.  Our first game was on Thursday March 21 and we were doing alright... leading 2-0 with only a couple of minutes left to play.  The officials got a little whistle happy near the end and called a whole bunch of penalties.  That in itself would have been OK, but they mixed up the score sheet and we ended up playing short handed longer than we were supposed to.  There was confusion over double minors being served by two players, coincidental penalties, and on top of it all our opponents pulled their goalie.  The Wet Bandits ended up with a two man advantage and scored twice in the last minute and a half to tie the game.  Then it went to a shootout, which continued for 11 rounds before we finally lost....

The second game of the series was played on Saturday March 30th.  We came out a little more focused but once again the officials swayed the game, and with a number of soft penalties called against us, we found ourselves down 3-1 going into the third period.  As captain, I spoke to the officials between the second and third period and told them that our team felt that the penalties calls were a little soft, but mostly one sided.  That conversation seemed to help as they let us play in the third period.  We rallied and got a couple of goals in the third to tie the game.  Then, in the dying minutes one of our top players was sent in alone on a breakaway and we took the lead 4-3.  We added an empty netter in the dying seconds to go on to a 5-3 victory.

On Sunday we played the third and deciding game of our series.  This was a Renegades victory... one like many we have had this season.  We scored on the first shift and never looked back.  At one point it got close when we were ahead by a score of 3-1.  But then we shut them down and coasted to a 10-2 victory, out-shooting them 39-11.

This one was for Vinny....  the only other original Renegade from when the team was started about 15 years ago.  Lots of players have come and gone over the years, but Vince and I are the only two originals left.  He was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and is going through a very difficult time.  The team is out to win the championship this year in his honor.... Hopefully we can come through for him.

The next round of the playoffs starts on Tuesday against a team called the Padres.  We only played these guys once after getting moved up... but we managed to defeat them.  I'm hoping we can continue with our winning streak in honor of Vinny...!