Strip Mining Operation

Last weekend I was down in the Drumheller Valley.  I stayed at the shop in East Coulee.  Nigel, Court, Arturo and Mark from the Monochrome Guild met me down there.  Arturo's wife Sharon also came along, as did Mark's wife.  We were working on shooting some images for our historic "coal" project.  This is a visual arts project documenting the coal mining industry and its history, here in the province of Alberta.  We got together and starting shooting images for this project back in June on a trip down to Crowsnest Pass, and the project will continue for another year or more.

Nigel and Court were staying at my shop with me.  Mark and his wife met us for the day on Saturday.  Arturo and Sharon were staying in town and met up with us as well. 

We headed out on Saturday to a nearby strip mining operation.  This is one of only a handful of active mines still working in the province.  This one supplies a nearby power generating plant.  The mine is on the verge of being shut down as a result of the government decision to cease all coal fired power generation.  I understand that the plant will be switching over to natural gas in the near future.  No doubt that decision will bring about a big rise in the price of natural gas.  I am rather skeptical of this plan and believe that it will only result in higher home heating costs.  In my opinion I think that improving the already efficient coal burning technology and then exporting that expertise globally would have made more impact on worldwide greenhouse gas emissions....

The mine is still operating and probably will be for another year or two.  I understand that layoffs of non-operational staff at the mine are upcoming.  In the interim the current operation will continue.  We were able to get very close to one of the enormous draglines as it was stripping overburden a mere couple hundred yards from a nearby range road.  We also shot some old buildings that are at risk of being swallowed by the mining operation, should production continue long enough.

After shooting here for a bit we continued on to an area that had been previously mined.  The area had been partially reclaimed and there was some old debris left behind from the mining equipment.  The landscape had a rather desolate and lunar appearance.

It was an interesting location and an afternoon well spent.  This was the first area that we explored over the course of the weekend and by the time it was all said and done, we had managed to shoot at several other locations as well.  It felt good to get out again with the big camera and get serious about starting to photograph again.  I think I ended up shooting about two dozen sheets of film over the two days which sees my annual count now well over 100.  

Over the past 22 years of shooting with my large format view camera, I have a long term average of around 400 sheets per year.  Last year my count was way down and I only shot about 125 sheets.  Mostly that was because my time was consumed by my job, and by the construction of our cottage.  Now that work on the cottage is substantially complete, I am finding myself returning to photography.   I shot quite a bit on that trip last June.  A couple of weeks ago I also did pretty well shooting out around Nordegg when my friends Chris and Connie were visiting.  This current weekend has added to the tally and got my creative juices flowing again.  I look forward to getting out on a more regular basis in the future.

New Scans

My return to the darkroom last week resulted in some images that I have not seen before.  Here are two recently scanned images both from 4" x 5" negatives.  Both were taken on Fuji Neopan Acros film, develeped in Rodinal.  The old grain elevator was taken in August of 2018 when we were out on the anniversary trip of the Forgotten Prairie documentary.  The second image is the interior of an old schoolhouse in Starland County, taken in October of 2018 when the Monochrome Guild gang was out for our Fall Photo Weekend.

A Weekend of Work

I headed out to the cottage on Friday right after work.  Margarit and the girls stayed home again so I was out by myself.  Traffic on the highway was a lot lighter than it was a couple of weeks ago on the long weekend.  I made it out there in a little less than three hours.  The days are getting obviously shorter at this late point in the summer and the sun had just set by the time I rolled in.  It was rather cold and blustery all day on Friday, and even more so out in the mountains.  I went for a short walk around the subdivision before the light completely faded, and then settled in at the cottage.  It was getting rather chilly so I got a fire going in the wood store.  The temperature dropped down to about 3 degrees by the time I went to bed.  I got up once during the night to check the fire and it was -2C outside.

I slept in a bit a on Saturday.  There wasn't really any big rush to get outside and do anything as the frost was still melting off.  I looked out my bedroom window in the morning and there was a deer and her fawn about 30 feet away.  She was nervously looking over her shoulder into the woods as they headed off down the trail.  A few minutes later I saw why... as two big buck with their racks still in full velvet wandered into view.  The were peacefully just grazing in the yard and slowly wandered along.

By late morning I got busy and set to work installing some more of the stone veneer panels onto the foundation.  I finished up the front side of the house and continued arount the corner on the west side.  The plywood sheathing overhangs the foundation by a fraction of any inch on this side and it is really difficult to insert the sheet metal drip flashing up under the siding.  In fact it's virtually impossible to handle a 10 foot length by myself.  I managed to get two on, but couldn't get the last one in, so I was unable to finish the west side.  I got about half the panels on the west side so the last little bit will have to wait until next time.  When I have another set of hands to help me I'll be able to get the last of the flashing installed and carry on with the stone.

I backfilled with dirt and gravel around the foundation.  My contractor left a two piles of gravel around the use for me to use for this purpose.  I shovelled a bunch of it into place and now have most of the final grade in place.  I had to adjust the downpipe on one of the eavestroughs so that I could backfill around it properly.  When this was finished I set about piling firewood.  There was a big stack left from where I had split it a few weeks ago.  Margarit had started stacking a little of it and I finished up the job.  This took a couple of hours. 

It had been mild and sunny all day but by later afternoon some clouds rolled in.  It never did rain but with the clouds came hoards of mosquitos and no-see-ums.  I was too lazy to drag out the BBQ so I just went into the cottage and made myself a pizza.  Once I had finished up that I went for another walk around the subdivision.  There were only about eight other families out at cottages along our road, but more in the older more established parts of the subdivision there were a lot more people out.  I walked all the way around the east part... probably about a mile or so.  I was exhausted and feeling pretty sore from all the work.  My knees and hips were aching so I laid down and turned in early... about 10:00PM.

On Sunday I slept in later than usual and got up and made breakfast for myself.  It stayed a lot warmer over night and only dropped down to about 10 degrees, with a skiff of a rain shower.  Sunday it warmed up nicely to nearly 20.  A repeat of the day before it started out really sunny and then clouded over in the afternoon.  I changed oil on the ATV, and the crawling underneath on my back didn't help my aches and pains any.  Once that I was done I got out the hose and washed a little more of the dried mud off of it.  This is still from the day back in July when Hailey buried it in the mudhole.  Then I tried to fix the winch.  I got the cable to wind back in but the mechanism is not shifting properly between free and winch so its still not working.

I took a ride over to the big rock pile in the subdivision.  The county has been hauling a bunch of rock out of here recently so you can no longer drive an ATV up to the top of the pile.  I picked up some nice flat rocks to use for splash pads at the ends of my eavestrough down pipes and put these into place.

Several times during the weekend I took a break from the physical work and dug out my guitar.  I am getting a little better at playing and can now strum along to several songs.  I have a playlist of these songs on my iPod and play along with these.  By the end of the weekend I had put in several hours of practice and my fingertips are getting pretty raw....

Two weeks ago when we were out on the long weekend I placed a radon gas detector in our crawlspace.  It has been recording ever since.  The readings are high enough to be of concern with the daily reading now up to about 250, and the long term average around 210.  This is just over the safe limit mandated by government.  We don't live out there, and don't use the basement, but our forced air furnace draws intake air from down there and blows it into the living space.  I am going to have to look into installing some sort of exhaust fan.....

Sunday afternoon it was the usual drill.  Clean up and pack up and hit the road for home.  I forgot to change out the memory card on the game camera so that will have to wait until next time.  I hit the road about 6:30 and got back to the city just before 9:30... tired and sore but with a sense of accomplishment.

Back to Photography

The last little while I have finally managed to get back to my artistic endeavors.  I think it started back in June when I traveled to Crowsnest Pass with some of my friends from the Monochrome Guild.  Then this past weekend I did some shooting out at Nordegg when Chris and Connie came out for a visit.  With the Renegades recently being eliminated from summer playoff hockey, I have more time in the evenings after work.  I went down into the darkroom the other night and processed a batch of Fuji Neopan Acros 4x5 film.  Some of the images in this batch dated back to 2017.  There were a few from 2018, and I also included a couple from this past weekend out at Nordegg.  It was really nice to finally get back to this.  I posted this image on my Flickr account the other day... the first time I have posted anything in many months.  This one was shot in October of 2017.  Chris, Connie, Rueben and I were down in East Coulee for the premiere showing of the "Forgotten Prairie" documentary.  Here is a link to that short film on Youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-r8ZLUcGQ&t=96s

The next morning we got up... rather hung over... and went for a hike out in the badlands.  It took us quite a while to shake the cobwebs and come to our senses.  Eventually we stumbled onto what we were looking for.... this old stone building.  I think it was once a barn of some kind... but that is only speculation on my part.  Sure is a photogenic place and I'd love to get back out to it some day...

Edmonton Folk Music Festival

For the first weekend in quite some time we stayed home.  Margarit and I had weekend passes to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival.  This year was the 40th Anniversary.  It's rather surprising that I have lived in Edmonton my entire life and never attended this festival before.  It runs for four days starting on Thursday evening and this year there were some well know artists performing.

We didn't bother going on Thursday evening, as the weather was not great, and I was not familiar with any of the scheduled performers.  I gave up my Eskimos tickets on Friday night so that we could go to the festival.  Jason Isbell did the first show on the main stage, followed by Brandi Carlile.  It was cool and overcast, but fortunately it did not rain.

I suppose I am a little jaded by my experiences at the Springfest in East Coulee.  That festival is very small and intimate, and by comparison this one is exponentially bigger and busier.  They estimate that about 25,000 people attended each of the four days.  The experience is really cool as the festival is held on the ski hill at Gallager Park.  It creates sort of a natural amphitheater and the sound quality is exceptionally good.  But you have to get there early in the day to be able to stake out a tarp on the hillside and secure your spot.  Our friends Jon and Marg, who bought the tickets for us had their spot staked out.  It was about halfway up the hill and off to one side a little.  The view of the stage was unobstructed, but it was quite a distance away.  The organizers had several big screens set up so that you could see what was going on, even if you weren't that close.

There were lots of vendors selling food and "stuff".  There was a big beer garden, and several smaller stages.  It was quite the spectacle and a very well attended event.  At first I found the big crowd and the busy conditions, not to mention the mud, a little annoying.  But over the course of the weekend it started to grow on me. 
Margarit and I took the LRT to the UofA campus and there caught a shuttle bus to the festival.  The shows on Friday night were really good, but by the end we were starting to feel pretty chilled.  We made a stop at the pub after getting back to the LRT station and finally got to sleep at about 2:00AM.

I went to work for part of the day on Saturday.  Margarit had to drive Hailey to her job.  Her shift ended at about 6:30 so after Margarit picked her up we repeated the drill and headed back to the festival.  By the time we got there we only had enough time to have a beer and then settle in for the last show of the evening... Blue Rodeo.  We did catch the last couple of songs by Bruce Cockburn just before that.  I've seen Blue Rodeo several times before and they never disappoint.  The venue and the atmosphere made this one pretty cool.  The temperature was a little milder than the night before and neither of us got as chilled.

My brother Greg, sister in law Barb, and our neice and nephew Amelia and Colin were all working as volunteers at the festival for the entire weekend.  We ran into them a couple of times over the course of the weekend.  Several of the guys from my photo group the Monochrome Guild were also working there as photographers and security staff.

On Sunday I headed down to the festival by myself.  Hailey had to work a four hour shift which didn't allow Margarit enough time to get to and from the show.  I checked out Colter Wall on one of the smaller stages.  I have become a huge fan of his over the past year or two.  The experience of the small stage endeared me a lot more to this festival.  I got there about two hours before his show and caught the acts that were playing before him.  As each show ended I was able to move down closer and closer to the stage.  In the set immediately before his there was a workshop that featured Donovan Woods, a girl from Arizona name Courtney Marie Andrews, and Colter Wall all playing solo stuff independently.  A band called Camp was supposed to play with them, but their flight was delayed and the only managed one song.  Once that warpped up I was able to move down to a spot about 30 feet from the stage.  Colter came out and played a great set with his full band.  Jon and Marg wandered over and joined me for the last one.  After  that we headed over to the beer garden and had a couple of drinks.  I hung around long enough to see part of the next couple of acts on the main stage before heading for home.

Margarit met me at the LRT station after the show and we headed over to a pub for a late evening meal together.

I'll probably consider attending the festival again next year, but will focus my attention on the small stages, and only watch the main stage if it is some artist that I really want to see.  All in all a great experience.  But I've had my share of crowds for a while and look forward to getting back out into the mountains soon.

Not Windy at Windy Point

On our way back to the cottage on Monday afternoon, Chris, Connie and I stopped at Windy Point.  This was one of those rare occasions that it was not windy, at Windy Point.  It was sunny and warm and almost dead calm.  It was busy, with a lot of people wandering around.

I think I have only experienced calm conditions at Windy Point on three or four occasions in the past.  Usually the wind is howling through the valley hard enough to blow your teeth out.  Often you have to hold onto the truck door with two hands when getting out.  In 2013 when my cousin visited from Germany we experienced a day that was dead calm.  And last November, when I was out there with my friend Jon we had similar conditions.  Today was the third time in recent memory that I can recollect.  We wandered around for a bit and then eventually returned to the cottage.

We all had to head for home on this afternoon so we packed up all our stuff and tidied things up.  We said our goodbyes to Chris and Connie as they hit the road for the drive back to Calgary.  Margarit hit the road with Anna and Helena at about 6:00 and Hailey and I left about an hour later.  It rained most of the way home and we just missed a big storm that hit Edmonton shortly before our arrival.  That storm carried some large hail that hit west and north of the city but fortunately nothing at our house.

August Long Weekend - Day Trip

On holiday Monday Chris, Connie and I took a spin up the David Thompson Highway.  Margarit stayed behind and took the girls back to Fish Lake.  Chris knew of an old cabin that we wanted to hike in and check out.  I don't think it was really a trappers cabin, but it was along those lines.  I'm not sure if maybe it was used by some of the cowboys that used to range cattle up in this area... or perhaps it was just used by early hunters.

We had directions and after a fairly short hike we found ourselves at the cabin.  It is in surprisingly good shape considering its age.  Over the years many people have written or scratched their names into the log walls.  Usually this sort of graffiti is rather offensive.  Some of it was fairly modern... from the past decade or so.  But there were many old names and dates going back as far as 100 years ago, as well as some from the 1940's and 1950's that were pretty cool.

We enjoyed the spot for a while and I took some photographs with my big camera.  It was very sunny and warm on this day, and the weekend in general was the best we have had all summer so far.  This year has been very cool and wet.  The rain gauge at the cottage recorded over 6 inches of rain in June and nearly 4 inches more in July.  I think the fact that we finally got a nice weekend was the reason that it was so busy everywhere.  There were dozens of campers at every little turnout and side road all along Abraham Lake and Kootenay Plains.  All of the campsites were full.

After we finished up exploring the old cabin we headed to Whirlpool Point.  The river was unusually high for this time of year, a result of all the rain.  We wandered around a bit and explored among all the limber pines.  By mid-afternoon we had finished up our explorations and reluctantly made our way back towards the cottage.

August Long Weekend - Steel Bridge

On Saturday morning, after we shook off the cobwebs, we headed out for a hike.  Chris, Connie, Margarit and I went, but the younger girls stayed back at the cottage.  We parked along a side road and hiked in onto the old railway line.  This is the line that once ran from Rocky Mountain House to the mine up at Nordegg.  The rails and ties are long gone, but the right of way makes for pretty easy walking.  

There were a bunch of dirt bikes and ATV's riding the rail line as well so it was not a totally peaceful walk.  Eventually, after about 2km of walking we came to the remains of an enormous steel span bridge.  The decking was gone, but the impressive steel structure remains.  It must be about a hundred yards long and spans a deep ravine.  There was a small creek running in the ravine but I don't know if it even has a name.  Unfortunately the ravine is heavily overgrown and it was difficult to get a good view of the bridge.  I did take a couple of shots with my big camera.

Later we scouted around trying to find an old cemetery that Chris knew of.  We never did find it on this day.  A few days later, when Chris did some additional research we did pinpoint the location of the cemetery and will return to it at some point.  Chris also found some old photographs in the Glenbow archives that showed the bridge at the time of construction.  Almost no trees at that time and I assume that they were all logged off as timbers for the mines.

Later that evening we returned to the cottage.  Margarit and the girls took a spin up to nearby Fish Lake while Chris, Connie and I threw together another BBQ.  That evening we sat around and had a fire and enjoyed some drinks and the good company.

Update...

My friend Chris confirmed that those two images from the Glenbow Museum archives were taken in 1931. I expect that the bridge would have been finished within a couple years after that.  The piers that are visible in the background, and the little notch in the hill where the rail bed would have entered the bridge is the spot that we were standing at when I made my photographs.   The historical images were obviously taken from the other end of the span.

August Long Weekend - exploring in Nordegg

The girls and I headed out to Nordegg on Friday evening.  This was the August long weekend and for a change the whole family was able to go along.  We made it out there in evening after work, and the girls all set up the cages for their menagerie of pets.

On Saturday morning we headed into town.  This was the annual Nordegg Days weekend.  We got into town before 9:00AM and headed over to the firehall for the annual pancake breakfast.  After breakfast we wandered around a bit and checked out the silent auction stuff and the surplus books from the library that were up for sale.  Then we headed back up to the cottage.  As we were leaving town the breakfast crowd was beginning to roll in and things got very busy.  As it turns out most of our neighbors came down for breakfast after we had already finished, so we never did connect with any of them.

Later that morning our friends Chris and Connie arrived at the cottage.  They were up from their home base in Calgary and were staying for the weekend.  We get together a few times every year and get out together for some pretty cool projects.  Last time I saw them it was down in Crowsnest Pass back in the spring, but Margarit hasn't been able to connect for quite a bit longer.

In the afternoon we headed down into town and gave Chris and Connie a quick tour.  They have been to Nordegg before, but not for many years.  We checked out the few remaining old buildings, and the cemetery so that they could get a quick lay of the land.  We never did bother attending the rest of the Nordegg Days activities but as in the past there was a hot dog eating contest, a pie eating contest, a pot luck dinner, and a dance with a live band.  The ATV Poker Rally was cancelled this year because the trails are all too wet and some are closed.

Later that evening we put together a pot luck BBQ of our own and had a big meal of steaks, baked potatoes, corn and salad.  Then we sat around into the wee hours visiting and sharing a few drinks.

This long weekend was the busiest I have ever experienced at Nordegg.  The highway was busy with a lot of traffic.  Almost everyone was out at their places in the subdivision, and many had guests with them.  We met some neighbors that have a place behind us and it turns out that their grandkids are about Helena's age.  The campsites were all full.  The town was very busy.  And every little turnout and side road along the highway and up at the lake had campers in it.  There were lots of quads and ATV's out riding the roads and the trails.  Too busy for my liking, but at least most weekends its not like this.