Over the past 20 years I have accumulated a lot of "stuff" in my darkroom. I have several different camera systems including Contax 35mm SLR, Hasselblad, Sinar 4x5, Ebony 4x5 and Sinar 8x10. In addition to this I have all sorts of old cameras that people have given me. Not to mention tripods, digital cameras, lighting equipment, the list goes on and on and on.... In addition to all this there is the darkroom equipment... enlarger, easels, chemistry, trays, tanks, washers, paper, etc., etc., etc....
Now that I am about to retire I need to move a bunch more "stuff" that I have been storing at the shop. Much of this needs to come home, though some of it will end up getting moved down to the shop in East Coulee for long term storage. I have four large shipping crates full of framed prints from my traveling gallery exhibition that will end up down there. I also have a used 8x10 enlarger, still in crates, that needs to make it to my darkroom at some point. With only three months left to retirement I decided I'd better get busy. The first step was to make some space.
I have piles of 4x5 film holders stacked all over my darkroom. I unloaded all of the exposed film and sorted it into boxes. There are various types of film that require different development routines. Then once everything was unloaded, I had to reload them all with fresh film and put them away into my storage cupboard so that they are ready for use. There was a total of 109 film holders... so 218 sheets of film. Needless to say this took quite a while and I spent several evenings on it. I finished up with the last of the reloading on Friday morning, and here is the big pile of all those holders, ready to be put away.
On Saturday morning I went down to the shop. I tried to boost my old 2004 truck that I've had stored there in the yard. It has been parked since spring when I bought my new 2020 truck. Needless to say the batteries were stone dead. It wouldn't start even with a boost. I had to pull the batteries out and buy new ones. Got that all done on Saturday morning and got the truck started and brought it home. Then I went back to the shop and started sorting out some of my "stuff". I have a lot of picture framing materials at the shop. I rounded them all up and loaded them into my truck. I found that I had over 130 full lengths of metal frame stock, plus some offcuts, plus a bunch of wood moldings. There are all now temporarily stored at home. I will keep some of it around the house but most of it will end up in long term storage down in East Coulee. I also had a bunch of hardwood left over from cabinet building, as well a bunch of tools. I brought some of this home and will put it in storage out at Nordegg. Once we get our second cottage built I will need this stuff to finish the interior.
No comments:
Post a Comment