Last Weekend of August

The girls all decided to stay in the city for the last weekend of August.  They are getting some chores done around the house, and preparing for the return to school next week.  Hailey had to work a couple of shifts this weekend.  I had yet another four day weekend as I have now been reduced to working three days per week.  I stayed around the city on Friday and ran a bunch of errands.  Did some banking, renewed all of our vehicle registrations, picked up some groceries, and unloaded a bunch of film holders.  By mid-afternoon I was done with all the odds and ends and headed out to Nordegg.

It seems most of the weekend hoards have given up on heading out to the mountains.  It is still steady with traffic and people, but not nearly like it was back in June and July.  I took a walk around the subdivision on Friday evening and there were only about 8 other people out along Tamarack Trail.  Had a couple of beers around the campfire with my neighbors Rob and Brenda before finally turning in.  When I got up in the morning it was heavily overcast and drizzling.  By 10:00AM it turned to rain and then wet snow.  The temperature dropped down to +2C, but fortunately there was no accumulation.  I have seen snow in every month of the year out in Nordegg so this is not really a surprise.  By late morning the snow and rain quit and the sun started to break out.  But I had to get a fire going in the wood stove to take the chill out of the cottage.

By late morning the sun came out and it actually bounced up to about +16C in the early afternoon.  My neighbor Rob brought a 20 foot sea can out with his flat deck picker truck.  His younger brother was giving him a hand.  I wandered over to see if they needed a hand, but they had it pretty much under control.  Once the sea can was unloaded they took the picker over to the rock pile to move a couple of big rocks.  They graciously offered to bring a couple for me as well, so I gratefully accepted.  Sandstone weighs about 150 Lbs per cubic foot, and limestone and granite are heavier at about 175 Lbs per cubic foot.  We estimated that a couple of the larger rocks that we moved must have been around 6000 Lbs.  It always amazes me how much strength steel and hydraulics have...!  Rob placed two huge rocks beside his driveway.  His brother Chris took two large ones back to his place near Sylvan Lake.  I selected three smaller rocks and the guys spotted them beside my gate for me.  Later in the afternoon I continued splitting wood and filled the third pile in the yard.  There are still a bunch of logs behind the garage remaining to split, a big pile behind the house, and lots more dead trees to be cut up.  I guess I will start yet another wood pile as I continue with this work.  Can't have too much firewood as it is easy to go through a lot on a cold winter night.

On Sunday I woke up at 9:00... but was lazy and didn't get out of bed until after 10:00.  It was cozy in the cottage from the fire I lit before I went to bed the night before.  It didn't freeze overnight, but got very close and was only about +4 when I checked around 10:30.  It was cool when I first got to work outside, but warmed up nicely in the afternoon to around +18.  I made some room in the garage and finished sanding the peeled log footboard that I made.  Then I lacquered it... four coats.  It dries very quickly so I was able to take it into the cottage by evening.  I also worked on the stump base for my coffee table.  I re-cut it a little lower, and hopefully more level.  I worked on gluing some of the cracks and rotten parts to try and re-inforce it a little.  When I put it together before the screws pulled out and the top fell off.  I'll strengthen it this time and use longer screws.  Hopefully that does the trick.  

In the evening I took a ride over to the creek and cast a fly for a while.  No fish were rising, and nothing showed any interest in my fly, so I soon gave up.  I did play guitar through the afternoon, in between coats of lacquer, and that continued into the evening as I made myself a batch of enchiladas for supper.  There were three whiskeyjacks hanging around gorging themselves on the nuts I left out for them.  I tried to get them to take some from my hand but they were too skittish.  Some other small birds, including Dark-Eyed Juncos, Black-Capped Chickadees and some sort of sparrow have been regular visitors to a feeder I put on our porch earlier in the summer.  The Chipmunks have found it too....  In the evening I went for a walk around the subdivision.  It was even quieter now that the regular weekend folks have gone home.  Later in the evening I visited with my friend Eric over at his place.  We had a couple of beers and had the first chance in a while to catch up.

 

On Monday morning I was up a little earlier.  I had a leisurely breakfast and watched the birds out the bay window.  Later, when it warmed up a little I went on a long ATV ride.  I circled around town and went past a small lake, and then up below the old coal mine.  There are a few old shacks and buildings remaining in the bush, slowly losing their battle with gravity and weather.  I photographed a couple of them with my view camera.  Later I stopped by the old historic cemetery and photographed one of the graves there.  A little girl that died in 1920 when she was eight days old....  There were a lot of lupines blooming all over the hillsides above town.  More than I ever noticed in the past.  With all the wet weather we had last summer and through the first half of this year, the ATV trails were in really poor shape.  Lots of big mudholes made them difficult to navigate.  We actually didn't ride all that much because of it.  Recently the County has been working on improving the trails.  They have all been widened, with some extra culverts put in, and the low spots all filled with rock.  Its been really dry for the past month and the trails are now finally in good condition.  A little rough in places, but easily passable.