Day Trip with Chris and Connie

On Sunday May 23rd Margarit and I went out for a day trip with our friends Chris and Connie, from Calgary.  They were visiting Edmonton to work on a research project.  We have not seen them in person for over a year, obviously due to the Covid pandemic.  It was nice to get together with them in person.

We followed all the proper protocols and kept to a small group of just the four of us.  We were only together outdoors, and maintained signficant distances.  

We took a day trip out to the northeast of the City, and travelled in separate vehicles.  We had no particular destination in mind, and generally just wandered about.  We actually saw quite a bit of wildlife on this outing, including a bald eagle, and lots of ducks, geese, shorebirds and songbirds.

We stopped and checked out out a small cemetery.  Later we continued on to an old homestead in Lamont County.  This was the same one that I photographed previously on numerous occasions, including most recently with my friend Arturo.  While we were here a group of four Turkey Vultures soared over us.  I seem to recall that I saw at least one when I was here previously.

From there we continued on and made a stop at the Limestone Lake Church.  We checked out all the graves in the cemetery, some dating back over a century.  The door to the church was open so we respectfully went in and had a look around.

We checked out the towns of Willingdon and Hairy Hill and took a few photographs of the old stores and buildings.  Margarit saw a Red Fox in Hairy Hill.  We checked out another old farm yard, and some abandoned mobile homes.  By this time it was late in the afternoon so we headed back to the city.  Margarit had been up early to tidy up the patio behind our house.  This provided space for the four of us to sit outside in the evening, with a small fire, and share some pizza and beer.  It was great to get together again after so long and we had a wonderful day.

I'm hopeful that over the next couple of months, once we have all received both vaccinations, we can start getting together again on a regular basis, and not have to continue with all the distancing and separation.

Work Boot

Back in mid April my friend Arturo and I headed up to the northeast of the City, into Lamont and Two Hills Counties.  We made a number of stops, including this one.  This old abandoned farmhouse was a favorite stopping place for many of the neighbors, back in the day.  Two of the local oldtimers stopped while we were shooting there and told us stories of what once was.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE 4x5 view camera.  I used a slighlty wide Fujinon-W 125mm lens.  The film was Kodak T-Max 100, developed in 510 Pyro.

Kitchen Coat Rack

Earlier this spring my friends Arturo, Fred and I had permission to enter a century old farm house and shoot the interior.  The landowner graciously unlocked the building, and allowed us a couple of hours to take photographs.  This is one of my shots from that outing.  It was taken with my Ebony SV45TE 4x5 view camera on Kodak T-Max 100 film.  I used a 125mm lens, which is slightly wide.  The film was processed in 510 Pyro developer, diluted 1:100 for 8:45 minutes at 24C.

Yet Another Watercolor

On the evening of May 20th, while I was out at Nordegg, I worked on this watercolor.  It is a small piece, approx. 7" x 7".  This was in the evening after I finished up cutting a pile of logs at our property next door.  I was sore and tired and it was rather cold and miserable outside.  The temperature only got up to about +3 during the day, and by evening it was approaching the freezing mark.  A good evening to work on something indoors...!

I based this on a watercolor image that I found online, but modified it.  I cropped it to square format, and changed things around enough to personalize it.  I'm not trying to steal anybody's work and certainly mine probably deserves a home in the dustbin, rather than in a frame.  But I am continuing to try to learn how to work with the materials.  Like my other paintings, I'm not totally happy with this one, but every time I work on a piece, I learn a little more and hopefully improve slightly.  I've lost count now, and don't know how many I've done.  Maybe thirteen or so....?  As in the past, the snapshots show the progression as I worked on this one.  At some point you just have to stop and consider it done.

More Wonky Colors

2018 was not a very prolific year for me photographically.  It was the last year of my management of my Skylight company, prior to it being sold.  I was very consumed and overworked and had little free time.  We were also in process of constructing our cottage, so that took much of what little free time I had.  Normally I shoot around 350 sheets of 4x5 film in a calendar year.  In 2018 I only shot 137 sheets of Black and White, 9 Color Negative and 2 Color Transparency.  The two color transparencies were part of the batch that I recently processed in outdated chemistry.  The color palette of these two is a little more realistic than some of the others in that batch, but its still pretty wonky.

One is a shot of an old abandoned farm building in Lamont County.  It was shot in the early part of 2018, in nice winter light.  The second one was a neon sign on the Stettler Motel.  That was taken in the late spring of 2018.  That motel suffered a fire and was condemned and eventually demolished.  I'm not sure what happened to the sign, but I managed to photograph it as part of my "Old Neon" collection, before it disappeared.

Site Clean Up

I decided to stay at the cottage for one extra day.  The girls came to the conclusion that they don't want to come back out for the long weekend.  It's probably going to be crazy busy out here in the West Country over the holiday weekend, so I don't mind avoiding the place then.  I much prefer to be out during the week, when no one is around.  After all, every day is like a Saturday to me... now that I'm retired.

When I got up on the morning of Thursday May 20th, it was quite chilly... about -3C.  I'm not sure if it was a heavy frost or a dusting of snow that covered the ground.  But, I'm grateful that there was no additional accumulation.  It was sunny for a while in the morning, but soon clouded over.  That frost or snow burned off fairly quickly, but it never got really warm.  The temperature only made it up to an afternoon high of around +3C.

Once things had warmed up a bit I headed out with my chainsaw and set about cutting up a bunch of logs.  There were about 20 of them, that never made it onto any of the main log piles.  These were down by the corner of the property, near the driveway approach.  A couple of them had rolled down into the ditch.  The snapshot that I included below was taken once I was about halfway through the pile.  The logs are also visible in some of the drone images in my previous post.

I cut them all up to stove length and piled them up further back on the property.  By mid-afternoon my back reminded me that I had probably done enough wood cutting forone day, for an old guy.  These will eventually have to be split so that we can use them for firewood.  It is amazing how much wood you can go through heating a cottage on a cold winter day...!

I checked out the excavation and the snow yesterday washed away much of the remaining dirt, leaving the bedrock exposed.  I can't wait until we can get busy on construction.  I spent some time on Wednesday with my contractor Scott, going through the materials list for construction.  He has now ordered windows, power cable, lumber, floor joists, roof trusses, metal roof panels and siding.  We have some siding left over from our main cottage and I confirmed the quantity.

I'll head back to the city on Friday.  I have a bunch of stuff to catch on back home, since I have been away so much.  I'm hoping to be able to make it back out to the cottage in a week or so.  Maybe by then the weather will improve and construction can begin...!

Mt. Athabasca

I shot this image in June of 2020.  This was when my friend Rob was visiting from British Columbia, and we spent a few days out taking photographs.  This is a panoramic view of Mt. Athabasca.  This is just beyond the Big Bend on the Icefields Parkway.  Parker Ridge is just out of the frame to the left.  And the Columbia Icefields are just a few miles further down the highway.  The spot that this photograph was taken from is in Banff National Park.  Mt. Athabasca is on the border between Banff and Jasper National Parks.  The smaller mountain to the right is Hilda Peak.  The summit of Mt. Athabasca is 11,453 feet above sea level.  At least I think this is all correct.  I'm basing this on information I was able to determine from a National Geographic Topographical Map of the area.  If anyone sees this and determines that I am mistaken, please let me know.  This image is from the recently processed batch of Fuji Neopan Acros that I developed in Rodinal.

Bird's Eye View

By Wednesday afternoon, the snow had all melted, and the sun started to peek out a little.  I sent up my drone to have a look at the construction site.  It was a bit of a challenge, as I couldn't remember how to fly the stupid thing.  But, eventually it all came back to me.  I managed to get a couple of shots of the site, and our existing cottage.  I forgot to check what elevation the drone got up to when these shots were taken.  About 1-1/2 to 2 times the height of the trees... so likely 150 feet or so.

Another Watercolor

I worked on this one for several days while I was out at Nordegg.  I paid a little more attention to letting it dry properly in between washing, so the colors didn't bloom.  I have been really busy working during the past few days as the work started on our second property.  The painting was largely left for the evenings.  On Wednesday May 19th it was very snowy and unsettled, and I spent the morning finishing up this most recent painting.  I worked from an oil/acrylic painting that I found on line and tried to adapt it to a watercolor.  Every painting that I do, I am a little more satisfied with, but still not where I want to be.  It seems more practice is the only answer.  I've included two snapshots... one of the painting in progress, and one taken once I considered it finished.

Site Work Complete

Scott and I worked on the property next door for most of the day... May 18th.  Scott and I started out in the morning doing some maintenance work on his track hoe.  We fitted some bushings onto the upper pivot pin of the new hydraulic cylinder, and Scott used his portable welder to tack them into place.  Once this was completed, Scott used his big track hoe to stack all of the logs that we had set aside for firewood, into two piles.  These are stacked somewhat out of the way of construction, and can remain where they are until there is an opportunity to cut them up.  There was one last load of debris, not quite a full one, that went to the burn pit.  

Once that was complete Scott switched over to the larger bucket on his track hoe, and began some dirt work.  He graded the driveway into the property, and made a stock pile of some of the excess dirt.  While he was doing this, I roughed out the location of the foundation for the new guest cottage.  Scott used the track hoe to dig this down to bedrock.  We were able to excavate roughly two feet before we hit a sloped ledge of solid rock.  There is one offset seam running diagonally through the rock, but nothing too serious.

Scott also excavated beside the cottage for the septic tank.  While he was doing that I used a snow shovel to clear away excess dirt and expose the bedrock a little more cleanly.  If we get some rain, hopefully this will wash the rock a bit, and make the form work of the foundation a little easier.  There is enough natural slope to the property that we can hopefully drain the sewer line by gravity, and not need a grinder pump.

Later in the afternoon Scott brought over four dump truck loads of gravel and spread them on the driveway.  When we get the rain and snow that is in the forecast, this should prevent it from getting too muddy.  I used my spade to spread a little of that gravel at the approach to Tamarack Trail so that my neighbor does not have any issues accessing his property from our shared driveway. 

This should complete the last of the site work for the time being.  In the next couple of days, as weather conditions permit, Scott can look after a couple more things.  We need to spread a little gravel in the excavation for the septic tank so that the tank can be properly leveled.  And, he can also dig a trench from the transformer box at the road, onto the property to the building site.  Then we can lay in a cable that will become our power supply.  

At that point we will get the septic tank delivered and set into place.  Once that is done we can determine the height that the foundation needs to be built to, so that we can achieve proper drainage to the tank.  Then footings, foundation, weeping tile, back filling and eventually subfloor construction can commence.

Foggy Morning

The sun rising above Eagle Peak, to the east, woke me up on the morning of Tuesday Mary 18th.  It was around 6:30 or so when I got up.  I looked outside and saw that there was a fog.  I was not really surprised, as the evening before, when I went for a walk around the subdivision some heavy clouds were beginning to roll in.  A change in the weather seemed imminent.  I had a quick shower, got dressed, and went outside with my view camera.  I attempted to take a couple of shots in the woods behind the cottage.  I was trying to capture the sun breaking through the trees and burning off the fog.  Working as quickly as I could, it seems I ran out of time.  I did a couple of setups with the view camera, but the fog was already dissipating by the time I shot anything.  Overhead I could see that the sky was clear, and it looked as though we would have a nice sunny day.  I put away the view camera at around 8:30, when Scott showed up to continue working on our site next door.  The sunny skies were short-lived and some cloud rolled in almost right away.  We had a couple of light showers in the morning, and then a period of snow pellets in the afternoon.  The forecast is calling for rain turning to snow overnight.  In talking to Margarit in the evening, I learned that they had heavy rain and some snow accumulation back in Edmonton.  It was nothing like that out here in the mountains, but I'll have to wait and see what the evening brings.

Third Day and Clearing is Complete

They weren't even full days.  Scott started work with his Track-Hoe on Thursday the 13th at about lunch time, when the rain quit.  We worked for about four hours that day.  Then on Friday we put in a fairly full day, starting in the morning and working for about seven hours until late afternoon.  I did a little trimming work on my own over the weekend, but there was no equipment running.  Then on Monday the 17th, Scott returned and worked for about three more hours.  He took away two more dump truck loads of debris, for a total of seven loads over the three days.  The site is pretty much cleaned up now.  There are a few piles of logs remaining, that will eventually get cut up for firewood.  And probably one more part load of waste to be hauled away when we get into the last of the brush piles.  

I'm really happy with the way things have gone so far.  The site looks really good, and I'm used to the idea of the size of the clearing we needed to create.  The next step will be to excavate for the foundation, and weather permitting, we hope to get that in the next day or so....

Here is the Track Hoe, loading a stump into the Tandem.  This was the second last load of debris that was hauled away to the burn pit.

The business end of the Track Hoe looks very much like the head of a Sauropod Dinosaur, grazing on trees and plants.  Here you can see the new hydraulic cylinder installed, and so far it has remained intact.  Scott and I believe that a log likely got caught between the ram and the hoe arm, bending the cylinder rod.  Once that bend was started, it would easily have become more pronounced under stress.

Here is the seventh and last load, including the huge stump from one of the big spruce trees.  This one, like the others, is on its way to the Community Burn Pit.

And finally, a panoramic view of the building site, once all the clearing was completed.  This is taken from near the property line between our two lots, looking to the southwest.  That is Tamarack Trail, the subdivision road on which we are located, visible in the background.