Framing the Coal Show

Now that I have all the prints made for the upcoming gallery exhibition, I've been working on assembly of the mats and mounts, and putting the photographs into frames.  I cut up all the frame stock with my new chopsaw, last time I was out at Nordegg.  I need to get all these frames put together and packaged up for delivery to the gallery at Crowsnest Pass.  Fortunately I have the luxury of a little time and am just slowly chipping away at this at my leisure.  Here is a snapshot of the first of the prints that I framed.

Kelvinator

Here is a scan of a recently processed negative.  This was taken on a day trip back in July.  I took this shot on Fuji Neopan Acros 100 with a 90mm lens.  Its not visible in this shot, but the floor of this house had collapsed and fallen into the cellar.  I could only take this shot from the exterior, looking in through a door.  The sofa on the right side that appears to be leaning, is actually sagging and about to fall into the basement.

Blackmud Ravine

On Sunday September 26th Annelise and I took a walk in nearby Blackmud Ravine.  It is less than a mile from our house.  The fall colors were beautiful, and the clouds burned off as we wandered down into the ravine.  Once the trail drops over the rim and you get down into the valley, its like you leave the city behind.  We wandered around for a while and Anna took some photographs with the digital camera that she got for her birthday.  I brought my 4x5 along and did a couple of setups.

We found some dead crayfish down along the creek.  I don't think these are native to this northern climate and must have been introduced into the watershed at some point.

Fall colors are difficult to capture on black and white film so I also shot a couple of color transparencies.  I have high expectations for one of the compositions and hope to share that image at some point in the future.

Sweet Nineteen

My oldest daughter Hailey turned 19 last week.  It's hard to imagine that nineteen years have gone by already.  It seems like just a few years ago that she was born.  I remember that it was a beautiful fall day in September of 2002 when I went home from the hospital.  Mom and newborn daughter were resting in the hospital after an extended period of labor.  Hailey was ten days late and then the delivery took a long time.  I remember marvelling at the beautiful fall colors and the wonderful clear light and thinking how my life was about to change.

I found this old color scan of a studio shot I took of Hailey in early 2003.  She would have been about six months old at the time.

Renegades - Winter Hockey

We are now three games in to the winter hockey season.  At this early point in the season we are in first place.  We had a good turnout for our first game and defeated the Showboats by a score of 7-2.  Then the Provincial Government announced [finally!] some pandemic restrictions.  Our province of Alberta is in a state of chaos with the literal collapse of our health care system.  The fourth wave of the pandemic is resulting in huge case numbers and many hospitalizations, almost exclusively among those that are not vaccinated.  On September 20th a vaccine policy went into place and people need to show proof of vaccination to do a lot of things... including play hockey.

It turns out that eight of the 21 members of my team were not vaccinated, much to my disappointment.  They are all ineligible to play until they get the shot and wait the mandatory two weeks for their immunity to build.  As a result we had to play our second game with a very short bench.  We only had nine skaters... six forwards and three defense.  But, we hung on for a 4-4 tie against a team called Demolition.  These guys were in first place at the time.

On September 25th we played our third game of the season against the Cougar Collision Flyers.  We had a few more guys out for this game, but the bench was still not full.  It was a hard fought game with the score very close.  Neither team was up by more than a goal until late in the game.  Despite taking some late penalties and the Flyers having a two man advantage, we hung on for a 5-3 victory.

September Game Camera Photos

Last time I was out at Nordegg I pulled the memory card from my game camera.  At some point the batteries died and I replaced them.  I missed out on some activity in late August.  I also forgot to reset the date and time. The camera went to a default setting of 2015 and the time is also incorrect.  I'll have to remember to reset this next time I go out.  These were all captured in September of 2021.

The bucks have shed the velvet from their antlers and are starting to get a little aggressive in advance of the rut.  The fawns are beginning to lose their spots.  The wounded doe, that survived what was likely a cougar attack, still sports a big scar, but it's reasonably well healed now.

The spruce tree in the center of the field of view of this camera went down earlier this summer.  I partly cut it up, but that is yet another chore that I need to finish.

Backorders

Many of the products and materials that I ordered for the construction of our guest cottage have been back ordered.  The wood panelling, wood stove, windows, and electrical supplies all have long lead times.  Unfortunately I need to do the electrical rough in before I can do any insulating or finishing.  And with those materials on back order, with long lead times, it seems my project is going to be delayed.  

The metal cladding that I had on order showed up a week ago and I was able to install that last week.  I was also able to get all of the insulation that I will need.  The wood stove is available, but not the chimney, so I can't do that rough in yet.  Many of the electrical components just showed up and I picked up what I could.  But I am still waiting for the meter base, some of the wire, and some breakers.  So I won't be able to connect anything any time soon.

The windows are supposed to arrive shortly so I'm hoping that my contractor can get them in, and then start on the siding.  That way the building will be closed in and finished on the exterior.  Then I can probably start tinkering around on some of the inside stuff as the back orders begin to arrive.

Crowsnest Exhibition

The gallery in Crowsnest Pass put together this promotional invitation to our upcoming show.  The other artists and I are in the final stages of preparing our prints for exhibition.  We will have somewhere between 25 and 30 prints displayed, as space allows.

Construction Work Restarted

I just returned to the city after almost a week spent out in Nordegg.  It was a few days of nothing but work, but I got a lot accomplished.  My brother-in-law Shawn came out for a few days as well, to give me a hand.  

I stopped in Rocky Mountain House on my way out on the 14th and picked up a load of metal cladding at the Co-op.  This had been on order for a couple of weeks and recently arrived.  For the first two days Shawn and I worked at putting on the base flashing, the corners and then the corrugated panels.  This material was installed to the foundation, and some of it will be concealed once we backfill.  It is a bit of a nuisance to install anything to the ICF blocks of the foundation, as there are only certain points, at the struts, that there is anything to attach to.  And, with the waterproofing membrane in place you can't really tell where those points are.  But we managed to get everything attached without too much issue.  I wanted to get this done right away, before the windows arrive.  With this material in place the excavation can now be backfilled, which will make the rest of the work easier.  And, once the windows go in, then the crew can move right on to installation of the siding.

We also connected the ground plate and roughed in the ground cable.  This is best done now as otherwise we would have to dig everything up to put it in place later.

I had some insulation and a small load of lumber delivered on the 17th.  The lumber will be used for some interior framing.  This stuff was all safely stored away so that it is ready when needed.  I also figured out the position of our wood stove, and marked the location of the chimney.  The roof can be cut out and the chimney installed once those materials arrive.  I'm also still waiting for electrical supplies and hope those arrive soon.

I cut up some plywood that was left over from the floor sheathing and made a door for the floor hatch, and mounted a piece on the basement wall to which the electrical panel will be attached.  I brought out a new chopsaw that I recently bought and set that up too.  While I was out there with it I used it to cut up a bunch of picture frame stock for my upcoming gallery show.

It was a very busy week and Shawn and I worked all day, every day.  We barely left the property, and never even got out for an ATV ride.  But it was a lot of fun, and very satisfying to accomplish something.  Now that materials are beginning to arrive I look forward to work getting back on track and the place getting closed in before winter.

Shunda Creek Rapids.

I took this shot of Shunda Creek back in August.  This was with my Ebony SV45TE 4" x 5" view camera and a Nikkor 75mm lens.  Shortly after this was taken we started getting a lot of rain, and the water level got much higher.  

Winter Hockey is Underway...!

On September 12th the Renegades played the first game of the AMHL [Alberta Mens Hockey League] Winter Season.  Its somewhat ironic that they still call it a men's league as our team has two women, and several other teams do as well.  We start the season in Division 6C, the 11th out of 14 divisions.  We are matched up with seven other teams to start.

Our first game was at Knights of Columbus Arena on the northside of the city, against a team called the Showboats.  We have played this team at least once before, but not recently.  We jumped out to an early lead and built on it and the score was 5-0 going into the third period.  The Showboats got two quick goals to make it a little closer, but then we punched in a couple more and wrapped things up with a 7-2 victory.  I am by far the oldest guy on my team, and probably the oldest in the league.  I play defense so I consider my game a success when I'm not on the ice for too many goals against.  This time around I was not on the ice for either of the two goals against, but was on the ice for four of the seven that we scored.  I don't know if I got any assists, and will have to wait for the official game sheet to be posted on line to find out.

Aspen Forest

I took this shot of some aspen trunks over along Saunders Road back in August.  There was a nice backlight falling on the trunks in the afternoon and I used a light blue filter to open things up a little.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE 4" x 5" view camera and a 200mm lens.  I think the composition is a little off balance but I believe that is a result of the negative being improperly positioned during scanning.   

Checking Out the Shop

While I was down in East Coulee I checked out a couple of the projects going on at the shop.  The Fin Whale Skull that we have had for many years now, remains in the shop.  Frank and his crew have been working on restoring some of the sections that have begun to deteriorate.  Unfortunately we don't have any actual project for this skull and it remains to be seen if anything will eventually be done to display it.  For now it remains a make work project for the crew.

They are also working on a commercial display that will include a small raptor.  The armature was made of light steel rod and covered with mesh.  Then it was sprayed with foam.  The foam is then carved to final shape.  The rough carving was well underway by the time I left.  Once the final carving is complete, the foam will be coated with a layer of urethane, and then painted.  I'm anxious to see what this one will look like once it is all done.

A Couple Days in East Coulee

On September 7th I headed down to East Coulee.  I didn't get out of the city until mid afternoon, so it was early evening before I arrived.  The light was looking really nice on the badlands and it was a gorgeous, warm summer evening.  After dropping of my food and gear at the shop, I went for a walk around town.  The mosquitoes and black flies were really bad, particularly down near the river, so I didn't stay outside all that long.

On the drive down I noticed that the area west of Red Deer and south of Stettler was really dry.  All of the potholes and sloughs were dry and the crops were really stunted.  This has been a common issue through much of the prairies since that heat wave in early July.  I haven't been witness to it first hand as the areas that I usually travel, around Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Rimbey and Rocky Mountain House have received closer to normal amounts of rain.

I wandered over to the old timber bridge.  I've photographed here many times in the past and the deck of the bridge is now badly deteriorating.  The railroad installed a chain link fence at either end a couple of years ago and sometime this year the one at the north end was further secured.

I turned in fairly early on Tuesday evening as my friend Frank was not around, and I didn't have a lot to do.  I got a fairly early start on Wednesday, and headed out with my camera.  Unfortunately the skies were partly overcast and it was quiet breezy.  

I started out downstream and crossed the river at Dorothy.  I drove up into the hills overlooking town and explored there for a little.  I spooked a big jackrabbit out from under a clump of sage.  I was surprised to find that there was some prairie crocus and blazingstar blooming.  These wildflowers typically bloom in spring, but this weird hot and dry weather, plus the smoky conditions, have everything mixed up.

I stopped at a grove of cottonwoods along the river and did a few setups with the 4x5.  Further on I also hiked up into the hills and photographed some large sandstone boulders.  Later in the afternoon I headed back to East Coulee and met up with Frank at the shop.  We had an evening fire out in the yard and sat around and visited.  Frank's wife Chris also joined us.

On Thursday morning, a little groggy from the beers the night before, I slept in a bit.  I decided to winterize my travel trailer, which I normally store in the shop.  There is a chance the shop space may be needed this fall, and the trailer might have to go outside for bit.  By about noon I packed up and headed back to Edmonton.  It was quite hazy all day on Thursday and I'm not sure if was just dust from the harvest, or if smoke from the forest fires in BC had rolled in again.  Perhaps it was a bit of both.  In any event I never did end up taking any photographs on Thursday.