David Thompson Country

I finished up a bunch of errands on December 13th.  This included helping my Mom with a couple of things, picking up a few groceries and supplies, and packing.  It was about 1:00 in the afternoon when I hit the road for Nordegg.  The highways were clear all the way there, and at one point the temperature peaked at Zero.  A far cry from the frigid temperatures I experienced last time I went out.

This time around I was driving a rental truck, as mine is in the shop getting hail damage repairs done.  They gave me a brand new Ram 1500, and it only had 119km on it when I got it.  It is a pretty light and small little truck, with a gas engine and a short box.  I was not able to take as much stuff with me as I would have liked.  But I was fortunate to get a truck.

I took my truck in for repairs on December 7th, and was told not to expect it back until December 27th.  Then I was told they would try to get it back to me before Christmas.  Later still I was told it would be ready on December 20th.  On my way out to Nordegg on the 13th I got a phone call advising that my truck would be ready for pick up the next day.  Go figure....

I arrived at the cottage just as it was getting dark and got unpacked and got a fire going.  On the morning of the 14th I had my morning coffee and then went over to the guest cottage.  I was sort of dreading a project that was facing me as I expected to have to open up two walls and change some electrical cable that had been installed incorrectly.  But when I double checked I found that I had indeed installed the correct cable and there would be no changes necessary.  That was a huge relief.

Then I set to work on the interior doors, and started on the one for the east bedroom.  I finished cutting the notch for the door latch to fit into the door, and sanded all the surfaces.  I used the chamfering bit that I bought for my router and beveled the edges of the door.  Then I applied a coat of primer.  By this point I was looking at how nice it was outside.  The sun was shining, the skies were clear, and the temperature had risen to about -6.  The forecast high for the afternoon was -4.  

I decided to leave the work for the time being, and take a drive out to Abraham Lake.  It was a little breezy around Windy Point, but for the most part it was relatively calm.  Most of the lake had frozen over, presumably in that cold snap we got back at the beginning of the month.  There was layer of snow on the ice, so it seems that this season will not be a good one for viewing the ice bubbles.  A section of the lake near Windy Point remained open, so perhaps conditions there will be OK later.  I drove just past Windy Point and stopped at the lake, immediately across from Mount Michener.  I wandered down to the lakeshore with my camera.  Many of the shoreline boulders were crusted with ice that had been windblown before the lake froze and when the water level was a little higher.  There were broken slabs of ice along the shoreline resulting from the drop in water level.  But everything was covered with a light layer of snow.  I wandered around with the big camera and set it up three times for some shots.  The temperature here was a little cooler, at around -7C.  The wind was light, but when it gusted a little, it still felt really cold, particularly on my exposed hands.  It is just not possible to operate a view camera with gloves on.

It was about 3:30 when I finished taking photographs and packed up and headed for home.  Along the way I saw a few groups of Bighorn Sheep.  They were grazing in the ditches and also licking the salt off the highway.  

Before heading back home I made a brief stop at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg and dropped off my David Thompson Country calendars that I am putting up for sale.