East Coulee

On Friday May 5th I left the city and headed down to East Coulee.  There were a number of things that I needed to do.  I had some documents to drop off for Frank at the shop.  He was away on a road trip with a few of his buddies.  There were riding their motorcycles down to Idaho.

I also needed to pick up some of the plywood that I had stored at the shop.  This was some 1/2" baltic birch, left over from the cabinets of the main cottage at Nordegg.  I needed this to finish building the last couple of drawers for the guest cottage.

I also planned to take in the Springfest... but that part never really happened.  Margarit and the girls were all busy getting the house set up for a visit from Martina, so none of them wanted to come down.  Frank was away on his road trip.  And, my brother Wes was originally intending to blast out from Calgary to take in the music festival, but he never made it.  I didn't really feel up to attending by myself, so I never bothered to buy a ticket.  Mostly I just hung around town and visited with a few of my friends and neighbors.  Jason had his Birdland food trailer up and running and was making steak sandwiches and cappuccino all weekend.  Mostly I hung around there and just visited.

When I drove down on Friday, it was very warm and dry and there was a strong wind blowing out of the east.  The fire danger was extreme, and there were 72 wildfires burning around the province.  Most of these were in the west central and northern parts of the province, though I did drive through some smoke near Big Valley on my way down.  By Saturday morning the number of wildfires had increased to over 100.  Many of them were out of control and threatening numerous developed areas including some native communities in the north, as well as Evansburg, Edson, Drayton Valley and several other small settlements.  One of the most southerly fires was not far from Nordegg.  Seventeen kilometers to the southeast, on the opposite side of the North Saskatchewan River there was an out of control wildfire.  For a while the town of Nordegg was on evacuation alert.  I was more than a little nervous keeping an eye on this.

I packed up and left East Coulee on Sunday morning and headed across county to Nordegg.  By this point it had cooled off significantly, and become overcast.  I drove through several areas of showers on my way west.  By the time I arrived at the cottage in the late afternoon it was raining, and we got about 10mm of precipitation by Monday.  This certainly helped to alleviate the fire risk and by Sunday evening the evacuation alert had been lifted.  If it were not for the media reports you would never know there was an out of control forest fire nearby.  There was no smoke and no smell and no fire visible.... but the reality was that the fire was not all that far away, and the risk was real.

While I was at the shop in East Coulee I had a look at some of the stuff that the crew from Dinosaur Valley Studios had on the go.  The Mosasaur cast that I saw the last time I was down was nearing completion.  It has now been coated with urethane and is ready for the final clear coat and some detailing.  This one will soon be delivered and installed out to the Carolside Reservoir to the east.

There were also several sculpts that were in progress.  I really marvel at the skill and artistic ability of the staff at the level of detail and realism that they are able to portray.  As Frank was not around I was not able to talk to him and find out where these will end up.  There were some small casts of some dinosaur hatchlings in various stages of completion.  I understand that these will be offered for sale at the gift shop.

I was a little disappointed in myself for not making it over to the Springfest.  It was reasonably well attended and there were quite a few people around town.  Next year I will make a point of getting back to see all the bands.