Native Site

After leaving Esther, Chris, Connie, Rueben and I headed over to a nearby site.  I had been told about this place a couple of years ago and never had a previous opportunity to check it out.  There is a hillside covered with dozens of piles of stones.  Rumor has it that they are native graves.  We aren't sure if that really is the case or if they are just cairns of some kind.  They are obviously man made, and obviously very old.  Further research is in order to find out more about this fascinating place.  Photos don't really do it justice....

Politically Correct

The weather this past couple of weeks has been somewhat unsettled.  It feels a lot more like fall and winter, than the end of summer.  Last weekend we had some snow.  There has been a heavy frost every night.  Daytime high temperatures have only made it up into single digits.  The normal high for this time of year is 16, and the normal low around 3.  We haven't had conditions anywhere near that... The forecast is calling for a few more days of cool weather and some rain possibly turning to wet snow.  After that, the long range forecast sounds better.  I'm really hoping we get a nice Indian Summer and a long mild fall.  I suppose it is not politically correct to say that.  In this day and age of apologies and reconciliation and attempting to not step on any toes I suppose we can't say Indian Summer.  But I like the term, and use it without any ill will or discriminatory connotation.  Besides... it sounds a lot better than "Aboriginal Summer"  or "First Nations Summer"....  Sheesh...!!

Forgotten Prairie Reunion 2

A couple of weeks ago, after checking out the abandoned Military Base at Alsask, Chris and Connie and Rueben and I also made a stop in Esther, Alberta.  Part of the documentary film project was shot here back in the spring of 2017.  We managed to connect briefly with Bill Dalton, who was featured in the film.  He was busy with the harvest getting underway and we only had a chance to visit for a few minutes.  But, we gave him a DVD copy of the film so that he could see it.  We also wandered around the old grain elevator for a bit and reminisced about the project, and how much better the weather was this time around....

A Trip to Youngstown

On the weekend of September 8th the girls and I headed down to Youngstown, in southeastern Alberta.  We actually stayed in our trailer, which remains parked at the shop in East Coulee.  On Saturday we drove further east to Youngstown.  Our friend Tanja was getting married.  Tanja is a member of my photo group, the Monochrome Guild and over the years has also become friends with Margarit.  Tanja moved away from Edmonton about a year ago to take a teaching job in Hanna.  She lived in Youngstown and made the commute to Hanna every day.  Her new husband Paul is from North Dakota and she will be moving down there after the wedding.

Tanja had a digital photographer hired to shoot her wedding but I also took some shots for her.  I was shooting black and white film with my Hasselblad and will be giving her the negatives so that she can print them herself.  After the photos, and the ceremony in one of the local churches, there was a dinner and dance at a nearby Community Hall.

My three girls were pretty excited about going to a wedding as this was the first one that they had ever been invited to.  Most of our friends and relatives are old, like me, and are already married.  The younger ones are not yet of marrying age... although some of the cousins are now getting close.  The girls were looking forward to the opportunity to get all dressed up...!  Helena decided that she wanted to wear a tuxedo... and we found a small used one at a local thrift store.  The older two got all dolled up in dresses, shoes and makeup.  It was kind of fun to see them so excited.

After the reception we headed back to East Coulee and spent a second night in our trailer.  Then the next day we made the trek back home to the city.  We tried to hit a couple of antique stores on the way home, as we are now looking to decorate the interior of our cottage but unfortunately they were all closed on Sunday.

Long Weekend in Nordegg

The girls and I all headed out to Nordegg for the Labor Day Long Weekend.  We left the city on Friday evening, right after work.  Our travel plans were delayed as there was a big traffic jam on Highway 2 heading south out of the city.  It turns out that an RV exploded and caught on fire and traffic was backed up for miles.  It took us almost 1-1/2 hours to get from our house in the city, to the Nisku overpass just beyond the city limits.  After that it was clear sailing, but this delay meant we didn't arrive in Nordegg until well after dark... at about 11:00PM.

It rained heavily overnight and the next day it was pretty muddy.  This was the first time that I saw the new vinyl plank flooring that had been previously installed in the cottage.  The girls saw it the weekend prior while I was away in Saskatchewan.  We moved our fridge from its temporary location in the garage, into our kitchen.  I set up a heavy duty shelving unit in the garage to store a bunch of small stuff in a more organized manner.  I also built a temporary kitchen counter using a half sheet of 3/4" plywood.  The other half I installed as a temporary lunch counter in our bay window.  These will eventually be replaced when I have the permanent cabinets, cupboards and counter tops finished.

Rob from Action Security Cameras came out on Saturday and installed our camera system for us.  This involves a bunch of programming and set up that is beyond the understanding of an old dinosaur like me.  

Then on Sunday, Scott of Shunda Creek Contracting stopped by and used his skid steer to lift our kitchen range into the cottage.  It is a modern gas range made to look like an antique.  It is the one item that we really splurged on so far.  The specs claim that it weighs over 400 Lbs so the equipment was in order to get it into place.  Later on Sunday afternoon my brother Greg and his wife Barb came out for a visit.  This was their first time out at our place.  We had dinner together that evening and they stayed overnight.  Greg even helped me to lift the kitchen range off of it's pallet and slide it into place.  I got the gas line hooked up and we were finally able to cook inside...!

On holiday Monday we went out for a ride on the ATV's.  We hit some of the trails and stopped down along the creek.  There was an American Dipper bobbing around the falls.  By afternoon we started packing up and getting ready to go home.  Greg and Barb set out on their way and the girls and I left a couple hours later.  I saw the wild horses along the road on the way home... the first time I have seen them in a while.

Abandoned Military Base

After leaving Kindersley on the morning of August 26th... our visit with Jack still fresh in our minds... Chris, Connie, Rueben and I made a stop at Alsask.  This town on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border was once a Cold War era military base.  It was part of the Pine Tree Line, an early warning system that was intended to detect an invasion from the former Soviet Union, coming over the Arctic.  The base was once home to thousands of military personnel.   It now sits largely unused and abandoned.  Some of the barracks are privately owned and have been converted into residences.  The recreation center, with it's swimming pool, has been taken over by the town of Alsask, and is used by the residents.  There are a few detached houses that are still occupied... mostly used as rental accommodations for tourists and hunters.

Just down the road in the townsite there are still many occupied homes.  We checked out the abandoned hotel and school, but this is not a ghost town and is still home to a number of residents.  Originally there was a main railway line through town.  That line is still used, but it now terminates a short distance to the west in Oyen, and does not continue beyond there as it once did. 

I thought the place was pretty cool and worth some further exploration.  Unfortunately on this day we did not have time to hang around as we all needed to be back home that evening.  Another one to add to the "To-Do" list...

Winter Hockey Underway

The kids went back to school at the beginning of the week and with that came the start of the winter beer league hockey season.  My Renegades played our first game of the regular season last night at Coronation Arena against the Cannibals.  We skated to an easy 11-5 victory... hopefully the sign of good things to come...

Lots of Visitors

The girls and I were out at Nordegg for the long weekend.  Rob from Action Security Cameras came out for a day trip on Saturday, and installed our security cameras for us.  I had the CAT5 wires roughed in from way back when we did the electrical, and put up the boxes.  I bought the cameras months ago and had them in storage.  Now I purchased the recorder and router and had Rob come out and hook everything up for me.  We mounted and aimed the cameras properly and got everything all set up.  With these in place I no longer need to us my game camera as a makeshift security camera on the driveway.  So I moved the game camera back into the woods behind the cottage.  We often see deer hanging around back here.

The girls and I were watching a couple of White Tail does on Monday during the day, but other than that we didn't see any wildlife back there.  When I pulled the memory card from the game camera and checked it, I found that there was a lot more activity back there than I thought.  In addition to the does, we also had a visit from a cow elk and her calf, and several White Tail bucks in full velvet.  Mostly they were around early in the morning, just before and after dawn.

Forgotten Prairie.... the Reunion

On Saturday August 25th, Chris, Connie, Rueben and I headed east from my shop in East Coulee, where we had stayed for the night.  We headed east to the Saskatchewan border and then north up to Jack's place.  Byron had driven out separately and met us at Jack's.  He arrived just minutes before we did, at about 11:00AM.  In April of 2017, under really miserable weather conditions, we had all worked together on Rueben's short documentary film... Forgotten Prairie.  Jack was featured in the film and we were out on this return trip to visit him.  Jack is 88 years old and still lives on his farm.  He is a collector, and has a large assortment of old vehicles and machinery in his yard.  I wanted to get out and photograph some of these under better conditions and this would be the day.

When we first arrived we visited with Jack for a while.  He does not have cable TV or internet, so he had not seen the film before.  We brought along a DVD copy for him, and sat down with him while he viewed it for the first time.  He seemed to get a kick out of it and really enjoyed seeing himself on TV.  His son Rodney was staying with him and was going to be helping with the upcoming harvest.  I suspect that Rodney probably does most of the work as Jack is getting on.  I'm not sure exactly how much land he still farms, but not nearly as much as he used to back in his younger days.  I believe that he still has about 80 cows and farms about two quarters of grain.  

We spent the afternoon with Jack, exploring around his farm and poking through all the old vehicles and equipment.  Jack seemed to really enjoy it and knew exactly where every old car, piece of machinery, and bit of old metal came from.  He kept commenting that he was running out of time and still had so much stuff to do.  This little tour of his collection obviously brought back a lot of good memories for him as he kept telling us stories about his years on the farm.  

It was till rather smoky from the British Columbia forest fires, even way over here in Saskatchewan.  As most of my photography was relatively close up views of the old vehicles, the smoke really didn't matter too much, though it did yield some blank white skies.  It was really good to get out again with my big camera and finally get back to my photography.  I think I set up the camera about half a dozen times and probably exposed about a dozen sheets of film.

As the day was winding down we all had a coffee with Jack and visited with him a little more before saying our goodbyes.  It was kind of sad to leave and he asked us to be sure and come by and visit him again.... which I hope we will.

After leaving Jacks place we headed over to Kindersley where we had a couple of rooms reserved at a local motel.  We went out for dinner together, and then retired to our rooms.  We stayed up for a while after dinner and had a few drinks and visited before turning in for the night.

For those that may not have seen the documentary film last year when it was released, or at the opening that we had at the Museum in East Coulee, or at the screening last winter at the Red Deer Film Festival, here is a link to YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-r8ZLUcGQ&t=19s

Something Different

Last weekend I finally took a break from construction and went out and did something else.  I left work a bit early on Friday afternoon and headed down to East Coulee.  There I met up with my  friends Chris and Connie, and Rueben.  We crashed for the night at the shop and then first thing the next morning we headed East to Saskatchewan.  This would be a weekend of photography and an escape from working on the cottage.

Over the last 20 years I have shot an average of nearly 400 sheets of 4x5 black and white film per year.  Up until this weekend my count for the year is around 40.  The cameras have been put in storage and my usual outings have been put on hold while I focused on getting our cottage finished.  Now that the cottage is well on the way to completion, I can take a short break and try to relearn photography.  I know that I will be slow and clumsy and make some mistakes and I struggle with reacquainting myself with the equipment and the process.

In a few upcoming posts I will share the details of this trip and post some of the snapshots.  Then later, once I get some of my film processed, there will be more images to post.

While I went to Saskatchewan, Margarit and the girls headed out to Nordegg.  The vinyl plank flooring was installed in the cottage last week so we can now begin to take furniture and stuff our there, and begin to set things up.  The wood stove is working and everything is now functional.  From now on things will be a little more relaxed out there as the heavy lifting is essentially done.  There are still a number of things remaining to do, including kitchen cabinets, baseboard and trim, interior doors, railings, etc.  But I can take a little more time at this stuff and spend part of my time out there relaxing and enjoying the mountains.

Getting Closer

Margarit and Helena and I went out to Nordegg last Friday after work.  The two older girls stayed home.  My Mom came along with us.  Mom has been out to Nordegg with us before, but not for over a year.  The last time she was out there we were still staying in our trailer, and only the driveway and some site clearing had been done.  Now we have a nearly functional cottage...!

On Saturday we put up the chimney for our woodstove.  I brought out the extra length of stove pipe that we had been missing last weekend.  We stacked the pipe from the bottom up.  Then I lifted the whole assembly from below, while Margarit was up on scaffold guiding it to align with the chimney connection on the ceiling.  We managed to get a few temporary screws in to hold it in place.  Then I climbed up on the scaffold and we both put the upper clamp on the chimney.  Then I climbed down and replaced the small temporary screws with larger permanent ones.  Just like that we were done.  The chimney was up and we were finished with the scaffold.  Before doing all of that, a couple of the neighbors came over and helped me to reposition the stove slightly.  We also finished up the installation of the aluminum heat reflecting shields and the fresh air intake.

We tried out the stove on Saturday night.  Just a small fire with three little logs and the whole cottage warmed up nicely.  The catalytic Blaze King stove is really efficient with a thermostatically controlled damper and the fire burned for a long time.

I also worked on closing off the entrance into our basement.  This was a temporary access during construction.  If need be we can open it up again in the future.  But in the meantime it will be sealed off and back filled.  I secured the treated wood panel into place and ran an interior and exterior caulking bead around the perimeter.  Then we sealed off the exterior with a couple of layers of self adhesive membrane.  The front of the cottage foundation can now be properly backfilled, and the landscaping finished.  These duties will be turned over to our contractor Scott, while I continue with other projects.

On Sunday with the help of a neighbor we took the scaffold apart.  I carried all the sections out and stored them.  A couple of our neighbors will be borrowing these from me over the coming weeks but I no longer need it in the cottage.

We cleaned everything out of the kitchen and family room on Sunday before we left.  We are now ready for the flooring company to come out and install the vinyl plank flooring.  Once this is done we can begin to furnish the place, and then work on cabinets and finishing.

On Sunday afternoon Margarit and Helena headed up to McKenzie Trails over on the David Thompson Highway and went for a trail ride.  I stayed behind with my Mom and finished up the last of the clean up.  The girls got back from the trail ride and we finished the last of the packing and clean up and hit the road for home shortly before 8:00.  It was an uneventful drive back home and we arrived at our place in the city around 10:30PM.

It has been really smoky in central Alberta the past two or three weeks due to over 500 forest fires burning to the west in British Columbia.  I'm not sure if a specific fire is contributing to the smoky conditions or if it is just a general overall smokiness.  Unfortunately we weren't really able to see the mountains all weekend and my Mom didn't get an appreciation for the true experience of being at our place.

Another Weekend in Nordegg

I headed out to the cottage after work last Friday.  The girls were already out there, and had been through most of the week.  I brought a few groceries and supplies with me, and arrived at about 9:30.

I also brought out some truck parts for our contractor Scott.  Margarit and I headed over to his place to drop them off and then stayed and had a drink and visited a bit.  Our neighbors Wade and Carrie were also visiting there with Scott and his wife...

I slept in a bit on Saturday and then eventually got up and set to work.  Margarit and I cleaned the stone floor that we installed last weekend. Then I installed some aluminum heat reflectors to the walls in the corner where our wood stove will go.  I also cut some hardwood trim to mount on the floor around the stone.  Later in the afternoon Scott and a couple of neighbors came over and helped me to lift the stove into place.  I then set about trying to install the chimney.

I quickly discovered that our stove supplier had not provided enough chimney pipe, and I was short one three foot section.  So I was unable to install the chimney and once again I was not able to take the scaffold down....

The girls spent most of the week hanging out with the daughters of our neighbors.  They have begun to develop a friendship and now seem anxious to spend more time at the cottage.  On Saturday evening we all got together and visited some more.

It had been really hot during the week.  On Friday our thermometer recorded a temperature of +38C in the early afternoon.  Even in the evening, by the time I arrived, it was still around 30.  Saturday was overcast and a little cooler.  It rained heavily late Saturday night and into Sunday and turned the place back into a mudhole.  On Sunday afternoon the high temperature only reached +7C.  A remarkable difference of over 30 degrees in less than 48 hours...!!

Without enough material to finish the chimney, there was not a lot that I could do.  It was too wet outside to get after any of the exterior work and the scaffold was in the way inside.  We packed up a little earlier than usual and headed for home by about 5:00 in the afternoon.  Next time I come out I'll bring some extra chimney pipe so I can finish the stove installation and get rid of the scaffold once and for all...

An Apology

I know that many of the visitors to my blog over the past few years have come to see my photography.  In fact that was the main purpose for setting up the blog in the first place.  In recent months I've been so busy with other things that my photography has taken a back seat.  Most of my posts have been updates of the almost glacial progress of my construction project out in Nordegg.  There were a few hockey scores mixed in but the photography has been definitely lacking.  In the short term... as in the next few weeks... that is not likely to change.  But the construction project is approaching the point of substantial completion.  Once that point of equilibrium is achieved, then I will be able to slow down dramatically on my commitment to working out at the cottage.  Once that happens there will be a lot more time for me to pick up my camera and get back into photography.  My long term average has been to shoot about 400 sheets of large format 4" x 5" black and white film per year.  So far in 2018 I have exposed less than 50 sheets.  There is no conceivable way that I will be able to catch up to the usual pace, but I'm hoping to get back on track later this fall and salvage at least a portion of the year.  Moving forward there will be a lot more opportunity for photography.  The cottage will not be finished for some time to come.  But, with the essential stuff looked after I can take a lot more time to finish up the detail and finishing stuff and devote at least part of my time to my art.  Thanks for hanging in there and please feel encouraged to come back to my site for a return to a presentation of my photographic work.

Nordegg Days

The first weekend of August... the long weekend... is also Nordegg Days.  This year all of the events were scheduled on Saturday, so I suppose it was just Nordegg Day...!

The girls and I headed out to the cottage on Friday evening after work.  We got up by 8:00 on Saturday morning and headed into town or the annual pancake breakfast.  The whole day is a fundraiser for the community society so there were a whole bunch of events besides the breakfast.  A raffle of donated prizes, a sale of books from the library, an ATV poker rally, pie eating contest and a community BBQ and beer garden.  There were a few free events too... including horse drawn carriage rides, a bouncy castle for the kids, and a band playing in the evening.

After breakfast we went back up to the cottage and worked on the stone floor in the afternoon.  Then later in the evening we went back into town and watched the pie eating contest, and had some burgers and beer at the community BBQ.

On Sunday morning I woke up at my usual time, but was really lazy and just rolled over and dozed off again for a while.  I woke up and dozed off again numerous times through the morning and finally got out of bed about 1:00 in the afternoon.  It has been years since I have slept in that late.  I must have needed to catch up a bit but it felt like a waste of a day.  Later in the afternoon Margarit and I got busy and grouted the stone floor with mortar.  It was a slow and messy process and we both tired of it relatively quickly.  But finally by early evening we were done.

Later that evening while Margarit, Hailey and Helena were out for a ride in the ATV, Anna and I walked over to the neighbors place.  I had heard that the family there had a couple of daughters that were close to the same age as our girls.  Wade and Carrie had a fire going and were visiting with friends when Anna and I wandered over.  We introduced ourselves and immediately discovered that they had two daughters, aged 15 and 12.  Anna and her new friend immediately hit it off and spent most of the remainder of the weekend together.

On holiday Monday our contractor dropped by with his skid steer.  He lifted the wood stove off of my truck and loaded it into the cottage for me.  It just barely fit and we had to strip off some of the crating to get it in.  The mortar of the new stone flooring was still too fresh, and we didn't want to set the heavy stove into place yet.  So we left it on a dolly in the cottage and will move it over into place next time we head out.  Later in the afternoon I installed our ceiling fan and finished up the last of the wood trim around it.  The only work remaining to do, that requires the scaffold, is the chimney for the wood stove.  I expect to do that next time I go out, and then we will be able to take down the scaffold once and for all  We finally packed up and left on Monday evening around 8:00 and arrived back home in the city around 11:00.

Two and Out

The summer hockey playoffs ended for the Renegades as quickly as they started.  We finished the regular season in third place, and matched up against the sixth place Riverfolk-2 in the first best-of-three round.  We had an awful showing in the first game and ended up getting blown out 8-0.  Our guys came back to the rink for our second game on August 1st, much more focused and ready to play.  We still didn't play up to what I thought we were capable of and ended up falling short.  We lost a close game in regulation time by a score of 6-5.  This put an end to our summer season.

I still really enjoy playing hockey and feel disappointed that our season came to an end so quickly.  But part of me really appreciates the break from hockey as the team has been playing every week since early September of 2017.  We now get a few weeks off to relax and recharge and can come back to the rink to start the next winter season in about a month.