Wood Stove

It had been less than 48 hours in the city for me, before my return to Nordegg.  I left the cottage on Monday November 8th and by the afternoon of November 10th, Helena and I were back out, with the new wood stove on the back of the truck.

On Remembrance Day, while Helena was playing with her friend Arlette, from next door, I tinkered around in the cottage.  I installed a backing of 3/4" plywood behind where the wood stove will be positioned.  I intend to mount a stainless steel reflector here on standoffs.

Margarit came out and joined us on the evening of November 11th.  On the 12th I set up my thickness planer and planed down all the boards that I had glued up for door jambs.  The finished stock is now about 1" thick, and of the proper width for the various interior doors.  I'm not really ready for the jambs, but I wanted to get this wood glued up, planed down and put away.  Prior to this it was stored outside, and I was a little concerned about it getting weathered.

On Friday morning the building inspector came out to have a look at the framing.  I had almost forgotten about this step and its a good thing I remembered to call for the inspection before I closed up any of the walls.  Everything was approved with no issue, much as I expected.

In the early afternoon my contractor Scott came over with his skid steer.  He lifted the wood stove off of my truck and hoisted it into the cottage for me.  We placed it on a dolly, so that it could be maneuvered into proper position.  Once I had the crate that it was packed in all taken apart, I called on my neighbor Dan to come over and give me a hand.  We were able to lift the 450Lb stove off of the pallet and into position on the stone floor that I had prepared.  Margarit gave us a hand and was able to pull out the pallet when we lifted the stove.  The stove is manufactured by Blaze King and this model is called an Ashford 20.  We have the larger version of this same stove in our main cottage, and are really happy with it.  It burns very efficiently and easily keeps the entire cottage warm, even on a very cold winter day.

It was a fairly pleasant day and I think the temperature topped out at around +9c.  For some reason Margarit was chilled all day, and I got the propane heater going in the cottage to keep her warm.  This is rather unusual as normally she is overheated while everyone else is cold.  In any event, we managed to get the stove into its final position and get it reasonably well leveled.  Then we installed the chimney and it all fit together as planned, with no issues.  I also put the fresh air intake into place, down into the crawlspace.  In the short term I will just make a point of cracking a window open whenever the stove is in use.  Eventually, once the siding is installed, I will put in a proper intake to the stove.  We christened the stove by lighting a fire in it, and it warmed the place up nicely, relatively quickly. 

Eating out of your hand

On the morning of Wednesday November 10th I picked up some groceries, and then went and picked up the wood stove.  By about noon I was ready to hit the road.  Helena came along with me, and we headed out to the cottage.  We made a brief stop in Leduc for fuel and for lunch and then carried on our way.  We arrived out at the cottage in the mid-afternoon.  At this time of year mid-afternoon feels like late evening, as the sun is very low on the horizon all day long, and begins to set around 4:30.

Thursday was Remembrance Day...  I tinkered around in the guest cottage through the day, and observed a minute of silence at one point.  Helena spent the day playing outside with Artlette, the daughter of our next door neighbor.  During the day I showed Helena how I whistled for the Whiskeyjacks and showed her that they would often come for food, and eat out of your hand.  She gave it a try, and was thrilled to have these very social birds around.  At one point she even had two of them sitting on her hand at the same time.

Margarit came out later in the evening and I made a batch of my Beef Stroganoff for dinner.  We all enjoyed a nice evening together... even though the other two girls weren't with us.

The Drive Home

I left Nordegg on the morning of Monday November 8th.  I left fairly early in the day as I wanted to make it a leisurely drive home, and maybe stop along the way with my camera.  We are only a few weeks from the shortest day of the year and there is a nice low side light all day long.  It was mostly a cloudless sky and the clear fall light was very pleasing.

I scouted around a little along the Cowboy Trail to see if I could find access to the river.  But all the roads were gated and that was not possible.  A little further north, near the junction with Highway 53 I stopped to shoot the edge of a pine forest.  I had seen this spot in passing many times in the past, but never been compelled to stop.  This time with the beautiful low light I decided to go for it.  I took a shot here with my 4x5 camera on black and white film, as well as a few phone snapshots.

I also stopped at an old house near Rimbey, but the north facing front was in shadow, and it didn't make for a very good composition.  I shot it anyway with the 4x5, just to test some film and developer combinations.  I continued further east and stopped to shoot an old hilltop house beside a pond.  I had seen this one many times as well.  Once I was tempted to shoot it in winter, as there was herd of deer down in front of it, with fresh snow, in evening light.  But, it was -25C that time, and I chickened out.  This time there were no deer and there was no snow, but I shot it anyway.

Working Inside... mostly

It cooled off a bit on Saturday and Sunday, the first weekend of November.  Daylight Savings time came to an end, and I rolled the clock back an hour.  Makes it lighter an hour earlier in the morning, which is great, but it will now get dark even earlier in the evening.  I'm glad that the proposal to go to year round daylight time in Alberta was narrowly defeated in the recent referendum.  I don't mind the clock change as it gives us the nice long hours in the summer evenings, but more usable daylight hours on those short winter days.

I set up a portable propane heater in the guest cottage and it worked really well.  It only took about 20 minutes to get the place up to a really comfortable working temperature.  So much so that I had to take off my jacket.  Now that the place is insulated, it retains heat a lot better too.  I ran the propane until just after dark, and then shut the place down for the night.  The temperature dropped down to about -5C on both Friday and Saturday night, but the bucket of water I left in the cottage had no ice on it either morning.  I have been trying to keep the temperature up a little so that the mortar of the stone floor can cure.

I also started working on the interior door jambs.  I ripped some 1x6 spruce up into narrow strips, 1-1/8" wide.  I am in the process of gluing these back together.  Once that is done and the glue cures, I will run the glued up boards through my thickness planer and bring them down to a uniform 1" thickness.  These laminations will be very strong and stay very straight.  Most of these laminated boards are quite wide as some of the interior walls are bearing walls that are framed with 2x6 and will be finished with 3/4" paneling on both sides.  So the jamb needs to be 7" wide.

I also spent a little more time trying to clean the stones in the floor a little better.  I was tight for time when I did the installation and ran out of both daylight and milder temperatures.  I initially didn't get the stones cleaned of mortar quite as much as I would have liked.  I'm continuing to scrub them, but may have to try with a wire brush.

Icy Log

Another film shot from the Un-Named Falls.  This one is quite similar to another that I recently posted.  I was recently advised that this waterfall once had a name.  But I can find no record of one on any of the topographical or backroads maps that I have.  I think it was just a name that someone made up for it.  Much like my title of "Un-Named Falls".  I think I'll stick with mine...

Mild Spell

Weather conditions were forecast to be really mild in early November so I headed back out to the cottage.  None of the girls were able to join me, so this time it was a solo trip.  Before leaving town I stopped to have lunch with my friends Brad and Rob on November 4th.  Rob was in town briefly and we took advantage of the opportunity to get together.  This was the first time the three of us had seen each other, face to face, since our trip to Vancouver Island in 2019.  It was great to catch up again and we hope to be able to travel together again next year.

After lunch I hit the road for Nordegg and arrived at the cottage in the late afternoon.  It was a beautiful day, with the temperature up around +12C.  I took advantage of the opportunity and washed all the rocks that Shawn and I had collected last weekend.

I don't think it froze overnight and by 9:00 in the morning it was already up to about +5C.  The temperature peaked again at around +12C and I took advantage of the mild conditions to do some work in the cottage.

While I was away my contractor Scott installed the weeping tile and partially backfilled the cottage.  Hopefully he can finish the rest soon, and get the septic tank covered up.

I cut up some aluminum angle and screwed it to the inside floor.  This was to create a border for the masonry floor that I was to construct.  I laid out all the rocks in jigsaw puzzle fashion and was able to fill the area I needed.  I thought I would have ample rocks for this, but there was only a handful left over.  By late afternoon I had the rocks all mortared into place.  But the mortar was too soft for me to get really serious about scrubbing the exposed surface of all the rocks.  I left an electric heater on inside the guest cottage while I went and had dinner.  After dinner I came out to see what I could do, but everything was still too soft.  I'm sure it will be somewhat set up in the morning, but hopefully it doesn't freeze too hard overnight.  The sky cleared right off and there are a lot of stars out.  By 8:00PM it had dropped down to +3C, so fingers crossed that it stays above zero in the guest cottage.  In the morning I will clean up all the rocks, and then move on to my next project.....

Spreading Creek Burn on Film

This was the last shot of the day as Jon and I returned back to the cottage.  There was beautiful evening light on the foreground burnt pines, and some deep shadows on the background mountains.  I used a long 400mm lens to get in tight on this scene, and used a #25 Red Filter to deepen the sky values, and the shadows, and to pump up the contrast a little.  I really like the way this one turned out and may consider making a print of it to hang in the cottage.

Ice Crusted Stick

I took this shot back in October when Jon and I hiked in to the Un-Named Falls.  This place will look really spectacular once it gets a little colder, and even more ice begins to form.

Halloween

Halloween dawned even colder than the morning before.  It was -15C just as the sun was coming up.  Shawn and I would spend one more day working in the guest cottage.  We got all of the vapor barrier installed to the vaulted ceiling, and to the bedrooms.  We got some of the vapor barrier installed on the walls.  We couldn't finish the walls as there are a number of places that I still need to cut through for exterior electrical outlights, exterior lights, and vents.  This work has to wait until the siding is installed.

There were a bunch of deer hanging around the cottage during the day... and I'm sure during the night too.  Now that it has become colder, and there isn't as much for them to eat, they are looking to get fed.

We knew that there would be at least a few kids coming around trick-or-treating, so I was prepared with some Halloween candy.  We had a total of 22 little ghosts and goblins come around looking for treats.  It was kind of fun to see all the little kids, and to spend Halloween out in the mountains.  This was the first time that I had done that.

Margarit sent me some snapshots of the Jack-O-lanterns that the girls carved back in the city.  It was warmer and busier in the city, and Margarit said she had almost 60 kids come around looking for treats.

Moving Up

Now that I have begun to gain a little experience with watercolor painting I decided to move up to a larger paper size.  Back in August I bought myself a block of 14" x 20" Arches Cold Press paper.  I am working on a painting that is about 13" x 16-1/2".  Once gain, this is based on one of my photographs.  I printed that photo on my printer to half the size of the painting I am making.  I started by laying out a working sketch of the image, and then set to work with the paint.  This one is from a photograph that I took in 2018.  It is the old Alberta Wheat Pool elevator in Esther.  I shot this when I was returning from the reunion trip to southern Saskatchewan for our "Forgotten Prairie" documentary.  I started on this one while I was out at Nordegg in late August.  

Then I left it alone for quite a while.  I left all my art supplies out at the cottage and went back to the city for a while.  I usually only paint when I am out at the cottage anyway, and dragging all the supplies back and forth has become somewhat of a nuisance.  In between I also took a trip down to East Coulee for a couple of days.  I didn't return to Nordegg until mid-September and then tried to pick up where I left off.  But that week spent at the cottage in mid-September was filled with work on the guest cottage, and I never even touched the painting.

So it was not until early October... Thanksgiving weekend to be precise... that I got back to work on this painting.  The painting part is pretty much done now, but I need to get to work with pens and pencils to render and detail it properly.

Shortly after Thanksgiving I got busy with cottage construction, and once again this painting fell by the wayside.  I think this has been the longest dry stretch without me completing a painting.  I started this one in August, and here I am in November and its still not done...!

But, on my return trip to Nordegg on November 4th, I finally managed to finish it.  Now I can move on to something new.

Approved

On October 28th I headed back out to Nordegg.  This time my brother-in-law Shawn came along.  The electrical inspector was scheduled to come out and check my rough in work on Friday.

My contractor and one of his subtrades showed up on Friday morning.  They put in the chimney for the wood stove, and the plumbing vent.  Shortly afterwards, the electrical inspector showed up.  He had a quick look at everything and asked me a few questions about what I had done.  He approved it all without any deficiencies, and said that we were free to continue with insulation.  So that's what we did.  Literally minutes after the guys got down off the roof and the inspector left, it started to snow.  It snowed moderately for most of the afternoon and we got accumulations of about 3/4 of an inch.

Shawn and I spent the rest of Friday and got most of the insulation installed.  When we got up on Saturday morning, it was really cold.  It had cleared overnight and the temperature dropped to about -14C.  We waited until late morning, for things to warm up, before going back to work.  I ran a small electric heater off of a long extension cord and it helped to keep the chill out of the cottage.  By the end of the day we had all of the insulation installed, and had started on the vapor barrier.

Waterfall without a Name

This is the Black and White film version of the Un-named waterfall that Jon and I explored back in October.  I posted a whole bunch of phone snap shots from the same location, a short time ago.  I shot this on FP4 film, developed in Perceptol.  I'm really struggling with this combination and having issues with the dye not washing properly out of the film.  I'm going to have to try switching to a different developer and see if I can achieve some better results.

Rapids

This is a 4x5 film shot, taken on Ilford FP4.  These are the rapids just below the unnamed waterfall that I explored in mid-October with my friend Jon.  I processed this film in Ilford Perceptol developer.

November Calendar Image

This is the shot I chose for the November page of my 2021 calendar.  It is some ice crusted rocks in the Maligne River in Jasper National Park.  I shot this before Covid, when some friends from the Monochrome Guild were out on our annual Fall Photo Weekend.  For two years now we haven't been able to consider our fall trip.  Though hopefully we can at least get out for a day trip this year...

Its just about time to start selecting images for my 2022 calendar....