Playoff Hockey... can't shave yet

I'm one of those that follows the old hockey superstition that once the playoffs start, you can't shave until your team is eliminated, or you win the championship.  I stopped shaving back in late July when the summer playoffs started.

We swept the Chiefs in two games in the semi-final and have since moved on to the final against the Sea Changers.  These guys are a rather chippy team, really mouthy and very easily agitated.  We have been trying to use that to our advantage, but these guys are simply not much fun to play against.  They started out the season in the third division, then got moved down to the fourth division, and finally down to the bottom fifth division.  They have a whole bunch of players that we never saw earlier in the season when they were losing, that are now coming out to their playoff games.

One of their players is about 30 years old and rumored to be a fifth round draft pick of the NHL Colorado Avalanche.  He now plays professionally in Europe in the winter.  What an honor it must be to light up the bottom division of beer league hockey...!

The Sea Changers beat us in the first game.  It was a close one, and we were trailing 4-3 late in third period.  We pulled our goaltender to try and get the equalizer but they scored a empty net goal to seal the deal.  Last night we played the second game of the best of three final.  I played probably my worst game in many years and was on the ice for almost every goal against.  I ended up benching myself for the last five minutes of the game.  I thought our season was going to end as we were down by scores of 4-1 and 5-2 early in the game.  But the guys rallied at the end and we eventually tied it at 5-5 and then added a go ahead goal and an insurance goal.  Clinging to that 7-5 lead and with me on the bench we took a penalty with less than two minutes to go.  The Sea Changers pulled their goaltender and at 6 on 4 managed to score a goal.  But the guys hung on and we skated away with a 7-6 victory.

The championship final game is on Wednesday at 6:30PM.  This is a terrible ice time for most of the team as many of them are not able to make it from work.  We will end up finishing the season the way we started it... with a short bench.  After that game, win or lose, I will be able to shave this playoff beard of mine.  Obviously hoping that the shave comes along with a victory.

Second Bridge

This old bridge obviously dates back to 1939.  It is on an abandoned section of mountain highway, and involves a hike to get to.  The deck of the bridge, beneath the gravel, is wood.  It is a little unnerving in that the bridge passes over a gorge with a stream far below... probably a hundred feet or so.  And in a couple of places there are holes rotted in the decking.

Like the two other images I recently posted here, this one was also part of the recent batch of Ilford HP5 4" x 5", developed in 510 Pyro.  I shot this on September 18th of 2022, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a wide 75mm lens.  A #25 Red filter was added to increase contrast, but sadly that blocked up some of the foreground shadows a little.

Parts Bins

This one is also part of the recent batch of Ilford HP5 4" x 5" developed in 510 Pyro.  I shot these old parts bins in a maintenance shop back on September 17th 2022, at about 12:15 in the afternoon.  I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  I like the way the wood tones turned out.  If I were to print this negative I think I would crop the window highlights at the left edge.

Broken Sink

This shot is from an outing last fall.  Arturo and I were shooting at an abandoned industrial site, looking for images for our Apparitions project.  This is from a recently processed batch of Ilford HP5 4" x 5" sheet film developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100.  Development was for 7:10 minutes at 72F.  I took this shot on October 17th 2022, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a Nikkor M 200mm lens.     

Scouting for the Beer Parlour Project

We didn't make any plans for Sunday or holiday Monday.  Generally speaking these are quiet days at most Taverns and not the best time for a visit.  But we did head out on some road trips both days to check out a number of small towns near Edmonton.  Some hotels were closed on Sunday and holiday Monday.

All told I think we drove by and looked at around ten establishments and stopped for a beer in a few of them.  The towns that we scouted included Leduc, Millet, Wetaskiwin, Gwynn, Bittern Lake, Camrose, Roundhill, Kingman, Hay Lakes, New Sarepta, Bruderheim, Lamont, Chipmen, Hilliard, Mundare and Vegreville.  Some of them no longer have a hotel, while others are not appropriate for our project.  We made some contacts and have a couple more lined up for the next time that Chris and Connie can make it up to Edmonton.  

The project is not limited to the Edmonton area and we intend to take the next five to ten years and explore small town hotels all over Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and maybe into Montana.  Once we have accumulated a suitable body of work we will work to put together a traveling exhibition, and then approach some publishers about doing a coffee table book.

The Beer Parlour Project - Thorsby Hotel and Bar

On Saturday August 5th we were up early and had breakfast.  By early afternoon we hit the road.  Our plan was to be in Thorsby for the late afternoon and evening for another edition of the Beer Parlour Project.  Before we headed to Thorsby we stopped and pre-scouted another hotel in the area, and made some introductions for a future visit.  We are yet to find out of that will come about.

As of three months ago the Thorsby Hotel and Bar has a new manager.  Vivek is really dedicated and really ambitious and is doing a lot to draw in clientele.  He has a very active Facebook page and promoted our visit in advance.  He also had a musician, Dwayne Harrish, playing guitar the night that we were there.  Since our departure Vivek has posted a number of images and video clips of our evening, on Facebook.

Vivek lives in Edmonton with his wife and kids but sometimes they stay at the hotel and he has a small suite there as well.  This is one of only a few remaining old hotels that still rents rooms.  The bar is open to kids until 9:00PM and then they have to leave.  They have food service there, including a number of Indian dishes, and the food was excellent.

The owner of the establishment is a fellow named Deepak, and he was also very enthusiastic and accommodating.  I understand that he has owned the place for about seven years.  We really enjoyed our time there and have an open invitation to come back for a visit any time that we like.  I'm sure we will take them up on it.

Of course Chris and Connie were out with Margarit and I, and once again we invited Sharon and Arturo to join us.  Arturo was enthralled by the light coming through the windows into the Cafe and took a digital shot of it, with Margarit posed as a solitary customer.  I got a bunch of shots on both large format and 35mm roll film.  The light was again quite low, but I remain optimistic that some of the shots will turn out.  This time around I also remembered to shoot some phone snapshots.  I got some images of Vivek's daughter experimenting with some of our cameras, as well as a shot of the decor in the men's room that is made from old beer kegs.

The Beer Parlour Project - Tofield Hotel

Chris and Connie and I had arranged to visit the Tofield Hotel back in July for our Beer Parlour Project.  But, the day that it was supposed to happen, infection set in on my Mom's leg wound and I had to spend the afternoon and evening with her at Emergency.

Chris and Connie were good sports about it, even though they had made a special trip up to Edmonton.  They decided to head out to the hotel anyway, and pre-scout for a return trip.  We have since learned that pre-scouting is the way to go.  It allows us to make proper introductions and explain our project.  Then when we make the return visit, announcements have been made and the establishment is more on board.  The turnout has been better, and it resulted in more people to interview and better pictures.

On Friday August 4th we made a return visit to the Tofield Hotel.  Margarit came along with me, and of course Chris and Connie were back in Edmonton.  We also invited Arturo and Sharon to join us, which nicely rounded out the adventure.

We had a lot of fun and there was a good turnout at the hotel.  There were a number of elderly people... the town barflies... that came down to check out what we were all about.  Plus a bunch of locals that were just there to kill time, drink beer and play the VLT's.  I chatted up one guy, about my age, and at one point he dug into his pocket and pulled out his hand.  I saw that he had a guitar pick and asked if he played.  He advised me that his hand held three of the most important things in life... the key to his Harley, the pick for his guitar, and some Percocet.  Sadly he had a cancer diagnosis and the outlook was not good.

There was another older lady there that was having a good time, and perhaps a little too much to drink, and proclaimed herself the town slut.

We stayed until dark and took a bunch of pictures both inside the hotel and of the exterior.  It is really a challenge to shoot inside those old hotels with large format.  The lighting is never very good, and there usually are very few, if any, windows.  I was shooting some Ilford HP5 rated at 320iso, and some Kodak T-Max 400 pushed to 1600iso.  I was also shooting some 35mm stuff with faster lenses so those have better odds.  Hopefully some of both formats turn out.   

In the fun and excitement I forgot to take any phone snapshots, so I have nothing to share here on my blog.  But we did get our business cards from the printer, and handed a few out to interested people, so I have another snapshot of those...

Large Format Selfie Stick

My friend Chris and I have been talking about this for years....  I finally decided to act on it.  A large format selfie stick... modeled off the selfie sticks that everyone uses nowadays to post shit about themselves on social media.  Only our plan was different, it would use a large format camera, and there would be no instant gratification.....

I set it up a couple of days ago and figure that a 150mm lens will give about the right perspective and still hold enough depth of field.  I tried it out today, and will throw the two sheets of film that I exposed in with a batch that I will be developing right away.  Once I see how that turns out, I can fine tune things a little.

We hope to attempt this with our group, posing in front of one of the old small town hotels that we will be exploring for the Beer Parlour project.

Semi Final Victory

My Renegades Hockey Team managed to sweep our opponents, the second place Chiefs, in the best of three semi-final series in summer hockey.  The first game, on July 25th was a really close one.  We were down by a score of 5-4 with only two minutes left in the game.  Then we scored to tie it, and a few seconds later scored the go ahead goal.  We hung on for a hard fought 6-5 victory.  I injured my shoulder in a collision in the first period,but managed to finish the game. I was pretty sore for the next week or so after the game.

With my shoulder feeling quite a bit better I suited up with the rest of my team for game two on Tuesday August 1st.  The Cheifs came out very determined to avoid elimination, and were not nearly as yappy as they usually have been in the past.  They scored the first goal, a power play shot that deflected in off of our goalie's mask.  Then we scored three unanswered goals and were hanging on to a 3-1 lead going into the third period.  They got a goal back about 3-1/2 minutes into the third to make it interesting.  But we scored an insurance goal with 3 minutes left, and then added an empty netter to coast to a 5-2 victory and eliminate the Chiefs.

The final round will begin on August 10th and we have to wait and see if our opponent will be the Metalheadz or the Sea Changers.  I started a playoff beard with our first game on the 25th.  It's starting to get pretty scratchy and I'll have to see if I can hang on until the bitter end and keep it going until the end of the finals in mid-August.

August Image - David Thompson Country Calendar

This is the image I selected for the August page of my 2023 David Thompson Country Calendar.  I shot this one back on August 19th of 2017, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  This is a small waterfall on Shunda Creek, not far from the Nordegg townsite.  It is easily accessible from an ATV trail on the west side, or from a walking path on the east.

I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera on Efke PL25 sheet film, developed in Rodinal.  A Red Filter was added to increase contrast.  The slow film, in combination with the filter and a small aperture resulted in a long shutter speed of 1 minute, that nicely blurred the cascading water.

Paradise

After I made my stop at the dump, and headed north on the Forestry Trunk Road, it occurred to me how lucky I am.  I was able to retire at the relatively young age of 58, and am financially independent enough that I will not have to return to work.  We need to be careful with our spending and manage our money properly, but we can remain retired and enjoy the time we have left.  We are also very fortunate in that we have a wonderful second home in Nordegg, and can enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle and the crowds and the crime associated with the big cities.  We even have the added benefit of a place in the badlands at East Coulee where we can keep our trailer.   So life is pretty good....!

After wandering about for three hours in the afternoon making photographs I came back to the cottage.  As I was sitting in the bay window, while my dinner was cooking, a white tail deer came up to eat the spilled sunflower seeds below our birdfeeder.  I had the window open and was talking to her and she remained very calm.  I managed to take a phone snapshot of her, and she was only about 6 or 8 feet away.

Later I went out for a little stroll at twilight and enjoyed the sunset light on the clouds, and the view of the distant Bighorn Range.  Hopefully next time I come out Margarit and the girls will be able to join me...!

Test Drive

On the last day of July, I slept in....   I actually woke up at about 5:30AM, just as the eastern sky was beginning to lighten.  But I knew it was too early to get up, and that I would run out of gas later in the day.  So I tried to go back to sleep.  I laid around in bed for over an hour, with my hockey-injured shoulder bothering me a little.  Eventually I dozed off... but then I woke up again and dozed off again five or six more times.  Finally I woke up and got out of bed, only to realize that it was after 10:00AM.  Angry with myself for sleeping in I had a shower, coffee and breakfast and then went back to work.

I went into the guest cottage and finished up the last of the trim.  This was to the gable end and side wall above the kitchen cabinets.  With that done, I set about cleaning up the place.  I packed up a whole bunch of tools and leftover supplies and stored them away on the new shelf units that I had constructed down in the crawl space.  Then I cleaned up a whole bunch of construction waste and garbage and realized that I had enough to make another dump run.  With everything out of the way I put away my sawhorses, pulled the tarp up off the floor, and swept out most of the sawdust.  I was amazed at how much bigger the space looked without all the crap in the way...!  When I return on my next visit I will be able to finish up the cleaning, and then start on installation of flooring.

The dump is only open from 10:00 to 2:00 on Mondays, and of course with my late start I missed the deadline.  Fortunately there is a small gate at the entrance that permits carrying in of small amounts of waste.  I only needed to make two trips in to get rid of this second batch of rubbish.

About a month ago, my close friend Rob decided that he was giving up on large format photography.  Rob and I are very close friends and have been shooting together for many years.  We made two trips to Utah, one to Vancouver Island, and numerous visits to mountains over the years to go shooting.  Rob is a retired electrician and did most of the wiring for me in the main cottage, and was my consultant when I did all the wiring in the guest cottage.  Rob used to live in Beaumont, but a number of years ago sold his house and moved to Vernon in the interior of British Columbia.  More recently he retired, and has since avidly pursued cross country skiing and cycling.  It seems that photography fell by the wayside for him.  Rob insisted that I purchase his large format camera gear from him, at a bargain price.  He did not want to have to deal with piecing it out and trying to sell it online.  I obliged, and bought everything from him.  I decided to keep his Ebony SV45 view camera and two of his lenses.  But I put everything else up for sale.  Fortunately for me I was able to sell most of it to my friends and colleagues in the Monochrome Guild.  I recovered most of my initial investment, and ended up with a third camera at a reasonable cost.

I decided that I will leave this camera, with a small selection of lenses, out at Nordegg.  This saves me from having to drag camera gear back and forth every time I come out.  Going forward I will only need to bring loaded film holders, and perhaps a few extra lenses and a tripod.

After my stop at the dump I took a drive down Secondary Highway 734.... the Forestry Trunk Road.  I only got about 15km north of the David Thompson Highway.  But I made several stops along the way and had a chance to test drive Rob's camera.  I shot the backside of Baldy and Coliseum Mountain from a high spot along the highway.  Then I shot the forest edge beside the road... and later I stopped along the north fork of Shunda Creek and took a couple of photographs there.  I ended up exposing eight sheets of film, as well as a few frames in a roll film back.  I'm sure there are no masterpieces here, but it is important to shoot regularly and stay in practice for when better opportunities arise.

Another Busy Week

I should feel a sense of accomplishment... and I do... but mostly I just feel exhausted.  It has been a very busy week working on the guest cottage.

I headed out on a solo trip on the afternoon of July 26th, and will stay until the end of the month.  I worked around six to eight hours every day, and managed to get quite a bit done.

I picked up the 75 pine seedlings in Rocky Mountain House on my way out.  I cut stakes for all of them, and managed to get them all planted.  We still need to get them all caged with chicken wire so the deer don't eat them, but that will have to wait for another trip.

While I had the table saw out cutting stakes, I also cut up a bunch of other material for the guest cottage.  I used up a bunch of scraps of plywood and 2x6 and made some storage shelves that will go in the crawl space of the guest cottage.  I put these together and set them up down below.  I also cut up some of the material needed to enclose the plumbing vent and exhaust vent up on the small loft.  And, I ripped some aspen down into narrow trim boards to finish up the last of what is needed.

I finished up all the painting of casing, and applying lacquer to the last of the aspen trim.  It took several coats, and some drying time, so the elapsed time for this was stretched out over severalf days.  In between I dealt with the pine seedlings.

There was a pile of construction waste behind the guest cottage.  This was cuttings and leftovers of siding and soffit material, as well as some cardboard and wrappers.  There was also a pile of old plywood cuttings and joist ends behind the main cottage that dates back over five years.  I cleaned up both of these piles and loaded up all the waste for a run to the dump.  I added a few bags of construction waste from the ongoing interior finishing.

On Saturday night I visited with our new neighbors.  They recently bought the cottage next door to ours... the one that used to belong to my friend and neighbor Dan.  Sadly Dan had to sell, and we ended up with new neighbors.  They seem nice, but this is their second cottage here in the subdivision and I learned that they intend to rent it out as a short term rental.  I'm not thrilled about it, but there's nothing I can really do, as short term rentals are allowed under the County bylaws.  Hopefully it does not get out of hand.

On Sunday I installed particle board subfloor to the main loft.  This was a tedious job as it involved a lot of up and down.  I also had to slide the sheets of material up the ladder, which was a bit of a challenge given that I am just recovering from a hockey injury to my shoulder.  And, the space up there is very cramped, so I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees fitting the subfloor panels and gluing and screwing them down.  But, by the end of a long day, I was done.

There remains three pieces of trim to be installed above the kitchen counter.  I will complete that on Monday before I head back to the city.  Once that is done, there is no more woodwork or finishing work that needs to be done inside the cottage.  So the next time I come out I can clean up all the mess and get ready to start installing the flooring.  I'm hoping that on Monday, before I have to return to the city, I can take a little time to relax and either play a round of golf, or go fishing, or get for a bit with my camera.  Once I get back to the city I will be busy for a while as the Renegades are in the playoffs.  With our game one victory before I left town we only need to win one of the next two games to advance to the finals.

Small Loft

On Friday July 28th I put in a full eight hour day working in the guest cottage.  The push is on to finish up all the woodwork and all the painting.  Once this is done, it will allow me to clean the place out, vacuum up all the sawdust, and start on the installation of flooring.  It is surprising, and a little frustrating, that everything is so inter-related.  I can't do one thing until several other steps are completed first.  This is further complicated by the fact that I am working by myself, and some things just take a lot longer with only one.

Once the flooring is in I will be able to put the range in place.  That will allow me to then install the final section of cabinet, where the microwave oven will be placed.  Then I can finish up the last little bit of subfloor, to the area where the range is currently sitting.  With flooring in place then I will be able to mount the toilet in the bathroom, and finish the hatch that goes down to the crawl space.

Also with the flooring in place I will then be able to install corner trim, casing and baseboards, all of which I am currently applying various finishes to.  And once the last section of cabinet is in, then I can do the tile backsplash in the kitchen.

It was cool and overcast and breezy all day so I decided to tackle the small loft above the bathroom.  There are some plumbing vent pipes and the exhaust duct for the bathroom fan that needed to be enclosed.  I had started on this in the past and got part of it done, but never finished it.  There was also a little corner trim needed where the ceiling met the walls.  With the done I continued with some edge trim around the loft.  This consisted of a 2x6 painted "robins egg blue" and installed on the flat around the edge.  This provides not only a visual border, but prevents anything up top from rolling off.  I used a piece of quarter round painted "buttercup yellow" on the underside of the border to trim off the upper edge of the aspen paneling.

Later in the afternoon I applied a first layer of paint to the remaining casing.  Some of the casing has already been painted but there are about ten lengths left to be done.  Late in the day, once all the inside work was completed, I planted 15 more of the pine seedlings that I brought out.

August Calendar Image

This shot has seen a lot of attention here on my blog.  This is the Rosie the Riveter shoot that I did with my friends Chris and Connie.  It was to raise awareness for Knitted Knockers, a breast cancer charity.  I made something like 15 copies of this print.  I framed four of those... one for the charity, one for Chris and Connie, one for the owner of the aircraft, and one for Margarit.  The rest were offered, mounted and matted to all the ladies that participated.  The donations that they provided to me for the prints, over $400 in total, were passed along to the charity.  I figured since this image was taken in August of 2022, it was fitting to use it on the August page of my 2023 Fine Art Photography calendar.