Hockey Night in Edmonton

On Wednesday July 9th I had a chance to get out and play hockey.  This was the first time that I have been on the ice with my team, the Renegades, since I broke my leg back in December.  It felt really good to get back on the ice with all my old friends.  I have been running the team for over twenty years now, and it has been really difficult to be away from it.

My daughter's boyfriend Braeden was able to play as well.  We spent a couple of days digging through all of my old gear to come up with enough stuff for him to wear.  I had shin pads, pants, elbow pads, shoulder pads and gloves.  There was an old helmet with a cage that the girls used to wear.  And he borrowed one of my pairs of skates.  Needless to say it was pretty awkward for poor Braeden.  The shin pads were too long, the helmet was too small, and the gloves were too big.  You get so used to your own skates that it must be really challenging to try to skate in someone else's.  But he came out all the same, and really enjoyed it.  He was talking about it for days in advance, and just beaming about it.  Hopefully I can fit him in on the team this winter as a spare.

When we got home after the game we piled all the gear in a heap in the basement to dry out for next time.  Then we sat around upstairs with the girls and had a late dinner and a couple of beers.  It was a really fun evening.

BP 28.0 - Billiards

This is Adam and Ronald.  They were having a blast playing Eight Ball at the Triple B Tavern in the Rockyford Hotel.  I shot this portrait of them when the Beer Parlour Project team visited for BP28.0 back on June 13th of this year.  This shot was taken on 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 400 film, pushed to 1250 iso.  I shot this with my Ebony view camera with room light only.  I used a Schneider 135mm lens.  Despite all the libations, these guys did a pretty good job of holding still for the half second exposure.

Roadside Attractions

After spending the afternoon of Canada Day exploring in the area of the Spreading Creek Burn, I slowly made my way back to the cottage in Nordegg.  By this time it was around 6:00PM and most of the weekenders had headed back to the cities.   Along the way I made a couple of stops.  Once was at the Kootenay Plains and the second time was by Mount Abraham, on the shores of Abraham Lake.  Both times I pulled out the big 8x10 camera and took a couple of photographs.

Eventually I made my way back to the cottage, offloaded all my gear, had a couple of beers, and set about making myself a late supper.  This time around it was my "almost world famous" Shrimp in Cream Sauce.  Too bad Margarit had to head back to the city on Sunday, otherwise she could have enjoyed it with me.

BP25.0 - Muse on Main - Unity Saskatchewan

These two guys, Brandon and Tony, came into the Muse on Main Tavern in the Hotel in Unity Saskatchewan, to have a couple of cold ones, and to play crib.  I photographed them back in March of this year when Chris and I were out visiting for the Beer Parlour Project.  This was officially BP25.0.  The project has really been going well and we have now visited 29 different hotels in the process of our documentary project.  We recently got a request from a CBC reporter out of Calgary that wants to do an on camera interview at one of our upcoming outings.  Fingers crossed that it actually comes about.

This particular shot was taken on a sheet of Kodak T-Max 400, rated at 1250 iso and developed in T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 8:35 minutes.

It was very dark in the tavern and when Chris and I first walked in from the daylight, we were blinded and couldn't see a thing.  I used a portable LED light to take this shot, but that was rather direct and harsh.  I carry the lights with me, I have two of them, but only use them when I have to.  In this instance that was definitely the case.

A Little Hike in David Thompson Country

This year Canada Day, July 1st, fell on a Tuesday.  It seems that most of the working people got Monday June 30th off instead.  I took a quick run into town around lunch time on the 30th.  The highway was like a parade, and the parking lot in town at the gas station/convenience store was full.  I picked up a case of beer and headed back home.  I spent the rest of the day working around the property, cutting and splitting wood.  There was a lot of noise and traffic that I could hear, but fortunately it was relatively quiet up at our place.

On Tuesday, the actual Canada Day holiday, I headed out for a drive at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  I was hopeful that many of the weekend people would be heading for home by then.  I was somewhat correct, but the highway was still busy, but more so in an east bound direction.  Early in the afternoon, as I made my way west on the David Thompson Highway past Abraham Lake, the trailheads were all very busy.

I headed out past the Kootenay Plains out to the Spreading Creek Burn.  This is a wildfire from about 15 years ago.  All the interpretive signs say that it was a prescribed burn.  I believe it was actually a prescribed burn that got away, and became a much larger wild fire.  It was eventually brought under control before it burnt into the Kootenay Plains area, and almost to the David Thompson Resort.

I drove into the trailhead to Landslide Lake.  There were only two other vehicles here, and no one else around.  The area has recovered from the devastating fire and the young aspens have sprouted up to to a height of around ten feet.  

Although I have been on other trails in the area, I don't recall ever being at this particular one before.  There was an area near the highway where the natives, presumably from the Bighorn Reserve, have tied prayer ribbons to many of the aspen trees.  The interpretive signs speak of this being a sacred site.  I photographed here for a while, and then walked further up the slope into the burned area.  It was a beautiful day, with the temperature approaching 30C.  It was a little breezy and the sky was a mix of blue and clouds.  I shot with both my 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras.  By the time I finished up, it was getting to be late afternoon.  When I got packed up and got back onto the highway, headed east towards my cottage, it was a lot quieter, and obviously many of the weekend visitors had begun to make their way home.

Nordegg Stay

It has been a wonderful time out in Nordegg... mostly pretty laid back and relaxed.  Margarit drove out and joined me on the evening of June 26th.  I played golf that afternoon, but was back at the cottage by the time she arrived.  We spent four wonderful days together... which makes up for the fact that we were apart for our 24th Anniversary on the 23rd.

The showery weather continued and Margarit and I just relaxed in the cottage for the most part.  We had a couple of nice meals together, and one night went down to the lounge in town.  The last time I was out with the kids, a couple of weeks ago, our septic alarm went off, indicating that the holding tank was full.  We also ran out of fresh water.  So the first thing I did upon my arrival in Nordegg, before Margarit made it out, was to get a load of water, and get the holding tank emptied.  Both tanks are 2000 gallons, and we can make it for about a year on one load.  The last time dealt with the tanks was July 12th of 2024.  This time around it was June 21st 2025... so almost a year.

On June 25th I wandered into the mine site with my camera and did a bunch of photography.  On the 27th Margarit and I returned for an event that was being hosted there.  Despite the rainy weather, about 30 to 40 people showed up.  It was a fireside talk up at the mine site, with snacks and coffee.  Two long time residents of Nordegg talked about their years spent growing up in the town, back in the coal mining days.  Neither of them were actually old enough to have worked as miners, as the mine closed permanently in 1955.  But their families, friends and neighbors worked as miners.  We really enjoyed it and it was really informative.  Hopefully they do it again.

On June 28th the chimney sweep showed up and cleaned the chimney on our main cottage.  I didn't bother to get the guest cottage cleaned as we just haven't had a lot of fires there.  Then on June 29th, Gary the jukebox and pinball guru showed up and took a look at my Rockola Jukebox.  Gary is a friend of Chris and Connie's and is THE expert on this stuff in western Canada.  He lives in Lake Louise and does this sort of work as a side gig to his main job of working for Parks Canada.  He confirmed that my Rockola needs a few minor parts... mostly a cartridge and needle for the turntable.  Other than that it mostly just needs cleaning, lubrication and adjustment.  He is going to return later in the summer, after we round up the parts, and get it up and running.

Later that day the chimney sweep returned and installed a brace on my chimney for me.  Its something I've been meaning to get around to for a couple of years, but didn't have a long enough ladder.  I was trying to convince Margarit to stay for a few more days but that evening she realized she had an appointment with her surgeon back in Edmonton, the next morning.  So she bailed out and headed for home around 8:00PM, arriving safely just after 11:00.

In between all that I continued working on yard cleanup, including cutting, splitting and stacking more firewood.  The new woodpile that I started on last year is now complete.  I think its the biggest one yet.  I also restacked a couple of my other woodpiles that had partly fallen over, and replenished some of the wood that had been used.  The kids can't seem to grasp the concept of allowing wood to fully dry for a couple of years, and using up the oldest stuff first.  Instead they just seem to go to the nearest woodpile and grab whatever.  With these three large woodpiles now in order, I started refilling a fourth one.  This one was used up this past winter.  I continued cutting and splitting the logs that have been piled behind our garage, since the lot was cleared.  I also cut up and split a couple of standing dead trees that came down this spring.

It was really busy in Nordegg this last weekend of June.  I went into town and did a beer run on the morning of June 30th.  The highway was like a parade and the parking lot at the little strip mall in town was full.  I got my case of beer and went back home.  There were lots of motor bikes and ATV's ripping around all day, but I never really left my property after that.  That evening I went for a short walk around the subdivision, just as a brief thunder shower passed over.  I shot a short video of some rain that was nicely backlit by the setting sun.  And there was a beautiful rainbow.....

Back to the Mine

On June 25th I went on yet another visit to the Nordegg Mine Site.  I've now lost track of how many times I've been there.  This is becoming a long term documentary project for me. and the County staff seem happy to oblige me.  I will be displaying a small collection of my photographs at the visitor center later this summer.  It seems to me that it is important to document the place before it deteriorates further.  

It is certainly one of the best preserved and protected industrial sites that I have visited.  All the more surprising given that it shut down in 1955.... so 70 years ago.  I can only imagine how spectacular it must have been back in the day.

On this day I was part of a large tour group... at least 20 people... mostly elderly.  I expect that by the upcoming long weekend, and going into the summer holidays, there will be a lot more younger people taking part.  I sort of distanced myself from the tour and focused on taking a bunch of photographs.  I went back to a number of areas that I had photographed in the past, and worked on improving my previous compositions, and doing a better job of exposure.  In the past I had some critical errors with flare and focus.  I visited one of the residences, the wash building and the brothel.  Before I knew it the day was getting away from me and it was 6:00 by the time I finished up.  But I came back to the cottage with over 20 sheets of exposed film.  A good day of shooting...!  In hindsight I wish I had brought the 8x10 along, but I didn't so this was just a day of 4x5 shooting.  Maybe next time.

June Game Camera Photos

Between May 20th and the end of June, my game camera took almost 200 photographs.  Mostly it was shots of the deer that wander around our yard.  I only saved a handful of the best ones.  Over the course of the month you can see the growth of the antlers on the bucks.  Towards the end of the month one of the doe's brought her new fawn out for a little stroll.  There were a couple of shots of our resident fox, but I didn't include them this time.  They were night shots, kind of blurry, and not all that spectacular.

July Image - David Thompson Country Calendar

This is the image I selected for the July page of my 2025 David Thompson Country Calendar.  This is the rotary dumper, in fromt ot the scale building, at the Nordegg Mine Site.  The loaded coal cars were winched up out of the mine, and over to the scale building.  Here the cars were weighed.  Any that were suspected of having too much rock would be diverted onto the foreground track and into an adjacent inspection building.  The miners were paid by the ton for the coal that they filled the carts with.  

The coal cars were driven into the rotary apparatus, clamped into place, and flipped over.  The coal went down a shoot and into a tipple building for sorting.

Alberta Foundation for the Arts - Art by Acquisition

I received notice recently that none of the work I submitted to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts had been accepted for their Art by Acquisition program.  It was a little disappointing, but I'm pretty used to rejection letters by now, and have developed a rather thick skin.

I will apply again next year, and perhaps be able to do a little better then.  Everything is at the discretion of the jury, and acceptance is dependent upon the number of pieces and type of work submitted.  Life goes on.  This particular photograph is one of my favorites, and it was one of the three rejected pieces.