The Wind Blows North

Influences

2012-02-01T19:45:00.001-08:00

Ice Floes in Black and White, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I just found a photographer from out of Iceland named Ragnar Axelsson. His work is just stunning and his use of black and white is superb. So now I find myself wanting to try to figure it out...

Who Turned Out The Lights?

2012-01-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

We were sitting around, taking things for granted; warm house, reading, surfing the web, watching movies. I'm sure you can picture a modern evening at home with the family. I had looked at the thermometer and it was registering -38.7C and slowly falling. I was glad the car was plugged in because it would never start without that. I turned on the water to get a drink and while it was running the pump kicked on in the well to keep the tank pressure up. The lights always dim just a tiny bit when it powers on. Moments later the furnace fired up. Ah warm house. In that split second it takes for one of those sudden, clean power outages all of that was gone. No heat, no lights, no water, no movies....nothing. All of this black nothing and -38.7C. It's a funny feeling when you realize we are only a few kilowatts away from the cold and the dark of the Yukon winter.

"Uh oh" said my wife.
"Oh great" I said.
"Hey!" said my son.
"But I wanted to read!" said my daughter.
"Beep beep beep" said all my UPSes.

I grabbed a flashlight and went hunting for the 300 watt inverter and my stash of five (yep, five) car batteries. I grabbed one of the batteries and hooked up the inverter and plugged in a lamp. One lamp gives off quite a lot of light. Enough to fill the living room and spill over into the kitchen. My wish-list now includes a 1500 watt inverter to power up my Toyo Stove to heat the house. I don't want to imagine the scenario where the power goes for 6 hours at -50C. In the end our power came back on in less time than it takes to watch an episode of The Office on my wife's charged up laptop but the thought still remains; what if the power does go out for a long time in very cold weather?

Post Christmas Tree Post

2012-01-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

We took the plunge today and finally dismantled the Christmas tree. Suddenly there is a big empty space in our living room and the house seems that much dimmer. We were late this year pulling it down partly because our kids didn't want to part with it last weekend and partly because, well, we just didn't feel like dealing with it either. Now it just feels like winter. I need to find fun and interesting ways to brighten up these short, cold days.

Winter Light

2012-01-02T16:12:00.001-08:00

Winter Light, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

The temperature rose to a balmy -3C today and I got a bit more restless than usual so my daughter and I went for a walk across the river. I'm pretty sure the trail which runs parallel along the far side of the river just south of Lake Lebarge is part of the Livingston Trail, which brought the gold rush folk up through this neck of Yukon woods during those early years. Now it's a well packed trail, wide and easily walked in the winter. The river is frozen solid to gaining access to it requires no more than a bit of walking against the blistering winds which howl down the open regions of the river valley. In amongst the trees there are quite a number of animal tracks ranging from wolf (prints the size of sauce pans) and bobcat, right down to tiny mouse prints which erupt from holes in the snow.

We had a great walk and by the time we got home we were ready of our cups of hot mocha.

Happy New Years

2012-01-01T16:34:00.001-08:00

Eli at New Years, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

We rang in the New Year with friends last night. A few adults and a crowd of young people and it was quite enjoyable. It was funny how the adults sat around by the food and wine and discussed our wonderful kids while said kids took over the living room. I shouldn't really say "kids" because they ranged in age from twenty down to twelve.

2011? Where did you go?

2011-12-31T15:44:00.002-08:00

Standing Still, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

2011 kind of drifted away. I find it does that more and more since my kids were born and since I reached my 40's. I've managed to document some of this past year with my camera but I think perhaps this year I'll add my blog back into the mix. So, Happy New Year.

Fading summer, golden autumn

2011-09-11T22:10:00.001-07:00

Fading summer, golden autumn, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I really need to start writing for my blog again. Photos say more in fewer words so I'll start with that...

And We're Off!

2011-05-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day. We're flying out on Condor at 6pm and will be in Frankfurt nine hours later. We will then spend the night in Frankfurt and fly out the next day to spend most of our time in the UK visiting family and general sight-seeing. We are 99.9% packed with the remaining .1% being last minute things we will take care of tomorrow. Tanya has done an amazing job planning for the trip and I think it's a talent she could market somehow.

We are leaving behind my laptop this time and all I will have is my Blackberry. Twitter is easy enough to update but I doubt I'll be making any blog posts. I've discovered tumblr so I'll try and upload a few shots with my Blackberry as I can.

Departure day is always fun.

Mother's Day Preparations

2011-05-08T21:35:00.004-07:00

My daughter took over the kitchen this fine, sunny afternoon and began to make a Mother's Day supper for my wife. She made roast duck with apple/cornbread stuffing, seasoned potatoes and spinach/strawberry salad. Oh wow did it smell good and it tasted equally as great.

Happy Mother's Day.

Tangible Evidence

2011-04-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Our trip to the UK has gotten a step closer in a tangible, exciting way; our BritRail tickets just arrived! We originally planned on a three day pass but the purchase included a bonus day of travel. This extra day allows us to spend a full day at Roman Vindolanda along Hardian's Wall. If you don't know anything about Vindolanda you should look it up and be amazed at what they have discovered there. Three more weeks!

Sun and Wind

2011-04-23T18:54:00.001-07:00

Today was about the warmest day we've had here in the Yukon in a very, very long time. My wife and I walked the Millennium Trail by the power station. I was very pleased to see the main flow of the river ice free and energetically rippling and churning. Fresh air and a warm sun are more welcome than I can say.

Forging My Own Solutions

2011-04-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

What do my forge and my kids have in common? Back scratching. Still confused? Almost every time I get near my kids they say "my back is itchy. Scratch it!". There must be an invisible itch zone about me extending out to around five feet. So, rather than me endlessly scratching their collective backs I figured I could just make a backscratcher on my forge.

I'm going to name it "Dad".

So if anyone in the Whitehorse area has some scrap iron (I'm running out) I'll gladly take it off your hands. I have a small forge so I can't handle a whole lot larger than rebar size (maximum thickness of about 1 1/2 inches).

Eulogy for the Neon

2011-04-04T13:24:00.001-07:00

Back in 2002 we moved from Edmonton to Terrace B.C. and I began commuting each day to New Aiyansh for work. We needed a car pretty badly as our old truck (1990 F150) wasn't really suited to driving 1000 kms per week on that grueling drive . That's right, 1000 kms per week, each week, for three years. So we bought the Neon to replace the old truck. It was a 2000 Neon with 65,000 kms and was the first year of their redesigned model. The introduction to it's new life probably wasn't too encouraging because the Nisga'a Highway was under construction for about a year or more and the conditions at times were horrendous with softball sized boulders strewn about the road and potholes large enough to break an axle. The car took a beating for sure but it survived those three years and when I got the offer to move north to the Yukon the Neon was still up to the task. I remember passing the B.C./Yukon border and shortly after I saw the odometer count up to 200,000kms. I was impressed. That was six years ago and six cold winters. The Yukon cold can be pretty hard on a vehicle but the Neon kept going. Only during the coldest weather, when the walls of the house crack and the nights are at their longest did I really worry about it starting in the mornings. Only twice did it fail me and that was mainly attributable to a failing battery. For the last three years our mechanic has been telling us not to bother with it any longer. It's too old. It will cost you too much. As it turns out, the last three years cost us an average of less than $100 per month on maintenance. That's a fraction of the cost for payments on a new car. Not to mention we drove the Neon down to Victoria and back (getting 47mpg) just last summer with never a problem. Now, at 453,000kms on that tired old odometer we are singing her old songs of victory and putting her to rest. I dearly would have like to see the old girl reach 500,000kms but it wasn't her fate. The Neon is still fixable but I don't have the $1600 for the work and can't justify it. The amazing thing is that the transmission and engine are still original and have never needed any work.

So, in the end the Neon was a fantastic car but she had a hard life between the Nass Valley and the northern cold. She's driven us many thousands of kilometers to and from work and all around the country for pleasure but, alas, her days are over.

Bored Cloud is Bored

2011-03-27T17:18:00.002-07:00

It's so nice to feel the warmth of the sun again. My wife and daughter are both out doing their own things so my son and I went for a walk. We made our way across the river (frozen solid still) and headed up toward the Livingston Trail. We didn't go too far and we were in no hurry to get there. We just walked, enjoying the sun and the wind. On our way back home we spotted this funny face looking down on us and even though it looked rather bored with the view it still seemed that the sky even had life back in it after this long, cold winter.

Green Fire

2011-03-11T07:13:00.002-08:00

There was a bit of an Aurora over Whitehorse last night. I'm still waiting for another display like we had back in about 2005 or 2006. That night the lights danced in vast, coloured sheets for half the night.

Spinning Fire

2011-03-04T21:34:00.002-08:00

My son and I had a bit of fun tonight with fire and my camera. This is my third attempt at light painting with steel wool and I'm slowly getting it to work better. This time around I wore a hoodie so my hair/neck wouldn't catch fire and a 9V battery to ignite the wool. I'm eventually going to rig up a motorized spinner and maybe a push button igniter (that'll take a bit of thinking) and then I can do a spin in each hand or some other fancy type moves. So much potential...!

Rendezvous Fun (?)

2011-02-27T16:44:00.003-08:00

Rendezvous Fun (?)

We tried to get into the Rendezvous spirit yesterday down at Shipyards Park but I think my spirit froze long before I got into it. The wind has been howling for a couple of days now, sending snow drifting in long tendrils down the highway and swirling madly around anything in its way. Despite all this cold and wind there were a fair number of people partaking in the events.

In Addendum...

2011-02-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

To top things off I entered the photo of my son in Dave Brosha's contest for "best portrait" and wouldn't ya know it but I won third place! Pretty cool :)

Public's Eye

2011-02-11T21:36:00.004-08:00

I like checking up on the daily news but I had a bit of a surprise yesterday. What caught my eye wasn't an article of any global impact like the events in Egypt, nor was it even an important local event. I plugged in the url for CBC North and started reading down the page when there, amongst the usual array of photos was mine! I had uploaded it to the "Your North" gallery because I had thought maybe people would like to see the cold my son and I felt the other week when temperatures plunged. I guess the gallery moderator liked it enough to make it the cover image. Rather exciting. Not only is my photo there but my son is there too!

Learning Curve

2011-01-31T19:34:00.003-08:00

Learning Curve, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

Digital photography is a wonderful combination of art and tech. I don't claim to be any good at photography and I certainly don't call myself a photographer but that isn't the point. The point is to simply have fun with it. I found a simple method in photoshop which lets me borrow the look of Dave Hill. The photo needs to already have some strong contrast so I setup quickly at home and got my son to pose for a few minutes and blasted him with light. I took him as he was; messy hair and all. I'm not so much pleased with the outcome of this first attempt as amazed that it turned out at all.

Back in the Forge

2011-01-24T20:34:00.002-08:00

The Hammer [Blog], originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

As the temperature dropped earlier this winter I found the cut off point for working in my forge to be about -15C. Anything below that is just too cold. Even with the heat blasting out of the hearth, hot enough to melt iron, I still can't stay warm. The cold becomes like a live thing, feeding on the warmth of anything it can find. The anvil acts as a 160lb black hole for cold. Below 15C it becomes a large block of frost which sucks out the heat from even red hot iron being hammered upon it. It's nice to be out in the forge again (while the warmer weather remains) hammering and shaping...

-44 Celcius

2011-01-14T19:54:00.002-08:00

-44 Celcius, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

This photo goes along with the earlier post. Yup. It's pretty cold out. And to think, -44 is warmer than this morning...

Deep Freeze

2011-01-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

When Whitehorse weather is posted as a low of -34C we usually see a bit colder at our place out near Lake Leberge. We seem to live in a small temperature sinkhole which can be wildly different from the temperatures around us. Like this morning when I woke up early the temperature was -47 and Whitehorse was supposed to be a balmy -34 or so. I wonder what it is about this spot that makes it so much colder at times? When it get colder than -45C experience tells me that metal starts to do strange things - like break. The car doesn't run so well (if at all) so today was a home day. Even our pets are all inside. If the temperature warmed up to -30 it would seem pretty warm now.

Urban Yukon and My 5000 Word Essay

2011-01-10T16:46:00.001-08:00

Well, it's not really 5000 words but it is about Urban Yukon. Dave Rogers asked me for a few words about UY the other day so I wrote down a few things for him for an article. Thought I'd share it:

I'm very much a part-time blogger. Even though my main audience amounts to about one person I still find enjoyment in the process and for about five years I hosted my own server from my own house and blogged mainly for my own Mom. I found Urban Yukon quite by accident back when Geof Harries was running it and one day I noticed a traffic spike in my log files; my little wordpress blog was listed on some site called Urban Yukon! At the time I wasn't prepared to go public so I asked to have my name stricken from that honour roll, although I was intrigued by the thought of a community of Yukon blogs and kept it in the back of my mind. I found myself going back to UY to check up on some of the folks and got to know a few of the names. It struck me that despite the wide geographical dispersal, differences in work and lifestyle, we all have the Yukon in common. We all feel the cold, we all see the change in the seasons, and we all appreciate the vastness and openness of the Yukon landscape.

Not long ago I down-sized my server farm at home (only three machines now) and took the opportunity to jump from a self-hosted wordpress blog running on an old pentium 450 over to Blogger. I then contacted Dave Rogers and he created me a wonderful work of art as a welcome and signed me on. Now I'm part of the Urban Yukon community as well and rather enjoy it. Many of us in the Yukon are from somewhere else yet most of us who migrate here end up being as Yukon as the folk born here. I've always felt a sense of belonging in the North since my arrival here and now I've found the same in the "blogosphere" through Urban Yukon.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T17:54:00.002-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone in Blog Land.

Who Needs Television part III

2010-12-24T10:49:00.001-08:00

Since I "blew up the car" earlier this week I figured "why stop there?". So (being me) I took out my hand forged knife last night and tried to pry open a compact florescent bulb to get to the electronics. Naturally (being me) I wasn't paying attention to what I was really doing and slipped and sliced open my thumb right down to the muscle. Oh goody, more entertainment. I immediately realised I was going to need stitches to fix my latest blunder so my wife drove me into town (the fourth trip for her that day) so I could pay a visit to the emergency room. By the time the doctor arrived to stitch me up I had to explain what happened three times - well, actually it was six. Each time I explained myself it was followed by a "what?" in a tone of voice that either indicated they had no clue what I was talking about or possibly that they thought I was a total bonehead. I'm still not sure. The staff at the hospital, however, were very nice and got me in and out of there very quickly. In the end I headed back home with five stitches and a mostly incapacitated hand. When I got home I asked my son (he had to get stitches a couple of years ago) how many stitches he had. He informed me it was seven so I conceded to him that he had beaten me. He grinned back at me and said "I'm glad about that!".

Merry Christmas!

Who Needs Television part II

2010-12-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

Had "car problems" this week but we are sorted out now. I think the best explanation of what happened is mainly summed up by a status my wife posted on Facebook:

Tanya
tried to offer my second born as payment to the tow truck guy but he said only my first born would do - but unfortunately she wasn't at home!
Tuesday at 7:05pm

Comments

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    *
      You, Patrick, Nadine and Kim like this.
    *
          o
            Gaynor - why did you need a tow truck driver?
            Tuesday at 7:38pm
          o
            Tanya - Well... you need to ask Darren about that.. ill just say that he tried to blow up the car...
            Tuesday at 7:41pm
          o
            Eva - what about your first wed?
            Tuesday at 7:42pm
          o
            Tanya - Well unfortunately he wasn't at home either.
            Tuesday at 7:43pm
          o
            Doug - He tried to blow up the what??? Did he burn his lip on the tail pipe?
            Tuesday at 8:05pm
          o
            Ed - lol Doug!
            Tuesday at 8:18pm
          o
            Erica - thats mean! maybe I'll stay here at my second home. They're nicer
            Tuesday at 8:23pm · 2 people like this (Darren, Tanya < (the parents))
          o
            Darren - I was attempting to by-pass the fuel injectors to a nitros tank with high pressure injection valves. I figured if I could increase the burn to compression ratio by a factor of about 6.3 (by my calculations) I could enhance the overall fuel-to-distance curve thereby increasing what is known to the common human as "fuel efficiency" - there must have been a "slight" miscalculation because the puff of smoke from below the engine seemed a little disproportionate to my "enhancement"...
            Tuesday at 8:25pm
          o
            Eva - nerds gone wild!!
            Tuesday at 8:34pm
          o
            Erica - AGREED!
            17 hours ago
          o
            Norayr - Darren, you were kidding, right?
            49 minutes ago
          o
            Darren - ummm, well, I actually hooked up the battery backwards....
            48 minutes ago
          o
            Norayr - I see. The first explanation sounded a whole lot more impressive. Sorry to have had to ask. Let's just go back to the bypassing fuel injectors.
            4 minutes ago
          o
            Darren - okay, we'll just pretend you didn't ask ;)
            a few seconds ago

Who Needs Television

2010-12-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

Since I'm new to twitter I've been adding new people to follow. Amongst those I have found are celebs like Steve Martin. It's funny how a whole world of entertainment goes on, in real time, behind all the glitz and glamour of the movies and tv screens. A small example of what Steve Martin has been up to in the last couple days on twitter:

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: defendant looks like a murderer. GUILTY. Waiting for opening remarks.

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Prosecuting attorney. Don’t like his accent. Serbian? Going with INNOCENT. We’re five minutes in.

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: I’m cracking up defense with my jokes. Judge not pleased. Defendant finds me funny. Nice guy!

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Other jurors are stupid. First, they don’t believe in “hexes.” Plus, they want me to put my magazines away.

I like to cup my hands and say, "you tell 'em Judge Judy," then duck behind the other jurors." HUGE laughs.

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Defendant’s hair looking very Conan-y today. GUILTY.

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Attorneys presenting “evidence.” Since when are security photos, DNA, and testimony evidence? Trusting intuition.

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Lunch break. Discussing case with news media gives me chance to promote my book.

REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: Now forcing my autograph on other jurors. Also starting whisper campaign of innocence based on Magic 8 Ball.

Slipped into evidence blow-up of fingerprint with my face worked into it. Got screams! Judge now banging gavel on my head. Hard to twee…

Defendant running for exit. Not to escape, but out of disgust. Judge wearing NOTHING under his robes. We are adjourned until tomorrow.

Practice Makes Perfect

2010-12-21T18:48:00.002-08:00

Practice Makes Perfect, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

My son wanted a guitar for his last birthday so we picked one up from the music store in town. We kept promising him guitar lessons and finally, back in September, we got him signed up for half an hour each Saturday. He seems to enjoy it and looks forward to it each weekend. Already, when he practices, his fingers fly across the frets as he practices his scales. Between my daughter and my boy there is a lot of music floating around the house now.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-20T12:30:00.002-08:00

Merry Christmas, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

Merry Christmas. I can't believe it's in less than a week. I knew in my head that Christmas was soon but when some said out loud "it's next week!" it actually sunk in. Once again it crept up on me and took me by surprise.

A great present would be for a bit of warmer weather from the south...

My Son with One Thousand Watts

2010-12-19T19:04:00.003-08:00

My Son, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I bought two 500 watt lights the other day from Canadian tire and started playing around with portrait photography. I have a lot to learn. One of my first big things to overcome is my total lack of space in my small place (I've taken over the living room and spilled into the kitchen). When the weather is really cold out I have little desire to head out for photography even though I have a couple ideas for outdoor photos I think would look quite nice. For $60 bucks I got some lights, used an old tripod, and bought a cheap black sheet. Almost an instant studio.

Brisk Winter Weather

2010-12-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

I stepped out of the house this morning into the dark and the cold to start the car and heard a tree crack. It's now late evening and the walls are starting to contract and crack. The thermometer is dropping and the moon is casting deep, cold shadows across the dimly glistening snow. I had to pile snow about the propane pipes and the tank about an hour ago to insulate it against the other Yukon freezing point (-42.1C). A couple of years ago when we had a low of -LL C (that would be my digital thermometer's way of saying colder than -50C) we managed to keep our propane flowing by using snow for insulation. I certainly don't want it to drop that low out there but at least we can deal with it.

Late to the Game

2010-12-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

I finally broke down and started using twitter. I had actually signed up about a year ago (four accounts - one for me, the human, and three for my servers at home) but didn't find it useful at the time. I suddenly decided to try again (because a friend at work has been using it and it seemed kind of fun to follow some of the celebs out there) so I installed it on my blackberry, connected it to this blog and decided to hook my servers in again. The whole difference now is I'm using my blackberry to update twitter and the feed goes directly to this blog to allow it to be a bit more dynamic. The twitter feeds don't allow it to update on Urban Yukon but hey, you can't have the blog-cake and eat it too.

The blackberry also lets me take photos and send them off immediately to twitpics so I won't have to clutter up my flickr stream with lousy blackberry photos.

The plan for my servers is to have my hidden account respond to a special twitter message and execute any command I tell it to. I'll give it a server prefix (as I've been calling it) which tells it what server I'm directing the command at. The prefix will then be followed by the secret command. I've decided I only need one account for a server because I can use that one to send remote commands to my other home servers which should reduce my network chatter.

I realize I'm kind of late to the whole twitter-verse but until I got my blackberry I really didn't see any use for it.

Light, Fire, and Bagpipes

2010-11-23T17:49:00.001-08:00

Have you ever been at one of those points in your life when you suddenly realize the routines you find yourself in are driving you nuts? I'm not talking about family; there is nothing routine about family because they change all the time and always keep me on my toes (in a good way, certainly). I'm talking about work and things we do from day-to-day. For the last fifteen years I've focused on computers. I work with them all day and I'd come home and find new and interesting ways to work with them some more. Technical, step-by-step thinking. I like the technical stuff but there is only so much I can take of routine. How can I change from that? Retool by going back to school? Get a different job? Those just don't work for me right now. Some routines I can't really break out of but by changing track in my interests I can change how I view those dull routines. Since I've taken up photography (granted, it's expensive - but that's what a decent paying job is for) and built my forge I've challenged myself in quite a new way. Photography and blacksmithing both have their wonderful technical side which I quite like but they are also intrinsically artistic; light and angle, bend and form. I'm finding it's quite enjoyable running the extension cord out to the workshop (it's about one hundred feet from the house) and firing up the forge at night when the world is silenced by a thick blanket of snow. The heat and smell of the charcoal and iron is somehow satisfying and comfortable.

I'm now looking at the world in terms of light and form and my normal, routine job doesn't seem quite as mind numbing at the end of the day. Now I just have to make the bag for my bagpipes...

North Forge

2010-11-21T21:57:00.004-08:00

Letter Opener, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

My forge is finally done. Well, mostly. Now I'm finding it needs a whole redesign but I'll worry about that later. At this point it's functional and I don't get totally smoked out when I light it up. The last hurdle I had to get past was some form of fume hood to keep the nasty, thick smoke under control. Initially, I cut and riveted some ridiculous monstrosity which I figured would both control the smoke and the sparks which shoot out at all angles. That was a failure. It caused the smoke to fire directly into my face so badly the shop was uninhabitable. Next, I measured the diameter of the forge and added a few more centimeters then cut some more tin into the form of a large circle which I planned to make into a large hood to catch the smoke. That was a lot of work. In preparation for the fitting of this new, fancy hood I extended the chimney pipe down lower to just above the hearth only to notice that the smoke and sparks flew up the pipe just as it was. It wasn't quite good enough to keep the shop clear but it was close. I scaled back the circle and used only a much smaller square of tin which I slit and made into a rough cone, cut a hole in the center and fitted a coffee can through to be the sleeve to fit over the stove pipe. Yay. It works. It's not perfect but it was enough to allow me to leave the shop door closed for the duration while I finished up the letter opener I was working on.

So I've dubbed it North Forge because it's in the north and it's a forge.

Forged Hook

2010-11-02T20:56:00.002-07:00

Forged Hook, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

Another project I tried my hammer on was this oven mitt hook. It's pretty darn rough but everything I make right now is experimentation. I learn a little each time I try something new.

Plus, you can't beat that nice, warm radiant heat blasting out from the hearth when it's cold out...

Northern Comfort

2010-10-23T12:12:00.002-07:00

Northern Comfort, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I can't really call it splurging when we buy expensive winter cloths for these Yukon winters. The other day, when I dropped the kids off at the bus stop in the morning, I felt a little guilty as they stood shivering in the wind. Today Tanya and I went into town with no plans to buy anything but we came home with a couple of warm pieces of winter garments for the kids. I'll feel a little better about dropping them off in the cold now.

First Real Thing I've Forged

2010-10-19T20:49:00.004-07:00

First Real Thing I've Forged, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I put my forge to actual use tonight. The first couple of times I fired it up I simply pounded out some scraps just to get the hang of the process and to decide what is involved. Tonight I decided to try my hand at a real project (although a small one). Using some scrap iron I scrounged up from the dump the other month when I was hunting for a break drum for the forge hearth, I cut a short length and pounded it out. For now I'm using a carpentry hammer so it takes a while to draw out the iron but it does eventually work. I'm surprised it worked out as well as it did. I'm using a pair of short pliers as the tongs and a chisel to cut the iron when its hot. Bending at sharp, short angles is tough but I managed it.

So far, the name that seems to be most applicable to the forge is Frankenforge. It's cobbled together from odd bits and parts...

I think my next small project is going to be a horse hoof pick for my wife's Norwegian Fjord, Topper.

It Lives!

2010-10-16T19:55:00.004-07:00

Forge Hearth, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I finally got the hearth for my forge fixed up and ready to go so I went to town today and bought the ducting I needed to get the air from the pump to the forge. We got back just as the twilight was turning to a deeper shade of purple but, being who I am, I couldn't wait to assemble it. The kids came out to the shed with me (I need to think of a name for it still - Ironforge (nerd reference), Raven Works, or Black Wing Forge are three drifting around so far) and I fitted the ducting to the hearth and ran it to the electric air pump. I have no power out in the shed so I drove the car over and plugged my small inverter into the lighter socket to provide some basic electricity. I had to shine the car's highbeams into the shed as well for light (still need to build a door jam so I can re-hang the door). I piled some charcoal into the hearth, lit it up and after a few minutes I turned on the blower. It worked! There are still a few things I need to work out, like the chimney (the smoke was pretty thick), how much charcoal to used, light, I need to replace the electric blower with a manual double action bellows, and I need a bit more spark and fire protection laid down around the forge. To test it out I heated up the end of an old mower blade I've been keeping. That worked too. A few hits on the anvil proved that it was softened enough to work with.

I can't wait to really try it out.

Lunch Bags and Theives

2010-09-26T20:56:00.002-07:00

The other day we all woke up to get ready for school and work, groggy and bleary eyed. Breakfast, dressing, brushing teeth. The half hour drive to work was the same; Klondike highway, left onto the Alaska Highway and on into town. The normal routine is to drop off the kids at the college so they can wait for the school bus while I park the car and walk back and give them a hug each. That day, as I locked up the car doors after dropping the kids off I noticed Eli had left is lunch bag in the back seat (a nice, washable lunch bag, made of a neopreen type material) so I grabbed it, happy that I realized he forgot his lunch. The kids were both waiting at the bus stop when I walked back so I hugged them each and handed Eli his lunch.

"Oh." he said. "I guess I forgot it".

At the end of the day, when Eli arrived back at the college he walked into my office and said "I'm hungry 'kuz I couldn't find my lunch".

"What do you mean you couldn't find it? I gave it to you this morning."

"You did?" he said, fully doubting my sanity.

He kind of turned about, obviously thinking and wandered back out of the office. A little while later, when work was done I headed out to collect the kids and there was Eli, eating his sandwich.

"Oh great! You found it!" I said.

"Well...I found my sandwich at the bus stop..." he said around a mouthful of food, "but someone stole my lunch bag and my cake."

That was pretty rotten. Stole his cake. Sheesh! It was chocolate too.

Annual Cycles

2010-09-05T13:23:00.001-07:00

The seasonal line as been drawn again. This line is painted with orange and grey and the brush is made with the feathers of geese and swans as they fly to their southern homes. The world become quieter this time of year and the clock seems to slow in its hourly circle ticking the seconds in un-rhythmic time with the rain drops falling from the eves. All of these annual signs add up to one thing: Eli! Shut the door behind you!

Yup, each spring I train the kids to leave the door open for the fresh air and each fall I need to retrain them to shut the door because it's cold out. The furnace will kick on the element to preheat the chamber then begin blasting it's warm, comforting air through the air ducts while the cold air pours in the front door which the kids have left open as they enter or leave the house. What is so hard about remembering to shut the door when it's cold out I will never know but each year it's the same thing: shut the door!

Re-Forge

2010-09-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Forge update.

No photos yet but I'm creeping along with my forge. I've got a stand worked out for the hearth (I've up-ended an old wood stove which happens to have a hole in it the same size as my breakdrum hearth), I've got my anvil with a decent sized stump and I've found a door (need to put in a new door jam so the door will fit). All that remains is the air pump and pipes for the air feed. I hope to have that setup next weekend. There is no power in the shed so I plan on doing everything the old fashioned way. I'm trying to rebuild an old oil lamp for light (just need the glass for it now) and the air pump will either be a double action bellows (western style) or a double action pump asian style (sort of like a piston). I may need to run a long extension cord for an electric fan until I build myself the bellows. Hopefully I get it all assembled before too long.

Fireweed

2010-08-22T22:28:00.001-07:00

My wife started making fireweed jelly again this year. It's a bit labour intensive but certainly worth it. She has made a few jars of it so far but our son seems to eat it as fast as it's made. She picked a bag of blossoms yesterday with our son and we sat on the deck and started the processing. After we picked off all the blossoms from the stems she then boils it and strains it. It sure smells good in the house while cooking.

I'd Do It Again...

2010-08-19T17:58:00.002-07:00

Two years ago four generations of us walked roughly 192 miles across England in thirteen days. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was hard going; gale force winds, rain, sore muscles. All of it, in the end, added up to some fantastic memories and at the end of the walk I felt great. I've been thinking about that trip a bit more lately and I'm having a hard time believing it was already that long ago. It's hard sitting at a desk job, day in and day out, remembering the open air and expanse of countryside all around me...

80-200mm

2010-08-12T18:05:00.003-07:00

I'm happy as a little photographic clam can be. After much deliberating on what lens to get then waiting until I could afford it (don't ask what the price was) and then impatiently anticipating it's arrival, I've finally gotten my 80-200mm Nikon lens. Yay.

I'm discovering that it's a whole new world of photography with a lens of this caliber. My kit lens (18-105mm) is fine but not of any special quality so some images just don't work because of it. With the new lens it's all up to me. If I do the shot properly it will turn out.

I'm quite satisfied with it.

Anvil

2010-08-11T18:45:00.005-07:00

Here's the anvil in all it's glory. Maybe it's actually just sitting in the unfinished shed on top of my large future firepot...

Some cinder blocks, firebricks and a blower and I'll be ready to go with the forge. I still need to add a door and cover up the broken window.

Flickr changed the way they do things and now I can't find the correct url link back to my photos. I'm blogging through flickr itself which doesn't format the way I like. I'll figure it out at some point.

Return Home

2010-08-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

Back home again. I'm not totally thrilled to be home because it means summer is winding down, and the routines of work/school begin again. I don't do well with routines. On the plus side we had a fantastic trip south. The visit with family and friends was great and the weather couldn't have cooperated any better. Our car even performed admirably and now can claim bragging rights to a ridiculously large odometer reading of 430000km.

Our normal trip south out of the Yukon takes us down the Stuart-Cassiar highway. We left Whitehorse amidst heavy rainfall warnings and light snow at the high elevations through the Stuart-Cassiar. Our return trip was a little different because we had to take the long way home due to the closure of the Cassiar because of fire.

But we are home. We have one less kid though. Our girl stayed down south in Burns Lake for an extended visit with Tanya's family. I miss her a lot; her happy ways, her talk of books and plans and crazy fun with her friends. There was a useful side-effect to her staying down south however. It allowed me to bring home my new-to-me anvil. It's a well used, 160 pounder which Tanya's Grandpa graciously passed on to me. So that's one less thing to try and scrape together for the forge.

We Walked, and Walked...

2010-07-14T22:26:00.002-07:00

We Walked, and Walked..., originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

We certainly walked a lot today. From our hotel along Marine Dr near the Oak Street Bridge we walked up to Cambie Street and along to Queen Elizabeth Park. A total of ten kilometres for the round trip. The park is one of the nicer ones in town with a spectacular view towards city centre. The weather is perfect here too. Not something you find in Vancouver every day.

After we recovered from our long walk we got ready to take Erica to the airport so she could fly off to Calgary to visit her friend. This is her first time flying alone but I think she will be just fine. Tanya took her through into the secure area to make certain she had the correct gate and then left her as she was close to boarding her plane. On the other end she will be picked up by her friend's Mom. I think Erica is going to have loads of fun. Tomorrow it sounds like they will be attending the Calgary Stampede. My little girl is growing up (which is disturbing) but she is getting quite a few experiences in life already. She is such a great kid and I'll miss having her around over this next week.

We are off to Victoria tomorrow.

Family and Moving On

2010-07-12T22:23:00.002-07:00

Crossing from the South Shore, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

We've spent some time visiting family again this summer. Burns Lake and Prince George filled our days and tomorrow morning, bright and early we are heading further south to Victoria. I always forget how much I like B.C. until I come back for a visit, but I never forgot all the wonderful family down here that we don't get to see nearly enough.

Hopefully I can get some nice shots of our trip south through the Cariboo and down into the Frazer Canyon.

The Homestead

2010-07-06T12:50:00.002-07:00

The Homestead, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

I'm remiss in my blog posts because we have been travelling south for holidays and I've put more effort into flickr and my photos (such as they are). Currently, we are in Burns Lake were the sun is finally warming the air. As we drove south the wind and rain followed us and we even skirted the snow as we topped Gnat Pass on the Stuart-Cassiar. But finally, sun.

On Sunday a bunch of us (twelve) headed out to the old homestead on Ootsa Lake where Tanya's grandma Alice did some growing up. It was begun in about 1910 but they were forced to move when Alcan gave them a "fair price" when the lake was flooded for a hydro project. The old house is still standing but his slowly developing a lean, and has been home to foxes and other small animals for years now. The view over the lake is spectacular but the wind blowing off the water is enough to cause the eyes to tear.

Tomorrow we will be heading off to Prince George to visit my family for a few days.

There is a Bed in the Car

2010-06-27T19:07:00.002-07:00

There is a Bed in the Car, originally uploaded by Dar Moorhouse.

Eli's new (to him) bed has arrived home. He's pretty excited about it because it's rather like a bunk bed but below is a fold out couch/bed combo. So the majority of the time Eli will have his very own couch to lounge on and play his Nintendo DS (when we allow him to play it). His old bed was made of that evil particleboard and was beginning to fall apart. I'm pretty amazed that I managed to fit the whole darn bed in the Neon; two mattresses in the trunk with a few rails and the rest of the frame on the roof rack. We used zip ties to secure most of the bundle and two sinch straps for extra security. Worked a charm.

Airport Walk

2010-06-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

I've driven past the airport numerous times and I keep telling myself "I have to go for a walk around that trail". Well it was just so nice out today and I was just so sick of being at home that I decided to drive into town with Eli (Erica has a cold and has to study, poor kid) and go for that walk. Glad we did. The perimeter path skirts the edge of the security fence but once it approaches the clay cliffs which dominate the skyline along the western edge of town, it branches out into the trees to wind it's way to the cliff edge. We wandered all through that area and took advantage of the warm sun and great view over the town. We also had fun watching the airplanes taking off and landing in turns; some big jets and some small cessnas.

I have to go back again when the sun is much lower in the sky and try to get some nice shots of the city and mountains together.

Rocket Science

2010-06-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a letter I sent to NASA just the other day...

-------------------
Hello,

Back in 1970 or 1971 I received a letter from NASA thanking me for my contribution to the Apollo Program (I think it was). The letter in question was lost many years ago so I have no further information about it. The strange thing is I was born in 1967 so this would have made me a rather young member of any Apollo Program.

How would I go about finding information about this?

Thanks for your help is this curious matter.
------------------

I wonder if they will ever answer my query...

Computer History

2010-06-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

I found a piece of computer history the other day at work. We went on a major cleaning spree to try and clear out junk from our office space to make room for future junk storage. Amongst some of that old junk were boxes of books ("The Complete Reference to the Internet", "How to Use Windows 3.1") and even some CD's packed in with them. Being curious I started to search through the books and software and found a CD of Open Linux from Caldera. This particular version (2.2) dates back to about 1999 when Linux was still young and mostly unheard of. Caldera was just one of the players out there who adopted Linux and tried to market it to the business world but never really got anywhere with it. They were just one of those companies I was aware of, neither good nor bad, just kind of there. One day, however, they decided that they owned Linux and all others were in violation of their lisencing. And so Evil Caldera was born. The company existed simply to sue and their brand of Linux became a lackluster product.

Strange Connections

2010-06-14T20:32:00.002-07:00

What have fence posts got to do with changing a flat tire? It all started when Tanya and Eli went out to play two person baseball (with a stick and a rubber ball) and Tanya noticed our car had a flat tire. I put down my book (The Skystone by Jack White) and went out to swap the tire with the spare I've got all ready just for this kind of situation. I'm just so darn prepared. Lug nut one loosened easily as did number two. The third jammed, as did the fourth and fifth. This looked bad. I got my proper tire iron out and tried. It bent. I got my other tire iron out. It started to strip the outside of the lug nut so I stopped. I figured if I had good enough leverage I could do it. I started wandering around the property and noticed a hollow metal pipe used as a fence post (at least it used to be used for one when the chicken coop was in operation and maintained properly). I checked and it was pretty loose in the ground so I yanked it out. Yup, it was hollow. I took it over to the car, stuck in on the tire iron to extend the handle and yanked. Pop. The lug nut released! So I tried it on the other ones and they too came free. Whew. That saved a tow truck bill. I then went over to get the spare tire and remembered it needed to have the mud cleaned off it from last fall or the wheel would be all out of balance. I also remembered that the filter in the well needed changing because the trickle that came out of the hose wouldn't clean even a speck of dust. So I had to jump down into the well housing and replace the filter. After that I got the tire cleaned up and put it back onto the car. Whew. What a strange series of events I had to run through just to change the tire. After all that I don't feel like getting a picture of the tire...

Weather Change

2010-06-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

The weather has shifted a bit up here in the north. We've had blue sky and warm sun for the past three weeks or so and I've enjoyed every minute of it. A couple of days ago the winds shifted and increased in strength and today it's blowing so hard I can use it's force to aerobrake with the car. A few badly needed rain storms have washed over us in the last two or three days as well.

Yukon Cycles

2010-06-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

The Yukon can be a land of cycles and extremes. From year to year you never know what is going to happen. Five years ago when we first moved here there were so many wasps we couldn't even go outside without having them fly into our food and our faces. They built nests everywhere, even one on our power meter. Every year after that it's been something new; dogwood seeds blowing in the wind so thick they created small dogwood seed vortices in the wind; another year it was grasshoppers so thick they jumped out in waves as we walked through the tall grasses. This year the wasps are back. Not as thick as previously but still a nuisance. One bonus is they make really cool homes. I've always been fascinated by wasp home building. They scrape off bits of wood and chew it up to create a type of paper and somehow, amazingly, they build spherical nests. Inside these nests is a small honeycomb shaped dome in which they lay their eggs. This particular nest was fifteen feet up a tree which I scaled to retrieve. The tree was pretty thin and Eli couldn't believe I made it up. I was thinking I should collect up some more (I know where to find at least ten) and make a mobile to hang from the kids ceiling...

Erica and Topper

2010-06-04T12:39:00.000-07:00

Today my girl turns fifteen and part of her birthday is attending a weekend Horse Camp out by Takhini Hotsprings. Yesterday Tanya had arrangements to transport Topper from North Forks out to Takhini so he could take part in the camp as well. After Tanya got Topper out there we all headed out there last evening to go see him in his new weekend digs (Eli crammed in the back seat with the hay for Topper). Erica with her new riding boots, was already there helping out and hanging with the other girls. We all leaned against the fence and watched the fun as the horses began to fight for their social positions. A normally gentle horse like Topper can get pretty aggressive in situations like that.

Erica gets to skip school today as part of the deal but I don't think she fully appreciates that it's going to be a lot of hard work this weekend. Hope she has a great birthday today!

Rack This

2010-06-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Erica's friend is moving and her Mom had a garage sale. I spotted two wooden racks amongst the things to be gotten rid of and picked them up for a total of $20. I got them home, reassembled them with the help of my boy dragged them into the boot room and looked at the mess I had to organize. It took a while to unhook the computers and network equipment and to untangle the massive ball of wires which had gotten steadily worse over the last few years. Dust everywhere. After some amount of time cleaning I re-racked it all into it's new home and now things look much nicer. I've even reclaimed a substantial amount of square footage which is at a premium in my place.

The next thing I need to do is run some network cable under the floor and do a proper punch-down into a proper panel. I don't have much equipment (compared to a real server room) but even a handful of wires turns into a clutter pretty darn fast.

Erica's Birthday Party

2010-05-30T09:27:00.001-07:00

Erica's party was a success yesterday. She quite enjoyed it and so did her friends (judging by the laughing and giggling going on). Erica kept complaining that she has never gotten a rose so one of her friends brought one for her birthday. So at ten o'clock last night when the sun began to set I got this photo of Erica and her rose...

Eli's Birthday Present and Erica's Mystery Dinner

2010-05-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

Eli got a guitar for his birthday. I kept forgetting to post a photo of it so here it is. Next up, Erica's birthday! She's having her party tomorrow with a "mystery dinner" for the main attraction. The theme is ancient Greek and Egyptian. This should be interesting...

Photo Experiment

2010-05-28T08:10:00.001-07:00

I was experimenting with a concept I saw used. While using a slower shutter speed move the camera. Wow, simple. The effect is kind of interesting.

A Few Bugs

2010-05-25T18:27:00.001-07:00

We walked along Lake Lebarge yesterday afternoon just to get out and enjoy the weather. While I walked I saw a haze in the distance and thinking it was just some dust we continued on. Somewhat closer I suddenly realized it was bugs; lots of bugs. This picture doesn't do it justice but it's still pretty buggy looking.

Kluane the little shitzu

2010-05-23T13:51:00.002-07:00

Friends of ours were heading out on a short holiday and needed some doggy-sitting. Erica was pretty quick to volunteer, so for this next week we have two kids, two dogs and the lone, out-numbered-feeling cat. We had better take good care of Kluane or we might be in real shitzu...

Happy Birthday

2010-05-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Four eleven year old boys at Boston Pizza. The first boy says "ewwwww!" the second boy says "BURP!!", the third boy laughs loudly and the last boy slops pizza down his shirt. It was a roaring success.

Happy Birthday.

Sun, Leaves and Eli's Birthday

2010-05-20T21:21:00.003-07:00

Spring has sure started here in the Yukon. Maybe even more like summer. The sun is out, few clouds in the sky, warmth and green everywhere. Small flying bugs have suddenly appeared today and they are so thick it looks like snow in the evening sun.

It's supposed to be perfect weather for the next week or so and it couldn't happen at a better time. Tomorrow our boy turns eleven. Wow. He wants to spend some of it outside with his friends at the park and by the looks of things it will be another amazing day tomorrow.

Eli and I waited again at the College for Tanya to pick us up and she seemed to take an eternity (an hour and a half). The weather was really nice but it's sure a dull job waiting around after work. She finally showed. Arg why was she late? I'm so sick of waiting... What, you got me beer? Oh never mind about being late....

Banking at the Free Store

2010-05-19T18:19:00.001-07:00

Another strange thing happened over this last weekend. On Sunday, before I went to help out with the bikini photo shoot, we took a load of garbage to the dump. The only fun thing about going to the dump is the Free Store. The so-called store is simply a shed in which can be dumped items which people can't sell or aren't quite ready for disposal. These are then free for the taking by anyone who can find a use for it. Most days there is nothing but true junk in there, but some days one can find a little gem or two. It must have been a busy garage sale weekend because the little shed was brimming over with stuff; treadmills, cloths, books, hoses, broken dishes...and an Interac machine. That last thing made me look twice because I didn't recognize it at first. I waffled over whether I should take it or not because I figured it won't be working if it was in the Free Store. In the end (was there any doubt?) I took it home with me. Normally we use these card readers in stores without thinking much about them. They are mostly innocuous little things that perform their function most of the time and we move on. But what are they really? It turns out they are pretty complex. They boot their own operating system, have a tcp/ip stack, serial communication, modem, tftp service, and a few other things I never imagined. I figured out how to reboot it and bypass the operating system to get into the hidden menus to change lower level functions. Pretty cool stuff. The only not so cool thing was I could pull up the last transaction the debt machine made along with the merchant who owned it and a few other details. Yikes. What was that guy thinking? I've since cleared out those details and reset the passwords I managed to crack. As a side note the biggest dollar amount the debit machine would let me enter was $99999.99. I felt like a real high-roller when the receipt printed out ("transaction failed"). Now I have to figure out what I can use it for...

The Romanians

2010-05-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is a tale of secrecy, nefarious deeds and international intrigue. It started a few years ago when someone innocently gave me a specialized modem which allowed me to setup a home phone exchange system (PBX) using Asterisk. Oh the possibilities. The fun I could have. I imagined taking my phone system and linking it to my home network and through the use of IP phones and soft-phones I could extend my phone system to any location on the planet as long as I had an internet connection. After a bit of work I got it going. I even got to test it out when we traveled for a month through the UK and I could phone home with never a long distance charge. Another nice feature of my PBX is it can answer the phone for me when I'm not home and email me the voice message. What more could I ask for? My rosy outlook on the home PBX system changed last week. We got home around 5pm as usual and Tanya picked up the phone to make a call.

"How come the phone is on hold?" she asked.

"Let me hear". I took the phone and listened to the hold music. Uh oh. It's the music I would expect to hear from my computer system.

"Hang on. I'll check" I said. I unplugged the phone line from the back of the computer to disconnect whatever was happening and sure enough the modem reset the line and the phone worked again.

I started to check into what could have happened by logging into my phone server and poking through the log files. There it was; hundreds of user name/password attempts against my machine from two IP addresses I don't know. At some point, early in the wee hours of the morning they gained access (on two occasions) and began placing calls which traced back to Romania (near Bucharest as far as I can tell). One IP address originated in Romania as well while the other was from a computer based in China. Probably the same guy or organization. The calls most likely were spam calls attempting to gain personal information from unsuspecting Romanians. What seems to have been the downfall of these nefarious internet gangsters is the simple fact that phone service out of the Yukon is miserable. This is the one time that I've been happy about that. I even phoned up the phone company today to check into my bill and it might even be that we've gotten off this time with no damages. Whew. I guess our final bill will tell at the end of this billing period.

Since I'm one to learn from things like this, I've since rotated my passwords to greater than twelve digits and instituted what's known as geoblocking. Geoblocking is adding firewall rules which effectively block entire geographical areas (like Romania and China). I've even blocked Russia today because yet another hit was registered on my machine. All of this VOIP hacking behaviour is pretty new. I've never seen it nor recorded it in all the time I've been running this system. Pretty scary. I'll be watching my system quite closely now for the next while and adding even more security to stop those nasty scammers.

Another Photo Shoot

2010-05-17T10:33:00.001-07:00

I went out to the Carcross Desert yesterday to help a friend with a photo shoot. The theme was bikinis and climate change (for a magazine). That would have been fine if it wasn't the Yukon in May. The weather was great with blue skies and a warm sun but the wind was strong and cold. My job was mainly to hold the light reflector which was far more like a sail than anything else. While I was fighting to hold the reflector steady the girls in their bikinis were all but shivering. They took it in turns to get the shots done while the other would warm up as best as possible. I took some shots of the Carcross Desert when I could but I'm still going to have to go back out there again and take my time at it, especially when summer really starts here.

Awesomeness

2010-05-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Our girl has a word she uses a lot; awesome. This is awesome, that is awesome, everything is awesome. So, today Erica is awesome on an awesome sunny afternoon. What an awesome photo...

The War

2010-05-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Normally I don't pick sides in this war but I just had to post this one. This was found in the back of the Electrical Lab - put there, I'm assuming, by an environmentally conscious employee (you know, reuse, reduce, recycle). In case you must know, I'm a Linux user...

Rusting Art

2010-05-13T18:50:00.001-07:00

This big, pointy thing is a prominent feature in front of the College. Every day after work while the kids and I are waiting for Tanya to pick us up I see this thing. I've never figured out the significance of the shape but the technical challenge of welding it together hasn't escaped me. Eli was running about the slowly greening grass and I was wandering around to kill some time so I decided to take a photo of it. Sun behind and my pop-up flash set to about -1 seems to have worked. I toned mapped it a bit to make it look some what funky. There is a tiny plaque under one of the spines which states something to the effect that it was a couple of guys from the 1972 welding class who created it.

Renovations Required

2010-05-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

This is where I'll be putting the forge when I get it up and running. It might need a bit of renovating before it's a usable corner. I tried lighting a fire in the stove a couple of years ago and noticed flames shooting out of the corroded back. I decided not to use it any more. I'll yank the old stove out and attach some form of fume hood to the pipe and lay down a bit of tin on the floor to keep the sparks off the wood. I might even sweep a bit...

Forge

2010-05-11T12:20:00.004-07:00

I've had it in the back of my mind for a few years now to build a forge. They are simple enough to build but they require a bit of space and I've never really thought our car was any use for hauling scrap iron. Now that we are getting a truck I feel it's high time I give 'er a shot. I was trying to decide whether I should build a gas forge or a charcoal forge and for a while I had settled on the former because of its ease of use. I didn't want to deal with sourcing charcoal. I was talking with a friend of mine about this plan and he said "oh that's simple. Use briquettes!". Now why the heck didn't I think of that elegant solution? The added bonus to a charcoal forge is that it's even simpler to build. So that part is settled; I'm building a charcoal forge.

I started off with a desire to go into Archaeology for a career but the arrival of my girl those fourteen years ago changed my plans (just as my first gig in the field was offered to me) but I've never lost my fascination for all things old. Archaeometallurgy is still something I'm interested in and a forge is a cool way to bring the past into the present and make it tangible. Another incentive is that I hate the cold but I love the outdoors. Odd that I hate the cold and live in the Yukon. There is a small shed near our house which I plan to convert into more than a leaking storage shed. It's small enough that once I have a forge in place it will kick out quite a bit of heat so even in the dead of winter, once fired, I'll be plenty warm.

There is a certain beauty to hand-forged iron and those items can be both functional and artistic. I'll start simple by forging my own tools and work my way up to home fixtures like cabinet hinges, light switch covers and maybe when I'm much better I'll try my hand at knives. It'll be nice to have something to do in the winter which gets me out of the house. But in the meantime the shed is a mess (stuffed with electronic junk which needs to go to the dump), I don't have a truck and I haven't built the forge yet. I guess I'll start with getting a truck and go on from there.

Are We There Yet?

2010-05-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Still doesn't quit seem like spring when I wake up and see a thick frost on everything. It looks nice but I'm pretty sick of water being in any frozen state besides ice cubes in a cold drink...

Rust Removal

2010-05-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

The angle grinder with a wire disk is sure great for stripping paint. We started off on the old car because it has more rust than paint and we figured it would be a good place to start for a bit of practice first. It worked quite well on the Neon once I got the feel for it. I stripped a spot and ground away the rust to find it had corroded right through the panel so now we will have to get some fill to fix the hole. That's too bad. I'll do the best I can on it to stave off the rust from getting worse but I won't bother getting too advanced. I hope the car lasts another year or two. I'd love to see it get to 500000 kms ...

Yard Work

2010-05-08T13:33:00.001-07:00

Our lawn mower conked out two summers ago and all last year we kept putting off buying another one. A couple of weeks ago Tanya was listening to Trader Time as she was driving to work and some guy over in River Dale was advertising a couple of old mowers he wanted to get rid of. So, after work that same day, we found his place and he showed us the mowers. We looked at this one and he said "make me an offer". I hummed and hawed and was just about to say "50 bucks?" but he beat me to it and said "how 'bout 20?". Deal! We got it home, replaced the blade and she works even better than our old one ever did. It mulched its way through two years of old grass growth and small poplar saplings which had started to spring up in the back of our place.

I also like how the raven snuck into this photo.

The Grind

2010-05-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Our car just passed 414000kms. That's not a small number. In fact, that's a big number when it comes to cars. Right now it has few problems except rust and that can be found only in two small spots bubbling up below the paint. In an attempt to remedy this problem we went to Canadian Tire and bought an angle grinder with the plan that I would grind out the rust spots. What I didn't realize is the grinder is a real cool tool. 14000 rpms of pure grinding power. Oh ya. It was only about 60 bucks and came with a number of grinding/cutting disks for metal and rock. What can't I do with those? Cutting metal is pretty cool on it's own but now I can cut rocks! I'm also thinking that I have never done any body work on a car. I think that I might just need to go back to Canadian Tire and buy some proper grinding disks for body work because I'd rather not have chunks of metal from my car lying about my feet. I guess I'll just learn as I go (I do that at work a lot so I'm used to it). I'll try and get some pictures of the fun.

Lebarge Panorama I Need To Redo

2010-05-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

I took this panorama about 3 years ago with my old Fuji camera while standing at the campground by Lake Lebarge. I got the horizon a bit skewed, you can see the splice lines and numerous other things that drive me nuts when I look at it. I'll try and go back out and do a proper pano with the D90.

Eagle's Watch

2010-05-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

This young eagle sat watch over the pump house pond behind the college. He was a bit beyond the range of my lens for me to get a good shot of him but he posed so nicely for me that I decided to post his photo anyway. I couldn't even out the clouds without blowing out the contrast for the whole photo so I just fixed it up enough to see the eagle clearly. Any more of a crop and the whole thing would be a big blur of pixels.

Some Stuff

2010-05-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

It was pretty cold this morning; frosty and sunny at the same time. The light was sparkling off everything. I tried to get a shot of it but it didn't turn out so I tried to make the photo look a bit frosty and cold. Not sure if it worked...

I also found a couple of Yukon related sites. Urban Yukon is an aggregation of Yukon based blogs and the Yukon Photographers is, well, a site for Yukon photographers.

Urban Yukon

Yukon Photographers

Spring Snow

2010-05-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

The snow started sunday night and didn't stop falling until monday afternoon. Nobody was impressed. Most of us in the Yukon keep our winter tires on until at least half way through May at least because you just never know. Almost all of the snow is gone today.

More Signs of Spring

2010-05-02T17:48:00.001-07:00

Despite getting snowed on today, Tanya and I saw some more signs of spring while we were walking. The first flowers out in the Yukon each year are the crocuses. They pop out just at the end of April and begin to go crazy through the beginning of May. These were growing by the dusty roadside along the barbed wire fence.

While the crocuses are popping up it looks like the trees are being lopped down by an over-zealous beaver along the river. A spot near this big tree had a large number of smaller poplars lopped down and hauled off by the beaver. Further down the bank s/he had chewed down a few and just left them. Maybe the beaver was on a smoke break.

We woke up to snow covering the ground this morning. It sublimated directly to a whispy mist as soon as the sun touched it. The clouds drifted in from the south and obscured the warmth so in some places the snow lingered along the roads and under the trees until early afternoon. A few flurries have been floating around since then. I'm happy to say the snow isn't lasting though.

Young Author

2010-05-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

A photo of our Young Author collecting her award for the script she wrote. Tanya got a call at work saying "her son" had won an award and to come to the presenting if possible. Needless to say this was a bit confusing because our son wasn't in any young author's conference that we were aware of. But Tanya made a guess (and was correct) that they had spelled Erica as Eric. Unfortunately she had to give her award back to be re-engraved.

Great job Erica!

Early Morning Sun

2010-05-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

The days are getting longer and warmer and the buds on the trees are starting to pop finally. We leave early for work/school each morning and by then the sun is up and usually shining brightly fairly high over the eastern mountains. It was back lighting the trees yesterday morning and I tried to get a shot of the effect. Not sure if I like the photo or not. I breathed on the lens to fog it up a bit so the sun would diffuse across it.

By The Fire

2010-04-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

While I'm waiting for my flickr upgrade so I can add more images you can watch this little video I quickly made up yesterday. I'm just trying to learn the limits of my camera and figure out a few basic techniques for video...

By The Fire (there is audio too)

Last Year's Colours

2010-04-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Eli and I had another fire this evening and as we sat by the warm glow the sun began to set. It cast long shadows and a warm light through the trees and lit some of the grasses and plants from last summer. Away from the fire the air was quite cool but by the fire the heat kept us warm and comfortable and we talked until past my boy's bedtime. Yet another good day.

Ice

2010-04-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

It hailed today while Eli and I went out walking. We walked across the ice on the river shore, kicking it into a million crystal shards. As the hail fell it settled on into the ice; whiter specks against the old, sun-dimpled ice.

Variation

2010-04-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

A variation of last night's photo with some texture added. Now it looks more like a painting.

Paint The Evening Sky

2010-04-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Just as the sun dipped behind the hills the sky lit up. It was cooler today than yesterday and the wind had been blowing all day. Rain had been threatening earlier in great, black clouds. Those same clouds broke not too long ago and the sun painted them spectacular evening colours as it fell.

By The Fire

2010-04-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

Eli and I made the most of it yesterday. We went for a walk, had a picnic outside and then finished the day off by the fire under slowly darkening skies. We both didn't want to go in even though it was well past Eli's bedtime. The crescent moon had risen quite high by the time the fire burned low and I figured we should head back in. It was a nice day yesterday.

Signs of Spring

2010-04-19T19:04:00.001-07:00

Went down to the river again today to watch the swans resting along the ice-stewn shores. On the way down we saw our first butterfly, our first robins, squawking seaguls and felt an actual warm breeze. Whew. Spring is finally here.

Last week the river was frozen solid but today it's running free but the shore is still covered in huge, cracked slabs of crystallizing ice. It's always fun along the water this time of year.

Returning Home

2010-04-18T16:28:00.005-07:00

The swans are returning home. Tanya and I went out to Swan Haven to see them in their thousands and the racket they make is amazing. The ice has cleared from Marsh Lake enough for the swans to land on the open waters and rest before flying further northwards. It's hard to approach them because they are quite far from shore where it's unsafe to walk. I did manage to catch a pair flying over head.

The original image was quite flat and boring so I added a lomo-like effect which is supposed to emulate an old Russian camera called the Holga.

Rough video of the swans. Make sure you have some audio :
Swan Haven video

Topper, By Eli

2010-04-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Tanya and Eli went out to visit Topper for a while last night and I told Eli he could take the old camera with him. When they came home he handed me the camera and went to bed. I looked at the photos a little while later and found this one. I blended a texture in with it to try it out and some slight tone-mapping and this was the result. I couldn't quite bring out Topper's eye for the deep brown but it's still a cute picture taken by Eli - all by himself.

Cool Ride

2010-04-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

The kids and I waited after work for Tanya to come and pick us up. She was coaching badminton so we had to kill some time until her arrival. Eli had his cool truck with him and he was playing with it outside in the warming weather. It looked like an interesting picture when he put it atop a cement and stone wall so I snapped a couple and this one kind of turned out.

Feathered Ice

2010-04-14T13:07:00.003-07:00

When we wake up in the morning the temperature is usually hovering at about -4C. That's when a crust of ice forms on the puddles and some of it looks etched and feathered.

Going For A Walk

2010-04-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk down to the river again because I wanted to see if it's begun to melt yet. The river was frozen still but we seem to have found a lake in our driveway. Lake Eli is even bigger than it was a couple of days ago.

Shadows on Snow

2010-04-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Spring still seems like a long way off. The sun does warm the ground, and Lake Eli is forming quite nicely in our driveway, but there is still enough snow on the ground that it makes walking difficult and cold on the feet. The back of our lot is full of small poplar trees; dense and spindly which cast long shadows across the crystallizing snow. I've been playing around with black and white so I thought I'd try to catch a picture of it. Not sure if it worked out well or not.

Sunny Day by Lake Eli

2010-04-10T22:12:00.001-07:00

Every year, when the sun warms up enough, the snows begin to melt and pool into the ruts of our long driveway. And every year Lake Eli forms. We went out later in the afternoon to play around in the murky waters of the Lake and I tried out a few shots with my camera. The barn in the back of the property faces south so the sun warms up the wall of it quite a bit. The flies start to buzz around its surface earlier in the year than any other place.

By The River

2010-04-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Eli and I wandered down to the river today again. Two days ago the snow started to fall and didn't stop until last night. Today, however, the clouds are gone and the sky is bright blue. There are few signs of spring right now besides a bit of warmth in the sun and some pussy willows popping out on the less patient trees.