News Flash

This news may in fact be a week old but still.

After some waiting I got a letter it said that I got into BCIT's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Advanced diploma program. YAY me. This is a bit of a kick in the pants, now I have till the end of August to learn some programing theory and build the contacts I need to make the best of the Coop elements of the program. On top of that I have to find the money to make that work and find a place in Burnaby to stay for the 9 months of the program. At the end of it I will have a solid technical skill set to add to my Earth Science back ground and tools that will allow me to get into jobs where living in camp needs not be my main means.

I have had a long 6-8 months of stagnation, Now I have 3 months to get a lot of thing in order. Now I know they are really an ordinary amount of things that need to be done but I have been doing too little for so long that it feels like lots.

Now it has been reported to me that a reader was threatening to not follow this blog if I don't get a new camera, well I am sorry to say but you may have to stop following for some time. I can not get a camera with less control then my old G9 had and I can not afford the camera that would be a real replacement. My current candidate camera is the Canon Rebel EXsi or some thing like that. The body plus 2 lens as a kit runs about $1000. I want but can not have. It is now a goal a longer term one to gain employment so I can get this camera or one like it and the lens of my choice without as the case will be as I face moving to the coast having to be restricted in spending. As was also pointed out on a recent trip I can not eat a camera.

Also if any bloggies out there know of any other interesting cameras I would like to know. My knowledge of Digital SLR's is weak and I have much to learn before I can start playing with the big guns.

Optics OOPDate

Greetings bloggies

Having just returned from a trip to Nelson and a stay at an undisclosed location, I have tried to boot up my G9. It has spent the last several days in a bath of cheap white rice. Rice was recommended to me as a medium which could dry out the machine with out the corrosive effects of salt. Believing that the G9 had dried out enough to be bootable I popped in a spare battery. It did power up, partly, but only basic options came online, the critical event failed to happen, the lens did not extend. I fear that the motor driving lens is dead. Other signs point to its being Dead Dead, and it will not recover like Wesley, under the care of Billy Crystal. Its death is illuminated by the failure of it to reboot after I removed the battery and reinserted it. Th battery also showed that there might be some warping in the body of the camera, as the battery failed to pop out cleanly as it should have.

I am also not pleased by the slow production on my glasses, my trip to Nelson stems from my need to get new glasses, quickly. Had I not lost my non sunglasses, I would have held off getting new optics as I had no need, and could have waited for a pair to arrive by means of the internets discount options.




The New Glasses, via my comps web cam

Pointless Factoid

I think it is safe to say that May is now then most successful month for this blog. May now has the most comments on the more posts then any other month.

Lost and Found

Greetings.

I was not ready to give up on the camera. I knew I had a chance to find it. I had a reasonable idea of where to find it and some idea of how to get out of the water. Yesterday evening I ran out of energy and motivation. Today I went back, I got to the lake near 10am and the water was calm and clear I had a chance.



I made a few passes over the area, I was trying to use the hull to block the worst of the waves and improve the view. My break through came when I spotted an area that looked like it had been trampled. There were other areas where the much had been broken up perhaps by ducks and loons but here it was foot print sized holes.



It was hard to keep Wessel moving slowly over the area. Wessel wants to move fast. Circling that area did not show me any thing, if the camera was down there it was covered in muck. So I went for a chance of tactic. I started with probing the muck with the paddle in the hope of feeling the camera. That did not work. I might have felt some thing hard but could not tell. I took gamble, I swished the paddle side to side like a big fan. I stirred up the muck. This caused me to drift sideways, over the foot print trampled muck. As the water cleared I paddled back to the start of my sweeping path. There it was pocking out from the drifting above the muck, a black camera strap.

I reached out and managed to get a weak hold of the strap, I dropped after I brought it up the surface. The second trip was a miss but the third try, I got the paddle clean through the strap and it was a peace of cake afterwards. No sign of my glasses, they are much smaller and lack a floating element short of snorkeling over that area extensively they are gone.



Now the camera is drying out. I don't know if I can get it working again. I also doubt that even if I can get it working will it have the same quality. I always loved that camera for its clear images, all that muck in its guts could cause damage beyond repair. Money being what it is I can not move to replace that item. I am going to get what I can out of my old little Nikon, and when things clear up and money flows in again I will take my time and look into getting a DSLR.



I will treat you folks to the photos dredged up from the depths, (<5 feet).

Note, all photos today are from the SD card recovered from my camera. They represent possibly the last good photos it will take. For I fear that any photos taken after will not be as clear due to muck and possible scratches.

Wet Exit

A some what less cheerful greeting to my 6 or 7 readers.

Today had turned into a beautiful sunny day after a cool over cast start. I had gotten off to a good start trimming an huge and evil looking hawthorn bush in the garden and splitting some firewood. Later in the afternoon I wanted to enjoy the summerness of the day so I loaded Wessel on to Serenity and had a quick snack before heading off to a lake. I chose Box lake, a little puddle where I have traditionally had my first swim of the year, usually on the May long weekend.

The camp site was busy. I unloaded the boat and headed to the up stream end of the lake where a medium sized creek flows in. I had wanted to check out the mouth that creek. Last time I was on box lake the water level was too low to make approaching that point doable. Today it was a little better, though I found my self in an interesting medium. As I got into the very shallow area, trying to get in close enough to get a good photo of skunk cabbage I found the resistance of the boat was going up. The muck at that end of the lake is so soft and deep that my hull was being driven into it and I could hardly tell when it started and the free water began. That was the case until I tried to back out of that spot. The stern is not as smooth and point as the bow and it had to plow through the muck. Naturally in trying to leave that area of the lake I find myself in the shallowest muck in the lake. It was brut force to get out of mess. Wessel's hull was in the muck, it forcing me have to jam the paddle into the muck to get moving.




That should have been the most interesting part of that trip. After I got out in to more open water I stayed near the shore and aimed at some water lilies, they were not flowering yet. I had wanted to get some nice photos of the lilies. After I took a few with my camera I put it way. A few minuets later I reached back into my water proof pelican case strapped securely to the deck. I was reaching for my phone which was riding a long with my camera, I fumbled. The phone flipped out of my right hand and my left hand tried to reach for it. I missed it and in a fit of pure smrts I reached into the water to try to grab my phone. I over reached.

In a mater of seconds I found my self upside down in the water. I had my spray skirt on to keep me warm and dry. The skirt also locks me into boat. I could not role, I have not learned how to do that. I managed to reach up and get a breath of air. I was then back underwater. I remembered in a bit of panicked state managed to reach grabbing blindly for the emergency quick pull core and rip the spray skirt free. In the seconds that followed several things happened at once.

Here is the break down of those seconds. The life vest pulled me to the surface, my hat may have been sheared off seconds before that, the float in it pulled it off my head with some aggression. I also felt my glasses slip off the vest pulled me up strongly and the fast flowing water by my face dislodged them. In this spinning mess I managed to grab the phone. I came up and after I got some air in me had an oh shit moment. My phone could be retrieved because it was shinny.

With the not dying and drowning out of the way I quickly realized that my camera had jumped ship. I never had the chance close the case over the camera, it sank. The water there was chest deep. I could touch bottom. I padded about trying to feel for my camera. It actually took me a while to notice that my glasses were missing. I could not find either item.

Having decided to stop looking for my lost goods I faced a new issue, I was near the shore but a long slog through icky muck. I chose to try a new trick, I tried to get back in to the boat. It took a few tries, I had read that you can get back into a kayak if you climb on to the back of the boat and lower your legs into the cock pit. Having read that did not make it easy. Scrambling up onto to rear deck was not easy, first time I tried climbing up on to the cockpit and got my life vest stuck. I was able to get on to the back of Wessel and fall off. I was then able to get on and get part way into the cockpit before I found myself sitting on the back of the seat. To fix that I managed to fall out again. Eventually I was able to get on to Wessel from farther behind, move the over the seat settle back in the boat. I now know that the pump I picked up with the boat works find.



I paddled quickly back to the dock and grabbed my sun glasses from Serenity. I had hoped that the time it would take me to travel back there would let the muck settle and I could have a fighting chance to find my camera. I tried boy did I try to find it. I but before I did I managed to find my hat. It was a drift and had blown up next to a water lilly and had gotten stuck there. I spent the better part of the nest hour and a half drifting over that area of the lake and not seeing any thing.

All in all it was an expensive trip. I have lost my favorite camera, my G9 is drowned, I have doubts that even if I do find it, could it be brought back to life?. I also lost my non sunglasses glasses. There is an irony here that does not escape me. Last week I made a trip to Nelson, I was two and a half years, on my current glasses, and I have a history of my eyes weakening over that time. So I was relieved after that visit that my eyes had not worsened over that time and I had no need to replace my glasses. Now I am forced to jump on getting new optics.

I am not sure what I want to do about the camera yet, I might go back to the lake tomorrow just to have a look. Perhaps I could spot it with better light and calmer waters, I think I lost my camera at one of the roughest patches of water on an other wise calm lake. I can get my old nikon back online but its not reliable and I will miss the control. I do doubt that I will be able to bring the camera back to life but I would like to bring it back for I think that the SD card could still hold the photos and be recovered. I am almost more pissed off at the lose of images then I am the lose of the camera.

It was not until after I got a shore that I noted the scrapes on my ankle and a possible leach bit on the right foot.
All the Box lake images here are from last falls trip to the lake with wessel.

Some Else's Road Trip III

Hello Bloggies.

The mystery traveling source has fed me some new photos from remote and exotic locals. The latest news comes from on the road to Saskatoon SK, from the rectangular province from the center of socialism and potash. So here is some fancy buildings, some bison in a place named after elk, a cat, not that I like cats.






Who is the pretty beasty



What is with all these cats, they are blogging themselves, their little paws can type like you would never believe. i can haz blugg, KaTT Likes Interwebz.

A Days Work

Greetings.

I know I have a larger agenda to be working towards but as I get irritated with life when I produce nothing. As part of a project that has been on the books for much of winter and as a healthy thing to do. With a little cleverness some hard work and scrap wood I built a hand full of squared off raised beds for mothers gardens. They lack the seaming invincibility of the bolted together galvinazed steel beds I have seen at one goat ridden hill side plot to the south of here. Building something by means of scrap wood and hammer and nails has its troubles. Non of the wood scraps are the same length and slabs of smaller scraps of wood were needed to link the main planks. It was in linking up some irregular scraps that I managed to bang my thumb.

It was a rather silly way to bang my thumb, I was holding two planks together with my left hand and banging a nail with the right. I told my self don't hit my thumb don't hit my thumb. That worked the first time I swung the hammer and the second time the full force of my swing missed the nail and met up with my thumb. My hand was fairly far away from the nail, I must have had my thumb on my mind. It hurt. I am not one to cry about all the little hurts and bangs scrapes. This is both above average and photogenic. I did not know my body could produce that colour of blue. I banged it yesterday and it still smarts today. I feel crippled, how am I going to hit space bar and ctrl.


Sore thumbs, they stick out because you don't want them sticking in any thing. though I would have to say that a blue to purple thumb would stand out, if you could find a crowd of thumbs.

I should also say that the costumer is pleased with the produced.

The List

Greetings Again Bloggies.

There is a Spurious belief that I speak with an accent. I know that I do not speak with an accent, how people hear is an entirely different mater. In my experience there has been an effort made my many people meeting me for the first time to fit me with an accent, and assign it to a geographic local. Today I received yet another wrong guess, as I was stopping for a snack at the Frog Peak Caffe in Slocan valley. So for fun I will try to catalog the list of. So Here it is the accents I don't have but have been guessed.

Scottish
Australian
New Zealand
South African
Dutch
English
German
Swiss
Austrian
Southerner
Maritimes, that was freshly guessed today.

There may be others, odder rarer guesses but memory fails as it often does.

Some Else's Road Trip II

Greetings Bloggies. Today was rich day for up dates from my mystery visitor to Edmonton. My source has censored me.


Fire Now On Sticks


Where the Oil sands projects get there blessings







The former strong hold of King Ralf.



Let the Games begin.

Some Else's Road Trip

Greetings Bloggies.

My phone has been lucky enough to receive some texts of a road trip to Alberta. The first image is of a cake with two flavours of whipped cream. Followed by a mountain lake and a pretty sunset. I don't wish I was in Edmonton but I could like a visit with a handful of people there whom I would not mind seeing. Good travels and have fun Edmonton people.

Photo Mining

Hi Boggies.

As silly as it is I am very pleased to see that some one new has left some comments on my blog. Now I can pretend I have 6 readers instead of 5, Yay me. I am having a sunday, I was going to cut down a tree by the drive way but will hold off I don't want to have it fall on my fathers RV and it would be bad manners to move it without asking. The tree is dying and blocks a maple that needs the light and room to grow so I would like to take it out.

Since it is a sunday and I have the house to my self for the nearly last time in some time I am making bread again. As I wait for it to rise and as the oven heats up I am going to blog some long forgotten photos that have never made it into the blog. There are a lot that can be posted. I have over 4500 photos most taken since I have picked up the G9.

So some odds and ends, A set of images taken under a full moon, looking nearly like day light but with the clouds moving across the sky.


Izzy The Wonder cat, a friendly beast keeping company when trapped in Nelson



Moo Moo Moo, Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo
A cow, nearly in the states, living near a damned river and chewing over our passage into its area.




Very Berry



Fluffy Clouds on a full moon.

Enjoy
I have bread to check on.

Food Exploration

I have been taking advantage of having the house largely to my self the last two days and have started to play with my food. Yesterday I managed to make a yummy cheese sauce from memory and got it right. Today I took a bigger project. I tried and I would like to thing managed to make bread. I got a recipe for some buns from a friend which I tired but when the batch of dough proved to dry to work with I knew I had buggered it up. I had taken two tries at getting the ingredients right but the yeast did not take and I just plain messed up. No Tash i am not blaming your recipe it was user error. After that first failure I started again from the James Barber book and was able to get results. The dough rose.

The recipe had all sorts of time lines to follow and I never got out a clock so there was some guess work. I was not sure if it was rising at first but I gave it some more time and at some point it looked bigger then it started and I was on the right track. I took it out of the bowl to kneed it again and it felt so warm and a live, I had turned the oven on to warm to keep the dough warm enough. I had to let the dough rise in the oven I did not trust the house to be warm enough as a hole to work for the bread making process. So here are a few visual highlights of the process. Because this was a very hands on and messy process I did not take many photos.





Its nearly fluffy and tender. No dwarf Bread here