Slide Conversion, Past Lives

Some of you old timers out there may remember 35mm slides. Back before the days of digital it was considered a pretty good medium for capturing memories. Since the 1960's I have accumulated boxes and boxes of them. I recently purchased a rig that converts the dated old slides to digital and have just begun the job. I hadn't seen any of them for some time and it is interesting to dig out some random slides and have a good chuckle. Jogs the old memory too, more stories and adventures to relate over the coming cold Winter.

 I've got a batch of early ones, like this one from 1970.
The start line of my first race.
I was such a cute little bugger back then, I don't know what went wrong.

 I've got plenty to write about with all that fun we had chasing gold in Yukon long ago as well.

June 1980, consulting the topographical map, Eureka Dome YT.

 Upper Rosebute, Sept 1980.

The Brainstorm. It transported loads on the Yukon back then, in the olden days.

Heading overland with the D6 cat, camp carried up on the canopy.

 Home on the range.

 Gold drilling rig . We took this on ourselves. Mounted on a tracked carrier, this contraption would pound a hole into the concrete hard permafrost and bring up samples of gravel.

 Drill set up on  Stowe Ck. March '80

 I dropped a cat into a creek crossing one day out on the Montana Ck. flats which was a real pain in the ass to extricate out of there. I'll write about it sometime.
I can laugh about it now, it was a long time ago.

And wouldn't you know it, I dropped my motorcycle into the very same creek crossing later on, with much the same result.You think I would have learned the first time.

Sluicing, right fork, Eureka Ck YT.

I dug into the box of slides labeled Central America and grabbed a handful. 

Visiting ruins March '95. I wore the hat down and brought it back, and made a lampshade from it that is still in use here at the Lodge.

 Jungle crew bus.

 Blanco's Bar and Grill, our cook shack at the beginning.

Trust me to find the soft spots...

 Well I'm getting ahead of myself, and I can see this is going to be quite the undertaking. So I'll just dole them out here as required for stories as I go.

Dawson Yukon, June1980. Those were the days...

Today Nov 14 2013 Back At It

  Now I am caught up on Fall projects and getting prepared for Winter I can get back to my much neglected site here. To get back in the swing of things, for now I'll just post some pictures I took around today and see if I still remember how this works.
This could be the last really nice day, a change is due in the next day or so.

 

The snowline keeps working its way down Fire Mountain.
I've got my Winters wood in, my water driven generator is in good working order, the tractor is ready to plow snow, and there are plenty of ju-jubes in the larder. I'm as ready for Winter as I can be.

Raising The Roof On The Voodoo Lounge

  Many moons ago I was involved with a timber operation in the remote wild lands of Central America. My accommodation during this adventure had gone from the front seats of vehicles, a hammock hung in the jungle, to a musty smelling tent. Things progressed along and it was decided the time had come to move up in the world, plans were drawn up on a notepad one night and some of the guys were put to work on a cabin located in a quiet corner off by itself.

 The timber was cut ourselves of course, and I recall it took under a week to get to the point of being ready for a roof. We used local materials when possible, and a native style thatch roof was the logical choice.

 Mendoza was the diplomatic jungle foreman, under his supervision a crew were dispatched to the woods to collect thatch palm.

 Bundles were stockpiled back at camp.

 Several of the most experienced hands were sent up to weave the palms into the roof structure.

Jose was a good man around camp, he was put to work cutting discs off of logs to be set in the ground as a walkway. I had seen this done at some resorts down there.

The completed structure, the Voodoo Lounge as it became known. Residence upstairs with a commanding view of the camp from the veranda, an office on the lower level, and just a short walk over to the cook shack. It was pretty bare bones in there, just a bed, with a wooden frame built over it to hold a mosquito net and a wooden crate or two for furniture. Note the log paving rounds Jose and his helper did. Someone suggested, it could have been me, to incorporate a skylight over my bed, just to make sure I didn't sleep in or something. Sounded like a good idea and with no little amount of effort a clear panel was procured from a distant city on the Caribbean coast and installed in the roof as the thatch was going on, and as far as I know may have been the first time a skylight was incorporated in a native thatch palm roof.

 Neither the skylight, or the thatch ever leaked a drop, even in the rainy season.

Dear Deer

    All the years I've been out here I've always had various deer that hang around, at various times of the year. All the clover and grass I've planted and maintain around here probably has something to do with it.

I keep a salt lick block across the lawn on a rock under the cedar.

 Sheltered from the rain for the most part, a new salt lick will last over a year out there. 

Note the blue stained rock from probably 15 of them over the years.

During the lush Spring season they don't seem to mind sharing their pasture with the bear. 

I took this off the deck one June, note the smoke from the trees down at the far end, down in the hot spring campsite. If you look close, there are two people standing down there, probably taking a picture of a bear and a deer standing in front of a cabin.

Smart deer.

There was this extra smart deer one Summer a few years back, a doe of course. 

It would wander in during the heat of the day and stand there in the arc of my lawn sprinkler getting pelted by water every time it came around. It would give a big shake and wait patiently for it to come around again.

 

The next year, she brought her young one in and showed it where to find rain on a hot day.

This is a trio that stayed with me for a week once.

 I called them Larry, Moe, and Curly.

They would come up to the cabin, intrigued by my cats at the time, Skook and Chuk, under the porch steps in this case, who seemed every bit as interested in them.

                               Hey deers!

A few years back some elk had been reintroduced several mountain ranges away.
I know that at least one has made his way down here and beyond to the south.