A message arrives. Come view some trucks it says…we have some old big rigs. That has our attention. Now to make it happen. It’s not anywhere close to us, but as we always manage to do, we’ll find away. It might just take some time. And so the months pass...
A number of factors, nagging injuries being one, have kept us in the city for some time now. Still, we get out and have fun. It really doesn’t take much to amuse us and we find adventure where ever we are. Lately, for the hiking end of things, we’ve been...
The road in is rough, more a cart track than anything. Bouncing along for many kilometres there’s nothing as far as the eye can see. Then come to the edge and look down. Way down. Drop into a valley, the track steep, narrow and precipitous. It’s something very logging road...
Another instalment where Chris & Connie train to be better night photographers and share the results with you. Low light shooting is an area we have much interest in, but struggle with. The big problem, which we’re not the least bit ashamed to admit (outside the fact that meds don’t...
What you see in this post has changed since we documented it last fall. The subject, an old house sealed up for decades, has been cleared of possessions which have been put in safe storage. Next any issues with the building will be tackled, with eventual plans that everything be...
We only need explore our own neighbourhood to find Boler trailers. There’s a couple we know of, one of which even shows up on our very street a couple times each summer. They come to us! And from time to time, while out for a walk, we find new ones....
We didn’t come up with the title of this post, someone at Midfield Park did. We borrowed it. Here, we’ll be peering over a security fence to a look at a huge empty lot, a former “mobile home” community with a population once counted in the hundreds. They’ve all moved...
The small town watering hole, often housed in an old hotel (and not always providing accommodations), a place for locals and passers-through alike to partake in libations and socialize. Near every community across the country, no matter the size, had one. Or so it seemed. But we’re losing them, fast,...
The Team has documented our fair share of churches, every last one of them special and beautiful to us in their own unique way. As subjects go, they’re one of our most favourite and we get giddy photographing and writing about them. The one seen today, even among all the...
We bought the book “Calgary’s Best Walks” by Lori Beattie. Love it. If you’re into urban trekking, it’s a recommended addition to your library too. It’s BIGDoer approved! Like that means something. Chuckle…so, inside the covers are a multitude of possible routes covering all quadrants of the city. For one...
When was the last time you saw an independent computer shop? Bet it’s been a while. There used to be lots of them, busy places all, with seemingly one on every corner, but mostly they’ve gone the way of the dinosaur. It’s one tough racket and even the big chains...
The past four or five years now a group of friends get together and explore. This merry band whose domain is dusty backroads, spend some summer weekend in some corner of Alberta (sometimes venturing into Saskatchewan too) in search of abandoned and forgotten stuff. Lots of cool things are seen...
Screaming down some back road, we come over a rise, and there off in the distance, we see an abandoned farm house. Looks pretty darn interesting. Looking over to Connie…”yeah?” “Oh yeah!” Stopping in a cloud of dust, we fire up the Internet (a vehicle hot spot is such a...
There we were enjoying ourselves, wandering about Nelson BC in the summer of 2016, and we find this. It’s a little fibreglass trailer, something Boler-like for sure, but what make is it? Thought is might be a Beachcomber, but no…a Trillium Jubilee, no again (both are pretty uncommon models). Scan...
Here’s a fine city trek, a loop of sorts taking in the entire length of Edmonton Trail in Calgary’s (shallow) Northeast and on the return leg quieter residential streets off to the east. It’s like going back in time, the closer one gets to downtown, the older things become. There’s...
Sometimes it takes us a while to get to things. Too much to do, not enough time, not nearly enough us. Anyway, here’s one from waaaaay back in late 2016. Yikes! We’re on the road and find ourselves passing through Sylvan Lake Alberta, a modest sized community west of the...
There used to be a vast network of railway owned telegraph lines spanning the country. Where the tracks went, so went the poles and the wires. This early incarnation of the information superhighway stood alongside the rights-of-way and were a familiar scene to people back when. Look at any old...
It’s a lonely forgotten place, this rural property. The ride in takes one down a long dusty backroad, then a muddy cart track all squishy and rutted up, and finally cross country through pasture and field. Regular cars are unlikely to survive the journey. Arrive, stand and look around. In...
Low light photography is a skill we struggle with. Oh, we understand the principals and all, but still have a hard time of it. To combat this we’ve been getting out, in town, and practising. We’re not worried about the composition so much, nor the subject matter, but getting the...
Travelling across the west, as we do, we encounter our share of little fibreglass trailers. We might see them on the highway, in camp grounds we pass, parked here or there, at gas stations…they can turn up anytime, anywhere. Or so it seems. Here’s one, a Trillium, the most common...
It’s old and weather beaten, locked up and unused. This sorry looking building with faded paint is home only to pigeons, their occasional cooing breaking the silence. Sure, there’s the memories of Sunday Service, the weddings the funerals. Happy occasions some, sad and tearful others. All behind it now. Today...
Yes, we’ve been neglecting the then and now posts. We’ve read the many emails asking why. There’s a couple reasons. First, we’re busier than we’ve ever been documenting old historic places and as a result, sadly, other things we do have to take a back seat. We have to go...
Apologies dear friends and loyal readers, we’ve been away for a spell. The society suffered a major computer failure a week ago and spent pretty much the entire time since recovering and cleaning up the resultant mess. It was ugly! Reinstall this, reinstall that, pull from archives, configure, setup and...
Trailer parks have a bad reputation. If we believe the stereotypes they’re home to hardened criminals with extensive rap sheets, drugged out slackers with bizarre haircuts, boozers and other undesirables. lumped together with the working poor and old folks on limited incomes. It’s one ugly, unfriendly place best given a...
Inspiration for this fine inner-city hike comes from the book Calgary’s Best Walks by Lori Beattie. Here we’ll be following Route #12, roughly, taking in a series of parks and hitting the pavement in number of older established neighbourhoods. The going is super easy. You don’t have to follow our...
Well lookie here, right in front us of on the highway and headed in the same direction, a cute little Boler. Another added to the list. That was easy! The location is Yahk British Columbia (“We’ve bin to Yahk ‘n’ back”), right as you enter town after crossing the Moyie....
You’ve probably heard us speak of the film Forgotten Prairie. A number of posts we’ve published over the last few months have touched on it to one degree or another. Now you’ll get to see it. Finally! A production of Rueben Tschetter’s Cache Project, it’s a fine little piece about...
Each and every day it’s within view of tens of thousands of passing motorists but I bet a lot of them pay it no mind. There, along side road set back a bit from the #1A, but easily seen from it, and a mere stone’s thrown from Calgary’s City Limits...
This one’s for the adrenaline junkies. Imagine it – extreme grades, hands-on climbing, narrow ledges, acute exposure, rock falls and danger at every turn. This is where the Reaper hangs when he needs to meet a quota. They call it the Devil’s Drop, in hushed tones. Seasoned mountaineers have to...
A couple years back we were commissioned by a good sized publisher to do a piece on the subject of farming. It was to be a grand article about the people and machinery that make things happen, covering the complete “A to Z”, so seeding to harvest and everything else....
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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