Skating 2016

Growing up, my Primary School was located across the street from the local ice-rink. This rink was a regulation sized "Stadium", a town fixture for seemingly forever. At least one afternoon a week, we all paraded over to the rink to go skating. I remember my Mother often miraculously appeared to help tighten my skates, likely handed down from an older sibling. Well I never made the NHL, skating became second nature to me, and remains a refreshing thrill to this day. Of course there were also plenty of outdoor pond skating opportunities as well...fast forward to Halifax and the 2011 Canada Games wherein a "temporary" outdoor skating oval was commissioned on the Halifax Commons. After the games, the powers that be wisely chose to make the "Oval" a permanent service. As usual, it took me several years to actually "get on board", but better late than never...

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quick video below of once around...

Belated Happy New Year 2016

It's often the same old song with me; I never take time to write, even though I kind of enjoy it. Once again I've blinked and the entire Christmas Season is over. Again this year we stayed put and it was nice. The normal crowd of friends showed up for dinner and again Debbie delivered. Here's the beginning of the spread...

Time to get the feedbag on...

Of course in our abode there's not enough room at the table so some spilled into adjacent rooms and into the basement...

Once that all settled, it was time to break out the dessert and coffee...

This time they moved a little slower and with less motivation...fed up you see  :)

Not exactly a white Christmas with 12c and sun, but the old Camper soaked it up...

Indeed God blessed us... everyone. There was even dessert and coffee for breakfast the next day...

A few days later on Dec 30th, we finally got the obligatory winter blast, wherein I got to break out my Christmas present...

All is well, and the new year is upon us all...here's to 2016 !!

Winter Upgrades 15-16

Age, weather, and other factors are prompting some upgrades around these parts. After 26 winters of snowblower avoidance, I decided to try my luck with a small 24" Canadian Tire "Yardworks" model. A $250 discount brought the $1000 sting down to $750 so I wrestled one aboard the old "Westy" and here I sit waiting for snow...

Also, my Drolet Pyropak wood stove is up for replacement. I'm still using it but the secondary combustion chamber has burned through...not really acceptable in my mind but I guess I just have to come to grips with the reality that you get what you pay for, nothing lasts forever, etc. etc. This time I'm trying one built in the good old U S of A. A small Englander...back to the VW mule again...

Woodstove in my van...Hey, this is giving me ideas :)

It's a nice little stove. I hope it works out.

So, there's a couple of preparatory projects to get tidied up before Christmas arrives. So far, everything is on track. I'll report back as to how successful each one is...

Lost cause...

Yup, when it comes to Time Management, I really am a lost cause in spite of me pausing to write this post. It's madness I tell you. Christmas is coming at me at flank speed and 2015 is all but over. Between work life and personal space, it's out of control. I can't seem to slow it all down and things are falling through the cracks everywhere. The funny thing though is I'm not really unhappy about it. I just remind myself of that old 2-step:

1. It'll all work out in the end.
2. If it hasn't work out yet it's not the end.

The cliches abound...so much to do, so little time...yada yada yada,,,

I'm hoping to sit down tonight and actually "Plan" the month of December...let's see how that goes...

 In the meantime, here's a collage of my son's recent side trip to Newfoundland for a little respite...

...and one last misc. shot...Debbie by a Pinzgauer we happened upon at a local restaurant...

That's all I have time for...later...

Winter 2015-2016 IS coming...

September has been really nice, but we all know what's coming. Preparing for the cold is always a busy but enjoyable and rewarding chore. I've been stocking up on firewood, and just generally getting things ready for the cold. I have a good friend that happens to be in to milling his own lumber and I sometimes get to enjoy the scraps. He recently purchased a quantity of nice large pine logs, and generously offered me some of the excess "slab-wood"...I'll be right out !!...

I'll split most of this up and have a nice supply of "crackly" kindling...the best...

A closer look...some of it is big enough to use as regular fuel  :)

...and the preparations will continue...

Summer Holiday 2015

...just recently completed a whirlwind 15 days or so driving the route outlined below. I'll add a few more specific posts soon. We started and ended in Halifax, completing the trek to Newfoundland, up through Labrador, down through Quebec and New Brunswick, and then back to Halifax...

The Solar saga continues

100w panel in the evening sun...

My main goal here is simply to be able to run a Thermoelectric cooler continuously. The cooler draws about 3.8 amps when running. Normally (a subjective word in itself), I'd estimate the cooler has about a 50% duty cycle. It cuts in alot during a hot day but not so much at night. Therefore, my calculations will be based on an estimated average current draw of 2 amps. For a 24 hour period, that's 48, so let's just go with 50 amp hours for each day of use. My Battery Bank is 230 amp hours, but you don't want to run it down much past 50%. Therefore, we're looking at about 2.5 days of use before some sort of charging is needed.

 Here's the cooler I'm using. It's a little better than the regular Canadian Tire variety. Most of them only cool to 20c below ambient...not good enough. This one cools to 30c below ambient. It also has a 7-position thermostat that cycles it on and off.

Here's my 2 x 115 amp-hour Deep Cycle Batteries. To help achieve the off-grid nirvana, I have a 100-watt Solar Panel. It's rated at a 5.8 amp maximum, so I'm hoping that on each sunny day, it will be able to supply about 30-40 amp hours of charge...

4.1 amps from the panel.

That may be a bit ambitious, so I plan on adding a portable setup of another 100 watts or so for any time we are staying put for a couple of days. Of course, any driving will result in a nice boost from the van's alternator, so I think we'll be ok. More to come...