Fat, Lazy, Stupid, and still alive?!?

Well in case you havent guessed it allready, yes I'm still alive!(they say fat, drunk and stupid is NO way to get through life, I say, throw in lazy, and your already half way to death, witch is after all, through life!)(see I spent this time off in deep metotative thought,)(LAZY!)

This is really about wanting to take a picture of this real cool icicle thingy growing from my roof, then realizing my camera was totaly dead, and wondering when the last time I took a picture was?(best est. some time in july!) So after juicing up the batteries, I down loaded 5 blogs worth of pic's!(not to worry, I'll just skim through the last 6 months, it'll be painless and over soon, just like...)(ahhh, maybe I'll tell you that one latter!)(hehehe) Any who, lets jump in!

I sort of started this yesterday,(my B-Day,) so I'll carry that theme over for the start. I guess dooms day may be over stating things a bit but,(brace you selfs!) I'm no longer at the golf course! Well no one is, it's under like 4 feet of snow! So you can grasp the whole happy dooms day theme.(acually I now work for Black Earth,(it sounds better with a little echo, like Blackkkkk Earrrtthhhh!,) (see how much better that sounds?)(can you see sounds?)remember many months, but only a few blogs ago, when I reported the large black pile, and several building suspected of being a third world bomb factory? Well...thats where I work now. Not actually there, but in the new plant, in the industral park, on the outskrits of Ryley!)(and its NOT a bomb factory)(its a Humilite factory)(?)(O.k. I know its for the ground to help stuff grow better, and I know its the layer above the coal seam, and I know we dry and crush the stuff but the how's and the whys...?)(?)(as you can see my never ending seach for knowlage has led me nowhere!)

I'd like to say my birthday was spent like homer, even the sour, mostly naked one!, but right now I'm on the ever refeshing 6am to 2:30pm shift, so my birthday was video games, + beer,=try to get to sleep by 9!(boy us 42 year olds really know how to party!) I'd like to take this time to apologize to my mother once agien for my black socks, for you see humilite powder gets into the fabric weave, then gets ground into the floor, and/or the socks.(she pre-soaks in a jar, but won't go the extra inch of throwing a couple of golf balls in there and jiffy-socking the sucker!)(you know I got the spare balls!) But lets not ponder the here's and now's, when I must still tell you of the there's and then's!

I think this lady is one of the most gifted people I mave have ever seen in my mid-life! I meen, WoW! If only she could bust-a-smile!(she must be taking them all to her husband, no strudle for her tonight!)(hehehe!)

My brother Carlin, got back to Alberta, from a top secret, inter-provincal, covert assinment,(ah...shit, I've said too much, now wheres that pill?...oh well, good thing no one reads this, I mean heres his picture and everthing!) Any who...He got a cool car! A V-6 Porche!(the perfect car for a land of ice and snow!)(but thats here and now...Not there and then! There and then was hot and humid summer time! Think back fondly to that time, and remember it well, all that is except for the mosquitoes! Remember them not, for there is a special level of hell resereved for those evil, blood thirsty, little sons of a mother-less goat!) He got me a card for my b-day, that reminded me of this Simpsons, where grampa Abe, and Jasper were stoned from Homers hippie love root juice. "We are SO old! hehehehe"

Back to the warm, there and then, this was the 100th bith-day of the town of Ryley!(so now I'm not sooo old!) And there was a parade. This is one of those skim over spots, and these are but a few of the many shots of the parade that was literally longer then the route.(2x longer then main street!)

I like this old truck, it looks like the one that was down the creek, with trees growing through it, by the old place, back when I kid, except it was a 47, not a 50, I think and also a GM, to my rememberings.

This is the oldest(and newest...just kidding, see next.)(ed)Ryley fire truck. I like the tires, they'ed look cool on my crusier!

This is the new Ryley fire truck, donated from CleanHarbours!(the place my Mom works at, remember the mean place that won't let her do personal e-mailing/blog reading at work? yeah, those guys gave the town a new fire truck, just to let them store all their toxic waste here, cool.(see the little seagull and waves? cause its CleanHarbours!)

And this is just a cool car...Betcha he wasn't expecting the pot holes!

Now to the reason I went to the parade, the then and there bosses. The Dodd's coal mine float had a part on the back with a little putting green and flag. They also were handing out golf balls to the crowd.(not whipping them out like doughnuts, or puppies...what? their soft right? oh, yeah, the petaphiles! I forgot, see I'm out of pratice!)So the night before I said I'd heckle them till I got a ball, so they just gave me one, kind of took the fun out of it though! This last shot is of my boss Jason, trying his best to look like Bill Murry from CaddyShack.(I'm glad he told me thats what he was goin for!)

The mower he's on is the loner I got to drive for a while, it was fun! almost too much so. Next spring the real ones will come, this year we had lots of differnt demos come and go. One had a 8 ft. cut swath,(that wide it is call a swath!)with 5 of those whirly, old timey, spinner type blades on it.(you know the ones I mean, like the rusty one, in the weeds out back.) I still feel bad for the little frogs I mowed over, they always jumped towards the tall grass, and away from safety! how terrorfing those 5 screaming vortexes of doom must have been for them!(see petas, I do feel for the little critters!) And now a shot of my two faverite rides with a D-6 beside for size comparisin. Note how clean they all are, and how soupy the parking lot is!(no fun that day!)

This is a shot of hole one, see the natural looking ponds? My friend Dale dug them from nothing, cool huh? This hole looks a lot differnt now, and not just the snow, we got to work a lot on the shaping, the other guys burmed-n-bunkerd, and the whole area was hydro-seeded before the really deep and long lasting snow hit.(going to be soooo green next spring! I can't wait.) The other shot is of hole six, also known as the dream hole, because thats where the whole idea of the golf course took shape. I mowed the stripies in the tee boxes, don't look too hard the ones on the left are crooked!

Also way back in the summer I was doing Lyn's cabin's ceiling, and I finished it. I love the way it turned out. With all the wierd angles and uneven every-things, I didn't alway's love the challange, but I really think it worked out.

O.K. time for a tip on finishing your last panel coverd wall of your 42yr. old trailer. If you choose to do it in a nice light\dark, good/evil, natual\stained, sunrise/sunset, mottif, as I have done, then just enjoy the laquer buzz, like young homer here. I laquerd it every morning for four daze straight, then went to work on my big wheeled truck, hehehe.(who said work should suck!)

Latter SnowedUnderKev

p.s. oh yeah, I never did take that icicle shot!

Stream Exposed! inside the dirt by D.K.

Hey, Hey, every body, how it goin? Well I've had a pretty good week, thanks for asking. Although I'm not too sure about this week upcoming, see it started to rain pretty hard for a while on friday, then on saterday it snowed pretty hard, and from what I hear, sunday it did both for a spell. So now work is under a clay based soup, and we are stuck doing other things.(like today we got to drive a scisser lift around the shop to wash the cielings, and probaly for most of the week too!) Last time we had "rain days" at least we had a floor to install, and as promised, heres the proof!

This type of floor was pretty easy to work with, and pops together pretty quick, with the help of a hammer! It has a laminate top and compressed carboard like stuff, sandwitched between plasticy layers. All this means it can be cut with regular saws! Bonus! As you can see we have a plumming stack running right through our new lunch room.(most people around work call it our stripper pole!) Longer story shorter, floor is done, it looks good, bosses are happy!

Remember last month some time, when most of us did our taxes?(somthing most of you smarter people do reguarly, as to make it less pain full...mmmmm...food for thought!) Well I've not made all that much cash in the past few years, so have sort of put off the taxes thing. I vagely remember owing a bit a few years ago, so was trying to brace my self for the axe in the mail. Well holy sheep dip! Seems I owed more then I rememberd, and for longer then I thought. So my bill was almost $3500! This is the first time I've had more then $500 in the bank for the past 4 years, so I guess it seams about right.(like a slap in the face, with a ring on all five fingers, in a metal glove, dipped in acid, and a poke in the eye for good measure!) Oh well, its my fault for being so causual about the whole thing, its the intrest thats killing me. Maybe if I sent them a goverment sized tube of K.Y., it wouldn't hurt so much the next time they ream me! Hehehe, puttin the Mental back in Govermental, or should that be Govermenstal, would explain why thier bleedin me dry!(ooow, that one even tasted bad on this side, its not easy to offend your self, go ahead and try.)(I'll wait,)( if you do offend you self, drop me a line, I'd love to hear about it!)(Hehehe!)

Well its time for the indepth look at one part of the water feature at Coal Creek. This first shot is from atop a tee mound, the vista offers a panaramic view of the surounding course.(and is not quite nose bleed level.)

Scrambleing down the hill, past the pile of boulders I got to move with the Case loader,(I'll try to remember a picture of that beast for the next blog, I'm going to try to finish each blog in one sitting, the three day blogs are starting to get too long!)so when you hit a huge rock and your ball scuttles away to nevermore land, think of me! I arrive across from old coal processing equipment, this looks cool and will stay for course atmosphere effect.(and as a un-natural hazzard!)

Ever walk along a fairway and think how lucky they were to have a stream or creek running right where they needed it to be? Well I have, and now my innocents has be shatterd! This stream is all faked, it even runs up-hill now.(well it runs down hill, but the land runs up.)(did that help or just confuse you more?) This used to be the road where the trucks got loaded with coal, and as you can see it runs up to the main road, but the creek runs down that way now. The rocks are placed with the small back hoe, in just the right spot so the water will fill a small pond, then spill over in a gental water fall. After laying the floor too quickly, we got to help tamp the clay around the rocks, so the water will go over instead of under/around. There has been no water pumped into this stream,(well there has been now, an unplaned water fountian sprang up from where the hoe nicked a line, but because it was just going into the creek any ways, they left it go for a few days to break in the pump, or some thing. Sure was pretty though.)just the ground seepage, and now the rain. I like this last shot up the road, because if you click on the pic. to inlarge it, you'll see our trucks. Mine is the nose on the right, then in frount of it,(to your left,)is the track hoe, then the back end of the other truck.
My brother Carlin sent me the link to this B.C. comic. All you golfers will understand, and for all you vets or animal lovers, he's just trying to save the rapter, if it passed the ball through...it'd definetly be a dino-sore-ass!(apply laugh track here:)

Last thursday eve, I went golfing in the wind. Heres a thought, if your going to golf in Scottland, come pratice in Alberta first! It seems about 75% of the time its windy, and the other 25% is more of a gale. I played much better then the last time, and wasn't so tired. First hole, with a strong tail wind, helping to the left and everything...I hit the green! 328yrds. away! I kept looking for my ball, thinking where the hell am I, oh there it's on the green!(then I 3 putted, but still saved par, so thats cool, well better then 3 putting for an 8 any ways.)

Tip of the day: Say your a young rock truck driver, here's a helpful hint. Your truck is bouncy, don't pick your nose!(I think I touched my brain!)(it was squishy!)In fact try to keep you hands out of what I'll call the,"Punching your self out"zone. Also light shoes are good, its amazing the places you can kick yourself! Have a great week, latter DufferKev

Wild Canadian Coffee?

Well Hello everyone, hope you had a good week too, mine was busy! First let me say happy mothers day to all you birthers out there, and a extra nod to all those who even brought the baby home!(my Mom said she didn't know she had a choice.) I know it was yesterday, but I was out with all the realitives, so we'll just say it today...Happy Mothers Day! Here is a brief summery of what I've been up to.
Now its time for you to put on your remembering caps. Think back to last fall. This wandering duffer had fianally come home. Remodeling of the trailer was well under way. And I went down to Lyns cottage at Gull lake. While I was there painting the cottage, the roof was redone. After the roof was finished, many nails were sticking through the inside of the attic and main bathroom. The bathroom was fixed by adding a pine board drop ceiling, and now I've been asked to do the same upstairs. These first two shots are of the attic as-was. Saterday morning I drove out to transform it into something all shiny new!

Next we have a shot of the drop ceiling frame in place. I put in headers between the roof beams, so I could keep my studs evenly spaced. No two were the same distance, the cottage is of 1913 vintage, and as you can see had no insulation.



Now it dose! Though this cottage is a summer home only, the insulation should help keep it cooler in the heat, and warmer on those frosty fall/spring mornings. Hopefully the plastic vapour barrier will help make the ceiling bat-proof.(ever wonder why insulation was sold in batts?)(me too!) End of day one, the first day of project "save the ceiling"

Enter day two. This day was a lot of running up and down stairs, because the frame was built square, I could cut several pieces at a time, but because nothing else was, I only cut two rows at a time, just in case. This day was realitivly easy, day three and four,(this coming up weekend,)will be trickier! Those will be the days when I carry on down the wall, where every stud is spaced differntly, and none of the corners are square! I can fore see a lot of one-at-a-time, "custom" cutting, and lots of trips up/down those stairs!(usally I woudn't mind the extra cardio, ecspecilly seeing how out of golf shape I am! Oppps! you haven't read that part yet! you have no way of knowing I'm writing this over three day's, and it's already wensday. Or that I wrote the golf part yesterday, spoiler alert: I had golf last week!)(Oh yeah and I'm already "draggen ass" as they say, because of an unusally phycical work week. Remember when I said watching them dig our new stream at work would be cool? Well its a one back hoe job, not much need for trucks to haul anything away. I did get to haul some soup(bad dirt)away, for about an hour yesterday, but the majority of my time was spent installing a smack together tile floor in the new lunch room, witch I painted last week!)(don't worry, next weeks blog will have pic's of the new floor, its nice!) Back to the ceiling, as you can see I started the angle down the wall, with the last couple planks I had left. A wise old carpenter once told me,(and he must have been wise cause he hadn't starved to death yet, and he still had all his fingers!) "Old houses aint square, thats what trims for!" I believe I'll be using some trim!
Cool sunset on the end of day two, I decided to go for a walk down to the beach, as you may have guessed from the banner shot. On the way back to the cottage I came acrossed a couple of patches of wild Canadian coffee! I had no idea coffee grew wild in Canada, but there it was. (I won't say how long it took, or how much actual testing I had done before determining my discovery was really deer poop!)

Later on in the week,(after recoperating for a few days by going to work,) on a snowy thursday, I decided to go golfing! Yes I had golf!(real golf, not just some backyard delusion.) Of course after I decided to go golfing, it started to snow. The snow lasted most of the day, but was melting faster then it was falling, and being sucked into the thirsty soil just as fast. So in a breif patch of sun, I loaded up my bag and was off.(forgot my new glove in my old pratice bag, glad I didn't throw out the old crappy one yet...I still haven't put the new one in my bag yet, probaly forget it for the next game too...sad.)(Just so you know I havent given up all hope, I might still remember it you know.)(Like maybe I'll put it in my shoe tonight, so then I remember to put it in my bag tomorrow...mmmm...if only my shoes weren't sooooo far away, ah, I'll just remember it latter.)(Oh God, I'm doomed, I might as well just throw the new glove away and get use to the crappy old one, with bright orange paint on it from my gopher golf course, and the big hole where the palm use to be...now where the hell was I going with this agien?...) On my way to Toefield golf course,(with new driving range,)(or new since I've been there last anyways,)it snowed on me agien, but after I turned onto the hiway the sky lighted and I saw no more moister for the rest of the day! Tofield golf course,(see map on right,) is a medium 9 hole trek, a good first effort after the long cold winter,(of our discontent!) No cars in the parking lot, but the gates were open, so I went in. No one inside, but a put-the-money-in-the-slot-box, was there, so I did. I walked slowly to the first tee, giving someone plenty of time to tell me to go away, no one did. First drive was worth the $15 I shoved into the box! Sweet! Ball in the middle of the fairway, no one around to slow me down, no rain for the moment, days of gopher golf pratice for just this shot. Confidently I strode up to my ball, well inside the hundred yard marker, and hit it short of the green. Oh well, I use to be good at the short chips,(thats what happens when you always miss the greens!) I skulled it! It shot 20ft passed the green! All night long my chips had no feel, by the end I was playing one ball till I got close to a green, then chiping three! The greens needed more watering or rain or somthing, quite brown for greens! It took me till hole 5 to get the speed o.k. on the greens, and I consitently two putted after that. Hole 2 had a beautiful drive as well, followed by a medicore wedge shot, and a scary chip. For the first time I noticed two kids ahead of me, it was o.k., they let me pass by hole 4. Hole three, I lost a ball, then, found a ball, so still even. Hole 4 was a good learning experince, I hit a lovely 3 wood to almost right where I wanted it! My three wood as been very inconsistent over the years, so it would be great to love it agien! Hole 5 was a real score for me. My first shot went into the mud bank of the creek, so I hit another.(praise be the mulligan!) While I was getting my first ball out of the mud,(I'm cheap, remember!) I found 5 more! Then went to my second shot. Now heres where it gets hazey. Either I lost my second shot, and found another ball,(2lost and 7found,)or I hit my second a lot farther.(1lost and 6found.) Since I hadn't botherd to look at my second ball...I guess we'll never know! Above is a shot of the hole 5 sign. I didn't take this one, too bad, that would have been cool to see! I realilize by now, that I was getting tired. Sadly the months of not walking a course were starting to show. Bad drive on hole 6, lost it to the right on hole 7.(almost wish I hadn't found it! had to hack it out of some bush thing.) Blocked it to the left on the par 3, 8th. Hole 9! And not a moment too soon! Please don't get me wrong, I was loven it out there, but was getting tired and sloppy. (ie, dug the toe of my driver into the tee box, thus leaving the face open, and hitting it about 45 yards off to the right!) Now I'm behind the trees, greens(browns)over thatta way somewhere, so I'm thinking about chopping it over the trees.(or just chopping the trees by this point!) So as my ball goes screaming over the trees,(well off target!)I notice for the first time, the two kids who let me pass on hole 4, are being picked up by thier dad. Great, entire empty course, and I'm gonna hit some one! I slulk around the trees, thankful my ball dosent have my name on it, and am relived to find my ball just in front of a pond I never knew was there, and 20 some feet short of the child retreival action in the parking lot!
All in all a great time was had by all,(me!)and I'm planning to go agien soon. Hopefully before I go back to finish Lyns ceiling this next weekend.

You may be wondering about the mulitpule head shots.(not the first time I've taken multipule head shots!) Well if I've learned nothing about people,(and believe you me, I've tried, to learn nothing about people that is,)its that they like to vote on stuff. You know, let the common voice be heard, and all that good stuff. So send in your votes, help pick the least repulsive hair doo!(polls open to the citizens of this planet only, vote as many times as you like, a handleing fee of $4.95 will be charged per registerd vote, polls open till midnight Jan.01 2072, please note all votes will be estimated and your vote may not actualy count, I retain total "veto" power!, also the top knot may not work after I'm in my 80's but then agien nothing else will either!)
First two shots are just fresh from the beauty salon. I had told the nice lady,(whos name escapes me at the moment, but don't worry, I still remember yours!)I was planning to grow my longer part till I could make a top knot! Well she seamed to take this as a challenge, and in no time flat had me knotted! Still to short for a good one though.

Next two are from the same night, just took the scrunchie out and gave the old head a good shake.(more then three shakes,... and your likely to get brain damage!) I like the velcro effect of the freshly shaven stubble and the longer hair.

Lastly we have what I'll call the "slick willy",(now would you buy a used car from this guy?) And before you tell me, I know its crooked, I was wearing a hat all day. So be sure to cast you votes often, after of course reading the above disclaimer.

Well thats enough for this time, tune in next week for the anatomy of a stream, a before water documentory of Coal Creek's feature water works! Till then, this has been DufferKev, signing off!

Don't Pinch the Dream'n Boy!

Hey, Hey! Everybody!(anybody?) First off let me say this blog will not be about kitties! That being said, heres a shot of three, one day old kitties. The mother is young and clue-less, the little grey one was on the cold cement floor, having fallen from the chair the mother had them on.(I don't actually know if she had them on the chair,(like had them had them?) but that morning they where on the chair, mostly.) Sadly, by the next morning there was only one. The mother cats mother,(from now on to be referd to as gramma cat,)has taken over the mothering of the last one. It has been hiding in a pile of boxes, warm, dry, and safe from the every day perils of being a shop cat! This shop is at my new job!(my dream job,) Last may,(my, how the last year has just slipped by!)just before my first blog, I went to Kelona for a Mothers day visit with my then estranged(?) mother and brother. One thing led to another, and we all come back up here for a visit.(now we all sort of live here, and are no longer estranged!)(stranged, yes, estranged, no!) Now on one of our many tours of the rual niebourhood,(cows in da hood,) my Mom took us by a under constuction golf course called Coal Creek. At the time she had commented how cool it would be to move home, and get a job building that course!(and I thought, yeah right, move out into the sticks, give up winter golf, suffer through the cold, live in a old dog trailer,(life is funny isnt it?) and why would they hire me anyways?) So long story short, as I'm raking doggie doo off of Lyns lawn,(hi Lyn!)I get a phone call from Coal Creek, asking if I can be there in the morning to talk about work. And something or other about "rock truck". I hang up,(or press "End" button,)thinking about following a truck picking up rocks. Tuesday morning comes around, and I head over to the golf course,(about 8 miles!)(when I was working in north Edmonton, my round trip was 271km!)(each day!)and get the "insiders" tour. Its going to be a great course, and I was excited about the chance to help build it.(then maybe work there, like cutting grass, when it was done.) I'm told what they need is a rock truck driver. So I tell him I've driven 1 tons, and 5 tons, grain trucks when I was like 12! He tells me this will be a little bigger, and takes me around the side of the building...And there is a truck the size of a house! Ever play with the Tonkas when you were young?(we had home made stuff, made from wood, and old licence plates!)(true story.) Well I kind of went off in a daze of pre-pubence wunderment! Then I hear, "Climb up, and check it out, tomorrow you can take a spin to get use to it, then off to work!"then somthing about sorry the antenas broke, so you'll only have xfm!(I think more time was used explaning the satellite radio system, then the truck.)(But to be fair, the radio probaly has more buttons the the truck!)

So now I go to a golf course every day, and drive the biggest truck I've ever seen.(and paid $1 more per hour then my last painting job! For gods sake man! don't pinch the dream'n boy!)

These two shots are from day number two, just to show a little size scale, feels sooo wierd to drive the blazer home now, feels too small!(and when I got it, it felt so big compared to the wabbit. Oh, the wabbit, I have this recurring day dream, where I back over the wabbit with this truck!) On the left is what my rock truck would have looked like new...its not so shiny now. I forgot my camera on the first day. Too bad to, cause one of the neat things about these trucks is, the frame is not soild. What I mean by that is, right behind the cab,(about 4 feet behind me when I drive,)is the piviot point. If you are sitting still, and you turn the steering wheel, the front of the truck stays still, but the back end moves about 6feet either way! Because of the "piviot-in-the-middle-lika-city-bus" effect, you can have an extremly tight turning radius! Just behind the piviot is another feature of the un-stiff frame. The back half will tilt left or right independently of the cab. This means if you back up onto a pile to dump,(it seems wrong somehow to use the words pile and dump in the same sentence, and then have no punch line!)and keeping the cab totally level, completely tip the back half of the truck!(I mean right on its side! two wheels up and two wheels down!(and two more right level on the ground!)and me inside, looking like that guy on tv, who drove too close to the sink hole. You know the one, with the "ooops" look on his face, like I wish I hadn't just done that!) I guess it happens. The track-hoe came over and tipped the back half up-right agien, and away I went. At lunch break I drove back to the shop for a 15min. repair to the exuast system. Seem like it was designed to break away in a tip over. So now I know how far is too far. How lucky to learn that on my first day! The other driver has never done that, so he's only guessing how far is too far. Me, I know!
I've thrown in some shots taken from my point of view, out the windows of my "office". The first shot is out towards holes one and two,(see included map at bottom of page, or check out thier website at http://www.coalcreekgolfresort.com/ hey cool! it changed colour! I guess that means I got the jabs-n-slashes right! anyways, please do check out the website, lots of cool pics of the course under construction. Plus lots of history of the coal mine and equipment!) Then a shot out my left window towards the trird green, of the D6 cat,(trying to smooth our road, good luck!)and the other truck,(only one serial number differnt from mine, but I like mine better!) That D6 cat looks so small when we roll by him. Its not like I don't know the crews names, I do,I just havent cleared it with them yet.(witness relocation could be anywhere/anyone!)

As we move the rather large hill of clay over towards the third green, we are really rutting up the hard packed road. Have you ever seen that ice road truckers show? Where the wave of ice is pushed up in front of the heavy truck? Thats what happens with these trucks. The earth rises in front of the tires, then squishes down into sometimes 4 ft. deep ruts. We just try to aim for the high spots, its smoother that way. Just for curiosity, I asked the track-hoe operator how much he was loading us down with. Some times we have to take off up hill, and you step on the gas pedal...and the truck slowly starts to move,(like its protesting the motion.) I was told the truck alone wieghs 30,000lbs. empty!(and I heard its like a 108 liter fuel tank, so thats gotta wiegh a bit too.)(for all the equipment I was told they go through a gas trucks worth of diesel per week,)(witch is 10,000 liters!) Oh yeah, back to the load weight, I was told 30 tons! His bucket is at least 4.5ft. to 5ft. wide, and it takes 8 giant scoops to fill each truck.(then he wacks us on the side to wake us up to go and dump,)( just kidding.)(he really only wacks us when the clay sticks in his bucket.)

Right now we are pileing the clay for the cat to form into a L shaped berm. This berm will seperate the course from the county road.(is what I've overheard in the lunch room anyways.) Some time from now we'll get to dig the creek.(he'll dig, well watch, and dump, and watch, and dump, and wat...(repeat will be necessary!)) If the creek is deep enough the coal seam will be exposed. I think that would look cool, shiny black coal, glissining in the bright alberta sun, water dancing over hundreds of scutteled golf balls, dotting the creek bed, standing out like an away fan in a home stadium,(espesilly when home loses.) It'll be easier for cheapskates like me to find our lost balls,(and not in the divorce either...)unless your playing the Nike black ball, then forget it, its just gone. Reminds me of one of my first golf memories...Back when I was beardless by nature, and not just by choice, I ended up at a teachers conference for the whole district. It was held at a local course, and how educational to see all my high school teachers get drunk! Any ways, my Mom was there and decided to stand out by playing a bright yellow ball,(back when any colour but white was rare,) and she did, right up untill she hit it into a big patch of dandylions!(ah, those were good times!)

The banner shot,(on top,) is looking towards tee #6 and hole #9. As you can see there is a mountain of coal dust in front of that building, dwarfing the D6 cat.(the little yellow blur in front of the big black shape.)(If you dont feel like scrolling up to the top agien, you can also see it on the left.) That is left over from the mine, and now some other business comes and mixes it with fertilizer or something.(for somthing, sounds like a multi purpous, third world bomb factory to me!)(or not.) I'm not sure what its for, but they take it out by the truck load, to some where.(This is the kind of informitive jouranalism you've come to expect from this blog isn't it? I know to me the internet sure lost a lot of its creditbility when I found out just any smoe(like me) with a crap-top could get on it! I mean where will it all end?)
All of these shots where taken last thursday,(my 2nd day of work,)friday was too wet to dig. So for my 3rd day as a rock truck driver...I washed walls to get them clean enough to paint,(I try to get out, but they just keep pulling me back in!) So this week we get three days in, and the rain(and some snow!) comes back with a vengence once agien. Don't tell the boss, but I would love to take the truck out in the swampy conditions, just to see how stuck I could get that monster! Hehehe!"Better get a bigget cat...Hes gone in up to the cab!" hehehe.(but we'll just keep that between us O.k.? and the squishing my old vw bit too, k?) Today was the painting day, and with the non stop rain, tomorrow will be as well. Its good to fianally get some wet, now we could use some warm! One of these sunny days I'll throw the clubs in to the Blazer, and head out to Tofield golf course.(the closest open course not in my back yard,) It's been too long since I've played for real. Its probaly a good thing its only a nine holer because I'll likely just go after work.(and I know I'm out of walking the course shape!)

These next two shots are what I look at most,(at least during the important times,)my mirrors. Strange thing about this truck is when your backing up and truning, you see nothing! As you turn the ass end swings sideways to the cab and fills your mirrors. The other side mirrors show only empty space where you've already been.(if there was somthing there, its gone now!)(hope it was a wabbit!)(hehehe!)Even strait behind is a 15ft. wide blind spot, so you just look at what will be behind you. If you time it right, by turning while you can see the spot where you want to be,(and keeping it in one of the mirrors,)you'll end up o.k. The loader gives you a good aim point, and will start dumping when your in the correct spot. Also the dozer is a good target, he likes it right in frount of his blade,(the closer the better, don't worry he'll get out of the way!)The first day he confused the hell out of me with some vage hand gestors, and sweeping arm motions. Finally I just jumped down,(well I took the first two steps then jumped down, I'm not as young as I used to be you know!)and asked him just where he wanted it. Its better to ask then dump 30 tons in the wrong spot!

I hope it rains it self out this week end, I want to re-retire from painting. Tomorrow(friday!)I'll finish the new office/storage room/litter box area, that used to be the coal truck weigh station, as well as the new lunch room, that used to be a old office.(When we where cleaning it out, we found a old record player/radio/8-track cabinet that had to have been there since 1975! Judging from the wide assortment of classic discoish titles.)

This last shot is of the last load of the day. Just a load of rocks found in amonst the clay. One rock was half the buckett size, or about as big across as your dinning room table, with the optional leaf! so not the kind of thing I'd want in the fairway any ways.(dont look for that rock in this picture, it must have got loaded while I was dumping.)

Bachelor tip for any day; When your feeling old, up is too far to get, and over is too far to bend. So a helpful hint is too have a rolling chair and put your beer in the door of your fridge. That way you can just roll on by and grab the handle, spin your self into a graceful stop and grab a tasty reward for being so squave!(unfortunatly for me my kitchen floor is still an inch lower then this room, so any attempt at squaveness would result in a full on face plant followed by the inevitable getting up!)

Now we come to the end of this blog, and as we talked about stuff from today, we are offically all caught up! No more will we have to play the time travel shuffle board shell game(?) No sir, now we're all on the same page. Take the time to look at the map below, if you click on it it gets bigger.(sorry guys, it only works with pictures.) This is a course I can't wait to play, even if I wasn't working there...But I Am! (HaHaHA!)(that was my happy laugh, it only sounds strange cause it hasn't been heard in a while.) Have a great week, next post in may! I've been bloggin now for almost 1 year! Latter DufferKev.

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