Powder Prep

I’ve been spending a few days preparing several items for the Calgary CVMG club ‘powder coating day’ this coming Saturday.  Should be interesting as I haven’t actually seen this done before – other than on television of course ! I hope to have two motorcycle frames ready to go – both are Suzuki’s, one being a 1973 GT750 and the other being a 1977 GT500. I’ve spent the past few days disassembling and getting them stripped down, taken lots of photos and bagged and tagged many of the smaller bits and pieces, nuts and bolts.

Today I spent some time washing off the accumulated dirt and  oil from 30+ years of use.  I had briefly thought of  doing this in my driveway using my pressure washer, but very quickly rejected the idea as it would flush small amounts of oil and grease down the storm drain. Instead, I took everything over to a local Shell car wash as they (supposedly) are set up to keep this sort of debris out of the storm water system.

I’ve touched on Shell’s marketing folks and what an odd lot they are previously. Some time ago (before I retired !) I had suggested to the same brilliant marketing folks at Shell that keep closing filling stations so you can’t find one when you need one, that they start to consider the value of putting Shell’s name on the roofs of our buildings. When you consider the number of people using the various free mapping services offering satellite photos that show tons of detail, you would think it would be a no-brainer. A few companies have actually done this in the USA, and Microsoft offers this capability in a virtual fashion with Tim  Horton’s coffee shops and Petro-Canada filling stations in some parts of Canada using their Bing mapping service. In the photo to the right, you can see the Shell station and car wash I used – or at least you can now that I’ve pinned a label on it with an arrow !  Imagine how it would look with a big Shell pecten on the roof – this of course hasn’t happened. As I may have mentioned previously, our marketing folks border on genius in much the same way that hammers do – not very much at all actually, but I digress ……

The parts are now all freshly washed, and tomorrow I go over to the good folks at Consolidated Compressor here in Calgary to sand blast all the bits and pieces. I wrote about them previously here , and this time I will be using their indoor glass bead blasting cabinet for the smaller items and the outside sand blasting stations for the two frames. I have to admit, for someone like myself who doesn’t have to do this sort of thing for a living, there is a certain fascination about watching the old paint, rust and anything else that happens to get in the way and isn’t firmly attached get blasted into oblivion – it promises to be fun ! If all goes well, I’ll have Friday to blow out any bits of grit and make sure everything is ready to go for the main powder coating event Saturday morning.

I’ll let you know how it goes !

Victoria’s Quilts

Giving something useful back to the community is always worthwhile, and as every family at some time or other is touched by illness, accident or tragedy, if that ’something’ can provide a bit of comfort during a difficult time then I think that is doubly good to do. Victoria’s Quilt s Canada is probably not very well known – certainly people always seem surprised to hear about it when we talk about it, but this is a group of volunteer quilters from across Canada that produces hand made quilts as gifts to patients dealing with cancer. The quilts themselves are beautiful, and the amount of donated material, craftsmanship and time that goes into each one continues to amaze me. These are offered by Victoria’s Quilts Canada to cancer patients in response to requests by a family member, friend or relative – and at no cost to the person receiving the quilt. Here in the Calgary Victoria’s Quilts Chapter, there are about forty-five full time members plus probably an additional thirty or forty quilters who contribute time and additional resources. Its a very good cause.

Shell Canada Ltd. offers Community Service Fund cash grants of varying amounts to specified groups, charities and organisations in which Shell staff and retirees participate, and in 2008 Shell Canada Ltd. donated more than $490,000 to some 350 organisations across Canada benefiting directly from this programme.

Today I was very pleased to present to the Calgary Victoria’s Quilts executive, a generous cheque from Shell Canada Ltd. , which was gratefully received, and which will be used to fund the cost of materials used in the production of quilts for cancer patients in the Calgary and surrounding area. In the presentation photo to the right we have the Calgary Victoria’s Quilt executive who are (from left): Laura Deschner(Vice-President), Sharron Blaine (President), Marilyn Lichtenstein (Treasurer), myself doing the presentation and Donna Sandy (Secretary).

If you want to make a contribution of either fabric (please be sure to check the specifiations before donating fabric) or money, or if you are a quilter and want to donate some of your own time just contact the national office or the branch closest to you.

At the moment, this is a North American group, but I suspect groups will eventually pop up in other countries – I think its needed.

Back to Wetaskiwin !

My Dad came for a short visit this past week, and as a result aircraft were on the agenda ! He trained at Napier & Sons in the UK, and then after emigrating to Canada was involved for a short while in aero jet engine design at Orenda, working on the afterburner design of the Iroquois engine being readied for the Avro Arrow. While the few completed Avro Arrow’s were cut up for scrap, there are still two Iroquois engines in existence  - one in Hamilton, and one in Ottawa.

As this year was the 100th anniversary of flight in Canada there were several good exhibits available to visit in Alberta – including the full size Avro Arrow replica in Wetaskiwin, which we visited just over a year ago with my father-in-law Warren, shortly before he passed away.  I previously wrote about that here.  The Avro Arrow replica is on display is at the Reynolds  Alberta Museum and Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in Wetaskiwin till September 23rd and (I think) it is well worth seeing – you really cannot appreciate just how big an aircraft the Arrow was till you stand in front of it – the model looks quite good although they obviously had a problem dealing with the weight of the wings and so to avoid them ’sagging’ there are some supports under each wingtip, which I edited out of the photos I took to mark the event. I suppose that’s cheating, but the photos look much better as a result so I really don’t feel too bad !

One of the other places I took him to, was the Lancaster bomber exhibit in Nanton just south of Calgary. This is a real ‘must’ see as it is one of the very few Lancaster’s still in existence that you can actually go inside of, plus currently two of the four engines actually work – they run them several times per year with the next ’showing’ being September 26th.

There is quite a story that goes with how this plane came to be in the middle of Alberta – if you get a chance, check it out as the museum, the exhibits and the aircraft on display are well worth a look.

We finished off the week with a day at the Military Museum , which used to be called the Museum of Regiments and which was just recently reopened after a major refurbishment – it now combines museums representing all the Canadian forces.  Again, lots to see and of course, several aircraft were on display in the naval gallery.

All in all it was a busy week – checking out aircraft during the day, and then relaxing with a glass of wine while sitting on the back deck watching the activity in Fish Creek Park in the evenings. Its a tough life, but someone has to do it !

Calgary Motorcycle Show

Well, the weekend has come and gone and I spent yesterday (Monday) just puttering around the house after four solid days at the Calgary Stampede Grounds in the Roundup Centre where the 2009  Calgary Motorcycle Show was held. This is a travelling  show that visits several cities at this time of year, providing a welcome break from the winter blahs, and while I haven’t seen the final attendance figures it was a very busy place in our corner of the building.

The local Rocky Mountain chapter of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group (CVMG) had a large number of vehicles on display ranging from a 1935 BMW through to a 1983 Suzuki Gamma, and as Suzuki was featured this year, we had good selection of this make on hand. Front and centre on the RMS CVMG display was Wade’s immaculate and all original 1972 GT750 seen to the right. Also on display was Fred’s 1976 RE5 rotary together with a cutaway of the engine which we (mainly Janice actually) cranked over by hand for hours. It never failed to attract a lot of attention as you really need to see it operating to appreciate just how different an engine design it is, and many people are not aware this type of engine was actually ever used in a motorcycle. It was also very interesting to watch people’s faces as they walked around our display – clearly seeing these older bikes brought back a lot of memories for many people, and you constantly heard parents telling their kids about how they’d had one just like one of the ones on display. The other interesting thing was the number of folks who had been given their father’s or grandfather’s bike which had been sitting for the last who knows how many years in a garage or shed, and who now were looking for information and help to get them running again. Possibly a few of these will be on display next year !

Getting the bikes to the show for all of us was not a lot of fun on Thursday as it was -15 C and snowing, but everyone chipped in and helped each other to unload and push the bikes through the snow in the parking lot and into the Roundup Centre.  Fred set the record for most trips, but I think the one that came the furthest was the absolutely beautiful 1951 Vincent Black Shadow owned by a club member north of the city. Perhaps one of the biggest concerns (other than having an accident) was the amount of slop and road spray there was for those of us using open trailers – after the hours of shining and polishing, the last thing you want is slush, sand and salt spray all over your pride and joy ! Fortunately the cover I had worked well, and I had only a small amount of tidy-up to do once I’d unloaded.

My own contributions were my 1974 GT550, and my project bike with the burgundy tank seen to the left, and which a few of the members call a GTS750 as it is a GT/GS hybrid. For me personally, completing the project was the culmination of six months of very satisfying and rewarding work, and the perfect tonic as it took my mind completely away from cares, pressures and concerns of my former employment, and allowed me to fully disconnect and move into retirement mode.  All in all, it was a great experience, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s show.

Next on the agenda is to get the GT550 running and also do some work on my Yamaha YA6 along with the other usual household items – I suppose at some point I may consider looking for a part time job of some sort, but at the moment I’m not sure where I’d be able to find the time !

The Coyotes Aren’t Singing !

It appears that winter may finally have truly arrived here in Calgary, as the current temperature according to the thermometer by the back door is about -25 C,  and the local news channel cheerfully reports that with the slight breeze that is blowing, it actually feels like -34 C. For my Australian cousins in Perth, that would be roughly 55 degrees Celsius colder than your current temperature as measured at 2 am your local time today – it is just a tad on the frosty side in other words. As well we have also had yet another fresh dump of snow as can be seen in the photo to the right.

All of this snow is starting to pose a bit of a problem as it is only mid-December, and as I clear the driveway and walkways, I am already running out of places to put it ! As may be expected with something that is delivered to your home free of charge and in large quantities, snow has no resale value in Calgary at all. Last year, as our former neighbours Gwen and Brendan relaxed on a beach for the winter somewhere in sunny Mexico,  only half of their driveway was being cleared so I saw no harm in adding some of my snow to the un-dug heaps that they were collecting on their side of the property line, assuaging my conscience by knowing that it would largely be melted by the time they returned and none would be the wiser ! This year though, we have new neighbours possessed of enviable snow shovelling habits, so storing snow surplus to my own requirements on that side is no longer an option.  Perhaps I may end up loading it into my trailer and hauling the excess snow to the dump to join my compost already deposited there.

At this time of year, the coyotes can usually be heard singing away at night in Fish Creek Park behind our place, but they were not singing last night ! Possibly given a choice between partying and keeping warm, they have done the sensible thing – unlike the dog owners who can be seen today trudging along  in the park with a leash in one hand and their very quickly frozen collections of animal emissions stored in a plastic baggie clutched tightly in the other ! As I watch them, neither the owners nor the dogs look especially pleased about their enforced morning constitutional strolls in the frozen fields, and it occurs to me that perhaps that is why the coyotes sing – they aren’t on leashes and they are not bound by city stoop and scoop laws, but I digress.  It is quite pleasant and warm here beside the fireplace as I consider whether I should head outside and shovel snow yet again and also where to put the stuff.  I suppose I may convince myself that there really isn’t any hurry and just go and do some more work on my motorbike, as we have several months of winter ahead of us, and I’m reasonably sure the snow will still be there tomorrow. Plus, it just occured to me that there is always the possibility that our new neighbours may also go somewhere warm for the winter, so I may be able to store some of my surplus frozen white stuff on their yard while they are gone …………….

A Compost’d Tale

Like many folks, we gladly spend the $4 in gasoline to get our $3.50 in deposit refunds as we recycle cans and bottles, and we also brave -40 C weather, howling winds and snow to drag paper and cardboard to the outside recycle centres. I won’t say that we ‘hug trees’ as such, but we do like to at least look at them. It will come as no surprise at all then that when our friends Greg and Cate offered, for what I considered to be an excellent price (free) a deluxe, black plastic ‘Earth Machine’ compost bin, we leapt at the chance to try and make environmentally friendly dirt for our gardens.

I have to say that we doted on that bin – feeding it only the best hand picked vegetable scraps that money can buy. And when I say ‘best’ – I mean imported from far away places like Mexico and California. Of course one could argue that we really didn’t have a lot of choice. Lets face it, for 10 months out of the year there aren’t really any locally grown vegetables in Calgary, as we are locked in sub-zero weather ! At any rate, I suspect our ‘Earth Machine’ was better cared for than most people’s pets – due to the very dry climate here, I had to water the contents of the compost bin to keep it from drying out and therefore not digesting, and we fed it nutrients specially designed for composters to both speed up the process and also to ensure a well balanced, plant friendly resultant product. The contents were stirred weekly using a special tool to ensure an even mixture, and when its digestion was upset and the neighbours complained about the odour, we lovingly shredded newspaper in my cross-cut shredder, and thoroughly mixed it in to stabilise its delicate processes. In short, I have no doubt at all that it was a very happy, and contented composter. After many weeks of work, tender care and much, much eating of vegetables, we were verging on having what I would have to very modestly call ‘primo’ compost, and we were starting to discuss what part of the garden would be blessed with our cubic foot of natural goodness, and also possibly of organising tours so that friends and neighbours could come and stare at it and share our joy – but then a very unfortunate thing happened.

Our chimney needed repair, and when a crew of contractors dutifully showed up to get it started, we left them to it and went about our business elsewhere. At the end of the second day of renovations, I noticed that the beloved compost bin had had to be moved so they could do some of the work. No problem I thought to myself, and then I started to look around for where they had saved the contents of the ‘Earth Machine’ which we had so lovingly created. Alas, there was no little pile of deep, dark organic happiness to be seen anywhere ! It was with a sense of impending doom that I asked the owner of the stone mason company what he had done with the compost – ‘taken to the dump’ he replied quite cheerfully, together with all the other rubble from the work they were doing. You can well imagine my slack jawed look of utter dismay ! The only consolation I can draw, is that buried somewhere in the City of Calgary dump, is a small pocket of rich organic goodness which hopefully will have a positive impact amidst all of the other nasty stuff that goes into there !

Meanwhile – we have started to eat more Mexican vegetables ………

Blasting in Calgary

I just spent a 30 minutes doing something that was hugely satisfying in a weird kind of way – sand blasting !

The background is that I I needed to clean up some parts for my Suzuki GT750 project (the ‘home’ site for the GT750 rebuild project is here) for welding and painting, and with all the nooks and crannies it was taking far too long to sand the parts down. I have an air compressor, and actually tried out a cheap sand blasting unit from Princess Auto, but several things gave me pause:

• you really need a lot of air for it to work well
• the mess made by all the sand flying about is amazing
• it is not good for the lungs – actually if you want to do this sort of thing, you need either a fully enclosed cabinet for smaller items, or a full head cover with external air feed to pressurize the hood to ensure you aren’t breathing silica dust and paint chips when blasting larger items

Bottom line – not recommended mainly due to safety concerns unless you are willing (and able) to invest the money in the right safety and compressor equipment.

One of the fellows in the RMS branch of the CVMG had mentioned to me, that there was a local outfit here in Calgary offering do-it-yourself sand blasting by the hour so I thought I’d give them a try. Consolidated Compressor is in the east industrial area of Calgary and the rates are quite reasonable. They have about 8 stations, and on any given day you will find several people happily blasting away as per the photo to the right. As I was new to this, one of the folks there stepped me through the ‘how tos’ before I got started. It isn’t a difficult process – basically just point and shoot, taking care not to get parts of your own body in the way ! They supply instructions, gloves and ear plugs, a fully enclosed helmet with external air supply, work areas where you can clamp your work, and all the compressed air and sand you need. Long sleeves and long trousers are a must, and as well it is also a good idea to not park your car too close, just in case you point things in the wrong direction ! The process is fast – paint, rust, etc., just flew off the work pieces I had, and the resultant bare metal finish is ready to go for paint or additional metal working as required.

I have to assume the same sort of service is available in other cities, and if not then that’s a shame because its a great idea !

Fish Creek and The Partridge Family

It sometimes seems as if my wife and I spend far too much time just watching the day to day real life dramas that play out in the park bordering our property. Fish Creek Provincial Park is one of the largest urban parks in Canada, covering some 1346 hectares , or roughly 3331 acres of land within the City of Calgary.

Lots of larger animals such as deer, coyotes, porcupines, etc. live in the park (and sometimes in our back yard !), but also many birds of all sorts and sizes. We actually keep our own log book of sightings and make a note of new species when we see them. This year, many of the birds nesting in the tall grasslands behind our place have been impacted by the construction of a BirthPlace Forest on vacant city land just to the west of us and bordering Fish Creek Park. The BirthPlace Park is sponsored mainly by BP Canada Energy (I suppose making it the BP BP F ?) and the City of Calgary. While it is tough to find fault with the planting of 6000 trees by an oil company, in the short term at least, it has been disruptive as the high grass west of us was mowed short to make way for the planting of the trees, the building of pathways, installation of watering systems and many birds which normally nest there were displaced elsewhere. I expect it will take a couple of years for things to stabilise.

In addition to two families of Ring Necked Pheasants, one of the real life stories we have been following, has been the fate of a family of Gray Partridges that sometimes comes into our yard to clean up the seed scattered on the ground by the smaller birds from our feeders. What started out as a family of 11 with the 2 parents and 9 chicks seen in the photo to the right, dwindled over the late spring to 6 chicks, then by early summer to 4 and then recently down to just 2 chicks. We thought that perhaps they had finally got big enough to be able to evade the many hawks, owls and occasional eagle which we see in the area, but when we spotted them coming out of the tall grass this week, we saw that only 1 chick remained.

Its possible weather could have been a factor in a few cases and obviously predators have to eat, but it just seems a bit harsh. We are hoping the last chick will be luckier than the other 8.

The Squadron

One of my interests post retirement is to learn how to fly radio controlled model planes. I have one plane which I recently just finished mounting the servos and radio into, and this fall the plan is to actually try to get some air time in with one of the local clubs. The two that are most convenient for me are CRAMS, and the Chinook Winds clubs. Both clubs seem to have good facilities and also good reputations so it should be fun.

When you are learning, you do tend to make more than the occasional ‘hard’ landing , so having a few spare parts is not a bad idea. My Dad has been flying model aircraft for years, and in fact built the one I already have, so when he recently decided to do a bit of a cleanup in his garage I jumped at the chance to pick up a few bits and pieces. I was not disappointed – the selection was closer to being a small squadron than just some ‘parts’, and with them came a number of well used but serviceable engines, radios, servos and useful odds and ends such as extra wings for the model I have, as well as an extra fuselage. In the mix was an electrically powered R/C sailplane, which brought back many memories. Every glider I ever built and flew as a teenager seemed unfailingly able to find a tree to land in. Presumably with the radio control the odds will be more in my favour !

One plane I was especially pleased to take delivery of was one that we had bought for him as a kit many Christmas’ ago. It is a model of a WWII Bell P39 Aircobra fighter and it is pictured to the right sitting in his backyard. To be honest, I will probably make a static display of it and hang it from the ceiling of my den rather than risk crashing it, as he did a really nice job of building it and it has already had quite a bit of time in the air.

At the least, it will be a nice conversation piece, and as well also a nice keepsake.

Its Hot in Calgary !

And it has nothing to do with temperature !

We have been back here in Calgary for four weeks, and (when not in the office or working on our house) we have spent the time revisiting some familiar places, learning about some new ones and checking to see which ones are no more. It has been interesting – I admit I’d forgotten just how poorly skilled (generally speaking) Alberta drivers were as compared to drivers in Europe, or how bad the roads are due to frost heaving, pot holes, the amount of loose gravel getting kicked up and cracking into the windscreen etc., etc., etc.. Its also funny to listen to people complain about the volume of traffic, after having often sat through 15 and 25 KM long traffic jams in The Netherlands and France, and even longer ones in Germany and Switzerland – perspective certainly helps ! The rate of growth, fueled (bad pun !!) by the petro-chemicals industry here is impressive and shortly after our arrival, Calgary crested the 1 million mark and is supposedly headed for a population of 1.25 million in the next 10 years. This is putting lots of pressure on the city infrastructure – and the building of new schools, water and sewage treatment plants etc.. has not managed to keep pace – and going back to the traffic issues, the ring road to relieve some of the traffic congestion, and which was being talked about before we left for Europe in 2000 is now not expected to be completed till 2008. Most skilled trades are in very short supply, and the service industry especially is having trouble attracting staff – it would seem that it will not get better any time soon.

On the positive side, it is very nice to be back, and it is the little things you notice the most, like stopping and being aware that you can actually understand the background conversations in a restaurant for example. We miss Europe, but we like being back home also.