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To the beat of your own drum

23 Apr

I was kinda stumped when I was thinking for a title to this week’s post. Not a whole lot has gone on and I was worried that I wouldn’t have a lot to write about, never mind coming up with a catchy title. Then it all came to me…I’ll explain later!

Amazingly enough, I’m still getting caught up from the trip, even though I came back from France two weeks ago. Or at least that’s the way I feel. I don’t think I really fell that far behind in my work, but there’s just this nagging feeling that I’m not where I should be. Could it be just a little burnout that is making me feel this way? Well, whatever the situation I hope it remedies itself soon…maybe the 9 weeks left in the school year will do that!

Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery

Speaking of the trip, the gears are really turning for Vimy 2017. I know that is a long way away, but maybe there is a way to fill in the next five years. I was speaking to a colleague today and she suggested maybe a World War II themed tour at some point. Later in in the day I had a phone conversation with our tour manager and she hinted at the same thing. Right now this is all talk though, since I certainly need to run anything by my wife as she’ll be the one at home with two boys for a week again. We’ll see what happens. I did take a few minutes and browse some of the tours that were available on the EF site!

I did promise last week that I would have some railway updates this week, but unfortunately my previously mentioned schedule issues (or my imagined ones) kept me from any serious research. I really need to finish the last tweaks on the article so I can put it to rest, so I definitely have to make time for that this week. My wife is going out of town on the weekend, so I might be able to squeeze it in at some point.

Close-up of CNoR Map 1908, Manitoba Historical Maps.

Now I did get a little work done, quite by accident. For some reason I was Googling

railway maps and I happened upon a map that was produced by Canadian Northern Railway in 1908. It shows all of the railway’s lines up to that point, including the projected extensions. I’ve posted a small section, so here’s the full link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manitobamaps/3815194348/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Obviously of interest to me was the disposition of CNoR lines in northwestern Ontario. The map indicates that the Duluth Extension was only running trains as far as North Lake, but there was a projection of the line into the US to link with the Duluth and Iron Range. Interestingly, unless it is a mistake, the map shows the line bypassing the natural connection point at Ely but rather extending to Tower, Minnesota. My favourite though is how the stop “Westfort” is misspelled “West Fork!”

So about the title. Well I was asked this week as to why I write this blog, why anyone would be interested in what I have to say? To this I answer, why not? I don’t write this blog to garner people’s approval; if people want to read it great, if not it’s their loss. I originally started this blog to let those interested in the railway know how my research was going. Also, since my plan is to someday write a book, I wanted to practice my writing since as a teacher I’m usually surrounded by bad grammar and spelling. This is not about what other people think, it is about me. I’ve always done things in my way and never felt the need to conform to whatever else people are doing. This world is filled with people trying to fit in, why isn’t it okay to be different? How boring would the world be if we were all the same? So I’m going to continue being who I am and doing what I enjoy…I really hope some of my students read this!

Okay, I have to wrap things up. In the meantime, the beat goes on! Until then…

 
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Posted by on April 23, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Where did spring go?

17 Apr

Today the temperature sits at -4C and there is snow on the ground; it seems as if Mother Nature cannot make up her mind. This is a far cry from the nearly 20C temperatures we were enjoying three weeks ago. I’m sure it will sort itself out soon enough, I hope.

Anyway, a week ago I was standing in the pouring rain at Vimy Ridge; it’s hard to believe a week has already passed. It is good to be home and I’ve finally recovered from the jet lag. It was kinda touch and go there…I nearly fell asleep in class a few times on Wednesday. The pictures have all been downloaded from my camera, all 1316 images or nearly 6gb worth. Wow, I am shutter happy! All video I took is now on my computer too, 24gb of HD content. I was down to the last 10 minutes of recording time on the camera, so that 24gb is about 3 hours of video. I haven’t had time to sort through it all, but I did upload a few highlights to YouTube (From Ypres and Vimy). You can see them by clicking on the following links: Menin Gate Ceremony, Vimy Song by Lizzy Hoyt, Vimy Ceremony Last Post.

In front of the Eiffel Tower, April 2012.

I can honestly day that it was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on, and certainly one of the most special. I’ve already spoken to my classes about it, but I cannot wait to share

more of my experiences and photographs with them. We are already planning ahead to Vimy 2017 and are really hoping that there are similar tours that will be organized by EF. Now having experienced a student tour for the first time, I know what to expect and how to better prepare. Not that I wasn’t ready, I didn’t lose anyone, but there’s always those little things that you cannot anticipate unless you’ve actually done it.

So needless to say I did not get any railway related work done in the last week. I spent my time getting caught

up on all the things I left behind while I was gone and making YouTube videos. I’m sure I will make some time this week to get back to my other life. I still have a few tweaks left to do on the MN History article and then maybe I’ll starting on the Leeblain article for the Thunder Bay Historical Society.

If the weather cooperates, I’m hoping to get into some hiking soon. If the snow goes away this weekend, I’ll try and get out next weekend. I still need to get back to Rosslyn and the few remaining pieces of railway and shoot some video. With those rails obscured by the brush, it’s best to get at them now before everything leafs out and they are even harder to see. It will be May in a few weeks and that marks the beginning of hiking season. I know that it will be a busy spring and summer, but I am going to try and get out as much as I can.

Anyway, I must run. I’ll leave you with one of my favourite pics from the trip. Until then…

Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium April, 2012.

 
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Posted by on April 17, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Travel, Writing

 

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Leavin’ on a jet plane…

02 Apr

Don’t kiss me though, but you can smile for me! (and I’ll be back next Tuesday).

Yes, that time has arrived. This time tomorrow I’ll be on a plane headed to Paris. It’s hard to believe the time has already arrived…wasn’t it just December and I was having the first parent meeting? I’m both nervous and excited for the trip; I’ve never taken students on anything like this before. However, I know that I have a good bunch of kids so things will be okay. Just my usual pre-event nerves! I still have some packing to do, but otherwise I think I’m ready to roll.

Yesterday our Tour Director Hugues or Hugo sent me the tentative itinerary; it looks awesome! In Paris we’ll visit the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower and whatever else comes up. Then we’re off to Rouen, from where we will visit Dieppe and Normandy (there will be a tour of Rouen in there somewhere). The trip to Normandy will take us to Juno Beach and the Canadian cemetery at Beny sur Mer. I think we’ve convinced Hugo to take us to the Bretteville cemetery south of Caen near Cintheaux as well. This will be an interesting visit for me, as fallen members of the Black Watch and Lake Superior Regiment are interned in this cemetery. I’ll explain if the visit happens.

From Rouen we go to Amiens, which allows us to get to Passchendaele and Ypres. We’re going to attend the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres, which should be quite the experience. The Last Post has been played there for almost every day at 8:00pm since 1928. The next day we head to the ceremony at Vimy Ridge. I think we need to be up at 5:00am…that’s crazy even for me! That should be quite the experience, though I usually hate big crowds so we’ll see how I do.

In other school related news, it is now April so that means we’re getting closer to football spring training. Where does the time go? Geez this has been a busy year. Last week I finally found some time to re-edit the highlight video from the fall and get it posted on YouTube. Turns out (which I didn’t know) that the folks at YouTube are in a spat with Warner Bros music; you can’t upload anything with their music on it. So that’s why my video never worked…the only problem was finding non-Warner Bros music. Anyway, it’s finally online and you can watch it here.

The unfortunate side effect of my busy past few days is that I didn’t really have any railway time. There was no research…I’m sure I’ll get back at it when I return. I did do a little revising on the article, adding a couple of things here and there, but nothing substantial. Hopefully I can get this sent in soon and that will be one last thing to worry about.

So I need to get rolling. For those of you who read this blog for railway news, I will be hijacking it for the next week to blog from Europe. I’ll also be missing my usual Monday entry since I’ll be away.

Until Wednesday…

 
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Posted by on April 2, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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I can see that on Google Maps?

26 Mar

Why yes you can! If you have no idea what I mean, which is probably the case, I’ll explain later. Patience!

So what’s new Dave? Well, I’ll tell ya. As of today, there are only 8 more sleeps until I’m on a plane headed for France. As you can tell, I’m getting pretty excited. Even though there is a bit of nervousness for this experience, the thought of visiting some new places overrides it all. The only big concern I have so far is the flight. We fly from Thunder Bay to Toronto, then catch a quick connecting flight to Montreal and from there to Paris. We only have a 55 minute layover in Toronto, which is tight, but we are flying Air Canada the whole way so the transfers are all in the same terminals. There is also the benefit of flying with other people, as we are travelling to Europe with our sister high school St. Ignatius. In Toronto I’m assuming we’ll meet up with the third group that is on tour with us, a school from St. Catherines.

I guess the biggest concern right now is some of the labour issues ongoing with Air Canada; fingers crossed I’m hoping all will be okay! I know that the kids are getting pretty pumped as well and part of my excitement stems from their enthusiasm. It will be amazing to experience the history we talk about in the classroom. From what I’ve heard, there will be over 150 schools from across Canada converging on Vimy Ridge on April 9th. Representatives of the government will be attendance, as well as His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada. Who knows, maybe we’ll meet the GG!

On the railway front, I finally have finished my half of the Minnesota History article. It only took me two months, but I’m pretty proud of myself. There are still some tweaks that need to be made, but there’s nothing major left to do. The final word count is 3200, which is over my limit, but there is so much to talk about. I’m not sure how things will make it through the revision process, but I guess I will find out. Not having written anything of this nature does make me a bit nervous, as you do worry how people will receive your abilities and writing style. It will probably be fine, but I’ll be very happy when it makes it to print!

So, the Google Maps thing. I happened to be looking on Google Earth and noticed that they updated some of their maps of the area. Google Earth/Maps has been great in the past for helping me locate the railway and plot the data to my GPS, especially along areas like the Whitefish River that have been eroded over the years. I want to hike the area around Hymers this summer, so I thought, “hey, what if I do an overlay and see how they match?” Well, it isn’t the first time that I’ve tinkered around with Google Earth and map overlays, but probably the most successful I’ve been at it. Some of you may be baffled, so I’ll explain.

Map overlay of the Hymers-Sellars area.

Google Earth has a feature that allows you to overlay or superimpose scans of paper maps onto the satellite photos. It does take a bit of work, as you have to line up key geographic features between the two, but once it’s done it yields awesome results, especially if you are doing historical research.

So I took a copy of the 1960 Geological map of the Hymers-Sellars area, scanned it and did the overlay. It is a good quality map and lined up quite easily. I was amazed when I began playing with the transparency of the map and comparing the current topography with the one from 52 years ago…what a difference! The technology certainly gives you an appreciation of the forces of nature and changes it undergoes. The Whitefish River has changed its course significantly and it makes me wonder how things looked when the railway was built in the early 1890’s. When I hiked the railway back in the 90’s I would often lose the grade where it had been eroded by the river; now with this overlay I can mark the data points on my GPS and hopefully track the railway without any complications. I’ll be trying this overlay with other map areas in the future.

The main reason why I was playing with the maps was due to a request I received last week via email. The Municipality of Oliver-Paipoonge is looking into creating some recreational trails within their boundaries and contracted a landscape architecture firm to do some consultations. I was contacted by a gentleman at the firm who saw some of my photos on Google Earth and was looking for more information about the railway and the old grade. I dug up some of my maps of the railway for his research, and that got me looking at them. You know the rest of the story.  I will be attending the open house meeting on the trails that is being held at the Murillo Town Complex (4569 Oliver Rd) tomorrow from 4-8pm as the architects have some questions for me.

Last tracks of the PAD&W Railway, Rosslyn, ON.

Now because of the meeting and the recent mild weather we have been experiencing, I decided to take a little

drive yesterday (though the warm temps seemed to have disappeared). The real motivator however was the 74th anniversary of the last train run on the railway. On March 24, 1938 engineers discovered that several bridges near Hymers had been weakened by high water on the Whitefish River. No passenger trains would ever travel the rails after that day. Faced with increasing competition from buses and trucks, CN had lost $79,000 over the two previous years. The line was probably in poor shape due to years of neglect so the decision was made to abandon it in October. The rails were taken up the next year.

Tracks and switch, Rosslyn, ON.

I drove to Twin City Crossroads, which is just east of the village of Rosslyn. Here can be found the last remaining tracks of the railway. They are not the original steel (dated 1903), as they were replaced when Canadian Northern took over in 1899. However, they are the closest one can come to the old railway. After photographing the tracks, I drove further west, past Rosslyn to the site of the old Brick Plant. More tracks can be found here, along with a switch that allowed rail cars onto the factory spur. From there the rail bed continues west, just south of Rosslyn Road until you reach the intersection of Fraser Rd, at which point the road becomes Harstone Drive and sits directly atop the grade. I went about 2km west, to where there was a spur that ran to the Stanley Ballast Pit. I think I found the spur, but it was too wet and cool to do any real exploration.

Anyway, until next week…

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Waterparks, Ikea and the Battle of Yavin

12 Mar

So I’m sitting here in the parking lot at the Albertville Outlets, typing away while my wife shops. It’s a bit too wet outside for the boys to play on the equipment, so they’re watching a movie on their DVD’s. It is Monday, so it’s blog day, so I thought I’d get a head start on this week’s post. Unfortunately I just lost part of because it wouldn’t save, so I’m now resuming this post at 7:00 CST.

Lego Store, Mall of America

Now for the title; what else would you expect from me? We’re obviously on vacation, but it is somewhat abbreviated, since we head back home tomorrow…no Duluth on this trip 😦 Besides the usual spat of shopping, we did make time for a visit to the Waterpark of America which the boys loved as usual (Dad’s legs certainly didn’t love the trips up and down the stairs to the water slides). There was also some time spent at Nickelodeon Universe…the Splat-o-Sphere was particularly wonderful. Ethan kept saying to me, “isn’t this awesome!” as I struggled to keep my lunch down. We also squished Ikea into the agenda, as we were looking for some office furniture for the newly floored basement. We also made Mom happy by eating at her favourite, the Cheesecake Factory, but we had to roll ourselves out after dinner!

Well, that leaves the Battle of Yavin right? I mentioned in my last post that Ethan and Noah were excited to visit the Lego store (Dad always is too) and they were hoping to get some of the newly released Lego sets. Their wish came true, and the boys spent Saturday night assembling the X-Wing and Y-Wing while Mommy went to Kohl’s. Since then, the Battle of Yavin (the end scene from Episode IV: A New Hope, where Luke blows up the Death Star for all you non-Star Wars people) has been raging unabated. Today we celebrated Ethan’s 7th birthday with a traditional trip to the Rainforest Café and they’ve been at it since we got back. I’m sure Luke-Red Five and Dutch Vander-Gold Leader (and poor Jek Porkins-Red Six) will relish tomorrow’s travel day and a break from the war against the Galactic Empire!

In other news, the countdown is still on to Europe. Three weeks tomorrow I will be on a plane to Paris! Ironically, this is my first trip overseas since I went on my own EF Tour to Greece and Rome back in 1992…the 20 year anniversary trip! Last week I was sent all the flight and hotel information so it’s that much closer to reality. Last week I also taught my two Grade 10 classes about the Battle of Vimy Ridge, so I promised them pictures direct from the battlefield. When I return, we will be starting WWII so it will perfect timing to show them pictures of Dieppe and Juno Beach in Normandy. Talk about living what you teach!

As for railway related matters, last week was a fairly productive week. I managed to get another chunk of writing done on the article, bringing my word count to almost 2300. I will definitely have to do some cutting, but maybe by re-jigging the incomplete first part of my section I can minimize what is removed. I’m hoping to finish in the next week or two, for sure before I leave on the trip. I’ll need to get Lee’s input on what he thinks, as there will certainly be some tweaking that will be necessary. A summer or fall publication date? Let’s hope!

I did get a bit of research squeezed in last week too; I need to remember to download a few things that I bookmarked while surfing over lunch at work. With a bunch of new material to print out, I guess I’ll be doing some filing over the last few days of the break. I’ve probably killed more than a few trees in the past 18 years of research. One could argue that in this electronic age I could somehow keep everything on some sort of digital file, but I would have no idea how to organize that in a way that I could keep adding material. Anyone know?

Last week I also made a little foray into the realm of Wikis, for the first time creating a new page on Wikipedia. I have edited pages in the past, but this was the first time that I made something from scratch. It was completely off the cuff too; I just thought about it while my kids were writing a test on Friday and began plucking away on it over lunch. It is by no means complete, but I hoping to finish it off at some point during the break. The topic was on the ghost town of Leeblain in case you’re wondering, one of my favourite places. I always wondered what it might look like today had it worked out. Hmmmm…

Anyway, gotta go; long day tomorrow. Until next week…

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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March break already?

05 Mar

Wow, we’re a week away from the break and it feels like the semester just started. The last four weeks have flown by! I guess like the saying says “time flies when you’re having fun.” I wouldn’t say that it has been all fun, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the last month. My classes are settling in and hopefully this one absence per week craziness will abate.

I’m certainly looking forward to the break and I know my boys are very excited. Our usual March break routine involves a trip to the States, with stops in Minneapolis and Duluth. Last year we tried driving through to Minnie from home on Friday after work, which is a tiring 6 hour slog. However the trade-off is well worth it, leaving us more time in Minneapolis to shop and have fun. I know the boys are pumped to visit the Lego store in the Mall of America, since there are new sets to be had. I must admit that Dad is excited to check-out the new X-Wing and Y-Wing too! We have to throw in some stops for mom at the Albertville Outlet and every Kohl`s we can find, as well as celebrating Ethan`s 7th birthday at the Rainforest Café. Then it`s off to Duluth for a few days before heading home.

Now speaking of travel, the calendar tells me that we leave for Europe and Vimy Ridge in 29 days! It`s hard to believe that it`s coming up so fast…kinda makes me a bit nervous. I think that I`m taking care of things as they come up, but there`s always that bit of the fear of the unknown. Things will be fine, but I want to make sure it`s all done right.

I know that I`m very pumped to go and I`m sure the kids are equally excited. Our slick jackets arrived on Friday, black for me and red for the kids; I think that we will certainly look good if anything else. I`ve definitely made up my mind to take the Playbook with me to blog, which I will hopefully do on a daily basis. Camera, video camera, Blackberry, tablet…I`ll having everything covered in detail for sure!

Last week I did spend quite a bit of time working on the article. I’m now up to 1800 words, which is just short of the limit for my portion. I think that I’m going to have to do a bit of trimming when all is said and done to stay below 2500 words. I actually pretty excited up for this article since it will be my first published work and it will allow me to say that I’m a “historian.” The most important part however, is the valuable experience it will provide me with in the area of historical writing.

It’s also great that I’m re-visiting some of the research that I did many years ago. There is so much information associated with this project there are many things that I had forgotten; it almost like I am relearning the material all over again. It is certainly helping me understand the history of the railway in a completely new perspective. Maybe historical research, like life, is about maturity. The older and more experienced you get, the more things make sense. In a few years I’ll really be smart!

Obviously the writing left little time for research, and I doubt I’ll get much done this week. A break is good too, time to recharge and refocus. Makes me think of how many hats one has to wear when doing investigation of this nature. I really want to get to that High Court of Justice file at the Archives of Ontario because it contains a plethora of information. However I feel as if I need a lawyer to help me interpret some of the material! I guess you can’t be an expert at everything, but one can try. I’m not a civil engineer, nor have I ever built a railway, but comprehending the intricacies of it is critical. Therefore my current bedtime reading is a book on how to construct a railway…its scandalous!

Anyway, time to go. Next week’s blog will be on location in Minneapolis.

 
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Posted by on March 5, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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The Alberta Clipper Strikes Back!

27 Feb

So I awoke this morning to a winter wonderland. We had the pleasure of being hit by an Alberta Clipper yesterday, which is a very fast-moving weather system that packs quite the punch (follow the link if you don’t trust me). The clipper apparently dumped 32cm snow according to the media, which unfortunately was not enough to close the schools. The trend lately is to cancel the busing, but leave the schools open. The side effect, in high schools at least, is that hardly anyone shows up.

So after clearing a path at the end of the driveway to get out, I drove to work with the truck in 4×4 (always fun). I had a meeting for part of the morning at

My front yard after the Clipper, Feb 2012.

the board office, but then I spent the rest of the day marking. I guess that was okay, but I would have rather been at home. There’s still hope though; forecasts are calling for another possible dump in a few days. Maybe they’ll call in the army like they did in Toronto in 1999!

Now in case you’re wondering (again) why the title, I was trying to think of something clever to do with the weather. This weekend my boys watched a couple of Star Wars movies while my wife and I worked on the basement and it just popped into my head. Now speaking of the basement, there was no trip up the mountain this weekend because we finally got around to installing the laminate floor. Jo-Anne and I started this basement reno (really a completion since we didn’t have it finished when we built the house) in 2009 and we’re now approaching the end. All that is left after this is the baseboard and trim around the windows (in the rec room only-office needs furniture and the bathroom is unfinished).

I’d never installed laminate floor before, so this was quite the learning experience. It took us almost 3 hours on Saturday just to get the pad down, but once that was done things moved fairly quickly. There were lots of cuts to make, especially angled cuts, which was a bit tedious. My wife really flexed her handy-lady skills, laying the boards while I did the cutting. We managed to get the rec room done by last night; now we just have to do the office and stairs and the floor is in. The only downside of this whole process is that I am extremely sore today-I guess I used a lot of muscles that I don’t normally do. The hour of snow blowing after school didn’t loosen them up either!

You would think that with all of these things going on that there was very little railway work, but I did manage to make time for that too. I spent a few hours working on the article in the middle of the week and I made good headway. I am now up to 1300 words, which is more than halfway through my portion of the article. It’s also a perfect spot, since it gives me a lot of room to write about the building of railway. There is still the struggle about what to include and what to leave out, but I am feeling a lot better regarding the directions things are headed in. In the end this process will give me some excellent experience writing for a historical audience and maybe it will lead to more opportunities in the future.

I’m hoping to have a rough draft ready for Lee to take a look at in a few weeks as I know that I will be busy as spring approaches. The calendar tells me that I depart with the students for Europe and Vimy Ridge in 36 days. It’s hard to believe that the date is so close; I think that I am on top of everything but I still feel apprehensive. My jitters probably stem from my lack of experience and that I want to make sure everything is done properly. I did decide that I would like to take my Playbook with me so I can blog along the way; almost like a travelling journal (Playbook OS 2.0 is pretty awesome btw). I’ll be sure to confirm if the tablet will make the trip for sure before I leave. I definitely will have my phone with me so I can post to my Twitter wherever we are ( @Padwrr ).

With my limited time I also accomplished my usual spat of research, probing whatever ideas jumped into my head. This week it was information about efforts to link the railway to Duluth during the Canadian Northern years prior to WWI. I also dug-up a few articles on the planned reconstruction of the abandoned rail line to the Paulson Mine in 1921. It seems as though there is always something new to discover. What will this week hold?

Anyway, guess I should wrap things up. Until next week…

 
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Posted by on February 27, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Family Day 2012

20 Feb

Today here in Ontario is Family Day and it was the perfect day to spend with the family. I arrived home from the clinic in Minneapolis last night and since I didn’t see my wife and the boys for four days, I really wanted to spend some time with them.

If you read my previous mini-blog, you’ll know that I was having a great time at the clinic. We did have a nice dinner on Saturday at the Fire Lake Grill and an awesome evening. All in all, our fourth trip the Glazier Clinic was another great experience. The speakers and the information they presented were very beneficial; definitely hopeful that we can get back in a few years. Kudos to my wife Jo-Anne for looking after all the parenting while I was away; I’m a lucky guy.

Now getting back to Family Day, it was an equally great day. After returning the rental van this morning, I

Loch Lomond, Nor'wester Mountains

decided that a nice hike up the mountain would counteract a relatively unhealthy and inactive weekend. My wife is not really the outdoorsy type, but she decided to join the men in her life on our little jaunt. Well, the “little” jaunt actually became a 9.1k, 1300 foot ascent marathon, but who’s counting? We took another trail that led us close to Loch Lomond and my legs are absolutely rejoicing at that decision. Ah, you only live once right?

Tomorrow it’s back to the grind. Another short week; not only because of the holiday today, but I have a meeting on Friday that will take me out of the classroom yet again. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to get back to the article this week after all of the distractions of the last week. That being said, I better do it before Saturday, since our basement floor finally arrived last weekend and I’ll be trying my hand at laminate installation for the first time. I’d really like to have a rough draft done before the March break since we are heading down to the states and maybe I’ll have a chance to discuss it with my writing partner Lee.

Speaking of the railway, I likewise did not get much of anything done last week. There was a little research here and there, but no great discoveries. I did take a few minutes to do some filing today, and while doing so I came to the realization that I may have my work cut out for me on my trip to Ottawa. I thought that I should probe the files of the Canadian Northern Railway, which might be a huge undertaking. Is 6 days enough?

Anyway, I’m going to sign off for this week since this is already my second go around. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to report on railway matters next week. Until then…

 
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Posted by on February 20, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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I don’t think tapping my head will work…

13 Feb

So believe it or not, I had no idea how to start this week’s blog. Wow, I must really be tired or my brain is seriously not working. It seems ironic since quite a bit has gone on in the past week, but I just can’t seem to organize my thoughts. Well, since I told myself that I would do this once a week when I starting blogging, I should try to come up with something. That’s why I feel like Winnie the Pooh…you know when he’s trying to remember something and he’s tapping his head and saying “think, think.”

Last week I wrote about the start of the new semester and a week later things are going well. I like my new classes; the kids seem pretty good and I hope they are enjoying history (even if they are not particularly history people). This is my 12th year teaching the Gr.10 Canadian history and you would think that it would get boring or dull after all those years, but I’m surprisingly not there yet (I teach at least three sections of this class each year).  Maybe that’s a good sign; I guess I still love what I do and I’m enthusiastic about teaching kids about history. Only 16 more years to go…

Speaking of work, this week is another in a series of short weeks that seem to be popping up lately. Last week it was preparing for our school’s annual open house for Gr.8 students; on Friday I will be in Minneapolis for our fourth visit to the Glazier football clinic. Other than the 6 hour road trip, for which I always get stuck in the driver’s seat, it is a pretty awesome weekend. College and pro speakers, coaches from all over the mid-west, Ontario and Manitoba…what’s not to like? Maybe I’ll try and do a quick mini-blog while I’m there. For certain I will have some comments to make for next week’s ramblings.

Me, photographed by my son Ethan.

Since I’m away this week, I tried to spend as much time as I could with my boys Ethan and Noah on the weekend. On Saturday we took in the 3D version of Star Wars Episode I; yes, I know, not the best of the series but my kids liked it (meesa liked it too!). It was pretty cool in 3D; makes me look forward to seeing all the other episodes! On Sunday we were up the mountain for the first time in a few weeks. It was bright and sunny and the weather was great. We pushed a little further and made it to the Loch Lomond overlook. I think the boys enjoyed it too, though they like to complain on the way up. The way down on the other hand was a completely a different story, with dad struggling to keep up!

Well, I guess I should say something about the railway since it is the theme of this blog. Last night I finally managed to get some work done on the article. I’m still finding it a tough go though; hammering out 200, 300 words was a bit of a chore. I only have 2500 words to work with, so it’s hard to figure out what to include and still try to make sense. I figure I’ll write it how I think it should read and then if I need to later, do some cutting. The only thing that worries me is that if I’m having this much trouble now, what am I going to do when I’m writing a whole book? Maybe it will get better with age…I hope.

The usual routine of research continued last week unabated. I’m still probing the nooks and crannys of Google Books, meeting with some success and disappointment. I’ve actually accumulated quite the list of books and articles that I need to find in hard copy. Again its weird how one wanders from topic to topic. On Friday I found myself researching the story of Æmilius Jarvis; I can’t even remember how I got on to that subject. Maybe it was because I was thinking about the sale of the railway. Jarvis was the successful sealed bidder for the railway when it was sold in 1899. A seemingly inauspicious purchaser, though his family connections make it quite the interesting story. Perhaps I will enjoy writing this book 🙂

Until next week, may the force be with you!

 
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Posted by on February 13, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Take Two

06 Feb

So today was the first day of semester two, hence the “take two” title. It is also my 14th second semester start-up…wow, I’m getting old! That being said, as a teacher I always like the start of second semester, since it means that we are now on the downward slide toward summer. Before you know it the snow will be gone and the days will be long and warm. And then I’ll be on vacation for two months! There is however a lot that needs to happen before that point; five months of teaching, assessment for learning, Vimy Ridge trip, spring football camp…yikes. I’m sure though, when all is said and done, it will be one huge blur!

Speaking of football, yesterday was the Superbowl. There are no numbers yet, but I would assume that millions of people around the world watched the game. I host an annual party for my friends; the food and the company certainly make for a great time. Unfortunately, I was not particularly pleased with the result. I’m no New England lover, but as a long-time Cowboys fan, I could never bring myself to cheer for anyone in the NFC East; well, except if they were playing the Steelers. I HATE the Steelers…hate! So the only downside of a Giants win has been the ribbing I’ve been taking from my wife. Now, let me clarify that my wife hates football with a passion, but somehow she decided she should cheer for someone other than Dallas. So she picked New York, not because they are a division rival, but because they are Jon Bon’s team. So she has been taunting me that her “team” won despite the fact that she has never watched a game in her life! She claims that I’m just sour because she was right…why can’t I just pick random stuff and have it work out for me?

Now that the new semester has started and things will be fairly quiet for the next few weeks, I am hoping to get more work done on the article. I promised my writing partner Lee last week that I would get more words done, but as usual it didn’t work out that way. I did however find a bit of information that I needed for my portion of the article on top of the regular dosage of new research I accumulate on a weekly basis. I was able to track down that critical document from the library in Kansas City, though it was quite the ordeal getting it (probably the most expensive article I’ve ever paid for). I’ve also managed to get most of those stacks from my last post filed in their appropriate folders; I think I need a larger filing cabinet! I’ve almost filled an entire drawer and most of the folders are stretched to the max. At what point does a project become an obsession?

I guess with the thoughts of summer has come some thoughts about the forthcoming season of field work. I’ve always been a firm believer that a project like this cannot be accomplished at a desk alone; you need to get your hands dirty…literally. There is so much to be learned about the character of the railway from these hikes. Besides, it’s great exercise and I love the outdoors. The fieldwork also serves another purpose, which is to document what remains of the railway before some of these landmarks disappear completely. I hope to be on Gunflint at some point this summer in addition to the little day explorations that usually go on. I’ve also given some thought about getting back to the Paulson Mine area to probe the course of the railway near the second switchback (next year?). However, my most ambitious plan is to examine the planned railway route between Gunflint and Ely, MN. When the railway was completed in 1893 there remained approximately 45 miles between the two locations; the link was never completed due to the geography. I really want to see it first-hand so I have that information for my book. The Kekekabic Trail does parallel the route, but it is not the exact thing, so I’m not sure how to tackle it. I’ll have to stew on it a bit…much to ponder.

Until next week.

 
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Posted by on February 6, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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