Halloween post

Spotted this at the entrance to a farm in rural Alberta. I would like to know where they got the skeleton, it had to be at least ten feet tall.

One room school in the Municipal District of Provost, Alberta

I know the name of the school and that it operated from 1914 - 1952. I am not going to give any more information that might lead to the location.

I was there with a friend of mine. I had told him some days prior that I thought I found a former school while perusing Google Maps. He agreed to join me on the quest to find out if it really was what I thought it was.

We were not on the grounds long when a farmer and a companion pulled up. He lived just up the road. We identified ourselves and told him our hobby is tracking down old buildings like this. Unfortunately there is a problem in rural Alberta with vandalism and theft which is why I am being vague on the location. His father attended this school and he keeps an eye on it. Years ago when it stopped being a school some community events were held there.

Coal chute.

He asked if we wanted to see the inside. He left for a few minutes and returned with a key. The school is one of the better built ones. It has a full basement with a poured concrete foundation. The blackboard has the names of people that attended and visited this school.

There is even the old barn for the horses for those that rode a horse to school.

October gets a little more interesting for me

Swapped to my winter vehicle, the trusty 2012 KIA Rondo last Monday. It was parked for six months because it is my winter vehicle. On the drive home I noticed the brakes pulsing noticeably. I called the shop that did the brakes only a year ago and booked an appointment.

This morning I had the car in the shop at eight this morning. An hour later the service guy came up to me and said the parts were going to be replaced under warranty and they were going to cover the cost of the labour. They even gave me the use of one of their vehicles for the day while mine is in the shop. I suspect there is more to the story however, since this is not costing me anything except my time I will leave it as is.

Tired . . .

I have been damn tired lately. Maybe it is the time of year.

Last Saturday I did some minor stuff that needed to be done and felt absolutely exhausted. Went to bed early and slept for about twelve hours. That is rare for me. Usually I find it impossible to sleep in or sleep for more than six or seven hours. A lot of times it is less.

On Sunday I forced myself to basically do nothing. I thought that I might be rundown so I dedicated my Sunday to a day of rest. I did not even leave my home. The most ambitious thing I did was laundry. I was able to quickly remind myself that I have a very hard time not doing anything and I get bored easily. I need to work on that.

I am a bit more energetic this week. It is likely the world these days is tiring. Putting up with all the day to day events is stressful and over time it wears you out. May the interesting times we are living in come to an end soon.

Flatbush Church

Thought I posted this one. I was going through some photos and I had put these aside for a post and never got around to posting them. This is an interesting church north of Barrhead, Alberta in the proverbial middle of nowhere. The sign on the grounds says Cross Lake Church. An internet search shows it by another name. It is no longer used on a regular basis and it was locked when I was there earlier this summer.

Some days . . .

I had taken Monday off as I had to get things done for personal reasons with places that are not usually open on the weekends. Once I got that done I got my winter vehicle out of storage. I have four new winter tires on it and I was thinking I was ready for winter. I just got it barely down the road and noticed the check engine light was on. The brakes also felt off which is irritating since I had the brakes done over a year ago and the car only gets driven for half the year.

A check engine light could mean everything and nothing. Changed the oil, because it was overdue, and topped up the fluids. The check engine light did not come back on. I will keep an eye on that. Made a quick appointment with the shop that did the brakes to take a look.

Over the weekend the company I work for decided to reconfigure some programs to make certain programs run faster and they did an upgrade or two at the same time. Got into work today and found out that yesterday no one had access to anything. IT guy was in today to fix the issues. Once you could get into a file you could not view an attachment. My email set up to view emails was changed, not it is back to how I like it. Hopefully the issues are now fixed as everything seems to work. I have learned in the past that if company programs are going to be updated or the system is going to be upgraded you can be guaranteed that something will go wrong every damn time. The overall goal of all of this was to make the system faster. 

It is slower.

Stry Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Holy Eucharist

The original log church was built in 1910 and it was replaced by this one in 1934.

Stry, Alberta once had a post office, a store, and a school. Not much remains there now except for a hall and two churches.

By popular request

 

Tragedy struck my home this morning

Coffeemaker died. 

You would think a Keurig would last longer than eight months.

Not your typical Ukrainian Catholic Church

Most of them have domes.

Camrose County, Alberta.

Little Stone Chapel

On a farm northeast of Mundare, Alberta.

Green Glade School 1914 - 1952

Former one room school north of Provost, Alberta. Was there with a friend of mine last Sunday. He was there in 2015 and told me he happened to meet someone there who was trying to restore it. The roof is metal and fairly new.

Ranch signs

Ran across some ranch signs recently and a homestead sign. The homestead started the same year Alberta became a province.

Road trip

Too many responsibilities this weekend. I might find something interesting while trying to meet my obligations. One task is a necessity, my coffee maker needs to be replaced.

It does not look like it but this hill had a thirteen percent grade to it. This is at the top looking down. There is a farm at the top of the hill. I would not want to be driving up it in a snowstorm.

Tree post

 

Bradwell, Saskatchewan elevator

At one time I thought I was getting a little out of hand with making side trips to get photos of grain elevators. I am on a couple of Facebook groups and there are people more obsessive than me about tracking them down.

I do make detours to get photos of them because a fair number of them were torn down this year. A lot of stuff is disappearing and there is a bit of a rush to see things before they no longer exist.

This one will likely be around for a bit although it is hard to tell anymore. Three elevators in Milk River, Alberta were recently torn down.

 

The tractor post

Someone requested photos of old tractors ages ago. I am always on the lookout for one. Spotted this one north of Drayton Valley, Alberta after a snowfall.

Random abandoned barn post

Near Strome, Alberta.

Links!

 Another fine post from Glen

glenbowe.home.blog/2020/10/21/the-cowboy-and-the-school/?fbclid=IwAR2HGE0TgYV0I5uEfSb5fD5KaHLFIjx-9ie44BRivXaNtqYTGEMHXwN8Cg0

Anything from Michael Truman is worth reading

michaeltruman.blogspot.com/2020/10/niobe-school.html

Abandoned Alberta

Rural Alberta northwest of Provost, Alberta. There are a few white spots in the photos due to the start of a light snowfall.

This was off to the side of the house. The white building is likely an old one room school that someone repurposed.

Late night black and white

Some older stuff that I have done that I felt like posting.

What does happen to old hydrants?

Some of then end up in Chauvin, Alberta.

Tiny House

 

I was in the small community of Carrick, Manitoba back in June and saw this tiny little house, all by itself in a field. It's quite wee.

Steve Boyko

Traingeek Website