Presently In Estevan, Sask

Hoo boy... what two days can do to someone... presently in the Motel 6 in Estevan, after a 1200 km 2 day trip to Moose Jaw and here, shooting at least 52 elevators, the remains of the Aylesbury P&GH, and fighting wet gravel roads, nearly getting stuck at Richlea, and holding up to storms, heat, sunburn and wind. But what the heck... it;s worth it!

The new pics can be found on the west sask site at http://web.me.com/difdbs/Vanish_W_Sask/Welcome.html .

Check them out! There's 302 shot so far in West Sask!!!

Cheers!

Jim!

Been working on Saskatchewan

For the last few weeks, I have been going thru the Saskatchewan library system, and have been nearly driven my self to smashing my head thru a wall in frustration.

At least, I finally found that there are at least 250 books in the main library in Saskatoon, and several more in North Battleford, Moose Jaw and Regina... where I am planning on heading to this summer to start the next phase of the project... RESEARCH!

Oddly though, is the fact that at least 300 places have no info, but I am hoping that some of these books will have info on them as well...

At least the headache is increasing. Now to wait until the weather stabilizes, so I can get back on the road and start again!

Edmonton Grain Elevator Complex

I decided to do up the Edmonton UGG/Agricore United/Viterra elevator complex, that sadly will be gone forever by the end of February, 2010. After 3 days of work (designing and putting it together), here it is.

The first 4 shots are of the Agricore United elevator (which was of course a United Grain Growers) that was composed of an elevator with some modifications with the original hip roof elevator.

The next four have the UGG (later Agricore United and Viterra) elevator which had modifications done it as well over the years, and also had a large annex added to the north side of the elevator. Photos of this facility can be found on my website at: http://web.mac.com/difdbs/Vanishing_Sentinels/Home.html

The final shot shows what the layout of the three buildings were before they were demolished.

What a week so far

Geez what a week. Last week I found out that the Edmonton Viterra eleavtor complex (Originally a UGG) was being torn down, so myself and a friend ran up there to get some great shots of the one that was left standing, although it will be down sometime this week.

Then this morning... I got some terrible news. The Fleming, Saskatchewan old Lake of the Woods elevator (which is Canada's oldest standing elevator) burnt to the ground early on Tuesday (Feb 9) morning. I did get some photos from a fellow I met on line from there... and they are horrific. I will have them on the Sask site sometime tomorrow. http://web.me.com/difdbs/Vanish_W_Sask/Welcome.html

Ugh... at least I have a card stock model of the elevator, and am planning on working on the Edmonton complex as well.

Been busy!

Well, I've been busy selling calendars, a few books, including one to Spain, and getting a lot of information from the Rural Municipalities in Western Saskatchewan. It sure pays to send out a press release looking for information on the hundreds of grain elevators that used to grace the skies of Western Saskatchewan.

I'm also getting ready for an audio-visual presentation of my project in Rockyford, Alberta on February 11, 2010, and have been doing some changes to it as well. .. gotta keep busy while waiting to get back on the road.

I am planning on hitting libraries in Lloydminister, North Battleford, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina, Swift Current and Moose Jaw for major research, and hunting down some missed vators in St. Walburg, north of Shellbrook, near Limerick, and near Mossbank, as well as visiting people in Val Marie, Lumsden, Saskatoon, Hepburn, and several other places in the province, as well as photographing the remaining vators in the west central section that I couldn't get to last year.

So it's gonna be a busy year coming up... and I wanna get back on the road so I can get this sucker done!

Should be fun!