Scouting

Many of you are already aware of my passion for the scouting program. I have been involved with scouting as a youth and a leader for about 15 years. As a youth I had fantastic leaders, who taught us the value of working together and gave us the skills and competence to achieve virtually anything we set our minds to. Ken was one of my leaders who was the greatest example to me other than my dad who has been a leader for over 20 years. I thought the world of Ken and have tried to live his and my fathers legacy to all the scouts I have been a leader over.

Currently I have 12 scouts in my troop. I think the world of my boys and have been with them for 2 years. Scouter Trent who is my current assistant and Ed who used to be my assistant have been such an inspiration. To all you other leaders out there you know the challenges of trying to run the program. I couldn't do it without either of them. We have some pretty high goals this year. We have changed the program to accommodate the boys advancement into Ventures. Last year we completed 12 nights of camping and have a goal of 14 nights this year.

Our boys are absolutely amazing. They have come together and have acquired the skills needed to complete the goals we have this year. We have 2 patrols each governed by a patrol leader and they have chosen an assistant patrol leader to help them lead, teach, and hold order in their perspective patrols.

This was our second camp we had gone on. When ever I mention hiking I always get chewed out by the boys and this is why. I don't blame them, in fact they always expect something wild when we go hiking.

Here I was teaching them about various species of vegetation (wild flowers, shrubs, and trees) while on a hike during our spring camp for the Year Round Camper Award in 2007. Being an environmental scientist by profession sure has a real advantage when it comes to scouting.

Last summer we travelled into the Crowsnest Pass for our week long summer camp. While there we went on a tour of the Historic Bellevue Mine which covers requirement 6 of the Citizenship Pathfinder Level. It was well worth it. The scouts and Trent and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to any Scout Troop.

Along with the mine tour we also stopped by the Frank Slide interpretive center and tried to determine where the bank would be located after being destroyed by the slide in 1903.
Hmmmmm........ what should I do with these two?????

On the north side of the Crowsnest Lake you will see a large cement culvert supporting the railway above it. By walking down the rail line from Island lake campground approx. 2km you will come across this karst spring running right through the mountain. When the flow is low, as was the case here there are caves you can crawl through and explore.

I see that at least two were listening when they were learning about the different kinds of vegetation they might see while hiking (Common juniper).

Yes, we do have to keep hiking. We aren't even half way yet. They were real troopers. We were trying to hike Turtle Mountain but started off on the wrong trail. Thanks to Levi our professional trail guide.

Next to where we were camping was a number of spoil piles from a nearby lime mine. Scouter Trent had just finished telling the scouts about his gravel pile jumping days and so we had to try it out. This is a video clip of my brother Levi. He was the only one out of all of us that could actually get somewhere. It's pretty cool!!!!

Scouts will be scouts............. Fun, Laughter, and Headaches.

WINTER CAMPING (SNOW CAVES)

On Feb. 29 and Mar. 1, 2008, Trent and I had the opportunity of taking our scouts on a winter camp a little north of Strathmore. Winter camping is one of my favorite things to do because of the challenges it presents, and the ability to snow cave. I absolutely loved building and sleeping in snow caves as a youth. It had been about 5 years since I last built and slept in a snow cave, due to my schooling. Scouter Trent and I worked for 3 hours digging out this one so we could sleep in it. Here is the opening of our snow cave. I chose this location to camp because of this abandoned irrigation canal all drifted in. The conditions made it perfect for snow caves.


This is an inside view looking back towards the entrance.



Here is the inside. It was very warm and spacious.



The scouts didn't do such a bad job themselves with their snow caves until some wild leader of theirs decided to give them a hand and build them a larger opening.


One of the reasons I love winter camping is the ability to have large fires. One because it is freezing, and two because the chance of starting a forest fire is slim to none.

Breakfast

Winter camping wouldn't be winter camping without a traditional winter sport.

Carribou Lodge

My oldest sister Tonya recently bought an old ski lodge in Pocatello Idaho. The ski runs are slightly grown over and the actual lodge has been remodeled by an interior designer, but the rest of the property and the acres they own are absolutely breathtaking. I was the only one in the family that hadn't been to their place and I was initially interested in going to conduct an assessment for renewable technology. It turns out that they have potential for a mini hydro system, solar, and wind power.

I took this picture from a run that used to be open to inner tubes only. Below is a view of the entire lodge that Tonya's family now calls home.

After walking in the front door and turning right this is the view. These pictures don't do the lodge any justice. The kitchen and the living room are joined. The 10 foot ceilings and large timbers are what I really enjoy.

This view is of the living room and a partial view of the large rock fireplace.

The fireplace is about 8 feet wide and about 3 times as large as the average house fireplace. I loved it.

Tonya attended a rustic log cabin furniture fair and purchased this coat rack along with a few other really rustic and neat things. I really like the look of this coat rack.

The next thing they bought was this pioneer wagon wheel chandelier. It is absolutely one of the most coolest things I have ever seen.

I thought this shelf was pretty neat. It is a piece of barn board supported by 3 railroad spikes.

In Tanner and Jessica's bedroom bathroom the bathroom mirrors are framed with barn board and have pieces of rusted authentic barbed wire attached to them.

This little bar upstairs was framed in with old barn board planks and then covered with a lacker coating for protection.

This is a view of the counter top of the bar. I find it really neat how the lichens and moss were preserved and added into this piece.

Strawberry Lake in Utah

While attending a missionary farewell in Richfield Utah I went ice fishing with a family friend/cousin Dustin and his son Kyler, and Dustin's friend Mike who is the funniest and easiest going guys ever. I had never met him before, but enjoyed every minute we were able to spend together. Dustin took us out to Strawberry Lake. It was a really nice drive up a winding road through a canyon. I have never used an ice hut when I have gone ice fishing and so this was a

good experience.

Kyler who is 11 years old caught the first and only fish of the day. Dustin is pulling the cutthroat trout out of the hole while Kyler holds the rod. Dustin and I received 2 bites but that was it. It just wasn't our day. Kyler and I were in the ice hut that was heated by a propane burner while Dustin and Mike barred the elements outside. We had 4 holes in the ice hut, here you can see 2 of them.

This cutthroat was 17 inches long. Nice sized fish if you ask me, but too small for Strawberry. They have to be at least 22 inches long therefore we had to throw it back.

Hunting 2007

I always look forward to the month of November because it represents yet another exhilarating year of deer hunting. Over the last 10 years between one of my brothers, dad, and I we have shot on average 12 white tailed and mule deer combined every year. How is this possible? Each of us averages between 5 and 6 tags a piece after draws etc. each year. Each tag costs between $15 to 35 dollars and approximately $200.00 on fuel based on today's ridiculous gas prices.

This year was extra special because it was Levi's first year of hunting at 14 years of age. I had originally planned on taking a week off of work to scope out the terrain and have a better chance of nailing a big buck for myself and Levi but my fieldwork kind of got in the way. To make matters worse one of my 5 draws was a Pronghorn that I had been putting a draw in for since the year 2000. The herd had shifted and in the two days I had last year to hunt it would have been pointless to purchase the tag even though it will take at least another 4 years to be drawn in that area again.

Stanford hunting in Southern Alberta is often looked at being a bit redneck. I won't lie about that as you can see from our 4 wheel drive purple (Eggplant) hunting machine in the picture below. At one time when I was hunting before I left on my mission we had a truck, but for the last couple of years it has been the eggplant bringing home the goodness. The fire power we have prefered is virtually anything semi-automatic and bigger than a 243. Currently I usually use the 300 Winchester Mag. while Levi uses the 308. and dad uses a 303 British used by one of our uncles during the war. The 300 is definitely overkill but it solves the problem of having to track the deer especially when we haven't had the snow. In other wards it doesn't matter where you hit it, it isn't going anywhere. Bolt action rifles aren't the greatest for this kind of hunting especially white tailed deer being as skittish as they are. Remember we are out to hunt at least 15 deer, and believe me we have a tag for everything! Once we've shot one we are not out to congratulate each other on the successful kill we are out to drop the other ones running away. This year we managed to shoot 9 deer in the two days I had off.

The eggplant with our deer carrier on the back (2 White tailed does and Levi's first 3 x 3 White tailed buck.

Believe it or not they're are 3 deer in the carrier. This hunt was rather interesting. We had not travelled more then 45 minutes when we saw 2 white tailed does run up onto the top of a field. Levi and I immediately jumped out of the van and ran up to the top of the hill, Once in position we fired each killing a doe and then saw the buck on a complete run. Levi fired 2 times missed and then his gun jammed. I tossed him my 300 and and told him to get in the van and head north around the bend while I gutted out the 2 does. A little while later I heard one shot that did not sound at all like it had even impacted anything. Dad and Levi showed up in the van with a successful kill but a broken stalk on the gun. Levi had one shot at getting his buck and he managed to achieve it.

Levi and his first 3 x 3 White tailed buck

If we are not hunting on grain or hay fields we are hunting in coulees and areas with deciduous trees and rolling hills. Shortly after getting the 3 white tailed deer previously mentioned we headed back to Cardston and fixed the stalk on the 300. Just south of Leavitt dad had mentioned a coulee where he had seen a herd of mules. Levi and I headed out they're and discovered this mule deer along with 4 other bucks a bit smaller and approximately 30 does all grouped together. It didn't take long for levi to decide on which one he wanted.


He was a little heavier then we expected, in fact both of us couldn't lift him and dragging him a few feet was hard enough. Notice the long rope in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Yup that's right we pulled him up the coulee with the van. Pretty sick I know, but hey it was a lot easier on the back if you know what I mean.



Levi's first 3 x 4 Mule buck. Not bad for his first one.

All in all I think Levi did pretty good for his first year of hunting. A lot better than me that's for sure. Both pretty descent bucks, but pretty small in comparison to what we could have found had I been able to take more time off. Excellent job Levi.
This is Levi's mule deer strung up on the kids playhouse all ready for skinning as the garage is occupied with other things. Oh man was he heavy, but nothing compared to the moose I shot in 1998. We used to allow our deer to hang for a couple of days, but the volume became more of a hindrance than anything and quite frankly we don't seem to notice any real difference in the way the meat tastes or cooks.

Dad and I were butchering the deer outside and then taking the meat inside and grinding, cutting, and separating it into it's perspective categories. This particular one is a white tailed doe. We butcher all our own game meat mainly because it is cheaper and we are not all that fussy. Underneath the garage we have a stainless steel work area where we usually do all the butchering but mom was canning tomatoes. Many of you are probably wandering year after year where we keep all this meat and the answer is simple; we have a walk in freezer.

In previous years we have taken the hides to the Railey Hutterite Colony where we could have them tanned for approximately $15 dollars. The tannery hasn't been open for a few years and so all our hides this year were donated to the Fish and Game Society to be sold in an effort to raise money and purchase more wildlife habitat. Anyone want a costume for Halloween next year??? Comes with the head and all.

Fort McMurray

In mid June, I had the privilege and opportunity to act as one of the soil scientists; accompanied with vegetation specialists, to assist in various site assessments, cataloging of soils and vegetation over several areas awaiting development for oil sands expansion. I haven't had a lot of experience in the boreal forests outside of school and so I was incredibly interested in this project. I have a vested interest in soils, geology, and vegetation so this experience was an amazing treat for me! I found the whole experience way too short and was astonished at the intense degree of biodiversity between vegetative species and varying differences in soil profiles in both the bog and fen areas. Despite the horrendous amount of mosquito's and tent caterpillars (thank you for the invention of the bug jacket), I had the time of my life.

Bogs are typically identified as areas where the subsurface water is non-flowing (free standing) or stagnant. The nutrient regime is considered poor and the dominant tree specie is black spruce; with an understory of Labrador tea and reindeer lichen, etc. Fens have a much higher nutrient regime, and sub surface water is considered to be flowing but at a very slow rate. Tree species are both deciduous (trembling aspen, birch, popular, alder etc.) and coniferous (White spruce, larch, Hemlock, some black spruce etc.) with an understory of various grasses, bulrushes, and shrubs. It was very easy to distinguish the bogs from the fens based on the tree species. If it was all black spruce it was considered a bog, if one larch was found in the black spruce it was considered a poor fen and so on.

Bog

Fen

We worked in teams of three (2 soil scientists and 1 vegetation scientist). In each quadrant, we would dig one test pit and hand auger down to a max. depth of 1m in mineral soil and 2.5m in peat and then classify the soil. The soils were beautiful!!! We predominantly encountered gleysols and luvisols. Near my last day, Bob and I found a brunisol. Finding this was one of the highlights of that day. I especially love the prominent Ae horizons distinguished by their almost white appearance. I found the transitional layers within some of our soil profiles to be quite interesting (the difference in textures as apposed to the color). I would often question Bob on his distinguishing between horizons, and he would always hand me the knife and tell me to probe at the side of the pit or just hand me the different material types from the horizons to be textured. I learned a great deal regarding soils from Bob and look forward to such an opportunity again.

Gleysol soil (Ah, Ahe, Ae, Bt, BCg, Cg)

Brunisol Soil (Ah, Ahe, Ae, Bm, Bt, Ck)

Organic/peat soils are very different from mineral soils but are easier to classify. They consist of three distinct layers (Of (fibric), Om (mesic), and Oh (humus)) before the mineral soil is contacted but do not have to have each layer to be classified as organic. Peat is the type of material which makes up the bog. If you were ever to walk in a bog on the peat it would be very soft and spongy. Peat is made up of dead and dying plant fibre and material. It is heavily comprised of roots and mosses or lichens. Fibric refers to the coarse material (roots, mosses, leaves etc.). Mesic is slightly more decomposed then fibric material and is darker in color and Humus is highly decomposed plant material, which has virtually turned into soil. Organic soil horizons follow the same sequence of decomposition that your household compost would go through. We found the peat horizons to be quite thick (good insulator). In fact, they were so thick that the ground was frozen approximately 2-6'' thick, about one foot below the surface. It was hard to stay awake in the hot sun when digging these profiles because the ground was so soft that when you would sit down you would virtually want to fall asleep. Such was the case with Bob.

Bob fast asleep......

Organic Profile (the water in the hole is freezing)

Top left: mineral soil, Top right: Of fibric layer

Middle: Oh humus layer, Bottom: Om mesic layer

Argos were the only practical mode of transportation while conducting these site assessments due to their flotation ability. A quad would have been lost deep in the bog or we would have spent most of our time digging it out of soft areas. In this picture, Bob and I are positioned in the middle of a poor fen. This particular spot was very cool but extremely dangerous. Notice the grass we are parked in the middle of; it is actually a grass blanket of peat over top of a very deep wetland. When we first drove onto it, a title wave of vegetation rippled in front of us; the same way a pond of water would if you were to drive into it. After dropping Greg (our veg guy) off on solid ground, I began to venture out like I had previously done on another one, when I fell through. Needless to say, we were doing this assessment out of the back of our Argo. If you look closely in my hand, I am holding a dutch hand auger used to bring soil cores up to the surface at 20cm intervals. The total length you see me holding is approximately 2.8m. I had augured down into this blanket of vegetation one foot above the handle and was still in the Om layer. I hadn't even come to the Oh layer, let alone the mineral layer, and apparently they want to build a road through here..... I don't think so! Not unless they want to lose their cat or have their operators join the bog people .

Can't wait to go fishing.....

I was working in the field today near the sheep river when I started to think about the trip Janay and I made to Fernie last year. I am dying to go fishing and camping in the mountains. This particular spot near Elko Prov. Park was absolutely breathtaking and I would love to go back and spend a little more quality time there.

At the base of this breathtaking view was a crystal clear glacier fed lake witch fed into the clear water stream below where I was fishing.

I enjoy fishing in small tributaries like the one you see here. Every pool pretty much guarantees a fish on the first cast. I only cast three times and if I don't catch anything I move on downstream to the next pool. The fish aren't all that big, but they sure fight like the dickens.

The perfect cast........

Ten years ago I was an avid fly fisherman, but became tired of the routine and was quickly converted to the art of angling. I have to admit however that the intensity of the catch and size of the fish aren't nearly as satisfying as fly fishing, but I really enjoy the extra variety of experience that angling offers. I have tried virtually every hook and style that has ever been created. The Panther Martin as seen above with a green spoon is by far the best for any mountain stream and guarantee's a fish on every cast into a new pool.

First cast every time!

He's a fighter.....

Now what are you going to do.......

Notice the Panther Martin dangling from his lips.

Not too bad for this little stream. This cut-throat trout was actually one of the smallest I caught that day. He's lucky we weren't camping or he would have ended up in the skillet.