Happy Canada Day!

I have always thought I'd pretty much already won the lottery, by being born in Canada. Here's my 1000 word entry for the day...

Finished Altar Top

Folks the top of the altar is done. It is really fascinating to look at up close as the wood is like a relief map with all of it's contours. These planks met their final form only after seventy-five years worth of grain had trickled down them. Every board is unique and there are many different patterns for the eye to see. I think that in some way the topography of the altar top is reminiscent of all the rolling hills, valleys and coulees upon which our Province's grain grows.



















They are also stained some beautiful rich hues as canola often went up this particular elevator leg. During the trip to the top some of the seeds would always spill out of the scoops and cascade down the leg shaft. As gravity ran it's course the tiny canola seeds smashed and their oils would stain the leg boards.










The boards were not in pristine condition. Besides the usual splits and cracks you'd expect from old dry lumber there are some big gouges sustained during salvage. This was fine but one of the things I keep feeling over and over again while handling this wood is how better to tell the story of it's working life. I used the gouges as a way to do this; I glued down some grains in a few spots - a small river of grain in one board and some rivulets of grains elsewhere.

This is wheat grown on my wife's family's farm. My hope is that these wheat grains and the altar will help people to think about the historical importance of elevators, the essence of a grain elevator, and by extension all the Saskatchewan farmers whose labours have fed people around the world.

Options

Apparently if you need to move an elevator from Buffalo Gap to Big Beaver - you can.

(click photo to embiggen)

Altar Top

The sun is out, the air is warm and on a day like this I would rather be at a horseshoe tournament. But it's time to put on The Field Behind the Plow and get to work on the top.



















The boards needed a fair bit of piecing back together and cleaning. A lot of cleaning. I finally bolted a scrub brush to an old power sander to get things moving along. What beauty lies beneath...












All the boards I am using for the top came out of a canola leg. In the bottom photo you can see the depth to which the canola oils have stained the lumber, as well as some sculpting on the face.

Image of the day

Fascinating photo of an abandoned elevator. In the centre you can see the leg where the seeds went up in little scoops on the conveyor belt. As the loaded scoops ascended some of the overfilled grains would spill out to trickle down the leg. These grains would ever so slowly erode and sculpt the leg boards over the decades. The lumber I am using for the altar top was salvaged from a canola leg and is stained dark from the canola oil in the seeds. Once at the top of the structure the grain would be directed down into the proper storage bin.

One can also clearly see the cribbed method of construction - 2 by 4's were placed on the flat much like Lego bricks stacked together. This made for a very strong structure but labour intensive to build and taking considerable skill on the part of the craftsmen. The design had to take into account the shrinkage of the wood as it dried, as well as settling as the bins were filled. A full size elevator could be over 100 feet high, and would shrink as much as 2 to 3 feet.

Up With the Grain

Up With the Grain

Today I watched them knock
our town's grain elevator down.

Cloud of dust, pile of rubble
where it once stood
like a white, wooden soldier
beside the railroad tracks,
Melthern in black across its middle.

Now they'll haul the grain
to a huge, cement tower
nothing like the shoulders
that sloped above the town,
musty and dark inside

where a bright green engine putted
as it lifted kernels up the elevator
shaft to bins at the peak. I wanted
to rise up with the grain
and the swallows.

From that high window
I'd see blue squares
of flax, sloughs
like jewels, knots of bush,
roads to explore for miles.

Today our elevator disappeared
but my view is still here, clearing with the dust.


poem by Barbara Nickel


photo credit - Flickr: Cody Kapcsos

Work begins

June 11th - 2011

We hadn't been in town on the weekends for a month now. Too busy at the farm! We along with several other couples grow a big garden at the 'hobby' farm which belongs to my wife's family. The farm is a quarter section near Paddockwood. We spend more and more time there every year and the garden keeps getting bigger and better. For us, good food is at the centre of a good life. But the garden is all in now and germination is well underway. Time to get busy with the elevator wood.

Most of the boards have been sitting outside for a number of years now and are in need of restoration. The first step was to pressure wash all the weathered grayness from them. I also needed to run some tests to see what finish would best bring out the original colour in the wood.

























This used to be a 2 by 4 bracing board - before the grains of Saskatchewan washed over it.
























It's really amazing what lies beneath the surface...
(before and after shots of an amazing grain sculpted board - Katherine Soule Blaser on the left)