Aristocrat travel trailer in Canada

Queenie and I camped with the Aristocrat travel trailer in Canada last week.   We had four different campsites from Radium Hot Springs to North of Lake Louise. The picture above is from Redstreak on the hill above the town of Radium.  You can see my shadow in the picture on the right. Below is our camp at Marble Canyon.

We had a great time as usual, and it was a great way to escape the heat down in the states.  The 1979 Ford F250 purred like a cat towning the trailer, and one dude driving a new F350 even complimented us on old yeller. They just don't paint trucks yellow like that any more. The 1968 Aristocrat travel trailer worked well too.  We stayed comfy and and warm as temps dipped down into the 40s F at night.  The picture below is our last camp at McLead Meadows.  I didn't get a good one of the camp at Mosquito Creek. ( it had less mosquitos than Marble Canyon actually)

I almost hesitate to post any of my photos now as I don't want them ending up on someone else's site.., but it's hard to go into the Canadian parks and not be inspired.  It's a great place to do some vintage camping, and there's nothing like the smell of propane and coffee in the morning.  Has to be in Melmac to get the full effect...

My photos taken without my permission on HD wallpaperfresh.com

Despite stating on my blog that I reserve all rights to my photography, and to not use my photography without my permission HERE ARE three of my photos taken and being used without my permission. (as of 7-16_13 the photos have been taken down per my request or so it would seem.)

Who knows what else they've taken without asking or paying for?  Maybe they've taken one of yours?

UPDATE:  the site owner has taken one of my pictures down.  The one with clouds reflecting on the water.  But there are still two of my pictures up on the site.  I've asked that those be taken down too.  We will see.

UPDATE: 7-16-13  It looks like the site owner has removed my photos taken and used without my permission as per my request to remove them from the site.  To make sure I'm going to leave this post up for now.

I guess I'll have to water mark my photography now.  I can't figure out a better way to keep this from happening again.  None of this is fun.  I don't want my blog to be about a bitter dude running around trying to police the internet.  My first thought is to go back to keeping my pictures to myself.  The idea here was to share the photography and the associated experience.  It isn't about self promotion.

When I was in art school, I was really put off by the self promotion of it all.  I never liked the idea of self promotion when it came to self expression.  People would have a show and it was like, this is my art work, I'm so cool.  I really hated that.  At the same time now I don't want people taking my stuff and laying claim on it or selling it.  That's the other side of bother. 

I recently had a university student who felt entitled to take my photography without asking linking back or giving photo credit.  She even tried to convince me she had the right.  Her prof acted like it was an oversight and yet all of the non visual intellectual property had proper citation? What the heck?  If they had asked first and given credit, I probably would have allowed that use.   Others have taken my photos to make a buck where I'm sure it's hard to make ends meet.  I can actually understand that a little more but it still doesn't make it right.  

There are some people ask to use my pictures and for the most part I won't allow my pictures to be used. I'm not taking pictures to sell products or services, but to their credit they at least ask first and that's how it should be.  I'm always impressed when someone asks first.

This blog is about sharing a viewpoint.  I hope people come here and look around and share in my experience without taking bites out of me.  That's what we have insects for.

Copy Right Issues

I reserve all rights to my photography.  What do I have to do, put a big watermark across every photo?!  If that's what I have to do I guess I'll do it.

Despite putting a statement on my blog in each post stating that I retain all rights to my photos, I found these three of my pictures on a site called HD Wallpaper Fresh.  I've requested that they remove my pictures and we will see how they respond.  Who knows what else they've taken and without permission.

Here's my picture on HD Wallpaper Fresh taken and used without my permission.

Here it is again: I retain all rights to my photography.  Do not use my photos without my permission.

Bird is the word

So I was in the thrift store last week looking for Melmac and other various mid century things and I came across one of these vintage wall art birds.  I'm looking at this thing deciding how cool it is and this lady comes up and says "here's another one that goes with it."  So then there were two..

I walked out of the store without the birds and I thought, If I don't buy these birds, I'm always going to regret it.  So I looked in my wallet and found the ten bucks I needed and went back in and bought them.

I have to wonder a little about the old bird who used to own these birds..  The wing is coming loose on one of them but it just needs a machine screw nut. They say Style House, Japan on the back of them.  They're gonna ad style to my house!  I'll add them to the Gochenour collection. 

Kootenay National Park photo

Here's a picture I took in Kootenay National Park from when I went there right after all of the flooding in Alberta.  The river is usually a mineral blue color but it was running brown this time.
I reserve all rights to my photos please do not use without permission 

Mid Century Desk Lamp

My mom downsized and I just had to have this mid century desk lamp that is in the shape of a flower.  There's something really corny about it, maybe the green leaf, but at the same time there something really cool about it.  It's not trying to convince you it's a real plant or even a good representation of a real plant.  There's a certian honesty to it in that respect.  And if you put this lamp in your home, it wasn't like you were trying to impress everyone.  It was just fun and it's still just fun.

I can imagine sitting around back in the early 1960s watching the Judy Garland show on a black and white TV with this lamp on the end table.  And of course you'd want an ashtray right next to it in case someone wanted to smoke..  Where's my ashtray?

Mid Century Coolness

Mom had these mid century milk glasses so I appropriated them for the 1968 Aristocrat travel trailer. They will be perfect for camping.  At the end of a long day on the hiking trail we can pop open a carton of milk and relax by the camp fire.

Queenie picked up this cool retro Coleman water cooler.  It was made in Canada and that might explain why I've never seen another one exactly like it.  We can put our, Tang, Kool-Aid or even just cold water in it.

Retro camping retro cooking

So I've been thinking,. We have the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer,.  We have the vintage Melmac dishes,. Queenie loves to cook for me,. We just need vintage food for when we go camping!

I recently got a couple of vintage cook books that are small and will travel well:  
7-up Goes to a party, (everthing is made with 7-up in it, how fun!) and it includes a savory jello recipe that I'm curious to try: Shrimp Aspic Ring.

 And I also got a vintage Presto pressure cooker recipe book.  I have a pressure cooker, and with it you can make a fast and hearty meal in minutes including a recipe for squirrel that will be handy for camping as there are squirrels everywhere!  Here's all you need to make it:

1 squirrel

salt and pepper

1/4 cup of fat

1 cup of water

2 tbsp. flour

Wait a minute,. a quarter cup of fat?  Where in the heck are we gonna get a quarter cup of fat when we are camping!?  I'm not even sure if you can buy just plain old fat any more.  I guess we will substitute the fat with olive oil.  Or substitute the squirrel with a more fatty rodent, like beaver or marmot. Of course you'd probably only need half a beaver for two servings, and you'll have to fight over who gets the tail! 

The flour is in case you want to thicken your squirrel au jus, so you don't even need the flour really.

Montana Landscape

Here are a couple of pics of the Montana Landscape and highway 382. The colors are nice this time of year before everything dries out. (all photo rights reserved)

Happy Father's Day

A pic of my Dad playing the mando in our old house years before I scampered around in those rooms.

And a pic of my grandfather having a smoke while my Dad did a little picking.  Those guys were cool, and they were well respected.  They carried themselves in a way you just don't see very often these days.  They set the bar pretty high for someone like me to follow.  I'll never be half the man those guys were.

Aristocrat travel trailer water system repair

I've been working on the water system in the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer.  I've camped a lot in vintage campers and have come to realize that all you really need is one of those large green plastic water containers.  They will last forever and it's easy to manage them, but I wanted the water system in the Aristocrat to work.  I've been trying to get all of the trailer's systems to work.  The water pump was disconnected when I got the trailer and when I put it back together it didn't suck.  Which sucked..

So I took it out and took the pump apart.  The gasket was pretty much shot and the blades on the impeller were somewhat bent over.  Still I thought it should work because the motor ran, and it's a simple device.  Plus the pump is a 4+ gallon per min pump which is a lot just for a sink by todays standards.  We have scrap gasket material at work so I cut out a new gasket.  The main thing was getting the diameter right which was 1.75 inch.  I got it to fit perfect and tight, and then I drilled the holes for the screws.  Then tried to make the blades on the impeller straight by bending them back.  After a day or so I put the pump back together with the new home made gasket and used clear silicone to seal it.  I let that dry over night.

It had to work right?  I gave it about a 60% chance and Queenie crossed her fingers.  I did not like the idea of buying a new pump if I didn't have to.  So I soldered all of the electrical connections, wrapped the water connections with teflon tape, and shazam! we have water in the sink!

Oh yeah.  I used a 1967 Ford pickup gas cap for the missing water tank fill lid.  It fit the existing fixture perfect and looks retro.  I had to grind down the inside flange a little but then it fit like a glove and locks into place.

And for drinking water I recently picked up a vintage Coleman water cooler.  It will sit ontop of the fridge cabinet.

Sold our old house

My mom finally sold the old house I grew up in.  So after the garage when everyone else had left and the house was empty, I walked around alone and took some pictures. Above is the view outside of my bedroom window.  As luck would have it a vintage school bus came from out of nowhere and into my picture, as if to take me away.

Here is what it looked like inside my bedroom.  I never had that plant thing over the window BTW, that's something my mom put up in there when she used this as a guest bedroom.  I used to hear the rain on the roof and listen to the wind in the trees from this bedroom.  In the 1930s the  original roof burned off and they gave the house a different roof line.  It also lost it's lap siding and a pointed spire.

There was a stairway from the upper floor to the back yard.

I looked around in each empty room before I walked out of the house for the last time. It had a personality with sights sounds and smells all its own.  In the morning sun would shine through the beveled glass and make rainbow colors on the floor and walls.

Our house, was a very very very fine house.. I hope its new owners value it as much as we did.  I'm really going to miss it..

Melmac dishes

I found myself hunting through a new thrift store (after I made a deposite) and came across this set of vintage Melmac dishes for our vintage Aristocrat travel trailer.  We found a gold set earlier that is more complete, but I couldn't pass this up. It will match our mid century trailer decor perfectly.  The picture shows the Melmac on our an old dinette not in the trailer.  Works pretty well there too!

Boat dock on Flathead Lake

Since we have different long weekends than Canada has I stopped by Flathead Lake on Memorial day on my way back from BC.  If I were president I'd introduce legislation that would align holiday weekends in Canada and the United States.  It would increase trade and tourist revenue.

I retain the rights to all of my photos.  Do not use my photos without prior agreement!

Anyway I got up in the morning and took my coffee and camera down to a very calm Flathead Lake.  And the coffee maker worked very fast BTW.. When people want coffee in the morning, they want it now! Everything else can wait.

British Columbia pictures

Here are some pictures from our weekend trip to British Columbia.  The ones above are outside of Wasa and the one below is along the Crow's Nest Highway east of Cranbrook.

I remember a conversation I had with a friend years ago while we were in Glacier Park.  I was taking pictures and the sun wasn't out.  I think it was actually raining.  He said you can't get a good picture if the sun isn't out, you're just wasting film.  I never thought that was true, but it sure doesn't hurt to have the sun out.  I think of that conversation all of the time now when I'm taking picutes no matter if the sun is out or not.

The weeping willow tree

If I had perfect grass down here would it look any better?.. Don't get me wrong,. I do my share of mowing I can assure you.  When you're young you think things will never change.  And now I don't trust things not to change.

I took that canoe out and went down the shore.  Got to see a couple of eagles fight.  I felt a little bad about it because my presence made the first eagle fly into the other guy's, or gals territory..  Gotta fight for the things you want.

she said that she would always love me
oh how could I believe it untrue
until an angel softly whispered
she can never be with you

so bury me beneath the willow
under the weeping willow tree
where she can find me where I'm sleeping
and perhaps she'll weep for me.

That's the only weeping willow song I know.

Kootenay River

Here's a picture that I took of the Kootenay River near Wasa BC last fall.  Maybe I posted it before..  I don't know.  It goes down into the states and becomes Lake Koocanusa due to the Libby Dam.  Then it goes back up into BC and goes into Kootenay Lake then out of there and into the Columbia River.

Mission Mountains in Montana

Here's a picture I took just outside of Ronan Montana of the Mission Mountains.  I'm sure lots of people have taken this shot, but it was really the first nice day in Montana this spring I think, or at least the best day so far this year.

A couple of weeks ago these pine trees along the Flathead River were frosted with snow.  What a difference a couple of weeks made in the weather. And another shot of the pine trees by Seepay Creek.

(I reserve all rights to my photography.  Please do not use my pictures without permission)

Aristocrat bumper sticker

I've been goofing around with the Aristocrat travel trailer and getting excited to take it out.  Haven't really done anything lately except yard work but I thought this bumper sticker would be fun on the trailer.  Not sure what the authorities will think..

It looks pretty serious..

Retro Raffiaware Melmac coffee cups

A couple of more retro Raffiaware Melmac coffee cups for the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer.  I already had two of these so now there are four and they should work with the Melmac nicely.  These are a little bigger than the Melmac cups we've been using.