It is getting near breakup from a long season. I am tired thus have not kept up at my normal rate of ranting and raving unfortunately. With a stretch of time off coming soon and a provincial election, I don’t doubt that I will be brightening the world with a record number of political postings. Today to shake things up though I am going to post a series of pictures of things I have run across in the field in the last few years. I keep losing/breaking computers so I should document these things somewhere out of my hands as the world would certainly miss out should these shots be lost.

 I have spent most of my adult life working in oil exploration survey. In just the last few years I have worked as far North as literally on the ice of the Beaufort Sea, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Pennsylvania and pretty much everywhere else in between. When I get lucky I work in Western Canada as I have been this last few months. No matter where I go I find strange things. Unfortunately, it is only in these last few years that I have had a camera/phone on me at all times to document some of the stuff I find. I found an entire standup phone-booth deep in the woods of upstate New York for example. No trail or road or indication on how it possibly got there. Alas, I didn’t get a shot.

 Here are some shots that I did get. They range from interesting, to weird to gross.

 Below are a few shots from here in Central Alberta from this last couple months.

Today deep in the bush I found the rust covered remnants of a recliner chair which is what inspired me to post some shots. From  the overgrowth, rust and moss I would guess it had been there for decades. What is most odd though was that somebody had put casters on the bottom so it could be rolled, a small table on one armrest and most disturbingly foot and hand restraints. It really weirded me out so I only took one picture and moved on. The pic does not show the details well though one of the foot restraints can be made out on the bottom. It gives an indication of just how weird things can be out there. I don’t really want to know the story behind this one.

In the middle of the trees I found the wreckage of a pedal boat. There were no ponds for miles. Who knows who dragged it there and why.

On the edge of a field with nothing really to look at and no reasonable access I found sets of stands.

 Texas was a great place to find odd things. Below is a shot of an occupied hillbilly compound near Waco that I had to map. While walking around the outbuildings I had a near heart attack when I encountered the stuffed dog pictured below. Lassie had not weathered well outdoors over the years. The occupants of that place were photo worthy as well but I really didn’t want to pause to ask if I could take shots of them.

 Going farther south in Texas, I encountered a bull with a metal plate hanging from it’s horns by a chain so that it covered it’s eyes. It could see side to side but not straight ahead. I am guessing that perhaps this bull was aggressive and this kept it from charging. As this area was only a few miles from the Mexican border in an area that was indeed loaded with runners, I am sure that the aliens appreciated the effort of the rancher if indeed it was an aggressive bull. The poor devils I encountered down there had enough hardship without being chased by livestock.

 I have encountered all sorts of wildlife from polar bears to alligators. I tend to take that in stride. When the creepy crawlies get into my living quarters though it can get a bit challenging. While working near Corpus Christi I awoke to find that my roach trap had ensnared a sizable scorpion. The lights were never turned off for the rest of my stay at that motel and I am sure my sleep was reduced by 30%.

 While working deep in the hills of West Virginia, myself and another fella were staying in an isolated cabin. Due to roach infestation, we bug bombed the place to try and keep the walls from crawling. Now, while dozens of roaches died, the fella pictured below apparently was unphased by the mass toxic gas attack within the cabin. It came out and was likely ticked off at us for having killed off it’s food. We moved out shortly after.

 Heading north to the land less creepy I found a memorial to a sunken bulldozer in the muskeg in Northern Alberta last winter. I guess while the operator got out, they never managed to recover the machine.

On a smaller scale, he is the outcome of one of my less than wise compatriots when he decided to quad across thin ice.

Now below is a barge-camp that I lived in for several months on the edge of the Beaufort Sea. It was towed out in summer and anchored. Once frozen in, we built an ice-road to it from Inuvik. The picture was taken at peak daylight.

Finally, here is a shot that everybody should keep in mind whenever they complain about some snow in Calgary. It is a truck buried after a storm at the camp pictured above.

 Well that is it for now. I am sure I will acquire and share more shots as time passes and I end up working in other odd spots. I hope these photos at least draw a picture of what contributes to my own lunacy. 😉

I will get back to my usual political ramblings in further posts. Now nobody can say I don’t post about anything but politics.