A few weeks ago I travelled out to the Kootenays to visit my parents and spend some time in Fauquier. It was nice to get out of the city and make it back home for a visit. I hadn’t really taken many photos since breaking my leg, so it was a real treat to finally get out with my camera. Most of my shots are from the canoe paddling around the Arrow Lakes.

In a few short hours I will be off to pickup a bunch of friends on route to the Arrow Lakes. Some of my friends are from the Arrow Lakes, while others had never heard of Fauquier, Burton or Nakusp until they had met us. We are all traveling to the valley to take part in a celebration of Burton Hockey, and the 10 years since it’s official formulation when we added Kyle Kusch to take stats for us.

For most of us though, hockey has been a part of our lives for more than 10 years, but rather a lifetime. Hockey was never about winning or losing, how many goals you scored, or that sick deke (not that we didn’t want to win, score goals, or revel in how awesome that deke was!); It was about getting to spend time with your friends and having fun. Some of my fondest memories of when I was young were from playing hockey. Foot vs blade sessions in the Fauquier Rink, knee hockey in Steve’s living room or shooting balls at his shed, and of course those ridiculous sessions up at the Burton basketball court with some of my closest friends.

As we grew older, hockey became more and more a tool to keep friendships together. Often times coming home for a visit your time was short and mostly spent with family, so it was tough to see all your friends. However you were bound to see most of them if you showed up to a Burton Hockey session. In that way Burton Hockey was a tool to reconnect, to be apart of something, and to be with Friends.

With many of us original players now living in Vancouver it was natural for us to branch out, and start what we had in Burton here. It took a while, but that same enthusiasm for the game was found here with the new Vancouver based players. In the same way, Burton Hockey in Vancouver provided friends to get together, to have fun, and reconnect.

Why were stats important? Stats first and foremost were a way to include a really close friend in the fun we were having. Stats turned out to be more than that though. Stats provided a way to document our sessions, and have a record of all the good times. Along with the website the stats were a way to build excitement, and a way to make things ‘official’. It was a way to build excitement, and to entice new players to play, and in the more recent years they have been a good way to fuel the friendly rivalries between the two leagues.

While the stats provided the momentum to Burton Hockey 10 years ago, it would all be for not if there wasn’t a rink. It took a major effort from Lorne, Joern and Simon and their parents to fight for the community to build that plot of asphalt. When they had won the community over and were given the grant money, those 3 spent every day at the rink to help build it. It was a community born effort that has gone on to strengthen not just the Burton community, but the community of the Arrow Lakes as a whole.

This weekend as I take part in the DecaSession, it will to celebrate a lifetime of great times I have shared with friends. It will be to take part in something that has reconnected old friends, and made new ones; and finally it will be to play as much hockey as humanly possible to help kick start another lifetime of great memories.

Can you believe the fine folks at Google drove through my hometown of Fauquier? You know that small little Kootenay town of 200 residence? Check it out:

Street View of Fauquier

Over the holidays while at my parents place I started a project. I wanted to mount a camera in their yard, have it take pictures, and upload them to the Internet. Basically I wanted to start a webcam.

Before heading back to my parents place, I did some last minute shopping on craigslist and was able to get an old Canon A75 camera. In it’s day it was a decent camera, but now at only 3mp not many people would want it. So I was able to get it for a cheap $20.

Next up I was able to get a mini Compaq computer that would control the camera. My friend Oliver helped me out with getting it, and I thank him profusely for it. With these two items, a network cable, and a bit of programing I was able to setup Fauquier Cam.

So how does it work? I will get into the technical details in another post, but here is the brief overview. The camera is mounted outside on one of our sheds. It is connected via USB to the Compaq computer which sits inside the shed, as well to an ac adapter cord. The computer sits inside the shed running Ubuntu Linux, and controls the camera via the usb cable, and the wonderful Linux application GPhoto 2. So I have a script setup that runs every 2 minutes from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. The script tells the camera to take a picture, then downloads the picture to the Compaq computer. After the image is downloaded to the Compaq it proceeds to upload the image to my webserver.

Once I have the image on my webserver, I resize it to multiple sizes, insert it into a database, then upload each size to Amazon S3 for storage and hosting. OK I can see your eyes glazing over, so I will leave the rest of this for the technical overview.

So what am I getting at? Well basically that if you browse to www.fauquiercam.com you will be able to see an up to date photo from my parents backyard. Greenhouse? check. Garden? check. New cabin my brother is building? check. Scenic pasture and mountains in the background? check. Yup you get it all. I have even included an archives section so you can go back and view photos from past days. Like January 2nd, when my parents made a snowman and a sign for the camera.

This is all just a start. Up next is compiling time lapse videos of every day and adding them to the site. Then as content gets built up (like lets say a years worth) I will do some time lapses of the seasons changing. Lets hope the Canon A75 stays reliable!

Well I hope you all enjoy this little glimpse into my parents backyard and a view of the weather in the small Kootenay town of Fauquier.

Wild mushroom picking, specifically the pine mushroom (Matsutake) is something of an event back in the Kootenays. Since pine mushrooms are such a lucrative crop, you will find many different people out picking. Whether it is someone with a job just out to get a bit of extra spending money, or a student trying to save up for his first car, or even a retiree, you are likely to find them out in the bush come September. For as long as I can remember my mom has been one of the most religious pickers in the area. So this Thanksgiving at the tail end of the pine mushroom season, I went out in the bush with my mom for a short picking session.

My mom has been picking in the same location for the last 20+ years. Actually I think most of the Fauquier community picks at this one location. So during the pine mushroom season, you are almost more likely to run into your neighbor in the bush, than you are on the streets of Fauquier!

So what makes pine mushrooms so special? Well they are a bit a delicacy in Japan, and are sold at extremely high prices. They are also a mushroom that is near impossible to farm. Pine mushrooms form a symbiotic relationship with the trees in the forest through a network of mycelia in the forest floor. So it is very important when picking that when you pick the mushroom you take care not to damage the ground of the mycelia when you dig out the mushroom. Pine mushrooms are also a difficult mushroom to find. Largely because they often grow below the forest floor. Often times you might only seem a glimmer of white, or even just a bump. Really good pickers like my mother, almost have a sixth sense when it comes to picking.

It is important when picking pine mushrooms to know what they look like. There are many different mushrooms in the forest, many of which that are highly poisonous. Several of these mushrooms tend to resemble the pine mushroom to the untrained eye. So how do you tell a pine mushroom? Well a young pine mushroom, called a button, will be fully contained without a detached “hat”. Somewhat resembling a lightbulb.

Pine mushrooms are creamy white in color, and generally found barely above the surface of the forest floor. As a pine mushroom grows older the outside of the hat begins to detach from the mushroom stem, and eventually when fully matured the mushroom will look like a table top.

It is important when picking the mushroom to be very gentle. Pine mushrooms are very fragile, and especially if you wish to sell the mushrooms, you will want to make sure the mushroom stays in excellent condition. So to begin, start by slowly uncovering the dirt that is on top of the mushroom.

After the mushroom is uncovered, then you can use your fingers to gently dig around the stem of the mushroom until you reach the bottom of the stem. Then very gently rock the mushroom back and forth with your fingers until the mushroom becomes loose enough that it will come out of the ground.

Once you have picked the mushroom it is extremely important to cover up the hole it came out of, to protect the mycelia, and promote future growth. If the mushroom’s “hat” is already open, before closing the hole you can tap the top of the mushroom to knock the spores back into the hole. This is said to also promote future growth of mushrooms. Once the whole is closed you are done and can continue to look for more mushrooms. Be sure to look around where you found the mushroom as well, as pine mushrooms often grow in bunches. To protect your mushrooms it is best to carry them in a cloth bag, as plastic bags tend to make the mushrooms age quicker after they have been picked.

It was really nice to get out into the bush with my mom this Thanksgiving and take part in a bit of tradition. The excitement of the hunt, and getting to explore the forest makes mushroom picking a fun activity, and getting paid at the end of the day is icing on the cake.

Here are a few additional photos I took out in the forest of some other mushrooms. Be sure to leave these ones alone, as I am pretty sure none of them are edible.