Oct 5 - more upper body exercise

Upper body exercise sounds better than shoveling gravel, right ? Actually I only moved gravel for a little while, using the ATC to move some more gravel to spots on the lower driveway, the cedar ramp and around the gazebo. At the gazebo I built a berm so that water runoff will go around the gazebo rather than under it -- hopefully reducing any tendency for heaving.

My other accomplishment for the day was getting the film scanner operational. That was the good part -- the bad part is I'm not very satisfied with the scans that I'm getting off that one roll of film that I processed. The colours are off and it's hard to compensate. I don't know whether the film was underdeveloped, overexposed, too far past its expiry date for good results ... whatever. I'd have to do some trial prints to see what actual printing produces to remove the variability introduced by the scanner ... but the negatives are fairly light. I'll shoot another roll today in varying conditions and bracketing the exposures and have another crack at developing. This is a new process that I'm using -- the two stage developer, not Kodak Flexicolor C41 out-of-the-box. The bleach is very old and could be a suspect here too although I wouldn't think that the bleach would oxidize, but who knows.

This, of course is half the fun -- setup and experimentation. In terms of time spent, the "work" with the film scanner took up most of my time. I tried out several options with the scanner that I had not used when I was in "bulk processing" mode. Ultimately I think that I'll move the scanner and the PC to which it's attached into the darkroom but for now it is convenient to have it in the den.

I didn't go for a bike ride. It never got really warm and I'm a wimp. Today is supposed to be even cooler but then will warm up as the week progresses. I did think about riding though -- does that count ? I also spent some time changing wheels, moving the cassette, changing pedals etc. on the spare bike so I'm set for riding when I get over this wimpishness.

For dinner we had my stuffed trout along with a mixture of beans from the garden and beans from the store. Aaron and Kylie left around noon so it was just the four of us ... six if you count Abby and Mya.

The garden beans are pretty tough at this point but Sandy picked out the best and threw the rest. We did get a frost the other day (and I think overnight last night) so the garden is pretty well finished, although the carrots and leeks are still good and the raspberries are still going strong.

Sandy is going into Sudbury today to pick up groceries. Oh -- I forgot to mention that we celebrated Sandy's birthday on Saturday night. Stef had brought a cake that was sinfully chocolaty that we devoured. Today is the official day ... yesterday was Angelika's day.

It's getting light and it's after 7am -- time for breakfast. Abby and Mya have already eaten.

Onward ...