Sunday, October 28, 2007

It's Getting EMBARRASSING In Here!!






For the record: this is not me. It is my huge dork of a brother.

HE dressed up as Hellboy.

Wow.

Actually, it turned out pretty good. Better than I had originally thought it would.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Through No Fault of My Own...




Through No Fault of My Own...

Through no fault of MY own... our car was slightly broken. The mirror became... seperated from the body of the car.

Being good old Canadians, we fixed it with glue and duct tape. Oh, and some of us partook in some beer. Not me though... I was the designated driver. :)

Friday, October 12, 2007

My Camera!!!



I love my new camera!! It's awesome!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Steel Mill







This is possibly the coolest place I've been to, in recent memory. I'm posting these in reverse, so while technically this is the last post, the first photos are posted here.

As you can see, this is the entrace that leads to the factory floor. It's kind of scummy, and there is a large garage door which leads to a repair shop right there.

The next photo is of the staircase that leads to the floor of the Main Bay, where the furnace and the rollers that pressed the steel happen to be located. At the top of the staircase, you can see that, when the plant shut down, it had been accident free for 008 days. Impressive :P

The next photo is of the first veiw of the factory floor you see upon ascending the stairs. There were numerous trip hazards, and holes in the floor, and we had to walk halfway across the floor with flashlights, in order to reach where the light switches were.

The last photo is a shot of one of the bits of machinery that sat on the floor of the factory.

This place was HUGE.

The Steel Mill Part 2







This is possibly the coolest place I've been to, in recent memory. I'm posting these in reverse, so while technically this is the fourth of the posts, I'm putting the second group of photographs here.

This is the interior of the mill, in the Main Bay. This is where all the dead machinery can be seen, the rollers that took the massive slabs of steel from the furnace and rolled them until they were wires and rods.

The third, fourth and fifth photos here is an area called The Tombstones. It's where all the billets (read: massive slabs of steel) came into the mill via train. The billets were stored in the grooves in these posts, each of which is more than 12 feet tall.

This is probably the creepiest of the areas. :D

The Steel Mill Part 3







This is possibly the coolest place I've been to, in recent memory. I'm posting these in reverse, so while technically this is the third of the posts, I'm putting the third group of photos... here. Well, Doesn't that work out nicely :)

This batch of photos is from one of the old workshops located inside the mill. The workshop was filthy, old rusted tools were strewn about and there was a soft carpet of fine black soot. The lathe beneath the window gave me a fright for a second, I'd thought it was a person.

I think these might be my favorite of the photos.

The Steel Mill Part 4







This is possibly the coolest place I've been to, in recent memory. I'm posting these in reverse, so while technically this is the second of the posts, I'm putting the fourth group of photographs here.

This is the outside of the steel mill, where the loading and offloading of the steel took place. You can see the holding tank for the sludge that was generated, along with the large bucket scoop that deposited it there, half buried in the sludge it was meant to move. There is also a rusted old storage shed for propane and nitrogen canisters.

The Steel Mill Part 5







This is possibly the coolest place I've been to, in recent memory. I'm posting these in reverse, so while technically this is the first of the posts, I'm putting the last of the photographs here.

This last batch of photos consists of the large and empty West Bay. It is where the steel rods and cables were stored before they were shipped out. The first few photos are of some rubble, but the next two sort of give you a sense of scale of the building. Well... not really. The building surely could have hosted at least 4 soccer feilds, and the technician with us told me that each of the lights in the ceiling were 1000 watt bulbs.

Yikes.

The last photo is my favorite of this batch, possibly all of the batches, it's of the ceiling mounted crane, still sitting there after three years of abandonment.