JOURNAL VII

We went diving today. It's been a while but we finally managed to get all of our schedules to agree.

Danny Trites from Perth Andover and Luc Pelletier from Baker Lake were our divers today. Yes Luc Pelletier is back diving on the train site. So we have two pretty experienced divers that are now also pretty acquainted with the site and underwater conditions.

From left to right: Luc Pelletier, Marc Laforge, Eric Ouellette and Danny Trites

Visibility again was zero because of the very big rain event the night before. The big objective today was to test the digging equipment and see how well it works. We had a diver tank taped to the vacuum for air supply just to try it out for a few minutes. Danny says it seems to work very well. Next time we go out we will be better equipped with an air compressor on the barge for longer digging and a brand new vacuum we will build.

We did however try out our barge today. We moved it to the anchor rope floating over the sand mound and hooked it while we went exploring. It worked really well for the divers and was very stable for 3 adults and all the scuba gear. My horrible looking boat was the shuttle that took the divers and equipment from the marina to the barge.

In the picture above you can see Danny Trites and Luc Pelletier discussing their plans. The barge is out in the river anchored near the sand mound. This shot is facing upriver and you can see the last CPR bridge in the background. This bridge now serves as our walking trail. You can also get a pretty good look at my expensive boat radio and cool looking steering wheel. ha ha !!!

I have not been able to do much on my fireplace this year because of my broken elbow earlier this summer. I have however worked on other fireplace related things like placing asphalt in between the front walkway rocks, building a chair and building my wood boxes. The wood boxes were built out of mostly recycled materials: Old wooden pallets, commercial liquid containers (850 Gal), old tires and an old bike wheel. It opens very easily because of the tire counterweight in the back. The stained pallets hide the ugly industrial look of the containers. I have finished one of them and I now have to build 3 more for a good wood reserve. One of them will be used as our new compost bin.

Visit the FIREPLACE ALBUM to see some construction shots. I have also added some pictures of the fireplace chair we built during my visit in Caraquet earlier this summer.

My work has brought me to many places recently. In the last month I have worked in New Brunswick, Quebec, Price Edward Island and Nova Scotia. When I found out I was going to Halifax for some pile driving work I immediately looked up Oak Island and contacted Danny Hennigar from the Oak Island Tourism Society. If you haven't heard of the Oak Island Mystery, I recommend reading this website "Oak Island Tourism Society" or simply typing "Oak Island" or "The money pit" in google. Since I found out about the Oak Island mystery, I have been fascinated with this story. Reading over the website, I saw that the Island was going to be open to the public from August 11^th to the 13^th. Since I was a week early I wanted to know if I could still squeeze in a quick visit being so close. Danny replied that the best he could do to accommodate me was August 10^th or August 11^th @ 8h00 in the morning. So close but it wasn't going to happen.....I was a week early!!!

Last week I learned that I had to return to Nova Scotia for more work. Even dough I was considerably further away from Oak Island this time I was still hoping to make the visit anyway if work permitted it. Unforeseen cancellations at the construction site made it possible for me to go visit the island on Thursday morning if the invitation still stood. I contacted Danny once again asking him if I could still make it on such a short notice and he quickly replied yes......wait for me on the island at the end of the causeway at 8h00 sharp.....don't be late!!! Thursday morning at 5h00, I was off to Oak Island! I actually arrived a half hour early and took the time to look around before Danny's arrival. Since Danny was good enough to let me visit the island I decided to chip in on the clean up activities in order to get the island ready for the big tours over the weekend. I find it pretty cool that I actually snapped a few trees around the money pit and borehole 10X. Special thanks to Danny Hennigar for making this possible. View my OAK ISLAND pictures by clicking on the "Oak Island" album.

There has not been much going on lately when it comes to the search for locomotive 508. Some reasons for this are:

2- Danny Trites (diver) and his wife have had a new baby boy at the beginning of September.

6- I have also organized my 10^th year graduation party from the University of Moncton. Hard to believe but I have been working as a civil engineer for ten years now, six of those for Gemtec. I started working on the class of 96 reunion by trying to find my old classmates back in May. One thing led to another and a reunion date was set for September 2 at my place. I figured Grand Falls to be more central than Moncton for traveling purposes since some came as far as Ottawa, Montreal, Lac St-Jean, Moncton, Caraquet. I also liked the fact that I didn't need to leave home to assist. It was a lot of preparation and work but in the end, I dare say everybody had a great time. The weather could not of been any more cooperative. Twelve graduates showed up and a total of 25 people joined in on the celebrations. We had a very impressive fire going in my fireplace and lots of food and beer were consumed.

Luc Pelletier the diver from Lac Baker is available but I'm sure he won't want to go out looking for the train alone. So, It's really starting to look like we won't be able to find the train again this summer. We will see what happens but work is not letting up for me and Danny has his hands full!

Everything happens for a reason I guess but if we run out of time this year and have to re apply for permits next year.......I will. It would of been nice to solve the mystery this year but work comes first!

Well the permit for digging in the river has expired at the end of September but none the less the search will resume next summer. A few weeks ago we went out to the river and retrieved the barge and boat for the winter. I have brought the barge home for some modifications. We have already given it a new paint job to protect the wood from rotting. In the next few weeks we plan on adding a adjustable platform at one end in order to help the divers get out of the water easier. The set up we had this summer was fine but getting the divers out of the water was difficult and required some muscle. We also want to add a lifting device at the other end to help bring pieces from the bottom up easier. The lifting device will also assist us in lowering equipment to the divers at the bottom. I will add some pictures of the barge modifications when they are completed. As for the boat, we brought it to one of my friends for some repairs we plan on doing to it over the winter.

Website: I have modified the introduction page a little and also changed the webpage background.

Other news: I am the new North West branch president for the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB - www.apegnb.ca ). The North West branch has decided to put together a pretty big IGLOO competition this winter in Grand Falls. We have already had two steering committee meetings and #3 is scheduled this Wednesday evening. Can't wait to post more information on it but until more information is known, it would be better to leave it at that!!!

I have been really busy in the last few months putting together a huge Igloo competition. The website officially goes online today. Please visit the APEGNB IGLOO building competition for more information.

I took two weeks vacation to work on the igloo building competition. Let's just say I couldn't wait to go back to work. Building the giant ice igloo was a pretty big job! Thank god plenty of volunteers showed up to help out. The ice igloo turned out really good and the competition took on a life of it's own. The weather was perfect all weekend and in the end I think everybody had a pretty good time. The success of this years first ever APEGNB igloo building competition will surely pave the way for a much bigger event next year. Let's just hope the weather cooperates in 2008. Visit the official APEGNB igloo building competition website for more info on this event.

Tonight I dug up the files I had from last year concerning the water alteration permit applications for the locomotive. Now is the time to re apply if we want to do anything this summer. I want to get this all done in the next few weeks. Also Danny Trites received his brand new underwater metal detector and we are very anxious to go try it out at the sand mound. Will also help delineate the areas of interest for excavation!

INTRO	FUN STUFF	POLL	SOUNDS	CONTACT ME	LINKS
RESEARCH DOCUMENTS					HOW TO GET MARCEAU'S BOOK
GUEST MAP	www.locomotive508.nb.ca				GUEST BOOK