Our Holiday in Pictures (Part 1)

My brother-in-law, Ernie, took us on a tour of the mill that he's worked at for the past 20 years. Since the spring - and probably for the next few months - the mill has been shut down. The town of Mackenzie (where my sister & brother-in-law live) currently has about a 98% unemployment rate! Ernie is one of the very few who still has a job. His job right now is very boring - he arrives, has a couple cups of coffee, drives around to check the perimeters of the mill property (make sure everything is secure & not vandelized), then had back to the office to find something else to do when there's NOTHING to do. But, as my sister says, at least he still has a job which means they still have an income & he doesn't have to work elsewhere and be gone for 2 weeks at a time like many other families in town.

The following pictures are of our tour of the mill. I was very thankful that the mill wasn't operating because it was quiet and, most importantly, it didn't smell! Because this is a pulp mill, it has that disgusting sulpher/rotten egg smell! Yuck! Anyway, everything was fine so I was able to enjoy myself.

Some of my descriptions for the pictures might not be all that accurate. Hopefully the information I give you isn't too inaccurate!

View from the 5th (?) floor of the mill

Where the wood chips are sifted

At one point in our tour, we were on that top landing looking out!

View from one of the roofs

The red trees are dead pine trees from the pine beetle.

Later in the week, we all went to the top of Morfee Mountain (the middle peak).

That's a whole different set of pictures & stories!

Here we are on one of the lower roofs.

I thought this picture put the size of the mill in perspective!

These 5 "barrels" are used for processing the pulp

Each "barrel" is another stage of processing

Ernie showing us the results of the processing

Another stage of processing

Again - this picture shows how huge the equipment is

This picture shows the dryers for the pulp

There is an upper & lower lever

Each door (taller than us) is another drying compartment

Ernie told us about how a guy (in a different mill) was inside fixing one of the dryers and the door closed on him.

Because the machinery is SO loud, no one heard him yelling and he died from the extreme heat. Scary!

When the mill is up & running, this warehouse is full.

These bundles of pulp are the final product from the mill.

This is where the train comes in and gets loaded

That's it for the tour of the mill. The rest are just a few of the pictures from our time at my sister's. I will do another picture post from the rest of our week up in Mackenzie.

Daniel playing hockey with his cousins!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my sister's flowers!

My Dad relaxing in the rocking chair

We took some family picutres in front of Karen & Ernie's home. Every time we get together we say we have to take pictures, but we never manage to accomplish it. This time we really did it!

My family! Back row, l-r: Ernie, Dad, Mom, Paul (nephew), Douglas (nephew), Steve (brother), Angela (Steve's girlfriend)
Front row, l-r: Becca, Kathleen (neice), Daniel, Karen (sister), me, Jeremy