Category: Other Fun

The Wildhorse River in the East Kootenays of BC was historically one of the better gold producers in the province. Placer mining – panning or sluicing of gravels to separate “alluvial” gold – took place up and down this rugged waterway starting in the 1860s. In the first couple decades...

A message arrives from pinball technician, and dear friend, Gary Makota. He knows the Team loves documenting pinball culture, even if we don’t do it often enough, and invites us over to a customer’s home, with their permission of course, to take in a problem machine he’ll be working to...

We arrive at the visitor’s centre in Dinosaur Provincial Park and check in. We’re booked to do a little “Fossil Prospecting”, a search for ancient remains in the scenic badlands and we’re giddy like a couple kids Christmas Morning. We’re that close to squealing with delight. We meet our guide,...

There’s a most extraordinary place, a hidden gem really, set below the boundless Alberta plains in a scenic valley, near the town of Brooks. We’re speaking of Dinosaur Provincial Park (A Unesco* World Heritage Site – it’s that amazing), down by the mighty Red Deer River. It’s here in the...

The adventure here never ends. Even when heading home from some assignment or outing, we like to take it slow and explore. We point ourselves in the general direction of home and we doddle. Taking random back roads as we do it’s almost guaranteed we’ll discover something interesting along the...

So we’re watching this movie, a little known but most enjoyable flick shot in Calgary called Waydowntown (from 2000). The story is that a corporate drone who on a bet spends a full month living in the city’s extensive Plus 15 Walkway Network and never venturing outside. A dark comedy,...

We love to walk the streets of a small town. There’s so much to discover on getting close and intimate with a place and we get to see all the cool stuff that would otherwise be missed if we simply drove by. Getting out and exploring on foot is what...

On the first day we “rode the rails” from Climax Saskatchewan to Shaunavon. What an amazing time touring this part of the province in a little railway speeder. After all these months there’s still an afterglow. So we jump to day two, our itinerary taking us from Shaunavon to the...

A message arrives in our inbox. What’s this? An invite? “Want to join us on a speeder trip?” Whoaaa, a speeder trip? Adventure on the rails? With not a second of hesitation…YES Please! And with that plans are made. It’s spring 2017, the trip to take place later that summer....

We didn’t come up with the title of this post, someone at Midfield Park did. We borrowed it. Here, we’ll be peering over a security fence to a look at a huge empty lot, a former “mobile home” community with a population once counted in the hundreds. They’ve all moved...

Apologies dear friends and loyal readers, we’ve been away for a spell. The society suffered a major computer failure a week ago and spent pretty much the entire time since recovering and cleaning up the resultant mess. It was ugly! Reinstall this, reinstall that, pull from archives, configure, setup and...

A couple years back we were commissioned by a good sized publisher to do a piece on the subject of farming. It was to be a grand article about the people and machinery that make things happen, covering the complete “A to Z”, so seeding to harvest and everything else....

We have this strange fascination with small towns. They have such character and charm. Still, it’s even deeper than that, so while we can’t quite put our finger on the deep down reasons why we do it, what ever it is draws us in like a magnet And the best...

We’re easily distracted. We’re out on a road trip going where ever (we put a lot of miles behind us as you know), see something we like and have to stop and take a few snaps. It happens all the time, trust me, and is simply the way we function....

They say that “brown stuff” happens. That it sometimes hits the fan. No matter what you do, no matter how you prepare, how you plan, a trip and fall is inevitable. Eventually. The law of averages insists upon it…and almost no one gets a free pass. It can hurt and...

It’s a fairly hard ‘n’ fast rule for the team…as long as time allows. When driving the road to where ever we pay a visit to a random small town along the way. Or two. Even if it’s a place we’ve been before. Then, we wander the streets aimlessly for...

This silly little post, number one thousand and change at BIGDoer.com contains some random photos, simple captured moments from a busy weekend in June. Nothing more. For our enjoyment and for yours, hopefully, the passing things, big and little that grabbed our attention while out of town on assignment. Between...

All eyes on this strange empty building found in some industrial park in small town Alberta. Cold and sterile, yet at the same time all those odd and varied angles give it a kind of weird character, with a real bunker-like quality to boot. I know, it’s right out of...

Twilight: that most magic time of day. The sun’s last and final hurrah, that warm golden glow enveloping the world dark shadows and a deep blue in stark contrast. It’s serene, peaceful, something damn powerful and words alone don’t seem enough. Then, add a train, a tour train taking in...

In the 1970s pinball was king. You couldn’t swing a dead cat, to use that always chuckle-worthy adage, and not hit one. They were everywhere…your local arcade, back when there was arcades, the corner store, the mall, the neighbourhood watering hole, pool hall, anywhere one could be plopped down. And...

It’s convincing! Standing here in this town straight out of the American Old West, this 1800s roadhouse along a dusty cowboy trail or this stately ranch from the distant past…it just feels right. Look around, there’s no signs of today, no highways, no skyscrapers, nada, nothing. All about it’s grassy...

There’s a good chance you’re already familiar what we’ll be showing you here. The group of buildings seen, looking convincingly like a pioneer community straight out of the Old West, are in fact a set and have appeared in countless films and TV shows. Perhaps even some you’ve watched. This...

Slow down, grab a cup and take in some pinball art. A fun unpretentious post, we present a more detail oriented look at some of the games we’ve documented over the last little while. The photos seen were captured at the same time we shot that “Keeping the Faith” article...

Pinball, where have you been? This once insanely popular game has been in hiding the last dozen or so years, falling out of favour for a time, but now appears poised to make a comeback. Slowly but surely, building speed and growing with each passing day we see more and...

Ymir British Columbia, a sleepy little burg not all that different I guess from most small towns across the country. There’s not much going on. All the tired old cliches apply here…they roll up the sidewalks come dark (wait, they have sidewalks?), you could shoot a cannon down main street...

One of the shorter short-lines in the country, this little stretch of track still serves a very crucial purpose. In that sense it’s no less important than the big transcontinental players. A busy firm, the line’s only customer, uses it to send much of their output to market. Once every...