At the Museum there is always motion. The new Coal Mining exhibit which I've been helping out with every Tuesday, the Bastion Cannons, which have just had their carriages refurbished, and the contents of Nanaimo Bastion itself. While the Cannons are Bailey and Pegg six pounders, the Carronades have a 'P MMM 1809' foundry mark on the barrel. I'm sure there's some form of reference out there somewhere, but I'm not sure where.
The two Bastion Cannons have had their carriages refurbished prior to safety checks on the barrels prior to firing, and we spent last Tuesday morning putting the carriages together for moving. The Quoins or elevating wedges, were fitted before we moved the carriages out of the old Museum premises before fitting the iron shod wheels. Cue much wisecracking about wheel balancing and tyre mileage. Then they were loaded and despatched to have the barrels remounted, which is a specialist task.
The Bastion, or the 'leaning tower of Nanaimo' as it is coming to be known needs around a quarter million dollars to remove, recarpenter and replace rotted structural timbers. At present, the temporary expedient of steel bracing is holding everything together. The only problem with said bracing is the weight of structurally unsupported steelwork putting extra stress on the internal wooden structure, causing it to sag to one side. For example; inside the first floor the main cross timber has two heavy steel C sections bolted along either side running almost, but not quite the full width of the first floor. The rot within the cross timber has spread to the point where the bracing C sections bolted to either side are beginning to have an adverse effect on the structural integrity of this historic building. The only real cure is to strip out the old 10 by 12 inch Cedar cross and supporting timbers and replace with new ones. The new timbers will need to be Fir or Spruce, as the City building code quite rightly doesn't allow Cedar as a structural material.
My own pet project, which is currently an overhead display projection on a nine foot diameter printed satellite photograph proceeds in fits and starts. Focal length is an issue, simply because even with a special short throw lens, there is not a great enough distance between the projector and the screen to fit the projected image. Next week I'm talking to an Astronomer with a view to rigging the current setup to create a special 3D solar display relayed via the Internet from a solar observatory on Mount Benson. Providing I can get into the workshop up at the old annexe, I can build a slightly better overhead projection setup, which should give almost a full image width, but what with me only there five or six hours a week, time is not on my side. Still, it's all interesting stuff, and there is so much to learn. Pictures may follow.
Real life continues to throw surprises my way. On top of being scavenger-in-chief locally for Tetra, I've been asked to serve on the board of Directors for another non profit. Unpaid of course. I swear this whole town would cease to function without volunteers. Not that I mind overmuch, it's just that paying work I'm allowed to do is currently a bit thin on the ground. This, along with recent currency fluctuations, have necessitated a clampdown on spending. Once the right piece of immigration paperwork is stamped our immediate restricted financial situation will ease as I will be able to take up several job offers without breaking the immigration regulations and risking deportation.
I have heard tell of would-be immigrant families who just get fed up with the long wait, give up and go back to their country of origin. All we can do in the meantime is keep up the voluntary work, try and keep our skill sets current and hope for the best.
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