Ontario

Alex Omanski Posts About the History of Underground Ontario – Mines and Caves

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First, I found his site, Ontario Exploration 101, via the Curlie listing which had come up as a broken link to check. The link works, if you go past the web browser warnings of gloom and doom. People may miss all his posts because they start from the navigation bar, under the word “more…”. Not the navigation people are used to. At first the site appears to be a one page wonder. Once you hit upon the content, there is a LOT of it. Mostly about abandoned mines in Ontario.


I found more. There is a gallery of his images and more written content at mindat.org. There is a network people can join, a Mining Database.

I don’t know why the web browser (Firefox) is warning people away from his site. It would take days to read everything there. I hope it is all saved somewhere. Sites, personal projects like this, tend to disappear one day without notice. Abandoned and then lost.

A Tribute to Jerm IX

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Somehow I often catch people at a crossroads in their life. This time Jerm IX, Jeremy Bertrand, is evolving from his old persona and into something else. Leaving much of the old Jerm IX behind. I found his note about this on his Facebook account, the day after he posted it.

I haven’t especially tried to find him before this. I’ve seen his urban exploration photos from around Ontario on Flickr and his Jermalism and Abandonment Issues blogs. Also, for a short time a JermIX web domain. It just happened that I photographed an interesting place which I looked up (to see what it was) and found his post as the best source, with more photos taken years ago. His was more than a post about exploring an old place. He had written about himself, his past and the future he was looking forward to. Leaving behind Jerm IX is now a part of that.

So this is posted as a little tribute to Jerm IX and a thank you to Jeremy with wishes for good things in his future.

Interviews found online:

Peterborough Examiner – Peterborough, meet Jerm IX

Peterborough Examiner – Inside the Mind of Jerm IX

Kawartha Now –  artNOW July 2016

Electric City – Jerm IX Writes on Walls

Lost Farm House

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Not fair to say it was lost. I noticed a white cow at the shed to the side. It didn’t stay long, not shy, just not that interested. The farm house is like many others you can find in rural Ontario. But, pretty sure no one still lives in this one. There was a small rusted sign along the side of the driveway, but nothing I could still read on it. I liked being out in the early Spring, after the snow had melted. You wouldn’t know whether it was Spring or Fall, without some sign of green coming or going.

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