Graham Muirhead Staff, Faculty of Engineering I always enjoy learning a new way to do something rather than paying to give a problem to someone else and then not knowing how it was fixed I spent a lot of time outdoors growing up. Our family was lucky enough to have a cabin on a lake within a half an hour or so drive from where we lived in Prince George, B.C. We spent a lot of time there in the canoe, in kayaks and on the water and tooling around the woods. I used to bicycle a lot and that’s when I got into fixing things. Fixing my bike and figuring out how things worked.Both my parents can sew, so I learned to sew from them as well. I enjoy making things. When I started sewing, I remember making little bags, backpacks. I still make some bags, but I do a little more clothing like shirts and coats these days. Then recently I got an upholstery machine, so there’s crossover between sewing and cars. I’ve been fixing a few cars recently. I always enjoy learning a new way to do something rather than paying to give a problem to someone else and then not knowing how it was fixed.A few years ago, I had this idea in my head about a Hudson’s Bay blanket coat. There are a couple versions of them out there. I ran across two blankets for $25 at Salvation Army, not the traditional white with coloured stripes, but sort of a blue on blue, so I made a full duffel coat out of those. I think I was supposed to be studying for exams, but I was focusing on that instead.When I came to Dal as an engineering student, I would go back home and plant trees. Then I would have one month in August to relax, where I would see family and then I would come back here. I did that for six seasons. That put me through university. There were many years where I didn’t think I’d end up going back to it, but I did for many years. In the end, I planted just over a million trees. So, it was a big part of my life.A friend of mine called it ‘the hippy army’ because you show up and you get in the trucks and you give up this level of personal choice. You’re on their schedule. The cultural specifics vary a lot company to company and camp to camp. But you become really close to the people you work with. You basically have this shared life together for a few months of the year. It changed what my expectations is of being comfortable, even physically comfortable. If it’s not raining and it’s a reasonable temperature, that’s pretty good. It really extended my patience. There were many things that would happen there that were out of my control and you kind of get used to living like that.I currently own four cars. It’s too many. One of them is in B.C. I have two diesel Mercedes, one of which I was fixing in my driveway and this other guy from the neighbourhood stopped in and said, ‘Hey, want to buy my car?’ I said, ‘Well, not really,’ but he insisted ‘Just go for a test drive.' Within two weeks, I ended up owning his car as well. It was just too good of a deal. My preferred vein of cars at the moment is Mercedes from late 70s to the early 90s. Because it was an engineer-driven company at the time, you can take almost any of those cars apart, service them and put them back together and they will work for you. Nothing is permanently glued. They’re pretty impressive.The pandemic has definitely affected what I do. Swing dancing, which I love, is on freeze at the moment. For a little while we were able to dance outdoors with some modifications. But that’s very different. It’s so much fun. I enjoy the music, and I get along well with the type of people who are attracted to it. It just seems to be a group that aren’t too serious about it. We strive to be better dancers but there’s no hostility to it or a sense of someone’s doing it wrong. That’s the biggest thing. It’s sort of like an exchange of ideas as you’re dancing with different people. You’re giving and receiving what they’re hearing in the music or what you’re hearing. ↑ Home Sydney →
