2011 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Wow! I owe my dear wife a debt of gratitude for letting me escape the drugery of domestic chores over the long weekend. Although today was a short day, any time at the barn is golden in my books.

Most of the time was spent in cleaning up and in organizing parts for the next phase of the "never-ending HUP adventure". Once I offloaded the back of the HUP, I went through a dozen coffee cans of miscellaneous parts - some of which had been hiding from me for a few months. Next was a good spring cleaning consisting of a brooming followed by a blast of the air hose. It is amazing how much crap gets tracked into the vehicle over a winter.

After a quick lunch in situ, I joined Bob and Joyce for their trek to the turkey nest to view the progress the Hen was making in the egg count. Not much to report on, but we did find a freshly killed skunk - actually, we smelled it before we saw it.

Back at the barn Bob and I discussed our upcoming adventure on Saturday - the Hammond Trio will be heading west to seek for that which was lost - elusive CMP parts. After a quick clean up, we parted company to prepare for the upcoming work week.

Photo - The HUP sporting fresh parts

[RHClarke]

Finally! Some time to breathe. Now that the election in Canada is over (but not the whining from the lefties) and the pace at work has slackened, I have some time to play catch-up.

Last weekend, on Saturday morning Bob, Grant and I piled into Bob's truck at stupid o'clock in the morning to ensure that we got to Stirling Ontario for their swap meet/flea market/show and shine. We got there early enough to get a prime parking space near the entrance to the show. It turns out that it was a good thing getting there early. The second vendor we went to had a pristine one gallon POW oil can just sitting there. It was snapped up immediately for the princely sum of $10.00. A few other treasures were picked up by the boys, and they can chime in if they so desire to do so with their finds. I also got an oil bath breather for $5.00 and other little bits and pieces.

The Stirling show was very interesting as it was way smaller than the Barry Ontario shows, and for the most part, the vendors had local goods to swap/trade/barter/sell. Stirling did not offer up any CMP specific items, but we enjoyed the trip to Stirling immensely.

On Thursday this week, Ottawa and region was hit by a strong wind storm. Thursday was paper recycling and garbage day. The wind made a hell of a mess. A few of us collected the garbage that a few of our neighbours couldn’t be bothered to pick up. The winds were strong enough to topple some trees and to blow off patches of shingles on more than a few roofs. Small potatoes compared to the natural disasters in other parts of the world.

Sunday was spent fixing the damage caused by the Thursday wind storm. One of Bob’s shelters actually moved. The frame of the shelter was bent and a few legs broke free of the heavy boxes used to anchor the frame. A number of the feet at the end of the frame legs were broken and required repairs. After returning the anchor boxes to their original positions (about a foot of movement happened), Bob and I restrung the tarps on the shelters. Overall, the damage was quite light compared to the barns that got blown over just north of Bob’s place.

Since the sun was shining, Bob decided to fire up the sandblaster to clean up some CMP parts. While Bob was having a blast, I continued my HUP parts search for some rare sliding window flanges. Things are coming along nicely at the barn. More later.

Photos:

1- Bob's shelter in the foreground, my shelter in the background - post windstorm
2- Bob doing something to the sandblasting hood

[Bob Carriere]

The day after the wind storm a neighbour who has a direct line of sight with the canvass garages near the barn told me that the canvas garages where hovering above the ground and flapping around like crazy.

I grinned and thank him for the graphic is not somewhat exagerated description. His large BBQ on his deck was lifted and thrown into his patio door....did not break the glass but wrecked the screening.

Well on closer inspection last weekend with Rob I discovered that he may have been right. For stability and for added head room we usually build wooden boxes from 2x8 two feet long and fill them with gravel/sand before nailing the last piece shut. The results are wooden boxes that are ten feet long about 8 inches square and two guys can hardly move them by hand... we usually use the bucket on the tractor and straps. So each canvass garage has two of them on each side....... anchor plates at the bottom of the steel vertical steel pipe structure are bolted to the boxes with 2 inch lag bolts.

The wind was strong enough to lift the whole tent...some boxes had sheeared the lag bolts, broken the base plate and/or been turned on their side and were moved sideways from the original location by at least 2 feet. Most of the 1/4 cheap nylon rope had either snapped or ripped the eyelets out of the canvass.

What saved them.... what kept them hovering and not going in orbit.... just for the hell of it I had tied old section of 3/4 inch manila rope to the cab 12 stored inside and over the ridge pole of the shelter.... and tied loosely at that.

What the neighbour saw was the tent floating in the air off the ground held back by the rope on the inside.

Conclusion...... if you have something heavy stored inside a canvass garage... tie the garage to it... front and back..... it would take strong wind to move a cab 12....

Some houses just across from my street...recently built in the last 4 to 5 years had significant damage when huge section of roof covering was blown off.... luckily we had no damage on the house or barn.

Ah the pleasures of living in the country !!!!!!

Bob

[Robin Craig]

Bob,

what you experienced is a common problem called "uplift".

Any structure has the ability to have that effect if air can get into it or under it.

Even a pole barn open on all sides can be lifted, hence the need for "hurricane ties" in any structure to tie it together.

Seen too many structures that are poorly built and building inspector has missed that detail.

Your "sheds" are "temporary" so fall outside the building code.

You were lucky to keep them in place.

R

[RHClarke]

Saturday. Administration day for Bob and I. Grant was at work keeping the airforce on track. So, nothing significant to report. In the morning, Bob did maintenance on his fleet of lawn mowers, and I rearranged HUP parts in the shelters. There was some talk about putting a rotisserie together in the near future so that we can mount large body panels, thus making them easier to access for repairs.

After lunch, Bob dragged his trusty trailer to the barn for some maintenance. We fixed the lip of the beavertail by welding it back into position, fixed the license plate light, welded a corner, and removed a lot of rust. Unfortunately, we both had other duties to attend to, so the day was quite short.

I'm not sure what went on on Sunday, as I was at home celebrating Mother's Day (dishes, vacuuming, dusting, yard work, painting, putting a trampoline together, etc...).

[RHClarke]

The last few weeks have been busy with work and family obligations. After a protracted absence, I finally got some time to return to the Hammond Barn. Saturday morning was quite sunny and very pleasant. I arrived at the barn just in time to bid Bob and Joyce a bon voyage as they began their venture to the east coast to stock up on Keiths, and to recover a CMP from Mace's Bay. Hopefully, Bob will provide some updates along the way.

I had the barn all to myself on Saturday so I did some more work on my Metal Mistress. Photos of my progress are to follow. In the meanwhile, I have one photo and a quiz: What are these nasty little fellows?

[Phil Waterman]

My guess is something you drop on the road after you've made a very large withdrawal from a bank you don't have an account at.

Second guess part of a strategic anti mosquito protection system.

Cheers Phil