2011 at the Hammond Barn

[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

[RHClarke]

Phil, Interesting ideas. I think I can use them to deter the local feline population from spritzing my HUP with their very repugnant odours. Just have to remember to remove them before sitting down.

Hint - they are cut-offs from a small HUP related project that involved spot welding.

[RHClarke]

On Saturday, I decided to cut and test fit the home made spot welded hatch lips to the large sliding hatch opening. I used Bob's cut off saw to ensure that the four pieces "met" at a 45o angle - thus the "caltrops".

A couple of issues arose - the first being an overlap at the flange ends of the lips, but nothing that could not be trimmed off with a grinder. The second was the warping of the roof from previous owners walking on the roof. Some work with a jack may have to be completed to bring the roof back into "true".

Once the roof is sorted out, I will tack weld the strips to the opening. A little progress made.

Photos:

1 - the hatch opening before
2 - the new "lips"
3 - the hatch opening after - test fitting