2013 at the Hammond Barn

[Bob Carriere]

Sure looks good and almost brand new..... as in one trip to Canada.

That driver had brass balls..... the road is icy....very icy..... the narrow bridge/culvert is center arched with ice and a 6 to 7 foot drop on each side.

Sad part he may have to do it all over again..... I am in love and want one now.


Which way to go in and out of..... ?? I would recommend nose first and exit from the back door..... and make sure the brakes work or the material you store in the front area of the container may get compressed !!!!!!

I am seriously considering cutting and installing wooden beams as guides for the tires .... to be installed on the floor against each side wall.... that way there is less chance of rubbing on the side wall.....

For next Summer in our spare time...... a fresh coat of Tremclad paint on the outside in a shade that will blend with the scenery and a coat of white on the inside would also be very beneficial for visibility as well as preservation.

I honestly feel it is the way to go....secure....weather proof... fireproof and rodent and cat proof.

Bob

[RHClarke]

It was a very snowy morning in Hammond. The forecasters called or mild temperatures and a "dusting"of snow. We ended up with at least four inches of the blasted stuff! After feeding Lucifer, I unloaded a good amount of CMP treasures into the new sea container.

The focus today at the barn was to extricate the 45 HUP from its broken down shelter and into the high cube sea container. We put together a metal shelf and attached it to the far wall. Next was filling the shelf with HUP goodies that had up to now been taking up valuable space in my garage at home. For some reason this took up most of the morning.

After a great lunch in Rockland, Bob fired up his tractor and proceeded to throw the snow, while Grant turned his attention to removing snow from the various shelters. I busied myself removing the front of the 45 shelter and thawing out the fuel squeeze ball for my boat tank. Seems that plastic does not like the cold... Grant used his Ford to haul the HUP from the shelter so that I could see what needed to be done to finally fire up the HUP. After a boost and a little quick start, the old HUP fired up. After a few minutes of warming up, I swung the truck around and lined up with the opening. We used Bob's metal ramps to make the initial entry. Once the truck was in and shut down, Bob realized that being in front of the truck wasn't a really good idea. No safety issues, but one of space. Bob had to climb over the front of the HUP and enter the rear hatch to get out of the sea container. He is pretty spry for an old guy!

Grant did a great job digging around the shelter to free the tarps from their icy grips. Bob nosed the tractor up to the leaning side of the shelter and pushed it back and lifted it up. This permitted Grant and I to remove the near side legs and pull the pins on the far side legs. We then removed the roof and lowered the remaining frame to the ground where we took it apart.

The intact tarps were folded up and stored away. The old shelter material was sent to the dump. The legs and frame parts were wrapped up and stored until the spring.

Photos:
1 - Bob (6'2" tall) sizing up the sea can
2 - Bob taking a photo of me taking a photo of him
3 - A forelorn shelter
4 - Disassembly
5 - The remains of the day

[chris vickery]

Looks great Rob!
I have given up on any sort of shelter; where I am just south of North Bay, it seems that there is always a prevailing wind. My house sits on the highest elevation in the area, hard to tell with all the trees but true. A good topo map confirms it. I have spent way too much $$$ and time messing about with ''tents". I mentioned to the wife that whenever we decide that we need some shelter, it needs to be steel, concrete or at least an engineered structure because the cheapo shelters don't work.
I am considering a 40-48ft sea can myself but I do have a little easier access to have one dumped off. Actually, it would go nicely behind my woodshed, out of sight, out of mind.
This spring, hopefully, will bring about the "shop". I have been diligently working away in my (little) spare time getting the house finished up to keep 9'er domestic happy, soon its my turn.
Looking at something in the 30x50 sized range.....
When and if it happens, I will post pics to drool over.

[RHClarke]

It was a quiet weekend at the barn. There were two reception parties on Saturday. Outside, the usual herd of turkeys trotted down the barn road in front of the car. Inside the barn I heard some scratching noises coming from Bob's turkey feed bucket. The photo below shows a scared but well fed mouse that was able to get in, but weighed too much to jump out. I released the poor bugger before Bob arrived. Who knows what fate the mouse would have suffered at the hands of Hammond's cat lord?

This morning there was a lot of maintenance inside and out. Afterwards, Bob spent most of his time hammering away at a crease in one of the front fenders and organizing his storage container. Grant gave Lucifer a good going over and performed some necessary surgery. Lucifer suffered from a clogged artery, so Dr. Grant quickly replaced the offending bit. The barn heats up quite nicely these days, but who cares? We are now acclimatized to the cold...

My day was spent organizing the new HUP shelter and running the HUP. The HUP does not like being ignored. She fired up quite easily, but has developed a coolant leak around the water pump area. In the photo below, you can see where she is marking her territory. After warming it up, I took the HUP for a little ride up the laneway where I noted that the brakes no longer functioned properly. I must have a small brake fluid leak somewhere as the main reservoir was almost empty. I could not find a brake fluid stain on the floor of the container, but that is a mystery I will solve next weekend.

Photos:

1 - Mouse in the house
2 - Sea can organizing
3 - HUP marking its territory
4 - Bob fighting his sea can door

[RHClarke]

Saturday was overcast and the temperature hovered around -12oC - a relatively warm day compared to the previous bout of bad weather. The days leading up to Saturday were quite nice also with a considerable amount of sunshine, which served to melt the top layer of snow, which at night turned into ice. A light dusting of snow early this morning made the going quite interesting. The road to the barn was iced over from start to finish. Pulling into the barnyard was fun as the car refused to go in the direction I wanted and refused to stop when I braked. Fortunately, I just barely missed the forward pole of one of Grant's shelter.

After parking the car, I waddled over to the barn to set Lucifer alight. Bob showed up a short time later and waddled his way to the barn after having a few close calls on the way to the barn. The work of the day consisted of more fender banging for Bob, and mirror arm deconstruction for me. Grant popped in around noon and helped free up the mirror arms.

After lunch, Bob and Grant did some surgery on Bob's fenders and test fit metal pieces to replace rusty areas on the fenders. I was going to take the HUP for a ride, but I noticed some fluid on the floor of the container, which turned out to be brake fluid. The mystery of the previous week was solved. When it warms up a bit, I will pull the front wheel and redo the brake lines and check for other leaks.

Photos:

1 - Reception Committee - a wood pecker
2 - The Hammond Ice Arena
3 - A snug fit for the HUP
4 - Potential brake fluid leak location
5 - Evidence of a leak

[RHClarke]

While Bob and Grant were hammering away, I decided to take apart a seat from Pilot Model HUP. I removed the stuffing from the seat back, which turned out to be a piece of quilt and the usual padding. Interestingly, there was a liner for the CMP seat cushion that was tied on the bottom to the lower rail that holds the spring set. The material looks like a medium weight muslin. Brass grommets were used.

Has anyone else found these types of liners on their seats?

The cover and liner will eventually make it to Guy Vapeur's place as patterns for replacement covers.

The afternoon soon passed and we closed up the barn until Sunday, when Bob planned to do some more work on his fenders.

Photos:

1 - Bob and Grant - CMP surgeons
2 - Seat back liner
3 - More of the same
4 - Etc...

[RHClarke]

This thread should be renamed the Hammond Snow thread. It seems that fighting old man winter has become our first and foremost duty. All complaining aside, we got off lucky this week with only 7-10 inches of the fluffy white sh*t. Our American cousins and the east coast of Canada got the full brunt of this killer storm. Four deaths in Ontario were attributed to the storm - mostly road related.

Things were not so dire at the barn on Saturday as the snow had stopped and the sun was shining. Maintenance and snow removal were the major activities. Bob, as usual tended to snowblowing, Grant took on the shelters and other snow removal tasks, while I emptied Lucifer for a full inspection of its lines and fire box.

I am not sure what Grant and Bob were up to in the afternoon as I had left early. The last photo might give a clue...


Photos:

1 - Snow fall measured in the lee of the barn.
2 - Bob making a blizzard.
3 - No glamour in snow blowing.
4 - Grant getting up in the world.
5 - Mini clamps in place for spot welding.