2013 at the Hammond Barn
 

Welcome to the New Year! We are looking forward to relating new stories and posting pictures throughout the coming year about the adventures at the now "World Famous" Hammond Barn. There is a lot of work to be done and we will be posting the results of our labours (both good and bad) as has become our tradition here on MLU, the acknowledged centre of the CMP universe.

Photo: A wildling roaming the barnyard.

Happy New Year everyone.
 

Nice picture of Jess in the snow.

Bob

New year's day at the barn
 

The morning of the first day of the New Year came early. After a quick breakfast and some champagne and orange juice with my beloved wife, I hit the road for the barn - not to worry, it was only about an ounce of the bubbly mixed with a generous helping of OJ.

The sun was up and shining in all of its glory this morning. However, the mercury was hovering at about -13oC, so when I arrived at the barn, I decided to fire up Lucifer. After enjoying Lucifer's warmth, I headed outside to dig out the snow that accumulated around my 45 HUP shelter. The wind chill factor pushed the temps down to around -22oC. Later this year we will shrug off those temperatures, but right now it felt damned cold outside.

It was very quiet at the the barn until about 10:30 when Grant drove in. We both got down to business with door repairs. My focus was on the driver's side door for the Pilot Model. It was in better shape than the other door but requires some repair - see Pilot Model Thread.

Bob made his appearance just after lunch time. Apparently, he and Joyce decided to have their New Year's party this morning, and since he was not feeling any pain, he decided not to operate heavy equipment or use dangerous tools today. So he headed home to put in some wood for his furnace.

I left Grant working away on his cab 13 door and headed home for some hot turkey soup and tea biscuits. It is amazing how the cold works up an appitite.


Photo: The ongoing battle with snow continues. The shelters are getting squeezed by the snow that we rake off. The snow needs to be removed from the side walls to prevent cave ins and material damage.

A near miss at a collapse
 

Just to add to the comments about snow and driveway shelters, I went to the famous Princess Auto the other day. A 21' telescoping aluminum handled plastic bladed roof rake (yes, that is the name) is coming up on sale. The need was greater to clear snow than risk missing out altogether.

We have had easily 18" of fresh snow in the past two weeks. Here are some snaps of the process of clearing snow. Notice the deflection on the roof supports inside.

snow shelter
 

One thing I noticed after clearing the snow, was how my resistance braced roof cross pieces, had almost all shifted position. The roof is the original poly-whatever fabric, second-skinned with sections of modular tentage, reinforced with leftover election signs and 1x4 lumber. I need to get some j-clamps in the electrical conduit section of my second favourite hardware store, and put things back in place.

BTW, this shelter is a full Rotter and MLU effort. Guy Vapeur sewed the end panel with doors, and the tentage was purchased from Greg Wright who is a neighbour of Mike Calnan. And Rob Love has visited and inspected the M38A1.

snow
 

Amazing pictures guys. Just totally foreign to me. 3 weeks now without a drop of rain, paddocks dry and becoming barren. Dust, grass seeds in your clothing and cloudless skies.
All the best for 2013 from down under.

Busy at the Barn
 

There was a reception committee awaiting my arrival at the barn this morning. To my surprise there were about 20 quite large birds pecking away at the snow in front of the barn doors. As I approached with my camera, half of the crowd flew away with remarkable speed. The braver ones eye-balled me with curiosity until I got up close - then they took off in a flurry of feathers and rude noises. Of course the camera on my mobile telephone decided to ask me some qestions about exposure, and by the time I had sorted it out, the turkeys were gone. Bob has been feeding the local "flock" of turkeys and they obviously have told their friends about the free food at the barn.

After lighting up Lucifer (it was -10oC outside), I headed out of doors for some more snow management. Bob showed up mid-morning and after catching up on the past week's activities, we spent the remainder of the morning clearing away some snow, which is now becoming more of an irritant. Bob mounted his trusty tactor and cleared the laneways and in between the barn and shed. I busied myself cleaning off shelters and digging out the barn doors.

Once that was done, we headed indoors for some metal work. Bob concentrated on some of his sheet metal components while I looked at the Pilot Model doors - photos are on the 42 Pilot Model thread. Lunchtime rolled around and Joyce popped in with tea, coffee, chips and hot dogs. This was a very pleasant surprise and we enjoyed lunch in the comfort of the barn (which was now at a balmy 15oC).

Later on, Grant joined us. He and Bob got into the metal work for Bob's truck. Bob had fabbed up a replacement piece that really looked the part when they temporarily put it together. That burned up the remainder of the afternoon, and as darkness fell, I left Bob and Grant in the barn to put the finishing touches on another of Bob's remarkable creations.

Photos:

1 - Reception Committee
2 - Bob drilling out spot welds to remove a panel
3- The replacement panel being test fit
4 - Lunch is served!
5 - Bob and Grant checking the fit

wild turkeys
 

I was at the EOSC range Sat and Sun midday both days. On Sat there was an extended flock of turkeys working through the snowy corn fields East of the dogleg turn and bridge near Canaan Road. Probably 3 miles SWW from the Barn.

And I wasn't being antisocial, I had a very specific sighting in task that failed on Sat, but succeeded on Sun. Lesson learned - when adjusting scope alignment at close range, make bold corrections on the base. Two feet left at 20yds is more adjustment than is ion the telescope knobs. :no4:

One for Guy Vapeur
 

Guy,

We have a partially destroyed seat back and cushion cover for you to copy. If you like, the package can be dropped off chez vous tomorrow after lunch. If you need better samples, let me know.

We need 40 seat covers.....
 

....made up as soon as possible.....


Guy

will be barning tomorrow afternoon ..... if you have time why don't you drop in for a chat.....

Bob


.....and you can see Rob at work..... you will see he does change clothes and works on different parts...

Deer In The Headlights
 

You can tell that I am not used to being "shot". I am usually on the other end of the camera.

Boxing Day at the Barn
 

Today I took delivery of a 20 foot High Cube (HC) Sea Container that will serve as the garage for my 45 HUP. I had to get a HC so that I could drive the HUP in and out. The standard 20ft container is just too low to allow the HUP to drive in and out - particularly since the HUP is perched up on new 10.50X16 tires.

Getting the box into the barnyard was fun. The container was loaded on a Jerr-Dan carrier truck, which made the load height 13 feet 5 inches tall. This posed a small problem at first as the telephone lines measured in at just over 13 feet 6 inches (according to the wobbling measuring tape that I held "away" from the lines). The next issue was the ice. Yesterday, we could almost swim in the puddles, but today it was frozen solid. The truck had a hard time getting traction at the driveway entrance, but the City of Rockland generously donated some gravel that went under the wheels to great effect.

Next was negotiating the various trees on the way to the barn. The trail is lined with a lot of trees and there are (or were) a number of them that hung over the roadway. After carefully picking his way along the very icy road he made the critical turn across Bob's "bridge". There is no way that the driver could have come closer to the edge of the bridge without rolling the truck... Finally, we got the box into the yard and he dropped the trailing edge onto the ice. After some fancy maneuvering with the bed controls, the box was deposited on three logs as its temporary home. We may have to reposition the box later next weekend to open up the passageway to the barn, but that is a story for later on.

Why a 20 footer? There is no way to drag a 40 footer (which would have been a lot cheaper) down the laneway to the barn. There was talk about dragging a 40 down the railway tracks and then into the barnyard, but when it comes time to move, the 20 will make that task a lot easier.

Cost wise, these things are not cheap - I now sing soprano... Despite the cost, it will serve as a fitting (see what I did there?) home for the 45 HUP and will provide much added security (to keep cats with mega bladders at bay).

Photos:
1- The Jerr-Dan delivery truck
2- Entrance to Hotel HUP
3- Hotel HUP awaiting its first guest.

Looking Good
 

Hi

Which way are you going to put the HUP in I assume nose first, and how much side room does it give you?

One other question what did you tip the driver to go down Bob's drive?

Is that a 6 pack or a case tip level?

Cheers Phil

Q&a
 

Which way are you going to put the HUP in I assume nose first, and how much side room does it give you?

Phil, I am not sure. I will try both ways to see which direction offers me less angst. There won't be much room as the opening is 92 inches and the truck is 79 inches wide. I might have to forgo the Keith's beer therapy...

One other question what did you tip the driver to go down Bob's drive? Is that a 6 pack or a case tip level?

The driver should have tipped me! I guided him under the lines, got him moving three times, guided him down the road and under the trees. As well, I assisted him unload the truck (truth be known, he could have just dumped and run). Since the driver was from the Province of Quebec, I am sure he was used to icy roads. He was from the Montreal area, so he was definitely used to poor road conditions.

Cheers!

Impressive piece of furniture....
 

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

Moving Day at the Barn
 

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

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..... :eek:
When and if it happens, I will post pics to drool over.

Quiet as a Mouse
 

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

Ice, ice, baby!
 

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

Seat Mystery
 

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...

More Damned Snow
 

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.

Hup got stuck
 

It was beautiful on Saturday. The sun was shining and it was only about -14oC with very little wind. What better time to fix a leaky brake line? After winching the HUP out of its box and jacking up the front end, off came the wheel and tire.

Removing the hub was interesting. There was about a 1/16th of inch play with the bearings, but the two axle lock nuts were firmly held in place by the tab ring. I guess that driving the truck displaces the grease and settles things in. A good reason for all CMP truck owners to check their wheel bearings yearly.

The hub came off with no trouble. All of the trouble occurred on the backing plate. The lines had leaked on the inside and outside of the backing plate. Fortunately, there was no brake fluid on the shoes. After removing the banjo bolt the wheel cylinder was removed. The banjo bolt has its two copper squash washers in place but one washer had a build up on it - perhaps the cause of the leak or a symptom thereof. The wheel cylinder was taken apart and inspected. There was some rust staining on the inside, but all of the parts were in very good shape eliminating it as the cause for the leak.

Our attention turned back to the copper washers and the banjo bolt. A combination of dirt intrusion or loose bolt was determined to be the cause of the leak. After lunch, the backing plate was cleaned up and all of the parts put back together.

The test drive was fun - up to a point. I drove the HUP up to Bob's driveway and decided to turn around by crossing the lawn to the other driveway. I forgot to put the truck into four wheel drive and got stuck. Four wheel drive didn't solve anything as the wheels that turned sat on nice glare ice. It is always interesting to do the "walk of shame" back to the barn to ask for a tow. Thanks to Bob's towing and recovery services, the HUP was put back on the road. After parking it in the sea can, it was back to the barn for a good chat with Bob and Grant on current CMP events. We do live in interesting times...

Photos

1 - The damage to paint inflicted by brake fluid.
2 - HUP recovery operations.
3 - Bob turns out to be "mouse-friendly" - note the mouse ramp to assist the fat little b*stards out of the feed pail.

Don't say I did not warn newcomers.....
 

..... that falling in love with CMP was crazy......


Here is something only a mother would do for a kid or a CMP nut for his HUP....

...something our Aussie friends can't even imagine of doing......

Pulling the front wheel off to do a brake job in minus 14C .....

.....and as Rob said it's a nice day... the Sun is shining and not really that cold...... and he was right when he started earlier it was -19C with a slight breeze.

Now I don't have pictures as cameras are frown upon but I was at a Spa with Joyce today..... and you think Rob was crazy....... we walked from a hot tub to the Panoramic pool overlook the Gatineau valley.... wearing sandals..wet bathrobes and steaming..... they had salted the walkway as the steam vapors freezes on contact...... temp was minus 15C with a wind chill of minus 28 Celsius......... they closed the pool after 3 pm as they could not keep it above 90 F.....

Nice array of girls in bikini ...... but if one had dropped her robe I could not have done anything about it.... never felt so small in all my life !!!!

...and to think I paid darn good money for that privilege.

Bob

still sufffffffuring frrrrom brain freeze forgot the pics...

Photos
 

....enjoy Canadian sillyness....

Bob

On the road again
 

Bob, Grant and I are on the road again. This time to pick up an engine and an old GMC frame in Quebec. Yes, this is a border raid. Currently we are bouncing tthru Montreal. Too bad the Quebec government doesn't put some of our transfer payments into fixing the roads properly. I guess declaring war on "pasta" is more important. More later.

Granby
 

Ineresting place. Lots of locals enjoying the snow. Tons of police cars around for some reason...they might have heard we were coming...

loaded Up
 

Bob picked up his reconditioned 235 engine and 1937 truck frame. After the load up we stopped in to Prefair. It was odd to see all three AA guns gone. We saw one bargain - TA 43s for 15 bucks each. Now back on the road heading for home.

Bob did say he on a recovery today. Tell Bob I said hello to Andre today in Acton for him.

I admire one of those three 90 mms every day on my home.

That is a good price on the field telephones. I always look forward to visits to that store. Geography limits me to once every 2 or 3 years.

Back in Ontario
 

Ian, Message passed.
Rob, Not too many deals seen today, but they do have an Iltis for sale for only 8400 dollars...

Will off load tomorrow. Beer is calling our names.