[RHClarke]

This has been a good past week for my visits to the barn. Unfortunately they have been quite short and didn't really involve working on the trucks. On Saturday 22 September, my youngest son Jesse and I took a trip out to the barn. The aim of this visit was to gauge his interest in his army truck - a '53 SMP 3/4 ton radio van. Now nine years of age, he has realized that he is unique among his friends in that he is the only one who owns a real army truck. It was sunny and warm out so we spent some time going over the work that needs to be done on the truck. We ended our tour of the wagon lines with an agreement that we had better start planning to start work on his truck. The trick will be dragging him out of his warm bed early to work in the fall climate...we will see.

This Saturday Jesse joined me for another visit to the barn. It was cold and raining so we cut our visit to his truck short. Back at the barn we joined up with Bob and Grant who were analyzing a transfercase linkage problem with Bob's truck. We also delivered a nice almost new CF parka from Greg Wright to Bob. You can't beat the price for these coats. Unfortunately, we had other obligations to fulfil, so this trip too was cut short.

Today, I had the time to spend some quality time at the barn. Bob and I are both temporarily (I hope) unemployed, so what better time to cut, split and stack some wood for the winter. I met up with Bob at the barn and hitched a ride on his trailer. Between bouts with the chainsaw we spent the overcast afternoon at the wood pile chatting about the state of the hobby and upcoming events.

Once the trailer was filled with prime split maple wood, we headed back to the barn for a well-earned beer. It was there, over a nice cold beer that we vowed to get both of our trucks running again for another attempt at the wood chip pile at the big field before the snow flies.

Fortunately, I have some time available to that aim. I am not sure about Bob. The public service in Ottawa will come to a crashing halt without him. I suspect that he will be trading his coveralls for a business suit again soon...

Photos:

1 - Jesse and his ride getting re-acquainted
2- Jesse and the boys sorting out all of the world's problems
3- Bob's new office
4- The product of real work
5 - Tools of the trade - a killer splitter and an old army trailer