2014 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Wet, wet and more wet. It was -1oC and raining when I got to the barn this morning and it was raining when I left the barn this evening. Most of the activity was inside the barn. Grant was busy at home, as was Bob. Our first task of the day was to break through the ice that had built up near the stream that runs under the road to the barn. It clogs up some times, so Bob dumped a load of road salt onto the top layer. We managed to break through three layers of ice, but the water level had not dropped off when we left it. Bob headed out for more domestic chores. He had to move a mountain of cat crap so he headed off with the trusty tractor to do so. I headed to the barn as the temperature broke into the postive value zone.

After lunch, Bob joined me at the barn to work on an old snowblower that was giving me some trouble. Bob and Grant repaired the broken shear pin and adjusted the drive train so that both wheels turned when in gear. Today's project was to repair the "fuel pump" - a plastic housing with three hose ports and a diaphram inside. There are replacements available, but we like to get max value out of our machinery, so we did a small repair on the housing. It was left to dry off near Lucifer and we will test it at a later date.

We had two visitors this afternoon. Bob's neighbour Bruce, stopped in with a friend to see if Bob could press out some bushings from a set of lower control arms. While Bob played with the press, I worked on my Pilot Model HUP running boards - see the new post under the Pilot Model Resto thread. This took up the afternoon, and as the day darkened, I splashed my way home. When this stuff freezes tonight, there are going to be problems. I am keeping my fingers crosssed.

Photos:
1 - Hammond weather report - ignore the days indicated - the forecast is the same for the remaining days of the week.
2 - Ice has formed on top of everything.
3 - The barnyard is a skating rink.
4 - Bob inspecting my welding - passed this time!