2011 at the Hammond Barn

[Bob Carriere]

..... considering you are looking over your shoulder from down under rather impressive.

I gave in and downloaded the Google Earth download and had fun looking at the neighbourhood.....but could not find the Nudist Colony.....

If any one knows how to download the map files so I can had some ID tags for certain features I would welcome the input.

Based on the cross hair in Robert's coordinates my house is a few hundred yards North...... North side of my property was once a RR line now a bicycle path. Phil identified the many silver color Winter canvass garage that we use for storage from the elements.

Now East of the cross hair is an open field.... that's the BBQ field and if you look near the tree line you will see some CMPs....some future dreams parked there.

Immediately above that large field.... and East of the silver shelter and the barn is a smaller field.... the field of dreams..... neatly parked are some Dodges M43 and various CMP complete or parts trucks.

Now that info is already 4 years out of date and the population copulation has increased some what...... plus 3 more canvass shelters and a sea container..... pictures were probably taken in late Spring before the trees had there leaves...... early May perhaps...?

In one of the pictures I looked at you can See Grant's white Ford and Rob's grey car parked in front of the shelters..... which usually signifies that we are doing something messy with paint guns or sandblasters and they parked away from the front door of the barn......

All can say is thank God for the high trees and understanding neigbours.

Next time we are on the barn roof for repairs maybe will scribble CMP on it for good measure.....

Bob

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

The Hammond Barn is the only location that I have seen so far where the individual vehicles or silver shelters are distinguishable on Google. Your area is one of the higher resolution areas they show, many other known locations are still cloaked in low resolution screen to prevent detection. My place you can pick out buildings, while my brothers place 10 miles away you can identify individual cars. Also your image was taken at a different time of year looks like early spring with no snow but fewer leaves.


Cheers Phil

[hrpearce]

I was guessing the cleared field to the west of my cross hairs was the one made famous on MLU. I started with your address from white pages on line.
So the correct target for the barn should be 45 43 26.94 N 75 25 60.37 W.

[Bob Carriere]

HI Robert

Those satellite pictures are from the Fall of 2008..... closer examination shows late Fall with some re maples still olding their leaves and the unmistakable yellow beech leaves which can stay on til Winter.

We have now added 4 more Winter shelters and one sea container plus the collection of CMP parts trucks/trailers has almost doubled.

Too bad we cannot get the military "Hi Resolution" pictures.... htere is an agreement between Canada/USA not to release hi res pictures....they purposely "dumb" down the res to "one meter" resolution. Canada can't cheat because we rely on US antennas to recieve signals from our Canadian satellites.

I have seen pictures at work of a hand held GPS ( 5"x9" scientific model) laid on the ground over a 6 inch brass Bench Marker...... just outside Resolute up North were the air has no polutants...... and you can read the GPS coordinates on the screen.......

When the first set of pictures were received from the satellite... it showed a part of the Gulf of St Lawrence.... which is all Canadian territory....BUT... before it could be released for a press announcements.......Canada had to obtain permission from Washington.... who carefully scrutinize the picture before giving an OK......apparently ships..... even underwater can be easily seen and ID....... now what could possibly be inside Canadian territorial waters.....???

A particular feature of the Canadian satellite is the ability to see, with special electronic radar apperture, through clouds, dark Winter nights and various levels of soil. The mass graves hidden in Bosnia were readily identified because the disturbed soil....even when grass has grown over it... leaves a different signature.

Scary....!!!!

Gives a whole different spin to "Privacy".......

Bob

[RHClarke]

1506 hrs local time Wednesday 9 March 2011 - Seen on the Queensway (Hwy 416) at the Nicholas Street on-ramp in Ottawa, heading west - one 90mm AA gun sitting on the back of 40 foot trailer. Maybe one out of Prefair, or may be the one from in front of a Quebec Legion...unknown.

What is known is that most, if not all of the Prefair 90mm guns are heading west. Not sure what this means...could be the west is arming themselves for the big battle against Hydro Quebec (clean electricity vs. dirty western oil). Wonder if the west is recruiting?

[RHClarke]

The forecast called for +3oC on Saturday by noon. I will tell you that it was damp and cold Saturday morning until around 0800hrs. The drive down the lane way to the barn was a lot of fun. The road was glare ice so one had to tread carefully. After making the turn to the barn, I gently applied the brakes, but the car kept sliding on a collision course with one of Bob's shelters. Fortunately, the car came to a stop with the passenger side resting next to the shelter. An exciting start to the day...

As mentioned, it was still quite chilly outside, so Lucifer was pressed into to service to take the edge off. After a few administrative chores in the barn, a quick tour of the HUP shelter was in order. The weather this past week was quite warm with more than a few rain showers. This reduced the snow pack nicely, but also caused a lot of melt water. The melt water from the front of the barn usually follows a small trench that flows past the front of the HUP shelter, down the left side and into the gully. Unfortunately, the trench froze over and the melt water made its way into the shelter forming a nice coating of ice on the floor. I got a great view of the ice sheet after falling on my ass when I ventured inside the shelter…

Since the HUP engine was still acting up and the cause(s) were not yet known, I winched her out of her shelter into the now warm and sunny barnyard. By this time, the ice in the yard that was exposed to the sun had a nice coating of water over it making it more of a hazard than before. After playing “cow on ice” I finally got the HUP out of the shelter. Next was removing the tarp on the floor – which was coated with up to an inch and a half of ice. As this was going on, a truck approached.

Guy Vapeur arrived after a considerable absence from the barn. He must have seen his shadow as he headed back for home after a very brief visit…looks like six more weeks of shitty weather. Bob arrived shortly after Guy’s departure. After helping me free the tarp from the ice, we laid it in the open to dry off. Then we walked to the creek to see how much work would be involved in clearing the ice which was blocking the flow of water. Bob had dumped some salt on the ice earlier in the week and it must have worked. The water was flowing – one stream on top of the ice sheet and one below it…Bob was happy with the flow, so we cancelled the plans to remove the ice. Our attention then turned to removing the very wet snow from the trucks and trailers - Bob and Grant had already cleaned off the shelters earlier in the week. Grant arrived shortly thereafter.

While I headed to the vehicle park to clean off the trucks, Bob and Grant opened up the sea container and the small storage sheds to drive off the condensation that had built up over the past week. The field where the vehicle park is located was soaking wet under the snow and it took considerable effort to slog though what was now three feet of slush. After finishing the job I headed back to the barn to reinstall the tarp in my shelter and to change my clothing and boots. Bob was measuring his carburetor openings and put the final touches on a diagram for a part he wanted fabricated at a local machine shop.

By now, it was close to the noon hour, so we headed to Embrun to visit the machine shop to have a carburetor part fabricated. This is the same machine shop mentioned last week. This time we took pictures. While Grant and I looked over the hybrid CMP, Bob got his order in. After a quick lunch, we headed back to the barn. Bob decided to bring his CMP out of the sea container to shake off the condensation. While his truck idled away in the sun, we decided to take on the HUP.

The HUP took some time to effort to start up, but once running, she ran steadily. After 10 minutes of warming up, Bob checked the timing, and we adjusted it according to the shop manuals of the time. While there was some improvement in starting and running, the acceleration was still quite rough. Next was the balance test. We found a problem with number 2 and number 5 cylinders – the engine stalled out. Next was a compression test that showed that there was adequate compression in all six cylinders. After some head scratching, it was decided to swap out the spark plugs. Fortunately, Bob has a few (dozen) plugs laying about…This had a marvelous effect – the engine ran smoother at high revs than before! While still not perfect, it was a great improvement and morale was high. Doctor Bob then recommended that the plug wires be replaced (they came with the engine). It is hoped that this will fix the rough acceleration problem for good. Since the truck was running better, I took it for a short ride – into the shelter.

Bob then jumped on his truck and took it for a spin – literally and figuratively…The spring like conditions and riding a CMP put Bob into a wonderful mood – judging by the SEG welded to his face. After re-digging the overflow trench (which sort of reminded me of my army days), I had to head back to the city, happy in the knowledge that the HUP was running better - thanks to Bob and Grant for their help.


PHOTOS

1. Inside the HUP ice skating arena
2. Bob and his carbs
3. Chev CMP front end loader/welding tender
4. Bob in the box
5. First run of the New Year

[Phil Waterman]

Concerning the poor start and rough running the, improvement with a change in plugs along with the age of the spark leads, are interesting one of the ways I check for problems like this is to with the engine running, (no small task sometimes) take a spray bottle and mist the leads one at a time you should be able to hear the crack if you have a leak. This trick also seems to work if the plugs are firing down the outside of porcelain also.

But it sounds like you maybe on to the source of the problem or at least part of it.

Concerning moving stuff around on the ice you really need to get Bob to put the cable on the winch and get the scotches set-up the pulling ability of the truck sitting on the scotches is amazing. But them again you have the tractor with takes a lot less rigging that the winch.

Can't wait to see the spring progress photos of the HUP.

Cheers Phil