2012 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

It was a quiet weekend at the Hammond Barn. Bob headed south to spread the wealth at Acton, and Grant was kept busy elsewhere. The last few weeks have been "taxing" for myself. A new job, family health issues and finishing the accounting for my business forced a absence from the hallowed halls of Hammond.

This morning I put all that on hold and took a nice peaceful drive out to the barn. Once at the barn I took a stroll out to the back 40 to see if any of the trucks needed some attention or if they had received attention from non-authorized visitors. All looked to be in order. The sun was shining and the wind was gentle - the perfect combination for melting snow. I took a few minutes to clean off the tops of some of the trucks. Each had about five inches of ice and snow covering their roofs. Most of the snow and ice came off in one large piece which I slid over the side.

After working up a sweat, I headed back to the barn and fired up the HUP. After a brief warm up, I took the HUP for a jaunt around the Carriere homespread. I drove up to the main house and noted that there was a very large and heavy overhang of ice slipping off Bob's back porch. After parking the HUP, I helped Mother Nature by disloging some impressively large pans of ice and snow from the metal porch roof. The chunks hit the ground with a very threatening thud. I can only imagine what would happen if someone got nailed by a chunk of that crap.

Back in the HUP I made my way back to the barn along the road, which now resembled a skating rink. It was glare ice from the main road in Hammond all the way down to the barn and out to the back 40. Four wheel drive sure makes a difference. The driving was fun despite the perils that the ice presented - going down the gentle sloping road over the culvert is somewhat different when the road is iced over. With the truck in low gear and with the engine at idle, she made the trips back and forth with no issues whatsoever.

The trip out back was interesting. The snow had a thick ice crust as its top layer and had soft snow beneath it. It took some effort to get the HUP turned around in the snow, but the aggressive treads of the tires and the four wheel drive proved effective again. It was now approaching noon, so I headed back to the barn to see if anyone had arrived. All was quiet, so I put the HUP back into its shelter and shut her down until next week.

It is kind of a downer switching from an old cross country truck to a newer small import car, but I enjoyed the trip back home replaying the fun I had this morning in my mind.

Photos:

1- Bob's hangover
2- Some chunks of ice from the porch roof
3- The Hammond Ice Road
4- More of the same
5- etc...

[Bob Carriere]

Thanks for knocking the ice off the deck roft..... and not being underneath when it came down.

Had a wonderful time at Acton...... nice to see everyone again. Got some nice stuff as usual ....... very grateful for all the kind considerations and assistance from some of the members from Peter and Dean and Chris and who am I missing...... oh and a few leads on other rusted old trucks....

Visited the in laws and generally had a super weekend.....but did miss the barn.....

We took advantage of being in the neighbourhood to pick up parcels at the UPS in upper NY.......Even the Custom Officer was kind enough to be too busy to collect duty ....... must have been my honest face when I told him I had $91.61 to declare..... he just wished us well and off we went.

Fine bunch of lads in the MLU crowd.....

Bob

[peter simundson]

Did you have a look at the fittings in the plastic bag and are they

any use to you??

Peter S

[Bob Carriere]

I opened up my treasure while sittign at the diningroom table of my mother in law.... they think I am nuts........conclusion... I might have to buy a few more........

as in the advertisement.....priceless.

Thank you

Bob

[KrisHamilton]

impressive work on the MV's ... everytime i check in on these forums there is something new... better then TV

after renovating my entire house, electrical panel swap, plumbing, oil to gas conversion, basement remodel, and going back to school for hvac i havent had much time or money to play around with. this year im going to focus on converting my car-port into a funtional garage.
i will need some advice for minimum dimensions to house a CMP.
also dont know about the bylaws for using plasma cutter, welding in the Nepean area in ones garage... dont care tho.

take it easy

[Grant Bowker]

When in doubt, come out to Hammond, we have lots of CMPs, even HUPs to measure (just joking). More seriously, I don't think that Ottawa (former Nepean) has seriously restrictive laws on plasma and MIG as a hobby. The former Kanata was famous for crazy limitations on the colour of your front door and the style of clothesline you could have.
I suspect you will put more limits on yourself by not wanting to burn the house down than the city puts on you. If you have a chouce, you may want to keep most of the truck out of sight so none of the neighbours report you as a "junkyard".

[Gunner]

Hi Kris: Your also welcome to check out the Swords and Ploughshares Museum when the snow is gone!

Cheers! Mike

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by KrisHamilton

... this year im going to focus on converting my car-port into a funtional garage. i will need some advice for minimum dimensions to house a CMP...

As Bob mentioned, you will need a good size garage door, particularly if you plan to restore your HUP as a HUP. I have been trying to get a 20 foot high cube container (that won't break the bank) to store my 45 HUP in. The normal 20 foot sea can does not have the height to fit my truck with its 10.50 x 16 tires. Even without the larger tires, the HUP body is still fairly high, so measure twice and cut once!

Good to hear from you, and now we know what was keeping you busy.

[KrisHamilton]

haha Bob you are hilarious. when i did the panel swap i could only afford to go with regular service ... hydro wanted an additional 700$ just for upgrading me to 220v. so im going to have to do with what i have for now. i will hook up additional outlets to the garage later on... easy peezy. after the garage is all said and done i will be on the hunt for tools... i only have two small compressors right now that only work for my air nailers and some other light air tools. i definitely need a big compressor for sure im going to borrow my dads wig welder and i need to find a plasma cutter,..but anyway, it will all fall into place. eventually.

Clarke ..have you checked for shipping containers on this site http://crownassets.pwgsc.gc.ca/mn-eng.cfm
you might get lucky. im not sure if im going to restore my truck to a HUP, although i do like the profile and the amount of space inside a HUP.

anyway i will check in again soon to make sure 100% the barn is open ... i would love to stop by for a visit in the next few weeks. check things out. measure my truck. see everyones progress, shoot the shit ect ect