2011 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Jour de l'Action de grâce) was spent at the barn. The sun was out and the fall weather was fantastic. The forest around the barn was in full colour and alive with the sounds of birds and squirrels. The only way to improve on this was to torture metal and drive CMPs.

Bob arrived at the barn with a mission in mind. He wanted to build an engine stand for the motor taken out of the Maces Bay CMP. After hacking up some tube steel, he got busy welding up a respectable engine stand.

Grant continued to work on his truck and provided some much appreciated technical advice for the welder. I busied myself adding convoy lights to the rear of the HUP. After driving the HUP out of the shelter, I arranged the convoy lights on a table. I was fascinated to learn that there were a good number of variants. Some had long tubes, short tubes, springs in the long tube, plug in and blade type connectors on the the wires. It took some time to get four that looked the same and these were installed on the HUP.

The rest of the morning was spent helping Bob when needed and repairing the rust damage to the HUP rear wall kick panel. We had lunch in the thriving city of Rockland at the local Tim Hortons. There we discussed diesel technology and compared it to "hybrid" technology. We three were on the diesel side of the argument.

Back at the barn Bob continued the quest for the perfect engine stand and Grant and I got back to work on our vehicles. Since the weather was so nice, I took the HUP out for a tour of the back 40. One lesson that I had forgotten was the turning radius of the CMP is not as tight as my little Corolla's. I clipped one of Bob's CMP trailers with my pax side tire. No damage to speak of (they are CMPs afterall) but a little bruised pride.The rest of the ride was as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

Back at the barn, Bob fired up the tractor and moved the Maces Bay frame to the back field for winter storage. After putting the hitch of the wounded trailer back up on its block, Bob headed for the house for some refreshments. Bob brought out some brews to fight off the afternoon heat. We chatted about the upcoming Acton event and made plans to find and extract a CMP from southern Ontario this month.

As was normal, the day passed all too fast and I headed back to the city for Thanksgiving with the family leaving Bob and Grant to lock up the barn until our next CMP session in Hammond. Life is good here in Canada despite the irritations. We do have things for which we can truly be thankful.

Photos:
1 - Bob and one of his engines - taking measurements
2 - Quality testing a weld job
3 - Grant getting into his work
4 - HUP rear convoy lights
5 - Thanksgiving options