2013 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Today I took delivery of a 20 foot High Cube (HC) Sea Container that will serve as the garage for my 45 HUP. I had to get a HC so that I could drive the HUP in and out. The standard 20ft container is just too low to allow the HUP to drive in and out - particularly since the HUP is perched up on new 10.50X16 tires.

Getting the box into the barnyard was fun. The container was loaded on a Jerr-Dan carrier truck, which made the load height 13 feet 5 inches tall. This posed a small problem at first as the telephone lines measured in at just over 13 feet 6 inches (according to the wobbling measuring tape that I held "away" from the lines). The next issue was the ice. Yesterday, we could almost swim in the puddles, but today it was frozen solid. The truck had a hard time getting traction at the driveway entrance, but the City of Rockland generously donated some gravel that went under the wheels to great effect.

Next was negotiating the various trees on the way to the barn. The trail is lined with a lot of trees and there are (or were) a number of them that hung over the roadway. After carefully picking his way along the very icy road he made the critical turn across Bob's "bridge". There is no way that the driver could have come closer to the edge of the bridge without rolling the truck... Finally, we got the box into the yard and he dropped the trailing edge onto the ice. After some fancy maneuvering with the bed controls, the box was deposited on three logs as its temporary home. We may have to reposition the box later next weekend to open up the passageway to the barn, but that is a story for later on.

Why a 20 footer? There is no way to drag a 40 footer (which would have been a lot cheaper) down the laneway to the barn. There was talk about dragging a 40 down the railway tracks and then into the barnyard, but when it comes time to move, the 20 will make that task a lot easier.

Cost wise, these things are not cheap - I now sing soprano... Despite the cost, it will serve as a fitting (see what I did there?) home for the 45 HUP and will provide much added security (to keep cats with mega bladders at bay).

Photos:
1- The Jerr-Dan delivery truck
2- Entrance to Hotel HUP
3- Hotel HUP awaiting its first guest.