2013 at the Hammond Barn

[Stuart Fedak]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Will be spotting for Snowys and Great Grey Owl on Boxing day with Joyce but will be at the barn on Flyday.

Cheers

I hope you did not tell the mice what you have in store for them on Boxing Day... I know that Joyce will take some amazing photographs of the snowy and great grey owls......

Best wishes to you, your family and all the critters (2 and 4 legged) who come to visit the Hammond Barn.... The best for 2014....

Cheers!
Stuart

[RHClarke]

Just in case you were wondering what was happening at the barn over the past few weeks - not much. On some days it has been colder here in Ottawa than it was at the North Pole. Given the extreme forecast for next week, I expect that we will be staying indoors just a bit more this January.

Yes, we wimpy Hammond Barn types can't handle the cold anymore... Maybe we are just getting smarter??

[Bob Carriere]

Took the garbage out this morning to the main road and walked back to the barn to get an old tarp for the garbage pickup.

Snow blinded at first.... my fingers, ears/nose were starting to hurt very Sunny day but -25C.

Tried to start the Ford diesel to run some errands.....ran for 20 second and died out..... sure sign of a frozen fuel line or the fuel has gelled in the lines.....will try to do it again with spray ether.....

Hopefully it will warm up to -12 tomorrow and it may be more humane to try photographing the owl......
When it is so cold outside the first thing to go are your fingers...standing still or crouching in an open field is very taxing.
The worst part is trying to keep your live bait mice from freezing...... I usually put them in my underwear and fish them out as needed....also keeps you skirming so you don't freeze.

Apparently the days are getting longer now and Spring is coming.....

Bob C

[Bob Carriere]

Had to use a small electric car warmer to blow warm air opn the fuel module near the back of the engine.
Same location as the 17mm banjo bolt which is used to bleed air form the system...don't ask how I know.

Also treated the diesel tractor fuel. when refueling with a large funnel thathas a fine metal screen to contain dirt the wax in the diesel congeals on the screen and blocks the fuel from flowing..... the screen is about 2 1/2 in. wide and get completely coated with whitish was residue....... adding ethyl alcool or benzyne or xylene to the funnel disolves the wax...... and makes the old MF do a wheel stand.\

Apparently the NEW low sulphur fuel is more suseptable to gelling..... and they call it progress!!!!

Really too cold !!!!!!!!!

Cheers

[maple_leaf_eh]

My 1985 VW Golf diesel 4-cyl had a diluting recipe in the manual - so many parts pump diesel and kerosene. As I recall, the formula for -40 was about 50%. I shudder to think what the new diesel fuel would do to the engine because of the reduced blended-in lubricants.