August 15, 2009
The locomotive is ready to go. Here it is just out of the shop and getting into position to hook up to the passenger cars. It pulled us all the way to Warren and then back to Winnipeg. It was a enjoyable day except for the rain. In Warren we were served a hot dog and ice cream after waiting in line in the rain. The smart people had brought umbrella's but us country folks were to dumb to think of them. So we got soaked. We also got to tour an old grain elevator while we were there.
August 8, 2009
Here is what's left of a 1295 Koehring. That is a 5 cubic yard dragline. It is being dismantled and loaded into container trailers for shipment to Vietnam. The piece in the foreground to the right of the crane is the main drive box. It is upside down. Everything is being taken apart to where they can get it into the trailers. The track frames are behind the crane.
August 7, 2009
If you thought the last one was big, this is bigger. Because it can't fit into my bucket I finally managed to pull it up on shore when I managed to get it properly in front of the bucket. I only spent about 4 hours being irritated by this stone. It sits in front of the bucket and you think you are pulling hard and when you lift the bucket out of the water there is only a shovelfull in it. This one measured 3 feet high and 4 feet across at the widest and 8 feet long.
July 27, 2009
Here is a sample of some of the rocks that I dig up. This one is among the bigger ones but it was almost more than the 80D wanted to lift. The rock even comes with a built in seat. I left my F-250 in the picture to have a size reference.
July 14, 2009
My evening view from the dragline. It was definitely a wet evening. It only took a few minutes to get wet outside.
May 22, 2009
Somebody sure wasn't off to a good start this morning. He pulled over to let the school bus go by and ended up with some extra work. He said that he would have to unhook the setup and pull them out of the ditch one by one. It was kind of a wet morning to be doing all that extra work.
April 20, 2009
Our local road is so soft that the municipal grader can't work on it. So here I am doing some blading with our tractor and the grader my dad built. I bladed it a few times a day for short stretches at a time. After 3 days I could see that it was starting to dry up some and the tractor didn't sink in quite so far in the middle of the road.
April 9, 2009
It's sure nice to have lots of help. Here we are just finished loading and are almost done tying down. Hopefully this will more or less last me for the coming summer. The whole load weighs somewhere in the 5000 pound range.
April 8, 2009
We spent quite a few hours looking at airplanes. This Twin Otter belonged to the same company that picked up the woman with cancer in Antarctica. This specific Otter is supposed to have more trips over the north pole than any other plane. They had some interesting planes, like one that was built from plans. It was a tri plane from the WWI era.
March 26, 2009
It was officially spring. Everything is buried again. The neighbors are driving around on the road with snowmobiles again. It makes for some interesting roads between the snow and the open water. For what it's worth this picture is taken from the opposite side of the creek than the previous one.
March 23, 2009
It is officially spring. Our road is flooded again. Today it was deep enough that we had to drive around to the south to get out. The water was a bit on the deep side for our car but I did drive through with our small tractor.
February 17, 2009
I spent the day hauling rocks to this site. Pile drivers have sure come a long ways. They have great control when driving in piling. Watching them hammer in the sheet piling looks so easy
compared to a job I did with my dragline.
February 16, 2009
Even after it has cooled off the water still is running under the snow. Everyday I get fresh water flooding over my "road". But now I can at least drive on them with my small tractor
without worrying about breaking through the ice and getting properly stuck again.
February 9, 2009
Somebody didn't allow for the slippery ness of the roads. So we had a busy intersection. Between the flashing lights of the tow trucks and the police cars we had a regular light show.
When we came by 20 minuets later they also had a small tow truck hooked up. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if they succeeded.
February 5, 2009
Late in the evening we had a bit of a shakeup at our place. Someone claiming he thought our driveway was a bay made a u turn on our yard. He ended up bouncing over our
railway ties and picking up my coax cable to a overhead wire antenna. He kept right on moving and tore the antenna from the house and tower and dragged the wire part all the way
to the road. But hey, my wife tells the story much better, so here goes. Take note that she wrote this on the 6th of February.
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"That’s where I live. Antenna City. Last night our quiet little neighborhood of antennas suffered a shocking blow that set all surviving antennas on edge for a few wave lengths. Our dearly beloved folding dipole antenna will be missed by all. A moment of silence please. Rick and I were playing scrabble at the table when we heard a sudden whoosh so powerful I thought a part of the heavens had come to pay a rushed visit. Very rushed. An hour later our investigation revealed that a pickup driven by a drunk driver had come down our driveway, pulled a u-turn, missing Orlando’s pickup by a few feet and on the way off the yard, hit the corner of our raised lawn and drove right over it. Fortunately the railway ties are firmly frozen in place and packed by snow to boot. As all you frequent visitors to our city may have observed, there was a coax cable by the corner of the lawn, coming down from an antenna that stretched from the house roof to the radio tower by the bush. Well, this truck picked up that cable and tore the antenna from the roof and the tower, dragging it after him down the driveway, across the road and into the ditch where the pickup rested for the night. We believe that scary poof we heard was the rope whipping through the air when it tore from the roof where it had held the antenna firmly in place. At noon today, the driver and his passenger showed up at our front door to apologize and offer to pay for the damages. I could’t help but feel a little sorry for the young man. Probably a good kid who got drunk and didn't know what he was doing. I feel more sorry for Orlando, though. An antenna like this doesn't seem to be available anymore. Luanna (who is secretly proud of all the rickrack in the airspace around our house) NOTE TO RECEIVE NEWS THAT MATTERS, YOU CAN BUY A SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE MERE PRICE OF TWENTY FIVE CUPS OF COFFEE A DAY. SIMPLY CONTACT US (ME) AT THIS EMAIL ADDRESS. IF YOU DECIDE NOT TO SUBSCRIBE I WILL KEEP ALL FUTURE JUICY SECRETS TO MYSELF. - Editor" |
January 31, 2009
Here I again had some hardworking guys to help. We should now have enough wood to have a few weiner roasts or some camp iron meals. It was a nice warm day but very windy,
except here in the bush it was not bad. At least we had a weiner roast for supper.
January 29, 2009
We've been spending some time making trails in the bush and it's sure nice to have help. Makes the work so much more fun. The plans were to cut another load for the tractor
while one person went to unload the other one. Then the chainsaw ran out of gas. So it was time to wait till the tractor got back.
January 22, 2009
Some years ago I had a plastic tube put in running from the basement to the top side of the roof. It has sure come in handy for adding extra cables. Today we wanted to add
another on and found out that warm moist air moving up the tube turned to ice when it came in contact with the cold outside air. We poured some hot water down the tube and then added
one more cable. I wish I had put in a bigger tube. I can see me running out of room to add more cables. Oh well, I guess I'll worry about that when the time comes.
January 21, 2009
This business of making trails gets a bit aggravating at times. The creek is not very smooth under the snow. So periodically I drop into one or sometimes even two holes at the
same time. I had to get my trusty "ATV winch" and pull from a tree not to far away. I had to pull it tight about four times and each time move the tractor a few
inches before I got out. The warm weather also doesn't help for traction.
January 12, 2009
When I was much younger my dad talked of making winter roads. We never did any of that. So now I'm trying it on a small scale. I even do it like the professionals, when
I fall into a hole in the creek I fill it up with snow. Then I let it sit till the next day and when it hardens up I work at it till I can drive over it. This usually happens
after I've spent at least an hour being stuck in the hole. For a final touch I drag my "roads" to get them nice and smooth.
January 4, 2009
The snow just keeps adding up. We end up clearing the snow on the deck so our cat has a place to go outside for some fresh air. I guess the job is not quite done yet!
January 1, 2009
It still amazes me how nice evergreens can look in winter. Some nice fresh snow and fresh rabbit tracks. There's no place like home.
December 15, 2008
Someone is dreaming of a crane for his pickup. So we made the rounds and checked out the competition. Now it's down to the drawing board to put all the research to work.
December 2, 2008
Looks like a busy place. This outfit is busy hauling clay. The are using two backhoes to make it possible to go nice and deep. A nice two step operation.
The backhoe at the lower level brings it up one level for the backhoe that is loading the buggies.
