The Slow Motion Retirement Plan

dhagood · Apr 17, 2015

i went out to the property yesterday to meet the cleary driver who delivered all the building materials for the barn. cycle_gator, while we got about 6 inches of wet, heavy snow in littleton (where we live now) it was light rain or drizzle at the property. the interesting thing about the delivery was how the materials were shuttled from the trailer, which was left parked on the county road, into my property.

i pulled a flatbed for several years when i was still driving, but i never saw a setup like this. i've driven the donkey forklifts that are usually used in situations like this, and cordially hate the blasted things. they are certainly better than nothing, but they can literally get stuck in wet grass.

i don't know if the truck was equipped with double locker rear ends, but the driver had no trouble navigating around on the damp, bare earth. the lift can change the angle of the main boom and the angle of the forks, but everything else is done with proper positioning of the truck. this driver, who has worked for cleary for 13 years, made it look easy.

and with the delivery done and the truck backed under the trailer, the lift is neatly stowed away. pretty slick setup.

newbury · Apr 17, 2015

dhagood said:
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NOW that's a tractor with forks!

How does it do plowing?

farmer2009 · Apr 17, 2015

It must be a dryer climate thing. Around here everyone uses a truck mounted moffet. Like these. Truck-mounted Moffett Forklifts | HIAB
They are a 3 wheel drive unit and do pretty good about getting around in wet conditions.

kevinwak · Apr 17, 2015

That is a super awesome delivery truck. I would think he would need a back up cam to guide the forks when picking up stuff

dhagood · Apr 18, 2015

newbury said:
How does it do plowing?

it would be pretty easy to hook up any implement to the hoist, so there is your three point hitch equivalent. some ag tires and you are plowing in style...

cycle_gator · Apr 18, 2015

...and if you do, you would have one of the nicest enclosed cabs on the market

dhagood · Apr 28, 2015

one of the things i've been eagerly awaiting is the construction of my barn. this is very likely the only barn i will ever have built, and i really wanted to watch its construction. so naturally, when barn construction started, i was on vacation. i'm back now, and i'll go out tomorrow and see what's up. my wife took this picture

and now you know as much as i do.

dhagood · Apr 28, 2015

one of the things i've been eagerly awaiting is the construction of my barn. this is very likely the only barn i will ever have built, and i really wanted to watch its construction. so naturally, when barn construction started, i was on vacation. i'm back now, and i'll go out tomorrow and see what's up. my wife took this picture

and now you know as much as i do.

vtsnowedin · Apr 28, 2015

Looks like they know what they are doing.

dhagood · Apr 29, 2015

hmm, that's irritating. i saw the double post, deleted the second one, and now the deleted 2nd post has returned. how rude.

i went out to the property today and spent an hour looking around. things are progressing nicely; yesterday they started with some of the poles loose in the holes (see the picture above) and after two good days of work they are almost done with the basic framing.

vtsnowedin said:
Looks like they know what they are doing.

they do indeed.

this is the view from just below our gate. it's kind of interesting how little of the barn can be seen from the road. i wasn't sure they had been working on the barn until i was right up on our gate.

some of the framing details are shown below.

this shows one of the 'posts' cleary uses. these are 3 2' by 6' sticks of pressure treated lumber that are nailed together to create the post. the center stick of the posts are cut short and non-pressure treated lumber is used something like 7' out of the ground. the center section is then custom cut to make sure that the roof trusses meet the posts at the proper height. this also allows the truss to: 1) sit on wood running down to the cement footing 4' in the ground and 2) be supported on both sides by the other sections of the nailed together post.

here is some of the detail of how the roof truss sits down in the center of the nailed together post. i like this detail; this is what tipped the balance in my selecting cleary.