Long road to home.

ENG18LT · Feb 15, 2013

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. She was at terms with her health and life. There was family with her when she passed and we have all been helping out over the years. Thank you again.

On a lighter note, Spring will soon be upon us and I hope to be doing some cleaning up of the property that we had been putting off. Not to mention making this electricity project happen as planned.

Stay warm my friends!

ENG18LT · Mar 10, 2013

Yay! It got up to 57 today and the sun even came out. My neighbor and I went out to the property to unload some equipment we took out there last weekend. I bought a cultipacker and an old Oliver Superior seed drill. The Mahindra was able to pick them both off the trailer without any issues.

We had figured that was going to take way more time and effort than it did, so I took him for a tour of the old falling down buildings. Right away he spotted some wood that has been in the barns for probably 30-40 years. He is a wood turner, so piles of wood catch his eye rather quickly. Well I am glad he picked up on it. After closer inspection of what I thought was just pine or hemlock I was in for a nice surprise. Turned out it was rough cut hardwood from my wife's great-grandfather. He used to do furniture repair on the property. We decided to get it all out of the barns before they fell in the rest of the way, at least what was still good of the hardwood pile. Here is a picture of what we pulled out of what used to be the main barn:

After loading the wood onto the forks we took it up to the garage. During the unloading process we sorted as best we could by size, some where 3"x12" all the way down to 1"x4". All these pieces where 12-14' long. The make up of the pile was 90% Cherry, 10% Maple & Walnut. After we finished up this pile we went into what was left of the "work shop", or at least what was left of it. Wound up grabbing enough cherry boards to fill the bed of my truck 2/3s full. I would say this was a good day! I am going to sit down and figure out how much lumber I need to make cabinet fronts and door stiles and rails for the kitchen. I think there will be enough good lumber to do a Shaker style door with Cherry plywood panels (purchasing the cherry plywood), probably not enough to make into raised panels though.

ENG18LT · Mar 25, 2013

We went out to the farm Sunday. My wife and daughter helped her Aunt and cousin get some more items packed up for the rummage sale next week. At this point most of the house has been "gone through". Items that are no good or just plain trash have been tossed, stuff for the sale is packed into boxes, and all the food has been taken to the food pantry. It is truly amazing how much a family can accumulate over 50 years or more.

I managed to get a bit of seat time on the tractor. I decided that it would be nice to move the camper away from the road a bit. There was a dilapidated cabin/house just over the stream that would be a perfect location for the camper. So I broke out the smaller chainsaw (Stihl MS260pro) and began taking down the trees that had grown up within 10 feet of it. This way I would be able to get a machine in there at some point to demo the building. Well, I was going to fuel up the saw and realized that the only mixed gas I had was the small amount in the tanks of my two saws. My wife was kind enough to go get a gallon of gas and some 2-cycle oil, picked up lunch too! After we ate I went back out to finish up the tree removal, gassed up the saws, and discovered I was out of bar oil. Back into town went the wife, laughing at me as she walked to her car. After all the fluids were finally topped off I managed to remove enough trees to the point that I could get a machine next to the building.

It was still early in the day and the women were on a roll inside the house with their cleaning/organizing so.... I did what any one of us on this forum would do and hopped on the tractor. First thought that came to mind was "I wonder if this has enough power to take down the building". Well, an hour later and it was on the ground. I started by sliding the forks up under the roof sheathing and lifting that off. Then I was able to set the forks on top of the walls and push down, breaking them into pieces. Some how I managed to not put a nail in my tires, I was very careful to keep the debris picked up/pushed out of the driving areas. There was one bee's nest in the last wall to come down. As it was only 34 degrees out they weren't too active. Here's a couple pics from yesterday:

Hope you enjoy.

We are going out next weekend so the girls can help move stuff to the church rummage sale and I can clean up my mess!

Obed · Mar 25, 2013

When I saw the pictures, I was wondering about nails. Glad your tires are ok..

ENG18LT · Mar 26, 2013

I kept cringing with each push into the building. I did keep a close eye on the tires and made sure to scrape away the debris as I went. Last thing I need is to have put a nail into one. Especially the rears, they are full of Rim Guard.

Thanks for the reply!

ENG18LT · Mar 30, 2013

Well spoke too soon. Got to property Friday to discover front tire flat. I put air in it and found a small hole. Tire holds air for about 3hrs before I have to top it off. Since the dumpster is full I am going to attempt a repair on the tire. I have plugged car tires in the past successfully, but don't think that's gonna work on a tractor tire. So, I picked up a couple patches from TSC and will attempt an internal repair tomorrow. I will take some photos and post them.

Obed · Mar 30, 2013

ENG18LT said:
Well spoke too soon. Got to property Friday to discover front tire flat. I put air in it and found a small hole. Tire holds air for about 3hrs before I have to top it off. Since the dumpster is full I am going to attempt a repair on the tire. I have plugged car tires in the past successfully, but don't think that's gonna work on a tractor tire. So, I picked up a couple patches from TSC and will attempt an internal repair tomorrow. I will take some photos and post them.

Bummer about the flat tire, but better the front than the back tire. Of course, the front tires were the ones closest to the demolition.

ENG18LT · Mar 31, 2013

Good news, I found the hole. Looks like a nail was the culprit. I cleaned off the mud and circled the hole.

Then I took the weight off by using the front loader. This allowed me to spin the tire. Much easier working on it with the hole up.

Then it was just a matter of getting the ream through and opening the hole enough to accommodate the plug.

I put a plug on the plug tool, applied glue, inserted and pulled the tool out.

Ta-da! One repaired tire. I didn't even need to break down the tire and patch internally.

mkane09 · Mar 31, 2013

I had a similar problem with one of my rears last year. Seems I managed to run over the pointed metal end of a push-in fence post. It made a 1/4" hole in the inside wall of the tire. That tire was full of calcium chloride, which is how I noticed it was punctured. I rotated the puncture to the top and repaired it just like you did. Voila! No leaks for the last year.

mkane09