We are done with the Intake for this year.

Everything from the creek on is sealed in, and insulated as best as we can. Because of Mad Cat's blade, with work getting in the way of fixing it, we could not cover anything down the hill.

The snow started falling at the start of November. How many of you have that initial panic to cover up everything and move it so it can be found once everything has been buried? It was a little fun to rush around.

As a little disappointment, the next few days after, it rained and generally thawed out the snow. With everything sealed up as best as we can. I hoped for lots of snow. Then, just yesterday, a massive snowstorm moved in, and we now have close to six inches of snow. It's still coming down, so I guess it's time to start plowing snow.

We have a new (to us) piece of equipment! Thanks to eBay, we got our hands on a late 80's Grove AMZ-66 manlift. (the newest piece of heavy equipment we have!) When we were using a 40-foot manlift for renovating our house and pruning the trees, we were amazed at just how useful a manlift was just around the house! The long reach could transport building materials up to the upper floor of our house, and is way safer to use than a ladder!

We got the manlift on the condition that it was barely functional. It spent most of it's life as a maintenance platform (Only 3000 hours on it!) in a chemical plant, so the sheet metal on the unit is corroded. The unit starts up and moves around, but two functions do not work. Otherwise, it is in way better shape than we had feared it would be.

Well, the frost is starting to build up. Looks like it's time to "Batten down the Hatches" for winter!

Work on the water intake went smoothly the first few day of work. We got the water system fixed up, and the pipe going down the hill mostly covered. the only reason we are being held back is the homemade blade on our cat.

Now, Caterpillar's crawler tractors of the 1930's were meant mainly for agricultural use, and no premeasures were taken for attachments on the tractor, like blades. This is true even today with front-end loaders on wheel tractors. So at some point in their lives, these cats usually got a blade assembled on it, usually using crude engineering and fabricating skills. "Mad Cat", our cat at the intake job, is no exception.

I was bulldozing a pile of dirt down the pipeline (by "Windrowing" the dirt into the ditch) when I notice one of the hydraulic cylinders flopping around. Down to the house we go, to weld up a broken cylinder mount. While we were looking the cylinder support, we notice that just about every weld on the support was cracking. After throwing on a few welding rods, we fly back up there, only to work ten minutes to find the whole C-frame tilting around! A welded "Hook" on one pivot decided it did not like the c-frame and left. Back down we go. On the way down, the return line on the hydraulics decides to blow, resulting in me having to hold it on while driving home.

GAHH! I'm not having much luck with this guy!

So that's were we are with the cat. I'm busy reworking the c-frame mounts (But would rather scrap the whole thing!) The backhoe's doing fine, probably the best worker of the job, only blowing a hydraulic hose and a front tire (Tire was 20 years old anyway). I'm wondering since we got so many breakdowns if you could call this intake job a durability test for the machinery!

In other news, we finally got windows up in the house! The manlift that we borrowed for working the roof was being reclaimed, so we used it for one last job that it was need for. The house looks a lot better with windows, and we can keep the upstairs open now without the wind sucking out all the heat! Lovely!

Well, we had a lot of fun playing in the dirt!

Since we don't want a repeat of last winter of the water intake, and our Uncle, a expert machine operator, was visiting, we began the assault up to the creek with our D7 bulldozer and backhoe.

By the time my Uncle left, we got a brand new dirt road pioneered in, so it is now a little surprising that we can drive right up the road, which was before barely accessible by quad, right to the box with our trucks!

The D7 did pay a bit of a price for all that work: one of the Idler frame shafts broke, and both brakes started begging for adjustment. I limped it back home to the shop, and brought up our almost equally as worn out 1937 Cat Twenty two (Whom I call Mad Cat), about 15,000 pounds lighter than the D7.

Despite the change in size, Mad Cat is perfect for burying the exposed pipe leading down the hill. We got the first 200 feet of pipe covered, and we will work our way back down the mountain until it is all covered.

Perhaps the biggest change to come would be to the intake system itself. The dam-to-overflow box was barley adequate for irrigating our fields so dad is going to have a excavator come in, rip out the system, and set up a infiltration system; a series of intake pipes under a layer of drain rock, all under a large pool, in the middle of the creek.

Heh. I'll like being able to "pressure wash" in the shower while the field is being irrigated!

Project Hornet (1936 Twenty two) has slowed down a lot with the re-introduction of school. The governer is reassembled, but that's it. I am currently polishing up the Magneto for Installation. Once that's done, I'll work on the rest of the engine.

Arrg. Too late for the water.

After we fixed the water pipes, the water never flowed right. The water was just a trickle, and by the next day, there was no water flow at all. The water was flowing through the box okay, but there must be a ice plug somewhere in the pipe going to the house.

Where would it be? Bets are at the start of the pipe, at the box. But, it could be anywhere, and any length. The entire pipe is covered in about 4 feet of dirt, not even enougth for protection from the frost line (Dad says the best depth for water pipe is as deep as you can go). We were told the old farmer had a group of idle gas-line excavators dig the trench, so why didn't he have them go all the way with the pipes?

This water system is really mickey mouse. I would think a farm that was in a family for close to 100 years would have a decent water system...

Oh well. Onto plan B: Call the well drillers

The well drillers know the place (They did our nieghbor a couple of years ago, and know all about our problem... Oooookay.) But cannot get to our place till the first of January.

So, looks like Plan C: Hauling water.

No problem. We just borrowed a fire water tank from the mill (Nice when dad has a job there), so we can suck water out of the creek and pump it into our house.

What a lovely job. We have to take the tank in a middle of a chinook, when everything is covered in ice. Heh, you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm starting to smell. :-)

On Sunday, the water intake pipes froze, the third time this winter. It is kind of frustrating when they keep freezing, no matter how much insulation you throw on them.

The temperature right now is about -10, but it feels more like -20, especially when combined with a wind. When we work up there, if there is a film of water anywhere, it freezes. Pronto.

The intake is in really rough territory. There is a rough outline of a road up there, made by the old farmer's International TD-18 bulldozer (It's clutch gave out during this and the "Road" was never completed) before he died. This area is accessible with a quad, but a 4x4 truck will have a little trouble going up it.

The intake is fairly straight-forward. A dam collects water which flows from a pipe to a "Overflow" box. The box keeps water moving while a pipe at the bottom of the box takes the water to the house and irrigation system.

We had some problems with it before, as in the fall, a irrigation valve broke, and drained the system. This caused the old tarp liner in the box to come loose, so when the valve was fixed, and the tank started filling, the tarp covered the intake pipe, preventing any water from entering the system. We had to change the liner out, and it's not a pretty job when the temperature's dropping and you are soaking wet.

The first time the pipes froze, the pipes going to the box were 3-inch plastic sewer pipes (which is strange. I guess they were cheap) so, we chopped them out and replaced it with a length of aluminum irrigation pipe. That only lasted one day, as the next morning, the pipes where yet again frozen solid.

So, we grabbed all the 7-foot sections of 4-inch water pipe we had, and replaced the entire length of pipe to the box. We grabbed a bunch of tarps and wrapped it around the pipe as a form of insulation.

The tarps made a small difference, as they lasted for about a week.

this time, the entire pipe was frozen solid. We worked the pipes apart, and towed them back to the house, where we spent a hour thawing the ice out of them (4-inch-wide "Pipecicles", anyone?)

After the pipes were clear, we hauled them back up, reassembled them, and lined the pipes with garbage bags fill with Fiberglas insulation.

Lets hope that's enough for the winter!