8 months since the last update? Boy, it's been a while!

The winter was rather uneventful. I was extremely busy with school and "holding down the fort" to worry about anything else... :-)

Over Christmas break, we ripped the whole kitchen out of the house. It was good to finally get rid of the back-cramping 30" counters, and even the whole kitchen smelled better. Then again, we did remove a bunch of old flour from who-knows-when, the moldy and nearly rotten sink counter (WE WERE WASHING OUR DISHES IN THAT???) a few mouse nests and a big diesel fuel stain on the floor.

Some notes on the contruction of this house. The whole house was framed using rough-cut 2x4's. The framing is rather half-hazard, with 16-plus-or-minus-two-or-three-inch centers. What the framing lacks in structural strength, it makes up in nails. Lots of nails. And big ones too. For sheathing, since there was no plywood, 3/4" planks are nailed diagonally to the walls, and floors, and some of these planks are a good two feet across. On top of this, tongue and groove planks are nailed to all four sides. These are solid, clear larch, and these are nailed on - two nails per stud. (There must be a ton of nails in this thing!)

We heated the house (Or what was left of it) for two weeks from the wood we pulled off the kitchen walls, and carried away fifteen backhoe-bucket loads of garbage from that kitchen.

We set down 3/4" plywood on the floor, with construction glue and a few hundred screws (They use nails - We use screws!) and currently finished the wiring and plumbing to insulate and close the walls.

Mom has a rather giant kitchen planned- the walls on the east side of the kitchen are lined with counters, with two double-bottom sinks and a central vac. A 7-foot window provides a good view out the east side, and the dinner table is in the middle of the kitchen, in front of the upstairs furnace.

We had a rather heavy snowfall, getting around four feet of snow. It got to the point where we had to start up our tired D7 to help widen the road a bit from the encroaching snowbanks.

There is stirrings from Mom and Dad that we should start work fixing up our bulldozer-forever-in-restoration, our Cat D4D. Dad just bought some parts for it, and we are preparing to clean up (and out) the shop to start work. Finally finishing somthing for a change would be nice...

So spring is here, weather the last few days was BEAUTIFUL, and the farm work is going into full swing!

in January to February, we focused mainly in the shop, setting up for getting started again on some major mechanical projects (And mainly to get set up). We did some rearranging, set up some new shelving and lined a little over one-thousand feet of wire just to get it properly lit (8 Main-lights, 4 workbench lights, 4 plugs on each long wall, and the lights were block-wired!)

In march, the heat turned up so suddenly we had a "Mega-melt", were there were big rivers of meltwater everywhere! There was a great big lake in a low spot, and there was a overflow crossing our driveway! Interestingly enough, all the rivers were gone in a couple of days...

Since it has now dried out for a few weeks, I started up our MF202 and got the disc going. We want to fix up, improve and expand the field we got the most hay out of, so that means churning the soil a little, picking up any rocks that appear (2 backhoe loader buckets (6.7 Cu.Yards each) Already!) and clearing a little land.

Coming up this summer is a photo tour of the farm!

Well, 2007 is upon us, and it gave me time to reflect.

The last thing done in December (and 2006) was moving a old homemade stove into our shop. Dad made this stove when we were living up in Lillooet (And when I was still a "little pup") And from what I see, it is like the nuclear reactor in our basement.

Thinking about it, 2006 was a very good year for us. We were able to clean up the place, get our very first (At least for me!) hay crop off, and get a very good start at rebuilding the farm. In fact, comparing it to when we first moved in, in June 2005, when we were practically camping here, the quality of living has improved a lot.

2007 could be, however, the last year Mad Cat will run. I was thinking about all the trouble we were having with the blade up at the intake, and the trouble we are having at repairing the blade. The cat is worn out, and a hand crank is not really desirable. So what me and dad agreed on is Hornet, who is undergoing restoration, will get a new, designed-to-fit, built-to-spec blade on it, with electric start and a geared-down transmission (Gear machining, here we come!), and Mad Cat will be either parked or turned into a ag-cat until we get the time to restore it as well.

Planning the future of this farm has really got me eager to start, but have to wait for the snow to melt! A "Monster Shop" is planned for construction this year, I'm gonna build a tractor shed for all of our running equipment, and we will expand our fields! I am looking forward to this!

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!

Summer's here, but It's the wettest one I remember.

It's been raining off and on quite steady for the last few weeks. It is disrupting my painting of the cat project, and is limiting our projects to indoor ones. Funny though - I'm the only one complaining. The plants love it. Our newly planted hay field is looking greener by the day, and the grass in areas is waist high.

The roof is receiving it's final touches. The chimneys were installed, the last of the soffit was installed and we are starting to work our way down. Things are looking good!

Discing the fields was a snap once we got another tractor on it. I had tried last year to use a 14-foot disk with our Massey Ferguson. Turned out, the 35hp tractor could barley pull it. So this year, we fired up our old D7 and hitched it up to the disk, and angled it full out. With 103 horsepower on top of those tracks, and looking a little out of the ordinary with a 13 foot blade and logging winch, that yellow monster barely even noticed it was pulling something! Two full days with both the D7 and the Massey got the back forty ready to seed.

First on June we got chicks. So, that meant a chicken coop has to be built. The framework is just about done, and my brother is working on it every day.

Right next to our chicken coop, we set up our new potato garden. Mom asked if I could disk it and try out some implements. I hooked up a ditcher from the far end of our field onto out tractor, and dug 6 trenches 40 feet long. After throwing in seven boxes of seed potato's (And still 1 1/4 rows left!) we then hooked up a "Hiller" we got from an auction last fall.

In fifteen minutes, we did a job that would have taken us close to a full day if we did it by hand. I think I like mechanization!

Now that everything is dried out it's time to start some field work!

Last fall, I plowed up and disced part of a field with our '59 Massey Ferguson 202 tractor and single-bottom plow. We left it for the winter, so now I'm using our disk harrow to break up the grass that sprung up. when I am done, we are going to plant some grass for hay.

I still have to clean up a bit of the plowing left from last fall and long-forgotten furrows from the previous owners, but one things for sure- I am NOT going near the far end of the field, at least for now. the mountains are still giving off thaw water, and that water is running all the way down to that corner of the field. That is turning the area into a mud bog that is barely transversable by foot, much less machinery...

I had been working on one of our non-running cats, a 1936 Caterpillar Twenty Two. It had not been running for a while (Even before we got it) so the engine was a little stiff. I was getting some pops out of it before I set the project aside for Final exams.

After finals, I hooked our running twenty-two up to it and towed it over to our shop. I had made a attachment for a large drill to crank it over, but that was shelved once I found out the engine was stuck. I pulled the cylinder head, and had Dad whack a piston with a block of wood and a sledgehammer while I stood on the hand crank. We finally persuaded the engine to move again after five minutes of whacking the pistons. I soaked the pistons and cylinders in oil, and proceeded to throw the engine back together.

after reassembling the motor, I gave it a whirl. It hit off and ran like a clock!

I'm going to have to change the oil and fix up the radiator (It leaks like a sieve) But we should have another cat in the family by the summer!

Arrg. What a hetic week.

Mom and Dad finally got someone to buy the house in Cranbrook (No turnin' around, no going back, we are finally stuck in Yahk!) So, we have to clear out in Cranbrook.

On Monday, it was a lovely start of spring break: Pouring a cement floor in the barn that is our soon-to-be shop. We were leveling the ground with gravel the week before, and this is just to move the shop in town.

The very next day, we headed out and started cleaning out the house. Everything into boxes, then out to the trucks. Then head out, dump them off, and head back out for another trip.

The funny thing about moving seems to be the loads get heavier each trip. We hauled machine tools, tools, lumber, and random junk. AND THERE IS STILL LOTS MORE!

At least thanks to the help of a friend, we got the shop all packaged up. All that's left is the junk in the bushes, where metal still is popping up from the snow.

All week and weekend long, We just hauled. Now it's back to college, and I am too tired to even think.

if you need me, i'll be sleeping (until the picker truck arrives)

Hope you enjoyed Christmas. We got a Christmas present early this year: Running water!

It had been thawing out for a week, so, Mom and Dad went up to take a look at the intake. I went up to check on them, and found them tapping the exposed pipe running from the overflow box.

What they did was drilled a small hole in the pipe, and tapped until the hole squirted water. After about two hours, they had worked the pipe to the end of the exposed pipe. They were tapping the pipe when there was the sound of ice moving, and the holes stopped squirting water as water was replaced by a vacuum.

When we came back to the house, the outside faucet was pouring water! We got a hose set up to prevent the pipes from freezing, and got our water system set back up.

This thaw also proved the area is a flood plain. There are puddles everywhere, and the whole area is muddy. I guess that's good for the farming.

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!

Welcome! This is a bit of a journal covering the modernization of a 140-acre farm.

My name is Chris. I am currently 18 years old and live with my parents and brother. I share an interest with my Dad on old tractors. Dad is interested in the Crawlers (bulldozers) while I would like to have a couple of wheel tractors. I recently finished a refurbishing of a Massey Ferguson 202 that had been in our family for close to 40 years.

It all started in March of 2005. We were enjoying the last few hours of a visit from our Aunt and Uncle when Dad got a call from an old work buddy. "I happen to know where a old Cat Thirty is," He said, "Come over to my place in Yahk, and I'll take you over to see it" Dad, who had a hobby of collecting old bulldozers, naturally wanted to take a look at it.

So, on a clear, sunny day (spring came really early; In February) Mom, Dad, Me and my brother Nic, headed on over to Yahk, B.C. for a look at it. A stop at his place and I met Bill, a retired boss of a construction outfit in Cranbrook. We had a nice chat about the Massey Harris in his shed, and then we got into our trucks and went up the highway. We turned up a gravel road we passed on the way to Bill's place. It was about a kilometer long, and we stopped at a turnaround. There was an old farmhouse on top of a small hill, surrounded with trees, and looking very old and somewhat dilapidated. We parked our trucks here and walked over to the near corner of the west field.

Sitting in a nest of small trees, amongst a pile of other junk, was what we later identified as a 1930 Caterpillar Thirty. It had decent tracks, and a nearly worn-out Willamette Winch. While me, Nic and Dad were looking at various points on the tractor, Mom told Bill that, since Dad already had 9 other Cats in our 5-acre lot, and the neighbors were starting to dislike them, if he got another Cat that we should get a bigger chunk of land for them.

"Really?" said Bill, "Well, this farm is for sale."

I guess this is when we lost interest on the Cat, and started to love the farm! We debated quite heavily on the subject of should we move.

I mean, consider this question: Would you move from a cozy house built in 1976 to an old house built in 1932 that would have no insulation for the winter and require heavy repairs? Would this place be a retirement home for Mom and Dad?

Apparently, the answer to those questions was "yes", and we purchased the place in July 2005.

It was a beautiful place. The spot must have been a lake at one time, with two mountains separating you from the other neighbors. The soil is very good, at least for potatoes. We planted a garden a few days before we bought it, and the potatoes literally jumped out of the ground!

First plan of action to fix a farm up: Make the house livable. In September, after a month of planning, we ripped the roof off. The roof had a 45-degree with a ceiling height of 3-feet. For 3 men of 6 feet high, this is a bit cramped. After the roof is off, we would add "Pony walls"- Walls that would raise the roof four extra feet. We would then top off the roof with a tin roof.

One interesting thing about this house: Plywood was not commonly used on houses until the 1950's because it was so expensive to produce. This house used old "Channel lock" lumber siding (an old style of lumber that is not common anymore. It has mating sides that can be fitted together) for everything. Ceilings, walls and floors, it did not matter, and it was all Larch wood. You should have seen some of the bonfires we had when we were burning the stuff. They were quite big.

When winter rolled in, we realized our wood heater was not quite to snuff for a house with no insulation (Any that was added was chewed up by the rats). We were piling on the bedcovers, and I could see my breath at night! We finally installed in the basement a large RSF wood furnace that we brought over from Cranbrook. (We constantly say that it's a thermonuclear reactor compared to the one in the kitchen). This made things way more bearable in the house, especially when we run it full-bore.

That brings us to now. We are almost done putting up the last sheet of tin on the roof, and once the tin roof is done, we are gearing up to attack the walls. We say by the time we're done with the house, only the frame and foundation is going to be left of what was built in 1932!