Monday, March 01, 2004
To be or Not to Be
Well talk about luck of the draw, or a horseshoe up my proverbial (rear end ) as my cousin Arlene would say. Our local city building inspector, after over 10 years serving the local community decided to up and leave his job with 1 days notice. Apparently he didn't see eye to eye with the local mayor. Now, here comes the horseshoe ! We both (our neighbour and us) had an appointment with him on his last day to finalize our building permits, and the inspector chose to complete both of our permits on his last day ! UNBELIEVEABLE
Preparing to Move a house
As I mentioned earlier my neighbour had a few little items to relocate to enable him to move the house. The only thing I wasn't aware of was that I would be playing a major part in his preparations.
1) My Ski Doo
Well after preping this little baby for the winter for the last 7 years I was looking forward to moving her from her parking spot under the "Tempo". After a few spits and hiccups.... she was up and running..
10ft later she was dead.... Starter, never to start again......None the less a few trusty pulls of that starter cord and OOPS "There goes my back". While grimmacing, & swearing a little (OK alot) , I manage to pull the ski doo another 5ft in front of our shed and lay her to rest....
2) Tempo
Well let me tell you there is nothing temporary about a tempo when you try to remove one in the middle of winter. Since my aching back was already creating a hunched over position, it was just perfect to get on my knees and with a trusty hammer attempt to remove 6 inches of rock solid ice from the lower frame and flaps of my trusty tempo. ( 1 hour later, I was prepared to remove the cover)
But then "What about those 12" nails strategically positioned in an X to ensure thay didn't allow for any play of the frame by mother natures winds". Talk about secure.... My neighbour laughing...... (Yes one more hour and they were out...
Strike one, Strike 2, Strike 3
Strike 1 ...Well I tried to clear a path to the storage shed with my "Yup" trusty snowblower, and got about 20ft. (Alot farther than the ski doo) before she started spewing black smoke and spitting up oil.... Looks like those 25 year old fan belts are a little tempermental, when you try to use them when its cold out !Boy they don't build them like they used to. It seems like the entire snow blower needs to be completely disassembled to remove and replace that important little belt.!$@#^#%^
Strike 2...Down the street comes the worlds largest Snowblower attached to a farm tractor the size of our house.Well ,my neighbour realizing he needed to clear a path 30ft wide through our property to move the house, called upon the big guns. He started the blower up and "Swoosh" this monster cut through the 6 ft city snow bank like butter(While he was making small talk on his cellular) .....but then.....(Kaplunk) The local farmer hops out of his tractor and starts inspecting the "Insides" of this blower assembly...."Hey do you guys have any rocks on your property he yells out?" .Hmm.... I thought, there was just the one 250lb er right about where he stopped the machine...."NOPE" I assuredly bellowed.... A few short moments later he discovered he had lost a bearing on the main snowblower assy.... I wonder what could have caused that ? No Problem, he said, I'll just go back an pick up my other blower ! I thought this beast was a one of a kind but apparently it had a little brother.....2 hours later after warming up this little brother the blowing continued (Albiet a little higher off the ground for some reason..)
Strike 3
Just as he approaches the shed to clear my path (Nothing but silence could be heard...) This time the chain had become dislodged....No Problem for the farmer....I'll be back in 2hrs he says.....
Launching the boat in Feb
We still had this one item left to move. My 22ft boat, all 4000+lbs of her......
I hooked up the 4x4, 4.7 liter Jeep Grand Cherokee and gently slipped her into LOW, LOW...and watched as 4 tires spun in perfect sync on top of the snow, digging 4 shallow holes in the ground......
You just had to be there to witness the heads shaking back and forth. NO Way this baby is going anywhere....So, we went back to inspect the trailer and cleared the last inch of snow off of the 4 wheels (Tandem Trailer) to see 6 inches of solid ice surrounding the wheels....OK, this means back to that bent over position and hammer in hand.....We also sped up the process by buying 5 bags of salt and surrounding the tires in a "Salt bath for 30 minutes".....
The Tractor returns.....
After a few brief moments of discussion it was decided that this HUGE MONSTER tractor would try to budge the boat from its icey mooring with a chain attached to it. "SNAP". Yes the chain broke without so much as a hairs movement from the boat...Double her up he said, and I'll give her a pull and a running start.... Well the front end of the boat lurched into the air like a bucking bronco and 2 wheels on one side started to move. He gunned the tractor , its wheels spinning, and the bronco bucking. Suddenly the Boat Launched forward and it had become free at last.....
Come on Baby
Off drove the farmer, proud that he had accomplished what no 4x4 could have ever dreamed of doing. I hooked the boat back up, put her in low low, and gave her some gas. The car started to slide sideways down the property but ever so gently pulled the boat behind. A little more gas and a turn of the wheel and we were moving towards the ice encrusted driveway. Only 4 move vertical feet to go and we would be out of the driveway." A local passerby stopped in the center of the driveway to watch the activites" . I screamed we are not stopping so you had better move quick..... Jumping out of the way just as we rolled onto the road with no less than 2 out of 4 tires spinning on the wet sandy surface and at least an inch of clearance on either side of the boat. She was out !
We are ready for the move
Well talk about luck of the draw, or a horseshoe up my proverbial (rear end ) as my cousin Arlene would say. Our local city building inspector, after over 10 years serving the local community decided to up and leave his job with 1 days notice. Apparently he didn't see eye to eye with the local mayor. Now, here comes the horseshoe ! We both (our neighbour and us) had an appointment with him on his last day to finalize our building permits, and the inspector chose to complete both of our permits on his last day ! UNBELIEVEABLE
Preparing to Move a house
As I mentioned earlier my neighbour had a few little items to relocate to enable him to move the house. The only thing I wasn't aware of was that I would be playing a major part in his preparations.
1) My Ski Doo
Well after preping this little baby for the winter for the last 7 years I was looking forward to moving her from her parking spot under the "Tempo". After a few spits and hiccups.... she was up and running..
10ft later she was dead.... Starter, never to start again......None the less a few trusty pulls of that starter cord and OOPS "There goes my back". While grimmacing, & swearing a little (OK alot) , I manage to pull the ski doo another 5ft in front of our shed and lay her to rest....
2) Tempo
Well let me tell you there is nothing temporary about a tempo when you try to remove one in the middle of winter. Since my aching back was already creating a hunched over position, it was just perfect to get on my knees and with a trusty hammer attempt to remove 6 inches of rock solid ice from the lower frame and flaps of my trusty tempo. ( 1 hour later, I was prepared to remove the cover)
But then "What about those 12" nails strategically positioned in an X to ensure thay didn't allow for any play of the frame by mother natures winds". Talk about secure.... My neighbour laughing...... (Yes one more hour and they were out...
Strike one, Strike 2, Strike 3
Strike 1 ...Well I tried to clear a path to the storage shed with my "Yup" trusty snowblower, and got about 20ft. (Alot farther than the ski doo) before she started spewing black smoke and spitting up oil.... Looks like those 25 year old fan belts are a little tempermental, when you try to use them when its cold out !Boy they don't build them like they used to. It seems like the entire snow blower needs to be completely disassembled to remove and replace that important little belt.!$@#^#%^
Strike 2...Down the street comes the worlds largest Snowblower attached to a farm tractor the size of our house.Well ,my neighbour realizing he needed to clear a path 30ft wide through our property to move the house, called upon the big guns. He started the blower up and "Swoosh" this monster cut through the 6 ft city snow bank like butter(While he was making small talk on his cellular) .....but then.....(Kaplunk) The local farmer hops out of his tractor and starts inspecting the "Insides" of this blower assembly...."Hey do you guys have any rocks on your property he yells out?" .Hmm.... I thought, there was just the one 250lb er right about where he stopped the machine...."NOPE" I assuredly bellowed.... A few short moments later he discovered he had lost a bearing on the main snowblower assy.... I wonder what could have caused that ? No Problem, he said, I'll just go back an pick up my other blower ! I thought this beast was a one of a kind but apparently it had a little brother.....2 hours later after warming up this little brother the blowing continued (Albiet a little higher off the ground for some reason..)
Strike 3
Just as he approaches the shed to clear my path (Nothing but silence could be heard...) This time the chain had become dislodged....No Problem for the farmer....I'll be back in 2hrs he says.....
Launching the boat in Feb
We still had this one item left to move. My 22ft boat, all 4000+lbs of her......
I hooked up the 4x4, 4.7 liter Jeep Grand Cherokee and gently slipped her into LOW, LOW...and watched as 4 tires spun in perfect sync on top of the snow, digging 4 shallow holes in the ground......
You just had to be there to witness the heads shaking back and forth. NO Way this baby is going anywhere....So, we went back to inspect the trailer and cleared the last inch of snow off of the 4 wheels (Tandem Trailer) to see 6 inches of solid ice surrounding the wheels....OK, this means back to that bent over position and hammer in hand.....We also sped up the process by buying 5 bags of salt and surrounding the tires in a "Salt bath for 30 minutes".....
The Tractor returns.....
After a few brief moments of discussion it was decided that this HUGE MONSTER tractor would try to budge the boat from its icey mooring with a chain attached to it. "SNAP". Yes the chain broke without so much as a hairs movement from the boat...Double her up he said, and I'll give her a pull and a running start.... Well the front end of the boat lurched into the air like a bucking bronco and 2 wheels on one side started to move. He gunned the tractor , its wheels spinning, and the bronco bucking. Suddenly the Boat Launched forward and it had become free at last.....
Come on Baby
Off drove the farmer, proud that he had accomplished what no 4x4 could have ever dreamed of doing. I hooked the boat back up, put her in low low, and gave her some gas. The car started to slide sideways down the property but ever so gently pulled the boat behind. A little more gas and a turn of the wheel and we were moving towards the ice encrusted driveway. Only 4 move vertical feet to go and we would be out of the driveway." A local passerby stopped in the center of the driveway to watch the activites" . I screamed we are not stopping so you had better move quick..... Jumping out of the way just as we rolled onto the road with no less than 2 out of 4 tires spinning on the wet sandy surface and at least an inch of clearance on either side of the boat. She was out !
We are ready for the move
Comments:
Post a Comment
