Train Bell Repair IV

As promised, Darin and I would come and repair the train bell again if we had to. I was hopping the last fix would do the trick, and it did for a while. But a couple weeks after the last repair I drove by and saw that the bracket was broke. Not wanting to deal with it then, we waited until people started telling us that it was upside down again before we took action. This time, I'm pretty confident we won't be back for a while.

Darin was surprised and said, "We're not working with amateurs here!"

Our bracket was found nearby, lying on the ground. 

The orange color is the quick rust of the cast-iron. That's the main reason why it broke. When cast-iron is used in a position that it wasn't created for, it just looks for a reason to break. No doubt kids jerking on the rope didn't help. 

Rocking it hard enough gets the arm stuck between the bracket, upside-down. 

New idea: put some half-circle clamps with some bar-stops, keeping the bell from rocking too far.

2 3/8" tubing and 7/8" sucker rod should do the trick.

Just weld them up.

Drill some holes.

And bolt them together.

When the arm rocks, either way, it has a pretty hard stop to deal with. We should be safe for a while.

Back in black.

The fun is starting to wear off of fixing this train bell. But one thing about Catholic Cowboys, we don't quit. If something goes haywire again, we'll be back to tend to it. Until then, ring on Buffalo. Ring on.

St. Therese

 Pray for us!

           https://youtu.be/jXa9w1VGEPE         

Jeff Horwedel

Good man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R1NwqvuFdg

Sacred Scripture

St. Jerome, pray for us!

           https://youtu.be/-4hTT9X-u7M         

 

Archangels

Pray for us!

           https://youtu.be/FmN19mQLm2o         

Adult Children

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord!

           https://youtu.be/NzXGa_Caf6U         

Choose Love

Love is an act of the will.

           https://youtu.be/DBJrQGz-R1Y         

Harness Rack

This ranch is a playground for me. Everywhere I turn, there is one more opportunity presenting itself. Today, it was finding a new home for our horse harnesses. 

Our single horse pulling harness has been sitting in the barn collecting dust for the past several years. Now that we have a saddle room up and running, it was time to build a rack and give it a new home. 

Dad bought this guy new back in 1990 for the Wyoming Centennial Wagon Train. 

There's actually no need to build a new rack when Grandpa's old saddle racks are setting right here. 

Not going to be used in this old location, we pulled them down. Good simple design. Should work for the harnesses. 

Coming up with a plan, we mounted them on the saddle room wall, offsetting them from the saddle racks below. 

Harnesses don't get used much anymore around this ranch. So putting the racks up high is not a problem. 

The nice thing about using a saddle rack for the harnesses is that it helps them keep their form. The unique thing about Dad's harness is that it's a breast puller rather than a collar pulling harness. 

Works for me. 

While we were at it, we decided to find a better home for Grandpa Murdoch's old harnesses. 

We just doubled them up on one rack. We had to put an additional board on the bottom to hold the hames. 

Giddy up.

Never rule harnessing a horse out! Just when you think the harnesses are retired, the idea of fitting Mollie for the buggy comes to mind. Why not!? We'll keep it as an option if the need arises. Until then, the harnesses will be ready and waiting. If nothing else, they will complement the west wall of our saddle room. Ranch on.

Utility Room

Before we can get to working on the upstairs of the barn, there is still infrastructure down below to be done. The greatness of this project is that it allows us to clean up all aspects of the barn, like the wiring. 

The first stall to the left as you walk in the barn is going to be our utility room. Grandpa used this room to house oats for the horses. It was also the only access to the loft, by the ladder on the west wall. A couple years back, we plumbed water and sewer up under the foundation and landed them in this room. When it is said and done, this is the only room downstairs that will be insulated and heated. It is here that the water heater and water softener will be housed, and where the plumbing and wiring will take off. 

This summer we tore down all the interior walls that surrounded this room and poured a good concrete floor. 

After coming up with a game plan for the entire room, we mounted some plywood that will serve as the outside wall against the horse stanchion.

To give it a little support on the back side, we mounted some horizontal 2" x 6"s. All of this is used lumber, of course. 

However, we did have to buy some new OSB plywood and foam board for the inside. 

The 2" foam board went up nice and will serve as the only weather barrier on this wall. 

Over it, we mounted the OSB. This will be the finished look inside the utility room, though we will paint it all once the rest of the room is put together. 

Probably the hardest part of this project was planning all the details to come, like the plumbing. We left two floor joists open, where the drain lines will come into this heated room. The plan is to enclose these joists all the way to the other side of the barn loft. 

Now that the north wall was all secured up, we could return to the wiring. The barn lights and outlets needed cleaned up. 

First step was to mount a new breaker box. The main line comes from the house up the hill. We have three big jobs to be fueled by this box, the main barn, the loft, and the corral utilities. 

We ran a feed line to the barn light switch, which served as a junction box for the rest of the barn. Reusing the old wire, of course. 

It's fun to start fresh with clean wiring in the breaker box. 

Let's ranch.

This is a great place to be going into winter. We needed to get the wiring put back together in order to heat the water tanks in the corral. In order to do that, we needed to get this new wall built which required a concrete floor first. Now we can play around upstairs with a knowledge of where the plumbing is going to go and with the power in place. I sure hope living in this barn is going to be as fun as working on it. We'll find out someday. Until then, there's more work to be done. Onward. 

Side Dumping Dirt

After doing a little barnyard landscaping this summer, we had a good sized pile of dirt to deal with. Knowing that Oldman Winter is around the corner, we decide now is the time to move it. For a job like this, the right equipment is essential. Nothing post 1980 will do. 

This pile of fill dirt was taking up some valuable room around the barn. There is always somewhere around the ranch that could use more dirt. 

The location of choice was the east line in the Sand Box riding arena. On the pasture side of the retaining wall, the bulls do a number rubbing on the powdery dirt. Consequently it has been eroding away. Looks like a good place for some fill dirt. 

It in-turn made a bigger gap on the last rung of the fence line. Putting the dirt here would kill two birds with one stone. 

First step was to windrow the sand out of the way. This way we could reuse it. Getting it down to dirt would also make it easier for the haul truck to back in there. The 1979 JD 450 dozer did a good job. 

The dump truck of choice was our 1973 International side-dump. Not that we have a lot of other options to choose from, but this guy is the right truck for the job. 

Our loader of choice was our early-1960s JD 4010. When you are using equiptment to move dirt, which wasn't made for moving dirt, you want to take special care to operate nice and easy. 

No need to over load, especially with short runs. In situations like this, I put the dirt to the up side. 

This way there is not a lot of pressure on dumping door on the side of the box. If you don't have any dirt against the sideboard, you can leave the back chain unlatched. 

Then, when you get backed into place, all you have to do is reach out the driver's window and give the front chain a fling, unlatching the sideboard and turning your dirt loose. 

Then you can start dumping without ever getting out of the truck!

Side dumps definitely have their place. This would have actually been a tougher job with a standard end dump. 

Climbing back out of the Sand Box isn't easy with a single-screw truck. Thankfully, this girl is equipped a 2-speed rear-end. When driving in sand you want to avoid spinning your tries. To do so, you need momentum. If you were to try and grab a gear with your clutch in sand, you'd loose speed and bog out. With a 2-speed rear-end, simply pull the red switch on the gear shifter once you have some good speed. Then left off the gas quick, allowing the slack to shift the rear-end to a higher gear, then get right back on the gas. This is a great asset when needing more speed without loosing momentum. 

After about six runs, we were done hauling. 

Then we took the dozer and leveled out the piles. Keeping quite a bit of dirt inside the arena. 

While pushing plenty through the fence so the bulls have some new dirt to play with. 

Then just backfilled the sand. 

Thankfully, Hank showed up to help with the finish work. 

Not bad.

Good stuff. This job needed to be done. No sense in waiting around. Just grab the truck, tractor, and dozer and get to it. There are probably less than 5 side dump trucks around the county that still get used. They are not always user friendly, as there is no other way to get the sideboard back up than with manpower. However, they sill have their place. There is no other truck I can think of that would have worked as well in these circumstances. Our equipment may be old, but it still gets the job done. One down, many to go. Let's ranch.