We built a gym!

 COVID has been hard on everything and especially places like gyms. I started going to the gym in January 2020. You know what happened next, they closed down in March, reopened in July and closed for real at the end of June.

With the closing one of our friends stepped up, he's got some commercial property that wasn't being used so he bought some of the equipment from the old gym and converted that space to use it in.

First we had to take down a wall.

A sledge hammer and a lot of trash bags...

Hauling out of the old place. This isn't all of the equipment, we filled my pickup and the one towing the trailer too.

The new place is a second floor walk up, it was all hands on deck, well 7 of us anyway, to move in. I don't have any pictures, it was a pretty rapid process.

Getting set up. The hardwood floor is covered with a sheet of plastic to protect it, then a layer of interlocking mats. This has made for an excellent surface to exercise on. Notice also the fans and new lights. There are actually 3 fans, they move a lot of air. Not pictured is the tiny little air conditioner which isn't really up to the task. We need to tint the west facing windows, solar gain on a black floor is substantial.

The weight rack, more recently this got cut back to just one side and slid to the left side of the door. We didn't really need the whole rack as we didn't get all the weights. The room is really just a little too narrow for where it was sitting, I think it works a whole lot better in it's new space.

So now Angie and I are on the "board of trustees" for "an elite fitness club". It's a private club and the only way to join is to know somebody who is already in. We're limited for the number of members because of space restrictions capping class size. For now there are only 6 classes a week which may expand in the future.

We do circuit training, the instructors set up 12 stations, each with one exercise and the students cycle through the 12 stations doing each one for 45 seconds. I know 45 seconds doesn't seem like a lot but if you've ever done burpees you should know better. We go through the set of 12 three times, it takes just a bit over an hour when you add in warm up and cool down.

The students range in age from early 20s through mid '60s, maybe into the 70's in the fall if some of the oldest students come back. Mostly I'd say mid thirties and mid forties.

So what will the future hold? I dunno, but at least for the short term it's nice to have a place to workout. I know that personally having a place to go and going to classes with other people makes me much more likely to attend. I also know that I'm a lot stronger than I was before I started going a year and a half ago so I hope we continue like this into the future.

A secret revealed

 I've been hiding something from you, something that has eaten up a significant amount of my time and energy. Actually, some of you probably already know about this but for the rest of you.

This is the Cushman house, the parcel of land it sits on wraps around the southern end of our property. Last fall we got word that it was for sale at quite an attractive price. Dad asked me what I thought and I replied "If you don't buy it I will."

The house is originally from about 1888 but was added on to before 1920. We know that because the last owner's grandparents moved there in 1920 and the addition was already there. In this shot we're facing south west, this is what I call "the new house" because its the addition.

Facing north west, this is the original house. I haven't gotten pictures yet but from the basement it's easy to see the separation, the original house sits on hand hewn beams that are basically trees made flat on one side. The addition is sawn lumber. The house is kind of sad, not much has been done to it for the last 30 years.

The barn is a completely different story, it was build around 2007. We actually watched it's construction over several years.

The south face of the barn still doesn't have doors, that black stuff is fabric. The previous owner joked that he never did anything with the doors because "the town might jack up the taxes if it was actually finished."

The first time dad I went into the house we expected it to be musty and moldy. It's an old house and the last occupant was an elderly widower. We were surprised to find it dry and not smelly, the floors don't squeak or bounce and although nothing in the house is square there isn't anything structurally wrong with it.

Knowing that the house was sound I spent the whole winter pondering. Our first notions were to knock the place down or to sell it. In the end neither really suited, its too good a house to knock down but not really valuable enough to sell and in selling it we lose the barn, you couldn't really sell the house without the barn...

So this spring, like an idiot, I decided it needed painting.

We spent a whole day power washing and scraping paint. Remember dad's power washer? This is why I took the time to get it going.

Another day was spent masking windows. I planned to spray the paint on and I'm really glad we did.

An airless paint sprayer is basically a hydraulic paint gun. The pump pressurizes paint in the hose and it atomizes when you pull the trigger on the sprayer. This allows the pump to draw paint directly from a bucket which simplifies reloads.

With the sprayer we were able to paint the whole house in a day.

This is the north face of the house and one I really wanted to get right as its the most visible from the road. You can see the huge difference the new paint makes. I left the insulation on the window at the bottom right since that window is in the bathroom, right next to the toilet. Eventually that window will be replaced with a small window, high in the wall. It'll give some light into the bathroom but will be more private.

The whole house takes about 6 gallons of paint. With 10 gallons we painted almost everything twice but ran out of paint before we could make a second coat on the high up areas. The spraying took 2 days but the first day we only painted up about 8 feet. The explanation of that is a story in itself...

Anyway, whats next? Well I've already bought a new water heater. The one in the house was turned off 30 years ago because "it cost too much to use" and sat full for all that time. The state of Maine had a great rebate on a hybrid water heater so one is now there waiting to be installed. After that the house needs "a new everything" starting with the kitchen and bathroom. I don't have good pictures but the kitchen was torn apart 30 years ago and never put back together. The bathroom is basically functional but really ugly.

After that it'll be a long term project reworking each room, replacing windows and adding insulation. Hopefully improving the livability and maintainability of the whole place. The thinking is that we really can't make the house any less valuable than it is right now so why not give it a shot...

Old tractor update

 You might remember my 1952 Farmall Super M

Pictured here with the dirty old Ferd I've had the Super M since 2002, it's been in the family a lot longer than that, probably back into the 1960s.

The engine was rebuilt at some point and usually runs really well but this year it's been hard to start, was only firing on 3 cylinders (of 4) until it warmed up and was down on power. We've had trouble with the electrics in the past and after running some Seafoam gas additive through it I figured that was the place to look. I'd done a basic tune up, cap, rotor, plugs and wires about 10 years ago when we rewired and converted it to 12v. Certainly we were due at least for plugs.

It needs a new thermostat too, the one in it is stuck open and it never comes up to temp. While shopping the thermostat I somehow lost my mind and also bought a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition conversion. During a rainy day a couple weeks ago I set out to install it.

This is the brains of the operation, well brains and hall-effect sensor all in one. Spin a magnet past it to trigger spark events and Bob is your mother's brother as they say.

These are all the bits that came out, breaker points and condenser, and the electrical block to ground same. On the left is one of the crimp on ends for the new system and the two nuts that hold the hall-effect sensor in place.

Everything installed, in this picture the magnet pack (the black thing in the center) isn't pushed down all the way, I couldn't get the rotor all the way down with it like this and thus the cap wouldn't fit. I like that I couldn't get it wrong...

Think the plugs needed replacing? I can't imagine why, they were only 10 years old. The old ones were Autolite 386, the new ones are 3116, a slightly hotter plug recommended for 4 cylinder engines.

Here is the system installed. The white thing in the foreground is the resistor for the coil. I hate it, I'll be looking for a coil that works with no resistor. Notice how the wires that come out of the distributor loop back in to the coil quickly. A lot of the installs I've seen online they leave those wires long and flopping, just waiting to get caught on stuff. I mow a lot of brush, those would get ripped of quick.

So how does it work?

Great. The tractor fired up on the first revolution and sat there idling perfectly. It's quieter, there is less vibration, it runs super smooth. I haven't had a chance to really work the machine with this installed yet, it rained the day I installed it and we went home the next day but I'll get back up there soon to give it a real load test.

I really wish I had thought to shoot before and after video, the change is dramatic.

Ford 1920 Hydraulic oil dipstick

 

Remember this guy? I was reminded the other day that I'd made a promise to somebody on Reddit to post about the location of the hydraulic oil dipstick. I'd looked all over the machine and couldn't find it. The filler is really obvious on the back of the machine above the 3 point hitch but the dipstick was apparently missing. I finally bought the owners manual and discovered:

What we're looking at here is the floor in front of the operators feet. The bar going across is the parking brake lever. That little knob in the top center of the picture is the top of the dipstick. I'd dismissed it as a vent cover. Its rubber and needs to be pulled on pretty hard. The panel just in front of it is pretty tight too, a knuckle buster for sure...

Hopefully somebody else who has a 1920 and can't find the hydraulic dipstick will see this post and be helped.