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...

I'm bi-tractoral!

 For years dad and I have talked about buying a compact diesel tractor with a loader. Neither of us is getting any younger and a mechanical "pick things up" machine would be super handy. At the beginning of the year I sold some stock and started looking.

Originally I'd planned to buy a construction backhoe. I'd seen some last fall for what I considered a reasonable price. Of course as soon as I started looking the prices doubled. The other problem is that even a small backhoe weighs 14,000# which puts you into commercial transport territory. I figured it'd be around $2,000 to get one moved to Caribou.

Eventually I relaxed my requirements and started looking at farm tractors. I settled on this:

It's a 1998 Ford 1920. Ford's numbering doesn't really make any sense to me, this is a 32hp machine. 4wd with a 12spd transmission. Most folks look for hydrostatic machines so a gear transmission is usually a little cheaper. For loader work it's not the best but I think for a mower or tiller it'll be fine. The transmission on this one is actually pretty cool, its 4spds each in 3 different ranges. The 4spds are synchronized so you can shift between them on the move. In practice the only on the move shifting I've done is in high range, it's hard on it to start out in road gear with a load.

I rented a U-Haul trailer to move it to Caribou. The tractor is about as narrow as you can go and use a U-Haul trailer, the front wheels just barely span the gap down the middle of the trailer. The old Dodge did a fine job pulling but the tractor has the areodynamics of a brick. I've pulled a similarly heavy car on a U-Haul trailer before and it towed much easier.

I hesitated to take the trailer all the way in to the camp but it was 10pm and I didn't want either the hassle of unhooking the trailer and hooking it back up or the uncertainty of unloading in the dark. In the end I decided I'd drive in until the trailer got hung up but it never did. Returning the trailer require a 90 point turn to get headed back up the road at camp.

Ideally the Ford is going to take over some mowing duties from the old Super M. I plan to get a 5' 3pt mower which will be much more convenient to use. Unfortunately it appears that the PTO clutch is stuck on. I hooked on to our 6' mower but couldn't get the PTO to engage. You can hear the gears clash and jump and it kicks back out. I need to pull the clutch inspection plate and have a look around. With any luck it'll be an easy fix.

Even with the fault I'm pretty happy, the engine starts with just a nudge of the key and has no computer controls. When I bought it I asked about the glow plugs and the guy said "I've never used them." I believe him, this thing has the best starting engine I've ever seen.

Along with a mower I'd like to get a scraper blade and maybe a backhoe. Ford/New Holland made one specifically for this machine, I saw one for sale just yesterday but it appears to be gone today. Alternately there are 3pt backhoes that are probably fine if you keep the limitations of the machine in mind. For now I'm pleased to be able to move some rocks/dirt. Angie has been building a wood fired pizza oven and the dirty old Ferd hauled a bunch of rocks for that project...