About another week of work on the house now. If it resists - maybe 10-12 days.

Then, about a week of finish loading/packing/discarding.

Somebody asked me recently ... "Will you remember how to make an airgun?" Yes. I've done nothing but problem solve awkward situations for the last 18 months. Haven't been just repeating simple tasks. I've brought you along, in order that anyone who cared to follow - could see the process. The Process of figuring just how to complete a need when the tools you require are 1,100 miles away. Figuring how to complete a repair when the cause isn't evident, and when I have mainly my wife, and the very - very occasional hand, as an helper.

Most of all, I've posted an enormous quantity of material regarding the move ... in order that any reader can see that I don't quit. This has been one of the universally recognized most stressful periods of time that people endure. Moving. Complicated by also moving a business location where I've operated for 33 years. Also complicated by the requirement to extract, load, move, unload, and reconstruct a business location.

I had a conversation with someone - face to face - the other day. And, they were clearly challenging me as to what they felt must be the dumbest way to move that they have ever seen. This after I had described my purchase of a box trailer, and the ten trailers of tooling and materials that had been privately pulled to BPS. "So, have you moved - are you moving - or what?" "I'd have thought there might be a tractor trailer back there to load". Personally, I think that could have been a jab. My kind wife felt certain it was from the purest of motives. I'm sure she's right.

At any rate ... it's the details that make the story. I didn't bother explaining ... mostly because I was exhausted at the time ... BUT ... a Tractor Trailer will not FIT into the alley upon which my shop lays. Detail. And; IF you were to widen the street corners, cut all the trees, move the overhead lines, and get the tractor trailer in to the shop .... then you'd be faced with getting it IN to BPS. It would not fit. I don't have some industrial park with loading docks, and an acre of concrete. So; what you load - you have to unload. AND ... exactly how does one person and a helper, quickly unload an entire tractor trailer full of machine tools? With my tractor and bucket? Sure - it would take three days. I'll just pay the driver to wait. And, where exactly do you place (meaning absorb) an entire tractor trailer full of machine tools. In the driveway? Under a tarp? The buildings are not designed and situated so that a tractor trailer could get anywhere near them. Thus - it would be quite a transport volley for each piece to be placed.

Some assume (I'm certain based upon their expert observations) ... that I am an idiot. And that it never occurred to me to process the move ... faster. The house sale equally runs into shocked surprise when I didn't either sacrifice the property for 35% of it's value ... or get one of the home shows to come restore it in a weekend. As it was - we processed it as quickly as possible - dissecting the problems as we went.

We are near the day when we had the Realtor the keys and Drive South. This is the best projection.

I'll drop in a pic of a pc. I did in the middle of our move. This, with the Studio barely functional for the first time, and myself about 10-12 months into the move. I still remember.

Thanks for Reading. I appreciate it.
Gary

62 Yukon Orion



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2013 07:08AM by barnespneumatic.

Gary,

It sounds like there won't be any more Thanksgivings at BPN. Clearly, even with unforseen events, you'll be at BPS and the work on guns in progress by then.



Lon

Hi Lon,
Thanks. Sure hope its all just a stressful memory by Christmss.
Hey - enjoyed the video until some comedian put in the little girl with a doll that says ... "Hi, I'm Chucky!"

Thanks Bud,
Gary

Gary,

Funny, I found that to be out of place too. I posted it anyway because I didn't think anyone would pay close attention.

We had the Bing and Perry albums spinning the whole month of December when I was young.

Lon

Hi Lon,

I enjoyed it. I recall conversations with you, where we expressed enjoying the Christmas season. I'll do so again. Florida style. Thank you.

And ... gosh ... paying close attention. Mixed blessing - often a negative. With noticing things comes responsibility - and that can be exhausting. Just a rambling side topic. hahaha.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for posting.

Gary

Clearly, if you were to do it again, the preferred method would be to just run a cable from your shop down to Florida. Then you could just winch the gulf coast up to MD so you could enjoy the weather without all the hassle.

See, it's just that simple!

Would have been less work too!

Thks Sean.

Has your mud frozen yet up there. Hope you have a few sticks laid aside for the stove.

Gary

Very nice work Gary. Looks like we don't need to worry about you having forgotten how.....
Cheers
Neil

I've gone to a pellet stove, with a small wood stove and a propane heater as backup. Yes, you still have to lift a few tons worth of 40 lb pellet bags over the course of the winter, but compared to burning cordwood it's WAY less work. You don't have to drop the trees, haul the logs, buck and split the rounds, stack and dry the cordwood, or deal with all the bark and mess. The real issue with cordwood around here is trying to dry it out. Most of the time it rains so much I think it GAINS water weight once you split it, compared to live wood. It generally takes two to three good summers of relatively dry weather before it's fit to burn in a stove, which presents a problem since we only get a good dry summer about half of the time.

Pellets, while more expensive, are shipped up from Tacoma by the container full, and provided they're stored correctly (indoors) the're less than 8% water content, and much cleaner to store and handle. We pay between $6.50 - $7.50 per 40 lb bag, a bit less when bought by the ton. It's still cheaper than heating with oil, which is what most people burn for heat up here. Propane is an option, but you go through a whole lot of the stuff when you use it for your primary heat and they set the price so that it's only slightly cheaper than oil. No natural gas option, the only place they have that is up around Anchorage, and some parts of Fairbanks.

Gary,

It's good to read that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it doesn't sound like is's a train coming at you!
I pray that the details don't get in the way and that things come together better than expected.

Scott

Scott

Thank you Scott,

I really appreciate your well wish and prayer.

I don't know if its just because I try many things, but I'm aware I run into many comic actions. I always want to report smooth sailing. Often think it might be better not to even mention the road bumps. But - then I realize I must first always account for time. I must be doing something. If I don't explain going through the stress and the bumps; then it would seem I'm slacking. So; I just chronicle most.

This week, we appear to have had about 10" of rain from containers sitting in the driveway. The one roofing contractor we got about five years ago, did a poor job on about 1/5 of the roof. And - it has leaked for years - in an office closet. I've chased it time after time chopped I had it brebuilt the office closet ceiling and painted it - and this rain found water coming in strong. Great.

Luckily, there is a "cricket" or flat valley between two pitched roof slopes and there was a roof hatch there. I worked in the cold rain most of one day trying to seal it. Found next day it was still leaking. Finally found it - plywood sheathing was too short to reach the gable facia sheathing. This left a gap between the width of the metal drip edge and the plywood. That gave access to water running down the gable. Then, the termination of the cricket - where it shed water from three roof slopes - was poorly designed. It had too many fudged caulked seals that were faulty. And, a flashing was not sealed. Now - none of the three leaks were over the closet. The water entered the attic - ran left along the underside of a plate, and then dripped atop the closet. Cute. Fun to find. Most of another two days unplanned. Already hired the "professionals" who made the mess. So; you keep at it til you fix it, or other work is ruined.

What a mess it would be to be called by the Realtor and told ceilings and floors were ruined. So; we fixed it and I've been trying to make up the lost time. Plastering at 11:30 pm and such. 10:30 Sunday night. Don't tell.

But- the list is finally shrinking at a good clip. We shall pull it off.

Thanks again for your encouragement.

Gary

I hate working on old roofs, nothing is ever straightforward or simple to fix. A pinhole leak in an inconspicuous spot can run along a structural element to drip into the house dozens of feet away from where it came though the roof. A tiny little crack that looks like nothing from the top can result in a torrent of water pouring down into the house below. Sealing brick chimneys is a special nightmare, and ALL of the old houses have them in spades.

I've long since gotten to the point where I look at a house with skylights and dormer windows and some architects fancy roofline and all I see is a maintenance nightmare waiting to happen. And don't even get me started on the "pueblo style" flat roofs they seem obsessed with in the SW. There is NO way to keep them from leaking, it's only the fact that it rains so seldom there that makes them workable at all. Give me a good slope on a simple, uncluttered roof with minimal penetrations any day of the week. If there was a way to build a house with NOTHING sticking up past the shingles that would be ideal, but plumbing stack vents and furnace chimneys always dictate otherwise.

Best of luck with your roof project Gary, with any luck at all the next time it comes around it'll be someone ELSES project instead of your.

Thanks Sean,

Yes - correct.

Nothing more charming and efficient then living in a stainless steel box. But it's abhorrent to the human soul. And so we build stuff to torture ourselves with.

The REAL issue is that ALL complex designs were built with CHEAP SKILLED LABOR as an ongoing maintenance requirement. It's NOW 2013 though. Everybody is a Rock Star. There are no little late middle aged men in 1970 C-10 Chevy pickups who work cheap - and have a couple of nephews for grunts. The Nephews won't work at all - the middle aged guy can't afford the liscences and insurance. So; if you have one of these old places, you better have a stout checkbook to do the "tear it off - rebuild it new". There is no "fixing" stuff anymore.

Gary

I think you've got it nailed there, Gary. Houses from before the 1940s were built mostly from high quality dimensional lumber and materials that you could buy by the bag or by the roll, plaster over lath, stucco over chickenwire mesh, tar paper, T&G oak flooring, etc. All of it required skilled labor to install, and even major excavations like foundation work was usually done by hand.

Houses built after the 40s were built with ever-lower quality lumber, and lots of sheet goods like plywood, OSB, drywall, etc. Big 4 x 8 foot sheets go up quick, and installing carpet over a plywood floor is lightning fast compared to tongue-nailing, sanding, and finishing thousands of strips of oak flooring. Nobody does even minor excavation by hand these days, you can rent a mini-excavator for pennies on the dollar compared to a team of laborers. Skilled labor is in tight supply, so houses are made with pre-finished modules that can be slapped into place by moderately skilled workers. Complicated assemblies like cabinets and shower enclosures save weeks of labor compared to building on-site.

As the labor force ages in our country, we can expect this trend to continue. More machines and fancier tools, less skilled labor required, fewer employees required to build houses even though they go up faster and faster.

Kind of leaves us with the old houses in a bind.

That's with most things Sean. Bigger and bigger merged Corps. Offer blister packed solutions to everything. The SKILLS focus on promoting, shifting, integrating the packaged solutions to a public which has become tuned to a "plug and play" lifestyle. As they want it - so shall it be.

We are at the "Buggy Whip" juncture of another societal change. Anything requiring regular upkeep, repair, paint, tuning, cleaning, just takes too much time and attention. Modular shall be rule for the foreseeable future. However! It will not satisfy the soul. So some men will still seek wood, leather, steel, rivets, glass, etc.

The only skilled labor you can afford anymore, comes from my shop.



Gary

Yup I hear ya there! Everything of mine that quits , I have to make my own parts or canniblize something else similar to get an extra 6~12 months out of! They either don't sell parts or don't offer them to general public. Unless I want to buy 100 pcs !! Don't know if you remember but when I purchased my AirCane by Barnes , the first thing I did was take it apart to see how well it was made and easy to repair ( if necessary ) it would be ! That was before I knew anything about BPN .

Hi Kurt,

Hey, we have those canes on special this week. They are sold by the container full. I take them to Baltore Harbor - ship them south wherevthey go thru the canal to Szn Fransisco. From there, they are trucked to BPS.

Glad you like that cane. That was an early big bore PCP for me. I remember being thrilled at how it would paper punch neat round holes in inch boards.

Yes, that design should allow it to be going strong a long time from now.

Gary

It really makes you wonder if ANYTHING made these days will still be up and running fifty or a hundred years from now, doesn't it? We can still fix and repair cars from the late 1800's - early 1900's because someone, somewhere, can still build all the parts necessary. Guys are still flying warbirds with Merlin engines built during WWII even though the last original Merlin piston was unpacked and used a decade ago. It's all new-production pistons and sparkplugs and such now, if you need an overhaul. Guys like Jay Leno have entire machine shops dedicated to rebuilding obsolete car parts and making brand-new pieces to keep his collection of old vehicles running.

A hundred years from now though, will is still be possible to drive a 2012 Ford F-150, or a 1999 Mercedes SL500? Will anyone make replacement electronic ignition modules for mid-80s Corvettes, or engine computer modules for Mustang GT-500s, or air-mass sensors for 4 cylinder VW engines? Will anyone even be able to buy a gallon of gasoline, for that matter?

If I was a betting man, I'd guess that the only thing that'll still be running more or less the same FOR SURE in a hundred years would be porcelain plumbing fixtures. We're still using fixtures almost that old in our house today, and I'm not sure that there is much improvement yet to be made in bathroom sink basins. Toilets and bathtubs haven't really changed all that much, so I'm sure a lot of them will still be installed and working fine. Not much else (or anything with a computer in it) will be working fifty or a hundred years from now, that's for sure.

Other than Barnes airguns, of course!