millie's big adventure

I've been trying to get my old Northwest Engineering crane up my road to my mountain top. There's several strikes against this being a successful project: one, the crane dates back to 1953; two, the clutches are worn and she can't pull herself up much of a grade; three, the machine weighs 46,000 lbs; and four, my road is a mile long, steep, and with 5 switchbacks in it.

Nonetheless, I set out to do this with the help of several friends and Alice, my road grader.

It wasn't off to a good strat when I was re-torqueing a few track frame bolts and I felt one snap off. Granted, I was putting 200ft. lbs on it, but it should have handled lots more than that. A minute later, Terry showed up. I thought we were done for the day, but Terry said "Why don't we head up to your shop and see if we can find something to make a new one." Well, we did and we did.

The first attempt didn't work out and I had to back down the road after 4 hours and only 400 ft. But I learned a lot. I found out that the crane cannot pull travel herself up the road and that the grader cannot pull her--the grader tires just start slipping. We did find out that what did work was paying out the wire rope off the drum that is used for lifting objects (She is a crane) and attaching that the the grader. Then I have a buddy drive the grader up the road a ways, set the brakes and blade down i nthe dirt and then I winch myself up to the grader. And then repeat. Many times. Here's us coming up....

Unfortunately, when the road gets steep, the winch is not strong enough to pull the entire machine. Terry, my best idea man had a good one: use a snatch block pully on the grader which would set up a 2:1 mechanical advantage when winching. And here's us going back down...

Our second attempt, several weeks later, used this approach. Worked like a charm. Got up the road, up thru the steepest parts, round the switchback corners and were just about to crest out up top when I happened to notice some metal fragments in the road. I stopped to check. Luckily, because it turns out that the pully block was just about to come apart as the bearing had failed.

We were just about up--and really wanting to get up after working on this all day out in the 100 degree heat without hardly any water--so, we tired to winch me the last stretch without the 2:1 mechanical advantage. I wasn't paying close enoug attention and I drifted too close to the edge of the road. The soft shouldler sucked me down and my right track started sinking and the entire crane house began listing over the edge. There's a big steep drop-off there and the crane was way too close for comfort.

Here you can see how she is itching to pop a wheelie. Notice how the track frame is lifting....

We began wrestling with options and strategies and ideas. All I could visualize was a quart of ice water. I listened to that little voice in me saying "Martin, time to shut it down. Now, before things totally come unraveled..." I surprised myself by listening to that voice this time. SO, now Mille sits--almost home--for several weeks until I can get a new pulley block and a plan for getting her off of the soft shoulder.

tower work

I've been working hard on getting the tank ready to haul back to the foundation...welding in floor joists, laying in floors, cutting in and framing out windows.

Here's the floor joists. 2 1/2" pipe on 2' centers.

I had a bunch of salvaged 2 x 10's to use for the floors. It took quite bit of head-scratchin' to figure out how to get all the floor boards cut to the correct curvature of the tank. Each board hits the tank wall at a different place, creating a wide variety of chords. I couldn't cut them too big and bring them in to size as they wouldn't fit in the tank and, if they were too small, well, then they're too small! It worked out pretty well, though.

The windows were also very tricky. Not only was it difficult to cut out the hole correctly using a cutting torch on 1/4" steel, but the curves made it hard to get the size right and the windows I am using--scavenged from somewhere so long ago I don;t even remember where I got them--are a bizarre trapezoid shape. I'll make the windows operable as I'm pretty sure the tower will be hot inside if I can't ventilate it with open windows.

moved the tank tower

I admit it: my heavy equipment--road grader, dump truck, crane--are much about being Tonka toys for a big kid. Albeit very large and very heavy, but, still, it's me in a bigger sand box doing what I used to do as a kid.

There, I said it. But, what's even better is when you can have a real kid helping you. I had done as much to the tower as I could down at the barn: installed two floors and windows and door. Now, it was time to move it on back to where the tower will be raised and my son, Soren, assisted me in the ceremonial dragging of the 10,000 lb steel tank back to it's location.

I knew that the only thing I own that has a chance of being able to drag this heavy thing was my road grader. I welded two steel lugs 180 degrees from each other on the tank end and hooked up wire rope with clevis links. Fired up the grader and off we went. I'll let the video speak for itself (along with Soren's commentary while he was filming.)

Next will be getting Mille, my 1954 NW 25 crane up my road so it can do the heavy lifting at the tower site.

missed it

Yesterday on my way to work, driving fast, late, I passed by a young woman walking along side the road. Not a tourist dressed in the latest colors, but a local needing something.
"Wanna ride?" I asked, pulling over.
She looked in at me. A heavy woman, young, with angry brown eyebrows and thick lips.
She did, but it turns out she was going to Chelan, and I to Manson.
"Oh, well," I said.
"Thanks anyway." She walked with a quick stride of someone late for something, a big Walmart purse up high on her shoulder.
The rest of my drive to work I turned this interchange over and over in my mind. I should have driven her to Chelan and then doubled back to Manson. She's got 5 miles to walk. No doubt someone else will pick her up. And probably somebody did, but it misses the point.
I had the opportunity to offer kindness. I could have finally met this woman who I've wondered about for a long time. You see, I know about her. She lives in a trailer I drive by most every day. She has three big, mean dogs tied up short in her yard next to over-turned apple bins for shelter. If, when, they're loose they chase my car. There's a baby stroller that hasn't moved in the driveway for years. There's usually a load of laundry hanging up inside against the one large trailer window. Another window is broken out--sometimes it has a piece of plywood up against it and sometimes not. Driving by, I've wondered outloud to my kids about that: why it's open sometimes and not others. Even toyed with the idea of going up to the door, knocking and offering to fix it. I haven't, of course--too awkward.
And here I had the chance to meet her, to find out about what her story is, to save her feet those 5 miles.
I missed it. I miss alot of these. Sorry, God. Keep trying please.

The place between the two

Worked on my tower today. Such a dynamic day: rain, sun, purple clouds, hail, strip the coat off, coat back on, snow, blue sky. A day of opposites all stiched together.
I was thinking more about that while I was standing next to my metal saw. I had 36 brackets to make out of 1" x 1" x 1/4" thick angle iron. This meant making 36 cuts at the power metal saw, a big contraption on wheels with lubricant pump[ that feeds the cut with water/oil mix. Anyways, standing there watching the cuts, I got to thinking about the auction where I got this band saw. After I bought it, I found out that the auction was due to the guy's death which was a suicide.
And here I was using the tool he most likely spent quite a bit of time staring at while operating it--just like I was now. What were his thoughts? Despair, anger, loneliness...most likely all those that then turned to just an empty dullness, since suicide is just the final move for a life already mostly dead.
My thoughts, and my project is so different than that man's reality. Building a giant fort for my kids to play in. Giviing life, finally, to a crazy dream that I've had since my own childhood. Standing and coaxing the blade in the cut and humming songs and feelings so blessed that I had this whole day to play, to create.

Those two very different states of mind--his and mine--can turn on a dime, can change in a moment. A dog is gone, a dog comes home. A car's on the road, a car's in the ditch, a person loved is suddenly a person being buried. It's so damned hard to understand how this package must come this way, this gift of life. Like take-out food brought home with things inside you don't want, this bittersweet mix of all of it--best and worst. In what happens to us, iin what we are capable of, in what we witness in others and happening to others. I don't have anything more to say about that. I do know this, though: for me, God and the way of following God I choose (I'll call that religion) are at this intersection of the sweet and bitter. Showing me, helping me, holding me.

The start of something not very practical

So, for a while now, I've been wanting to do this. About 40 years give or take a few. I can't remember when and where it began, but I can clearly remember my crude drawings, done in red ink on large white paper. And the vision was pretty much always the same: a tower fashioned into a fortress. Multiple floors, ladder to get up and down, tall and round, with a special floor up top. The get-away, the place where it could just be for me and nobody could reach me.




Well, now it is happening. I got a hold of a metal tank that's 8' in diameter, 28' long, 1/4" thick mild steel and weighs in at 9,000 lbs. I'm going to stand it on end and make my fort. Pretty simple plan.

First I had to drag the tank down to my shop within reach of my big welder, an old rescued 350 amp Hobart that runs a smooth DC bead. I used hooked Alice up to the tank and dragged it on down, no problem. I had tried with Dr. Brown, the Mack dump truck but, even with weight in the back, the tandem axle wheels just spun out in the dirt.

Now that I've got the tank down where I want it, I can begin the modifications: cutting a door, welding the ladder inside, cutting the hole in the top where the ladder will exit into the top look-out room (my room--the kids get their pick of the 3 floors below) and cutting the windows (9 of them, 3 per floor).

I got most of this done on Sunday afternoon and I was really enjoying the work.

It's hard not to get discouraged sometimes when events chain together in a direction opposite the positive. My darn road grader, Alice (of course Alice...she's an Allis Chalmers) was just one problem after another.

First, when i set out to get her woken up for Spring duty, she's got a flat tire. The front tire that is brand new--and several hundred dollars. A big gouge in the side wall that the boys at Les Shwab doubt can be repaired. I have maybe 3 hours of use out of that tire.

Then I discover a big crack in the engine block. I use only water, no antifreeze, in this machine and somehow there was still some water left when I drained it in the fall.

Then I find a leak in the radiator.

The thing is, I've got work to do with this old girl before all the moisture leaves the road. It must run.

Well, turns out Ron at Les Schwab got the tire fixed and, when I went to get it with my truck, he said "No charge."

JB Weld repaired the crack in the block. Two big bottles of radiator sealer plugged the leak in the radiator. I bought two new 12 volt 850 amp/hour batteries so I could start her easily, rather than roll starting it as I have been for the past 3 years.

And, just like that, my outlook on life changes.