Yeah, it CAN get perty cold around here, but its generally a toss-up between Baker City and Burns. Back in the '80's, we had a stretch of sub-zero days... 8 or 9, I think, where it never exceeded "0", and dropped to -35 at night. That was a test! I was working at the  family ranch then, and I remember being glad we'd spent the previous  two years installing a new freeze proof stock-water system. Our neighbors were spending all day trying to keep their stock tanks open, while we were able to spend our time repairing frozen equipment. LaGrande is a nice town. We're going there this afternoon.   The pic is from a few yrs ago... taken from the hill overlooking our place.

-- Edited by the neighbor on Thursday 11th of November 2010 02:45:29 PM

geezer69 wrote:

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burrrrrr,,,,,that cold is geezer cryptonite!!!makes me shiver just thinkin about it...-35????id be dead from just lookin out the window at it.

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Welcome, nieghbor!

Remember guys, I am in Wisconsin.  We had 5 days in a row last winter where minus 25 was the high.  The real "killer" part was the accompanying 22 days of no sunlight.

 

In a while, Chet.

Good looking place.....Getting colder here too.....lol

                                        Mikes Doghouse

 

            Every once in a while, something comes to me, that is so outrageous or amazing, that I just have to roll with it About 20 yrs ago, while working for the family ranch, here in Keating, the place down the road changed hands. The older gent who bought it would stand out in the middle of the barnlot for hours, just staring off at the mountains. I drove by there twice every day when feeding, and I saw this A LOT.

            One day, I just stopped, and walked over to ask what he was staring at. He replied, I was just thinkin what itd look like if I cleared all these trees and buildings off of here. Do you know anyone who would like a building?

            Can I have til Saturday? Which building? Oh how about that one over there? He said. This Saturday?

            That Saturday, I showed up with a coupla friends, a 410 JD backhoe w/forklift forks, and my old reliable feed rig, a 4020 JD w/a Hesston stackfeeder on behind. The feeder is a self-loader, so all we had to do, since the building had been built as a grainery, and was on skids, was pick up one end with the hoe, block it, and back under it with the feeder. It took 45 minutes, including BSin with the old farmer.

            The trip home was pretty uneventful. 3 miles of country gravel, with NO traffic. We got home to the Oxfarm just as Janie was leaving the house to come over and photograph the project

            We pulled some lines, and parked the thing in the yard. It was to be center stage in our yard, and Janie took one look and said, You are in the doghouse NOW! I replied, Would you make a sign saying that? And Mikes DogHouse was born.

            It only took us a few minutes to saw a 12 ft hole in one of the 16ft walls, lay it down, and frame it into a stage. Yardsale track lighting, and it ROCKS. The wood on the inside of the walls is incredibly colorful. No weather or sun. The building was built in the 1930s of recycled material, so there is some really old wood. To instill a little integrity back into the building, the outside has been totally sheeted with plywood. This was kind of a no-brainer, as it was the old exposed-stud style of construction.

            This old wood IS a significant problem. The flickers simply MOW through it. Likewise for the rest of the buildings here. SO, Ive been busy patching holes with whatever I could scrounge up. My wife works at a preschool, and has been bring home a few large can lids, which work well.

            My interest in vintage buildings has shown me a variety of building styles, and Ive always been interested in the metal facades, the tin ceilings, and the cut-shingle fish-scale treatment. I had one of those epiphany moments, and asked if they couls save ALL of the can lids. And thats what theyve done. For the last school year  

            Yesterday, I finally started my metal fish-scale gable treatment on the DogHouse.

Thats a super kool idea,,, but lots a work,, what size lids do you use? like coffee cans or smaller?

Man -o-man that looks just like fish scales,, really a neat idea,, unusual for sure

your just handy as heck neighbor. thats a cool idea and a dang good use of material.nice patio goin on there. the buildin looks cool too.

I cleaned up the piece, and scrubbed it down to expose the aggregate, putting a bit of detail in while I was at it... and then put the 4th coat of paint on the barn. I hope its white enough, cuz thats all it gets...

Y'know, I think I mighta posted our rigs on Poncho's mechanics forum... We own what we not-so-jokingly refer to as "The Obsolete Fleet". Down from 14 (7 licensed and insured) to 4, we've even sold out, and own a "late-model" (03 TrailBlazer). That includes Janie's '69 442 ragtop, my '69 Vista-Cruiser, and "Ancient Orange", our trusty 330,000 mile '72 Suburban. The truck you mentioned was drug in here over 20 yrs ago, from across the Keating valley by a friend and I... Its a '34 (I think) Ford dumper. Notice it still bears the mark of the City of Baker on the door. Baker City changed its name to "Baker" before WW2, in the name of "modernization". Probly about the time they defaced all the Victorian buildings downtown. About the time we started to scrape off all the stupid tracks from the facades, someone decided we should go back to the earlier name. And did. Anyways, the truck is WAY down on my list of priorities, and makes a GREAT conversation piece! Does anyone know how to tell a '33 from a '34? 

Nice ole truck,, would it happen to be for sale?

not really sure how to distinguish a 33 from a 34 Ford truck,

they were pretty much identical, back in those years, the cars changed a little, but that was mostly with trim pieces,

trucks were built for workhorses so they didn't change much year to year

the red truck is a 34,, and the rusty one is a 33