Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
The French made pedal cars based on many of the sporting cyclecars of the time. This is a Villard pedal car and it reminded me immediately of what I'm working towards with this project.
A Hybrid Stirling Trike
- Thread starter Intrepid Wheelwoman
- Start date
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
I'm mostly still gathering parts and bits and bobs together for this project. MAPP gas is now in my possession so I'll be able to get on with things now. Propane would work for brazing so long as I wasn't working with metal that was too thick in section and I was also using a lot of gas keeping the workpiece hot enough.
I'm having a better time of it now I've settled into my medication changes. My motivation and sense of well being has improved no end and at first I had the urge on me to rush out and do everything all at once; - weed the garden, wash down the outside of the cottage, undertake a major housework offensive etc etc. I told my daughter to keep an eye on me to make sure I didn't bite off more than I could chew because it was a certain thing that my energy reserves remained as slim as they'd always been.
And being a bit silly I managed to prove the truth of that fact and did end up exhausting myself and having to take a couple of days of bed rest. BUT the main thing is that now I'm able to be more active provided I pace myself and be sensible.
Much creative staring and scribbling on pieces of paper has resulted in my figuring out a way to make the body framing in lightweight steel tube. Finding an exercise machine with just the right sort of curved legs to form up the front of the body framing definitely helped things along. I'm very sorely tempted to use a fabric body covering on this wee cyclecar/trike rather than plywood or sheet metal. There are a few design details spinning around in my brain that I won't mention yet as I'd like to do a few experiments first before doing a 'show and tell'.
I'm having a better time of it now I've settled into my medication changes. My motivation and sense of well being has improved no end and at first I had the urge on me to rush out and do everything all at once; - weed the garden, wash down the outside of the cottage, undertake a major housework offensive etc etc. I told my daughter to keep an eye on me to make sure I didn't bite off more than I could chew because it was a certain thing that my energy reserves remained as slim as they'd always been.
And being a bit silly I managed to prove the truth of that fact and did end up exhausting myself and having to take a couple of days of bed rest. BUT the main thing is that now I'm able to be more active provided I pace myself and be sensible.
Much creative staring and scribbling on pieces of paper has resulted in my figuring out a way to make the body framing in lightweight steel tube. Finding an exercise machine with just the right sort of curved legs to form up the front of the body framing definitely helped things along. I'm very sorely tempted to use a fabric body covering on this wee cyclecar/trike rather than plywood or sheet metal. There are a few design details spinning around in my brain that I won't mention yet as I'd like to do a few experiments first before doing a 'show and tell'.
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silverbear
The Boy Who Never Grew Up
I'm really glad to hear that you're feeling good, Anne.
Spring thaw is melting away some of the snow pack in my part of the world and makes me hopeful that I can get some bike work done soon. I dismantled the "kindalikeawhizzer" yesterday and gave the frame it's first layers of paint. That felt good. Now I want to get some work done on the Elgin velocipede. One of these days I'll be able to go for a bike ride... can't wait.
SB
Spring thaw is melting away some of the snow pack in my part of the world and makes me hopeful that I can get some bike work done soon. I dismantled the "kindalikeawhizzer" yesterday and gave the frame it's first layers of paint. That felt good. Now I want to get some work done on the Elgin velocipede. One of these days I'll be able to go for a bike ride... can't wait.
SB
Anne,
That is a wonderful car to build. Would 1/8" luan with canvas glued to it work for the body. I bought a couple of canvas painters drop sheets very reasonably to try it but haven't had a chance to do it.
My thought was thinned out yellow carpenters glue to hold it to the wood and then a couple of coats to seal it up and then paint.
Steve.
That is a wonderful car to build. Would 1/8" luan with canvas glued to it work for the body. I bought a couple of canvas painters drop sheets very reasonably to try it but haven't had a chance to do it.
My thought was thinned out yellow carpenters glue to hold it to the wood and then a couple of coats to seal it up and then paint.
Steve.
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
Thanks Silverbear, thanks Steve 
If the Spring thaw has arrived Silverbear I'd better get that Villiers carb I found for you packaged up and posted away because you'll be needing it soon.
Steve, I've run all manner of methods through my head ranging from a padded layer over square mesh rabbit netting and then the fabric, layered paper over mesh, to even considering dense cell polyethylene foam sheeting. The jury is still out, but I think it will end up with me choosing some traditional material option as a body covering.
Canvas over 1/8th luan has a good chance in the running though, but I will know for certain once I've got the body framing largely done.
Yes it's a nice little cyclecar alright. A very simple body shape, but still appealing. I like it
If the Spring thaw has arrived Silverbear I'd better get that Villiers carb I found for you packaged up and posted away because you'll be needing it soon.
Steve, I've run all manner of methods through my head ranging from a padded layer over square mesh rabbit netting and then the fabric, layered paper over mesh, to even considering dense cell polyethylene foam sheeting. The jury is still out, but I think it will end up with me choosing some traditional material option as a body covering.
Canvas over 1/8th luan has a good chance in the running though, but I will know for certain once I've got the body framing largely done.
Yes it's a nice little cyclecar alright. A very simple body shape, but still appealing. I like it
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
I did some checking and it's possible buy nice big heavy duty canvas painter's drop cloths on-line at a good price. Another trader local to the Waikato area has 3mm ply available as well for door to door delivery so it looks like that will be the way to go.
My larger 'Intrepide' cyclecar is going to be wood framed, but I don't see why the same body materials can't be used. So yes Steve you've talked me into it, - thank you
My larger 'Intrepide' cyclecar is going to be wood framed, but I don't see why the same body materials can't be used. So yes Steve you've talked me into it, - thank you
cannonball2
Well-Known Member
If you don't mind wood working and you like the look of antique aircraft, a bulkhead and stringer body is not hard to make and is easy to form to a very pleasing shape. Dacron is the fabric of choice because it will shrink to compound shapes, good luck with canvas. I have covered several aircraft in this method and its not as intimidating as you might think. There is a fabric for ultralight aircraft that is(or was, haven't looked at it in a while) pretty reasonable and it wouldn't take too much. Some years a go the $$ challenged developed a finish method that instead of using the high$$ aircraft finishes used common latex paint to fill the weave then finished with common enamel I have seen several planes finished in this method and properly done were very nice. I would advise adding a flex agent to the top coat to prevent the "ring worm" cracks that can occur on an impact. The fabric is pretty tough once finished, and lasts for years. Any damage is easily patched and adds character of sorts.
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
Thank you for the suggestion CB
I've decided to go for the canvas over 3mm or 1/8th ply method with this trike/cyclecar as it's essentially the way most small French cyclecars and velocars were skinned.
Back when I was studying human behaviour and psychology to get cleverness certificates when I was still a mental health triage social worker I submitted an assignment on age-stage related grief and loss. I used the 'Ballard of Lucy Jordan' as the centre piece for this assignment and ended up getting top marks and a request to permit wot I'd written to be held in the reference library as a glowing example to other students. (Forgive me sounding bored, I've gotten well past the need to have cleverness certificates on the wall as a measure of personal worth..... Zzzzzzz)
Lyrics here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/marianne+faithfull/the+ballad+of+lucy+jordan_20088581.html
Anyway back to Lucy Jordon;- I guess as I got older I found myself better able to relate to the words........
'At the age of 37
She realized she'd never ride
Through Paris in a sports car
With the warm wind in her hair'
Never fancied sports cars so much, but French cyclecars are another matter entirely. Soooooo as an elder lady I'm going to build cyclecars to my heart's content and while where I live isn't exactly Paris it will do me 
I've decided to go for the canvas over 3mm or 1/8th ply method with this trike/cyclecar as it's essentially the way most small French cyclecars and velocars were skinned.
Back when I was studying human behaviour and psychology to get cleverness certificates when I was still a mental health triage social worker I submitted an assignment on age-stage related grief and loss. I used the 'Ballard of Lucy Jordan' as the centre piece for this assignment and ended up getting top marks and a request to permit wot I'd written to be held in the reference library as a glowing example to other students. (Forgive me sounding bored, I've gotten well past the need to have cleverness certificates on the wall as a measure of personal worth..... Zzzzzzz)
Lyrics here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/marianne+faithfull/the+ballad+of+lucy+jordan_20088581.html
Anyway back to Lucy Jordon;- I guess as I got older I found myself better able to relate to the words........
'At the age of 37
She realized she'd never ride
Through Paris in a sports car
With the warm wind in her hair'
Never fancied sports cars so much, but French cyclecars are another matter entirely. Soooooo as an elder lady I'm going to build cyclecars to my heart's content and while where I live isn't exactly Paris it will do me
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bluegoatwoods
Active Member
"Never fancied sports cars so much, but French cyclecars are another matter entirely. Soooooo as an elder lady I'm going to build cyclecars to my heart's content and while where I live isn't exactly Paris it will do me."
There you go!
Don't forget, too, that there are a bunch of us who've picked up on the fact that you have a decent sized barn or garage with some wonderful pedal-powered machines in it.
The stuff of dreams..........
Intrepid Wheelwoman, you've got it made, made, made!
There you go!
Don't forget, too, that there are a bunch of us who've picked up on the fact that you have a decent sized barn or garage with some wonderful pedal-powered machines in it.
The stuff of dreams..........
Intrepid Wheelwoman, you've got it made, made, made!
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
Oh I dream of owning a barn Jim, but the good sized garage I have works out Ok for me
Having a dominant hoarder gene means that if I did have a barn I'd only cram it to the rooftop with useful stuff that I'd find a use for one day. Owing a garage instead means that I have to learn disciplined habits about what and how much I let follow me home.
With the silly new law the French are passing about older cars and vehicles being allowed on Paris streets it's going to be impossible to ride through Paris in any kind of worthwhile classic sports car anyway so I might as well stay here and become notorious as that strange old lady who builds those peculiar three wheeled motorcars.
Having a dominant hoarder gene means that if I did have a barn I'd only cram it to the rooftop with useful stuff that I'd find a use for one day. Owing a garage instead means that I have to learn disciplined habits about what and how much I let follow me home.
With the silly new law the French are passing about older cars and vehicles being allowed on Paris streets it's going to be impossible to ride through Paris in any kind of worthwhile classic sports car anyway so I might as well stay here and become notorious as that strange old lady who builds those peculiar three wheeled motorcars.
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bluegoatwoods
Active Member
My upbringing was both urban and rural. Two homes.
On the farm we had an old style wooden barn. Though it was getting in bad shape by the time my family bought the place. There was also a good sized pole barn plus outbuildings.
I well remember one time when I had to work on my car. It was raining. I simply pulled the car into the pole barn. There were probably similar other times that I've forgotten.
One outbuilding was a general tool storage shed. The other had small tools in what had been a corn crib plus parking for our little Ford tractor.
The pole barn was just about the size of a basketball court.
In the early 1980s we all went broke and had to move on in search of greener pastures. My dad had a hard time even selling that farm. It was that bad. Now that I think about it, he had a hard time selling the house in Detroit as well. I wonder what it'd be like today?
But, anyway, during the time there it never occurred to me what a luxury it was to have such great semi-weather proof storage and work space. It seemed ordinary to me.
These days I (not quite literally) cry for what I've lost. What I could do with those buildings!
But, like you, I have packrat-itis. They'd be stuffed with stuff. And it wouldn't be truly junk, but it would be far more stuff than I can handle in my lifetime.
My home (about 25 years now) is a small-scale model of what I'm talking about. Too much stuff of only marginal worth. It's only in recent years that I've forced myself to let some of it go. But even that really hasn't been enough.
I have bike parts, in particular, that I'll never be able to use. It's not that they're unusable. It's that I have more of them than I'll be able to make use of.
Yet I just can't bring myself to view them as trash or scrap.
On the farm we had an old style wooden barn. Though it was getting in bad shape by the time my family bought the place. There was also a good sized pole barn plus outbuildings.
I well remember one time when I had to work on my car. It was raining. I simply pulled the car into the pole barn. There were probably similar other times that I've forgotten.
One outbuilding was a general tool storage shed. The other had small tools in what had been a corn crib plus parking for our little Ford tractor.
The pole barn was just about the size of a basketball court.
In the early 1980s we all went broke and had to move on in search of greener pastures. My dad had a hard time even selling that farm. It was that bad. Now that I think about it, he had a hard time selling the house in Detroit as well. I wonder what it'd be like today?
But, anyway, during the time there it never occurred to me what a luxury it was to have such great semi-weather proof storage and work space. It seemed ordinary to me.
These days I (not quite literally) cry for what I've lost. What I could do with those buildings!
But, like you, I have packrat-itis. They'd be stuffed with stuff. And it wouldn't be truly junk, but it would be far more stuff than I can handle in my lifetime.
My home (about 25 years now) is a small-scale model of what I'm talking about. Too much stuff of only marginal worth. It's only in recent years that I've forced myself to let some of it go. But even that really hasn't been enough.
I have bike parts, in particular, that I'll never be able to use. It's not that they're unusable. It's that I have more of them than I'll be able to make use of.
Yet I just can't bring myself to view them as trash or scrap.
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
Ah sigh..... I have a collection of road and track bikes that I'm never going to be able to ride again and I should really just sell them. If I was going to keep just one it would be my 1950s English 'Wearwell' path racer, but the others just should go as they are taking up space I need for my present projects.
I remember in my early 20s being taken by a friend to visit someone he knew who lived on a farm property back when there were still actual working farms around the area where I grew up. This guy was a major league tinkerer and in the middle of his concrete floored barn (about netball court sized more or less) he had this incredible huge mound of mixed old car, motorcycle and machinery parts. I'd never seen anything like it before and my jaw just dropped. For a moment I wanted to rush outside to see if the barn was under the end of a rainbow. I suppose in my heart since then I've dreamed of having something the same.
Yes I can well understand how it would have been Jim to have all those outbuildings and space to work in and to think them to be just the normal kind of thing. When I lived on an offshore island back when I was married and my children were small I had a sizeable workshop area under the house along with a large amount of storage space. I owned two lathes including an absolute monster of a thing made in the 1900s along with welding gear and a great set of tools.
Living on an island is an unusual situation because everything that has been brought there over the decades will still be there and all you need is a skilled eye to recognise genuine treasure when it's hiding in the gorse and long grass.
But (sigh) my marriage eventually fell apart and I lost that house along with all the wonderful treasures I'd found. It's taken me all of twenty years to get back to something like that situation again, - without the severely bipolar afflicted marriage partner this time around (praise be!). Living in a rural dairy farming district is in someways similar to living on an island, - apart from the traffic of course, - we didn't have a lot of that on the island. The Winter storms off the open sea required a fairly plucky nature to endure so I don't miss those too much now I'm older. The peace and quiet and a full night sky undiluted by city lights and unobscured by tall buildings are things that I never get tired of though.
I do my best not to take for granted that I now have my own wee cottage and nice sized workshop space that's mine to do wot I please with. I never want to marry again as it was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made with my life; - Apart from my two children that is. They are the delight of my life and I'm very proud of them both. It's just a pity that I had to go through all that grief and heartache in order to bring them into the world (sigh).
I remember in my early 20s being taken by a friend to visit someone he knew who lived on a farm property back when there were still actual working farms around the area where I grew up. This guy was a major league tinkerer and in the middle of his concrete floored barn (about netball court sized more or less) he had this incredible huge mound of mixed old car, motorcycle and machinery parts. I'd never seen anything like it before and my jaw just dropped. For a moment I wanted to rush outside to see if the barn was under the end of a rainbow. I suppose in my heart since then I've dreamed of having something the same.
Yes I can well understand how it would have been Jim to have all those outbuildings and space to work in and to think them to be just the normal kind of thing. When I lived on an offshore island back when I was married and my children were small I had a sizeable workshop area under the house along with a large amount of storage space. I owned two lathes including an absolute monster of a thing made in the 1900s along with welding gear and a great set of tools.
Living on an island is an unusual situation because everything that has been brought there over the decades will still be there and all you need is a skilled eye to recognise genuine treasure when it's hiding in the gorse and long grass.
But (sigh) my marriage eventually fell apart and I lost that house along with all the wonderful treasures I'd found. It's taken me all of twenty years to get back to something like that situation again, - without the severely bipolar afflicted marriage partner this time around (praise be!). Living in a rural dairy farming district is in someways similar to living on an island, - apart from the traffic of course, - we didn't have a lot of that on the island. The Winter storms off the open sea required a fairly plucky nature to endure so I don't miss those too much now I'm older. The peace and quiet and a full night sky undiluted by city lights and unobscured by tall buildings are things that I never get tired of though.
I do my best not to take for granted that I now have my own wee cottage and nice sized workshop space that's mine to do wot I please with. I never want to marry again as it was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made with my life; - Apart from my two children that is. They are the delight of my life and I'm very proud of them both. It's just a pity that I had to go through all that grief and heartache in order to bring them into the world (sigh).
HE!HE sounds like me. Bought a lake place back in 1990 had good in-tensions of moving there,few years ago built a pole barn 28x48 filled it and now. I am going to down size and sell it the place. Never get a good newer lawn tractor,no just rebuild the one i have and collect more just in case. Same with bikes bought just in case. And now all that has to go,and or most of it,a lot already gone. Even though i have a big garage in town and a shed,just not going to keep anymore then i may need,and that may be a big need,what ever fits LOL being 73 don't think there is all that much time to get it all done,anyway..............Curt
Allen_Wrench
Resident Mad Scientist
I would dearly love to have a full-size garage again. Three times we tried renting-to-own a house (each of which had a garage which I began to use as a workshop). Three times, each landlord fell on hard times and didn't have the guts to tell us when they were failing to make their mortgage payments. And all the money we paid in on top of rent was to no avail when the bank representative came knocking. The last time it happened, we were only given eleven days to move out! In Indiana, and being the bank and not a landlord, they can apparently legally do that. That sort of thing is really hard on a struggling family with very young children.
I now have to work out of a 10 foot by 12 foot shed that is already half full. I do a lot of work in my driveway, out of necessity. But I can do no large-scale work on rainy days anymore. It is hard, having six people in a little house and only a little shed for a workshop. But at least I make my own mortgage payments directly to the bank. It's my top priority. I cannot bring myself to rent-to-own again. But I do miss having the open space a garage gave me. One day, I must try again to get a bigger house with a real garage.
Maybe I can put up a carport in the meanwhile...
I now have to work out of a 10 foot by 12 foot shed that is already half full. I do a lot of work in my driveway, out of necessity. But I can do no large-scale work on rainy days anymore. It is hard, having six people in a little house and only a little shed for a workshop. But at least I make my own mortgage payments directly to the bank. It's my top priority. I cannot bring myself to rent-to-own again. But I do miss having the open space a garage gave me. One day, I must try again to get a bigger house with a real garage.
Maybe I can put up a carport in the meanwhile...
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bluegoatwoods
Active Member
I occasionally have dreams where I'll notice, say, a passageway at the back of the kitchen cupboards that I'd never noticed before.
Exploring a bit I find the passageway opening up into something like a big barn or warehouse just full of old stuff. Tools, bicycles, etc,.
Just about the time it's dawning on me that I have space and materials for all sorts of neat projects, I wake up.
And the house always seems so, so small after that.
Exploring a bit I find the passageway opening up into something like a big barn or warehouse just full of old stuff. Tools, bicycles, etc,.
Just about the time it's dawning on me that I have space and materials for all sorts of neat projects, I wake up.
And the house always seems so, so small after that.
boxcar
New Member
I spent the day ( yesterday ) on a small excavator moving the earth in preparation for my new Gambrel Barn .
My wife and I have decided to down size and semi retire.
I plan to close up the big shop, sell the business ( to the employees ) and move my essential tools and machines home.
The new shop, while only 24 x 30 will be ( hopefully ) all I need.
It will be a small machine shop with 1 working bay.
My office will be in the loft.
I have often dreamed of buying an old farm with all the wonderful out buildings and history.
But wisdom comes with age..... I don't want to maintain that much land.
I'd be a miserable farmer..... Day dreaming is more my style....
My wife and I have decided to down size and semi retire.
I plan to close up the big shop, sell the business ( to the employees ) and move my essential tools and machines home.
The new shop, while only 24 x 30 will be ( hopefully ) all I need.
It will be a small machine shop with 1 working bay.
My office will be in the loft.
I have often dreamed of buying an old farm with all the wonderful out buildings and history.
But wisdom comes with age..... I don't want to maintain that much land.
I'd be a miserable farmer..... Day dreaming is more my style....
boxcar
New Member
I'm not sure if there is such a thing as Costco in the UK.
If there is they sell a nice 20x10 soft sided building for less than $300 american.
I have used them on job sights in the past. Very stout and a viable option for a temper-airy shop...
Here is a link to one listed on Amizon.
http://www.amazon.com/10x20-Instant...6436924&sr=8-8&keywords=portable+garage+10x20
If there is they sell a nice 20x10 soft sided building for less than $300 american.
I have used them on job sights in the past. Very stout and a viable option for a temper-airy shop...
Here is a link to one listed on Amizon.
http://www.amazon.com/10x20-Instant...6436924&sr=8-8&keywords=portable+garage+10x20
Ludwig II
Well-Known Member
We've used them as garages when motorcycle racing. The plus is that they are big and robust, the minus is that it's really a small team job to take them up and down.
I was thinking more of dome or frame tents with a smaller footprint, and no need for outside assistance to get them up or down.
I was thinking more of dome or frame tents with a smaller footprint, and no need for outside assistance to get them up or down.
Intrepid Wheelwoman
New Member
Oh Allen that must've been an absolute heartbreak getting evicted by a bank three times and losing the money you'd already put into the property. I dislike banks intensely and I don't use them as I belong to a friendly society for religious reasons to do with shunning all forms of usury,
Somehow we managed to buy the rural property and house we had on the island without a bank loan and the cottage property I now own was obtained without any kind of bank mortgage. The one time I did foolishly buy a property using a conventional mortgage, - an apartment in a tower block back when I had a 'good' job, - I was lucky to escape without taking too severe a loss when I became ill and the 'good' job was no more.
Carports are good Allen. I have one built against the side of the cottage and the front of my my garage-workshop. It's sheltered from most of the normal directions bad weather comes from and it's where I do all my bicycle and tricycle maintenance work, assembly and welding.
Having had five tropical cyclones/storms pass through in the last 18 months I would be very reluctant to try the temporary tent-like shelter option myself as I doubt it would survive, BUT so long as where you live has more settled weather it could be an option.
Boxcar, - you know I remember when we had the rural property on the island folk would say to us, 'Oh you're so lucky to have all this land.' Usually they would say that on a fine blue sky day and they would have their rosy tint glasses on. The simple truth of the matter is that land is hard work and you have to be on the younger side of middle age if you're doing all the work yourself. If you can afford to pay others to do work for you age doesn't matter so much, but we couldn't and most probably one of the reason why I'm still a skinny thing now with good muscle tone for my age is due to all the hard work I did back then.
I like the sound of your new barn workshop by the way
BGW, - Jim, - I have these amazing dreams too where I'm in a place with the most amazing scrap yard, there are huge workshops with delightful steam powered machinery too. I can vividly remember one dream where one of these workshops had a massive milling machine with a rotary table as big as a dining table with an overhead crane to move the work piece into place.
And then of course I wake up and feel just a little disappointed (sigh).
Yes Curt, I've been there and done that too with owning and running elderly cars and motorcycles as regular transport instead of buying new (ick!). Eventually something has to be done with the pile of left over spare parts simply because we're getting older and it's plain that some projects are never going to happen. I'm still finding left over parts from the 60 year old Morris I used to own and I was sure I'd sent them all off with the car when it was transported to its new owner.
I'm doing a major clean out and downsize at the moment mostly with collectables such as tinplate trains and vintage metal wargaming models all of which are just sitting in their storage crates from one year to the next. And I haven't even tried to decide what I'm going to do with all my Lego yet
Somehow we managed to buy the rural property and house we had on the island without a bank loan and the cottage property I now own was obtained without any kind of bank mortgage. The one time I did foolishly buy a property using a conventional mortgage, - an apartment in a tower block back when I had a 'good' job, - I was lucky to escape without taking too severe a loss when I became ill and the 'good' job was no more.
Carports are good Allen. I have one built against the side of the cottage and the front of my my garage-workshop. It's sheltered from most of the normal directions bad weather comes from and it's where I do all my bicycle and tricycle maintenance work, assembly and welding.
Having had five tropical cyclones/storms pass through in the last 18 months I would be very reluctant to try the temporary tent-like shelter option myself as I doubt it would survive, BUT so long as where you live has more settled weather it could be an option.
Boxcar, - you know I remember when we had the rural property on the island folk would say to us, 'Oh you're so lucky to have all this land.' Usually they would say that on a fine blue sky day and they would have their rosy tint glasses on. The simple truth of the matter is that land is hard work and you have to be on the younger side of middle age if you're doing all the work yourself. If you can afford to pay others to do work for you age doesn't matter so much, but we couldn't and most probably one of the reason why I'm still a skinny thing now with good muscle tone for my age is due to all the hard work I did back then.
I like the sound of your new barn workshop by the way
BGW, - Jim, - I have these amazing dreams too where I'm in a place with the most amazing scrap yard, there are huge workshops with delightful steam powered machinery too. I can vividly remember one dream where one of these workshops had a massive milling machine with a rotary table as big as a dining table with an overhead crane to move the work piece into place.
And then of course I wake up and feel just a little disappointed (sigh).
Yes Curt, I've been there and done that too with owning and running elderly cars and motorcycles as regular transport instead of buying new (ick!). Eventually something has to be done with the pile of left over spare parts simply because we're getting older and it's plain that some projects are never going to happen. I'm still finding left over parts from the 60 year old Morris I used to own and I was sure I'd sent them all off with the car when it was transported to its new owner.
I'm doing a major clean out and downsize at the moment mostly with collectables such as tinplate trains and vintage metal wargaming models all of which are just sitting in their storage crates from one year to the next. And I haven't even tried to decide what I'm going to do with all my Lego yet