March 2014 Work Planning

[Mike Fox]

Funny thing about weather in Maine. Don't predict it too far ahead. They have lessened the amounts, so I will be down. As long as the predictions don't get screwed up like Wednesday night. We were in the 4-8 range last forecast I saw. 6 am Thursday I checked with my yard stick and had 15" on the level. And it was still snowing. Springtime in Maine. Got to love it...

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday March 22:

* Trees - Fred and JB cut and burned a few small trees west of the garage/north of the parking lot.
* #9 - Zack's getting ready to put down the cab deck for #9.  He was working on getting the brake beam for the tender truck done.  Jason was working on bearings.
* Basement - nothing done today, but earlier in the week work was done on the wall.
* Forklift - Mike and Brendan valiantly tried to move the forklift to the garage using John Deere and Kubota, but the Kubota had no traction on the snow and the John Deere wasn't powerful enough to lift it.
* Track clearing - Mike and Brendan headed north on the diesel to try to clear track.  However they got to the first curve and stopped because of ice on the rails.
* Drainage - Friday Brendan used the excavator to dig out culverts to avoid swamping the driveway.  Saturday Mike used the backhoe to start working on a ditch on the western line of the parking lot to route the water north rather than east.

Alna Town Meeting started at 10 and didn't get out until 2.  There was a contentious hour+ discussion regarding buying a new fire truck.

[Fred Morse]

Is anything happening Wednesday for the tour group?

[Jason M Lamontagne]

It just get cancelled. I'm about to email the troops...

They will try for a later Wednesday.

Jason

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of March 29:

* #9 - Jason is working Friday and Monday
* Basement - boarding walls and building bathroom
* Drainage - tree cutting and burning, ditch digging
* Track clearing - maybe

[Brendan Barry]

There is a large brush pile over in the back corner of the parking lot to burn.

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday March 29:

* #9: Friday boards for the cab floor were done, but a piece of the table saw died.  So Saturday Zack and Stewart put in all the board they could: two on the engineer side, one on the fireman's side.  Linseed oiled, of course.
* Tree cutting: Fred and Mike cut down a big pine on the west side of the parking lot, then Dave, Bill, JB and others lit a fire and burned up the branches plus all the tree trash left over from Brendan's work.
* Drainage: Mike used the Kubota to continue digging a ditch on the west side of the parking lot, to aim it away from buildings.  He also carved a mini ditch in the driveway to aim the water between the garage and the restrooms.  The culvert under the head of the driveway froze, so a pond has formed and was running down the driveway.  After trying manually to cut a ditch in the frozen ground, and trying to free up the culvert, I got out the John Deere and tried to dig a small ditch with the backhoe.  This is my second time on the backhoe, and maybe there's a way to dig frozen ground but I don't know it.  I got a small ditch dug.

[Dave Buczkowski]

Mike and Fred did all that all by themselves? That's a lot of branches and slash to throw on a fire for two guys...

[Fred Morse]

There were at least 7 or 8 people burning brush Sat. Steve Z. and I did most of the limbing. We had plenty of help.