{"id":8198,"date":"2021-03-17T22:41:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T02:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8198"},"modified":"2021-04-15T06:35:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:35:39","slug":"massey-ferguson-demolition-ancient-timber-rescue-john-calder-sawmill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8198","title":{"rendered":"MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION ANCIENT TIMBER RESCUE…JOHN CALDER SAWMILL"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 285    MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION    ANCIENT TIMBER RESCUE\u2026JOHN CALDER SAWMILL<\/p>\n

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Alan skeoch<\/div>\n
march 16, 2021<\/div>\n

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From this jumble of broken dreams\u2026timbers were rescued.<\/div>\n

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then put through John Calder\u2019s saw mill and planer<\/div>\n

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To become white pine planks from ancient trees\u2026almost free of knots.<\/div>\n

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THIS IS THE STORY OF THE RESCUE OF MASSEY HARRIS  FERGUSON WHITE  PINE BEAMS.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 15, 2021.<\/div>\n

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The Massey Ferguson  factories were built in the late 19th century.  Red bricks turned black by the soot of untold numbers<\/div>\n
of coal fired steam engines,  White pine timbers bashed  snd  beaten by cast iron parts carts.   Southern pitch pine<\/div>\n
flooring so tough they were hardly scarred.   I found them 40 years ago when the factory was being demolished. <\/div>\n
A rescue seemed necessary.  You can be the judge of that.<\/div>\n

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Those  wood construction materials were almost overlooked while I was retrieving factory pieces such as the Iron Working machine<\/div>\n
or the the wheeled cast iron parts carts.   So much wood.  Piled and shattered by the excavators and bull dozers.   What a waste.<\/div>\n
I rescued a cross section of the wood\u2026some white pine timbers\u2026some pitch pine floor boards.  Then cleaned them at home<\/div>\n
pulled out an spikes\u2026tested the pieces with my belt sander. They were beautiful.   So  the wood rescue began.<\/div>\n

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ALL the Massey Harris factory carts were abandoned and damn difficult to rescue like<\/div>\n
this beauty angled for a fall.  Sadly it was lost,  But several were saved. and  rolled<\/div>\n
up planks into the back  of the truck<\/div>\n

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The Massey Ferguson factory floors were held up by hundreds of white pine<\/div>\n
beams\u202612 x 12 inches wide, perhaps 12 feet long.<\/div>\n

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Problem getting these beams  after the building was knocked down.  How  to get<\/div>\n
the beam out from under all the broken pieces.  Think about it.<\/div>\n

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How?   Not so easy.  Imagine a gigantic game of ‘pick up sticks\u2019.  Dislodging one beam in a pile of beams might cause<\/div>\n
an avalanche.  To avoid that I used a heavy rope attached to the ball Hitch on the back of my truck.  Tie the rope to the<\/div>\n
selected beam\u2026drive forward to get the beast into a level place for loading.  Watch out for spikes that could blow a<\/div>\n
tire or puncture my hand.    I think one tire got punctured and CAA was called.  Fixed in not time.  Not sure that happened<\/div>\n
on the Massey site.  It has happened often.<\/div>\n

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First rescue was the big 12 x 12 white pine beams used to support all the floors in the buildings. Most were about 12 feet long<\/div>\n
and could slide in my van with a little effort.  Truck could take six with ease if back doors were open and the extended beams<\/div>\n
were flagged with a red warning sign.   I got pile of these beams.  Then about halfway through the demolition some other<\/div>\n
guy got the same idea on a bigger scale.   He brought in a flat back truck and had the beams loaded by a  crane.   Glad<\/div>\n
to see him.  I stopped my beam rescue about then as I had more than enough stacked at home in the laneway.<\/div>\n

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Eventually someone else got the idea and the rescue of the beams was done<\/div>\n
on a larger scale.<\/div>\n

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The southern pitch pine planks were totally ignored and there were hundreds of them.   Most had big spikes in them<\/div>\n
with points obvious.   The wood grain once cleaned was marvellous.  So I continued fishing for lumber but it was a<\/div>\n
little more difficult because the spikes were like fish hooks.  Trying to get one plank brought a whole bunch.    These were<\/div>\n
not small planks\u20264 inches thick, 8 to 10 inches wide\u2026heavy and long.   Such a waste to see these planks<\/div>\n
ground to splinters and hauled to some disposal site.  I managed to get several van loads of them and now<\/div>\n
our cellar has pitch pine walls.  Wish I had rescued more but there was no time and too much  danger even when<\/div>\n
using a long rope and the truck hitch.  Somebody had to tie the plank which  meant getting a little to close to<\/div>\n
the piles of planks dumped by the excavator.   <\/div>\n

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You my begin to wonder wha I would want with this beaten up lumber.  See<\/div>\n
the final entry\u2026the Wooden Folk Art piece<\/div>\n
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Why would  I be stupid enough to do  this?<\/div>\n

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Because John Calder, my cousin Eleanor\u2019s husband  had just finished assembling a saw mill on their farm.  John was<\/div>\n
a brilliant man.  I miss him as do all that knew him.   He bought or was given a saw mill that had been taken apart some years<\/div>\n
earlier and left in pile of rusting parts.  In the pile was an immense cast iron planing machine still intact.  So John spent<\/div>\n
months reassembling the mill beside his barn located between Fergus and Bellwood in Wellington County.   This was<\/div>\n
not an easy task.  But John had time and he had the skills that I will never have.  <\/div>\n

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TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 286    THE JOHN CALDER SAWMILL, BELWOOD, ONTARIO<\/div>\n

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P.S\/<\/div>\n

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Might interest you to know what I made with some of the bits and pieces<\/div>\n
of Massey Ferguson wood waste.   Sample below, story is coming.I loved using distressed<\/div>\n
wood pieces to work into a picture.   The backboard of this piece has been pecked by a thousand<\/div>\n
chickens.  The piece has No Name\u2026that is your task.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 285    MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION    ANCIENT TIMBER RESCUE\u2026JOHN CALDER SAWMILL Alan skeoch march 16, 2021 From this jumble of broken dreams\u2026timbers were rescued. then put through John Calder\u2019s saw mill and planer To become white pine planks from ancient trees\u2026almost free of knots. THIS IS THE STORY OF THE RESCUE OF MASSEY HARRIS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}