A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals: In the clutch of desperation

Friday, May 15, 2015

In the clutch of desperation

Aimee went to work and left me alone with Roo yesterday, a normal occurrence. But what wasn't normal is I have a Land Rover with a bad clutch. Such things do not improve with age, so I very badly wanted to make progress on the repair, and the engine rebuild I decided must also happen -- if I'm to pull the transmission for a clutch, I might as well pull the engine for a clutch and a much needed full engine rebuild. All such things take time, and summer is short and I have a lot of other jobs to do.

Unfortunately Roo had other ideas, and woke right up from her morning nap after only half an hour, so I only made about an hour of total progress in the next seven hours until Aimee came home. I did lots of house cleaning, and all the shopping, grazed the sheep and fed the pigs and watered the plants and walked the dogs, but not the one important thing I'd planned to do. But then Aimee came home and I blitzed the rest, however yet again with my now-new-normal desperation to have something more substantial to show for a day's work.

I'm starting to really dislike this feeling.

This engine has been running fine for two years now on about a quart every thousand miles and 110 PSI compression, not to mention blue smoke each start-up from worn valve guides. As engine wear in old Land Rovers go, this is just about par for the course, and in the ordinary course, I would probably just put up with the oil usage and sluggish hill-climbing that results. But, if you're going to have to change a clutch, you may as well rebuild an engine.

I had decided to use the lift as a bridge crane to get this job done, tightly strapping blocks on each short front arm and a beam on top of the blocks, planning to roll the vehicle back once the engine was disconnected and lifted out of its engine bay. Although this worked well enough for the first part of the operation, it turned out to be a mistake for the second. Land Rover engines are deep. About thirty-eight inches deep, to be exact. I couldn't roll the vehicle back. You can see the problem in the next picture: the sump is still well below the top of the radiator housing.

In the end, I temporarily supported the engine on blocks inside the engine bay, dropped the hoist and beam, quickly turned the blocks under the beam the longer way around, replaced the beam and hoist, let some air out of the tires, and then was able to roll the Rover back with, however, not even an eighth of an inch to spare.

Even so, the operation was successful and the engine safely out. Satisfying, that. I had my supper and a beer and went to bed a happy man.

My next job will be to find some longer studs or blots to fit the motor to the engine stands. The ones that join the Rover's engine to the transmission are much too small. Then we'll blast the thing clean with degreaser and the pressure washer, then it will be time to strip down the engine and see what we've got.

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Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.

After getting tired of spam comments (up to a dozen or more per day), I required commentators to be Google "registered users". You can write me at mwomersley@unity.edu if you have a serious comment or question and are not a registered user.

Spammers -- don't bother writing -- there's no way I will post your spam to my blog. Just go away.

The Farm

The "Womerlippi Farm" is actually a homestead or smallholding where most of the food is grown for our own consumption and that of our friends and family. We raise Corriedale/Romney-cross sheep, feeder pigs in season, and Golden Comet, Aruacuna, Black Laced Wyandotte, Brahma, and Buff Orpington hens. We have wooded pasture, old apple trees, and a large kitchen garden. We build and maintain our own energy-efficient buildings, service and fix our own vehicles and farm equipment, and generally live a thoroughly self-reliant lifestyle. Our farm goals are less economic and more psychological/spiritual and lifestyle oriented. We like an independent, quiet home life with a lot of interaction with animals and the earth. Farming, building and energy-related engineering were also part of our education work at the former Unity College. Having said all that, we're practical people and grow a lot of pretty solid food and fiber. We're also happy to sell you some eggs or yarn or lambs.

PS: "Womerlippi" is a combination of our last names, "Womersley" and "Phillippi." The one is broad Yorkshire, the other Greek, although Aimee's ancestry and home culture is Pennsylvania Dutch/Shenandoah Valley Church of the Brethren. When Aimee and I married, she didn't take my name. She said she "wasn't trading up."

Why is this "A Great Farm Diary?"

Because the setting for the events recorded here is the "Great Farm" of Jackson, Maine, that's why. (Not because this is such a great farm, although we like it.)

Started by privateer and financier Israel Thorndike in 1806 as a vacation home, the famous Great Farm of Jackson was an agricultural showcase for this area of Maine, and Thorndike used it as such, an advertisement for his private land office business, as he disposed of the famous Waldo Patent, in which he was a part owner. Land purchasers could work off their mortgages as laborers on the Great Farm. Most deeds in Waldo County trace back to Israel Thorndike.

Thorndike, born to a family of modest means, went to sea to make his fortune. He captained a privateering vessel during the Revolutionary War, and tweaked the nose of the great Royal Navy more than once. He then settled to a life as a financier, merchant, and captain of industry in Boston. He remains listed as one of the fifty richest Americans of all time. He was the author, with Eldridge Gerry, of the first recorded gerrymander, and so his name went down in history for that peculiarly undemocratic deed too.

He was, in short, a rich, arrogant, unrequited arse, whose primary redeeming feature was impressive ambition. If you are such a person, you should feel ashamed. My work in academia has introduced me to many such wealthy people, and frankly, I'm tired of them. The world doesn't revolve around you and your silly ideas of what is important. Grow up.

Our own much smaller farm sits on a few acres of the original 2,000 that Thorndike developed as an agricultural showcase. As he was a famous Federalist, while Aimee and I are obvious neo-Jeffersonians, of sorts, I doubt he'd be pleased with what we've done with the place. But we don't give a rat's wotsit. As I said, we like it this way.

Read the very last posts in the archive for more details, or use search terms like Israel Thorndike or "Great Farm history" in the Google Blogger search engine (above, on the left).

How this Diary is Arranged:

From Mick:

The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive below, click on the link provided, and read backwards from there to get it all in chronological order.

To find out what is happening right now, read the first post first.

Other blogs by Mick: UC SAR, UC Sustainability, Farm Diary

Enjoy.

Farm Produce

Purchasing Womerlippi Farm produce in season can be done by email arrangement, and/or by shopping at the Marsh River Coop in Brooks.

We sell yarn, fleece, lamb, and livestock for meat or breeding.

The yarn is Bartlett Yarn's 4-ply, a medium-thick yarn, in natural gray and brown, as well as natural dyes. It is soft and bulky, and makes nice old-fashioned knitwear. You can buy it for $7.50 a skein by emailing womersleymick8984@gmail.com. We ship priority mail, minimum four skeins at a time. The shipping is extra. We also have raw white and brown (natural colored) fleece in large quantities each spring, unwashed, untreated. Email us at mwomersley@unity.edu and name your price. Expect to pay shipping or pick up in person. Coming to the farm itself without prior appointment is not recommended. We have a child. We also have a dog who bites. We like that he bites, because we have a child we want to protect. If you come unexpectedly to the farm, stay behind any temporary hot-wire gate or fence, or park in the driveway, until someone comes. We'll know you're there because the dog will tell us. Loudly. Annoyingly. They will wake us or our kid, if we are asleep. We will be mad about this.

If no-one comes, we're not home. Go Away.

If you are yet more foolish and try to get out of your car and/or cross a gate or fence, expect to get bitten by a shepherd dog, rammed by a ram, or chewed out by a shepherd.

A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals