RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

ONE DOWN AND ONE MORE TO GO...

I've been so preoccupied these last couple of weeks doing some much needed Fall cleaning around the farm. The place has been rundown and trees growing against the foundations and stuff just leaning against the buildings. I usually clean around the house in the Fall but that will have to wait for later.

I didn't take any photos as I work throughout the day  until it's time again to go feed the calves and then it a mad rush to get supper on and then it's too dark to work outside. The weather has been perfect to work outdoors this October so I have a lot to be thankful for. It's been perfect...

On Saturday after  lunch, I was in the office checking my emails when I heard a huge a big Kaboom... and the ground shook.  My first thought was, the silo has fallen.... I grabbed my camera and went out locking the door behind me and ran to the farm and this is what I saw as went through the hedge,  only one silo was standing. I knew that they were supposed to come down sometime this Fall but I didn't knew when. Just the day before I had cleaned that area inside the small entrance between the silos. It's the entrance to where the calf barn is. I had asked my husband if he had given any thoughts as to  how he was going to get those silos down. He told me that he had talked to a farmer who had taken several silos down. He never told me that he was doing it himself... the next day...

At this point I didn't know what I would find. Were there heifers hurt or dead as they are usually around the silos, were my calves OK as their barn is right beside the silos and worst, was there anybody hurt???




This is what I saw as soon as I came through the back hedge, only one silo standing. Our silos have long been a landmark for the airplanes that flies over. We live near the airport.


As I got closer, I saw a ladder that wasn't there when I left the farm this morning. It was leaning on the gate.


Then I saw the men standing and smiling and not looking worried and I saw the big New Holland tractor in the back and I knew that he had pulled the silo down. The silos are 60 feet high  and are huge. Anything could have gone wrong but thank goodness it didn't.  Needless to say, the flock of pigeons were quite dismayed that one of their favorite roosting place was no longer.



The top, the chute and the filling pipe all over the place



Tons and tons and tons of heavy cement pieces and heavy steel rods and twisted metal all over the place. The steel rods all have to be cut in manageable lengths to pull them from the rubble.


It's difficult to really see the monumental amount of cement blocks that has to be cleaned up before the other silo comes down.



The roof over the entrance where I enter the calf barn has partially come down. It was between the two silos.


The men admiring their handiwork.




This was a picture I took last year of the two abandoned silos.


And a closeup of how deteriorated the silos were. They were built in 1968 and were 45 years old.

I help my husband and son load up the heavy pieces into tractor buckets and we are almost finished cleaning the first silo. We are using two tractors with big buckets to make the job go faster. It's back breaking work and I'm getting a good work out. As soon as 4:00 o'clock comes it's time to feed the calves and clean up the barn etc.

More photos to come as the job continues...

Thanks for visiting my blog, I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
We are still eating turkey, it's a good thing as I sure don't have time to cook these days.
JB

20 comments:

  1. holy moly! they didn't warn you? dang.... well? maybe I would have lost few pounds by that scare... jeeeeeeez

    and you helped them load up the stuff... you kill me. I suppose after cooking a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner and cleaning up and feeding calves and cats and weeding and hooking .. ha! love saying that... and knitting and sewing and plowing the north forty.... you loaded concrete and steel into trucks… why not...

    60 feet high ... look all manly out there ... cowboys and such... all that testosterone

    Again... Happy Thanksgiving ;) glad you had left over turkey ...

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  2. Carolyn says it all.Julia those pics were great and you are the ultimate
    Hard working woman!hugs cheri

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  3. What a job! I bet you slept well after all that work! Guess all the animals wondered what all the noise was about too. Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
    Robyn

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  4. I can only imagine the bang that made when it hit the ground! It was interesting to learn how these silos are constructed as I've never seen one up close. I always thought they were steel... and to see the heavy duty tension bands holding cement blocks was a surprise!

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  5. Belated Thanksgiving to you and your family, Julia. What a job! You work so hard! And you have to do this twice! I'm tired just thinking about it! Sarah

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  6. Wow I bet that was a scary sound to hear out of the blue like that! I'd bet bringing down a 60-foot silo is quite a dangerous endeavor.

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  7. Dangerous work!
    Silos are becoming a rarity these days. We hardly have any in our area any more.
    Don't men just love doing stuff like that!? Hope all goes well when taking down the next one.

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  8. Oh, my goodness!! I bet your heart was racing. They should have let you know before hand there would be a huge boom. What a lot to clean up! I am glad no one nor any of the animals were injured. It was good to hear from you sweet Julia I have thought of you often and wondered how it was going around your place...was pretty sure you were busy as you stay busy, busy, busy. Hugs

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  9. WOW! That would have been a site to see and hear! That is a lot of rebar!!!! Is any of it useable? Recyclable?

    Life sounds so very busy for you. Fall cleaning is my favorite thing to do. I hope to do some windows this weekend!
    Bless you.

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  10. Oh my gosh!!! I bet you are getting a good work out loading cement. I have done that before so I know what back breaking work it is. I think it is kind of sad that they are coming down, but I understand why. I wish I could have heard the boom. I am so glad you got photos of that. Maybe next time they will let you take them and the other one comes down. I can't wait to show my husband these photos.

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  11. wow! glad it went off without a hitch! would have been nice if they had TOLD you it was going to happen! sheesh! men!

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  12. Wow! You are all something! What adventures you have there! I am so glad it went well. It would have been nice to know the plan though, eh?
    Hugs!

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  13. What a lot of work you have with clearing up that silo! Work is never finished when one lives on a farm!

    Thank you, Julia, for your visits to my blog!

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  14. Wow! What an ordeal! Glad things went as planned cuz I can see how there could have been a lot of complications with that big project! Good luck with the clean up!

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  15. Wow, what a project! Lots of scrap metal...what do you do with all the cement pieces? Glad no farmer was hurt in the making of this blog post and no farmer's wife was without her camera to capture it all! You're amazing!

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  16. Hi Julia! Oh my what a job, but will be great to have it all cleaned up. Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Take care and thanks for sharing the great pictures.

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  17. Wow Julia, you are a busy lady. Looks like retirement hasn't come for you just yet. Farm work is wonderful but very demanding, I can vouch for that, having lived on a farm for a short while. I gather that your little calves were moved before the silo came down. :))

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  18. I'm glad you had a wonderful thanksgiving and that the silo
    came down on purpose:) What a hefty surprise!
    Glad it's been a beauty of an October for you at the farm.
    Everything is happening late here.....leaves only barely starting to turn.
    Joy to you in the farming and living, friend;
    I love reading your life:)
    -Jennifer

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  19. Glad it all went well. I hope that Liam was a help today!

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  20. Everything is so large in scale of the the men! Those were huge silo's & you've got wonderful photos of the whole process. It looks like an implosion I watched once as they used explosives & brought down a huge building in the city. Your farm is a busy one with just the daily chores & to add this demolition of two silo's...no wonder your days go quickly, your doing double duty all the time!
    It was clever of you to use the cement as your breaker wall, it's much needed with the erosion that's happening.
    I'm glad everything went off without any problems, hope your husband finds his phone
    This October weather has been great to get outside work done. The cold days are coming though, just hope the sun keeps shining!
    And you keep smiling Julia, loads of work is being done before the snow flies. Great pictures, thanks for taking the time to document this event for us, very informative. Enjoyed the read & pics.

    Hugs,
    Cynthia

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