God Will Provide

        The 2013 spring planting season is finally behind us and not a day too soon...as long as the rest of the soybeans come up.  God was just testing our patience and faith.  He reminded us that "God will provide for all that we need here at the this table of plenty."  (One of my favorite songs to sing during mass.)

        Last week on Monday we planted our first field of soybeans which is extremely late.  The wet spring kept us out of the fields.  As you can see from the photo that the warm conditions last week helped the beans sprout very quickly. 

       The corn also liked the warm dry conditions.  It really took off.  Now it won't be long before it canopies over and you won't be able to row it anymore. 

Oh, No!

        Hard to believe it is the middle of June and we still don't have half our beans in.  Yesterday was a stressful day for my husband.  He started the day planting a 40 acre field which worked really rough because the weeds had gotten away from him with all the rain.  Then he went to a small field next to town we cash rent.  While making his first round with the field cultivator he got stuck.  He was watching the tree row to make sure he didn't get to close meanwhile a very wet hole was lurking.  By the time he noticed it was wet, it was too late. 
        Of course he first calls me to bring him a couple chains.  He thought if he unhooked the field cultivator and move the Cat Challenger to drier ground, he could pull it out.  So I dropped the what I was doing to go help.  Needless to say two broken chains later the field cultivator remained unmoved.  Next step call Frakes wrecker service in town.  The owner was gone on a run for a rolled backhoe, so his grandson came with their older wrecker. 
         Drew, Derick, and I got a double wench on it and tried again.  The wrecker pulled so hard it picked the front tires off the ground without moving the field cultivator.  Looks like we would have to wait for Drew's grandpa to get back.  So we took Drew back to the shop and we went to check on the other fields.
          When Ralph got back we all headed to the field.  After hooking up the second wrecker we were able to SLOWLY move the field cultivator forward.  As we were pulling it forward, mucky mud was building up around the tires.  Eventually the build up provided too much for the chains and we broke a couple more. 
         We rehooked and tried again, but this time we hooked the Cat up too with chains.  As it inched forward everyone heard a POP.  It wasn't a chain this time, but a pin on the field cultivator.  It caused one set of tires to go into the shovels and bent a thick metal bar. 
         After an investigation of the damage and discussions of what to do now, we hooked up the hydraulic hoses and tried raising the wings.  The broken side raised just fine folding over twice getting the broken wheels out of the way. The right wing still had all the pressure from the built up mud, though.  It started folding up normally, but suddenly we noticed it was trying to fold both of them up together.  Then I noticed some metal brackets were bent. 
        As we re-evaluate the situation, my husband jumps on his phone to see if he has any implement dealership number in his phone.  It's quarter to five and if he could get ahold of them before five, maybe he could get parts a day earlier.  No luck:(
         Now we had to try pulling it out with the left folded up and the right not.  Once again everyone hooked up and tried again as a couple buddies from town were walking across the field to see what all the excitement was about.  Now slowly, but surely we were able to pull it out four hours later.
        We spent the rest of the evening investigating the damage and seeing if we could bend them back.  Thankfully, my husband's uncle said Derick could use his field cultivator while he was planting until the parts come in on Friday.

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds

       With all the rain and work on the bin, the garden was put on the back burner.  After one long hard day, I was able to till between all the rows, and hoe between the plants to get the weeds under control.  In the picture you can see a row of peas, two rows of green beans that are trying to recover from a bug attach a couple weeks ago, a row of onions, a row of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts, and a row of corn.  We also have sweet potatoes, red potatoes, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, radishes, beets, carrots, okra, cucumbers, and zucchini. 

 

       Once I got the whole garden tilled I added four more rows of sweet corn, a few eggplants, pumpkins, and watermelons.  Since this is my first year planting in our garden it will be interesting to see how well each vegetable does.  

       Earlier in the spring you might remember I planted different fruits.  Well here is our strawberries now.  I was able to pick a cereal bowl full of strawberries. In the background is the new grass seed I planted.  It did come up, but there are many weeds that joined it. The other parts of the yard came up without the weeds, luckily. 

It's Up!

        Tuesday, we finished putting up the sides of the grain bin.  With help from a our fathers, a couple high school boys, and a few neighbors we were able to add six more rings to complete the bin and anchor it to the concrete in one day.

        During the whole process people kept telling us stories of what they have used in the past to put bins up.  They used hand jacks where you had to have one person per jack and crank it up.  Luckily we were able to rent these jacks that raise with the aid of hydraulic hoses connected to a motor in the middle.  First you evenly space six of these around the bin before drilling a hole in the concrete and anchoring it to the ground. The upper red bar that has seven holes.  Each of these line up and bolt to the bin walls.  In the background you can see seven tiny little holes were these were just attached to the bin.  Once each one is a attached you fire up the engine and push a lever to raise it.  They work like a dream!

        The inside ladder helps you get in and out when the grain is higher than the door. Also, you can still see the row of bolt holes we need to finish after we took down the jacks. 

        Here is our door complete with lots of warning labels about the dangers of a full grain bin and when an auger is in use.  You might be wondering why it is so high off the ground that's because there will be a drying floor in the bin.  The bottom of the step is where the floor will be on the inside.

        Now you can see the outside ladder and platform.  You also might see that one row is slightly a different color.  That is partially due to the fact that six different weights of metal were used.  They measure weight of corrugated steel in gauges.  Let's say the gauge is 20 that means 20 pieces fit in one inch or 12 gauge means 12 sheets fit in an inch.  The top three rings were the lightest.  Then each ring got a little heavier until the two rings that encircle the door, they are the same gauge.

      Doesn't our work from last week seem so tiny now?  My husband keeps trying to convince everyone that stops by to look at the bin that they want to attach the stirators to those motors.   The stirators are three long augers that will dangle down from the motors. 

       Where's Ace?  Take a look at all the outdoor pictures.  Can you find our dog, Ace?

 

The to do list is shrinking.  Here is what's left.

1.  Attach fan to the back.

2.  Cut a hole in the bin and put together discharge auger.

3.  Put drying floor in.

4.  Bake cookies for electricians. (They are childhood neighbors of mine and like to give me a hard time.)

5.  Call electrician back to wire fan, discharge auger, set electricity pole, and hook up electricity to bins. 

 

Stirator Assembly

        Some grain bins have a stirator in them to help dry corn/beans down when they are harvested at too high of a moisture content.  When grain has a high moisture content it will spoil during storage.  Most of the time you can just put off harvest until your grain is dryer, but on wet years corn will not dry down.  Looks like a stirator might be a very good investment for this year.

        First we drilled holes for the brackets that will support the stirator as it turns around the bin.  Then we put the blue bands in place for the wheel to travel on.  Finally we tightened all the nuts and bolts. 

        Here you can see the wheel attached to the I beam.

        Until we were ready to hang the I beam from the center, we used the scaffolding to support it while we attached the three motor mounts, chains, pulleys, etc. You can see the instructions manual resting on the I beam.  We didn't always read it first so sometimes we had to take it back apart and redo it.  Other times it was very clear where pieces went without reading.  

        There are three stirators.  One is fix on the end of the I beam, next to the track the beam follows as it circles the bin.  The other two travel back and forth on the I beam to cover all the grain between the middle of the bin and the outer wall. 

        The electricians came this morning and ran some wires and conduit to power the stirators, spreader, and lights for both inside and outside the bin. They will have to make one more visit once the whole bin is up to wire the grain dump and fan.

Once they left we were done with the scaffolding.  Now you can see what the I beam hangs from. 

        Here is a view from on top the grain bin.  Corn/beans will dump into the top of the bin from an auger.  The spreader will then spread the incoming grain evenly around the bin. 

        When you have moist grain you will turn on the stirators to stir the dry grain from the bottom of the bin by the fan to the top.  Then the wetter grain will be closer to the fan to dry out.  The stirators are small augers that will attach with pulleys to each motor. We have to wait until all the rings are on to attach the augers, but everything else is ready.  

Day Two

        This is where we began day two at.  Our goal to get the last roof pieces on, attach the roof stabilizers, finish the vent lid, and tighten all the nuts and bolts.

        By our calculations we thought we would be done by early afternoon....WRONG.  It was another 9:00 quitting time. 

        Do you like our make-shift ladder?  On day one and most of day two this is how we got in and out of the grain bin.  Two straight ladders tied with a piece of wire.  Not so much safe, but it worked temporarily.   

        First we finished installing all the roof panels.

         "I'm ready babe.  Wheel me back to the middle." 
         After we got each roof panel attached to the center ring, we had to start thirteen nuts and bolts that span the length of the panel to hold the two pieces together. 
       

        From the scaffolding my husband started the first six nuts and bolts skipping the third row. I used a tall ladder to get the next couple bolts, skipping the eighth bolt. Then my arms were too short to reach so someone on the outside held the bolt while I screwed in the nut from the inside.

        Last piece!



        The roof panels went together smoothly.  Next came all the challenges. 

       First we attached the rods next to the manhole and tighten all the adjacent nuts and bolts.  These will serve as the ladder to the center fill whole. 

        Next we attached the brackets on the third and eighth row from the top.  These two rows have stiffener pipes that encircle the bin to give it support since this style bins lacks rafters.  This took a little while because we had to cut the pipes to fit our bin. 

        We also installed the platform that gives you something to stand on as you go from the ground ladder to the manhole or from the manhole up the bin to the vent.  The platform is so nice now, but will be even more handy when we have all the rings on.   

        Another task for the day was to install the outdoor light.  Late harvest nights will be much easier when you can see what you are doing while unloading the semi into the auger. There is no power to it yet.  We are getting all the electrical work ready.  Soon M & M Electric will come and connect electricity to everything.
       It doesn't seem like a lot now, but with all the little problems that popped up along the way it took us all day.  Huge thanks to a couple neighbors and my dad for working through the hot sticky day!

Grain Bin Roof

        Tuesday we began our week long project...start assembling the grain bin.  For most buildings you start from the bottom and work your way up, but not with grain bins.  We started with the second ring from the top.

        First we took a crayon to scribe a circle on the concrete.  This way we know exactly where to set each new sheet.  Then we took our first two pieces of the thinnest corrugated metal, applied a line of glue next to each bolt row to water seal the joint, and lined them up on our blue line.  Next we screwed a nut and bolt in each whole and repeated it until the twelfth sheet completed our circle.  All the nuts and bolts were only finger tight at this point.  We had to wait until roof was completely attached before tightening them up with a ratchet drill.  My husband and I were able to complete this ring by ourselves.



       Once the second ring was complete, we were ready for the top ring.  This ring was the same as the last, but we also had to screw in the row of bolts on the bottom of the first ring with the top of the second ring.  Luckily my husband's father came out at that time because it was challenging holding the top piece up on top of the second ring before attaching a couple nuts and bolts with only two sets of hands.  Surprisingly these two steps went rather quick.  We were finished before lunchtime. 

        While we were attaching these brackets to support the roof and anchor them to the top ring a neighbor from town stopped by.  He could see we were starting and wanted to help until he had to go on duty for the sheriff's office.  (You might notice the ground looks wet, luckily the rain held out all day.  It rained during the night and I snapped these pictures the next morning before we got started again.)

        Here are all the roof pieces, 48 to be exact, waiting to be screwed down.  

        We raised the center red rod with a red circle on top to 180 inches, I believe.  It will support the round silver roof vent until all roof pieces are in place.  Then we will lower the red circle down.  For now each roof piece will screw into it with two nuts and bolts. 

        Here is another angle, but of course 3/4 of the roof is up at this point. 

        These are the brackets from earlier with roof pieces attached to them.   

        While the top piece attached with two nuts and bolts, the bottom joins with three.  Each roof piece begins and ends with the V piece.

         One thing that is interesting, you can't start at one side and keep adding the next piece as you go around. Instead you have to add one piece then add the one opposite it. Next you add the piece in the middle of those two and the one across from it. After those four pieces are up, you have the bin split into four equal pieces. This gives a little more support to that red rod from earlier. 

         Once you have those four pieces in place you go around the circle adding a second piece to each of the first four roof pieces.  The second piece lays over the V of the first piece. 

        From this angle you can see they overlap to make a water tight seal.  You might be wondering what the piece is to the left.  It is a roof vent.  There are 12 of them to let air circulate.  We alternated them every four pieces. 

       

        We kept going until we got about this far on each of our four sections.  Then the wind started to pick up.  It actually moved the whole thing an inch.  At that point we decided to stop and get it anchored down to the concrete before the wind took it away.  The dark objects at the bottom of the picture are actually the jacks we will used later to hoist it up as we add new layers, but for now we screwed them to the side of the bin and then screwed them to the concrete with anchor bolts. 

        After it was anchored down, the wind let up for a little while and we decided to get the west side done to help block the wind.  We put the last piece in to complete the west side at 9:00 p.m. with flashlights.  After covering everything up inside with tarps we called it a night.