Out with the Old...

Out with the old....

The focus of this picture is the mangled mess of steel laying there on the ground.
RIP old silo conveyor.  You've served well.

 

...and in with the new. 



Beautiful sight.
**Insert angelic music**
The conveyor that is diagonal coming out of the silo is the one that died and needed replaced.  

A very big part of our smooth-running operation is having our silos in good working order.  There are so many parts to keep up and working properly that I admit, I must not even know half of them.  Belts and pulleys, conveyors and all their working parts, unloaders and all their working parts, chutes, doors and bearing after bearing.... it goes on and on.  Just like any other working machine, our three silos have to be maintained and occasionally repaired.

The conveyor of the silo at the feedlot at Grandpa's was getting some age on it, a mere 21 years old.  (To make a potentially long explanation short, what we call "the conveyor" is the conveyor belt that leads out of the silo and, in our case, joins with another conveyor belt to get the feed in the silo to the bunk so the cattle can eat.)  The conveyor we're talking about here is used every day of the year, most of the time twice a day, and the years of wear and tear was really starting to show on it.  Finally, and unfortunately, the thing conveyed it's last half feeding on Friday night before it kicked the bucket.  Knowing that it was going to have to be replaced sooner rather than later, Papa Loren wisely already had one ordered to have it ready to be replaced just as soon as the old one went kerplunk.  You see, without the conveyor, there is no way to feed the feed lot cattle.  And seeing as how cattle generally are happiest and grow up to be nice tasty steaks only when they are fed, time was of the essence to get the silo back up and going.

Saturday morning, despite being sick and miserable with a nasty sinus infection, Josh left bright and early to head to a silo supply place just north of Maquoketa, an over three hour drive from Eddyville.  He got back home around 2ish and after getting a bite to eat, he and Loren started right in on the repair. The kids and I joined them shortly after.

The conveyor works from a motor.  The new conveyor could use the same motor, it just needed a new pulley put on it to make it compatible with the other new parts.  Heating the pulley usually makes it easier to take off the shaft, but I think they still ended up bringing it down to our shop the next day to use the pulley puller on it.

Did you know there was such a thing as a pulley puller?  Ya learn something new everyday, huh?

Quite the detailed instructions for all the parts assembly.  The conveyor came in four main parts with all kinds nuts, bolts, washers, lock washers, belts, etc. in various sizes to assemble them together.

Figuring it all out!  The motor runs the pulleys and belts to move the conveyor on the inside of the whole assembly, which you'll see two pictures down.

Three generations.  There's a reason I took this picture:  Josh remembers the last time this conveyor needed to be replaced.  It was in the winter of 1992 and it was Grandpa Elmer and Loren that replaced it.  Josh's cousin Seth and Josh were also there because there just happened to have been a winter storm that cancelled school that day, leaving the boys (who were in 8th grade, I think) home to be big helpers!

Josh was a little older than Caleb is now when he helped do this job with the older generation of men and so remembers it better than Caleb will.  But since Caleb (and Sarah Rose, for that matter) was with the guys for the job, I want him to have the story to pass on in his future years, too.  So in 21 years when the new current conveyor needs replaced and he's the one working with his father and his own son to replace it, I'll whip out this picture as a memory for us all that Caleb has already been there and done that, with his own father and grandfather!

Sappy, I know.

The pictures previously to this all happened on Saturday.  Removing the old hunk o' junk, getting the replacement and assembling most of it literally took the guys from sunup to sunset.   All of these next pictures took place on Sunday.  We do everything in our power to take Sunday as a day of worship and rest, but sometimes things just happen that are out of our control.  It's not our fault that the conveyor broke on the weekend and takes two full days of work to fix.  Josh and Loren neither one would have chosen to work on the Sabbath, but neither could they choose to leave the lot of cattle uncared for either.  So bright and early the next day, which unfortunately just happened to be Sunday, they were back at it to get the job done and their responsibilities attended to.

 

This is what the conveyor looks like up close.  There were fifteen feet of metal parts that needed assembled to make the main frame of the conveyor walls.  At one end, there is the motor assembly and at the other end is the enclosure that covers the inner belt from being exposed to the elements.

 

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, the cattle were starting to get hungry.  These cattle are used to being fed really good corn silage or haylage from the silo: the best of the best!  So when they were given a couple bales of hay, (really good quality alfalfa hay nonetheless!), they just kinda turned up their noses and refused to eat it.  Spoiled little things, they are!  By Sunday afternoon, they were bawling to be fed.  To pacify them, the guys made a temporary grass lot to put them in so they could munch on the grass until the work was finished. 

Putting the new conveyor in was a bit tricky. One end had to be put in the silo feeding room while the other end was lifted up at an angle to sit on top of the horizontal conveyor and secured.  The men did the brunt of the work while I acted as a third set of eyes, hands and go-getter when needed.

We took advantage of the tractor to lift the conveyor about half way...

...then supported it with the second tractor's bucket so it wouldn't fall.  Josh readjusted the lift chains and then the first tractor lifted it almost the rest of the way.  If you look in the picture, you can see the orange end of the new conveyor being supported by the tractor bucket and you can also see the horizontal conveyor where it needs to eventually rest.

 

While the tractors are fantastic at the lifting and supporting, they can't place the pieces exactly where they need to go, nor can they do the electrical work to get the motor working or do all the securing and bracing to keep the pieces in place.  SO.... up went Josh to do the rest by hand.

PULL!

The orange end of the diagonal section needs to rest on top of the horizontal section, then secured.   The pieces have to be perfectly aligned because when the feed from the diagonal conveyor coming out of the silo reaches the horizontal conveyor, it drops through a hole onto the horizontal silo out to the bunk.  If the pieces weren't aligned perfectly, the feed would drop out of the diagonal conveyor and onto the ground instead of the next conveyor.  Feed is money, so to speak, and dropping it on the ground isn't exactly ideal.  Putting the extra effort into the job to reach perfection really is worth it.

Finally at rest!

 

Now to wiggle it this way and that until everything is aligned just right.  It sounds simple, but it really is quite the process. 

 

Unfortunately (I realize that's about the third time I've used that word, but I'm tired and my vocabulary is limited right now.  Back to the story.... Unfortunately) the new conveyor didn't fit exactly into the same hole in the feed room wall as the old one did, so some modification via a chainsaw was needed to the feed room wall to give the conveyor enough room to have the right angle to fit where it needed to fit.

If you look past that small pile of all natural free fertilizer in the forefront of the picture, you can see the setup of how we used both tractors to get the conveyor up.

 

Most peoples knows that where I goes the kids goes, too. It's not always convenient, but it is necessary.  (Unless I wanted to leave them home alone.  And I think that movie pretty well taught us all that that isn't such a good idea.)  I have amazing kids!  They listen to what they're told to do, help when they can, usually play pretty well together and, most importantly, they stay out of the way when told to!!!  Here's what they did to pass the time:

I put an old piece of particle board down where I knew the tractors wouldn't be moving and where I knew I could see them.  They stayed in the spot for a loooooong time playing all kinds of made up games on that little 2 x 5 piece of wood..... until it started raining.  Of all the days to rain, it just had to rain that day.

When it started to rain, I moved them to the bunk, which is housed under a roof, out of the rain and still out of harm's way!  They rather enjoyed playing in the bunk!

Bad timing of the taking the picture. It sorta looks like they're arguing, but in actuality they are telling jokes and having a grand time.

Shortly after this, the job was almost done.  Done enough, anyway, that a third set of eyes and hands weren't needed anymore.  Normally we would've stayed 'til the end of the job, but it was cold and rainy so I got the kids home and into the dry as soon as I could.  Maybe an hour or so later, around 6:00, I got a text from Josh:

 



It was finally finished!  And working!  Better than ever!



 

And the snobby little cattle who were too good to eat alfalfa hay finally got what they wanted for the past 48 hours or so!

A farmer's (or his wife's) day doesn't always work out like it's planned to.  Saturday, we were supposed to meet with friends that we only get to see once a year.  That didn't work out.  We re-planned with potentially getting together Sunday, but the job took longer than Josh expected and that didn't work out either.  Sundays are a day of worship, rest and family, but sometimes life happens.  We didn't make it to church, certainly didn't get any rest and as for family time, well, we'll count the time in the feed lot by the silo as bonding time like only a cattle family can appreciate.  

 

It's never fun to have an unpredictable something come up that forces plans to be set aside, but you know what?  I wouldn't change my life for anything!  We miss seeing our friends.  Sunday morning felt empty without church.  The week already feels all jumbled up since we didn't go to church; I'm sure I'll be mixing up everyday of this week with another day.  And I swear I can hear our hour of Sunday afternoon quite time still calling my name.  But it's what we do.  Happily.  And together.  TOGETHER.  For that, I'll do it a hundred times over and then again.