flowers for kev

           rarely do i get flowers , except when i buy them myself. a special friend bought me some and they are lovely , more so because i would hardly spend money on them as i now manage a greenhouse, and would only hope i can grow such beauties . it sure has brightened a winter wracked kitchen on which i will spend awhile getting the gray out. but the flowers sure help. thank you again. 

         and i am buying flowers and starting baskets. in fact it was a month ago i started about thirty baskets and transferred to the greenhouse. after which winter started with a vengeance causing me more harm than good. burnt up a bunch of lp gas fuel and decided it was time to convert to wood. even though winter is still nagging on.  it doesn't take much sun  to get the greenhouse up to 80 degrees and it wont be long till i will need to ventilate. i had never expected to be running a greenhouse and to say the least this is still a new adventure to me. i only plan on being in this business for the next 10 years, and hopefully by then i will know everything you shouldn't do in running a greenhouse. 

        the greenhouse is owned by yockey farms which is a family corporation and the name is in honor of my grandfather and grandmother with out whom , our family would have been a lot worse off. this is a new adventure for us. the greenhouse is located at 7528 e. sparta ave. magnolia ohio, 44643. i am the resident carver and chief and cook and bottle washer. i know all but i am a  hardly get anything as much as i would like to get done type person. wishing for wasted youth i spent freely to come visit me again. with help from a friend , i am getting closer to resembling a greenhouse operation. 

       it is time to go to the next step,  to try and make some money. the greenhouse is loaded with pine trees that need to start moving and yockey farms  is  offering for sale pine trees out the door in original pots at 5.00 per tree as an arbor day special. originally i had planned to plant on reclaimed strip mine land but the lease is still being held by the coal company. also i originally thought that by planting in pots would assure a lower mortality rate among trees as compared to bare root planting as they normally come. i feel it has helped me preserve more trees especially during last years drought conditions. the trees are growing great and will soon be out of the pots with most needing re-potting,  save me some needed soil and plant directly into your yard or fence line. their size should surely help in easy identification to prevent loss due to mowing or weed whipping. most are in the 2 foot range and taller, with well established roots. 

      why plant a tree on arbor day? why not . maybe you were going to jump in your new corvette and take a quick trip to the beach , or maybe it was pontoon boat trolling the shores of the ohio river looking for a place to tie up. it is about balance in life. as humans we have become real good at taking but find it much hard to give, especially when it comes to the environment  we expect our politicians to look out for our best interest when it comes to our consumption practices. unchecked petroleum prices grow exponentially as profits do also , while oil spills, fracking , and the impact on the environment. the wellhead and the pipelines that criss-cross our nation as well as the international impact all add up to one of many abuses we inflict daily upon an already stressed  ecosystem.  and politicians are to deeply embedded in the system to change it or want to. we are still studying the effects of the industrial revolution and how it impacted our weather and climate today, yet not really understanding completely mankind's role in how we affect everything us.  

        we should err on the side of caution and safety in health. even if global warming didn't exist , then what harm will a couple of more trees cause. none in fact it will be shade for a weary sole someday or food for a squirrel as it keeps on giving and at same time locks up- hydrocarbons and stabilizes our environment.  in the end rots to nothing and becomes nourishment for another of its kind or other plant life. your corvette or pontoon takes a little something away from the environment each time we use it. or worse yet it releases carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into the environment , at the same time the oil company is clearing a 100 foot right of way through a woods somewhere for a pipeline or a well head to keep you going down that road or up that river. . how many trees did the pipeline or well operators plant? none. 

        turn up your thermostat and the power company shoots another ton of coal buried under the hills of northeastern ohio , to sell to you. of that money , reclamation and air quality are  mandatory expenses comprising a large percentage of that money . but  are we getting what we pay for when it comes to matching original vegetation. if the trees were 65 percent oaks , then that is what should be replaced. we get the area reclaimed where mining exists , but barren level fields hardly reminiscent of anything of like it was originally is the norm . 

       i could go on and sound like i am on a soapbox but instead choose to not fight with industrial zealots who believe we can continue utilizing all resources without any fear to the consequence except when it comes to profits. i have a simple solution buy a tree and i will feel better about everything. 5 is nothing , it is half of the new anticipated minimum wage. every year i plan on having this sale and hope that each year it expands as more people get involved. prices may not always be the same. 

      if you are interested in buying a tree or trees, i will have some planting information available at time of sale. in addition i may be offering to deliver these trees to your place of residence lessening their fossil fuel requirements as i would plan my route and would have one vehicle driving as opposed to several vehicles coming to my place of residence. 

      some people who are not interested in planting or cant plant , may decide to use our service of planting on your property or ours if you are renting and want to do something to help the environment. our planting crew will plant on your land for 10 per tree. if you need a place to plant a tree to help do your part and want to plant it yourself , you can do it on our farm. the cost is 7.50 per tree. we will provide the shovel and the tree and a ride to your tree planting site on a wagon. this planting area will be set aside with promise to never cut the tree while our family retains the land. i will take a picture of your family with your tree if you like aalso for free . this is kinda like going out to cut your christmas tree only you are planting one that will be around a lot longer. our family originally bought this land in 1942 and really don't see selling anytime soon. but for as long as i am around will do my best to keep my word . we are not responsible for accidents , and large groups should make preparations in advance. we will do our best to accommodate handicapped individuals. but this is a farm. if participation is high then may provide hotdogs off the grill and a drink. possibly cider. 

        will have contact information on my new website : kevscarvings-chainsaw carvings -i am still working on it but if you go to my contact page and send me an email , i will get back to you as soon as possible. a receipt will be provided and all taxes will be paid for that amount. also on my website i will have yard tools available for sale in both new and used condition. at times i will have carvings available for sale also when  they become available. the website will be the business end of our yockey family greenhouse. 

      the official arbor day this and every year is the last week in april on friday the 26th . as more information and response becomes available will let you know in this blog. i will be looking forward to planting at least 10 of our own trees also as well as maybe even more. 

       

.halfway to my goal

      when i started this blog i had certain intentions or goals to achieve. to become more relaxed at writing and learning how to tell a story. the idea being that if i wrote a page a day , that in a year i would have over 365 pages or a novels worth of writing. well it has taken me a year to just get halfway. so be it but  i have learned a lot and now i have 183 posts out of 365 i was supposed to achieve by now . with 7489 hits or viewers  who have visited my site. i admit some may have been trying to delete me and just hit the wrong button. happens to me all the time , but anyhow i still plan to take credit for my half - baked attempt at trying to catch your attention. now i will work on getting your full attention as i think i might have something in my writing here. i am not out of stories but instead currently working on several . some of these require illustrations and these take longer.

       without you the viewer all of this is for not. thank you for being patient with me , and as well my peculiarities of typing only in small print. i have big hands and type with 2 fingers fairly quick and accurately and if i capitalize takes 3 x as long to type. maybe some day i will hire an editor and they can share title with me. i like to be able to type and have the words pour forth on the keyboard as i go along with the story. a little rewrite and i can move to next story. 

      most of what i have written and shared with you is my life experiences at times mocking myself , as i try to understand who i am and where i came from and where i am going to. the past is written and i am living the present and could only wish for one more day like this one. even with all the challenges i faced , i still managed to make the most of the day. 

     i would like to say it is easy being me , and i only wish it was so . but can still remember the wasted youth when i was strong , and had no purpose. i can remember when i couldn't ever imagine becoming aged, and spent little time thinking about it until visiting the parents or grandma and grandpa and looking at them and myself i would see their reflections in the mirror as i studied my face. and would say to myself is this my fate?
       it was and now i accept. i am slowly accepting their role , whether i want to or not. we all do. we become a new version of our parents. writing only comes natural to me as i do come from a long line of bs'ers . i am a little better at spelling is all.

 
         i was dads official crossword mystery filler inner. i can remember mornings in my late teens when it was still dark outside and dad would roll us out of bed about five thirty in the morning . the early hour would allow us a cup of tea or coffee, before heading out to bring the cows in to milk before heading off to school. i would sit in the living room waking up ,  and dad would sit at the dining room table and do the crosswords in the paper daily for years. he wasn't bad at it , but if it it was my habit  , i would have given it up if i was him. he didn't in fact. when he was stumped he would simply yell out to me in the living room how do spell this or that.

       if i was wrong he would yell back , that doesn't fit. to many letters or just plain wrong word. as if i could see the crossword puzzle at anytime. he hoarded it as if it was sacred. that was, until he was done , and then you could do whatever with it. and forbid the thought of ever doing the crossword before him. as he would say you would rather pour hot butter up a wild cats ass , than mess with his paper. a colorful quote he used frequently and this was dad. a little crude at times but cant we all be at times. as  some one told me once  that i was rude,  crude,  and socially unacceptable. that is fine  as i know at least i should have some company in that category.
       this carving is for my friend , she loves orangutans and i saw this guy when looking  at pictures. his pose is for real. she believes in saving the orangutans habitat as i do also and this inspired me to thank her with a carving for her efforts since it wouldn't be fitting to have one of her own in captivity. it is not done and i will post more pics including final ones.
      again thanks to all of you readers  who have followed me . i hope that i can improve on my writing and have you all breathlessly waiting for  my next blog. shouldn't be hard as we get older every day , the breathlessly part that is. it was a pretty lofty goal to achieve in the first place and even though i didn't do a page a day i still feel i have done well even if it is only in my tiny little mind. thanks and come again. -kevin
     

the day better homes and, gardens didnt come. 

   when we were a lot younger and may i say dumber . mom in her infinite wisdom came up with a way to try and make us do things we probably wouldn't have done otherwise. it isn't so much we were lazy , but living on a farm,  a child has so many responsibilities .  like play in the creek, climb trees , pick on your little sister , anything but clean up toys or straighten up the house. all of those things and a million others were more fun than work. but mom found the most innovative way to get us moving. bribery and deception. works every time. 

    grandma and mom were avid readers of better homes and gardens and the picturesque city houses that adorned the jackets of the magazine were a far cry from where we lived in our old farmhouse, heated with a clanging banging coal stove . about the time you had the house heated up in the wintertime  it was time to go to bed and freeze the next morning when you woke up to do it all over again.    there was always a copy or two of better homes and gardens laying around the house , where we would thumb our way through issue after issue pretending we knew what it was all bout. our home was a roof over our head . modest as it was it was hardly ever going to be seen on the cover of better homes and gardens magazines , but us kids never knew that. instead it left us wide open to be hoodwinked by mom. 

     it was the early 60's and my older brothers had just started school and were blessed with new found intelligence , of which they eagerly shared with me in their sarcastic i am smarter than you way. who was i to doubt their wisdom in such things as realizing a good deal when you see it. so when mom gathered us together to announce the news that the very one and only better homes and gardens was coming to take pictures of our house and that we needed to get things cleaned  up , skeptical as i was , i immediately looked at the enthusiasm of my older brothers and knew that this could be the real thing. 

    in fact as the work plan was laid out i could see my older brothers taking charge and informing us all of work needed to be done to make the place ship shape. toys were picked up and messes were cleaned up as mom silently slank off to a corner to watch this transformation of a simple farmstead into a picturesque front page cover . we worked ourselves into a frenzy , biting at each others remarks as we grew tired as we were just young kids and obviously not used to such a task. but on we pressed until we could find no more to trouble ourselves with. it was time to clean up and wait for the photographer to pull in with his shiny car. 

    mom was suddenly no where to be found , and we started searching as we needed to know when this big event was going to happen. apparently mom was overcome by the excitement and decided to take a nap. 

 hardly the thing you would think someone who is about to be visited by the favorite magazine of the time would do. we pressed her for more information and then she let loose with a big laugh as she lay on the bed and told us it was all made up and that in fact they were not coming and that she nearly burst open with laughter watching us scurry around like ants heading to an anthill , doing all we did . and that the place never looked better but even she would hardly doubt that better homes and gardens would ever visit us. 

      it was at this moment i learned something about my family. laughter is best when taking someone in the family for a ride , even better when it is the whole family. second thing i learned is that with all that fancy schooling my brothers had that made them better than me , they were still a long way off from where they needed to be, intellectually speaking. their eagerness to be sucked in to moms scheme in fact left us all a little wiser. i would  forever doubt their ability to be an expert on anything. looking back i still have to smile at this story, and isn't that what memories should be about. 

a missed stroke at golfing. 

   i had always wanted to learn golfing but i guess you just have to be born into it. numerous times of hearing the golfing stories of friends and family only lent itself to my desiring to learn more and do more. i have asked those same friends and family to take me golfing and of course have received the standard reply of "grab a bucket of balls and go t the driving range". now this is all quite nice but i have hit quite a few balls and already know how to chip it where i want to and would like to move into the full game status , to just see how i could do before i am to old to even walk the course. 

    i have come to the conclusion that no one likes to take someone golfing for the first time. and this could be for a variety of reasons , and the first being , what if they are better than me? nothing could be worse than being an experienced pro or at least you thought you were and maybe it is beginners luck , but still who wants to be out done by a new hack. i have found golfers pride is hardly outdone by any other field . number two  is what if they are worse than me. as who wants to drag someone around and listen to the old farts on the fairway bitch as your friend serves up the turf and leaves divots like craters on the moon. and three being as friendship only goes so far and friends dont take friends golfing for the first time,  or family as well . 

     cant imagine how golfing ever took off in the first place as it seems there is a clique you had to be aligned with in order to ever make it around the fairways. if you are rich , i am sure it is much easier to find your way around than if you are poor. because you could hire the pro to give you lessons and i am sure he would waste not time escorting you through the holes and counting his money . 

    being neither rich nor poor but somehow stuck in the middle and considering myself frugal i have attempted to edge my way into golfing with no real success. determined to try my prowess at golf i came up with the idea of heading to the local goodwill and obtaining a golf bag and clubs so i could practice at home in my yard  in perfect seclusion to assure i wouldn't make an ass out of myself when attempting to golf for the first time. that i would have an idea of how to hold a club and how much effort to use when making the chip shot to the tee. 

      at the good will i had noticed a lot of nice clubs and golf bags which i thought may have belonged to some now deceased old bitching fart who died of a heart attack on the golf course waiting and complaining about the newbie who wouldn't let them play through and was tearing up the course. the wife who could care less about golf but only as it served her well to get his ass off the couch and actually do something  could see no reason to keep his golf bag he cherished . off it went to good will in exchange for a tax receipt which she could use now since he was gone. 

      and so it was i was admiring one complete bag of clubs in fairly good condition , pulling each club out of the bag and trying to figure out its purpose when a snot nosed little butt hole come strolling by and grabbed a club out of the very bag i was admiring and wanted to buy. he began to swing it around in the store and nearly missing his brother who apparently learned how to duck at an early age , and began telling me how his mom was going to buy that club for him. a few more practice swings encouraged me to speak my piece before witnessing a bloody aftermath of mingled goodwill junk and his brothers scalp. 

     i strictly told him to put the club back into the bag as i was going to buy all of them for one price and that club was in that bag before he even came around. his brother heaved a sigh of relief hoping he would come to his senses and realize i was twice his size at 6 foot 4 inches and weighing over 240 pounds and looking like a pro football player, i might be someone he might listen to . no frigging way as this kid again took aim at the cheap crystal on the shelf in front of him . and i could tell by the look in his eye he was on a fairway and was getting ready to drive the white ball home. 

     again i told him i was going to check out and that i needed my club back in the bag so i could pay for them all at the same time. again he said his mom was going to buy it for him . and i said i could care less what he wanted but all i gave a shit about was getting that club back in the bag. 

     never have i seen the intestinal fortitude of a butthole so adamant about refusing to give up something he knew he would never have . a mexican standoff of sorts between me and this little shithead was happening but reluctantly he relinquished control of the club and slid it back into the bag. without checking anything else out about the bag and obviously disturbed by this imps behavior i almost ran to the checkout with my new found prize. 

      thinking the whole bag of clubs was 2 dollars as it was marked on the bag i felt as if i had made a steal. instead it was 2 dollars for the bag and 2 dollars for each club., which ended up costing me over 22 dollars for all. still not bad for a complete set of clubs including the one the kid had. 

     i had been working in the cleveland area next to some businesses that at lunch time would hurl their golf balls onto my work site as it was an open field.  so i had coveted quite a few golf balls and with my new bag of golf clubs in my yard at home could hardly wait to try out my new purchase, 

     i reached into the bag and grabbed a club i thought would be good for a chip shot . a nice little wedge that looked exceptionally clean and thought i would try and chip into a cup i had placed into the ground.i firmly took the club into my hand and immediately noticed something odd about the head. it was facing the wrong direction. in fact when pulling all the clubs out of the bag all except the one i had checked out at goodwill and the one the kid had in his hand , they were all left handed clubs. i could have killed that little snot if he was in front of me at that moment. i would have stopped at nothing less than beating him severely with every left handed club in that bag so that nothing could have been found of him and and then spit on the ground to wipe up what was left of the mess. and then i smiled.  

      realizing that kid had got me in the end, and at the same time had saved me a lifetime of frustration and money pursuing a sport that i was probably never cut out to play in the first place. since i have never had kids i guess this was also a lesson to that effect. that maybe i was never cut out to be the kind of dad who would tolerate that behavior . i still dont know how to golf or to to put up with little snots who cant take no for an answer. 

obama with his funny hayhat!

part 3-safety on the farm

       cows in general ,  friends or wild animals? is there a symbiotic relationship between you and your animal that you think exists, or is it this is just a wild animal and must always be treated as such. this is just another aspect of farming one really does not here a lot about in terms of how deadly it is and why it makes farming especially livestock production potentially dangerous. being in proximity to large animals up to 2000 pounds or more, along with nervous cattle in over crowding conditions with  nervous cattle thrashing here and there to avoid you can suddenly turn bad , with you as the aggressor being run over by one or all animals in their efforts to avoid you.i really feel no cow has complete sense of loyalty to you when t is in fight or flight mode , the same as humans in that respect. this is the same way nature reacts across all species. 

       any animal will first seek to save itself from general harm , then second the maternal instinct of species is to save those closest to them as in a cow calf  relationship. a mother cow will easily stand up to predators when it comes to protecting her own. also a bull will stand up for that cow and all cows as he protects his herd. it seems as if humans are the only ones who actually go out of our way to not only protect our own but somewhere along the way started protecting other animals in an effort to make available milk and meat to sustain ourselves during times of need. we have forced this free roaming animals into fences and then pens and now into feedlots. 

       i was brought up with cattle all my life. one of my earliest recollections was when i was about 4 years old and following mom to the barn and sitting and watching her milk. i had done the same with grandpa as he owned 6 cows they would hand milk into buckets and then separate the cream  cool the milk . then they  place the milk by the road where upon a milk truck driver would stop and drop off cans and pickup the milk that day to be taken to the malvern dairy for processing into ice cream. all i knew or much cared about was the nestles quik we had stored on the windowsill. and that if i took my mirrored painted aluminum glass with me to the barn i could have mom dump a couple of teaspoons of quick into the glass and fill with the warm milk straight out of a cows teat as mom would stream the milk from the cows bag and it would whip up into a frothy head as it filled the glass. it was warm through the sides of the glass , and this would feel good on your hands as you were holding it and stirring and mixing the quik into the fresh milk. what a treat for young boy and i learned that cows could be our friends . and then at 5, i sat down and milked my first cow grasping and squeezing my own frothy steaming glasses of milk as mom soon tired of me interrupting her milking to fill my tin glass.

      so me and sally a Guernsey cow who had teats like handle grips on a harley would repeatedly fill up warm glasses of milk for me to drink. this happened til i went to school and found that cartons of chocolate milk to be just as flavorful . now drinking unpasteurized cow"s milk is now making a comeback with some back to nature groups.
       safety and cattle should hardly be used when talking about my experience of milking cows. i have also been kicked, swatted, stomped on , bashed, bruised, and downright wore out, or made sick by cattle over the years. once my dad , my brother and i were walking across a pasture field when a large bull we had, jumped into the air and planted his feet and gave the characteristic, i am going to kick all your asses head flop , and snorted to seal the deal . at this point he started to pawl the dirt throwing it high over his back. dad looked at us boys and calmly said , we will charge him on 3 and as dad counted down we all lunged and yelled at the bull who was so scared he turned and ran like we were crazy, and we were . we had no choice but to be crazy and call his bluff. we couldn't all out run him and we were in the middle of the pasture with a long way to run to get to safety and what if one was left behind. we only had one choice to surprise him. not nearly as surprised as he was the next day when he went to the sale barn. we have never kept a bull who has gone mean. a mean bull can easily kill .
          once when working on a 250 cow calf farm i was entrusted with the feeding of the bull. he was a pure bred simental bull from the simen valley in switzerland. they are a gentile milking and beef breed , who has cows that easily go over ton a piece. producing large calves of over 110 lbs at birth. this bull was recently weighed at that time and was 2409 pounds. his head was massive. at times he would rip his feed pails away from the sides of the bull pen he was kept in. the bull pen was an outside and inside pipe fence which was over 8 foot tall and had bars spaced at 2 foot intervals on each wall. it was tough to fit between them , but sometimes you could squeeze through to retrieve the bull's feed pans as we were never allowed inside by ourselves.  but he needed fed and so i took a chance and opened door to retrieve his feed pails and . i closed the door behind me and now i was inside the pen and i tried to keep my eyes on him. but in a second , i must have glanced elsewhere. the next thing i know , something hit my legs and started lifting me up as if was on an elevator of sorts. i was climbing the side of the bull pen as i went higher. i continued when the pressure left my rear and then i turned around at the top of pipe fence as i was now crouching at the ceiling, to see what i already knew. that huge ass bull head had just threw me to the top of the pen. common sense should have taken over now, but it sadly didn't as i looked at that bull and decided that just escaping was not going to be enough for me or him . and that indeed he needed rewarded for scaring the shit out of me. so i decided to let loose with a size 13 shoe between his eyes as hard as i could. he shook his head and snorted and ran to the outside edge of the pen as far away from me as he could and sulked like a little baby as if i hurt him.
         and maybe i had , but he hurt me also. my unwavering acceptance of cattle and thinking i knew everything , did not help me a bit when , nature reared its ugly head as it does when you least expect it. i had allowed my guard to be down and in an instant i could have easily been killed. unfortunately brushes with death seem to accompany me at times of my life and yet i am still here. still have all my appendages and have only a sore back and some distant memories to show for my years. farming does put you in more of a position to be hurt but then that is the nature of the beast we call farming. you work alone for hours on end with heavy equipment and in remote locations and until the recent cell phone explosion , we were generally with out any communication. the cell phone has been a blessing and will continue to be in the future as farmers become more dependant and consistent in carrying them on their bodies everywhere. you never know where a heart attack may happen or for whatever reason you may need help , to know it is only a phone call away is a real blessing for all farmers and farm labor. let alone the ability to communicate with your workers to direct them on work to do. farming has changed

tough winter

    at least it was on me. soon after my last post and up until recently i have been sick . not your run of the mill flu sickness but instead full blown flu symptoms to i am going to die sickness. one trip to the emergency room and one initial trip to the doctor which started this whole thing off in the first place. and in the end can attribute all my sickness to to a new prescription , which was having an adverse reaction to my system. it was close to shutting me down at times. finally i kept questioning the new medicine and after finding out that it definitely interacted with my current medicine , i stopped it after again consulting with my doctor and went back to my old medicine schedule and began feeling OK as it took awhile to make a comeback and after working a little while still find myself weak at times. the joys of getting old. 

      the frogs were carved and painted just before Christmas and i was going to do some more trimming with my chainsaw when i burned the clutch out of my chainsaw. i continued on with a regular chainsaw and a couple of other electric tools i have and managed to get them painted just before Christmas, but they still were not done and now i was sick and waiting for chainsaw parts. 

    now i couldn't even make up a better story for my effort of trying to obtain the right part from a so called trusted authority on chainsaw parts. bailey chainsaw parts is one of the largest in the nation sending parts worldwide and specializing in carrying parts i need for my carving bars and chain. 

     well the first part they said they left at end of our lane in the paper box and then slipped a piece of paper in the mailbox saying the package is in paper box. anyone who has ever seen the end of our lane knows it is no place to leave a package in the open. it wasn't there and doubt if it ever was. only the tin man knows for sure and he isn't talking. i looked high and low for package and then went online to check the routing to assure package was delivered. i called ups (united parcel service) , and i couldn't even make it to a representative before being booted off phone 3 times. i called baileys and explained to them , and they started a search from their end and 2 days later after Christmas started to send a new part to replace the one lost. in the meantime ups called me and accused me of stealing the piece and were pretty down right outrageous in their actions of not really doing what they were paid to do in first place. deliver the damn parcel to the house. the lane was clear , my dog was in the house at the time they said they delivered. not once did they even bother coming up lane and delivering as they should, but instead hurled accusations at me for them not doing their job. 

      well after replacing the lost part their service has become considerably better. baileys continued on a down hill slide , as the part they sent to me wouldn't fit on my saw. i ordered another but again it was wrong. then i returned both of those parts as a salesman assured me he had the right part for me. it was the same part i had before . then they sent me a needle bearing as they felt the needle bearing was the problem. i checked the inside bearing race of the old sprocket i took off and determined the part i was getting from them was flawed and called and told the salesman who ordered parts for his saw, from his company and claimed they fit his saw which was identical to mine and couldn't see why the parts wouldn't fit. well  after a month and a half of being sick and dealing with all these yahoos who could do nothing but accuse me of malfeasance in not knowing one end of a chainsaw from another. i told them i had enough. i called another chainsaw supplier and found what i wanted and for one fourth the cost , at which point i called casey my expert at baileys and told them i had enough of making them and the postal service solvent again and i was returning their defective parts to first casey, the expert to install on his chain saw and if he could then to just keep the parts and i would absorb the cost . if he had problems installing on his chainsaw then they owed me a full refund and an apology for being such asses. 

        so far i have had a half ass apology as the parts were defective as i said. he said he was waiting on parts to send to me. i told him i just wanted a full refund of all money i have paid them since this fiasco began. i have  my chainsaw running again and with parts from a different company and still i am waiting on my refund to be credited to my account for absolutely nothing but a hard time. 

       no wonder i was sick. doctors who cant prescribe, delivery people who don't deliver and parts suppliers who send me scrap iron. whats a guy a to do, but worry about what is next. 

     

An Angel Must Have Been Looking Over Me

Silo Safety Part#3

     I have had the opportunity to work around silos from time to time when working on different farms. These can be quite deadly  also when it comes to farm accidents. Falling is probably one of the most common accidents , whether from inside or out side the silo,  Falls can be quite deadly. a ladder is usually installed on an inside chute of most concrete silos. these chutes usually house most of the door hardware necessary to unload the silo. and this closed passage serves as a chute for silage to be expelled from the silo. These doors are closed when filling the silo well above the level of silage to the top. A silo for those that don't know anything at all is like the large toilet paper cone next to the barn , and is used for fermenting of feed stuffs like corn and haylage, to be fed to the cows. 

     Numerous trips up and down the silo  are needed as the silo fills and over the course of the year as maintenance of the silos continue. Slips on the rungs of the doors can leave you hanging in the chute or allow you to fall to the bottom of the silo. Outside man ladders also have a protective cage that surrounds your back but vertical falling inside the caged area is still possible. a safety line is something that would allow you to have some level of safety if used properly. they usually allow you to drop only about 5-6 feet before stopping you . this should be used with a safety harness  and proper training on the importance of securing your fall line often as you ascend or descend the silo.Also ventilation of the silo is necessary before entering into area where the silage is stored. Silo gasses can be extremely harmful to you if inhaled .It is my understanding that they are  worse from the time of finishing filling the silo up to a month afterward , with the gas laying heavier close to the surface of the silage. a fan blowing air up he inside chute prior to entering should sufficiently stir the air and provide you with enough fresh air to prevent being overcome with gasses. 

      The  next biggest cause of accidents is being buried under an avalanche of silage. never enter a silo on your own without telling someone where you are , in fact you should have a team approach when you and someone else are both present as one always stays outside the silo in the event of being overcome with gasses. A life rope should be attached to a safety harness . in the event of the person in the silo needing help, first the outside person should try to extricate his partner with the safety rope, and if unable to do so, Immediately call 911 and get help on the way. never enter the silo to assist the victim who remains inside. The person helping may also succumb to gasses or possibly be buried also. One other possible means is electrocution . This happened to me when working on a 125 cow dairy farm in ohio during the winter of 1979.
       The farm owner's  name was Harold Nicholson and when I went to work for him I was getting 125 dollars per week and all the milk i could drink, As well, also furnished a 2 room little square house barren and desolate sitting on a corner lot. I had a  kit-bathroom and a living bedroom . just what a 6'4" inch ,240 pound man needed . no since wasting space.
      It was winter and in January with a cold spell in the zero's, silage began to freeze on the walls of the silo about 4-6 inches in in places and the automatic silo unloader would be moved in by at least 6 inches also as its wheels would run sideways in the silo and would run up onto the frozen silage.  being out of center was causing the unloader to stop its forward movement. also the temperatures had changed and now chunks of silage were beginning to fall and bury part of the unloader causing it to stop. what ever the reason it was important to have someone outside the silo and down on the ground , I was blessed with being inside pulling the frozen silage down. Now at this point i need to describe a silo unloader a little better.
      It is about 16 feet long and hangs from  a cable in the top of the silo. this cable is attached to a winch to raise and lower the unloader. Along the length is an auger which is directed to the center of the silo .this auger pushes silage into a blower which blows the silage down the main chute and falls 60 feet to another belt conveyor that moves the silage to the feed chute which automatically places it for the cattle in a long feed bunk. we could feed 80 -120 cows in a matter of minutes. Well many accidents are caused by this auger . Tales of farmers being chewed up in silos always haunt me every time i enter the silo.
     Well i had the silage  just about pulled down around the silo, level with the unloader . as it worked its way around the silo. If it would hang up on a big clod of frozen stuff I would lean my back against the cold silo wall and place my foot on the guard and push against the guard which when the loader is running would chew up the frozen hunk and spit it down the chute. The unloader was going great as it went almost completely around the silo with its wheel gripping the silo wall on its own and we were getting it operating the correct way, When it stopped by the door in its three and half minute trip around the silo. There is a stabilizing bar which hold this unloader in the center of the silo, and this stabilizing bar also serves as an umbilical cord for the motor supplying the electric power to run the electric motors which makes this whole thing work. Really neat concept when it works , when it doesn't it sucks as i was soon to find out.
      This stabilizer bar is attached to the door of the silo and need to be moved time and again as the silo is unloaded. The frame of each of these doors are set in concrete but extend to the base of the silo. so the doors are about 2 foot in height and it is about 3 feet between each door. So in a 30 foot  X 80 foot silo it will hold about 3000 tons of silage. Well as complicated as the unloader is it is a real labor saver. it can throw the equivalent of 40-25 pound bags of dog food down the silage chute and to the cows in about 2 minutes.
      Bear( actually intended to use bear instead of bare)with me folks as i am headed somewhere with this story as  I was in the silo by the door getting ready to help the unloader by grabbing the stabilizer bar as it was in my road and would give me better leverage, and i had my other hand on the door of the silo, kind of leaning back getting ready to give the unloader a push and i shoved hard with my  foot and then i felt an electric shot burn coursing  through  both arms , fingertip to fingertip feeling like it was pulling me into its grip more and i resisted so hard i exploded into a heap on the floor totally exhausted . My heart was beating out of my chest as I just laid there in a heap watching that same damn unloader that was trying to just kill me, Grind up that frozen silage and begin its three and half minute trip around the silo, just like it was supposed to run. Only problem was i was still laying like a heap on the silage staring at the auger opening side as it is now no longer being chased by me  but was chasing me and i wasn't moving.i was facing the death end of the unloader and it was running way to good.
       i tried to move but felt so sluggish. i tried to yell but couldn't be heard if i wanted to as the silage unloader makes a considerable amount of noise and my yells were being drowned out by the noise. i needed to get up and get by the door to be heard 60 feet below in the feed room by my boss Harold, who was oblivious to my peril.
       I needed to get up. Thoughts of being chewed and spit down the chute forced me to move and soon   I moved to an upright position, then stood up  and was able to lean into the chute and yell at Harold to shut it down. and of course he was hoping we had it in good shape but knew it had not lowered to its complete level , So he was apprehensive about shutting down. again i yelled louder and this time he shut it down and yelled angrily up the chute about not being placed right , and then i told him i was just shocked and was coming down and had no plans on going back up till he had a bill from the electrician in his hand.
       I had been shocked several times while working there, and Harold in an effort to save money  choose to do the wiring himself. Looking at one of his electrical junction box's is what what one would assume is a huge spider with legs in an electric line. I accidentally would come in contact with one now and then, while working, but nothing like the shock this one gave me.
      I was exhausted from the electric shock and also from him whining about how much it is going to cost him to get an electrician. Although the unloader was currently working it still needed fixed. So i got the hell out of the barn, before i said something i didn't want to. I headed for my  2 room house , and think about how I couldn't wait for my 25 dollar payday, couldn't say to much was good about the old days except being thankful I can sit here and tell you the story.
       After producing a bill when he couldn't find anything wrong and Harold had to still get the electrician. There was a short in the plug to the unloader and when I grabbed the stabilizing bar and then the door frame I grounded myself to the stray current to my shocking surprise. Lessons was learned . Farmers are too cheap for their own good and make poor electricians. there must have been an angel in that silo that day. I thought a couple times I was a goner.