reprint from 1-13-2013 I believe
original title was
An Angel Must Be Following Me
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.
Sorry i tried to edit this original story and seem to run into problems as some things don't function right. rather than mess around, plow on through it. I still have plenty of good stories to write. in someways this is neat fitting this blog post to my job timeline. just like associate certain stories with songs the same could be said for jobs we had. just an interesting parallel of lifes many twists and turns , hills and valleys. seems like now when i am at my lowest i can still lift my head up and look around and see where i have been. and if there is a mountain in my road,it will show me where to go, all i have to do is climb some more and the path will be clear.
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.
Sorry i tried to edit this original story and seem to run into problems as some things don't function right. rather than mess around, plow on through it. I still have plenty of good stories to write. in someways this is neat fitting this blog post to my job timeline. just like associate certain stories with songs the same could be said for jobs we had. just an interesting parallel of lifes many twists and turns , hills and valleys. seems like now when i am at my lowest i can still lift my head up and look around and see where i have been. and if there is a mountain in my road,it will show me where to go, all i have to do is climb some more and the path will be clear.
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