That be me running the skidsteer with the grapple. I have to run across the rutted lumpy piling grounds nigh on to a quarter mile or so, to get the pipes where they're stored in a tall pile that threatens to fall on me ever' time I grab a pipe...
Then... after I peel myself off the ceiling, belly bar and various pieces and parts that that damned diesel bucking horse has splattered me on as I thump and buck back across that ground as fast as I can tolerate in that machine... I drop 'em in stacks three deep or so, along the fans that extend down either side of where the pile is building. Basically staging them until we need 'em.
Dan, a bob cat maestro, runs the other bobcat... and he kinda percolated up to be the head of our ventilation crew... which is him and me. I swear, the man can do things with a bobcat bucket I have difficulty doing with my fingers!
So... the deal is, there are big fans that shove air in through these perforated pipes... pushing the air up through the pile to cool it. They don't want the beets getting too warm in the storage pile or they rot.... which kinda degrades the ability to turn 'em into sugar!
We have to fit the pipes together as best we can. Now, if they were new and fine that might not be much of a problem. Buuuuut since they're all more than a season old, and have been buried and dug up several times... they are NOT in what you might call... good... condition...
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| *Ventilation Pipes under sugar beet storage piles* |
So, Dan and I end up trying to crochet a steel ventilation tube out of corrugated junk with bobcats and imagination. That pic up above was just about the last of the decent pipes... Now... since I ain't got time to gather the pics of the rotten stuff :) imagine trying to fit those pipes together when one is squished oval one way... and the other is flattened another... and the perforations all need to be toward the bottom....
some ends are crushed so they can only be used as the last pipe. Others are bent, warped and overly distressed... buuuut... they're what we got to work with so we tease 'em, squeeze 'em and push 'em with machinery until we've got a tube they can pump air through.
And... not really seen in these pics... are the semis full of beets... some weighing 125,000 pounds 0f beets PLUS the truck... roaring around you. Empty rigs leaving and loaded pulling in, all in a hurry cuz they want to get back and get another load... and the piler booms swinging back and forth... and ground crew walking around... and your goal is to not BE run over by the big ones... and not run over the walking ones!
... and not break anything while you're dodging all the things that can quickly convert you into fertilizer! :)
The piler that requires ventilation is the biggest one, the one one the left. There's two more pilers on these grounds not in the pic. One behind me and a fifth out of frame to the left... so... there's trucks of various sizes, from 55,000 pounds of load to 125,000 pounds scrambling around trying to find the piler with the shortest wait... and me threading through that mess hauling 24' culvert pipes with a bucking bobcat... oh yeah. Guaranteed to bring on a desire for quiet and a beer... or nine...
Oh... and when necessary I zip over and swap the grapple for a bucket to clean up a mess dumped by a truck if Dan is already tied up cleaning up another mess... then swap bucket for grapple and get back to hauling and setting pipe... really boring day with nothing to do :)
Buuuuut, after doing this all day... Me in the skidsteer and her on the ground crew... we go into the Quality Lab for a few hours...
Tonight which of course... after the day job gets more difficult because of the degenerating quality of pipe left... I go into the lab, where I run the outweigh scale... and... the rasp which cuts the samples is starting to fail. I can hear the bearing making noise...
... and the dump that dumps the sample beets into the rasp won't dump... so I have to force it each time with a shove... and then... and THEN and THEN! The scale itself takes a Dump! and goes spastic...
So there I am operating the scale... with no dump, no scale and a failing sample cutting rasp... Fun Times girls!
You got those same two choices. "Tuck your tail and ride for home and wait till it ends"... orrrrrr... " Pull your hat down tight, grit your teeth, bow your head... and ride into the wind."
Ha ha ha ha ha... I might be noisy with complaints and grousing from time to time... but this child ain't never got fond of or gained much of a handle on quitting. We just pushed on through and got the biggest night yet of the campaign processed and done.
They say were somewhere in the vicinity of 40% or so harvested... so juuuuust a bit of work left to do.
This is what a Cowboy does when he gets to scheming. ;)
...and now... I'm gonna knock back that second beer before I climb under that east German army wool blanket that keeps me warm at night! :)
Brian
1 comment:
Very educational post.
Next time I have a pickled beet, I think of you.
Ed
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