grain bin death... and near death
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:19 pm
I know this has NOTHING to do with cubs, but everything to do with taking things for granted....
I read a posting on a man that died from silage collapsing on him in a bin on YT's forum. Reminded me of an incident that happened about 4 miles n. of my house in a little town of St. Peter Illinois, many years ago when I was a kid. Read this, and I almost guarantee you'll have a bit of a queasy feeling in your stomach if you know anything about grain handling:
It was late fall after a very wet harvest season. I was with my dad at the elevator, waiting our turn in line in our old
'59 Chevy dump truck, loaded with corn. Back then, grain handling was slow, and you could wait in a line for what seemed like a LONG time, especially if you were 8 yrs old. While waiting, we had gotten out of the truck and dad was talking to the elevator operator who was standing outside the scale house. A local repairman, who was about the size of a pencil, came up and spoke to the owner. I gathered from the conversation that one of the spreaders in the top of a bin wasn't working, and the owner told the guy which one it was and to go fix it.
The man drove over to the bins and got out with his tool box, and disappeared behind the dump shed. We had pulled up a few more spaces and were about to weigh, when the repairman came back to the scale house and told the owner, the job was done. The owner was surprise it was done so quickly, and asked how it was fixed so fast. The repairman said it was just a bad ground, and he had tightened it up and all was well.
Now it gets interesting....
The owner says, "how did you get to the spreader so fast? I never saw you climbing around up there."
The repairman says, "it wasn't a problem, I just walked across the grain and reached up and fixed it."
The owner says, "you must have been in the wrong bin... there is NO grain in the one w/ the bad spreader"
(anyone seeing where this is going?)
The owner takes the repairman over to the bin w/ the bad spreader, opens the door, and sure enough, no grain......except for the crusted layer stuck about 65' up in the air across the entire bin... that the repairman, carrying his toolbox, walked across..........
Anyone feeling sick? That was before the lottery was around, but it wouldn't matter... he'd used up ALL of his luck for that year I suspect.
I read a posting on a man that died from silage collapsing on him in a bin on YT's forum. Reminded me of an incident that happened about 4 miles n. of my house in a little town of St. Peter Illinois, many years ago when I was a kid. Read this, and I almost guarantee you'll have a bit of a queasy feeling in your stomach if you know anything about grain handling:
It was late fall after a very wet harvest season. I was with my dad at the elevator, waiting our turn in line in our old
'59 Chevy dump truck, loaded with corn. Back then, grain handling was slow, and you could wait in a line for what seemed like a LONG time, especially if you were 8 yrs old. While waiting, we had gotten out of the truck and dad was talking to the elevator operator who was standing outside the scale house. A local repairman, who was about the size of a pencil, came up and spoke to the owner. I gathered from the conversation that one of the spreaders in the top of a bin wasn't working, and the owner told the guy which one it was and to go fix it.
The man drove over to the bins and got out with his tool box, and disappeared behind the dump shed. We had pulled up a few more spaces and were about to weigh, when the repairman came back to the scale house and told the owner, the job was done. The owner was surprise it was done so quickly, and asked how it was fixed so fast. The repairman said it was just a bad ground, and he had tightened it up and all was well.
Now it gets interesting....
The owner says, "how did you get to the spreader so fast? I never saw you climbing around up there."
The repairman says, "it wasn't a problem, I just walked across the grain and reached up and fixed it."
The owner says, "you must have been in the wrong bin... there is NO grain in the one w/ the bad spreader"
(anyone seeing where this is going?)
The owner takes the repairman over to the bin w/ the bad spreader, opens the door, and sure enough, no grain......except for the crusted layer stuck about 65' up in the air across the entire bin... that the repairman, carrying his toolbox, walked across..........
Anyone feeling sick? That was before the lottery was around, but it wouldn't matter... he'd used up ALL of his luck for that year I suspect.
