New Project Unveiling!

 It's Sunday, Easter, and here I am a 60-year-old man (kid) looking for my Easter basket. Through each of the cabinets in the kitchen, under the sink in the bathroom. She saves me a little suffering by telling me that it is not on the lower level so, upstairs I go. Under the bed, in the shower, the drawers of the desk.......She's just laughs at me. Finally, on top of the grandfather clock I find my prize!

Since Barb was playing games with me this week, I thought I would play a game with you. If you are involved in the Frenchy community on Facebook, you would know there are lots of pictures posted with the title of "Find the Frenchie" with a French Bulldog hidden somewhere in the picture. Well, here is my version of "Find the Frenchie"..... You may have to zoom in to find her. 

You may wonder why she is hiding. Well, she was a very bad girl this week. Actually, it was more our fault as someone made the bed and left one of her toys under the covers. 

Guess it is time for a new bedspread!

The snow is all gone now, almost 30" gone in a week. How did it all leave so fast? This is how....

We had another first this week! Well, it is the first time we have observed it. We have elk in the area, and they pass through our property a few times a year, usually at night but this morning when we woke up, there they were! Over 70 elk meandered through our pasture eating grass as they went. What a way to start the day!

We spent two days this week getting the last of the tin up. The corner angled pieces were a little more challenging as the longest pieces were almost 16'. Thankfully, we were able to use Kevin's sheetrock lift to hold them up while we screwed them in. 

Once all the tin was up, we could start on the beams that Barb had previously sanded and stained. They are going to be placed everywhere there is a post, a total of 11 beams when all is said and done. 

Now for the big unveiling..... Because we do not have enough to do, we decided to start yet another project. One that we have had in the back of our minds for over a year and were just waiting for the right time. 

I first mentioned this project last October in this post when we leveled out an area just off the porch. Well, this week I was able to take the next step. My nephew-in-law Ryan grew up on a farm about 4 hours east of us in Wood, SD and had just the right item we needed to get started. All I had to do was go get it. 

Here is what I went to go get.... A grain bin!

There was just one stipulation. I could have the one for free if we took down both of them. Kevin was nice enough to volunteer to come along and help. We left the house at 4:45am and drove to Rapid where we met Ryan. We followed him for the next few hours and arrived at the farmstead where we met his mom Lisa, and dad Rob. Both very, very nice people.

The five of us then spent the next 8 hours dismantling the two bins. Being farmers, Rob, Lisa and Ryan are hard workers, so it was pretty much nonstop work. Except for lunch break where Lisa made sandwiches for all of us. 

The idea was to put a chain through the top of the bin and attach it to a tire. Then use a loader to lift the bin, suspending it so we would dismantle it ring by ring. Easier said than done but they got the tire attached to the chain. You ever tried to carry a tire and rim up a ladder, hold it over your head and attach a chain to it? Not an easy task. 

While they were going that, Kevin, Lisa and I worked on removing the bolts holding the bin to the ground. The next challenge was the fact that the bottom ring was cemented to the ground, and we could not access the bolts.  So, we decided to leave the bottom ring for the moment and removed the bin a level up. 

Here is a short video showing how that went. 

Then we removed each layer, lowering it as we went until it was just me inside the top as I removed the top ring and flanges. Then we set about grinding off the bolts on the bottom rim, a pain in the @ss.

A few hours later we had one on the trailer and one more to take down! Kevin and I were back in the truck a little after 6pm tired and ready for our 3 1/2-hour drive home. A 16-hour day but we now have our grain bin! 

The next step is prep the pad site by leveling it more, run electrical, pour concrete and put it up! This will probably not place until later this summer as we have other plans for the rest of the spring. When it is all said and done, it will look something like this....

That's it for now, the suns out and we gotta get back to work!