Today’s post isn’t going to be about something currently happening on the farm. I’m going to take you back a few years to 2005. Our family stores a great deal of our harvested grain at our farm location. Since most of our acres are pretty close to the farm this assists us in saving time at harvest. No long lines or driving to town to unload. We also do not have to pay storage fees like we do at the elevator if we do not sell it right away, and of course we can pick when to sell it. That helps with the price (hopefully).
When I married my husband the grain complex was not what it is today. Like many farmsteads, they grow and change with time. In fact, the farm used to house many pigs and had more buildings when my husband was growing up. There isn’t a pig in sight now!
Back to the grain storage area of the farm! There were a few bins that had been added over time. My husband got a big idea and took on a challenge! He went to an auction that was 22 miles away from us one day and bought an grain elevator leg and scale.
I will start with a finished picture of the grain elevator leg so you can see exactly what that is, in case you have no idea. The white vertical thing reaching high into the sky with the white downspouts coming off of it.
My husband had to take the entire leg apart where it was located and have it hauled to our farm. He then decided to paint it white to make it look nice and endure weather better.
Before we could even begin to put the elevator leg up there had to be a “pit”. The grain is unloaded into the pit, then it is elevated up to the top of the elevator leg, and goes into the appropriate bin. There are downspouts coming off of the elevator leg at the top to each numbered bin.
The pit was dug. Sand, rebar, and concrete were used to build it. We hired someone to dig the pit and then my husband did the concrete work. (The years of construction experience sure does come in handy on the farm! )
My husband designed and constructed the entire plan. I am pretty impressed with his abilities, years later he designed and built out home. I am thinking this was good practice! 🙂
We used a large crane to add the sections of the leg going up.
Although this was a large farm expense, took a great deal of time and effort to construct, and wasn’t brand new, it has helped our farm operation a great deal. It has done this by saving time by not hauling our grain during harvest to town, not having to move augers to bins , and storage fee savings to name a few.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment. Let us know if you are interested in knowing more information on our grain operation! What do you want to hear about from the farm?
Grace is a gift,
Julie
In Between the Sunsets of Life 