Posted by Crazy Red Power in SE-WI on August 22, 2010 at 08:56:47 from (24.183.132.223):
It's been some week, that much I know. Monday through Wednesday consisted of rebuilding 2 deck bearings, installing a new axle & rollers on the back of the deck & all of the usual maintenance on the Cub Cadet 3225. As well as giving ALL of my mowing machines a well deserved bath.
Thursday was spent retreiving my "new" IH hay conditioner as the old IH #2 Conditioner took a #2 at the end of first cutting, this year. I managed to take in a good bit of backroads here in Wisconsin at 25 to 30mph for about, oh, 180 looooong miles (nope, no trailer). Got home, washed up & went to bed.
Must have been so exhausted from those 9 hours of exitement, I slept in. Had I known how Friday was going to pan out, I'd still be in bed. I woke up, ate & went on a parts run. Blabbered a half hour away in the airconditioning by the parts counter. Came home & had to go to town for Ma. Three stores later & some crummy gas station chow, I made it home to find out we were under a severe thunderstorm watch. Sure, I have a lawn to mow & a "new" hay conditioner to go over, why not add some rain into the fun. I got ready to slide the deck under the mower & saw that I had no washers between the rollers & the pins. Somewhere along the line I had gotten ahead of myself & assembled the rollers, forgetting I had fresh washers on order & they weren't in yet. Ok, I'll find something else constructive to do. I decided to inspect the new addition to the hay equipment. Good & straight with paint on the underside of the skid shoes! All of it. Nary a scratch, nuthin'. I stood up, dusted myself off & looked across the road to the south. For some reason, nightfall was rapidly encroaching at 4 in the afternoon or so it appeared. I hopped on my H & dragged the mower & conditioner up to the barn. While walking back to the house, the wind picked up a touch more & the dark clouds were about on my doorstep. With a good breeze in front of the storm, I wasn't figuring on getting a lot of nasty storm acton. I returned to the garage to jump on the computer & check out the radar. There was a severe thunderstorm warning box not 10 miles from the house. Outside of the box, just south of us, was a storm that popped up in 3 frames or 17 minutes with a dark red core. As I sat there reading data, the wind picked up enough to tip the small shelving unit on my workbench over. As soon as it started to tip I jumped up, caught it & was able to keep almost everything in the cubby holes. I closed the window & ran into the house. I looked out the window in the back door in time to see the garden (patio) umbrella leave the ground. The wind & rain were picking up something fierce. Visibility went from a mile to 15' in about a minute. The windows in front of me were flexing in & water was running in under the front door. I quick ran upstairs to aleart everyone the weather is real nasty & I would feel better if everyone would at least congrigate on the ground floor until this blows through. My girlfriend was looking out the window & had seen half of a tree come down right in front of her. She came running to the stairs as everyone was migrating down to the first floor. She informed us what had just happened & I told everyone to head to the basement while I figure out what's going on. As I was uttering those words, there was a bright flash & loud crash. I went to look out a window but it was steamed up. At that point the cat went whizzing by me & down into the basement. I figued that might not be a bad idea. We waited in the basement for about 10 minutes until the wind subsided. It was still raining & I could finally see out a window. Leaves & small branches everywhere!
After the rain let up, I went for a walk around the house. What a mess. My old hay conditioner was tipped back & resting on it"s deflectors & there was a half a pine tree laying next to the driveway. I walked around front of the house to find Ma's decorative ash split above the main crotch with a limb on the ground & one leaning against the house. One of the shutters was off the house, screws pulled right out of the brick! I started to walk to the back yard when I noticed the yellow stake, that was holding a cherry tree, was pulled half way out of the ground. It was flush with the ground when I pounded it in last year. Once in the back yard I noted the pines in the windbreak. Three of them had the top 10' - 15' snapped off. This is just a bit of the damage done by the wind here. Our neighbor on the other side of the street had greater damage. The yard light pole was snapped off at the base & almost crashed upon her late husbands hand made decorative wishing well. There were gutters & shutters missing & a good size tree limb through the roof of the sun porch. Quite a few branches on the ground, too. Most of the trees on her property are quite old. Same with the farm where I keep my equipment. Plenty of old boxelders & right next to the house. The darndest thing of it is, the branches that were supposed to give out & land on the house in the next big windstorm stayed put. The tree next to the driveway, on the other hand, split & almost landed in the pool. All the shingles on the barn stayed put. There are a few windows blown in & the wall on one end of the hog shed (no animals) was blown in about a foot. The window in the silo alley was intact, which is strange. That window is so old & wavy it resembles bathroom glass! The swinging doors on the front of the barn were blown half way in & stayed like that. There is also a mystery wire on top of the milkhouse. It isn't connected to anything, it just appeared. I went upstairs in the barn to find water standing on the floor. The underside of the roof is dry, but the boards on the south & west side of the barn were wet on the inside. Everything else was ok, so I went to open one of the sliding doors. Wouldn't budge. Two doors were busted off at the very bottom & on the concrete opposite the door track. I exited through the grainery to find more water on the floor of the east-side shed. After sliding around the east-side shed (wet grain dust on wood is slippery!) I was able to slide a door open & get out. The back of the barn was ok. I did note the lightning rod on the west end of the shed was about half it"s original height & had a melted glob of copper where the top half of the rod used to be. I noted another window out on the tractor shed (former pump & wash house) & went to investigate. I stopped about 10' from the shed when I heard a crunch. I looked down to find the window pane that was missing from the tractor shed. It somehow blew OUT of the shed & landed a good 10' away. This, folks, has me quite perplexed. How does a window pop out & fly INTO the wind? The two big windows on the shed face west & the winds were out of the south-west. The window landed straight out from the shed. Just don't get it (& I'm the weather guru 'round here!). The roof on the big shed is a mess with at least 3 good sized holes on the west side & a branch through it on the east. The swinging doors on the shed were pushed in & bound tight to each other. I didn't even bother to look inside. Didn't have the stomach to. It's where I keep all of my wooden equipment. :v( I had enough by that point & went home.
Cleanup began yesterday morning. Got the tree off of our house & went up to the farm to assist with the cleanup. Got done with the trees & started straightening the doors. We knocked off at supper time & rested for the rest of the evening. Today I get to finish the trees here & go up to the farm to assess the rest of the damage to the buildings. Oh horray, can't wait.
Well, that's been my week. Sorry to type so much. I just feel at times that I'm leading an orchestra for an audience of deaf people on the home front & after this week, I'm pretty sure I'm facing the wrong @#$%* way to boot! On the other hand, glory & laurals won't get the job done. Back tuit, I guess.
Y'all have a good'n! Mike
P.S. Yeah, a writing refresher course wouldn't kill me none either. ;v)
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
... [Read Article]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
