Chuck Zumbrun

Tales from Skunk Hill

Giving the Corn Dryer the Finger

I was working on the corn dryer this fall. We were in the middle of corn harvest, pedal to the metal, corn everywhere, and the doggone corn dryer wouldn’t light.

I crawled up on the thing, 10 feet off the ground, and started working through the mean little access door on it[1].

As usual, I didn’t have the right tools, and it was dark and I couldn’t see what I was doing. I swung down off the dryer, and …

… my wedding ring caught on the edge of that mean little access door and I was swinging there, hanging by my ring finger.

Bleeping bleepity bleep! That hurt! I got my feet around onto the ladder and took the weight off my finger.

I shook my hand and looked at my finger. I cussed Farm Fans for designing such a stupid piece of junk, and then I looked at my wedding ring and my aching finger and I thought about Debbie and I thought, “it was worth it.”

Not taking this ring off. No way.


1. Honestly, what’s the point of an access door you can barely get one hand through? Would it cost more to make the door bigger? No. Would it compromise the strength of the dryer? No. I don’t get it. The only thing I can figure is the designer never had to actually try to use the thing they designed.

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