Chuck Zumbrun

Tales from Skunk Hill

Auger Go Boom

We had a storm go through last night. It didn’t seem that bad at our place, the wind blew, but we’ve had much worse.

We went over to Tri-Lakes to Portside Pizza for supper and we were surprised by how many trees and limbs were strewn everywhere.

And I was really surprised went I went over to the farm this morning.

Boom!
Boom!
Boom!!
Boom!!
Boom!!!
Boom!!!

The auger that goes from our corn dryer to the storage bin toppled in the wind. Not only that, it managed to hit the electric meter[1] dead center, smashing it.

That auger had been sitting in the same spot since 2008. We’ve had terrible storms since 2008, including the derecho of 2012.

Derecho 2012

There’s a 91 mph wind speed label right over our place on that graphic. And the auger stood just fine through that. Yet whatever went through yesterday took it down.

Fortunately we won’t be drying corn and needing this auger for at least 6 weeks, so we have plenty of time to figure out whether to repair or replace it.


1. What was really cool in all this was that we found out about it when our local electric cooperative called us to tell us something had happened to the meter. They know in real-time whether the meters are working or not.

One response to “Auger Go Boom”

  1. Judy Avatar
    Judy

    We were in Virginia when the storm hit. Our house was ok, but we lost most of our puny pear crop and the hail nearly beat my onions to death. Neighbors, though, lost trees, shingles, sheds, etc. Just south of town, the man with the airplane lost a shed and across the road his neighbors have one sitting in the middle of their driveway. The house just north of them had a barn collapse. All of that is probably in a direct line with your auger.

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