Gettin' The Crib....

A few months ago, I managed to latch onto a really nice wire corn crib. It was sitting on a farm about 3 1/2 miles from here. I had driven past it several times, and decided to call the owner to find out what his plans for it were. He told me that it hadn't been used in 30 years, so he didn't need it.

I had hoped to get it out of his property before now but things just didn't work out to where it could be done.

Last Friday, my neighbor told me that he'd like to get it taken care of today (Monday 24 Aug). I was glad to have the help, and glad to be able to finally bring it home.

Our plan was: (1) Remove a section on two opposite sides, so that we could hold the top and roof with our loader tractors. (2) Chain the top to our loader buckets and support it. (3) Remove the wires tying the top and roof to the 4 posts around the outside of the crib. (4) Cut the posts at the ground to get them out of the way. Pull the last ramaining bottom sections out of the way. (6) Gently lower the top to the ground.

This morning we started the process of taking it down for moving. We used a cutting torch to remove a BUNCH of rusted old bolts that held the lower sections together.

Things went pretty smooth. The old rusty bolts didn't put up much of a fight. The worst ones were the bottom bolts. They had sunk into the ground a couple of inches. It was a good thing that they only went in THAT far. This crib had been standing where it was since the late 1940's, so it was luck that it hadn't sunk further. We only had to cut four buried bolts, anyway, two front, and two back. This made the bottom come apart in 4 sections.

This is the front section gone. Our friend and neighbor, Frankie, is moving the ladder.


Here, we have the rear section gone, and are ready for the tractors. You can see the heavy wire that is holding the top section to the posts.



After we hooked up the loaders to the roof section, we had to untie the wire that held it to the posts.



We figured that we need a chainsaw to cut the posts off at the ground for the next step. We were shocked, amazed, and thankful, that the posts shoved over with little effort. This let the rest of the lower sections fall away so we could lower the top half.



Now, we GENTLY started to lower the top to the ground. We wanted to get it on the ground FIRST, then we'd pick it up a couple feet to get the trailer under it. We figured that DOWN would be a GOOD thing, we could pick it back up later.

We moved about 4' down, when my side "popped" over the lip on my loader bucket. It was chained, so it couldn't go any further, but it did make the whole thing tilt a little (...ok...a LOT...).



As Divine Providence would have it, it was a SLOW tilt. Once the front touched the ground, it was a simple matter to lower the rest until the whole thing was on the ground.



We placed a log underneath Frankie's side (the one with the yellow Minneapolis-Moline tractor) so we could get the chain out. All that was left was to load it up and head for home.

Here it is ALMOST loaded. We strapped it on, and hit the dusty trail....er.....road.



I followed along in my pickup behind Frankie as he brought it home. He stopped at his house for lunch, then brought it on down to our house afterwards.



Home at LAST!



We left it on the trailer for now, so we can do a little bit of dirt scraping, but at least it is here now. It won't take much to get it off of the trailer. I hope to use the top part as a turkey house.

Then again, maybe I'll get those Peacocks I've been wanting - now that I have a place for them.