Murphy's Law...

You've probably heard of Murphy's Law...you know...if anything can go wrong,  it will.

Well, today being Saturday,  it would have to be the day that the barn cleaner broke.  The barn cleaner is one of the most crucial pieces of equipment in the barn. It's the only way to get the manure out of the barn, and we use it 365 days a year.

As Jim was cleaning out the east side of the barn, this piece...the one that holds the chain in place...broke...

What do you do on a Saturday morning, when most businesses are closed? It's not something that could just be fixed at home.  Jim got the piece off the elevator and eventually found an Amish business close by that could repair it. They had to do some cutting,  grinding and welding, and after about 1 1/2 hours, we were good to go again.

The bill? $13.00.

It wasn't an easy 1 1/2 hours...its never fun to be covered in manure ( Jim), and I was trying to be helpful while fighting the flu. A friend from church had just texted me to see how I was feeling, and I asked her to pray for my attitude and that Jim would be able to fix the problem. I'm very grateful to say that what looked like a day where Murphy's Law would win, it lost big time.

Could We Start Over Please...

You know it's going to be that kind of morning when...

...you're laying in bed, hitting the snooze repeatedly, trying to persuade yourself to climb out and face the day (can you tell I am NOT a morning person?)...and you hear heavy footsteps walking across the kitchen floor downstairs...the door to the steps opens and the light flicks on and off several times.  "Alica, could you please come out...a water bowl valve stuck and ran all night, and we have a major flood in the barn.  Plus, there's a broken stall, and there's a problem with the barn cleaner!"

So...you jump up and go downstairs and have to wait in line behind your daughter to get into the out-kitchen where the barn clothes are...she's already up getting ready for school.  (I really am NOT a morning person!) Say goodbye to the kids and head out to face the day.

Jim was right, there was a major flood.  One of the water bowl valves in the second row stuck all night, and there were about 3"-4" of water in this area you see here between the 2nd and 3rd rows.  Here it is all cleaned up...it's one way to deep clean the barn!

I swept, and swept, and swept some more.  All that water went into the gutters.

The gutters are probably 8"-10" inches deep, and soon after I started sweeping, they were completely full, almost running over.  This is after the water has all been swept up and Jim's been scooping for awhile...

He scoops the water out of the gutter and into the barnyard...

What a mess...

That took about 45 minutes, but is now finished.  The cows were mooing hollering because they were hungry, which only added to the chaos.  We had to wait to feed them though, until we could push the feed carts through.  Now we're running the cistern today, to give the well a break after the water ran all night long.



(the ironic thing is...last night I got home late after picking up Eric from an event, and I heard a water bowl running.  I thought about poking my head in the barn to check it out, but figured it was just a cow having a drink.  Had I looked, most of this mess could have been avoided!  Always trust your instincts!!)

Here's problem number two...

Luckily, this cow stood still and stayed in her stall, just as if it wasn't broken. This is a primary reason that the feed carts are locked away whenever we aren't in the barn and the gates are all shut.  Had she wandered around and gotten into some feed, it could have been very, very bad news for her health!

And here's problem number three...

The barn cleaner chain is supposed to go around the sprocket, but as the chain wears thin, it gets loose and sometimes slips off, out of place.  This wasn't too hard of a fix...although Jim had to be pretty careful that he didn't get his fingers pinched while I worked the switch as he got it put back into place.  He tightened the chain and it was good to go.

Looking back at the past five hours, it really wasn't as bad as it all looked at 6:00 this morning.  Two of the three problems are fixed, and the stall will soon be too, as soon as I get off the computer and go help.

Never a dull moment!

Replacing the Barn Cleaner Chain...

Ok, you're thinking...this sounds really, really boring.  But...it's what we're doing, so it's what you get to read about!  :)

It's a dirty job, and it needs to be done daily...cleaning out the gutters full of manure with the barn cleaner.

The barn cleaner chain runs in a loop through each side of the barn.  It runs clockwise on this side of the barn...down the first row behind the cows, up the elevator where the manure gets scraped off into the manure spreader...back down the elevator, behind the cows in the second row and across the back of the barn, completing the loop.

As you can see, some of the paddles are either broken, bent or missing...

What you can't see, is how thin the chain links have become over time.  Manure is hard on anything!  This particular chain was replaced within the last ten years.  It was already used when we got it, but still had a lot of life left in it.  By now it was in pretty bad condition...the chain links were worn thin and would either break or slip off the sprocket at the top of the elevator.   Of course it would usually happen on a Sunday morning.

About a month ago, we carefully measured and ordered 148' of new barn cleaner chain.  Yesterday, Jim went to the manufacturer and picked it up.  It came in these two large, very heavy boxes...

Hmmm...I wonder how long it will stay this clean?  Look at how thick those chain links are, and how straight the paddles are...

Here Jim is working at removing the old chain.  You can see the new chain coming up the far side of the elevator...

 The new chain is now in place, but needs to be tightened and tested.  It can't be twisted, and needs to run smoothly through the gutters.  That's the old chain laying in a heap...

The paddles on this new chain are closer together than on the old chain, which will make it easier to clean out gutters, especially after a rain or when the gutters are particularly full.

Ready to go...

This is Harold, the man who has for years taken care of barn cleaner issues for Jim and before him, Jim's Dad.  He was here today to help...

Yes, it's definitely a job where you're gonna get your hands dirty!