Moving Tanks

A couple years ago Clyde brought in three, shiny, preowned, 1000 gallon tanks.  They came in so close to harvest, that Clyde scrambled around to set them up in the cellar.  He put up temporary wood blocks under the tank that were to be replaced right after havest.  Well, needless to say, the ‘temporary’ setup has lasted two years now.  And it has become glaringly obvious that the permanent (and SAFE) setup needs to be in place.

So concrete needs to be poured where the wood is currently.  And to do that, we need to move the tanks out of the way.  Moving these tanks required lots of feats of engineering that scared the wits out of me.  Good thing it was Clyde doing most of the scary stuff!  Here’s the setup:

There’s a pulley attached to the ceiling that the silver cable is running through….the tractor is used to provide enough umphh to lift the tank.  That’s the technical term by the way -  ‘umphh’.  Clyde mentioned something about hydraulics and horsepower, but since I couldn’t really concentrate on anything but stopping all the sweat in my body from pouring out the palms of my hands, I didn’t really catch the point he was making.

What I do know, was that as the tank was being lifted upward, the top would tilt precariously toward the tractor (and the tractor driver – ME – eeeeeek!!!!) while the bottom stayed pretty much in the same spot.  So some other fits of engineering were needed.  So that’s what you see with all the tie-down straps in the next pic:

I gave up.  I couldn’t handle the pressure.  So Jeff took the wheel, and our neighbor Rob came over to take the place of wussy me.  That freed my hands to take photos though!

Anyways, the two tanks on either side have been moved, and this is the last tank to get into place.  See that piece of wood on the ground with the big hole in it?  That’s what the tanks have been sitting on for the last two years.  So the wood is beginning to give out, and thus the need for concrete instead.  Plus, the concrete will be easy to keep clean.

Looks like Clyde is actually having fun.  He laughs in the face of tilting tanks hovering in mid-air.  Not me, I get all shaky and queasy inside.  I’m surprised this photo came out clear in fact.

Well, I’ll post more updates on the tank moving (and re-moving) as they occur.  Hopefully Rob will come over and save my composure again!

Have a great weekend everyone!