# A barn raiser!!



## ed4copies (Oct 26, 2010)

Tornado in Sturtevant, WI!!!

Those of you who know me well know I actually LIVE in Sturtevant, mailing address.  So,  this is partially to say we are fine, the tornado was far from us (5 miles or so).

But, on a more interesting note--if you watch the news tonight, you MAY see a picture of a barn in the area.  It was built on four brick "pedestals" about 3 feet high.  Well, today's tornado picked it up and moved it, maybe thirty feet, so it is now on TWO of the pedestals, but they are near the center of the building, instead of on the ends.

When you see the size of the barn (generally unharmed), you can only marvel at the tremedous weight that was lifted and moved.

Quite amazing and a GREAT picture---watch for it.

(Oh there are also the mandatory "snapped like twig" pictures of the 2 foot diameter maple trees---but you have seen that before!!)


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## alphageek (Oct 26, 2010)

Wow!   I heard about some of that and if I had the time, I was temped to post a thread entitled: Exoticblanks blows ........... away?!

   Hope all is ok around you... the wind is still nuts here, but nothing like that!


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## bitshird (Oct 26, 2010)

Glad you guys are OK, we've had several touch down within a 10 mile radius.


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## bking0217 (Oct 26, 2010)

I'll be looking for it on the national news. Sounds like something awesome.


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## Steve Busey (Oct 26, 2010)

This one maybe?


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## ed4copies (Oct 26, 2010)

That's the one!!

Sorry, it was not four pedestals, it was a brick cow barn!!  You can see it to the right (as you look at the picture).  But the wood barn structure is virtually undamaged.

(The rafters in those things are 6x6 or 8x8 and weigh about 100 pounds a piece in 20 foot lengths.)


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## MesquiteMan (Oct 26, 2010)

I was flying in to Chicago Midway when some of this was going on!  They kept our plane in a holding pattern for 45 minutes and then let us land.  It was one of the roughest flights I have been on.  Then I had a quick hop to my connection and off we went, 30 minutes late.  Sitting on the taxiway waiting for our turn to take off, the wind was so strong it was bouncing the place all around.  It was quite rough sitting on the ground!  We took off like a rocket, though, with that hellascious head wind!

I guess I was lucky to get in and out at just the right time.  I heard they cancelled 300 flights in the area today.  I could still be sitting in Chicago!


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## DCBluesman (Oct 26, 2010)

ed4copies said:


> (The rafters in those things are 6x6 or 8x8 and weigh about 100 pounds a piece in 20 foot lengths.)


 
You must have some light maple in Sturtevant. By my back of the napkin calculations, that's over 100 board feet of maple and probably over 400 pounds per 20-foot length.


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## witz1976 (Oct 26, 2010)

Glad you guys are ok...I heard there was a lot of blowing and gusting around your parts of the world.


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## Robert Taylor (Oct 26, 2010)

i was looking for the witch under the corner of the barn. glad everyone is ok.


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## workinforwood (Oct 26, 2010)

Tornado in Eaton Rapids, MI ...no, I'm not kidding Ed ...I live in Eaton Rapids, it's about 200 miles straight east of Sturtevant, WI ! Happened around 11:30 this morning.  I haven't heard of any real damage, I believe it just ran through some corn fields taking out some trees and fences a few miles south of me.  Eaton Rapids is a pretty small town too.  Because the tornado took out the power, our police officer of the town had to stand and direct the occasional car through our street light. :laugh:


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## Santacraig (Oct 26, 2010)

Where is Sturtevant, ED?  I lived in Madison, Argyle and Barneveld, ( Which was all but wiped off the map by a Tornado r_ght after I moved to California), and don't remember where it is._
_    Craig_


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## alphageek (Oct 26, 2010)

workinforwood said:


> Tornado in Eaton Rapids, MI ...no, I'm not kidding Ed ...I live in Eaton Rapids, it's about 200 miles straight east of Sturtevant, WI ! Happened around 11:30 this morning.  I haven't heard of any real damage, I believe it just ran through some corn fields taking out some trees and fences a few miles south of me.  Eaton Rapids is a pretty small town too.  Because the tornado took out the power, our police officer of the town had to stand and direct the occasional car through our street light. :laugh:



LOL.. Jeff you had me going there... I almost said "singular!!??"   But good old google proves to me you have more than one street light


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## ed4copies (Oct 26, 2010)

DCBluesman said:


> ed4copies said:
> 
> 
> > (The rafters in those things are 6x6 or 8x8 and weigh about 100 pounds a piece in 20 foot lengths.)
> ...




Then watch out everyone!!!!  I LIFTED one end of these routinely in my youth--with another guy on the other end, over our heads----I was MUCH stronger than I realized!!!!   Or, they were fir or oak!!


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## OKLAHOMAN (Oct 26, 2010)

Ed, glad everyones OK, living here in tornado alley we've see more than our share of them. Been through both tornado's and hurricanes, can't say i've enjoyed either.


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## ed4copies (Oct 26, 2010)

We get them from time to time, Roy.  This was the "perfect" kind--moved an old barn, did no damage to homes or people---if you gotta have em, them's the kind to have!!


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## Hosspen (Oct 26, 2010)

I'm glad you're all safe too.
  It's so windy here today our chicken laid the same egg 3 times!!  : )  ...and the wind blew our barbed wire fence wrong side out! Whewww!!!


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## ed4copies (Oct 26, 2010)

Santacraig said:


> Where is Sturtevant, ED?  I lived in Madison, Argyle and Barneveld, ( Which was all but wiped off the map by a Tornado r_ght after I moved to California), and don't remember where it is._
> _    Craig_



About 20 miles south of Milwaukee, 70 miles north of Chicago, just east of I94.  (Immediately west of Racine)


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## alphageek (Oct 26, 2010)

ed4copies said:


> About 20 miles south of Milwaukee, 70 miles north of Chicago, just east of I94.  (Immediately west of Racine)



This wind keeps up, it might be east of Racine by morning!  LOL

My FB page is full of people posting things like wrecked swingsets, sheds and shingles flying off of roofs.


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## ed4copies (Oct 26, 2010)

For perspective, Dean is about 100 miles (close, Dean??) north of us.


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## Andrew Arndts (Oct 26, 2010)

bettyt44720 said:


> i was looking for the witch under the corner of the barn. glad everyone is ok.


:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:


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## Frank Nemke sr (Oct 26, 2010)

GEE !  I haven't been in Sturtevant wisc. for about 45 years.  Has it changed much?


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## alphageek (Oct 26, 2010)

ed4copies said:


> For perspective, Dean is about 100 miles (close, Dean??) north of us.



Yep.. Just a tad over that... about a 2 hour drive ... or if the wind were a bit more from the south instead of the south west ... about 3 hours by wind! 

Just picture that.. hook pen kits onto a little GI joe parachute and I could go out and grab them a couple hours later!  :biggrin:

Seriously though, I hope thing are ok for everyone... I just checked.. our electric company has a total of just shy of 500K customers and right nearly 10% of them are without electric!  (and not me for a change, YET!)  We have overhead lines in my subdivision still and usually by now we would have lost it at least once).


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## Smitty37 (Oct 26, 2010)

*Yes I have*



ed4copies said:


> Tornado in Sturtevant, WI!!!
> 
> Those of you who know me well know I actually LIVE in Sturtevant, mailing address. So, this is partially to say we are fine, the tornado was far from us (5 miles or so).
> 
> ...


 
Yes I have seen that...2 of them just across the driveway about 15 feet from my house...one snapped off and the other uprooted.  God being good both fell awas from the house.  I hate to think of what they'd done if they fell toward it.


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## Smitty37 (Oct 26, 2010)

*Age a factor*



DCBluesman said:


> ed4copies said:
> 
> 
> > (The rafters in those things are 6x6 or 8x8 and weigh about 100 pounds a piece in 20 foot lengths.)
> ...


 
Depending on how old the barn is and the style of construction they could be even bigger than that.  I had two barns constructed near the beginning of the last century and had post and beam construction with the corner posts being around 12 X 12 hand hewn and some of the beams being as much as 10 X 10 hand hewn....we had one post that was 14 X 15.  I was probably VERY heavy.


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## areaman (Oct 26, 2010)

Ed, glad everyone is alright, but 5 miles isn't near far enough away!


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## PenMan1 (Oct 26, 2010)

Glad you guys are OK! If if gets worse and you need a crappy carpenter with REALLY good tools, just call. I think we can be there in 24 hours.


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## workinforwood (Oct 27, 2010)

alphageek said:


> LOL.. Jeff you had me going there... I almost said "singular!!??"   But good old google proves to me you have more than one street light



lol, yea, we have 3 street lights, and about 5 cops, but seriously, we did have a small tornado come through town yesterday.  It did take out the power on the south side and a cop was placed at the street light to direct the traffic, which is pretty funny since we have very little of that.  This is a pretty small town, but we do have a McDonalds and 2 Chineese restaurants!


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## PR_Princess (Oct 27, 2010)

And if it is anything like here....about 20 Taverns!


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## ldb2000 (Oct 27, 2010)

They are saying that this storm has the lowest recorded barometric pressure for a land based storm . That's where all the winds are coming from .


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## Jim15 (Oct 27, 2010)

Glad you and everyone else came out of it OK.


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## PR_Princess (Oct 27, 2010)

ldb2000 said:


> They are saying that this storm has the lowest recorded barometric pressure for a land based storm . That's where all the winds are coming from .



28.28" last I heard. I have seen the terms "chiclone" and "windpocalypse" thrown about LOL.


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## johncrane (Oct 27, 2010)

Glad you guy's are ok.


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## LouCee (Oct 27, 2010)

I just saw a shot of the barn on the local news in Denver this morning. They showed several shots of storm damage in Wisconsin and the barn was one of them. It was the local news program on NBC.


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## ed4copies (Oct 27, 2010)

areaman said:


> Ed, glad everyone is alright, but 5 miles isn't near far enough away!




Actually, tornadoes and "shear winds" (straight line high winds) are SO localized, a quarter mile is fine.  Neighbor lost a huge maple a couple years ago, I lost a tree, both in a direct line, north to south.

My house was not more than 20 feet off that line, but was completely undamaged.


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## workinforwood (Oct 27, 2010)

We are getting those straight line winds big time over here too.  It wasn't easy bringing the Semi back empty.

Our town traffic light is still out too, been 48 hrs now.  87 yr old Ms Daisy has been calling the town hall all day long I hear, because she wants to go into town and get some milk, but it isn't safe crossing the intersection. The Mayor said he thinks it's the lightbulb inside burned out. He called in the local undertaker because he's pretty handy at fixing his car. Of course, the undertaker didn't have a ladder big enough, so then uncle Jeb had to drive over with the ladder.  The two of them extended the ladder up to the light, but everytime they stepped on the ladder, it would fall over, so the light remains out.  There's a town meeting scheduled at 7pm to discuss the issue and hopefully come up with a good solution to change the light bulb.


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## workinforwood (Oct 27, 2010)

PR_Princess said:


> And if it is anything like here....about 20 Taverns!



We have only 1 Tavern in town Dawn, but nobody will go there because sometimes there's a motorcycle parked out front. :biggrin:


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## ed4copies (Oct 27, 2010)

Good job, Jeff!!!  Ms Daisy is a true LOL!~!!!


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## ed4copies (Oct 27, 2010)

workinforwood said:


> PR_Princess said:
> 
> 
> > And if it is anything like here....about 20 Taverns!
> ...




Uh-oh!!! Sounds like your town could be infested by "Belle's Angels" motorcycle gangette!!!!


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## workinforwood (Oct 27, 2010)

Lots of silly things happen in these little towns...it's great! 

Our newspaper is kinda like the good ole days...it's all about the local stuff.

You know...
George got mangled in his plow...wife is selling his junk on Tuesday.
Little Billy's Goat got first place for having a shiny coat.
There's serving green eggs at the Church on Sunday.
Traffic light still aint workin. :biggrin:


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## ed4copies (Oct 27, 2010)

We get home some times in time to see Jay Leno, who does "headlines".  From time to time he uses small town newspapers, one I liked, paraphrased:

2:15 AM Ms. Jones calls reporting a light on in her kitchen, probable prowler.  
2:18 AM Police arrive at Jones house, see light in kitchen, find Mr. Jones retrieving jelly from refrigerator.

Jay likes to end these with a saying like, "Brilliant police work, solved the crime!!"

Wasn't it great when this was the scope of "police investigation"??


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## workinforwood (Oct 27, 2010)

LOL !  These are the things that make life worth living..I like being in a small town.  The Eaton Rapids Public School was voted best Public School in town. :biggrin:


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## Smitty37 (Oct 27, 2010)

*Unbelievable how localized*



ed4copies said:


> areaman said:
> 
> 
> > Ed, glad everyone is alright, but 5 miles isn't near far enough away!
> ...


 
You are right they are very localized. When we lost the two trees  I mentioned before they were on the south east side of our house.  We lost another small apple tree on the North west side...the house and another maple tree were between the uprooted apple tree and the two big maples.  We were having a new roof put on at the time and the only place the house got touched was one piece of facia was blown off.   There were also a couple of trees damaged to the north east not in a line with the others.  Wierd.


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## Smitty37 (Oct 27, 2010)

*Yup*



workinforwood said:


> LOL ! These are the things that make life worth living..I like being in a small town. The Eaton Rapids Public School was voted best Public School in town. :biggrin:


 
I grew up in a small country village in PA,  3 churches on one side of the track 3 bars on the other...always some debate over which was the "wrong side of the tracks"  No traffic lights but there were 5 stop signs.  And of course, everybody knew everybody else along with everybody elses business (all party lines on the phones).


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## phillywood (Oct 27, 2010)

Ed, I am glad that both you and Dawn are safe. For me being born, raised, grow up. moved to, living in a big city I don't understand the shear fear these kind of mother nature events can bring upon on families, fortunately I have only been in one hurricane in Houston in early 80's ,but not too bad and almost ran away form one when we were living Fl, in early 90's. but I can not imagine what one will go through when something like this happens.
I am hoping that all this mess will end soon, in a good note and calmer.


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## ed4copies (Oct 27, 2010)

Philly, 

If you can't control it (and we CAN'T), accept it!

(Keeps you from getting ulcers)


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## workinforwood (Oct 28, 2010)

yes, you can't live your life worrying about these things.  I live in tornado alley.  Some other guy lives next to a popular Hurricane landing zone, or 10 miles from a volcano.  No matter where you live, there's something possible...maybe an earthquake will level that city..who knows.  Something happens here, and I live through it, I re build.


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## TellicoTurning (Oct 28, 2010)

workinforwood said:


> Lots of silly things happen in these little towns...it's great!
> 
> Our newspaper is kinda like the good ole days...it's all about the local stuff.
> 
> ...



At least you have a news paper... ours is printed in a neighboring town and mostly gossip and drug reports.. it's printed on 8 x 11 paper and usually had two or three pages.  

We have NO traffic lights, not even a flashing light... 6 cars will create a traffic jam, but we do have 6 policemen... I think there are 4 police cars... it's a dry county, so no taverns, we do have 5 restaurants in town, plus a pizza parlor, a subway and a Hardee's, and you can also get dinner at the Exxon station and I think the BP station services food.  You can buy beer in town at the Exxon, BP and we have a tobacco/beer shop... no hard liquor or wine.  Funny thing is in Tennessee liquor stores can't sell beer.


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## ed4copies (Oct 28, 2010)

Funny thing is in Tennessee liquor stores can't sell beer

Geeze Chuck, don't want to confuse the locals---if they sold BEER, it would be the BEER store!!!  

In the liquor store, they just sell licker!!


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## Smitty37 (Oct 29, 2010)

TellicoTurning said:


> workinforwood said:
> 
> 
> > Lots of silly things happen in these little towns...it's great!
> ...


Only seems fair...the beer stores can't sell liquor, so the liquor stores can't sell beer.  After all you don't call a carpenter to fix your car.


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## ed4copies (Oct 29, 2010)

_Only seems fair...the beer stores can't sell liquor, so the liquor  stores can't sell beer.  After all you don't call a carpenter to fix  your car.

_:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:Well, unless you are competing in a *soap box derby*_
_


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## sgimbel (Oct 29, 2010)

You are all to funny!


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## JohnU (Oct 30, 2010)

Wow! Glad to hear everyone is ok. And  I thought it was bad here. All I lost were a few strips of siding off the back side of the house.


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## ed4copies (Oct 30, 2010)

JohnU said:


> Wow! Glad to hear everyone is ok. And  I thought it was bad here. All I lost were a few strips of siding off the back side of the house.




What color, John?  It dropped an assortment INTO my back yard:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:


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