On our family homestead where I grew up in Putney, VT, there was a round silo just like the one in your lead photo, toward the back end of the barn—it sat on a concrete ring foundation. I was quite small at the time, but remember it was leaning & in danger of collapse. My older brother Peter liked to recount how he & Dad tried to pull it down with my grandmother's Buick Sedan. "We climbed up and hooked rope around one of the iron bands near the top. Dad drove away, and at the end of the rope, it lifted the car off the ground.”
My dad was a real estate appraiser. I remember going with him to a farm. I helped him with various measurements; then we came to the silo. I was scratching my head, and my dad was looking up and said "48 feet."
"How did you do that?!"
He kept me wondering for awhile and said: "Measured the height of one course of shingle. The rest was counting and multiplication!"
On our family homestead where I grew up in Putney, VT, there was a round silo just like the one in your lead photo, toward the back end of the barn—it sat on a concrete ring foundation. I was quite small at the time, but remember it was leaning & in danger of collapse. My older brother Peter liked to recount how he & Dad tried to pull it down with my grandmother's Buick Sedan. "We climbed up and hooked rope around one of the iron bands near the top. Dad drove away, and at the end of the rope, it lifted the car off the ground.”
Would have like to have seen that!
My dad was a real estate appraiser. I remember going with him to a farm. I helped him with various measurements; then we came to the silo. I was scratching my head, and my dad was looking up and said "48 feet."
"How did you do that?!"
He kept me wondering for awhile and said: "Measured the height of one course of shingle. The rest was counting and multiplication!"
Go Dad!
Don't you love how those key moments are so deeply imbedded in memories of a person?
Yes....hadn't thought of it for years, but that moment is crystalized.
We can study one inside and out at Shelburne Farms:
https://share.google/3dLYMduXFZmvhNCZn
They really are stunning when you see them. I wonder if historical societies could get involved to help preserve them if the owners allow?
I found:
https://share.google/DTIe1GNJGJ5LOEq9o