These last few days have seen little dog training whilst my new 'job' has taken hold. I am running a grain drier for my son's boss. Quite an eye opener and a very steep learning curve. The drier itself holds over 100 tons and takes two hours to fill or empty. However once it is up and running it can easily process 25 tons an hour. The first days were hard work - as, whilst the drier is quite modern, the overall system is of some vintage - little is automated and relies on hand adjusted vanes - there are several sensors to tell stop things if something goes wrong - but if this happens the elevators need emptying (by going down several ladders - some start about the height of a house down) and take the side panel off to allow the grain to spill around your feet - knowing you will have to shovel it up. So the trick is to stop things in the right order and not by turning off the last moving part - as i did or allowing it to block and stop itself Laughing


left hand panel is the drier control showing all four burners running, both exhaust fans and a warning that the hopper is not properly full. The right hand panels control the levators and conveyors.


Topaz keeping an eye on things - they have proved very useful as they will bark when the girls come to take seed samples - which is handy as when down a pit with ear defenders and the vacuum running not much is heard.




The dogs have taken it in turn to come along as being a large shooting estate there are quite a nice number of pheasant who visit through the day and who are not that worried by machines or people.