Changing Landmarks

I have posted this picture several times before, but here it is again to illustrate another change in the landmark department. This is Morrison Brothers headquarters, taken about 1960; the road running from left to right at the bottom of the picture is Higley Road, and the view is to the east. At the top of the square, past the rows of corrals, sits a quonset hut, and to the left of it is the mill. This is the topic of my reminiscence:


The Mister cannot remember a time when the mill did not exist; it was just part of the headquarters to him. The purpose of the mill was to mix grain for the cattle in the feedlot out in front. They were mostly fed hay, but it was supplemented by a grain mixture. The mill was actually a sort of Rube Goldberg-like contraption, with conveyor belts to move the ingredients and trap doors to release the ingredients, and massive wringer-like fixtures to roll the grain (this crushing opens up the hulls to make it easier to digest), and giant augurs to stir the ingredients, and then more doors to drop the mixture into the waiting trucks. The fellow who ran the mill would sit up in the control booth and manage all the levers and buttons to get the mixture just right.

The Mister shared his outstanding memory of the mill:

One Christmas vacation while The Mister was still in high school, the mill operator wanted to take some time off. So The Mister was pressed into service to run the mill over the break, and he was afforded a single on-the-job training session to learn the ropes. He claims that, while the consequences of failure are not as dire, the process of running the mill is more complicated than flying an airplane. But learn he did, and so began his Christmas break of starting the mixing about 5 a.m., then loading the trucks, and mixing more, and loading more, until finishing about 4 hours later. He did this every day for the entire break, and only had one mishap the entire time.

After loading a truck, he forgot to close the flue to hold the grain for the next mixture, and so everything ended up outside on the slab, and he didn't even know it until the truck driver came tapping on the window. This of course meant getting a front end loader and scooping everything up and starting over, and it delayed the feeding process by several hours. It also delayed opening Christmas presents because, ironically, this happened Christmas morning.

If you missed The Mister's fat-tank story, also related to this era, you can go back and read it here.

We closed our feedlot along Higley Road 3 or 4 years ago, but continued to run the mill using the grain in the tanks for our dairy cattle until about 2 years ago. There was a more economical option at that time, and so the mill hasn't been used for a while and had fallen into disrepair. Bowing to the need for change once again, we decided to have it removed, along with the quonset hut (which was too difficult to repair). It's heartbreaking to the family; we see it as "the place I spent that Christmas break", or at the very least as an entrepreneurial monument and cutting-edge machine to serve agricultural purposes. Its removal leaves a large hole in the landscape for all the family members used to having it there as a backdrop.

This love for our roots is one reason why the grain tanks are staying as a fixture at Morrison Ranch. They are a majestic landmark, but they are also a piece of the past that we can hold onto while sharing it with some whose roots are not as deep.

So here is a picture of the tanks minus the mill and the quonset hut:





They are ready for their new coat of paint, and some new lights, which we hope to have completed by Christmas.