Market Farming

["Bock, Paul" <PBock AT avox.zodiac.com>]

Well, I'm glad to hear that no body has reported any lightning strike damage
to the pipe frames.  

And yes it is a grounding rod, and that is the problem I am talking about.
Lightning rods on houses and barns are "ground rods" too.  They have a heavy
braided cable leading down to the ground.  The idea being that the lightning
electron flow goes through the lightning rod and down the cable instead of
through your house wiring, phones lines, plumbing, which could lead to
internal fires in your walls.  

The kind of damage I would suspect to find on a struck frame would be a spot
that looks like it was arc welded or even maybe a hole in the tube where it
melted through a bit.  

There is another idea about protecting equipment like power company sub
stations from lightning strikes by putting up metal "Christmas trees".
These are basically a pole with a star burst of metal rods at the top.  The
idea is that this ground rod is always draining away charge out of the air
so that there is less likelihood that lightning will strike to it.  

I'm a mechanical engineer that has a hobby in electronics.  I believe in
appropriate technology.  I like building computers and microcontrollers.
And I like to build stuff with lots instruments to collect lots of usually
meaningless data.  But then I also want to raise and train a team of oxen
because I think it will make the most sense for my farm, organically, as far
as a grass cycle will work in my cover crop and rotation plan.  And the oxen
will work well in the woods for my firewood business as they are much more
agile on the uneven terrain in the woods than a tractor is.  And I will be
able to get away from so much soil compaction in the woods and the field.


Paul Bock 
Stone Gully