LOOKING FOR A VACATION DESTINATION? CONSIDER WINCHESTER, INDIANA:

But besides his mounting financial troubles, Mr. Goltstein also must contend with bubbles the size of small houses that have sprouted from the pool of manure at his Union Go Dairy Farm. Some are 20 feet tall, inflated with the gas released by 21 million gallons of decomposing cow manure.

(Thanks to Janice Gelb and Scott Baker)

Comments

[padraig]

Meanie and bon, I'll hold your beers while you go hold your lighters over the pit. You dudes are SO gonna be on YouTube!

[Cat R]

If and when the bubbles are deflated, state officials said, they will be there to keep watch.

They'd better be. We want video.

[Phill MacAvity]

"But he has a plan. It requires a gas mask, a small boat and a Swiss Army knife." - Here, hold my beer and watch this...

Also: " the recent boom and bust of U.S. dairy farmers" - HAR

[Jeff Meyerson]

21 million gallons of rotting manure?

Cool!

[padraig]

'Mr. Palin, the state official, said, "Obviously you don't want to be smoking a cigarette when you open this thing up."'

Wow, that Palin family just NEVER runs out of brains, do they?

[nursecindy]

Before I click on that link and read the story I want assurance from a reliable member of this blog that there are no pictures.

[Meanie the Blue]

They say that "sh!t happens", but if sh!t happens to explode, I would like to be approximately one hemisphere away when it does, YouTube or no YouTube.

And, nc - a "reliable member of this blog"? Oxymoron alert!

[Annie Where-but-here]

Spicy new beef dish - Moo Goo Go Boom.

[Elmo]

Sounds like congress....

[nursecindy]

Meanie by reliable member of the blog I meant, Siouxie, Diva, or Annie.

[9]

"Last year, a hog farmer in Hayfield, Minn., was launched 40 feet into the air in an explosion caused by methane gas from a manure pit on his farm. He sustained burns and singed hair."

I believe this is the new ride at 6 flags.

[Bill]

Guy is just playing "Mr. Bubble" - On a GRAND scale!

Men are ALWAYS boys at heart...

[oneblankspace]

There are two photos--one of the farmer and his bubbles in the background, one of a cattle drive in an Indianapolis suburb with hills the likes of which you don't normally see that far north in Indiana.

There are no odors other than the typical electronic odor of the computer. (But there are 111 total images on the page.)

And calling Winchester east of Indianapolis is like calling Cleveland east of Columbus.

[Loudmouth]

Last year, a hog farmer in Hayfield, Minn., was launched 40 feet into the air in an explosion caused by methane gas from a manure pit on his farm. He sustained burns and singed hair.
Midwest space program. Seems like there's energy to be had there.

[oneblankspace]

...but why was that story in Politics ?

[Siouxie]

cindy, it's safe to open. I say send the bubbles to Washington! They'll feel right at home.

[ScottMGS]

Huh. I didn't know decomposing cows could make manure.

*snork* @Annie re: Moo Goo Go Boom

[ScottMGS]

That's no hill, obs, that's a pile!

[mikey]

Who says we are running out of gas?

[Meanie the Blue]

I'm not usually one for apocalyptic worries, but, this story has me a bit worried.

*checks html tags before posting*

[Sean]

Call Mel Gibson and Tina Turner for the new Mad Max Movie : Behind Thunderdung

[Phil]

Might I suggest a .22 rifle from shore instead of a swiss army knife from a boat? It could be a tad safer.

[Steve]

I watched a septic-tank-and-drain-field "rejuvenation" demonstration once. Part of it involved a rather unwieldy machine that punched a hole down into the soil to blast high pressure air into a trench to loosen up compacted "dirt". The operator did this about every five feet.
Many of the observers (not me, by luck) failed to see the logical consequence of blasting compressed air into a septic trench that already had a couple of holes punched into it. Many were standing close enough to see well and some were downwind.
For a second or two, until the geyser fell, we thought he'd hit oil. It was all black and, somehow, beautiful. For a second or two.
Bet this cattle operation smells better.

[SW]

Don Ho is rolling over in his grave.

Don Ho on steroids?

(Pick one.)

[SW]

Spicy new beef dish - Moo Goo Guy Boob.

[nursecindy]

Thanks Siouxie. It's not that I don't trust the rest of the blog or Dave but, he did post that picture of the guy with the moobs. Now I wish he would post about 30 more things so that picture would go away. Also should that guy be smoking a cigarette that close to methane gas???

[Vampire Penguin]

Contact the Fox Network. Glenn Beck's secretary deals with this issue all the time.

[Mad Librarian]

Phil has the right idea. If I remember my physics correctly (now where is that Mythbusters DVD set?), the bullet would just cause a puncture, not an explosion. Unless you used tracer rounds.

[nursecindy]

♬
21 million gallons of rotting manure on the ground.
21 million gallons of manure!
You shoot at one bubble
with just one round.
20 million gallons of rotting manure on the ground.♬

[nannie]

Gotta love Indiana, where the advertising slogan is:
"There's more than corn in Indiana" (ISIANMTU)
Now y'all know what else we have...sigh

[Chuck]

HAR!

He had installed a black plastic liner to keep the manure from seeping into the ground during the "flush days" of the dairy business, when prices and demand were growing.

[Dirk]

Phil, the only problem with your idea is using a .22. I would want to be farther away than a .22 would allow until I knew for sure what would happen. I'm thinking 200 yards, with something that would still have enough velocity to punch through what is probably a pretty thick liner.

[Tommydesai]

Thanks for all your interesting inputs here.

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