A tornado (Dust Devil) hit the D&D this week, causing major damage to the gold mill and the Silver Onyx school. There were no injuries.
The storm took most of the bottom story of the mill (It hasn’t been found) and caused major damage to the upper story. It also knocked the schoolhouse off its foundation and destroyed the bell tower. No other buildings were damaged.
I’m glad there wasn’t more damage. You can have it fixed in no time.
Let’s get some crews on that site pronto! You’re losing money every day it’s shut down.
Holy cow!!! Mebbe Dorothy and the Munchkins know what part of Kansas it landed in!
I have started making metal siding for the rebuilding project. I’ll start cutting the wood this week. I might have some windows!
Doug??? Call FEMA, bet they could some there to access the damage within a year or two… 
If nothing else, shoot for a low-interest construction loan to re-build…
Sounds like chipmounks to me! Id talked to ALVIN!!!
The chipmunks have actually been leaving things alone!
We knew it was a big dust devil when it slammed into the house!
Maybe the chipmunks are eating the internet! I’m having to sign in about once an hour!
Wow Doug, look at it this way. Where they failed is where you reinforce for the next big wind.
I wonder what I’ll build the bottom level out of? Lead?
Sounds like the bum brothers stealing scrap metal to me
Wow! Scale tornadoes. What next? How about sharing your inclement weather modeling techniques qith us? 
how did you build this
It is actually balloon framed which is a style of framing that was common years ago. Balloon framing uses studs like we frame now but there is no fire blocking and the studs can be multi-story. I think it was used because it was a fast way to build.
The studs are about 2 inches on center. I then crimped several cases of soda cans and after crimping I cut them a little larger than 2x4-inches so I can overlap them. The studs are not to scale. They are approximately 7/16 x 7/16-inch. I actually need to consider snow load here on the desert!
I glue them to the studs with E6000 with the printed side in.
I do that because the printed side seems to hold glue better.
After the siding is glued I then spray it with Rustoleum Cold Galvanizing Compound to give the metal the look of siding.
The roofs are 1/8" hardwood plywood siding which is also covered with the metal.
I should call this the Diet Pepsi gold mill but there’s also Diet Coke, etc. Beer cans work great too!
The crimper is a paper crimper from Michael’s works great and looks good.
Doug, thanks for the lesson on crimping.Think I will buy one next time im near michaels.
Doug in addition to the glue maybe you could add brad nails with a brad nail driver
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RDlh5qEsL.SY300.jpg)
I’ve used this in the past they are very usefull
I actually found a Craftsman brad nailer at a yard sale last year and it works great. And I added a Harbor Freight pin nailer to the fleet this year. I have a feeling the building held together fine – where ever it landed! At least I recovered the roof. It never lost any metal so I think E6000 works good.
I swear if you’re caught driving in a dust devil, it’ll take the paint off your car! After a couple of them came in, I never wanted to get caught again. Hope you didn’t lose any trains. It took the roof shingles off my parents house. Urrg.
We had that happen to the house one time. It nearly pulled out a section of the plywood under the shingles. It lifted it an inch.
Doug Arnold said:
It is actually balloon framed which is a style of framing that was common years ago. Balloon framing uses studs like we frame now but there is no fire blocking and the studs can be multi-story. I think it was used because it was a fast way to build.
Yes…balloon framing was common in the 1850’s and quite effective …the fire breaks were not really thought of back then. My home actually used the flooring as a fire break which I find interesting among other things when it was built (c1852)…
The dust devil is only a minor set back and you will rebuild just like they did back in the day on the 1:1 scale !