Every year I am confronted with the same problem. They hay, once baled needs to get into the barn. The bales are light but plentiful so they do not lend themselves to mechanical pickup. Therefore, it must be done manually. Ideally, you would have a driver, a stacker on the flatbed and two people walking along and dumping bales on the flatbed. I never have this many people. I have done it alone, with two people, three people and four. Four is my favorite but three is what I shoot for most years. The Progeny and Gingerman agreed to help me on Saturday. We have an “atmospheric river“ coming on Sunday so I wanted to pickup as much baled hay as possible and get it into the barn before then. Meathead was driving and Gingerman and I would load and stack, once at the barn she would count and we would unload and stack in the barn.
We ended up pulling five loads of hay out of the fields. The last load has about 65 bales on it and we just parked it in the machine shed. We are going to save that for Mr Rainman to unload as he was otherwise occupied this weekend and we did not want him to miss out on the fun. We ended up with aching bodies and torn blisters. I had three torn blisters between my fingers from the hay hooks. I just worked the Gingerman into the ground. He stated that his normal physical conditioning the last several years has been bringing a cheeseburger to his mouth. He was still able to throw bales overhead so we could stack them.
We both alternated water and Gatorade but that evening I got a horrible cramp in my lower thigh. Usually, I drink some liquid IV to keep the cramps away. I ended up having to drink it before bedtime so I didn’t get woken up by a horrific cramp. I did not get a cramp in the middle of the night.
On our last trip back to the house we heard coyotes and spotted a den across the field. There are a few holes in the rock bluff that occasionally the coyotes use for dens. We did not have a den last year when we lost all the sheep. We came back with two rifles and the Gingerman ended up killing three coyotes, I got none! Wife says I may need to start practicing. I will have to get the reloader up and running before I can do that. There are still two coyotes left. Gingerman also shot a raccoon the night before down at the Mother-in-law’s house. So for 2024 Farm 4, Predators 0.
We got all of the hay bales picked up that I wanted to from the field. We left about 60 bales but they are filled with about half cheatgrass. We will pick those up and toss onto the burn pile if I cannot give them away. I don’t want the cheat grass seed to sit out in the field.
I went out Sunday morning and raked all the loose hay towards the outer edge of the field. The animals can eat at the piles later and the piles will keep the cheat grass at bay. The cheat grass is on the outer edges of the field. I wanted to clear the field as we are supposed to get 1/4-1/2” of rain Sunday-Monday. I am hopeful that the grass will take off and I may be able to get a second cutting. Who knows, we will cut again on Wednesday or Thursday morning. I would like to do it on Wednesday. But the sickle bar mower is missing two teeth and now that I have the parts I will need to fix that this week. Haying is just keeping after it till its done, it never ends during the duration.
Stewart Creek Somethings 