Well, I did it, I managed to get all the hay baled. It was not a smooth process. I wish it would just happen but it just doesn’t seem like that is possible. I am sure that the key to being a farmer is to expect that stuff will break when you want to use it and stubbornness is a necessity to succeed. I was headed over on Saturday by 0715 to bale with some moisture on the hay so it would be “sticky” enough to bale. I was headed up the last little hill that has a horrible washboarded section when all of sudden I heard a loud clanging and the tractor shifted. I slammed on the brakes and looked behind me. The baler had jumped off the tractor pin hitch and was sideways in the road. I had bent half the pto shaft under the tractor and the hydraulic hose and pull rope had come disconnected.
I ended up using the broken pto shaft as a wheel stop and pushed the baler with the tractor to get it lined up with the road. I had used a small strap to tie the two 3 point arms together so I used those to lift the tongue of the baler so I could put the bent pin back in and limp home. Once I got home I ran to town and got a new PTO shaft. Unfortunately, I picked up a shaft for a 3 point hole auger. Those have one connection that is different so I ended up pulling apart a short one I had and using it on one end and the new one on the other end. It worked great. I got a new bigger pin and drove over to get some baling done at 1030. I was just pulling into the field when it dawned on me that I should check the hydraulic dump on the baler. I managed to shoot hydraulic fluid all over the tractor and myself. I had torn apart the hose and not noticed the connection broken at the baler. So I once again had to drive back to the house and unhook the hose and take the parts into town to see if a new end piece could be attached to old hose. For $25 they were able to repair the hose! I have lots of extra hose so I can break the end off a few more times before it becomes an issue. It was now 1430 and too hot to bale hay. The hay will have to wait till Sunday. I was able to get some of our front hillside weed eated. I also got the water hooked up for the hillside and the lavender and put on timers.
Sunday I was out the door by 0515 with water, breakfast sandwich (cheese, tortilla and precooked sausage patty) and coffee. I was able to finish the top field pretty quickly but when I went to the lower field I started snapping shear bolts. I ended up going back up to the top field and stacking bales to the outside and in a few piles then went over the entire field again picking up the sloppy edges. Once that was done I went back down to the lower field. I really should have turned the lower field a third time. I need to remember that it needs one more than the upper field. I ended up lifting the back half of the round baler and using it like a rower to fluff five rows so I could bale them. I think there are about five bales on the bottom that I will have to leave out of the barn and test for moisture content. It is not hard to tell which ones are wet as they weigh twice what every other bale weighs.
I ended up with a total of 170 bales made. We feed 6 bales/day in the winter so I have one month already done. Now the hard part starts. I have about 100 bales in the second hay area that are 2 years old. They need to be moved onto the overhead platform to be used as bedding. I will then clean out the hay room and get the new hay into this room. I alternate rooms every year and we always feed out of the previous year’s hay. So I will be moving hay most every evening until this gets done.
Stewart Creek Somethings 