Well I finally managed to get it done yesterday. I have turned the hay four times and cut it seven days ago. I would really have preferred to have turned it for two more days and then baled it but it is supposed to rain all day on Thursday and that could take me an extra week and up to an extra five turns in this weather to get it dried after a day of rain. The temperature has only been getting up into low 60’s. I turned it, drove that tractor home and hooked up the baler on the other tractor and drove over and baled both the upper and bottom fields. I got 33 bales from the upper field and 55 from the bottom field. There are 50 bales to a ton. I drove the tractor home again and then had to switch out the baler for a three point trailer hitch. I stashed the baler in the machine shop for the winter.
I had to hook the tractor up to the trailer but the trailer still had the mini excavator on it. So I found 400# of tractor weights to put in the bucket to add weight so I could pull the loaded trailer up the new dirt road out of the Naked Gardener’s lower field. I hooked the tractor up and then had to research the internet to get the mini excavator started again. Once was not enough to hardwire the process. I had to drive off backwards and I did not think to swing the boom so it would be able to be extended and act as a third distal support. I learned this when I was backing off the trailer and just as all of the weight left the back of the trailer and was on the ramps the rear of the trailer lifted a good ten inches causing the excavator to tip backwards. Luckily, it did not tip over and I now know to always use the bucket to stabilize and to always come off trailer front first.
I drove over and was able to barely get the trailer to fit down past his barn onto the newly improved road down to the lower field. It was getting dark so I had to use the lights on the tractor to pick up all of the bales. I got 55 on the trailer, put the tractor in 4wd and low and cracked up the RPM and crept up the hillside. I am not sure the tractor would be able to do it with 90 bales on the trailer. Once I got up to the top field I drove around and picked up the last of the bales. I had to make a fourth row in the middle to get them all on the trailer in one load. I told the Naked Gardener to call me if he needed anything otherwise I would not be back till late spring. He has plans to fertilize the fields in the spring and he will need to fix the two lower sprinklers I cut with the sickle bar mower. I need to pick up 25 used car tires to go around the lower sprinklers so I don’t cut them. I am always trying to get too close to them. I kept checking the moisture on the bales and I would say at least 80% of them are under 20% moisture. There are about 10-15 that are higher but supposedly someone wants some hay according to the progeny and I will just have them moisture check each bale they take. Turning it every day helped dramatically with drying it out. I was back at the house by 1930 and haying season is officially over.
