haying

Haying by moonlight

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Mr Rainman came out this week on Tuesday and turned the cut grass from field one so I could have the pleasure of baling it all. I had a neighbor call me and ask about cutting their field. I ended up just going over and cutting it and then raked it after work and then baled it after work. It is beautiful grass hay. I was able to get about 1.6 tons off of their 3 acres. I had to work fast to get it all done before the sun went down as the external lights on my John Deere are dead. It also gets cold once the sun goes down. I was at the neighbors finishing up and it started to get cold and I realized my vest was no longer on the back of my seat. I happened to look over and spotted by vest inside a bale of hay! I had to cut the bale open and unroll it to get my vest out. Surprisingly, the jacket was just dirtier than normal, it did not have any tears in it.

I then ended up staying up till midnight on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night trying to get all of the hay baled from field one that we had cut. I was supposed to only cut half the field but I think I cut about 70% of the field instead!

On Friday I had puppy duty so we went to town early to get dog food and chicken food then he had to stay on the breeze porch for three hours while I baled hay. I came back around 1400 and we went to town for tractor parts. I knew I needed to drive the pickup in the am but could not remember why so I took the car, I remembered when I got to town that I needed to pickup tractor parts. The puppy thought he was dying by having to spend three hours on the porch. He cannot run around outside because the man lift is in use and there is no way you could not run over him if he was outside. He has no fear of the equipment.

At 1600 I went back out and baled. The baler was causing me problems and not rolling bales well. I opened up the side and realized the main gear chain was loose and I could no longer adjust the tightness any more, my adjuster was adjusted to the maximum. I drove back to the house as it was getting dark and worked on shortening the chain. Mr Gingerman came out to help me and the progeny held the light. I still have not gotten the machine shed lights wired up yet. I am closer but I need to get it finished. We ended up taking out three links. Should have done 4-5. While we were fixing the chain, of course it had to be totally removed, it was discovered that I had better order a full set of gears as the teeth on some are pretty worn. That is going to be expensive. I have two gears already I believe, so I will need to generate a parts list first before calling for replacements. If they have to come from Italy it will take 30-45 days unless I air mail them and I don’t need them that bad.

Gingerman worked on the 1957 brakes and got them working well enough to safely drive the beast to a shop and have the brakes fully worked over. So I will be adding that to the list next week. He did say there is a radiator leak also. Who would have guessed after sitting idle for 25+ years? So that will need to be added to the list. I have still not figured out how to install new side window felt to keep the windows from rattling around and braking. You Tube is not helping me there. I need to get those repaired before I can start using the truck, I am afraid I will just beat/brake the windows from driving around on the rough ground unless it is repaired.

I went back out to bale some more and it worked much better but the grass is getting too dry, 8% moisture and its just so slick that it does not want to roll up well. I need to put a few more gripper strips on the rollers to get it to form better bales. At midnight I just gave up, there was about another three hours of baling left, if everything worked normal which it was not. I was dumping more bales than I could get formed and wrapped. Besides after three nights working 19-20 hour days I was was wearing down.

Can we mow?

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All I wanted to do on Sunday was mow cheatgrass. We had to bend out part of the metal skirt on the mower on Saturday and after mowing into the dark I had managed to bend it back. Mr Rainman said we had better fix it before going out to mow as we would just have to fix it again the next day. So we broke out the welder and grinder and then really looked at the mower. Wow! After 15 years the poor mower has cracks, bends and broken stuff all over the frame. We tried to bend the skirt but even with pipe wrenches we could not get it back in place. We had to split the skirt with a grinder cutting blade and bend smaller pieces. I would then attempt to weld them back together.

I did wear heavy leather gloves, arm and chest protection. I still managed to drop hot metal on my ankle by sitting too close to the welding. We had to cut a few filler metal pieces that I welded in place. I was also able to weld some of the cracks closed. I am still having trouble at time with making holes and then not being able to fill them. I keep getting a little better at welding every time I do it. I don’t expect to ever be an expert but in a couple of years I will be passing. Currently, I would rate my welding skill as good enough to hold stuff together. Welding overhead is not very fun and requires a lot more technique. This took a couple of hours to complete.

I am trying to use up all of the different types of spray paint I have on hand so color matching an item is not really a concern. Once I get all the extra used up I will keep green and black on hand. For now I am just getting a coat of paint on to help provide some needed rust protection.

The mower worked like a champ after that when I went out and mowed. After working on it last year and this year I am hoping to be able to ignore it for another five years. I do recommend eye protection as the rubber guard on the intake area is no more and occasionally stuff comes flying out.

660/900 mini round bales

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Well we survived the international flight and made it home. I was ready to be done with vacation, we saw some amazing things but home is the best, even the brown desert of Eastern Oregon. As we pulled into the driveway at 1000 there was a “dead” black colored sheep out in the orchard. It was flat, neck stretched out and belly looked a little bloated so I added carcass disposal to my list of tasks to be completed immediately.

I had to check on chickens, baby chicks, upper sheep (feeders), upper cows, bull in Alcatraz, our new bull, lower sheep (momma, babies and ram), cats, dogs, horse and alpaca. I even drove out to the orchard with the tractor to pickup the “dead” sheep and discovered that it was gone, it had been merely sunning itself. The alpaca can look dead also if you don’t really look at them carefully when they are sunbathing. No one died while we were gone!

I went out to look at the grass hay that was still on the ground. It was pretty dry but it needed to be rowed again so I could bale it early Saturday. It was way too hot to bale any hay, there needs to be some moisture or else the grass is too slick and it won’t roll up into a round bale. Of course since we were still on vacation time change a nap was required!

Saturday I went out at 0530 and baled until about 0830 when it got too hot. Another nap was required and we went to a wedding and visited friends. I am truly going to take my actual vacation this time and try and rest. Sunday, I was up at 0430 and had the rest of the field baled and ready to go by 0745. Mr Flow came over and we picked up all of the hay in the field and got it into the barn. We stacked it up and got most of the bales that were still drying out moisture checked and into the barn. We had about 15 bales that had to be turned and six that need to be fed to the bull in Alcatraz, they are never going to dry out.

We did some work picking up stuff at my mother’s house then started digging the footings for the back bridge. This was not easy as we kept hitting scrap metal pieces and rocks. Once the footings are dug I will build them up with wood so we can pour some concrete. The back creek is almost dry again. It happens every year and even as dry as it is it still has a little water in it. I suspect it will be bone dry by the end of July. We need to get the bridge in so I can make an area in the wood shed to hang all of our bee frames and store all of our extra bee boxes. This will keep them all contained to one area and easy to find.

569/900 round bales

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We were trying to get things straightened out mid June on the farm so we could go on vacation for a couple of weeks. We were going to leave the country and visit our other daughter, Monica in Glasgow where she is going to college. Mr Rainman and I were trying to get all of the hay put up before we left but the rain was not cooperating. Nor was the paying job as it kept me away from haying. Despite Mr Rainman attempting to get all the hay done before he went on vacation also we had to leave 1/3 of field #1 on the ground as it was too wet to bale.

The Gimp came out one day while I was working and helped Mr Rainman pickup baled hay from field #1. They put it all in the lamb shed as the barn was ready to stack from seven foot to sixteen foot height and The Gimp did not want to lift bales that high. I appreciate the help and we need hay out in the lamb shed this winter anyways so it kills two birds with one stone. The Gimp did express some muscle soreness occurred the next day. They are no longer suffering from a bum leg but nicknames do not get changed, they are assigned on the first day and last forever!

While we were out of the country there was a large fire adjacent to our property. The neighbor’s field directly across the gravel road caught fire. Sarah did not call us because it did not come onto our property, someone else told us so we called her. She was taking care of feeding the animals while we were gone.

The puppy, Chance, is turning out to be a very pretty girl. She is very smart and probably our most athletic dog we have ever owned. She can jump the back yard side fence in the yard and now when she wants to eat the cat food off of the elevated table she no longer jumps up with her front paws only. She just jumps up onto the table like the cats and gets easy access to all of the food. She does the same thing in our raised garden beds. She is a menace, the only good thing is we have not taught this one how to go over/under/through fences. I am still amazed we did that the first time, it was convenient when we were out in the fields but so problematic when it came time to keep the dog in the yard!

I bounce

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Haying is still going on every day and night. I am able to crawl on the tractor in the evening and work into the night to get the hay cut or turned. Mr Rainman comes out and does the actual baling during the day and I am able to do all the prep work after the paying job. It does make for some long days. Of course since we are haying it has decided to rain some more. It never fails, if I want it to rain I just need to cut some hay and get it on the ground.

It of course rained today delaying the baling process for a few hours. Mr Rainman tried to get the wrapped hay into the barn to get it out of the rain. So when I came home tonight we used the moisture tester to sort out the dried bales from the damp bales and moved the damp ones out of the barn to sit upright outside to dry. I decided we needed to go to the ceiling with the next batch of hay. Mr Rainman did not want to walk on the edge of the leaning bales. So I climbed up on top of the bales and started to stack the pile higher. It was time to get down off the pile and Mr Rainman was outside getting more bales off of the trailer when I decided to get down. This was a good and needed decision, except my method of getting down is fairly questionable. I decided that jumping off of a seven foot high pile to land on a 18 inch wide bale. I was able to land on top of the bale then it promptly squirted out the side and I hit my right elbow, left arm, middle of back and right hip. I did NOT hit my head! I did make a fairly impressive thumping sound as I hit the floor and bounced off. Mr Rainman came running hoping I did not hurt anything. He was afraid of all the flack he would catch if I injured myself. The wife stated later she would not blame him for anything I did on the farm. She figures I will have done something to deserve it.

I am going to hurt in the morning. I can already feel all of the muscles tightening all over my back, right arm and side. I hope I can get to sleep tonight easily.