Haying season is underway
Jun. 11th, 2008 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fitzwI
hurt.
I thought I was ready for the effort of gathering in the first load of hay.
Not so much.
The set-up that we use has a tractor pulling the baler, which pulls the four-wheeled wagon in turn. There's a stainless steel slide on the back of the baler, so the bales get pushed out and up the slide to where the person on the wagon can grab them and stack them. It generates less fear for the stacker than using a "kicker" on the baler, which can throw the bales 30-40 feet from the back of the baler.
Since this is the first load of hay, we also had to deal with the last bale from last year, still in the baler, plus all of the adjustments that you need to do when you start. The first bale was short, and dark brown. The second bale was short, half dark brown/half light brown, and came apart. The third bale was twice the length of a regular bale, and about four times as heavy. The fourth bale was a little shorter than that, but not much lighter. The next few bales were still heavier than they should be, but we got the weight to what we wanted after a short time.
The first piece that is mown is normally about 70 bales — this time, it was around 160. I'm not sure of the exact count, because that was probably one of the worst stacking jobs I've done for quite a while, and counting based on the stacking wouldn't be very accurate.
Footing on the wagon was uncertain, because the hay wanted to slide along the floor planking of the wagon (mind you, I'm wearing my non-skid shoes, but it didn't help). Plus, there were black walnuts that got picked up with some of the bales, that fell out onto the wagon as I was stacking, which in turn would roll underfoot.
hurt.
I thought I was ready for the effort of gathering in the first load of hay.
Not so much.
The set-up that we use has a tractor pulling the baler, which pulls the four-wheeled wagon in turn. There's a stainless steel slide on the back of the baler, so the bales get pushed out and up the slide to where the person on the wagon can grab them and stack them. It generates less fear for the stacker than using a "kicker" on the baler, which can throw the bales 30-40 feet from the back of the baler.
Since this is the first load of hay, we also had to deal with the last bale from last year, still in the baler, plus all of the adjustments that you need to do when you start. The first bale was short, and dark brown. The second bale was short, half dark brown/half light brown, and came apart. The third bale was twice the length of a regular bale, and about four times as heavy. The fourth bale was a little shorter than that, but not much lighter. The next few bales were still heavier than they should be, but we got the weight to what we wanted after a short time.
The first piece that is mown is normally about 70 bales — this time, it was around 160. I'm not sure of the exact count, because that was probably one of the worst stacking jobs I've done for quite a while, and counting based on the stacking wouldn't be very accurate.
Footing on the wagon was uncertain, because the hay wanted to slide along the floor planking of the wagon (mind you, I'm wearing my non-skid shoes, but it didn't help). Plus, there were black walnuts that got picked up with some of the bales, that fell out onto the wagon as I was stacking, which in turn would roll underfoot.
