Moving hay with a broken collarbone

Late this afternoon the cattle finished eating their big bale of hay.  Usually when the hay is done they congregate in the corral and wait for me to bring them a few small bales of hay.  Today they lounged under several large pine trees in the north pasture and chewed their cud.

I closed the corral gate and decided to see if I could carry a bale of hay to their feeder.  I was able to carry a 55-60 lb bale with my good arm.  I carried another bale to the feeder next to the barn.  I thought perhaps since the muscles interconnect in my back the weight would aggravate my injury.  But it didn't to my surprise.  But then today is a better day than yesterday pain-wise.  The most annoying thing with my shoulder today is all the typing.  The typing and mouse work is aggravating my shoulder.


By now Beulah saw me and stood outside the gate.  She called the others over and I opened the gate and let them in to eat the hay.  I closed the corral gate again. Then I went work with the tractor.

First I had to use the bucket to clear away snow for the new feeder location.  Past practice makes perfect as I now can hook the bucket onto the tractor using just the tractor.  The snow did cause a little problem as some snow got compacted between the bucket and one tractor arm.  This prevented me from latching one pin.   I had to tilt the bucket and with  a screwdriver scrape the snow away.

Once I was done clearing snow I switched to the bale spear.  Usually I lift the spear onto the tractor hooks.  Can't do that now.  After a few attempts I was able to hook the spear onto the tractor then latch it with pins.  The spear is lighter than the bucket and moves away more easily when bumping the tractor arms against it when trying to get the arms hooked.


So nice I have a tractor to move the hay bales!!!

Once I got the hay bale's twine unwrapped and the bale set on the wooden pallet I used the tractor to lift and move the metal feeder.

Usually I tip the feeder over the bale by lifting the bottom end.  However I need two arms to do that.  Below is what happened when I used only one arm.

So I had to use the bale spear to push the feeder so the far end would drop over the hay bale.  Did I mention how much I like my tractor?

I think I cleared enough space in the pasture for another bale later so I left the bale spear on the tractor. I just need to remember the spear is there when I get firewood and not trip over the spear sticking out of the pole shed.