The buyer of Donna's bales said he would be there at noon. I had then planned on moving all the bales in Donna's field to one location to make loading quicker. When I got back to Donna's place after 10:30 am the guy was already there. His plans had changed. No problem. Let's me get done quicker.
He had bought Donna's small bales in the past. This was his first time buying large round bales. He wasn't sure how many bales would fit on his trailer and how to put them on the trailer. I suggested we could place them two across even though a foot or so of bale would hang over each side. That is, if he had a strap to hold the bales onto the trailer. He did. So I loaded two bales side by side so he could see how they would fit. He guided the placement of the bales as I would load the bales from one side of the trailer. After the first two bales were loaded I suggested a little movement of the two bales so the bales were equally loaded and equally went beyond the trailer edge. That done, and he was satisfied on how the bales would sit, I loaded 14 bales onto his trailer. Five rows of two across. Then I placed four bales on the five rows, placing the top bales in the middle of the two bales. That way the top bale would help protect the bottom two bales from moving/leaning off the trailer. That was all his trailer could handle. And he had a diesel pickup that was able to tow the bale loaded trailer.
When I was loading the bales he offered to pull the trailer closer to the remaining bales. I told him no. Donna's field is uneven due to pocket gopher dirt mounds and I didn't want the bales falling off his trailer as they were not strapped onto the trailer yet. It was easier for me to slowly drive across the field as the bouncing didn't cause the bale to come off the bale spear. He had six straps to hold the bales in place. I'm sure he made it home without any bales falling off the trailer as long as he drove responsibly.
I didn't have my camera with me otherwise I would have taken a photo of how his loaded trailer looked. He took a photo of his loaded trailer just before he left.
Then I took the last bale home with me. Then I spent a few hours cleaning the hay pieces and chaff out of the baler. Once that was done I had one more fix to the baler. Monday when I was re-lacing my formerly twisted baler belt and re-threading it around the rollers, Donna noticed the formerly twisted belt, at the opposite end of the baler, that Curtis and I fixed last year, didn't go correctly around one of the baler's rollers. Whoa. I had no problems baling my field's hay this year with that belt. So instead of fixing that other belt on Monday due to how long it took me to fix the latest belt, I left it be. After cleaning the baler I decided to fix the other belt.
How long did it take me to fix last year's belt? A couple minutes. It took me less than a minute to remove the pin, less than a minute to move the belt correctly around the roller, and less than a minute to reinstall the pin. Not seven hours like it did for my belt this year.
How last year's belt looked: before and after my fix.
Then it was on to mowing the rest of the yard with my lawnmower. I wanted to mow the yard after the cows had eaten the grass to even it out and break up the manure, but other events took my time. I had half the yard already mowed as I took a little time before dark each day to mow an area before I would move an irrigation pipe to that location the next day. Then haying Donna's field wrecked my schedule. Now that I am starting to move the irrigation lines back across the field and yard, I had a window now where I could mow the rest of the yard.
The mowing now done I then moved the north line. That done I picked up the small apples the irrigation had knocked off the apple trees yesterday. I'll give them to the cattle tomorrow.
Also while in the fruit tree area I saw that the two small black current bushes had berries on them. I rarely get berries as the birds get them before I do. But last year I re-wired the bushes to protect them from the cattle. I guess it also stopped the birds from getting to them. I had to temporarily take some of the wire off them. Even so I had to lay in the ditch and go under and through the barb wire to get all the berries. None of the vehicles driving by stopped to ask if I was ok laying in the ditch like that.
Here is a handful of the berries.
Then it was off to moving the south irrigation line. After that I checked the pocket gopher traps. I caught two more.
Now it was 8 pm. I had been up since 6:30 am. Before that I had 5 hours of sleep. I hadn't eaten since breakfast (other than the berries). I was tired. I went to sleep. I slept for two and a half hours. I slept so hard I didn't hear Rascal asking to come back in the house.
No comments:
Post a Comment