Baling finally done

Saturday night I finally finished with my first hay cutting.

Late Friday morning I went and got my new roller for the baler.   

In the early afternoon Curtis and I worked on removing the bad roller.  First I had to help Curtis move from in front of his building his old large golf-course lawn mowing machinery that he was repairing so I could get my baler there to work on it.  Curtis had some issues with the machinery and couldn't get it removed earlier.

Removing the roller from my baler was easier than either Curtis and I thought it would be.  

The broken roller still bolted in place.

After we removed the roller we found it looked different from the new roller.   The ends of the roller are different.  We thought - maybe - one can knock the ends off this broken roller and then put them on the new roller.  First I called the John Deere equipment dealer's help line.  After being on hold for over 20 minutes I was able to talk with someone.  I gave him the part number of the roller I had just got.  Curtis took photos of the back of the baler and also the broken roller.  The parts guy said we got the wrong roller.  He gave me the part number I needed to order.  Then I had to call the local John Deere dealer and have them get the new part.  This part will be shipped from the warehouse in Portland, Oregon.  It should arrive Monday.

 Great.  Just great.  

Curtsi can weld.  He thought he could weld the broken roller.  Maybe it would hold. Maybe long enough so I can bale my hay.  But I didn't want to risk the bump from the weld damaging a baler belt.  Curtis thought he could weld the roller a certain way to not have a bump.  But it would take a day to do so.  Nah.  Let's not potentially waste time.  I'll wait for the new roller on Monday.

The roller hadn't just broke on Wednesday for me.  Part of the crack had a little rust on it.  So the crack started last year or earlier.

I then talked with Donna.  She knew the weather forecast.  Very good chance of rain on Sunday. And on Monday.  I shouldn't wait to bale my hay.   The rain my hay got on Thursday was not good.  More rain would be worse.

I went and talked with Buddy, the guy who cut one time and baled another time in the past two years when I had haybine or baler problems.  I lucked out.  He works out of town much of the weekdays but he was back for the weekend to cut or bale other people's hay, and so he can have hay.  He happened to just come home when I came over.  Yes, he would bale my hay.

We planned the baling for Saturday morning.  This would give me time Friday night to rake some of my windrows together.  I hadn't done the raking earlier to save time as I had hoped to get my baling done before Thursday and that rain.   My tractor had lights and I needed it as I didn't get the raking done until after 11 pm and it as dark.

No rain when I was raking.  But a sign of what was to come.

A quarter to 10 am Saturday morning Buddy came with his new baler and baled my hay.  He has a new baler. It took him two hours to bale my hay.

Here is what the grass looks like under this power line tower. Last weekend when I cut my hayfield I used a hand scythe to cut this grass and not the Mower-Conditioner.

I'm going to fertilize my hayfield next year as I got less hay this cutting.

Saturday afternoon and evening I hauled the hay bales to my hayshed.  First I hauled last year's bales out the hayshed and stacked them.  Last year I had stacked the bales three high near the back wall.  The bales had leaned to the wall and pushed the tops of the supporting poles out a little bit.  I used the tractor to push the poles and wall back to being completely straight.  This year I only stacked the bales at the wall two high, not three.   Then I gathered the bales from the field and stacked them in the hayshed.  Then I put last year's bales back into the hayshed.

I had two of this year's bales that were not netwrapped.   I decided to try lifting and moving them.  They didn't fall apart.  A little flaked off but I was able to get the bales into the hayshed and stacked.  Each of the two bales had a tall wheelbarrow full of flaked / loose hay.  I put that loose hay in the barn.  Earlier I had raked a little leftover windrow hay in the hayfield. Lastly, I gathered two wheelbarrow loads of that hay and put it in the barn.  It was dark when I was done.  Another long day.

Sunday morning I woke up to rain.  In the afternoon we had a heavy rain shower.  In the evening a short rain shower.  I believe we got .83 inch of rain on Sunday.  I am so glad I hired Buddy to bale my windrows.

Cleared hayfield.  And before the evening rain.