More hay

I got some good news.  Wyatt hadn't sold all of his hay.  He had held some hay back for a relative who then didn't need it after all.  I think the amount of hay Wyatt had left is the amount I need to ensure I have enough hay for the cattle this Winter.   *whew*   My friend Dan had told me that it would be no problem to get more hay but then he came up empty from all his contacts.

Now the work began.  I had to load the hay bales on the pickup, move them over to the hay shed and stack them.  With the barn full of hay I had to move the stock trailer out of the hay shed in order to stack the hay in the hayshed.  When it comes time to feed the hay to the cattle, I will either have to bring the hay to the feeder in the corral, else set up another feeder near the hay shed.

I counted Wyatt's bales.  218.  In the hayshed I had room for 12 stacks.  That meant 18.1 bales per stack.  Or 9 rows high.  High.

Because I didn't want to start retrieving bales this Winter from a stack 9 bales high, I stacked the back stacks 11 bales high.  That would allow me to stack the front stacks 5 or 6 rows high.

This week I started moving bales.  In the pickup I could move about 40 or so bales at a time.  Two loads the first day and I had 82 bales moved.  The next day I moved another 40 bales.  I concentrated on making the back 3 rows of stacks 11 rows high with the next row of stacks high enough I could step on them from the back of the pickup and climb on them to reach the back stacks.  I had the back three rows done and 8 bales left in the pickup when I stepped off the stacks.  Suddenly the stacks started to lean sideways and then fall over.  One.. two.. three stacks.  A jumbled pile of the top half of the stacks.  Due to the stuff on the sides of the hayshed I had to stack the bales in the middle and could not use a side wall for support on one side.  I had placed long boards against the sides of the stacks to hold them, upright but apparently not enough of them.

I was starting to move bales from the fallen stacks in order to reach the level of bales to start rebuilding from.  Then the fourth stack fell over.



By the end of the day I had much of the stacks rebuilt.  The pickup was mostly full of bales as I used it as a staging area to hold the bales while I rebuilt the stacks.  I was done for the day as it is tiring lifting so many 60 pound bales.

The third day I finished unloading the pickup and stacking the bales.  While I doing that Wyatt stopped by to tell me that he had forgotten that he had promised hay to a lady.  So he would appreciate it if I left 32 bales for her.

That left me 186 bales.  And I didn't need to make the back stacks 11 rows high.  Too bad.  I already stacked them that high.

That left the back stacks high and the front stacks dropping quite quickly.

I stacked the bales on wooden pallets instead of the ground.

The back stacks - 7 rows high

Moving bales by pickup

Two times I lost a bale of hay from my pickup load.  Once when I turned into my driveway and once when I left Wyatt's driveway.   The time I left Wyatt's driveway I lost eight bales off the back.  So I had to go back with Tammy's minivan to get four of the bales off the road.  I moved the four bales that fell into the ditch over to Wyatt's property until I could get them in my next load.

The final result on Friday.  See how the front goes down quickly. 32 additional bales would have been another story.

I have gates on the hayshed to keep the cattle and deers away from the hay.

The weather forecast for Sunday night and Monday has a winter storm blowing in.  To further protect my hay I placed several large tarps over the top and front of the stack.  This should protect my hay until it is eaten.

With my other hay I estimate I have 17.6 tons of hay.  Dan thought I would only need 14 or so tons of hay but I wanted extra hay in case it is needed.