Raking hay

I wanted to start baling my hay today but Wyatt questioned if the heaviest windrows were completely dry.  I think they were.  But I decided to do a couple of other things first.  First I had some errands uptown.  While I had some partially used rolls of baling twine I bought another two rolls to make sure I have enough twine.

I have two neighbors with small fields which they haven't cut for years.  So I asked them if they wanted me to cut their fields.  One initially agreed but then he changed his mind and decided to leave it be.  The other guy wasn't sure if his friend with cattle would want to pasture his cattle there this year.  The guy with cattle was kind of wish-washy about it.  The field had a bunch of knapweed so I didn't push it.  They decided against cutting their field.  Okay.

I borrowed Donna's extra rake so I could rake the hay cut in my north pasture and in my neighbor's field. My hayfield has thick enough rows of hay.   I raked the thin rows into fewer rows of hay with more hay in each row.

By now it was almost 8 am.  I guess I will start baling hay tomorrow.  I sure hope the baler works.

Cut hayfield

Donna's extra rake.

One of my errands uptown was to get my repaired lawnmower.  The shop had to rebuild/fix the carburetor.  Apparently the gasoline with ethonol in it is very hard on small engines.  The shop owner says that is the reason for most of his repairs these days.  It was a $108 lesson.  Don't buy gas with ethonol in it, even though the Minnesota and Iowa corn farmers and environmentalists are all pushing ethonol.