Anyway.... to test the haybine's float I needed to have the haybine on level ground. I went to move the haybine. As I drove I heard a loud crash. The haybine's tongue had dropped to the ground. The hydraulic hoses pulled loose from the tractor. Unlike the disc last Fall, the hydraulic hoses on the haybine weren't damaged as clamps hold the hoses to the end of the haybine's tongue.
Why did the haybine come off the tractor? Yesterday I let the cattle into the NE pasture for a day or two to eat the grass before I put my new hay bales there. The cattle, or more likely the calves, pulled the pin holding the haybine's tongue to the tractor's hitch.
As you can see in the photo the pin has a handle - which the cattle can grasp. Apparently there was no pressure on the pin as the tractor and haybine sat in the NE pasture overnight.
But you say... I see a clip as the bottom of the pin. After this accident I added the clip to prevent the cattle from doing this again. I had pulled the haybine over 100 miles with my pickup, cut three fields with no problems. The pin is long enough that a clip is not necessary - unless one has cattle.
With the tongue on the ground I had to lift it up. Far too heavy to lift by hand. I used my tractor's bale spear. The problem is that I can't see the spear when it is all the way down on the ground. I lifted the haybine but then saw that I was lifting it by the PTO rod. *Aughh!!!*
I set the haybine down. The collar sleeve over the rod now has a dent. It looks to still work. I will find out once I fix the universal joint this week.
I got my tractor's forks and lifted the haybine's tongue up so I can use the haybine's jack to hold it up.
I hooked the haybine to the tractor. I hooked up the hydraulic hoses. When I went to raise and lower the haybine one hose kept popping out. It took four tries before the hose would stay attached to the tractor.
Then, since the one end of the universal joint is not currently attached to the haybine, the haybine's PTO rod slipped out of its holder on one end. I got my neighbor Curtis to hold the rod in the right spot as I lowered the haybine.
Once I moved the haybine to level ground I tested its float. It seemed to be about 70 pounds of pressure to lift the haybine by hand. Curtis agreed it felt like lifting 70s pounds when one lifted the one end of the haybine.
That done, Curtis told me he saw a round baler like mine on fire in the field a few miles down the road. Fire trucks were putting the fire out in the baler and surrounding field. Don't know why the baler caught fire. Maybe a bad/overheated bearing caught the hay on fire? The temperature this past week has been in the mid to upper 90s every day.
Another thing to worry about.
Then I went over and raked John's field. The hay was dry already (no surprise with mid 90s temperatures!). I raked rows together. Some times two rows into one, or three rows into one depending how much hay was in the rows. I could drive faster than yesterday and got the raking done in a little under two hours. I plan to bale John's hay tomorrow.
I don't plan to rake my field. The rows are thick enough that raking two rows into one row may be too thick. Yesterday the tops of the windrows were already dry. I imagine with this heat the bottoms will be dry by tomorrow afternoon. I just have beat the forecast of scattered showers tomorrow.
The raking done, I moved my two irrigation sprinkler lines. I am still irrigating the pastures. This hot and dry weather is drying eveything out. Over the past weekend we had a number of small (for now) forest fires pop up. Smoke from one or two fires to our West could be seen over the Valley today.
Once I moved the irrigation pipes I seen the cattle were no longer laying by all the gates and I could move my rake back into the NE pasture. That done I noticed the calves hanging around the baler. Then I saw baling twine on the ground by the calves. Did I missed some leftover twine from when I had bales last Winter?
No.... the twine was from my baler! The calves played around with the twine that was threaded from the box through the stays to the tube. I had the end coming out of the tube tied to the baler. But the calves grabbed and pulled the twine coming out of the box. I had twine everywhere! Among the calves legs so that when they moved more twine was pulled out of the box. Twine all around the baler and its tires.
I gathered the loose twine up and threaded it back into the box. It is no longer in the roll of twine but I hope it won't snag when I tie a bale tomorrow.
In the following photo... the calves grabbed the twine between the white stay outside the box and the top white stay. Then they pulled and pulled.
Earlier I had wrapped some twine around the baler's hydraulic hoses so the cattle wouldn't molest the hoses. As you can see the calves started to unwrap the twine from around the hoses.
Once I put the twine back in the baler's box several calves came back to the scene of the crime to see what I was doing.
Then I looked over to the haybine. Since she could no longer pull the haybine's pin out, this heifer was now chewing on the rope I use to switch the haybine open or closed. Once I got the rope back from her the last foot or so was wet.
Tomorrow the cattle will be moved to another pasture.
The chores done, I went for a bicycle ride in the evening. Not much traffic drives on this route I ride. After a while I looked up at the sound of an approaching car. I saw two approaching cars. Some local Yahoo, one hand on the car's wheel and the other arm hanging out the cars open window was passing another vehicle on the narrow road. I had to use my bicycle's brakes to slow down and we all made it.
Then four miles later on another road I looked and saw an approaching car. The car was driving in my lane. For no reason. What is up with the Flathead County drivers tonight?!!! The full moon hadn't risen yet but the drivers were acting crazier than they usually do. The car went back into his proper lane once he saw me coming on the road.
What a crazy day.
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