Start of hay baling

Today I started baling my hay as the hay is now dry enough to bale.  While there was no rain in the weather forecast when I cut my hayfield, a chance of rain then popped up in the forecast yesterday.  A 20% chance of rain starting at noon and sure enough it did start raining.  Fortunately at the ranch the rain was only a brief amount of drops here and there.  Elsewhere the pavement got very wet.

As it was Donna's birthday today I took her out to eat for lunch at 11 am.  That part of town got wet from the rain.

After the lunch I waited a bit for the hay to feel drier.  Rascal laid on the newspaper I was trying to read.  So I fell asleep for a while sitting there.

By 3 pm I was about to start the baling.  Oh wait.  Two cows were in the middle pasture.  Apparently they walked up river to check the middle pasture out.  Now all the cattle were in the shade in the eastern ends of the pasture.  So I went out to let the two cows back into the south pasture.  Oh, but they stood there and the south pasture cattle thought I was going to let them into the middle pasture.  The two cows wouldn't come to the gate and I couldn't leave the gate open to herd the two cows.  I closed the gate and herded them closer.  Again they stood there waiting for the south pasture cows to join them.  I had a few more go-rounds herding the two - one at a time - close to the gate and then finally through the gate.

Around 4 pm I was about ready to start baling my hay.  I adjusted the lever to lower the baler's pickup section and hydraulic fluid squirted out and all over.  Did I not completely connect the hydraulic hose?  I checked.  Yes I had.  Then where is the leak coming from?  I tried again and then saw where the leak came from.   Mid-hose near the baler's hitch area.   Why the hose had a tear/hole, who knows why.  The location had no reason to cause a tear/hole.

Duct tape as a temporary fix was not an option.   While only one hose had a leak, I took both hoses in to get fixed.  It was a pain to remove one hose, and not any more effort to remove two hoses.   The hose went from the tractor and then along the baler's towing/hitch section then across the front of the baler to one side, then inside a side door, then all the back to the very back of the baler - even though the baler's pickup section was at the front of the baler.  And the hoses went along with other hydraulic hoses for a good ways and were zip tied together, or were bolted to sections of the baler, or went through holes and other small sections.  As I said a pain to remove.

I went to the place where I had another hydraulic hose section on the baler fixed last year.  Or so I thought until I walked in the front door.  This place could help fix/replace hydraulic hoses but they were closing in a couple minutes as it was almost 5 pm.   They recommended the place where I had got my O-rings last month.  Ohhh.. okay.  Never thought of them.   That place closed at 5:30 pm.  I drove fast in the rush hour traffic and made it on time.   They could replace or repair the hose.  Whichever was cheaper.  The repair.

Partway through the repair he thought he couldn't then repair the hose, but then he was able to.  $22.60 later I had a fixed hose.

Then back to reconnecting the hose to the baler and tractor.

The new metal connection is the repair.

 After the repair was done now I had to clean the back window of the tractor cab.  It had been covered in oil.

The cleaning of the window took several attempts.   Donna got a new pressure washer from her daughter for her birthday.  Over lunch she said she could even use soap in the pressure washer.  I never thought of that.  Now, after I cut her hayfield later this week I may be the first to use the soap action part of her pressure washer to clean the rest of my tractor and the baler's towing arm.

So I was just before 7 pm when I started to bale my hay.  Fortunately the weather forecast was off, and the rain didn't happened in the evening even though the chance had increased to 30%.

After I unloaded the first hay bale I saw that it wasn't net-wrapped. 

Then I remembered that if the baler sits for a while one should check the net-wrap and perform an action on one of the rollers to loosen the net-wrap on the roller.

So I unrolled the hay bale.   I had to go all the way around the hayfield baling that row before I could reach the unrolled hay bale and re-bale that bale.  The future hay bales were all net-wrapped.  Still, for about three of them I would check the bale before unloading the bale in case it wasn't wrapped.

Otherwise the wrapping of the bales went well.  I did have three or four bales that a small amount of net-wrap on one side got caught in the baler's belt.  But I didn't have to re-bale those bales, just pull the net-wrap off the baler.

After my baler problems last year, my neighbor Larry had said it was best to run the tractor at 20 to 22 rpm when baling.  I had been running around 17 to 18 rpm.  So now I ran the tractor at 20-21 rpms.  And after a row or two I tried drive one gear faster and found that I was able to pick up all the hay and make a bale with no problem.

So from 7 pm to 10 pm I made 23 hay bales.  If I remember right, last year I made 59 bales during my first cutting of the hay.  So that means I baled over a third of my field today.  Looking at the field it doesn't look like a third of the field has been baled.  In other parts of the field the grass wasn't as dense or tall, so maybe I did bale over a third of the hay today.  So I'll see how it all plays out tomorrow.  If everything goes fine I should have the rest baled tomorrow.