Getting hay bales into the hayshed

This afternoon I started hauling my hay bales into my hayshed.  I wanted to wait a few days after baling the hay to be cautious in case the bales still had some cooling down to do.  When I un-rolled the one bale I had to re-bale, I could feel a little warm in the hay.  Not enough heat to cause the bale to catch fire, but I didn't want to risk stacking the bales inside the hayshed.  Maybe the combined heat would catch fire.  I remember some time ago in the past ten years I saw smoke way off in the distance south side of Kalispell.  It turns out large square hay bales had recently been created.  Then immediately the bales were stacked.  The combined heat started the bales on fire.

And another reason to wait is I have been working at getting the south pasture ready for the cattle.  The grass there is very tall and I want the cattle in there as soon as possible to eat the grass down.

Before I hauled the new bales to the hayshed, I had to take out the remaining last year hay bales.  I had 29 bales left even though it seemed the like the cattle were eating non-stop this past Winter.

Usually I only stack the bales 2 high in the first row right next to the wall.  I don't want the bales to lean against the wall.  Some years ago I had to fix / straighten the wall due to the bales leaning against it.  This year, because I have so many bales (91 1/2 plus 29 equals 120 bales so far), I have a feeling all the bales won't fit into the hayshed.  And I haven't even done the second hay cutting yet.

Because the bales seemed solid and steady I stacked them 3 high at the first row along the wall to get more bales inside the hayshed.  Here you can see how gravity affects the bales.  I am working on the second row of bales and you can see how the first row of bales are starting to lean.  Leaning this way is better than leaning that way against the way.   Still it slowed me down as some bales wanted to fall to the ground this way and I had to re-stack a few bales that had fallen.

I have hauled in 47 bales so far.  I plan to haul the rest in tomorrow as long as I get the south pasture ready and can let the cattle in there.  Because the cattle are still in the north pasture, to haul the bales from the hayfield to the hayshed, I have to drive through the backyard and corral to do so.