Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Main Cutting is Done!!!!





No new pictures or video from today's activity. the son and I actually planned to do a new hay baling video but it quickly became obvious to us that we were going to have to seriously haul some backside if we were going to get all the hay baled and stacked in the barn. They are forecasting three days of rain starting over night tonight so we were quite frankly out of time. Which seems to be a common theme for about everything this year.

235 square bales later, the last ten or so baled by tractor head lights we are finally finished. I had to stop baling after about 170 bales or so and run get more twine. I would have swore I had enough but I was wrong. I really tightened down the springs on the bales too and I estimate they were hitting the ground weighing in at between 85 and 100 pounds. They were heavy and dense let me tell you.

I left work early and we had about an hour before the dew really burned off to run down and pick up the hay elevator. The frame is in pretty good share but the electric motor on the thing is shot. Going to take some research to find out what kind of motor I need to replace it with.

Anyway more on all that tomorrow. Frankly I am so tired I can barely write this post. I need a shower, some serious eye wash since the wind was blowing the chaff right into my eyes half the time.

I will say this old baler and I are beginning to come to more of an understanding. She let me know a couple of things today....

1. She doesn't like Blue Stem Grass hay. If I am going to feed that stuff to her it better be in very small windrows.

2. If I do try and cram too much into her at once she will make sure whatever bale she is getting ready to tie doesn't and instead comes apart on the right side. She is old but does a good job as long as I let her go at her pace. No hurry up for her thank you very much.

3. If I insist on changing the type and thickness of the twine she requires four bales to get used to it. Period. Just live with it.

One other thing I learned.

I am fat. I am old. I have put on too much weight in my old age and attempting to turn too suddenly to look at the baler feed will make me pull a muscle on my side over the ribs. It hurts. Really bad too. Forcing me to get off the tractor and stand bent over at the waist until the muscle spasm goes away.

Getting old sucks.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!


11 comments:

  1. We are supposed to have our 1st snow fall tonight.

    Exile1981

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  2. Congratulations Sir! Well done! And do take care of yourself.

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  3. Be careful! At 57 I know what you mean! Starting a 33 square roof shingling tomorrow. take care of yourself.

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  4. well done on getting the hay in, another job ticked off the list,

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  5. In other words a normal day....

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  6. muscle spasms--magnesium.
    you just have to work more slowly as you age.
    hard to get used to, though.

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  7. Our baler is really old too and breaks down pretty much yearly. My husband keeps all sorts of extra pieces around for it.
    When the hay turns out really heavy and dense like that is the worst! I'm not a big person so I have a really hard time carrying it when it's like that.

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  8. Hope that muscle spasm has eased up for you, ... and I think that understanding your old baler will help you and her settle into some sort of comfy working partnership!

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  9. There should be a tag on the motor to tell the HP and you can match up to that. There are some old ones here but they are probably shot and too far away for you. Too bad they don't make a PTO conversion for that kind of thing.
    I can feel getting older this year, a man's got to know his limitations.

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  10. I enjoyed this post thanks for sharing.

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