Usually the "Hay Cycle" is where I decide that I must be a simpleton farmer and not a simple farmer. Who but a simpleton would put themselves through this?
1. The hay is getting close to where it is ready to cut.
2. Time to service the old haybine and grease the 54 zerks, lube all the chains, adjust the cutter blade and stone guards. Gotta tune up the engine and fix the flat tire. While crawling under the haybine to grease, get stung by bald faced hornets who have built a nest. Then change the oil in the old farmall that we use for raking, lube the rake, replace a couple tines.
3. The plan is to cut tomorrow, rake the next day and then start baling after that. No time to service the two balers (square and round) until tomorrow after cutting or the next day after raking.
4. Forecast changes (fucking weatherman) beautiful tomorrow, but rain the two days afterwards. Postpone cutting until after the rain
5. Can't cut, so service the balers. Clean, grease, adjust timing on the knotters on the square baler. Polish the duckbills on the knotters. Take a couple old bales and break apart and feed them in by hand to insure everything is working properly. Timing chain is skipping...replace timing chain. Clean, grease, adjust the belts, fill the lubers on the round bailer...can't test this one, requires too much hay. Weld cracked opener pin on the door lift.
6. Everything is ready. See number 4.
7. Finally cutting. First field goes well, second field goes well, third field is a bitch. Third field is thick and some of the hay has lodged (gone over and matted) in the rain from two days before and keeps binding the sickle so I have to stop and get off the machine and pull it out of the sickle and guides by the handful.
8. 6 more fields to cut, but need to get this stuff raked and baled first.
9. Raking is uneventful. Pleasant in fact, until I blow a tire on the rake. Stop, remove, take back to the shop and replace. Start again.
10. The hay is dry enough to bale.
11. Forgot that one of the wagons had a flat. Remember when I go to hook on to it with the tractor and baler. Fix the tire.
12. Square baling. The baler keeps missing ties on the right side. Remember that I did not put in fresh twine. Last years twine has deteriorated from the humidity. Fresh twine fixes the problem. Bale 250 square bales (two short wagons) and park and cover the wagons in case the weatherman is wrong again. Trying to find a kid who will stack bales on the wagon, even at $10 per hour is nigh on to impossible. The price of video games I guess.
13. Round baling. This baling can be done without help, and goes quite well until I blow a hydraulic hose on the tie. Remove hose, go to shop, crimp a new one, install hose and fill with hydraulic fluid. Unload baler and mark the bale so that it does not get fed (I will use it as bedding) due to being sprayed with hydraulic oil.
14. Repeat steps 1 through 13 until all fields are done (hopefully, but not likely, without mechanical issues)
15. Load and haul round bales home.
16. Throw square bales up into the barn mow and stack. It will be 100+ degrees and dusty...fun.
16. Hope the cows and horses are fucking happy.
17. Enjoy a big thick steak dinner.
Ok. I could probably go to the store and buy a steak. Does this make me a simpleton? Very likely so.
Farming is not my "career." I am an electrical engineer. Most days farming is pretty satisfying. Some days I wonder "what the hell am I thinking."
The whole venture for me (we always had animals when I was growing up and I helped on several local farms) started with 40 acres of my own land and a love of old rusty iron and tractors. Put the two together and hey, I'm a farmer. Not really though because I am probably just a step above hobby farming. I am far from well off and the equipment I have is old. I enjoy maintaining it and running it...most of the time. It keeps me out of trouble, for the most part.
Well, considering that Patty is out raking with the farmall today the hay I cut yesterday, and I am at work leaving this reply, things could be worse.
ReplyDeleteDoes she enjoy it as much as you do? Or is this a need-based activity due to impending rain?
ReplyDeleteShe actually really likes to rake hay. The 1946 Farmall H is simple to operate and the hayrake is easy to adjust. She puts on her headphones and listens to some music and enjoys the ride. She does not want to learn how to run the old haybine, a 1965 John Deere 800 because it is too complex and requires constant attention to its operation. She could handle it, it just that it has to operated rather than rode! And, we are supposed to have 7 days of beautiful weather in a row, but then, weathermen and politicians are the only ones that get paid to be wrong.....and sometimes preachers...lol
ReplyDeleteyou had me at lube
ReplyDeleteI knew my zerks turned you on!
DeleteI want my chaps back
Deleteyou will have to pay for all the bedazzling I did to them.
DeleteAnd of course she is slow. She keeps telling me that it is because she has to keep getting off the tractor to make sure she isn't burning my supper, but I tell her that is no excuse.....
ReplyDeleteWhy? I don't pay the homeless guy when he cleans his own spit off my window.
ReplyDelete