Hay Baling on the Farm

We had a very busy and exhausting day yesterday!  Early in the morning we heard from the neighbor that he was wanting to bale our fields to see if he could get some in before the rain cam this morning. As I have mentioned previously, we have the BEST neighbors!!!

Earl the Pearl brought his tractor, baler and wagon over and started.  His wagon holds 100 bales.

We had worked very hard all morning to get this section of the barn cleaned out.  The Boss had stacked a lot of things there in preparation for moving his stuff into the barn.  It had to be totally cleaned out to get this wagon in there.

Eli and Elizabeth

A young family had come for adjustments and stayed to watch the excitement.  Our family was really excited to get hay in the barn.  Plus there was the extra suspense of racing the rain.

When the wagon dumped the bales they tumbled out the door!

Lee was very happy to check out the bales.

The team set to work as we had only about an hour to get the first batch of bales stacked before the next one was coming in.

Michelle and Elizabeth worked hard at stacking the bales in the upper part of the barn.  These were very heavy bales!  I was super impressed that Elizabeth could heft a bale around.  She is getting to be a real farm gal! Hard to believe she is only nine.  As soon as she finished eating dinner, she showered and headed to bed.  It was an exhausting day!

We were super blessed to have some friends ( 5 young men) come over and help us on our project.  I don't know how we would have gotten it done without them.  We were racing the daylight and we had to finish up by headlight as it was.

Elizabeth and Michelle worked very hard and you can see that glow of hard work on their faces.  They really enjoy working together!

The baler had one major issue.  About every fourth bale,  the knotter wouldn't work and the bale wouldn't get tied up.  That made a lot of loose hay in the wagon and spread around the barn.  We had to work hard to gather it in a pile.

When the tractor came back we ran the loose hay back through the baler to form it into tied bales.  This almost doubled the time it took.  It cost us another potential load of hay bales from the field.

We don't have a hay elevator and so we had to figure out a quick easy solution.  Paul, our mechanical engineering student, came up with this.  He fixed a sled on a large wooden I-beam.  He attached a rope and it had a back stop.

Hay bales were place on the sled and...

Thomas or one of the other big guys pulled it easily up to the loft.

Thomas seemed to enjoy this job.

Michelle's height was useful as she could swing the bales up to the higher rows when we were stacking.

Sam the Man, held the bales down.  Actually, he worked along with everybody else.

Paul, worked hard with organizing and carrying bales.  He is an expert at figuring an easier way to do most jobs.

Here is the loft crew waiting for another bale.  We ended up with almost 200 bales in the barn.  We are left with over 600 bales worth in the field.  Unfortunately, the rain this morning has soaked it all.  We are hoping it has a chance to dry out before the next rain.  Then we can still round bale it.

Autumn on the farm is a busy time.  Here's hoping that winter slows down a bit more.  The old house is on the market. I can't wait until it sells and I get my DH husband home before ten o'clock at night!!!