Friendly Baling

Linda left early for the day care job and around 9:15 AM a vase of flowers and a teddy bear was delivered from Jason. At 10 AM I went down to fill up the tractor with diesel fuel. I drove it over to the tank and shut it off. Then I heard a hissing noise and noticed the left front tire was leaking fluid. I went back to the house and called a tire service, but they said it would be the next day before they could come and fix the tire. Since I was supposed to bale hay for Steve Riddle, I called to see what he wanted to do about the hay. He said there was a place in Columbia that would fix the tire, so I called them. They said it would be the next day before they could come down, but if I would bring the tire up there they could fix it right away. Stacey drove the Mule to the front of the garage and I put the jack in the back and the 3/4" socket set to remove the wheel. I removed the wheel and tire after jacking up the tractor. I pulled the truck into the ditch and used one of the small ramps to roll the wheel and tire into the back of the pickup truck. It must have weighed near 200 lbs. Stacey and I went to Columbia and dropped off the tire at Hancock Tire, then went to eat lunch at Wendy's. We returned to pick up the tire and paid $53 for the repair. Two guys and I lifted the tire into the back of the truck and Stacey and I headed back to the farm. On the way back, Stacey began having problems with involuntary movement of her arms. I pulled the truck to the front of the garage and helped Stacey inside. Linda was home, so Stacey set down with her and shortly Linda gave Stacey 10 mg of Valium to stop the movements. Stacey's involuntary movements stopped so I went to put the wheel and tire on the tractor. I slid the tire off the truck and rolled it over to the tractor. It was heavier than before. I let the jack down a little and positioned the wheel over one of the lugs, put on a nut and jacked the tractor back up and replaced the remaining lug nuts and tightened them once the tire was back on the ground. I went back to the house to cool down and check on how Stacey was doing. Linda said that she was OK, so I headed up on Jone's Ridge to bale the hay for Steve. After about a 25 minute ride, I was there and Steve met me and helped get the baler ready to bale. I baled a couple of places along the road and then we moved to the field. Steve Anderson was using the tractor and rake to make the wind rows for the baler. As I was baling, Steve needed to leave to take Steve Anderson home so he could plant some of his tobacco plants. I finished baling, set the baler for towing and headed back to the farm. Once I was back home, I had a lot of stuff to pick up from changing the tire on the tractor and I needed to put the hay baler in the shed and some other stuff away too. Linda said Stacey was still doing OK, so I did those things. We hooked the trailer to the pickup truck and drove back to help Nancy and Steve pick up the hay bales. They had been picking up the hay and had most of it already in their barn, but we helped with the last load. Nancy and Steve said they had over 90 bales of hay. We talked a little while, then it began thundering and we headed home. Stacey was OK the rest of the evening.