Norris Family Blog

Hay Baling Across The Road

Pauline and Brent came over early on Saturday since we had Julie Thursday and Friday. After playing with Julie for a while Brent and I went to hook up the tractors to the hay baler and hay wagon. We finished that, then went back inside to cool off and have a sandwich before starting the actual hay baling. We left the house a few minutes after 11 AM and drove the tractors to the hay field across the road from the house. I started the hay baler and we made a few bales and adjusted the bale length, then Brent brought the hay wagon to the back of the baler and we hooked it to the baler.
 
I drove the tractor around the hay field baling hay and Brent was stacking the bales on the wagon as the baler pushed the bales out of the chute to him on the wagon. After about one round, Steve Riddle drove up with Steve Anderson and they climbed on the wagon and started helping with the bale stacking. We busted three or four bales but kept going. After another round or two, Steve and Phil Garmon stopped and helped me adjust the baler and told me to drive the tractor in the next faster gear. After that, we didn't have any more busted bales and the baling went smoothly. We filled the wagon, then unhooked and pulled it to the back of the barn and inside the barn loft. The four of us unloaded the hay and drank a cold can of pop, then headed back to the hay field for another load. The temperature was near 90 degrees and quite a bit of humidity. In other words, it was scalding us. Another wagon load and back to the barn again, this time with a longer break in the shade after unloading the hay. Once more we went back to the hay field and filled the wagon, but this time we simply pulled the wagon in the barn and left the hay on it. Brent went inside to shower, I thanked Steve R and Steve A and they left about 3 PM after making plans to bale Steve Riddle's hay on Monday. I finished baling about ten more bales to clean up and let the bales drop in the field. I parked the tractor and went inside to cool down, then took a shower. Pauline, Julie, Stacey and Linda had been watching us from the front porch for a while, then they got too hot and went back inside after taking a few pictures when we first started baling.
  
I rode a 4-wheeler up the road to Garmon's farm and thanked Phil for helping us get the baler setup and doing some extra raking. We talked a while and he said they had made 74 rolls in the fields across the creek. I said that was the best cutting they had ever done in those fields and told him we had hauled 183 bales out of the small field, then I went back to the house just in time for the hamburgers Linda fixed for supper. We ate, then Brent and I went outside and put up the tractors and baler, picked up the bales laying in the field, closed the hay shed door and started back to the house. We found Julie and Pauline feeding Daisy, so I walked to the house while Pauline, Brent and Julie took a ride in the Mule.
 
No one lasted very long after dark and I think we all went to bed around 9 PM.