A loft(y) goal. Pardon the pun.
We got a text from our neighbor down the road that said, "We're baling hay and trying to get it done between rainfall. Can you come pick it up? $5 per bale picked up in the field. $6 per bale picked up in the barn." Tricia contacted me and I did my best to finish pressing work at my job so that I could leave an hour early and head home to get the hay. I left at 3:35 pm and made the 40 minute commute home.
Tricia and Benjamin had hooked up the cattle trailer to the truck and were ready to roll when I pulled up in the driveway. I quickly changed and we made the 1 mile trip down the road to pick up the hay. Our order was for 70 square bales of good Bermuda hay. Our goal for the day was to pick up 70 bales behind the baler, pack them into the trailer and truck, bring it home, load it into the hayloft in the barn. The over-riding goal was to get this all done before it rained on the hay.
It was really threatening to rain. Note the rain you can see falling from the clouds as we arrived in the field at 4:30.
We moved FAST! We each had a role to play. Tricia drove the truck. Benjamin loaded the hay bales into the back of the trailer, and I stacked the bales tightly in the trailer.
We kept an accurate count by calling out the number of bales as they were transferred into the trailer.
Tricia lined up the truck between the rows of hay that just came out of the back of the baler. She would stop as the back of the trailer was lined up with the bales, so we wouldn't have to carry them far. It was hot, but not oppressively so. The trailer filled up quickly.
In order to get 70 in one trip, we had to stack the bales in the back of the truck, too. The truck was squatting down in the back with all the weight of the hay, but she got the job done.
Benjamin, with all his youthful energy, would throw the bales easily to the top.
Finally, the 70th bale was loaded and our work in the field was done. Benjamin rode on top of the hay on the way back home. We made record time loading the hay - only 20 minutes lapsed between arriving and leaving. We were in such a rush to beat the rain, we forgot the money to pay the neighbor, so Tricia headed back to pay as soon as we got home.
The work in the field was done, but we still had to load all the hay into the hay loft in the barn. The pasture was too wet to pull the weight of the trailer to the barn, so we unhitched the trailer and made several trips to the barn in just the truck - about 16 bales each trip.
We have a pulley on a 4x4 in which we hook the hay by bungee strap and pull each bale up into the barn and then stack it.
We got all the bales stacked neatly in the loft. They fit with a few to spare. This will get us through the winter. We also purchase round bales of hay from another neighbor friend. We were happy to have the work done.
The work crew was still smiling after all the hard work.
We were sweaty and smelly. We will certainly sleep good tonight!
We're always a little nervous about the hay spontaneously combusting and burning down the barn. This happens if the hay isn't properly cured. We just have to trust our neighbors. They are professionals in what they do and have done it for many years. For safety, we did move Elsie out of the barn for the night. I can hear her mooing as I type. The hay is in the barn and our goal was reached! Hallelujah!!
