Seventy Square Bales up in the Loft

 "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was." - Toby Keith

It's a startling and humbling discovery when you find and must admit that you just can't do what you used to do.  Your body tells you, "You can't do this, boy.  But your pride says, "Oh, yes you can."  I say this to preface today's posting.  We walked down past the neighbor's Jiggs Bermuda pasture and saw that they had cut it.  I called them and they said, "Yep, we'll be baling at 2 pm on Wednesday."  The price was $6 per bale picked up in the field or $7 in the barn.  We are frugal farmers, so you know which price point we selected?

We hooked up the trailer and made the 1 mile drive west down our road and drove into the field.  My wife drove the truck and would position the trailer close to the bales and I would load the bales into the trailer.  To keep count, I would call out the number I was loading and Tricia would repeat the number.  After loading the first bale, I was chased out of the trailer by a nest of wasps that were hiding in there.  I was still fresh and full of vigor and ran quickly and didn't get stung.  We made a quick drive back home and killed 8 or 10 very angry red wasps.  Then we drove back and got down to business.

It was 3:15 by this time and we had church at 6, so we needed to really get down to business.

You can stack hay four bales high in the trailer and three wide.  With each bale put in, it's a shorter walk.  This is good hay - horse hay.  We use this sparingly during the winter.  We roll out round bales that they eat on all the time, but for the good square bales, we ration it, giving them a slice while we're milking.

 

Pretty soon, the trailer was full!  But there was still work to do.  We weren't at 70 bales yet.  I strapped the gate closed since it was too full to properly latch.

Our neighbors were fluffing, raking and baling right ahead of us.  Baling hay is always a beautiful sight to me.  

The hay field was full of square bales - much more than we could use.  They had customers that were loading like we were.  They also had a contraption that would pick up the bales, stack on a trailer being pulled by a tractor.  One man.  He'd drive it to the barn, tip the trailer over, and it was stacked perfectly without the exertion of any energy (by the man).

While we're on the topic of exertion of energy, well...  The trailer was loaded and the truck was loaded.  The old truck creaked under the load.  I tell you, it took everything I had to throw those last bales up on top of the truck.  I was, as they used to say, tuckered out.

I hopped in the truck.  My driver, the "hay maiden," was counting out money to pay the neighbors.  $420 to be exact.  The price was up $1 per bale this year, but it had been $5 a bale for years.  It's good hay.  They are our neighbors.  We like to buy local and it doesn't get more local than this!  I sat down and drank a full Yeti cup of ice cold water.  Ahhhhh!

We drove home very, very slowly and turned in the driveway.  I got a jack and disconnected the trailer.  Then we opened the pasture gate and backed the truck full of hay right next to the barn.  I climbed up into the loft and opened the doors and put the pulley and rope on the 4x4.  Now comes the really hard part.

Tricia clips the bungee cord hooks to the baling twine.  I grunt and groan and pull each bale up.  The rope has a ring on the end.  When the bale is even with the door, I put the ring on the nail to hold it while I grab the bale and swing it into the loft.

Just like in the trailer, I start stacking the hay.  I push the bales to the end.  The 2x12 wooden floor to the loft is smooth and shiny as it's been polished by pushing hay on it over the years.

We got 35 bales up in the barn before I looked at the clock and decided it was quittin' time if we wanted to make it to church.  Besides, I don't think I could've pulled another bale up.

After a good night's sleep, Tricia and I went out to the barn to conclude our work.  We were a little sore from the night before, but each bale put up was one bale closer to the end.  That's how you gotta think.  By and by, the work was done.  The hay was in the barn.  Another year done!  

The tired hay workers walked slowly into the house.  Part of us rejoiced as the work was finished.  The other part of us just wanted to lay down and rest.  Hay Day 2022 is in the books!

A Fresh Coat of Paint

The year was 1978.  My grandpa had retired from farming and was ready to devote more time to fishing in his boat at Toledo Bend lake, gardening, and raising cattle.  He purchased a cattle trailer to haul animals to and from sale barns.  It was a yellowish/gold/tan color.  It had green pexiglass windows in the front.  It had a dividing gate inside so that you could separate animals or put animals in the front and hay and feed in the back.  The cattle trailer was nice back in the day.

We've hauled many animals in it - to sell, to slaughter, and for the past ten years mainly to livestock shows in Jennings and Lake Charles.  The cattle trailer did not have lights and was not really road-worthy from a legal standpoint.  We would take all the backroads between our house and the livestock barn, so as not to get pulled over by law enforcement.  It was kind of stressful.

Over the years, it has required some repair.  The tongue broke and had to be re-welded.  Same thing with the jack on the front.  The body had a lot of rust damage.  The floor required replacement.  Dad did that and did a great job with it.  The floor is in tip top shape.  The exterior paint is horrible.  I've painted it several times.  I'll be the first to admit, I am not a skilled painter.  In previous painting projects, I primed it and painted it red.  The paint promptly peels off!

This year I decided to consult some experts at our local hardware store.  I was told that I had been using the wrong primer.  This time I listened to them and bought at can of Red Oxide Primer.  Before that, however, I cleaned the trailer up good with a pressure washer and repaired rusted out places with Bondo (for the small holes) and epoxy resin patches (for the big ones).  Here is a photo of the 1978 cattle trailer all patched up and ready for priming:

The trailer is in need of a new paint job, wouldn't you think?  I shook up the can and stirred it up.  I don't have a spraying apparatus on my air compressor, so I settled to paint the cattle trailer like Tom Sawyer would do, with a paint brush.

It was hot and the paint fumes were strong, but I made up my mind to get the job done.  Three quarters of the way through, I stepped back to observe the progress. 

Not too shabby!  The old trailer was starting to regain some of her former glory.  It was tedious work, painting the sides and all around in every nook and cranny.

Finally, I climbed up on top of the trailer and painted the very top.  The job was complete.

The old girl looks good!  Grandpa would like what she looks like.  Not only does the red oxide primer make her look good, but it curbs the rust.  This is just the primer.  I think I am going to paint her a navy blue color, for a change of pace.  First though, I have about a third of the can left.  I'll use that up painting the inside.  We will share photos of it when we have here decked out in blue.  I told my Dad, brother, and cousin, "The cattle trailer will likely last another 43 years and outlive us all!"

It Worked!!

Well, in THIS PREVIOUS POST on September 14th, I mentioned that we have an appointment at a processor in Morse, Louisiana to bring our Jersey bull to get processed.  The appointment is in early October.  Trouble is, he's an aggressive bull and thrashes with his head and comes running at you.  It is high time to get him off the property and into the freezer.

I figured that I would back the cattle trailer into the pasture and each afternoon, I would bring a bucket of feed to the bull.  We've never fed the bull anything - just grass in the pasture and free choice hay.  The plan was to feed him in a bucket and each day move the bucket closer and closer to the trailer.  Then I'd put the bucket at the edge of the trailer and then the next day put it where he'd have to put his front legs in the trailer to eat and then the next day, I'd push the bucket of feed all the way in so that he'd have to get fully in the trailer.  Then, I could shut the door.

I started working on the plan two days ago.  I quickly learned that the gluttonous bull was going to like the feed and the plan could be shortened.  By day two of the plan his front feet were in the trailer. And today...  Well, I'll let you see for yourself. Why do you think the trailer is tilted up in the air?

Well, it is because ol' boy jumped right on up in the trailer to eat!  Tomorrow I'll push the feed bucket all the way to the front.  Shutting the door should be pretty easy.  The only problem is that the second weekend in October is a long way away!  I asked Tricia if we might be able to get the appointment changed to an earlier Saturday, but all of the Saturdays coming are already booked with activities.

Before I started working with the bull to try to get him in the trailer, I figured I would make a ramp to make it easy for him.  You can see it below.  I used some old 2x4 lumber that I salvaged from when we demo'd the chicken tractors.  Some of it was rotten and we burned it.  But others were in good shape and I made a nice ramp.

After talking to a friend about my plan, he suggested that the ramp may scare him off and that he didn't think I'd need it.  He said the bull would jump right on up once he got used to the feed.  You know what?  He was right!

Although it only took less than 10 minutes to make the ramp, I hated to waste the lumber and time making it.  Looking at the unused ramp gave me an idea.  Have you ever seen those mats that cranes use on a construction site?  Or a board-run at an oil drilling site?  That reminded me that I could use my ramp as a mat or a board run around the barn when it rains and gets so muddy that sometimes you step right out of your boots.

Back to the bull, I think we won't have to have a rodeo to get him in the trailer to get him to the processor.  The plan worked, even faster than I thought.  On second thought, perhaps I should wait until early October when I have him in the trailer and on the way before I celebrate.