Deer grazing in pasture at the farm

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

I baled my first field yesterday! Not as difficult as I thought it would be, but that’s not to say it was easy. My aunt and uncle own a couple dozen acres, mostly wooded, but they have a small pasture. They had asked me if when it was time, would I be willing to help bale hay. Knowing that no one else in the family would help, I said yes. Well, yesterday was the day.  Still kicking myself for not getting some shots of the baler working, but the misses and my aunt grabbed a few. It was hard work, but a good learning experience. What I enjoyed most was being able to spend that much one on one time with my uncle. We put up 170 bales, which is about half of what they normally get out of a cutting, but was just the right amount for a first timer haha. 

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

I also got to drive my aunts 50(?) Farmall Cub. Biggest tractor I’ve driven to date. I was amazed that it it was so much quieter than the 8hp Kohler.  Unfortunately the wife wasn’t around to get any shots of that. 

[WHNJ701 4,165]

baling hay, every person should be required to do this for 1 summer before the age of 21.  I think the world would be a better place

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

My uncle was telling me about the first time he did it. 

The farmer had the baler drop them on the ground, and had a tractor with multiple wagons come behind. One guy drove the tractor, two on the ground throwing the bales up onto the wagons, and one guy stacking. He was 15, and the youngest and smallest guy. He was one of the two tossing them on the wagon. They got done for the day and the farmer came up in his pick up truck with four cokes. He took the price of the cokes out of their 3¢ a bale pay. 

I was drinking a bottle of water at the time and I asked “So how much do I owe ya?” 

 

It was hard work, and it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything like it, but I enjoyed it. If I want to own land some day, it’ll be a useful thing to know how to do. I was extremely sore when I first woke up, but I was surprised how quickly I “bounced back” from.  I still don’t plan on doing too much today though, my grass can wait another day 😂

 

 

[JAinVA 4,619]

Thanks for jogging the memories.My wifes uncles farmed about 400 acres in western Va.Just about any time we visited was haying time.The baler they used put the bales on the ground and I always help load the wagons.For a young man, at the time it was something to do and I always enjoyed it.

Edited August 4, 2019 by JAinVA

[pfrederi 17,665]

Did the pick up off the ground onto the wagon.  Worst part was getting the hay stacked in the hay loft.  Bales came up the conveyor you had to grab it and carry it to the far end of the loft to start stacking.  Hot and very little airflow.

[oliver2-44 9,684]

17 minutes ago, jabelman said:

baling hay, every person should be required to do this for 1 summer before the age of 21.  I think the world would be a better place

 

My uncle uses to say hard work was good for a young soul.

At home we used to bale 1500/2000 bales each of 3 cuttings a summer.  We didn't have a cab tractor, so the raking and baling could get dusty. Did lots of hauling, loading it 52 bales on the truck, 104 on the low trailer. The 1st college summer I worked at a machine shop and several of the machinist had small farms. They worked their farms on weekends and baled hay for others during the week. Cut customers hay on Monday & Tuesday after work, Then we usually hauled 500/1000 bales on Wednesday and Thursday. 

 

Tasted my 1st white lightening from a farmer that made it from the red cane sorghum he grew for hay.  Those were good days!   

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

We didn’t stack them in the loft because the floor up there needs work, but we did off load 95 of them into the barn. They keep some on the little wagon and feed the donkeys from it. I was happy we weren’t going into the loft, not because it meant more work, but because I do not like heights haha. 

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

2 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

 

My uncle uses to say hard work was good for a young soul.

My son was genuinely upset that he couldn’t get on the wagon and help. The way he’s growing, he’ll be ready to in ten years or so. 

[The Tuul Crib 7,336]

Bailing is not the hard part! Its being in the  hay loft on a hot summers day ! Growing

we had the giant forks that you would 

jab into several bails and use a trip rope

in the barn to release them. A rope went out the other end of the barn hooked to 

a tractor. Had to have good 

 Communication skills for this 

operation!! 

[clueless 2,976]

1 hour ago, jabelman said:

baling hay, every person should be required to do this for 1 summer before the age of 21.  I think the world would be a better place

Also hauling bundles of shingles up a ladder, and picking watermelons in the field and throwing them up to the guy in the wagon . 

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

5 minutes ago, clueless said:

Also hauling bundles of shingles up a ladder, and picking watermelons in the field and throwing them up to the guy in the wagon . 

I’ve done shingles.... not a fan. As of yesterday I’m 141, and that’s too much weight too high off the ground for me 😂

 

 

The only “nope” moment I had in boot camp was the repel tower, and I had to be persuaded off.  The persuasion was in the form of a Drill Instructors boot between my shoulder blades 

[AMC RULES 37,127]

Grandpa, well into his 70's...

used to pick them hay bales with a pitch fork, up through a hole in the ceiling for stacking up in the loft.

I remember the sweat pouring off his face like a spigot every time he bent over to pick another.

[Lee1977 6,642]

I have loaded wagons off the ground put up in the hay loft with out a conveyor and stacked in a loft under a hot tin roof.  There is a farmer here that bails with two bailers behind one tractor. Then comes a long with a big bailer the pickes them up and bails 28 bails together. 

ps://postimg.cc/tnXK7WzM][/url]

[dcrage 627]

3 cents a bale??!!!! What part of the country paid that kind of money?  Most I ever got was 2.5 cents a bale and that was only because I was the only one trusted to make sure the rest of the kids (I was 17 and they were 14 & 15) wouldn’t screw things up. The guy paying the money and owned all of the equipment was a fellow classmate who I ran track with. Most of my life was 2 cents a bale. And I can remember my Grandad’s consternation when guys wanted to get paid by the bale. He was a believer in $1.00 or $1.50 per hour.  In his defense he ran a top notch operation. Hay elevator to get bales to the loft; multiple wagons hauling from the field; one or two really good stackers on the wagon stacking bales as they come out of the baler (my favorite job, out in the open all day and I could stack hay); someone just transporting wagons to and from the field (this was a really important position, needed to be someone who wouldn’t dump loads driving up the hill from the creek bottoms); a full crew at the barn unloading and stacking in the loft; a full hot dinner cooked by Grandma served on her good china at the dining room table (10-12 guys); and Grandma, Aunt Lois, and my Mom would bring out pie and ice cream for mid afternoon break. Now that I write all of that down I see why Grandad didn’t want to pay by the bale. 

 

And while stacking in barn lofts in August heat was really hot; the only times we would shut it down (not Grandad’s operation, he would never take a chance on the hay getting wet) were because of the hay fields is being in creek bottoms with NO BREEZES and temps in the 90s. Several times we would tell the farmers “To hot. We will be back at 6:00 PM and then work most of the night.

Edited August 4, 2019 by dcrage

[953 nut 55,075]

I also grew up on a dairy farm in the '50s and '60s and spent the summer haying. There were about a dozen of us boys that would work on all the area farms harvesting grain and hay from an early age. The smallest child would drive the tractor (5 or 6 years old) then you graduated to rolling bails toward the row where the tractor was headed, next you became a wagon stacker and by twelve years you could throw bails onto the wagon. Didn't need a gym membership to get into shape! We all made some good spending money every summer and had a good time doing it. Now my cousin runs the family farm (1,200 acres) with one helper. God bless modern harvesting equipment!

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

11 minutes ago, dcrage said:

 

3 cents a bale??!!!! What part of the country paid that kind of money

 

About 3 hours east of ya 😂

Sounds like y’all got taken care of though... everyone around here that has a baling story is also a story of getting shafted one one way or another on payment. 

 

My grandma told me about my dads one day of baling hay.... in the early 80s, he agreed to a nickel a bale, but then the farmer had deductions for water, for the lunch he said he’d provide, etc. They’d done several hundred bales and the farmer says “alright, we didn’t get as much as I wanted done today, come back tomorrow and we’ll finish.” One of the other boys asked about pay and he started in on his laundry list of deductions and finally said “way I figure you boys owe me 3.50 apiece”

 

Guess how many showed up the next day? 😂

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

11 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

The smallest child would drive the tractor (5 or 6 years old) then you graduated to rolling bails toward the row where

I’d  be afraid to have my cub running the tractor, not for fear of tipping or screwing up, but afraid he’d wanna put it in 3rd and take off 😂

[roadapples 6,983]

 

Started bailing at 12 through my teens for my uncle and other local farmers. Never made more than .75 an hr. Usually just 3 of us. Farmer on tractor another guy stacking and me tossing them up. Never used an elevator.

I played pony league baseball on Saturday's and a lot of times a farmer was waiting when the game was over for me to help.

 

[Mikey the Monkey 697]

Looks like a JD 4230? Deere had awesome tractors in 70s and 80s. Ahead of their time then and still quite capable today. 

[The Tuul Crib 7,336]

The worst job I have ever done as a kid was detasseling corn for seed companies. This was a pain in the.... well the back side anyway. Riding in that little bucket between the rows in 90° temperatures pulling the tops off the corn stocks

[dcrage 627]

The worst job I ever got into was in a corn crib shoveling ear corn to the corners and sides of the crib as it came out of the elevator (same one used to send hay to barn loft). This was for my Granddad again. I two of my uncles were on there with me and it was hell!!!! Could not keep up with the elevator. I remember thinking that at was the WORST. Oh, and my shovel didn’t have a grip on it. 

[The Tuul Crib 7,336]

30 minutes ago, dcrage said:

The worst job I ever got into was in a corn crib shoveling ear corn to the corners and sides of the crib as it came out of the elevator (same one used to send hay to barn loft). This was for my Granddad again. I two of my uncles were on there with me and it was hell!!!! Could not keep up with the elevator. I remember thinking that at was the WORST. Oh, and my shovel didn’t have a grip on it. 

[LengerichKA88 1,883]

@Mikey the Monkey, I believe so, but I didn’t get too much time to look at it. It, the baler, and the wagon belong to the gentleman driving, who lives about 4 miles down the road. Once we were done he headed home. 

 

We filled his wagon (the one in the pictures) and then dropped it and finished with my uncles wagon. 

I used the Cub to pull the little one along side, and we moved a portion to the little one and parked it in a barn. We then took the big wagon and what was left around to the front of the main barn, and unloaded. I really wanted to get up there and look around, but he had his own farm to tend to and had to get going. Hoping next time to use the H instead of the Cub 😁

 

@dcrage I wouldn’t want to do that if I didn’t have to. My uncle told me about filling the corn crib, it didn’t sound very pleasant. I also wouldn’t envy anyone tasseling corn @The Tool Crib

[The Tuul Crib 7,336]

9 minutes ago, LengerichKA88 said:

@Mikey the Monkey, I believe so, but I didn’t get too much time to look at it. It, the baler, and the wagon belong to the gentleman driving, who lives about 4 miles down the road. Once we were done he headed home. 

 

We filled his wagon (the one in the pictures) and then dropped it and finished with my uncles wagon. 

I used the Cub to pull the little one along side, and we moved a portion to the little one and parked it in a barn. We then took the big wagon and what was left around to the front of the main barn, and unloaded. I really wanted to get up there and look around, but he had his own farm to tend to and had to get going. Hoping next time to use the H instead of the Cub 😁

 

@dcrage I wouldn’t want to do that if I didn’t have to. My uncle told me about filling the corn crib, it didn’t sound very pleasant. I also wouldn’t envy anyone tasseling corn @The Tool Crib

I think that was my worst sun burn l

ever had... ever!