Hay Man

Tia grabbed me this morning, saying that she needed me to help move hay. Apparently the guy that was delivering them couldn’t get them into the barn all the way. She couldn’t remember exactly how to drive the tractor and didn’t want to learn with this guy waiting, dogs running around, and snow coming down, so I asked her to start it and got geared up to go outside.

This was the first day wearing snow pants, but I didn’t have on boots, which proved to be a mistake. In any case, I did warm up, and then drove the tractor over to the barn, using it to push some big bales around. The guy had unloaded the first two, but one was tipped on it’s side, and the they were too close to the door. He couldn’t push them with his truck, so we used the tractor to move them. It was surprisingly easy, and I have new respect for the power of that machine.

The big bales are about 1,000lbs., and around 3ft square on the ends, and about 6ft long. They’re huge. While we could tip one that was on it’s side over (I guess they’re about 3ft x 4ft), we can’t slide them at all on the floor by hand. It makes sense to use them since Tia got 6 big bales for $600, and that should last 6-8 weeks, depending on temperature. We also got about 150 small bales, about 60lbs each, for $1200 and those will last about the 3-4 weeks, half the time. Big bales make sense!

So I pushed the first two over and then backed up. They’re delivered on a large flatbed, and he tilts it to slide them off, backing up to push them. It’s not exact, and if he isn’t straight, they end up blocking space. We learned today the tractor can move them, so as he unloaded them, I pushed them deep into the barn.

The guy then said that I ought to be able to flip one up on top of the others, so I tried that and it worked. Instead of most of the barn full of 6 bales, I managed to flip one up and only 5 are there. If I had more time, I’d try to flip another one up, and might do that this weekend.

I also had to push the guy’s truck, which wouldn’t start for some reason. So I used the tractor to get him moving, and he popped the clutch to get it going. The tractor was very handy today.