First Cutting

Posted on June 24th

In the Summer/Fall of 2000, we had the field cut by one of the local farmers, Joe Lacey. It took him several days to cut and rake it, then it had to sit in the sun and dry. After that, we all worked to bail it all up, and eventually, haul it up to the barn and unload it.

Here is a view from near the house showing the field with the rows of straw. In the distance you can see Joe Lacey's truck and a trailer for hauling hay (we filled 6 of them with close to a thousand bails). We worked from 5:00 P.M. until about 10:30 P.M. every day for 3 days. By then end of that, we had the entire field cut, bailed and up on trailers. The actual unloading of the hay did not really get started for several more weeks. By the end of all the cutting and bailing, nobody was really in any shape to unload the bails!

Here is Kathy riding on the tractor with Joe Lacey. On the trailer are my brother Steff and Joe Lacey's two sons. In the back, you can see several more trailers. One problem we kept having was that his bailer do-ma-jiggy kept breaking some large bolts. While the machine was designed to have the bolts break if there was too much tension, the bolts we happened to be using were too soft and broke off too easily.

Here is Steff helping with the bailer do-ma-jiggy. As mentioned above, the bolt has seared off and we are replacing it. The person actually replacing the bolt is on of Joe's son.








Not easy work!