The News (Hey!!!)

I arranged with a guy from Craigslist to deliver four of the big round bales of hay to our house this past Friday. He later called to report his tractor would be broken and that he would have to deliver them on Sunday. At that time, we were nearly out of hay, so I said that would be fine and to call me when he was ready to come out. Well, he called my while I was in church to tell me he was in Leonard and ready to deliver the hay. What that meant is that I had to tell him to just drop them in the field (as opposed to showing him exactly where I wanted them placed.)

In other news...

...I have no way to move these round bales (which weigh over 1,000 lbs each dry) so last night I finally decided to do a backlogged project and weld up a hay spike that would fit the three point hitch/lift on the back of my tractor. I started welding and hit a point where I really needed the use of a cutting torch to finish it (which I don't have) so I quit that project (temporarily) and decided to try to see if I could just use straps to strap a bale to the front-end-loader on the tractor to see if I could move one that way. I aired up the tires, (one of the tires is so trashed from UV rays it is literally falling apart, but it will hold air for an hour or so) and jump-charged the battery (the alternator is strong enough to keep the tractor running, but too weak to keep the battery charged) and it ran for a few seconds before shutting off. I couldn't get it restarted and on a whim, I checked the fuel level (it had at least 4 gallons of gas in it the last time I parked it) and discovered it was empty. What that means is that the gas has drained down into the oil pan (again) and that the tractor is completely unusable at this time. I wrote the night off as a total loss and went to bed.

In other news...

I woke up at 4:00am this morning and drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma to check on my employee there, deliver some tools to him, etc. On the way, I decided to check the Tulsa craigslist to see what the hay situation looked like. Bingo! They had lots of hay up there for cheap, so I called a guy and we set up a tentative meeting for this afternoon to get some hay. Here's the thought; if the bales are in my truck, I can push them out by hand right in the spot where I want them. So, you see, a round bale (or two) in the truck is worth 4 on the ground - at least when you don't have any way of moving them... After work, I drove over to this dude's place and he loaded two bales (I guess they are rolls really...) in the back of my truck with his front-end-loader.

Exhibit A - One dirty, beatup old pickup with 2 roundbales in the back

Note how the bales (which are 5 foot in diameter and 4 feet long are loaded that the rolling side is NOT positioned to roll out the tailgate for easy unloading. It was a compromise we had to make in order to get them to both fit in the 8 foot bed of the truck.

Can I just take a moment to say that for all the problems my truck has, there is certainly a very satisfying feeling to be able to load it down like this and then proceed to drive something like 300 miles with it and have it act like it was made for carrying this sort of load (which it was.) I was cruising up fairly significant Oklahoma hills at 70 mph on cruise control and this truck didn't even downshift or lose any speed. It just plain handles it. There's the best argument for diesel I guess.

In other news...I made it home tonight at 9:30pm and proceeded to spend about an hour going through the following process (which has apparently become my official modus operandi for round bale logistics:)

1. Get truck stuck in mud
2. Say some quick prayers and then sling a lot of mud getting unstuck while tearing up the pasture and increasing dramatically the chances for getting stuck again in the future
3. Spend 5 minutes repositioning truck for the optimal angle and location so that when the round bales come out, they are in the right place.
4. Spend 5 minutes positioning straps to various stationary objects in a vain attempt to pull the bales out.
5. Resort to brute strength and back-injury risk level 10 and push them out by hand in a brutal battle for progress that comes inch by inch (or less) with each herniating push

Like I said, it took about an hour, but in the end, one of the bales is strategically located and is locked away behind bars to prevent the cattle from spoiling it prematurely, while the other is successfully placed in the cattle pen in a round bale ring (it prevents the cattle from pulling the bale all to pieces and trampling/spoiling it.)

In other news...it is now nearly midnight and though I have been going strong for approximately 20 hours non-stop, I am now typing this for your viewing pleasure because the "medication" I took to keep me awake and safe during the drive home has not worn off yet. Tomorrow is going to come at me with a vengeance - I can feel it.

In other news...the cattle are all stoked to be grubbin' on some tasty new hay (all of them except for the little longhorn bull calf who was smart enough to be standing under one of the round bales when it came out of the back of the truck and proceeded to roll over him - he got up quick and seemed to be fine, but I imagine he'll be feeling that one in the morning.)