[Ed Thayer]

Baled 200 yesterday and the hay was good quality, I had help from the neighbors and friends and I was grateful to have them throw hay into the barn for us.

I am a rookie hay maker and had a little trouble yesterday. I tedded the hay twice and then raked it at 3:00 to prepare for baling. I got the baler running and made a couple passes around the field and the baler miss tied every 10 bales or so. This perplexed me as I had done over 200 bales in the previous fields a couple weeks ago and it only missed one ties in 200. I knew I was low on twine so I changed it out with new and went back at it. Same problem kept occurring.

It finally occurred to me after my wife said the bales were loose and light I had neglected to place any tension on the bale chute. I had backed off the screws when I was done a couple weeks ago when I cleaned it out.

Needless to say, I baled the rest of the day after tightening the chute and never missed another bale. This hay making thing makes me humble.

Glad to hear you are all doing well with yours.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

cutting today, weather looks good through Wednesday.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

We have been waiting too. Looks like the end of the week is going to be drier and less humid. We are processing chickens on Saturday so it could be a busy weekend.

We still have several acres to mow. Second crop is coming in nicely with all the rain we have had.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Looks like some sunny weather finally, but high humidity and chance of thunder storms each afternoon. Not great hay drying weather for sure. We may have second crop and first cut in the same bale soon.

Hope you all have a happy 4th.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Cool vid, simple enough to follow along. There is a certain satisfaction processing your own animals. We do our chickens, hogs and turkeys but the cow we ship to a local butcher for now. I really need a cooler to let it hang for aging.

[Ed Thayer]

Very cool video. That is a big load for sure. How do you off load?

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Having a hard time getting the hay to dry today with limited sun. Baled 141 bales yesterday and the old girl only missed one tie. Pretty happy with that. All in the barn and waiting to bale another field today.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Mowed 1.5 acres tonight and ready for the sun to do its job. Will tedd tomorrow after work. Kicked a baby fawn out of its bed n the back corner of the field. Scared the crap out me when it bolted. Thankfully it ran away from the cutter bar.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Mike,

I made the deck 8′ wide x 16′ long. It will fit nicely in my barn loaded if I need to get it under cover in a hurry. .06 sounds reasonable to me for hemlock. I paid .05 cents deliverd to my house.

Geof,

My baler has a hitch but it looks like it was used for a buncher not a wagon hitch. I would like to fab a hitch to be able to tow the wagon behind the baler. That will be next year. I really only have one field that it would work well in.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Keep the faith Brad. Hope you have better weather to log in. The dairy farm up the street from-us still has not planted corn yet because the ground is so wet. Looks like drier weather is in the forecast.

I just knocked down and acre and a half of grass and hope the forecast runs true.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I broke my mower yesterday clipping the vegetable fields and will have replacement parts in by tomorrow so we plan to cut tomorrow evening or Wednesday mid day. Started the Wisconsin on the baler and re checked its operation. McKormick Deering makes short bales but good enough for me. I am not selling it and the wife appreciates the lighter bales. My hay wagon is complete and the rest of my old iron is good to go.

Is there any disadvantage to laying down grass when it is till wet?

This is our first year making our own hay on our property and I am both anxious and excited. My biggest fear is breaking down and being stuck with nice hay on the ground.

Happy haying to you all.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Weather is looking better for first cut on Tuesday or Wednesday in the northeast. Anyone else ready to go?

[Ed Thayer]

Mike,

I used 2″ hemlock for the deck and long members. The logmembers are 3.5″ x 8″ and the cross bunks are 3″ x 5″.

Green lumber and very heavy but it will dry out eventually.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I fastened the deck to the bunks with ceramic coated deck screws. It will weigh much less when the wood dries 🙂

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Finished the hay wagon today. Now we just need weather to cut.

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