Thanks
@sumi! I'll send him the link. But - hopefully he has had his last eye surgery. Both of his cataracts have been removed and new lenses have been implanted in his eyes. He has a laser procedure next week - but that will likely be the end. He and his eye surgeon had a pretty serious discussion his appointment this week and they both decided that they've pretty much exhausted all options with his eye issues. All of these issues were caused by bleeds inside his eye and with the exception of one last laser procedure next week the plan is to close the door on this. After this procedure he will get a new prescription for glasses that should give him the final improvement in hi vision. Yay!
I got up at a decent hour this morning and tackled the main chore of the day - getting those three big bales out of the trailer. This doesn't sound like a huge chore - but it took me a couple of hours to get it done and things mostly went pretty well. First step was to hook the trailer to the truck so the trailer wouldn't get pulled backwards when I was pulling the bales out. I just got the hitch down on the ball and didn't go to all the mess of locking the trailer on. When my dad owned this trailer he had jack-knifed it once and it twisted the whole front hitch assembly and it's tough to get the locking mechanism down without a hammer to get it on and a hammer to get it off....grrr. But, I can't complain about a free trailer.
Then I had to go get the tractor out of the pasture. That means I have to get all the animals out of that area. Two pigs that weren't even supposed to be in there really didn't want to leave. That was cuss-inducer problem #1. Got them moved and got on the tractor and headed to the gate. Started to open the gate and noticed dogs eyeballing the open gate....grrrrrr! Got the female dog secured. Can't really tie up Cowboy because he will chew through a rope in a nano-second. But, he's not really a problem around gates any more. I can give him "the look" and a long drawn out "aaaaaaaannnnntttt" and he stays put. So, opened the gate again and got on the tractor. Drove through...got off the tractor to close the gate. Backed tractor up to the trailer and slip the hay forks under the bale, lift it out and drive to the gate. Get off the tractor, open the gate, get on the tractor drive through the gate, get off the tractor and close the gate. Find a pallet to deposit the bale on...Yay! Bale #1 is offa the tractor and parked on a pallet. Drive to the gate, get off of the tractor, open the gate, drive through, close the gate.
Next bale - the middle one - is always the biggest challenge to get out. You have to be able to get a big strap between that bale and the third bale and sometimes they're so pushed together that it's hard to get the strap down low enough to pull the bale out. The strap wants to slide up and if it doesn't slide off it will tip the bale up on edge instead of pulling it out. So, get the strap around the bale after 3 or 4 attempts. Get the strap around the FEL and begin to slide it out. Get it to the edge of the trailer and get off the tractor to unhook the straps. Get back on the tractor to turn it around and get the hay forks under it. Got it out - drive to the gate - get off the tractor and open the gate - get on the tractor and drive through - get off the tractor and close the gate. Lower the bale to the ground while I go get a pallet. Get the pallet in place and leveled. Get on the tractor, pick up the bale which is not totally seated on the forks and it falls off and flips up to the flat end. Sigh... Turn the tractor around - use the bucket to flip the bale back over - turn the tractor around and get the hay forks under it AGAIN and get it set on the pallet. Yay - bale #2 done. Drive to the gate, get off of the tractor, open the gate, get on the tractor and drive through the gate. (Cowboy is such a good boy - he doesn't even look at the open gate - it's too hot!
I'm hot and tired and want a drink of water - but determined to get the last bale off.
Drive the tractor to the trailer again - get the strap around the last bale and start pulling it to the end. Everything is going great - but remember when I said I didn't lock the trailer hitch onto the truck? At this point the weight of the last bale tips the trailer up - argh. I push the bale back in and decide I'd better move my truck and just put 4 x 4's behind the trailer tires so it doesn't move. Get back on the tractor - turn it around - get the forks under the bale and away we go. Go to the gate - get off of the tractor - open the gate - get back on the tractor - drive through - get off of the tractor and close the gate. I need a drink of water, another cup of coffee and something to eat so the last bale is sitting on the hay forks waiting for it's semi-permanent home.
I didn't count all the ups and downs off and on the tractor but that tractor step is probably at least 18 - 24 inches high and climbing up and down offa that thing is a great leg/a$$ workout!
Just a little blow-by-blow of my first chore this morning. Tractor is the best tool on the farm - but there's some people work involved with it too. I'd give a gazillion dollars to have an automatic gate opener. I think I'll check into that!
I know! "Someone" was still in bed and "someone" shouldn't have opened his mouth when I came inside. I was told "you've got that bale moving down to a fine art don't you?" My response - "It's not a fine art - it's hard a$$ work!" LOL!
