OT- putting up the hay

[jnyork]

On another forum, the discussion got around to members experience in the hay fields putting up the crop, comparing days gone by to todays methods. I posted this, thought some of you might get a chuckle out of it:

Summer of '58, just graduated from High School, 17 years old and no jobs in our podunk little town. Got on with a haying crew, loose hay, no bales. Working on the stack all day, fighting insects, hot sweating work, occasional rattlesnake hoisted onto the stack, working with a crew of ignorant buffoons I couldn't stand. Boss gave me the ranch pickup to go to town for some tractor part. Coming out of the parts store, who should I run into but the local Air Force recruiter, who knew all us senior boys by first name. "Hi Jerry," says he "ready to join the Air Force today?" "Hell yes, sign me up" says I. He follows me back to the ranch to drop off the truck, I waved goodby to the buffoons and never looked back. Was in Lackland at Basic Training 10 days later, worked out really well for me. Every time I drive by a hayfield being worked I thank God for that recruiter.
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[RIHMFIRE]

thank God for that recruiter.....and your service!

[GoatGuy]

Done some of that also. Hot, dusty, itchy work for sure. No matter, certainly never would have made me want to join the Air Force. Some other branch of service, ...possibly.

[Hobie]

Many a farm boy went into service for just those reasons!

[BigSky56]

Back in the 60,s the tractors were open cab hot and dusty use to cut, bale and buck 3 wire 110 lb alfalfa and timothy/clover hay now days the tractors are closed cab with AC and everything is mechanical no more bucking the bales did 200 ton of square and round bales last week have another 500 ton to do soon as the weather breaks. the days of wire is also gone use twine or netting on the bales. danny

[Booger Bill]

I could have almost wrote that. I also graduated in 1958 and had just turned 17. Also did the hay thing. Went from that to a hot dirty foundry. Went for the AF test but flunked out with high BP. They held me overnight to see if I could get it down, couldnt. Too embaressed to go home, went to a army recruiter. He said he had a "in". He didnt. Same doctors were there and said what are you doing here? Had to go home with my tail between my legs. Viet nam and I tried to enlist another number of times. Always flunked the BP. Also on LEO tests too. After the war I found I had good blood pressure and still do! Wife says God himself kept me out. I think she may be right. Thats how I came to lead a boreing life!

[adirondakjack]

I only hayed one summer, around the time I turned 14. I;d gotten a job helping the farmer, who was also building a house on spec for side money, and learned a lot that year. Once the government man had come around and given him his check for NOT growing a crop on the big field behind that house, we commenced to cut, bale and load the hay into the barn.

First ole "Pick" had me run the tractor, cutting the field with a sickle bar mower. The old narrow front end twin cylinder John Deere was a handful, but once Pick unlocked the bar between the brake pedals and taught me how to use one brake at a time to help swing it around, it got easier. I never did much care for the hand clutch though.

When it came time to bale, he drove the tractor and his grandson and I were supposed to throw the square bales into a wagon towed behind a pickup driven by Pick's son. After about 5 bales, I couldn't throw em anymore, so they had me drive the pickup, a 60's vintage short box Chevy with a three speed on the column and no power steering. Towing two hay wagons at a rip, I'd drive around the field, then the two miles or so to the barn, where Davey and Bob would work in the loft, while I pulled bales off the wagons and loaded the elevator (much easier pulling em down than up, but still a JOB after a couple hundred bales....)

Then about 1AM the following morning, my dad woke me up to say "Pick is on the phone, the barn's smoking. Let's go." By the time we got there a veritible army of men, women and children were throwing bales out of every window in the hay loft, and Pick and Bob were on the roof with axes, cutting holes in the roof. I learned that night what "spontaneous combustion" meant, though we didn't lose the barn, or the hay for that matter, aside from a few dozen bales they had broken open and scattered to dissipate the heat. The following evening we loaded the barn again.

I never had pictured myself a farmer, and I sure as heck wasn't ever gonna entertain the notion after that summer. Whenever I've been HOT, I remember the feeling of being drenched in sweat, shirtless, covered in hayseed and chaff, and how HOT that felt. It's ALMOST as hot as working un top the wing, or inside the tail section of a B-52 in CA in midsummer. Yup, did that too.

[rimrock]

I spent some long hours sweeting buckets in the hay fields. Best part of the day was shootin' yotes trying to eat whatever critters the cutter had shredded.

rimrock

[Lastmohecken]

I started in the hayfield when I was six. My dad had me driving the tractor pulling the haytrailer, while he and my uncle would buck the bales. He actually put a seat belt on the old 8N Ford tractor, because he was worried about me falling off, but I always had to unbuckle it, to stop the tractor, as I had to stand on the clutch to take it out of gear.

Arround my senior year, I started hauling hay with a hay crew, and that was tough work, I eventually had the corner of a overloaded haytruck come off, when the truck hit a stump hole in the field, and I was on top. I landed wrong and sprung my wrist really bad, and had to quite hauling hay, that summer. I got a job working for a big farm, baling hay instead, and mowing, raking, etc. I hauled hay later on, but I never got on a real hay crew again, and never wanted too. That was back in the 70's before everyone went to round bales. I wore out a couple of square balers, back then, and I also wore out a John Deer Haybine.

I don't mind baling hay or mowing hay, but I hated hauling hay, although I never really minding feeding in the winter. For a few years there, I mowed and baled most of the spring and summer, and fed hay, most of the winter. There is an art to stacking hay on a pickup, and back in my youth, I was one of the best. I could stack 50 plus bales, and sometimes over 60 on a pickup, and never use a tiedown rope, to haul it, unless I was going a long ways, then I would, just for safety.

[FWiedner]

My brother and I used to take turns driving the Cub and loading the sled. Then we'd drag the sled over to a stack, unload the sled and do it again. A thousand times a summer. Then we'd do it again in the fall. We cut twice a year and handled every bale. Kept 300 bales to get the horses through winter and sold the rest. Made a good profit for the cost of ditch water, manure, and a bit of manual labor.

I don't have any bad memories from the hayfield, except for the time I had to put a cat that got hit by the mower out of it's misery. Mostly I think fond thoughts of hard, honest work, where you could see and feel the result of your effort at the end of the day.

Life was much easier to figure out back in those days.

[JerryB]

I graduated in 1958 at 19, hauled hay until I left for Fort Leonard Wood Mo. that summer.
Watched them cutting hay across the road from my house this week and started thinking about those big bales. What do boys do now for a summer job?? No gas stations for them to work at either.

[pokey]

every year.

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[Don McDowell]

It's almost impossible to get kids to haul hay these days, they don't want to work that hard unless it's for football or such.And then the insurance you need to carry is a bit stiffling.
Last time I really tried to get kids, the local FFA advisor sent a couple out. The original call was for 10 cents a bale, 3 meals and gloves or whatever else they needed and transport to and from their houses.
Got started and got about half the first load on, and took a break. They said they wanted to talk about the wages. They decided that 10 cents wasn't enough and they would rather work by the hour. So after trying to persuade them to stay by the perbale deal and failing, an hourly wage was agreed upon.
End of the week we had hauled 2350 bales, the biggest check wrote was for 175$. Later on one of the kids dad and I were talking and he told me he still didn't think those boys had figured out what they had negotiated themsleves out of.

[wecsoger]

To steal a quote, 'education is what you get when you don't have any'.

What a lot of great stories, guys!

[vancelw]

I never minded the hayfield either, until the haystacker broke down. In Montana we packed those bales with 90 to 100 pounds of alfalfa and weren't really equipped to haul it by hand-and that made it even harder. I never could understand how my Texas friends and cousins were so happy to haul hay at 10 cents a bale-until I tried it and realized it was 60-70 pound bales Much better, even if it was 105 degrees.

I joined Uncle Sams Misguided Children to get out of college, not work. (In retrospect, I think I might have had that backwards )

[jnyork]

Done some of that also. Hot, dusty, itchy work for sure. No matter, certainly never would have made me want to join the Air Force. Some other branch of service, ...possibly.

Well, Goat, it's not for everyone, that's for sure. Many have trouble with the written entrance exam.

[Tom Richardson]

This is the way hay was put up on our place.


The kids got the easy job.

[Sheepman Dave]

Some of us dummies are still doing it.

Baled straw today.

Luckily I have 14 & 16 yr old sons to make fun of since I make them do the hard stuff!

[Nate C.]

I don't miss haulin' hay one little bit. It's hard for me to muster up much nostalgia for the memory, either.