Today was the day; the hay was dry enough to bale. Brian’s little baler was playing up and would only spew out rock-hard bales weighing almost as much as me! Watching our shocked faces as we attempted to lift them, Brian joked it was to our advantage (Oh yes?), as the cost of baling has skyrocketed he’d saved us a fortune by squeezing another third into each bale; something I’ll be paying for every time I attempt to lift a bale this winter! We were mighty glad we just had the one field. We have become soft. Back along when I had dairy cows we had to get in around 5000 -6000 small bales – that really was work!
All baled up
Olly tying down the load
First load ready to roll. We were carrying about four miles back to the farm, hence the added insurance of tying down the hay. Not that this was going anywhere it was so heavy – we worked out this little load weighed almost four tonnes!
Locks Park Farm 
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July 24, 2008 at 2:47 am
heidi
I can almost smell the dry hay in the summer sunshine..Well look at this way, think of how extra fit you will be from hauling that into the barn all winter…
Out here in Oregon we call that “bucking hay”. I have not bucked hay since I was a teenager. However the perk was all the cute farm boys you got to work with, so you forgot how hot, itchy and hard the work was..Oh youth..
That truck looks like it’s about to sink into the earth, hope the suspension is good! 🙂
July 24, 2008 at 7:12 am
Lindsay
Looks a really heavy load of good sweet hay. Big tractors rolling through our village all day yesterday with loads of hay and also one farm is silage making.
July 25, 2008 at 11:22 am
eyegillian
Bales of hay on a freshly mown field just look so… tidy! I’ll bet you’re breathing another sigh of relief on seeing this batch come into the barn.
July 25, 2008 at 3:49 pm
paula
Bucking hay is a good one heidi! And oh yes – those were the days indeed!
July 25, 2008 at 3:53 pm
paula
Hopefully it will be Lindsay – but when they have been baled so tightly they often develop moulds in the curing – I’m just hoping that all my turning did the trick and prevents that from happening.
I think the world and his wife were taking advantage of the few day’s’ sun – we’ve sort of got funny showers and big dark clouds today – and we’re all feeling a bit weird!
July 25, 2008 at 3:55 pm
paula
Yes I certainly am egillian. I now just have to decide if I’ll shut up a couple of meadows for second cut haylage for the cattle – that will depend on grass growth in august.
July 25, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Mopsa
Hoorah, hoorah! We’re all done too. What a relief. Never been so tired, never baled so many, all dry and sweet smelling. And apart from a few rogues, not too heavy either (sorry!). Neck rather sun burnt from rowing up in very exposed, hot and windy field with not a cloud in sight. Did you throw all the bales onto the trailer by hand? I noted that they are all very spaced out which suggests so… I close my eyes and see hay. 2 and a half very long days of manic activity; it feels like a week.
July 26, 2008 at 11:38 am
garfer
Everywhere I look there are tractors, balers, and bales. have we been invaded by aliens disguised as bales?
I hate bales.
Maybe there’ll be some bales of cocaine washed up on the beach today. I’m off to check.
July 26, 2008 at 4:24 pm
paula
I really really do know how you feel mopsa – and I never want to feel like that again!
No, ours was definitely a bit of hay-play just to remind us it’s summer (though with brian-bales it slightly misfired)…a reasonable sweat up, itch and ache, then a bottle of cold cider or elderflower champagne and a meal of honey roast ham, new potatoes and salad followed by gooseberry pie and clotted cream – oh, sorry!”*)
Yes, we’ve never had sledge or grab – but that little trailer was nothing. I used to have to pitch – with pitch fork – bales to the top of a trailer loaded with 180 of the things, my other job when the arm dropped off was chief bale stacker.
Them big round buggers are a piece of ****
July 26, 2008 at 4:37 pm
paula
garfer thank you for visiting and I do enjoy the acerbic tongue-in-cheek take on rural life hugely!
I hate bales too – they cause untold stress and discomfort at every stage in the making and have the audacity to make us unreasonably emotional when they’re sitting around. Yup, aliens with knowledge of how to flip the rural dwellers switch.
Now do tell me if you’ve found some of the very profitable and mind enhancing white stuff – I’ll be round to touch you for a bob or two to help with a tank of red diesel for round 2 of the bale saga.
July 26, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Mopsa
Blimey! I couldn’t have pitched bales up by fork for love or money. The sledge cost £12 I think in a farm auction, and the loader another £4… worth their weight in gold tho.