Friday, July 08, 2005, 19:09
Are We Having Fun Yet? (Yes!)
"Look at your pants!" my husband exclaimed.
I looked down at my legs. The front of my old ragged jeans were grimy with dirt and were black with grease.
"And look at your hands!" Randy added.
The palms of my hands, from the wrist to the tips of my fingers, were also black with grease.
The contrast was, in fact, startling. There was my husband, crisp and clean in "business casual" attire, creases in his pant legs, not a speck of dirt on him anywhere. And there I was -- old jeans, old tee-shirt, bandanna tied around my forehead to keep the sweat from running into my eyes -- sweaty, dusty, and greasy -- grease on my pants, grease on my hands, grease on my arms, and even grease smeared on my face.
"You were having fun, weren't you," Randy said in accusing voice.
"Well, yes, and you can have fun, too," I said. "Change your clothes and go over and get the tractor and baler, and then we can have all kinds of fun."
Which is what he did.
Thirty minutes later, Randy returned from my brother's with the tractor and baler, and we baled the first load off our hayfield.
That was Wednesday evening. Although the hay wasn't dry at 1 p.m., by later in the afternoon, much to my surprise, it had dried out pretty well. I raked the first four rounds so we could open the field. We got the load baled and unloaded in the barn before dark.
Then, of course, we had to make a trip to town for more tractor gas. And once the tractor had gas in it, Randy put a new grease tube in the grease gun so I would be ready to go on Thursday.
Unfortunately, the new tube in the grease gun didn't help. When I went out Thursday afternoon to grease the rake, nothing came out of the grease gun.
Ordinarily, since I had greased the rake the day before, which is why I was covered with black grease when Randy came home from work, I wouldn't have worried about it. I only raked for an hour, and the rake ought to have been all right. The only problem is -- this was my brother's brand new hay rake. Nothing special. Just an ordinary little hay rake. Except that it retailed for -- are you ready for this -- $5,200. "At that price, this rake has to last for 50 years!" my brother said when he gave me instructions on greasing it (only 5 fittings across the back, so relatively easy to grease).
But Thursday afternoon, no grease was coming out of the grease gun. Just to be sure that we didn't have two grease guns and that I hadn't grabbed the wrong one, which I didn't think I did, but with my luck, might have been the case, I called Randy at work. But no, we only have one manual grease gun So, I went to the basement, charged up the air compressor, dragged the air compressor and the grease gun that works with the air compressor, across the lawn, past the lean-to, past the garden, and behind the barn where the rake was parked.
A few minutes later, the rake was greased. The air compressor grease gun, I must say, certainly is cleaner than the manual grease gun, although I still had to wash my hands before starting out with the tractor and the rake. That's why my hands were greasy on Wednesday. I made sure to wash my hands before I got on the tractor so the steering wheel wouldn't get all greasy, but apparently *someone* who drove the tractor before me didn't do the same!
After I got the field raked, my brother came over and drove the tractor while I loaded bales.
Talk about hot out in the hayfield. It was 88 degrees, according to the thermometer, but it felt like 128 degrees on the hay wagon. When the first load was baled Thursday, I could see that there was only another load out in the field. My brother and sister-in-law are leaving on vacation today (Friday), so I told him if he wanted to go home and get last minute things done so they could leave on their trip, Randy and I could bale the second load after Randy got home from work at 6:30.
By 7 p.m we were baling. Got the second load baled. Unloaded the first load in the barn. Drove the second load around. Took a break for something cold to drink. Were just ready to start unloading the second load when help arrived! My brother, sister-in-law and nephew came over to see how we were doing.
"Are you going to bale that second load this evening?" my brother asked.
"Already did," I said. "We've unloaded the first one and this is what's left."
Between the five us, we unloaded the second load in about 10 minutes. Talk about fast and easy!
When we were finished, my brother, nephew and husband started driving equipment back to the farm. By dark, the rake, baler, tractor and hay wagons were all home where they belonged.
Randy and I thought we were going to be unloading hay tonight when he got home from work. I'm glad we don't have to. It started raining this morning, and it's been raining in quick hard showers for most of the morning and now into the afternoon. I'd hate to have perfectly good hay sitting on a hay wagon getting rain on it. But it's all safely in the barn.
We got our hay up with no rain on it. And we got the hay in the barn with no rain on it. And as any farmer knows, hay with no rain is one of the best feelings on earth.
Now, if we can only figure out why that manual grease gun isn't working. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, July 06, 2005, 18:18
Slow Going
The old saying goes, "make hay while the sun shines." It's a good saying, and one worth heeding -- except we don't have any sunshine!
We were supposed to be baling hay today, but so far, that doesn't look like it will happen. The weather forecast was wrong, of course. Not about the rain. So far, it hasn't rained, except for some mist yesterday morning. But we also have not gotten the bright blue sky with warm sunshine and puffy white clouds that the weather forecasters promised would be the case on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Yesterday, the sky was cloudy all day and I did not see even a hint of sunshine.
"Where's the bright blue sky with puffy white clouds and a breeze from the west?" I said to Randy as we walked along the hayfield, picking up handfuls of hay that was nearly as wet as it was when it was first cut 24 hours earlier.
"I don't know," Randy said. "They sure didn't call this one very close."
As of 1 p.m. on Wednesday, I haven't seen much sunshine today, either. The hay is dryer today than it was yesterday, but it's not nearly dry enough to rake just yet.
As soon as the hay is dry enough to rake, I'm ready to start. I've got the hay rake here. I've got the tractor here. And if I can find the grease gun so I can grease the rake, I'll be good to go.
I just need some sunshine. And nice breeze to help things along.
LeAnn R. Ralph