TheBanyanTree: The Bailer (another baler story)

[NancyIee at aol.com]

Ah, yes, ancient farm machinery; I remember it well. Our baler was newer, one 
of the kind with a thrower, probably manufactured in the fifties.  In the old 
days, one would have to run behind the baler and pick up the bales as they 
dropped onto the field, and stack them onto the hay wagon.  The NEW ones had a 
thrower, meaning, as the hay was baled, there would come a great banging noise 
of springs and levers, and the bale would be thrown back onto the wagon which 
was towed behind . . in theory.

Occasionally, the whole unit would be going around the corner, and then the 
outcoming bale would be cast into the wind, to land in the ditch, the roadway, 
on one's head if one wasn't watching out. Getting bombed by an 80 pound bale 
was no fun.

If Dad wasn't doing the baling that day,  and it was just us kids, it turned 
into target practice, the one driving would try to aim the outcoming bales in 
the direction of those stacking the bales on the wagon, or the littler kids 
picking up the wayward bales from the field.  Even  more occasionally, the whole 
baler would become jammed, the strings knotted and snarled, and the outcoming 
bale would be a great clot of hay and string, which would  more often than 
not, break apart in midair and spray us all with gobs of hay.

One gross occasion was when something that might have once been a skunk, 
raccoon or stray cat-long dead, was gathered up and baled and tossed, scattering 
us all with the potent aroma of . .you get the idea.

We had about fifteen acres of hay,  and it took four days to cut and bale and 
put away the hay. The first day to cut, the second or third day to rake (turn 
the hay over) for complete drying. Then, if there had not been rain since the 
mowing, you could bale on the fourth day. If if  rained after mowing and 
before baling, of course, one had to turn the hay  an extra time to make  certain 
it was fully dry before baling. Otherwise, it would mold,stink,  rot, smell up 
the barn,  possibly make the livestock sick, or  heat up, burst into flame  
and  burn the barn down.

We usually got three crops of hay over a summertime, enough for our horses 
and cattle for the winter.

It was tough, hot work, and I don't regret leaving that job behind at all.  
Now, I get my hay delivered and stacked in the barn.  But, every now and then, 
I get a whiff of someone's new-mown hay . .there's not a sweeter smell in the 
world.


NancyLee