Well, got about 70 bales in the shed before the baler broke. They're not quite dry, so I liberally sprinkled them with salt to draw all residual moisture. Many thanks to Amys' boys, Zane and Zack who came to help. When I went out to start baling this morning, I felt it and realised that the hay wasn't dry yet. So re-attached the rake and raked for the 4th time. Yesterday was so hot and sunny, I thought it would be dry ! I had to think how to attach the rake. Found two stones to raise the rakes' yoke and backed the tractor up to it. Then put the pin in the top hole, climbed back on the tractor and sort of jiggled it and the pin fell through all 4 holes. Herbie arrived home from work before I finished raking so I told him the hay wasn't dry. There was a bit of wind, so I thought maybe it would dry in the few hours it would take me to re-rake.
Herbie watched while I tried to back the rake into it's spot when I was finished, but I couldn't get it right. Realised that as the tractor doesn't have power steering, I can't turn the wheels quick enough to get the implement behind me to go where I need it to go. So I abandoned it, unhooked it and went to hook up to the baler. Greased the one nipple I couldn't get to on Friday, I didn't realise that I could turn the wheel to reach it. He showed me how to thread the baling twine through the needles. Got the baler into the field and started baling, and ding, the shear pin broke. For some reason, the one side of twine was sticking. Replaced it and off I went. Down the one side of the field and ding, the part of the next shear pin came whizzing past my head. Maybe I should wear a helmet for this job. Herbie did some adjustments and the bales started popping out the chute. Then Amy and her boys arrived. Zane has a shoulder injury so I showed him how to drive the tractor and how to position the baler down the row of cut hay, and off he went. Can only do it very, very slowly, just over 5,000 revs. At this rate it would take about 12+ hours to bale the field. Amy and I took the buggy to go fetch the truck, and I hitched the trailer so we could go load bales. I drove and Zack picked up the bales and loaded them onto the trailer. I drove between the two rows of bales, and he jumped from side to side, hefting the +\-50 lb bales. When we caught up to Zane on the tractor, we took the load off to the shed. Back in the field we were waiting for Zane to come around so that there were 2 rows to load. It was after 5pm and Herbie needed to eat and go to bed. As we were leaving the field, we noticed that the bales falling off the back of the baler only had one string. Stopped and found the one sides string had broken off, so I climbed under the baler and re-threaded that needle. But something else was broken as neither needle was going up to thread the twine around the bale. It had been spitting on and off a little, and Herbie couldn't find why it wasn't working. So, the tractor and baler are still out in the unbaled field :(. At $4 / bale for over 300 bales, we have about $1,500 lying out in the rain, and it's going to rain for the next 4 days. Merde !
Milked the girls tonight, put in the last lot of meds and massaged their udders with aromatherapy oils in their udder cream. Used garlic oil together with the usual peppermint and eucalyptus and a few others. They like udder massages, and I hope that this bout of mastitis is knocked out. Daisy Mays' right front quarter is still hard and she didn't give much milk. Thinking I may have to give her another days' worth :(. Will see tomorrow.
Early this morning I scrubbed the boys water trough with bleach. There was thick, squishy slime coating the insides. Really yucky, I scraped it off with an ice scraper as I couldn't find the long-handled brush I usually use. Worked fairly well. I dragged the trough to the channel, as I moved their hay bale down to the grain part of the veggie garden. The intention is to fence off my veggie garden so that I can work it up and plant it after the hay was in. Now I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I'll just put the post-hole digger back on and plant posts to divide the veggie garden and re-plant the posts for the continued channel. Then plow my beds. Angie said they'd bought fabric from Menards and had done beds this year too, laying the fabric down the beds, securing it with wooden beams set into the ground. Hmm. Sounds like a plan.
My dads' wedding plans have had to be postponed :(. Seems a lot of friends think it's too quick, not the brides' or grooms' families, but friends ! Wow. My dad is 76, and waiting is frustrating for him. He keeps saying he wants a wedding, not his funeral ! But they're coming up to a wedding of someone in Claires' family, and I share a birthday with her, so my dad is coming up with her and will be staying at the farm for my birthday this year. Looking forward to meeting his fiancée and having them stay a few days, and celebrating our birthdays. My dad has already asked me to bake his mums' recipe for shortbread. So pleased that my dad is happy and that he won't be alone anymore. Thank you Claire, and welcome to the Shaw family :).
Teri visited yesterday evening. She brought me a gorgeous plant as an early birthday present. Thank you Teri, it's beautiful.
Well, I'm exhausted and smelly. Just need to go do the final rinse of the load of washing and can go shower, then bed. Tomorrow is our Friday, yippee !