Hay

 Hay is baled! Yaaaah!

 It was a heck of a day yesterday. 98 degrees and humid. Fog in the morning, so it took awhile for the dew to go. One of the hydraulic lines for the baler wouldn't connect. I messed around with it for over an hour. I moved the tractor and baler into the shed, out of the sun and then moved it again into the hay shed because it was more open and still out of the sun. I came in the house two times to rest and cool off, cause I was afraid of heat stroke. Finally got it hooked up and went in the field to bale. That's when I discovered that the PTO wasn't right. There is a lever to to put it in gear and a lever to engage it. When I tried to put it in gear all it did was grind. When I checked the lever to engage I could tell something wasn't right because it just moved freely. I thought I might have to borrow or rent a tractor. Well I couldn't put it in gear by hand, so I tried the next best thing......I kicked it. Went right in and I was in business. Now you always disengage from time to time for various reasons, like when making a tight turn or backing up. I didn't. Anyway I baled the two small fields by the house and then came in cause I was feeling kind of wobbly due to the heat. Stayed inside about two hours putting cold washcloths on my head and neck. I checked my pulse rate and it was 120. Normally it's about 60. Well I started to feel better and went back out to do the east field. The wind picked up and it got cloudy, so it was a bit better. Then the storm clouds came and it started to thunder and lightning. Well Gramma drove over to the field to tell me to get my butt back to the house just as I was making the last bale. Beat the rain by about 20 minutes. I was so relieved. Bales will shed water fairly well, but hay on the ground in windrows will not.When it's on the ground in the rain it's a lot more time and work to get it dry and you lose some quality too. Now I just got to get it in the shed and stacked up by the shed. Buying a hay tarp on Wednesday to cover what won't fit in the shed. We are keeping it all this time because we're getting six more cows in the next week or so and two of them are pregnant.

 Here's some of the logs I cut to put under the bales in the hay shed to keep them off the ground. I hate having to throw away bad hay from them sitting on the ground.

On another front, we opened up the little coop tonight, so all the chickens will be together. Hopefully no one gets beat up too bad. Later.