[AT] Fight over hay

[Gene Waugh]

Cecil, this was quite a tale!!  I'm not sure who had the bigger 
fight---you or your customers!!

Gene

Cecil Bearden wrote:
> My New Holland round baler broke a shaft last week in the middle of the 
> night.  Not knowing what happened, We put the baler in the shed and 
> waited for this *&^%% weather to clear.  It has been foggy and mist 
> every morning for the last week.  I had about 40 acres cut with a 
> swather.  I had to hire a swather to cut this bermuda field because the 
> wind has been so bad if you cut it with a mower, when the rake picks it 
> up off the ground it blows into the next county.  You can't run the rake 
> some directions because the hay will not clean off the wheels from the 
> wind.
>
> I found out my round baler was in trouble Thursday and spent most of 
> Friday getting the pickup out from under the baler and then getting the 
> feeder shaft out of the pickup.  I hooked onto the little vicon square 
> baler to get it baled before the rain set in, and bent the PTO shaft 
> driving out the gate.  I borrowed a neighbors JD 24WS baler and baled 
> about 190 bales Fri night.  I called a contractor friend who wanted the 
> hay for silt fence, and he did not seem as interested as he was when I 
> asked him if he wanted some hay for this project we are working on.. 
> Sat morning I made a couple of phone calls and then put an ad on Craigs 
> list for small hay bales of horse quality bermuda and listed the 
> location.  From the phone calls I had 190 bales spoken for, One taking 
> 150 bales and the other taking the 40.  However, the 40 bale guy did not 
> show up until about 3pm.  I had 4 people show up with trailers by 10am. 
>   I started baling again with the vicon after I had repaired the pto 
> shaft and the shear pin on the pickup had broken.  It had been cobbled 
> up before I got it..  I think the entire baler has been put together in 
> a salvage yard.  I put in a new shear bolt, but the twine knotter 
> wasi=n't working on one side.  I quit and went back to the JD baler.  I 
> needed to rake these windrows together since the wind was down, but when 
> I went to get the rake that was hooked onto the tractor, the tractor had 
> a flat and when I aired up the tire, the batteries were down..  I went 
> back and just started baling.  This borrowed baler is missing 3 
> strippers from the feeder and about 8 teeth.  So, I left some in the 
> field and the windrow was wider than the pickup so I had to make two 
> passes over the windrow.  I had promised 50 bales to a couple who were 
> to be back in about 1 hour.  I went on baling and the contractor friend 
> showed up with 2 trailers and his grandkids to load hay and started 
> loading even after I told him that 50 bales had to go to someone else. 
> Had to stop in the middle of things and let in the nurse that takes care 
> of Dad.  So, 2 more trailers show up and load 20 bales on each and hand 
> me cash while on the tractor!!!  Finally the couple with the 50 bales 
> show up and start to bitch at me for not having enough of the "good" hay 
> that they had to have for the horse "cassie" that founders on pasture 
> grass only!!! (sounds like a horse with a lead deficiency, about 
> 70grains worth).  Then the lady proceeds to start a fight with the 
> contractor friend.  He just has the kids put the 45 bales he had loaded 
> on her trailer, and then she starts blaming me for her having to borrow 
> a trailer from a neighbor and it needed a tire!!!!!   I just told her 
> that sundowner sells trailers on I-40..  Next thing happened was my JX85 
> new tractor went flat on a front tire, so I had to quit.  Took the 
> Belarus with the loader and pulled the baler away from the drawbar and 
> shoved it under the shed. Then went back to the tractor and found that I 
> did not have a large enough socket with me to take off the wheel.  So, 
> went back to the house and just got the wrecker I bought a month ago and 
>   towed the tractor back behind the wrecker!!!  Sure nice to have extra 
> equipment.  I have to deliver round bales this morning and my Case JX85 
> is the only one with a bale spike on it right now, and it has the flat...
>
> I have about 30 acres of bermuda left to cut and bale.  The field is 
> clean, no bales left, and I never touched a bale.  Looks like I need to 
> find a good square baler and maybe one of those accumulator setups, and 
> some more flatproof tires.
>
> Cecil in OKla
>
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