[AT] Hay

Thu Jun 11 06:35:30 PDT 2015

Whew!  glad it worked out ok Cecil.   About 30 years ago a farmer near where 
I grew
up was killed in a wheat field fire.  He was intentionally burning the field 
but the wind
shifted on him.  He was afraid to get in his pickup cab because it had a 100 
gal. gasoline
tank in the back so he tried to jump over the fire line as it approached. 
When he landed on
the other side of the fire line he was naked.  The fire had instantly burned 
his clothes off.
He went to his barely damaged pickup and found his hired man safe in the cab 
and drove him
self home not even realizing he had more than a minor burn.   Some time 
later he died in a
burn hospital.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Cecil R Bearden
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2015 8:46 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hay

About 4pm yesterday I was cleaning up the edge of the wheat field with
the 648 NH round baler, baling the very last bale in the field.  I was
trying to get enough to wrap a full bale, so running the edge of the
field where the windrow was very light.   Got to the end near the barn
where I had cut some weeds with the disk mower to make a place to stack
the round bales.  I was thinking of a cold Dr. Pepper and taking a nap.
The monitor signaled the bale was large enough to wrap and I stopped and
slowed down the throttle for wrapping.  The Error Alarm then went off
and I turned around to see what the he!! was wrong this time!
The TOP OF THE BALER WAS ON FIRE!!   I raised the gate to kick the bale
out lurched the tractor forward to eject it.  There was no way I could
see behind me.  I started to unhook the baler and then decided to head
for the water faucet.   I left the baler open and forgot the PTO was
still running and headed the 400 ft to the faucet.  When I got there,
the hose was wound around a couple of other things as I had washed the
tractor off in another spot yesterday.   Finally got enough hose to
water it down and the fire was concentrated to what was laying on the
bale kicker, and the strands that accumulated on the top of the baler.
I was baling wheat hay that was extremely dry.  Much drier than i
thought.  It had been cut only 2 hours earlier.  As I watered the baler
I kept smelling smoke and was noticing smoke from the field where I had
come.   When I got a chance to breathe I called my wife & told her we
had a fire.  She called the Piedmont fire dept and told them that we had
a baler fire just East of the fire chief..   ( joys of living in small
rural area) In about 4 minutes the fire chief showed up and 5 minutes
later the first brush truck came in.  I pulled the baler out of the way
for the trucks to enter and got  the 4 wheeler to check out the burning
area.  ( fire truck had not arrived yet).   We had 3 bales on fire and
the field was burning from the south and advancing fast.  Teh JD swather
had a fire near the tires.  I put the fire out with a green weed.
Headed back to the barn for a shovel and returned. There were 3 more
bales in the "line of fire"! I drove to the first one and tried to move
it with the 4 wheeler out of the way but it unraveled and the fire got
it at the same time!  I backed out quickly and went for the next one.  I
saved 2 more.   There were now 3 brush trucks in the field, one pumper
and one tanker and the Sheriff on the road!  15 minutes from the call.
One of the brush trucks was from Deer Creek 6 miles away.   I got the
loader tractor and started tearing the burning bales apart so they could
water then down.    The first bale that started the problem would not go
out.  We worked on it for 15 minutes with the loader and water.    I got
out the 944 CAT loader.   When I came around with the CAT the fire chief
grinned real big and motioned for the guys to move back.  I started
digging dirt with the bucket and covering the fire.   3 loads of dirt
with that 2 yard bucket and that fire was gone!
  After about an hour,  3 trucks, 8 firefighters, and 3000 gallons of
water, the fire was out.  Only 5 bales lost, all equipment was OK, no
one hurt or had a heart attack, and I think the baler is OK.  I will
check for a source of the spark later.    The belts were new and had the
JD lacing in them.  Hopefully the JD lacing does not spark against the
rollers in the front of the baler.
I later told the fire chief that next time we have a training exercise
lets use some straw instead of that good wheat hay!!  He just laughed!!

Cecil in OKla

On 6/10/2015 10:13 PM, Gunnells, Bradley R wrote:
> Ah the joys of making hay. I can appreciate all you've said.
>
> I have a few acres here to make and watching the weather. Hopefully soon I 
> can get the old Ford 801 and IH 990 conditioner in the field. The neighbor 
> will round bale the first crop with new JD equipment. The later crops will 
> see the old IH 46 square baler. That's my idea of making hay!
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Jun 10, 2015, at 10:05 PM, "Dean Vinson" <dean at vinsonfarm.net> wrote:
>
>> Turned out to be less humid Wednesday than I'd expected, so by late
>> afternoon the young guy who bales my few acres of hay figured it was 
>> plenty
>> dry and we ought not let the remaining hours of daylight go to
>> waste--especially with a forecast for higher humidity and scattered
>> thunderstorms Thursday.  He'd raked the main field before I got home then
>> switched to baling once a couple other kids came to help, leaving the 
>> raking
>> in the smaller areas to me and the trusty Super M.  It's just grass hay 
>> but
>> it looks, feels, and smells good.  Quite a nice evening.   (At least up
>> until the knotter broke halfway into the second wagonload and defied all
>> efforts to fix it in the field.  Oh well.)
>>
>> http://www.vinsonfarm.net/photos/raking_hay_20150610.jpg.
>>
>> Dean Vinson
>> Saint Paris, Ohio
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> AT mailing list
>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at 