Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Full Hay Barn

The hay barn is full and is now housing just shy of 200 5' x 5' bales. Jason is rambling on from time to time about building a second hay barn. I am assuming he is talking to himself since I'm not going to waste my time talking about that right now. In case he's forgotten we have lots and lots of other things to build before we talk about hay barn number two.



I mentioned in my last post about making hay that I had a few things I wanted to accomplish. The first thing was doing my best imitation of Jason while backing up the hay trailer. Jason says I'm too slow. He admits I get the job done fine, he just always has to have something to complain about, so my speed (or lack of) while backing the trailer was mentioned a few times. I noted in my last blog that Jason's approach to backing things up involves throwing it in reverse and slamming your foot down on the gas. Sometimes you even look in the mirror.




Yesterday morning I told Jason I was going to live dangerously and see how fast I could back the trailer up.




Me: I'm going to see how fast I can back the hay trailer today.


Jason: I think that's a really bad idea.


Me: I think it's a good idea. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to take your approach.


Jason: We don't need a damaged truck or trailer.


Me: That's not part of the plan.


Jason: (with raised voice and many hand gestures) Don't be stupid please, just go slow.


Me: It isn't possible for me to be stupid since I'm not stupid. (it is so easy to mess with his head sometimes and I'll admit I was enjoying it).




my view while driving the hay wagon; please excuse the plethora of bug guts on the windshield


I busied myself with hooking up the hay wagon while Jason was refueling the tractor. I finished hooking up the wagon, got in the truck, put it in reverse, and waited. As soon as Jason looked my way I floored it. The gravel started flying out from under the tires for added dramatic effect. I immediately slammed on the brakes. Jason still hadn't caught on to the fact that I was just having fun messing with his head and that made everything extra fun. He jumped off the tractor in a move worthy of an Olympic medal and came running over to the truck yelling at me. I was laughing so hard I didn't hear a word he screamed. I did this a couple more times throughout the day and he fell for it every time. It was great.


full hay barn



My other goal for the day was to conquer the ratchet straps. This was a complete and total failure. After moving almost 200 bales from the field to the barn I still can't operate the ratchet strap. I can't thread the strap correctly to tighten it. I can't get the ratchet to release to remove it. I feel like the kid in the Far Side cartoon who is trying to open the door to the school for the gifted. The door says pull and he stands there pushing. Yep, that's me and the ratchet straps.


this sums up my attempt to deal with ratchet straps


I tried. I tried really hard. There has to be a better, more user friendly way to tie down a load. Oh well, the good news is that means there are a lot of jobs around the farm that I won't be able to do thanks to my inability to use a ratchet strap. Every cloud has its silver lining.


_____________________________________


Welcoming a brand new hay bale to the world




Apollo


Leo and Chance

Homer and Elfin (and Thomas' very large butt)



I had to take a close up of Elfin's cute face


Tony and Baby hanging out together


What Tony thought of having his picture taken


Murphy, Dutch and Wiz


Noble


Sebastian and Chili


you'll have to take my word for it since he is mostly hidden by the grass but this is Alex


Darby and B-Rad


7 comments:

Calm, Forward, Straight said...

*lol*

Love the cartoon, and especially the birth of a hay bale video ;)

Accendora said...

Oh, nicely done with the backing up. I laughed! I'm curious, do horses of the same color tend to stick together?

Melissa-ParadigmFarms said...

Accendora - we do have a group of grays in one pasture that tends to stick together, and Baby and Tony, the two blingy chestnuts pictured together in this post, are big friends as well. In general though there isn't too much color discrimination happening in the pastures!

Unknown said...

Funny, I thought the same thing... I wonder if those chestnuts looked at each other and thought "Hey you look just like me! Let's be friends!"

Adorable post, as always. You and Jason crack me up.

Vivian, Apollo's Mom said...

Thanks for my laugh of the day! You were so funny- I could just see it happening and the look on Jason's face. Thanks for the pic of Apollo!

hammerhorses said...

I've been following for about a year now, just wanted to let you know how we tie on loads of hay, lol (BTW, our hay place is less than a mile away, down country roads) but we use a lot of bungie cords and heavy rope, and haven't had any issues yet, but using square bales they kind of "stick together" when stacked correctly anyways.

Melissa-ParadigmFarms said...

HammersArk, it sounds good to me! But I'm thinking I might stay with the ratchet straps for other reasons. As in no one will ask me to help since I can't operate them anyway. :-)