Well as of yesterday the old team drawn hay rake on the farm had been fitted to pull behind the tractor. And all was well. Today we decided to take it to the field where we will eventually be using it to rake hay and give it a trial run. Jason and I were both very pleased to find that it worked like a charm. Of course there was a good bit of nostalgia for me to see it operate again. With the tines dropped down it rakes the ground clean, better than most tractor rakes that I have seen. Only thing with ours is that it requires a rider to operate the lever to raise the tines and dump the hay after you get a pile raked up. And I being the light weight was promptly volunteered. There is a seat for the operator to sit on, a foot pedal to assist with the lever to raise the tines at the appropriate times. I think I like this new toy too. So now we have a means to put up hay by loose stacking it if the time arises that we choose to for feeding livestock. We will be mowing some hay in a few weeks to stack loose for use in the chicken houses this winter as opposed to buying straw at 6 bucks a bale.
My dad was always one to take really good care of his tools and farm equipment. We checked the hubs on the hay rake and it still has grease packed in it that dad put there some 30 years ago and it is still clean and no need to repack. I think he would be rather proud of our ingenuity. God rest his soul. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
4 comments:
That's so cool! I love to see old equipment well maintained and operating. That rake is what, 80, 100 years old? Ya know, some careful cleanup and some paint and it will look as good as it works!
Hi Greg, All these old tools have a special meaning to me as they belonged to my now deceased dad. I have seen him use them so many times and it jus brings back some fond memories.
We are goin to do some research and prolly will paint the hay rake IH red.
stella
That farm implement is so cool and it looks like it works really well. Amazing when people take care of their things! ~jen
Hi Jen, this implement is just one of many we have here that can be restored and/or be altered to use with the tractor as we no longer have mules on the farm. Not that I would want to try and train them anyway. Dad took really good care of all his farm tools and implements, that was a must, that is why the family was always fed.
stella
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