Its been a while

It has been many years since I had a chance to run the farm tractor or put up hay. But today I had my chance. Jason and I had the task of raking and picking up some hay to stack for use in the chicken houses this winter and to spread over grass seed when we get the dirt put back in place over the root cellar. It was finally dry enough to store today so we headed off the the field with the truck and tractor to rake. With my prior back injury he decided he didn't want me riding on the team drawn hay rake and operating the lever so I was told I had to drive the tractor while he did the lever work. OK so its been 20 years since I had to drive the tractor. After a quick refresher course in the tractor operating department we were off. It didn't take long to get the hang of it. I sure was nice to be able to do that again. Then we were down to the manual labor part of picking up the hay. Jason used a pitch fork to throw the hay in the truck and my job was to walk in it to pack it in a little bit so we could haul more and it didn't blow out on the way to where we were going to stack it. I remember doing this for my dad when I was a little girl. Its been a good 35 years and if memory serves me it was a lot more fun back then. And maybe shorts and tennis shoes were not such a good idea to work in hay. But we did get enough stacked to last the winter for the birds and what ever else we need it for. All done without expensive equipment, the old fashioned way. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Trial run

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

Older is just as good

As I have stated before this little farm has been in the family for 4 generations. And a lot has changed in that time. When I was just a little girl I remember helping and being involved in what ever work was being done at the time.
I remember one time, I was about 10 years old, dad had mowed the fields and we didn't bail the hay at the time. He always used mules to farm with and we had all kinds of team drawn farm implements. He used the team drawn mower to cut the hay and the hay rake to rake it up. I remember he used a fork to throw the hay in a wagon behind the team and I was the little one so I got to jump around in the hay to pack it down a little and get more in the wagon. That has been 37 years ago. This hay rake is one of the first designs of a steel hay rake, made in the late 1800's and is still in good working condition. This equipment is still here even tho we don't have mules any more we now have a tractor. Jason and I decided last week that we could use the tractor mower to cut some hay we have and instead of paying someone to bail it, we will use the old team rake behind the tractor to rake the hay in rows then pick it up with a pitchfork and stack it that way to use in the chicken houses and just in case we come across some animals really cheap this fall. The hay rake didn't and a tongue in it to pull by so we came up with a plan. We used a landscape timber which is about 3" by 4" for the tongue. Then it was on to a way to hook it to the tractor. We used the metal hitch from an old team drawn cultivator on the end of the timber to hook it on the tractor draw bar. Worked like a charm. We haven't decided yet if someone is going to ride on the hay rake to raise the tines to dump the hay or if he will just stop the tractor and raise the tines and then drive on. I am sure it could be altered to raise the tines from the driver seat but we really don't want to change the design of the hay rake too much. Guess we will see how this works in a week or so when we get ready to take up hay.
The next project will be to fix the stalk cutter so we can pull it with a tractor to chop up corn stalks after we pick our corn before they are plowed under to rot. And its days like this that I am so thankful that my 2 boys got to spend time with their grandpa and know how the old things work here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella