Friday, August 7, 2009

Friday Favorites ~ minus the favorite part

Don't get me wrong - I still love Fridays. I've really been lovin' Fridays this summer because I've taken every one of them off from work, trying to use up some of my vacation time. But not all Fridays can be play days – some of them have to be hay days.

Today started out well and good, though Smooch was a little surprised to wake up to campers in the garden.  


You know you live in the middle of nowhere when friends ask if they can take their kids on their first camping trip in your yard. The young'uns were under the impression that bears wouldn't come eat them if they stayed within the confines of my fence. Who was I to argue?

I wasn't about to tell them that what they should really fear are the pack rats that roam these parts...and eat the wiring in unsuspecting horse trailers, which I was soon to discover when I hooked up my trailer to go pick up hay.  I had no turn signals or brake lights. The window of hay opportunity is small, so I decided to venture forth anyway.  Does that make me a bad person? Maybe. Bad driver? Yeah, probably. But I rationalized that there is no traffic in the middle of nowhere and nobody would notice.

Today's hay was from the second cutting. The good thing was that it was beautiful and clean and I knew the boys would be lovin' it come winter. The bad thing was that the bales were SO much heavier than last time. Hay Alex and I loaded up 78 bales in the trailer and 16 bales in the truck. Let's see...92 bales times 65 pounds each equals I can eat anything I want this weekend and not gain an ounce. I tied down the bales in the truck and went on my exhausted, sweaty way.

Darn I wish I had a picture to show you from mile marker 12 on Highway 47, when the hay started flying off the truck. You know those scenes where suddenly everything is in slow motion? It was like that. Mercifully, no one was behind me and only one bale hit the pavement and exploded. Three others slid down the side of the truck, got hung up in the rope, and managed to stay there until I could slow down and pull off onto the shoulder. Karma's a bitch, I tell you. That knot would have held had I not been driving around without turn signals and brake lights. Lesson learned and duly noted. 

I arrived home with 91 bales,


only to discover that I needed to restack the old hay before adding the new hay. Deets showed up to commiserate. 


Between the restacking and the unloading, I had to call it quits when I was only half done and starting to get a tad delirious. Tomorrow's another day. Once the trailer is empty, I'll be able to take a good look at the light problem and plot my next move. How hard can it be to rewire a horse trailer? We'll all find out together because if that isn't blog fodder, I don't know what is.

16 comments:

  1. Good gosh, what a day you had! No pack rats here, just chipmunks that ate the wiring in out utility trailer. I guess we all have some kind of trouble causing varmints that give us headaches from time to time.

    Wish I did live closer ... I always used to enjoy 'hay day' when we had our farm. Yep, talk about the ultimate workout! Whew!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's been so dry here, I don't think anyone has done a second cutting yet. Last time I got hay, I had the guy deliver it and stack it for me. It was worth the extra cost not to hurt myself. Good luck with the wiring!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh man, I feel your pain. I hope you enlisted the help of the freeloaders...uh...campers to unload & stack the hay with you. I mean, that's a traditional camping activity, isn't it? They want the whole unadulterated experience, don't they?

    Good luck tomorrow!!

    BTW, I LOVE!!!!! the view out your window, the one where Smooch has planted her good self.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 65 pounds ain't nuttin! I get the kick-outs from a local hay exporter--the bales he sends by ship to Japan are 110-120 pounds! (to get more in the cargo container). Luckily, mine comes in directly from the field on a harrow bed (with a burly farm boy or two for any adjustments needed to the hay stack). Whew!

    Good luck with the trailer--wiring itself shouldn't be too hard, but finding where the problem is underneath/inside the trailer can sometimes be a pain. Since everything is out, the first thing I'd check is your plug and grounding system. I took my old trailer to the local dealer once, and all he did was wiggle the plug and scrape the prongs with his leatherman--worked fine ever since!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fodder Blog - he gives the best sermons.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That hay is hard work - not to mention the prickles from where it gets in everywhere.

    Good luck with the trailer rewiring - can't wait to hear the description!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Carson: Gosh I hope you can find some help. Hay bales are so heavy to be hoisting alone. Maybe you could trade your talents with another farm family. You could help them with something and they could help you with heavy work.
    Thinking about you lots!
    Best always, Sandra

    ReplyDelete
  8. I commiserate on both levels. When we got our second home in Tucson, we thought we could leave a car down there. No can do with the packrats so good at taking wiring or hoses for whatever project they are busy with at that moment. And on the hay, last year we had one of the 800 lb round bales roll off our trailer when the chain wasn't secure enough. That one was close to home and we retrieved most of it with the front loader but what a mess and it all had to be removed from the highway for safety whether we could get it or not.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wouldn't worry about those trailer lights. There's always the old hand signals we were taught before taking our drivers tests, right?

    You really had a tough day. I know how that feels, we sometimes got a tractor trailer full of hay and had to off load it ourselves. Not fun and lots of Tylenol. Good luck with the rest of it. And have an ice cream to celebrate your no calorie weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sounds to me like you need a long. cool drink after a day like that! Preferably one steeped with alcohol :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. My mother always used to say, "some day you'll look back on this and laugh."

    When is that day anyway?!!

    You have so much energy! I love reading about your life. You take it all in stride and make even the difficult times seem easy.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't wait to hear about the rewiring...it's blog fodder, that's for sure :)

    I helped with hay when I was a kid. I am not sure if I will ever forget that day. Then again, I was a city kid.

    ReplyDelete
  13. My goodness, Karma was following right on your heels, huh? So glad you didn't lose more hay!

    I know how awful hay and sweat get when mixed together. Itchy!!

    I wonder what makes the pack rats go for wiring? Could you give them their own pile of it? :)

    Many wishes for a cool shower and a glass of something cool after such a long day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I got exhausted just reading about the moving of these Heavy Heavy Bales.....You must be in great shape! I hope you figure out how to fix those lights, or I should say, the wiring of same....!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh crap......but at least you didn't add a citation to your trip. I couldn't have helped you with that. The long arm of the law doesn't know where NM is and that's why I will be escaping to there ASAP!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yea, what's with the dang pack rats this year...they're terrible! Luckily they haven't done any damage...yet...

    I wish our bales only weighed 65 lbs...how about 95...it's all I can do to drag them to the edge for My Man to stack! If there were some young buck to hire to do it, we'd hire 'um...but, just like you, livin' in the middle of nowhere...it keeps us fit...right!?!

    ReplyDelete