Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tutorial

The Rancher has been working long and hard, and the Bag Lady presents the evidence:





(she apologizes for the quality of the video....as always!)

30 comments:

Penny said...

Bale school! I love it. Also thinking of stealing the hanging basket/ladder idea from earlier in the week... I need good ideas for flowers in pots!

Hope you've had a good week

TA x

Gena said...

I love it!

Anonymous said...

I need ideas and help.

wanna come visit?

M.

Leah J. Utas said...

Excellent. Well done. And I'm glad you're done the haying.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Great educational video--though I think I'll leave you dedicated & resourceful farmer/rancher types to harvest the hay.

'Cause that looks like work!

Shammickite said...

We used to have a baler that made thos rectangular bales, you don't see them in the field very much any more.
PS saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert just before he had that spell in hospital 3 or 4 years ago... he's a classic!

the Bag Lady said...

TA - glad you like the ladder idea - I stole it from hubby's cousin, so go ahead!

Gena - thanks - glad you enjoyed it.

Miz - What on earth could I possibly help you with!?

dfLeah - thanks! So am I!!

Crabby - glad you enjoyed my little video. It was lots of fun to make.

ex-S - loaned our square-baler to someone who broke it and can't get a replacement part. In one way, I'm not all that upset, because it's a lot more work!
And Gordon Lightfoot is one of my all-time favourites! (hope I don't get in trouble for 'borrowing' that song...!)

Anonymous said...

I'll come back to the video when my connection is not taking several minutes just to load stills.

You still see the square bales in horse country, almost as much as the round. (My 95 year old father can remember when early balers made round bales--small round bales, which didn't stack very well, so the square bales were a great improvement.)

Mary Anne in Kentucky

Missicat said...

Too cool! Am I the only one who laughed when baler spit out the bale of hay? Just found it funny for some reason...

the Bag Lady said...

Mary Anne - there are still folks around here who make square bales, too. Mostly for horses, but we like to have a few if we have to keep a cow in the barn for whatever reason. It was really rather annoying when the neighbour broke the square baler. And didn't even offer to pay to have it fixed. And lost the part, so we couldn't even get it repaired. Sigh.

the Bag Lady said...

Missicat - I know what you mean - it does look kinda funny...like it's giving birth.

Geosomin said...

Neato...at the end it looked like Pacman barfing up a bale of hay.

I can't believe I just wrote that.

I'm glad the baling is done...:)

the Bag Lady said...

Geosomin - I can't believe you typed that, either! I almost spit out my coffee when I read that. Too funny!

Frank Baron said...

Boy, that takes me back!

My introduction to real work was haying at my grandfather's farm when I was a teen. Didn't have those monstrous-huge bales like today though. We'd pitchfork the bales from the field to the trailer. One guy would catch and stack them on the trailer, two would pitchfork them up. We'd do straw too. Straw was lighter but sharper. When stacking, I'd have hundreds of small cuts and scratches on my arms.

Then it was off to the barn(s) to stack them in the mow. (No place in the world is hotter than a hay mow on a July afternoon.) The chaff and other particulates would hang suspended in the air. We ate the air as much as we breathed it.

Good times. ;)

Nice vid Baggie. Thanks for the memories. :)

Missicat said...

Geo - that's what I thought, it looked like pacman in reverse!

the Bag Lady said...

Oh, Frank, I know what you mean! The one time we put up square bales, I was the stacker! I wasn't crazy about being on the trailer,(scared of heights) but when the stack got really high, hubby had to come investigate what I was doing. I had stacked around the outside edge and made myself a well in the middle! I was almost throwing up, I was so terrified! (In a way, I'm glad the square-baler doesn't work anymore!)

Missicat - Reverse Pacman! Hahahaha

Anonymous said...

Very nice!

Reb said...

Great video Sis! Glad the haying is done. I remember helping friends in high school stacking square bales! Gah, never again!

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, Mark.

Thanks, sis - I feel the same way about square bales. Heavy, awkward, itchy, nasty work.

Unknown said...

I learn so much about ranching from your blog! It's good to still be getting lessons even over the summer vacation:)

new*me said...

you have got an awesome and full life :)

Hilary said...

Well done, Baggie. You're getting so good with those vids. Great choice of music too. :)

the Bag Lady said...

Sagan - thanks! Not all learning comes from books, right? :)

new*me - sometimes it's a little too full for a lazy old woman like me!

Hilary - thanks! Gotta love Gordon Lightfoot!!

Anonymous said...

Finally my dialup connection was as fast as it's supposed to be, and I managed to watch the hay movie.
(Moan! Someday, when my neighbor Leonard is too old, or not well enough--he's just developed diabetes--I'm going to need a tractor, although the rest of the equipment is just too expensive for 8 or 10 acres of hay. The thing about a lawn-and-garden tractor, which I have now, is that you just load it into a pickup and TAKE it to the mechanic.)

Mary Anne in Kentucky

the Bag Lady said...

Mary Anne - I can so relate to that! Hubby keeps saying he wants a new tractor. He has never owned a brand-new tractor in his life and wants to own one before he dies. I keep thinking "the lawn tractor was brand-new, doesn't that count"!? Unless we win the lottery, we'd spend the rest of our lives paying for a brand-new tractor. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

This lawn tractor is a Gravely, which my parents traded in the third-hand Gravely for when I was about eight. It was new then. I'm fifty-five now. Gravelys are yours forever. If you all were going to buy a _new_ tractor, you should have done it sooner, so you could get your money's worth out of it!

Mary Anne in Kentucky

the Bag Lady said...

Mary Anne - meh - he'll probably live another 47 years.....!! (and still be ranching when he's 102 - you and he are the same age!)
I've never heard of a Gravely - do they still make them? (what colour is it?)

Anonymous said...

Oh, they still make them.
www.gravely.com/
And people are passionate about them.
http://www.gravelytractorclub.org/
But they're not _farm_ tractors.
102, eh?
I always snicker when I see "retired farmer" in an obituary, and remember my great-uncle John, the "retired" dairy farmer, hoeing his acre of tomatoes with a hoe in one hand and a cane in the other the year after his stroke.

Mary Anne in Kentucky, not planning to retire much

Maggie said...

wow that was really cool. I was sitting in anticapation for the bail. haha I loved it!

the Bag Lady said...

Mary Anne - I always get a chuckle out of "retired farmer", too!

Maggie - thanks, glad you enjoyed it!