Raking Hay Assignment

Well, I'm pretty well sun-baked and worn out, but will quickly load the raw footage of yesterday's hay raking assignment.

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Husband and Son were chopping and cutting hay, respectively........in tractors equipped with cabs and air conditioning. Ma (me) was relegated to the old clodhopper, Johnny-Popper, John Deere 630. I guess the menfolk of this farm were offering me a free tanning session.......how thoughtful of them!!

I wish some knowledgable person could give info in the comments about how old the JD 630's are. I'm guessing they were new in the early 1950's or so. I could be wrong about that. I'm quite sure this tractor is older than me, and I'll be 50 VERY, VERY soon. (So soon, its making my head spin!)

Below you can see the rake which turns each swath of hay over and kind of fluffs it up so the warm sunshine and the breeze can work their magic and allow the hay to dry enough to be baled.

Good grief! You can tell what an antique this tractor is. These gauges look ancient, and I don't believe any of them work anymore. The fuel arrow stays on "E" all the time. Maybe the other ones are operating, but I don't think so........they just jerk back and forth.

Below is the gear shifting apparatus.........you push that metal arm thing into the gear slot you want. I was instructed to drive in "5th" for this hay raking session. Good! That's fairly speedy and I like that!

Here's the view from the seat........the steering wheel is big, requires two hands to hold it, and has a twirly knob, which is not in the photo.......I rarely use it anyway. That's for the skilled guys to use when they back wagons up and such, which is not my cup of tea. The shorter lever with a knob on top is the throttle.......Vrrm! Vrrm! Fun! Fun! The taller lever is the clutch.......pushing it forward makes the tractor start moving, and pulling it back again makes the tractor stop. Tractors don't have foot accelerators-----at least none do that I've ever driven.......so when you are driving a tractor, your feet are free.......Yee-ha!!You can really kick up your heels when the tractor hits pocket gopher holes and mounds!

The sun was beating down strong all afternoon, and a couple hours into my assignment I decided to go back to the house to rummage for a straw hat. What do you think?? Quite country cool and stylish.......wouldn't you say!!? A cap or hat on the head......always the pinnacle of farm fashion.

There I was, putt-zing along, lost in a dreamy reverie, brought on, no doubt by breathing the hot exhaust fumes emanating from that upright muffler, when suddenly...... what do you know.......there's company in the hay field! Husband has appeared with the round baler and that means the raking is doing its job, and the hay is dry enough to bale. Johnny-Popper and I are fulfilling our assignment!!!

Here's a somewhat clearer view of the round baler, spouting dust out of its top. (Have you figured it out yet........tractor driving must not be too difficult if I can snap photographs while driving!)

Look carefully at the photo below, or click it to enlarge the picture. It shows the baler "pooping" out a bale! Isn't that exciting!? The back half of the baler raises up, and the completed bale rolls out. (The bale is on the ground there behind the baler.) Husband can set the baler to make different sizes of bales.......the ones made this time are about medium-sized.

Here's a close-up of a newly-made bale. The baler forms the hay into a tight roll, as you can see. Plastic netting called "netwrap" surrounds the outside of the bale to hold it together. Izzy says........"I'm getting tired of holding this bale in place. Hurry up and finish writing this post, so I can step away and get this bale rolling!"

(If you think I'm pulling your leg.......you're correct! The bales don't roll very easily.......they are very heavy!)

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I hope you enjoyed this mini-seminar on hay raking. Its a tad bit different than raking leaves......its more like giving the hay a coiffure!