Shawn was showing off his wood gathering abilities (of which I am jealous) so I thought I'd do some braggin' m'own self! :D

With the ownership of pack and riding stock comes feed gathering for the winter. Me and the little Mrs. went and got our yearly supply of hay last Saturday. Bales averaged 68# ea. I found out I can still throw a haybale pretty well.
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The little Mrs. on the other hand spent most of her time driving, which in and of itself is alot of help. She did however pack afew bales closer to the trailer.
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This is 1.5 tons of the 4, and the 2nd and last load. If RJ Jr. had been along we would have gotten it all in one trip. He has that "C'mon Dad you can throw them higher than that" effect on me. :rolleyes:
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Hay seems to be plentiful this year even though the price doesn't reflect it. There is very lttile irrigated ground in this part of the country so we are the mercy of Mother Nature to provide adequate moisture. Grass-alfalfa mix is going for $130-$150 around here.That's in the field. :eek: I gave $125 a ton last year and was glad to get it for that price due to the recent drouth. I suspect when fall comes we could see hay in the $175-$200 a ton range real easily.

Boy it sure smells nice out in the shop now with that fresh hay in the back. :) It also feels pretty good to have it put away and ready for winter.

All in all, it was a beutiful day and it made for good outing. I wished I'd have brought the 22 pistol along because there were alot of ground squirrels in the field and I'm sure the landowner wouldn't have cared if we thinned out the population some.

RJ

Now as seeing how this is a family oriented forum, I am amazed that the fine moderators here allowed you to post pictures of you and the missus pitchting hay.:eek:

Good pictures though, brings back a lot of youthful memories.

That's what family is!

Back going through high school (early 50's), worked summers and holidays on a calving ranch north of Stoneham/New Raymer there in NE Colorado. We had 20 acres of alfalfa we cut for the riding stock and a natural bowl out in the big pasture where we could cut wild hay. Those horses sure stayed in good shape when strictly fed the wild hay. The feed was so sparse for the cattle, it required 45 acres/unit on the BLM lands.

That's the greenest hay I have ever seen. When I was a kid my family put up 10,000 or so bales every summer. Had a cousin-in-law just back from Viet Nam came to help, he said he would go back to SE Asia before he did that anymore.

I've said this about a hundred times on this forum but one day I'm going to go see some of that western country, it sure is pretty.

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That IS some fine looking hay RJ! Been about 20 years since I pitched a bale....don't miss it that much! Have to say, I like the smell of fresh split red fir better though! But that's only because I have grass allergies. Those hunting horses/mules will like that crop, which appears to not have had any rain on it. I remember OUR bales were 90 lbs though....er, something like that.:rolleyes:

Pretty country you live in.

One of the fellers that works at Wagner Euipment in Hayden put it up. He lives just south of Craig so the round trip was about 25 miles instead of 75.

Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Montana in the Bears Paw Mountians where we had 1200 mother cows I got to pitch a lot of hay. Quite a bit that came out the other end too. :p I kinda miss haying season as odd as it may sound. I don't remeber exactly how many acres we irrigated and put up hay on, close to 1500 I think. Lots of work changing wheel lines EVERY morning and EVERY night. I was really glad when we started to put in pivots. We had 3 swathers, 4 balers and 2 stack wagons. We'd get two cuttings easily on all of it and sometimes 3 on some of it. We got baler twine by the pallet. I think I could still rebuild a NewHolland knotter in the dark with my eyes shut. Come to think of it, I did rebuild a few in the headlights of the pickup :o

Round bales are for sissies!!

RJ

Tell your little misses that I said, she doesn't look a day over 16 and would make a really cute cheerleader. You are a lucky dude to have such a cute wife that helps to bring in the winter hay for the stock.

Nice to have your winter feed early and first cutting is best or so I have always heard. Nice country, hay, and folks, thanks for sharing.

I don't know guys....looks like this might be a Hollywood haymaking photo shoot!. Mrs. RJ is the one with the leather gloves on, and RJ is bare-handing the bales, with a button-down collared shirt to top it off! Either that, or Mrs. RJ did all the work. :D

Well, just ribbing you RJ! 1200 cows in your early years....that's a lot of hay! We only had 50-100 growing up, and one cutting, and that filled two good sized barns, and that satisfied my bale-bucking exercise plenty!

Well, I started "supervising" the hay crew at age 5! That was 30 years ago. We put up hay with a '53 Ford and a Ferris Wheel Hay loader. Dad always was able to get high school kids to help until I got into Junior High and High school and it was just me and him. He started getting college kids for a while, but it got to where we could not get anyone to work that hard after the first night. When I moved back after dad's health went far enough downhill that it was either that or sell out, he had a 2nd truck and hay loader. Running 2 crews, we could only get about 6 or 700 bales in a night! Now we don't worry about hiring any kids.
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Shawn, I had gloves on but they got full of hay and I shook them out but didn't put them back on for a few bales. AT 5'3" :eek: Mrs. RJ can barely get the bales on the trailer. She did most of her work from the drivers seat of the Expedition, which realy was alot of help. When we got hoome she pushed the bales off the trailer to me so I could stack them. She really was a great help.

Buff, She got a bit :o when I showed her what you wrote. :D

kanasas: Awe yes the pridgeon fork. Ran one myself quite a bit. We used converted buckrakes (old trucks turned around backwards) to gather bales and move them to the stack where we then picked them up with the tractor and stacked them. No air conditioned cab on that baby either! With the coming of the bale wagon all those old trucks were retired and stacking hay bacame a one man job. Until the stack fell over and you had to restack up to 100 bales. A 1093 NewHolland balewagon holds 135 bales so not all of them would fall over.

The part of working all those cattle I don't miss? Calving 250 1st calf hiefers!! Talk about stupid!! Blondes don't even come close!

RJ

Mostly round bales around these parts. My summer job as a teen was hauling hay, I made 4 cents per bale. I sure hated to see the local farmers go from square bales to large round bales. :rolleyes::DSquare bales rule! Q

Absolutely Q. Dad hated (and so do I) round bales. The critters eat 1/2 and use the rest to, well you know. :D

RJ

RJ, Looks like your hay is grown on the hill sides. What is the plowed ground used for? I,ve been through Craig a few times , nice country. Q

:cool:RJ, I thought the country lookded like home. I was born and raised in CO. You have good looking hay there!:)
I still have a brother, three sons, five grandkids, and others in CO.

Q, they grow lots of winter wheat around here. Not so much as back in the70's I', told but still quite a bit. That little chunk of plowed ground you see is going back into alfalfa/grass for more hay. That [articular area is all subdived into 40 acre parcels. It good the owners are using it for hay ground, keeps the price down.

Jim, what part of CO are you from?

RJ

RJ,
I was born in Sterling, raised around a little town in eastren CO, Bethune, where you can't tell KS from CO with out a sign!;)
I moved to CoSp in 1970 after I got back from RVN the first time. I went back for a second tour and when I got out of the Army I became a LEO, CSPD. I did that for 26 years. While doing that I had a firewood business, started a firearms training and ballistics testing business, spent eight years in the SFNG unit, and ran a horse boarding business west of Monument. And when I retired (1999) I moved to AK untill 2006. I now live in AL on 66 acres in the middle of the Bankhead National Forrest. I have two cats, two dogs, three horses, and four hefiers, and alot of hay!!!:cool:

Jim, now that sounds COOL:eek:

RJ

RJ, The cab on the tractor is a little bit of a pain. Have to lean forward to see where the loader is for the top 2 tiers that I can stack with it!

Kansas,
Is the air conditioner worth leaning forward??;)
RJ, did I fail to mention a new log home which my wife and I did most of the work on!!

Oh, Yea! Especially on a day like today! Heat index was about 105 before a "cool front" moved through. I weighed grass steers this morning and the air was like trying to walk through soup!

kansas; Now that's muggy!

Jim, a log house in Alaska? Don't git no better!

RJ

RJ, The log home in AK was sold in 06. The log home in AL is just about finished!;)

RJ,
Loved to hear you grew up in the Bears Paws. I actually grew up in Havre but spent every second I could out fishing in Beaver Creek and doin a bunch of hunting in the hills.

BigSky

Bigsky, I did some fishin' in Beeaver Creek my own self. Went to collage at Northern. Class of '85 Tappa Keg A Beera, Diesels Honor grad.

We lived out on the T U ranch on Cow Creek if'n you know where that is. There was the best bird hunting there I've ever been into, sharptails, Huns, pheasants, up the kazoo. There where a few sage hens too but I tried not to kill many of those, kinda like eatin' a sagebush. :p Had lots of honkers and ducks come into the stubble fields in the fall. Had me the best dog ever too. He was a Lab/Aussie cross that was plumb stupid when it came to cows, but was more birdy than most bird dogs. Shot over him so much he was totally deaf when he was 6. He could read hand signals pretty well though. Get mad and call him a sunny beach and he would head for the truck.

By far the best muley hunting anywhere on earth too. They wouldn't pay much attention to a Big Bud tractor.:D

RJ

I know exactly where Cow Creek is. I still hunt Mulies and Elk right close to there. I also went to Northern for Architecture in '91, but found out I could pour one heck of a beer from a keg.

BigSky