Good morning! 73 here this morning on its way to 97. Cooler WX is predicted for the end of this week, I hope to stay.
Yesterday I decided I was tired of hauling 1/2 bales of hay to the goats in a wheelbarrow and distributing it to their mangers in 3 sheds. I bought a big round bale of hay and brought it home on my trailer. The fun part was getting it off the trailer and into the goat pen. There are 3 pens; one for the buck, one for the two active (breeding/milking) does, and one for the retired doe. In order to get the hay to all the goats, I decided to put it in the girls' pen up against the buck pen fence so he could eat hay through the fence. That meant moving the retired doe into the girls' pen so she could join the party. No big deal there.
The fun part began when I realized that roll of hay could weigh as much as 1,500 pounds. I put my homegrown four-tine brush fork on the tractor bucket and mounted the bush hog on the rear as a counterbalance. The design of my brush fork is such that it's not really conducive to stabbing into the bale to lift it, so I moved the tractor to the rear of the trailer and set the fork at trailer bed height. Then I rolled the hay off the trailer (with a LOT of grunting and sweat) onto the fork and bucket. Oops. The bale is so large it's going to be a delicate balancing act to keep it and the tractor upright while maneuvering through the obstacle course in the back yard, and working on a slope part of the way.
I can tell you for certain it's not fun snipping buttonholes in a plastic tractor seat. The pucker factor was at 11 on a scale of 10. With my wife guiding me through the maze of chicken houses and utility pole in the back yard, I finally arrived at the goat pens. I lifted the bale a few inches at a time until it cleared the top of the fence, then inched forward and dumped the bale into the pen. It rolled to a stop against the buck pen fence right where I wanted it! The pucker factor relaxed to a normal level, and I let the goats back into the pen to meet their smorgasbord. Happy goats!
Yesterday I decided I was tired of hauling 1/2 bales of hay to the goats in a wheelbarrow and distributing it to their mangers in 3 sheds. I bought a big round bale of hay and brought it home on my trailer. The fun part was getting it off the trailer and into the goat pen. There are 3 pens; one for the buck, one for the two active (breeding/milking) does, and one for the retired doe. In order to get the hay to all the goats, I decided to put it in the girls' pen up against the buck pen fence so he could eat hay through the fence. That meant moving the retired doe into the girls' pen so she could join the party. No big deal there.
The fun part began when I realized that roll of hay could weigh as much as 1,500 pounds. I put my homegrown four-tine brush fork on the tractor bucket and mounted the bush hog on the rear as a counterbalance. The design of my brush fork is such that it's not really conducive to stabbing into the bale to lift it, so I moved the tractor to the rear of the trailer and set the fork at trailer bed height. Then I rolled the hay off the trailer (with a LOT of grunting and sweat) onto the fork and bucket. Oops. The bale is so large it's going to be a delicate balancing act to keep it and the tractor upright while maneuvering through the obstacle course in the back yard, and working on a slope part of the way.
I can tell you for certain it's not fun snipping buttonholes in a plastic tractor seat. The pucker factor was at 11 on a scale of 10. With my wife guiding me through the maze of chicken houses and utility pole in the back yard, I finally arrived at the goat pens. I lifted the bale a few inches at a time until it cleared the top of the fence, then inched forward and dumped the bale into the pen. It rolled to a stop against the buck pen fence right where I wanted it! The pucker factor relaxed to a normal level, and I let the goats back into the pen to meet their smorgasbord. Happy goats!
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