Enjoy a video of me suffering while trying to stack hay yesterday. Our new hay guy was game and his son too (and seemed to enjoy the bowls of ice cream I brought them).
As you can tell from my panting, I was done. At least at that moment.
Later I had to help bring hay from the trailer to our barn and loft, so it went on and on. But to be honest the boys did much more work without stop. A few times I would escape to my AC'd house and recover. Then again, they're Germans and hate the planet-killing AC, so....they get ice cream: )
In the video I mention how J almost went into Syncope from working so hard, his blood pressure dropping too low. He survived and has a lot of respect for Fischer and his son.
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9 comments:
I have never seen any one load hay bales with a pitch fork. Here men just pick them up and throw them on the wagon or have an elevator to throw them on and take them up to the wagon. The corn field is beautiful, pray for some rain to keep it going and give your field a new start.
It's always the hottest day of the year when we get hay. The trick is to go slow and drink a lot of water. It's still killer. I haven't ever seen anyone use a pitchfork either. I can see how it might work, depending on the weight of the bale. There is, though, the satisfaction of knowing it's done. :)
So much respect for hay guys! Those are some big bales! Has to feel good to have it done & in. We’ve just gotten thru a major heat wave here as well. No way, could I have moved hay in it.
It would have to be strong young men and a good handle on the pitchfork to do it. Maybe the bales are lighter then we are used to here in the states.
It always seems to be the hottest day of the year when we do hay too! The pitchfork method is new to me tho. Our baler tows the wagon behind and they are stacked on the wagon as they are baled. I love seeing the hay field all clean after the work is done!
It’s been in the news here how Europe is in for round two of the triple digit heat wave. and they always mention that not everybody has air conditioning. So sorry you guys are going through this. BTW, be careful about the hay that has been through rain. If you open the bales and a white dust explodes out, it’s mold. I had a mare get COPD from eating out of a moldy round bale.
I can tell just "looking" that it's HOT! Electrolytes help a lot! By the way, my Zinnias are being devoured by the Japanese Beetles now :-( If I spray, I'll kill the Painted Lady butterflies - that are trying to feed...
Somebody has serious muscle to use the pitchfork like that!
I am totally useless in the heat. We buy large square bales, 4x4x8 and use machinery to load them and stack them in the barn. No heavy lifting for me! Even using the wheelbarrow to feed in the heat of the evening makes me nauseous. Water and shade are so important.
Ellie, I pray for rain, enough to really help the crops and trees around here.
Teresa, happily for us it wasn't the hottest day of the year - that was yesterday and it was like walking around on the surface of the sun.
Camryn, you're right they're bigger than most of the bales I've seen in Germany. We had exactly one bale left from Winter from our last guy and Herr Fischer looked at it and said, that is a "versteckte preiserhoeung!" - a hidden rip-off.
jVo, a machine that stacks on the go? Wow.
KB, really, it was in your news!!? I would have to disagree about their statement that "not everyone has AC." I would say that is accurate for AMERICA, that not everyone has AC (yet). Here, virtually no one has AC in their homes. I'm the only person I know who does. Germans are against them as a matter of principle, as I'm always bitching about. If you go into a grocery store, it will usually have AC. But not restaurants. It was too hot to cook so I went to my favorite Turkish shop yesterday and it was sweltering in there, and he's just working the fryer like any other day. I sat there mopping my face with a napkin the whole time.
Connie, and yet still not completely yellow like Seattle Washington lately: )
Shirley, our bales are not as large as the ones I knew from home (two of them will fit in my rolling hay bale bag).
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