Hay making

It's been a wet June, but that has made the grass grow. Good weather since the weekend meant it was time once again for making hay. With our finger mower and baler dating from the late 1950's, it's always a fraught time trying to get everything to work. This year after changing the cutters on the Busatis mower all went reasonable well. The tedder worked without a problem, then we spent a 2-3 hours raking the hay into winrows (we don't have an andaineur). Then out rolled the baler which worked marvelously last summer. This year it just refused to work. As per normal the knotters wouldn't knot. I spent all afternoon fiddling but without success.

This morning armed with various manuals and advice, I sharpened the cutters, synchronised the needles with the knotters and adjusted the wipers and hey presto it worked again. The bales weren't very dense but I dared not change anything. I had already had to fluff up all the winrows which were damp with the overnight dew! Susie had dance class so I was baling single handed and failed to notice that 40 bales had passed with only one twine...one of the bobbins had run out! All the bales had to be broken apart and rebaled.

A hastily put together extension to our trailer doubled its capacity and 7 trips later the barn is full for the winter. There's still another 50 or so bales in the field but at 9.30 we'd had enough. Should be hot enough tomorrow to dry the dew out of those bales....I ll find somewhere to store them.