I got to do some bailing

A friend of a friend needed help getting in his hay. He has a bumper crop of hay and is struggling with where to put it all. So he was selling it in exchange for help getting the rest in. I ran a baler today and yesterday, maybe eight or nine hundred smallish bales. And there was the work of gethering, loading the bales onto a trailer and then loading them into the barn. Noon to eight or nine PM yesterday, one to six PM today. In the middle of this I got about 150 bales out of it today. It's not great hay, but I was willing to trade experience for labor.

It was a small baler, I think, maybe five feet wide. An old New Holland. It was good experience. I've been interested in learning more about hay production to better understand what I buy for hay and to do a better job with the little bit I cut myself.

So what did I learn? I am not an expereinced tractor driver. Most of my tractor work is loader work, and it does not translate well to open fields. I am slow as molasses because I lack experience. But slow is better than fast and risky, anyway.

I only sheared one pin, I didn't break anything and we didn't re-rake anything I baled. I feel pretty good about it.